A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 81

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Director Who Dominates OTT

Episode 81

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President Woo Ik-chan of TT Engine, who had been rolling around on the floor, clutched his head and got up.

“Ah, hangover….”

It felt like someone was stabbing his brain with needles and hammering against his ears.

After being in a daze for a while, President U belatedly regained his sense of reality and stared at the ceiling with a vacant expression.

He couldn’t remember anything after drinking, but his memories before drinking were crystal clear.

Recently, TT Engine, which operates TOOL, had been in a really difficult situation.

Setting everything else aside, their operating funds had hit rock bottom.

He had even sold his apartment to cover a few months’ worth of server costs and salaries, but there was no plan after that.

As a result, voices within the company were saying that investing 500 million won in the drama might have been a mistake.

But from President U’s perspective, even with 500 million won, they would only last a few more months.

Rather than holding out only to die slowly, he had bet on something with even a 1% chance of success.

If he hadn’t thrown money at it, Director Dohyeon-u seemed like he would have gone with a different game.

So President U’s time attack was set to coincide with the drama’s launch.

“Hold on, hold on, we have to hold on, if we hold on we’ll win.”

“How long do we hold on, President!”

“Until the drama comes out!”

“But will our game really change just because the drama does well?”

“It will change! It will change! Draw it in!”

“Draw what in!”

“The energy of the universe!”

“Draw in users instead!”

“It’s always darkest before dawn…. Hold on, we have to hold on…!”

And finally, yesterday.

Episodes 1 and 2 of 【Fingertip】 were released.

Right at 10 o’clock, he watched the drama with an excited and nervous heart….

‘We’re screwed.’

Despair descended upon President U’s world.

It wasn’t that the drama had failed.

He hadn’t checked the ratings or anything, but the drama itself was entertaining enough to make him forget reality for a while.

What had failed was TT Engine.

Why?

The game didn’t appear in the drama.

Episode 1 had no game content at all, and while Episode 2 had some, the proportion was minimal.

No, it might as well have been nonexistent.

The act of ‘playing games’ itself was treated as important, but there was no focus on the ‘game’ at all.

So this is why he dissed ROR and came to us.

That’s why he had such a detached attitude about any game being fine.

If it was only going to appear in a few cuts like that, he might as well have used Tetris.

Instead of giving false hope!

After watching the drama, he had poured alcohol down his throat and lost consciousness.

President U, sprawled on the floor, looked around his studio apartment.

The studio apartment he had hastily moved into after selling his apartment was so shabby it was hard to believe a company president lived there.

That shabbiness seemed to symbolize himself, making tears well up in his eyes.

‘I should give up. What game? It’s all over.’

President U was having such thoughts when it happened.

Bang bang, bang bang.

The feeling of needles stabbing his brain had disappeared, but the hammering sound in his ears wouldn’t go away….

“Huh?”

Bang bang! Bang bang!

“What? Is that my house?”

Someone was really knocking on his door.

No matter how much of a mess my life is, I haven’t borrowed money from loan sharks, have I?

The moment President U opened the door with such thoughts.

“Ah! President! Are you really doing this?!”

TT Engine’s operations team leader, with bloodshot eyes, shouted angrily.

President U, with dark circles extending down to his cheekbones and looking haggard, made a stupid expression.

“Why is Team Leader O here?”

“Why?! You don’t check messages! You don’t answer calls! This damn studio apartment’s doorbell is broken too! Do you know how many minutes I’ve been knocking on this door?!”

“But why are you knocking? Is there something wrong at the company?”

“The server crashed! It can’t be restored!”

President U’s heart sank with a thud.

“Did, did we run out of server fees already? That can’t be! I sold my apartment and…!”

“Not that!”

Team Leader O shouted loudly.

“The server crashed because too many users flocked to it!”

“Users? Why? Why did they flock?”

“Why would they flock! Because the drama was a huge hit!”

At Team Leader O’s shout, President U stopped as if broken.

“You were right, President! The drama was a huge hit! So people are interested in our game!”

“Re, really?”

“If you want to turn the drama’s success into the game’s success, hurry up, wash up, and come to work!”

Even at Team Leader O’s sharp words, Woo Ik-chan stood there dazed before rushing into his house with a clatter.

He grabbed his smartphone, but the battery was dead.

President U rushed back out with a clatter and snatched the phone from Team Leader O’s hand.

“My phone!”

“Unlock it, unlock it!”

Once unlocked, there was no need to search for anything.

The E-Sports News section that was already open was plastered with ‘Fingertip’ and ‘TOOL’.

