Declaration of Resolve
Myeong-yun had no choice but to end the stream in a hurry without even reading the UltraChats.
A warning about New World overload had appeared in the corner of his vision, demanding he terminate the connection.
The battle against Biryung had pushed the device beyond its limits.
It had only been for a brief instant, yet that alone had thrown New World into an overclocked state that refused to shut down for some time.
He decided he would convey his thanks for the sponsorships later through the official channel.
Or perhaps during the next broadcast.
“Huu.”
Exiting New World and rising from the bed, Myeong-yun looked at Sang-hyun, who sat before him.
He was staring at the computer screen with deadly serious eyes.
“Hey, are you all right?”
What could he be looking at so intently?
When Myeong-yun followed his gaze to the monitor, he saw that several screens—installed at some point—were filled with moving numbers and graphs.
Sang-hyun, who had kept his mouth shut for a long while, finally spoke.
“...Hey. What are we going to do about this?”
“What do you mean, what are we going to do?”
“It looks like we’ve struck it big. Should we drop out of school?”
“Graduation is only a month away.”
“That’s true.”
Only a month remained in the school year.
They would graduate next year and enter university.
Dropping out made no sense.
Myeong-yun understood why Sang-hyun had suddenly uttered such nonsense.
“The numbers have grown tremendously.”
Twitter followers: ninety thousand.
YouTube subscribers: one hundred seventy thousand.
PV views: four hundred thousand.
The two War God difficulty clear videos combined had surpassed two million views.
The peak concurrent viewers during the broadcast had set a new record at twenty-one thousand.
It was a rise so explosive it seemed insane.
And it made sense. He possessed transcendent physical ability and had revealed the existence of Narak’s ‘Floor Six,’ something no one had ever shown before.
The related communities were in an absolute frenzy over Narak.
All because of the first-ever sightings of ‘Biryung’ and ‘Floor Six.’
Sang-hyun silently opened Twitter and searched the ‘#HeavenlyDemonProselytism’ hashtag.
Countless pieces of fan art flooded the screen.
Myeong-yun’s appearance seemed to have carried enormous impact; both amateurs and professional illustrators had joined the trend of drawing him.
From small accounts with thousands of followers to major ones with hundreds of thousands.
It had been only two days since his debut.
‘Heavenly Demon,’ ‘Myeong-yun,’ and ‘NarakFloorSix’ had seized the real-time trending list.
The colossal meteor that had crashed into the VTuber industry had completely conquered Twitter, the very trendsetter of what was popular.
“All of these are drawings of me?”
“Precisely, they are drawings of you as the Heavenly Demon.”
They are all quite impressive. Had this been my previous life, I would have seized every last one of them and brought them to the Heavenly Demon Cult to paint my portraits.
Myeong-yun could not tear his eyes from the fan arts depicting him.
A few of the drawings looked remarkably similar to the way he had appeared in his past life.
Seeing his reaction, Sang-hyun searched additional hashtags and showed them as well.
Twitter was alive with vibrant interaction.
There were hashtags such as ‘#HeavenlyDemonCultistTwitterIntro’ meant for mutual exchanges, along with numerous edited broadcast clips.
“Hey, look at this one.”
Sang-hyun, who had been idly browsing Twitter, nudged Myeong-yun and pointed at the screen.
When Myeong-yun saw the number displayed, he said, “This is the total amount earned today?”
“That’s right.”
Monetization approval had been granted that very day.
Which meant this sum had been earned in a single day through UltraChat alone.
It was an absurd figure.
There had been the special circumstance of it being the first monetized broadcast, yet Myeong-yun was still a VTuber who had only just debuted.
The money he would earn going forward would be far greater.
“So, about that—how should we split the revenue?”
“Take it all.”
Sang-hyun’s eyes flew wide open at Myeong-yun’s words. He wondered if the guy had gone insane.
But Myeong-yun simply gazed at him with a perfectly calm face, as though he had not spoken a single falsehood.
“Money is not what this seat requires.”
What he needed was not wealth, but an environment.
A battlefield like the one from his previous life.
If he could simply stand upon it, money was meaningless.
Besides, Myeong-yun owed Sang-hyun a great deal.
Even though he had been reborn in South Korea, his previous existence had been that of the Heavenly Demon—an existence that had lived for an unfathomably long time.
From childhood he could not help but be different from other children.
His parents had embraced him with boundless love despite the unapproachable aura he gave off, yet peer relationships were another matter.
When he was very young, the one who had always approached the blunt and taciturn Myeong-yun first and spoken to him was Sang-hyun.
He was sociable and well-connected.
Thanks to his many friends, Myeong-yun had been able to maintain harmonious relationships with his classmates.
Because of that, his parents had not worried excessively, and Myeong-yun wanted to repay him in some way.
Seeing the look in Myeong-yun’s eyes, Sang-hyun wore a dazed expression.
This guy is misunderstanding something again.
Still, this was not proper.
