The Second Broadcast's Aftermath (5)
In a café somewhere in Yeouido, a woman in a crisp, immaculate suit sat nursing a cup of coffee, her face tight with nerves she could not quite hide.
She was an employee of the Korean branch of Powell Software.
I'm going to lose my mind from the stress alone.
When she first heard she would be the one dispatched to today's contract meeting, she had been genuinely thrilled. The other party was none other than Soma—the man who had exploded across the internet as the hottest name of the moment. She had watched his streams herself. Having worked, even in a small capacity, on the development of Nightfall, she understood exactly how absurd it was for anyone to move and fight like that inside the game. The moment she saw the broadcast, she had become an instant fan. The thought of seeing Han Yujin in the flesh today had filled her with pure excitement… until she opened the contract and studied the terms she was supposed to present.
I never imagined the company would offer something this aggressive just to lock him down…
Judging by the contents, Powell Software was prepared to do whatever it took to keep Yujin. And if she made even one mistake and he walked away from the deal—
…it won't end with just me becoming unemployed.
Still, she had no one to blame but herself. She was the one who had eagerly accepted the branch manager's offer the second she heard she might meet Soma in person. So she sat there, heart hammering so hard she could no longer tell whether she was drinking the coffee or snorting it, when the café door opened.
“…Huh?”
A man and a woman stepped inside. Instantly every gaze in the café locked onto the pair. The reason was simple: they were the kind of striking couple you could walk the streets all day without ever finding.
Are they celebrities?
The employee caught herself staring at the woman—long, glossy straight hair cascading down her back, a face so radiant it belonged on a runway—and nearly gasped. The woman was stunning, yet the man standing beside her was every bit her equal. Handsome, yes, but more than that: even standing still he drew every eye in the room. It felt almost ridiculous to think such things in modern society, yet an unmistakable aura of quiet authority radiated from him, as though he were accustomed to looking down on the world from a higher plane.
While the employee sat transfixed, the pair strode straight toward her table. Her stomach flipped.
W-what? Did I do something wrong?
“Excuse me—are you with Powell Software?”
“Pardon?”
“We're here regarding the contract with Powell Software.”
At those words the truth finally clicked into place.
“…You're Soma?”
“No matter how many times I hear that nickname, I still can't get used to it. A pleasure. I'm Han Yujin.”
He dipped his head in a polite nod.
“And this is Streamer Ecclesia, who kindly agreed to assist me today.”
“Nice to meet you. Streamer Ecclesia—Lee Sia.”
“E-Ecclesia?”
The employee blinked hard, caught completely off guard. As far as she knew, Soma and Ecclesia had no particular connection. Why would she be here?
“Well… I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to contracts,” Yujin explained. “So I reached out to Ecclesia for help, and she offered to come along.”
In truth, he had only intended to ask her for a lawyer recommendation. He had never expected Ecclesia herself to show up. Of course the employee knew none of that background; she simply stared for a blank second before snapping back to the present. This was no time to dwell on surprises.
“Th-then, allow me to show you the contract first.”
She pulled a sheaf of documents from her briefcase and handed them over. Yujin accepted the papers, took one look, and immediately understood a single, crushing truth.
Ah. This is not something I can comprehend.
He had given up halfway through Korean-English-math workbooks because they made his head hurt. There was zero chance he could parse a contract drowning in technical jargon.
…Well, Ecclesia will handle everything.
From what he had seen of her, she was the last person who would stab him in the back over something like this. He had dragged her here precisely so she could shoulder all the brain-work. Right now, the only option was to trust her completely.
“Hmm… As compensation for the use of Soma's combat data, the final figure we can offer is roughly this.”
“The middleman fees are far too high. Soma is contracting directly without an MCN, so I find this rather unfair.”
Yujin simply watched in a daze while the employee and Ecclesia went back and forth for what felt like ages. Eventually the employee nodded, satisfied, and turned to him with an awkward smile.
“I'll go over the final points with you now, Soma. First, regarding the MuTube channel that Winter mentioned during the joint stream.”
“Mm.”
“You and Winter said you would upload a video explaining the hidden-route entry method Ecclesia discovered onto the MuTube channel you plan to open soon. Correct?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“If that video goes up… we would like Powell Software's advertisement placed on it with priority.”
