For a streamer, switching platforms was an incredibly difficult decision. For some, that one choice could shake their entire viewer base. People liked to say, “If you’re entertaining, you’ll blow up anywhere. People will follow you.” In reality, different platforms drew different audiences.

Paprika had been soaring after absorbing part of Treevy’s old viewer base. Cheese had a major corporation backing it, but it was still a brand-new platform. Maybe that was why.

“So yeah. This is exactly like choosing which side to stand on with the young crown prince.”

Sang-Hyeon had chosen Cheese purely because of Orange.

Ju-Hyeok had told him, “Say the king dies out of nowhere. There’s an uncle with almost equal power to the king, and there’s a crown prince who’s barely started walking. And you’re telling me you’ve lined up behind the crown prince.”

This explanation contained some exaggeration mixed in, but the point was clear. Ju-Hyeok had seen Cheese’s future as unstable.

“Huh? Then Cheese is the right pick.”

“What?”

“Either way, the crown prince is the legitimate heir.”

“Are you deaf?!”

“No, so you want me to become a traitor or what?”

Ju-Hyeok had been dumbfounded watching Sang-Hyeon apply some historical drama mindset to a capitalist market.

‘Hmm...’

Thinking about it more, back then, it almost sounded like legit logic.

‘A legitimate successor... If we lean into that more, it might actually work.’

Power didn’t simply transfer because some strong uncle stormed in with a sword and started chopping people down. The will of the people was the will of heaven. Wasn’t the public, the viewers, what mattered? What if he could move their hearts? That kind of thinking led to the Ancient Ruins arc in Cheese Village. The plan had been a major success.

The story moved countless viewers, and it turned into a massive win for Cheese Village. Its initial live viewership had started embarrassingly low, but steadily climbed as the broadcast went on.

The edited upload afterward absolutely exploded. Even now, the ripple effect of Cheese Village spilled over into other platforms.

[About That Time I Switched Factions and Turned Out to Be a Bot]

— This too must be the Lord’s grace...

Omelet had pinned his own comment. He hadn’t even participated in Cheese Village, yet he knew the meme. Judging by the reactions, most of his viewers did too.

└ Holy shit “the Lord’s grace” is here too lol

└ God bless the Lord

└ LMAO

└ He may destroy bot rights, but he saves streams~

Ju-Hyeok excitedly said to Ji-Ah, who had come by to hang out, “Cheese Village really did blow up. Even this guy knows it.”

Ji-Ah had come early because today was one of their lunch days together. She had been rewinding and rewatching Omelet’s edited video with focused interest. It clearly caught her attention since it officially used Almond’s footage.

Without taking her eyes off the screen, she murmured, “Yeah... all the Cheese Village videos were huge. Our channel did well too, but the official videos PD Jang made were insane.”

“Right. They did so well that he ended up treating everyone to a premium Korean beef dinner.”

Ji-Ah recalled it with irritating accuracy. “Huh? That was American beef.”

“What? The Fake National Team day was American. This time it was Korean beef.”

“Fake National Team?” Ji-Ah snorted. “That was fake beef.”

Ju-Hyeok felt stunned.

“Because it was all-you-can-eat pork.”

Ju-Hyeok’s imagination, built on a life of comfort, couldn’t withstand the brutal truth. Why were they being so cheap?!

“W-wait, was the Fake National Team thing not expensive? That can’t be...”

“He gave a huge bonus instead. Like, to use personally. This is a secret, but Park Oh-Hoon cried when he saw the amount.”

“Ah...”

Behind the cold stinginess, a warm story did exist. No, wait, Ju-Hyeok didn’t let his guard down.

“He cried because it was a lot, right?”

What if he cried because it was too little?

Ji-Ah suddenly stared at Ju-Hyeok like he was garbage.

“Wow. Oppa, what do you even think of PD Jang...?”

“No, that’s not what I meant!”

“KIM JUUUU-HYEEEEOK!!”

Bang!

Sang-Hyeon woke up with an impact that shook the room.

Ju-Hyeok and Ji-Ah froze and stared blankly in his direction.

“Ah... J-Ji-Ah, you were here.”

Ji-Ah nodded. “Mm. Today’s our lunch day.”

“Ah, right.”

After founding MixedNuts, they had decided to eat together about twice a week to keep the founding members close.

“No, more importantly. Is this real?”

Sang-Hyeon jabbed at Omelet’s channel on the screen. The massive channel boasted 2.21 million subscribers.

“This isn’t some fake channel or something, right? Huh? He’s a real streamer?”

Ju-Hyeok finally realized why Sang-Hyeon was angry and barely managed to hold back his laughter. “P-pfft...”

‘He’s still building his argument around it being a fake channel.’

Beside them, Ji-Ah alternated her gaze between the two, thinking that Sang-Hyeon’s imagination was impressive in its own way.

‘I want to film this...’

She wanted to record this moment, but Sang-Hyeon’s anger made it hard to even bring it up.

Sang-Hyeon’s face turned bright red. “D-don’t laugh! You tricked me, so I got tricked!”

“N-no, it’s just... uh... If I step in, then the viewers’ efforts lose meaning.”

“Huh?” Sang-Hyeon delivered a razor-sharp rebuttal to that ridiculous logic. “So what?”

