The Eerie Castle Walls
Lethal Company and Oh-ha Company shared a rather peculiar relationship.
Lethal Company's predecessor, Milk Company, had Elsa of the Decrescendo crew as its president and Seol Pyo-woo as vice president—though in truth, the whole outfit was nothing more than a collection of freeloaders and Minecraft beginners.
It was a company so dysfunctional that nothing ever got done.
Exactly like the Poko Server days.
President Elsa had gone around collecting pitiful small-time streamers like some kind of cat lady, and Seol Pyo-woo—having foolishly fallen for Elsa's coaxing at the start and accepted the vice president title—had simply gotten swept along before she could even say "wait, what?"
How much of a mess was it? When the Rena government first collected taxes, they had spent every last coin buying quartz materials for the Disney Castle construction, leaving Seol Pyo-woo to cover the tax bill out of her own personal funds.
"I told you not to just keep adding people! Every single new company member means a hundred thousand Rena in taxes!"
"Pyo-woo, sorry, sorry. It'll get better soon, though."
"Get better, my ass! Construction progress hasn't even hit two percent yet. We're looking at bankruptcy here…"
Under Seol Pyo-woo's withering glare, the small-time virtual streamers flinched and shot Elsa pitiful, pleading looks.
Elsa spread her arms wide and pulled them all into a hug.
Watching the whole scene, Seol Pyo-woo was the only one whose blood pressure was skyrocketing.
Could they even finish the company's goal—Disney Castle—at this rate?
That was when Oh-ha Company appeared on the scene.
Short on building materials, you say?
Oh-ha here will supply them at rock-bottom prices.
What? You're broke right now?
Come on! You know how close I am with Park Na-na.
For the Decrescendo crew, credit's no problem at all.
And so Milk Company started buying on credit from Oh-ha Company, somehow managing to keep the Disney Castle construction limping forward.
But how long could a company last when the building work was all Elsa's solo labor and the finances depended entirely on Seol Pyo-woo's personal hustle?
The outstanding debt began piling up at a terrifying rate.
Just as they were seriously contemplating filing for company bankruptcy, an unexpected variable arrived in Rena World.
None other than big-corp streamer Kim Hak-do.
Wandering around like a freeloader on a sightseeing tour of Rena World, he happened to arrive at the Disney Castle construction site.
"Ohhh? This is nice. Looks awesome."
For two days straight, everything Kim Hak-do had seen had been nothing but cute little personal houses.
The headquarters building of Rotten Potato Company had been somewhat decent, but even that was only about the size of a small office building.
Disney Castle, though—even in its early construction phase, you could already tell just how massive the scale was going to be.
On top of that, they were plastering the castle walls with that expensive quartz, glittering and sparkling so brilliantly that the exterior looked downright extravagant.
As a Minecraft beginner, Kim Hak-do couldn't help but be completely hooked.
"Man, this place is seriously incredible. What company is this?"
"Hello, Hak-do-nim! I'm Elsa, president of Milk Company! There's something I really need to tell you."
This was where Elsa pulled off her "GOAT" move.
After continuously kicking nothing but own-goals up to this point, she somehow managed—astonishingly—to sweet-talk big-corp streamer Kim Hak-do into agreeing.
"Alright. Good, good. Then I'll take over the company. But our company doesn't do salaries or anything like that. Actually, you have to pay to join. We've got a ton of debt, so it can't be helped."
Just like that, Milk Company was saved from the brink.
No—it soared.
Getting to belong to big-corp streamer Kim Hak-do's company?
The freeloaders who had normally been so lazy suddenly gathered with lightning speed and launched into a loyalty competition, offering up the emergency cash they'd been hoarding.
Thanks to that, Milk Company swung back into the black.
Afterward, they changed the name to Lethal Company and announced a fresh start.
But.
Could people suddenly become diligent overnight and escape being Minecraft beginners?
Kim Hak-do did bring in a few people he'd personally befriended while wandering around—like Ran-chu—but Lethal Company's finances soon nosedived all over again.
The construction plan for "Do-zney Castle," named after Kim Hak-do himself, was on the verge of collapsing into nothing.
"Ah, should I just kick everyone out and collect new joining fees?"
Just as Kim Hak-do was setting up that stream angle, Oh-ha appeared before him.
Along with the message that if the outstanding payments weren't settled, no more building materials would be supplied.
And to make matters worse, she announced she was raising the price of quartz—the main material.
Construction director Elsa and finance officer Ran-chu screamed and poured out their grievances to Kim Hak-do.
If this kept up, Lethal Company would truly go under.
But Oh-ha's position was just as firm.
She needed to collect the payments so Oh-ha Company employees could get their salaries, didn't she?
And with the My House policy driving up the market price of building materials, Oh-ha Company couldn't keep charging the old rates.
That would just mean taking a loss.
The only reason she'd delayed this long in the first place was out of consideration for her connection with Park Na-na.
Both sides' opinions clashed sharply.
But logically, there was no way to beat Oh-ha Company.
Anyone listening could tell her side was the reasonable one.
Kim Hak-do, however, had to consider his own face.
This wasn't even his main League of Legends scene—it was a secondary Minecraft server he was casually enjoying. Was he really going to go around begging a company run by a small-timer, not even a mid-tier streamer, and lose all his "gao"?
His fans would immediately start grumbling that the immersion was broken.
"Man, this really isn't working out. I didn't want to go this far, but…"
In this thorny situation, Kim Hak-do displayed the sense of a true big-corp streamer.
He hadn't forgotten the casual "courtesy greeting" he'd heard on the first day, and he put it to use exactly as intended.
He summoned Seo-a—known as the server's top dog—and set up a brand-new stream angle.
