Hiding a House in the Apocalypse - Chapter 215



Only Krnovel

94. Influencer (1)

Before the war, there were countless Internet sites.

Although their tendencies, goals, and age groups were different, they had one thing in common: a shared destiny.

The number of people accessing the site.

Consider a shopping street.

No matter how attractive the stores are or how pretty the streets are, a deserted shopping district with no people around will not last long.

On the other hand, crowded streets thrive even if they are a bit dirty and have unfriendly shops.

Just as an empty street doesn’t last long, an empty site doesn’t last long either.

For a site that is built on the premise of people gathering, having no people is no different from a pork belly restaurant running out of meat.

Of course, in our case, Viva! Apocalypse!, the context was a little different from other sites.

It stems from the special nature of our group.

We are a coalition of a few, well-prepared and alert for the future.

Even when war actually broke out and the world entered a period of destruction, our Viva! Apocalypse! fully fulfilled its function as the last community in the dying world.

But even if we are a small elite site, we still need the minimum number of people that the site needs.

The number of users on the Korean bulletin board has also decreased by 1/3, but it appears that the number of users on the American side has also decreased by a similar amount.

According to Melon Mask, the number of Viva! Apocalypse! users in the US at its peak was a whopping 800,000.

This number should be viewed as including diehard Melon Mask supporters who applaud even when Melon Mask takes a shit, rather than the entirety of the doomsday movement.

The actual number of doomsday activists was estimated at less than 200,000.

Meanwhile, the United States suffered less damage from the war than Korea, and its military power was maintained mainly by state-level defense forces, so the number of its users did not decrease significantly even after the war.

However, as the destruction progressed, the number of North American users rapidly decreased.

It maintained 700,000 users until about a year after the war started, but it plummeted to half in the season after a year and two months.

This is the point at which the federal government itself began to shake as state and federal governments began to clash.

People who lived in houses without bunkers and used satellite internet were swept away by the waves of rioters and looters.

After two years, only 200,000 remained.

Melon Mask is the number of people out of 1.5 million active users who are considered serious doomsday enthusiasts.

But even those abolitionists couldn’t last more than three years.

Now, three years and six months after the war began, active users in North America have fallen below 100,000.

Considering the symbolic nature of the number 100,000, it is a disaster that could even be a crisis for the entire bulletin board.

As if things weren’t bad enough, another problem hit Viva! Apocalypse!

A powerful rival has risen up on the North American continent.

The site was named “Necropolis,” derived from the Greek word meaning city of the dead.

Unlike Viva! Apocalypse!, it is a site that can be accessed with just a regular radio receiver, so the site itself is slow and has many limitations such as not being able to use content beyond photos, but it is said to be quickly surpassing Viva! Apocalypse! as the largest site in North America due to its versatility and ease of use.

The sight was reminiscent of the rise of Palenet.

Anyway, the sudden drop in users and the emergence of powerful competitors were enough to grate the nerves of Melon Mask, the creator of our world.

The melon mask declared a state of emergency and launched the Viva! Apocalypse! Save campaign (at least in North America).

MELON_MASK: The competition in our time is similar to the situation faced by Hollywood filmmakers when TV was invented.

MELON_MASK: Yes. We are Hollywood and they are the producers of TV shows. We have the world’s best internet network and a radio system that cannot be destroyed by any war. Above all, our greatest asset is you. The Vivarians who make up Viva! Apocalypse!

MELON_MASK: We need content. I know everyone is having a hard time and going through difficult times, but we need more content in these times. We need to spread light and civilization to the majority of poor users who find enjoyment in things like Necropolis, which is nothing more than a PC communication service, let alone the Internet.

There is no historical fact that the melon mask liked South Korea.

Rather, before the war, he had a history of using the racist slur “Fucking Kimchi Man!” on a social networking service he took over to users who left malicious comments about him.

But there probably aren’t many people who would deny that the country that Melon Mask likes the most is South Korea.

MELON_MASK: I have high expectations for my Korean friends too! Korea is the land of Dongtan Mom and Fox Game! I believe there are more outstanding people than just those two!

