What Can Be Done - 1
On the TV, the ruling party spokesperson was making his announcement with solemn restraint. Strip away the ceremonial padding and the carefully ambiguous phrasing, and there was only one point that really mattered.
“...And so, to protect creators suffering under shell companies and unfair contracts, and to reinforce the proud foundation of Korea’s global K-culture industry, we have introduced the Culture Industry Advancement Act.”
Culture Industry Advancement Act
A new sweeping regulatory bill had revealed itself.
Ruling-party lawmakers were grinning broadly and applauding, or waving placards that read Advanced Culture Industry, Liquidation of Shell Companies, and Creator Protection.
Clap, clap, clap—
Their expressions were gentle, warm. Looking at those faces, you could only believe they had introduced a progressive law to protect the nation.
At the same time, the reporters crowding around them sprang into motion.
Click.
Click.
Flashes burst so hard they nearly whitewashed the spokesperson’s face. Hundreds of journalists pounded out copy on their laptops, relaying every word he said.
Tap tap.
Tap tap.
[In welcoming a new era of Hallyu, fairness and global standards for the unstable cultural content creator market....]
[Implementation of a new standard grading system for small and medium companies with annual sales and scale under 2 billion won....]
[Strong warnings and sanctions against shell companies lacking clear investment channels and capital....]
[Establishing market flexibility and advancing toward a new global modernization....]
The fingers that were always busy writing criticism of the government were now filled with nothing but goodwill. They adjusted word choice and context, packaging it all in the most positive light possible.
The new bill announced today. On the surface, it was framed as an administrative notice, but in truth it was much closer to an enforcement decree. Even the opposition lawmakers who always loved to throw up roadblocks were pretending not to notice.
The nationwide administrative machinery had already started moving.
A law everyone agreed was right.
For once, the mood on TV felt warm and reassuring.
But two old men watching from the subway blinked blankly at the screen. They could not make heads or tails of what the hell these people were talking about.
“....”
“....”
The two old men looked at each other.
“What the hell are they sayin’?”
“....”
They didn’t know.
It wasn’t as if either of them had tuned in to the news for the first time today.
But a helpful example played afterward.
It showed idol trainees who had been swindled by unfair contracts at companies with no capital, and broadcasters who waved around recklessly sensational content while luring teenagers into crime.
-My agency vanished overnight....
-What am I supposed to do? I already spent 30 million won on studio fees....
-I was just watching streams with my friends... and I thought it’d be fun to set a fire. I’m sorry.
[As such, within the leap of the cultural market lay the pains of growth.]
“?!”
The old men gasped in horror.
“What the hell is that...!”
For them, it was a world of darkness beyond imagination.
All the evil in the world....
It was hiding in the shadows of the culture industry.
At least, that was the impression they were being led toward.
“Th-that rotten bastard! He took some family’s precious daughter at twelve and scammed her?!”
“W-what the hell...?! Thirty million?!”
“Where’d those sons of bitches learn to do that kind of thing...?!”
[Thus, in the name of creativity, shell companies that committed crime and unfair trade will be liquidated....]
“That’s right! Companies like that need to be regulated!”
“They shouldn’t even exist!”
“Exactly! As long as Korea has healthy, honest large corporations, that’s all we need!”
[We will build a bright and clean society.]
In the old men’s minds, all small and midsize content companies except the chaebol had become doomed shell companies. And the innocent people working there had become “devils” who tricked kids and stole from them.
And that was despite the fact that even they were consumers who lived on internet broadcasts. They had convinced themselves that every bit of content in the world was made “honestly” by the hands of large corporations.
“Aigoo! Disgusting bastards! Lock them all up and make them spend their whole lives digging rocks!”
“Whoever wrote this law did a damn good job.”
“What do you even do with people who can’t scrape together 2 billion won!”
Pretty soon, an interview with a legal expert began to play. He was sweating coldly despite the panelists’ attempts to calm him down, and spoke with growing urgency.
-You absolutely must not be fooled by the surface-level language!
-P-professor?!
-This is a bill that undermines market diversity with absurd logic. It’s like abolishing elementary schools because professors don’t have enough budget. This is an act of bullying that sacrifices the nation’s future!
-P-please calm down, Professor Kim....
-Calm down? How can you calm down about something this ridiculous? Just by this one standard, at least 200,000 people will be affected. Two hundred thousand! What country on earth stays silent while the rights of 200,000 people are trampled?!
-N-now, now... let’s go to a commercial break....
The host panicked and cut to an ad.
Thud....
No one was left listening to Professor Kim’s warning.
The two old men had already left their seats long ago.
*
Suddenly, notices about suspensions and testimony about tax audits came pouring in.
In the midst of a storm-tossed wave,
one ordinary citizen wrote with trembling hands.
-Yep, that condition only applies to company streamers.
-Then why are they getting cut off?
-Dunno?
-Goddammit, answer properly....
-The ones getting axed right now are solo streamers who signed small-agency contracts, or people running through separate personal corporations, or people working with staff members.
∟What the hell does that mean?
∟Even if the player is solo, if they have teammates in the support slots worth under 2 billion, they count as a company, I guess. The teammates’ specs have to exceed 2 billion too for it to be legal.
∟What kind of bullshit law is that?
“My older brother’s a webtoon artist, and he’s crying because his company suddenly says it’s on the verge of shutting down, goddammit. What the hell kind of tiny-ass webtoon company is supposed to find an investor out of nowhere? How the hell did two otaku even get jobs there in the first place.... I want to leave this country so badly....”
