Chapter 366
Yamada Risa and Yamada Yasuo left for Korea the very day they met.
Having contacted Point through their agency, the two received a reply that they could meet two days later, and during that time, they had free time in Korea.
The younger brother, Yamada Yasuo, declared that before seeing Seojun, he would absolutely prepare himself to move on to the next training method, and began searching for a waterfall in Seoul that he could enter.
This information was not generally available on the internet, so it could have been troublesome, but he somehow found a way and located a waterfall, then departed.
The remaining Yamada Risa pondered.
What could she do in Korea?
It was a neighboring country, and she had visited Korea often as she was interested in it.
So.
“I’ll just do a marathon viewing session!”
She decided to binge-watch Seojun’s videos.
Though not a dedicated viewer who watches every livestream, she was still a fan of Seojun.
She also liked the fact that he had coolly defeated her haughty younger brother in the history book.
After spending two days watching Seojun’s videos in her hotel room, Risa reached a conclusion.
“As expected, working at the booth would be fun! But before that! I want to face him once! I’m the original, after all!”
Working together was no different from being under Seojun.
So.
“Of course, Seojun-nim is now much more famous than me and global, but still!”
She should at least check his qualifications once, shouldn’t she?
“Seojun-nim, it won’t be easy?”
With a playful smile, she headed to Point with her brother three days before the start of T-star.
* * *
“Ah, you want to face me first? Several times, at that?”
After arriving at Point, exchanging greetings, and hearing the whole story, Seojun looked at the woman in front of him.
It was surprising enough that the lead of the format he had brought came directly to him, but now she wanted to face him first.
“Hmm….”
Seojun grasped that she hadn’t come simply wanting to face him.
Actually, it was only natural.
What crazy actor would come just to face someone ahead of others?
“Is that the extent of your request?”
Seojun asked bluntly.
“No.”
Yamada Risa’s words were being translated in real time via her phone, and Seojun read the text before asking again.
“Then?”
Risa also bent her head to read the phone on the table, then beamed brightly.
“I’d like to make a bet! If it’s rude, I apologize! But I thought you’d like it!”
Despite saying something that could be rude on a first meeting, she was very cheerful.
Since it didn’t put him in a bad mood and she even apologized, Seojun merely shrugged and checked the content of the conversation.
“What kind of bet?”
“If Seojun-nim can successfully perform several techniques I’ve prepared within five attempts, I’ll consider it my loss! Then I’ll work as staff at your booth!”
Five attempts, is she going easy on me?
Seojun laughed inwardly.
“And if I fail?”
“You’ll appear as the first guest on the next season of my show! As the master of the sword!”
At the intriguing proposal, Seojun straightened his back a little more.
“You’re talking about my booth, right? The one in three days.”
“Yes.”
“And your schedule allows it?”
“Of course.”
Seojun read the translated sentence that appeared on his phone and nodded.
Then he pushed his chair back, slowly stood up, and walked over to the other side.
There was no need to look at the phone in this conversation any longer.
A conclusion had been reached.
Seojun extended his hand to Risa for a handshake.
“Let’s do it.”
* * *
“Noona, I think he’s in serious mode. This is dangerous.”
Guided by Team Leader Seon, they arrived at the multi-purpose room.
Risa had a mountain of specialties she could show Seojun.
She was in a state where both outstanding talent and experience were fully satisfied.
How many special events and how many techniques had she learned over time?
Risa had continued to tinker with the ones she liked, even at home, and now it was time to show them.
To the person with the best physical ability in the world.
“Don’t worry. It won’t be easy!”
“No, it’s really dangerous. I’ve seen that expression on his face a few times in the history book, and every time there was a major disaster and victims… Especially Shin-geom…”
“Of course! I know I’m going to lose. If it’s Seojun-nim, he’ll probably succeed in about five attempts. In ten, it’s guaranteed.”
“No, I mean, the victims…”
“Forget it. I told you, I know I’m going to lose anyway.”
“….”
“If he succeeds in a few and fails some, I can just ask him to appear together with me, which would be nice too.”
“This is really…”
Whether Yasuo sighed or not, Risa took out the items she had brought from her bag.
“Are you ready?”
Seojun, who had been standing opposite and watching their conversation, approached, and Risa nodded and picked up the first item.
And exactly ten minutes later, the outcome of the bet was decided.
“Noona, you mustn’t break like Shin-geom! Don’t you know ‘never give up’?”
“Ah, break… Wait, the phrase Baek Do-yul kept muttering was similar to this… Ah. So that’s what it was….”
She was momentarily frustrated.
* * *
Two days before the start of T-star.
The preparations for Seojun’s booth were proceeding steadily.
Seojun went to the booth and listened to the explanation from Team Leader Seon, who was directly managing and overseeing it.
Team Leader Seon was an odd person.
When he saw Seojun’s autograph, and again when Risa was recruited, the way he looked at Seojun and his attitude changed, and that was strange.
At first, he was extremely polite.
To the point of coming to help with autographs and constantly asking about various discomforts.
But after seeing Seojun sign his autograph and checking the merchandise several times, he began to keep a slight distance from Seojun.
And the next day, after Seojun recruited Risa, he simply turned off all interest in Seojun entirely.
