Chapter 5. Dear Friends (2)
Chapter 5. Dear Friends (2)
'It's a shame, though.'
While making idle chatter, Ga-hyeon thought to himself.
It was a bit of a shame that he didn't have the internal energy (Gi) he had used like a part of his own body until now.
Ga-hyeon felt quite regretful, but he decided to slowly shake off that feeling.
There was no need to use such immense martial arts power on Earth, and above all, there was virtual reality, a stage that could replace it.
In that place, he could use powers similar to internal energy (Gi) to his heart's content.
If it weren't for the existence of virtual reality, he might have continued to feel regretful.
'...It's not good to be too attached to things that can't be done.
That aside, it seems like the reasons to be a streamer have increased.'
Ga-hyeon's heart was gradually leaning toward the job of a streamer.
Two days later.
Ga-hyeon was watching the editor application videos he had mentioned last time.
"I could get one through Dad, but.... It seems better to pick one myself."
He said it was a side job, but Ga-hyeon was already becoming accustomed to the streamer life. His muttering continued.
"I can just pay them with the donations I receive. For now, should I try to find at least one decent person...."
Meanwhile, the application videos didn't particularly satisfy him.
Although Ga-hyeon had received the title of 'King' from the users of the Elder Book site, that fame was limited to fans of the Ancient Booklet series.
Illegal edited videos had climbed to the trending section of games on Nutube, but since it wasn't the trending section that everyone checks, it wasn't known to many people.
In other words, it was a narrow and deep fan base.
"I don't see anyone decent.... I did hit a peak of a thousand viewers, after all."
During the match against Lunance, Ga-hyeon's viewers had peaked at a thousand.
It was because rumors that he was fighting against an AI's swordsmanship had spread within Twinkle.
However, since then, his average viewership had maintained the 700-800 range.
In fact, this was impressive for a streamer who hadn't been active for long, but in a situation where capsules were developed and the streaming market had grown, it was clearly a small number.
"Where... next.... Huh?"
This application video was different. It was excellent.
Good angles and appropriate cuts and transitions.
There were even slow-motion scenes interspersed to show the duel with Lunance in detail.
One look was enough to tell that it was a video made with great effort.
"What the. Do they have a separate channel they run?"
Entering through the channel link, he saw the channel name.
"...Athlete Highlights?"
"Wow! This is insane! Fucking crazy!"
Do Ik-su was bad at sports.
He had been to gyms and even had connections to learn directly from athletes, but he was terribly clumsy.
However, he loved sports.
So, his hobby was filming athletes or taking footage of athletes' games and editing them stylishly.
Naturally, all the videos were non-profit.
His main job was as an editor, but since he was a freelancer, he filmed or edited videos whenever he had a spare moment.
To him, Ga-hyeon—Sura's video—was a new discovery.
"H-how is that even possible? Wow. He looks better than a former kendo athlete, doesn't he?"
Ik-su had coincidentally seen Ga-hyeon's video uploaded to the Silas Nutube channel.
It was because the video had popped up on the Nutube algorithm by chance.
Since he was usually interested in movements within games and often watched game videos, it was natural for the algorithm to react.
Ik-su, who had figured out through the comments on the edited video that the protagonist was Sura, scoured the site and managed to enter Ga-hyeon's Nutube channel, where he could watch the videos Sura had uploaded.
"T-this, I have to edit this."
After virtual reality was introduced, Nutube supported videos viewed from various angles, and Sura's movements, seen from multiple perspectives, were so cool that they ignited Ik-su's passion for editing.
Even with athlete videos, there were many times when he couldn't film from the desired angle due to the situation, but since Ga-hyeon's was a game video, it was great because he could watch it from any direction Ik-su wanted.
Ik-su, who had watched the swordsmanship duel with Lunance repeatedly for three hours, checked Ga-hyeon's Nutube community just in case.
"Oh my god. This is a spot completely for me."
A recruitment notice for an editor was up, and that day, Ik-su immediately started editing.
And that was the video Ga-hyeon had just watched.
"It's a sports channel, but the editing is really good. That's impressive."
After carefully watching a few videos, Ga-hyeon tentatively decided on this person.
"I don't think I need to see them in person. I can just do a virtual reality interview in 'Life', right?"
These days, as the use of virtual reality increased, there were many cases where interviews were conducted in virtual reality.
It was hard to abandon existing customs, but startups and some IT companies did conduct virtual reality interviews.
"Su-han knows a bit about this stuff, so I should call him as an interviewer...."
He thought about whether he should hire Su-han while he was at it.
