《Genius Archer's Streaming》 Chapter 1. I Still Want to Shoot (1)

Chapter 1. I Still Want to Shoot (1)

¡®What would happen if I just started shooting?¡¯ The same thought always urred to him around three in the afternoon. ¡°You can¡¯t even do this properly!Hm? Haaa¡­¡± The bald department head with a bulging stomach spat in front of him and bbered on. ¡°Hey! Are you listening? Are these conference materials for real?¡± The department head¡¯sher region hid under his own stomach. ¡®I could probably hit it from 500 meters away.¡¯ Yu Sang-Hyeon thought about how far away he could urately shoot. ¡°Hey!¡± Documents flew towards him as the department head furiously shouted. Swish. Sang-Hyeon slightly tilted his head and the papers fluttered past his ears into the waste bin. ¡°You punk! Are you thinking of something else while I¡¯m speaking to you?¡± Only then did Sang-Hyeon snap out of it and bowed. ¡°I apologize.¡± He politely gathered his hands with his right noticeably shaking. The department head looked at it. ¡°Haaa¡­Where did they find such a retard? Ipetent hands and ipetent brains¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon¡¯s shaking momentarily stopped at the word retard, but the department head didn¡¯t notice. ¡°Hurry up and leave, punk!¡± The department head turned in his chair to face hisputer and waved Sang-Hyeon away. ¡°Got it, sir.¡± Sang-Hyeonzily nodded as if he had never been rebuked and stepped outside the department head¡¯s office. ¡°Whew, I endured it well today too.¡± His expression turned bright again after walking out. He kept hisposure for the sake of his mental health like every skilled archer. ¡°Hey, you got roasted again?¡± A colleague slid over and asked. ¡°Well,duh.¡± ¡°Haa¡­How unfortunate, you have to suffer through something you weren¡¯t even destined for.¡± ¡°Eh, I have no choice. I live like a ve since I¡¯m a nepo hire.¡± Nepo hire.This nickname always followed Sang-Hyeon. He left the archery world without fulfilling his genius potential due to injury. His coach pitied him andnded him a spot in thispany through a friend. Thus, he got in through nepotism. ¡°Good for you. Looking at yourself objectively.¡± His colleague surprisinglyughed when Sang-Hyeon admitted to being a nepo hire. ¡°I should know my ce,¡± Sang-Hyeon nonchntly replied while massaging his right arm. ''Know the enemy and know yourself¡­ Reminds me of old times.'' Sang-Hyeon reminisced about his athlete days at the words,Know your ce. His coach always used to say that to him. He never understood those words when everyone treated him as the next great archer, but they struck his heart now when he faced criticism and curses every day. ¡°I¡¯m leaving first. I have to work overtime if I don¡¯t reorganize this report.¡± He stopped daydreaming and collected himself. Then he quickly returned to his seat. *** Sang-Hyeon stopped by the convenience store after work to purchase four cans of beer and headed home. ¡°Haaa¡­I barely avoided overtime,¡± he mused to himself as he looked at the clock that already struck 9 P.M. He rushed to theputer and turned on a sports video. ¡®I suddenly remembered it today.¡¯ Click.Sang-Hyeon popped open a beer and yed the video. He asionally returned to this video whenever he felt down in the dumps, but hadn¡¯t watched it recently. This video recorded the monumental moment when he became the youngest winner at nationals. An athlete wearing white clothes took a deep breath. Then he pulled the bowstring and stopped breathing. His sharp and fierce eyes only focused on the target. All the days of training and preparation existed for this one moment. Soon, he released the nocked arrow. Swish. Tak!Bull¡¯s eye. ¡ªWooohoooo!Another bull¡¯s eye! Th-The camera lens just cracked! The y-youngest winner¡­ ¡ªIt¡¯s the birth of an astounding genius! You are all witnessing history¡­ The camera zoomed in on the young Sang-Hyeon¡¯s face as thementators buzzed with excitement. ¡°Dang, so good-looking.¡± Gulp. He vainly praised himself and downed the beer. Interviews, the award ceremony, and other celebrations passed by. Soon, the video ended and his face faintly reflected in the ck screen. ¡°I got old¡­¡± Actually, he only turned 28 with many more years to go. However, he used to brim with youth like in that video. ¡°I¡¯ll just watch a game stream.¡± As usual, he turned on a game broadcast. He didn¡¯t watch it because he liked it in particr and had never yed games before. He only focused on archery since a young age and didn¡¯t have time to y like his peers. Sports cost a fortune and he lived with his grandmother. He needed to earn schrships no matter what to cover the astronomical costs. As a result, he became the youngest winner at nationals. He thought his future would be bright and full of promise. ''But it wasn¡¯t.'' Gulp.He chugged more beer and swallowed away the painful memories. Sang-Hyeon focused on the stream again. It showed a popr virtual reality game calledFull Dive. ¡ª Hey! Move! Why doesn¡¯t this thing hit urately? ¡ª Critical! Critical! Got it! Full Diveallowed people to totally immerse themselves in the game as its name suggested. Many considered it the greatest virtual reality game in modern history. They also called it the capsule game because it required an expensive capsule machine to y. Just one with the basic features cost a ton. Nine to fivers like Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t afford such luxuries. He felt satisfied with just watching such an amazing game while drinking beer. [Grit Grit has sponsored 50,000 won.] ¡ª Aim-y! Where¡¯s Aim-y? One viewer donated some money andmented over the streamer¡¯s aim. The sponsoring program read the message in a silly voice. ¡ª Aimy-yyyy! Aim-yyy! Where are youuu? Simr donations continually came in. [Jinsung''s Gummies has sponsored 4,000 won.] [5 minutester¡­] ¡ªToday we¡¯re going to be ying¡­ A sponsored message said the streamer would turn off the game and restart as if nothing happened. [Aim-y has sponsored 30,000 won.] ¡ª Hey! I¡¯m shooting, but why isn¡¯t it going forward? What¡¯s wrong with this capsule? The gamer med the perfectly fine capsule for his reaction speed. Meanwhile, hefty sponsorships continued pouring in. Messages that read,[LOLOLOLOL], bombarded the chat window. ¡°Gosh¡­ It¡¯s also a talent to suck. Is it that hard to hit? It looks easy.¡± Sang-Hyeon suddenly found the way he lived in the past quite pathetic. He threw everything aside to be skilled at one thing. ¡°Whatever, I¡¯m going to sleep.¡± He turned off the lights and the curtains blocked out the city. Time passed and work arrived again before he knew it. He woke up by habit from his days as an athlete. *** Sang-Hyeon had been summoned to the department head¡¯s office the next day when he arrived at work. ¡®What¡¯s going on? The atmosphere seems weird.¡¯ Being called to the office felt normal, but his colleagues looked at him strangely. He possessed keen eyesight and could read their faint expressions from a distance. ¡®This is weird.¡¯ He concluded that everyone acted a bit strange today and found out why when he entered the office. Tak.A resignation letter appeared in front of him. ¡°They say there¡¯s going to be restructuring,¡± the department head said without looking at him. ¡°You can leave with something right now if you go quietly, but you won¡¯t get much if you¡¯reid off due to the restructuring.¡± He seemed so impassive that Sang-Hyeon wondered if the department head spoke to him. ¡°You¡¯re the only one on our team. You know that, right? Everyone else works hard.¡± Now, Sang-Hyeon¡¯s colleagues were being held over his head. ¡®So this is why he exaggerated his criticisms yesterday.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon¡¯s report from yesterday hadn¡¯t been too bad. He could tell that much, but the department head criticized the smallest details. As a section chief, he could only apologize when the department head scolded him. The rules always went like that. Now he needed to quit ording to the same rules. ¡°Understood, sir.¡± The department head finally nced at him after Sang-Hyeon agreed easier than expected. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying you can only give me severance pay if I leave now, correct? I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll add a bit more.¡± ¡°You¡¯re quick to calcte.¡± ¡°I recorded this conversation, so please keep that promise.¡± Obviously, Sang-Hyeon lied. Nevertheless, the department head nodded. Many people recorded things these days, especially when they had to visit a department head¡¯s office. ¡°Sure, fine. It¡¯s not a promise, but something thepany guarantees. Don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°Do I leave today?¡± ¡°Will you work if I say so?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pack my things.¡± ¡°Ha.¡± Sang-Hyeon turned around with an expressionless face. He heard the department head¡¯s voice from behind. ¡°Hey, don¡¯t be too upset. You¡¯re a nepo hire anyways, right? Everyone here went through college, earned qualifications, and spent money they didn¡¯t have to study abroad. We don¡¯t have a choice either.¡± Of course, Sang-Hyeon knew that. The reason why the department head reproached him every day and why he never made a friend here. The few friends he had left would soon be nonexistent. All because he only graduated from high school and used to be an athlete. ¡°I know.¡± He slowly returned to his desk and organized his belongings into a box. He worked at thispany for four years, but his belongings didn¡¯t even fill the smallest box from the post office. *** ¡°What should I do?¡± Sang-Hyeon returned home. He left like it didn¡¯t affect him, but now he felt like going mad. Already 28 years old, high school graduate, jobless, former athlete, specialty: archery¡­He wouldn¡¯t be able to find another 9-5 job in South Korea with these insignificant qualifications. He couldn¡¯t reach out to the coach he already owed. ¡°Sh-Should I buy some ramyeon in advance? Maybe some water too¡­¡± He thought of things to buy like a war would soon ur. ¡°Haa,haa¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon shook himself and took a deep breath. He found it difficult to stand, so he sat and eventuallyy in bed. ¡°Haaa¡­¡± He nkly stared at the ceiling. The round LED fixture looked like the target he always aimed at. Sang-Hyeon raised his hands and aimed for the center. His breathing grew steady as if he held a bow and his arms moved into a perfect textbook position. Tremble, tremble¡­However, his right hand began to shake and it grew worse as time went on. ¡°Kugh¡­¡± Tak.His handnded on the bed again and a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead. Then he burst from bed about 5 minutester. He moved as if something possessed him and sat in front of hisputer. He thought about grabbing some beer from the fridge, but decided against that. Instead, he essed the game streaming tform he often frequented and began typing with shaky hands. [Skill streams] Could he earn money from being good at games? Chapter 2: I Still Want to Shoot (2)

Chapter 2: I Still Want to Shoot (2)

¡®Skill streams.¡¯?Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t know, but a market for them existed. Actually, there were more skilled streamers than bad ones. ¡°Bubblegum.¡± The streamer he enjoyed watching just notoriously sucked at games. ¡®Huh, so Bubblegum¡¯s broadcasts were for people who didn¡¯t y games.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon discovered that the algorithm rmended him these videos because he didn¡¯t y games either. Most who watched skill streams were avid gamers who wanted to improve their own skills. ¡®I can¡¯t believe they¡¯re studying just to y games.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon realized he¡¯d been looking down on gamers. This world was just like sports. You had to hone your skills and others would judge you based on that. Almost nothing happened because of luck. Theypeted with skill versus skill. A true battle andpetition! ¡°This is nice,¡± Sang-Hyeon muttered as he sipped some water. He admired such a lifestyle from a young age. Fairlypeting with ability alone and rising step by step while improving yourself. However, society functioned opposite to these rules. Luck determined around 30% of everything and human rtions held more significance thanpetence. Even Sang-Hyeon had been a nepo hire. One¡¯s administrative ability might not even be considered after taking a look at their school alumni and regional connections. The real world preferred good looks over being good at work. In short, society had too many variables. ¡°Let¡¯s do it.¡± Sang-Hyeon thought he could do well in this world of gamers. *** Two days passed after Sang-Hyeon¡¯s resignation. ¡°Have you gone mad!¡± A colleague shouted at him inside thepany cafe. Kim Ju-Hyeok was the only colleague at work Sang-Hyeon could confide in. Ju-Hyeok lived the opposite of Sang-Hyeon¡¯s life. He grew up in an affluent household, went to a prestigious college, obtained a degree from a well-known graduate school in the United States, and found a job at a famous corporation. He was an elite of the elites. ¡°You think I¡¯m crazy?¡± Sang-Hyeon thought about reconsidering if Ju-Hyeok opposed it so much. ¡°Y-You think you¡¯re sane?¡± ¡°Why not? I¡¯m really good.¡± ¡°You said you¡¯ve never yed games before.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Ha.¡± Ju-Hyeok tried to make the most dumbfounded expression he could. ¡°You idiot! So you¡¯re going to use the money you¡¯ve been saving for your apartment deposit and buy a capsule?¡± He spoke so loud that the nearby employees looked at them. ¡°I¡­ also have that severance pay, okay? Lower your voice.¡± ¡°How much severance pay could a fired section chief get?¡± ¡°I was fired because of restructuring, so it¡¯s a bit different.¡± ¡°Haa.¡± Ju-Hyeok grabbed his own head out of frustration. Sang-Hyeon spoke a bit roughly, but he was brighter than most who graduated from nice colleges. ¡®His problem is that he pulls shit like this once in a while.¡¯ Sometimes, Sang-Hyeon¡¯s cleverness became insanity like now when he said he would spend all his savings on a capsule. Then he said he would eat from the employee¡¯s cafeteria on the weekdays and cup ramyeon on the weekends. ¡°Dude, just go to fucking Las Vegas or something. You¡¯ll probably be better off.¡± ¡°I''m bad at card games though.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a figure of speech. A. Figure. Of. Speech!¡± ¡®Ugh, this frustrating punk.¡¯?Ju-Hyeok thought to himself that all geniuses had a loose screw somewhere. ¡°How long have you rested from archery?¡± ¡°Mmm¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t even remember, do you?¡± ¡°Mmm¡­¡± ¡°And you¡¯re suddenly going to shoot again? In a game, at that? Spending all your savings? You idiot. Try living normally for once.¡± ¡°Mmm¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon¡¯s face didn¡¯t change at all. ¡®This punk¡¯s not even listening.¡¯?As always, Sang-Hyeon tuned out when he lost interest. He excelled at letting words go in one ear and out the other when someone nagged him. ¡°Haa. How much did you say it costs?¡± ¡°Forty million won!¡± ¡®He answered that fucking quick.¡¯?Ju-Hyeok restrained himself from saying something. Sang-Hyeon wouldn¡¯t listen anyways. ¡°So the capsule alone is forty, the electricity bill to keep it running will be no joke, and don¡¯t you need some other weird equipment?¡± ¡°Mmm¡­ I don¡¯t know yet. The capsule will probably be enough, don¡¯t you think? I mean, it costs forty million.¡± ¡°It costs money to add options to a 150 million won car too, moron.¡± ¡°Ugh, you¡¯re right.¡± ¡®The elite sure are different,¡¯ Sang-Hyeon thought to himself. He learned a lot just talking to Ju-Hyeok. ¡°Wait until I get off, okay? Don¡¯t buy it yet. I¡¯ll contact people I know and look for ces that sell it cheaper.¡± ¡°Nice! Thanks!¡± ¡°Stay here. I¡¯m clocking out on the dot today.¡± With that, Ju-Hyeok quickly headed to the elevator. Sang-Hyeon had gotten into that elevator with him just the day before yesterday with a cup of coffee. He felt bittersweet looking at Ju-Hyeok¡¯s back. ¡®Forget it, Sang-Hyeon.¡¯ This bitterness would lead to a new beginning. *** Sang-Hyeon sat in the cafe with hisptop at five in the afternoon. Hezily searched for the current prices of capsules and flipped through stock charts while wondering how to use his severance pay. ¡°Why does it feel like I¡¯m more afraid than you?¡± ¡°Hey, you¡¯re here?¡± Sang-Hyeon hung his neck back like a bat to look at Ju-Hyeok. ¡°Don¡¯t people usually turn sideways?¡± ¡°Oh, do they?¡± Sang-Hyeon turned around with his neck still bent like a bat looking sideways now. ¡°You¡¯re a fucking interesting guy, huh. Anyways, let''s go.¡± ¡°Where? Did you find one?¡± ¡°Just follow me.¡± Ju-Hyeok confidently led the way while adjusting his suit jacket. Sang-Hyeon looked forward to what connections Ju-Hyeok pulled to get a cheap capsule. ¡®Will they discount me around 15 million won?¡¯ *** ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°What do you mean, huh?¡± ¡°This is a capsule room.¡± ¡°Yeah, shut up and follow me.¡± ¡°But I want to buy a capsule, not use one.¡± Ju-Hyeok dragged him along when they heard a friendly voice wee them. ¡°Hey, Ju-Hyeok. The guy next to you is that friend?¡± ¡°Oh, hyung. Long time no see.¡± ¡°N-Nice to meet you.¡± Sang-Hyeon read the situation and bowed to Ju-Hyeok¡¯s friend. ¡°Was it Sang-Hyeon?¡± A man who looked like he ran an interrogation room instead of a capsule room approached with one hand out. Sang-Hyeon shook his hand and nodded. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m Yu Sang-Hyeon.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you. I¡¯m Lee Kang-Seok, the owner of this ce.¡± ¡°Oh, I see.¡± ¡°Follow me. You said it¡¯s your first time with capsules, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then you shouldn¡¯t buy one yet.¡± ¡®Is he trying to convince me not to?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon spun around to re at Ju-Hyeok, who simply waved with a smile. Sang-Hyeon only followed the owner inside to save Ju-Hyeok some face. ¡°All right, let¡¯s head in.¡± ¡°¡­?¡± ¡°This is where we register your physical information.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°I heard it¡¯s your first time registering.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll close the door soon, so please wait as theputer guides you in your underwear.¡± Thud.?Sang-Hyeon became trapped in what looked like a spaceship¡¯s escape port. *** The other two individuals spoke to each other with Sang-Hyeon trapped inside. ¡°Hyung, you said you had some secondhand capsules, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, I can sell them for around 15 million each. If that¡¯s too much, I have a couple for 10 million.¡± ¡°Wow, thanks.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing. That¡¯s just their price. Tsk¡­ I wanted to convince him not to.¡± ¡°You too?¡± ¡°Yeah, asionally some people like thate in. They want to buy secondhand capsules as if they¡¯re possessed. You know how games bring in cash these days. They think they¡¯ll quickly get rich if they¡¯re good or be a famous streamer.¡± ¡°Damn, there are actually naive people like him?¡± ¡°Do you think everyone in the world is as smart as you? The world is filled with idiots. Oh, I¡¯m not saying your friend is one.¡± ¡°He is.¡± The good-natured owner chuckled and stood up. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s physical scan should be finished. They continued speaking while heading to the room. ¡°Oh, and there¡¯s one more thing people are mistaken about.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°That they¡¯ll be good at what they did outside when they¡¯re in the game. It doesn¡¯t work like that. Unlike in the past, games have no physical limits. It¡¯s solely a battle of wits. Being good at ser in real life and ying well inside a game is totally different.¡± ¡°Even in Full Dive?¡± ¡°Yeah, you can¡¯t make up for yourcking skills with physical prowess inside the game. There aren¡¯t any physical distinctions anymore.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± ¡°Your friend might give up if I test him with a light game called Real Olympics. Be sure tofort him. I feel bad for his situation.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± Ju-Hyeok became worried. ¡®Are games?that different?from reality?¡¯ He yed virtual reality games before, but it didn¡¯t feel too different because he had a normal physique. People often yed better in games than in reality. Professional athletes probably experienced the opposite since they couldn¡¯t use their superior physique in games. ¡®It¡¯s for the best. He¡¯ll still have his savings.¡¯ Ju-Hyeok already thought about how tofort Sang-Hyeon. It would be better not to buy a capsule. ¡ª Scanplete.? Sang-Hyeon stepped out of the scanning room and entered the capsule at the front. ¡°Now, let¡¯s test it out.¡± The owner began exining the game to Sang-Hyeon. ¡°You said you used to do archery, so the test will probably be easy. It¡¯s a game called Real?Olympics. I set it to archery.¡± ¡°Ah, thank you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m closing the door now. Try to get a high score. And¡­¡± ¡®Rethink buying a capsule.¡¯ The owner didn¡¯t finish saying thosest words. Sang-Hyeon would probably realize it himself. Thud.?The capsule door closed. The owner turned on a monitor to watch with Ju-Hyeok. Woooohooo!?The Olympics¡¯ exciting atmosphere filled the screen. Sang-Hyeon stood there in a white uniform that looked strangely good on him. Keeek. He pulled the arrow back without hesitation as if he had done this every day for years. Chapter 3: I Still Want to Shoot (3)

Chapter 3: I Still Want to Shoot (3)

¡°I can¡¯t believe it¡¯s so simr.¡± Sang-Hyeon felt surprised at the uracy of this virtual reality Olympics. ¡ª Wooohooo! ¡ª Yu Sang-Hyeon! Yu Sang-Hyeon! ¡ª Ah, yer Yu Sang-Hyeon has stepped up with his bow. What do you think? yer Yu Sang-Hyeon has shown genius potential since a young age and¡­ The cheering and thementators he asionally heard during his athlete days made him nervous as if he actuallypeted at the Olympics. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.? It shouldn¡¯t have been possible, but he could hear his heartbeat thumping in his ears. His virtual lips also felt dry. A familiar target stood 70 meters out with multiple colored circles: red, yellow, and blue. His dream finally appeared in front of him. How long had it been since he stood like this? ¡°Whew.¡± Sang-Hyeon immediately pulled back an arrow to feel it out. Keeeeek.?The sound and sense of nocking an arrow felt familiar. His heart raced at the vivid sensation. ¡®I-It really works?¡¯ A problem always arose when he assumed the holding position after pulling the string. He looked at his right hand. ¡°¡­!¡± His right hand should¡¯ve been trembling by now, but it firmly pulled on the string as if nothing ever happened. Sang-Hyeon froze for a moment as his throat tightened. ¡°¡­¡± He swallowed what could¡¯ve been sadness or joy and carefully felt the bow. ¡®It¡¯s a bit different.¡¯ The string¡¯s tension based on his strength, the grip, etc. The tiny details definitely felt off, but none of that mattered. He could get used to this toy bow as long as he could pull the string like normal. ¡®Let¡¯s do this.¡¯?He nocked the arrow again and prepared to really shoot. His eyes that briefly moistened sharply red at the target. Sang-Hyeon entered the battle between himself and the arrow. Archery was always a silent war between oneself and the arrow. yers had to make the arrow theirs in this silent battle of blood. It began with a full draw. This essential prelude urred when he pulled the arrow into the position that suited him best. The right hand¡¯s uracy and steadiness were key in the full draw stage, so it had been a while for Sang-Hyeon. Keeek!?However, the string rested on his nose and lips as if he did it yesterday. His right hand instinctively sat beneath his chin in the perfect holding position. His hold felt perfect, but¡­ ¡®The bow¡¯s weight and the string¡¯s tension are lower than I thought. Is it so beginners can do it too?¡¯ The lightness actually felt ufortable. He didn¡¯t feel the familiar weight, so he exerted more strength than necessary and his aim began to wobble. ¡°Again.¡± Eventually, he lowered his bow and arrow without shooting. *** Ju-Hyeok and the owner gulped when Sang-Hyeon nocked an arrow. The look in his eyes suddenly changed. ¡°D-Dang, pros are something else. His stance is on another level!¡± ¡°Y-Yeah, I¡¯ve only heard about it. It¡¯s my first time seeing it too.¡± Ju-Hyeok never knew Sang-Hyeon could make such an expression. ¡®That¡¯s Yu Sang-Hyeon?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon only aimed his bow inside a game, but it made anyone watching feel like they were being hunted. Silence descended like a fog. If the wind blew, it probably would¡¯ve stopped for him. ¡°Huh? Why isn¡¯t he shooting?¡± ¡°¡­?¡± Sang-Hyeon suddenly ced his bow and arrow down. ¡°Does the issue with his right hand still affect him mentally?¡± Ju-Hyeok bit his lower lip and the owner spoke up from next to him. ¡°I¡¯ve seen this happen before in the Olympics. You know how yers do that sometimes. It¡¯s not a good sign, but it¡¯s not something special either.¡± ¡°Ah, right.¡± ¡°He must be too nervous.¡± Ju-Hyeok recalled how an Olympic archer raised his bow and arrow before resting it back down. Athletes also struggled with anxiety and pressure duringpetitions. ¡®Sang-Hyeon? Nervous?¡¯ Yu Sang-Hyeon became nervous from a mere virtual reality game? Ju-Hyeok couldn¡¯t imagine that because he knew how Sang-Hyeon acted at work. That guy always seemedid-back about everything. ¡®He must really like it.¡¯?Ju-Hyeok realized how much Sang-Hyeon loved archery and how much he must¡¯ve missed it. He could tell from Sang-Hyeon¡¯s gestures, expressions, and even his breathing. His nervousness made sense. It probably felt like seeing your crush again after a long time. ¡®Wasn¡¯t money just an excuse?¡¯ It didn¡¯t seem like Sang-Hyeon wanted to make money through gaming. More like he wanted to use that as an excuse to shoot again. He wanted to escape the boring work life and return to archery in this vast field. His grandmother passed away some time ago too. Sang-Hyeon only attended work because of his grandmother. A year had passed since her funeral. He probably wanted to let go of that burden and do what his heart told him. ¡®What his heart guides him to do¡­¡¯? It had nothing to do with Ju-Hyeok, but his heart began to race too. How did it feel to do what your heart wanted and be the best in that field? Ju-Hyeok had never experienced that before. ¡°Hey, he¡¯s nocking the arrow again.¡± The owner nudged Ju-Hyeok¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Whoa¡­¡± It happened so quickly Ju-Hyeok could only react like that. Pew!? Sang-Hyeon shot the arrow like a stream of water. ¡°!¡± His arrow seemed different even to Ju-Hyeok¡¯s untrained eyes. ¡°Wh-What the?¡± the owner eximed. The arrow didn¡¯tnd yet, but they already knew it would hit the bull¡¯s eye when Sang-Hyeon released it. Ffft! ¡°Whoa!¡± ¡°Who is he? This is different from the archery I know!¡± Most people had only ever seen archerypetitions between top pros. The general public didn¡¯t watch unless it happened at the Olympics. However, Sang-Hyeon seemed to be above what they had seen before. They didn¡¯t know much, but it clearly seemed like that?. Just like how Kim Yuna¡¯s double axle looked more elegant than other skaters'' unstable triple axles. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s archery had anotheryer to it. Pew! He shot another arrow and it naturallynded in the center as if sucked in. Pew!?Three consecutive shots all scored ten points. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t stop there. He instantly shot two more. Pew! Pew! The target almost seemed pitiful after that. Ten!? Ten! No tension remained and the voices shouting the perfect scores became pointless. Sang-Hyeon continued shooting and every arrow perfectly struck the center. Ju-Hyeok thought the phrase, ¡®Easy as one, two, three,¡¯ had been made after seeing Sang-Hyeon¡¯s archery. ¡°You said it would be different from real life though.¡± ¡°Uh, yeah¡­ A lot of athletes can¡¯t get used to it, but he¡¯s different. They usually struggle at the beginning and improveter. That guy¡­¡± The owner scratched his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about archery, but isn¡¯t he different? He¡¯s on another level. Is that the archery we know?¡± Ju-Hyeok told him that Sang-Hyeon had been South Korea¡¯s youngest gold medalist at nationals. ¡°The youngest?¡± ¡°Yeah, he told me over some drinks.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s Korea¡¯s nationalpetition, then doesn¡¯t that basically make him the youngest world champion ever?¡± ¡°He was supposed to be.¡± ¡°That¡¯s incredible. I guess it looks different to even ordinary people if you¡¯re on that level.¡± Loud cheers came from the monitor. ¡ª Woooohoooo! ¡ª A perfect score! All in the center of the target! Incredible! ¡ª Oh my, I can¡¯t believe it! He broke the record for shooting time too! This is unbelievable! The game ended with Sang-Hyeon shooting every arrow into the very center. Ssssss. The capsule lid slowly lifted with the sound of air being released. Ju-Hyeok thought Sang-Hyeon would confidently sit up and smile, but he didn¡¯te out. ¡°What¡¯s taking him so long?¡± Ju-Hyeok approached thinking this idiot didn¡¯t know how to exit the capsule. ¡°Dude, do you not know¡­¡± However, Ju-Hyeok paused when he looked inside. Sang-Hyeon was crying with tears all over his face. He sobbed as if letting out all the emotions from the ten years he couldn¡¯t hold a bow. Chapter 4: Game Start (1)

Chapter 4: Game Start (1)

Sang-Hyeon wept embarrassingly in a capsule cafe he had never been to before. ¡®I can¡¯t believe it works.¡¯ Ten years. He hadn¡¯t held a bow in ten years. Sang-Hyeon told Ju-Hyeok he didn¡¯t remember those days. However¡­ ¡®There¡¯s no way I could forget.¡¯ His mind wouldn¡¯t let him, especially that day when the car ident happened. He could still see it clearly in his head. The emotions he felt when he heard he would never be able to use his right hand again. Those feelings always lingered with him. He would even see the doctor¡¯s cold-hearted look in a crowd sometimes. ¡°Sniffle¡­ Sigh¡­¡± He clenched his teeth to stop his tears, but they kept pouring out. He couldn¡¯t understand why. Was it from the joy of finally being able to shoot after ten years? Or the realization that he lived thest decade as an empty person? He wasn¡¯t sure. Nheless, he felt something boiling deep inside him that eventually leaked through his eyes. ¡°Hey¡­ Sang-Hyeon.¡± Ju-Hyeok came up, not knowing what to do. Sang-Hyeon pushed him away. ¡°Don¡¯te near me. This is so embarrassing¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon wiped his tears with the tissue beside him and shooed Ju-Hyeok away. He calmed down a bit as the owner approached and tapped his shoulder. ¡°Are you okay?¡± ¡°Yes, thank you. It just took me back.¡± ¡°I wish I could understand¡­ but I don¡¯t think I can. However, I¡¯m in awe.¡± ¡°Sorry?¡± ¡°The fact that you¡¯re still so passionate about the dreams you had as a youth.¡± Sang-Hyeon simply thought the owner had read too manyics or fairytales. However, that didn¡¯t matter after Sang-Hyeon heard his next words. The owner immediately earned Sang-Hyeon¡¯s respect. ¡°I¡¯ll sell it to you for seven million won.¡± ¡°!?¡± Sang-Hyeon¡¯s eyes almost popped out. ''Seven¡­ seven million? He''s not talking about the capsule machine, is he?'' From his research, even used ones fetched around twenty million won. Selling it for seven million would definitely be a loss. ¡°Are you talking about some other device? Not a capsule machine, right?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m talking about a capsule machine. You said you wanted to stream, right? This onees with all the streaming features built in. It¡¯s an older model, but it won¡¯t be too shabby for a start.¡± ¡°...¡± Sang-Hyeon¡¯s jaws dropped. ¡°Th¡­ Thank you!¡± He bowed without hesitation and thanked the owner. He couldn¡¯t afford to hesitate in life when he needed all the help he could get. ¡°How can I ever repay you?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it! It¡¯s a cheap model only worth around ten million. The three million off is a friends and family discount. Plus¡­¡± The owner scratched his head and continued with the manliest grin. ¡°Let¡¯s just say I¡¯m trying to look cool in front of Ju-Hyeok.¡± ¡°!¡± ¡®Looking cool¡­ yes. That¡¯s quite important.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon nodded and recalled when his team had to go through all sorts of shit at work just to briefly make his manager look cool. ¡°You truly are a gentleman,¡± Sang-Hyeon said with a straight face and the ownerughed. ¡°Haha! You¡¯re a funny guy.¡± ¡°I... I told you. He¡¯s a bit different,¡± Ju-Hyeok said as he scratched his head in confusion. The owner settled down fromughing and rephrased himself. ¡°It¡¯s not that I want to look cool. It¡¯s an investment. Like most capsule cafes, I¡¯m also in charge of capsule distribution. Just do a shout-out for me when you be big soon! Three million for a huge shout-out is a good deal.¡± ¡°Ah ha.¡± Who would invest in an advertisement from a newbie streamer who hadn¡¯t even properly yed a game yet? No one. This kindness came straight from the owner¡¯s heart. Sang-Hyeon nodded more firmly than before. ¡°Yes! Of course!¡± *** Workers from the capsule cafe came to Sang-Hyeon¡¯s home the next day and finished installing the capsule machine. ¡°Thank you so much! Drink this on your way out!¡± ¡°Thanks, you didn¡¯t have to.¡± Sang-Hyeon handed each worker a can of coffee as they left. It took Sang-Hyeon another seven hours to finish setting up his stream. Now he only had to purchase a game. ¡°Phew, even this is no easy task.¡± He wiped the sweat off his forehead and browsed the top games being streamed on the tform, Treevy. [Battle Large] 220k viewers [Life is Legend] 1.57m viewers [Mana Sword] 320k viewers [Bio Jeopardy] 120k viewers Most of them seemed likepetitive online games. ¡®These might not be bad¡­¡¯ These games were undoubtedly the hottest, but Sang-Hyeon had no intentions of ying them. The more popr a game, the more likely many streamers already yed it. Extremely skilled streamers or funny and witty ones already filled such popr games. Thosepetitive scenes didn¡¯t suit a newbie streamer like Sang-Hyeon. ¡®I¡¯m not at the major league yet.¡¯ He didn¡¯t intend on diving headfirst into the red ocean. He needed to find a game gradually increasing in poprity that could showcase his skills. ¡®I did have one in mind¡­¡± One game caught his attention ahead of time. It had just enough poprity and realism to show off his skills. He found it as he scrolled through the store. [Kingdom Age] 170k viewers. yers took on the role of a mercenary during the middle ages in this game called Kingdom Age. It featured a medieval theme, realistic mechanics, and fights that felt real. Various factors contributed to its growing fanbase. These kinds of games always had a loyal fanbase, but not too many streamers because the increased realism meant an increased difficulty. However, that didn¡¯t scare Sang-Hyeon because he never yed a difficult game before. He promptly purchased it through Treevy¡¯s store. [WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE?] [?59,000] It wasn¡¯t cheap, but that was to be expected from a high-quality game. Sang-Hyeon proceeded without hesitation. [YES] He already nned to spend forty million won for his streaming setup. Sixty thousand wouldn¡¯t be much more. [PURCHASE SUCCESSFUL] The money was deducted from his ount and the game booted up. [FULL DIVE WILL COMMENCE IN 5 SECONDS] [5] Gulp. Sang-Hyeon felt strangely nervous and kept his eyes alert. [4] [3] [2] ¡­ sh! A white sh burst and another world appeared. *** p! Arge hand pped him across the face. ¡°Keugh!¡± ¡®What the?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon got up puzzled. His cheeks burned even though it happened in a game. Was it all in his head? Then someone yelled at him. ¡°Get up, punk! You call yourself a mercenary sleeping at a time like this?¡± ¡®Ah.¡¯ The game started. Sang-Hyeon had to remind himself this was all a game. ¡®Isn¡¯t this way too realistic?¡¯ It felt so real because of the game¡¯s high quality. Everything seemed alive and Sang-Hyeon almost grew upset that a game character pped him. It felt much more real than the Olympics game he yed before. The sound quality felt incredible as well. Clippity clop. Carriages went back and forth, screams echoed, and metal shed. ¡®Are we in a battle?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t see the situation as a neer on standby, but he could tell a battle was currently taking ce. His superiormanded him with a concerned expression. ¡°The bandits have invaded! Get up! Grab a weapon!¡± The senior mercenary aggressively gestured to him. Then¡­ ¡°Hurry! Grab a weapon, you bas¡­¡± The mercenary froze while making a weird face. No, the entire screen froze. [CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON] The tutorial had begun. Whip. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s vision turned against his will to a storage filled with hay. [SWORD] A swordy on top of the boxes in the corner. His gaze turned again to the left this time. [SPEAR] Spears could be found behind the carriage. Then his sight finallynded on a different mercenary¡¯s back. [BOW AND ARROW] This mercenary carried a bow. ¡°What the¡­ Why is he the only one with a bow?¡± Sang-Hyeon scratched his head in confusion, but didn¡¯t hesitate. As he reached for the bow¡­ ¡ª Will you choose the bow and arrow for a bow challenge? Suddenly, a chat window popped up. ¡°!¡± Sang-Hyeon quickly nced towards the bottom left. [5 viewers] ¡®Five people already?¡¯ He must¡¯ve chosen the correct game, right? Five viewers already joined his stream. ¡®I should probably talk a little, right?¡¯ Every message and viewer counted in the early stages of streaming. Sang-Hyeon responded to the chat since the game paused. ¡°Bow challenge?¡± A reply came as soon as he asked. ¡ª You don¡¯t know the bow challenge? Usually, people who beat the game three or four times asionally do this challenge. Sang-Hyeon had watched his fair share of streams and could somewhat make out the viewers¡¯ments. He didn¡¯t mean to ask about the bow challenge in particr though. ¡°Are bows¡­ not good?¡± The fact that only experts did the bow challenge meant bows might not be very good in this game. ¡ª Are you asking because you don¡¯t know? Arrows can hit allies, bounce off armor, ande in super limited quantities, so you gotta calcte every shot. ¡ª Nevermind that. Did you see the stream¡¯s title? ¡ª ??? ¡ª It¡¯s his first day streaming. First time ying as well. The other viewers chimed in. ''What are they talking about? Stream title?'' Sang-Hyeon looked up. [Automated Stream Title] This heading hovered above with a title that read: Beginner yer, New Streamer. ¡®Ah, I forgot to set a title for the stream.¡¯ He had been too preupied with booting up the game, but the automated title didn¡¯t sound so bad. ¡ª Look at this guy''s ytime. ¡ª His ID was basically made yesterday. The viewers could look him up and see hisplete beginner status because of the game¡¯s identification system. ¡ª Oh wow, he¡¯s a real newbie. That¡¯s exciting. ¡ª No way LOL They actually enjoyed watching a newbie instead of being annoyed. Probably because only skilled yers streamed Kingdom Age. ¡®It was a good choice.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon had to admit he picked an excellent game. ¡°Hey chat, is the bow hard to use?¡± They filled the chatbox with?¡®yeah¡¯?in response. All five viewers agreed on the high difficulty. ¡°Alright then.¡± Sang-Hyeon picked the bow. ¡ª ?! ¡ª This newbie is quite cute and feisty. ¡ª I don¡¯t like kids who don¡¯t listen. ¡ª Lol I think he¡¯s trying to be a streamer who doesn¡¯t listen. Chapter 5: Game Start (2)

Chapter 5: Game Start (2)

The viewers rushed to make fun of Sang-Hyeon after he chose the bow. ¡ª First timer doing a bow challenge LOL! ¡ª This is why it¡¯s fun to watch newbs. ¡ª I can smell the failure already. The chat didn¡¯t discourage Sang-Hyeon, but rather motivated him. ¡®I was going to choose the bow anyways. Their reaction is a bonus.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon would use a bow no matter what and their reactions encouraged him even more. [BOW SELECTED] The game resumed after this message popped up. ¡®The bow is over there. What should I do?¡¯ Another senior mercenary carried the bow. The game told him to grab it, but it already belonged to someone else. Then Sang-Hyeon¡¯s dilemma was immediately resolved. ¡°Grab a weapon!¡± As that senior mercenary finished his sentence¡­ Ssh! A spear pierced through his head. ¡°Ugh!¡± Sang-Hyeon¡¯s screen turned red as crimson blood covered his face. ¡®Woah¡­¡¯ Sang-Hyeon froze from the shock. ¡ª LOL the beginner is so cute. ¡ª Haha I don¡¯t think he knew that mercenary would die right away.? ¡ª You killed him! You! ¡ª The game progresses like that if you choose the bow. The viewers made fun of his reaction. The five of them felt like fifty people. ¡®I guess this is how the game progresses if I choose the bow.¡¯ The bandit that killed the senior mercenary also copsed as Sang-Hyeon assessed the situation. Thump!? ¡°Hey, new kid! Pay attention!¡± [MERCENARY COMMANDER ROMAN] Themander in charge firmly spoke and his gaze seemed sharp as an eagle. ¡ª Roman¡­ ¡ª Ah, I¡¯m getting PTSD ¡ª Lol, that mean bastard¡­ ¡ª Hey! Don¡¯t touch our newbie! It seemed Roman wasn¡¯t a nicemander judging from the chat. ¡®Well, I have to survive somehow.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon quickly grabbed the bow from the senior mercenary''s corpse. Whip. [BOW ACQUIRED] Roman tilted his head. ¡°Bow? I don¡¯t know about that. Show me what you¡¯ve got.¡± Roman walked away with his sword as a bandit discovered them. ¡°What the, there¡¯s another one?¡± Sang-Hyeon finished nocking an arrow. Shoot! The arrow pierced the bandit, who couldn¡¯t react at all. sh! Roman finished off the bandit with his sword. ¡ª Oh wow, he hit him lol. ¡ª Beginner¡¯s luck. The viewers praised him for hitting his first target. Meanwhile, Sang-Hyeon familiarized himself with the bow mechanics in this gamepared to the previous game he yed. ¡®It feels simr to that Olympics game, but still a bit different from real archery.¡¯ He only took one shot, but could already tell where it stood between modern archery and traditional archery. He felt relieved that this game¡¯s shooting seemed easier than the Olympics game. ¡°Okay, I think I kind of get it.¡± Sang-Hyeon whispered to himself as he looked around. ¡®How many foes are there?¡¯ A bandit stood right in front of him, but Sang-Hyeon checked his surroundings first. He spotted around twenty bandits and three mercenaries in total. ¡®3 vs. 20?¡¯ Not many allies remained. This seemed like a main character moment. ¡®What about arrows?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon checked his remaining arrows and counted exactly twenty. ¡®Do I only get one chance?¡¯ He had tond every shot unless he could find more arrows. ¡°I have to kill one with every shot.¡± Swoosh! He released another arrow and barely even looked as if he identally let go. Regardless, the arrow perfectly struck its target. ¡°Ugh!¡± Thud! The bandit copsed as the arrow struck his forehead. He died on the spot as his body went still. ¡ª Wow, a headshot! ¡ª What the, did he just shoot without looking? ¡ª Kingdom Age is all luck, no skill. Stupid game. The viewers didn¡¯t expect Sang-Hyeon tond a headshot. They grew excited at this simple fact. ¡°Are arrows usually one shot, one kill?¡± Sang-Hyeon already knew the answer despite being a newbie. ¡ª This game is pretty realistic. It¡¯s an instant kill if you hit a vital spot. ¡ª Even the organs are ced realistically.? ¡ª There¡¯s also a headshot mechanic, so it¡¯s an instant kill if you get it. They told him valuable information about headshots and other vital points in the game. ¡°Ah, I see. Thank you for the exnation RubySword. So there are headshots and other vital spots too.¡± Sang-Hyeon naturallymunicated with his viewers, which helped out his stream a bit. ¡°Then let¡¯s do it again. One shot per foe,¡± Sang-Hyeon nonchntly said as he pulled his bowstring. ¡ª What?! ¡ª Ah, the confidence of a newbie¡­ So cute! ¡ª Dun dun¡­ The chat kept mocking him, but he didn¡¯t care. He would retaliate with results like his usual sports mindset. Swoosh! The shooting resumed. Thud! One of the bandit¡¯s head became a skewer. ¡ª Woah?! ¡ª Headshot!? Again? ¡ª ??? Hended a much more powerful and perfect shot than before. Sang-Hyeon fully understood the mechanics now and grew more confident. ¡®I thought this game would be hard. Maybe the beginning is just easy.¡¯ At first, Sang-Hyeon worried because he only ever shot at still targets in archery. However, the targets constantly moved in this game. This worry quickly vanished after he quickly grasped how to hit moving targets. ¡°Two more shots,ing right up!¡± Swoosh! Swoosh! After that, he fired the arrows non-stop. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Shiet! ¡ª Headshot again? ¡ª The heck. ¡ª Does he have an aimbot? Thump. The huge bandits copsed one by one as Sang-Hyeon fired. ¡°Damn it!¡± ¡°Urgh!¡± ¡°Ugh!¡± The rest became enraged as they looked for Sang-Hyeon. However, he hid behind the carriage and changed positions. ¡°Where¡­ Where is he?¡± ¡°Damn it! Sir!¡± ¡°This can¡¯t be!¡± The bandits panicked. Each of their members fell with one shot, so they couldn¡¯t locate the archer. Swoosh! Another one fell as something whistled through the air. ¡°Urgh!¡± ¡°Again!?¡± Despite being the invaders, something now hunted them like in a horror movie. ¡°Find him! He¡¯s on the right side!¡± A bandit with a shield somewhat figured out where the arrows came from. ¡®A shield¡­ I think I¡¯ll get blocked.¡¯ That bandit had been the most troublesome from Sang-Hyeon¡¯s perspective. He held the shield just high enough to cover his head and didn¡¯t show many openings. However, Sang-Hyeon¡¯s ally pulled through. ¡°Raaaaa!¡± sh! A mercenary ying dead got up and swung his axe at the shield bandit. The bandit blocked, but that provided enough room for Sang-Hyeon. Sang-Hyeon even had time to make ament. ¡°There¡¯s an opening on his side.¡± Swoosh! The arrow pierced the bandit''s head like every shot before. ¡°Ugh!¡± Thump. The other bandits panicked after their leader fell. ¡°B-Boss!¡± ¡°Goddamit!¡± ¡°Shit!¡± ¡°Fuck, where are you!¡± They weren¡¯t the only ones in shock. ¡ª What the fuck?! ¡ª The hell? ¡ª He killed the leader??? ¡ª Huh? ¡®Huh, are you not supposed to kill the leader?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon scratched his head in confusion. ¡°Am I not supposed to kill the leader?¡± Chatterbox RubySword answered his question. ¡ª It¡¯s not that¡­ it¡¯s just¡­ the boss usually doesn¡¯t die that easily¡­ ¡°But you said headshots are instant kill.¡± ¡ª Yeah, but he doesn¡¯t usually get head shotted! ¡°But he just did?¡± ¡ª No¡­. no, he¡¯s usually not supposed to! Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t understand because the shield was the only difference between the boss and the other bandits. ¡ª The boss not only has a shield, but an insane reaction speed too. He usually dodges everything unless it¡¯s a maximum power shot. He was supposed toe out in the next cutscene too. ¡ª Holy shit, there¡¯s no cutscene. What¡¯s going on LOL ¡ª Is it a bug? The other viewers exined and chimed in. ¡°Maximum power? Full draw¡­ No, I mean, it¡¯s not that difficult if you¡¯re talking about pulling the string all the way.¡± ¡ª But then it bes much more difficult tond the arrow. ¡°...¡± Sang-Hyeon¡¯s expression froze. ¡®It¡¯s supposed to be like that?¡¯ He always pulled to the max, or in archery terms, shot in a full draw. ¡ª Judging from your face, you shot with maximum power the entire time? ¡ª Is that possible? All his shots were headshots. Sang-Hyeon wanted to know more, but couldn¡¯t just keep asking. The game needed to progress since the viewers came for entertainment, not to teach him. ¡°Let me continue with the game for now.¡± Sang-Hyeon resumed ying. Drawing the string¡­ Swoosh! Again, a rampage of arrows began. Thud! He stuck to one shot per kill as he proimed earlier. ¡®It¡¯s one shot as long you hit their head? I guess it¡¯s easy since it¡¯s a tutorial.¡¯ Swoosh! Swoosh! Hended all five arrows into the enemies¡¯ foreheads. Thest arrow pierced a bandit¡¯s head that Roman had been fighting. Roman turned around with a shocked expression. ¡°Were you the one who shot that arrow?¡± The game proceeded to the next cutscene. *** ¡°Argh!!! Die, you bandits!¡± The remaining mercenaries finished off the bandits thanks to Sang-Hyeon. They also had better equipment and skillspared to the bandits. ¡°Die! Bastards!¡± ¡°Argh!¡± sh! Their axes and spears plowed through the bandits and the mercenaries finally won. ¡°Huff¡­ Puff¡­ Hey new guy.¡± One of the senior mercenaries covered in blood approached Sang-Hyeon, but his eyes looked more alive than ever. Commander Roman, his role was to crush the souls of new yers and warn them that this wouldn¡¯t be a friendly game. ¡ª Hey, don¡¯t be mean to the new guy! It¡¯s been a while since we¡¯ve had a newbie! ¡ª I wonder what this guy is going to say loool Thump. Roman ced his hand on Sang-Hyeon¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You¡­ who are you? I¡¯ve never seen someone shoot like you.¡± Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t think much of it because he often heard that as a pro. Rather, the chat grew excited for him. ¡ª ??? ¡ª What¡¯s that dialogue? ¡ª Wow¡­. ¡ª He told me it¡¯d be hard to survive with such skills and that he could finish me off if I wanted to die.? ¡ª Roman, that bastard isplimenting someone? Isn¡¯t this a bug? ¡ª Roman, this guy¡­ you knew how to talk nicely all this time? Roman had a notorious attitude, but he looked at Sang-Hyeon with a warm gaze like Sang-Hyeon¡¯s teacher ten years ago. ¡°What¡¯s your name? I¡¯ll make sure to remember it and tell the captain about you.¡± Blip. [CHOOSE YOUR NAME] Sang-Hyeon thought about it and realized he hadn¡¯t even decided on a streamer name yet. ¡®Hmm¡­¡¯ He went with his favorite snack without much thought. [ALMOND] Roman made an awkward expression and called Sang-Hyeon by that name. ¡°Oh, Almond. I¡¯ll make sure to remember it.¡± Roman wasn¡¯t the only one who remembered his name. People began talking about a yer named Almond that evening at a certainmunity forum. [I saw a weird stream today. This guy named Almond¡­] Chapter 6: Who’s Almond? (1)

Chapter 6: Who¡¯s Almond? (1)

They still sold older games like Kingdom Age by the disc. These older games tended to grow a loyal yer base over time, but Kingdom Age had an unusually strong fanbase. Most likely because its realism and difficulty always felt refreshing even after multiple ythroughs. Of course, the game discouraged many yers in the beginning. Actually, the majority gave up since this game targeted hardcore gamers as its audience. It didn¡¯t have arge yer base, but the yers left remained extremely loyal. Likewise, not many users existed on the Kingdom Age forums. However, the number of posts and traffic rivaled other popr games. These forum users passionately studied the game, found tips and tricks to improve, and always shared relevant information. As a result, the forum posts became quite repetitive and everyone knew each other. Hence, a new post like this quickly gained traction. [Watched a weird stream today. Romanplimented a beginner.] A beginner with apliment from Roman? These magical words together guaranteed attention on the forum. Any Kingdom Age yer would click on such a title. ¡ª Watch this clip. ¡ª I¡¯m serious. His capsule profile is in the description. ¡ª Romanplimented him and left. Also, the cutscene where the boss is supposed to run away didn¡¯t appear because he died wtf LOL The forum post could be summed up quite simply. Sang-Hyeon killed the boss, forced the game to skip a cutscene, and the notorious Romanplimented him. The post came attached with a video clip as well. The user recorded the stream and even included Sang-Hyeon¡¯s capsule profile in the description. It wasn¡¯t just clickbait and had evidence to back it up. ¡ª Wow, I thought for sure this post was just fishing for attention. ¡ª The fuck, I thought it was a fake clip or something. How is this possible?? ¡ª What the¡­? The majority either reacted with disbelief or refused to believe it entirely. ¡ª The ount was made yesterday?! ©¸ Is this staged? ©¸ Of course it is. Is this your first time seeing someone fishing for attention? A new user? ©¸ The user above clearly didn¡¯t watch the clip¡­ ¡ª Isn¡¯t it an expert doing the bow challenge? It has to be a smurf! ©¸ Yeah, sure. Smurfing on a capsule. Good one. ©¸ Yeah, of course it¡¯s a smurf. You just need to get an entirely new body. It¡¯s not that hard LOL ©¸ LOL yeah, you¡¯re right.? Many users didn¡¯t believe it because they¡¯d invested their fair share of hours into the game and took pride in their gamey. However, the video didn¡¯t lie. Fake ounts couldn¡¯t be made in the age of capsule gaming which required fingerprints, retina scans, body scans, and various biological assessments to verify yers. The public could also view when the streamer created their profile. ¡ª Almond? I googled him and nothing came up. What the heck? ¡ª For real, where does he stream? Doesn¡¯t everyone stream on Treevy these days? ©¸ Treevy, you moron. ¡ª He¡¯s on Treevy judging from the clip. Why¡¯s there no information on him? ¡ª Hey, I¡¯m the OP. He was just aplete beginner when I watched him. Even the stream title was auto-generated. It was like some code or something lmao. I left the link to his stream. Take a look. (LINK) ©¸ Wow, he didn¡¯t even have a stream title? ©¸ It seems like he doesn¡¯t know what he¡¯s doing LOL ¡®Oops.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon paused while reading the forum. ¡°Oh, crap¡­¡± He just discovered that he streamed without a streamer name. ¡°Thank goodness they added a link too.¡± Thankfully, the post included a link to his stream. That would do for now. He read more of their reactions after calming himself. ¡ª But that means he¡¯s like he new to the game¡­ How the fuck did he do it¡­ ¡ª Killing the boss. Even JeonJaPa couldn¡¯t do it on his bow challenge, no? ©¸ Oh yeah, I remember JeonJaPa saying you have to use the bow to kill the boss because he can parry every other attack.? ©¸ Apparently, you have to shoot with perfect timing too.? ©¸ How can someone who made their ount yesterday do something even JeonJaPa couldn¡¯t? ©¸ JeonJaPa¡­ that guy used to do the bow challenge, but now he quit. ©¸ This game isn¡¯t worthy enough for JeonJaPa to y¡­ he¡¯s too famous now¡­ They keptparing somebody named JeonJaPa to Sang-Hyeon. ¡®JeonJaPa?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t know any streamer by that name because he only watched BubbleGum. ¡®I think I¡¯ve seen the name before though.¡¯ He vaguely remembered seeing it when he searched for top yer streams. JeonJaPa must¡¯ve been one of those pro gamers. Sang-Hyeon recalled one particrment. ¡ª Faker, Dopa, next is JeonJaPa. Twenty years ago, Faker and Dopa dominated their generation. Everyone knew them, even Sang-Hyeon who had no interest in games. He even learned about them in school where their achievements were described as a textbook battle of the century. Faker and Dopa, the legends of battle. Many userspared JeonJaPa to the greatest yers of all time. ¡°Wow.¡± And now, theypared JeonJaPa to him. Granted, lots of people held strong opinions about it. ¡ª Don¡¯t use JeonJaPa¡¯s name in vain! ¡ª You think you can just throw JeonJaPa¡¯s name around like that? ¡ª Sigh, not even worth replying. ¡ª But it¡¯s true, no? JeonJaPa couldn¡¯t do that? ¡ª Don¡¯t you know? JeonJaPa isn¡¯t interested in older games. ©¸ Doesn¡¯t matter whether he likes it or not. He couldn¡¯t do it and that¡¯s a fact. ©¸ No one like you and that¡¯s a fact. ¡ª Ah, the JeonJaFans are swarming again. ¡ª It¡¯s like Beetlejuice. You¡¯re fucked if you say his name.? Sang-Hyeon closed the forum. ¡°Woah¡­¡± They alreadypared him to the best in the industry. He honestly felt overwhelmed, but Sang-Hyeon had been an athlete all his life. He enjoyed the pressure. ¡°Hell yeah.¡± Sang-Hyeon innocently smiled like a child. Ring! Ring! His phone suddenly rang. [Kim Ju-Hyeok] It came from Ju-Hyeok. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t have a chance to thank Joo-Hyeok yet and eagerly answered the call. ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°Hey, how did the stream go?¡± ¡°Yeah, it went well. Thanks to you.¡± ¡°Really? That¡¯s a relief. The owner was a bit worried too.¡± ¡°It¡¯s all good. I think everything is working properly.¡± ¡°Are you getting any viewers?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ I think there were around twenty viewers by the end of the stream.¡± ¡°Two¡­ twenty!? On your first day?¡± Ju-Hyeok spoke so loud that it surprised Sang-Hyeon. ¡°Uh¡­ yeah. I picked a good game.¡± ¡°Damn, you¡¯re cut out for this. Why¡¯d you ever work here?¡± ¡°Easy entry to a big corporate job. Who wouldn¡¯t?¡± ¡°Fucker¡­¡± ¡°Anyways, I¡¯ll buy you a drink sometime. I have to stream now.¡± ¡°Huh? It¡¯s lunch right now. Don¡¯t you normally stream in the evenings?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no lunch or dinner time. This is my job now.¡± ¡°You used to never lift a finger at work even during lunch and dinner. Alright then.¡± Beep. Ju-Hyeok hung up while shaking his head. ¡°Haha¡­¡± His tone sounded mocking, but he wore a smile. ¡®Thank goodness he¡¯s trying.¡¯ Ju-Hyeok scolded him, but he always knew Sang-Hyeon was diligent. It felt good to see Sang-Hyeon showing that off while streaming too. ¡°Ah.¡± Ju-Hyeok scratched his head while smiling. ¡°I had something to tell him. Damn it, I forgot.¡± He called because the capsule cafe boss wanted to tell Sang-Hyeon something. ¡®What was it?¡¯ Ju-Hyeok tried to remember, but it kept eluding him. Something to do with getting the best physical connection or something. Ju-Hyeok didn¡¯t know much about capsule gaming, so the vocabry confused him. ¡°Associate Kim!¡± The manager shouted and interrupted his thoughts. ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Look at this. How can you eat right now? Look at what your assistant did¡­¡± ¡®This motherfucker¡­¡¯ *** Crunch. Crunch. Sang-Hyeon turned on the capsule while snacking on the almonds he¡¯d been saving for emergencies. He wanted to eat a proper meal, but didn¡¯t have time. His heart raced from themunity¡¯s recent reactions and he felt full of energy. He didn¡¯t need to eat because all their attention fueled him. Gulp. Gulp. Still, he needed to quench his thirst by drinking some milk. The milk and almondbination expanded in his stomach and filled him. They contained all the proteins, carbs, and fat for a surprisingly healthy diet. He often ate this substitute meal when he had no money. ¡°Shall we start?¡± Sang-Hyeon wiped the milk off his face and entered the capsule. [STREAM IS STARTING] He began streaming like yesterday, but a bizarre number appeared. [CURRENT VIEWERS: 189] ¡°What?!¡± Sang-Hyeon¡¯s jaws dropped. ¡ª Oh hey, Almond¡¯s here. ¡ª What the¡­ Wasn¡¯t he supposed to stream in the evening? ¡ª Lucky us. ¡ª Oh wow, he started streaming right when I turned on notifications. ¡ª Now we can see and judge for ourselves. ¡ª Hi Almond! ¡ª Hi hi! The number of viewers and chat messages obviously increased. ¡®This much?¡¯ He couldn¡¯t have imagined how that small forum would impact his stream. Chapter 7: Who’s Almond? (2)

Chapter 7: Who¡¯s Almond? (2)

¡®One hundred eighty-nine viewers are watching me.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon gulped. He didn¡¯t get nervous easily, but couldn¡¯t help it in this unfamiliar situation. Phew¡­ He subconsciously sighed as part of his usual routine to calm down before grabbing a bow. He closed his eyes and let out a small breath to momentarily distance himself from the world. He told himself this wasn''t the world he lived in. This was a third-person video game. His name was Yu Sang-Hyeon and he was currently ying as an avatar. He slowly opened his dry lips. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll continue where I left off yesterday.¡± Sang-Hyeon purposely didn¡¯t mention the number of viewers. Rookie streamers always made this mistake. Instead of going straight to bed yesterday, Sang-Hyeon studied popr streams and how they maintained their views or minimized issues. Hepiled a list of what the top streamers avoided and ced it beside his screen for reference. Mentioning the number of viewers had been one of those things to avoid. It broke the viewer¡¯s attention when they came to watch. They wouldpare him to other generic streamers if he did generic things like that. He had to avoid that at all costs and immerse the viewers in his gamey. He had to avoid beingbeled as a generic streamer. Sang-Hyeon wanted them to think of him as a friend. It should be like a friend streaming for other friends to watch. People always watched others y dating back to the ancient times of Chosun whenmoners stopped to watch street games. Then it became arcade battles in the 1990s, localpetitions in PC cafes during the mid-2000, and now watching online streams. Viewers should be warmly embraced rather than having them on edge. He thought of the best thing to say and weed them. ¡°RubySword, Eggnt, Mr. Dummy, and many more! Thank you foring back to my stream. It¡¯s nice to see you again.¡± He shouted out the viewers who returned. ¡ª Hello hello! ¡ª Hehe, you remembered. ¡ª Rejoice, Day 1s! ¡ª Day 1s unite! . ¡ª There are already OGs on the second day of the stream! ¡ª Maybe Almond is a streamer genius? Their reactions seemed great. The other viewers poked fun, but secretly envied the day one viewers who busily greeted Sang-Hyeon. They loved to chat and should feel much closer after he acknowledged them. ¡°I progressed a bit after ending the stream yesterday. Roman introduced me to the mercenary CEO and he assigned us a new mission.¡± The second most important thing, big streamers usually skipped the boring gamey and simply summarized what happened. ¡ª Oooo. ¡ª Mercenary CEO LOL ¡ª Call itborpany, Mercenary. ¡ª CEO, it makes sense haha Using a mix of modern vocabry helped viewers understand the game more. He didn¡¯t have to use medievalnguage in a medieval game. ¡°This mission isn¡¯t anything special. I thought my job as a mercenary was to just die in battle. If anything, I feel more like a bodyguard.¡± Sang-Hyeon and Roman had been assigned a simr mission to the tutorial where they had to escort a supply carriage. Now, they had to escort a person. ¡ª What do you expect from a lowly mercenary lmao ¡ª It¡¯s because this game is too realistic. ¡ª Most of the mercenaries aren''t special, so the missions are usually kinda boring. ¡ª They¡¯re basically a bodyguard service loool Unlike the tutorial, Sang-Hyeon rode a horse this time. Clippity clop. He found it difficult to bnce on the horse despite the saddle and couldn¡¯t get used to the strange sensation. Roman rode in front of him and looked back. ¡°Is this your first time riding, Almond?¡± Almond instinctively shook his head. ¡°No, sir. It¡¯s just¡­ I don¡¯t have much experience.¡± ¡°Ah, I see. Well, you¡¯ll get used to it quickly. This won¡¯t be yourst time.¡± The viewers seemed confused as Almond spoke to Roman. ¡ª Hey, wait. What is this mission? ¡ª Even his mission is different. ¡ª That¡¯s weird. Isn¡¯t this the mission with the horse-riding bandits? ¡ª Already? ¡®Horse-riding bandits?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon wanted to ask, but¡­ ¡°YOO HOO!¡± Strange noises came from the mountains. Clop clop clop clop clop! Horse hooves echoed followed by daunting screams. The viewers rejoiced as if they belonged with the bandits. ¡ª YOHOHOHO! ¡ª YOO HOO! ¡ª Oh shit, is it Burka? ¡ª Looool his first mission is the horse-riding bandits? ¡ª Let¡¯s go! These viewers came to watch and enjoy the gamey, but others in doubt reacted differently. ¡ª Finally, is he going to shoot some arrows? ¡ª We¡¯ll see! ¡ª Now we¡¯ll know if the clip was fake or not. Some expressed excitement at seeing him in action. ¡ª Let¡¯s see if he¡¯s a fluke. ¡ª It¡¯s all fxcking luck. ¡ª Lmao, let¡¯s see him try to use a bow on a horse. And some hoped for him to fail. Of course, Sang-Hyeon remained unfazed. Sports always hadpetition and jealousy would arise. Prodigies like Sang-Hyeon grew ustomed to this and he knew how to shut them up. ¡®I just need to show them the results.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon quickly assessed the situation and counted his foes. Only this time, the enemies moved around too quickly. ¡®Damn, they¡¯re too fast.¡¯ He couldn¡¯t urately count in his head. ¡®I think it¡¯s around 50?¡¯ He estimated their numbers and checked his arrows. Unlike the tutorial, the number of arrows shed on a section of the screen. [ARROWS x40] He didn¡¯t have enough to kill all of them, but that didn¡¯t matter. He also had allies to help him and didn¡¯t need to do it alone this time. ¡°It¡¯s the horse-riding bandits!¡± The other mercenaries around him sprung into action. The spearmen positioned themselves toward the bandits and readied their spears. ¡°Hiya!¡± ¡°YOO HOO!¡± The bandits formed an arrow formation and broke through a particr spot. CLOP CLOP CLOP! The horses¡¯ rumbling shook the ground. Their eyes had turned bloodshot and fearless. ¡°Kuhahahaha!¡± A terrifying bandit led the strike and shed left and right with his massive de. [ASSAULT LEADER BURKA] The chat had mentioned this character. His battle level reflected his role as a fierce viin in the game. sh! A mercenary¡¯s decapitated head flew up and filled the air with blood. ¡°The defenses have been breached!¡± ¡°Damn it!¡± Their defenses already broke. Sang-Hyeon felt slightly annoyed because they expected an invasion this time. ¡°Hello? Do these mercenaries only know how to lose?¡± Sang-Hyeonined as he readied his bow and shot without even thinking. Swoosh! The arrow struck the forehead of the bandit leading the battalion. One shot, one kill. ¡°Kugh!¡± Neigh! The horse lost its bnce after its rider fell. The bandits behind also copsed like dominoes from the confusion. Thump thump! The tides turned in the mercenaries¡¯ favor after a third of the bandits instantly fell. Their willpower already broke and some discouraged bandits nkly stared at where their leader fell. ¡°Boss¡­ died?!¡± ¡°Already?!¡± The bandits said exactly what the viewers thought. ¡ª ?!!? ¡ª Huh? Burka¡¯s dead? ¡ª ??? ¡ª Is this for real? Is that really Burka? ¡ª You can barely even see him from this distance. ¡ª Didn¡¯t he just get lucky? ¡ª Stop saying it¡¯s luck lmao. The enemy Sang-Hyeon killed without much thought turned out to be Burka. ¡°Why are they acting like that?¡± Sang-Hyeon simply aimed at the closest target, but they seemed to be overreacting. ¡ª I¡¯d be confused too. ¡ª Lololololol ¡ª Kills the boss and asks what''s wrong. ¡ª Holy shit. Burka led the horse-riding bandits and should¡¯ve been the most difficult obstacle on this mission. However, he fell before even lifting a finger. ¡ª I guess the clip was real. ¡ª The developers are probably baffled right now. They added all these sword fighting mechanics¡­ but one shot! ¡ª One shot, one kill! Then one shot, one kill! Rinse and repeat. ¡ª Technically, you can kill him at this distance with maximum power if you aim for the head. ¡ª Well, yeah, in theory¡­ Currently, 230 viewers watched his stream. That didn¡¯t seem like a crazy lot, but it felt like 5000 people were in the chat because of the excitement from another difficult boss getting killed in one shot. ¡®Everyone is excited.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon smirked, but didn¡¯t get ahead of himself. The battle hadn¡¯t ended yet and he readied his bow again. He could celebrate all he wanted after they won. ¡°Let¡¯s get revenge! For our boss!!!¡± ¡°You¡¯re all going to die!¡± The bandits, fueled by revenge, attacked more viciously than before. ¡®Next, that guy.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon solely focused on the tip of his arrows. He only thought about who to kill next. His eyes chased the backs of his fleeing targets. ¡ª Wow, even I¡¯m holding my breath just watching him. ¡ª He¡¯s so cool¡­ ¡ª His form isn¡¯t like the others. Even the viewers felt nervous watching Sang-Hyeon hunt his targets so fiercely. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s focused shots continued to shock the viewers. Swoosh! Swoosh! Bandits copsed one by one wherever Sang-Hyeon looked. An arrow pierced either their neck or head. Countless bandits already died as if their heads had been decorated with arrows beforehand. ¡°Kugh!¡± ¡°Urgh!¡± The bandits lost all confidence as their members and leaders quickly fell. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s a monster!¡± ¡°Ahhhhh!¡± They finally panicked and fled while screaming. It no longer looked like a battle, but a hunt. ¡°The enemies are running away!¡± Roman screamed and lifted his bloody sword. ¡°Kill them all!¡± Whip! The mercenary gs fluttered in the air. [CHASE THE HORSE-RIDING BANDITS AND ELIMINATE ALL OF THEM] A new mission popped up that diverged from the normal progression. ¡ª Elimination mission? What the¡­ I didn¡¯t even know this existed. ¡ª He¡¯s straight up ying a different game from us. ¡ª Let¡¯s apud the developers for making all these different missions in the first ce. *** The viewers praised Almond for his unique progression, which continued into the forums. [Almond is the real deal.] [Almond or peanuts or whatever. He¡¯s fucking insane!] [He¡¯s streaming right now. Come and see.] [Burka got one shotted looool] [Burka died before he could even say anything LOL. His dialogue was pretty good too¡­] [Breaking News! Almond found another secret route!] Meanwhile, another famous streamer lurked on the forums. ¡°Almond? What¡¯s this?¡± Chapter 8: Who’s Almond? (3)

Chapter 8: Who¡¯s Almond? (3)

The Kingdom Age?forum (KAF) boasted considerable traffic with users who all knew each other. Activity on the forum equaled that of popr games despite them having fewer users. Most forum posts consisted of random things regarding the game rather than tips and tricks because of the game''s age. However, these random posts also kept KAF quite interesting. A big-time streamer named Acorn Jelly often browsed the KAF for interesting posts. He looked for his name as he scrolled, but everyone constantly mentioned another user today. ¡°Almond?¡± The word Almond could be found everywhere. [Almond is the real deal] [Almond or peanuts or whatever. He¡¯s fucking insane!] [He¡¯s streaming right now. Come and see.] Acorn Jelly couldn¡¯t believe another streamer would be stupid enough to stream Kingdom Age.?He liked the game, but moved on to different ones because of its low poprity. Acorn Jelly clicked on one of the posts with mixed excitement and empathy. The video¡¯s thumbnail showed Almond carrying a bow. ¡°A bow? Is he doing a bow challenge?¡± He felt baffled before even watching it. ¡°Sigh. Another crazy one.¡± A small smile formed on his face as he said this. Finding someone simr to him made him excited. He clicked on the video and the smile on his face immediately disappeared. The first scene hit him like a truck. ¡°What?¡± The yer named Almond instantly killed the elite boss Burka with an arrow through the head as the horse-riding bandit mission began. ¡°What¡­ what is this?¡± It happened so fast that Acorn Jelly had to rewatch it. Swoosh! Burka couldn¡¯t react to the arrow flying toward him. Thud! The elite boss died just like that. ¡°This is impossible.¡± Of course, everyone knew a headshot meant instant death. However, specific criteria had to be met for that to ur. Almond had just done it too easily and instantly killed the elite boss Burka. He didn¡¯t do it with just a simple headshot though. ¡°Could it be¡­ a perfect shot?¡± Perfect shot, a mechanic one level above a normal headshot. In Kingdom Age, hitting a vital point led to instant death. However, elite mobs or bosses usually didn''t die from this. Their vital spot had to be hit with a perfect shot to instantly kill them. Not many knew about this hidden mechanic and users barely mentioned it even in amunity full of experienced yers. Acorn Jelly never mentioned it either because the mechanic had never been achieved! Simply put, it would be insanely difficult. It had to be the first arrow shot and with a full charge to achieve a perfect shot. It also had to be shot quickly within a 1.5 second threshold. The most difficult part had to be the target cement. Not only did it have to hit a vital point, which already made for a small target, but it had to hit the dead center. These criteria made it impossible to fulfill. However, the arrows in the video proved it as they pierced the center of the bandits¡¯ foreheads. Thud! ¡°Again¡­¡± Another perfect shot. Every shot that followed turned out the same. Could this be possible? Such a person actually existed. ¡°Hacks?¡± He wondered if Almond hacked the game, but that would be stupid. What idiot would go through the trouble for a small game like this? Especially an offline game where you didn¡¯t evenpete against other yers. ¡°How then, if it¡¯s not hacking? Is he an Olympic gold medalist or something? That¡¯s crazy.¡± Acorn Jelly had unknowingly almost guessed the answer. ¡°Who could this be?¡± Now he grew curious about this Almond yer. How much experience did this person have with the game? How much had he practiced? What strategies did he use? Acorn Jelly quickly searched for Almond on the forums. ¡°No. Way.¡± The results mortified him. He clicked on multiple posts, but they all repeated the same thing. The viewers who watched Almond live witnessed it as well. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s his first time ying!?¡± Acorn Jelly¡¯s eyes filled with horror. Jealousy? Envy? One only felt that when someone with presumably worse skills did better. Right now, he felt awe in front of a genius like no other. ¡°Holy fuck, I need to watch him too.¡± Acorn Jelly had to stream soon, but witnessing Burka getting one-shotted erased all his thoughts. He became infatuated and continued searching for Almond on Treevy from inside his capsule. He watched another horse-riding bandit scene, but the situation had slightly changed. ¡®What¡¯s going on?¡¯ Almond wasn¡¯t fighting the bandits anymore. No, he was hunting?them. *** ¡°Chase them! Kill them all!¡± Roman shouted as the army of mercenaries charged. ¡°Raaaaa!¡± ¡°Kill them!¡± Almond charged with his horse as well. The wind shook him off-bnce, but he calmly aimed his bow. ¡°Almond! You¡¯re nning to shoot even while riding a horse?¡± Roman scolded him while approaching from the side. Roman had recognized Almond¡¯s skills, but shooting on a horse seemed a bit much. A spear or a sword had the advantage because one could use the horse''s momentum to inflict more damage. ¡°It¡¯s much better to strike with a spear or mace while riding.¡± However, Almond had no intention of using a different weapon. ¡°I¡¯m alright, sir.¡± He insisted on using a bow as if obsessed. ¡®The bow is what makes it fun.¡¯ Ten years of not being able to shoot still lingered with him. Roman usually didn¡¯t take no for an answer, especially from his underlings. Almond became the first exception. ¡°Alright, if it¡¯s you. You can probably do it.¡± He actually epted Almond¡¯s decision. ¡ª Is that really Roman? ¡ª Maybe only his name is Roman. ¡ª Damn, I can¡¯t believe him. It feels like the girl who spat on me and turned down my confession. Then she turned around and buttered up to the popr boy. ¡ª What aparison LOL Roman suddenly became a flirtatious girl to the viewers. He firmly trusted Almond and charged forward. ¡ª But shooting while riding a horse is gonna be difficult¡­ ¡ª Yeah fr ¡ª And not really worth it either. ¡®That¡¯s true.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon agreed. It seemed obvious, but he never rode a horse before. Even he wondered if he could urately shoot while shaking up and down. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t worry though. ¡®I shot my first moving target in the game as well. I should be able to grasp it right away.¡¯ Video games, like sports, had been designed for everything to be possible. He reassured himself and nocked an arrow onto his bow. Sang-Hyeon aimed at a fleeing bandit as he pulled the bowstring. His release looked wless even on a moving horse and his hands remained perfectly still as he let go. How often had he wished for his right hand to be like this in the past ten years? Swoosh! The arrow flew and pierced its target. Thud! ¡°Urgh!¡± The bandit fell off his horse after the arrow skewered his neck. Neigh! The bandits that followed naturally trampled him to death. ¡®I aimed for his head, but it hit his neck.¡¯ He had to find the rhythm to match the targets moving up and down. ¡ª Woah! ¡ª That¡¯s crazy! ¡ª Krazy! ¡ª Shieet, horseback archery! ¡ª Take a look, you westerners! This is Korean archery! The viewers cheered when the arrow struck its target because it resulted in death whether it struck the neck or head. ¡®This isn¡¯t enough.¡¯ However, that didn¡¯t satisfy Sang-Hyeon. He wanted to perfectly hit the target. Themon saying that geniuses had higher standards aptly described Sang-Hyeon. He had been born a predator and enjoyed pushing himself to the edge. Sang-Hyeon would neverpromise on anything when it came to his passion and expertise. Hemanded his horse to charge faster. ¡°Hiya!¡± The horse aggressively thundered in, up and down, up and down. ¡®I have to read the rhythm.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon matched the horse¡¯s rhythm by shifting up and down. Then, he held his breath and looked at his target like a predator. ¡®Now!¡¯ He fully drew his bow in an instant. The arrow followed an almost straight path and pierced the head of the bandit who led the escape. ¡ª Woah!!! ¡ª It¡¯s an even better shot than before! Neigh! The horse-riding bandits began to copse after the leading horse fell and broke their formation. Swoosh! Swoosh! Sang-Hyeon kept chasing and shooting. His arrowsnded on the same spot every time at the center of their foreheads. Bandit corpses fell from their horses one by one. ¡°Kill them!¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± Swoosh! Swoosh! The army of mercenaries caught up to the bandits and shed them down with their spears and swords. The hunt turned into a massacre. ¡°You¡¯re an archer descended from the heavens!¡± Roman told Sang-Hyeon and the other mercenaries chimed in. ¡°Wow, this is my first time seeing archery like this!¡± ¡°It¡¯s like Robin Hood reincarnated!¡± . ¡°I can¡¯t believe my eyes.¡± Normally, these mean mercenaries would be insulting neers. ¡ª Wow¡­ I¡¯m depressed now. ¡ª The power of Roman¡¯s crush on Almond. ¡ª Woah Woah senpais, I didn¡¯t know you had this side to you. The senior mercenaries apuded Sang-Hyeon like children at a magic show. ¡ª This is insane. I¡¯m not even kidding. ¡ª A man of this caliber descended into Kingdom Age. Crazy. The chat reacted no differently, but one message that popped up surprised Sang-Hyeon. ¡°Hm?¡± Beep. [Acorn Jelly has donated 100,000 won.] [All perfect shots¡­ is this for real?] Sang-Hyeon received a whopping 100,000 won for his first donation ever. ¡ª Huh? ¡ª What¡¯re you doing here? ¡ª Is it really him? Is it actually Acorn Jelly? ¡ª Holy shit. ¡ª Turn your stream on Jelly boy! Chapter 9: Who is Acorn Jelly? (1)

Chapter 9: Who is Acorn Jelly? (1)

[HORSE-RIDING BANDIT CONQUEST COMPLETE.] A cutscene appeared as the remaining bandits died. The royals who hired the mercenaries as escorts praised Almond and promised to remember his name. A young blondedy stared at Almond from one of the royal carriages. She must¡¯ve been the game''s heroine, but something else caught Sang-Hyeon¡¯s attention. [Acorn Jelly has donated 100,000 won.] [All perfect shots¡­ is this for real?] The chat reacted strangely to the donation from earlier as if someone famous had appeared. ¡®Acorn Jelly? Is that someone famous?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon stared at the chat window after hisst shot. His stream did well for a beginner, but a famous personing to watch a stream with 200 viewers seemed unusual. The donation hadn¡¯t been small either. ¡®100,000 won¡­¡¯ Donations began at 1000 won, so that was quite the amount. No ordinary viewer would donate so much. ¡ª Hey, no reaction? ¡ª Haha 100,000 won is a bit much. I¡¯d be shocked too. ¡ª What reaction? He¡¯s not even a girl streamer. Just shoot some arrows for us. ¡ª Shooting arrows for a reaction LOL The viewers made fun of Sang-Hyeon, who froze from shock. ¡®Ah¡­ right, a reaction.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon finally realized that he had to show some kind of reaction. ¡®I haven¡¯t thought about it yet.¡¯ He never imagined he¡¯d get a donation so soon, so he hadn¡¯t nned any reactions. ¡°Hmm¡­ reaction¡­¡± He thought of something he used to do as a pro. ¡®Yeah, that¡¯s kind of funny.¡¯¡¯ This entertaining gimmick also showcased his skills. ¡°I¡¯ll start my reaction. Here, I¡¯ll do something cool.¡± Sang-Hyeon nocked an arrow and aimed at the sky. Then he slightly adjusted the angle and fired. Swoosh! The arrow disappeared into the sky. ¡ª ??? Is he actually shooting to thank the donation? ¡ª Lmao this guy ¡ª What is this? At least exin what it is before shooting loool ¡ª Is this really a reaction to the donation? Sang-Hyeon spread his arms out and shouted. ¡°Ta-da! Arrow disappearing magi¡­¡± Thud! The arrow pierced Sang-Hyeon¡¯s forehead in the middle of his sentence. [DEAD] Almond died and the screen turned ck. The chat erupted inughter. ¡ª What LOL ¡ª Suicide show? ¡ª Holy shit xD ¡ª A man who dies for 100,000 won¡­ ¡ª 100,000 won for a shot in the forehead LOL ¡ª The fuck just happened ¡ª LOOOOOOOL ¡®They seem to like it.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon intended everything up until then. Beep¡ª? Something went wrong with the capsule. The game and the stream suddenly shut off. A problem must¡¯ve urred because of the capsule¡¯s old age. ¡°Oh?! Did I get disconnected?¡± Sang-Hyeon panicked after disconnecting because of the 100,000 won reaction. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± He got out of the capsule with a red face and hair full of sweat. The temperature inside reached 33.2 degrees Celsius and felt like a sauna because of the older model¡¯s poor cooling system. ¡°Sigh, I guess there¡¯s nothing much to do for now.¡± Still, he bought the capsule for a great price and couldn¡¯tin. ¡®But what about the stream?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon only worried about that. He quickly turned on hisputer and checked it. Thankfully, the chat remained active. ¡ª ??? He actually left LMAO ¡ª Damn, his reactions are on another level. ¡ª This is what you call modern art! ¡ª ??? ¡ª What the? To sum it up, a lot of ¡®LOLs¡¯ and?¡®???¡¯ filled the chat. It became quite chaotic. Sang-Hyeon began typing in the chat. [I disconnected from the game.] First, he exined why he disconnected. ¡ª HAHA he actually disconnected? ¡ª That¡¯s freaking hrious. ¡ª You¡¯re born to stream¡­ ¡ª Why¡¯d you disconnect LOL He didn¡¯t know for sure why he disconnected either, but he made a guess. [Ah, well, I think it¡¯s because my capsule is an older model¡­] The viewersughed even harder after hearing that. They realized Sang-Hyeon hadn¡¯t faked it for content, but that a real situation had urred. ¡ª Wait, I think he really didn¡¯t mean to disconnect. ¡ª A moment to remember. ¡ª For real. Sang-Hyeon lightly smiled despite the unexpected incident. ¡®Maybe it¡¯s a good thing.¡¯ He felt a bit better after thinking about it. These types of idents could be good for a content creator. Streamers and content creators thrived for these moments, so they could use them as more material for the day. Sang-Hyeon basically made free content out of himself. ¡ª No way lol. ¡ª Is Almond a content god? ¡ª Is Almond just a dumbass? ¡ª Out! After striking his own head! ¡ª Can¡¯t believe he shot his own head LOL The chat reacted well to his stunt. ¡®If it¡¯s like this¡­ Then I don¡¯t need to exin myself.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon quickly erased his exnation. [No, you see what I did was, this was something I used to do back in the day. You have to measure the arch to the dot to hit your forehead. Normally, you¡¯d take the arrow tip out, but since this is a game¡­] Tap tap tap¡­? He tapped away at the delete key. [I¡¯ll end my stream here for today.] He left the stream after bidding them farewell. [Stream ended.] *** The viewers became lost in shambles after Almond suddenly ended his stream. ¡ª What the¡­ this guy actually left?! ¡ª ROFL ¡ª Wait, is that really it??? ¡ª What he targeted with his bow was actually his stream¡­ ¡ª LMAO ¡ª He aimed for his stream with his bow hahahaha ¡ª 100,000 won reaction: end stream. ¡ª Hitting his forehead was the highlight. ¡ª Even then, he was urate LOL Ending on a high note left the viewers hanging. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t intend for that, but that¡¯s what the situation resulted in. They wanted to keep watching Almond¡¯s performance and felt disappointed when the stream suddenly ended. ¡ª When does he stream again? ¡ª I didn¡¯t even get to watch him shoot.? ¡ª I camete because I found the link after seeing Burka get killed :( ¡ª As soon as I came, he killed himself and the stream ended lmao ¡ª LOL that¡¯s hrious ¡ª When¡¯s his next stream? Does this guy have a schedule? Their disappointment at not being able to watch Sang-Hyeon turned into anticipation for the next time. ¡ª I don¡¯t think so. He streamed in the evening yesterday, but lunch today. He does whatever he wants. ¡ª It¡¯s all up to him. ¡ª Almond¡­ what a guy¡­ ¡ª I¡¯m turning alerts on and waiting for you, Almond! The viewers left one by one after cooling themselves off in the chat from Almond¡¯s exciting stream. Some of them rushed to the forums to spread what happened today. They even posted clips of his reaction. People rarely clipped streams with only 200 viewers, but that just proved Almond¡¯s performance today. The clips showed him shooting Burka, skewering bandits while riding his horse, and his reaction at the end that ended the stream. These three events made up the main clips. Thest clip became the hottest. [You could say his aim was out of this world.] The title above went along with Sang-Hyeon¡¯s act of disconnecting from the game. ¡ª Damn, his aim really sent him out of this world. ¡ª This guy is driving me crazy. ¡ª The title LMAO ¡ª He¡¯s skilled AND he¡¯s acting like a clown. Almond, perhaps he¡¯s a genius? (or an idiot) ¡ª Insane aim skills and insanity itself¡­ how rare. Comments in the forum had great reactions as well. It seemed his act paid off. Of course, thements also had haters. They said the same thing under every post about him. ¡ª Why does this small guy keep getting mentioned? ¡ª I thought no promotions were allowed. ¡ª Is there a cult for him or something? ¡ª Seems like they have a fucking fan group for him already. ©¸ No, but this guy is actually pretty good. ©¸ Stfu, it¡¯s the early stages of the game. ¡ª Why are they so hard for a stream with only 200 viewers? ©¸ For real LOL ¡®Only 200.¡¯ ¡°Ahem.¡± Sang-Hyeon browsed the forums with a faint smile and got himself together after reading that. Such remarks didn¡¯t faze him. He expected jealousy and spite as an up-anding streamer. He had already grown used to such things having lived as a genius. ¡°Let them fuck around.¡± Those smallments didn¡¯t sway him. He scrolled through all the negativements unbothered. ¡ª It¡¯s like the return of the Acorn squad the way people are obsessing over him. ¡ª Ugh, disgusting. ¡ª Acorn squad LOL little squirrels. ¡ª Acorn Jelly is actually good though. ¡ª Comparing this small-timer with Acorn Jelly? They really are obsessed with him. A familiar name kept popping up. ¡°Acorn Jelly¡­¡± That guy donated 100,000 won to him today. No wonder he seemed famous. Acorn Jelly turned out to be the number one streamer for this game. ¡°I wonder if he¡¯s any good?¡± Sang-Hyeon grew curious about this Acorn Jelly and clicked y on one of his videos. ¡°Wow¡­¡± Acorn Jelly mainly used a sword unlike Sang-Hyeon, but his skills were no joke. Even Sang-Hyeon, who never used a sword in his life, could tell Acorn Jelly possessed tremendous talent. It seemed like he already did multiple ythroughs and only yed here and there. One of the videos featured the bow challenge. ¡°Ah, I don¡¯t know about this one.¡± He didn¡¯t do as well in the bow challenge from Sang-Hyeon¡¯s perspective. Acorn Jelly must¡¯ve thought the same because he gave up after only three attempts. ¡°But he¡¯s good at everything else.¡± Sang-Hyeon watched his other videos after the bow challenge when¡­ Beep¡ª? He suddenly received a long message in his Treevy inbox. The title read: [Hello Almond, I¡¯m a streamer that goes by the name Acorn Jelly.] Chapter 10: Who is Acorn Jelly? (2)

Chapter 10: Who is Acorn Jelly? (2)

Acorn Jelly¡¯s streams attracted an average amount of viewers, but his revenue probably ced him in the top percentage. His ratio of viewers and profits drastically varied because he only yed niche video games with loyal fanbases. ¡°He ys a lot of different games too.¡± Sang-Hyeon mumbled to himself while scrolling through Acorn Jelly¡¯s description. ¡°He streams a variety of games like BubbleGum.¡± Sang-Hyeon also aspired to be a multi-game streamer. It made sense from a business standpoint. The trends wouldn¡¯t sway him and it allowed him to y a variety of games. Of course, only some streamers had the luxury of being one. They either had to excel at all games or be great streamers. ¡®I know what my advantage is.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t know if he had a streamer¡¯s capabilities, but he knew his focus and desire topete couldn¡¯t be matched. ¡°What should I respond with?¡± He reread the message after organizing his thoughts. [Hi Almond, I¡¯m a streamer that goes by the name Acorn Jelly. I¡¯ve been ying Kingdom Age as well these days. I¡¯m pretty good at video games, but I fell in love as soon as I saw your ys. Don¡¯t worry though because I like women. Anyways, I¡¯m reaching out to see if you¡¯d like to coborate on some content. You could teach me some techniques or I could assess your gamey. I would like to discuss further details in person or we could virtually chat. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.] Acorn Jelly encouraged him to reach out, but he couldn¡¯t help it. ¡°Ah¡­ I¡¯m not good at these things.¡± Sang-Hyeon hesitated. Coboration streams might be a double-edged sword if others saw him as leeching off big streamers. ¡°One mistake is all it takes.¡± Sang-Hyeon had zero social skills despite his corporate work experience. He could hardly make any friends no matter how much he socialized. Fortunately, no one threw any stones at him. However, he did manage to befriend someone great. Bzzt¡ª? A familiar name popped up on his phone. [Kim Ju-Hyeok] Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t know why he called, but answered anyways. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Yo, I searched up your stream. You¡¯re Almond, right?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Damn bro, people seem to like you.¡± ¡°Yeah, I agree.¡± ¡°Do you normally get this big in two days? Why does it seem like I¡¯m more excited?¡± ¡°Being calm is a necessity for archery. And I¡¯ve been a genius since a young age, so I¡¯m used to this.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­¡± A muffled curse could be heard through the phone. ¡°Hey, you know what happened today?¡± ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°I got in a huge fight with the director.¡± ¡°?!¡± Sang-Hyeon became speechless. Of all people, he couldn¡¯t believe Ju-Hyeok fought with the director. Ju-Hyeok said that he only got so far because of his ability to hold things in. He didn¡¯t seem like the type to sh with others. ¡°Seems like it wasn¡¯t a small fight from your voice. Sounds like you¡¯ve made up your mind about something.¡± Sang-Hyeon had a bad feeling from Ju-Hyeok¡¯s tone. Actually, it might be a good feeling. ¡°Yeah, it was chaos, man. I should¡¯ve thrown an ashtray or something at him when I stormed out.¡± ¡°Did you quit?¡± ¡°Fuck yeah. HAHAHA!¡± The phone erupted so loud that Sang-Hyeon almost dropped it. ¡°What¡¯s your n now?¡± ¡°The n? I have to find a new job.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡®Ah¡­ right.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon rxed a little when he realized they livedpletely different lives. Ju-Hyeok could work at anypany he wanted with his experience and education. He probably already had another offer waiting for him. His work performance reflected his elite status, so he should have no problems finding a new job. Knowing this, Sang-Hyeon hesitated about what to say. ¡®Should I ask him or not¡­¡¯ Even he thought it sounded wild. ¡®Be my manager!¡¯ It sounded insane the more he thought about it. Sang-Hyeon would be asking him to join apany with only 100,000 won in earnings. However, what Ju-Hyeok said next eased his doubts. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m thinking about taking a break. Let me know if there¡¯s anything I can help with. It¡¯s better than nothing.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you need a manager or something?¡± ¡®What did he just say?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t believe what he heard. ¡°It¡¯d be nice to have one, but¡­ you know I¡¯m still a nobody, right?¡± ¡°Of course, I know you¡¯re a nobody. But¡­¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Remember when you came out of the capsule crying?¡± . ¡°Stop! Don¡¯t bring that up!¡± ¡°Ah, no, it¡¯s not that. It made me think after seeing you like that.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°You really must¡¯ve loved archery. I¡¯ve never done anything I loved.¡± ¡°You think you¡¯d love being a manager?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, but it¡¯s probably more exciting than climbing the corporatedder. You know how boring this industry is.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± ¡°Someone like me can rest for a year with no problems. I¡¯ll work you like an evil entertainment CEO if this works out, so don¡¯t worry.¡± Sang-Hyeon¡¯s hands began trembling. ¡®Is this really happening?¡¯ Ju-Hyeok seemed to be throwing him a bone here. A year off meant a lot even if Ju-Hyeok could easily find another job. Worst case, he could¡¯ve spent that time looking for a girlfriend. However, he chose to invest in Sang-Hyeon. Ju-Hyeok could easily fetch a 50 million won sry with his abilities. ¡°Um¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon felt bad and couldn¡¯t ept it right away. Ju-Hyeok sensed that and joked with him. ¡°I¡¯ll try and make you big. What do you think?¡± ¡°Pfft.¡± Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t help butugh. This would sound like crazy talk to anyone else. Ju-Hyeok was an incredible guy, but he had no experience as a manager or even in management. Despite that, the offer still enticed Sang-Hyeon. The streamer and manager seeded after leaving their big corporate jobs with nothing to lose. It would make an incredible story. ¡°Who¡¯s going to raise who? I¡¯ll make you rich, so hand in that resignation now!¡± The phone erupted withughter. ¡°Did you just imitate our manager?¡± ¡°Assistant Kim, there¡¯s something you must do right away.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± Sang-Hyeon exined the message he received yesterday. ¡°A tier 1 streamer wants to coborate already? I knew I picked a good streamer.¡± Ju-Hyeok seemed excited about the offer. ¡°Do you think it¡¯ll be alright?¡± ¡°Are you kidding me? We have nothing to lose.¡± ¡°You think so? I¡¯m not good at socializing though.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true. Just do it for free and show them what you¡¯ve got. It¡¯ll give you a good image if the cob stream goes well. Better than doing nothing.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± Sang-Hyeon found himself nodding to Ju-Hyeok¡¯s words. Ju-Hyeok had a point. They had nothing to lose with this cob. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t even need to try and look good. His skills would be enough for the viewers. ¡°Hey, I have another good idea. I¡¯ll tell you about it in person tomorrow. I¡¯ll message you where to meet. I gotta go.¡± ¡°Okie dokie.¡± Beep¡ª? Sang-Hyeon finally caught his breath after hanging up. ¡°Seems like things are working out perfectly.¡± He acquired a top 0.1% worker as his manager and also received an offer from a tier 1 streamer. It went like the saying about the path to sess: The world moves quicker than ever before. Sang-Hyeon might already be on the train to sess and had nothing else on his mind. The worries from quitting his job have long disappeared already. He only needed almonds and milk to energize him. His eyes always perked open in the morning. The thought of streaming tomorrow and the day after pumped his heart with excitement. Munch munch¡­? He stuffed his mouth with more almonds and typed away. [Hi Acorn Jelly, this is Almond.] *** Acorn Jelly fixed his hair while checking the time. ¡°Hm.¡± He came way too early. ¡°Oppa, is it really okay to meet small-timers like this?¡± His manager didn¡¯t feel happy abouting thirty minutes early. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m seeing him for his potential. No one¡¯s a superstar in the beginning.¡± ¡°Yeah, right. Last time you got into shit because of that scandal with a small-time streamer girl.¡± ¡°Hey, shush. He¡¯s a guy. I¡¯m a guy. And you¡¯re¡­ my manager!¡± Acorn Jelly silenced his manager by speaking louder. ¡°Look, my intuition is never wrong. This guy¡¯s mechanics are already the best in the country. I have to discover and get close to these uing streamers, so I can benefit too.¡± ¡°Sigh, but being good at games isn¡¯t enough in this industry. They also need to look decent if we¡¯re doing a cob. I bet you don¡¯t even know what he looks like in real life.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Acorn Jelly couldn¡¯t respond because yers usually looked different from their character models. Almond hadn¡¯t revealed his face yet. ¡°These kinds of losers only y video games and don¡¯t even know how to talk. They probably don¡¯t even take care of themselves¡­¡± The manager looked somewhere else in the middle of her sentence. Two men wearing neat suits walked into the cafe. They looked well-fitted like professional businessmen from upper society with their straight postures and trimmed hairstyles. ¡°Woah, so my type. I wish he¡¯d look like them¡­¡± The two smiled as if they heard and faced Acorn Jelly. ¡°Uh, why¡­ are they walking this way?¡± The two men approached them and reached out. ¡°Acorn Jelly, right?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ Are you¡­¡± ¡°Hello. I¡¯m Yu Sang-Hyeon, aka Almond.¡± Chapter 11: Mission Impossible (1)

Chapter 11: Mission Impossible (1)

¡°Hey, I told you. There¡¯s no point.¡± ¡°This is important, so listen to your manager.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­¡± Ju-Hyeok got Sang-Hyeon ready to meet Acorn Jelly three hours before their meeting. Yes, three hours?early. ¡°Are we going to an award ceremony or something?¡± ¡°Award ceremony? Is that all this is to you? This is a sryman¡¯sbat mode.¡± Ju-Hyeok fixed Sang-Hyeon¡¯s hair while thetter keptining. ¡°Alright, alright. I get it! Hey, don¡¯t pull too hard!¡± Sang-Hyeon entrusted himself to Ju-Hyeok. He still had doubts, but Ju-Hyeok had be his manager now. Not just any manager, he almost felt sorry for the high-spec Ju-Hyeok. It probably wouldn¡¯t be a good idea to keepining. ¡®Let¡¯s just do as he says.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon closed his eyes and reassured himself. Splish ssh. Ju-Hyeok continued to spray his hair. *** Ju-Hyeok¡¯s efforts greatly boosted Sang-Hyeon¡¯s confidence. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t notice, but his srymanbat mode already captivated Acorn Jelly and the manager Na-Yeon. They found it rare to see such people in the streamer industry. Na-Yeon simply sat there dumbfounded and even the talkative Acorn Jelly briefly became speechless. Finally, he slowly stood and shook Sang-Hyeon¡¯s hand. ¡°Ah¡­ Nice to meet you, Sang-Hyeon. My name is Do Jae-Muk. And the person beside you is¡­?¡± ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Yu Sang-Hyeon¡¯s manager, Kim Ju-Hyeok.¡± Ju-Hyeok smiled as he passed along the business card he made earlier. His charismatic smile made him look like a movie star or an elite. ¡®What are these credentials¡­¡¯ Ju-Hyeok¡¯s business card proved that he wasn¡¯t like?an elite, but actually a real one. ¡°Hahaha¡­?what an amazing manager¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re too kind. And the person beside you, who are you?¡± Ju-Hyeok asked the dumbfounded girl in front of him. ¡°Ah, ah¡­ I¡¯m just a normal manager. No one special. Nice to meet you!¡± . Na-Yeon nervously bowed at a 90-degree angle. Ju-Hyeok held in hisughter as he watched her awkward behavior. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t pay any mind to it. Their business discussion proceeded smoothly. They talked about how the stream would go, what questions would be asked, and what to avoid. Then Do Jae-Muk brought up the topic of payment. ¡°Now, we should talk about the money¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t want any payment, but Jae-Muk adamantly objected to that. ¡°No way, I can¡¯t do that. Even if I did, it¡¯d resurfaceter on, haha. It¡¯s not like the old days anymore.¡± Sang-Hyeon wanted to say streams didn¡¯t even exist in the old days, but Ju-Hyeok quickly took over. ¡°That¡¯s true, but we feel bad about receiving payments on our end. I think minimum wage will be fine if you insist on paying.¡± Minimum wage would be more than enough since Sang-Hyeon¡¯s current sry equaled welfare. ¡°Hmm. The pay isn¡¯t really by the hour in this industry. How about we just split the donation received on that day?¡± ¡°!¡± Both Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon felt surprised. ¡®He earns quite a bit¡­¡¯ Sang-Hyeon already researched Acorn Jelly before their meeting and roughly estimated his earnings. ¡®He earns roughly two million won a day. So I¡¯ll get around one million won?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon waited for Ju-Hyeok to finish calcting. Calctions were Ju-Hyeok¡¯s weakness. ¡°Hey, how much is that roughly?¡± ¡°It¡¯s gonna be at least one million won.¡± They nodded while whispering to each other. From their perspective, one million won a day would be more than enough for them. ¡°We¡¯re thankful as long as you¡¯re okay with it.¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s no problem at all. I should thank you guys for letting me stream with someone who will be big soon, haha!¡± Acorn Jelly chuckled as their meeting came to an end. *** ¡®What a scary guy.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon thought to himself when he arrived home and saw Ju-Hyeok¡¯s message. [Ju-Hyeok: Hey, this is the file I recorded. We don¡¯t know what might happen, so hold on to a copy.] [Ju-Hyeok: AcornJelly.mp4] These types of guys always quickly climbed the corporatedder. Why did he ever leave? [Sang-Hyeon: Thanks.] Sang-Hyeon wanted to send another message but hesitated. ¡®How should we split our earnings?¡¯ He didn¡¯t know how to bring up the topic. As usual, Ju-Hyeok brought it up first. [Ju-Hyeok: For the payment, just give me 20% of the profits whenever we earn more than 3,000,000 a month.] The conditions heavily favored Sang-Hyeon because he likely wouldn¡¯t earn more than 3,000,000 won in the first few months. Ju-Hyeok just offered to work for free in the meantime. [Sang-Hyeon: Hey, is that enough?] [Ju-Hyeok: I have a lot saved up. Don¡¯t worry.] Ju-Hyeok didn¡¯t lie. He actively invested and could even buy a small house if he sold all his stocks. He also held more interest in the streaming industry than Sang-Hyeon might¡¯ve imagined. He decided to invest one year of his time because he recognized the market¡¯s potential. Working with Sang-Hyeon would be a great start. He already nned everything. [Ju-Hyeok: Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ve got it all nned out.] [Sang-Hyeon: Ok ok] Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t really care about Ju-Hyeok¡¯s ns. ¡®Rich people sure are built differently.¡¯ He only thought to that extent. *** The next day, Sang-Hyeon turned on his stream and greeted his viewers. ¡°Hello, long time no see.¡± He had taken a day off to meet Acorn Jelly. Sang-Hyeon could freely stream whenever without much bacsh since he wasn¡¯t a professional streamer yet. ¡ª Almond¡¯s stream? You can¡¯t miss this! ¡ª Kya, jackpot! I got off work just in time! Most of them felt excited about the unexpected stream. ¡°RubySword, Eggnt, Marksman, JellyTelly¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon shouted out a list of familiar usernames. ¡ª Me too! Hi hi! ¡ª AlHa! It means Almond Hi. ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Day one shout outs! ¡ª I want to be day one too! More viewers requested for their names to be called as he continued. He stopped after around thirty names. Simply mentioning their names made them feel closer to him. The chat rambled on after the shoutouts. ¡ª Woah, it¡¯s Almond! ¡ª I came as soon as I saw the notification. ¡ª Almond sensei. ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Almond¡­ kept us hanging for a day¡­ how could you do this to us already!? The number of people increased again. ¡®What the? I didn¡¯t even start ying yet. Weird.¡¯ He checked the viewer count. [Current viewers: 314] Over 300 viewers tuned in as soon as he turned on his stream. ¡®Isn¡¯t this a bit much?¡¯ It seemed like an unusually high number. Only around 200 viewers watched even when he yed games. Today, 314 people came as soon as his stream started. ¡ª AlHa! Almond, there are rumors of you streaming with Acorn Jelly. Is this true? ¡ª Dang, lucky Acorn Jelly, getting to stream with Almond. ¡ª For real? ¡ª Woah, coborating with a big-time streamer already. How quickly he¡¯s grown¡­ ¡ª Almost as quick as me getting rejected by my crush¡­ Sang-Hyeon soon found out why. ¡®Ah, there are already rumors.¡¯ He didn¡¯t know how, but his meeting with Jae-Muk had already leaked. ¡°Coborating with a small-timer like me?¡± Sang-Hyeon brushed it off. Acorn Jelly insisted they keep it a secret because he wanted to promote it at a specific time. ¡°Never mind a cob. Watch me kill the boss in one hit. I¡¯m going to fight the horse-riding bandit boss today.¡± Sang-Hyeon provoked his viewers to hold their interest. He didn¡¯t want to waste this opportunity. ¡ª One shooting the boss? ¡ª For real? ¡ª Bosses don¡¯t die from headshots, you newbie¡­ ¡®What the¡­ Bosses don¡¯t die in one hit?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t know that. ¡°Isn¡¯t Durka a boss?¡± The viewersughed at his question. ¡ª LOL so mean ¡ª Durka LMAO ¡ª It¡¯s Burka with a B. ¡ª Burka is normally charismatic¡­ poor guy¡­ ¡ª Burka or Murka or whatever he is, he got one shotted before he could even say anything. Of course, Almond doesn¡¯t remember him lol. ¡ª Lol true, he¡¯s just a normal mob to Almond. ¡°Is Durka not a boss?¡± Sang-Hyeon kept calling him Durka without noticing the problem. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Durka counts as an elite mob, not a boss. Bosses are MASSIVE. ¡ª You¡¯ll be able to tell when you see a boss. ¡®I see.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon just learned the difference between a boss and an elite mob. Elite mobs posed a challenge, but they could still be one-shotted with a headshot. However, bosses couldn¡¯t be instantly killed even with a headshot. ¡®Oh shit, what should I do?¡¯ He acted so confidently about one-shotting the boss. Now they might view him as a liar, but his confidence only attracted them. ¡ª I think one-shotting the boss is a lie, but we¡¯ll see. ¡ª I¡¯m gonna watch too hehe. ¡ª I guess the cob stream was fake news. Still want to watch the boss though. Three hundred viewers on standby wanted to confirm the rumors. ¡®Perfect.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon would take advantage of this opportunity to showcase his skills. ¡®They¡¯ll be satisfied to see my skills even if I can¡¯t kill the boss in one hit.¡¯ His confidence increased as he gradually learned the game. The leak about his coboration with Acorn Jelly racked in more viewers and provided him with the perfect chance to transition into a pro streamer. An alert popped up as if to prove him right. Bling¡ª? [RubySword has donated 10,000 won.] [Mission: 100,000 won if you sessfully one-shot the boss.] His first mission would reward 100,000 won already. Gulp. ¡®Let¡¯s ept it for now.¡¯ He clicked ept. ¡ª Aww, the newbie is so cute¡­ ¡ª That¡¯s his safety earnings. ¡ª epting mission impossible¡­ ¡ª Almond, honey¡­ you don¡¯t know what you¡¯re dealing with¡­ Chapter 12: Mission Impossible (2)

Chapter 12: Mission Impossible (2)

Sang-Hyeon would receive 100,000 won if he could instantly kill the boss. This mission seemed impossible. ¡ª How can the boss be one-shotted? Even a headshot isn¡¯t enough. ¡ª Burka got one shotted, no? ¡ª Burka is just an elite mob. Most viewers, even those who witnessed his skills, agreed that this mission would be too difficult. ¡ª He¡¯s not going to get that money loool. ¡ª Poor Almond, such an innocent look on his face. ¡ª Almond doesn¡¯t know anything. What a poor nut. ¡ª Poor nut LMAO The viewers poked fun at the mission and pitied Almond. Despite this, Sang-Hyeon felt pumped. He felt happy about receiving a mission regardless of not being able to kill the boss with a headshot. ¡°Thank you, RubySword. I¡¯ll get that 100,000 won for sure!¡± Sang-Hyeon made sure to emphasize their username while thanking them for donating. ¡®Thank goodness I got a mission worth 100,000 won.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon appreciated RubySword beyond the 100,000 won mission. The first donation made others morefortable with donating too. RubySword acted like a wingman for Sang-Hyeon and opened the way for others to donate. [Eggnt has donated 2,000 won.] [You can do this!] This donation didn¡¯t include a mission and hadn¡¯t been a gift from another streamer, but it still felt good. ¡®Great.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon took it as a good sign. Missions gave purpose to the stream, but these random donations made the best money. ¡°Thank you, Eggnt. I¡¯ll do my best!¡± Sang-Hyeon happily waved and responded to the message. He emphasized their username again. ¡ª Who tf calls themselves eggnt? ¡ª Ew¡­ ¡ª Hey, what¡¯s wrong with eggnts? They¡¯re delicious if you deep fry them. ¡ª Censor his name, please. Other viewers made fun of the username, but Eggnt probably enjoyed himself for impacting the stream. His 2,000 won felt worth it. [PogChamp has donated 1,000 won.] [Show us a pog y!] The inte ng, pog or pogchamp, meant excitement or shock. Sang-Hyeon had no idea how it came to be, but he knew the word enough to respond. ¡°Thank you, PogChamp. A pog y¡­ I¡¯ll do my best!¡± He received two donations before the game even started. ¡®I think this is really happening!¡¯ Sang-Hyeon¡¯s heart pounded. It seemed like he grew excited over petty earnings, but small donations during a stream made all the difference. He would rather have ten 1,000 won donations than one 10,000 won donation. His stream went in the right direction, at least ording to Sang-Hyeon¡¯s opinion. Bling¡ª? [Mission: 100,000 won if you sessfully one-shot the boss.] [110,000 won] [10,000 won from me as well!] Another donation raised the mission reward to 110,000 won. The game officially began with that. Beep¡ª A white sh covered his screen and Sang-Hyeon appeared in the middle of a forest. A young blondedy who matched the beautiful scenery greeted him. ¡°Thank you so much.¡± The bandits from before had targeted this youngdy¡¯s noble family. She personally came to express her gratitude. The heroine¡¯s name was Emilia, but it seemed like the game had more heroines. [1. It was nothing. I was just doing my job.] [2. Show us you¡¯re thankful by rewarding us. That¡¯s what we want.] Two choices popped up on the screen. The chat wanted him to pick the second option, but Sang-Hyeon knew the game would be more difficult like that.?He chose the first option without much hesitation. ¡°It was nothing. I was just doing my job.¡± Emilia responded with a wide smile. ¡°Still, thank you so much.¡± ¡ª Kya~ ¡ª She sure is pretty. ¡ª So pretty! As expected, no one cared about his choice. ¡°Lady.¡± Roman chimed in. ¡°After interrogating one of the bandits, we discovered that more are likely on standby to attack in the mountains. We¡¯re nning to send a team to eliminate them once and for all. What do you think?¡± Another quest would soon begin. The mercenaries had little chance of sess even with their entire army considering their earlier performance. Logically, they should attack together instead of splitting up. ¡ª You guys would¡¯ve been screwed if it weren¡¯t for Almond. Who are you to decide to kill the boss lol ¡ª LOL ¡ª Roman is the best in the kingdom. Don¡¯t hate on him. ¡ª Yeah, best at faking. ¡ª Lmao The game had progressed differently now, but the viewers let it slide as fans. ¡°Sure, we¡¯d greatly appreciate it if you can do so. Should we prepare to stay the night here?¡± ¡°The remaining defending squad will take care of that.¡± ¡°Perfect, I¡¯ll help out as well.¡± Emilia didn¡¯t act like the other nobles who usually stayed back and onlymanded. Her willingness to participate left a good impression. ¡ª Kya, Emilia is good-hearted too. ¡ª Honestly, I only y the game to see her. ¡ª These losers¡­ Rosenita is the true heroine. ¡ª Lol Rosenita is pretty good as well. ¡®I guess it¡¯s not just Emilia.¡¯ The game had another heroine judging from the chat. Open-world games targeting menmonly did that like the Witcher?series back in the day. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go.¡± Clippity clop¡ª? Roman, Almond, and Emilia left the defending squad behind. The squadron had around 20 soldiers. [Eliminate the bandit boss!] The mission popped up inrge text on the screen followed by a short cutscene. The scene began with them running through the dark forest. Moonlight shone on the enemies. Roman led the way and slowly raised his fist to stop them. Then he whispered, ¡°We¡¯ll approach as close as possible and swarm them from behind.¡± All the soldiers, except Almond, nodded in agreement. The squad fanned out and Almond took his position as well. ¡°Haaa¡­¡± Almond¡¯s breath left a trail in the cold air. Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t tell Almond¡¯s breath apart from his own. ¡®This is actually kind of nerve-wracking.¡¯ The game always impressed him in moments like these when full dive truly felt real. Shing! Roman suddenly unsheathed his sword and moonlight reflected on it. ¡°Chaaaaarge!¡± The mercenaries raised their gs after his beast-like roar. This tactic helped to disguise their numbers and often confused the enemies. ¡°Arrrrgh!¡± ¡°Raaaaa!¡± Almond also let out a battle cry and readied his bow. ¡®One shot right away.¡¯ Swoosh! ¡°Kugh!¡± Almond¡¯s arrow instantly turned the guard into a corpse. ¡ª Kya! ¡ª Woah¡­ I can barely even see¡­ The torches waving around in the dark left an afterimage in Sang-Hyeon¡¯s eyes. The battle cries around him also felt distracting, but that didn¡¯t matter. It wasn¡¯t enough to disrupt his focus. Swoosh! His arrow perfectlynded on another enemy. Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! His shooting speed only increased. [Consecutive Shooting Skill. Activated!] He unlocked a new skill. This game still featured a skill mechanic despite its realism. Each weapon had its own skill tree and consecutive shooting belonged to the bow. Thud! Thud! Thud! Every arrow pierced an enemy¡¯s head. ¡ª Holy shit¡­ ¡ª I didn¡¯t know someone couldnd every shot with that skill. ¡ª Did he unlock a skill already? ¡ª Jesus Christ. Skills like consecutive shooting only made using the bow trickier. You needed tond three headshots in a row to activate the skill. Such requirements made it difficult enough. However, the arrows came out too fast during the skill and made it even more difficult to use. Sang-Hyeon just became the exception. ¡ª He¡¯s insane! ¡ª Woah! ¡ª Is he going to kill them all on his own? LOL ¡ª ??? This isn¡¯t how you¡¯re supposed to y¡­ Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Sang-Hyeon shot the arrows at a blinding speed beyond human capability. Every shot struck the target¡¯s head. ¡ª He¡¯s not human. ¡ª Insane¡­ Even Sang-Hyeon felt surprised at what happened. ¡®How is this possible?¡¯ Of course, it could never happen in the real world. Archers also had no reason to shoot this fast in the real world. Before activating the skill, Sang-Hyeon still felt more confident in his real-world archery abilities when his right arm properly worked. ¡®Goddamn¡­¡¯ However, thebination of this skill increasing his speed and the game''s physics resulted in a cathartic experience. His mind had to focus to the limits and he shot as fast as he could process the thought. Thud! Thud! Thud! Sang-Hyeon achieved a peak synergy as if he became one with the bow. ¡°Kugh!¡± ¡°Ugh!¡± The bandits fell one by one like cave dwellers being gunned down. Hended every shot in the center of their foreheads with his intense concentration. Thwack! Thud! Thud! Even he barely registered his own actions. ¡ª Are consecutive shots usually this fast? ¡ª Do you really think that¡¯s the case? ¡ª The skill only goes as fast as the user can output it. Unlike anyone else, Sang-Hyeon¡¯s peak focus made such quick shots possible. [Skill Deactivated] No bandits remained after he used the skill for ten seconds. Then Sang-Hyeon said something that drove the viewers crazy. ¡°Hey everyone, isn¡¯t the bow in Kingdom?pretty good?¡± ¡ª It¡¯s only good for you ¡ª Almond the Great¡­ ¡ª LOL ¡ª Do you know how many streamers gave up the bow challenge¡­ Hate, jealousy, and swearing filled the chat. [CalmSlime has donated 1,000 won.] [Cocky bastard¡­] [Eggnt has donated 1,000 won.] [Is this really your first time ying?] [30yrVirgin has donated 1,000 won.] [Please tell me you don¡¯t have a girlfriend at least.] ¡°Thanks everyone for the donations. 30yrVirgin, don¡¯t worry. I don¡¯t have a girlfriend. CalmSlime, thank you for the donation. Eggnt! Thanks for donating again.¡± Sang-Hyeon smiled as he thanked them. He couldn¡¯t stop smiling. ¡®This is so fun.¡¯ The money didn¡¯t even matter. He genuinely enjoyed this virtual reality game and the full dive experience. Plus, everybody kept praising him. Anyone would enjoy this experience. ¡°Almond, you truly are incredible!? You¡¯re probably the best in the kingdom!¡± The so-called meanmander, Roman, acted like an angel toward Sang-Hyeon. ¡ª Roman must be bugged. ¡ª Roman, why are you talking like that? ¡ª What¡¯s going on LOL ¡ª The new viewers are surprised, haha. The way Roman treated Sang-Hyeon surprised the new viewers. [CalmSlime has donated 5,000 won.] [Huh? Why is it finished already? Where¡¯s the boss?] ¡°Uh?¡± Sang-Hyeon felt confused too. He was supposed to fight the boss, but everything ended already. ¡°Commander! I think this is the boss¡¯ corpse!¡± A soldier lifted the boss¡¯ corpse. ¡ª Huh? ¡ª ???? ¡ª Shit¡­ ¡ª Oh, shut up Malfoy¡­ ¡ª No fucking way. ¡ª Nani??? The viewers couldn¡¯t hide their shock. Some even denied what happened. ¡ª No way. There¡¯s no way hended a headshot and instantly killed him. ¡ª Boss headshots are impossible. ¡ª He probably got hit five times in the head. No way he one-shotted him. They had good reason to not believe what just happened. An unwritten rule existed among yers that bosses couldn¡¯t die from one shot. ¡ª But how did the boss just die without even showing himself? ¡ª Isn¡¯t the mission still a fail since he didn¡¯t die in one hit? ¡ª For real¡­ ¡ª It was impossible from the start¡­ However, a rumor that floated around broke this unwritten rule. A reputable person chimed in and backed up this rumor. [Acorn Jelly has donated 100,000 won.] [It was an instant kill! Perfect shots kill even bosses in one hit!] Acorn Jelly generously donated again and confirmed the rumors regarding the perfect shot. This made the viewers extremely excited. ¡ª That¡¯s just a rumor loool. ¡ª Is he still on about that? ¡ª Give it up, Jelly boy¡­ ¡ª Perfect shot exists!!! ¡ª Perfect gang, unite! Chapter 13: Perfect Shot (1)

Chapter 13: Perfect Shot (1)

Acorn Jelly didn¡¯t particrly have fond memories of the perfect shot. Others criticized him in the past for even saying it existed. ¡ª This guy is on about that again. ¡ª Do you think the developers are stupid? To make a mechanic like that? ¡ª The requirements are basically impossible. ¡ª Show us if such a thing exists! Acorn Jelly always felt frustrated. ¡®Yeah, I want to show you guys too.¡¯ He couldn¡¯t prove the mechanic with his abilities, but he intuitively knew it existed. yers remembered the perfect shot as a rumor that Acorn Jelly made up and forgot about it when he quit the bow challenge. Some current yers didn¡¯t even know about the perfect shot rumors. The situation confused some of Almond¡¯s viewers. ¡ª Acorn Jelly is on about the perfect shot again. ¡ª What¡¯s a perfect shot? Is it some kind of mechanic? ¡ª Isn¡¯t it just a saying? ¡ª Is it kind of like saying, nice shot! Some viewers recognized the term, but most never heard of it. ¡ª Does that really exist? ¡ª I thought it was just a rumor. ¡ª Is that really Acorn Jelly? ¡ª Do you think such a mechanic exists? It¡¯s just a made up story by bow one tricks. ¡ª Bow one tricks LOL Some even thought Acorn Jelly meant it as a joke. ¡®Haa¡­ so frustrating.¡¯ Acorn Jelly wanted to prove he was right, but couldn¡¯t do anything on his own. ¡®If only Almond would shut them up.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon could resolve everything by telling the viewers he just did a perfect shot. Jae-Muk patiently waited for that moment. Finally, a gamer who could constantly perform perfect shots appeared. Sang-Hyeon would prove to everyone that Acorn Jelly was right all along. However¡­ ¡°What¡¯s a perfect shot?¡± Jae-Muk¡¯s jaws dropped in front of his monitor at Sang-Hyeon¡¯s question. ¡®What?¡¯ His reaction went beyond shock. Jae-Muk found himself in awe. ¡®He¡¯s been shooting perfect shots all this time and didn¡¯t even know? Is he serious?¡¯ Almond seemed serious from the look on his face. ¡°Is that an important feature?¡± The man who proved that perfect shots existed didn¡¯t even know. Had killing the boss been a coincidence? That wasn¡¯t possible. A simple headshot still calcted damage while a perfect shot could instantly kill a boss or mob. The arrow instantly killed when itnded. Damage calction made no difference for casual gamers, but every second counted for pro gamers. The difference between an arrow instantly killing the enemy and the time it took an enemy to bleed out could change the battlefield. The yer could fire another shot or the enemy might hold on while bleeding out. ¡®Almond has probably never encountered this problem.¡¯ Jae-Muk had watched Sang-Hyeon¡¯s stream from beginning to end. Every shot had been a perfect shot. [Acorn Jelly has donated 10,000 won.] [Do you really not know about the perfect shot?] Sang-Hyeon nodded because he really didn¡¯t know. ¡°Yes, what¡¯s that?¡± How could he achieve something so difficult without even knowing? Jae-Muk couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡®Sigh¡­¡¯ However, he felt excited at the same time. ¡®How much of a genius is he?¡¯ How could hend all those perfect shots without knowing? Only the best of the best could achieve that. ¡®He¡¯s the real deal.¡¯ Acorn Jelly couldn¡¯t hide his excitement that he would stream with such a skilled neer. ¡®This is probably a good time to promote the coboration.¡¯ It seemed like the perfect opportunity and a good excuse to change the topic. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Give it up Acorn¡­ ¡ª Haha he was still on about the perfect shot. ¡ª How cute. ¡ª It¡¯s been forever since he gave up the bow challenge, yet he¡¯s still on about it. ¡ª This guy¡¯s an actual nerd. He¡¯s serious about it. Jae-Muk waited for the chat to slow and timed his donation ordingly. [Acorn Jelly has donated 10,000 won.] [I¡¯m telling you that a perfect shot exists! I¡¯ll prove it to you, Almond. Should we stream together tomorrow?] The chat erupted when the offer came up. ¡ª Woah! ¡ª Wow, are the rumors true? ¡ª I think they¡¯re for real! ¡ª The third day of his stream and he¡¯s already streaming with a big shot. Crazy talent. ¡ª Insane talent for real. ¡ª Damn, he¡¯s really obsessed with this perfect shot. ¡ª Acorn Jelly¡¯s execution date. ¡ª Now it¡¯ll finally be proven that such a thing doesn¡¯t exist¡­ *** Sang-Hyeon picked up on the situation from reading the chat. ¡®Ah, he¡¯s promoting it now.¡¯ Acorn Jelly definitely had experience in this scene. He naturally used the buildup to promote their stream like a genius. ¡®Making up something like the perfect shot just to hype our stream. Genius! I need to learn from him.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon thought Jae-Muk made everything up so they could stream together. Acorn Jelly would¡¯ve gone insane if he heard this. He wanted to prove himself right through Sang-Hyeon, but even Sang-Hyeon doubted its existence. ¡°Stream together?¡± Sang-Hyeon yed dumb. ¡ª Decline it. The Jelly boys could stain you. ¡ª HAHA say no. ¡ª Who is Acorn Jelly?? I¡¯m Almond. Leave me alone! ¡ª The squirrels are going to start pouring in. The viewers worried that Acorn Jelly¡¯s fans, the Jelly boys, would take over. However, they felt excited about the coboration deep down. Furthermore¡­ [RubySword has donated 10,000 won.] [I¡¯ll donate another 100,000 won if you prove the perfect shot exists in your stream together.] RubySword gave him another mission and increased the stakes by offering to double the initial reward. ¡ª Wow¡­ what a rich man. ¡ª He¡¯s not an average day 1¡­ ¡ª Insane¡­ Sang-Hyeon had no reason to decline. ¡°Thank you RubySword. The honor is mine. Acorn Jelly, let¡¯s stream together.¡± Everyone eagerly waited to hear those words. ¡ª Kya. ¡ª Oh shit. ¡ª You wait right there, Acorn Jelly! ¡ª Acorn Jelly¡¯s gonna lose all his viewers to Almond LOL ¡ª Your new food is almonds now, squirrels¡­ As expected, the viewers went wild. Those who didn¡¯t like Acorn Jelly wanted to see him get crushed by Sang-Hyeon while fans simply felt happy about the coboration. [Acorn Jelly has donated 10,000 won.] [epted like a true man, thank you. I¡¯ll be in touch!] Acorn Jelly left the stream after another donation. ¡ª Wait a minute. He donated over 120,000 won. No reaction? ¡ª Do the reaction! ¡ª 100,000 won reaction will end the stream you guys. Don¡¯t encourage it -.- ¡ª The reaction is turning the stream off LOL ¡°Oh yeah, I didn¡¯t do a reaction. Acorn Jelly won¡¯t see it, but here we go¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon thought it would be good to end the stream anyways. He already killed the boss and generated enough hype for tomorrow¡¯s stream. Swoosh! He shot his arrow straight into the air. ¡°Bye bye!¡± The stream ended with his arms spread out in the air. Thwack! [DEAD] Once again, the capsule forced him to exit and Almond¡¯s character disappeared. *** Creak¡­? Sang-Hyeon exited the capsule covered in sweat and went straight for a cold shower. Splish Ssh¡ª? ¡°Haa¡­ I wonder if it¡¯s dangerous to keep leaving the game like this.¡± The machine technically connected to his brain, so he worried if leaving like that might be troublesome. His phone buzzed as he came out of the shower. Bzzt¡ª? He saw through his towel that the text came from Ju-Hyeok. [Ju-Hyeok: Hey, I saw the stream. They want to meet tomorrow right away. Where do you wanna meet?] Sang-Hyeon could barely type with his wet hands. [Aren¡¯t we meeting online?] [Ju-Hyeok: Were you even paying attentionst time? -.-] He could picture Ju-Hyeok sighing in front of him. [Ju-Hyeok: We¡¯re not just ying games. We¡¯re also doing an interview.] [Ju-Hyeok: We saidst time that it¡¯d probably be better if we met in person to stream.] ¡®Ah, right.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon barely recalled their ns for an interview. Not an interview through the game, but a face-to-face one. Sang-Hyeon looked at his reflection and felt more confident. [Ah, ok. Let¡¯s meet at Hoogye station then.] After responding, he opened up KAF?to look at their reactions. [Acorn Jelly¡­ this guy and his perfect shot.] [Acorn Jelly appeared on Almond¡¯s stream again] [Almond ended the stream with the same reaction¡­] Most of the posts talked about Almond¡¯s stream. One particr post had a lot of upvotes. [Breakdown video of Almond one-shotting the boss.] The title caught Sang-Hyeon¡¯s attention. The video showed Sang-Hyeon using the consecutive shooting skill in slow motion. The boss could barely be seen in the distance. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t even recognize the boss and simply shot like usual. The arrow flew like it always did towards the target. Thud! The boss had been no different when the arrow perfectlynded on his forehead. He copsed just like that. ¡°Is this how you do a perfect shot?¡± However, the skill made the arrows too fast. Another arrownded on the boss as he copsed. ¡ª I don¡¯t think we can tell from this video. ¡ª But he doesn¡¯t sway a lot with just one shot, no? ¡ª It¡¯s a little iffy. ¡ª It¡¯s iffy because he¡¯s so massive. ¡ª Regardless, Almond is so urate. ©¸?For real. ©¸ He¡¯snding headshots that you can barely even see. ©¸ And they¡¯re dead center. I¡¯m getting goosebumps. ©¸ Actually though. He¡¯s only hitting the center of the vitals. Sang-Hyeon wondered the same thing as thements. They didn¡¯t know for sure if the boss died from the first or second shot. [Rx guys, it¡¯ll all be revealed tomorrow. He¡¯s streaming with Acorn Jelly.] [The only reason I¡¯m watching.txt] [Almond¡¯s facecam reaction.jpg] [Almond probably looks like a fat loser. I¡¯m calling it.] These types of posts came up as well, but the new ones slowed. Sang-Hyeon stopped refreshing and went to make dinner. Bzzt¡ª? His phone vibrated again. [Ju-Hyeok: Hey, have you seen YouTube? It¡¯s crazy.] It came from Ju-Hyeok again. [What are you talking about?] [Ju-Hyeok: There¡¯s a video about you on YouTube. It was uploaded an hour ago, but it already has 40k views.] [But we don¡¯t have a YouTube channel¡­] [Ju-Hyeok: It¡¯s on Acorn Jelly¡¯s channel. He made a teaser to introduce/promote you. (LINK)] Sang-Hyeon quickly clicked on the link. [Tomorrow, I¡¯ll be streaming with Robin Hood] That was the video¡¯s title. [46k views] As Ju-Hyeok said, the video already reached over 40k views after just an hour. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s jaws dropped as he watched it. ¡°Woah¡­ What is this¡­¡± It was supposed to be an introduction video, but basically showed a montage of Sang-Hyeon. It had been edited with sound effects and different angles, which made Sang-Hyeon¡¯s clips even more exciting. Thud! Even Sang-Hyeon found it exhrating to rewatch the bosses falling in one hit. The clip¡¯s ending showed the bandit boss copsing with the text: [Whether this is a perfect shot or not will be revealed tomorrow.] The video ended with that. It had 1,200ments and the views kept increasing by the thousands. ¡ª Woah¡­ I¡¯m going to watch tomorrow¡¯s stream for sure.? ¡ª Jesus Christ, this is a new guy? ¡ª Omg¡­ ¡ª This guest is insane. ¡ª I was worried because it was a nobody, but I¡¯ll shut up. All the viewers expressed excitement for tomorrow¡¯s stream. Acorn Jelly turned on his stream the next day. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m going to stream now.¡± His view count reached an all-time high. Chapter 14: Perfect Shot (2)

Chapter 14: Perfect Shot (2)

Acorn Jelly greeted Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon the next day and guided them to his studio. ¡°You can take a seat over there.¡± Acorn Jelly pointed at where Sang-Hyeon would wait on standby. No one else except the manager they sawst time apanied them in the studio. ¡°H-Hello.¡± After a light greeting, the manager pressed her hat and returned to her seat. The studio hadrge monitors, capsule machines, and expensive cameras that all impressed Sang-Hyeon. ¡®I guess he makes a lot of money¡­¡¯ Acorn Jelly ranked pretty high, but more popr game streamers existed. Even then, he seemed to be making good money. ¡®Then how much does BubbleGum make?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon remained deep in thought while Acorn Jelly prepared the camera equipment. ¡°Is it okay to start the stream and turn on the face cam to say hi?¡± ¡°Oh, yes.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯m turning it on. There are usually three to four thousand people right off the bat, so be ready.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± Jae-Muk put his hand out for a high five to make Sang-Hyeon morefortable. p¡ª? The monitor turned on and the stream began. [Current viewers: 10,000] They had 10,000 viewers from the start. ¡®Holy shit, this is an all-time high.¡¯ The viewer count doubled from the usual. Everyone had been excited about today¡¯s stream. ¡ª Hi Do! ¡ª Oooo. ¡ª Hihi ¡ª Hello! ¡ª Can¡¯t miss out on this! As expected of a big-time streamer, the chat became bombarded when the stream began. Jae-Muk¡¯s stream always began with intro music. This gave the viewers time toe in one by one. He nced at the camera and tested his mic. ¡°Ah ah. Mic check. No echoes, right?¡± Na-Yeon gave him the ok sign from across the room and Jae-Muk transformed into Acorn Jelly. ¡°Hey chat.¡± He naturally greeted the viewers and read the chat. ¡ª Stop stalling and show us Almond! ¡ª We¡¯re not here to see you. ¡ª Hi Acorn Oppa! ¡ª Hi Do! ¡ª Hello! ¡ª Hi Do, Hi Do! ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! Most viewers didn¡¯t know a small-time streamer like Almond with only 200 viewers. However, the YouTube teaser did a great job of putting his name out. That video¡¯s views already surpassed 100k and their current LIVE viewership broke records by the minute. [Current viewers: 33k] Only ten minutes had passed and they already reached 33k viewers. ¡®Goddamn, I didn¡¯t expect this much.¡¯ All this attention made even Acorn Jelly nervous. ¡°Ahem, the hype is pretty insane,¡± Acorn Jelly said with a smile. The viewers kept asking him to reveal Almond. He decided to make his move when the viewer count struck 40k. ¡°Alright, you cane in now.¡± Jae-Muk pointed at Sang-Hyeon, who slowly came from behind. ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! ¡ª Dun dun dun¡­ ¡ª Is that really Almond? Sang-Hyeon had never revealed his face, so no one could confirm his identity. Everyone only made predictions after hearing about the cob. Furthermore, they could hardly see his face yet because the light didn¡¯t shine on him. ¡°Let me introduce, Almond!¡± sh¡ª? The light turned to Sang-Hyeon and the camera fully captured his face. ¡ª Oooooh! ¡ª Kya! He¡¯s so good-looking! Why? ¡ª I¡¯m so disappointed. ¡ª Fucking hell¡­ ¡ª World¡¯s worst streamer, Almond¡­ ¡ª Shit¡­ He¡¯s got it all¡­ ¡ª Kya!!! ¡ª Oh shit¡­ he¡¯s super good-looking. The boys felt disappointed while the women celebrated. ¡°Kya, he¡¯s good-looking, right? I was shocked too when I first saw him!¡± The countlesspliments didn¡¯t faze Sang-Hyeon. He had grown used to it since a young age whether it had to do with archery or his looks. ¡°Should we start with an interview? Or y first?¡± ¡ª 1111 ¡ª 2222 ¡ª 2222 ¡ª Game for sure. ¡ª 22 ¡ª Show us that perfect shot LOL ¡ª Acorn Jelly¡¯s judgment day. ¡ª I¡¯m fine with just staring at his face¡­ Acorn Jelly nodded with a polite expression. ¡°Sure, sure. Everyone, please rx and don¡¯t forget your manners in the chat. Almond, what¡¯s your optimization code.¡± ¡°...?¡± Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t know how to respond. ¡°Almond?¡± He didn¡¯t know what that referred to. ¡°Ah¡­ it¡¯s just¡­ what¡¯s an optimization code?¡± ¡°Sorry? Capsule optimization. The thing that optimizes your brain wavelength and body together¡­¡± Jae-Muk made the most confused expression possible. ¡®What the fuck? He was ying without optimizing himself for the game?¡¯ Jae-Muk couldn¡¯t believe it. You could y without doing so, but only casual gamers did that. ¡ª He doesn¡¯t know about optimization? ¡ª Stop pretending LOL ¡ª No way¡­ ¡ª That¡¯s like ying in someone else¡¯s body. ¡ª You¡¯ll get disconnected pretty often if you don¡¯t optimize.? ¡ª Oh? He did disconnect every time he died. ¡ª Oh shit, then he really yed without optimizing? ying the game without optimizing would feel like dragging around a thirty kilogram sandbag. Only a monster could y with such handicaps. ¡°You really don¡¯t have one?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon shyly nodded. Ju-Hyeok pped his forehead and the sound could be heard in the distance. ¡°Oh, right!¡± *** Ju-Hyeok recalled something as he listened to their conversation. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Acorn Jelly¡¯s manager, Na-Yeon, asked. ¡°Oh, right!¡± Ju-Hyeok didn¡¯t even hear Na-Yeon¡¯s question. He pulled at his hair and felt guilty. ¡®The cafe owner told me something about body optimization¡­ Ipletely forgot.¡¯ He remembered something about optimization being super important, but forgot to tell Sang-Hyeon. He quickly rushed to Jae-Muk. ¡°Sang-Hyeon really doesn¡¯t know. I was supposed to tell him¡­¡± Jae-Muk became dumbfounded after hearing what happened. He looked at the camera with a nk expression. ¡°Sigh¡­ Everyone, I feel so small right now¡­¡± The chat also expressed their disbelief. ¡°Sang-Hyeon over here purchased a used capsule and¡­ started ying without learning about optimization.¡± New capsules could optimize automatically, but Sang-Hyeon¡¯s used capsule didn¡¯t have such a feature. ¡ª Is that why he disconnected? One message in the chat caught Acorn Jelly¡¯s eye. ¡°Disconnected?¡± Acorn Jelly asked Sang-Hyeon. ¡°Ah¡­ yes. I disconnected every time I died.¡± ¡°In Kingdom Age?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Acorn Jelly became dumbfounded again. ¡°How did you continue ying if you disconnect every time?¡± Acorn Jelly asked on behalf of all the viewers. ¡ª Yeah, wtf? ¡ª It¡¯s somon to die in Kingdom Age. ¡ª Isn¡¯t your brain gonna melt if you disconnect that much LOL ¡ª LOL However, Sang-Hyeon¡¯s viewers knew that no enemies had ever killed him. ¡ª It¡¯s simple. Just don¡¯t die. ¡ª He technically never got killed. He just kills himself every time. ¡ª Dying for fun. ¡°You truly are a genius among genius.¡± ¡°I think so too.¡± Sang-Hyeon had grown used to being called a genius. ¡ª He¡¯s so calm about it lol. ¡ª This guy¡¯s the Joker, ying around with us. ¡ª LOL ¡ª He really thinks it¡¯s nothing much. The viewers felt excited seeing a textbook genius like Sang-Hyeon. ¡®He really is something.¡¯ Acorn Jelly felt ted too. Surprisingly, Sang-Hyeon perfectly suited streaming. He possessed incredible gaming skills, a shining personality, and the necessary social skills to interact with people despite being young. ¡°Now then, everyone. Aren¡¯t you curious? How will Almond be like once he optimizes!?¡± ¡ª Hell yeah! ¡ª Is it even possible to be better than he is now? ¡ª Are you gonna shoot two arrows at once or something? ¡ª I have no idea LOL The viewers couldn¡¯t wait to find out. Sang-Hyeon excelled without optimization and now his full potential would be unlocked. ¡°Then, follow me. I¡¯ll help you make an optimization code.¡± Acorn Jelly dragged Sang-Hyeon into the capsule behind them. *** The optimization process didn¡¯t take long. [Optimization Code Z-102938] Sang-Hyeon emailed the code to himself and entered the game. Shoong¡ª? Acorn Jelly appeared in the virtual world with him. ¡°I see you¡¯re finished.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°How¡¯s the optimization?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon moved his body around. ¡®It definitely feels different. Was it supposed to be this easy to move?¡¯ It felt quite close to reality even before the optimization. However, he entered apletely different dimension now. His body felt lighter than in real life. It almost felt as if his body didn¡¯t exist. ¡®I feel like my body isn¡¯t there¡­¡¯ He could control himself by just thinking. ¡°I guess virtual reality is supposed to be like this. It feels like my body isn¡¯t there.¡± ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. It¡¯s supposed to be a world where you can move with just your thoughts. I think the optimization worked?¡± Acorn Jelly smiled and continued the stream. ¡°What do you think, everyone? We should see if there¡¯s a perfect shot, right?¡± His remark heated up the viewers. ¡ª Kya, let¡¯s go to the graveyard! ¡ª LOL ¡ª There¡¯s no way such a thing exists!!! ¡ª He¡¯s on about that again¡­ ¡ª It¡¯s the Spanish Inquisition! ¡ª Rumor Jelly lmao. Most viewers denied the existence of a perfect shot and made fun of him. ¡®Does it even exist?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon, who had to prove it, didn¡¯t know either. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s goooooo!¡± Funnily enough, only Acorn Jelly believed in the perfect shot. He thought Sang-Hyeon had no doubts about it and overflowed with confidence. [Starting Kingdom Age.] Chapter 15: Perfect Shot (3)

Chapter 15: Perfect Shot (3)

Kingdom Age included a co-op mode as well, but most yers didn¡¯t use it because it increased the game¡¯s difficulty. yers only used co-op mode to casually y with friends. It satisfied the craving of defeating enemies with teamwork. The game also nned a future DLC with five yer teams, so that would be exciting. ¡°Alright, I had to go back to match Almond¡¯s storyline. Technically, I¡¯m the one who¡¯s here to help out.¡± ¡ª You¡¯re just tagging along, rx. ¡ª Just get on the Almond bus. ¡ª Almond bus LOL ¡ª Passenger Jelly. Acorn Jelly could be considered fairly skilled, but they didn¡¯t even see him as a yer next to Almond. They had already been awed by Almond¡¯s teaser video. ¡ª The montage brought me here. He¡¯s actually insane. ¡ª How¡¯s he human? ¡ª And that¡¯s without optimization? ¡ª The only person who canplete the bow challenge. The viewers gave Acorn Jelly a hard time because he gave up the bow challenge after three attempts. ¡°Hey, I¡¯ll stay in front as a tank and won¡¯t even touch a bow.¡± Acorn Jelly had a little spat with the viewers before turning to Almond. ¡°Almond, I¡¯ll exin the criteria for a perfect shot.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Acorn Jelly pointed at the center of his forehead. ¡°In this damn game, there¡¯s a point system even on the vitals. Imagine a circle on the forehead with smaller ones surrounding the middle like an archery target.¡± ¡ª Here we go again. ¡ª The start of a legend. ¡ª How many times do we have to listen to this LOL ¡ª Oh man. The viewersined, but Acorn Jelly ignored them like usual and continued. ¡°So the most important thing is to hit the center of the forehead.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°This is already hard, right? What makes it even harder is that you have to seed on the first attempt.¡± ¡°Oh, I see.¡± Acorn Jelly exined it like a horror story, but Almond seemed unfazed. ¡ª Oh, I see. ¡ª Oh, really? ¨C Oh¡­ okay. ¡ª ??? Is that supposed to be hard? The viewers made fun of Acorn Jelly¡¯s dumbfounded expression. ¡®I guess the criteria doesn¡¯t surprise him since he constantly hits perfect shots.¡¯ Not only did Acorn Jelly expect this, but he wanted this reaction. ¡®We can really make him into something with a little more work.¡¯ Almond¡¯s actions, speech, and abilities all synergized well. He could be something big if he had the spotlight. ¡®I wonder if this is why he already has such an amazing manager.¡¯ Acorn Jelly recalled Ju-Hyeok¡¯s impressive resume. Thud. Someone suddenly struck the back of his head. ¡°New guy, pay attention.¡± It turned out to be Commander Roman. ¡®Oh, right. The game started.¡¯ ¡ª LOL ¡ª Roman, ON ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Special melee training! Roman¡¯s fierce gaze made Acorn Jelly¡¯s heart shrivel. ¡°Don¡¯t even nce in my direction.¡± ¡°Ye¡­ yes sir¡­¡± Thud. Roman bumped his shoulder as he walked past to the other soldiers. ¡°I will exin today¡¯s mission.¡± They defeated the bandits and moved on to a different mission. Emilia, who they sessfully escorted, assigned the mercenaries another mission. ¡°The nobledy Emilia has assigned us another task thanks to our previous sess. There is a goblin cave nearby that is giving the farmers a hard time.¡± Their enemies would be monsters instead of humans this time. ¡°We will find the cave and eliminate them. It¡¯s been a while since we¡¯ve received a nice mission like this, so let¡¯s get good results. Be like Almond over there, alright?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± A cutscene appeared where they rode on carriages. Acorn Jelly expressed his astonishment. ¡°Can you believe this guy?¡± He felt baffled. ¡ª Almond gets apliment while Acorn Jelly gets shoulder checked LOL ¡ª The difference in how they¡¯re treated is hrious. ¡ª Haha for real. ¡ª LMAO The carriage arrived in front of the goblin cave. Night had fallen, so the soldiers lit up the path with torches. Roman led the way. ¡°We¡¯ll quietly infiltrate.¡± At Roman''smand, the elite soldiers who led the charge crouched into position. This included Acorn Jelly and Almond. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Acorn Jelly shouted for the viewers and slowly moved forward. Thud! Roman whacked him again. ¡°I said quietly.¡± ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t even respond or I¡¯ll cut you in half.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡ª LOL ¡ª LMAO ¡ª Roman carrying the show. ¡ª Roman knows what¡¯s up. Roman, who became the star of the show, pointed at Almond and whispered. ¡°Almond, stay in front and show this neer what a surprise attack looks like.¡± Almond nodded and moved forward. He reached the entrance first without making a sound. ¡®Moving is a lot easier.¡¯ After the optimization, Almond took advantage of the game to its full extent. He always felt some limitations when he moved in the past, but that had disappeared now. He wouldn''t be able to return to his pre-optimization settings anymore. ¡®There¡¯s a goblin.¡¯ He could see a few goblins on guard duty. Creak¡­ He crouched as low as he could and pulled his bowstring. This position looked unusual, but the bowstring perfectly reached the center of his lips and his hold remained perfect. Sang-Hyeon released the arrow. Swoosh! The air whistled and a goblin fell. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Shit¡­ ¡ª Insane. ¡ª The way he shoots ispletely different. Watching it on video and seeing it LIVE couldn¡¯t bepared. Moreover, Acorn Jelly witnessed it from right beside him. ¡°Eek!¡± Thankfully, Roman didn¡¯t hear him this time. ¡®This is no joke.¡¯ Acorn Jelly noticed it with his attention to detail. ¡®I think he¡¯s improved.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon¡¯s shooting looked even more natural than before. That didn¡¯t seem possible, but it just happened. ¡®And he even adjusted his shot to be quieter for a surprise attack.¡¯ Almond always used a full draw and even adjusted into a hunting mode. Swoosh! Swoosh! He shot one after another with just the right amount of strength and hardly any noise. Swoosh! The goblins fell every time a slight whistle could be heard until none remained in sight. ¡°Incredible, Almond.¡± ¡°Woah¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s our Almond¡­¡± Not just Roman, but the other soldiers admired Almond too. Acorn Jelly found himself apuding. ¡°Did all of you see that? That was actually insane. That¡¯s the perfect shot. An instant death that¡¯s different from just dying.¡± Normally, this stage level required teamwork from all the mercenaries to beat, but it became a one man show. ¡ª Is it normally supposed to be like this? ¡ª It¡¯s normally a bloodbath LOL ¡ª I bet he¡¯s good at sniping too. ¡ª But idk if it¡¯s a perfect shot or not. ¡ª I think it¡¯s just a headshot. ¡°Light the fire and smoke them out.¡± The mercenaries lit the entrance on fire and barricaded it with stacks of hay. Fwoosh! They filled the cave with smoke to suffocate the remaining goblins. Regr goblins would¡¯ve all died in panic, but these ones had a boss whomanded them. ¡°Kiyaaaaaaak!¡± Glowing red eyes emerged from the smoke. [Champion Goblin] This goblin looked as huge as an orc, wore a mask, and held a de in each hand. ¡°Kiyaaaaak!¡± ¡°A variant?!¡± Even Roman felt taken aback by that goblin¡¯s size. The giant pointed at the mercenaries andmanded the other goblins. More goblins popped out from the smoke and an army of glowing red eyes suddenly swarmed them. ¡°Defences!!!¡± Roman shouted and Acorn Jelly rushed to the front with his shield. Creak¡­? ¡®Center of the vital. First try.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon repeated Acorn Jelly¡¯s instructions and aimed at the champion goblin. ¡ª Is a perfect shot really possible? ¡ª Now we¡¯ll know since it¡¯s a boss. ¡ª Oh shit, he¡¯s aiming straight for the boss. ¡ª Holy shit. However, Sang-Hyeon hesitated. ¡®Oh?¡¯ He loosened his tightly drawn bowstring. ¡®What¡¯s that mask?¡¯ A mask covered the center of the boss¡¯ forehead where he would normally aim. It seemed to be made of steel and not even wood. An arrow wouldn¡¯t be able to pierce through. ¡ª Why¡¯s he stopping? ¡ª Is he nervous cause it has to be on the first try? ¡ª Is Almond human after all? It had to be the first shot, so he couldn¡¯t test if the mask would break. After briefly thinking, Sang-Hyeon aimed high up into the sky. ¡ª Up high?! ¡ª Did someone donate 100,000 won? That¡¯s the reaction to it! ¡ª LOL what is going on? ¡ª Is he trolling? Sang-Hyeon closed his eyes and felt the wind against his skin. Swish¡ª A moment of silence passed. Swoosh! The shot sounded different from before as the arrow flew into the sky. Chapter 16: Perfect Shot (1)

