Shorts Are the Trend!
After I stepped out of Manmajeon, I was spent—mind and body both reduced to mush. I flopped face-first onto the bed.
"Ugh, I'm completely drained…"
I can't believe I ran into someone I couldn't talk my way past.
Getting out-argued this badly was a first for anyone who wasn't my mother. Under normal circumstances I would have simply avoided facing them, but the problem was that this particular being was bound to my own authority. Running away wasn't an option.
Besides, Seonghwa's help was indispensable to my growth. I lifted my face out of the pillow and muttered,
"In the end, it's all about the subscribers…!"
Seonghwa was clearly pushing my growth while also making it obvious she wanted me to gather a massive following of devotees. If that was the case, then succeeding as a YouTuber would be the fastest way to dodge her constant needling—and my behavior would change right along with the numbers.
"First things first. Exactly how many do I have right now?"
I rolled over on the bed and reached for my smartphone. The channel was riding a steep upward curve; my subscriber count was climbing in real time.
"Hmm!"
One or two new subscribers every five seconds.
"Yeah, the three-thousand-total video was always going to pull eyes."
Just looking at the sheer weight on the thumbnail was enough to spark curiosity. And on top of that, it was a workout video starring a stunning beauty. The view count was already proving that combination was pure fire.
Unfortunately, that same combination had also drawn the wrong kind of attention.
"Why the hell are there so many sexual harassment comments?"
Would they still be saying that if I actually folded them in half?
Eh, the internet's just like that…
Anyone who spent their free time dropping sexual harassment online was never going to be a well-adjusted human being. As long as they didn't cross the line too far, I was prepared to be magnanimous and let it slide.
"I don't feel like wasting energy on them anyway. And it's all because I'm just that good-looking."
I scrolled through the newly uploaded videos one by one, and Yeongjae's message floated back into my mind.
Keep my mouth shut, he says.
Even with my mouth open the charm just pours off me.
"No wonder he cut every single part where I explained how I was doing the exercises."
Still, I couldn't completely ignore the eye of a professional editor. Yeongjae had that perspective, and it was worth respecting.
"Fine. I'll just do whatever Yeongjae says."
I was objective enough to know that if I did everything my own way, the channel would crash and burn. And these days Shorts were king. Nobody wanted long-winded explanations anymore.
Even a Heavenly Demon had to roll with the times.
So maybe content like "cracking a monster's skull in under a minute" would work. If I beat them up for too long, blood sprayed everywhere, and turning a corpse into ground meat could easily earn a yellow strike. Plus it looked ugly on camera.
The problem was that climbing Hard Mode meant the monsters I faced weren't exactly diverse. If I wanted to make a series tentatively called "One-Minute Skull Crack," I'd need a wide variety of monsters—because the whole point was finishing them off in a short, clean window.
Ah, that's why the ogre subjugation was so important…
An ogre. With those thick arm muscles and the sheer reputation attached to them, nothing else really compared.
"Damn it, I should've just caved the damn thing's head in…!"
Regret was useless now. Hard Mode floor 2 would never spawn another ogre. The only place they still appeared was as the mid-boss on floor 25 of Normal Mode. If I wanted another crack at one, the only real option was to climb Normal Mode.
"Come to think of it, before I started climbing last time, people were talking about warming up on Normal Mode, right?"
I remembered the chatter on the Hard community board. Something about "quitters who gave up on Hard" and the usual trash talk. Uncharacteristically heated opinions had been flying back and forth.
"More importantly, how do you even get there?"
When I climbed, the only option that ever appeared was Hard Mode. Curiosity won out. I opened the community window.
I hadn't checked in for a while, and the chat was buried under a mountain of new messages.
Ah. So I was the topic of conversation.
Most of the Hard Mode crowd were already my YouTube subscribers. The new video had apparently confirmed my gender for them.
Zippy was the one who swore he'd never sub to a guy, huh?
What was his deal? Some kind of creepy tsundere who only liked pretty girls?
