The Candidate
“Yeah. That’s right. I don’t know where Seo-a got the information, but it’s true that I’m thinking about recommendation tickets.”
“Then, Rena-ttang, does that mean only the big-company streamers can receive recommendation tickets?”
“Honestly, that’s what I’d prefer, but the community keeps insisting everything has to be fair and that every company head should get one each. It’s so irritating how they keep telling me what to do this way and that. Do those people even have brains? We’re already struggling to take new members because of server overload, and if I hand them out to every head, how many people is that supposed to be? Not a single person thinks from the operator’s perspective. Not one.”
“......”
Thrilled that I had been the one to call first for once, Rena-ttang was excitedly spilling S-rank information in exhaustive detail.
True to form for a streamer who, even before my regression, would secretly browse the community, get scraped raw, and launch into legendary power struggles.
If it already felt like this this early...
Still, I had a purpose, so this time I casually added my own two cents.
“Honestly those community people are annoying, but external image still matters. If people evaluate you as fair, won’t that make everyone place even more trust in Rena-ttang?”
“Hmm... Now that I look at it, Seo-a, you just want a recommendation ticket yourself, don’t you? I was wondering why you called first today of all days.”
“Ehehe.”
“Ugh! So obvious. Completely transparent.”
In moments like this I had to play up how young and politically green I still was, letting my intentions show clearly on the surface.
That way Rena-ttang would be more likely to treat me leniently under the illusion that she already held my thoughts completely in the palm of her hand.
“Fine, alright. I’ll consider it positively once. Those fabricated posts that pop up sometimes are irritating, but community opinion is definitely important. Looking at it, even big streamers like Bong-sik and Wang-ko care a ton about it.”
“That’s true. Viewers pretend they don’t, but they actually spend a huge amount of time on the community.”
As a former celebrity, Rena-ttang understood the importance of “public opinion” better than anyone.
So she would know full well that if she only handed recommendation tickets to people like Wang-ko, there would be an uproar about special treatment for big-company streamers alone.
Inevitably, for the sake of her own image, Rena-ttang would have no choice but to choose the method of giving one recommendation ticket to each company head.
Right. And that means I’ll get one too. That recommendation ticket.
The authority to invite someone into the hottest large-scale streamer server on Pangea TV.
It was nothing short of a powerful “authority” far beyond what one might expect.
“But now I’m curious.”
“Yes?”
“If Seo-a is calling first to ask about this, that means you already have someone in mind you want to invite, right?”
“Ah......”
“Who is it? Huh? Now I’m suddenly dying of curiosity. It’s not a male streamer, is it?”
“......”
A male streamer? What the hell!
Is this ajumma plotting to wipe out all the thirsty fans in my chat? Protect our room’s whales!
Even after that, Rena-ttang kept pestering me, demanding I reveal who I was thinking of, but I exercised my right to remain silent until the end.
I still needed to check the other party’s opinion first, and more than anything it was a candidate who could spark controversy if I got ahead of myself and blabbed.
“Fine. Keeping it secret till the very end. Between you and me, if you keep doing this, I’m going to get hurt, you know?”
“Ahaha, once it’s decided, I’ll tell you first. For real.”
“Alright, you better tell me for real. Then stream well.”
“Yes! Take care.”
Rena-ttang’s side was settled for now!
But that didn’t mean the plan I had in mind was fully complete.
Before contacting the candidate I was considering, I first checked the public opinion about myself.
Currently my public sentiment was in excellent condition, no need to even say it.
First, looking at the virtual streamer side.
The goodwill campaign toward Ssa-yo’s fandom that I had been repeating since the Wooga-dol audition had been inherited by the Freeca fandom as well, and while things had gotten a bit hostile with Decrescendo after a mild rival structure formed, it fizzled out when the crew disbanded.
And more than anything, the key was the acceptance speech at the year-end awards when I won Rookie of the Year.
At the time the chat was flooding with all sorts of criticism and curses aimed at Hiyori and Mercury (formerly Rena Universe).
It wasn’t something I had planned from the start, but it was a rather impulsive remark.
The “Virtual Streamer Martyr Great Seo-a!” incident that heated up FM Community for a whole day back then.
My statement, courageously embracing my virtual colleagues even though I could have been criticized in an official setting, was more than enough to move countless virtual streamer fans.
It was only natural that I gained the goodwill of the Pocotin fandom that Hiyori belonged to, and the Mercury fandom that, while much diminished, still maintained its lineage.
