Season 2: Chapter 180: Solomon’s Style Streaming (2)
During the scrim after the story mode ended, reactions started pouring in on Almond's TSB.
[Kill Swift!]
[Plot twist gave me goosebumps]
[Swift was indeed a bastard]
[Why did you stop here? What do I do now?]
Since the end-of-the-year award ceremony, the TSB that Almond created grew quite active.
[No spoilers on Almond's TSB, nice!]
[Go to LIL Pro and you’ll get spoiled. Be careful]
[Why can't I watch Civil Empire!?]
The biggest reason Almond’s TSB became crowded was because viewers wanted to avoid story mode spoilers. On LIL Pro, many users had already completed Flashy Blade’s story mode, so the risk of getting spoiled was high. It often ended up happening even if they didn’t intend to, so everyone flocked to Almond's official streamer board.
Ju-Hyeok firmly made an announcement.
[Notice! Related game spoilers will result in a 30 day board access ban.]
— Now, let's start praising the armband.
— This is the true quality of Walnut.
— Thank you!! I'll have to chat here from now on.
— Those newbies who died to spoilers are coming back, haha.
— There are lots of newcomers in this stream.
└ Basically, everyone came to see Yu Sang-Hyeon's face.
└ So true.
Like almost all game streams, most of Almond's viewers didn't play the game deeply. Spoilers would ruin the experience for them, so such measures were absolutely necessary.
"Sigh," Ju-Hyeok sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair.
"I announced it, but..."
He scrolled through the posts on the board and stroked his forehead.
"Is it possible for me to block all the spoilers alone?"
Although Ju-Hyeok threatened them with a notice, he couldn't monitor every post that came up by himself. Treevy provided a spoiler filter program, which only worked well in chats or donations that hardly went beyond two sentences.
However, many loopholes often existed in relatively long posts.
Ju-Hyeok had a headache.
‘Is it getting to the point where I can't do it alone?’
That was why TSB’s creation had been delayed. Opening a TSB meant managing another community. That wasn’t all. With Almond's offline activities increasing, Ju-Hyeok’s workload also increased.
[PD: Schedule is set. It’s this Thursday, 3 days from now.]
[Manager Ju: Let's have a meeting next week.]
[G-Star Promotion Manager: When might you be available for a virtual meeting?]
Etc. Starting in the new year, the plan was to increase their collaborations and outdoor broadcasting activities as they already announced to viewers.
If it continued like this, Ju-Hyeok would essentially have to act more like a celebrity manager than a streamer manager. That meant chat and community management would become relatively neglected.
"I should quickly deal with this editing work."
It was too much. Ju-Hyeok was also temporarily helping with Ji-Ah's editing work. He started helping her when Heo Yeon-Ju couldn't withstand the workload and left. They hadn't found an assistant editor yet.
[Ji-Ah: Hey Ju-Hyeok, any reactions to Flashy Blade?]
[Ju-Hyeok: Ah. One sec. I captured some.]
[Ji-Ah: Tysm!!]
"Ugh..."
Thud.
Ju-Hyeok slumped onto the sofa.
"Even if I leave chat and community management to fans to take charge for a while... I need to find another editor quickly."
Chat and TSB management were often done by fans who liked to wear armbands and practically volunteered for free. It wasn't something that required hiring someone.
The actual workforce they needed immediately was…
"I need to find an assistant editor."
They desperately needed an assistant editor. It wasn't only Ju-Hyeok experiencing an overload.
Almond's YouTube channel had grown too big to be managed by just Ji-Ah alone. The number of subscribers had reached the 700,000 range and the average views were between 1 million to 1.2 million.
Having more views than subscribers meant the channel was still growing explosively. In other words, it was time to work harder.
Knowing this, Ji-Ah also frantically made videos. Obviously, it wasn’t a one person job. No matter how good the opportunity was, how could one properly surge forward with only one oar?
'It would have been best if Yeon-Ju could continue to help, but oh well.'
When Yeon-Ju was still helping her, they uploaded one video daily and sometimes three videos simultaneously. That was why Heo Yeon-Ju quit so soon. The pay wasn't bad, but she probably cared more about the work-life balance.
'Let's find someone quickly.'
Given the situation, Ju-Hyeok couldn't wait for Ji-Ah to find someone on her own anymore. He searched for an assistant editor while there was a gap in Almond’s schedule due to a private scrim, but he didn't go as far as posting a recruitment notice. He had heard too many stories about this from other streamers at the award ceremony.
“Famous people posting recruitment notices always end up with too many irrelevant people just applying out of fan love, or someone trying to get attention, or they’re just messing around…”
Posting a recruitment notice would highly likely be a waste of time. They had to directly find someone.
Tap, tap, tap.
[Search: Almond]
A search for Almond brought up related fan-made videos. Recipes with almonds used to rank high, but now the streamer Almond appeared at the top.
"Hehe."
Ju-Hyeok felt a subtle satisfaction when he sorted the videos by the highest number of views. He excluded official videos made by Ji-Ah and these appeared.
[Almond plays Flashy Blade story mode]
[JeonJaPa vs Almond showdown established!?]
[Analyzing Almond's Flashy Blade gameplay!]
"Hmm."
Ju-Hyeok stroked his chin as if he was unsure. Such videos were, in truth, not fan-made but commonly known as game strategy videos.
'These kinds of people wouldn't come in as assistant editors.'
Ju-Hyeok wasn’t looking for these types of videos. He only wanted the popular ones genuinely made by fans out of pure fan love.
Among them, one video caught his eye.
[The best ultra beauty in the city somehow fell for a nut?!]
