“Whoa, it seems we’ve already hit 5 million viewers.”
“We are also at the top of the board for current live stream shows.”
“At the top? Wow! Really…! Thank you so much!”
This was a live stream prepared by the Mage Tower Agency (MTA) for the newborn superhumans. A fan convention or a Q&A session – whatever the name may be, it was a way of flaunting their popularity which had seen a recent spike in growth.
It was of a different scale compared to individual streamers. MTA spent a tremendous amount of money and even outsourced a professional filming team.
Since it was going to be on live anyway, they also invited several renowned superhuman broadcasting companies. 25 people gathered in the end just for the live stream of 4 people.
Due to the number of people, they decided to host the event outdoors at a quiet place to spare more room for the cameras. It was normal for them to get nervous but the superhumans of Team White had already taken a bunch of psychological relief drugs so they faced the camera with wide smiles.
“There’s nothing special about us, so to see so many people gathered…”
“Haha. Then shouldn’t you show everyone something at the very least, boss?”
“Hmm, then I’ll show a bit of my specialty, ‘magic swordsmanship’ which everyone was curious about.”
“Ah, I don’t mean now though. Since everyone is curious about it, please stay tuned until the end of the live show! You can see it then.”
Uhaha, they laughed.
“He’ll be a great streamer.”
“That’s the only thing he’s good at~~”
While the members were harmoniously chatting with each other, a PD from MTA suddenly gestured towards the filming team in fright, before walking away from the site while calling somewhere.
What’s wrong with him? Did something happen nearby? That’s what the members of Team White were thinking.
[Waldo: ??? Search me plzzz what is this? :O]
[なな: Nothing much? They’re putting up posts about how Team White is deceiving people…]
[青海: Please do something about them]
From time to time, strange comments were being made on the paid comment section. Although curious, Team White decided to ignore it for the time being. There were a lot of comments in the first place and it was just the opinion of the minority.
That was when the PD suddenly ran up and gestured to everyone to stop the stream.
“Uhh? Ah, one second please.”
“Please give us a second.”
One of the members glared at the PD, demanding for an explanation but the PD continued moving his arms with a pale face, telling them to pause the show.
“I think there is a problem with the broadcast. P, please give us a minute!”
Just like that, the show came to a full pause. The outsourced filming crew was confused, while the members of Team White were even more confused. In the end, White walked up to the PD and irritatedly asked him.
“What is this all about? Sir.”
“M, Mister White. Please come here for a bit…!!”
“Like I said! What is wrong with you!”
White stopped in the middle of his furious outrage the moment he spotted the look of fear on the PD’s face. Before long, that same expression was hanging on White’s face after they distanced themselves from the site.
“That paper airplane!”
“What…?”
“The airplane! That ‘search me please’ that was put out was an SNS account name! Right now, there are posts being made that talk about Team White’s deception and fake missions but…! T, they don’t sound like utter nonsense!” The PD shouted with a pale look on his face.
White controlled his facial expression and began to furiously blame the PD instead.
“Do you believe that? Show me right now!”
He snatched the device away from PD’s hands, and gazed through the posts.
[Search_me_Plzzz]
First reveal: Is the number of missions Team White has completed within the last 67 days 61 times as they claim it to be?
No – it is in fact 82 times.
An image of a document that was remarkably similar to the ‘mission record’ that Team White had shown to the public was attached to the post, as well as all the official schedules that Team White had carried out in between.
It looked bizarre when it was all put together. The schedule was way too tight. Even if they were cutting down on their sleep, it still wasn’t enough time to complete all the missions that weren’t officially announced by Team White.
“This… what is the source of this document?”
“We are trying our best to look into it but… for now we’re not sure…”
White and the PD were unaware but the template of the document was one that was used within the Association. However, there was nothing on the document that could allow them to guess that it belonged to the Association.
The PD muttered, ‘Of course I know Mister White is not the type of person to do that…! But, the reaction of the people are…!’
There were dozens of thousands of comments made in just a few minutes.
[??? Is this real?]
[What? They were talking about deception so I thought it would be negative but are they trying to help Team White? So Team White was working even harder?]
[Bullcrap. It doesn’t make sense. Team Mochi is publicising all their operations. They didn’t take a single break and they only have 59 missions.]
[Lol you’re comparing White with Mochi. They are on a different league so that’s no surprise haha]
[Stop uttering crap. Haven’t you seen Team Mochi’s operation video? They’re at the top of newborn superhuman teams.]
[I trust Team White. There’s no evidence in the first place]
[frfr]
[333333]
For the time being, there was nothing on the image that proved its credibility. The PD tearily opened his mouth.
“This isn’t true, right? Right?”
“Is that even supposed to be a question?”
“R, right…?”
“Did you get scared from a single image and stop the live show? When it was at the top coming 1st from current live streams? Are you going to take the responsibility for this?”
White shamelessly replied despite blood racing away from his face. In fact, he didn’t even know what his own mouth was blabbering about because even his head was turning pale.
82 times was too accurate for comfort…
It was an extremely clever reveal. No-one other than the directly related personnel of the Association would be able to accurately tell the exact number of missions, which was 82.
But there was no reason for related personnel of the Association to get involved and threaten a newborn superhuman team, because that wasn’t what the name of the Association should be used for.
White couldn’t possibly imagine a 5th grade agent of the Association with an authority at the level of the 5 Transcendents of Chaliovan being antagonistic towards him, so he was even more confused.
It was then. White’s watch suddenly vibrated.
Someone was calling him.
After checking the number, White was startled.
