Double Standard
Double Standard
Cereal, a Nutuber with 20 million subscribers.
A video was uploaded to his channel.
It was a video compiling and editing highlight scenes from each group.
"Good morning, everyone."
"Good morning, CEO-nim."
The CEO of Cereal Company, Cereal, walked to his desk humming a tune.
It wasn't just Cereal; the entire office had a bright atmosphere.
Because every single video uploaded at midnight had hit the algorithm hard.
"CEO-nim. We received an additional request from Infinity Rail's side."
"What is it?"
"It's regarding PPL..."
At the marketing manager's report, Cereal's expression filled with doubt.
They were already collaborating with Infinity Rail, the developer of Project Eden.
Thanks to that, hadn't they even created a custom map to be used exclusively for the qualifiers?
Project Eden was a game still in its development stage.
And it was scheduled for official release right when the Zero Point Project ended.
"So they're getting greedy, huh?"
Judging purely by promotional effect, Infinity Rail should have been satisfied.
The main round hadn't even started yet, but it was already a massive hit.
From a marketing perspective, it couldn't be more perfect.
Yet, there was only one reason they sent an additional request.
They didn't want to stop at just rowing while the tide was coming in.
They wanted to attach a motor to the boat.
"So, what's the request?"
"To give Pden's official skins to the participants who caused the most eliminations in the first event..."
"Ha!"
Though they said "participants" in a roundabout way, the bottom line was just one thing.
The protagonist of the highlight video that surpassed 15 million views just 9 hours after being uploaded.
They wanted to leverage even more promotional impact through the underdog who captivated the public with pure performance alone.
Cereal, seeing right through Infinity Rail's intentions, snorted.
"Politely decline."
"Understood."
Cereal thought to himself.
Honestly, it wasn't a request he couldn't grant.
But if he started accepting requests like this one by one...
The essence of the content was very likely to get diluted.
To Cereal, who possessed a crazy, borderline perverted obsessiveness when it came to content creation and planning, such a thing was unacceptable.
Cereal looked at his channel management tab.
The metrics across all categories were spiking like a skyrocketing crypto coin.
Staring at that sight, which made him feel full and happy just looking at it, Cereal thought quietly to himself.
That once this Zero Point Project ended, there would be a massive surge in his Nutube subscriber count.
I safely passed the first round of the qualifiers.
My reaction to it was simple.
"That was fun."
The hardest part of living as a mercenary was killing.
Because killing people drained more mental energy than one would think.
Still, the reason I was able to survive as a mercenary for so long was probably because I recovered quickly from that kind of thing.
Well, I got sick and tired of it and ended up retiring anyway, though.
Anyway, while taking lives as a mercenary wasn't fun or enjoyable...
Killing people in virtual reality was fun and enjoyable.
Even if you kill them, they don't die.
Just being aware of this single fact...
Made it amazing how the exact same action could feel so completely different.
Returning to reality, I took off my goggles.
The equipment required to connect to virtual reality.
I carefully placed the goggles back where they belonged.
[User-nim! That was truly amazing!]
Padak-padak—
The holographic fairy character, the AI Aki, fluttered her wings and flew toward me.
Why on earth did her fluttering wings make sound when she was just a hologram?
Filled with doubt, I stared blankly at her, prompting a question mark to pop up above Aki's head.
"Aki. Give me a three-line summary of the email from Cereal Company."
[Understood! Aki is summarizing the email content into three lines...]
Perched on my shoulder, Aki closed both of her eyes.
A few seconds later, opening her eyes, Aki flew back up and spread both arms wide into midair.
In response, a translucent window appeared in the air.
I read the points Aki had summarized.
[1. The second event is Project Eden.]
[2. Survive in a zombie apocalypse world!]
[3. Escape to paradise to survive. First-come, first-served basis only!]
"..."
I held back a sigh.
No wonder the output came out so fast.
Right. What did I expect from an AI?
I'll just read it myself.
That's way better.
"Forget it. You can put it away."
[Understood!]
...Nice. I totally half-assed it and got away with it.
A quiet murmur brushed past my ears.
Dumbfounded, I couldn't help letting out a dry laugh.
I swear that thing isn't actually an AI.
Operating the virtual pad, I logged into Techrun Challenge.
Passing the qualifiers was one thing.
But I still had to do what I needed to do.
Thinking about getting caught by that damned pillar pattern last time...
I was still so infuriated I couldn't sleep.
Even on the battlefield, I hadn't experienced emotional swings this often.
It really was a strange thing.
[User-nim! How about registering with a new nickname when you submit your rank this time?]
"A new nickname?"
The ranking page appeared in front of me.
I looked at the part showing 1st place in Extreme Challenge as 'Unknown'.
"Is there a need? I don't really care even if it stays like this."
[No, no, no! A nickname is way more important than you think, User-nim!]
"Hmm... Nothing really comes to mind. Just make one up for me."
[Really? Then high-performance AI Aki will name it! Thump-thump-thump... How about '500' for User-nim's nickname?]
"Use my number as my nickname?"