Chapter 16: Perfect Shot (1)

ording to Acorn Jelly, a perfect shot needed tond at the center of a vital spot. The head made for the biggest and easiest vital to aim for. Also, any creature would die if one split its skull. Sang-Hyeon had no reason to not aim for the head. However¡­ ¡®That mask¡­¡¯ The mask bothered Sang-Hyeon. The champion goblin wore a strange one made of steel. Sang-Hyeon instinctively knew that he couldn¡¯t pierce this mask. Thwack! He aimed for a slightly exposed part of the forehead that the mask didn¡¯t cover. It wouldn¡¯t be easy, but Sang-Hyeon had tond the arrow at an arched angle. He seeded like usual and the arrow pierced into the center of the goblin''s forehead. ¡ª Holy shit!! ¡ª That¡¯s crazy. ¡ª Is he a one man fortress? Jesus. ¡ª Wow. ¡ª Will it die? The viewers thought he shot at nothing, but soon expressed their awe. The champion goblin began to wobble. ¡°Kugh¡­ Eek¡­¡± Stter! A fountain of green blood spewed into the sky and the champion goblin tilted in one direction. Sang-Hyeon lowered his bow and calmly watched. The controversy wouldn¡¯t end if he shot more arrows. ¡°Keeek! Kugh!¡± ¡°Keek?!¡± The other goblins noticed their boss¡¯ condition and panicked. The viewers reacted the same. ¡ª ??? ¡ª !? ¡ª Is it really dying? The chat momentarily froze as roughly 50,000 viewers watched in anticipation. THUD! The champion goblin copsed to the ground and the viewers couldn¡¯t hold it in anymore. ¡°WOAH!!!¡± Acorn Jelly let out a deafening scream first. ¡ª Wowowowow. ¡ª That¡¯s crazy!! ¡ª Acorn Jelly¡¯s wish came true!!! ¡ª It really existed?! ¡ª Holy shit, he really did it on his first try. ¡ª He got the forehead! That¡¯s insane. ¡ª Congrats!! ¡ª Woahhhhh. ¡ª That¡¯s actually crazy. ¡ª Jesus Christ. The chat continued like that. [Chidori has donated 10,000 won.] [You¡¯re amazing!] [RubySword has donated 200,000 won.] [Tell Almond¡­ that I lost¡­] [Goose has donated 3,000 won.] [Goose¡­] [Bumps has donated 10,000 won.] [Bumps¡­] [Domino has donated 5,000 won.] [Woah! Congrattions!] [Perfectshot Believers has donated 100,000 won.] [Perfect Shot! Dreams doe true!] The endless donations crashed their game and almost froze the stream. *** ¡°Phew.¡± Sang-Hyeon got out of the capsule. ¡®I guess new capsules don¡¯t have a great cooling system either.¡¯ He walked out soaked in sweat. Acorn Jelly also came out of his capsule. It looked like he didn¡¯t even shed a drop of sweat. He spread his arms out and shouted. ¡°What do you think, Na-Yeon? Look! We proved it! Gyahaha!¡± ¡°Wow, amazing.¡± Na-Yeon gave a superficial response to Do Jae-Muk and rushed to Sang-Hyeon with a towel. ¡°It¡­ it was truly incredible!¡± After saying that, she went back to scolding Do Jae-Muk. ¡°You know the stream glitched out because of the chat and donations, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, I saw! Well, this is the first time the chat and donations ever froze.?Hahaha!¡± Do Jae-Muk overflowed with excitement. Then Kim Ju-Hyeok quickly shouted at them. ¡°We¡¯re still receiving donations. The screen turned off, but the stream is still going. We can get more donations if we move in front of the camera and start the interview. What do you think?¡± He said a lot at once, but made it easy to understand. ¡°Ah, let¡¯s do that.¡± Do Jae-Muk nodded at the proposition. Streamers usually didn¡¯t receive this many donations, so they should take advantage of it. Furthermore, they had to share half of the donation earnings. He should earn twice as much as usual to make up for it. ¡°It¡¯s ready!¡± Na-Yeon adjusted the camera angle while Sang-Hyeon dried himself with the towel. ¡°Let me dry my hair first. Give me a moment¡­¡± ¡°I think you should juste out like that.¡± ¡°You think it¡¯ll be alright?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ even that looks cool¡­¡± Na-Yeon turned away after saying that and switched the camera on. Soon, their screen disying the stream turned back on. ¡°Hi, Treevy! Wee, I¡¯m Acorn Jelly, who¡¯s just been proven innocent.¡± Acorn Jelly looked at Sang-Hyeon and signaled him to introduce himself. ¡°Hi, Treevy. I didn¡¯t know, but a perfect shot did exist.¡± The chat came back after Sang-Hyeon¡¯s introduction. The messages went off like a rocket ship. ¡ª Shiet! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Oh, it¡¯s back on. ¡ª I can¡¯t believe the stream turned off because of the donations LOL ¡ª God Archer. ¡ª Robin Hood reincarnated. ¡ª Even the NPCs said Robin Hood came back to life LOL ¡ª Acorn Jelly can finally sleep in peace. The stream enabled its fan-only chat feature, but viewers still bombarded the chat. Donations kepting in as well. [Doran has donated 100,000 won.] [Seo In-Ha has donated 5,000 won.] [Marinated Crab has donated 1,000 won.] ¡°Woah, Woah. Calm down, everyone. I can¡¯t read all the donations, but thank you?¡± Acorn Jelly insisted on stopping the donations, but he knew that would only increase them as a veteran streamer. Telling them to stop only fueled them. ¡ª Let¡¯s punish him with more donations! ¡ª Beat him with money! ¡ª Open your mouth. Herees the money! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Jelly boy, you better give all the donations to Almond. ¡ª You¡¯re not gonna split this in half, are you? The chat kept the excitement going and encouraged the donations too. ¡°Thank you so much Juwon, WiseTrue, Marinated Crab¡­¡± Acorn Jelly read the donation messages for almost forty minutes. His throat probably hurt, but his face looked brighter than ever. Sang-Hyeon''s face lit up too since he would earn half of that amount. ¡®Woah¡­ how much is that?¡¯ He couldn¡¯t even imagine such donations on his stream. He shook in excitement when he thought of his stream achieving that one day. ¡°Oh, oh?! SeoJiAh donated one million won!¡± Out of all the donations, someone donated one million won. A big spender had appeared. ¡®One million won?¡¯ ¡®Holy shit. One million won in one day¡­¡¯ Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok looked baffled as they recalled fighting with their manager during their corporate days. ¡°Wow, SeoJiAh. It¡¯s my first time seeing your name, but thank you so much. Ah¡­ you want me to tell Sang-Hyeon he¡¯s good-looking? Ah¡­¡± Acorn Jelly made an embarrassed look. ¡ª LOL ¡ª In the end, the donation was for Almond. ¡ª Haha, give this one to Almond at least. ¡ª You gotta admit Almond is attractive as hell. ¡ª LMAO ¡ª Oppa I love you! You look so sexy with your wet hair! ¡ª Kya Oppa! ¡ª Almond Oppa, can you say my name once? ¡ª Were there this many girl fans? ¡ª This is hrious. SeoJiAh continued with her donations. ¡°SeoJiAh again! Thank you for the 100,000 won donation. You want me to tell Sang-Hyeon he¡¯s good-looking¡­ This is the same message as before! Do you just have money lying around?!¡± ¡ª LOL ¡ª Acorn Jelly getting jealous haha. ¡ª Looks are everything! ¡ª Actually though. ¡ª He was handsome before and handsome now! What can you do? ¡ª Haha true! The chat kept mocking Acorn Jelly. He thought it would be a good moment to switch to the interview now. ¡°Alright, alright. Everyone stop! I¡¯m going to do the interview!¡± Acorn Jelly nced at his private monitor. It had a list of questions ranked from most to least voted. ¡°The questions are from my forum where users voted for the best ones. Alright, this is the first interview question. Where do you get your skincare done¡­?¡± ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°T-They¡¯re also asking what tint you use¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t put on any tint.¡± ¡°He says he doesn¡¯t! Stop asking these things! Delete the question asking what color his underwear is too! How are these ranked first and second!¡± The viewers enjoyed Acorn Jelly¡¯s reactions. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Were there this many girl fans on the Acorn squad? ¡ª They were all hiding when Jelly boy was streaming. Now they came out of hiding for Almond lmao.? ¡ª Damn¡­ I¡¯m jealous¡­ ¡ª So popr¡­ ¡ª The life of a popr boy.avi ¡ª Shit, now I¡¯ll get mad when I see my reflection after this.? ¡ª LOOOL Most questions wanted to know about Sang-Hyeon¡¯s personal life. Whether he had a girlfriend, his height, routines, etc. He felt surprised at first, but receiving so much love and attention felt good. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s heart pounded. ¡®I guess this is the fun part about streaming.¡¯ He thought gaming and streaming just might be right for him¡­ *** Almond and Acorn Jelly yed a bit more before finishing the stream. ¡°Phew.¡± Sang-Hyeon sat in front of the table covered in sweat again. ¡°Here you go.¡± Na-Yeon handed him a towel as if she waited on standby. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Do you sweat this much every time? This capsule has a cooling system too¡­¡± ¡°Ah¡­ I¡¯m sweating less than at my house though.¡± ¡°Hey, oppa. Isn¡¯t there something wrong with this?¡± ¡°Hey, why don¡¯t you worry about me?like that? It¡¯s because his concentration level is higher than normal.¡± Acorn Jelly sat next to Sang-Hyeon whileining to Na-Yeon. ¡°You did really good today. This was the first time my stream blew up this much.¡± ¡°Me¡­ me too! I think you¡¯ll be bigger than Jae-Muk oppa for sure!¡± Acorn Jelly red at Na-Yeon, but it was all in good spirits after their sessful stream. ¡°I should be thanking you for inviting us.¡± Ju-Hyeok sat beside them with an awkward smile and pulled out two gift boxes from his backpack. ¡°I didn¡¯t have a chance to give you this before the stream, but here you go. It¡¯s just a thank you for inviting us.¡± ¡°Woah¡­ You didn¡¯t have to.¡± ¡°Thank you so much!¡± Acorn Jelly and Na-Yeon''s eyes sparkled. It was just a set of cookies, but the high-quality packaging made them feel great. ¡®He sure is resourceful.¡¯ Ju-Hyeok took care of things that Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t even think about. ¡°This looks delicious. Let¡¯s have it with some tea.¡± ¡°That would be delightful.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get it ready.¡± Na-Yeon brought the cookies to the kitchen while Acorn Jelly grabbed his tablet. ¡°Let¡¯s have fun while Na-Yeon is getting that ready. Time to calcte our donations!¡± He pulled up today¡¯s donations on the tablet screen. ¡°!¡± Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok¡¯s jaws dropped when they saw the amount. Chapter 17: Turning Point (1)

Chapter 17: Turning Point (1)

¡°Five¡­ million?¡± Sang-Hyeon subconsciously shouted the total amount they earned from donations in one day. Do Jae-Muk¡¯s tablet clearly showed 5,360,000 won. Sang-Hyeon would¡¯ve had to earn every incentive and bonus from his previous job to barely match what they made today. The streaming tform fees had already been deducted too. ¡°Do¡­ do you usually make this much? Acorn Jelly bitterlyughed and shook his head. ¡°No, this is also my first time earning this much.¡± Acorn Jelly considered it an unusual urrence. Typically, earning five hundred thousand won would be an excellent day for him. Today, they earned five million won. He simply invited Sang-Hyeon and interviewed him. Plus, he made a small teaser video. ¡®This is so much for the work I did.¡¯ Of course, they had to split the earnings in half. The 2.5 million won was still a massive amount. ¡°If we split this evenly¡­ it¡¯s actually around 2.7 million per person.¡± Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok nkly stared at each other. ¡®This isn¡¯t a dream, right?¡¯ ¡®I don¡¯t think so¡­¡¯ The two needed a moment to ept what just happened. ¡°Thank you.¡± They bowed and thanked Acorn Jelly. ¡°I should be thanking you guys. I usually celebrate if I get 500,000 won. I only average around 200,000 won when I stream.¡± Ju-Hyeok''s eyes shone and he perked up. He thought streams could only profit from donations. ¡°Then¡­is there a different way you earn money to sustain yourself?¡± ¡°Of course, it¡¯s advertisements. Treevy gives me a base incentive based on my number of viewers. That¡¯s kind of like my sry. There¡¯s also¡­¡± Na-Yeon chimed in and exined, ¡°I also bring in third-party advertisers. The ads promote the games, but you should choose carefully because they can affect your image.¡± ¡°Ah¡­¡± Ju-Hyeok didn¡¯t take any notes, butmitted the information to memory. Acorn Jelly and Na-Yeon seemed to be in a good mood. Ju-Hyeok took advantage of this rare opportunity to ask more questions. ¡°What about ads that aren¡¯t rted to video games? Do you take them as well?¡± ¡°Yes, sometimes that¡¯s a safer bet. Things like clothes, cameras, streaming equipment,puter, and capsules. Those are probably the main ones.¡± ¡°Ah¡­¡± Ju-Hyeok took a mental note of everything again. He already possessed some background knowledge, so he quickly grasped these new ideas. ¡®It¡¯s simr to celebrities.¡¯ Actors and singers earned money in a simr fashion. Their main ie didn¡¯te from movies or album sales, but they became popr through those mediums. The clothes and essories they wore, the car they drove, and even the beverage they drank. Everything brought in money. Those at the top of the streaming industry worked the same way. ¡°It¡¯s kind of like celebrities.¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s basically being a celebrity. Isn¡¯t that funny? Girl streamers who look like celebrities earn 90% of their money from donations. They don''t even have to do celebrity-like things. On the other hand, people like him have to act like celebrities!" Na-Yeon pointed at Do Jae-Muk¡¯s face. ¡°Sigh, what¡¯s wrong with this face? It looks funny! That¡¯s the best resource in this industry!¡± ¡°It is funny. It¡¯s baffling.¡± They briefly engaged in amusing banter about each other''s appearance before returning to Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok. They felt curious about what these rookies¡¯ business model would be. Na-Yeon gave her input. ¡°Hmm¡­ I think Sang-Hyeon can be a half-celebrity¡­¡± Na-Yeon shyly said and couldn¡¯t even properly face Sang-Hyeon. "Yeah, it would be a shame to not go with that style if even someone like Na-Yeon blushes and can''t look at him." Acorn Jelly added with augh. ¡°But I want to be a video game streamer¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon seemed surprisingly adamant about that. He just began enjoying games and streaming. He didn¡¯t want to dip his toes into being a celebrity, which didn¡¯t suit him. ¡°Oh, being a game streamer is a given. I¡¯m just saying each individual has a different strategy.¡± Acorn Jelly rephrased Na-Yeon¡¯s words as if to convince Sang-Hyeon. ¡°Someone like me usually earns revenue from the viewers and promoting other games. However, you can earn from more than just video games. Like the streamer Horn Ramen, who used to be aic book author.¡± Na-Yeon also added on. ¡°Those streamers usually earn revenue from YouTube. Live streaming is like extra fanservice. Mostly formunicating with the fans.¡± ¡°Ah¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon finally understood since he also knew Horn Ramen. Horn Ramen was aic book author and streamer, but he often appeared on mainstream media like a celebrity. He could certainly be called a video game streamer since he mostly gamed on his live streams. ¡®I guess it doesn¡¯t sound that bad.¡¯ There didn¡¯t seem to be anything wrong with it. Listening to advice from experienced folks had been helpful. ¡°To put it simply, most streamers on the major scene focus on making content for YouTube whereas live streamers are more of a niche. Sang-Hyeon, you have the potential for the major scene.¡± ¡°I see. Thank you.¡± ¡°You need a skilled editor if you¡¯re going to focus on YouTube. Like me.¡± Na-Yeon posed and pointed at herself with her thumb. Then she blushed and turned away. ¡°...?¡± ¡°Yeah, sorry. She¡¯s a bit weird. She¡¯s good at editing though and is a manager too, which makes her a great partner. By the way, do you know how to edit, Ju-Hyeok?¡± For the first time, Ju-Hyeok didn¡¯t look so confident. ¡°Oh¡­ no¡­ I¡¯ve never done it.¡± Sang-Hyeon knew that Ju-Hyeok couldn¡¯t sit in front of aputer and edit videos frame by frame. ¡°Hmm¡­ Then you should find an editor. Your revenue isn¡¯t too much yet, so take your time finding one.¡± ¡°Thank you so much for the advice.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± *** Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok left the studio after receiving advice for around an hour. The weather had turned chilly, but Na-Yeon and Jae-Muk still came out and shook their hands. ¡°Thank you so much for today.¡± ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s do another fun stream next time!¡± Acorn Jelly instinctively knew as they exchanged farewells in a good mood. ¡®Next time, he¡¯ll probably surpass me already.¡¯ What Na-Yeon jokingly said earlier didn''t sound like a joke to Jae-Muk. It contained some truth. Maybe that''s why he reacted so sensitively. ¡®What can you do? His talent is beyond reach.¡¯ He didn¡¯t even feel jealous because of the huge difference. He simply felt grateful to form a connection with Sang-Hyeon. Vroom¡­ Jae-Muk pulled out his phone and looked at themunity forums as Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok drove off into the distance. ¡°What the? What¡¯s this?¡± he shouted out in astonishment. ¡ª God is on his side. The post praised Sang-Hyeon, but it didn¡¯t even mention his talents. No, maybe this could be considered talent too. His charm definitely counted. ¡®Well¡­ I guess looks are a talent as well.¡¯ It might be the hardest area to have talent in. Jae-Muk bitterly smiled. *** The KAF?[Whoever didn¡¯t watch Acorn Jelly¡¯s stream today wasted half their lives.] [Almond is a GOD.] [Perfect shot really exists!] [The boss seriously died in one hit. Even the champion goblin!] [The headshot was crazy.] [That headshot from the high angle was actually insane.] [I clipped the headshot.] Previously, the forum mostly posted about the game with bits of Almond or other streamers. However, the entire forum only talked about Almond now. ¡ª Who tf is Almond? ¡ª Can you guys go talk about this somewhere else? Some users still didn¡¯t know Almond. However, the reaction to those individuals hadpletely changed. ¡ª It¡¯s your fault if you don¡¯t know Almond dumbass. ¡ª Do you live under a rock? ¡ª It¡¯s not our fault you don¡¯t have any friends LOL ¡ª He¡¯s like that because he¡¯s insecure. Those who didn¡¯t know Almond suffered for it. A post with the clip of Almond¡¯s headshot also spread to other poprmunities. It made the top 10 list in the gamingmunity. ¡ª Is Almond the savior of Kingdom Age?! ¡ª It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve seen Kingdom Age in the top 10. ¡ª Been a while my ass. Bet you didn¡¯t even know about the game. ¡ª I¡¯ve never heard of it LOL ¡ª Reviving a game in 5 days after starting¡­ what a crazy talent¡­ Mostments overreacted, but spoke from a ce of truth. Kingdom Age?posts had never reached the top 10 because everyone considered it a niche game. ¡ª Woah, that was possible in the game? ¡ª That¡¯s crazy¡­ ¡ª Watch the montage that Acorn Jelly uploaded of him. It¡¯s crazy. The game didn¡¯t have many yers, but its difficulty was infamous. People acknowledged Sang-Hyeon¡¯s talent because of the game''s reputation. ¡ª I refunded that game after two hours¡­ ¡ª Talent difference¡­ The game had defeated arge number of users, which made Almond¡¯s presence even more impactful. Almond left a big impression on the biggest gamingmunity in the country. Jae-Muk predicted all of this, but something else shocked him. ¡°Oppa, look at this.¡± Na-Yeon showed him a video from amunity with many active editors. The video game subsection had a new popr post. [There¡¯s a streamer named Almond and he¡¯s so good-looking hehe. I edited this for fun. Have a look! His live streams are fun to watch too!] It seemed like one of Almond¡¯s fangirls. She made a montage of Almond¡¯s super ys. ¡ª Wow¡­ the quality¡­ ¡ª You made this for fun? What do you do for a living??? ¡ª That¡¯s actually crazy! Who¡¯s Almond? He¡¯s cute. ¡ª Wow. ¡ª Upload this on YouTube! It¡¯s so good. ¡ª What are you doing! Upload it now! The montage she casually made looked like an action movie sequence. The cinematography resembled a high-budget film with how she edited the angles, motion, and speed of the arrows along with the sound effects and background music. ¡ª Should I really upload it? ©¸ Yes yes yes! Definitely. ©¸ Now Now! ©¸ They¡¯ll notice for sure if you upload it! The video was uploaded to YouTube that night and trended in the video game category. It reached 100,000 views and the channel was called: AlmondFanSeoJiAh. Chapter 18: Turning Point (2)

Chapter 18: Turning Point (2)

Ju-Hyeok dropped off Sang-Hyeon at home after they left Acorn Jelly¡¯s studio. ¡°Thanks, get home safe.¡± Thud¡ª? Sang-Hyeon closed the passenger door and walked up the stairs to his house when Ju-Hyeok shouted from the car. ¡°Hey, don¡¯t feel rushed. You have talent, so everything will work out.¡± Ju-Hyeok must¡¯ve noticed Sang-Hyeon¡¯s dilemma of whether to focus on YouTube or Treevy. Sang-Hyeon nkly stared at him. Many people had helped and he made sure to remember their faces. His grandmother raised him alone, his coach got him a job, Acorn Jelly offered to stream together, and Na-Yeon generously exined everything. The rich elite stared at him and gave him a thumbs up. Sang-Hyeon made sure to never forget. ¡°Alright, thanks.¡± Vroom¡­? Sang-Hyeon walked up the stairs after watching the car¡¯s red tail light disappear. He could see with every breath that the days would grow colder. His grandmother usually warned him to be careful of the slippery roads around this time of the year. Sang-Hyeon no longer worried about that. Those worries had disappeared and left behind a gaping hole. ¡°Hey Grandma, I earned 2.7 million won today. Ju-Hyeok said he won¡¯t take any.¡± Sang-Hyeon whispered to himself while looking at the stairs he''d been climbing since childhood. ¡°Money is money, but this is actually kind of fun. I¡¯m going to keep doing it for now.¡± His foggy breath that rose from the monologue represented his determination. ¡°Even my right arm waspletely fine in the game! It was really cool. You would¡¯ve been shocked too if you saw¡­¡± He made a firm fist with his right hand, but it still violently shook. The ident continued to haunt him. Not only Sang-Hyeon, but his grandma as well. He recalled the creases on her face when she saw his arm. His right arm haunted them more than a nightmare. It caused his grandmother the most pain. However, he needed this arm and kept this daily trauma by his side. It followed him like a constant shadow and he had a habit of hiding his right hand deep inside his pocket. ¡°But a lot of people have helped me, Grandma.¡± He looked up. Stars filled the dark sky, or so he thought. The old streetmps blocked them out for the time being. ¡°It feels like you¡¯re helping me through these people. I don¡¯t know how to repay them.¡± The stars began to appear in Seoul¡¯s foggy sky. The ones that briefly shone now faded and ran down Sang-Hyeon''s chin. ¡°I¡¯m going to start working really hard now. A little toote, right?¡± His grandma used to say that the stars would respond if you looked up. [So you¡¯re not going to do anything because it¡¯s toote? You should work harder if you know that.] His grandmother often told him this whenever hemented that it was toote to start something new. ¡°Yes, yes. I¡¯m going to do it. It¡¯s just¡­ it sucks you¡¯re not here to see it.¡± *** The next day arrived. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t stream in the mornings. He got up like usual and showered. Sshhh¡ª? He organized his thoughts from yesterday. ¡®Editor¡­ YouTube¡­¡¯ He normally remembered important things that happened each day by memorizing keywords. ¡®YouTube makes more money, but the editor has to be good. Streamers earn using two methods¡­¡¯ Squeak¡ª? Sang-Hyeon wiped his mirror and nkly stared at his reflection. "I think I¡¯m best suited for being like a celebrity." Even hearing the word felt foreign. The idea of being a celebrity seemed like wearing a suit that didn¡¯t fit him. However, Na-Yeon and Acorn Jelly suggested it¡¯d be good for him. Ju-Hyeok also told him on the car ride. [I think they¡¯re right as well. I don¡¯t think you can stream like Acorn Jelly. More like Horn Ramen. A Horn Ramen who¡¯s insanely good at games.] Sang-Hyeon''s instincts told him the same. He wouldn¡¯t be exactly like Horn Ramen, who excelled at talking and not very much at gaming. Sang-Hyeon would be theplete opposite. He excelled at games, but not talking. They had to consider the business model for being an inte celebrity that slightly differed from Horn Ramen. ¡®Ads or sponsors¡­¡¯ Ju-Hyeok thought Sang-Hyeon perfectly suited both. They even got ahead of themselves and envisioned him being amercial model. ¡°He sure thinks on arger scale.¡± Sang-Hyeon smirked and began researching on hisputer. ¡°Let¡¯s find an editor first.¡± Setting their delusions aside, they needed to figure out their YouTube model first. Only the most popr streamers made enough from live streams. They had to make a YouTube channel. He nned to use his free time to research YouTube and find an editor. Ju-Hyeok would probably research too, but Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t just sit around while his unpaid manager did all the work. Click¡ª? He looked through the trending videos in the game category and paid special attention to montage videos like his that showcased yer skills. ¡°Hmm.¡± One stood out among the rest. [Kingdom Age, the ssy Archer! Montage] A montage of an archer in Kingdom Age?already reached over 110,000 views. Sang-Hyeon found the perfect video. ¡°Damn, how did I find the perfect one right away? I¡¯m so lucky.¡± He only realized the truth after those words. ¡°Wait! This is me?!¡± The character in the video turned out to be him. Then he checked the channel¡¯s name. [AlmondFanSeoJiAh] ¡°Seo Ji-Ah?¡± The name sounded familiar. Maybe because a lot of people had that name? No, Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t remember names for such reasons. ¡®1 million won¡­¡¯ The viewer who donated 1 million won. Gulp. Sang-Hyeon clicked on the video. Dun¡­! Du dun! The background music sounded different from the usual montages. Most used EDM in the background with screens shaking all over the ce. That seemed like child¡¯s ypared to this. ¡®It¡¯s like a movie.¡¯ The background music felt breathtaking and fit Kingdom Age¡¯s narrative.?The video''s cold winter tone also suited a medieval soldier¡¯s life. The cinematography came straight out of a movie and didn¡¯t look like a video game. Thwack! The camera switched to thrilling angles every time an arrow pierced an enemy''s head. This made every shot feel more exhrating. Archery superys could easily be boring because the same action kept repeating, but the video kept cutting to different scenes. It featured Sang-Hyeon¡¯s ys with other clips like Burka talking, which Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t hear. Charismatic shots of the horse-riding bandit boss, Casis, also appeared. Those bosses instantly fell from Sang-Hyeon¡¯s arrows. ¡°Wow.¡± Even Sang-Hyeon felt impressed with Almond¡¯s ys while watching. Thements thought the same. ¡ª Woah¡­ ¡ª Wow, what is this game? Looks fun. ¡ª Kingdom Age? I heard it¡¯s really hard. ¡ª The cinematography is crazy. ¡ª The game quality is insane. ¡ª It looks like an HBO drama. ©¸ Same! I thought so too lol. ©¸ It¡¯s basically a movie damn. ©¸ LOL ¡ª The game even won GOTY, but I guess it¡¯s still not that popr. ©¸ Kind of expected from a failed game like Kingdom Age. ©¸ Yeah¡­ it didn¡¯t do so well. It¡¯s pretty fun though. ¡ª I wanna try ying it too. Most wanted to y the game after watching the video. ¡ª Wait, but he¡¯s actually good. Wtf? ¡ª The fact is, no one except him can pull this off. Think twice before buying the game. ©¸ Kingdom fanboys are shocked too LOL. ©¸ You don¡¯t need to warn them. They will turn off the game once Roman sees them. The usual Kingdom Age?yers also had to regain theirposure. ¡ª Wow. The actual y is crazy, but the video makes it even crazier. ¡ª How many times are you going to say crazy? ¡ª Holy shit. That¡¯s all I can say. No one could deny the video¡¯s production level. ¡®I need to contact them right away.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon reached for his phone to contact Ju-Hyeok. Bzzt¡ª? [Ju-Hyeok: Yo, I found someone amazing. (LINK)] Ju-Hyeok had already seen the video. [Ju-Hyeok: I¡¯ll leave ament to contact them.] [Sang-Hyeon: But what are we going to do about the pay? We still don¡¯t have any earnings¡­] [Ju-Hyeok: We¡¯ll talk it out. No one is rich from the start.] [Sang-Hyeon: You. You¡¯re rich from the start.] [Ju-Hyeok: My grandpa was poor too when he was young ^^] [Sang-Hyeon: The earnings from YouTube are usually 50/50 with the editor, right?] [Ju-Hyeok: That¡¯s if they do all the work. Seems like this person is capable of that.] [Ju-Hyeok: Anyways, I¡¯ll take care of this. You focus on ying the game. y Kingdom Age a lot while it¡¯s popr.] ¡®Oops.¡¯ Ju-Hyeok¡¯s words woke him up. ¡®Right, this is Ju-Hyeok¡¯s job.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon should concentrate on the game and streaming. He needed to pull his weight like his incredible manager. ¡®Let me practice some gamey.¡¯ He decided to practice moving in virtual reality for Kingdom Age.?Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t particrly stand out in anything other than archery, so he needed to practice more. A default training program came with the capsule. He raised it to maximum difficulty and began. *** It took him around three hours toplete the training. ¡°Phew¡­¡± He nced at the clock when he came out of the capsule all sweaty. ¡®I¡¯m hungry.¡¯ It was already dinner time, but he also had to stream. ¡®Let¡¯s just eat a light meal.¡¯ Crunch, crunch¡ª? He stuffed a handful of almonds into his mouth and chewed. He loved the nutty aroma and crunchy texture. It only became more vorful as he chewed. Gulp.? Sang-Hyeon finished his meal with a ss of milk. ¡°Phew.¡± He patted his slightly full belly while drying his hair with a towel and went back into the capsule. ¡®I¡¯m suddenly getting nervous.¡¯ He had grown used to streaming, but felt more nervous than usual today. Streaming together with Acorn Jelly, proving the perfect shot, trending on YouTube¡­ All of these achievements would now show up as a number. [Stream starting in 5 seconds] [5] [4] [3] [2] [1] ¡°!¡± Chapter 19: Assassination Mission (1)

Chapter 19: Assassination Mission (1)

Manager Oh worked for the country¡¯s biggest video game distributor,?Punk,?and he was facing a predicament. However, it wasn¡¯t one of the typical concerns of his age like hair loss or his child''s grades. ¡°Why did I bring this damn American fantasy game from overseas?¡± He felt concerned about the sales of a certain game imported from North America called Kingdom Age. It had excellent critic and user reviews, but strangely couldn¡¯t sustain itself. He had predicted that the game wouldn¡¯t do amazing, but he had never expected this. ¡°This is too little.¡± The game sold less than expected and they couldn¡¯t do much about it. The executives would disapprove even if he proposed new promotions or events for the struggling game. He needed a good reason to promote it again. ¡®If only there was a new star yer¡­¡¯ The game didn¡¯t even have an esports scene. One simply bought and yed it. A star yer rising from this game was something unimaginable. Hmph. Manager Ohughed at himself. ¡®Well, this is sad.¡¯ His heart ached as he sat and watched the game plummet in sales. ¡°...?¡± While he was thus wallowing in despair, a video that seemed like a blessing caught his eye. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± It showed a user attempting the bow challenge. The editing exaggerated the ys, but the ys had really happened. ¡®And this is a beginner?¡¯ Thements said that this user had just recently started ying. He looked charming, too. ¡®Why is this guy streaming instead of working as a model? Actually, thank you for streaming!¡¯ This yer looked like a piece of unrefined ore, full of possibilities. His advertisement rate would be cheaper than that of major streamers. Plus, he had huge potential. ¡®If he gets the right support¡­¡¯ m! Manager Oh mmed his keyboard without thinking. ¡°This is it!¡± His coworkers looked at him strangely, but he didn¡¯t care. He clicked the link to Almond¡¯s broadcasts and watched the previous clips. ¡®This¡­ this will definitely work!¡¯ The viewers¡¯ reactions, the trending videos, gamey, and streaming capabilities¡­ This yer had it all. He looked handsome in the interview, too. Ding¡ª? A follower-only notification appeared. [Almond is starting his stream!] Manager Oh¡¯s jaws dropped. ¡®How lucky!¡¯ Almond didn¡¯t have a particr schedule, but he coincidentally began streaming as Manager Oh was checking his channel. Manager Oh quickly went to the stream and stared at the ck screen waiting for Almond. ¡®Huh?¡¯ He found something unexpected. ¡®Were there this many viewers?¡¯ Almond¡¯s other videos didn¡¯t have this many viewers. When did he attract so many? *** ¡®What is going on?¡¯?Sang-Hyeon thought to himself as he adjusted his mic. No, why did this happen? ¡®Was it the stream with Acorn Jelly, his perfect shots, or the montage?¡¯ It didn¡¯t make sense, whatever the reason. [Current viewers: 1003] Over a thousand people hade to watch from the start. The number kept increasing as the stream ran. He knew that he shouldn¡¯t mention the viewer count, but his lips quivered. ¡®One thousand people.¡¯ Reaching one thousand live viewers marked a significant milestone. One could make streaming a full-time career with this number. Of course, such a feat took considerable time and effort. However, more viewers kept pouring in. [Current viewers: 1120] It was rising by the hundreds. ¡®Do I say something or not?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon turned silent from the dilemma, while the chat mor continued to rise. ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª AlHa hi! ¡ª What the? Why isn¡¯t he saying anything? ¡ª Turn the stream on! Almond turn the stream on! Almond turn the stream on! Almond turn the stream on! Almond turn the stream on! Almond turn the stream on! Almond¡­ ¡ª It¡¯s on dumbass. ¡ª Please ban the spam. ¡ª He just turned it on. What do you mean ban him LOL ¡ª Does Almond have a manager? Last time there was someone with him¡­ The chat¡¯s previous speed couldn¡¯t bepared to what it was now. Some viewers even seemed a little crazy. ¡®It wasn¡¯t too bad during Acorn Jelly¡¯s stream.¡¯ Acorn Jelly¡¯s stream had over fifty thousand viewers, but the chat seemed manageable because a pro streamer and manager supported them from the sidelines. ¡®They took really good care of me.¡¯ The realization of all this attention and having to care for the viewers sent a chill down his spine. Sang-Hyeon gulped and thought. ¡®This is awesome!¡¯ He had always chased feelings like tension and expectations as an athlete. A feeling of pleasure swept through his body and his inner engine rumbled. His hands trembled from the tension and excitement. ¡°Ahem.¡± He excitedly greeted them after clearing his throat. ¡°Hey, Treevy! What a wee from the start!¡± The chat suddenly picked up just as it slowed. The rhythm matched Sang-Hyeon''s heartbeat. ¡ª Muhahahaha! ¡ª Ahahahaha! ¡ª Hey Almond hyung! ¡ª Ooo Almond! ¡ª Oppa, show us your face! Show us your face! ¡ª Almond¡¯s stream doesn¡¯t show his face now that I think about it. ¡ª Oh no! He doesn¡¯t show his face? :( ¡ª Why is only his voiceing out? ¡ª A lot of neers here. ¡ª He originally streams with no facecam. ¡ª He held back his potential. ¡ª Show us your face :(( Many came from watching his interview and requested to see his face. ¡®A facecam¡­¡¯ Sang-Hyeon searched for the facecam feature when he received a message from Ju-Hyeok. Ding¡ª? He could see the DM from inside his capsule. [Ju-Hyeok: Hey, take a look. Makes me kinda jealous.] The message came with a photo and he understood why so many requested to see his face now. Ju-Hyeok sent him a screenshot of a popr intemunity that girls liked to use. It had a collection of Sang-Hyeon¡¯s photos as he yed, dried himself with a towel, did the interview, etc. Any shots of Sang-Hyeon¡¯s face had been captured and uploaded. ¡®Woah.¡¯ He found thements too embarrassing to read, but his heart thumped. It felt ecstatic to be loved by so many. [Sang-Hyeon: Hey, I think I might be an attention whore.] [Ju-Hyeok: ???] [Sang-Hyeon: It feels so good.] [Ju-Hyeok: LOL you¡¯re built for this. Turn your facecam on. It¡¯s annoying to ban the spammers.] [Sang-Hyeon: Okie] Sang-Hyeon smiled and turned on his camera. A small box appeared at the corner of the screen. ¡°Hey, Treevy!¡± ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Are you turning facecam on starting today?! ¡ª OMG he¡¯s so good looking. ¡ª :¡¯( ¡ª Kya! ¡ª He looks that good in a capsule? ¡ª Crazy! ¡ª Hyung! Let¡¯s get married! As expected, the chat rose even faster. Donations came in even before he started ying. [Ooryuryu has donated 1,000 won.] [Good looking af.] [DoReMi has donated 2,000 won.] [Hyung, your perfect shot was insane. I couldn¡¯t donate then, so I¡¯m donating now.] Some donations imed they missed their chancest time as if they owed him. He couldn¡¯t possibly read all of them. ¡®I want to be a game streamer.¡¯ He seemed built for this as he told Acorn Jellyst time. ¡°Thank you for all the donations. I¡¯ll start ying, we¡¯re a little behind.¡± [Starting Kingdom Age.] *** The character Almond returned to Kingdom Age. Swoosh¡ª? A warm spring wind blew. ¡°Almond.¡± Emilia¡¯s voice sounded soft as the wind. She called him from up the hill. Sang-Hyeon and Acorn Jelly had yed two or three more hoursst time and eradicated the goblin cave. Emilia looked at the aftermath. ¡°I¡¯ve heard about your skills.¡± ¡°It¡¯s an honor, mydy.¡± Her blonde hair with a floral scent brushed past Almond¡¯s face along with the wind. Emilia turned around. She helped Almond up and looked him in the eye. ¡°To eliminate the goblins so easily¡­ They were giving us so much trouble.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t do it alone.¡± ¡°No, I heard everything from Roman.¡± Emilia grabbed his hand. She acted quite direct for a heroine candidate, which made the viewers excited. ¡ª What the? ¡ª How much rapport did you build with her already? ¡ª Almond didn¡¯t even start the rapport quest yet! ¡ª It¡¯s because of his looks¡­ ¡ª Wait, that¡¯s not even his real face LOL ¡ª It¡¯s probably the energy he¡¯s giving off. ¡ª You think she has a sixth sense? Almond couldn¡¯t predict this progression, but he understood after her next words. ¡°There is another mission I want to ask of you.¡± ¡°...¡± She just wanted to assign him another mission. ¡ª LOL ¡ª I¡¯m so grateful, so give me your life too. ¡ª Of course. ¡ª Why isn¡¯t she telling Roman directly? Is it supposed to be like this? ¡ª I think his gamey changed the progression. ¡°A mission? You should ask Roman regarding missions¡­¡± Almond told her. ¡°No, I want you to do this alone. This is not my decision alone. My lord thinks it is for the best as well.¡± He wondered what this solo mission could be. It had to be simple if it only required one person. ¡°Do you see the castle over there?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Please kill the lord of that castle.¡± ¡°!?¡± Almond made a simr expression to Sang-Hyeon. ¡®What is she saying?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon hadn¡¯t yed this game for long, but he knew that didn¡¯t quite make sense. ¡ª Noona, am I really going to die!? ¡ª LOL she¡¯s actually killing him. ¡ª Isn¡¯t she basically telling him to die? ¡ª Noona I¡¯m going to die! Noona I¡¯m going to die! Noona I¡¯m going to die! ¡ª E-Emilia¡­ Why! Why did you turn out like this! ¡ª She¡¯s normally not like this LOL ¡ª Maybe her power radar is malfunctioning. The chat thought the same. ¡°Uh¡­ Does the castle lorde out often?¡± ¡°No, you must sneak in.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°?¡± Emilia tilted her head and wondered if she had said something wrong. ¡°You won''t have any problems with your skills.¡± She grabbed Almond¡¯s hands again and looked at him with her bright, innocent eyes. She truly believed in him. [NewNoble has donated 2,000 won.] [(tranted) You can definitely take down the castle lord with an arrow!] [Emilia has donated 10,000 won.] [Noona, I died because you told me to. Any problems?] [Emilia Antote has donated 10,000 won.] [(tranted) Die civilian.] Donations poured in for Almond¡¯s difficult situation. They sympathized with him. [1. ept] [2. Decline] Almond only hesitated for a second before moving his hand. ¡°Everyone, let¡¯s go.¡± Click¡ª?He chose number one. Chapter 20: Assassination Mission (2)

Chapter 20: Assassination Mission (2)

Manager Oh widened his eyes. ¡®Kill the castle lord?¡¯ He also yed Kingdom Age?and considered himself a hardcore yer, but never saw such a reckless quest before. ¡®Perhaps if he used a spear and shield¡­¡¯ Kingdom Age¡¯s?most stable build consisted of using the spear and shield together. It might be possible if one mastered thatbination. ¡®Bows¡­ are meant to shoot from a distance or to assassinate.¡¯ Infiltrating the castle to kill the lord would be nearly impossible. First, their security system would alert all the guards if a single one died. Two guards in the same ce had to be killed simultaneously orpletely avoided or silently killed one after the other. ¡®And that castle lord¡­¡¯ The castle lord named Talorant happened to be Almond¡¯s counter. ¡®There¡¯s no way to kill him with just an arrow¡­¡¯ Almond couldn¡¯t kill Talorant even if he managed to get through the countless guards. Talorant always wore a special ck armor tougher and heavier than any other soldier¡¯s. ¡®But what if he actually manages to do it with a bow?¡¯ Manager Oh might be able to convince his superiors if Almond seeded. They would be sponsoring a guaranteed star. ¡®I can confidently guarantee that he¡¯ll be a star.¡¯ Manager Oh liked Almond, who had a neat image and skills. However, a star required an x-factor. He watched as Almond made a choice. *** ¡°I promise to ept if it¡¯s for you.¡± Emilia brightly smiled at him. Her smile alone made him think he made the right choice. ¡ª Kya, the first choice was the right one. ¡ª Who cares if we die if Emilia is happy? ¡ª Let¡¯s go and die! ¡ª Haha for real. The viewers thought the same. They responded great and seemed excited to see how Almond would clear this mission. ¡ª I¡¯m so curious about how Almond is gonna do this. ¡ª What do you mean how he¡¯s gonna do it? He¡¯ll die right away. ¡ª Are you a neer? Almond doesn¡¯t die. He only dies when he gets donations. ¨C 100,000 won and he instantly dies. Some hoped he would fail. In fact, most of them felt that way. ¡ª But still, isn¡¯t it too much to ask for? ¡ª LOL yeah. ¡ª Anyone who¡¯s done the castle invasion mission knows that it¡¯s insanely difficult. I guess neers won¡¯t know. ¡ª They¡¯ve probably never even yed the game. yers considered the castle invasion mission especially hard in an already difficult game. The character had to climb the castle walls by hand and any sounds would provoke the intelligent enemy AIs that quickly swarmed them. They said sneaking into the castle would be even more difficult than crossing the North Korean border. ¡ª It¡¯s easier to cross the border to North Korea. ¡ª The border? Piece of cake. They obviously exaggerated, but it testified to the mission''s difficulty. Almond predicted it would be difficult too. ¡®Well, I bet it¡¯ll be hard. Infiltrating a castle alone to kill the lord definitely sounds tough.¡¯ He epted the mission for one simple reason. ¡®Seeding in something difficult will raise my poprity.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon betted everything on streaming. He wouldn¡¯t have started if something like this could make him quit. ¡®My body is used to it now. Maybe I can actually pull it off.¡¯ Almond felt like he could fly thanks to the training. He felt unstoppable and in peak condition. ¡®It¡¯s just a castle. There probably aren¡¯t too many guards.¡¯ Almond ced his bets on something else other than his skills. Medieval castles weren¡¯t as well-built and couldn¡¯t hold many people. ¡°Medieval castles can only contain around 50 people, no? I think I can do this.¡± He disyed his confidence. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Almond: 50 vs. 1 is nothing. ¡ª Medieval castles are just big houses. Almond looked away from the chat. ¡®Anyways¡­¡¯ He made eye contact with Lady Emilia. ¡®What possible reason could she have to kill this person?¡¯ Emilia didn¡¯t seem like the type to bear hatred or hurt others despite being a video game character. He found such a dangerous mission peculiar. The screen turned ck and the next cutscene began. Almond, free from Sang-Hyeon¡¯s control, asked thedy. ¡°Mydy, did the castle lord do something wrong?¡± ¡°...¡± Emilia silently stared at him. ¡°Almond, mercenaries do not ask why.¡± ¡°...¡± Did she have no intentions of telling him? Emilia nced down the hill and spoke. ¡°They are enving their own people.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°They treat them worse than peasants and sell their people to ve vendors. Even the women and children.¡± ¡°But then no one would maintain thend?¡± ¡°No, it is to maintain thend. They force them to borrow money with high interest and use the debt to enve them.¡± ¡°Will the problem be solved if the castle lord dies?¡± ¡°Our family will take over.¡± ¡°Then why not face him head-on¡­¡± ¡°We do not have enough of a reason. I think that is enough for an exnation. I will reward you handsomely.¡± The next scene appeared after her dialogue. *** ¡°Hooowwl!¡± A wolf cried out apanied by therge full moon. The bright spring hills couldn¡¯t be seen anymore and Almond found himself in the dark. Ding¡ª? A text popped up in front of him. [Assassinate the castle lord, Talorant!] He finally received the mission alert. ¡®It¡¯s starting now.¡¯ Swoosh¡ª? Almond calmly hid in the cornfield and whispered to his viewers. ¡°Does the game pick it up if I talk in person?¡± He wondered if the characters could hear him whispering. ¡ª Who knows¡­? ¡ª Why don¡¯t you try whispering? ¡ª LOL . ¡ª You can change it in the settings.? ¡ª You can adjust it. The settings could be changed. Almond thought for a moment. ¡®But this game emphasizes realism.¡¯ He decided to just proceed. ¡°I¡¯m just going to stick with it.¡± Swoosh¡ª? He whispered as the darkness enveloped him. Almond didn¡¯t make a single noise after that.?He tip-toed like a trained assassin with light footsteps and showed off his new skills. ¡ª Oooo¡­ ¡ª His movements are so articte. ¡ª Maybe he¡¯s good at more than just the bow. ¡ª He¡¯s changed a bit since the optimization. ¡ª Acorn Jelly said his ability to instantly concentrate is crazy. The viewers thought the optimization improved him, but Almond thanked the training he finished earlier today. ¡®That training program is better than I thought.¡¯ Hepleted over three hours of the capsule¡¯s default training program, which greatly improved his movements in the virtual world. Thanks to that, he reached the castle walls with minimal encounters. Almond leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. ¡°Phew.¡± Now, how would he climb the castle walls without getting caught? Almond looked up. Crackle¡­? The guards patrolled around with their torches. Almond gulped. Being near the wall made him nervous and he didn¡¯t know where to begin. He probably needed to get rid of the two up there first. ¡®Two people¡­¡¯ The two soldiers came into sight. ¡®If one dies, the other will cause amotion¡­¡¯ He needed to kill them at the same time or without one noticing the other. ¡ª Kill them simultaneously if you¡¯re going to make noise killing them. ¡ª How do you kill them simultaneously? ¡ª You can¡¯t, so kill them silently. ¡ª You gotta sneak up from behind and kill them while covering their mouth. He could kill them silently that way, but Almond shook his head. ¡®No.¡¯ Besides using the bow, Almond had zero confidence he could take those two down. ¡®I want to use the bow.¡¯ One guard would see the other copse if he used a bow, so he thought about what to do. ¡®Ah.¡¯ He slowly took out his bow and whispered to the viewers. ¡°I just need to kill them at the same time using the bow.¡± The viewers spammed the chat with question marks. ¡ª ??? ¡ª ??????? ¡ª ? ¡ª Are you going to shoot two at once like in the movies? ¡ª No way. ¡ª You can¡¯t do that here. This is Kingdom Age, not a movie! They couldn¡¯t fathom simultaneously killing two enemies with a bow, but Almond thought differently. ¡®I can do it.¡¯ Creak¡­ He drew his bowstring. ¡ª Woah, he¡¯s really going to shoot? ¡ª 50 vs. 1 START! ¡ª They¡¯re all going to swarm in. ¡ª Almond, finally his first death? ¡ª Oppa, everyone else will shout if they find out someone¡¯s been shot! The chat had mixed reactions with worries and insults. However, Almond only focused on his bow and no longer paid attention. ¡®First, the guy on the left. I¡¯ve got to aim high¡­ to dy thending.¡¯ He repeated the strategy to himself and positioned his bow at an upward angle. Almond calcted it almost instantly. Swoosh¡ª? One arrow flew and he immediately nocked another. ¡®I¡¯ve got to time it and hit the right target as the left arrownds.¡¯ Creak¡­! He pulled harder than before. ¡°Phew.¡± Almond took a breath and briefly paused. Swoosh! A powerful arrow flew through the night air and the two arrows pierced their targets. Thud! The soldiers on the left and right simultaneously fell. ¡®Perfectly calcted.¡¯ ¡ª What the¡­ at the same time?! ¡ª What happened??? The different angles also had different timings. He shot the first one up to dy thending and shot the next one straight at the target. Almond seeded with the bow as he predicted. Finally, the viewers understood the situation. ¡ª Woah!!! ¡ª Fucking. Insane. ¡ª J E S U S! ¡ª What the¡­ he¡¯s a monster¡­ ¡ª This is possible?! ¡ª Almond! Is he a God? Almond! Is he a God? ¡ª He¡¯s so cool :¡¯( The chat wildly celebrated. The view count reached 1,400 and he also received decent donations. [RubySword has donated 10,000 won.]? [Wow.] [CrazyMan has donated 1,000 won.]? [Mom! I want to be Almond when I grow up! I want to be Almond!] [SheepSheep has donated 3,000 won.]? [I bet even the developers never imagined this would be possible LOL] *** Manager Oh nkly stared at Almond¡¯s stream. ¡®Yeah¡­ I didn¡¯t know¡­¡¯ He wasn¡¯t a developer, but had seen more gamey than he wanted as someone in charge of distribution. Especially Kingdom Age,?he watched countless clips?because he particrly liked it. However¡­ ¡®It¡¯s my first time seeing a guy like this.¡¯ There had never been anyone like Almond. Manager Oh slowly picked up his phone. ¡°Hey, recruit the guy I¡¯m about to text you no matter what and call for a meeting tomorrow.¡± Chapter 21: Assassination Mission (3)

Chapter 21: Assassination Mission (3)

A hand rose through the gap in the wall under the dark sky and shadows. Thud. The hand grasped the wall as if gripping gravel. ¡°Huaap!¡± Almond exhaled onest time and finally reached the top of the castle wall. ¡°Wow, this is intense.¡± Nothing would ever be easy in this game. ¡°Everything else is hellish except for shooting the bow.¡± Indeed, from Almond¡¯s perspective, everything was more difficult than shooting a bow. ¡ª ???? ¡ª That¡¯s the hardest. ¡ª That¡¯s enough, boss. ¡ª You even did a great job climbing. It usually takes three or more attempts LOL ¡ª Yeah¡­ did you train or something? ¡®Training¡­ yeah I did.¡¯ Almondpleted all the capsule training at the highest difficulty in the morning. He nned to repeat it every day and found this repetitive training familiar as an experienced athlete. ¡°Let me move the corpses first.¡± Almond dragged the two corpses and threw them into a hidden fortification. Then he carefully adjusted his ck hood and approached the next target. Another guard holding a torch could be seen. ¡°What the¡­ where are the torches?¡± the new guard foolishly mumbled and scratched his head. ¡°Are those guys sleeping again?¡± Almond realized the guards seemedx in their duties from just those words. He smiled in the dark and pulled his bowstring. Creak¡­? ¡ª It¡¯s dangerous if they hear screams from this close. ¡ª The castle is just behind. The chat expressed their concerns. Swoosh¡ª? The opponent couldn¡¯t even scream and instantly copsed. Kuugh¡ª? Only the slight sound of blood gushing out could be heard. The guard couldn¡¯t even make a loud noise because the arrow pierced the center of his throat and punctured his vocal cords. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Shit! ¡ª We can barely even see. ¡ª Just. Crazy. ¡ª Neck shots are instant kill too? ¡ª Necks are also a vital point and count as a perfect shot. ¡ª It must be a perfect shot. Just dying like that. Almond calmly carried the torch and ced it in the middle of the castle wall. He knew the enemies would react if the torches went missing. He also hung the torches of the two guards that he had killed earlier. ¡®It won¡¯t be visible from the other side like this.¡¯ After that, he moved the corpse to the hidden fortification. Looking at the three bodies, he started to ponder. ¡®More enemies will be waiting when I infiltrate the castle.¡¯ He sessfully cleared the castle wall, but now he had to go inside. Many more would be waiting with their guard up. Almond couldn¡¯t deal with more than ten enemies at once even if people called him the god of archery. ¡®Hmm¡­¡¯ *** A soldier with a bow walked within the castlepound. His new armor felt slightly ufortable, but he naturally went to the armory to get more arrows. Another soldier passed by without noticing anything. ¡°...?¡± However, the soldier suddenly turned around with a suspicious look. Swoosh¡ª? An arrow pierced the center of his forehead as the air whistled. ¡°Kugh!¡± The soldier fell to the ground and drew hisst breath. ¡ª Wow, are you really going to kill everyone? ¡ª He must¡¯ve misunderstood the quest lol ¡ª That¡¯s right. You only have to kill the castle lord, Almond! The viewers kept backseat gaming, but Almond didn¡¯t notice due to the tension and excitement. Thepetitive feeling of a match like in the past took over his body. He called this trance-like state the zone. ¡®Good.¡¯ Almond enjoyed being in this state. He couldn¡¯t hear anything and only saw the target. Theplex world became very simple. Hit or miss. This world only had two possibilities. Almond came across an extreme fork in the road and drew back his bowstring even more. Creak¡­? ¡®One more.¡¯ Swoosh¡ª? No hesitation could be seen in his shooting anymore. The arrow instantly flew 500 meters and the guard carrying a torch in the dark copsed. ¡ª Oh! ¡ª Wow¡­ almost like a sniper! ¡ª He¡¯s crazy. ¡ª How did he not miss once? Is he hacking? ¡ª I¡¯m getting goosebumps. ¡ª Pfft, neers are surprised (literally pissing my pants). ¡°Alright.¡± Almond muttered to himself without realizing it and charged forward. His footsteps loudly echoed. ¡ª That¡¯s too loud! ¡ª Almond, what are you up to? He knew that running would make too much noise and would be dangerous, but he didn¡¯t realize it at that moment. He no longer noticed such things in the zone. ¡°Hey! Over there!¡± A soldier¡¯s loud voice echoed out for the first time. Almond didn¡¯t slow down and pulled his bowstring. The arrow flew without proper aim. Thwack! ¡°Urgh!¡± The soldier screamed and fell. ¡ª The foot? ¡ª Why the legs? ¡ª I guess even Almond sometimes falls from trees. ¡ª Almonds originally fall from trees :) ¡ª Oh shit, you¡¯re fucked now. Good luck! Concern and confusion filled the chat, but Almond showed no signs of hesitation. Two more soldiers appeared from behind. ¡°Oh no, Damian!¡± One of them helped the injured guard and the other charged at Almond, who readied his bow. Then¡­ Twang¡ª? He released the bow light as a slingshot. ¡°Kugh!¡± The soldier running towards him fell just like that. ¡°!¡± The other one helping the injured guard turned around with a terrified expression. Thwack! The arrow pierced his head and another arrow pierced the injured soldier as well. Thwack! With that, all the soldiers chasing him had died. ¡ª Wow, he aimed for the distraction. ¡ª World War 2 minefield meta??? ¡ª Korean military pride! ¡ª Military archer LOL Almond had a chance to boast, but pressed onwards while holding his breath. He no longer looked the same. Creak¡­? He pulled his bowstring with a nk expression and released it like a machine. Swoosh¡ª? It struck a soldier running on top of the castle wall. ¡°Kugh!¡± ¡°Dammit!¡± Several soldiers nearby noticed themotion and started to gather. ¡°There!¡± ¡°It¡¯s an invasion!!!¡± They shouted to warn of an invasion and also blew their horns. Buzz!!! Clink, nk! The sound of armor shing and pouring in could be heard. ¡ª Oh shit, now he¡¯s actually screwed. ¡ª True true. ¡ª This is too much. ¡ª Almond went over his head. ¡ª He fucked up. ¡ª What will you do if you¡¯re caught like this? The viewersined because he didn¡¯t follow the basics of assassination. However, Almond remained unfazed and saw a path. ¡®It¡¯s okay to be seen.¡¯ It¡¯s been a while since Almond made up his mind like this. He confidently kept firing. Swoosh!? Swoosh! He didn¡¯t need to be concerned about the sounds produced by the flying arrows anymore, so he shot even faster. Th-Thud! Two soldiers in the front fell together with holes in their foreheads. Swoosh! The air whistled once more and another soldier fell in the back. [Consecutive Shooting Skill. Activated!] This skill activated after three headshots in a certain time frame. It allowed for high-speed constant shooting. Almond ced his arrows on the ground and got on his knees. Thwack! He instantly picked up the arrows and pulled his bowstring. The arrows couldn¡¯t be followed with the naked eye. Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoooooosh! The speed of the arrows made one loud crack in the air. ¡°Keeugh!¡± ¡°Kugh!¡± ¡°Urgh!¡± The soldiers who swarmed in fell left and right with the same injury. ¡°What¡­ what is this!?¡± ¡°All on the foreheads¡­¡± Th-Thud! The confused soldiers suffered the same fate. Only arrows raining down and screams could be heard from on top of the castle wall. ¡°R-run! It¡¯s a monster!¡± Around twenty soldiers turned back and ran away. However, that only extended their lives for a few seconds. Thwack! Almond leaped forward as if he had been waiting and aimed his bow. It felt likebining archery with running, but he thought to himself. ¡®I can do this.¡¯ He never doubted his skills. His right arm became perfectly fine again in virtual reality. His physical attributes had also been enhanced. Only his focus on shooting mattered. Swoosh¡ª? The arrow flew through the air faster than the running Almond. ¡°Kugh!¡± Itnded on a fleeing soldier¡¯s back, who fell into an amusing pose. The others ran faster upon seeing that, but¡­ Swoosh! Swoosh! Almond¡¯s arrows flew straight into them. ¡°Kugh!¡± ¡°D-Dammit! There¡¯s no point running away!¡± Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Half of those fleeing had already fallen. Swoosh! Swoosh! Now, a quarter remained¡­ And finally, he targeted thest soldier standing. Thwack! No more soldiers remained on top of the castle wall. The castle had lost all its men. ¡°Phew.¡± Finally, Almond wiped his sweat and smiled. ¡°It worked.¡± ¡ª Kyaa! How crazy! ¡ª Wow¡­ he¡¯s so fucking cool. ¡ª You¡¯re so cool! ¡ª Your skills are crazy! ¡ª Crazy looks as well! ¡ª Is that what they call a killer smile? ¡ª I¡¯m dying from his smile. ¡ª Oh man! His performance crushed the viewers¡¯ initial doubts and their celebration didn¡¯t end with just words. [RubySword has donated 10,000 won.] [Kya!] [Thor has donated 5,000 won.] [You¡¯re incredible.] [Kwon Oh-Jin has donated 1,000 won.] [Boss, I¡¯m broke. Here are all of my savings¡­] The donations poured in. ¡®I¡¯m getting a healthy amount of donations now too.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon could feel that his stream went well. ¡°Okay, now I¡¯m going to kill the castle lord.¡± He stepped over the corpses lying everywhere and confidently opened the gates. Chapter 22: Assassination Mission (4)

Chapter 22: Assassination Mission (4)

The guards protecting the castle all disappeared. Now, the time to enter had arrived. ¡°I¡¯m going in now.¡± Almond opened the door and entered. The castle lord waited for him like in a movie scene. ¡°I secretly infiltrated, but you were already waiting for me,¡± Almond muttered to himself without much thought. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Yeah, for real. ¡ª What was the point LOL ¡ª Small indiepany I guess. ¡ª Hahaha. Almond touched upon a subject that gamers longed for. He made an objective evaluation of the game because he never yed it before. ¡®Anyways, is that castle lord the boss?¡¯ He thought the castle lord would be a fat, old man. However, the one who stood in front of him wore ck armor and looked more like a knight. It felt like he would attack at any moment. As expected¡­ KANG! A huge sword suddenly came flying towards Almond. The sword seemed like it could shatter bones with just a graze. No, it was more like a blunt weapon that mimicked a de. ¡°Are you alone?¡± the castle lord asked while sitting on his chair. He looked unfazed even after that huge swing. ¡®Guess he is the boss.¡¯ Almond grabbed his bow without a response. ¡°!¡± Only now did he realize. ¡®Where should I aim?¡¯ He couldn¡¯t find anywhere to hit. The king¡¯s ck armor was basically a massive piece of iron. It offered himplete protection and covered his entire body like a shield of darkness. Even a divine bow couldn¡¯t prate such iron. ¡ª Why isn¡¯t he shooting? ¡ª I don¡¯t think there¡¯s an opening. ¡ª ???? ¡ª Oh shit¡­ ¡ª Does he need to shoot with a crossbow or something? ¡ª Yeah, I don¡¯t think a bow will do the trick. Gulp. Almond¡¯s neck trembled and the tension increased again. ¡®I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll prate.¡¯ He felt it too. There was no way to prate that ck armor. Almond looked around for an answer. ¡®Shouldn¡¯t there be another way? Maybe some sort of trick?¡¯ ¡°Oh, shit¡­¡± Clink nk. The sound of clinking metal could be heard and three knights appeared. They all wore simr armor to the lord. Almond couldn¡¯t see any openings in their slightly different armor either. ¡ª Wow¡­ ¡ª What now? ¡ª Is Almond finally going to die? ¡ª This is going to be a bit tough. ¡ª I think you have to use a blunt weapon here. ¡®A blunt weapon?¡¯ Almond briefly hesitated. After all, arge sword no different from a blunt weapon was just thrown at him. However, he shook his head. It wouldn¡¯t be wise to use an unfamiliar weapon in this situation. He decided to stick to the familiar bow and fight first. He could thinkter if he died. ¡®Let¡¯s observe.¡¯ Every game had a solution. He didn¡¯t have much experience as a gamer, but this basic rule always existed, right? It should be the same in Kingdom Age.?There was no point in including a weapon that couldn¡¯t be used in the game. He carefully looked back and forth at the castle lord and the three knights steadily approaching him. Stomp. Stomp. The sight of these ck armored soldiers with their huge des looked horrifying. ¡ª Eeek! ¡ª Oh my¡­ ¡ª That¡¯s terrifying. ¡ª I think you gotta run for now! ¡ª I guess one death isn¡¯t a bad experience. ¡ª Just shoot anywhere!!! The audience seemed more tense than Almond. Almond also felt tense and afraid, but not when he was perfectly focused. His eyes quickly scanned the four armored men and¡­ ¡°!¡± Something caught his eye. A slight difference existed between the lord''s and the knights¡¯ armor. ¡®It¡¯s a hook.¡¯ Creak¡­? Finally, he readied his bow. At that moment¡­ ¡°Raaaa!¡± The knight, who gracefully approached, suddenly charged forward. Almond, with his bow drawn, dodged to the side. ¡°!?¡± ng! The knight¡¯s ck sword shattered the granite floor and Almond¡¯s arrow flew in from the right. The arrow struck the helmet¡¯s forehead te, specifically the ring that held the decorative plume. Kah-ah-ang! A loud sound echoed and something shocking urred. ¡°Oh?¡± The arrow flew andtched onto the hook. It took off the helmet like that. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Shit, that was possible? ¡ª He got the helmet off!? ¡ª Can¡¯t believe it came off. ¡ª It¡¯ll probably have enough power if you shoot a bow that hard. ¡ª LOL ¡ª I¡¯ve only seen armore off like that in cartoons.? ¡ª Insane! ¡ª Wow! Crazy! The knight¡¯s helmet fell to the ground and made a loud noise. His face turned red and swollen because the helmet had been roughly taken off. ¡°Nice.¡± Almond quickly rolled again and took off the remaining two knights¡¯ helmets. Pow! Pow! He threw his body around and shot arrows while spinning like a basketball yer. ¡ª Fade away¡­ damn¡­ ¡ª Almond, you¡¯ve really gone crazy now, haven¡¯t you? ¡ª Hey, you¡¯re not human, are you? Both arrows sessfully took off the remaining knights¡¯ helmets. ¡ª But what about the lord? He¡¯s a little different. ¡ª Idk. The same method couldn¡¯t be used against the castle lord. Furthermore, these knights didn¡¯t just stand still. ¡°Die!¡± Swoosh! A huge sword passed over where Almond¡¯s head used to be. As usual, he rolled on the ground and shot another arrow. Pang! The arrow pierced the knight¡¯s head and he copsed. Thump. The other two knights rushed in at the same time, but Almond already gained some distance. Swoosh! Swoosh! Two rapid shots followed. Twaaaaaang¡­ Their corpses slid to Almond¡¯s feet from the momentum of them rushing in. Their two heads had arrows in the same spot. ¡ª It looks like the bow is super good just from seeing this! ¡ª This is the bow! ¡ª Kya! ¡ª Now, what about the castle lord!? Only then did the castle lord stand up from his seat. ¡°Impressive.¡± Almond didn¡¯t reply. ¡®There¡¯s no time.¡¯ He had ten seconds left to see if his n would work. Ping! A blue screen brushed past his vision. [Consecutive Shooting Skill. Activated!] The three soldiers had been there to activate this skill. This progression would only be possible with all headshot kills. ¡ª Ooooh! ¡ª Right! This existed! ¡ª But what are you going to do? Thwack! Sang-Hyeon ced all his arrows on the ground. ¡°You can¡¯t kill me with arrows.¡± The castle lord dered and began walking towards him as menacing music yed. ¡ª Straight up tells him arrows won¡¯t kill him LOL ¡ª Why are you doing the bow challenge? ¡ª Officially from the NPC: Don¡¯t do the bow challenge. Even at this time, not many people predicted Almond¡¯s victory. How could he win against someone with no openings even if he shot consecutively at a high speed? No one else could see that?path. ¡®I saw it.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon said to himself and carefully breathed while notching the arrow. Inhale. When the breath stops¡­ The first shot is fired. Paaang! He aimed and fired at the slowly approaching castle lord. But¡­ ng! It bounced back with a nk. ¡°Can¡¯t you understand what I¡¯m saying? I said it¡¯s no use.¡± The lord stopped for a moment because of the arrow¡¯s force, but began walking again. ¡°I¡¯ll kill you and turn you into dust for destroying my castle like this¡­¡± ng! An arrow flew and struck him again before his next step even touched the ground. ¡°?!¡± The arrow struck the same spot as before. Not just the same spot, but exactly?the same spot without a millimeter of difference. These attacks with impossible uracy continued. aaang! ng! ang! ¡°What.. what is this stupidity¡­¡± Almond ced around 50 arrows on the ground. He instantly fired three that all struck the castle lord¡¯s center at the heart. ¡°Do you think anything will change because of this!!!¡± The castle lord shouted and ran towards him, but Almond remained steady. He focused on the next arrow like the first and smoothly connected his nock, draw, and release. The arrow cut through the air. ang! It struck the same point again. Now, it became a matter of repetition. The process of pulling the bowstring and releasing it continued. Swoosh! Swoosh! Countless arrows cut through the air and all struck the same point. Kakakakang!!! Sparks flew from the armor as if Almond was welding something with his arrows. ¡ª What the¡­ ¡ª What¡¯s with that uracy? ¡ª Almond you crazy! Almond you crazy! Almond you crazy! Creak¡­? Almond could feel it when he nocked hisst arrow. ¡®It¡¯s over.¡¯ KLANG!!! The castle lord¡¯s armor shattered with a loud bang. ¡°!¡± The castle lord¡¯s face was filled with horror, but it didn¡¯tst long. The next arrow cleanly pierced his heart with a thud. ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! ¡ª Mom, I want to be Almond when I grow up! Mom, I want to be Almond when I grow up! ¡ª Ez boss! Ez boss! Ez boss! Ez boss! Ez boss! ¡ª He did it!! ¡ª Damn, he¡¯s actually insane. ¡ª Oppa, I¡¯m dying! ¡ª He really got everyone¡¯s heart. ¡ª The lord¡¯s heart too. The chat turned into chaos and multiple people needed to be banned. After that, the donations swarmed in. [ArrowsTip has donated 1,000 won.] [I only hit one ce.] [CoolBoy has donated 5,000 won.] [This is not a drill! This is not¡­ or is it?] [FullBody has donated 1,000 won.] [You have the right to share my blood!] [ThisWay has donated 10,000 won.] [How many times do you have to hit the same ce to shatter the armor?] Almond took a deep breath and looked at the support pouring in from the chat. ¡®I did it again.¡¯ The morning capsule training and the afternoon castle infiltration quest. Everything tired him out, but the feeling of sess from the quest flowed through his body and gave him energy again. He replied with a lively voice to the viewers who supported him. ¡°Thank you ArrowsTip. CoolBoy¡­ it¡¯s not a drill, but thank you. Thank you FullBody. Share blood? What does that mean? ThisWay, I didn¡¯t count, but I think it breaks around forty shots. Thanks!¡± His responses to the viewers became much more natural. He felt somewhat like a professional streamer now. ¡ª Ooooh. ¡ª Almond has improved LOL ¡ª He¡¯s not going to shoot himself again, is he? ¡ª Not doing that is already a huge improvement LOL ¡ª He¡¯s not a baby anymore.? The chat recognized him, but that was only for small donations. ¡°Now, let¡¯s go take a look at Lady Emilia¡¯s surprised expression¡­ huh?¡± Baam! A loud trumpet noise followed and Almond became shocked at a new donation. [SeoJiAh has donated 300,000 won.] [Wow! You¡¯re really cool.] This was the first time he received a donation of over 100,000 won other than the time with Acorn Jelly. Even then, it was towards Acorn Jelly. Technically, this marked his highest donation yet. ¡ª Oh my God. Jesus Christ. ¡ª Shit. ¡ª 100,000 won ends the stream. What happens at 300,000 won? ¡ª This is crazy. ¡ª Does he somersault to end the stream? ¡ª SeoJiAh, isn¡¯t she the one who said Almond was good lookingst time on Acorn¡¯s stream? ¡ª Rich people¡­ ¡ª 300,000 won. I wonder how he¡¯s going to end the stream. ¡ª LOL! Is ending the stream confirmed? ¡ª Don¡¯t end the stream! Don¡¯t end the stream! The viewers already worried about how Almond would react. Chapter 23: Editor Recruitment (1)

Chapter 23: Editor Recruitment (1)

Rumble rumble. The sound of the train going from work to home could be heard. ¡°Sigh.¡± Seo Ji-Ah hated this noise. She hated having to follow the tide of the train. It would be better if the wave took her to the wide ocean. ¡ª The exit is on your left. The exit is on your left. A different tide swept her away as soon as that one ended. ¡°Let me get out!¡± ¡°Would you move?¡± ¡°I¡¯m passing by.¡± Suits and ties brushed past her as she arrived in her neighborhood at Hoogye station. Some people called this little town within Seoul a slum, but she had been born here. ¡°I¡¯m home.¡± Ji-Ah said her usual greeting when she arrived home, but no one answered. Thump. She sat in front of herputer and tossed her bag to the side. Then she grabbed a handful of almonds in front of her, threw them into her mouth, and gulped it down with a ss of water. After swallowing everything, she headed to the Treevy website. She scrolled through her follow list and clicked one. This channel recently caught her interest and the streamer had the same name as her frequent meal, Almond. ¡®Just in time.¡¯ Her pretty lips formed a smile. It was the happiest face she made the entire day. Her only pleasure during the day was to watch Almond¡¯s stream after work. She didn¡¯t mind donating half her sry to support her pleasure in this new hobby. Money existed to buy happiness anyways. Spending on this satisfied her more than buying luxury items. Almond began to move around on the screen. ¡®What a weird quest.¡¯ Lady Emilia assigned a mission to infiltrate the castle. Almond readily epted the impossible task and also intended toplete it. It seemed like he didn¡¯t ept it purely for entertainment purposes. ¡®Are you really nning to beat it?¡¯ Almond climbed the castle walls after skillfully taking down two guards. ¡°...¡± Ji-Ah became entranced and continued to watch the stream. The face cam on the bottom right corner distracted her, but Almond¡¯s streams were definitely about the gamey. ¡ª Paang! Ji-Ah subconsciously pped when his arrow defeated thest soldier. ¡®Wow!¡¯ Almond rapidly fired his arrows like a minigun and shattered the castle lord¡¯s armor. Ji-Ah shouted from the top of her lungs. ¡°Woooah!¡± Tappity tap. She quickly began typing to donate. ¡®Should I donate 100,000 won?¡¯ RubySword, who gave a 100,000 won mission, briefly popped up in her head. ¡®Let¡¯s do 300,000 won.¡¯ She didn¡¯t want to lose to anyone for Almond¡¯s donations. ¡ª Alright, now let¡¯s go and see Lady Emilia¡¯s shocked face¡­ huh? Almond¡¯s eyes bulged out. She focused on the face cam on the bottom right. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s expression looked quite innocent and honest. ¡®I wonder what kind of reaction he¡¯s going to do.¡¯ This reaction already satisfied Seo Ji-Ah, but the Almond she knew would do more. Almond froze for a moment and looked at his chat. ¡ª A whopping 300,000 won! Thank you so much SeoJiAh! But the name seems really familiar¡­ He scratched his head. Ji-Ah¡¯s lips slowly formed a smile as she watched him. ¡°He remembers.¡± She muttered to herself in satisfaction when Almond read a good idea from the chat. ¡ª Ending the stream with a somersault¡­ good idea! The chat room went wild with that statement. People asked who said it and they poked fun at each other. Of course, none of it contained any malice. They all yed around like close friends. The atmosphere remained light-hearted and yful. Ji-Ah liked how the chat always felt like that. ¡ª Bye Treevy! Almond raised his arms and somersaulted when an arrow pierced his head. He aplished another impressive act, but the Treevy viewers busilyughed. ¡°Pfft¡­ so cute.¡± Even Ji-Ahughed along with them. What came next was even funnier. ¡ª Huh? Almond respawned at the same ce and the stream continued. ¡ª It seemed like I didn¡¯t disconnect because I did the optimization. Then he manually turned off the game. ¡°Hahaha, does he have?to turn the stream off?¡± Ji-Ah burst intoughter and the viewers did the same at what just happened. ¡ª He still ended the stream LOL ¡ª I guess he couldn¡¯t end the stream with a somersault after all. ¡ª Oh well. ¡ª LOL ¡ª It was time to end it anyways. ¡ª Haha this guy. Ji-Ah also typed in the chat while shedding tears. ¡®This is fun.¡¯ She only felt more enjoyment instead of feeling like she wasted a ton of money. She may have spent 300,000 won, but seeing this kind of reaction felt worth it. If the purpose of making money was happiness, then this truly aplished that goal. ¡®Let me clip what just happened.¡¯ Now, she returned to her main job. Ji-Ah took multiple clips of Almond¡¯s video and made another montage. She opened a folder and listened to numerous music files one by one. Then she picked the background music that suited it best. ¡®These are for thepany, but they¡¯re just samples. Anyone can use them¡­¡¯ Ji-Ah justified it to herself and focused on her work. Her eyes sparkled and a hint of excitement began to build. ¡®This is going to be a big one.¡¯ The video she madest time seemed inadequate inparison. This video would be outstanding. It had a clear storyline and the video¡¯s aesthetic was far superior to her previous efforts. Plus, Almond showed an even better shooting performance thanst time. His sudden growth felt like such a mystery. ¡®The montage has evolved as well.¡¯ Ji-Ah shoved some more almonds into her mouth and began moving her mouse. *** ¡°Phew!¡± Sang-Hyeon got up and brushed his wet hair to the side. He wiped himself with the towel he already prepared on the side beforehand. ¡°I guess I don¡¯t disconnect from dying anymore¡­¡± The result of his new trick surprised him, but the viewers reassured him. It was a 300,000 won reaction, so it needed to satisfy them. ¡°A 300,000 won donation¡­ I wonder who that was?¡± ¡®SeoJiAh¡­¡¯ The name sounded familiar. ¡°Ah.¡± Sang-Hyeon finally remembered as he sat in front of hisputer. ¡®AlmondFanSeoJiAh.¡¯ That fan made the incredible montage of him. ¡®I think she also donated 1 million won¡­¡¯ She had been the one who also donated 1 million won when he streamed with Acorn Jelly. ¡®I think it¡¯s a girl. It feels a little overbearing.¡¯ The message said he was good-looking and the name belonged to a girl. That amount of affection was a little much for Sang-Hyeon. She seemed young, but spent so much on a streamer. ¡®Am I out of touch?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon scratched his head and moved on. He thought she was probably rich or something. How would he work as a streamer from now on if he felt this way whenever he received money from strangers? ¡®Look at the time¡­¡¯ It was already 2 AM after his evening stream. He lightly cleaned himself and headed to bed. ¡®Let me see.¡¯ Browsing KAF became his new routine before going to bed. It was the easiest way to see how people reacted to him. [Almond 300,000 won reaction.gif] He saw a post with that title. It had a ton ofments as well. ¡ª LOL ¡ª What¡¯s going to happen when a 1 mil donation hits? ¡ª Is he going to upload a video of him smashing the capsule? ©¸ Almond, do whatever you want! Break the capsule! Break it! ¡ª He¡¯s crazy¡­ like, actually crazy¡­. ©¸ LOL for real. Maybe he hit his head somersaulting. ©¸ I think he¡¯s pretty fit, beyond being able to shoot well. A somersault in the capsule is still pretty difficult to do. ©¸ Easier than irl. ©¸ No, there was a b-boy dancer who said it¡¯s even more difficult in capsules. It requires different techniques.? ¡ª Ah frick, I missed today¡¯s stream. I just got up¡­ ©¸ LOL ©¸ Day 1s wake-up time: 2 AM. Even Sang-Hyeon smirked at thements. The inte had many amusing and weird people. That also kept it interesting though. [Even arrows work if it¡¯s like this.gif] Another popr post contained such a title. It depicted the scene of him defeating the castle lord. This gif repeatedly showed his arrows hitting the same spot and shattering the armor. ¡ª Holy shit. ¡ª LOL ¡ª He hit the same spot over and over? ©¸ I did some research and apparently you have to hit the exact same spot repeatedly or it¡¯s impossible. ©¸ Yeah, it¡¯s not a mechanic the developers intended for. The physics of the game made it possible. ¡ª I have no words. ¡ª How does that make sense? ¡ª An archery gold medalist probably couldn¡¯t even do it. This post also had tons of praise for Almond. Countless other posts about Almond floated around. Most of them became quite popr and showed Almond¡¯s growing poprity. ¡°I like this.¡± Sang-Hyeon felt satisfied with all their reactions. Being popr in a smallmunity still made him popr. He felt good and proud about slowly finding his ce as a streamer. ¡®I should sleep.¡¯ He closed his eyes with a faint smile. His phone screen turned off and no traces of light remained in his room. *** Sang-Hyeon woke up the next day to a phone call. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± ¡®Who is it¡­¡¯ However, Sang-Hyeon swallowed his words when he saw that it came from Ju-Hyeok. That guy probably called him for a good reason. ¡°Hey¡­ what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Were you sleeping?¡± ¡°Of course, do you not sleep?¡± ¡°I¡¯m so good at it that I can do it with my eyes closed.¡± Beep. Sang-Hyeon straight-up hung up the phone. Bzzt¡­ His phone buzzed around ten more times before he picked it up again. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°As long as you know.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a problem.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°You know the person who uploaded the montage? Seo Ji-Ah.¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°That person doesn¡¯t read thements at all. I don¡¯t know what she¡¯s doing¡­¡± ¡°Comments? You tried to contact her using thement section?¡± ¡°We have no other information. The only way to contact her right now is through thements.¡± ¡°How about messaging her on Treevy?¡± ¡°She¡¯s on private, so I can¡¯t.¡± They encountered a tricky situation. ¡°I think it¡¯s going to take a little bit of time. Maybe I can say something next time when she¡¯s watching my stream.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a little risky¡­ but okay for now.¡± Beep. Sang-Hyeon scratched his head after hanging up. ¡®Let¡¯s think about this slowly.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon thought to himself as he cleaned his room. Today was garbage day, so he left the house to throw away all his trash. Ding.? AlmondFanSeoJiAh uploaded a new montage video on her channel. Chapter 24: Editor Recruitment (2)

Chapter 24: Editor Recruitment (2)

Seo Ji-Ah¡¯s channel made an announcement. [Revealing for the first time in 5 minutes!] ¡®For the first time.¡¯ The video contained a live chat when it aired. ¡ª Oooooh! ¡ª How can I resist that title? ¡ª Same haha. Due to the provocative title, around three thousand people gathered before she even released the video. [The archer who took over the castle alone, Almond.] The title even took into consideration people who didn¡¯t y Kingdom Age.?YouTube was a more mainstream tform than Treevy, so it was necessary to consider such viewers who didn¡¯t y games. ¡ª It¡¯s starting! ¡ª 5, 4, 3¡­ ¡ª Staaaaart! ¡ª Kya! ¡ª Today¡¯s cinematography is great as well. The video began with dramatic background music. It didn¡¯t sound as grand asst time, but was more quiet and mysterious. It perfectly suited the sneaky infiltration and assassination mission. The background sounded great, but the screen direction was even more fantastic. The screen split in two during scenes like when Almond killed two soldiers at the same time or when he seeded in three headshots in a row. The screen also slowed and suddenly elerated when he began rapidly firing. It felt like a blockbuster action movie with a little CGI added to the already incredible feats. ¡ª God DAMN. ¡ª I couldn¡¯t even believe thest scene happened as I watched it. ¡ª I missed yesterday¡¯s stream, but it¡¯s nice to watch it like this at least. ¡ª Hahaha, he¡¯s so good! ¡ª I¡¯d only let Almond shoot an apple from on top of my head¡­ ¡ª Hello, my name is Kim Ju-Hyeok. I¡¯m Almond¡¯s manager. We saw your video, Seo Ji-Ah, and we wanted to¡­ The reactions in thements exploded. More than 100ments went by in the blink of an eye. The video began trending 78th in the #game category. Only real-time hot videos on the tform received hashtags. The number of views increased exponentially once it received such a hashtag. The views kept going up and it would likely achieve 200,000 views within 24 hours at this rate. Such a phenomenon had never happened before when it came to videos on games, especially for Kingdom Age.? *** ¡°God, there¡¯s a lot.¡± Sang-Hyeon dragged out his trash with his right hand in his pocket. He had to take out the trash this morning. ¡°Sigh.¡± He felt d to force his tired body outside, but the sight of stairs was daunting. However, he reminded himself that he took the same flight of stairs every day and it would only be a temporary hurdle. He recalled an old saying from his athlete days: repetition makes things familiar. He carried the trashbag with only one hand. His bnce became off, but he could still walk. The weather didn¡¯t feel too cold and he was grateful the stairs didn¡¯t turn icy yet. Sang-Hyeon slowly made his way down when a door beside him suddenly struck his shoulder. ¡°Oh? I¡¯m sorry.¡± He heard a startled woman¡¯s voice. What just happened wasn¡¯t unusual in the Hoogye neighborhood. Houses had been built right next to the stairs, so doors interfered with people¡¯s paths. ¡°Ah, that¡¯s alright.¡± As Sang-Hyeon brushed it off and continued on his way¡­ ¡°Gasp!¡± The girl covered her mouth and took a few steps back. Her reaction surprised him. ¡®What the?¡¯ However, he didn¡¯t say much. ¡°Are you okay?¡± he simply asked her. ¡°...¡± The girl didn¡¯t say anything and only nkly stared at Sang-Hyeon. ¡°Okay then.¡± Sang-Hyeon shrugged and went on his way down the stairs. *** ¡°Phew.¡± It took him twenty minutes to get to the garbage. He threw the trash away with a frustrated sigh. Thud. ¡®This is it.¡¯ Hard work paid off during such moments. Seeing a huge trash bag fly and perfectlynd gave him an inexplicable feeling of satisfaction. ¡®One more!¡¯ Thud. He turned around to leave after throwing all the trash away. ¡°Excuse me!¡± A person called out to him while gasping for air. He could tell by their gesture that the person specifically meant him. ¡®The girl from earlier?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon realized the girl he bumped into hade down. ¡®Huh? Did I drop something?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon checked his pockets to see if he lost anything. ¡°Umm¡­¡±?The girl caught her breath before asking, ¡°Can I get your autograph?¡± Sang-Hyeon cautiously stepped back at the unexpected question. ¡®Who is this?¡¯ He looked at her closely. She wore a khaki jacket that looked too big for her. A ck hat covered most of her head and her body looked quite fragile. She didn¡¯t seem particrly suspicious except for the fact that she had her hat tightly pressed down. ¡°You want an autograph?¡± ¡°Huff¡­ puff¡­ Yes.¡± She handed him a note as she grabbed her chest from running so much. ¡°Can I have your autograph, please?¡± How quickly did shee down? Sang-Hyeon finally grasped the situation. ¡®Ah, she¡¯s a fan.¡¯ ¡°Did you know that I was Almond?¡± The ck hat nodded without saying anything. ¡°I see.¡± This moment made him quite happy. He met a fan near his house even though he wasn¡¯t that famous yet. ¡®But it¡¯s a bit¡­¡¯ His house address had basically been exposed, which could be burdensome. However, Sang-Hyeon hadn¡¯t yet experienced the effects of being a celebrity and only felt happy. Besides, what would this young girl even do? ¡°Of course, what¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Ji-Ah. Seo Ji-Ah.¡± His hand suddenly stopped as he prepared to sign the note. *** After a while, Ju-Hyeok ran through the door at a cafe near Hoogye station in a full suit. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re here.¡± Sang-Hyeon had one hand in his pocket and sat at a high bar table. He casually greeted Ju-Hyeok. ¡°...?¡± Ju-Hyeok felt confused because Sang-Hyeon sat in a ce too cramped to talk about business. ¡°Oh, I sat here because there was nowhere else to sit. It¡¯s a bit busy since it¡¯s the weekend.¡± ¡°Hello¡­¡± A girl with a small figure greeted him from behind Sang-Hyeon. ¡°Hello! Are you Seo Ji-Ah?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon had called Ju-Hyeok as soon as he found Seo Ji-Ah. He just randomly brought her to a nearby cafe and waited. ¡°You¡¯d be in jail by now if you were a bit uglier.¡± Ju-Hyeok whispered to Sang-Hyeon. ¡°What can you do? I¡¯m not ugly.¡± ¡°Die.¡± The two exchanged whispers before sitting next to Ji-Ah. ¡°My name is Kim Ju-Hyeok. I¡¯ve been looking all over for you, Seo Ji-Ah¡­¡± Ju-Hyeok gently smiled and handed her his business card. ¡°Ah¡­¡± Seo Ji-Ah didn¡¯t seem like a talkative person. She didn¡¯t react to the business card in any way other than nodding. Despite that, Ju-Hyeok continued to lead the conversation. ¡°Ah¡­ So you originally worked in the video industry?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ I went to school for it and it was one of my hobbies¡­¡± ¡°Wow, you make videos as a hobby and as a living? That¡¯s amazing.¡± ¡°Yes, well¡­¡± Seo Ji-Ah was so silent that Sang-Hyeon wondered how she even asked for his autograph. Ju-Hyeok kept pushing his agenda and disregarded everything else. ¡°If you have any interest in working with us¡­¡± Flop. He took some documents out of his briefcase. When did he prepare all this? He sure acted fast. ¡°I just want you to think about it.¡± ¡°...¡± Seo Ji-Ah seemed taken aback. Ju-Hyeok took this opening as an opportunity. ¡°Did you know there are actually some issues regarding the videos you¡¯ve uploaded?¡± ¡°Sorry?¡± Seo Ji-Ah was surprised to find out that there were issues regarding her videos. ¡°What do you mean¡­¡± ¡°Legal issues, such as copyright, use of the content, etc¡­¡± ¡°Ah.¡± Ju-Hyeok proceeded with such logic. Seo Ji-Ah¡¯s channel was a fan channel, so she couldn¡¯t possibly profit from it. She could only earn from it right now because they didn¡¯t take any actions against it. She needed to make a contract with them if she wanted to properly use the channel. Her gaze changed when Ju-Hyeok brought money into the conversation. ¡°I gave him donations¡­¡± Ji-Ah spoke in a stuttering manner. She already donated money that exceeded any profits. Ju-Hyeok¡¯s words were quite hurtful from her perspective. ¡°I haven¡¯t even gained any money from the videos yet. As you know, those videos aren¡¯t to make money off of.¡± ¡°Yes, I realize that. However, I want to offer you the opportunity to make money with those videos.¡± ¡°...¡± Seo Ji-Ah became silent. Ju-Hyeok came to a realization at this point. ¡®She¡¯s really not in it for the money.¡¯ Seo Ji-Ah was truly an enthusiastic sponsor of Sang-Hyeon. Ju-Hyeok thought she had to be from a wealthy family. However, she didn¡¯t seem financiallyfortable yet considering her current situation and where she lived. Even so, the fact that she donated meant that she cared more about the streamer Almond than money. She made those montages as a pure fan. Ju-Hyeok had to revise his vocabry since money didn¡¯t move this girl. Then¡­ ¡°Almond needs Editor Seo Ji-Ah¡¯s help.¡± ¡°...!¡± ¡°You can make your videos however you want. Us two right now, we¡¯re kicking the can. We need to make profits in any way possible and we need your help.¡± ¡°Help¡­¡± Seo Ji-Ah turned to Sang-Hyeon. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s eyes seemed like he was in dire need as well. ¡®Does Almond really need me?¡¯ Almond needed Editor Seo Ji-Ah. It sounded good to hear that. Maybe because it was Almond? Who knows. Probably because she never heard those words before and no one ever needed her help. ¡°There¡¯s one problem.¡± Seo Ji-Ah picked up the contracts and intended to look over them. ¡°Whatever it is, I¡¯ll try to solve it!¡± Ju-Hyeok shouted energetically. The people in the cafe turned to him, but he didn¡¯t care. ¡°Thepany I work for currently forbids me from signing another contract to work elsewhere. It might seem obvious, but there¡¯s a difference between uploading fan videos and making some side money versus working as an official editor.¡± Seo Ji-Ah had to make a choice. To quit and work as their editor or continue working the same job. ¡°I need some money for my basic living expenses as well. Mypany¡¯s pay is quite decent. Of course, I can make some money from the videos. However, the risk is too much for me.¡± Sang-Hyeon was taken aback for a moment. ¡®It looks like I¡¯ll have to give her paychecks.¡¯ He wasn¡¯t apany. He was just a streamer who started a week ago. He couldn¡¯t even buy his passionate manager drinks, let alone paychecks for an editor. ¡®Let¡¯s think about this more first.¡¯ He noticed Ju-Hyeok¡¯s ming confidence when he prepared to say that. ¡®What the?¡¯ Why did that guy seem so confident at a time like this? It felt like the wrong timing. Ju-Hyeok¡¯s sses flickered and he confidently pulled out something he had been holding onto. Chuk! ¡°As a matter of fact, I just received something in my email.¡± An offer came in from Kingdom Age¡¯s?distributorpany, Punk,?to be a model for them. ¡°Punk has offered to be a partnered streamer. It even gives a budget to hire an editor in the description.¡± Du-dun. A sound effect yed in Sang-Hyeon¡¯s ears. ¡®Is this real?¡¯ Argepany like Punk?actually offered to be his partner? Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t believe it. Seo Ji-Ah must¡¯ve thought the same as she quietly looked at the email. She seemed to be checking something in the email when¡­ ¡°It¡¯s not bad.¡± Seo Ji-Ah willingly epted. Chapter 25: Emilia (1)

Chapter 25: Emilia (1)

Seo Ji-Ah signed the contract on the spot with a cool and confident demeanor. It would be reasonable to debate quitting her job, but she agreed without hesitation. She must¡¯ve been dissatisfied with her currentpany. ¡®Understandable.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon nodded as he recalled his time working. ¡°Your annual pay will be 25 million won as a base sry with 40% profits from YouTube as an incentive. There¡¯s the option of just taking 50% and no base sry¡­¡± ¡°No, I prefer a base sry. It¡¯s more stable¡­¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Seo Ji-Ah chose to receive a base sry and finished signing the papers. She stood up from her seat and shook hands with Ju-Hyeok. ¡°But what should I do with the videos uploaded to my channel?¡± ¡°It¡¯ll probably be best to upload it to the official channel now.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ Let me know once you finalize things.¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon walked her out of the cafe and faced each other. Ju-Hyeok wore a satisfied expression that seemed to say, ¡®How did I do?¡¯ However, Sang-Hyeon had a doubtful look. ¡°Is that real?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°The partner streamer.¡± ¡°What the fuck? Do you think I¡¯m a con artist or something? Why would I lie about something like that?¡± Sang-Hyeon truly felt surprised now. ¡®Punk wants to partner with me?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon knew the distributorpany Punk even when he didn¡¯t y video games. They owned hugely popr tforms. ¡°Not the developers, but the distributors?¡± ¡°Yes! I saw it this morning and felt surprised too. What do you think? You¡¯re going to do it, right?¡± ¡°Of course, the conditions are perfect.¡± Rustle rustle.? Ju-Hyeok smiled and tossed his documents into his backpack. He nced towards the door where Seo Ji-Ah left and said to Sang-Hyeon, ¡°Anyways, Seo Ji-Ah is pretty cool. She¡¯s pretty thorough at the same time. I thought this would be easy since she asked you for an autograph.¡± ¡°You trying to freeload or something? Being a fan is different from business.¡± ¡°Still, if she was willing to donate that much money¡­ She must really like Almond, no? But she seemed pretty serious. She barely even smiled.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think she smiled even once.¡± They talked more about Seo Ji-Ah and concluded their conversation. ¡°Whatever, it¡¯s better to work with her in the future if she¡¯s professional like that.¡± ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right.¡± *** Thud. Seo Ji-Ah arrived home and caught her breath. She threw herself onto her bed and covered herself in a nket. ¡°Sigh.¡± She took multiple deep breaths to calm her thumping heart. Seo Ji-Ah couldn¡¯t believe it. To suddenly see him in person and even sign a contract like this. p. She spread out the contracts she brought from earlier. ¡®I¡¯ve been recognized¡­¡¯ It was the first time in her life that someone recognized her for something and these papers proved it. It was just a contract for now, but it would be official once Punk approved it. She would be Almond¡¯s official editor and didn¡¯t have to go back to herpany. A few faces she wasn¡¯t fond of popped up in her head. ¡®What¡¯s a college student going to do¡­ Sigh¡­¡¯ ¡®What are you going to do if you leave here? You think you can leave?¡¯ ¡®Do you think anywhere else will ept you and pay you like we do?¡¯ ¡®Can you pull your weight here, please? Why are you so stupid?¡¯ Unpleasant voices brushed past her. ¡°Did I finally escape?¡± It seemed like she did. She finally escaped her hellhole after an unexpected chain of events. Did enved people feel like this when they finally became free? It felt somewhat strange. She thought she would stay in that hellhole forever just to stay alive. ¡°Sigh¡­¡± She checked the montage she made while lying in bed. It had countlessments now. ¡ª 56th trending on #game category The ranking went up too from 78th to 56th. A rare smile appeared on Ji-Ah¡¯s face. *** Sang-Hyeon changed into something casual when he returned home. ¡®I¡¯m going to have to stream early today.¡¯ Almond¡¯s stream schedule was up to how he felt. He never intended to be that way, but it just turned out like that. It was convenient for him, so he stuck with it for now. He still streamed daily without any breaks, so his viewers didn¡¯tin. Chul-cuk.? Sang-Hyeon entered the capsule and turned on the screen. Beep. [Ji-Ah: It¡¯s an intro video with music.] Seo Ji-Ah sent him a video file. It also came with text that exined how to set it up. Popr streamers all yed an intro video as they waited on standby. It seemed like she made something simr. Sang-Hyeon watched the video and became shocked. ¡®Wow¡­¡¯ The video¡¯s quality went beyond his expectations. They just saw each other and parted ways. How did she make this so fast? [Sang-Hyeon: Did you just make this?] [Ji-Ah: I worked on it bit by bit.] It seemed like she had already been working on it for fun. ¡®It¡¯s this good just as a hobby¡­¡¯ Sang-Hyeon became curious about what she would make when she put all her effort into it. He felt excited about her future. [Sang-Hyeon: I¡¯ll make good use of this.] He sent a thank you to Ji-Ah and began streaming. [Stream is starting.] *** Beep! Beep! A notification popped up to all of Almond¡¯s fans and notified them that his stream had started. ¡ª Oh! He turned it on early today! ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Today I¡¯m¡­ not first? ¡ª LOL there are a lot of interesting people today. Some viewers had already been waiting before Almond¡¯s old capsule even booted. It felt more like an invasion than a start. [Current viewers: 214] Du dun! Du dun! The intro video he received from Seo Ji-Ah began ying. ¡ª Woah, what¡¯s this? ¡ª He has an intro now? ¡ª Kya. Seo Ji-Ah¡¯s intro video highlighted Almond¡¯s gamey skills. It captured his impressive achievements in stills and cycled through them with music. The music perfectly synchronized with the video like her previous ones. ¡ª Even the intro is like a movie. ¡ª And his life is like a photoshoot. ¡ª Kya. ¡ª Huh? Didn¡¯t Seo Ji-Ah make this? ¡ª Yeah, it feels like her. ¡ª No way, did they get her? A few recognized it as Seo Ji-Ah¡¯s video. [Current viewers: 1208] The intro stopped when enough viewers gathered. ¡°Hi, Treevy!¡± Almond¡¯s face appeared on a small screen in the corner and he cheerfully greeted them. ¡ª Oppa!!! ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Hi Almond! ¡ª Hihihihi Countlessments went by along with donations. [RubySword has donated 1,000 won.] [Do we finally get to see Emilia¡¯s shocked face today?] [Eggnt has donated 1,000 won.] [Hi Almond!] Almond gave them a light greeting and booted up the game right away. He would y Kingdom Age?today as well. *** The sight of a destroyed castle greeted him when he returned to the game. The castle lord wearing ck armory in front of him. To be exact, it was the castle lord¡¯s corpse. The three guards¡¯ corpses were also there. Nothing else remained in the castle other than them. ¡ª LOL the man who destroyed the castle alone¡­ ¡ª For real, he destroyed everything. ¡ª This is what you call an assassination. ¡ª I think he got confused with assassination and annihtion. ¡ª It¡¯s an assassination since there were no witnesses LOL Almond nced in a different direction after reading the excited reactions in the chat. No one remained in the castle, but some other things did like treasures. ¡°I did everything alone, so I can have some fun, right?¡± He rummaged through the castle. ¡ª For real LOL ¡ª Honestly, you can take everything and no one would say a thing. ¡ª What did Emilia do? I did everything! ¡ª I¡¯d just take over if it was me LOL Kingdom Age?gave the yers quite a bit of freedom. He didn¡¯t have to just settle for the quest rewards. Almond rewarded himself for the troubles he went through. Chuck. He found a leather armor and a bow that seemed expensive. ¡°This looks alright.¡± ¡ª Ooooh. ¡ª That looks dope. ¡ª Can¡¯t you take more? ¡ª The weight limit¡­ He would¡¯ve taken everything in a normal game. However, he could only take a limited amount because of the game¡¯s realism. He even had to physically carry gold. The extra weight of armors made them impossible to carry. ¡°I¡¯m satisfied with this. I¡¯ll probably survive most situations now. Time to report back to Emilia.¡± As soon as Almond said that¡­ Du dum. [Report your sess to Emilia.] Arge text appeared in front of him. ¡ª Emilia noona! ¡ª Noona, I didn¡¯t die! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Emilia, that girl¡­ probably didn¡¯t expect Almond to seed LOL ¡ª She told him to assassinate the lord, but probably never expected him to conquer the castle haha. Almond took one of the horses in the castle and headed to Emilia. Clippity clop. He instantly teleported to the castle where Emilia stayed after passing a certain checkpoint. ¡°Almond?¡± Emilia also coincidentally returned on a carriage while wearing a grand dress and recognized him. ¡°Mydy, I came to update you on the mission.¡± ¡°Already? Did you have a change of heart?¡± Emilia couldn¡¯t fathom that he seeded already. ¡ª What is she saying LOL ¡ª No, I came to change your heart! ¡ª /O\ Unexpectedly fast! ¡ª I wonder what kind of face she¡¯ll make once she finds out he ransacked the castle. Almond cautiously pointed out her servants, indicating that he couldn¡¯t discuss it here. ¡°I want to speak with him alone. Give us some space.¡± ¡°Sorry? But, mydy¡­¡± ¡°Now.¡± The servants look worried. They weren¡¯t fond of leaving her with a violent mercenary, but followed her firmmand. ¡°Did I not say to give us space?¡± ¡°Ah, yes ma¡¯am.¡± Emilia signaled for the two of them to walk together after the servants left. ¡°No one will be around if we walk this way.¡± They walked with an awkward distance between them and passed by trees as tall as the castle walls before talking. ¡°You didn¡¯tplete the mission already, did you?¡± Emilia turned around and asked. Almond obviously responded with, ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe this. It wasn¡¯t even that long ago.¡± ¡°It¡¯s been two days. Going there took one day, half a day to get ready, and half a day to infiltrate.¡± ¡ª He¡¯s basically saying it took one day LOL ¡ª It¡¯s like half a day haha. ¡ª He took a nice nap and just swatted a fly in the castle LOL ¡°Infiltrate? You didn¡¯t assassinate?¡± ¡°He was heavily guarded, so I just¡­¡± ¡°You just?¡± ¡°Killed them all.¡± ¡°!?¡± Emilia had never made such a face before. Chapter 26: Emilia (2)

Chapter 26: Emilia (2)

Emilia made a face on Almond¡¯s stream that became a widely popr meme. [Emilia¡¯s face when she heard Almond¡¯s response.jpg] ¡ª Jesus Christ. ¡ª She can make that kind of face? ¡ª LOL ¡ª I guess she¡¯s a person too. ¡ª How surprised was she? LOL ¡ª She looks like the scream. ©¸ Lmao I see it. ©¸ Me too LOL. ¡ª I don¡¯t me her. She said to kill the lord, but he decimated the entire castle. Emilia normally acted refined and collected as you would expect from a royal. Hence, her reaction became viral. ¡°You killed them all because it was heavily guarded? This is my first time hearing something like that. Don¡¯t the guards exist to prevent that from happening?¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± Almond¡¯s blunt response left Emilia blushing. Amon mercenary had swayed a royaldy. ¡°Ahem. You¡¯re saying the castle is empty now, correct?¡± Emilia looked the other way and asked him. ¡°Yes, no one is there anymore.¡± ¡°We shouldn¡¯t waste any time then. Let¡¯s go right away.¡± Emilia called her servants and her carriage resumed its path. She would take over the people of thatnd before other royals could spread their influence. ¡°Almond?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Uh¡­¡± ¡°Get in, quick.¡± Emilia gave Almond, a mere mercenary, a spot in the center of the carriage. Ady offering the carriage¡¯s center seat was quite umon. ¡ª Woah, don¡¯t you have to reach full rapport to get that? ¡ª Oh shit! ¡ª Hoho¡­ ¡ª Almond! How¡¯d you do it? The viewers felt surprised because Almond hadn¡¯tpleted any rapport quests to win her favor, yet Emilia fell head over heels for him. ¡ª Whyplete any rapport quests when you can just take over a castle? ¡ª Yeah! ¡ª I agree! ¡ª I¡¯ll just stick with rapport quests¡­ ¡ª Me too LOL ¡ª How are we supposed to take over a castle LOL ¡ª I guess you can win her over with achievements too¡­ yers discovered for the first time that they could also earn rapport with regr questpletion. An overwhelming achievement could even change the heart. Almond basically won thedy¡¯s heart with his bow alone. ¡°I¡¯m curious about you.¡± A cutscene took ce in the carriage. Emilia expressed her interest in Almond. ¡°How can you be so¡­ powerful? I¡¯ve seen many soldiers up until now, but none have proven themselves like you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just good with a bow, that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°You can take down an entire castle with that alone?¡± ¡°It seems like it?¡± ¡°...¡± They had a peculiar conversation. Nheless, it was a good sign that Emilia kept asking questions. However, what she said next shocked him. Emilia began talking about knights out of nowhere. ¡°Knights tend to love their swords, spears, and their horses.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way. Most of them probably love you more than those objects.¡± Almond¡¯s wit made Emiliaugh. For a moment, sheughed like a little girl instead of ady. ¡°You¡¯re right. They probably like girls as well. Knights aren¡¯t the only ones who like them, no?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Any men, even mercenaries without a partner¡­ probably like women as well.¡± ¡ª Oooooh. What the?! ¡ª Wow, man. ¡ª Hyung! I can¡¯t watch. My heart is going to explode! ¡ª This is a first! Emilia referred to women, but she meant herself and Almond was the mercenary without a partner. ¡°We¡¯ll just say knights like Emilia, swords, spears, and horses. There, fixed it.¡± This time, Emilia made Almondugh with her joke. ¡°But I¡¯ve never seen a knight who likes to use a bow.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a knight. I¡¯m a mercenary.¡± ¡°Do you n to be a knight in the future?¡± ¡°Sorry?¡± Sang-Hyeon and the viewers thought for a moment. One couldn¡¯t be a knight from just desire or skills. ¡°We need someone to maintain it if that castle bes our new territory.¡± Emilia slurred her words while looking out the window, but she basically just asked if Almond wanted to be a knight. ¡ª Oh! The Emilia route significantly changed! ¡ª Was this a possible progression? ¡ª You could be a knight through her? ¡ª Damn. ¡ª But this is a mercenary game. Does the game change if you be a knight? LOL ¡ª She didn¡¯t offer him to be a knight yet. Hold your horses, nerds. Unfortunately, Emilia didn¡¯t directly offer him a knight position yet despite the viewers¡¯ expectations. ¡°I just asked because I was curious.¡± She ended it on an open note. ¡°How could I be a knight? I¡¯m just a soldier with a couple of tricks.¡± ¡°...¡± Emilia smiled without a word and the carriage continued until it reached its destination. The silence between them broke as the horses slowed to a stop. ¡°We¡¯re here. Ah, Father wants to see you, Almond.¡± ¡°Sorry?¡± ¡°I guess he¡¯s impressed with how you handled this mission.¡± ¡°...?¡± Almond briefly hesitated. ¡®Isn¡¯t she lying?¡¯ Emilia obviously made that up. The earl didn¡¯t even know of his sess yet, but he wanted to see Almond? ¡ª ??? ¡ª What the? ¡ª The earl doesn¡¯t even know yet LOL ¡ª Didn¡¯t he just tell her on the carriage? Almond became puzzled and asked her, ¡°The earl doesn¡¯t know yet, no?¡± Emilia covered his lips with her thumb. ¡°?!¡± Emilia smiled at Almond¡¯s confused expression. ¡°It¡¯s manners to look over the small things for ady.¡± ¡ª Oh, man! ¡ª Did she make that up just to be with him? ¡ª Isn¡¯t she actually going to introduce him to her dad? To make him into a knight? ¡ª No way. ¡ª Holy Moly! ¡ª Emilia, you¡¯re too lovely!! What was going on? Did she really n on making him a knight by introducing him to her father? Almond didn¡¯t reply as the carriage came to aplete stop. ¡°It seems like we¡¯re here.¡± Emilia led the way and Almond followed with a dumb look on his face. His gaze followed Emilia¡¯s blonde hair toward therge castle. *** A tall castle stood in the middle of a t field. Almond unintentionally took over this castle called the Talorant Castle. Until yesterday, Talorant had ruled this castle. However, Emilia marched to the castle gates as if that didn¡¯t matter. People of thend rummaged through the wrecks of yesterday''s destruction. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but who are you? Are you from the Talorant family?¡± The people thought she must¡¯ve belonged to the Talorant family. Of course, they were wrong. ¡°No, I am a Jeanneret.¡± She belonged to theplete opposite side. ¡°Sorry?¡± ¡°Jean¡­ Jeanneret?¡± ¡°How could this be?¡± Jeanneret and Talorant. The people of thisnd also had ears and eyes, so they knew those two families were hostile enemies. Normally, the people would also be executed. They gulped and couldn¡¯t find their next words. No more Talorants remained to defend them, at least not in the castle. Emilia came with ten soldiers, two knights, and Almond as an escort. The soldiers could easily take on the people, so none dared to cross her path. She naturally walked to where the family crest hung and ripped it off. The g with the Talorant hog symbol fell and an acacia flower reced the empty spot. This crest represented the Jeanneret. ¡°This can¡¯t be.¡± ¡°Wow¡­¡± The people had empty looks on their faces. Shortly after, they resumed what they were doing. Their daily lives wouldn¡¯t be affected by who ruled over them. The Talorant had also been one of the worst rulers. Apparently, the Jeanneret governed far better. Nobles were nobles in the end. These thoughts circled in their minds as they returned to their daily lives. ¡°Are you not going to say anything?¡± Almond asked Emilia. ¡°Say what?¡± ¡°Like a speech or something. Shouldn¡¯t they know who they¡¯ll be serving now?¡± He thought the people should know if their ruler changed, but Emilia simply shook her head with a smile. ¡°That¡¯s alright. The people will adapt quickly.¡± Emilia looked rxed. Almond was slightly worried, but soon found out that she was right. *** Around a week passed and the people adjusted to the new family that ruled over them. They felt even more satisfied now. The ves being sold could pay off their debts by working and even keep some of the money for themselves. Thebor force working day and night increased as well. This would prove fruitful in the long run for theirnd. ¡°Hmm?¡± Sang-Hyeon tilted his head and grew curious at what he saw. ¡°Huh? Three days passed and we¡¯re still together in the castle?¡± ¡ª Hmm!! ¡ª Suspicious¡­! ¡ª LOL Almond and Emilia had stayed in the castle together for three days. The viewers became excited, but this didn¡¯t mean much in-game. However, Emilia walked towards Almond as he looked out the window and grabbed his hand. ¡°Let¡¯s go see my father tomorrow, Almond.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s do that,¡± Almond replied. The chat was filled with question marks. ¡ª ???? ¡ª What?? ¡ª His tone changed?! The viewers saw it with their own eyes and became sure after a moment. ¡ª Shit! What happened in those three days!!! ¡ª LOL ¡ª They did it. ¡ª Almond, what a legend. ¡ª Wow, he alreadypleted Emilia¡¯s route. What happened in those three nights? ¡°Wow, it¡¯s a happy ending.¡± However, Kingdom Age?had no intentions to give a happy ending so easily. Hoooooooorn! A suspicious trumpet echoed from outside. ¡°Oh no.¡± Emilia rushed to the window and looked out. ¡°They¡¯re here quicker than I thought.¡± ¡°Is it Talorant¡¯s allied families?¡± ¡°Yes, Almond. They¡¯re going to want the castle back.¡± ¡°I can defend it.¡± ¡°Please¡­¡± The scene cut to next before Emilia could finish her sentence. *** Swoosh! Silver soldiers covered the open green field. There seemed to be hundreds of them even at a nce. Almond stood on the very right among them. Roman led the army and shouted with his g. ¡°In position!!!¡± Thump! The countless soldiers, including Almond, stepped into position. Roman assessed them and the veins in his neck thickened once more. ¡°We will win this war for our Jeanneret family who have hired us!!!¡± He let out an ear-splitting shout. Du dun. A text popped up with a familiar sound. [Lead them to victory in the war!] Chapter 27: War (1)

Chapter 27: War (1)

News of the captured castle spread to the other branches of the Talorant Family. They arrived on the in in the morning with an army to avenge their bloodline and reim the remains. ¡ª Wow, it¡¯s a war! ¡ª On such arge scale too! ¡ª Kya, this is Kingdom Age! ¡ª What the? This seems like a triple A game. ¡ª Shudder shudder¡­ The viewers unfamiliar with Kingdom Age felt shocked by this battle¡¯s huge scale. ¡ª Wow, I gave up early, so I didn¡¯t even experience these things. ¡ª Damn, it¡¯s suddenly picking up! ¡ª Hell yeah. It would typically take much longer to reach this point in the game. Most variety streamers didn¡¯t have enough patience and moved on to the next game. Some who yed for a long time still hadn¡¯t reached this content. This included Bubblegum as well, who was notorious for being persistent in his games. However, even he moved on to the next game after a month. ¡ª Even the persistent Bubblegum didn¡¯t reach this stage. ¡ª Almond did it in a couple of days LOL ¡ª Haha yeah Speak of the devil, the viewers just mentioned Bubblegum in the chat. ¡°Please refrain from mentioning other streamers.¡± Sang-Hyeon smoothly prevented any controversy from urring. ¡°Anyways, I¡¯m going to finish streaming today. I think this is a good ce to end it.¡± ¡ª !?!? ¡ª What! ¡ª It was just about to get interesting! ¡ª Nooooo ¡ª :( ¡ª No!!! A lot of viewers expressed their disappointment. The stream ended quicker than usual and at a massive cliffhanger too. ¡°Bye, Treevy!¡± However, Sang-Hyeon ended the stream right away. He didn¡¯t feel drained either because no battles had urred today. ¡®It¡¯s important to cut off at a good time.¡¯ It had been the right moment to stop streaming. This was especially important in games that emphasized a story. The viewers felt disappointed, but it would be more beneficial in the long run. Acorn Jelly had given him this advice. Pshh¡­ Sang-Hyeon¡¯s capsule opened and steam came out from the lid. He picked himself up and hadn¡¯t sweated much today due to theck of battles. ¡°I can probably just go straight to bed today.¡± The time had already struck 12:30 A.M. He didn¡¯t usually go to bed so early and couldn¡¯t fall asleep. Sang-Hyeon rolled over and scrolled through his phone to check the response for today¡¯s stream. *** The KAFmunity busily discussed the new progression route in the game. [A way to maximize Emilia¡¯s rapport!] Posts with simr titles frequently appeared. [Destroy a castle by yourself!] It took a moment for Sang-Hyeon to realize that they all talked about him. One needed the skills to take over a castle alone to win Emilia¡¯s heart, just like Almond. ¡ª LOL stfu ¡ª Why win Emilia over like that when you can just find a real girlfriend? ©¸ True. ©¸ LOL he¡¯s not wrong. ©¸ Yet you¡¯re still single¡­ ¡ª Just beat the game I guess. ¡ª It¡¯s okay. I¡¯ll pass. ©¸ You¡¯re passing by choice? LOL ©¸ Yeah, sure man. Thements mainly joked around because no one thought they could win over Emilia like Almond. ¡®That¡¯s weird.¡¯ The man whopleted it in one try found it strange. Why did they react like that? Was it impossible except for him? ¡®It doesn¡¯t make sense.¡¯ Korea had other pro-archers besides Yu Sang-Hyeon. Why was Sang-Hyeon the only one showing them a world-ss performance? Not many archers probably yed this game, but wouldn¡¯t they still exist? It only made sense for others like him to show simr performances. However, it seemed none came close to his skills judging from their reactions. ¡®Maybe I have a talent for games?¡¯ Only that narrative made sense to Sang-Hyeon. He probably had talent in both archery and video games. It would be a fair assumption considering horse-riding and dodging enemy attacks had nothing to do with archery. ¡®Sang-Hyeon, you have the greatest concentration out of anyone I know!¡¯ He recalled Acorn Jelly¡¯s words. Concentration made up a crucial aspect of archery, but it wasn¡¯t limited to just that. Chess professionals likely possessed a strong concentration as well. Sang-Hyeon briefly thought about why he seemed so special before moving on to the next forum page. He had been special since birth, so being special didn¡¯t feel new to him. This feeling felt the same as asking, Why doesn¡¯t this taste good??He just felt slightly curious about it. [Breaking news! Almond and Emilia are about to get married?!] ¡®Married?¡¯ The title somewhat surprised Sang-Hyeon. ¡®I don¡¯t know about marriage.¡¯ One night, no, three nights since they knew each other seemed too quick to get married. The world would instantly solve its fertility problem if marriage happened that fast. He clicked on the post anyway despite his doubts. [She made him sit beside her in the carriage and even brought up being a knight. She even lied so he could meet her father. And they even spent three nights together in the castle. They talk much more casually to each other now!] Sang-Hyeon definitely thought others would disagree with the post. ¡ª !? ¡ª Emilia lying is pretty shocking. ©¸ She¡¯s never done that right? ©¸ Yeah, she¡¯s never lied. ¡ª Three days?! Damn. ¡ª They¡¯re headed towards marriage. ¡ª Wow, I¡¯m jealous of Almond¡¯s life! ©¸ You know he¡¯s not real¡­ right¡­ ©¸ I¡¯m jealous of irl Almond as well. ©¸ Me too. Everyone spoke as if the marriage with Emilia had been confirmed. Some people even felt jealous of Almond and Emilia¡¯s marriage. ¡®Interesting.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon pulled his nket closer and scrolled more through the forum. Another trending post caught his eye. [Almond¡¯s bow skill analysis ¡ª A pro-level drawing position] Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t resist clicking a title like that. It felt as if someone had uncovered his skills. [I heard this Almond streamer was pretty talented with the bow, so I watched his videos to do some analysis as someone who does archery. Honestly, I thought there were probably added effects or bonuses at first that made it easier since this is a game. What skills would there be in that? However, I watched his videos and realized this guy is the REAL SHIT. He¡¯s not human. I got shivers. Let me exin¡­] Almond quickly scrolled down to read the analysis. ¡®Is this person really a fellow archer?¡¯ The user seemed to be more than just an amateur and provided detailed exnations. [His drawing skill, the bowstring settling at the center of his lips, his hand¡¯s stability as he holds the draw¡­]? The analysis observed that Almond perfectly re-enacted all these archery skills in the game. ¡ª Woah, is this real? ¡ª I saw the videoparing him to a professional archer, but I think Almond is better. No? Am I blind? ©¸ Honestly, I thought the same. ©¸ +1 Even I thought the way he shot looked different. ©¸ I¡¯m op, and even I think so too. I think pro archers might feel insulted, but I¡¯m a pro as well. I think I¡¯m allowed to say it. ©¸ Damn, a pro?! ©¸ Are you really a pro??? ©¸ Judging from the post, I thought you were either an archery nerd or a professional. ¡ª Wow, a professional archer is analyzing your ys, Almond! ¡ª Damn, KAF is next level. ¡®Pro? He was a pro?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t take his thumb off the screen after reading that word. ¡°Who is it?¡± Archery was a small industry, so they likely all knew each other. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s right hand began to shake. He continued reading the post, but couldn¡¯t find any further information about the original poster. Thankfully, no personal information about Sang-Hyeon had been mentioned. The poster didn¡¯t know his real identity or hid that fact. ¡°Sigh.¡± Sang-Hyeon turned off his phone and took a deep breath. He didn¡¯t know if he felt relieved or worried. ¡®If it¡¯s someone I know¡­¡¯ It had been over ten years since he cut ties with the archerymunity. No one knew of his injury other than his coach. That had been for the best. ¡®Let¡¯s just go to bed.¡¯ He decided to close his eyes and force himself to sleep. Darkness suddenly enveloped Sang-Hyeon''s world and the stars appeared one by one. He began counting them. ck hair suddenly brushed past him in his mind. The long hair reached all the way down to her waist. How could this ck hair be so visible in this pitch-ck space? ¡ª You¡¯re just going to stop? Without any exnations? ¡ª Yes, it¡¯s not fun for me anymore. ¡ª Fun? This was all just fun to you? If you¡¯re not going to do archery, then who will? Don¡¯t you know that everyone is following in your footsteps? But you''re saying you¡¯re quitting because it¡¯s not fun anymore? ¡ª ¡­ ¡ª Fine, just go. The girl turned around and disappeared. She looked brighter than any other star to him. Something bright also dripped from Sang-Hyeon¡¯s eyes. *** Posts on KAF anticipating Almond¡¯s stream already appeared the next day in the morning. [How do you think Almond will do in today¡¯s war?] [Almond¡¯s performance prediction] [I wonder if another montage will be made out of this?] They all felt excited for him. [Kingdom Age is quite realistic, so even if Almond does well¡­] [It¡¯s one archer, what could he possibly do against so many knights¡­] Others lowered their expectations about one archer on a huge battlefield. Lots of talk like that went around. ¡®Good.¡¯ He nodded and checked the forum while brushing his teeth. He felt thankful to have so many posts talking about him in themunity forums considering he only had around 1,000 viewers as a streamer. Even if some of thements spoke negatively. Sang-Hyeon ate a light breakfast and headed out for a morning jog. ¡°Oh?¡± He met Seo Ji-Ah wearing a hoodie as he walked down the stairs. Ji-Ah spoke first this time, ¡°You must be going to exercise¡­¡± ¡°Ah, yes. You too?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± He gestured to her and wondered if she wanted to go together. Ji-Ah surprisingly nodded and followed him right away. *** ¡°Huff¡­ puff¡­¡± They sat on a nearby bench to catch their breaths after ap around the park. ¡°I finished some videos to upload on the new channel,¡± Ji-Ah said as she drank the sports drink that Sang-Hyeon gave her. ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°Do you want to see it?¡± Sang-Hyeon nodded. Of course, he wanted to watch the videos that would be on his official channel. Ji-Ah took out her smartphone. [Kingdom Age EP.1 Are newbies not allowed to pick the bow?] He read the video¡¯s title before pressing y. Ji-Ah looked the other way in embarrassment as he watched the video she made right in front of her. ¡°...!¡± Sang-Hyeon¡¯s eyes widened at the shocking video. Chapter 28: War (2)

Chapter 28: War (2)

[Kingdom Age EP.1 Are newbies not allowed to pick the bow?] This title would capture the attention of every Kingdom Age?yer. The video was an edited version of Almond¡¯s first stream. Ji-Ah managed to condense the stream into 15 minutes of footage. It began with the following text. [Bio ID created on: 20XX/11/13] [The Bio ID that was created just one day before streaming¡­] The dark screen brightened and Almond asked, ¡°Should I not choose the bow?¡± The screen zoomed in on the chat messages trying to warn him when he asked that question. They tried to exin why the bow was no good, why beginners shouldn¡¯t use it, who already gave up, etc. Nevertheless, Almond grabbed the bow despite all their warnings. The chat messages became full of sighs. Then the screen immediately changed and disyed the momentum of Almond¡¯s urate shooting. Swoosh! The first arrow struck the center of an enemy¡¯s forehead. Holographic CGI had been added to the video. The CGI showed a target and how the shot precisely struck the center of the enemy¡¯s forehead. ¡°Keugh!¡± The chat messages called him lucky as one enemy fell. However, that didn¡¯tst long. Bzzt! The video fast-forwarded after he took the next shot. Thwack! The chat froze and only focused on him now. Countless enemies fell one by one and question marks filled the chat. Only praise filled the chat after Almond finished off thest enemy. The video ended with Romanplimenting Almond. ¡°...¡± Sang-Hyeon became speechless after watching the video. He simply remained silent for a while. ¡®This is insane!¡¯ The video felt so immersive to the point of shocking him. ¡°How¡­ how is it?¡± Ji-Ah asked while pretending to watch the joggers nearby. She actually only paid attention to Sang-Hyeon right now. ¡°This¡­ this is amazing.¡± Sang-Hyeon finally nodded and expressed his feelings. It had been incredible. That was how he genuinely felt. He couldn¡¯t express it in any other words. ¡°I think this is good enough to upload right away.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to upload it yet. I¡¯m going to save it for now. I heard it¡¯s better to upload two or three videos at once.¡± ¡°Ah, I see.¡± Ji-Ah seemed unenthusiastic about Sang-Hyeon¡¯spliment, at least to his eyes. However, she spoke quickly and with more words. This seemed like a significant change in her personality. ¡°I¡¯ll keep making them. You like this style, right? I referenced the most popr YouTubers¡­¡± ¡°Ah, yes. Of course. Please, continue what you¡¯re doing.¡± Ji-Ah nodded and took her phone back. No one realized it, but Ji-Ah carefully caressed the phone as if receiving something precious. Not even Ji-Ah noticed it herself. *** Ji-Ah sat on her sofa after parting ways with Sang-Hyeon. She felt sticky from all the sweat, but sat down anyway and dyed her shower. She didn¡¯t even turn the TV on and simply closed her eyes to imagine something. She was recollecting something rather than imagining. ¡®This is amazing.¡¯ She reyed hispliment in her head. She closed her eyes as if savoring the moment and a small smile formed on her dry lips. At that moment¡­ Bzzt. She received a text message. [Motherfucker] Her smile quickly turned into a frown. Ji-Ah didn¡¯t even bother to properly read the message and deleted it immediately. Bzzt. Her phone buzzed again as if waiting for her to delete that message first. [Motherfucker] As expected, Ji-Ah deleted it once more without reading the contents of the message. ¡°...¡± She looked up and briefly stared at the rusty ceiling without a word. Then she took off her clothes and headed to the bathroom. Ji-Ah had a lot to do and aplish today. *** Meanwhile, Kingdom Age¡¯s?[Almond¡¯s doing a castle battle today!] [I¡¯m so excited.] [It¡¯ll be the world''s first attempt at the castle battle with a bow!] [I¡¯m really excited.] [Isn¡¯t this the first time someone¡¯s doing the castle battle with a bow? This guy¡­] [Almond, you crazy genius¡­] The users felt excited because no one had ever attempted the castle battle with a bow before. People couldn¡¯t help but want to witness the first time something happened regardless of whether Almond seeded or not. [I¡¯m going to watch it for sure after school today.] [I¡¯m going to watch it live today too!] [I¡¯m going to watch it after work!] They busily chatted amongst themselves about when and how they would watch Almond¡¯s stream. However, those ns and schedules soon became meaningless. Ding¡ª? An unexpected notification popped up. [Streamer Almond has started his stream!] Almond turned on his stream much earlier than usual. His followers felt surprised and began to swarm in. ¡ª Turned on 4 hours earlier??? Can¡¯t resist this! ¡ª I¡¯m not done with work yet, but whatever! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Wow! Oppa, you came early today! The dedicated fans already began typing in the chat before he even finished setting up his mic and camera. Almond felt pleased with the situation as he finished setting everything up. Beep. His face popped up on one corner of the screen. ¡°Hi, Treevy!¡± ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª AlHa hihi! ¡ª Kya, looking good as usual. ¡ª Oppa! AlHa! ¡ª Dang, you came too early today. Thank you. Around 310 fans greeted him. That amount felt quite impressive considering he just turned on his stream. It had increased by 80 to 90 more viewers than yesterday. That meant his stream was gradually growing. ¡®I started at a weird time today, but the numbers still grew¡­¡¯ People didn¡¯t even get off work or school yet when he started today. Despite that, he still reached an impressive 300 viewers. ¡°I was curious about today¡¯s castle fight, so I turned on my stream earlier than usual. I feel like the battle today will take longer than usual too.¡± ¡ª Ooooh ¡ª So will today¡¯s stream be longer than usual as well? ¡ª Good for us. ¡ª Kingdom, goated game! Almond turned on his stream early in the morning for a simple reason. He expected this quest to be longer, so he wanted to stream earlier to make up for that. Staying awake overnight didn¡¯t make sense, so he decided to do the opposite and begin sooner. ¡°Alright, then. Let¡¯s go and do the castle battle.¡± ¡ª Let¡¯s go! ¡ª Watch out for Robin Hood! ¡ª Let¡¯s do this! *** Thump. He could feel the texture of the grass as soon as he entered. A light wind brushed past them. Shaaa¡­ It felt like the calm before the storm. Roman approached Almond as the wind blew across the field. ¡°Almond.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been busy.¡± ¡°Sorry?¡± Thud. Roman jokingly smacked his chest and signaled someone behind him. Lady Emilia watched them from far away inside the castle. Her figure brightly shone even at this distance. ¡°You know exactly what I¡¯m talking about.¡± Romanughed with a dirty smile. ¡°Ah, n-no¡­ it¡¯s not¡­¡± Almond turned red and denied it, but his words betrayed his actions. He basically just admitted to his rtionship with Emilia. ¡°I¡¯m jealous.¡± Tap tap. Roman jokingly tapped his shoulder. ¡ª ¡­? ¡ª Roman, you¡¯re a man of many faces. ¡ª I can¡¯t believe we¡¯re seeing this side of him. ¡ª They¡¯ve be that close? ¡ª Kya. ¡ª Is there a Roman route? >< This new side of Roman had never been seen before. He always acted nice towards Almond, but never this friendly. He usually scolded and sprinkledpliments here and there. However, Almond and Roman had grown quite close judging from his actions today. ¡°Anyways, we got a lot done thanks to you. You might even be the same rank as me, Sergeant Almond.¡± ¡°No, no, I¡¯ve still got lots to learn.¡± ¡°Enough chitchat. Look over there.¡± Roman pointed at the center of the army that widely spread across the in. ¡°Do you see that cliche knight in golden armor at the center of them? You can probably see him better than I can.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°He¡¯s the core of this fight. I want you to try and intercept him.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like he¡¯lle out to the front.¡± ¡°Of course not. He¡¯s the type tomand from the back.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Almond nodded and focused on the man in golden armor. Shortly afterward, the war horns blew and indicated that the battle had begun. Hooooorn! ¡°Raaaaa!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s gooooo!!!¡± ¡°Chaaarge!!!¡± The soldiers loudly shouted and their horses charged. The archers aimed up and drew their bowstrings. ¡°Shoot!¡± Almond screamed at the top of his lungs and the archers around him shot. They covered the sky with arrows. ¡°Heeeeing!¡± The knights on top of the horses fell from the arrows and crushed the soldiers on the ground as well. Arrows from the other side also covered the soldiers. The battle quickly grew chaotic. ¡°You heard, right?¡± Almondmanded the archers and also spoke to the viewers while proceeding forward by himself. He hid in the grass fields. Shu shuck. ¡°I¡¯m going to go kill that golden armor guy.¡± He nned to snipe the man in gold and end this battle. However¡­ Ding¡ª? [ShyNapoleon has donated 10,000 won.] [Mission: Every kill = 10,000 won.] A mission from a viewer suddenly popped up that promised 10,000 won for every kill. This mission would automatically calcte his kills and the amount would be taken from the viewer¡¯s ount. Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°Are you sure?¡± He looked slightly worried and nced at the enemy army again. They had around 500 or so individuals. ¡°It¡¯ll be too much.¡± He epted the mission with a provocative statement and the viewers celebrated. ¡ª Kya, 10,000 won for every kill? ¡ª Are you ignoring Almond? ¡ª How much are you nning to kill LOL ¡ª It¡¯ll probably be around twenty at most. ¡ª Almond could probably do 50 at least! ¡ª Still, 50 on the battlefield by himself? Seems unlikely. ¡ª I say 800,000 won at MOST. Chapter 29: War (3)

Chapter 29: War (3)

Acorn Jelly once mentioned that video game streamers didn¡¯t often receive donations. Therefore, each donation counted, especially the missions. Not only did mission donations offer financial support, but they also helped to streamline the broadcast as well. [ShyNapoleon has donated 10,000 won.] [Mission: Every kill = 10,000 won.] Hence, Almond felt lucky when the mission donation came in. ¡®10,000 won for every kill?¡¯ The enemies scattered around him now looked like cash instead of threats. ¡®10 kills would be 100,000 won?¡¯?With that thought, Sang-Hyeon checked how many arrows he had. He started with 80 arrows by default and he¡¯d earn close to 1 million won if he managed tond all of them. Not only that, but the game would also be much more entertaining. He would slowly chip away at their army rather than finishing off their general in one hit. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go.¡± Almond crawled beneath the grass and slowly infiltrated the other side. ¡ª You¡¯re going alone? ¡ª Aren¡¯t you going to fight together? ¡ª Is he ditching the mission? ¡ª He said he was going to do it earlier. Everyone questioned why Almond acted by himself. Almond slowly got up without a word. Creak¡­? The bowstring stretched as far back as Almond¡¯s confidence. Pang! The arrow flew and pierced a soldier¡¯s head before the viewers could say anything. Thwack! The soldier fell after a crisp sound through the air. ¡°It¡¯sing from the left!!!¡± ¡°Dammit!¡± The enemies panicked as arrows flew towards them from the side. However, they only faced one opponent and possessed the advantage in numbers. Sang-Hyeon could easily stay hidden with just himself. That¡¯s why he went alone. Shuk. The enemies became confused as Almond went into hiding again. They looked around like broken toys with stiff heads. Shortly afterward, they marched forward again. They couldn¡¯t just focus on the arrows flying from the side because of the war in front of them. Another soldier fell. Thud. The corpse had an arrow sticking out from its head, which came from the left again. ¡°?!¡± Just as the person who looked like their captain prepared to speak¡­ Pang! Something ripped through the air once more and pierced his head before the sound even reached his ears. ¡°Keugh!¡± Thud. The captain that led a hundred soldiers simply fell like that. ¡°What the?!¡± ¡°Captain!¡± The enemies fell into an even greater panic. They fell one by one with an arrow each and couldn¡¯t locate where the arrows came from. Normally, they would calcte the trajectory of multiple arrows and find the source. However, the arrows only came from one source that kept moving around and killing several of them. They couldn¡¯t track down the source like that. Pang! Another arrow echoed out and they knew someone was doomed to fall. Thwack! As expected, one more of theirrades fell. However, they managed to learn something. ¡°He¡¯s on the left!¡± ¡°The southwest position!¡± They discovered Almond¡¯s position by observing the movement of the bushes. ¡°Twenty soldiers, go and guard the left side! The archers have invaded!¡± They thought an army of archers had invaded and not just Almond alone, so they sent twenty men. ¡ª Wow, attracting 20 alone. ¡ª The perfect bait. ¡ª Now you run, right? ¡ª I think you¡¯ll get caught. Almond also heard that they sent twenty soldiers, but didn¡¯t run away. He grabbed twenty arrows from his quiver and ced them on the ground. ¡°I¡¯ll get twenty arrows ready since it¡¯s twenty people.¡± Right after Almond said this¡­ [Consecutive Shooting Skill, Activated!] Ping¡ª? His eyes glowed for a second as the skill activated. Creak¡­? He instantly drew his bowstring taut as an instrument and rapidly fired the arrows. Paaaaang! ¡°Keugh!¡± The arrows struck the heads of the soldiers slowly marching toward him. ¡°He only aims for the head! Watch your heads¡­ Keugh!¡± Pang!!! An arrow pierced that enemy¡¯s neck before he could give out amand. Pang! Paaaang! A one-sided massacre by Almond soon followed. He consecutively fired all twenty arrows he ced on the ground earlier without taking a single step. Almond seemed like a tower powered by artificial intelligence. He made quick, precise, and perfect movements. ¡°R-Run!¡± ¡°Goddamit!¡± The enemies knew they didn¡¯t stand a chance and began to retreat. All twenty soldiers ran in different directions, but the single archer still decimated all of them. ¡°Keugh!¡± ¡°Urk!¡± Thud! The sound of screams and falling bodies echoed throughout the field. ¡°230,000 won, right?¡± Almond said with a smile as he finished killing all the soldiers who approached him. He killed three earlier plus the twenty now, which meant he had earned 230,000 won so far. ¡ª Wooooow. ¡ª Damn, what a guy! ¡ª Mom, I¡¯m going to be Almond when I grow up! Mom, I¡¯m going to be Almond when I grow up! ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! ¡ª 230,000 won just like that. ¡ª Shudder shudder¡­? ¡ª Insane. Killing twenty with consecutive shots? ¡ª Exactly twenty¡­ His audience rejoiced at the incredible feat they just witnessed. It wasn¡¯t simply due to his gamey skills anymore. Almond had shot a perfect shot even while riding a horse. Simply shooting arrows while standing still wouldn¡¯t excite the viewers. ¡ª That was satisfying as hell. ¡ª Calling his kills before he shoots is insane. Their excitement and sense of euphoria came from Almond¡¯s confidence. This element and trait of his excited them the most. One would be unlikely to perform up to 100% of their capabilities in a tight situation like this even if one possessed the skills. It was even more unlikely that someone would feel confident enough to perform at 100% of their abilities. However, Almond was different. He ced exactly?twenty arrows on the ground, which showed his own confidence in his skills. And he proved it once more with his actions. He belonged to the ss of geniuses. Such individuals didn¡¯t doubt themselves. It didn¡¯t just stem from confidence. It almost functioned like an inevitable mathematical result. Geniuses never made mistakes and always disyed perfection. Such geniuses excited people, especially in a new scene where no one knew them yet. The viewers passionately cheered him on. [InsaneAlmond! has donated 1,000 won.] [Boss, I pissed my pants.] [IsThisReal? has donated 1,000 won.] [I¡¯m confused as to what just happened¡­] [Omae has donated 10,000 won.] [Okay! Just take my money!] [LeftoverGum has donated 20,000 won.] [The mission guy instantly lost 230,000 won LOL] [JinTae has donated 10,000 won.] [Taking out exactly 20 arrows. That¡¯s crazy.] The cheers and praise continued pouring in along with donations. Almond responded with a proud look, ¡°InsaneAlmond, IsThisReal, Omae, LeftoverGum, and JinTae, thank you for the donations.¡± He showedposure even during the middle of a war. Most likely because he had no enemies to be concerned about. ¡ª This counts as assassinating too¡­ ¡ª There are no witnesses, so it¡¯s an assassination LOL ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª No one knows lol ¡ª Yeah haha. No enemy could report the loss because Almond killed all of them. He confidently readied his bow and began firing at the enemies again. Swoooosh! His mission reward went up by 10,000 won whenever such a sound was heard. Almond used up half of his arrows without encountering any difficulties. ¡°Is it 400,000 won so far?¡± he whispered to himself while checking his quiver. The viewer who gave him the mission cried out in the chat. [ShyNapoleon has donated 1,000 won.] [Boss¡­ stop¡­ just kill me¡­] The viewersughed at ShyNapoleon, who confidently gave the high-stake mission. Now, he begged for his life with only 1,000 won. ¡ª LOL teach him a lesson. ¡ª Kill me LOL ¡ª Do you want him to stop or to kill you? ¡ª Who knew he¡¯d instantly reach 400,000 won? They felt satisfied after ShyNapoleon dared to challenge Almond with a kill mission. ¡ª Legend says that from today on, Almond never received a kill mission again¡­ ¡ª Today is thest mission day¡­ Some people predicted he would never receive another mission like this because whoever gave it would go broke. Almond smiled at their reactions and said, ¡°I¡¯ll only take exactly 1 million won.¡± That statement terrified ShyNapoleon. Suddenly¡­ ¡°What the?!¡± A bewildered scream could be heard from the enemy lines. ¡°Everyone¡­ everyone¡¯s dead?¡± They finally realized that a single archer had decimated twenty of their soldiers and continued to inflict casualties on them. ¡°Who¡­ who is that man! Send in the archers! We can¡¯t win if we¡¯re attacked like this from the side!¡± The enemy sent over forty soldiers, which included ten archers. [ShyNapoleon has donated 1,000 won.] [Oh¡­ please¡­] ShyNapoleon began cheering for the enemy. ¡ª LOL, it¡¯s pointless¡­ ¡ª It¡¯s toote! Turn back! NOW! ¡ª He¡¯s begging LOL ¡ª Hahahaha Almond felt slightly bad for ShyNapoleon. ¡®But missions need to be cleared.¡¯ ShyNapoleon was the one who gave the mission in the first ce. Treevy required at least 1 million won in a user¡¯s ount to give missions, so he likely wasn¡¯t broke yet. Almond came to terms with that and drew his bowstring against the forty soldiers headed towards him. Pang! Pang! Pang! Three soldiers instantly fell. ¡°I¡¯m going in again.¡± He easilypleted the requirements of hitting three headshots in a row. Then Almond activated the consecutive shooting skill again. Papapapapang! He stood still like before and shot like an automated tower. It seemed irrelevant to him whether twenty or forty enemies showed up. The forty arrows that remained in his quiver gradually dwindled. However, a slight change urred this time. ¡°Over there!¡± Creak¡­? The sound of a bowstring being drawn could be heard from the enemies. One of the enemy archers had discovered Almond and drew their bowstring. The enemies could now attack Almond from a distance as wellpared to before. He would definitely get shot if he stayed in one ce and kept shooting. ¡ª I think you have to evade while shooting. ¡ª Using that skill while moving seems difficult. It was best to stand still in order to maximize the consecutive shooting skill.?However, he would be exposed to the enemy archers. Swoosh! The enemy fired their shot and the arrow flew toward Almond. However, Almond remained still. ¡ª You¡¯re not going to dodge it?! ¡ª Does he not know? ¡ª Dodge it! ¡ª Noooo! ¡ª Please die, Almond! ¡ª LOL die!!! Almond quickly tilted his head and his eyes glowed like a scene from one of the montages. His bow also tilted at the same angle and his gaze turned toward the sky. Pang! The angled shot quickly flew up and bounced in the sky with a strange noise. ng! ¡ª ??? ¡ª What!? The arrow bounced in the sky because it had shed with the enemy arrow. He defended against an arrow with an arrow. ¡ª He hit the arrow with his arrow! ¡ª Oh shit! ¡ª Omg¡­ ¡ª Is this real life? ¡ª Am I seeing things? ¡ª This must be a bug! ¡ª Damn, Napoleon is fucked. ¡ª Inhuman¡­ ¡ª Not a mortal¡­ ¡ª Insane! The enemy archer nkly stared at what just happened. Almond¡¯s arrow instantly pierced between his eyes. Thwack! Not very many of the forty remained. ¡°Now it¡¯s 710,000 won.¡± Almond continued aiming and firing as if nothing happened. Chapter 30: War (4)

Chapter 30: War (4)

