Landmark Construction Funding
Today was the day.
The day a historic milestone would be planted for V-Live Company.
Someone might ask why I was overreacting over a single construction funding drive. But that was a question only streaming amateurs would ask. In a way, today's funding total was the business card that would dog our heels until the server shut down.
Ah, if I put it more simply, it's like a university brand name.
Just as everyone dreams of Seoul National University, academic pedigree got decided here. This place was a prestigious company; up to here was "IN Seoul"; from here on, it felt like a regional school. In the underground galleries, they even quantified it more bluntly for the sake of naked comparison.
Mu-yang Group: 1.4 million. Akatsuki: 1.12 million.
Like the scouters displaying power levels in Dragon Ball.
Streamers hung around communities enough that they couldn't not know. They felt jealousy or inferiority toward members of successful companies, and conversely, those in top-tier companies got that vulgar feeling of their shoulders going up. Of course not everyone was like that — but as human beings, obsessing over that kind of business card was inevitable.
Did this look materialistic? The moment someone said they were from Seoul National University, even you would start looking at them differently, wouldn't you?
That was why I was pouring so much care into this construction funding. The six or seven hundred thousand I kept chanting inwardly carried the same meaning. At least that much needed to be on the record if we were going to save face in this cutthroat streaming hierarchy.
And honestly, today I couldn't hit the target just by performing well alone. I wasn't some mega-corp streamer, and there was a limit to how much one person could carry. So today, everyone needed to step up.
"Ugh… Honestly, this is more nerve-wracking than the promotion series, geosida. To think Mayo's love for LoL only went this far — Mayo still has a long way to go, geosida."
Whether everyone felt that atmosphere or not, when we gathered in the Discord channel first thing in the morning for final checks, the mood was anything but ordinary. Even Mayo, who normally horsed around, seemed quite tense.
In this situation, a manga protagonist would have shouted some slogan about trusting their comrades and how we could all pull it off. But unfortunately, I was the Spartan type. And I didn't believe in that stale passion theory either. The world wasn't beautiful enough for effort alone to make everything possible.
"Mayo, cut the nonsense and everyone focus! This is the rehearsal from now on. Treat it like the real thing and show us what you've prepared, one by one."
"Right here with everyone watching?"
"Yes. Of course. The real thing will be in front of thousands of viewers — how many people are watching now?"
Thoroughly verify, point out, give feedback, and check again. It was clearly a tedious process. A lazy person might even question it. How much would this really change?
It does. It definitely does. There's a difference between just talking about it and actually putting it into practice.
My miscellaneous life experiences had planted that conviction in me. So I could push the company members with even more confidence. And inspired by that confidence, our friends gradually started taking the rehearsal seriously too.
It wasn't just me anymore. Everyone exchanged opinions and advised each other on their weak points. For this preparation, we didn't need to be at a "pro" level — that kind of polish was demanded at concerts or more professional venues. But that didn't mean we could just be half-assed either.
Was it easy to just take other people's money for free? I believed that as streamers, we should at least show something that left viewers feeling satisfied after donating. So I had each of them prepare on their own, and arranged this early session to meet the minimum cutline.
This much isn't bad.
I gave the okay and sent everyone off to manage their own condition. Of course, I gave them a strict warning. Don't waste stamina playing games or anything — rest well so you can ramp up the energy for the live broadcast later.
"Singling only me out is discrimination, geosida. I was just gonna play one solo queue game, geosida. For real, geosida."
"Sure~ I'm going to watch whether you log into the LoL client."
"…"
I silenced Mayo and sent everyone off first. No time to rest. To raise the success rate of today's construction funding even a little, I logged into FM Community on a secondary account and started flooding promotional posts.
Not just anyone could do this either. If you spammed too blatantly, you got marked as unlikable and just ate insults for nothing. Confirming the page had definitely turned over before uploading a post was basic! Plus, you had to keep changing the post titles to induce clicks.
This is the know-how of a four-year community addict! Ah, since it's 2023 now, is it five years?
Anyway, I did my best until the end. For myself. And for everyone in V-Live Company.
