Chapter 4: Insane view counts.

A graduate student wandered through the world of WTube.

Her hobby was watching challenge mukbangs.

She enjoyed seeing people suffer while eating spicy, astringent, or bizarre foods.

Watching them grimace while eating difficult things made her laugh and relieved all the stress built up from grad school.

“Nothing to watch.”

Not long ago, the spit-out scandal swept through challenge mukbang WTubers.

It was revealed that many didn’t even put the food in their mouths or spat it out right after pretending to eat, causing numerous WTubers to fall into disgrace.

The implicated WTubers went into self-reflection mode and stopped uploading videos, while some tried to explain themselves with rambling broadcasts.

Overall, there’s an atmosphere of self-restraint to avoid getting caught up in the controversy.

In this situation, only clueless amateurs upload videos of eating difficult foods, completely misreading the mood.

Hoping to find even those, she typed ‘mukbang challenge’ into the search bar and sorted by upload time.

While scrolling down, her finger hesitated.

“15kg sugar challenge?”

‘I’m not sure, but wouldn’t eating that much sugar kill you?’

Seeing the mascot suit that reminded her of a penguin made of Slime made her slightly uneasy, but she clicked anyway.

Thud.

A warning popped up after the scene of placing a 15kg bag of sugar on the table.

[Warning!

Do not attempt this under any circumstances.

This video was filmed by a skilled Slime.

Attempting this has a high chance of resulting in death.]

The warning message itself felt ominous.

“Is this a staged broadcast?”

The person in the mascot suit boldly tore open the sugar bag.

Tilting their head back, they poured a heaping spoonful of sugar into the gap that appeared.

“Ha….”

Okay. I’ll admit the concept is well done.

In the midst of videos pretending to eat but not actually eating causing problems, coming up with a video that no one would believe is real eating is a clever idea.

If everyone can tell it’s fake, then it’s not fakery but a concept broadcast.

The mascot suit is pretty cute too.

But this isn’t the kind of video she’s looking for.

She wants to see someone grimacing in agony. She doesn’t want to watch someone in a mascot suit who doesn’t even show their face.

If they acted like they were suffering in that getup, it would just seem childish and hypocritical.

Just as she was about to hit the back button.

Sss.

The feather of sound brushed past her spine.

Crunch. Crunch.

The sound penetrating through her eardrums felt like it was caressing her brain.

Shivering, she stopped moving and watched the video.

Time passed in a daze, and before she knew it, the video ended with the scene of shaking out the empty sugar bag.

No face shown, no suffering visible, not even actually eating.

Who cares about all that nonsense.

The sound is incredible.

She never understood why people watched ASMR broadcasts until now, but finally, she got it.

The reason pierced through her eardrums and stuck in her brain.

She set the video on loop and opened her thesis file.

Usually, she listened to music while reading, but listening to the sound of a Slime eating sugar somehow made things feel more comprehensible.

“Oh, right. I should subscribe.”

This will be her background sound for studying from now on.

She firmly subscribed to the channel named SLimelove.

The first subscriber.

But not the last.

There were plenty of others like her out there.

It was hard to believe a channel with just one long video and one short had subscribers climbing so fast.

And then the shorts.

That’s what exploded.

The inevitable silence that occurs while scooping sugar and pouring it into the mouth.

The shorts had shorter gaps than the original video.

Plus, there were no ads in the middle to break the flow.

Some people played the video on loop while focusing, saying it helped them concentrate.

Some played it on loop while sleeping, saying it helped them fall asleep.

Some played it while eating, saying it stimulated their appetite.

Everyone had their own reasons for playing the shorts.

Just a 15-second video.

If one person played it for an hour, that’s 240 views.

Simply leaving it on while sleeping or working meant it wasn’t uncommon for one person to rack up over 1,000 views.

As a result.

***

[Me: Hey, I’m gonna earn pocket money as a WTuber.

Me: https:/wtu.be/v2FmZmQiFsI

Me: I uploaded a video, so subscribe, like, and get the views to a thousand.

Younger sibling: Hey]

A reply came to the message I sent to my younger sibling to lay the groundwork.

After ignoring it for a day, just as I was about to upload a new video, a response came.

