Season 5: Chapter 133. The Red Pill (3)

Meanwhile, at the Mixed Nuts office rooftop, someone called out familiarly, "Hey~ Director Kim! How are you?"

Ju-Hyeok returned the greeting with his usual tired wave. "Oh, Director Jang."

They often ran into each other in the same building.

"How's it going? Is it working out?" Director Jang made a chewing-lips gesture while grinning.

He meant talking someone into something, referring to the work of persuading people to join. For Ju-Hyeok, bringing people in meant streamers, which was actually the core of his business.

"Oh... hmm. I've been trying my best in my own way."

Bringing in streamers hadn't been as easy as Ju-Hyeok had imagined. He'd assumed Sweet Radish and Sweet Potato would reply right away. They hadn’t said anything yet. Miho, who had actually approached him first before, also re-signed elsewhere and was off the table for a while.

'Back then, I couldn't take her on due to capacity... Now, it's a shame.'

Ju-Hyeok scratched his head, wondering if he'd been too stiff.

"Is it maybe because it feels too much like only an Almond team?"

Hiss.

Director Jang came over and lit a cigarette. He'd actually said it just to commiserate.

"Only one team?"

"Hm?"

"Oh...! Team...!" Ju-Hyeok seemed to remember something.

"Just now, the Platform War teams are supposed to make posters and things, right?"

"Hm? Isn't that optional? They’ll do that on their own?"

"Wh-wh-how did you know?"

Director Jang, who used to know nothing about games, now knew the details of the Platform War.

"Come on. Don't tell me what I know. What's our company most famous for? Isn't it the Fake National Team?"

After that, Director Jang had taken on a lot of work in the gaming industry. He hadn't been opposed to it and was now actually studying the field.

"Oh... right. The Fake National Team... was great."

"Great is an understatement. Ahem." Director Jang proudly stroked his beard.

Something came together in Ju-Hyeok's head.

"A team... should we make one for the Platform War too?"

"Pardon?"

"The Fake National Team."

"... Who's making it?"

"You, Director Jang."

Director Jang never knew whether to laugh or cry in moments like these.

'Do I have to tell the employees it's overtime again?'

The reality of an agency was that there wasn't enough work sometimes, and paychecks were delayed. Of course, having the boss bring in work was good, but not always unconditionally.

Ju-Hyeok was already excitedly muttering to himself. "Right. Let's make a Platform War team video with the Knight Order! Kyah! Why didn't I think of this before!? What poster... other people make posters. We wreck people with videos!"

"No, um..."

"Muhahaha! This is it!"

Thud!

Ju-Hyeok placed a hand on Director Jang's shoulder and laughed heartily.

"This is the answer!"

Director Jang watched Director Kim jumping around before he even accepted. He thought once again that Ju-Hyeok wasn’t an easy man.

'Other people will have to agree to this first.'

***

According to the newly arranged scrimmage schedule, team practice happened once every two days. Today was a no-practice day. On top of that, Black Tea and Lemon were both off.

Black Tea had called Lemon out to a nearby cafe.

Lemon had even moved to a place near Black Tea's home, so they quickly met. Above all, meeting up to chat whenever they both had the day off was a kind of routine. They kept this habit even without explicitly making plans, which was why Black Tea was already waiting outside Lemon's building.

"Hey Gyuri, why the long face?"

Lemon didn’t look good as she came out with drooping shoulders.

"Hmm...? No, what's wrong with my expression?"

Her speech was always a bit floaty, but it was more drizzly right now. Others couldn’t tell, but Cha-Young could immediately sense the difference.

Tap...

"Hey, cheer up. Did you practice again today?"

"... Yeah."

"Do it in moderation. Ugh. It's that Sweet Potato who needs to be practicing..."

Cha-Young suddenly went quiet.

'Oh no.'

She realized how that would land. Because Sweet Potato could practice less and do okay, while Gyuri was practicing and not improving much.

They walked silently for a moment. Gyuri didn't particularly argue about what Cha-Young had just said. It was too embarrassing. Putting in effort but not having talent, that was just how it was. She couldn't even be comforted because then it would become real.

"Sigh." Gyuri exhaled shallowly.

Cha-Young didn't know what to say and awkwardly stared at the ground.

Then, she laughed unnecessarily loudly. "Oh. Gyuri, did you see that? Like... some business proposal? I'd never seen anyone send something like that to me. It seriously smelled like a major company. It was insane."

"Oh." Gyuri also understood what she was talking about and burst out laughing.

"What Walnut sent was so funny... The text was somehow perfectly geometrical."

Cha-Young smacked Gyuri's shoulder at the text being geometrical and laughed.

