Chapter 43: Café Exploration

“Oh, hello! It’s been a while since you last came by.”

I hadn’t expected them to show up so suddenly, but it was a pleasant surprise.

After all, I only had good memories of that game.

[Hahah]

[+HurryAndLeave: Been a while, haha.]

[That game’s been doing insanely well lately. ㅋㅋ]

[Honestly, Yotte played a part in its success too. lmao.]

[No joke, Yotte definitely had an impact.]

[Damn, dropping 300K just like that. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Pepe: So that’s why you just donated, huh?]

Speaking of which, I was curious about how the offline pop-up event had gone.

If they were willing to come all the way here and donate like this, it must have been a huge success.

“Did the pop-up event go well? I tried my best with the illustrations.”

[+HurryAndLeave: There were a crazy number of people there.]

[OO: Yeah, I had some free time, so I stopped by, and it was packed.]

[Tbh, trying to make up for it with 300K seems kinda cheap…]

[Let’s be real, it wouldn’t have grown that much without Yotte.]

[Pepe: I went and bought some merch too. It was seriously cute. ㅋㅋ]

[Heart X Memorial: Yeah, yeah, it went super well!]

Checking the chat, it was clear that the offline pop-up had been a huge success.

Otherwise, the viewers wouldn’t be reacting like this.

Even the event organizers seemed really proud.

“Did everything I illustrated sell out? I mean, I thought they turned out pretty well, but I wasn’t sure if other people would actually like them.”

Even if an illustration didn’t sell well, my payment wouldn’t change.

Still, since they were my drawings, I couldn’t help but hope they did well.

[Heart X Memorial: Oh, everything sold out!]

[Heart X Memorial: From the cushions to the keychains, all gone.]

[Damn.]

[That’s insane. ㅋㅋ]

[+HurryAndLeave: That’s wild.]

[How much profit did they make? I’m curious.]

“Oh… Well, I’m just glad everything sold out. It would’ve been embarrassing if it didn’t.”

I genuinely meant that.

As an artist, there was nothing more humiliating than seeing your work fail to attract interest.

Sure, some might say, “You got paid anyway, so who cares?”—but to me, that just meant they had no real passion for their craft.

[+HurryAndLeave: Honestly, it would’ve been weird if it didn’t sell out.]

[+HurryAndLeave: You did a damn good job, haha.]

[How do you even know what they drew?]

[I went to the store, and it literally had a sign saying ‘Merch designed by streamer Yotte.’ LOL.]

[Pepe: Yeah, I went to the pop-up and was shocked. ㅋㅋㅋ]

“…Seriously?”

I felt a little embarrassed.

I had no issue with being called by my real name, but hearing my streaming nickname being used like this felt oddly cringeworthy.

Maybe it was because I still wasn’t fully used to being called Yotte.

[+HurryAndLeave: The game’s player base has been growing like crazy lately.]

[+HurryAndLeave: The artwork you did on stream went super viral. ㅋㅋ]

[I see Yotte’s illustrations all over community forums these days.]

[But the funny thing is, no one actually knows who Yotte is…]

[When someone explains in the comments, they just get told to shut up and keep it to themselves. LOL.]

[Pepe: Some things are better left underground.]

[Underground?]

“Didn’t the game already have a decent number of players?”

Heart Memorial wasn’t exactly a famous game, but I had heard it had a dedicated player base.

Even when I played it on stream, there were plenty of people backseating and offering tips.

So I asked out of curiosity.

[+HurryAndLeave: Nope, the player count exploded.]

[It’s a Korean game with moe aesthetics? No way that wasn’t gonna blow up.]

[Yeah, no one can resist that. ㅋㅋ]

[Pepe: The game was already fun, and they added just the right amount of moe elements. It was bound to succeed.]

[I don’t even like mobile games, but I actually enjoyed this one.]

[Heart X Memorial: We’ve gained a ton of new players!]

[Heart X Memorial: In our last survey, a lot of people said they joined after seeing Yotte’s illustrations.]

[???]

[This is kinda crazy. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

“…Seriously?”

I had assumed the viewers were just joking around, but people actually joined the game because of my illustrations?

[+HurryAndLeave: Have you been living under a rock?]

[(They really have. lol)]

[This is hilarious. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[But yeah, the player count has seriously gone up.]

[The Heart Memorial gallery has been way more active lately.]

[Pepe: Someone post this in the café.]

[Pepe: There’s a whole thread in there praising Yotte. ㅋㅋ]

[Ah, I should check it out later.]

