Episode 370
Creeeak.
Seojun opened the door again.
“Waaaaah!”
“Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss!”
“Hurry up and come out!”
He closed it again.
“Hmm…”
Then he opened it once more.
“He’s handsome! Seriously, he’s so handsome!”
“Oppa!”
“Who was that gruff bastard who just called him oppa?!”
“What are you doing?! Hurry up and come out!”
There is a word called a melting pot.
It refers to a sturdy vessel used to melt metal, but it can also describe a state in which emotions boil as fiercely as molten metal.
That was exactly the situation now.
“It’s a relief that no accidents have happened.”
Seojun was grateful that this probably wouldn’t make the news and closed the door again.
The excited, moved, and impassioned reactions of the crowd instantly fell to less than half.
-LOLㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Did he really get scared?
-The boss opened and closed the door two more times because he wasn’t sure if this was right ㄱㅇㅇ
-Don’t call grown men cute ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“So is he Kael or the Heavenly Demon?!”
Do you know the phrase, “What do you mean I’ve gained weight”?
A female singer once said at a concert that she had gained too much weight lately. One enraged fan shouted out in earnest, and thanks to the sincerity behind his voice, it rang through the entire concert hall without a microphone. The phrase became famous through a video of that moment.
The crowd had a similar voice.
It pierced through the cheering first, then pierced through the door, coming through loud and clear.
“Whether I’m Kael or the Heavenly Demon depends on you. No, but was that really so important?”
Seojun let out a dry laugh.
It was a laugh born of genuine disbelief.
“Anyway, please be careful and don’t push one another. No, I’m more nervous than when I was fighting the Demonic Cult.”
-LOL but wasn’t the boss the Demonic Cult?
-Obviously talking about his past life ㅋㅋ
-With that personality, he must’ve been in the Demonic Cult in his past life too. There’s no way he wasn’t, right?
“All right, then I’m really going out.”
Seojun opened the door for the third time.
The security guards had formed a line, so there was at least some empty space in front of the door.
The moment he stepped across the threshold, an ear-splitting roar erupted, and the flashes from the cell phones in people’s hands began to sparkle.
Trstar.
It was the kind of event streamers loved most.
Seojun thought he understood why.
It was a little dazzling.
No, actually, it was quite a lot dazzling.
Seojun stepped into the empty space and waited for a moment.
-Is this a photo zone or what? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-I’m right in front of the boss, and he’s just standing there smiling. He’s insanely handsome.
-Nice!
-For realㅋㅋㅋ
-Right in front? ㅋ No way, is that beautiful woman…?
When he thought enough time had passed, he spoke.
“All right, everyone, please clear a path. I need to get to my booth.”
The security personnel began helping him.
To be precise, they were not Seojun’s guards, but event staff.
But perhaps there was only so much they could do.
Seojun noticed more and more people joining them from behind.
As they moved, the formation naturally began to fall apart, and whether people wanted it or not, the crowd started drawing closer to Seojun.
Seojun himself was not in danger of being crushed.
There was plenty of space for someone to be crushed, after all.
Still, he judged that entering the passageway or simply remaining there could be dangerous.
Once order collapsed, restoring it would be twice as difficult.
Seojun shook his head as though he had no choice, then approached the cameraman and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Come to the booth.”
* * *
The cameraman could not properly hear what Seojun was saying.
“Sorry? What?”
The area around them was loud and chaotic.
There was even a faint sense of precariousness, as though everything might collapse at any moment.
Even so, the cameraman did not run away. He filmed Seojun as he placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Come to the booth. That’s all.”
“What?”
This time, the cameraman caught a glimpse of what he had said and doubted his own ears.
The sentence made no sense in context, so he wondered if he had heard wrong.
But after saying that, Seojun walked toward the crowd that had already drawn close.
His relaxed stride made even the person nearest to him falter backward.
And at the moment Seojun overlapped with the crowd—
“Huh?”
Seojun disappeared.
The cameraman had been looking through the viewfinder, so he hurriedly pulled his eye away and searched the surroundings with his widened field of vision, trying to find Seojun.
Things like this happened often when one worked as a cameraman.
So if he found him quickly and got him back in frame—
“Huh?”
-??????
-Where’d he go?
-Why is the camera wandering around? LOLㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Show us the boss’s viewpoint!
-This isn’t virtual reality, streamerㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-That’s why he told him to come to the booth.
The viewers understood what had happened.
Seojun had done something again!
-Are we finally going to witness the terrifying story of the Black Sword?
-I’m telling you, this is just the beginningㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
But the cameraman was too late.
So were the people around him.
Everyone had been focused on Seojun.
Whether they were filming him with cameras or taking him in with their own eyes.
So it was only natural that they were flustered when he disappeared.
“Where did he go?”
“Huh?”
“Could this be…?”
“I’ve got goosebumps. Did I just witness that in person?”
* * *
The cameraman felt a sense of respect for Seojun as he watched people disappear one after another in an instant.
Then he began trudging toward the area where Seojun’s booth was located.
He figured he would review the footage later to see how he had managed to miss it.
The important point was that the camera was still connected to the stream, and the cameraman had forgotten this as he carried it along like an ordinary camera.
Naturally, public sentiment turned sour.
