A Million Views and a Broken Server
The members of the Midas Guild were utterly dumbfounded. They couldn't believe their ears.
There was no way Polle had laughed!
Who was Polle? He was the brilliant strategist who had always led the Midas Guild with absolute calm and composure! Even when the highly eccentric mage rankers bickered among themselves, a single word from Polle was enough to make everyone stop and listen. The guild members both respected and feared him...
"Ahem."
Polle cleared his throat and adjusted his expression as if nothing had happened.
I must have misheard, right?
Of course. There's no way Lord Polle actually laughed.
Only middle-aged men with completely corrupted minds would laugh at a dad joke like that!
Pat.
"??"
The Orc Ahjussis walked over and clapped their hands onto Polle's shoulders.
"W-What are you doing?"
"Just now... you laughed, didn't you?"
"I did not."
"No! You definitely laughed."
"Do you actually... like our jokes?"
"!"
Polle grimaced, trying to swat their hands away. But the Orc Ahjussis were not so easily deterred. Once they bit, they never let go!
"Why did the banana go to the doctor? Because it wasn't peeling well..."
"Urgh!"
"Do you find us... appealing?"
"Argh!"
"Look, his lips are twitching."
"You really connect with us, don't you?"
"Stop talking nonsense!"
Polle shoved the Orc Ahjussis away and quickly backed up to put some distance between them.
But the Orc Ahjussis refused to give up, shouting after him.
"Young man! We won't give up on you!"
"That's right! Our guild needs people who can laugh with us! Kids these days always ignore our jokes!"
"..."
Polle covered his ears and fled to do his daily quests.
However, the Orc Ahjussis watched him go with burning, passionate eyes.
I will absolutely recruit you into our circle!
And so, starting the very next day, the Orc Ahjussis' persistent recruitment campaign began.
"The Lich wasn't a boss monster? It was just a territory NPC? What kind of territory is that?!"
The Midas Guild was dumbfounded by the report, but they had no time to hesitate. This was a race to see who could complete the quest first. They had to move instead of wasting time being shocked.
"Everyone, move! All guild members who are free, lead your parties and join the quest to subjugate the Necromancers or the evil cults!"
It was a textbook strategy. They would strike first and eliminate any forces capable of resurrecting Nevuchadnezzar. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a perfectly sound plan.
If only they weren't dealing with Kim Tae-hyun and Lee Se-yeon...
"We have an urgent report! Kim Tae-hyun and Lee Se-yeon are currently leading a massive coalition expedition to the harbor!"
"...?!"
At the sudden news, the Midas Guild members turned on the broadcasts in a panic. Thousands of personal streams were all broadcasting this massive expedition.
"Can you see this? This incredible crowd! It's no exaggeration to say this is the largest expedition in Pandemonium Online history! I, Nakin, will broadcast everything from start to finish!"
"This is the 5th Paladin Order of the Phytos Church! This mount right here is... wait, it's not just a regular horse, it has a movement speed buff and magic resistance stats..."
"There's Kim Tae-hyun! Ah! And the 4th Prince of the Erance Kingdom is there too! Rumor has it that because Kim Tae-hyun cleared so many quests in the Erance Kingdom, even the royal family is cooperating!"
"The 4th Prince and Cain are talking. What are they discussing? Surely it's about the quest!"
The claim that this was the largest expedition in Pandemonium Online history was no exaggeration. It was on a scale far grander than any quest before it!
There were various knight orders and the soldiers they brought along. There were Tae-hyun's subordinate NPCs, and the mages Lee Se-yeon had brought.
And people naturally drew more people.
As the scale grew to this magnitude, even players who initially had no interest thought, "Whoa, I have to be a part of this!" and rushed to join. A literal cloud of players trailed behind the expedition.
Of course, out of all these people, not a single soul knew that Tae-hyun and Lee Se-yeon were actually trying to resurrect Nevuchadnezzar.
