“Now then, good to see you all again today~”
Kim Jae-seung was an internet streamer.
“Shall we start by giving the new weapon I’m making a nice, refreshing ability reset before we begin hunting?”
More precisely, he was an internet streamer for a rather trash game called World of Yggdrasill.
He was fairly famous. Famous enough to live quite comfortably on streaming income alone.
“No, fuck, brothers, does this make sense? Does it? Does it make any sense?! I rolled the granted ability reset one thousand times!”
Although, in the process, he did have to livestream a somewhat ugly side of himself.
“And I didn’t get a single Grade 2 option! Did I ask for Grade 1? Grade 2! I’m only asking for Grade 2!”
-ㅋㅋㅋ This is exactly it ㅋㅋㅋ
-For real, this is fucking rigged against him lololol
-Ah... just.. ^probability-rigging-777-less-slot-machine-no-updates^game lolololol
-Move maps and enhance again ㄱㄱ
-How long has it been since the personal map patch? lol
-Just try moving. Keep dumping money until it works ㄱㄱ
-Worship him, God God God
-Worship him, Great Great Great
-We blessed you, so go again?
“I’m not doing it, fuck! Watch me if I ever reset abilities again!”
Of course, both Kim Jae-seung and his viewers knew he would stream it again within a week.
Since his main content consisted of failing enhancements or resets, screaming, and wailing for his money back, he had to do it.
Vicarious gambling satisfaction. That was the main purpose of the viewers who watched Kim Jae-seung’s stream.
In other words, the game he played.
Ate up almost all of his rather generous streaming income.
Therefore, as a result, Kim Jae-seung did not have much wealth.
“Ha... I should’ve started a PC café business like you.”
-Hey, do you think the PC café business is easy? I don’t even make two million won a month. If a computer breaks down once in a while, I’m in the red.
“At least you’ve got something left. What am I if I quit this game? If I play another game, no one even watches.”
-Well... that isn’t wrong, but isn’t that how all YouTubers are? If the game dies, you quit...
“Ah, damn it. Are you going to talk like it’s someone else’s problem? Hey, should I take revenge because your viewers review-bombed my mom’s side-dish shop?”
-Oh? You’re going to come piss in my PC café too? If you come, I’m seriously cracking your skull.
“Fine, I’m going there to shit too. Just wait. Tomorrow, if someone takes his pants down, know that the time has come.”
-Good grief, so that bastard was under your orders too! You spawn of Satan...
“Enough bullshit. Yeah, Jung-hoon, you must have it hard too.”
-Jae-seung. I’ve said this before, but even if you keep playing Yggdrasill, cut back on enhancement content a bit. Not suddenly, just little by little.
“They come to watch that. How am I supposed to reduce it...”
Kim Jae-seung sighed and hung up.
The name of the person he had been talking to was Cha Jung-hoon. His longtime rotten friend and rival.
It was not as if they had gone to the same school or were childhood friends.
They were the two World of Yggdrasill YouTubers with the most subscribers in Korea, so naturally, they had no choice but to know each other.
-I will absolutely fuck up that bastard Cha Jung-hoon.
-Kim Jae-seung is acting up after forgetting his small-fry days. It’s hilarious.
Of course, on stream, they often showed a staged rivalry before reconciling.
-What? He’s playing Lost Continent?
-If you like Lost Continent that much, piss off and go play LostCon!
Because that was more dramatic and entertaining, and the two could pull YouTube content out of it by mutual agreement.
“What are you doing?”
-Hunting.
“Is your stream over?”
-Yeah. Why, craving a drink?
“You know without me saying it.”
-Come to Nonhyeon later.
“You buy this time. I heard your enhancement succeeded today.”
-How did you already know that? It hasn’t even been ten minutes since I enhanced it. Sharp bastard.
In the very early days when they first started YouTube, there had been times when they truly fought.
But now, the two of them were friends who understood each other’s joys and sorrows better than anyone else.
Cha Jung-hoon. A Yggdrasill YouTuber with one million subscribers and a top ranker at level 295.
Of course, Kim Jae-seung was not particularly inferior in scale.
He, too, was a Yggdrasill YouTuber with one million subscribers and a top ranker at level 295.
