Chapter 205
Chapter 205: Exploration And Tuning
Strictly speaking, the reason Baek Woohyun stopped his ranking climb upon reaching Challenger wasn't solely due to time constraints.
While the broadcast had run somewhat long, that could have been extended further depending on circumstances. It had been that way during the previous 'Hack Tour' content as well.
Moreover, it would be unfair to say only this broadcast was particularly long. Among previous broadcasts, there had been ones just as lengthy as this one.
Fatigue from an extended broadcast time? As if! Did he look like someone who'd get tired from playing a few more hours of PVP 'Duel' mode?
Baek Woohyun had endured days of pursuit 'over there,' and had fought for three days and nights against endlessly swarming otherworlders.
Compared to that, a few hours of ranked games was hardly worth calling a problem.
Yet the reason he ended the broadcast was that this was a story only about Baek Woohyun himself.
The 'Hack Tour' content was a broadcast with three panelists—Jeong Nayeon, Cha Seongcheol, and Chloe—participating alongside him.
The other two besides Jeong Nayeon had schedules tomorrow, so it would be unreasonable to continue broadcasting too late.
'Chloe has time zone issues too.'
Additionally, it felt somewhat wasteful to consume such a sensational topic as a full-fledged ranking climb so easily.
While it was already gaining quite a bit of attention, they hadn't been able to properly schedule it and declare 'Everyone come at me!'
If they properly scheduled ranking climb content and climbed then, the pro players who had gathered unexpectedly would be able to prepare more thoroughly.
The scene of confronting them head-on, crushing them, and seizing the peak.
'Just imagining it is amazing...!'
Jeong Nayeon grinned as she pictured the future ranking climb content in her mind.
Baek Woohyun aiming for rank 1 and pro players trying to stop him. Truly content that no PVP user of 'Reverse Planet' could resist watching.
Right now, broadcasts of simply going for Challenger rank 1 without any narrative had been watched by tens of thousands, so it would become an enormous topic.
"Heheh."
But her grinning was brief.
Soon coming to her senses, Jeong Nayeon shook her head and returned to checking community sentiment.
'Good, I should start from here.'
Finding the time when the 'Hack Tour' content began, Jeong Nayeon read through posts written following the flow of time.
When PVE story was progressing, relay posts were relatively sparse—unavoidable since it was less popular than PVP—making it easy to follow.
In the early stages when relatively detailed information hadn't been revealed, there were many posts simply reacting to moment-by-moment situations or character actions.
✪ Squad leader instantly educated lololol
Hackphysical doesn't tolerate showing off!
-Anger management has become successful lol
-Education NN Normalization OO
ㄴAnger normalization wow
-His skill usage in all that is truly art
ㄴFor real lol
ㄴHe just completely removed the anger
-Act up and you go immediately
✪ Isn't this the Suicide Squad
rather than Avengers?
Look at these members' state lmao
-??? : You seem out of your mind too, so you're a comrade
-No wonder he said he wants to recruit some normal ones
-It's the aftereffects of being a test subject...
-King fighting the research facility and Corporate Alliance with those guys until now
ㄴSquad leader's berserk button for real
At first, there were many posts asking 'Are the Avengers okay like this?', briefly called 'O-okay?'
Well, seeing Kim Youngjun who greets you by immediately pulling out a blade, Seo Dain who can't control her anger, and Jang Eunsu who shows no interest saying it's not his business and only looks at his shadow, it couldn't be helped.
There were even posts saying they were closer to the Suicide Squad made by gathering trash rather than the Avengers, the name of a group formed by the greatest heroes in past movies.
This atmosphere changed after the mission ended and the existence of the Otherworld Stone became known.
✪ Season 94124612 Management Bureau vs Corporate Alliance outbreak
This week's topic is the Corporate Alliance sponsoring a research facility consumed by otherworlds
-Always WWE
-Escaping Management Bureau is torture~ Escaping Management Bureau is torture~ Escaping Management Bureau is torture~ Escaping Management Bureau is torture~ Escaping Management Bureau is torture~
ㄴSpam=defeat
-Corporate Alliance chairman will normalize it, stop fussing ㄴ
ㄴBut they're selling Earth to make money?
ㄴWhy are you blaming us for what a subcontractor did
-Knew my Corporate guys would be like this
-Incompetent Bureau caught red-handed damn
-But honestly high chance Corporate Alliance was also influenced;
ㄴ100 percent some degree of influence seems likely
ㄴIncompetent Bureau that can't manage spies pointing that out is hilarious lololol
The research facility appears completely consumed by otherworlds.
Then what about the Corporate Alliance sponsoring it?
—The debate between Management Bureau users VS Corporate Alliance users that started with this topic continued very long.
Though it was shorter time-wise than when progressing through the story earlier, the number of posts with related content was several times greater.
Even then, it was fortunate that Chloe cut it off appropriately and immediately proceeded with PVP to shift the topic, otherwise it might still be burning now.
In fact, seeing how some community users were still arguing about it, the possibility was quite high.
'I'll need to be careful with this part going forward.'
