Chapter 137: Studio (5)
YouTube revenue was one of the main sources of income for streamers. The more views they received, the bigger the profits.
Sometimes, it was two to three times larger than the profit from Treevy. On rare occasions, it was up to twenty times more.
Almond currently had 110,000 subscribers and an average view of 200,000. Some of his popular videos almost reached a million views as well. With these numbers in mind, they could picture how much profit they would gain.
Some people often predicted revenue by analyzing different channels. YouTube profits were easily calculable.
[Almond: YouTube revenue statement came out. Check it out.]
Boom.
Ji-Ah's heart thumped as soon as she saw the message.
'Will I get around... five million won?'
Since Seo Ji-Ah was interested in videos, she pictured a number in her head. Because of her experience working at a video cafe, she could predict the amount.
'Ten million…? No, there aren't enough videos. Not yet...'
She had to continuously remind herself not to get ahead of herself, but she couldn't help but try to calculate the amount.
'Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Seo Ji-Ah, please.'
The views were fine, but the number of videos was the issue. They had only uploaded around twenty videos despite uploading one every other day. Almond's streaming career was too short.
'Let's just check it out.'
It was better to quickly check it out rather than hold it off. Her mouse went to the revenue statement.
Thump. Thump.?
Her mouse nervously shook.
Click.
She pressed the mouse with great effort.
"!"
The eyes in her reflection were about to pop out.
"Kyaaaa!"
A number greeted her wide eyes.
[Total Profits: 23,552,890 won]
It was 23 million won.
Per the contract, 40% of this was Ji-Ah's.
"Noooo way!"
Thud!
She slammed her table as she got up from her chair, but she didn't care. Nothing came to her as she read those numbers.
"A-A person can earn 20 million in one month..."
She would've never imagined this amount working in an office. What job could earn this much?
Ji-Ah was a college graduate with contract jobs as her experience and making fan videos as a hobby.
"This feels... like a miracle..."
This was a miracle. A once in a lifetime miracle.
"Thank goodness. I did it..."
Thank goodness she got Almond's signature that day. It was a blessing that she liked Almond.
Despite everyone's criticism, donating large amounts to him paid off.
‘Thank goodness I just sat home making videos…’
Normally, she would regret everything. Society would criticize her for doing all this. Yet, all of these things were paying off for her.
It was the first time she felt proud of what she had done. Everything she had done in the past was full of regrets and things that needed to be fixed.
All the stress she felt at the office was like a flashback. It was only a month ago, but the memories were already distant.
‘Is that all you can do?’
‘Freaking college graduates... an obedient high schooler would be much better.’
‘You seemed full of yourself because you were dating Supervisor Lee. What are you going to do now? Huh? Puhahaha!’
‘Why did Supervisor Lee fall for a girl like you?’
‘Why is a girl so secretive? What are you doing at home alone instead of attending work dinners?’
Ji-Ah bit her lip.
"Urgh..."
She tried to withstand it.
‘I don't want to be held back because of you.’
The last thing she remembered wasn't so distant. The memory dug into her head despite it being an older memory.
"Sniffle... sniffle..."
She started crying and fell beside her bed, letting out everything she withheld.
***
Slam!
Ju-Hyeok snatched Sang-Hyeon's phone out of his hand while catching his breath.
"Wow, holy shit. How much is it for her to be like that?!"
It was the first time he heard Ji-Ah shout like that. Of course, he was curious. Sang-Hyeon, curious as well, checked the phone.
"Woo..."
"Kuu..."
‘23 million.’
As soon as they saw that, the two shouted louder than Ji-Ah and raised their hands.
"Keuuuuaaah!"
"Wooooaaaah!"
Ju-Hyeok turned red and shouted, "Wow! Then did we just make 30 million won in one month? Huh? Are you crazy Almond?!"
"I-Is that so??Woooaah!"
Treevy's profit was 11 million while YouTube's was 23 million. Even when they excluded their hefty ad, they earned over 34 million won. Ju-Hyeok, who was receiving the least (Sang-Hyeon added a little more), earned around 8 million won. It was because YouTube earned them 23 million won.
"Dad! I want to become Seo Ji-Ah when I grow up!"
"Stop being so talented, Seo Ji-Ah!"
The two shouted random memes to each other, expressing their happiness. The two drank a beer to celebrate. After they realized how old they were, they went to their rooms and fell asleep.
It was a short celebration.
***
The next day, the happiness of their revenue and their ad was only for a moment.
Crunch. Crunch.
Ju-Hyeok could see Sang-Hyeon chowing down on almond flakes like always. He felt a bubbling sense of rage in him.
'Sigh. What a stubborn guy.'
He opened the fridge to make something, but frowned.
'It's all used up...'
No ingredients remained. He had to go grocery shopping last night, but he forgot about it because of the shoot. There wasn't even any instant noodle in sight.
The only thing left inside were almonds, corn, and choco balls... Only cereals were left.
Determined to eat a proper meal, Ju-Hyeok headed out.
"Hm? Where are you going?"
