The Grandmaster's expression remained unreadable, but the weight of his next words hung heavy in the air. "Two million isn't enough at all," he said, shaking his head with a slow, deliberate motion that made my heart sink.
"This curse is deep, woven into the very fabric of your broadcast metadata. It can't be removed without paying ten million views, at the very least."
"Ten million…" I repeated, the number tasting like ash in my mouth.
Damn! That number was almost five times my current total channel views. It was a staggering debt to inherit before I had even truly begun. Yet, as the initial shock subsided, a cold pragmatism took over.
What was the current value of views compared to a channel that was effectively dead? A million views on a banned channel were worth zero. A hundred million views behind a wall were useless.
