After the stream ended, Sang-Hyeon got up from theputer with a dull headache.


    "Ugh... what a hangover..."


    Apparently, he drank a lot yesterday.


    "Good job."


    Ju-Hyeok gulped down an electrolyte drink and cheered him on from the side.


    "You too. Good job."


    It was already impressive that Sang-Hyeon turned on the stream today. Ju-Hyeok also continued to review the script for their New Year''s n while experiencing a hangover.


    It was just about what information to deliver, but it greatly helped the progression.


    "Let''s just rest today."Two hours hadn’t even passed after talking about their New Year''s n and turning off the stream. The winter sun hadn’t set yet by the time the stream ended, which felt new to them.


    Sang-Hyeony on the sofa and watched the fading orange sun.


    On the other hand, Ju-Hyeok stood up.


    "Where are you going?"


    "I''m going shopping."


    "Oh..."


    Sang-Hyeon thought it would be polite to go with him, but his body said otherwise. He simply stayed put. In fact, that was the right decision.


    <em>Thump.</em>


    Only after the metal door closed did Sang-Hyeon realize.


    "Ah."


    Ju-Hyeok was going out to check on Ji-Ah''s condition, who had drunk a lot yesterday.


    "Ugh."


    He thought being single was quite terrible. Then he briefly fell asleep.


    <em>Ziiing.</em>


    <em>Ziiing.</em>


    The phone beside Sang-Hyeon rang.


    <em>[Miho: Wow, Almond oppa.]</em>


    <em>[Miho: It seems like you’re using the algorithm properly!]</em>


    The world rted to him didn’t stop just because his stream ended or just because he had fallen asleep. While he slept, his videos continued to work for better or worse.


    <em>[Bubblegum: Wowow]</em>


    <em>[Bubblegum: The award ceremony went like this?]</em>


    <em>[Miho: It''s amazing, right? lol hahaha!]</em>


    <em>[Takoyaki: Ah, mom, why am I born with this face!]</em>


    <em>[StrawberryShooter: The nationalpetition is trending lol]</em>


    ***


    There was a phrase in the YouTube world.


    <em>‘Chosen by the algorithm.’</em>


    That was how important the algorithm''s selection was for a video to trend on YouTube.


    The algorithm was originally designed to provide convenience to the viewer, analyzing their taste to rmend videos.


    However, it became somewhat different from its initial intention as YouTubers started to delve into this algorithm. It became a part of their strategy or a rule to be followed.


    Still, the algorithm rmended appropriate videos to viewers. And people often yed rmended videos ording to the algorithm.


    Amid this, the algorithm that Almond took advantage of was the hottest keyword of the season, “Award Ceremony.”


    As a result...


    <em>[Hey, Yu Sang-Hyeon. You flirted with me first, right?] </em>


    <em>#Real-time Hot Video 3rd ce</em>


    <em>#Entertainment Category</em>


    A game streamer, not even a celebrity, ranked third ce in the entertainment video category. It was less shocking than achieving first ce in politics and society, but...


    It was an unusual phenomenon nheless.


    <em>— ck and white suit, handsome... faints right away~</em>


    <em>— Title lmao.</em>


    <em>— He belongs in the entertainment category without any sense of out-of-ce</em>


    <em>└ Shock, I just realized lol!</em>


    <em>└ 222 Oh, was it the entertainment category??</em>


    <em>— Hey, Seo Ji-Ah. Did you conquer the entertainment category now?</em>


    <em>└ Seo Ji-Ah didn''t upload this. Just appearing in the entertainment category isn’t the only issue, but the fact that Seo Ji-Ah didn''t make this video is a big deal. </em>That is what makes this special.


    <em>└ Logically, would she upload a video after full makeup + dress + high heels, anding home at 3 am drunk?</em>


    <em>└ Right, lol. She was at the award ceremony too lol!</em>


    Ji-Ah didn''t make this video, but some fan hadpiled the footage. It could be considered very beneficial since videos made by fans also resulted in revenue for Almond.


    Moreover, more people started to create these kinds of videos.


    <em>[Almond Chikicha 1 Hour Infinite Loop] </em>


    <em>[Made a Song with Chikicha. It’s not a Lonely Chikicha]</em>


    <em>[Almond Suit Fit Comption Excluding the Award Ceremony]</em>


    The ceremony video became part of the algorithm. Almond, coincidentally, talked about the award ceremony the most that day. There was a lot of footage.


    Such a trend usually became a meme, enticing people who were good at making videos to make one too even if they weren''t interested in Almond. Making Almond videos could potentially be a trend.


    <em>— All the YouTube rmendations are stered with Almond lol!</em>


    <em>— Why so many all of a sudden? lol~</em>


    <em>— Our kid is doing well!!</em>


    More and more videos were bound to be made. This was hardly a result of Almond, Ji-Ah, or Ju-Hyeok''s efforts. They were literally<em></em>chosen by the algorithm.