It had a light novel style title, which could be quite divisive.
"Wow, it has a good amount of views."
The number of views confirmed the video’s success. It wasn’t easy to get 1.4 million views.
"It's based on Civil Empire. Sounds good to me!"
Ju-Hyeok hadn’t seen a video featuring Civil Empire in a while. He liked this because Almond was planning to participate in the national competition. They would need Civil Empire related videos.
"Is Jessie featured in the video?”
Judging from the title, it seemed the video featured Jessie. One could quickly find out by looking at the comments, but Ju-Hyeok decided to watch the video purely as a viewer.
He looked to the side at comments that were made live when the video was first released. An electric guitar’s hopeful melody accompanied the video. The style of the song sounded like an animation OST.
The scenery looked like summer in Japan and captured the eye’s attention even though it was actually the prairie in Civil Empire.
— Let’s gooo~
— What kind of drugged video is this? lol.
— What is this??
Messages left by people who watched when it was first released popped up on one side.
A man and woman were walking through the blue prairie.
[If I hadn’t met you on the battlefield, how would it have been?]
Such an embarrassing text passed by.
— ???
— ?
— WTF, lol.
— Lol.
Then, as the background music rose, scenes of Almond and Jessie fighting together appeared. The action unfolded with a 360-degree rotating camera.
Here, too, they didn't forget to insert embarrassing text.
[Can I know your name once this battle is over?]
[My name is…]
[My name is!]
— Lololol!
— ??? Aaalmond!
— It's Aaalmond... my name lol~
During the battle, they reminisced about the moment they met each other. When Almond asked Jessie, who kept following him, the video showed Jessie's face close-up. Suddenly, another face popped out while yelling.
[... Why did you follow me?]
[Just because you looked cute.]
[Naniiii!?]
It was Whiskey's face. The famous Nani-san popped up in the middle of them.
— Lol, has the editing gone crazy~ Nani-san, hahaha.
— LOL
— Scared the hell out of me, lol.
— Naniii, lol.
The screen went back to the current battle.
Clang!
Clang!
Sparks flew as they exchanged fierce sword strikes with the enemies, but the situation gradually became unfavorable.
Jessie decided to sacrifice herself.
[I'll come back even if I die. Stay alive until then!]
It showed a view of Jessie's back along with the blue prairie and the summer sun.
— Lol it’s saying she'll resurrect, but it made it look like she's transcending death haha
— Why is it so touching?
— Huh.. So sad…
— Lol, this is really like an anime!
— Jessie's lines are heart-wrenching
Jessie ran toward the enemies.
Clang! Clang!
After a few exchanges, enemies surrounded her and she died. Jessie eventually became a ghost and Almond was left alone on the battlefield. He fought a last duel with the knight.
Clang! Clang!
Almond gradually got pushed back by the knight’s swordsmanship. Eventually, the knight cornered him and was about to behead him. Then, the screen switched.
Clip-clop! Clip-clop!
Hooves ran through the prairie and a green banner fluttered along with red hair. It was Jessie.
[My lifesaver who also ruined my life.]
She rushed in, cut down the knight in one stroke, and saved Almond.
— WTF is wrong with the script…?
— Aaalmond, LMAO.
— How many did you combine haha?
Almond quickly climbed onto the horse behind Jessie and she handed him something.
[Here. A gift. It’s a bouquet.]
It wasn’t a bouquet of flowers, but a bundle of arrows.
[What?]
[I'm confessing.]
The video maliciously changed the original line that said, “I’m not confessing."
— Wasn't it originally “I’m not confessing?” lol
— Malicious editing lol
— Lol.
With Almond's surprised face, the camera rose into the sky. The song continued to flow in the background.
Then, this text appeared.
[This summer's best youth romance]
[Civil War]
[January grand opening!]
It felt like watching a trailer for an animation.
— It’s coming out in January, but talking about this summer, lol.
— LMAO.
— Wow, I feel dizzy now.
"Wow. What is this?"
Ju-Hyeok marveled at the video for various reasons and went to read the comments. A pinned comment by the video maker appeared. He was expecting it to be an introductory comment, but...
— wackjassey: Did they make an anime for this? rofl
(They actually made an anime out of this lol)
It was actually a comment left by Jessie.
└ It's real!!
└ For real???
└ If you go to the channel, her vlog is there. It's real, guys!!
└ Huh lol!
└ Amazing…
└ The post is real.
Ju-Hyeok also went to Jessie's channel to confirm it was her.
"Wow. It's real. Huh."
Jessie also seemed to post vlogs on YouTube in a low-key manner. While she got some views, they weren’t hugely popular.
"Would this person be suitable?"
While Jessie's comment was one thing, the reactions to the video itself were very positive.
— I watched a whole anime, burp~
— Lolol~ what a drugged video.
— Wasn't this an official channel??? Why is the quality like this? lol
— Wow, I really thought it was an anime trailer, lol.
— So when is the “Dog's Name” being released?
Ju-Hyeok started drafting an email to send to the video maker.
[Hello. I am Kim Ju-Hyeok, the manager of streamer Almond...]
As he completed the email, Almond's private scrim had already ended.
***
Shhhh.
Sang-Hyeon grabbed an energy drink from the fridge and gulped it down after quietly emerging from the capsule.
"Phew."
He felt hot even in the new capsule after playing a proper game.
"Oh. You’re done?" Ju-Hyeok asked.
"Yeah," Sang-Hyeon nodded.
"Did you win?"
“Gulp. Gulp.”
After drinking some more, Sang-Hyeon responded.