The Dominant Server
Wednesday, January 25th.
The day right after the long Lunar New Year holiday finally wrapped up — extended public holidays and all.
I cracked open a bottle of champagne, so to speak.
On the first day of stock trading after the long break, Pangea TV delivered a solid 5% jump right out of the gate. With my capital having grown considerably, even a 5% rise translated into over four million won in profit in a single stroke.
And the rally wasn't over yet. There would be at least three more big climbs ahead — bigger than today's. On top of that, I kept adding to my position every time a cash-out day rolled around, so the final projected return was only going to get larger.
Was this what people meant when they said just looking at something made you feel full?
Still, getting too deep into stock investing was dangerous. There was no telling when a butterfly effect might kick in here, either. For now, my capital was still at the "retail investor" level, so history was playing out as I remembered it. But the moment the numbers got big enough to catch the eye of the "big players," the stock's trajectory could diverge from everything I knew.
Overreacting? Of course I was. I wasn't playing a game here — I was gambling with my entire net worth. One small mistake could wipe out money I'd bled for. Being careful over and over again was the bare minimum.
Right. Don't let greed cloud your eyes. Stick to the original plan. Once I make a big score this time, split the money in half…
Half would go back into stocks. The other half would cover moving costs and investment into virtual streaming. Once Rena World ended, there would be a brief dry spell — and that was when I'd need to lean hard into the virtual side of things again to pull in the VTuber fans.
I'd said it plenty of times already: hanging everything on floating viewers alone had its limits. You needed the right mix of casual fans and hardcore devotees to build a healthy stream.
More than anything, I need to grow my weight class. The goal is to crack four-digit average concurrent viewers, even if it's by a fingernail.
On Pangea TV, a four-digit average concurrent count was just barely enough to call yourself mid-tier. Of course, barely scraping past that number wasn't enough on its own. What filled the gap was Candy power.
Even if the average concurrent numbers left something to be desired, solid Candy power behind them meant even the big-agency streamers wouldn't be able to look down on me anymore.
Virtual content is a bit light on pure entertainment value, so average concurrent tends to run lower — but because it's gachi-koi (pseudo-romance) streaming, the hardcore fan ratio is high. That means the Candy power holds up pretty well, too.
First target after Rena World wrapped: hold a stable average of 1,000 concurrent viewers. Best-case scenario, keep growing bit by bit through the end of the year and hit a monthly average around 1,500. At that level, with the name recognition I'd already built and the home-ground advantage of Pangea TV, I'd be able to at least compete with the monster-tier virtual streamers who'd be transferring over later.
That's the long-term plan. For now, though — today's the day.
After wrapping up another full workday with the V-Live Company staff, I took a short breather. I told the viewers I was stepping out for a late dinner, then left my seat. On my phone, I quietly opened Pangea TV and slipped into Park Bong-sik's stream.
Today was the day he returned from a long hiatus that had stretched just shy of a full month. The stream had gone live ten minutes ago, but the screen was still black — stringing the audience along, training their patience.
Viewers had already sailed past a comfortable 30,000. The chat was climbing at a manic pace. The opening song cycled through two tracks, and right as the audience's patience hit its breaking point, the cam finally flicked on. There was Park Bong-sik, looking sheepish as he greeted his viewers for the first time in ages.
"Hi hi, hyung-nims. How've you all been? Ahaha, it's been so long it feels weird."
"Come on, hyung-nims. First time seeing each other in ages and you're already being this cold? Huh? You're supposed to say nice things, ask how I've been, that kind of stuff."
The awkwardness from a moment ago had clearly been an act — he slipped right into smooth back-and-forth with the chat like he'd never left. Starting with stories about moving during his hiatus, Park Bong-sik launched into an entertaining rundown of everything that had happened. Fans, hyped for the long-awaited return, were throwing Candy and matching his energy every step of the way.
"So while I was on break I seriously studied the LoL meta, put a lot of thought into it, but man…"
Then, naturally, the conversation drifted toward the direction of his future content. The fans started reacting with real edge. Once a streamer locked in a main content focus, that current tended to carry them for a while.
Park Bong-sik squinted at the chat, reading the room. When the pile-on against LoL kept flooding in, he flipped it back on them.
"Alright then, hyung-nims. What do you want me to play? Bora? StarCraft? LoL? That Minecraft thing everyone's into lately?"
While Park Bong-sik had been on his long hiatus, the Mu-yang uncles drifting through Rena World as floating viewers had been putting out terrifying firepower. Nearly 90% of the chat was screaming Minecraft.
Even Park Bong-sik looked a little thrown — he clearly hadn't expected the room to swing this one-sidedly.
"Rena World really is that hot, huh. Didn't think you hyung-nims would be this into it. From what I've heard there's another server too, right? Seona noona reached out to me — said she made a Minecraft server."
A server civil war was starting to bubble up in chat. But among the Mu-yang uncles, the popular vote was a landslide for Rena World. They'd already spent their floating-viewer days completely hooked on the stories of Akatsuki and V-Live Company. On top of that, Wang-ko and Kim Hak-do were both on Rena World, so the server's overall weight class was already heavily tilted.
Park Bong-sik caught that sentiment fast. After a few throat-clearing coughs, he started falling in line with the audience.
"Honestly, during the break Rena World was so popular I checked it out every now and then. Hannam-i hyung-nim was throwing up these huge building missions and everything. Was it 200K? Hyung-nim! Can I look forward to something too? Hannam hyung-nim, if you're in, drop a chat."
Even a big-agency streamer couldn't swim against a tide this overwhelming. And when a few hardcore fans logged in shortly after and casually dropped return-from-hiatus Candy while steering the conversation toward Minecraft, Park Bong-sik had no choice but to make the call.
"Okay! Sounds good. Starting tomorrow, I'm doing Minecraft. The will of the viewers is the will of heaven! I've been resting a long time, so I'm gonna run hard."
Just like that, Park Bong-sik's Rena World debut was locked in for tomorrow. I'd already expected this future, but confirming the result still pulled a quiet sigh of relief out of me.
If Park Bong-sik had announced he was heading to Seona Land, a huge chunk of the floating viewers currently cheering for our V-Live Company would have drained straight over to that server. Think they wouldn't? That just means you don't understand floating viewers. You get attached, you think you've bonded — then the content ends and they turn around without a second thought and strip you from their favorites. That was the cold, unsentimental nature of floating viewers.
Park Bong-sik locking onto Rena World means the dominant server is already decided.
Kim Hak-do, Wang-ko, NS Namshin, and now Park Bong-sik on top of them. No matter how much Jamst and Ssa-yo tried to pull off miracles, once the weight-class gap got this wide, Seona Land had no realistic shot at winning.
I wasn't some mindless server dog who protected a server for no reason — but it was true that Rena World needed to keep thriving for our current growth pace to hold.
And the real competition starts now.
Up to this point, O-Wang Company had been running away with things. Once Park Bong-sik came in and Mu-yang Group took shape, a proper competitive structure would begin. In the middle of that chaotic scramble, securing our company's interests however I could — that was the job of the boss. Me.
My shoulders felt a little heavier.