Chapter 7, Princess Harin Minor Gallery
Chapter 7, Princess Harin Minor Gallery
"My god..."
I stared with my jaw dropped at the YouTube Studio statistics window displayed on my smartphone screen.
The units of the numbers going up every time I hit refresh were no joke.
Baek Ha-rin's videos always had high view counts, but the views on the video edited by the AI App were skyrocketing at an astonishing rate.
'7 million views in just one day... and the likes are already over 250,000.'
It hadn't broken the all-time record, but that 8 million view video was from a whole year ago, so it was only natural it wouldn't be surpassed in one go.
'But does it make any sense that she caught up to it in almost a single day?'
Honestly, from what I see, it's just a video of her in pajamas wiggling her hips.
The video uploaded this time was just the AI App stitching those kinds of clips together into the format currently trending on short-form platforms.
In other words, it wasn't even a new video; it was just utilizing existing footage.
To think it would get such a great reaction...
'No, more importantly, what on earth is so fun about this that so many people are watching?'
Just because it's literally a video of a pretty girl dancing?
I quietly stared at my niece dancing and smiling brightly on the screen.
To be honest...
Even though she's my niece, she did look cute and pretty.
Even though we're blood-related, I'm a late-born uncle, so there's only a one-year age gap.
When we were living together and going through puberty, I honestly felt a little flutter.
Well, that's in the past.
More importantly, Baek Ha-rin, who is sitting next to me, is confused about whether this is a dream or reality.
"Samchon... is this really my channel? It's not an error, right?"
Baek Ha-rin asked, her voice trembling as she looked at the smartphone screen.
She didn't look surprised or flustered; she looked like she was in a state of pure ecstasy, not knowing what to do with herself.
"Niece. It's reality."
I replied calmly and pinched Baek Ha-rin's thigh hard with my fingers.
"Ouch! Crazy, why are you pinching me!"
Baek Ha-rin screamed and slapped the back of my hand.
She glared at me with tears welling up in her eyes, but an uncontrollable smile was spreading across her lips.
"Does it hurt? That means it's not a dream. Do you have a grasp on reality now?"
"Wow... this is insane! It's huge! I think I'm actually going to cry!"
Yeah, I bet you are.
Subscribers are increasing much faster than usual, and the ad rates have gone up significantly.
"Hiring Samchon as my editor was the best move of my life! Aren't you a total genius?"
"Ahem."
All I did was give commands to the AI App, though.
Since the fact that the AI App edited it is a secret I'll take to my grave, I decided to gladly accept the praise.
"So from now on, make sure you treat your Samchon with proper respect. If I put my mind to it, I can churn out ten of these videos a day."
"Of course! I'll give you a huge bonus! And we agreed on a salary of 2.5 million won, right? I'll raise it to 3 million! No, I can give you more if Samchon wants!"
"Really?"
It was only day one of employment.
Baek Ha-rin declared she would raise my salary from 2.5 million to 3 million.
To think my salary went up by 500,000 won in just one day of employment.
In terms of annual salary, that's a whopping 6 million won increase.
No matter how hard you work out there, it's hard to experience the miracle of a 6 million won annual salary raise overnight.
Unless the value of money rises that much due to inflation.
"But are you okay with throwing money around like that? You need to think about your expenses, not just what you earn."
Since she earns money too easily, she has absolutely no sense of economy.
I clicked my tongue at Baek Ha-rin and offered some realistic advice.
"Don't just blow the money you need for taxes on useless things; put it away. Don't come whining to me to borrow money later."
"Hmph. How much money could you possibly have, Samchon? I won't ask to borrow any, so don't worry."
At my nagging, Baek Ha-rin pouted her lips as if she understood.
"And you said you'd help me with the tax processing!"
"That's why you need to keep 50 million won on hand."
"I said I got it!"
Then, she jumped up from her seat and scurried off to her room.
"I have to go to school today! On the way, I'll send you all the raw video files from yesterday and today via Talk, so edit those and send them back!"
"Alright, got it."
"Make sure to reflect the latest trends and make it amazing this time too! I'm counting on you, Samchon!"
Baek Ha-rin quickly put on her shoes at the entrance and adjusted her shoulder bag.
"I'm off!"
"Take care."
Bang! The sound of the front door closing echoed.
Three days after I returned home from military service, I got to see my niece going to school.
'So she does go to school?'
It's not strange for a college student to go to school, though.
I stuck my head out the veranda window and looked outside.
The sight of her looking at her phone and giggling while walking was exactly that of an attention-seeking YouTuber.
Should I buy a car and drive her...
I muttered lightly to myself and came back inside.
"Yaaawn..."
I yawned loudly, went into my room, and sat in my computer chair.
The massive PC tower sat in the corner of the room, showing off its majesty.
I pressed the power button with a reverent heart.
With a short boot sound, flashy RGB lights filled the room.
I am an owner of the 5090 Supreme 32GB x2.
One who cries out for dual graphics cards in a world where SLI has disappeared.
As soon as the screen booted up...
I immediately opened a browser window and accessed the community site.
Everyone buys a 5090 just to play Minesweeper, watch YouTube, and browse communities, right?
That's the true leisure of a high-end user.
"Hmm... I wonder if there's anything."
I moved my cursor to the integrated search bar, wondering if there were any posts about Baek Ha-rin in the community.
[Baek Ha-rin]
I pressed the Enter key.
"Hmm, nothing really comes up."
Even if something did come up, it was just people with the same name, like "Baek Ha-rin from our school is fucking pretty."
"Maybe it'll come up if I search by channel name."
I typed into the search bar again.
[Harin-geongdyu]
This time, the results were completely different.
A massive amount of posts filled the screen.
Not only the official gallery and minor galleries, but even the mini-galleries, the darkest of the dark, were filled with search results.
"Wow..."
I went into the official gallery first...
Hmm, the official gallery was, as expected, a ghost town.
A ruin where maybe one post gets uploaded a day.
The dumpling-loving server-cost embezzler must have promoted it to an official gallery on a whim, causing all the existing users to leave for the minor gallery.
I hit back and entered the active minor gallery.
There, they were actively discussing Baek Ha-rin in real-time.
The content mainly consisted of things like how the cut editing in this video was good, or how her dancing was fucking hot.
And about 50% of it was mixed with useless shitposts.
[Gongju's form in this video is insane, seriously lol]
[Honestly, isn't Ha-rin's pelvis the real deal?]
[Dumping Gongju pics from today (Warning: long post)]
[Did Gongju get an editor? The cuts are insane]
[Gongju's foot odor would probably smell fragrant too, fr]
"Hmm, what a spectacle."
A space gathered with bad adults making all sorts of embarrassing sexual harassment comments about my lovely niece.
I can't just ignore such a fun... no, bad space.
I curled up the corners of my mouth and opened the login window.
For the first time in a while, I created a new fixed-nickname burner account.
Not an aggro-pulling nickname, nor a joking one, but a very honest and upright nickname.
[Uncle Harin]
I'm Baek Ha-rin's real blood-related uncle, right?
It's a 100% factual nickname with no lies.
I wrote a post with that fixed nickname that would be sure to pull a lot of aggro.
[Title: Everyone, please stop.]
[Author: Uncle Harin]
[Even if it's anonymous, I wish you wouldn't cross the line.]
[You're all grown adults.]
[What are you going to do if our Ha-rin sees you and gets shocked?]
I wrote the post pretending to be a dignified adult who cares deeply for his niece.
What happens if you write a serious lecture post like this in a lawless zone like a gallery?
Obviously, they'll start by cursing at me for doing a shitty concept.
Before even a minute had passed, comments started to appear.
ㄴAnonymous: Is this a copypasta?
ㄴWeebDetector: What's with the concept lol, are you a Young Forty?
ㄴBroth No. 1: We got permission though
ㄴㄴAnonymous: Fr lol
ㄴWannabeMod: Don't feed the troll
ㄴㄴConstruction Foreman: So many old farts crawling into the gallery these days.
ㄴHa-rin'sBoyfriend: If you're Harin-gongju's uncle, then you're my father-in-law? Hello, father-in-law.
ㄴㄴWeebDetector: Why would an uncle be a father-in-law? lol
ㄴㄴㄴAnonymous: You stop feeding the troll too, you idiot
As I read through the comments carefully, there was one sentence that strangely bothered me.
What are the comments about getting permission?
I was tilting my head, wondering if it was some kind of meme.
The notification number in the bottom right of the screen went up.
A new comment had been posted.
I scrolled with the mouse to check the new comment.
ㄴHarin-gongju: I gave permission to play around as they want, so don't be a busybody. Also, don't impersonate my uncle.
ㄴㄴBroth No. 1: That's it lol
ㄴㄴWeebDetector: As expected of the Gallery Owner lol
ㄴㄴMindlessUpvote: Ah~ so refreshing~ tearing up~
ㄴㄴㄴAnonymous: It's a bit lewd hehe;;
"...What?"
I blinked and stared intensely at the monitor.
The letters "Harin-gongju" attached as a nickname.
The atmosphere of the replies from the fixed-nicks residing in the gallery, and the nuance of her firmly saying "don't impersonate my uncle."
'Is it really Baek Ha-rin?'
I remembered her staring intensely at her phone while going to school earlier.
Could this girl have created her own minor gallery and been rolling around in here communicating with users through comments?
And she even coolly gave permission to the guys sexually harassing her to play around as they wanted?
