Promises Must Be Kept

Thursday, January 26th.

The day after my birthday stream — a broadcast packed with every kind of chaos imaginable.

Park Bong-sik officially locked in his decision to join Rena World.

It was the kind of choice that settled the "who's winning" question between two Minecraft servers that had been quietly competing under the surface. If Park Bong-sik had picked Seona Land instead, an upset might still have been on the table.

But Yu Seona refused to give up until the very end.

I may have lost on the server front, but my image is still way better than hers. Just wait. We'll see who ends up laughing when this is all over.

Running something — anything — was an incredibly hard job. And when that something was a server with dozens of streamers active at once and viewership brushing a hundred thousand? Harder still.

Dozens of irritating popular posts flooded in every single day. Malicious DMs and emails rattled your mental state without mercy. Could anyone really endure that all the way to the finish line?

Yu Seona, who had already snuck peeks at Rena-ttang losing her composure live on stream more than a few times, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was confident. Sooner or later, the fuse would catch, and the bomb would go off in spectacular fashion.

So she kept recruiting additional members while simultaneously helping the streamers from the Mercury crew — formerly the Rena Universe crew — and waging a war of public opinion.

Mercury's parent company had serious problems at the time. They used contracts as weapons, took aggressive stances, delayed streamer payouts, and even stripped departing members of their avatar and nickname rights. Their reputation was slowly rotting across the community.

That was when Yu Seona stepped in.

True to her reputation as a well-known silver-spoon kid even in the streaming world, she hired lawyers on their behalf and actively intervened in the problems facing Mercury's virtual streamers who had joined Seona Land. Naturally, a favorable buzz about Yu Seona began circulating among the virtual streamer crowd.

Meanwhile, the rumors stacking up against Rena-ttang grew steadily worse.

Rena-ttang herself had been the one who personally scouted Mercury's virtual streamers and pulled them into the company they were stuck in now. She could walk away whenever she felt like it — but what about the people left behind?

On top of that, most of Mercury's streamers had auditioned specifically because they trusted Rena-ttang's name. After her departure, they were left completely adrift.

By contrast, Yu Seona — who had no connection to them at all — was looking after them simply because they were on her server. It was the perfect material for highlighting just how irresponsible a leader Rena-ttang had been.

"She's doing this on purpose. You hear me? She's doing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this deliberately to keep me in check!"

"Ahaha, maybe you should calm down just a little…"

Last night, Rena-ttang had called me riding a triumphant high after Park Bong-sik chose Rena World. Today, from the moment morning hit, she was a low-pressure system of pure hysteria.

I understood, honestly. Running a server as successful as Rena World meant mental issues of every flavor were bound to crop up. There was no method that satisfied every single person a hundred percent of the time.

Still, Rena-ttang's biggest flaw was how easily she got scratched. Her reactions were so good that the trolls seemed to feel rewarded for their effort — and came at her even harder.

Acting a little tougher and just ignoring them without showing it would have been better.

"I'm irresponsible? Those kids are all adults. Am I supposed to take responsibility for their entire lives? I got scammed by the company too. And even in that situation, they stayed neutral. They weren't on my side. So why should I be responsible for them?"

"Just ignore those DMs and emails. Nothing good comes from getting jerked around by trolls."

"They keep sending that stuff acting all logical, acting all righteous, acting all superior — and it pisses me off for real. And that woman is driving this whole narrative. Putting on a nice-girl act for the image-making. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting!"

Her hatred for Yu Seona had clearly spiked all the way to the top of her skull over this whole affair.

Even before my regression, the two of them had been famous for their war of nerves and mutual sabotage.

When word got out in the community that Yu Seona was trying to recruit famous Rabbit TV streamers by branding Seona Land as a free server open to streamers beyond just Pangea TV — as a counter to Rena World — Rena-ttang, who had zero personal connection to the streamer in question, showed up on their broadcast that very same day. She started handing out sub gifts to the viewers and making awkward small talk. The whole thing was pretty absurd.

It was one of the incidents that really showed how thoroughly Rena-ttang got swept around by community opinion.

"I think I need to rush the update."

She muttered it almost to herself, but I was focused enough not to miss it.

Was the time finally here?

