Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Ma-sam Pathetically Clinging On
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Clearly, it was a viewer I'd never seen before. I had pretty much all the donors to my stream memorized in my head.
Should I say I had a sponsorship data center up here in my brain?
It wasn't because I was smart or anything. It was mostly because I loved money. Not as much as Ma-sam, sure, but I liked it plenty.
And in that mental database of mine, this viewer didn't exist.
I decided to ask the sudden big spender(?) right away.
"Heyni♥Love, is there anything you want?"
💬 Chat — Heyni♥Love No, I just sponsored because the stream's fun. The viewer responded politely with a perfectly ordinary line.
But my instincts were screaming. Nobody drops that kind of cash for no reason. No matter how rich they were.
Something's up. First off, who's Heyni?
It was a streamer name I'd never heard before.
As Ma-sam's manager, I knew a ton of streamers. I even had personal connections and numbers for a bunch of them.
But there was no streamer named Heyni among them.
Hold on. If it's a streamer I don't know, that means it's a newbie, right?
It hit me like a bolt.
I put on a bright smile and spoke up.
"Oh, are you a fan of Heyni? But who's Heyni?"
I pulled up the Express main page on stream and typed "Heyni" into the search bar.
"Heyni... Ah! Here she is."
And there she was—a cute blonde with a pretty face.
No, she was way prettier than expected.
She had that vibe like she was about to blow up any second.
💬 Chat — Viewer Oh! She's hot! — Viewer Didn't know there was a streamer like this. — Viewer Whoa, that cleavage is insane. — Viewer Gonna become a fan right now. The viewers' reactions were better than expected.
"Whoa, she's seriously pretty! Not a celebrity or something?"
I faked some admiration to draw out even more hype from the chat.
Honestly, just doing this much was already going above and beyond.
But after glancing at chat, I decided to drive the nail in all the way.
"Oh! She has a dance video too? Wanna check it out?"
Perfect timing—there was a clip of her doing that sexy trending dance called the Criminal, really emphasizing her hips.
The video popped up.
💬 Chat Explodes — Viewer !!!!!!!!!! — Viewer Aaaaah!!! — Viewer Insane!! — Viewer That ass tho lololol The chat went absolutely nuts in seconds.
She wasn't perfect sexy like An Young.
Cute-sexy, maybe?
Still, it was catnip for the viewers.
Viewer count shot up by five hundred just like that.
What? Two thousand people watching my stream right now? Wild.
Not that I'd done it just to boost numbers. That was just a bonus.
Any second now...
No, this was all for something else.
And soon enough, what I wanted started pouring in.
⚙ DONATION ALERT ⚙ Heyni♥Love has donated 100,000 won. Heyni♥Love has donated 200,000 won. Heyni♥Love has donated 300,000 won. "Ah!! Thank you! Heyni♥Love!!"
I jumped up for a gratitude bow. Right on the money, my hunch.
Knew it.
The big spender wanted promo for their fave streamer. I scratched that itch, so they showered me with donations.
I've picked up more than I thought from Ma-sam, huh?
This was straight out of his playbook. I'd absorbed more of his influence than I realized.
Doesn't make him any less of a jerk, though.
No way was I helping him out. He dumped me—he deserved to crash and burn.
"Seriously, thank you! Heyni♥Love!"
I gave the whale plenty of thanks, then sat back down with a satisfied grin.
Times were tight money-wise. Jiri Mountain content had burned through cash—transport, lodging, hiring that hunter, you name it.
But this kinda donation...
It was like rain in a drought.
Guess I can afford meat tonight.
Not beef, obviously. But pork? Go wild.
I flashed a beaming smile—the real deal, after ages.
💬 Chat — Viewer Jae-ho looks handsome whoa. — Viewer Gay alert above... — Viewer But yeah he's good-looking. — Viewer No wonder An Young let him kiss her lololol ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ As expected, the streamer Heyni I'd hyped skyrocketed right after.
Her streams usually topped out at a few dozen viewers. Now? Hundreds overnight.
Over ten times the audience. Total moonshot.
This happened sometimes in streaming. A gem buried in dust gets polished by someone and shines bright.
Heyni was this case. I'd just dusted her off a bit.
But some folks didn't get that.
Like the popular post I was staring at right now.
📰 Streamer Gallery Jae-ho's got a good eye, huh? Must be from all those years managing. — Reply Yeah, he's seen tons of people behind the scenes. — Reply Yeah, tons of streamers look different on/off stream. — Reply Should I ask a streamer I know to promo mine? People thought I'd made her big because I was some talent scout. Totally wrong.
And now it was causing me headaches.
I logged out of the community site and into Express.
Cue the flood of DMs.
— DM Promo my Jerome too! — DM Hi oppa! I'm Chorong! Would love if you stopped by my stream! — DM Know An Young's successor, the next top sexy streamer An Nyong? Check her stream now! — DM Re: promo help. 10 mil won wired if you do 30 mins. Fans begging for promos, streamers DMing direct.
Not a big deal, honestly.
The problem was that last one.
10 million won for 30 minutes?
Like I'd said, I loved money almost as much as Ma-sam. And 10 mil was no joke—hard to ignore.
But I knew better.
Couldn't take that cash.
Definitely an agency.
They "manage" streamers by promo-ing them to normies, then skimming a cut of earnings.
Not inherently bad. Win-win if they don't gouge.
Issue was them wanting stealth promo for newbies. No disclosure.
Backdoor advertising, basically. Hard pass.
I shook my head hard, shaking off the temptation. Even if no one found out, my conscience wouldn't allow it.
Did hyping one streamer really blow up this much?
Just dug up one talent, and now "good eye" posts everywhere. Baffling.
Maybe Heyni's rise was just that explosive.
That's when I got caught off-guard by the sudden situation.
⚙ NEW MESSAGE ⚙ A new DM has arrived. I figured another promo beg.
But nope.
"Huh? What the? Outta nowhere?"
I blinked in surprise. Unbelievably, it was from Ma-sam—the guy who'd fired me.
I opened it immediately.
Ma-sam's message filled the screen.
— Ma-sam Looks like you're doing well these days? Nice to see as your hyung. Hope you're eating properly? You gotta have breakfast, you know. No, you made me breakfast and I had no choice but to eat with you!
Ridiculous, but I kept reading.
And soon, the real point surfaced.
— Ma-sam By the way, you miss editing at all? There it is. The real agenda.
I nodded, reading on.
— Ma-sam Not asking you to come back or anything. Just wondering if you miss it. Think about it. We had fun, right? Realized maybe I could afford two editors. Oh, just saying. Not asking you to return. Fun for you. I was drowning in work.
Dumped all his crap on me, paid peanuts. Of course it was fun for him.
— Ma-sam Oh, but if you did come back, I'd bump your pay a bit. Like 100,000 won? Yeah, I think I shorted you before. 100k? You have no idea how much I'm making now.
A few days of streaming netted me over 2 mil. Laughable offer.
I deleted the trash without a second thought.
Ma-sam's desperate, huh.
Su-a must suck at the job. Writing novels in DMs like this.
Not cutting her any slack, though.
What a real bitch.
I shook my head and prepped tomorrow's content.
No time to waste. Especially not on Ma-sam, who'd already tossed me aside.