The field that Almond stood on echoed with the sound of bows and enemy screams. Swoosh! Thwack! ¡°Keugh!¡± ¡°Urgh!¡± The well-trained soldiers fell like Jenga blocks. Only three remained from the initial forty. Almond had decimated almost a hundred soldiers by himself. ¡ª How many has he killed¡­ ¡ª Insane! ¡ª Shudders¡­? ¡ª Boss, you¡¯re killing me! ¡ª Can you do a hundred headshot kills in a row? The record number of consecutive headshots in Kingdom Age?was one hundred. Almond would soon beat that record, which made every shot he took even more nerve-wracking. ¡°Now it¡¯s 770,000 won.¡± Almond simply counted his earnings despite the viewers¡¯ nervousness. He showed no signs of anxiety at all. He only saw the enemy heads as targets and only heard the wind as a guide. Swoosh! The wind against his skin told him where to shoot. Creak¡­ Almond aimed for one of the remaining three. ¡°God¡­ dammit!¡± The target chose to die fighting instead of fleeing. He charged towards Almond with his de and a determined look. Thwack! Almond¡¯s arrow already pierced his head. ¡°Dammit! Just run!¡± ¡°I¡¯m already running!¡± The remaining two fled in fear. Could the forty soldiers have gotten him if they charged together with all their might? Who knows? No one could confirm it now since it was toote to wonder about what-ifs. ¡°Kugh¡­¡± One of the fleeing soldiers screamed and fell. Only their dying breath could be heard. The other one screeched in horror and ran even quicker as Almond aimed at him next. However, Almond lowered his bow. ¡°Ah¡­ I¡¯m out of arrows.¡± Thest enemy got lucky. Almond had exactly eighty arrows and used an extra one to deflect the arrow earlier. ¡ª Ah, damn. ¡ª He barely lived. ¡ª We¡¯ll let you live! ¡ª He actually let him live haha. An archer couldn¡¯t do much after running out of arrows. He had to acquire more arrows to fight again. The audience presumed that Almond¡¯s massacre had ended. The one who assigned the mission, ShyNapoleon, sighed in relief. ¡ª Phew, haha. However, he rxed too early because Almond had no intention of stopping here. Thump¡ª Almond suddenly ran forward. ¡ª ??? ¡ª What¡¯s he chasing?! ¡ª Shudders¡­? ¡ª You¡¯re a persistent one! Almond decided to chase after the soldier who fled to finish him off. The fleeing soldier nced back and screamed,?¡°Heeegh!¡±?He increased his speed out of fear and truly ran for his life. His movements became desperate like a chicken without a head. ¡°Agh! Agh! Agh!¡± He screamed with drool flying out of his mouth. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Damn, look at the ss of this AI. ¡ª This is the ss of Kingdom Age. ¡ª It seems like he¡¯s really alive. ¡ª For real! The audience cheered at the NPC¡¯s realism. The enemies in Kingdom Age?acted viciously when they had the advantage, but became cowards once they lost their authority just like real people. This added to the sense of realism for the viewers. ¡ª Anyone would run like that if Almond chased them. ¡ª That¡¯s terrifying. ¡ª You killed all his friends. Show some mercy, will you? LOL ¡ª Hahaha The viewers even sympathized with the fleeing soldier. Almond looked like the grim reaper while chasing him down. He ran as if in a 100-meter sprint, but suddenly changed his position. Almond stopped and crouched. ¡®Found it.¡¯ He stuck his hand out and grabbed the lost arrow. Chuck. Almond immediately nocked it onto his bow. His aim remained steady even while running. Creak¡­? He slowly drew back the bowstring and synchronized with the enemy running away. His fingertips slightly vibrated from the string¡¯s high tension. Almond collected his breath and briefly closed his eyes before releasing all the tension. Paang! ¡ª !!! ¡ª Oh! ¡ª Shudders¡­? ¡ª Shot! ¡ª Shiet! The arrow perfectlynded at the center of the enemy¡¯s back. ¡°Heuk!¡± The eightieth enemy fell without even a scream. The corpse stumbled over from the momentum of running. Almond finally stopped running and said, ¡°It¡¯s 800,000 won now.¡± *** After that, Almond shot and killed twenty more. He ultimately racked up 1 million won. [ShyNapoleon has donated 1 million won!] [This is a bit much¡­ :( ] ¡ª LOOOL ¡ª ShyNapoleon hahaha. ¡ª Napoleon out! ¡ª Hahaha. ¡ª 1 mil won is too much! Of course, they won the war too. A single soldier killed a hundred enemies, so the opposing army couldn¡¯t possibly function properly. The victory cries of his allies echoed throughout the battlefield. ¡°Ooooooooooahhhh!¡± No one cheered out Almond¡¯s name because no one knew he had killed a hundred soldiers. Instead, the soldiers shouted the name of theirmander, ¡°Robern! Robern!¡± He hadmanded them, so that only made sense. ¡ª Dang¡­ ¡ª Sigh, these guys don¡¯t even know anything. ¡ª Almond did everything!! ¡ª Damn! ¡ª This is why no one acts alone lool. Sang-Hyeon and the viewers felt bummed out, but it couldn¡¯t be helped. ¡®What the¡­ I killed one hundred enemies, but no one noticed?¡¯ He somewhat understood after directly experiencing the war. His mind had gonepletely nk too. People tangled up while grappling, exchanging blows, and thrusting with blunt weapons to knock each other out. He learned and saw firsthand how chaotic a war could be. The soldiers couldn¡¯t spare any attention as to how the war unfolded. They couldn¡¯t even bepletely sure if they just attacked an ally or not. No one would be able to tell if Almond had killed a hundred or even a thousand people. ¡°Sigh, I get that we¡¯re mercenaries, but still¡­¡± Romanined from next to him. The mercenary leader snuck up and ced a hand on Almond¡¯s shoulder. ¡°But still? What do you mean?¡± ¡°We achieved quite the aplishment, but they¡¯re telling us to leave with just the minimum payment.¡± Roman thought they weren¡¯t getting paid enough for the amount of work they put in. ¡°What did they aplish?¡± As Romanined¡­ ¡°Is that a problem?¡± Amander who stood next to Robern intervened. His gaze from the top of his horse looked worrisome. ¡°What¡¯s the problem with giving the fixed amount?¡± ¡°It¡¯s in the description that the rewards increase along with our aplishments,¡± Roman answered without backing down. ¡°Aplishments? What aplishments did mere mercenaries achieve in a battle between knights? Do you think we don¡¯t know that you guys just hid during the battle?!¡± The knights possessed great strength. On the other hand, the only asset a mercenary possessed was their body. They were hired to fight battles that weren¡¯t theirs, which often resulted in them fighting more cowardly. Hence, the knights didn¡¯t respect them very much. ¡°How did you trust us with this war if you don¡¯t respect us? You respect us during battle, but you change your words once the war ends? That¡¯s not very honorable.¡± ¡°What did you say?¡± However, the knights only made an assumption. Many mercenaries fought with all their might. If that wasn¡¯t the case, how would mercenaries maintain themselves and their reputation? ¡°This man alone defeated a hundred soldiers. Even now, do you think all we did was hide? Do you think we achieved nothing?¡± ¡°Defeated a hundred alone? HAHAHA!¡±?He loudlyughed so the other knights could hear. ¡°Apparently, this one defeated a hundred knights on his own!¡± He told his subordinates in a mocking tone. ¡ª Man, is there a quest to kill that guy? ¡ª Can¡¯t you just shoot him now? ¡ª It¡¯s just a game, rx. Roman seemed as furious as the audience. However, he stopped himself and recognized that they held different ranks. Confronting that knight any further would result in certain consequences. It didn¡¯t feel good, but they could make do with receiving the fixed amount for now. ¡°I hope you get what I¡¯m trying to say.¡± As Roman came to terms with him¡­ ¡°Move! Let him go!¡± A mercenary dragged in the enemymander wearing golden armor. ¡°Let him go!¡± Thud. The enemymander threw the mercenary holding him to the ground and picked himself up. ¡°I will go on my own.¡± ¡°...¡± The typical arrogance of nobles briefly caught the mercenaries off-guard. The difference in rank had been permanently etched in their heads. One couldn¡¯t simply kill a noble in this age even if they were enemies because of the noble¡¯s worth. Swiff, swiff. The golden armoredmander brushed himself off and marched toward Commander Robern. ¡°Are you themander-in-charge?¡± ¡°Yes, I am.¡± His tone sounded as snobby as his shining armor and he acted as if he was an even greater royal than Robern. ¡°It seems like you guys won in the end. Our castle was taken for no reason and our soldiers have been wiped out as well¡­¡± The golden armoredmander babbled on as if he didn¡¯t fear for his life and no one spoke back. ¡°Does it feel good? Killing everyone?¡± Before the knight could respond¡­ ¡°Talorant treated the people of thisnd¡ª¡± ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t matter. I just want to speak with Jeanneret. Bring her.¡± The golden armoredmander cut off Robern and suddenly called for Jeanneret. ¡°We can¡¯t do that,¡± Almond subconsciously said. This seemed like part of the progression regardless of Sang-Hyeon¡¯s intentions. The golden armoredmander turned around and looked at him with an expression that seemed to be asking, Who are you? ¡°!?¡± His eyes almost popped out after recognizing Almond. ¡°You?¡± The nearby knights felt confused as to why the enemy leader reacted like that toward Almond. Almond was just another hired mercenary and a simple archer to them. Most knights ignored archers because their armor easily rendered arrows useless and archers didn¡¯t fight as honorably. However, the enemy leader thought differently. ¡°Are you a knight as well?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Then, who are you to say yes or no?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°No, wait. Who are you if you¡¯re not a soldier?¡± ¡°He¡¯s a mercenary,¡± Roman replied instead of Almond. ¡°Oh?¡± The golden armoredmander seemed rather d to hear that because a knight would be impossible to recruit. However, mercenaries only required money to hire. Meanwhile, the knights still felt curious as to why the golden armored man took such interest in a mercenary. ¡°The one who killed a hundred of our soldiers is a mere mercenary?¡± ¡°!?¡± Not only the knights, but Almond felt surprised too. ¡®They knew?¡¯ The enemy knew of his aplishment instead of his allies. Maybe it would be more obvious to them as they counted their losses. ¡ª The victim always remembers. ¡ª Damn, that¡¯s satisfying. ¡ª I wonder if the knights will finally recognize him. ¡ª Kya, the enemy leader recognized their honorable opponent! ¡ª Honorable opponent lmao The viewers weed the fact that the golden armoredmander had witnessed Almond¡¯s incredible feat. However¡­ ¡°You¡¯re taking a joke too far.¡± ¡°A mercenary killing a hundred?¡± ¡°Ha, good one.¡± All the knights thought he just made a crude joke. ¡°They don¡¯t seem to believe it. You there, do you really want to work with these people?¡± The golden armoredmander smiled and took off his helmet. Her navy hair like the night sky flowed out and her face looked as chiseled as a statue without a hint of imperfection. Her deep eyes showed that she was full of herself despite her loss. Such confidence seemed to shine through her armor. ¡ª It was Rosenita! ¡ª I knew it! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Right, she was a Talorant. ¡ª Wow. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s viewers had mentioned Rosenita in the past. She was the second heroine and from the opposite house as Emilia. ¡°How about youe and work with me?¡± Rosenita asked him. [1. It¡¯s an honor for you to recognize my potential.] [2. I am still loyal despite being a mercenary.] Chapter 31: Choices (1)

Chapter 31: Choices (1)

No wonder the voice sounded so soft. The golden armoredmander¡¯s identity was none other than the game¡¯s second heroine, Rosenita. ¡ª Oh, shees out like that in this progression. . ¡ª Rosenita over Emilia for sure. ¡ª Move out of the way Emilia. ¡ª Dang, I like Emilia¡­ Sang-Hyeon could tell Rosenita was an impressive individual even without having yed the game before. ¡®Incredible.¡¯ Her game model looked different from others. It seemed like the developers put more care into her than Emilia. She had a sharp gaze with a calm demeanor, armor that enhanced her femininity, and dangerous sparkling eyes that lured one into the depths of her soul. The grace of her words and movements added to her irresistible allure and left the onlookers around her powerless. Emilia¡¯s knights felt so captivated by Rosenita¡¯s beauty that they couldn¡¯t take their eyes off her. Rosenita hadn¡¯t done anything except for taking off her helmet. The knights already fell for her and lost against her beauty. The only one who could face her head-on was Almond. The choice was his whether to remain loyal to Emilia or cave in to his immediate desires. [1. It¡¯s an honor for you to recognize my potential.] [2. I am still loyal despite being a mercenary.] Two selections popped up in front of him. He would be Rosenita¡¯s ally sooner orter if he chose the first one. ¡®Didn¡¯t I already spend seven days with Emilia?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon felt lost and confused for the first time in this game. He already spent too much time with Emilia to betray her now. Granted, she was only a video game character and seven days in the game didn¡¯t equate to seven real days. ¡®Still¡­ I grew attached¡­¡¯ He had escorted Emilia in her carriage, defeated the bandits and the goblins, and also helped the farmers. He recalled how Emilia¡¯s cheeks turned red from her obvious and cute lie. Her bright, righteous, and pure eyes¡­ ¡®Ugh¡­¡¯ Sang-Hyeon had experienced all these events as Almond. The physical touch and smell felt real even though it was a video game. ¡ª It has to be Emilia, no questions about it. ¡ª Vote for it! ¡ª You¡¯re going to betray Emilia?! ¡ª It¡¯s obviously Rosenita. ¡ª Rosenita hands down. ¡ª These nerds. ¡ª 111111111111 ¡ª 2222222! Press 2! The first choice was Rosenita and the second choice represented Emilia. The chat was filled with 1s vs. 2s. The speed of the chat made it hard to believe that one to two thousand viewers were watching. ¡°Are you going to leave me hanging like this?¡± Rosenita frowned and tilted her head. Her automatic dialogue yed as time passed, but Sang-Hyeon still flinched. Rosenita felt like a living character. ¡ª Ohhhh! ¡ª Rosenita, have me! ¡ª I¡¯m going to go with 1. Sorry, Emilia! ¡ª Nonono still Emilia. ¡ª Getting rid of Emilia? No! The viewers sided with Rosenita a little more after her dialogue, but the race between them still came quite close. Almond thought for a moment. Then he made his decision. ¡°I¡¯m going to finish today¡¯s stream here. I yed a lot today.¡± He decided to turn off his stream. *** Almond mercilessly turned off his stream. ¡ª What kind of being are you!? ¡ª This nut¡­ ¡ª Damn, what a cliffhanger. ¡ª It seemed like he was waiting for this. ¡ª This guy¡­ Some viewers remained like ghosts in the dark broadcast of Almond¡¯s stream after being crushed by his merciless act. However, Almond wasn¡¯t nning oning back despite their presence. Eventually, they went back to their ownmunities and spread the news of today¡¯s events. These enthusiastic fans always arrived first when Almond turned on his stream. They also leftst and cursed when his stream ended. They sometimes spoke roughly from his perspective, but these grateful people also advertised his stream for free. ¡°The hardcore fans¡­ there¡¯s quite a bit of them,¡± Ju-Hyeok muttered to himself as he typed away on his keyboard. ¡°The stream is targeted towards 20-30 year old men, but it seems like female fans are just as loyal.¡± He analyzed the viewer data after the stream and tried to figure out what direction their stream should head towards. They attracted loyal fans even before the stream and casual fans after the game started. The amount of loyal female fans was quite high despite them being a video game broadcast. This seemed umon whenpared to other game broadcasts. ¡°And women donate the most too¡­¡± The female percentage was overwhelming with massive donations. They ounted for 79% of the total revenue. However, males donated more often by 64%. ¡°This data isn¡¯t reliable since Seo Ji-Ah donated as much as all the malesbined.¡± Ju-Hyeok couldn¡¯t urately determine the donations for now. They had reached the level of a smallpany, but their viewer-to-donation rate was still low. They needed more data to build upon. ¡°If it¡¯s like this, in the next game¡­¡± Ju-Hyeok analyzed the data to prepare for the next game after Kingdom Age. Kingdom Age was the perfect game for streamers who wanted to show off their skills. Almond¡¯s stream didn¡¯t take off just because of his skills, but also because of the game he chose. Sang-Hyeon had done a great job on his own. However, Ju-Hyeok had be his manager and analyst now. He didn¡¯t even edit the videos, so he had to at least help select another game. He scrolled through the games that Punk imported since they would soon be partners. ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Ju-Hyeok had to find a game that suited Sang-Hyeon¡¯s demographic and also allowed Sang-Hyeon to show off his skills. It would be perfect if the game was already popr. ¡°I think this is good.¡± He was going to click on what he found when¡­ Thud. The door to his room harshly swung open. ¡°Dear!¡± ¡°Let go!¡± Ju-Hyeok¡¯s father screamed. ¡°!?¡± Ju-Hyeok jumped in surprise and a chill went down his spine. This fear had been engraved into him as a child. His voice instinctively grew feeble in front of his father like a dog drooling at the sound of a bell. ¡°You, what do you think you¡¯re doing?¡± The angry tone targeted none other than him. His father¡¯s eyes filled with mes and aser gaze fell on Ju-Hyeok. ¡°I¡¯m just resting¡ª¡± ¡°Do you think that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about?¡± ¡°...!¡± Ju-Hyeok¡¯s body trembled. He formed a fist, but it quickly fell apart. ¡°Why did you quit thepany?¡± ¡°...¡± How could he possibly say it wasn¡¯t for him in this situation? It would just sound like an excuse to his father who always said at the dinner table that the moment a loser gave a reason, it became an excuse. ¡°Why did you quit!!!¡± The anger from the fact that his thirty-year-old son had quit a job was close to madness. He couldn¡¯t bear to watch his bloodline lose to someone else and get expelled from society. They had better be ready to die from his fists first. ¡°He¡¯s probably¡­ transferring to somewhere else,¡± Ju-Hyeok¡¯s mother chimed in. ¡°I heard how he quit, so don¡¯t give me that bullshit.¡± Ju-Hyeok¡¯s mouth remained shut. It would be impossible to transfer after releasing all his anger on the manager when he quit. ¡°Do you not care about my image at all? Director Han¡­ sigh, whatever. Just start at mypany tomorrow. Starting from the bottom.¡± ¡°Dad! That¡¯s¡ª¡± ¡°What!?¡± ¡®Do you still have anything to say?¡¯ His father¡¯s look seemed to say everything already. Ju-Hyeok found it difficult to endure and his shoulders trembled. Those who knew the confident and carefree Ju-Hyeok would be surprised to see him like this. However, this side was also a part of him. Shadows would inevitably form wherever there was light. ¡°Do you have anything to say?¡± ¡°...¡± He did have a lot to say, but nothing at the same time. Both would lead to the same result in front of his father. ¡°No¡­¡± ¡°You start tomorrow morning. Don¡¯t bezy and prepare to learn the job. Be nice to every worker as well. They are the flesh and blood of ourpany. And always be humble.¡± He heard those same words every day. ¡°Yes¡­¡± His father went back to his study. ¡°Ju-Hyeok¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright, Mom. I¡¯ll start going tomorrow.¡± ¡°Okay, good thinking. Should I get you some fruits?¡± ¡°No, I want to be alone for now.¡± Thud. Ju-Hyeok lost all his energy as he closed his door and melted into his chair. ¡°Sigh.¡± His eyes returned to theputer screen at the stats he carefully made. He had articted the data he collected with charts and graphs of their demographics. ¡®Seo Ji-Ah¡¯s YouTube intro video, the channel design¡­ Was it all a dream?¡¯ ¡°It went on too long to be a dream,¡± Ju-Hyeok whimpered as tears slowly dripped from his chin. Only a little over a week had passed. He hadn¡¯t earned any huge profits or honor from the job, but Ju-Hyeok felt invested and full of hope. ¡°Phew¡­¡± It seemed like he had to sweep all of that away now andbel it as a good dream. *** Bzzt¡­ Sang-Hyeon woke up as his phone buzzed early in the morning. He wanted to sleep in since he streamed until 4 A.M. the night before. ¡°Sigh,?what does he want now¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon read the name on the caller ID and picked it up. The voice on the other end immediately shocked him awake. ¡ª Hey! Open the door! Not just through the phone, but he could also hear the voice through his windows. ¡°Have you gone insane? What are you doing here so early in the morning.¡± ¡°Sorry.¡± Thud. Sang-Hyeon saw the items that Ju-Hyeok ced on the ground and grew even more shocked. ¡°Did you¡­ run away from home?¡± Ju-Hyeok brought a giant carrier with a fully stuffed backpack. Anyone could see that he ran away from home. Chapter 32: Choices (2)

Chapter 32: Choices (2)

¡°Just¡­e in for now.¡± The house Sang-Hyeon and his grandmother lived in was just over 1000 square feet. It was a big space for one person, so there wouldn¡¯t be any problems if Ju-Hyeok moved in. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t have to move the capsule either and Ju-Hyeok would bring positive energy to this gloomy atmosphere. Ju-Hyeok was quite excited. ¡°Hey! Should we order fried chicken tonight?¡± He seemed to be enjoying the moment after running away from home. This marked the first time he left his parents ever since studying abroad. Plus, he had never moved in with a friend before. He felt excited like a student on a field trip despite being a thirty year old man. ¡°Let¡¯s get some beer too!¡± ¡°...¡± Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t deny that he also enjoyed Ju-Hyeok¡¯s presence. Living alone had been fun at first, but it quickly grew lonely. The atmosphere would definitely liven up if he had a roommate. However, Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t quite get past it yet. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to tell me why you left?¡± Living away from one¡¯s parents at thirty wasn¡¯t unusual, but Sang-Hyeon still wanted to know the reason. He weed Ju-Hyeok while wondering what went through his friend¡¯s mind. ¡°Sigh¡­ I¡¯ll tell you what happened the next time we go drinking.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t drink if I¡¯m streaming the next day.¡± ¡°Really? Then drink on a day off or something. Anyways, what are you going to do about the game?¡± ¡°What about the game?¡± ¡°You¡¯re in a dilemma, Emilia or Rosenita.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon hadn¡¯t thought about it too much. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll matter who I choose?¡± He went to check how the forums reacted since they brought up the topic. Sang-Hyeon searched for the keyword Almond and multiple posts appeared. . [Almond, you nut! You¡¯re inhuman!] [Almond is a viin in my books¡­] [God damn. He ends it there!] [I¡¯m gonna kill him if he ended it there just to betray Emilia.] The posts all had brutal titles. Snort. Sang-Hyeon simplyughed it off. His mentality wouldn¡¯t be swayed by them. ¡°Their reactions are pretty intense.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve thought about what game you could y next.¡± ¡°Hmm? Next game?¡± Ju-Hyeok suddenly changed the topic. ¡°Yeah, look at this.¡± He plugged hisptop into a projector and disyed his data. ¡°Woah¡­.¡± Most people used this instead ofrge monitorstely. It made it easier to view all the data at once. Ju-Hyeok spun his finger on the touchpad and the hologram rotated while disying multiple data at once. It had to do with Sang-Hyeon¡¯s viewer demographics and used the same organization format as their formerpany, so Sang-Hyeon understood it. ¡°Hmm¡­ So?¡± ¡°So, the verdict is this.¡± Ding. The cluttered windows disappeared and one screen remained. [Battle Large] A video game teaser yed on the screen. It showed a survival game with 100 yers and seemed quite exciting. ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem too bad, right? Should we try it out just once?¡± Sang-Hyeon carelessly suggested ying it in the capsule, but Ju-Hyeok quickly stopped him. ¡°NO!¡± ¡°...?¡± Sang-Hyeon looked at Ju-Hyeok as if to say, ¡®You don¡¯t want me to y it that badly?¡¯ ¡°Don¡¯t you realize what your viewers want to see?¡± ¡°Being good at a game.¡± ¡°Not just good. A genius! You¡¯re a genius at games!¡± ¡°How¡¯s that different from being good?¡± Ju-Hyeok had a frustrated expression and fixed his sses. ¡°You can get good by just practicing, but what about geniuses? They¡¯re born with talent and are good to begin with.¡± ¡°Huh? I do practice. I practiced shooting bows¡­¡± ¡°NO! You should at least show them your first time ying the game. You¡¯re a terrible actor and don¡¯t know how to lie, so you should just stream the first time for real.¡± ¡°???¡± Sang-Hyeon looked totally confused. ¡®Sure, maybe for Kingdom Age¡­¡¯ Kingdom Age?was a single-yer campaign game, so it wasn¡¯t weird to just jump in. However, Battle Large?was different because it was an online PVP game. This yer vs. yer game tested one¡¯s individual skill and it had already been out for over two years. Naturally, the game had its fair share of experts and most of the yer base was experienced. It took a lot of work for beginners to adapt to the game. Being good at the game on his first try was too much to ask for. The current yer base had more experience and already put in the effort. Who could guarantee that Sang-Hyeon would be better than them? That¡¯s what Sang-Hyeon thought, but any other person would disagree. ¡°You set records even though it was your first time ying Kingdom Age.?Don¡¯t you think you¡¯ll do the same in Battle Large?¡± ¡°Yeah, but I¡¯m only good at shooting bows. Isn¡¯t this a game with guns?¡± Sang-Hyeon shook his head. Battle Large?was a shooter game. Sang-Hyeon wouldn¡¯t have any advantages since he only knew how to shoot arrows. ¡°No, look at this.¡± Ju-Hyeok brought up some analysis videos that showed Sang-Hyeon shooting enemies while riding a horse. ¡°You think this is rted to archery? Well, maybe, but do you think your archery friends could do the same?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡®Obviously?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon was about to say, but it seemed unlikely once he thought about it again. Archery was a very calm sport. No one would expect an archer to be good at ser. His y in the video didn¡¯t have much to do with archery. ¡°Hmm¡­ I¡¯ve been running simtion training programs in the capsule. This is probably a result of that.¡± ¡°A simtion training program?¡± Ju-Hyeok only heard about it now. ¡°It¡¯s something installed in the capsule by default. I¡¯ve been running it often because it apparently helps with optimization.¡± Sang-Hyeon told him he¡¯d been clearing the simtions on maximum difficulty in every category. Ju-Hyeok searched up the program¡¯s name. ¡°Uh¡­ What¡¯s your highest score on the program?¡± The simtion always gave a total score after the training finished. ¡°It was just shy of 12,000 points.¡± ¡°Jesus.¡± Ding. Another stat came up on the hologram. ¡°The program isn¡¯t for professional use, but¡­ you¡¯re number 1 in the rankings for it.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Sang-Hyeon looked closer with a doubtful expression. Looking closer didn¡¯t change the pixels and the data remained the same. A line of numbers that represented Almond¡¯s bio code sat on top of the rankings. ¡®I¡¯m¡­ first?¡¯ Kingdom Age?didn¡¯t have any ranking systems or criteria to rank yers. yers had no exact way to prove a new record that they achieved. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s own feats hadn¡¯t impressed him so far because it was his first time ying the game. However, being ranked first in the simtion training program felt a bit different. ¡°Woah¡­.¡± He took a step back in shock and momentarily became speechless. ¡°I told you so.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not just archery. You¡¯re talented in this area too! You just need to watch a guide video on Battle Large?and you can get started right away. You have to¡­¡± Ju-Hyeok rambled on and felt excited that he had been proven right. As usual, his words didn¡¯t reach Sang-Hyeon¡¯s ears. ¡®Rank 1¡­¡¯ Thatbel resonated in his heart more than he expected. *** Sang-Hyeon decided to stream a little earlier today. He wanted to experiment with when to turn on his stream. ¡°I¡¯m going in.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Someone else greeting him as he entered the capsule felt pretty good. Too bad it wasn¡¯t a pretty girlfriend, but a robot like Ju-Hyeok. Still, it was better than having no one. Fwoosh¡ª? A new world appeared as the lid closed and enveloped him in darkness. [Daily Training Protocol Start] The full simtion started as soon as he entered. Sang-Hyeon easily cleared the courses like going for a light jog. [13,112] He easily achieved over 13,000 points this time. ¡®So this is a new record?¡¯ This protocol wasn¡¯t meant to be ranked with others, so no point chart appeared. However, Sang-Hyeon knew his previous score of 12,000 had been the highest and he just easily surpassed that. He stood bewildered for a moment. [Ju-Hyeok: Watch the Battle Large guide before you start the stream.] Ding. The video link from Ju-Hyeok popped up. Sang-Hyeon moved his hand and clicked on the video. Swoosh¡ª? A strong wind could be heard apanied by a hundred yers descending with their parachutes. They began running all over the ce after releasing their parachutes. The yers picked up their weapons and shot at each other as soon as they met. They held their shot if the opponent was too far away. ¡®This looks fun¡­¡¯ Thump¡ª Sang-Hyeon¡¯s heartbeat quickened. It gave him a different feeling than Kingdom Age.?A survival game with a hundred yers sounded exciting, but watching the gamey enticed him even more. ¡®Not today though.¡¯ He decided to wait for now. As Ju-Hyeok said, the viewers probably wanted to watch him y for the first time. Just knowing the rules would be good enough for now. ¡®I should hold back if I¡¯m going with the genius concept.¡¯ Plus, Sang-Hyeon also wanted to experiment and see how much talent he really had. [Alright, I watched it. I¡¯ll start the stream now.] He began streaming after letting Ju-Hyeok know. *** Almond stood in the aftermath of the battle on the in. This virtual reality felt unbelievably immersive. Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t believe he had been imagining himself ying Battle Large?a few moments ago. Sang-Hyeon was Almond for now, a mercenary in the war between the Jeanneret and Talorant. ¡°How long are you going to make me wait?¡± Rosenita said with frustration in her voice. She wanted to hear the answer to her question. [1. It¡¯s an honor for you to recognize my potential.] [2. I am still loyal despite being a mercenary.] Sang-Hyeon would¡¯ve needed at least a week to decide if he ever faced this situation in real life. Rosenita didn¡¯t seem so patient. ¡°Tell me now. Are you going to stand here all day?¡± she snobbishly pestered him. However, the viewers thought this was part of her charm. ¡ª Girl crush ¡ª Crush girl ¡ª Noona, please spank Almond! ¡ª I love you unnie! Emilia and Rosenita were both popr. ¡®I¡¯ll save Rosenita for next time¡­¡¯ The game would get longer if he went with Rosenita. He already nned on slowly transitioning to a new game, so he wanted to finish this game with Emilia. It seemed like the loyal thing to do. Almond finally said, ¡°I am still loyal despite being a mercenary.¡± Rosenita smiled instead of looking disappointed. ¡°Oh no, now I want you even more. You¡¯re better than most knights.¡± The soldiers dragged Rosenita away after their conversation. She couldn¡¯t take her deep blue eyes off Almond as they took her away. ¡ª Farewell, Rosenita! ¡ª Damn¡­ ¡ª Almond, this bastard¡­ ¡ª :(? Rosenita¡¯s fans seemed disappointed. However, no one was obsessed enough tosh out at Almond. ¡°Ah¡­ Almond.¡± A faltering voice could be heard from behind him. The voice sounded soft and familiar. ¡®Emilia?¡¯ Emilia had arrived on the battlefield and surprised all the soldiers. They spoke amongst themselves and agreed to bring her somewhere else since dangers could still be lurking. However, Emilia didn¡¯t care and ran straight to Almond. She ran over and hugged him as tight as her feeble arms could. Chapter 33: Knight (1)

Chapter 33: Knight (1)

Emilia¡¯s sudden act rattled the viewers and the chat quickly rose. Click ck. Sang-Hyeon could almost hear them typing on their keyboards through the screen. ¡ª Oooooh! ¡ª Emilia! So bold! ¡ª Dammit. ¡ª Kya!! ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª I¡¯m dead. ¡ª What the!! ¡ª What¡¯s going on! ¡ª Daaaang! ¡ª Woaaaaah. Sang-Hyeon thought the same as his audience. ¡®This is crazy!¡¯ Almond and Emilia had spent three days together, but Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t share the same experience. He only saw a ck screen that said, Three dayster. ¡°Emilia,¡± Almond¡¯s mouth moved again without Sang-Hyeon¡¯s will. ¡°I came back victorious,¡± he said in a soft and loving voice. ¡ª You were literally just in a dilemma bro. ¡ª What the heck is that voice?! ¡ª It¡¯s suddenly true love? ¡ª This is what you call acting. ¡ª If you¡¯re caught¡­ you¡¯re dead! The viewers poked fun at him, but Almond only focused on Emilia and was caught in the whirlpool of her eyes. ¡°You did great. I mean it,¡± Emilia replied and stared into his eyes. Her face drew closer to his as the other knights cheered. ¡ª Kyaaa! ¡ª Dang! ¡ª I¡¯m dead! ¡ª Dammit¡­ Emilia¡¯s beautiful face came closer and the entire screen turned ck. The following cutscene began. ¡ª Damn! Show me! Show me now!! ¡ª Noooo! ¡ª This is the worst when the first pov is too realistic! ¡ª Oh noooo! The viewers cried out as the next scene appeared. Almond and Emilia returned to the carriage and rode back to theirnd. Unlike the previous carriage ride, Almond followed his duties this time and sat apart from Emilia. He rode a horse and escorted the carriage. The knights also treated him differently. The ones who ignored him for being a mercenary acted friendly with him now. ¡°I hear you¡¯re the archer who killed over a hundred? Nice job, friend.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ Yes¡­¡± Roman snorted from behind them, ¡°Hmph.¡± Just a while ago, the knights refused to acknowledge their aplishments. ¡°The enemy recognized our aplishments instead. I mean, your aplishments.¡± ¡°How could I possibly kill a hundred if you all weren¡¯t fighting on the frontlines?¡± Almond replied in standard fashion, but Roman felt quite touched by his words. Roman brought his horse next to Almond and ced a hand on his shoulder while leaning over. ¡°Thank you, Almond. Saying that gives the mercenaries strength.¡± ¡°You speak as if I¡¯m not a mercenary myself. I am one as well.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I think you might not be one anymore,¡± Roman smiled while looking towards Emilia¡¯s carriage. ¡°Well, it¡¯s up to you.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Up until then, Almond hadn¡¯t known what Roman was getting at. ¡°Regardless, I want to thank you. We received over four months of payment thanks to you.¡± Roman gave him a friendly smile and marched forward on his horse. ¡ª Roman¡­ you even seem friendly now. ¡ª You¡¯re not this kind of person, you devil! ¡ª Shed your human skin, you evil! ¡ª Hahahaha. ¡ª You guys are hrious. ¡ª Roman is too much sometimes. *** The Jeanneret arrived in their territory after some time. Almond and Emilia walked into the castle together. They proceeded deeper into the castle halls where only rulers were allowed. ¡°Emilia, this ce is¡­.¡± ¡°Wait over here.¡± It felt awkward since they officially invited Almond for the first time. Almond firmly sped his hands together and wandered off for a moment. Shortly afterward, Emilia returned with her father. ¡°!¡± Almond looked unquestionably nervous. ¡°Is it you? I¡¯ve heard lots about you.¡± Her father approached him quite softly and didn¡¯t seem bothered by him being a mercenary or even a peasant. ¡°You did well. Very well. Haha,¡±?Emilia¡¯s fatherughed as he pounded Almond¡¯s back andplimented him. Almond¡¯s nervousness didn¡¯t go away despite the hospitality. ¡®What is this.¡¯ He didn¡¯t know any meal etiquette as a mercenary and getting through the meal felt like a mini-game. It featured some puzzles and actions to do. The climatic meal yed out like a small action sequence. Thankfully, Sang-Hyeon cleared all the obstacles and sessfully finished the meal. He expressed his nervousness to his audience after the cutscene. ¡°Wow¡­ I feel like it would be like this if I ever meet my father-inw in person,¡± he said after a long silence. The viewersughed at his remark. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Marriage simtor. ¡ª Father-inw simtor¡­ ¡ª Why y this kind of game lol ¡ª Even this is realistic. ¡ª It¡¯s like meeting the weird uncle on Thanksgiving. ¡ª Thanksgiving simtor haha? Almond smirked from the chat when a voice caught him off-guard. ¡°What do you think about bing a knight?¡± Two choices followed the sudden question. [1. Of course, I would be honored.] [2. I am more suited to a mercenary life.] Sang-Hyeon paused the game for a moment at the two choices that popped up. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± The chat log fired up at his question. ¡ª WOW. ¡ª It was possible to be a knight?! ¡ª Damn! ¡ª I heard there was a way, but not this quickly¡­ ¡ª This is my first time seeing it¡­ ¡ª Yeah for real, I heard it was never streamed because ites out superte in the game. ¡ª And no one ys that far into the game¡­ ¡ª Isn¡¯t this basically the ending? ¡ª Now even the mercenary boss has to bow to him. Almond carefully read each chat message. ¡®Does the game end here if I be a knight?¡¯ That seemed like the case since the game was based on running around as a mercenary andpleting missions. It couldn¡¯t continue if he was no longer a mercenary. It wouldn¡¯t be the same as the original at the very least. Therefore, this choice would determine the game¡¯s oue. ¡®Is it time¡­¡¯ He assumed choosing Emilia would result in a faster ending, but not this soon. ¡ª I wish he¡¯d stay as a mercenary. ¡ª But isn¡¯t it better to see the knight ending? Then y again? ¡ª Curious about the knight ending +1 ¡ª 2222 ¡ª 1 for sure. ¡ª The second choice no question about it. The audience also became divided. Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t make up his mind, but already had a tactic for such situations. ¡°I¡¯m going to stop streaming here for today. Bye, Treevy!¡± His tactic was to end the stream. ¡ª ???? ¡ª Crazy timing. ¡ª Kugh. For real? ¡ª Is this guy a psychopath? ¡ª Hahahahaha. ¡ª Are you serious? ¡ª Almond¡¯s a man of his word¡­ ¡ª He¡¯s never gone back when he says he¡¯s ending the stream LOL ¡ª Damn, I¡¯m gonna stay dead until tomorrow''s stream. [The Stream Has Ended] *** Sheek. Almond opened the capsule lid and walked out. He wasn¡¯t covered in sweat like usual due to theck of battles. Also, he didn¡¯t stream for very long today. ¡®I think I ended it well.¡¯ However, Sang-Hyeon felt satisfied with today¡¯s stream. Even he thought his timing to cut off the stream was splendid. ¡°Hey, good job. You did well today,¡± Ju-Hyeok greeted him when he came out. Sang-Hyeon thought Ju-Hyeok had fallen asleep midway, but it seemed he was still awake. ¡°You think so? There weren¡¯t any fights though, phew.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t fight every day.¡± Ju-Hyeok checked themunity¡¯s reactions and showed them to Sang-Hyeon. [Did you see the timing of how Almond¡¯s stream ended?] [I can¡¯t believe he¡¯s ending it there.] [This guy, Almond.] [The worst streamer, Almond.] Quite a few made mean jokes about him, but they all seemed light-hearted. [A summary of what happened before epting Emilia¡¯s knight proposal.txt] Some posts were already trending about Almond epting Emilia¡¯s proposal. ¡°I always speak with data to back it up, okay?¡± Ju-Hyeok bragged while bringing up the data he made from analyzing the audience. ¡°Do you know how I analyze?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t. I wouldn¡¯t even know if I saw it.¡± Sang-Hyeon grew dizzy just from looking at numbers, so he wasn¡¯t interested in looking at the data. ¡°No, listen,¡± Ju-Hyeok rambled on about mathematical forms for over an hour. Only one thing caught Sang-Hyeon¡¯s attention. ¡°Oh, right. The manager contacted me.¡± ¡°Manager?¡± ¡°Manager Oh, he¡¯s the one who wanted you as Punk¡¯s partner streamer.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± ¡°He said sure. He¡¯ll match the editor¡¯s wage and pay.¡± ¡°!¡± Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t have enough earnings to match Seo Ji-Ah¡¯s wage yet. He had to rely solely on his partnerpany, Punk, but they resolved it well. ¡°They already offered that, so it only makes sense.¡± The duo knew it would happen, but officially resolving the problem felt different. Sang-Hyeon could finally rx a bit now. ¡°I¡¯m going to see them tomorrow and shoot a couple of things as well.¡± ¡°Sounds good. Let¡¯s go to bed early today.¡± They went to sleep in their respective rooms. A huge article appeared on the first page of a video game website the next morning. The headline read: [(Breaking) Almond, Punk¡¯s new partner streamer, revealed!] *** Punk was undoubtedly the biggest video game distributor in the country. Thepany also had its own gaming tform. They never strategized to grow any bigger since they had a monopoly in the industry. However, another gamepany called Hi Games quickly caught up and forced Punk to invest in marketing, PR, and exclusive titles. [(Breaking) Almond, Punk¡¯s new partner streamer, revealed!] One of their strategies was to partner with streamers. They would recruit and partner with popr streamers. Then push them to y Punk games and promote themselves. ¡ª Wow, world ss. ¡ª Damn, now he¡¯s on Bubblegum¡¯s level? ¡ª Kya, partnering through Kingdom Age alone. ¡ª Now he¡¯s gotta do his homework. ¡ª Is this real? Damn, Almond¡¯s big now. ¡ª Now Almond is a Punkster too LOL ©¸ Punkster LOL ©¸ Hahaha. Combining Punk and jester, Punkster means he¡¯s now a jester for Punk. Is that what you call a punchline? ©¸ The top trend! ©¸ What a cool guy. ©¸ Hall monitor. ©¸ A loser pretending to be a loser. ©¸ I think this guy is for real LOL Being a Punk partner streamer was more than a PR stunt as thements clearly showed. ¡ª It¡¯s possible to be a partnered streamer with only a thousand viewers? ©¸ He¡¯s gonna reach two thousand soon. ©¸ Getting a thousand with Kingdom Age is crazy. He¡¯d easily get more if he yed a major title. ¡ª They¡¯re definitely looking at his potential. ¡ª Seems like a stretch¡­ ¡ª Almond¡¯s doing well. The partnership felt overwhelming for Almond, who barely had over a thousand viewers. Manager Oh advocated for Almond despite that and turned their contract into a reality. ¡®He breathed life into a failing game like Kingdom Age, so what else could he do in the future?¡¯?Manager Oh said this in his meeting and the other directors couldn¡¯t agree with him more. They all watched Almond¡¯s videos, assessed his skills, and grew even more curious. What would happen if Almond yed a major title? ¡ª I wonder if he¡¯ll start his homework in today¡¯s stream. ©¸ On the first day? ©¸ They made an article about him, so probably? ¡ª He¡¯s not going to y Kingdom Age now? :(? ©¸ He should decide it he wants to be a knight or not and finish it first! People wondered if he would y different games now after bing a partnered streamer. They all wanted to know what games he would y next. He already yed a minor title like Kingdom Age,?so would he go with another minor title? Or would he y a major title? [What game will Almond y next? Prediction list] [He¡¯ll do really well if he ditches Kingdom Age.] [How about a fighting game?] [Get rid of this minor title and go up!] [He has a thousand viewers already. He¡¯ll really trend if he ditches Kingdom Age.] [No! Don¡¯t go! You¡¯re going to get rid of Emilia!? Live happily ever after with her!] KAF became Almond¡¯s home ground and they also mentioned other video games. ¡ª When will Almond turn on his stream today? ¡ª No one knows¡­ ¡ª I¡¯m going crazy. ¡ª Almond, let¡¯s settle things with Emilia first¡­ Viewers already began chatting in Almond¡¯s stream despite him being offline. However, the message they waited for didn¡¯t appear on Treevy. [Hello, this is Almond.] Instead, a YouTube video with that title came up on Almond¡¯s new channel. Seo Ji-Ah officially began working after her check cleared. Chapter 34: Knight (2)

Chapter 34: Knight (2)

The video began with Sang-Hyeon saying, ¡°Hello, this is Almond.¡± He was well-dressed and sat in front of a background with ck bricks. One corner of the wall had the Punk logo on it. ¡°I recently made a YouTube channel and became a partnered streamer with Punk.¡± Articles already came out about it, but Sang-Hyeon officially spoke up for the first time. The forums had several posts reacting to his video. [Breaking News! It¡¯s official. Almond is Punk¡¯s new partner streamer!] [Almond admitted to being Punk¡¯s partner streamer!] An official statement from him rekindled the news once more and more posts about him appeared on the forums. ¡ª What the¡­ Almond¡¯s stream is on? ¡ª Is his stream off? ©¸ He made a YouTube channel! ©¸ Ah ha. Thanks. Thankfully, his YouTube channel became known despite not having any promotions. Word of mouth became their best marketing. Almond¡¯s regr fans gathered to watch his video and it already amassed over five thousand views in five minutes. A new streamer with this many views for a greeting video was unusual. ¡°Oh, and this channel will upload edited versions of my past gamey. The previous montages will also be remastered and uploaded, so please take a look when you have the chance.¡± The video ended with Almond¡¯s farewell. ¡ª No live stream today? ¡ª I don¡¯t think so. ¡ª His videos are being uploaded! The videos were promptly uploaded. They werepressed and edited versions of his previous broadcasts that Seo Ji-Ah collected. [Kingdom Age EP1: Can I Not Choose the Bow?] [Kingdom Age EP2: This is Too Easy] [Kingdom Age EP3: The Legendary Perfect Shot] Seo Ji-Ah uploaded three videos for now as a trial run. She finished several videos with only two days to edit. Thankfully, she had edited them beforehand and already anticipated bing Almond¡¯s official editor. Ju-Hyeok felt confused when he heard that. ¡°Then, why did she pretend to hesitate when she made the deal with us?¡± As usual, Sang-Hyeon wore a disinterested expression. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°It¡¯d be nice if Ji-Ah coulde out for today¡¯s work dinner.¡± ¡°What do you mean work dinner? She¡¯d be awkwardly joining the two of us drinking.¡± ¡°I guess so.¡± Ju-Hyeok arranged this dinner to celebrate them bing roommates and Sang-Hyeon bing a partnered streamer. In reality, it was just two friends drinking on their day off. ¡°Whatever, let¡¯s drink!¡± ng. They cheered with their beer sses and gulped down the drinks. Crunch. Sang-Hyeon chowed on his fried chicken and asked, ¡°So¡­ tell me why you ran away from home.¡± ¡°Ah, I was analyzing the viewer data when my dad walked in and said¡­ huh?¡± Ju-Hyeok suddenly stopped and looked toward the bar¡¯s entrance. Sang-Hyeon looked back as well. ¡®That¡¯s¡­¡¯ They doubted their eyes at the familiar silhouette. Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok liked this restaurant because it had the best chicken near their old workce. Naturally, they would run into familiar faces. ¡°Sigh. Hey, don¡¯t look.¡± ¡°Fuck, why¡¯d they have toe here.¡± ¡°This is the best chicken ce.¡± The two whispered to each other and turned their heads. Thest thing they wanted was to interact with their old co-workers. However¡­ ¡°Huh?! Assistant Kim and Assistant Yu?¡± The high-pitched voice came from none other than So Yu-Jung. She had an empty head like a flower field and didn¡¯t know how to read a room. ¡°Wow! It¡¯s so good to see you guys! What happened?¡± Hermotion resulted in the others recognizing them as well. ¡°What the¡­ Kim Ju-Hyeok?¡± The worst of the bunch noticed them too. It was the manager Kim Ju-Hyeok had a huge fight with and the same one who encouraged Sang-Hyeon to quit. ¡°What are you guys doing here? Did you transfer to somewhere nearby?¡± Manager Park had a peculiar look on his face. He seemed d to see them, but his expression was also mixed with contempt. He wanted to see them for a different reason. ¡®That punk Kim Ju-Hyeok¡­ I¡¯ve probably spread the news to all my connections. I wonder where he¡¯s working at now?¡¯ Manager Park wanted to see how ufortable he could make them. ¡°Haha¡­ How have you guys been?¡± Ju-Hyeok scratched his head and greeted them. Sang-Hyeon simply faced the other way. ¡°Hey, where¡¯d you go to after?¡± ¡°...¡± Ju-Hyeok couldn¡¯t respond to Manager Park. He couldn¡¯t say, ¡®I¡¯ve be Yu Sang-Hyeon¡¯s manager!¡¯?He knew what they would think. ¡°Is that guy an ostrich or something? Do you think we can''t see you if you can¡¯t see us? Hahaha!¡± Manager Parkughed victoriously. Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok seemed to have nothing to show for it judging from their pathetic states. ¡°We¡¯re not on greeting terms,¡± Sang-Hyeon replied and turned around to face Manager Park. ¡°What?¡± Manager Park replied and attempted to scold him. Sang-Hyeon looked him straight in the eyes and continued, ¡°We¡¯re not on greeting terms, us.¡± ¡°...!¡± The other workers around Manager Park turned white. ¡®Wha, What the?¡¯ ¡®What¡¯s he doing?¡¯ ¡®He was always weird.¡¯ ¡®Big talk for a hand-me-down.¡¯ They loudly whispered and hoped for him to hear. Manager Park smiled with his teeth showing. ¡®No wonder he¡¯s down there.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon¡¯s actions weren¡¯t socially eptable even though he quit. Social skills were necessary to retain a good reputation. He shouldn¡¯t have acted like that no matter how much he despised Manager Park and wanted nothing more to do with each other. ¡°Hey, look,¡± Manager Park prepared to scold Sang-Hyeon. ¡°This is why you¡¯re naturally left out of society. You can¡¯t seem to understand how things work, huh? How things function. You¡¯re supposed to just greet me in this ce like nothing is wrong no matter how bad things were between you and me.¡± He rambled on as if he was reading a script. It didn¡¯t seem like his first time as it naturally came to him. ¡°It¡¯ll only be bad for you if you act like this.¡± However, Sang-Hyeon felt a bit tipsy. He would usually end it here, but not this time. Besides, he didn¡¯t have a rtionship with Manager Park anymore. He wasn¡¯t afraid of anything. ¡°Act like nothing is wrong?¡± Sang-Hyeon took another gulp from his beer. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s gotten into you?¡±Ju-Hyeok whispered to him in surprise. Sang-Hyeon kept staring down the manager without a word and the atmosphere grew uneasy. Ju-Hyeok¡¯s eyes went back and forth between them and he wondered how to hold Sang-Hyeon back. Sang-Hyeon opened his mouth first, ¡°What¡¯s the point ofing to someone else¡¯s table and asking where we transferred to? We¡¯re supposed to answer you as if nothing is wrong? Then take this and pretend like nothing is wrong.¡± Ju-Hyeok could feel the sweat running down his back. ¡®No, no way?!¡¯ Everything was happening too fast. Sang-Hyeon got up from his seat. Thump. He wasn¡¯t getting up to bow judging from his posture. Manager Park widened his eyes and took a step back. ¡°Take¡­ take what¡­¡± A plump individual suddenly interrupted them, ¡°Oh, Sang-Hyeon! Funny to see you here!¡± Punk¡¯s Manager Oh had unexpectedly run into them. Anyone could tell the atmosphere was uneasy, but Manager Oh greeted Sang-Hyeon as if nothing was wrong. ¡°Sang-Hyeon, our video is trending like crazy! Our Punk directors are very pleased. I can lift my head around now.¡± ¡°...¡± Sang-Hyeon became speechless at the sudden meeting and Manager Park felt the same. ¡®Punk corporate? Directors?¡¯ The virtual gaming entertainment sector was the top contributor to their nation¡¯s GDP. Manager Park, despite his age, was well aware of Punk just like people who didn¡¯t follow celebrities still knew firms like SM, JYP, and YG. Punk possessed a global influence as a distributorpany. Despite being argepany, Manager Park''s firm would be considered insignificant whenpared to Punk in terms of stock value. ¡®Why is a hugepany like that with¡­ Yu Sang-Hyeon?¡¯ Apany representative acted friendly towards him and even tried to make a favorable impression. ¡°One of the directors wants to invite you to a meal. There¡¯s an omakase restaurant down the street. I was going to contact you about it.¡± Just then, the other Punk workers walked in. ¡°Damn, it¡¯s Almond.¡± ¡°Is that him?¡± ¡°Wow¡­ he¡¯s really good-looking in person.¡± ¡°I should¡¯ve seen him when he came earlier to thepany¡­¡± Everyone treated Sang-Hyeon like a celebrity, which caught Manager Park off-guard. ¡®What is going on¡­¡¯?he thought to himself. ¡°Um¡­ Boss¡­ my nephew wants an autograph¡­¡± One of them even approached Manager Oh and asked him for Almond¡¯s autograph. ¡°Ah, is that okay?¡± ¡°Ah, yes. Of course.¡± ¡°Thank you! Give me one too! I have the one on our contract, but still! Hahaha!¡± The other employees chuckled at his humor. Manager Oh lightened the mood and effectively counterbnced Manager Park''s presence. ¡®What, what¡¯s going on? What¡¯s with Yu Sang-Hyeon? Partnered contract?¡¯ Gulp. ¡®What¡¯s so special about that guy¡­¡¯ Manager Park felt defeated. The Yu Sang-Hyeon he knew was nothing special. Rumors floated around that he had connections and could quicklynd another job, but Manager Park never believed that. ¡®No, there¡¯s no way.¡¯ He knew Sang-Hyeon¡¯s situation quite well. ¡®What happened¡­¡¯ He needed some rification right now. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± But he ultimately evaded the situation. ¡°Sorry?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here,¡± Manager Park reiterated. ¡°We already ordered though¡­¡± ¡°Do you not understand what I¡¯m saying? Let¡¯s get out of here!¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Manager Park left with his workers. So Yu-Jung cheerfully waved goodbye to Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok even on their way out as if to say, ¡®I¡¯m d things worked out!¡¯ ¡°Sigh¡­¡± Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon sighed at the absurd situation that just urred. Manager Oh came up and tapped Sang-Hyeon on the shoulder. ¡°I saw your resume and assumed that you didn¡¯te out on good terms. Unfortunately, people like that exist.¡± As expected, Manager Oh understood the situation already. Sang-Hyeon bowed and formally greeted him. ¡°Thank you. You had to lie because of me¡­.¡± ¡°Hmm? What lie?¡± ¡°That the directors liked me, the views, and the dinner invitation¡­¡± ¡°Haha! Did I get caught? I may have exaggerated a bit. Those kinds of people¡­¡± Tap tap. He tapped on his shiny business card. ¡°Those kinds of people crumple under bigger names because they¡¯re weak-willed.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Yes, no problem. Enjoy your meal. Oh¡­ and by the way, let me know when you¡¯re free for that dinner.¡± ¡°?¡± Sang-Hyeon had a puzzled look on his face. ¡°Are you kidding?¡± ¡°Sorry? Hahaha!?No, that was real.¡± ¡°Sorry!?¡± ¡°The director thing was a lie, but everything else was true. Did you take a look at the views yet?¡± Sang-Hyeon quickly opened his YouTube app and went to his channel. ¡°!¡± His eyes widened at the number of views on his videos. Chapter 35: Knight (3)

Chapter 35: Knight (3)

Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t expect many views on his YouTube channel. It only made sense considering his live stream only had around one to two thousand viewers. The number of views on his videos would be five thousand at most. It would be impressive if five thousand viewers watched him live, but YouTube required a video to have at least ten thousand views to make the minimum profit. A measly five thousand views meant nothing on YouTube. In that sense, small-time streamers like Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t expect to profit much from YouTube. ¡°You probably need to upload twenty more videos to see a slight profit trend.¡± ¡°We won¡¯t be able to get ad-sense yet.¡± ¡°We¡¯re investing in the future.¡± These were the opinions that came from the Punk meeting. ¡°No one knows if YouTube will seed.¡± ¡°Just because it¡¯s popr on Treevy doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯ll be popr on YouTube.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. I have high hopes for Treevy, but YouTube¡­¡± ¡°Oh, but of course, I hope it works out because YouTube has a greater impact.¡± Most of them didn¡¯t think Almond¡¯s YouTube would seed. It wasn¡¯t because they underestimated Sang-Hyeon, but that was the natural stance. Even Bubblegum, the all-time number one streamer, failed quite a bit on YouTube. ¡®No one knows what will happen on YouTube.¡¯?All streamers went by this proverb. However, the premise that no one would know worked well for Sang-Hyeon. [53,000 views] [98,000 views] [60,000 views] The total views for his first three videos already exceeded 50,000 views. One of them nearly reached 100,000. It could be considered a miracle that his videos reached those figures on the first day. ¡°Huh.¡± Sang-Hyeon woke up in the morning and repeatedly checked the numbers. He kept refreshing his YouTube channel in disbelief. ¡®How did this happen?¡¯ His favorite streamer, Bubblegum, had also given their best effort on YouTube and failed many times. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t expect much because of that. However, he was doing great on YouTube. He recalled what Acorn Jelly said. ¡°You have to get an excellent YouTube editor. Editors are like 80% of YouTube.¡±? Acorn Jelly also received a good number of YouTube viewspared to his live streams. That was because Lee Na-Yeon excelled as both a manager and editor. ¡®Is it because of the editor?¡¯ Maybe Seo Ji-Ah had caused Sang-Hyeon¡¯s rise. He recalled the montages that Seo Ji-Ah uploaded in the past and searched for them. [70,800 views] [45,200 views] Her montages received an unbelievable number of views for a small-time streamer ying a minor game like Kingdom Age.?The impact of those videos also affected Almond¡¯s current YouTube channel. ¡®I got lucky.¡¯?Sang-Hyeon finished brushing his teeth with that thought. Just as he was about to spit and rinse his mouth, Kim Ju-Hyeok spoke in an excited voice outside the door, ¡°Hey, I got a message from Assistant Lee. Manager Park¡¯s expression was shit all day. He thinks you have some crazy connections.¡± Sang-Hyeon could imagine Ju-Hyeok¡¯s excited expression from his voice alone. ¡°How could he think I have connections? Me of all people¡­¡± ¡°Maybe because the manager from Punk came and backed you up?¡± ¡°That worked?¡± ¡°Well, their generation is like that.¡± Sang-Hyeon rinsed his mouth andughed. It was all so petty for a manager from arge corporation. ¡®What a simple guy.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon felt embarrassed to have worked like a dog under him. ¡°Oh, are you done?¡± Sang-Hyeon left the bathroom as Ju-Hyeok rushed inside and even bumped him. It seemed like Ju-Hyeok had to go badly. ¡°It¡¯s like we¡¯ve already lived together for a year or something¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon muttered to himself as he changed. These days, he went jogging every morning or did some kind of light exercise to get his body moving. He often exercised when he used to work outside. However, he hadn¡¯t been exercising as often ever since he started streaming. Even Sang-Hyeon, a retired athlete, could feel himself gaining weight. ¡®I had fried chicken and beer yesterday too.¡¯ Zip. He zipped up his workout clothes and went out for a walk. *** He put on his wireless earphones and turned on some upbeat music to run downhill. ¡°Huff. Puff.¡± Winter was approaching and he inhaled the cold air into his lungs with every breath. Despite that, Sang-Hyeon enjoyed moving his body. Bzzzt. A call interrupted his music. ¡°Ah¡­ What does he want now?¡± As expected, it came from Ju-Hyeok. ¡°What.¡± ¡°Do you not look at your messages?¡± ¡°I¡¯m on the run right now.¡± Perhaps Ju-Hyeok was born to be a manager with his natural ability to annoy people. ¡°It¡¯s like my mom reincarnated.¡± Ju-Hyeok ignored Sang-Hyeon¡¯s sassy attitude and said what he had to say, ¡°The scale of our YouTube views is unusual for our industry.¡± Sang-Hyeon already knew that after doing his own research. ¡°So the director wanted to grab a bite with you. By the way, please behave since you¡¯re going alone.¡± ¡°Is that all?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Then, what is it?¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we do something for Seo Ji-Ah?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°These are incredible results. We should show a token of appreciation.¡± She would receive 40% of the profits, but human emotions went beyond numbers. Someone with proficient social skills would know that even a small gift like a set of cookies would go a long way. ¡°Should I bring over a gift to her?¡± ¡°Yeah, sure. Ah, never mind actually. You don¡¯t need to.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°I see her.¡± ¡°What are you¡ª¡± Beep. Sang-Hyeon hung up as soon as he finished his sentence. He spotted Seo Ji-Ah running on the same jogging course as him. ¡°Hi.¡± ¡°?¡± Seo Ji-Ah had her hood up and turned around with wide eyes. ¡°Do you work out often?¡± *** The new handmade burger restaurant, Burger Shack, had a long wait despite being open for just a week. It became one of the hottest burger franchises. ¡°Phew, good thing we came early,¡± Sang-Hyeon muttered as he ced the burger meal he bought in front of Ji-Ah. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Is this really enough?¡± Sang-Hyeon had asked her earlier, ¡®Our YouTube channel is growing really fast. Was there anything you wanted?¡¯? Ji-Ah told him that a meal together would be enough. She wanted to go to Burger Shack. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± she replied and took a bite of her burger. Her mouth became biggerpared to her face. Sang-Hyeon stared at her with interest. ¡°It¡¯s awkward to eat if you stare at me like that.¡± ¡°Ah, I¡¯m sorry.¡± Sang-Hyeon focused on eating his cheeseburger. ¡®Burger Shack¡­ pretty good.¡¯ It was his first time eating here and he was surprised at how good it tasted. Of course, Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t just eat. He continued the conversation by bringing up different topics even though he was the quiet type and enjoyed silence as well. ¡°Ah¡­ Sure¡­.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Seo Ji-Ah¡¯s replies were all brief and kept ending their conversations. It was like interacting with someone who had no social skills. ¡®She must¡¯ve had a tough time at work too.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon continued to eat his fries in silence. He knew the type of person she was, so he didn¡¯t pursue any further conversations. Seo Ji-Ah finally said, ¡°I¡¯m usually not very good at speaking with people. Maybe if we were to grab a drink.¡± Ju-Hyeok would¡¯ve said something like, ¡®Then are you good at talking with dogs?¡¯ However, Sang-Hyeon simply nodded and kept asking questions. ¡°You were pretty talkative when we were jogging. You even showed me the video.¡± ¡°That¡¯s work-rted. I don¡¯t know what to say in normal conversations.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± She could easily talk about work, but not day-to-day subjects. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t say much and continued eating. The other person found it difficult to have conversations. What more could be done? However, Seo Ji-Ah continued the conversation this time. ¡°I¡¯m¡­ weird, right?¡± ¡°...?¡± Sang-Hyeon could only blink. He needed rification on whether this was a rhetorical question or not. Ji-Ah nodded as if his blinking answered her question. ¡°Everyone is like that¡ª¡± ¡°Office work is frustrating, right?¡± Sang-Hyeon dropped his fries and made eye contact with her. Ji-Ah¡¯s eyes began to tremble. ¡°Sorry?¡± ¡°Offices are¡­ there are good times, but also times when it¡¯s really hard for someone.¡± She didn¡¯t reply, but her face seemed to say, ¡®How did you know?¡¯ ¡°If a person coops up and doesn¡¯t say anything, they¡¯ll hold it in until they shatter.¡± ¡°...!¡± ¡°We quit our office jobs too, so you can tell me what happened when you feelfortable.¡± Seo Ji-Ah could only remain silent. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t hear a reply even as he said farewell. ¡®He¡¯s a real¡­ adult¡­¡¯?She thought to herself as she watched Sang-Hyeon walk up the stairs. *** Almond¡¯s stream turned on earlier than usual that evening. ¡ª Can¡¯t resist this! ¡ª Did you think we wouldn¡¯t find you if you randomly came on! ¡ª Tsk tsk. I¡¯m going to donate yesterday¡¯s portion as well. That¡¯s what you get for resting! ¡ª LOL ¡ª AlHa! AlHa! Almond¡¯s fanbase grew quite a bit. Some fans tuned in as soon as he turned on his stream. [Current viewers: 432] Previously, he only had 200 viewers when he began streaming. That number doubled now. Taking the day off yesterday seemed to have contributed. Dun. Du dun! Almond¡¯s intro video began ying. [Current viewers: 1340] He finally appeared once the viewer count increased. ¡°Hi, Treevy!¡± Almond could be seen cheerfully waving on the face cam in one section of the corner. ¡ª Oppa, I¡¯m dying! ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Hahaha! ¡ª AlHaha!? The audience greeted him in the chat. ¡ª Gratz on being a partner streamer. ¡ª Kya, you¡¯ve be such a big boy now¡­ ¡ª I heard the news! ¡ª Congrats! Some congratted him on his partnership with Punk. ¡°It¡¯s my first time saying it on Treevy, but I¡¯ve be Punk¡¯s partner streamer.¡± He summarized what happened just in case some hadn¡¯t heard the news. ¡ª Damn, so you¡¯re going to ditch Kingdom Age!? ¡ª Really? ¡ª You gotta live happily ever after with Emilia! ¡ª Ditching us? Ditching us? Ditching us? His Kingdom Age?fanbase began to worry after his partnership was announced. ¡ª You gotta ditch that game. ¡ª You¡¯ve yed enough of Kingdom Age. ¡ª But, I¡¯m curious about Emilia and the knight ending¡­ Despite their worries¡­ ¡°Today, I¡¯ll be ying Kingdom Age.¡± Sang-Hyeon booted up Kingdom Age?right away like usual. However, the viewers could tell from his tone that today was thest day of Kingdom Age. He was determined to reach the end and y the next game. Sang-Hyeon had never once said, ¡®Today, I¡¯ll be ying¡­¡¯?before in his streams. Nheless, the game began. *** After arriving in the virtual world, he still found himself at the awkward dinner table in the banquet hall. Emilia¡¯s father, Lord of Jeanneret, sat across from him. ¡°What do you think about bing a knight?¡± he asked Almond again and the two choices popped up. [1. Of course, I would be honored.] [2. I am more suited to a mercenary life.] Almond chose the first choice and the next cutscene suddenly yed. Chapter 36: Switching Games (1)

Chapter 36: Switching Games (1)

Emilia¡¯s eyes shone like a summerke. A white snowke passed by and signaled the start of winter. Almond stood against the piercing wind and wore aplete set of armor in front of Emilia. nk. He knelt before her and prepared to be honored. Their eyes met as he ced his sword in his hands. Emilia smiled and reached out when they made eye contact. ¡°I appoint you to be my knight.¡± *** Soft winds apanied the warm sunlight and greenery surrounded the colorful flowers. Spring must¡¯ve arrived and some time passed since he became a knight in the winter. ¡°It¡¯s suddenly spring?¡± Almond could finally move ording to his will and interacted with his viewers. ¡ª You must¡¯ve skipped time. ¡ª Oooh. ¡ª Is this the end? ¡ª Emilia¡¯s smile was so pretty¡­ ¡ª Emilia¡­ ¡ª But what¡¯re you supposed to do now? ¡®What to do¡­¡¯? First, he needed to assess the situation. Almond checked what he was wearing. ¡°My clothes changed. It seems more luxurious¡­¡± He wore different clothes from his days as a mercenary. The texture felt different too. Du Dun. A familiar drum rang out and he received a mission. [Complete the final challenge to be a knight!] Was he not a knight yet? Almond stared at the floating text in confusion. He couldn¡¯t quite grasp the situation due to the time skip. ¡°Sir Almond!¡± Someone called him from far away. ¡°You¡¯ll bete for yourpetition!¡± It was a little boy. All knights were apanied by one. But Almond wasn¡¯t an official knight yet? Then it didn¡¯t make sense for one to apany him. ¡°Whatpetition?¡± ¡°Sorry? Did you smoke some ntsst night?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Then did you drown yourself in wine? The feud regarding your knight title is supposed to be settled today!¡± ¡°Right.¡± ¡°Not right,?Lady Emilia will be furious if she found out! Let¡¯s hurry¡­¡± ¡°What would happen if I knew?¡± Ady¡¯s voice could be heard. It was Emilia. ¡°Hiiik! Lady¡­¡± ¡°Sir Almond.¡± Emilia brushed past the boy and approached Almond. She stared at Almond quite strangely. It seemed different from before. Smooch. ¡ª Wow. ¡ª A gift from the start! ¡ª I¡¯ve used up all my wishes¡­ ¡ª You can stop ying Kingdom Age now¡­ Emilia kissed him. It surprised Sang-Hyeon, but not Almond. Some time passed and their rtionship further developed. ¡®It was probably like this since the seven days they spent together in the castle.¡¯ This situation would be natural from Almond¡¯s perspective. ¡°You know our future will be bleak as well if you don¡¯t do well in thispetition, right?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°I believe you¡¯ll do well.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± What was thispetition to be a knight? Sang-Hyeon, who had no experience with video games, could sense that the end was near. This process would finally tie the knot with Emilia. He headed towards the final challenge. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Emilia grabbed Almond¡¯s hand and brought him somewhere. *** They arrived at an arena prepared for battle. ¡®Are they going to make a knight fight?¡¯ Apetition most likely meant fighting and he thought so too, judging from the surroundings. ¡°Hmph.¡± Azy-looking royal snorted and asked while looking down, ¡°You there? I don¡¯t know why the Jeannerets wanted you to be a knight. The title of a knight is not so light.¡± He yed with his mustache and scolded Almond as if the promotion had been a mistake. ¡°He must prove himself unless the title was passed down.¡± ¡°Almond proved himself countless times. He defeated the Talorant castle alone and defeated arge monster all on his own,¡± Emilia argued back. ¡°Hmph, those rumors are not enough proof!¡± ¡°Then what about you? The only honor you have is your words. Do you have anything to show for it? ¡°What?! Hey, Emilia!¡± As the old man grew upset, the surrounding royals held him back. Each individual looked like an important royal. The viewers recognized their faces from different progressions in the game. ¡ª Alberto, that guy¡­ ¡ª Forbes picked Alberto as the #1 worst NPC! ¡ª I hate that mustache guy. ¡ª Gotta beat the mustache out of him. Almond smirked and headed for the stadium. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Emilia. I¡¯m the one who proposed thispetition.¡± Emilia ced her hands on Almond. ¡°I¡¯m not worried. I just hate that you¡¯re being belittled.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t be belittled starting from today.¡± Almond shrugged off the royal¡¯sments and stood in the stadium. ¡°Woah!!!¡± ¡°Almond! Almond! Almond!¡± The audience cheered. They were peasants who gathered to support him. This alone was evidence of Almond¡¯s influence on the people. Almond showed his appreciation for their cheers and faced the royals who sat as judges. ¡°So, what have you prepared?¡± The mustache royal, Alberto, responded as if waiting for him to ask. ¡°There¡¯s a saying from long ago that true knights can face trolls alone.¡± ¡®Trolls?¡¯ As Almond thought about what a troll was in his mind¡­ Kraaaank! A steel gate opened and a heavy rumbling followed. Thud¡­ ¡°A real troll?¡± ¡°No way.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that too dangerous?¡± ¡°I heard that Sir Almond only uses the bow.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t defeat a troll using arrows!¡± The crowd¡¯s remarks could be heard across the stadium. However, an even louder roar spread throughout the arena. ¡°Rooooooaaar!!!¡± Thump¡­ The earth shook once more as a giant appeared while dragging arge wooden mace. It was truly a real troll. ¡°Alright! Face it if you¡¯re truly a knight!¡± The mustache royal Alberto shouted and ran off to hide in the back. ¡°You must not be a true knight,¡± Sang-Hyeon mumbled. ¡ª For real LOL ¡ª LOL ¡ª He really ran away? ¡ª He¡¯s like 400 meters away. Even that¡¯s too close for him. ¡ª Sprinting away haha All the royals backed away as the troll ferociously roared. Gulp. Even the sound of someone swallowing their saliva seemed loud in this dead silence. ¡ª Dang, can he really kill a troll with a bow? ¡ª It keeps regenerating¡­ Apparently, you have to cut it apart with something. ¡ª You¡¯ve got to inflict lots of damage at once and mince it apart.? ¡ª Its regeneration grows weaker if the body parts are cut off! The monster¡¯s weakness was decapitation. Almond nced at his chat and began scouting around. ¡°Grrrr¡­¡± The troll had no intentions of attacking right away. It just stared at Almond looking around. ¡ª When is he going to shoot? ¡ª Who knows? ¡ª Is he going to shoot? ¡ª Let¡¯s slice with a knife today! ¡ª He¡¯s gotta sh the neck. Suddenly¡­ Twang¡ª? The draw and release happened in one smooth motion. Taang!!! The arrow ripped through the silence and flew. Thwack! It pierced the center of the troll''s neck. Almond raised his hands in the air as if he had already won. ¡ª ??? ¡ª What. ¡ª The troll doesn¡¯t die from that¡­ huh? Thump! The troll copsed with a grand noise and cracked the stone ground. ¡°!¡± The most shocking part was that he defeated the troll in one shot. ¡ª Ah, right! ¡ª Perfect shot! ¡ª Perfect shot mechanic. ¡ª Troll or not¡­? ¡ª Why regenerate? Just one shot them! It was Almond¡¯s specialty, the perfect shot. All enemies fell in one hit as long as he struck the center of their vital point on the first attempt. All enemies including the troll as well. ¡°Woaaaaaah!!!¡± The crowd screamed, and praise filled the stadium. ¡°Almond! Almond! Almond!¡± ¡°A knight of the bow!¡± ¡°Go, Emilia! Go, Almond!¡± Alberto had smirked when the troll appeared with a roar, but now he looked stupefied. ¡°What¡­ what is this? How could this be? Someone must¡¯ve poisoned it!¡± The shock from the troll¡¯s defeat made him delusional. He kept shouting that there must¡¯ve been something wrong with the troll. ¡°Go immediately and check the body!¡± he shouted to his servants, but no one moved. Anyone could tell the troll had died. If someone went to check¡­ they might end up like the troll. ¡°What are you¡­¡± . ¡°It¡¯s over.¡± Emilia went over to stop him. ¡°Do you want to sacrifice another life?¡± ¡°...¡± Almond returned to Emilia. ¡°I¡¯ll take it that I¡¯ve kept my title as a knight,¡± Almond threateningly said to him. He grabbed Emilia¡¯s hand and turned around. The peasants saw them and continued cheering. Alberto and the other judges nkly stared as they walked away. Emilia and Almond suddenly changed into a wedding dress and tuxedo respectively. The cheering peasants turned into wedding guests and the stones in the stadium transformed into colorful flowers. And the chapel¡¯s choir sang for them. [THE END.] Those six letters floated in the sky, followed by the ending credits and the theme song. Almond finallypleted his first ythrough of Kingdom Age. ¡ª Ooooh. ¡ª Damn, they got married?? ¡ª Wow¡­ ¡ª This is the ending. ¡ª All couples can rot in hell! Sang-Hyeon nkly stared at the rolling credits for a moment. ¡®It¡¯s¡­ over¡­¡¯ He found the fastest route to the ending, but the game hadn¡¯t been short for Sang-Hyeon. It took him over a week to finish his first virtual reality experience. This game changed his life. ¡®Goodbye.¡¯ He waved goodbye to his virtual character, Almond. Almond still had a faint connection with Sang-Hyeon and awkwardly mimicked his movements to wave goodbye. It felt like they were waving to each other. Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯t exin his emotions and continued staring at the scene. He turned to his viewers after some time and said, ¡°Alright, everyone. Kingdom Age?is now over.¡± He smiled and said what he had prepared, ¡°Let¡¯s move on to the next game.¡± ¡ª Ooooh! ¡ª Really! ¡ª A new game! ¡ª Wow. ¡ª Hell yeah. ¡ª LIL! y LIL! ¡ª You have to y dating simtors if you¡¯re a real man. Chapter 37: Switching Games (2)

Chapter 37: Switching Games (2)

The viewers could feel their hearts thumping in excitement when Almond mentioned the next game. He had exclusively yed?Kingdom Age and built his reputation from it. Now he was moving on. ¡ª What other shooting games are there? ¡ª He can y as an archer in Life is Legend. ¡ª I wonder if he¡¯s only limited to bows. I feel like he¡¯ll be good at any type of shooting. ¡ª He might be good at shooting games too. ¡ª Probably best with bows though. ¡ª He might y another single yer game.? They would naturally worry if a streamer switched specialties and changed directions, but Almond was different. His specialty was archery and his skills would be useful in most games. He would probably do even better in other gamespared to Kingdom Age. He could show off his skills inpetitions if he yed an online PVP game. That would be different from fighting against AI mobs. ¡ª Almond ising! Watch out everyone! ¡ª So true. ¡ª Move JeonJaPa! Almond ising! ¡ª Hahaha. ¡ª JeonJaPa sensei always has to move¡­ Almond could nowpete against not only regr people, but famous yers too. The fans felt excited about their favorite streamer dominating everyone else. ¡®I¡¯d be lying if I said I wasn¡¯t nervous¡­¡¯ Of course, Almond felt the pressure and considered ying another single yer game. Single yer games didn¡¯t rush yers and provided friendly tutorials to learn the game. However, online games were totally different. It was hard for new yers to adapt no matter how well-made the tutorials were. Even Kingdom Age,?notorious for its difficulty, would be considered easypared to online games. There was nothing more unpleasant and unfair than ying against a yer who already had experience with the game. The users who already honed their skills would never show mercy to new yers like Almond. They would tear him apart if they ever got the chance. ¡®I shouldn¡¯t get in cars if I¡¯m scared of car crashes.¡¯ He slightly hesitated, but turned his attention towards PVP games instead of another single yer game. He sought challenges andpetition as an athlete. PVP games had these two elements and were worth a try now that he was somewhat used to virtual reality. New challenges always excited him. ¡°The game I¡¯m going to y for the second part of my stream is¡­¡± He could hear himself talking softer. Was this out of fear or excitement? It didn¡¯t matter. He would simply enjoy the feeling. ¡°Battle Large!¡± ¡ª Kya! ¡ª Heck yes! ¡ª Ooooh! ¡ª Almond ying Battle Large¡­ is rare. ¡ª I¡¯m so excited. ¡ª I wonder how he¡¯ll do? It¡¯s very different from Kingdom Age. ¡ª It¡¯s possible if it¡¯s Almond! *** Battle Large?was a battle royale game where yers fought to survive on a huge ind. Punk also distributed this triple-A title. It was a must for streamers partnered with Punk and was on apletely different scale from minor games. The news of Almond switching games immediately spread to all the differentmunities. [(Breaking) Almond is changing his game to Battle Large¡­] [Bye, Kingdom Age Almond¡­] [Almond ditches Kingdom Age] KAF users panicked the most about the news. They had to say goodbye to their rising star in Kingdom Age.? [Current viewers: 1921] His viewer count almost reached two thousand during hisst moments in Kingdom Age. [Current viewers: 1105] Now he barely had a thousand viewers, but this couldn¡¯t be helped. ¡®It¡¯s alright.¡¯ It was a pity almost nine hundred viewers left, but Sang-Hyeon patted himself on the back. He couldn¡¯t please everyone. He knew the risks that came with changing games. ¡®Acorn Jelly does this too.¡¯ This problem wasn¡¯t unique to him. Every variety streamer experienced it. Views differed by games and some even shed the viewership by half. Streamers often changed games despite all this because it was more beneficial in the long run. Sang-Hyeon wouldn¡¯tst or grow if he only relied on Kingdom Age. He would slowly, but surely lose his viewers. ¡°It¡¯s almost done downloading.¡± He calmed himself and chatted with his viewers. He didn¡¯t usually talk while ying games, so he took advantage of times like this to get some words in. ¡°It¡¯s my first time ying an online virtual reality PVP game. I hope they go easy on me.¡± The viewers who remained were curious about how he would perform. ¡ª Downloading Battle Large right now?? ¡ª You¡¯ve never yed it? ¡ª Look at when his capsule ID was created. ¡ª Ah, the neers don¡¯t know that Almond is a newb. ¡ª Newb and his neers. Some of the new viewers just found out that Almond was new to capsule gaming. ¡ª LOL Battle Large is quite hard for a newbie¡­ ¡ª Yeah, I wonder how he¡¯ll do. ¡ª I thought for sure he had experience with it. ¡ª Wow, it¡¯s been a while since we got a newbie in Battle Large. Kingdom Age?had a lot of fanatics, so it wasmon for newbies to try the game out. However, Battle Large?was such a popr game that it was rare to see a new streamer ying it. ¡ª I¡¯m excited. ¡ª Is he all luck or skills? Some worried, but others also felt excited for him. The topic of bows also came up. ¡ª But is Almond going to use a bow in Battle Large too? ¡ª No way. ¡ª Didn¡¯t he just use the bow for the bow challenge? I don¡¯t think that¡¯s all he can do. ¡ª You neers don¡¯t know anything. Almond doesn¡¯t even know what the bow challenge is. ¡ª For real, he just came in and went straight for the bow. The bow was special to Sang-Hyeon, but Almond just seemed like a skilled gamer to his viewers, especially the neers. They probably weren¡¯t aware of his special connection to the bow unless someone watched all of his videos. This was also his chance to engrave in the viewers¡¯ minds that Almond represented the bow. *** Ding.? [All 100 yers have gathered.] [The battle for survival will now begin.] Sang-Hyeon gulped when he saw the messages. ¡®It¡¯s starting.¡¯ A game where 100 yers jumped off a helicopter and fought for survival. ¡°Sigh.¡± He took a breath out of nervousness. He didn¡¯t have high hopes since this was his first PVP game. It would be enough if he could adapt. Dudududududu! The attack helicopter roared in his ears, the dark screen slowly grew brighter, and the helicopter came into view. A breathtaking view stretched out underneath his feet. ¡°Shit?!¡± Sang-Hyeon swore without realizing it and took a step back. ¡ª LOL Shit! . ¡ª Hahaha, the newbie is so cute. ¡ª Almond became a newbie again¡­ ¡ª It¡¯s been a while since we¡¯ve seen this Almond. The viewersughed at the sight of him hesitating and encountering trouble like when he first started, but Sang-Hyeon couldn¡¯tugh in this situation. ¡°What are you doing?! Aren¡¯t you going to deploy your parachute?¡± ¡°Are you kidding me? Now? Is a soldier going to back off from thepetition? Do you want to die already?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re going to die now, say it! I¡¯ll tear you apart in half!¡± Sang-Hyeon got berated with insults after hesitating for one second. This pressure and atmosphere felt different from the Olympics. ¡°Huuuahhh¡­¡± The game just started¡­ but even jumping off the helicopter became an obstacle for Sang-Hyeon. ¡®Actually ying it feels different¡­¡¯ The video guide didn¡¯t do this virtual reality justice at all. ¡°Run! Run! Fucking run!¡± ¡°Ruuuun!¡± The other yers jumped off one by one as soldiers pushed them off and shouted at them. The veins in Almond¡¯s hand protruded as he tightened his grip around the safety bar. ¡®I can¡¯t lose.¡¯ Seeing thepetition woke him up. He had to pick up weapons as quickly as possible to gain an advantage. He had no time to sit around and just wait. Tak! He shut his eyes and kicked off. Wheeeeeeeee!!! The strong wind blew straight against his face. ¡°Uhbuhbuhbuhbuh!¡± He tried to say something, but the wind filled his mouth. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Legend. ¡ª Uhbuhbuhbuh!!! LOL ¡ª Lmao hahaha. The wind resistance aggressively pushed against him. He could feel the coldness at his fingertips and his chin shuddered. ¡®Wow, is this really a game?¡¯ It was a different level of realismpared to Kingdom Age. ¡ª Kya. ¡ª The air feels so nice! ¡ª Let¡¯s go! ¡®Isn¡¯t this a little fast?¡¯ His parachute automatically fluttered open and choked him a little. ¡°Huff.¡± Hooooong! He quickly fell even with the parachute. ¡°!¡± Almond hit the ground before he knew it. Thud. ¡°Urk!¡± He tripped and helplessly rolled over. This made him momentarily think back to when he used to criticize Bubblegum¡¯s skills. ¡®It¡¯s not that easy.¡¯ Landing was one of the basics, but even that had been difficult. ¡ª LOL, he¡¯s a real newb. ¡ª Almond is so cute¡­ This is a rare moment. ¡ª So cute rolling around! ¡ª Damn. The chat mocked him, but Almond quickly picked himself up and looked around. Other yers around him were in the same situation. ¡°Oof!¡± ¡°Urgh!¡± Some yers were already fighting with their fists. Sang-Hyeon hid in the corner and watched the fights unfold. Then he heard someone running from behind him. Tadadadak. Someone was definitely headed toward him. ¡°That one¡¯s a newbie!¡± ¡°Kill him!¡± It wasn¡¯t just one. Three other yers headed towards him. They must¡¯ve noticed Sang-Hyeon was a newbie from how hended. ¡°These guys. They should go easy on newbies,¡± Sang-Hyeonined and ran for his life. He ended up in front of an abandoned house and barged in after breaking down the door. Thump. He barricaded the door with his back and looked around for a weapon. Something caught his eye as he quickly scanned the ce. ¡°!¡± Apound bow sat on top of the shelf. ¡®Found it.¡¯ The?Chapter 38: Switching Games (3) Thump. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s heart pounded when he felt the bow. ¡®It¡¯s really been a while.¡¯ Thepound bow might be unfamiliar to the average joe, but it became quite mainstream in archery. It just wasn¡¯t officially used at the Olympics. Almond had experience withpound bows because of his general interest in all bows. ¡®Who would¡¯ve thought I¡¯d use this here?¡¯ He had only ever practiced hitting still targets with apound bow, so using it in this survival game excited him. ¡ª What are you doing? Grab it! ¡ª I think it¡¯s better to look for a shotgun.? ¡ª No, no, they¡¯re chasing him right now. He has no choice. He could hear footsteps climbing the stairs outside as he reminisced. Thump, thump, thump! The opponents nned to barge in from the 2nd floor to kill him. ¡ª These guys are so unfair teaming up against a newbie. ¡ª Kill em! ¡ª Can¡¯t you report them? ¡ª Shudders. Almond found himself in a difficult situation, but it had been his own fault for poorlynding and exposing himself. Chuk¡ª? Almond grabbed thepound bow without any further thoughts and readied himself in front of a doorway with the stairs in sight. His eyes turned cold and his breathing grew lighter. Thud¡­ thud¡­ He could hear their footstepsing down. Did they have weapons? It would be dangerous even if they only had pistols due to their numbers. Thud¡­ thud¡­? The footsteps grew louder. Finally, he could see a pair of feeting down the stairs. Kling¡ª? A sharp metal noise resounded. ¡®It¡¯s a knife.¡¯ Almond felt relieved that the first enemying down only had a hunting knife. ¡®If it¡¯s like this¡­¡¯ Sang-Hyeon would¡¯ve had to rush if the enemy had a gun, but a knife gave him time. It wouldn¡¯t be toote to fire even as the second person came down the stairs. Perhaps he could even wait for the third. Thud. Thud. Suddenly, the second person appeared on the stairs. ¡°!¡± This new enemy had a handgun. Creak¡­? Almond determined that there was no need to wait any further. The second yer¡¯s head became exposed as the third person¡¯s feet came into view. Swoosh! The sound of air being cut rang out. Thwack! The arrow perfectly struck the center of his forehead. It flew with so much power that the enemy mmed against the wall and made a loud noise. THUD! [Almond ¡ú KeanuReverse] [Eliminated!] [99/100] ¡ª Kyaaaa! ¡ª Robin Hoooood! ¡ª This is the power of Korea! ¡ª His aim is insane! ¡ª Wow¡­ ¡ª Headshot, instant kill! ¡ª Don¡¯te near Almond without a helmet! ¡ª Another round please! It was an incredible shot considering it was his first in Battle Large. ¡°What the!!!¡± ¡°Damn arrow!¡± The other two finally noticed and quickly got into position. One of them pointed towards Almond based on the arrow¡¯s trajectory. ¡°Over there¡ª¡± Thwack. He copsed next to his teammate without finishing his sentence. Thud¡ª? [Almond ¡ú K-Food] [Double Kill!] [98/100] Only the one with a knife remained, but he ran off. His footsteps echoed as he fled after he determined that he was no match against Almond with just a knife. ¡°Running away? Should I chase him?¡± Almond felt confused because this game was about survival and not fighting all the time. ¡ª LOL ¡ª It¡¯s a game of survival.? ¡ª You don¡¯t have to kill everyone. ¡ª Chase him! Now! ¡ª Chase him as if your life depended on it! ¡ª You guys are nuts. The viewers wanted him to chase the enemy. They wanted justice against the yers who were mercilessly hunting newbies. ¡°Then let¡¯s chase him. He¡¯s probably not far,¡± Almond muttered and slowly came out of the room. Thud! The door across from him suddenly opened. The enemy had picked up his ownpound bow and faced Almond. ¡®He was waiting?¡¯ The enemy had only pretended to run away. Creak¡­? Both of them pulled their bowstrings at the same time. Swoosh¡ª? Almond released his arrow first. Thwack! [Almond ¡ú TasteCow] [Triple Kill!] [92/100] The arrow formed a clean hole in his head. Thud¡ª? Almond smiled and walked over the corpse. ¡°He must¡¯ve thought he could copy me.¡± ¡ª LOL ¡ª He thought it looked like a good idea hahaha? ¡ª He must¡¯ve been a beginner too.? ¡ª 1v3 sheesh. ¡ª Why¡¯d they even team up? ¡ª They think they¡¯re the three musketeers. Almond thought the opponents were beginners as well. They seemed to have yed a couple of rounds before, which made them even more pitiful. ¡®Are they just bad¡­¡¯ yers who weren¡¯t good despite having yed several rounds. Almond faced these types of yers in his current MMR (matchmaking rating). This made it possible for even Almond, aplete beginner, to achieve a triple kill. ¡°I¡¯m gaining some confidence from this.¡± He was all warmed up now and could finally showcase his skills. ¡°Should we start farming now?¡± *** He freely roamed around the house after killing those three and farmed for items. However, the small house didn¡¯t have much to collect. He only found a couple of bandages and an energy drink. ¡°I should head out for now, right?¡± ¡ª Yeah, you¡¯ve gotta go out and farm. ¡ª You need to find some armor too. It was time for him to move on after cleaning out the house. ¡®I wonder if the blue circle will close in soon.¡¯ It would be safer to hide in a corner and camp out while waiting for people. However, a mechanic called the blue zone prevented that in this game. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds!] The blue zone covered the entire map and gradually shrunk as time passed. Kiiiing¡ª? A peculiar siren rang throughout the map. Almond could see the map in the corner of his eye. A yer would slowly lose their health until they died if they stayed in the blue zone. They had to move closer to the circle¡¯s center to survive. ¡®This location isn¡¯t very good.¡¯ Almond found himself in a disadvantageous position after looking at the minimap. He had to move quickly and heard motorcycles outside. ¡°I should hurry.¡± Almond rushed outside after the vehicles. *** A vast desert greeted him when he stepped outside. He couldn¡¯t hide anywhere and only had thepound bow.?An enemy could easily spot him, so he had to move carefully. He slowly moved with his back against the wall. Vrooooooom¡ª? He heard an engine growing louder as it approached. Vroooom¡ª ¡®Just drive by¡­¡¯ He couldn¡¯t defeat a yer on a vehicle, so hey down and prayed for the car to drive by. However¡ª ¡°!¡± Ting! Ting! Sparks flew from the wall behind him. ¡°Eek!¡± The yers in the vehicle were shooting at him. Almond rolled and instinctively dodged the bullets. Ting! Ting! The bullets followed him. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Almond¡¯s expression is hrious. ¡ª Right, now this is how a newbie looks like. ¡ª So spicy! ¡ª Oppa, so cute! Almond looked quite foolish rolling around, but he couldn¡¯t help it. It was his first time dodging bullets. ¡°I was just surprised because it¡¯s my first time,¡± Almond made an excuse as he looked around. ¡®Where am I?¡¯ Vroooom!!! He heard the engine rumbling behind him this time. ¡°!¡± A jeep drove directly towards Almond. Thump! Th-Thump! Gunshots could be heard in the distance. Almond quickly hid behind a wall. A loud noise ripped through the air and the wall began to copse. Crumble¡ª ¡®Their bullets shattered the wall?¡¯ It must¡¯ve been a bigger gun with stronger bullets. Almond had no knowledge of guns in general and didn¡¯t know what to expect. ¡°Damn.¡± He ran towards the next wall without a chance toin. Ta ta tak. He jumped from wall to wall with ease. ¡ª Oooohh¡­ ¡ª Is he a ninja? ¡ª As expected of Almond. ¡ª There was nothing like this in Kingdom Age. The game had a mechanic that assisted jumping from wall to wall, but Almond was still quite quick. The next round of bullets bounced off the wall and missed him. Also, this wall was sturdier than the previous one. ¡°Damn it! Why can¡¯t I hit him!?¡± Tatatata! The frustrated enemy shot all over the ce. ¡°Ah,?stop fucking around ande out!¡± ¡°Kuahaha!¡± Skrt¡ª? The jeep stopped and multiple yers stepped out whileughing. ¡°Another group?¡± Almond peeked at them and sighed. He felt annoyed by the situation. ¡ª Hahaha. ¡ª What the, why are there so many teams in this elo? ¡ª Let¡¯s report all of them.? ¡ª Luck-based game. The three people slowly walked towards Almond and their footsteps grew louder. Almond rested against the wall and readied his bow. ¡°Phew.¡± He took a short breath and slightly tilted his body to aim at them and shoot his bow. Swoosh! ¡°Huh?¡± Thwack! The arrow struck an enemy¡¯s head before any of them could react. The enemy didn¡¯t wear any head protection since they were still in the early stages of the game. He immediately copsed. Thud. [Almond ¡ú RaloFan] [Elimnated!] [88/100] ¡ª Wow! ¡ª He could cut sashimi with that precision. ¡ª This is it. This is Kingdom Age! ¡ª Kingdom Age LOL! ¡ª Sir, this is Battle Large. ¡°What the!? How did he die in one shot? ¡°It was a headshot.¡± ¡°Fuck!¡± Bows dealt great damage by default, so headshots guaranteed an instant kill. However, it was difficult because the criteria tond headshots were different. Bullets counted even if they brushed against someone¡¯s head, but arrows had to directlynd for them to count. This handicap didn¡¯t affect Almond because he always struck the center of his enemy¡¯s head regardless of the situation. Battle Large¡¯s?criteria felt quite generous to himpared to Kingdom Age.? ¡®One more.¡¯ Thwack! Another enemy had his head pierced by an arrow. ¡°Kugh!¡± He copsed with a small noise. [Almond ¡ú ParkaFan] [Eliminated!] [85/100] ¡°J-Jesus Christ¡­¡± Thest one dived onto the ground and assumed a prone position. He finally realized the difference in skill between them. ¡°What are you?! Did you just go on a losing streak to dominate us!¡± Almond couldn¡¯t see the enemy and could only hear him. ¡®Around here¡­¡¯ He didn¡¯t even need to see and could guess where the enemy was hiding. It was only a guess, but Almond¡¯s guess would be deadly for the enemy. Creak¡­? Almond angled his bow up and aimed towards the sky as he drew the bowstring. ¡®Hmmm.¡¯ He nodded once and fired the shot. The arrow fell from the sky and pierced the yer who couldn¡¯t even be seen. Thwack! ¡°Urrrrk!¡± Tutututu! The enemy must¡¯ve fired in a panic as scattered gunshots echoed out. ¡ª What the??? ¡ª Did you hit him without even seeing him? ¡ª No look shot? ¡ª Wow. ¡ª What¡¯s the point of obstacles? Just shoot up. Almond ran into a simr situation in the past while shooting at a simr angle. This time, he couldn¡¯t even see the target. ¡®But I could hear him.¡¯ Thwack! Another arrownded. Thwack! Thest one perfectly struck. ¡°Kugh!¡± The enemy didn¡¯t make a sound anymore. [Almond ¡ú DopaFan] [Knocked Out!] He thought the enemy had died, but the dialogue was different this time. ¡°Huh? Knocked out?¡± ¡®It should say eliminated. Why does it say knocked out?¡¯ A yer could only be knocked out in the squad game mode, which meant¡­ ¡ª No way¡­ ¡ª No wonder there were so many teams. ¡ª They were showing up as eliminated because he kept getting headshots. Damn, this was squad mode. ¡ª Was he ying against squads as a solo yer in his first game? Goddamn¡­ ¡ª Legendary. It all began with Almond¡¯s mistake. He identally went into squad mode and fought against teams of 4 by himself. ¡®Damn, really?¡¯ Almond felt baffled by his mistake. Everyone had a squad except for him and on his first round as well! [SoloAlliance has donated 10,000 won.] [The solo alliance is deeply touched by your performance. We will reward you with 100,000 won if you reach rank 1!] At least he received a donation mission thanks to ying solo. ¡°Hahaha¡­ Thank you.¡± Almond felt d to receive the mission, but also uneasy. ¡®What is it?¡¯ yers could be revived in squad matches, but instantly died if they had no teammates left. Squads were limited to groups of four and he had already killed three, which meant¡ª ¡®Wait, then one was¡ª?¡¯ Ping. A silent shot echoed out as Almond fell back. Chapter 39: First Place Alone (1)

Chapter 39: First ce Alone (1)

A squad usually referred to special forces in the military. In Battle Large,?it meant a 4 yer team and the squad mode consisted of team matches. This game mode wasn¡¯t necessarily limited to 4 yers. yers could also y as a duo, trio, or even solo. Almond was fighting against other teams of four by himself. He had defeated three, but one enemy remained and shot him. Ping. ¡°Kugh!¡± He felt a sudden pain in his chest. Woong¡­? His body felt like it was floating. ¡®What¡­ is this¡­¡¯ His thoughts turned nk and all he could see was the sky. A radiant blue sky. The sticky blood flowing out of him felt too real. ¡®Damn.¡¯ This realism was extraordinary. ¡®I¡¯ve been shot.¡¯ He picked himself up as the realization settled in. Ting! Sparks flew from where he was just lying. He would¡¯ve died on the spot if he hadn¡¯t gotten up. ¡°Heek!¡± His heart pounded even faster. For a moment, he felt like he¡¯d be forced to log out of the game. Almond opened his eyes and quickly rolled away. Ting! Ting!? Sparks followed and constantly reminded him of the danger. ¡°Hugh¡­ Hugh¡­¡± He sessfully escaped for now and hid behind some debris. Almond calmed himself by taking slow, deep breaths. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Wow. ¡ª ying solo in squad mode. ¡ª Crazy. . ¡ª Rolling out LOL ¡ª Did he survive? ¡ª ying squad mode for his first round. He maintained a business mindset even in this situation and nced over the chat. ¡®What?¡¯ The viewers didn¡¯t seem to realize the gravity of the situation. He was really in danger for a moment there. ¡®Why did my heart rate go up so high?¡¯ Every capsule machine was integrated with a heart rate monitor and various sensors, which made it possible to monitor and record different stats. His gauge went from yellow to orange. He would¡¯ve been forcefully disconnected if it had turned red for even a second. ¡®Is this just me?¡¯ He felt confused and wondered if this only happened to him because of the game¡¯s realism. Thump thump¡­? He suddenly heard some footsteps. ¡°!¡± Now wasn¡¯t the right time to ponder. Almond quickly leaned against the wall and focused again. ¡ª What¡¯s wrong? ¡ª Scaredy cat! ¡ª Haha. ¡ª Shuffling? ¡ª There wasn¡¯t even any sound? ¡®There wasn¡¯t any sound?¡¯ Almond went from confused to frustrated. ¡®The hell are they talking about?¡¯ Thump! Thump! It felt like the noise was right beside him. An enemy was definitely approaching. He closed his eyes and visualized the distance between them. They weren¡¯t too far apart. The footsteps grew slower, but didn¡¯t stop. The enemy seemed to know Almond¡¯s exact position and was determined to kill him once and for all. He also felt curious as to why the opponent was so adamant, but that didn¡¯t really matter. The opponent wanted to kill him and he needed to survive. ¡®What should I do? They have a gun¡­¡¯ Bullets would always be faster in a head-on confrontation. He had to strike first. ¡®Ah!¡¯ Almond realized why the opponent wasn¡¯ting any closer. ¡®He¡¯s not trying to kill me.¡¯ Almond clenched one arrow with his teeth and nocked another onto his bow. Thud. Thud¡­? The footsteps continued and Almond calmly waited. Thump. The footsteps suddenly stopped. Swoosh! Almond got up and quickly fired. ¡°Fu¡ª¡± Thwack! The yer couldn¡¯t even utter hisst word as he died while reviving his teammate.?The arrow perfectly pierced the center of his forehead. Thump! The arrow¡¯s force pushed the corpse into the sand. His objective had been to revive his teammate. That¡¯s why he approached so confidently because he knew his teammate¡¯s location. [Almond ¡ú WaterRatFan] [Eliminated!] [Almond ¡ú DopaFan] [Double Kill!] [66/100] The kill log disyed a double kill. The teammate who had been knocked out automatically died with no one left to revive him. ¡°Sigh, I beat them.¡± He defeated an entire squad by himself. ¡ª Wow!!! ¡ª It¡¯s Almond¡¯s victory! ¡ª How gruesome¡­ ¡ª Hahaha? ¡ª Single squad, let¡¯s go! ¡ª LOL The chat quickly rose and so did the donations. [Ahhh¡­ Skrt! has donated 1,000 won.] [You were insane boss.] [ForeverBat has donated 5,000 won.] [His skills¡­ he¡¯s a natural.] [Everyone~ has donated 1,000 won.] [You guys have to remember¡­ it¡¯s only been two weeks since he made his ount. Also, this is his first time ying Battle Large as well¡­] [Crossing the Line has donated 3,000 won.] [Isn¡¯t this enough to ovee JeonJaPa¡¯s skills?] ¡ª JeonJaPa is crossing the line. ¡ª Just like your nickname. ¡ª To be fair, JeonJaPa didn¡¯t have natural talent like this at the start. ¡ª True. ¡ª It¡¯s hard to say if we¡¯re only looking at talent.? ¡ª How can you be this good just ying for the first time? ¡ª Stfu JeonJaPa is the best! A familiar name donated again. The amount was little, but that was a good sign. It meant there were more light-hearted donations and new viewers watching. ¡®My stream is heading in the right direction.¡¯ Thements also indicated that he was on the right path to bing a major streamer. It was too early to judge, but his transition to a new game had been sessful. Everything was working out. ¡°I¡¯m going to start farming now.¡± However, he suddenly faced another dilemma when he came face to face with a gun. ¡®Gun!¡¯ He heard that his opponent¡¯s gun was a good one. This M4 was a popr choice among yers. It was definitely better than hispound bow. ¡®Should I get rid of the bow?¡¯?Almond deeply thought about it. A regr yer would choose the gun without hesitation because it was superior. His viewers would definitely be frustrated if he didn¡¯t pick up that gun. ¡®But what if I win? What if I got first ce as a solo squad in my first game?¡¯ Almond briefly hesitated. To be a great streamer required more?than just skills. His character and personality centered around the bow, so he didn¡¯t want to give it up. ¡®They might not like it at first, but the payout will be great if I win. If I lose¡­¡¯ As he thought over this dilemma¡­ Ding.? [SeoJiAh has donated 10,000 won.] [Mission: 100,000 won if you win with the bow.] A new donation mission was on the line. ¡®Oh.¡¯ This mission appeared at the perfect time. ¡®Huh?¡¯ But the viewer¡¯s name was SeoJiAh. Was it someone with the same name? No way. ¡®A coincidence¡­ Yeah, right.¡¯ Almond felt a bit sorry for her. She also lived in Hoogye, which exined enough of her financial situation. She probably wasn¡¯t that well off, but declining would be rude. [I ept.] ¡°Thank you for the mission! I was going to use the bow anyway.¡± ¡ª LOL what a waste¡­ ¡ª Is he really going to use the bow? ¡ª Is that even possible? ¡ª Bow! Let¡¯s use the bow! ¡ª There was the other victory mission too. I would¡¯ve gone the safe route with the gun. ¡ª But a bow would make for much better content. The viewers weed his new mission. Almond ditched the gun and ran away from the blue zone. *** Vroom¡ª? He drove the jeep that the previous squad used. ¡°Where should I go?¡± Almond asked his viewers. He didn¡¯t know where items were located or any advantageous spots on the map since this was his first ythrough. He simply drove away from the blue zone. ¡ª You¡¯ve gotta find a helmet first. ¡ª It¡¯s usually on the farms. ¡ª Go to the farm. ¡ª There¡¯s no set ce, but bigger buildings usually have more items. ¡°The farm? Alright.¡± He checked for the farm on his minimap and drove towards it. The chat warned him after ten seconds. ¡ª Oh, you can¡¯t drive in a straight line. ¡ª You¡¯re attracting everyone. ¡ª Come and kill me! The car made so much noise that it was dangerous to rashly drive through the field. Almond found out toote. Kwang¡ª? As expected, the car tilted with a loud bang. ¡°What!?¡± Thump. ¡°Huh!?¡± Thump. The carpletely flipped over and he panicked. ¡°Wha¡­ what the.¡± ¡ª LOL ¡ª That¡¯s hrious. ¡ª This is what a newbie is like. ¡ª I think it¡¯s a grenade. ¡ª Another one ising!!! ¡®Another one?¡¯ Almond quickly grasped the situation and rolled out of the car. He ducked behind and used the car as a shield. Another grenade flew in just like the viewers predicted. Kwaaang! The car fully tilted at a 45 degree angle. ¡ª They seem pretty good. ¡ª That toss was perfect. ¡ª Pro toss. ¡ª Seems like a smurf. ¡ª Damn, he probably has teammates too.? Fwoosh! The jeep caught on fire. Almond quickly crawled into a small house nearby. He closed the door and attempted to catch his breath. BOOM! The jeep exploded after a few seconds and he felt the explosion¡¯s heat even at a distance. He got goosebumps thinking he could¡¯ve been caught in that explosion. Almond nkly stared at the wreckage and shook his head. ¡®Let¡¯s go to the roof for now.¡¯ No one else was in the house. He quickly climbed the stairs and ran to the roof to find the enemies. ¡®Where are they?¡¯ The ck ashes from the explosion covered his vision. ¡®There they are.¡¯ He could slightly make out the enemies beyond the smoke. One approached him while the other three stood on standby. ¡®There¡¯s four of them.¡¯ As expected, he had to face another squad of four. At that moment¡ª Tang! A gunshot could be heard. Ting! Sparks flew from next to Almond. The enemy missed, but they found his location. ¡®They found me.¡¯ Tutu! Tang! Two barraged him with bullets and prevented him from escaping. The other two ran into the house where he was in. ¡ª Wow, every moment is so intense. ¡ª A solo¡¯s problem¡­ ¡ª LOL ¡ª It¡¯s like my life¡­ ¡ª You can do this Almond! ¡ª These unfair bastards! ¡ª Wym unfair? It¡¯s a squad match LOL ¡ª Damn, what¡¯s he going to do now. They seem pretty good. Almond gave up trying to fire back and leaned against the wall on the roof. ¡°Sigh.¡± Meanwhile, the bullets kept him pinned down and he couldn¡¯t move. He couldn¡¯t even rotate his body. ¡®Guess I have no choice.¡¯ Creak¡­? He aimed towards the sky with his bow drawn behind his back. ¡ª Oh, I saw this in Fortress. ¡ª Backshot? ¡ª Is he shooting at an angle like earlier? But from the back¡­ He leaned his back against the wall and aimed as high as he could. This wasmonly referred to as a back shot in a game called Fortress. He prepared to shoot a high-angled shot with just his intuition. Almond closed his eyes and focused on the footsteps. He felt the wind against his skin. ¡®Sigh¡­¡¯ He took a small breath and fired the tightly drawn bow. Pang! The arrow flew into the sky. Then he nocked the arrow in his mouth and released it even quicker than before. Pang! This arrow also flew towards the sky. They flew straight up and fell back down right away. Thwack! ¡°Kugh!¡± An arrow perfectlynded on one of the pursuer¡¯s foreheads. Toong! His helmet shriveled and his health significantly decreased. The teammate beside him was about to say something in confusion when¡­ ¡°What? What is this¡ª¡± Thwack! He didn¡¯t have a chance to finish his sentence. [Almond ¡ú Mr.Krabs] [Eliminated!] [47/100] The other pursuer didn¡¯t wear a helmet like his teammate. ¡ª Two shots bothnded on their foreheads? ¡ª He cannd them even while shooting backwards?! ¡ª Does thepound bow automatically aim? ¡ª What is this luck?! ¡ª Is this really luck¡­ ¡ª He didn¡¯t aim, but it was still good aim! ¡ª So funny how he died mid-sentence. ¡ª He never imagined another shoting. Chapter 40: First Place Alone (2)

Chapter 40: First ce Alone (2)

I Love Mondays?was a four man squad and n made up of different users who took a break from the game. The squad leader Cmari?even reached diamond rank in the past. They stopped ying for more than a year, so their ranks reset. Thankfully, the game hadn¡¯t changed much aside from the addition of new items and a few new maps. ying on familiar, ssic maps would help them recover their old gamey skills. ¡®This rank is gonna be easy as fuck.¡¯ They felt excited and looked forward to dominating. The two members that attacked both copsed almost simultaneously when something fell from the sky. Even then, the enemy still hadn¡¯t shown their face. ¡®What is that? What did they die from?¡¯ In this moment, Cmari thought the game had changed from what he used to know. *** ¡°Phew, did it hit?¡± Almond leaned against the wall on the roof. He couldn¡¯t even peek to check if he hit the enemies because he shot the arrows backward. Fortunately, the kill log notified him that one had died. [Almond ¡ú Mr.Krabs] [Eliminated!] [47/100] ¡ª Man, wow. ¡ª That¡¯s crazy. This is beyond normal. ¡ª Isn¡¯t it just a fluke? ¡ª Wow¡­ ¡ª Oppa you¡¯re the best! Smirk. Almond couldn¡¯t help but smile while reading thepliments in the chat. Their sense of awe at his actions somewhat baffled him. ¡®This one was kind of cool.¡¯ It was different from his usual shots. Hended the shot backwards without even seeing the target. From Almond¡¯s perspective, it was a variation of his donation reaction when he shot straight into the air. ¡®It¡¯s good that I tried a lot of weird things when I was young.¡¯ He and his friends often practiced trick shots like they were in a circus during his archery days. For example, shooting straight into the air and having the arrownd at a specific spot or hitting a flying arrow with another one. They often put on such clown shows. His coach used to scold them that they would break their bows. Messing around like that turned out to be beneficial in situations like these. As he reminisced about the past¡­ m! He heard the door burst open. One of the two who came for him hadn¡¯t died yet and managed to get inside the house. ¡®They¡¯ll probablye through the rooftop entrance.¡¯ The rooftop only had one entrance. He just needed to wait for the enemy to appear there. Thankfully, Almond could see it from his current position. He stayed in the same spot and watched the door to avoid getting shot at by more bullets. However¡­ ¡®The enemy has a gun.¡¯ Almond was only using a bow. The speed of bullets would definitely overpower him in a one-on-one situation. Thepound bow?had decent power, but nowhere near the strength of a gun. Tak, tak¡­ He could hear slow footstepsing up to the roof. Nheless, Almond took out another arrow without a choice. He had to face them regardless of what weapon they had. The enemies would target him right away if he moved. It was impossible to dodge bullets unless the opponents just missed. Almond didn¡¯t like leaving his fate to others. ¡®I¡¯ll ovee this myself.¡¯ He would push through with his own abilities because he trusted his archery skills the most. ¡®They¡¯reing.¡¯ Toong¡­ He could hear thest step on top of the stairs and the doorknob turning. Crank. ¡®I¡¯ve got to focus.¡¯ Almond concentrated like never before. He cut himself off from the world. Even his breath seemed too loud and his heartbeat too distracting. He was in his own world right now as he drew his bow. Creak¡­? ¡°!¡± And he released. Pang! ¡ª ??? ¡ª ? ¡ª It¡¯s not even open¡­ The door didn¡¯t open yet, but he had already fired his shot. Creak¡­ The door slowly opened and a slight crack formed. Swoosh¡­? A breeze found its way through. Thwack! ¡°Kugh!¡± Creak¡­ The door fully opened. Not from a hand, but the weight of an entire body. [Almond ¡ú Spongebob] [Knocked Out!] Almond¡¯s arrow had struck the opponent in the abdomen. ¡ª He perfectly timed the door opening!? ¡ª What the¡­ ¡ª Almond, is he a god? ¡ª He ys like a veteran. ¡ª He shot low as well in case the enemy was crouching. ¡ª Usually, only pros can do this¡­ ¡ª Wow¡­ is this really your first time? Only pros could pull off a difficult skill like perfectly timing a kill as the door opened. ¡°It was just good timing,¡± Almond nonchntly said as he took some painkillers. Such a skill required immense concentration and finesse to achieve. It hadn¡¯t been an easy feat. ¡ª Skills. ¡ª We can¡¯t time it. That¡¯s why we lose everything in the stock market! ¡ª Oh¡­ what are these tears¡­ ¡ª Ah, just get the timing right! Of course! The viewers thought he was either sneering or being too humble. He just made a perfect y. The opponent would¡¯ve never expected this caliber of y. SpongeBob became quite frustrated. [SpongeBob: Hey, that guy is fucking crazy. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s supposed to be in this rank.] [Cmari: What, why are you down? Isn¡¯t it just one guy?!] [SpongeBob: It¡¯s one guy¡­ but I died as soon as I opened the door.] [Cmari: Ah, you fucking idiot.] [SpongeBob: No, he perfectly timed the door opening and shot through the crack. How the fuck am I supposed to dodge that?] [Cmari: ??? What are you talking about? How can someone like that be in this MMR? You probably just weren¡¯t careful enough.] [SpongeBob: Juste and revive me.] [Cmari: How am I going to revive you? He¡¯s going to shoot you down.] [SpongeBob: He¡¯s not? I¡¯m crawling towards the first floor.] Cmari felt confused after reading SpongeBob¡¯s message. ¡°He¡¯s not killing him? What¡¯s with the confidence?¡± Did he leave SpongeBob alive as bait to lure them in? That indicated his confidence in taking down the rescuer as well. ¡°Let¡¯s just ditch SpongeBob and not go. He¡¯s a pro if he really had perfect timing,¡± the other teammate, Patrick, spoke out of fear from next to Cmari. ¡°What?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a trap. Let¡¯s just ditch SpongeBob.¡± ¡°Bro, don¡¯t you have any pride? Huh? Do you know what rank we¡¯re in? We¡¯re in a match with newbies and you want to run away?¡± ¡®Why is this guy so serious?¡¯ Patrick couldn¡¯t understand Cmari because this was just a video game. ¡°He¡¯s straight up taunting us.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. More of a reason for us not to go.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?! We promised to hit diamond once we started ying again!¡± ¡°We¡¯re not going to get demoted just because we ran away, you squid¡­¡± ¡°My pride will get demoted.¡± Cmari prepared his gun and moved forward. Clink nk. ¡°Wait, you¡¯re really going? I¡¯ll go instead. You¡¯re a sniper, so just watch over me.¡± ¡°How are you going to revive SpongeBob alone?¡± ¡°Ah¡­¡± It was difficult to revive teammates because another person had to defend them while the revival process took ce. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go.¡± Patrick and Cmari gave up their high ground and went over to revive SpongeBob. They saw Mr. Krabs¡¯ corpse on their way there. ¡°Poor Mr. Krabs¡­¡± ¡°Leave him. Look at his ID. That was his fate.¡± The two walked downhill and checked on their injured teammate. Thud. Thud. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we run?¡± ¡°Shut up Patrick. We have to walk slowly with our guns aimed at him, so he can¡¯t pop out.¡± ¡°Ah¡­¡± Patrick and Cmari slowly walked towards the building while pointing their guns at the third floor roof. Their aims slightly wavered, but it was still a decent strategy. ¡°Oh, there he is. Standing by the first floor doorway.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ pathetic.¡± The two spoke without taking their eyes off their aim. ¡°We¡¯ve got to keep walking like this until we¡¯re clear.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± They would be out of sight once they reached right in front of the building. Thump. Thump. The space between them and the wall grew closer. They were almost out of sight from the roof now. Just then, as they let their guards down¡­ Ping¡ª? The air rippled and an arrow flew into the sky. ¡®The head!¡¯ ¡®It¡¯s the head!¡¯ Both of them felt chills down their spines. They knew the arrow wouldnd on their heads. They were screwed after realizing how their teammates died. They didn¡¯t care about aiming anymore and dodged. However, they didn¡¯t go forward because that would be too predictable. They had three directions to choose from: left, right, and back. They would end up further away from SpongeBob, but had no choice. The arrow would shatter their helmets and take away half of their HP. ¡°Hup!¡± ¡°Kuk!¡± The two rolled away in their respective directions. Pok. The arrownded in the sand after they sessfully dodged. ¡°We dodged¡ª¡± However, they weren¡¯t aware that Almond was waiting for them to let down their guard again. Thwack! ¡°It¡­?¡± An arrow pierced through Patrick''s eyes as soon as he finished his sentence. [Almond ¡ú Patrick] [Eliminated!] [28/100] ¡°What the?!¡± Cmari felt confused at what just happened. It all happened too fast for him to register anything. ¡®There¡¯s no way an arrow could fly at that angle.¡¯ However, the shadow above his head answered his question. It was Almond¡¯s shadow. Cmari lifted his head with fear in his eyes. He made an expression that came straight out of a horror movie. ¡®Crazy bastard.¡¯ He instinctively swore at Almond with his jaws dropped. A man was falling from the sky with a bow. Almond couldn¡¯t find an opening to shoot the enemies, so he jumped off to get a clear shot. ¡°Hu, hurry¡ª¡± Cmari tried to ready his gun even though he was taken by surprise. However, he didn¡¯t have enough time to raise the heavy gun and aim. Thwack! An arrow pierced right between his eyes. He wore a helmet, but it was only amon one that covered up to his forehead. He instantly died. [Almond ¡ú Cmari] [Double Kill!] [26/100] Thud. Almondnded on the ground as Cmari¡¯s body copsed. ¡°Eeuk!¡± Almond felt dizzy from the high drop. ¡°Phew¡­ good thing I ate the painkillers,¡± he said while holding onto his head. He would be rolling on the ground in pain if he didn¡¯t take those painkillers. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds.] Now, only 26 yers remained out of 100. Almond searched the corpses, took more medications, and went on his way. ¡ª Shudders. ¡ª Crazy. ¡ª How is this possible? ¡ª I thought this was an action movie¡­ ¡ª How could he think of shooting while jumping off from so high¡­ ¡ª Crazy. His audience showered him with praises and donations. [G&J Law Firm has donated 100,000 won!] [I¡¯m going to sue you for making me piss my pants.] [Shaking has donated 5,000 won.] [I really pissed my pants. I¡¯m going to prove it on the forums.] [Aim-y¡¯s Mom has donated 10,000 won.] [A-Aimy! You were here! I told you not to follow someone bad like Bubblegum!?] [Kiddie has donated 50,000 won!] [Mom! I want to be Almond when I grow up¡­ but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s possible!] Chapter 41: First Place Alone (3)

Chapter 41: First ce Alone (3)

Donations bombarded Almond¡¯s broadcast as a strange post appeared on the Battle Large?[I ran into a pro in bronze rank.gif] Under the provocative title was a collection of Almond¡¯s ys as gifs. Thest line of the post read, ¡®This yer defeated all four of us¡­¡¯ ¡ª ??? ¡ª That¡¯s bronze rank? ©¸ Btw there¡¯s no such thing as bronze rank. ¡ª He¡¯s at least master rank¡­ ©¸ Fact, this is only possible because the opponent is also bronze. ¡ª Isn¡¯t he just a smurf who went on a losing streak? ¡ª Who the fuck gets shot by that? ¡ª There are still people who die frompound bows? ¡ª Wait, did he shoot while in the air and kill them with arrows? How¡¯s that possible? ©¸ Theoretically, it¡¯s possible. ©¸ It¡¯s possible! Don¡¯t you guys watch any movies? Thements were mostly negative. They just insulted Cmari and his teammates instead of recognizing Almond¡¯s skills. This was a natural reaction towards the lowest rank. Who would recognize the skills of a beginner on their first ythrough? But what if the opponents weren¡¯t bronze ranked? ¡ª I¡¯m the user who posted this. What are you guys talking about? We¡¯re not bronze rank. We were all diamond 1st year. ©¸ Yeah and I¡¯m grandmaster. ©¸ Diamond! Hrious. The reactions would be different if they were all diamond ranked yers. [I¡¯m Cmari. I¡¯ll prove it.] Thements began to change in tone after Cmari proved himself. ¡ª Huh? He¡¯s for real? ¡ª Cmari! Boss, what brings you here? ¡ª Did youe back from retirement? ¡ª Who the fuck is this nobody Cmari? ©¸ Doesn¡¯t even know Cmari. What a newbie. ©¸ Get out of here kid. ¡ª His team used to be pretty popr. Theypeted in some amateur tournaments, but I think they disbandedst year. They said they were too busy with life or something. ©¸ I¡¯m one of the team members. We all came back today. ©¸ Why? ©¸ I flunked my interview. That¡¯s why¡­ ©¸ LOOL ©¸ HAHAHA ©¸ You all flunked? LOL ©¸ The diamond 1s of this world are jobless irl? ©¸ Motherfuckers¡­ Cmari was not only skilled, but also quite active in themunity. He built a reputation in themunity, so his words held some weight. ¡ª Then who is that bronze rank? ¡ª Hmm, that¡¯s weird. They¡¯re still a high rank squad even though they took a break for a year. ©¸ Yeah what the heck. I Love Mondays is pretty good. ¡ª Then this doesn¡¯t make sense, no? He killed them all with apound bow. ¡ª The world is falling apart¡­ They turned their attention towards the mysterious archer who eliminated an entire diamond ranked squad by himself with apound bow. ¡ª Is he a returning pro? ¡ª What¡¯s going on? ¡ª Shudders. ¡ª Definitely a smurf. A lot of users wondered if Almond was a returning yer or a smurf who went on a losing streak to rank lower. [I found out who the bronze ranked archer is! He¡¯s streaming right now!] ¡ª He must be a smurf if he¡¯s streaming right now. ©¸ So true. ¡ª Is he really a smurf? Disappointing. ¡ª Report him. They heard he was streaming and felt certain he purposely dropped to bronze to dominate new yers. *** Almond continued to diligently farm. ¡°Sigh, it¡¯s not here either.¡± He couldn¡¯t find much after exploring. ¡ª Seems like someone already camped here. ¡ª LOL, how is there not a single one? ¡ª The first aid is usually already taken¡­ ¡ª He doesn¡¯t even pick up guns. There¡¯s nothing to take. There were other items to pick up and several weapons more favorable than thepound bow. However, those weapons were all useless to him because of his donation missions. [Mission: 1st ce with the bow ¡ª 230,000 won] [Mission: 1st ce as a solo squad ¡ª 170,000 won] ¡®Damn, it reached 230,000 won already?¡¯ It started with 100,000 won, but other viewers continued adding to the mission. ¡®400,000 won in total? That¡¯s quite a bit¡­¡¯ It was higher than his usual donations. He hadn¡¯t received such a big amount since Seo Ji-Ah¡¯sst donations. He checked the bottom right corner for the number of viewers. [Current viewers: 1905] It suddenly jumped to 1900 viewers. Almond maintained his poker face because he would break out of character if he looked too happy. ¡®When did this many peoplee?¡¯ His viewer count had dropped to 1100 when he switched games. He even saw it dip to 900, but it rose back to 1900 viewers. ¡ª Wow, he really has a bow mission. ¡ª Wow, so this guy is Almond¡­ ¡ª This smurf¡­ who are you? It seemed a lot of new viewers didn¡¯t know him as he read the chat more carefully. ¡®Smurf? What are they talking about?¡¯ Almond knew what a smurf was. He wasn¡¯t sure why they were calling him one since he was struggling to win. ¡®Did theye from somewhere else?¡¯ These individuals seemed to have heard of him and usually came from othermunities. Almond didn¡¯t have time to check everymunity to find out. [The blue zone is now shrinking.] Only 15 yers remained as the blue zone shrunk again. Kooong¡ª? yers who hid began to reveal themselves and moved towards the center after a loud noise rang out and the ground rumbled. They were forced to meet head-on as the ying space decreased. Tutu! Tututu! Gunshots could be heard as squads fought each other. Almond slowly opened the door and followed the sound. Tututu! Tu! Five people died and suddenly disappeared off the map after all the gunfire. [10/100] Ten yers remained. Almond didn¡¯t know how many squads were left. All ten yers could be from different squads or only two squads. ¡°Should I go now¡ª¡± As Almond prepared to turn the corner¡­ Thump. He collided with someone. ¡°!¡± The panicked opponent began firing everywhere and Almond threw himself behind a corner to dodge. Thankfully, the opponent reacted too slowly and missed him. However, he would surelye for Almond. Almond quickly hid and readied his bow. Creak¡­? ¡®...¡¯ He nervously waited for the opponent to approach. ¡°Over there!!!¡± Taang! A gunshot rang out from the other side. ¡°Kugh!¡± Thud. The enemy Almond just encountered suddenly copsed. His teammates tried to help him with some cover fire, but they were toote. Tutututu! Two different teams continued shooting at each other. ¡®Oh, they¡¯re not aiming at me anymore?¡¯ One of the benefits of being a solo squad was that the other teams forgot about Almond as they fought each other. He peeked out from the door and shot his arrow. Ping! From his opponent''s perspective, a bow suddenly appeared and quickly disappeared. ¡°Hmmm?¡± It was toote the moment the opponent wondered what he saw. Thwack! An arrow already pierced his forehead. ¡°Ah¡­ fuck.¡± The yer Octopus fell back while cursing, but he didn¡¯t die. Most yers wore a rarer helmette into the game. The arrow did manage to take half his HP though. ¡°Hey, there¡¯s someone with a bow,¡± Octopus said while bandaging himself. His teammate Baby Octopus frowned, ¡°A bow? Thiste in the game? ¡°It¡¯s probably some guy who got lucky hiding.¡± Sometimes, a lucky yer who farmed enough early on could just hide and survivete into the game. ¡°Sigh¡­ What a pain in the ass,¡± Octopusined. They thought they only had to deal with one team, but some stranger with a bow appeared. Thwack! ¡°Kugh!¡± An arrow fell from the sky andnded straight on Octopus¡¯ head. His helmet finally broke and he lost all his health because he didn¡¯t finish bandaging up yet. [Almond ¡ú Octopus] [Knocked Out!] ¡°What?¡± Baby Octopus felt baffled by the arrow that suddenly fell from the sky and downed his teammate. ¡°There was no opening. How¡­¡± Another arrow fell shortly afterwards and answered his question. Thwack! ¡°Argh!¡± Baby Octopus screamed with an arrow stuck in his shoulder. ¡°He¡¯s shooting up?¡± Another arrow came flying before Baby Octopus could prepare himself. Thwack! It pierced his heart this time. Thud. [Almond ¡ú Baby Octopus] [Eliminated.] [6/10] [Almond ¡ú Octopus] [Eliminated.] [5/10] The team of two had been eliminated. Almond had his bow still aimed at the sky and his bowstring fully drawn. ¡°Oh, they¡¯re dead already?¡± ¡ª Dead already LOL. ¡ª You can¡¯t dodge arrows. ¡ª Trajectory is important everyone! ¡ª The bow is pretty good! ¡ª Wow, the bow is actually useful at times like this. Thepound bow could hardly be considered a good weapon. It was quiet and useful early on, but honestly became trash in the middle andter stages of a game. However, it seemedpletely different in Almond¡¯s hands. ¡ª Damn, I can¡¯t believe this works. ¡ª I thought it was only possible theoretically¡­ ¡ª This is insane. Almond could showcase 100% of his archery skills, no, 150% of it with this bow. One would mistakenly think the bow was better than guns while watching him. ¡°Now there¡¯s only five left¡­¡± Tang! Another gunshot echoed. [Fattie ¡ú thug956] [Eliminated!] [4/10] Only four yers remained. ¡ª :O four people left! ¡ª Suddenly, there were four¡­ ¡ª This is nerve-wracking.? ¡®Now there¡¯s¡­ three, excluding me. First seems possible?¡¯ He could receive a total of 420,000 won. Plus, the honor of winning first ce in his first round of y as a solo squad. Almond felt victory in his grasp. ¡®If the remaining three yers aren¡¯t on the same team¡­¡¯? It would definitely be possible if it wasn¡¯t a 3 vs 1 situation, but a 2 vs 1 or 1 vs 1 situation. Chapter 42: First Place Alone (3)

Chapter 42: First ce Alone (3)

[The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds.] Almond checked his minimap. The area within the blue circle was the safe zone. ¡°How unlucky.¡± The blue zone hadn''t moved in Almond''s favor even once. He had to keep moving to stay within it since the beginning. This frustrated him, but his audience found it amusing. ¡ª Unlucky... ¡ª Almond: unlucky. Chat: lucky. ¡ª Haha, take that Almond!? ¡ª You should at least be unlucky since you''re good. The viewers enjoyed it when the blue zone moved away from Almond. They could watch him make more ys if he kept moving and encountering enemies. Also, they prayed against him because of the victory mission on the line. ¡ª Please... blue zone... ¡ª Jesus, Buddha, Ah! Please let me keep my 50,000 won! ¡ª Snipers, please blow his head off. They hoped for Almond to die, so they wouldn¡¯t lose their money. ¡®Right, the sniper¡­¡¯ One of the enemies was a sniper, which bothered Almond. He didn¡¯t know much about this game, but even he felt that a sniper was a big threat. The blue zone continued to close in, but some space remained. He risked getting shot at by an enemy in the distance that he couldn¡¯t even see. ¡®Are the three of them on the same team?¡¯ His chances of victory would be unlikely if the remaining yers were on the same squad. What could he do if one of them aimed at him while the other two came for him? That exact scenario soon urred. ¡°Hey, there''s only one left.¡± ¡°You two go scout and I''ll cover you from here!¡± Almond could easily hear them. ¡°Sigh¡­¡± Their conversation made it clear that the three of them were on the same team. They were the only yers remaining, so Almond had to face them alone. ¡ª LOL, you''re screwed. ¡ª Jesus Christ. ¡ª 3v1? ¡ª 3v1 with only 4 yers left. That''s hell. ¡ª Hell, for real. Hell was the perfect word to describe Almond¡¯s situation. ¡®I''m quite unlucky.¡¯? Unlucky wasn''t quite the case for Almond because a squad of three usually remained at this point in the game. The unusual case was Almond, who had survived by himself. He could only me himself for queuing up in the wrong mode if he wanted to me his luck. Thud. Thud. He could hear his opponents slowly approaching. They would soon discover his location since there were only a few locations left to check. Thud.? His opponents suddenly stopped near him. ¡°Let¡¯s stop right here,¡± one of them firmly said and they stopped moving. ¡°The blue zone is on our side. He has to cross this side no matter what.¡± ¡°Yeah, let''s just wait for him toe out and shoot him.¡± Luck was not on Almond¡¯s side today. The blue zone slowly closed in on him and put him in a disadvantageous position. His opponents knew how to take advantage of that. [The blue zone is now shrinking.] Koong¡ª? Almond could hear the blue zone closing in. His heart pounded at the same time. ¡®I¡¯m so close to winning¡­¡¯? His next move would determine whether he ced first or fourth. The match would be settled here. Would his title be, ¡®First ce in his first game''?or ''He did pretty good in his first game?'' The two were vastly different. This pivotal moment would determine whether he was remembered as a superstar or a decent gamer. Could Sang-Hyeon step up in this moment or not? He clenched his teeth and thepetitiveness sleeping inside him began to wake up. ¡®I¡¯m going to get first ce with the bow.¡¯ He nced at the mission reward in the corner of his eye and focused his mind. This was a different mindset from Kingdom Age.?This was apetition. He was proving his archery skills against others. ¡®First, the guys in front of me.¡¯ He prioritized the two waiting for him inside the blue zone and nned to get rid of them first. Thankfully, they didn''t find Almond yet. ¡®They let their guards down since they''re in the blue zone and have three people left.¡¯ His opponents naturally lowered their guards in this 3v1 situation with the blue zone closing in behind Almond. From a different perspective, this provided Almond with his only opportunity. Gulp. He quietly swallowed the painkillers. ¡°Is he not here? The blue zone is almost closing in.¡± ¡°This is the only ce. Just wait a little bit.¡± As they said, Almond could almost feel the blue zone on his back as it inched closer. However, he didn''t move at all. [The blue zone is damaging you. Move away!] Bzzzt¡ª? His health began to decrease, but he didn¡¯t feel any pain thanks to the painkillers and his health drained slower than normal. ¡®A little more.¡¯ Almond decided to hold on for a while longer. ¡°What the... did we miss him on the way here?¡± ¡°No way.¡± Almond didn''t intend on waiting long. He just wanted to wait long enough to confuse his opponents. That would be enough. ¡°Sigh... He must be on the other side.¡± The two turned around to check the other side for a moment. ¡°Other side? That''s not poss¡ª¡± Ping! An arrow cut through the air and pierced one of their necks. Thwack! The arrow tip protruded from the enemy¡¯s throat. ¡°Kugh!¡± The enemy couldn''t speak anymore with blood gushing out from his mouth. ¡°What the, where¡­¡± Another arrow flew and pierced the same enemy in the heart. ¡°Kek!¡± [Almond?¡ú lmfao07] [Knocked Out!] Almond had quicker judgment with faster and more precise movements than them. ¡°W-Where!?¡± Tutututu¡­? The other teammate panicked and aggressively fired in the direction of the arrows. He sprayed his bullets and prayed to hit Almond. However, that was a foolish decision because Almond was no longer there. Thwack! The punishment for his foolishness was an arrow through the head. The enemy¡¯s helmet had already been damaged from an earlier battle and was useless against the arrow. [Almond ¡ú DuckHyeons] [Eliminated!] [3/100] He instantly copsed from the headshot. Finally, Almond safely ran through the blue zone. ¡®I barely made it!¡¯ He only had around 10% of his HP left. Almond resisted the urge to loot the corpse and hid in a different spot. ¡®One is still watching me.¡¯ Another yer watched and remained still even as their teammates fell. This calm sniper likely came up often on the kill log. ¡®He''s probably at an angle that I can''t see, right?¡¯? The sniper would¡¯ve already taken a shot if he had a clear visual on Almond, which meant he didn''t have a good shot right now. ¡®I can roughly tell where the blind spots are.¡¯ Almond visualized the road he crossed and imagined the blind spots from the sniper''s perspective. He would be safe if he moved around those spots. [The blue zone is shrinking.] Almond had to move as he looked at the map because he was on the edge of the blue zone. He used his remaining medicine, healed himself to 100% HP, and slowly advanced. ¡®I wonder where he is¡­¡¯ Did the sniper change positions or were they still on standby? Almond wasn''t sure and needed to find their location. ¡°!¡± He suddenly realized something. ¡®They''re moving?¡¯ The knocked-out enemy was slowly crawling somewhere. ¡®Why? To get revived?¡¯ The sniper couldn''t move from his position, so the knocked-out teammate was crawling on his own to get revived. That meant he would naturally reveal the sniper''s position. Almond crouched and sneaked closer too. ¡®Wait¡­¡¯? He suddenly thought to himself, ¡®There''s no way the sniper has time to revive him.¡¯ Would he revive a teammate in this 1v1 situation? In Battle Large,?reviving a teammate took a considerable amount of time. It was practically suicide in this situation. They must know that too despite their low ranks. ¡®There''s no reason to move and risk getting caught by me.¡¯ In squad mode, they only needed one yer to win the game. The sniper had the advantage in this 1v1 situation because of the blue zone¡¯s location. Why would he take the risk and move? Only one logical conclusion remained. ¡®Bait!¡¯ They would easily win if Almond took the bait and followed him. All the sniper had to do was aim and shoot at Almond crawling around. Almond decided to use their own bait against them. ¡®He must be hiding somewhere where he can see the path¡­¡¯ Almond stopped moving and scouted the area around the trail. He discovered something when the blue zone began affecting him. ¡°!¡± He could faintly see the opponent through the grass because of their shiny helmet that reflected the sunlight. ¡®Are they unaware of that?¡¯ The opponent hadn¡¯t noticed their own mistake yet. He had to act quickly and readied his bow in a crouched position. ¡®What should I do?¡¯ He couldn¡¯t shoot in a crawling position. ¡®I don''t have much of a choice.¡¯ Almond made a bold decision and decided to liepletely prone. . ¡ª Huh? Why is he suddenly lying down with his back on the ground? ¡ª That''s what cats do. ¡ª Baby Almond needs a belly scratch. ¡ª What the? Just giving up? The viewers didn¡¯t understand until what happened next. Almond pushed against the bow with his feet and pulled the bowstring with both hands. Creak¡­? The string became even tighter than when he drew it with one hand. ¡ª Wow. ¡ª I''ve seen this in Chinese movies! ¡ª Is this a circus? ¡ª ??? I can beat you while ying with my feet! ¡ª Is he going to win with his feet? It could be seen as a taunt, but it was the only logical choice from Almond''s perspective. This was the only way tond his shot without revealing himself. However... ¡®Would this¡­ work?¡¯ Almond wondered if this insane technique would even work too. He didn¡¯t have the luxury to hesitate. This was his only option left. ¡®I¡¯m going tond it.¡¯ This arrow wouldnd and kill his target. He exerted tremendous strength using his abs and tightly pulled the bowstring. ¡°Heup!¡± And he released it. Paaang! The bowstring loudly echoed. ¡°!¡± The opponent noticed as well and turned towards Almond. Thwack! But the arrow was quicker. It pierced through the sniper¡¯s defense and perfectlynded. ¡°Kugh!¡± The sniper quickly hid, still unaware of where the shot came from. That was a mistake. Swoosh!? More arrows flew towards him after he let his guard down to heal himself. The arrows flew in a perfect trajectory and pierced his forehead. Thwack! ¡°Kugh!¡± The sniper thought he would be safe if the opponent couldn¡¯t shoot straight at him. However, that had been his downfall because their opponent used a bow instead of a gun. [Almond?¡ú TorinDoru] [Eliminated!] [1/100] Thud... The opponent¡¯s corpse copsed. Du-dung! The message Almond had been anticipating popped up as a drum resounded. [1st ce] Chapter 43: Blessing in Disguise (1)

Chapter 43: Blessing in Disguise (1)

¡ª It''s 3v1. Is this possible? ¡ª It''s a little much... ¡ª Even the blue zone is on their side. The viewers began to doubt if Almond could win. Some even felt certain that Almond wouldn¡¯t win. ¡ª Damn, one got knocked out? ¡ª The second one was an instant kill? ¡ª The trajectory was insane. ¡ª Shudders¡­? ¡ª It''s suddenly 1v1. Almond quickly changed the tide of battle. It went from a 3v1 to a 1v1 situation. Thest opponent was a sniper, but anything could happen in a 1v1 situation. ¡ª No way, he''s really going to get first. ¡ª Please... ¡ª The opponent is a sniper, so he has no chance of winning. ¡ª Maybe if he discovers him first... ¡ª Doesn''t he have to chase the guy who¡¯s crawling? ¡ª Why isn''t he chasing him? ¡ª Chase him, Almond!!! ¡ª Huh? That''s a different direction. ¡ª Damn, they''re tricking him. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Oooh!!! Onended! ¡ª What''s next? ¡ª Next is¡­! ¡ª Huh?! ¡ª Wow!!! ¡ª Damn... [1st ce] He could almost hear the cheers from the chat when the victory text popped up on the screen. ¡ª Woooow! ¡ª Jesus... ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! ¡ª That was insane. ¡ª Is he really 1st? ¡ª Almond, you madman. Who would¡¯ve thought he would achieve 1st ce as a solo squad? And while using a bow too? Nobody could''ve predicted this from the way hended with his parachute. [Solo Squad Victory! Mission Sessful!] [250,000 won has been donated.] [Victory with the bow! Mission Sessful!] [210,000 won has been donated.] He cleared the donation missions and cashed in the rewards. ¡®460,000 won!¡¯ One round earned him 460,000 won. This was a huge sum for Almond. ¡°Thank you very much!¡± Almond bowed to express his gratitude as more donations poured in. [Omega has donated 10,000 won.] [Boss, you were bang on today!] [Horuru has donated 5,000 won.] [This person must''ve been Robin Hood in his past life.] [Miho has donated 50,000 won.] [Almond, you''re so good hehehe.] One of the many donations caused a stir. ¡ª Oh? ¡ª Miho? ¡ª It¡¯s the real Miho. Give a shout out! ¡ª Shout what out. They already donated LOL ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Miho! The viewers didn¡¯t cause a stir because of the 50,000 won donation, but because of something else. ¡®Is that person famous?¡¯ It seemed like someone famous had donated. ¡°Thank you, Miho. And thank you to Horuru, Omega, and Dormang. Thank you for the donations.¡± Regardless, Almond didn''t know who they were. He wouldn¡¯t pretend to recognize someone he didn¡¯t know, so he moved on. He thought the moment would pass, but¡­ [Miho has donated 50,000 won.] [Are you looking for a n? Hehe] Miho donated another 50,000 won. They had donated 100,000 won altogether, so he couldn¡¯t just ignore the question. ¡®n?¡¯ Almond never thought about joining a n. ¡®I¡¯m just a beginner.¡¯? He needed some rification since he just started ying despite his high level ys. An offer to join a n so soon made Almond think that he must be quite good. ¡ª Miho is offering? ¡ª Wait, for real? ¡ª Miho being Miho. ¡ª Cherrypicking like always. . ¡ª LOL ¡ª Are you changing to a CEO yer? ¡ª Ah, I¡¯d be thankful if it¡¯s Miho. Miho seemed to be a female streamer judging from the chat. She only gave these kinds of offers from time to time. Why would she choose Almond? Did he have that much potential? ¡°Oh, I should practice more since I''m just a beginner. Thank you for the donations, Miho.¡± Almond politely declined since he was still a beginner. Not that he would be a hindrance to them, but because he wouldn¡¯t be able to showcase his skills as much if he yed in the higher ranks. It would affect Almond''s image as a skilled yer, so he declined for business reasons. [Miho has donated 50,000 won.] [Ah, shucks. Contact me anytime if you''re interested!] ¡°Wow, thanks again for the donation. I''ll definitely give it a thought.¡± Sang-Hyeon thanked her once more and ended his stream. ¡°That''s enough for today. Bye, Treevy!¡± *** Chiik¡ª? Kim Ju-Hyeok waited for him as he exited the capsule. ¡°Wow.¡± It seemed like Ju-Hyeok had already searched for who Miho was judging from his expression. ¡°She''s no joke.¡± He smiled like a fool at her photos on the screen. ¡°Wow¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon was still a man and also became infatuated with her photos for a moment. Especially the photo shoot when she cosyed as her nickname, the Nine-Tails¡­ ¡°Kuhm, let''s be professional.¡± Sang-Hyeon came back to his senses and looked at a different screen. ¡°Hmph, of course.¡± Despite Ju-Hyeok''s words, his eyes were still on Miho''s photoshoots. ¡°What are the reactions like?¡± ¡°Ah, right. The reactions¡­¡± Ju-Hyeok showed Almond their home ground at KAF. [Almond, Battle Large, Sess...] [Is he a natural? He¡¯s even good at Battle Large.] [We should be thankful that he even touched Kingdom Age...] [Almond ying Kingdom was fun to watch...] [The knight ending was really good.] ¡°The reactions are good. They''re mostly talking about Kingdom Age,?but that''s expected from KAF.¡± ¡°How about Battle Large?¡± ¡°Ah, their biggestmunity is Battle31¡­¡± Ju-Hyeok¡¯s expression suddenly darkened. The reactions he saw went something like this: [Almond, that smurf. I reported him.] [He got a donation from Miho. FUCK.] [He received a donation from Miho? Reported.] [First as a solo squad? The worst type of smurf.] Theirments didn¡¯t faze Sang-Hyeon. ¡°This is the ce.¡± ¡°You knew?¡± ¡°Yeah, I read the chat.¡± ¡°I always think this, but you''re really calm. You¡¯re even shameless sometimes.¡± ¡°Well... it''s not a big deal.¡± ¡°You''re not going to do anything about it?¡± Sang-Hyeon thought for a moment about Ju-Hyeok¡¯s question. They mistook him for a smurf because of his unbelievable performance in the lowest rank. ¡°Hmm... I don''t know. It''s probably because I made my bio code private. Should I make it public again?¡± He only left his bio code exposed when he started as a streamer because he didn''t know better. Leaving it open had been better for his character, but he also risked leaking his personal information. Just recently, he received security texts warning him of login attempts from China. Since then, he had made his bio code private like other streamers. ¡°No, not your code. You want to share your earnings with someone in China?¡± ¡°Hmm... Then there''s nothing I can do, no? I guess bad attention is still attention.¡± ¡°I guess.¡± Ju-Hyeok casually nodded as well. ¡°I don''t think this will be a problem. It could be an opportunity.¡± ¡°Opportunity?¡± ¡°You be even more popr if you ovee a controversy, right? It''s a blessing in disguise.¡± *** The blessing in disguise seemed to have remained in disguise the next day. [Your ount has been suspended.] Sang-Hyeon received an email from the Battle Large?admins. ¡°Hmm?¡± He nkly stared at the message while sipping his coffee. ¡®Seems like this is a bigger deal than I thought¡­¡¯ ¡°Hey, Ju-Hyeok! Come take a look at this.¡± Ju-Hyeok got up and put on his sses to read it. ¡°What the. What''s going¡­¡± What he read through his foggy sses dumbfounded him. ¡°Damn, these guys must be great?at their jobs.¡± Ju-Hyeok felt baffled before getting angry. ¡°How can they suspend you without even checking the facts?¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± ¡°Don''t you have anything to say?¡± Ju-Hyeok questioned Sang-Hyeon, who still had the same nk expression. ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything wrong. It should work out. Let''s just respond to them on the website.¡± Tatatak. Sang-Hyeon messaged the Battle Large?admins and seemed unfazed by the problem. However, they didn¡¯t reply even after he waited for hours. ¡°Hmm... I didn''t expect much, but their support team isn''t that helpful either.¡± Ju-Hyeok finished his meal and snobbishly said, ¡°Do you think they''d respond to your message when they didn¡¯t even bother to check your record?¡± Ju-Hyeok went onto KAF afterining. ¡°You know what? Maybe this is better.¡± ¡°Better?¡± ¡°Yeah, let''s try to change the situation with this.¡± ¡°You think it¡¯s possible?¡± ¡°Of course, you said that bad attention is still attention, right?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Then let''s get some more attention with this.¡± ¡°Ah!¡± Sang-Hyeon understood what Ju-Hyeok was getting at. He quickly went to his channel and made a post. ¡°Should I write it?¡± ¡°You should write it first.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Sang-Hyeon vented his frustration with a new post. He made sure not to sound too whiny and just got to the point. [Hello, this is Almond. I have some bad news.] The post mentioned his suspension in Battle Large.?Not long afterwards, people beganmenting on the post. ¡ª What the heck is this? LOL ¡ª How could they suspend you after your first time ying? ¡ª First time smurf. ¡ª Wow... that must be frustrating. Most of thementsforted Sang-Hyeon about the ridiculous incident and insulted the support team. Ju-Hyeok headed to KAF and also made a post there while pretending to be a viewer. [Breaking News: Almond is a smurf!] His post had a provocative title on purpose. It also contained a screenshot of Almond''s post. Then... ¡®The support team determined he was a smurf because he was too good.¡¯ Thements began to pour in. ¡ª First time smurf. Good one LOL ¡ª There are smurfs who stream what they¡¯re doing? Is the support team retarded? ¡ª They just banned him because of too many reports. ¡ª This is all because Almond is a small timer. ¡ª Still, he¡¯s a Punk partnered streamer. ¡ª What the fuck is wrong with the Battle Largemunity? They reported him knowing this, no? ¡ª They¡¯re blinded by jealousy. The responses on KAF were quite aggressive. As expected of amunity full of maniacs, they were loyal to their streamer and angry at the wrongdoings against Almond. [Trending Issue: Almond, smurf...] Thankfully, the post attracted enough attention and began trending. The post was titled, ¡®He''s a smurf, but it¡¯s his first round.¡¯?It even spread to other gamingmunities. ¡ª LOL look at the support team. What a joke. ¡ª I knew they would be like this. ¡ª First round smurf. Good one. The Battle Large?admin team already had a notorious reputation for their past actions and behavior. This incident only became the perfect firewood to fuel more hatred toward them. The Battle Large and Kingdom Age?¡ª But how good is he? For them to assume that he¡¯s a smurf without even looking at his history? Everyone grew curious about Almond''s skills. How good was he to spark such an incident? ¡ª For real. How can someone get that many reports in one game? ©¸ There''s a collection of his ys. Go take a look.? ©¸ Do you have the link? ©¸ (Link) ©¸ Wow, he''s insane. ©¸ The hell? What is that... ©¸ He¡¯s just annihting everyone. The users who watched his ys were in awe of his skills. His skills remained consistent despite leaving Kingdom Age. ¡ª Are there no videos? ¡ª Where''s the full video? ¡ª Looks like it doesn''t exist yet. The users wanted more than just highlights. The following morning¡­ [There''s a new video on Almond''s YouTube channel (Link)] The video seemed to be about his controversial solo squad victory. Seo Ji-Ah spent the night editing this masterpiece. It had a provocative title as well. [I got suspended as a smurf after my first round...] Chapter 44: Blessing in Disguise (2)

Chapter 44: Blessing in Disguise (2)

