Chapter 215
Chapter 215
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 215
Chapter Title: 94. Influencer (1)
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Before the war, countless internet sites flooded the web.
They differed in orientation, purpose, and target audience, but they all shared one common fate.
The number of people accessing the site.
Think about a shopping street.
No matter how attractive the stores are or how prettily the street is decorated, a deserted commercial area with no foot traffic won't last long.
On the other hand, a bustling street thrives even if it's a bit dirty or has unfriendly shops.
Just like an empty street, a site without people can't survive for long.
For a site premised on gathering people, losing its users is no different from a samgyeopsal restaurant running out of meat.
Of course, in the case of our Viva! Apocalypse!, the context was a bit different from other sites.
That stemmed from the uniqueness of our group.
We were, at most, a well-prepared alliance of the awakened few bracing for the future.
In fact, even as war broke out and the world entered its end times, Viva! Apocalypse! fully performed its role as the last community in a crumbling world.
However, even if we were a niche elite site, we still needed a minimum number of users to sustain it.
The Korean board's users had dropped by a third, and the US side seemed to have seen a similar reduction.
According to Melon Mask, the peak US Viva! Apocalypse! user count had been a whopping 800,000.
That number likely included not just doomsday preppers but also Melon Mask's hardcore fans who would applaud even if he took a dump.
The actual number of true doomsday believers was estimated below 200,000.
Meanwhile, the US suffered less war damage than Korea, and with state-level National Guard forces maintaining military power, their user numbers didn't drop much post-war.
But as the apocalypse progressed, North American users plummeted rapidly.
They held steady at 700,000 until a year into the war, but by a year and two months, it had halved.
That was around when state and federal governments started clashing, shaking the US federation itself.
People living in homes without bunkers, still using satellite internet, couldn't withstand the waves of mobs and looters and got swept away.
By the two-year mark, only 200,000 remained.
The number Melon Mask rated as serious doomsday preppers out of 1.5 million active users.
Even those preppers couldn't hold out much past three years.
Now, three years and six months into the war, North American active users had fallen below 100,000.
Considering the symbolism of 100,000, it was a disaster tantamount to a crisis for the entire board.
And as if that wasn't enough, another problem struck Viva! Apocalypse!.
A powerful rival had emerged on the North American continent.
The site's name was "Necropolis," derived from the Greek for "city of the dead."
Unlike Viva! Apocalypse!, it could be accessed with just a standard radio receiver. The site was slow, couldn't handle anything beyond photos, and had many limitations, but its ease of use and accessibility let it quickly surpass Viva! Apocalypse! as North America's top site.
It reminded one of PaleNet's rise.
Anyway, the sharp user drop and the strong competitor were enough to grate on the nerves of our world's creator, Melon Mask.
That Melon Mask declared a state of emergency and launched a campaign to save Viva! Apocalypse! (at least in North America).
There's no historical fact that Melon Mask particularly liked South Korea.
Quite the opposite—he once used the racist slur "Fucking kimchi man!" on a user leaving hate comments on the SNS he acquired before the war.
But few would deny that South Korea is now his favorite country.
Melon Mask gave a thumbs-up alongside Bumpy and ended the emergency live stream.
"......"
Coincidentally, this live announcing the US crisis happened right when I, Park Gyu, had returned from the Inseong Lighthouse and was drafting my new "tale series" post.
To be precise, I'd finished the draft but held off uploading because it felt flat.
At the time, my gut as a "tale teller" screamed that posting it as-is wouldn't get the reaction I wanted.
Something else.
Yeah, it needed spice.
After weighing various spices, I figured adding the classic romance flavor—unlike reality—would spark the hottest response, so I planned to weave in a romance between Skeleton and Lightning.
But then this massive event drops out of nowhere.
And from Melon Mask, no less. This doesn't bode well.
I shelved the romance plan and observed the situation.
Soon, Vivabot posted Melon Mask's specific instructions via announcement.
The moment I saw her nickname, I briefly toyed with adding a romance between me and Vivabot but immediately shot it down internally.
That's how serious I was about this romance spice, Park Gyu.
Anyway, Vivabot posted the following announcement on the board.
"Influencer...?"
In plain Korean, someone who wields influence.
I recall that before the war, people with tons of followers on SNS were called that.
Truth be told, our board already had unspoken "named" influencers among users.
But now they're formalizing it.
Another armband, huh.
