Season 4: Chapter 5. Grown-Up (2)

"Huh?"

Almond blinked at the absurd message as soon as he opened the site.

[Notice of Treevy Korea Service Shutdown]

Was he seeing this right? He couldn’t believe his eyes.

"What... is this?"

He found it hard to accept, but it looked real. His instincts told him to check the group chat with the other Balloon Stars members. They all reacted the same way.

[Miho: OMG;;; Did you guys see this???]

[Miho: This is insane, seriously T_T]

[Takoyaki: No way. They’re just ending it like this? LOL]

[Bubblegum: The CEO’s explaining it live now... Apparently, it’s because of bandwidth fees T_T]

[StrawberryShooter: What about Almond? He’s still on break.]

None of them seemed to have known. Then again, it wasn’t completely unforeseen. People had been whispering about it ever since the

Civil Empire

finals exploded in popularity.

[Civil Empire viewership is nuts LOL bandwidth fees incomingggg]

[Telecommunications: Nations Cup? Don’t know what that is, but thanks for the feast~ burrrp~ LOL]

[2 million viewers?? Dang, the bandwidth bill must be massive. Is Treevy about to shut down?]

Jokes made in passing had now become reality. Due to bandwidth fees, the company had to pay more for the traffic they generated. The cruel irony was that they would lose more money the more successful they became. This issue had been simmering for a while. The final straw was when traffic on the Korean side suddenly surged due to the

Civil Empire

finals.

‘Unbelievable.’

It felt absurd from Sang-Hyeon’s point of view. He simply did his best in the tournament.

‘And now Treevy is gone.’

The entire platform had collapsed.

***

Treevy hadn’t just dominated South Korea’s livestream market. It was one of the biggest internet broadcasting platforms in the world. The news spread like wildfire when such a company announced its withdrawal from Korea.

[Treevy got absolutely wrecked LOL]

[Wow, they’re actually shutting down]

[The CEO himself said it was due to bandwidth fees, damn]

[FYI: The only countries Treevy has never entered are North Korea and China LOL]

[Treevy users wiped out LOL]

Every online community was buzzing about Treevy’s exit. Shockingly, the CEO himself referenced the

Civil Empire

tournament directly.

[Treevy CEO: Lost billions due to Korea’s Civil Empire traffic LOL]

That quote spread everywhere.

[Korea’s victory was impressive. Clearly, the roots of their esports prowess remain strong. Which makes the closed nature of their internet infrastructure all the more unfortunate. Due to Civil Empire’s International Tournament, we suffered billions in losses in Korea alone. The better the content, the bigger the loss. We concluded that this was unsustainable.]

— What the heck?!

— "The better the content, the bigger the loss" LOL

— So... work hard and get punished? Hmm...

└ Oof... yeah lol

— Honestly, didn’t they completely screw up the monetization? Pulling out cause nothing is working

└ Next up: North Korea and China lol

└ The rest of the world uses Treevy, only NK and SK/China use their own LOL

— Funniest thing: "Japan is a digital Galapagos"

└ LMAOOO

— Fill up everyone’s national pride after winning the championship, then rip it away with telecom greed. Korean mega-corps never miss!

└ LOL

└ Exactly

— If you want to do business, pay your "protection fee" LOL

Online forums, especially those full of livestream fans, grew furious at telecom providers. Nobody really knew who was at fault, but the fact remained. Treevy had officially declared its withdrawal from South Korea.

[We will do our best to help remaining streamers settle on new platforms. It’s been a pleasure, Korea.]

The CEO left one final message before immediately starting the shutdown process. Their exit was fairly polished in true global brand fashion.

— T_T

— Treevy, now just a legend...

— RIP Treevy...

Public sentiment leaned heavily in one direction.

— Son, when I was your age, the whole world was connected through the internet!

└ LMAOOOO

└ omg

└ Son: Wait, you didn’t have to pay $50 per second?

