Meanwhile, some workers at Punk had been drinking since lunch.
The directors offered to give one specific department time off in the evening and allowed them to start drinking early.
This was a rare occurrence. The man who made this possible was none other than Manager Oh, the loudest and chubbiest in the room.
"How is it? Huh? I'm the one who brought Almond! Ahahaha!"
He bellowed in his signature laugh while slapping his belly.
"There, drink up! Drink up! I'm coming around!"
He walked around with the bottle as if at a festival.
Everyone who received a drink from him made a remark.
"Damn, Manager Oh. You're so lucky."
"At first, we wondered why you brought a nobody like him. After all, we’re Punk."
"I heard all the developers are bowing down to us for a chance to shoot an ad with Almond."
"Someone outstanding like him will do ads with us for free because he's our partnered streamer, right? Damn... Manager Oh, I bet you'll be promoted."
"Wow... a streamer who's being compared to JeonJaPa. That's all you need to know..."
"It was hard to recruit him at first, wasn't it?"
Recruiting Almond had been a challenging feat. Everyone thought Manager Oh was crazy and rumors even floated around that Almond was secretly Manager Oh's nephew.
However, their attitudes changed by 180 degrees. After the Fantasia stream, anyone could see that Almond had what it took to be a star.
He wasn't just good at video games. He also possessed a natural showmanship.
The image of him reading and responding to the chat while surviving the game left a great impression on the employees.
"I realized this guy was something else when I saw him reading the chat! Hahaha!"
"This is just between us, but didn't he technically beat JeonJaPa? Huh? Our Almond just started and he did it while reading the chat!?"
"Since when was he our Almond?! Hahaha!"
Punk employees always kept an eye on JeonJaPa because he was a big streamer from a different company. That's why Almond had become a treasure to them.
"Move JeonJaPa! Almond is on his way!"
It seemed like Almond would surpass JeonJaPa.
"These guys are too drunk, hey? Hahaha!"
Manager Oh smiled in satisfaction as he watched them.
To see the raw ore he had unearthed at first sight shine so bright now… He had never felt this proud of his work before.
"Phew, Manager Oh! Good work!"
One of the drunk assistants raised their glass.
"Honestly, even we were skeptical... When we heard that you were going to the studio just for Almond... We were like, he's definitely your nephew! Or a hidden child with your first love! And..."
Upon hearing that, the entire department burst into laughter. Manager Oh laughed the loudest.
"Hey! I needed to be there so those Fantasia people didn’t fuck around. And now look at the results. How is it?"
"It's incredible! You're... r-right!" The assistant shouted as he raised his glass.
"Oooohh... Ah! Ah! For Almond!"
They raised their full glasses and the festivities continued until 3 P.M.
"Let's just drink all day! I heard the director said we can have tomorrow off as well!"
Manager Oh got up from his seat while feeling a bit tipsy.
[Almond's stream has started.]
He received the stream notification for Almond.
"Hey, hey. I'm going out for a smoke."
"Huh? Wait, you have to decide where to go tonight! Why are you going out to smoke alone?"
"Restroom too! It's a big one!"
After that, Manager Oh quickly went outside to watch the stream.
'Better to watch this alone...'
This was all possible thanks to Almond, so it only made sense to watch his stream. However, Manager Oh didn't want to ruin the happy atmosphere.
There was a slight chance Almond’s viewership could decline. It was unlikely, but possible since this industry had many random variables.
Fame came and went especially quickly in this age. One good stream didn't guarantee a high viewership.
Manager Oh inhaled his cigarette for a moment.
"Phew. Let's see if he can become the star we think he is."
He exhaled the smoke and nervously waited for Almond's intro music to finish. He could only see the viewer count once the stream officially began.
'How many are there? How many...'
Previously, Almond's streams had reached 4000-5000 viewers. He was still relatively new, so he could realistically expect to average 2000-3000 viewers.
'Let's hope we get at least six thousand viewers. Six thousand!'
Manager Oh hoped to double the usual amount.
Almond would live up to the title of a Punk partner streamer if he could average 6000 viewers. It would be an impressive number considering he had only been streaming for a month.
'No, let's aim for seven thousand. Seven thousand...'
Manager Oh began to get a little more greedy.
'I really want to be promoted this time! Sang-Hyeon, please!'
As Manager Oh closed his eyes…
The intro music finished and Sang-Hyeon's face appeared.
A bright and familiar voice could be heard, followed by the chat.
And the viewer count appeared.
[Current Viewers: 8.3k]
Manager Oh quickly threw away his cigarette and went back inside.
"Hey! Hey! Look at the live stream right now! The stream!" He shouted as his employees blankly stared at him. "Almond! He just turned on his stream!"
Ju-Hyeok nervously watched the screen.
"Woah... Shit... this is fast."
