Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: Explosive Interest!
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Explosive Interest!
As proof of this, numerous donations and comments poured in, along with requests for a live stream.
It wasn't the reaction they had expected, but at the same time, it wasn't an entirely surprising phenomenon.
Lee Shin's upload schedule was quite long, and the content itself was the type that would shine even brighter with viewer participation.
In a way, the subscribers' request for a live stream was a natural next step.
It was just that the demand had come much sooner than Lee Shin and Arthur had anticipated.
- A live stream?
- Yeah. The content seems perfect for a live stream.
└ If he streams, will he take missions? Like, kill a person someone wants dead for a certain price.
└ Ooh, I like that.
└ That's insane, this is it lolololol
- But won't he be in big trouble if he streams live? Feels like he's already made more than a few enemies.
└ Read the room, dude; he'll figure it out himself.
└ I agree
└ lol I dunno, just stream already~
└ The three guys above are so irresponsible lololol So, when are you streaming, bro?
The overwhelming majority of reactions were ones of anticipation.
Of course, there was no guarantee this anticipation would translate directly into viewership, but receiving so much attention wasn't a bad thing.
It meant that, at the very least, everyone would watch the first stream with interest.
Depending on what Lee Shin did then, he could either lose all the viewers who tuned in or turn them into his regular audience.
If Lee Shin ever considered becoming a streamer, this would be a pretty good start!
However, it would be a while before Lee Shin saw any of this.
* * *
“Should we call it a day?”
“Yes.”
The sound that marked the end of the work.
Lee Shin stood up from his seat and stretched his shoulders.
*Crack!*
The sound of his joints popping.
Having sat in the same position for so long, his shoulders and lower back were stiff.
As Lee Shin moved around to loosen his numb body, the Western painting students approached him.
“Good work. Is your back okay?”
“I'm fine.”
“We're about to go get dinner. Want to come with? My treat.”
“What do you like to eat?”
A casual dinner invitation.
At this, Jeong Yu-ra, who was cleaning up her spot, could be seen flinching in surprise.
“Ah, um…”
Jeong Yu-ra stepped forward, trying to help in some way.
But before she could say anything, Lee Shin shook his head.
“I can't today.”
Normally, he wouldn't care much whether he went or not.
Since he was already doing something far more unpleasant, joining them for a meal afterward was no trouble at all.
But today, there was a real reason he couldn't.
“You can't? Why?”
“I have a prior engagement.”
“Without Yu-ra?”
“Pardon?”
Lee Shin tilted his head.
*What does that mean?*
“I'm going to the hospital, so why…?”
“The hospital? Oh, I see!”
“You should definitely go to the hospital. Are you sick?”
“Not sick, just… I'm going for a check-up. Sorry about the invitation.”
“No, no. Nothing to be sorry about. Alright. See you tomorrow!”
The 'fossils' turned away, their expressions noticeably brighter at Lee Shin's response.
Lee Shin also exchanged brief goodbyes before parting with the group.
* * *
After parting with Jeong Yu-ra's group, Lee Shin arrived at the hospital where Jeong Hui-seon worked.
Everyone had assumed it was a health check-up and misunderstood on their own, but it was actually a psychiatric consultation.
“Name? Have you checked in?”
Lee Shin answered the receptionist's question.
“Lee Shin. No, I have an appointment.”
“Lee Shin… Ah, Professor Kim Dong-wan in Psychiatry.”
“Yes.”
“Please go up to the 7th floor and wait.”
“Okay.”
A familiar procedure, a familiar space.
And within it, a familiar person.
Upon entering Jeong Hui-seon's office, Lee Ji-a turned to look at Lee Shin, just as she always did.
“Hi.”
“Yeah.”
A short greeting.
Afterward, Lee Shin sat down a good distance away and picked up his phone.
He didn't really have anything to do, but he did it on purpose because if he just sat there doing nothing, the other person would usually feel more restless.
