Chapter 5: The Art of Doujin Warfare: From Fanboy Rants to Marketing Mastermind

There is a Girls’ Frontline user here.

His favorite character is HK-M4.

He is a man who has the most popular character of the Girls’ Frontline IP, nicknamed Heung-guk, as his favorite.

Of course, the word ‘have’ is not an exaggeration.

He was a man who had directly purchased a dakimakura with the passion of a teenager, and was now lying sideways with the HK-M4 dakimakura made of the highest quality fabric between his legs, and was fiddling with his phone.

“Ah, I have nothing to do.
What should I do.”

Anyways. He’s a man who is serious about Girls’ Frontline and HK-M4, to the point that he bought a dakimakura.

Of course, he had already completed all of the updated stories, and had purchased almost all of the skins.

The man, who had nothing to do, habitually turned on the community app, and went to the space for gentlemen who share discussions about Girls’ Frontline: the Girls’ Frontline gallery.

“Our main story update, when is the future sight for it…”

Tap, tap, tap.

A few seconds after tapping the keyboard on his phone screen, the man posted a pointless post in the Girls’ Frontline gallery.

It’s the unique whining of veteran users.

He has money, but there is nowhere to spend it, and he has a lot of time, but there is nothing to do during that time.

In the end, all the annoyance that comes from that unnecessary leisure is vented in this Girls’ Frontline gallery.

“The mods should be making a new future sight guide and uploading it soon, why isn’t it out yet.”

Sometimes, if his emotions aren’t resolved by just writing pointless posts, it’s quite effective to curse at the mods, the managers of the Girls’ Frontline gallery.

People tend to feel more at ease when they have a target to curse at without restraint.

The man, who habitually wrote a pointless post today and cursed at the mods, pressed the Featured tab.

“Why are only posts like this featured?”

He didn’t like it.

Is it because a few days ago he saw a photo of a hairy 30-something year old man crossplaying?

The man had been feeling inexplicably bad for the past few days, and just as he was glaring at the Featured tab with a frown,

“Oh.”

A new post was uploaded.

[Hello! I’m here to promote my booth for the December Seo-pe!]

It was a Seo-pe booth promotion post.

“Keuh…”

For the man, who is already so experienced that he has spent all the money he could in the game, and even owns official merchandise and figures, all that’s left is the doujin event.

He had spent 200,000 won, which is a lot of money for a student, at this November’s Seo-pe, and he still has a lot of saved allowance left.

“The December Seo-pe is coming soon.”

The man clicked on the booth promotion post with a smirk.

“Haru…?
Is that how you read it?
Why did she come with a Japanese nickname?
It can’t be an overseas booth, so is it a concept?”

In the subculture scene, there are often cases where people use Japanese nicknames.

It wasn’t anything strange, and as the man quickly skimmed through the clichéd introduction, he finally…

Checked the list of goods that were being sold at Haru’s booth…

“This is it!
This is what I’m talking about!”

He clenched his fist and cheered.

It was a booth that was pushing the man’s favorite character.

HK-M4 as the main focus.

No, it was practically a booth that was going to be opened for HK-M4.

“No, the lineup is insane…”

An HK-M4 desk mat in a high-leg bunny girl outfit, lying on a grassy-colored poker table and seductively tempting you to buy it.

An HK-M4 acrylic stand with HK-M4 smiling seductively while wearing a crimson hanbok skirt, and an HK-M4 in a contrasting blue kimono.

“Wow, that water gloss processing is insane, her skin…”

And a swimsuit wall scroll that is the highlight, with perfect water gloss, chest shadows, composition, gaze, and even the bikini straps on the hips.

☆If you fold it up, it’s possible to blend in with everyday life☆

The comment was even more appealing to the man, who was still living at home and lacked space to store goods.

Both from a space-saving perspective, and from the point of being able to hide high-level goods from his parents.

“I fought that much even after getting the dakimakura, if I’m going to buy goods with this level of exposure, I need to have a plan on how to hide them.”

The man nodded, agreeing with the consideration of the seller, and memorized Haru’s booth.

“With this level of quality, you are my number one priority for all-nighters.”

The man already has quite a few booths that he relies on at every Seo-pe, so he had almost no spare money to pre-order from a new booth that he had never heard of.

Still, since you never know what might happen, he thought he should save the promotional post in his collection and continued to scroll down…

“What…?”

In that moment, the man came across a phrase he couldn’t understand.

[Due to the current issue with production costs, only 50 of each of the Bunny & Poker HK desk mats and the Hanbok HK acrylic stands have been pre-ordered.]

Okay, that’s fine up to here.

It’s common for pre-orders to be limited to certain goods depending on the financial situation of the booth.

But…

[Therefore, I think that only a very small amount of the Kimono HK acrylic stand and the Swimsuit & Beach HK wall scroll will be ordered. Of course, this is only for on-site sales, and in the case of pre-order buyers…]

What on earth is this?

To summarize what Haru is saying now, it was like a silent threat saying, ‘I won’t sell the Kimono and Swimsuit HK-M4 goods to those who don’t pre-order them.’

After all, if someone is going to pre-order these two items, they will probably buy the other two items as well.

