Chapter 70
Chapter 70
“Hello, everyone! This is Yoo Jung-Hyun, your host for Game Issue!” she announced with a bright smile, clapping her hands and letting out a cheerful “Waaaah!”She looked every bit the pro, with the right amount of energy in her tone and expression. On any other day, her usual bubbly charm would’ve been enough to get the live chat buzzing with support. However, today was different.
└ Booooring. Get this weird lady off the screen and bring out the one and only True God Mage!
└ Time is money, goddammit! You’re wasting the collective time of five billion subscribers who only give a shit about Do-Jin!
└ Beep beep. This is the afterlife. This is the afterlife. A large number of viewers who tried holding their breath until Do-Jin appeared have just died from asphyxiation. Game over...
The chat was moving at breakneck speed, but the vibe was anything but friendly. Normally she would’ve been greeted with the usual spam of “Jung-Hyun, you’re so pretty!” and harmless fanboy nonsense, but right now, the comments were pure chaos.
Although the corners of her smile were starting to twitch, Yoo Jung-Hyun kept it professional and quickly carried on.
“Ever since we started live streaming the Game Issue studio recordings, I don’t think we’ve ever seen this level of... intense engagement. Though I’m pretty sure it’s not directed at me. So, let’s stop stalling and bring out the guest you’ve all been dying to see.”
She turned to the side and gestured off-camera.
“He’s the name on everyone’s lips in the gaming world right now. The man at the center of the biggest controversy. And after a hell of a lot of negotiating, we’ve finally managed to get him here in person. Please welcome... ‘Mr. Mage!’”
The moment she finished her intro, the crew in front of the cameras sprang into action.
“Guest entering,” a voice said over the comms.
Backstage, there was a flurry of movement to prepare for his entrance. The woman standing next to Do-Jin leaned toward him as her earpiece crackled to life.
“You can go in now,” she said.
Do-Jin nodded and stepped into the studio. Yoo Jung-Hyun stood up from her seat and gave him a polite greeting. He gave a slight nod in return and sat down in the opposite chair. That was when the chat completely lost its mind.
└ Holy shit! How the fuck does he look exactly like his avatar?!
└ I honestly thought he was some greasy neckbeard IRL. I thought he was one of us... My whole worldview is crumbling!!
└ Bro... are we sure that’s not his avatar with zero touch-ups?
└ Nah, he looks even better in real life. In-game, he was raw as hell. But here, with the styling and lighting, he looks like goddamn royalty.
Everyone watching had their eyes glued to the screen, captivated by Do-Jin’s real-life appearance. Even though virtual reality had replaced huge chunks of daily life, people still cared about the face behind the avatar. It was basic human nature to want to judge with their own eyes. In that sense, Do-Jin’s looks seemed like a cheat code.
“Hello there, Mr. Mage.” Yoo Jung-Hyun still addressed him with the nickname that had been tailing Do-Jin since he became famous.
Smiling wryly, he launched into a prepared introduction. “Hello. I’m Do-Jin, the guy playing LOST with the mage class.”
However, Yoo Jung-Hyun shook her head, like that just would not cut it.
“That’s a little too simple, isn’t it? I get it. Maybe it feels awkward to hype yourself up, so I’ll take care of it as the host of this show,” she said with a teasing smile, leaning in slightly. “This is the one who soloed Haberkan, found a whole new continent and race, and cleared the Level 70 dungeon, Lavre Lake Underwater Cave.”
She listed off his achievements like she was reading off his résumé before moving on to some light small talk. A few minutes passed with safe, softball questions and answers, but eventually, they reached the juicy content.
“You beat the Haberkan raid, discovered a new continent and race, and cleared a bunch of hidden quests most players can’t even find, let alone finish. Is there some kind of secret to all this?”
“Well... I don’t think there’s anything special. I mean, I do try to chase down opportunities and make sure I do not waste the ones I get, but that sounds kind of cliché, right? And I would not say it was all luck either. That feels like a cop-out.”
“Effort, skill, and luck. They’re all very textbook answers. They are good values to live by, sure, but I doubt our viewers tuned in just to hear that.” Yoo Jung-Hyun gave a dramatic little roll of her shoulder like she was rolling up her sleeves.
However, she was wearing a sleeveless top, so the gesture made no sense. Nonetheless, she was pretty enough to get away with it. To some viewers, it even looked kind of cute.
“But no worries. As your ever-dedicated host, I’ll make sure to get the answers our viewers really want. Ready, Mr. Do-Jin?”
Do-Jin’s attention had drifted slightly, but her voice snapped him back. “Ah, yeah.”
“Just trust me. I am going to ask the kind of question where you cannot dodge with some vague philosophical answer.”
“Your eyes seem kinda scary...”
“That just means you should brace yourself. Here comes the first one. Let’s start with the hidden quest tied to the New Continent. That one had a massive scale. Can you walk us through what kind of grind or effort went into getting it?”
Logically, the Haberkan raid should have come up first, but she chose to start with the New Continent storyline instead. That could only mean one thing.
I guess you’re saving the awkward stuff for later, huh? Do-Jin thought.
The interviewer was definitely building up to something. If there were any controversial issues lurking around, she probably planned to lump them all into one question later. If he kept letting things go with the flow, he would end up dancing to whatever script the writer or producer had cooked up.
Do-Jin hated that. It didn’t matter who wrote the script. He simply hated playing someone else’s game, so he decided to flip the table himself.
“Instead of the Floating Continent, why don’t we start with Haberkan? That one came up first, and honestly, it would be easier for me to talk about it.”
