Seojun opened his eyes with a start. He had slept very well, without dreaming.
Lying in the crib with all sides blocked, Seojun looked at the colorful mobile toys and shook his arms and legs, stretching in his own way.
Then, he put the pacifier, connected by a string to his plump wrist, into his mouth.
Suck-suck-
While other babies would have burst into tears as soon as they opened their eyes, Seojun was different. He leisurely enjoyed the pacifier.
[Elf's Basic Breathing]
The existence of light embraces mana.
It does not conflict with other breathing techniques. (Except for evil/darkness)
It harmonizes the possessor's body.
Seojun took a breath, inhaling and exhaling.
Although this world had little mana, it was not entirely absent. Seojun had started practicing [Elf's Basic Breathing] from the moment he began to think.
When reborn, he forgot almost everything except for two things.
[Elf's Basic Breathing] and [Orc's Basic Breathing] were the two things he made sure not to forget. [Orc's Basic Breathing] had a similar effect to [Elf's Basic Breathing] but benefited evil/darkness-aligned beings.
Once Seojun had a grasp of his new 'body,' he chose one of the two breathing techniques to practice.
Seojun's breathing gradually slowed down. As he inhaled and exhaled repeatedly, tiny bits of mana seeped into his body.
After living many lives, Seojun chose these two breathing techniques as his initial abilities for one main reason. The greatest advantage of [Elf's Basic Breathing] and [Orc's Basic Breathing] was...
"Ouch, you're already awake?"
Dad suddenly stuck his face over the crib. Seojun smiled at Dad.
...safety. Even if someone touched him during the breathing or if he suddenly stopped, he could safely finish the technique.
This was especially useful when he was born as a weak monster that could not afford to relax for a moment.
"Seojun is awake?"
"Yeah, but why are there so many messages?"
It was Sunday morning. Dad, who didn't have to go to work, carried Seojun into the living room.
Mom was sitting at the living room table, looking at her laptop and smartphone.
The messages were set to alert, so they kept beeping.
"Ah-ah."
"Seojun says it's noisy too."
"Got it, got it. I'll turn them off quickly."
Seo Eun-hye hurriedly turned off the alerts. Min-joon sat next to her. Seojun leaned against Dad's chest and sat on his lap.
"But why are there so many messages?"
"It seems that Minji and So-young, and... everyone Seojun knows is sending them."
Seo Eun-hye said, looking exasperated. More messages poured in as they talked.
Seojun pondered. He was hungry. Should he cry? Or not?
"Minji says you should check Nertube. It's a complete mess."
Seo Eun-hye, who had just read the messages, logged into Nertube. Min-joon also leaned over to look at the laptop screen. Seojun, holding back for now, looked at the screen.
Nertube was where Seojun had previously uploaded the video of him using [Fairy Sparkle].
Nertube.
A site where people from all over the world upload their own videos.
Dad often mentioned Nertubers' past, present, and future on the news he watched.
While Seojun didn't know the details, he knew that people could become stars through Nertube, not just through entertainment.
"Wow... What is this...?"
"Whoa... It's scary..."
Seo Eun-hye and Min-joon were surprised by the enormous number of views and comments. Seojun also looked at the numbers on the screen.
'Amazing...'
He had hoped many people would watch it, but he didn't expect so many, especially in less than 24 hours.
As the three were marveling, a call came in. It was from a senior Nertuber, Mina's mom.
Seo Eun-hye quickly answered the call, feeling more scared than happy at the unimaginable number of views and comments.
"Hey, Minji! What's going on? What happened?!"
-Did you see it?! It's amazing!
"Really, is this real?"
-Yes! You're a complete star! Oh, no, I mean, Seojun! Seojun, you're a complete star!
Mina's mom's loud voice echoed through the living room. Min-joon and Seo Eun-hye, still looking at the screen, listened to her.
-Apply for monetization right away!
"Monetization?"
"Just a moment, honey."
Instead of the flustered Seo Eun-hye, Min-joon, who had put the call on speaker, spoke.
"Hello, Mina's mom. I'm Seojun's dad. But there are conditions, right?"
He tried to stay calm but was also flustered, so he went straight to the point.
"I heard it's hard to achieve in a day or two unless you're already famous."
He had talked about the conditions for monetization when he occasionally uploaded videos of making Kim Hee-sang's dolls on Nertube.
-Oh, hello! It's fine! Seojun's channel has already surpassed the conditions!
"Really?"
-Yes! We look at the watch time and the number of subscribers, and Seojun's channel surpassed them last night!
Seo Eun-hye, with a shocked expression, pointed to the number of subscribers on the screen. Min-joon's gaze followed her finger.
200,000 subscribers.
Min-joon's mouth dropped open. Seojun pondered. He was hungry. Should he cry? Or not? But given his parents' state, it didn't seem like a good time to cry.
-200,000! 200,000!
-And it's still rising!
Mina's mom continued talking. His parents' expressions didn't change. Feeling his stomach stick to his back, Seojun decided to cry.
"Aaaaah! Aaaaah!"
"..."
"..."
"Got a shock!"
Seojun's cries finally brought Seo Eun-hye and Min-joon back to their senses. Min-joon quickly got up with Seojun and headed to the kitchen.
"Come on, let's eat. Our son. We need to eat!"
"Um... I need to talk to Minji!"
Seo Eun-hye, still on the call with Mina's mom, applied for monetization on the [JUN] channel.