Weird guy all around. Thanks to him being the first to notice, the entire community window had exploded over the gender reveal. I answered their questions half-heartedly and then asked them how Normal Mode climbing actually worked.
I ignored IcePrincess-noona's final demand. The rest of the explanations were clear enough.
"So in the end, you have to escape the Tower first…"
It made sense. If Climbers got stuck and couldn't grow any further, choosing Hard Mode would become completely pointless. The Tower wouldn't have dangled the option without some kind of escape hatch in mind.
In that case…
"I'll film today's video first, then attempt an escape tomorrow."
I left a quick thank-you in the community, stretched out the body that had gone a little stiff after I'd blacked out earlier, and then re-entered floor 2 to shoot special Shorts content.
"Hoo… that was easy!"
Maybe the sparring had leveled me up another notch. Everything felt almost too smooth.
The monster that appeared on this re-climb was a minotaur. That bull head wasn't just for show.
"Mooooo!"
True to its reputation for pure brute stupidity, the moment it saw me it reared its head and charged. I sidestepped like a veteran matador, then casually kicked it a few times with my hands still clasped behind my back.
Thud.
Thud.
The bones snapped like dry stalks the instant my foot connected. Once I'd limited its movement enough, I kicked the thrashing thing over onto its back and drove my heel straight down into its spine.
Five seconds total. A wet crack, and the minotaur went limp. In the blink of an eye I had rendered it completely combat-incapable. The entire hunt wrapped up in under twenty seconds, and I hadn't gotten a single drop of blood on me.
Still…
"Is this okay?"
Is it really fine to finish it this fast? The thought crossed my mind. But my worry turned out to be baseless.
Yeongjae checked the footage and gave it a full stamp of approval. Whether he liked the overwhelming display of power or just enjoyed how little editing work it left him, I couldn't say. Either way, he was in a good mood, so I took the chance to pitch my content idea and mentioned the plan to climb Normal Mode. He lit up immediately.
Apparently he'd been complaining about how thin the material was getting. Watching him work, I had to admit he really did look like a pro who gave his best when the money was on the table.
With the video pipeline sorted for the time being, I also collected the extra clear rewards for floor 2.
"Sweet."
Four mid-grade mana stones in under a minute. At this rate it was no wonder high-ranking Climbers completely lost their sense of money.
All the must-do items on today's schedule were checked off. Just as planned, I messaged my mother that I'd come down this weekend. A reply arrived not long after.
She wanted to take the opportunity to visit my little brother at his base as well.
"A visit, huh…"
Ugh, I really don't want to go.
The idea of traveling all the way out to his unit just to look at that kid's face. An hour each way, and every single eye in the vicinity would be glued to me.
"It's not the old days anymore. We've got smartphones. Can't we just call?"
I wanted to argue, but Mother's word was heavenly decree—impossible to refuse. So regardless of my feelings, this week's schedule now included a base visit with my brother.
"Mom's always been way too soft on Dojun."
Unlike the rest of our sturdy family, he'd been weirdly frail since he was little. That meant extra attention wherever we went. Of course she was fretting now that he was in the military.
But then the memory of his face floated up—the way he'd yelled that it was unfair for a hyung with those ridiculous muscles to get public service while he had to go active duty. Something about it just twisted my guts.
I'd gotten public service because of a herniated disc from training. And that scrawny brat had the nerve to belittle my glorious battle scar?
"He should've just worked out with me…"
He had the same solid frame we inherited from our parents. Watching him stay underweight right up until enlistment had always looked pathetic to me.
Ugh, skinny as a stick and zero presence.
In my memories, my little brother was always weak and whiny.
"Wait a second."
Come to think of it… now I was the one who would have to look up at him, wasn't I?
Thanks to the height I lost when I became a woman, I would never again be able to look down on that brat for the rest of my life.
"Ah, damn it. That actually pisses me off."
I couldn't exactly go snap all his bones, either. On the bright side, becoming a woman had completely healed the disc, so I guessed that evened things out.
"Ugh. Now I really don't want to go."
Just imagining that kid looking down on me from above made my blood boil.