002
002
"Umm...."
11:00 AM.
Lee Hyunwoo opens his eyes in bed.
Sunday was the only day he could sleep in.
To soothe his chronic fatigue, he had to catch up on sleep on Sundays.
"Yawn.... What a weird dream."
The first thing that came to mind upon opening his eyes was what happened last night.
However, Lee Hyunwoo dismissed meeting an angel as a dream.
Because he had been quite drunk, and his memory was blurry.
Lee Hyunwoo's interest quickly shifted to something else.
"Expensive alcohol really is better. I drank two bottles, yet I have almost no hangover."
If he drank two bottles of soju, his stomach or head would hurt the next day.
Or both would hurt.
Thanks to splurging for once, he was having a hangover-free morning.
Still, he couldn't skip his morning hangover ramen.
Stumbling out of bed, Lee Hyunwoo put a pot filled with water for ramen on the gas stove.
He turned on the flame and dumped both the ramen and the soup base into the pot.
And just by waiting five minutes, he could easily finish making the ramen.
Since he didn't have a dining table, the pot headed to his computer desk.
"Let's see...."
Lee Hyunwoo's finger naturally clicked the Corea TV icon.
The Corea TV homepage opened on the monitor screen.
Today, as always, good-looking, pretty, or funny guys were hosting personal broadcasts.
What he clicked on was Ladi, specifically in the Talk/Cam broadcast category.
When drinking, he preferred men with good banter.
But the best thing to watch right after waking up was definitely a female streamer.
Because he didn't want to hear a man's voice in the middle of the morning.
The female streamers on Corea TV had different broadcast characteristics depending on the time of day.
First, the hottest time slot: between 6:00 PM and 10:00 PM.
This time is described as the Spring and Autumn Warring States period.
As it's the time with the most viewers, BJs with all sorts of content host unique broadcasts.
And the time slot that is hot in a different sense: from 10:00 PM until dawn.
In this time slot, there are many sexy-themed streamers targeting the male heart.
Hot broadcasts, such as wearing racy lingerie or 'no-item' battles where they don't wear underwear at all, were the norm.
Lastly, the remaining time: from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
During this time, calm broadcasts were the norm.
Both streamers and viewers preferred content they could share in daily life rather than something stimulating.
"Oh, Ladi started streaming."
BJ Ladi.
She was a female streamer, but she was a talk-focused BJ who rarely did sexy concepts.
Since she pushed talk as her main strength, her banter was quite good, so her number of regular viewers was quite solid.
Lee Hyunwoo also tended to watch her broadcast occasionally if it was on during the weekend.
[Morning Class Talk]
Ladi · 1,669 viewers
A title that was somewhat less sincere than those of small-time streamers.
But just by the weight of her name, over a thousand viewers had gathered.
Lee Hyunwoo clicked her thumbnail, increasing the viewer count by one.
-Explain the secret relationship
-Ex
-(Chat icon roughly demanding an explanation)
-plain
-it
-now
-Aren't you guys actually dating?
The moment he entered the room, what he saw was a burning chat window.
No one mentioned Lee Hyunwoo entering, as he was just one viewer.
"Jay-nim and I are just oppa and dongsaeng. Stop trying to link us like that."
Naturally, Ladi was the same.
A small-time streamer who values every single viewer is different from a semi-major streamer.
To a semi-major streamer, a 'Quick-gun' (a casual viewer who has a Quick View item but hasn't joined the fan club) was not a relatively precious target.
Once you reach semi-major status, you tend to focus on the 'Big hands' who donate a lot of coins.
Lee Hyunwoo knew that, so he didn't care and ate his ramen.
Listening to the story, it seemed like Ladi was getting aggroed about dating.
"No, seriously. What secret relationship? It was a BJ gathering that day, I told you! Ha.... I can't even reveal this. We didn't meet just the two of us."
Honestly, to Lee Hyunwoo, who mainly watched drinking broadcasts, it didn't really matter who Ladi was dating.
He had once been overly immersed in 'We Got Married' content, but now that life was hard, his interest in other people's dating lives had disappeared.
Now, he just thought it was best if the broadcast was fun.
He wasn't very interested in the topic that was causing the aggro.
Still, Ladi was a semi-major BJ who rose to fame through talk.
Her storytelling skills and banter with viewers were excellent, so even topics he wasn't interested in were worth listening to.
Just as he was finishing his ramen, Ladi changed the subject.
"Alright, alright. That's enough on this topic. If you mention it more, I'll block you. It's rude to Jay-nim if you keep mentioning it. Shall we try a Baekdusan climb for the first time in a while today? If we climb Baekdusan, I'll dance."
Baekdusan refers to stacking coins in order from 1 to 100.
Stacking a total of 5,050 coins from 1 upwards is similar to climbing a mountain.
It was a Corea TV term derived from the fact that the final destination of 100 (baek) and the 'Baek' in Baekdusan have the same pronunciation.
It's a marketing tactic created by Corea TV and BJs to receive coins.
But viewers happily accept the marketing tactic.
Because the BJ rewards them when the Baekdusan climb is completed.
Especially if it's a BJ like Ladi who doesn't usually dance, people go wild.
