“Hey, I told you. There’s no point.”

“This is important, so listen to your manager.”

“Sigh…”

Ju-Hyeok got Sang-Hyeon ready to meet Acorn Jelly three hours before their meeting. Yes, three hours early.

“Are we going to an award ceremony or something?”

“Award ceremony? Is that all this is to you? This is a salaryman’s combat mode.”

Ju-Hyeok fixed Sang-Hyeon’s hair while the latter kept complaining.

“Alright, alright. I get it! Hey, don’t pull too hard!”

Sang-Hyeon entrusted himself to Ju-Hyeok. He still had doubts, but Ju-Hyeok had become his manager now. Not just any manager, he almost felt sorry for the high-spec Ju-Hyeok. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to keep complaining.

‘Let’s just do as he says.’

Sang-Hyeon closed his eyes and reassured himself.

Splish splash.

Ju-Hyeok continued to spray his hair.

***

Ju-Hyeok’s efforts greatly boosted Sang-Hyeon’s confidence. Sang-Hyeon didn’t notice, but his salaryman combat mode already captivated Acorn Jelly and the manager Na-Yeon.

They found it rare to see such people in the streamer industry. Na-Yeon simply sat there dumbfounded and even the talkative Acorn Jelly briefly became speechless. Finally, he slowly stood and shook Sang-Hyeon’s hand.

“Ah… Nice to meet you, Sang-Hyeon. My name is Do Jae-Muk. And the person beside you is…?”

“Hi, I’m Yu Sang-Hyeon’s manager, Kim Ju-Hyeok.”

Ju-Hyeok smiled as he passed along the business card he made earlier. His charismatic smile made him look like a movie star or an elite.

‘What are these credentials…’

Ju-Hyeok’s business card proved that he wasn’t like an elite, but actually a real one.

“Hahaha… what an amazing manager…”

“You’re too kind. And the person beside you, who are you?”

Ju-Hyeok asked the dumbfounded girl in front of him.

“Ah, ah… I’m just a normal manager. No one special. Nice to meet you!”

Na-Yeon nervously bowed at a 90-degree angle. Ju-Hyeok held in his laughter as he watched her awkward behavior. Sang-Hyeon didn’t pay any mind to it.

Their business discussion proceeded smoothly. They talked about how the stream would go, what questions would be asked, and what to avoid. Then Do Jae-Muk brought up the topic of payment.

“Now, we should talk about the money…”

Sang-Hyeon didn’t want any payment, but Jae-Muk adamantly objected to that.

“No way, I can’t do that. Even if I did, it’d resurface later on, haha. It’s not like the old days anymore.”

Sang-Hyeon wanted to say streams didn’t even exist in the old days, but Ju-Hyeok quickly took over.

“That’s true, but we feel bad about receiving payments on our end. I think minimum wage will be fine if you insist on paying.”

Minimum wage would be more than enough since Sang-Hyeon’s current salary equaled welfare.

“Hmm. The pay isn’t really by the hour in this industry. How about we just split the donation received on that day?”

“!”

Both Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon felt surprised.

‘He earns quite a bit…’

Sang-Hyeon already researched Acorn Jelly before their meeting and roughly estimated his earnings.

‘He earns roughly two million won a day. So I’ll get around one million won?’

Sang-Hyeon waited for Ju-Hyeok to finish calculating. Calculations were Ju-Hyeok’s weakness.

“Hey, how much is that roughly?”

“It’s gonna be at least one million won.”

They nodded while whispering to each other. From their perspective, one million won a day would be more than enough for them.

“We’re thankful as long as you’re okay with it.”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all. I should thank you guys for letting me stream with someone who will be big soon, haha!”

Acorn Jelly chuckled as their meeting came to an end.

***

‘What a scary guy.’

Sang-Hyeon thought to himself when he arrived home and saw Ju-Hyeok’s message.

[Ju-Hyeok: Hey, this is the file I recorded. We don’t know what might happen, so hold on to a copy.]

[Ju-Hyeok: AcornJelly.mp4]

These types of guys always quickly climbed the corporate ladder. Why did he ever leave?

[Sang-Hyeon: Thanks.]

Sang-Hyeon wanted to send another message but hesitated.

‘How should we split our earnings?’

He didn’t know how to bring up the topic. As usual, Ju-Hyeok brought it up first.

[Ju-Hyeok: For the payment, just give me 20% of the profits whenever we earn more than 3,000,000 a month.]

The conditions heavily favored Sang-Hyeon because he likely wouldn’t earn more than 3,000,000 won in the first few months. Ju-Hyeok just offered to work for free in the meantime.

[Sang-Hyeon: Hey, is that enough?]

[Ju-Hyeok: I have a lot saved up. Don’t worry.]

