Chapter 93: A Natural Star (3)

[Why I’ve never liked Almond since the beginning.txt]

Two sides naturally existed. One would always face opposition despite being loved by many. Of course, no one wanted anti-fans.

'Let's see what his issue is...'

Ju-Hyeok nervously clicked the post. No negative post about Almond had ever trended before. What would this post be about?

[Even with a shitty capsule camera. Even in a mainstream camera studio. Even under a crappy light in a kimchi stew restaurant.

He's so handsome…]

The post showed a photo of Sang-Hyeon eating kimchi stew with a big smile.

"Phew..."?

Ju-Hyeok deeply sighed.

'The hell.'

He had been nervous for nothing. All seemed well judging from the comments.

— LOL For real.

— Why did you include a picture? Don't you know what .txt means?!

└ For real, why did you include the picture... making us feel ugly…

└ It's better than a black screen that reflects your own face.

└ So mean! LOL

— The world's worst streamer on land.

— Popular guys...

— So annoying!

— Even the editor is pretty... This guy has it all...

└ Really? Did she come out on the stream?

└ By accident, she briefly came out.

— Almond oppa! You're killing me…

Ju-Hyeok smiled as he read the comments. He glanced at Sang-Hyeon, who continued with the mukbang.

"

Ah

, kimchi and tofu? And the meat as well? Alright."

Ju-Hyeok watched Sang-Hyeon obediently listening to the viewers. Then he glanced at Ji-Ah sitting beside him.

She quietly ate since no camera work needed to be done.

'She's quite the eater.'

Ju-Hyeok thought so before too, but Ji-Ah ate almost as much as him and he was three times bigger than her. That showed how much she could eat. She liked eating almonds, so he assumed she ate little like Sang-Hyeon. Almonds turned out to be just a snack for her and not a meal.

Ju-Hyeok thought that Ji-Ah should've been the one doing the mukbang. Ji-Ah must've thought the same as she kept chewing while staring at Sang-Hyeon. He smirked and went back to the community pages.

***

Obviously, Almond's road to diamond challenge accumulated a lot of attention. A rising star would soon break JeonJaPa's record. Who wouldn't be interested?

However, another topic trended even more.

[A streamer is eating hell's kimchi stew before his diamond promos? And it's an ad too?!]

Almond's mukbang before his diamond promotion matches, which was also an ad, began trending like crazy.

— For real?

— Capitalism Genius!

└ What's that mean?

└ Means he's a genius born at the peak of capitalism.

└ LOL

└ Hahaha

— Wait, that was an ad? Frick!

— I doubted my eyes when I saw the sponsored tag.

— Apparently, that's spicy too. How's he going to finish it all?

— Oh Gang-Woo kimchi stew is getting one hell of a promotion.

As the viewers stated, the ad actually worked and Ju-Hyeok felt satisfied.

— Well, it seems like the ad is a success.

— It really does look delicious.

— It's super successful. There's a kimchi stew that's so good. He needs to eat it before his promo matches!

└ Ah, for sure. Oh Gang-Woo waited 10,000 years to eat this.

└ What's this guy saying? He's just a kimchi stew expert.

└ Idk... I think he's from a different dimension.

***

Ju-Hyeok wasn't the only one reading the community reactions. Manager Oh read them too.

"As expected, this guy is something else.

Puhahaha

!" Manager Oh laughed out loud and patted his plump belly.

They were working overtime, but he still watched the stream while laughing. Punk was the only company that would allow him to do something like this.

"What is it, Manager?" the worker beside him asked.

"

Ah

, it's Almond. This is his first ad without us involved."

"Ah..."

"But he's promoting it well. Who thinks of eating kimchi stew before their Diamond promotion?"

"Wow, that road to Diamond challenge?"

The worker grew curious and tried to peek. Manager Oh excitedly showed him. On the screen, Almond continued to sweat as he ate the kimchi stew.

[Current Viewers: 8900]

The viewer count was almost as high as his gameplay streams. It might be even higher than his usual views if not for his Diamond promotion matches.

"The viewer count is nuts! Wow... but why are you so happy?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's just... it's a shame it's not an ad for our company, but you still seem so happy..."

"A shame?" Manager Oh turned around and asked back.

The employee nodded in surprise.

‘Did I say something wrong?’

"Y-Yes, isn't it a shame? It would be a big deal if it was an ad for us. Of course, we can't do a mukbang since we're a game distributor..."