Melon Mask, you finally get what moves users.
In other words, my posts get bolded for better visibility over random users', and I can self-promote to popular?
"Hoo."
Pretty enticing.
I nodded.
This should be enough.
Of course, becoming an influencer isn't easy.
"......"
Content.
It used to be for our users, but now it's elevated to the survival of the entire board.
Of course,
There are always clueless ones.
I know my place.
I know at least that my beatbox doesn't resonate with people.
In that regard, I'm two steps ahead of m9.
*
There was a fad for Movie! Apocalypse! once, but the last video revealed it was just ground-up human footage.
The Dongtanmom scenario was polished to minimize awkwardness with lots of effort, but the final Movie! Apocalypse! must've had a staff strike or something—the black protagonist charging into a burning house to protect his family from looters suddenly morphed into the face of the fictional "Gigachad."
Not blackwashing, but internet meme-washing.
Beyond that, in mob fight scenes, the protagonist's face kept swapping to familiar movie heroes—even women—at high frequency.
Melon Mask apologized for the absurd video, but it was unavoidable.
To make stable content, you need people.
I messaged DragonC.
Strictly speaking, to the former hit webtoon artist Pilkrum.
He'd had his internet gear confiscated and was only making content demanded by the Jeju government, ignoring a few of my prior messages, but I sent it anyway, grasping at straws.
No reply.
"Hm."
Disappointing, but I hadn't expected much.
I wanted to overlay my story on that brilliant artist's drawings.
But without Pilkrum, I'm not helpless.
Foxgames prepared the right tools.
A sleazy adult in reality, but a renowned good Samaritan online, he championed "games made together by all" and uploaded user-friendly tools.
Commonly called AI image generators was one.
Foxgames used the one trained on the most data with highest reliability, and indeed, other users' images were convincing enough to nod approvingly.
I followed Foxgames' compiled manual and generated an AI image.
Unlike regular drawings, just input tags describing the image features, and a full picture pops out in 5 minutes.
For example, these tags:
Tag: Hunter, Tag: Handsome, Tag: Axe, Tag: Two-handed
Wait time: about 2 minutes 30 seconds.
Sip coffee quietly, and the AI tool delivers an image of a handsome Western man in military-like combat gear wielding dual axes, staring straight ahead—eerily familiar.
"......"
Foxgames is a bastard, sure, but his tools are insanely convenient.
Hate the man, not the tool.
My intent isn't to make webtoons with this.
No matter how good the machine's art, it can't perfectly capture my imagined images since it's tag-based.
Especially action scenes—you can't even fathom how to tag them.
Movie! Apocalypse! failed by forcing last time's quality without manpower.
Yeah.
Compromise is needed.
The sweet spot between tech and limited manpower.
After much thought, I settled on a "visual novel."
Insert atmosphere-fitting images per chapter, overlay minimal text on them—aiming for immersion where readers picture the scenes while getting hooked on this Skeleton's charming, mysterious tale.
Even Dajung approved my approach.
The perfect images are in my head anyway, and so's the perfect story.
Webtoons are just one expression method.
The story's what matters.
I'm sharing my Inseong Lighthouse tale.
Draft's done; just refine it, generate fitting scenes with AI tool per part.
With these AI images, no need for romance.
Forcing nonexistent romance was a desperate ploy from my sharp "tale teller" instincts to pace and hook the story.
With more direct, immersive images, fake romance is unnecessary.
*
After a good sleep, morning routine—scouting and facility checks—done, I sat at my laptop and logged into the board.
A popular post featured a nickname I didn't like much.
"Dolsingman...?"
I didn't know who he was, but I clearly remembered him being less famous than me yet daring to run for armband—twice.
Despite the nickname, he craves glory.
A scoff escaped me.
Dolsingman, of all people?
But the views and recs were no joke.
My smirk vanished as I clicked his ambitious post "New Love" with a twinge of dread.
"Hm?"
An image appeared.
A dreamy scene of a man and woman meeting in a lush garden blooming with evening-shadowed flowers.
Beautiful at first glance, but riddled with AI tool hallmarks—stereotypical traits and eerie glitches.
AI-generated art.
But that's not the point.
Text beside the image.
Not words—a sentence.
A full post.
The moment I grasped its meaning, I tilted my head.
This is the exact same idea I had!
"......"
Situation's bad.
Posting my tale now would make me the plagiarist.
I thought of it first, but he'd beat me to it!