Chapter 35: Knight (3)
Sang-Hyeon didn’t expect many views on his YouTube channel.
It only made sense considering his live stream only had around one to two thousand viewers. The number of views on his videos would be five thousand at most.
It would be impressive if five thousand viewers watched him live, but YouTube required a video to have at least ten thousand views to make the minimum profit. A measly five thousand views meant nothing on YouTube.
In that sense, small-time streamers like Sang-Hyeon couldn’t expect to profit much from YouTube.
“You probably need to upload twenty more videos to see a slight profit trend.”
“We won’t be able to get ad-sense yet.”
“We’re investing in the future.”
These were the opinions that came from the Punk meeting.
“No one knows if YouTube will succeed.”
“Just because it’s popular on Treevy doesn’t mean it’ll be popular on YouTube.”
“That’s right. I have high hopes for Treevy, but YouTube…”
“Oh, but of course, I hope it works out because YouTube has a greater impact.”
Most of them didn’t think Almond’s YouTube would succeed. It wasn’t because they underestimated Sang-Hyeon, but that was the natural stance.
Even Bubblegum, the all-time number one streamer, failed quite a bit on YouTube.
‘No one knows what will happen on YouTube.’?All streamers went by this proverb.
However, the premise that no one would know worked well for Sang-Hyeon.
[53,000 views]
[98,000 views]
[60,000 views]
The total views for his first three videos already exceeded 50,000 views. One of them nearly reached 100,000. It could be considered a miracle that his videos reached those figures on the first day.
“Huh.”
Sang-Hyeon woke up in the morning and repeatedly checked the numbers. He kept refreshing his YouTube channel in disbelief.
‘How did this happen?’
His favorite streamer, Bubblegum, had also given their best effort on YouTube and failed many times. Sang-Hyeon didn’t expect much because of that.
However, he was doing great on YouTube. He recalled what Acorn Jelly said.
“You have to get an excellent YouTube editor. Editors are like 80% of YouTube.”?
Acorn Jelly also received a good number of YouTube views compared to his live streams. That was because Lee Na-Yeon excelled as both a manager and editor. ｂｅ𝚍ｎｏｖｅ𝚕．ｃｏｍ
‘Is it because of the editor?’
Maybe Seo Ji-Ah had caused Sang-Hyeon’s rise. He recalled the montages that Seo Ji-Ah uploaded in the past and searched for them.
[70,800 views]
[45,200 views]
Her montages received an unbelievable number of views for a small-time streamer playing a minor game like Kingdom Age.?The impact of those videos also affected Almond’s current YouTube channel.
‘I got lucky.’?Sang-Hyeon finished brushing his teeth with that thought.
Just as he was about to spit and rinse his mouth, Kim Ju-Hyeok spoke in an excited voice outside the door, “Hey, I got a message from Assistant Lee. Manager Park’s expression was shit all day. He thinks you have some crazy connections.”
Sang-Hyeon could imagine Ju-Hyeok’s excited expression from his voice alone.
“How could he think I have connections? Me of all people…”
“Maybe because the manager from Punk came and backed you up?”
“That worked?”
“Well, their generation is like that.”
Sang-Hyeon rinsed his mouth and laughed. It was all so petty for a manager from a large corporation.
‘What a simple guy.’
Sang-Hyeon felt embarrassed to have worked like a dog under him.
“Oh, are you done?”
Sang-Hyeon left the bathroom as Ju-Hyeok rushed inside and even bumped him. It seemed like Ju-Hyeok had to go badly.
“It’s like we’ve already lived together for a year or something…” Sang-Hyeon muttered to himself as he changed.
These days, he went jogging every morning or did some kind of light exercise to get his body moving. He often exercised when he used to work outside. However, he hadn’t been exercising as often ever since he started streaming.
Even Sang-Hyeon, a retired athlete, could feel himself gaining weight.
‘I had fried chicken and beer yesterday too.’
Zip.
He zipped up his workout clothes and went out for a walk.
***
He put on his wireless earphones and turned on some upbeat music to run downhill.
“Huff. Puff.”
Winter was approaching and he inhaled the cold air into his lungs with every breath. Despite that, Sang-Hyeon enjoyed moving his body.
Bzzzt.
A call interrupted his music.
“Ah… What does he want now?”
As expected, it came from Ju-Hyeok.
“What.”
“Do you not look at your messages?”
“I’m on the run right now.”
Perhaps Ju-Hyeok was born to be a manager with his natural ability to annoy people.
“It’s like my mom reincarnated.”
Ju-Hyeok ignored Sang-Hyeon’s sassy attitude and said what he had to say, “The scale of our YouTube views is unusual for our industry.”
Sang-Hyeon already knew that after doing his own research.
“So the director wanted to grab a bite with you. By the way, please behave since you’re going alone.”
“Is that all?”
“No.”
“Then, what is it?”
“Shouldn’t we do something for Seo Ji-Ah?”
“Hmm?”
“These are incredible results. We should show a token of appreciation.”
She would receive 40% of the profits, but human emotions went beyond numbers. Someone with proficient social skills would know that even a small gift like a set of cookies would go a long way.
“Should I bring over a gift to her?”
“Yeah, sure. Ah, never mind actually. You don’t need to.”
“Hmm?”
“I see her.”
“What are you—”
Beep.
