Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Partnership Contract
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Ultimately, after succeeding in taking down the boss on exactly the 77th try last night, I received 500,000 won as mission pay from the chairman and was able to end the stream.
The next day arrived.
"...Wow, it's huge."
A little past noon, after having lunch, I arrived at the meeting spot, and right in front of me stood a massive building.
This was none other than Aver's headquarters. As I mentioned toward the end of yesterday's stream, they had reached out first with a meeting proposal, which brought me here.
From what I'd heard, after the Tweet service shutdown notice went up not long ago, they had prioritized invitations to meetings for major streamers, followed by sequential contacts to those who had been Tweet partner streamers.
I was one of them, apparently.
Having come out for the first time in ages outside of gym visits, I made it to the front of Aver's headquarters, but the sight of the building alone was enough to make me feel intimidated. Major corporations really were on another level.
Gulp.
After swallowing hard to shake off the tension, I adjusted the bag on my back and finally managed to step toward the building.
Ugh, so intimidating.
Once inside, I saw a neatly arranged interior led by the central reception desk. It wasn't overly flashy or plain—it just screamed money well spent.
"Excuse me. I have a meeting today."
After glancing around briefly, I approached the reception desk and cautiously spoke up. The female employee, who had been staring blankly at me for a moment, reacted with a startled 'Ah!' a beat late.
Maybe she was zoned out from work fatigue. I get it—that feeling.
"Yes, excuse me, but could you tell me who your meeting is scheduled with?"
"It's with Assistant Manager Kim Sungmin from the Social Media Team."
"Ah, in that case, are you here for the Cheeze streamer meeting?"
"Yes, that's right."
I nodded, and the employee diligently typed something on her computer before opening a drawer and handing me what looked like an employee ID badge to wear around my neck.
"Please wear this and head to the Social Media Team 2 on the right corridor on the third floor."
"Ah, thank you. Have a great day."
Following the habit I'd learned from my dad, I greeted her with the biggest smile I could muster. She looked a bit surprised at first, then smiled back and waved.
Having to smile like that at everyone you meet—service jobs aren't easy either.
"Ah...!"
Soon, I reached the elevators, just in time to see someone stepping into one that had arrived on the first floor ahead of schedule.
If I missed it, my plan to arrive at least ten minutes early would be thrown off, so with a sigh, I broke into a full sprint.
"Whoa!"
Luckily, spotting me, a man inside hurriedly pressed the open button with a startled reaction. Thanks to that, I avoided the disaster of getting stuck in the doors and causing a scene.
"Huff, huff... Thank you."
Panting as I expressed my gratitude, the man in his mid-to-late thirties, who looked down at me with a wry smile, waved it off.
"No problem. Judging by your badge, you're here for a streamer meeting, right?"
"Ah, yes... Huh?"
As I nodded with my hands on my knees, the voice filtering into my ears felt strangely familiar, making me snap my head up like my neck might break.
Ding.
At the same time, the elevator announced its arrival on the third floor. I stumbled out and stared intently at the man in front of me.
It wasn't that I had a thing for guys or anything—the voice I'd just heard was way too familiar.
"Um... You're Exit, aren't you?"
Exit.
A top-tier heavyweight streamer in the Korean streaming scene, one of the top five fingers you could count on. He boasted an overwhelming fandom thanks to his uniquely high energy and massive self-produced content.
He was known to be in his mid-to-late thirties, and like me, he'd stuck to no-cam streams from the start, so his face remained shrouded in mystery to the public.
He was also the streamer I'd watched the most before starting my own broadcasts.
"Haha, that's me. How'd you know?"
No sooner had he confirmed it than my eyes widened in disbelief at my half-doubting question.
No way, the real Exit?
"I'm a huge fan. I never imagined I'd run into you here... It's an honor."
"Aw, the honor's mine."
I'd heard he picked up various dialects from traveling around different regions as a kid, but I hadn't expected his real-life speech to carry that vibe so strongly.
Wow, it's really him. Hard to believe.
"Ah, I'm Cosmo from Tweet. Sorry for the late introduction."
"Nice to meet you. Cosmo, right? The one who does a lot of advice segments on your stream?"
"You know me?"
