Simmering the Broth
The various companies of Rena World were slowly stretching themselves awake, flexing their power and preparing for the coming free-for-all.
It was a critically important moment—but even so, there was no way I was going to neglect managing my core fans.
Lately, the chat had been full of grumbling from longtime viewers, an undercurrent of discontent I couldn't ignore. With the flood of casual viewers pouring in through Rena World, the atmosphere of the stream had shifted, and the old guard clearly wasn't happy about it.
Of course, that didn't mean I could just cater exclusively to the existing fans either. Do that, and you might keep the captive rabbits—but the inflow would dry up, and future growth would stall. In the end, a streamer who wanted to level up their weight class needed to maintain a somewhat casual-viewer-friendly stance.
If I were content to sit forever at a cozy fifty to a hundred regulars and just rake in a modest haul, sure—I could just keep catering to the old fans' tastes.
Which is exactly why, every now and then, you've got to simmer the broth nice and thick and knock those core fans upside the head. That way, even as your weight class grows, they still feel like they're being taken care of.
Today was the perfect timing for it.
Thursday, January 5th.
Tomorrow and the day after would be swallowed up by Purge Day prep and the event itself. Practically speaking, today was the only day I had any real breathing room.
I'd already told the company staff to just hit their basic quotas and then go handle their own personal streams however they liked.
Minecraft was still a fresh experience for Pangea TV's audience, sure—but it had already been running for a full month. People can't live on rice alone. Sometimes you need to eat out. Sometimes you need a sweet dessert. That was just common sense.
"So today, I've brought you something fresh for a change. Introducing: Pangea TV's New Girl Tour! You all have been going crazy over new girls lately, right? New girl this, new girl that, every other word out of your mouths. Today, we're going to comb through just how many virtual streamers are out there—all the way down to the bottom of the barrel."
So what were the methods for simmering a core fan's broth?
With as many individual tastes as there were people, the methods were endless—but there was always one recipe that worked on the masses, a sixty-year-old secret from the legendary foul-mouthed granny's kitchen.
I called that sauce jealousy, possessiveness, and attention.
Of course, if you overdid it, viewers would just get stressed out. But what if a streamer showed zero jealousy or possessiveness at all? From a broth-fan's perspective, that felt like being cold-shouldered—like, Does she not even care about me?—and it left them genuinely hurt.
Which is exactly why a New Girl Tour is a brilliant idea. The jealousy and possessiveness angles will generate themselves in real time, completely naturally.
You couldn't force the situation. Viewers had eyes, and they weren't idiots—they'd see right through it. So you set the content theme as "New Girl Tour" and let the stream moments form on their own.
"Alright, let's get started. I'll go in on an alt account so I don't pull aggro. And don't any of you follow me over there and start cuckooing that I'm on a tour, okay? Viewers with that little game sense get blacklisted on the spot."
I selected the "Virtual" category and casually scrolled from the top. Since categories sorted by viewer count, the streams near the top were mostly familiar faces—former Decrescendo members, Freeca, and the like.
Today's content was a new girl tour, so I skipped the familiar faces and let the scroll drift naturally downward.
"How about this one first? Thirteen viewers right now, and I've never seen her before."
I'd deliberately picked, from among the various virtual streams, one whose midsection had serious carry potential and whose outfit was a little on the skimpy side. That way, the stream moment I was angling for would land.
"Haa... haa... Oppas. Yeoni's so tired. Can I take a little break? Haa... haa!"
The second I entered, an incredibly sexy breathing filled my ears. She was mid-mission from a roulette, dancing the Zero Two dance. That labored breathing, paired with the way her midsection bounced and swayed with every roll of her shoulders—it was more than enough to snatch the attention of any viewer operating on pure instinct.
"Hey! What the hell are you talking about? I only went live ten minutes ago. Where do you all think you're going?!"
Honestly, I'd zoned out staring for a second myself. Ahem. A man's instincts weren't exactly easy to rein in. But with iron will, I snapped back to my senses. Remember the original purpose of this content.
The chat was already a riot of viewers joking that they were about to abandon ship for that other stream. I puffed out both of my avatar's cheeks as hard as I could, snorted hmph hmph!, and laid the sulking on thick.
"Y-you're so mean! Wait, oppas! What is this right now? You said you'd only watch me. Come on, we had something good going. Where are you going? We had something good!"
"……."
Damn it. I'd only meant to put on a convincing act at first, but the more I listened, the more it actually pissed me off.
Ha! So what, this female streamer was sexier and more charming than me? Huh? You really want to see me lose it?!
These people needed a serious punishment.
I bolted out of that stream and scrolled a little further down. And there it was—a broadcast perfectly suited to the current situation.
A male virtual streamer, shirtless on stream.
"Hmph! If you like people that undressed so much, go ahead and look all you want."
The viewers recoiled like they'd just seen a ghost. Well, they should've behaved themselves from the start.
Hearing their declarations of surrender, I exited the stream again.
"So, oppas. Seo-a's stream is still the best, right? You're only going to watch Seo-a from now on, yeah?"
Viewers who'd just tasted hell filled the chat with praise for me, one after another. Yes. This was a properly ordered world.
Composure restored, I moved the mouse around hunting for the next new girl.
Hmm. This one looked good.
"Oppa... want to come over for some ramen? Neru's home alone today."
The second I entered the stream, I thought it was some kind of ASMR. A sexy voice that seemed to whisper right into your ear—half breath, half sound. Park Jin-young himself would have been thrilled to scout this talent.
The moment that voice and that line hit, the chat went feral all over again.
"Hey! Vice-Chairman, you looking to die for real? What cold? I've never even caught a cold! And you guys, stop going places! I used to work part-time at a snack bar, okay? I make a mean bowl of ramen!"
Ugh! Time for the nuclear option.
I adjusted the screen so the virtual avatar's face filled the frame in a massive close-up. The legendary face-cam. From a viewer's perspective, it felt like locking eyes right up close—one of the virtual streaming world's time-honored finishing moves, guaranteed to make hearts skip.
Still, it'd be nice if something popped off around this timing.
Was the god of streaming on my side? Just as I was gauging the moment, a donation landed with perfect timing.
With my face filling the entire screen, I broke into a bright smile and said:
"I like our House-Is-On-Fire oppa too. Hehe."
Somewhere out there, I could almost hear the sound of broth coming to a rolling boil.