Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Chapter 81 We're All MeTube Stars (4)

Dangsan TV (Subscribers: 4,315)

Lia TV (Subscribers: 1,602)

Geum TV (Subscribers: 3)

Sani TV (Subscribers: 2)

These were the results of our MeTube channels over the past week.

Excluding Sani's channel, whose glory lasted only a single day, both Lia and I were putting up fairly respectable numbers.

My channel in particular had overwhelmingly high view counts and watch times, and its advertising revenue had surpassed an average of twenty thousand won per day.

By simple calculation, that meant I was earning close to five hundred thousand won a month in passive income.

It was an excessive amount of money—more than excessive—for hour-long videos uploaded once every two or three days without any editing.

Of course, if I got greedy, I could keep filming and uploading more, but these days our coffeehouse was crowded more often than it was empty, so finding a chance to film was difficult.

And as our MeTube channels continued to perform respectably, one more completely unexpected thing happened.

The great age of MeTubers had begun.

-Jingle.

“Pant, pant. Is there a guest inside?”

“Yes, National Champion Han Seun just went in.”

“Just now? Ah, damn it! See? I told you we should hurry, you bastard monk!”

“What? You're the one who took forever doing your makeup.”

“We're late because you always drive like you've got all the time in the world! Why'd you even switch to a Benz, then? You might as well buy a tractor!”

“Then you drive. Oh, right. You failed your driver's license test twelve times, didn't you?”

“You son of a bitch!”

That was more or less the situation.

Not only the Haedong Divine Maiden and the Sorcerer, but practically every customer who came to the coffeehouse was desperate to appear in the MeTube videos Lia filmed.

At first, I couldn't understand why an origami video even needed guests, or why everyone was trying so desperately to appear as one.

But after watching a few videos, I found myself nodding in understanding.

The origami was really only a side attraction. The main content was the banter between Lia and her guests.

The videos were quite entertaining both for the people participating and those watching, and since the camera only showed the tabletop, no one's face appeared, making it relatively easy to participate without feeling too self-conscious.

_____________

At the same time, inside the MeTube filming studio at Dangsan-ri Coffeehouse, Lia and National Champion Han Seun were busy folding paper.

“Then, Mister, which TV show did you like best?”

“I liked Three Meals a Day. They film people cooking and eating meals in the countryside.”

“We cook and eat every day too!”

“But they don't have an electric rice cooker there. You have to burn firewood and cook rice in a cauldron.”

“Like the outdoor stove?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow! That sounds really fun!”

“But I burned the rice.”

“Why?”

“I started thinking about Go for a moment and lost track of the time.”

“Didn't you get in trouble?”

“I did.”

“Next time, only think about Go a little bit.”

“Yeah, I should.”

“Look here. You were thinking about Go again, weren't you? You were supposed to fold it into a triangle twice, but you only folded it once, so it's unbalanced.”

“Sorry. Should I fold it again?”

“No. You're a beginner, so it's okay. Besides, you're good at Go.”

“Lia, you're smart too, so you'd probably be good at Go if you learned. Want to try? I'll teach you.”

‘Now.’

The moment he'd been waiting for had finally come.

National Champion Han Seun took the miniature Go board and stones he'd prepared out of his bag.

There was a reason National Champion Han Seun tried to suggest Go to Lia whenever he had the chance.

Wasn't there a saying, like father, like daughter?

He'd happened to watch the father and daughter play Go, and Lia's skill had been outstanding, no less so than Jinseong's.

But Lia, who had already reached the level of a professional in the world of MeTube, wasn't so easy to deal with.

“Go takes too long, so no. Let's flick Go stones instead!”

“Huh?”

‘Right. Getting her familiar with Go stones comes first.’

And so, a rare match in which National Champion Han Seun, whose playing style couldn't have been further from compromise, yielded before even placing a stone was preserved forever in a MeTube video.

_____________

Title: Hey, what's this with Han Seun?

Post:

『(Video Link)

This popped up in my recommended videos, but why is Han Seun flicking Go stones here? lololol

Since the camera only shows the table, I wasn't sure at first because you can't see his face, but judging by the voice and hands, it's definitely Han Seun.

He goes on variety shows and gives boring-as-hell reactions without saying a single thing, but here he suddenly won't shut up and talks just fine.

What even is this? lolololol』

┗ GoGalleryUser1: Is this his niece's MeTube channel?

┗ GoGalleryUser2: Why the hell is he talking so well too lololol

┗ Anonymous: I've never heard Han Seun talk this much before. Isn't this historical footage? lololol

┗ Nauna: Han Seun offered to teach her Go first, and they ended up flicking stones instead. Damn.

┗ GoGalleryUser1: The other videos from this girl are hilarious too. You absolutely have to watch the one where she tells a shaman's fortune with one of those paper fortune tellers. lol

“National Champion Han, did you see this?”

“No.”

“You need to watch it before we can talk about it!”

Master Park Gidong slapped National Champion Han Seun's leg as he lay sprawled back with the car seat reclined almost flat.

“Look at this. It's been ages since someone posted praise for you on the Go Gallery. When did you film this video folding paper with a kid?”

-Spring.

National Champion Han Seun abruptly shot upright and practically snatched Master Park's phone away.

“It's already been uploaded?”

“Damn, you startled me.”

(Today, we're going to fold Santa hats out of colored paper! The person folding origami with me today is...)

Watching National Champion Han Seun become completely absorbed in the MeTube video, Master Park Gidong subtly spoke up.

