Chapter 124
Seojun played three more games of Kael only.
In the meantime, there were people who wanted him to play other heroes, and others who wanted a three-player palace, but neither worked out.
The former was simply because Seojun didn’t want to play other heroes.
The latter was because the game ended before enough people could gather.
The enemy mid or jungle would disconnect, leading to a quick surrender.
Internal strife broke out too.
Seojun figured that newbies these days just lacked perseverance.
Of course, he didn’t say that out loud.
"That was fun as always, Tuba."
After finishing his Travel broadcast, Seojun stepped out of the capsule.
* * *
Since it was bedtime, Seojun washed up first, then sat down at his desk.
It was time for the Seo Dong-bu meeting.
[Han Jimin: Boss! I became the best under heaven in the game and finally hit 1 million!]
[Jin Seojun: Wow!]
The 1v1 video with the rankers, which had risen to #3 on trending, had reached 1 million views and become the highest-viewed video on Seojun’s channel.
It took two weeks, but the number 1 million carried a certain emotional weight.
[Lee Geonyeong: As expected! Worth posting it right away!]
[Han Jimin: True.]
For days, they had been waiting, constantly refreshing, for it to hit 1 million, and today the video finally reached that milestone.
[Lee Geonyeong: How much did you earn from that video alone, damn.]
[Han Jimin: Looks like around 7-800?]
[Lee Geonyeong: Whoa... insane.]
[Han Jimin: Congratulations, boss!]
[Han Jimin: (Emoticon of a character celebrating half-heartedly)]
Actually, it was probably more satisfying that the unit of measurement changed rather than the money.
'Anyway, the money I get from that video is around 3.5 to 4 million won, right?'
For Seojun, who had lived frugally as an independent college student and led an incorruptible life in his past life, it was a lot of money to earn from a single video.
Looking back on the past, Seojun nodded.
'Definitely incorruptible.'
If corrupt officials take money from bad people to cover for them, and rob good people or condone harm done to them.
Seojun had acted in exactly the opposite way.
That doesn't mean he forcibly extorted money from bad people or anything.
When you bring them to the Room of Truth, they willingly give it up themselves, so why bother extorting?
[Jin Seojun: To celebrate my first million views, coffee’s on me!]
[Lee Geonyeong: Wow! So you’re telling us to work harder!]
[Han Jimin: Hurry up, drink this, focus, and churn out the videos, you slaves!]
[Han Jimin: That’s not what you meant, right?]
[Jin Seojun: Yes lol. Cake’s on me too.]
[Han Jimin: Cake? Sounds delicious. Thank you!]
[Lee Geonyeong: Me too!]
[Jin Seojun: And lastly, I know a great fitness center, membership’s on me!]
Immediately, silence fell over the chat window.
'Hmm.'
The 1 next to the message clearly disappeared, so why aren’t they replying?
Thinking about health would be good too.
No matter how much of a martial artist you are, time stops for no one.
Of course, Seojun, who hadn't experienced proper aging and had passed on young without living that long, isn’t one to talk.
But still, it’s obvious that managing things early is better.
Mulling over such pointless thoughts, Seojun typed again.
[Jin Seojun: How about the membership?]
As soon as the message went up, the number disappeared. They didn't seem to have left.
[Han Jimin: Oh right! Boss, did you check the mail?]
[Jin Seojun: What about the membership?]
[Han Jimin: No, I mean, we got a casting mail for Rios!]
[Jin Seojun: Oh?]
At the unexpected news, Seojun’s eyes widened.
There are two ways for tournament organizers to gather streamers.
One is receiving applications, the other is casting.
Usually, they cast first, then select and draw lots for applicants accordingly. But the proportion of casting is around 10–20%.
Originally, that ratio was much higher.
But now that the streaming market has grown and the number of streamers has exploded, things have changed.
Except for the minimum core streamers needed for popularity, the options have diversified to the point where there’s no need to lock in tournament slots early through casting.
Simply put, in the old days when the overall pool of streamers was small, the organizers were the weaker party.
- Would you maybe consider joining the tournament? If you, the streamer, don’t come, we’re ruined.
