Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 931

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Archer’s Streaming Season 4 Episode 062
21. Ahanjoek (2)
The approximately nine-hour advertising broadcast featuring Balloon Gum and Almond.
To be precise, this couldn’t really be called a proper advertisement.
Nothing had gone according to the advertiser’s intentions.
The Ghost Busters production company had to pull all-nighters from that day onward to fix various bugs, and the Kim Kim Duo arrived at work the next day, each carrying an empty box.
“Oh, you too?”
“Huh? You as well, Manager?”
“Yeah…”
“I see…”
The two of them stood facing each other with empty boxes in hand, laughing weakly.
Then they began packing their belongings into the boxes.
This advertisement they had created by draining the entire marketing budget of the company was nothing short of catastrophic.
I didn’t think I could ever walk into the office with my head held high again.
Before my eyes could meet the CEO’s, I wanted to hurry up and pack my things and just leave.
“Sigh…”
Manager Kim let out a shallow sigh while cautiously observing the atmosphere.
The company atmosphere visible beyond the partition was utterly frigid.
Even as they packed their belongings, no one asked them why.
Everyone seemed to be swallowing something that was seething inside them.
Or perhaps they were afraid that the seething anger might splash onto them.
But then—
“What are you doing? Where are you going?”
Tap.
A hand landed on my shoulder.
‘Eek?!’
Manager Kim’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
He had encountered the one person he least wanted to see.
“C-CEO.”
“You two. Come to the morning meeting.”
With only those words, the CEO disappeared.
The Kim Kim Duo were left dumbfounded.
“Did he say a meeting, right now?”
“Yes…”
“Not telling us to come to his office?”
“That’s right?”
He wasn’t telling us to come so he could process our resignations, but to attend a meeting?
Besides, there was nothing for the marketing team to discuss right now.
The development team was in crisis mode, but marketing had nothing to do.
Not in a good sense—literally, the budget and everything else had been completely drained, so there was nothing to do.
‘Could it be?’
Manager Kim suddenly remembered something and hurriedly pulled out his phone.
‘I did see it go up last night.’
He remembered the videos that had been uploaded to Almond’s channel.
The view count had risen quite a bit.
“!”
#Trending Video 1st Place
This couldn’t be.
The Ghost Busters video was ranked 1st in trending videos.
“When, when exactly did this happen?”
“Huh? What is this. Is, is this real? I never thought it would turn out like this…?”

* * *
Splash.
As usual, I poured Almond cereal and mixed it with milk.
Out of habit, I held a spoon in my mouth while checking my phone with one hand.
I was concerned, so I was checking the results of a few videos that had gone up last night.
As I scrolled a few times, my head tilted in confusion.
“…?”
Was it only this much?
No matter how record-breaking the viewer peak was, advertisement videos had limits on view counts.
The moment the phrase [Contains Paid Advertisement] appeared at the beginning of a video, quite a lot of people would lose their desire to watch it.
All of these videos had that tag attached.
[South Korea’s Birth Rate Revived Like Crazy!]
[Aghwi~ You need to listen well there?]
[What about repairs? Almondil]
[Video of Getting Rejected by a Woman for Being Ugly]
The reason Jia had created and uploaded these videos in the first place was clear.
It was to contribute to the live broadcast viewership.
It wasn’t about YouTube view counts, but rather a supporting role to bring viewers into the live broadcast.
As evidence, each video’s comments had a link along with the phrase “Currently streaming!”
‘And now… the roles have reversed.’
But after the live broadcast ended, these videos started receiving even more attention.
They became memes within the community and spread, which then influenced the algorithm, causing even more exposure to happen.
One of these videos eventually achieved this miracle.
[South Korea’s Birth Rate Revived Like Crazy!]
#Trending Video 1st Place
The incredibly clickable keyword of “South Korea’s birth rate” and the baby Almond thumbnail created by Jia saying “Goo goo~ I’m a baby~ Just born” created an explosive synergy.
By morning, the video had perfectly claimed the 1st place spot on the video charts.
And it did so as an advertisement video.
-Why is this so crazy lol
-lololololololol
-Oh, so this is what I saw in the community lol
-This is insane for real lol
-Almond hatching like crazy! lol
-What a godly game lol
-So if only these kinds of children are born, all men should die?
└For real lol
└That’s the real issue
-lol I thought it was a news channel with all that talk about birth rates
-Breaking: Female immigrants surge overseas
└lololololololol
└That would happen lol
└Someone in Denmark too…
.
.
.
Comments poured in proportional to the view count, and Ghost Busters even climbed to the top of the portal search rankings.
It had become a top-tier level of exposure that even massive corporations couldn’t achieve with all their marketing budgets combined.
“Wow….”
Crunch crunch.
I popped an Almond cereal into my mouth and scratched my head.
‘What on earth is this.’
Nothing about this turned out the way I intended. Not the video thumbnail, not the title, not the content itself.
Yet somehow it hit number one.
Even that wasn’t according to my plan.
Everything related to Ghost Busters is just a complete mess.

