Chapter 148

Chapter 148. War of the Rich

Hwang Hee-cheol.

He was a male idol who had debuted about ten years ago in a group called Children of the Emperor.

After their debut song, the group had followed the typical downward trajectory of a failed idol group.

Then, somehow, Yoo Jun-seok took notice of him, and Hwang Hee-cheol grew into a major variety-show personality.

He was witty, cheerful, and generally considered one of the entertainment industry's most likable celebrities.

"Hello, Hwang Hee-cheol sunbaenim!"

The members greeted him politely the moment he entered.

As soon as Hwang Hee-cheol saw the recording room, he realized this wasn't just an ordinary recording schedule and that something was already being filmed.

He quickly told his own crew to turn off their cameras.

"Oh my. I heard Blue Moon was here, so I rushed over, but I didn't know you were filming! Nice to meet you all. And I'm not 'sunbaenim.' I'm oppa. Oppa."

Even I was five years younger than you, and I couldn't get the members to call me oppa.

"You're CEO Do Jun-hyeok, right? Oh no, our shoots overlapped. You must be busy too, aren't you?"

"Not at all. Ours was a surprise shoot today too. The only ones suffering are the MX Soft employees."

Hwang Hee-cheol currently ran a Nutube series called 〈King of Bargaining〉.

It was popular enough that every video easily passed one million views.

The concept was simple.

He would suddenly barge into some company and start negotiating ridiculous discounts on its products.

For example, if his crew came to Universe, he might demand that we sell the 〈Hippie〉 album for 100 won for a limited time.

Apparently, he had something he wanted to negotiate with the game company today.

"Then would it be okay if the Blue Moon members appeared in our shoot for a bit?"

"Sure. Go ahead."

The moment I agreed, his crew turned their cameras back on.

Hwang Hee-cheol briefly introduced me and Blue Moon, then asked whether we knew the price of character rentals in 〈Call of Ground〉.

When I was in high school, I thought a one-year character rental had cost around 9,900 won.

That was ten years ago, so maybe it was about 19,900 won now?

I wasn't sure, so I said I didn't know.

The members answered for me.

"9,900 won for one year!"

"Right! Isn't that way too expensive?"

"Yes!"

What?

It was still the same price as ten years ago?

"How much do you want them to lower it? Serin, what do you think?"

"Hmm... Maybe six or seven thousand won?"

"Six or seven thousand? So around a thirty-percent discount? That's way too reasonable! Serin is eliminated. You can never become the King of Bargaining."

Once Hwang Hee-cheol provoked them, the members kept lowering the price.

Six thousand.

Five thousand.

Three thousand.

Fifty won.

Then finally...

"Free!"

Anna, who wasn't even getting a 〈Call of Ground〉 character herself, shouted it without hesitation.

Wasn't that a little much when it wasn't even your character?

Still, Hwang Hee-cheol loved the answer.

"Pass!"

Then he declared,

"Make it free! Let's bargain for that. Blue Moon looks ready. Let's go meet the director right now!"

Somehow, we ended up following him.

He was so good at talking that the members were slowly getting excited, which made it difficult to refuse.

"W-Wait a moment, CEO Do Jun-hyeok. We urgently need to record something additional."

"Who?"

"You, sir. We missed something last time. The 'boiling rage' category wasn't recorded."

Ah, damn it.

Deep rage.

Boiling rage.

Wasn't that basically the same thing?

Did I really have to scream again?

"Huh? What? CEO Do Jun-hyeok records too? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

Hwang Hee-cheol looked surprised.

The marketing manager quickly covered for it.

"That's confidential. It can't leak outside. It's supposed to be a surprise event."

"Maybe he's a hidden NPC..."

The members whispered among themselves.

Everyone except Anna, who already knew the whole story.

Thanks to that, I didn't have to join the bargaining expedition immediately.

Still, my throat already felt swollen.

I came back after letting out one more satisfying scream.

My throat hurt quite a bit.

Yet the members, who I thought would've already gone off to negotiate, were waiting for me with Hwang Hee-cheol.

I couldn't keep rejecting them just because they kept asking.

Fine.

Let's work ourselves to death for once.

I entered the president's office with the members.

And so began the negotiation between Kang Taek-joo, CEO of MX Soft, and Blue Moon, the heavy users of 〈Call of Ground〉.

Hwang Hee-cheol opened the attack.

"I've played this game before, and every time I roll for guns, I keep getting AK-47s. What's going on? I heard that thing's been used since the Stone Age. Why is it that if I roll ten times, three or four of them are AK-47s? The probabilities feel weird."

Kang Taek-joo laughed.