Sang-Hyeon received a suspension on suspicion of being a smurf in his first Battle Large?game. If someone didn¡¯t know the context, they would¡¯ve thought he had been suspended for being terrible at the game. However, the video¡¯s thumbnail said the opposite. [First Game! Solo Squad! Bow Victory!] The viewers would probably think, ¡®I heard he was suspended for being a smurf, but it was his first round?¡¯? How was that possible? ¡®Should I click on the video to see what''s up?¡¯ The situation would pique any viewer''s curiosity and make them want to watch the video. [10 minutes remaining until the reveal.] The reveal system forced viewers to wait until thest minute to watch the video. However, it also allowed them to chat with other users live if they patiently waited. ¡ª What¡¯s the big deal? Keeping us waiting like this. ¡ª I''m going to report if this is a bait video -.- ¡ª Ten more minutes! I can¡¯t wait! ¡ª Did he really get suspended? Themunity is going crazy right now. ¡ª Really??? Only a few viewers gathered, so they talked and expressed their thoughts in the chat. ¡ª Yeah, he got suspended. Check his Treevy post. ¡ª That''s the top post too if you go on KAF.? ¡ª Wow, it''s real. Damn. ¡ª How is that possible? One minute remained until the video¡¯s release. [One minute remaining until the reveal.] A massive crowd suddenly gathered and filled the chat. ¡ª Hi Hi! ¡ª AlHa! AlHa! ¡ª Ah, I missed yesterday''s stream. The edited version is already up. ¡ª Ji-Ah is working hard. ¡ª Hihihi! ¡ª Hello! ¡ª What¡¯s with the title though? Such clickbait. ¡ª That¡¯s so unlike Almond... [Revealing for the first time!] Shortly afterward, the chat slowed as the video came out. Du-dung! Standard background music yed like how every video typically started. It began with Almond on standby in the aircraft. However, the video showed a slightly different angle. The camera didn¡¯t focus on Almond, but zoomed in on the right corner of the screen. [Squad Match] The screen became blurry because of the zoom, but it was indeed a squad match. The text disappeared once the game started, so neither the yer nor the viewers realized it was a squad mode game at the time. However, this was the highlight of the video for the viewers. ¡ª HAHAHA ¡ª No way. Is this real? ¡ª It¡¯s possible if this is his first time lol? ¡ª I did that too haha. ¡ª Developers need to fix that. ¡ª Yeah, for real. It''s hard to tell the difference between solo and squad mode. Anyone could¡¯ve made that mistake, but it was funnier when Almond made it. ¡ª No way... does he get first? ¡ª No way. Even if it''s low rank¡­? ¡ª Is he against bots? The video¡¯s thumbnail definitely said victory. Even then, the viewers doubted it because Almond was at a huge disadvantage. However, they gradually changed their minds once the game started and Almond achieved a triple kill with thepound bow. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Damn, he''s doing better than he did in Kingdom Age. ¡ª Is first ce possible? ¡ª Look how clean the shot is... They could tell right away that the video¡¯s title wasn¡¯t fake. After a series of events, the 3v1 situation finally came up. ¡ª Kya! ¡ª This is the power of Korean bows! ¡ª That was insane. Almond barely defeated the first two after using his painkillers and taking advantage of the blue zone. Now, he found himself in a 1v1 situation. The fight didn''tst long. The opponents tried trickling him in a different direction, but Almond saw right through it. Thwack! An arrow pierced the sniper hiding behind a rock and everyone cheered. ¡ª Woooow! ¡ª Wow, he actually got first. ¡ª That was insane. ¡ª Damn, I should''ve watched this live. ¡ª I need to watch it live next time. ¡ª No way. Is this real? ¡ª LOL ¡ª The other 99 are the problem. The live chat on YouTube celebrated, but the video contained additional footage that hadn¡¯t been seen yet. Chiik¡ª? The screen transitioned with a slight noise andments from the Battle31munity began appearing on the screen. The background music became suspenseful like a mystery show and filled with tension. [I''m going to report the smurf!] [Damn, he''s not even ashamed about it!] [That bastard!] The video highlighted negativements using Almond of smurfing and using other streamers to gain poprity. ¡ª Are those guys for real? ¡ª Inte warriors... ¡ª Sigh, those losers. Go live in the real world. ¡ª Check the facts before talking smack! ¡ª Facts. Those guys reported him because Miho donated to him. ¡ª True. ¡ª The guys who talk smack on Miho''s channel get mad if she contributes to someone else. ¡ª ??? Give back our Miho! ¡ª Is that really why he got reported?? The viewers grew curious about the validity of the reports and soon found out the results. [As a result, Almond''s ount has been suspended for one year.] The video ended with a screenshot of the message Almond received in his email. ¡ª Damn, it''s real. ¡ª Legend. ¡ª Legendary. ¡ª Who the heck is the admin??? Are they insane? ¡ª LOOOOOL, as expected from Battle Large. ¡ª What? Did they not even check because of the mass reports? ¡ª Wow, this is legendary. ¡ª First round smurf. ¡ª Just take a look at his match history. Can''t the admin look at it? ¡ª This happened because he made his record private for personal reasons or something... The viewers vented their anger in the chat. [The reveal is now over.] The chat began to close and the 4,000 viewers sought a new ce to vent. They ran off to their respective gamingmunities and posted there. The incident became controversial and amusing. It was also perfect for attracting attention, especially inmunities that craved attention. The posts quickly spread and even made their way to popr news sites. [Popr game, Battle Large. Controversy in the admin team again... Users are upset.] The impact from official news sites was on a totally different scale thanmunity posts. They provided the perfect evidence for their arguments. [Damn, this even made it to the news.] [Battle31 fucked up big time. I linked an article.] [Battle Losers, you made the news LOL] *** ¡°How is it?¡± Sang-Hyeon was in the middle of brushing his teeth and asked Ju-Hyeok. ¡°It''s good because you''re not in the wrong at all.¡± ¡°Thank goodness.¡± Sang-Hyeon nodded as he looked at the screen over his shoulder. ¡°But... I don''t know if you can call this a blessing¡­¡± ¡°Hmm? Why? We''re getting a lot of attention.¡± Ju-Hyeok shook his head. ¡°What are you going to do for today''s stream?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Are you going to y Kingdom Age again? That lost its hype already. There might be a lot of people who miss it, but¡­ it''ll be better if you y Battle Large?because people are hyped for it.¡± ¡°Ah¡­¡± He didn¡¯t have a game to y right now because of the suspension. Switching to another game in this situation or going back to Kingdom Age didn¡¯t seem like a good move. ¡°Well... I guess we can rest for a day,¡± Sang-Hyeon nonchntly said. Ju-Hyeok nodded in response, ¡°Yeah, you can just rest for today.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°What about the second day?¡± ¡°Hmm... Then what do you want me to do?¡± ¡°I don''t know yet, sigh¡­¡± ¡°The problem is... they¡¯re basically admitting it¡¯s their fault if they reverse the suspension. I don''t think they''ll easily give in. I heard that they don''t do their job very well these days.¡± Ju-Hyeok was right. They could just ignore this incident to avoid taking responsibility, which meant Sang-Hyeon''s ount could stay suspended. ¡°They''ll probablye up with an apology statement.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­¡±? Sang-Hyeon also had unfair experiences in the corporate industry, so he knew what to expect. ¡°Still, we should wait until tomorrow and see what happens.¡± ¡°What if they don''t say anything tomorrow? What should we do if they blow it over?¡± ¡°That''s alright. We also have that tomorrow.¡± ¡°What''s going on tomorrow?¡± ¡°Our meeting with the director.¡± ¡°!¡± Ju-Hyeok had an amusing look on his face. ¡°Do you think you can do it?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got to try.¡± ¡°Alright, I trust you. Let''s rest for today.¡± Ju-Hyeoky on the sofa with a rxed expression that he hadn''t shown in ages. *** Assistant Kim Ki-Yeol profusely swore, ¡°Fuck, did you take a look at this? What should we do?¡± His monitor disyed a popr post from a particrmunity. [What¡¯s currently happening to streamer Almond.] The post made it to the most popr gamingmunity too. ¡°Did our team do this?¡± ¡°Yeah... it was me.¡± ¡°What should we do? We already get a lot of shit for the game¡¯s maintenance¡­¡± ¡°We¡¯re screwed if we own up to it. We''re fucked.¡± ¡°But the evidence... it''s too¡­¡± ¡®Decisive¡­¡¯?The employee stopped himself as Kim Ki-Yeol red at him. ¡°Do you think I''m unaware?¡± ¡°N-No... I''m sorry.¡± ¡°Sigh.¡± Kim Ki-Yeol deeply sighed and looked away. ¡°I¡¯m fucked. For real this time.¡± ¡°What would the manager say? To ignore it?¡± ¡°I don''t know. Wouldn¡¯t he want to blow it over? It''s one small-timer and he didn''t even y that much. That was his first round too.¡± ¡®That''s the problem¡­¡¯?The employee stopped himself again. ¡°Still, I¡¯ll report it. It¡¯ll be different if the manager decides to blow it over, right?¡± Shortly afterward, shouting could be heard from the manager''s office. ¡°Kim Ki-Yeol, you bastard! What the fuck are you doing!?¡± Bang! Even the table mming could be heard. ¡°You didn''t even look at his match history?¡± ¡°I''m sorry... it was because there were too many reports¡­¡± ¡°Ah, I see. We just suspend without double-checking if there are too many reports? Fuck, the users would love to hear that, right? Should we vote to see if we should fire you or not too?!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­¡± The manager wiped the sweat off his forehead. ¡°What''s this guy¡¯s average viewer count?¡± ¡°Uh...?It''s around a thousand.¡± ¡°Is there any other information about him?¡± Kim Ki-Yeol didn¡¯t know about Almond''s partnership with Punk. He didn''t do any further research because he thought that the viewer count was too little for any partnerships. ¡°What are you still standing around for? Go blow it out. Contact themunity site admins and set up a meeting. Make sure to treat them well.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Kim Ki-Yeol¡¯s face brightened, but the manager¡¯s face remained dark. ¡°Sigh... It''s almost¡­¡± He nced at the list of candidates for promotions who passed the written exam. He only needed to do the interviews now. *** Evening arrived on the next day. ¡°There¡¯s still nothing from their end, right?¡± Sang-Hyeon asked while putting on his suit. He had hoped for Battle Large?to give them some kind of response. Ju-Hyeok shook his head while lying on the sofa. ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s nothing.¡± Ju-Hyeok got up from the sofa and shook his head again. ¡°There¡¯s nothing. Every single post about you was deleted.¡± ¡°...¡± Sang-Hyeon¡¯s mind went nk and he shook his head too. He quickly grasped the situation. ¡°I see.¡± ¡°They¡¯re nning to blow it over. Go fuck them up.¡± Sang-Hyeon double-checked his rendezvous and smiled. Smirk. ¡°I¡¯ll be back.¡± Chapter 45: Blessing in Disguise (3)

Chapter 45: Blessing in Disguise (3)

¡°How can a young man like you stay so calm?¡± Those were the first words Coach Yang Dae-In ever said to him. ¡°Does my boy really have potential in this?¡± He could hear his grandmother as well. Grandma never trusted other people''s words. Not because she didn¡¯t want to, but because of what happened in the past. ¡°Yes.¡± The coach nodded with a gloomy smile. Sang-Hyeon didn''t know it then, but that was one of thest times he saw his coach smile. ¡°His hands are still unstable, but archery is all about your mentality. He''s something else for sure.¡± He pointed at Sang-Hyeon¡¯s holding position for thetter¡¯s grandmother to look at, but she didn¡¯t know anything. ¡°Hmph... I don''t know if I can trust¡­¡± ¡°Who told you to trust me? I''m just telling you what I see.¡± The coach wasn''t too interested in convincing them at first. ¡°Talent isn¡¯t obvious from the start! You¡¯ll only see the results when you refine it. Then you¡¯ll know if there¡¯s something worthy. It¡¯ll be fine too if he uses such a mentality for other work.¡± The young Sang-Hyeon loosened his grip and fired the arrow after the coach finished talking. ¡°Oh... oh?¡± It was probably just a coincidence. Thwack! The practice arrownded straight in the center of the target. However, it bounced off because itcked a sharp tip. ¡°!¡± The coach also saw what Sang-Hyeon had seen in that brief moment. ¡°Wow¡­¡± He couldn''t hide his surprise. ¡°That¡¯s impressive. You didn¡¯t lose your aim even as you lost your strength. Otherwise, it would be impossible to hit the center.¡± ¡°...?¡± Sang-Hyeon looked obliviously at the coach. ¡°Whatever you do, always live like this. You won¡¯t ever sway even if you lose your strength. Eventually, you¡¯ll get back up and your arrow will find the center of the target.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Sang-Hyeon energetically replied. Coach Yang muttered something to himself and pitifully looked at Sang-Hyeon. ¡°If you can, it¡¯d be nice if you try out archery¡­¡± *** Sang-Hyeon was deeply immersed in his memories as he looked up at the tall buildings. ¡®Calm. Collected. Concentration¡­¡¯ He smiled as he repeated what he heard in the past. The skills that made him a genius archer became traits that he could only put on his resume. Life was strange like that. ¡°Ah, you¡¯re here!¡± Manager Oh greeted him and walked through the cold breeze with a palpable passion despite his chubby belly and swollen face from drinking too much. ¡°Hello.¡± ¡°The director is probably¡­¡± Manager Oh checked his watch and nodded. ¡°He¡¯ll probablye in ten minutes. Should we head in first?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± The two walked together on the cold path. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t mind the awkward silence. He preferred silence because listening always proved more advantageous than speaking. ¡°Sang-Hyeon, you must not be the type to get nervous?¡± ¡°Sorry?¡± ¡°Most people meeting the director usually get nervous. Even the big streamers. Ah, I meant that as apliment.¡± ¡°Ah¡­¡± Sang-Hyeon recalled his past again. ¡°I¡¯m... dull by nature.¡± ¡°Really? You seem quite clever when you''re ying games.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Why do you look so surprised? Of course, I also watch you. Hahaha. I''m the one who picked you.¡± ¡°Ah... Thank you.¡± ¡°You also picked your own editor..." ¡°Irasshaimase!!!¡± They could hear the Japanese greeting as they entered the restaurant. ¡°Haha, this is such an old vibe. Japanese customs never change, right? Let''s go in.¡± A woman in a yukata guided them as Manager Oh entered with augh. Sang-Hyeon looked around and thought, ¡®This ce looks fancy.¡¯? The Japanese restaurant looked like it would cost around 400,000 won per person to dine. Sang-Hyeon hadn''t even earned 400,000 won for Punk, so he felt overwhelmed. ¡°Don¡¯t be too overwhelmed. This is nothingpared to what you¡¯ve done for ourpany,¡± Manager Oh told Sang-Hyeon after reading his expression. ¡°Did I do something?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll talk about it once the director gets here.¡± Manager Oh winked at him. After a moment, Manager Oh checked his phone and went out. He came back with the director just in time. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Yu Sang-Hyeon.¡± Sang-Hyeon got up and instinctively bowed. The director had a peculiar light in his eyes. ¡®He¡¯s not like the other streamers.¡¯? Workers in the video game industry weren¡¯t as conservative as others, but they still encountered partner streamers whocked basic etiquette. They usually anticipated the worst for this reason. ¡®At least he gives a good first impression.¡¯? The director could tell that Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t just stay at home and y video games all day. He reached out for a handshake. ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you.¡± The director could feel the weight of Sang-Hyeon¡¯s handshake. It was a different sensation he hadn¡¯t felt from other streamers. Upon closer inspection, he could see the visible muscles in Sang-Hyeon¡¯s arm. ¡®Hmm?¡¯ Brr... One of Sang-Hyeon¡¯s arms shook. Perhaps he was nervous? Or... ¡°Let''s sit.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± The three sat in front of the table and the chef came out as if on standby. The chef served them their first dish and said, ¡°This is scallop. It goes best with salt and wasabi. And this is spotted ratfish. It''s best eaten with shoyu dressing. Enjoy.¡± Then he disappeared. ¡°Ah, I didn''t get a chance to properly introduce myself.¡± The director handed his business card to Sang-Hyeon. ¡®Director, Han Tae-Ho.¡¯ The name gave off a strong impression. ¡°I... don''t have a card yet.¡± ¡°Ah, I¡¯m aware. Don¡¯t mind it too much. Despite my age, I¡¯ve met more streamers than Manager Oh over here.¡± ¡°Hahaha.¡± After a shortugh, the three began eating. ¡°Mmm. The ratfish is good. I like the sushi here and the appetizers too. Especially if I¡¯m paying with thepany¡¯s card.¡± ¡°Hahaha.¡± Director Han¡¯s joke made them all chuckle and Sang-Hyeon proceeded to eat his dish. ¡°Have you been to ces like this? I was surprised my first time.¡± ¡°Ah... I came a couple of times against my will.¡± Manager Oh whispered something into the director¡¯s ear. ¡°Oh, really? At Ahsung Corporation?¡± The director''s face glowed when he found out that Sang-Hyeon used to work at Ahsung Corporation. ¡®Wow, this one is something else. He¡¯s uniquepared to other streamers.¡¯ ¡®I actually got in through connections¡­¡¯?Sang-Hyeon knew better than to speak up. He just continued eating. ¡®It¡¯s quite delicious.¡¯ He wasn¡¯t sure if it was because he also appreciated the food with his other senses, but the intense sensation in his mouth overwhelmed him. It didn''t feel like a meal, but a dream. ¡°The owner of this restaurant, Toji-san, makes one of my favorite nigiri. Now that you mention Ahsung... isn''t one of their directors a regr here? I think he¡¯s part of the board¡­¡± ¡°Yes, are you talking about Director Lee? I¡¯ve also heard that as well,¡± Sang-Hyeon asked. ¡°Ah, yes. Lee Chil-Sung, we went to the same high school.¡± Sang-Hyeon pretended to be surprised. Only a few stood at the top of the corporate pyramid hierarchy. They were likely familiar with each other. Other than the CEOs, the executives must¡¯ve grown up in simr environments. ¡°No wonder you gave off a simr vibe.¡± This statement could potentially be rude if theparison was unfavorable. However, Han Tae-Ho and Lee Chil-Sung were close and took pride in their friendship. ¡°Is that so? Hahahaha.¡± Han Tae-Ho seemed to like it. ¡°Still, he¡¯s better. I might be popr with Westerners, but everyone knows Ahsung.¡± This was a signal topliment thepany. ¡°That¡¯s because you''re on the global stage. My previous co-workers always wanted to transfer to yourpany.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a good talker. I guess that¡¯s expected from a streamer.¡± Han Tae-Ho responded in a dull tone, but couldn¡¯t hide his satisfaction. The director grew fond of Sang-Hyeon, who was different from other small-time streamers. The nigiri that Han Tae-Ho raved about came out as their fourth dish. He also asked Sang-Hyeon the inevitable question that popped up in his mind, ¡°I¡¯m curious. I understand the potential of streaming is very good, but it¡¯s also risky. Why did you leave Ahsung? Did something happen?¡± He wouldn¡¯t have asked if he didn¡¯t like Sang-Hyeon because it mighte off as rude. However, Han Tae-Ho took an interest in Sang-Hyeon and sought to grow closer. He wanted an in-depth examination of Sang-Hyeon because they also had much to lose in this partnership. ¡®This is a good sign.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon took it positively. He could¡¯ve taken offense, but saw it as a question that would onlye up in theter stages of an interview. He had reached that stage now. ¡®This is my opportunity to grow closer to Han Tae-Ho.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon needed him to solve the Battle Large?crisis. The admin team would definitely listen to a bigpany like Punk. Befriending someone with power had several advantages. These individuals could change someone''s life with a few conversations. Sang-Hyeon thought this would be the perfect moment to bring it?up. ¡®Now should be a good time¡­¡¯ This would be the first time he told a stranger why he began ying virtual reality games. ¡°I used to be a professional archer, and I was quite good.¡± ¡°An archer?¡± Han Tae-Ho¡¯s eyes lit up with interest. Chapter 46: Blessing in Disguise (4)

Chapter 46: Blessing in Disguise (4)

Sang-Hyeon never even told this secret to his friends during his archery days and treated the matter with utmost seriousness. He told Han Tae-Ho because he believed someone like him wouldn''t speak lightly. ¡®He''ll probably like it.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon kept his story a secret, but most people would find it enjoyable and rtable. *** ¡®You used to be an archer?¡¯ Manager Oh couldn''t hide his surprise as he repeated Sang-Hyeon¡¯s words. His curious eyes turned to Director Han. ¡®This is¡­¡¯ What would a sessful man in their mid-fifties do for fun? They typically turned to a sport or hobby that the masses couldn''t afford, so they could avoid mingling with everyday people. ¡®Incredible!¡¯ Billiards or Go was a game that anyone had ess to, so most turned to golf because it was a sport that required money and time. However, even golf became standardized and everyone yed it now. The wealthy turned to a different sport, which turned out to be archery. Han Tae-Ho was also transitioning from golf to archery. ¡®He just hit a home run!¡¯ Han Tae-Ho was already favoring Sang-Hyeon in Manager Oh''s eyes. He may have already progressed to the point where the director was nning their next dinner meeting. ¡°Archery... that''s unexpected.¡± Han Tae-Ho tried to maintain a poker face, but Manager Oh could tell he was bursting with interest. "Why did you stop?" "I had to because of an injury.'' Han Tae-Ho recalled when he shook Sang-Hyeon''s right hand. "Ah... Is it perhaps your right hand? I felt it trembling when I shook your hand." "Yes." "That''s a shame. What happened?" "It was from an ident on my way back from winning nationals." "Oh?" ¡®Doesn''t that mean he''s one of the world champions?¡¯ Director Han thought to himself and looked over to Manager Oh, who nodded in response. ¡°That¡¯s a shame, Sang-Hyeon. How old were you when that happened?¡± ¡°I was 19 years old.¡± ¡°19 by the lunar year?¡± ¡°Ah, no. I would¡¯ve been 17 by the regr calendar year." Director Han and Manager Oh looked at each other in surprise. ¡®Isn¡¯t that a record?¡¯ Even the uneducated could tell that was an impressive record. ¡°I didn''t give up right away after the ident. I kept it a secret until I was 22.¡± ¡°Ah¡­¡± Director Han and Manager Oh sympathized with him when they found out that he pushed on and didn¡¯t give up for three more years. ¡°I couldn''t ovee it in the end and found another job with the help of my coach, which turned out to be with Ahsung Corporation. I didn''t get in because of my skills." ¡°...¡± ¡°It didn¡¯t work out since I tried to fit in where I didn¡¯t belong. During that time, I became interested in virtual reality games where I could¡ª¡± ¡°Use your right hand!¡± Han Tae-Ho identally interrupted Sang-Hyeon after bing too immersed in his story. Sang-Hyeon nodded. ¡°Yes... I could shoot properly there. I became infatuated with it instantly. Naturally, I thought of streaming since I needed to make a living.¡± ¡°But why did you take an interest in video games sote?¡± "I wasn''t really interested before because I was busy with work. I also had to take care of my grandmother, so I didn''t have the luxury to pursue my own interests. I probably wouldn''t have dived into it then even if I found out that my right arm would work properly in video games.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± From Han Tae-Ho''s expression, Sang-Hyeon felt like he would be hired if this was an interview. ¡°Life never goes the way you intend,¡± Han Tae-Ho said to Sang-Hyeon as he poured him a drink. ¡°It might sound cliche, but that¡¯s why it¡¯s fun. It might be even more miserable if it all went ording to n. I used to dream of being a jobless bum, but I¡¯d just be some loser right now if I achieved that.¡± Han Tae-Ho looked up for a moment as if staring at his past self. ¡°Thankfully, the world didn¡¯t let me turn out that way. A man has to take responsibility for his family, which made me into who I am today. A jobless bum wouldn¡¯t be able to eat Toji-san¡¯s sushi. Hahaha.¡± Heughed as he ced another piece of sushi in his mouth. ¡°What I¡¯m trying to say is¡­ it¡¯ll all work out for you in the end.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± Sang-Hyeon replied and sipped his drink. ¡°You grow stronger when you have a lot on your te, especially so during times of struggle.¡± ¡°Yes, yes, don¡¯t worry Sang-Hyeon. It¡¯ll all work out. I heard you also started a new game? Right, but I heard¡ª¡± Manager Oh suddenly stopped himself. ¡®This is the perfect time to say it¡­¡¯ Sang-Hyeon wanted to bring up Battle Large, but Manager Oh wanted to talk about something even more important. ¡°Do you know what this is?¡± ¡°...?¡± He took out a tablet that disyed a chart. Sang-Hyeon hoped it was the chart for their stocks because the graph was rising. ¡°Kingdom Age?sales.¡± ¡°!¡± ¡°Look at the reviews here.¡± Manager Oh scrolled down and showed him the purchase reviews. ¡ª I''m buying this after watching Almond''s stream. ¡ª I was watching Almond''s stream and this game looks great. ¡ª Emilia and the knight ending was so touching, but I''m purchasing to choose Rosenita! ¡ª Anyone who buys this game can y like Almond, right? If not, I want a refund. ¡ª Oh wow, it''s cheaper than I thought. It was high quality. Can you add different types of bows? ¡ª A game where you can flourish as a medieval mercenary, but only if you''re Almond. ¡ª I''m buying it because I watched Almond''s battle scene. It looks well made. Of course, it''s almost impossible to experience it firsthand, but still well-made. Either all the reviews mentioned Almond or Manager Oh only collected reviews that mentioned him. ¡°Thanks to this, our input became more valuable to the manufacturerpany.¡± The graph surprised Director Han as well. ¡°I didn¡¯t know about this, Manager Oh! As a distributor, it¡¯s important whether our promotions are effective or not¡­¡± ¡°The graph may exaggerate a bit because the sales were originally so low, but the reason for the increase is obvious from the reviews.¡± Han Tae-Ho looked at Sang-Hyeon because Almond, Punk''s new partner streamer, was undeniably the reason for everything. ¡°You¡¯re incredible!¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m serious. If it¡¯s like this, what I said earlier will definitelye true. You¡¯ll seed for sure.¡± ¡°Hahaha¡­¡±?Sang-Hyeon awkwardlyughed. ¡®Was my stream that effective?¡¯? He hadn¡¯t been aware of this data at all and felt surprised by how much the sales rose. Manager Oh added, ¡°He¡¯s got what it takes to be a star, right?¡± ¡°Yes, his charm is something else.¡± The two were talking about the graph as if Sang-Hyeon wasn¡¯t there. ¡°I was going to report it tomorrow, but I brought it up today to show Sang-Hyeon.¡± ¡°Good job.¡± ¡°Ah... but Sang-Hyeon doesn''t y this game anymore.¡± ¡°Huh? Is that so? I guess you can¡¯t keep ying a single yer game forever.¡± Han Tae-Ho faced Sang-Hyeon again. ¡°What game did you choose to y next?¡± This was the moment Sang-Hyeon had been waiting for. He calmly responded without missing a beat, ¡°Battle Large.¡± ¡°Oh, my son has been ying that too. It¡¯s popr among 20-30 year olds, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°How¡¯s that going for you?¡± ¡°You see¡­¡± The shot was lined up and all he needed to do was fire. ¡°There¡¯s been a problem.¡± *** Assistant Kim Ki-Yeol was summoned as soon as he clocked into work the next day. ¡®Fuck, what''s going on?¡¯ He felt uneasy because of his recent mistake. The uneasiness didn¡¯t go away as he made his way through the office. ¡°I heard you called for me.¡± He had been summoned to the director''s office and the manager was present too. ¡°Sit.¡± He could tell straight away from the director''s voice. ¡®Ah, I¡¯m fucked.¡¯ Kim Ki-Yeol''s mistakes came back to haunt him. ¡®I got rid of all themunity posts. Did something else leak?¡¯ Fortunately, it was the manager who found out and he wanted to cover it up too. After some time, the users would forget it as well. He would get into some minor trouble, but it would be all over soon. It felt unpleasant, but this punishment was preferable to being written up. ¡°Do you know where I went this morning?¡± ¡°?¡± Kim Ki-Yeol felt surprised by the question. ¡®Where did you go?¡¯ Only someone even higher could summon the director. ¡®He didn''t get any reports... but someone called for him?¡¯ Kim Ki-Yeol thought someone below leaked the information, but the director pointed up and indicated that the report didn''t leak. Someone higher gave the order. ¡°The head office.¡± ¡°!¡± ¡°The higher-ups heard something interesting.¡± The manager hung his head with a distressed look. Kim Ki-Yeol began to shake in fear. He didn¡¯t have the luxury to think about where to look. ¡°Almond, you know who he is, right?¡± The director got straight to the point. No one responded. "Almond, you know who he is, right? Get ready to be fucked if you make me ask again." Thump. The sound of their hearts dropping could be heard. It was unusual for the director to use suchnguage. Squeeze. Kim Ki-Yeol''s manager sat beside him and stepped on his shoe for him to answer. His shout from the pain turned into a reply, "Yes¡­ I know who he is." "Hmm. So you know?" The director red at Kim Ki-Yeol with a deathly expression. "Then I won''t press any further. You''ll be gone soon anyways." "!?" Kim Ki-Yeol''s eyes widened. "Why are you surprised? Why should I get mad at someone who¡¯s going to leave? I should save my temper for someone worthy." "But... but, this isn''t that big of a deal..." m! The director mmed the table and interrupted him. "Do you know where I heard this from?" "..." "You don''t know, do you? That''s why you don''t think it''s a big deal, right?" The director showed him a tablet with the following text: [Punk Partner Streamers] A list of streamers was disyed underneath that title. "You could¡¯ve found this out with a simple search, but you didn''t even do that and tried to cover it up." "...!" A familiar name was under the list of Punk partner streamers. [Almond/Yu Sang-Hyeon] ¡®This can''t be¡­¡¯ Kim Ki-Yeol covered his mouth with both his hands. ''He only had 1,000 viewers. Wasn''t he a small-timer?'' He couldn''t believe Almond was a partnered streamer with only a thousand viewers. "You know how difficult it is to get Punk to promote for us even if we make a good game, right? But you go and ban one of their partner streamers? And without any good reason too." "..." "This guy apparently increased the sales of Kingdom Age?by five times. No wonder their director called us directly. What do you think?" "..." "Now what will you do?" Kim Ki-Yeol became speechless. Thud. The director took back the tablet. "Covering up your tracks is something that''s frequently done in businesses. I always tell you guys that shady things happen, but we have to be way more careful than the average person if we¡¯re going to do that." "..." "The way I see it, the two of you don''t have what it takes. Just live out of the shade instead of bringing me trouble!" "D-Director. I¡ª" "No, I don''t want to hear it. Write your letter of apology and get ready to be assessed. I''m going to leave Almond''s incident to someone else." The director turned to his monitor. "What are you doing? Aren''t you going to leave? Should I call security?" "We''ll leave." The director called someone as the two idiots left. "Hey, Team 2. Is Almond''s suspension revoked? Ah, okay. Good job. Punk and Almond are preparing for an event, so have it all ready. I''m looking forward to it. Get rid of all the controversies." Chapter 47: Blessing in Disguise (5)

Chapter 47: Blessing in Disguise (5)

Creak¡­? Kim Ki-Yeol''s manager red at him as they left the director''s office. "I told you to write a letter in advance, right? Hand that in right away." "..." Kim Ki-Yeol didn''t respond. "Did you not write it?" "..." "You fucking idiot. You..." The manager looked around and just let it go. Kim Ki-Yeol stared at his back and whispered to himself, "Fuck¡­" His work-life was about to spiral downwards. *** Sang-Hyeon brushed his teeth after finishing his cereal. Creak¡­? Ju-Hyeok walked into the bathroom. "Oh? Hey, how did it go? I got tired of waiting and went to bed." "Ah..." Sang-Hyeon returned quitete from the dinner because he also went out to drink with Director Han Tae-Ho. He responded after rinsing his mouth, "It worked out." "Hmm? What do you mean it worked out? How well did it work out?" "Hmm¡­ I''m not sure." Ju-Hyeok grew frustrated, but didn''t ask any further. "I think he really liked me though." "What''s there to like?" "The director asked me to teach him archery next time. He said he would set up another meeting." . "!" Ju-Hyeok''s expression brightened. "That''s amazing?!" "You think so?" "Of course!" Sang-Hyeon nodded. ''It¡¯s a good thing.'' He already knew, but didn¡¯t show his excitement to Ju-Hyeok. "Wow, his hobby was archery. It¡¯ll be really good if you give him private lessons... Wow!" Ju-Hyeok usually got ahead of himself. He became overly excited about the news like a puppy. "Hey... but there''s something more important." "Hmm?" "Battle Large." "Ah... that. You brought it up, right?" "He said he''ll contact their director himself." "...!" Ju-Hyeok''s eyes widened. "R-Really?" "Why would I lie about something like that?" "N-No, I know it''s true." "Don''t get too excited. He might just be acting polite." "What do you mean? Isn''t that a great sign?!" Ju-Hyeok ran to hisputer. "Oh! It''s here! It''s really here!" He pointed to Almond''s inbox with a subject line that read: [Hello, this is the Battle Large admin team.]? "We are clearing your suspension. Due to the inconvenience, we would like to give you a small in-game reward. We sincerely apologize..." They gave him a small reward aspensation after lifting the suspension. "Hey, I think this is legit." Ju-Hyeok turned around with a smile. Sang-Hyeon tilted his head and wondered what Ju-Hyeok meant. "What are you talking about?" "The fact that he likes you. He must be quite fond of you if it was resolved this quickly." Sang-Hyeon checked the time. ''It''s 9 A.M. right now...'' The director must¡¯ve directly called theirpany first thing in the morning. He really cared about Sang-Hyeon. "You better turn him into Robin Hood with your archery lessons," Ju-Hyeok giggled and went to the kitchen. Sang-Hyeon nced at Ju-Hyeok''s back as he searched the kitchen and finallyughed. Smirk. ''I have no idea what that rich kid is doing here.'' He never imagined Ju-Hyeok would turn out like this. Wasn''t he the type to only show his elite side? "Hey, what are you up to so early?" "You might be full from leftover snacks and milk, but I like to eat proper meals." "Ah, is that so?" "That''s right." Ju-Hyeok seemed to be making himself breakfast. ''Then should I warm up my body?'' Sang-Hyeon felt sore from all the drinkingst night. He nned to exercise after stretching. "Ah." He needed to do something else first. ''I should post on my feed.'' He needed to tell his followers that the situation had been resolved. Sang-Hyeon made the post while putting on his running shoes. *** [My suspension has been lifted! I''m going to stream today at 7 P.M.!] The new post came up on Almond''s feed. His followers had been eagerly waiting for an update since the controversy began, so they quickly responded. ¡ª Oh, congrats. ¡ª Gratz. ¡ª A small reward? That''s it? ¡ª They''re so cheap... ¡ª So they admitted to their wrongdoing? ¡ª I''ll let it slide since they admitted it. ¡ª It was their fault I couldn''t watch his stream!!! The viewers either congratted him or insulted the admin team. From their perspective, it was unfair that Almond only received a small reward aspensation. ¡ª Wow, theirpensation is only a single reward? ¡ª LOL ¡ª I guess since it was only a 1 day ban... ¡ª It''s technically worth it, but still. It''s not that simple, right? ¡ª Yeah, this showcased their faulty system. ¡ª This was only possible because we saw the post and made it trend. They would have done nothing if it was a regr person.? The post spread to othermunities and Almond was proven innocent. The journalists already prepared to beat down Battle Large¡¯s?admin team for this incident. [Battle Large admin admits their fault.] [Their faulty system revealed...] Multiple articles with simr titles popped up. The news didn''t spread that quickly, but it was enough for different YouTubers to catch on. After that, the majority found out about the incident. [Why the Battle Large admin team is under fire.] [(Ipetent admins) A beginner wrongfully suspended.] Multiple YouTubers attacked thepany with simr titles. Everyone jumped on the news because of Almond''s recent controversy with Battle Large. "Hello everyone, this is Small Ring." A YouTuber appeared on the screen with his face covered and expressed his anger. "Battle Large?admin team! This isn''t the first time you fucked up like this. Everyone, it was his first round! Jesus... how can you ban a user who only yed once as a smurf? What''s going on with yourpany?" He added, "I heard Punk directly called Battle Large?and spoke to the director himself! That''s why it was resolved so quickly. Initially, they just got Almond''s email and threw it in the trash. They didn''t know Almond was a Punk partnered streamer." ¡ª Wow... ¡ª This is big news. ¡ª I was ready to forgive them for being so quick, but knowing this? This is uneptable. ¡ª This is the ss of a Koreanpany! ¡ª It seemed like they were trying to blow him over. The video reached over 100,000 views in just three hours. More viewers grew upset at the Battle Large?admin team, but that wasn''t the end of it. The video gained traction for anotherpletely different reason. ¡ª Wait, how good was he that he got reported as a smurf in his first game? ¡ª I''m curious about how good he is too.? ¡ª Almond? Isn''t that the guy who''s good in Kingdom Age? He peaked as soon as he started ying that game.? ¡ª What? How is that possible? ¡ª I heard there are some videos of his gamey. Go take a look. The casual gamers became the x-factor. These gamers only lightly yed the game and didn''t pay much attention to the controversy. However, they suddenly grew interested in Almond''s skills. ¡ª Show me Almond''s video. ¡ª Small Ring, you''ve lost focus. Do you just make videos like this now? ¡ª How good is he to be mistaken as a smurf in his first game? ¡ª I want to see it too. Countless people became curious about Almond''s skills, so Small Ring also provided links to Almond''s videos. ¡ª Hello, this is Small Ring. I''ve also linked Almond''s videos in the description for those who are curious. *** Sang-Hyeon was about to eat dinner when he checked his phone. "Hmm?" He made a confused expression as he sipped his soup. Ju-Hyeok asked, "Why... is it not good? I made it ording to a YouTube cooking channel." "No, it''s not that. Our YouTube video... does it usually reach 400,000 views?" "What?" ''That''s not possible. Our videos usually average 50,000 views.''?Ju-Hyeok muttered to himself and checked his phone. Seo Ji-Ah was in charge of their YouTube channel, so Ju-Hyeok didn¡¯t pay much attention to it. "!" Ju-Hyeok''s eyes almost popped out of his sses. "Wait, is this really 400,000 views? Not 40,000?" "Well... sometimes YouTubers get lucky with the algorithm." Sang-Hyeon continued eating. He kept his mentality in check by not being too happy about it. He often used this tactic in archery to remain calm. "Hey! What''s with that reaction? It''s 400,000 views! There must be a reason..." "Hmmm..." Sang-Hyeon thought about it. "Is it because of the suspension?" They looked further and found videos rted to Almond. Ju-Hyeok felt impressed after watching a couple of them. "Wow... look at the viewer count. They did a good job attracting people." "It really was a blessing in disguise like you said." ¡°Pfft,¡±?Ju-Hyeokughed. Who would''ve thought that what he said during Sang-Hyeon¡¯s suspension would be true? "Hahaha! What did I tell¡ª¡± "What. The YouTube views and streaming don¡¯t rte that much. Let''s continue working hard." Sang-Hyeon covered Ju-Hyeok''s mouth because he didn''t want to risk another controversy. Celebrities often experienced one-hit wonders. This video could''ve been one of those. *** After dinner, Sang-Hyeon lightly stretched to digest his food and entered the capsule. [The stream is now beginning.] His stream started right on time as part of his routine. The intro music yed and the chat log came up. ¡ª Hihi ¡ª So you''re Almond? ¡ª Hihi ¡ª Hi Almond! ¡ª Wow, look at the viewers today. ¡ª I came from Small Ring''s video! ¡ª He''s right on time at 7! The chat moved quicker than usual. Sang-Hyeon spotted the number below the chat. "!" Thump. He banged his head on the capsule and eximed in astonishment, "Holy shit." Chapter 48: Not a Small-Timer Anymore (1)

Chapter 48: Not a Small-Timer Anymore (1)

¡®One must be calmer and more humble the more they achieve sess.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon repeated those words to himself every day, but crumbled in front of the numbers. He freaked out inside the capsule and banged his head on the lid. Chiik¡ª? The sudden impact caused the capsule lid to open and temporarily paused the stream. "Huh? What the? Why did youe out?" Ju-Hyeok asked as he opened hisptop. "Ah... It''s nothing. Something just messed up while I was moving around." "Moving around?" There was no need to move around in the capsule because everything happened in virtual reality. "Ahem. Well, I''m going back inside." Sang-Hyeon went back in as if nothing happened. ''It couldn''t have been a mistake, right?'' Did he freak out over nothing? ''But the number was...'' Ding¡ª? The stream came back on. Thankfully, the server didn¡¯t disconnect. ¡ª Woah, what just happened? ¡ª It just disconnected out of nowhere. ¡ª It''s back! ¡ª I see. ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Wow, there are so many people today. Sang-Hyeon slowly read the chat and saw the viewer count again. [Current Viewers: 2319] It hadn¡¯t been a mistake. In fact, the number had increased by 200 since he first checked it. ''Two thousand!'' He reached two thousand live viewers for the first time before he even started ying. He had lost around 700-800 viewers after switching to Battle Large. ''It reached 2000 before I even started.'' The intro music hadn¡¯t even finished ying yet. [Ju-Hyeok: LOL Is that why you came out? You were acting all cool.] Ju-Hyeok mockingly sent him a message. He just saw the viewer count too. [Shut up.] [Ju-Hyeok: I think it''s starting for real now. Good luck.] Ju-Hyeok had never wished him luck before when it came to streaming. Gulp. Sang-Hyeon, no, Almond took a moment to focus again. His face cam would soon turn on. ''Let''s do this.''? An opportunity had presented itself. A rare one since YouTube viewers came to watch him live. This proved that Almond was gaining poprity among the masses. [Current Viewers: 2910] Nearly 3000 viewers had gathered. ''Sigh...'' As a boy, he always dreamed of holding the bow in front of such a crowd. The reflection of his younger self merged with the screen in front of him. He made a different expression now, but this situation was essentially the same. ''It''s starting.'' Du-dum! The intro song ended as a drum resounded. Ding¡ª? Almond''s face came up on one corner of the screen and the stream officially began. His face looked the same as usual from the audience''s perspective. No one noticed the storm stirring inside him. The anticipation, excitement, nervousness, ambition¡­ A storm of emotions gathered and red. Smirk. It formed a smile on his face. "Hi, Treevy!" ¡ª Kya! ¡ª Hi oppa! ¡ª Hihi ¡ª Hi! ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª So good looking! ¡ª Wow, Boss. What''s with the number of viewers today? ¡ª Did something happen? ¡ª Tell us what happened! ¡ª Did Battle Large apologize? The chat rapidly rose as they responded to Almond''s greeting. Some were curious about the incident, others were seeing Almond for the first time, and his usual audience arrived. A variety of chatters came to watch him today. The chat always seemed like a collective in the past, but there were different categories of viewers today. This was the prime difference between Treevy and YouTube. Treevy''s demographic was limited in age and hobby, but YouTube wasn''t. Almost everyone watched YouTube regardless of age or gender. ''They''re definitelying from YouTube.'' He felt even more certain now that they all came from YouTube. ''Since there might be people who don''t know who I am...'' Almond thought he needed to exin yesterday''s absence. A small group of viewers didn''t keep up with the events and were there to purely watch the stream. He couldn''t just leave them hanging. "I posted about the incident on mymunity page. There was a small problem yesterday. My Battle Large?ount was suspended." Ding¡ª? Ju-Hyeok brought up the screenshots as Sang-Hyeon finished talking. An additional program allowed a manager to help during the stream. ¡ª Woah, technology! ¡ª Wow. ¡ª Is this a recruitment party? ¡ª What''s going on? ¡ª Damn, that looks professional. Almond naturally continued his conversation using the resources provided by Ju-Hyeok. It wasn''t their first time presenting something together. "As you can see here, I was suspended because I was used of being a smurf." *** He finished exining and everyone caught up on what happened. ¡ª Oh, that''s why he took a break. ¡ª Damn... how could that happen on the first day. ¡ª That sucks. ¡ª Did you get an apology at least? [BrightenUp has donated 10,000 won.] [Boss, at least you got more viewers! Let''s be positive!] "Thank you, BrightenUp. Yes, that''s what I''m trying to tell myself too. Thankfully, my partner Punk already reached out to them and things were quickly taken care of." Almond simply told the truth, but the chat freaked out. ¡ª ?!?!? ¡ª Damn, then Small Ring was telling the truth? ¡ª Wow... ¡ª That''s insane. What were they saying? Did they hear something else? Almond felt confused, but moved on because he needed to start ying. ''3700?'' [Current Viewers: 3709] The viewer count reached nearly 4000. He couldn''t just sit and talk anymore. He needed to start ying to keep their attention. ''Some of them must know Battle Large, right?'' . Most viewers probably came with prior knowledge of Battle Large. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have known about the controversy. "Alright, that''s enough exining. I¡¯ll start ying now. Today, we''re going to be ying¡ª" [KingdomParrot has donated 1,000 won.] [Ta-da! It''s the shit game, Kingdom Age!] A donation suddenly interrupted him and seemed full of excitement. ¡ª What was with that timing LOL ¡ª Kingdom Age! ¡ª The timing of the donation, haha. ¡ª Kingdom Age parrots, smh. ¡ª Get out of here, you guys! ¡ª Read the room! [Battle Large is starting.] A group had missed the previous stream, but Almondughed it off and booted up Battle Large. "Battle Large!" *** Du-dun! Dududu¡ª? Battle Large¡¯s?signature background music yed as Almond''s avatar spawned on a beach. yers waited in the starting lobby before the match began. ¡ª You picked the right game mode this time. ¡ª I swear to god if you y as a solo squad again¡­? ¡ª I want to watch him pull it off again haha. The viewers asked him to double-check if he picked the right game mode this time. ¡ª He picked right LOL ¡ª Oh wow, he got it correct this time. ¡ª Wow, then he''s going to win easily, no? Fortunately, Almond picked solo mode. The viewers grew excited about how he would perform. Almond swept the battlefield by himself in squad mode. How would he do in solo mode? ¡ª I''m guessing at least 20 kills. ¡ª Nah, you never know what to expect in this game. ¡ª No matter how good you are, you can lose in the first 5 seconds if you¡¯re unlucky. ¡ª I bet he¡¯ll best if he can''t get a bow.? ¡ª I bet he''ll be top ten at least since the bow is supermon.? Almond only had one match to show his skills, so doubters inevitably existed. Battle Large?was an unpredictable game whether you were in the higher or lower ranks. The results were always unexpected. Almond still had a lot to prove. [BelieveYou has given you a mission. Win the first round for 300,000 won.] [I bet he''s going to win. I''m putting up a mission right now.] ¡ª Kya ¡ª Wow, first game victory. ¡ª Damn... He even received a mission for 300,000 won from a viewer. [Mission epted.] Almond epted it right away and thanked the viewer. "BelieveYou, thank you very much. A whopping 300,000 won... I''ll do my best to get it!" ¡ª Are you really thankful? LOL ¡ª What a weird way of saying thanks. ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª It''ll be more entertaining if he wins. A victory mission on his first time ying solo mode with 4000 viewers watching? ''Alright, everything is perfectly set up.'' The criteria to blow up and be even more famous were all there. He just needed to do well in this game. Everything depended on him. Some people would feel overwhelmed, but not Almond. ''This is what I wanted.'' Almond enjoyed it. He only grew stronger along with the pressure. He became more focused, precise, and sharp. [Everyone has gathered.] [The game will now begin.] The screen transitioned from the lobby to the yers getting ready in the helicopter. Tudududududu¡ª? The propeller roared in his ears followed by screams around him. "Jump off! Get out now you fuckers!" "Urk!" "Jump, you sons of bitches!" The military shouts took over their surroundings. Almond bit his lips and looked down. This wasn''t his first round anymore. ''I''ve got to avoid thepetitive areas for now.'' He didn¡¯t n to jump yet despite all the shouting. He would act slowly ording to n. "Hey, you! What are you doing standing there! Fucking jump off!!!" Themander screamed and spat in his face. Almond kept still and calmly looked below. ''Now.'' ¡°Jump! Jump now!¡± As themander''s voice echoed¡­ Tak¡ª? Almond jumped out. Swoooooosh! He fell through the air andnded on the ground after parachuting. *** Thump.? Hended perfectly unlike before when he rolled around. ¡ª Ooh... ¡ª He''s not a newbie anymore haha ¡ª Darn it. It would''ve been hrious if he rolled.? ¡ª Wow, he improved from just that one game the other day. Almond already yed differently from his first ythrough. The viewers noticed and Almond did too. ''It feels different. I''m a lot morefortable.'' Sometimes, gamers felt like they were one with the mouse. Almond was currently experiencing that with the game. Tadadak. He quickly ran to a house and opened the door. Scavenging for items before someone else was crucial early on. ''Is it just me?'' He picked a good spot and was the only one around. His eyes darted around the house and scanned the ce. "Woah." He saw an item that always excited him. [Compound Bow] This weapon held a lot of meaning to him. ¡ª Wow, again? ¡ª Another bow challenge!? ¡ª You have to grab it if you''re Almond.? A different yer would hesitate, but not Almond. He felt the opposite and immediately picked up the bow. Then he suddenly froze as if time had stopped. "...!" He could hear footsteps. ''Outside.'' Almond quickly determined the enemy¡¯s direction with his hearing. "I''m going to eliminate one before leaving," Almond confidently dered and ran towards the door with his bow drawn. His sudden appearance shocked the opponent. "Huh?" Almond, with his bow fully drawn, reflected in the enemy¡¯s dted pupils. He instantly released the arrow that chased after its prey. Thwack! It pierced right through the enemy¡¯s forehead. [Almond?¡ú Toms] [Eliminated!] [99/100] ¡ª Wow! ¡ª What the? I didn''t even see him shoot it. ¡ª How much did you improve Almond... ¡ª He got even better! ¡ª Battle Large picked on the wrong guy! ¡ª It might be obvious, but he definitely got better. ¡ª Wow, calling your kills ahead of time... that''s crazy. Today¡¯s Almond didn¡¯t hesitate at all and never felt confused. He yed as if he knew what would happen. It seemed unbelievable, but everything happened in front of the viewers. Almond had grown stronger. Chapter 49: Not a Small-Timer Anymore (2)

Chapter 49: Not a Small-Timer Anymore (2)

Almond began scavenging after instantly killing an enemy. Everyone, including himself, noticed that his footsteps were lighter. ''It definitely feels different.'' He became apletely different yerpared to his first ythrough. It was simr to learning how to ride a bike. He got the hang of it right away once he knew how to do it. That¡¯s what it felt like to him right now. However, Almond started from a different foundationpared to other people. This made his growth rate increase exponentially. He was more like an F1 racer than a biker. He knew how to escape sticky situations with the perfect moves. [Almond ¡ú Dodori] [Eliminated!] [91/100] Thwack! Another yer tried to get in the way after the first enemy fell, but also ended up with an arrow in his forehead. Almond shot him down with ease and zero hesitation. Thud. The opponent fell without even knowing who shot him. Almond lowered his bow after confirming the kill. He seemed like a veteran instead of a beginner. It seemed as if he had used the bow hundreds, no, thousands of times. ¡ª Is this really his second round? He seems like an expert. ¡ª Wow, as expected from getting a bow early on... ¡ª Yeah, the headshots without a helmet are so satisfying. ¡ª A second headshot already? ¡ª What the... ¡ª Was the video not exaggerating? ¡ª It looks like he''s shooting without aiming. His second headshot in a row surprised the new viewers. Their shock was understandable because thepound bow was designed to be challenging. It functioned simrly to a real bow, so people only familiar with guns had to train with it. Almond used it like an expert because he was one. His experience as a professional archer gave him more than an edge over everyone else. [RubySword has donated 5,000 won] [You neers don''t know, but Almond only hits headshots.] One of Almond''s first viewers dered to the neers. ¡ª That''s true. ¡ª Ah, let''s embrace the neers. Everyone gets surprised at first. ¡ª Type true in the chat if you don''t know.? Long-time viewers got on the bandwagon of poking fun at the neers. It annoyed the neers, but what could they do? They needed to know more about Almond if they wanted to talk back. "RubySword, thanks for the donation. It''s been a while. Ah, please don''t pick on the neers. I''m going to check where the blue zone is first. It''sing in 30 seconds." Almond not only improved his gamey, but also became morepetent at streaming. He easily read the donations, felt the atmosphere, and responded ordingly. ¡ª True. ¡ª Don''t act cool to the neers. Almond is busy climbing the ranks. ¡ª It''s better for him if there are new people! The viewers would refuse to listenter if he didn¡¯t tell them to refrain from teasing each other now. He learned this technique from watching Bubblegum''s stream. "As usual, the blue zone is not in a great location for me. Hmm, I''ve got to run at least 4 km." ¡ª Wow, look where the blue zone is. ¡ª So unlucky. ¡ª Is this part of his skill too?! It was only his second round, but luck was never on Almond''s side. The blue zone was always far away even in his solo squad round. [Eggnt has donated 1,000 won.] [Still, you should keep farming. Blue zones aren''t that bad early on.] "Ah, thank you for the donation, Eggnt. Should I? It seems like medical equipment is quite important from my experiencest time." Almond nodded at the feedback because he stillcked knowledge. He decided to be flexible early on and headed to an empty house for more items. [Painkiller x1] [Energy Drink x1] He found an energy drink and painkiller. "Woah." He also found another item that would be usefulter on. [First-Aid Kit x1] This kit could recover 30% of lost HP. A double-barrel shotguny next to it as well. ¡ª Are you really not going to use guns? ¡ª Pick up the gun! ¡ª The double barrel is really good. Almond read the chat and returned to the shotgun. He stared at it for a while and turned around. ¡ª What the, is hegging? ¡ª Knock, knock. Hello? ¡ª Why is he suddenly stunned? LOL ''Hmm, what should I do?'' He faced another dilemma, but was adamant about only using the bow this time. He felt confident from the first round and wouldn''t even be able to use a gun properly if he tried. He didn¡¯t know how to convince the audience though. They would definitely feel frustrated if he left the gun alone. Almond struggled to find an answer and finally said, "Ah... A gun? I don''t see anything like that." ¡ª LOL ¡ª Ah, that''s why he stood still. ¡ª Of course, Almond can''t see anything. ¡ª Almond baby can''t see much. ¡ª He''s going to pass on it?! ¡ª He''s a streaming genius. Smirk. Their reaction satisfied him and he headed to the next farming location. ¡ª Wow, he''s so good looking. ¡ª Almond! Don''t you dare get cocky because you''re handsome! ¡ª Smile... smile forever... ¡ª Your eyesight isn''t good, but I''ll let it slide since you''re cute.? They forgave him thanks to his looks. It was super effective! *** He found some bandages and energy drinks after farming for more items. However, he still couldn''t find a bulletproof vest or helmet. There weren''t any noteworthy items other than the first-aid kit from earlier. "Is there a special way to find items or something?" ¡ª LOL ¡ª Nope, you''re just unlucky. ¡ª So cute. ¡ª I don''t me him. Almond sincerely asked, but they only made fun of him. ''Dammit...'' He had to admit he was quite unlucky with farming. "That''s alright. All I need is the bow," Almond reassured himself. As expected, a donation mocking him came in. [FireBoy has donated 5,000 won.] [??? I can go anywhere as long as I have arrows and the win.] The donation was supposed to be read in a nerdy tone. "Thank you FireBoy. It doesn''t matter where I go though. ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª It''s a meme bro. ¡ª Who doesn''t know that? ¡ª Haha, what a nickname. ¡ª Almond senpai! ¡ª We can go anywhere as long as we''re together! (serious af) Almond knew the meme, but didn''t have time to respond. [The blue zone is shrinking!] Koong¡ª? The blue zone began to shrink and he hadn¡¯t even collected enough items yet. ''I''m just gonna skip farming next time.'' Almond improved once more from this. He learned that farming while hiding didn¡¯t suit his ystyle. He preferred to find an advantageous spot and target enemies as they came. ¡ª Run! Run! ¡ª It''s a marathon! ¡ª At least you found a first-aid kit. Tadadadak. Almond ran with all his might as the blue zone quickly shrunk. "Huff. Puff." Bzzt... The blue zone caused Almond''s hair to stand up straight. Then it passed him. [You are in a contaminated area.] [Move quickly!] His health began to decrease. Thankfully, the blue zone didn¡¯t do much damage early on. It lowered his health by 1% every five seconds, so he had time to get out. Gulp. Almond took the painkillers. ''I should be able to withstand it longer with this.'' He increased his resistance to damage and sighed in relief. Then he began running again. ''I''m going inte, so it should be a bit safer.'' Sometimes, it was safer to enter after the blue zone because the fog outside hid one¡¯s presence. However, that was a miscalction this time. This was only Almond''s second round, which meant he was still paired with beginners. Some of these yers also began movingte after the blue zone timer ran out. ''What the?'' He saw several yers making troll ys. . "Aaargh!" A yer ran for his life without even taking a painkiller. Another yer also ran from way behind Almond. One rode a motorcycle and fell after crashing into a rock. Boom! The motorcycle''s explosion attracted everyone¡¯s attention and aim. ''No way?'' Even a beginner like Almond knew it was best to refrain from fighting outside the zone. However, these people didn''t care about that. "Fuck! Don''te near me!" The one running in front turned around with his pistol. Someone else in front of Almond shouted back in confusion, "Hey! What are you doing starting a fight here?" "Shut up!" Bang! Bang! The opponent had no choice but to answer back with his rifle while rolling on the ground to dodge the pistol. Bangbangbang! They sprayed their bullets all over. Tidididing! "...!" Almond had no choice but to take cover from the bullets. ''Do they really want to do this?'' He clenched his teeth and took out his bow, which made the viewers rejoice. ¡ª What a clusterfuck. ¡ª Wow... so this is bronze rank... ¡ª Damn LOL ¡ª These guys are crazy. ¡ª This is what a battle royale is. ¡ª This is what makes it fun. The higher ranks of Battle Large?never had shootouts early on in the game. yers didn''t want to put themselves at risk and yed conservatively. However, it was different here. This was a mud fight and aplete shitshow. Creak¡­? Almond drew his bowstring and muttered, "You gotta follow the rules of the shitshow if you''re in one." Pang! The arrow spiraled towards the yer with the pistol in front. "Uh, arr..." Thwack! ''An arrow?'' The yer died without even finishing his thought as the arrow pierced his forehead. "!" The other yers finally paid attention to Almond. They ignored him all this time because he only had apound bow. ''What the?'' ''How did hend the arrow like that?'' ''Running at full speed too?'' ''That''s fucking terrifying.'' ''First, him...'' Everyone signaled to each other. ''We have to kill him!'' Chul kuk¡ª? Four guns suddenly aimed at Almond and the situation quickly went downhill. "This is familiar." Smirk. Almond overflowed with confidence. ¡ª Solo squad again. ¡ª Goodbye... ¡ª 4v1 again?! ¡ª This is a solo mode, right? ¡ª These trolls LOL He clenched an arrow in his teeth without losing his smile and readied another arrow onto his bow. This was quicker than his opponents reloading. Taang. Pang! Gunshots and an arrow ripping through the air echoed out. Chapter 50: Not a Small-Timer Anymore (3)

Chapter 50: Not a Small-Timer Anymore (3)

Sang-Hyeon only briefly stayed at the athlete vige during his days as a pro because of the ident. At the time, everyone praised him as the youngest record holder in national history. He also had what it took to be a star and would rise even higher if he performed well in the Olympics. Was it because of that? Or was it because of Sang-Hyeon''s personality? His seniors often called for him. "Hey, Sang-Hyeon! Let¡¯s y some ser during lunch?" The toxic culture of seniority had already died around ten years ago due to the conflicts it caused, but seniors were still difficult to deal with. However, these seniors adored Sang-Hyeon even though their way of showing affection as athletes was quite aggressive. ''A national ser yer asking me to y during lunch... crazy. Just crazy.'' Ser yers and basketball yers alike always asked for him. "Hey Sang-Hyeon, how about basketball during lunch today? You have talent as a shooting guard judging fromst time. Maybe it''s because you''re an archer?" Sang-Hyeon was about to say, ''It''s because you guys go easy on me.''?Instead, he thought he wouldn¡¯t have such opportunities again and replied, "Sure." ying with his seniors always exhausted all his energy and strength. "Hey, Sang-Hyeon! Are you tired already? Your shot was so close! You gotta defend. Get up!" "Another three-pointer? Try getting one when the screen isn''t up." Sang-Hyeon hung his head, full of sweat. "Huff¡­ puff... Is this really possible?" He didn¡¯t know whether the seniors enjoyed his growth or pain as they kept pushing him. "Ah,e on! Try it again!" "Get up!!!" ying with them always exhausted him. His coach even told him to rest during lunchtime. However, their affection for him had some upsides. Tadadadak. ''Huff¡­ puff... Four defenders?'' Sang-Hyeon looked for somewhere to pass the ball as he dribbled inside the penalty box. Four defenders stood in front and he had no confidence in breaking through them. Not to mention, they were all national yers as well. "Hey! Sang-Hyeon! There''s nowhere to pass! Just go through them!" "Huh!? How!?" "Just twist your body, man! Trick the enemy. Don''t you know how to fake? Fake them out!" ''Just¡­ fake them out?'' Feints were a new concept to Sang-Hyeon, who only knew archery. Archery didn¡¯t require any feints. Only then did he realize that his seniors constantly did that against him. "Are you going to attempt a pass without even trying!? Just get through them and strike it!" Sang-Hyeon still hesitated as his senior shouted from behind. He recalled their movements and the professional ser he watched in the past. How yers feinted to trick the opponents. "!" Swoosh¡ª? His body tilted at a strange angle, but his lower half was still in position to kick the ball. "?!" The two defenders fell for it and slipped because it was the first time they saw Sang-Hyeon perform such a move. ''Holy shit.''? Even the senior who shouted from behind felt surprised. For a moment, Sang-Hyeon seemed like a professional ser yer from Europe as he performed a perfect feint. Was it a mere coincidence? "Fuck!" "What the?" The other two slipped as well and an opening formed. It didn''t seem like a coincidence. The opponents¡¯ jaws dropped in surprise as a wide smile formed on Sang-Hyeon''s face. "It worked?" Finally, he saw an opportunity to shoot the ball. As he lifted his foot to kick, the goalkeeper unexpectedly appeared from behind a defender and dived for the ball. Just like that, the keeper took the ball away from him. "Ah..." Sang-Hyeon felt empty when his senior approached and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey, you did well. It was worth a try, right?" "I was so close." "You were crazy. Remember, we''re also pro yers." "Haha..." ¡®Ah, right. They were.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon awkwardly smiled and scratched his head. The same situation urred when he yed basketball. "Just now, our teammate didn''t have a chance to screen you, right? You have to dribble through them on your own at that moment." "I''m not really good at dribbling..." "Of course, your dribbling won¡¯t be as good as us, but anyone can do it for a moment. Watch." The senior basketball yer readied himself for a three-point shot. It seemed as if he would release the ball at any moment. His form looked perfect, but¡­ Bounce! The basketball suddenly fell to the ground. "?" He transitioned from shooting to dribbling in an instant. "Feint the opponent like this and you can find an opening even if they''re blocking." The senior pointed at his head. "You don''t have to physically dribble through them if you trick them." "Wow..." "But the opponent is a pro too. You have to fullymit to the move if you want to fool them. Use your body motion, the direction of your eyes, and everything you can to trick them." ''Wow... but why are you telling me all this?'' It would¡¯ve been helpful if he was an up-anding basketball yer, but he had no use for that as an archer. Maybe he would use that information to throw an ashtray at Manager Park when the time came. *** ''Who would''ve thought I''d use it at a time like this.'' Sang-Hyeon recalled the past and smiled. Four yers ran towards him with guns. Almond only had a bow and arrows. They were also in the blue zone, which meant everyone would die if this dragged on. Almond had to go through four defenders and defeat them simultaneously. ¡ª Shiet! How''s he going to get out of this? ¡ª Wow, those trolls. ¡ª Do they all want to die together? ¡ª This is too much. Creak¡­? Almond drew his bowstring and aimed at an enemy. He sharpened his gaze and stood straight, ready to release the fully drawn bow. ''He''s shooting at me!'' ''We have to eliminate him!'' ''Now!'' Click¡ª? Almond lowered his bow and crouched as they pressed their gun triggers. Tududududung!!! The four guns all fired, but Almond already crouched beneath the sand. They only struck an empty spot. "Kugh!" "Damn!" They ended up surrounding themselves and fired toward the middle, hitting each other. ¡ª LOL What are those guys doing? ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª That''s hrious. I''m going to fall off my bedughing. They seemed like fools from the viewer''s perspective. Bronze rank had such foolish yers and they all fell for Almond¡¯s feint. ¡ª Wow, that was a good fake. ¡ª You fools. This was only possible because of Almond. ¡ª Where did you learn to do that? It''s only your second round. Only world-ss yers possessed such talent. A legendary ser yer could easily brush past defenders and cause them to slip. What the audience had just seen was simr to such dribbling. ¡ª Pure talent. ¡ª That''s crazy. ¡ª He''s like Messi. ¡ª Insane. Almond learned this y that ovepped with ser during his time at the athlete vige. ''As expected, this works on them.'' The seniors who taught him these skills went on to the national level or yed for European leagues now. Almond had unintentionally learned from such great athletes. Of course, these bronze yers would fall for it. They busily insulted each other instead of acknowledging Almond''s feint because they weren''t a team to begin with. "Fuck! Why are we shooting each other!" "Shut up bro!" Two of the four had already died and the remaining two continued to shout at each other, though not for long. "You troll..." Thwack! Almond fired an arrow into his forehead. Thud. The enemy shook and fell to the ground. ''Next...'' Almond nocked the arrow he gritted between his teeth and fired another shot. Swoosh¡ª? Another arrow instantly pierced the remaining enemy¡¯s forehead. "Kugh!!!" The enemy fell as if a heavy weapon had struck him. [Almond ¡ú Hoochihoochi] [Eliminated!] [Almond ¡ú akd01] [Double Kill!] [74/100] Scuff, scuff. Almond brushed off the sand on him. "Sigh¡­ Damn trolls..." he muttered as he ran out of the blue zone. ¡ª Damn. ¡ª He''s so cool... it''s like a wild west film. ¡ª How can a bow be faster than a gun?!? ¡ª The way he clenched the arrow in his mouth... ¡ª Hello, hello. This is HQ. There''s no escape from Almond''s charm! We''re all screwed! Bzzt... Almond finally entered the safe zone and checked his health as he caught his breath. He remained calm, but found it difficult to keep a straight face. "Sigh, I have to use the med kit already. What was the point of farming?" ¡ª Who knew there would be four trolls? LOL ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª You''re back to square one. ¡ª For real. ¡ª This is bronze. The first-aid kit couldn¡¯tpletely heal him from all the health he lost in the blue zone. All the time he spent farming became meaningless. Almond used the kit and headed to the next location with the bow on his back. "This round isn''t easy..." Despite his words, the game felt much easier this time. *** "Wow¡­" Kim Ju-Hyeok was so focused on theputer screen that he forgot to turn on the light. He kept staring at the screen in awe like a ghost as the monitor¡¯s light reflected against his pale face. ¡°...¡± Of course, the gamey surprised him as Almond moved from location to location and luckily avoided enemies. However, Ju-Hyeok also focused on the chat, specifically on a number in the bottom right corner. [Current Viewers: 5205] The 5000 viewer wall was hard to ovee, but they had achieved it. From now on, they could be self-sufficient with streaming alone. They could even pay their editor and have some left to spare. ''Wow... now our only job is to go higher!'' Ju-Hyeok held in his tears and clenched his fists. The image of his father shed across his mind. Chapter 51: Unexpected Audience (1)

Chapter 51: Unexpected Audience (1)

Only sessful marketing could have achieved a feat like 5000 viewers so soon. Ju-Hyeok¡¯s experience working at big corporations was beginning to pay off. ''Thanks to my experience.'' Ju-Hyeok had been close with the marketing team even though he wasn''t part of it. What they worked on always interested him. ¡®Noise marketing is a double-edged sword, but it''s the best for those with nothing to lose.¡¯ They always used to say that. ¡®Look at diss battles in hip-hop. It''s always better for whoever is less popr.¡¯ Almond''s feud with the admin team had strongly favored them. Their increased viewer count had been a direct result of that. [Current Viewers: 5391] They hadn''t nned to take advantage of the situation like this, but it unexpectedly resulted in a huge sess. Ju-Hyeok could see on his database that most viewers had tuned in for the first time and came from a specific link, which resulted in the sudden increase. ''Now it''s up to us to maintain this.'' He pointed his cursor at Almond running through the virtual desert. ''It''s up to you now.'' Continuing like this wasn¡¯t guaranteed just because they reached 5000 viewers now. They were more likely to fade away like most trends. It was up to Almond to take advantage of this opportunity and retain the viewers. ''If it''s you, you can do it.'' As always, Almond would get it done with no sweat. *** Did Ju-Hyeok''s wish reach Almond? Almond went on an unstoppable rampage after his 1v4 victory. Thwack! His arrow quickly flew and pierced an enemy''s head. ¡ª Another kill!? ¡ª Again! ¡ª How many times is this!? These yers were only bronze rank at best. They became powerless once they lost their brief chance to kill Almond. "Alright, I''ll loot the corpses now." Almond had figured out the strategies to y in this tier. [ApocalypseFarmer has donated 10,000 won.] [What''s the point of farming when you can just kill them and take everything!] [BigFarm has donated 1000 won.] [This is Almond, who gave up farming!] It was more efficient to kill yers and loot their items than farm. The skill gap between Almond and the yers in this tier made this the best strategy. They didn¡¯t possess urate aim andcked game sense. Shuffle, shuffle. He quickly looted their bodies. [First-aid Kit x1] [Bandages x2] The first-aid kit was a great find, but Almond wasn''t too impressed. "I need to find a helmet. I can''t seem to find one." He already found two kits, but still no helmet. That was all he needed toplete his set. ¡ª This tier is shit, so I think the other yers don''t know how to farm very well. ¡ª No one has a helmet lol? ¡ª You''re dead if you show up in front of Almond without a helmet.? ¡ª 12 kills already! Whether it was luck or not, no enemy he encountered had worn a helmet. Thanks to that, he easily eliminated 12 yers with a single headshot each. "I want to find a helmet..." He thought it was essential to find some protection because killing didn''t mean everything in this survival game. [HelmetMurderer has donated 5000 won.] [Why are you looking for a helmet from a yer? Don''t you usually look for them in houses?] ¡ª That''s true LOL ¡ª Haha, he''s not wrong. ¡ª That is weird now that you mention it.? "Ah, HelmetMurderer, thanks for the 5000 won donation. I decided not to farm because I end up with nothing anyways. I''m just going to find someone with one and kill them." ¡ª Farming humans. ¡ª Almond-style farming. ¡ª Nutty-style farming. ¡ª A true helmet murderer. Almond''s confidence caused amotion in the chat. This was the type of genius that the audience wanted to see. Their satisfaction came from watching an overpowered yer bending the rules. "Anyways, I¡¯ll only target those with a helmet from now on. I''ll let everyone else slide by." Almond doubled down on his new strategy and began moving after checking the blue zone. [SmallDilemma has donated 1000 won.] [So, are the 23 remaining yers safer with or without a helmet?] ¡ª They''re screwed! LOL ¡ª It''s a dilemma no matter what they do. ¡ª Their greatest predicament. ¡ª Without a helmet, for sure. ¡ª Run from Almond''s hunt! "Thank you for the donation. Hmm, I''m not sure. Oh? Someone is over there." Thwack! As if swatting a fly¡­ [Almond ¡ú EvilMoral] [Eliminated!] [22/100] Tadadang! The enemy fell while pulling the trigger and fired his bullets into the air. "So noisy... doesn''t even have a helmet..." Almond muttered to himself, annoyed by all the noise the enemy made. ¡ª Damn. ¡ª What was that? ¡ª Was he a fly? ¡ª Saying he was noisy after shooting him lol ¡ª Poor guy. [NutMorals has donated 5000 won.] [??? Just die quietly if you suck at the game!] [HelmetMurderer has donated 5000 won.] [Uh... Didn''t you just say 5 seconds ago that you''d let them live if they didn¡¯t have a helmet?] The question caused Almond to scratch his head. "Ah... Did I say that? Haha¡­" Almond continued to farm whileughing. The chat was filled withughter as well. ''There''s a lot of donations today.'' Almond thought to himself as he found an energy drink in the enemy¡¯s backpack. Almond didn¡¯t receive that many donations as a video game streamer. Simr streamers like Acorn Jelly experienced the same thing. The number of donations was much lower whenpared to the number of viewers they had. Because of that, Almond felt surprised when he saw the number on the bottom right corner of his screen. ''Wha¡­ what the!?'' The number was so ridiculous that he wondered how to keep calm. [Current Viewers: 5549] He suddenly had over 5500 viewers. What Ju-Hyeok once told him rang in his ear, ''I heard it¡¯s possible to stream as a career once you pass 5000 viewers... with a monthly earning around 7-8,000,000 won...'' The sry, benefits, and sucking up he had to endure while working at apany passed through his mind. ''Wow...'' Almond''s mouth twitched as if he was on a rollercoaster. He fought the urge to smile and maintained his calm. ''I shouldn''t have looked at it.'' It was best not to check the number of views during a stream. Almond repeated this in his head and focused on the game. Did he leave an opening as he was thinking? Roll... Almond turned around at the unsettling sound and a grenade greeted him. The grenade stared at him as if to say, ''Hello?'' Almond''s pupils shrunk into beans. ''?!'' He had to quickly make a judgment at this moment. When was it thrown? Was the pin already gone? Could he outrun it? The distance looked iffy. Would he die if he went to kick it? Or¡ª ''That''s it.'' Almond took out an arrow and rolled over at thest moment. *** Bubblegum''s stream sniper was a popr Treevy meme. It categorized those who weren''t good at the game, but matched with Bubblegum to harass him. Some of these yers intentionally went on a losing streak to wait for Bubblegum in the lower ranks. A user named BubbleSniper roamed around, "Ah... Where¡¯s Bubblegum... he''s somewhere here judging from the stream." He was a mean stream sniper who helped Bubblegum reach the final only to kill him and was more than capable of doing so as a diamond ranked yer. He was even more skilled than the I Love Mondays team who used to be in the lower diamond ranks. ''Is that him?'' He felt a presence and hid. His reactions and judgment were on apletely different level from other yers in this rank. Tadadang! As expected, gunshots echoed out. ''What''s that?'' The gunshots didn¡¯tst long. Did they already die? His sharp gaze looked around and discovered Almond looting the corpse. ''It''s not Bubblegum. Then I gotta get rid of him.'' He nced at Almond''s equipment: apound bow,?ballistic vest, but no helmet. ''One grenade should do the trick.'' BubbleSniper slowly took out a grenade and took the pin out with his teeth. Ting¡ª? A quiet metal noise rang out. One of his specialties was assassinating an enemy by rolling a grenade toward them. ''Everyone except Bubblegum needs to die.'' He delicately held the grenade like an egg and slowly released it. At this rate, it would blow up in 10 seconds. ''1¡­ 2¡­ 3...'' Hepletely let it go on the fourth second without even worrying about it exploding in his hand. ''4!'' Roll... The grenade rolled quieter than normal. ''Around 2 more seconds.'' The enemy had precisely 2 seconds to act only if?they had instantly discovered the grenade. It was too far to kick away and too close to evade, just the perfect distance. Tak. Only 2 seconds remained. What could a yer in this rank do? ''It''s over...'' Before he could finish his thought, the enemy turned around faster than he expected. ''What the?'' Almond had reacted slower than usual because he was deep in thought, but it looked like a near-perfect reaction from BubbleSniper''s perspective. ''He still won''t be able to dodge it. He''ll take a lot of damage even if he does, so it''ll be easy to finish him off.'' Even with such a quick reaction, BubbleSniper''s precision made the situation impossible to deal with. However... "!?" Ting! He could hear the grenade bouncing again and towards him this time. ''What the, using an arrow?!'' Almond shot the arrow at a strange angle and caused the grenade to bounce. The grenade would¡¯ve blown up if he aimed directly at it and nothing would¡¯ve happened if he struck too far away. Despite all these variables, Almond perfectly struck it at a 45 degree angle that sent it bouncing away. He did all this while shooting and rolling backward. Swoosh¡ª? The grenade returned to BubbleSniper, who only had 0.2 seconds left to react. "Fucking game. This must be a bug..." BOOM! BubbleSniper flew and struck the nearest wall without even finishing his sentence. Thud! "Kugh!" His vision grew fuzzy due to the impact, but he could still hear a voice. "Oh, this one has a helmet." "What???" Thwack! An arrow pierced his neck before he could speak up. Chapter 52: Unexpected Audience (2)

Chapter 52: Unexpected Audience (2)

[Almond ¡ú BubbleSniper] [Eliminated!] [20/100] ¡ª ??? ¡ª What¡­? ¡ª ??????? Question marks filled the chat. Almond''s y had been so remarkable that they became baffled instead of excited. ¡ª Did he just bounce the grenade with an arrow? ¡ª Holy crap. ¡ª The silent grenade was impressive, but to counter that... ¡ª That was crazy. ¡ª Wow... as expected of Almond! ¡ª He''s no joke. The silent grenade y had been impressive because a bronze yer couldn¡¯t possess such precision. High rank yersmonly used this y called grenade assassination. The location and timing were too precise to be a mere coincidence. Only diamond ranked yers could consistently pull it off, which made Almond''s counter even more impressive. No one could believe that Almond perfectly countered such a high-level technique while reading the chat. "Woah, I finally got a helmet. Even though it''s only a rare." Almond simply felt d to acquire a helmet. He felt nothing regarding the enemy he just defeated. ''I shouldn''t look at the chat for too long,''?he repeated to himself and put on the helmet. Chuk. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds.] He nced at the minimap instead of the chat. "As expected, it''s at the farthest point." The blue zone closed in at a point far away from Almond like usual. ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Now it''s no surprise... ¡ª What is this calmness... ¡ª It''s blue zone vs. Almond. Only 30 seconds remained. "I''ll go right away." Almond had to move faster than others because of the damn blue zone. Only the blue zone could eliminate Almond. The number of yers defeated by Almond''s arrows increased as the zone shrunk. [Almond ¡ú RedWin] [Eliminated!] [19/100] [Almond ¡ú Roll128] [Eliminated!] [7/100] [Almond ¡ú Thooor] [Eliminated!] [5/100] Only five yers remained after Almond and the other yers fought. One of the remaining yers was the popr streamer Bubblegum. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds.] Almond checked his minimap after the announcement. As expected, he had to move again. "Let''s end this." The game would probably end in five minutes with five yers left. *** [The blue zone is shrinking!]? Bubblegum, a regr bronze yer, aimed his 8x scope with his right eye after the announcement ended. "Alright, everyone. I''m going to snipe whoeveres through the blue zone with this sniper!" The viewersughed at his confident tone. ¡ª Hahaha. Go, Bubble sniper! ¡ª Is this a new joke? ¡ª You have a better chance with your fists. ¡ª I saw that BubbleSniper died earlier on the kill log. ¡ª Why is there another bubble sniper!? Bubblegum was practically invincible with his sniper at a higher altitude. Dering that he would snipe yers from here made sense, but his viewers only mocked him. [Every1 has donated 1000 won.] [Hahahahahaha] His remark filled the chat and the donations withughter. "Hey, you guys don''t believe me? I''m going to get first. Just watch." The chat erupted withughter once more. They continuedughing for one simple reason. [Urk has donated 2000 won.] [Fact: Bubblegum''s win rate is 0.04%.] Honestly, Bubblegum sucked at this game. A yer having a win rate of 0.04% was indeed rare. "Look, I''ll show you!" Whatever the case, Bubblegumughed it off and focused on the game. Surprisingly, he could focus well. He even went so far as to hold his breath while aiming. ''Finally, I can get first again.''? His current location at a high altitude in the blue zone¡¯s center was excellent. He had a sniper rifle with an 8x scope attached and also wore a ghillie suit. The blue zone and his farming had gone perfectly this round. Luck was on his side. "Oh, they''reing." He could make out some people far away. Bzzt. They were running from the blue zone. ¡ª Wow, they''reing. ¡ª Three of them?! ¡ª Goddamn... ¡ª Wouldn¡¯t it be a 1v1 situation right away if you kill them all? ¡ª No way, is Bubblegum going to win? Even Bubblegum''s viewers admitted that he had a huge advantage. Only five yers remained and three had appeared in his sights. It would be a 1v1 situation once he eliminated them. The three running had no clue about Bubblegum. ¡ª Now we can see him use up all his ammo and tell himself he was unlucky! ¡ª Please, God of Battle Large, kill Bubblegum! The chat was filled with curses for him to lose. Bubblegum became nervous and took a short breath. ¡°Phew¡­¡± He aimed again after recovering his breath. Once the focus settled in the target''s direction¡­ ¡®Now.¡¯ His heart skipped a beat and he pulled the trigger. A deafening sound rang out, followed by an enemy falling. Thud. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Why did he suddenly fall? ¡ª Did Bubblegum hit him? On his first try? ¡ª No way. ¡ª ??? Bubblegum aimed his sniper rifle and shot at the target. It was clearly him who killed the enemy, but the chat couldn''t believe hended a shot with his skills. "Wha¡­ what the. Did I really hit?" He couldn''t believe it himself. [Bubblegum ¡ú NoJobLife] [Eliminated!] [4/100] Bubblegum''s eyes widened after he saw the kill log. "!" The chat erupted as his jaws dropped. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª It''s the bubble sniper! ¡ª Can he really do it? ¡ª Who are you?! ¡ª What is going on? ¡ª Huh? Is this a bug? ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Give us back Bubblegum! Bubblegum gulped with only two of the three running yers left. ''Ne, next one...'' He aimed at the next target with his shaky hands and pulled the trigger again. Tang! Another figure fell as the shot rang out. Thud. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Huh? ¡ª What the... ¡ª Damn. ¡ª ?????? Question marks filled the chat. "Haha, I told you guys I would do it." Bubblegum felt so confident he even spat on the ground. [Almond ¡ú LemonBeat] [Eliminated!] [3/100] However, he became speechless after looking at the kill log. "Huh?" ¡®I didn''t kill him?¡¯ Bubblegum turned his attention to thest yer running, who had been responsible for the kill. Laughter filled the chat. ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª I knew it. ¡ª There¡¯s no way it was Bubblegum! ¡ª Six shots all missed.? ¡ª 0.04%! 0.04%! 0.04%! 0.04%! 0.04%! 0.04%! 0.04%! 0.04%! ¡ª The 0.4% man! Bubblegum''s viewers chanted his 0.4% win rate. "Sigh... Who took my kill¡­" The person who stole his kill carried apound bow. "It''s that guy. Why is he using a bow? I''m going to kill him and win this." yers rarely used a bow when the game reached thest 20. He must''ve been camping and only recently revealed himself. It should be an easy kill. ''I''m at an advantage.'' Bubblegum would still have the upper hand even if he missed a couple of shots because the opponent only had a bow. He readied himself and aimed at thest running yer. When his aim became steady¡­ "!" He suddenly made eye contact with the opponent, but that should be impossible at this distance. ''How did he know?'' Bubblegum was using an 8x scope and even had a ghillie suit on. How did that guy spot him? ''Whatever, what can he do? I''m going to...'' A sniper rifle could shoot much further than apound bow. It could also fire instantly and repeatedly, which gave it the advantage. Everything would end once he took the shot. Also, the opponent was standing still. "He stopped?" Creak¡­? The opponent aimed toward Bubblegum from a ridiculous distance. How would hend an arrow from so far away? "Everyone, he doesn''t even know the distance. I''m going to kill that beginner," Bubblegum confidently dered and pulled his trigger. Taang! He fired his bullet and the opponent shot an arrow as well. "!?" Kang! The arrow shattered in the air followed by a strange noise. The yer remained perfectly fine. "What did I just see?" ¡ª ??? ¡ª Did the bullet just get blocked? ¡ª No way... ¡ª LOL ¡ª Bug collector Bubblegum. ¡ª What was that? LOL Even then, everyone thought it had been a coincidence or a bug in the game. "Damn, so unlucky." Bubblegum often ran into these weird urrences, so he justughed it off like usual. "Again..." The opponent ran toward Bubblegum while aiming their bow at him. Bubblegum pulled the trigger once more. Taaang! The gun roared. "Did that work?" He felt it hit this time, for sure. Pang! However, his bullet disappeared in the air again with a spark and the opponent still ran toward him. "Huh?" Bubblegum couldn''t believe it had happened twice and back-to-back at that. "Did he just hit my bullet? That guy?" ¡ª No way... ¡ª I think so. ¡ª With an arrow? ¡ª That''s crazy. He denied it at first, but it happened again. Pang! ¡ª Wait, I think it''s real. ¡ª Yeah, it must be. ¡ª That''s insane. ¡ª Three times? That must be skills.? ¡ª I think it''s a bug. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Is this bronze rank? ¡ª That''s ridiculous. Nearly 50,000 viewers grew ecstatic about the situation. "I''m going to shoot again. He''sing straight for me." Bubblegum quickly readied himself and aimed down. His aim slightly faltered from the previous shock. However... ''Huh? The distance now...'' When he thought the distance had grown closer... Pang! His 8x scope broke. Thwack. An arrow struck through the scope and pierced Bubblegum''s right eye. "Kugh!" Bubblegum''s avatar fell and screamed in pain. [Almond ¡ú Bubblegum] [Eliminated!] [2/100] He wore a helmet, but it wasn''t hero tier and didn''t cover his face. That arrow counted as a headshot and it was game over for him. [3rd] He ended up with third even with all that farming. Victory had been in his grasp, but he lost it. Bubblegum became dumbstruck and tried tough off the situation. "Wow, everyone! Third ce is still good." ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Ah, yeah. Of course. ¡ª Bronze medal is still good! ¡ª But who was that? Let''s go watch him! ¡ª Boss, go spectate him. ¡ª Sigh... I won''t say much more. ¡ª Quickly! ¡ª My teeth hurt! The viewers had been gritting their teeth at the exciting situation. Bubblegum tried to quickly change the subject. "Ah, sure. Who was that bow guy earlier? I''m going to spectate him." He decided to watch the yer who just killed him. Around 50,000 yers from Bubblegum¡¯s stream also watched Almond''s first final in solo mode. Chapter 53: Unexpected Audience (3)

Chapter 53: Unexpected Audience (3)

Almond defeated another yer with an unbelievable y. [Almond ¡ú Bubblegum] [Eliminated!] [2/100] His strategy took advantage of a sniper rifle¡¯s slow speed. Almond determined that it would be more efficient to match the bullet''s trajectory with his arrow instead of dodging. "I shot at it because I didn''t have anywhere to dodge. I guess it worked out." Only Almond could pull off this kind of strategy. No one else would even fathom hitting a bullet with their arrow. ¡ª He''s insane. ¡ª That really happened... ¡ª Oh man... ¡ª Was that necessary LOL ¡ª Just run and dodge it, human! Most people would just run and dodge the bullets. To directly counter a sniper was unnecessary, but Almond thought differently. "The opponent will be in control of my life if I dodge. I don''t like that." His fate would be up to the sniper, whether they hit him or not. However, his fate was up to him whether he hit the bullets if he fought back. ¡ª Damn. ¡ª He''s so cool. ¡ª Mom, I want to be Almond when I grow up! Mom, I want to be Almond when I grow up! Mom, I want to be Almond when I grow up! ¡ª Almond!!! Almond!!! Almond!!! Almond!!! Almond!!! Almond!!! ¡ª Mom: You can never be like Almond... ¡ª What a sexy thing to say! ¡ª That''s crazy. The fact that you thought of that and pulled through as well. His philosophy impressed everyone because he wasn''t just all talk. He had proved it to them. The chain of events as he returned the grenade and countered the sniper¡¯s bullets surprised every viewer. Who would think that Almond ying in solo mode would be even more interesting than when he won as a solo squad. [HanhwaFan has donated 50,000 won.] [Wow... you never disappoint... unlike the team I cheer for...] [RubySword has donated 100,000 won!] [Exin what just happened!!!] [Strategist has donated a whopping 300,000 won!] [Wow!] An incredible y deserved great rewards and donation amounts he had never seen before poured in. He hadn¡¯t even won yet. ¡ª He didn''t even win yet and we''re already celebrating! ¡ª Apparently, Hanhwa considers this a victory.? ¡ª Almond, win! ¡ª Give him first for style points! ¡ª Woah, look at the donations. ¡ª How much is that all together? Almond felt surprised too. He knew RubySword, but a random viewer had also donated 300,000 won! And he still needed to win. Thump, thump. Almond calmed himself. ''I haven''t won yet.'' He even skipped out on thanking the donations and prioritized winning. [2/100] Almond slowly approached hisst hunt. Only one more yer stood between him and victory. ¡°Phew¡­¡±? He exhaled a quiet breath in the empty field. ''Let''s calm down.'' Almond needed to find out the enemy¡¯s location. They hadn¡¯t revealed themselves even during the previous fight, which made quite a ruckus. The enemy seemed calm like Almond, maybe even calmer. The silence and calm continued for a couple of minutes. The chat went wild during that time after finding out that Almond just killed the popr streamer Bubblegum. ¡ª Wait, the person who just died. Is that really him? ¡ª Bubblegum??? ¡ª Damn... ¡ª Wow, it''s for real. ¡ª Wow! Boss, you made it to the big screen! ¡ª Hey Bubblegum! Almond didn''t even nce at the chat because he was focused on winning. His determination to win fueled his concentration. He seemed like a beast when he set his sights on victory. He would give it his all even if it was an easy hunt. One required the same mindset for the tenth shot even if the previous nine shots all struck the center of the target. The arrow and wind wouldn¡¯t be affected by previous results. Almond gave it his all even in bronze rank. Swish. He quietly ced his head on the ground and focused all his senses. Each grain of sand in the desert became part of his skin and the roots beneath the ground became like his hair. Shaaa¡­? His senses warned him of someone nearby. ''...!'' Almond slowly got up with his bow. ''Is it over there?'' He looked to the right at an awkward 45 degree angle and began moving. ¡ª What the, did he hear something? ¡ª Damn. ¡ª He''s like a professional hunter. The viewers were awestruck as Almond headed in a certain direction without hesitation. They didn¡¯t hear anything, but Almond did. Chuk. Almond suddenly stopped and strolled to the side. He drew his bowstring with minimal noise and aimed somewhere. Creak¡­? ¡ª What the? Where''s he shooting at? ¡ª ??? ¡ª Where''s he at? Pang! The arrow graciously flew and made a bouncing noise as itnded somewhere. The bulletproof helmet it struck popped out from hiding. "Urk!" Thest yer alive came out and screamed in shock. ¡ª Damn, he was really there. ¡ª What was he doing hiding? ¡ª That''s expected from a bronze rank. The yer simply hid despite being one of thest two alive. He probably determined that staying in the blue zone was safer thaning out to fight. ''He didn''te out because of his location? I thought he seemed calm because he was confident in winning the fight.'' The opponent was just hiding. He risked it all to hide, but Almond quickly discovered him. "Damn!" He ultimately revealed himself and aimed his gun at Almond after his n had been foiled. However, something other than the gun caught Almond¡¯s attention. ''Legendary?'' The opponent wore a shiny golden helmet on top of their head. This was a legendary item. From what Almond knew, a headshot wouldn¡¯t work against it. That was unrealistic, which also made it legendary. ¡ª He got lucky farming. ¡ª Wow, it''s been a while since I saw a legendary helmet. ¡ª Damn, there''s a reason he''s alive despite being bad. ¡ª Hard as a diamond. Tududududu! The enemy began firing at Almond. He shot all over the ce and into empty space. Almond quickly moved and dodged. Ting! Ti-ding! Some bullets brushed past his shoulders, but none of them hit. Almond calmly readied his bow. Pang! An arrow quickly flew. Thwack! It shattered the shoulder of the enemy¡¯s shooting arm. "Kugh!" Arrows caused more injury than bullets when they prated deep because they also restricted muscle movement to a significant degree. "Urk..." The opponent held his shoulder in pain and couldn¡¯t shoot anymore. Almond had already prepared another arrow in that time. ''Hm?'' Pang. The enemy suddenly popped a smoke grenade. ¡ª What a guy. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Damn, how much did he farm? ¡ª Full farming meta. The enemy threw a bunch of shbangs and grenades at him. Almond finally realized how such an unskilled yer survived until this point. ''You''re stalling to heal?'' He determined in that brief moment that giving the enemy any more time would be disadvantageous. Tak. So he ran into the smoke. The opponent wouldn''t be able to see him either. His only choice was to kill them during the healing process. Kwagwagwang!!! Almond could hear explosions and various sounds as smoke came up from behind him. Thankfully, the massive explosion didn¡¯t affect him from this distance. Pzzt! A shbang also went off and his vision slightly blurred. Regardless, Almond jumped into the smoke. Shhhuk. The grey smoke enveloped him. Cough, cough. Almond could hear his opponent coughing in the smoke. ''Found him.'' Shuk. One of the bow¡¯s strengths was that it was silent. Creak¡­? It made no noise when reloading or preparing a shot. Almond was fond of the bow for such reasons. It felt more luxurious and ssy. The opponent was bandaging himself when he finally noticed the shadow before him. "!" Chul-kuk. It was already toote when he grabbed his gun. Ping¡ª? An arrow quickly flew and tore through his other shoulder. "Urk!" The enemy scrambled to grab a grenade after losing his gun. Thwack! Another arrow struck his feisty hands and fixed them into ce like on a cross. He became immobilized now. "Kugh?! H-How..." They could barely see in the fog, but Almond still aimed perfectly. "Wow, it''s a pain in the ass to kill him because of that legendary helmet." He could hear Almond muttering. ''Is that guy streaming?'''' Thwack¡ª? That was thest thing he recalled. He instantly died as two arrows struck his chest. A huge prompt popped up on Almond¡¯s screen. [1st] No other words could bring him greater pleasure as an athlete. Chuk! Almond instinctively raised his arms. ''I did it.'' Victory! *** His first solo victory. The solo squad had been a more impressive win, but the viewers enjoyed this round more. He achieved more kills and made it more fun to watch. [Total: 31 kills] He killed a total of 31 yers out of 100, which showed that this was no ordinary victory. ¡ª Wow, look at how many kills he got. ¡ª Almond, you''re crazy! Almond, you''re crazy! Almond, you''re crazy! ¡ª 31 kills, holy shit. It''s bronze rank, but still. ¡ª Time to get banned again! ¡ª He''s going to get reported again haha. ¡ª Mom, buy me Almond! Mom, buy me Almond! Mom, buy me Almond! The viewers reveled in the excitement and spammed the chat. Almond smiled in satisfaction and thanked the donors from earlier. "Thank you, everyone. I couldn''t say thanks earlier. Thank you RubySword, HanhwaFan, and Strategist. Thanks for the huge donations." He would definitely remember the 300,000 won donor, Strategist. No one else, except Seo Ji-Ah, had donated such an amount. Suddenly¡­ Babababam! A loud trumpet rang out because an enormous donation came in. [PersistentThrower has donated a whopping 1,500,000 won!] [This one is feisty!] "Ah..." Sang-Hyeon suddenly became speechless for a moment. ''1.5 million?'' He had never received such a significant donation before other than on Acorn Jelly''s stream. ¡ª Feisty indeed! ¡ª Haha, use a different word. ¡ª Damn, 1.5m... ¡ª That''s crazy. ¡ª That''s a month of my sry! ¡ª Goddamn. ¡ª Son, be Almond! Son, be Almond! Son, be Almond! Chapter 54: Unexpected Spotlight (1)

Chapter 54: Unexpected Spotlight (1)

Ju-Hyeok felt surprised too. "Huh?" Tadadak. He quickly searched the list of popr donors on Treevy. ''I feel like I¡¯ve seen that name before.'' PersistentThrower was a unique and memorable nickname. No average person would donate 1,500,000 won their first time on a stream. Ju-Hyeok searched for the username to make sure it wasn''t anyone suspicious. "Ah." As expected, the name came up on the list. Strategist, the other donor from earlier, was also on the list. The two had been active since the legendary game, Manasword Origin,?10 years ago. Thankfully, they had a long history with no other issues. ''There are those who donate and boss people around, but I don''t think they''re like that.'' Instead, it was a blessing they stopped by the stream. They could just have the same IDs, so it was best not to make a big deal out of it. Only the amount they donated mattered: 1,800,000 won. "Kya, are you seeing this Manager Park? Look at Sang-Hyeon earning big money! How is this possible? How much is this? Huh? Those bigpanies have nothing on us!" Ju-Hyeok of all people would know since he used to work at a bigpany. It was unlikely to ever earn over 2 million won in a day unless it was certain hugepanies. *** Almond''s eyes widened at the sudden donations. Thankfully, he received it after winning. Otherwise, even he would¡¯ve lost focus. "I think the feisty one is you! I really don''t know how to react... I can''t even shoot myself with an arrow this time..." ¡ª LOL The first thing he thinks of is shooting himself. ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Are you going to end the stream? ¡ª 300,000 won reaction was a cartwheel and ending the stream. ¡ª LOL this guy. ¡ª Five cartwheels?! He couldn''t shoot himself with an arrow since Battle Large?wasn''t an open world game. Almond briefly thought about it. "Ah!" He didn''t think for long as the ideal location popped up in his head: the waiting lobby. [Entering Lobby] Dudung, dududung. Battle Large''s?signature drum music yed as he entered the lobby. He could freely move his character here and various itemsy on the ground. Boom, boom. Grenades already went off on one side of the lobby. Almond''s eyes scanned the ground until he found apound bow. ¡ª No way. ¡ª Oh no... ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Almond! Must you do this! Please, say something! ¡ª He''s insane! The longtime viewers already knew what would happen when Almond''s eyesnded on the bow. However, the new viewers only felt confused. ¡ª What''s wrong? ¡ª Isn''t he getting ready for another match? ¡ª Calm down man... The new viewers thought the others were just overreacting for no reason. However... "Phew, finally found it. I''m going to do it now." Almond pointed his bow at the sky and everyone understood. Anyone who had seen or heard of Almond''s stream at least once was familiar with this. ¡ª :o Is he really going to do it? ¡ª Shudders¡­? ¡ª The legendary scene. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Raise the price for this reaction, please! ¡ª 1.5 mil is enough lol? ¡ª Oppa, your stream is worth at least 10mil! ¡ª Nooooo! Viewers cried out in the chat, but Almondmitted to it. ''My character and credibility are at stake.''? The two most important attributes of a streamer were their character and credibility. Almond felt his were on the line in this situation. "Alright... here I go!" Pang! He performed three front flips in a row and the arrow he shot straight into the air disappeared. Swoosh¡ª He spread his arms out wide. "Bye, Treevy!" Thwack! The arrow perfectlynded on his forehead. ¡ª Woooah... ¡ª But why three times? Isn''t it supposed to be five?? ¡ª Spin five times! Spin five times! Spin five times! Spin five times! ¡ª Insane man... ¡ª Holy shit! ¡ª Bye, Almond... ¡ª Bye bye! ¡ª Come again tomorrow! The stream hadn¡¯t ended yet. "..." Almond just stood there with his arms stretched out. ''Wha, what?'' Ju-Hyeok was supposed to end it, but he must''ve made a mistake. Almond tried to cover up the error by naturally continuing the conversation. "Oh, it''s three times because... the price went up?" Blip¡ª? The stream finally turned off. ¡ª LOL ¡ª He messed up the timing lmao ¡ª What''s going on? ¡ª Does he know how to exit the capsule like an average person? ¡ª Someone donate Almond a new capsule, please. ¡ª This guy! ¡ª He said the price increased lol! ¡ª He¡¯ll never admit that he can''t do five haha. ¡ª Then does it cost 500,000 won to end the stream now? ¡ª Breaking! 60% price increase for front flips! *** Chiiik... The capsule slowly opened as steam came out from the pressure. "Ow, my head hurts." "Hey, sorry. Pfft,¡± Ju-Hyeok apologized and failed to hold in hisughter. "I didn''t know how to turn off the stream because it was so sudden, so I just disconnected the capsule..." "No wonder, you damn..." Sang-Hyeon frowned, but held back his words. It was his fault for giving Ju-Hyeok such a responsibility. "I''m going to shower." "Ok, I started heating the water about an hour ago." "Thanks." They lived in a small house in a poor neighborhood, so they had to heat the water system first to use hot water. This would be even more important in the winter that was soon approaching. *** Shaaah¡­? Sang-Hyeon thoroughly washed away all his sweat in the steaming shower. Being enveloped in this warmth felt as satisfying as going to bed after being up for three days straight. ''Solo mode was quite challenging even in bronze rank.'' He had overworked today even though he thought solo squad would be significantly easier than squad mode. That hadn¡¯t been the case. ''The grenade yer... was dangerous.'' The one who silently rolled the grenade had surprised him. He was different from the other bronze yers and perfectly tossed the grenade. ''Let''s try harder next time.'' He would have difficulty in diamond rank if he couldn''t overpower bronze yers. As always, he encouraged himself in the mirror. ''Let''s do this. You can''t do any worse.¡¯ *** After a warm shower, Sang-Hyeon searched his cupboards for something to eat when he heard good news from Ju-Hyeok. "Sang-Hyeon, is Bubblegum someone famous?" "Oh, yeah. I used to always watch him." "Apparently, he was in your stream." "What?" Whip¡ª? Even the calm Sang-Hyeon felt surprised during times like this. ''Bubblegum? In my stream?'' Sang-Hyeon always watched his stream after a stressful day at work. Bubblegum had been a greatfort and role model for Sang-Hyeon, except for his skills. ''He''s watching me?'' Ju-Hyeok nodded. "You know the sniper who was shooting at you when there were only three people left? Apparently, that was Bubblegum." "Really???" No wonder he was terrible. "Yeah, it''s true. Look at this." Woong. Bubblegum''s stream yed on the hologram that Ju-Hyeok projected. A chubby man was screaming in it. ¡ª Wow, that crazy bowman! ¡ª Yeah, who¡¯s that bowman from earlier? I''m going to spectate him. ¡ª Wow, how can you use a bow like that? He''s incredible! What? It''s only his second round? Don''t lie, everyone. The bowman they were referring to was obviously Almond. "It''s... true? He even spectated me?" Sang-Hyeon continued blinking in disbelief. "Over 50,000 people watched." "..." ¡®50,000 people watched? Incredible!¡¯? Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t know how to react, but that wasn''t important right now. ''Bubblegum really watched my stream.'' The streamer whoforted him during his days as a sryman. That friendly, lovable streamer¡­ Sang-Hyeon became a streamer because of his influence. He helped to make the current Almond today. ''Bubblegum...'' Sang-Hyeon choked up and turned away from Ju-Hyeok, who would overreact and make fun of him again. "Hey, where are you going? Aren''t you going to check themunity reactions..." "I''ll check them in bed. It¡¯s not like we need to do it together." Sang-Hyeon already turned around. "Oh... yeah. Okay." Ju-Hyeok noticed something was off and simply nodded. ''Themunity reaction is crazy...'' It was a shame, but he let Sang-Hyeon go and quietly cleaned up after himself. Ting. He turned off the holograms and the living room became dark. They went to their respective rooms and shut their doors. Creak. *** Sang-Hyeony on his soft bed and read themunity reactions on his phone. First, he searched for Bubblegum because their unexpected coboration would¡¯ve caused quite a stir. ''Hmm?'' However, no one mentioned it anywhere. ''Was it not a big deal?'' This tiny event must not have been a big deal since Bubblegum was such a popr streamer. It didn¡¯t attract much attention and must¡¯ve only been a special moment for Sang-Hyeon. ''Hmph.'' Sang-Hyeon had no desire to be noticed. It was enough for him to have a special moment he could hold onto, but he honestly felt disappointed. It would¡¯ve been nice if his interaction with Bubblegum had trended. Sang-Hyeon moved on to check other websites. He looked at Battle31''s hot posts and their most recently trending section. ''Hm?'' The contents seemed strange as if he was dreaming. 1) Almond''s crazy y 2) Almond destroying BubbleSniper 3) Almond vs. BubbleSniper: grenade payback.gif 4) Today''s gatcha outfit 5) Almond, you''re crazy! Going through 4 yers! 6) Almond''s 4v1 feint was insane. 7) Almond''s highlights in only one round! The entire chart only contained posts talking about Almond. Chapter 55: Unexpected Spotlight (2)

Chapter 55: Unexpected Spotlight (2)

Rumble. Seo Ji-Ah''s stomach kept signaling to her that she hadn¡¯t eaten a proper meal yet. "..." However, she didn''t move and simply stared at her monitor in a dark corner of the room. The feeling of starvation would soon go away like every other pain in this world. It would all disappear as long as she watched the stream, even that bastard who pushed her into hell. They all disappeared. "Wow..." Seo Ji-Ah felt so impressed as she watched Almond on the bright monitor performing superhuman ys. Yu Sang-Hyeon was quite different in personpared to virtual reality. Snap¡ª? She marked his y against the four opponents so she could edit itter into a video. After that, she whipped out her notebook to write a simple synopsis and n. Scribble, scribble¡­? Her pen moved across the paper as if a robot was writing, but it suddenly stopped. [PersistentThrower has donated a whopping 1,500,000 won!] She stopped because of a certain donation notification. ''What?'' Seo Ji-Ah''s expression stiffened and she quickly checked the list of Almond''s donors in a new tab.
  • PersistentThrower
  • SeoJiAh
    • Second ce. Seo Ji-Ah had been pushed to second ce now. She suddenly moved her mouse and hovered over the donation button. Her cursor trembled. ''But I''m the editor.'' Ji-Ah froze in ce for a while and crouched below the table as if she had crumbled. Her messy hair covered her face and her eyes began to slowly close. *** Seo Ji-Ah woke up a few momentster. ''I need to work.'' Her mouse frantically moved. Click, click. She moved the clips she had previously marked to create moreptions. ''This one turned out well.'' The video had good potential from an editor''s perspective. The game had fantastic moments that she didn''t even need to edit. There were already slow-motion reys trending in themunity, which guaranteed this video''s sess. It would be a massive sess if she wlessly put it together. "I''m going to make sure it seeds." She wanted to make the video convenient to watch with rey value. That was her job, not donating. Seo Ji-Ah worked with such determination until sunrise. Finally... [Battle Large EP.2 All this happened in one round?] That was the video¡¯s title. Chirp, chirp¡ª? She could hear the birds chirping and looked outside, fighting to keep her eyes open as the sun greeted her. Even thezy winter morning caught up to her. "Yaaaaawn." Ji-Ah''s small body shuddered as she stretched. [Uploading Video 43.2%] Thud. She threw herself into bed and melted away. Snore¡­? She was knocked out cold. *** Almond''s channel sent out a notification at 9 A.M. [Battle Large EP.2 All this happened in one round?] [Revealing for the first time in 5 minutes!] Viewers rushed in as the video was about to be released. ¡ª Who notified me!!! ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! ¡ª Come out!!! ¡ª I''m turning into the Hulk! Hurry up! ¡ª Why are they so angry? LOL ¡ª Who can resist this? ¡ª No one can! ¡ª Mini-me can resist it, but mega-me can''t! Rooooar! ¡ª Almond, everyone turned fucking stupid! Just reveal the video now! Please! They would¡¯ve smashed in if the YouTube channel had a door. Bang! Bang! Sang-Hyeon could almost hear the door banging. ''This many?'' It was his channel, but he still felt astonished at how many people wanted to watch him. [Revealing in 1 minute.] Ju-Hyeok watched from beside him and they both gulped when only one minute remained. [Seo Ji-Ah: I uploaded the video. I''m going to sleep now.] She only left a simple message after uploading the video. Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon hadn¡¯t seen the video yet either. They felt nervous because it was their first time watching like everyone else. [1450 Viewers Currently Watching] Quite a crowd had tuned in. However, Sang-Hyeon acted calm like usual. "It should be good, right?" Ju-Hyeok couldn''t hide his worry. Sang-Hyeon nonchntly added, "She''s probably sleeping because she''s satisfied with it." Du-dun! The reveal began. The background music sounded bright with a new-age vibe. It felt unexpected for a military game, but went well with Almond''s light footsteps. It resembled watching robots fight to ssical music. The music transitioned from a light tone to a more exciting one. [Compound Bow] The camera zoomed in on Almond''s signature weapon when he found it. Pound! Pound! Drums began ying in the background. Dududung¡ª? Anyone could tell something was about to happen even if they didn''t know Almond. m! He mmed through a door with his shoulder and drew his bow at the same time. [Huh?!] The camera zoomed in on the opponent''s surprised expression. Then it shed to Almond''s hand as he graciously released an arrow. Pang¡ª? The camera closed in on the opponent''s face as the arrow flew toward him. It cut to the enemy¡¯s point of view as the arrow seemingly struck the camera. This jump scared the audience when the arrow pierced the opponent¡¯s forehead. ¡ª Ugh... ¡ª Urk! ¡ª Damn, instant kill. ¡ª What the heck! ¡ª Wow, he ys as if he can see everything. ¡ª He''s ying better thanst time when they reported him?! The viewers reacted great to his first kill. "Wow... it''s like an action movie." Ju-Hyeok patted Sang-Hyeon on the shoulder. "It''s definitely fast-paced." It felt even more exciting than the actual game. After the first kill, the video quickly skipped to the next super y. [Almond couldn''t find anything while farming¡­] Another time skip urred after the caption. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Almond-style farming... ¡ª Nut-style farming LOL ¡ª So unlucky. ¡ª He doesn''t use a gun, so there''s probably a limit to how much he can farm. ¡ª His love for bows... ¡ª LOL How much time passed? Suddenly, the blue zone shrunk for the second time. Bzzt. Seven yers, including Almond, ran from the blue zone. "Oh, this?" Sang-Hyeon could tell right away when this took ce. Ju-Hyeok nodded as well. "It''s this part, the feint!" "Seeing it from a third-person perspective makes it look so foolish." The seven of them ran like fools away from the blue zone. Some were actual fools. One of them began attacking when they were all supposed to keep running, which risked everyone''s lives. Tudududung!? A sudden change urred and Almond had no choice but to fight. The two near Almond quickly died. The other yers realized Almond''s capabilities because of their deaths. Four of them signaled to each other. [He''s pretty good. Should we kill him first?] They didn¡¯t necessarily say that, but the edited captions created that illusion. The video wasn''t trying to trick the audience because those yers really did gang up on Almond. ¡ª These trolls. ¡ª Damn. ¡ª Are they going to fire at each other?? ¡ª I can''t understand bronze rank... ¡ª This is so frustrating to watch. ¡ª I can''t watch this... Four fools teamed up against Almond. It was a frustrating situation, but it would soon end. Whiff! The video went into slow motion as Almond turned. It focused on his body motion and how he would move next. However, Almond was feinting them. [Eek!] [What?] [Sh-shoot him!] The respective texts appeared above the trolls¡¯ heads as they frantically shot each other. Tudududududu!!! Almond hadn¡¯t been hit at all and already crouched as if he expected it. As a result, those four killed each other. Pang! ¡ª LOL ¡ª This isedy. ¡ª Wow. ¡ª Wow, he''s so cool! ¡ª This is the feint y I heard about! ¡ª Troll party! ¡ª Wow, Almond. ¡ª Damn... he''s so fucking cool... ¡ª I want to do that too... ¡ª Wow, that''s what you call 4v1! The reaction to his y was incredible. Ju-Hyeok patted Sang-Hyeon on the back. "They seem to like it." "Yeah... seems that way." It felt different to read the chat nowpared to when he was streaming. These people felt a bit more familiar. "Oh, it''s the grenade scene." Ju-Hyeok focused again and felt excited to watch it. As he said, the next scene showed the grenade counter against BubbleSniper. Almond farmed on one side and BubbleSniper''s silhouette could be seen on the other side. [A mean stream sniper: BubbleSniper] The following text appeared with a list of atrocities that BubbleSniper hadmitted. Sang-Hyeon felt a strange satisfaction from watching it. ¡ª Huh??? ¡ª BubbleSniper, that bastard. ¡ª Wow, he met BubbleSniper? ¡ª Going on a losing streak when he''s diamond. How is that guy still allowed to y? ¡ª They used Almond of being a smurf, but this guy is ying just fine? ¡ª What are you doing, developers! The viewers rained their hatred on BubbleSniper. BubbleSniper rolled his grenade toward Almond with a mean smile. Roll... It was the advanced skill called grenade assassination. Almond''s pupils shrunk when he saw the grenade. "Wow... was I this surprised?" Arge text appeared in his eyes. [Run away vs. Kick it] The video suddenly paused to depict his dilemma. The timing impressed Sang-Hyeon. ¡ª Damn... both are iffy. ¡ª Damn smurf! ¡ª It''s not called an assassination grenade for nothing... you have no choice but to die. ¡ª No choice is good... The first-time watchers couldn''t figure out what to do. Ting! The video resumed as the following text appeared: [Move back while shooting the bow!] ¡ª ??? ¡ª What''s he talking about? ¡ª Huh? ¡ª The bow? Almond quickly dodged back and simultaneously aimed at the grenade. It seemed like he nned on blowing up the grenade with his arrow. ¡ª He''ll get hurt If he blows it up.? ¡ª Yeah... ¡ª What''s he doing? Ting! The arrow barely struck the grenade and bounced it back to BubbleSniper. [What?] BubbleSniper died and uttered a question with his dying breath. ¡ª Wooow ¡ª That was satisfying as hell. ¡ª That''s insane. ¡ª I''m d he killed that smurf. BubbleSniper had been eliminated. "Kya, that was satisfying? Right?" "Uh... yeah." The video quickly moved on to the great Bubblegum. Even Sang-Hyeon felt nervous when it got to this part. [Streamer: Bubblegum] Bubblegum aimed at Almond with a sniper rifle. His chubby avatar holding the gun was funny to watch. It hadn¡¯t been a big deal during Sang-Hyeon¡¯s live stream, but what about now? ''How will they react this time?'' Sang-Hyeon paid attention to the chat since the YouTubements might turn out differently. ¡ª Damn... Bubblegum. ¡ª No Bubble! Not there! ¡ª Their skill difference is crazy. ¡ª Did you meet Bubblegum? ¡ª Bubble! Bubble! Bubble! ¡ª Wow, Bubblegum... ¡ª Bubblegum! ¡ª You had to meet Almond out of all people... ¡ª Oh shit! ¡ª That''s hrious. ¡ª Fate is ying tricks on him. ''They seem to... like it?'' Sang-Hyeon slowly began to smile. He wondered if this would trend on YouTube. Then Ju-Hyeok grabbed his attention, "Hey, take a look at this." Ju-Hyeok showed him Bubblegum''s fan page and the Battle31munity page. [Bubblegum vs. Almond] [The battle of aims] [LOL Bubblegum is hrious] [Why is this so funny?] His interaction with Bubblegum finally appeared on those sites. It felt like a secret present Seo Ji-Ah had prepared for Sang-Hyeon. *** Bubblegum''s manager, Park Sung-Tae, saw the same thing as Ju-Hyeok. He stroked his beard and muttered, "I didn''t know this would blow up." Chapter 56: Surprise Announcement (1)

    Chapter 56: Surprise Announcement (1)

    Park Sung-Tae stroked his fine beard and pondered. He had worked as Bubblegum¡¯s manager for five years, but this incident still surprised him. ''It usually doesn''t be anything big with just one interaction...'' Park Sung-Tae had been in the industry for five years and Bubblegum had streamed for over ten years. Bubblegum never skipped a day other than holidays in those ten years. Once he started, he always streamed for around eight hours and frequently ran into other streamers. He ran into so many different streamers that it became stale. ''But why this guy...'' However, this one interaction with Almond began to trend. Was there something special? ¡°Well, I like this job because of unpredictable things like this." Park Sung-Tae began searching for Almond in differentmunities and had no trouble finding his profile. ''Thirties... good looking, good at games. And...'' ¡°Hm?¡± One particr detail caught Park Sung-Tae¡¯s attention. ''It''s only been three weeks since he started ying virtual reality games?'' And that was only his second round of Battle Large? ''Wait, but this guy... didn''t he bounce bullets away with arrows?'' Park Sung-Tae reyed the footage of Almond and Bubblegum''s interaction. Thankfully, it had just been uploaded to YouTube. The video was well-edited and got to the point. "The cinematography is crazy." The production level made Almond stand out even more, but nothing regarding what happened had been faked. Kang. The arrow and bullet collided in the air. Park Sung-Tae correctly saw what he recalled. Hitting a bullet with an arrow¡­ That took a surprising level of precision and intuition. Who could make such a y with victory so close? Thements thought the same. ¡ª ??? ¡ª What was that? ¡ª Is that possible? ¡ª This must be staged. How does that make sense? LOL ¡ª Staged? But it''s Bubblegum. ¡ª Do you think Bubblegum would stage this? ¡ª Bubble wouldn''t do that... he''s just bad... ¡ª Is it not staged? Then it must be CG or something. This is an edited video. ¡ª That''s crazy. ¡ª Three times in a row? That won''t happen even in movies. Everyone assumed it was either staged or used special effects. ''Not a chance.'' Park Sung-Tae shook his head because that wasn''t the case. Bubblegum would never stage something like this. He streamed for over ten years without a single controversy. Then was it special effects? Wrong again. The editor had no reason to enhance the gamey with CG because anyone could rewatch the stream on Treevy and immediately find out the truth. It still seemed unbelievable despite knowing it hadn¡¯t been staged and special effects hadn¡¯t been used. ''That''s... his second round?'' Finding out that it was only Almond''s second round made it even more so. "Wow..." Park Sung-Tae wanted to deny the reality. The skill difference between Almond and Bubblegum was so unfathomable that it made him dizzy. The fact that this type of person existed among mortals was the exact definition of the heavens being unfair. "He¡¯s something else." Tak. Tak. Sung-Tae began tapping his expensive pen on his head. It was a habit when he was deep in thought. ''I can think of some content.'' He didn''t want to lose this opportunity and could already picture the format. ''Who is the bowman?''?That would be a good natural way to start. However, something was missing. It felt too serious andcked¡­ "Impact. There''s no impact." Park Sung-Tae aggressively brushed his beard. "Ah!" He thought of something and quickly began jotting notes. *** [Bubblegum is so funny.] [The face he made when all three bullets were deflected.] [Bubblegum is hrious even when he''s not doing anything.] [Bubblegum''s assassination.gif] [Bubblegum vs. Almond, the skill difference...] Sang-Hyeon smiled as he scrolled through themunityments. ''There are reactions now!'' Not just on Bubblegum''s fan page, but othermunities picked up the news too. ''I can''t believe I''m being mentioned with Bubblegum.'' The ten-year streamer, Bubblegum. He was one of the top streamers on Treevy and earned some of the highest ad revenues in the country. He hadn¡¯t been big at first like everyone else. He was worse off than the average streamer because he needed to improve at everything. He wasn''t good at any games despite there being so many. His only good traits were a friendly image and a sense of humor, which couldmonly be found. However, not even those attributes were anything noteworthy. Bubblegum''s greatest strength was his perseverance. The only way he could survive in the industry with hisck of skills and personality was consistency and responsibility. He became the friendly neighborhood friend who would never disappoint you. He seemed foolish sometimes, but always had your back. That became Bubblegum''s best and strongest trait. Who cared if he sucked at games? He was the neighborhood friend who would always be there for you at the yground after school. The friend who made you reminisce about the good old days. Laughing and smiling with such a friend could be called happiness and that was enough. To some, it was the only pure happiness they had in their lives. That was why Sang-Hyeon respected Bubblegum so much. (Of course, he didn''t respect his skills.) And he loved watching his streams. It was a big moment for Sang-Hyeon to have his name mentioned with Bubblegum. "It¡¯s interesting that there''s even a celebrity you like," Ju-Hyeok told him while eating. "He''s not really... a celebrity." "He''s a celebrity if he''s that big. Fifty thousand viewers watching him live? That''s crazy. I wonder how much he makes?" "He lives a surprisingly frugal life. He has two kids. I think he invests in them a lot." "..." The amount of information Sang-Hyeon knew about Bubblegum startled Ju-Hyeok. "Anyways, the video was excellent. No wonder it''s trending again." Sang-Hyeon seemed to enjoy Seo Ji-Ah''s editing because he kept reying his interaction with Bubblegum. "Ji-Ah''s skills are great! She''s one of the best!" Ju-Hyeok aggressively nodded. Then he brought up the topic of views because he couldn''t find a better time to do so. "It already has 80,000 views and it''s only been around 5 hours. I think this will be a new record." "What''s the record?" "We got over 200,000 views in the first 24 hours before. At this rate, this one will reach 300,000." "You think so?" Sang-Hyeon gave a half-ass response as he reread themunityments. However, his expression soon darkened and his smile slowly disappeared. Like always, some of thements weren¡¯t too friendly. [He gets called a genius just because he beat Bubblegum? Then all 4 million people in this country are geniuses!] [Almond? A genius? Stop overreacting after only two rounds!] [Jesus Christ, the day hase when we suck up to bronze yers.] [These losers love sucking up to people.] [It''s not even like he''s ying against JeonJaPa.] [Stop making posts about him, you losers. Almond is only a bronze rank.] [JeonJaPa reached diamond in the first month he started. Do you think Almond can do that?] Whiff¡ª? Ju-Hyeok''s hand covered the screen. "Hey, what''s the point of reading all that? These guys are just trying to put you down." Ju-Hyeok already looked at all thements mentioning Almond. He knew what was being said. "I know." "Then why are you reading them?" "This is my power." "...?" "Maybe it''s because I don''t have any family left. Talking shit about my family doesn''t affect me." Just then, Ju-Hyeok realized how scary Sang-Hyeon''s professional mentality was. He could somewhat understand why Manager Park hated Sang-Hyeon so much. Simple insults and criticism didn¡¯t affect him. Most likely, Manager Park feared Sang-Hyeon. "Anyways, the problem seems to be that I''m unranked." "Of course, you''re unranked. You¡¯ve only yed two rounds." "I think I need to stream longer. Even if my character is like this." "How many rounds will you y each day?" Virtual reality games were particrly exhausting for Sang-Hyeon. Ju-Hyeok even researched hospitals to find a solution. He wanted to encourage Sang-Hyeon to only stream for short periods. "Aren''t you overworking yourself?" "The problem is that I¡¯m a genius yer in bronze." "Hmm... I guess you''re right." Sang-Hyeon finished his kimchi soup and stood up. Then he went to go watch strategy videos on hisputer. "Let''s y some more until I reach diamond at least." It didn''t seem like it, but Sang-Hyeon was currently on fire. He quietly burned withpetition and a certain incident fueled him even more. "Huh? Hey, I got a new email!" Ju-Hyeok shouted while doing his daily email check. "What is it?" "It''s from Bubblegum''s manager." "!" Dul-kung! Sang-Hyeon quickly turned around in his chair. "Wh-what did he say?" "He''s proposing some kind of content coboration." [Hello. This is streamer Bubblegum''s manager, Park Sung-Tae.] "A battle of opposing skills... Bubblegum''s salvation project..." A coboration between someone blessed by the heavens and someone blessed with nothing. The content revolved around one person teaching the other, a tutoring concept. "Yeah, it seems like content where you teach Bubblegum." "Really?" Sang-Hyeon''s face immediately brightened. However, Ju-Hyeok wanted to let him know that it was too early to be happy. "Ah, but there¡¯s a catch. He wants to do it after you reach diamond." "Diamond?" Sang-Hyeon paused for a moment because reaching diamond was no easy feat. "If you don''t want to..." "No! I''ll do it!" Sang-Hyeon made up his mind on the spot. He didn''t think it would be easy, but he hadn¡¯t burned with passion like this in a long time. "I''m going to reach diamond anyways. Why refuse?" *** The video Ji-Ah uploaded reached 130,000 views. Suddenly, a Treevy notification popped up at 3 P.M. [Almond is now streaming!] Ding¡ª? Anyone following Almond received the notification. ¡ª ??? ¡ª It''s 3 PM?! ¡ª It''s been a while since he streamed at this time. ¡ª Is something up? Most viewers came on and wondered what was going on. Around a thousand viewers arrived. Most of them were his day one viewers who were either students or srymen. [Current Viewers: 891] Despite the timing, reaching around a thousand viewers meant Almond was beginning to build a loyal fanbase. ¡ª Did he turn it on by ident? ¡ª It''s entirely possible if it''s Almond we''re talking about.? ¡ª Please get a new capsule. ¡ª Donate then! Everyone wondered if he turned on the stream by ident. Bzzt. The intro video came on followed by the usual intro music. ¡ª Huh? Is it real? ¡ª So exciting! ¡ª What an unexpected timing! ¡ª This is why I didn''t find a job! Haha... Ping! Almond appeared on the bottom right of the screen and smiled. "Hi, Treevy!" The chat went wild as he greeted them. ¡ª Hihi ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Why are you here so early today?! ¡ª Hi oppa! ¡ª I''m skipping ss to watch him hehe. ¡ª What the? AlHa for now! ¡ª Wow, what a treat. ¡ª No regrets. ¡ª The best way to spend your time, rated by Forbes.? ¡ª Why are you here so early today, sir? I wonder what the asion is? Hehe. Questions mixed in with the greetings. Viewers felt curious as to why he began streaming so early. He answered them straight away with a surprise announcement. "I''m going to reach dia. Starting today." ¡ª ???? ¡ª Sorry? ¡ª Surprise announcement! ¡ª :o A surprising statement! ¡ª Almond''s going to die? ¡ª Is he finally going to die? "Not die. Dia-mond. I''m going to reach diamond. I think it''s going to take around... two weeks?" Two weeks? . The greatest yer of all time, JeonJaPa, took a month to reach diamond. A small-time streamer, who only yed two rounds, dered that he would reach it twice as fast. Chapter 57: Surprise Annoucement (2)

    Chapter 57: Surprise Annoucement (2)

    Only the top 0.5% of yers in Battle Large?reached diamond rank. It was one of the highest achievable ranks for casual yers. Master and grandmaster ranks existed above diamond, but those weren¡¯t achievable unless someone poured their entire life into the game. Most amateurs, even the skilled ones, would only reach diamond at best. Sang-Hyeon announcing that he would reach diamond wasn''t too farfetched. However... "I think it¡¯ll take around two weeks to reach." ¡ª ??? ¡ª Sorry?! ¡ª What are you talking about? ¡ª No... ¡ª Bruhhh¡­Can you back up your words?! ¡ª This guy is nuts... ¡ª Are you drunk or something?! One of the best gamers of the century, JeonJaPa, took a month to reach diamond in Battle Large. Of course, he hadn''t spent all his time streaming or ying the game. He reached diamond by casually and naturally ying, but still set the industry record. It was like Usain Bolt setting a world record while having the luxury to look back during the race. JeonJaPa''s skills were miles ahead of everyone else. "Yes, I¡¯ll try to reach it in two weeks. It seemed possible when I calcted it." A new streamer, who only yed two rounds of Battle Large,?announced that he would reach diamond two times faster than JeonJaPa and set a new world record. ''I''m aware.'' Almond wasn''t stupid. He knew how preposterous that sounded. However, he was even more aware of his skills and capabilities. ''I was ahead of JeonJaPa in the training tutorial. To be fair, I don''t know how hard he was trying."? As always, Sang-Hyeon trusted in his abilities. The records backed him up as well. World record? Sang-Hyeon had been battling to achieve world records since high school. To break the record was only natural for him. To put it simply, he had always been encouraged to break records. It made sense and was achievable when he calcted it. That was Sang-Hyeon''s philosophy and all he needed. ¡ª It took JeonJaPa a month... ¡ª Logically, it''s possible. ¡ª Theoretically, it''d be possible if he got top ten in every game. But he''d have to y around 7-8 hours every day. ¡ª Why are you guys so serious? Just watch him. ¡ª He''s saying it as a joke. Don''t take him seriously. Some understandably passed off Sang-Hyeon¡¯s deration as a joke. It sounded like a no-name basketball yer announcing that he would break Michael Jordan''s records. Anyone wouldugh at them. That was just how the world worked and Sang-Hyeon expected that. Their reactions didn¡¯t affect him. ''At least I have the opportunity to challenge it." Sang-Hyeon appreciated the chance to even break the record because he no longer had that opportunity in archery. Clench. It felt like his right arm shook when he tightly clenched his teeth. Was this anger? No. Thump. It was excitement, which came from the opportunity to challenge new things. He felt an electrifying tension from such a challenge. "Should I start my first round?" Sang-Hyeon always sought this feeling. *** "This guy''s finally gone insane..." Ju-Hyeok¡¯s expression darkened when he heard Sang-Hyeon''s announcement. He wiped the sweat trickling down his forehead. "It''s possible in theory? My ass. Is it possible in theory to not die a single time?!" Sang-Hyeon couldn''t hear him inside the capsule no matter how much he shouted. Ju-Hyeok only shouted to satisfy himself. Sang-Hyeon should also take his manager into consideration, who always busily deleted negativements during the stream. Almond finished parachuting onto the ground. The first round on the road to diamond had begun. Ju-Hyeok nced at themunityments. Now, other streamingmunity pages were frequently mentioning Almond too. [Almond''s journey to beating the diamond record!] [Announcing he would achieve it in two weeks!] ¡°Sigh¡­¡±?Ju-Hyeok brushed back his hair. "Alright, let''s do this." Sang-Hyeon already spilled the beans, so Ju-Hyeok might as well use it as marketing. ¡®High-risk, high-reward.¡¯ Ju-Hyeok wasn''t fond of this strategy and, if he recalled, neither was Sang-Hyeon. Sang-Hyeon didn''t care whether he was liked or hated. He preferred to live a neutral life. However... ''This is his true self.'' Almond''s eyes looked more alive than ever. This wasn''t the same gaze he had while working as a sryman. It wasn''t those dead, soulless eyes he once had. Sang-Hyeon''s burning spirit also reignited Ju-Hyeok''s dry, dying heart. Didn''t Sang-Hyeon already light up his spirit once? He felt a simr sensation when he saw Sang-Hyeon cry in the capsule room. ''Yeah, you can do it if it¡¯s you.'' Ju-Hyeok nodded. Tadadak. He began spreading Almond''s announcement as much as he could to raise the stakes for an even greater oue. It would be insane for apany to do this, but thankfully they weren¡¯t one. Ju-Hyeok believed that Almond could do it. Yu Sang-Hyeon''s eyes said that he would. ''And me too...'' Ju-Hyeok checked his missed calls and gritted his teeth. [Mom (3)] [Dad (1)] "I can do it too." *** Thud. Almond dropped into the mostpetitive area, the Arsenal. ¡ª Why did you drop into the Arsenal? You only use the bow. ¡ª The Arsenal? This guy is crazy. ¡ª You know you can''t screw up a single game, right? ¡ª Oh shit! ¡ª Did he identallynd? The Arsenal was the best ce tond if you wanted to ce 90th or lower. The center basement had one of the best weapons, but a lot ofpetition swarmed the ce. This encouraged a high-risk, high-reward ystyle. However, it would be a high-risk, low-reward for Almond because he only used a bow. What was the point if he wouldn¡¯t use those other weapons? His decision didn¡¯t make sense. ¡ª I''m curious if he''s not going to use the bow today. ¡ª Oh, maybe not since he''s going for diamond.? ¡ª Ooh... ¡ª I''m curious what Almond will be like with a gun. ¡ª Nah, Almond wouldn''t be Almond without a bow! Some viewers predicted that Almond would use a gun today instead of a bow. That would exin his choice ofnding. However, Almond had no intention of giving up the bow. "I''m going to use the bow." He quickly ran towards the Arsenal with that short remark. ¡ª ??? ¡ª For real? ¡ª But why the Arsenal... ¡ª He must not know since he hasn''t yed much. ¡ª This nut... so cocky. m! Almond mmed the door open with his shoulder and several yers running around looking for weapons appeared. No one had any guns yet. Some already attacked each other with knives since those were moremon than guns. Others used their fists to fight. The Arsenal typically looked like this early on. "Kugh!" "Get out of here, you troll!" It was survival of the fittest. Whoever emerged victorious would im all the equipment in the basement. Onlymon weapons could be found on the first floor. Tadadak. Almond quickly jumped and grabbed whatever weapon he could find. "!" However, someone else also grabbed it at the same time. "What the? Fuck off." The opponent sternly looked at him, but this was a battlefield. Wham! Almond kicked up and mercilessly shattered his chin. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Kya! ¡ª That was so satisfying. This is Battle Large. "Kurgh!" The opponent bit his own tongue and couldn''t speak properly. He started throwing his fists at Almond. However, Almond had already picked up the weapon he grabbed earlier. [Throwing Knife] The opponent looked surprised and so was Almond. He had never seen this weapon before. ''How do I throw it?'' He recalled his nosy baseball senior during his days in the athlete vige. One of the scariest sports they ever dragged him into ying was baseball. ''You''re dead if you get hit by this,''?his baseball senior said as prepared to pitch. Honestly, that was the truth because of the ball''s deadly speed. The satisfaction of hitting a baseball going 140 km/h... Pang! ''Who would¡¯ve thought I''d be using it like this.'' Thwack! The de he threw perfectlynded at the center of the opponent''s forehead. [Almond ¡ú OhYeahMan] [Eliminated!] [97/100] ¡ª Wow! ¡ª That''s crazy. How did hend it like that? ¡ª Ah, now I see why he came to the Arsenal. ¡ª Look at his throwing form. ¡ª So quick ;; ¡ª Is he a baseball yer or something? ¡ª Almond is best with bad items. ¡ª Please use a gun with your skills.? [Alrighty has donated 5000 won.] [Ah! Alrighty! Almond has the biggest advantage when he¡¯s fighting with bad weapons! That''s why he came to the Arsenal early on!] Almond nodded when he saw the donation. "That''s right. I''m not going to use a gun anyways. I came here to kill as many as I could while no one has a gun." His thinking waspletely out of the box, but this strategy increased his chances of winning at the Arsenal. ¡ª What... ¡ª The way he thinks is just different... ¡ª His ideas are so out there! ¡ª He''s crazy. ¡ª Damn. ¡ª How do you even think of that? Luck usually determined most fights early on. It was a battle of chance or whoever found a gun first. Not even 5% of skills factored into these fights. However, Almond trusted that 5%. ''It''s quite simple if you think about it.'' He didn''t use guns, so he determined that it would be best to eliminate enemies who also didn¡¯t have guns. Of course, it was easier said than done. Still, it wouldn¡¯t pose too much trouble for Almond. *** Thwack! He struck another yer in the forehead with the throwing knife. "Kuugh!" [Almond ¡ú tyis09] [Eliminated!] [93/100] The enemy had a shotgun, but it was useless from this distance. [Almond ¡ú Orochirochi] [Eliminated!] [90/100] Thwack! The next yer died as the knife pierced his heart. He didn¡¯t have any weapons or armor, so a strike to any vital spot was all it took. More and more yers died by the throwing knife thanks to Almond. [Compound Bow] It would be an unbearable bloodbath to watch once Almond found thepound bow. ¡ª Oh shit! ¡ª It''s his first time, but he immediately found apound bow LOL? ¡ª Oh fuck, he''s already strong. They''re screwed now. ¡ª How many are here again? They''re done for. ¡ª Who would''ve thought I would ever get this excited over apound bow? A massacre would soon begin. yers slowly found guns, but their heads were still exposed. They didn¡¯t have any helmets because the Arsenal only had weapons. [Almond ¡ú AutoSarid] [Double Kill!] [89/100] "Kugh!" Almond executed a wless headshot. [Almond ¡ú koklm901] [Triple Kill!] [88/100] "Hugh!" [Almond ¡ú MessyHair] [Quadra Kill!] [87/100] "Urgh!" Everyone copsed with a simr grunt. Most didn¡¯t even know why they died because the bow was so silent. Only one other yer remained in Arsenal. "Die, you bastard!" Tudududududu! Thest enemy tried to fight back with his AK47, but couldn''t hit Almond. Almond took his time hiding behind a pir and readied his bow. Chul-kuk. He struck like lightning when he heard the gun reloading. Thwack! His uracy was perfect as usual. All the corpses had an arrow in their foreheads. [Almond ¡ú Spray&Pray] [Penta Kill!] [85/100] Thud. Thest enemy fell and the Arsenal became empty. He started heading towards the room in the basement. *** Tak, tak. Almond stacked several high-tier weapons at the center of the basement. He threw in thest weapon and whipped out a fuel canister and methrower. "This normally goes in cars, but it should be fine, right?" The ring me answered his question. Crackle!!! ¡ª Almond is so evil! ¡ª Almond is crazy! Almond is crazy! ¡ª LOL What is going on?! ¡ª ??? This is a knife fight, but I have a bow. ¡ª ??? Alright, no more guns anymore! ¡ª Destroying all the weapons LOL ¡ª Wow! ¡ª If I can''t use it, no one can! "I''m moving on to the next location." Almond took the motorcycle parked outside and went on his way. Vroom. As he rode through the wind¡­ BOOM! The Arsenal blew up behind him. Afterward, Almond easily ced first in the game with 50 kills. Chapter 58: Almonds Rampage (1)

    Chapter 58: Almond''s Rampage (1)

    [1st] Almond easily ced first with fifty kills. "Alright, next round." He proceeded to queue up as if nothing happened. ¡ª LOL! Next! ¡ª Next!!! ¡ª What just happened... ¡ª Wait, I went to heat my ramen and he got first? ¡ª How did you win, you bastard! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Wow, is it really possible? Even the viewers watching felt surprised at how quickly Almond finished the round. He killed over fifty people and won in an instant. His skills significantly improved after watching the strategy videos. Everyone knew he didn''t belong in bronze, but no one expected him to be this good. [Rampage has donated 5000 won.] [Wait, you killed half of them.] [HalfandHalf has donated 5000 won.] [Can I get a half-and-half order of corpses and arrows?] [LetsGoDia has donated 1000 won.] [You''re a man of your word!!!] [MyFirstTime has donated 10,000 won.] [It''s my first time seeing a 50 kill victory... Go easy on us humans...] [ReportAgain has donated 10,000 won.] [Tomorrow''s Announcement: You have been suspended from y for being reported...] A swarm of donations poured in while he waited for the next round to begin. The match had left a big impact on the viewers. ¡°Rampage, HalfandHalf, LetsGoDia, MyFirstTime, ReportAgain, thank you all for the donations.¡± Almond thanked them and fixed his gaze on the loading screen. His concentration remained unfazed even after the match. ''I''m really going to do it.'' He gradually became an unstoppable monster without even knowing it once set a clear goal. *** Meanwhile, Almond became a hot topic on the Battle31 forums. It felt like watching seniors talk about the cocky neer because of a certain post. [Announcing he would reach diamond in two weeks.avi] Ju-Hyeok was the one who uploaded the post. ¡ª Wow, it''s real. ¡ª Isn''t this fake? ¡ª No way. Did he really say that? ¡ª His expression says he''s not joking. ¡ª I think he might be able to reach it. ©¸ Caught the Almond fanboy. ©¸ Fanboys LOL Themunity divided into two groups: the ones who thought he could achieve it vs. those who thought it was impossible. Of course, thetter was heavily favored. However, things began to shift after thest match. [Is Almond crazy?.gif] Ju-Hyeok made another post. ''Sigh, I''m going to get attached to thismunity now.'' He clipped the highlights and titled the post like any other avidmunity poster. Everyone simply thought Almond was crazy before clicking the link. However, this turned into shock after they watched the clip. It showed Almond blowing up the Arsenal and annihting fifty yers to ce first. ¡ª I clicked on the post to make fun of him, but never mind. He''s crazy good. ¡ª ??? ¡ª This guy needs to get reported again. ¡ª What just happened? ¡ª I get that he''s unranked, but still. How is that possible? ¡ª Wow... ¡ª What did I tell you about Almond! What did I tell you about Almond! ¡ª Blowing up the Arsenal was badass. The tides slowly changed. ''Wow... is this really possible?'' Ju-Hyeok nervously read thements because he was technically the one raising the stakes. He felt excited because it would be aplete victory if the public took their side. ¡ª JeonJaPa would¡¯ve gotten 99 kills. Stfu. ©¸ Show me a clip of him getting 30 kills first. You guys are a cult. ©¸ Stfu? You''re reported. ©¸ 99 kills? Is he ying against training bots? ¡ª Almond fanboys are up early today. Please y in your area! ¡ª Who keeps bringing up this nobody? ¡ª I think he might actually reach diamond in two weeks. ©¸ Stfu. ©¸ JeonJaPa took a month, stupid. ©¸ JeonJaPa didn''t give it his all. Also, Almond could be better than him. He''s not a god. ©¸ JeonJaPa is at least worthy of looking up to like a god. Why are you guys sucking up to this bronze rank? ©¸ Bronze Age religion. ©¸ LOL ©¸ These guys are the Bronze Age religion now. "Ugh..." Unfortunately, Almond''s supporters were now being called the Bronze Age religion. Public opinion took a lot of work to win over and Almond still had much to prove. Ding¡ª? Almond finished queuing for the second round. "Prove it to them, Sang-Hyeon. That''s the only thing we can do... fuck." Ju-Hyeok gritted his teeth and resumed banning the hatefulments. *** Thud! Almondnded in the Arsenal again. He fell on top of the roof and jumped off. ''1... 2... 3...'' Three yersnded on the roof as well. Instead of fighting unarmed, they ran for the stairs to acquire the rare weapons. The more time they spent on the roof, the less time they had to find weapons. Hence, it became an unspoken rule to only fight in the Arsenal¡¯s basement. However, when one of the yers opened the door to the staircase¡­ m! "Aaaagh!" The door mmed shut on their hand because someone kicked it. The opponent met eyes with Almond while screaming and cursing at him. "Hey! What the fuck is your deal!" Chak! A cheap knife slit his throat. Almond already picked up a small de because he didn''t care about the weapons in the basement. "Kugh!" The dull edge didn''t kill the opponent, but he crawled on the floor in a critical state. "This fucking troll!" "What!?" The others following from behind froze in ce. ''Why are they fighting here?'' They couldn''t understand, but ran to the sides to look for a weapon after assessing the situation. However, Almond didn¡¯t n on waiting for them. He pivoted his body at an angle and focused all his energy on one point. Swoosh! He sent the energy into the de and threw it like a baseball. The knife perfectlynded on one of the fleeing yers. Thwack! It felt more like getting hit by a blunt weapon because of the weapon¡¯s dullness. Ssh! Regardless, the enemy still copsed and bled from it. He didn¡¯t die though. Almond rushed forward and kicked in the de to finish him off. [Almond ¡ú BronzeForever] [Eliminated] [98/100] ¡ª Wow ¡ª So brutal! ¡ª Almond, you''re insane! ¡ª Almond, you''re crazy! ¡ª He''s merciless. ¡ª I''d be so scared if I was the opponent. ¡ª He doesn''t let anyone go. Kind of like my professor. ¡ª Come on! Let''s y casually! "They''re probably trying to go down the stairs again, right?" Almond pulled out the knife and threw it towards the door. It struck a yer reaching for the knob. Thwack! Blood sttered again after the sh of silver light. "Arrrrgh!" The opponent screamed while grabbing his arm. Almond¡¯s no-look throw had cut his hand off. It hadn¡¯t beenpletely severed, but dangled off his arm. ¡ª Damn, he called it! ¡ª That''s crazy! ¡ª Everyone is in the palm of Almond''s hand. ¡ª It''s like watching a pro y. Is this only his fourth round? ¡ª Wow, they got injured with a low-tier knife like that. ¡ª Injured status from the start... sucks for them. The injured status wasn¡¯t death, but it was a simr state. If a body part was severed or couldn¡¯t be used in battle anymore, a yer would suffer from the injured status. They couldn''t cure the status unless they had a healing item. "Argh! Fuck! Why are you doing this so early in the game?!" The yer with the severed handy on the floor and gave up already. Almond came over and finished him off. "I have to quickly climb up." Chak! The yer¡¯s severed head rolled on the rooftop. [Almond ¡ú RollingAround] [Double Kill!] [97/100] ¡ª A befitting username! ¡ª Kya! So satisfying! ¡ª The username makes it hrious LOL ¡ª Of course, no one would want to y if they meet someone like Almond at the start. ¡ª Isn¡¯t there still one more person on the rooftop? ¡ª Next! The remaining yer shuddered in fear while holding a knife. "Don''t...e..." ¡ª He''s too into it LOL ¡ª Hey! This is just a game! At least try attacking him! ¡ª That''s why he''s bronze rank... ¡ª He''s making the game entertaining haha ¡ª Bronze yers are something else. Almond¡¯s pressure overwhelmed the opponent despite this being a video game. Tadadadak. The yer ran towards the edge of the roof. "...!?" Almond quickly followed him. Swoosh??? "Ahhhh!" The yer decided to jump off the roof. THUD! And loudlynded on the ground. "Kuuugh!" His legs almost shattered, but he felt relieved that he survived. Then he saw an unfamiliar shadow. Thud. A heavy weight pressed on his back and shoulders. "Huh!?" Almond rested one foot on his shoulder. Thud! "Kugh!" The opponent went into the injured status. "Whatever!" He went for a knife despite not being able to move his upper body. However, Almond moved even faster. He lifted his knife with two hands and struck down on the opponent¡¯s forehead. Thwack! The enemy shuddered and his eyes rolled back. [Almond ¡ú JetPumpMaster] [Triple kill!] [96/100] Almond got off the opponent after confirming the kill log. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª He makes a super y every time he ys! ¡ª That''s crazy. Is this round going to be another breeze for him? Almond had barely been injured thanks to the yer beneath him receiving most of the impact. He quickly ran for the motorcycle at the corner of the Arsenal. Vrooom¡ª? He drove towards the Arsenal. "I''m going to finish off the Arsenal." ¡ª There should still be people in there. ¡ª You spent too much time here... ¡ª Just go somewhere else! Other yers probably found some guns already while he fought on the rooftop. However... "It doesn''t matter." Almond headed straight for the main entrance. It didn''t matter whether the yers in this rank had guns or lightsabers. He twisted the handles and revved the motorcycle. Vroom! Almond sped even faster into the Arsenal. Chapter 59: Almonds Rampage (2)

    Chapter 59: Almond''s Rampage (2)