Jung-Hyun’s eye twitched for a second. This was one of the touchiest interviews she had ever done, and Haberkan was tangled up with all the stuff she had been told to tiptoe around. Producer Hwang Woo-Young had told her everything was cleared in advance, but that did not make it any less nerve-wracking.
If only her schedule hadn’t been so packed, she would’ve arrived earlier and had time to go over everything with the guest beforehand. Jung-Hyun was hoping to chat with him during the break, but now he had just come barreling in without warning.
Who the hell dives straight into that kind of topic without any lead-in? She was screaming internally, but kept a bright smile on her face. “Of course. Whatever you feel more comfortable talking about is fine.”
The Haberkan raid had a loot-stealing controversy tied to it, but just because he was going to talk about it did not mean he would actually bring that part up. She figured she would ease into it later and adjust the flow of the interview accordingly.
“Thanks,” Do-Jin responded. “And speaking of Haberkan, I heard there are some rumors going around that I stole the kill from the Bloodshed Guild.”
Well, that was so much for tiptoeing. Yoo Jung-Hyun coughed, choking slightly on her own spit. It came out as a rough, wheezing sound. Do-Jin calmly opened a bottle of water and handed it to her.
“Th-thank you.”
He did not even wait for her to recover before continuing. “If we are being technical, then yeah. It was kill-stealing. I am not going to deny it.”
The moment he threw the word “steal” out there, the chat exploded.
└ Didn’t the steal controversy get shut down early on? Everyone who kept running their mouth about it got wiped out. Why the hell is he dragging it back up himself now?
└ Oh come on, it was a steal, let’s be real. People just let it slide because the Bloodshed Guild guys were such insufferable assholes. Everyone was too busy laughing at their downfall to care.
└ Honestly, that whole mage forum circlejerk afterward was fucking disgusting. They turned him into some kind of untouchable god and crushed any dissent like a damn cult.
└ Well now that he admitted to stealing himself, maybe those dick-riding little mage roaches will finally shut up. Let this be a lesson. It’s your own fanboys who end up ruining your image the fastest.
The moment Do-Jin said the word “steal,” all the cockroaches who had been hiding under the weight of his popularity came crawling out. These were the ones who never missed a chance to tear someone down the second they started doing well.
In the control room, Producer Hwang Woo-Young nearly shot out of his chair, completely blindsided by the direction things were going.
“What the hell is he doing? Why the fuck is he going off-script like this?”
A live broadcast, especially one with a streaming component, was already difficult to manage. However, nothing was more unpredictable than the chatroom crowd. That was why, whenever the topic started shifting from lighthearted content to something controversial, it was essential to ease into it. The plan had been to keep things smooth and friendly at the beginning and then, near the end, casually poke at the drama. Just toss it in with a “By the way, what’s your take on this?”
If that had worked, viewers would have done the rest on their own. The drama would spread, the buzz would build, and even the regular Game Issue episodes and MeTube clips would have gotten a nice boost in views. Now, it was a completely different story.
If you blow up the controversy in the first few minutes, the rest of the show gets completely buried!
Even if ninety percent of the interview was wholesome, insightful, and fun, that last ten percent of minor tension could taint the whole thing if it came too early.
The director, who lived by the motto, “Broadcasting is all about image,” would have patted Hwang Woo-Young on the back for a well-executed tease at the end. However, this was a dumpster fire right out the gate. In today’s media climate, just having the word “controversy” attached to a segment could kill it. No matter how good the ratings were, advertisers would start backing off the moment things got too messy.
—Jung-Hyun, try to smooth it out. If this keeps going south this early, we’re screwed.
The voice crackling in Yoo Jung-Hyun’s earpiece made her brows twitch slightly. What am I supposed to do now?
The gun was already in Do-Jin’s hands. All she could do was smile prettily while hoping to God he would slam the brakes on whatever the hell he was about to say next.
“Sure, technically, the Bloodshed Guild was already engaged with Haberkan, and I took over. That fits the definition of a steal. I’m not going to deny that,” Do-Jin said. “But I can’t agree with the people who think I would have failed without them.”
Everyone on set had the same thought at the same time. He’s fucking insane.
Even Producer Hwang Woo-Young, who’d planned to stir just the right amount of controversy, let out a silent scream at the sight of a truly unhinged bastard showing up instead. However, there wasn’t a single thing he could do. The interview was already rolling. It wasn’t technically live TV, but it was being streamed in real time.
Hwang Woo-Young flailed behind the cameras, trying to signal to Do-Jin, but the guy was in his own world. There was nothing left to do except pray. Once again, it was Yoo Jung-Hyun who had to pick up the pieces.
Her earpiece chirped again, and she forced a bright smile as she spoke up. “So what you’re saying, Mr. Do-Jin, is that you’re acknowledging this ‘stealing’ accusation. But even if the Bloodshed Guild hadn’t been there, you still would’ve been able to take down Haberkan on your own. Is that right?”
Do-Jin nodded. “Honestly, beating Haberkan on my own wasn’t that big of a deal. I was already doing the Hidden Quest for the Haberkan raid. Thanks to that, I already knew the mechanics and had everything I needed to pull it off.”
There it was, the “Haberkan Subjugation Hidden Quest.” A phrase no one had seen or heard before, not in any forum or leak. For Yoo Jung-Hyun, it was the perfect lifeline to steer things back on track, and she jumped on it right away.
“Wait a second. Did you just say you were doing a Hidden Quest to take down Haberkan? That’s the first I’m hearing of it. Could you tell us more?”
Do-Jin gave her a slight smile and started weaving his version of the story, a mix of facts and just enough creative bullshit to keep it believable.