Chapter 40
Movie Soft Korea building.
Kim Yunchun scratched his cheek while staring at the monitor.
"A noob basher."
Kim Yunchun was the type of viewer who, no matter what he did at home, always had a stream running in the background—a so-called Travel Viewer (a nickname combining Travel and unemployed).
A hardcore Travel Viewer who occasionally sneaked peeks at streams even during work, claiming to gauge the gaming community's mood, he was blissfully happy that he could openly watch streams under the pretense of checking advertisements.
First, he contacted the Customer Satisfaction team for For the Sake of Swords.
It was a department handling various customer inquiries.
Then he turned his eyes back to the stream.
[Alright, we won the game. Time to settle up.]
-Patriotic punch! Patriotic punch! Patriotic punch!
-You traitors lost your minds? You traitors lost your minds? You traitors lost your minds?
-Streamer, that’s my college tuition!
-That shtick is so predictable lol
-Then my retirement fund...
[This game’s comeback.]
[Possible] vs [Impossible]
[55%] vs [45%]
That was the result of the channel point prediction Kim Yunchun had checked.
“Ah, obviously I should’ve bet on ‘possible.’ Do my eyes not work? Wait, no, the less I believe, the better it is for me. Anyway, thanks for the points.”
He had also bet, of course.
A considerable amount on ‘possible.’
He’d so regretted not being able to watch the collab with Alpaca live last time.
“Hmm, if I’d bet back then, would I have chosen ‘impossible’?”
After all, finding the Knot was something utterly unimaginable.
[Guys, why did you trust me so much? Be a traitor. Wait, that sounded weird. Why is it even a patriotic vs. traitor bet in the first place?]
-lolololololololol
-A streamer encouraging treason
-I ought to screenshot this for the controversy section.
“Ahem. No, it’s got a crazy flair.”
With a perfectly calm, unbothered expression, he kept saying weird things, yet he played the game so well.
Insanely well.
And it wasn’t like he lacked social skills either.
His sly charm was just off the charts.
On top of that, he had the right luck and ability to craft a story.
“For the Sake of Swords, first game, he jumps in, meets a noob basher, turns the game around, and even delivers a true education. Wow.”
Was he born to be a streamer?
Off to a great start.
[‘The Best Swordsman Under Heaven’ just sent a friend request, and I accepted. Oh, they’ve come here now.]
In For the Sake of Swords, you could meet people even on regular maps.
To handle crowds, there were channels like in a computer RPG.
And for users who didn’t want to meet others, there were private channels too.
[Heavenly Demon, I watched as a spectator. You really won. Amazing.]
[I told you earlier. This game is simple—just don’t die and kill them all.]
[You’re right. Heavenly Demon, if you have time, want to duo the next match?]
-lolololololololol
-Didn’t that guy get embarrassed when his concept-playing got exposed on stream?
-C’mon, a free carry’s on the line, who cares about some fleeting, temporary shame? Lololol
‘Yeah, I can’t resist a free carry either.’
Kim Yunchun snickered as he typed in chat.
Anyway, streams really were more fun during work hours.
Normally he couldn’t watch this much, but wasn’t today special?
‘I wonder what the reaction’s like. I heard there were quite a few foreigners earlier.’
Just then, a message from Eve Paimo arrived.
Short and to the point.
-To my office.
Kim Yunchun headed straight to the boss’s office.
As he entered, the streamer’s voice he’d been listening to moments ago rang out.
“Wait, boss, you were watching the stream too?”
Come to think of it, wasn’t the boss the one who’d set the mission back when they caught the Mage Tower Lord?
As Kim Yunchun eyed Eve Paimo suspiciously, Eve was gazing at the monitor with a satisfied expression.
Totally glued to the screen.
“I’m just checking.”
“You don’t need to watch For the Sake of Swords that closely.”
“We’re running ads.”
Since when did the boss monitor streamers doing their homework?
Kim Yunchun’s suspicion only deepened.
“Anyway, why did you call me?”
“Ah, well, the reaction this time is going way better than expected.”
“What reaction?”
“I mean overseas. Thanks to him claiming the 10th-stage Training Ground AI, a lot of foreign viewers flocked to the stream, and because of that, people started getting interested not just in the teaser video, but in the whole story.”
“Ah.”
“Foreigners are curious, so Koreans have been showing up to explain things like the Fragment of Order, the Dominator, the Knot, and those explanations are getting highlighted.”
It was a positive development.