[+00 0000000000]
Both the country and the phone number were concealed. White could immediately tell that the caller was the one behind all this and the guy was calling him directly.
His eyes turned blurry. It felt as if there was a large wound on his body, because this was how he felt whenever there was blood racing out of his body.
“T, then should we restart the video?”
“No! Please just wait for a bit! And stop fucking whingeing!”
After subconsciously swearing at the PD, White walked away and took the call.
“Who are you.”
His heart raced like crazy. No-one talked back, so White screamed out the question again.
“Oi, oi! What are you huh? What are you trying to do?”
– White McDonald. Watch your tone.
A voice modified to a higher tone came flowing out of the watch. It wasn’t any dumbfounding technique, and was just a built-in function which friends tended to use to prank each other.
“What was that, you bastard?”
– It’s already been some time since it happened. Are you still clueless about what’s happening? What was the Tower thinking, investing in an idiot like this.
Kung. It felt as if a piece of lead dropped inside his heart. Everything felt all the more chilling and realistic, as his fingertips began to ache.
– Wake up. It’s moments away before everything you’ve built up comes crumbling down.
“W, w, who might you be… Why, why are you doing this to me…”
– I warned you. You should’ve listened when you had the chance.
Only then did White remember the sponsored message he received a few days ago, that was written without any spaces in between. He thought it was just a mental person writing it but…
– Just think of me as a voice phisher you see in movies. Also, I have a lot of proofs but it’s up to you if you want to do anything funny.
“D, do you think you will be safe after doing this…”
– Think of your own well-being first.
“…”
He knew it was a life built on sand. When he was blinded by greed into making the wrong choice, he had worried about having to pay for it one day, but he wasn’t expecting today to be the day.
White heavily trembled.
– I’m going to make you do things and as long as you listen to my orders, I’ll end this meaningless skit. I will. So you just have to reply, ‘Yes,’ to whatever I say. Understand?
“W, w, what kind of questions are you going to ask…”
The caller didn’t respond.
Why wasn’t the person saying anything? Is it because he didn’t say ‘Yes’? While White was starting to be scared from the opponent’s silence, PD shouted from the other side.
“E, excuse me! S, Sir White! Is the call important!?”
“Why! What’s wrong?!”
“The guy posted something new on their SNS…!”
White hurriedly looked at the new post with his watch.
[Search_me_plzzz]
Out of 82 missions, most of them are located all over South America and North America, and yet strangely enough, 4 were completed in East Asia.
‘Yes’?
Yet again there was an ambiguous image attached to the post and the comments that were being written in real time were discussing and trying to guess what that ‘Yes’ thing meant.
Those 4 operations indeed were also false missions… Gritting his teeth, White replied.
“Yes. I will say ‘yes’ only… P, p, please do c, continue…”
The guy over the watch finally continued speaking.
– You got an in-ear headphone yeah? Go and turn on the live show again.
“Sorry? Ah, ah… yes.”
Why? What was the man trying to make him do? His heart raced so fast that his vision turned hazy. From the abnormally large mental shock, his legs lost strength and he collapsed onto the ground.
– Don’t wanna move?
“I, I, I will go right now…”
He obediently stood back up and powerlessly paced towards the site. The PD ran up and asked what was going on but White ignored his question and shook his pale face.
“Turn the broadcast on again.”
“Sorry?”
“T, there is no problem with this. S, s, so just put it on live again.”
Saying that, he returned to his seat behind the table. The moment he sat down, all the filming crew, members of the broadcasting companies and his comrades all turned quiet.
“What’s happening. Is it all resolved now?”
“Shut your trap. Before I rip it open…”
“Huh…?”
His comrades were shocked but White’s voice was so soft that the mic didn’t catch it.
This was in fact how their relationship was like – White was the tyrant of his one-man team. The harmonious atmosphere they showed on the outside was just for show and his comrades were also enduring through it since it was a win-win relationship for them as well.
The PD ran back to site and gave the OK sign to the filming crew and other staff.
As the show went back on live, White’s comrades gave awkward smiles while apologising to the viewers, saying that there was a problem on their end.
Meanwhile, a mechanical voice reached White’s ears through the in-ear headphone.
– Continue what you were doing.
That sentence was extremely frightening to him.
After all this was a live stream, and the opponent was probably watching him at this exact moment.
“…Yes.”
However, there was nothing White could do other than reply with a voice that the mic couldn’t pick up.
*
Meanwhile, there was a brighter atmosphere covering Team Lair.
They were watching the show live through a large display screen that was inside the small office they borrowed, and they were going through Search me Plz’s SNS account on their watches.
“That guy is super scaredd…!”
“Ahahaha! Did you see the guys next to him flinch just then?”
The guy they hated so much was being startled in front of a large audience in real time. Watching that, they felt very refreshed.
Since she got the confirmation from Yu Jitae that they won’t be driven into the deepest gutters with no way to get back up, Kaeul was also able to smile comfortably.
Before long, the number of viewers hit 3 million again.
“What do you want to do? You can play with him until we blow it up,” Yu Jitae asked.
Play with him? Although their eyes sparked from the idea, the young superhumans couldn’t openly give ideas as they were still not that comfortable around Yu Jitae.
She knew how they were feeling. Because of that, Kaeul who had been hugging the baby chicken and throwing glances the whole time, mischievously shouted to start it off.
“Tell him to pick his nose…!”
It was the dirty thing that Yeorum-unni often did.
*
And after exactly 5 seconds,
White began to pick his nose,
Live, in front of 3 million viewers.