Chapter 365
Seojun kept searching for a way to properly counter the relentless chat controversy about him being an outcast.
You're saying false accusations are harder to deal with?
That doesn't seem right.
Malicious slander can just be ignored, but facts...
*‘I really don’t have any friends.’*
Seojun shrugged.
As he'd said before, Taewoo was his one and only friend.
Of course, all his classmates from back when he used to enjoy his school lunches were treated more like his underlings, but either way, Taewoo was his sole friend.
It wasn't exactly a tragedy.
The tragedy was not being able to put down those arrogant viewers who were riding high right now.
After thinking for a moment, Seojun spoke.
"Should I just end the stream?"
-I'm sorry!
-We were wrong!
-Streamer, you have 200,000 friends gathered right now, what do you mean you don't have any?
-For real lol, just recruit some viewers again.
Seojun chuckled.
"You guys were teasing me just a moment ago, calling me the viewer-recruiting guy. I'll end the stream."
Nothing he could do about it.
Nod.
-Waaaaah!
-Why is he just making announcements today?
-It's legendary that over 200,000 people gathered for a stream that's all announcements lol.
-Streamer is seriously world-class!
-Kid really is world-class though lol.
-That's a dream viewer count for others, but for the streamer, it's just a number he can end the stream on.
-But didn't he say he was going camping? Is it because of that?
"Alright, thanks for your hard work."
After about twenty minutes of explaining the booth details he'd heard from Ha Yunho, Seojun ended the broadcast.
Finishing his work for the day left him feeling refreshed.
And it certainly wasn't because that day's work only took twenty minutes.
"Maybe streamer is a job for freeloaders?"
*BANG!*
Taewoo kicked the door open and barged in.
"It *is* a freeloader job, you bastard! Honestly, no matter what you did, you'd have freeloaded! Even if you did that delivery job, you'd probably just walk on air and use lightness skill to finish deliveries in an instant and then goof off."
Seojun burst out laughing at Taewoo's words.
"Hahahaha!"
"Why are you laughing?"
"No, I was just thinking maybe I should look them up?"
"Look what up?"
"The way to use that lightness skill and walk on air you mentioned?"
"Seojun, are you determined to violate the taboos of the gods! Wait, no. If it's that bastard..."
He does know how to do them.
He just never specifically looked for a way to do them here.
"Seojun, are you serious?"
Suddenly, Taewoo's tone changed, and Seojun swiveled his chair around to look up at him.
Seeing the genuinely worried expression on Taewoo's face, Seojun inwardly burst into laughter.
"I don't want to see you get taken to NASA and dissected!"
"Tsk, tsk. You've completely lost it. Is that even possible?"
"If it were before I saw you gaming, even knowing how amazing you are, I would have said absolutely not. But after watching you game, I realized it. It seems like 'absolutely' doesn't apply to you, at least."
Crazy.
Taewoo kept talking, and Seojun, flustered, changed the subject.
"Weren't you a martial artist in your past life, for real? I'm serious. Hey, let's have a serious talk. Whatever your story is, I think I can accept it now."
"Forget it, let's just go. The campsite. Master Joam will be waiting."
"Hey. Tell me honestly! Your hyung here can understand everything, you know? Huh? Why are you dodging the question when I'm telling you to speak? Normally you just laugh it off... You really are a reincarnator...!"
* * *
Arriving at the campsite and getting out of the car, Seojun looked up at the sky for a moment.
"Haah..."
Taewoo had been pestering him the entire way there.
He couldn't knock him out since he was driving.
*‘Why is he taking it so seriously?’*
Seojun felt genuine dread, fearing he could no longer make jokes carelessly.
*BANG.*
Taewoo got out and shut the door.
"Wow, what nice weather! What do they call weather like this in the Central Plains?"
"Hmph, well, now I can..."
Knock him out.
Just as Seojun, expressionless, rounded the front of the car and approached Taewoo, who was stretching—
"Sorry! I'm sorry!"
Taewoo put his hands together in apology.
He had an uncanny sense for detecting bloodlust. Seojun nodded, a mix of admiration and satisfaction in his expression.
Taewoo calmed his startled heart. In Seojun's ears, a woman's voice calling from afar registered.
"Over here!"
"Looks like everyone's gathered. Let's go."
It was Buja's voice.
Turning his head toward the source of the sound, he saw people gathered near a fence some distance from the parking lot.
It was all the members of Last, excluding Baek Doyul.
Except for Seojun, who roamed outside the most, the other team members practically lived in the game, camping every single day.
"Hello. You all look just like your avatars."
Seojun realized after examining each person closely.
*‘They touched them up a bit, but they mostly used their real faces.’*
The ones touched up a bit were Joam and Lee Mua.
"Wow! Seojun-nim, Taewoo-nim, hello! To make a homebody like me come outside. Hehe."
That was Buja.
"Streamer! Are you really not calling me to your booth? I'm pretty handy, I can block everything myself!"
That was Joam.
"Haha, it's fine. I'll be doing a surprise stream then, so I'll need you, Joam-nim."
"What? No, Streamer! But I'm going there to see you too!"
"Are phones not allowed inside TwitchStar?"
Everyone around them laughed simultaneously.
Seojun meant she should continue her manager duties via phone even at TwitchStar.
"Wow... Of course, I'll do that!"
"Joam Gong, you hesitated just now."
They walked towards the entrance.
They had plenty of money but no time.
They had rented an entire spot at a glamping site fully equipped with camping gear, so they could just enjoy themselves freely.
A large screen, something difficult to set up in a casual camp, was also prepared, so they could just relax and watch some Travel.
