Chapter 36

Usogeon confirmed the name engraved on the business card.

Cocktail Holic, Juyena.

The business card was simple, featuring only the logo and name of the bar, Cocktail Holic. Even so, knowing the store’s name, he could easily look it up online if he wanted to visit.

Still…

“Is it even okay to go there?”

Usogeon is someone who knows the world isn’t an easy place.

Particularly when women are involved, he feels it even more strongly.

Usogeon views himself as just an average-looking person.

He thought someone like Juyena, who didn’t seem ordinary at first glance and was being amiable to him, had to have an ulterior motive.

“Don’t let her end up stealing one of my organs…”

While the probability of something like that happening was slim, he couldn’t discount the possibility of it being a pyramid scheme or a cult of some kind.

Still having student loans to pay off, getting involved in something bad could lead to a difficult future.

“Let’s just go home, home.”

With the decision to not unnecessarily get himself into trouble, Usogeon turned back and went home.

Additionally, he felt slightly uncomfortable having gotten some soju on his hands while drinking earlier, and after having already consumed a bottle, attending a second round of drinking wasn’t an option.

Usogeon simply thought the encounter had been unusual and tried to forget about it.

#

Forget about it.

Even as he thought it should be erased, Usogeon’s life remained tough.

He lived in exhaustion amid the graveyards of exams and assignments, working part-time to pay off his student loans.

In such a difficult life, thoughts of liquor inevitably came into Usogeon’s mind.

Even so, drinking did make him feel as if he were releasing pent-up frustration.

Was it because of that?

“Cocktail Holic…”

While sipping a canned beer one day, Usogeon looked at the business card he had received from Juyena.

Thinking that if he would end up drinking alone anyway, why not check out the place, he looked it up online…

“Surprisingly close?”

Somehow drawn, he found himself heading towards Cocktail Holic.

Juyena had said if you’re going to drink, then you should enjoy good alcohol.

There was a part of him wondering how much good alcohol could differ, and another part felt that drinking soju all the time made his life a little too predictable. He also had the idea that if possible, he might want to drink cocktails and look more sophisticated while getting drunk.

“Welcome!”

When he finally arrived at Cocktail Holic…

“Welcome, Master!”

“No…”

Surprisingly…

No, it was very disorienting.

The bartenders, dressed in modernized and flexible maid and butler outfits, lined up behind the bar.

“Welcome Master!”

Among the bartenders, there was even a male wearing butler clothing. His overly formal greeting was awkward to the point that it was almost repellent, unlike the somewhat embarrassing greetings from the maids.

“Sorry, but I’m here for the first time… Can you try speaking a bit more casually?”

“Aah, certainly. It seems you’re visiting Cocktail Holic for the first time?”

“Yeah, umm… I met this person by chance, and she said if I wanted to drink good alcohol, I should come here…”

“Aah, Miss Juyena’s business card. Please wait a moment. She’s likely working right now… Juyena!”

The butler seemingly didn’t want to deal with male customers either, as he immediately called for Juyena.

And from the other side, Juyena…

“Ah!”

“What?”

“That guy with the weird flute thing!”

“Oh, that’s me….”

She instantly recognized Usogeon.

“Aah, Manager. I’ll handle this person. Please go to the other side.”

“Yes, you handle it.”

“Yes.”

There was an awkward silence that followed.

Still slightly dazed, Usogeon looked at Juyena in her maid outfit.

“This? It’s the concept for this week.”

“Concept?”

“Yup, our bar is a cosplay bar. Men generally wear butler outfits unless exceptions, and the women have concepts that rotate periodically.”

Juyena calmly explained that Cocktail Holic operates on themes.

Then,

“Anyway, if we’re going to keep talking, wouldn’t it be good to wet our throats a bit?”

“Ahh…”

Juyena naturally steered the conversation toward ordering drinks, preparing her sales pitch.

Juyena had a principle that if one was going to drink, it should be enjoyable. She developed an interest in cocktail-making and believed that the experience of good alcohol should be shared. Seeing Usogeon, who seemed to only be familiar with soju and beer, she wanted to introduce him to the world of real liquor.

“I don’t know much about alcohol…”

“In that case, let me pick something good for you.”

Usogeon very naturally handed over the choice of alcohol to Juyena.

#

“Quality is really good, huh?”