-Our company is hanging right on the edge of that 2 billion small-business line too, and everyone’s losing their minds.
-Even among large corporations and mid-tier affiliates, it sounds like there’s blood in the water;; maybe they’re already bracing for layoffs;; I had to run to the bathroom because I couldn’t breathe.
-What on earth is going on....
Even so, there was nothing they could do.
For those breathing inside a small market, there was nothing to do as the waves closed in around them and squeezed the air out of their lungs. So they could only grumble quietly, or give up.
-Realistically, if you exclude ABCD and RD, every company VTuber is basically doomed.
-Seriously, who’s going to invest in a market this tiny....
Or...
they could only pray for a miracle from God.
But the emptiness was the same either way.
*
Baek Su-cheol conveyed the situation in a heavy voice.
The venue’s unilateral notice.
The cancellation of the performance, even at the cost of liquidated damages.
Because of that, the Summer Live planned for July was canceled.
“That’s how it is. I think they got caught under some other standard, not the 2 billion one. They said if we don’t cancel ours and start renovations immediately, the place could be hit with a suspension order....”
“....”
“....”
“....”
“No way....”
Aki buried her face in her hands and lowered her head. More than anyone, she had wanted to make the live performance shine, so the sudden collapse of her plans shook her badly.
I told Taek oppa I wanted him to watch it and bragged about it.... If this happens....
Heavy silence filled the conference room. Everyone who had gathered to plan the final Big Plan before the July live performance wore stunned expressions.
“No money, and they shut you down?”
“There’s really such a standard....”
“The law’s already been announced, and they say tax audits are already hitting places everywhere. Seems like this was a bill they’ve been preparing with knives drawn for a long time. Even big companies are trying to restructure.”
“....”
All because of 2 billion won,
this mess was happening.
2 billion won.
The amount they had spent on a one-week project.
Money that had come from Big Man’s pocket with astonishing ease.
Because so many companies didn’t have that kind of money, they had been thrown into emergency mode. They were scrambling to submit to outside investors and large corporations as fast as they could.
While the entire market convulsed,
this side remained absurdly calm.
“....”
“....”
“....”
“....”
The first to recover her senses was Choi Ye-seo. She raised her hand and asked about the situation in a composed tone.
“What did Attorney Kim say? About what Bigman can do in this situation....”
“Sounds like his side got hit with a tax audit too.”
“!”
“But because they’d already prepared a lot from the corporation’s formation stage, they were able to pass through it. Their capital is transparent, and their scale is well over 2 billion, apparently.”
“Already? It’s only been a few hours....”
“They’re probably too busy cracking down on the vague cases to bother with the solid, obvious ones.”
“....”
Baek Su-cheol quietly declared, “Anyway, the bill that was announced today has nothing to do with us. The venue got canceled. That’s all.”
“Bigman, that’s thanks to you.”
“....”
He nodded.
“...It’s chilling. Thinking about how, right now, we’d be running all over the place because we didn’t have that 2 billion to blow in a week and could only laugh about it.”
“....”
The weight of money became real.
The money you laughed and spent now was, for someone else, the money that let them survive a life-or-death crisis.
Baek Su-cheol gave the conference table a light bang.
“We keep doing our job! Give Bigman our thanks once, then move!”
“!”
“Big-men! Repeat after me!”
-Bi, Big-men....
-Big-men.
-Bigmeeeen—!
-Do-dam....
“!”
Aki lifted her head.
And murmured,
“Big, man.”
Not yet.
They still had to keep their promise to him.
And for some reason,
Taek’s indifferent, warm encouragement came to mind.
-I’ll always be rooting for you.
Taek oppa....
There was still work to do.
Aki clenched her fist again.
“....”
It was only beginning.
She couldn’t fall apart yet.
Aki steeled herself once more.
“Big-men....”
Baek Su-cheol shouted,
“All right, that’s enough! Prayer over! Now we post the hiatus notice and let the fans know we’re safe, all right?”
“!”
Aki nodded. A moment ago she had been nearly crushed by the sharp disappointment and emptiness of it all, but now she had to do what could be done and keep moving forward.
“Yes!”
*
"What follows is the translated message text from the source, presented in a voicemail-style block if needed."
[Balance: 9.2 billion won]
“....”
The price of foreseeing chaos.
50 billion had jumped to 90 billion in one breath.
Right as the reservation I had placed in advance went through.
Even now, it was still rising in real time.
At this rate, it’ll probably hit 10 billion by the end of the week.
My personal assets were once again approaching parity with the corporate assets. It was an astonishing increase, and by itself it was enough to get through this mess.
“....”
But.
...It’s not enough to buy the venue.
The place we had originally planned.
To acquire Colorful Star, we needed more than 20 billion won in capital. If I stripped the corporation dry, I could do it, but then the future would disappear.
“....”
That was why I felt frustrated. If I had moved a little more diligently starting on May 1, this situation might never have come.
“....”
I pushed back my chair and stood.
Now wasn’t the time to sink into regret. It was time to solve the problem another way. More specifically, the other method I had learned during this loop.
I made a call.
“Yes, Dr. Jang. It’s me. There’s something I wanted to ask....”
Now.
It was time, slowly....
to reveal it.
Do everything I could so I wouldn’t regret it.
“Could you tell me again about the associations for independent performance halls and theaters nationwide?”
---