    The Arsenal became hell at the start, especially on the first floor. "Diiiie!" "Ah, fuck!" "Agh!" Thwack! Thwack! Blood gushed out everywhere like a medieval warzone. Besides the basement, the only weapons scattered around were bows, knives, and low-tier guns. A mountain of corpses formed at the stairs and only three or four yers remained. They stopped fighting each other at this point because there was more than enough equipment for everyone in the basement. "Let''s just go, peacefully." "Sounds good." "Yes, yes." The Arsenal had been hell and enough blood had been shed. However, they suddenly heard an engine approaching. It seemed like the Arsenal would turn into hell again. "What the?" They could see a motorcycle¡¯s silhouette in the distance. Vrooom. It headed towards them with zero hesitation. "What the?" Who would drive a motorcycle through here? Thud! The motorcycle tossed a yer across the room and he couldn¡¯t even finish his thought. "Kugh!" Almond threw a knife while he was in mid-air and perfectly struck the enemy¡¯s forehead. [Almond ¡ú LoveTeemo] [Eliminated!] [93/100] ¡ª LOL ¡ª That was so satisfying! ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Damn, he killed him in mid-air. ¡ª Look at the way he flew across the room! ¡ª His expression was hrious. The chat grew rowdy, but the Arsenal became deadly silent. The yer who just died lost the chance to enter the basement. The other three entering the basement stared at each other in shock. ''What the?!'' ''What happened?'' Tension could be felt in the air and their sweat trickling down could be heard. A new yer had appeared. ''Let''s go down first.'' ''Yeah.'' ''Farm, then kill him.'' The basement had legendary items and weapons scattered all around. They agreed that it was best to farm first. "Sigh, seems like they went to the basement." Almond got off the bike and walked towards the corpse with a disappointed expression. [Molotov x1] [Grenade x1] [Compound Bow x1] "Wow, I got lucky for once." ¡ª Wow! Apound bow! ¡ª It''s game over now. ¡ª YES! ¡ª Was he holding a bow? ¡ª It seems like he used a bow instead of a pistol. He looted apound bow?from a corpse for the first time and even got a Molotov. Almond wore a big smile on his face as he pushed the motorcycle toward the basement entrance. Clonk!? He kicked the motorcycle down the basement. "They''re all in there, right?" Fwoosh¡ª? He smiled as he lit the Molotov. ¡ª It''s hellfire! ¡ª A burning start! ¡ª They have no choice but to get out! BOOM! The motorcycle exploded and sent its oil everywhere. A giant fire swept the basement. *** Toong! They should''ve realized it when they saw the motorcycle. "Ah, fuck!" Something felt off, but they were only in bronze rank. "What?" The others brushed Almond off and focused on farming. They worked hard to enter the basement and wanted a legendary weapon orplete set of armor before heading upstairs. The basement only had one entrance. They knew there would be a bloodbath, but that would happenter. BOOM!!! They finally realized something had gone wrong when they heard the explosion. "The fuck?!" "Damn." A wall of fire blocked the entrance and no one would survive at this rate. Smoke also caused damage in Battle Large, especially in a concealed space like this. "Get out!!!" "We have to get out!" The three gave up farming and ran for the entrance. Almond stood behind a mountain of corpses with his bow and waited for them. *** It would be easy to kill three yers running out in a panic. They only had legendary weapons and stillcked armor. Thwack! An arrow pierced one yer¡¯s forehead after he barely managed to crawl out. [Almond ¡ú AllMedic] [Eliminated!] [92/100] "....!?" The yer following behind began to shoot and sprayed his bullets. Tadadada! The mountain of corpses absorbed all his shots. The only opening was a small hole the size of a baby''s fist. ''How did he manage tond that arrow?'' Only Almond could take advantage of this small hole in the mountain of corpses. Another arrownded between the pair of eyes looking through the hole. Thwack! [Almond ¡ú Yumddaah] [Double kill!] [91/100] The corpse rolled over and the legendary weapons fell to the floor. "Oh shit." The yer in the far back crouched in fear. He could tell the opponent was a pro and that he wouldn¡¯t stand a chance in a battle of aim. ''Let''s hide for a bit.'' The fire began to spread and the smoke could only escape through a small opening leading to the first floor. He could survive a bit longer. The opponent didn¡¯t notice him yet. He would wait until the enemy came downstairs to farm and ambush him. That would be the right y. However, Almond rolled a grenade through the tiny hole. "!?" BOOM!!! [Almond ¡ú MineField] [Triple kill!] [90/100] "As expected, there was another one," Almond muttered before walking down. He pushed the bodies to the side. *** Meanwhile, Ju-Hyeok couldn''t help but smile as he read themunityments. [LIVE Almond mid-air kill.gif] Themunity posted Almond''s ys as they happened. They closely watched his journey to diamond without Ju-Hyeok even fanning the mes. ¡ª You have to admit, he''s good. ¡ª Almond is a god. ¡ª Stop promoting this nobody -.- ©¸ Nobody? He has 4,000 viewers right now. ©¸ Nobody LOL ©¸ Wow, you''re right... when did he get so big? Thements were mostly positive. The attention on Almond grew as his number of viewers increased. [I''ve only heard about Almond, but he''s something else after watching him for the first time.] [Almond? I don''t like him. I saw his face.] [Please stay in bronze, you handsome fucker...] Even users watching Almond for the first time posted about him. Of course, an opposing side also existed. [Bronze cult is acting up again!] [Fucking Almond fanboys.] [Ban any posts regarding Almond, please.] [Almond can never reach diamond because he''s a ''Die''almond. LOL!] The nasty side wasn''t ideal, but it was a good signal that the stakes were rising. It meant that even those who didn''t like Almond knew of his existence. All these anti-fans helped to increase the stakes for Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok. ''The tides will turn if he can prove it.'' No one could deny his greatness if Almond actually reached diamond in two weeks. Then their high-stakes victory would be converted into profit. As Ju-Hyeok deeply pondered¡­ [1st] Almond ced first again. ¡°Damn! I mean good job!¡± Ju-Hyeok shouted without even realizing it. Almond won three times in a row like a miracle. Ju-Hyeok couldn¡¯t fathom getting first in a game against 99 other yers. It didn¡¯t end there. After ying another round for thirty minutes¡­ [1st] Almond easily won again. "Yeeeeesss!!!" Ju-Hyeok cheered as if his favorite sports team had won a tournament. He felt like a cheerleader rather than a manager. He wanted to grab his monitor and just dance. "Hey, Yu Sang-Hyeon! Are you going to stand by your words!!!" Sang-Hyeon stuck to the same strategy. He annihted the Arsenal and reduced the number of weapons avable on the map. At this rank, no one with a low-tier item could defeat him. Almond became almost unbeatable with this strategy¡­ until his final cement match. *** "Phew,?now it''s myst cement match," Almond muttered while on standby in the waiting lobby. A lot was on the line in this round. ''The cement match is more important than any other match.'' The rating system wildly fluctuated depending on the cement match¡¯s oue. Battle Large?featured five cement matches in total. He would reach gold rank at least if he won all five, making his road to diamond much easier. Also, the donation missions he received all had to do with the cement matches. [Win all cement matches: 150,000 won] [Reach gold today: 240,000 won] [Reach tinum today: 470,000 won] ¡ª Damn, a sugar daddy funding the path to tinum.? ¡ª He can win all of them, no problem.? ¡ª How are you supposed to beat him with this strategy? ¡ª He¡¯ll easily reach gold unless someone stream snipes him.? Almond knew he wouldn''t reach gold if he ced below the top 50 in any of the cement matches. ''I should use the same strategy this time too, right?'' [100 yers have gathered.] [Get ready to jump!] Thud. Thest cement match would soon begin. Countless yers stood inside the helicopter. Almond could hear the propellors and curse words from behind. ''Arsenal... let''s do it one more time.'' This would be hisst round. Almond didn''t want to suddenly face a new challenge now. As nned, he jumped out of the helicopter and started soaring toward the Arsenal. Tak. He could feel the cold air against him as he looked to the sides and headed directly to the Arsenal. He counted the number of enemies in his head. Suddenly, he saw a familiar avatar. ¡ª Huh? ¡ª Is that BubbleSniper? ¡ª No way, is he aiming for Almond? ¡ª No way. ¡ª LOL He must be back for revenge. Oh, fuck! ¡ª That attention whore. BubbleSniper was a notorious stream sniper whose skills were actually around diamond one and he nned onnding near Almond. They made eye contact and he saluted Almond while mouthing the words, ''Long time no see.'' Almond replied with a middle finger. Chuk. BubbleSniper''s expression darkened. ¡ª LOL ¡ª So refreshing. ¡ª So satisfying. Thank you, Almond. ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Let''s fuck him up! ¡ª But BubbleSniper is technically diamond 1. Can he do it? Chapter 60: Almonds Rampage (3)

    Chapter 60: Almond''s Rampage (3)

    BubbleSniper greeted Almond with a smile. They would soon face off in the Arsenal. Almond¡¯s road to diamond would face a serious setback if BubbleSniper eliminated him here. His chance to instantly rise through the ranks would significantly decrease if he ranked lower than the top 50 in this round. "What the?! Why''s that fucker in there!?" Ju-Hyeok mmed the table and felt rattled because it was like watching his favorite sports team encounter an annoying obstacle. His frustration was understandable since not only was money on the line, but their future was also at stake. The game just so happened to match them with a Diamond I yer fueled by revenge in thest cement round. The heavens truly didn¡¯t favor them. "Ah..."?Ju-Hyeok softly sighed. ¡®Come to work starting tomorrow.¡¯ He could hear his father¡¯s voice at the back of his mind. Ju-Hyeok shook his head, ''I can''t let that happen.'' He was past his thirties already and refused to take orders from someone else. Maybe if it was from a boss, but not from his family. That was thest thing he wanted. He would do anything in his power to prevent that, but everything was up to Sang-Hyeon right now. ''What can I do?'' He thought about what he could do as a manager. ¡°...¡± Ju-Hyeok was a witty person, but he couldn''t think of anything. He felt utterly useless in a crucial moment like this. He gritted his teeth, ''Think harder.'' Ju-Hyeok took a deep breath and closed his eyes. At least five seconds still remained before theynded on the ground. He had to think of something¡­ ''Belief.'' A strange word passed through his mind. Belief? In a situation like this? Was the answer to form a cheerleading squad? That didn''t make sense. This was a battle between a bronze ranked yer and a Diamond I yer hell-bent on revenge. Relying on belief in a situation like this seemed irrational. Ju-Hyeok tried to dismiss the thought. This was a trait he acquired from his father. ''Dad...'' His train of thought stopped and he finally realized his father''s perspective. Ju-Hyeok''s father didn''t believe in him because he thought his decisions were always better. From his perspective, he was pointing Ju-Hyeok in the right direction. However, humans naturally had free will and Ju-Hyeok was raised in a better environment with a better education than his father. Why couldn''t his father believe in the results he worked so hard for? It was simply due to the age they were born in. That¡¯s why these people were called boomers. ''It''s belief!'' Ju-Hyeok¡¯s eyes shot wide open. "Fuck yeah! There''s no way Almond will lose!¡± He shouted and went to a particr website. [Bubblegum Fanpage] He finished registering and headed to the front page. ''There''s no way Almond will lose. I can see it clearly now!'' He wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything as the manager if he thought Almond would lose because there were no options left in the worst scenario. . However, what if he believed that Almond would win? Then he started to see a path. His job was to shine a light on Almond''s certain victory! [LIVE: The archer and BubbleSniper have met!] Tadadak.?Ju-Hyeok felt excited as he quickly typed on his keyboard. He wasn''t thinking rationally anymore. He used Bubblegum''s fan page to attract more attention to Almond using Bubblegum''s enemy, BubbleSniper. They would definitely take a huge loss with this tactic if Almond ended up losing. This was madness. The previous bronze ranked opponents were nothingpared to BubbleSniper. The difference between them was like a yellow belt and a ck belt. Despite that, Ju-Hyeok continued to raise the stakes. Almond was unaware of the high stakes as Ju-Hyeok spoke to himself like usual, "You have to win." He didn''t think Almond would lose. No, he didn''t believe it. He couldn''t fathom Sang-Hyeon losing and only cing in the top 90. [BubbleSniper is one minute away from getting owned!] "Let''s raise the stakes! You''re dead, BubbleSniper!" *** ''I''m fully aware.'' ¡ª Wow... on thest round too... ¡ª On the final round of cements. It''s science. ''This is thest cement round. I¡¯ll never reach diamond if I screw up here. I''m aware that the opponent knows that too.''? ¡ª Damn, BubbleSniper. What a little bitch. ¡ª Does he know the developers? Why isn¡¯t he banned yet? ¡ª Oh shit! ¡ª This just got interesting. ¡ª Please die, Almond! ¡ª Sorry, does diamond mean die-almond? ''I''m aware the opponent won¡¯t be easy. Diamond I...'' Diamond I was BubbleSniper''s approximate rank. It was three ranks higher than Almond''s goal, which was diamond four. ¡ª He''s almost here! ¡ª Are they going to fight right away? ¡ª Wow, it''s been a while since I watched something this interesting. Swiff¡ª? BubbleSniper¡¯s parachute opened. ''He''snding soon.'' Almond began thinking. The enemy probably knew his strategy and attack patterns. That¡¯s why BubbleSniper also descended toward the Arsenal. [Current Viewers: 4221] Almond wasn''t imagining it. Around 4000 viewers currently watched him. His stream had likely reached the top ten in Battle Large?streams and he already used the same strategy three rounds in a row. He would be the easiest and most vulnerable target for BubbleSniper. Veteran gamers stomped on beginners like second nature, especially BubbleSniper with his nasty hobby of bullying other yers. ''I wonder what he¡¯s nning?'' The opponent likely had something in mind after targeting him. The stakes were also high for BubbleSniper. ''I''ll fight him on the ground.'' He couldn''t give his opponent the time to think and follow a n. Swoosh. Almond turned to BubbleSniper and soared toward him. "!" BubbleSniper''s eyes widened at Almond''s unexpected action. Their parachutes began to intertwine. ¡ª I saw this in a textbook. Kite fighting! ¡ª Wow, air battle? ¡ª A normal y? No way! I''m Almond! Smirk. BubbleSniper calmed down and scoffed at him, "Why? Don''t think you can beat me fair and square?" They were so close that they could hear each other. He tried attacking Almond''s pride, but Almond already knew BubbleSniper''s ego was much more fragile than his. "And you think you can do whatever just because you¡¯re diamond?" "What? You..." Thud! Almond and BubbleSnipernded and rolled on the ground. Thud! Thud! Thud!? They kept insulting each other even as theynded. Hwik. Almond got up first. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Stomp on him! Kill him! ¡ª Pound him! As the chat advised, Almond could win if he started pounding on the enemy. However, he didn¡¯t have any experience with unarmedbat and it would be disadvantageous even if he won because too much time would¡¯ve passed. ''I''ve got to find some kind of sharp object first.'' Almond quickly headed for the Arsenal. BubbleSniper got up, assessed the situation, and followed him. Tadadadak. The two ran as ifpeting in a race. ''Over there.'' A shiny object caught Almond''s eye. "Huff. Puff." Almond could hear BubbleSniper breathing right behind him. "Huff!" Almond took a deep breath and dived for it. He slid on the ground and grabbed the hunting knife. It was a rare item among des. BubbleSniper ran towards a different knife. ''No, you aren''t.'' Almond turned and chucked his knife at BubbleSniper without even looking. Swoosh! Almond would be at a huge disadvantage if he missed. "!" Swiff. BubbleSniper tilted to the right and dodged it. Almond was unarmed now. Not only that, but something even more surprising happened next. Chuk! BubbleSniper actually managed to grab Almond¡¯s knife out of the air. ¡ª Oh my... ¡ª Wow, his skills are something... ¡ª ?!?! ¡ª Diamond 1 is different, for sure. ¡ª Damn. ¡ª Holy shit. He grabbed it perfectly by the handle!? ¡ª I knew he was good from the grenade y, but this is next level. Crack! BubbleSniper felt pain in his hips and shoulders from catching the flying knife in such an awkward position. Smirk. However, he simply smiled at Almond because it was just a game at the end of the day. He hadn¡¯t received the injury status and Almond became unarmed now. He had the winning hand. "Die, bastard!" Swoosh!!! He spun and chucked the knife right back at Almond. Swoooosh!!! The de spun differently from earlier as it flew toward Almond. It was an entirely different way of throwing a knife. ¡ª He must''ve thrown it like that so Almond can''t catch it. ¡ª Wow, the details of his y are something else. ¡ª So this is a diamond 1? Damn... ¡ª I Love Mondays is nothingpared to him. ¡ª BubbleSniper... maybe we were too harsh. ¡ª No! You can''t die, oppa! ¡ª No!!! BubbleSniper threw the knife in a spinning fashion so Almond couldn''t grab it, but... ¡ª Why are you running forward!? ¡ª Just dodge it! ¡ª Wow! Almond ran towards the knife flying at him. ''It''s over if BubbleSniper gets the other knife first.'' Another de sat near BubbleSniper. Even if Almond dodged this one, he would still be unarmed. Almond needed to defeat BubbleSniper here if he wanted to farm at the Arsenal. He would be at a greater disadvantage if BubbleSniper acquired the Arsenal weapons. That¡¯s why Almond decided to make this y. ''I''ll grab it!'' To grab the spinning knife. Whip! He reached for the knife and maximized his senses. Wooong... The surroundings around him slowed. ''Now!'' Swoosh... swoosh... He carefully ced his hand around the knife moving in slow motion and caught it in the air. Tak! He held it precisely by the handle. Then the world around him returned to its normal speed. ¡ª Wow, he''s crazy! ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Huh!? ¡ª He copied him!? ¡ª Almond, are you insane? ¡ª The knife was spinning... ¡ª This is also a type of aim. "What!?" BubbleSniper''s shout echoed out and his eyes widened in disbelief. Tadadak. Almond quickly charged and his shadow loomed over BubbleSniper. BubbleSniper leaped to grab the other knife and tried to parry Almond''s attack. He would have a good chance if he sessfully parried it. However... "!" Almond tossed the knife from his right hand to his left like a double clutch in basketball. "What the fuck???" BubbleSniper spoke hisst words as he swung and hit nothing. Almond severed his arm. Chaaak!!! A fountain of blood sprayed out after the clean slice. ¡ª Damn, I thought he was Michael Jordan for a moment. ¡ª For real, he''s crazy! ¡ª BubbleSniper got fucked. ¡ª What just happened!? "??!" BubbleSniper opened his mouth and tried to say something. However, Almond moved even faster. Thwack! As always, Almond''s knife struck the center of the enemy¡¯s forehead and their encounter ended. [Almond ¡ú BubbleSniper] [Eliminated!] [99/100] Chapter 61: Placement Finished (1)

    Chapter 61: cement Finished (1)

    Posts about Almond and BubbleSniper filled Bubblegum''s fan page thanks to Ju-Hyeok. [Breaking News!!! BubbleSniper is about to get owned!] [LIVE Archer vs. BubbleSniper!] [BubbleSniper is one minute away from being toyed with by a bronze ranked newbie!] Bubblegum''s fans all knew BubbleSniper. The username itself ignited their hatred. ¡ª For real? ¡ª Archer? Do you mean Almond? Lolol ¡ª I think the archer will lose... ¡ª Yeah, the archer is only bronze rank. You''re thinking too lightly of BubbleSniper... ¡ª Wow, this is exciting! ¡ª Ooh. ¡ª This will be fun to watch. Most fans hated BubbleSniper, but still didn''t believe Almond would win. They couldn¡¯t deny BubbleSniper¡¯s skills despite their hatred. It didn''t matter who would win. Ju-Hyeok only wanted to increase the excitement for their faceoff. ''They''re starting to reel in.'' His post gained more views andments by the minute. ¡ª Did BubbleSniper stream snipe him to get revenge? ©¸ Yeah, it''s going to be humiliating if BubbleSniper loses.? ©¸ I think he intentionally queued up to face him. ¡ª That''s pathetic... as expected of BubbleSniper. ¡ª Stop trying to bring Bubblegum down and die.? ¡ª I''m going to cheer for the archer. ¡ª Regardless, this will be fun to watch. Anyone would be eager to watch this match because of the exciting oue. It was like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Thebination couldn¡¯t fail. A rising star versus an evil veteran yer guaranteed attraction. ¡ª Hihi, I''m here because I heard Almond met BubbleSniper. ¡ª BubbleHa! ¡ª GumHa! ¡ª So this person is Almond. ¡ª Hi archer! Around a thousand more viewers came to watch Almond''s stream. Just as the viewership began to peak¡­ Thwack! Almond stabbed BubbleSniper''s forehead with his knife. Kim Ju-Hyeok mmed his table and stood up as he watched it unfold. "Oh! Shit!" he shouted as he spread his arms in the air. The excitement onlysted for a moment. He put his arms back down in embarrassment. "Ahem." An awkward silence followed and Ju-Hyeok could only hear the white noise from the capsule''s engine. That''s when he noticed. ''Was I shouting this much?'' He realized how immersed he had been in Almond''s stream. Someone would''vee to scold or spank him if he were this noisy at home when he was still a kid. It was no coincidence that people often called him a good and quiet kid. Adults liked that, but Ju-Hyeok hated it. He had to act as if someone constantly monitored him. ''But... not here?'' However, Sang-Hyeon''s house was different. There truly was no one else other than Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok. They had their own house despite being in a poor neighborhood. Another floor above or a basement below didn¡¯t exist. No one woulde to interfere with them. "!" A sense of liberation came over Ju-Hyeok as he realized that. Some would¡¯ve mocked him because he was already past his thirties, but he had never felt such freedom before. Ju-Hyeok lived as an elite all his life and finally felt free for the first time. ''I guess it''s true.'' It was a bittersweet realization. A feeling he felt for the first time after living for 31 years. ''So this is freedom.'' He had forgotten it a long time ago and this sense of liberation now overflowed in him. Was it because of that? [1st] Almond killed thest yer and won first ce. Ju-Hyeok screamed at the top of his lungs, "OOOOOKAAY!!!" Thump! He even surprised himself at how loud he sounded and slightly flinched. He had definitely been too loud this time. "Ahem..." Thankfully, it was only 5 P.M. and everyone was still out working. "I think I need to practice being free a little more." He raised his sses and nodded. *** [Did you watch BubbleSniper vs. Almond???] [This guy is the real deal. I think he can actually do it.] [What is BubbleSniper¡¯s original rank?] Bubblegum''s fan page wasn''t the only excitedmunity. Almond became a hot topic on Battle31 as well. They knew about BubbleSniper from Almond''s previous YouTube video and understood the significance of beating him. Naturally, posts about the two appeared. [Fresh Almond vs. BubbleSniper''s pride] The post showed Almond and BubbleSniper''s knife fight. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Now, THIS is a battle of pride. ¡ª It''s been so long since I saw a fight like this. ¡ª Who would''ve thought we would witness this in bronze rank?! ¡ª It really is a battle between two geniuses. ¡ª The genius devil BubbleSniper vs. the devilish genius Almond. ©¸ Haha, that''s so true. ©¸ I thought that guy was only good with bows. His closebat is insane!!! ©¸ It''s true his best weapon is the bow. He went on a rampage after he got the bow and won first. ©¸ Wait, so he killed someone like that without even using his main weapon? How good is he? Almond hadn''t simply defeated BubbleSniper, but did so in spectacr fashion. Their fight had been incredible. It ovepped with JeonJaPa''s famous mirror matchup. ¡ª Almond definitely has what it takes to be a star. ©¸ That''s true. ©¸ JeonJaPa became big from one video too. ©¸ You''re right. ©¸ I''m excited to see how he''ll turn out.? They naturallypared Almond with JeonJaPa. Everyone could see Almond bing a star now. ¡ª The fact that hisst cement was this spectacr shows that he has what it takes. ©¸ Yeah, facing off against a vengeful diamond one stream sniper in hisst match. I''d kill myself from the stress. ©¸ Not just a stream sniper. He had it all nned out to meet Almond at the Arsenal.? Bing a star required several factors. The most important one in sports and video games was decision-making. A star had to be able to perform in the most critical moments. All star athletes proved themselves when it mattered most. They shined brightest when the pressure intimidated and crushed everyone else. Almond could do that and always delivered when it counted. Anyone would be nervous in theirst cement round, especially with a diamond one stream sniper aiming for you. He also stated that he would reach diamond in two weeks. All the pressure was on him, yet he pulled off a fantastic y and showed the world what he could do. That made him a star. ¡ª The reason Almond is a star: his looks. ©¸ Facts, that''s true. ©¸ Makes me mad that you''re right. ©¸ The girls are going to love him. ©¸ It''s game over if hees out on a major tv show. ©¸ That''s the true reason... Of course, his looks would only boost his poprity. *** "Phew." [1st.] Almond felt relieved after finally seeing that number on his screen. "This round was a little tiring because of that pesky mosquito early on." The viewers found it amusing that he admitted to being tired, but his face said otherwise. ¡ª Mosquito LOL ¡ª BubbleSniper is a mosquito now. ¡ª So satisfying. ¡ª Oppa, you''re so cool! >< ¡ª BubbleSniper, that loser! ¡ª Guys, stop it... he''s already dead... Smirk. Almond smiled as he read thements. Then he nced at his missions full of big numbers. [Win all cement matches: 210,000 won] [Win all cement matches without using a gun: 390,000 won] [Reach gold today: 410,000 won] [Reach tinum today: 770,000 won] [Kill BubbleSniper without using a gun: 200,000 won] He had secured at least 800,000 won from his missions. "Kill BubbleSniper without a gun... win all cement matches, win cement matches without using a gun. I''m going to im the mission rewards, thank you." Ding¡ª? A list of donors came up and the money was automatically deposited. ¡ª Ahhh. No! ¡ª I didn''t think he could kill BubbleSniper without a gun. ¡ª Win all cement matches without using a gun?! How is that even possible? ¡ª We''re all taking a cut today, everyone... The viewers acted all rowdy because they thought the missions were impossible. "I should get my new rank pretty soon, right?" Almond checked his profile as he waited in the lobby. [Your cement has been calcted.] [Check Rank] He could check his rank by clicking on the button. This would determine if his uncolored badge turned gold or white. "There''s no way that I¡¯m getting silver, right?" ¡ª Yeah, no way. Not silver. ¡ª It''s at LEAST gold if you win all of them. ¡ª I''ve seen gold before, but never t... ¡ª Even JeonJaPa was only gold. "Ah! I can''t get tinum?" Almond frowned. ¡ª The t mission was just bait. ¡ª The gold mission donors are about to be screwed... ¡ª LOL Poor guys. Just give him the money already. ¡ª We''re just kids... we don''t know how to bait... ¡ª Were you hoping for t? You''re crazy. ording to his viewers, he would rank at least gold. tinum seemed impossible in one cement attempt. ''Then what?'' His viewers had baited him with the tinum mission. Almond wanted petty revenge against them. "How about I end my stream now?" ¡ª ???? ¡ª ??? ¡ª Sorry?! ¡ª Wow. ¡ª This guy only thinks about the content! ¡ª Content mania Almond! ¡ª That''s crazy. ¡ª You''re crazy. ¡ª No!!! ¡ª Don''t you want to get the mission reward? Dammit! ¡ª There''s a time limit to the missions! ¡ª You could get t! The missions had a time limit. Now they also mentioned the possibility of him getting tinum. "I''ll just skip out on the tinum mission reward if I get gold. Whatever." He could receive the mission reward now if he reached gold, but he would miss out on the tinum one if he checked and stopped ying for today. ¡ª Wait, wait a minute! ¡ª Wow, Almond is insane. ¡ª Hahaha. ¡ª Almond, you''re crazy! Almond, you''re crazy! Almond, you''re crazy! ¡ª You''re not going to get away with this... ¡ª We''re all going to die until tomorrow''s stream! ¡ª Everyone, Almond''s never gone back on his words. ¡ª Show us what gold you get!! Babababam! A loud trumpet suddenly rang out, followed by a donation message. [Miho has donated a whopping 500,000 won!] [Almond! Please show us before you go!] ¡ª Miho!? ¡ª Noona... ¡ª Noona, I''m dying! The money is crushing me! ¡ª Hero! Miho! ¡ª Miho suddenly appeared! ¡ª Are they dating!? ¡ª Stop trying to make everyone a couple. ¡ª Wow, is it really Miho? ¡ª Is it really her? ''500,000 won?'' Almond became dumbfounded. The tinum mission was a whopping 770,000 won, but that was from multiple users. It also seemed impossible to get. A single 500,000 won donation was a different story. Also, that person was... ''Isn''t she also a streamer?'' Miho was another Battle Large?streamer who previously asked him to join her n. Did she have other intentions? He felt dizzy as he thought about what to do. "Ah..." Almond scratched his head. "It''s too much to decline your offer¡­ Haha.¡± Almond tried to y it off as cool as possible and clicked the button to check his rank. It was the only way to change the subject. ¡ª LOL! He changed his mind in an instant. ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Almond, you''re embarrassing us! ¡ª Almond...e on... ¡ª This freaking nut. ¡ª Omg, this guy. Bang! A loud sound effect rang out as his badge red up. The bright light began to fade and his badge sparkled like a jewel. [tinum III] It was a bright, white gold. Chapter 62: Placement Finished (2)

    Chapter 62: cement Finished (2)

    tinum? That word confused everyone watching, including Almond. ¡ª What. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Is it a bug? ¡ª No way ¡ª LOL ¡ª Huh? ¡ª Is this possible!? ¡ª What the? ¡ª What is going on!? ¡ª You again, Almond!!! An unwritten rule existed that tinum was impossible to achieve through cement matches alone, but Almond just disproved that. Not only did he ce in tinum, but he was a tier above tinum IV at tinum III. "Oooh..." It surprised Almond as well. However, the viewers felt dissatisfied with his reaction because they thought reaching tinum in one go was impossible. ¡ª Oooh? Is that it? ¡ª LOL! Oh... ¡ª Oh... hahaha ¡ª- Oh¡­ hohoho! ¡ª HAHA ooh... Almond''s oh reaction became a meme for a while. "Then I''ll also get the tinum mission reward. Haha." Almond gave them a big smile and imed his tinum mission reward. The gold and tinum mission rewards totaled 1,180,000 won. ¡ª Oh... NO! ¡ª My money! ¡ª Ahhhhh! ¡ª Why did he get tinum?! ¡ª Haha, justice to those who tried to bait him! ¡ª No way... ¡ª I thought it was just supposed to be bait! ¡ª How much did he earn in one day?! ¡ª ??? Son! Turn into Almond! ¡ª Mom! I want to be Almond''s son! Mom! I want to be Almond''s son! Mom! I want to be Almond''s son! Mom! I want to be Almond''s son! Almond became not only a role model for kids, but for parents too. Most likely due to seeing his earnings from today. ''I earned a lot today.'' Almond knew he earned quite a bit today and estimated the amount in his head. ''1,180,000 won... 800,000 won... and Miho''s 500,000 won...'' He had earned 2,480,000 won in an instant. It would total around 3,000,000 won if he added the donations he received throughout the games. However, he still had to subtract the streaming fees and taxes. He wouldn''t earn as much as they thought. ''It''s still a lot of money...'' Regardless, he made much more than when he worked at AhSung Corporation. He had worked at thepany for five years, but made more as a streamer with only three weeks of experience. Sang-Hyeon felt first-hand what it was like to be in a hot market. ¡ª Why are you standing still? ¡ª Is hegging? ¡ª Buffering? ¡ª Next round, gogo. ¡ª Almond''s dumbfounded by his earnings. ¡ª Let''s get to diamond today!!! The chat pestered Almond as he nked out. "Ah..." Almond unconsciously checked the time. It was 5:30 P.M. Two and a half hours had passed since he started streaming. ''Streaming for a long time sure is tiring.'' His streaming time was below averagepared to other streamers, but he already felt exhausted. It was strange considering he used to be an athlete. His mind continued to nk out. ¡ª Are you nning to end the stream? ¡ª I saw it! Almond''s eyes looked at the time! ¡ª Oppa, you''re leaving already? ¡ª Start streamingter if you''re going to do this! You nut! ¡ª Nooo! Don''t end it! ¡ª Aren''t you going to reach diamond!? Aren''t you going to reach diamond!? Aren''t you going to reach diamond?! Aren''t you going to reach diamond?! ¡ª Ohhh... he checked the time. The viewers realized Almond would end the stream. They grew aware of his timing after he ended the stream on them so many times. "I''m going to reach diamond. Also, the person who just spammed is going to be momentarily banished to an ind." Ding¡ª? After he said that, Ju-Hyeok suspended the user who spammed the chat for three days. ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª LOL! Suddenly banned. ¡ª Everyone shush! If you move, we''re done for! ¡ª Ooof! ¡ª Almond banned him because he kept asking to continue the stream! ¡ª Almond, exin yourself! The viewers retaliated and thought his stream would end after the ban. However, what Almond said next shut them up. "I''ll end the stream at 8 P.M." ¡ª ??? ¡ª What''s the asion?! ¡ª Is this really the Almond I know? I''m touched. ¡ª Kyaaaa! ¡ª It''s a festival! ¡ª Thank you, Miho! Thank you, Miho! ¡ª Hey everyone! Be careful of spamming! ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Say thank you to Miho! Say thank you to Miho! Say thank you to Miho! Almond smirked as he watched their mood quickly change. The asional nasty viewer popped up, but most of them acted cute and innocent. At leastpared to the people he met working as a sryman. Above all, these people watched him because they loved Almond, no? Almond only felt thankful to them. ''I''ve got to reach diamond.'' He wanted to keep his promise. He wanted to give back to the viewers who believed in a nobody challenging JeonJaPa. *** One cement match equaled ten ranked matches. That meant every regr match he would y from now on only amounted to 1/10th of his recent matches. "Phew." Thankfully, that also meant Ju-Hyeok could rx while spectating. He didn''t have to focus 100% on every game. Sang-Hyeon reached tinum, so he had more time to reach diamond now. ''Should I take a look at what people are saying?'' Ju-Hyeok determined that it would be best to check themunity reactions. [LIVE Almond''s cement result] As expected, posts about Almond''s new rank already appeared in the Battle31munity. It trended in the top 5 posts. ¡ª Huh? ¡ª Stop lying. ¡ª Is this staged? ¡ª This guy actually needs to get reported now LOL ¡ª JeonJaPa was only Gold I. This is a little strange. No one knew how to react. Some even wanted to report him. [Almond tinum III reaction LOL] A post like that also appeared. It showed a picture of Almond''s emotionless expression as he said, ¡°Oh¡­¡± ¡ª Oh... LOL ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Oh... hahaha ¡ª The world is ending! Oh... ¡ª Hahaha, he doesn''t have a care in the world. ¡ª He has no emotions whatsoever. ¡ª That makes sense. He probably has no idea what being t means. Thesements were the positive ones. A majority seemed to be jealous of Almond¡¯s results. ¡ª He must''ve known. This has to be staged. ¡ª Wow, I''m going to report him. People started toe up with conspiracy theories too. ''Is it that bad?'' Ju-Hyeok also yed Battle Large?and scratched his head. The resistance to Almond¡¯s achievement seemed stronger than he expected. Couldn''t they pass it off as a possibility? They treated it as if something impossible had urred. ''There¡¯s some controversy since it''s apetitive online game.'' Unlike Kingdom Age,?which was only a single yer game. Battle Large?was different and difficult to understand. Some people''s careers depended on it since it was a popr game. Technically speaking, some devoted their lives to the game. From their perspective, Almond''s dominance was troublesome. ''Should I pry into it a little more.''? Ju-Hyeok began typing and hoped to briefly silence them. ¡ª Isn''t it because he got first in all the cement matches? That''s no easy feat. I don''t see why tinum isn''t possible. ©¸ But he''s not the only one who got first ce in all cement matches. ©¸ You''re right. There''s literally only one other yer who did it. ©¸ There is one more... I guess... ©¸ Anyways, no one got t out of those yers so far. ¡®I see.¡¯?Ju-Hyeok scratched his head in defeat. ¡®I guess there are a few who also got first in all their cement matches.¡¯? In Ju-Hyeok''s eyes, he thought no other yer could match Sang-Hyeon''s abilities. However, they did exist and didn¡¯t immediately reach tinum. ''Then what is it?'' Ju-Hyeok searched the inte for an exnation. He wanted to find out how the game calcted ranks. He grew curious about the algorithms and how the previous yers only reached gold. He also wondered what ranks the previous yers specifically got after their cement matches. Sang-Hyeon getting tinum wasn''t too far fetched if the others reached either gold three or gold one. ''Wow, it''s all different?'' As Ju-Hyeok predicted, JeonJaPa and other foreign yers all ced into different ranks after their cement matches. The ranks ranged from gold one to gold four. ''Wow, there really is no t three." He hadn''t searched the entire database, but no case of a yer reaching tinum on their first try existed. The promotional games that took ce in the gold and tinum ranks were a bloodbath. The difference between the two ranks was also huge. Advancing to the next rank was no easy feat. Ju-Hyeok looked at the reactions on Battle31 again. [A one of a kind monster genius. The legendary Almond!!!] [Disgusting...] [Did they give him a good rank to apologize for banning him?] [These idiots areing up with bullshit because they''re mad at Almond.] [It''s obvious they''re mad because Almond is handsome and doing well.] [If you can''t admit new records, how is anyone supposed to beat them? JeonJaPa fanboys?] [It''s like a JeonJaPa cult...] [Facts, it''s better than a fake t cult] The forum became disastrous as the two sides fought. Ju-Hyeok wanted to dive in and fight back with logic too. ''Whatever, I have things to do.'' He was Almond''s manager, not a Battle31 user. ''It''s better if I n ahead.'' Ju-Hyeok opened up his email and Almond¡¯s email at the same time. One of them had an email from Battle31''s?admin team. [Reply] Ju-Hyeok began to type out a reply. Specifically, he wanted to ask them a question about what happened to Almond and how it was possible. The hostile crowd would shut up if they found out that Almond''s manager contacted the admins first. Almond hadn¡¯t done anything wrong. He simply gave it his all while ying. Ju-Hyeok nned on personally asking the video gamepany. Who could me Almond after knowing all of this? If anything, their anger would be directed at thepany. From another perspective, Ju-Hyeok was using the admin team as a shield. ''So what?'' From various experiences in his social life, he realized that being kind only harmed his close friends and family. He had to act harshly when the time to be a bad guy came. Besides, didn''t they ban Almond for no reason? He was just getting back at thepany with this. ''You guys can clean up after yourselves.'' *** Ding¡ª? An email directly reached the admin team at Battle Large. "Huh? A mail?" This used to be Kim Ki-Yeol''s position, but not anymore. He had been fired after the Almond incident. The person who used to be Kim Ki-Yeol¡¯s assistant thought back to the incident and still got chills because they received a directint from the higher-ups. "Oh fuck, Almond''s manager?!" The assistant''s PTSD returned as he saw Almond''s name. He got up after seeing the email from Almond''s manager. Chapter 63: Advertisement (1)

    Chapter 63: Advertisement (1)

    He initially ran towards the manager''s office, but changed to the director''s. The manager had been fired along with Kim Ki-Yeol. The new manager wouldn''t realize the magnitude of the situation and risked making a mistake. In Assistant Lee Dae-Su''s head, he recalled what his manager said after the Almond incident. ¡®There are talks of running a promotion with Punk and Almond. We will propose it to them after a couple of meetings.¡¯? A coboration with Almond for a promotion was already in the works. ''We''re fucked if we mess this up again.'' Lee Dae-Su squeezed his eyes shut before opening them again and headed toward the director''s office. Knock knock. He carefully knocked on the door and entered. "Uh... We received this email." "?"?The director raised his sses and frowned. His expression said, ''Why are you bringing this to me?''? Lee Dae-Su expected this and further exined, "It''s rted to our nned coboration with Almond. I thought it would be best to bring it to you right away." "Almond? They sent an email to us?" The director finally showed interest. He must''ve thought it was good news judging from his expression. ''The email isn''t good news...'' Lee Dae-Su worriedly scratched his head and handed him the tablet. "Hmmm." The director raised his sses and read the email. Dae-Su thought the director''s expression would darken, but... "Uhh... hahaha? They''re quite funny. Are they trying to put all the me on us?" The director actuallyughed at it. Dae-Su wasn''t sure if it was a happyugh, but it wasn''t the worst reaction. "What should we do?" The director waved off his question. "Almond''s manager? Who is this guy? I like him." ''What do you like about him?'' Lee Dae-Su couldn''t understand. He liked him? "What''s with that face?" "Ah... It''s just, I don''t know what you like about that email..." "It''s neatly written like an official business report, Assistant Lee. Tryparing it to your own." Wow, his feelings only got hurt by asking. ''He thinks that person is a good worker?¡¯ Lee Dae-Su regretted asking and just nodded, "I-I see." "Anyway, this is a good opportunity." Good opportunity? Again, he couldn''t understand the director. Almond tried to put the me on them, but it was a good opportunity? "Hey, Assistant Lee. I just got a fantastic idea." "Is that so?" Lee Dae-Su thought there would be nothing to gain from asking any more questions, so he simply went with the flow. "They''re saying the rating they got is too high, but it''s all calcted by AI. Is there a chance there was an error?" "Of course not. He deserved it if he got tinum III," Lee Dae-Su confidently replied because there was no chance of an error. "Then why is there so much bacsh?" "That''s... because it''s a very rare urrence." "Rare? Has it happened before?" "Yes, a yer from Denmark once ced into tinum IV after his cement matches." "Oho..." The director nodded and firmly held his sses. "Alright, then we just need to put out a statement to clear our names. Do you think that''ll be enough?" "Sorry?" What would they do if the bacsh continued? Was putting out a statement enough? "Ads! Man, ads!" the director suddenly shouted. "Ah!"?Lee Dae-Su wasn''t sure what he was talking about, but he pretended to understand and acted surprised. "I-it didn''t cross my mind!" He wasn''t sure what didn''t cross his mind. The director must''ve known because his expression said, ''That''s exactly what I''m saying.'' "We can probably coborate with Almond even earlier. We can invite him, prove why he ced in tinum III, and run some promotions at the same time. We can run our normal ads and simultaneously say we''re helping him prove his innocence!" ''Ah!'' This time, Lee Dae-Su eximed in his head. He finally realized what the director was thinking. ''He was looking at this as an opportunity to naturally coborate and advertise!''? It was much better to suggest a coboration based on this incident than the previous one because they were helping Almond this time. They could show him their facility and run some tests, which would help raise the admin team¡¯s credibility. Lee Dae-Su aggressively nodded, "Alright!" "Uh, let Manager Shin know as well." "Yes!" "And put out a good statement too!" "Yes!" *** Almond yed four more rounds until 8 P.M. that day. He won first in all of them. [Almond, all first! Let''s celebrate!!] [Is Almond really going to beat JeonJaPa?] [A new generation might rise!] [9 win streak...] [Almond has crazy skills...] The news reached themunity sites and began to trend. There were rare urrences of winning first in all cement matches, but winning four games in a row in tinum III was another story. cement matches were typically against beginners, but tinum rank was full of yers who were quite good. Emerging victorious in every match among hundreds of yers on that level proved that Almond was something different. ¡ª Wow, he''s next level... ¡ª He''s on a different scale. ¡ª He''s ying a different game by himself. Many admitted that his y was on another level. Almond still refused to use guns and only won with the bow. ¡ª I didn''t think he would still use the bow when he reached this point.? ¡ª Damn... ¡ª He got the bow mission reward again. ¡ª How much is he making today?! It no longer surprised anyone that he was different from the other tinum three yers. Almond also profited from only using the bow. "Dororo, thank you for the mission. I''ll win this round using only the bow¡­ WeatherBoy, thank you for the mission. I achieved ten kills with the bow¡­ EveryoneBow, thank you for the win three times in a row using the bow mission. I''m going to im it." All the missions naturally became rted to the bow. The viewers grew curious at how far he could reach with just the bow since the game was based on shooting guns. Almond unintentionally did his own bow challenge in Battle Large. ''One more round left?'' He had one more match before reaching tinum II. He already won one of his promotion matches to reach tinum II and only needed another win. Finishing in the top ten would also count as a victory. A yer only had to ce in the top ten twice out of the three matches to advance to the next tier. Promoting to the next tier was still quite a challenge though. "I''ll y the next match another time." Almond decided to postpone the game. It was already past 8 P.M. when he checked the time and he had used up all his strength. ¡ª Ahh, it''s unlucky to leave games hanging like this!? ¡ª Aren''t you a man!? ¡ª It''s already 8?! ¡ª I''m curious to see if he''ll get promoted. ¡ª I think he will for sure judging from his pace. ¡ª Strike while the iron is hot, Almond... ¡ª You¡¯ll lose ten in a row next time if you stop ying and leave after one promo game! Everyone tried to threaten Almond by jinxing him, but he came from a line of work where jinxing was the norm. This was child''s ypared to his past experiences. He ended the stream as nned. "Bye, Treevy." The outro music yed as Almond''s face faded away. ¡ª Noooo ¡ª Bye, Almond... ¡ª Bye Almond! ¡ª Goodbye! ¡ª Bye! ¡ª When are youing on tomorrow??? However, the Treevy viewers let him go easier today because he streamed three to four times longer than usual. *** Chiik... The capsule lid opened with the sound of pressure releasing. Almond, no, Sang-Hyeon was more exhausted than usual and dragged his body out. Sweat wasn''t just trickling down. He was drenched in it. "Damn, are you okay? What is..." "Ah, was I in there too long?" Sang-Hyeon shook his head with a hand on his forehead. Sweat dripped off of him every time he moved. "You have to stream tomorrow and the day after. Aren''t you overworking yourself?" Ju-Hyeok looked worried and made a rare expression despite being cold-blooded himself. That meant Sang-Hyeon''s condition was that bad. Sang-Hyeon shook his head, "It''s not that. I''m just dehydrated. Can you get me a sports drink?" "Sports drink?" "Yeah, I bought some and put it in the fridge." Ju-Hyeok opened the fridge that he used daily. "Not that one. The fridge with only drinks." "We have something like that?" He had never used the other fridge on the side before. It looked like an ordinary cab. Creak. His eyes widened when he opened the fridge. ''Do you really have to stock up this much?'' It was full of sports drinks and seemed to be around three to four boxes worth. "Here." Ju-Hyeok handed Sang-Hyeon a drink without saying anything. Tak. Sang-Hyeon opened it and gulped down the can. "Kya. Hey, you should be a model for that sports drink." Ju-Hyeok attempted to make a joke and worried that the situation would be serious. ''Something is wrong.'' Ju-Hyeok suspected something was off. Not just now, but in the past as well. The capsule didn''t use the body, but only the brain. Was it possible to sweat this much from brain activity alone? "I''m going to wash up." Sang-Hyeon got up to shower while Ju-Hyeok stared at the capsule machine. He thought it would be wet, but the venttion dried up all the condensation. He stuck his hand in the machine. ''It''s not hot...'' The capsule likely didn¡¯t have any temperature control issues since it was a modern invention. "Hmm... I wonder what''s the problem." It was hard to diagnose any capsule rted problems on his own. Not many people could repair the machine too, which made it expensive. "But I should still find out." Ju-Hyeok wasn''t the type to let a problem like this slide. He felt iffy about it at first, but determined that it would be a good opportunity to properly assess the machine with professional eyes. He thought of it as an investment since they would both profit from it. "Huh?" He sat back at hisputer and read the announcement from Fantasia. [A statement on Almond''s rank calction...] The title read as such and stated that the AI used wins, losses, and gamey to determine which yers ranked up faster. The AI likely factored in Almond only using the bow and the fact that he hardly ever farmed for items. Then it determined him to be a dominant yer and propelled him up the rankings. "Kumph, the controversy should be over now." Ju-Hyeok made a satisfied expression and thements reacted the same. ¡ª Those losers wanted to eat up Almond at first.? ¡ª Fantasia''s official exnation! ¡ª Well, he is destroying everyone with a bow. Who would want him in gold? ¡ª You guys would hate it the most if he ced in gold. ¡ª They probably didn''t want to see him breaking records. ¡ª Officially from AI: Almond is a smurf. ¡ª Kya! Congrattions, boss! Almond had won judging from thements on themunity pages. "Good thing I sent that email." Ju-Hyeok checked his inbox again and received a couple of new emails. One of them came from the Battle Large?developers, Fantasia. [There is no problem with the AI, but the public still has doubts. We imagine it is also a nuisance for Almond, so we would like to invite you to do a couple of tests (skill tests, medical check, etc.) to properly and officially prove it. On Fantasia''s official channel...] "Isn''t this a proposal for an advertisement?!" The email didn''t specifically state it was an ad, but they invited Almond to stream at their headquarters. The official channel for Fantasia, the Battle Large?developers, also had a huge viewership. They basically wanted Almond to appear on their channel. Chapter 64: Advertisement (2)

    Chapter 64: Advertisement (2)

    The next day, Ju-Hyeok excitedly told Sang-Hyeon about the advertisement. "They contacted Punk this morning." Ju-Hyeok held off from telling him until Punk confirmed it. They would proceed with the ad as long as Sang-Hyeon agreed to it. Ju-Hyeok shouted as he passed the tablet to Sang-Hyeon, "It''s an ad!!!" He made a ta-da?pose. "An ad?" "Yeah, take a look." However, Sang-Hyeon''s expression darkened as he read the contract. "What''s with that expression? You don''t like the ad?" "Of course, I like the ad." "But?" "The medical check..." One of the tests they wanted to run was a medical check. They imed that Fantasia also factored this in, but Ju-Hyeok wondered why this would be a problem. "What about it?" Sang-Hyeon let out a sigh. ''What is it?'' Ju-Hyeok couldn''t understand what Sang-Hyeon was worried about. "Say it." Sang-Hyeon responded after finishing his cereal, "Because I feel like more people will find out about my right arm." His right arm? "Is it a mechanical arm or something?" "Not a mechanical arm, but a trauma." "..." Ju-Hyeok became speechless. ''He cares about it that much?'' Ju-Hyeok couldn''t understand what Sang-Hyeon''s right arm meant to him as a young athlete. He couldn''t empathize. "They''ll find out for sure if they do a medical check." "You told the director though, no?" "A man of his position is trustworthy. And I needed to use that at the time, but this would just be broadcasted like it''s nothing." "Then we''ll tell them ahead of time not to stream that part. It won''t be a problem..." "No, I don''t want them to know. How can I trust them?" "What? What''s wrong with that? You have to get a medical check anyways! Look at yourself every time youe out from the capsule!" "I can just go to the hospital for that." "How many people in this country can assess the connection between the brain and a capsule? Do you know how much that would cost? Fantasia''s medical team is famous. You would be getting the best medical check possible! For free!" "..." Sang-Hyeon became silent. Ju-Hyeok somewhat figured out what Sang-Hyeon was worried about, "Is it because your old acquaintances will find out?" "Shut up," Sang-Hyeon cut him off as he mmed his spoon on the table. His eyes lit on fire. Ju-Hyeok knew this was a sensitive topic, but not to this extent. "Sigh, let me know after you think about it." He began putting on his coat. "Where are you going? Aren''t you going to eat?" "I''m going out to eat. Do you think this is a proper meal? It''s fucking cereal!" SLAM! Ju-Hyeok went outside. "..." Sang-Hyeon stared at the door for a while. He watched through the window as Ju-Hyeok left. He stared at his reflection in the window and whispered to himself, "Are you fucking retarded?" Then he slumped in his seat. "Of course, he can''t understand." *** "Is he American? Eating cereal every day... I''m the one who studied overseas!" It had been a while since Ju-Hyeok came out in the morning. He realized something when he saw the staircase. ''Is today garbage day?'' He saw a few people walking down with their trash bags. Ju-Hyeok naturally turned around. "Sang-Hyeon will probably deal with it." He wasn''t in the mood and continued on his way. He thought about getting some pork stew that he hadn''t eaten in a while. "Uh..." A girl carrying a trash bag twice his size suddenly appeared. "Hi, Ji-Ah." Ju-Hyeok happily greeted Seo Ji-Ah as if his fight with Sang-Hyeon had never happened. "I''ll carry it for you." "Ah, it''s alright..." Ju-Hyeok snatched the trash bag from her as if he was stealing it. It looked much smaller in his hands since he stood 180 cm tall. "Thank you." *** Thud. He stacked Ji-Ah''s trash bag on top of the trash pile. "Thank you," Ji-Ah thanked him with a bow. "Ah, you''re wee. Anytime." "You must live here." ¡®Ah.¡¯ Seo Ji-Ah didn¡¯t know about Ju-Hyeok''s housing situation yet. "Ah... you see..." It wasn''t even a difficult question, but he didn''t know where to start. He panicked because she asked him so suddenly. "You don''t have to answer if you feel ufortable." "Ah, thank you." "How about Sang-Hyeon?" "Ah, he''s passed out on his bed. Haha." Seo Ji-Ah could tell from the tone of his voice. ''They fought.'' Ju-Hyeok made up a terrible lie. Seo Ji-Ah already knew that Almond got up early every day. "Ah, Ji-Ah! How about some pork stew? I''ll buy." . "?!" Ji-Ah liked the sound of that and nodded. Her taste was unexpectedly old-fashioned. *** Thud. A friendlydy ced the hot stone bowls on the table. Meat and sausages filled the delicious, steaming bowls. "Do y¡¯all need anything else?" Ju-Hyeok almostughed and said, ''We''re good. Thank you.'' But... "I''ll have a bottle of soju." "...?" Ji-Ah suddenly ordered a bottle of soju. "Uh..." "Hmm? Oh, was this not included?" "Ah, no. That''s fine." Ju-Hyeok felt surprised at her straightforwardness. He recalled how she acted when they reviewed the contract. ''Does she have something going on?'' Ju-Hyeok thought it was odd that she agreed toe out so easily with an old man like him. He thought she must be going through something. He nkly stared at her before eating again. ''It''s delicious.'' It was much more filling than the cereal he usually ate. "Here''s the soju." The serverdy ced the green bottle on the table. Crack. Ji-Ah easily opened the cap and pointed the bottle at Ju-Hyeok like a gun. "Aren''t you going to have some?" Ju-Hyeok hesitated because he never drank in the morning before. "Ah... You go ahead. I''m good." "It seems like you need some too." "..." She was right. He did want to drink today. "Then, one ss." Ju-Hyeok quietly picked up the clear shot ss. Trickle... The clear liquid filled his ss. Ji-Ah poured some into her ss after she filled his. "Uh..." Ju-Hyeok was going to fill the ss for her, but she already finished pouring it. Gulp. They finished their shot in silence. "Sigh." She took a deep breath and continued eating her pork stew. ''How old was she again?'' He naturally felt curious about her age. Ji-Ah noticed his stare and looked up, "I can''t eat when someone is looking at me." "Ah...?Sorry, I''ll eat." "No need to be sorry. You should consider drinking." "..." Ju-Hyeok felt like a broken record.?¡®Do I really have to drink? Yeah, sure. Whatever, I''m not a sryman anymore.''?He would live by his own rules since he left home. Not by anyone else''s, but by the rules he set for himself. Gulp. He closed his eyes and emptied the shot. The bitter taste of alcohol lingered. "Keum!" Ji-Ah refilled his shot. He tried to refuse, but it was already toote. Trickle¡­? The soju bottle swooshed. "I don''t know what it is, but this is a great solution from my experience." Ji-Ah tapped on the soju ss. "Do you usually drink in the morning?" "Why not? Is it healthier to drink at night?" Ju-Hyeok made a tipsy smile, "It ruins the start of your day." "It''s the end of the day for me." "?" Gulp. Ji-Ah took another shot. Ju-Hyeok saw the two soju bottles on the table and wondered when she had ordered more. "The day''s over when I say it''s over." "..." "Is that not allowed? Whatever, it''s not like I go to work." She seemed drunk and usually didn¡¯t talk this much. "You too. Why start the day off with a fight?" "...?!" "You thought I wouldn''t know? A stranger walking by would''ve noticed." "I see." "Just say now''s the end. It''s better to fight at the end of the day and sleep on it. Then, at least there¡¯s tomorrow." Ju-Hyeok poured himself another shot. He felt dizzy and slowly lost himself. "If a person keeps holding it in, they start to break." "?" "That''s what Almond said." ¡®Sang-Hyeon said that?¡¯ "It''s actually nothing." Ju-Hyeok briefly hesitated and wondered if it was okay to tell her. He sighed after she deeply stared into his eyes. "Sigh, well..." He decided to tell her with the courage from his drink. He tried exining to the best of his abilities without mentioning Sang-Hyeon''s right arm. He told her about the advertisement, the medical check, and the trauma behind it. Seo Ji-Ah told him how she felt about it, "Can''t you just leave him alone if he has a trauma?" She continued while slurring her words, "Just... leave him alone..." "But it''s an ad regarding his health." "Don''t you think Almond is aware of that?" "?" "Almond knows that, yet he told you he still has a trauma." Ju-Hyeok felt like something struck him on the head. ''That''s right.'' Sang-Hyeon fully understood what they could gain from this too. Regardless, he held himself back because of his injury. The injury meant that much to him. "Sigh, this is the problem with boys..." Seo Ji-Ah slouched and shook her head. She muttered onest word, ''Trash.'' Ju-Hyeok could barely hear it, but instinctively felt that if Sang-Hyeon''s problem was his right arm, then Ji-Ah''s had to do with men. *** Thankfully, Seo Ji-Ah didn¡¯t seem that drunk. She was fine enough to walk home, which made it seem like she was faking earlier. "Thank you for the meal." She properly thanked him and disappeared into her house. Ju-Hyeok opened Sang-Hyeon''s door and returned home as well. "Hey, I''m back!" He shouted in an attempt to change the atmosphere. "What the. Did you drink?" Sang-Hyeon stared at him with an unbelievable look. ''Kim Ju-Hyeok, drinking in the morning?'' It made him think that pigs would fly the next day. "Yeah, I had a drink. Phew, I feel refreshed." Kim Ju-Hyeok tossed himself on the couch. Thud. "Oh, man." Sang-Hyeon shook his head and lightly spoke, "Hey, Manager Oh set a date for our shoot." "What?" Ju-Hyeok got up from his tomb. "A date for what?" "The advertisement shoot. I decided to do it. It''s tomorrow." "!" Sang-Hyeon contacted them while Ju-Hyeok had been out. "Will you be alright?" Sang-Hyeon stared at his right hand. "I can''t avoid it forever. Besides, this is a streamer''s job. Like you said, it''s not a big deal. But..." Sang-Hyeon quickly turned his head. His eyes were full of mischief. "Do you have a girl?" "Huh? What are you talking about?!" "It''s unusual for you to drink during the day." "Ah, no. What are you talking about? I drank with Seo Ji-Ah." "Huh?!" With Seo Ji-Ah? Still, it was with a girl... He thought it was unusual, but recalled what Seo Ji-Ah previously said. ¡®I''m usually not very talkative with people. Maybe if we''re drinking.¡¯? It did seem like she liked drinking. "Ah, I guess she likes to drink." "Oh, did you know? She seems to love it." "Is she a good drinker?" "Yeah, she drank like it was water. I think she can drink more than Manager Shim from our old workce." "Manager Shim? That''s pretty bad." "She seems to have quite the past as well, just like Manager Shim." Sang-Hyeon nodded when he mentioned her past. "Yeah, it seems that way." He also recalled Ji-Ah''s dark expression. "Are you interested in her? Ji-Ah is pretty cute." "I don''t know¡­" Sang-Hyeon had a strange expression on his face. He had forgotten how it felt to like someone. *** Almond took a break from streaming for the day. He only made a small announcement. [I''m going to take a break today! I have many things to prepare for a shoot tomorrow!] ¡ª Oh no! A break? ¡ª A shoot? ¡ª Almond! Are you world ss!? ¡ª What''s the shoot? ¡ª Dang! Why so suddenly?! ¡ª I thought you were going to diamond! ¡ª Noooo! Many of his viewers felt sad, but also curious about the shoot. It sounded like a big one if he needed an entire day to prepare. Then... They heard about Almond from the most unexpected source. [Battle Large''s hottest streamer invited onto Fantasia''s channel.] A video game news article suddenly appeared with that title. Chapter 65: Advertisement (3)

    Chapter 65: Advertisement (3)

    The topic trended in Battle31''smunity for a while. [How is Almond the only t III] [Give me t too if I win all my cements!!!] [This is too staged.] [It''s because Almond is fucking insane.] [Why are there so many angry people?] [Because Almond is p o p u l a r.] How did Almond rank into tinum III after his first cement? This topic went beyond Almond and resurfaced old controversies surrounding the cement matches. [The reason why this rating system is retarded] [Evidence showing why the MMR ranking system is rigged] [The reason why the AI judgment is so bad] [Battle Large''spany Fantasia''s past controversies] [It''s not the first time the developers are acting stupid] One side agreed it was possible to reach tinum while the other disagreed. The two groups were evenly split and ferociously fought. It was an even fight, but one incident turned the tide. [Battle Large''s hottest streamer invited onto Fantasia''s channel.] Battle Large''s?[How he reached tinum III, the extent of his capabilities, what kind of testing will ur...] It wasn''t just an invitation. Thepany wanted to prove the legitimacy of Almond''s rating. That meant thepany indirectly backed Almond''s tinum cement. [Thepany even said they''re going to prove it. Why does anyone else have a problem with whether he''s tinum?] [What are you going to do now, huh?] [Almond is world ss] [Almond is working with the developers to prove it, yet these basement losers are still reporting him out of jealousy] [So satisfying] [Fantasia is doing their job for once] [Oh shit! Isn''t this like an ad? He really is world ss] Fantasia not only invited Almond, but they also announced that they would prove his ranking. They gave him the best treatment possible. It didn¡¯te as a surprise that those who envied Almond¡¯s privilege bashed him even more. [Can''t you tell from his special treatment? It''s because he''s got connections with the directors] [I heard it¡¯s true that his director called them] [Wow, is this guy from a rich family or something?] Baseless rumors and false stories about Almond began to spread. "What the fuck? I''m going to sue these guys," Manager Oh shouted while reading themunityments. Almond was preparing for the shoot and had makeup done on him for the first time in his life. Ju-Hyeok spoke to Manager Oh in his ce, "We''ll be grateful if you can do that." He fuelled Manager Oh''s anger with articte words. "Sang-Hyeon''s mental state is what¡¯s most important... It wears him out when he sees things like this." Of course, Ju-Hyeok lied. On the contrary, it only fired up Almond even more instead of wearing him down. However, Manager Oh didn¡¯t know that and grew angrier by the minute. "Really? These scum. Ju-Hyeok, collect all of this and send it over. Our legal team isn¡¯t just for show." "Yes! Right away!" Ju-Hyeok excitedly shouted. Manager Oh angrily continued, "Are these guys out of their minds? Saying these things against a Punk partner streamer. Connections with the director? They''re crazy. We''ll take legal action. That''ll show them!" "Yes, yes. They''ll definitely back down if you take legal action and put up a notice." "That''s a good idea. We tried with Bubblegum in the past and it was quite effective." Ju-Hyeok sessfully fanned the mes. ''You scums, I hope you all get sued.''? *** The gamemunities continued to talk about Almond without knowing about Ju-Hyeok''s efforts. Fantasia''s official SNS announced their coboration with Almond along with the news article. It became an indisputable fact that Fantasia invited Almond. [We invited Battle Large''s hottest streamer! Get ready!]? ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Oh, Almond! ¡ª Wow, Fantasia''s be a big boy coborating with Almond. ¡ª Almond? Who''s that? ¡ª Ooooh. ¡ª It''s going to be worth a watch. ¡ª Are they streaming it on Almond''s channel too? ¡ª Take a look at that silhouette. Amazing. The picture only contained Almond''s silhouette, but everyone seemed to recognize him. There was no bacsh against Almond on social media or YouTube. Instead, he received much-deserved attention for cing into tinum. ¡ª Wow, tinum? He''s a natural! ¡ª That''s possible? ¡ª That''s insane. ¡ª No wonder they''re inviting him. ¡ª ced into t! Jesus... ¡ª Isn''t that higher than JeonJaPa?!? Whether someone was ced into tinum or diamond didn''t matter. It fascinated them and no one had a reason to get jealous. ''Yes, this is the normal reaction.'' Ju-Hyeok realized how toxic the gamingmunities were after seeing the other major tforms. Some would be loyal fans, but others were like a virus that wouldn''t disappear. It was a double-edged sword. ''This is why AcornJelly suggested we go major.'' Acorn Jelly told Sang-Hyeon that they could make it in the major market. He said, ¡®There¡¯s no reason for him to stay down here if he can make it up there.''? Ju-Hyeok could tell now after directly witnessing the difference. ''We''ll find out today.''?He thought to himself while watching Sang-Hyeon receive makeup. They would get a taste of the major scene thanks to Fantasia''s channel. Today, they would determine if Almond had what it took or not. *** "Wow... you don''t need any makeup at all." The girl putting an unknown product on Sang-Hyeon''s face was impressed. She had cute chubby cheeks and her hair was tied up. It was fun to hear her talk because she sounded young and cute. "There''s no point putting makeup on you! You''re good to go as you are!" However, she kept repeating the same thing and Sang-Hyeon had to hold back his yawns. "Haha, thank you." Sang-Hyeon worked in an uptight corporation for five years and he used to be a professional athlete. Laughing off these boring conversations became second nature to him. "I''ve done a lot of makeup for celebrities, but you''re on top of the list. You''re so handsome." "That''s not possible." "No, I''m serious. I think you''ll blow up on the major scene!" "That seems too far in the future, no?" "I heard that your stream is doing well. These days, TV broadcasts are worse than streams. You¡¯re just going out to build experience. You''ll probably get some contacts soon enough." He looked at himself in the mirror after her rant. Tok tok. She finished touching up his makeup. "Ta-da!?How is it?" Sang-Hyeon briefly froze at his own reflection. ''Wow.'' Was this the power of makeup? As she said, his face looked like a celebrity now. The way he dressed was also a bonus. "You look like you¡¯re going to an awards ceremony or something." He definitely looked ready for a big event like that. Her rambling exhausted him, but she excelled at her job. "Y-You''re incredible." "Oh, I didn''t do anything. This did everything." Pinch. She lightly pinched Sang-Hyeon''s cheeks. "If you liked my makeup today..." Swoosh. The other hand went into Sang-Hyeon''s inside pocket. She was a pro despite her innocent looks. "This is my business card. I''m a frencer." Wink. She winked at him in the mirror and called for the other staff. "Almond''s makeup is finished! There''s an actor sitting here! An actor!" p. p. Sang-Hyeon took out the business card during themotion. It wasn''t an actual business card, but a small handwritten note with her name and phone number. Sang-Hyeon thought she was quite forward because she was still young. His expression didn''t change because this wasn''t the first time. Other girls also acted like this in the past, but he didn¡¯t have any good experiences with them. He took those past incidents as a lesson. "Almond, over here!" "Yes, I''ming." Sang-Hyeon left the makeup artist''s business card on his seat. *** The bright stage lights pointed towards Almond as the staff guided him. This was on apletely different scale than Acorn Jelly''s stream. He could feel the magnitude of Fantasia''s channel. The studio seemed to be as big as other TV station studios. "Hi. I''m the anchorwoman, Yu Ha-Yeon." Her refreshing perfume lingered in the air. She had thick curly hair and wore a casual dress that entuated her figure, high heels, and perfect jawline. She looked like the textbook anchorwoman. "Yes, hello." "Here are the rted notes about the interview." "Ah..." "Don''t be nervous. Ours is also just an inte stream, so it''ll go naturally." "Inte stream..." Sang-Hyeon unconsciously nced at the Jimmy Jib camera in the distance moving on its own. It was worth a couple of million won. Yu Ha-Yeon noticed his stare and giggled, "It''s an overwhelming environment, right?" "Yes, I''d be lying if I said it wasn''t." "Still, you don¡¯t seem to be as nervous as others. It''s almost suspicious." Yu Ha-Yeon assessed Sang-Hyeon with herrge, beady eyes. Sang-Hyeon unconsciously stuck his right hand deep into his pocket. "I usually don''t show it," he lied. It was obvious when he was nervous. He just wasn¡¯t the type to easily get nervous. "Is that so? Hmm... Well, it''s one of the questions anyways. I''ll askter." "Sure." ¡®Is that one of the questions?¡¯?Sang-Hyeon briefly looked at the interview notes. [1. Interview]?was written on the card. ''Past work experience, age, height, rtionship status...'' These obvious questions would grab people''s attention. Sang-Hyeon flipped to the next card. [2. Physical, concentration, synchronization test] This was the main event. ''It''s what they told me yesterday.'' Sang-Hyeon had been notified ahead of time. He needed to know what to prepare and how the test would proceed. He felt excited because he could finally prove himself. [3. Synchronization Checkup] This was what Ju-Hyeok wanted. He wanted to see if there were any problems rted to Sang-Hyeon''s synchronization with the capsule. Fantasia had the best team in the industry for this test. The staff wearing sunsses shouted from far away, "Alright, the countdown begins in 30 seconds!" He seemed like the director. "Yes." The anchorwoman touched her hair and positioned her legs to look suitable for the camera like a pro. Sang-Hyeon didn''t know what to do and nkly stared at the camera. "Kya, Almond! You look great!" The director gave Sang-Hyeon a thumbs up. ''Huh?'' Regardless, the stream started. Tak¡ª? The te came down and the anchorwoman greeted everyone with a bright smile. "Hello, everyone! We''re back with another special format. It''s going to be the segment where we break down Almond and analyze him!" [Current Viewers: 17k] They had close to 20,000 viewers right as the stream started. Chapter 66: Breakdown and Analysis (1)

    Chapter 66: Breakdown and Analysis (1)

    Picking apart and analyzing gamers was a rtively popr format with a rich history. It involved inviting yers, performing physical exams, and thoroughly testing their skills. This format heavily relied on the guest. ¡ª Wow, Almond was invited for a breakdown?? ¡ª He''s world ss now. ¡ª What the! Is this why you went to Fantasia? ¡ª Damn... ¡ª He''s growing so quickly... ¡ª A nobody? Not anymore. This type of format only invited popr streamers to guarantee viewership. Like popr talk shows, they typically invited pro gamers or celebrities who were good at video games. It was unusual for a small, uing streamer like Almond to be featured in this segment. ¡ª Wow, Almond! We believed in you!? ¡ª Holy moly! ¡ª Boss! You''re killing me! ¡ª Almond oppa, you''re so big now! ¡ª He''s getting big so fast! Almond''s fans cheered for him from the very beginning and all felt happy for him. It meant a lot to see one of their favorite streamers on the show. Of course, others envied him. ¡ª Someone with only 4k viewers got invited? ¡ª Going to be fucking boring. ¡ª It''s all connections. Disgusting. ¡ª He''s sucking up to the right people. ¡ª The fuck? A nobody? ¡ª Wait, this is really happening? How does this make sense? Jealousy and celebration. Celebration and curses. The stream began with all theseplicated emotions. [The live stream is starting!] They would soon discover which side would win. Thud! Fantasia''s logo appeared with a loud noise. Soon, the announcer''s bright voice captured the audience''s attention. "Hello, everyone! We''re back with another special format. It''s going to be the segment where we break down Almond and analyze him!" She had a thin, but proper figure. Her expression looked cute and her voice sounded desirable with perfect pronunciation. The controversies all disappeared as soon as Yu Ha-Yeon appeared. Sang-Hyeon was quietly impressed. ''She''s no joke.'' Was this what it meant to be a celebrity? To be precise, she was an anchorwoman. Whee. Whee. Sang-Hyeon could hear a light whistle. The staff grabbed his attention by waving a signpost at him. ''Almond, the camera will point at you soon.'' Sang-Hyeon was off-camera, but they told him it would zoom out to frame him. The staff quickly moved after Sang-Hyeon nodded. Ziiing. One of the main cameras backed away with a loud noise. "And here is Almond!" Yu Ha-Yeon continued talking until she introduced Almond with a bright pose. She added some hand gestures like a cheerleading mascot. Sang-Hyeon naturally smiled and felt touched by her efforts. ¡ª Wooooow! ¡ª He looks so good on camera! ¡ª What the!? Why''s he so good looking today? ¡ª ?! Who is that and why is he so handsome? ¡ª Damn... ¡ª Holy shit. ¡ª Sorry noona, I''m going to turn gay! Sang-Hyeon also received an unexpectedly warm wee like Yu Ha-Yeon. ''The reactions are better than I thought.'' Sang-Hyeon wasn¡¯t fully aware of his growing reputation yet. The staff had notified him, but the audience¡¯s reaction still surprised him. "Almond? Can you say hello to the audience?" Yu Ha-Yeon passed it over to Almond with a smile. Sang-Hyeon briefly thought about what to say and bowed with a light remark, "I''m Almond." ¡ª So simple! ¡ª Cold and handsome! ¡ª So handsome! ¡ª Damn! I''m going to start watching game streams too! ¡ª Why are you streaming? Just debut as an idol!? All of the reactions seemed nice. Was it because of his looks? Sang-Hyeon thought otherwise because he had never been praised so much for his looks in his entire life. It was likely the synergy of his looks with Almond''s character. "I can''t be an idol when I''m already 30 years old," Sang-Hyeon identally spoke as if it was his stream. He wasn''t trying to lead the conversation, but justmented when he saw it. Funnily enough, this was the first time he ever revealed his age. He had never revealed it on his stream. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Old man... ¡ª Damn, 30?! ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Tears are forming... ¡ª Suddenly exposing himself... ¡ª What the! ¡°Pfft,¡±?Yu Ha-Yeonughed along with the chat. "Almond, is it okay to reveal your age like that in the beginning? We haven''t even started the interview yet." "Ah..." Laughter filled the chat as Almond scratched his head. Yu Ha-Yeonughed with them and they all flowed together. ''He''s pretty good.'' Most gamers invited onto the show were amateurs who weren''t very good at talking. It was tough for streamers to adjust to big broadcasts. However, Sang-Hyeon was different. He naturally flowed with the viewers¡¯ conversations. "There''s... a lot of people." "Right? That''s the power of Fantasia!" Yu Ha-Yeon naturally flowed with the conversation too. "Are there this many viewers with other guests too?" "Of course!" "Ah..." The chatughed again after seeing his disappointed look. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hey bro, don''t get greedy. ¡ª Haha, Ha-Yeon is ruthless! ¡ª Almond''s greed has no bounds. "But don''t be disappointed, Almond. The viewership could double or triple once we start our interview and the tests, right?" She spoke as if it was a question, but no one replied. ¡ª Who are you talking to??? ¡ª Ha-Yeon is so cute! ¡ª Noona! ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Three times is too much.? ¡ª I think even she thought it was too much, so she changed it into a question. LOL "Oh ho, it''s not too much. It happened before. Oh, sorry Director. It''s never happened before? Dang, why?" "..." "I''m sorry, Almond. Looks like this is the peak viewership for today!" The viewers felt satisfied as Yu Ha-Yeon poked fun at Almond. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Kya, this is what we''re here for! ¡ª This is it! ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª I love it! ¡ª LOL! Why!? ¡ª Did the director really say something? I think she''s talking to herself. Almond butted in, "That''s right. The director didn''t say anything." ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Almond isn''t backing down! ¡ª Who''s telling the truth? ¡ª Don''t lie to us! ¡ª A close fight! ¡ª Damn. ¡ª They haven''t even started and it''s already funny. "Hey, what are you talking about? I can hear them through my earpiece." "..." Yu Ha-Yeon continued to lie and left Almond speechless. His expression made it worth it. ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª This is what a big stream is like Almond! ¡ª This is what you call a world ss stream! ¡ª Hey Almond,e back after you''re stronger! ¡ª It''s a lot different from Acorn Jelly''s stream, right? ¡ª Hahaha, look at his expression. It was different from Acorn Jelly''s stream. Not only was the tension and atmosphere different, but so was his role as the guest. ''So this is why it''s called a breakdown.''? They didn¡¯t just sit the guests down, but also made fun of them. "Alright, then should we start easy with an interview?" Almond quickly nodded. He thought moving on to the interview would be better than being made fun of. ¡ª Haha, Almond is whipped! ¡ª Look at him obeying Ha-Yeon already. ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª What happened to the cold guy from earlier!? *** Meanwhile, Manager Oh watched from a distance outside the studio and felt impressed. "Wow, he''s really good. I''m d I came to watch." He tagged along with Almond to the studio. It was a privilege to have him apany Almond considering Manager Oh was in charge of big-time streamers like Bubblegum. Ju-Hyeok bowed to him, "Thank you for taking care of us." "Huh? Oh no. I came here because I wanted to watch him." "Still..." "Hoho, this guy. Anyways, Almond is doing pretty good! Did you expect this?" Ju-Hyeok nodded with a smile, "He''s got a loose screw." Manager Ohughed at Ju-Hyeok¡¯s gesture of putting a screw through his head. "He would''ve blown up if he continued as an athlete. He has what it takes to be a star." "Ah... haha. Yes, most likely." "Ah, right. I''ll be careful about what I say regarding that," Manager Oh quickly apologized as if he stepped on andmine. "Thank you for your consideration." "No, of course. It''s a given." Ju-Hyeok was busy asking everyone to keep quiet about Almond''s past. Thankfully, most of the interview questions regarding Almond¡¯s past were taken out due to his efforts. Manager Oh was fully aware of the situation and stayed to make sure nothing leaked. He approached the staff and talked to the man wearing sunsses. "How is he, Director?" This man was the director of the show. "How is he? First, you have to tell me where you found a guy like that," the director responded with a smile. They seemed close judging from how they casually spoke to each other. "Haha, right. He just rolled in." "It must be your senior luck." "Senior? I''m middle-aged!" "Are you an elf?" ¡°Wahahaha!¡±?Manager Ohughed in his own unique way. "But there is one small issue. Isn''t he too secretive?" "Secretive?" "Yeah, all the questions about his past were taken out. There''s nothing to gain from the interview." "Ah." "Being secretive worked back in the days, but not now. It''s all about being open and truthful these days,ughing it off, and letting people make fun of you. Celebrities have to act like a yground for the people." The director seemed fully aware of the current trends despite his age. "That''s true, but we had no choice since this was a personal request." "Hoo..." "Ah, besides, the interview isn¡¯t the main event for that fellow." "Then what... the physical test?" "Yep, we''re trying to see if he was legitimately ced into tinum III or not. At least find out if he deserved it." "Pssh. The test is no fun. The stats already say so." Sang-Hyeon and Yu Ha-Yeon finished their interview as the director was mumbling. Sang-Hyeon entered the capsule for the tests. "Well, maybe they have something exciting prepared this time." The director had an excited smile on his face. *** Woong. Sang-Hyeon and Ha-Yeon''s avatars appeared in Fantasia''s virtual space. ''Theyout sure is different.''?Sang-Hyeon thought to himself as he felt his hands. There seemed to be more viewers than his interview judging from the chat. ¡ª Oh shit, is it starting? ¡ª Time for judgment. ¡ª Holy shit, I''ve been waiting for this! ¡ª Just in time! ¡ª I''m so excited for Almond''s physical test! [Current Viewers: 38k] The viewership continued to rise and they reached around 40,000 viewers. They have already surpassed Fantasia''s average viewer count. Now, the first test would start. "Alright, Almond. You''re most confident with the bow, right?" "Yes." They specifically prepared this test with the bow for Sang-Hyeon. "So we got it ready for you! Ta-da!" Swoosh¡ª? The virtual surroundings changed and the square area turned into a bright green setting. A light breeze blew across the vast green field and a colored target stood at the end. An Olympic archery field suddenly appeared. It looked all too real. No one noticed Almond''s right arm trembling. Chapter 67: Breakdown and Analysis (2)

    Chapter 67: Breakdown and Analysis (2)

    "Everyone! Isn''t our country famous for its archery? What better than Olympic archery to represent bow skills!" ¡ª Wow. ¡ª Is this an actual archery arena? Wow. ¡ª Is this virtual reality? ¡ª This looks so real! ¡ª That''s crazy. ¡ª This is Fantasia... ¡ª Isn''t this archery way too realistic? LOL. The realistic virtual reproduction surprised the audience. Yu Ha-Yeon fueled the excitement, "Yes! Almond is famous for using the bow. However, there''s a question that gamers often get asked, especially virtual reality gamers. Can you shoot guns or arrows as good as Olympic athletes?!" ¡ª Olympic yers are on another level... ¡ª Real pros would crush him. ¡ª What can a gamer do? ¡ª For real. ¡ª But yeah, that does get asked a lot. ¡ª Even if it''s virtual reality... "That''s why Fantasia used their technology to develop a hyper-realistic archery arena, so we can actually test his skills!" ¡ª But it''s still a virtual reality, right? ¡ª It does seem quite realistic though. ¡ª No way. ¡ª Yeah, it''s still not real. ¡ª Is it really real? LOL. "Yes! We thought you would ask that. This is a perfect replica of the real Olympic arena that professional archers practice on. It''s just not open to the public yet. We have interview videos too!" A video came on and showed different Olympic athletes giving an interview. ''It does seem real...'' Sang-Hyeon fumbled with his hands while watching the video. It felt different from the virtual reality he was used to. ''They never told me they had something like this.'' Sang-Hyeon''s thoughts grewplicated. He looked back toward the staff for Ju-Hyeok to send him some sort of signal, but only saw the arena¡¯s wall. He was in virtual reality now. ''It really is indistinguishable.'' He briefly thought it was reality. That had never happened to him before. It always felt like he entered a high-quality video game every time he dove into virtual reality. He never confused it with reality. However, this felt different. The texture of the grass, the scent of the wind, and the slight movements of his body felt all too real. This ce wasn''t an environment made to y video games. It was meant to recreate a setting as realistic as possible. "Almond?" Yu Ha-Yeon called him as he nkly stared into space. "Ah, yes." "Please choose a bow from here." "Alright." Almond turned around without much thought and became astonished. ''What the?'' Was it necessary to be this urate? The uracy of everything surprised him. The brands of the bows he used as a professional were all lined up. He could even modify the attachments separately. ''WIAWIS, WIN&WIN, YAMAHA...'' Sang-Hyeon liked to use these brands in the past. However, they had changed over time from the exact models he used back then. ''It must be the newer models.'' He found a bow that felt familiar to what he was used to. It was likely the newer model judging from its name. His hands shook as he held the bow. It wasn''t due to his injury since this was virtual reality. His heart was pounding. ''It''spletely different from the Olympic game I yed at the capsule cafe.'' Sang-Hyeon couldn''t hold back from shaking after touching a real bow again. The previous Olympic game felt like a video game. It had no weight and didn¡¯t factor in slight movements, which made him initially hesitant to shoot. This was different. "Ooh.?Are you going to use that bow?" "Yes, it feels familiar for some reason." It felt real. Sang-Hyeon was especially sensitive, so he noticed the slight discrepancies. However, this was the most lifelike virtual reality he had ever felt. It felt around 95% urate whenpared to the real thing. The stabilizer on the bow and the grip felt slightly off, but an amateur wouldn¡¯t notice. ''A real bow... this is actual archery.'' It was all real. He was holding a real bow and doing real archery. Nothing else mattered from that moment on. He didn¡¯t care about the stream, how many viewers were watching, or that he had to prove he was tinum. "It''s your first time shooting a professional bow, right?" Yu Ha-Yeon''s question brushed past him. Sang-Hyeon didn''t reply because he would answer with his following action. Creak¡­? He drew the bowstring without a word. He naturally drew it as if he had used it that morning despite not having held a bow in over ten years. *** As Almond drew the bowstring¡­ "..." Yu Ha-Yeon''s jaws dropped. She forgot that her job was to say something and became speechless. She just stood there and stared at Sang-Hyeon with her jaws dropped. ''What... is that?'' Even she found her thought baffling from just watching him draw the bowstring. However¡­ that triangr space¡­ She thought she would be sucked into the triangle formed from the bowstring and bow. Everything around Almond was being sucked in as soon as he pulled the bowstring. Watching Sang-Hyeon''s full draw stance felt like that. Creak¡­? The fully drawn bow made a tense noise. Ting... s, the string rested on his lips. This was called holding. It was thest step before the release. The arrow would fly once he released the tense string. ''It should hit the center.'' Yu Ha-Yeon thought to herself that the arrow would definitely hit the center. It felt as if the future had already been written. She and anyone else could tell that the center of the target would be pierced straight through. Yu Ha-Yeon shook as she held the mic. ¡ª Why is Yu Ha-Yeon so quiet? LOL ¡ª Noona! What are you doing? ¡ª Wow, look at his pose. Is he really a pro? ¡ª So cool... The viewers watching from behind a screen couldn''t urately feel the magnitude. She almost felt upset that no one else could feel this atmosphere. ''I can''t breathe.'' This airtight atmosphere. Almond''s deadly concentration. Then¡­ "...!" Swoosh! The sound of the air ripping could be heard. Sang-Hyeon released the string without a single imperfection. Releasing like a ghost was his specialty. That was when Yu Ha-Yeon thought to herself again, ''Ah, it''s a hit.'' It didn¡¯te as a surprise at all. Thwack! The arrow perfectlynded at the center of the target. It almost felt baffling how everything went ording to n. She and the others thought the same. ¡ª Damn. ¡ª Wow. ¡ª But is this really like actual archery? It''s just normal Almond. ¡ª Yeah, he shoots just like he does in the games. ¡ª Hahaha, he''s pretty good. ¡ª Kya. ¡ª Shoots it so easily. ¡ª I didn''t even know he shot it. ¡ª Wow, something feels different. ¡ª So sexy! ¡ª Kya! The result was obvious to Almond''s viewers who already watched his montages. Yu Ha-Yeon also watched the montages of him performing all sorts of feats and urately shooting down his opponents. Actual archery was supposed to be much more boringpared to that. It was supposed to be¡­ ''Not at all...'' Yu Ha-Yeon felt certain of it. She was sure anyone else who watched would agree. "Hm. It shoots well." Yu Ha-Yeon couldn''t quite understand his words because of that, "Sorry?" "I did a practice shot and it feels quite realistic." "Ah..." Yu Ha-Yeon nkly stared for a second. ''That was a practice shot?'' Of course, he shot one for practice. She should''ve known that, but the thought didn''t cross her mind. ''It felt real.'' The setting Fantasia created for Almond and his archery felt all too real. Did it matter if that was a practice shot? His shot was real as it got. ¡°Gulp¡ª¡±?Yu Ha-Yeon took a deep breath and clonked herself on the head. ''Pay attention. We''re rolling.''? She suddenly stopped talking on the stream. She had to continue. Yu Ha-Yeon rxed her face and smiled again, "Wow! You''re pretty good!" The stream and her voice returned to normal. ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Yeah! You''re pretty good! ¡ª Ha-Yeon is getting ready to make fun of him again. Haha. ¡ª Almond: a pretty good archer. ¡ª Wasn''t the shot just now insane? Am I the only one who thinks that? The hell? ¡ª He''s more than pretty good! Yu Ha-Yeon finally released her gaze on Almond. She nced at the chat and back at Almond like she was supposed to. "But a practice shot is practice! Now, aren''t you curious what will happen if we count points for real?!" ¡ª I''m curious!! ¡ª Yes, teacher. I''m interested! ¡ª Is this kindergarten? ¡ª I''m curious noona! Yu Ha-Yeon smiled at their reactions and looked back at Almond. "Are you ready..." Before Yu Ha-Yeon could finish her question¡­ Thwack! An arrow struck the center of the target. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Bullseye again! ¡ª Is this really like actual archery? ¡ª It''s just the usual Almond. "Uh..." Almond continued shooting before she could say anything. Pang! The next arrow struck the center again. And the next one. And the next. And the one after that. Paang! Pang!! Paaang!!! He struck the bullseye every time. Thankfully, it was virtual reality. In reality, the arrows would¡¯vended on each other and caused a problem for the stream. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Is this real? ¡ª Damn, can''t he go to the Olympics if he''s this good? ¡ª Wait, is this urate to reality? ¡ª In Korea, someone like this is just a video game streamer! ¡ª Hahahaha wow... ¡ª Damn. ¡ª No way. There are probably some game factors added on. Yu Ha-Yeon instinctively shook her head, "N-No! There''s nothing added on!" She identally spoke in her usual tone instead of her usual professional one. ¡ª LOL What''s with the real voice for a second there? ¡ª Ha-Yeon, you''re so cute. ¡ª Noona! ¡ª Her voice is so cute! Sang-Hyeonnded all ten shots on the bullseye. "All ten points¡­" He achieved a perfect score with all ten points. Not only was it a perfect score¡­ ''The time...'' Every arrow flew within 1.2 seconds. Was it possible to shoot all of them in 12 seconds? That was a question for Olympic gold medalists. ¡®How could a streamer be so good? Why does he seem like a pro more than actual pros? Is it because I don''t know anything?¡¯?She shook her head from the multiple questions popping up in her mind. Yu Ha-Yeon felt that she needed to quickly end the test, "There''s no point in doing this test anymore! We''ll end it here!" Ping¡ª? The virtual archery arena around them fell apart with a sad noise as if it admitted defeat. Chapter 68: Breakdown and Analysis (3)

    Chapter 68: Breakdown and Analysis (3)

    "W-Wait... that''s..." Manager Oh was so impressed that he couldn''t stop pping. "How''s that possible? Wow..." For Koreans, watching archery was a familiar sight around the Olympic season. Thwack! However, everyone felt something was different as they watched every arrow hit the bullseye. ''Genius...'' Ju-Hyeok recalled hearing that Sang-Hyeon was a genius archer. It made sense since he was the youngest winner ever. The youngest winner of a math olympiad would be considered a genius, but how significant was that to ordinary people? Did the news care about them at all? Often, their names would be mentioned a couple of times at best and they would be remembered as witty. Usually, they lose their skills once they be adults. The same went for genius athletes. Their talent would disappear one day and they just became regr athletes. Manager Oh subconsciously categorized Sang-Hyeon with that group. Not because he wanted to be negative, but because anyone who lived long enough would think the same. Experience built up like data. However, Sang-Hyeon had been a miscalction. A variant. Exception. Irregr. He broke the norms. "That''s a real genius." He was a true genius. Manager Oh could hear the directorining about the level of talent. "Ah... Wait, it''s not supposed to go this way. He''s supposed to fumble because it''s too realistic¡­ that''s what we wanted..." "That was the ad strategy?" "Yeah, because this environment systempletely differs from previous virtual spaces! If we want to reinforce that, someone who''s good at video games needs to suck at realistic ones!" "Oh no. What are we going to do? It''s all screwed up." The director shook his head as Manager Oh jokingly refuted him. "Damn. What is this..." However, Manager Oh knew the director well enough and could see it in his eyes. ''It seems he likes it too.'' The director fell for the streamer Almond. He was supposed to assess the entire broadcast, but only focused on Almond. He probably felt excited watching such a genius. "But we''re strangely getting more views... hmm..." The guest ruined the n, but they still seeded. The director brushed back his long hair as he watched Almond and muttered, "After this is over... think about doing some more shoots." Manager Oh replied with a wide smile, "Who says we''ll do that?" *** Only Ju-Hyeok looked elsewhere as everyone focused on Almond. He knew Almond would get all ten points after seeing the first shot, so he thought it would be more efficient to read themunity reactions as the manager. "Let''s see..." He muttered like an old man and scrolled down. [LIVE Almond possessed by a professional archer] [Sure, he can be pretty good at video games, but isn''t this insane? This is real archery against the pros] [That''s what I''m saying] The current reactions went along those lines. [Why are they making someone good at games shoot some arrows?] Ju-Hyeok couldn¡¯t help but agree. Fantasia hadn''t told them about this test ahead of time. ''No wonder you can''t trust TVworks...'' They lucked out this time. ''This is his specialty.'' This test was like a surprise birthday party for Almond. They basically prepared a grand buffet for him. Ju-Hyeok had to use all his muscles to prevent himself from smiling when they revealed the archery arena. Thwack! Almond''s arrowsnded on the target one by one. ''I knew it. Now''s the time.'' Themunity pages slowly reacted to the stream. [What????] [The fuck? You said that''s simr to reality] [Fantasia marketing failure!] [Why is someone good at games also good in reality?] [They wanted to say their virtual reality is realistic! But Almond''s skills are the same! LOL] [Wow... but I heard even the government is discussing this because it''s so realistic. Isn''t he just insane with the bow?] [Everything Fantasia says is a lie] Some viewed this as Fantasia''s marketing failure and others believed Almond just possessed incredible archery skills. Whatever the case, both sides brought a lot of attention and the stream peaked. [Current Viewers: 52k] The number of viewers far surpassed Fantasia''s usual count. Thwack! Thest arrow struck the bullseye and the virtual space fell apart. [Fantasia running away LOL] [What the, is this it?] [Wow, this is Almond''s ss] [How many times is Fantasia getting screwed by Almond] [I bet Almond shorted Fantasia''s stocks] Yu Ha-Yeon quickly tried to cover it up, "Everyone! You know that it was a test for fun, right?" She tried to move on to the next test. Ju-Hyeok quietly giggled, unlike the panicked staff. ''That was nice, Almond.'' Now he just needed to do well on the next test. The next one had nothing to do with the bow and Almond¡¯s skills, but Ju-Hyeok already knew. ''He''ll do well.'' He was aware of Almond''s tutorial score and repeatedly watched the montages. He knew Almond''s skills better than anyone else. In reality, Yu Sang-Hyeon''s talent was his archery skills. However, it was different in video games. He had much more to offer there. "This test is called, Stay Alive!" ¡ª Wooooooah! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Again? This one is good. ¡ª Ooh, Almond is going to do this? ¡ª Isn''t this what JeonJaPa did a long time ago? ¡ª Wow...? *** Stay Alive! That was the name of the next test. They had notified Sang-Hyeon ahead of time for this one. ''Is this the test JeonJaPa set a record for?'' Sang-Hyeon looked around the new virtual space. It was an empty training field with weapons around him. ''I wanted to shoot more. Darn.'' He felt a bit sad that the archery arena disappeared. Nevertheless, he began assessing the surroundings since this next test was more important. He could see strange cannon-like objects far away. Not only on the ground, but in the air as well. Most likely, knives and axes would shoot out from the cannons. Many other traps existed besides that with their own patterns, sound effects, and color changes. The categories were all different, but the attacks wouldbine into a storm. His task was to stay alive as long as possible while dodging them. "Almond! How is it? Can you feel that the realistic setting is over now?" Yu Ha-Yeon asked him about the advertisement. It wasn''t a meaningless question. Sang-Hyeon stared at his right hand and thought, ''It really feels like a video game now.'' The realistic feeling from earlierpletely disappeared. It returned to the usual capsule gaming quality. He could clearly feel the difference, which could be considered worse. "Yes, this just feels like a gamepared to earlier." "Right? The cartoons we watched as kids look so foolish now, right? That''s what you feel when you experience Fantasia''s hyper-real virtual space!" The audienceshed out because of her ad-like tone. ¡ª What the, you fooled us! This is an ad! ¡ª Poor noona... ¡ª LOL! Ad, I¡¯m out! ¡ª Just turn on an ad break Fantasia! ¡ª But it seems legit from Almond''s face. ¡ª You can tell from the graphics that it''s different. "Alright, a difference is a difference. The notorious test, Stay Alive, will soon begin. Do you have any words for us?" Almond thought for a moment after she handed him the mic. He was deciding if he should speak truthfully or not. "Should I speak honestly?" "Of course!" "I think it''ll be easy." "!?" Yu Ha-Yeon''s surprised expression was followed byughter in the chat. ¡ª LOL ¡ª As expected of Almond. ¡ª King of aggro. ¡ª Rank 1 confidence! ¡ª This is Almond! People would usually say, ''I''ll try my best!''?Especially after JeonJaPa, the default was, ''I''m not as good as JeonJaPa, but I''ll try my best!''? An unexpected answer like this got the viewers'' blood pumping. Yu Ha-Yeon licked her dry lips and questioned him further, "Do you know about this test?" "Yes, of course... you guys told me to watch it ahead of time." ¡ª Yu Ha-Yeon: You''re not supposed to say that! ¡ª LOOL ¡ª Stream fail! ¡ª Urk! ¡ª Did you look down on us? Fantasia! ¡ª Almond is intentionally screwing you, Ha-Yeon! Yu Ha-Yeon had an embarrassed look on her face. "Ahahaha!" She burst intoughter to move on. "Then Almond, did you watch JeonJaPa''s video as well?" "Yes." "And you''re saying it looks easy after watching that?" ¡ª She''s cornering him haha. ¡ª Yu Ha-Yeon is baiting him. ¡ª Fishing him! ¡ª Fishing king, Yu Ha-Yeon. ¡ª What Yu Ha-Yeon wants to hear: JeonJaPa is nothing! ¡ª A TV genius. ¡ª Those two fighting is more fun to watch than the tests haha. ¡ª TV genius vs. Archery genius Yu Ha-Yeon nervously asked the question. Challenging JeonJaPa was a nervous feat. Would he really say it? She thought Sang-Hyeon would back out for sure. But? "Yes, I think I''ll get a higher score." Du-dum! She could almost hear a sound effect. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª King of trash talk. ¡ª Shit! He really said it! ¡ª Wow... ¡ª ??? I can beat the nobody who only ced into Gold I. ¡ª Damn... ¡ª Yu Ha-Yeon is panicking! ¡ª He gave such a straight answer that she''s taken aback haha. ¡ª He took the bait! ¡ª The fish is confident! "Wow... that is some incredible confidence! Then I''ll start the test! Stay Alive, test, ON!!!" Chaak. Yu Ha-Yeon''s avatar floated away as all the lights turned off. Only Almond''s avatar remained. The only thing that could be seen in the darkness was this phrase: [The test will begin in 5 seconds.] [5] [4] [3] [2] [1] sh! After the lights turned back on¡­ Swoosh¡ª? An axe flew at Almond from far away. Chapter 69: Just a Dream (1)

    Chapter 69: Just a Dream (1)

    m! The sharp axe split open the floor that Almond stood on. "Woah..." He quickly dodged to the side and seemed rxed even after the fast attack. Almond muttered to himself like when he streamed, "A little rude to start as soon as the lights turned on." Swoosh! A long spear flew toward him in an attempt to break his confidence. "Urk!" Fwip¡ª? Almond threw his body to the side and dodged it. m! The spear also split the ground andnded next to the axe. It didn¡¯t end there. Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh! Multiple des flew toward him at the same time. "...!" Almond froze for a moment. ''Where''s the blind spot?'' The projectiles flew together, but a blind spot always existed. The video showing JeonJaPa''s gamey always had an opening like any video game. ''Over there.'' Chak¡ª? Sang-Hyeon discovered the blind spot and threw himself toward it. He rolled to the spot. Kaang! The des sparked as they collided in mid-air. He sessfully dodged them and a burst ofughter could be heard above him. ¡°Wow! As expected from Almond, you''re not backing down easily!¡± A voice loudly echoed. Yu Ha-Yeon became so huge that she looked down at the stadium. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Yu Ha-Yeon, so mean! ¡ª So suddenly? Without a word?! ¡ª As expected, stay alive! ¡ª She''s so big... and beautiful! ¡ª LOL ¡ª So cute. ¡ª So big! ¡ª What''s JeonJaPa''s record? ¡ª JeonJaPa''s record? ¡°Many people are asking for JeonJaPa''s score... Here!¡± m! The giant Yu Ha-Yeon lifted a sign that read: [30 minutes 39 seconds] JeonJaPa had survived for an impressive thirty minutes. It felt insane even after seeing his time again. To dodge flying things like that for thirty minutes? ¡ª Damn. ¡ª Hoho. ¡°How is it? Isn''t it crazy? Sorry Almond, but JeonJaPa''s score is out of reach, right?¡± Almond busily dodged the weapons flying at him as Yu Ha-Yeon provoked him. He lightly moved on his feet. Thump! Thump! The weapons didn''t even brush past Almond as they shattered the floor around him. ¡°Wow... you sure are different! 71% of users would''ve been knocked out already.¡± Almond felt surprised that 71% of users would already be knocked out. ''From this?'' He couldn''t fathom yers being knocked out from just this. This was nothingpared to what he watched in the videos. As expected¡­ ¡°Alright, the easy part is over now!¡± It seemed like a new wave would begin. ¡ª Ezpz ¡ª LOL ¡ª Just the easy part?! ¡ª Kumph ¡ª Poor Almond... ¡ª Noooo ¡ª ??? Noona!! I''m really going to die!!! ¡°It¡¯s the real test now! Phase two! Let''s go!¡± *** After Yu Ha-Yeon shouted¡­ Kukukukung!!! The floor Almond stood on began to rumble. The shattered square floor fell apart due to all the attacks and an empty void was revealed underneath. A yer would inevitably die if they fell down. ¡ª Woah, the floor ising apart! ¡ª Nooo! ¡ª Don''t die, Almond!!! ¡ª Wow, that''s crazy. ¡ª Oh, it''s different from when JeonJaPa yed. This hadn¡¯t been in JeonJaPa''s gamey video. They added a variation so yers couldn''t memorize the patterns. ¡ª How is he supposed to suddenly dodge them? ¡ª Oh shit, the floor ising apart! ¡ª Is there a rule? ¡ª Damn! It looked like some tiles suddenly disappeared, but this was also a hint. ''There''s a small warning.'' Only the tiles struck by weapons disappeared. Secondly, the tiles slightly rumbled before disappearing like a controller vibrating. ¡°Let''s do it for real!¡± Yu Ha-Yeon''s bright voice rang out after some tiles fell into the void. Brrr... ''It''sing!'' Almond quickly dodged after feeling the vibrations. m! m! The tile Almond stood on remained even as others chaotically fell apart. ¡ª Wow, did he memorize it from somewhere? ¡ª How is he doing that? ¡ª Memorize from where? This didn''t even exist when JeonJaPa yed it. The audience grew suspicious because he kept perfectly dodging onto tiles that didn''t fall. Yu Ha-Yeon quickly chimed in, "He didn''t memorize anything! We didn¡¯t give him any information before the test at all! Anyways, Almond is amazing! He''s dodging everything! He''s like a movie character on a bridge that''s falling apart!!!" ¡ª Lmao, theparison. ¡ª LOL ¡ª For real. ¡ª The main character never dies! Yu Ha-Yeon exaggerated a bit, but she wasn''t wrong. Brrrrr! Almond easily found and hopped to the normal tiles even as several fell apart in waves. He didn¡¯t show a hint of panic on his face. Rather, Almond seemed bored as the floor beneath him fell apart. ¡ª Damn. ¡ª Wow, he''s so rxed. ¡ª Bubblegum would¡¯ve already died five times. ¡ª I''d be screaming if it were me.? Five minutes passed like that. ''The pattern changed.'' Now the tiles that hadn¡¯t been damaged by weapons also fell apart. Kugugung! He couldn''t predict which tiles would disappear anymore. He had to act solely on the vibrations he felt. Almond''s steps became a little slower. Three more minutes passed. ¡°Amazing! Eight minutes! He''s easily survived for eight minutes! He''s already in the top 11%! Are you sure it''s only been three weeks since you first used a capsule?!¡± At that moment¡­ Swoosh!!! An axe precisely flew toward Almond as he maneuvered around the disappearing tiles. ''It''s starting tobine with the flying weapons.'' Almond sped up to dodge the axe. Kwakwang! The tile fell with a strange noise. ''Now the tiles struck by a weapon will instantly fall.'' Almond quickly realized the new pattern. ''Dodge the weapons, the rumbling tiles, and the tiles struck by weapons.''? He repeated those three rules in his head and learned the projectiles¡¯ patterns while moving around the falling tiles. This wouldn¡¯t be possible in reality, but it was possible thanks to full dive. ¡°Ten minutes have passed! Almond is now in the top 9%!¡± ''It feels disgustingly long.'' He had only reached one-third of JeonJaPa''s thirty minute record. *** Meanwhile, in the engineer''s room that kept track of Almond''s data¡­ "Uh... Sir? Is this the right calction?" one of the assistants asked the engineer. Stay Alive wasn''t a test to measure how long the yer could survive. It was supposed to show a yer¡¯s capabilities in virtual reality by calcting their VNS as they survived various obstacles. However, a problem urred. One of their graphs for the test was off the charts. The engineer felt confused too, "Uh... I''m not sure. That¡¯s really high, but there''s nothing wrong with the machine." The graph disyed the yer¡¯s level of concentration and was almost maxed out on the screen. The engineer began rubbing his chin. ''Everything else should be high as well if that¡¯s high.'' Concentration controlled everything in the world of full dive. A yer¡¯s physical abilities would also be high if they possessed a high concentration. Most skills and abilities in virtual reality could be measured from this. Of course, concentration wasn''t everything. Other minor factors mattered as well. ''If it''s like that, the VNS should be over 250.'' He calcted a rough number in his head, but it didn''t make sense. He had only seen a number like that for one other person. ''He''s on the same level as JeonJaPa?'' The country''s number one virtual gamer, JeonJaPa. Not only was he the best in the country, but he also dominated the world. JeonJaPa¡¯s charts matched what the engineer was currently seeing. The assistant asked again, "Is it possible to have stats so high?" "Hmm... It''s not impossible. JeonJaPa was also like this." "Ah... I-I see." "There''s no way you''d know since you weren''t there. It''s such a rare case, so we don''t even train people on it." The engineer put his face right up to the game screen. "But... I can''t believe I''m seeing this number again. This is interesting." Almond continued dodging the projectiles and falling tiles on the screen. He perfectly dodged them without a single mistake. Dodging well wasn''t strange because most pro gamers could survive up to this point. However, something else was different. Almond disyed another level of confidence. The way he dodged seemed much smoother. ''Interesting.'' The engineer became fascinated at how smoothly Almond could move. Almond didn¡¯t have any excess movements and he evaded as if he knew the projectile''s trajectory. No other tester made the engineer feel this way except JeonJaPa. It felt incredible to watch Almond¡¯s gamey up close. ''Will he really be JeonJaPa¡¯s sessor?''? It wasn''t unusual for another genius to appear since JeonJaPa existed. However, being good at this test didn''t qualify them as a genius just like someone with a high IQ couldn¡¯t automatically be called a genius. "But isn''t that person 29 years old?" He was 29 and turning 30 soon. How was a man close to 30 showing this level of concentration? JeonJaPa had been 23 years old when he took this test. He was already a pro gamer and in his prime, but someone who just started ying was showing these numbers? It didn''t make sense. What did this guy do in the past? "Yes, he''s 30. Is that possible?" "Hm. Well, it''s happening in front of our eyes right now." He didn''t want to admit it, but he couldn''t deny what he was seeing as an engineer. What was happening was real. It was part of the statistics. Then he had to find a reason. How or why was it possible? That was his job. The engineer faced a predicament. He muttered something after a while and reached an epiphany, "Image training." "Sorry?" "It''s possible if he repeatedly did image training." The assistant seemed confused. Image training? Of course, image training helped out in full dive. However... "No way..." Image training wasn''t significant enough to influence performance to this extent. If that were true, every pro gamer would practice image training. "Let me finish. Ten years." "Sorry?!" "You would have to image train for at least ten years if you want to achieve that reaction speed in full dive. It''s a simple calction." "Ten years?!" "Yeah, every single day without missing one¡­ at the same time, the same routine, every day. You almost have to dream about it as well. Then, it would be possible in theory¡­ to achieve that level of concentration." Of course, the engineer knew best that it wasn''t possible. Full dive hadn¡¯t even been released for ten years. Only eight years had passed since full dive became public. No one could possibly have trained for full dive two years before its release. Even if they could, why would they? Almond used to be a sryman in a bigpany. Why would he do image training every day for ten years? Not only that, it would have to be a very specific and challenging type of image training. Training at the highest level every day for ten years? An average person''s will couldn''t handle that. It was beyond the normal spectrum. It was close to insanity. One would rather just move their body instead of image training to that extent. ''Why?'' Why would Almond do such a thing? To do well in virtual reality? If so, then that answered the question of why he only did image training. "No way! Who does that! Maybe their brain works differently from birth. Maybe they''re a genius!" "Hmm... That''s possible, but..." "But?" "That''s not a very fun answer. He''s like that from birth. From the beginning. The brain is like that. It''s illogical." "Ah... Right." Meanwhile¡­ "Ooh... 15 minutes have passed." Almond had already reached halfway towards JeonJaPa''s record and his eyes were still full of confidence. Chapter 70: Just a Dream (2)

    Chapter 70: Just a Dream (2)

    "Almond has currently survived for up to 15 minutes and counting! He''s now in the top 1.2%!!!" ¡ª 15 minutes is top 1.2%? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Wow man¡­? ¡ª What kind of monster was JeonJaPa? ¡ª I heard the difference between 1st and 2nd is like 7 minutes. ¡ª Hyung, you''re killing me! Yu Ha-Yeon shouted along with the excited viewers and the chat became dizzying to look at. [Current Viewers: 67k] They also reached an impressive number of viewers. Swoosh!!! Chaak! The number of weapons hurling at Almond increased. Axes, des, spears, maces, and other dangerous weapons like chainsaws flew at him from different angles. Their movements became more unpredictable, especially the chainsaw that continued to rumble even afternding on the floor. It almost struck Almond. ''The things they made...'' An opening always existed, no matter how small. The chainsaw didn''t fall immediately when it struck the tile. Almond noticed this strange pattern and took advantage of it to survive. "Alright, we''re moving on to phase three since ten minutes have passed!" Gulp. Even Almond couldn''t help but feel nervous after hearing that because the first pattern was always the hardest. ''I wonder what it¡¯ll be.''? Phase one consisted of weapons flying at him and the tiles began to fall in phase 2. Then theybined. Phase three would likely introduce a new pattern that would also join the rest. ''I need to learn the pattern before it gets incorporated.'' He got a brief moment to catch his breath and prepared himself to quickly learn the new pattern that would be introduced. [Phase 3] Ding.? The words appeared in the air. ''What the!?'' Just then, he felt a chill down his spine. His instincts kicked in and Almond didn¡¯t even look back. He threw himself to the side. Bzzzzzzt!!! Lightning crashed down and burnt the tile he was just standing on. ¡ª What the! ¡ª Do you have to dodge that lightning? ¡ª How the heck did he dodge that? ¡ª How did you do that, you bastard! ¡ª Actually though, how did he dodge the first strike? ¡ª Can he see the future? The viewers couldn''t understand how Almond dodged the lightning because they couldn''t feel the static. "There''s like a slight static. The tile rumbles too." ¡ª ??? He''s still reading the chat! ¡ª Wow ¡ª A true streamer, Almond! ¡ª Damn, I''m getting chills. Keeng¡ª? The strange sound of grinding metal could be heard. He looked around and knew a weapon wasing toward him, but couldn''t find it. ''Below!'' Paat! Almond barely lifted his feet in time to dodge the thorns that came from below. ¡ª Holy shit! ¡ª Wow, there really is some kind of warning. ¡ª You can hear some kind of sound. "Yeah, like... this!" Kang! Almond continued to talk as he busily jumped around to dodge the thorns that popped up. "It lets you know ahead of time and makes it easier than looking for it. Feels like Fantasia''s little trick." ¡ª Why so suddenly? ¡ª Suddenly attacking Fantasia LOL ¡ª Hahahaha! ¡ª LMAO! ¡ª Damn, you got''em! ¡ª You''re the first one to read the chat while doing this. You deserve all the praise.? A loud noise indicated the start of phase three as if Almond angered the system. Kwakwakwakwang! The noise almost shattered his eardrums. ¡ª Kya! The warning should be at least this loud! ¡ª What? You can tell beforehand? Then how''s this! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Such a dumb pattern. The loud noise wasn''t a bluff as countless weapons flew toward Almond. Keeng! Kang! All sorts of traps littered the floor along with the projectiles. The thorns and lightning were a given, but there were also falling metal bars, burning tiles, and tiles that propelled him into the air when he stepped on them. Countless variations of obstacles got in his way, especially the tile that made him jump higher because it had no warnings. "Huh?" A particr tile instantly activated when he stepped on it. Everything below grew smaller as he flew into the air. ¡ª Woah, that looks so fun! ¡ª Damn! ¡ª He''s flying! ¡ª He has to dodge in the air??? ¡ª That''s insane! ¡ª Hyung, it''s been 18 mins! Only 13 more to get first! ¡ª That looks so fun! ¡ª Good game. It looked like fun. Any viewer would naturally think that. Even Almond had to admit the jumping tile felt fun. ''It''d be funner if those weapons weren''t flying at me.'' He had to dodge all those weapons in mid-air, which took away all the fun. ¡°He''s in the air! What should he do!? He can''t freely move anymore!¡± The look in Almond¡¯s eyes turned serious. He didn¡¯te here to have fun. He came to prove that he deserved tinum! ¡ª How''s he supposed to dodge that? ¡ª So this is why no one gets past 15 minutes. ¡ª It''sing! A battleaxe flew toward him first. Swoosh! Swoosh! It flew at an angle that made it rtively easy to dodge. "Hmph!" Dodging it in mid-air should still be reasonable. Almond bent his body as best he could. ''Huh?'' Was it too much in mid-air? He couldn¡¯t properly control his body and felt ufortable for the first time in full-dive. Still, he tried his best to bend over and twist his body. He couldn''t tell if he was moving left or right, but he could dodge the axe if he just moved slightly. Chak! As expected, the axe brushed past his hair and flew by him. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Damn! ¡ª He dodged it! ¡ª That''s insane! It was too early to celebrate as another one came flying. ¡ª Huh? How''s he supposed to dodge this one!? ¡ª This one is merciless ¡ª Ugh. ¡ª Fantasia, go easy! ¡ª Oh man... Almond could see two giant projectiles beyond the chat. A long spear and a sword came towards him at a fierce speed from different directions. He had beenunched so high in the air that he''d have to dodge them beforending. ¡ª Dodging both seems a bit much. ¡ª Isn''t this checkmate? ¡ª Unfair! ¡ª Do you still live if you get hit? What are you supposed to do? Swoosh!!! At that moment, therge sword almost struck Almond''s chin. Almond willed his body to tilt in limbo. Shak... It slightly scratched the tip of his nose. The simted blood sshed beneath his eye. ¡ª Woooah! ¡ª Shit! ¡ª He dodged it!? ¡ª What about the other one? Next, a spear came flying straight at him. The first one had been dodgeable, but this one flew to where he had just dodged. Even Almond couldn''t see a way out of this, but he saw something else. Almond struck the sword''s handle with his arm as it flew across him. Tak¡ª? ¡ª !?!? ¡ª Ho¡­? ¡ª Huh? ¡°Ohhh! A-Almond!! The sword handle???¡± It happened so quickly that Yu Ha-Yeon couldn''t finish her sentence. In that instant, Almond''s arm perfectly circled around and gripped the sword. Kaaaaaang!!! The sword and spear collided with a loud sh and a spark. ¡ª ??? ¡ª !!! ¡ª Damn ¡ª Ho...!? He caught the de in mid-air and deflected the spear flying toward him. Instead of dodging, Almond used the weapons in his favor. Tak. Almond could hear someone shouting after hended on the ground again. ¡°H-He deflected it!!!¡± Yu Ha-Yeon excitedly shouted. ¡°He caught the de in mid-air and deflected the spear! Wow!! Incredible! I can''t believe it even after seeing it with my eyes!¡± The chat exploded as well. ¡ª DAAAAMN ¡ª Boss, now I''m scared! ¡ª Wowowowow ¡ª Hooooly! Mooooly! ¡ª Mom, I wanna be Almond! I wanna be Almond! I wanna be Almond! I wanna be Almond! ¡ª Look at me Almond! Look at me Almond! Look at me Almond! Look at me Almond! Look at me Almond! ¡ª Woah, woah! You''re crazy, Almond! ¡ª You''re too good Almond! Too good! Too good! *** "What does that mean?" Ju-Hyeok asked the engineer. "I''m curious how he did his image training. I think it''ll help with the overall research..." The engineer told Ju-Hyeok about Almond¡¯s image training, but Ju-Hyeok only heard about this for the first time. "He doesn''t do image training." "Huh?" "He doesn''t do that. He said in the interview earlier that he was just a normal sryman." "..." The engineer became speechless. ''His brain is just like that?'' By his standards, only the boring conclusion remained. What scientist would conclude that God made Almond that way? Ju-Hyeok was full of suspicion and asked the engineer, "Why are you asking that?" "My overall research and calctions say these statistics are impossible to reach unless he¡¯s done image training. The theory isn''t baseless..." Ju-Hyeok listened to the engineer¡¯s exnation, who hypothesized that Sang-Hyeon had done image training for over ten years. Not just any training, but extreme training that would exhaust anyone. With all his effort, Sang-Hyeon would''ve repeated very specific image training. "No one would usually do that because they would just physically train at that point..." Everything finally made sense to Ju-Hyeok after he heard that exnation. ''Ah.'' He knew what kind of image training the engineer was talking about now. "I think he was training for something in reality, so we''re just curious what his special training methods were..." Ju-Hyeok finally realized how Sang-Hyeon shot so naturally the first time he yed in a capsule and why he cried so much afterward. Now he also understood how Sang-Hyeon could concentrate so much in virtual reality. The puzzle pieces started toe together. ''He was... dreaming.'' Sang-Hyeon did image training in his dreams. He always dreamed and desperately hoped. He never let go of his desire for archery. He dreamt about it for over ten years in the only reality he had where his right arm still worked. This created the current Almond who was unstoppable in the virtual world. It wasn''t because god blessed him with luck. His own downfall made him into who he was today. Almond was the small diamond that formed in the pits of darkness. "A-Are you okay?" the engineer asked Ju-Hyeok in confusion. Ju-Hyeok''s sleeves became wet as he wiped his eyes. "Ah... It''s..." Ju-Hyeok was about to make up an excuse when¡­ ¡°It has now been 30 minutes! JeonJaPa''s record is in front of him!!! Will history be rewritten today!?¡± All eyes were glued to the screen. Thankfully, Ju-Hyeok could wipe away his tears without any embarrassment. ''What are you, Sang-Hyeon?'' Ju-Hyeok purposefully frowned and turned to the screen. "He doesn''t do any image training. He''s just a genius." "Ah... Alright." Chapter 71: Just a Dream (3)

    Chapter 71: Just a Dream (3)

    ¡°30 minutes!!! He''s surpassed 30 minutes! 39 seconds left until JeonJaPa''s record!!!¡± All the staff turned around after Yu Ha-Yeon shouted. ''No way...'' ''Really?'' ''He made it this far?'' No one expected Almond to surpass JeonJaPa''s record. No one imagined it because how could someone who just began capsule gaming surpass JeonJaPa? No matter how much of a genius he was, JeonJaPa was a genius among geniuses. It was hard to imagine another genius like that existed. No one doubted JeonJaPa''s skills. He had a solid foundation whether weeds or dirt covered the surface. A foundation no mortal could dig through. However, thirty minutes passed and everyone slowly realized that the foundation was a smooth, icy surface that could shatter anytime. *** Swoosh! Crack! Almond dodged the weapons,sers, and res appearing from the floor with godly instincts. ¡°15 seconds left until JeonJaPa''s record is broken!!!¡± Only fifteen seconds remained. Almond deflected the weapons with the shield he grabbed earlier. "S-Sir! The synchronization! The synchronization level is abnormal!!!" the engineer''s assistant shouted and quickly ran over. "What?" "The synchronization level is 97%!!" "That''s not possible..." The engineer stopped mid-sentence. The synchronization level would be high if the concentration level was also high. However, there was a limit. A person couldn''t haveplete control if their mind was inside a virtual body. At best, it would be 85%. Even that would be a dangerous number. That''s right, a dangerous number. The virtual avatar and yer would slowly, but fully synchronize if the number rose above that. They would be one. That was dangerous even in theory and experiments predicted so. It was currently illegal to allow that to happen. Capsules were programmed to automatically disconnect the yer once they reached that limit. "But why isn¡¯t he disconnecting?" "B-Because this is a test version, so the limit wasn''t set..." "Oh fuck... right!" This was a broadcasting ident. They used a new prototype capsule to test Stay Alive because they wanted to promote it. ¡°Only 7 seconds remaining! It''s in front of our eyes! Will history be rewritten today!?¡± *** Almond could hear Yu Ha-Yeon''s excited shouting through all the noise. Crack! Bzzt! Swoosh! m! Various attacks targeted Almond non-stop. Kaang! He deflected a mace with the shield. Whip. Even after deflecting the mace, the chain attached to it tried to wrap around Almond like a python. Almond threw away the shield. Whip. The shield flew away with the mace wrapped around it. He used it as a sacrifice instead of himself. Almond already went through a couple of shields like this and looked for another one. Swoosh! He dodged the greatsword flying at him. BOOM!!! Then a cannonball flew towards him. He dodged that as well. ¡°5 seconds remaining! Before the record is broken!¡± Swoosh! This time, fiverge spears flew at him simultaneously and he had nowhere to dodge. The tile beneath him glowed red, which meantva would shoot up from beneath and melt everything. Almond quickly moved. He felt a heat wave against his cheeks as theva shot up from where he previously stood. Swoosh! Now he had to dodge the spears. He forced himself through an opening in the first three. Chiik... They brushed past his clothing and ripped it. He didn''t care because his body was already full of scratches. Almond clenched his teeth and struck his hand out. ¡°Three seconds remaining!!!¡± Chuk. He barely grabbed one of the spears. Two more spears flew at him. He had to deflect one and dodge the other. He quickly moved to the next tile while bringing the spear close to his body and spinning it. Tang! He deflected one of the spears and felt the shock in his shoulders. The other onended on the tile he previously stood on. m! The tile disappeared into the void. He took care of the two spears, but had no time to rx. BOOM! Another cannonball flew at him. ¡°Two seconds¡­¡± It would''ve been an easy dodge if he returned to the tile earlier, but that tile had already disappeared. He had to deflect one or two... "!" Just then, Almond suddenly frowned. ¡°1 second!!!¡± ''What the...'' His right hand¡­ his right hand felt numb. KWAAAA! The screen turned white, followed by a noise that sounded like a broken speaker. [GAME OVER] *** "It''s too dangerous! Turn it off! We have to turn it...?huh?" The engineer nkly stared at the monitor midway through his screaming. [GAME OVER] The game had ended. The director grabbed his neck and wiped his sweat as he stared at the monitor. He pushed away the engineer after he came to his senses and shouted. "The record! What happened to the record? Yu Ha-Yeon, why is she not saying anything..." ¡°It''s... tied! It''s a tied score!¡± A soft voice could be heard, notifying everyone of a tied score. "A tie?!" Chiik... Yu Ha-Yeon came out of the capsule. "It''s a tie, down to the second! At least in the score disyed!" Meanwhile, the engineer ran to Almond''s capsule. Ju-Hyeok followed right behind him. "Check the record! Check it!" the engineer shouted and grabbed his assistant. "Ahhh! Alright!" The assistant typed away on his keyboard, caught off guard by his ponytail being grabbed. He calcted the record down to the fourth decimal ce. "No way¡­" "What? Is it another tie?" "Yes¡­" "FUCK! Is it not even 0.000001 seconds quicker?" "Uh, I''ll extend the number." [00:30:31.3959400192......] [00:30:31.3959400192......] The numbers were identical as if it was a glitch. "How is this possible? Is it like pi or something?" The assistant felt confused too. How could this be possible unless the machine malfunctioned? He scratched his head. "Well... for now, what''s happened has happened." He repeated what his mentor taught him. Suddenly, amotion urred at the capsule. "Hey! Yu Sang-Hyeon!!!" "Are you okay!" Ju-Hyeok and the engineer''s voices rang out. Manager Oh also waddled over. "Hey, director! Isn''t there some kind of problem?!" "What are you talking about?! We did a check-up beforehand!" The director ran to Almond as well. *** He felt wet. "Sigh..." He could hear his light breathing through the fog. He was definitely alive. Almond felt reassured to find out he was still alive. Wouldn¡¯t that be obvious? Thest person who died in a capsule was five years ago. "Hey! Hey! Wake up!" Ju-Hyeok shouted at him. "Call the medical team now! Just call them!" "Manager! You can''t shake him like that!" "What the? Sang-Hyeon! What''s going on?! Hey, Director!!!" "N-No! No! We did a pre check-up and everything! This is just..." After that, their shouting began to mix. Manager Oh was angry. Sang-Hyeon¡¯s vision slowly focused again. As the fog cleared, he could see them one by one. They all shouted at each other with red faces. He heard a girl''s bright voice, "It''s the medical team! Please move out of the way!" A wave of people wearing white gowns bulldozed through. The crowd split to clear a path for the ambnce. A shlight shone on his pupils. He could see a woman¡¯s silhouette beyond the white light. Her long, ck hair moved back and forth in front of his hazy vision. It feltforting. "Are you aware everyone is just staring at your back?" He could clearly hear her voice. Sang-Hyeon moved his lips and called out a name, ¡°Han So-Yeon?¡± "Sang-Hyeon? Are you awake?" He finally heard an actual voice. ''Ah...'' It was just his imagination. Of course, why would she be here? He wanted to close his eyes from the light, but the doctor held his eyes open. She turned off the light after checking his dted pupils. "He''s conscious¡­" His vocal cords felt free again and he could finally speak. "!" "Phew!" "Oh my, I was so worried..." A sigh of relief could be heard all over. Sang-Hyeon pulled up his exhausted body. He thought he would feel some muscle pain, but he didn''t because his body had remained still the entire time. After he got up, the first thing he did was look at his right hand. He felt a tingling sensation, followed by the usual trembling. "We''re going to do a medical check. We need to do it now judging from his situation.¡± The nurses and doctors pushed through the crowd, ced Sang-Hyeon on a roller, and carried him away. *** The engineer returned to analyzing the data after the doctors took Sang-Hyeon away. He couldn¡¯t do anything in terms of medical assistance. He could only try to finish his job. ''Even though their times are the same...'' Almond¡¯s time precisely matched JeonJaPa''s record, but that didn''t mean his body analysis would also be the same. ''This data could be different.'' The engineer organized thepleted datasets one by one. A single value came out once he finished calcting them. This was the virtual reality ability number, or VNS, for short. It was like the APM during theputer game days. "...!" The engineer couldn''t take his eyes off this value. ''I knew it!'' Just because their times had been identical didn''t mean every stat would be the same. He couldn''t help but smile. Ziing. He headed to the director after printing the dataset. "Sigh...?So close. We need the record to be different, so it trends. They¡¯re going to me us for faking it if it''s the same score..." There would be no better gift to the director, who felt frustrated with the result. "Director." The engineer handed him the paper. "Hm?" "Look at this. Only their times are the same by coincidence, but look at the analyzed data. This will add some credibility." "Huh? So? What is this?" "It''s the VNS calction." The director wasn''t good with numbers and didn¡¯t seem particrly interested. However, he couldn''t help but be thrilled after seeing the number. "It''s¡­ it''s this high!?" The VNS of an average person was 83. A pro gamer averaged around 97. If one¡¯s VNS surpassed 100, they were deemed to have great potential as a pro gamer. JeonJaPa had an unbelievable score of 291. "Is this real?" "Yes!" Almond had surpassed that. "It''s not a tie for Almond, at least with these calctions." Chapter 72: Record (1)

    Chapter 72: Record (1)

    "There aren¡¯t any problems." Sang-Hyeon finally picked himself up after an hour of assessments. He felt numb from being tied down like a prisoner during their tests. "Thank goodness." ¡°Phew.¡±?Ju-Hyeok sighed in relief. Manager Oh and the director did as well. They already made up after their earlier fight. "Why is everyone here? There''s pretty much no problems." Sang-Hyeon tried to brush it off, but Ju-Hyeok scolded him, "Don''t take it so lightly." "Well, they said there aren¡¯t any problems." As Sang-Hyeon prepared to leave the infirmary¡­ "Uh¡­ Sir?" The doctor grabbed him by the shoulder. "?" "I want to talk to you privately for a moment." Doctorsmonly spoke to their patients in private. The others felt at ease knowing nothing was wrong and didn''t think too much about it. Only Kim Ju-Hyeok and Manager Oh still wore dark expressions because they predicted what the doctor would say. "Sure." Sang-Hyeon followed the doctor. *** Sang-Hyeon and the doctor arrived at the consultation room. "Please sit." They briefly stared at each other in silence. The doctor broke the silence first as she tied up her hair. "You probably have a good idea of what I''m about to say." "Yes." Sang-Hyeon nodded. He went through various tests and modern medicine would inevitably find out. "You have problems with your right arm, correct?" "That''s right." As expected, it was about his right arm. "Do you know that the issue with your right arm isn''t specifically the arm itself?" "Yes," Sang-Hyeon lightly replied. The doctor had a pitiful look on her face. She carefully exined to him, "Sang-Hyeon, the issue with your right arm is caused by your brain. And the capsule is a machine that interferes with the brain. Hmm... Simply put, that''s why youe out so exhausted after every full-dive session." "As expected, that was the reason." He always sweated profusely and felt exhausted every time he finished ying, which resulted in his short ying sessions. Sang-Hyeon suspected it had to do with his handicap, but never wanted to admit it. He just wanted to believe that his right arm wouldn¡¯t cause any other problems. "The phenomenon you¡¯re experiencing now is a type of neurological disorder simr to acquired cerebral palsy." "I''m aware." "You''re lucky it only affects your right arm. There are many cases where half of the body bes paralyzed instead." "Yes¡­" The doctor back then also said he was lucky. ''Lucky...'' Sang-Hyeon didn''t think he was lucky at all. His right hand was the one thing that needed to work whether he lost his vision, hearing, or smell. Instead, it was the only thing permanently affected. He didn''t feel lucky. It seemed like the same handicap would stand in his way again. There must be a problem if the doctor called for him. "Is there some kind of problem?" The doctor shook her head, "Nothing yet. To be precise, we''re not sure. However, there''s always a chance something might ur." "How likely?" "Your right arm moves fine in virtual reality, right?" "Yes." "Have you ever thought about why? It shouldn''t move in there either if it''s a problem with the brain." "Isn''t it because... there''s no problem sending signals from the brain, but because there¡¯s physical damage? That physical damage doesn¡¯t exist in virtual reality..." "No, there would be problems sending signals too if there¡¯s damage to the brain and that would also affect the virtual world. The capsule can make another arm, but it can''t rece the brain." "..." Sang-Hyeon became speechless. He felt confused at first because he learned that his brain had been damaged, but his right arm moved fine in virtual reality. He never gave it much thought after that since it moved fine. What mattered was that he could use the bow again. "Why is that?" "The other parts of your brain are moving your arm for you." "...?" "If your brain was an office, it''s as if a worker from apletely different department was working overtime in ce of a sick co-worker." "Ah..." "It''s only possible because you''re in an environment that operates 100% by the mind. It''s impossible in the real world because of the physical limitations." He understood now. In reality, the part of his brain that controlled his right arm had been damaged. However, other parts of his brain made up for it in virtual reality. "A worker would be even more tired if they worked overtime, right? They¡¯ll eventually burn out. That''s why you sweat so much and feel exhaustedpared to other gamers." "I see." "It''s not a big issue for now, but... we don''t know what will happen in the long run or if you game for a long time." Sang-Hyeon gulped. ''I promised to reach diamond.'' He had just nned to extend his ying time. "Then what should I do? I want to extend my ytime." "This might sound generic, but consistent exercise and healthy eating habits are a must. Other than that, we need to continuously assess and check the data." Did that mean he had to keep visiting the hospital? "Alright." He worried about the hospital fees, but decided to inquire about them. As he prepared to leave with that in mind¡­ Chuk. The doctor passed him something. It was her business card. ''Song Ha-Na.'' It had a casual name written on it despite the weighty title of a doctor. "It''s probably better to get checked up by me. I''m not bragging, but there¡¯s only a handful of us in the country." Ju-Hyeok also mentioned that only a handful of doctors specialized in brain analysis and capsule gamey. It would probably be more expensive though. Sang-Hyeon wondered if he could go to a general hospital instead. "I''ll do it for free." "Sorry?" He couldn''t believe it since a doctor''s time was priceless. "I also want to... experiment..." Song Ha-Na looked away. She seemed embarrassed because she was clinging onto him for other purposes. "Experiment?" "Yes¡­" "Experiment with what?" "What I just told you about different workers. It''s a very rare phenomenon. To be exact, it''s my first time seeing it. It''s not possible in reality." ¡®I see.¡¯ He was a rare case. Sang-Hyeon didn¡¯t know if he should be happy or not. "Isn''t it possible because it''s virtual reality?" "It''s the first time in virtual reality too. My first time witnessing that it''s possible." "And you want to experiment to see if it''s possible in reality?" "Yes, don''t be rmed because of the word experiment. I''ll treat you the same way as other patients. Initially, but we''ll slowly add different experiments." "Alright." "Are you... agreeing?" "Let me talk to my manager first, but there¡¯s something I''m curious about." Sang-Hyeon recalled what he felt at the end of the game earlier. "Ask me anything." "Earlier in the game, I felt my right hand going numb. Just like... in real life." Song Ha-Na''s eyes widened, "Really?" "Why did that happen?" "Hmmm¡­ Well, if we think about it simply, the worker probably got burnt out and called it quits..." As doctors often did, she continued to talk while scribbling down notes. "But that seems too general. I''ll discuss it further with the engineer and contact you about it." "Alright." Sang-Hyeon got up mid-way until he recalled something else. "Ah, one more thing." "?" "No one told me yet, but did I beat JeonJaPa''s record?" "Ah... Apparently, it''s a tie." Sang-Hyeon frowned after hearing that. *** Ju-Hyeok bolted up as Ha-Na and Sang-Hyeon walked out of the consultation room. It seemed like he had been waiting. Ha-Na lightly greeted him and brushed past them. She headed towards the engineer. "Hey, what did she say?" Ju-Hyeok asked Sang-Hyeon and grabbed him. "..." Sang-Hyeon remained silent. "Hey, what''s wrong? Is it bad?" "Yeah." "Really!?" "Sigh... Fuck." "?!" Ju-Hyeok felt surprised to hear Sang-Hyeon swear. What could the doctor have possibly said? "Huh, what''s wrong!? Say something!" "I heard I didn''t beat the record." "...?" "Why do you look confused? I heard from the doctor that the score was tied." "Is that why you''re upset?" "How''s that possible? A tie? Down to the second?" "W-Wait a second. So you''re angry because of the score?" "Aren''t you angry!?" Sang-Hyeon shouted. It was unusual to see him so upset about something. That''s how badly he wanted to beat the record. "I just needed to survive for another 0.000001 seconds! Of course, I''m angry! How is it exactly the same? Is this staged?" "Are you crazy?! Your life was at stake! Who gives a shit about the score?! Just tell me what the doctor said!" "My life? Don''t overreact! Right now, the high score is more important..." Just as they were about to grab each other by the neck¡­ "Uh... Almond?" The youngest staff member called out to Almond with a panicked look. "You, you have toe back now..." "Sorry?" Sang-Hyeon doubted his ears. The stream? Were they still streaming? He looked at Ju-Hyeok and asked, "Is the stream not over yet?" "That''s right." He thought most viewers would have left by now since the medical check took over an hour and a half. To his surprise, they were still on the air. Sang-Hyeok asked the staff, "Are there still viewers left?" "Take a look." The staff took out his phone. [Current Viewers: 71k] Over 70k viewers remained on standby. Sang-Hyeon felt confused rather than happy. "Wait... why?" He couldn''t help but ask. Why did so many people wait that long? He hadn''t even surpassed the record and couldn''t understand from his point of view. "What do you mean why? They''re waiting to see you. The first person who beat JeonJaPa''s record." Ju-Hyeok told him as he tidied up his crumpled shirt. "...?" Sang-Hyeon''s expression began to change. What did Ju-Hyeok mean that he beat the record? "I thought it was the same, down to the milliseconds." "Not that." Chuk. Ju-Hyeok pointed at therge neon sign in the studio. The sign read: [For the first time! Surpassing the VNS wall of 300!] [Record Holder: Almond] "..." Sang-Hyeon became speechless for a moment and Ju-Hyeok sneered. He must be surprised. Who wouldn''t be if they found out they broke the world record? However, Ju-Hyeok heard his next words and made the most puzzled expression. "What is that?" A moment of silence followed. ''Ah... right. He probably has no idea what that is.'' Most gamers knew, but Almond was hardly one yet. Only three weeks had passed since he started. Ju-Hyeok had to remind himself who he was talking to, but what did that matter? This was Almond. "Hurry up and go sit beside that pretty noona. She''ll exin it to you." "Noona? She looks younger than me." "Shut the..." Sang-Hyeon quickly ran away from Ju-Hyeok and headed to the studio. The studio already had everything set up for Sang-Hyeon. Yu Ha-Yeon riled up the viewers after she spotted him, "Everyone! Almond, Almond ising in..." She shouted as if someone incredible like a champion was appearing. Chapter 73: Record (2)

    Chapter 73: Record (2)

    A high VNS score didn''t necessarily equal video game skills just like a high IQ only sometimes resulted in good grades. It was just another statistic used to measure skills. However, the corrtion usually proved to be true. In the past, skilled gamers tended to have a high APM score. Academically sessful students tended to have high IQ scores. Simrly, yers skilled in virtual gaming tended to have high VNS scores. Today, a no-name streamer set a new record for the VNS score. "There¡¯s a new world record for the VNS score right now! It''s unbelievable! Almond is almost on his way. He¡¯s finishing his medical checkup. Just wait a little..." It was understandable why Yu Ha-Yeon was shouting so excitedly. ¡ª Woah, for real? ¡ª I can''t believe I''m watching this LIVE ¡ª Nooo! ¡ª It¡¯s BS af can¡¯t believe this. ¡ª No freaking way. ¡ª What happened to stay alive? ¡ª The record actually broke? No way. ¡ª lolololol ¡ª WTF ¡ª Almond? Never even knew such a yer ever existed. Stop bs-ing.? ¡ª Damn, the chat isgging.? ¡ª A fking noob just beat JJP''s record? Lol [Current Viewers: 76k] Over 75,000 viewers worldwide waited over an hour for a particr yer''s medical check. Who was that yer? Who beat JeonJaPa''s record? The viewers were dying to find out. They were curious how he would react too. "Almond is nowing in!" As Almond walked in, all the cameras turned to him. ¡ª Ha-Yeon is suddenly so polite. LOL ¡ª Now he''s in a higher position. ¡ª Oh, he''sing! ¡ª Dat guy... ¡ª He''sing! ¡ª Wow, he''s cute! ¡ª Almond? Never heard of him... ¡ª Almond ising! ¡ª Hey! Hey! Sir Almond is on his way! Their attitudespletely changed from when he first walked into the studio. ''What''s going on?'' Sang-Hyeon still felt confused because Ju-Hyeok hadn''t exined VNS to him. Regardless, they informed him that the stream would continue, so he returned to his initial spot. "Almond! You''re finally here!" "Yes..." Sang-Hyeon couldn''t keep up with Yu Ha-Yeon''s excitement. ¡ª Look at his reaction lol ¡ª Does he know what''s going on? I heard he fainted. ¡ª Wow, Almond!! Now you''re truly world ss! ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! ¡ª I hear you achieved a world record. ¡®World record.¡¯ He read that word from the chat. Ju-Hyeok also told him that he beat JeonJaPa''s record. "How does it feel to set the new world record for the highest VNS score?!" The question was finally asked. The chat slowed because no one wanted to miss out on his answer. They waited all this time to hear from him. "Uh..." "Yes?" "What is that? I asked my manager, but he wouldn''t tell me." "..." A moment of silence followed and the chat filled with question marks. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Huh? ¡ª ? ¡ª What¡­ It didn''t take long for the question marks to turn intoughter. ¡ª LOL ¡ª HAHAHA ¡ª LOOOOOL ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª You really don''t know? LOL Almond''s expression seemed too honest. Anyone with a slight interest in games knew the term, yet Almond didn¡¯t know. It showed how much experience Sang-Hyeoncked in the gaming world. The foreign viewers made fun of him by calling him a noob in the chat, but they also felt fascinated at the same time. ¡ª Wait, this guy didn''t even know what VNS was and still beat JeonJaPa''s record?! ¡ª VNS is all talent so... ¡ª Crazy talent ¡ª He''s a genius who''s unaware of anything... ¡ª Wow¡­ Almond set the world record for a category he didn¡¯t even know about. His ignorance in such matters truly suited an overwhelming genius who even surpassed JeonJaPa. "Ah... um... You really don''t know, do you?" "Yes¡­" Yu Ha-Yeon slightly panicked. ''What is this person?'' She thought Almond was a strange individual from the beginning, but that feeling peaked even more now. "Ahaha! As expected from a genius among geniuses! Almond, you''re incredible! Setting a record for something you don''t even know about!" "So what is it?" "Ah..." Yu Ha-Yeon became stunned again. Her expression said, ¡®Do I have to exin this during the stream?¡¯ ¡ª LOL ¡ª Ah, just tell him! ¡ª She was trying to pass it off, but no way! ¡ª LOL Almond doesn''t look too pleased. ¡ª Urk! ¡®The world''s best. A genius. A new record.¡¯? All those phrases sounded significant, but not to Almond. He heard them throughout his life. Achieving first ce in something he was passionate about was what mattered. Not obtaining a high VNS score that he didn¡¯t know about. Right now, only one thing interested him. "I heard that my score is tied with JeonJaPa''s. Why are you saying I beat it?" "Ah, you are tied for Stay Alive!" ¡ª Exactly to the 0.00001th second. ¡ª Are you sure it wasn¡¯t staged? ¡ª Even that''s incredible. He said it''s only been three weeks since he first used a capsule. ¡ª For real. Whip. Yu Ha-Yeon put her hands in the air. "We do something like an in-game skill assessment. In that assessment, we measured your ability in virtual reality gaming called the VNS. You beat JeonJaPa''s VNS score!" Yu Ha-Yeon suddenly strung her words together. However, a sign with dialogue written by the staff sat across from her. ¡ª Script on! ¡ª Thank you for the staff''s efforts. ¡ª Are you reading from a textbook? ¡ª It seems like Almond understood anyways. Now Almond understood that VNS referred to a yer''s stat whether it was from reading the sign or hearing Yu Ha-Yeon''s exnation. "So! How do you feel? Do you realize you''re a record holder now?" "But... is this official?" Sang-Hyeon acted very meticulously when it came to records. He chased world records all his life and needed to be sure whether this one was official or unofficial. If unofficial records were kept, he''d already be a world champion in high school. "Sorry?" "I feel like the VNS record is very vague, especially if it''s just a test done by Fantasia. I feel like it won''t be an official record." "Ah..." Yu Ha-Yeon panicked and quickly looked at the staff. ¡ª LOL Yu Ha-Yeon is getting owned! ¡ª She was winning at first, but now it''s his battle! ¡ª Hahaha It''s so cute to see her panic. ¡ª Why is Almond so specific? Of course, VNS isn''t official. It''s just for fun. ¡ª It''s still meaningful. ¡ª Nope! ¡ª VNS is meaningful, but it''s because Fantasia calctes it. You morons! Yu Ha-Yeon continued the broadcast after hearing some new information, "Ah, it''s not a record that''s officially recognized worldwide because the criteria aren¡¯t specifically set yet." "So I''m unofficially first." "Ahahaha... That''s... that''s right. But how does it feel to beat JeonJaPa unofficially?" Yu Ha-Yeon''s expression seemed to say,?''Now tell me your thoughts!'' Sang-Hyeon responded as if he read her expression, "It''s a shame." "!?" Another moment of silence passed. ¡®A shame? He just beat the record!?¡¯ "It''s... a shame? You''re number one in the world?!" "Unofficially, everyone is number one. It''s just like how sons are number one to their mothers." "Uh..." Words wouldn''te out of her mouth. Despite her many experiences discussing VNS, she didn''t know how to respond to Sang-Hyeon¡¯s logic. ¡ª LOL ¡ª His thinking is something else! ¡ª Do you call this being modest? I''m confused, Almond! ¡ª Hahaha! ¡ª My son is number one! ¡ª Son! I''m going to be Almond when I grow up! Yu Ha-Yeon started turning even redder after reading the chat. "So, are you disappointed? Because it''s unofficial?" "Not only that." "Not only that?" "I''m disappointed because I didn''t beat the record in the game." "In the game? You still tied." "That''s what''s disappointing. It was right in front of me." "Ah..." Yu Ha-Yeon felt fascinated by him. ''Is he not even a little happy?'' Almond was a beginner in virtual reality games, but he tied with the world''s greatest. However, he wasn''t one bit happy about it. This fascinated her. Why was he unhappy despite proving his genius talent? She would¡¯ve been ecstatic if it was her. Judging from his expression, he was happier when he shot the bow than now. ''What''s with his expression?'' She couldn''t read his expression well, but could tell it wasn''t happiness. Instead, it looked more like¡­ ''Is he angry?'' He seemed closer to being angry. That''s right. He was angry right now! That was baffling. Where did hispetitive spirit end? Yu Ha-Yeon began to grow dizzy. She couldn''t understand his logic with the motto, ¡®Good is good,¡¯ embedded in her head. She felt ufortable and jealous at the same time. This difort was how a prey felt towards their hunter: awareness, awe, and fear. Naturally, she started to think, ''This person will surpass JeonJaPa someday.'' This person will be the best. "It must be a shame. You were so close! But you just started ying virtual reality games and you still set the VNS record! Isn''t that incredible? Don''t you think you''ll eventually ovee JeonJaPa?" Oveing JeonJaPa sounded like an absurd phrase, but Yu Ha-Yeon was being serious. This man would climb to the top. At least, Yu Ha-Yeon thought so. What Almond said next confirmed her thoughts. "It''s possible." His tone sounded calm. He stated that he would be the greatest without intending to brag at all. ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª His ambition! ¡ª That''s crazy ¡ª King of trash talk, Almond! ¡ª Kumph! It could''ve been a provocative statement, but everyone in the studio knew that wasn''t his intention. The aftermath would''ve been immense if he finished talking. Editors would''ve twisted his words to make him look bad in public and provoke JeonJaPa''s fans. "Ah¡­" Thankfully, Almond hadn¡¯t finished. What he said next became so famous that people forgot his previous words. "I don''t want to talk about the VNS anymore." "Huh? Why?" "Because the match ended in a tie. It''s like gettingforted for having more ball possessions in a ser match..." He frowned and felt genuinely displeased. ¡ª Hahahahaha ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Why''s he pissed for real? LOL ¡ª The national ser coach is probably sneezing! ¡ª Why''s he suddenly attacking ser? LOL ¡ª The yers are probably like wtf? ¡ª Hahahaha ¡°Pfft.¡±?Even the tense Yu Ha-Yeon burst intoughter. "Ah, it was fun to have you, Almond. You''lle back for the next analysis, right?" "There''s... more to analyze?" "Hmm¡­ I think we''ll have a lot to do!" The stream ended as their conversation faded away. [Stream Over] Almond''s montage began ying like end credits. All the gamingmunities and websites only talked about Almond that day. Chapter 74: Record (3)

    Chapter 74: Record (3)

