Season 2: Chapter 84. Nani?! (3)
At the Treevy headquarters, everyone was busy preparing for the upcoming year-end event.
"All invitations for the singers are sent."
"That’s good."
"One of them is a group called Patisserie. CutiePie was a part of the team. There’s a bit of a risk though."
‘A risk?’
Oh So-Hee was the head of Treevy's event planning team. She tightly tied her hair back and frowned.
"What is it? What's this risk you're talking about?"
"That... scandal."
"What about it? The old drug incident at the club is a scandal too."
So-Hee banged the desk in frustration and the rest of the team members flinched.
'She's so impatient, unlike her looks.'
'Uh oh. Here we go again.'
'Did she fight with her husband again?'
Her mood seemed particularly bad today.
The reporting team member wiped the sweat off his forehead and adjusted his glasses.
"Um... Thankfully, it's not a serious crime. It’s a dating scandal... or something like that..."
"Who cares about a dating scandal these days? This is an online platform. It’s a place where all sorts of shit goes around."
"That's... Of course, I know that. However, it involves a love triangle with a member of the boy group we're inviting this time..."
"!?"
Everyone at the table flinched momentarily. An unusual rumor was going around in the idol world.
"A love triangle?"
"Yes. It’s between CutiePie, Muffin... and Vin."
"Vin? Who's that? Isn't that the capital of Austria?"
"Um..."
Everyone had diverse tastes these days. People with no interest wouldn’t know whether someone was an idol, a country singer, or a rapper despite how famous an individual was.
"Whatever, it's fine. We aren’t running a national event. It’ll be fine as long as it's not a serious crime."
Oh So-Hee decided to ignore the issue.
"But still..."
"If it's a love triangle, isn’t that even better for us? This year's award ceremony is being broadcasted with a proper filming team."
"Right. The team with a major channel director, Director Jang..."
"Oh, right. A love triangle, huh? He'll spice it up nicely. Oh, but since the ingredients are Muffin and Pie, wouldn’t spicy be a perfect fit? Hahaha,” Oh So-Hee laughed at her own joke.
Then, she suddenly turned serious and moved on to the next topic.
"Have the award recipients been finalized?"
"Yes. The initial nominations like Best Newcomer, Honorable Award, and Excellence Award have all been decided."
"Hmm."
Rustle.
Oh So-Hee simply nodded as she looked through the documents.
"There are several special awards and we narrowed it down to these teams."
"Best Team will be Balloon Stars. The Best Couple is Miho and Almond... Best Performance is Almond...?"
"... Ah, yes. He’s just a candidate."
"Even as a candidate, having this many nominations makes it seem like we’re sponsoring him. It's almost like he's already won it if you put him at the top, right?"
"Does the nomination order matter?"
It was a logical question. Candidate No. 1 wasn’t necessarily superior to Candidate No. 2. The team members didn’t understand why So-Hee cared about that, but this was a different story.
Oh So-Hee laughed again at the employee’s innocent question.
"Are you from another planet? These special awards have the highest voting weight from the executives. They usually just choose whoever is on top. We’re basically choosing the winners here.”
"Oh..."
Most executives were experts in positioning talents within the company, but they didn’t know much about the actual content compared to the team members working on the ground. They commonly voted based on the order chosen by the team. This was also their way of showing respect.
Therefore, Almond would likely win if he was nominated as Candidate No.1. Oh So-Hee wanted to avoid a situation where one person won too many awards.
Someone raised their hand, "But Almond deserves to be first, no? He was the most popular newbie on Treevy this year."
"Hmm. Even so, at least the Best Performance award should be given to... I forgot his name. Who was it...?"
Oh So-Hee pointed to someone's face after flipping through the pages.
"Orange. Shouldn't he get it instead?"
The rest of the team checked their documents.
"Orange...?"
"Who's that?"
"Oh, he was on the news recently. The First Kill."
"Ohhhh, World’s First Kill!"
The team member who had been reporting to Oh So-Hee asked again, "Is that because Orange got the first kill or something in LIL RPG?"
"Yes, people were calling him the nation’s pride and all that."
"But LIL RPG wasn’t exactly a globally successful game, was it?”
"Still, it was popular back in the day. There’s no one who doesn't know this game."
"But that doesn’t mean anything. It's not even mentioned once in any community..."
LIL RPG wasn’t the official name of the game. The official name was Legend’s Tale. It was an RPG game based on LIL stories.
It enjoyed phenomenal popularity when the capsule market first began, but its popularity drastically waned as the seasons passed.
Numerous problems arose like discrepancies with LIL’s actual story and various setting errors. One character's gender changed three times. For these reasons, rumors floated around that a major remake was in progress. Basically, they were remaking the game because it failed.
"Even a toothless tiger is still a tiger. A Korean achieving the first kill in a game that the entire world knows is..."
"Yes, it was an impressive performance. It was quite the topic..."
Someone supported So-Hee’s opinion.
"Right. Orange has been consistent... Almond hasn't done anything notable since he stopped playing LIL."
"That's because he's a newbie. It's too early to say he hasn’t done anything notable yet. Zombie School was a hot topic too."
"Well, but he hasn’t improved at all since then.”
"That's because it was an advertisement!"
Tap. Tap.
Oh So-Hee tapped the desk with her pen and interrupted them, "Honestly, comparing the LIL tournament win with the world’s first kill doesn’t even make sense. Even if it's a world first, LIL RPG is almost a failing game..."
After a while, the team began to narrow it down to one pick.
"The focus on LIL bothers me too."
"He was also limited to domestic activities... It doesn't look good for a newbie to receive too many awards."
"Almond should prove himself more in other games before receiving the award."
The first nominee for Best Performance leaned toward Orange.
