[The Supreme Island will now belong to you. It is now under your jurisdiction.]
[Rewards received by players from hunting and doing quests on the Supreme Island will be subjected to a 1% tax, payable to you.]
[The monsters living on the Supreme Island will not attack you.]
[A statue of the Supreme will be erected in the middle of the Supreme Island.]
Requirements: The one standing at the peak of all of the players.
•All of your stats will increase by 1.5%.
•Your CHA will increase by 10%.
•When fighting against players, your attack and defensive power will increase by 1%.
•When fighting against monsters, your attack and defensive power will increase by 2%.
•You can now create the Supreme’s Authority.
‘I can now create the Supreme’s Authority? What?’
An authority was a distinct power that belonged to an individual. A prime example was the God and Knight, the Origin Authority, currently in Minhyuk’s possession.
‘However, not all authorities are as strong as the God and Knight.’
Among the authorities, only a handful could be said to possess power that could easily represent an individual. As for the rest? Many were quite useless.
[The Supreme Authority that will be created will at least have power on par with authorities at the Absolute God level.]
After checking the reward’s detailed information, he realized the situation was different.
‘I have to ponder deeply about this matter and think carefully about what to create.’
Minhyuk, left alone on Slaughter Island, was covered with a bright light and disappeared.
Countless articles were being written and published all over the world.
[Player Minhyuk: Proving to the world that he is the Supreme both in name and reality.]
[The Man who forced 183 rankers to log out.]
[Predictions regarding the man who will be hailed as the most influential person in the world this year.]
[Minhyuk: Korea’s teenagers’ number one idol. There’s a considerable gap with the second place!]
[Supreme Minhyuk is the term that ranks first in the world’s real-time search terms.]
[Supreme Minhyuk far surpasses K-content, KPop, and KGamer content in the real-time search terms!]
Carron, the Godly Editor, was the one who had always stayed by Minhyuk’s side and helped him prove his worth and qualifications at a time when most of the people denied him. Of course, he also gained recognition for his efforts in assisting Minhyuk. [1]
His advertisements, which focused on the Beyond the Heavens Empire’s players and vassals, also brought the empire considerable profits and attracted many migrants.
Recently, Godly Editor Carron had been relatively quiet. Originally, topics and issues related to a single object of discussion would eventually wither and die down after their initial explosion.
‘Now is the perfect time.’
Things had been quiet for quite some time now. However, the entire world’s attention was once again drawn to Minhyuk this time. So, Carron believed this was the best time to reintroduce Minhyuk to the world.
Carron was fully aware of Minhyuk and Joy Co. Ltd.’s current situation.
‘Games would often welcome the largest number of players during the first year of their release. Over the years, the number of their active players will eventually decrease.’
This was a natural phenomenon, and they could not do anything about it.
Somehow, Athenae was a bit different.
‘The number of players joining the game has steadily decreased in the past few years. Now? It has become completely stagnant.’
If one wrung out a wet towel, they could squeeze water. If one tried to wring out a dry towel, they could not get even a single drop of water. In the end, playing games was a hobby, and people could enjoy countless other hobbies.
So, instead of enticing people who already liked gaming, Athenae decided to switch gears and focus their attention on those who did not play games. There were all sorts of hobbies, which meant that many people did not play games. Athenae focused on getting the people who enjoyed watching ZTube, exercising, watching TV, and doing other hobbies during their free time to play the game.
As for the Beyond the Heavens Empire? They were in the same boat. They were currently in a situation where they had to obtain a lot of new players and increase their population to surpass the Luvien Empire.
‘Fortunately, even those who do not play Athenae can still enjoy Minhyuk’s genius and star quality.’
Minhyuk was suffering from eating addiction, which already gathered the attention of the people. On top of that, he was also considered the most likable Korean in Asia in terms of appearance alone. It was to the point where he could rival any actor.
‘Right now, the best platform to bring in new players is ZTube.’
There were more than tens of thousands of games in the world. Of course, Athenae occupied almost 60% of the market, but there were still a lot of games out there.
ZTube was different. It was the only video-sharing website in the world, and its global number-one creator had more than 100 million subscribers. The number-one creator in the artist category had subscribers that far surpassed the Korean population. At the same time, the second on the list was a K-pop girl group with 60 million subscribers.
In addition, one content category was dearly beloved by all of the people on ZTube. This category was none other than Mukbang.
