Season 5: Chapter 75. Remnants of Ah-Sung (4)
Expanding a company was no small thing, especially one so dependent on the revenue of a single streamer named Almond. They couldn't just expand recklessly. Of course, Ju-Hyeok had talked this through seriously with Sang-Hyeon at some point.
"Why go through the trouble of expanding?"
Sang-Hyeon's phrasing was fair.
Mixed Nuts had started as Almond's management company. For a management company like this, the formula for maximum profit at minimum cost was actually pretty simple. They just needed three people: Yu Sang-Hyeon, Kim Ju-Hyeok, and Seo Ji-Ah. With only three people, costs stayed minimal, and revenue remained roughly the same, resulting in maximum profit.
They wouldn't need an office at all, which meant no rent and no need to hire additional editors. Why did Ju-Hyeok bother to lease an office, hire more staff, and recruit more streamers?
"Because Almond's ability to grow as a streamer depends on exactly this."
"My... ability to grow?"
"Right. Working alone has very clear limits."
Countless famous streamers had followed this trajectory, both domestic and international. One could ride the appeal and personality of a single individual to considerable heights. Eventually, they would hit a wall. The amount of charisma and commercial value a single human being could generate had a hard ceiling.
"Streamers usually come together, whether as crews or teams, whatever you want to call it. They have to interact with each other."
Streams naturally expanded like that, and audiences took another step forward. Famous streamers were technically solo media. Conceptually, they were all interconnected. For example, a chat calling out Almond's single status had to happen on Almond's stream. A chat calling out the Lord had to happen on Sweet Potato's stream.
"Scale that up as a business, and you get an MCN."
A Multi-Channel Network was the structure that made those relationships sustainable. Mixed Nuts aimed to become that.
"Like Balloon Stars, which Bubblegum started."
"Exactly."
"In the end... that's what it comes down to."
Sang-Hyeon compared the essence of streaming to the arcades he used to go to as a child. He’d go to an arcade, and some older kids would be playing a fighting game. His friends would stand behind them and throw in commentary.
Cheering for one player and mocking the other when they lost. What if the two people playing had some kind of history between them? What if it were your neighborhood's older kid versus some guy from another block? It was a kind of local arcade rivalry. “
Pfft.
” Sang-Hyeon smiled faintly, perhaps recalling something from his childhood. "Basically, you want to be the top dog on the block."
"Well... you could put it that way. The issue is that this neighborhood isn't as simple as the ones from back then."
An MCN was a crowded space, not a management company. Aggressively pushing with a star streamer like Almond, like Ju-Hyeok planned to, would be met with resistance.
Sang-Hyeon simply asked once more, "You sure you can do it?"
"Of course, Sang-Hyeon."
"Then, let's go, Ju-Hyeok."
Clap!
The two of them decided to expand. They'd arrived at this decision faster than expected for a reason.
‘I spent years at Ah-Sung and still became a streamer after. Nothing will stop me.’
‘I walked out of that conglomerate. I'm not stopping here.’
They still carried complicated feelings about Ah-Sung. Their time there had tempered both of them. Those years had profoundly shaped their lives. Because Mixed Nuts had been built by them, the remnants of Ah-Sung naturally seeped into every corner of it.
Clink!
Roaring dinner parties and brutal late nights were common.
"Macaron, let's have another toast from you!"
An office atmosphere that seemed to manufacture social people on demand.
"YEAAAH!"
"Macaron! Macaron! Macaron!"
A certain indifference toward those who couldn't keep up.
— lmaooooooo
— Terrifying company lmao
— Toasts lmaooo
— Macaron looks like he’s having a rough time...
— lmaooo what's he going to do lmao
Ah... um...
I..." Macaron's eyes started to swim again.
‘Is... is every company like this?’ — ?
— lmaooo
— Taking people out with pure social energy lol
— He's going to faint again lmao
— lmaooo is this real?
Macaron clenched his jaw and pushed the words out with what seemed like childbirth-level effort. "It's... a pleasure to meet you all...!"