Simply put, it was his way of saying, 'I'm focused on something else, so you don't need to worry about me.'
A consideration, in his own way.
Or perhaps, a learned social skill.
But there was no need for it.
Surprisingly, today, the other person spoke to him first, before he could even get distracted.
“Um.”
“What? …No, yeah?”
He answered reflexively, and a moment later.
Lee Shin looked up, startled.
It was because this was almost the first time in his life that she had initiated a conversation.
‘What is it?’
Moreover, the question that followed was just as far from Lee Shin's expectations.
“What?”
“……”
“What is it? If you have something to say, say it.”
“Is the game fun?”
“Huh…?”
A question that came out of nowhere, with no context.
Lee Shin blinked.
But he soon collected himself and asked back.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden? What game?”
“The one you play.”
“Avala Online?”
“Yeah.”
“…Well, obviously I play it because it's fun, right?”
Lee Shin nodded as if asking why she would even ask such a thing.
He wasn't the type of person who could ever pour so much time into something that wasn't fun.
If the game itself hadn't been fun, he would have switched to another one long ago.
Lee Ji-a gave a small nod.
“I see.”
“But why? You want to play too?”
“……”
Lee Shin's question.
For some reason, Lee Ji-a didn't answer.
Instead, after a long pause, she asked a question of her own.
“Can I play it too?”
“Why not? You just have to play.”
“It's scary.”
“What's scary about it?”
“What if I die? Or get hit.”
“……?”
However, for Lee Shin, it was a question whose intent was rather difficult to grasp.
Lee Shin tilted his head and asked back.
“By whom? Other players?”
“Yeah.”
“It's a game, so what does it matter? Why is that scary?”
“It feels real.”
“It feels real, but it isn't real. Just think of it as everything resetting the moment you get out of the capsule.”
“……But what if it's still scary even if I think that?”
“Then you can't play the game… No, wait.”
Lee Shin, who had been answering reflexively, took back what he was about to say after seeing her expression.
Lee Ji-a's expression was more serious than he had thought.
As if she were finally voicing a concern she had held for a long time.
‘Did something happen?’
A question arose in Lee Shin's mind.
Of course, no matter how much he pondered, he couldn't figure out why she was worried about such things.
It wasn't like he knew her situation well.
He could only guess that maybe she'd seen a YouTube video of high-level players slaughtering beginners.
But whatever the reason, there was still some time left before his consultation.
Lee Shin thought about it seriously in his own way before answering.
If she was that scared of getting beaten by other players.
There was only one way.
“What is it?”
“You just have to get stronger. Strong enough that you don't get hit by others.”
“How?”
“By spending time or money. Or both. …No, wait, you have plenty of both, don't you?”
“……”
“The circumstances are perfect. You might as well play the game if you have nothing else to do. You're just at home all the time anyway, you must be bored.”
A statement that precariously mixed rudeness and kindness!
No, if one had to choose, rudeness was more dominant.
Saying 'It's a great setup for you to play games since you're always at home' to someone who can't even go outside much due to a mental illness was something impossible unless one's empathy meter was completely shattered.
If anyone else who knew Lee Shin had been there, they might have been so shocked they'd have to take a second look at him.
However.
“Really?”
Lee Ji-a didn't seem particularly offended.
It was because she already knew well enough that there was no malice in his words.
Of course, it wasn't that they were filled with goodwill either, but she didn't expect that much from others anyway.
Since she didn't expect it, there was nothing to be disappointed about.
Lee Ji-a nodded, looking satisfied.
“Thanks for telling me.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.”
“……”
“Is that all?”
“If… I start playing the game too…”
“Yeah.”
“Ah, never mind.”
“……???”
Ji-a hastily ended the conversation.
* * *
A week passed by quickly.
And during that time, many things happened.
“Done!”
“Good work.”
“Will you come again if we call you next time?”
“Ah, yes. Of course.”
“……Really?”
“No.”
The Western painting students' project was finished.