Sang-hyun also came from a wealthy household no less privileged than Myeong-yun’s, and he understood duty and righteousness.
It would be like the bear performing tricks while the owner took all the money. If his father found out, he would raise hell.
Sang-hyun gave a loud, deliberate cough and spoke.
“Ahem! That doesn’t seem right. Seven to you, three to me from the net profit. In exchange, you cover all broadcasting expenses. I’ll act as manager and editor. Let’s settle on those terms.”
“You truly do not wish to take more?”
“Yeah. Even this is already taking quite a lot.”
In Sang-hyun’s opinion, even this split was generous.
They had earned nearly four million won in a single day. If the trend continued for even a few more days?
Moreover, on special broadcast days such as birthday streams or new costume reveals, tens of millions would be trivial.
The historical record for the most UltraChat earned in one day by a VTuber had long surpassed three hundred million won.
As the VTuber market expanded, so did the revenue.
With advertisements and regular YouTube income still to come, both of them would easily clear ten million won per month.
After long deliberation, Sang-hyun spoke with a resolute expression.
“Hey, this won’t do. I need to steel my own resolve as well.”
“Resolve?”
“Yeah. Honestly, I never expected it to blow up like this. There are plenty of martial-arts-concept VTubers, and those without any uniqueness vanish in the blink of an eye.”
“Yet looking at your face now, it does not seem you truly believe that.”
Myeong-yun nodded, a satisfied smile on his lips.
Sang-hyun’s face was filled with a quiet, confident grin.
“Yun-ah, Sang-hyun has been coming over often these past few days. What exactly are you two doing?”
Myeong-yun’s mother, Kim Seon-yeong, asked while he sat on the living-room sofa watching television after dinner.
Seon-yeong found it slightly suspicious.
Although Sang-hyun visited frequently, he had never come so regularly before.
She could only conclude the two boys were plotting something.
Even Sang-hyun’s mother had mentioned that he wasn’t sleeping at night lately and seemed to be up to something.
The moment has arrived.
Myeong-yun realized he could no longer avoid explaining the matter of being a ‘VTuber.’
He straightened his posture, preparing to explain to Seon-yeong.
At that exact moment, a call came from Sang-hyun.
“HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TURN ON THE NEWS RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“What is it?”
Even while asking, Myeong-yun operated the remote as instructed and switched the television to the news.
The nine o’clock evening news—the flagship broadcast.
What was currently airing was none other than the figure of ‘Heavenly Demon Myeong-yun.’
Seon-yeong, who had been watching the news together with him, spoke.
“Oh my, he has the same name as you. So… a virtual newtuber?”
“It is ‘virtual YouTuber,’ Mother.”
“How fascinating. It feels like we had things like this when I was young, too.”
Seon-yeong watched the news with an amused expression.
It was proof that virtual YouTubers had already seeped into the daily lives of ordinary people.
Now was probably the perfect time.
“Mother, that is me.”
“Hm? What did you say? Well, the name is the same. How funny.”
“No, I mean it is me. Heavenly Demon Myeong-yun is this seat.”
“Eh? Huh?”
At that moment the news moved on to the amount of UltraChat Myeong-yun had received in a single day.
“This virtual YouTuber received over five million won in sponsorships in the single day since monetization was approved.”
“F-five hundred?”
“After commission it is close to four million won, Mother.”
“Stop joking. You know that isn’t funny.”
Seon-yeong, who did not seem very familiar with streaming, took it as an amusing prank and laughed.
Since Myeong-yun normally never joked or played around, she genuinely found it entertaining and smiled brightly.
Myeong-yun had been completely serious, but it appeared the message had not gotten through.
…There will be another chance.
He could explain it to her gradually.
Myeong-yun knew very well that his mother was not a narrow-minded person.
Sang-hyun’s voice continued through the smartphone.
“Is it real that we hit the news on only the second broadcast? Uahaha! Thanks to that, convincing my parents was easy.”
“Convincing?”
“Yeah, man. If I’m going to keep helping you, I won’t have enough time while attending university. I reached an agreement with my parents on the condition that I at least graduate.”
“You went that far?”
“This industry doesn’t really care about school grades anyway. If you succeed, my portfolio succeeds too, so it’s all good.”
“I see.”
Sang-hyun went on to explain in detail how much effort he had put into persuading his parents.
Myeong-yun listened to the story, but as it grew longer and longer he could no longer endure and simply hung up.
There was something more important than any of that right now.
Narak’s sixth floor.
Ever since the existence of Narak’s sixth floor had been revealed, countless people had returned to the game.
No matter the streaming platform, whether VTuber or regular streamer, almost every page was once again packed with people playing Narak—just like when the game had first launched.
No, perhaps even more than before.
Narak had not only reclaimed its past glory but surpassed it.
And at the center of it all stood Myeong-yun.
Since no one had yet fulfilled the conditions to reach the sixth floor, only he could show what lay beyond the fifth.
Myeong-yun placed a hand over his rapidly beating heart and murmured.
“The next one is something to look forward to.”