    Of course, such an algorithm wouldn''tst a month or even a week. The algorithm’s choice couldn’t affect the entirety of YouTube.


    However, the opportunity differed for those who were prepared. Almond''s case didn''t end with just YouTube…


    <em>— What''s a National Competition? Today, I''m Almond’s fan now. </em>


    <em>— Lol, it all leads to broadcast promotion. </em>


    <em>— Why did he insert a capsule promotion in the middle? lol. </em>


    <em>— Hey, don''t give Almond ads anymore.</em>


    <em>└ What''s that?</em>


    <em>└ Don''t give him ads.</em>


    <em>└ How do you not give him that?</em>


    <em>└ Lmao!</em>


    <em>└ Seriously, how do you not give them to him? The almond effect is crazy!</em>


    Almond had been steadily sowing seeds for ads. Now, the results of his farming began to sprout.


    <em>6. Patisserie Conflict</em>


    <em>7. National Competition</em>


    <em>8. Best Actress Award</em>


    <em>9. New Year Diet</em>


    Among thepetitive search terms, “National Competition”<em></em>appeared.


    Even further down was another search term.


    <em>15. Almond Capsule</em>


    ***


    A day passed after Almond announced his ns for the new year while suffering from a hangover.


    "Ugh..."


    Sang-Hyeon stretched grandly and got up from the bed.


    "Huh. I can''t remember anything from yesterday."


    He had spent the whole day in a daze due to the hangover and seemed to have slept for about twelve hours. Fortunately, he felt quite good today.


    ‘Where is…?’


    Sang-Hyeon habitually turned on his phone. He would normally scroll throughmunity posts, but his routine would change from now on.


    <em>[TSB]</em>


    He headed to Treevy''s streamer board to check something today. It was the result of the game vote, but his eyes turned into question marks.


    "?"


    He mumbled in disbelief after a moment.


    "This is really in first ce…?"


    It was an iprehensible result.


    ***


    Almond''s stream turned on about an hourter than usual that same day at 4 P.M.


    <em>[New Year! New Game!] </em>


    <em>— Ohhh</em>


    <em>— Ah CEO! You finally came!</em>


    <em>— Why are you streaming so well these days?</em>


    <em>— Finally, are you doing it? Kingdom!!!</em>


    <em>— King~ You can''t beat me~ Dom! (Truly unbeatable)</em>


    The entire audience was chanting for<em> Kingdom</em>.


    Correct. <em>Kingdom Age</em> surprisingly took first ce in the game vote posted on the board.


    "Hi Treevy!" Almond greeted them.


    He wasn''t in front of aputer, but inside the capsule this time.


    <em>— Oh, it looks like he''s really doing it!</em>


    <em>— Great!</em>


    <em>— Aha!</em>


    <em>— Go go go go~</em>


    <em>— I''ming for you, Lady Rosenita!</em>


    The viewers grew excited as they saw Almond in the capsule, thinking he was indeed restarting <em>Kingdom</em>.


    "This year is different. This is the 2036 Almond. There''s something I need to do before starting the game."


    <em>— lol.</em>


    <em>— What is it?</em>


    <em>— Ah lol right. </em>


    <em>— TSB. </em>


    "Let''s start with TSB," Almond said.


    As he mentioned in his New Year ns, he didn''t start the game immediately. He headed to TSB first, where he could interact with the viewers. They could allugh and chat while reading posts together.


    <em>— Oh awesome!</em>


    <em>— He keeps his word!</em>


    <em>— Wowowow.</em>


    <em>— Ah, please read mine!</em>


    Almond mainly looked at the posts that received the most rmendations.


    "Let''s see the first ce post."


    He clicked on the post with the highest rmendations.


    "Almond''s award speech was legendary. That’s the title. It was legendary."


    He clicked on it without knowing what it was about, but his expression soon hardened.


    <em>— Lol.</em>


    <em>— LMAO.</em>


    <em>— Lol immediately serious. </em>


    The content of the post contained a gif of Almond shouting, "Fighting, couples of South Korea~!" An arrow marked, “Not a couple,” was edited above him.


    <em>— The arrow is the highlight lol.</em>


    <em>— Lol so funny, not a couple lol.</em>


    <em>— Why did you cheer? lol.</em>


    <em>— Fighting~! (Not him)</em>


    <em>— Cheerleader lol.</em>


    <em>— A baseball cheerleader doesn''t actually y baseball lol~</em>


    The embarrassed Almond fiddled with his nose and moved on to the next post.


    "Next, let''s see..."


    The next post wasn''t about Almond.


    "Current real-time search terms on Javer..."