It was content that was liked and never despised worldwide. Unlike the overwhelming number of male gamers and creators in the gaming category, mukbang did not discriminate between men and women.
‘The most important part is that he has secured the best ingredient.’
Carron immediately sent a whisper to Minhyuk.
[Carron: ...so, I believe it would be best to turn on your live broadcast and do a mukbang on ZTube with the title Supreme Hanwoo Set.]
Minhyuk, who had already returned to the Beyond the Heavens Empire and had gone to a sunny and open place to eat the Hanwoo set, could not help but hesitate.
[Minhyuk: Even if I’m the Supreme and I’m considered famous, will I really create such a huge impact just by eating?]
[Carron: Yes. Your Majesty, all you need to do is turn on the live broadcast and eat as usual. You don’t need to do anything special or do some spiels and comments. You just need to eat. Of course, I understand why you’re hesitating, Your Majesty.]
Carron knew and understood Minhyuk more than anybody else.
[Carron: I know you want to eat freely and comfortably, Your Majesty. So, how about doing this? Turn off the chatting window and everything else. Just eat. You don’t even have to check if you have any viewers.]
[Minhyuk: Then, I just need to do a simple and quick greeting?]
Minhyuk rubbed his chin in thought. According to Carron, doing a mukbang would bring an influx of new players to Athenae. And with the new influx of players, Beyond the Heavens Empire would surely secure more and more people.
This was actually their biggest problem. Although they had already reached 60% of the Luvien Empire’s power and influence, the number of migrants moving to their empire no longer increased no matter what they did.
They had come to a point where they could not wring any water out no matter how hard they tried to wring the towel out. It had already become completely dry. If that was the case, they had to do something to wet the towel, right?
‘Of course, it will be hilarious if I gain a few hundreds of millions or billions of won just by doing a broadcast.’
Even if Minhyuk did not do a live broadcast, he could still earn that money quickly. Alas, Minhyuk did not know that Carron was not expecting just a few billion won.
The impact Carron believed had was a far cry from what Minhyuk thought. It was not the migration of a few hundred people, or even tens of thousands, of people from all over the world but a constant and long-term process.
If they left the video as it was, then the number of views was bound to increase steadily.
[Carron: If you’re concerned about revealing the information about the Supreme Hanwoo Set, then you can just mosaic most of the abilities and effects during the live broadcast.]
Players were very protective of what they obtained, especially rare and scarce items.
[Carron: It might be inconvenient and troublesome for you, Your Majesty. Regardless, this is for the future of the Beyond the Heavens Empire. If the live broadcast goes well, then I will negotiate with Joy Co. Ltd. and sign additional transactions and make sure that we can get better profits.]
Things had already been explained in detail, and Minhyuk had nothing to say. He had reached a point where he had to consider many people's lives, not just his own.
[Minhyuk: Alright, I get it. But I’ll really just turn on the live broadcast and eat without caring about anything, okay? I’ll also mosaic the Supreme Hanwoo Set’s information.]
[Carron: That’s what I also wish for.]
Minhyuk smiled wryly as he sat in his chosen sunny and open spot. He already knew what he was like. He would become immersed in his food when eating, so whether the live broadcast was on would not matter to him in the long run.
Anyway, he set up and turned on the live broadcast first.
[The live broadcast: ‘Minhyuk’s Supreme Hanwoo Set Mukbang’ has started.]
And just like he said earlier, Minhyuk did not really say or do anything. He also turned off the chat window and the donation and sponsorship notifications. The only thing that came out of his mouth were exclamations about the food in front of him.
Minhyuk had already finished all of the preparations. He was sitting in front of the heated stone grill, which was covered with shredded scallions, ramps, doenjang jjigae, kimchi, ssamjang, garlic, king oyster mushrooms, lettuce, perilla leaves, and more.
As faint smoke slowly floated from the surface of the heated grill, Minhyuk greased the stone grill and gently placed some of the meat on top. Of course, the best piece to start with was the thick sirloin steak, around two centimeters thick and had beautiful marbling peeking out on its ends.
Just like that, the delightful sounds of sizzling meat rang in the clearing.
James, a ZTube BJ Management Team member, was also an Athenae player. He was still savoring the lingering aftertaste of the Slaughter Island Battle that ended an hour ago. The thing that he was most curious about was...
‘I wonder what the Supreme Hanwoo Set tastes like?’