Min-joon poured warm water into the bottle and mixed the formula. Seojun, who had stopped crying, waited for the formula in Min-joon's arms.
"Wow... Really... What's going on?"
Dad, in a daze, muttered to himself while naturally mixing the formula. Indeed, Dad!
He checked the temperature of the formula and put the nipple into Seojun's mouth.
Suck-suck!
Min-joon quickly carried Seojun back to the living room. Seo Eun-hye was reading the comments on Seojun's video.
"Did you apply?"
"Yeah. They said ads will be added as soon as the approval comes through."
"But what happened?"
Seo Eun-hye, a teacher who taught Korean to foreign students, slowly read through the comments. There were comments in various languages, but she read the ones in English and Korean.
"Everyone... said their kids wouldn't eat, but after watching this video, they could eat. If you feed them five times a day, three out of five times, it takes about 30 minutes of arguing, but with Seojun's video, they really eat right away..."
As Min-joon leaned in to look at the screen, Seojun, who was enjoying the formula, became uncomfortable. He couldn't make a sound with the nipple in his mouth, so he slapped Min-joon's arm with one hand.
"Sorry, sorry."
Min-joon adjusted his position and looked at the screen. Seojun also glanced at the screen.
He could read Korean to some extent from watching TV and reading picture books and fairy tales with Dad, but... there were many more comments in English and other languages.
He tried to read the Korean comments whenever he could, but his parents read them too quickly. As the text kept scrolling,
'Ah, my eyes hurt.'
Seojun blinked a few times, then closed his eyes and focused on the formula.
Suck-suck!
Min-joon and Seo Eun-hye were engrossed in reading the comments. They saw comments thanking them and recommending the video to friends.
Bam! Bam!
It was Seo Eun-hye's phone. The message was from the twin mom.
While Seo Eun-hye was reading the message, Seojun finished the formula and dropped the bottle on the floor. The bottle was heavy.
"Ouch."
Just as they were about to emerge from the comment hell, Dad quickly caught the bottle.
"You. If you're done, you should call Dad!"
"A-ah!"
"Yeah. You should call me! What if you drop it?"
"What do you expect from an 8-month-old?"
Min-joon said, and Seo Eun-hye replied, looking exasperated. Min-joon laughed and patted Seojun's back. Burp.
"Our Seojun is a genius and understands everything."
"All parents think their kids are geniuses."
"Our Seojun is a real genius."
"Sure, sure."
While letting Min-joon's words go in one ear and out the other, Seo Eun-hye opened the link sent by the twin mom.
It was an article.
A small internet article, but it was clearly an article.
"..."
Min-joon also read the article. Neither of them could speak. They just opened and closed their mouths before finally managing to say something.
"Wow. I thought my heart would stop."
"What happened all of a sudden..."
After that, links to articles and posts about Seojun's video were sent to Seo Eun-hye and Min-joon's Banana Talk from people who knew Seojun, whether from her family or his.
>Hey! Isn't this the Seojun video you showed us before?!
>Crazy! Wow! Really!!!
Even Kim Hee-sang, who wasn't even married, contacted them saying she had seen Seojun's video.
[Title: I recommend! It's a direct hit for babies who don't eat!]
[Content: I'll tell you the channel name.
Nertube [JUN]! Check it out quickly!
If you show it to babies, they'll eat right away!]
A three-line post on a mom cafe received a lot of comments. At first, there were many comments asking what the post was about, but soon, praising comments followed.
Comments (1,293)
...
-Oh! My daughter ate it all!
-It really works! What's the principle?
-Wow. I've been feeding my baby while watching it for the third time, and they really eat without any fuss! Seojun is the best!!!
...
-Oh, it doesn't work for my son. He won't eat.
-There are some people for whom it doesn't work...
-My son is 4 years old. It doesn't work.
-My daughter is 3 years old. No effect!
Other posts and articles continued to appear.
At first, it was a video seen among moms, but now even couples without children and unmarried people were looking for the video.
[Title: It seems the effect depends on age!]
[Content: My first child is 4 years old, and my second is 10 months old!
The second child eats well while watching the video, but the first doesn't!
From other comments, it seems the effect doesn't work for children 3 or 4 years old.]
-Wow, it really seems that way.
-There seems to be an age limit lol
-It doesn't work for my 23-month-old daughter :(
-It doesn't work for my 28-month-old daughter :((((
[Title: Let's do some statistics?]
[Content: If everyone writes the age of their babies and whether it worked or not, I'll do the statistics!]
-Good idea!
-23 months, no effect.
-5 years, no effect.
-10 months, effective.
...
The solidarity of parents was amazing. Soon, there was a movement to figure out the range of the video's effectiveness. Someone analyzed and produced statistics. And the results were out.
On sites unrelated to babies, posts titled [Effective for babies up to 20 months, amazing baby eating video!] started appearing.
There were screenshots of Seojun's video, comments from the mom cafe, and photos of babies eating while looking at their phones, i.e., proof shots.
-Wow, do they really eat?
-Lol, it's amazing lol
-It doesn't work for 21 months and up, a 26-month-old mom is crying :((((
-Really, it doesn't work exactly at 21 months?
-Yes, it doesn't. My daughter is 21 months :((( She won't eat :((((
-What's the reason?
-I find it more amazing that they eat lol
Soon, [JUN] appeared on the real-time search list. Although it was low on the list, everyone clicked on it at least once.
And there was one person.
Someone was looking at the posts with a serious expression.