Seojun had no choice but to be bewildered.
It was really a puzzling situation.
Though Tae-woo and Ha Yun-ho, who were watching from the side, knew.
‘Um, Team Leader Seon.’
‘Yes?’
‘If Seojun doesn’t feel like a human to you, that’s normal.’
‘Pardon?’
‘Don’t worry. It’s normal. Still, the kid is kind. If you leave him be, he’ll run wild on his own.’
This was a heartfelt piece of advice from Tae-woo, who was among the top handful of people who knew Seojun well.
“Now, you can run wild here.”
“Huh? Run wild?”
“Ah, you can prove yourself here. Ahem. The viewers will watch from over there, and the cameras will probably be here.”
“Yes. Thank you for your hard work.”
“Yep.”
“You have no other words of advice?”
“No.”
“Understood.”
“Then I’ll go explain things to Yamada Risa-nim and the editors, as well as the first-round examiners. Seojun-nim, feel free to look around as much as you like, and I’ll bring Yasuo-nim back, so please wait here.”
“Keep up the good work.”
Team Leader Seon left, and Seojun remained with Yasuo.
Seojun immediately took out his phone.
It was for translation.
“Yasuo-nim.”
“Yes?”
“Are you still playing League these days?”
Yasuo showed an awkward expression.
“I’m not doing well.”
“Why?”
“Well, first of all, I’m sorry! I spend most of my day doing the training you mentioned, but there’s no progress! So I can’t even play League properly.”
Yasuo was sincerely sorry that there was no progress in Seojun’s training.
He must have taught it to him believing he would do well, and yet there was no progress!
This was no different from an act of betraying expectations.
And Seojun broke out in a cold sweat.
Even for Seojun, he couldn’t help but feel guilty toward someone who had come all the way from Japan to help as staff.
“Uh, the training I mentioned…?”
“Cutting a waterfall.”
“Ah….”
He remembered.
“I’m really sorry! Could you possibly give me a tip?”
Seojun’s mind began to race.
Roughly, since he was Japanese, he had said it because he recalled a training scene from an anime where they fought with cards and practiced by pulling cards falling from a waterfall. How was he going to handle this?
Fortunately, Team Leader Seon returned.
“Once this work is done, I’ll teach you the next step.”
“Yes, sir!”
Seojun was able to postpone it.
‘I’ll have him do 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10 km run.’
While Team Leader Seon was educating the staff, Seojun went out to look around the nearby booths.
Most of the preparations were nearly finished.
“It’s huge.”
Even though Seojun had an individual booth and a central location.
Since the original purpose was just about a single platform, it couldn’t compare to the booths of game companies.
A game company’s booth would have numerous streamers working together, so it was the size of several individual booths combined.
Judging by how the inside of one booth was divided into sections, those were likely the areas for each streamer.
They’re together at once, but the fan meeting domain is definitely preserved—was that it?
“It’s huge, right?”
“Hm?”
Someone approached Seojun from the side.
“Hello. I’m a streamer at this booth, Jay.”
“Ah, hello. This booth is especially large. I’m just looking around.”
“Right? It’s a booth where only the game company’s partner streamers are invited, so there aren’t many people, but they invested quite a lot, so it’s on an unprecedented scale.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, the scale is unprecedented, and the experiences prepared are the same. We’ll probably be first place, don’t you think?”
Most booths take on a challenge format.
This is because challenges are the best way to immerse viewers who come to visit the booth.
Easy challenges bring a sense of accomplishment and win the viewers’ votes.
Difficult challenges become a hot topic in themselves and draw the viewers’ attention.
In the end, it’s a fight to win the viewers’ votes.
Since it’s the viewers, not the management committee or the streamers, who decide the best booth.
“I saw the concept of Seojun-nim’s booth too. Honestly, it piqued my interest, and I kind of want to try the challenge to see if it’s really possible, and the prize money is tempting, but…”
Huh.
There was an unusual undercurrent.
It was the kind of undercurrent I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
What was it again?
And who was this person, really?
“Yes.”
“Since Seojun-nim can’t directly interact with so many viewers, it seems like first place will be difficult.”
“Aha.”
“There’s a structural problem, after all. A booth designed to show how great Seojun-nim is, versus a booth for enjoying time with the viewers, are a bit different.”
Ah.
It was hard to notice right away because I hadn’t met someone like this in real life for a long time.
So this is him picking a fight?
When Seojun turned his head to the side, the streamer who had introduced himself as Jay met his eyes and offered a handshake.
“Still, if it’s Seojun-nim, I think it’ll be good competition.”
At the attitude of thoroughly pointing out the flaws and finally even expressing that he would win, Seojun laughed.
Looking at the size of the booth, it seemed he couldn’t help but feel confident.
It was both big and flashy.
The lineup was the same.
Jay also seemed to be a mid-tier streamer with status.
Seojun enjoyed the silence for a moment, looked around, and then spoke.
“It’ll draw a lot of people, right?”
“Yes.”
“Looking at that banner over there, the challenge seems difficult.”
“It allows all viewers to participate, and it’s good for drawing attention too.”
“Well, in that case.”
“Yes.”
“If I clear the challenge at your booth, who do you think the people there will vote for?”