14. The Broadcast Begins!
Vice President Cha came to in the emergency room the morning after his admission.
PDs were the type to drop by the hospital for an IV drip out of boredom, so it wasn't until he stared up at that familiar worm-patterned ceiling that he realized he'd been hospitalized.
When the doctor on rounds informed him he'd been admitted for symptoms resembling a myocardial infarction, a hollow laugh escaped him unbidden.
"Ha, haha. What is this, some wuxia novel...?"
How could anyone kill with a glare? He'd heard plenty from fortune-tellers that his ki was weak, so he knew he had a frail constitution.
But this is straight-up superpowers...
Honestly, he dreaded going back to work. Maybe he should just quit and run while he could? It was that kind of day.
But Vice President Cha soon changed his mind.
It wasn't just the 270 million won salary, though that certainly played a part. A tiny bit?
She was dead serious.
Seongwon's declaration to become the world's top internet broadcaster.
That was no joke or empty talk.
The crushing pressure that nearly killed him wasn't some rich kid's power trip either. It was righteous fury at having her ambitions dismissed.
The world's top internet broadcaster.
Honestly, it sounded pretty ridiculous.
"...But damn, it's cool."
Vice President Cha recalled that moment again.
Right in the center of that tidal wave of pressure, Seongwon's face staring him down intently.
'This is my goal, and I'll charge toward it with a heart ready to burst—now and always.'
'I've chosen you as my navigator for this voyage. If you're just going to spout soft nonsense, get out.'
'I need someone who'll go all the way with me.'
For some reason, it stirred memories of his past.
Before the production director had it out for him. Before he'd launched two hit shows. Even before those agonizing assistant director days.
Back in his fresh-out-of-college early days at the company, brimming with passion, convinced he could do anything.
"..."
Vice President Cha tore up the resignation letter he'd drafted and tossed it in the trash. He flipped open his notebook and began scribbling furiously.
Vice President Cha was discharged about a week later.
Even though they'd offered him paid leave to rest up afterward, he reported straight back to work.
Miley and I welcomed him at TS Media.
"Good morning, Chairman."
His eyes sparkled brighter than before as he greeted us, then dragged in the whiteboard like old times.
"I spent my hospital stay rethinking our streaming strategy."
He brimmed with far more passion than last time.
Maybe I could afford to get my hopes up a little.
"Let's hope this one's closer to the mark."
He replied with brimming confidence.
"You won't be disappointed."
And there he went, writing "nuke" again. Was he still on about that nuke explanation or whatever?
"Still on that nuke thing, huh."
"It's a bit different. I'm still planning viral marketing around the nuke rumors, but no dedicated explanation stream. That kind of promo's just for the domestic crowd anyway."
Domestic crowd.
I let my lips quirk up slightly at that.
"Hmm."
"Building on your earlier reprimand, I figured you aim to be the 'world's top internet broadcaster'—not just Korea, but global markets."
"And?"
"'Top' is too vague as a goal, so I quantified it."
He scrawled two numbers on the whiteboard.
8,000,000 (World peak concurrent viewers average)
310,000,000 (World YouTube subscriber rank #1)
"Individual streamer records, that is."
"What about peak viewers?"
He shook his head.
"That's practically impossible. Over 200 million. How do you top the live stream viewership from the Beijing revolution?"
Fair point. I hadn't expected that either.
Unless I'd brought my otherworldly powers back intact—which I hadn't—how could anyone match a national collapse broadcast?
Vice President Cha's declaration snapped me out of it.
"To surpass those numbers, we must go global. Korea alone won't cut it. But we can build a solid base domestically first."
"Hmm."
True enough. Korea had a decent population, after all.
"And here's my analysis."
He handed us a thick stack of documents. Bold letters on the cover read:
Strategy for #1 in the Korean Internet Broadcasting Industry
"I leveraged my connections for data from an external research firm and analyzed it. Not a long study, but I think this is our best path."
I read through it slowly.
Incredibly detailed for something prepped in a hospital. The depth and content showed how hard he'd worked.
Flipping pages, one phrase caught my eye. Spotting it, Vice President Cha's eyes lit up.
"Per the roadmap, your debut stream showcases overwhelming physical prowess in a game. And the game is..."
Soul Frame.
Soul Frame.
After the V-BAT era, the gaming world exploded with virtual reality titles, plunging into a warring states period of chaos.
Even owning a popular IP from the old days didn't guarantee legend status anymore. Not if it didn't mesh with VR.
Game companies collapsed or got absorbed, new ones sprang up in the gaps, and amid the mess, masterpieces shone like stars.
Soul Frame was one such gem.
It mashed battle royale roots from PC days with VR's wild, exhilarating action and a roster of unique heroes like in an AOS—everything delicious thrown together in one pot.
And damn, it was tasty!
That's why Soul Frame dominated globally.
'We absolutely have to start with Soul Frame.'
I licked my lips, recalling Vice President Cha's words.
Great gameplay aside, its parent company's VR tech prowess was legendary.
They'd basically launched the studio to flex their tech.
Hence the heroes loaded with gimmicky features: perfect tech demos, but trash-tier in practice.
Overpowered on paper, but impossible for normal players to handle.
Minder was prime trash-tier.
A telekinetic hero with genius-level intellect and cognition—ignore the fluff, its gimmick boiled down to one thing.
Cognitive Acceleration.
A tech discovered in VR's early days.
Full-dive VR meant direct brain I/O, which let them map human cognition.
Scientists took it further.
'So we can accelerate thinking speed too, right?'
'Won't that fry the brain?'
'Screw it, let's do it.'
Thanks to those mad scientists tormenting lab cats, humans could now think faster. But it wasn't super useful—prolonged use cooked your brain.
Gaming used it for single-player cinematics. Online? Forget it. Unilateral brain-boost in real-time multiplayer? Torture an alien maybe.
Yet Soul Frame's Minder pulled it off.
Well, barely—they nailed the online implementation.
No Soul Frame player wielded Cognitive Acceleration properly. Hardly anyone even picked Minder. It was troll bait, not entertainment.
Until just now.
*Ting!*
The ranked queue popped, and four players materialized in the lobby, decked in their hero suits or paid skins, eyeing each other's picks.
One did a double-take.
"...What the hell, Minder?"
Like invoking Voldemort, all three heads snapped my way at the name.
"Fuck!"
"Ah, troll pick again?"
Three enraged cries rang out in unison. Fair reaction. But the language...
Tongue-pulling time?
I couldn't respond, though.
'Reveal the Chairman's gender at a key moment later. Don't say anything.'
Vice President Cha insisted silence helped the mystery. Miley agreed—something about allure in secrecy.
Hence the mask hiding my face: a cute yellow bear-head costume from gacha pulls. Cost me about 400,000 won. Stingy drop rates.
"Ugh, even the costume's trash..."
"Bear-head, you nuts?"
Insulting my hard-earned adorable yellow bear mask? Rage bubbled up. But concept is king. I wrote "" three times mentally to calm down.
Carry and done, right?
"Hey, say something?"
"Someone just dodge already."
I gazed at my confused lambs and recalled Vice President Cha's advice.
'But how do you communicate with teammates? It's a team game.'
'Uh...'
After much deliberation, his brilliant solution:
'Just activate Cognitive Acceleration and chat?'
I triggered it instantly.
The world froze—everything halted, time itself grinding to a standstill. No real strain, though. I pulled up a virtual keyboard via external program and hammered away.
"What're you doing? Turn on voice chat. Speak up."
"Talking about streaming? Bullshit."
"What streamer throws games? I'll spam reports if we lose. For real."