Melon Mask ended the emergency live by giving a thumbs up with Bumpy.

“······.”

Coincidentally, the live broadcast that reported the crisis in the United States was the same time that Park Gyu returned from the Kaesong Lighthouse and was writing a new “Ssul Series” that he posted on the bulletin board.

To be exact, I had written a draft, but I felt like it was a bit bland, so I held off on uploading it.

At the time, I had an animalistic instinct as a “story teller” that if I continued to post like this, I wouldn’t get the reaction I wanted.

Something else.

Yeah, it needed some seasoning.

After weighing up the various seasonings, I thought that adding the traditional seasoning of romance would get a hotter response, so I planned to add the romance between Skeleton and Lightning, although it is different from reality.

But suddenly, this huge event happened.

Well, the fact that it’s Melon Mask and not someone else doing something like this is an ominous sign.

I put my romance plans on hold and waited and saw how things would turn out.

Soon, Vivabot notified us of the specific instructions for the Melon Mask.

The moment I saw her nickname, I briefly considered whether it would be a good idea to include the romance between me and Vivabot, but I immediately rejected it from within.

That’s how much Lee Park Gyu was sincere about the seasoning called romance.

Anyway, Vivabot posted the following notice on the bulletin board.

VIVA_BOT014: The first batch of VIVA! Influencers are being recruited!

“Influencer······?”

In Korean, it means someone who exerts influence.

I remember that before the war, people with a lot of followers on social media and other places were called by these names.

In fact, on our bulletin board, that influencer is already implicitly recognized among users under the name Named.

But why insist on making that explicit?

VIVA_BOT014: You can think of it as something similar to a bulletin board manager.

Another armband?

Melon mask guy.

I think I’m finally getting a feel for what makes users tick.

VIVA_BOT014: However, because of previous user cases, I will not be giving them absolute power like before. Instead, all posts by users designated as influencers will be marked as “bold”, and content that I deem important can be immediately listed as popular posts regardless of the number of recommendations, views, or comments.

In other words, does this mean that my writing will be bold and stand out more than other users’ writings, and at the same time, I can post popular articles myself?

“Hoo.”

It’s quite attractive.

VIVA_BOT014: And you can block certain users from commenting on popular posts you’ve written!

He nodded.

I thought this was enough.

Of course, becoming an influencer is not easy.

VIVA_BOT014: Currently, Dongtan Mom and Fox Game have been designated as confirmed influencers. We are recruiting a third Korean bulletin board influencer to follow them.

“······.”

VIVA_BOT014 : Here’s the method······ You all know, right?

It’s content.

What was once meant for our users has now been elevated to the point of jeopardizing the survival of our entire forum.

of course,

mmmmmmmmm: Huh? Why didn’t I become an influencer?

mmmmmmmmm : Ah, you’re annoying~ What now, huh? Can you show me the slope of the apartment again?

There are bound to be people who don’t know the subject.

I know my subject.

I know at least my beatboxing isn’t resonating with people.

In that respect I am two steps ahead of the m9.

*

Movie! Apocalypse! has become a trend, but it was revealed in the last video that it was a video made by grinding people.

The Dongtan Mom scenario was made so well that it was as awkward as possible, but the last movie! Apocalypse! is Viva! Apocalypse! The staff must have gone on strike. In the scene where the main character, a black man, runs through a burning house to protect his family while pushing through looters, a bizarre scene was produced where the main character’s face somehow transformed into a fictional character called “Giga Chad.”

Rather than blackwashing, I would call it internet meme washing.

In addition, there were many instances where the main character’s face would change into that of a familiar movie character during a scene where they were fighting a mobster – even a woman.

Melon Mask apologized for the outrageous video, but there’s nothing they can do.

Ultimately, people are needed to create stable content.

SKELTON: Are you alive?

I sent a message to DragonC.

Strictly speaking, I sent a message to the former popular webtoon artist, Phil Crumb.

He was known to have his internet equipment taken away and only produce content requested by the Jeju government, and he actually ignored a few of the messages I had sent him before, but I sent them anyway in desperation.