"Exactly! That's it! That's why this is good for us right now," Manager Oh patted his back.

"Sorry?"

"What? Hey, do you think we're the only ones thinking we missed out? Other companies looking for advertising opportunities will be thinking the same thing, right?" Manager Oh pretended to make a pleading face, "

Ah

, what if it was us in that ad instead?! What if he played a casual or mobile game to relax before his Diamond promotion matches!"

Thanks to his act, the employee understood right away.

"Ah!"

"We'll have the upper hand in negotiating next time, right? Then that's good for us and good for Almond. For the others... well, I'm not sure.

Hahaha

!"

Promoting well was one of the most important economic skills for a streamer. Even famous streamers were categorized into those who could pull off ads and those who couldn’t. Streamers with problems or controversies received little ads and needed to learn how to promote effectively.

"But look."

"Sorry?"

"Who do you think thought of this?"

"Thought of what? Didn't they just do it?"

"Who would do something crazy like this so spontaneously? Almond isn't the type to do that. Other than games, he likes to take things easy."

"

Hmm...

Then..."

"Wouldn't it be the manager?"

"

Ah!

Him!"

"This isn't just crazy. It's in the fine line between impactful advertising and crazy marketing."

"That's right."

"I think he's probably the only one aware of this."

"That guy seemed to have a knack for something like this. Maybe because you said..."

Manager Oh liked Ju-Hyeok even more than Almond. Ju-Hyeok was a likable fellow, especially to anyone socially active.

"

Ah

, yes. That guy has a sixth sense for this," Manager Oh licked his lips in shame.

'He probably doesn't want to work at Punk, right?'

***

"

Phew

, I'm full."

Sang-Hyeon left the restaurant patting his belly.

"Will you be okay? You have to go back to the game," Ju-Hyeok asked him out of concern. He knew that Sang-Hyeon ate more than usual.

"What can you do? I can't eat little when we're running an ad for them."

"That's true…"

"There shouldn't be anything wrong with playing games. I'm confident. Today, I'm in excellent condition and it tasted delicious."

That did seem to be the case. Today's Almond felt different. That's why Ju-Hyeok considered him a natural star.

"Today is your Diamond promotion matches... You know what to do, right?" Ju-Hyeok asked him just to double-check.

They had set aside a strategy for the promotion matches.

"Of course, I practiced that so much."

Not only did Sang-Hyeon practice bow skills and other techniques, but both Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon prepared something in advance.

"Alright, our precious first ad turned out to be with kimchi stew. We need to do this properly at least."

"What were you planning for our first ad?"

"That's a secret," Ju-Hyeok laughed and shook his head.

Sang-Hyeon nodded back in response and they walked a fair amount up the stairs.

"I’ll get going."

They arrived at Ji-Ah's house and she bid them farewell.

"We're here already."

"

Ah

, okay."

They said their light farewells and the two continued climbing the stairs.

"Almond."

"?"

Ji-Ah called for Sang-Hyeon.

"Good luck."

She made a tiny fist toward Sang-Hyeon and ran inside her home.

"..."

Sang-Hyeon briefly stared at the closed door and returned to the stairs.

"Pfft,"

he couldn’t help but smile.

***

The chatroom went crazy.

— AlHa!

— Finally, the main dish.

— Kya, diamond promo matches!

— AlHa! AlHa!

— How many times are we saying hi to him today?

— Today's a full day of streaming!

— For real, people are missing out today.

He turned on his stream for the diamond promotion matches. Quite a crowd gathered to watch. Even his stream title sounded irresistible.

[I'll beat JeonJaPa's record! Evolving to diamond!]

[Beating JJP's Record. Almond -> Diamond!]

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

He even added an international title. Even if some viewers had never heard of Almond, they would be attracted by JeonJaPa's name. Ju-Hyeok came up with the idea.

The result—

[Current Viewers: 13k]

They suddenly reached over 10,000 viewers.

— Woooow! Let's go!

— Oppaoppaoppa I love you!

— Oh man! Oh man! Oh man!

— Please screw up, Almond!

— Is he really going to beat it?!

— Look at the viewer count... Wow...

— So rude...

— JJP’s record? lol

— The international fans are mad at the title. LOL

— What are they going to do? It's true. LOL

Around 7% of the viewers were international. They wanted to see how he would beat JeonJaPa's record.

"I'm going in right away."

Almond didn't care and started the game. No one would complain after watching him play.