Chapter 187
Chapter 187
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 187
Chapter Title: Launch – Hellic 2 Remake (3)
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The saying that wealth begets wealth is more than just a lesson from some faraway land.
In truth, that is the very nature of wealth.
It bears a resemblance to a snowball; its growth is proportional to its size, increasing by a percentage.
Game sales followed the same principle.
Sales beget sales.
In other words, once sales began to explode from a certain starting point, it would trigger a chain reaction, stimulating other nearby factors and multiplying the figures by several, even dozens of times.
The current situation was a story in that same vein.
The value of the game company called Studio Rewind, and the return of the steady-selling IP, Hellic 2, after a decade.
The first explosion occurred, and it was tallied in the form of sales rankings.
From there, a second incident, a chain reaction, took place.
Various cases, which could only be described as accidents, acted as variables, causing sales to skyrocket.
“Wow, that person is *that* Jini? NoBrightFuture is Jini? For real?!”
Just as Han Seo-rim said, the fact that ‘NoBrightFuture,’ one of the most notorious ghosts haunting the domestic communities that frequently mentioned Hellic, was actually ‘Jini from One Hit Girl’ was shocking.
However, apart from the shock, this fact was creating a current that even I hadn't imagined.
After all, when you thought about it, wasn't it obvious?
The gaming fanbase and the idol fanbase do not overlap.
This meant that the idol fans who knew of Jini had the effect of drawing in a new slice of the market that had yet to experience Hellic—and that slice was a pie of immense power and size.
The explosive power of K-pop had reached an unprecedented peak in the age of COVID.
This was because the hottest boy group in the "Do You Know Club" had broken into the Billboard charts, causing the genre's overall recognition to soar.
Of course, One Hit Girl was an idol group from a previous generation.
But they were also a group that could never be omitted when explaining the history of K-pop girl groups, one that had marched at the forefront of the globalization of idol culture and achieved great success.
As such, each and every member possessed a formidable level of recognition both at home and abroad.
Jini's activities had been quiet, but a few short years hadn't been enough to erase her from people's memories.
The reclusive Jini suddenly appears and plays a game.
And that game is a remake of a game she used to play by cutting back on sleep even during her busiest, peak years.
The question that followed was a simple one.
-What kind of game is it that she was so obsessed with it?
The answer to that question was Hellic 2.
Idol fan culture has a certain element to it.
-If my favorite likes it that much, should I try it too?
The meaning of ‘idol’ is an object of worship.
Why is an idol an idol?
Because they are endlessly admired, and one wants to become like them.
It was impossible for there not to be fans who wanted to play the same game as Jini.
Of course, the number of fans who actually went on to purchase the game, and the number of users who played it, was only a tiny fraction of the entire fanbase.
But that was fine.
“Wow, was this kind of firepower really possible?”
As I said, the idol market was comparable in size to the console industry… no, in some ways, it was a pie of a size that couldn't even be compared to the console industry.
“President!!! 1.7 million! 1.7 million in one week!!!”
It's impossible to say that there wasn't a boost from the cross-platform release, the COVID boom, and the current dark age, which was considered a gaming drought.
But even setting those aside, it was, without a doubt, a phenomenal figure.
Yang Gil-sang spoke, thoroughly excited.
“D-don't you think we can aim for a second ten million seller? We should revise our marketing strategy right now and target that fandom on a massive scale…”
“There’s no need. It’s a fire that will die down quickly.”
“Pardon?”
“Enjoy the boom for what it is. This was just a lucky break.”
Does this guy think hitting ten million a second time will be easy just because he’s done it once?
If it were a record that could be achieved so readily, why would it be considered a legendary record in the industry?
“It's a temporary trend. We should think of it as a fortunate encounter that helped pump up our sales figures, and then erase it from our minds.”
“But…”
“In the first place, this is the result of a different market pie being added to our existing one. For a moment, a surge of interest caused the other pie to mix in, right? That’s why the numbers are abnormally high. This will soon return to normal. Once the issue dies down, the name Hellic will be erased from the idol scene. From now on, we have to compete purely within the console customer pie.”
It did better than expected, but I couldn't see it selling more than 7 million within a year, no matter how I looked at it.
To begin with, if it had sold normally, it was structured in a way that this kind of firepower was impossible.
“It’s a remake, after all. The structure requires us to calculate sales after excluding the segment of existing customers who wouldn't want to play a game they already know again.”
We had made a dramatic defense.
Luck was on our side, and a positive signal had appeared for our revenue.
That's how I should judge it and move on.
Of course, that didn't mean I would do nothing.
“Let’s schedule something. Try to set up a commercial with Jini’s agency. We can discuss the specific format later.”
Might as well squeeze out what we can.
With that, my conversation with Yang Gil-sang concluded.
There was nothing more for me to worry about in the marketing domain, so I headed back to my team to return to my main job: the development of Hellic 5.
As it happened, I had some feedback for the art team today, so I went to find Han Seo-rim.
And so, I was able to witness it.
“NoBrightFuture… is Jini…?”
She looked like her soul had left her body.
The sight of her clutching her disheveled hair in agony was quite impressive.
How should I put it? She looked like a middle schooler who just realized that a classmate she thought was just as poor as her was actually the son of a rich family.
Envy, jealousy, anger, and emptiness.
What a pitiful mix of emotions.
This was the fate of one who had invested too much of their ego into an online community.
They were destined to writhe in the gap between the community and reality.
