Chapter 10
Myeongyun’s hasty decision to end the broadcast without even reading the Super Chats was an unavoidable choice.
A Neworld overload warning that appeared in the corner of his vision was requesting him to terminate the connection.
In the battle against Biryeong, he had pushed the hardware a bit too hard compared to its performance.
It had been a very brief moment, but that alone was enough to send Neworld into an overclocked state that wouldn’t shut down for a while.
Because of that, he planned to express his gratitude for the donations later through official channels.
Or perhaps during the next broadcast.
“Hoo.”
Stepping out of Neworld, Myeongyun got up from his bed and saw Sanghyeon sitting in front of him.
He was staring at the computer screen with a serious expression.
“Hey, are you okay?”
What was he looking at so intently?
Myeongyun followed his gaze to the computer screen. Several monitors, installed at some unknown time, were displaying all sorts of numbers and graphs moving about.
Sanghyeon, who had been silent for a while, finally parted his lips.
“…Hey, what do we do?”
“What do you mean, what do we do?”
“I think we hit the jackpot? Should I drop out of school?”
“How much is left until graduation?”
“Right.”
There was only one month left this year.
Next year, he would graduate and go to college.
And yet he was talking about dropping out.
Myeongyun understood why Sanghyeon was suddenly saying such absurd things.
“The numbers have increased a lot.”
Twitter followers: 90,000.
YouTube subscribers: 170,000.
PV views: 400,000.
The combined view count for the two videos clearing the God of Combat difficulty exceeded 2 million.
And the peak real-time viewer count during the broadcast reached a new high of 21,000.
It was an insane upward trend.
And rightly so—he possessed incredible physical prowess and had discovered the existence of Narak’s ‘6th floor,’ which no one had ever shown before.
The related communities were buzzing with nothing but Narak talk.
All because of the ‘Biryeong’ and the ‘6th floor’ that everyone was seeing for the first time.
Sanghyeon silently opened Twitter and searched for the ‘#Cheonma_Jeondo’ hashtag.
Countless fan arts poured out.
Whether Myeongyun’s image had created a significant ripple effect, a trend had emerged where even amateur and professional illustrators would draw him at least once.
From those with a few thousand followers to big names with hundreds of thousands.
Two days after debut.
‘Cheonma,’ ‘Myeongyun,’ and ‘Narak 6th Floor’ dominated the real-time trends.
A massive meteor that had fallen upon the VTuber industry had completely taken over Twitter’s trends, which could be called the vanguard of trends.
“Are all of these drawings of me?”
“To be exact, it’s you as the Cheonma.”
‘Everyone is truly impressive. If this were my past life, I would have rounded them all up into the Cheonma Cult and made them paint portraits.’
Myeongyun couldn’t take his eyes off the fan art depicting him.
Some of the illustrations were strikingly similar to how he had looked in his past life.
Seeing his reaction, Sanghyeon searched for other hashtags and showed them to him.
There was truly active interaction taking place on Twitter.
There were hashtags like ‘#CheonmaCult_FollowExchange’ for people to connect with each other, and many clips editing together parts of the broadcast.
“Hey, look at this.”
Sanghyeon, nudging Myeongyun who was browsing various things on Twitter, pointed at the screen.
Myeongyun, seeing the number displayed on the screen, spoke.
“Are you saying this is the amount we earned all day today?”
“Yeah.”
The number displayed on the screen was:
‘5,423,000 KRW’.
The monetization approval had come through just today.
That meant this was the amount earned in just one day from Super Chats.
After deducting YouTube’s 30% commission, that would be 3,796,100 KRW.
Nearly 4 million won in net profit per day. An absurd amount.
There might have been the special circumstance of the first monetized broadcast, but Myeongyun was a VTuber who had just debuted.
It meant that the money they would earn in the future would be far greater.
“So, about that, how should we split the revenue?”
“You take it all.”
Sanghyeon’s eyes widened at Myeongyun’s words. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
But Myeongyun, as if he wasn’t lying, simply looked at Sanghyeon with a calm expression.
“What I need isn’t money.”
What he needed wasn’t money, but an environment.
A battlefield like in his past life.
If he could stand there, he had no need for money.
Also, Myeongyun was grateful to Sanghyeon for many things.
Even though he had been reborn in South Korea, his past life was that of the Cheonma.
And on top of that, he had lived to a great age, so from a young age, he had inevitably been different from other children.
His parents embraced him, who exuded an unapproachable atmosphere, with infinite love, but peer relationships were a different story.
When he was very young.
It was Sanghyeon who always approached the taciturn Myeongyun first and spoke to him.
He was sociable and had a wide network.
Because he had many friends here and there, it was thanks to Sanghyeon that Myeongyun was able to maintain amicable relationships with others.
Thanks to that, his parents didn’t worry too much, and Myeongyun also wanted to repay him in some way.
Sanghyeon wore a bewildered expression at Myeongyun’s gaze.
‘I think this bastard is misunderstanding something again.’
Anyway, this wasn’t right.
Sanghyeon also came from a family as affluent as Myeongyun’s, and he was a person who knew duty and righteousness.
It would be like the bear performing the feat and the owner pocketing the money. If his father found out, he would surely issue a stern reprimand.
Sanghyeon let out a loud, fake cough and spoke.
“Ahem! I don’t think that’s right. From the net profit, you take 70%, I take 30%. Instead, you cover the broadcast expenses. Think of me as your manager and editor. That seems about right.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to take more?”
“Yeah. Honestly, even this is a lot.”
In Sanghyeon’s opinion, even this much was a lot.
They had earned nearly 4 million in a single day. What if this trend continued for a few days?
Moreover, on days with special broadcasts like birthdays or new costume reveals, tens of millions of won could easily be earned.
