After the fall of Treevy City, Cheese Village inherited its power and fully recovered. As if the heavy snowfall had never happened, the sky became clear again. The stars faded, and dawn slowly broke.

‘Is it over?’

It seemed so. The Cheese Village content ended today.

“Waaaaaaaah!”

Paboom~!

Commemorative fireworks launched one last time. Players stood before the fully restored Cheese Village and took group photos. The operations team personally took these photos.

“Alright~ gather up! It’s Cheddar! Everyone, let’s take a commemorative photo together~ Here we go~!”

“Wow, it’s the boss.”

“The CEO herself...!”

— LOL the CEO is taking photos

— Nice

— It’s really over...

— Whoa, Cheese Village... it really ended, huh?

Only when the CEO appeared to take photos did the viewers truly feel it had ended. Thanks to the streamers who had participated over the past two weeks as if another world truly existed, the viewers had been deeply immersed as well.

— Looking forward to the awards ceremony hehe

— It’s really ending...

— It was so much fun!

On Almond’s channel, many expressed regret. Then came the closing donations.

Ba-bam~!

[RubySword has donated a whopping 1,000,000 won!]

[This was the most engaging content I’ve ever watched, and it was great seeing you so happy, Almond. You worked so hard!]

— Whoa!

— One million won?!

— Wow...

— Isn’t he getting bigger?

— Guess donation links are over now

— Wow lol

— Ruby the Legend!

— Nice

Almond replied, “As always, thank you, RubySword.”

Cheddar shouted, “Alright, everyone, look this way! You there with the big head!”

“They’re all big, though!?”

“Wahahahaha.”

Lively laughter rang out.

“They say Bubblegum’s is the biggest~!”

“Yeah, he actually got smaller after coming here!”

“Gi-Chan! Why aren’t you in the photo! Huh? Going for the real self roleplay again?”

Commotion broke out everywhere.

Clap, clap.

Cheddar shouted again to get everyone’s attention, “Alright, everyone, focus here! Taking the picture! Say chee~~~se!”

“Chee~~~se!”

In the end, countless avatars struck poses with no real order.

Click!

Someone tripped while running in, and someone else was smiling oddly. Someone had looked the other way. In that chaotic photo, Almond smiled brightly.

— Cheeeese!

— Cheeeeze!

— Chee~~~se

— Goodbye... Cheese Village...

“Chee~se!”

[Server Temporarily Closed]

[The awards ceremony and afterparty will take place in twenty-four hours. Please come back then!]

Ping.

The server ended. Everything burned white, and the main title appeared.

[Survival Craft]

[Find Server]

The bustling laughter, the faces of smiling companions, the ridiculous dragon flying through the sky, Potato Servant and Radish Servant serving the Lord, and friends from the knight order, the boomers from the Nonghyup Union who hadn’t gotten along at first, the Team Rocket folks who didn’t seem all that bad after all...

“Ah...”

They had all left after Cheese Village ended. The world built over two weeks would no longer exist. What had felt eternal turned out to be fleeting. Now, even this would be recorded as part of the final flash of memories.

— Whoa

— ?? Did we get kicked?

— It’s over...

— Damn...

— There’s an afterparty! See you then...

— Wow...

Sang-Hyeon’s blinking eyes reflected in the black capsule.

‘It’s over.’

He closed his eyes for a moment. Even now, memories of Cheese Village vividly passed through his mind.

“Feels kind of empty.”

— LOL

— No...

— Yeah

— Is Lord Almond gone now?!

— I’m so sad...

— It’s over...

They did everything they wanted and lived as they pleased in Cheese Village. It had been a happy time, but now it was time to say it.

“It’s over now. That’s it for today’s stream.”

— Aw man...

— Great work!

— It was amazing haha

— Goodbye, Lord Almond~

— No...

— Ah...

“Bye, Treevy!”

Leaving his final sign-off for today, he ended the stream.

***

It was early morning when he stepped out of the capsule. The sun was beginning to rise. His back felt stiff after being inside the capsule for so long. Stretching, Sang-Hyeon pulled open the curtains that had been drawn shut. The dawn’s light poured into the room.

“Hooo!” He stretched again, feeling refreshed and a little regretful. “Is it over?”

Ju-Hyeok walked in, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“Ah, yeah. You still haven’t slept?”

“I slept a bit. Congrats, you wrapped it up well.”

“Yeah. It’s not completely over, though. There’s still an afterparty.”

“Sure, but the content itself is done, right?”

Sang-Hyeon scratched his head, looking oddly wistful. “Yeah...”

It felt like he’d forgotten something. He’d done everything he set out to do. It was supposed to be a clean ending, yet a knot of regret lingered. What was it?

Ju-Hyeok turned away and casually asked, “Should I grill some fish again today?”

‘Ah.’

Sang-Hyeon suddenly realized it.

“Fishing!!”

Startled by the shout, Ju-Hyeok turned back. “What are you talking about all of a sudden? Finishing what?”

Sang-Hyeon grabbed him and shook him like it was a disaster. “Fishing! I didn’t get to fish!”

Ju-Hyeok looked down at him in disbelief.

‘Is he serious?’

After defeating the Dragon of Streaming Destruction, drawing so much attention and spotlight, Sang-Hyeon still hadn’t given up on his dream of fishing.

