Chapter 583
“Wow, this is insane...”
I turned off my social media notifications.
Normally, whenever I posted something or uploaded a story, I'd get a decent number of hearts and comments lighting up my notifications, but this time was on a completely different level.
My phone had literally become paralyzed.
It lagged repeatedly, and several times the screen froze altogether. It took a long time just to disable notifications. My phone simply couldn't handle it.
Even now, followers and likes were still increasing. People posting proof that they were watching kept tagging my account and my name, and a new hashtag, #OnJihwa, had appeared. It had already passed several hundred posts.
I couldn't process it at all.
What on earth was this?
“So this is what breaking into America feels like....”
I remembered something an elder had once said.
Someone had asked if going to America was nice, and they'd replied that there was nothing special about it. Back then, I had no idea what it felt like to even set foot in America, so I simply accepted it.
But now I could say with certainty.
No.
Breaking into America really was special.
“The population scale is completely different.”
The sheer scale of what was flooding in far exceeded anything I'd imagined.
Just a few hours ago, I still couldn't comprehend gaining over a million followers overnight.
Now it was 1.4 million.
No, 1.41 million.
No, 1,413,463.
“I think it's bugged...”
Thump, thump, thump.
My heart pounded painfully.
It felt like my entire body was heating up.
Like every blood vessel had expanded and every cell in my body was going wild.
I'm dizzy.
Seriously dizzy enough to die.
'I never thought a single project would give me this much influence...'
If things went well, maybe I could even catch up to Hong Suryeon, the Korean female celebrity with the most followers.
“Not a chance! There's no actress beautiful enough to rival meee!”
Let's just ignore Little Hong Suryeon stomping around on top of my head.
I remembered the America I'd once visited.
Director Ja Sokhwan, receiving his trophy on stage.
What would it be like if I stood there?
Something I'd only vaguely imagined before suddenly felt a little closer to reality.
Later.
Much later...
'If I go to Hollywood.'
Just imagining it felt like experiencing every joy life had to offer.
Besides, I still had an unfinished mission.
You never know what life has in store.
「Mission: One Step Higher」
Keyword: Best Supporting Actress
You've already won Rookie Awards at film festivals and acting awards. Now it's time to climb one more step.
Strengthen your position even further by winning Best Supporting Actress.
Success Conditions
[Win a Best Supporting Actress Award!]
And what if I didn't complete this mission with a Korean film?
What if I skipped several steps and won Best Supporting Actress in Hollywood instead?
“Ah...”
A wave of dizziness struck me.
“Yeoreum! Yeoreum, what's wrong? Do you feel sick?”
Choi Seonhye, sitting beside me, panicked.
We were at the hospital.
I was currently getting an IV in preparation for the hard labor that was about to begin.
I'd spent all of December running nonstop, but January was going to bring an incomparably greater flood of work.
Stopping in the middle.
Breaking down.
Those were things Han Yeoreum absolutely couldn't do.
I had to survive through sheer willpower, stubbornness, and IV drips.
“Unni. I don't think I even need this.”
“What are you talking about? You're finishing the whole thing before we leave.”
“No, no... I don't feel tired at all. This feels like a waste of money.”
“What nonsense are you talking about? Your mouth's already full of sores! Give me your phone.”
Starting tomorrow, I had to begin full-scale promotions for .
At the same time, I'd soon be joining the filming team.
Just thinking about drowning in that wave of schedules made me so excited I could die.
* * *
At the same time Han Yeoreum was receiving her IV, it was still January 1.
“How far along are we?”
JC ENM's new headquarters in Cheongdam.
Manager Ma, who hadn't gone home, and Jegal Rok, who had only shown his face at the year-end dinner before returning immediately, were currently monitoring the trajectory of .
Jegal Rok, whose sickly face always looked like he was on the verge of collapsing but never actually did, and Ma Suyeon, who had never really distinguished between her office and her home, had completely different art styles.
But the heavy dark circles under their eyes looked remarkably similar.
After all, they had both worked like dogs to ensure the perfect January 1 release of .
“We've been mass-reporting and deleting the bastards trying to post detailed summaries of the final episode. Spoilers to some extent are unavoidable, so we're leaving those alone. We're short on manpower right now, so I think we should bring in a couple of outside PR agencies instead of relying solely on in-house staff.”
“Then proceed that way.”
“What happened with the American contracts? Depending on that, I want to redistribute press releases domestically and restart merchandise production. Ahhh... dollars. Just hearing the name makes me happy....”
Manager Ma knew better than anyone how much money JC ENM had made from merchandise.
Once a project exploded, they were addicted to squeezing money out of its IP through second rounds, third rounds, and endless follow-up products.
Raise one hit properly, and countless side incomes would follow.