"The probability for that equipment is indeed set relatively high. It's publicly disclosed on our website that the AK-47 has a 14.473 percent drop rate."

"Really? Then why is the probability so high? There are so many better guns!"

"We're simply sorry we couldn't provide you with better equipment. Hahaha. Still, the AK-47 costs 1,000 gold in the in-game store, while one draw costs 990 gold, so we are absolutely not causing our users a loss."

And that was the end of Hwang Hee-cheol's negotiation attempt.

The answers came out so smoothly that it looked like they'd prepared a script that allowed Hwang Hee-cheol to maintain his concept without actually putting Kang Taek-joo in trouble.

Everyone was happy.

It was a heartwarming sight.

Blue Moon, however, had no intention of respecting that arrangement.

"The AK-47 used to cost 500 gold before the gacha system was added..."

"Excuse me?"

Serin spoke.

It did?

Apparently, they'd raised the prices of cheaper weapons to make the gacha rewards look more attractive.

So basically, it was the same thing with the numbers shuffled around.

Still, prices had risen in the real world too, so maybe it was reasonable.

Damn it.

When I listened to this side, they sounded right.

When I listened to the other side, they sounded right.

Was it because I didn't play the game?

Whether a clueless non-gamer like me held his head or not, the experts continued their discussion.

"Ah, I have another complaint. Why did you add the modification system five years ago?"

"You mean the modification system. Although we're a survival shooting game, we also wanted players to enjoy the satisfaction of progression. So we developed content that allowed users to experience the joy of improving their equipment."

Apparently, players could use an upgrade system called Modification to improve range, damage, ammunition capacity, fire rate, accuracy, and other stats.

Each category consumed different materials.

And obtaining those materials required an enormous amount of grinding...

Or cash.

"You're pushing cash purchases way too hard! I'm clearly holding a sniper rifle, but someone who spent money starts shooting at me from five hundred meters away with a Glock. It fires as fast as a machine gun, so I can't dodge anything, and they upgraded the damage so much that I die if a bullet even brushes me. Seriously!"

Aran complained.

Kang Taek-joo burst out laughing.

Whether he laughed or not, the members joined Aran's attack.

"I'm serious! It doesn't go bang, bang, bang. It goes drrrrrrr like a machine gun! And the Drop-Free magazine costs twenty thousand won in cash, but if you use it, reloading takes only half a second. Isn't it too much that you can even upgrade a handgun to hold fifty bullets?"

"Exactly!"

Kang Taek-joo said he would discuss the business model with the planning team and try to reduce the burden on users.

All we had to do was say what was true.

Whether they actually fixed it or not wasn't our problem.

The real negotiation was only beginning now.

"The characters we filmed today cost around ten thousand won each. If someone wants all three, that's thirty thousand won. And they're not permanent either. I think there should be a discount."

"All right. What level of discount did you have in mind?"

Honestly, we were thinking free.

Anna answered without hesitation.

"Free if you log in for thirty days."

"Free? Really? A one-year character for free?"

Kang Taek-joo thought for a moment.

Then he said,

"All right. We'll make it free. But we'll have to adjust the conditions."

He's actually accepting that?

I studied his expression.

He didn't seem to be lying.

"How?"

"Requiring thirty days of attendance might also be too demanding for users. If they log in for fifteen days, we'll give them the character free for three days."

"Three days?"

A three-day rental was the cheapest version.

You could buy one for 990 won in cash.

So they planned to let users sample the character, then promote sales afterward.

If they treated it as advertising expense, Kang Taek-joo wouldn't lose much either.

Meaning we couldn't fall for the word free here.

Anna spoke.

"Make it free for a month."

"A month is too long... We still need to recover the cost of planning the event. After a month, interest in a character inevitably starts to fall."

Kang Taek-joo finally began looking troubled.

Good.

It was about time to attack.

Serin made a wounded expression.

"So you're saying people get sick of Blue Moon after a month."

"No, absolutely not. That's not what I meant."

"A month passes, another celebrity character comes out... and then you'll remove our characters from the shop to save server costs... Sniff..."

The other members copied Serin and buried their faces in their palms.

Kang Taek-joo looked bewildered.

Then he called over some employees who had been watching from behind.

"Let's have a quick meeting..."

"Make it quick!"

Hwang Hee-cheol snapped.

Kang Taek-joo and his staff hurried into the office inside the president's suite.

The moment the door shut, Serin and the others lifted their heads as if nothing had happened.

Hwang Hee-cheol burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! Wow, you're really good at acting! That's right. The undefeated bargaining strategy: squeeze out tears!"

We'd already landed a clean hit on Kang Taek-joo.

