What happened after that was smooth sailing. Both parties were satisfied with the condition and signed the contract after Max gave his identity information to Mr. Taka.
The marketing team leader was surprised when he found out Max was only 19 years old.
He didn't believe the upcoming streamer who could do a wall run and such a crazy movement was a young boy. Max's behavior also didn't reflect his age, he was just sound too mature.
After signing the deal, Mr. Taka gave Max another Sky Rail ticket to use to return home and $100 to get some meal as he pitied his condition a little.
Max accepted it without hesitation. Money was money, and he would appreciate every bit of it. He knew his body condition well and looked really malnourished because he couldn't afford any supplement. The previous body owner also saved his money and survived with the bare minimum.
He wouldn't do that anymore, as he needed to eat to gain the strength and stamina needed to use the VR capsule longer without affecting his performance.
And so, after everything was done, Max enjoyed his Chocolate with Oats, which had already turned out cold, and returned home by Sky Rail.
Mr. Taka also returned to the 50th floor, where his office was. He was in a good mood and sat in his seat while humming.
"I just need to get 2 more newbie streamers. I will just pick those who had less than 50 hours play time and only streamed for a month at most." He murmured, bringing up the Punch website.
But as he just did that…
Ding!
Someone had sent him an email.
Not anyone could and dared to email Mr. Taka, as his position was by no means low. He also limited his email to important business. So, whatever email with the notification was definitely from someone important to him or to the company.
"Who is it?" He muttered curiously as he opened the email.
When he saw the sender of the email, Mr. Taka couldn't help but narrow his eyes, "StoneSword? Why did he email me so suddenly?"
StoneSword, often called SS, was one of the veteran streamers who joined the Knight's Journey event. He was good at games, mainly about medieval fantasy or realistic medieval offline games. Just as his name implied, he was crazy with a sword and was pretty good with it.
At the same time, he was the current world record holder for both solo and duo capture the fort, or known as Fort Siege, speedrun in Knight's Journey.
"Hmm…" Mr. Taka hummed as he opened the email and read it. When he arrived in the middle of the email, his lips curled up into a smile, and it only widened as he finished the email. "Interesting. This will work."
With skilled hand movement, Mr. Taka replied to the email politely. Being a marketing team of an offline game was hard, especially on the weekend like today when all employees other than himself were on a break.
Still, Mr. Taka enjoyed his job because of an interesting moment and the satisfaction that came from the success.
"1 Million peak viewers won't be a dream with this. It's certain." He exclaimed as he sent his reply.
***
"That was tiring."
Max sprawled over his bed and exhaled a tired sigh. A satisfied smile appeared on his face as he suddenly laughed loudly.
"Hahaha… That was real, right?"
No matter how he thought about it, he still couldn't believe that it was real. He just made a deal on his second day of streaming.
"I am really lucky… No, luck isn't enough to explain it. Does karma exist? If so, then thank you, God!"
Max jumped from his bed and began to dance. Due to the small amount of room left, he could only move left and right, but that was enough. He was just so happy that he found hope to survive from streaming.
In his past life, he was really unlucky.
No, calling it unlucky was an understatement.
If getting his dream screwed by a car accident and dying at a young age was called unlucky, then all people in the world were lucky.
What Max experienced should be called a miracle instead of just luck!
A celebration was needed to follow this success.
Grr…
Coincidentally, his stomach was rumbling, making a sound similar to a dog growling. He was famished. The chocolate with oats from earlier didn't really help fill his stomach as much, it seemed.
Max stopped dancing and looked at the time. It was around 1 P.M., a perfect time to have lunch.
"Let's order something good from Nina restaurant," Max said, wearing his sneakers once again, and left the house. "I will also tell her that I got a job so she and the chef won't worry too much about me. They were really kind and helped me a lot, after all. I can't rely too much upon their kindness."
He exited his apartment and went to the main street, still with a dumb smile on his face. It didn't take long for him to arrive at the restaurant with more people than yesterday.
The business was also booming, but Nina still greeted him when she saw him coming.
"Welcome, Max! Are you here for lunch?"
"Yeah."
Max nodded at her and walked toward his usual seat in the quiet corner.