Of course, he was a silver spoon, the owner of a cafe in a busy area of Seoul, and a Nutuber with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, but....
'This bastard. Won't he refuse?'
Thinking about it, there was no reason for Su-han to be employed by him.
He had been a manager for a while last time, but thinking about it now, he hadn't promised to keep doing it.
Above all, that guy liked to play around and eat, so it was uncertain if he would do it.
"Ah, damn. Do I have to find a manager too?"
But he decided to float the idea to Su-han. You never know.
"I won't do it, you crazy bastard. Why would I?"
"I thought you'd say that."
"...I'll do it temporarily. Hurry up and find a manager."
"Oh."
"'Oh' what, you damn fool. When you turn on the broadcast this time, tell them you're looking for a manager too."
"Got it."
Ga-hyeon and Su-han were sitting in an interview room set up in the virtual reality 'Life'.
They were waiting for Do Ik-su, who would arrive in a moment.
It was only Ik-su, but Ga-hyeon and Su-han had prepared questions and were waiting for him.
"It's a good thing I've used an editor before."
"Yeah, yeah. Thanks."
"If you know that, buy me meat next time."
"Beef?"
"You don't even have a job. Let's go with pork."
"Did you forget about the donations I got last time?"
"Ah, right. Let's go with beef."
"Okay."
While the two were chatting, an invitation request from Ik-su arrived.
"Oh. He's here. Hey, hey. Put on a serious face."
"Got it."
When Ga-hyeon pressed accept, Ik-su appeared in the interview room.
And the two were inwardly aghast.
Because he was clearly taller than Su-han at a glance, and his shoulders were broad—he was a massive guy.
However, the two didn't show it anymore, afraid that Ik-su would feel uncomfortable.
"Please, take a seat."
"Yes!"
Ik-su, as a former experienced editor, seemed quite used to these kinds of interviews.
Su-han looked at the questions and spoke to Ik-su.
"Please introduce yourself briefly."
"Yes! I am Do Ik-su, applying as an editor! With years of editing experience, I am confident that I can create cooler videos than other editors."
"Yes. Nice to meet you, Ik-su-nim. I'm curious about your reason for applying. Why did you apply?"
"The reason I applied is because I saw Ga-hyeon-nim's game videos and thought I could edit them even more coolly! I believe the application video I attached is proof of that!"
Certainly, his video was good even to Ga-hyeon.
Su-han, who had come as an interviewer by accident, also watched the video and said it was decent.
"We saw the video, too. You edited it very well. We also viewed your editing skills positively. However, we are curious about something else."
Ga-hyeon looked at the prepared questions and asked.
"Do you like sports? If you do, have you ever tried them yourself?"
At that, Ik-su answered, thinking it was within the expected range.
"Yes! I love them very much. Personally, besides my main job, I also run a separate sports-related channel! I attached that Nutube channel to my application!"
"Yes. We saw that, too. You film videos yourself. And edit game videos.
You've done a lot of things. But what I'm curious about is the direction of that channel after you get hired. I'm wondering if you'll continue to run it."
"Ah.... That's entirely a hobby channel. I've run it so it doesn't interfere with my main job. If you tell me to quit, I'll quit."
At those words, Ga-hyeon waved his hands.
"No, no! It doesn't matter as long as it doesn't interfere with your main job. I asked because I was worried that filming videos might affect your main job."
"Ah! If that's the case, there's no need to worry! There's the reason that I make sure it doesn't interfere with my main job, and above all, Ga-hyeon-nim's videos were more impressive than those of most athletes, so I thought I wouldn't need to film separately from now on."
At those words, Ga-hyeon felt slightly embarrassed, and Su-han asked.
"Are you good at sports? Since Ga-hyeon is a physical streamer, I think you'd need to know a bit about sports to catch those movements well."
The answer that followed left the two flustered.
"Actually, I'm bad at sports. I'm also clumsy. But I pride myself on having an eye for it through years of editing sports videos."
At those words, Su-han and Ga-hyeon tilted their heads without realizing it.
"Ah... that's understandable. My physique makes it look like I'm good at sports at a glance."
At those words, Ga-hyeon bowed his head.
"I'm sorry. It's just that... you have that kind of impression...."
"Haha! I have this body, but I didn't receive the sports sense! But I pride myself on having a really good eye."
Ga-hyeon and Su-han nodded.
Thinking that with this level of editing skill, he would certainly have that kind of eye.
The three continued to exchange questions, and
Finally, they were able to reach the result of acceptance.
After finishing the interview, Su-han came to Ga-hyeon's house.
He was going to help Ga-hyeon with his broadcast today as well.