"There's nothing to eat because we haven't gone grocery shopping in a while."
"There's almond flakes?"
"..."
"There's choco balls as well... because you said you were tired of..."
"Whatever, man!"
Slam!
Ju-Hyeok angrily shut the door and left.
"This nut doesn't ever bother to fill up the fridge even when things run out."
Even though he was complaining, he knew why. Sang-Hyeon didn't fill up the fridge because he didn't feel any responsibility and thought that cereal was sufficient!
As long as the fridge was full of almonds and milk, Sang-Hyeon would see it as enough food for him.
Creak.
Sang-Hyeon's head popped out from the window.
"Hey, if you're going out, take the trash. I put it out at the door."
"..."
***
The large garbage bag made a loud noise as it fell to the ground.
Slam.
Ju-Hyeok tidied his hands and walked to the pork stew restaurant he often visited. Since that was the only place open, he had no choice.
"Can I get one large pork sausage stew, please?"
He sat down as usual and ordered right away. After he poured himself some water and took out his utensils, he met eyes with someone.
"... Huh?"
"... Oh."
It was Seo Ji-Ah.
The two couldn't hear the notification in their pockets because they met eyes.
Bling.?
[Almond has started streaming!]
[Tune in quickly!]
***
— What the? In the morning?
— Kya, look Mom! Since I'm jobless, I can watch Almond!
— AlHa?
— AlHa in the morning?
— Perfect... just in time for my almond flakes...
— The best time for OG fans
There were quite a few viewers despite him turning on his stream early.
[Current Viewers: 3.4k]
He had around 3400 viewers. It was a decent number considering he turned it on early without notice.
Pang.
Almond's avatar appeared and waved to them.
"Hi, Treevy!"
— AlHa
— AlHaha!
— What's today?! Is it an ad today!?
— Hihi
Almond wanted his viewers to be more friendly with him, so he tried to make it a habit to turn on streams for little things.
"I just thought of something this morning."
— What weird thing are you going to say now?
— Nut saying.
— It's nut saying, so just ignore him~
— IT'S AN AD
— You rested yesterday for an ad, but it's another ad today too?!
The viewers assumed Almond turned on his stream only for an ad. However, it wasn't an ad.
"Unfortunately, it's not an ad."
— Unfortunately, LOL
— Haha
— He seems really disappointed...
— Aren't you going to wear a rabbit ear?
"I won my last LIL match, but I'm not sure how I won. So I'm going to play today to practice and study the game a little. I turned on the stream a little earlier today for that."
— Oh...?
— But you suck at studying.
— You skipped all of Raina's teachings though...
— Just stick to shooting arrows.
— Aren't you going to kill everyone with your arrows anyways? We know~
"Alright, I'm going in."
Almond ignored their mockery and started LIL.
[Life is Legend]
Swoosh.
His environment suddenly changed. The blue sky and sharp mountains greeted him with the following texts.
[Escort Mode] [Siege Mode] [Survival Mode]
There were three modes.
"I'm going to review siege mode for now. I need to at least know what I'm doing."
Almond needed to practice siege mode and learn at least one thing before switching around.
[Siege Mode]
He clicked on it before the chat could say anything.
Then, a message appeared.
[Quest 'Win 1 or Play 5 games' has been completed.]
[Account has become level 2!]
He completed the quest.
"Quest?"
— It's for beating the normal game last time.
— Raina forced him to play it haha. Learn by getting hit!
"Ah, I see that was part of the quest."
He wasn't aware because all he did was act on Raina's command, but it seemed like he completed a quest that raised him to Level 2. It was good news because he needed to level up quickly to play ranked.
[Complete the next quest.]
[Quest: Win 3 games in siege mode.]
For the next quest, he needed to win three games. He was glad the quests would be automatically completed since he was going to play siege mode anyways.
Almond quickly queued up for a normal game.
[A match has been found!]
Boom.
After a sudden flash of light, he was beside four teammates.
"Sigh. I swear, if I meet that guy again."
"Argh. That damn poison dart rabbit..."
— LOL as expected
— What a scary start...
— Still better than last time.
— Kuku... a familiar scent.
Thankfully, no one said anything to Almond this time. It seemed like they had a bad experience in the last round though. The atmosphere wasn't good.
"Alright, alright. Where do you guys want to go?"
One person tried to lead the conversation. Almond was the first to respond since he could only play bot lane.
"I want to ADC. Bottom..."
Was it bottom?
Almond checked the map and confidently answered, "Bottom lane."
"Alright, we have an ADC. I want mid."
"Then, I want jungle."
"I want top."
"...?Ah, fuck. I'm support. I was just changing skins."
Everyone had their roles set.
[Choose a champion.]
Almond had no choice of champions because he only had one.
[Raina: The Cold-Blooded Evil Archer]
Almond picked Raina and prepared to hear her yell at him, but that didn't happen.
[Champion Raina doesn't want to play with you.]
'... But Raina is my only champion?!'?
1. Roughly 15,000 USD at the point of translation