“Sniff….”

President U made a sound unbefitting his age and shed tears drop by drop.

“It was so hard for me….”

Team Leader O, watching this pathetic sight, laughed as if incredulous.

“Yeah. This loser-like quality is our president’s charm.”

Team Leader O took a deep breath and let out a scream.

“Waaaaah! We’re alive!”

Soon, both men’s screams filled the officetel building.

“Waaaaaaaah!”

“Woaaaaaaah!”

* * *

A declaration to the arrogant Dohyeon-u.

How dare you be handsome, have a good body, be well-endowed, excel in variety shows, have personal memes, be good at your main job, and still talk about gamers’ ‘romance’?

How dare? A popular guy like you?

To express this anger, all gamers will now launch a Netflix shutdown attack.

Watch the drama.

Watch it again.

Keep watching.

Overload Netflix’s servers like that!

Rise up! Ten million gamers of South Korea!

-Hahahahaha is this guy crazy.

-Dohyun-woo how the hell do you even know that’s big lmaooooo

-Yo, damn, the drama was really fun. When I watched part 1, it seemed like just a decent drama, but from part 2 my heart was pounding like crazy.

-Seongwha Empire will win, right?

-Damn right they should win. How can you disband such a romantic team.

-But… in reality, romantic teams always go through the disbandment process…

-It’s a drama ㅠㅠ Please let them win ㅠㅠㅠ

-Lee Yeong-han damn it, he keeps overlapping with our Hyeok so I end up cheering for him.

-What are you talking about, our Hyeok wouldn’t run away during the Asian Games.

-But why did he leave?

-I don’t know, it felt like family problems.

-Hey but the details were surprisingly accurate, right? The players are doing their contractual broadcasts, and the PR team in the office is totally screwing up lol

-For real, seeing that PR team manager bastard made me understand the behavior of all those stupid teams so far.

-The in-game research was good too. I was going to curse thinking they made it superficially, but ended up cursing at the mirror.

-Don’t you guys know? That guy is in the staff. Sol’s Eye.

-Huh? That crazy drink guy is drama staff?

-Yeah, he told his acquaintances on Discord that he joined SSK and couldn’t post indie game analysis for a while. And he also said he was making an esports drama.

-Oh shit, credibility skyrocketed. Going to watch it right now.

-No wonder I haven’t seen that drink bastard lately.

-He was a troublemaker but his game reviews were solid.

* * *

What should I call this…

Irrational?

Full of fervor?

Or maybe, a bit scary?

When ordinary people enjoy watching a drama, they think about going to school the next day, going to work, meeting friends and talking about it.

But our passionate viewers were a bit different.

Gamers who frequent countless communities were like defecating their satisfaction with the drama onto the internet…

No, no.

I shouldn’t use such harsh words about these precious people.

They sprayed, no, launched, no, dispersed their satisfaction onto the internet.

Their action power was so strong that 【Fingertip】 occupied the real-time trending section that replaced the real-time search rankings.

From 1st to 10th place, it was all about us.

That drew in a tremendous number of neutral viewers.

As soon as I saw this phenomenon, I could tell our drama was a hit, but I received specific data through Director Cha Seong-u.

[Netflix General Director Cha Seong-u: Just looking at the 6-hour opening start, you beat the CEO I made.]

[Netflix General Director Cha Seong-u: Congratulations, Director Dohyeon-u. Netflix is also very satisfied.]

I was very surprised to hear that I beat My CEO.

Of course, My CEO, where Jae-hyeok performed brilliantly, was a drama that steadily rose.

After the release of episodes 1 and 2, viewers only flowed in without any departures until episode 8.

In contrast, our drama had strong initial explosive power.

Nevertheless, it felt far ahead of the starting line I had expected.

Of course, I can’t definitively say it’s successful yet.

Drama hurdles are usually episodes 1, 4, and 12.

We’ve crossed the first mountain, but it’s right to see that there’s a long way to go.

Still…

-Hyung. Thank you. I have so much to say that I have nothing to say. I’ll come to the company soon. When I get there…

-Director, this is Min Jae-ryul. I wanted to get closer during filming, so I’m taking this opportunity to contact…

-Hyeon-u, thank you. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have thought about returning as an actor… Really… thank you so much.

-Director, your fans want to send gifts. Should they send them to SSK Company? And we’d like to give you some DVX concert tickets…

-Tell Seo Jae-yeon. It doesn’t seem like it’ll work for me yet.

I felt so good.

Like I could get addicted to it.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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