"No, I thought I wouldn't understand it, but it was pretty accessible."

Jingle~

Cha-Young opened the cafe door and entered.

"Wait, really?" Gyuri's already large eyes went wide.

***

Fakejin's eyes also went wide. "Po... Police Official?"

[Police KR Official]

[Enjoyed the video, Fakejin. Would it be alright to use this video as reference for our video?]

How did this come about? Police Corporation, which made and owned the world's most successful games, had directly left a comment.

Despite being just the Korean branch, they wielded enormous power in the streaming industry. Almost every streamer built their popularity through Police Corporation games. A cease-and-desist from the game company would destroy livelihoods.

They essentially held the power of life and death over countless people. Even players earning hundreds of millions would lose their salary if Police had a reason to suspend them. Such a giant actually commented on some tiny channel about issues.

Fakejin replied with trembling hands.

[Oh my! What an honor! Of course! Haha... Is this the legendary Pol-ficial!? (laughing emoji)]

Pol-ficial was a term among streamers. When some controversy or dispute arose, people would wait for an official Police statement. Since Police was actually the game developer, they were essentially god regarding in-game matters. Their word carried enormous weight. The actual Pol-ficial had appeared.

'What the...'

His fingers were sweating.

'What's their intention? Is this a warning?'

All sorts of thoughts raced through his mind. Was it an indirect message to stop prodding into this? Or was there something wrong with the video? Until a Short appeared on the Police official channel, he had to hold his breath.

Fortunately, technology had advanced enough these days. Editing was quite fast, so he didn’t have to hold his breath for long. Around half a day later, a Short went up on Police’s channel.

[Platform War: The controversial Smart Young Man? Verdict, Not Staged!]

Only then did he understand.

"Ah... phew."

They simply wanted to use his video as material. Police was already making a series to generate buzz around the Platform War. A major channel was a major channel.

'Wow!?'

Viewers started flooding to Fakejin's video. It seemed like being credited as a source in the video was a big factor.

'Things like this happen in life.'

The video's view count rose by a far larger margin than Fakejin had estimated. At this point, a quite amusing phenomenon occurred.

'If this happens...'

— LIL Pro idiots should all get locked up one of these days

└ fr

└ Just spray pesticide lmaooo

└ They make controversies out of everything

— I feel bad for that female coach. Obviously just criticizing her for being a nobody lmaooo

└ Obvious LOL

Reading countless comments, Fakejin thought of a saying.

'The tail is wagging the dog.'

The number of people criticizing those who'd started the controversy had overtaken the number of conspirators. These new people had never known about the controversy and were encountering it for the first time. They fiercely criticized LIL Pro itself.

[Big: Current outsiders' view of LIL Pro]

[Big: YouTube public sentiment update...]ℴℴ𝘮

[Big: Even trustworthy Fakejin lmaooo]

[Big: Just a demon lair]

...

Self-deprecating posts filled the trending board on LIL Pro. That in turn drew more traffic. Fakejin's video strangely kept climbing in rank.

[#Society, Politics category]

[#Real-time trending video 15th]

It hit 15th in the Society category's real-time trending. For reference, 1st through 10th were all big political news, which effectively made it 5th. After all, Police had bit into this otherwise unremarkable incident. Related derivative videos kept generating, effectively promoting Fakejin's video for free.

[Police Official got involved!?]

[Even Police stepped in for the absurd staged controversy during the Platform War...!]

[The Platform War is once again not settling down]

This was the ecosystem of YouTubers focused on issues. Once something blew up, videos trying to benefit from the trickle-down effect sprang up everywhere.

The benefits connected back to whoever made the first video. Fakejin had experienced this before, but this level was only possible before when covering someone's serious crime. Right now, this was just an issue of whether someone was smart or not.

"Wow..."

Was Almond this popular? No, he hadn’t quite reached that level. Reading the scale was essential literacy for a YouTuber focused on issues. Almond was popular, but his track record was shallow and not quite to this degree.

'Come to think of it, Police effectively gave an indirect clarification here.'

Fakejin had been too intimidated earlier to think properly. Now that he thought about it, Police had uploaded this video in defense. Since they couldn't say it directly, they attached Fakejin's video and uploaded it humorously.

'What is this...?'

Fakejin scrolled through Almond’s wiki page and stopped at a photo of Lord Almond.

'Something is definitely going on with this person.'

Ding.

A creator notification appeared.

[Ranking Rising Fast!]

[Check it now!]

"... Again?"

[#Society, Politics category]

[#Real-time trending video 5th]

He automatically clasped both hands together.

"Th-this too is the Lord’s grace..."

In front of the Lord's photo on the wiki, Fakejin resolved to never pull a stunt like this again.