The Art of Generating Screen Time
The plan to send Stau away ultimately failed. Before leaving, Kim Tae-san asked about various things regarding the Uruk region. Since Tae-hyun was currently one of the players who knew the Uruk region best! Tae-hyun, who had been answering his questions one by one, grew annoyed and said,
"Why don't you just pay for the information? There are plenty of guys selling it."
"You punk. I'm going to buy that too after asking you. Everything has its pros and cons..."
Saying so, Kim Tae-san opened a website and scrolled through the list of Pan-On information sellers. Tae-hyun thought he saw his own alias at the very top of the list, but he didn't say anything.
Click. Kim Tae-san clicked the pre-order button.
"There's nothing else to watch out for, right?"
"Ah. If you want to get along well there, I think it would be best for you to join the Archisus Church."
"What? Bwahahaha!"
Kim Tae-san thought Tae-hyun was joking.
"You punk. If you want me and my friends to believe in the Archisus Church, say, 'Father, please.' Then I'll think about it."
"No, really, it would be better if you believed in it."
"Forget it. I heard the Phytos Church is all the rage these days."
"......?"
"Why?"
"It's nothing."
Kim Tae-san really had no idea. He had no clue that the Archisus Church was thriving so much in the Uruk region!
"I really don't want to do this."
"You're joking, right? This is so exciting... Sorry."
Cain had thought Tae-hyun was joking, but after making eye contact, he quietly shut his mouth. A filming crew had arrived at their lodging.
"We should be playing the game and practicing at this hour... grumble, grumble... Other teams are publicly announcing they're targeting me, but a guy like Cain is just happy about being on TV..."
"......"
He was clearly muttering to himself, but strangely, every single word pierced straight into Cain's ears!
"N-No. I've been practicing hard lately too..."
"He says he's practicing, but he doesn't coordinate with the team, and he just plays around when he should be practicing skills... grumble, grumble..."
"Hey! Just say it to my face instead!"
Cain shouted in frustration. Hearing it muttered like that was far more agonizing. Meanwhile, the PD approached them and spoke.
"Haha, you two really get along well."
"We do?!"
Cain asked back, utterly dumbfounded. Are his eyes just for decoration?!
But the PD lightly brushed it off and said,
"Don't feel pressured. Just show us your daily life very naturally."
"Like Cain picking his nose?"
"W-When did I ever?!"
The PD ignored him once again. As a veteran PD who had grown old in the broadcasting industry, he had a knack for ignoring useless chatter.
"We'll extract the entertainment value, so you don't need to feel pressured! Just be completely natural! That's the key! There are so many fans who are incredibly curious about what you do!"
The PD's eyes burned with hot passion! Tae-hyun thought to himself, His eyes look a bit like a pervert's.
The PD was confident. Confident that he could make any kind of daily life entertaining! The people appearing on the show didn't need to do much. They just had to naturally show their daily lives that people were curious about. And even then, not just anyone could do it. It had to be someone everyone was interested in.
"Alright. Shall we take a look?"
Rubbing his palms together, the PD began reviewing the footage. Thirty minutes later, his face turned serious. This is really... It was incredibly boring!
First, upon waking up in the morning, Tae-hyun slouched out of bed and went to take a shower. Up to this point, it was good. As expected of someone who beat up professional athletes at the gym... no, the rumors that he worked out weren't for nothing; Tae-hyun's physique was absolute perfection. This will definitely pull in some ratings! he thought, but... everything after that was the problem.
Tae-hyun cooked and prepared meals, then shook Cain awake like a rat, woke up the others, and they ate... Actually, even up to this point, it was fine. A man who cooks was a highly popular trope! But after that, these guys climbed into their capsules and never came out. They literally didn't emerge until nightfall!
— Excuse me, do you not go outside?
— I don't have any plans...
— ...
— T-Tae-hyun, don't you go work out?
— I went yesterday.
— Still, you should go again! The gym, isn't the gym great?
— The facilities in this apartment complex are nice, so I just work out there.
— ...
It was footage that made the words "Go outside!" well up to the very back of his throat! The only usable parts were the impressive introduction of the lodging at the beginning and Tae-hyun taking his clothes off. This... no matter how much I stretch and pad it out, it'll barely make up half the airtime... Ugh... The experienced PD had a keen sense for screen time. No matter how much they dragged out the house tour, the shower, and the cooking, half an episode was the absolute limit! Ultimately, the PD stepped forward again.
"Everyone! Let's do something, anything!"
"Wait, didn't you say we just had to be natural?"
"Normal people naturally go outside!"
"Well... our job is playing games..."
"Other pro gamers have appeared on broadcasts a few times, but none of them stay inside as much as you guys do!"
Since Tae-hyun wasn't cooperating, the PD shifted his target. "Cain! Let's do something. Don't you have any reason to go out? Any appointments? Plans? Call a friend! Don't you have any pro gamer friends?"
"Uh... I don't have any friends..."
"......"
"......"
An awkward silence instantly filled the room. Choi Sang-yun and Jeong Su-hyeok couldn't even bring themselves to look at Cain.
"W-Why are you looking at me like that?"
"No. It's nothing."
Actually, Cain could have just called Ha-yeon of Five Girls, with whom he often played Pan-On. That would have created the perfect picture-perfect scene the PD wanted! However, Cain didn't even think of it. If the PD had known, he would have beaten his chest in sheer frustration! With neither Choi Sang-yun nor Jeong Su-hyeok coming up with anyone suitable, the PD desperately racked his brain. He couldn't just let this golden opportunity slip away. Brain power, fully activated!
"Ah!!!"
"......?"
"Let's bring in Lee Se-yeon!"
It was such a brilliant idea that he wondered why he hadn't thought of it sooner! The PD slapped his knee, thoroughly impressed with himself.