“Compared to last year, my viewers are down by half···”
But what use was that?
The number of users in the game decreased day by day, and his streaming revenue was steadily trending downward.
By this point, both Kim Jae-seung and Cha Jung-hoon had regrets.
Both of them had tried diversifying their streams by playing other games as well.
-Boring
-When enhancement?
-Why is he doing something weird?
However, the viewers sunk in the swamp called World of Yggdrasill did not allow it.
Far from increasing, the number of viewers immediately dropped to a quarter.
In other words, there was no future for them as streamers.
“Fuck, it’s not like I can do something other than YouTube now···.”
Kim Jae-seung spoke as though envious, but in truth, Cha Jung-hoon’s PC café business was not doing that well either.
These days, not many people played games at PC cafés. Since raising hourly fees was difficult, most of the profit came from food.
Moreover, last month, some lunatic had supposedly come in claiming to be a fan, then, when told that filming together for a stream would be difficult, flew into a rage, pulled down his pants, and sprayed urine over the computers.
That damage alone must have cost him several million won.
“Ha··· everyone else quit, and it’s just the two of us now.”
In any case, the two of them were quite close.
After the other ranker-class World of Yggdrasill YouTubers all quit, saying the game was dead, they grew even closer.
So when a sudden, shocking incident occurred.
It was only natural that the two of them contacted each other first.
“First, let’s meet face-to-face and talk.”
-Yeah. Outside is chaos right now, so come to the storage room in my PC café building. Secretly, and carefully.
“Got it. I’ll come as carefully as possible.”
Because their streaming studios were not far from each other, Kim Jae-seung was able to reach Cha Jung-hoon’s PC café quickly.
“So, your class?”
“My main. Pursuit Wraith.”
The sharp-looking East Asian man with black hair and red eyes muttered.
“Same for me. My main, Bombardier.”
The Western man with gray hair answered.
“The world’s really gone insane.”
“I kept calling it a fucking trash game, a fucking ruined game, and hoped it wouldn’t actually die, but this isn’t what I meant.”
“Hey, do you think this happened because you prayed for it not to die?”
“That’s not it, but···.”
Their idle nonsense lasted only a moment. Soon, both of them sank into thought.
“I think we’re fucked.”
“That’s obvious. The question is how much more fucked we get.”
The two of them were rankers of Yggdrasill World. The strongest players in Korea, no less.
But that did not mean the two of them were antisocial, delusional, aggressive lunatics like other users.
Of course, it was true that the majority of their viewers were such people.
"···."
"···."
There was something people often misunderstood.
They assumed that if a YouTuber catered to socially awkward otaku, that person must naturally be a similar kind of otaku.
No.
That was impossible.
If a streamer or entertainer dealt with popular insiders, naturally, that person also had to be a popular insider.
They had to be very active, sociable, and skilled in conversation.
It was no different even if a streamer or entertainer dealt with loners.
Rather, in some ways, that ability had to be far, far more outstanding than when dealing with popular insiders.
Most high-level users of World of Yggdrasill were people for whom the game was life, and life was the game.
They were shut-ins who had poured everything they had into that game—money, time, and even their souls.
Therefore, they bit at, praised, worshipped, attacked, and stalked the few streamers who existed, now only two remaining.
Viewers did not think of streamers as human beings.
They merely regarded them as toys that streamed World of Yggdrasill.
So they repeated mad incitement and chat messages simply for amusement.
That was why, every stream, Kim Jae-seung and Cha Jung-hoon experienced something like training and soothing mad wild horses.
They felt it far too often.
Viewers who fired off incoherent bullshit with no context and no real meaning.
Lunatics who went berserk, claiming they had been ignored, if the streamers did not react much because, no matter how they looked at it, they could not understand what the hell had been said.
For a long, very long time, the two of them had dealt with such viewers as customers.
As a result, the two of them mastered, better than anyone else, the art of not offending the moods of Yggdrasill viewers.
They were able to become YouTubers with outstanding social skills, capable of dealing with lunatics.
That was why, when Kim Jae-seung and Cha Jung-hoon thought no one else was in the PC café, and from one corner of the room.
―FLASH.
A very handsome blond-haired, blue-eyed Westerner deliberately stood up and emitted a brilliant light of holy power.