-Give us the boss!!!!!!!
-It’s shaking… I’m getting motion sickness…
-170,000 people are watching this unbelievably unhelpful streamㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Everyone, just get to the booth already. You can see Boss playing with Sister Risé from far away.
-Why isn’t the cameraman running?!
He did not run.
At last, when the cameraman caught sight of Seojun, Seojun smiled comfortably and struck a pose for the camera. Only then did the cameraman resume doing his job.
Meanwhile, Risé had been telling Seojun to try this and that, and he was doing everything at once, frustrating her yet again.
“Never give up. Never give up. Never give up. The important thing is an unbreakable spirit—player Baek Doyul said that too!”
Yasuo was saying something or other in Japanese beside him, but Seojun did not particularly want to know what it was.
For some reason, it sounded like an insult.
Anyway.
“All right, then.”
Seojun gave Team Leader Seon a meaningful glance, and Team Leader Seon sent him an okay sign from a distance.
“Nice to meet you.”
Seojun’s booth could easily be considered a stage.
It was a stage with a platform slightly higher than the floor where people could watch, along with audience seats that rose higher toward the back for the viewers to sit in.
Seojun stood in front of it and greeted the viewers who had gathered.
His voice also came through the nearby speakers.
The microphone he was wearing had been linked to them.
“All right, let me explain the situation first. The first half isn’t over yet, but I noticed earlier that the number of challengers has dropped sharply. The waiting line has disappeared entirely.”
The biggest reason was probably that the people who had been mediocre gave up after being stopped by Risé.
Regardless, fewer people had gathered than he expected.
“People who passed may still come out in the afternoon, but things should end quickly. That’s unfortunate.”
Was this good news or bad news for Seojun?
“Take responsibility!”
“Boss, show us a talent!”
The people sitting in the audience shouted.
Seojun gave a small laugh.
“If I were the kind of streamer who catered to your demands right now, this would certainly be a bad thing. However…”
Seojun looked toward the camera with a genuinely regretful expression.
“No way.”
“Don’t say you’re getting off work early!”
That voice just now sounded like Rich Guy’s.
Anyway.
“Yes, that’s right. If things go like this, I’ll clock out on time. So you’ll have to try harder, right? I’ll let it slide for those of you who came today, since you might feel wronged, but you know what happens starting tomorrow, right?”
Seojun complained.
With a smile on his face.
“Seriously, are there no experts out there?”
It was, in effect, a provocation.
Wouldn’t it be boring if no one could overcome the wall that was Yamada Risé?
Hopefully, after hearing this provocation, some truly capable people would come starting tomorrow.
However—
Seojun did not know.
Team Leader Seon, who knew every detail of how the booth was being run from behind the scenes, was watching Seojun’s remarks with a smile.
* * *
The fan meeting passed uneventfully.
Aside from the fact that they were meeting and talking in person, there was little difference between what they were doing and the communication Seojun always did on his streams.
During that time, Seojun was informed that all ten thousand T-shirts had disappeared.
Hearing the news, Jay burst out laughing during a brief break.
“He’s impressive, but it doesn’t seem like the booth is being run very smoothly.”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
Jay laughed off the staff member’s question, then gulped down water in the break room beneath the booth.
*Whew.*
At the beginning, people had certainly gathered in terrifying numbers.
But after that, all there was was a disastrously managed booth.
It had seemed like a lot of people gathered when Seojun himself appeared, but would that be enough?
Trstar was a place for fan meetings, but it also had the feel of a gaming festival.
That was only natural, considering that most streamers were gamers and the game companies had joined in on a massive scale.
*He gave up on gaming. How could things possibly go well? Especially when that’s what he’s best at.*
On top of that, Seojun had threatened to visit the other gaming zones, yet he had simply thrown away the entire first day.
*Just signing autographs?*
Even then, he had failed to use up all the supplies.
His popularity was certainly remarkable. Jay acknowledged that.
But the other booths were no less impressive.
Having several streamers together was a major advantage, and the booths ran nonstop.
“Streamer? It’s time for the next game.”
“Okay. I’m coming up.”
He closed his phone.
There had been plenty of talk about Seojun, but praise for their booth had also been pouring in.
*In the end, if you don’t do a proper job, there won’t just be complaints—it’ll be difficult to get votes, too.*
The votes would be divided.
There was no way Seojun’s booth would be run properly the following day, either, and if that happened, the viewers would obviously get bored.
His popularity would naturally decline.
*Excellent.*
Jay cheered himself on internally, determined to take down one of the major companies, and diligently went about his work.
After that, he could not look at his phone again until the booth ended. But as time passed, the waiting line grew longer, and he kept hearing reports that Seojun had disappeared from the booth entirely and was nowhere to be seen.
He was certain of victory.
All they had to do was continue like this.
But after everything was over, Jay checked the temporarily opened Trstar community and was thrown into confusion.
“Huh? Why are there even more related posts? I heard he disappeared!”
[Found the boss!]
[The terrifying thing about this bastard’s autographsㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Seriously, it’s insanely creepyㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
[There’s a story that if you wander around Trstar while watching a streamer’s broadcast, a man wearing a black hood suddenly appears. Please appear in front of me tooㅠㅠㅠㅠ]