Ju-Hyeok didn’t lie. He actively invested and could even buy a small house if he sold all his stocks. He also held more interest in the streaming industry than Sang-Hyeon might’ve imagined. He decided to invest one year of his time because he recognized the market’s potential. Working with Sang-Hyeon would be a great start. He already planned everything.

[Ju-Hyeok: Don’t worry. I’ve got it all planned out.]

[Sang-Hyeon: Ok ok]

Sang-Hyeon didn’t really care about Ju-Hyeok’s plans.

‘Rich people sure are built differently.’

He only thought to that extent.

***

The next day, Sang-Hyeon turned on his stream and greeted his viewers.

“Hello, long time no see.”

He had taken a day off to meet Acorn Jelly. Sang-Hyeon could freely stream whenever without much backlash since he wasn’t a professional streamer yet.

— Almond’s stream? You can’t miss this!

— Kya, jackpot! I got off work just in time!

Most of them felt excited about the unexpected stream.

“RubySword, EggPlant, Marksman, JellyTelly…”

Sang-Hyeon shouted out a list of familiar usernames.

— Me too! Hi hi!

— AlHa! It means Almond Hi.

— AlHa!

— Day one shout outs!

— I want to be day one too!

More viewers requested for their names to be called as he continued. He stopped after around thirty names. Simply mentioning their names made them feel closer to him. The chat rambled on after the shoutouts.

— Woah, it’s Almond!

— I came as soon as I saw the notification.

— Almond sensei.

— AlHa!

— AlHa!

— Almond… kept us hanging for a day… how could you do this to us already!?

The number of people increased again.

‘What the? I didn’t even start playing yet. Weird.’

He checked the viewer count.

[Current viewers: 314]

Over 300 viewers tuned in as soon as he turned on his stream.

‘Isn’t this a bit much?’

It seemed like an unusually high number. Only around 200 viewers watched even when he played games. Today, 314 people came as soon as his stream started.

— AlHa! Almond, there are rumors of you streaming with Acorn Jelly. Is this true?

— Dang, lucky Acorn Jelly, getting to stream with Almond.

— For real?

— Woah, collaborating with a big-time streamer already. How quickly he’s grown…

— Almost as quick as me getting rejected by my crush…

Sang-Hyeon soon found out why.

‘Ah, there are already rumors.’

He didn’t know how, but his meeting with Jae-Muk had already leaked.

“Collaborating with a small-timer like me?”

Sang-Hyeon brushed it off. Acorn Jelly insisted they keep it a secret because he wanted to promote it at a specific time.

“Never mind a collab. Watch me kill the boss in one hit. I’m going to fight the horse-riding bandit boss today.”

Sang-Hyeon provoked his viewers to hold their interest. He didn’t want to waste this opportunity.

— One shooting the boss?

— For real?

— Bosses don’t die from headshots, you newbie…

‘What the… Bosses don’t die in one hit?’

Sang-Hyeon didn’t know that.

“Isn’t Durka a boss?”

The viewers laughed at his question.

— LOL so mean

— Durka LMAO

— It’s Burka with a B.

— Burka is normally charismatic… poor guy…

— Burka or Murka or whatever he is, he got one shotted before he could even say anything. Of course, Almond doesn’t remember him lol.

— Lol true, he’s just a normal mob to Almond.

“Is Durka not a boss?”

Sang-Hyeon kept calling him Durka without noticing the problem.

— LOL

— Durka counts as an elite mob, not a boss. Bosses are MASSIVE.

— You’ll be able to tell when you see a boss.

‘I see.’

Sang-Hyeon just learned the difference between a boss and an elite mob. Elite mobs posed a challenge, but they could still be one-shotted with a headshot. However, bosses couldn’t be instantly killed even with a headshot.

‘Oh shit, what should I do?’

He acted so confidently about one-shotting the boss. Now they might view him as a liar, but his confidence only attracted them.

— I think one-shotting the boss is a lie, but we’ll see.

— I’m gonna watch too hehe.

— I guess the collab stream was fake news. Still want to watch the boss though.

Three hundred viewers on standby wanted to confirm the rumors.

‘Perfect.’

Sang-Hyeon would take advantage of this opportunity to showcase his skills.

‘They’ll be satisfied to see my skills even if I can’t kill the boss in one hit.’

His confidence increased as he gradually learned the game. The leak about his collaboration with Acorn Jelly racked in more viewers and provided him with the perfect chance to transition into a pro streamer.

An alert popped up as if to prove him right.

Bling— 

[RubySword has donated 10,000 won.]

[Mission: 100,000 won if you successfully one-shot the boss.]

His first mission would reward 100,000 won already.

Gulp.

‘Let’s accept it for now.’

He clicked accept.

— Aww, the newbie is so cute…

— That’s his safety earnings.

— Accepting mission impossible…

— Almond, honey… you don’t know what you’re dealing with…