"The situation isn't looking too good."
Park Jeong-u let out a sigh and plopped heavily into the chair in front of his computer desk.
It was because he had only just returned from outdoor activities and was utterly exhausted in every way.
'Should I play some games and get my head back together?'
Originally, Park Jeong-u was a man who had had no connection whatsoever to games.
But after being forcibly introduced to them by Seoyeon,
now he was actively seeking out various games on his own, to the point where he had even bought a dedicated gaming PC, showing he had become quite serious about gaming.
'So if I roughly organize my thoughts, there are two problems, right?'
His head throbbed.
First, Viol's side wanted him to visit France together with Seoyeon.
It was a request for them to attend this year's Viol event and grace the occasion.
'So she's become Viol's advertising model whether she likes it or not now.'
They must really like her.
Would Viol's headquarters be able to see the true nature of that girl wearing the mask of a princess?
Just thinking about the two of them going to France together made his head throb already.
On top of that.
'Actually, this side is the bigger problem.'
Park Jeong-u stared at the script in his hand.
The script that had arrived before him today.
Truthfully, quite a lot of time had passed since it arrived, but he had been too busy with his recent schedule to check it.
'Director Jo Min-tae's debut film.'
It was probably sent before Park Jeong-u decided to appear in Director Jo Bang-u's film.
Because if they had known Park Jeong-u would appear in his father's film, they wouldn't have sent it.
'This is awkward.'
Jo Min-tae.
In his own way, this man was someone like Seoyeon's mentor.
In fact, the reason Ju Seoyeon had been able to participate in
Of course, it was largely thanks to her father, Director Jo Bang-u, listening to the circumstances and recommending her, but he knew Seoyeon had received help from the man in various ways.
And now Jo Min-tae, who had been active in various visual media like commercials and dramas, was ambitiously preparing a film.
The title was
As fate would have it, its release perfectly overlapped with
'At this rate, the release dates are going to overlap.'
Son and father.
A precious debut work, and a work staking his reputation.
In reality, the two were stepping onto a guillotine match where they absolutely could not afford to lose.
Had they been unable to communicate with each other?
Or had the investors' requests coincidentally overlapped?
Either way, it wasn't good.
And the worst part was.
'It's good.'
Park Jeong-u's eyes grew grave.
The script for
Perhaps it was equal to, or even better than
Moreover, the already decided female lead was none other than Kim Jeong-ha.
The star of Jo Min-tae's first commercial.
And the actress who had appeared together with Ju Seoyeon in her first commercial.
She was someone who had been sprinting with all her might to the top for the past ten years.
Her acting skills were at a level no one could deny.
Her specialty was method acting.
Her ability to exert force at exactly the right time and place was such that even his father, Park Seon-ung, had sent praise her way.
In the film she appeared in with Park Seon-ung, she had shocked audiences with acting skills that rivaled the great actor Park Seon-ung.
'The opponent is too strong.'
He didn't deny that it was a good work.
But aside from the script and director, it was full of various problems.
First, it was hard to cast actors.
So, actors inevitably shied away from appearing as supporting roles.
The pay was low and their screen time was little—why would they appear?
On top of that, it was a film by Director Jo Bang-u, who had a high probability of failure.
'As for the investors......'
He had heard that Newlike Group and GH Group had made contact, so he couldn't help but expect good news.
'It's probably because of Seoyeon.'
She was the only one who could make two major corporations move at the same time.
Anyway, even if the investor problem was solved, he didn't know if they could really go up against
"Should I talk to her about it?"
Seoyeon unexpectedly made pretty good judgments at times like these.
Thinking so, Park Jeong-u stared at the computer screen that had already turned on.
And then, thinking he might watch some YouTube, he pressed a few buttons.
"Huh?"
There was a video that had come up through the algorithm.
It seemed to be a video related to a YouTuber he had clicked on while looking for game reviews before.
'......Eternity Camp?'
Ah, right. That was the name.
The game that was supposed to end early access and officially launch this time.
