Chapter 234

Do-Jin left the Empire and made it to the Republic, only to be met with absolute chaos. There were infiltration jobs, desperate escapes, sabotage operations, and all kinds of terrorist activity. Then, at the very end, everything blew up into a lightning-fast military coup.

Any single quest dragging on for more than three weeks would normally feel like absolute hell, but this one was different. While he was in the thick of it, he cut back on sleep and kept moving and fighting without pause. He was so busy he barely had time to breathe, let alone think. He was exhausted, worn down, and running on fumes. Because of that, time slipped by before he even realized it.

He never had the chance to sit back and keep track of the days as they passed. By the time it was finally over, it did not feel long at all. Instead, what struck him was how much time had already gone by before he noticed.

That entire mess and every scene from it was left behind as raw video footage. Even after cutting out the sleep he took just to stay alive and the logout periods mixed in along the way, the total runtime still came out to a brutal 450 hours.

The moment Rael Entertainment’s content team got their hands on the footage, they threw every available staff member at it. It was not just because it involved Do-Jin, but because anyone could tell at a glance that this one was going to be huge.

“This’ll be at least eight episodes... No, let’s make it twelve.”

The original footage was massive, and the content team decided to actively pull in other perspectives instead of sticking to Do-Jin alone. With that decision, they locked it in as a twelve-episode series.

Theresa and Soso naturally had to submit their footage as well since they were deeply tied to Rael Entertainment. The only person they had to approach carefully was Tanto. After the agency made a formal and respectful request, Tanto agreed without hesitation and gave permission for his footage to be used.

That was how Rael Entertainment’s content team, who were dead serious about Do-Jin’s videos, poured everything they had into rebuilding the “Rumanus Republic Arc.” The recreated episodes were lined up one after another and were set to premiere soon.

***

On the Floating Continent, Do-Jin’s party had pulled off a real feat. They had stopped a monster that was on the verge of evolving into a World Boss. After footage of that moment was released, topping it with something even more shocking was nearly impossible. At that point, even getting a similar level of reaction would have been considered a win.

└ It’s been quiet for a while this time, huh? Did the last video just set the bar way too high?

└ Even for Do-Jin, that kind of follow-up pressure has to be brutal, lol.

└ You’d have to keep hitting jackpots to constantly one-up yourself, but he’s already hit a mega ultra god-tier jackpot, lmao. He’s in a dilemma now.

└ I don’t give a shit what he uploads. I just want shorter gaps. I wanna see him more often.

└ Not everyone sees it that way, though. The second someone on a hot streak like him slows down even a little, braindead haters come swarming in and start tearing him apart for no reason.

Do-Jin’s channel had always been irregular, with long gaps between uploads. So stretches without videos were nothing new. People constantly joked about whether he was on a hiatus or had quit the game altogether. But this time, fans were unusually worried.

└ Now that I think about it, every single one of his uploads has been a massive hit. Maybe that’s why the gaps are so long. He probably feels like anything he uploads has to match or beat the last one.

└ We’re ready to watch whatever he uploads, but the pressure and stress on Do-Jin’s side as the channel owner must be totally different.

└ Saying you’d watch anything is bullshit. The general audience is not that forgiving.

└ Yeah, this is straight facts. The moment you get lazy and think the channel can run on autopilot, your views fall off a cliff before you even realize it.

Because the most recent video had been so insane, people started talking more and more about the pressure Do-Jin must be under, and that worry spread like a wildfire.

└ Honestly, if it were me, I’d be scared shitless to come back, lol. If he uploads anything even slightly mid, people are going to start calling him washed immediately.

└ I just want him to come back fast. If a low-energy video drops, you already know people are going to spam “washed” and “fell off” in the comments like a pack of rabid dogs. Just thinking about those assholes makes my blood boil.

Concerns and worry from fans turned into anticipation for the anti-fans.

└ Don’t you idiots realize that the more you act like this, the more pressure it puts on Do-Jin? Just shut up and wait quietly.

└ Yeah, yeah.

└ Sure, sure. You wait quietly. We’ll be waiting with our insults loaded and ready.

└ By the way, I’m honestly curious. Why are people even hating on Do-Jin? What did he even do wrong?

└ I just don’t like him. He looks like a cocky asshole.

People who genuinely worried about Do-Jin and haters who fed on that worry to stir up shit ended up tangled together in one big mess, bickering nonstop.

“What the hell is this?” Do-Jin mumbled.

He had woken up just now, eaten the meal Chun Ji-Hyun had prepared, and then logged into LotraNet to check how things were going in LOST lately.

[MeTuber Do-Jin announces retirement after being crushed by pressure...]

The top real-time trending post on LotraNet’s main page was about his supposed retirement. Even though he knew it was clickbait, he couldn’t help himself. And of course, it was just another shitpost.

[He promises to never upload again and stay with us forever.]

It was such obvious bait that no one should have fallen for it, yet the comments were a complete disaster. It was no surprise people were tearing the poster apart, since anyone who posts crap like that is practically begging to get flamed. Those types live for the attention and the roasting.

But because it somehow made it to the main page, fans and haters had piled in and turned the comment section into a full-blown warzone. Every time he refreshed the page, the comment count jumped, sometimes by thirty, sometimes over a hundred. The speed alone showed how heated things had gotten.

“Why is everyone getting so heated in the comments?” Do-Jin felt completely thrown off.