It was like that in the past.
But now it is.
- All interested, come! Prizes are huge too!
It had changed to this.
That’s why Seojun thought it would be even harder for him to get cast.
Oh Ji-hye had said it wouldn’t happen either.
So it was surprising to receive a casting invitation.
[Jin Seojun: Looks like I luckily caught a bit of attention.]
[Han Jimin: Boss, you said you wanted to go to Rios, right? That’s great!]
[Lee Geonyeong: It doesn’t seem like just a bit of attention, though......]
Seeing Seojun’s chat, Lee Geonyeong thought from a distance.
'Please, boss, have some self-awareness.'
Whether he did or not, Seojun remained consistent.
[Jin Seojun: I think this level of attention was a bit lacking, but they still casted me.]
[Han Jimin: True. The boss has been building up his strength, after all. Still, it means you’re visible even in their eyes. This is totally like a hidden gem.]
[Jin Seojun: Oh, smart one?]
[Han Jimin: Hehehehe]
[Lee Geonyeong: ...]
[Jin Seojun: Then I’m off to sleep.]
[Han Jimin: Yes!]
[Lee Geonyeong: Yes!]
[Han Jimin: Oh, right. Check your trash folder once!]
Mail trash folder?
Was it because of the Rios casting?
[Jin Seojun: Understood.]
Seojun closed the chatroom, accessed the site, opened his mailbox, and went into the trash folder.
And he realized that Han Jimin had been diligently organizing his mailbox, and that the matter wasn’t about Rios.
More than Rios, it was about The League.
Mails related to Kael in The League.
[I want the vision you see]
[Please, teach me the pattern]
[It’ll probably get nerfed or changed, but I want to know just once]
[How much will it cost? Whatever it is, we’ll fund it! Trust the Kael fanatics!]
Hundreds of mails like this were piled up.
It was impressive that Han Jimin had moved all these to the trash.
“The content is mostly similar.”
Seojun’s impression upon seeing the mails was exactly this.
They’re serious about Kael.
To understand the situation more clearly, Seojun went to the community and found The League’s Kael board.
Entering there, he learned the story.
[Can’t type in chat?]
==
You have to follow and wait 3 hours.
==
At first, they had tried to ask Seojun directly.
But they were blocked by the chat restrictions.
- It's over, can't cause a ruckus. Can't threaten either.
└Then he'll just stop streaming for a week to discipline the viewers. Be careful.
└Wow, shit, we really need to be careful.
- Can't you existing viewers type in chat for us?
└Even without us, there are constant requests in chat to tell him, but the streamer doesn't even glance at them.
└Would he look if we spammed?
└That might get disciplined too lol
└Then spam through donations?
- Guys, let’s use mail instead of donations. That seems cleaner. Anything else would be a nuisance.
That’s how the mails came.
Since the mail was originally open for viewers to give opinions, the Kael users’ choice was appropriate.
Seojun thought about it for a moment.
There was no reason to hide it, so sharing it didn't matter much.
“But even if I tell them, it would be meaningless.”
An explanation is possible. But if understanding the principle meant you could see it, someone would have discovered it long ago even without Seojun.
“Still, out of consideration for the effort of sending mails.”
Seated at his computer, Seojun entered Travel.
And he turned on the broadcast.
The title was Kael, and the screen showed only a black, empty background.
Waiting a moment, he watched the Kael board.
[That streamer turned on the broadcast!]
- Suddenly? Why?
- Has he ever done this before?
└No
- Isn’t it because of us?
- The title itself is Kael.
- Wow, is he telling us right away? Crazy.
- I love communicative streamers, heading over right now.
Confirming the expected reaction, Seojun shifted his gaze to his own chat window, where people were flustered by him suddenly going live.
- What’s this?
- Oh??
- Seo-ha?
- Bro, did you make a mistake?
- Say something.
- If it’s you, it’s fine. Just pretend it wasn’t a mistake and broadcast again.
- You think he turned on the broadcast by accident and will say something defamatory without knowing, and cause an accident? That classic pattern, yikes.
