Kidnapped Dragons

Chapter 85: The Ace up the Sleeve is (2)

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– ア

At the start, it was a comment like this. It had been 2 days after the upload date.

There weren’t any elements inside the video that attracted the eyes of others. The first 15 seconds was nothing but the baby chicken running somewhere with the legs of a child (Gyeoul) toddling after it.

– ewpijwexzc

– adsFnl

The two comments after that were the same as well. Those were just random comments written by babies that somehow ended up in the video.

“Why did he watch this…”

That was why Johnson, an American businessman who had been checking the watch history of his 5-year old son, was about to stop the video with little regard.

But after around 20 seconds, the blue-haired child finally appeared in full. Johnson’s hands stopped from trying to turn the video off because the girl was around the same age as his own son.

‘Gyeoul, it’s here!’

In response to someone’s voice, the blue-haired child turned to himself, the camera, and gave a bright smile.

My gosh…!

Johnson felt like his heart had been hammered by something. That child was as beautiful as his son, the cutest child in the world.

Next one is going to be a daughter…!

While he was having such thoughts, his wife walked up and flickered her eyes.

“Oh? Who’s that kid?”

“Huh? Uh, Not sure. It’s just a video our Joshua watched…”

“Really? She’s really cute.”

“Right?”

The blue-haired child followed the baby chicken from behind. That was when the voice of the cameraman reverberated.

‘Aye so cute… anyways, Gyeoul would be surprised if she saw this after growing up.’

It was just a simple mutter. However, that beautiful and clear voice resembling an angel, echoed delightfully. His wife whose attention had been taken away by the blue-haired child, tilted her head.

“Hnn?”

“Why.”

“Her voice is a bit familiar…”

“Really?”

Whatever the case, Johnson turned the video off.

The child and the baby chicken were cute, and there was a pretty voice but it had nothing to do with himself. He was just glad to confirm that his son hadn’t watched a strange video.

“Hmm…”

However, his wife Lexi, once again checked the video. She had a lot of interest in the superhuman industry and was an active fan of an English superhuman.

I definitely heard it somewhere…

After checking the video till the end, she clapped her hands.

“Ohh…!”

It was a face she knew.

She was that cadet who had suddenly been in charge of the declaration of Lair’s entrance ceremony, without any fame nor fanbase. Her face had appeared several times in news reports and websites and Lexi had been disappointed by her short media exposure.

According to her memory, her name was…

– Cadet Yu Kaeul?

– Is the lady in the video Miss Yu Kaeul?

Lexi added a comment to the video.

Thinking back, there was a friend in her fancafe that had been extremely fascinated by Cadet Yu Kaeul.

[Lexi]: Heyyy did you watch it?

“Huh?”

Receiving a message from his friend, Max opened a video. It was a normal household and an average baby chicken… but the voice he was hearing was a familiar one. It was bright, high, clear, innocent and cute…

“What is this?”

These days, video platforms all offered interpreting and translating services. When the voice left after being neatly interpreted to English, Max watched the 4-minute video till the end in a fluster.

And towards the very end, a familiar face entered the screen.

“Seriously?”

Yu Kaeul – it’s Yu Kaeul!

She was there for a split second but there was no way he could mistake it. After all, Max was a full-on superhuman otaku who had watched the previous declaration ceremony 150 times.

‘Damn it. Why did you waste such a pretty face and only show up now…!’

Max closed his eyes and reminisced on the past.

When Kaeul rejected appearing in interviews and TV shows out of the blue, how disappointed and regretful had the fans of the superhuman industry including himself been? A few of them had even cursed Kaeul’s guardian.

It was for a short period of time but it was a great trending topic. They could have earned money! And it was a chance to become famous, so why…!

But now that he got this, it felt like the disappointments of the time were melting away. Max began sharing the video to his fancafes and various communities.

*

– Waahhhhh Kaeul-unni Q.Q

– Is it really Yu Kaeul? Woah;; super pretty;;

– Her voice is so sweet Q.Q Boss! Give me a bowl of honey!

– The baby’s also so pretty… Now I want to marry and have a child..

– Where have you been? Why are you uploading only now?

– Explain please.

– Explain what. Maybe she just didn’t want to do it.

