Genius Archer's Streaming

Sang-Hyeon's eyes shook at the post.

Indeed, it was quite a lengthy analytical article and its content was as followed.

The post was too lengthy to read in its entirety. It wasn’t because Sang-Hyeon lacked concentration. The comments echoed a similar sentiment.

Most users didn’t read it thoroughly, yet it was the top post. Firstly, because it was a well-conducted analysis. Secondly, because the community was still small enough for such a post to reach the top.

Anyway, Sang-Hyeon didn’t need to read the whole thing. Watching the first attached video was enough.

“Let's check. Weapons, check. An abundance of hygiene items, check. Medicine, check. Food supply, check…”

Bubblegum woke up in the infirmary and assessed the surrounding items.

The infirmary essentially had everything needed for survival, akin to an easy mode mentioned in the article.

However, Sang-Hyeon still had doubts.

Some comments precisely echoed Sang-Hyeon's concerns. Instead of an inherent difficulty adjustment feature, it could’ve just been an accident due to the game's high freedom. Yes, an accident that simply occurred.

Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. In fact, it could even be considered good that his gameplay was unique.

However, the situation was a bit different now.

If a person playing the game for the first time happened to have the most unusual gameplay, it could steer the advertising in a strange direction. For instance, it would be problematic if he was tasked with advertising an easy survival game, but ended up playing a hardcore action game.

Fortunately, Bubblegum demonstrated the original route.

Sang-Hyeon was quite fortunate. Everything continued flowing in the right direction beyond simply increasing the scale of the advertisement.

Users who thought the game was impossibly difficult began resolving their misunderstandings after watching Bubblegum's stream. Thus, they began inadvertently praising the game for its high freedom.

A positive first impression was successfully established.

In summary, Bubblegum died so many times that he asked Takoyaki for help. In short, asking for help turned out to be effective. Takoyaki, with his excellent gaming sense, was fully competent in this new game.

They were strategizing in front of the snack bar.

***

"Here! Here!"

Takoyaki lured the zombies by noisily playing the drums in the music room.

His energetic playing felt like watching a traditional Korean performance.

Was it because of the lively playing? The zombies instantly swarmed in.

They pushed through the desks piled up in front of the music room's entrance.

Indeed, Bubblegum and Takoyako had set up a makeshift barricade at the front door for Takoyaki's safety. Not a barricade meant to be impenetrable, but just like a speed bump for enough zombies to gather.

As the zombies pushed back this speed bump into the classroom, Takoyaki ran toward the back door while causing a commotion. Bubblegum waited outside for the right moment and opened the back door. Before the zombies could follow and escape, he closed it.

Bubblegum pulled a string he connected earlier to close the music room's front door.

"Of course. Bro, what did I tell you? I'm a professional gamer!"

Takoyaki's strategy worked particularly well in classrooms like the music room, which was quite large. There was ample space to run around and enough time to wait until a sufficient number of zombies filled the room.

***

“...”

Almond watched the video and became speechless.

Sure enough, their chat mentioned Almond.

He thought this method was the standard way to deal with the zombies and realized he had unnecessarily complicated the game.ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ɴo(v)elꜰɪre.ɴet

Just as he was feeling a bit down, he read some comments expressing an opposite viewpoint.

Seeing these comments restored his confidence.

"I was right," he concluded that his approach was indeed the correct one.

"The reaction isn’t bad."

"I'm glad it's going well."

Ju-Hyeok knocked on his door.

"... Yeah. What's up?"

Ju-Hyeok entered with a look of anticipation. Debuting on a major channel held special significance for him.

"Want to watch it together?"

Sang-Hyeon initially wondered why he would watch it now when it would air at 9 P.M. However, seeing Ju-Hyeok so excited wasn’t common, so he decided to join in.

"Let's watch it."

The beginning was quite predictable. After the opening remarks, the hosts casually exchanged personal updates and small talk, slowly building up the tension.

“Do you have any news?”

“Me? I've got nothing.”

“Hey, Min-Gu. You got divorced recently, didn't you? What do you mean by nothing?”

Amusingly, they mentioned Han Min-Gu's divorce.

The entertaining chats were edited in after the hosts’ comments. The messages were quite enjoyable to read. Only the funniest among hundreds of chat messages made the cut, making it quite impressive.

Then, the first guest appeared.

Lil Grass made her entrance with flamboyantly colored hair and music that wasn’t playing during the live broadcast. Her song, influenced by her Eastern Philosophy major, had lyrics that strikingly caught the ear.

“Bright hair! Slim waist! Bitch I’m the real pussy!”

After her flashy entrance, adding appropriate chat messages was only natural.

Lil Grass shouted energetically with her signature cheerful smile, “Hellooooo!”

“Puhahahaha!”

Her presence alone made the hosts burst into hearty laughter. Some people were just naturally funny and Lil Grass was one of them.

Han Min-Gu's teasing began, followed by the other hosts ribbing Lil Grass.

After a brief introduction and a few exchanges, In-Ho made his appearance a bit earlier than expected.

“This gentleman is also from a prestigious university, right? An engineering student who suddenly turned into an idol, and now he's transformed into an actor!”

Next up was In-Ho.

Ju-Hyeok adjusted his glasses and considered the broadcast’s remaining time.

***

"Oh, here I come. Bro, I'm on," In-Ho excitedly exclaimed from the back seat.

"Hey, don't worry, okay? Why are you even watching that? You get carsick," the manager confidently reassured In-Ho while checking his expression in the rearview mirror.

In-Ho always made sure to watch his own scenes and was a true attention-seeker. Well, such a personality suited his profession.

"You were there too, right? To talk with their executive. Do you know how many cosmetic ads our company had to put in there? It was a headache to get in. Even if we just stayed put..."

The manager was in the middle of reassuring him when In-Ho's expression started to harden.

"… What's wrong?"

It hadn't even been five minutes since In-Ho appeared on the show. There was no reason for his expression to sour so quickly. It was strange.

"Hey, In-Ho. What's wrong?"

However, In-Ho couldn't hear the manager’s question.

In-Ho watched his entrance scene with wide eyes and stared intently without a word.

He felt quite displeased. The scene seemed exceedingly strange, but he couldn't pinpoint the cause. To put it superficially, the production team had no intention of highlighting In-Ho. At least when a guest appeared, shouldn't the spotlight be on them? What about now?

It felt as if someone who was expected to appear just showed up. In-Ho couldn't precisely explain what filming technique they used, but something was definitely off.

"It's too... fast."

"Now? We're going thirty kilometers per hour. It's a school zone, so..."

"No!" In-Ho suddenly raised his voice.

"My entrance! It went by too quickly! I had less screen time than Lil Grass!?"

"What?"

The manager thought that couldn't be true.

"No. They probably shortened your introduction because a lot of people know you. The real deal starts from the next round."

He sighed and turned the steering wheel.

"In-Ho, have some patience. Famous people usually have shorter introductions, right? Does the main MC Han Min-Gu go around saying, 'I'm Han Min-Gu. This and that?’"

The manager's words had some merit.

It wasn't just the scene moving too quickly. In-Ho felt a bizarre feeling like they weren’t showing the necessary cuts and only compiled the unnecessary ones.

Then, Almond appeared.

In-Ho's face, which had been rigid, contorted helplessly.