Everyone simply assumed, Ah, he must be getting resurrected in the Asbian Empire!
"Ah, ah. Is it ready? Man, this feels so awkward."
"Why are you like this? You did so well on the official broadcasts."
With one minute left before the personal stream started, Lee Da-bi comforted a nervous Tae-hyun.
A personal stream that a player hosted on their own account was on a completely different level of difficulty compared to an official broadcast watched by millions. In that regard, Tae-hyun already had plenty of experience. Had he not performed spectacularly on both television networks and tournament broadcasts?
It was to the point where even now, he constantly received calls saying, "Mr. Kim Tae-hyun, now that the tournament is over, please make an appearance on our show before the league starts!"
With his immense popularity and his natural ability to make any broadcast entertaining, Tae-hyun was practically a cheat code. Every producer in the industry thought, Just one appearance from Kim Tae-hyun... Just one, and we can flip the ratings upside down!
But Tae-hyun himself didn't think much of it.
"That was only because the broadcasting stations gave me a concept to follow, so I just went along with it. For a personal stream, I have to talk all by myself. I don't have the confidence for that. Is that even fun?"
Indeed. Having finally accepted Lee Da-bi's advice, Tae-hyun had decided to start his own personal stream.
Compared to his days in Pan-On 1, this was a night-and-day transformation.
Watching this, Choi Sang-yun thought, Wow, he really has changed a lot...
"You're doing a personal stream?!" Lee Se-yeon asked from beside him, her eyes wide with surprise.
"I won't do it often, but I figured I'd try it when I have some downtime between quests."
"...You?!"
To Lee Se-yeon, the image of Tae-hyun from Pan-On 1 was still vivid. To see the man who used to play in absolute silence without even revealing his identity change like this... Even if he had formed a gaming team, entered tournaments, and run around as a representative...
I feel a little bit left out... No, what am I even thinking?
Lee Se-yeon shook her head vigorously.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing. Good luck. You got this!"
"Se-yeon. If not many people show up, could you maybe promote it a bit..."
"Do you have no conscience?!" Lee Se-yeon snapped.
How could someone be so shameless...!
"But you used my name to promote the Yuseong Gaming Team's stream too!"
"...W-Well, that's true..."
When he put it that way, she had nothing to say.
"But honestly, you don't need to worry about that. There's no way people won't watch your stream."
"Hmm. We'll have to see."
From behind them, Cain chimed in.
"Kim Tae-hyun! If there aren't enough viewers, use that method! That method!"
"That method is a bit..." Tae-hyun hesitated.
Curious, Lee Se-yeon asked, "What's 'that method'?"
"Ranking and evaluating the rankers I fought back in Pan-On 1..."
"...Hey!!!"
What a diabolical method!
After finishing his preparations, Tae-hyun cleared his throat a few times and started the broadcast.
Along with the system window, the stream window popped up, and the viewer count and chat reactions began to flood in.
"Ahem. Hello, everyone. I'm Kim Tae-hyun. Right now, I'm joined by the 100,000... huh?"
Tae-hyun blinked.
"Da-bi. Is this a glitch?"
"It's really 100,000."
"Ah. Am I allowed to talk casually during the stream?"
"Personal streams are pretty casual, so you can just speak comfortably."
"To the 100,000 viewers... wait, 200,000... no, 300,000 viewers. Right now, I am leading the expedition to the Asbian Empire. To the 500,000 viewers..."
"..."
"..."
The expressions of his companions watching from the side turned bizarre.
How was the number multiplying like that every single second?
"This really isn't a glitch?"
"No glitch."
"...I'm truly grateful for your interest... Anyway, to the 1,000,000 viewers, thank you so much for tuning in..."
When the number of viewers bookmarking his personal stream surpassed one million in less than a minute, Tae-hyun gave up trying to keep track. He decided to just ignore the numbers entirely!
From the side, Cain, who had some experience with personal streaming, offered some advice.