There is no reply.

“hmm.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t have high expectations.

I wanted to tell my story through the paintings of such an outstanding artist.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything without a philtrum.

Fox Games has prepared the appropriate tools.

Although he is a very mean-spirited adult in real life, he is widely known as a kind-hearted person on the Internet. He has uploaded relatively easy-to-use work tools to the Internet, claiming that it is a “game that everyone can create together.”

One of them is what is commonly called an AI image generation tool.

Foxgame claims to have used the most data-learning and reliable AI image generation tool among numerous others, but indeed, when I looked at the images created by other users, many of them were so plausible that I was amazed.

Foxgames: How to use the AI ​​image generation tool “Far ice”.

I created an AI image by looking at the manual compiled by Foxgame.

Unlike other images, AI images can complete a picture in less than 5 minutes simply by adding tags that indicate the characteristics of the picture.

For example, let’s insert a tag like the one below.

Tag: Hunter, Tag: Handsome, Tag: Axe, Tag: Two-handed

-Generating AI image. Please wait a moment.

The waiting time is about 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

As I waited quietly, drinking my coffee, the AI ​​image generation tool soon showed me a familiar image of a handsome Western man in combat fatigues similar to a military uniform, holding an axe in both hands and staring straight ahead.

“······.”

Sure, Foxgame is a son of a bitch, but his tools are damn handy.

Even if you hate people, don’t hate tools.

My intention is not to use this tool to create webtoons.

No matter how much a machine creates a picture, as long as the machine draws the picture, it cannot extract the image of my imagination itself.

Especially, I can’t even imagine how an action scene could be created using just tags.

Movie! Apocalypse! failed because it tried to make it with the same quality as the last time despite a lack of manpower.

Yes, that’s right.

Compromise is necessary.

The convergence of technology and limited human resources.

After much thought, what I came up with was the so-called “visual novel.”

The idea is to put a picture that fits the mood on each page and to write less text than a novel on top of the image so that people can associate the image with the picture while getting immersed in the skeleton’s fascinating and mysterious story.

Message from DAJUNG: That sounds good. Go ahead!

My method was also acknowledged by Dajeong.

Anyway, I have a perfect image in my head, and I also have an even more perfect story in my head.

In a way, webtoons are just one way of expressing a story.

What matters is the story.

I’m going to tell you a story that happened at Gaeseong Lighthouse.

The draft has already been completed, so all that needs to be done is to refine it and use the AI ​​image tool to create scenes that fit each scene.

If you have this kind of image of AI, there seems to be no need to add romance.

The attempt to force a romance that never existed in the first place was a sort of last resort to add interest and pace to the story with the sharp sense of a “storyteller.”

There is no need to insert fake romance when there is a more intuitive and immersive device called image.

*

It was when I woke up from a deep sleep, finished my morning routine – reconnaissance and facility check – and sat down in front of my laptop to log into the bulletin board.

I see the nickname of a user I don’t like in the popular posts.

Dolsingman: My Story – “New Love”

“A single man······?”

I don’t know who this guy is, but I remember clearly that he is less famous than me and that he dared to run for the captain’s armband despite being a less famous subject.

This guy. Contrary to his nickname, he seems to have a strong desire for honor.

I mean, you’ve been coveting my seat not once, but twice.

A burst of laughter broke out.

A single man or something?

However, the number of views and recommendations is unusual.

I felt the smile disappear from my lips and clicked on his ambitious post “New Love” with a little trepidation.

“hmm?”

I see a picture.

It is a dreamy scene of a man and a woman meeting in a lush flower garden with evening play.

The image looks beautiful at first glance, but it has the typical typicality of AI image tools and some oddities here and there.

This is a picture created by AI.

But that’s not what’s important.

There are letters next to the picture.

Sentences, not words.

It’s one article.

The moment I understood its meaning, I tilted my head.

This is exactly the same idea I was going to do, right?

“······.”

Things are not going well.

If I upload my story like this, it will be considered plagiarism.

I thought of it first, but it turns out it was copied!