Best Streamer?
Park Bong-sik's tour of Rena World lasted only a day, but the impact it left was enormous.
First came the viewership numbers in the Minecraft category.
Those figures that used to hover below twenty thousand whenever Kim Hak-do was offline climbed into the mid-twenty-thousands.
Viewers who had caught a spark of interest in Minecraft through that day's broadcast were pouring in.
And the influx was no one-day fluke.
"I'll finish the year-end awards show and then take a long break through January. What? I've been running nonstop this whole time. I need a refresh."
The fans pushed back hard, but nothing could stop Park Bong-sik's long hiatus.
And what came of that break?
Rena World reaped an unexpected windfall.
With Park Bong-sik off the air until the end of January, a huge chunk of his fans spent nearly a full month drifting through Rena World as floating viewers.
Rim-ani, Dananyang, and Oh Yeong-jun in particular soaked up the benefits.
All of them were streamers with some kind of connection to Park Bong-sik.
His fans especially flocked to Oh Yeong-jun—same gender made the parasocial projection easier—and thanks to that, Oh Yeong-jun broke ten thousand concurrent viewers for the first time in his entire streaming career.
Yeah, that was definitely how it had felt before the regression.
"……."
Huh. Unexpected runoff was pouring my way too.
Two strong showings in the MCK matches.
And just yesterday, that bigger-than-anyone gift that had shone so brightly in Minecraft.
The moment I flipped the stream on today, the Mu-jeossis came flooding in.
Mu-jeossi—the nickname for Park Bong-sik’s fans—tended to skew older even by streaming standards, which was how the moniker stuck.
And what did that imply?
The chat carried a faint whiff of “old-timer,” but their wallets were deep, so the Candy donations came thick and heavy.
Man, that Candy tasted sweet.
"A lot of Uncle Bong-sik’s fans dropped by. Hello, I’m Seo-a, leader of the V-Live crew. Unfortunately MCK is on hold for a while. When a small streamer like me runs match missions too often, the fans’ wallets go ‘ow!’ so I don’t have a choice. And for fan café video uploads, the rules are in the notice post—please read them carefully and follow them. Thanks."
I entertained the new arrivals just enough, then hopped over to Lucy’s stream.
The Best Streamer selection broadcast was already underway, and Lucy was watching it.
"Ah! Seo-a, you’re here? It’s about to start."
The manager attendance message that popped up the moment I entered must have given me away instantly; Lucy greeted me with bright warmth.
I could hear Miho and Mayo’s voices in the background—everyone was already on Discord—so I jumped straight in.
"Hi, hi! Look at you all gathered. Plotting a rebellion without me?"
"Keh! We’ve been found out, so no choice, geosida. Mayo will take the front, so the other unnies attack from behind, geosida."
"Hmm? I can’t hear the voice of some kid who hasn’t even met the Best Streamer application requirements."
"……."
One brutal fact-check and Mayo sank without a trace. I turned my attention to today’s two main characters.
"You two feeling confident?"
"Me? My numbers are stuffed full. If I don’t make it I’ll file a complaint with the national petition board."
Miho, who had diligently hit every single condition, radiated confidence.
Honestly, I was a hundred percent sure about Miho too.
The real nail-biter was Lucy.
She had cleared every benchmark for the Best Streamer challenge, but from that point on it was relative evaluation—nothing you could do about it.
She has to make it this month no matter what. At least this month’s house is empty; starting next month the place is packed solid.
December was basically the starting gun for virtual streamers gunning for Best Streamer.
Me? I’d already debuted a full month before the 720p incident and hit the requirements in November, so I was already a Best Streamer.
The applicants this month were the early virtuals who had transferred relatively soon after the 720p incident.
From next month onward the competition would be murder.
There would be the ones who got rejected in the December review, and January’s timing lined up perfectly with the Wooga-dol audition participants.
Factor in the flood of virtual transfers that came over then, and the January applicant pool would be way bigger than now.
"Oh! It’s starting."
"Miho unnie, if you just flunk and become Best Streamer classmates with me next month, Mayo would be so happy, geosida."
