Contract
Choi Pinam was at it again today, working hard on his stream and doing everything he could to keep his viewers entertained.
“All right, guys, take a look at this step.”
If this had been any other time, he would have had to pick a hard game by viewer vote and then force himself through a grueling, miserable run with some obnoxious self-imposed gimmick just to clear it.
But lately, he’d been running analysis-and-commentary content by putting up other people’s footage and breaking it down, which made things easy on him as a streamer and left almost no stress at all.
“Look here—he twists his knee and lets the bullet slip over his thigh, then here he lets it pass between his armpits. His posture gets a little awkward, sure, but he never loses his center of gravity.”
“It makes no sense, but this guy is doing it, isn’t he? At this point, whether it should be possible or not is meaningless! Just shut up and keep up with the analysis!”
“Hmm. That’s an interesting topic too. If you look at this scene in particular, the SMG scrapes by him, and he’s just half a step short, so he practically throws himself into a roll, right?”
“Yeah, exactly. He can’t dodge everything, so now he’s about to take a hit to the side. And that’s when—swoosh!—I bring the machete in like this.”
He evaded most of the gunfire with razor-thin movements, and where his posture just wouldn’t work, he knocked the bullets aside with his blade.
The viewers watching the video spammed laughter across the chat, reacting with nothing but helpless, incredulous amusement.
“Then he closes in on the boss, and with that protective suit—no, I didn’t even realize this was the weak point. Has anyone ever tried stripping the armor off the corpse mass and breaking it open?”
“I prepared for that in advance. Watch closely.”
Choi Pinam moved his cursor and showed the viewers a short video broken into several cuts.
“What I marked with red dots here are the points where my brother landed his attacks. See this one, and this one too.”
“Yep. One dot is all there is. A circle maybe one centimeter across? Just think of it as every single attack landing on one point the size of a single bullet.”
“I’m guessing they set it so that if you attack the same part repeatedly, it breaks. The devs are ruthless, but there’s no way they made it with the exact same conditions he showed us. The effective range is probably wider than that.”
The video kept playing, showing the armor being damaged and bullets being driven into it. Then the corpse mass collapsed, and the lab chief’s head came into view—only to be severed in a single stroke and sent tumbling away as the broadcast rolled on.
While the viewers were lost in the afterglow of the clip, Choi Pinam caught sight of the manager in the back of the broadcast room lifting a smartphone and waving him over.
Normally he never took calls while streaming at all, which was why he usually tossed his phone outside before going live. The fact that the manager had brought it in like this meant it had to be something important.
“Guys, I’m gonna take a quick call and be right back. The manager’s calling me.”
With that, he stepped out of the room, and the manager immediately came over and handed him the phone.
“Who is it?”
“Park Yeongho. I told him you were live and asked him to wait a bit, but I figured I should let you know.”
“Park Yeongho—wait, what? God-father hyung-nim? Then I have to take it!”
The call had already been disconnected, but he opened the log right away and tapped the callback button.
He could always call a few hours after the stream ended, but he didn’t want to make that hyung-nim wait.
Besides, thanks to this man constantly producing one legendary moment after another, he’d been making easy money off analysis content lately, hadn’t he?
He was becoming hotter and hotter in streaming circles, so staying on good terms was nothing but profitable.
And even aside from all that, I’d want to get close to him personally.
If he’d been about the same age, Choi Pinam probably would’ve felt a lot more competitive toward him. But this was a man old enough to make his own age feel significant, and yet he still kept pulling off feats that even someone like Pinam—who prided himself on having decent physical ability—couldn’t begin to follow.
He found himself wondering just how high that hyung-nim could climb if he ever gave it his all. Rather than jealousy, what he felt was the urge to cheer him on.
By now, word was already spreading among viewers, and other streamers were beginning to learn about God-father too.
He’d already gotten several messages from streamers he knew, asking him to pass along the number if he ever suggested a guest appearance.
“Hello?”
“Ah, hyung-nim! You called me?”
“Yes, Mr. Choi Pinam. The thing is... I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but I need help, and you were the only person who came to mind who I felt I could ask.”
“Of course, just speak freely. What’s going on?”
As the explanation went on, Choi Pinam’s expression changed several times in the span of a few seconds.
“...And that’s why I was wondering if you’d be willing to help. Of course I know you’re busy, so I realize it’s an unreasonable favor to ask.”
“Not at all, no. I’d be happy to help, but this isn’t something I can talk through on the phone. Let’s meet in person first, all right? I’ll have the friend you saw before bring you over.”
After setting the appointment and ending the call, Choi Pinam stared down at his smartphone and shook all over with excitement.
He said he wanted to try broadcasting? I knew it! Yes, he absolutely should.
They had already played games together, and after watching him shine on his daughter’s stream, he’d been thinking the same thing all along.
Once this man started streaming, he’d swallow up every ordinary streamer in sight.