– But this doesn’t look like it was taken properly though;;

There was a thing called Potent Index in the algorithms of video platforms.

The total number of current views; views in ratio with the number of comments; the number of likes and dislikes compared to the views; the number of times the video had been shared and the session time. After taking all these elements into account, they would give scores for their potential.

Outstanding videos were followed by a large number of views, with high number of likes and comments which in turn would cause it to be exposed more.

Such videos had the right to be supported.

– Me: Ah let’s sleep now ???: Do you wanna see someone’s house before you do? Me: ?

– A minute ago) I can’t understand algorithms these days… Now) Why is that blue head child so lovely…?

The home page of the platform users had [asvbvbnsp] recommended.

– What is with these recommendations lolololol. 150k views with a title like that? For real?

– I work in the field, but this is my fifth time watching the video today T.T.,,, the babies and the chicken are all so cute and it would be amazing if you could upload more please!

***

There were things that could be compromised on and things that couldn’t.

“No.”

Kaeul standing in front of a crowd, was something that could never be compromised on from his perspective.

– Was the response bad?

From around 9000 comments, 50 or so were either sarcastic or malicious. A few of them even directly displayed their animosity and anger.

The reason for their animosity didn’t lie with Kaeul.

‘Why is something like this in my recommended list? I don’t wanna fucking watch it ffs.’

‘What the fuck lmao. Getting views with jack shit. At least learn how to edit?’

‘Random cats and dogs doing YuTuV.’

However, their target was still Kaeul.

Nothing would change even if he cursed and criticised them. The important part was that it was inevitable for there to be such people and that it would never disappear.

– Hmm, but 50 malicious comments isn’t that much though?

Yu Jitae was aware. However, he didn’t want to cultivate a seed of anxiety. No matter how small it was, it was in a field that could never be fixed after going wrong.

Things had to be shut off beforehand.

“In any case, no. Don’t even mention taking videos. Please.”

– Hmm… okay I got it. It’s just that it’s a shame…

Team Leader Yong of the PR team gave an awkward smile.

– I think the most important thing now is to take the video down.

“And then?”

– For now, 190,000 views isn’t that much…

“It’s 210,000 now.”

– Yes. Even then it’s the same. A video having 210,000 isn’t that big of an issue. Tens of thousands of videos are made worldwide that exceed 200k views in a day. Like how I only just got to know when you, the guardian mentioned it, despite being in the Promotion team.

“…”

– But if the number of views reaches several million, or you have several videos with a similar number of views, that would become a trending topic. So make sure there aren’t any other uploads. As long as you delete the uploaded video and delete the channel, it should be good.

After finishing the call with Team Leader Yong, Yu Jitae turned to Bom.

“…”

Bom had already discovered that this was Gyeoul’s mistake. She told Gyeoul to never make that mistake again.

The problem here was that Kaeul was not aware of the situation. There was nothing for them to do if Kaeul found out by hearing it from someone else, but she had to be left as is if she was clueless about it.

But the account was linked to Kaeul’s device. In order to delete the video without alarming her, they had to take her watch.

Although Kaeul was naive, she wasn’t a fool. She would be suspicious if someone suddenly asked for it.

After reading Yu Jitae’s gaze, Bom nodded her head and turned towards Gyeoul. She had already talked about it with her.

“Gyeoul. Operation start.”

Nod nod.

In response, Gyeoul toddled her way forward and headed into Kaeul’s room.

– Nn? My watch? Why?

– …photo

– Photo? You want me to take it for you? I’m good at it. Hehe.

– …

– Ah, un… here you go… you have to be careful okay?

He could hear their voices from the other side of the door, and soon, Gyeoul ran out in short strides while carrying Kaeul’s watch.

“Thank you, Gyeoul.”

Smile smile.

After receiving the watch from Gyeoul, Yu Jitae entered the video platform website and deleted the video. He then got rid of the account altogether. Creating a new account wasn’t difficult so there should be no problems there.

However, this was nothing but a sloppy first-aid.

As a Korean ranker, a worldwide ranker or as a member of the Grand Natural Society, Yu Jitae had been exposed to media throughout until the middle portions of the fourth iteration. He had a faint idea about how cumbersome media platforms were.

Something that could be trended even slightly, would always raise its head back up like a zombie.