Even before my regression, the update had rolled out around the same timing as Park Bong-sik's return from hiatus, so I'd roughly expected it.

The arrival of Mythic-grade gear.

Honestly, diamond sets were so common by now that — excluding the newbies who'd just joined the server — it was harder to find someone who didn't have one. Netherite sets were circulating widely enough that you ran into them regularly too.

Games, by nature, had to keep releasing higher-tier equipment so players could feel superior for staying ahead of everyone else.

This update was clearly going to be content that would send both the streamers enjoying Rena World and their viewers into a frenzy — even more than the vehicle auction had.

"Sounds like you've got something in the works, like the vehicle auction?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah. There's something I've been putting a lot of work into lately. I'll announce it soon. Just know that much."

"Yes, yes. Looking forward to it."

Rena-ttang was being unusually tight-lipped today — maybe she'd suddenly realized how much information she'd been dumping on me all this time.

And with that, the call ended.

Mythic-grade gear, huh… This should be fun.

After the vehicle auction, this was another chance to take off.

Construction on Skypia was progressing smoothly.

The floor work was already finished, and the team was hard at work recreating the temples of various gods alongside famous scenes from mythology.

But that wasn't the end of it.

The 750,000 building funds our fans had gathered for us. The campaign promises each streamer had put forward to make that funding happen. Only when those promises were properly kept could Skypia truly be called complete.

The first to keep her promise was Han A-yeon.

True to her word, she fired up a mobile stream that very weekend and climbed Bukhansan. At first, the "virtual streamer outdoor broadcast" angle pulled in a ton of aggro — but Han A-yeon was careful enough to keep herself well hidden, and the drive-by viewers looking for a spectacle lost interest fast and left.

It was a disappointment for anyone hoping for a Red Pill reveal, but either way, Han A-yeon had successfully cleared her pledge while showing off her physical fitness.

The next batters up were Subnitti and Miho.

Miho's pledge was so easy that I'd expected her to knock it out no problem — but Subnitti was the real surprise.

With that husky voice, easygoing personality, and way of talking that made you picture a party-girl big sister from her wilder days, Subnitti turned out to be a completely unexpected horror-game goldmine. She was a full-blown trembling wreck, and her screams were deliciously good.

Ooh~ Now this is fine dining.

Later on, she started sniffling and begging the viewers with every scrap of aegyo she could muster — just one free pass, please. A rare display of survival-mode aegyo from a woman in her thirties. A lot of viewers that day said their brains short-circuited on the spot.

Anyway, there were all kinds of ways to become soup stock for the audience.

And Lucy's pledge: recording a song dedicated to one person!

Three people had hit the funding threshold, so three songs needed to be recorded — but Lucy's professionalism was in full force, and clearing it was going to take a bit more time. She wouldn't give the OK ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to anything short of a serious level of polish. Nothing to be done about that.

Next up was Na-ro-si.

Even before my regression, she'd made a name for herself in variety gaming, and she was clearly no ordinary player. She cleared that notoriously infamous game — Getting Over It — in eight hours, pure grit on full display.

Granted, looking purely at clear time, it wasn't as impressive as the speedrun videos that popped up on YouTube. But you had to factor in that this was Na-ro-si's very first attempt at the game. On top of that, she finished a game famous for completely shattering streamers' mental states while maintaining high energy the entire way through.

You almost wanted to give her a standing ovation for that level of professionalism.

A 3D virtual concert isn't something you just whip up overnight. I'm still in ongoing talks with the company about it. Completing this pledge will have to wait until after Skypia is finished.

So with the 3D virtual concert ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pushed back for now, only one pledge remained.

Mayo's Half-Cam Bizarre Food Pinball Mukbang.

It had kept getting postponed because of her packed schedule, but a slot had finally opened up for this afternoon.

The grand menu: three dishes in total!

The funding amount had been so massive that, out of gratitude, she'd decided to eat three different foods.

Is this kid's palate just like a stray dog's or what?!

Since she was turning on Half-Cam, I'd monitored her test stream just in case something went wrong — and the moment I saw what the food actually looked like, I was horrified.

A visual so shocking it guaranteed at least three days of lost appetite.

Mayo's Bizarre Food Pinball Mukbang — the kind of thing that might haunt your dreams — was about to begin.