    ¡ª It''s a shame. ¡ª It''s possible. ¡ª Because the match ended in a tie. It''s like gettingforted for having more ball possessions in a ser match... Everything the normal-looking guy on the screen said sounded ridiculous. "Kya, what a guy! What! A! Guy!" Ju-Hyeokughed out loud while drinking his beer. He happily made fun of Sang-Hyeon and rewatched the stream repeatedly. It was rare to see Sang-Hyeon embarrassed, so Ju-Hyeok wouldn''t let it go. "Urgh." Sang-Hyeon couldn''t look at the screen and went on his phone. He turned around on the sofa, but could still hear it. ''How did I say all those things?'' Sang-Hyeon wasn''t one to watch his words, but even he thought the Almond talking on-screen was a bit much. He seemed too serious and upset. Even he couldn''t understand why a newbie yer felt so angry about tying with the world''s greatest yer. "Damn, every single word you say is SOMETHING else! Huh? It sure is SOMETHING!" Everything Sang-Hyeon said had been too much. ''I was too rattled up.'' Sang-Hyeon admitted that he overreacted upon hearing the words: a world record. He had overstepped as a new yer, but he just wanted to beat JeonJaPa that badly. Sang-Hyeon wasn''t a thirty year old sryman in that moment, but an eighteen year old archer aiming for the world record. That rookie who wasn''t afraid of saying anything stood in the interview. "Kumph¡­ At least you didn''t specifically make fun of Korean ser. You still had some sense in you? Hey? Hahahahaha!" Ju-Hyeok kept rewatching one particr scene. ¡ª Because the match ended in a tie. It''s like gettingforted for having more ball possessions in a ser match¡­ This controversial statement was hrious. "Hey, the results are good. Don''t worry." "Did I say something? I''m saying you did a good job! Good job!" Ju-Hyeok, red from the beer, continuedughing. Speaking of ser, Sang-Hyeon wanted to kick Ju-Hyeok in the face. He considered making it his 1 million subscribers¡¯ special event. "Kuhm..." Sang-Hyeon pushed away the violent thoughts and went back to his phone. He browsed through the gamingmunities. Thankfully, the public reacted positively. As he said earlier, the results had been good. [A collection of Almond''s statements] It seemed positive judging from thements on the top post. ¡ª Wow, but isn''t Almond so fucking cool? ©¸ For real ©¸ I agree ©¸ It''s his looks... ¡ª We need someone like that in Korea. Everyone just pretends to be nice and acts modestly. ©¸ For real ©¸ Agreed. ¡ª But if this continues, he''ll surpass JeonJaPa just like Ha-Yeon said. ©¸ I think Yu Ha-Yeon just fell for Almond LOL ©¸ Stfu. Ha-Yeon doesn''t know what she''s talking about. ©¸ Shut up loser. Go back to your mom''s basement. ©¸ LOL, spitting facts. ©¸ Stop it! He''s already dead! ¡ª He''s got what it takes to be world ss! His looks, skills, and personality! ©¸ Personality LOL ¡ª Doesn''t Almond seem rattled up? More than usual. ©¸ He''s pissed because he didn''t beat the record. ©¸ Yeah, he''s crazy. ©¸ That''s right. It seems like he''s actually angry. So cute! ©¸ 22222 I thought he was cute as well. The reactions were strangely positive. He thought most people would criticize him for his results, but only a small percentage did. The public sided with him unexpectedly because of hisst statement. One of the top three trending posts was titled: [The reason Almond is so likable] [He could''ve been happy and imed he was the best in the world with that VNS score. Honestly, most people would''ve reacted like that. If someone only used the capsule for three weeks and achieved that score, they would''ve been excited to find out and even bragged.? But this showed that Almond was a true, authentic guy. The part where hepared it to the Korean ser team jerking themselves off for having more ball possessions despite the result being a tie¡­? It was like he was saying, ¡®It''s sad to jerk myself off like that when it ended as a tie.¡¯ A REAL man. Super likable.] For some reason or another, his statement garnered a lot of sympathy from the general public. "I never said Korean ser." Of course, he couldn¡¯t prevent the story from being slightly distorted. It felt good to have his honest feelings acknowledged like this. ¡ª For real. ¡ª Hey, he never said Korean ser. Our ser team is doing pretty good right now! ©¸ He never said Korean ser, yet everyone knew what he was talking about! It''s magic! ©¸ Passion! Structure! Resilience! K-Ser! ¡ª Anyways, the reason he''s likable isn''t because he criticized ser. ©¸ For real. The reason he looks so cool is because he''s focused only on the results of the match and doesn''t care about other factors.? ©¸ True... ¡ª This guy will be big. ©¸ Yeah, I mean look at his face... ¡ª If it were me, I''d stand in front of his house with a sign LOL He found it fascinating. The day Yu Sang-Hyeon''s true self was recognized hade. He had always been ignored and rejected... Honesty was poison in this society. His true self had been a w that he hid like his right hand in his pocket. ''Maybe this is the path for me.'' It became an advantage in this industry, which shocked him. "Yaawn. Hey, I''m going to bed now. The beer is making me sleepy." Ju-Hyeok finished watching all the broadcasts and stood from the couch. The view outside the window had grown dark. Time passed and it was alreadyte at night. "I should sleep too." Tak. Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon disappeared from the dark reflection. *** The next day, Sang-Hyeon got up like usual and quickly ate cereal for breakfast. He browsed the inte on his phone and saw that what happened yesterday already spread everywhere. "Wow¡­" Sang-Hyeon felt shocked with a spoon still in his mouth. ''Search ranking?'' Almond''s name appeared on the country''s most popr search engine, Javer. The rted searches with his name included VNS and JeonJaPa as well. It wasn''t a high ranking, but it still made his head spin. He suddenly realized that this could be a big issue. ''Do I need to make a Javer portal profile for myself or something...'' He thought that after a pack of almonds appeared when he searched for his name. ''Who would''ve thought I would need such things.'' A Javer portal profile? That was something only politicians or celebrities had. Hardly any streamers uploaded their profiles no matter how popr they were. At most, they would have to be as popr as Bubblegum to appear. Bzzt. His phone vibrated after receiving a message. [Acorn Jelly: Sang-Hyeon, I saw the stream! You''re something else! Thanks to you, our video together is gaining poprity again. I just wanted to thank you!] It came from Acorn Jelly. Come to think of it, they hadn''t contacted each other since then. It was nice to hear from him after a long time. It brought back memories of when Sang-Hyeon first started streaming. He smiled and sent a reply. [No, thank you! I wouldn''t even have be a partnered streamer if it weren''t for our stream together!] [Acorn Jelly: Stop being modest! Don''t talk about Korean ser again, okay? Let''s grab a drink next time!] [Korean ser LOL. Alright, sounds good!] "Sounds good!" Ju-Hyeok suddenly appeared from behind and mocked him by repeating his text. "Oh, shocks!" Sang-Hyeon dropped his phone in surprise. "Is it Acorn Jelly?" "Yeah, make some noise when you''reing." "Sounds good!" Ju-Hyeok mocked him again and headed to the kitchen. Bzzzt. Bzzt. A phone continued to go off. Sang-Hyeon checked and realized it wasn''t his. "Hey, Ju-Hyeok! Your phone is ringing." "Yeah, I know." "Aren''t you going to get it?" "It''s not a phone call." "Then?" "They''re all emails and texts." Bzzzzt... Bzzt! All the vibrations from his phone were texts? Sang-Hyeon felt confused. "Did you borrow money or something?" "What do you mean borrow money? We''re big now." "We didn''t properly calcte the profits yet." "They gave me 1.2 million won as my cut for yesterday''s stream alone!" "Then what are those notifications?" "Take a look." Chuk. Ju-Hyeok left his phone on the table. "Am I allowed to?" Despite his words, Sang-Hyeon quickly grabbed the phone and took a look. As expected of Ju-Hyeok, he didn''t have a password. "!" Countless texts covered the screen when he turned on the phone. [Hello, this is the fashionpany AMUMUSINSA. We''re contacting you after seeing Almond''s stream! Of course, you probably...] [Hello, we''re the creators of many popr FPS games and survival games...] [Hello! This is golden barbeque chicken! We''re reaching out to...] [Hello! We''re the marketing team for the famous original hell''s kimchi stew, Oh Gang-Woo''s Kimchi Stew...] All the texts were for coborations or advertisements. "W-What the..." Not only games, but he also received offers from apparelpanies and restaurant franchises. "This is all from this morning?" "Yeah." "Do they never get off work?" Every morning, Sang-Hyeon always saw the marketing employees already there when he arrived at work. "Right, they never get off." The marketing department often slept at thepany, working day and night. "They probably want a contract with us while we''re still cheap." Chiik. Ju-Hyeok exined as he flipped his eggs. "They''re investing when the stock is low, so they can cash outter." "Ah..." Sang-Hyeon quickly understood. He wasn¡¯t a fool. He was just surprised so manypanies spected that the stock called Almond would soar in the future. "Hey! I didn''t tell you, but we received a lot of offers in the past from random brands." "Really? Why didn''t you ept them?" "Why? Because it''s not worth it. We only sell the stock when it¡¯s high. What''s the point of selling when they''re low? Besides, it just ruins our image if we agree to something weird." "..." Sang-Hyeon became speechless. He just nkly stared at Ju-Hyeok''s back. ''That guy... he was sure Almond''s stock would rise?'' It struck him once again how much Ju-Hyeok believed in him. The ad rates were high, but Ju-Hyeok rejected all of them. He needed money more than anyone else, but still refused all of it. He was someone who could truly see the big picture. "So what are you going to do now? Aren''t some of the brands here pretty famous?" "Hmm... That''s right, but we''re going to ignore them for now." Tak. Ju-Hyeok ced his egg and kimchi fried rice on the table. Sang-Hyeon turned toward the food. ''When did he get this good at cooking?'' "Why? You want some?" "Yeah¡­" "Nope, it''s all for me." "I think that''s enough for three." "It''s for one if one person eats it." "Sigh..." Ju-Hyeok finished all of it by himself. "Hmm. Anyway, we''ll wait for the ads. We''re in this for the long run, so we have to be specific in choosing ads. It''s not like we don''t have ie right now." "Well... I don''t mind." Sang-Hyeon wasn¡¯t lying. He didn¡¯t enter this market to make money. Shooting the bow in virtual reality satisfied him and it would be enough if his viewers were happy. He had no problems as long as he could eat. ''But Ju-Hyeok is different...'' Ju-Hyeok likely entered the scene looking for a big sess. . "Doesn''t this matter for you?" It would be the smart thing to do some advertisements for a little money. However, Ju-Hyeok shook his head. "That''s alright. I''m in this for the loooong run! You just focus on today''s stream. I already have an ad in mind." "Really?" "I''m not going to tell you since you might get ahead of yourself." "Alright." ¡®Thank goodness he has a n.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon went out to jog with that thought. "Hey! The most important thing for us is getting diamond! Diamond!" Ju-Hyeok shouted as Sang-Hyeon left. ''Yep, I need to work hard today too.'' The important thing was his promise to the viewers. Sang-Hyeon had to y Battle Large for today''s broadcast and he would do his best. Regr exercise and good eating habits were essential as the doctor advised. He zipped up his jacket to block out the chilly wind and slowly walked down the stairs. *** It still seemed a little early to stream at 3 P.M. Chiik. However, Sang-Hyeon entered the capsule. "Phew." He felt slightly tense, unlike usual. Sang-Hyeon had a rough idea of what to expect. Yesterday, he even made it to the real-time search rankings. The edited version of Fantasia''s show hadn¡¯t been uploaded yet, but the live broadcast made a significant impact. More viewers would definitely appear. Even if it was just a temporary pump, the number of viewers would undoubtedly increase. ''I just need to calmly stream like usual.'' Sang-Hyeon reassured himself not to worry about the number of viewers. [Stream will soon begin.] As always, the intro music yed and viewers began to gather. ¡ª Wow! Starting early today? ¡ª Heck yeah! ¡ª I can''t resist it! ¡ª Everyone who can''t resist, gather! ¡ª Wow, is this the new schedule now? ¡ª Kya! ¡ª This is why I didn''t look for a job! Haha! It was quick. Unbelievably quick. The viewers usually gathered fast, but this was... ''Not like this¡­''? He had never seen anything like this before. Chapter 75: Journey to Diamond (1)

    Chapter 75: Journey to Diamond (1)

    Meanwhile, some workers at Punk had been drinking since lunch. The directors offered to give one specific department time off in the evening and allowed them to start drinking early. This was a rare urrence. The man who made this possible was none other than Manager Oh, the loudest and chubbiest in the room. "How is it? Huh? I''m the one who brought Almond! Ahahaha!" Plop! Plop! He bellowed in his signatureugh while pping his belly. "There, drink up! Drink up! I''ming around!" He walked around with the bottle as if at a festival. Everyone who received a drink from him made a remark. "Damn, Manager Oh. You''re so lucky." "At first, we wondered why you brought a nobody like him. After all, we¡¯re Punk." "I heard all the developers are bowing down to us for a chance to shoot an ad with Almond." "Someone outstanding like him will do ads with us for free because he''s our partnered streamer, right? Damn... Manager Oh, I bet you''ll be promoted." "Wow... a streamer who''s beingpared to JeonJaPa. That''s all you need to know..." "It was hard to recruit him at first, wasn''t it?" Recruiting Almond had been a challenging feat. Everyone thought Manager Oh was crazy and rumors even floated around that Almond was secretly Manager Oh''s nephew. However, their attitudes changed by 180 degrees. After the Fantasia stream, anyone could see that Almond had what it took to be a star. He wasn''t just good at video games. He also possessed a natural showmanship. The image of him reading and responding to the chat while surviving the game left a great impression on the employees. "I realized this guy was something else when I saw him reading the chat! Hahaha!" "This is just between us, but didn''t he technically beat JeonJaPa? Huh? Our Almond just started and he did it while reading the chat!?" "Since when was he our Almond?! Hahaha!" Punk employees always kept an eye on JeonJaPa because he was a big streamer from a differentpany. That''s why Almond had be a treasure to them. "Move JeonJaPa! Almond is on his way!" It seemed like Almond would surpass JeonJaPa. "Kumph!" "These guys are too drunk, hey? Hahaha!" Manager Oh smiled in satisfaction as he watched them. ''It was worth it.'' To see the raw ore he had unearthed at first sight shine so bright now¡­ He had never felt this proud of his work before. "Phew, Manager Oh! Good work!" One of the drunk assistants raised their ss. "Honestly, even we were skeptical... When we heard that you were going to the studio just for Almond... We were like, he''s definitely your nephew! Or a hidden child with your first love! And..." Upon hearing that, the entire department burst intoughter. Manager Ohughed the loudest. "Hey! I needed to be there so those Fantasia people didn¡¯t fuck around. And now look at the results. How is it?" "It''s incredible! You''re... r-right!" The assistant shouted as he raised his ss. "Oooohh... Ah! Ah! For Almond!" "For Almooooond!" nk! They raised their full sses and the festivities continued until 3 P.M. "Let''s just drink all day! I heard the director said we can have tomorrow off as well!" "Huh? W-Wait." Manager Oh got up from his seat while feeling a bit tipsy. [Almond''s stream has started.] He received the stream notification for Almond. "Hey, hey. I''m going out for a smoke." "Huh? Wait, you have to decide where to go tonight! Why are you going out to smoke alone?" "Restroom too! It''s a big one!" "Ew! We''re eating!" After that, Manager Oh quickly went outside to watch the stream. ''Better to watch this alone...'' This was all possible thanks to Almond, so it only made sense to watch his stream. However, Manager Oh didn''t want to ruin the happy atmosphere. There was a slight chance Almond¡¯s viewership could decline. It was unlikely, but possible since this industry had many random variables. Fame came and went especially quickly in this age. One good stream didn''t guarantee a high viewership. Manager Oh inhaled his cigarette for a moment. "Phew. Let''s see if he can be the star we think he is." He exhaled the smoke and nervously waited for Almond''s intro music to finish. He could only see the viewer count once the stream officially began. ''How many are there? How many...'' Previously, Almond''s streams had reached 4000-5000 viewers. He was still rtively new, so he could realistically expect to average 2000-3000 viewers. ''Let''s hope we get at least six thousand viewers. Six thousand!'' Manager Oh hoped to double the usual amount. Almond would live up to the title of a Punk partner streamer if he could average 6000 viewers. It would be an impressive number considering he had only been streaming for a month. ''No, let''s aim for seven thousand. Seven thousand...'' Manager Oh began to get a little more greedy. ''I really want to be promoted this time! Sang-Hyeon, please!'' As Manager Oh closed his eyes¡­ Ting! The intro music finished and Sang-Hyeon''s face appeared. ¡°Hi, Treevy!¡± A bright and familiar voice could be heard, followed by the chat. And the viewer count appeared. [Current Viewers: 8.3k] "...!" m! Manager Oh quickly threw away his cigarette and went back inside. "Hey! Hey! Look at the live stream right now! The stream!" He shouted as his employees nkly stared at him. "Almond! He just turned on his stream!" *** Gulp. Ju-Hyeok nervously watched the screen. "Woah... Shit... this is fast." The number of viewers increased exponentially right from the beginning. As soon as the number went above eight thousand¡­ "!" Ju-Hyeok stood and screamed like a beast,?"Keeeaaaaaooooohhhh!" A strange sound came out of him, but who cared? Only the two of them were here and Sang-Hyeon was in an environment with perfect noise cancetion. Ju-Hyeok couldn¡¯t register anything else. "Eight... Eight thousand viewers at 3 P.M.? Damn..." Some of these viewers could just be curious about the news articles, but attention was attention whether they came to watch Almond¡¯s gamey or to see the face of the man who set a new record. Almond would be setting himself up for sess if he could maintain this viewership. ''Good, very good...'' Ju-Hyeok felt ecstatic. They would soon reach the destination many new streamers sought. He felt happy as a manager who was starting out as well. However, a slight worry leaked through the cracks like usual. ¡®Not a specialty. A trauma.¡¯ Sang-Hyeon¡¯s past regarding archery and his right arm. His harsh rejection of these two topics was unusual. Even during their fight and his awkward anger after consulting the doctor... These topics made Sang-Hyeon unstable. ''It must''ve left a deep scar on him.'' The two issues impacted Sang-Hyeon much more than Ju-Hyeok could ever imagine. He didn¡¯t know what Sang-Hyeon went through, but he guessed that it was like losing a lifelong partner. ''Does he really want no one to find out?'' The Ju-Hyeok from the past would''ve considered using Sang-Hyeon''s past as a selling point, but not anymore. Sang-Hyeon genuinely wanted to leave his past behind and Ju-Hyeok respected that. ''If you''re not ready...'' Ju-Hyeok thought it was unnecessary if Sang-Hyeon wasn''t ready. Besides, everything worked out well. Bringing up his past now would be pointless. It could even be a thorn on their path. ''Yeah, I guess there are some memories you just can''t sell.'' He called the staff in charge of Fantasia''s channel. "Ah, yes. It''s me. I¡¯m Almond''s manager, Ju-Hyeok. I just wanted to talk about the edited footage." "Yes? What about the edited footage?" "Please edit out the archery portion." "Sorry?" "It''ll still be good without it." "Ah... Is this Almond''s opinion?" "Yes, of course. He wants it out because he doesn''t want to provoke any professional archers." "Uh... His opinion is important... but there are contract terms... and we already shot it..." "Contract terms? Ah! Good thing you brought it up! Didn''t we say in the contract? That we could take out any footage we want? And it''s not even an important part." "Ah, okay! I''ll deliver the message." Tak. The call ended. "These TVworks..." He couldn''t do anything about the raw footage, but the edited videos averaged twenty times more views. It would be enough to stop the edited portion. Bzzzt. He received another phone call right away. [Bubblegum''s Manager: Park Sung-Tae] This time, it was someone else. *** Eight thousand viewers¡­ Sang-Hyeon just nkly stared at the chat. ¡ª Wow, Almond is world ss! ¡ª Is Almond too big for me now? :( ¡ª Damn, look at how many people are here now. ¡ª Wow, yesterday''s stream definitely had an effect. ¡ª For real. ¡ª Hi Almond! Almond''s audience mentioned the high viewer count instead of him. Usually, it was better not to mention the number. However, it would be unnatural topletely ignore such a high number. It was like ignoring and walking by a thirty-car collision in front of him. It would be weirder to ignore such an obvious situation. "Long time no see, everyone! But... it seems like we have quite a crowd today!" Almond brightly announced. ¡ª Kya, world-ss! ¡ª Hi from Indonesia! ¡ª There are actual foreigners here!? ¡ª Literally world ss. ¡ª I guess so since he beat JeonJaPa. ¡ª Hihi! ¡ª I became a fan after watching Fantasia! ¡®So many newbies at once¡­¡¯? The new viewers greeted Sang-Hyeon when he mentioned them. He saw a handful of new usernames that made him think he was in a different stream. ''This is quite nerve-wracking.'' It was his stream in a familiar environment, but it felt like he was streaming somewhere else. That was how much influence the viewers and chat had. ''What should I say?'' Almond became speechless for a moment. [RubySword has donated 5000 won.] [You''re suddenly world ss...] He received a donation from a familiar username. Almond naturally responded, "Ah, RubySword! Thank you, as always. What do you mean by world ss? I''m still economy ss." ¡ª Economy LOL ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Not that ss¡­ [Eggnt has donated 5000 won.] [The viewers are multiplying! Huh?!] Another familiar username donated. "Thank you for the early donation, Eggnt. You''re right. The viewers are multiplying, haha." He naturallyughed and felt morefortable, like he was back home, thanks to the old users who had stuck with him since day one. His nervousness slowly melted away once he remembered that they were all with him. "It''s going good from the start!" He found his groove and naturally continued the stream. "Let¡¯s start ying now." Almond felt rxed like he was streaming in front of just a thousand viewers. ¡ª What are you ying today? ¡ª Games! ¡ª Battle Large, right? "Ah, today''s game is???" [KAFCEO has donated 1000 won.] [Kingdom Age! Please...] "Battle Large!" ¡ª LOL ¡ª KAF LOOL ¡ª These Kingdom Age fanboys are so persistent. ¡ª Hahaha I''m crying! ¡ª Can you y it again someday? Please? "I promised to reach diamond in Battle Large, right? Of course, I''m going to y Battle Large." ¡ª Wow, he''s keeping his word. ¡ª Wow! Amazing! ¡ª Is he really going to do it? ¡ª Holy shit! The journey to diamond started with eight thousand people watching, including his original viewers. Chapter 76: Journey to Diamond (2)

    Chapter 76: Journey to Diamond (2)

    Almond needed to win twelve games to reach the tinum II promotion matches. In Battle Large, winning simply meant cing at least in the top ten. He could reach the promotion matches in just four games if he won first in all of them. Twelve games in one day were too much, but four were doable. ''It should be easy until the promotion matches.'' Almond felt confident like usual. He would win first ce in four straight games. [RubySword has donated 10,000 won!] [Mission: Reach promotion matches straight away for 100,000 won.] His goal became clearer thanks to his longtime viewer. "Thank you for the 100,000 won, RubySword." ¡ª LOL He''s already thanking in advance. ¡ª It''s only 10,000 won? ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Almond... you used to do a ceremony for 100,000 won back in the day¡­ "Thank you for the donations and missions at the start! Let''s get started!" He booted up Battle Large and prepared to y. Dududu! [OnionSoup has donated 100,000 won!] [Boss! Tell us about the broadcast! Is Ha-Yeon pretty in person?] ''Hm?'' He never received a donation asking him to talk before because he strictly only gamed. "She''s pretty. Really pretty." ¡ª Boss, tell us more! ¡ª Almond: 100,000 won! I see you''re really curious! ¡ª Talk to us today! ¡ª Tell us about the doctordy too! "I saw her in person first before seeing her on TV. I think she''s a little prettier in person. There''s almost no difference. The doctor isn''t a celebrity, so I don''t want toment on her..." Most of the viewers usually came to watch Almond''s gamey, but today''s atmosphere felt different. He wondered if it was because of the big event yesterday or the handful of new viewers. They kept asking about what happened. [Oohsoi has donated 10,000 won!] [How did you feel about tying with JeonJaPa?] [Slope has donated 1000 won.] [Why did you get carried off afterward? What did the doctor say!?] A wave of donations like these poured in. ''Is it weirder to ignore such a big event?'' Tying JeonJaPa''s score in this industry was a big deal. It could be argued that JeonJaPa didn''t give it his all back then when it came to Almond¡¯s record in achieving tinum. However, the test score was a different matter. ¡ª What''s he talking about? Tie with JeonJaPa? ¡ª What happened... ¡ª Am I the only one confused? Am I a loner?! Viewers who only watched Almond''s stream hadn¡¯t heard the news yet. ''I guess it''d be best to take some time and talk about it.'' Bubblegum''s stream also started with a chatting segment where he casually talked to viewers about what he was up to. It seemed like an excellent time for Almond to start doing the same since he had eight thousand viewers now. "Hmm... Thank you for the donation, Oohsoi. I grabbed my manager by the neck when I found out it was a tie because I thought it was staged." ¡ª LOL ¡ª No way. ¡ª TMI ¡ª So honest! ¡ª It really did seem like it was staged. ¡ª Grabbed him by the neck LOL ¡ª Hello everyone, this is his manager Kim Ju-Hyeok. He really did grab me by the neck. "Hey, Ju-Hyeok! Ban Ju-Hyeok!" ¡ª Ju-Hyeok banning Ju-Hyeok hahaha ¡ª LOL ¡ª Damn, it must be the real one! ¡ª The real one has appeared! m! The capsule suddenly shook. "Oh... Ju-Hyeok actually lives with me. He banged on my capsule and left." ¡ª Hahaha, no way. ¡ª That was really the manager? And he actually hit your capsule? ¡ª Grabbed him by the neck LMAO ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª How can they fake it if you''re so scary, Almond! "But it wasn''t staged. The engineer exined it to me. He told me even he thought it was weird, but no other external factors were involved." ¡ª Ooh, I see. ¡ª I guess Fantasia is no smallpany. ¡ª Who fakes it these days? It''s not like they''re an old TVwork. ¡ª For real! "That''s right. There''s no way Fantasia would do that while promoting their own product, right? And if they wanted to stage it, I would¡¯ve finished 0.00001 seconds faster than JeonJaPa." ¡ª For real! ¡ª True. ¡ª Yeah, I agree.? ¡ª Almond''s thinking: Stage it! He could see their live reactions. "What are you talking about? I never asked them to stage it." ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª LMAO ¡ª S-Sorry¡­ Apparently, celebrities liked to readments about themselves once they became famous. Streamers experienced this in real-time. He saw countlessments since he had eight thousand viewers. ''It''s pretty fun.'' This was one of the perks of arger audience. Some downsides existed, but the bigger upsides outweighed them. ¡ª Hey! Tell us about the medical check! ¡ª Reply to the other donation too! ¡ª ??? Ah, I see¡­ 1000 won is too little. ¡ª 1000 won? Too low! Almond recalled the donation that came afterward. "Ah, thank you for the donation, Slope. I saw it toote! I got carried away during the show because I¡¯m not fit enough to stay in capsules for a long time." ¡ª What does that mean?? ¡ª Is it because of your blood type? ¡ª For real? ¡ª No... ¡ª Oppa, I''m worried! "It''s nothing to worry about. I just can''t y for long periods." ¡ª Damn ¡ª So he has to celebrate by ending the stream. ¡ª Isn''t that like rat poison for streamers? "It''ll get better if I exercise regrly." That was a lie. The doctor never said he would get better, but the least he could do was exercise and eat healthier. ''It''ll get better.'' Almond just hoped so. He liked this job. He could interact with people who liked him and could happily shoot the bow again in games. This was the perfect job for Yu Sang-Hyeon right now. He wanted to continue doing this for a long time without any problems. [Fishcake has donated 2000 won.] [Yes or No: I''m more talented than JeonJaPa.] "Hmm. It''s hard to define what talent is, so I''ll just say no. I think results determine everything." ¡ª Kya ¡ª So modest! ¡ª That was a trap. No way he chooses yes. ¡ª For real, how could he pick yes even if it were true? ¡ª It''s a trap! [PaPaPa has donated 2000 won.] [Be honest. You don''t know much about JeonJaPa, do you?] This donor hit the nail on the head. Almond didn''t know JeonJaPa too well. However, he recently watched some videos of JeonJaPa ying the Stay Alive test. JeonJaPa was indeed an incredible yer. "I''ve heard of his name, but I''m not too familiar with him since I just started ying. I was going to study up on him soon, but he doesn''t talk much during his streams, right?" ¡ª Yeah, JeonJaPa said his voice is hisplex. ¡ª That''s his character. ¡ª But he still talks in interviews. ¡ª I like his voice. ¡ª It''s not a voice girls would like too much. ¡ª He says it''s hisplex, so what can you do? ''I see. I didn''t know that.'' [CalmBee has donated 1000 won.] [Yes or No: I think JeonJaPa ain''t shit.] ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Damn LOL ¡ª That''s hrious ¡ª Out of nowhere? LOL This sudden provocation put him on thin ice, but these kinds of donations were also quite funny. However, it would domino into an issueter on if he let it be. There would be no end once the ice cracked. Without hesitation, Almond cracked down on the viewer like he was taught. "Ju-Hyeok, ban him." ¡ª LOL donates to get banned. ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª 2000 won ban! ¡ª So ruthless! Almond studied Bubblegum''s stream more than learning about video games. He knew his main job centered around streaming and not gaming. Regardless, he excelled at video games anyways. [AwakeCitizen has donated 1000 won.] [Conservative or Liberal?] "Ban him too!" *** A cold voice could be heard in a dark room, "How long is he going to talk for?" The voice belonged to a somber girl. As if he heard her¡­ ¡°Alright, I''ll start ying now.¡± Almond finally began the game after talking with the viewers for a long time. He easily reached the tinum II promotion matches, but failed to win first in one game because he couldn''t find a bow. He won first in every other game though. As a result, he reached the promotion matches in one day. ¡°I''ll end my stream here for today. I''ll continue ying the promotion matches tomorrow.¡± "..." The girl turned off the TV without a word and rolled her wheelchair out of the room. *** The lights turned on again in the empty room at 3 P.M. The TV yed Almond''s stream. ¡°Today is the tinum II promotion matches! I¡¯ll get promoted immediately if I win first, right? I''ll get on it.¡± Thump, thump. A middle-aged man walked toward her, "Ma''am, are you watching it today as well?" "Yeah¡­" she replied straightforwardly. The wheelchair and the middle-aged man faced the TV. ¡°Thank you again for the mission, RubySword!¡± A live stream yed on the TV. This usual sight didn¡¯t surprise the middle-aged man. "That person is of concern to youtely?" "Yeah." "I think I know who he is. He''s Almond." The girl red at the middle-aged man. She seemed ufortable that he recognized Almond and didn¡¯t want him to ask any questions. "Butler, do you also think like what the others are saying?" "Others? That he''s going to catch up to JeonJaPa? Hoho," the middle-aged butlerughed. "A title like that isn''t overtaken so quickly, ma''am. Even if the score is overtaken." "The score is already overtaken." The girl continued to talk while focusing on the screen. The Almond on TV began ying Battle Large and continued his journey to diamond. "Didn''t they tie?" "They didn''t tie. His VNS score was higher and he achieved tinum II. He already beat JeonJaPa twice." "Didn''t he say so himself that it was a tie? VNS is meaningless." The girl became silent. She wore a calm expression, but the butler could see her burning gaze. "You''re upset he said that, right?" "Yeah," the girl nodded. "He seems rxed as if he can beat the record anytime he wants." "There were countless cocky amateurs in the past, ma''am. But do you remember any of their names?" . "..." The girl shook her head. That''s right. She couldn''t recall a single one of them. It was hard to survive even a year in this industry. "I''m not worried." "Then there''s no issue. Hoho." The butler turned around and left to do his work. Only the man on TV and the girl remained in therge room. After talking for a while, Almond descended toward the survival ind. Swoosh¡ª? He headed to the Arsenal and stuck to the same strategy since hisst cement matches. It always worked. The strategy was quite foolish, but he overcame it with his skills. He would win first again like usual if things went ording to n. ''Will it work again?'' However, the girl seemed doubtful. ''It''ll be different this time.'' A promotion match couldn¡¯t bepared to a normal one, especially for a streamer. Chapter 77: Journey to Diamond (3)

    Chapter 77: Journey to Diamond (3)

    The promotion matches finally began. [Current Viewers: 8.7k] Almond thought 8100 viewers would be his peak, but the viewer count had already increased again. ''Almost 9000...'' That meant Almond had sessfully retained the new viewers. Of course, it was hard to tell with only two days of data. Besides, he was about to y an important game. ¡ª Yesterday was way too easy ¡ª I wonder if today will be easy as well? ¡ª Wow, the game has already started? I was toote¡­ Close to 9000 people watched Almond''s avatar. Almond muttered as he ran, "I''m going to the Arsenal again." He had abused this same strategy since hisst cement matches. It involved destroying all the rare equipment and weapons in the basement, which gave him the advantage. ¡ª Arsenal again! ¡ª No surprise... ¡ª There''s no reason he shouldn''t go there. It always works out. ¡ª For real.? ¡ª Again and again! It would work out this time too if everything went ording to n. Vrooom¡ª? Suddenly, he heard a motorcycleing from behind him. "!?" Someone had already found a motorcycle and headed directly toward the Arsenal. Upon closer inspection, it looked like they were heading toward Almond. "I think they¡¯reing to me¡ª" Almond threw himself to the side. His reaction was impressive. As expected from someone who tied the record for Stay Alive. "Right?" He dodged the bike and continued talking to the viewers. ¡ª Kya! This is JeonJaPa level movement! ¡ª LOL Damn! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª That''s nuts! The viewers felt impressed after seeing Almond unscathed. Vroooom!!! The motorcycle simply passed Almond. Everything still seemed fine, but Almond felt something unusual. ''What the?'' He caught a glimpse of the motorcycle rider¡¯s lips. The rider smirked andughed at him. He didn¡¯t seem disappointed, but smiled instead. It seemed like he woulde back to hit Almond. m! The casualties began as the biker made his way to the Arsenal. [Jensen ¡ú yingSat] [Eliminated!] [99/100] [Jensen ¡ú QuitQuit] [Eliminated!] [98/100] Two deaths appeared on the kill log. ''Jensen...'' Almond sensed something unusual and noted the yer''s name. ¡ª As expected of the Arsenal. ¡ª The Arsenal is so ruthless! ¡ª Wow ¡ª Oh shit, I would¡¯ve given up if it were me. ''Ah, right.'' Almond ran to the center of the Arsenal after a moment of silence. He had to quickly block off the basement entrance. However¡­ "Aaaagh!" "Kugh!" Vrooom!!! A motorcycle went down the basement through the tight staircase and ran over all the yers in its path. "A motorcycle using the stairs..." Almond muttered in surprise. ¡ª t I MMR sure is different. ¡ª His driving skills are crazy. ¡ª There are a lot of hidden skilled yers since it''s one tier away from diamond. ¡ª Almond¡¯s MMR is too high since he was on a win streak. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Is this the notorious hell of high tinum? ¡ª You want to get to diamond? You shall not pass! Almond shifted his attention from the basement because he didn''t care about the equipment. His win condition depended on finding a bow on the first floor. No one usually looted the first floor except for Almond because it only had low-tier weapons like bows and knives. He could annihte everyone once he found a bow. However... ''Where did all the bows go?'' He couldn''t find a single one. Swoosh! Just then, a jungle knife flew toward him. Shaaah¡ª? It cut a few strands of Almond''s hair off. He barely dodged it by bending his body. "Herees another one!" The opponent threw another knife with a shout. He thought Almond wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge after bending over, but Almond struck his arm out this time. "Thanks for the weapon." Tak! Almond grabbed the knife that was just thrown at him. His tests at Fantasia hadn¡¯t been for show. Those tests actually helped to significantly level up his skills. Catching a knife in mid-air was no problem anymore. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Thank you for the weapon! ¡ª Wow, so sexy! ¡ª Insane! ¡ª Stop Almond! You''re too good! "Huh...? Huh?"?The opponent hesitated for a moment before taking out another knife. He positioned himself for another throw. ''Why isn''t he throwing?'' The opponent circled him and looked for an opening instead. ''Because I¡¯ll just dodge it again?'' The opponent took precautions because he would be in a bad position if Almond sessfully dodged again. ''When is he going to throw it?'' When would the opponent throw? Did he even want to throw it? When would be the best time to hit the opponent? ''When I throw it?''? The opponent nned on attacking right after Almond. Like in MOBA games, the best time to strike was when the enemy attacked other minions. It was basic knowledge to aim for the enemy when their attention was elsewhere. Swoosh! Almond winded up into his signature pitching position. Then¡­ Swoosh! The opponent matched him and threw their knife. ''I knew it.'' As expected, Almond had assumed correctly. "Huh?" He deflected the opponent''s knife with his own after feinting a throw. Clink! Almond grabbed the opponent''s knife in the air after blocking it. "What the..." "You don''t have another knife, right?" The opponent had carefully timed his attack because it was hisst knife. "Damn... what the fuck?" The opponent turned around to run after grasping the situation. Thwack! However, a knife perfectly pierced his back. [Almond ¡ú ArsenalJungler] [Eliminated!] [96/100] ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Kya, this is Almond! ¡ª So satisfying! ¡ª How does Almond make it look so easy? Almond didn¡¯t have time to celebrate. Swoosh¡ª? He heard something ripping through the air again and quickly dodged. Sparks appeared where he had just been. ng! A knife bounced off the ground. "Again?" Someone threw another knife at him. "Now this is getting weird." The basement equipment in the Arsenal usually distracted all the yers, but these ones kept targeting Almond. ¡ª Ah, they''re stream sniping him ¡ª I think so too. ¡ª It makes sense. This is his first cement match after beating JeonJaPa. ¡ª Almond, your fight with the stream snipers has begun. Good luck. ¡ª This is what it means to promote as a streamer, Almond! ¡®Stream sniping?¡¯?Almond deeply thought about it. "Hey! Hey! Land the shots you fucking idiots!" someone yelled from the 2nd floor. ''Who''s that guy?'' The yer who shouted ran away with all the bows and arrows. No one would be stupid enough to carry so many bows and arrows in this tier. He took all of them on purpose to put Almond at a disadvantage. ''Ah, I get it now.'' Almond finally realized he was getting stream sniped after seeing that. Now he understood why he couldn¡¯t find any bows and why they kept targeting him. ''I''ve always thought it was a possibility.'' Almond knew stream snipers existed since he fought BubbleSniper before. However, they appeared in his stream sooner than he expected. ''Damn them.'' He felt annoyed that they targeted him as a team, but the viewers would also get angry if he got angry. He calmed himself down. Chak. Almond hid behind a container box, "I''ll just pretend this is a solo squad game." His first round in Battle Large had also been solo against other squads. He had more experience facing teams than individual yers anyway. He rxed a little once he assumed that mindset. [Eggnt has donated 3000 won.] [It''s okay... we''re used to getting bullied.] "Thank you, Eggnt. I guess we''re back to our roots." ¡ª Haha back to our roots, you''re right! ¡ª Ah, that''s right. You won your first game as a solo squad. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Not only that, but you pulled off a 1v4 feint. ¡ª Kya, this is Almond! The audience didn¡¯tin since Almond remained cool-headed. The streamer always needed to keep calm or they would just provide more content for stream sniping. ''There¡¯s a silver lining if I win.''? If he won, the video would show off his skilled gamey while also being funny. Only if he won though. Ssuk. He readied the knife from earlier and came out from behind the box. *** The following posts appeared on Battle31. [What? Almond is better than JeonJaPa? I''ll get him right now.] [You shall not pass!] [For real, I''m going as well.] [I''ll face him directly. Our tiers are simr.] Countless people wanted to y against Almond after he became famous, especially skilled gamers who wanted to test his skills. The problem was that they also feared facing him alone, so they decided to team up against him. As a result, they formed a five-man team to raid the Arsenal. "This should be enough to get him, right?" "How''s he going to beat a five-man squad? I''ll run away with all the bows." "Let''s reim JeonJaPa''s honor!" One yer picked up all the bows and ran away. The other four decided to loot the knives early on and quickly kill Almond. Almond made for an easy target because he always headed to the Arsenal. "Huff puff. Hey! I''m running away!" one yer shouted as he left with all the bows. "Now he can''t use any bows! Fuck him up!" "Alright!" "Roger that!" The yer with all the bows escaped to the second floor and watched as his allies attacked Almond. He prepared to cheer them on. However¡­ "Huh?" The first teammate who attacked Almond had already died. Almond took away his knife and killed him when he tried to flee. He died a pathetic death. Why did he charge in by himself? Did he want to be a hero or something? It felt baffling to watch. "Are you fucking stupid? Attack him all at once!" Thankfully, the other three stayed together and hurled their knives at Almond from every angle. It seemed impossible to dodge, but Almond still managed to do so. "Hey! Hey! Hit him, you idiots!" The yer watching grew frustrated at his allies who teamed up in JeonJaPa''s honor. He began to boil with anger. "D-Damn, he''s out of sight!" When he came to his senses, Almond had disappeared. He lost sight of him while fuming in anger. "Fuck, if only we could check his stream..." However, it was impossible to open another screen in virtual reality gaming. Any unpermitted apps would be quickly shut down. This factor greatly contributed to making virtual reality streaming a huge industry. "Hey! Where is he? Did he just run away?" "I don''t know! He disappeared!" "Check from the second floor¡ª" Pang!!! The sound of ss shattering on the second floor could be heard. ''What the?'' The yers instinctively turned towards the noise and saw that their teammate above had been struck in the head with a knife. Thwack! [Almond ¡ú LiveAlone] [Eliminated!] [89/100] Their teammate died and appeared on the kill log. "Phew, who''s the one who said I should climb up using knives? Thanks." Almond had burst through the windows after climbing to the second floor using two knives. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Damn, I can''t believe that worked. ¡ª So satisfying. ¡ª Fuck that guy! ¡ª Stream sniping gets you killed! ¡ª I think it was Papapa! "Ah, thank you very much Papapa. Excellent advice." Almond looked down. "Wow, is this what you call a jackpot?" ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Stupid stream snipers... now they''re the jackpot! ¡ª Jackpot! LOL The dead yer under Almond held all the bows and arrows for him like a present. Almond just needed to grab his favorite one from the pile. [Recurve Bow] He grabbed the recurve bow instead of thepound bow. The recurve bow was an older design, unlike the modernpound bow. It had less power, but more flexibility. It would be more useful against multiple opponents. "I''ll kill the rest of them now." He finally acquired a bow and arge number of arrows. The only thing left to do was sweep the Arsenal clean. Chapter 78: Jensen vs. Almond (1)

    Chapter 78: Jensen vs. Almond (1)

    [LIVE Almond vs. A squad of stream snipers.jpg] [LOL Is it the guys who teamed up earlier?] [Are they the five idiot musketeers?] [Fucking idiots. They targeted him because of their inferiorityplex, but got fucked instead.] [Five idiot musketeers. Pin this post so they''ll be ashamed forever!] The five-person squad had proudly announced on Battle31 that they would hunt Almond. They thought they would be revered as heroes, but everyone treated them like fools since two of them instantly died. [We''re still not sure what will happen.] Several simr posts appeared. Not all of them had died yet. Three remained in the Arsenal. It seemed like one of their teammates made that post. ¡ª Yeah, whatever you say stream sniper. ¡ª Are you the youngest out of the five? Get me some water kiddo. ©¸ HAHA ©¸ Listen to your seniors! ¡ª What do you mean we''re not sure what will happen? Everyone knows except you. LOL ©¸ I think the other three are in the same boat as well. ©¸ For real haha The post imed anything could happen, but everyone in thements already knew. [Recurve Bow] Their fates had been sealed once Almond called jackpot and collected the bow and arrows. "Oh? They''re running away." The remaining three musketeers also predicted their fate and ran away. However, leaving the Arsenal wasn¡¯t so simple after entering it. "M-Move!" "Who the fuck are these guys?!" "Argh!" Instead of Almond, they had to fight the aggressive yers at the entrance. An arrow pierced one yer''s head as they fought. Thwack! [Almond ¡ú UrFault] [Eliminated!] [83/100] ¡ª One down! ¡ª Now it''s the two musketeers. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª How did he perfectly hit with so many heads there? They quickly hid in the crowd after seeing their teammate die. "D-Damn!" Almond simply shrugged, "What are they doing? Do they think I can''t hit them if they hide?" Creak¡­? He readied his bow like usual and released. Thwack! "Kugh!" The arrow struck the yer that stood in front of the two musketeers. Almond didn''t stop there and continued shooting. The recurve bow allowed for a quicker session of shots. Thwack! Thwack! [Almond ¡ú NobelPrize] [Eliminated!] [82/100] An innocent yer died, but that didn¡¯t matter. ¡°I guess it''s a win-win.¡± He had to kill everyone to win anyways. That¡¯s why he came to the Arsenal in the first ce. ¡ª For real. ¡ª You''ve gotta kill everyone anyways. ¡ª It''s like criminals hiding behind a civilian. ¡ª But everyone''s a criminal here! ¡ª Just shoot everyone! Almond shot without a care and killed the yers one by one. He didn¡¯t worry about running out of arrows and already cleared the second floor. "Urgh!" "Kugh!" Another person fell every time they hid behind someone. It looked like a scene out of a horror movie. "There''s an archer on the second floor!" "Kill him first!" The two musketeers ordered the other yers to target Almond, who was attacking them. Surprisingly, it worked. "Ow!"?The yer struck by Almond''s missed shot screamed in pain. The arrow was supposed to pierce one of the musketeer¡¯s heads, but it pierced the poor yer''s shoulder instead. Naturally, he directed his anger at Almond. "Die, motherfucker!" Swoosh! He and the other yers threw their knives at Almond. Almond answered the projectiles with his bow. "Get rid of him first!" "Damn pest!" Ten or more yers became hostile toward Almond, but he easily dodged their attacks. The knives they threw only scratched the wall behind him. "K-Kill him!" "You saw him, right? He''s no joke! We''ve gotta kill him first!" "Urgh." This scene baffled everyone and the other yers decided to team up against the overwhelming Almond. ¡ª What the, is this considered teaming up as well? ¡ª This one''s kinda iffy. ¡ª I guess it¡¯s unfair if the opponent is Almond. ¡ª Wow, ying so dirty! The enemies whipped out their weapons to throw at him. Swish. Countless weapons whistled through the air. ''Should I run?'' Even for Almond, facing around eleven yers at once seemed a bit much considering he could only shoot the bow so fast. ''If only it could shoot faster...'' The bow always held him back. He could activate a consecutive shooting skill in?Kingdom Age, but no such mechanic existed in Battle Large. It was up to the user if he wanted to pull off something simr here. ¡ª Just run. ¡ª There are too many. ¡ª Yeah, use a grenade or something. ¡ª Maybe if you have a car. ¡ª LOL The viewers advised him to run, but Almond recalled a video he saw when he was little. ''Should I try that?'' He recalled watching a European man perform stunts with the bow on YouTube. The title of the video was: [Archery used back in ancient wars!] This form of archery lookedpletely different from modern archery. It wasn''t extravagant orplicated, but efficient and powerful. It was the perfect killing technique for wars. Any man would desire to learn the technique. Sang-Hyeon also tried to learn it, but couldn¡¯t fully master it because his coach kept scolding him about fooling around with arrows. ''I wonder if it''ll work now?'' He was using an older recurve bow instead of a modern one. His coach wasn''t here to scold him either. Besides, this was a video game. Movements that weren''t possible in real life were possible here. And his condition felt perfect. ''I think it''s possible in my current state.''? He tried to recreate it as much as he could from memory. First, he had to hold all the arrows in his right hand. He ced a total of four arrows between his fingers. ''Hold the arrows in the hand that''s holding the bow.'' This was the basics of shooting rapidly. For an experienced archer, it was five times quicker like this instead of taking each arrow out from the quiver or holding onto them by the mouth. Almond didn¡¯t have much experience with this technique, but only confidence could be seen in his eyes because he was a genius when it came to bows. ''It''sing.'' Swoosh! A dagger flew towards him from below. Three more apanied it, four in total, which matched the number of arrows in his hand. Creak¡­? Almond drew his bowstring and nocked the first arrow in his right hand. Click. Only perfectly nocked arrows could make such a sound. The hard part was over. It was difficult to ready the bow in such an awkward stance, but he aplished it easier than expected. Everything else was familiar like the silent release he was proud of. Pang! The arrow flew and perfectly struck the knife. nk! The knife fell out of the air. ''Next.'' He quickly knocked the next arrow in his hand and fired. Pang! Indeed, this was much faster than taking arrows out one by one from a quiver. Kang! He deflected another knife flying toward him in the air and his arrows kept flying out even faster. ''Next.'' Almond readied the next arrow and fired again. Pang! The third knife scattered away. Pang! The next arrow deflected the fourth knife in mid-air as well. As a result, he sessfully deflected all four projectiles. ¡ª W-What the? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Holy shit! ¡ª How many did he shoot at once? To the naked eye, it looked like he had shot four arrows simultaneously. Pabababang! Four arrows suddenly rang out and deflected all the enemy weapons. "Again." Almond held another four arrows in his right hand. Creak¡­? This time, he shot them even faster than before and quickly released after a full draw. Pang! An arrow perfectly pierced an enemy''s forehead. Thwack! "Kugh!" Before the first enemy copsed¡­ Pang!!! Another arrow flew. Thwack! And another enemy died. Pang! Pang!! More arrows fired nearly simultaneously and struck two more enemies in the head. [Almond ¡ú OhMan] [Eliminated!] [79/100] [Almond ¡ú diyoe09] [Eliminated!] [78/100] [Almond ¡ú loyman2] [Eliminated!] [77/100] [Almond ¡ú honeybee3] [Eliminated!] [76/100] "..." The yers on the first floor became dumbfounded. The four knives flying towards Almond had all been deflected and the four yers who threw them also died. ''He did all that with a single bow?'' ''What is this?'' ''Where is this?!'' That would¡¯ve been a difficult y even with a machine gun, but Almond managed to do it with a bow. He just made a superhuman y. But... "Oh, not bad." That was his only reaction. ¡ª LOL Oh... ¡ª Oh... ¡ª Oh oh oh... ¡ª Ooooohh... ¡ª LOL What''s wrong with you guys? ¡ª Ooohohohoh¡­? ¡ª Oh man¡­ Almond prepared the next four arrows in his hand as the chat busily typed their ohs. Pabababang! He instantly fired those arrows and kept getting faster. He was already adapting to this new technique. "Kugh!" "Urgh!" "Oof!" He readied four more arrows without even checking the kill log and they simultaneously ripped through the air too. Not a single arrow missed its target. Pababak! Again, precisely four yers copsed. ¡ª Damn, how many kills is that already? ¡ª 18 kills since the start LOL ¡ª Holy shit! ¡ª This is the Arsenal. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª This is arrow hell! ¡ª This was thanks to the jackpot. He has infinite arrows! Usually, Almond would need more arrows for this many kills so early. However, he had a surplus right now thanks to the yer who ran around collecting arrows for him. Pabababang! The noisy Arsenal finally fell silent after he shot thest four arrows. "It''s quiet now, right?" ¡ª How was my assassination? ¡ª The 5 idiot musketeers are out! ¡ª Oh... ¡ª I believed in you... Oh man... ¡ª Go to hell, oh man¡­? ¡ª Ooohhh¡­ The ce could only be described as unholy after the rain of arrows. [NutReligion has donated 1000 won.] [This is... holy. Oh man.] [LetsPray has donated 5000 won.] [Let us give to the church.] [RubySword has donated 10,000 won!] [It suddenly turned religious here! I thought I was watching a different channel LOL!] "Thank you, NutReligion and LetsPray. Ruby, you''re in the right channel. You gave me a mission earlier, remember?" ¡ª Ruby''s so cute ¡ª ying dumb after giving a mission. LOL ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Let him pass, Almond! [SniperSnipe has donated 1000 won.] [Hey boss, could you tell the stream snipers from the rest?] "Ah..." The question stunned Almond. "I don''t know. Which ones were they?" ¡ª LOL ¡ª They died without even having their names known. ¡ª So satisfying. ¡ª I have no idea who they were. ¡ª There are too many bodies. The five-man squad, who tried so hard, ultimately suffered a pathetic fate. The viewers didn''t even remember their usernames. "Hm. Now, do I have to enter here?" After a brief celebration, Almond looked down the dark basement entrance with an anxious thought. Fully equipped survivors could be waiting down there for him. ¡ª For real... ¡ª Let''s just fucking run! ¡ª There''s probably a monster down there! ¡ª They might have a power suit on. Then you''re fucked for real. ¡ª Just run! He had a good chance of securing a high rank if he left now. However, he would have an even better chance of winning first ce if he killed everyone here. ''I want to win first ce.'' Almond wanted first ce no matter what. Just then¡­ m! A loud noise rang out from the basement. m! It definitely came from the basement and sounded like a power suit... ¡ª Just run! ¡ª Stfu pussies. Don''t you believe in Almond? As expected, a survivor was down there. Almond scrolled up to check the kill log. [Jensen ¡ú 007jond] [Jensen ¡ú 5padthai] [Jensen ¡ú Doraibong] [Jensen?¡ú?Simales] One name kept showing up, Jensen. "Ah, as expected, it seems like the biker from before survived." That guy tried to run over Almond in the beginning. He seemed to be fully equipped and on his way up judging from the kill log. The noise gradually grew closer. m! Chapter 79: Jensen vs. Almond (2)

    Chapter 79: Jensen vs. Almond (2)

    As its name suggested, a power suit gave its user a tremendous boost in physical stats. It was unusual for a realistic game like Battle Large to feature something out of science fiction. However, the developers eventually added the power suit into the game when they began introducing equipment and weapons for the legendary rarity. The power suit was so powerful that it deserved to be in a tier above legendary, the godly tier. It was no Iron Man suit, but it had an impressive base defense, the ability to sprint, and the power to nearly kill someone with a punch. It increased the wearer¡¯s physical capabilities by about three times. However, the power suit was so rare that it could only be found in the Arsenal¡¯s basement or in a care package. Care packages dropped randomly, so the only reliable way to find the power suit was at the Arsenal¡¯s basement. Of course, it also had a low chance of appearing there. If found, it would make for excellent gamey on YouTube. Almond got lucky in that sense, but the problem was that his opponent acquired the suit. He peeked down the basement stairs and asked, "What''s that?" m! The silhouette down the stairs surprised him. The yer ran around wearing a shiny suit. In Battle Large, yers could only run so fast if one had the power suit to surpass those limits. ''Did I see that right?'' Almond was seeing the power suit for the first time. Most of the gamey videos he watched were only skill tutorials. Videos didn''t bother to cover the power suit because the chance of encountering it was so low. ¡ª So this is how Jensen killed everyone down there. ¡ª Holy shit ¡ª Power suit? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª As expected of the Arsenal! ¡ª That''s insane ¡ª Holy shit, I didn''t think I''d see a power suit today. m! A scream could be heard after the loud noise. [Jensen ¡ú ScreamingPanties] [Eliminated!] [68/100] That seemed to be thest battle down there. Now, Jensen would likely head towards Almond. ''I need to cover the entrance.'' Almond threw the Molotov he had looted from an earlier corpse. Fwoosh! The mes blocked the path, and Almond readied his bow. Once the enemy turned around the corner¡­ ¡ª The suit''s fireproof! ¡ª It also has a gas mask, so the smoke will be useless. Almost nothing will get through unless you keep shooting at it. ¡ª Just run away! SLAM! Shiiik¡ª? A blue figure sprinted and stomped its way up. ''I can''t shoot this.'' Almond''s instincts told him that the blue figure would dodge all the arrows. He rolled to the side instead. m! The blue figure crushed the wall across from him and turned around with a smile. "Kya! You''re Almond, right?" As expected, Jensen had acquired the power suit and Almond finally took a proper look at it. It didn''t look futuristic at all, but more like a poorly designed suit that a sidekick would wear. Anyways, Jensen already knew who Almond was. ¡ª LOL, another stream sniper? ¡ª Nah, he probably saw in the kill log. ¡ª Who knows, might be another one... ¡ª A stream sniper in a power suit... ¡ª Disgusting! ¡ª Damn! That suit isme, but so strong. ¡ª The power suit''s only downside is that it looks embarrassing! Almond felt confused and angry regardless of how the suit looked. ''This cocky bastard...'' The opponent acted all confident like the main character in a fighting anime as he chased Almond. Almond quickly replied with an arrow. Pang! "Oh!" The opponent quickly dodged it. That''s right. He could move fast enough to dodge the arrows. ''Still... it''s not impossible to hit him.'' There should be a way. Battle Large was based on a realistic engine, which meant the power suit was still in the realm of humans. Most importantly, the power suit could only attack with a standard gun. "At least say hello to my suit!" Tudududung! Jensen made pointless remarks and sprayed his gun. His gun was also a legendary weapon, which meant it didn''tck in fire rate, recoil, or power. Almond would''ve died if he hadn''t quickly hidden behind a container box. BOOM! BOOM! The wooden crates behind him blew up instead. "Oh, shit..." Almond seemed to panic for the first time. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Woah! Please die! ¡ª Just die once, Almond! ¡ª Is he really going to die here? ¡ª It''s your first time dying with a bow, right? The viewers actually felt overjoyed. Almond had died once before because he couldn''t find a bow, but this would be his first time with a bow. They wanted to see how he would react. He would likely pass it off with a sigh again, but they were still eager to see it. ''Not a chance.'' Almond wouldn¡¯t die so easily again. After all, he was a skill-based streamer. Ting! He used three smoke grenades that he had looted from a corpse. Shiiik... Smoke covered the area. "What the! Don''t hide!" Bababang! Bang! The container box across from Almond fell apart. Thankfully, he had already moved. "Almond! Let''s take a picture together!!! Ahahaha!" ¡ª Damn¡­? ¡ª That guy''s crazy! ¡ª He just wants to shake your hand! ¡ª What''s wrong with that guy? LOL Whether it was a good thing or not, the opponent became drunk on power with the legendary suit on. He was understandably cocky because Almond only had a recurve bow. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds!] An alert about the blue zone popped up. ''The location...'' Almond turned pale after checking the map. "Oh..." The circle appeared at the farthest point from Almond. Once again, the blue zone abandoned him. "It''s never on my side." ¡ª Oh man! ¡ª That''s it! Oh man? ¡ª Oh man. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Oh... ¡ª Ooooohhhh ¡ª Ohohohohoho Did god dislike Almond? Did the AI make it difficult for Almond because of his skills? Fate was never on his side despite his opponent obtaining the power suit in the Arsenal. Tudududududu! Jensen continued firing away while shouting, "Mom! I want to be Almond when I grow up!!!" "Motherfucker..." Almond couldn''t help but curse. ¡ª LOOOOL ¡ª Now this is new... ¡ª Motherfucker... this is rare... ¡ª Oh man... ¡ª This is holy! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Legend! ¡ª Jensen is a madman. Jensen didn''t n on stopping until Almond came out. If this continued, Almond would eventually die. "Ohhhhh man! Ohhhhhh! Man!" Tududududu!! The shots came closer and closer to Almond. Light began poking through the dark container box, so Almond quickly moved. ''I can''t keep running away. Let''s think. What do I have?'' He had a single bow while the opponent had an arsenal of weapons. The bow''s advantage over the gun was that it could shoot in different trajectories. Arrows could travel over obstacles and kill their targets. However, there was a limit to this because they were inside a building with a roof. The arrows could only go so high. ''Scratch that.'' Shooting in different trajectories wasn''t possible when there was a roof. Tududududung!!! The gunfire started again. One of the bullets scratched Almond''s leg. Psht... Blood dripped from the wound and his movements slowed. He had to face Jensen, but not directly. Facing the power suit head-on was suicide even if the opponent let their guard down. What was the merit of using a bow if he couldn''t shoot in different trajectories? A thought suddenly crossed Almond''s mind. ''Curve shooting.'' This skill would allow him to curve the arrow and shoot around obstacles. It sounded unrealistic but had actually been done in real battles. Almond never attempted it before and only saw it in videos, but what choice did he have? He ran out of options. "Found you!" m! Jensen smiled wide and headed into the container box. ¡ª Oh, shoot! ¡ª Damn! Is this a horror movie? ¡ª Shudders... ¡ª Jensen is hrious ¡ª Funsen! ¡ª Shiet Tudududu!!! Jensen''s gun lit up as Almond threw himself to the side and also shot his arrows. The four arrows quickly left his hand. Pabababang! "Oh!" The opponent dodged in surprise. Even someone in a power suit had to do something when four arrows flew toward their head. Thankfully, Almond escaped again. ''His aim sucks.'' It took a lot of stamina, but his n worked out since he managed to surprise Jensen. Maybe the opponent had terrible aim because he felt too excited. Almond had a decent chance at winning if that was the extent of Jensen¡¯s skills. ''I need to find the perfect obstacle.'' He had a chance at winning if he could find the right obstacle to ce between them for a curve shot. He needed a hard and strong obstacle that a gun couldn''t shoot through. A building pir caught Almond''s eye. These pirs were quite big to support the huge building. He could buy some time if he hid behind one. Countless options ran through his head, but he didn''t have the luxury to think. Tadadak! He clenched his teeth and ran for it. His avatar with a damaged leg felt off-bnced, but Almond kept running. The opponent discovered him. "Ahhhh! Almond! Can I get a signature?!" Tududududu! Jensen started firing off again. Psht! One of the bullets scratched Almond¡¯s shoulders, but that didn''t matter. ''Alright!'' He sessfully hid behind the pir. [The blue zone is shrinking!] Almond nocked an arrow onto his bow as the blue zone shrunk. It didn''t make a clicking noise like before because he didn''t nock it onto the center of the string. The viewers quickly noticed and questioned him. ¡ª Huh? I don''t think he nocked the arrow correctly. ¡ª I think it''s because he''s rushing. Almond didn¡¯t nock the arrow at the center of the bowstring, but only one-third of the way up. It didn''t click into ce because he ced it in a weird position. This would be a difficult shot, but he had no choice. Almond recalled what he watched in the past and aimed at the pir where the opponent couldn''t see him. "Phew." He held his breath and matched his body''s rhythm to the bow. His heartbeat slowed as well. "Wahahahaha!" Tududududung! Jensen fired at the pir and almost blew it up. Thankfully, he was easy to spot. Shuk. Almond closed his eyes and pictured the enemy¡¯s location. Jensen was five steps behind the pir and woulde from the right. Almond bent his bow towards the right and pulled the arrow resting on the string. Creak¡­? The bow would normally stretch into the shape of a fan, but it looked bent this time. The fan began to copse. Almond released the arrow. Swoosh! ¡ª What the? Why''s he shooting at the pir? ¡ª Has he gone crazy too? ¡ª Was it a mistake? The arrow flying towards the pir suddenly changed directions like the wind. ¡ª ??? ¡ª What? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª What the?! It flew at an unusual angle. The arrow bent as if it had a mind of its own. Shiik¡ª? Chapter 80: Jensen vs. Almond (3)

    Chapter 80: Jensen vs. Almond (3)

    ¡ª No way! ¡ª The arrow curved? ¡ª ??? ¡ª How? The arrow moved as if it had a mind of its own. It curved around the pir and perfectly struck the opponent''s eye. Thwack! "Mom! I''m going to be Almond¡ª" Blood clouded Jensen''s vision. Psht! His fresh blood sttered everywhere. "Ah...!" There wasn''t much pain since it was only a game, but he lost his vision. Jensen missed the pir and struck somewhere else. m! Almond quickly shot and three more arrows left his fingers. To the naked eye, it looked like only his fingers had moved. Piiing! Ping! Ping! . All the arrows perfectly struck Jensen''s head. Even a power suit couldn¡¯t withstand four blows to the head. [Almond ¡ú Jensen] [Eliminated!] [66/100] *** Jensen died and the viewers became confused. ¡ª What just happened?! ¡ª What did I just witness?! ¡ª Is this a bug? ¡ª He''s going to get reported again. ¡ª What the heck is going on?! Almond¡¯s y seemed like a bug because it defied all logic and physics. Battle Large had realistic settings, unlike a fantasy game. All its mechanics and items were realistic other than the power suit. ¡ª This game''s gone downhill since they introduced the power suit. ¡ª Is there a power bow now too? ¡ª For real. ¡ª That''s just a recurve bow. ¡ª The recurve bow is worse than thepound bow. The viewers suspected Almond had a special bow like the power suit. Almond exined himself as he looted Jensen''s body, "Oh, this works with a real bow too." ¡ª ??? ¡ª How do you know that? ¡ª Almond, have you used a real bow before? ¡ª For real? ¡ª ??? It works!! He identally talked about a real bow, which didn''t provide his audience with much context. How many people had experience using a real bow? ¡ª Do you have experience with real bows? No wonder your form is so good. ¡ª What did he use to do? ¡®Oops.¡¯ Almond slipped up and panicked a little. "Who uses a real bow these days¡­" He continued scavenging after making up a weak excuse. Thankfully, he had something perfect to change the topic. [Power Suit] "Oh, that''s right." He could pick up the power suit and wear it for himself. He was so focused on killing the enemy that the idea never crossed his mind. "This power suit is mine now, right?" One of Almond''s strengths was his physical abilities and this power suit would further boost them. The promotion match would soon end now. ¡ª Wow, Almond with a power suit? ¡ª This game will have so many highlights. ¡ª Seo Ji-Ah''s going to work overnight. ¡ª This game''s already done. "I''ll get t two right away." ¡ª This guy LOL ¡ª It''s over. ¡ª His confidence is through the roof with the power suit. ¡ª The round is done. ¡ª Unfair nut¡­ Chuk. Almond put on the power suit with a smile. Ooong! A golden light enveloped Almond. This effect only appeared when one equipped legendary gear. Almond experienced it for the first time. "Who would''ve thought I''d get a legendary?" ¡ª Oh yeah, I guess it¡¯s his first time. ¡ª What a touching moment. ¡ª Oppa, you''ve always been so unlucky¡­ ¡ª Almond is legendary! He finally acquired legendary equipment despite his terrible luck with farming. It was the rarest of them too. His new look awed the viewers. ¡ª Almond''s specialty is farming people. ¡ª Farming people again? ¡ª He doesn''t take any chances. Almond was used to his bad luck. Ironically, his unlucky encounter with the power suit ended up in his favor. ''Wow...'' His enhanced physical abilities felt impressive since he was ustomed to the realistic gamey. The power suit felt refreshing. [You''ve been exposed to poisonous gas!] [Quickly move out of the blue zone!] Bzzzzt¡ª? The blue zone shrunk and poison gas clouded his vision. However, Almond took his time adjusting to the power suit and checked his new abilities. [The gas mask has reduced damage from the gas.] He could take his time thanks to the power suit¡¯s gas mask. Gas masks reduced the damage yers took in the blue zone. The first blue zone didn¡¯t do a lot of damage, so Almond hardly lost any health. He leisurely tested the suit by stretching and moving around. ''It''s light!'' He could feel an unknown power throughout his body and his body felt significantly lighter. It felt almost dangerous since he felt stronger than his body. Almond felt like he had turned into another being. "This power suit feels like cheating. I¡¯ll slowly farm medical supplies and head towards the circle." ¡ª Cheating lol so cute. ¡ª Almond''s excited because he finally found decent gear. ¡ª The heavens are finally helping Almond in his promotion matches! ¡ª Thanks, power suit! You''re reliable! ¡ª It wasn''t the heavens. It was Jensen! Almond lightly jogged out of the Arsenal. Tang! Lightly jogging in the power suit equaled sprinting without it. Tang! Tang! He felt like he was flying every time he took a step. Almond hopped around scavenging for medical items. He was fully focused on farming for the first time. *** [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds.] The blue zone was about to shrink for the second time. "Already?" Almond felt surprised. He had so much fun farming in the power suit that he forgot this was a survival game. ''Am I having too much fun?'' He didn''t think he would be this immersed and realized the joy of having superhuman strength. ''So this is why everyone ys LIL.'' He finally understood why Life is Legend, or LIL?for short, was the number one most popr game in the world. Everyone was superhuman in that game. It revolved around ten superhumans or monsters fighting each other while wearing power suits. No wonder it was popr. ''I¡¯m a bit curious now.'' Almond started to take an interest in those kinds of games. He grew excited as he thought about taking part in big fights with different superhuman abilities now that he experienced the power suit. ''I''ve gotta give it a try one day.'' He finished farming while thinking about the future. [The blue zone is shrinking!] The blue zone began shrinking for the second time. "Five first-aid kits, ten painkillers, ten energy drinks, and a medical kit. I can set up a pharmacy with all this." ¡ª Meanwhile, not a single gun¡­? ¡ª Bow + medkit = full farming. ¡ª Nut style farming. ¡ª Hey, Almond only needs medkits, okay? ¡ª For real. ¡ª Admit it, the game''s already over. "Not just med kits, I also picked up a hero tier helmet and a vest as well. Seems like I can''t wear it with the power suit though." ¡ª Yeah, it''s like a handicap for the power suit. ¡ª That''s why the power suit''s weakness is the head.? ¡ª It''d be way too unfair if you could wear that as well. ¡ª Are you trying to be Iron Man? Almond just found out he couldn''t wear a helmet with the power suit. He felt a little disappointed, but he killed Jensen thanks to this weakness. Regardless, the power suit was still overpowered. "Okay, I''ll go on a rampage now." Time for him to test his overpowered abilities. Tang. Almond smiled as he put his fists together. Thump¡­.? His heart pounded from excitement and he looked forward to seeing the difference. "Are there no missions for how many kills I get this round?" Usually, he received per kill missions. However, the viewers had gone quiet this round because of the power suit. What was the point of giving him missions if he would obviously win? ¡ª LOL ¡ª This guy''s crazy for money. ¡ª Hey, who''s crazy enough to waste their money? ¡ª Stop eating Almond! Stop eating Almond! Stop eating Almond! Stop eating Almond! Stop eating Almond! ¡ª Are you nning to rule the world? "That''s a shame... Well..." Almond checked how many yers remained and confidently dered, "I''ll kill about 30 more since there are 54 yers left." *** ¡°Pfft,¡±?the girl in the wheelchairughed. Therge TV on the wall disyed Almond''s stream again. ¡°Are there no missions for how many kills I get this round?¡± Did he have no shame? To ask that after fully farming and wearing a power suit¡­ The girl couldn''t help butugh at his shameless attitude. Her lips gradually curved into a smile as she watched his stream. She hadn''t realized it. When did she start to smile? Probably when Almond shattered her expectations. She didn''t expect much from his strategy of repeatedly heading to the Arsenal. The strategy itself was fine, but she thought he would fail since he was a streamer and this was his promotion match. She had lost all hope when the stream sniper with the power suit appeared. The situation seemed hopeless. Any normal game would''ve ended there, but Almond somehow managed to push through with an unexpected tactic. ''The arrow... curved?'' It was her first time seeing someone use a bow like that. It felt refreshing and she hadn''t felt such emotion in a long time. She thought she would never feel such emotions again whether it was curiosity orpetitiveness, yet these emotions caused her to smile. Was she simply curious or did she want to see him win? ¡°I''ll kill about 30 more.¡± Almond became unstoppable after his confident deration. It looked like he was ying an entirely different game. The game''s genre changed from survival to horror the second he stepped into the safe zone. yer health bars instantly disappeared and the kill log grew as his arrows pierced their heads. The recurve bow could disy more power than thepound bow if one could pull with more strength. Almond''s strength, enhanced by the power suit, made it possible for him to hit targets further away. He could still rapidly shoot too. As a result, he quickly killed yers from far away with a hundred percent hit rate. The game became totally unbnced. Almond annihted the remaining 51 yers and obviously won first ce. ¡°Oh... I got promoted.¡± He ranked up without ying the remaining matches since he ced first. At first, she smiled at him like he was her cute little brother. However, her gaze changed as his tier icon shone during the rank up process. p. p. p¡­? Her pping echoed in therge room. "He''s pretty good," she muttered and turned off the TV. Chapter 81: Fanservice (1)

    Chapter 81: Fanservice (1)

    [tinum II] The medal brightly shone. "Oh... I''ve been promoted." Now, he was only two ranks away from diamond despite being a week into his challenge. ¡ª Oh man. ¡ª Ohohohoh¡­? ¡ª Wow, he really did it! ¡ª He might actually be able to get diamond. ¡ª I think we can say for sure another one of JeonJaPa''s records will be broken. ¡ª He can do it if he won with all those stream snipers. ¡ª This guy is no joke. ¡ª If only JeonJaPa tried a little harder... ¡ª What''s JeonJaPa up to these days? Teach this nut a lesson! Everyone had been skeptical when Almond announced that he would reach Diamond in two weeks. Even his fans thought he was overconfident because he had only yed two matches at the time. However, no one doubted he would reach Diamond anymore. The question was how quickly he would reach it now. "Everyone! I reached my goal for today, so I''m leaving." ¡ª ??? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Aren''t you going to get diamond? Aren''t you going to get diamond? Aren''t you going to get diamond? Aren''t you going to get diamond? ¡ª Oh no, why! ¡ª Bye Almond... ¡ª Bye Treevy¡­ The chat turned into an ocean of tears. [OhNo has donated 10,000 won.] [You''ll reach diamond, right?] [RubySword has donated 10,000 won.] [Stay healthy!] [Eggnt has donated 5000 won.] [Fighting!] It was a shame, but Almond had to end his stream due to his health. "Thank you RubySword and Eggnt. I''m going now! Bye, Treevy!" *** Chiik¡ª? The familiar sound of the capsule opening could be heard. Almond walked out like a zombie drenched in sweat. ''I feel like I''m wearing a heavy bondage suit after flying around in the power suit.'' Almond felt more tired than usual because of the power suit. As a result, he had to end his streamer earlier than usual. ''Was I too immersed in it? Am I the problem?¡¯ Almond grew curious if he was the only one who faced these problems. He would''ve heard about it if his condition wasmon, but he never did. Ju-Hyeok came up to him and asked, "How was it today? Was it difficult? I don''t know about earlier, but it seems like you destroyed everyer on." He noticed Sang-Hyeon seemed more tired than usual and the stream ended earlier than nned too. "Ah... Dealing with those stream snipers early on was a little tiring." Sang-Hyeon quickly headed to the shower. "Ah, alright. I''ll go ahead and report them!" Ju-Hyeok shouted, but Sang-Hyeon probably couldn''t hear him. "They should be in themunity." Ju-Hyeok went to Battle31, the biggest Battle Largemunity on the inte. ''What the?'' His jaws dropped. The site didn¡¯t look like this an hour ago. ''The stream just ended.'' Only five minutes had passed since Sang-Hyeon''s stream ended. [1. Almond''s power suit y] [2. Almond reaching t II in one game] [3. Miho''s statement on Almond] [4. Miho''s outfit today!] [5. Bubblegum back to ying Battle Large! Win rate: 0.04% ¡ú 0.03%] Almond frequently appeared on the trending posts. Ju-Hyeok spotted Bubblegum''s name at the bottom as well. ''Bubblegum is starting to y again.'' Bubblegum often changed games. He would move on afterpleting a game and usually switched after a season for online games. He was ying Battle Large for an event thest time Almond met him. Many didn''t expect him to return since he already yed Battle Large, but he made it his main game again. ''The manager meant what he said.'' Bubblegum''s manager, Park Sung-Tae, had notified Ju-Hyeok. [We''re nning to make Battle Large our main game for this quarter. It''s probably for the best to naturally coborate with Almond.] They were setting up to coborate, but Almond had to reach Diamond first to teach Bubblegum how to y. [Isn''t it a given he''ll reach diamond? Now we just have to see if he''ll beat the record or not.] Park Sung-Tae had no doubts that Almond would reach Diamond. ''He has a good sense for people.'' Ju-Hyeok continued scrolling with a smile on his face. "Ah, found it." He had been looking for this post. [List of Almond''s stream snipers today] Thankfully, someone conveniently made a list of all the users who targeted Almond in today''s stream. Ju-Hyeok copied the list and pasted it into his notes. It was difficult to report them for a single incident, but Ju-Hyeok could easily report them in the future if they repeated the offense. "Anyways, public opinion changed so quickly. Pfft." He couldn''t help butugh as he read thements. [When will Almond reach Diamond? 8 days? 9 days?] [A week away from JeonJaPa''s record being broken.] [JeonJaPa''s over the hill now.] Themunity had been full of posts doubting Almond just a few days ago. Now, most posts wanted to see how fast he would break JeonJaPa''s record. Those who still cheered for JeonJaPa were considered to be clinging to the past. *** Sang-Hyeon felt refreshed after his shower. "Phew." Tak. Tak. He ced the towel around his head after lightly sshing some water. Then he ate a sweet fruit pudding from the fridge because he thought he needed the sugar. "Mmm." It tasted so satisfying and his condition recovered after the snack. Sang-Hyeon checked the time. ''It''s only 6 P.M.'' He would be getting ready to work overtime after dinner if he was still at thepany. However, his day had already finished now since he won his promotion matches in one round. ''This is how it should be.'' Sang-Hyeony on his bed with a light heart. He felt lighter on his bed than in the power suit. It felt great. As usual, he went on his phone and watched some YouTube videos before checking themunityments. "Woah¡­" Anyone could tell that Almond had be the hottest streamer on Battle31. His name appeared in the titles of every trending post in themunity. It felt exciting to be known by so many people even if it was just online. Almond naturally sought attention since his days as a young athlete and felt thrilled about it. ''The reactions are good.'' The public¡¯s opinion had reached its peak. [He got promoted after crushing those stream snipers! So cool] [For real. I''ve never seen such a cooler way to get promoted.] [Barbarian warrior Almond...] They praised him for wiping out the stream snipers early on. [Almond 1v5.gif] A post about his 1v5 matchup steadily gained attention. ''1v5?'' Sang-Hyeon felt slightly confused. Was it 1v5? At most, it was 1v4 in his memory. He clicked on the post and a montage of him killing the jackpot yer on the second floor appeared. "Nah, this is a 1v1," Sang-Hyeon smirked and kept watching the montage. It started as 1v1. Then three other yers went after him. Even he felt pleased watching himself fight off three yers at once. It felt like watching an action movie. It was a shame this montage didn''t have any sound. ¡ª Holy shit! ¡ª I''m going to watch this right now. ¡ª I can''t believe I couldn''t watch this live... what am I doing with my life... ¡ª I''ll watch it when it¡¯s on YouTube. It''s cooler that way haha. ©¸ For real. Almond''s editor makes him look even cooler.? ©¸ The editor''s name is Seo Ji-Ah? How do you know? ©¸ She ran his fanpage a while ago, Almond''s fan Seo Ji-Ah. "Wow, they know Seo Ji-Ah too?" It felt weird how much they knew about him. Almond went to the next page. [Jensen! This crazy bastard! LOL] [Jensen is fucking hrious!] [The gods helped Almond in today''s stream. Freaking Jensen!] A couple of posts celebrated Jensen with the power suit. "Oh?" A stream sniper didn''t always negatively impact a stream. Sometimes, it made the stream more interesting for the viewers. Jensen''s character had an overall positive impact on his stream. ''It was pretty funny.'' Even Almond couldn''t help butugh when he thought back on it. An avid fan running around in a power suit. That made for quite the sight. [I got Jensen''s video! Turn on your sound!] The post with a clip of Jensen trended more than the others. In the video, Jensen kept shouting,?''Mom, I want to be Almond when I grow up!'' ¡ª LOL ¡ª That guy''s insane! ¡ª Can''t believe I missed this! ¡ª Ah frick, it¡¯ll be on YouTube, right? ¡ª LOL ¡ª He does seem insane with the power suit on. ¡ª Oh man! ©¸ Oh man. ©¸ Oh... man. ©¸ Oh man. ©¸ LOL ¡ª The stream god blessed Almond today. ©¸ Still, a stream sniper is a stream sniper. Sang-Hyeon replied to the bottomment and moved on. He wasn''t willing to forgive Jensen. [The reason he looked so badass while killing the five idiot musketeers.] ¡®Five idiot musketeers?¡¯?Sang-Hyeon briefly thought about what the post was referring to before bursting intoughter. The viewers had already nicknamed the five yers who targeted him. [Wasn''t he so badass when he climbed up to the second floor using knives? It felt like watching a protagonist in a thriller movie.] The post didn''t say much, so Sang-Hyeon felt surprised at why it trended. ¡ª Yeah... ¡ª Agreed! ¡ª I never imagined that would work. ©¸ For real ©¸ One of the viewers told him to do that! ¡ª He listened to his viewers! Sweet Almond! ¡ª Wow, someone find the clip. I can''t seem to find it¡­ The post had lots ofments though. Any post that mentioned Almond seemed to gain attention. However¡­ ''Hm?'' Almond suddenly learned something new. ¡ª The user who told Almond about that strategy, PaPaPa, isn''t that JeonJaPa? ©¸ WTF are you talking about? ©¸ ??? ©¸ No, for real. PaPaPa is JeonJaPa''s Treevy username. It''s his sub-ount, but it''s true. I''m his fan, so I recognized it. ©¸ Stop lying. ©¸ Do you think JeonJaPa would bementing in his stream? ¡®Was it JeonJaPa?¡¯?Sang-Hyeon got up from hisfortable position. He recalled countless chats when he read PaPaPa¡¯s username. ''What was it?'' It could''ve been false, but Sang-Hyeon wanted to double-check for some reason. He logged into Treevy on his phone and checked his chat log. ¡ª Go up using your knives. ¡ª Use the knife... ah, I guess I should use a donation message ¡ª Oh. Good. ¡ª Woah, the arrow is curving? First time seeing something like this. ¡ª You just need to kill everyone while slowly closing in if you have the power suit! ¡ª Now kill everyone! The chat entries had been nothing special. "That''s weird." It felt strange because everything PaPaPa said ended up correct. Everything he typed was the best possible action in that scenario. At least, it felt like that from Sang-Hyeon''s perspective. Could a viewer luckily guess the right course of action every time? Knock, knock. Ju-Hyeok knocked on his door. "Yeah, what?" "Hey, it''s been a while. Let''s go out and eat." "Huh? Where?" "I want some kimchi stew. I hear there''s a new franchise." "A new franchise?" "Yeah, they offered an ad for you. I want to see if they''re good or not." "Ah... The ce with a ten thousand year old tradition or whatever it was called?" "Yeah, there.?Puhaha!"?Ju-Hyeokughed at the restaurant¡¯s ridiculous slogan of a ten thousand year old tradition. They went out to eat dinner at 6:40 P.M. "Ah... Sure." "Some soju too?" "Let''s do it." It had been a while. They didn¡¯t have any time to eat out unless it was for work. It was the first time they went out since eating chicken when Ju-Hyeok moved in. ''Yum.'' Sang-Hyeon loved chicken and beer, but he also loved the thought of kimchi stew with some soju. Chapter 82: Fanservice (2)

    Chapter 82: Fanservice (2)

    Sang-Hyeon lived in a poor neighborhood that some would call the slums. The neighborhood had narrow staircases, low ceilings, old bricks, and flickering streetmps. All this felt foreign to Ju-Hyeok, who had lived in rich neighborhoods his entire life. "Sigh, these stairs are always a pain in the ass," Ju-Hyeok said with a frown. He was okay with everything except these stairs. What would happen when it snowed in the winter? Ju-Hyeok could only fathom climbing these stairs with some sort of equipment. "Hey, even my grandma went up and down these stairs during winter." Ju-Hyeok didn''t have much to say after that. "Sigh, then it''s my fault I''m weak." "Yep, that''s right," Sang-Hyeon nodded in satisfaction and went ahead. "Let''s hurry. I''m hungry,¡± Ju-Hyeok smirked and picked up his pace too. Creak¡­? A door suddenly opened and Ju-Hyeok¡¯s forehead mmed into it. Thud! "Ow! This damn neighborhood!" The fact that a door could hit someone on their way down proved how undesirable this neighborhood was. "Huh?" However, the Hoogye neighborhood¡¯s one upside was their good neighbors like Seo Ji-Ah. "Does it hurt a lot?" Ji-Ah walked out with a red scarf around her neck. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Ju-Hyeok frowning. "Ah, Ji-Ah! It''s you. Haha." Ju-Hyeok tried his best to turn his frown upside down, but it only looked worse from Sang-Hyeon''s perspective. "It''s alright... what can you do?" "This neighborhood has a weirdyout." "Right? Haha. The person who mapped this ce out should try living here." Sang-Hyeon joined their conversation, "We run into each other quite often." "Ah, Mr. Almond. Hello." ¡®Mr. Almond?¡¯?Sang-Hyeon scratched his head. "You guys must be headed somewhere." "Sorry?" "Aren''t the two of you going out?" "Ah, well..." Ju-Hyeok interrupted Sang-Hyeon, "We''re going to eat. Do you want to join?" *** "It''s here," Ju-Hyeok pointed at a giant neon sign that read:?[Oh Gang-Woo Kimchi Stew]. "This ce is quite popr these days." "Oh, really? Haha. It''s a secret, but this ce offered an ad..." "Hey, let''s go." Sang-Hyeon led the way before Ju-Hyeok could spew more nonsense at Seo Ji-Ah. That wasn''t the only reason he went first. ''What''s this feeling? Feels like I''m being watched...''?He felt wary for some reason. ¡°Is that?¡± ¡°I think¡­¡± Mumble mumble. He could hear faint whispers and felt eyes on him ever since they reached the urban areas. ''Let''s just quickly go in.'' He thought it''d be better if they entered the restaurant, but he was wrong. "Wee to our ten thousand year..." *** Creak¡­? The staff shouted when the door opened, "Wee to our ten thousand year old tradition! Taste of hell! Oh Gang-Woo Kimchi Stew!!!" Ten thousand year old tradition? The staff felt ridiculous having to repeat this bizarre motto. They always thought the owner, Oh Gang-Woo, should''ve just called it a thousand year old. Everyone thought it sounded a little extreme, but they had no choice since the owner enforced such a philosophy. ¡®Make sure they say it properly! Not a thousand years or a hundred years. Ten thousand years! Taste of hell! Alright?¡¯ Who could defy the owner if he acted so insistent? ¡®I got someone super popr to be our model this time! I think business will be good, so don''t worry! Just trust me, alright?!¡¯ Most of the staff didn¡¯t even recognize the model in the photo despite his poprity. They had to admit he looked handsome though. ''Phew... Fine, let''s just keep our mouth shut and do as he says since business is going well.'' Creak¡­? The door opened again. ¡®See? Business is booming.¡¯ "Wee to our..." ¡®Huh?¡¯?The store manager, Oh Dong-San, scratched his head while bowing. "Taste of hell! Oh Gang-Woo Kimchi Stew!!!" The other staff filled the silence, but the question remained in his head. ''I''ve seen him somewhere?'' The taller man out of the three looked familiar¡­ a little too familiar. "Kya!" Oh Dong-San turned towards the scream before he could figure it out. Did someone spill their kimchi stew? "Al-Almond!" Almond? Why would there be an almond at a kimchi stew restaurant? "What''s wrong?!" Oh Dong-San asked the female worker who screamed, but she only stared at the three customers. Tap. Tap. He walked to the female worker and tapped her on the shoulder, "What is it?" "That''s Almond..." "That''s a person?" "The streamer Almond! Don''t you know him?" ¡®Streamer? I''m turning forty next year.¡¯ "How would I know a streamer¡­?" ¡®Ah.¡¯?He finally realized why the staff expected him to know Almond. He should''ve known.?¡®You idiot! You should''ve recognized him!¡¯? "Ah! The model..." The CEO of this franchise had just bragged about signing Almond as a model ten minutes before they opened. He went on about how hard they worked to get him! "But what''s the big deal with Almond? Why was the CEO bragging so much?" Oh Dong-San asked his staff in a whisper. "He''s pretty popr among gamers! And he''s a better option than those failing TVworks these days." "Oh, is that so? Things have changed..." "Right? Also..." "?" "He''s so handsome! Kya!" Oh Dong-San cringed as she loudly giggled in his ear. "S-Sorry..." "It''s fine. You take care of him if you know him so well. I''ll take care of the other guests." "Okay! But... can I ask him for an autograph?" "Do whatever you want¡­" "Yay! Thank you! Thank you!" *** Someone screamed and pointed at Sang-Hyeon as soon as he entered. They shouted Almond¡¯s name. Sang-Hyeon wasn''t stupid. ''They can tell I''m Almond?'' He always thought the gamingmunity and real life were separate. Now that he thought about it, he also knew Bubblegum despite having never yed video games. Seo Ji-Ah recognized Sang-Hyeon in their neighborhood and followed him too. It made sense that other people would recognize him in the city. "Must be a fan," Seo Ji-Ah quietly muttered and scanned the staff with a cold gaze. "I don¡¯t think so. She probably just recognized me," Sang-Hyeon made an odd excuse for some reason. Ju-Hyeok couldn¡¯t help butugh, "Kya, you''re so popr!" The female worker approached Sang-Hyeon before he could say anything to Ju-Hyeok. She passed the menu to them and acted like a cute puppy even though she looked like a cat. "I can take your order!" He liked the menu for its simplicity. "Can we have three orders of hell''s nine thousand kimchi stew?" "Of course! Nine thousand won! Hell''s taste! Kimchi stew! This one is a little pricey because it has octopus in it. Are you okay with seafood?" Seo Ji-Ah added, "A bottle of soju as well please." "Soju! Alright!" The waitress shouted the order to the kitchen. Then... "Umm..." she handed something to Sang-Hyeon while blushing. "You''re Almond, right? Could I have your autograph?" Sang-Hyeon nodded without being surprised. It was the first time a fan, other than Seo Ji-Ah, had asked for an autograph. "Ah, yes. Of course." "Hurray!" She jumped with joy and no embarrassment whatsoever. Sang-Hyeon worried if she was allowed to behave like that while working, but the manager seemed to be smiling at them. Shshk. Sang-Hyeon signed it casually as if it was a receipt. Unfortunately, he only knew one way of doing his signature. "Can you write my name too? Lee Ju-Hyeon!" "Ah, sure." "Please write: ¡®I love you, Lee Ju-Hyeon!¡¯ Please!" "Ah..." Sang-Hyeon was surprised to see what he was writing. "Sorry¡­" ¡®Love?¡¯ "Is that okay?" she asked him again. Sang-Hyeon felt slightly ufortable. He still had the mentality of a normal person and not a celebrity yet. The word love felt too strong. "Ah, if you can''t..." The waitress continued smiling, but small tears formed in her eyes. "J-Just the name is fine..." "Okay." In the end, Sang-Hyeon didn''t write love. Regardless, the waitress preciously hugged his autograph and carried it away. "Phew!" Sang-Hyeon took a deep breath after she left. "W-What just happened?" "What do you mean? It''s the pain of being a celebrity," Ju-Hyeok giggled. He had a lot tough about these days. "Thank goodness," Seo Ji-Ah muttered as she looked at the waitress. "What is?" "Because nothing much happened." A different shadow covered Sang-Hyeon as soon as Seo Ji-Ah finished speaking. "U-Umm..." It wasn''t an employee this time. "Can I... take a picture with you?" It was one of the girls who had been ncing at Sang-Hyeon since he was outside and she followed him into the restaurant. "Uh... Weren''t you outside earlier?" "Ah..." The girl''s face turned red from the cold weather. "Yes... but I''m eating here too. I won''t be an inconvenience." Indeed, she had followed him inside. She looked like she lived a calm and precious life. Sang-Hyeon couldn''t believe someone like her was determined enough to follow him inside. "Sure, let''s take one." Sang-Hyeon got up from his seat and posed. Seo Ji-Ah took the photo. "Kya!?Thank you!" The girl went back to her seat after checking the photo. Sang-Hyeon turned to the store manager and apologized, "I''m sorry. I didn''t know it would turn out like this." "Ah... No! Don''t be! Actually, I''m thankful!" "...?" Thankful? Why was he thankful? Sang-Hyeon felt confused, but soon found out as he followed the manager''s gaze. More customers poured in and they all stared at Almond. ''There''s no way I''m this famous.'' Almond was famous, but not to the point where everyone on the streets would recognize him. It was his good looks. Sang-Hyeon stood out more and people recognized him even in a crowd because of that. Usually, even celebrities blended into crowds and went unrecognized. The same couldn¡¯t be said for Sang-Hyeon. He became popr and recognizable. "A-Almond? Is that really him? Mister, we''ll have two servings of the 666 kimchi stew." "What should I do¡­?" "Is that him?" "Can we ask for a picture?" "Who''s that beside him?" "I don''t know. His sibling?" Sang-Hyeon could hear them once he noticed all the attention. Everyone was talking about Almond. His heart began pounding. Some fans read the room and approached him. "Almond, can we take a picture too?" "Can I get an autograph!" Sang-Hyeon had no reason to decline since the manager already thanked him. "Of course." He got up from his seat with a smile. *** Meanwhile, an ount on a long hiatus went LIVE again as the amateur streamer experienced his newfound poprity. [JeonJaPa is now streaming!] JeonJaPa finally returned after taking a break for three years. Chapter 83: Fanservice (3)

    Chapter 83: Fanservice (3)

    "Oh, man! I believe in you!" "..." They raised their sses to Ju-Hyeok''s strange toast. "Kumph!" "Urgh." "Kya." Each of them made a different face and noise. Then they began eating their kimchi stews. "This ce is pretty good," Ju-Hyeok said while eating some octopus. He had been suspicious because the stew contained octopus, but that only made it more refreshing. "Yeah," Sang-Hyeon replied while eating the tofu in his stew. Only Ji-Ah remained silent. She continued eating without a word. "J-Ji-Ah, you must like kimchi stew a lot." Ji-Ah swallowed her food and looked up at Ju-Hyeok, "It''s good, no?" "Ah, yes! It''s good!" "Hey, just pour some drinks." Their dinner together still felt awkward and Sang-Hyeon knew that alcohol would solve it. "Okay!" Ju-Hyeok excitedly opened the soju bottle. Trickle¡­? Their sses filled up again. Gulp. They emptied their shots without any hesitation. A hangover would definitely hit them tomorrow, but they could rest at home due to their jobs. "Pour some more!" Sang-Hyeon stuck out his ss again. They should''ve moved to a bar by this point, but he didn''t want to. He wanted to stay here where no one bothered him anymore. He didn''t want to risk meeting more people outside. He liked being recognized, but wanted to avoid being interrupted while drinking. "Good, good." Ju-Hyeok poured some more and the three continued drinking. Alcohol had solved their awkwardness. *** The solution worked too well. Some awkwardness should¡¯ve remained, but they had gone beyond that. "Hey! Almond...!" Fwip. Ji-Ah pointed her finger in front of Sang-Hyeon. He couldn''t tell if he was losing his bnce or she was. "You... sure are popr!" Ju-Hyeok tried to hold her back, "H-Hey, Ji-Ah?" "Ah, frick." Thud. She tried to push Ju-Hyeok away, but fell instead. She was too drunk and small. "Luuuucky you! But who makes your videos!? Huh!?" "You make them," Sang-Hyeon spoke informally to her and must¡¯ve been drunk too. "Yeah! Huh?" "So what do you want me to do?" "So you should... you should... ah! I don''t know! Frick!" Thump. Ji-Ah fell to the side again, but opposite Ju-Hyeok this time and towards the hallway. Ju-Hyeok grabbed her by the neck and pulled her up. "Woah, Ms. Ji-Ah. I mean, Ji-Ah. You''re still young. What are you doing?" "Lucky you for being old, Old-Hyeok!" ¡°Pfft,¡± Sang-Hyeon burst intoughter. ¡®Old-Hyeok.¡¯?He felt satisfied just seeing Ju-Hyeok''s expression. "A-Ahem." "Yeah, Old-Hyeok. Don''t talk about age!" "You too? You''re thirty too!" "Actually, I''m 28." "What?" Ju-Hyeok made an astonished expression that seemed to say, ¡®What is this guy saying right now?''?"W-What are you talking about?" "I was exempt from military service because I was the only provider for my family. Didn''t you ever think it was weird? I missed two years of military service and didn''t even go to university." "W-What the fuck? I thought you were just screwing around for two years or something!" How could that be? Yu Sang-Hyeon was only 28 years old. "T-Then why did you lie and say you were in your thirties during the stream?" "Because everyone around me thinks so, 28 or 30. Same thing." Ju-Hyeok wanted to hold Ji-Ah by the neck and Sang-Hyeon by the head at the same time if he could. "T-This guy is 3 years younger than me?!" "I''ll turn 29 soon anyways." "I¡¯ll be 32 soon! What the hell is with your logic?!" "Who told you to travel overseas? Puhahahaha!" Sang-Hyeon joyfullyughed it off. ''This crazy devil.'' If Ju-Hyeok had the choice between the red pill or the blue pill, he would choose the blue pill right now to forget everything. He still wanted to believe that Sang-Hyeon was only a year younger than him. "Hey, who cares? You knew I was younger anyways." "It''s not the same as a one year difference!" "It''s the same thing. You''re from overseas. You''re basically a foreigner. Who cares?" "I''m the one who traveled overseas, not you¡ª" Thud! Seo Ji-Ah suddenly got up with wide eyes and identally bumped Ju-Hyeok on the chin. "Kugh!" She got up so quickly that Ju-Hyeok lost his bnce despite his bigger size. Sang-Hyeon burst intoughter again. Meanwhile, Ji-Ah focused on her phone as if nothing happened. "Jeon... Jeon!" she muttered while staring at her notifications. "Jeon? Jeon what?" "Jeon... JeonJa..." "?" Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon scratched their heads and stared at each other. "JeonJaPa turned on his stream." *** Previously, Sang-Hyeon wouldn''t have cared if some streamer began streaming. ''Didn''t they say he hasn''t streamed in over three years?'' JeonJaPa had gone on a hiatus for three years. He featured in ads from time to time, but that was it. It was hard to call him a streamer because he barely yed video games anymore. ''No way.'' The username PaPaPa came to mind as Sang-Hyeon quickly opened the Treevy app on his phone. JeonJaPa''s stream yed on the main screen when he opened it. ''How many viewers?'' The number didn¡¯t show up yet since JeonJaPa just turned it on. Sang-Hyeon quickly clicked on it. "Huh?" [This channel is currently not streaming.] What the? Didn''t the stream just start? Was it an error? Maybe the wifi caused an issue? "Uh... It turned off." Ji-Ah said the same thing, which meant it had indeed turned off. "The stream turned on for a split second, but then it turned off." "..." ¡°Sigh¡­¡±?Sang-Hyeon took a deep breath and subconsciously felt nervous at the fact that JeonJaPa began streaming. ''Do I think of him as a rival?'' That seemed about right. He was a rival. Sang-Hyeon might not be worthy yet considering JeonJaPa''s achievements, but they were definitely rivals. How many times had their records beenpared already? His achievements as a pro gamer couldn''t match up yet, but Almond had a chance as a streamer. "What the? Must''ve been an error." Ju-Hyeok set his phone down and leaned back in his seat. He felt slightly nervous too as Almond¡¯s manager. JeonJaPa''s character shed with Sang-Hyeon''s, which Ju-Hyeok considered a potential threat. "Phew,"?he sighed in relief. "Urgh..." Thud. Ji-Ah''s head fell on the table and she went to sleep. She had already been out of it, but JeonJapPa''s stream momentarily woke her up. ''Was she also a fan of JeonJaPa?'' It wasn''t odd to picture Ji-Ah as a fan considering her personality. It would make sense if she moved on to Almond due to the long hiatus. "Let''s go." Sang-Hyeon got up first. He went to the register to pay their bill. "Ah, we won''t be taking any payment." "Sorry?" The manager declined his money. "W-Why?" "Because you''re the model for our franchise! Hahaha!" The owner''s expression seemed to say, ''Understand?''? ¡®What?¡¯ "I didn''t ept yet." "!?" Sang-Hyeon was still debating whether to be their model or not. "Ah... I-Is that so? Hahaha! Our CEO gets a little ahead of himself sometimes..." "Here you go." Sang-Hyeon gave him the card, but the manager still shook his head. "Then that''s even better! Please remember our Hoogye location! Hahaha!" He refused to receive any payment to the end. "Please! Consider being our model one more time! Our CEO would love to hear the good news!!!" He bowed 90 degrees until they left. It was a little much, but Sang-Hyeon felt good about it. "Hey, I always wondered why boomers liked to be sucked up to." "Why?" "You can''t tell? I can because I''m in that position now! Hahaha!" Ju-Hyeok felt so overjoyed by Sang-Hyeon¡¯s words that he grabbed Ji-Ah and piggybacked her. Sang-Hyeon shook his head, "Hey, I''ll carry Ji-Ah." "Huh? You''re drunk too." "Nah, I''m not drunk." "It''s okay. I''m taller anyways." "I''m stronger." Of course, Sang-Hyeon was stronger as an athlete. Ju-Hyeok hesitantly handed Ji-Ah over to him. "Don''t regret it, okay?" "Just help me put my hood on." "Alright." Sang-Hyeon put on his jacket hood so no one else would recognize him. "What''s gotten into you today? You''ve never agreed to take any female co-workers home." Sang-Hyeon hesitated for a moment. He also wondered why he offered to carry Ji-Ah home. "Fan service." That was his answer. "Huh?" "What huh? She''s like my first fan." "Ah, that''s right." "This is the least I can do." Almond''s fan Seo Ji-Ah, that was their first encounter with her. She had been an avid Almond fan before bing their editor. ¡®You... sure are popr! Luuuucky you! But who makes your videos!? Huh!?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon smiled as he recalled Ji-Ah¡¯s words. She must''ve thought he was only being nice to the other fans and not her. "Let''s go," Sang-Hyeon smiled and led the way. He tossed Ji-Ah to Ju-Hyeok when they reached the long, hellish staircase. *** Ji-Ah woke up with a severe headache at 2 A.M. "Urgh¡­" The hangover gave her a headache, but she was used to it. She instinctively walked to her fridge, reached into the pile of hangover cures, and downed a bottle. "Phew." She could finally open her eyes thanks to the cebo effect. ¡®Hey! Almond...!¡¯ ¡°Huh?¡± Ji-Ah''s eyes shook. Who''s drunk voice was that? Why did the voice sound so simr to hers and why was she trying to sound cute? ¡®You... sure are popr!¡¯ Ji-Ah turned red as if she took a tequ shot instead of the hangover cure. ¡®Luuuucky you! But who makes your videos!? Huh!?¡¯ She just wanted to die from the embarrassment. Ji-Ah opened the fridge again, but couldn¡¯t find any rat poison. She should''ve bought some for a time like this. "Sigh,"?she took a deep breath from the bottom of her soul. Why did she drink alcohol? ''Because I like it! It''s good!'' Her other conscience answered. No lie could be found in the response. "Really..." She sat in front of herputer and shook her head. She had a pile of work left to do. ¡®Please write: I love you, Lee Ju-Hyeon!¡¯ However, she didn''t want to work as another memory popped into her head. It wouldn¡¯t matter if that damn nut''s video came out a dayte. ''Let''s just watch a movie.'' She turned on LetFlix and saw a movie called, Pandora''s Box. What a boring title. ¡®Fan service.¡¯ Ji-Ah suddenly recalled something Almond said. His voice almost sounded as if it came from herputer, but she also recalled the warm sensation of someone''s back. ¡®She''s my first fan.¡¯ ''What... the?'' Ji-Ah froze and simply stared at the screen. The movie''s preview automatically yed and Pandora''s box opened. The bad things came out one after another, but something big and shiny slowly came out too. Beep¡ª? Ji-Ah turned it off and booted up her video editor. She checked the time. ''Is 7 hours enough?'' Would it be ready by 9 A.M? By then, Almond would¡¯ve woken up and checked the video. A faint smile formed on her lips. Her condition felt terrible, but her fingers lightly moved for some reason. Chapter 84: Power Suit Play (1)

    Chapter 84: Power Suit y (1)

    Three new videos appeared on Almond''s channel the next day at 10 A.M. [Battle Large EP.4 The 5 Idiot Musketeers] [Battle Large EP.5 Jensen!]? [Battle Large EP.6 Yes, Almond Is Using A Power Suit.]? The news instantly spread on KAF and Battle31 as well as other smallermunities. Unsurprisingly, Almond became the main topic for many gamers because he had tied with JeonJaPa. This was all thanks to Fantasia''s broadcast. ¡ª The guy who tied with JeonJaPa? ¡ª Oh, he also has a YouTube channel?? ¡ª It''s almost the live premiere! ¡ª Woah, he just started uploading. ¡ª He started only a month ago and already has this many viewers?! People from differentmunities gathered. Around 12,000 viewers waited on standby to watch the live premiere. Twelve thousand views weren¡¯t much on YouTube, but 12,000 viewers on standby for a live premiere was quite significant. It felt like waiting in line for a restaurant to open. His third video,?''Yes, Almond Is Using A Power Suit,'' already seemed like it would be popr. "What the... how did she upload all those videos?" Ju-Hyeok asked when he woke up and checked. [Premiering in 10 minutes.] He couldn''t believe what he was reading. A headache from drinkingst night immobilized him, but Ji-Ah still managed to edit and upload the videos? "And these are all clips from yesterday''s stream?!" The three uploaded videos came from yesterday''s stream, which meant she stayed up all night to edit them. "Did she do it properly?" Ju-Hyeok worried that all the drinking lowered the quality of Seo Ji-Ah¡¯s work. ''I should check it out.''? The videos would premiere in ten minute intervals. The first one would air soon. [The premiere is starting!] *** [Battle Large EP.4 The 5 Idiot Musketeers] The first video showed Almond¡¯s interaction with the five yers targeting him. It began with them confronting Almond in the Arsenal. Fwhip. A knife flew towards Almond without any warning. Right off the bat, a tense knife fight ensued. The camera zoomed in and out every time someone threw a knife to emphasize the speed. Afterward, Almond spotted the yer on the second floor and climbed up the wall using his knives. It looked like a scene out of a thriller movie. Almond quickly reached the top. Pang! He shattered the ss and threw a knife at the enemy. Thwack! Seo Ji-Ah edited the yer''s expression as if it came out of aedic horror film. ¡ª 5:08 Damn, what a jackpot! ¡ª 5:09 His expression is priceless! ¡ª 5:08 It''s like a budget horror film. lol? ¡ª 5:09 The youngest of the 5 idiots haha Most of the topments highlighted that part, but the video hadn¡¯t even reached the climax yet. ¡ª 12:51 His consecutive shooting was badass.? ©¸ How the hell did he do that? ©¸ It would be impossible no matter how much I practiced.? ©¸ Is that even possible? The topments also pointed out Almond''s crazy ability to shoot the arrows so fast. Pabababang!? The video yed at normal speed. Then it zoomed in and continued in slow motion to show his technique. BAM! The video returned to normal speed and perfectly matched the music¡¯s beat. Thu-thump! The five idiots all slowly copsed together. ''Wow.'' Ju-Hyeok''s jaws dropped despite already knowing what would happen. That was how the first video ended. The second video,?''Jensen,'' was aedic one. Jensen looked like a perverted bully in the power suit. Large text appeared all over the screen every time he shouted something. ¡°Mom! I want to be Almond!!!¡± Almond ran away in fear of Jensen. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Why is Almond so cute? ¡ª Jensen! ¡ª He''s insane ¡ª So creepy lol ¡ª Jensen! No one¡¯s mentioned it, but it''s so fitting for him. ©¸ For real. No one¡¯s actually said that to Almond.? ©¸ Woah, you''re right now that I think about it!? ©¸ Damn! ¡°Pfft,¡±?Ju-Hyeok couldn''t help butugh even though he had already seen this. The second video had been entertaining too. However, the most entertaining one would be thest. [Premiering for the first time!] Ju-Hyeok carefully yed the final video, which just premiered. [Battle Large EP.6 Yes, Almond Is Using A Power Suit.] *** Almond could be seen walking in the empty desert. Poisonous gas filled the area, but he went around without any worries. [The blue zone is shrinking!] "It''s not too bad. I''ll farm a little bit more," he muttered as the blue zone shrunk in the distance. Farming in the gas would be crazy under normal circumstances. ¡ª Ah, who cares. He has the power suit on, so he can farm all day! ¡ª But he should still be careful after the third time.? ¡ª This is a guaranteed victory for him. Fortunately, the power suit had a gas mask. It would be detrimental if he stayed for a long time, but he would be fine up to the third phase. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds!] He stopped farming after the third warning with his bag full of medical equipment. "Now let''s go sweep them," Almond confidently smirked. ¡ª Let''s gooo! ¡ª Gogogo! ¡ª Kill them all! ¡ª Woaaaah! ¡ª Yohohoho! ¡ª Ohhhh man! "Let''s go!" Tang¡ª? He lightly flew forward with each step. Swoosh! The power suit sounded like a motorcycle driving by. ¡ª Holy shit! ¡ª Look at it from the first person pov. It''s insane! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª I wanna use the power suit too... ¡ª It''s suddenly a different game. ¡ª Watching him do the ninja run makes you feel like a ninja. ¡ª Ninja run LOL Tang! Tang! He ran, drank an energy drink, and continued running. He repeated this several times until he grew ustomed to the speed. Almond could finally see through the harsh sandstorm. ''Blue zone!'' The blue zone¡¯s silhouette appeared. The transparent blue dome surrounded a specific area. Inside it... [47/100] Forty-seven survivors remained. Shuk. Almond readied the arrows between his fingers. Bzzt! He could feel the static when he passed through the blue zone. Tudududung!!! Tadadang! Tang! Gunshots rang out from everywhere as soon as he entered. He could instantly tell the enemy locations in the area. ''Are they fighting?'' Almond ran toward the gunshots. "Over there," he muttered to himself and readied his bow. ¡ª Huh? It''s too far ¡ª Don''t you need at least an 8x scope to shoot that far? ¡ª Is he going to shoot? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Is it possible because it''s a recurve bow? The recurve bow could shoot further than thepound bow because it depended on the user''s strength. Creak¡­? Almond used the power suit¡¯s superhuman strength and pulled the bowstring as far back as he could. He put so much force into it that the power suit began glowing blue. PAANG!!! It made a considerably loud noise for a bow. Swoosh! The eerie sound of something cutting through the air could be heard. The arrow flew in a near-straight trajectory. ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Oh shit! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Shit! ¡ª You''re insane!!! Thud! It perfectly struck a barely visible head in the distance. The opponent didn''t have a helmet. [Almond ¡ú NewChest] [Eliminated!] [46/100] The yer¡¯s name popped up on the kill log. *** "Huh!?" A different yer noticed Almond in the middle of firing his gun. "A power... suit!?" He spotted Almond wearing a power suit in the distance. Normally, he would run away. However, he noticed that Almond only had a bow. ''Wait... a bow seems doable.'' He could take the power suit for himself if he managed to kill Almond. He would¡¯ve instantly ran if the opponent had a legendary weapon, but he had a good chance against a bow. Winning first ce would be easy once he got the power suit. He aimed his gun at Almond and had the advantage from this distance. Click¡ª? As he slowly focused on the blue figure¡­ Swoosh! Almond suddenly disappeared. "?" But he had already pulled the trigger. Tang! ''Damn.'' Shiik! A snake-like sound could be heard. ''Where is he!?'' An arrow from apletely different angle appeared as the yer turned around. Thud! It pierced his helmet. "Kugh!" His neck bent back from the impact. ''H-How''s an arrow this powerful?'' He tried to get back up and ready his gun. ''Another one?'' Another arrow greeted him after he barely got up. Arrows couldn''t fly this quickly unless they were simultaneously fired. Thud! It pierced his helmet again and his neck bent once more. "Urk!" He survived multiple blows thanks to his legendary helmet. Thud! But another arrow came. "Damn!" His name also popped up in the kill log after that final statement. [Almond ¡ú INeedToFarm] [Eliminated!] [45/100] Three consecutive arrows precisely flew towards his head. He couldn¡¯t properly assess the situation after being struck by the first one. He couldn¡¯t even see the enemy in the distance. ¡ª Crazy Almond! Crazy Almond! Crazy Almond! Crazy Almond! ¡ª Holy moly! ¡ª How did all three hit!? ¡ª You tricked us Almond! This is a bug! You tricked us Almond! This is a bug! You tricked us Almond! This is a bug! ¡ª D-Damn... ¡ª I pissed my pants! You''re responsible! [Sniper has donated 10,000 won!] [What... am I supposed to do now?] [PantiesFactory has donated 5000 won.] [I need to make more panties!] [IknewIt has donated 20,000 won!] [Phew, I watched this on the toilet] "Thank you for the donations. The power suit is better than I imagined." Almond had fired more difficult shots than usual. It would''ve been impossible if not for the power suit. ''This is great in every aspect.'' He could bring out the power suit''s full potential with a bow instead of a gun because of his enhanced physical abilities. [The blue zone is shrinking!] Another warning appeared and Almond checked the blue zone¡¯s location. ''Is it the za?'' As usual, the safe zone appeared far away from him. However, the blue zone wouldn¡¯t affect him as much with the power suit on. Instead, he instinctively felt that the final stage of this match would take ce at the za. ''It''s over.'' [WannaTry? has donated 20,000 won!] [Mission: 20 kills starting now.] Coincidentally, he also received a mission. [20 kills] [200,000 won] Forty-five yers remained, which meant he had to kill around half of them. That would be unlikely for the average yer. ¡ª Just give it now. ¡ª You''re donating 200,000 won! ¡ª You''re just throwing away money! ¡ª He''s going to do it anyway. What''s the point of giving a mission? Haha ¡ª ??? Wow! Thank you for the donation! ¡ª Look at him setting a limit on the kills cuz he''s scared. Haha "Wow! Thanks for the 200,000 won!" Almond repeated the chat''s prophecy and continued ying. He needed to move quickly if he wanted to get 20 kills. Chapter 85: Power Suit Play (2)

    Chapter 85: Power Suit y (2)

    The za had one of the simplest designs in Battle Large. It was an open field as its name suggested. The only obstacle in the area was arge fountain in the center. As a result, chaotic battles constantly took ce in this controversial zone. Some yers criticized that it took away the slow-paced survival factor of the game and dumbed it down too much. However, it worked well for Almond¡¯s strategy of crushing everything in his path. ''It''s over.'' Almond became certain of victory after seeing the blue zone shrink towards the za. The final battle would take ce there. The game was heading in that direction. ¡ª Time for a za battle? ¡ª Damn, isn''t this Almond''s first time in the za? ¡ª A za battle is no fun. ¡ª I like it because it''s so chaotic.? ¡ª It''s too chaotic. Everyone dies right away.? The location was controversial, but most of Almond''s fans felt excited because he preferred fighting head-on. Besides, he had nothing to fear with the power suit. ¡ª A za battle is in Almond¡¯s favor with the power suit.? ¡ª For real.? ¡ª For real for real. ¡ª And he has a lot of arrows too. ¡ª He has a lot of medkits too. ¡ª But a gun would be more useful. ¡ª I want to see what happens whether he wins or loses. Almond headed to the za and his viewers looked forward to what would happen. Tang¡ª? He quickly moved with the power suit. *** Tak. Almond arrived at the za first. "I guess I¡¯m the first one here." He finally reached the za after killing seven more yers on the way. ¡ª That''s because you killed everyone on the way. ¡ª LOL Of course, you''re the first one to get there after killing everyone. ¡ª Hahahaha Almond didn¡¯t arrive first because of his speed. He simply killed everyone ahead of him. "Let''s get ready¡­" The first one to arrive had the best opportunity to settle into a good spot that would increase their chances of victory. [FakeSpecialist has donated 1000 won.] [There are no good spots in the za...] [GhandiMeta has donated 5000 won.] [Maybe the 2nd floor right outside the za?] Almond prepared to head towards the 2nd floor ording to the chat. "The building at the end..." It didn¡¯t look too good. The building was too close to the blue zone and had a good chance of being excluded once the blue zone shrunk again. That would put him in a bad spotter in the game. [PaPaPa has donated 50,000 won!] [Why don''t you just circle the fountain and shoot everyone? It¡¯s not a bad option with your skills.] "Oh, PaPaPa. Thank you for the 50,000 won. I¡¯ll take your advice. Alright." ¡ª This freaking sellout!? ¡ª Hey, hey you! ¡ª Can''t ignore his true feelings. ¡ª But the fountain? Are you sure? ¡ª The fountain''s in the center, so I don''t think it''ll be affected by the blue zone. Isn''t it too exposed though? Several viewers expressed their opinions, but Almond still chose the fountain. His instincts told him that the fountain would be the best spot. He could run around the big fountain and eliminate targets on sight. Best of all, it would remain in the center of the blue zone. The fountain would be safe even if the blue zone shrunk further. "There are lots of suggestions, but I''ll give it a try." Almond walked to the za''s fountainprised of nine giant statues divided to form arge square. He had plenty of room to hide thanks to its size. However, he did get wet. ¡ª Huh? ¡ª In the water? ¡ª Wet Almond... ¡ª Wet Almond is so sexy... ¡ª Isn''t there a debuff if you get wet? ¡ª Oh, he''s not using a gun, so he should be good! Ssh! Water sshed everywhere as he went into the fountain. It wouldn¡¯t affect anything since he used a bow. Any weapon that didn¡¯t use gunpowder would remain unaffected. ''They''reing.'' He could see an enemying through the blue zone in the distance. The first customer to enter the za. Creak¡­? Almond quietly pulled his bowstring. Trickle. The trickling water masked his presence. Shiik. He aimed up. *** The camera angle switched to a bird''s eye view to look down at Almond. "Oh," Ju-Hyeok had forgotten he was watching a video. He became so immersed that he thought he was Almond. "Why''s the camera angle changing now?" The video had been in the first person point of view until this point. Ju-Hyeok felt disappointed that the camera angle changed, but he found out right away why it did. Paang!!! The arrow flew straight and cut through the water. Shaaaa¡­ The scene came straight out of a Hong Kong action movie. "Oh!" It didn''t just look cool. This camera angle perfectly captured the arrow''s trajectory. The moment only grew more tense as the perspectives switched back and forth. Shaaaaaaa! The water split and sshed around as the arrow raced closer to the opponent''s panicked eyes. Thwack! The arrow finished its journey. [Almond ¡ú Johntelia] [Eliminated!] [16/100] The perspective changed back to the bird''s eye view. Almond killed one yer, but more wereing. Countless yers entered the za from various directions. "Huh?" Ju-Hyeok felt surprised. He hadn¡¯t known so many yers were after Almond when he watched the stream live. This situation could only be seen thanks to the bird''s eye view. He started counting the number of yers, "Woah... It was 1v12?!" He couldn''t tell it was a 1v12 back then because Almond only fought one or two enemies at a time during the live stream. ¡ª Kya, what a clean shot ¡ª Boss! Another one on the left! ¡ª This one doesn''t have a helmet either. Find a helmet if you see Almond''s name! Ju-Hyeok could tell the viewers also didn¡¯t know at the time when he saw the chat from the stream. Of course, the twelve yers approaching Almond didn¡¯t know they would be facing only one opponent. Pang! Just then, another arrow ripped through the water and headed toward a yer. Thud! The arrow struck his head, but he survived thanks to his helmet. Then he quickly dodged to the side. Swoosh! Swoosh! However, two more arrows immediately followed as if they predicted his movements. Shaa! The water split twice. Bangbangbang! The yer died while spraying his gun. Almond felt d to get another kill, but that kill had been too noisy. The remaining eleven yers became aware of Almond''s presence. ¡°The fountain?¡± ¡°Someone''s at the fountain.¡± ¡°Damn, the center is already taken.¡± The za had no other hiding ce other than the fountain, so Almond¡¯s location became obvious. ¡°They found out.¡± Whip. Whip. Whip. All eleven yers turned towards the fountain and slowly closed in on him like a scene from a horror movie. Chuck. They aimed their guns at the fountain and slowly headed there. Every second they closed in felt nerve-wracking. "I-Is this really going to work out?" Ju-Hyeok already knew the result, but still felt nervous. The Almond on the screen calmly prepared to fire back. Creak¡­? The two arrows between his fingers disappeared as he drew his bowstring. It happened in a split second and looked like the arrows simultaneously flew off. Shaaaa! The two arrows flew, split the fountain, and perfectly struck the foreheads of the enemies heading toward him. Thwack! Thwack! Two yers instantly died. The other yers fired back in response. Tududududu! They started firing together and water sshed all over Almond. Crack! The statue spewing water shook. Boom! The marble exploded and dust scattered everywhere. Meanwhile, Almond remained perfectly fine and readied his bow behind another statue. Pang! The water split again. Shaaaa! The opponent saw the arrowing at him, ¡°Oh¡­¡± "Oh no," Ju-Hyeok finished his final sentence for him. Thwack! The arrow perfectly pierced the opponent¡¯s head and bent his neck back. The immense power of the arrow due to the power suit blew the corpse away. The enemies started firing at Almond again. Tudududu!!! Tadadang! Almond spun around the giant statue and hid from their view. The statue blocked the gunshots before copsing. Crash! The giant ssh caused a wave as big as the statue. Shiik! Three holes formed in the wave as Almond shot his arrows. Shaaaa...! The three arrows cut through the water and the video suddenly slowed. "!?" Ju-Hyeok''s eyes widened. He could see the shape of the water around the arrows. ''It''s... curved!?'' All three arrows curved. He wouldn''t have been able to tell if he hadn¡¯t seen the water trails. Almond had shot them too fast. Ju-Hyeok thought it would be impossible for Almond to shoot from that position. Almond hid behind statues, so an obstacle always stood in the way between him and his targets. The statues blocked the bullets and fell apart instead of him. However, such obstacles didn¡¯t hinder Almond¡¯s arrows. Shiiik! The video sped up again. The water instantly split and revealed three arrowheads. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! One yer survived thanks to his helmet, but the other two died. "Woah..." Ju-Hyeok''s jaws dropped. He already watched it live once, but everything looked so different at different speeds. Tudududu! The one who survived began shooting and rolled to the side. He couldn''t see Almond and his gunshots revealed his own location instead. Pang! Unsurprisingly, a curved arrow came flying and pierced his head. Thwack! He fell as well. ''The head... using a curve shot... repeatedly...'' The curved shot technique seemed unstable when Almond first used it, but he already perfected it in this one round. He struck targets even farther away using curved shots. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Was this what it meant to be gifted? Ju-Hyeok felt like he was staring at a wall. ''How do you even beat someone like that?'' He foolishly questioned if the bow was overpowered. It felt like cheating tond shots by curving around obstacles in a survival game. That sounded ban-worthy. Almond stuck to a simple strategy with his new technique. He continuously ran around statues and shot from angles that only he could hit. Shaaaaa! Shaaa! It looked like an eagle was spreading its wings every time the water split and holes formed. As soon as the wings spread¡ª Thwack! Thest enemy in the za copsed. [Almond ¡ú DemiGrass] [Eliminated!] [1/100] Almond''s power suit video ended there. *** Ju-Hyeok finally came back to reality after the video ended. He quickly checked thements only to be weed by chaos. ¡ª Boss, I''m t 1. I''m confident I can''t win. Please go to diamond. ¡ª Robin Hood: I confess that I learned from this guy. ©¸ LOL ©¸ Teacher Almond? ¡ª Woah, I watched this live, but couldn''t tell what was going on since it was in first person. Water was sshing everywhere, the fountain was flowing, the statues kept breaking, and the power suit made me dizzy... ©¸ Yourment itself is dizzying LOL ©¸ Damn, I gotta rewatch it!? ¡ª Stream was fun. YouTube was even better. Almond, the man who can do everything! One of the topments caught Ju-Hyeok''s attention. ¡ª Woah, it''s already top 41 on trending! He read that they were trending in the top 41 most popr videos. ''Really?'' That would be the most impressive achievement out of all the videos they ever uploaded. He quickly checked the rankings in the trending section. [41. Miho''s Ringfit Challenge!] "Huh?" Almond wasn¡¯t at number 41. Apletely different video appeared there. Ju-Hyeok couldn''t find Almond''s video anywhere near it. "Ah...!" Tak! Ju-Hyeok facepalmed himself. He checked and saw that thement had been made thirty minutes ago. ''That means...'' He scrolled to the top 40, but it wasn''t there. What about the top 30? As expected, it wasn''t there either. Ju-Hyeok began to worry that the video wasn''t trending anymore. Or... "!" [21. Battle Large EP.6 - Yes, Almond Is Using A Power Suit.] Chapter 86: Power Suit Play (3)

    Chapter 86: Power Suit y (3)

    Without context, the title of the YouTube video sounded quite cocky. [Battle Large Ep.6 - Yes, Almond Is Using A Power Suit.] Who cared if Almond used a power suit or not? That would''ve been an understandable response. However, only one thought crossed Ju-Hyeok¡¯s mind after watching the video. ''God Ji-Ah!'' Who cared if she acted a little noisy when she drank? Who cared if she acted a little rude? She was a goose whoid golden eggs! "Rank 21?! It''s only one video, but it''s still a big deal!" He considered it a huge achievement even though only one of the three videos trended. Other videos in simr rankings came from channels with millions of subscribers that were slowly losing poprity or channels with around 300,000 subscribers that were gaining poprity. However, Almond only had 50,000 subscribers. ''This is insane.'' That meant Almond¡¯s subscribers were the cream of the crop and the channel was still growing if their views exceeded the subscriber count. The difference between those two numbers would only be more significant as the channel exponentially grew. Almond''s channel, with only 50k subscribers, was doing just that. ''Several channels have stopped growing despite having popr videos. We need to make it count.'' Countless channels had one-hit wonders and simply peaked there. They couldn''t let that happen and needed to focus more than ever. ''Anyways, already 50,000... Should we do some kind of event?'' Ju-Hyeok felt surprised every time he witnessed their growth. Despite being the manager, the channel grew so quickly that he didn¡¯t even notice when they reached 50,000 subscribers. For most YouTubers starting out, 10,000 to 20,000 subscribers was already impressive. However, the usual standards didn''t apply to the gifted. Their editor was also gifted, so they achieved more than double the results. "Haha¡­" Ju-Hyeok suddenly felt bitter. He had an impressive resume, but didn¡¯t possess such gifted talents or remarkable passion. Still, society epted him more for being this way. It didn''t feel terrible, but blindly following the rest of society... Wasn''t that a bit sad? ¡®How have I been living until now? My thirty years¡­¡¯? For some reason, he felt that his thirty years differed from Sang-Hyeon¡¯s. "?" ¡®Ah, that''s right.¡¯? Sang-Hyeon was only twenty-eight years old. "Damn." *** Thump. Sang-Hyeon bounced up from bed. ''Ah...'' He had a crushing headache from overdrinkingst night. It felt unfair because he still had nightmares despite how much he drank. He noticed that his shirt was wet after wiping his forehead. He nced at his pillow and saw that it was also soaked with sweat. ¡®You know that everyone is chasing your shadow, right?¡¯ He was tired of that voice. It made his heart skip every time he heard it in his head. Thankfully, he only heard it in his dreams and wasn¡¯t hallucinating. "It''s been a while since you overslept. Hm??Bro?" He could see Ju-Hyeok''s shadow through the crack in the door and heard his voice. Ju-Hyeok must''ve sensed that he had woken up. "Yeah, I drank too much." "Yeah, it did seem like that, little bro. You even confessed that you were younger." How annoying. Ju-Hyeok was the pettiest of the pettiest. Just because Sang-Hyeon tricked him into thinking that they were the same age. One or three years apart... what was the big deal? "Yeah, you''re lucky you''re older, Old-Hyeok," Sang-Hyeon insulted him like Ji-Ah and headed to the bathroom for a shower. Ju-Hyeok began shouting, but Sang-Hyeon couldn''t hear him anymore because of the water. It was probably something stupid anyways. Shaaaa...!? Watching the water made him recall yesterday''s game. ''The power suit... it was fun.'' His heart began beating faster as he relived the feeling in the power suit. It felt different from using a bow. The bow gave him greater excitement, but the power suit felt good too. What was this feeling? ''Fun?'' Was he really enjoying video games and not just because of the bow? Was he starting to enjoy capsule gaming? It was a new feeling because he had never felt fun from anything other than archery. Sang-Hyeon bent his head down. ''Well, whatever it is, being excited is a good thing.'' He decided to focus on what was in front of him rather than dwelling on his feelings. Shaaaa... Sang-Hyeon returned to the hot water and closed his eyes. ''I need to get diamond.'' The most important thing to him right now was reaching Diamond. He promised his viewers and would also get to meet Bubblegum. It would open up a path for him to keep streaming in the future, which would allow everything to continue. He could keep using the bow. *** Sang-Hyeon dried himself and checked themunity reactions. Looking through the forums daily became one of his new habits before streaming. He wanted to see if there were any special news or newments. ''Hm?'' He spotted something interesting. [The rank of Almond¡¯s video right now!!! It''s insane!] ¡®Almond''s video?¡¯ If they were talking about YouTube, Ji-Ah probably didn¡¯t upload anything because she also overdrankst night. Was one of his old videos trending? Was that possible? Sang-Hyeon scratched his head and clicked on the post. [19. Battle Large EP.6 Yes, Almond Is Using A Power Suit. Almond''s video is top 19! Holy crap! And in only one day! This is so exciting!] He suspected the post was fake at first, but it seemed real after he checked thements. ¡ª Woah, it''s true. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Is top 19 good? I don''t know YouTube rankings that well. ©¸ Yeah me neither. I just watch whatever pops up on my algorithm. The rankings have so many weird videos so I don''t bother. ©¸ I''m not sure either, but isn''t top 19 impressive considering how big YouTube is? You dick.? ©¸ Why are you so mad? LOL ©¸ A mean nut! ¡ª Top 19... that''s crazy. How high will he fly? ©¸ Haven''t you seen how many quickly fall? ©¸ He could fall at any time since everyone calls him JeonJaPa¡¯s rival. Needs to be careful.? ©¸ Speaking of that, did you see JeonJaPa turn on his streamst night? I was so surprised. ©¸ Yeah, it seemed like he turned it on by ident. Seems like he''s alive. ©¸ Is he sending a message to Almond? ©¸ LOL Why would he do that? ©¸ Come back to reality! Almond fanboys! ¡ª Woah, even his YouTube is doing well. It''s usually Treevy or YouTube, not both. This guy has it all¡­? ©¸ His editor is insane!? ©¸ For real. I heard she was a fan too. That''s crazy. Sang-Hyeon became sure that his video was trending after seeing all the jealousments. "Wow... top 19." Ju-Hyeok butted in while Sang-Hyeon was feeling impressed, "Yeah, top 19 little bro. We were 21 earlier. Seems like we''re going up." Ju-Hyeok continued eating. "What¡¯s with the videos? How did she upload them?" "Only Miss Ji-Ah knows the answer to that. I think she''s sleeping now." "Wait, she''s way younger than us. Why is she Miss. and I''m little bro?" "Because she''s not a mortal. She''s a god. Tsk. Tsk." Ju-Hyeok shook his head as if to say Sang-Hyeon didn''t know anything. "You''ll know when you watch the video." "..." ¡®This guy''s crazy.¡¯?Sang-Hyeon kept that thought to himself and decided to watch the videos first as Ju-Hyeok suggested. He felt worried because Ji-Ah would¡¯ve basically been drunk while making these videos. *** "Ji-Ah is a god," Sang-Hyeon concluded. "She''s probably a god and I was just lucky enough to receive her blessing." Ju-Hyeokughed at Sang-Hyeon''s reaction, "What did I tell you, little bro." He continued calling Sang-Hyeon little bro. Sang-Hyeon thought for a moment about how to stop him. He finally opened his mouth, "Did you know? Usually, the older person doesn''t call the younger one anything. It¡¯s only the younger one who calls the older one something." ¡°Yeah¡­ I know that, little bro.¡± "The younger person is the one who has to go through the trouble of finding the appropriate words. You¡¯re acting like you''re younger than me by doing all that.¡± "Fuck¡­" Ju-Hyeok quickly gave up on calling him little bro. "Well, whatever! I think we''re past that age at this point! I''ll let it slide since I''m the bigger person!" Sang-Hyeon was impressed at how quickly Ju-Hyeok got over it. No wonder the elite could easily integrate into society. He learned something new from Ju-Hyeok again and still had much to learn. "Let me eat some too." Sang-Hyeon naturally took a seat and went for the food Ju-Hyeok had cooked. That guy was getting better and better at cooking. Just like an elite, he had no limits to what he could do. Tak. Ju-Hyeok''s chopsticks stopped in their tracks, "Hoho. You should just munch on some almond kes or something." "So petty¡­" After a small chopstick battle, Ju-Hyeok confessed that the pot still had some food. They didn¡¯t have any other side dishes, but there was quite a bit of mapo tofu left over. Thebination of Chinese and Korean vors enveloped the rice. It tasted delicious and was easy to eat. What did Ju-Hyeok watch to make something like this? "Ah, we have 50,000 subscribers now. Shouldn''t we do some kind of event or something?" Sang-Hyeok nked out for a moment. ''I hadn''t thought about it.'' He only thought about kicking Ju-Hyeok for a one million subscriber special. Other than that, he didn''t give much thought to any milestones. "Hmm... I don''t know. I can''t think of anything. You figure it out." "Alright," Ju-Hyeok replied and quickly finished his meal. He went to analyze other channels. Sang-Hyeon finished his meal and washed the dishes. ''It''s already 3 P.M.'' He headed to the capsule and prepared to stream. Five days had passed since he promised to get Diamond. Two more days and he would reach the halfway point. ''I think I''m t 2 now...'' He already reached tinum II before the halfway point and advanced much quicker than expected. However, he couldn''t let his guard down yet. All his time would go to waste if he went on a losing streak. Of course, Almond didn''t even think of that possibility. It sounded crazy, but he wanted to achieve his goal in one week instead of two. ©¸ Two weeks? I think Almond''s going to reach Diamond in one week. Almond made thatment and headed into the capsule. *** "Mydy, don''t you have anything to say after yesterday''s incident?" the butler asked. The wheelchair faced away from him and she didn¡¯t seem interested in replying. "Didn''t the doctor say? A little bit more and¡ª" "I know. It was an ident," she coldly responded. Her eyes were fixed on the TV that disyed Almond''s channel like usual. ¡°I got t 2 faster than expected, right?¡± The butler turned to the noise, "Do you feel some kind ofpetition against him?" "I''ve already answered. Get out." Her voice sounded cold as a frozen pir. The butler sensed the genuine anger in her voice and left the room. "So?" The girl became alone again. ¡°I might be able to get diamond this week, right? Haha.¡± Her eyes focused on the screen again as if she had been alone the entire time. ¡°Anyways, let''s do it.¡± After his light deration, Almond ended the day with a winning streak. Every victory pushed his rating even higher because his MMR was already so high. He reached the tinum I promotion matches in just a day. "Haaa¡­"?She felt baffled. Almond ended his stream there for the day. ¡°I''ll continue tomorrow.¡± He streamed again the next day at 3 P.M. She rolled her wheelchair into the room and turned on the TV. His tinum I promotion matches turned out quite chaotic. Several yers tried to get in his way, but he crushed them all. Almond abused the same strategy over and over again. He simply swept the Arsenal in the beginning and it kept working. The simplicity was almost beautiful. That¡¯s right. His straightforward strategy contained a certain pureness because he only relied 100% on his own skills. After reaching tinum I, he yed a couple more games and boosted his rating. Then, the next day arrived. ¡°It''s finally been a week.¡± Seven days had passed since Almond dered that he would reach Diamond. Crack... She couldn''t resist her old habit and bit her nails. ¡°I''ll try a little harder today.¡± She felt nervous, but Almond''s condition seemed better than usual. Chapter 87: Almond with Practice (1)

    Chapter 87: Almond with Practice (1)

    "I''ll get Diamond in two weeks." One week had passed since he made that controversial statement. A few posts about it appeared on themunity forums. [Hey, this Almond bastard lied about getting Diamond in two weeks!] However, clicking on the post would reveal the truth. [He''s going to do it in one week, fuck!] ¡ª LOL So true. ¡ª Almond this guy! He tricked us! ¡ª Real fucking shit! ¡ª For real. ¡ª He actually lied. This guy! ¡ª Almond needs a spanking! It was actually a positive post and not a negative one. Other posts with simr content popped up. [Who''s the guy who''s about to reach diamond in one week?!] [Wow, it was really possible?] [Wasn''t it game over once he got into t 3?] [Ah, I believed in Almond since day 1!!! I should''ve bet on him or something!] [Who''s that?! Who bet against Almond and is now hiding?!] Of course, some mean posts also appeared like usual. [Hey, this is the hardest part on the road to diamond] [For real. t 2 & 3 ain''t shit. t 1 is where it counts. Y¡¯all don''t know shit!] [It''s not weird if it takes a week from this point.] [He''ll roll back down once he loses. These fanboys are getting ahead of themselves.] [Tomorrow, he''ll probably be back in t 3.] Most of these people were either fans of JeonJaPa, jealous of Almond, or just hated the world. One thing was certain despite the two sides. Almond''s journey to Diamond received a ton of attention. Countless posts on differentmunities featured Almond''s name. "Wow..." Sang-Hyeon felt amazed after he woke up and looked at themunity reactions. He saw countless posts talking about him. ''It''s 7 A.M.'' He thought he was still dreaming, so he rubbed his eyes to wake up. His blurred vision began to clear. [It''s not weird if it takes a week from this point.] [He''ll roll back down once he loses. These fanboys are getting ahead of themselves.] [Tomorrow, he''ll probably be back in t 3.] As expected, he wasn''t seeing things. A crazy amount of attention was on him. ''Is my content that good? No way,'' Sang-Hyeon shook his head. His journey to Diamond had been simr to other streamers. Everyone aimed to reach higher and also had winning streaks, so why did he get all this attention? ''It''s because of this.'' One post hinted at the reason. [Did you watch Almond on Fantasia''s channel? Personally, I like the unedited version better.] He went to Fantasia''s YouTube channel and saw the two new videos they uploaded. [Almond''s Analysis EP.1 - Yes! It''s Almond!] [Almond''s Analysis EP.2 - Record? What''s that?] The edited videos made a bigger impact than the live ones and the number of views was on a different scale. [241k views] One had already reached 241,000 views and it was hard to believe they uploaded it this morning. Most likely, everyone kept mentioning Almond because of these videos. Fantasia''s channel had 600,000 subscribers who just found out about Almond. ¡ª Wow, I didn''t know anything about Almond, but this guy is crazy! ¡ª Almond? He¡¯s the best archer I know... ¡ª :o Crazy... ¡ª Ha-Yeon chan is so cute! ¡ª He''s so handsome! ¡ª This is my first time seeing him, but he''s so cute! Why is his interview so short... ¡ª They edited out his archery scene. I wanted to rewatch it... He looked so good in it. ©¸ 2222 Same! ©¸ 333 Me too! Too bad it''s not there. A handful of people got to know Almond for the first time. Actually, most of them just found out about him. Almond was popr among gamers in their twenties, but Fantasia''s subscribers ranged from 10-50 year olds. For them, Almond was a new face. [I became a fan after seeing him on Fantasia''s channel.] [It was my first time seeing Almond, but his videos are entertaining too. He''s pretty famous already.] [Woah, I''m so d he has more fans now] [Can we finally stop recruiting now? Lol] Many differentmunities showed new affection for him. [I hear Almond is challenging another JeonJaPa record.] [He said he would reach diamond in two weeks!] [Seems like he''ll do it in one week haha] Everything happened with great timing. Almond already received a lot of attention on his journey to diamond. Naturally, everyone focused on his rank. A sudden wave of attention like this would¡¯ve overwhelmed most people. ''What''s the fun if the stakes aren''t high?'' Sang-Hyeon enjoyed this feeling. He knew they would cheer even greater if the stakes were higher. The thought excited him as he imagined all the doubt, jealousy, and anger towards him changing into awe. It sent a jolt all over his body. Sang-Hyeon loved sports because of this jolt. He could only experience this feeling once or twice a year as an athlete, but he felt it every day since he started streaming. ''Maybe I am cut out for streaming.'' He seriously considered that streaming was more of his forte than sports. ''Do I crave attention?'' He did. He craved it like drugs. That craving naturally pulled his body up from bed this morning. Sang-Hyeon hadn¡¯t fully woken up at 8 A.M. yet, but his mind had. He headed straight to the capsule. "Huh? Hey, you''re going in right away?" Ju-Hyeok got up already and asked in surprise. However, Sang-Hyeon didn''t respond. He couldn''t see or hear anything. He walked to the capsule as if hypnotized. ''I''ll get to Diamond today.'' After he made that decision, he could hear the non-existent crowd cheering around him. Chiiik¡­? The capsule opened and Sang-Hyeon entered like usual. [Training Tutorial] [Free Space Training] Sang-Hyeon turned on the training tutorial instead of the stream. He would stream at 3 P.M. like always. ''I have plenty of time.'' It was 8 A.M. and still five hours away from lunchtime. He had quite a bit of time and would prepare in advance. He recalled the doctor¡¯s warning that he couldn''t use the capsule for long. Sang-Hyeon put off practicing because of that, so he could stream. However¡­ ''Today...'' It wouldn¡¯t matter today. He could feel it. He felt like he could spend all day in the capsule. He was sure he would still be able to stream after practicing. This drive came from the countless new viewers he saw slowly learning about Almond. He wondered what kind of cheers he¡¯d receive after achieving Diamond. Such thoughts motivated him even more. Thump. Thump. He booted up the training as his heart raced. *** [Connecting to YouTube.] The free training allowed other applications to run alongside it. The application he used most was called weapon master. This program gave him ess to many different weapons. His next most used application was YouTube. He nned on practicing while watching some videos today. [Archery used in actual wars] He yed the video that he fell in love with a long time ago and wanted to perfect these techniques. ''There''s a limit to sports archery.'' He could feel it. He needed to learn archery appropriate for battles. The form he learned over the years would slowly change, but he was happy as long as he could shoot arrows. It didn''t matter whether it was battle archery or sports archery. What mattered was the archery most appropriate to the situation. He didn''t care about any particr way of shooting. Pang! Pang! The man in the video jumped off a ledge and quickly fired his shots. Sang-Hyeon carefully mimicked his pose. It felt significantly different from sports archery. One had to quickly and efficiently aim at the target, whereas sports archery took its time to urately aim at the target with a scope. His target would be immobilized as long as he struck. Paang! Pang! Sang-Hyeon copied the man in the video and jumped off the virtual walls while shooting his arrows. He fired four shots in mid-air. He shot faster than before, but wasn''t happy when he checked the target. The arrows were slightly off-target. Only one arrow struck the bullseye and the restnded near it. His uracy significantly decreased to the point where he had to choose between speed or uracy. However, Sang-Hyeon didn''t want to give up on uracy. Maybe it was his pride as an archer, but shots in the game would be meaningless if they didn¡¯t hit the vitals. He couldn''t sacrifice uracy for anything. He wondered how to quickly shoot while maintaining uracy. ''What if I do it like this...'' Sang-Hyeon instinctively changed his form from the video. He triedbining sports archery and battle archery. Combining them didn''t guarantee a better oue like mixing hot and cold coffee. Phew. Sang-Hyeon took a deep breath and headed up the virtual wall. He flew in the air and quickly fired. Piing! Ping! Ping! He could feel a different sensation from the bowstring. "!" He checked the target afternding and smiled. "Good." Hot and cold coffee didn¡¯t mix well, but it seemed like speed and precision could mix. "Next is the curve shot." Satisfied, he yed the next video without taking any breaks. *** Sang-Hyeon finished his training. Chiiik¡ª? The capsule lid opened. "Hey, are you okay? Aren''t you overworking yourself?" Ju-Hyeok looked worried after seeing him. Sang-Hyeon checked the time. It was 1 P.M. He had practiced all day without eating. "Let''s just eat." He showered first before eating. "Wow, you''re eating a lot today." Sang-Hyeon usually didn¡¯t eat much, but today was different. ''Why don¡¯t I feel tired at all?'' He trained as long as he normally streamed, but still seemed okay. Was this the same person who copsed after 3-4 hours of gamey? "Phew, I''ll let the food digest a little and go back inside." Sang-Hyeon began stretching until 3 P.M. [The stream is starting!] His stream began right on time. ¡ª Wow! He turned on his stream!!! ¡ª Are you doing it today!? Let''s get to diamond!! ¡ª Let''s get to DiAlmond!! ¡ª DiAlmond... another vor of almond. ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! ¡ª I love you, Almond! ¡ª Woah, it''s my first time watching him live hehe. It''ll be crazy if he gets to diamond. ¡ª Kya! ¡ª Wow... it''s 3 P.M. again. I''m still at work... ¡ª This is why I prepared for 20 years to be jobless¡­ The chat quickly rose. Almond could tell right away that many people came to watch. He calmly waited for the intro music to finish. Du-dun... The drum echoed out. "It''s finally been a week," Almond cut straight to the chase. "I''ll try a little harder today." [Current Viewers: 9.3k] Around 9000 viewers came to watch. Chapter 88: Almond with Practice (2)

    Chapter 88: Almond with Practice (2)

    Almond was currently ranked tinum I with 55 points. He would be eligible for the next promotion matches once he reached 100 points. However, the promotion matches from tinum to Diamond were five rounds instead of three. This meant that even if a yer won first ce, they would have to win another one to rank up. Despite this, none of the 9000 viewers felt worried. Instead, they seemed excited. ¡ª Can Almond really reach diamond today? ¡ª Oh, for sure. ¡ª This is a crazy record. All with just a bow and in one week! ¡ª He did a bow challenge in Kingdom Age too! ¡ª Let''s go, Almond! ¡ª I''m so excited. ¡ª Is he going to be the king of diamond?! *** Dududududu! Almond thought, ''Sounds like my heartbeat,''?as he listened to the helicopter. ''Is it there?'' He looked down like usual and estimated his fall. Tak. Tak. Almond jumped up and down to warm up in the helicopter. "Alright! We''re going down!!!" "Jump off!!!" "Jump you, bastard! Don''t scramble! Just jump!!" The NPC soldiers began shouting. In the past, he would¡¯ve jumped off in a panic. However, he simply rxed now. He checked every part of his body and even warmed up to the beat of their shouts. ''I¡¯m in good condition today.''? He double-checked his perfect condition because the brain significantly influenced gamey and the user''s condition heavily depended on it. Almond pumped himself up and felt excited for today¡¯s games. ''It''s the jungle.'' It wasn''t the usual desert map. It looked like the Amazon jungle, but the mapyout remained the same. ''The Arsenal.'' This map still had the Arsenal. Almond wouldn¡¯t change his strategy just because it switched to a jungle. He always aimed for the Arsenal. Chuk. He prepared to parachute down. "Get off! Get off, you bastard!!!" He could hear the shouts from behind him. Almond jumped out without hesitation. Swooosh¡ª? The wind whistled past him as he fell. Almond looked around. ''As expected¡­'' Several people jumped off with him. "Hey!" "I want to be Almond when I grow up!!!" "Ohhhhh man!" They seemed like stream snipers. Almond had 9000 viewers now and needed to get used to this. In fact, he was already used to it. ''Sure, let''s do this.'' He angled his body to the right and flew towards the stream sniper who greeted him. "Huh... huh?! Hey, boss! What are you doing!" "Boss, my ass." The stream sniper panicked as Almond targeted him. "Who told you to be so obvious?" Almond shouted at him with a smile and aggressively flew toward him. Then he grabbed the other yer¡¯s parachute cords. Almond bent his body and kicked the opponent in the face. Thud! "H-Hey! Boss! What''s wrong with you!?" he shouted with a bruised face. ¡ª Holy shit! ¡ª Wow, what kind of circus is this? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Haha, that''s what you get for being a stream sniper! Thud! Thud! Almond repeatedly kicked him. Finally, the stream sniper''s parachute backpack fell off. Paat. Meanwhile, Almond and the other yers'' parachutes automatically opened. "Aaaaaghh!? Boss, I''m going to die¡ª" The yer fell straight into the ground and turned into ketchup. ¡ª Boss, I''m going to die! He called you boss until the end LOL ¡ª Kya, next! ¡ª Wow man ¡ª Oh yeah! Ketchup ending! ¡ª Hahahahaha [Heinz has donated 5000 won.] [This is real ketchup!!!] The stream sniper fell to his doom. ''Wow... that was a bit harsh.'' ''W-What just happened?'' ''Let''s just shut up.'' The other yers trying to get Almond''s attention quickly shut their mouths. As a result, the rest of their descent became quiet. *** Tak. Almondnded in the Arsenal like always. He knew the quickest route to block off the basement entrance and where to find a bow thanks to repeating this strategy so many times. "I''ll find a bow right away since there are lots of people." He easily made snap decisions like whether to go for a bow or a knife first or head straight to the basement due to all his umted experience. Almond headed straight to the Arsenal''s second floor because the first floor had already turned into chaos. [Recurve Bow] A bow could often be found on the second floor and Almond quickly picked it up. Of course, he couldn¡¯t shoot as far without a power suit. ''I practiced that thing though.'' Using the traditional recurve bow would be best if he wanted to recreate his practice. "As expected, the basement entrance is chaotic like usual." Almond grabbed a rope and thought about descending to the first floor. "Judging fromst time, it seems like I don''t necessarily have to go down there." He wanted to improve his strategy. Previously, he shot other yers from the second floor. He came up with this strategy after continuouslying to the Arsenal. The viewers called it the hill tank strategy. ¡ª Kya! Hill tank! ¡ª The guys down there probably have PTSD. ¡ª It''s like a fish tank! ¡ª True. Almond stuck his body out from the balcony. He could see fine, but it would be an awkward position to shoot in with his old form. Creak¡­ However, Almond used a new form today. His archery became more flexible, faster, and more appropriate for bloodshed. ¡ª Woah... his form looks different today.? ¡ª What''s changed? ¡ª It looks iffy. ¡ª Almond, you''re so sexy! ¡ª You''re killing me even from the start! ¡ª All your fans will die if I clip this! The bowstring trembled as he nocked an arrow in his new form. Pang! The arrow cut through the air and struck a yer''s head. "Kugh!" [Almond ¡ú MoonRabbit] [Eliminated!] [99/100] He took the first kill in the game. "What the! There''s an archer up there!" "Fuck, isn''t that Almond?!" Almond was the only yer who could shoot like that in the Arsenal. He continued shooting at a blinding speed. Pang! Pang! Pang! Three more arrows instantly flew in different directions. [Almond ¡ú Smurf] [Eliminated!] [97/100] [Almond ¡ú AcornUniverse] [Eliminated!] [96/100] [Almond ¡ú LemonBee] [Eliminated!] [95/100] Almond''s name repeatedly came up on the kill log. ¡ª Woah, he shoots even faster now.? ¡ª And that''s without the power suit? ¡ª That''s nuts. ¡ª Headshots for all of them... I''m not even surprised anymore. ¡ª Why''s he doing better than yesterday? His shooting looked magical. "Holy shit." "W-What''s that? Is that really a bow?" "Ah! Just go somewhere else! You''re screwing up the game!" ¡ª The bestpliment LOL ¡ª Haha a newpliment! ¡ª Oh fuck, the game''s over. [GameVocab has donated 10,000 won!] [Screwing up the game = You''re too good, please let me go.] Almondughed after hearing that. "You guys go somewhere else." He smiled and drew his bowstring again. Paaang!! Four more yers instantly died. Some yers threw axes and knives at him, but he deflected all of them with arrows. After that, they didn''t even bother wasting their time. ''This isn''t going to work.'' ''He''s a monster.'' ''Let''s just run to the storage.'' They hoped for the best and risked their lives running to the basement storage. Some escaped out of the Arsenal. "Hey, you! I''lle for youter!" It was better to avoid death for now and live a little longer. ¡ª Later?! ¡ª He''s going to reappearter! ¡ª So manypliments today! ¡ª Haha, encore! The basement entrance became empty after they all fled or ran to the storage. ¡ª Woah! The basement! ¡ª Is he the only one there? ¡ª He has to go down quickly! ¡ª But there''s already a lot of people who went down there. Almond tied his rope to the balcony and jumped to the first floor. Fwhip! He safelynded on the first floor. The few yers who tried to ambush him bying up the stairs had to turn back. ¡ª He thought ahead already.? ¡ª Good use of the rope. He''s a veteran now. ¡ª The guys who tried to ambush him are screwed! ¡ª So cool¡­ Almond could see the dark entrance to the basement. The normal crowd had disappeared and the path in front of him was wide open. ''Should I go in?'' Almond wondered whether he should enter or bring something like a motorcycle to light the ce on fire. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds!] ¡ª Damn. ¡ª He wasted too much time. Almond briefly paused and checked the minimap as he prepared to leave the Arsenal. "This time, it''s shrinking toward me." ¡ª No way! ¡ª Wow, this can''t be!? ¡ª That''s crazy! ¡ª So funny how everyone is surprised. ¡ª This is normal... ¡ª I can''t believe this. Almond gets lucky? This must be a bug! A truly umon event had urred. Almond headed back to the dark entrance. ''I think I have time to go in.'' *** Corpses stacked on top of one another and formed a wall in the basement. It seemed like half the yers from earlier had died here. "Brutal," Almond muttered as he entered the basement. [Curious has donated 1000 won.] [Why did you enter the basement today? Usually, you just light the ce on fire.] ¡ª Oh yeah, that''s weird. ¡ª I didn''t notice because he walked in so naturally LOL ¡ª Yeah, why did he enter? ¡ª That''s true. Usually, he lights it on fire or blows something up down there! They were right. Almond never bothered to look around the basement filled with treasures. He simply destroyed it so no one could have the treasures. "Ah, that''s what I used to do because I thought everything in here would be useless. However, some weapons are useful even for me." ¡ª Power suit? ¡ª This guy''s addicted to the power suit. ¡ª That''s super rare¡­ Tudududdu! A fight seemed to be going on in the basement. Tududududu! He could hear constant gunfire. "Seems like there''s no power suit." He only heard gunshots, but not the power suit¡¯s signature stomping. ¡ª Of course... ¡ª That''s super rare... ¡ª Almond... you baby... did you want a power suit for Christmas? Almond knew it was rare, but there was still a chance. His victory would be guaranteed if he got lucky and found one. He had no reason to not look for it. ''Then let''s get some grenades and shbangs.'' The Arsenal had more than just guns. It also had grenades, shbangs, smoke grenades, etc. Almond could put them to good use and they would greatly help himter on. [ScrubbyGuy has donated 10,000 won!] [But... it''s brutal in there. Will you be okay?] Inside the treasure room would be like hell. yers fired at each other with legendary weapons. Even Almond would have difficulty fighting them with just a bow. "It should be alright. I practiced." ¡ª Oh... ¡ª Practice?! ¡ª Woah woah¡­? ¡ª Shit, practice? My first time hearing him say that. [Bandit has donated 5000 won.] [Will you add some energy st to the arrow or something?] "It''s not that, but it should help a bit since I practiced a lot." Everyone could tell what he meant by practicing when he took his first shot. Chapter 89: Almond with Practice (3)