* * *
The incident where a paid advertisement video claimed the number one spot on AllTube’s charts.
This was far more absurd than anything I had imagined while simply eating Almond cereal.
“What? Number one with just an advertisement?”
“Insane… that’s actually possible?”
“Really? Not just a fleeting number one?”
“We’ll need to reassess the power rankings, won’t we?”
This was, after all, the period just before the platform underwent a massive transformation.
In reality, once a streamer climbed to a certain tier, advertising revenue became a substantial portion of their income.
Naturally, when the platform measured a streamer’s combat power (?), they had no choice but to include advertising performance capabilities as well.
In that context, achieving first place through paid advertising was a major event.
“Oh, oh no! We’ll need to recalculate the budget allocations, won’t we?”
“Do it. Again.”
Whoosh!
The platform officials were about to revise their strategy when—
Zzzzzzring.
“!?”
A call came through on the manager’s phone.
An unknown number.
With an uneasy feeling, I picked up the call.
“Yes. With Cheese’s… yes?”
The timing was uncanny.
“Is this Almond’s manager? Ah. Yes, yes… you saw the email and called. Haha! That… no! No! We were just discussing this very matter!”
In the end, they received Juhyeok’s call completely unprepared and defenseless.

* * *
The emergency alert wasn’t limited to just the platforms.
Naturally, the production company behind Ghost Busters was facing the greatest crisis of all.
“Wait, the promotional video hit 1st place, and the game name even trended in real-time searches. So why is this an emergency?”
Someone could have asked this question.
Such a question would be answered the moment CEO Jeong began the meeting.
“Because of that, the entire nation now knows the game is trash.”
It was the first sentence he uttered in the meeting.
“….”
Everyone fell silent.
That was it. This was the true nature of the incident.
Somehow, from the moment he entered the conference room, the CEO’s gaze was different.
That peculiar gleam of madness and venom in his eyes.
The same look he had when first announcing the new game, now he spoke while glaring at the employees.
“You know, there’s a saying in marketing circles, right? First become famous, then even if you take a shit, people will applaud you. Right? Does that sound right?”
There was no answer.
The employees were busy avoiding his gaze.
“Fine. Let’s say that’s true.”
The CEO nodded to his own question.
“But our order is reversed.”
Reversed?
What does that mean?
People stared blankly at the CEO, unable to comprehend.
At this, the CEO gritted his teeth and growled out his declaration.
“We became famous by taking a shit.”
The employees’ eyes trembled.
‘He’s lost it.’
‘He’s finally gone crazy.’
‘I was planning to eat Indian curry for lunch today. Damn it.’
The CEO’s voice grew increasingly louder with fury.
“If you become famous, people applaud even if you take a shit? Does that saying really apply to someone who became famous by taking a shit?”
His eyes burned with such madness that it seemed like fire would ignite.
Flash.
“We took a shit! And we spread it across the entire nation! That’s how we became famous! And we’re still supposed to get applause!?”
The faces of the Kim Kim Duo, who had entered excited after seeing the video skyrocket, turned pale.
After all, they were the ones who hired these two special shit-spreaders to distribute that shit across the nation.
‘Did he call us in for a public execution?’
‘S-surely not….’
While they trembled, breaking into cold sweat, it was actually the Development Team that felt the greater pressure.
‘W-we’re… screwed.’
‘Again, a trash game. If word gets out that it’s a garbage game, I won’t even be able to find another job.’
‘No… Is it really that bad?’
From a fundamental perspective, the Marketing Team had done their job. They’d informed the entire world that such a game existed.
But after informing the entire world, it turned out that game was nothing but garbage.
Who made it into a garbage game?
Who produced this trash?
It was the Development Team.
The CEO’s gaze swept across every member of the Development Team.
“….”
Gulp.
Everyone could only swallow dryly, unable to speak.
Then it happened.
“But….”
Bang.
The CEO slammed the desk and stood up.
“We can’t give up here. We need to find a breakthrough! We need to buy time!”
That was it.
What they needed was time.
“Y-yes, that’s right!”
The most senior person among the Development Team mustered the courage to agree.
After all, the Development Team needed time more than anyone.
But the problem was how?
How do we buy time?
“Look, right now. Water’s coming in. But the oars are broken. If all the water drains while we’re fixing the oars?”
“….”
This kind of attention wasn’t something you could always get.
The Development Team fell silent again.
The CEO answered instead.
“Keep pouring water in.”
“?”
The answer was simple.
Keep pouring water.
But how?
“Right. The advertisement’s already done. According to the contract, once the game is cleared, it’s over, right?”
At that moment, the CEO’s gaze turned toward the Kim Kim Duo.
‘Gasp.’
‘Damn….’
The Kim Kim Duo felt a pang of guilt.
“We don’t have any more marketing budget. We’ve squeezed it all dry. That’s it for that side! It’s over! We can’t expect anything from there!”
What on earth was he trying to say?
Could he really be declaring that this is the end?
Without anyone able to offer a rebuttal, they waited for his words.
“I mentioned it before. Once you become famous, people will applaud even if you take a shit. But you know what? Lately, people have started saying this instead.”
The CEO picked up the remote and spoke.
“Clap while you take a shit. Then you’ll become famous.”
What in the world is he talking about?
It actually does seem like you’d become famous if you really did that, though…
Ting.
The answer to his words appeared in the video the CEO had just played on the screen.
Someone was clapping excitedly.
[Kyaaaahahaha!]
[Die! Die!]
[Yeah! You crazy ghost bastards! Show us something!!]
It was the Kim Kim Duo.

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