[Younger sibling: Your video blew up.

Me: You watched it?

Younger sibling: Yup

Younger sibling: It was fun.

Me: Fun, my foot.

Younger sibling: Mom watched it too.

Me: What did she say?

Younger sibling: She said, aren’t you wasting food?

Me: Why would I waste it?

Me: I’ll reuse it all later.]

In reality, I ate it all up, though.

[Younger sibling: How do you do this?

Younger sibling: Is there a hole in the back or something?

Younger sibling: Or is it an optical illusion?

Me: Family business secret.

Younger sibling: Family business secret, my ass.

Younger sibling: I’m your sibling, you dimwit.]

Hitting me with facts, huh?

[Me: Anyway, it’s a secret.

Younger sibling: Stingy as hell.

Younger sibling: Anyway, Mom was happy to see you doing something.

Younger sibling: Keep at it.

Younger sibling: And give me pocket money when you make some revenue.

Me: Screw off.]

Revenue, my foot.

Is making money from videos really that easy?

You need at least 1,000 subscribers and over 4,000 hours of watch time to even apply for monetization.

It’s possible with shorts too, but the total views need to be ten million.

Ten million? I can barely even reach a thousand.

Let’s see how many views I’ve got.

3.6 thousand views.

“…Why?”

243 subscribers.

“Why???”

Seriously, why are people watching this kind of video?

It’s a Mukbang, but I don’t even show my mouth.

Anyone can tell it’s fake.

Just looking at the title ’15kg Sugar Challenge’ or the thumbnail of me in a Slime Mascot Suit, you’d know I’m not actually eating it.

So why on earth are they watching?

This isn’t a shorts video, is it?

If it were a short, such view counts wouldn’t be surprising since a lot of people watch while scrolling to the next video.

113 views.

How can a short have fewer views than the original?

Is this a bug?

Could the view counts of the two videos have been swapped?

Then suddenly, the number of ‘likes’ on the shorts video caught my eye.

452.

How can there be more ‘likes’ than views?

Is this really a bug?

And there are 121 comments too.

I checked the views again, and it’s still 113….

1.13 million.

“?????”

Thinking my eyes might be playing tricks, I rubbed them and looked again, but it’s still 1.13 million.

“What the heck is going on?”

Seriously, why are people watching this garbage? Don’t they have anything better to do?

Hoping for a hint, I checked the comments.

-Why do people watch this crap?

Some random hater, I guess.

I agree.

Why are people really watching this?

The comment with the most ‘likes.’

-I was going to watch one short and then study for my exam, but why is it 7 AM when I opened my eyes?

Most reactions are similar to this.

Listening to it helps me focus.

Listening to it makes me sleepy.

Listening to it makes me hungry.

Listening to it makes me feel full.

“Which tune am I supposed to follow here?”

Occasionally, there are compliments saying the Slime Mascot Suit is cute, but overall, it can be summed up in one sentence.

The sound is creepily good.

“The sound, huh….”

I couldn’t figure out what was so great about the sound, so I listened closely to the video.

“What’s so good about it?”

Compared to other Mukbang ASMR broadcasts, the sound is indeed unique.

I’m wearing a Mascot Suit, and my mouth is made of Slime, after all.

It’s bound to be different from the sound of a normal human eating food.

But I still don’t get what’s so great about it.

Putting aside this incomprehensible phenomenon, let’s look at the current situation.

It’s a huge hit.

Seeing the view count, greed creeps in, as they say, ‘seeing is wanting.’

If this goes well, I might even be able to apply for monetization.

From what I’ve seen, shorts revenue seems to be about 0.1 won per view.

110,000 won from just this one video?

“Wait, wait, wait.”

Now’s not the time to get dazzled by potential earnings.

I made this video as an excuse to my family for not taking off the Slime Mascot Suit.

Luckily, I can still use that excuse.

Since it’s successful, I can’t take it off. If people find out there’s an old man inside the Mascot Suit, how disappointed would they be? I can’t take it off since I don’t know when or where a photo might be taken and spread. I won’t take it off until I reach 1 million subscribers. I can spin it like that.

The problem is that a lot of people have seen this video.

Surely no one would suspect that I’ve awakened as a Slime after watching this, right?