Honestly, he didn’t think you could succeed in game streaming just because you were good at games.
And from a character standpoint, being an older guy was interesting, sure, but it wasn’t the kind of hook that really grabbed people anymore.
This space was already a red ocean now. A bland character wasn’t going to make it big.
But he isn’t just good.
His skill was overwhelming.
It went beyond simply being better than other people; it was on a level Choi Pinam had never seen before.
He probably didn’t even realize his own value, but if he seriously dove into broadcasting, there was no doubt the ripple effect would be enormous.
A part of him even felt like the man could debut as a pro player if he wanted to, though considering his age, that was obviously not very realistic.
If I just help him a little, he has the potential to grow explosively.
It would be a lie to say there wasn’t a bit of envy in there.
If those talents had been mine, I’d probably be a far more famous broadcaster than I am now.
But he quickly shook that thought away.
Choi Pinam was the type who knew how to acknowledge his own limits and then find the best possible path within them. That was why, when Yeongho said he wanted to try streaming, Pinam made up his mind to help for real.
If Park Yeongho became a star player in this field, then he’d be able to ride that influence too.
Whether it was a shallow calculation or genuine human support, he figured he might as well create a masterpiece with his own hands.
All sorts of plans began racing through Choi Pinam’s mind.
* * *
“So... that’s about how it is. Hmm.”
“If you want to do it seriously, you do need some initial capital.”
At Choi Pinam’s explanation, Yeongho clasped his hands together and let out a short sigh.
He had asked for advice because he really did want to give broadcasting a serious try, and Pinam had gone into such passionate detail that it was almost embarrassing to be on the receiving end of so much effort. But once he listened to the whole story, several stumbling blocks became obvious right away.
For proper game broadcasting, he’d need a capsule unit, at the very least. Even if he bought an older model secondhand, a capsule was expensive enough that two or three million won could disappear in a blink.
And since his apartment was too cramped to keep a capsule in the first place, he’d have to find a separate place to do it.
Even if there were room, I can’t exactly do broadcasts from home... and I don’t have the heart to tell the kids’ mother yet.
It was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, they said.
He still hadn’t told his wife about his decision.
If a husband who had worked faithfully at one company for over a decade suddenly said he wanted to do game streaming, Yeongho figured even putting himself in her shoes made it feel like the sky was caving in.
He could probably drag things out for about a month under the excuse of job searching.
During that time, he planned to somehow get results and build a foundation he could use to persuade her.
If I were still the same person I used to be, I wouldn’t even be able to pull off this kind of gamble. Haha...
Anyway, since doing it at home seemed difficult, he’d need to rent a separate office like Pinam, who was a full-time streamer.
The rent itself was one thing, but the deposit was another problem.
With a capsule, the deposit, and all the other broadcasting equipment he’d need, he would blow through ten million won in no time.
It wasn’t like he didn’t have that much saved up.
But he had lived the life of a family man who had to think twice before buying even a gimbap roll, so no matter how badly he wanted to try something serious, it wasn’t easy to throw out that much money without hesitation.
Should I just try it at home using the kids’ VR gear? It’s not like I absolutely can’t stream without a capsule right away...
He had been all fired up a moment ago, ready to say, Let’s seriously give this a shot because I think I can do well! But before the heavy cost, that resolve had shrunk down into a timid little plan.
“Hyung-nim. You should use that one.”
“Huh? Ah, are you selling it cheap?”
In the direction Choi Pinam pointed, there sat the used capsule Yeongho had borrowed for the last joint stream.
“But even if I buy that, I’m still not sure where I’d keep it at home...”
“I’m not selling it. I’ll just lend it to you.”
“Ah, you’ll lend it to me?”
“And instead of moving it somewhere else, why don’t you just stream from here?”
“Pardon?”
Yeongho’s eyes widened at the suggestion he’d never imagined.
Choi Pinam smiled and went on.
“If we stream in the same room, we’ll just get in each other’s way, so we’ll move your setup to that corner. Then we’ll put up a partition wall on both sides, add soundproofing, and divide it into two sections. That should be more than enough to use as a broadcast room.”
“But... if we’re doing construction on that scale, the cost would be pretty high.”
“What, maybe a few million won? I can invest that much. It’ll be a little cramped, sure, but it shouldn’t be a problem for the two of us to broadcast here.”
“I appreciate it, but why would you go that far...?”
When Yeongho asked with a stiffened face, unable to accept that this was merely a favor, Choi Pinam shrugged and answered.
“I told you before, didn’t I? That if you started streaming right now, you’d probably blow past me. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that wasn’t quite right.”
“....?”
“It’s not just that you’d do well. I think you’d do fucking well. So, hyung-nim! I’m going to support you in everything I can, and when you blow up huge, I’ll get to eat the crumbs that fall off the table.”
“So how about you sign a contract with me this time?”
With a thumb held high, Choi Pinam dropped the words casually, and Yeongho looked at him with wavering eyes.