Ch.9595. Proof Video

So it’s like this.

There are countless attention-grabbing videos out there, but actually igniting that attention is a different matter altogether.

When someone uploads a video claiming “I solo cleared an S+ dungeon!” most people would leave comments like:

– “Bullshit lol. I’ll give you 1 billion if you can prove it.”

– “Sure, more like D+ level^^”

– “The monsters are so weak, how is this S+? lol”

Even with solid proof, people might not believe it. If someone edits footage of themselves farming monsters in a dungeon where information is obscured, it’s natural for everyone to be skeptical.

But then a variable appears.

A hunter capable of clearing verified S-rank dungeons comments:

– “You really did clear it. Amazing.”

With comments like this, people start to get confused.

Is it real?

Was this person fooled too?

Would someone with a verified reputation fall for this?

If one or two people say so, opinions will be divided.

But what if more and more people join in, and even the Hunter Association reaches out?

At that point, whether it’s true or not becomes irrelevant.

– “Is this for real?”

– “Wait, it’s actually true?”

– “We’ll see if it’s a lie or not.”

– “OMG”

– “OMG”

So to summarize, these 500,000+ subscribers are essentially people who subscribed to verify whether the video I uploaded is genuinely from an SSS+ hunter. Not just in Korea, but globally—people who don’t even know what’s going on are thinking, “Huh? I should subscribe too.”

“That’s great! It’s a jackpot. Even if only 20-30% remain as ghost subscribers, that’s still 100,000 people, and we’re confident we can capture them all!”

Kim Sujeong was ecstatic.

It was a bit random, but ultimately, she said it was a major boost for the channel.

Of course, she also warned that if we couldn’t capitalize on this attention, the bubble would burst, and the channel would become a dead one that no one would ever look at again.

But I didn’t think that would happen.

The editor we hired recently was definitely doing a good job.

“This is the video we’re uploading next. What do you think?”

“It looks awesome.”

Yoon Hyunji, was it?

Sujeong’s editor friend used effects that were consistently appropriate and not excessive.

Or maybe they were excessive, but stylishly so?

Some people might have mixed feelings about it.

Adding invisible effects to skills could make pure hunter video enthusiasts think, “Isn’t this CG? Isn’t this staged?”

Such broken immersion could interfere with the viewing experience and ultimately lead to people not recommending the channel.

But here’s my take:

You can’t satisfy everyone’s preferences anyway.

Some will cheer for my videos, while others won’t like them.

If I were making videos professionally, treating YouTube as my career, I would have reviewed which approach would be more beneficial and attract more attention. But that’s not the case.

YouTube is my hobby.

It’s a hobby and a place to flaunt and show off my SSS+ abilities.

I want to receive people’s attention, envy, and jealousy through it.

And that’s exactly why I needed an editor with this kind of style.

It’s exactly my style.

“I like it.”

“Right? I told you she’s been suppressing her talent. She needed a channel like ours. These days, hunter channels are all about stripping away effects and going for a clean look. I remembered how she always talked about wanting to quit.”

I had two options.

One was to respond to people’s interest and absorb this explosive attention.

I could make videos about what people are curious about and steadily feed on their interest.

No effort needed, no luck needed.

What everyone wants to see is my hunter rank.

It doesn’t have to be SSS+. S+ would probably be enough.

While there are four-digit numbers of S-rank hunters worldwide, they’re still rare.

Not all S-rank hunters do YouTube.

And since not all S-rank hunters have combat abilities, a YouTube channel by an S-rank hunter with combat skills would easily get at least a million subscribers just by launching.

“Upload a proof video.”

In such a situation, just by verifying my SSS+ hunter certificate, my channel could reach not 500,000 but 5 million subscribers.

But I didn’t want to do that.

Why should I?

I didn’t create this channel to satisfy people’s curiosity.

Rather, let them be curious and frustrated.

Let their unquenched thirst bring them back to the channel to watch the videos again and again, even if they just watched them five minutes ago.

That’s why I named the channel [SSS+ Farmer Hunter].

I will never give the answer everyone wants.

I won’t upload an explanation video, caving under the pressure of angry masses acting like they’re entitled to an explanation.

Indirect threats using subscriptions and views as leverage.

I didn’t want to yield.

“Oppa, that’s the power struggle that makes most YouTubers fall.”

“I’m an SSS+ hunter.”

“Well, even if the channel fails, you won’t have trouble making a living.”

“It won’t fail.”

As Sujeong said, it might just be the pointless pride of someone who was just a jobless homebody, but that’s what I wanted.

So the video uploaded to the channel after a week wasn’t an explanation video, but a proof video.

[Prove. Your Worth.]

This time, it was a video featuring an episode with Black Monkeys.

——————

The video simply captured the battle.

There weren’t any specific editing points, and Sujeong said she just sent the raw footage, which showed how the editor and I had overlapping tastes.

Black Monkeys watching me from atop countless branches.

The first-person perspective looking up from below is quite desperate.

Can a human defeat monkeys in trees? And hundreds of them? The very thought is laughable.

But I charged in without hesitation.

Since the previous video already showed me crossing a river with [Leap Slash], the sudden shift in perspective to a high tree branch wasn’t that surprising.

Thud-thud-

The heads of monkeys standing on branches fall, followed by their headless bodies.

From below, the trees seemed incredibly tall, but watching the bodies fall from above makes the height seem even more dizzying.

The rapidly changing perspectives could cause motion sickness, but the fast-paced scenes were so natural and smooth that even that feeling was absent.

Pop-pop-pop!

Pop-pop-pop-pop!

The battle was extremely selfish and brutal.

I evaded dozens of Black Monkeys that discovered and charged at me, methodically eliminating only a few at a time.

The time it took for the melting monkeys, edited to appear as if teleporting, to reach 100 in number was less than 3 minutes.

Considering the previous video was exactly 3 minutes long, this was quite lengthy.

But it didn’t feel boring at all.

Then the scene changed.

Black Monkeys emerging from the ground, surrounding me.

A Black Monkey speaks:

“Let’s fight fair and square.”

This was the day after the chieftain quest was proposed, so the Black Monkeys that were in the trees had come down.

And the second battle began.

This time, it was a head-on confrontation.

Cowardly.

Because they thought they would lose.

This one-minute segment would probably wipe away the sneers of those who had been watching with such thoughts.

The video was 5 minutes long.

It showed me smashing all the attacking Black Monkeys with my fists until I was recognized as their chieftain.

“This is actually really good.”

Despite being combat-focused, the video strangely contained a story.

Honestly, considering the completion of the Black Monkey sub-quest, the editing seemed just right.

The story was about overwhelming them on the first day, then the beaten Black Monkeys, realizing they couldn’t win, challenging me to a duel, which somehow ended with me making 135 slaves as their chieftain.

Adding exciting background music and effects transformed it into what felt like a main story.

Of course, I might be biased since I’m watching myself.

But focusing just on the combat, it was a pretty solid video.

The viewers seemed to agree.

– Wow…

– Aren’t those Black Monkeys?

– Aren’t they B-rank monsters?

They’re dimensional rift monsters but also found in dungeons.

While there might be some confusion about their rank, since rift dimension ones are higher…

– You’ve proven your manhood.

– Prove. Your worth.

– What’s the meaning behind the title?

It seemed the proof was somewhat established.