Historically, the record for the most Super Chats earned in a single day by a VTuber had long surpassed 300 million won.
The VTuber market was growing, leading to increased revenue.
With future ad revenue and YouTube income, both he and Myeongyun would easily earn over 10 million won per month.
After much deliberation, Sanghyeon spoke with a firm expression.
“Hey, I’ve made up my mind. I need to get serious too.”
“Get serious?”
“Yeah. Honestly, I didn’t expect us to do this well. There are a lot of martial arts-themed VTubers, and VTubers without a distinct character disappear quickly.”
“But looking at your face now, I don’t think that will be the case for us.”
Myeongyun nodded with a satisfied smile.
Sanghyeon’s face, filled with a subtle smile, looked thoroughly confident.
—
* * *
“Young-ah, Sanghyeon has been coming over a lot these past few days. What are you two up to?”
Myeongyun’s mother, Kim Seonyeong, asked him as he sat on the living room sofa watching TV after dinner.
Seonyeong was a little curious.
Although Sanghyeon often visited, this was the first time he had come so regularly.
Seonyeong could only think that the two were plotting something.
She had even heard from Sanghyeon’s mother that he had been staying up all night doing something lately.
‘Here it comes.’
Myeongyun realized that he now had to explain about being a ‘VTuber.’
Just as Myeongyun straightened his posture and was about to explain to Seonyeong—
Suddenly, a call came from Sanghyeon.
As soon as he pressed the answer button, Sanghyeon shouted.
-Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Turn on the news right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“What is it?”
Myeongyun asked back while manipulating the TV remote as Sanghyeon said, turning on the news.
The 9 o’clock evening news, a major broadcast.
What was appearing on it now was none other than the figure of ‘Cheonma Myeongyun.’
-As the virtual YouTuber market continues to grow, various VTubers with unique concepts are emerging…
-And a virtual YouTuber currently enjoying explosive popularity has been born in South Korea. This is a virtual YouTuber based on the ‘Cheonma’ that appears in martial arts novels.
He was appearing on the news.
As Myeongyun couldn’t take his eyes off the screen, Seonyeong’s gaze also turned to the news.
-Cheonma Myeongyun, his appearance was groundbreaking. After casually defeating ‘God of Combat,’ Neworld’s combat AI that only a handful of people worldwide have cleared, he then went on to show himself winning against two ‘God of Combat’ AIs at once.
-Thus, he currently holds the sole records for defeating the 1st and 2nd ranked ‘God of Combat’ AIs. Let’s hear from an expert on the matter.
-Yes… The sparring AI ‘God of Combat’ developed by Neworld is an ultra-highly advanced artificial intelligence that freely utilizes martial arts from around the world and changes tactics according to the opponent’s attacks…
Along with the expert’s explanation, reference footage appears, alternating between various martial artists from around the world facing the God of Combat AI and Myeongyun facing it.
Most martial artists struggle against the God of Combat AI, but Myeongyun easily handles it even with the handicap of using only one hand.
-In that regard, this virtual YouTuber appears to possess a master-level understanding of all martial arts, which is why such feats are possible.
The expert’s explanation was quite accurate.
All martial arts ultimately flow into one source.
No matter the martial art, when mastered to its peak, they all converge into one…
Seonyeong, who had been watching the news together, spoke.
“Oh my, he has the same name as you. So… Beo-chweol YouTuber?”
“It’s ‘virtual YouTuber,’ Mother.”
“How fascinating. I feel like there was something similar when I was young too.”
Seonyeong watched the news with amusement.
It was a testament to how deeply virtual YouTubers had permeated the lives of ordinary people.
Now was probably the right time.
“Mother, that’s me.”
“Huh? What? Well, the name is the same. How amusing.”
“No, I mean that is me. Cheonma Myeongyun is me.”
“Euh, what?”
At that moment, the news was broadcasting a segment about the Super Chats Myeongyun had received in a single day.
-This virtual YouTuber received over 5 million won in donations in just one day after monetization was approved.
“Oh, five hundred?”
“It’s nearly four hundred after commissions, Mother.”
“Don’t joke around. You’re not playing around like that, are you?”
Seonyeong, who seemed unfamiliar with streaming, brushed it off as if it were a fun joke.
Since Myeongyun had never been one for jokes or pranks, she genuinely laughed as if she found it amusing.
Myeongyun was sincere, but it seemed his message hadn’t gotten through.
‘…There will be more opportunities.’
He could gradually help her understand.
Myeongyun knew very well that his mother was not a closed-minded person.
Sanghyeon’s voice continued from beyond the smartphone.
-Is it for real that you made the news after your second broadcast? Euhahahaha. Thanks to that, convincing my parents was easy too.
“Convincing?”
-Yeah, man. If I want to keep helping you out, there’s not enough time, right? If I have to do it while going to college. I came to an agreement with my parents, with the condition that I just graduate.
“To that extent?”
-Anyway, this industry doesn’t really care about school grades. If you do well, my portfolio looks good too, so it doesn’t matter.
“I see.”
Besides that, Sanghyeon explained how much effort he had put into persuading his parents.
Myeongyun listened to his story, but when it started to drag on too long, he couldn’t take it anymore and just hung up.
And now, there was something more important than all of that.
It was Narak’s 6th floor.
After the existence of the 6th floor in Narak was revealed, countless people returned to Narak.
No matter the streaming platform, whether VTuber or general streamer.
Just like when Narak was first released, most pages were filled with people playing Narak.
No, perhaps even more than in the past.
Narak had not only regained its former glory but had surpassed it.
And at the center of it all was Myeongyun.
Since no one had yet achieved the conditions to reach the 6th floor, only he could show what lay beyond the 5th floor.
Myeongyun placed his hand on his heart, which had begun to pound, and murmured.
“…I look forward to the next time.”