“Wow, even I was shocked. Are you really the same National Champion Han who only ever says ‘Yes’ and ‘No’? You should act like this when you go on variety shows too! Actually, why don't we start a MeTube channel ourselves while we're at it?”

“You showed me this just to say that? We already make enough from advertisements without doing that.”

“If you keep being this boring on television, those advertisements are going to dry up too! Let's just make another five hundred million won. Okay? If we take out a mortgage and buy that commercial building we saw before, then nobody'll be able to pester us into appearing on programs like this anymore.”

“You say five hundred million like it's pocket change. Last year, we couldn't even pay the rent on the office.”

“Exactly! And that's because National Champion Han screwed everything up...”

-Knock, knock.

“Player Han Seun, it's time for filming.”

A broadcasting station staff member wearing an in-ear microphone knocked on the car door, preventing Master Park's aggrieved complaint from reaching its conclusion.

“Hey, looks like they're starting. National Champion Han, you seriously need to do well this time. This is practically your last chance! Just act like you did on MeTube yesterday! Just like you did on MeTube!”

Was it thanks to the desperate cries of Master Park, his financial partner? Or had Lia's MeTube channel truly awakened Han Seun's gift of gab?

That day, one of National Champion Han Seun's jokes on the variety show was clipped into a short video that received millions of views.

And along with it, the Lia video featuring National Champion Han Seun as a guest began exploding in views as well.

_____________

Something that made one person happy didn't necessarily make everyone else happy.

As Dangsan Enterprises' MeTube channels grew smoothly, there was one place where worries only deepened: the National Intelligence Service, responsible for the security of the Republic of Korea.

“So how many views does it have?”

“One hundred seventy thousand at present.”

“Isn't that low enough that we can just let it slide? When I look at MeTube, there are videos with one million, two million views everywhere.”

NIS Director Oh Taesu opened the MeTube app on his phone and showed it to the employees seated around the conference room.

“Look at this. This one's at five million, and this one's at seven million.”

“Director, all the videos you're showing us have been posted for at least three years. The video uploaded by the Divine Tree was posted only a week ago. At its current rate of growth, there is a strong possibility it will reach the millions.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

Director Baek Mahyeon answered the reality-denying question without hesitation.

“Good grief, my head. I told them to keep a low profile, and now they've gone and become influenzas?”

Several employees desperately bit their lips to suppress their laughter as “influencer” instantly transformed into “influenza.”

“Fortunately, none of the footage shows their faces or anything that could identify the coffeehouse. It appears Jinseong took precautions beforehand.”

“I'm so touched I could cry. I'm really grateful! But if he was worried about that, shouldn't he just not do MeTube in the first place?”

“...”

Every word of it was correct.

But the water had already been spilled. No matter how much they complained about why the cup had been placed there, the water wasn't going back inside.

“How about contacting MeTube headquarters and asking them to reduce its exposure?”

“Until two years ago, domestic politicians made requests to take down videos so frequently that the company no longer accepts such requests.”

“Always that damn defamation or whatever. If they lived lives that ruined their own reputations, why'd they go bothering innocent MeTube to clean up after them? Sigh. Any other options?”

“At present, our only alternative is to monitor the situation while checking each newly uploaded video for potential problems.”

“Oh, great. So we're going to help boost their views too?”

Everyone gathered here knew that the most reliable solution would be to ask Jinseong to close the channels.

But none of them dared.

His connections with divine beasts alone were extraordinary, yet he also traveled back and forth to the Celestial Realm and formed relationships with gods. Recently, even King Yama had reached the point of leaving boxes of money for him.

Wasn't he a man with connections unparalleled not only in South Korea, but anywhere in the world?

No one could predict what kind of repercussions might follow if they said anything even slightly unpleasant to someone like Jinseong.

Given Jinseong's personality, nothing would likely happen, but the NIS was an organization that operated while accounting for every possibility, and they refused to tolerate even the slightest uncertainty.

“The more I think about it, the more I feel like we're not giving him enough money. Maybe that's why he keeps adding side jobs. What if we increased his monthly support payment? Think about it. If a hundred million won lands in his bank account every month, would he really film videos just to earn a few million more? What do you think, Deputy Director Choi?”

“An ingenious solution! Isn't that roughly the annual salary of an executive at a major corporation? With that kind of money, he'd be too busy spending it.”

“Including the money sent by King Yama, the amount entering Jinseong's account already exceeds one hundred million won per month.”

“What? Wait, so his annual income is already over a billion won, and you're telling me he's doing MeTube because he wants to earn even more? Two channels, no less? I thought you said he wasn't obsessed with money!”

The misunderstanding arose because they still hadn't discovered that most of the money he received from King Yama was being spent on funerals for people in unfortunate circumstances.

-Ding.

『Video uploaded by Dangsan TV: Reading Beneath Soft Lights Late at Night (5 minutes ago)』

Even in the middle of a serious meeting attended by every high-ranking official in the NIS, Jinseong's video uploads showed no sign of stopping.

“Huh? Wait, why are the views suddenly climbing like this? Director Baek, this has over ten thousand already. Wasn't this video only posted a minute ago?”

“I'll call in the IT team.”

“Find out what's going on! Hurry!”

MeTube had an algorithm that promoted high-quality content on its main page, and with Jinseong's videos possessing overwhelmingly high watch times relative to their subscriber counts and views, it was only natural that the algorithm would eventually choose them.

By coincidence, the NIS employees were there to witness the exact moment that happened.

And one month later, a Silver Icon awarded for surpassing one hundred thousand subscribers hung proudly on one wall of Dangsan-ri Coffeehouse.