Season 5: Chapter 149. Patch Notes (2)

Even with the Platform War on the horizon, streamers all had their individual schedules. For example, Miho attended a fashion show, Sweet Potato reviewed a famous new singer's album, and Bubblegum went to a game festival sponsored by a charity.

With Platform War-related schedules filling every other day, hurrying through backlogged work was common. Almond, in particular, was at the peak of this. Ad inquiries had been flooding in since his participation in Cheese Village. One would think his ad revenue would have also risen sharply as a result.

'Reality wasn't quite like that.'

It wasn't when Ju-Hyeok actually got into it. Streamers, being so close to consumers, were vulnerable to image consumption. Simply choosing based on the highest ad fee had too many traps.

Right after Cheese Village, an offer had come in from none other than Chalice, a competing appliance brand against Ah-Sung. The ad outline Chalice presented featured a scene depicting Ah-Sung in a negative light. Ju-Hyeok had to decline through tears. This wasn't out of loyalty or affection for Ah-Sung.

'This kind of thing would damage Sang-Hyeon's image too.'

Sticking a knife into the company that had kept him in a high-salary lifestyle for five years was crossing a line. Going by Almond of Ah-Sung and causing mayhem in Cheese Village could be seen as self-deprecating humor, but getting paid to run a competitor's ad that even slightly denigrated Ah-Sung? That couldn't be done.

'Ah. The revenue loss really hurts.'

Human nature was such that one would miss something after losing it. Cutting this ad from the revenue numbers made the figures feel far too bare. In the end, wanting to fill that gap, Ju-Hyeok went through long-postponed major items and fit them into the schedule.

'The next big one was Jet-Pumped.'

Jet-Pumped belonged to a unique genre called casual comic fighting. They'd made a connection with this game at G-Star. Almond had won the G-Star event and earned patch participation rights.

He had been busy with the Fake National Team and Cheese Village. The patch participation kept getting pushed back. Jet-Pumped, after sending emails for a while, had even sent an ad proposal.

"This is why being popular matters." Ju-Hyeok scrolled down with a satisfied grin.

Since Almond’s name value had risen significantly after G-Star, Jet-Pumped wanted to maintain a connection and made an ad proposal. This ad had a condition. First, Almond had to participate in the patch.

Sang-Hyeon was doing that right now.

He said he'd read the patch notes and then went straight to the Jet-Pumped homepage. Everyone had been expecting him to read the LIL Survival patch notes and was dumbfounded.

"No, Sang-Hyeon... you have to give some explanation. Look at how many new viewers came in!"

Ju-Hyeok frantically typed a message.

Tap tap tap tap...!

***

"Pet-Pumped 14.8 version patch..."

Sang-Hyeon was about to read through the patch notes.

— Pet-Pumped LOL

— How far does he transform things lmaooo

— Entrusting a patch to this person; genuinely a great game

— lmaooooooooo

— Why does he keep making it jump hahaha

Ding.

A message came into Sang-Hyeon’s view.

[Kim Ju-Hyeok: Hey. Sang-Hyeon. If you don't explain, like 70% of viewers don't know what's happening.]

Sang-Hyeon blinked briefly. "Oh... but are there a lot of people who don't know why we're doing this?"

— Yeah

— Uh...

— Uh

— What lmaooo

— You're asking now?? LOL

— Wow so many new viewers lmaooo

— If you don't know this you're a newbie~

Sang-Hyeon was surprised.

'There are this many people who don't know?'

In his memory, it felt like it had happened just yesterday. It had actually been a very long time ago. Most importantly, the difference in his viewership between then and now was enormous. Numerically, most people wouldn't know.

'The viewers have grown so much...'

His channel had gone through tremendous growth. Sang-Hyeon felt genuine gratitude anew. The number of people who liked him had grown this much. He expressed this gratitude using the industry-standard terminology.

"Oh? Newbies."

— lmaooooooooooooooooo

— ?

— Wow lmaooo

— Newbies~~

— lmaooooo

— Sis... you want to see me lose my mind!?