The number of viewers increased exponentially right from the beginning. As soon as the number went above eight thousand…
Ju-Hyeok stood and screamed like a beast,?"Keeeaaaaaooooohhhh!"
A strange sound came out of him, but who cared? Only the two of them were here and Sang-Hyeon was in an environment with perfect noise cancellation.
Ju-Hyeok couldn’t register anything else.
"Eight... Eight thousand viewers at 3 P.M.? Damn..."
Some of these viewers could just be curious about the news articles, but attention was attention whether they came to watch Almond’s gameplay or to see the face of the man who set a new record.
Almond would be setting himself up for success if he could maintain this viewership.
Ju-Hyeok felt ecstatic. They would soon reach the destination many new streamers sought. He felt happy as a manager who was starting out as well.
However, a slight worry leaked through the cracks like usual.
‘Not a specialty. A trauma.’
Sang-Hyeon’s past regarding archery and his right arm. His harsh rejection of these two topics was unusual. Even during their fight and his awkward anger after consulting the doctor...
These topics made Sang-Hyeon unstable.
'It must've left a deep scar on him.'
The two issues impacted Sang-Hyeon much more than Ju-Hyeok could ever imagine. He didn’t know what Sang-Hyeon went through, but he guessed that it was like losing a lifelong partner.
'Does he really want no one to find out?'
The Ju-Hyeok from the past would've considered using Sang-Hyeon's past as a selling point, but not anymore.
Sang-Hyeon genuinely wanted to leave his past behind and Ju-Hyeok respected that.
'If you're not ready...'
Ju-Hyeok thought it was unnecessary if Sang-Hyeon wasn't ready.
Besides, everything worked out well. Bringing up his past now would be pointless. It could even become a thorn on their path.
'Yeah, I guess there are some memories you just can't sell.'
He called the staff in charge of Fantasia's channel.
"Ah, yes. It's me. I’m Almond's manager, Ju-Hyeok. I just wanted to talk about the edited footage."
"Yes? What about the edited footage?"
"Please edit out the archery portion."
"It'll still be good without it."
"Ah... Is this Almond's opinion?"
"Yes, of course. He wants it out because he doesn't want to provoke any professional archers."
"Uh... His opinion is important... but there are contract terms... and we already shot it..."
"Contract terms? Ah! Good thing you brought it up! Didn't we say in the contract? That we could take out any footage we want? And it's not even an important part."
"Ah, okay! I'll deliver the message."
"These TV networks..."
He couldn't do anything about the raw footage, but the edited videos averaged twenty times more views. It would be enough to stop the edited portion.
He received another phone call right away.
[Bubblegum's Manager: Park Sung-Tae]
This time, it was someone else.
Eight thousand viewers… Sang-Hyeon just blankly stared at the chat.
— Wow, Almond is world class!
— Is Almond too big for me now? :(
— Damn, look at how many people are here now.
— Wow, yesterday's stream definitely had an effect.
Almond's audience mentioned the high viewer count instead of him. Usually, it was better not to mention the number. However, it would be unnatural to completely ignore such a high number.
It was like ignoring and walking by a thirty-car collision in front of him. It would be weirder to ignore such an obvious situation.
"Long time no see, everyone! But... it seems like we have quite a crowd today!" Almond brightly announced.
— There are actual foreigners here!?
— Literally world class.
— I guess so since he beat JeonJaPa.
— I became a fan after watching Fantasia!
‘So many newbies at once…’?
The new viewers greeted Sang-Hyeon when he mentioned them. He saw a handful of new usernames that made him think he was in a different stream.
'This is quite nerve-wracking.'
It was his stream in a familiar environment, but it felt like he was streaming somewhere else. That was how much influence the viewers and chat had.
Almond became speechless for a moment.
[RubySword has d 5000 won.]
[You're suddenly world class...]
He received a donation from a familiar username.
Almond naturally responded, "Ah, RubySword! Thank you, as always. What do you mean by world class? I'm still economy class."
[EggPlant has d 5000 won.]
[The viewers are multiplying! Huh?!]
Another familiar username d.
"Thank you for the early donation, EggPlant. You're right. The viewers are multiplying, haha."
He naturally laughed and felt more comfortable, like he was back home, thanks to the old users who had stuck with him since day one. His nervousness slowly melted away once he remembered that they were all with him.
"It's going good from the start!"
He found his groove and naturally continued the stream.
"Let’s start playing now."
Almond felt relaxed like he was streaming in front of just a thousand viewers.
— What are you playing today?
— Battle Large, right?
"Ah, today's game is???"
[KAFCEO has d 1000 won.]
[Kingdom Age! Please...]
— These Kingdom Age fanboys are so persistent.
— Can you play it again someday? Please?
"I promised to reach diamond in Battle Large, right? Of course, I'm going to play Battle Large."
— Wow, he's keeping his word.
— Is he really going to do it?
The journey to diamond started with eight thousand people watching, including his original viewers.