There might be ones antagonising Kaeul and because of that, he needed a hand that was slightly more certain.

The method itself was there.

Media was a monster that always tried to live off of large trending issues like a parasite. Using that, he could create insurance.

That night, Yu Jitae left the house by himself and looked for Minamoto of the International Hunter Association. She, who had short-hair like a guy, was leaning onto the sofa of the office sharpening her sword and gazed up at him.

“Why are you here? In the middle of the night without an appointment.”

“Was thinking of maybe giving a video.”

“Tch, how random… what video?”

Yu Jitae opened his display up. A man angrily shooting a gun continued inside the video.

Minamoto’s eyes shot wide open.

“You took a video of this? In a pressing situation like that?”

She found it absurd and let out an empty laugh.

***

Next day.

It was a lot faster than what he thought, but Yu Jitae’s prediction had become a reality.

There were people in the world that were displeased from the mere existence of ‘Yu Kaeul’. They were none other than Wei Yan’s individual fans.

Due to his graceful appearance, an aesthetic style, a gentle and sweet voice as well as his gestures and gaze that shook the hearts of others, Wei Yan had a lot of fans.

He, who put a lot of emphasis on the influence of the media, always communicated with the fans through his personal SNS account. All of his actions were inflated and described nicely onto the SNS.

Most of them were stories of his success but there were often news of his failure.

– [Wei Yan]: The declaration audition has come to an end. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a good result but I don’t think Cadet Gong Juhee’s effort and passion were lacking. I feel completely responsible regarding this and would view this as a mirror to reflect back on my lacking self… ?Captain TT.TT ?Don’t be too disappointed T.T It’s not your fault… ?There will be better things soon Q.Q

The fans cried together when Wei Yan appeared sad on his uploads. Up to here was a normal relationship between a superhuman and the fanbase.

But within them were those who were in the extreme.

[Ah what the fuck… which bitch made our Captain cry?]

[I looked into it. It’s her. —- I sent the picture.]

[Ehng? What the hell…]

[Apparently she’s Yu Yeorum’s sister. Their entire family’s just…]

They were called Community Wei Yan Defence Team, abbreviated as WDT.

That day, their members etched Yu Kaeul’s face clearly into their heads. Just like every other extreme fanbase, there was no such thing as fair competitions for them. Things good for Wei Yan and things bad for Wei Yan – that was all that existed in their heads.

After the entrance ceremony and when Yu Kaeul’s declaration had been evaluated to be the best throughout history, they revealed their anger and repeatedly dumped malicious words on the internet.

However, since the general overview on Yu Kaeul was way too positive back then, their voices had been buried.

Time passed and soon came Melissia Masquerade. Wei Yan was known to have died guiltlessly from trying to save the cadets.

The WDT was in a mess.

[Ah…T.T T.T T.T T.T]

[Captain, please always be happy there.]

[I want to follow you, Captain Q.Q]

They were lost in rage and a sense of loss, and posts reminiscing on Wei Yan were being uploaded everyday. That was when it all happened; it wasn’t a good timing.

[Guys, what is this? The fuck?]

Yu Kaeul’s video appeared as a target. They, who had already been buried in anger and helplessness, needed a target whom they could oppress and reveal their rage on.

[Hah, what the fuck is this]

[Crazy bitch lol]

In case Yu Kaeul would remove the video, the members of the WDT saved the video.

And when Yu Kaeul’s video did in fact go down, they began moving. They reuploaded Kaeul’s video over and over again, and shared links amongst each other to explosively upload malicious comments of hatred.

Turning Yu Kaeul into evil wasn’t difficult. Yu household and their actions that deviated away from common sense had several things to be faulted with and the decisive fact was that Gong Juhee had quit Lair when the semester started.

– Woah like ffs, Gong Juhee even quit Lair because of her. Look how thick-skinned she is fr.

– Fuckin’ uploading videos like this like an attention seeker;; why not kys?

The reason for Gong Juhee quitting Lair wasn’t certain but the truth was not important for them. All they required was hatred that could allow them to spill out more hatred.

Yu Kaeul’s video and Gong Juhee’s name began rising up in the trending topics of various websites. Soon after that, even the name of the deceased ‘Wei Yan’ was being mentioned by the media.

A massive fire began burning off the topic.