    Chapter 89: Almond with Practice (3)

    A yer named Rodae found a couple of legendary weapons in the Arsenal. He didn''t want to die with them, so he started firing. Tududududu! ''No way I''m dying.'' He was ranked Diamond IV and deserved that rank with his aim. Enemies fell one by one due to his excellent aimbined with the legendary weapon. They fell with only two shots to their bodies. "Kugh!" "Urk!" Two people suddenly died and Rodae kept firing. Tudududu! He felt a rush of excitement every time he pulled the trigger. Was this the power of a legendary weapon?! "Hohoho..." Even Diamond yers struggled to find legendary weapons. Only one out of thirty games would a yer find one. No wonder he felt so happy. He could im everything in the basement if this continued, collect all the treasures, and win first ce. ''I''ll win first ce!'' Just then¡­ Shiiik¡ª? He heard something ripping through the air. Thwack! ''Huh?'' Something hot and sticky trickled down his forehead and crimson blood covered his vision. [Rodae] [79th] The disappointing results popped up in front of him. He ced 79th with a legendary weapon? That didn''t make any sense! "W-What the!? He didn''t have an angle on me!" Rodae screamed. He couldn''t ept the oue and checked everywhere, but no opening existed. Then he checked the kill cam. "What is this?" An arrow flew around the pir as if it could track him. "Isn''t this a bug?" Rodae seriously wondered. He wouldn''t have argued over a straight shot, but this arrow curved in a realistic video game. Was there a weapon called the power bow? Rodae didn''t watch YouTube or use social media, so he didn¡¯t know about Almond. ''This guy is fucked.'' He switched his point of view to Almond''s and began watching him. He nned on reporting Almond if the same thing happened again since the first time could''ve been a bug. "Again! He''s doing it again!" Pang! Almond stood behind a pir and fired four arrows that all curved. "What the?!" The arrows curved around the pir and struck the opponents¡¯ heads. Pak! Pababak! He had 100% uracy and not a single one missed. [Almond ¡ú NomiNomi] [Eliminated!] [77/100] [Almond ¡ú Abura98] [Eliminated!] [76/100] Rodae scrolled up on the kill log. ''...'' He became speechless and wanted to use Almond of abusing a bug, but realized no such thing had happened. His anger faded away. ''I-It''s not a bug?!'' Rodae was also a skilled yer and could tell right away that it wasn''t a bug. A bug would either cause a frame drop or static to appear on the screen. Almond''s arrows seemed perfect with no issues and his straight shots looked perfect too. He simply had the skills. ''Is this really just his skills?'' Rodae couldn''t believe it, but he just saw it with his own eyes. His anger disappeared and fear began to take its ce. He got the chills because it felt like being hunted. ''Almond... next time...'' Hemitted Almond''s name to memory. ''I''ll run away as soon as I see him!'' *** Almond''s practice paid off and his curve shots improved. His curve shot uracy rose two to three times thanks to his practice. The other yers couldn''t dodge arrows flying from behind obstacles. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª It''s not a treasure room. It''s a graveyard! ¡ª Is this the pharaoh''s tomb or something? ¡ª For real, everyone came for the treasure and died.? ¡ª His curve shot is insane now. ¡ª It doesn''t miss¡­ Battle Large yers had never seen curving arrows before. Maybe it was possible in LIL, but how could they have known about a skill like that? Even BubbleSniper, who knew many tricks, would be shocked to see this. Pang! Thest arrow struck its target and the basement became empty. Almond had cleared the entire ce. [RubySword has donated 10,000 won!] [So this is what you meant by practice!] "Thank you for the donation, RubySword. Yes, I practiced my curve shots and changed my form a bit." Only Almond remained in the Arsenal, so he had ample time to reply. ¡ª No wonder his form looks different. ¡ª That''s crazy. He improved this much in one day? ¡ª That''s what you call a genius. "I practiced quite a bit." He received more donations thanks to his fancy curve shots. [LeeSunSin has donated 20,000 won!] [If only you were with us during the Japanese wars!] [ArcheryAssociation has donated 50,000 won!] [We''ll just give you the gold medal!] "LeeSunSin, ArcheryAssociation... you''re not real, right? Thank you for the 50,000 won donation." Almond looked around the basement while reading out the donations. ''Grenades...'' He picked up shbangs, grenades, and smoke grenades. He also found something special. "Huh?" [Arrow: Rare] He learned that arrows also had tiers. "There''s a rare arrow?" ¡ª You didn''t know? ¡ª What the, how could you not know? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Such a newb¡­? ¡ª I guess since no streamers use a bow¡­ ¡ª LOL ¡®What the, was I the only one who didn''t know?¡¯ Almond scratched his head. Why was it rare? Did it have other benefits? He picked up the arrow. [Arrow: Rare] [This arrow is thinner and sturdier than a standard arrow. It will fly farther and faster.] It didn¡¯t have any special advantages. It just seemed lighter and sturdier than a regr one. However, its basic qualities stood out in a straightforward manner. Almond liked that. "Good." [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds!] The second wave of shrinking began. "Seems like the Arsenal survived pretty good, but I''ll burn it down and move on." The Arsenal was safe within the blue zone, but he had no intentions of staying. It would be much better for him to burn it down so other yers couldn''t get to it. Fwoosh! The basement full of treasures began burning thanks to all the gunpowder inside. *** There was a bountiful forest behind the Arsenal unique to the jungle map. It was called the swamp forest. [Swamp Forest] The text appeared as Almond stepped on the sticky ground. Ssh. "I have a good feeling about this ce. I''ll hide and see." Almond hid in the tall grass and decided to hold off on farming for items. He was short on medical equipment, but didn''t see the need for them with the blue zone in a good location. For some reason, the blue zone was helping him out today. Almond always fought against it, but luck was on his side. However, some viewers felt annoyed. ¡ª Ah! What is this?! ¡ª Fantasia, do your job! ¡ª Get out and fight! Get out and fight! Get out and fight! Get out and fight! Get out and fight! ¡ª No, please stay there! ¡ª For real. This game is over. You''re trolling if you get out. ¡ª Someone give him a kill mission! ¡ª Would you guys go out? He''s this close to getting diamond. Almond had no intention of going out because his viewers would be even more annoyed if he died out there. [ShyNapoleon has given you a mission.] [1000 won for every kill!] ¡°Pfft,¡±?Almond subconsciously covered his mouth. "Ah, I''m sorry. Thank you for the mission." ¡ª Hey! Did you justugh at the amount? ¡ª LOL Pfft ¡ª It is funny. ¡ª How can you resistughing? ¡ª Go back to your roots!!! ¡ª He really is shy. ¡ª 1000 won for each kill. LOL Who would do that? ¡ª His mission to diamond is already worth 500,000 won! [ShyNapoleon has donated 10,000 won!] [But I¡¯ll go bankrupt if I do 10,000 won per kill... There are 60 people left...] In the past, ShyNapoleon put up the same mission for 10,000 won and ended up losing over 1 million won. ¡ª He''s pretty famous. ¡ª He''s from the Kingdom Age days, right? ¡ª Yeah. ¡ª Damn... so cute! "You don''t have to give me any more missions. The road to Diamond is enough." Almond was sure he would reach Diamond by the end of the day. It was better to aim for that ording to his calctions. [Mission: Reach Diamond by today.] [530,000 won] The 100,000 won mission stacked up to 530,000 won. ¡ª Yeah, I mean that mission itself is worth it... ¡ª But 1000 won per kill is hrious. ¡ª If he really gets Diamond, the whole world will be surprised by our K-Almond! The yer count slowly dropped to 55. Then 50... The blue zone began shrinking again. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds.] Almond checked the map. ''Woah.'' The blue zone took his side again. Today was a really lucky day for him. No one crossed through the forest as if they had forgotten about it. The number of survivors decreased and the kill log kept rising. [MondayFriday ¡ú wooni12] [49/100] [yong93 ¡ú TakeTP] [48/100] [QuickBurger ¡ú yong93] [47/100] [QuickBurger ¡ú wnsvyrnt] [30/100] Thirty survivors remained while Almond stayed in the same spot. ¡ª What are you doing Almond! ¡ª You tricked me! This isn''t Almond. It''s Ghandi! ¡ª Move, you nut! ¡ª Haha, there''s gotta be rounds like this too! ¡ª Fantasia, these bastards¡­ The viewersined while watching the still screen. [ShyNapoleon has given you a mission.] [10,000 won for every kill!] ShyNapoleon summoned his courage once more. ¡ª Oh...! ¡ª Is he finally going to move!? ¡ª BraveNapoleon ¡ª BraveNapoleon LOL ¡ª BraveNapoleon sounds better.? ¡ª Let''s goooo! ¡ª No way. It''ll only be 300,000 won even if he kills everyone. The mission came with only thirty yers left. "Thank you for the mission. So is it 11,000 won per killbined with the one from earlier?" Almond still didn''t move. ¡ª 11,000 won haha ¡ª But for real, why isn''t this guy moving? ¡ª What the?! Why aren''t you killing! ¡ª You tricked me! This is Ghandi! You tricked me! This is Ghandi! ¡ª Almond, this guy... ¡ª You¡¯re driving us crazy! ¡ª Ah, leave him alone. Fantasia''s being nice to him for once. Regardless, he prioritized victory. Winning was the most important thing as long as it was within the rules. That was how sports worked. ''Calm down. Calm down. This is strategy. Strategy.'' Almond preferred intense matches, but he had to stay calm and make an intelligent choice right now. He couldn''t face everyone head-on and fight every time. If Fantasia decided to throw him a bone, it would be wise to take it. This was also a skill. However, it looked like Fantasia abandoned him after all. Swooooosh¡ª? A strange noise could be heard. ''Huh?'' Almond looked up and a vast shadow loomed over him. It was an airdrop. A care package fell from the sky with various hero tier items inside. ''Dammit.'' This would usually be a good thing, but most of the items were useless to him. Also... Boom! Boom! Pop! The care package sent out loud fireworks to indicate its location on the map to everyone. Vroooom¡ª Almond could already hear a caring. Ssh! Ssh! Countless footsteps rang out too. Gulp. "... Who wants to give me a kill mission?" ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hell yeah!!! ¡ª Good job, Fantasia! ¡ª This is it! ¡ª Don''t give him any missions! ¡ª They''reing!!! Chapter 90: Almond with Practice (4)

    Chapter 90: Almond with Practice (4)

    Chaos would soon arrive. Boom! Bang! Noisy firecrackers shot up from the box. Whoooooooog! Almond felt his impatience growing as a car engine revved. p! p! Urgent footsteps echoed throughout the swamp. ''What a mess.'' All of this would lead to a huge scuffle. The airdrop was worth a shot because it fell in a remote and unpopr location. Victory would be easier for anyone if they acquired a legendary weapon. ''I don¡¯t use guns anyways.'' Almond preferred not to use guns, so it would be meaningless even if it did contain a legendary weapon. Still, he ran towards the airdrop. It could contain something useful besides a gun. In the worst case, he needed to prevent others from taking the legendary weapons. Chuk! He quickly opened the care package. [Medical Kit] [Ghillie suit: Legendary] [Bulletproof vest: Hero] The box contained three items and one of them shined gold. "Wow...." He finally found a hero tier equipment for the first time. Almond quickly put on the vest and ghillie suit. Shulk. The legendary ghillie suit perfectly suited the jungle map. ''Wow, it really blends in with the environment.'' The ghillie suit camouged with the bushes and the hero tier bulletproof vest spoke for itself. Whoooooooohooong! The engine grew closer and Almond quickly hid behind a bush while assuming a shooting position. Shuffle. He melted into the background as if wearing an invisible cloak thanks to the ghillie suit. *** The yer mmed the car door and shouted because he thought he arrived first, "Nice!" He carefully approached the box and used the car for cover. He seemed excited but didn''t rush. "Wait¡­" He spotted someone''s footprints. In the past, he had encountered yers waiting for others to approach the box. "Hmph." He returned to his car and drove right up to the box. "They can''t shoot me now." Indeed, that made it harder for Almond to shoot. He covered the only opening, so it looked safe now. Almond watched him the entire time and nodded, ''Smart.''? The opponent knew how to cover his blind spots. "Hehehe." Unfortunately, that was the cause of his defeat and why he died. The opponent believed he was safe. Swoosh! The wind hissed like a snake before an arrow pierced the center of his forehead. Thud! "Kugh!?W-What?!" He wore a bulletproof helmet and survived. "Where the hell¡ª" Another arrow came flying. Thud! He reacted fast and it struck his shoulder instead of his head. He extended his life, but wouldn¡¯t be able to escape. "Where in the world?!" He couldn''t see where the arrows came from. He panicked and looked back. Swoosh! Another arrow came flying. "What?!" The arrow curved around the parked car and flew straight at him. It hadn¡¯t curved 45 degrees, but 90 degrees. A giant arrowhead appeared right in front of him. ''How is this possible?'' It was toote. Thwack! The arrow pierced right between his eyebrows this time and he copsed on the spot as if paralyzed. [Almond ¡ú Talented] [Eliminated!] [29/100] "Phew, he was quick-witted." The opponent reacted faster than Almond expected. Thankfully, Almond didn''t fire two arrows consecutively. If he had, they would''ve missed andnded on a tree. "I cleaned one up anyways." The number of kills for his mission went up by one. [Current: 1 kill] Only one kill had been counted so far since he received the missionte in the game. ¡ª Shit, his curve shot is crazy.? ¡ª IKR? LOL ¡ª Is this okay though? lol ¡ª I feel like it''s legit killing.? ¡ª ShyNapoleon is fucked up now. LOL His curve shot looked more advanced now and the viewers were already worried about ShyNapoleon''s wallet. "One or two more areing." The hunt for those aiming for the airdrop had begun. Up to ten yers would end uping for the airdrop. [ShyNapoleon has donated 1,000 won] [Almond... H-Help!] "Yes. Thank you for your donation, Napoleon." ¡ª Oh my, LOL ¡ª Why are you ignoring him! ¡ª Almond: No! Go back! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Poor Napoleon¡­ ''They''reing.'' Almond suddenly stopped chatting with viewers. Ssh! The footsteps grew louder. He couldn''t risk the smallest murmuring with the viewers. Ssh. Ssh. The opponent approaching through the sticky swamp suddenly stopped in his tracks. ''...? Why did he stop?''? Almond couldn¡¯t tell from just listening to the footsteps. He looked back at the airdrop and figured out why. The car remained parked right in front of it. Someone had either already taken the airdropped items or died trying to get them. No one woulde any closer if they could think properly. They would give up or start hunting others approaching the airdrop. Whatever they decided, Almond would remain safe. But¡ª Ssh! Ssh! The opponent quickly approached anyway. ''What¡¯s going on?'' They made an unexpected move. Ssh! Ssh! Ssh! Someone crazily ran towards him. The opponent came into view and moved through the bushes. Could they be out of their mind to do such a troll y? Swish! The opponent grabbed the airdrop after rushing from the bushes. He seemed desperate for some reason. ''Ah!'' It was clear why he was rushing. He hadn¡¯t made a troll y. The opponent was injured and bleeding out. He would die anyway, so he gambled his life on the airdrop. But... "I¡¯m sorry." Swoosh! Almond rewarded his gamble with an arrow. "!" The moment the opponent checked the empty box¡­ Thwack! An arrow came from behind the car and pierced right through his head. His broken bulletproof helmet was useless. One shot, one kill. Thud! The mud in the swamp sshed everywhere and a notification popped up. [Almond ¡ú BananaShooter] [Eliminated!] [27/100] Almond looked down at his arrow again, amazed at the clean shot. ''The speed it flies at... It''s definitely better.'' The rare arrow was only one tier above, but he could feel the improvement. It flew smoother than he expected. No wonder it was faster and more destructive. One level made that much of a difference. Almond realized once again that Battle Large was also a farming game. Now he wished he could keep using hero tier arrows or even a higher tier bow. As he imagined it in his head¡­ Rumble...? The ground shook. "...!" Several jeep cars came racing either because of the airdrop or the shrinking blue zone. yers tended not to fight in cars since it was difficult to aim while driving. Vrooooom¡ª? The engines grew louder and louder. Three jeeps came from the distance at the same time. Ssh! Their powerful four-wheel drive tires ripped through the terrain. m! m! The cars bumped into each other. They seemed to be keeping each other in check and fiercely aimed for the airdrop at the same time. Skrrrt! Perhaps the car at the front saw the other car already parked at the airdrop, so they mmed on their brakes. "Oh?! Over there!" They hadn¡¯t braked because of the parked car. It was because of Almond in the ghillie suit. ''How did they see me from so far away?'' ¡ª How did they spot him in the ghillie suit? ¡ª There must be a thermal camera. ¡ª Maybe they¡¯re wearing a thermal camera on their head. How did they see it? lol? ¡ª So unlucky. ¡ª Of course, this is Almond. ¡®Ah, they must have a thermal camera.¡¯ "There! He picked up the airdrop!!!" the man with the thermal camera shouted so the others could shoot Almond. Almond wanted to report them for teaming up, but they didn¡¯t intentionally do so. It was apromise based on the situation. Battle Large rmended taking advantage of such situations when interests coincided. Tududududu! The three yers got out of their jeeps and began shooting. They used their car windows and doors as shields while shooting at Almond. The trees that stood in the way burst apart. m! Mud sshed everywhere as the trees copsed. Thwack! "Ugh¡­" A bullet grazed Almond''s abdomen. Luckily, it didn¡¯t reduce his health at all thanks to his hero tier bulletproof vest. It did surprise him though. Almond rolled over and hid behind some boulders this time. Tududududu! The gunfire continued, but nothing flew at him anymore. Almond became invisible. Even a thermal camera couldn¡¯t detect heat through rocks. Something like that was only possible in movies. Almond carefully pulled out his bow and drew the bowstring. ''The boulder and the jeep¡­'' A boulder sat in front of Almond and the enemies also defended against the different angles that he could shoot from. They had double shields, but that wouldn¡¯t pose any problems as long as he imagined the correct path in his head. Almond could shoot curve shots from almost any angle now. ''I have to shoot around the passenger side and towards the driver seat.'' He couldn''t believe he thought about curving an arrow through the side window from the front. It didn''t make any sense. Creak¡­? However, his right hand confidently drew the bowstring. He tightly pulled back to pierce through the ss. ''This arrow will do.'' He had to shoot all three arrows simultaneously before the enemies could react. "W-Where is he?! Hey! Don''t shoot for now! Let''s kill the ghillie suit first¡­" They told each other not to shoot and thought they would remain safe in their cars. ''Starting with the thermal camera guy.'' Almond released his arrow that dug into their blind spot. Swooosh¡ª? A car window shattered after something hissed through the air. Paaaang! "What?!" They felt surprised when an arrow smashed the side window. Fortunately, the arrow lost its strength. However¡­ Swoosh¡ª? Another snake-like hiss could be heard and a second arrow flew in and pierced an enemy¡¯s head. Thwack! "Ahhh!" The yer¡¯s bulletproof helmet instantly broke and one more arrow came right afterwards. Thwack! The third arrow pierced the enemy¡¯s head like a skewer. [Almond ¡ú HailHydra] [Eliminated! [26/100] ''It worked.'' He killed the most troublesome one. "What the fuck?" The dead yer¡¯s teammates widened their eyes in shock. At that moment¡­ Pang! The ss broke again and the next victim realized it was his turn. "Jesus, here is¡­ kugh!" He had no time to react. Thwack! Another arrow pierced the back of his head. Sadly, he didn''t wear a bulletproof helmet. [Almond ¡ú YellowVani] [Eliminated!] [25/100] Thest opponent grabbed the steering wheel instead of firing back at Almond. "Shit!" He wouldn¡¯t seed anyways, so he made the wise decision to flee. However, he left the car window open and didn¡¯t wear a bulletproof helmet. An arrow came flying faster than he could drive away. Thwack! It easily pierced his head and blood sshed on the windshield. "Kugh!" Hoooonk!!! The opponent''s face fell on the horn, so the car kept honking. ¡ª This is lit;; ¡ª Six consecutive curve shots? ¡ª He shot them all through the window? ¡ª Almond: Korean ser will lose against me.? ¡ª You''re insane¡­ "Three more kills," Almond blurted out and immediately hid somewhere in the bushes. He looked around with eyes that shed like a beast as he prepared for his next hunt. More yers would probablye because of the loud horn. Chapter 91: A Natural Star (1)

    Chapter 91: A Natural Star (1)

    Almond remained calm even after six sessful curve shots. ¡ª This guy never lets his guard down!? ¡ª Almond is never careless. ¡ª Go easy, Almond! ¡ª For real, he doesn''t let off at all. ¡ª If I made a shot like that, I''d scream and be impressed with myself. Carelessness was the farthest emotion from Sang-Hyeon. He came from a ce where a single arrow determined whether he ended up in heaven or hell. He took pride in being one of the best in the world at remaining calm in tense situations. His ability to not get excited had been embedded in him throughout his life. Almond simply focused on the next target despite the sessful shots. ''More wille for sure because of the loud noise.'' yers would swarm this ce because of the blue zone''s location, the loud noises, and the care package. At the very least, they would be curious to see what happened. Almond would hunt them the moment they tried to peek. Shuffle. Shuffle. He could hear footsteps in the tall grass. Chuk. Chuk. The hypersensitive Almond could feel it. ''One person.'' He looked intently through the grass for the yer approaching. ''Over there.'' He spotted someone on the right with their gun ready behind a tree. It looked like they were aiming for Almond, but how did they find him with his ghillie suit on? Had the opponent watched the fight from earlier? Almond didn''t have time to think. Fwhip. He rolled over and shot his bow. He lightly shot like a boy throwing a softball, but it was still deadly. Thwack! Tudududu... The gun fired as the arrow struck. The bulletsnded at Almond¡¯s previous location. Then the opponent copsed. Thud. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª I can''t even see how fast he shot! ¡ª He got even quicker. ¡ª Wait, there was a person there? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª How did he see him? ¡ª How did that guy see Almond? Diamond is sure different. ¡ª Just a bunch of monsters. Almond put up a finger to quiet the viewers even though the enemies wouldn¡¯t be able to hear them. "There''s another one¡­" He heard more footsteps, but they came from the left this time. Tudududu! The enemy shot at Almond first. His location had been revealed from thest encounter. Almond lightly stepped all over the ce while shooting his bow. He looked awkward before, but now he did it naturally in one smooth motion. Was it because of that? Despite his aggressive movements, his shots were powerful enough to break the opponent''s helmet. Thwack! "Urk?!" The enemy shook from the arrow''s impact as two more flew toward him. Thwack! Thwack! Every arrownded on the opponent''s head. Almond had instantly fired three arrows in mid-air. ¡ª Wait, was this an action game? ¡ª Holy shit ¡ª I think he''s actually quicker than a gun now. ¡ª I-I think something''s wrong with the game! ¡ª Hey! We said to y Battle Large, not LIL! ¡ª What''s going on... ¡ª Is he doing martial arts? ¡ª Isn''t this like that old game Guns Online?! Afterward, enemies continueding out left and right. Pang! Pang! However, Almond flew around and killed all of them. [Almond ¡ú Doritos] [Eliminated!] [1/100] Finally, thest enemy died in an anticlimactic fashion and the game ended. Almond''s favorite text appeared. [1st] He also received a hefty amount of mission rewards. [1000 won per kill Mission Sess!] [10,000 won per kill Mission Sess!] [27 kills!] Treevy''s system automatically calcted the missions. [297,000 won will be paid out.] Almond killed 27 of the 30 remaining yers after the missions began. As a result, he earned almost 300,000 won. ¡ª Noooo! ShyNapoleon cried in the chat. ¡ª Napoleon, noooo! ¡ª Don''t cry! ¡ª Hey, shyboy. Don''t cry. ¡ª Hahaha It''s good as long as you had fun watching, right? ¡ª These guys are so mean. *** As to said, the beginning was the most important part. Almond easily achieved three wins in a row and still seemed to be in prime condition. A victory meant finishing in the top ten. He won first ce in two matches and unfortunately ced tenth in his most recent match after a stream sniper killed him. "Ah, dealing with stream snipers is a pain," heined after the game. Good news awaited him though. [The Diamond promotion matches have begun!] He umted enough points to start the promotion matches. "Oh, I still got into the promotion matches after getting tenth. That''s good, right?" ¡ª LOL! It''s good anyways. ¡ª For real, it''s worth it. ¡ª But tenth... it was still so close! ¡ª What can you do about stream snipers? ¡ª Yeah, he suddenly died. I wonder who it was? ¡ª There are so many good yers... ¡ª Is this what high tinum looks like? ¡ª Stream snipers with good equipment can''t be beaten. A well-equipped stream sniper had killed Almond, but that didn''t faze him. Even the world''s best yer could end upst if they got unlucky. ''I just need to win first for the matches that matter.'' For example, he needed to win first in the uing promotion matches. There would be five rounds and he had to win first in at least two. ''I should get ready...'' He took a break and talked to the viewers. A message appeared as he prepared to enter the queue again. [Ju-Hyeok: Aren''t you going to eat?] Ju-Hyeok sent him a message. ''Eat?'' Sang-Hyeon checked the time. It was 7 P.M. and dinnertime already. He did feel hungry now that he thought about it. No wonder he never ate properly. ''My win streak broke and I lost my tempo. Should I just eat before continuing?'' It may have been better to continue if he was on a winning streak, but sometimes it was better to take a small break with his current tempo. "I''ll eat first before the promotion matches." ¡ª Huh? ¡ª What! ¡ª You''re going? ¡ª Let''s eat together! ¡ª Mukbang! Mukbang! Mukbang! Mukbang! Mukbang! Mukbang! ¡ª Oh, mukbang time? ¡®Mukbang?¡¯ Almond didn''t expect them to want a mukbang. He thought for a moment. [SorsoBread has donated 5000 won.] [Show us your mukbang!] [LittleGirl has donated 3000 won.] [Oppa, this is my weekly allowance. Please, let''s eat together!] He even received donations pleading to eat with him. He wanted to ept their request, but needed more time to prepare. He didn¡¯t have a camera or mic setup. As of now, he could only stream inside the capsule. "Ah... A mukbang will be..." Baam! [Eggnt has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [Do a mukbang!!] "A great idea!" ¡ª LOL ¡ª Eggnt''s honest punch. ¡ª I see, honesty works everywhere. ¡ª LOL I think he changed up his words. "B-But there''s no equipment. I''ll ask my manager, but no guarantees!" Almond reassured his viewers and left the capsule. *** Chiiik¡ª? The capsule lid opened and Almond walked out drenched in sweat. ''I''m not sweating that much today.'' This indicated he was in good condition. Previously, he would be drenched after one round, but it felt like a light jog today. "Mukbang?" Ju-Hyeok asked and turned around from his monitor. "Yeah, is it possible?" "Of course, it''s possible. As long as you''re okay with it." Ju-Hyeok seemed happy to hear. A mukbang was one of the best ways for streamers tomunicate with their viewers. It sounded like good news to him, who always contemted ways to increase the business. However, Sang-Hyeon had one problem. "But... I don''t have a camera. What should we do?" Ju-Hyeok confidently smiled despite Sang-Hyeon¡¯s worry. "I know, but I already thought of something. Let¡¯s stream it outdoors." "Outdoors?" "You don''t have a camera, so the quality will be low anyways. Might as well stream outdoors using a phone." Sang-Hyeon had seen it before with streamers carrying around a selfie stick. ''Who would''ve thought I''d be doing that.'' He was a little hesitant. "What about the food?" "We''ll eat out." "But wouldn''t that be a little bothersome for the restaurant?" He didn''t like the thought of eating out while streaming. "It won''t be bothersome. Instead, I bet he''d be thankful." "He?" "The Oh Gang-Woo kimchi stew ce in Hoogye." "Ah!" p. Sang-Hyeon also thought that ce would be perfect. It should be fine there. "Then let me get a mask ready." Sang-Hyeon packed a mask to avoid repeating his previous mistake. Meanwhile, Ju-Hyeok made a quick call, probably to the advertisers. "Yes, yes. We¡¯lle by since the opportunity came up. Haha, we''re excited too..." All seemed to go well judging from the conversation. Ju-Hyeok opened the door after Sang-Hyeon wore his mask. "Alright, let''s go! Our first ad!" *** "Wee to our ten thousand year old tradition! Hell''s taste! Oh Gang-Woo''s Kimchi Stew!!!" Loud shouts greeted the three of them. That''s right. Seo Ji-Ah also joined them after Ju-Hyeok texted her and asked if she wanted to eat. She quickly came over. Seo Ji-Ah was also fine with them streaming and decided to wear a hood while eating. "The same order asst time... and no alcohol, okay?" Ju-Hyeok told Ji-Ah. "Of course, I know that much." Ji-Ah looked away, a little embarrassed from thest time. "Good. Can we get three orders of the nine-thousand hell kimchi stew?" The store manager, Oh Dong-San, appeared as the server collected their menus. "Wow! You''re really here!" As Ju-Hyeok expected, the manager looked happy to see them. "I heard from the CEO that you wereing! You¡¯re shooting a promotion at our store! Hahahaha!" Oh Dong-San''s expression, full of small wrinkles, brightened up. He looked genuinely happy. Seeing him reassured Sang-Hyeon as well. ''Well, it doesn''t look like we''ll be an inconvenience...'' He awkwardly took out a selfie stick and could sense others staring at him. "K-Kumph. I really can''t get used to this." "Hey, it''s your job now. Just do it." Sang-Hyeon nodded and turned on his stream from his phone. [Mobile streaming has started!] He began streaming outdoors for the first time. Chapter 92: A Natural Star (2)

    Chapter 92: A Natural Star (2)

    Almond didn¡¯t interact much with his viewers during his streams. Previously, he had the opportunity to do so with his interview on Fantasia''s channel. Other than that, he primarily responded to their questions in the middle of games. Viewers who liked Almond for his skills and personality found it disappointing. However, they finally received some good news. [Almond has begun mobile streaming!] Mobile streaming meant an outdoor stream and not a gamey session. ¡ª Woah, he''s really doing it? ¡ª But why mobile? ¡ª Is he doing a mukbang? What''s the menu? ¡ª Why can''t I see anything? All the viewers watching his gamey came back and mingled in the chatroom. However, they couldn''t see anything yet. The screen appeared ck and they could barely hear a voice. "Yeah, I think it''s working." The dry voice came from a girl. ¡ª ??? A girl? ¡ª What the? ¡ª What''s with the girl, boss? Do you want to see me go crazy!? ¡ª You''re insane! ^ ¡ª Who is it!?? ¡ª Anyways, who is it? ¡ª Did he identally turn it on? ¡ª What if we hear some moaning?! "But... why can''t I see anything?" "Hey, Ji-Ah. Move your finger." "Ah." Swiff. Finally, the light shone towards the camera and Ji-Ah could be seen sitting closest. Sang-Hyeon had asked for Ji-Ah¡¯s help since it was his first time streaming outdoors. ¡ª ??? ¡ª So pretty! ¡ª So cute! ¡ª Who is that? She''s so pretty. ¡ª Oh! ¡ª Who''s that?! She looks like IU! ¡ª What did you do with Almond!? ¡ª Mom! I don''t need Almond anymore!!! Mom! I don''t need Almond anymore!!! Ji-Ah''s eyes widened as she read the chat. She threw the phone to Ju-Hyeok and turned all red. "H-Here you go. It''s on, right?" "Yeah, but... aren''t you going to hold the phone?" "Ah." Seo Ji-Ah felt so embarrassed that she forgot she was supposed to be recording. "It''s not much work. Just put the phone beside you on the tripod. You won''t even appear on the screen." ''I''ve already appeared once.'' Ji-Ah nodded with a pout and fixed the phone onto the tripod. Finally, Almond''s face appeared. Ju-Hyeok and Ji-Ah sat across from Almond and left him alone. ¡ª Oppa! ¡ª Bro! ¡ª AlHa! AlHa! ¡ª AlHa¡­ ¡ª Woah, he''s really doing a mukbang! Thank you so much! The chat quickly rose when Sang-Hyeon appeared. [Current Viewers: 6700] A lot of viewers came considering the stream was just eating kimchi stew. Even Almond, who was already used to streaming, slightly hesitated. ''This is more embarrassing than I thought.'' He began turning red. Even though he was a streamer, shouting ¡°Hi Treevy!¡± in public was a little... Thankfully, this restaurant sponsored him. He would¡¯ve thought twice about it in a regr restaurant. Gulp. Sang-Hyeon, no, Almond had no choice. He was a streamer! "Hi, Treevy!" ¡ª LOL ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª AlHaha! ¡ª Oppa, you''re embarrassed, right? ¡ª Who''s the girl from earlier? ¡ª Hihi! The viewers felt happy to hear his greeting. "I came here to eat kimchi stew." Ji-Ah naturally showed the store¡¯s logo as he said that. ¡ª LOL ¡ª 10,000 years old? What a name! ¡ª I''ve seen a lot of those around. ¡ª I think the store''s name hit intion. ¡ª Intion LOL ¡ª 60 years? We''re 10,000 years! ¡ª It''s kimchi stew from the prehistoric ages! "Yes, one recently opened near our house. This is an ad though." The viewers responded to his remark with question marks. ¡ª ???? ¡ª ?? ¡ª Huh? [Simpson has donated 1000 won!] [Wait, you tricked us! This was an ad!] Did they not like it? Sang-Hyeon felt confused, but that didn''t matter since ads were inevitable. "Yes, it''s an ad. An offer came in and I hesitated, but I just epted because of the mukbang timing and everything." ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª What a weird way to ept. ¡ª This guy''s hungry for money... ¡ª Capitalism at its finest! ¡ª LOL ¡ª He''s so cool about it. Haha ¡ª The man who epts an ad because he needs to do a mukbang! [DiedBecauseBored has donated 3000 won.] [Ah, I just said yes because I''m hungry.] "I didn''t ept because I''m hungry... This ce is actually good." Sang-Hyeon didn''t understand the joke and seriously replied. The viewers enjoyed his reaction. ¡ª LOL ¡ª He''s joking. ¡ª You don''t know what his username means? ¡ª For real.? [RubySword has donated 10,000 won!] [Wow! World ss! Congrattions! Thank you for the mukbang!] [Eggnt has donated 5000 won.] [Damn, I just got here! He''s really doing a mukbang. Thank you!] [InsaneEyes has donated 1000 won.] [Boss! Who''s the girl from earlier?! Do you want to see me go crazy!?] "Thank you, RubySword, Eggnt, and... InsaneEyes. It seems like you''ve already gone crazy. The girl from earlier is our YouTube editor. She''s eating with us because she lives near us too." ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª What a strange character¡­? ¡ª Damn, the editor?! She''s so pretty! ¡ª She''s the editor? ¡ª Phew! ¡ª Just an editor, right? [InsaneEyes has donated 1000 won.] [Are you sure she''s just an editor!? Huh!?] ¡ª This guy''s actually insane. ¡ª You''re crazy! ¡ª Stop it! ¡ª Lives up to his username. "InsaneEyes, you should go to a deserted ind and cool off a bit," Sang-Hyeon replied with a smile. Ju-Hyeok fiddled with his phone and the user was suddenly banned for a day. ¡ª Premium ban LOL ¡ª Haha ¡ª Damn, he got banned! ¡ª Almond defending his editor is so sexy!! ¡ª Almond is a pro streamer now. Almond became quite proficient with streaming now. He only felt embarrassed for a moment. He returned to being the usual Almond as soon as the stream started. Ju-Hyeok smiled after seeing that. ''This is Almond.'' Sang-Hyeon always pulled through when it counted. His first mukbang and ad should¡¯ve felt overwhelming. Sang-Hyeon often proved himself at their previouspany too. He always remained calm when all the employees and even their seniors shuddered in fear. Ju-Hyeok knew Sang-Hyeon would be a star, whether he chose to be a gamer or a celebrity. A star always got things done despite the pressure and negativity hurled at them. They shined through all of it. That¡¯s what being a star meant. "Here''s your nine thousand hell stew!" The stew arrived. Lee Ju-Hyeon, the server who asked for Almond''s autographst time, served them again this time as well. She usually acted bright, but seemed quiet today because of the stream. ¡ª Wow, 9000 hell stew? ¡ª What a name¡­? ¡ª It''s called 9000 stew because it''s 9000 won. ¡ª That really is a hellish price¡­ "There are cheaper options. I think there¡¯s a 666 stew. That one''s 6600 won, but they ran out of octopus." Sang-Hyeon cooled his stew and exined the menu as he ate. ¡ª Kya! A pro model! ¡ª Boss! You''re a natural! ¡ª 666 stew LOL ¡ª Why is their concept hell? LOL ¡ª What a hellish concept! ¡ª The octopus determines whether it''s hell or not. ¡ª Because... of its tentacles! "The concept is hell, but the taste is heavenly." ¡ª Kya! ¡ª Capitalism baby! ¡ª Is he reading off a script? ¡ª This is capitalism! ¡ª I thought you just signed the deal. LOL ¡ª Are you seeing this, Kim Jong Un? This is a free economy! ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª It''s so funny to watch Almond like this.? Sang-Hyeon''s cold expression while saying that line made for an amusing scene. The clip became a highlight and viewers reyed it over and over. [JiAlmond has donated 2000 won.] [Boss, show us Ji-Ah eating as too!] ¡ª How dare you try to see her face for only 2000 won! ¡ª You''re a funny one. ¡ª You sound weird. "Ah, Ji-Ah doesn''t like appearing on streams. Earlier was an ident." Almond nced at Ji-Ah to check if she was ufortable, but he was surprised to see the opposite. ''That girl... she looks proud of herself!'' Ji-Ah wore a satisfied smile, but shook her head and didn''t want to be on camera anymore. [Eggnt has donated 1000 won.] [Octopus! Eat the octopus!] "Ah, the octopus is good." Sang-Hyeon began cutting the octopus with scissors after the donation. The pieces fell into the stew and sshed. It looked like he was stumbling to cut it. Ju-Hyeok watched him in fascination. ''Streaming sure is scary.'' Ju-Hyeok recalled when Sang-Hyeon first started working. He didn''t even cut his own meat, but now he was cutting octopus. Was this another sign of a star? "It''s chewy!" Sang-Hyeon shouted with a smile. ''You don''t even like eating...'' Ju-Hyeok felt baffled. "The kimchi, tofu, octopus, and pork are all delicious." What would Sang-Hyeon do if he didn''t ept the ad? He already forgot about being embarrassed outdoors. Ju-Hyeok looked away from Sang-Hyeon, who seemed to be in a TVmercial. He went to check themunity. ''Are there any new highlights?'' Almond made some super ys today, so shouldn¡¯t there be some new highlights? Ju-Hyeok thought that, but¡­ "...?" He found some clips from the stream that werepletely different from what he expected. ''Already?''? *** A particr post trended on Battle Large''s biggestmunity, Battle31. [This nut is eating octopus...] The post showed a gif of Almond eating octopus and saying it was chewy. It didn¡¯t have any audio. ¡ª What the?! Almond is doing a mukbang??? ¡ª What''s going on!! ¡ª What the? Why?! ¡ª I can''t believe this post was literal. I thought it''d be Almond killing a bald character with some arrows. ¡ª I thought the bald association woulde out from reading the title, but it''s literally an octopus. ©¸ The bald associationes out even if it''s an actual octopus. ¡ª We are the bald association. Please stop this travesty. ©¸ LOL It''s true! ©¸ Hahahaha ¡ª But why is this in Battle31? LOL ©¸ It''s Almond''s fan page now ©¸ p while you poop. Then you''ll be famous! ©¸ Almond is so cute! ©¸ It''s been a while since we got a skilled streamer. Let it go. ©¸ Let it go! The post with Almond eating octopus became surprisingly popr. ''So this is what they mean when people will p at anything once you¡¯re famous.'' Ju-Hyeok wiped his sses and looked at the other trending posts. [Why I¡¯ve never liked Almond since the beginning.txt] Wasmunicating with viewers also a double-edged sword? Ju-Hyeok clicked the post while thinking that. Chapter 93: A Natural Star (3)

    Chapter 93: A Natural Star (3)

    [Why I¡¯ve never liked Almond since the beginning.txt] Two sides naturally existed. One would always face opposition despite being loved by many. Of course, no one wanted anti-fans. ''Let''s see what his issue is...'' Ju-Hyeok nervously clicked the post. No negative post about Almond had ever trended before. What would this post be about? [Even with a shitty capsule camera. Even in a mainstream camera studio. Even under a crappy light in a kimchi stew restaurant. He''s so handsome¡­] The post showed a photo of Sang-Hyeon eating kimchi stew with a big smile. "Phew..."?Ju-Hyeok deeply sighed. ''The hell.'' He had been nervous for nothing. All seemed well judging from thements. ¡ª LOL For real. ¡ª Why did you include a picture? Don''t you know what .txt means?! ©¸ For real, why did you include the picture... making us feel ugly¡­ ©¸ It''s better than a ck screen that reflects your own face. ©¸ So mean! LOL ¡ª The world''s worst streamer onnd. ¡ª Popr guys... ¡ª So annoying! ¡ª Even the editor is pretty... This guy has it all... ©¸ Really? Did shee out on the stream? ©¸ By ident, she briefly came out. ¡ª Almond oppa! You''re killing me¡­ Ju-Hyeok smiled as he read thements. He nced at Sang-Hyeon, who continued with the mukbang. "Ah, kimchi and tofu? And the meat as well? Alright." Ju-Hyeok watched Sang-Hyeon obediently listening to the viewers. Then he nced at Ji-Ah sitting beside him. She quietly ate since no camera work needed to be done. ''She''s quite the eater.'' Ju-Hyeok thought so before too, but Ji-Ah ate almost as much as him and he was three times bigger than her. That showed how much she could eat. She liked eating almonds, so he assumed she ate little like Sang-Hyeon. Almonds turned out to be just a snack for her and not a meal. Ju-Hyeok thought that Ji-Ah should''ve been the one doing the mukbang. Ji-Ah must''ve thought the same as she kept chewing while staring at Sang-Hyeon. He smirked and went back to themunity pages. *** Obviously, Almond''s road to diamond challenge umted a lot of attention. A rising star would soon break JeonJaPa''s record. Who wouldn''t be interested? However, another topic trended even more. [A streamer is eating hell''s kimchi stew before his diamond promos? And it''s an ad too?!] Almond''s mukbang before his diamond promotion matches, which was also an ad, began trending like crazy. ¡ª For real? ¡ª Capitalism Genius! ©¸ What''s that mean? ©¸ Means he''s a genius born at the peak of capitalism. ©¸ LOL ©¸ Hahaha ¡ª Wait, that was an ad? Frick! ¡ª I doubted my eyes when I saw the sponsored tag. ¡ª Apparently, that''s spicy too. How''s he going to finish it all? ¡ª Oh Gang-Woo kimchi stew is getting one hell of a promotion. As the viewers stated, the ad actually worked and Ju-Hyeok felt satisfied. ¡ª Well, it seems like the ad is a sess. ¡ª It really does look delicious. ¡ª It''s super sessful. There''s a kimchi stew that''s so good. He needs to eat it before his promo matches! ©¸ Ah, for sure. Oh Gang-Woo waited 10,000 years to eat this. ©¸ What''s this guy saying? He''s just a kimchi stew expert. ©¸ Idk... I think he''s from a different dimension. *** Ju-Hyeok wasn''t the only one reading themunity reactions. Manager Oh read them too. "As expected, this guy is something else. Puhahaha!" Manager Ohughed out loud and patted his plump belly. They were working overtime, but he still watched the stream whileughing. Punk was the onlypany that would allow him to do something like this. "What is it, Manager?" the worker beside him asked. "Ah, it''s Almond. This is his first ad without us involved." "Ah..." "But he''s promoting it well. Who thinks of eating kimchi stew before their Diamond promotion?" "Wow, that road to Diamond challenge?" The worker grew curious and tried to peek. Manager Oh excitedly showed him. On the screen, Almond continued to sweat as he ate the kimchi stew. [Current Viewers: 8900] The viewer count was almost as high as his gamey streams. It might be even higher than his usual views if not for his Diamond promotion matches. "The viewer count is nuts! Wow... but why are you so happy?" "What do you mean?" "It''s just... it''s a shame it''s not an ad for ourpany, but you still seem so happy..." "A shame?" Manager Oh turned around and asked back. The employee nodded in surprise. ¡®Did I say something wrong?¡¯ "Y-Yes, isn''t it a shame? It would be a big deal if it was an ad for us. Of course, we can''t do a mukbang since we''re a game distributor..." "Exactly! That''s it! That''s why this is good for us right now," Manager Oh patted his back. "Sorry?" "What? Hey, do you think we''re the only ones thinking we missed out? Otherpanies looking for advertising opportunities will be thinking the same thing, right?" Manager Oh pretended to make a pleading face, "Ah, what if it was us in that ad instead?! What if he yed a casual or mobile game to rx before his Diamond promotion matches!" Thanks to his act, the employee understood right away. "Ah!" "We''ll have the upper hand in negotiating next time, right? Then that''s good for us and good for Almond. For the others... well, I''m not sure. Hahaha!" Promoting well was one of the most important economic skills for a streamer. Even famous streamers were categorized into those who could pull off ads and those who couldn¡¯t. Streamers with problems or controversies received little ads and needed to learn how to promote effectively. "But look." "Sorry?" "Who do you think thought of this?" "Thought of what? Didn''t they just do it?" "Who would do something crazy like this so spontaneously? Almond isn''t the type to do that. Other than games, he likes to take things easy." "Hmm... Then..." "Wouldn''t it be the manager?" "Ah! Him!" "This isn''t just crazy. It''s in the fine line between impactful advertising and crazy marketing." "That''s right." "I think he''s probably the only one aware of this." "That guy seemed to have a knack for something like this. Maybe because you said..." Manager Oh liked Ju-Hyeok even more than Almond. Ju-Hyeok was a likable fellow, especially to anyone socially active. "Ah, yes. That guy has a sixth sense for this," Manager Oh licked his lips in shame. ''He probably doesn''t want to work at Punk, right?'' *** "Phew, I''m full." Sang-Hyeon left the restaurant patting his belly. "Will you be okay? You have to go back to the game," Ju-Hyeok asked him out of concern. He knew that Sang-Hyeon ate more than usual. "What can you do? I can''t eat little when we''re running an ad for them." "That''s true¡­" "There shouldn''t be anything wrong with ying games. I''m confident. Today, I''m in excellent condition and it tasted delicious." That did seem to be the case. Today''s Almond felt different. That''s why Ju-Hyeok considered him a natural star. "Today is your Diamond promotion matches... You know what to do, right?" Ju-Hyeok asked him just to double-check. They had set aside a strategy for the promotion matches. "Of course, I practiced that so much." Not only did Sang-Hyeon practice bow skills and other techniques, but both Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon prepared something in advance. "Alright, our precious first ad turned out to be with kimchi stew. We need to do this properly at least." "What were you nning for our first ad?" "That''s a secret," Ju-Hyeokughed and shook his head. Sang-Hyeon nodded back in response and they walked a fair amount up the stairs. "I¡¯ll get going." They arrived at Ji-Ah''s house and she bid them farewell. "We''re here already." "Ah, okay." They said their light farewells and the two continued climbing the stairs. "Almond." "?" Ji-Ah called for Sang-Hyeon. "Good luck." She made a tiny fist toward Sang-Hyeon and ran inside her home. "..." Sang-Hyeon briefly stared at the closed door and returned to the stairs. "Pfft," he couldn¡¯t help but smile. *** The chatroom went crazy. ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Finally, the main dish. ¡ª Kya, diamond promo matches! ¡ª AlHa! AlHa! ¡ª How many times are we saying hi to him today? ¡ª Today''s a full day of streaming! ¡ª For real, people are missing out today. He turned on his stream for the diamond promotion matches. Quite a crowd gathered to watch. Even his stream title sounded irresistible. [I''ll beat JeonJaPa''s record! Evolving to diamond!] [Beating JJP''s Record. Almond -> Diamond!] He even added an international title. Even if some viewers had never heard of Almond, they would be attracted by JeonJaPa''s name. Ju-Hyeok came up with the idea. The result¡ª [Current Viewers: 13k] They suddenly reached over 10,000 viewers. ¡ª Woooow! Let''s go! ¡ª Oppaoppaoppa I love you! ¡ª Oh man! Oh man! Oh man! ¡ª Please screw up, Almond! ¡ª Is he really going to beat it?! ¡ª Look at the viewer count... Wow... ¡ª So rude... ¡ª JJP¡¯s record? lol ¡ª The international fans are mad at the title. LOL ¡ª What are they going to do? It''s true. LOL Around 7% of the viewers were international. They wanted to see how he would beat JeonJaPa''s record. "I''m going in right away." Almond didn''t care and started the game. No one wouldin after watching him y. Chapter 94: Two Rabbits (1)

    Chapter 94: Two Rabbits (1)

    The first promotion match was the most important one because winning first ce made a significant difference. If a yer won first ce in the first match, then it would be fine if they only reached the top ten in the next match. However, if they finished in the top 90 or lower, they would have to y another match even if they won the next game. Was that the reason? [Ah, we''ll never send Almond to diamond] [True, I¡¯ll snipe him too.] [I can''t let him as a 5 year diamond veteran!] [Stream sniper squad Die-almond recruiting!!!] Themunity had twenty-three posts rted to stream sniping Almond. They either envied him or wanted to defend JeonJaPa''s record. Some of them just wanted to bother him for fun. Regardless, many aimed for Almond. Skilled yers would inevitably be among them because the minimum rank to target Almond was high tinum or low Diamond. ¡ª Can Almondplete the challenge with all these people? ©¸ For real... ©¸ JeonJaPa had this many as well. It''s the life of a streamer. ¡ª Poor Almond... ¡ª There''s nothing we can do for him... ©¸ Because we''re bronze... ©¸ For real ©¸ Hit tinum or diamond if you want to help Almond! Even themunity users began worrying about Almond. He would soon encounter a challenging fight. *** Almond looked below as he waited in the cold wind. He could see the bountiful green forest through the clouds. They would be ying in the jungle map again. ''Let''s jump right away.'' He prepared to jump and wanted to quickly end this match because he already used too much energy today. He would eventually tire out no matter how great his condition was. He had to finish this fast. ''Time for a curveball.'' Almond only threw straight all this time. His opponents assumed he would throw straight again because he always stuck with the same strategy no matter the conditions. He didn¡¯t keep throwing straight because he was stubborn. He had been waiting to use this curveball all this time. Every straight throw led to this. ''Now.'' The curveball would prove itself in the most important match. Tak! Sang-Hyeon jumped off without a thought. Swooosh¡ª? However, he didn¡¯t head towards the Arsenal this time. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Why there? ¡ª Huh? ¡ª What''s going on? ¡ª Did he screw up because he''s nervous? The viewers saw hisnding destination and couldn''t hide their surprise. [Jensen has donated 1000 won.] [Boss, that isn''t the Arsenal.] Someone even donated to send a message. It was understandable because Almond nevernded anywhere else other than the Arsenal. He never stopped heading towards the Arsenal no matter how many stream snipers gathered to kill him. "Yes, I''m aware. It''s a curveball," Almond smirked. As expected, he saw countless parachutes opening towards the Arsenal. It was a popr ce, but it was unusual for that many people to head there. Most likely, they wanted to target Almond. *** ¡°Yes, I''m aware. It''s a curveball.¡± As soon as Almond said that, her hands clenched the arms of the wheelchair and her eyebrows turned into a frown. ''Curveball?'' She almost seemed angry. It wasn''t because she didn''t like the strategy, but she hadn¡¯t expected it. It upset her because he devised a strategy that she hadn¡¯t thought of. ''No way.'' She found it hard to believe. It seemed like he always went to the Arsenal out of stubbornness, but it had all been a buildup for this one curveball? How did that make sense? If he hid this curveball strategy, didn''t that mean he was even more confident? How was that possible? Almond''s strategy was always near-perfect and even beautiful. It was hard to believe he had a different strategy that he felt more confident in. He faced adversity before, but decided to save this curve ball. Was that possible? No, that man, up until now... ''He had that much confidence all along?'' Was the road to Diamond not a difficult challenge for him? ¡°We''re starting from here today.¡± p. Almond''s parachute unfolded and hended in an abandoned hospital. *** "He''s finally doing it," Ju-Hyeok smiled as he watched Almond''s avatarnd at the hospital. Everything was going ording to n. Now was the perfect time to throw the curveball. "There''s no one following him either." Even the annoying stream snipers were nowhere near. A handful of snipers wanted to interrupt his promotion matches, but Ju-Hyeok and Almond already knew that. They knew this would be the most important and dangerous game. That''s why they discussed several strategies beforehand. Ju-Hyeok studied and organized different strategies by watching famous streamers and Almond embedded them into his head. He practiced his gamey during the day and studied these strategies at night. Now, it was time tobine the two. Almond already decided which strategy to use. The Abandoned Hospital Start was a generic strategy from long-time yers. ¡ª What the? A hospital start? ¡ª Wow! ¡ª He''s suddenly switching strategies? ¡ª That''s crazy. Was the past all a setup for this? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Boss, I''m scared. ¡ª Imagine if he just dies right away. LOL ¡ª What if you lose!? The viewers couldn¡¯t help but doubt because Almond had never yed with any other strategy. He simply crushed the other yers with pure skill. Some viewers in the chat even predicted his loss. However, Ju-Hyeok didn¡¯t worry. ''He¡¯s practiced this.'' Ju-Hyeok trusted him. He trusted that Almond practiced in his head. Almond was a genius who also put in the effort. *** Sang-Hyeon studied the strategy by watching famous streamers like JeonJaPa and DuDuDu. He never tried it in a real match, but he memorized it. Sang-Hyeon went over it countless times with Ju-Hyeok and incorporated it into his image training. Enough imagination and practice would prove useful even in real games. Almond believed in the work he had done. ¡ª Woah, what the? He''s actually pretty good. ¡ª He must''ve practiced. ¡ª Who would''ve thought Almond would y it slow¡­ Almond entered the hospital and memorized all the blind spots. He stuck to a nned path and slowly farmed. Chuk. He hid behind a pir on the third floor and continuously checked the map for the blue zone. Almond usually didn¡¯t do this. Normally, he would ignore the blue zone and focus on wiping out the nearby yers. However, he was ying differently this time. ''I''m almost in the center of the zone.'' Almond kept checking the blue zone and confirmed he was in the center of the safe zone. The center would usually be safe even in the next phase. "If it''s like this, the next blue zone should be safe too. I''ll just camp on the roof for now." He exined to the viewers despite using this strategy for the first time. He felt familiar with it. ¡ª Wow, he must''ve practiced a lot. ¡ª So cool! ¡ª How can he look so cool doing nothing... ¡ª Sexy nerd! ¡ª Sexy nerd Almond. [ForbesVoted! has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [The coolest peaceful y!] [BrainOfficial has donated 50,000 won!] [Officially the coolest peaceful y!] The viewers felt moved by his y and donatedrge amounts. Unfortunately, Almond couldn''t respond to them. He focused more than usual because he had never been in the hospital. He couldn''t read the chat and only exined as he walked. A lot of things were on his mind. ''Next...'' Almond stuck his ear to the floor and listened. Then he checked the window with thergest view and checked the stairs for any enemies. ''No one.'' There didn¡¯t seem to be any other yers in the hospital. Almond was alone. This normally wouldn¡¯t happen because the hospital had plenty of medical equipment, which made it a popr location. It wouldn''t hurt to stock up on medical equipment early in the game. "There''s no one." A simple reason existed for that. "They must all be at the Arsenal." More than half of the yers went to the Arsenal for Almond. As a result, Almond owned the entire hospital and used this opportunity to gain an advantage over the stream snipers. ¡ª LOL Fuck them! ¡ª Almond: Alright, listen to me. Kill each other, okay? ¡ª Let the enemies fight each other. ¡ª Ah, no wonder there¡¯s no one. ¡ª Can''t believe there''s no one in the hospital. Around thirty yers would die while he quietly camped on the roof. He didn''t even need to go to the top. ''I can probably slowly farm on the third floor before going.'' Almond walked around the halls and farmed. During that time, sixteen yers already died. *** Meanwhile, regr yers and streamed snipers filled the Arsenal. "Wait, where the fuck is Almond?!" "Fuck! Hey! Don''t throw the knife! Don''t throw it!" "Hey! This is ranked! Do you want us to just die?!" "Where the hell is Almond?" The stream snipers all gathered in the Arsenal and eventually pointed their knives at each other since no one could reach the basement. The yers who didn''t know Almond¡¯s location began throwing their knives. Thud! Thwack! Some stream snipers died and others fought back. "Whatever!" "Just die!!!" Kang! Kang! It made for a rare sight as an army of people shed with knives near the basement. "Where is Almond!?" The same shout could be heard over and over. Chapter 95: Two Rabbits (2)

    Chapter 95: Two Rabbits (2)

    "Wow, farming at the hospital isn¡¯t bad." Almond fully stocked up on painkillers and bandages after farming the entire third floor. He also found two med kits and should be able to restore his health from 1% to 100%. He could only freely farm like this thanks to the stream snipers. "This is all thanks to my snipers. Thank you." Almond mocked them with a wink and the viewersughed. ¡ª LOL What a mean guy. ¡ª Those guys need to rewatch this. ¡ª God Ji-Ah will make it into a video anyways. ¡ª Don''t you know that people will post montages of it online first?? ¡ª For real. Almond imagined the expressions of his stream snipers and widely smiled in satisfaction. He had a good feeling about this round. "But..." Swiff. Almond pulled out the huge bow from his back. [Recurve Bow] "I''m d I found a bow." The bow wasmon, but the hospital was only filled with medical equipment and not weapons. Fortunately, he found one. Ting... Almond headed to the roof while fiddling with the bowstring. "I just need to eliminate anyone who approaches the hospital." *** Viewers grew suspicious of Almond''s strategy because he preferred fighting head-on, but chose to y it slow. That didn¡¯t seem possible because Almond always yed with skills. ¡ª I feel like he''ll run out after not being able to hold it in. ¡ª Yeah, how will Almond stop himself? ¡ª He won''t. He''s used to killing everyone. ying slow and relying on skills to kill belonged to two different areas of expertise. A yer needed immense patience to y slowly. The ys Almond had made so far were the opposite of being patient. Anytime he faced a yer, he would kill them on sight and the viewers enjoyed watching that. He had a personality that never backed down from anyone. The viewers expected Almond to shoot everyone on sight again when he proposed to camp on the roof. Stomp. Stomp. The first sacrificialmb appeared. A yer could be seen walking in the distance. He wasn''ting towards the hospital. He was just looking for a ce to hide after the blue zone shrunk. Stomp. Stomp. He continued walking until he went out of sight. ¡ª No way! Almond actually didn''t shoot him! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Almond! You''ve grown up! ¡ª No way. Almond didn''t move at all as the yer walked around for about a minute. He stood like a statue with his bow ready in case the yer approached the hospital. The enemy yer didn''t approach, so Almond didn''t shoot. He sessfully avoided a meaningless fight. Almond was a littlete, but this was the basics of a survival game. ¡°Phew,¡± Almond sighed in relief. He had a hard time resisting the urge to kill that yer. He could¡¯ve killed him if he took the shot. It would¡¯ve been a silent kill too thanks to his bow. However, anyone watching nearby would realize someone was at the hospital. He didn''t want to risk revealing his location. Regardless, Almond fully stocked up on medical equipment, which would be useful in thete game. He needed to wait it out if he wanted to use what he had farmed. He didn''t randomly kill because he wanted to y with reason. Instead of relying on his gamey skills like a beginner, he wanted to gradually be a veteran who used strategy and tactics. More yers passed by, but Almond held back his shots. The number of yers continued to decrease even without him. [66/100] Thirty-four yers died already and Almond had killed none of them. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds!] He took his time and checked the next location. The hospital remained in the blue zone after it shrunk. It did move to the edge of the circle though. Almond could stay in the hospital if he wanted, but he decided to move. Higher ranked yers knew better than to stay at the circle''s edge. "I should move." He took into ount the next time the blue zone would shrink and the one after that too. *** Meanwhile, the stream snipers who died in the chaotic Arsenalined online. [This cheap Almond pussy. Was he too scared toe to the Arsenal?!] [Ah! He throws a curveball now? This guy''s crazy] [He ys by his own rules, fuck!] Ju-Hyeok smiled as he scrolled through the forum andmented on every post. ¡ª Thanks for thepliments. ying cheap. ying by his own rules. These were allpliments to a gamer. No gamer would feel insulted after hearing this. The stream snipers knew that too, but their anger blinded them and they unintentionallyplimented Almond. p p p. Ju-Hyeok pped in excitement. "Good job, Almond. It''s just like how we practiced." He flipped through his notes full of writing. The page he flipped to was full of text as well. Surprisingly, the notes were all about Battle Large?strategies and not numbers. ''It''s pretty hard for a video game.'' Ju-Hyeok underestimated nning a strategy for this game. He had a newfound respect for gamers after painstakingly nning. It would¡¯ve been much simpler to n a route against just one yer, but he had to factor in a hundred yers with simr skills. This greatly multiplied the difficulty of nning strategies. A normal person wouldn¡¯t be able to n out all the different strategies and routes. Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon spent days putting their heads together and barely came up with one or two routes. . Almond wouldn''t be able to repeat this strategy, but it would be good enough to reach Diamond. He was proving that it worked right now. "After the hospital..." Ju-Hyeok looked at his notes. He checked the possible routes in rtion to the shrinking blue zone. Almond only had one ce to go judging from how the blue zone shrunk. ''The forest by the cliff...'' *** Stomp. A text appeared after Almond passed a certain point. [Cliffside Forest] The text indicated the new location. As the name suggested, this location was a forest full of cliffs and would likely be the game''s final stage. The area was quiterge. ''It''s probably best to go on top of the cliffs.'' Almond looked up at the terrifying height of a cliff. He could see it through the forest leaves. Brown rocks and sharp edges stuck out. Just by looking, he could tell whoever camped there would have the upper hand. It looked like it only had room for one yer and they would be able to see the entire forest beneath them. There was no other ce better than there. Victory would be no issue if anyone managed to reach it. However, every other yer also knew this. ''I¡¯ll be vulnerable as I climb up the cliff.'' A yer would be safe once on top, but they would be fully exposed while climbing. The yer had to climb with their back towards the enemies. It was a crazy act and a risky gamble. Sometimes, the gamble paid off. Many hoped for that and attempted the climb. These yers were called climb yers. A good amount of yers also hunted these climb yers. Most of them hid in the forest and aimed for the cliff. When a climbing yer came into view, they shot them down. Ju-Hyeok and Almond had nned a strategy for the cliffside forest too. ''Aim for the yers who are aiming for the climbing yers.'' First, he would target the yers onnd aiming for those climbers. To put his n into action, he scouted a few locations ahead of time and spotted a couple of thick trees that resembled the ones in the Amazon. Almond nned on climbing the trees instead of the cliffs. Trees would be much faster to climb since they were shorter. He would still have a good view of other yers up there. Other yers also wouldn''t see him because of the leaves. Besides, only Almond could take advantage of this strategy because he used a bow. Guns made too much noise. The yers in this rank had enough skills to trace the noise and find the attacker. This strategy only had one downside. He needed help to stop the cliff climbers, but other yers would take care of that for him. Stomp. Stomp. Someone approached the tree that Almond had marked. "!" Almond panicked and hid. ''I can''t avoid fights now.'' He tried to y it slow so far. [51/100] Almost half of the yers had been eliminated, which meant the final stage had arrived. Besides, he couldn''t give up this tree. His strategy would fall apart if he gave it up. Creak¡­? Almond tightly pulled the bowstring and prepared to fire his first shot. ¡ª Are you finally shooting, Almond!? Are you finally shooting, Almond!? Are you finally shooting, Almond!? Are you finally shooting, Almond!?? ¡ª The first shot of the game! ¡ª He ain''t Ghandi anymore! The viewers grew excited for his first fight in the promotion matches. "!?" However, he held back his shot. ''One more?'' More than one yer approached. One came from the left and one from the right with the giant tree in the center. They couldn''t see each other because of the tree, but Almond could see both of them. The other enemy would discover him no matter how quickly he shot. The bow was silent, but it wasn¡¯t invisible. They also wore bulletproof helmets, so they wouldn''t die from one shot. Almond still needed a bulletproof helmet or vest of his own. It would be game over if both of them aimed for Almond. The situation didn¡¯t look good. Almond hadn¡¯t done anything wrong. This was just bad luck, which was bound to happen in a game with 100 yers. Winning was always difficult. ¡ª Time to choose! ¡ª Left and right. Thankfully, no one''s behind him. ¡ª Where does he have to shoot first? ¡ª Won¡¯t they just shoot each other if he waits it out? ¡ª They might notice him. He needs to strike first. ¡ª It''s over if both of them shoot at him. Almond made his decision. He ced two arrows between his fingers and drew the bowstring as tight as he could. Creak¡­ A moment of silence followed. The tip of his arrows slightly shook as he thought about the shot. Paaang! The two arrows quickly flew. Thwack! Thwack! He struck them both in the head. ¡ª ???? ¡ª Are you hacking? ¡ª What just happened? ¡ª Double shot... ¡ª What the¡­ "Urk!" "Hm?" Their heads swung back from the impact. ''That guy?!'' ''There.'' They discovered Almond and pulled their triggers. Tududududu! Blood sshed from Almond''s body. At the same time¡­ Swoosh¡ª? Two more arrows flew out. Thwack! Thwack! Almond perfectly struck their heads again. [Almond ¡ú DinoMan] [Eliminated!] [49/100] [Almond ¡ú Ugaga] [Eliminated!] [48/100] They simultaneously copsed after the sessful double shot. It had been Almond¡¯s first shot of the game too. A wave of donations poured in to celebrate his fancy shot. [Holy... has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [Guole... I-I can''t believe it...] [Dino has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [That''s freaking insane.] [Liar! has donated a whopping 500,000 won!] [I-Is this real?!] Chapter 96: Two Rabbits (3)

    Chapter 96: Two Rabbits (3)

    Almond hadn''t fired a single shot since the promotion match began. He still held back after fifty yers already died. Finally, he lined up a shot with two arrows like a scene from a movie. This video game had realistic mechanics, so viewers felt shocked when Almond sessfully pulled off a double shot. It felt satisfying to watch. ¡ª Stop being so good Almond! Stop being so good Almond! Stop being so good Almond! Stop being so good Almond! Stop being so good Almond! Stop being so good Almond! ¡ª Mom, I want to be Almond! Mom, I want to be Almond! Mom, I want to be Almond! Mom, I want to be Almond! Mom, I want to be Almond! Mom, I want to be Almond! ¡ª Shit! You again, Almond? Shit! You again, Almond? Shit! You again, Almond? Shit! You again, Almond? Shit! You again, Almond? The chat went crazy praising Almond andrge donations continued to pour in. [Holy... has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [Guole... I-I can''t believe it...] [Dino has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [That''s freaking insane.] [Liar! has donated a whopping 500,000 won!] [I-Is this real?!] Almond suddenly received 700,000 won in donations. Even he couldn''t stay focused in the middle of his promotion matches. ''Wow!'' They donated a jaw-dropping amount. Had his shot been that impressive? . ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Two arrows for 700,000 won. On sale! ¡ª The donations... ¡ª 700,000 won... ¡ª Mom! I''m going to be Almond too, okay?! ¡ª Son! Be Almond! ¡ª What moms want their sons to be: Almond As the viewers stated, he earned 700,000 won with two arrows. Each shot earned him 350,000 won. Almond wondered if he needed to show some sort of reaction even though it was his promotion match. The promotion matches were tense and the game didn''t give him any special treatment as a streamer. He was just another regr yer in the game. ''Let me heal first.'' He had been shot a couple of times earlier. His health dropped to 30%, but he began healing himself with the medical equipment. Just then¡ª Tang! A gunshot rang out. "!" Almond threw himself back and could hear the gun reloading. ¡ª 500,000 won was ignored. ¡ª This streamer needs more! ¡ª So sad... ¡ª LOL Why did they donate during the game?? ¡ª Anyways, how did he dodge that? ¡ª ??? Where''s my 500,000 won!? Huh!? The chat grew rowdy because Almond ignored the donations worth 700,000 won. However, he didn¡¯t have the luxury to worry about such matters. ''A sniper.'' Almond could tell from the sound. A sniper had previously eliminated him before. A sniper rifle could aim at an opponent from far away. It would be one shot, one kill without a hero tier bulletproof vest. The tide of the game could change depending on who picked up the sniper rifle. The genre switched from a survival game to horror if only one out of the hundred yers became a sniper. ''They''re not far judging from the sound.'' Almond didn''t dodge from the sound of the gunshot. The noise came after the shot itself. He dodged when he heard the gun reloading and deduced that the opponent was close by. *** ''What''s his deal?'' St. The sniper spat on the ground and held his breath while aiming. He wasining about Almond. ''Did he just dodge the bullet?'' It should''ve hit, but the opponent dodged it. How was that possible? ''One more shot.'' The sniper aimed again. Whether the enemy was a superhuman who could dodge bullets or just insanely lucky, snipers had no choice but to finish off their targets. Otherwise, they''d be the ones targeted and closebat wasn¡¯t their strong suit. Chul-kuk. He reloaded and pulled the trigger. His reloading to aiming transition looked perfectly smooth. He definitely deserved his Diamond rank. Tang! The noise from the gunshot settled and he could feel it with his sixth sense. Veteran yers had a sixth sense when it came to certain things. He could sense that he hit his target from a hundred meters away. ''It hit...'' This one hit for sure. Well, that''s what he thought. Kang! He heard a strange sound that crushed his sixth sense. "Huh?" He couldn''t help but make a noise and asked himself if he had imagined what he saw. The bullet disappeared in mid-air? He couldn''t exactly see what hit it. "Ah!" This wasn''t the time to think or hesitate. He had to quickly reload. The sniper rifle sacrificed speed for immense power over a long distance. It was toote to reload and shoot again. Veteran snipers knew what to do in situations like this. Chuk. He simply hid behind his rifle. Kang!!! As expected, he felt an impact on his shoulder as an arrow struck his rifle. He would''ve died If he hadn''t hidden behind it. It almost destroyed the rifle, but saving his life had been worth it. However, it wasn''t just one arrow flying towards him. Three arrows in total struck the rifle and shattered it. The gun became useless now. ''What the hell...'' All the arrows struck the same target with a 1 cm difference. There was only a slight difference because he moved his gun. The opponent had perfectly shot all the arrows. He panicked, but calmly pulled out his pistol like a quick draw from a cowboy movie. Then he instantly pulled the trigger and fired at where the arrows came from. Tang, tang, tang! The gunshots loudly echoed throughout the jungle, but he didn''t care. He had to kill this dangerous enemy. ''It didn''t hit.'' He could tell his shots hadn¡¯t struck anything. ''It''sing!'' Instead, another arrow greeted him and he aimed at the arrow. Kang! The bullet and arrow shed in mid-air. He also shot the next arrows following behind. ''Kya! How''s this? Huh?'' He just made a super y that was only possible when he was in good condition. It seemed to be his lucky day today. ''Now it''s your turn.'' He aimed his pistol at the source of the arrows again and continued shooting. However, he still felt nothing. "..." The jungle went silent. Nothing appeared on the kill log either. He hoped to hit the enemy by chance, but that hadn¡¯t been the case. ''Where is he?'' He looked around for the enemy. Tung¡ª? The world suddenly turned upside down. [Your bulletproof helmet has been damaged.] He made a dumbfounded noise after his head got knocked back. "What¡­?" How could an arrowe from the side? He didn''t have time toin as the first one wasn''t the only arrow. Two more arrows struck his damaged helmet and a text appeared as his world turned ck. [Dead] [41st] His corpse could still hear. "Thank you to those who donated earlier. Wow, 500,000 won! I can''t believe it. What should I do..." The opponent couldn''t believe it? That''s what he should be saying after he died. ''No way... that guy was streaming?'' Had the opponent been streaming during their intense fight? Did he have that much confidence? ''Was it only intense for me?'' He felt humiliated. He also pulled off some good ys, but it hadn¡¯t been a big deal for the opponent. ''Motherfucker.'' *** Almond thanked his viewers while unknowingly making more enemies. "I''ll think of a reaction. I can''t just end the stream since I''m in the middle of a promotion match, so..." ¡ª Why would you end the stream? Are you insane? ¡ª Stream ending LOL ¡ª You still do that?! ¡ª Fact: 700,000 won and you can witness Almond''s lost technology reaction! [ShyNapoleon has donated 10,000 won!] [Hey! Almond! You didn''t react when I donated a million won to you!] ¡ª LOL He''s back! ¡ª For real. ¡®Ah, the 1 million won incident.¡¯ ShyNapoleon once gave Almond a mission for 10,000 won per kill in Kingdom Age. Almond managed to get a hundred kills and robbed him of 1 million won. "That was a mission?" Almond replied with a proud smile. [ShyNapoleon has donated 10,000 won!] [Okay...] ¡ª So adorable ¡ª He''s saying don''t give him missions, you loser! ¡ª It''s your punishment for giving him a mission! "Ah! Give me a reaction mission if you want to see a reaction!" Almond brightly said and thought that was a good idea. However, that only further mocked ShyNapoleon. ¡ª You meanie! ¡ª Wait, that ain''t it. LOL ¡ª Napoleon''s gonna cry. ¡ª He''s actually crying. ¡ª LOL Give me a reaction mission! ¡ª This guy is crazy for money ¡ª Money nut! ¡ª Hahahahaha Was it because Almond felt almost certain of victory? The atmosphere remained light. Almond''s stream felt entertaining like usual despite it being his Diamond promotion matches. He was a streamer before a yer even though it was an intense game. Of course, this was only possible because he could overpower the other yers. *** Finally, he climbed the tree with no other distractions. "I''ll hide on top of this tree." Now, Almond could target the yers on the ground and aim for the climbers. He nned to go after the cat in this cat-and-mouse chase. He wondered if it would work since it was his first time. In theory, there should be no problems. [The blue zone is shrinking!] The blue zone began to shrink. [35/100] Only thirty-five yers remained. yers had no choice but to slowly gather in the forest. Almond prepared to hunt all of them. Chapter 97: Skirmish (1)

    Chapter 97: Skirmish (1)

    The final stage of this promotion match would take ce at the cliff in this forest. Almond would win as long as he could reach the top of the cliff. Ironically, one of the best strategies was to not climb the cliff because several yers aimed at it as the blue zone shrunk. ''Just try climbing up.'' ''Are there any more idiots trying to climb it?'' ''Alright, go for it.'' They weren''t aware of each other, but around twenty-five guns aimed at the cliff. Only thirty-five yers remained, so at least ten would try to climb the cliff. These ten would likely fail. ''I might as well gamble and climb since I lost a lot of HP.'' ''I fucked up on farming, so I have to try this at least.'' ''There''s no way I¡¯ll do well with what I have.'' The yers who chose to climb the cliff either suffered severe injuries, had poorly farmed, or possessed equipment in bad condition. As a result, they determined that the only way to win was to risk climbing the cliff. A chest with a legendary item could be found on top of the cliff, which could turn the tides. The nine yers risking their lives began to slowly climb the cliff and hoped the yers on the ground would fight among each other. However, it didn''t go their way. The fight at the cliffside began like usual as the climbers became targeted. Tang! A gunshot signaled the start and twenty-five more shots followed. Tududududdu! "Kugh!" A yer''s hand reaching for the next handhold suddenly exploded. A bullet also struck his shoulder and the other missed shots crumbled his surroundings. The yer leading the climb fell first. He grabbed onto the belt of another climber as he fell. "I''m not dying alone!" "Hey! Hey! Are you crazy¡­!" The yer being dragged down panicked. During the panic, his body became riddled full of holes from gunshots. As a result, his corpse also fell. Thud! The corpsesnded on the ground with a terrifying noise. Two yers had already been eliminated from the climb. ''Now.'' Therge, unsuspecting tree leaves shook. Shaak. Someone who wasn''t part of the nine climbers or twenty-five yers on the ground began moving. Creak¡­? His weapon didn¡¯t make a sound. Swoosh! The target died without knowing what happened and instantly copsed. Thwack! The shot had been perfect. [Almond ¡ú Trickery] [Eliminated!] [29/100] *** One yer beneath the cliff died. Almond felt satisfied at the timing of his strike. ''Perfect.'' This strategy wouldn''t work if the yers climbing died too quickly. The yers on the ground would notice Almond if he struck before anyone died. He intervened right when two other climbers died and it worked. He didn¡¯t catch anyone¡¯s attention and no one knew of his existence. The gunshots masked the sound of his arrow cutting through the air. Almond drew his bowstring again. Creak¡­? Another arrow hissed like a snake and struck a yer''s head. Thwack! [Almond ¡ú MyGummy] [Eliminated!] [27/100] Only twenty-seven yers remained from the earlier thirty-five yers. Four climbers died and Almond killed two more. Two more yers died while skirmishing on the ground. Chaos was bound to ur with the other yers on the ground. Almond had to hurry and eliminate half of them before the chaos took over. He grabbed four arrows from his quiver and ced them between his fingers. Then he quickly fired at several yers like a minigun and they fell one by one as he aimed at them. [Almond ¡ú BechuWant] [Eliminated!] [Almond ¡ú Fire] [Double Kill!] [Almond ¡ú WestCoast] [Triple Kill!] All four arrows perfectlynded. He only ended up getting a triple kill because one yer wore a bulletproof helmet that needed to be struck twice. ¡ª That''s crazy! ¡ª Kya! ¡ª So satisfying! ¡ª That was nuts! ¡ª Summer? I''m not scared because I watched Almond''s stream! ''Faster.'' Almond wasn''t satisfied. He needed to finish them off in this position before the situation changed. The enemies didn¡¯t notice Almond''s existence or location yet. He kept ncing toward the cliff. ''Three left!'' Three climbers remained. If those three died, a skirmish would ur on the ground. Almond wouldn¡¯t be able to freely shoot anymore after that. He quickly took out another four arrows from his quiver and fired four more shots. This time, he only killed two because they both wore helmets. [Double Kill!] Almond checked the cliff again. One more climber fell and two remained. ''Two more...'' Ten yers remained on the ground. Including himself, thirteen yers remained in the game. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds!] The blue zone would soon shrink, but he didn''t have time to check the map. The match would be decided in this phase. Almond ced more arrows between his fingers and drew his bowstring. He fired four more shots and two more yers died. One barely survived thanks to their helmet and quickly hid behind a tree, but another arrow curved towards that yer. "Kugh!" the yer died with a scream. Almond took out four more arrows. This time, four yers died. They all wore helmets that were already damaged and one shot was enough to finish them off. Almond fired four more shots right afterward. Now, only one yer remained on the cliff. Tang! Thest yer also fell and a gunshot rang out. As always, no one had conquered the cliff. Almond quickly readied his bow. His right hand gripped the bow in a rxed manner as if taking his first shot of the day. Piing! Three yers remained on the ground. Four arrows flew through the void and killed two. Only two of the three yers died. ''Dammit.'' One still remained. Almond struck him in the head twice, but he still survived. This had happened before. ''Legendary?'' That yer wore a legendary helmet, so he had to aim for the body and not the head. Almond reached for more arrows, but only grabbed air. ''I''m out.'' He ran out of arrows. His viewers, unaware of the situation, began celebrating. ¡ª He just killed everyone once he got into position! ¡ª What''s going on... ¡ª Almond, the human turret. ¡ª He''s insane!? ¡ª Wow! How many people just died? ¡ª Is this what happens when he sets his mind on something? ¡ª Isn''t this the first time he¡¯s done something like this since Kingdom Age? ¡ª Holy shit! ¡ª What did I just witness? ¡ª Is it already 1v1?! It felt like a given that Almond would also kill thest yer alive. ''I couldn''t farm a lot of arrows because of the hospital route.'' He farmed conservatively at the hospital instead of killing other yers like usual. As a result, he stocked up on medical equipment, but not arrows. [2/100] Now he faced a 1v1 situation. Chul-kuk. The enemy aimed at Almond with what looked like a legendary rifle. He somewhat had an idea of where Almond was hiding. [The blue zone is shrinking!] The blue zone began shrinking. Bzzt... Almond could feel the static against his back. *** The viewers noticed the danger too. ¡ª Hey! Almond doesn''t have any arrows! ¡ª Oh fuck!? ¡ª No! ¡ª The hospital farming... ¡ª Oh no! ¡ª Damn! This is the worst timing! To top it off, the blue zone moved in favor of the opponent. It wasn''t a big distance, but Almond had to move while the enemy could stay put. Almond came to a decision. He jumped down and hid behind the tree. The enemy discovered him and started firing. Tudududududdu! The powerful rifle covered the tree with holes. The tree Almond previously hid on copsed. Thud! He wouldn¡¯t be able to keep taking cover behind trees. Nothing in the jungle could protect him from that gun. He decided to hide since relying on obstacles was impossible. Almond ran toward the blue zone. [You have been exposed to the poisonous gas in the blue zone!] [You have been critically injured!] His vision grew foggy because of the gas. As the game progressed, the gas grew stronger and denser. It waste in the game now. Pop. Almond poured all the painkillers into his mouth and the stinging eased a little. [HP: 36%] One shot from a legendary rifle would down him since he had a bulletproof vest. Maybe he could take two shots. He continued to hear gunshots. Thankfully, the enemy didn¡¯t seem to know Almond''s whereabouts and shot elsewhere. Almond further distanced himself and used two med-kits. [HP: 94%] He healed himself to 94% HP, but it went back down to 89% in just three seconds. ''I can''t keep this up for long.'' He was still being severely damaged despite using eight painkillers. The poison gaste in the game was critical. Almond reassessed his equipment: smoke grenade, shbang, grenade, and several bandages. ''Grenade.'' Right, this was his only weapon left. If BubbleSniper taught him anything, it was how to use the grenade. [HP: 74%] His health continued to drop as he assessed the situation. Almond quickly moved. ''Can I do it?'' He wanted to ask himself, but decided not to. It was a useless question. No human asked themselves if they could breathe before breathing. ''I have to do it.'' He had no choice. He would die if he didn¡¯t do it. Almond took a deep breath. He circled the blue zone and ran in. The opponent aimed his gun after hearing footsteps. Almond hid in the dense gas and couldn¡¯t be seen. He threw the smoke grenade and shbang. Loud noises, bright lights, and smoke covered the area. The gunshots stopped. ¡®Is he panicking?¡¯ Almond used this opportunity to run in. Bzzt. He returned to the safe zone with 46% HP remaining. [HP: 46%] *** Everything became chaotic due to the smoke and sh grenades. The opponent went blind, but so did Almond. They could only see directly in front of them. However, that was enough. Almond continued walking around while looking at the ground. ''Found it.'' He picked up the arrows he fired earlier and looked for more. Swoosh... The smoke began to clear and he managed to pick up five arrows in total. ''Where is he?'' Now he needed to find the enemy. Almond bent forward and readied a grenade. He would only have one left after this, but had no choice. The enemy would still lose even if they discovered each other at the same time. Click. Almond took out the safety pin and threw it. BOOM! A loud noise rumbled throughout the area and the opponent reacted as expected. Tudududududu! The enemy hadn¡¯t found Almond, but simply shot towards the noise. However, Almond found the enemy¡¯s precise location thanks to their gunfire shining red in the fog. ''Over there.'' Almond hid behind a rock and quickly fired his arrows. He fired four of the five arrows that he picked up. The opponent drained his magazine too. The bullets pulverized the rocks and trees while Almond''s arrow perfectly flew and struck the enemy''s torso. Almond decided to strike below since a legendary helmet negated damage to the head. All four arrows struck, but the opponent survived and hid behind an obstacle. ¡ª Goddammit, why isn''t he dying? ¡ª It seems like he has a good vest too.? ¡ª Doesn''t he look like takoyaki? His avatar is like the same. ¡ª No? Tako didn''t turn his stream on. ¡ª Vest or not, arrows to the body don¡¯t do that much damage... ¡ª The headshot bonus is good, but body shots are terrible. Especially from a recurve bow... ¡ª Tako is practicing by himself. I think it is him? ¡ª Damn, how''s he gonna win this? ¡ª One more shot won''t do the trick. He needs to hit him like ten more times. I think he has a hero vest... ¡ª No, Almond!!! Just then, Almond replied to his viewers. "I''m aware that I need more arrows." He continued reading the chat even in this situation. ¡ª ?? ¡ª He''s still reading the chat? What a streamer! ¡ª Hey! Crazy guy! Focus! ¡ª Wow! Without hesitation, he took out a bandage and grenade. "Do you think I can''t calcte the damage with the bow as my main weapon?" He raised thest arrow and confidently said, "But I won this one." Chapter 98: Skirmish (2)

    Chapter 98: Skirmish (2)

    m! Ju-Hyeok mmed the table and got up. "How could I miss that!" The strategy he devised had a fatal w because there weren''t enough arrows. A normal yer would¡¯ve only killed two or three yers at most. The hospital farming route had been a mistake. "How will he win this?" Almond never ran out of arrows when he chose the Arsenal route. The final opponent also never had a legendary weapon because he prevented that from happening by destroying the basement. However, the opponent had a legendary weapon and helmet in this round. He was equipped to win and should''ve won, but Almond wouldn¡¯t settle for second ce. The difference between first and second ce was immense. It was the difference between winning and losing as well as being the best or not. Ju-Hyeok wanted to tell Sang-Hyeon that second ce was fine, but the reality in Battle Large?was that the difference in points between first and second ce was twice as much. If Almond failed to win first, he''d have to risk three more matches with even more stream snipers. That felt awful to even imagine. Their curveball strategy would be less effective as Almond yed more and more. His overall status would only worsen. Losing this match had too many downsides. "He has to win first here," Ju-Hyeok nervously whispered to himself. He felt extremely nervous for the first time as he watched Almond y. Almond only had one arrow left in this 1v1 situation. To top it off, the opponent wore legendary gear that could withstand ten arrows. ''Is this possible?'' Sweat trickled down Ju-Hyeok¡¯s forehead because he already calcted how much this one match mattered. For Ju-Hyeok, this game was worth millions of won. ¡ª Wait, isn''t that Takoyaki? A message in the chat suddenly caught Ju-Hyeok''s attention. The enemy seemed to be someone famous. Anyone with a name in the scene needed to be checked. ¡ª Tako... what are you doing there? ¡ª Tako! Turn on your stream! ¡ª Ah, is that Tako? LOL ¡ª The avatar is Tako''s. ¡ª What the fuck is a Tako? Ju-Hyeok wanted to ask the same. He quickly searched for Takoyaki on Treevy, who turned out to be a streamer currently offline. [Training Privately] An announcement on his page informed everyone that he was training by himself. Ju-Hyeok opened up Wikipedia and searched for additional information on him. As expected, several resources popped up. Takoyaki had double the amount of Almond''s followers and a long list of achievements. He was a former pro yer in LIL. Recently, he grew fond of Battle Large and even reached the top 50 in the past. His skills began to deteriorate after he started his hair transnt. "?" Ju-Hyeok had to re-read the information because it baffled him. What he just read was actually real. It stated that Takoyaki¡¯s skills declined after a hair transnt. During his pro days, Takoyaki experienced severe hair loss and went bald. He peaked during his hair loss and people joked at the time that he traded his hair for his skills. However, he lost all his gamey skills as soon as he started getting a hair transnt. "Pfft,"?Ju-Hyeok couldn''t help butugh out loud even in this serious situation. "The hell is this?" *** Takoyaki, the YouTuber battling Almond, plucked out four arrows from his body. "Huff... Puff... That guy is a pain in the ass." He thought victory was in the bag since luck was on his side. "Sigh, this is perfect for YouTube. God dammit." He had a habit of talking even though he wasn''t streaming. His focus also increased with no viewers watching. As a result, he was about to win first ce in a Diamond promotion match. Technically, he still needed to kill one more yer. However, past experience told him he would definitely win. But... Takoyaki felt slightly uneasy because he knew the opponent¡¯s identity. ''Almond, right?'' Most Battle Large streamers had heard of that name at least once. He hadn¡¯t seen any of Almond''s ys, but heard rumors of his insane skills. ¡®Was that guy also doing his promotion matches?¡¯ They coincidentally met. Takoyaki wasn''t sure if he was lucky or not. ''Almond or not, I¡¯ve got him in the corner.'' Tako was a slow-paced yer who only moved after assessing the situation. His strategy was to corner a yer and finish them off with his gun. When he looked at the bigger picture, Almond was about to be finished. Almond ran out of arrows and was injured. He probably also used up all his medical equipment considering his time in the blue zone. Just earlier, he also used up his smoke grenades and shbangs. Tako readied his gun as the smoke cleared. [HP: 45%] He still had almost half his HP left. It would take four more shots to kill him, but the opponent would die with one shot. Almond could pick up more arrows, but Takoyaki wouldn¡¯t let him. ''Let''s go.'' Now was the perfect chance. Tako had cornered the opponent and would gun him down to finish the game. He made his decision and slowly came out of hiding. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds!] [This will be the final blue zone!] The blue zone would soon disappear for good. Takoyaki didn¡¯t have any medical equipment because he chose to start at the Arsenal. He had to run quickly. Tadadada. He charged at Almond with a determined look and obliterated the surroundings. Tudududdududu! The trees split in half and copsed. Rocks and boulders exploded. This was the power of a legendary weapon. ''Alright, where are you.'' Almond was running out of ces to hide. Then, Tako heard a strange sound. Shiiik¡ª? ''On the left?'' This surprised him. Almond should''ve been straight ahead, but an arrow flew from a different direction. That didn''t matter. He wouldn''t die even if it hit him. Thwack! Tako felt an impact on the lower part of his vest, but his HP only went down by 10%. ''Now I''ve won.'' Tako''s avatar smiled and his white teeth showed. However¡­ Beeeeeep¡ª? He could only hear his eardrums ringing as the screen turned ck. [2nd ce] The following text appeared on his screen. *** m! Takoyaki opened the capsule lid and came out. He stumbled and tried to regain his bnce. "Fuck! What was that!?!" The game immediately shut down because he angrily stormed out. "What the fuck? Did the game bug out!? What happened..." Tako dumbfoundedly repeated to himself. After venting, he finally realized that he should watch the rey. He started watching from when the four arrows struck him. ''It''s still crazy even as I watch it again.'' He was in awe of Almond''s y as he watched it from a third-person perspective. Now he understood how Almond grew so popr in such a short time. He didn¡¯t even feel jealous. He simply watched in awe. ''Sigh...'' Especially that final arrow¡­ Takoyaki forgot about his anger and watched it in awe. "Wait, it curved and came to me?" The yer hadn¡¯t moved, but the arrow did as if it had a will of its own. "This crazy guy." Thwack. Out of habit, Tako whacked his forehead when he felt impressed. "No wonder. I knew he was straight ahead of me, but the arrow came from the left." Again, out of habit, he continued talking to himself as if he was streaming. "Alright, it''s here." He paused the video when the arrow came flying from the left. Despite being hit by the arrow, Tako advanced because he knew he wouldn''t die. "It was weird starting from... huh?" Tako''s eyes widened. He could see something ck pinned on the arrow tip. "What is this..." A grenade was wrapped around it with bandages. "What a game. You really can do anything." Tako finally epted his defeat. ¡°Ahhh!¡± he shouted because he had been so close. Then he returned to the capsule to make up for his loss. He felt that the new hair from his transnt wouldn''tst long. "Fucker." Heplimented Almond onest time. *** [1st] The viewers couldn''t believe the result. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Wait, that really worked? ¡ª Fucking insane! ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Crazy! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª What the, how!? ¡ª Battle Large is the best game. You can get so creative! Question marks filled the chat and the facecam on the bottom right of the screen remained still. Almond was covered in sweat as the results sank in. ''It worked?'' He didn¡¯t know if such a tactic would work or not. Wrapping the grenade onto the arrow tip. It would be impossible in reality because the grenade was too heavy and would decrease the arrow¡¯s precision and reach. Regardless, Almond bet on this tactic for one reason. ''I tried it because I couldn''t feel the grenade¡¯s weight...'' In Battle Large, the grenade had no weight. The physics were simr to real life when thrown, but the game didn¡¯t factor in weight. Weapons and equipment would be too difficult for yers to use if their weights were urate to reality. Almond hadn¡¯t known about this, but devised the strategy solely based on intuition. ''It worked!'' The spontaneous idea led to his victory. [1st] The small text perfectly encapsted his achievement. "Ha... haha..." His lips formed into a smile as sweat trickled down. For the first time on his stream, he showed the viewers a big glowing smile. His face was drenched in sweat, but his smile shone even brighter. He hadn¡¯t been promoted yet, but that didn''t matter. ''This is fun.'' He genuinely enjoyed doing this as a job. The fact that he could face off against experts and win. The fact that 10,000-20,000 viewers were watching him. ¡ª Son, you have to be Almond when you grow up! Son, you have to be Almond when you grow up! ¡ª Mom! I want to be a Walnut! Mom! I want to be a Walnut! ¡ª Stop being so good Almond! Stop being so good Almond! ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! ¡ª You''re crazy! You''re crazy! You''re crazy! ¡ª Take me! Take me! Take me! ¡ª Almond, you may marry my daughter! Almond, you may marry my daughter! Everyone celebrated, cheered, and shouted only one name. They all praised Almond and this sensation couldn¡¯t bepared to anything else. He had been preparing for this promotion match for so long. The feeling of seeding tasted so sweet. ¡°Ahahahaha,¡±?he couldn''t help butugh. It was hard to tell why he felt so happy. Sang-Hyeon just naturallyughed. Maybe he would truly grasp how he felt after the moment passed. The sweat gathering at his eyes suddenly fell. He wiped himself with his shirt and got back into the queue. "Time for thest game." Diamondy right in front of him, but winning consecutively would be difficult. Chapter 99: Reaction (1)

    Chapter 99: Reaction (1)

    "Kyaaaa!" m! Ju-Hyeok got up and mmed his desk. "It worked!? It really worked!? HA HA HA!" he couldn''t suppress hisughter and excitement. Ju-Hyeok couldn''t believe it. This promotion match had several highlights, but thest one was unbelievable. "I can''t believe it." He felt impressed as a viewer and manager. Ju-Hyeok went to themunity forums to see how the audience reacted. He thought, ''There''s probably a lot of people thinking the same thing.'' Ju-Hyeok had never felt this way before and never browsed themunity forums out of his own curiosity. ''I knew it!'' As expected, themunity forums had turned into chaos because of Almond. [Breaking News! Almond won his first promotion match!!!] [Almond beat Takoyaki and won 1st!] [Almond''s about to evolve into diamond!] Ju-Hyeok immediately saw the countless posts about Almond. They weren¡¯t trending yet because they were so new, but the number of posts was overwhelming. In fact, the posts weren''t trending because there were too many. That didn¡¯t matter. Trending posts existed to show users what topic was trending. But... [Almond! Almond! Almond!] [I''m quitting peanuts today and only eating almonds!] [Every y after the double shot was insane.] [JeonJaPa,e back now!] [JeonJaPa? Who''s that? JeonJaPa? Who''s that?] The overwhelming discussions about Almond made it apparent who was trending. The Battle31munity was stered with Almond''s name. Every post mentioned him and users were on the forum like during peak hours. ''It''s this much.'' Ju-Hyeok somewhat grasped a sense of Almond''s poprity on Battle31. Even if it was temporary, he felt proud simply as a fan and not even a manager. ''Alright, that''s good.'' [10. Trending post request! Almond''s double shot.gif] [9. Trending post request! Almond''s grenade shot.gif] [8. Human turret Almond.gif] Now, trending posts with Almond''s name began appearing. Montages of Almond''s ys and meme posts also came up. ''Wow.'' More trending posts about Almond reflected in Ju-Hyeok¡¯s sses. Bing. Bing. Bing. Ju-Hyeok watched everything unfold live. [7. Almond died!?] [6. Why Almond''s decision to bandage the grenade was crazy.] The top trending post had a simple title: [1. Almond > JeonJaPa] [Like if you agree.] ¡ª For real. Today, you have to admit it. ¡ª We''ll let you have it for today, Almond! ¡ª I''m JeonJaPa''s fan, but Almond''s the winner for today. ¡ª A lot of things are going to change after today. ¡ª STFU you guys areparing a streamer to a pro gamer? ©¸ Read the room. ©¸ Loser! ©¸ So serious... Even though it was just for one day, the fact that a post about Almond being greater than JeonJaPa trended number one was incredible. "That''s insane." It definitely meant a lot. *** Almond didn''t even reach Diamond yet, but the chat already celebrated. [DiamondSword has donated 5000 won.] [Scream and shout! Di-Almond!] [Caster has donated 10,000 won!] [Almond is starting!] [OhMan has donated 50,000 won!] [You''re basically Diamond. Let''s just do another mukbang.] He won first ce in the first match, so the rest of the promotion matches would be a breeze. However, he wasn''t done yet. If Almond somehow ced 100th, then his victory would be meaningless. Almond didn''t let his guard down. "Thank you, but I haven¡¯t been promoted yet." He thanked his donors and looked down from the helicopter. ''Should I go to the Arsenal now?'' He already used the strategy they came up with and wasn''t sure if it''d work twice in a row. The previous round worked well because all the stream snipers went to the Arsenal. The difficulty would be tripled if he repeated the same strategy. ''The hospital route has its ws.'' He realized why yers didn''t start at the hospital and almost lost because of hisck of equipment. ''Hmm.'' Almond thought for a moment. Meanwhile, the helicopter was still in the air and the soldiers inside screamed at him. It was time to make a decision as he spotted the Arsenal below. Chak... He could hear yers dropping to the popr location, but there weren¡¯t as many as he expected. Was this a clean round with no stream snipers? Did they give up knowing it was futile? That was unlikely. They must¡¯ve split up. Almond¡¯s curveball separated them into two groups. As a result, fewer yers dropped to the Arsenal. "I''ve decided what to do this round." Almond made up his mind after some contemtion. "Fan service!" Paat! He jumped without hesitation and brushed past the clouds. A familiar storage came into view. ¡ª Woww! ¡ª Is he going to the Arsenal? Hell yeah! ¡ª Boss, you''re not going to be Ghandi anymore? ¡ª The ruthless general is back! ¡ª Wow! This guy''s back to his roots! ¡ª He''s going to get lots of praise now. Thud. Almond sessfullynded and headed straight to the Arsenal. *** Afternding, Almond ran straight for the gates. He nned to enter through the first floor. Going to the second floor and using the hill tank strategy was alright, but this round was about fan service. He nned to personally greet every fan who wanted to meet him. Almond was in even better condition than the previous round. He felt confident because all he needed was to finish in the top 10. m! Almond mmed open the door and ran into the Arsenal. [News has donated 10,000 won!] [1 second before a wave of handshakes!] The donation acted like a starting whistle. The yers running around in the Arsenal stopped in their tracks and stared at Almond. "Aaaaaaalmond!" "Boss! Give me a handshake!" "Mom! Buy me an almond!" "OhohohohMan!" They all charged at him. As the donation stated, a wave of handshakes came forward. Everyone had their arms out. Some held knives with ill intentions. ¡°Pfft,¡±?Almond felt baffled. "I didn''t think they''d be so direct." They all ran towards him so straightforwardly that it surprised him. ¡ª An army''sing for you! ¡ª The Arsenal''s a party now.? ¡ª Why wasn''t I invited to the party?! ¡ª Holy shit, I''m getting dizzy. ¡ª Wait, that''s all his stream snipers?! ¡ª How many fans is that?! ¡ª A clusterfuck! This party of yers had missed out on the earlier game. Most stream snipers die early, but all of them were still alive since the match just began. ''Well, I did make a promise.'' Almond picked up a knife from the ground with determination. It was a jungle knife. Swish. He grabbed the knife with a familiar pose and ran toward his fans. They also ran toward him. ¡ª Alright, let''s go in and die! ¡ª Almond! You''re giving up this round!? ¡ª Isn''t that too dangerous? ¡ª Almond''s a baby if he doesn''t have a bow¡­ Almond''s viewers felt worried because he ran straight into the crowd with only a knife, but he was used to fighting other yers in the Arsenal with knives. His knife skills had be quite impressive. Swoosh¡ª The knife swung towards the first opponent reaching for Almond''s hand. The opponent swung his de as well, but only managed to trim Almond''s hair. Meanwhile, Almond''s knife was more urate and the opponent¡¯s blood gushed out. "Ahhhh! Boss, I''m dying..." He really died. [Almond ¡ú MuggleMalfoy] [Eliminated!] [99/100] The others didn''t hide their intent after the honorable first death. "Do you think you can beat JeonJaPa''s record!?" the second yer shouted and charged at him with a knife. Almond followed the opponent''s swing and shed his shoulder. Blood gushed out again, but the opponent didn¡¯t die yet. Almond pushed him to the side and ran toward the next opponent. The next yer swung his sword and scratched Almond''s cheek. Their arm ran parallel to Almond''s and Almond stabbed him right through the forehead. Thwack! Even more blood than before gushed out. Almond didn''t even have time to take the knife out. He grabbed the opponent''s arm and spun him around. The opponent naturally dropped the sword and Almond immediately grabbed it. Then he turned around and shed the yer behind him. Swish! The yer running up from behind had their arm shed off. Almond went along with the momentum and kneed him in the abdomen. The opponent instantly copsed. Another yer approached him, but Almond crouched and dodged the knife. He picked up another sword while dodging and threw three knives into that yer''s abdomen. "Agh!" "Damn, look at his skills." "I-I don''t want to do this. I''m just going to go." The confident stream snipers died and crawled on the floor. Others on standby gave up and fled. They shamefully pretended to blend in with other yers farming the Arsenal, but that was their downfall. Almond picked up a rope and headed to the second floor where a bow and arrows greeted him. "Trying to get to the basement?" The stream snipers panicked after seeing where Almond went. ¡ª PTSD ON! ¡ª They''re getting traumatized! ¡ª Kya! Duck tank! ¡ª Kya! Nerd tank! ¡ª Ah... they''re all going to die. This is also a type of assassination. ¡ª Everyone who tried to blend in is panicking now. They tried to run away after grasping the situation, but Almond''s arrows flew quicker. [Almond ¡ú NormalUser] [Eliminated!] [87/100] [Almond ¡ú BusanPsycho] [Eliminated!] [86/100] He cleared up the Arsenal faster than usual. It was swept clean, which was only possible because fewer yers came. The stream snipers had divided up due to the earlier game. ¡ª You''re nuts! ¡ª This is it! ¡ª Ah! So refreshing! ¡ª (meme about feeling better) ¡ª I feel like I drank a refreshing cold drink! The viewers had fantastic reactions to the perfect fan service. [SoupLover has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [Kya! So re~fresh~ing!] [DoDoRi has donated 10,000 won!] [So satisfying! This is Almond!] Big and small donations poured in. "Ah, thank you to SoupLover, DoDoRi, and everyone else. I feel refreshed too!" Almond mentioned something else as he thanked his donors. "Ah, I didn''t do a reaction for the 700,000 won fromst time, right?" ¡ª ??? ¡ª You''re going to do it now? ¡ª You''re in the middle of a game ¡ª Are you going to end your stream? The viewers worried because Almond suddenly brought it up. Was he going to end the stream even though he hadn¡¯t reached Diamond yet? There was no way. "No, not right now. I''ll do it in this game though, so just keep that in mind." Almond left them with an odd statement. Then he headed into the basement to finish farming. As always, he burned down the Arsenal and the blue zone didn¡¯t appear in his favor. "I''m going to the historic sites." He moved on to the next location. Chapter 100: Reaction (2)

    Chapter 100: Reaction (2)

    Swoosh¡ª? A sandstorm blew through the open field. This wastnd had no signs of life nearby. However, the ruins showed signs of past civilizations. It would¡¯ve made for an impressive tourist attraction if the area hadn¡¯t fallen into despair, but all maps in Battle Large were post-apocalyptic. The ruins could crumble at any moment and held no historical value. The yers simply thought of them as obstacles. Chuk. Almond leaned against a wall in the ruins and quietly hid. He closed his eyes and focused. After a brief moment, he could hear faint footsteps in the distance. He turned around and used the ruins as cover while preparing his bow. However, he didn¡¯t aim towards the cloud of dust. ¡ª ??? Where are you going to shoot? ¡ª Can you even see anything? ¡ª You can''t see anything through the sandstorm... ¡ª Isn''t it hard to shoot with the wind? He didn¡¯t have any visibility and the wind was blowing quite strongly. Almond didn¡¯t make anyments though. He just continued breathing in and out. His body remained still, but his eyes frantically searched for something. He was looking for the source of the sound. ''There.'' Almond could make out a figure moving in the harsh sandstorm. He could hardly distinguish it from a cactus due to the strong winds, but footsteps in the sand could be heard every time the figure moved. Almond knew the sounds came from that figure. He took a deep breath and stopped moving. His body became still as if time had stopped, except for his right arm. Then his right hand softly released the arrow. Pang. The arrow flew through the sandstorm and the figure in the distance fell. Thwack! [Almond ¡ú IceCreamMonster] [Eliminated!] [79/100] The kill log updated as the figure in the sandstorm died. ¡ª Holy shit! He killed someone that could barely be seen?! ¡ª He was shooting at a person?! ¡ª Don''t doubt him anymore! This is Almond! ¡ª Wait, how far was that?! ¡ª Wow¡­ He struck the head of a barely visible enemy through strong winds. It almost seemed like a trick. [Question has donated 1000 won.] [Almond! Is the arrow unaffected by the wind?] One of the viewers grew curious if the wind affected the arrow or not. This curiosity rose from seeing Almond perfectly shoot despite the harsh circumstances. "I shot a little to the left. The wind does affect it." ¡ª Hey, who do you think he is?! ¡ª The wind? That¡¯s nothing to Almond! ¡ª Kya! ¡ª Almond¡¯s shots are super urate as long as he remains still. [AwakeCivilian has donated 1000 won.] [A little to the left? Are you a supporter of the far-left¡­] Bing! A noise cut off the donation mid-sentence. Ju-Hyeok had immediately canceled the troll donation. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Haha, paying to get banned. ¡ª Wow. Cutting off the donation mid-sentence. The manager has some quick reaction speed too. ¡ª Fact: Apparently, the manager is 180 cm tall and has broad shoulders. ¡ª Like streamer, like manager. The viewersplimented the manager in the chat. Ju-Hyeok smiled in satisfaction as Almond drew his bowstring again. Creak¡­? It seemed like he found another person. Another arrow flew as he posed in the same position. Thwack! And another figure fell in the sandstorm, but nothing appeared in the kill log. "What the fuck!?" the opponent shouted and ran away while fumbling. However, another arrow came flying and pierced the back of his head. Almond fired consecutively and knew the opponent had a helmet on. [Almond ¡ú ProBacteria] [Eliminated!] [77/100] The enemy inevitably copsed and their name appeared in the kill log. Almond hid behind the ruins again and the sandstormpletely veiled him. ¡ª Wow! Sand assassination! ¡ª Wow! Sand assassin! ¡ª Poor enemies. ¡ª Damn... so cool¡­ The viewers celebrated his perfect shot again. Almond smiled in satisfaction as he read the chat. Tang, tang! He could hear gunshots from far away. The battle didn''t involve Almond, but he walked toward it anyway. The main concept of this round was fanservice, so he nned on getting as many kills as possible. ¡ª Forbes voted. The only yer to walk toward a fight. ¡ª The general is back! ¡ª It would be perfect if ShyNapoleones back! ¡ª I think he went broke¡­ The best type of fan service was entertaining the viewers. Tududududu! The gunshots grew closer. Quite a handful of yers were in the area judging from the duration of the fight. [The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds!] Almond checked the map and saw that it would move away from the historical site. Tudududu! The gunshots grew louder. Everyone began rushing because the poison gas would arrive if they wasted any more time. The blurry figures ran towards him. ''Are theying here?'' Almond rechecked the map and saw that he was standing at their exit. He had two choices to make. He could safely take the lead and go to the next safe zone since he was in a good position or he could block the exit and kill everyoneing his way. Obviously, he chose the second option. This choice was dangerous because it was a do-or-die scenario, but Almond decided to kill as many as possible this round. He got into position and readied his bow. Swoosh! An arrow instantly pierced a yer''s head and their name appeared in the kill log. It seemed like they didn''t have a helmet. "What the!?" He could hear someone shouting. Almond could see a wandering head in the sandstorm. Shortly afterward, an arrow pierced the wandering head. The yer copsed in the sandstorm and the kill log updated again. Then another yer appeared. Thwack! They died just as fast with Almond''s arrow lodged in them. The other yers started to realize the situation. ''Someone''s blocking the path.'' ''There''s someone blocking.'' ''Damn, who''s blocking?'' They aimed forward as they ran. Tudududu! The bullets bounced off the ruins and Almond remained unscathed. "Over there!" "Don''t block the entrance!" Their aim improved as they saw Almond move in the distance. More guns pointed at him. Tudududu! The ruins in front of Almond shook. ''I guess it was inevitable.'' This was why blocking the exit was dangerous. The yers trying to leave naturally teamed up and targeted the yer blocking the exit. It was an easy way to make enemies out of everyone. ¡ª Why are there so many peopleing? ¡ª I think it''s like 7 yers? ¡ª Oh shit. ¡ª 7 is nothing. Didn''t he fight 1v20 earlier? ¡ª That was a knife fight. This is a gunfight. The ruins couldn''t withstand the gunshots of seven yers. Thud! The surroundings copsed with a loud noise and crumbled everywhere. Ta-dak! Almond quickly threw himself behind the next ruins as the gunshots followed him. Paaang! Pang! His lightning-fast arrows flew around the ruins. Thwack! Thwack! Two arrows instantly killed two enemies. [Almond ¡ú CrazyMan] [Eliminated!] [65/100] [Almond ¡ú Us787] [Double kill!] [64/100] ''Next.'' Almond ced four more arrows between his fingers and fired. Paaang! They flew as if he fired simultaneously and six out of the seven yers immediately died. "W-What the..." Thest remaining yer couldn''t hide his panic and continued shooting without any ammo left. It looked like he went into shock. That was understandable considering arrows killed all the yers around him. He must¡¯ve felt confused. Thwack! His confusion came to an end as an arrow pierced his head. [Almond ¡ú TerrorMan] [Multi Kill!] [63/100] Swoosh¡ª The sandstorm continued blowing across the desert. No traces of anyone remained. Only a few yers managed to pass Almond. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Damn, he''s crazy. ¡ª Is this the Wild West Archer? ¡ª It''s like a cowboy movie. ¡ª Mooooom! Almoooond! Moooooom! Almooooond! The chat became ecstatic because hepleted quite a difficult task. Baaam! A trumpet noise rang out as a huge donation came in. [Eggnt has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [Wo! An early congrats on reaching diamond!] [OwlOwl has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [This is my first time watching and you''re insane! Go to diamond!] [Sparrow has donated 10,000 won!] [Who is it! Who made this monster!] High risk was apanied by high rewards. Almond reaped what he earned. He felt a wave of thrill from his viewers¡¯ cheers and donations. ''Good.'' This was why he enjoyed streaming. ¡ª Wow, the donations today are off the charts! ¡ª Of course, it''s his diamond promos! ¡ª Kya! ¡ª How much will he earn if he gets to diamond?? ¡ª For real, how much?? "Thank you, Eggnt and OwlOwl!" He ran towards the next safe zone after thanking them. Almond continued to show impressive performances even during his journey to Diamond. He sessfully performed a headshot on every opponent he encountered. He even killed a couple of yers in their vehicles. His arrows had been an unpleasant surprise to those drivers. "The fuck?" "Urk!" "Kugh!" Most yers couldn''t react to Almond''s curved shot and simply died. Even yers with a helmet died after getting hit consecutively. These yers weren''t in Silver tier either. All of them were Near-Diamond yers who would decimate the lower ranks by themselves, but even they couldn''t handle Almond. [33 kills] Almond racked up thirty-three kills. It was hard to believe this was a Diamond promotion match. [10/100] Ten yers remained. The blue zone shrank to the point where all the yers were aware of one another. Almond''s viewers rejoiced even during this tense situation. ¡ª Congrats! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª You say Almond, I say diamond! Almond, diamond! ¡ª Congrats, diamond! ¡ª 33 kills holy shit! ¡ª 33 kills in diamond queue?! ¡ª He really did it! ¡ª JeonJaPa''s screwed! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Diamond? What''s that? Almond knows it though! ¡ª JeonJaPa''s screwed! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Almond, you may have my daughter! Almond practically secured his promotion with only ten yers remaining. Since he won first cest time, finishing in the top ten would be enough to get promoted. Then Almond opened his mouth, "Alright. I''ll show my appreciation for the 700,000 won donation from earlier and the donations up until now!" Chuk. He aimed his bow up. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Suddenly?? ¡ª Wait, now? ¡ª What''s he going to do? "What else would I do?" ¡ª Wait, you''re going to end the stream now in the middle of a game? ¡ª Stop it! You''re crazy! ¡ª Wait, but why isn''t he pointing above his head? Chapter 101: Reaction (3)

    Chapter 101: Reaction (3)

    The viewers felt shocked as Almond aimed his bow. ¡ª Almond, we know you''re crazy, but this is too much! ¡ª Killing himself in a diamond promo match?? ¡ª What a man! ¡ª He''s ending the stream now?! ¡ª Wow... ¡ª But why isn''t he shooting above his head? ¡ª Almond! Are you crazy?! You might not rank up!! Almond smiled and released the bowstring. The arrow sharply turned to the right. It curved and curved until it made a full circle. ¡ª !? ¡ª What the! ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Holy crap! Thwack! It perfectly struck the back of Almond''s head. ¡ª This guy is crazy! ¡ª Insane! ¡ª Wow! ¡ª It worked!? ¡ª I can''t believe it. [10th] The text appeared and his screen turned ck. [The stream has ended.] ¡ª ??? ¡ª Wait, so did he reach diamond or not? ¡ª At least show us the results! ¡ª Wow, he really left. ¡ª He actually did it. *** "... Oh, it really worked," Almond muttered in the capsule and sounded satisfied. He had prepared a virtual button to perfectly time the end of his stream. Normally, other applications couldn''t interfere with capsule gaming. However, this one didn¡¯t matter since it controlled a hardware function. "Phew, let''s check the results." Almond went to the waiting lobby. The stream ended, but he still returned to the virtual waiting lobby. As soon as Almond entered, a bright light weed him with the following text: [Diamond V] He reached Diamond V and had been sessfully promoted. Almond made a fist, "I did it." He achieved his goal and kept his promise to the viewers. Even towards the end, he thanked his donors with a unique reaction. Overall, he did his best as a streamer like any other professional. Thump. Thump. He could hear Ju-Hyeok knocking on the capsule. Ju-Hyeok happily screamed and sounded super excited. Chiiik¡ª? Ju-Hyeok¡¯s scream grew even louder as the lid opened. "Kraaaaaa!" The veins in his neck popped out like a roaring dragon. "You got Diamond, right?! Huh? I checked on the ranking sites! Man!" Ju-Hyeok couldn''t wait and went to check Almond''s rank on another site. He couldn¡¯t see the results right away because the stream just ended. Viewers with a quick hand would¡¯ve also found out since Ju-Hyeok already checked. "Wow! It was perfect up to the very end! You''re a streaming genius! Kumph!" Sang-Hyeon had never seen Ju-Hyeok so excited before. Ju-Hyeok seemed even more excited than him. Sang-Hyeon didn''t know how to react. Ju-Hyeok evenplimented the final moments of the stream. Was he joking? "E-Even the end? That was just a joke." "A joke?" Ju-Hyeok suddenly calmed down and lifted his sses. "Sigh, that''s a joke?" "... Why do you sound upset." "That wasn''t a joke. It was the perfect finish for the up-anding star, Almond, who managed to reach Diamond in one week and beat JeonJaPa''s record. You beat the record in one-fourth of the time. Have you heard?" "Of course, I know that much even though I was just an athlete." "Yes, it¡¯s that meaningful!" "You¡¯re acting a little forced, no? Pfft," Sang-Hyeonughed and Ju-Hyeok seemed to expect it. "Yeah, I thought you''d say that. Alright, let me tell you why you''re a genius. Look at this." Chuk. Ju-Hyeok handed him the phone with the country''s number one search portal, Javer. It showed the live trending searches. [7. Diamond] Rank 7 featured the word diamond. ''Diamond?'' Sang-Hyeon still felt confused until he saw the sixth rank and beyond. Then he understood what diamond meant. [6. Almond''s rank] Seeing the fifth rank confirmed his thought. [5. Almond] ''No way.'' Sang-Hyeon realized what Ju-Hyeok was getting at now. "The timing of you turning off the stream was perfect, right? Otherpanies have to pour in money and resources just to trend on the search rankings." Ju-Hyeok continued with a smile, "But us? We ended it at the perfect time, so the viewers became curious about the rank! Whether you reached Diamond or not! You basically used 13,000 viewers to promote yourself!" He used 13,000 people to promote himself... When Ju-Hyeok put it that way, Sang-Hyeon had made a genius marketing move. Despite his original intent, the results spoke for themselves. Ju-Hyeok wasn''t exaggerating at all, but simply spoke the truth. Manypanies poured money and resources into their marketing department to get their name up there, but Sang-Hyeon did it for free. Technically, this resulted from the donations. In a way, he had been paid to do this. "Wow." Sang-Hyeon felt genuinely impressed by Ju-Hyeok''s exnation and also his sheer luck. ''Is it possible for things to work out so well?'' He had no intention of promoting himself with that little trick. It was just pure luck. Ju-Hyeok kept calling him a genius, so he simply nodded. He was far from a marketing genius, unless it had to do with the bow. Sang-Hyeon thought to himself as Ju-Hyeok continued shouting in excitement. ¡®Isn''t Ju-Hyeok the marketing genius?¡¯ Normally, Sang-Hyeon would¡¯ve passed this off as luck. However, Ju-Hyeok dived deeply into it and analyzed the results. Then he urately concluded how they pulled off the feat. *** That evening, a news article came out. [New streamer Almond reaches diamond in one week!] This news article also appeared on the main page of Battle Large. ¡ª Wow! Even the official homepage is promoting it! ©¸ Of course, Almond is world ss now. ©¸ Kya, World Almond ¡ª Is this real life? I''ve been watching him since he had a hundred streamers. I''m so touched. ¡ª He was different from the start. ¡ª He''s incredible with a bow. I''m curious what he''d be like in other games. Anyways, congrattions. ©¸ This guy... I wonder how good he would be in LIL? ¡ª Wow... the main homepage! Amazing! The official homepage rarely posted articles like this. It only happened when someone set a new record and could be seen as the gamepany officially recognizing the achievement. Unsurprisingly, Battle31 turned into chaos. [Almond reaches diamond in one week! Breaks the record in 1/4 the time!] [Almond''s new overwhelming record!] [Where are all the people who said Almond couldn''t do it, huh?!] [That''s actually crazy... Almond!] [He really did it in one week? What a monster.] Most of the posts talked about Almond. On Battle31, posts unrted to the game were usually deleted. [Mom, I want to be Almond!] [Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond!] [Damn, I believed in Almond since the beginning. I should''ve bet on him or something.] [If there were an Almond coin, I''d buy all of it.] Posts unrted to the game and posts that praised Almond continued to remain on the site. There were too many posts to delete all of them. It felt like watching a street full of supporters during the world cup. The Battle31munity wasn''t initially fond of Almond, but it looked like his fan club now. Everyone also grew curious about KAF''s reaction since the users there supported Almond since the beginning. [KAF''s pride, Almond! He dominated Battle Large!] [Tell the whole world Kingdom Age is the best game, Almond!!!] [Wow, I watched him when he had ten viewers. I can''t believe it...] [How can a streamer achieve so much in one month... That''s crazy!] KAF tended to act very exclusively as a smallermunity. However, they took pride in Almond since he started with them. [Will he leave Battle Large now ande back to y the Rosenita route?] [Will hee back to Kingdom Age? Hehe.] [I know it''s unlikely, but Almond, no second round?] Some Kingdom Age yers hoped for Almond''s return after he achieved his goal in Battle Large. Almond stated in the past that he was interested in the Rosenita route, so it wasn''t a stretch. However, as Almond''s manager, Ju-Hyeok knew there were better ideas than returning to an unpopr game. At the end of the day, Almond was a partnered streamer who needed to gain revenue. Ju-Hyeok determined that he needed to y another popr game next. If Almond also seeded in the next game, then he would have the luxury to return to Kingdom Age. He would also have the opportunity to try out other single yer games. Bzzt¡ª? Ju-Hyeok''s phone rang. He nced at his monitor and thought it would be another congrattory message. ''Ah, right.'' He picked up his phone after realizing who sent the message. [Bubblegum Manager Park Sung-Tae: I enjoyed watching the stream. I saw him on the trending search rankings. That makes it easier for us to set everything up. Thank you.] It wasn''t a regr congrattory message. Bubblegum¡¯s picky manager actuallyplimented them. Bzzt¡ª? Another message arrived. It was hard to ignore this one as well. [Punk Manager Oh: Kya, that was impressive! The director saw his namee up on the search rankings too. I think it''ll be possible for them to go shoot some arrows together. Ah, I heard from Park Sung-Tae. You guys are coborating?] Even the director heard the news about Almond. Ju-Hyeok smiled. That sounded like good news considering the numerous partnered streamers they had. He opened his notes, reviewed his responses, and sent them out. "Phew." Ju-Hyeok leaned back in his chair and almost sunk into it after finishing his responses. He wiped the sweat off his forehead while thinking. ''It feels like a dream.'' Everything worked out. He felt sure of it as he read thest message. [Punk Manager Oh: Ah, right. Tomorrow is the payout for the ads. Check it out! Isn''t Treevy''s payout tomorrow too? Dinner is on you!] He forgot because he had been so focused on the Diamond promotion, but tomorrow was payday. "Now that I think about it... Treevy too?" Punk and Treevy''s payout coincided on the same day at the end of the month. Their past month of streaming would be converted into real money. Chapter 102: Sang-Hyeons Reward (1)

    Chapter 102: Sang-Hyeon''s Reward (1)

    The next morning, Ju-Hyeok discreetly passed the message to Sang-Hyeon. "Bubblegum will post an announcement today. We''re coborating." "Oh, okay. Got it." Sang-Hyeon wasn''t surprised because it was supposed to happen once he reached Diamond rank. "But¡­" Ju-Hyeok showed a more aggressive reaction toward Sang-Hyeon''s morning menu. "Why almond kes?" "What about it?" Crunch. Crisp.? Sang-Hyeon frowned while enjoying the brilliant texture of almond cereal with milk. Ju-Hyeok was a great guy, but he was too sensitive about food. "What¡¯s wrong with almond kes?" "I knew something was wrong ever since you started to prepare breakfast." "Look, you¡¯ll be full with these in the morning." Sang-Hyeon showed the counter-evidence as he read off the bag of almond kes. It said it was a fulfilling meal for breakfast. "Huh?"?Ju-Hyeok frowned. "Have you ever seen an advertisement saying that kimchi stew is a satisfying lunch?" "..." Sang-Hyeon didn''t answer. He hadn''t seen any. "Then what about those illegal online gambling ads iming to be a safe bet?" "I''ve seen those." What about these? "We don''t advertise kimchi stew as a filling lunch because it''s obviously filling. But what about illegal gambling? That''s something that will ruin your life once you do it! That''s why they advertise it as safe!" Ju-Hyeok shouted out loud while scrunching the package of almond kes. "And this is obviously not a fulfilling meal! They advertise it as if it could be a meal, you Almond!" "Hmm¡­" Sang-Hyeon responded with an okay and continued eating his almond cereal. He didn''t understand what the problem was with cereal. It had a sweet sugar coating and thebination of almonds with milk created a deliciously rich vor. Plus, it filled him up once he ate it. "Ugh!"?Ju-Hyeok snapped at Sang-Hyeon, who shamelessly ate the cereal. "From tomorrow on, I''ll make breakfast." "Oh, really? Thanks!" Ju-Hyeok felt like he was losing, but he wanted a better breakfast tomorrow. With Ju-Hyeok''s improved cooking skills, he would lure Sang-Hyeon into a world of fulfilling meals. Once that happened, Sang-Hyeon would beg him to cook every morning...? ¡®And that''ll be your end, Sang-Hyeon. HAHAHA.¡¯?While thinking like a viin, Ju-Hyeok suddenly came up with something and spoke, "Ah, right." "?" "Our advertisement paycheck has been deposited. It also includes our Treevy paychecks." "!" Sang-Hyeon was excited by the news. "Wow!" His expression made it obvious that it was payday. *** With hard work, rewards should also bepensated ordingly. Employees had paydays and bonuses while streamers had settlement days. That was today. All the advertising revenue from Punk and the donations from Treevy would be settled today. "Fantasia''s advertisement revenue, filming expenses, and the payment received from Oh Gang-Woo''s Kimchi Stew advertisement contract..." Ju-Hyeok was already calcting the advertisements and filming expenses. ''Wow, geez.'' He was amazed as he scrolled down the settlement invoice. In fact, he knew that he was making quite a bit of money. He was also the manager, so he tracked down some of the paychecks, but it was impossible to record the advertisement revenue and donations counted by the number of viewers in Treevy. Looking at the actual numbers, he couldn''t help but be amazed. "... Hey, we earned ten million won this month if we add up Treevy and Fantasia''s show? To be exact, it''s 11,560,000 won." Sang-Hyeon''s eyes almost popped out of his face. ''Ten million won in a mo-month?'' Earning ten million won was like a dreame true. "Di-did you subtract taxes and the four major insurances and welfare points off of it?" "No, are we a big corporation, you idiot? We don''t even have welfare points or the four major insurances! Taxes are withheld too!" Ju-Hyeok shouted in excitement. It meant they''d be taking the entirety of the cash for themselves. Comprehensive ie tax would be subtracted from the total, but that wasn''t necessary to consider. "Did you know that? This amount doesn''t even include the revenue from YouTube. It hasn''t been settled yet. Even the kimchi stew shop ad hasn''t been settled yet." "What, how much did we make!?" "I don''t know! But we made a lot! HAHAHA!" Ju-Hyeokughed happily and shouted like an animal. Lately, his expressions seemed to have be more aggressive. Of course, in a good way. Sang-Hyeon alsoughed like an animal. He felt a little stupid, but nothing mattered in front of these numbers. "Wow, if we pay off theprehensive ie tax¡­ Well, you''ll get almost seven million won a month." Seven million in a month? Seven million monthly after tax is almost equivalent to apany''s annual sry of 100 million won. Sang-Hyeon felt dizzy. He suddenly thought of something. ''If I take seven mil a month, how much does Ju-Hyeok get? About three mil?'' Although it was natural for the settlement rate to be much lower for the managers, Sang-Hyeon would feel burdened if the person assisting him almost 24/7 didn¡¯t get as much as he did. Ju-Hyeok was more of a colleague than an assistant manager. "Hey, let''s split this revenue in half." Without any hesitation, Sang-Hyeon simply said to split the profits in half. "... What?" "Just think of it as a first month bonus." "Wh-what!?" Ju-Hyeok''s eyes widened. "Your title is a manager, but you''re practically a co-worker. Plus, you''ve been working without pay all this time..." Ju-Hyeok had been working and spending money from his own pocket. He had even dered that he wouldn''t get paid if the profit was less than three million won. His earnings had been zero until now when the advertisement and film shooting fees had been properly deposited. Nevertheless, he had endured so far with just his faith in Sang-Hyeon. Ju-Hyeok deserved to receive a bonus. "R-really?" "Yeah." "Wow.." "But not on YouTube. They take almost half of it." "O-of course. Sure." ''You¡¯re an amazing guy.'' Ju-Hyeok mumbled. He seemed moved, but hid it so Sang-Hyeon wouldn¡¯t dwell on it. "Th-thank you." Even with Ju-Hyeok''s pride, he didn''t refuse. It seemed clear that he had needed the money all this time. No matter how well-off and big a corporate heir he was, he couldn''t refuse this offer since he ran away from home. "Thanks man, but let''s settle things ording to the contract from now on. We can''t keep doing this," Ju-Hyeok firmly added while expressing gratitude. Sang-Hyeon also agreed to that, "Yeah." "You don''t have to worry about me taking less than you. I actually do less work than you. What kind of job lets you drink beer while watching inte streams? Also, I can have multiple contracts with other streamers too. I have ns for that too." Tap tap. With a pat on the shoulder, Ju-Hyeok thanked Sang-Hyeon again. "What are you gonna do with the first paycheck?" "Hm. I don''t know. Should I take a break from streaming today?" "Take a break from streaming?" "Yeah. I reserved a spot for today, but I forgot about it until now." "...?" At this moment, Ju-Hyeok couldn''t help but wonder if Sang-Hyeon was going to some fancy restaurant or something. *** After posting the announcement about taking the day off streaming today, it was time for lunch. It was their first break in a while. Ju-Hyeok threw his ringing phone away and watched TV on the sofa. Sang-Hyeon went for a morning jog and called someone over the phone in the front yard. It was so rare to see Sang-Hyeon calling someone. ''Who is it?'' Ju-Hyeok was focused on Sang-Hyeon''s voice whilezing in the warm morning sun. "I see. Can I go anytime today? Okay. It''s already in the van, so I just need to move it. Yes, I understand." Was it the ce that Sang-Hyeon mentioned earlier? But what was he moving? Ju-Hyeok gave up on listening to a conversation he couldn''t understand and picked up his phone. ''I want to buy this one.'' It was a shopping app that Ju-Hyeok hadn''t used in a long time. He thought about where he should spend his money. Eventually, he shook his head after looking at several high-end brands of outerwear. He hadn''t earned enough to buy something like this. ''No.'' Ju-Hyeok opened a stock trading app. He looked at the charts of Punk stocks, which he had already bookmarked. He also had Ahsung stocks that he received when he was employed there. They were steadily going up. However, it wasn''t easy to decide where to invest. He had been eyeing another stock. [WePlug] It was a game developmentpany that had recently produced several popr games. WePlug had also been entrusted with co-producing Kingdom Age and Mana Sword Origin, which was currently a big hit. "Hmmm..." Ju-Hyeok pondered whether to buy WePlug or Ahsung Semiconductor,monly known as the safety stock. Maybe not Ahsung because he tried to go for it before and sold it right afterward. "Hehe." While Ju-Hyeok was in his happy world, Sang-Hyeon came back into the house after the phone call. Seeing the beaming Ju-Hyeok, Sang-Hyeon snorted. "What''s so funny?" "Oh, I''m just thinking about how to spend my money. By the way, where was that reservation you made earlier?" "Oh, it''s a mortuary." "A mortuary? What kind of fancy restaurant is called mortuary¡­ wait, what?!" Ju-Hyeok jumped up. "Wait, is that the same mortuary I know?" "Yes." Sang-Hyeon nodded and looked as if he was saying, ''What¡¯s wrong with that?'' "What''s going on? Why is the first thing you did after getting paid to reserve a mortuary?" "Come here," Sang-Hyeon smiled and walked toward the balcony leading to the backyard. Ju-Hyeok followed him. *** The backyard was hardly used by anyone. Ju-Hyeok only smoked in the front yard. There wasn''t anything wrong with the backyard, but Ju-Hyeok had a strange feeling that the backyard shouldn''t be dirtied in any way. The neatness and distinct presence of the small square space of the backyard made Ju-Hyeok reluctant to step on it. And for some reason, it felt better maintained than the front yard. Now, Ju-Hyeok knew why it was so well-maintained and had a different atmosphere from the front yard. "I was afraid you would be surprised if I showed it to you from the beginning. I brought her now, my grandma." Sang-Hyeon knelt on the ground and spoke to the tall tree in the square backyard. If it weren''t winter, a pretty flower would have bloomed. "It was her will." "Her will?" "Yes, she wanted to be buried here." "Ah, she must have loved this house a lot." "That''s what I thought too, but that isn''t the reason why." "No? Then why?" "She said she didn''t want to use my money even after she died. She wanted to be buried here without spending any money. Her family doctor told me that if I had the time, I should move her to a mortuary. I think he saw me on TV. He likes games." "..." Ju-Hyeok clenched his phone tight. Numerous stock charts and high-end brand coats were still on the screen. He put his phone into his coat. "Let''s go. I''ll help you." "You don''t have toe." "You''re going to take the bus with that? Come on, I''ll take you there." "You don''t have a car either." *** Rental services were good these days. Ju-Hyeok smiled and looked in the rear mirror as he drove. It was a rental car through an app. After paying through the app, Ju-Hyeok could use the car immediately by going to thepany near the house. "Wow, I see. Thank you." "The manager should drive. Don''t worry about it." "Thank you, Ji-Ah." Sang-Hyeon thanked Ji-Ah, who was sitting next to him. "I''m here because Mr. Ju-Hyeok called me," Ji-Ah spoke while looking elsewhere for no reason. Sang-Hyeon smiled. "Okay, let''s go." Ju-Hyeok started driving. Sang-Hyeon held his grandmother''s urn tighter with both arms. He lowered his head as if falling asleep, but he was biting his lower lip hard. ''Grandma, they¡¯re good people, aren''t they? Don''t worry about me now.'' It seemed like something would burst out of Sang-Hyeon, but he kept it inside and silently repeated those words to himself. Chapter 103: Sang-Hyeons Reward (2)

    Chapter 103: Sang-Hyeon''s Reward (2)

    While living in the slums, certain people often came to visit. Knock. Knock. Those people would knock on the door and say things like, "May the holy spirit be with you. God will lead you to heaven." They were various religious missionaries. The impression of them remained strong in Sang-Hyeon''s childhood. They always came to the front doors, begged, and then were chased away by Sang-Hyeon''s grandmother. At that time, Sang-Hyeon struggled to understand why his grandmother always harshly turned them away. "Grandma, you don''t want to go to heaven?" Sang-Hyeon was worried because even when he was young, he could tell that his grandmother didn''t have much time left with him. He was worried about what would happen if his grandmother didn''t believe and fell into hell with no retribution. He thought his grandmother should have faith just to be safe. At times like this, Sang-Hyeon''s grandmother always responded, "You baby fool, no matter how much people moan and groan about their life, humans are saved by other humans. Instead of those unknown beings watching us from the sky, just be good to your neighbors and people around you." Neighbors? Sang-Hyeon was confused because he thought God would be better help than anyone around him. ''That''s what I used to think.'' The three were inside the car Ju-Hyeok drove. Sang-Hyeon looked outside at the green scenery after leaving the city. He could see his puffy eyes in the reflection of the window. ''Yeah, you were right, Grandma. You were telling the truth the whole time.'' Sang-Hyeon continued to stare outside as if his eyes were glued to the window. Ji-Ah looked back and saw him, but didn''t bother him. She put her earphones in and stared outside at the window on the other side. Only Ju-Hyeok, the driver, was being talkative. "Wow, look at the view! Do you see that?" No one was listening to him. "Woah! Look at that mountain!" *** Sang-Hyeon finally turned around after they came to a rest stop while Ji-Ah took her earphones out as she woke up. After parking the car, Ju-Hyeok was the first toe out and shouted, "I''m getting potatoes! Don''t get the same thing!" "Wow... what a child." Ji-Ah shook her head as Ju-Hyeok ran off. "Why can''t we get the same thing?" Sang-Hyeok followed Ju-Hyeok toward the potato stand. When the three returned, Ju-Hyeok had butter-grilled squid, Ji-Ah had a kebab with rice cakes and sausage on it, and Sang-Hyeon had potatoes. "... Why do you have squid?" Sang-Hyeon asked Ju-Hyeok. "Are you being sarcastic?" "?" "Hmph. Well, you insisted on getting the potatoes, so what choice did I have?" "You can just have it too." "Argh." Ju-Hyeok''s expression looked like he wanted to punch Sang-Hyeon. "Hey, we need to divide up these kinds of food." Ju-Hyeok gave him a squid and took a potato for himself. Ji-Ah received a squid as well. "Take a rice cake." "..." Ji-Ah had a kebab with rice cakes and sausages. Ju-Hyeok had to make a decision between the two. Eighty percent of the time, Ju-Hyeok would choose the sausage. However, Ji-Ah was adamant about wanting the sausage and slobbered all over it. He held back his tears and chose the rice cake. Ji-Ah took Sang-Hyeon''s potato and gave him a sausage. "Huh? You said you slobbered all over it?!" "I lied, Mr. Ju-Hyeok." "Argh!" Ji-Ahughed at Ju-Hyeok''s genuine scream. Sang-Hyeonughed too as he ate a sausage. ''... She''s lying, right?'' He felt a little uneasy, but ate it anyway since it was delicious. *** As soon as they digested their snacks and felt drowsy, Ju-Hyeok nced at the GPS and said, "We''re here." They arrived at the cemetery. It was a cemetery made on top of a mountain. On the lower portion was a graveyard while a charnel house rested at the top. Sang-Hyeon nned to ce his grandmother there. It was somewhere he had in mind for a while. He could see the small vige his grandmother missed up here. ''Grandma, we''re here.'' Sang-Hyeon held tightly onto the urn and got off from the car. The caretaker, the old man he contacted earlier, greeted them. "You''re Yu Sang-Hyeon who called earlier, right?" "Yes." "Family of thete Lee Jung-Soon?" "Yes. Ah... these are my friends." "Ah, you''re friends came along. Good friends. Let''s go. I''ve left a space open." Vroom. The caretaker drove the three in a small vehicle simr to a golf cart to the top of the mountain. The charnel house was exactly as how Sang-Hyeon pictured it. He could see the mountains and field beneath him. "Wow..." Ji-Ah and Ju-Hyeok were impressed as they looked down as well. "The view is good, right? The location is excellent. It''s not easy to find a ce like this. You''re lucky." Crank. As the stone lid opened up, a deep space was revealed inside. His grandmother''s urn would go in there. "Do you want to put it in yourself?" "Yes," Sang-Hyeon nodded. He climbed adder and brought the urn as his right hand trembled. Tuk. An elderly arm gave him a hand. The man could''ve said, ''Why is a young man such as yourself trembling so much?'' But he responded with a smile. "Let''s put it in." "Thank you," Sang-Hyeon nodded and thrust the urn inside. Crank. The heavy lid closed once more. The stone wasbeled with the words, Lee Jung-Soon. Tak. Tak. As Sang-Hyeon climbed down thedder, Ju-Hyeok patted him on the shoulder. The three bowed to his grandmother and walked back down the mountain. Sang-Hyeon thought he could hear his grandmother scolding him for spending time on the dead instead of those alive around him. "Ji-Ah, thanks foring all the way out here." "Then dinner is on you," she responded as if she already prepared that. "There''s a famous pork stew restaurant nearby." Ji-Ah pointed at a map and showed it on her phone. He was surprised that was all she asked for, but Ji-Ah did seem fond of pork stews. "Alright, it''s on me!" Sang-Hyeon decided to go all-out since he was paid today. *** One thing led to another and they drank at the restaurant, except for Ju-Hyeok, who had to drive back. "I can''t be the only one not drinking!" He returned the rental car and joined them for round two. Excited from all the drinks, Ji-Ah told the two that she would pay for the next round. However, Sang-Hyeon paid without her knowing. He felt a sense of responsibility since they worked for him. It seemed like Ji-Ah would forget everything since she was so drunk. "Urgh... Almond..." Like always, Sang-Hyeon piggy-backed Ji-Ah to the stairs and Ju-Hyeok piggy-backed her to her door. They suddenly faced a problem. "Hey, Ji-Ah! Where are your keys?" "Almoooond..." "Are you a pokemon or something? Why are you repeating the same thing?!" No matter how much Ju-Hyeok shouted at her, Ji-Ah wouldn''t tell them where her keys were. Only a few words were getting through to her. Ju-Hyeok ced her on the ground for now, "I''ll find it." Sang-Hyeon carefully looked through her backpack. It felt like he was intruding, but what choice did he have? It was hard to find underneath the dim streetlight. He picked up his phone to use as a shlight. As soon as the bright light lit up, he saw something. ''Huh?'' He saw something in the corner of his eye and was about to ignore it since it was dark, but he could see someone watching them. He felt uneasy because the figure looked like a man. Sang-Hyeon gave up looking for the keys. "Hey, looks like there''s nothing we can do." "What''s the n?" "What can we do? We have to take her." "What?!" "I''ll piggy-back her this time." Sang-Hyeon picked her up while ncing at the man. He brought her to his house, ced her on the bed, and asked Ju-Hyeok, "Hey, did you see?" He told Ju-Hyeok about the man in front of Ji-Ah''s house. "Uh... No? Was there someone like that?" "... Yeah." "Hmm..." They were worried because she lived alone. Otherwise, it wouldn''t be such a big deal. "It''s probably nothing. Anyways, I bet she''ll be surprised once she wakes up." Ju-Hyeok giggled as hey on the sofa and stretched his back. He checked his phone out of habit as his eyes widened. "Huh? Hey, there''s an announcement." "What announcement?" "The coboration with Bubblegum!" *** [Project: Bubblegum''s Road to Silver] [Genius streamer vs. Genius gamer] [Coach: Almond] Sang-Hyeon''s thumb fiddled around the screen with the announcement open. He couldn''t believe it. ''I''ll be streaming with Bubblegum...'' He knew it would happen, but seeing it as an official announcement was a different sensation. "Hey, there''s an article too." "An article?" Sang-Hyeon was confused. An article just for two streamers coborating? There it was. A real article posted by Javer. [A new content for Battle Large gamers - Bubblegum & Almond] The article analyzed how Almond would carry Bubblegum as best as possible. Since Almond''s strategy was gamey based, they predicted he''d carry Bubblegum by ying together as a duo. ''They got it right.'' That was the content they had nned. Almond needed to gain more knowledge to teach someone else. Instead, their coboration would highlight Almond''s genius gamey and Bubblegum''s genius streaming. ¡ª Wow, I''m so excited! ¡ª Does it matter to Almond whether he has Bubblegum on his team? ©¸ His first win was as a solo squad. LOL ©¸ Oh yeah, right. LOL ¡ª Is this long-term content? ©¸ I hope so¡­ ¡ª Almond, how far are you going up? ¡ª ??? Small time? That''s not me anymore. There were a fewments on the article as well. Most of them were positive. Sang-Hyeon nced at the monitor in his room. He reminisced when he watched Bubblegum''s stream in the dark with a can of beer. Tuk. Ju-Hyeok ced his hand on Sang-Hyeon''s shoulder. "He''s the streamer you like, right? Bubblegum." "Yeah, watching him puts me at ease." "Actually, the first promo I wanted to do is rted to him." "Promo...?" Sang-Hyeon recalled Ju-Hyeokining that the kimchi stew ad wasn''t supposed to be their first promotion. "Yeah. If the coboration stream goes well, I''m going to push for you and Bubblegum to be Fantasia''s new main models." "...!" Sang-Hyeon''s eyes widened. There was a significant difference between video game models and main models. "It''s not a stretch. I talked with Manager Oh as well. He told us to be ready. Good luck." Sang-Hyeon quickly nodded. He was ready. Chapter 104: Sang-Hyeons Reward (3)

    Chapter 104: Sang-Hyeon''s Reward (3)