So that’s why they sent such a huge donation.

“Guess I should take a look at the café posts. I don’t think I’ve checked it since I made it.”

[ㅋㅋ Sounds fun.]

[Let’s gooo.]

[There’s been a ton of posts lately.]

[+HurryAndLeave: There are some interesting ones, might be worth reading through.]

[Pepe: Honestly, I expected weird stuff, but most of the posts are surprisingly normal.]

[Probably because there aren’t that many users to begin with. ㅋㅋ]

Deciding to do a little café exploration, I logged into the community I had set up earlier.

‘Did I approve around 100 members last time?’

I couldn’t quite remember.

I just recalled approving users in batches, roughly around that number.

With that thought, I entered the café.

“Oh wow, people really posted a lot.”

I hadn’t expected this many posts.

Feeling grateful, I began reading through them one by one.

[Title: The Current State of the Heart Memorial Gallery After Yotte’s Illustrations Blew Up the Player Base…jpg]

[Content: (Image) (Image)]

The post contained discussions from the Heart Memorial Gallery, a community forum dedicated to the game, where people were talking about me.

For example.

[Title: Yotte <<< If this guy isn’t a god, upvote ㅋㅋ]

[Content: (Illustration) If this madman made the player base explode, upvote ㅋㅋ]

L: Is Yotte your friend or something?

N: Stop talking like that, you dumbass. ㅋㅋ

L: But for real, you can actually feel the player count skyrocketing…

N: Yeah, the forum’s activity has been insane. ㅋㅋ

N: Finally, we can actually have proper discussions about the game now. Damn…

L: But does Yotte even play Heart Memorial?

N: Why would a guy play a moe game?

N: Still, he did draw the illustrations.

N: Drawing the art and playing the game are two different things.

It was a collection of posts like that.

“…They’re really loving this. I heard some people don’t like it when a game gains too many new players, though.”

And that was true.

For games that already had a solid player base, some longtime players tended to dislike sudden waves of new users.

Reore was a prime example of a game with those kinds of players.

“But if the game itself wasn’t fun, the player base wouldn’t have grown this much. Aren’t they overhyping me a little?”

Of course, I liked receiving praise, but I didn’t think I had done anything so extraordinary to deserve this level of recognition.

Even if someone else had drawn the illustrations, the game probably would have gained some new players anyway.

[+HurryAndLeave: Nah, if it wasn’t for your art, the game wouldn’t have exploded like this. ㅋㅋ]

[The quality of the illustrations is insane.]

[For real, the artwork was on another level.]

[There aren’t many artists in Korea who can draw at that level.]

[And on top of that, it’s rare to find a male artist drawing high-quality male character illustrations.]

The viewers didn’t seem to think the same way as me—they were hyping me up even more.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, I moved on to the next post.

[Title: Glim is Completely Addicted to Heart Memorial ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Content: (Clip) She’s seriously obsessed. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

“Hmm?”

Glim didn’t exactly seem like the type to enjoy mobile games.

Finding it interesting, I clicked on the clip to watch.

Wow… These illustrations are insane. I love them. Hehehe.

[+HurryAndLeave: ?]

[Why does she sound so damn shady? ㅋㅋ]

[Glim, Glim… what is that tone?]

[If I were a guy, I wouldn’t even associate with her. LOL.]

[Pepe: Her voice is killing me. ㅋㅋ]

Glim’s voice was incredibly suspicious-sounding.

…Well, I guess that just meant she was really into Heart Memorial.

Thinking that, I continued watching the clip.

Whoa, damn… that uniform. That body… Wow… this is crazy.

“Alright, that’s enough.”

I decided to stop watching.

If I kept going, things might get really weird between me and Glim.

I already felt like I had seen something I wasn’t supposed to.

[+HurryAndLeave: Phew.]

[Thank god.]

[I was dying of secondhand embarrassment just watching this on stream. ㅋㅋㅋ]

[Glim, please…]

[Pepe: Glim is a total degenerate, LMAO.]

[Wait, was she always this much of a weeb? Her reaction is hilarious. ㅋㅋ]

[She’s always had weeb tendencies, if you think about it.]

I continued browsing the café and chatting with viewers when.

[Title: Rage’s Live is Going Absolutely Insane Right Now…avi]

An all-too-familiar name appeared.

Of all people, it just had to be Rage.

‘This is kinda funny.’

I had no intention of ever revealing that I was working with Rage.

I didn’t want to deal with unnecessary drama.

But still…

“Well, let’s check it out.”

Might as well see how they handled their live performance.