“It’ll be fine, right?”

I’m a bit uneasy….

110,000 won from just one video.

“It’ll be fine, right?”

Thinking a human turned into a Slime based on this is a huge leap.

It’s like watching a magic show and assuming the magician is actually a wizard.

Kids might think that, but no adult who’s been through life’s ups and downs would.

Unless they see it in person, they’d just assume the video was edited.

Besides, what if I suddenly take the video down?

That’d look even more suspicious.

Yeah, it’ll be fine.

Now that I’m already on board, there’s no getting off.

“Alright.”

The next Mukbang will be this.

Whether obtained by chance or made intentionally, it’s something that’s been with the history of cooking all along.

Regardless of East or West, ancient or modern, wherever humanity exists, it’s there.

Usually added to food, but sometimes loved enough to be drunk directly as an ingredient.

The lethal dose varies by concentration, but it’s roughly 5 liters.

I placed it on the table.

Thud.

Vinegar.

18 liters.

Even without considering the acetic acid in the vinegar, it’s enough water to kill someone by overdrinking.

One shot, let’s gooooo!

I chugged down the vinegar from the commercial container in one go.

[Decompose skill level has increased to 7.]

[Absorb skill level has increased to 7.]

[Trait: Slime level has increased to 6.]

It’s nice that my level went up.

The problem is the video.

“This video is too short.”

The scenes are monotonous too.

There’s hardly any difference between the looped shorts and the original.

The sound…. I’m not sure.

I’m not a sound expert, so how would I know what’s good or bad about it?

Ah, whatever. Let’s just edit and upload it.

The result.

The vinegar video completely flopped.

The vinegar video checked the next day.

Views: 573.

Shorts views: 1.1K.

The sugar video original got 9K.

The sugar shorts got 3.24M.

Even though it’s been nearly 48 hours for sugar and less than 24 hours for vinegar, the difference is extreme.

Especially the gap in shorts views is almost embarrassing to compare.

3.24M, it’s on a whole different level by itself.

At this rate, the sugar shorts might hit 10M views on its own.

Maybe I should just ride the sugar shorts bus and go apply for monetization?

Subscribers have reached 451.

“320,000 won.”

It’s nice, but on the other hand, I’m worried.

The sound in the sugar video being good was purely luck.

A captivating sound that came out by chance can’t be replicated.

I can’t just keep uploading broadcasts of eating sugar until I get a good response.

If I can’t make a new popular video, all the people I’ve gathered will leave.

“Should I just make a bunch of videos and upload them randomly until one takes off?”

Making videos isn’t hard.

I just record myself eating and upload it, and that’s it.

But it doesn’t seem like a good method. It feels like it’ll just tire out the viewers.

“Ah, seriously! Why am I obsessing over video views?”

How can I lose my original intent just three days after starting to make videos?

Greed born from seeing results is this scary.

WTube was just an excuse for the mascot suit.

If I need money, I should find another way; obsessing over WTube is bad.

Who knows if later, when views drop, I’ll go crazy and decide to do a livestream or something.

I don’t trust my own willpower.

It’s too dangerous.

But since willpower can be solved with money, diversifying income should be fine.

Actually, there’s one thing I’ve been thinking about as a way to make money.

Eating 15kg of sugar.

Drinking 18 liters of vinegar made my weight increase a lot.

Right now, I’m using the [Transform] skill to soundproof the walls, but that has its limits.

<Sweet Slime>

-A bead-shaped slime that tastes sweet. Can be used to replenish moisture and calories.

<Sour Slime>

-A bead-shaped slime that tastes sour. Has sterilizing and appetite-stimulating effects.

<Sweet-Sour Slime>

-A bead-shaped slime with a sweet and sour taste. Perfect as a snack when you have no appetite.

Can’t I sell these?

They taste pretty good.

It feels like selling parts of my body, but since I’m a slime, I don’t feel much aversion to it.

If you think about it, it’s not much different from milk, and compared to civet cat poop coffee, isn’t it much better?

But if I sell slimes, won’t my identity be exposed?

That’s what worries me.

Ding-dong.

[Makina: Wassup?]

Is it just my imagination, or does it feel like a solution has descended upon me?