Chapter 125
“Hey, Noh Geumbong. Are you crying?”
Woo Seungcheol teased Noh Geumbong, whose eyes had become wet with emotion.
“Crazy bastard. Who’s crying?”
Another round of laughter burst out.
“Ah, Seungcheol. I heard you write fantasy novels. What’s your pen name?”
“Ah... Gaebyeok.”
“Gaebyeok? As in cheonji-gaebyeok, the opening of heaven and earth?”
Woo Seungcheol only nodded awkwardly instead of answering.
I looked at him again.
“Then where can I read what you wrote? I want to see it too.”
Do Kijeong looked at me with interest.
“What? Kibaek, you read web novels too?”
“Yeah. I read them pretty often.”
“Really? That’s unexpected.”
He laughed.
“A lot of people read webtoons, but most don’t know much about web novels. It’s still kind of a culture only people who know it really know.”
Serialized fiction had originally started on PC communication boards in the 1990s.
In the 2000s, it moved to personal homepages and free serialization sites, where it continued to survive.
Even now, in 2012, the term web novel was still nowhere near as widely recognized as webtoon.
“Come on, why are you underestimating me?”
I grinned.
“I was a literary boy in my own way.”
“Now that you mention it, I used to upload novels on Chollian when I was in high school too.”
Do Kijeong’s eyes became distant with nostalgia.
“Brings back memories.”
“I had a modem at home too, but my mom wouldn’t let me use it because she said the phone bill would explode if I went online.”
“We didn’t even call it the internet back then.”
Do Kijeong immediately corrected me.
“It was PC communication.”
“Come to think of it, even the term web novel hasn’t been around that long.”
“We used to call them internet novels.”
As Do Kijeong’s old-man stories started getting longer, I turned back toward Woo Seungcheol.
“So where did you say I can read it?”
“Ah, I run a homepage.”
“If you go there and sign up, you can read it.”
“What’s the homepage called?”
“It’s called New Moon.”
He looked slightly embarrassed.
“It means new literature.”
“If you search New Moon, it should come up.”
To be honest, before my regression, I had read webtoons but almost never read web novels.
But I knew that in only ten years, the structure of the film and drama industries would completely change.
OSMP.
One Source Multi Play.
An era where a single original story or IP expanded across multiple forms of media.
One story.
One worldview.
A web novel would become a webtoon.
Then a drama.
Then a movie.
Sometimes even a game.
Sometimes merchandise.
A huge network of profit would form around a single piece of original content.
Countless movies and dramas would be adapted from webtoons and web novels.
And the competition for adaptation rights would spread like a new gold rush.
There was no way I, someone who knew all of that, would overlook this.
That was why, after my regression and entering 2010, two of the things I had paid the most attention to were the arrival of general programming channels and securing adaptation rights to webtoons and web novels as original IP.
While I had briefly fallen into thought, Noh Geumbong spoke.
“New Moon is a homepage Seungcheol made when he was in high school.”
“So among people who write internet novels, it’s actually pretty well known.”
“Really?”
I looked at Woo Seungcheol.
“If you started it in high school, it’s been around for a long time.”
“Yeah.”
Woo Seungcheol nodded.
“That was when making personal homepages was popular, like My Homepage and things like that.”
“Then did you start writing internet novels in high school too?”
“Ah, yes.”
He laughed awkwardly.
“Back then, it really was just for fun.”
“And the people who help operate the site with me are all people who care a lot about New Moon.”
“They kept it running while I was in the military.”
“Now word has spread around here and there, so membership has grown quite a lot lately.”
“Really?”
I asked.
“How many members?”
“About sixty thousand.”
“Sixty thousand?”
Even in a time when awareness of web novels was still low, sixty thousand members was definitely not a small number.
“Hang in there a little longer.”
I smiled.
“Within a few years, there’ll be a day when web novels are consumed by the public just as much as webtoons.”
“I really hope that day comes.”
Despite the hopeful words, there was a strangely bitter look at the corner of Woo Seungcheol’s mouth.
Then Noh Geumbong suddenly jumped into the conversation as if he had remembered something.
“Oh, right.”
“Seungcheol’s web novel is going to come out as a physical book soon.”
“A huge publishing company contacted him and wants to sign a contract.”
At the mention of a publishing contract, Do Kijeong and I both looked at Woo Seungcheol.
“Hey, Woo Seungcheol. Seriously?”
Do Kijeong’s eyes widened.
“Congratulations. You should’ve told us earlier.”
“Yeah.”
I smiled.
“This really is something worth celebrating.”
“Let’s drink properly tonight.”
At this time, there were very few ways for someone serializing web fiction to make money besides getting contacted by a publisher and releasing a physical book.
So being contacted by a publisher was practically the same thing as being told you could finally earn money from your writing.
But despite our congratulations, Woo Seungcheol looked uncomfortable and had trouble responding.
“Hey, why do you look like that when people are congratulating you?”
“Smile a little.”
Woo Seungcheol glared at Noh Geumbong.
“Why’d you bring it up when I haven’t even signed yet?”
“You’re going to sign, aren’t you?”
“That’s...”
Woo Seungcheol still looked cautious.
I watched his expression closely.
“Why?”
“Is the publishing company bad?”
“No, it’s not that.”
He quickly waved his hands.
At that point, Noh Geumbong jumped in, looking frustrated.
“Do you know a publishing company called Cheongram?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“It’s one of the top three publishers in this field.”
