Season 5: Chapter 76. Remnants of Ah-Sung (5)
Sang-Hyeon woke up that morning feeling vaguely hollow.
‘He's not here...’
Ju-Hyeok had always been around the house, but not anymore.
‘Guess that's how it'll be for a while.’
Moving Sang-Hyeon's capsule to the office proved more complicated than expected. After all, his capsule was a high-end custom unit. Professional movers would be needed just for the relocation.
‘The capsule will leave this room...’
Sang-Hyeon leaned against the doorframe and looked down at it. When they first brought the capsule into his grandmother's room, it made the space feel so cramped that he almost felt guilty. Now, the thought of it being gone felt like too much empty space.
Ugh.
Sang-Hyeon stretched and looked away. He opened the cabinet and filled a bowl with cereal. Then, he opened the fridge for milk. Something warm surfaced in his mind.
"I want some hot soup..."
After a night of drinking, Ju-Hyeok always made hot soup for the next morning’s hangover. His soft tofu soup was something else entirely.
Gulp.
Sang-Hyeon swallowed and looked over the fridge.
‘Ju-Hyeok just watches YouTube and figures it out.’
Maybe he could cook too. That thought led him to open YouTube and watch a recipe at double the speed for about thirty seconds.
Hah.
Thud.
Sang-Hyeon just flopped face down on the dining table.
"When am I going to do all that?"
To someone who knew absolutely nothing about cooking, every step looked impossibly complicated.
‘Come to think of it, is there no more home cooking?’
Even with both of them at the office, they couldn't exactly cook there.
‘Hmm.’
Smack.
Sang-Hyeon clicked his tongue. He'd never admit it because Ju-Hyeok would be insufferably smug about it.
“See, what did I tell you. Cereal is no good for a Korean stomach.”
Honestly, knowing he'd never have that food again was a loss.
[Ju-Hyeok: HISTORIC MOMENT!] "?"
He got a message from Ju-Hyeok.
[Ju-Hyeok: Get to the office first thing when you wake up, Sang-Hyeon.]
[Sang-Hyeon: I just woke up?]
[Ju-Hyeok: Then hurry!]
[Sang-Hyeon: What's going on?]
The next message contained something astonishing.
"What?"
After finishing a video consultation with Ju-Hyeok, Macaron tried to set up his exit.
"I should probably go wash up..."
It was a strategic buildup toward going home.
"Oh! Good timing! The shower room is ready and waiting!"
Macaron had forgotten who he was dealing with. Of course, a man of Ah-Sung would have late-night operations fully prepared.
"Right this way!"
"Oh, yes..."
Macaron walked in the direction where Ju-Hyeok pointed.
‘Right... maybe this is just a new room. My room got bigger.’
Macaron was adapting in his own way. Walking down the narrow hallway, he had the fleeting, almost delusional thought that maybe coming to the office suited him better than he'd assumed. He took that thought back almost immediately.
Creak... "...!?"
The moment he opened the changing room door...
"Why... why is there a... p-person in here...?!"
It felt like discovering a crime scene. Two people were collapsed on the floor.
AAAAAAAAH!
Macaron's scream brought Ju-Hyeok sprinting over.
"What happened?! We still have more editing to do!"
Clatter!
Ju-Hyeok, apparently terrified of losing a staff member, yanked the door open. "...?"
He found Sweet Radish and Sweet Potato lying there. The sudden light finally coaxed their eyes open.
Ughhh...?
"A... strange ceiling. Have I finally...?"
A little while later, at a reception table with sofas facing each other, Sweet Potato sipped warm tea and bowed his head.
Slurp.
"I'm sorry. My lord... I don't remember anything either."
Sweet Radish, sitting beside him, gave him a small nudge.
‘It's not my lord, it's Mister.’
‘Yeah, whatever...’
Sang-Hyeon was sitting across from them. "
Ahem.
Both of them immediately went quiet.
"No. There's nothing to be sorry about."
Sang-Hyeon didn't think they really needed to apologize for this. He felt more curious about how it had happened in the first place. They had drunk just as much at Treevy's funeral, and nothing like this had occurred.
"I... I think..." Sweet Radish scratched his head. "It must have been that Chinese liquor."
"Yes!" Sweet Potato nodded vigorously. "The one Pang brought... He said it was what Guan Yu drank before going to take someone's head..."