'Was that today?'
It seemed they had broadcast an advertisement video on YouTube right in time for the official launch.
It was quite a bizarre broadcast—next to the YouTuber he had seen before, there was a character made into a 3D avatar.
'Huh?'
I'm sure I've seen this character somewhere.
I'm sure it's something Seoyeon often watched......
"......?"
Only then did Park Jeong-u realize.
The girl standing next to that 3D character.
A girl who looked twice as happy as usual was playing the game, her shoulders bobbing.
Her expression was as expressionless as ever, but the subtly upturned corners of her mouth showed exactly how good her mood was.
"What's she doing now?"
Don't tell me she appeared in a game advertisement?
Why, out of all the many advertisements?
Though he was bewildered, Park Jeong-u naturally clicked on the video.
Anyway, he couldn't resist clicking when he saw the thumbnail.
***
- Is there an official ECamp broadcast today?
- Yeah, there's an ad event where they invited YouTubers from 2 to 4 today
- But who's streaming??
- Heo Tae-gyun, yeah
- Is it just one person???
- Nope, there's one VTuber and one other unrevealed person
- LOL VTuber LOL
- You gotta admit, they're the perfect pick for the game, right?
The first broadcast after the official launch.
The Eternity Camp management team was actively promoting the broadcast to retain the influx of new players that had flooded in beyond expectations, but the reactions were split about fifty-fifty.
- Heo Tae-gyun is a 700k YouTuber, but honestly that's not exactly a huge weight class, is it?
- For our game, that's more than enough to be grateful for
- Who's that VTuber broadcasting with them this time?
- It's Lamiel, a VTuber who covers various games
- Wow, VTubers and streamers are collabing now
Such comments were going back and forth, and the one who garnered the most interest was the one not yet revealed.
Various speculatory posts went up, wondering who it could be that they were keeping so tightly under wraps,
and most of them guessed famous gamers or streamers.
And then.
"Hello, I am YouTuber Heo Tae-gyun."
The official Eternity Camp broadcast in full swing.
Up to that point, it was exactly as expected.
Heo Tae-gyun and Lamiel introduced each other and talked about the officially launched Eternity Camp.
Up to here, it was a typical broadcast proceeding according to the script.
The problem was the very next segment.
The part where they introduced today's final guest and played the game.
"Many of you guessed about today's guest. Unfortunately, not a single one of you got it right."
- ??
- Who the hell is it
- Ugh, stop being so frustrating and just reveal it already
The reactions were mostly telling them to hurry up and reveal since they had dragged it out enough.
Judging by those reactions alone, it seemed no one expected anyone particularly special.
After all, Eternity Camp was a game that had been dying in early access.
Though there was an influx from the official launch, it was hard to imagine how long it would last.
Naturally, everyone assumed the special guest would be nothing special—just an ordinary person.
But.
"Today's final guest is...... Actress Ju Seoyeon!!"
The camera moved, illuminating Seoyeon sitting primly in her seat.
In that instant.
- ??
- ???????
- Is this real??
- Ju Seoyeon is appearing here??
For a very brief moment, the chat in the chat window slowed dramatically.
Because the camera caught Seoyeon's face in a flash, and that flawless face filled the screen.
- Wow, she's really f*cking pretty
- If we're talking face alone, she's definitely top tier among current celebrities
- They really have connections, damn, to call in Ju Seoyeon
- Damn, I'm so jealous of Tae-gyun, is he doing broadcasts with Ju Seoyeon now????
- I'm suddenly angry
- Please die
The sporadic comments visible in the slowed chat were mostly exclamations about Seoyeon's looks.
It was understandable.
Moreover, unlike her usually cold impression, today's Seoyeon was somehow like bright sunlight.
She was sparkling as if she were emitting her own light.
To the point that comments cursing Heo Tae-gyun were flooding the chat.
Of course, not all reactions were positive.