I didn't see any particular reason to change it, but...
There was no reason not to change it either.
I changed my nickname to '500' as Aki wished.
"What happens if I set a new record like this?"
[The changed nickname will be registered!]
"What about the existing record?"
[The record under Unknown from before the change will stay as it is.]
"Then wouldn't it be possible to keep changing nicknames and flood the ranking page?"
[Unfortunately, once you change your nickname in Techrun Challenge, you can't change it again for a month. To fill up to 10th place with User-nim's records, it would take a long time—10 months.]
"That's a bit disappointing."
Swallowing my disappointment, I challenged Extreme Challenge mode once again.
And that night.
The 1st place on the Ex-Chal ranking was updated once more.
Late into the night.
The AI Aki floated inside the capsule and began 'learning'.
The main keywords for learning were 'Zero Point', 'Tech Run', '500', 'Unknown'.
She searched communities where those keywords were mentioned repeatedly.
<Tech-Run Gallery>
[Title] Ex-Chal new record broken again, wtf???
Author: Anon
(Image of 1st place '500' showing a time record of 1 hour 55 minutes)
No way, is this really the Lord Obaek from Zero Point?
[Comments]
Anon: Unknown hacker fraud ass got overtaken instantly lol
L Anon1: Is 2nd place Unknown a hacker?
L Anon2: Nope
L Anon1: Then why call him a hacker?
L Anon2: "Because he's too good"
L Anon: Look at the level of hacker defenders here
[Title] Did the dev notes drop!?+!?+!?+!?+?!?!?!
Author: Last Leaf
(Image of patch notes)
It dropped, that's why I posted it, kyahahaha lololol
These guys are really rowing hard while the tide is in
Official multiplayer mode, niceeee yeeessss
Before, we had to host private servers to play
Thanks to Zero Point, things are back to normal
[Comments]
Anon: When existing players asked for it, they clenched their teeth and ignored it
L Let'sPlayTechRunIt'sFun: Fr fr
L Pit Viper: It really is absurd
[Title] These bastards are so hilarious
Author: Anon
When Unknown beat former #1 by 30 mins, it's hacking
But when Lord Obaek beats Unknown by 30 mins, it's skill?
We haven't even fact-checked if that's the real Lord Obaek
What's with this double standard?
[Comments]
Anon: It really is absurd
Anon1: You expect normal people to be on Tech-Gal?
L Anon2: Fr, all normal people left long ago
L Anon3: I'm a newbie from Zero Point, is it always like this here?
L Static User For Emotes: (Emote of embarrassing self-portrait)
<Zero Point Gallery>
[Title] Lord Obaek's recent update.jpg
Author: Anon
(Image of Lord Obaek setting a new record on the Ex-Chal ranking)
Smurfed the qualifiers and immediately destroyed the Ex-Chal rankings too hahaha
Lord Obaek noona's footwork really hits different
[Comments]
Anon: But is that really Lord Obaek?
L Anon1: Even hackers cap out at 1 hour 25 minutes, if it's not Lord Obaek who else could make that record?
L Anon2: Is the 2nd place record a hacker?
L ILoveObaekNoona: That hasn't been fact-checked yet
L Anon2: Ah, so it's just headcanon
[Title] So when is Lord Obaek streaming?
Author: ILoveObaekNoona
It's too painful waiting until the main round
Cereal better pass Lord Obaek through to the main round right now and make her start streaming ASAP
This is not a warning, it's an ultimatum
If not fulfilled, I will spam poop pics in the Zero Point Gallery
That is all.
[Comments]
Anon: What crime did Zero Point Gallery commit ㅠㅠ
L ILoveObaekNoona: Blame Cereal
L ILoveObaekNoona: ...Leave the gallery for 3 minutes
L Anon1: Uh, wait, hey hey
[Title] Lord 500 video hits 30M views in just 24 hours damn
Author: Sunflower
Aren't these numbers legendary even for Cereal?
[Comments]
ILoveObaekNoona: That's how amazing our Noona is
L Sunflower: Why is Lord Obaek YOUR noona, you punk?
L Anon1: Stop fighting, she's my wife
[Title] Looking at how these bastards talk, they act like Lord Obaek being a super top-tier gorgeous girl is the default setting
All you Lord Obaek simps are gonna jump in the Han River en masse when her face reveal leaks lol
[Comments]
Anon1: Whenever someone gets a bit successful, there are always bastards like this trying to bring them down
L Anon (Author): Whenever someone gets a bit successful, there are always bastards like this sucking up to them no matter what
L Anon2: Tai Chi defense, damn
Deciding it was enough, Aki stopped 'learning'.
She then divided today's recordings into segments, edited them, and saved them.
Just in case the data got corrupted or lost, she also created several backups.
A day would surely come when these videos would be put to good use.
Having made that judgment, Aki pulled the original video file with her hands.
The safest place inside the capsule.
The hardware housing the AI Aki.
[Waaaang~]
Aki opens her mouth wide.
She swallows the video file's hologram pulled by her hand as is.
So that it would never be lost.