“That’s a bit excessive, what makes a rookie booth so special that they have to start this power struggle…”

The man was dumbfounded.

The nickname the man uses in the Girls’ Frontline gallery is none other than ‘M4BabyRoomGuard’.

His favorite character is obviously HK-M4 from the nickname, so would people like that not buy goods with this level of quality?

They would buy them anyway, so why would she start this unnecessary power struggle?

-What is this supposed to be? Are you trying to start a power struggle?

-What kind of product is not being sold unless you pre-order, does that even make sense?

└It’s not like they’re not selling it? They said they will make a small additional order and sell it on site too.

└That’s a small amount, if it’s less than 50, then we won’t be able to buy it if we don’t stay up all night.

└Ah.

-Are you saying don’t buy it unless you stay up all night?

-I’m suddenly getting angry?

-With this level of quality, it’s so infuriating that she’s trying to start a power struggle with the pre-orders. Who wouldn’t buy them? Huh?

There were many other comments with the same opinions as M4BabyRoomGuard.

The illustration quality was so good, and the concept was good too, so he was more than willing to go to the venue and buy them…

But if a booth that they’re seeing for the first time says that they’ll only be selling some of the products through pre-orders, it’s too obvious that their intention is ‘I’m trying to save myself since I would be f*cked if I mass-produce them and they don’t sell, if you don’t like it, then pre-order’.

It felt like the urge to buy had completely cooled down, and just as M4BabyRoomGuard was about to press the comment button to say something…

-You guys who are angry right now, scroll back up and look at the illustration.
The details are insane so I think it’s because they really don’t have any production costs.
It doesn’t matter even if it’s not, but that’s what I’m believing and spending my money ᄉᄀ.

A certain troublemaker started to go against the trend and started to sway public opinion by saying the quality was good and that it’s because they don’t have production costs.

“No, it’s not about the quality right now…”

It looks like the author is trying to do a public opinion battle by coming as a floating user…

“01…”

The, but…

“I’m f*cked…”

M4BabyRoomGuard, who had checked the sample illustrations for the goods that Haru uploaded again, was tongue-tied at the beautiful quality.

The disappointing parts that should be felt in the illustrations of other doujin artists…

Were not felt at all in Haru’s illustration.

“Tsk…”

He was almost starting to think that spending 200,000 won at the November Seo-pe was unnecessary.

In the end, M4BabyRoomGuard came to a conclusion.

“I guess she’s really short on production costs…”

If an artist who is capable of drawing illustrations of this level doesn’t have production costs, it must be because they really have no personal money.

Even if that’s not the case, it’s much more comfortable to believe that way, rather than feeling like you were tricked.

“Well, there’s no choice.
It would be upsetting to stay up all night and not get what I wanted…”

Two acrylic stands.

One wall scroll.

One desk mat.

If I apply the 5,000 won discount for a full package, it’s not a very burdensome amount of 75,000 won.

M4BabyRoomGuard closed his eyes and started writing his personal information in the survey page that was linked at the end of the promotional post.

***

“Ah, that’s sweet.”

Meanwhile, Hayoon, who was comfortably in her room and had confirmed that the number of people filling out the pre-order survey was constantly increasing, smirked as she sucked on a yogurt with a straw.

It was already the 10th person, and thanks to the fact that most of them chose the full package, she recorded more than 500,000 won in revenue in less than an hour.

“Some people will hesitate for a few days before deciding to buy it, so should I keep stoking the fire for now…”

Poke, Hayoon inserted a straw into a new yogurt and skillfully started to use her clone technique using a VPN.

-You guys who are angry right now, scroll back up and look at the illustration.
The details are insane so I think it’s because they really don’t have any production costs.
It doesn’t matter even if it’s not, but that’s what I’m believing and spending my money ᄉᄀ.

This blunt comment, which sharply criticized the promotional post’s comment section that was full of complaints, was also Hayoon’s work.

Starting with that comment, the comments section of the promotional post gradually started to increase with the sympathetic opinion that the author is probably doing this because they are so poor, and the positive opinion saying that they would buy it anyway because the illustrations are pretty.

Now that the public opinion of the promotional post comment section was roughly balanced, it was time to shoot down the opposing opinions that were popping up in the gallery.

“But, this, detail, it’s real…”

And to wage a public opinion war in this situation, it is more effective to promote the author’s art than to defend the author herself.

Hayoon was praising the illustration of the rookie doujin artist, Haru, with care, one word at a time.

She wasn’t particularly embarrassed.

Hayoon has pride in her drawings.

A full package of goods with this level of illustration quality for 75,000 won?

“This is almost like it’s free, isn’t it?
Honestly, isn’t it better than the official illustrations?
The illustrations of the artist who came to promote her goods this time are much better in many ways….”

After that, Hayoon continued to fuel the fire, and after the Girls’ Frontline gallery had been burning hotly for 4 hours, it was finally quelled when the mod intervened around midnight.

“Huu, I should stop now.”

Ugh.

Hayoon stretched, making a groan, and then greeted her parents before returning to her room and closing her eyes…

Around 2 p.m. the next day.

Hayoon uploaded an ‘apology’ with the fixed nickname that she used to write the promotional post yesterday.

It was the moment when the topic that had been waning during the night was reignited.