He also went to the hospital for his consultation.
And in the meantime, Lee Shin finished studying for his exams.
Most importantly, a lot had happened within the game.
After logging into the game, Lee Shin immediately checked the messages from Dokgo and Tae-yoon.
[You have 17 unread messages.]
[Would you like to check them now?]
Even while busy with other things, he had been logging in every day to check, but that many new messages had arrived in just one day.
The content could be briefly summarized as follows.
Victory in the territory war.
The enemy lord was safely captured and imprisoned.
Perhaps as an aftereffect of the victory, the number of players is continuously increasing. This doesn't seem to be a temporary phenomenon and is expected to continue.
It seems we can win the remaining territory wars without the territory's support.
Simply put, it meant, 'We won, and our forces are sufficient, so we don't need your help!'
It seemed they had reaped a sweet amount of contribution points from the first territory war they finished without the territory's help.
‘They're doing well.’
Lee Shin nodded in satisfaction.
Their intentions were obvious, but it wasn't a bad thing for Lee Shin at all.
Both Dokgo and Tae-yoon had experience running large-scale guilds, so they were surprisingly skilled at commanding such a large punitive force.
Thanks to them, they had won the territory war more stably than Lee Shin had expected and had even safely secured the subsequent lords.
Jeong Yu-ra asked.
“But why did you tell them to capture the lords?”
“Because of a quest. I'll gather them up for now and kill them all at once later.”
“Ah…”
The Noble Slaying quest.
He had to kill a whopping 100 of them to clear it, so he couldn't let a single one slip by.
And he had to secure this much for himself so that Dokgo and Tae-yoon wouldn't suspect him, thinking, 'Why is he giving us so much?'
In any case.
Seeing how well Dokgo and Tae-yoon were doing, it seemed fine to leave the territory without worrying about what would happen in his absence.
Lee Shin was lost in thought.
‘Where should I go now?’
“Oh, but hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“There's something I need to tell you first, about the video you uploaded this time. It got a lot of comments.”
“They always get a lot.”
“That's true, but this time they're a bit different in nature, so I thought I should let you know.”
“……?”
*Different in nature?*
Lee Shin snapped out of his thoughts and said.
“Show me.”
“Yes.”
Arthur shared his screen with Lee Shin.
And on that screen, there were quite a lot of comments demanding a live stream from Lee Shin.
There were about twice as many comments as the previous video.
Moreover.
[Zia has donated 1,000,000 won.]
[I'm cheering for you. By the way, are you thinking of streaming live?]
“This person knows how to say other things.”
“I know, right. Are they trying to become a manager?”
“What's a manager?”
“It's like an admin…”
Even the big spender who always donated in the hundreds of thousands was interested in whether Lee Shin would stream live.
To Lee Shin's question of why this was happening, Arthur thought for a moment before answering.
“I think it's because our upload schedule is so long.”
“Because the schedule is long?”
“We only upload one a week.”
“Is that not a lot?”
“It's not a lot, is it?”
Usually, creators with this kind of upload schedule also stream.
In fact, it's more common for the stream to be the main thing, with the channel being run to draw people to the live broadcasts.
But since Lee Shin didn't stream and only uploaded one short video a week, the topic had finally come up.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes.”
“So what do we do?”
“The best thing would be to start streaming like they said, but that'll be difficult for now…”
So, he suggested it would be better to increase the number of videos.
“Will that work?”
“It's the next best thing. For now, we should just maintain this level of interest, and you can think about streaming later when you're stronger.”
“I see. Then how many more do I need to film?”
“Uh… well? The more, the better, I guess?”
“……Hmm.”
The more he filmed, the better.
But the number of videos Lee Shin could film himself was limited.
He had already made many enemies, and revealing too much information about himself could cause problems later.
Thus, the best method wasn't for Lee Shin to appear.
He had even gotten a promise for an appearance.
Lee Shin's gaze shifted to the side.
“……? Why me?”