Genius Archer's Streaming

On the day Almond reached A rank, countless posts appeared on the Embul community. If there were usually a hundred posts, that day had two thousand posts.

He could tell the situation just by looking at the number of posts.

"Winning so much has actually beca problem."

He judged that winning led to this problem. Although it seemed odd to say that winning could cause a problem, this was possible on Embul.

Regardless of the outcome, Embul was notoriously negative toward strategies they considered cheesy.

Moreover, the current victories weren't even real competitive wins in the national competition. They were just practice matches, but using a cheesy build to repeatedly win and directly rush to A rank would definitely draw criticism.

"No, Chi-Seung oppa. Why are they like this? They need to tone it down," Water Dumpling voiced her frustration from nearby.

"From their point of view, I must look like an evil sorcerer. Just let it be."

"What? Are you a sorcerer? Since when..."

Water Dumpling glanced at Kimchi Warrior from top to bottom with a pitiful look.

"... Just shut it, will you?" Kimchi Warrior sounded serious, which made Water Dumpling quickly take out her phone to show him something else.

"But, but! There are also people supporting us!"

Her phone screen displayed the Embul community with comments defending Kimchi Warrior and Almond.

"How about that? See?"

Kimchi Warrior nodded noncommittally.

Sure, ssupported them like Water Dumpling said. Almost half took Kimchi Warrior's side, but that didn't comfort him.

For him, the act of fighting itself felt stressful. The community had been divided in half and continued to fiercely fight, resulting in two thousand posts being uploaded. He disliked that and didn't want them to be so divided. He wished they could be united like in the past.

They had already ctoo far for that.

"Let's just endure until the start of the national competition. If the results are good... they'll stop fighting."

Kimchi Warrior packed his bag and planned to call it a day.

"Okay. Are you going to the store?"

"Yeah, it's time. I'm leaving!"

The members who gathered at the Strategic Research Hideout bid him farewell.

"Okay, hyung. Good job today."

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"See you tomorrow~!"

"Take care, Kimchi!" Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs ɴovel(ꜰ)ɪre.nᴇt

The members didn't seem to be leaving anytsoon. They planned on pulling an all-nighter and sleeping there.

For Kimchi Warrior, his day was just beginning. Water Dumpling cout to see him off.

"Will you cback after your part-tjob?"

"No, I need to sleep too."

"Cand sleep here."

"It's uncomfortable."

"Okay then... see you tomorrow evening."

The creaking iron gate closed behind him as he left.

It was finally quiet. He looked at the sky, contemplating the words he just said.

"If the results are good..."

He hoped that good results would earn recognition, but he had never seen it happen.

"It only matters if the results are good."

The national competition always ended for them with less than stellar results. What if this twas even worse than before? Would he face criticism even more severe?

All his worries dissipated into the cold air along with his white breath.

***

Kimchi Warrior worked non-stop until 8 A.M. when it was tfor him to leave work. He familiarly removed his ntag from his uniform.

He found the npeculiar no matter how often he saw it.

Chi-Seung slightly tilted his head, neatly packed his hat and T-shirt into the locker, and grabbed a burger as meal compensation.

"Manager, I'm leaving."

"Okay, take care Chi-Seung!"

As he left the store, he saw his bus approaching down the street. He needed to catch that bus.

"Oh?"

Chi-Seung sprinted like his life depended on it.

As always, he barely made it and managed to get the front seat.

After catching his breath, he plugged in his earphones and blankly stared at his phone. With no particular intentions, he surfed through various sites like Embul, YouTube, and Treevy. He also checked his own channel as Kimchi Warrior.

Yes, he also streamed. However, it was more like familiar faces gathering and meeting friends than a stream. He cherished it though.

Chi-Seung thought having slightly over 3,000 subscribers was plenty. He imagined it was like having 3,000 friends. That would be overwhelming already.

For him, streaming wasn't a job but a source of vitality. It helped him endure his tough job in a fast-food restaurant at night. This gwas precious to him because he had formed many relationships through it.

Chi-Seung's expression suddenly stiffened when he was about three stops from his destination.

"…?"

The subscriber count on his channel was supposed to be around 3,000.

Suddenly, the number of subscribers had increased tenfold.

Chi-Seung refreshed his YouTube channel several times, but the result was the same.

The number had increased even more.

Was it just because of a collaboration with Almond? That couldn't be it. He didn't even stream the collaboration on his Kimchi Warrior channel. Chi-Seung had declined to do so, saying it would just stir up unnecessary talk.

Moreover, the videos getting comments were unrelated to gaming.

Comments mainly appeared on his vlogs, which were actually his least popular videos. He merely used it as a means of communication with friends.

He wasn't a handsguy like Almond or a wealthy person with luxury. He didn't even know how to shoot nice-looking videos.

Ironically, the new subscribers left the most comments on these videos.

Chi-Seung scrolled through the comments one by one. He began trembling, bowed his head, and started to cry. He covered his mouth with his hand to muffle any sounds.

***

At that moment in Sang-Hyeon's house, Ju-Hyeok was brewing coffee as usual and looking at his computer screen. As always, he checked the real-tvideo charts in the morning.

"Is this the highest ranked one?"

The highest ranked video on Almond's channel had reached number eleven on the gaming chart.

A few others also trended.

Overall, they achieved decent results. However, it was slightly disappointing that the highest ranked one didn't make the top ten.

"It's probably difficult to suddenly include OrangeKing in our content as we'd like."

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Ju-Hyeok licked his lips in frustration and moved his mouse. He wanted to look at the newly created videos.

"Let's see and think about it."

Ju-Hyeok, the capable analyst, clicked on one of the videos that seemed different from their usual content.

Stpassed.

Ju-Hyeok exhaled with a shallow breath. The video felt draining as a viewer. How did Ji-Ah make this?

The comments shared the ssentiment as Ju-Hyeok.

He briefly pondered and opened a notepad to start typing.

Although it was a fun scene, putting it all together in one long video made it chaotic. Above all, the context of the commentary during the gwasn't clear due to too much cramming in a short video.

He added this note to his memo.

“Let’s check the best performing video now.”

He played the highest ranked video.

This video was about ten minutes long. It was the final gof the promotion matches against a Japanese commander.

The opponent suffered from start to end and eventually surrendered after BornToB's noob insult.

The video’s main content was Almond and the opponent being Japanese made it feel like a national competition. It achieved respectable success due to the recent popular parody meme.

Ju-Hyeok didn’t know if he was being too greedy or not and scratched his head. He felt ambiguous.

Then, something suddenly occurred to him.

“Wait. This isn’t it.”

The most popular video wasn’t this one.

“That video about the world bowing down before Korea’s archery… Where is it?”

Ju-Hyeok quickly typed and searched for the video.

“Oh. It's here.”

The video still existed. Even the hashtag said it was number one, but it wasn’t number one in the gaming category.

It proudly ranked first on another chart.

“?”

Perplexed by the situation, Ju-Hyeok messaged Ji-Ah.

A reply quickly came.

“Huh?” Ju-Hyeok was dumbfounded.

Under Almond's video, numerous content that stirred patriotism or had to do with political events were competing for ranks. Almond's video, which was essentially unrelated to politics or society, had claimed the top spot.