"Alright. Our country loves national pride, right? So we’re going with Orange for the World’s First Kill instead of the LIL tournament, okay? Next is..."
Oh So-Hee decided just like that. No one had any major objections. The World’s First Kill certainly seemed like a higher achievement than winning the LIL tournament.
The problem was the next one.
"Almond is also in the Best Topic Focus award?"
"Yes. That... the archery related story briefly gained national recognition."
"I know about that."
Almond was also a candidate for the Best Topic Focus. He wasn’t the first one listed this time, but the second candidate.
"Doesn't this overlap too much with the Newbie Award?"
"That's true, but it's hard not to mention him when you ask to name a person who became a hot topic."
"Listen, you also have to consider the diversity of games as a judgment criterion. Right now, it's all~~ about LIL, isn't it? Shouldn't we also show some love for domestic games?"
"So, the number one candidate is BackAndForth."
Almond's nomination ranks began to fall one after another.
"After all, these awards are... not just for those who did well, but a bit of distributing and thanking everyone for their hard work, right?"
Perhaps Oh So-Hee understood the essence of the awards ceremony the best.
"Especially since the special awards are given to the staff who work in this industry. The main awards are those given by the viewers. There should be a difference, right?"
That was her argument. Some awards were given based on real skill and others based on popularity. Special awards were more about consoling and encouraging those who didn't receive any of those awards. It was important to ensure that winners didn’t receive multiple awards in the same category.
"The elders think this is good. National pride, right? National pride!"
The employees glanced at each other and nodded reluctantly.
'After all, Almond's activities are too focused on LIL...'
'He’s winning the Newbie and Best Team awards anyway...'
‘Yes, domestic games are good. National pride is the best.’
There was almost nothing wrong with what Team Leader Oh So-Hee said except that she was unaware of what was currently happening.
After the meeting ended, two team members whispered to each other.
"But... are you sure Almond stopped playing LIL for a while?”
"Yes, as far as I know."
"Then... do you know why Almond is trending on LIL Pro right now?"
"Huh?"
***
"That's it."
Ju-Hyeok tightly clenched his fist.
[Japan in awe and the world in shock... (literally)]
[Views: 51,000]
The video had been posted less than thirty minutes ago, but already surpassed 50,000 views.
Comments exploded under it.
— OMG, it’s already in the shorts?
— LOL, that look on the Japanese guy's face.
— I thought it was TroubleTube from the title, haha.
The shorts typically had a provocative YouTube title, which made it inevitable for viewers to click and watch it.
The video had already been reposted to several communities in a short period, especially the scene where Whiskey went, “Nani!?,” in shock.
[Almond's Video Nani-sama, haha]
It began to dominate community posts with such titles on LIL Pro. Even the intimidating LIL Pro users started reacting to it with their own jokes.
— Do the Japanese see a nuclear hack? Of course, that's the true reaction, LOL.
└ LOL, what did he say? Haha.
└ Are you crazy? Hahaha.
└ That bomb.
— Nukes and Japanese...? How do I keep calm!!?
└ Even General MacArthur would jump out of his coffin for this perfect combination.
└ Crazy, really LOL.
The views kept increasing from countless reposts.
[Views: 61,000]
It increased by tens of thousands in real-time.
[Ji-Ah: Wow, what a great response. This video will be easy to edit.]
[Ju-Hyeok: It seems like we got selected by the algorithm using LIL Pro’s firepower.]
The views would likely hit 100,000 before an hour, which would be a truly significant achievement.
What was more surprising was Almond’s subscriber count. It had been stagnant for a while, but began rising again.
[Ju-Hyeok: The number of subscribers is increasing too!]
[Subscribers: 527,000]
It had quickly increased by 20,000 from 500,000.
"This means..."
Ju-Hyeok intuitively felt something.
It was happening exactly as he predicted.
“A new viewer demographic is entering.”
They had attracted a new viewer demographic. He didn’t even need to check the data. It was evident from the comments.
— Korea has always been the best with bows. We've been equally strong compared to Mongolia since ancient times.
— Ah, this is the person from Evening Wide. I cried after hearing that story... He’s still glorifying the nation. Thumbs up!
— Ah, seeing the Japanese guy's jaw drop is so satisfying~~~
└ But that player didn’t do anything wrong...
— I come here to fill up my patriotism every day. ^^
— This is Korea's archery. Take that, Japanese! Y’all surprised?~~ Go wave that mixed-blood flag of yours and give up on archery~~~
└ Calm down, uncle...
└ I like Whiskey-san... Don’t be so mean.
└ Chill, grandpa. LOL.
The new viewers definitely belonged to an older age group.
'This is the advantage of this game.'
Unlike fantasy games like LIL, Civil Empire was based on real historical battles and people who knew basic history could understand it. An older age group could easily watch it. Above all, it perfectly showcased what Koreans globally took pride in.
Of course, it didn’t just target an older generation. Almond's name suddenly appeared on LIL Pro's search rankings.
6. Almond's Bow
12. Almond Japanese
15. Japan Shocked
They found the Japanese player’s reaction funny and the patriotic YouTube title that was also a parody was amusing. For a brief moment, different generations came together.
Everyone felt happy except for one person who was in danger.
— But this video... isn't it about proving that Almond isn’t a hack user?
└ Yes...
— Almond is being framed as a hack user. What nonsense!
└ Whoa
└ Really, what kind of ridiculous thing is that?
— Someone posted a phone number here LOL, a guy named Kingdom Fanboy.
└ Really? I'm going to terrorize him right now.
└ I'm going to burn his phone.
└ The observer should carry a fire extinguisher.
└ We are the nutfans LOL.
└ This is our nuclear missile! This is our club!
That person was the observer.