Now all we had to do was wait for his decision.

A short while later, Kang Taek-joo came back out.

"We've decided. A month is too much. We'll make it a one-week free-use ticket."

"Ah..."

The members looked disappointed.

Kang Taek-joo continued.

"But we'll completely remove the attendance requirement. The moment the Blue Moon characters are released, every user will receive them automatically with no conditions."

"Ooh!"

The members celebrated like they'd just secured a contract worth hundreds of millions.

They hadn't managed to get a full month free.

Still, removing the login requirement was definitely an advantage.

Just as Kang Taek-joo said, enthusiasm could fade over time.

If people had to keep logging in before receiving the reward, some might lose interest along the way.

Then, in the middle of the conversation, my phone rang.

It was Moon Hee-jung.

"Yes. What's going on?"

"I was wondering whether United Talenet Live contacted you."

United Talenet Live?

The festival Blue Moon was supposed to attend after releasing the new song?

I hadn't heard from them yet.

"I see. They contacted me, and it sounded like they're planning to invite Blue Moon too. I wondered if they'd already reached out to you. I guess not yet."

She said it was practically confirmed and that they would probably contact us soon.

Once Blue Moon stepped onto that stage, they would become a group representing K-pop on a global level.

The excitement I'd been postponing finally began surging up.

United Talenet Live wasn't far away.

And I already had reasons to visit America around then.

〈The Stranger〉 should be screening by that point, so I needed to stop by and help promote the film.

While we were at it, Aran and Youngchae could get some fresh American air too.

"All right. If they contact me, I'll talk it over with them. By the way, how's preparation for the next album going?"

"We're recording things in advance, but I think the next project will be Ji-hee's solo album. I'm considering Japan."

Min Ji-hee had stood out the most from the first moment I'd seen the Dessault members.

The fact that she'd caught my eye immediately meant she probably had strong solo potential.

Apparently, Moon Hee-jung saw it the same way.

"Ah, and from the way you were talking earlier, it sounded like you probably weren't going to contact MUC again, so I brought up film distribution with them."

"Film distribution? You mean finding a company to distribute 〈The Stranger〉 in America?"

"Yes. I told them we may have something to distribute in the United States. They said they'd take a look once the Korean Film Council makes its decision. They'll probably do it. They seem to have a favorable impression of you, CEO Do Jun-hyeok."

Even if she hadn't done that, the Film Council would've found us a distributor.

MUC's distribution power was obviously much stronger, but wasn't I unnecessarily putting myself in their debt?

"I see."

"They'd probably accept even more unreasonable requests, but film distribution isn't something they'll lose money on either, so I asked without much hesitation. You're thinking you owe them now, aren't you?"

"Not at all."

Yeah.

Fine.

Maybe I could accept a little help.

There were such things as endlessly giving trees, after all.

Still, I couldn't completely stop worrying.

So I called Jung Tae-jin.

He'd previously said he would look into distributors.

"Yes, that's what we decided. If necessary, we were going to use our own distributor, ZGV, but apparently MUC can secure far more theaters in America. More importantly, Director Choi Gyu-sik himself wants that arrangement."

It seemed the BombBomb Yoo-won incident had made him fairly anxious.

If a movie already had good theaters lined up in America, the Film Council would probably view 〈The Stranger〉 more favorably.

"But I don't think I heard which distributor they're using."

"MUC has a production and distribution company called Winner Brothers. It'll probably be them."

"Winner Brothers? Huh. Then it's already over."

"The movie itself is excellent too. Even if it starts small, once it wins awards at film festivals, theaters will naturally increase. This just means it'll succeed a little faster."

Jung Tae-jin asked how I could be so certain 〈The Stranger〉 would succeed.

Come to think of it, neither Jung Tae-jin, Choi Gyu-sik, nor MUC knew what results 〈The Stranger〉 would ultimately achieve.

Now that Winner Brothers was handling distribution, we'd already secured the best possible position in terms of theater count.

Still, I told Jung Tae-jin that my confidence in the film was even stronger than my confidence had been about the narrow-mouthed frogs.

"Anyway, I was actually about to call you about that too, so the timing is good. They're apparently planning a very aggressive promotional campaign as well. You've heard that you should visit America, right?"

"Yes. Director Choi Gyu-sik asked me to help with local promotion."

"I also have business in America. I'll handle the flights, so let's coordinate the schedule and go together."

Excellent.

If it was Jung Tae-jin, he'd probably book every seat in first class.

I was planning to take all the members with me, so finding enough seats would've been difficult.

This worked out perfectly.

After finishing those two long calls, I lowered my phone.

Because even during that short time, another text message had arrived.

Future spam.