— What the

— That look in his eyes

— It's more annoying coming from a handsome person

He had learned this knack learned Bubblegum's stream. Newbies and newcomers needed a bit of ribbing, so the existing viewers felt their pride boosted. The newcomers themselves didn't particularly mind as long as no one crossed a line. Someday, they'd be ribbing other newcomers.

"Newcomers, I'll explain. It happened a very long time ago. I went to G-Star, and there was a strange event..."

Sang-Hyeon calmly explained the past events.

"The developers were there, and they were getting absolutely beaten up by players. I guess their image was kind of bad..."

It clearly was a while back. His memory was all mixed up.

"So, they asked me for help. I played the game for the first time... and from that connection, the developers gave me patch participation rights..."

— ?

— ??

— lmaooo

— Talking nonsense

— You flipped the developers and users and it's roughly right lol

— Even knowing nothing, I can tell this is wrong lmaooo

— lmaooooo

— He can't even remember this himself, is that real?

— Only the developers having a bad image is right, everything else is wrong lmaooo

Ba-bam!

[JammuRice has donated 10,000 won.]

[Is Almond's brain also a newcomer?]

— lmaooooooooooo

— LOL

— Established theory is his brain burned out at the world championship and was replaced

— lmaooooooooo

— fr

— ??? Is everything wrong?

Longtime viewers started emerging to explain on Sang-Hyeon's behalf.

Ba-bam!

[RubySword has donated 50,000 won!]

[Almond is the national team competition newcomer lmaooo. Here, I'll explain~]

— LOL

— Hahaha

— lmaooooo

— Almond being a national team competition newcomer lmaooo

— fr

Ding.

[EggPlant has donated 1,000 won.]

[The actual original fan has appeared]

Ding.

[ShyNapoleon has donated 5,000 won.]

[This... if you made it a memory challenge could I win?]

— That one you'd actually win

— Yeah

— That's a safe bet

— The math dropout who finally realized lmaooo

Ba-bam!

[RubySword has donated 50,000 won!]

[Jet-Pumped opened a Defeat the Developers event. The developers had an image of being bad at balancing and being money-hungry, so tons of people showed up with murderous energy. But the developers were actually decent at the game. So the players were having a tough time. And then newcomer baby Almond appeared...]

— RubySword accepted the Servant role

— This is a martial arts novel

— Next part!!

— Damn RubySword please continue

— lmaooooooooooo

— LOL

— This was such a dramatic story???

— Grandma RubySword tells stories of the old days

The viewers were all paying attention to RubySword's story.

"Wow. What happens next?"

Even Sang-Hyeon wanted the next part because of the money.

— Fishing for donations lmaooo

— Instant cash grab

— lmaooooooooooo

— But you remembered and you're still saying what's next? lmaooo

— ??? Next!

RubySword appeared again despite the donation bait.

Ba-bam!

[RubySword has donated 50,000 won!]

[So baby newcomer Almond appeared. The person who didn't know what a Jet was or what a Pump was announced that he'd fight the veteran developer crew. The developers at first considered Almond's situation and said they'd fight no-Jet. But then nearly died getting thrashed and brought out the Jet... and then a baseball bat went wild...!]

— LOL

— What is this lmaooooo

— lmaooooo

"Wow! Next!"

Sang-Hyeon wanted more again.

— lmaooooooooooooooooo

— lmaooo now openly

— LOL

"Joking. I'll explain now. I remembered. What happened was..."

However, Sang-Hyeon's memory turned out wrong again.

RubySword had to explain further.

— The donation bait had a curveball lmaooo

— Smart Young Man...

— Hey lmaooo

— Oh forget it

— A man who now splits even his memory with his viewers to store it...

***

"Ahem. Anyway, that's the background for why we're reading this patch note."

After the interview with RubySword. Sang-Hyeon read through the entire patch note.

"According to RubySword, I had decided to nerf the baseball bat. Director Kim Yi-Seo agreed."

