The fact that someone was livestreaming in an area where Hunters were defending against a Break was utterly ridiculous, but one couldn't argue that it was clearly having a positive impact on the battle.
When Hunters are immersed in combat, it was difficult to keep an eye on their surroundings. If anyone was separated from the rest of the group or the front line was breached, it was easy for people to get seriously injured or even die.
Kim Ki-Rok's commentary managed to reduce the frequency of such incidents. As he covered the Hunters in battle, he also made sure that they were seen as more than just one of many by mentioning each of them by their individual names.
At the same time, this served to prevent any cowards from sneaking away by themselves.
"Ten minutes! It's already been ten minutes! What on earth could have happened? Could there have been some kind of accident? Why haven't any of the five guilds operating near Mapo District arrived yet?!"
Kim Ki-Rok's commentary was also forcing any of the guilds that might have been passively waiting out the defense to actively join the battle.
"Right as I say that, a D-Class guild based in Mapo District, the Hey!-You-Good-Bro?![1] Guild has arrived. So they're a bit late, that's fine. Even if their levels are low, they can still provide support from the rear. On top of that, as one of the guilds that operate around the Mapo District area, they should probably be familiar with the local geography. They can use that knowledge as they provide rear support. Again, provide rear support!"
"How would they best go about providing said support? The Association and the government have prepared supplies in the nearby underground shopping mall as a precautionary measure in case of a Break ! All the HYGB Guild needs to do is to go and bring back those supplies and start distributing them!"
The HYGB Guild had been milling around in confusion like lambs dragged to a slaughterhouse, but after listening to the instructions through the loudspeaker, they dispersed into teams of threes and fives. Weapons and potions soon started to fly across the battlefield.
"Now the pride of Mapo District, the Flower Guild, has finally arrived! Not only that, it's their famous Team One! This team is exclusively made up of B-Class Hunters! At the head of the team is the ace of the Flower Guild, Miss Yoo-Na, who has won countless fans with her outstanding looks and figure!"
A young lady, whose looks were more suitably described as cute rather than beautiful, widened her eyes in surprise at the unexpected atmosphere filling the scene.
"On top of that, her skills are also exceptional! The ace of the Flower Guild! Yoo-Na! Do you really have to hog all those blessings to yourself before you're satisfied?!"
The Hunters who were catching their breaths at the rear of the battle burst into laughter.
"Wow! What a psycho."
The remark left Yoo-Na unable to hide her bewildered expression.
They had been in the middle of running a Gate and rushed over after hearing news of a Break. Expecting to be met with a huge disaster, they arrived to see that the defense was going rather smoothly.
"Ah! Right as Miss Yoo-Na passes Hunter Yoo Byung-Hyun, the leader of HYGB Guild's Team Two, it seems like she has something to say to her old acquaintance! Could it be that?"
Right as the people who were listening to his livestream felt a welling sense of disbelief, Kim Ki-Rok said the famous line.
"Byung-Hyun bro, get out of here."[2]
The DG Guild's PR team had been listening in to the livestream the whole time.
—Byung-Hyun bro, get out of here.
⤷ Hey, this crazy bastard.
⤷ Aaargh! Lololol. Fuck! Lololol.
"Uh... manager. Does our guild really need a PR team?"
The manager was left speechless. He had been promised a high salary when transferring over from the mid-sized guild he had previously worked at. After the first hiring interview was over, he had already known that their CEO, or rather Guildmaster, possessed quite the eccentric temperament. However, he never expected Kim Ki-Rok to be this crazy.
At the Shine Guild, Lee Yeon-Hwa burst into laughter while watching the stream. Her chair almost tipped over backward from the force of her laughter.
Kang-Ho wore a dumbfounded expression and was also about to fall out of his chair.
—Just now, the We-Love-Hanwoo![3] Guild has also arrived! It is another famous guild in Mapo District. The owner of WLH Guild is a B-Class Hunter who also owns a famous restaurant known as a pillar of Mapo District! In his restaurant, he stubbornly insists on only ever serving his guests hanwoo! By the way, Miss Ji-Hee?
—Dinner was tasty, wasn't it?
—Yeeees! Especially the meat!
—That was the We-love-Hanwoo! restaurant. Do you see the uncle sprinting over from all the way over there? He's the one who runs the restaurant. Why don't you send him a heart.[4]
—Oh! The Guildmaster of WLH seems to be melting in joy from Miss Ji-Hee's cheer!
At the Golden Lion Guild in Daegu.