Wait a minute. Who was supposedly under pressure? Reading the comments, he slowly came to the realization that it was about him.

He had never even thought about that kind of pressure in the slightest. So what if the next video was worse than the last one? He would just upload it anyway. So what if his popularity dipped a bit? That was fine.

He truly believed that anything going up must eventually come down. As long as he could just ride the wave and coast steadily, it was enough. Ironically, he felt more pressure on the other side, which had become his second reality at this point.

I guess I should be grateful though.

Do-Jin was usually the type to ignore people who said they hated him. He would just brush it off but seeing fans jump in, get angry on his behalf, and argue for him felt different.

Even though he had been so focused on the game that he hadn’t really paid attention, people were still this invested in him. They liked him. They worried about him. When someone talked trash, they charged in to fight back for him.

I don’t know whether I should call it gratitude or pride.

He just knew his chest felt a little tight. So Do-Jin went directly to his MeTube channel and wrote a post himself.

[Hi, this is Do-Jin. I understand that a lot of people have been worrying about me lately, so I just wanted to share a quick update on how I’ve been doing. I know many of you are concerned that I might be feeling pressured, but you really don’t need to worry about that. I’m not stressed about it at all.]

[If anything, I think I’m one of the lucky ones to be receiving so much love from you guys, and part of me also thinks there’s a lot of hype around me. But at the end of the day, I don’t want to waste my time on Earth worrying about when that hype might fade. Maybe one day things will feel boring and people will eventually forget and move on from me, but that’s exactly why I want to fully enjoy this moment while it lasts. I want to enjoy the present moment where so many of you worry about me and even get angry on my behalf.]

[By the way, a new video will be going up soon. It’ll probably be a lot less exciting than before. You might even find it kind of long and a little boring. Still, I trust the editors. They’ll do their magic to make the clips fun to watch. Lastly, thank you for being my fans even though I’m nothing special.]

└ Do-Jin, please, don’t feel stressed. Just do what makes you happy.

└ His attitude is honestly so good. This is how people should face life. People these days are way too harsh and bitter.

└ Yeah, I agree with you. It’s hard to stay at the top forever. Everyone has to come down eventually. Whether you feel despair or pride when that happens is what decides how happy you are.

└ LOL, you barely ever post community updates, so seeing one now makes it look like you must be on edge. Is the next video so bad that even you know you’re cooked? Can’t wait for the boring, dragged-out mess.

└ You fucking piece of... Never mind. I hope you’re happy too.

└ Who the hell are you to tell me to be happy, huh?

└ We are ready to watch even your daily life vlog so don’t feel pressured bro. There are a lot of fans out there who genuinely like you for you.

Rael Entertainment struggled for a while with phone calls and emails asking about the upload schedule, but Do-Jin’s post drew an overwhelmingly positive response. From a marketing perspective, the flood of inquiries was basically free advertising.

Time passed, and the twelve episodes began releasing. The videos went up one by one with a three-day gap in between. The overall audience reaction boiled down to one consensus: never trust anything Do-Jin said.

└ Do-Jin, are you out of your fucking mind? You said the videos are gonna be boring and dragged out!

└ Drop the next episode already!

└ Fact check. Do-Jin is absolute trash in Korean. He thinks insane means boring and he thinks time flew by means dragged out.

└ BRO, I will defend you on most things, but I can’t with this one. Let’s go back to studying Korean.

In terms of pure scale, the arc couldn’t match the battles against the Curse Incarnation. The layered narrative was also lighter. The Floating Continent, the vampires, and the curse that bound them all had long-running buildup, starting from Karin and stretching across multiple arcs. But the Rumanus Republic episode had a completely different flavor.

└ The genre straight-up changed.

└ Wasn’t this a monster-hunting game? Why are we doing infiltration, bombings, and looting now, lol?

└ A player robbing a mana stone truck wasn’t even on my bingo card.

└ As a Korean, my chest is swelling with pride right now.

└ What does being Korean have to do with it?

└ We are literally a nation born from resistance.

└ Don’t forget our history of fighting dictatorship either. If you’re talking vibes, that actually fits even better.

Unlike the Empire, which felt like classic high fantasy, the Rumanus Republic had a completely different atmosphere. Instead of simply clearing difficult dungeons and taking down powerful monsters, the footage showed full-on resistance activity. Everything captured in the video felt fresh and new. For people from countries like Korea, which carry painful histories of colonization and dictatorship, it was even more immersive.

└ Even if the Cult of Ruin got involved and that was why things went that way, it’s still a country. Does it really get looted that easily?

└ That’s the scary part about dictatorship. When one person has all the power, the moment that bastard loses it, the whole country goes off the rails. It’s just like Russia back in the day.

└ Yeah, makes sense. To keep a dictatorship going, they probably cut down anyone who started building power before they could grow. If it was the Empire, even if the imperial family had control, the moment things went sideways, opposing factions would have moved to shut it down.

Because the video was packed with so many discussion points, the view count shot through the roof. And of course, the people pushing the “Do-Jin is washed” narrative were nowhere to be seen.

└ The final scene is absolute cinema.

It was the scene where Do-Jin tried to leave quietly, only to get stopped by the resistance members, and everyone ended up standing side by side. He looked visibly annoyed while the others were all smiling brightly.

The entire scene was processed in black and white. That final cut, treated like an old film photograph, became many viewers’ favorite moment.