A Good Day

I was in an excellent mood right now.

The pure pleasure of watching a plan unfold exactly as designed. The sense of accomplishment that came with it. And beyond that, so many other things were falling into place just the way I wanted them to.

Just looking at this is enough to make me feel secure.

I casually pulled out my phone and opened the stock app.

Becoming a shareholder of Pangea TV with 841 shares at an average cost of 67,700 won on the first trading day of January felt like it had happened only yesterday.

I hadn't been sitting idle since then. Every time Candy donations came in throughout January, I cashed them out without missing a single conversion day, and that money went straight into more Pangea TV stock.

Thanks to that, on this Sunday, January 22nd, checking my holdings put a bright smile on my face.

I'd already locked in over 9% in gains, but I still had a long way to go. Once trading resumed after the Lunar New Year holiday, Pangea TV's explosive climb wouldn't cool off in the slightest through the first week of February. The closing price back then had been over 95,000 won — just imagining it sent a thrill through me.

The first week of February is when it really detonates, so I need to buy even harder before then.

Conveniently, my birthday was just three days away. Ahem. I felt a little bad about it, but surely the viewers would understand on a special day like that? The Landmark funding had already wrung them dry, but I was going to shut my eyes one more time and squeeze them for everything they had.

Honestly, how was anyone supposed to sit out a moonshot event like this? Huh? You people foam at the mouth and sprint to the PC bang the second a game runs a 1.5x EXP event!

Anyway, lately just looking at my stocks was enough to keep me grinning nonstop. If I liquidated everything before the second week of February, how much would that come out to? Depending on the final figure, my plans going forward might shift a little.

There's so much I want to do, but every single plan costs an absolute fortune.

I wasn't muttering "money, money, money" for no reason. Even a simple virtual concert burned through cash in the tens of millions of won. Without financial breathing room, you'd always be scrambling. At the very least, I needed liquid capital ready to deploy whenever it was needed.

Still, it's a shame. After this, I don't really remember much else.

I knew it would hit 95,000 won ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or higher, drop hard, and then eventually climb back to 95,000 again much later. That just meant I had no idea how long my money would be locked up if I poured another fortune in. On top of that, I didn't remember the exact bottom, which made me uneasy.

Once I cash out, maybe if it drops to around 70,000 I'll reinvest about half?

By then my capital would be much larger than it was now, so even putting in half would generate bigger returns than my current position. The remaining half could stay flexible.

Once I finished thinking about stocks, a different kind of pleasure came calling — the results of yesterday's vehicle auction.

We'd returned early with the company staff, confirmed the mini tractor's special abilities, and spent a thoroughly satisfying day. Checking the communities, though, it seemed other places had a lot more to say.

To cut a long story short, it was simple.

The never-ending off-field brawl between the O-Wang Company fandom and the Partner & Tofu Company fandom.

FM Community was crawling with mask-wearers who talked in circles, so this time I specially pulled reactions from the underground galleries.

A terrifying civil war between fandoms.

The 200 million Rena that O-Wang Company had spent was such an enormous sum that public opinion actually held that Seoni Moon's and our vehicle purchases had been the reasonable ones. And from my perspective, it was the best possible outcome. We'd completely drained the funds of O-Wang Company — the most threatening opponent since the Arena opened. The 50 million Rena debt they took on was just a bonus.

The fact that Partner & Tofu Company's wealth is still intact bothers me a little, but…

It had been an unavoidable choice. Leaving O-Wang Company to run wild was worse than letting Partner & Tofu Company pull ahead — they were far easier to deal with.

Huh? Why, you ask?

Unlike O-Wang Company, which was built around PUBG streamers, Partner & Tofu Company was mostly female virtual streamers, so they had serious issues on the mechanical control side. Park Bong-sik, who would take over as boss at the end of this month, was also pretty ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weak for a male streamer when it came to raw game skill. Given equal gear specs, he was someone we could more than hold our own against.

And factoring in Ratatouille, the mega farm, and the mini tractor, we can pull ahead on funding power too.

Now that the major vehicle auction event was over, the other companies would loosen up for a while and enjoy some personal time. But under the leadership of our great Supreme Leader(?) Comrade — that would be me — our company would unite as one and work even harder to prepare for the Mythic gear update.

When that time came, every other company would go "Oh crap!" and scramble around like their feet were on fire, desperately trying to make money. Meanwhile, with Mythic-tier gear specs, we'd be scooping up the Arena's sweet championship prize money. And once that prize money got reinvested into even more Mythic gear, we'd hold the advantageous position for the next week's Arena tournament too!

Without realizing it, my hope circuit kept spinning faster and faster.

Ahem! Let's not get too optimistic. The future had already changed a lot, so there was no telling what variables might suddenly pop up. Staying calm… and preparing steadily from the ground up — that was the important attitude.

Come to think of it, today's my first personal stream in a while. And it's not even Minecraft.

Today was Lunar New Year's Day itself, and with people like Lucy and Han A-yeon visiting their families, several members were taking the day off. To keep things fair, I'd given everyone free time.

But freedom always came with strict responsibility. I'd been secretly keeping an eye out in case anyone caused trouble with their newly loosened reins — and most of them were spending their time exactly as I'd expected.

I did tell them to drink in moderation, but this particular pairing is just too effective.

The Miho and Subnitti combo, who'd jumped into an impromptu collab stream in the early hours and gone full hardcore drinking-mukbang. Every time they drained a glass with that delicious "Kyaah!" the sound was so mouthwatering that throngs of heavy drinkers flocked to their stream.

And when people start drinking, the walls around their hearts tend to come down and they get honest, right? In that atmosphere, the candid advice and banter they traded with fans was the perfect environment for generating even more hardcore loyal fans. Of course, the downside was that when the buzz went too far, the occasional trash-tier chat troll would show up.

Figuring there wouldn't be any real problems, I sent them both a message telling them to make sure they had a hangover cure when they woke up, and went to sleep.

Then the next ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠morning. The moment day broke, two people had already gone live.

Mayo and Na-ro-si.

Mayo was… well, as anyone could have predicted, deep in League of Legends meditation. She'd put in her stream title that she was ranking up to Platinum 2 today — but was that even possible? On major holidays like this, the toxic intentional trolls who had zero hesitation about getting their own parents cursed out ran even more rampant. I'd have to look up her match history tonight with a mix of anticipation — promotion or demotion?

And then Na-ro-si. I'd half expected it, but she really had logged into Rena World first thing in the morning and was already running through her daily routine.

The vehicle we'd acquired through this auction allowed registration of a primary and secondary user, and from the start I'd just gone ahead and registered Na-ro-si and Lucy without hesitation. No matter how I thought about it, there was no better combination than those two.

The sight of Na-ro-si logging in and — not even taking a lap around the neighborhood, but a full lap of the farm — cleanly harvesting everything and organizing it into storage. No, this was exactly why people kept calling our V-Live Company's mega farm a North Korean communist collective farm.

I immediately logged in and scolded Na-ro-si fiercely through manager chat.

Huh? Didn't I say that when everyone's resting, everyone rests together? This is how I end up getting slandered as a ruthless boss.

Hah! If you really want to work that badly, at least do some building where it's less conspicuous. Huh? No, I'm not saying you have to do it right now.

Anyway, management of the company members was perfectly complete.

And now it was my turn!

The personal stream of Seo-a, leader of the V-Live crew, was about to begin.