"Wow, seriously... Just where did a crazy guy like that even come from?" Baek Min-Hyuk muttered as he shook his head.
The Hunters Association wouldn't allow this sort of behavior to go unpunished. The DG Guild should be prepared to face some disciplinary action and possibly fines.
Taking that into account, however, the DG Guild had gained enormous benefits from holding such a livestream, the first of which was brand name recognition.
1. The Black Mountain Range
It hadn't even been thirty minutes since the livestream had begun, but all the popular search sites were being flooded with these terms relating to the battle at Mapo District. Kim Ki-Rok had already pulled off quite the coup when it comes to public relations.
The second benefit was the friendship of the guilds and Hunters who were participating in this battle.
The Hunters were aware of how much their fame had increased because of this livestream. Kim Ki-Rok hadn't just referred to them as Hunters belonging to some guild, but clearly addressed each of them by their names and characteristics, ensuring every individual would leave an impression on his viewers.
Thanks to that, the Hunters felt like they owed a lot to the DG Guild. Some of the unaffiliated Hunters would surely end up knocking on their doors.
With just a single livestream, the DG Guild created an opportunity to recruit talents, build connections with other guilds, and improve its standing among the general public.
—Right at this very moment, the Guildmaster of WLH, Hunter Choi Chang-Min, and the Flower Guild's ace, Miss Yoo-Na, are attempting to launch a combined assault against the monster presumed to be the Gate Boss! What clean cooperation, and an exceptional joint attack! The monster has finally been defeeeeeeated! With its death, the purification process has started to take effect right away!
⤷ Ah, hyung! You're not really going to end the livestream now, are you?!
⤷ Come on! There's no way that Crazy Bastard hyung would do something like that!
⤷ The Crazy Bastard! The Crazy Bastard!
—Yes. The Crazy Bastard, Kim Ki-Rok, would like to thank you all for your passionate support!
"Crazy bastard..." Baek Min-Hyuk shook his head in exasperation.
—We will continue to livestream until the Gate is closed.
⤷ Applause! A round of applause!
⤷ The great Crazy Bastard hyung has said that he'll continue his livestream!
—In that case! Starting now, your commentator Kim Ki-Rok, as well as...
—Ah! It's Kim Ji-Hee!
—We will be interviewing the Hunters who defended the attack of The Black Mountain Range, protecting Mapo District and, in a greater sense, safeguarding both the Republic of Korea and Earth in general.
After the boss had been defeated and the mobs were dealt with, Kim Ki-Rok carried Ji-Hee in his arms as he went around interviewing the Hunters who had participated in the defense.
Baek Min-Hyuk was left staring at the screen with a blank look in his eyes. He aired the feelings in his chest without any restraint. "That guy... He really is a crazy bastard. Just, wow..."
When Breaks first occurred, all regular livestreams were immediately suspended and special livestreams covering the Breaks would be scheduled for several days afterward. As the world adapted to the existence of monsters, Gates, and people with supernatural powers, the impact of the Breaks came to be reduced.
Breaks were still important enough to take up the front page of the news, but not as much fuss was made over them as there had been in the past. If the damage was minimal, there were times when coverage of the Breaks would end up as a single line in the daily news.
Kim Ki-Rok explained his reasons for holding the livestream, "Entertainment, public relations, as well as spreading awareness."
The man sitting across from him repeated the last word in question, "Awareness?"
Hunter Choi Chang-Min from the WLH Guild had invited all the Hunters from the incident to a party of freshly-grilled beef at his WLH restaurant.
Kim Ki-Rok asked, "Have you seen the footage?"
Choi Chang-Min shook his head. "I couldn't watch it myself, I could only spare the time to listen as it was being recorded, but it certainly seemed... entertaining?"
"That's fortunate." Kim Ki-Rok smiled before adding, "However, like I just said, the purpose of this livestream wasn't just entertainment, it was also to promote public relations and spread awareness."
Choi Chang-Min frowned in confusion. "I feel like the only thing it did was make people laugh, though?"
It was Kim Ki-Rok's turn to shake his head. "Ji-Hee and I only appeared on-screen for the first five minutes of the livestream. The rest of the time, I was filming footage of the actual battle."
The surrounding Hunters, chewing their mouthfuls of grilled beef and inhaling bowls of cold noodles, all nodded in confirmation as they watched the playback on their smartphones.