Yes, he was very, very curious about it. It was not just him who was thinking about this. The entire world, who had watched the broadcast earlier, was interested, too.
[The live broadcast: ‘Minhyuk’s Supreme Hanwoo Set Mukbang’ has started.]
For special BJs and celebrities who had not done any live broadcasts for a long time, a special notification would appear once they did a live broadcast. When James saw the notification, he hurriedly rushed to the meeting room.
The director was busy trying to find a world-class BJ to represent ZTube. The appearance of a world-class BJ would undoubtedly increase the number of people using the platform.
“Player Minhyuk has started a mukbang where he’s eating the Hanwoo set.”
Unfortunately, the director did not play Athenae.
“Would... someone hailed as the Athenae’s Supreme create huge waves by doing a mukbang? I don’t think so. He will probably only be a bit popular in his own country.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
Just because Minhyuk was famous did not mean that everyone knew him. It was just like how the adults did not know BXS very well. [2]
“Recently, many viewers worldwide have been disappointed by mukbang creators eating voraciously and vomiting once they end the broadcast. Minhyuk is different. He is someone who is suffering from eating addiction. As someone who eats happily non-stop, the viewers and ZTube users are bound to love him and his content.”
The director seemed quite tempted by the words. James saw his chance and continued to point out the crucial details individually.
“And a large-scale Slaughter Island event had just ended an hour ago. People from all over the world are very curious about the Supreme Hanwoo Set. If you’re looking for another reason, then I have to tell you that Minhyuk is freaking handsome. And just an hour ago, he had established himself as the true Supreme.”
He took a breath and continued, “I guarantee that his subscribers will skyrocket in just five minutes. Not only that, his live broadcast’s ranking will definitely go up rapidly.”
ZTube was ultimately dependent on exposure. If a video's rating suddenly rose, it had experienced overwhelming exposure.
“Do you remember the broadcast that actor Angie Lau did recently? The broadcast where he received ten billion won in donations and sponsorships in just a few hours since his broadcast started?” [3]
Back then, the entire ZTube headquarters was almost turned upside down. It was the effect of the first live broadcast of a global star!
James excitedly said, “This is not his first live broadcast, but if you take into account the existence of the Supreme Hanwoo Set, the fact that he has proven that he is the true Supreme today, the eating and forced vomiting issue, the eating addiction story, and his extremely handsome face, then we can expect this broadcast to have a huge impact.”
When the director saw James's excitement, he finally realized the situation. Then, he said, “How long has it been since his live broadcast started?”
“It’s been three minutes.”
“How much donation and sponsorship has he received?”
James quickly checked the monitor. What he saw made his eyes grow wide. He sputtered, unable to speak clearly, “D-do you know what Minhyuk has done in his live broadcast?”
“He has just placed the sirloin steak on the stone grill.”
“So, he has not yet started eating. This means that the show has not yet truly started. If that’s the case, the donation and sponsorship aren’t yet high...”
“The current donation and sponsorship amount is two million dollars.”
If converted to Korean won, two million dollars was equivalent to around two billion. What was even more shocking was...
“Didn’t he just place the meat...?”
There was one more important fact here.
“The broadcast has just started. This means viewers do not know he has started a live broadcast yet. This is when his number of viewers is at its lowest, and the ratings are still low. With word of mouth, banners, and the ‘Hot BJ’ tag, we can expect the audience to increase by more than ten times in ten minutes.”
The two grew silent as they looked at each other. Many thoughts ran through their heads, but one thing was certain: This was the birth of a new BJ. His climb to the global creator rankings would not be detrimental to ZTube. In fact, it would even be perfect for them.
“From what I heard, he thinks of eating as the best thing in the world because of his eating addiction.”
“He’s just eating because he likes to eat... He hasn’t eaten yet but has already gained two million dollars...? At this rate, he’ll probably get at least ten million dollars. Then, are you saying that he will be able to gain at least ten million dollars today just by sitting down and eating?” The director said, a stunned look on his face. At that moment, he accidentally blurted out the words hidden deep in his heart. He said, “I’m so jealous...”
‘I also want to just sit down, eat, and gain ten million dollars...’
1. Carron is called Jackson in real life for those who might have forgotten ☜
2. parody of the renowned K-pop group worldwide ☜
3. 유닥화 parody of Andy Lau (유덕화) ☜