-Extreme
-Pleasure
-(Thumbs up chat icon)(Thumbs up chat icon)(Thumbs up chat icon)
-(Heart chat icon)(Heart chat icon)(Heart chat icon)
-Extreme
-(Heart chat icon)(Heart chat icon)(Heart chat icon)
-Pleasure
The chat window, which had been filled with chats demanding an explanation, changed in an instant.
As expected of a seasoned broadcaster.
Lee Hyunwoo remembered he had 7 leftover coins.
For someone like Ladi, he should pay the viewing fee.
He should donate them during the 7th Baekdusan step, and join the fan club while he's at it.
Timing is important when donating coins during a Baekdusan climb.
If you don't get the timing right, overlaps can occur.
That's why he turned on the coin gift window in advance, but,
"Fuck?"
Lee Hyunwoo spat out a curse without realizing it.
[Gift Coins]
-Gift to Ladi(Lajeehye)-nim
-Coins to gift ____
-Coins owned 999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999···
A feast of 999s continuing endlessly.
Is it a bug?
What kind of error is this....
"No, wait.... Could it be...."
That crazy dream yesterday was real?
The situation from last night, which he had put in the back of his mind and forgotten, came to mind.
It wasn't a dream.
"Ha, haha.... Hahaha...."
A hollow laugh leaked past his lips.
Is this what it feels like to win the lottery when you didn't expect it?
He felt incredibly good, but it didn't feel quite real.
It was a strange feeling.
"I can use this, right?"
He can use it.
The angel said that by the grace of God, it wouldn't cause any harm to Corea TV or the National Tax Service.
Lee Hyunwoo was very proud of himself for asking such things even while drunk.
"Yulking-oppa! Thank you for the 7, 8, 9 Baekdusan! Heave, ho."
-Heave
-ho!
-Heave
-ho
-(Tug-of-war chat icon)
While Lee Hyunwoo was in shock, Ladi began to climb Baekdusan.
The climb is a metaphorical expression.
She sat in her chair, swaying her body lightly to induce viewers to donate coins.
She would swing both arms as if playing tug-of-war, or call out the nicknames of viewers who donated coins.
The chat window was diligently typing 'heave, ho' to encourage those spending money.
[Baeksudoegosipda-nim gifted 10 coins!]
-Baeksudoegosipda-nim has become the 25,244th fan club member.
"Baeksu-nim! 10 Baekdusan! And thank you for joining the fan club! Heave, ho! Next is 11 Baekdusan. Who will donate 11 Baekdusan?"
When he pressed the gift button, coins were gifted as much as the number he entered.
Even though he knew it would work, seeing the gift actually go through filled him with overwhelming emotion.
Should he say it finally felt real?
"Wooooaaaaah!"
Lee Hyunwoo jumped up from his seat and cheered.
A lion's roar that would put a barbarian to shame burst from his mouth.
He was happy.
He was so happy.
Now, he was a tycoon.
Lee Hyunwoo closed Ladi's broadcast.
He had infinite money now, so what was Ladi's broadcast anyway?
The first thing he checked was the refund section in the customer center.
Since he had infinite coins, if he kept refunding a reasonable amount of money, he could live without worrying about money for the rest of his life....
"No, wait. What if the employee processing the refund can see my coin history?"
Lee Hyunwoo's hand, which had been excitedly filling out the refund form, stopped.
He hadn't thought it through because he was too happy.
The coins he owned were too many, way too many.
In terms of cash, it went beyond thousands of trillions, past quadrillions, quintillions, sextillions, and septillions.
An arithmetically impossible figure.
It was an impossible number, even if all the money in the world were gathered and exchanged for coins.
What would an employee think if they saw this?
They would naturally judge it as a bug.
And they would check payment history or recharge history, and if there was none, they would delete the coins.
What if the angel had even prepared for that when granting his wish?
It's still a problem.
An amount that would be insufficient even if all the wealth in the world were gathered had been charged; could Corea TV not know?
In this case, they would think of it as hacking, not a bug.
A crime that hacked not only Corea TV's coin system but also the payment system and the national credit network.
It could become a much bigger problem than a simple bug.
"Can't I change this into money?"
He had won an amount so large that the lottery, no, the American Super Bowl, would pale in comparison.
A refund is impossible.
What a shitty situation.
Lee Hyunwoo pondered ways to exchange the infinite coins.
Then, a way to change coins into money caught his eye.
And there were a lot of them.
The dozens of BJs displayed on the monitor.
He could easily cash out by using them.
He would donate coins and receive money in return.
It could be seen as a kind of cashback.
First, he thought about the BJs' income structure.
Since watching broadcasts was his only joy, he remembered their income structure.
A regular BJ's commission is 40 percent.
3.3 percent withholding tax.
10 percent value-added tax.
6~35 percent comprehensive income tax.
If they earn 1 coin, or 100 won, the BJ earns 32 to 50 won depending on the tax base.
320 won for 1,000 won.
3.2 million won for 10 million won.
Then, if he donated 100,000 coins, half of that, 1.6 million won.
No, even if he asked for a 1 million won cashback, it was clear that BJs would line up to do it.
Lee Hyunwoo sat in front of the computer with a smile full of enthusiasm.