- Ugh, another celebrity ad
- At least Ju Seoyeon's said a lot on public broadcast that she likes games
- It's all a concept;;
- Ju Seoyeon's dad is Ju Yeong-bin in the first place?? It's not that weird for her to appear.
- Yeah, she's actually late to the party.
'As expected.'
Watching those comments, Heo Tae-gyun swallowed dryly.
They were chats he had expected to some degree.
Celebrity ads could attract large numbers of ordinary people, but they left a bad impression on actual gamers. It was the same this time.
'Could she get shaken seeing this?'
In live broadcasts, and especially for broadcasters unaccustomed to chat, they could easily be shaken in these situations.
Even though she was a celebrity, if young Seoyeon saw these sharp comments, she could get hurt.
Of course, Heo Tae-gyun was more worried about whether the broadcast would be okay than about Seoyeon's feelings.
"W-well, let's start the game. First, what are both of your tiers?"
"I'm Platinum."
Lamiel was the first to answer.
She had only started playing after being contacted by Raywill Games, so there hadn't been enough time to raise her tier further.
After all, she had had an extremely tight schedule.
She had barely made it back from overseas in time for today's broadcast.
"Wh-what about you, Actress Seoyeon?"
"You can just speak comfortably."
"Th-then, Miss Seoyeon, what is your tier?"
Heo Tae-gyun asked as politely as possible.
Since he would be in a position to 'hit' Seoyeon in the game later, it was important to leave a good impression now.
"Diamond."
At Seoyeon's words, spoken with utmost confidence, Heo Tae-gyun pretended to be surprised.
In fact, it was because he remembered hearing about her tier in the previous meeting.
He had already been surprised back then.
'It is higher than I expected, but.'
Honestly, Heo Tae-gyun had thought Seoyeon and Lamiel would be at best around Silver or Gold.
Or perhaps hadn't played ranked at all.
But Lamiel was Platinum. Seoyeon was Diamond, no less.
Of course, considering Eternity Camp's nature, it couldn't be called extremely high.
But it was clearly far beyond Heo Tae-gyun's expectations.
- ?? Diamond? Is that real?
- She's higher than me
- Did someone boost her?
- Ju Seoyeon's game mechanics are good. The problem is that's all she's good at.
- How do you know that?
- She briefly showed up on
- Yeah, she appeared on a gaming show before.
The mention of her appearance on
"Alright, so the game has started now. Let's see, the characters......"
Though Eternity Camp has team compositions, we don't need to go that far for today's play.
Above all, at this level, mastery is everything regardless of team comp or character tier.
You just need to learn how to play around the character you're best at.
"I'll tank."
Seoyeon said so and picked a character that looked sturdy at a glance.
A male character with muscles all over and black hair.
Honestly, it wasn't a visual a woman would typically choose.
- And she picked Vickers
- A vicious meta slave, damn
- Vickers is pretty broken since official launch, yeah
Seoyeon didn't care much about appearance in games.
She cared about it in MMORPGs, but for this type of game, she was rather indifferent.
Rather, she tended to pick only characters with good performance.
"Miss Lamiel, you play ADC. I'll protect you."
"Ah, sorry, but I've only ever played support characters."
"Then it can't be helped."
Lamiel's avatar trembled at Seoyeon's gaze, which looked genuinely disappointed.
'Does she even want to do this ad?'
By the way, Lamiel was good at the game.
Her main positions were melee DPS or ADC.
She actually hadn't played support that much.
But there was a reason she had chosen support.
'My role in today's broadcast is support.'
Of course, many fans who watched her broadcasts were here too.
As the company had predicted, advertising using a VTuber was proving quite effective.
Since Eternity Camp itself was a game based on cartoon rendering.
'But the protagonist has to be Ju Seoyeon.'
A ten-million-draw actress.
Seoyeon was the actress who had shone the brightest last year.
It hadn't even been long since she won the Best Supporting Actress award.
She was attracting attention to the point that a 700k YouTuber became a 'mere' nobody in comparison.
So, for the ad's success, Seoyeon had to be the protagonist.