Sang-Hyeon hung up as soon as he finished his sentence. He spotted Seo Ji-Ah running on the same jogging course as him.
“Hi.”
“?”
Seo Ji-Ah had her hood up and turned around with wide eyes.
“Do you work out often?”
***
The new handmade burger restaurant, Burger Shack, had a long wait despite being open for just a week. It became one of the hottest burger franchises.
“Phew, good thing we came early,” Sang-Hyeon muttered as he placed the burger meal he bought in front of Ji-Ah.
“Thank you.”
“Is this really enough?”
Sang-Hyeon had asked her earlier, ‘Our YouTube channel is growing really fast. Was there anything you wanted?’?
Ji-Ah told him that a meal together would be enough. She wanted to go to Burger Shack.
“Yes.”
“But…”
“It’s okay,” she replied and took a bite of her burger.
Her mouth became bigger compared to her face. Sang-Hyeon stared at her with interest.
“It’s awkward to eat if you stare at me like that.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
Sang-Hyeon focused on eating his cheeseburger.
‘Burger Shack… pretty good.’
It was his first time eating here and he was surprised at how good it tasted.
Of course, Sang-Hyeon didn’t just eat. He continued the conversation by bringing up different topics even though he was the quiet type and enjoyed silence as well.
“Ah… Sure….”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
Seo Ji-Ah’s replies were all brief and kept ending their conversations. It was like interacting with someone who had no social skills.
‘She must’ve had a tough time at work too.’
Sang-Hyeon continued to eat his fries in silence. He knew the type of person she was, so he didn’t pursue any further conversations.
Seo Ji-Ah finally said, “I’m usually not very good at speaking with people. Maybe if we were to grab a drink.”
Ju-Hyeok would’ve said something like, ‘Then are you good at talking with dogs?’
However, Sang-Hyeon simply nodded and kept asking questions.
“You were pretty talkative when we were jogging. You even showed me the video.”
“That’s work-related. I don’t know what to say in normal conversations.”
“Ah.”
She could easily talk about work, but not day-to-day subjects.
Sang-Hyeon didn’t say much and continued eating. The other person found it difficult to have conversations. What more could be done?
However, Seo Ji-Ah continued the conversation this time.
“I’m… weird, right?”
“...?”
Sang-Hyeon could only blink. He needed clarification on whether this was a rhetorical question or not.
Ji-Ah nodded as if his blinking answered her question.
“Everyone is like that—”
“Office work is frustrating, right?”
Sang-Hyeon dropped his fries and made eye contact with her.
Ji-Ah’s eyes began to tremble.
“Sorry?”
“Offices are… there are good times, but also times when it’s really hard for someone.”
She didn’t reply, but her face seemed to say, ‘How did you know?’
“If a person coops up and doesn’t say anything, they’ll hold it in until they shatter.”
“...!”
“We quit our office jobs too, so you can tell me what happened when you feel comfortable.”
Seo Ji-Ah could only remain silent.
Sang-Hyeon didn’t hear a reply even as he said farewell.
‘He’s a real… adult…’?She thought to herself as she watched Sang-Hyeon walk up the stairs.
***
Almond’s stream turned on earlier than usual that evening.
— Can’t resist this!
— Did you think we wouldn’t find you if you randomly came on!
— Tsk tsk. I’m going to donate yesterday’s portion as well. That’s what you get for resting!
— LOL
— AlHa! AlHa!
Almond’s fanbase grew quite a bit. Some fans tuned in as soon as he turned on his stream.
[Current viewers: 432]
Previously, he only had 200 viewers when he began streaming. That number doubled now. Taking the day off yesterday seemed to have contributed.
Dun. Du dun!
Almond’s intro video began playing.
[Current viewers: 1340]
He finally appeared once the viewer count increased.
“Hi, Treevy!”
Almond could be seen cheerfully waving on the face cam in one section of the corner.
— Oppa, I’m dying!
— AlHa!
— Hahaha!
— AlHaha!?
The audience greeted him in the chat.
— Gratz on being a partner streamer.
— Kya, you’ve become such a big boy now…
— I heard the news!
— Congrats!
Some congratulated him on his partnership with Punk.
“It’s my first time saying it on Treevy, but I’ve become Punk’s partner streamer.”
He summarized what happened just in case some hadn’t heard the news.
— Damn, so you’re going to ditch Kingdom Age!?
— Really?
— You gotta live happily ever after with Emilia!
— Ditching us? Ditching us? Ditching us?
His Kingdom Age?fanbase began to worry after his partnership was announced.
— You gotta ditch that game.
— You’ve played enough of Kingdom Age.
— But, I’m curious about Emilia and the knight ending…
Despite their worries…
“Today, I’ll be playing Kingdom Age.”
Sang-Hyeon booted up Kingdom Age?right away like usual.
However, the viewers could tell from his tone that today was the last day of Kingdom Age. He was determined to reach the end and play the next game. Sang-Hyeon had never once said, ‘Today, I’ll be playing…’?before in his streams.
Nonetheless, the game began.
***
After arriving in the virtual world, he still found himself at the awkward dinner table in the banquet hall.
Emilia’s father, Lord of Jeanneret, sat across from him.
“What do you think about becoming a knight?” he asked Almond again and the two choices popped up.
[1. Of course, I would be honored.]
[2. I am more suited to a mercenary life.]
Almond chose the first choice and the next cutscene suddenly played.