Nina approached him with a smile. The other customers had already started eating and didn't need to be attended for a while.
"So, are you going with the usual spicy noodles?"
"No." Max shook his head and grinned, causing Nina to tilt her head in confusion. "I will have a serving of spicy noodles with pork belly."
"Huh, but…"
"I got a job."
Before Nina could finish her sentence, which was probably about saying the pork belly was more expensive than the normal noodles, Max cut her off with a silly grin.
"Really?!" Nina squealed in excitement. "That's great news, Max!"
"Yes. This job will pay me well, and I will be able to get something better. I appreciate all your help from before, Nina. Thank you. I will surely repay you in the future when I am successful."
"What are you saying?! You don't need to do that." The kind waitress smiled wide and patted him on the shoulders, "I will tell the chef about your order. Ah, it will be $15. But because it's celebratory, I will cut it down to $10! Just don't tell anyone." She winked at him and opened the payment screen.
"Hahaha." Max chuckled, feeling a bit guilty for her kindness. "I can pay in full, you know?"
"Just put your smartwatch against the screen. If I said it's celebratory, then it's celebratory! My dad– I meant the chef will get mad at me if I don't do this! Do you want me to get scolded, Max?"
"Okay, okay. Thank you."
Without any other choice, Max paid only $10, and Nina nodded in satisfaction. He was put in an unfavorable position, so he had no choice but to do it.
'Excessive kindness can be overbearing.' He sighed as he saw the waitress walk to the kitchen. 'Well, I won't go back with my words. I will definitely repay their kindness in the future.'
At this moment and for a few days, he should focus on growing his channel and getting more audience.
Finishing the Knight's Journey was also his priority to fulfill the contract he just signed, so he had to work hard.
'I will livestream until my body can't move today. I will use this chance to test my limit.'
Max was curious why Mr. Taka targeted 1 million peak viewers in Punch, so he researched it after returning from Nina's restaurant.
Just a simple research by typing '1 million viewers Punch' in the search bar gave him a satisfying result.
"So the game will be put on the Punch's homepage in the 'New Hot Game' section for at least a week if it manages to reach 1 million peak viewers?" He muttered as he read the information from the internet.
Millions of people would be directed to it every time they opened the Punch website before finding their favorite streamers. So, it was the best place to put promotions or ads.
The information in the news website Max read also mentioned the growth of games that were once on Punch's homepage. According to the graph, there was at least a 50% increment in the purchase, and some good games would have more than a 100% increment.
This week-long promotion was worth the money spent to invite 6 streamers and hold the event.
The other way to appear on Punch's homepage was for a streamer to have more than 100K viewers or a game with more than 2 million total viewers at the time.
Of course, they had different sections titled 'Recommended Streamers' and 'Recommended Games' separately.
"That's why they created this event and set their target so specifically. I thought they just wanted to break a milestone, but I should've known a big company wouldn't do something like that program without a clear goal."
Max now clearly understood Biozone Entertainment's goal and thought the reward and the bonus he got from the contract were actually smaller than he should have received. But that reward wasn't his goal from the start. That was just an extra, as he mentioned before.
"Knight's Journey Punch channel only livestreamed for 2 times: when the game was announced and when it was released. But both livestreams got more than 80K viewers."
This time, the viewers wouldn't only come from Knight's Journey Punch channel but from all streamers combined. That meant the viewers would be more than what it achieved in the past.
"The program can easily reach 100K viewers at the peak. Hyaa! It's the best!"
Naturally, Max hadn't forgotten his system's quest yet and had no plan to abandon it. The reward from the system was too good, and it would help him in a longer term than any other contract. At least, he believed it to be so.
"It's already 5:50 P.M." He muttered as he looked at the clock at the edge of the screen. "I guess I will stream right now."
Opening his VR capsule, Max climbed inside and activated it.
Just as usual, he first appeared in his Lobby and started the stream inside. He hadn't changed his first login configuration yet, and it was better this way as he could also start the stream from his lobby.
This time, Max decided to change the stream title to a new one.
