Legal Sniping Arena
The Butterview interview wrapped up successfully.
The peak concurrent viewership had skyrocketed to two hundred and twenty thousand, and the internet was buzzing with praise calling it one of the greatest guest appearances of all time.
After the broadcast ended, the Butterview team asked if Myeong-yun and Sang-hyun wanted to join them for an after-party offline meetup, but both of them declined.
They were still minors, after all, and there was no real reason to go.
Mootdayang would probably feel a little disappointed, but that wasn’t a big issue for either of them.
“Wow, Butterview’s firepower is no joke. No wonder all the rookies twist themselves into pretzels trying to get on the show.”
As soon as Myeong-yun took off the New World headset and stood up, Sang-hyun spoke.
The fact that Sang-hyun was saying something like this meant there were meaningful numbers to back it up.
Myeong-yun walked over to him and glanced at the graph Sang-hyun had pulled up on the screen.
“Left side is before the Butterview appearance, right side is after. See the growth rate by time slot?”
“This… is incredible.”
Myeong-yun’s subscriber growth had already been enormous, but the difference before and after appearing on Butterview was night and day.
The upward trend had more than doubled.
His subscriber count, which had only recently hit one million, was now closing in on one point one million.
Whether it was because Mootdayang’s subscribers had flooded in after the Butterview appearance, the video view counts had also exploded.
“At this rate, the video revenue is going to be absolutely massive. You’re not regretting the revenue split, right?”
“Of course not. If it weren’t for you, this channel would never have even started in the first place.”
Myeong-yun knew this well from his past life’s experience.
If you wanted to keep talented people by your side, you had to show them trust.
The former Chief Strategist of the Heavenly Demon Cult had been the same. Because Myeong-yun had shown him the future of the Heavenly Demon Cult and genuine faith, the man had trusted and followed him in return.
“…Hm. Yeah. That way I can stay motivated too.”
“Moti?”
“Motivation. You’re good with Chinese characters but bad at English?”
“Why should this seat bother learning the tongue of those western barbarians?”
“You crazy bastard.”
Sang-hyun dismissed Myeong-yun’s words with a single sentence and started replaying the Butterview VOD.
The interview had run a little over two hours. The replay count had already surpassed five hundred thousand.
Butterview would edit and upload it themselves, so the revenue from views on their end would be enormous as well.
That was the dignity of a massive corporation for you.
They had promised to settle all the sponsorship money received during the broadcast to this side.
“We’ll get to this level someday too, right?”
“It’s not someday. It’s right around the corner.”
“Is that so? You’re not wrong!”
They had even set a world record.
The Heavenly Demon Myeong-yun channel was sailing smoothly.
The ride was so exhilarating it felt like they were aboard an express passenger ship.
The graph kept climbing, and today’s Butterview appearance had given the channel’s growth an insane boost.
Who would believe this was a rookie channel that had only been around for a week?
“The community reactions are really good too. They liked that public sniping declaration you made at the end of Butterview. There are already tons of people lining up to snipe you.”
“Tell them all to come at once. This seat has not the slightest intention of running away.”
At the very end of the Butterview broadcast, watched by over two hundred thousand people, Myeong-yun had made a public declaration.
He would allow all sniping attempts in the games he played from now on, so anyone confident enough should come at him.
He had even revealed which game he would play next and told them to practice until the broadcast.
“Yeah, let’s show those snipers what your physical ability really looks like. Who knows? Maybe even fighting champions will show up to beat you down.”
“As if a mere champion could stand against the Heavenly Demon?”
Myeong-yun lightly smacked Sang-hyun on the shoulder in jest and grabbed the coat hanging on the wall.
“Let’s go grab some late-night snacks.”
“You’re buying, right?”
“Obviously.”
Myeong-yun was about to head out with Sang-hyun when his mother caught them at the front door.
“Oh, you two are going out? I made dinner. Something delicious.”
“…Let’s just eat at home.”
“Yeah. You really are weak when it comes to Auntie. Well, I like Auntie’s cooking so I don’t mind.”
Communities across the internet were currently in an uproar over the “Legal Sniping” announcement.
It was all thanks to Myeong-yun openly declaring on a broadcast watched by over two hundred thousand people that people should try sniping him.
Thanks to that, every kind of comment imaginable was flooding the communities.
People confident in their physical ability were diving into practice, claiming they would challenge Myeong-yun.
The number of people saying they would snipe him had already surpassed several hundred.
It was a rare chance to experience Myeong-yun’s physical ability, which they had only seen through broadcasts until now.
And the people aiming for Myeong-yun weren’t limited to community members and attention-seekers.
Myeong-yun’s current popularity was beyond imagination.
If someone managed to beat him even once, they would gain enormous fame. So mid-tier or small-time streamers were also looking for that one golden opportunity.