Walking behind the group into the fenced area where the tents were set up, Seojun thought.
His immediate goal now was to rank first among TwitchStar booths.
But streaming was a long-term, continuous endeavor.
Therefore, the most urgent and necessary priority right now was the manager issue.
With the scale growing, his existing managers alone were saturated.
In other words, Seojun had come here to recruit.
Of course, coming to rest and play was also true, but if that was the primary goal, the secondary goal was finding managers.
It was just as he was eyeing the people ahead of him, licking his lips at the thought of who would do the manager job well.
"By the way, aren't you hiring more managers?"
Buja turned her head and asked Seojun. He lifted the corners of his mouth.
*‘Should I just make them all do it?’*
* * *
[Announcement. Due to the increased scale of the broadcast, new managers have been recruited.]
==
The new manager nicknames are as follows.
1. Buja
2. ShutUpAndGame
3. ThisIsntMurim
4. SurvivingOnMartFoodCorner
5. Kim Taewoo
End.
==
-Lol, didn't he say he was going camping?
└Everyone who went camping became a manager lol.
-Is it just me who's scared that they all suddenly became managers? No, is it just me who's 검섭? (T/N: pun on 'scared' and 'SwordSeop')
-There's a saying: viewers who go camping with the streamer return wearing the manager armband. I'm very... about this story.
-If threatened, wave a carrot in the middle of doing manager work...
-Why is Kim Taewoo in there lol.
* * *
4 days before TwitchStar began.
Thanks to Taewoo, things that happened at the campsite started spreading.
There was no mention of Seo Sword.
But some people found that even scarier.
Active speculation ensued about how everyone ended up becoming managers even though nothing specific happened.
And then Seojun took a break from streaming, and people started taking the bait.
[Crazy lol. The national representative for paper airplane aerobatics threw down a challenge. Says they want to see it once.]
[What's this about the national stone-skipping representative? Looking at the video, they're freaking amazing though, there is a lake nearby lol.]
[Just a heads-up, there are staff specifically assigned to handle preparations for challenges, so it should be fine.]
[But can he really do them all? If it's related to the sword, seems like he could do anything, but this time they'll probably bring things that even real masters would succeed at only after a few tries.]
Beyond these, many others had issued challenges.
They were all people confident in any physical feat.
"It's getting bothersome."
Meanwhile, at Point's headquarters, preparations for this were in full swing.
Point's Seon Teamjang.
He was the person in overall charge of Seojun's event this time and possessed outstanding problem-solving skills.
"First, let's assume the posts that have appeared are true and make preparations in advance."
"Yes."
"From planning the movement routes to if he does a surprise stream..."
He worked diligently as the event's person in charge, but there was one thing he lacked.
"Thank you for your hard work. Then, I'll go check on something for a moment."
His understanding of Seojun.
He was recruited by Point because he was a specialist in event comprehension, but he wasn't exactly a viewer who watched Travel.
Getting into his car in the underground parking lot, Seon Teamjang murmured.
"Incredible. An event like this actually happening. Everyone says he's amazing, amazing, but it's also amazing that these kinds of top performers are coming. How does he plan to pull this off?"
With a deeply concerned expression, Seon Teamjang grabbed the steering wheel.
"Maybe it's better to just have him say he can't do most of the reasonable challenges and move on. Even though there were no specific instructions like that."
Knowing well that working hard wasn't the only important thing, he even considered negligence of duties.
But it was a problem with no answer.
Of course, he had objected, but it hadn't been accepted, and the sponsor was handling the prize money themselves.
He just felt worried.
While driving, he made a call.
"Yes, Seojun-nim. I'll be there soon. Yes, yes. Are you preparing the autographs well?"
An indispensable part of events is handwritten autographs.
Due to the nature of TwitchStar, there's so much in-game activity that there's no time to hold an autograph session.
The viewers they meet would probably want another round of gaming anyway.
But if fans couldn't get autographs, it couldn't be called a fan meeting.
So, goods like T-shirts or mousepads with autographs were prepared in advance for purchase, and Seojun had to do that work.
"A tough task. Even doing only that for the remaining 3 days won't be enough."
He shook his head.
The reason he was heading to Seojun's house now was to help him with that task.
He couldn't sign the goods for him, but he could provide support.
"He's never done an event before, so this is probably his first time doing this too. No, but really... Never mind."
It's tight.
Muttering to himself, he arrived at Seojun's house, got out of the car, and entered the building.
Standing in front of the door, Seon Teamjang cleared his throat briefly, straightened his clothes, and pressed the doorbell.
*Beep.*
With the sound of the door lock disengaging, the door opened and Taewoo came out.
"Hello, Seon Teamjang-nim."
"Hello."
"You're here to help that Murim bastard with the autographs, right?"
"Huh? Oh. Yes, that's right."
"Probably won't need to."
"Excuse me?"
"Take a look."
Taewoo pointed behind him into the house, which was stacked full of merchandise items.
"We actually contacted Yunho hyung to ask for more stock anyway. Tsk. What a monster."
"Hmm? What do you mean..."
Afterward.
After checking the merchandise items signed by Seojun and fiddling with two T-shirts, Seon Teamjang’s impression was this:
"This... might cause a controversy?"
"What kind of controversy?"
"People will ask if he just used a machine because he couldn't be bothered... I mean, how can the autographs be this identical, without a single millimeter of deviation... What is this... thing?"
Without a word, Taewoo simply closed his eyes and placed a hand on Seon Teamjang's shoulder.
It was a gesture of deep agreement.
The next day.
3 days before TwitchStar began, Yamada Risa visited the Point headquarters.