Instead of attacking in shock or screaming, they were first able to try grasping the situation.
“Level 295 Pursuit Wraith Kim Jae-seung. Level 295 Bombardier Cha Jung-hoon. Nice to meet you.”
He wore the form of a Paladin, with every equipment set, his weapon, and even his shield equipped, making it obvious to anyone that he was a player.
“I am Han Woo-hyun. Character Name: Arthur. I came to discuss something important.”
Han Woo-hyun greeted them while consciously trying to appear as intimidating and impressive as possible.
“Wh-what? Who are you?”
“There was definitely no one here?”
Of course, that did not mean they properly accepted Han Woo-hyun’s greeting.
That was only natural. A suspicious stranger had suddenly appeared in a place of business they had thought was empty; there was no way they would naturally accept his greeting.
In any case, Han Woo-hyun felt relief.
Originally, he had intended to get straight to the point as soon as the two entered.
But as soon as Cha Jung-hoon opened the door for Kim Jae-seung, the two began talking seriously.
Because the two of them had died far too quickly before his regression, he had not known what they were like when they were not streaming online.
So, after eavesdropping on their conversation, he thought it would be better to grasp their real-world sides first.
Then begin the conversation more carefully, considering how he should persuade them.
Fortunately, as a result of eavesdropping.
Both Kim Jae-seung and Cha Jung-hoon.
Seemed to understand well enough what players were like on average, and what danger the world was now in.
In a word, both of them were normal people. Unlike other World of Yggdrasill rankers.
“I would first like to apologize for coming here without warning. But the matter was so urgent that I had no choice.”
“No, how did you get in···.”
“Hey, Jung-hoon, wait a second. That shield customization··· a Paladin ranker?”
“What? You know him?”
“Not in reality. But isn’t he that tank-freak ranker?”
While Cha Jung-hoon was still concerned about the security of his business, the one who stopped him and showed recognition was Kim Jae-seung.
“If you know that much, this will be quicker. Both of you have mastered the level 200 common skill, [Sharp Eyes], correct?”
Han Woo-hyun mentioned the fastest method to prove his ability and representativeness.
Fortunately, the YouTubers had already completed minimal testing of their skills.
Recalling the skill’s effect, the two nodded.
“...[Sharp Eyes].”
“...[Sharp Eyes].”
It did not take more than a few seconds for both of their pupils to widen until they seemed about to split.
“Level 300? There was a max-level character in Korea? Your Force is low, but...”
“No, more importantly, Combat Power and primary stat. What is this? You’re stronger than us?”
Although it did not show trust, Han Woo-hyun convinced them of his presence as someone extraordinary with transcendent stats.
Of course, they were erroneous stats different from reality.
But when Han Woo-hyun entered combat, he could show even greater Combat Power than those erroneous stats.
So it was not a complete bluff.
"Insane."
"We weren’t rank 1..."
"But, putting that aside."
"Why did you suddenly..."
Now it was time to ride that momentum and naturally make their shock turn into trust toward his guild.
“Turn off the [status window]. I did not come here just to show off my stats and level.”
Now he had to establish the guild’s position in Korea in earnest.
And as the stepping stones for that, the best influencers of World of Yggdrasill were absolutely necessary.
DPS ranking 1st place, Kim Jae-seung, and DPS ranking 2nd place, Cha Jung-hoon.
“I am the representative of the global player alliance.”
Once again.
Han Woo-hyun took out the four great discontinued items.
Proof that he was a player encompassing every server.
“I will speak officially.”
He felt a slight sense of urgency and hurried his words.
Because the sensory nerves of his transcendent player body had sensed the presence of other players.
The positions of players gradually approaching Gangnam District to meet the two YouTubers were drawing closer.
He had to finish persuading them quickly.
“As guild leader of Lucid, the unified guild of the global server, Southeast Asian server, and Chinese server, I request your cooperation.”
“I wish to appoint you as the administrators of the Korean server. Join the guild.”
Not only Kim Jae-seung’s and Cha Jung-hoon’s eyes, but even their mouths split open in shock.
“Of course, I will also give you more than sufficient compensation.”
As if showing off, he spread a handful of Gold Ingots in his hand like a fan.