'But she doesn't seem to have any intention of doing so.'
Heo Tae-gyun was an ambitious person.
That was clear from how he had tried to take the 'hitting role' immediately.
He had quietly withered under Seoyeon's counterattack, but just look at the character he was picking now—a character he could shine with. Hadn't he chosen a flashy assassin character?
......Though it was also inevitable because Seoyeon had hard-picked tank.
'Anyway, the comp is textbook.'
Tank, DPS, Healer.
A textbook composition like a picture.
Just as Lamiel thought, Heo Tae-gyun was relieved that Seoyeon had picked tank.
Since tank value had risen after the launch, it was good to have one.
He could also pick a carry-capable DPS without worrying.
"Then let's group up quickly and look for the first engagement angle."
Raywill Games had put a mission on this ad.
They had said that if those who appeared in today's ad won first place, they would give all users 1000 gems.
So the viewers couldn't help but naturally cheer them on.
A limited time of two hours.
The rule of Eternity Camp was that you had to take first place among a total of eight teams to win.
In other words, a survival game.
'We don't have vision, so we can't just fight recklessly.'
In Eternity Camp, there are places where materials periodically spawn for making special equipment.
Needless to say, fights often broke out around those materials.
Everyone would watch and wait, then take down everyone fighting and seize the materials.
'Let's be careful here.'
Heo Tae-gyun placed a vision-illuminating ward and quietly assessed the situation.
He could see one team moving above, so he checked their escape route......
"I'm going in."
"Huh?"
It was truly instantaneous.
Without giving Heo Tae-gyun a chance to stop her, Seoyeon charged straight at the person in sight.
'No, what if there are more teams!!'
That's what Heo Tae-gyun thought, but he opened his eyes wide at Seoyeon's ensuing play.
'What, how is she so good?'
She wasn't getting hit by a single non-targeted skill.
Moreover, her skills perfectly locked onto the enemy's DPS.
Heo Tae-gyun reflexively took down the DPS, easily securing victory in the first fight.
- ????
- What was that??
- She walked straight up and dodged everything, is that for real?
- It's because it's their first game, lol
- The opponent actually played well though
- Her judgment is insane;;
Though Heo Tae-gyun killed the enemy DPS, anyone could see that the fight was won because Seoyeon had perfectly initiated.
Despite being at the very front, her health hadn't even dropped by half.
No matter how much of a tank she was, the only reason she could endure like that was because she dodged every skill she could.
She was so good that he couldn't say anything to 'berate Seoyeon' like the initial concept had called for here.
"Th-then who will take this?"
Bewildered as he was, no additional teams appeared.
He hurried to gather the materials, thinking to craft equipment from them.
It was standard for the DPS to take materials first and get stronger.
This unspoken rule hadn't changed much even now after the official launch.
"I'm fine. I'm the tank."
"Yes, then this is......"
As Seoyeon yielded as if it were natural, Heo Tae-gyun, who was about to quickly snatch it up,
"Miss Lamiel, you take it first."
couldn't help but freeze at Seoyeon's natural action of handing the materials to Lamiel.
"Huh?"
"Miss Seoyeon. Even if I take it, it won't be very efficient."
Lamiel tried to soften the words "Hey, you crazy girl, I'm a support" as much as possible when speaking to Seoyeon,
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"That's not very important."
"......."
"And it's good if the support gets stronger too."
That was true.
But it would be better if the DPS got stronger instead.
- ??
- What kind of bullshit is this?
- Did I hear that right?
- The reason she's Diamond with that skill... there's a reason, so don't even ask...
- Ju Seoyeon gave it to the VTuber because she felt bad for her
- But who is that VTuber?
- She's a 200k VTuber... that's pretty famous among VTubers
- Her voice sounds familiar... is it just me?
- Yeah, it's just you
After briefly scanning the chat, Heo Tae-gyun couldn't help but squeeze his eyes shut.
Because he had a feeling that winning today would be quite difficult.