Pang just said that as a running joke. It was just a fairly expensive Chinese liquor he often exaggerated about.
"Either way, we're sorry!"
"We're sorry!"
"What is there to be sorry about? Mixed Nuts is always open to our streamers." Ju-Hyeok appeared and delivered that line like the charming villain of a drama.
He'd clearly been watching for an opening.
"Since you're already here for the day, why don't we grab a meal together? We're basically a team, aren't we?
Haha.
Sang-Hyeon read Ju-Hyeok's eyes. Those were his sales eyes.
"You came all the way to the dinner. Allow me to treat you."
"What? No, no! You should be charging us for accommodation!"
"Not at all. We dragged you here. And you ended up in the promotional footage." "...?"
Sweet Radish tilted his head at the mention of promotional footage.
"Pardon?"
"Ah, you didn't post it yourselves, but your fans edited clips from your streams and uploaded them as YouTube Shorts."
These channels were sometimes jokingly called illegal street vendors. Just as Macaron once did, fans independently edited live footage and uploaded it. The editing-to-broadcast turnaround was very short. These videos often had a raw, unfiltered quality to them.
"So... we ended up being promotional material?!"
Sweet Radish brightened and searched on his phone. "..."
However, he was quick on the uptake and closed his mouth shortly afterward.
[Shorts: Lord Revives Collapsed Editor With Bare Hands]
This couldn’t possibly serve as a company promotion.
"I'll report it and have it taken down..."
Pfft, haha!
Hey, how do you always end up in things like this?" Sweet Potato laughed and searched his own name.
[Shorts: How Two Ah-Sung Alumni Tell Real Fainting From a Fake "Scalpel"] "..."
Hah.
Sweet Radish couldn’t say anything and simply sighed.
Sweet Potato bowed his head again. "I'll report it and get it deleted immediately!"
Ju-Hyeok waved with a smile. "No, no. I think it's a wonderful video capturing just how fun and warm our company is." "...?"
"I am absolutely delighted with it."
Sweet Radish and Sweet Potato looked at each other.
‘He wants us to take it down, right?’
‘Yeah. Otherwise, he's pulling out the scalpel.’
About thirty minutes passed.
"Welcome! Tradition since forever! Oh Gang-Woo Kimchi Stew!"
They went to the traditional hangover spot for Mixed Nuts. In the age of rising prices, this place had made its name with a nine-thousand-won kimchi stew called the Nine-Thousand-Hell stew.
"It’s 13,000 hell now..." Ju-Hyeok muttered as he looked at the menu.
It had quietly crept up to thirteen thousand won.
"Yes! So, thirteen-thousand-hell stew, six portions? Will that do?"
"Yes."
"Octopus topping as well?"
"Ah..."
Sweet Potato and Sweet Radish shook their heads aggressively that they were fine without it.
"One for everyone, please."
It was now seventeen-thousand-hell stew.
"Got it! Four portions, all with octopus. Noodles are on the house~! Thank you!"
Four portions for Sweet Radish, Sweet Potato, Sang-Hyeon, and Ju-Hyeok. The rest of the staff had all been left out. Why did only these four come?
‘Time to recruit.’
Today was about laying the groundwork to bring these two into Mixed Nuts. Ju-Hyeok worked through the angles in his head and considered what would actually interest them. The stews came out, bubbling and just beginning to simmer.
"Oh~ Thank you for the food."
Sweet Radish and Sweet Potato ladled some soup for themselves without a second thought, happily unbothered.
Meanwhile, at a nearby burger place, Ji-Ah held out her card at the kiosk.
"Here you go."
It wasn’t the cashier, but Macaron who said thank you.
"Th... thank you. You really didn't have to."
He was grateful but clearly felt awkward about it.
Ji-Ah delivered a line straight from the office drama she'd binged the night before. "When they're still treating you like the new hire, take full advantage."
She had a relaxed smile and casually patted his back.
Tap.
‘Good.’
She thought that was very boss-like. "...!"
Macaron was startled.
‘I've seen this somewhere.’
He'd also done his pre-office homework and binged his share of office drama Shorts. He recognized the scene from past episodes and delivered the scripted line right back.
"Well then, I'll gladly accept as the custom dictates~ Senior."
"Of course, of course." "?" "...?"
Something about the conversational rhythm was familiar. Even their vocal tones had shifted.