"?!?!"
Of course, from Tae-hyun's perspective, it wasn't a brilliant idea, but an utterly absurd one.
"Me?"
"Yeah."
"Why???"
"Exactly."
"...I'm only helping because we're under the same agency."
"Right..."
Click. Tae-hyun hung up the phone and groaned in agony. Damn it, why do I have to ask Lee Se-yeon for a favor!
— No, let's just go to the gym! If we go to the gym and I beat up all the athletes there, we'll get plenty of footage! Let's go! Let's go beat them up!
Tae-hyun said this with a straight face, uttering words that would have absolutely terrified the athletes at Yang's Gym!
— That sounds great too! Let's do that, and we'll call Lee Se-yeon as well!
— Why on earth! Why call Lee Se-yeon! She has a terrible personality, so if we bring her here, we're just going to fight!
— Fighting is even better! Tae-hyun! It's my lifelong wish! I'll even overlook the fact that you promised to play Pan-On with me and then tried to run away!
— You noticed that? Well, damn...
With everyone from the PD to the entire filming crew clinging to him and begging, Tae-hyun could no longer hold out.
"Ugh... Groan... Argh..."
"Hey, isn't it a good thing if Lee Se-yeon comes? Why are you acting like this?"
"Do you want to die?"
"Eep..."
Cain had spoken up for no reason, only to shrink back under Tae-hyun's murderous glare. Choi Sang-yun shook his head and said,
"He's suffered a lot at Lee Se-yeon's hands, so he probably doesn't want to owe her a favor."
"He suffered a lot at Lee Se-yeon's hands?"
Cain tilted his head. No matter how he thought about it, it seemed like Lee Se-yeon was the one with a massive grudge against Tae-hyun...
"She's here!"
"So, what am I supposed to do?"
Opening the door and stepping inside, Lee Se-yeon looked around. She knew he was well-off, but he was seriously wealthy! To think they were using a place like this as their team lodging!
Oh. Is this an opportunity to spy on my rivals? My conscience is pricking me a little bit...
Lee Se-yeon hesitated slightly. Should she reveal her gaming team affiliation now? If it were any other opponent, she wouldn't have cared about fair play or underhanded tactics and would have just gone her own way. But with Tae-hyun, the story was a bit different. She absolutely wanted to crush him fair and square... no, she wanted to win!
"Welcome..."
"......"
Lee Se-yeon stared at Tae-hyun with a lukewarm expression. He was the one who had called her over, yet his face practically screamed, I really don't want to do this!
Hmm. I should just spy on him without saying anything.
There was absolutely no need to be nice to this guy! Lee Se-yeon cleanly gave up on that idea and flashed a radiant smile. Her broadcast-ready smile!
At that, Tae-hyun flinched and took a step back.
"What's with that wicked smile?"
"......"
When pro gamers gathered, there really wasn't much to talk about. Especially if most of those pro gamers were homebodies who rarely went outside!
"...Wait, is it really okay if we only talk about the game?"
Lee Se-yeon asked in a low voice, conscious of the cameras. They had been gathered for a while now, doing nothing but talking about Pan-On. What the Guild Alliance would do next, the newly opened undersea kingdom, the upcoming tournament...
Is this really okay?
"They said it's fine. If it weren't, they'd stop us."
"If you're doing a broadcast, you should have some responsibility!"
"Shouldn't the person who called me here be the one taking responsibility?"
"How can you even say that...!"
Watching Lee Se-yeon and Tae-hyun bicker, the PD nodded with a satisfied grin. They're generating screen time all on their own!
"What are we going to do after chatting like this?"
"I was thinking we could go to the gym and beat up the people there..."
"......?"
For a moment, Lee Se-yeon wondered what on earth Tae-hyun was talking about. What was this guy even saying?
"Anyway, let's get back to talking about Pan-On. Oh, right. Come to think of it, aren't you preparing for the tournament? Which team did you say you joined?"
Tae-hyun casually probed Lee Se-yeon. His target: the training methods of other gaming teams!
I've realized this lately, but there's no point in me being the only good one. I have to drag Cain along too...
Of course, Lee Se-yeon was cold.
"It's a secret."
"What's so secret about that... It's not like there are many gaming teams that could recruit you anyway. It must be one of the major ones."
It is a major one...
Just looking at the scale of the sponsoring parent company, the Yuseong Gaming Team was second to none.
"You're already preparing for the tournament, right?"
"I told you, it's a secret. Hmph."
"So you are preparing."
As Tae-hyun kept pressing, Lee Se-yeon shrugged and answered. This wasn't really something worth hiding anyway.
"Of course. Everyone is practicing their coordination right now, aiming for the dungeon raid tournament at the beginning of the month..."
"......"
Tae-hyun quietly shut his mouth. He had just remembered the bizarre events that had unfolded the last time they tried to coordinate in a dungeon.
"You saw the other teams' practice videos, right? They secured guild-exclusive dungeons and kept running them as time attacks. There might be differences in degree, but that's the basic standard."
A major gaming team naturally possessed their own in-game guild. Their guild hunting grounds or dungeons naturally served as practice fields to prepare for tournaments!
"Are you doing that too?"
"Of course. My guild knows a few dungeons of our own."
As the guild leader of an elite guild, Lee Se-yeon had several secret dungeons known only to them.
"Will you lend them to me?"
"Are you insane?"
"Tsk."
"Besides, you have your own territory, so why are you asking to borrow mine? You can just run the dungeons near your territory."
"Mmm..."
His territory was gradually improving, but it didn't have any extremely difficult dungeons. Of course, since players were constantly clearing quests nearby and active in the territory, more might be discovered later, but the important thing was right now!
"Should I borrow someone else's dungeon..."
"...How did the conversation even flow in that direction?"