Whatever the outcome of the matter, if he could show that he could summon the server's top dog whenever he wanted, he could at least preserve a big-corp streamer's "gao."
All of that was the background for why I was standing here right now.
"Uh… so, there's outstanding debt, and from future transactions onward, they're raising the delivery price of building materials. That's the situation, right?"
Countless gazes poured onto me, led by Kim Hak-do and Oh-ha.
Apparently deciding she couldn't lose the momentum either, Oh-ha had hurriedly summoned the employees of Oh-ha Company.
This is making me dizzy.
I'm not Solomon—why do they keep calling me for stuff like this?
It was absurd, but a stream angle with a big-corp streamer wasn't something you just stumbled into easily.
Enough with the spoiled complaining. Think.
The best move I could show in the current situation.
Taking one person's side here is dangerous. Of course, in a normal situation you'd naturally side with the big-corp streamer, but…
There was a reason Minister Hwang Hui always gave vague answers whenever he was asked a question.
Honestly, who cares whether the yellow cow or the black cow works harder?
The real core of the story was always about everyday "conduct."
Don't go making enemies for no reason.
The big-corp fandom is impressive, sure, but Kim Hak-do is basically just here on a sightseeing tour. Like he said himself, it feels like a secondary activity for fun.
Compared to how Park Bong-sik or Wang-ko had nearly all-inned on Rena World for half a year, anyone would admit there was a clear difference in level of commitment.
Oh-ha, on the other hand, had all-inned her entire life into Rena World.
She turned on her stream early in the morning and played the role of Wang-ko's waiting room until his main afternoon slot, then once Wang-ko logged in, she took her own fans and farmed resources until the early hours of the morning.
On top of that, her fanbase was completely Minecraft-friendly.
You simply couldn't discuss superiority based solely on a big-corp streamer's weight class.
To Kim Hak-do, Rena World was literally just a secondary activity.
In the end, I have to read both sides carefully. But if I think about it properly…
The time spent deliberating was shorter than expected.
Once I grasped the core of the problem, I realized it was such a trivial matter that I almost laughed.
"We need to report this to Rena-ttang. This is clearly a company committing illegal acts."
"Ahem! Hak-do-nim. We are a thoroughly sound company. What? Our employees and I farm quartz in hell twenty-four hours a day without rest, go to the Ender World to get end rods for lighting, and work ourselves to the bone just to make a living—and you're lowballing our unit prices?"
"This person has no filter. Lowballing unit prices? Are you insulting our great Lethal Company right now?!"
"This is big-corp tyranny!"
"I'll sue you for defamation!"
The stream angle was escalating into pure chaos.
I quietly raised my hand, instantly drawing every eye in the vicinity.
"Aww, it's nothing major—why are grown adults with social standing fighting like this?"
"Ahem!"
"Seo-a, I'm not usually this kind of person…"
Both of them looked sheepish.
I looked at Kim Hak-do first.
He was someone who would enjoy Rena World as a secondary activity no matter what.
To Kim Hak-do, face was more important than anything else.
So I asked him to call over Lethal Company's finance officer.
"Yes. That's me."
Ran-chu—the one who had hit it big on day one with the sucker-pongpong-girl story, claiming to be Kim Hak-do's girlfriend.
Even after that, she had continued rising by playing a secretary-like role for him.
I scolded Ran-chu in an exaggerated tone.
"Hey! You can't even resolve something this trivial and force Chairman Kim Hak-do of the great Lethal Company to step in personally? Shouldn't you be handling something of this level on your own? Do you know how busy our chairman is with construction work?"
"Ahem. That's true. I am pretty busy. Honestly, I was hoping the people below would take care of this kind of thing."
"Huh? Ah, n-no, that's…"
The moment a line came out that propped up his face, Kim Hak-do immediately ate it up and locked in the stream angle.
Suddenly becoming the target, Ran-chu started flustered and flailing.
"Chairman Kim Hak-do. I'll resolve this matter myself. If you concern yourself with work that underlings should handle, it'll only damage your dignity."
"Really? Good, good. Our President Seo may be young, but she catches on real quick."
With his face thoroughly propped up, I left Kim Hak-do standing behind with his hands clasped behind his back, strutting around.
Then I called Oh-ha and Ran-chu over and entered into practical negotiations.
To Oh-ha, who was still a small-timer, what mattered wasn't face—it was real profit.
And I had the "financial power" to fill that need as much as I wanted.
"Ran-chu-nim, specially out of consideration for the chairman's face, I'll lend it to you at a minimum interest rate of one percent. Normally it's three to five percent, so you know this is a real bargain, right? But the outstanding debt is fifteen million Rena? Should I just lend you a generous twenty million Rena from the start?"
Since Oh-ha's problem from the beginning had only been getting paid, she fell silent once she saw things starting to resolve.
Ran-chu, on the other hand, looked completely blank, then—apparently deciding this was a big deal from her perspective—hurriedly looked over at Kim Hak-do.
"Ahem! Are you going to keep making the chairman concern himself with something this trivial?"
"President Seo may be young, but she's sharp as a tack. We need talent like this in our company. Ahem!"
"…"
In the end, Ran-chu stamped the seal with a dazed expression.
The moment I handed over the twenty million Rena, Kim Hak-do scurried over and took five million of it for himself.
"I'll multiply this with mending enchantment book gambling, so just wait and see. Hm? You all trust me, right?"
Kim Hak-do and Oh-ha both stuffed their pockets full of Rena and disappeared, laughing and delighted.
Left behind were the dazed Ran-chu and the employees of Lethal Company.
I lightly patted their shoulders.
Prospective slaves, get!
Do-zney Castle, with only the skeleton of its walls erected so far, stared at us with an eerie, forbidding gaze.