└ Dead, LOL

— Time to bring back the "Data On" button on iPhones~

└ Kids these days won’t even know

└ LOL remember how the button was huge so you’d definitely hit it and rack up fees

└ The digital forbidden fruit returns

└ LOL "forbidden fruit" I'm crying

Thud.

Sang-Hyeon instinctively slammed his forehead onto his desk after reading all that.

"Hah..."

Now what? He could only turn to one person in situations like this.

"Ju..."

"Yo! Dude. You won’t believe this. I just got a call."

Ju-Hyeok burst into his room with wide eyes.

"They said they’re launching a new platform and want us to come over. I was like, ‘What? We’re doing great on Treevy. What are you talking about?’"

"..."

Seeing Sang-Hyeon’s face, Ju-Hyeok realized what had happened.

"... It’s real, huh?"

***

Fortunately, there was a grace period. Treevy would operate for about two more months. Within that time, streamers had to find a new home. And so—

Ding!

[Almond has started streaming!]

[Comeback Stream: I Took a Break and Came Back to No Home]

Almond’s subscribers received a notification. He was also going live in search of a new path forward.

‘Let’s go.’

Even if Treevy would be gone soon, a streamer was still a streamer. He still had a job to do. Maybe because it was his first stream in a while, the chat was chaotic from the start.

— No way

— Is Almond really back??

— Wild

— OMG!

— Legendary timing LOL

— He’s here: "The Treevy Slayer"

— "My arrow pierces platforms"

An enormous number of viewers flooded in within seconds.

[Current Viewers: 73k]

Even without the Treevy situation, the stream would’ve been packed because it was Almond’s first broadcast since the tournament. Even before the intro music finished, viewership had already exceeded 100k.

[Current Viewers: 102k]

— Look at that viewer count, damn

— He’s basically a corporate entity now

— Wow

— At 100k viewers, how much is that in bandwidth fees?

— Bandwidth Fee: "The Last Dance"

As the music ended, Almond appeared on camera.

"Hello. Long time no see."

Ding!

From the very start, donations flooded in to greet him.

[EggPlant has donated 1,000 won.]

[Hi Almond, I watched the world championship and came to Treevy for the first time today... now it’s shutting down lol]

"Oh, thank y—wait, EggPlant? Of course it’s you."

— LOLLLL

— Starting with trolling as always

— EggPlant shaking Almond with 1,000 won? What a flex

— This is it LOL

Ba-ba-bam!

[RubySword has donated a whopping 500,000 won!]

[Congrats on the win! Are you feeling okay?]

"Oh, RubySword. Thank you so much for the 500,000 won. I’m doing fine. Guess I overdid it a bit back then."

— The queen of the stream has entered!

— Ruby was at the finals too!

— Welcome back, RubySword!!

— Stop spamming her nickname, you maniacs~

As the well-known donor RubySword appeared, the chat exploded with mentions of her. Name-dropping was a bannable offense to avoid forming cliques, but exceptions were made for big names like RubySword. Not because of the money, but because too many people would get banned otherwise.

Ding!

[JeonDooPang has donated 10,000 won.]

[Now that the tournament is over~ let’s make RubySword the new channel mod. If not—]

"Banned."

Almond clicked a few times and banned him on the spot.

— LOLLLLL

— JeonDooPang’s voice in my head rn

— You crossed the line, bro

— "If not—" banned ~ ^_^

— 10,000 won for name-dropping? Get out!

— Bro got deleted

— That was so fast lol

The donations continued rolling in since it was his first stream back on top of the victory.

Ba-ba-bam~!

[BigSon has donated a whopping 1,000,000 won!]

[I cried watching Korea win. Bong Joon-Ho, BTS, Yuna Kim, Son Heung-Min, and Almond! LET’S GO~!]

"Whoa. One million won!"

Almond jumped up and started looking for something.

Pop!

He stuck a fake arrow on his head.

"Thank you for the one million won! Let’s gooo~"

— LOL

— So cute lol

— That’s how you celebrate one million!