    <em>1. Patisserie Completed.</em>


    <em>2. Entertainment Grand Prize.</em>


    <em>3. National Competition.</em>


    <em>4. Muffin Bean.</em>


    <em>5. Best Actress Award.</em>


    <em>… </em>


    <em>10. Almond Capsule</em>


    <em>11. Civil Empire</em>


    "Wow."


    Almond''s expression brightened.


    <em>— That expression is only when the ads went well lol!</em>


    <em>— He''s smiling too much, haha.</em>


    <em>— Stop smiling!</em>


    "Is this one edited?"


    <em>— The first one you read wasn''t edited LOL.</em>


    <em>— It''s not lol.</em>


    <em>— Check it out!</em>


    Having been tricked by the viewers a few times, he logged on to Javer and checked the actual search term rankings. The photo hadn’t been an edit, but the real thing.


    "Oh. It''s real."


    <em>— Oh, it''s real wow!</em>


    <em>— Congrats congrats~</em>


    <em>— Congrats!!</em>


    Almond bowed his head in gratitude.


    "Thank you for the rankings, everyone."


    He clicked on the post with the second highest rmendations.


    <em>[The reason a 3 star clear became harder for shy de’s story mode]</em>


    Although a three star clear was never easy, Almond wondered why the rmendation count was so high. He clicked on the post.


    "Because the boss gets stronger based on yer data... after JeonJaPa, the difficulty skyrocketed..."


    The conclusion was that it was because of JeonJaPa.


    "Because of Mr. JeonJaPa?"


    <em>— Yes</em>


    <em>— That''s what they say</em>


    <em>— !</em>


    JeonJaPa used to be the best shy de yer in the world. The difficulty would naturally increase after taking data from such a person.


    Then, a donation came in.


    <em>[No-Woo has donated 10,000 won.]</em>


    <em>[Huh? Isn''t that just like LIL AlphaGo? He has both Pro data + JeonJaPa data.]</em>


    Thinking about it, that boss would have data from various pros and not just JeonJaPa. Wouldn''t that make it no different from an <em>LIL</em> AlphaGo?


    "Mr. No-Woom, thank you for the 10,000 won. Yes, that sounds about right."


    <em>— For real, lol.</em>


    <em>— If you’re jealous, then be the real Sedol lol!</em>


    <em>— How do you win???</em>


    <em>— Who’s No-Woom? haha.</em>


    Asking Almond to beat that boss was like telling him to be the real Sedol. No matter how strong his VNS stats were, bing the real Sedol was a different story.


    Another donation came in.


    <em>[KimTrue has donated 10,000 won.]</em>


    <em>[That''s not urate information. It''s just spection.]</em>


    Almond knew it. He felt the article''s content was too exaggerated.


    <em>— KimTrue!?</em>


    <em>— The real one?</em>


    <em>— KimTrue is involved in esports?</em>


    <em>— It can’t be true, duh.</em>


    "Ah, I see. Thank you KimTrue for the 10,000 won. So that was just spection..."


    With this, the shy de discussion came to a close.


    "Let''s read the next one."


    Amond read a few more humor posts. Not just those with high rmendations, but also clicked on some with only a few views. He had learned this from watching Bubblegum’s stream. This way would greatly reduce needless arguments about rmendation counts.


    "The grand finale."


    Thest post he read was titled,<em> “New Year Game Vote.”</em>


    <em>— Here ites!</em>


    <em>— Let’s gooooo!</em>


    <em>— Oh shit~</em>


    <em>1. Kingdom Age: Rosenita’s Route</em>


    <em>2. LIL: Survival Mode or shy de’s Story Mode</em>


    <em>3. Jet Pumped!</em>


    "..."


    Faced with the same results again, Almond became silent for a moment.


    <em>— Silence lol.</em>


    <em>— What''s that expression? haha.</em>


    <em>— King! Dom! King! Dom!</em>


    <em>— King~ You can''t beat me! ~Dom (Really unbeatable)</em>


    <em>— Wow, are you really going to!?</em>


    <em>— LOLOLOLOLOL.</em>


    Cheers for<em> Kingdom </em>filled the chat and their messages frantically scrolled up.


    Almondunched the game and said, "I’ve heard your opinions. Shall we enter the game?"


    <em>— ???</em>


    <em>— ?</em>


    <em>— ???</em>


    <em>— …?</em>


    Instead of cheers, only astonishment appeared in the chat. Almond wasn’tunching <em>Kingdom Age</em>.


    <em>[Life is Legend]</em>


    <em>[Launching…]</em>


    <em>— Hey!! This crazy..!</em>


    <em>— Then why did we vote? LOL.</em>


    <em>— This is a backdoor ad for LIL? Right? Just say it!</em>


    <em>— So he really just wanted to hear our opinions. He just heard it, but didn’t ept it.</em>


    <em>— Literally, I heard your opinion…</em>


    <em>— Ah, he didn''t say he''d y the first ce game, lol</em>


    <em>— Almond! Dictating like a dog!</em>