They were scheming to ride Myeong-yun’s popularity and reap the reflected benefits.
Whether they were regular streamers or VTubers.
People trying to promote themselves by sniping Myeong-yun by any means necessary.
Thanks to all of this, the game Myeong-yun had announced he would play next—“For Honor”—was experiencing an unexpected boom.
A pure physical PVP game where players fought one-on-one in a small arena.
A macho fighting arena where anyone confident in their skill could seize first place.
Download numbers were skyrocketing, and the number of people suddenly streaming the game had increased dramatically.
Because of herd mentality, once more streamers started playing “For Honor,” other streamers began playing it too without even knowing why.
Thus began the massive “For Honor” wave.
The overseas developer of “For Honor,” Labisoft, hurriedly tried to figure out what was happening after their sudden sales spike.
“Sky Devil…? Is it read as Cheonma? Who is this guy?”
“Oh, Mitchell, you still don’t know? He’s the hottest VTuber right now.”
“VTuber? Virtual YouTuber? Why is this person suddenly—?”
“Oh, Mitchell, you big dumb idiot. The Heavenly Demon who reached one million subscribers in just one week announced he’s playing our game. ‘For Honor,’ specifically!”
“Ah, so that’s why sales jumped. But does just announcing he’ll play it really cause this much of an increase?”
“Oh! Stupid Mitchell! You haven’t been watching the Heavenly Demon’s streams. I recommend you start by watching Butterview episode 124 that just went up.”
“I don’t really watch VTubers. But I’m starting to get annoyed here?”
“That’s because you’re stupid and slow to catch trends. Now that virtual reality has gone mainstream, who needs to be more sensitive to trends than us—the people making VR content?”
“…I have nothing to say to that.”
Mitchell, one of the developers working on “For Honor” at Labisoft, watched “Butterview 124” as his colleague suggested.
“Oh my holy shit……”
After watching the Butterview episode with subtitles, he became completely hooked and went straight to the “Heavenly Demon Myeong-yun” channel to binge every uploaded video.
Starting from the Tushinjeon all the way to his first game Narak, DevaDe, and even Cyberpunk Murim.
Mitchell watched short clips without even noticing time passing, feeling as if his brain was melting from the paradigm-shattering movements in virtual reality.
“Is he a god?”
“Nope. He’s the Heavenly Demon.”
“Oh… the Heavenly Demon……”
“Our Labisoft needs to worship him like a god right now. ‘For Honor’ sales have increased by two hundred percent. The marketing team already reached out to him.”
“Already? He hasn’t even started playing yet?”
“It’s only natural since every game he touches becomes a massive hit. I heard he finished the marketing for Narak and Cyberpunk Murim with insane cost efficiency?”
Cost efficiency indeed. The promotional effect Myeong-yun created was far beyond what any individual could achieve.
Completely pioneering a new route with overwhelming physical ability and reaching an ending no one had ever seen before.
Rumors said he had even achieved two hidden endings in Cyberpunk Murim at the same time—something no one else had managed.
“Maybe the Heavenly Demon will be the first to clear ‘that achievement.’”
“You mean the challenge that no one has completed since launch? Come on, no matter how good the Heavenly Demon is, that should be impossible, right?”
“Oh, foolish Mitchell. He is the one who turns the impossible into possible. He’s the only person who cleared Cyberpunk Murim without any modifications.”
“…Wait, did I just get spoiled?”
“If you still haven’t watched it, you probably weren’t planning to anyway.”
“You crazy bastard! That video only went up two days ago!”
“Oh, poor Mitchell who doesn’t follow trends, is stupid, and slow on the uptake.”
“Log into ‘For Honor’ right now! I challenge you to a duel!”
“Fine. If I win, you’re buying the drinks, Mitchell!”
In one corner of Labisoft’s development team, a noble duel over drinks and honor had broken out.
“Honestly, we’re running at a pretty hardcore pace with the broadcasts. Are you sure your stamina is okay? Or am I the idiot for even asking?”
“You’re definitely the idiot. After watching me for this long?”
“Yeah, I’m the idiot. It’s about time I realized that worrying about you is the most useless thing in the world.”
Sang-hyun shrugged and turned on the computer, preparing the streaming setup.
People who streamed every single day were usually full-time streamers.
But Myeong-yun and Sang-hyun weren’t full-time yet. They were still students.
That meant they had gone to school today and were only now starting their stream.
“But I think I’m starting to get used to this lifestyle. It feels like people need to be busy to really enjoy life.”
“It’s going to get even busier from now on, so look forward to it.”
With those words, Myeong-yun put on the New World headset and lay down on the bed.
After confirming that the New World was connected to the computer, Sang-hyun said,
“Alright then. Go beat the crap out of everyone again today, Heavenly Demon.”