- Many have fallen that way haha.
They were saying grim things.
It was an annual event for a streamer to cause an accident without realizing the broadcast was on, but Seojun was not destined to be the protagonist.
“No. Everyone, you know my on-air personality is a bit bad, right?”
- Seo-ha.
- His voice came through.
- You knew your personality was bad? That's unexpected.
“That personality is exactly my broadcast concept. My real personality is a bit different. I'm nice. So even if the broadcast stays on for 24 hours without me knowing, I’m safe.”
- Bullshitting again.
- Bro, no one believes that.
- The academic consensus is that you’re suppressing your personality for broadcast lol.
- So why did you turn it on?
- Computer game?
“Ah. The reason I turned it on is to teach you how to see Kael's next vital spot pattern.”
Kael users couldn’t chat right now, but if they could, they’d probably be mashing D and G keys.
“I’ll just say it without long words. You can see Kael’s pattern if you just use your head a little.”
The roughly 3,000 gathered viewers were momentarily stunned.
“A notice will be up soon, so please check it. Tuba.”
Regardless, the broadcast ended.
- ?
- What is it?
- Madman lololol
- If you’re curious, check The League Kael board.
- Such a malicious bastard lololol
- Kael fanatics wailing lolololol
A lot of laughter floated in the chat window after the broadcast ended.
They were clearly the ones who had gone to the Kael board to mess around after hearing that Seojun had become the topic rather than the pattern.
Those viewers kept spamming 'k' (laughing in Korean).
They’ll probably head back to that board soon.
Just like Seojun now.
[??]
[Is this a provocation?]
[Did we just get picked on?]
[Lmao]
[“You can see it if you just use your head a little.” Thumbs up if you’re absolutely dumbfounded lolololol]
[That bastard is probably scamming and doesn't even know it himself.]
[Yeah, the scam narrative came up ages ago lolol]
Seojun smiled in satisfaction, then started writing a notice on iTube.
Coincidentally, a post that pleased him came up.
[It’s not too late to get angry after checking the notice, guys!]
==
But it’s still damn annoying.
You better write a good notice, streamer ^^
==
It wasn’t the content itself, though.
Anyway, if he left it like this, people were laughing now, but serious ones could emerge, so he had to post the notice quickly.
Seojun typed rapidly, pressed enter, and a notice went up on Seojun’s iTube community.
[I will explain Kael's pattern directly during tomorrow's broadcast!]
The reaction was good.
Comments from non-subscribers poured in instantly.
- Oh!
- Kya!
- Kael fanatics, we won! The power of mail!
- This streamer seems like he could go to a big company! He's a nice person! His face even looks kind!
- We’ll be using the two-player palace now too hahaha.
- Simple fools lolol
- Bro, your trolling and viewer training seem to have reached an art form...
He didn’t explain it in advance through the notice.
If he had, they certainly wouldn’t have slept trying to verify the truth of what Seojun said, which was a shame.
'Kael's next vital spot is roughly at an intermediate difficulty level after cutting the previous vital spot and linking to it. If I wrote that down without any other explanation...'
Instead of a night of healthy discussion and research, they would have only produced curses directed at Seojun.
It couldn’t be helped.
Intermediate.
Moderately.
Figure it out.
Senses are something you can only explain like that.
Someone who personally designed it might just post the formula, but even with the formula, no one would be able to predict it by seeing it. Not even the creator.
Still, there were things Seojun could do.
'Teach them how to develop that sense, or help them directly so they can at least grasp a little.'
As it happened, there was also a mail with a title that had caught his eye.
[Were you the Kael in this old video, Seojun? I’m a fan!]
The sender was a top-tier Challenger, a skilled player.
The mail mainly introduced himself briefly and requested teaching, which is how Seojun found out. Thinking he had found the perfectly suited mail, Seojun clasped his hands together.
Then he murmured with a very serious expression.
“Truly worthy of being called a Challenger.”
Viewers who had watched Seojun until now would go beyond dislike to utter rejection if he said he’d teach them.
It seemed it was just proven that it was because most of them were Bronze and Silver.