Fortunately after that, there were no topics that could burn if mishandled like Otherworld Management Bureau VS Corporate Alliance, so she could view relatively comfortably.
Jeong Nayeon first made a separate note to be careful about related content, then continued her community exploration.
✪ With just this character you can massacre rankers you worship lololol
「Hackphysical」
A person whose physical abilities are so outstanding they were suspected of hacking, progressing through 'Reverse Planet' with the world's only 0 percent assistance
-Kuaaak
-Too strong!
-What kind of dog-like template is this again
-The surprising fact is this is real wow
ㄴShit lololol
-Why is this real
✪ Hackphysical: What you lack!
Is this! Passion ideology brains refinement elegance diligence!
And above all—!!!!!!!!
You lack speed!
-Old folks lololol
-Where did you find such a perfect meme
-He lacks way more than just speed though?
-To face Hackphysical you really need to secure speed first
-Only after handling ultra-high speed can you barely reach the starting line wow
The most numerous posts were nonsense posts praising Baek Woohyun. Filled with all kinds of memes.
It meant they enjoyed this broadcast, so it was a very good reaction, but there wasn't much feedback to gain from these posts.
Jeong Nayeon concluded she could appropriately select some to use for boosting Baek Woohyun's morale, then saved a few of the most interesting ones.
—[Reverse Time]—
[General] Real-time DH Empire bluebird.jpg
[Info] Hackphysical raid party confirmed so far (+some brain speculation)
[General] Compiled pros who met Hackphysical
[General] Pro players who suddenly felt like playing Duel mode
Other than that, content about pro players naturally formed the main body.
This was natural if you thought about it. The fire that ignited in the relatively peacefully progressing PVP 'Duel' ranked was after MMR reached Challenger tier.
If pro players hadn't suddenly appeared there, and he hadn't met pro players consecutively, and pro players hadn't swarmed ranked, it would have just been ordinary PVP.
'The reaction is... not bad.'
Probably because he didn't meet many Division 1 league players, Jeong Nayeon thought.
Most pro players met during this ranking climb were Division 2 league, meaning secondary league, those with relatively less interest.
If Division 1 league players had lost in a row instead of them, the community would have been much hotter. In both good and bad ways.
That would probably become clear when true ranking climb content proceeded in the future.
'DH Empire reacted with a bluebird?'
When Jeong Nayeon quickly checked, there was no particularly important content. It was just a meme like 'Hackphysical ranked game appearance warning!'
But she still recorded that there had been a related bluebird post. Because there was a possibility of using it as material for the future.
Currently Baek Woohyun had expressed intention to appear in iTube content that DH Empire's two World Class ace players would proceed with.
When bringing up ranking climb related content there, this DH Empire bluebird post could also be a decent response.
'Community exploration ends here.'
"Phew! Now the next thing to do is—"
Just because community exploration ended didn't mean all of Jeong Nayeon's work was finished. She also had to pay attention to preparation processes according to Baek Woohyun's future schedule.
The most urgent thing was naturally coordinating the [Lord of Storms] raid party.
'Personnel recruitment is finished, so now I need to properly schedule it.'
Personnel recruitment for the raid party had already been completed by Baek Woohyun carefully selecting people, sending proposals, and receiving all their responses.
Therefore what was needed now was going through some practice period with them. They couldn't suddenly challenge Hackphysical difficulty in earnest.
'There's not much time.'
Since Baek Woohyun was the first to open the [Lord of Storms] raid, the opportunity for first clear was given to him and his raid party.
However, if they didn't or couldn't clear it and time passed, the path would naturally open to others as well.
Others couldn't wait forever just for Baek Woohyun and the raid party to succeed, so it wasn't incomprehensible.
The problem was, if that happened, the possibility of losing the glory of first clear was high.
'Woohyun wouldn't care whether it's first or whatever.'
But wouldn't it still be better for Baek Woohyun and his raid party members to achieve first clear?
Even if they failed first clear, they could say it was first clear on Hackphysical difficulty, but that felt too much like an excuse.
Additionally, this was also for those who would participate in Baek Woohyun's raid party.
'Until now Woohyun has never failed once. He's achieved everything. But if only the raid fails.'
Jeong Nayeon felt a chill and shuddered.
Surely the assessment 'since raids need a raid party, there's nothing that can be done no matter how outstanding Baek Woohyun alone is' would be the mild version.
Criticism disguised as reviews like who among the raid members was a burden, who was a hole, please remove someone, would pour out like mushrooms after rain.
Ask them to restrain themselves and not do that? Would they listen? Surely by then viewers would have skyrocketed to hundreds of thousands?
If they listened and such content flooded communities instead of chat or donations, would the raid members' mental states really be intact?
She'd bet that the moment first clear came from elsewhere, the raid party would shatter into pieces.
'So we need to practice thoroughly and clear it.'
While sending raid party assembly emails to raid members, Jeong Nayeon repeated the 'Hack Tour' catchphrase to herself.
As if it were some omnipotent magic spell that could solve anything.
'If it's Hackphysical, if it's Woohyun, it's possible!'