Honestly, Ju-Hyeok couldn’t say anything back because it happened so recently. He didn’t have a brain fart. It hadn’t been a fair game to begin with.

Sang-Hyeon accidentally said his internal thoughts out loud, “You... you were up early. You already warmed up, and I just woke up...!”

Ju-Hyeok couldn’t fully understand what he meant, but he understood what Sang-Hyeon was worried about.

“Here. Don’t get so heated. Look.”

He showed Sang-Hyeon the messages from Omelet’s editor.

[Omelet’s Editor: Omelet is super hyped right now! The video blew up! It’s the best-performing one we’ve had recently! Haha]

[Omelet’s Editor: Thanks for providing the footage. If there’s ever anything we can help with, please reach out anytime!]

“So, because of me... Omelet didn’t actually... get hurt...?”

Sang-Hyeon had been trying to force out words through sheer effort. He fell silent when he saw the answer already on the phone in Ju-Hyeok’s hand.

“He kept saying how grateful he was to you. We stopped him from sending gifts and told him we’d grab a meal together sometime instead.”

“Really...?”

Hearing that Omelet was practically overflowing with gratitude made Sang-Hyeon puff his chest a little.

“You saved his stream.”

Sang-Hyeon tried to keep a calm expression, but Ju-Hyeok saw him smiling.

“Well, I mean... Things like this are fun because you let yourself get fooled a bit... Ha... Seriously, anyway, I’m going to shower.”

Thud.

He left for the bathroom.

Ji-Ah leaned over and quietly asked Ju-Hyeok, “It worked out, right?”

“He’s excited.”

“Ah... L-like, that excited?”

Ju-Hyeok could read Sang-Hyeon’s expressions more accurately than Ji-Ah.

“Just watch.”

As if telling her to be quiet, Ju-Hyeok listened. His prediction was spot-on.

Shhhhhh...

Through the running shower, a faint, cheerful humming drifted out.

“The Lord’s graaace is~ like the heeeavens~.”

Ji-Ah’s eyes went wide. She and Ju-Hyeok snickered together.

***

After the MixedNuts team finished their bonding meal, Ji-Ah returned home and sat in front of her computer. Beside her were boxes filled with items still being organized. She planned to bring these things to the office.

‘This is the last time I’ll be working here...’

Ji-Ah glanced around her workspace. She used to think PD Jang’s office was rough, but that had been like a dirty dog mocking a muddy one. Now that she looked at it, wasn’t her own setup worse?

‘I had no idea.’

Ji-Ah really hadn’t noticed while editing like a streamer fangirl, uploading, and running a YouTube channel in a frenzy. She hadn’t spared a glance at anything around her.

“Hmm.” She tilted her head at the belated realization. “What’s the point of realizing it now?”

Funnily enough, she had this epiphany right when everything was about to change.

“It’s the last job. Let’s do this.”

As if psyching herself up, she lightly slapped her cheeks with both hands.

Clap.

“And Omelet’s side gave us a buff too.”

Click.

She opened the video file from Omelet. Then, she started merging it with Almond’s footage that she’d already marked for editing. For a long while, only mouse clicks and keyboard clacks filled her room.

How much time passed like that? She finished before realizing it.

“Hmm...”

Ji-Ah checked the time.

Tap... tap...

She always agonized over this part the most.

[Met Omelet-bot (not really) and...]

“No.”

Tap tap tap tap.

She hit backspace repeatedly, erasing the title.

‘The stream is starting soon.’

Ji-Ah wanted to upload it before Almond’s stream. She replayed Almond’s edited footage for a moment. Sometimes, the answer was hidden in the chat or comments.

— Truman Show still not ending?

— Truman won’t die, damn

— LMAO are you gonna spit out the red pill or what

Ji-Ah found her hint again. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

[The Trumond Show]

***

Meanwhile, just before going live, Yu Sang-Hyeon stood in front of the capsule with a chilling look in his eyes.

‘EggPlant... and the rest...’

He recited today’s purge targets. No matter how well yesterday’s situation had been resolved, that was that, and this was this.

‘Work and personal life should stay separate.’

With that resolve, Almond entered the capsule. He made an okay sign toward Ju-Hyeok.

Ding.

[Almond has started streaming!]

Notifications went out to viewers.

— He’s here

— Kya

— Looooord!

— LMAO what’s gonna happen today

— Bloodbath incoming lol

The viewers already knew what kind of day this would be.

Before even greeting them, Almond said, “All right. Let’s start by hearing EggPlant’s defense.”

— LMAOOOOOOOO

— LMAOOOO

— Holy shit lol

— Re: Lord style trial

— Do we have a jury this time? lol

— Straight into the Eggplant roast

— Did he actually show up?

Normally slow on donations, EggPlant reacted fast this time.

Ding.

[EggPlant has donated 5,000 won.]

[I spent all my allowance on drinks. It’s okay if the video doesn’t do well, but please remember just one thing: “The Trumond Show.” I say this sincerely. You might not feel great about it. The viewers thought day and night and deceived you... We did our best...]

— “Spent all my allowance” holy shit lol

— Trumond Show views actually popped, give him leniency?

— EggPlant damn

— What is this template lol

— but you saved the stream~

— ??? EggPlant... the savior of the stream who came to destroy my intelligence...

— “Thought day and night and deceived you” LMAOOOO