That was the media industry.
“Dizney Plus opens at the end of this year. It'll become official soon. Probably around the end of the first quarter.”
“Fwahahahahaha!”
At Jegal Rok's words, Ma Suyeon threw her head back and laughed.
The worn-out neck pillow barely supported her.
“It's kinda inappropriate for me to say this.”
“Then don't.”
“Director, you're seriously... completely insane!”
In public, Jegal Rok joined hands with NetHolics.
Behind the scenes, he joined hands with Dizney Plus.
Without handing everything over to NetHolics, he kept several prime assets and sold those to Dizney.
In doing so, he protected the sovereignty of Korea's media industry while ensuring all the money flowed into his own pockets.
As long as he didn't commit entirely to one side, the fierce rivalry would continue for a very long time.
At the same time, he would create a dedicated JC ENM section inside Dizney Plus for the OTT services they were preparing.
A so-called shop-in-shop.
There was no better way to gather overseas audiences interested in K-culture.
Instead of fighting Dizney's global reach, they would lend them JC ENM's familiar flavor of Hallyu, which Asian audiences preferred.
It was the kind of idea only capitalism's rabid dog could come up with.
And when it came to money, Jegal Rok was such a bastard that he could shamelessly fleece NetHolics.
“Huh?”
Refreshing the NetHolics global chart in real time, Ma Suyeon's eyes widened.
“Just as expected.”
After finishing , American viewers were moving on to another drama recommended by the algorithm.
.
They weren't stopping for even a moment.
Their eyes had gone wild.
“Then we'll move on to the next stage quickly. Ahhh... money's coming in... dollars, euros, yen...”
Manager Ma licked her lips.
Once you entered the global stage, there was a natural step that always followed.
It was called National Pride.
Or, in technical terms—
Nationalistic hype.
* * *
And here, before Korea had even properly gotten drunk on national pride, was Marcus, looking genuinely intoxicated as he stared blankly into space.
His phone notifications were also going wild.
Quite a few influencers had tagged Marcus's account, and instead of posting stories saying “Screw you, Marcus” a few hours later, they were posting, “Marcus, you're my brother,” while tagging him.
That's right.
At first, it had indeed been B-grade reaction Intuber Marcus's provocation that brought everyone into the war.
But exactly three hours later, nobody remembered Marcus anymore.
“-!!!”
Some people covered their faces with both hands, unable to even scream properly.
“What the hell is this? What is this? I thought only North Korea had nukes! Wasn't it Kim who just blew my mind apart?!”
Others raged in excitement.
“I guarantee it. Once you've seen this, you'll never be able to watch anything else again.”
And some analyzed it calmly.
Episode 1 had simply been interesting.
By Episode 2, they thought, Damn, this is pretty good.
Up until then, they had still maintained enough composure to record reaction videos.
But the moment they realized in Episode 3 that it was a loop story—
“FXCK!!!”
Every single one of them screamed as if they had forgotten every other word in the English language.
And here was Marcus's studio, where he'd screamed nonstop from Episode 1 all the way to the ending and ended up hoarse.
“Should I use the part where you say, ‘Who said K-Dramas are boring? Go kill yourself. You're too stupid to deserve living,’ as the thumbnail? Or the part afterward where you're covering your face?”
His editor asked while standing beside the shell-shocked Marcus.
Marcus merely blinked at empty space.
“Will there be... war in Korea...”
He didn't know much about Korea.
There were those damn nukes.
Some girls squealed over K-Dramas and K-Pop.
And if he had to add one more thing, Korea was probably the country best at archery.
That was literally everything Marcus knew.
Whether it was Japan or China, he didn't care.
That little country called Korea somewhere nearby had never once been within his interests.
“War? Why are you suddenly talking about war?”
His editor asked.
Marcus muttered absentmindedly.
“War... nukes... crazy Kim...”
Marcus's hobbies were sarcasm and gaming.
And above all, he loved playing games sarcastically more than anything in the world.
Thanks to those two hobbies, he'd become a successful Intuber. You could say he'd achieved harmony between work and passion.
Marcus was famous for always choosing one class.
He was obsessed with ranged DPS.
Archers.
Characters that could deal damage without entering the enemy's attack range.
Compared to gunslingers, they were infinitely more elegant.
Compared to swordsmen, more threatening and beautiful.
“No. I can't do this.”
Which was exactly why it was inevitable that Marcus would get run over by the five-ton truck named On Jihwa.
His reason shut down.
The moment he met On Jihwa's eyes as she drew her bowstring beneath the pouring rain.
The moment he heard the sharp whistle of the arrow splitting the air.
The arrows that pierced vital points didn't just knock down the gangsters.
Marcus himself had collapsed onto the floor.