The ad they wanted was for the upcoming Nightfall DLC. Rather than pouring money into expensive television spots, it would be far more effective to advertise directly to the viewers who came hunting for hidden-route information on Yujin's channel.
“Normally ad rates are calculated from average view counts and current subscriber numbers, but since you haven't opened a MuTube account yet, we decided to set the rate ourselves.”
“Is that so? How high are we talking?”
“We estimated that you will reach at least a Silver Play Button, and given your potential, a Gold Play Button in short order. In other words, you will be treated on par with a channel that already has around five hundred thousand subscribers.”
Considering that fewer than a thousand creators worldwide had ever earned a Gold Play Button, the offer was nothing short of extravagant. Yet Yujin's face remained completely blank.
Silver? Gold? Is that some kind of online game tier?
He knew MuTube existed, but he had no idea what the play buttons meant, so his expression never changed. The employee, unaware of that fact, could only marvel inwardly.
So the rumor that Soma treats money like scrap paper… was actually true.
“Furthermore, we intend to use your combat data to create the DLC boss as well as the final boss of the next title. Separate compensation will of course be paid for that as well.”
“…The final boss of the next title?”
Yujin tilted his head.
“That wasn't mentioned in the email you sent me.”
However ignorant he might be about the VR gaming industry, even he understood that a mere DLC boss and the final boss of a sequel occupied completely different levels of importance. He had never asked for anything like that. Why were they volunteering it?
“It's a gesture of sincerity from Powell Software. We would like to maintain a long-term relationship with you whenever possible.”
“…You want to stay on good terms with me?”
Something about the employee's smooth explanation felt slightly off, but Yujin simply nodded. The terms weren't harmful to him, so there was no reason to object.
After laying out several more conditions that seemed almost absurdly favorable to Yujin—and correspondingly disadvantageous to Powell Software—the employee finally exhaled in relief, as though a great weight had left her shoulders.
“That covers the main terms. And… what I'm about to say next isn't an official contract clause. Think of it more as a request from us to you.”
She offered a slightly awkward smile and continued.
“By defeating Ariandel in the tutorial, you became the first person in the world to enter the hidden route. But you already know that the method you used was not the one we designed, correct?”
Of course he knew. The general director had mentioned it in an interview, and besides, no one except Yujin could possibly have beaten a boss of that insane difficulty.
“The method our development team envisioned for entering the hidden route was… to clear the game at least once, then on a second playthrough persuade the puppet in Paradise without leveling up at all, and only then kill Ariandel.”
They had judged that a player who had already finished one full run—benefiting from the Holy Sword's physical correction and armed with end-game gear like the Magic Bullet Rifle—would be more than capable of taking Ariandel down. They had never once imagined someone would do it with nothing but a plain straight sword in the tutorial.
“The same goes for when you defeated the One Who Gazes at the Stars. Originally you were supposed to follow Yuria's advice, retreat from Paradise, weaken the Ruler's power, discover its weaknesses, and finally hunt it down in a raid with other hunters.”
Instead, Yujin had ignored every carefully prepared step and simply crushed the Ruler with his own strength alone.
“Of course… we did consider the possibility that a player might skip the entire process and solo the Ruler. We figured maybe someone who had cleared Nightfall five times or so and stacked enough stats could pull it off. We never once imagined a complete newcomer to VR games would achieve something like that.”
She met his eyes.
“So far you have repeatedly shattered every expectation our team held. That is why… we have a request for you.”
“A request from the development team?”
Yujin blinked.
“Don't tell me you want me to play the hidden route the way the developers originally intended from now on?”
“No. Exactly the opposite.”
The employee shook her head firmly.
“Our team wants you to keep clearing the hidden route in that outrageous style of yours.”
“What?”
“That kind of shocking progression is exactly what the viewers want to see. And to be honest… we want to see it too. We want to know just how far you can go while continuing to break every prediction we make.”
If Yujin had been an ordinary streamer, Powell Software would never have made such a request. Even while progressing through a hidden route, a regular creator constantly straying from the “path” the developers had laid out would do more harm than good. But when the person in question was Yujin—someone Powell Software itself was willing to call a true partner, someone who had accomplished feats no one else had managed with nothing but a single sword—he more than deserved to hear these words.
“So prove it to everyone. Prove that you are someone no one in this world can replace. That you are one of a kind.”