Kim Hak-do Appears

December 23rd, a Friday.

It was a day that would carve a decisive line through the history of Rena World.

You might call it overblown hype, but it really was that big.

As I had said before, the influence a major-league streamer could wield in the broadcasting scene was truly enormous. Rena World had been riding a solid upward wave, yet it still got dismissed as nothing more than a private party for virtual streamers—or a backwater playhouse that could never crack the mainstream. The complete absence of any big-name streamers had definitely played a part in that snub.

And then, today, it happened.

Even if he was only dipping a toe in, Kim Hak-do—the so-called LoL President and the God of LCK broadcasts—had come to Rena World.

The visit had been announced in advance, so the communities had been buzzing since morning.

The virtual streamers were practically floating on anticipation. Wait, does this mean we finally get to stop being mindlessly ostracized and actually join the mainstream? Is that what this is?

Kim Hak-do’s fanbase, meanwhile, had their noses stuck high in the air. Looking at the situation, they were basically cast as the saviors of the hour. They swaggered around like high lords, putting on a show of magnanimous friendliness toward the virtual streamers.

Hell yeah—this is exactly why you ride with a major-league streamer’s fandom.

When the virtual streamers started enthusiastically sucking up to Kim Hak-do, his fans got carried away right along with them, heaping praise on Rena World and openly showing their excitement.

If he logs in today and delivers even one decent highlight, he could outpace the other big streamers in buzz for a while, right? Looking at it, the virtual streamers’ firepower isn’t anything to sneeze at either.

Kim Hak-do’s fans were already grinning at the thought of monopolizing the popular posts on the FM Community through collabs with the virtual streamers.

On the other side, the fanbases of other major streamers were casting distinctly unfriendly looks at this little alliance. Park Bong-sik’s fans, in particular, were seething.

Every time LCK broadcasts rolled around and they saw Kim Hak-do pulling viewer numbers that were nothing to laugh at, the competitive instinct kicked in hard. How dare he “ta-da!” Park Bong-sik in live concurrent viewers?

Fans who had fully projected their egos onto Park Bong-sik—the undisputed “King” of Pangea TV—could not tolerate any challenge that threatened that fortress.

On the FM Community, the major streamers’ fanbases put on their masks and turned the gallery into a fierce arena of combat. In that climate, Kim Hak-do’s entry into Rena World was bound to become massive news.

Kim Hak-do was blinking his usual squinty eyes, scanning the concurrent viewer count and the mood in chat the same way he always did.

With the LCK Stove League underway, the broadcast pie had shrunk noticeably. Lately Kim Hak-do had been stewing over the problem: how do you stop the stream metrics from tanking?

Truthfully, it was the same headache every year. No matter how hard you pushed solo queue streams, you could never match the popularity of LCK broadcasts. A drop in numbers during the off-season when there were no LCK matches was simply the natural order of things.

At one point he had considered visible radio content as a solution. The collab streams with Park Bong-sik had gotten a solid response. But if it was anything more than a one-off or special event, the hardcore LoL guys would never tolerate him wandering down other paths.

Those LoL hardcores were a tough, unmanageable bunch who casually asked after the other team’s parents mid-game. Kim Hak-do simply could not afford to go against the public sentiment of his core fans.

So the worry only grew deeper. How exactly was he supposed to survive this freezing off-season?

Then, out of nowhere, an unexpected option appeared for him: the Minecraft server Rena World, run by Rena-ttang as server admin.

At first he had written it off as a kids’ game that would never land on Pangea TV. Yet the viewership numbers were surprisingly decent, and it kept generating steady buzz across the communities. After watching a few days of VODs out of curiosity, Kim Hak-do decided it might not be half bad.

It billed itself as a healing server, so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠there was no need to grind anything hardcore. Rena-ttang herself had publicly said people were free to treat it like a second-part stream, which meant there was no reason for the LoL hardcores to get angry. If solo queue got too heated, he could just hop over to Rena World for a change of pace.

He had his manager send Rena-ttang a note, and the reply came back immediately with a server free pass. Not just that—Rena-ttang herself went live and spread the news all over the neighborhood: Kim Hak-do had decided to join Rena World.

And finally the day arrived. The pre-announced date of his first login to Rena World.

When Kim Hak-do casually swept his snake-like eyes over chat sentiment and the viewer count, neither looked bad. Honestly, even the LoL hardcores got sick of mindless solo queue sometimes. On those days you needed a CK match or some LoL-land fun to spice things up, but you couldn’t do that every single day. In that sense, the appearance of light second-part content was nothing but good news. If anything, he was even feeling a spark of curiosity and freshness.

This isn’t YouTube or Rabbit TV—Minecraft… on Pangea TV?

A huge amount of attention was focused on Kim Hak-do’s stream today.

“Alright, shall we log in soon? But how do I even install this thing?”

“Oh! Server Admin! Hell yeah—this is exactly what Rena World is about. Getting welcomed this kindly right from the start.”

“Hello, Hak-do-nim. I’m Apple-mong.”

“Whoa! Apple-mong-ssi. You’re super famous. Weird that our paths never crossed until now. Nice to meet you. Looking forward to today.”

The kind of special treatment reserved only for major-league streamers. With Apple-mong’s help, Kim Hak-do finished downloading the launcher, installing everything, and setting up his environment, then prepared to properly enjoy Minecraft.

“Since this is my first time going in, any extra explanations? Hm?”

“What are you curious about?”

“Well, I’m basically a rolling stone that just showed up, right? There must already be stones planted in the server. I saw it on the FM Community last time—Mist founded some Bad Potato Company or whatever.”

“Ahh! So that’s what you were wondering about. Currently there are six companies total. First is the Rena Government Company with Rena-ttang-nim as the head. Feels like civil servants. Second is Bad Potato Company, which has the biggest roster. Mist-nim is the boss and Tte3-nim is a director there.”

“Huh? Tte3 joined too? Wow, I had no idea. That guy doesn’t seem like the type who’d enjoy building houses and stuff.”

“Ah, I saw him too. He doesn’t really build—he mostly farms in the Nether. Nether farming apparently demands a lot of physical skill.”

“Oh! If we’re talking physicals, that’s me. Gotta hit the Nether later. What about the others?”

“There’s Milk Company and Oh Ha Company. Both are architecture-focused. Next is the recently founded Partner Company under Dana-nyang.”

“Hmm? Dana-nyang-nim made a company too? And the name is Partner? Don’t tell me it’s only for partner streamers. Wow, coming all the way here just to pull rank.”

“The name does come from partner streamers, but as far as I know there aren’t any membership restrictions like that.”

Apple-mong’s explanation flowed without a single snag or dead end. Thirteen years of broadcasting experience really showed. Kim Hak-do was thoroughly satisfied and asked for the name of the last remaining company.

“The last one is V-Live Company. It’s basically just the crew members sticking together.”

“There was a crew like that? Is there a crew on Pangea TV I don’t even know about? Ah, wait—is it those virtual streamers that are trendy these days?”

“Yes, exactly. A four-person virtual streamer crew. They formed a company with the same members inside Rena World as well. So that makes six companies in total.”

“Man, this is fun. Which company should I join?”

“Come on! Someone at your level should just found one yourself. Alright, basic explanation ends here—shall we head out of Genesis Village?”

“Sounds good, sounds good. Rena World, I’m finally here!”

“…….”

“Ahem! Hey, at times like this you’re supposed to hype it up with me a little…”

“None of that. Just hurry up and click the NPC. I’ve got a concert today so I’m busy too.”

Truly, thirteen years of experience. The mayor of Rena World was a force to be reckoned with.