It felt as though he'd lived his entire life solely to behold that proud and impossibly beautiful girl.
“I'm going.”
“Where?”
Marcus staggered to his feet.
“...To see Jihwa.”
“What? Have you lost your mind?”
“Even if war breaks out... I'll die there...”
He eventually managed to dig out his passport from who-knows-where.
He felt like he'd die if he didn't go to Korea immediately.
“My daughter... Daddy's coming...”
Without realizing it, Marcus had become the chairman of the Overprotective On Jihwa Fathers Association.
“What are you talking about?! You said we needed to edit and upload this right away to milk the views!”
His editor desperately grabbed his arm and tried to stop him.
But there was nothing on Earth capable of stopping Marcus after he'd become a father.
“You handle it! I'm going!”
His destination—
Samseong-dong.
K-X, where Jihwa's giant face wrap advertisements were supposedly displayed.
During the flight, Marcus binge-watched , which he'd downloaded beforehand.
By the end of the long journey—
He had become Seoryeong's father too.
“My daughter Seoryeong...”
Similar dramas appeared in the recommendations, but there was only one person in Marcus's heart.
He didn't love K-Dramas.
He didn't love Korea.
He didn't care about any of that.
He only loved Jihwa.
-Ladies and gentlemen, we will soon be landing at Incheon Airport. Please fasten your seatbelts—
And so, he arrived at a place he'd never once imagined visiting.
“So this is the place of nukes and war, kimchi and Kims, and my daughter...”
Marcus smiled to himself.
Incheon Airport was packed with people.
The moment he spotted familiar faces on several billboards, he instinctively took pictures.
His first impression after setting foot in Korea—
It was cold as hell.
“My baby has to endure this goddamn weather? Damn it. I just want to wrap her in a blanket and throw her into California!”
As the freezing wind swept through his hair, Marcus shivered, and some reason finally returned to him.
Soon.
Very soon.
Other Intubers would invade Korea to milk the views from the IP.
It was the cool-headed certainty of a professional Intuber who had long ago received his Gold Button.
“Hey! You know where I am? Yeah. I know this is probably the most impulsive thing I've ever done, but don't be surprised. I'm here to meet my daughter.”
He started an Intube Live.
He needed to move quickly and seize the views first.
INTUBE
[America Should Never Make Apocalypse Shows Again!!! Go Watch And Reflect On Yourselves]
1:20:47
While he cheerfully headed toward Samseong-dong, completely ignoring his calls because he was livestreaming, his editor immediately uploaded the reaction video.
“He's completely lost it. Marcus.”
There was no time for quality checks.
This was Intube.
The fastest one won.
And Marcus's editor could confidently guarantee one thing.
Before long, every reaction Intuber's thumbnail would feature .
* * *
Meanwhile, in America.
At Dizney headquarters, attention was focused on a drama that was attracting people at an astonishing speed.
“Interest in K-Dramas has definitely exploded compared to last year.”
“A sharp observation. K-Pop has also been receiving great responses. MUKBANG spreading through INTUBE has become another factor attracting curiosity.”
NetHolics Korea had fired the opening shot.
Naturally, they had to be on guard as well.
Latecomers always got pushed around.
Once someone captured the high ground, they weren't easily dislodged.
Even if your quality was better.
Even if your story was better.
Even if you brought in more famous stars.
Once something was branded into the public consciousness, it didn't change easily.
“Using the title will definitely increase interest in traveling to Korea this year. Brilliant strategy. So that's why they covered K-X entirely with . Clever bastards.”
Dana Miller, head of Dizney Plus Global, calmly analyzed the situation.
Just as that exhausted-looking man she'd met in America had predicted.
The numbers.
The momentum.
Everything was unfolding exactly as expected.
At the top of NetHolics sat the face of a young shaman maiden.
It meant a significant number of viewers were immediately continuing on to another series.
After all, once people tasted something good, they wanted to continue that feeling.
“Come to think of it, wasn't she connected to Noah Williams?”
“She handled the Korean dub of .”
“The protagonist?”
“No. The protagonist's younger sister.”
“Ah. Lala. Right.”
Remembering the flying squirrel who had received overwhelmingly positive reactions even among the powerhouse voice cast of , Dana let out a soft groan.
Real-time trends were flooded with Trits about .
Influencers who had joined the frenzy thanks to a B-grade reaction Intuber's video were all losing their minds.
It spread.
Rapidly.
As though conquering everything.
And with certainty.
Looking at On Jihwa from , a tiny spark ignited inside Dana.
And at the same time—
She found herself with a strange certainty.
The On Jihwa on the screen looked like she'd reach that place soon enough.
The dream of every actor.
Where money and fame, love and art overflow.
Hollywood itself.