‘But Seo-rim.’
You’re not so different yourself.
Weren’t you playing the part of someone who didn’t even know what an online community was?
Putting that aside, when you think about it, wouldn't the most suspicious person be the mysterious anonymous user who always defended Studio Rewind in the communities?
I shook my head slowly.
‘I should come back later.’
I decided to give her some time to heal her wounds.
***
To Jihyun, everything felt like a dream.
Not in the sense that it was wonderful, but that it was bewildering and surreal.
“Jihyun, we got a commercial offer from Studio Rewind. What do you want to do? I think it would be good to take it…”
It was the face of her agency’s director, a face she hadn't seen in a very long time.
The reason for their sudden meeting was the various incidents that had occurred in the aftermath of her last broadcast.
Apparently, Hellic 2 had started gaining attention because of her, leading to huge sales, and as a result, they saw marketing potential and made an offer.
Hearing such words, her pickled brain conjured a single thought.
‘That bastard Cheon.’
He sure knows how to spot an opportunity.
Jihyun, idly lacing her fingers and wiggling them, looked up at the ceiling.
The white light stung her eyes.
‘Is this really okay?’
She thought back to before she had arrived at this point.
The day she sensed she had made a mistake, she cut off all lines of communication with the outside world.
Phone, internet, all of it.
She became so afraid that she even wanted to disappear from the world entirely, yet she trembled, worrying about what kind of insults were being posted about her.
It was Hyosung who saved Jihyun from that state.
“You crazy bitch! Open the door! Did you think I wouldn't be able to find you if you just hung up the phone?!”
Bang, bang, bang. Seeing her pounding on the door with both hands and feet as if to break it down, Jihyun finally opened it. Hyosung, who had been furious about her own image getting strangely twisted, froze when she saw Jihyun's deathly appearance.
“You… what’s with your state?”
She cried.
It felt like the first time in a very long time that she had cried so hard the world seemed to shake.
Only when she had cried herself out and no more sobs would come could Jihyun hear about what was happening outside.
“Huh? What are you talking about? Because of the stories you told on your first appearance in ages, every single search term has been plastered with your name. You’ve made a comeback right now. A damn spectacular one at that.”
Puzzled by those words, she checked the news articles through Hyosung.
Seeing the positive reactions and the things that had happened because of her, Jihyun could only blink.
“Sejin said she’s got her eye on you. Hwarin too.”
“Why Hwarin?”
“She asked why you left out only her stories. She’s mad because rumors of a feud are spreading now.”
“…”
It was a situation that made her want to laugh out loud.
At the end of all her emotions was a sense of emptiness.
For another day, she was so caught up in that feeling that she couldn't do anything.
Furthermore, that day was the first time in a long while that Jihyun hadn't touched alcohol.
She sat quietly on the sofa, lost in thought, and came to a conclusion.
‘It was all for nothing.’
The fear was nothing.
It was merely a monster in the closet, inflated in her imagination.
Actually, she knew.
She knew that the world wasn't as interested in her as she thought, and the idea that everyone hated her was just a delusion.
The psychiatrist had said so, the counselor had said so, and the whole world knew it to be true.
Yet, it was an illness because she couldn't escape it.
Like so many others, she couldn't break free on her own and only realized it after things had already happened.
She felt relieved, yet her heart was heavy.
Had she agonized for so long over something so trivial?
No, maybe it was only now that it was all over that these things seemed trivial.
Various thoughts passed through her mind, and after mulling them over, Jihyun thought.
‘What do I do from now on?’
The shackles that had bound her ankles were gone.
The stake driven into her heart now left only a healed scar.
It was then.
The request for a meeting came from her agency’s director.
And that led to this meeting, to the current moment.
The man who was once her road manager, and who had now become a director, spoke with the same slick expression that hadn’t changed in years.
“Jihyun, now’s your chance. We need to gradually expand your territory like this and make a comeback. Huh? There are still this many people waiting for you.”
Jihyun hesitated for a moment, then asked a question.
“…Director.”
“Yeah?”
“Is it really okay?”
The director tilted his head.
For some reason, Jihyun found it all amusing and asked.
“My cringey antics on the online communities, they’ve all been identified, you know.”
A chuckle escaped her.
The director looked troubled.
As someone who had always managed idols who only appeared on mainstream broadcast television, he probably had no idea what to do with her, someone steeped in internet subculture.
Jihyun knew the way better than the director did.
Jihyun, the non-idol, was a shut-in.
She was a master of free time, a PhD in online anthropology.
Just…
“…I’ll just give it a try.”
She just had to face it head-on.
It would be better than staying still.
The moment she said it out loud, Jihyun was able to laugh with a sense of relief.
‘Ah, it was this easy.’
To finally be able to say it.
The answer was ‘just.’
Just.
All she had to do was ‘just’ do it.
If she fell, all she had to do was get back up again.
The director looked troubled for a moment, then finally smiled.
“You little troublemaker. Just don’t cause any more trouble.”
“I’ll try not to get into any dating scandals.”
“You’re at an age where you should be. You’re twenty-seven, you know.”
“What nonsense. Are you my mom, Director?”
Getting up from her seat, Jihyun left with those words.
“Tell them I’ll do the commercial. Oh, while we’re at it, I should see that bastard Cheon’s face during the meeting. I heard he’s insanely handsome in person.”
With that, Jihyun walked out the door.
One person had stepped out into the world.