No matter how much a company promoted to create interest, there were limits.
It was like government intervention in a capitalist market.
Intervention might have some effect, but the most efficient and ideal scenario was for the market to move on its own, wasn’t it?
This was the same.
“Wow, you were already disappointed that the full story was coming out in Korea, weren’t you? Since the Easter egg really needed to be uncovered in the English-speaking world for more people to learn the details. But if attention gathers like this...”
“Exactly. It’s the best possible situation for us. And I’ve been thinking—aside from our ad and the Easter egg, did he really have a reason to reveal the identity of unknown today, of all days?”
In truth, Seo Jun’s calculations hadn’t been entirely unrelated to the Movie Soft contract.
But first, his main reason for taking down the 10th-stage AI again was to provoke his junior, Shin Hayeon, who was close behind.
And revealing his identity was a way to gather as many people as possible when switching games.
Movie Soft was just icing on the cake.
But they didn’t know that.
“I suppose so.”
“Heh heh, so clever. This means we have to give him something more in return.”
“Looks that way. As expected of Seo Jun. Hah.”
“Hmm, what would be a good gift? Raise the ad fee? Or one more ad?”
“That’d work too, though I’m not sure he’d accept the latter. Ah, something like this might be good...”
As if a good idea had struck him, Kim Yunchun pulled out his phone from his pocket and began searching for something.
Eve Paimo waited patiently, and after quickly skimming through what seemed like a video, Kim Yunchun handed the phone over.
[What’s Parrying? – Dawn of the Assassins (Shadows in the City) #1]
[Got Caught Pickpocketing and Wiped Out a Gang – Dawn of the Assassins (Shadows in the City) #2]
[Bet Your Points and I’ll Return Them 100-Fold – Dawn of the Assassins (Shadows in the City) #3]
[Noble Faction Dominator? I Stripped Every Piece of Armor Except the Stockings – Dawn of the Assassins (Shadows in the City) #4]
“Uh... quite the interesting titles.”
All these titles were created by Han Jimin, who had a knack for channel management.
The iTube algorithm was so complex that it was impossible to determine exactly whether the titles were the cause, but regardless, Seo Jun’s iTube had been cruising smoothly ever since he hired two editors.
So much so that his average views were 50,000, with the highest view count record at 130,000.
The highest-viewed video was the collab with Alpaca.
Thanks to people coming over from Alpaca’s videos.
“That’s Seo Jun’s iTube.”
“Ah-ha. So what about it?”
“I’ve watched them all—they’re really well explained and fun, boss. Let’s produce English subtitles for the videos on taking down the Dominator.”
“English subtitles?”
“Yes. And if we pin a link to Seo Jun’s iTube in the teaser video’s top comment...”
“Users learn the full story easily, Seo Jun’s iTube gets promoted, and we get to repay him. That’s totally, what’s the phrase? Running away and catching a crayfish?”
“A ditch.”
“Right, that.”
“Shall we proceed with that?”
Eve Paimo nodded.
“While we’re at it, do all the videos uploaded so far. It’d be too cold to only do the Dominator-related ones.”
“Sentiment, huh. You’ve become a real Korean.”
Eve Paimo chuckled heartily.
“Anyway, that aside, what happened with the White Tiger?”
“Ah, one moment. I heard back from the For the Sake of Swords CS team—they say applying sanctions won’t be an issue.”
“Hmm, so it’s not a problem under the terms of service either?”
“Yes. What the user White Tiger did qualifies as unsportsmanlike conduct. The reason the ops team hadn’t caught him before was that he didn’t play the game much, nor did he intentionally throw matches, so it was a gray area.”
“It is a bit ambiguous.”
“Right?”
“Just delete the account.”
“Huh? Are you sure that’s okay?”
“Severely unsportsmanlike players all get their accounts deleted normally. In my view, noob-bashing is plenty severe.”
In For the Sake of Swords, typical cursing or desertion would only result in warnings or suspensions, but if clearly verified unsportsmanlike behavior—like deliberately trolling to lose the game or severe verbal abuse—was confirmed, they deleted the account without mercy.
They could create a new account.
But they’d have to start from scratch, and if their account got deleted again, they’d be permanently banned from the service.
“Yep. Understood.”
“And we should find a way to prevent situations where someone can stay in the beginner zone forever, no matter how much they win. Though I guess no one imagined there’d be a user who purposely lingered in the beginner zone to begin with.”
“That’s true.”
“In many ways, hiring him for the ad was a great choice.”
