Chapter 16: The Joy of Work.

The desire to work really hard for my employer didn’t diminish at all, not even as I fell asleep.

It was that important to me.

I’d been working as a video editor for quite a while, but I’d never heard of a YouTuber who paid for fan channel activities.

In a world where people practically worship CEOs who give advance payments, how should I treat a boss who treats me this well?

‘Alright, alright.’

I didn’t even try to answer that question.

Even if I couldn’t find a definite answer, doing my best at what I could do was always the closest answer.

Gradually feeling acknowledged for my abilities by someone I liked was so exhilarating, it felt like someone had injected me with a concentrated dose of dopamine while I was asleep.

I guess I was someone with a strong need for recognition.

So much so that I loved my work.

It was something I hadn’t really realized before.

One simple way to diagnose whether you’re happy with your life is to check the first words you utter in your mind when you wake up and get out of bed.

Just because those words contain negative emotions doesn’t necessarily mean you’re living an unhappy life.

You can’t generalize in this case.

But conversely, if you feel good about waking up and living your life, it’s almost a definite sign of happiness.

For the past few days, I had been experiencing the amazing effect of waking up with good feelings, thanks to the Ha Eunsol sleep method.

What was even more surprising was that there was still room for improvement.

In today’s case, I felt even more energetic when I woke up.

I threw off the blanket and pressed the power button on my computer.

It was my usual routine to check for important contacts or emails before washing up after waking up.

Of course, important emails or urgent contacts weren’t a common occurrence, so I usually headed to the bathroom within a minute, including the time it took to turn on the computer.

‘Huh?’

That’s why I couldn’t help but be surprised as soon as I entered my inbox.

My body froze as I was moving the mouse, still not sitting on the chair.

An email from the official YouTube account was visible.

It had the same format as the titles I had seen several times before.

I carefully moved the mouse and clicked on the email.

After reading the contents completely, I felt a sense of elation running through my already energetic body.

YouTube monetization isn’t immediately approved just because a channel meets the monetization criteria.

It goes through a review process where a person directly checks the channel, and the time it takes for monetization to be approved varies greatly from channel to channel.

Some channels take two days, some take three days, and others take three months.

‘Wow….?’

Of course, it wasn’t completely random.

The accepted theory among YouTubers was that the review priority was determined by the value of the channel’s videos as determined by the YouTube algorithm.

The last videos uploaded to the EunSiyu channel, the three edited versions of the internal scrims besides the announcement video about the official channel transition, were still on the rise in views.

I had also confirmed yesterday that the statistics showed that viewers who came in through these videos were flowing into other videos on the channel, which was a very positive sign.

Was it because of that influence?

It was a question I couldn’t answer, but one thing was certain about it.

The world was helping EunSiyu and me.

‘Haa. Hoo….’

I took a few deep breaths to calm my overly excited mind, checked that there were no other emails, and closed the email window.

Next, I ran the messenger program installed on my computer, entered the chat room with Yu Sieun, and sent a message informing her that monetization had been approved.

I was worried about getting a reply while I was showering, so I hesitated for a moment whether to send another message saying I’d be back after a quick shower, but decided to just take my phone into the bathroom with me.

The notification that a message had arrived rang just as I was taking off my clothes.

It contained content that expressed joy and congratulations to the fullest extent, and I felt like I could see the expression on the face of the person who wrote the message.

‘…Hehe.’

Yu Sieun seemed to be feeling the same way as me.

When something feels so good, you start to feel like any time spent on anything other than that thing is a waste.

If you become addicted to the pleasure of gambling, you end up in public service announcements, and if you become addicted to the pleasure of work, you become a workaholic.

I quickly washed myself.

I was glad that I had short hair, at least among women.

Come to think of it, my hair seemed to have grown a bit longer than before, but I brushed aside thoughts about that.

It wasn’t long enough to be a problem yet, so it was something I could deal with later.

I came out of the bathroom as I was, drying my hair while recalling the contents of the final version of the editing points file I had received from Yu Sieun yesterday.

The five-person streamer broadcast that was selected first for Yu Sieun from the broadcasts during the eight days I was groggy.

It was the material Yu Sieun had sent me, the material I would turn into a video today.

I had also enjoyed that part the most when I checked the rebroadcast, so I was smiling brightly even while drying my hair.

It took seven hours to create a 12-minute video.

The flow of the video was already set by Yu Sieun, so I only needed to make adjustments to the parts that didn’t seem right and fine-tune the details, which shortened the time by about an hour compared to usual.

I exported the completed version as a file.

If it were during my fan channel days, I would have just reviewed it once and uploaded the video to YouTube, but now I was the official YouTube editor for EunSiyu.

I checked the video for any errors with my own eyes first, and then sent the file to Yu Sieun’s email.

‘Ugh. It’s over…?’

After that, I suddenly realized.

‘Ah…….?’

I had nothing to do now.

It was the first time I had been in this situation since creating the fan channel.

Typical telecommuters don’t only feel joy while working.

It’s common to find web novel writers who periodically scream at the feeling of being stuck when writing, or video editors who roll on the floor once an hour while editing videos.

Originally, I belonged to that side too.

A video editor who grit her teeth and played games after finishing work.

I used games to relieve the stress I received from work.

But not anymore.

I was in the insane state of feeling happiness from work right now.

I had been repeating the cycle of sleeping and editing without feeling any stress, so it had been several weeks since I had played a game.

…

That’s why I was feeling a bit bewildered that everything was done for the first time in my life.

‘No. What’s over.’

Today’s work wasn’t over yet.

When Yu Sieun told me the points to be corrected after watching the video, I would have to fix those parts perfectly.

What I saw with my eyes and what Yu Sieun saw with her eyes could be different.

I waited with that hope, but the review result from Yu Sieun that came through the messenger about 30 minutes later was a clear pass.

Videos are currently being created under Yu Sieun’s direction, according to my intention to thoroughly train Yu Sieun on the YouTube channel.

That I couldn’t create and upload more videos separately.

There were still about four hours left until Yu Sieun’s broadcast time.

I felt the bewilderment I had blocked earlier creeping into my fingertips.

As I became aware of it, I could understand my state.

I was sad that I couldn’t work.

In the end, I turned on the game for the first time in a while.

Originally, it was a game I played to relieve the stress from work, but now I was turning it on to hide the depression of not being able to work, which I thought was a bit crazy even to myself.

When I entered my account ID and password on the familiar login screen and logged in, the nickname I used five years ago popped up on the top right.

As I stared at it for a long time, one fact came to mind.

What Yu Sieun had said to me yesterday, to play games together someday.

I said to myself.

Yu Sieun had said that we should play games together someday, so shouldn’t I at least match her solo queue tier?

In my reason’s judgment, it was a word with tremendous validity, and quickly gave meaning to the current time when I was not working.

‘…!’

Thinking that playing the game now was preparation for later work, I suddenly felt like my mood was sparkling again.

I changed the account’s nickname to EunSiyuSub and reconnected, and immediately pressed the solo rank matching button.

Right now, I felt like I could laugh and shrug off even if I was being politically targeted by a Diamond player.