"Fortunately, there weren't any deaths." Kim Ki-Rok sighed in relief. "The enemy's escape routes were cut off, our strength was maintained at full power, and I was able to prevent anyone from getting isolated by providing tactical instructions under the guise of commentary. However, it's not like there weren't any injured Hunters. Thanks to those Hunters with healing abilities and the stockpiled potions, we were able to prevent any casualties, but the scenes of Hunters getting hurt during the battle were livestreamed with no filter."
Kim Ki-Rok hadn't just been filming the Hunters' heroic actions, but also those who were injured during the battle.
"At first, my viewers may have entered the livestream in the mood to laugh and chat with us. Even now, clips of the livestream are already being circulated as memes. However, as they kept watching, they would soon realize that something was different. After witnessing the intensity of battle without any of the usual censorship used by mainstream media, they would come to realize that this was more of a documentary than some kind of variety show. Only then would they know true fear," Kim Ki-Rok said gravely.
Kim Ki-Rok was sending a message. We have simply grown accustomed to the existence of monsters and Gates, but the threat of monsters and Gates has never truly disappeared.
"I used the entertainment aspect to first draw people's attention, before instilling awareness that the threat of Gates still exists. There might be issues with the platform's regulations because of all the gore, but... I don't think that the Hunters Association will be particularly opposed to what I just pulled. They might even actively support it," Kim Ki-Rok hopefully guessed.
Even now, the Association still sent out warnings about the Gates. They told as many people as possible that the threat of the monsters and the Gates wasn't over yet. However, the world seemed unable to see the bigger picture.
If that wasn't the case then, no matter how high the profits might have been, there was no way that the Hunters Association could have allowed such a Gate to remain standing in the middle of a busy street in a district with such a huge population.
"So things actually seem to have turned out for the best for the Association." The Hunters around him all began nodding their heads in agreement.
Kim Ki-Rok turned to the man and woman sitting behind his table and asked, "Isn't that right? Deputy Manager Lee Kwang-Soo?"
"Ahahaha..." the man who had been fiddling with his chopsticks let out an awkward laugh. He took out a business card from his jacket and handed it to Kim Ki-Rok. "It's good to meet you. I am Deputy Manager Lee Kwang-Soo from the Hunters Association's public relations department, Team Two."
Kim Ki-Rok returned the greeting. "It's good to meet you. I am DG Guild's Kim Ki-Rok."
"Ah... just how long have you known that we were here?" Lee Kwang-Soo asked.
"I knew right from the very start. As I've reported to the Hunters Association, the ability I awakened is Discernment," Kim Ki-Rok reminded the man and turned his gaze to the woman sitting next to the Deputy Manager. "Besides that, since you have someone from the Hunters Association's Video Content Management Department with you, it seems that there's nothing for me to worry about anymore." The woman let out a startled gasp, "Ah? So you know who I am as well?"
"After my first livestream, I looked into your department in advance, just in case the Association had any complaints. By the way, if you want to know how I found out that you belong to that department, it was through SNS. Well then... let's get straight to the point."
Relieved to have someone from the Association come and meet him, Kim Ki-Rok asked Lee Kwang-Soo straightforwardly, "So what is the Association's opinion of the livestream? Should I take down the recording?"
If the livestream of the defense against the Break had been done solely for the sake of promotion, then the guild should be rightfully subjected to sanctions. However, if they were doing so because they wanted to spread awareness of the threat that posed by such Breaks, then it was a completely different story.
"Ahhh... hmmm... For now, I don't think that I will be able to make a decision on that matter all by myself," Lee Kwang-Soo decided with a conflicted expression.
Kim Ki-Rok nodded. "Alright, I understand your concerns. In any case, I plan on editing and reuploading the livestream to better spread awareness, so please feel free to contact the DG Guild if there are any problems."
Deputy Manager Lee Kwang-Soo simply nodded along with a hollow smile.
Just like that, the complex situation had been easily diffused.
1. This name is based on an obscure Korean meme that got referenced into a song. ☜
2. This is a reference to a meme from the 2006 Korean film Sunflower. The context of the scene is that a tough guy is just about to beat up a gang of thugs, but he tells one of the thugs that he's friendly with to get out of here if he doesn't want to get beaten up with the rest. In case it isn't clear, Yoo-Na is the tough guy here, and the team leader from the weaker guild is the guy who escapes the fight. ☜
3. It's been mentioned before, but "hanwoo" is a type of high-class Korean beef, similar to the Japanese wagyu. ☜
4. This is referring to how some idols will hold their hands up in the shape of a heart as a gesture of sending their love to their fans. It's similar to blowing someone a kiss. ☜
5. This is probably referring to the Korean movie Sunflower, that the previously referenced meme was drawn from. ☜