"Of course. My wife watches you pretty often."
Whoa, Exit's wife is a regular viewer of my stream?
Since he even knew what kind of content I did, it didn't feel like empty flattery.
Is this a dream or reality?
"Anyway, let's save the chat for later and head to our meetings first. We don't want to keep others waiting."
"Ah! S-Sorry. I got a bit carried away..."
Lost in a celebrity-sighting daze, Exit urged me onward and headed down the corridor first.
Chasing after him, we reached the sign for Social Media Team 2, where our eyes met with a male employee passing by.
"Oh, come on in! Exit and Cosmo, right?"
He instantly recognized us and greeted us enthusiastically. This must be Assistant Manager Kim Sungmin, the one I was supposed to meet.
"Yes, that's us."
"First time meeting."
"I didn't expect you two to arrive together. Thrilled to meet you both. I'm Assistant Manager Kim Sungmin."
The employee bowed in greeting and gestured toward another door nearby, looking at Exit.
"Exit's meeting handler will be out soon. We've got refreshments in the conference room next door, so please make yourselves comfortable inside."
"Ah, thank you. Then I'll head in first..."
Apparently meetings were one-on-one, so Exit entered the conference room for his session with another staff member.
After watching until the end, Assistant Manager Kim Sungmin led me to another small room next to the break room labeled as such. One corridor with this many rooms—what gives?
"Allow me to reintroduce myself. I'm Assistant Manager Kim Sungmin, assigned to Social Media Team 2. I'm also handling partnership contract management for the upcoming Cheeze platform launch."
We entered a room boasting a table with simple refreshments and a spotless interior. He handed me his business card and began his proper introduction.
I stood from my seat, bowed, and greeted him properly in return.
"I'm Kang Wooju. On Tweet, I go by the nickname Cosmo."
"Ah, right—you mentioned your streamer name comes from your real name, didn't you?"
"You knew that?"
"Haha. For someone we might owe a debt to in the future, it's only natural we'd know the basics."
His friendly tone from the start honestly surprised me a little.
Objectively speaking, I was just an average streamer with around 300 viewers—nothing special.
Not like Exit with his thousands to tens of thousands of viewers, nor some skyrocketing supernova streamer.
I hadn't expected such an earnest invitation to join their platform.
"Have a seat and let's talk comfortably."
"Sure."
It felt a bit burdensome, but at the same time, being treated this way was oddly exhilarating.
"To be straightforward... We'd like to offer you a partnership."
Trying not to get ahead of myself, I sat as invited, and the real discussion began.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Roll. Roll.
On a rare day off, leaving the company to the staff, I was rolling around on the bed at home.
The anxiety bubbling up in my chest was getting harder to suppress.
And for good reason—this was the day of Cosmo's new platform meeting.
"He's doing fine, right...?"
Hugging a large pillow, I muttered to myself—maybe directed at someone, maybe not—but the unease didn't fade.
I just can't stop worrying.
From what I'd heard, they'd called in everyone with partner status on Tweet, but a platform like Cheeze would only truly want a select few streamers.
Whether Cosmo was among them was something even I couldn't guarantee.
'The partnership terms are pretty solid. The question is whether that offer goes to Cosmo.'
As far as I knew, Cheeze's partnership contracts operated differently from Tweet's.
From revenue splits to perks—nothing extraordinary, but solid enough not to feel lacking. At least, if Cosmo got it, it'd be great fertilizer for his stream's growth.
I'd even considered pulling strings at the company to make the deal happen, but it felt like that wasn't what Cosmo wanted, so I held back.
From what he said on stream sometimes, he didn't seem fond of achieving things through others' help.
As a fan, all I could do was trust and wait for my favorite streamer.
"Ugh...!"
Flap.
But worrying was unavoidable, it seemed.
After thrashing around on the covers for a while, I kicked off the blanket and pillow, shot to my feet, and headed straight to the shower.
Yeah, just a quick peek. I already hinted to Cosmo that I knew someone at Aver, so even if we bumped into each other, it wouldn't be weird. I could just say I was visiting a friend.
Having rationalized it to myself, I turned on the shower and let the warm water pour over me as I closed my eyes.
I want to see Cosmo as soon as possible.