"Did Ik-su-nim say he's starting editing right away?"
"That's what he said. I gave him a bit more money than his experience level, so he was enthusiastic."
The standard contract for this industry obtained through Ga-hyeon's father.
When he presented a contract with a slightly higher amount, Ik-su was happy, and thanks to that, the employment contract proceeded smoothly.
"Maybe it's because there's a view count incentive. That makes sense."
"You need incentives to make it worth doing."
Ik-su was even happier when they prepared an incentive system based on view counts.
"Alright. Let's turn on the broadcast. Before they talk about abdication or whatever again."
"I still can't get used to that. How many times have I been abdicated?"
Ga-hyeon didn't know how many times he had been sent to the guillotine after being subjected to a revolution by the Elder Book users.
He had to turn on the broadcast today before they started making a fuss.
Ga-hyeon entered the capsule and started streaming in the virtual reality social space, <Life>.
As he waved at the camera in the air, the viewers reacted.
The number of viewers had increased slightly more than last time, nearing about 900.
- Oh. Hi.
- Sura~
- Come to think of it, does our streamer broadcast every day?
Sura, having checked the Tusu's chat, replied.
"For now, I'm planning to take 2 days off a week.... But I'm planning to broadcast at least 5 days for sure."
- This is the first time I've resented the weekend.
- You rascal, weekend! Disappear already!
- The guy above is crossing the line lol
"Don't resent the weekend. Oh, and I hired an editor. A video will be up soon."
Saying that, Sura monologued for a moment.
"It feels like it's gradually becoming my main job instead of a side job...."
- No no, it's a side job.
- Anyway, it's a side job, it's fine.
- Hahaha, if the side job goes well, it becomes the main job!
While some of the Tusu were deviously shaping public opinion, other Tusu's chats also came up.
- Finally.... It's time for our Ancient Number One Sword to appear.
- Ah, it's time to return to Sword Saint Sura.
- I wish everyone knew about Sura while we're at it. He fought an AI and won, but it didn't become a hot topic.
- It seems like it's because he doesn't run a Nutube channel. Even Silas Studio didn't link Sura's Nutube.
- What are the patriotic TV channels doing? The patriotism itself is right here.
"I think it's because there are no edited videos. If I upload them, wouldn't it become a bit of a hot topic? Oh, and I changed my nickname, too. It's Sura."
Originally, Ga-hyeon's Twinkle nickname was just English typed randomly.
- Oh, come to think of it, you did change it lol. It's a shame there's an _ next to it.
- The nickname 'Sura' is quite rare, though.
"I'm going to play Ancient Booklet in a bit. I'm asking just in case, but is it okay if I play other games later?"
Ga-hyeon's fan base was the users of the Elder Book site.
It was questionable whether they would want other games, but unexpectedly, the reaction was good.
- I'm in favor as long as you play Ancient Booklet consistently while playing other games.
- There are so many side quests in Ancient Booklet that it'll be hard to do them all anyway.
- Yeah, we should understand that.
- But honestly, I do want to see Sura play other games. His physical skills are just too good.
- Can we recommend games?
"Oh, that's great. What would be good?"
- How about 'Survival Area' for starters?
- Shooting? Nah. Sura is about swords.
- No no, there's talk that a mode with a fantasy concept is coming out this time.
- How about the national game 'Champion of Legend'?
- 'Call' it? That's good too. There are sword users there.
- Sura, Lunance's champion, is coming!
- Come to think of it, Sura is a champion too hahaha. Looking forward to the match.
- Hey. What are you all doing? You have to recommend this game.
- What is it?
- 'War with God'
- Oh...?
- Wow, I didn't think of this.
"Hmm? War with God? What's that?"
- It's set in Indian mythology, and you fight against gods.
- Yeah, the story is fun, you beat up all the gods.
- The company actually got banned from exporting to India and received protests from the Indian government, but they ignored it. Leonans Studio, damn.
- Above all, Asura King appears.
- Wow, a battle of the gods. Is it Sura King vs. Asura King?
"Oh. That sounds really fun."
With his streamer name set as Sura, and he was going to fight the Asura King. He was very much looking forward to it.
- This is crazy. I can't miss this matchup.
- After Ancient Booklet is over, I'm definitely watching this.
- He beat Lunance, and now Asura King too hahaha.
- The next game is decided hahaha.
"If possible, I'll do War with God next time."
War with God. Ga-hyeon remembered this well.
"Alright then. Now, I'll play Ancient Booklet."
- Woohoo!
- Run it right now.
Ga-hyeon entered the capsule and immediately executed Ancient Booklet.