— I wanna pinch him

— Do the chikicha!

— This brings back memories T_T

Ba-bam!

[XLB has donated 300,000 won!]

[Korea wins! FMVP! I cried for both.]

— LOL

— That’s insane~

— What a whale

— Yet another big spender

Ding!

[Inu has donated 100,000 won!]

[How does it feel to destroy Treevy?]

— LOL

— For real

— Almond’s arrow pierced an entire platform

— Too powerful for the economy

— His arrows are of national power level

"Inu, thanks for the 100,000 won. I just found out too, so I don’t really have any feelings about it yet."

And the donations kept coming.

"Yes, thank you! Not sure about the next game. My doctor told me not to play for about a month."

"Thank you for the 200,000 won. The hardest opponent for me? Definitely Rome."

"Orochi, thank you. The Fake National Team... might take a while? It took about a week last time too."

He barely had time to respond to all the donations.

Ding!

Ding!

Ding-ding-ding!

He couldn’t exactly stop this unexpected revenue stream. If he did, Ju-Hyeok would complain for three hours over dinner. And honestly, he had no reason to refuse. It wasn’t like he had anything else to do. He didn’t have much else for content since he couldn’t play games. Chatting about the tournament while receiving donations was all he could really do.

‘Not being able to game... feels more awkward than I thought.’

Almond realized something. Gaming had become an inseparable part of his life. He felt a strange sense of loss without it now. What if something happened and he could never play again? Then—

Ba-ba-bam!

[UgaUga has donated a whopping 1,000,000 won!]

[Which platform are you moving to?]

"!"

Another million won donation suddenly came in. Almond shook away the thought and immediately grabbed his toy arrow.

Pop!

"UgaUga, one million! Thank you! As for platforms... nothing’s decided yet. I just found out today too!"

His body moved before he even thought about it.

— LOL

— Why is he so cheerful? lol

— Adorable

— Uga is such a baller

— Damn

Even without games, the stream continued. Viewers flooded in just to see him. They even opened their wallets.

‘At this rate...’

The truth was that Sang-Hyeon originally planned to announce a longer break today. Since he couldn’t play games for a month, he thought about taking time off entirely.

"Another 500,000 won~ Thank you! Chikicha~"

But now, he couldn’t bring himself to stop. Even if this wave of donations was just an afterglow of the win, Sang-Hyeon felt it. Almond’s channel was no longer just his.

— These donations are nuts

— Victory loot grind lol

— He’s literally making thousands just by turning on his cam

— ??? A variety streamer? I’m actually a male cam model.

— LMAO why even play games when money falls from the sky?

— Bro, when’s the fake national team content?

Chat messages poured in nonstop.

[Current Viewers: 143k]

It was an absurd number and hard to even picture what that many people looked like when they gathered in one place. And all of them came for Almond. They still watched him even if he couldn’t game. Sang-Hyeon decided to go against his original plan.

‘I won’t take a break.’

For the next month, he would keep streaming even if he couldn’t game. He didn’t know what he’d do. And he knew he wouldn’t get showered with donations every time, but he’d find a way. Just like when he lost the use of his right arm after ten years of archery, he found a way back then too.

Ba-ba-bam!

Just then, a suggestion popped up that caught his interest.

[Peeeeanuuut has donated 10,000 won.]

[Almond~ log into Civil Empire real quick~ They say everything changes when you win the tournament! Even the tavern NPCs react differently!]

— Oh, true

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

— Yeah, you're probably not a wandering merc anymore lol

— Everything's probably unlocked now—even the commander role

— That’s legit

— Nice to see Civil Empire fans tipping too

— Stop right there, To-be-continued Empire!

They were right.

Civil Empire

could also be played on PC.

‘Oh?’

A fun idea crossed his mind. Every

Civil Empire

player would’ve gotten chills if they could read his thoughts.

Almond cleared his throat and casually moved his mouse.

"Well then, since Peeeeanuuut’s here, should I drop in real quick and take a look?"