— Why are you hearing about your own words from RubySword LOL

— It's not “according to” that's just how it happened loool

— Oh? The channel owner is a newcomer

— lmaooooooooooo

— Kim Yi-Seo already nerfed it lmaooo

Team WePlug's Director Kim Yi-Seo was the head of the developer crew and had fought the final battle against Almond. She’d been beaten down by a mere baseball bat, all her prepared strategies rendered useless. Then, she declared that she'd nerf the baseball bat. Even Almond had evaluated the baseball bat as too strong.

"But what I heard afterward is that the baseball bat was already nerfed. Apparently, the baseball bat doesn't significantly affect the game."

— fr lmaooo

— True

— The baseball bat is basically like a bush in LIL lmaooo

— Just terrain level

— Worked hard to win only for a rune spirit nerf kind of feeling

— lmaooooo

The baseball bat was a very minor game element and had already been nerfed. They had no reason to touch it. Back then, the Jet-Pumped users had begged them to touch something other than the baseball bat.

"I read the patch notes. Honestly, I don't really understand what they said, but I do want to adjust a Jet here."

Would it go the way Jet-Pumped users wanted? Somehow, it felt like it wouldn't.

Someone sensed something off and asked via donation.

Ba-bam!

[Urgent has donated 10,000 won.]

[Would this be a nerf? Or a buff?]

"Hmm. Wouldn't going with a buff rather than a nerf be better? Nerfs feel like you're causing harm to someone..."

— A buff is the true nerf. Everything else besides that one is a nerf lmaooo

— You haven't thought about the fact that you touching it is itself harm...

— I'm worried...

Sang-Hyeon scrolled regardless. Jets flew by rapidly on the screen, and he stopped at a bow-shaped Jet.

"I think... touching on this bow would be good."

Almond chose something with personal symbolic significance.

"The developers said they'd grant whatever Jet fix I chose... so I'll try to use my imagination..."

Click.

He opened the paint app. Everyone was already feeling ominous, seeing him opening paint just to change something. The chat tried to warn him.

— Almond!

— Almond please stop

— Amond! Help!

— Hey hands off!

— Please

— Almond!

— ??

— What is this spam

— Hm?

— Almond!

An enormous number of messages started appearing. The feature blocking one person from spamming was already in place. More people flooded in.

'Hm?'

Checking the viewer count, it had jumped by three to four thousand instantly. An equal number of people were screaming his name in the chat. Their messages became increasingly varied.

— Please listen to us just once!

— Please stop!

— You've never even played the bow and you're patching it???

— No!

— Play it first!!

— Almond!

— That MUST be nerfed!

— What are you patching! YOU!

— Almond!!

— Hands off the patch notes ㅡㅡ

Sang-Hyeon quickly recognized where they'd come from. His dynamic vision picked out a few informational messages among the flood.

— Got coordinate bombed from the Jet-Pumped Garden lmaooo

— So frantic these guys lmaooo

— smh they should be begging. What's with the threats?

'Ah. The Jet-Pumped Garden.'

Jet-Pumped users were already sensitive about balance patches. They were worried that Almond would change things recklessly, which was understandable.

'Originally, I was just going to change the appearance.'

Sang-Hyeon had been kind enough to make only cosmetic changes. He planned to actually play properly during the Jet-Pumped ad. That was why he'd opened the Paint software instead of a memo app.

“Hmm.”

Then, they'd come flooding in. Protesting like this became annoying.

'Ju-Hyeok was saying the revenue really hurts...'

The ad fee from the competitor to Ah-Sung came to mind.

"Patch incoming."

He wrote large letters in Paint.

[Damage × 500]

— ?

— ??

— lmaooooooooooo

— lmaooooooooo

— ??

— I see

— What

— Oh forget it lmaooo

— Wow lmaooo

— Is this tariffs?

— lmaooooo

— Death sentence

At that moment, the reaction Sang-Hyeon wanted arrived.

Ba-ba-ba-ba-bam~!

[JetPumpedGreatAgain has donated a whopping 1,000,000 won!]

[Could we have a brief conversation?]

— Make JetPumped Great Again!

— LOL

— Insane tariff negotiation lmaooo

— lmaooooo