They looked at each other for a moment and had the same thought.
‘Damn. We watched the same thing.’
Now, they each knew the other's source material.
BornToB, watching their peculiar eye exchange, scratched his head. "I'll grab the food. Don't worry about it, either of you."
"What?! No, I'm the new hire!"
Thwack!
BornToB patted him on the back. "New hire, sit still while people are being nice to you. Later on, you'll end up carrying all the camera equipment yourself.
Heh heh heh.
Laughing, BornToB went off to pick up the order. That one hadn't come from a drama. He'd meant it.
‘Something about that is scary. Did I make him upset by editing everything into him saying tank~?’
A little while later, BornToB really did bring all the burgers over by himself.
Ji-Ah unwrapped her burger and asked without thinking much, "By the way, Macaron, what were you doing this morning with Ju... the director?"
"Ah... well... apparently, there's been a wave of application cancellations..."
"What?" Ji-Ah's eyes went wide.
It was the first she'd heard of it.
"Because of the... d-dinner footage..."
Hah.
" Ji-Ah pressed her palm to her forehead.
Macaron quickly added, "But we came up with a solution."
"Which is?"
"Making a promotional video."
A video had caused the damage, and now the fix would also be a video?
"A... a real promotional video this time. A fully edited and fabricated one."
"What do you mean?"
Nut Office
... a kind of promotional vlog series."
It even had a name, Nuts + Office...
‘Doesn’t that just mean a crazy office?’
They finished their meal.
"We really imposed on you today!"
"Thank you so much!"
Hahaha!
Not at all, come again!"
Sweet Radish and Sweet Potato said their goodbyes and headed to the bus stop. While waiting, they started discussing.
Tap.
Sweet Potato nudged him and asked casually, "Radish. What do you think?"
"About what?"
"Mixed Nuts, doesn't it seem like it could be decent?"
Hmm.
"We don't really have any solid MCN either."
Black Tea and Lemon had reasonably established positions, but Sweet Potato and Sweet Radish were different. Sweet Radish hadn't been a streamer for that long after transitioning from pro gaming, and Sweet Potato had never actively looked for an MCN.
"They had so many employees."
Sweet Potato was still confusing the Jang Productions staff as Mixed Nuts employees.
"I know. They had one for every kind of nut."
"For real..."
"According to the explanation earlier, you can also set the level of involvement you want. At level five, you get an actual dedicated manager and full management."
"Oh. Level one is just YouTube channel management, and level two is collaborative content planning?"
The way Ju-Hyeok managed Almond was at level five. Most creators and streamers were fairly independent and rarely wanted that level of involvement. Many even had their own separate companies and separate MCN contracts.
They usually preferred to hire their own managers and editors directly. In the end, the core function of an MCN was about tying multiple streamers together, a kind of teamwork concept. Ju-Hyeok had built the tiered contract structure with that in mind.
Level five, of course, was aspirational. They didn't have the capacity for that, even if someone applied for it. It was pure bravado. These streamers, most of whom had limited business experience, would never know that. Practically speaking, there was no demand for level five anyway. Ju-Hyeok was actually aiming for around level two.
"Should we try it? We can give level two a shot and just walk away if it doesn't work." Sweet Potato landed on exactly the level Ju-Hyeok had intended.
Hmm.
" Sweet Radish was more cautious by nature.
"Until the Platform War, we're all technically a team anyway, aren't we?"
"True."
Even as a pro gamer, he had preferred a methodical, deliberate approach. The same held for his own affairs.
"We should probably figure out how well we actually click with Almond first, don't you think?"
"Ah... that's fair. All we've seen of him is
Survival Craft ."
"Who we met there wasn't Almond. That was Lord Almond."
"True... Still, our numbers did go up because of the Lord..."
"So, what do you want me to say? You."
"No idea."
Shrug.
Sweet Potato had no strong opinion. The bus arrived in the meantime.
"Let's watch today's practice stream first and talk again after." Sweet Radish stepped onto the bus. Then, he stuck his head back out and added quickly, "Don't go signing anything alone and disappearing on me. Talk to me first."
"Fine. Stop opening your eyes that wide with those sleepy eyes of yours. It's unsettling." "..."
That afternoon, the Knight Order members switched on their streams at the same time.
[Platform War Practice: Day 1]
They would finally start actually building team chemistry.

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