"The chat! Look at the chat and reply!"
"...How?"
"?"
Thousands of comments were flooding the chat every second! They were scrolling past at such a dizzying speed that even Tae-hyun's dynamic visual acuity couldn't keep up.
"...Sigh. Should I just start ranking the rankers I fought?"
At that exact moment, the stream exploded.
The personal broadcast has ended due to an overload of concurrent users.
The stream will resume once the broadcasting site's servers have been stabilized.
"..."
"..."
It was the first time in Pandemonium Online history that a personal stream had crashed.
Even if it was an external streaming site completely unrelated to the Pan-On system, to think he had actually broken the servers...!
"It crashed?"
"...I-I don't know either."
Cain was flabbergasted. Who could have ever predicted a stream crash!
"As expected, the Church's ships are the best."
"The Archisus Church's ships are basically pirate ships..."
"Shh. Tae-hyun will get hurt."
"I can hear you, you bastards."
Because Tae-hyun had swept up the Uruk pirates and integrated them into his church, the kingdom's fleet was crawling with former pirates. But considering how much gold it cost to build a single ship, there was no way Tae-hyun would let them go to waste.
Indeed, a traditional and wealthy church showed its quality in every detail. Their buildings and facilities were grand and magnificent, their NPCs were high-level and equipped with excellent gear, and their cities were calm and steeped in tradition.
In contrast, the Archisus Church's buildings and facilities were extreme and eccentric, its NPCs were low-level and half-insane, and...
Sigh. Thinking about it just makes me sad.
The ships Tae-hyun had extorted—no, borrowed—were magnificent and colossal. Equipped with various magic spells as a baseline and even fitted with magic cannons, they could easily obliterate average enemies in a naval battle without taking a single scratch!
Sometimes, Tae-hyun wondered how much easier his life would have been if the Archisus Church hadn't been a completely ruined order, but just a decent, average church on the continent.
If that were the case, he really could have just cruised through the game...
Carbanog offers you some comfort.
"Your Majesty."
"Ah. Fleming."
It was Fleming, the Archmage and Master of the Fire Magic School! He was one of the most cooperative Magic Tower masters, all thanks to Tae-hyun's authority over Sadiq's fire.
"So, have you given any more thought to joining the Archisus Church?"
"Hmm... As someone who has lived as a mage my entire life, joining a church is a bit..."
Traditionally, mages and priests did not get along. Knowing this, Fleming was hesitant, hovering on the fence.
"No, we even have Archisus Mages."
"What?! Is that true?"
"Of course. If you join, you could even become a Golden Archmage."
"..."
Fleming is horrified by the structure of the Archisus Church.
Fleming's Terror stat is rising...
"Wait, why?!"
"N-No, Your Majesty. I will think about joining a bit more..."
"Just join already!"
Tae-hyun was desperate to pull the Magic Tower into his faction. He wanted to establish a Magic Tower in the Atali Kingdom!
Meanwhile, the noble warriors from the Asbian Empire who had boarded the ship together were puzzled.
"Why hasn't the Empire sent additional reinforcements? By now, they should have arrived."
"Hmm... I see."
"What did you realize?"
"His Imperial Majesty must place absolute trust in us and His Majesty Kim Tae-hyun."
"Ah! Of course!"
The noble warriors were deeply moved.
Indeed, they were quite formidable themselves! Furthermore, the King of the Atali Kingdom was an extraordinary man. He possessed a wicked cleverness that closely resembled the young Uipoatl.
Because of that, the Emperor was showing his absolute trust in them!
The noble warriors are highly satisfied!
Their satisfaction level has increased significantly.
"...???"
Tae-hyun was baffled as he looked at the message window.
Every now and then, his subordinate NPCs would get highly satisfied and rejoice on their own, and he truly had no idea why.
It's not a bad thing... but what on earth is the reason?
Carbanog asks if they are just in a good mood because their horoscope for today is excellent.
...I don't think that's it.