Oh Yeong-jun had been in an excellent mood lately.
His broadcast data, which had hit rock bottom during the StarCraft golden age, was rising like crazy. Average viewers hovered between four and five thousand, and on days with special content, it even surpassed ten thousand.
And that wasn't all. In candy donations — which for a streamer could be said to matter even more than viewer count — with half of January already gone, he'd hit 420,000, having an all-time great month.
Could I really join the one-million club? No, is that getting ahead of myself? But I can actually see the possibility.
Even as a fourteen-year broadcasting veteran this year, joining the candy one-million club was something Oh Yeong-jun had never dared dream of. Excluding the popular female cam streamers, it was said only mega-corp streamers could manage the one-million club. Strictly speaking, even mega-corp streamers couldn't achieve it every month. Bluntly put, one million candies meant a hundred million won.
Still, if there's a possibility, I really want to grab it. If not this time, who knows when such an opportunity will come again in my streaming career.
Oh Yeong-jun could feel it. That he was properly riding the wave right now. The story of Akatsuki, created with Muyo and Jisuni. A lot of floating viewers had shown interest, and with Park Bong-sik on long-term hiatus, even the Mu-ajjussis who normally complained about riding in the caboose of the Mu-line train had flocked to Oh Yeong-jun's stream.
Honestly, I was really lucky. If Yoon-sik had played Minecraft, all the Mu-ajjussis would have been sucked over there.
Unlike Oh Yeong-jun, the caboose complainant, Jeong Yoon-sik — a StarCraft and Bora streamer — was a solid core of the Mu-line. In fact, Jeong Yoon-sik had also challenged Minecraft timed with Park Bong-sik's long hiatus to catch the overflow. But was this a twist of fate? Absurdly, Jeong Yoon-sik had 3D game motion sickness.
People tended to laugh off Minecraft's cute graphics, but quite a few streamers experienced 3D motion sickness through this game. After several attempts, Jeong Yoon-sik couldn't overcome the dizziness and gave up. Thanks to that, Oh Yeong-jun was able to receive a full load of Mu-ajjussi overflow almost as if heaven had helped him.
But at the current pace, it's a bit short. There's the Lunar New Year holiday this month, so I need to pick up the pace more… Should I take a Diamond no-sleep-stream mission?
He'd also considered construction funding through a duel mission, but unfortunately the candy calculator site didn't tally candy donations from duel missions. Choosing that path would actually hinder achieving the one-million club this month. Oh Yeong-jun's mind grew complicated.
Ah, come to think of it, today is Seo-a's company's construction funding day, right? I heard they're building something enormous.
Streamers were fundamentally inseparable from communities. To grasp the platform's latest trends and flows, the existence of communities was essential. So naturally, Oh Yeong-jun had also heard the news about V-Live Company's landmark construction funding. And he'd been startled by that bold choice.
Already attempting construction funding through a duel mission? Does that mean V-Live Company's fandom is that solid? If the funding amount is less than expected, they'll just end up embarrassed for nothing.
It wasn't for nothing that other companies were watching and waiting. Construction funding was like an official record of that company's history. Once recorded, it couldn't be undone. So other companies were waiting for the right time — for when their fandoms were sufficiently solidified. But at a completely unexpected timing, V-Live Company had struck first.
Confidence from the Purge Day three-peat? That was certainly an achievement that could greatly boost public sentiment.
Maybe beyond that, there was a reason Seo-a, the head of V-Live Company, had made such a bold decision. The Seo-a that Oh Yeong-jun had experienced wasn't the type to be shaken by ordinary things. She was a streamer with clear convictions and backbone.
Now that I think about it, I'm getting curious for no reason. They said 8 PM today, right?
Coincidentally, it was a rare day off for him. After a moment of hesitation, Oh Yeong-jun quietly set a time reservation for eight o'clock. And he poked around the community.
Honestly, Oh Yeong-jun's personal judgment was that Seo-a was being hasty. But what if the funding results exceeded everyone's imagination?
Then a new flow would be created. After all, it's a fight over who seizes more floating viewers first.
Oh Yeong-jun's contemplation deepened.