"YEAAAAAHHH!"
— LOL
— lmaooooo
— Is this a marine boot camp lmaooo
— lmaooo
— whoa lmao
— I'm drained too lol
After the round of toasts, everyone helped themselves to barbecue and settled into the feast. It was a rooftop terrace party on a beautiful evening. Everyone was in good spirits, so the drinks kept flowing freely. Even Macaron somehow kept pace.
Ji-Ah sat across from him. "Ji-Hu, you really don't have to push yourself."
A row of empty cans was already in front of her. Macaron had decided he'd at least drink as much as his direct supervisor. She was the only person who seemed to understand him, after all.
‘I'm actually not fine at all. What is this? How can she drink so much??’
Macaron had genuinely reached his limit. He was overwhelmed in many different ways.
Quietly, he asked, "So... we do come in tomorrow?"
He wasn't asking because he hoped to hear no for an answer. Of course, he assumed that to be the case, but it seemed strange.
Bwahahahahaha!
Ahahahahaha!
The director kept drinking with great abandon. If tomorrow were a workday, that wasn't really acceptable, was it? Maybe it wasn't a workday, after all?
"Not sure, honestly."
In truth, tomorrow was basically everyone's first real day in the office. Nothing had been formalized.
"Probably just come in before the director does. Don't worry about it."
Ah...
It would be a workday. Paradoxically, Macaron felt relieved.
‘The director drinking like that is actually good news!’
He arrived at this extremely simple conclusion.
‘Relax a little. You... haven't had food this good in a long time.’
He got some barbecue and took his time eating alone.
‘This is delicious...’
"Good, isn't it? Ju-Hyeok made it."
"Oh... Almond!"
Sang-Hyeon walked over and sat down beside him. For all intents and purposes, it felt like someone from television sat down next to him. Macaron felt awkward.
‘Whoa... Almond!’
He'd started all of this as a fan. Here Almond was, sitting right next to him. His heart was racing.
"I liked the video."
"Oh, thank you."
"No, I should be thanking you."
Macaron had assumed Almond would say something like, "Thank you for editing it so well."
This world was far harsher than he expected.
"For keeping the Smart Young Man alive." "?"
Almond was exactly as he appeared in streams.
‘It wasn't an act.’
This really was just who he was.
The next day finally came. Macaron opened his eyes.
‘Huh?’
He saw an unfamiliar ceiling.
‘Oh no.’
He'd assumed that he could still drink as he had in his first years of college. That had been a dangerously optimistic assumption.
‘How badly did I rot over three years?’
For three years, he didn’t leave his room. Not exercising and eating well made drinking in his state like getting shot with a stun gun. A few glasses had been enough to blank out his memory entirely.
He picked up his phone first. It was eight in the morning.
[Mom]
[Missed calls: 15]
He saw fifteen missed calls from his mother and quickly texted her to let her know of his survival.
‘Where am I?! D-don't tell me...’
Macaron sat up and looked around.
‘I didn't do anything embarrassing, did I?’
Anxiety and thirst arrived together. He got up automatically, walked to the door, and went out. There had to be water somewhere.
‘Oh. There it is.’
Macaron spotted a sleek water dispenser that looked like it hadn't been installed long. He filled a paper cup and glanced around again while drinking.
"Oh. Ji-Hu, you made it in." "?!"
Macaron choked. He turned around to find the director standing there.
Ju-Hyeok looked as put-together as when they'd first met yesterday.
‘Is this... a dream?’
It felt so surreal that yesterday had either been a dream or right now was. It had to be one or the other, but it wasn't. Both were real.
"Sleeping at the office on your very first day. Truly promising material." Ju-Hyeok joked and opened the blinds.
‘Oh no... I actually slept at the office.’
Only now did Ji-Hu fully face what had happened.
Gulp.
He braced himself for a lecture.
"Actually, come over here and take a look at something with me."
"Yes?"
"Work. It's work."
The unhinged director just went straight to business.
"Oh, okay..."
‘What would I even know to look for?’