"Keep spouting nonsense and go run some solo queue instead?"
"Mayo, even as a joke you shouldn’t say mean things like that, right? Who taught you those mean words?"
"Seo-a unnie taught me. All the bad stuff is Seo-a unnie!"
"……."
Why did she only drop the RP and talk like a normal person at times like this?
While that was going on, the selection moved past the Games and Visible Radio categories and finally reached Virtual.
"Yes! A brand-new corner starting this month—the ‘Virtual’ category. Who will be selected… and here they are!"
"First up is Muyo-nim. She’s been putting on a fantastic showing lately in Minecraft’s Rena World, hasn’t she? While active with the Decrescendo crew she also ran the ‘Mu Plastic Surgery’ content, personally remodeling the avatars of dirt-poor virtuals who applied. Congratulations."
"Next is Nyapasa-nim. Her full-tracking content really stands out. She also runs games and radio streams, and recently appeared on the official virtual broadcast showing off some sharp banter. Congratulations."
"And at last, this one. Third is Ttunnyangi-nim. She’s active across a really wide range. Her crew name is hilarious too—she’s with the Thief Bitches crew, named for stealing viewers’ hearts."
The successful candidates flashed by in a blur.
Conversation naturally died down as our crew’s two candidates locked in and focused.
In that tension thick enough to explode, Miho fired the first signal flare.
"Already the tenth person. It’s Miho-nim of the V-Live crew. After making her name in the Wooga-dol audition she ran a huge variety of content. The show named after herself, ‘Miho’s Pocha,’ left an especially deep impression. Congratulations."
"I made it! I passed Best Streamer!"
Miho’s voice blasted straight through the headset—husky, full of life, and genuinely overjoyed.
Yeah, a ten-percent bump in the exchange rate was not something you could just sit still for.
While Miho calmed down, a few more big names flickered past.
Ori-koong, leader of Pocotin; Choi Eun-bin of V-topia; Elsa of the Decrescendo crew, and so on.
All faces that had burned hot in the early days of Pangea TV’s virtual scene.
"Ah, just two left now. This month’s Virtual category selected a full twenty people—really generous. Shall we check the final two on the last page?"
"Sounds good. Let’s go!"
Without realizing it, the thump of my heartbeat was growing louder and louder.
Why?
Probably because I was remembering the life before the regression.
Lucy, who had transferred to Pangea TV in February 2023, ground through every kind of hardship just to keep streaming, and only after endless twists and turns finally became a Best Streamer in June.
I would never forget the emotion of that moment.
Back then the red ocean had been far deeper; so many competitors that she had to drink the bitter cup of rejection twice.
She had desperately promoted on FM Community just to scrape one more favorite, and as guild master I had emptied my own pockets for gift cards and boost items to hand out to floating viewers.
All of it just to raise Lucy’s broadcast data score even a little…
Of course I hadn’t been the only one grinding.
Lucy herself had belted out dozens of songs a day until her throat gave out, just to grow her fan-club numbers.
Yeah. It was exactly because of that suffering and effort that the moment the fruit finally arrived, the emotion hit that hard.
So what would it feel like this time?
"First, Na Hae-ri of Freeca! She put on a great performance in the Wooga-dol audition and was selected as a final member, right? Her main content is variety games and singing, and she recently ran a slick ad stream together with Ssa-yo. Congratulations."
"And the one closing it out is none other than Lucy-nim of the V-Live crew. She ran a morning news broadcast every single day for a full month, delivering good information to viewers. And recently she uploaded a Christmas carol video that hit twenty thousand views in just three days! She’s been showing some truly excellent work. Congratulations."
"She’s there! She made it! Lucy unnie made it too, geosida!"
"Lucy, congrats! We both did so well."
Lucy’s face appeared at the very end.
The two crew members’ voices thundered in my ears.
"Yeah. Thanks. Congrats to you too, Miho unnie."
On the other side of the screen, Lucy’s avatar smiled softly.
And Best Streamer acceptance a full half-year earlier than before the regression.
Only then could I finally let the tension go and smile.
We were clearly changing—for the better.