[Stream title: Knight's Journey Main Story new route! #Knight_Journey #Chat #NewRoute #KJ_NewRoute]
He even added some tags after the title, imitating some successful streamers in his past life. He didn't know if it would be effective. No one in Punch used this kind of trick for whatever reason, but there was nothing wrong with trying as it didn't breach the rules.
The tags were added to make his stream easier to find when someone was using the search tab. This process was known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short, something he learned in his past life.
After everything was ready, Max opened the Knight's Journey game.
"Let's do this."
[Livestream Start!]
The scenery around him changed.
His vision turned around and twisted before it returned to the familiar forest in the evening, right outside the cave used by barbarians as a base.
At the corner of his vision, Max saw the chat window pop up as the viewer counts increased almost immediately.
[Viewers: 189]
It was lower than yesterday.
'Some curious viewers have left.' He thought. 'Well, this kind of thing is normal. I shouldn't be discouraged.'
Having up and down moments in streaming wasn't considered strange. Even top streamers usually had peak and low moments where they broke their milestones or reached the lowest number of viewers ever.
The fact that half of yesterday's viewers still stayed to watch Max was something good.
"Hi hi!" Max greeted his viewers excitedly as he smiled at the camera.
The chat poured in almost immediately; each greeted him back in different manners.
— Hi, Breeze!
— Yo, it finally started!
— Will we enter the main story now?
— Breeze! Do the wall run again!
— Hello! Good evening!
Some familiar names from Day 1 and even those who donated to him before also greeted him. So Max decided to answer them.
"Yes, AxeLover. We will continue the main story today. Also, I can't do a wall run as I please, Madenning. If there is a chance, I will definitely do it. And FreakingNoob, good evening for you too."
By mentioning each name, the viewers would feel as if they belonged to a community, thus happy by being on the livestream. Two-way communications were the charm of the livestream.
"Ah, I will also try to stream longer now. I want to finish at least two or three main story missions. That's today's goal!"
— Oooh! This will be fun!
— Two or three missions, huh? So, around 4 hours?
— It's still a bit faster than the other streamers who stream for at least 6 hours a day, but I will stay for Breeze! He must have got a reason!
— You're finally become a proper streamer! I am proud of you, Breeze!
"Thank you, all. But let's not waste any time and continue! I wonder if there is another cutscene."
Max walked toward the forest, and his vision suddenly distorted. Once again, he was teleported by the game as a way to cut things short. It would take too much time if players needed to walk from one place to another in an offline game like this.
He appeared in what seemed to be an office room with some armor and badges decorating the corners and walls. Sunlight bore through the window, illuminating all corners and casting a shadow on Max's face.
At the end of the room was a desk made from oak wood. Knight Captain Hutch was sitting behind it with a sharp gaze that bore into Max's soul.
Another cutscene had played.
"Sir Breeze. You said there are 12 barbarians hiding in Ratcor Ner mountain? And you said you already cut them off?"
"Yes, Sir! I have annihilated them all in the shadow of night."
Max's character answered immediately with a clear voice.
"I see." Hutch nodded at him, "Report the details!"
As ordered, Max's character began to recount the details of his mission. It was just a long conversation, so the world seemed to be played in a fast-forward, and Max could move using a half-transparent character that just appeared out of nowhere.
"It seems to be taking a while." He commented and sighed.
— I agree!
— Damn! This is so interesting! What would happen if Breeze just scouts instead of killing them all?
— So the choice matters too in this case.
— Can you touch Hutch, Breeze? Slap him!
"Slap Hutch?" Max muttered, caressing his chin.
That would be interesting. Many people had a grudge against the Knight Captain for his behavior. They wanted to slap, kick, or punch Hutch back for the treatment they got in tutorials.
And Max was actually also interested in Hutch's reaction. A grin crept into his face as he began to walk in his half-transparent state, approaching Hutch.
— Look!
— This motherlicker! He's walking toward him!
— Will he do it? Will he do it?!
— Slap him! Slap him!
— Punch him! Punch him!
The chat got excited as Breeze stopped in front of Hutch. He raised his hand high. And when he reached the highest point. He brought his hand down and slapped Hutch.
Slap!
A shrill, loud sound echoed in the room, and everything went to a stop immediately.
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