“What do I do? Damn it. I can’t believe I forgot something that important. I didn’t think it’d end this fast.”

Those streamer-wide integrated servers usually shut down with little warning. After all, server upkeep cost money, so production always did everything as efficiently as possible.

“Just go to sleep.” Ju-Hyeok somewhat sympathized as Sang-Hyeon muttered about fishing.

However, Sang-Hyeon had overdone it. He could probably still try fishing during the afterparty if he really wanted to.

“Ah. Yeah.”

He needed to sleep. As if just realizing, Sang-Hyeon shuffled over to his bed.

‘Wow. I’m exhausted.’

Thump.

He buried his overheated head into the pillow first and closed his eyes. It felt as if his whole body had melted into the bed. A warmth spread as he fell asleep.

In his dream that night, Sang-Hyeon became Lord Almond again. He flew through the sky with a dragon. Then, he went fishing with his knight friends. Fishing in the sky, he didn’t catch a single fish.

For some reason, Saintess Treeana’s nape got hooked on the fishing line, and she got reeled up. Then, ForeverAlone came up and Bubblegum too. Radish Servant cheered, saying it was a record catch. Sang-Hyeon didn’t find any of it strange.

He muttered nonsense in his sleep, “Cloud fishing... is fun...”

***

The next day, seven missed calls appeared on Sang-Hyeon’s phone. He squeezed his eyes shut when he saw who it was.

[Dr. Song Ha-Na]

His doctor had probably checked his broadcast time. Even for a game without nonstop combat, it wouldn’t be strange to call twenty-four hours of continuous play excessive. It was comparable to his Civil Empire playtime.

‘I’ll... leave it alone for now.’

Sang-Hyeon judged that it was better to wait until her anger cooled off. He got up, washed up, and looked around the house.

‘Where did Ju-Hyeok go?’

Ju-Hyeok was nowhere to be seen, but it didn’t matter.

Sang-Hyeon wasn’t going live right away.

‘I’ll check the reactions.’

He could rest while watching how viewers reacted to the end of Cheese Village. With a cup of coffee in hand, Sang-Hyeon sat down and headed to the news section of the biggest portal site first.

[Real-time viewership surpasses 2.7 million. Cheese Village concludes successfully. Afterparty still ahead]

An enormous number of viewers had participated in the promotion of a newly launched platform. The comment section felt lively too.

— impressive for a newly launched platform

— Wow... This blew up

— Cheese Village was so fun! Please do it again!!

— Now I’m just waiting for the Cheese Craft highlight vids lol

Those who knew about Cheese Village already began missing its content. Those who didn’t still felt amazed. Almond smiled in quiet satisfaction. Being one of the main figures of that content felt good. Among the follow-up articles, something surprising caught his eye.

[Treevy CEO: “Truly moving...” expresses gratitude to Cheese, announces “full donation”]

All the revenue Treevy had earned from this event would be donated. The money would go to a children’s foundation under the names of the streamers who participated in Cheese Village.

Amazingly, the list of donors appeared in a news photo in order of donation amount. Sang-Hyeon didn’t read the news closely and simply scrolled down to skim the comments.

‘So that happened.’

It didn’t seem like a complicated story, just a heartwarming piece about the Treevy CEO feeling moved. He thought that was it.

‘Huh?’

— DAMN look at Almond

— Almond is even good at donating now!? Stop being perfect! Stop deducing!

For a moment, he thought he had wandered into his own chat. Why were they shouting Yu Sang-Hyeon’s name? The article said Treevy had donated under the streamers’ names.

— Almond donation ranked second, what the hell?!

— Barely behind Zelo

— If Zelo hadn’t gone wild with monster summons at the end, Almond might’ve been first!

— Honestly, Almond fought too well and didn’t get as many donations. Look at Bubblegum’s. People donated a ton cause they were scared he’d die

— That’s messed up

— Wow, Zelo then Almond?!

— My looooord!

— This too must be the Lord’s grace, right?

‘Huh? Donation rank?’

Sang-Hyeon genuinely felt shocked. He hadn’t imagined the donation list would show rankings. He scrolled back up to check the photo.

==== ====

Zelo

Almond

CutiePie

Bubblegum

Miho

Horn Ramen

...

==== ====

Almond ranked second. Among so many streamers, he had stood out the most. However, how many donations one received was a different matter. He had practically matched Zelo, who was often described as an insurmountable mountain. He had even surpassed CutiePie, an idol turned top-tier streamer.

All of this revenue from the donation rush went to a children’s foundation.

‘That’s huge.’

There probably wasn’t a more meaningful achievement for a streamer. Even if he hadn’t gotten to fish, the past two weeks of working hard in Cheese Village had been worth it.

Buzz.

A message arrived on his phone.

[Ju-Hyeok: I’m out cleaning up the office. You have to log in for the afterparty today. It’s soon.]

The afterparty was already approaching. He had to log in one last time to Cheese Village for the awards ceremony and to say goodbye to the colleagues he’d shared this time with.

Buzz.

[Ju-Hyeok: Also, they’re talking about the Platform War today. Make sure you’re not late!]

Above all, the Platform War was next. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Cheese Village had been planned for this very event. Another massive spectacle awaited just ahead.