Things were a bit distant with the V-topia side, but since we had never been involved at all, that part couldn’t be helped.
Anyway, currently among virtual streamer fans my public opinion was overwhelmingly tier 1.
If I ran for president I could easily take first place in favorability regardless of left-right camp logic.
At this level I could handle a bit of risk without any problem.
And the human streamer fans too......
The most important part—the fandoms of the big-company streamers—were looking on me favorably.
To pinpoint targets, that would be the fandoms of Park Bong-sik and Kim Hak-do.
Especially Park Bong-sik’s side was a jackpot.
As expected, the two MCK matches, and gifting that prime Gangnam land during the last Rena World tour, must have played a big role?
And not just the big-company streamer fandoms—public sentiment was good among the floaters of Rena World, including Akatsuki as well.
I had shown a lot of fun broadcast angles and worked hard this time to achieve a three-peat on Purge Day, so if someone saw it badly, they were just antis from the start.
Those kinds of people couldn’t be helped.
It wasn’t like they had a legitimate reason; they were just doing it for fun... or out of a victim mentality that I was doing better than the streamer they liked.
Still, I really didn’t expect it to be this good.
Honestly speaking, I had confidence.
But the community’s public sentiment was better than I had thought.
Was this all the reward for my efforts?
Along with a sense of pride, I ran the calculations while thinking of the “candidate” that floated up in my mind.
With this level of public opinion, it should be fine, right?
Actually, thinking about before the regression, there was no need to be this careful.
It had only been a brief controversy, fully explained, and after that she continued streaming successfully without any noise until 2025.
And in a way, it also has the meaning of compensation. Because of my unnecessary intervention, it feels like the brakes have been put on a life that should be going full steam ahead right now. Even though it wasn’t intentional.
Honestly, I wasn’t that great of a person.
But as a human, I still felt a twinge of conscience.
In a way, she was one of the streamers most affected by my regression...
Still, lately she’s been streaming just fine.
In fact, I would occasionally sneak into her stream while logged out and watch.
It was my only hobby, after all.
When you wander around logged out, you get to see so many interesting scenes.
Looking at it, she was mainly playing variety games.
She was still uploading a lot of song cover videos on YouTube as well.
Public opinion was... honestly, I didn’t know well.
She had blown up so emptily that she was discarded into a corner without even a chance to build recognition.
So unless it was virtual streamer fans... especially Freeca’s fandom, it would be accurate to say almost no one cared.
Yeah, with this many hints out, you can roughly guess who I’m thinking of as a candidate.
Exactly Na-ro-si, who took the place of Kyurings before the regression.
This time as well, just like before the regression, during a stream on Rabbit TV before transferring, she made a feminist-related remark that was exposed by the Time Bill Gateses of the underground galleries, leading her to leave Freeca.
Of course, it was fully explained.
There had been a malicious person who deliberately induced her to say that word via chat, and the incident started when only that part was cut front and back and edited before being uploaded to the community.
The problem was that it was such an old matter that finding explanatory evidence in a short time was difficult, and the pouring pressure was too strong, so she ultimately had to declare her departure from Freeca while holding back tears.
In the end, extenuating circumstances were recognized later, but the water had already been spilled.
But the problem is that it wasn’t an issue that should have gotten this big. Before the regression, it just ended at the level of dropping out of the Wooga-dol audition, so there was no problem at all with Na-ro-si entering Rena World afterward.
Here, because I unnecessarily mentioned Kyurings, Ssa-yo chose Na-ro-si, and things blew up.
Thanks to that, after leaving, she couldn’t even enter Rena World and was focusing only on solo streams.
Honestly, if only the Freeca fandom stays quiet, bringing in Na-ro-si is the best move.
There was no need to even speak about Na-ro-si’s Minecraft abilities.
A hexagonal talent who could be called the top among virtual streamers proven across countless Minecraft servers!
It wasn’t for nothing that whenever a large Minecraft server opened, Park Bong-sik would go around calling Na-ro-si his personal secretary and keeping her close.
There was always a reason for that.
And honestly speaking, I coveted those abilities of Na-ro-si’s too much.
If Na-ro-si joined our V-Live Company, she would be a capable person who could do at least two people’s worth of work.
Moreover, if she enters Rena World through my recommendation ticket, she’ll practically regard me as her benefactor.
Na-ro-si was a streamer who not only survived until 2025 but also achieved great success even among the 720p virtuals.
A person fully worth investing in.
Alright, let’s try drawing up a plan.
My worries were growing deeper.