Ji-Hu went over anyway.
"Could you tell me if there's anything weird about these videos?"
He could do that. Then, Macaron realized what he was looking at.
‘Wait. This is footage from the company dinner.’
The Mixed Nuts dinner had been broadcast live across each of the streamers' channels. A clip even showed him fainting and coming back to life.
"It's strange, you see. Ever since these videos went up, application withdrawals have been pouring in... Is there something wrong with them? Tell me from a new employee's perspective." "..."
‘Well, for starters, the new employee in the video fainted in the opening minutes, Director...’
Ji-Hu knew the truth, but couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. The director in front of him was simply too serious.
"Editors are essential to what we're building... If applications keep getting pulled, that's a problem... We need them to increase, not decrease..."
Ju-Hyeok genuinely believed that airing this footage would make Mixed Nuts look like a warm, fun place to work.
‘
After watching this?’
[Shorts: Lord Revives Collapsed Editor With Bare Hands]
— lmaooooooo
— lmao
— Why did he faint in the first place??
— How hard did you work him for him to faint lmao
— FYI: Macaron had been making videos all night before coming in and got surprised with a confetti ambush the moment he arrived, which caused the fainting...
└ Is that actually true?? Lmao
└ Made up. Nobody actually knows lmao
— He was faking it
└ Then WHY was the new hire faking it lmaooo
└ Fr... a mystery lmao
— This too is the Lord's...
That wasn't all.
[Shorts: How Two Ah-Sung Alumni Tell Real Fainting From Fake]
— lmaooooooo
— ??? The weight is different...!
└ lmaooooo
└ Genius Almondoyle
└ lmaooo
— Is it the weight of the soul?? lmao
— Genuinely terrifying place...
— So this company is basically a branch of Ah-Sung?
└ lmaooo a branch
└ Actually, branch is the perfect word! It's not literally connected, but the spirit is lmao
└ Is this a martial arts novel??
Macaron tried to start somewhere. "That... this... th-the company is a little... scary..."
Ju-Hyeok declared, "I know."
"Pardon?"
‘Oh. Good. He's aware.’
"It got edited to look like a black company."
"Ah, yes. It did, didn't it...?"
‘Wait.’
Macaron, who had been nodding along, suddenly froze.
‘Edited? What do you mean, edited? It's basically just the live footage, Director.’
That thought never made it out.
"It's because the videos went out through the other streamers' hands rather than ours."
"Th-that's true..."
He wasn’t technically wrong.
Ju-Hyeok looked at Macaron. "Fortunately, we have quite a bit of our own footage."
‘Macaron can make something that's nothing like reality.’
Ju-Hyeok gave Macaron the first assignment as a staff member.
"Please edit the Mixed Nuts dinner footage into something that turns the narrative completely around." "???"
"Editing that stays true to the facts. Isn't that your specialty, Macaron?"
This was, of course, ironic. Whether Macaron understood the irony or not was beside the point. The actual request was simple: Edit this so our company looks like somewhere people actually want to work.
It was a difficult task for a new hire. In another sense, only a new hire could do this task.
‘They would have the most relatable perspective.’
Ju-Hyeok had planned to give this job to Macaron from the start. He knew Macaron rarely left home, and commuting wasn't exactly appealing. Still, Macaron had come.
‘Why?’
Ju-Hyeok could guess at the reasons, but only Macaron would know. If even Macaron could be brought out of the house to work here...
‘Then anyone can.’
Other talented people would be willing to apply.
"Should I... go home first and..."
"Let's start now."
Tap.
Ju-Hyeok waved him toward his desk.
"Oh, right."
Macaron, Kim Ji-Hu, hadn't left his room in three years.
‘This feels familiar somehow.’
Tap tap tap tap tap.
He started typing, and a sense of deja vu washed over him. Then, it came to him.
‘Oh.’
The room that had kept him trapped simply became an office.
‘Is this what being a working adult is?’
It was the same for everyone else.
"I'm looking forward to what you come up with, Ji-Hu."
"Yes, absolutely!"

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