Stepping away from the protagonist of Cosplay Holic briefly, Usogeon started reviewing the story that had unfolded thus far.

Similar to himself in real life, the character was adrift, clueless about what to do after graduation, nibbling on loneliness with a flute.

After meeting Juyena, the bartender at Cocktail Holic,

the protagonist started entering the world of cocktails through the drinks she made.

He became a regular, engaging with Juyena by having a drink daily or often, occasionally meeting other bartenders,

then encounters the second heroine, Soa.

“The UI is clean, the story doesn’t have any major flaws, and thanks to pro voice actors, the voice acting is also clean. Especially the illustrations…”

Are perfect.

Having seen many of Hayoon’s works on broadcast, even Usogeon thought this was on a whole new level.

“How does she draw like this?”

Hayoon was only in the first year of her high school education, but Usogeon was utterly baffled at the skill. He shook his head in disbelief and remained transfixed on the demo screen for some time.

Then,

“So…”

A look of realization crossing his face,

he focused on the maid outfit Juyena wore on the screen,

“Hayoon is going to wear something like that, in Cosplay Book.”

Hayoon was genuinely committed to the success of Cosplay Holic.

After not showing her face for months, she had started subtly hinting at its reveal, even going as far as subtly promoting her attractiveness.

If you want to see her face, support this game. By doing so, you’ll know her face.

I’m confident enough that all you need to do is spend money.

Wasn’t that the subtle suggestion?

So, what should he, as a fan of Hayoon, do?

After some thought, Usogeon came to a conclusion.

Viral promotion.

Would the game succeed purely on its merits? If it does, she probably won’t bother with face reveals. This must be her ace in trying to make Cosplay Book a hit.

Let’s make cosplay novel communities aware of Hayoon’s game.

By promoting it virally and ensuring it becomes a hit, Hayoon won’t need to disclose her face.

If the game succeeds, she’ll be sitting on a mountain of money and won’t have to risk exposure by revealing herself.

Moreover, if her face remains hidden, given her characteristic of focusing solely on drawing streams, her channel will find it hard to reach a certain audience size.

“Ideally, just double her current size? Maintaining an average of around 200 viewers would be best. Please…”

He wants her all to himself.

He doesn’t want to share her with anyone.

He wants to keep interacting with Hayoon as her chat manager.

To do this, he needs to prevent the face reveal, and he believes if the game succeeds financially, she won’t need to.

With this peculiar reasoning process, Usogeon decided to start virally promoting Hayoon’s game.

However,

Much like always, life didn’t flow according to plan.

It’s late March in the year 2020.

A period when possibly the most number of people are glued to their social media and communities.

With such a massive influx of people, any plans involving community strategy inevitably fail.

#

April, the fourth month of 2020, had begun.

Yet Hayoon still hadn’t checked how much funding had been gathered for Cosplay Holic on the platform.

She was both afraid it might show negative results and felt it was a matter of personal dignity as a human being.

Frankly, she was scared.

“This light source could be toned down a bit. Juyena’s apartment scene should have a brighter background, so we could make it slightly dry and balance the mood with color and SCG.”

-That’s true. The ECG that will pop up later should stand out more this way.

Thus, she focused on studio illustrations while chatting on the phone with Arin.

With the pandemic at its peak, even casual café conversations were socially frowned upon, making it better to work while screen-sharing through a voice-call program.

Today, she continued her work in a tranquil ambiance.

-?

Until whatever it was made Arin momentarily lose her speech.

“Sis?”

-Um, wha…?

“Did you see a ghost or something? Why are you suddenly behaving like this?”

-Th-th-the numbers…tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands…hundreds of thousands….millions…

“Huh?”

Curious about why Arin was reacting so dramatically, Hayoon tilted her head momentarily.

“Huh?”

Hayoon herself soon felt an odd sensation in her mind.

At this very moment, nothing else could make Arin react this way.

Rushing to check the funding page of Cosplay Holic, she glanced at the fundraising progress just as…

-Twenty million won!

Her astonishment filled Arin’s voice rang through the speaker.

“…”

-…

A silence descended between the two women.

‘What just happened…?’

Hayoon swiftly began an ego search to grasp the situation during this silent time.

With figures like this, there could be no mistake unless something went terribly wrong.

She had to understand the exact situation immediately.

…

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