* * *
“Wow, Heavenly Demon, we got a 4-win streak!”
The Best Swordsman Under Heaven was swinging his sword around energetically at the captured point after all enemies had fallen.
With guaranteed wins and occasional moments where he was sent out front to be taught a lesson, it was impossible not to have fun.
Getting teased now and then in his speech was a bit annoying, but The Best Swordsman Under Heaven figured the embarrassment was just part of the tuition.
“I can finally choose a sect now. Want to do just one more match?”
“Hmm, shall we?”
Seo Jun had also racked up just enough experience to choose a sect after one more game.
Once he got his streamer verification, he’d gain access to various convenience features, and one of them was quickly skipping the beginner zone via an experience buff.
“Sure.”
-One more match one more match one more match
-About time to wrap it up though.
-Nearly leveling up, so.
The convenience features for streamers weren’t limited to fast leveling.
But Seo Jun couldn’t enjoy them just yet.
Most of For the Sake of Swords’ features could only be used after leaving the beginner zone.
In that sense, the moment one chose a sect was the true beginning of For the Sake of Swords.
From that perspective, that White Tiger who’d lingered in the beginner zone was a seriously weird guy.
“Why isn’t he showing up?”
“Huh?”
“Ah, White Tiger. Haven’t seen him for four matches.”
“That noob basher? You think he actually got sanctioned?”
“Maybe? That’s good.”
-lololololololol
-Did the streamer actually kill him lol
-Murder, controversy, screenshotted
-What murder, you screenshot-crazed lunatic lol
“Anyway, even if he met you, Heavenly Demon, he wouldn’t be able to do a thing.”
No sooner had The Best Swordsman Under Heaven finished speaking.
The final match was found.
[Domination Match begins.]
And as Seo Jun and his companion scanned the enemy team list, their eyes met.
Because White Tiger was on the enemy team.
“Looks like he hunted me down and sniped me after all, folks.”
-You not working, Movie Soft?
-Let’s cut him off quick
-For real lol
You could watch streams while in the matchmaking queue, but you couldn’t during an active game.
Meaning it was impossible to play while watching a stream.
“Sigh.”
He’d show up on his own as the game went on.
As expected, when Seo Jun headed to the main avenue where NPCs roamed, he spotted a user flying in from the opposite side.
“Hey, you Heavenly Demon—no, you bastard Jin Seojun. You dare pull a bluff on me?”
A bluff? What bluff was he talking about?
“Do you know how on edge I was, thinking I’d get my account suspended because of you? You’re dead now. I’ve got your stream name, so just know you won’t be able to play this game anymore.”
Ah-ha.
“Movie Soft ads? Insider connections? So what? Did you really think that’d get a player like me—who’s never been suspended—banned?”
In an instant, Seo Jun grasped the reason he hadn’t run into White Tiger until now and, loudly enough for White Tiger on the other side to hear, announced to his viewers:
“So basically, what White Tiger over there is saying is he was scared he’d get suspended, right? Then when nothing happened, he belatedly came to snipe me.”
-Sounds about right lol
-Turns out White Tiger spills his whole story; maybe he’s got a kind brain?
-What does "kind brain" even mean?
-It means he’s stupid.
“Shut up. Brace yourself from now on.”
From a distance, White Tiger yelled loudly, drew his sword, and made a huge leap.
Using skilled lightfoot technique, he flew in fast, and Seo Jun prepared to parry.
And then it happened.
“Huh? Hey, you son of a b—...”
Poof.
Without warning, White Tiger froze midair as if lagging, and after a dying scream, he vanished from the world.
This happened when he was roughly halfway to Seo Jun.
-?????
-What?
-New type of skill?
-Evolved lightfoot?
-Spatial shift? lol
Everyone was momentarily stunned, Seo Jun included.
But amidst the shock, he kept his composure and checked the enemy team list to figure out the situation.
A list with one empty slot because someone had deserted.
At that, Seo Jun lost his cool and burst out laughing.
-Ahh lol lol lol
-No way? lol lol lol lol lol
-Watch him just poof and disappear
The viewers seemed to have caught on too.
Seo Jun immediately delivered the victorious news.
“Everyone, White Tiger has just ascended to heaven. Please pay your respects.”
-Lol lol the timing is legendary lol lol lol
-X
-X
-The form on that ascension was insane.
-We trusted you all along, Movie Soft!
-How can his last words be ‘Hey, you son of a b—’ lol lol lol lol lol lol
-lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol