Subscribers Are Disciples!
The next day.
“Whew. Yesterday was something else.”
Between the rewards and a body strengthened through climbing, I’d even set a new personal record at the gym. The weights I’d loaded on were so heavy the specially forged barbell had started to bend. At this rate, I might have to find a whole new gym.
Of course, there was the new problem of the quest. But three people would be added today. After that, only ninety-seven left.
“Hmm. The kids’ll do it for me… right?”
The Supervisor I could threaten with hair-loss treatment if he got stubborn. The real issue was the juniors. Unfortunately, those two still had thick heads of hair.
Well, if they refuse, force is always an option.
Hoping I wouldn’t have to resort to anything physical, I grabbed my double-pack bag and headed out to collect my things.
An easy, unhurried walk.
“Weather’s killer today…!”
A cool day for the first time in a while. Perfect for climbing.
“Wonder what’s on the menu today?”
Like checking the school cafeteria board. Yesterday’s monster course had been a little light, so I was looking forward to today even more—rewards included.
When I reached the community center, the Supervisor was already waiting out front, as if he’d gotten my message.
“So. You’re here.”
“Yes, sir. Reporting in, Supervisor.”
“An official notice really did come down, just like you said.”
Section Chief Lee Gicheol had handled the paperwork fast. Thanks to him, I was finally free of public-service status for good.
“Heh. Then as of today, I can visit this office as a pure civilian!”
“Ugh, don’t say creepy stuff like that. Just go inside and get your things.”
Even a light joke had him rubbing his arms like something slimy had crawled over them.
“Aww. Where are the kids?”
“I sent them on an errand. Wait inside a bit.”
He almost never sent both of them out at once, so I found that odd, but I headed into the break room anyway.
“Guess today’s my last day here too.”
A year and five months of my life spent in this place. Looking around, I felt a faint tug of nostalgia.
“Hmm. That’s the spot I accidentally wrecked…”
There were a lot of traces of me left behind—mostly from goofing around with the seniors before me.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t talked to those guys in a while.”
That was just how life worked. Eventually the juniors and I would lose touch the same way.
“Hmm. So even this body of mine ends up leaking egen energy…”
I was getting sentimental in a way that wasn’t like me at all.
“More importantly, why are those two taking so long?”
I’d already packed everything. All I wanted was a quick goodbye. Where had he even sent them?
I was killing time when the door opened—and the two of them walked in carrying a four-person cake with candles lit on top.
“Congrats on the exemption, Hyundo-hyung.”
“We bought a cake, so eat some before you go.”
Both of them had a cake in their hands!
“What is this all of a sudden?”
“You’re leaving. We had to do something.”
“Exactly. We’ve known you for over a year.”
I was genuinely moved. I wasn’t the type to tear up easily, but my eyes almost prickled.
However—
“I don’t eat cake!”
Foods overloaded with sugar were terrible for the body. Sugar especially was the root of all evil.
“Are you seriously going to wreck a nice moment again?”
“Aigoo, hyung, just eat it. It’s not like you’ll die.”
Under their scolding, I had no choice but to shake my head and give in.
“Fine, fine. Guess I have no choice.”
Ignoring the juniors’ goodwill would have been bad form. I took the cake and the fork they offered.
“Eating stuff like this is bad for you!”
I was mid-lecture when I stuffed a full forkful into my mouth—and then—
“…!”
My eyes flew wide open at the sweetness. That sugary rush sent a tingle through my entire body. Had I ever eaten a cake this sweet in my life?
No matter how hard I looked, it was clearly just a neighborhood bakery cake. Still, I forced my hanging jaw to move and, contrary to every scolding word I’d just said, immediately reached for another bite.
“Th-this kind of bad food shouldn’t be eaten… so I’ll just have to finish it all myself!”
No matter how much I ate, something inside me kept demanding more. I was one step away from full-blown sugar addiction.
While I demolished a four-person cake like a competitive eater, the juniors stared at me with deeply weird looks.
“Hyung, you okay…?”
“Were you locked up somewhere starving for three days?”
Even I thought it was strange. I’d never been that into sweets before.
Why am I craving this so hard…?!
For a second, the faces of my old college friends—the ones who always bought dessert after every meal—flashed through my mind.
Of course…! I became a woman, so my palate changed.
Mystery solved. Every woman around me was always hunting for something sweet, and now my gender was female too. This was simply what my body wanted.
Once I understood that, the last of my restraint snapped. In the end the juniors never got a single bite. The entire cake vanished greedily into my mouth.
Their faces went cold and flat.
“Ahem! It couldn’t be helped…”
I made the shameless excuse, but as a senior my dignity had taken a real hit.
Ah. At this rate I won’t get the consent forms…
I needed to forcibly induct these two into the Heavenly Demon Cult today, and I’d just torpedoed the mood. Still holding the fork, I quietly held out two sheets of paper to the pair staring at the empty cake board.
“Hey, kids. Could you just… look at these…”
“What now?”
“You’re not asking us to co-sign a loan, right? Because if you are, I will actually kill you.”
What did they take me for?!
I straightened my stiff body and declared, with solemn gravity:
“I hereby appoint you two as the very first members of the Heavenly Demon Cult!”
They stared at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Come on, just do it! I got a class quest.”
“What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden? What’s a class quest?”
“Yeah. Don’t you just climb the Tower?”
Hoping they’d understand if I walked them through it carefully, I explained step by step.
“So basically: the Tower offered a hard mode, I cleared it, and then a class-exclusive quest popped up.”
“And that quest is gathering a hundred people?”
“Exactly!”
Only then did they examine the papers I’d handed them.
“What is this insane…?”
“What? Why?”
“Worship this, worship that—what were you even thinking when you wrote this?”
True to form, prickly Juhyeok was picking every single line apart. Yeongjae, just as thorough, studied the form carefully before speaking up.
“Can’t you just do this on NewTube?”
“NewTube?”
“Yeah. You’re a Climber, you’ve got the looks, and Climbers already do tons of NewTube content anyway.”
“But I need to receive worship…”
“A NewTube subscription is worship. People subscribe because they like you and want to keep watching.”
A flawless, perfectly logical explanation. I put it into practice at once.
I opened the NewTube account I normally used for space videos, showed them my channel ID, and ordered both of them to subscribe.
“Hurry up! Do it!”
“Aigoo, this guy is a pain to the very end…”
“Just do it so we can send him off already.”
The moment both of them subscribed to my channel—
Objective: Recruit 100 Disciples
( 2 / 100 )
“It actually went up to two!”
Subscriptions alone really did create disciples.
“What am I supposed to upload on NewTube…? Should I just take my clothes off?”
“You lunatic?! You’ll get banned on day one!”
Leaving the recoiling Juhyeok alone, I turned to Yeongjae.
“Yeongjae, what should I do?”
If anyone here was a NewTube expert, it was him. Before ending up at the community center, he’d edited for a channel with five hundred thousand subscribers. The kid had real talent.
“Hmm. Last I checked, you were already famous on the community boards as the Heavenly Demon of Yeongdeungpo. Lean into that.”
That would be ideal, of course.
“Isn’t that a little too violent…?”
The second I started climbing, my eyes rolled back and I started pulverizing monsters. Uploading Tower footage felt… risky.
“Eh, just hire an editor and clean it up frame by frame.”
An editor?
A human who could perfectly polish my footage…!
“There’s already an editor right here, isn’t there?”
Yeongjae flinched and tried to back away.
“I’m still not a civilian so I can’t even take a side job, and after a year off my sense for it is completely rusty!”
He spat out sentences like a rapper, trying to wriggle free. Not to be outdone, I gave him an offer no one could refuse.
“One word from me and dual employment is approved. And this hyung will pay you one mid-grade mana stone per edited video. How about it? Deal?”
Overwhelming financial incentive.
“One mid-grade mana stone…?”
“Hell, I’m feeling generous—if we make any profit, you take half!”
I was bluffing. Whether there would even be profit was completely unknown. Yeongjae still considered it with deadly seriousness.
“Half the profit, for real?”
“Uh—wait, you’re actually going for that…? Hey, what profit? Let’s just stick with the mid-grade stones.”
“No! If we package hyung’s physique right, we can hit five hundred thousand—no, over a million subscribers!”
His motivation was way too high. All I’d wanted was a hundred disciples. At this rate he was going to drag me into becoming a full-time NewTuber.
“Hey… I’ll just ask people around me to subscribe. Forget my offer.”
“Chicken?”
He dared call me chicken…!
How could anyone say something so outrageous to the Heavenly Demon?
“Did you just say chicken?”
“You used to talk such a big game, and now you’re all soft and egen-egen.”
“Ha!”
Calling this body soft and egen…!
“Fine! Let’s do it! A million subscribers? Your ambition’s that small? If you’re going to use this body, aim for ten million!”
“Okay! Ten million it is!”
Juhyeok, who had been watching the two of them join forces in complete silence, finally said one thing.
“Lunatics…”