    Ji-Ah felt a skull-crushing headache followed by blurry visions of the previous night. ''Last night was fun.'' Despite her headache, Ji-Ah couldn''t hold back a smile while thinking ofst night. They were able to get closer while drinking. Sheughed and talked a lot more than their first time out. Ji-Ah felt a connection with these two that she hadn''t felt with anyone in a long time. They seemed to have warm hearts. Ju-Hyeok would joke that only dead bodies were cold-hearted if she said that. How else would she think when all the people in her previous workce were like dead people? Maybe the whole country was full of dead people. Perhaps the country was built for dead people. They treated those alive worse than those who were dead. No one listened to anyone alive. Only the dead had weight to their words. Ji-Ah¡¯spany only stopped working their employees overtime when a co-worker died from overwork. The first thing she felt when she heard the news was relief because, finally, something would change. Finally, someone would listen to that person. That was the first thing that came to her head. She was one of the dead. ¡®Me too.¡¯ "... Anyways, this ceiling is unfamiliar." Ji-Ah looked up at the ceiling and blinked a few times. ¡®Did the light in my room look like that?¡¯ The wallpaper looked different too. "!" Fwhip. Ji-Ah suddenly got up and looked around. ''... W-What the?! Where am I?'' The sunlight shone through the trees and grass and came through the window. It was an unfamiliar scene. Ji-Ah covered her mouth in shock. ''No way...'' Her hunch was correct. *** "I''m sorry." Ji-Ah sat at the table with her head down. On the table was beef tomato soup that Ju-Hyeok made. The aroma of beef and spices made her want to eat, but she apologized first. Ju-Hyeok took the opportunity to scold her, "Hey, you have to be careful, okay? You''re going to get in big trouble like that, you little one." "..." For once, Ji-Ah couldn''t retaliate. "Did you know some guy was waiting for you outside your doorst night? What if you were alone?!" "...!" Ji-Ah''s eyes widened. So that''s why they brought her here. She thought it was because they couldn''t find her keys. "A guy..." "Yeah, he was a little shorter than Sang-Hyeon¡­" Ju-Hyeok described the man. Only Sang-Hyeon had seen the man, but Ju-Hyeok exined as if he was the one who saw him. ''That bastard... came all the way to my house?'' She could tell from the description that it was her ex-boyfriend. Coincidentally, she also received text messages from him, but ignored and deleted all of them. He must''ve texted her that he came to her house. She explicitly told him that she didn''t want to see or hear from him anymore, but he still came over despite those warnings. "The breakup must''ve been bad," Sang-Hyeon remarked as he sat beside Ji-Ah. "H-How..." Ji-Ah responded in surprise. "Your expression and... from this angle, I can see everything. I wasn''t trying to look." Sang-Hyeon pointed at Ji-Ah''s phone. "I''m curious how bad the breakup was if his name on your phone is motherfucker." "It''s a long story." "I bet it is." Sang-Hyeon seemed disinterested as he gave a simple reply and started eating the tomato soup. "B-But thank you. You brought me here thinking it''d be dangerous..." ¡°Pfft,¡±?Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok justughed and didn''t scold her any further. After their meal, they dropped her off at her house. When they arrived at her door, Sang-Hyeon patted Ji-Ah on her shoulder and said, "Whenever you feelfortable, you can tell us. Then I''ll tell you too." "... What are you going to tell me?" "My first love," Sang-Hyeon smirked with a wide smile that showed his white teeth. His smile looked sad though. "Sure..." Sang-Hyeon waved her off as he went back up the stairs. Ji-Ah stared intently at his back. "Almond''s... first love." A 28-year-old''s first love was probably an old tale, but she was still curious. "I want to know." *** "Did you drop her off?" Ju-Hyeok asked as he washed the dishes. "Yeah, of course. I was going to do the dishes." "I can''t stand seeing it stacked up." "Sure, sure." Sang-Hyeon sat on the sofa and scratched his head. The sunlight shining through the trees felt warm. It felt like a holiday for him since yesterday. "Ah, right. We have a meeting with Bubblegum," Ju-Hyeok told Sang-Hyeon as he finished the dishes. "Two hours before tomorrow''s stream, so around 5 P.M. should be good. We decided to meet up at This World." "Ah, online?" "Yeah, since you¡¯ll be a duo anyways." Most streamers coborated by meeting online, especially if it was gaming rted and more so with Bubblegum. Bubblegum rarely streamed together in person with other people. Despite knowing this, Sang-Hyeon felt a little disappointed to hear it. "We''ll be able to meet him if the cob goes well, so don''t worry." "Alright." Ju-Hyeok told him yesterday that if the stream went well, he and Bubblegum could be main models. The original n was for Bubblegum to be the main model alone, but there were talks about adding Almond. However, their chemistry was important. ''It should be fine then.'' Sang-Hyeon had watched Bubblegum almost every day for over three years. He wasn''t worried about their chemistry together. However, Sang-Hyeon scratched his head in confusion. "Wait...?" "What?" "What am I going to stream today?" Reaching Diamond was the only thing on his mind. He forgot to look ahead. Ju-Hyeok thought for a moment as well. "I don''t think this is just a temporary problem. Should we discuss it more?" It felt like a critical moment in Almond''s streaming career. *** Almond''s stream didn''t turn on even after 3 P.M. Themunity was slowly starting to talk about him. [Isn''t diamond and master level too much for Almond?] [Almond ys without thinking, so he''d get fucked in the higher ranks.] [Probably going to be taught a lesson from masters.] [Diamond is probably his peak with that gamey.] [At the very least, he won''t be able to kill everyone like he always does.] The users seemed to have forgotten that Almond beat JeonJaPa''s record four times quicker as they debated his skills again. This was amon sight in gamingmunities. Almond was about to turn on his stream at around 7 P.M. when the posts about him further umted. [This guy''s probably scared and switched to a different game. I bet my hands.] [LOL True. Almond can''t y Battle Large anymore.] [Are these guys trying to provoke Almond so he ys Battle Large? You guys are dark.] [Almond is going to y Kingdom Age again, you fuckers!] [Fuck off with that Kingdom shit!] [I mean, obviously, he''s going to get shit on in masters. Would you guys y?] There were even talks of Almond being too afraid of ying Battle Large. "Oh man." Sang-Hyeon couldn''t help butugh. He was familiar with this situation and would¡¯ve felt discouraged if there weren''t such posts about him. "I''m going in." "Okay." After he checked themunity posts, Sang-Hyeon went inside the capsule. The stream turned on around 8 P.M. Despite thete schedule, lots of people tuned in to watch him. ¡ª He''s turning his stream on at 8 PM?! ¡ª The OGs tune in an hour before he starts! ¡ª Hey you! Are you getting cocky right after turning to diamond?! ¡ª Another random stream? ¡ª As soon as he hits diamond, he''s back! ¡ª Forbes most voted: the streamer who never loses focus! ¡ª Kya, Almond! ¡ª Perfect, right as I finish work! ¡ª What are we jobless people supposed to do in the meantime! ¡ª AlHa! AlHa! ¡ª AlHa! (Almond Hai) The chat quickly rose. They greeted him positively unlike themunity forums. [Current viewers: 3.8k] Almost four thousand viewers tuned in as the stream began. It was a small numberpared to when he was doing his Diamond challenge. ''This difference is expected.'' Almond didn''t care. This was expected. People worldwide tuned in to watch his Diamond challenge, but he wasn''t streaming anything in particr anymore. The view count would go back to normal. "Hi, Treevy!" As the intro music finished, more viewers tuned in. [Current viewers: 5.3k] Around six to seven thousand viewers woulde in once he started ying games. This was good. ¡ª AlHa! AlHa! ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Haii ¡ª Oh man¡­ As always, RubySword was the first to donate. [RubySword has donated 10,000 won!] [Almond, when is your stream with Bubblegum!?] "Ah, that''s tomorrow. I wanted to get a taste of Diamond today, but I think I''m going to y against low-tier Masters since my MMR is so high." ¡ª Wow, master... ¡ª Your MMR must be crazy high. ¡ª Master annihtion, go! ¡ª Master annihtion LOL ¡ª Masters is too much. It''s not like he''s going to be a pro-gamer Master annihtion was a good content idea since he reached Diamond so quickly. It was natural to n content around the master rank. However, the Master rank housed pro yers and Almond was simply a streamer. In his meeting with Ju-Hyeok, they discussed that it was important for Sang-Hyeon to enjoy streaming. Even though people used him of being afraid of Master rank, giving joy to the viewers watching him was more important. He could handle all the usations. "Master rank is a little hard and I busted my ass up until now, so I''m just going to screw around and have fun!" Sang-Hyeon made his intent clear, but the viewers were disappointed by something else. [KAFCEO has donated 10,000 won!] [Damn... Battle Large again!] "Ah... Kingdom Age... hmm..." ¡ª Kingdom Age is in the USA ¡ª USA? More like the afterlife! ¡ª How is it there? Emilia, are you doing well? [Rosenita has donated 10,000 won!] [Almond... you forgot about me?] Donations from KAF yers poured in. ''I should y it at least once next time.'' Almond kept Kingdom Age in mind as he booted up a game. It was his first round in Diamond. "Alright, today''s game is Battle Large!" Du dun¡ª? Battle Large''s music sound came on after his cheerful greeting sound. The background immediately changed. *** ¡ª Have fun? He''s making excuses already. ¡ª Even he seems to know that he doesn''t have a chance here. ¡ª Excuses already? Somements spat on Almond. It was inevitable with such arge viewer count. The best thing to do in this situation was to ignore them. Regardless, he stayed true to his words and headed directly to the Arsenal. "I''m going to the Arsenal!" The strategy was simr to when he was in tinum. It was a fight with knives and bows. Even in Diamond or Master, nobody could challenge him. The only difference was the number of people. There were fewer yers. Were the yers smart enough to avoid the Arsenal? Whatever the case, Almond blew up the Arsenal and killed other yers as he went toward the safe zone. Even without a kill mission, he racked up over thirty kills. Thirty kills in Diamond rank was his idea of fun? ''Huh...?'' After he had his fun, he saw a text before him. [1st] He won his first round. Then, the next one. [1st] And the one after that. [1st] ''What''s going on?'' Almond was confused because the games were all too easy. [You have qualified for Diamond IV promotion matches!] Almond won thest game too and was one game away from promotion. ¡ª What the? ¡ª You said you weren¡¯t going for Master! ¡ª AI: Please go to masters. ¡ª Promo matches in the third game already?! ¡ª It''s a repeat ofst time! Almond had to seriously consider it. ''Should I get to Master rank?'' Chapter 105: Bubblegum (1)

    Chapter 105: Bubblegum (1)

    "Remember, you''re not a pro gamer. You''re a streamer. You have to make this clear." That was the first thing Ju-Hyeok said during their meeting. This was amon dilemma among streamers with skilled gamey. They danced around a fine line between streamer and gamer, earning profits by both means. Even if a streamer was skilled in gamey, it was important for them tomunicate constantly with their viewers. The streamer may think viewers came to watch, but that wasn''t the case from Ju-Hyeok''s analysis. The reason viewers watched these types of streamers was simply because they liked them. The streamer¡¯s gamey skills were one of the reasons for being loved, but overall, fondness was the main reason. Hence, these gamey streamers needed to do more than just y well. They needed tomunicate, entertain the viewers, and attract them. They needed to reel in viewers with their skills and make them stay with their charms. "So after we rack up viewers, we need to focus onmunication. It''s important to change games once in a while too." After analyzing, Ju-Hyeok concluded that the most consistent streaming category was a streamer who could y a variety of different games. Just like Bubblegum or Acorn Jelly, ying and enjoying different games yielded the most consistent results. Sang-Hyeon epted and understood this too. He was an athlete by birth, but since streaming became an important part of his life, he tried to take it down a notch and enjoy the games he yed. ''... What the.'' He was just enjoying himself, but still kept winning. Eventually, he found himself a game away from the Diamond IV tier. ''I''ll get to Masters at this rate.'' He could see himself getting to Master, but recalled his conversation with Ju-Hyeok and thought it wasn''t a good idea. "Alright, that''s enough for today! Bye, Treevy!" Thankfully, it was time to end the stream. Almond left without finishing his promotion matches. ¡ª Wait, you''re not going for master? ¡ª Get masters! ¡ª Ah... ¡ª Bye, Treevy... ¡ª Bye, Almond... ¡ª Almond, you''re not going to masters? Almond, you''re not going to masters? Almond, you''re not going to masters? Ping. [The stream has ended.] After seeing the usual notification, Sang-Hyeon came out from the capsule. Chik¡ª? The lid opened and he was covered in sweat like usual. "I was fine during the promos, but here we go again." Ju-Hyeok chimed in while watching him, "Ah... you''re back to normal." Sang-Hyeon nodded after he took a look at himself. He felt an unexinable source of strength during his promotion matches, but now he felt like a powerless leaf. "Anyways, how can you get first in all the games even though you''re messing around?" Ju-Hyeokughed out loud. "That''s the weird thing." "Hm?" Ju-Hyeok thought Sang-Hyeon would respond smugly and say something like he was a genius. He was surprised to hear Sang-Hyeon respond so seriously. "What''s weird?" "Why does the game feel easier?" "Easier?" Judging from Sang-Hyeon''s expression, he wasn''t being cocky. He was being serious. "Yeah. yers are definitely more skilled individually, but the game itself got a lot easier." "Hmm..." Ju-Hyeok thought for a moment and sat in front of hisputer. He searched for the keywords Almond and stream sniper on themunity forums. ''Nothing.'' No posts were aiming for Almond. Why? Arge reason was likely due to the fact that Almond already beat JeonJaPa''s record. Therefore, no one had any reason to hinder him anymore. ''It''s because of the MMR.'' Almond''s MMR was also too high. He was queuing up with Master tier yers, which meant he was also ying with famous streamers, pro gamers, and amateur pro gamers. They didn''t have the luxury to gang up on Almond because it would dirty their reputations. As Almond ranked up, his matches became cleaner. These games felt much easier for Almond, who always had to face several stream snipers in his matches. "Hey, I think it''s because no one is targeting you anymore," Ju-Hyeok exined the situation to Almond. "Wow... it makes this much of a difference? Haha," Sang-Hyeon sarcasticallyughed. He had been ying with sandbags tied to him the whole time. "Anyways, I''m going to wash up." Sang-Hyeon wiped the sweat off his fingers and headed to the bath. Ju-Hyeok checked out themunityments since he was on the website. *** [Almond said he''s screwing around, but he got through Diamond V so easily?!] [Wow, I think he got better aftering to this rank.] [It''s probably cause no one''s targeting him anymore.] [Almond without stream snipers... this is dangerous.] Most posts were about how Almond was too good despite him taking the game lightly. Some recognized that it was due to fewer yers targeting him. ''It''s not as big a deal as I thought.'' There were fewer mentions of him than during his Diamond journey. Different streamers had the spotlight now. 1. Look at Miho''s photoshoot! A photoshoot of a streamer named Miho was the top trending post. 2. Bubblegum today LOL 3. Bubblegum''s driving in hell ¡­? 7. Bubblegum messing up five times in a row They frequently mentioned Bubblegum in the top posts because he was starting to pick up Battle Large again. His influence was noticeable since he averaged 50,000 viewers. There was one top post about Almond. 10. I think we¡¯ve finally found the weapon to defeat Almond and it¡¯s this guy That was the title of the post. Ju-Hyeok expected to see JeonJaPa in his prime days. ¡ª The weapon is Almond''s duo partner, Bubblegum! ¡ª Tomorrow! ¡ª Almond vs. Bubblegum! ¡ª Genius gamer vs. Genius streamer! ¡ª The coboration of the century! ¡ª Game, Start! There was a picture of Bubblegum holding a toy gun as well. Instead of the photo being threatening, it lookededic. ''How can a person look so funny holding a gun?'' Ju-Hyeok was impressed by Bubblegum''s stature. It was a different type of genius from Almond. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Ah, Bubblegum''s cob will be worth it.? ¡ª Why''s everything vs. LOL ¡ª It''s hrious how they''re a duo, yet it looks like they''re facing off against each other. ¡ª Wait, you tricked me! This is an ad! ¡ª Almond, this guy crushed diamond today and was just screwing around. ©¸ For real, it was the most surprising thing to see after his diamond promos. ©¸ tinum and diamond is hell because there are so many stream snipers. ©¸ Since he ys with masters, he can show off his skills better. Tak. Ju-Hyeok read up to here and turned off hisputer. ''Bigpanies are a different level.'' As Bubblegum started ying?Battle Large, themunities turned their attention toward him. Since the huge event of crushing JeonJaPa''s record ended, the public steered all their attention toward Bubblegum. Almond peaked at 10,000 viewers during his event, but that was nothingpared to Bubblegum''s 50,000 viewers. The public would¡¯ve ignored Almond if he hadn''t coborated with Bubblegum. ''We barely made it.'' This wasn''t a survival game, but Ju-Hyeok felt relieved. He knew that the industry would be more difficult andpetitive, but not to this extent. Ju-Hyeok could feel that Battle31 was paying less and less attention to Almond. It wasn''t declining, but it wasn''t increasing either. Watching the same thing repeatedly reduced the novelty as time went on. It wasn''t a big deal. Any celebrity faced this problem, even politicians. The more they were exposed, the faster their poprity declined. It was up to the person to maintain or gain poprity by bringing about changes. From now on, it was a fight of skill. ''Is now the time...'' Click. Ju-Hyeok clicked on a specific file. It was a list of games he organized while deciding which game Almond should y next. Data was also collected on viewer demographics, gender, and peak times to stream. Sang-Hyeon already chose three games from the list. "Hm." Ju-Hyeok highlighted the three and thought for a moment. ''Is there a way to naturally y these games?'' *** Sang-Hyeon was inside the capsule for thirty minutes before their meeting. "Phew." Even he felt nervous about meeting Bubblegum. They weren''t technically meeting in person, but in a virtual space called This World. ''I''m meeting Bubblegum.'' Even so, he felt nervous because he genuinely liked Bubblegum as a streamer. Bubblegum had been his beacon offort. [Entering This World] [All the avatars in This World use 100% biometrics of the user.] [If you do not agree with these terms, please exit the application.] A request popped up on This World. Sang-Hyeon pressed yes. Swoosh¡ª? Suddenly, the scenery changed and Sang-Hyeon was transported somewhere. [Choose your outfit.] There was an avatar that resembled Sang-Hyeon. However, it wore nothing but underwear. Sang-Hyeon instinctively chose a business casual look until he realized that users gathered here to y video games. Some sponsored outfits required cash, but he didn''t choose any of them. [Gaming Hoodie] [Natural Jeans] He wore a hoodie any game character would wear and standard jeans. [Entering This World''s channel.] Wooong...! His surroundings lit up with stars. Sang-Hyeon''s body lifted into the air as if he was floating in space. He could move closer to the stars. ''Wow...'' They weren''t stars upon closer inspection. Inside them were people who gathered to talk. Some ces resembled small towns with houses. Inside the town, he could see people in a restaurant eating soup. A different star had a different environment. It reminded him of a cyberpunk setting. ''Where should I go?'' Most channels were locked, which meant no outsiders could join. Sang-Hyeon felt a sense of emptiness as he looked around the stars. He felt like he didn''t belong anywhere. As this familiar sensation overcame him¡­ Ding. [Bubblegum: Oh, you''re here already! Hello!] Bubblegum messaged him in This World. Chapter 106: Bubblegum (2)

    Chapter 106: Bubblegum (2)

    Ding. Bubblegum appeared after a special sound effect. He was summoned out of nowhere. "Wahaha!"?he stuck his hand out with his signatureughter. "You''re better looking in person!" In person? This was just an avatar based on Sang-Hyeon¡¯s real self. Almond was confused, but still shook his hand while smiling. "Hello, I''m Almond." "Hi! I''m Bubblegum!" Almond had seen Bubblegum numerous times from his streams. He felt awkward because it was his first time seeing Bubblegum in his entirety, but it was still the image that Almond had imagined. A plump figure like a bubble, short, and innocent looking. This was undoubtedly Bubblegum. He looked like a child from a cartoon, but was a man approaching his forties. "But what should we do, Almond? Aren''t you dead?" "Sorry? What are you..." "You went to die-Almond! Wahaha!" His dad jokes reassured Almond of his age. If the chat were active, there would be several question marks. "I''m sorry. Let''s go to the channel I made," Bubblegum quickly moved on and messaged Almond the channel code. Ding. Aplicated code appeared in front of Almond. He put his hand on it. [Would you like to move?] *** Pung! After a small sound effect, Almond was summoned to another area. "Wow..." Almond couldn''t close his mouth as he stared at their new setting. ''What is all this?'' It was Bubblegum''s personal This World channel. It seemed like a fantasy world where only children lived in. There were several diving boards, traps, and thorns. Some houses looked like origami. The fountain even looked like it was made with watercolor. ¡°Kraaaaw!¡± He even saw a dinosaur beyond the mountain. It wasn''t a scary-looking dinosaur, but one made out of yarn. It looked like a doll. ''I''ve never seen this in his streams before.'' Bubblegum never showed off his channel on stream before. This was his private channel. "Wahaha! It looks like chaos is imminent, right?" Bubblegumughed awkwardly, thinking his small city was too much. It might''ve been because Almond was staring nkly at the dinosaur. Almond shook his head. "N-No, it''s incredible. It''s the Bubblegum I imagined." "Ah, really? Did you know me before?" Almond told Bubblegum he was a longtime fan and started streaming because of him. Bubblegum seemed surprised to hear that. "Sorry?! You look like you don''t watch those things..." Almondughed at the fact that Bubblegum was calling his stream those things. Just then, he heard anotherughter. ¡°Hohoho.¡± The brightughter came from a girl. "Mister, what''s wrong with your streams? Don''t call it those things." "Ah, Miho. You''re in the channel?" Miho? Almond turned around after hearing the familiar name. ''Oh my.'' A girl with a model-like figure was standing there. But... she was wearing an outfit with a strange design and exposure that would make it impossible to wear in real life. However, she effortlessly pulled off the design. Almond couldn''t take his eyes off her. He couldn''t tell if it was because of the outfit or the person. Bubblegum noticed Almond staring and started exining, "Ah, you said this is your first time in This World, right? Those are cash items. Hey, why are you wearing things like that in our first meeting!" "Huh? Who cares. It''s This World." She acted all cool about it, but her outfit was just a couple of stickers that covered her important parts. Despite being a virtual avatar, it was still embarrassing to look at her. She seemed okay with it. Maybe he was the weird one. ''Is this what This World is like?'' Almond thought for a moment that he was in a cyberpunk world. "We''ve technically met before, right?" Miho approached him with a smile. Miho looked like Catwoman. She seemed hard to approach and gave off a certain sense of tension. "Yes, you''ve donated before. Thank you." "Woah, you remembered!" she smiled and her eyes turned into crescent moons. She turned into a cute child when she smiled and the tension in her atmosphere disappeared. Almond understood why her nickname and motto was the nine-tail fox. Most average men would be infatuated with her and give her everything. There was already arge number of men doing so. "I was worried because I thought you didn''t remember me." She was good at continuing the conversation too. It was different from Yu Ha-Yeon''s warm attitude. If Yu Ha-Yeon felt like she was being polite, Miho felt like a dangerous seduction. Anyways, why did Bubblegum suddenly introduce Miho? It wasn''t a coincidence. "Miho is one of ourpany''s crew members. Well... even though she never streams with us, I wanted to introduce you to her because she''s a good friend of ours." Bubblegum further exined about Miho and whispered into Almond''s ear that Miho insisted on meeting him. "Mister! What are you saying!" "Huh? Nothing, nothing. I said you''re pretty." "Liar! Who says that while whispering!" "Wahaha! There are other crew members as well. Let''s just say hello. They''re part of our team." Bubblegum went ahead of Miho and signaled Almond to follow him. They walked through a small town, but the houses were all in the shape of mushrooms. The people walking out of the houses all wore bizarre outfits. One person wore a neon outfit with a rabbit head while one wore pants on top and a hoodie on the bottom. ''Miho was nothing.'' Miho was rtively normalpared to them. *** After Almond lightly greeted the townspeople, Almond and Bubblegum discussed what they would do. There was little to discuss because it was better to go in without a specific n for inte streaming. "We just need to be aware of how to avoid the stream snipers." As a veteran streamer, Bubblegum exined how to avoid stream snipers. Almond learned how to do so from him. Their meeting was mostly about avoiding stream snipers. "The main concept will be for you to struggle while ying as a duo with me. That''ll be the highlight of our stream." "Alright." Bubblegum pointed out the critical points of their stream. "Alright, let''s rest for a bit ande back around when our stream starts. I''m going to grab a snack." "Alright, I''ll see youter." Ding. Bubblegum''s avatar disappeared. ''Let''s look around.'' Almond decided to stay in This World and look around the town. After peeking around, he sat on a bench and watched a giant toy dinosaur. ¡°Kraaaaww!¡± It made strange noises and acted quite funny. The dinosaur was entertaining to watch because it resembled Bubblegum. [Ju-Hyeok: Hey, what happened? Bubblegum turned on his stream and is eating a banana.] Bubblegum''s snack must be the banana. [Ah, we decided to take a little break and meet upter for the stream. He must''ve turned it on right away.] [Ju-Hyeok: Ah, really? I thought you screwed up, haha. How was it? Not bad?] Sang-Hyeon told Ju-Hyeok who Bubblegum introduced him to. [Ju-Hyeok: Really? He introduced you to his team? That seems like a good sign.] [Why?] [Ju-Hyeok: The manager said so. If Bubblegum doesn''t like you, he firmly sets his boundaries. He doesn''t introduce his people to them or invite them to his personal channel.] [But he invited me right away...] Did Bubblegum even have time to judge him? Bubblegum invited Almond immediately after meeting him. [Ju-Hyeok: Is that really Bubblegum''s channel? I hear he doesn''t even show it off on his stream.] [Yeah, it''s my first time here too. There''s a weird dinosaur here.] [Ju-Hyeok: It is! No one is just allowed to go there! Kya, look at our popr Almond!] Judging from Ju-Hyeok''s reaction, Bubblegum did take a liking to him. Almond couldn''t believe it because he hadn''t done anything. He just acted the same way he usually would. ¡°Pfft,¡± Sang-Hyeonughed with a certain thought in mind.?''This guy''s telling me random things to make me feel better.'' Ju-Hyeok seemed to be lying. "Are you thinking of something funny?" Miho asked and sat beside him on the bench. Thankfully, she was wearing a hoodie instead of the outfit from earlier. "Ah, I got a message from a friend. You changed your outfit?" "The outfit earlier might''ve been too much for a newbie," Miho smiled at him. The white hoodie suited her much better. She looked like someone''s first love in university during the spring, but the type of student who would break up for no reason and date an older senior... ''What am I thinking?'' Almond had never even gone to university or met anyone there. He wasing up with random things. "Anyways, Mister Bubblegum must''ve taken a liking to you. It''s rare for him to introduce hispany people," Miho said the same thing as Ju-Hyeok. "Really? But I just met him..." "He''s a quick judger. Not when he ys games though," Mihoughed at her own remark. "Anyways, he can determine right away if the person is good or not." "Ah..." "But... are you interested in joining our guild¡ª" "Ah!" Almond suddenly got up from his seat. Miho jumped in surprise too, "W-Why!?" [10 minutes before the stream begins] An rm he set popped up to notify him. "It''s time for my stream. I''ll see you next time." "Sorry?!" Poof! Almond disappeared from the channel. "..." Miho turned red, but rxed after seeing the time. "He wasn''t lying," she took a deep breath and sat on the bench again. Miho stared at the sky. It looked like the stars were in the shape of Bubblegumughing at her. "Dammit!" She threw a rock toward Bubblegum''s face in the sky. *** Ding. Almond''s followers received an rm at 6 P.M. [Almond is starting to stream!] The notification went to Bubblegum too. "Ah, he''sing on now. We decided to meet up at 6:30, but he came a little early!" ¡ª Wow... ¡ª A master ising... ¡ª I''m so excited! ¡ª Are they really going to be a duo? ¡ª How are they going to y together? Their difference in rank is so big. ¡ª Squad rank doesn''t have a rank, so it''s possible. ¡ª Ah, squad. ¡ª It''s going to be fun ¡ª Isn''t Miho ying with them? Bubblegum chowed on two more bananas and started his introduction, "Alright!" Doom! p! The introduction music perfectly matched his greeting. "Today!" Doom! It was like watching a movie teaser. ¡ª Wow! New technology! ¡ª DJ Gum! ¡ª LOL ¡ª MC GUM! It wasedy itself with Bubblegum. "Genius vs. Genius, battle of the geniuses!" ¡ª ??? ¡ª Who''s the genius? ¡ª Why are you both geniuses? "Genius streamer vs. Genius gamer!" ¡ª LOL ¡ª Damn! ¡ª He''s a genius streamer! ¡ª A genius streamer LOL Du dun! The drums started to beat faster. "Who will be the winner! The hellish training of Bubblegum, is about to¡­ begin!" m¡ª The music changed to Battle Large''s music. Bubblegum appeared on the helicopter, ready to open his parachute. He queued up beforehand to avoid the stream snipers. ¡ª ??? When did he? ¡ª Kya, this is the power of a 50k streamer, dodging the stream snipers. ¡ª When did he queue up? ¡ª As expected of Bubble. ¡ª What about Almond? There were several avatars mixed into the crowd in the helicopter. It was difficult to differentiate others except for Bubblegum''s avatar with a huge belly. Suddenly, an avatar across from Bubblegum spoke to him. He looked like an ordinary man. "Where should we get off?" ¡ª Oh! It''s Almond! ¡ª Shit! ¡ª Hey, nut! ¡ª That''s Almond''s avatar? ¡ª Oh man¡­ It was Almond. "Hm. Let''s go to the Arsenal," Almond said in a monotone voice. This surprised Bubblegum. "Sorry¡­?" They were going to the Arsenal in the first round. "A-Arsenal? Are you sure?" Bubblegum asked him again, but it looked like Almond already made up his mind. "It works out well in the early stages." "..." Bubblegum''s eyes were filled with doom. ¡ª Look at Bubblegum''s expression! LOL ¡ª A pig who lost everything¡­? ¡ª That''s only relevant to you... ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Bubblegum starting in the Arsenal... this is rare¡­ It seemed like Almond had no talent as a coach. Chapter 107: Education Stream (1)

    Chapter 107: Education Stream (1)

    [Bubblegum and Almond''s stream started!] [I''m so excited!!] [Genius gamer vs. Genus streamer, the battle of the century!] [Wow! Coboration! Wow! Almond! Wow! Bubblegum!] Themunity was in chaos as Almond and Bubblegum''s stream began. It was an exciting coboration for people because of their chemistry, but what they were most excited about was this. [Do we finally get to witness Almond suffering?] [The only viin that can defeat Almond. Go! Bubblegum!] They were curious to watch Almond suffer for the first time. The concept of the stream wasn''t about coaching, but watching the coach suffer. There was no chance of Bubblegum improving through any type of coaching. Almond would have to carry their games. The pain of carrying a troll through their games was the main goal of their stream together. [Oh, it''s starting!] The viewers entered the stream, eager to watch Almond suffer. *** Despite what the viewers were interested in, Almond only thought about one thing. ''I''m going to win with Bubblegum!'' Bubblegum. In a sense, he was infamous for his skills too. Dying three times in a row from falling, using up six magazines and getting zero kills, suicide by shotgun, etc¡­ He made quite a name for himself. ''I''m going to win no matter what!'' The fact that Almond was ying with a yer like that made him on edge. He was going to y more focused than he would alone. ''How should we start?'' What could he do to improve Bubblegum, so they win the game? Almond thought of how he ranked up so quickly when he first started ying. It was by infiltrating the Arsenal. Since the other yers in this rank were unskilled, it would be an easy victory as long as they struck first. ''Heading to the Arsenal first.'' Almond decided to head to the Arsenal, but that thinking only applied to him. "A-Arsenal? Almond? Are you sure?" Bubblebum''s bubble-like body was trembling. For him, the Arsenal was a one-way ticket to hell. That was thest ce he wanted to start. Bubblegum''s favorite strategy was hiding. He hoped for the blue zone to side with him and hid until he died. The strategy seemed cowardly, but it was an understandable y for Bubblegum''s skill level. ¡ª Bubblegum at the Arsenal? LOL ¡ª Bubble Arsenal? Damn! ¡ª Almond sure knows what we want to watch. LOL ¡ª Poor Almond. The chat had a simr reaction to Bubblegum. They were excited while Bubblegum was devastated, but everyone knew that Bubblegum didn''t belong in the Arsenal. "H-Hey, Almond?" Bubblegum double-checked with Almond as they approached the Arsenal, but Almond didn''t respond. He was focusing on when to drop down to the Arsenal or it seemed he couldn''t hear because of the helicopter noise. "You said you watched my stream all the time! You liar!" Bubblegum shouted at Almond in panic. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahahaha. ¡ª I think he''s a liar. He wouldn''t go to the Arsenal if he knew Bubblegum''s skill. ¡ª For real! ¡ª Calm down Bubble! ¡ª LMAO The chat was filled withughter as they watched Bubblegum panic and Almond didn¡¯t seem to be aware of his skills. "We''re going!" As if Almond was oblivious to the situation, he jumped off toward the Arsenal. "A-Ah! I-I guess I''ll jump off for now! Alright? Everyone, this is not my fault!" Bubblegum jumped off while telling his viewers it wouldn''t be his fault if they lost. He looked like a giant bubble falling through the air as he fell. *** m! Almond was the first to arrive in the Arsenal. Roll... Bubblegumnded and rolled over beside him. "Huff... puff... It''s not that I don''t know how tond. It''s because it was so sudden," Bubblegum started giving excuses as soon as he got up. "... I didn''t say anything," Almond replied with a semi-serious expression. ¡ª LOL ¡ª For real. ¡ª Look at his expression! LOL ''I already know his skills.'' Almond didn''t expect much from Bubblegum, but he nned to coach Bubblegum using specific methods. "We don''t have to win. We''re just going to try it out my way. And you have to continue to battle. That way, you''ll improve. If you keep hiding, you won''t be able to fight when it''s important." "Ah, y-you have a n? Teacher." ¡ª Almond, do you have a n? ¡ª Oh what the. He didn''t just jump off? ¡ª For real? Almond had his own n, but the viewers refused to ept it. [FriedEggnt has donated 3000 won.] [Almond is just giving excuses for jumping off.] [Almondn has donated 1000 won.] [He''s nning to win by himself after Bubblegum dies] "Eggnt, Almondn, thank you for the donations. But I''m telling you, that''s not the case. I''m really trying to teach him..." "W-What? What''s not the case? Tell me too." Bubblegum''s eyes were filled with uneasiness. ¡ª LOL Bubblegum''s so cute. ¡ª How can an old guy be so adorable? ¡ª Why''s he so uneasy? LOL ¡ª You''d think he''s in a real war. ''As expected, he feels uneasy.'' Almond knew Bubblegum''s skills, yet he still decided to start in the Arsenal because he thought it''d be the best ce for Bubblegum to improve his skills. As an avid watcher of his channel, Almond knew precisely why Bubblegum wasn''t good at fighting. It wasn''t simply because of his aim. Bubblegum was known for being skilled as a sniper. The biggest problem with him was that he was too scared. If opponents came closer, his aim always swayed. His decision-making worsened when he was face-to-face with an enemy. "Alright, we''re only going to use a knife and bow in the Arsenal. On the first floor, that''s the only weapons there are." "Sorry? W-We''re going now?" "It''s alreadyte, hurry!" Tadadak. Almond ran ahead while Bubblegum sluggishly followed him. ¡ª Even his running is funny! LOL ¡ª He''s talented in this area. ¡ª This is talent. *** Being afraid in full-dive gaming affected the gamey significantly. Those who were scared could barely y even an unrealistic VR horror game. For full-dive, it was worse. For Bubblegum, it was the worst. "Ah, ahhh!" Kang! He screamed as a knifended beside him. He was too immersed in the game. His ability to immerse himself into the game was one of the highlights of his stream, so there was no need to get rid of it entirely. However, he needed to reduce it to y the game. Kang! "You''re alright!" Almond shouted as he deflected a knife. In Bronze rank, the first floor of the Arsenal was brutal. Technically, it was better to skip fighting here, but these yers thought ahead already. Kang! Almond deflected another de and ran toward the enemies. "Follow me!" "Huh, huh!?" For Bubblegum, Almond''s instructions sounded like they were from the devil himself. ''Dammit!'' He had no choice. If he didn''t follow Almond, he would die alone with no protection. Bubblegum shut his eyes with a single knife and followed him. Chak! He heard a clean cut. When he opened his eyes, he saw an enemy falling. As Almond danced around with a knife, more yers started to fall. [Almond ¡ú AlioMolio] [Eliminated!] [98/100] [Almond ¡ú AguAgu] [Double Kill!] [97/100] An instant double kill. One of the yers was rendered useless as their arm fell off. Almond kicked him over, and the decapitated body rolled towards Bubblegum. "Kill him!" Almond shouted at Bubblegum, who looked back at him. Almond was already in another battle. "!" Bubblegum reacted quickly. The kill was spoon-fed to him. Any human could finish this off. Thwack! "Urgh!" However, Bubblegum wasn''t a simple human. The knife pierced through the enemy¡¯s shoulder, but not the vitals. ¡ª Oh... ¡ª Even his knife''s aim... ¡ª This is the Bubblegum we know! ¡ª Sigh... are you doing this on purpose? ¡®No way.¡¯ Even Bubblegum was shocked. Weren''t knives supposed to pierce wherever the user desired? Bubblegum didn''t know that aiming wasn¡¯t as easy as he thought since he had never been in a knife fight before. Tuk! The fallen body grabbed onto Bubblegum''s face with its remaining hand. "D-Damn." Bubblegum took the knife out and stabbed him straight in the forehead. [Bubblegum ¡ú RyuDaeHyup] [Eliminated!] [96/100] He killed him. Despite ying many games, it was his first time killing a yer with a knife. Since he feared getting close to opponents, he always avoided closebat. "Woah! I-It''s nothing!" Meanwhile, Almond sliced up a couple more yers. The yers in this rank were no match for Almond. Almond was a monster who powered through the Diamond promotion games by fighting with a knife in the Arsenal. Watching him decimate the opponents alone made it look like he was ying a different game genre. "Wait but... isn''t Almond''s specialty the bow?" Bubblegum asked with a confused look on his face. While he barely took down one opponent, Almond had eliminated half of the poor souls who ended up in the Arsenal. Almond opened up the team scoreboard and saw that he had eleven kills already before even finding his primary weapon. ¡ª He''s good at the game in general. ¡ª The bow is his specialty. ¡ª I mean, he got the same score as JeonJaPa on Fantasia''s test. ¡ª Wow, he''s crazy. This is my first time watching him. Just then¡­ Swoosh! A knife flew toward Bubblegum. Almond was far away as the de came towards him. "Uh...!?" Kang! Something shed before Bubblegum¡¯s eyes, and the knife was deflected away. "You''re okay, right?" He heard Almond''s voice. "Heek..." Bubblegum''s eyes widened. Almond had thrown a de and deflected it away from him. ''Is this guy human?'' He could feel Almond''s overwhelming skill while on the same team as him. ¡ª What the! ¡ª I pissed my pants! ¡ª We''re witnessing something amazing on Bubblegum''s stream! ¡ª Sweet sweet! ¡ª I came here to watch Almond suffer. Instead, he''s shining bright... ¡ª He''s unbeatable! Chapter 108: Education Stream (2)

    Chapter 108: Education Stream (2)

    "You''re okay, right?" It was a polite question. ''H-He just deflected it with his knife, right?'' But Bubblegum nervously nodded as if he was being threatened. "Y-Yes..." "Since there are too many people here, let''s go to the second floor to look for a bow." "Yes!" He tailed Almond. ¡ª Kya, this reminds me of my university days! ¡ª Sergeant Bubblegum! ¡ª LOL The viewers made fun of Bubblegum because he looked like a soldier following Almond. Despite their mockery, Bubblegum smiled in satisfaction because the stream was going well. Mockery aside, it was a sess for the streamer if the stream was going well. [Current viewers: 55k] He had five thousand more viewers than on an average day. Considering the size of Almond''s channel, it was an impressive increase. ''As expected.'' The coaching content was a sess. The skill difference between the coach and Bubblegum, the pain and suffering that followed was irresistible. ''Who wouldn''t want to watch a skilled yer suffer?'' Almond didn''t even start showing off his skills yet, nor was he suffering. Usually, the two began simultaneously. "Oh, a bow!" Almond found a bow on the second floor. The real game was about to begin. "Finally! Almond found a bow! What do you think everyone, are you excited?" ¡ª Why are you casting? LOL ¡ª You''re in the game too! ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª I thought I was watching the world cup. *** Almond nced at his chat and was surprised to see the viewer count. ''Is this the power of Bubblegum?'' [Current viewers: 11k] It was a simr view count to when he was climbing to Diamond. It seemed like some of Bubblegum''s viewers transferred over. They all had high expectations for him because all the coaches invited in the past were highly skilled. He needed to meet their expectations. Thinking that, he felt a little pressure. "Phew." Almond took a deep breath and calmed himself. Being under pressure was second nature to him. He took the bow and walked over to the edge of the second floor. "Alright, now we just need to shoot down the people trying to get to the basement from here. Since the bow is the only ranged weapon on the first floor, we''re at an advantage." This strategy wasmonly known as hillside archer. There was no point exining it to Bubblegum, but Almond did so anyways. "Wow, is that so? Everyone, you heard him, right? I hope you utilize it well." ¡ª He''s talking to you! ¡ª Wait, he''s not talking to us. ¡ª Bubblegum has zero intention of using the strategy. Bubblegum knew there was no chance he''d be shooting down yers at the Arsenal. ¡°Pfft,¡±?Almond justughed it off as well. "I''m going to shoot now." Creak¡­? Almond pulled on his bowstring. It was the first shot in Bubblegum''s stream. ''Wow...'' Bubblegum''s jaws dropped. ''It''s different in person.'' Almond''s pose was mixed with the efficiency for battle and the elegance of experience. Bubblegum hastily came back to attention and started broadcasting again. "Oh! He''s pulling??" Pabababang! Before he could finish his sentence, four arrows flew quickly. The shots were so fast it looked like only Almond¡¯s fingers moved. ¡ª What just happened!? ¡ª They''re fired already? ¡ª ?? The four arrowsnded on the heads of four yers. Pubububuk! Almost simultaneously, the four fell without a scream. Screaming was a luxury for those alive. "It''s the hillside archer!" "Agh!" "Dammit!" There couldn''t have been a worse nightmare for the yers fighting in the basement. All of them pointed at Almond while screaming. "Huh... huh!?" Bubblegum panicked as they grabbed everyone¡¯s attention. ''Is this okay?'' "Bubblegum! Grab a bow and start shooting!" "Ah, ah.?Me, me too!?" ¡ª Bubblegum: but I''m just a caster! ¡ª Of course, you have to shoot too! ¡ª Why are you even asking? LOL ¡ª He nned to stay still. Bubblegum frantically looked for a bow and aimed down the hillside. ''Wait, but I have almost no experience with a bow.'' It was his first time using the bow. Who used a crappy item like this in Battle Large? Thwack! Thwack! Meanwhile, Almond was making kebabs out of the enemy''s foreheads with his arrows. ''Holy shit...'' Bubblegum pulled on his bow and copied him. He thought if he mimicked Almond, he could slightly pull it off. Twang¡ª? He let go of the string and fired his first shot. Ting! It sounded like a guitar string snapping. As expected, the arrow spun out of control in the air and fell to the ground. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Is that a trickshot? ¡ª Strike! ¡ª Wow. ''I-It''s this bad?'' The bow was a terrible item. It was difficult to even shoot it properly. He instantly understood why the gun was the primary weapon. How could a normal person, who didn''t know how to use a bow, fire this? . "T-This is harder than I thought. Does anyone actually use the bow while ying Battle Large? Haha." Bubblegum picked up the bow again while muttering excuses. He properly fired the second shot, but it didn''t hit anyone. It just flew through the empty space. ''O-Oh no.'' Bubblegum started sweating. Normally, two mistakes were enough for him to die, especially since he was in the Arsenal. "..." But that didn''t happen thanks to the person beside him. Pang! Pang! Pang! Thanks to Almond firing arrows like a turret, the enemies didn''t even think of aiming toward them. ¡ª Jesus Christ ¡ª I''ve seen this before! The human turret, Almond! ¡ª This is the nut family! How dare you guys! The viewers thought the same thing as Bubblegum. ''No way...'' Bubblegum didn''t think he''d ever be impressed from watching gamey as a forty-year-old. Almond''s archery skills were out of this world. It looked perfect with no unnecessary movements and he was perfectly in sync with his breathing. When he stood still with his bow drawn, he looked like a bug because he was so immobile. Considering the force put into the draw, it was impressive to think he could bnce himself while remaining so still. He perfectly bnced himself in the middle while maintaining strength in the bow. Almond was doing all this like it was easy as breathing to him. And then, he quickly fired four shots. All four shots flew toward the vitals of the opponents. Almond''s guts and fortitude were the most impressive thing. ''How is that possible?'' Despite the enemies throwing projectiles at him, Almond didn''t even blink while he fired his shots. Tang! Tang! The projectiles deflected away in the air. Even the ones flying toward Bubblegum scattered away. Almond stood still as if he knew Bubblegum couldn''t defend himself. "You should try shooting, Bubblegum. You need to practice." He even had the luxury to coach Bubblegum. Ironically, Bubblegum was the one who panicked. "Ah, right. Yes!" Bubblegum eagerly pulled the bowstring and aimed. "No one can shoot properly their first time. Just pull the string and rx." ''Liar...'' Almond was able to shoot properly from the beginning. ¡®I''ve seen it! You were good from the start!¡¯ Despite thinking this, Bubblegum readied his bow. Hearing words of encouragement gave him a bit of courage. "Hold your breath and imagine you''re in a different space." Whiff. Bubblegum stopped breathing and focused. His sights were fixed on an enemy fleeing from the Arsenal. ''A different space...'' he repeated Almond''s advice and let the bowstring go. Pang! The arrow flew straight through the air and pierced the enemy¡¯s back. "Urgh!" Another arrow pierced through the back of their head as they fell. Thwack! Almond finished off the yer. "Oh!" Bubblegum didn''t kill him, but was still surprised with himself fornding the shot. Granted, it was an easy target because they were fleeing from Almond. ¡ª Is he animal hunting? ¡ª Kya! He''s setting it up for him. ¡ª Wow. This is a real battle, but it feels like training mode. ¡ª Best coach Almond! ¡ª This is what a coach should be like. ¡ª Coach Almond! Bubblegum knew that this wasn''t like any other game. Almond was setting up the targets for him to finish off. ''But I''m feeling more and more confident for some reason.'' That in itself had an effect. People like Bubblegum needed to feel the sensation of winning to gain courage. Almond smirked and felt like the coaching was going well as he watched Bubblegum. "Keep shooting like that. I''m going to shoot too." After he said that, Almond continued to shoot the yers on the first floor. Bubblegum shot alongside him. Pang! Pang! Now, Bubblegum was able tond half of his shots. "Alright, everyone! One moreing up!" Bubblegum was feeling confident with his improved skills. However, he saw someone in the corner of his eye. They were on the edge of the second floor across from the duo. ''Huh¡­?'' After turning his head, Bubblegum could see another archer using the same strategy as Almond. The only difference was that this archer was aiming toward them instead of those beneath. ''Oh no.'' The yer smirked at Bubblegum as their eyes met and fired. Pang! The arrow was released. Bubblegum saw it, but couldn''t react to it. His mind wanted to flee, but his body was still as if he was paralyzed. ''What should I do?'' The tip of the arrow was growingrger andrger. It was getting closer. ''A-Almond!'' Bubblegum could barely look toward Almond. He sent a signal asking for help, but Almond had his back turned. Almond was busy targeting the yers underneath them. ''I''m doomed.'' Bubblegum''s eyes were full of doom and fear. He could feel the arrow approaching him. It wouldnd on his head, and he would be rendered useless. Just then¡­ Kang! "... Huh?" The arrow flying towards him was deflected by another arrow. "What the!" He could hear the yer across from them cursing. What happened? ¡ª ???? ¡ª What the? ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Is this the infamous curve shot? ¡ª It can curve that much!? Curve shot? Bubblegum read the chat with a shocked expression on his face. He didn''t know what a curve shot was. "There''s an enemy on the other side too?" Almond muttered with his back turned around. He could tell that Almond was the one who deflected the arrow. ''Almond hit it? How?'' His question was answered right away. Swooosh!! Almond fired another arrow, but it flew in a strange path. Despite watching it with his eyes, Bubblegum couldn''t believe the angle it flew in. The arrow curved and pierced the forehead of the archer across from them. ''How many degrees did it turn?'' The arrow turned close to 180 degrees. Now he understood how Almond was able to deflect the arrow from earlier. Earlier, he curved the arrow even further. Bubblegum couldn''t fathom it in his head. Bubblegum asked Almond in disbelief, "Did you hit the arrow earlier using this technique!?" "Yes, this is called the curve shot. It''s quite useful." Bubblegum''s expression was still in disbelief. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Isn''t this a bug? "This isn''t a bug. It works with real bows as well. There''s a video on it too. As long as you shoot it at an angle, it follows through since the shot isn''t centered," Almond exined as he continued to shoot the targets down. ¡ª I can''t believe it! ¡ª Wait, this is possible? Still, how can he do it? ¡ª Damn! ¡ª Wow, Almond is better than the rumors! ¡ª Holy shit! This is a new world!? ¡ª Doesn''t this break the bnce?? It was the first time watching Almond for most of Bubblegum''s viewers. ''He''s something else...'' Bubblegum predicted that lots of them would watch Almond in the future. He also predicted that Almond''s channel would be bigger than his not far in the future. However... ''But why isn''t Almond suffering yet?'' Bubblegum failed to notice because he was too immersed in the game. The stream was going well, but it wasn''t going ording to n. Chapter 109: Education Stream (3)

    Chapter 109: Education Stream (3)

    Their coboration''s main content was watching Almond suffer while teaming up with Bubblegum. Bubblegum had a talent when it came to this. He could make his coaches suffer without even trying. All Bubblegum needed to do was immerse himself in the game. That was enough to make the coach suffer. However... ''This is just Almond''s montage.'' There was something different about the guy firing shots toward the yers beneath them. There was no waste in movement. He looked like a machine programmed to win. ''His mentality is on another level.'' Not only were his gamey skills impressive, but so was his mentality. He seemed not to mind Bubblegum dragging him down. It didn''t feel like he was holding it in. Instead, it looked like he didn''t feel any difort at all. There was inner peace in his expression. ''What is this guy?'' Since Bubblegum didn''t know Almond''s past, he was curious. He had no idea that Almond''s mentality grew stronger from the pressure as a former professional archer. ''Interesting.'' It was a virtue that couldn''t be seen in people who only yed video games. Being good at games didn''t mean a person would have a good mental state. On the contrary, it was often the opposite. For example, there were pro gamers who broke their keyboards while ying. It was the same for full-dive gaming. yers would suddenly throw their guns away, shout uncontrobly, or bash their heads into the wall. In this virtual gaming world, it was harder to control one''s emotions, which resulted in strange actions. However, Almond had no signs of that. Bubblegum started worrying about the stream. ¡ª I love a clean, painless stream! ¡ª For real. After seeing some insane coaches in the past, it''s refreshing to watch a normal person for once. ¡ª Almond isn''t normal either. He''s just sturdy... ¡ª Better than the ones who have anger issues. The chat had a good reaction. Was it because they''ve only seen coaches act angry and shout? Almond''s character was new to them. ¡ª There''s no reason for him to get mad because he''s so good. He can just kill everyone anyway.? ¡ª For real. Those who have weak mentalities aren''t skilled enough. ¡ª That''s true. Some people said it was peaceful because of his skills. It made sense because there was no reason for Almond to get angry. He could kill all twenty yers in the Arsenal by himself if he wanted to. Who cared if Bubblegum was slightly hindering him? For Almond, he was taking care of a child. No adult would get angry at a child for being unable to ride a bike. That was the skill gap between Almond and the yers in this rank. ''It seems like it''s working out. I''ll just keep focusing and try hard.'' Seeing as things were, Almond decided not to worry about their stream and focused on improving his skills. Almond didn¡¯t force himself to act a certain way. For him, the stream naturally became interesting when he put in the effort. He was going to stick with that strategy today. As Almond finished cleaning up the first floor, Bubblegum asked him, "What should we do now? Teacher?" "Now, we can go down to the basement. Let''s get you equipped and get you first ce." "Yes!" Almond skillfully tied a rope. Clearly, it wasn''t his first time. "Alright, grab onto this ande down." Almond grabbed onto the rope and dropped his light body down. Thending was so soft that it seemed like he didn''t need a rope in the first ce. Almond motioned for Bubblegum to quicklye down. "Come!" "..." Bubblegum hesitated, "Uh... D-Do I have to go down like this? Wahaha!" Bubblegum''s body became stuck between the ledges. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Wow, he looks like a sandbag! ¡ª Hahahaha, he can''t even jump off from that? ¡ª Hoho... how will you get through this, Almond? Almond just shrugged without getting upset. "Just use the stairs if you can''t. All of them are dead anyways." There was no reason for him to get upset because this was why he killed everyone in the first ce. ¡ª So that''s how he''s going to get through this. ¡ª How to survive with Bubble Gum: just kill everyone on your own. ¡ª The secret to Almond''s mentality: be good. ¡ª Forbes most voted survivor. *** Bubblegum had no choice but to take the stairs. In the end, the two safely entered the basement where a gunfight was happening. Tududududu! Tudududung! Despite holding high tier weapons, their terrible aim resulted in no deaths and left many yers alive. ''Wow...'' Almond was impressed by the Bronze rank. "The air sure is different here." ¡ª He''s so honest. LOL ¡ª Coming from a higher rank, I don''t me him. ¡ª Bronze rank: #1 tier to have fun. ¡ª Ouch, the truth hurts. . ¡ª For real "Let''s hide for now." Bubblegum and Almond decided to hide behind arge pir until the enemies finished fighting. They were hidden well because the environment was dark and noisy from the gunfire. "Let''s go behind there." "Okay!" Tadadak! The two quickly ran and sessfully hid behind the pir. Bubblegum spoke up as he was trying to catch his breath, "Huff... puff... I think this is my first time in the basement in two months." "There''s nothing to be nervous about. We just need to wait until those yers kill each other. Then we farm up and leave." "Okay, okay." "You''re pretty good with the sniper rifle, so I''ll get you that." "Okay, okay." Bubblegum just kept on nodding. ¡ª Pretty good, LOL ¡ª Bubblegum: okay, okay, just carry me. ¡ª Bubblegum: okay, I get it, just kill them all, please. ¡ª He''s just reacting to him, haha There were several chats making fun of Bubblegum, but he didn''t have time to read them. Tududududu!!! Tududu! Around four teams were fighting in the basement. It was so chaotic that Bubblegum feared they''d be caught in the crossfire. The other yers were farming with guns, but Almond only had a bow. ''I-Is this going to work?'' Bubblegum peeked behind the pir to take a look. Tudududu! The gunfire continued. The opponents switched out their pistols for a hero tier rifle. ''Even Almond...'' The bow would be rendered useless against guns. Would they be able to fight? "Uh... T-Teacher? Are you sure we''re at an advantage?" "Yes, we are. They don''t know about us, but we know that they''re there." "B-But the guns..." "Ah, in here, this is better." Chuk. Almond proudly lifted his recurve bow. Bubblegum''s expression visibly said,?''How''s that possible?!'' ¡ª LOL, look at his expression! ¡ª No faith haha ¡ª I''ve never seen someone who says the bow is better than a gun in the basement. ¡ª He looks so proud of the bow. ¡ª Bubblegum couldn''t keep a straight face, LOL Shortly after their conversation¡­ "Oh, a team died." There was a change in the environment. After one team died, there were three more left. However, one of the teams only had one yer remaining. This was the perfect time to strike. "I''m going to stand near that one yer and start fighting," Almond said as he readied his bow. "As soon as I kill one team, I want you to run and grab whatever gun you can, sniper or not." He talked about eliminating a team as if it weren''t a big deal, but what surprised Bubblegum was what he said afterward. "S-Sorry? M-Me? Run there?" "Bubblegum, you''re good with snipers. There''s a legendary tier sniper over there." "Y-Yeah... b-but it''s too dangerous... Let''s just kill everyone from here..." ¡ª LOL Bubblegum is trying to take the easy way out! ¡ª ??? Then you shoot them all! ¡ª Run! Listen to the teacher, you piggy! Almond nodded while smiling, "Since I can''t kill them all, you need to help me with it." He was lying. With Almond''s curve shot, he could locate and kill everyone in the basement. He only intended to train Bubblegum. "Ah, alright," Bubblegum nodded and didn¡¯t suspect anything. Then he asked his viewers, "H-Hey guys? Was there a sniper there?!" ¡ª LOL ¡ª Uh... ¡ª I''m not sure... ¡ª Hoho? Is there? "These freaking guys." As soon as Bubblegum finished talking, Almond released his bow. Pang! However, he fired while aiming at the pir. ''...?'' Bubblegum was wondering why he aimed there. But¡ª ¡ª Wow, the arrow''s bending again! ¡ª Holy shit! ¡ª What the? Is this a targeted arrow? The arrow looked like it was headed for the pir, but curved and hit one of the duo yers'' heads. Thwack! [Almond -> SdRitty] [Knocked Out!] "W-What the?!" the yer beside him shouted. "Where?!" He aimed his gun toward the source of the arrow, but no one was there. Instead, another arrow flew toward them. Thwack! [Almond -> Turerere] [Double Kill!] [78/100] A duo team was eliminated. "Now!" Almond shouted. ''Right!'' Bubblegum was dumbstruck while watching Almond''s gamey. He came back to himself and started running. ''Sniper, sniper, sniper...!'' He looked for the sniper that Almond mentioned. His eyes were spinning. ''Oh!?'' He found it. It was there. Shining in gold! It was a legendary-tier sniper, but it was too far. ''It''s a bit far. Is it possible?'' He had no time to think. Bubblegum ran for now. Tuddududu! He heard the opponent''s gunshots. He peeked, and it looked like the yer was shooting in Almond''s direction. They figured out where Almond was, but hadn''t seen Bubblegum yet. Almond was attracting all the attention toward him with his arrows. Not only was he drawing them, but he also eliminated another pair of yers. Now, only one yer remained. Thest yer furiously fired his shots at Almond. [Bubblegum, you need to kill thest one.] Almond spoke into their team voice chat. Bubblegum couldn''t respond as he furiously ran. Tak! "Got it!" He grabbed the sniper. Upon checking it out, he thought it was a legendary weapon. He skillfully reloaded the gun. Chul-kuk! ''Even I can...'' He aimed his sights and got into position. ''If it''s a legendary sniper, I can do it!'' Bubblegum''s only skill he could show off was his sniping skills. For some reason, his aim was good when he aimed with a sniper. ''It''s a little shaky.'' Since he ran, his aim shook a little. Huff. He held his breath and waited for the aim to stabilize. The opponent continued to shoot at Almond. Since the opponent was shooting, his head was exposed as well. Bubblegum''s shaky sight stabilized onto the head of the yer. There was a moment of silence. Bubblegum''s thick finger pulled on the trigger. Taaang! Chapter 110: Education Stream (4)

    Chapter 110: Education Stream (4)

    St! The head Bubblegum aimed at exploded. [Bubblegum -> TeddyBear] [Eliminated!] [76/100] "!" Bubblegum''s eyes widened as he stared into his scope. "I-It hit!!" He eliminated thest enemy remaining. The Arsenal was now empty. "Wooooah!!!"?Bubblegum shouted in excitement. ¡ª Wow!! Bubblegum won!! ¡ª Everyone! The world champion Bubblegum!! ¡ª LOL, it looks like he won the whole thing. ¡ª Bubblegum isn¡¯t bad with a sniper after all. ¡ª Is this thanks to Almond''s coaching? Almond started pping. "Wow, good job." "R-Right?!" Bubblegum was like a child beingplimented by Almond. He was overjoyed. ¡ª Give him a good job sticker ¡ª Why''s Bubblegum so happy? LOL It wasn''t a surprise because Bubblegum''s sniping skills were known. However, for him, it felt different. ''I''ve never hit someone on my first shot.'' He was a good sniper, but not good enough tond a headshot instantly. He even had to rush his shot after running for the rifle, yet it hit! ''Is it because I''m less nervous?'' He was less nervous than he normally would be. He didn''t care if the bullet hit or not. As a result, his aim was steadier. ''Did I gain confidence without even knowing?'' This felt like a difference in his confidence. He felt less afraid as he and Almond got through the Arsenal. ''It''s effective.'' It was hard to believe, but Almond''s coaching was working. He didn''t expect to actually improve his skills from this content... Was it okay to continue like this? Then, suddenly¡­ "Bubblegum, farm this over here." "Oh!" Almond pointed at some incredible items. Seeing the bountiful equipment, Bubblegum lost all train of thought. With a wide smile, he started happily shopping for the items. "Wow, this is hero tier. This is... meh." He collected guns and equipped the best attachments possible as well. Almond picked up some rare arrows too. *** They didn''t have much time after leaving the Arsenal. [The blue zone is shrinking!] They spent too much time inside. They didn''t have much of a choice and started running for their lives. Then, they discovered a motorcycle with a sidecar that could fit three people. While one yer drove, the other could freely shoot while sitting on the side. "Oh, Teacher. Should I drive?" Almond was familiar with Bubblegum''s stream. "No, I''ll just do it." He wouldn¡¯t do something crazy like handing him the wheel. ¡ª Dammit! ¡ª Bubblegum: Ah... he catches on too quickly. ¡ª Failed assassination. It was the right choice so they could travel safely toward the next safe zone. They encountered other teams on the way, but they sessfully eliminated them with Almond''s driving skills and Bubblegum''s confident shooting. "Wow! I hit them again!" Bubblegum was surprised by his own shots. Meanwhile, the viewers were celebrating. They were hopeful for Bubblegum to finally reach silver. "As expected, you''re shooting much better now that you have confidence!" Almond shouted as he drove. They chatted about the time they previously met in the game. Back then, Bubblegum was holding a sniper and aiming for Almond. It was the legendary moment when Almond deflected the bullets with his arrows. "Honestly, the aim was so good that I never imagined it was you, Bubblegum. I was surprised when I heard it," Almond honestly told Bubblegum how he felt that time. "Sorry!?" Bubblegum didn''t believe him entirely, but couldn''t hide his happy expression. "Wahaha! You''re too kind¡ª" While he wasughing beside him, they heard a gunshot from far away. Tang! St! Blood sshed from Bubblegum''s shoulder. "Kugh!" ''A sniper?'' It was a sudden shot from a sniper. They couldn''t spot it while driving, so Almond chose to speed up. *** [Swamp Forest] They arrived at the swamp forest. The area was known for being sticky with mud. Vrooom... The motorcycle was starting to die down. It was bing useless. They needed an off-road SUV. "We need to get off and look for an off-road SUV." Almond hurried off the motorcycle, and Bubblegum quickly followed him. Bubblegum barely got off because he was stuck in the sidecar, but thankfully he didn''t trip or fall. The viewers saw it as a missed opportunity. ¡ª Darn, that would''ve been funny. ¡ª It''d be hrious if he rolled! ¡ª It would''ve been funny if he lost all his ammo there. ¡ª His avatar is too funny! "Let''s hide here for now." Almond decided to hide in the tall grass for now. "Do we just stay here? Teacher? The blue zone isn¡¯t bad." "Ah... It''s not bad..." Almond nodded, but the blue zone wasn''t the problem. "We have to heal you up." The wound from earlier was the problem. Bubblegum was losing blood and needed to heal up. "Oh? I just need to bandage this... Huh?" Bubblegum searched through his inventory and was surprised to see no bandages. "This is the downside to starting in the Arsenal." "Ah... No way. I guess since it only has weapons." His rxed expression turned into a worried look. ''I never started in the Arsenal. How would I know...'' He realized that it wasn''t all flowers and daisies after the Arsenal. There were some downsides. ''Despite all the downsides, people still go there because of the legendary and hero tier weapons...'' There was something weird that Bubblegum noticed. "Wait a second, Almond." "Sorry?" "Then how did you win all those games by starting in the Arsenal?" "What are you talking about?" From the stories, Bubblegum heard that Almond won all his games until his Diamond promotion matches by starting in the Arsenal. That meant Almond yed all his games without medical equipment or using legendary and hero tier weapons. "Almond, you don''t even use legendary or hero tier weapons, but you always started in the Arsenal. You don''t even have medical equipment... How do you win?" ¡ª Oh yeah¡­? ¡ª Yeah, he''s right. ¡ª Yeah, he never uses the weapons. He blows them all up. ¡ª What kind of battle were you in, Almond¡­ The fact that he yed the game with only a bow and no medical equipment made Bubblegum dizzy. Almond just shrugged. "It eventuallyes out when I kill them." ¡ª Human farming ¡ª This isn''t an RPG game!! ¡ª LOL, they''re humans too! "Ah... Right," Bubblegum begrudgingly nodded. ''He''s not a person I can understand.'' As Bubblegum was shaking his head, a message popped up in front of him. Bling. [Your HP will start to fall due to blood loss.] [Please heal up ordingly.] He could see his HP decreasing and was nervous again. "U-Uh... I''m losing blood..." "Shh." Almond covered Bubblegum''s mouth. "The medical equipment is walking over here." "?" Almond was talking with his ear to the ground, but Bubblegum was confused. ''I don''t hear anything?'' He didn''t hear any footsteps at all, but suddenly¡­ Ssh. Ssh. He could faintly hear the footsteps, but couldn''t tell them apart from the noises and animals in the swamp. ''Is it real?'' While trying to figure out the sound, Almond was already pulling on his bowstring. Creak¡­? ''Huh?'' Almond fired his bow without hesitation as soon as a person''s head came into sight. Swoosh! The arrow flew in a smooth curve and pierced the figure¡¯s head. The kill log confirmed if it was a yer or not. [Almond -> NightXayah] [Knocked Out!] It was one hit since they didn''t have a helmet on. "Dammit!" "What the!?" Mumble mumble. They heard themotion. It wasn''t just one enemy. Bubblegum quickly raised his gun and aimed toward the foe. Tak. But Almond held onto the barrel of his gun and lowered it. "If we shoot now, they''ll find us." "... T-Then?" "Just wait a moment." After whispering, he quickly fired another arrow. Swoosh! It was so quick that it was barely visible even to Bubblegum, who was right beside Almond. The arrow flew and struck the tall grass. It was hard to tell if it hit anything, but that was a pointless worry. Thwack! The sound of pierced flesh, followed by a scream, was heard. Judging from the noise, the arrow must''ve hit the body. Almond quickly fired four more shots. Pabababang! The arrows flew towards the right and disappeared. In an instant¡­ Pubububuk! Four more hits could be heard. [Almond -> TissueHunter] [Knocked Out!] All four arrowsnded on their body and knocked out the opponent. "Wow..." Bubblegum expressed his awe. Just then¡­ "Over there!" Tududududung! A gun appeared from the enemy¡¯s side and started firing. "A-Argh!" Bubblegum quickly ducked and hid his body. "... Huh?" However, the bullets didn''te near him. The opponents were shootingpletely elsewhere, all the way to the right. It was because Almond''s curve shots wereing from there. ''Wow.'' The curve shot also had the benefit of tricking the opponents. Meanwhile, it was easy for Almond to discover the opponents. This was the advantage that quiet arrows had over loud bullets. "It seems like the enemy squad had all four members alive. Now there''s only two remaining." Almond was utilizing the few arrows he had to maximum efficiency. To a beginner''s eye, he made the bow look overpowered. "Wow, this is possible because it makes no noise and he can shoot it in any direction," Bubblegum whispered to his audience. "Isn''t this unfair?" ¡ª For real. ¡ª It''s cause it''s Almond. ¡ª Then you try it out! While Bubblegum was talking to his viewers¡­ Pang! Almond''s arrow cut through the air again. One of the enemy yers couldn''t help but expose their head. There was a long arrow stuck in his head now. [Almond -> Yellowy] [Knocked Out!] Only one yer remained in the enemy squad. He was bent down, trying to revive his teammates. The funny thing was the odd way he hid because he thought Almond was to their right. In reality, he became clearly visible to Almond from that angle. Almond decided to give the easy target to Bubblegum. "You can finish off thest one. It doesn''t matter if we''re revealed or not anymore." "Sorry? Ah, alright." Bubblegum quickly aimed down his sight. Since he was using an 8x scope, he could clearly see the opponent. ''Will it work again?'' ¡°Phew,¡±?Bubblegum took a deep breath and held it again. ¡°Huff.¡± He carefully pulled the trigger. Chapter 111: Education Stream (5)

    Chapter 111: Education Stream (5)

    The air was humid and the ground was sticky. The swamp was tiring to even walk through. It was hell for people to travel through here. Chirp, chirp, chirp. Chirp! It was the ideal location for the birds in the sky to build nests and raise their babies. The mothers could freely roam around the swamp and find worms to feed their babies. But then¡­ Tang! Loud gunfire shook the ears of these tiny creatures. p! Feathers flew everywhere as the mothers flew up and worms fell from the sky. Shaaak! The trees shook as countless birds resting on top flew away. [Bubblegum -> toalf98] [Eliminated!] [41/100] "Yes!" Bubblegum''s loud shout was heard through the cries of the birds. He made a fist in excitement. It was hard to believe this was the same person who acted cowardly earlier in the Arsenal. ¡ª Trending! Bubblegum''s confidence! ¡ª Satisfaction +1 ¡ª So adorable! The viewers could also tell he was gaining confidence as they watched his chubby avatar bouncing happily. "Alright, let''s go farm the medical equipment." Now that all the opponents were dead, farming was the only thing left to do. *** Almond told Bubblegum as he handed him the medical equipment, "You saw it, right? This is how to farm medical equipment after starting from the Arsenal." ¡ª ??? ¡ª Sorry? ¡ª That''s not farming... The chat was filled with question marks, but Bubblegum reacted differently. "... Everyone," Bubblegum said something to his audience and seriously stared at the medical equipment that Almond handed to him. "I''m going to grow up into Almond." ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª You''re 40 already. When are you going to turn into him? LOL ¡ª Bubblegum (40) career goal: Almond ¡ª I think you should be a walnut instead ^^ Either Bubblegum''smitment was effective or Almond''s teaching worked because the two went on a killing spree and survived until the end. [Wow! Congrattions!] [1st] Bubblegum pulled through his 0.4% win rate and won. ¡ª Nooooo! ¡ª 0.04%! 0.04%! 0.04%! 0.04%! ¡ª Where''s our Bubblegum? ¡ª Give back Bubblegum, Almond you devil! ¡ª How''s this possible!? How can Bubblegum win?! ¡ª I can''t believe this! *** "Phew!" Bubblegum shouted after arriving in the waiting lobby as if holding it in, "I-I got first, everyone! And I was alive too!" Bubblegum had previous experiences of winning, but he usually died in the process and was carried to the end. This was the first time he made it alive. In Battle Large, a yer had to be alive for the victory to count, even in squad matches. That was how Bubblegum maintained his impressive(?) win rate, but Almond managed to keep Bubblegum alive to their victory. "Wo!" Bubblegum was screaming excitedly because it had been a while since he got first. [BubbleX3 has donated 10,000 won!] [??? I can''t be carried on a bus? Then we''ll take a ne! Wahahaha!] ¡ª Bubblegum the carry-master. ¡ª More like carried-master. ¡ª He brought a pilot instead of a bus driver. LOL ¡ª How''s the Boeing 747? ¡ª This is basically first ss¡­ No one thought Bubblegum won with his skills. "Thank you, BubbleX3. That question mark isn''t me, right? Wahaha!" Of course, Bubblegum didn''t care. He was used to being treated like this. In reality, it was true that Almond carried Bubblegum to their victory. The only thing Bubblegum did was snipe easy targets at the right time. [Angel has donated 5000 won.] [No, you did good too, Bubblegum! You got some nice sniper shots!] "Thank you, Angel. You live up to your username. Preach the truth." ¡ª Get rid of the traitor! ¡ª A true angel. ¡ª Isn''t he making fun of him? ¡ª It means he''s that good¡­ [YesYes has donated 1000 won.] [You''re right, Bubblegum. You did well too! So how about ying solo queue and destroying bronze yers now?] "Uh, why''s the donation message not working? The texts don''t show up either..." Bubblegum ignored thest donation message. There was no way he was ever going to destroy other bronze yers. It''d be impossible even if he poured in 72 hours of gamey. "Alright, everyone!" p! He pped to get everyone''s attention and pointed to Almond standing beside him. "But let''s give it up for Almond!? He showed us some unbelievable gamey today!" ¡ª p p p! ¡ª (An excited cheer.) ¡ª We were pping for Almond the whole time. ¡ª Almond was crazy tonight! Bubblegum thanked Almond as well, "Thank you, Teacher. I never thought I''d get first. Let alone be alive for it as well. I''m really d." Almond nodded with a smile, "Bubblegum, you were better than I thought." "Right?!" Bubblegum pointed at the chat as if tattling to his mother, "But those guys always say mean things to me!" ¡ª Cause you''re bad! ¡ª U r bad. ¡ª Almond, you''re a traitor? Get him! "It''s because you didn''t know how to y properly all this time." "You heard that!? He says it''s because I didn''t know better!" ¡ª Boooo! ¡ª Fu. ¡ª So bad so bad so bad¡­? ¡ª I can''t hear you ~~~ The viewers ignored him, but Bubblegum continued to ask Almond excitedly, "If I try now, how far do you think I can go up? Teacher." "Hmm..." "Gold...?" Since Almondplimented him, surely he''d say at least gold. If Bubblegum was a little more greedy, maybe tinum? Bubblegum asked him again, "tinum...?" ¡ª Stop saying nonsense. ¡ª Breaking news: Bubblegum is finally insane. ¡ª Let''s be honest here. ¡ª Even if Almond were his duo, he wouldn''t be able to reach tinum. "But I think it depends on how much effort you put in?" "What if I try really really hard? Like I practice every day like a pro!" "Ah, then..." Bubblegum nodded and excitedly waited for a grand answer. "I think you''ll stay bronze at least." A moment of silence. "...?" It was a grand answer, but Bubblegum stood still like he had a concussion. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Even with all that practice = bronze. ¡ª Oh no¡­? ¡ª LOL ¡ª Look at his face LOL ¡ª Bronze, no matter what. ¡ª Forever bronze. This clip became popr and was titled "Forever Bronze". It was brought up every time Bubblegum was acting a little cocky. *** A sharp eye, professional sses, and a well-maintained mustache. The man who looked like he was smiling was none other than Park Sung-Tae. "Hahaha!" He hadn''tughed like that in a long time. "Bronze." It wasn''t the word itself, but how Almond said it that humored him. He was truly being honest without a hint of dishonesty, which caused pure emotional damage. "He could''ve said gold, but this is pretty funny." Park Sung-Tae put his sses back on after they fell fromughter. "I was worried for nothing." Park Sung-Tae had a lot of worries about today''s stream. He wasn''t worried about Almond''s skills. They were the best. The x-factor was hisck of experience. ''I thought he wouldn''t be able to handle unforeseen situations.'' Ack of experience meant it''d be harder for Almond to deal with unforeseen circumstances. Especially for a streamer, the danger factors were greater. If Park Sung-Tae was asked if Almond''s coaching content would seed, he would¡¯ve answered no. However... "He''s changed my thinking." After watching today''s stream, Park Sung-Tae changed his mind. Almond wasn''t just good at games. He was also skilled in streaming. He didn''t get carried away despite powering through the game and gave Bubblegum opportunities throughout. He kept thinking about the stream throughout the game. He wasn''t simply trying to win. He was trying to help Bubblegum win. Almond always kept this rule. Even when he could take the easy way out, he continued going through the trouble to give Bubblegum opportunities. ''He knew his role.'' Park Sung-Tae felt rxed watching Almond''s stream because Almond knew his role. He knew he was a guest of Bubblegum, who was the host. He perfectly understood this. There were cases where the guest spoke more than the host or tried to outshine them, especially the newer streamers who were eager to impress. They acted this way snobbishly and thought it was the smart thing to do. Most of them regretted it when they looked back. ''Almond knew his role perfectly as a guest and knew what to do in the stream. Was it because he''s watched a lot of Bubblegum''s streams in the past?''? Almond left all the talking to Bubblegum and focused on coaching. It wasn''t because he wasn''t greedy. He fully understood the stream''s purpose. ''I heard he had good social skills. He sure is different.'' He drastically differed from streamers who did nothing but y games in their room. Park Sung-Tae nodded as if he was satisfied and read a message. [Punk Manager Oh: So are you going to do it or not? I think it''s a good idea] Park Sung-Tae was waiting until today to respond. He typed a message, erased it, then shook his head. He ced his thumb on the call button. "Ah, Manager Oh. Let''s do it." *** Almond and Bubblegum continued ying. Surprisingly, they were able to promote to Silver. ¡ª Wow! Bubblegum won! ¡ª This quickly? ¡ª That''s crazy ¡ª Someone who got tinum 3 from the beginning sure is different. ¡ª Woah, but I think Bubblegum actually improved. Their results were so impressive that the AI system ced them automatically into Silver. They skipped Silver V and went straight to Silver IV. This resulted in Bubblegum gaining confidence in his skills and Almond learning to adapt to him. "Wow... everyone! Look where I''m at!" Bubblegum mocked his viewers after being told he would barely make it to Silver. He was joking, but his happiness seemed genuine. "Thank you so much, Teacher! It was so fun!" "Yes, it was an honor for me to y alongside you as a fan of Bubblegum." "Can I ask you to carry me to Gold too?" ¡ª Hey! What''s wrong with you?! ¡ª Who are you! Filled with greed! ¡ª LOL The viewers scolded Bubblegum''s rude question, but their anger was always subdued quickly. "No, that seems too greedy." ¡ª LOL ¡ª You use bows, but your personality is like a knife. ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Almond: Gold is too much for Bubblegum. "Ah...! I-It''s a shame. Wahaha!" Almond''s coaching session was sessful even though it went differently than intended. ¡ª Huh? But wasn''t the point of this to watch Almond suffer? ¡ª Where''s Almond''s suffering! ¡ª What happened to genius gamer vs. genius streamer? LOL ¡ª The genius gamer won. ¡ª Hey... beating Bubblegum''s stream? Not bad. ¡ª Wow, you''re able to resist this? Stream x500! And just before the stream ended, Bubblegum gave a special offer. "Almond, do you y LIL?" "Ah, no, I''ve never tried that..." "Do you want to try ying with me next time?" "Sorry?" "Let''s team up again! This time, I''ll teach you!" Chapter 112: Ad President (1)

    Chapter 112: Ad President (1)

    The chat was filled with question marks when they heard Bubblegum''s offer to teach LIL to Almond. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Bubblegum''s skill: question marks? ¡ª ??????? ¡ª Do you want to get carried again?! ¡ª Who''s teaching who? ¡ª We can see through you! All the viewers used Bubblegum of wanting to get carried again, but Bubblegum was frustrated. "Wait, everyone. Do you think?LIL is a joke?! How is a first-time yer going to carry me?!" he proudly said while pounding on his chest. Thud. "Even though I look like this, I''m Silver." ¡ª LOL ¡ª Sil... ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Proud to be silver? There was arge intion of ranks in LIL, unlike Battle Large. Gold wasmendable, but Silver and Bronze were the same as Bronze in Battle Large. "Hey, Silver is good! It''s still like top 30%!" He wasn''t wrong. On average, even Silver-ranked yers were decent at the game. However, something was wrong if a yer continued to stay in Silver despite ying a lot. "Anyways, Almond. Think about it. I had fun today." "Yes, thank you." Bubblegum wanted to vent his frustration, but ended his stream there. *** After the stream ended, Almond and Bubblegum returned to his This World channel. "Wow! The stream was really fun, Almond!" Bubblegum thanked Almond once more. "Thank you, it was fun ying together." "I wasn''t joking about ying?LIL, so give it a consideration. Wahaha!" "Ah, well, I was actually thinking of trying..." Right when he was about to say he nned on ying LIL¡­ ''Hm?'' A familiar avatar came into view. ''It''s Miho.'' Miho still sat on the bench where she and Almond were sitting before. ''Is she not streaming?'' He heard Miho had a stream today, so why was she still sitting there? Bubblegum noticed where Almond was staring and discovered Miho. It was hard to miss her long pink hair. "Huh? Miho, aren''t you streaming today?" "Ah, I took a break." Miho nced at them and looked down again. Her long eyshes covered her eyes and made them hard to read. "You took a break? Why?" Bubblegum blinked in confusion. Despite her image, Miho was diligent in her work. She was one of the few professionals who Bubblegum recognized. "Just because. I don''t feel well." "Huh?!" It was rare to see her taking a break simply because she wasn''t feeling well. "What? I can take a break too if I want," Miho stared at Bubblegum with a pouty look. "Y-Yeah, you''re right," Bubblegum scratched his head and agreed with her. Miho was scary when she got angry. "Anyways Almond, you''re good at coborations." "Ah, yes. Thank you." "I thought... you weren''t good at meeting people." Almond felt like being stabbed. It was sudden, but Sang-Hyeon realized what was going on. ''She''s upset.'' Miho was upset because he turned down her offer multiple times. It was understandable because she didn''t seem like the type to ask for favors easily, yet she was rejected multiple times. Of course, he couldn''t ept her offer just because she was being pouty. Ju-Hyeok always advised him that it wasn''t good to stream with girl streamers, especially the beautiful ones. Being close to her wasn''t a good choice. He had to push her away. Thankfully, Sang-Hyeon had experience with that. "So there''s a child-like side to Miho too. It''s refreshing." ¡°Pfft,¡±?Bubblegumughed out loud. It was a subtle attack, as opposed to Miho''s obvious one. Almond''s response humored him. "..." Bubblegum quickly shut his mouth and froze after Miho''s expression. She generally had a cold look, but it was even colder this time. Even then, he was impressed by how pretty she looked. "So mean... I was just fooling around..." Ironically, she sobbed and logged out. Ping! Her avatar disappeared. ''She left?'' Sang-Hyeon was taken aback by her disappearance. "Kya, the nine-tails exorcist!" Bubblegum shouted at the timing. Judging by how he was fooling around, the situation wasn''t as serious as it seemed. Did this happen often? "I''ll apologize on her behalf. Surprisingly, she can''t hide her emotions." "Ah..." "Anyways, Almond. You''re amazing. Is it because you have lots of experience thanks to your looks? I thought any guy would fall for her if she tried." It was understandable, but that was if looks were the only factor. Objectively, she acted like a child. ''She''s too young... to make guys fall for her.'' Miho seemed like a pretty child instead of a prettydy. Almond kept it to himself because he didn''t know how close Bubblegum and Miho were. "She was... trying to make me fall for her?" He just yed dumb. "Wasn''t that obvious?" "Ah..." "Wahaha! Maybe you''re not aware because you''re so good-looking! Should we end it here for today?" "Yes, it was fun." Bubblegum cheerfully waved goodbye and Almond bowed. Shortly afterwards, Almond¡¯s avatar disappeared and Bubblegum remained alone in This World. "Ah..." Bubblegumy on a bench and stared at the stars shaped like his face. The stars changed depending on how he felt. Well, at least ording to the creator. In the star was another Bubblegum winking at him with a happy look. "It was more fun than I expected." Well, it seemed like he was right. Bling. Just then, he got a message from his manager. "Oh?" It was surprising news. *** Chiiik¡ª? As the lid opened, the sound of pressure releasing could be heard. Sang-Hyeon came out wet from sweat like always. ''The stream went longer than I thought.'' Sang-Hyeon checked the time after seeing his body. It waste in the evening. Combining This World and ying games, he streamed for around six hours. "Oh, good work. The stream was great. The viewership went up to 14k. You reach a new record every time," Ju-Hyeok told him as he handed him a towel. It was like a coach handing a towel to a boxer after their match. "And Bubblegum offered to y?LIL?together, right? That''s really rare! It''s a big deal!" Ju-Hyeok was excited as if he was the one to receive the offer. Sang-Hyeon ignored everything he said and ran to the bathroom. "Let me shower first." *** Shaaa... The warm water rxed him. "Phew." Hot, yet refreshing. A satisfying moment. This moment made it worth it to push harder. While Sang-Hyeon enjoyed this moment, Ju-Hyeok couldn''t hold it in and knocked on the door. Knock. Knock. "Hey! You didn''t say you were going to y LIL, right!?" "Why?" "We didn''t decide to y?LIL?or not, we''re still choosing!" "Ah, that''s right. Yeah, I didn''t say anything." "Okie." "But what are the choices for games??LIL seems fun." "..." There was no response. Ju-Hyeok probably went straight to hisputer to do more research. ''Wow.'' Ju-Hyeok was a diligent guy. He always was. Even in Ahsung, which was full ofpetition, Ju-Hyeok climbed his way to the top. Sang-Hyeon was always aware of Ju-Hyeok''s ambition, but something was different. There was something more to him. ''Is it... passion?'' He was passionate now. That was the difference between now and his time at thepany. The time put into the work may be the same, but the quality was different. Ju-Hyeok was diligent, but felt dead inside when he was a sryman. He was a diligent zombie. His eyes were full of reactions, happiness, anger, and excitement now. He was fully alive and looked like a person with all of his emotions functioning properly. A properly functioning human... Sang-Hyeon lifted his right arm. As expected, it started trembling. He made a fist. It continued to shake, but he was able to make one. He lifted his fist high towards the sky. A small shadow formed in the shape of his fist and covered Sang-Hyeon''s face. ''Everyone will know one day.'' He made up his mind. When the time came, he wouldn''t show any remorse to Ju-Hyeok and Ji-Ah no matter what. *** After he came out from his shower, he saw Ju-Hyeok making a list. "What is this?" Sang-Hyeon looked into the monitor as he was drying his hair. "Ah, I''m making a list of demographics for other game streamers depending on their gender, age, and hobbies." "Ah... What the, there''s this many LIL?streamers!?" Sang-Hyeon thought he was collecting data from LIL streamers. There was an overwhelming number of LIL streamerspared to other games. "Yeah. If youpare it to the whole world, there¡¯s even more. It''s this much, and this is just in Korea. And all of them are more popr than you are." "... Ugh." Dudun. Sang-Hyeon thought he heard a drum noise. ''All of these people...?'' Even without a number beside their name, it was an unfathomable amount of people. It was hard to believe every single one was more popr than Sang-Hyeon. He still felt that he had a long way to go. "How is it? It''s a big world, right? You baby," Ju-Hyeok made fun of Sang-Hyeon while fixing his sses. "Phew... You''re right. All of these streamers only y LIL?" "Uh... They mix up different games sometimes, but mostly?LIL." "50k viewers is possible just with LIL..." Bubblegum''s average view was 50k. That was enough to call him one of Treevy''s top streamers. However, a couple of streamers had the same numbers as him. There were even some who reached higher. "I thought Bubblegum was at the top, but there are people who have 70k viewers too..." "But Bubblegum gets paid more for ying other games because his fans are loyal. He''s perfect for ying a variety of games. That''s whypanies love him and that''s how he became the president of Treevy. In reality, he''s the ad president." Sang-Hyeon nodded at Ju-Hyeok¡¯s exnation. Bling. Ju-Hyeok received a text message. "...?!" His expression was suspicious. He fixed his sses and held Sang-Hyeon by the shoulder as if to give him strength. "Hey, Sang-Hyeon. Don''t feel discouraged." "...?" He wasn''t discouraged, but he went along with Ju-Hyeok anyway. "Why." Ju-Hyeok smiled and showed him his phone. "I think you''re going to shoot an ad with the ad president." Chapter 113: Ad President (2)

    Chapter 113: Ad President (2)

    An ad? With Bubblegum? Was it really happening? Already? Sang-Hyeon had several doubts, but the message Ju-Hyeok showed him on the phone really said that. [Punk Manager Oh: The ad proposal went through. See you tomorrow in the office. We need to sign the contract.] It was real. Chuk. Ju-Hyeok gave him a thumbs-up and acted all proud. "How''s that? I told you. I''m a man of my word." Watching him act proudly was difficult to watch, but seeing how he created an ad out of thin air made it eptable for today. "And it''s a Fantasia ad with Bubblegum." "Fantasia?" "Yeah man!" The advertisement was on a different scale from the other offers Sang-Hyeon had been receiving. ''A Fantasia ad? Isn''t that one of the best in the industry?'' Fantasia was one of the top three game industries in the country. Almond was offered an advertisement from them alongside the most expensive model, Bubblegum. Even beyond the payout, this was an honor. It would help him greatly in his streaming career as well. "Oh..." Sang-Hyeon let out an exmation. "Oh? Is that it?!" "Then?" "Shouldn''t you sound more excited?!" Sang-Hyeon thought for a moment and gave him a thumbs up. "Good job. As expected of Mr. Ju-Hyeok!" "..." "Good? I''m going to bed now." While Ju-Hyeok was dumbstruck, Sang-Hyeon took advantage of this to run away. "Wow! He really has no emotion. No emotion at all. Huh? Is he a ghost or something? No, even ghosts have souls... then is he a corpse?" Sang-Hyeon could hear Ju-Hyeok mumbling from behind, but ignored him with augh. *** Sang-Hyeon continued tough while in bed. He hid his emotion from Ju-Hyeok because he didn''t want Ju-Hyeok to get full of himself, but he was actually in a very good mood. ''An ad with Bubblegum?'' He never thought the day woulde when he not only streamed with Bubblegum, but also coborated on an advertisement together. He would¡¯ve started streaming much earlier if he knew this would happen. ''I think Grandma would''ve liked it too... Grandma would''ve been thrilled to see me appear in TVmercials. She would''ve bragged to the whole neighborhood. She would probably be more effective than the TV ad itself.¡¯ ¡°Sigh,¡±?Sang-Hyeon sighed in shame and checked themunity''s reactions like usual. This became a routine act to finish off his day. [Today''s genius gamer vs. genius streamer was so good] [The cob actually did pretty well. I thought it''d be super awkward the whole time.] [Bubblegum really is a genius streamer. He even had good chemistry with Almond.] [But isn''t Almond a monster? How did he carry that old man out of bronze?!] [I''m more excited about their LIL stream next time.] It was a handful of good reactions. There were no haters because of Bubblegum''s good image. It seemed like some of the good vibes spread to Almond as well. There was positive talk about him not only in the normal discussions, but also in the trending posts. More than half of the trending posts were about him. He clicked on the top one. [Bubblegum''s physicaledyption.gif] It was a collection of Bubblegum tripping or falling while running. ''When did this happen?'' There were many scenes Almond didn''t get to see because he was focused on the game, but Bubblegum had some funny moments. He wondered why Bubblegum never improved, but it was because of this. Bubblegum had a talent for tripping over every small pebble. ¡ª LOL that''s hrious! ¡ª Look at Almond''s face. He doesn''t care at all. ©¸ True! ©¸ Almond said he''s a fan of Bubblegum. He probably already knows... ©¸ Bubble Clown is famous¡­? ¡ª Bubble Gum is hrious, but Almond pretending nothing is wrong and keeps shooting is even funnier! ©¸ LOL that''s what makes it so good! ©¸ Ah, no wonder their chemistry looks good. Just watching theptions, it seemed like it was fun. I''m going to go watch the rey. ¡ª His avatar is too funny ©¸ The real-life version is even funnier ©¸ Facts! Looking back, even Sang-Hyeon thought it was funny. Almond gave his all with a serious expression in a Bronze-ranked game while Bubblegum fell over with a serious look as well. "It''s pretty funny." After a goodugh, Sang-Hyeon went to the third trending post because itplimented Almond. [The reasons why Almond is a good coach] [He didn''t just carry Bubblegum, but also gave him chances. He made Bubblegum confident by continuing to win. You can tell this was effective because in thest game, Bubblegum sniped three people in the head. Everyone didn''t notice because of Almond''s bow skills, but if this happened in a normal stream, there would be cheers and donations for Bubblegum''s kills. So in short: Almond gave Bubblegum chances. Bubblegum gained confidence. Bubblegum''s skills actually improved.] ¡ª Me too! This was my favorite part. Usually, the coaches suffer and swear at him, but it looked like Almond was actually trying to help Bubblegum. ©¸ 2222 Same! I was touched ¡ª I was disappointed we didn''t get to see Almond suffer. Let''s hope for the best in LIL. ©¸ LOL you''re evil ©¸ Almond needs to experience the pain of being in a team too.? ©¸ So true. Almond''s been taking it easy ying solo all these games. Now, it''s time for hell. ¡ª I was sad Bubblegum was losing his confidence, but I''m d Almond gave it back to him. ©¸ ???: Bubblegum will reach silver at best. ©¸ LOL so mean! ©¸ Silver at best hahaha. ©¸ So true! "They have a good eye," Sang-Hyeon muttered with a giggle. He was d the viewers caught on to his message. His primary coaching objective was to give Bubblegum confidence. [Almond starts off by winning a 1 vs. 20 knife fight] There was a post that showed Almond fighting off twenty Bronze yers in the Arsenal. ¡ª Is this an action movie? ¡ª That''s crazy. ¡ª This is Almond! ¡ª Look at Bubblegum''s face LOL ¡ª Bubblegum''s stunned in ce. ©¸ How did he live while standing still like that? ©¸ Almond deflected all the knives being thrown at him! ©¸ Sweet Almond! ©¸ Sounds like an actual brand name LOL ying in the Bronze rank gave Almond more opportunities to show off. Ji-Ah would be excited since she had the gift to turn these battle scenes into masterpieces. ''Wait, but why aren¡¯t the Diamond promotion matches being uploaded yet...'' After checking themunity reactions, Sang-Hyeon went to his YouTube channel. There were still no videos. She could be putting more effort into the videos and nning on uploading themter than usual. However, his subscriber count had already increased to 60,000. He gained two to three thousand subscribers a day. It was a steady increase to say the least. "Let''s sleep." After browsing the forums, it becamete. He quickly closed his eyes, trying to sleep. Almond''s room fell into darkness. It seemed like he''d have sweet dreams tonight. *** The next day, Ju-Hyeok and Almond went to Punk as promised. "Oh, you''re here. Come over here. We need to sign the contract." Manager Oh greeted them brightly since they hadn''te in a while. "Kya, Almond! You''re doing so well. I''m jealous! Hahaha!" Manager Oh didn''t forget topliment him while patting his own belly. Then Manager Oh led them into the meeting room. "Alright, wait here for a bit. Sigh... I told you to clean up after the meeting. Wait a second." The meeting room was full of the previous meeting¡¯s remains. Manager Oh cleaned up the drinks and chairs and left the room with a frown. They could hear him shouting outside. "Hey! Who''s the team that just had a meeting in here?! Come over here! You guys just left your mess behind?!" ¡°Pfft.¡± Allpanies were alike. Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeok made eye contact andughed. They sat down and felt slightly ufortable while waiting for Manager Oh. "... Weird that we don¡¯t have to prepare anything." "Yeah, I feel weird too." Sitting in a meeting room without any preparation was a strange sensation. In the past, they needed to prepare immensely for a meeting room. It always left them with no chances to sit still. They had to think of what to say, how to answer specific questions, and constantly stand on their toes. That was what a meeting room represented to them. However, it was different now. They were the ones waiting now. Creak. The meeting room''s door opened as Manager Oh and several employees entered. "Hello." After a light greeting, the youngest-looking employee ced the contract on the table for each employee. Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok picked up the contract as they usually would and started reading it. ''Wow...'' Sang-Hyeon tried to hide his awe but couldn''t keep his mouth shut. [Short-Term Advertisement Model Contract] It was because of the title. ''Me? Bing an ad model?'' It wasn''t just a one-off advertisement but a contract. It was different from the kimchi stew agreement. The kimchi stew felt like an advertisement for bloggers whereas this one felt like an actualmercial advertisement only celebrities received. "Alright, I''ll summarize it briefly before the others arrive." It seemed more and more like it as Manager Oh further exined. "First, it''s not a short-term advertisement. There are ns to shoot offline footage as a model and we advise you to y new games asionally as well. It''s just an industry formality... and then..." ''New games?'' Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok reread the contract. In the contract, there were no names of games. The contract was just general with only prices on it. What was the new game? Even Ju-Hyeok didn''t seem to know. "Ah! We haven''t told you what the game is yet!" Manager Oh pped his forehead so hard it looked like he was about to give himself a concussion. "It''s a new mobile game called, Raising a Lazy Soldier. Even from the name, you can smell mass production, right? Let''s just say it smells like profit." ¡®Mobile game?!¡¯ . Sang-Hyeon was shocked. ''Wow, shit! This is legit!'' No matter how much virtual reality games improved over the years, they were nothingpared to mobile games when it came to profits. Because of its poprity, popr girl idols or actors were usually the models. ''But I''m doing it?'' This time, it was Almond along with Bubblegum. "Alright, you have confusion in your eyes, right? A mobile game? Isn''t that for girl groups!? Don''t worry. This game ad is targeted at streamers specifically. There''s still an opening for a celebrity, so don''t get on your high horses yet." So that was the case. But still, it was good news. "Yes, but we''re still grateful." "Haha, you''re right. Alright, this is the silver lining in the contract. Read right here." "...?" There was a special note at the bottom of the contract. "There''s a section about character sales during the duration of the contract." "Yes, we saw that." "What that means is that we can recreate our streamers to be yable in the game." "... Sorry?!" Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeok both replied in surprise. It was the first time Ju-Hyeok heard about this as well. "I don''t really understand. I don''t know the game very well..." "Alright, I''ll exin. This is a good thing." Manager Oh excitedly turned on the hologram and started exining. Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon stared into the hologram and came to a realization as they continued hearing his exnation. ''This is a big deal.'' This advertisement was a much bigger deal than they imagined. Chapter 114: Fierce Negotiations (1)

    Chapter 114: Fierce Negotiations (1)

    "Bubblegum and Almond will be characters in the game." Ju-Hyeok was so shocked that he had to ask again, "As a character? So you''re saying Almond wille out as an in-game character?" "That''s right." Manager Oh put up another hologram that disyed a short figure. It was a depiction of Bubblegum, a 3D character with a bubble-like belly and a cute expression. "What do you think? It''s great, right? Since we have the bio-codes these days, the 3D scan takes care of the rest. If we give the okay, they can make it right away." Sang-Hyeon continued to nod instinctively. ''Wow...'' It was a normal case for streamers to be released as characters when they grew bigger in the industry. However, most cases were exclusive to indie games. It was rare for apany as big as Fantasia to release characters based on streamers. ''This is incredible.'' Almond had to keep from smiling after discovering how great the advertisement would be. He couldn''t imagine how Ju-Hyeok was feeling knowing how much that guy loved money. ¡°Huff,¡±?Ju-Hyeok was holding his breath to keep a calm expression. He tried to turn and look at Manager Oh, but his eyes were glued to Bubblegum''s hologram, as was Sang-Hyeon. Bubblegum''s hologram waddled out from the machine. Sang-Hyeon ced his finger on it as if he was petting a stray cat. Bzzt. A minor static urred. There were no other effects to it yet. "There''s no touch interactions avable yet. Once it''splete, it''ll be possible. These days, lots of mobile games support hologram AR as well, so we need to make sure to meet those needs," Manager Oh further exined while their eyes were glued on the hologram. "Ah, s-sorry, while you were exining¡­" Ju-Hyeok apologized, embarrassed because he was distracted. "No, it''s alright. Experiencing this is part of the exnation too." p. Manager Oh pped and moved on to the next subject. "Should we talk about money?" It was time for the main subject. Knock. Knock. "Manager Oh, the ad people are here." Fantasia''s employees finally arrived. "Ah, they came just in time. Tell them toe in." *** Two employees from Fantasia entered. One was a supervisor and the other was an assistant. It looked like they had no power, but were just here as mere representation for the contract. The supervisor was the first to name a price. "The price is this." After seeing the amount, Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok became speechless. ''This much?'' ''Only this much?'' Ironically, the two were speechless for opposite reasons. In Sang-Hyeon''s head, it was a big amount. So for him... "Honestly, I can''t deny that I''m disappointed with the amount after reading over the contract." Ju-Hyeok seemed like an insane person to him. ''They''re giving 20 million won.'' He was shocked by Ju-Hyeok, but kept it to himself. Judging from the atmosphere, the negotiations had begun. This wasn''t the time to disy emotions. ''He must have a n.'' Sang-Hyeon stared at the others. Ju-Hyeok stared at Fantasia''s supervisor, but there was a touch of coldness that made it seem like he was angry. It could have been taken as rude or aggressive, but this was the basics of negotiation. It was a game of push and pull. Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon were used to working with each other. Sang-Hyeon knew Ju-Hyeok''s approach and kept calm despite the aggression. "Hmm... 20 million won isn''t a small amount for you, Almond. Why do you think that?" Fantasia''s people asked in response. They skipped Manager Oh and Ju-Hyeok and went straight to Almond. Since he looked kind and innocent, they thought he was the easiest target. Manager Oh just observed the situation as if it were entertaining. He was curious how they were going to negotiate. Ju-Hyeok interrupted by speaking up, "Well, first¡ª" He got his pen out and put it beside the contract as if he nned to do so. Then, the Fantasia staff dryly coughed to cut him off. "Kumph." They nced at him as if to say, ''We weren''t asking you.'' "What''s wrong? Is there something more you want to say?" Ju-Hyeok retaliated by inferring whatever they had to ask Almond was the same as asking himself. "Ah, no, nothing. My neck is dry. That''s why. Continue." Fierce negotiations were already starting to begin. Manager Oh formed a smile as this was beyond his expectations. Fantasia panicked because the duo was about to fight back stronger than they expected. However, the staff didn¡¯t lose their cool yet. Those two were simply a streamer and a manager. How well could they negotiate? Fantasia was in charge of the advertisement and had no reason to back down... These were likely the reasons why they could keep their cool. It was up to Ju-Hyeok to crush those reasons one by one. Ju-Hyeok picked up his pen as if he was holding a knife. "This contract has a period of three months." The part Ju-Hyeok circled did say the contract was for three months. "And over here." The next section his pen pointed at was the characterization portion. This contract tried to utilize Almond as an advertisement model and character, all in one agreement. This was Ju-Hyeok''s opening. "There''s no separate period stated for the characterization. That means it''s included in the three month period... but it doesn''t make sense because the character will be used until the game shuts down. "That''s right." Fantasia couldn''t disagree because a character couldn''t be deleted during the game. "That means this contract can be viewed as indefinite for now. The amount offered is much too low considering the duration." The amount offered needed to be higher for the time period given. This was Ju-Hyeok''s main point. "20 million won is the highest amount Almond can currently receive. This is calcted from his subscriber count, his live viewership, etc." Fantasia wasn''t backing down either. They had their standards and acted ordingly. It was the first trick big corporations always used to counter the offer. However, Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon were aware that they wouldn''t be in this negotiation in the first ce if there was no way to change the standard. Ju-Hyeok dug into their defenses. "It''s probably the best you can do as a short-term contract. But if we''re talking about long-term, doesn''t the standard change as well?" "No. Whether it''s short or long-term, the contract will remain the same." "... How is it the same if the duration is different?" It was like a ping-pong rally. Tang! Ju-Hyeok hit the ball and the opponent received it. Tang! "What we''re trying to say is that we offered with the long-term duration in mind already." "Are you saying Almond''s best price is 20 million won as a long-term model?" "More or less. By our standards, yes." Tang! Fantasia was able to hit back the difficult questions as well. The rally was getting quicker and more intense. Sang-Hyeon''s eyes were fixated on their lips. "How do you guyse to your standards?" "YouTube subscriber count and average viewership. We can''t specifically reveal everything that happens internally." "Almond''s subscriber count is 50,000, but his views reach around 300,000. For his stream, he gets around 7000-8000 weekly. Was this all factored in as well?" "No one uses the most recent week as their range. At least a month of data is factored in. If that''s the case, even 3000-4000 is a stretch. That''s the current reality for Almond." Was there a hint in that? Ju-Hyeok slowly smiled. "Current? Right, that''s the current reality." "...?" Fantasia''s supervisor and assistant both stared at each other in confusion. Did they say something wrong? "I''m not sure how long this game will go for, but it''ll go on for at least five years." "That''s right." "Then let''s think about it. Do you know what to do if you''re sure a stock is going to go up five times in five years?" "..." They were silent. It was a tricky question, but Ju-Hyeok pushed further. "If you know it''ll go up by five times, it''s the same thing as increasing by five times now because everyone will buy it for that price. That means the stock will go up by five times. The market won''t wait five years for them. If the future is secured, it affects the current price as well." "... Are you saying Almond will grow five times bigger in five years?" "Five times is insulting. He''ll be ten times bigger." "You sound too full of yourself." The two were reaching their peak. Manager Oh''s smile disappeared and Sang-Hyeon prepared to chime in as well. Chak. However, Ju-Hyeok refused to back down and took out his data. "I''m not being full of myself." It was graphs and data of Almond''s viewership and increasing subscriber count. All charts pointed upwards. There were evenparisons with other rising stars in the industry, but Almond topped the charts. "Doesn''t this graph tell you? How far he''ll go?" "Didn''t we tell you we already factored that in?" "Is that so? Did you factor this in? In this graph, where he''s growing exponentially..." Ju-Hyeok marked the low and highest points of the graph with his pen and drew a line. Then he pinpointed the middle of the line and wrote, ¡®Fantasia''s offer.¡¯ "So you''re saying you''re simply averaging the start and end to give a price? That''s not right. This is the right way." He drew another line pointing upwards on the graph. He was drawing the line for the future. It was simr to the existing data and somewhere on the line he wrote, ''Market price.'' "This is how to calcte the market price." "Isn''t that graph just made up?" "No, it''s not. It''s the future. The future is not just made up. It''s something that''ll inevitably happen and we always factor that in." Manager Oh wiped the sweat off his forehead. Sang-Hyeon sat still too and waited for Ju-Hyeok. Ju-Hyeok would push them further and deliver the finishing blow. Just then, he ced the finishing touches. "Fantasia''s stocks are higher than Ahsung, right?" "... That''s correct." "Is that because Fantasia is currently bigger than Ahsung?" "..." They weren''t sure how big Ahsung was, but Ju-Hyeok knew. He was working there a month ago. "By profit, Ahsung has much more. Look at this." Fantasia was a big and trendypany, but they wereckingpared to the traditional mogul Ahsung. "... I see." "But why is Fantasia''s stock higher?" "Probably because people expect big things from them?" "And why do people expect that?" "..." They didn''t respond. No, they couldn''t. They realized that they were deep in the trap already. If they resisted further, they''d only be hurt more. "The future. The expectation of their future! Fantasia may be smaller than Ahsung for now, but their stock is higher because their future seems brighter." Fantasia''s employees felt like they were in a checkmate. If they denied Ju-Hyeok, they were insulting their ownpany. "Fantasia is apany where they sell the future and investors choose to invest in that. We just want to do the same thing." p, p, p. Manager Oh pped beside them. The monologue impressed even him, but that didn''t matter. ''Now what are they going to say?'' Sang-Hyeon stared at the two employees. After the two whispered to each other, the supervisor sighed deeply. "Sigh." He slowly took out a tablet and crossed a line through the original contract. Swipe. [Amount:?20,000,000?KRW] Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok met eyes with them and smirked with broad smiles on their faces. Chapter 115: Fierce Negotiations (2)

    Chapter 115: Fierce Negotiations (2)

    Fantasia threw their tablet into their bag as if they were forfeiting. Only then did the tense situation die down. "We erased it. Let''s go with something higher than 20 million." ¡°Kya,¡±?Manager Oh was the first to disy his awe. He patted Ju-Hyeok on his shoulder. "Hey! You''re amazing!" "It was nothing... haha." "I can tell why Ahsung is doing so well. It scares me to think that there are multiple employees like you. We''re not even in the same industry, but it still scares me." "... Ahsung?" Fantasia''s supervisor asked Manager Oh. "Ah, yeah. These two were from there. Everyone knows this, didn''t you?" "Ah..." The supervisor became flustered and didn''t know their backgrounds at all. He hadn¡¯t been paid enough to put in the research. Manager Oh smirked. What about Ju-Hyeok who was receiving the same amount? He had a different attitude toward his work. For Ju-Hyeok, this work was going to be his life. For Fantasia''s employees, this was simply a job. Their different attitudes produced the current results. "This guy. Tsk. How could you not know? Anyways, Supervisor Kim, how much can you do?" ¡°Sigh,¡± the two let out a deep breath. "Umm... We agree with what you said, and we''re going to raise the amount. But..." ¡®But?¡¯ Lasers wereing out from Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon''s eyes. The supervisor spoke with sweat trickling down, "You''re probably already aware, but we don''t have any power to make any decisions. We need to be able to convince the higher-ups. So... if we have a better reason... or some kind of evidence we can present as employees, it''ll make this a whole lot easier." Manager Oh nodded beside them. "That''s right. The monologue was great, but... it did seem like a child''s dream. As you know, that doesn''t do well in businesses, especially with the higher-ups." Manager Oh pointed up at the ceiling with his thumb. "Hmm..." Ju-Hyeok started thinking. He was so close. What could he do to deliver the final blow? Then, Sang-Hyeon brought his phone out. "How''s this?" "...?" ¡®What is this?¡¯ Ju-Hyeok and Manager Oh looked around. "It''s my YouTube channel." "Hmm... Right, it is. So what?" Tap, tap. Sang-Hyeon tapped on the subscriber count. "Fantasia talked about their own standards. That was probably based on my subscriber count, which was around 53,000 back then." "Hmm... That''s right... Oh?!" Manager Oh and Ju-Hyeok shouted in surprise simultaneously. The subscriber count Sang-Hyeon disyed was 81,000. In one day, his subscriber count grew by 30,000. "W-What the... how''s this possible?" "My editor finally uploaded a video this morning." No, it wasn''t even a full day. It was only a couple of hours since the video was uploaded. "What? Was a video uploaded in the morning? What was the video? How did you suddenly gain 30,000 subscribers?!" The Fantasia employees whispered to each other in disbelief as Manager Oh shouted in shock. However, all their doubts disappeared after they saw the title of the videos. [Die-Almond EP.1 Beating The World Record: Begin!] [Die-Almond EP.2 Kimchi Stew Mukbang Before Beating The Record] [Die-Almond EP.3 Beating The World Record: Sess!] Beating the world record. The videos contained history being rewritten. "Did the subscriber count go up because of these videos? Alright, should we take a look?" Manager Oh asked Fantasia and put up the video. *** p. The dark curtains in the room covered the warm sunlight. Ji-Ah''s room was enveloped in darkness even in the middle of the day. "Sigh." She was in bed after working for three nights in a row. She was d she purchased a sunproof curtain when her pay came in because it allowed her to sleep during broad daylight hours. She got up shortly after closing her eyes. "Sigh." She rubbed her eyes with a frown on her face. "What happened to me?" It sounded like aint, but she had a faint smile. "All this for that Almond guy..." There were things she needed to confirm before sleeping. It wasn''t a big deal, but she didn''t want to leave anything to chance when it came to Almond. She picked up her cell phone beside the bed. The light from her cellphone shone on Ji-Ah''s tired face. Thump¡ª? Her heart was racing. Her physical body felt dead, but her mind was rushing. Did she have too much caffeine? Or was it because these were the videos she put the most effort into? "Let''s check the reactions before sleeping." Ji-Ah''s hands shook as she was about to check the reactions. *** [Die-Almond EP.1 Beating The World Record: Begin!] [Die-Almond EP.2 Kimchi Stew Mukbang Before Beating The Record] [Die-Almond EP.3 Beating The World Record: Sess!] The three videos highlighted the day Almondpleted his journey to Diamond. That particr day, he streamed longer than usual because there were lots to cover. The videos were in a new format titled Die-Almond since there was a specific goal to them, which was to beat JeonJaPa''s record. These videos were different from the earlier ones. Because of that, Ji-Ah wanted to check the results to see what people thought. She waited for the live premiere and read the chat. ¡ª Almond in the morning? I can''t resist a healthy breakfast! ¡ª LOL Today''s breakfast is almond kes! ¡ª Almonduuuuu ¡ª Perfect for my road to work. But why is it a live premiere? ¡ª Die-Almond, LOL! ¡ª Me, a jobless bum, came as soon as the notification came up, but it''s still ten minutes before the reveal?! ¡ª Release it already! ¡ª I timed it to watch on the toilet, but it''s still ten minutes remaining? No... ¡ª Wow, the diamond promo videos are being uploaded ¡ª Did this guy really do it? Did he beat JeonJaPa''s record?!? ''No way.'' Ji-Ah was starting to get dizzy from the immense number of messages in the chat. Simply reading them made her hyperventte. Almond was going through this every day. Once again, she was impressed by him. Ji-Ah sat and waited ten minutes, reading what the users said about the video. ''It''s starting.'' Then, the live premiere began. *** The beginning of the video was simr to the others. The audience wouldn''t notice any difference other than a new title. No one came to analyze the editing styles. They were here to watch Almond being promoted to Diamond. The Diamond promotion matches were such arge event that it didn''t matter what editing style she used. Hence, Ji-Ah tried out a different style with these videos. Most people wouldn''t notice the subtle difference until Almond fired his first shot. ¡ª Wow, he''s shooting. ¡ª Thump thump ¡ª Kya, look at his pose. When the action began, the music changed from bass to a cheerful song. Wherever Almond moved was colored in. ¡ª ??? ¡ª ?! What''s going on? ¡ª Is it a mistake? ¡ª That''s cute! The color followed his movements as if someone was using a pencil crayon. A shade of color followed Almond as he drew his arrow. And in the climax, following the loud bass... Pang! ¡ª !? ¡ª Damn ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Holy shit ¡ª That''s insane ¡ª Crazy! The color was distinctive despite the chaos. The shot, enveloped in these colors, flew straight ahead. It gave a satisfying feeling that was different from before. Previously, Almond''s arrows took a lot of work to spot. The viewers had to look closer or rely on Ji-Ah''s camera angles to see the arrows. However, now anyone could see the protagonist¡¯s arrows flying in spectacr colors. The arrow passed through countless obstacles and people¡ª Thwack! And it reached its target. Then, the video''s color started to fade and turned monotone. Shortly afterward, the target hit by the arrow glowed with the shot''s color. Since everything else was monotone, it was easy to spot. But it wasn''t over. Arge X was drawn on top like a big paintbrush was painted over them. This signaled death. Soon, the screen turned normal again and the camera pointed at Almond. ¡ª Wow!!! ¡ª Holy shit. This is like watching a badass action movie! ¡ª It looks even cooler because I can see where the arrow is going! ¡ª Damn! The editing style has been upgraded! The video started ying cheerful music after the X as if it predicted the viewers would enjoy the new effects. The bass sped up and Almond fired quickly, matching the beat. Pang! Pang! Paaang!! Thebination of shots matching the rhythm and the different colors made the scene look like a bunch of fireworks created by the brush. All these fireworks pierced through the opponent''s heads. Pubububung! These opponents received a big X on them too. ¡ª Wo! ¡ª Insane. ¡ª Imagine this in a knife fight. ¡ª Daaamn! ¡ª I like this. ¡ª Holy shit! ¡ª Even the editing is different for diamond promo matches. ¡ª It''s like a well-made amateur American movie. More positive reactions poured in. "Thank goodness." Ji-Ah¡¯s tired expression turned into a smile. After that, she passed out on her bed with the video still ying. [Subscribers: 59k] When she fell asleep, there were already five thousand more subscribers. *** When Sang-Hyeon showed his subscriber count to Manager Oh, there were already 30,000 more subscribers. [Subscribers: 81k] "... Ah, it''s over?" Manager Oh muttered as the video finished. ''The video was next level.'' It was an honest thought. Even Fantasia couldn''t take their eyes off the screen. ''This is beyond...'' ''A single person can produce this well?'' It was a better quality than some of Fantasia''s advertisements. Sang-Hyeon asked the two of them staring nkly at the screen. "How was it?" "Sorry?" Fantasia''s supervisor finally snapped out of it and replied. "T-The video is really good." "I''m not talking about the video." Sang-Hyeon tapped on his subscriber count and asked again, "Will this be good enough evidence for my future growth? Even during our negotiations, the future we talked about is happening." Meanwhile, the subscriber count grew to 83,000. "Two more thousand subscribed while we were watching the video." "..." What could they say after seeing this exponential growth? Just... "We''lle back with good news." Then, they left. *** "Wow, good job. Very good," Manager Oh patted them on the shoulder as Fantasia''s employees left. "You two are no joke? Huh? You didn''t even prepare! How did you do it? Hahaha!" Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok were pleased with the oue as well. Since the other side backed down, there would be good news. The two headed home after Manager Oh treated them to lunch. "We''re going..." "Alright! Goodbye!" Manager Oh saw them off and went back to the office.?"Phew." The office was still hot from the negotiations. "They''re passionate youngsters. Hahaha." He burst outughing while thinking about what happened earlier. But afterward... Tadadak. Tadadak. The same repetitive job continued. ''I''m bored.'' He felt a sense of emptiness. It was the empty feeling someone felt after returning from a concert: emptiness, depression, or something along those lines. What was it? Manager Oh leanedfortably in his chair and looked out into the sunlight. He felt empty. Bling! Then, he got a notification. [Almond is starting to stream!] ¡°... Hm? It''s 3 P.M.¡± Almond was starting his stream earlier than usual. Usually, Manager Oh would have to ignore it. ''I wonder how many more live viewers he got?'' After the increase in Almond¡¯s YouTuber subscribers, Manager Oh became curious about how much the live viewership increased. Chapter 116: Just Chatting (1)

    Chapter 116: Just Chatting (1)

    Sang-Hyeon pped Ju-Hyeok''s back on their way out of Punk''s office. "Good job. If it weren''t for you, I wouldn''t have thought of raising the price." "Hmph. As long as you know." Ju-Hyeok formed a smug smile. Sang-Hyeon wanted to punch him, but he let it slide since Ju-Hyeok actually did something good for once. Instead, they decided to happily talk about money. "How much do you think they''re going to raise it?" "The ad? Hmm... I think the maximum will be an extra ten million won." "Really? So thirty million won?" "Yeah." A thirty million won advertisement pay sounded unbelievable. It was odd to witness ten million won being negotiated, let alone discussing it. These numbers were only tossed around when discussing apany¡¯s money unrted to paychecks. "Yeah. If we get thirty million won, I''d be really d." Sang-Hyeon smiled while imagining happy thoughts. "Anyways, it''s not time for us to smile." "Why?" "Because we need to start looking for a new game." "Ah." Their previous discussion was about how it was time to start looking for a new game after Battle Large. "I thought we decidedst time already." "We''re going with that? But you know that game is risky for variety gamers like you, especially early on, right?" "Yeah," Sang-Hyeon nodded. Even without experiencing it first-hand, he could tell it was dangerous in terms of business. It was like a restaurant resetting its menu. "We have toe up with a strategy. Before then, we need to stay quiet." "What should I do in today''s stream? Should I try it?" "Today?" Ju-Hyeok rubbed his chin. "Today''s not a bad timing because of Ji-Ah''s video... but we''re not sure how to transition yet. I''m going to talk to Bubblegum''s manager first... and see if we can utilize the coboration with him..." Ju-Hyeok wanted to find a better strategy before the stream began. Sang-Hyeon nodded and understood the situation. *** After they arrived home, the twoy down and took a nap. They were tired from the tight schedule since early morning. The first one to wake up was Sang-Hyeon. "Hmm." He got up to stretch and tried to wake up his mind. Then, he sent a text to Ji-Ah. It was topliment her about the video she uploaded. He waited a bit for the message to be read, but it wasn''t seen even after ten minutes. ''Is she sleeping?'' She probably stayed up all night considering how she made all those videos at once. Sang-Hyeon took out a sports drink from the fridge to quench his thirst. Gulp. Gulp. The cold drink slid down his throat and woke his mind up. Naturally, the capsule came into view. ''... It''s 3 P.M.'' It was too early to stream. He streamed early during his journey to Diamond, but he decided not to ever since then. He was concerned for his health and theck of content. "Hmm..." However, Sang-Hyeon kept staring at the capsule. Ju-Hyeok was asleep anyway. ''Should I turn it on just for a light run?'' When he first started streaming without Ju-Hyeok, he only had four viewers. Even so, it was fun for him. He felt a lot more carefreepared to now. ''I keep thinking about those days.'' He finished his stream with Bubblegum and even reached Diamond. This was his break period, but he wanted to stream. Not for work, but simply out of joy. He couldn''t stream freely because he now had at least 7000-8000 viewers. However, he still wanted to stream. ''If content is the problem, I can probably get by with just chatting.'' Sang-Hyeon headed into the capsule with that thought. Chiiik¡ª? As he pressed the button, the lid opened and the pressure released. He crouched, went inside, and booted up the streaming program as he normally would. [The stream will begin in 5 seconds.] He remembered when he felt nervous reading that message. ''Anyway, it''s been a while since I''ve turned on a stream for no reason.'' Since he started streaming, he only ever started a stream with a specific objective. Maybe that was the reason he felt nervous, but he felt good now. He thought chatting with his viewers without a n and discussing what game to y next would be fun. [The stream is starting!] The stream began. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Wow, nice! 3 PM stream! ¡ª The best way to spend 3 PM. ¡ª Ohohoho ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Oh it''s not a bug? AL Ha! ¡ª Ahahahaha! ¡ª Almond Hi (AlHa) A good amount of viewers gathered despite the sudden stream. These viewers were Almond''s most passionate fans and were often the first to arrive in his streams. Almond read the chat carefully as he listened to the intro music. He normally read most chats, but he would focus more onmunication today. Did he feel thankful after seeing the advertisement offer? He didn''t know why. Almond truly enjoyedmunicating with his fans. His parents weren''t around and he had no friends before he met Ju-Hyeok. He wasn''t even aware that he thought of them as his friends. "Hi, Treevy!" After the intro music finished, Almond''s face appeared. ¡ª Wo ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Oppa! You''re so good-looking today too! ¡ª Kya! You''re killing me! ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! ¡ª Kya ¡ª Alhahahaha! ¡ª AlHa! Swiff. The chat scrolled up much quicker than it usually did. [RubySword has donated 1000 won.] [Are you ying Battle Large today too?] As always, RubySword was the first to start the line of donations. "Ah, today..." Almond scratched his head. He didn''t n on ying Battle Large. He was starting to look for a new game. There was a game he decided on, but now wasn¡¯t the time to reveal it. "I''m not sure what to do yet." ¡ª ?! ¡ª What the ¡ª ???? ¡ª ??? "What should I do?" ¡ª Why are you asking us that? ¡ª What''s going on?! ¡ª Why did you start the stream?? ¡ª Why did you start so early? LOL ¡ª Hahaha no way ¡ª Oppa, let''s talk! "Ah, right. Talk. I turned on the stream because I wanted to talk." ¡ª Suddenly? ¡ª Why the sudden transition? ¡ª No way ¡ª For real? ¡ª Almond''s going to talk to us!? [Eggnt has donated 3000 won.] [This is an ad, right?] The second donation was suspicious of Almond''s stream being an advertisement. ¡°Pfft,¡± Almond couldn''t help butugh. ¡ª Is heughing because he''s caught red-handed? ¡ª LOL! Another ad?? ¡ª Which one is it this time?! ¡ª You tricked me! This was an ad! "Thank you Eggnt. But no, this isn''t an ad." [NoWay has donated 10,000 won.] [I''m scared there''s going to be a kimchi stew sign thates out from the back.] ¡ª LOL ¡ª Can''t believe you ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Nine thousand year old hell¡­? ¡ª Man, a nightmare Almond had never just chatted with his viewers, except when he did the kimchi stew mukbang. He usually read the chat well, but never for the sole purpose ofmunicating with his viewers. "Wow, I can''t believe you guys don''t believe me. Like I said, it''s not an ad. But if there''s another fun ad like that, I''m going to probably do it again." Almond started talking without a concept or speech in mind as if he were talking to his friends. "Is there an ad that might seem fun?" Almond started naturally talking to them. They were starting tomunicate. ¡ª A capitalism ve... don''t streamers usually ask what games to y? ¡ª Main job: ads, Secondary job: Games ¡ª LOL ¡ª I liked the kimchi stew AD. It''s better than ying games all day. [ImmaPeanut has donated 10,000 won.] [Oppa, since you have a good figure, maybe a fashion ad!?] "Thank you, Peanut. I did get some offers for some fashion apparel, but I¡¯m not going to do it since they asked if they could put up all sorts of banners.¡± ¡ª Oh wow, he has his own philosophy. ¡ª I mean, yeah, it does make it look cheap. [PoongPoong has donated 10,000 won.] [Tell us about streaming with Bubblegum!!] ¡®Ah, right.¡¯ Almond realized after the donation that the first time he did amunication stream was after his experience with Fantasia. He thought talking about the coboration stream was a good idea because many people were curious. "Ah, yes. Should I talk about that next time too? Hmm..." Almond squinted and looked closely at the chat. ''The chat is so fast.'' It was hard for him to read the chat because it was so quick. This usually only urred when he pulled off a super y. What was going on? Almond checked the view count. He didn''t care about it much after seeing it was around eight thousand. "!?" [Current Viewers: 15k] Surprisingly, he reached another new record. For some reason, he had more viewers than his stream with Bubblegum. "Why are there 15,000 people watching this stream right now?" ¡ª LOL For real! ¡ª Even he''s surprised. ¡ª Hahahaha He wouldn''t normally mention the viewer count, but he couldn''t help himself this time. How were there more people watching him now than during his road to Diamond? "I might have a gift for...municating." ¡ª That ain''t it. ¡ª It''s because of your new YouTube video! ¡ª Oppa, show us your YouTube video reaction! You were so cool!!! ¡ª I''m from YouTube. Please wake up. ¡ª There are a lot of foreigners here too. "Ah, I see. It''s because of the new record." Almond scratched his head in embarrassment. Now that he thought about it, the video of him beating JeonJaPa''s record was uploaded to YouTube. Lots of people gathered because those who only watched YouTube just found out about the record being broken today. As expected, there was a donation that was looking for this moment. Bam! Bababam! [Fantasia_Official has donated a whopping 500,000 won!] [Let''s do an interview for breaking JeonJaPa''s record right now! (Yu Ha-Yeon is on standby!)] ¡ª Wow! 500,000 won! ¡ª Kya, you''re proving yourself with the amount! ¡ª I feel the sincerity! ¡ª Paying in advance!? ¡ª Wow, Yu Ha-Yeon? ¡ª Noonaaaaa ¡ª Let''s do it! Boss, please! ''Uh, what the? Fantasia?'' An interview with Fantasia? He wondered if it was real, but it seemed like the real deal judging from the donation amount and the user. ''I''m doing an ad for them anyways.'' Since an interviewer was also on standby, there was no reason for him to deny his sponsoredpany. Almond slowly nodded. "Thank you for the 500,000 won Fantasia. Then, should we do it?" Chapter 117: Just Chatting (2)

    Chapter 117: Just Chatting (2)

    Two middle-aged men met at a bar in the middle of the day. "Ah, long time no see," the man greeted Bubblegum after arrivingter than him. "Oh, hey Tako. Wait, your hair!?" Bubblegum was shocked as he got up to greet the other man. He figured out why the bar''s dim atmosphere was glowing as the man entered. The light brightly reflected off a shiny head. "Ah... haha,"?the man named Tako awkwardlyughed. "You said you were going into training. Is that why you shaved?" "No, it''s not because of that." Bubblegum poured him a cup of water and signaled him to sit down. "Then? Why did you turn bald again?! You spent so much effort nting your hair!" "H-Hey! Quiet down, will you..." Thankfully, the workers and owner were the only people at the bar during this time. Takoyaki was still embarrassed though. He could hear two female employees, who looked like university students giggling. "Wait, you''re embarrassed? Then why did you shave?" "I''m not embarrassed about shaving it, but the fact that I got my hair transnted..." "Ah," Bubblegum understood right away. Tako started balding in his twenties, which was a traumatic experience for him. Bubblegum approached closer and whispered, "So, why did you shave?" "It''s a long story... First of all..." *** Bubble bubble. Takoyaki finished his exnation as the seafood stew they ordered started boiling. In summary, his victory had been a given in?Battle Large because he was fully farmed. However, Almond took the victory away from him. Since it was an important victory for Almond, it would remain forever on his YouTube channel. "So since you got wrecked by Almond, you shaved your head to beat him? Are you crazy?" "What! I''m really embarrassed. There are people in the forums already recognizing me and making fun of me. Getting wrecked by a newbie when I said I''m going into training..." "Who would think Almond is a newbie... Wait, but¡­ what does that have to do with shaving your head!?" "You don''t know? I''m at my best when I''m..." Tak. Tak. He tapped on his shiny head. "When I''m bald." Bubblegum was about to tell him that it was just a joke made up by people, but he couldn''t bring himself to say it because Tako had already shaved his head. "B-But, it''s going to grow again, right?" "Of course. As you said, it was a hair transnt. It''s better for me because my head temperature has decreased since I shaved, which is good for balding. ¡°Okay, that''s good.¡± Since no one knew about balding as well as Takoyaki, Bubblegum moved on. There was one thing he needed to say though. "Hey, then are you practicing Battle Large right now?" Bubblegum asked as he cut and took therge octopus sitting in the seafood stew. "Ah, yeah I am. Almond is like Diamond IV right now and I''m almost there. I went on a winning streak as well, so our MMR will probably be simr." ''As expected...'' Takoyaki wasn''t aware. "Hey, you know that Almond and I streamed together recently, right?" "Ah, right. I was going to ask about that. How was it?" Bubblegum cut some pieces of octopus and handed them to Takoyaki. Takoyaki was impressed by the texture of the octopus as he ate it. Bubblegum thought the scene was a little gruesome as if Tako was eating his own kind... "So, how was the stream?" "Ah, right. Umm..." Bubblegum recalled his stream with Almond. "He''s better than I thought he''d be." "Really?" "Yeah. He looks like a celebrity, but he''s interestingly very friendly..." "Oh, I see." "And he seemed to be a deep thinker even though he''s ten years younger than me." "Really? Why? How would you know that?" "What do you mean why! When you be my age, you can feel a person''s inner thoughts just by meeting them." "Sigh..." Tako made a face in disbelief. Bubblegum quickly added on as if he was making excuses, "I''m not being a boomer. I''m serious. You have better eyes than when you were in your twenties, right?" "Hm. You''re right." "That''s what I''m saying. There''s a difference between forties and thirties too. Anyways, the guy seemed solid all the way down to his core." "Seems difficult." Bubblegum grabbed some more after he finished his portion of the octopus. "He has a sort of aura that an expert would have or someone who''s gotten through life without the help of anyone else." "His skills were definitely expert level. I don''t know where a monster like that came from. Have you seen how much he''s yed?" "Yeah, not that much. I think it¡¯s been just a month now?" "Isn''t the world so unfair?" Despite theint, Takoyakiughed out loud in his own unique way. "Well, I guess the world bes a little more fun to live in thanks to those random geniuses." He was once a pro gamer for?LIL. He was one of the best in Korea in the mostpetitive league on the scene. In this league, only geniuses and monsters existed. Tako was already jaded about these geniuses in this industry. "Hey, Tako. You''re incredible too! You were in the starting lineup for one of the top teams. Look at me. I''m Bronze or Silver every year." Takoughed at Bubblegum''s joke. "Ah! Right!" However, his face turned into stone after hearing Bubblegum''s next words. "I was going to say it earlier, but Almond said he''s not going to y?Battle Large anymore." "What?!" Tak. The octopus Tako was cutting sshed into the stew and sttered everywhere. "Ah! Hot!" *** "Ah! Almond!" ¡°Kya!¡±?Yu Ha-Yeon greeted him as if he was an old friend. It was a different atmosphere thanst time. ''She''s different from when I saw her in the studio.'' Since this was in This World and not an official interview, was she more carefree? ¡ª Ha-Yeon!! ¡ª Yu Ha-Yeon seems so excited to meet him. ¡ª Anyone can tell by looking at her. ¡ª Noonaaaa! ¡ª What?! Who are you?! Why is Ha-Yeon so d to see you?! Who are you Almond!? Fantasia''s This World channel was an open field with flowers everywhere. It looked like a scene straight out of a Ghibli animation film. Yu Ha-Yeon looked magical as she waved at him in a white dress. He could understand why his viewers were jealous. "Hello, it''s been a while." "Yes! Have a seat over here." A white table was ced in the middle of the flower field. It looked like an outdoor wedding from an American TV show. ''It''s a little more awkward than I thought it''d be.'' Almond looked around briefly. There was nothing other than the field of flowers. Almond and Yu Ha-Yeon were the only two in this vast field facing each other. It was overwhelming for an interview. Yu Ha-Yeon giggled. "It''s a little overwhelming facing each other, right? But this is a better angle for the viewers. Isn¡¯t that right?!" Yu Ha-Yeon asked Almond and came right up to his face because most of Almond''s viewers were watching from his perspective. ¡ª That''s right!! ¡ª Noona! You''re killing me! ¡ª This is for real. ¡ª Almond''s an amateur streamer. ¡ª Noona, you''re always correct! ''Sigh...'' Judging from the chat, they would agree with her no matter what she said. Yu Ha-Yeon knew that as well. She knew better than anyone else how to utilize her beauty. She was a specialist in getting the audience to listen to her. "Alright, have a seat." Yu Ha-Yeon signaled him to sit after she sat down. Almond had no choice but to sit across from her. "First, let''s take a picture." A soft wind blew over the fields when she said that and some flower petals flew over. Shaaaa¡ª? Yu Ha-Yeon raised both hands and made a camera shape with her fingers. In between her awkward thumb and pointer finger was Almond fixing his hair. He fixed his hair from the wind and looked straight into the camera frame. He was looking at the eyes beyond the frame. "... That¡¯s how you take it?" Thump. She thought her heart would leap out, but Yu Ha-Yeon answered professionally without any nervousness. "Yep, it came out well." ¡ª She just took a picture? ¡ª Almond wasn''t sure if she was joking or not. In these cases, the viewers knew the answer. ¡ª Almond is a baby. He doesn''t know anything about This World. ¡ª It''s a feature of this game. ¡ª So confused LOL It was a feature in This World. Yu Ha-Yeon caught him reading the chat and asked, "Are there a lot of viewers right now? How many are there?" "Is that an interview question?" "Sure, let''s say it is." "It''s a lot different fromst time." She smiled and attempted to break the hard wall Almond was putting up. "There''s no need to do it the same way like in an official studio, right?" "I guess you''re right. Hmm..." Almond checked the viewer count. [Current Viewers: 15k] It was still arge amount. "15,000 people." "Gasp,"?Yu Ha-Yeon had a shocked look on her face. "That many?" "It just turned out that way." "Wow. Is it because the video of you beating JeonJaPa was uploaded today?" She naturally moved on to the next interview question. "It definitely yed a big part in growing my subscriber count and viewership." "Wow! That''s amazing! Congrattions." "Thank you." p p p. Yu Ha-Yeon happily pped by herself. Almond was amazed. How could she react like that without reading the chat or having clear instructions? Her experience in the industry was impressive. "So what is your goal moving forward?" ¡ª Noona is asking what we want to know! ¡ª Almond is only going to do ads from now on!!! Different question! ¡ª He asked us what ad would be good! . ¡ª Ha-Yeon needs to look at this chat. "Maybe after Diamond, you''ll try reaching Master in the shortest time?" "Hmm.?No." "Sorry? No?" "Yes. I''m going to slowly stop ying Battle Large." "Y-You know that this is Fantasia''s This World?channel, right?!" Yu Ha-Yeon asked in confusion. ¡ª LOL ¡ª He''s so proud. ¡ª For real ¡ª Why not masters! ¡ª No way! Then maybe Kingdom¡­ "Of course, I know. But... Fantasia has other games too." "That''s right." "There''s even a game called Raising a Lazy Soldiering out, right?" Almond subtly promoted the game himself. He calcted that since he was going to get an advertisement from them and it was Fantasia''s channel, there would be no problem. ¡ª ??? ¡ª What''s that? ¡ª What is that?! ¡ª ?? Am I the only one who doesn''t know? ¡ª I think this is an ad! ¡ª Almond! You tricked us again! This is an ad! "Oh! I know that game too! It''s highly anticipated, right?!" Yu Ha-Yeon dly responded to Almond. The two chatted about a game that still needed to be released. ¡ª Almond, you''re insane! ¡ª Almond''s capitalistic smile... ¡ª LOL Ha-Yeon''s response time is crazy, ¡ª Highly anticipated? The first time I''m hearing about it. ¡ª I searched it up and the closed beta didn''t even start yet. "Yes, there are games like Raising a Lazy Soldier, so don''t be disappointed that I''m leaving Battle Large." "Then are you going to y Raising a Lazy Soldier?" "No, I''m not sure." ¡ª What do you mean you''re not sure, you liar! ¡ª It''s not even released yet! ¡ª LOL "Then what''s the next game? Or your next goal?" Yu Ha-Yeon persisted. Almond and Ju-Hyeok had a game in mind, but they decided to dy the announcement. However, now seemed like the perfect opportunity to reveal it. ''I think I can say it.'' His intuition told him that this was the perfect timing, so he opened his mouth. *** In a dark room, arge screen shined on the girl in the wheelchair. ¡°Yes, there are games like?Raising a Lazy Soldier, so don''t be disappointed that I''m leaving Battle Large.¡± ¡°Then what''s the next game? Or your next goal?¡± She was drinking a dark orange-colored whisky. She hadn''t drunk it in a while because she previously quit. However, she was feeling great these days. But suddenly¡ª ¡°I think I''m going to y LIL this time around.¡± Shatter! The crystal ss fell on the floor and made a loud noise. Chapter 118: Just Chatting (3)

    Chapter 118: Just Chatting (3)

    "LIL¡­?" Tako asked with a defeated look on his face. Bubblegum nodded, "Yeah. LIL." "Life of Legends, right?" "Yeah, man! The game you yed as a pro gamer! That?LIL!" "Wow! Goddamn, what have I been doing up until now!? Argh! My life is something else!?Life is Legend!" Was the news that shocking? Tako screamed and pulled his nonexistent hair. "Sigh, let''s just drink up." His hands trembled as he lifted his ss. ''I guess I won''t be able to understand.'' Bubblegum was naturally terrible at video games. His personality was like his gamey, carefree. However, someone like Tako who yed on the pro scene was different. They were naturallypetitive. Someone like Bubblegum couldn''t even imagine. Tako, an ex-professional gamer at the top of the industry, was no different. He even shaved his head because he lost in a video game. Pro gamers hated losing more than anything. It wasn''t about the money or fame. They just hated losing. Gulp. Tako chugged a shot of alcohol. "Sigh." He let out a deep breath after the alcohol with a defeated look. "How do you know that Almond is ying LIL?" "Ah, I heard through his manager." After Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon finished their discussion, they passed by Bubblegum''s manager since it was Bubblegum who first suggested it. "Uhh... Actually, I was the one who suggested to y LIL..." Bubblegum carefully brought it up because it felt like, for some reason, he''d made a mistake. Tako gave a faint smile and waved his hands, "Ah, don''t worry. It isn''t a big deal." "It''s important for you." "Only for me," he said in a bittersweet tone. "Anyways,?LIL..." Tako recalled his days of the past. Frankly, there weren''t many fond memories. Looking back, all he remembered was going through rigorous training to win every day. Every day was like a rollercoaster. Going back and forth from hell to heaven. For some reason, seeing the memory from a distance made the rollercoaster look like a beautiful wave. "... Should I try it again?" "Being a pro?" "Don''t be ridiculous." Being a pro again was out of the question. The scene wasn''t friendly enough to ept him, who had taken a 3-year break. Tako was talking about taking up?LIL again just for old-time''s sake. "Hey, you took your handspletely off of LIL... Are you really giving it a go again?" "I''m not sure." "Do you want to beat Almond that badly?" "Sigh¡­"?Tako took another shot of soju and replied slightly tipsy, "You don''t know this feeling." "Yeah, what would I know." Bubblegum patted him on the shoulder in an attempt tofort him. "You would never know! You''re Bronze!" "Hey! I''m Silver!" "Same thing." *** Ju-Hyeok woke up from his nap in confusion. ''What is going...'' Sang-Hyeon went inside the capsule without a word. Ju-Hyeok wasn¡¯t surprised because Sang-Hyeon always streamed daily. ''He didn''t even decide what to do?'' The problem was that this was a transitioning period to the next game after Battle Large. The biggest obstacle for variety streamers was when they were changing games. If done wrong, they risked losing multiple viewers all at once. They already experienced it once with Kingdom Age, but it didn''t matter since the scale was smaller. Besides, changing games from minor games to major titles was less risky. However, this was different. Almond''s huge sess was thanks to Battle Large, which meant most of the fanbase came from it. Plus, he beat JeonJaPa''s record with this game. Announcing he''d y a different game from this standpoint was apletely new problem. Because of it, they decided to approach the matter delicately. They were still discussing the different options to approach this matter. But why was he streaming? ''No way...'' Ju-Hyeok imagined the worst possible situation, ¡®Almond isn''t ying the new game, right?¡¯ Ju-Hyeok turned on hisputer, hoping Sang-Hyeon was ying Battle Large. Thankfully, neither of those was the case. ''What''s this?'' Yu Ha-Yeon was interviewing Almond. At first, he thought they were on a date seeing how they faced each other in a flower fieldughing. Anyone would feel the same. It was likely intentional because it was an excellent way to gain attention. ''Wait, but why an interview so suddenly? Did they donate to him during his livestream?'' Ju-Hyeok put the pieces together as he watched the stream nervously. "This is..." As the interview continued, his face glowed up. The viewer count was rising. It was hard to believe this was a chatting stream and not a Battle Large stream. ''This is the perfect time.'' Ju-Hyeok thought now was the chance. The viewers gathered to watch Almond, not Battle Large. This was the perfect time to announce his transition of games. Just then¡­ ¡°I think I''m going to y LIL this time around.¡± Almond announced as if he read Ju-Hyeok''s mind. m! Ju-Hyeok excitedly mmed on his table. "This freaking genius!" The chat went wild. ¡ª Wow! Really?! ¡ª Damn! You''re challenging JeonJaPa head-on!? ¡ª Oh! LIL! ¡ª Woaaaaah! ¡ª I''m so excited! ¡ª Kya! ¡ª Scream and shout! It was sessful and so simple as well. Ju-Hyeok couldn''t believe it,?''What happened?'' He had his head wrapped around this problem for days, but Almond solved it easily while he was asleep. Ju-Hyeok reyed the stream to catch up on what happened. "... It was amunication stream!" Almond didn''t y any games today. After he turned on the stream, he just started rambling on. This was arge factor in helping the transition of games. The viewers who came to watch today weren''t hooked on gamey, but Almond as a person. Thanks to Ji-Ah''s videos being uploaded, many new audiences came to watch him. It was the perfect time to startmunicating with his viewers. ''Wow. I was trying all sorts of things toe up with a reason to stream with Bubblegum...'' All of that was unnecessary. Almond knew the essence of his stream better than anyone. Ju-Hyeok knew it too, but he was momentarily blinded. He was blinded by the attractiveness of Bubblegum''s influence. The owner of this stream was Almond. Almond needed to have the spotlight. That was the most important factor in transitioning games. Instead of taking the traditional route, Ju-Hyeok tried to approach it differently. Almond took advantage of this opportunity when he had the most viewers and started chatting with them to form a firm foundation for his channel. He made it clear that this channel was for watching Almond, not Battle Large. He showed his strengths perfectly. "Sigh. Wow..." Ju-Hyeok had a bittersweet smile, "What a guy." The chatroom was full of positivity. More and more viewers came in because the stream title also indicated Yu Ha-Yeon was there. Ju-Hyeok had already changed the title of the stream. ''Let''s check themunity forums as well.''? The stream was doing well, but he needed to visit the forums if he wanted to see the reactions from Battle31. "Phew,"?Ju-Hyeok nervously let out a deep breath and headed to Battle31. *** [LIVE: Almond announced he''s not ying shitty game Battle Large anymore] That was the first title he saw after entering the forums. It wasn''t an easy start. ''I bet they won''t like it.'' These were people who liked Battle Large. They would likely be unhappy to hear their streamer was changing to a new game. ¡ª For real ¡ª He said he''s going to y LIL now. ¡ª It is a shitty game, but it''s still popr. ©¸ If it''s that logic, so is LIL. ¡ª The title is provocative LOL ¡ª When did he say that, you idiot! ©¸ How did he say it? I didn''t see. ©¸ Almond just said there''s nothing more he wants to do in Battle Large. He doesn''t like ying a single game for too long. ©¸ For real? Was he a variety streamer? ©¸ He used to y Kingdom Age. Of course, he''s a variety streamer. ¡®I knew this was inevitable.¡¯ The reactions were better than Ju-Hyeok thought. He expected swears and insults to be thrown around. A group of people would usually use them of taking advantage of the game, but those people weren''t present. It meant Almond''s transition was executed well. Instead, there were reactions like these. [Wow, he''s leaving at his peak.] [I wanted to see him reach Master, but he already proved himself enough.] [This makes the Almond haters want to scream, ¡°What about Challenger?!¡± LOL] [For real, he''s giving the haters a chance to clown on him.] They were saying Almond left with good timing. Some even said he left at his peak. Of course, there was the other side of opinions too. [Stfu. He''s leaving so his fanboys can revere him even more. If he faced off against pros, he''d be shit on.] [He''s quitting because he doesn''t want to get wrecked by pros.] [Takoyaki is probably out to get him. Of course, he''s scared.] [Do you think he can use a bow like that in Challenger?] [He''s probably quitting because he needs to drop the act and use a gun in Challenger.] They were stating that Almond was quitting because he was scared of the higher-tier yers. ¡°Pfft,¡± Ju-Hyeok simplyughed them off. Compared to what he had imagined, their reactions were cute. [He''s a streamer. Why the fuck would hepete with pros, you idiot!] After Ju-Hyeokmented, he left themunity page. "Phew." He watched Almond''s stream as he stretched. Yu Ha-Yeon was still interviewing Almond about random things. ''Is she into him?'' He felt like Yu Ha-Yeon was dragging on the interview even though they ran out of things to discuss. He knew Almond would end it well on his own, so he opened a new tab and went to the website: gosu.gg. This website had all the information about Life is Legend or?LIL. Ju-Hyeok was on the website a week ago to research the champions Sang-Hyeon could y as. In LIL, the avatars based on the user were reincarnated as champions who fought. In Battle Large, weapon mastery was the key to winning. In LIL, masteryy in how well the user controlled their champion. [Sana: Light''s Melody] Ju-Hyeok had his eyes on Sana. He liked how she was good with the bow. [Tier 2] The problem was that she was currently tier 2 in the meta, but Ju-Hyeok didn''t care. ''That''s even better.'' It was actually better. When did the trends ever sway Almond? [Passive: A tiny target appears on the opponent. If the target is hit, the champion and ally''s HP will bergely restored.] This passive was the reason he picked this champion. ''If it''s Almond, it''ll be different.'' Almond, who could utilize the champion''s passive to its fullest, would bring out 100% of this champion¡¯s potential. Chapter 119: Game Transition (1)

    Chapter 119: Game Transition (1)

    "And we''ll finish the interview off here!" The interview came to an end with Yu Ha-Yeon''s big smile. "Phew. Thank you." "No, thank you. You''re giving me extra for the interview on top of the 500,000 won," Almond replied with a smile. ¡ª All this guy cares about is money ¡ª Almond! You''re the same! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Do a stream with Ha-Yeon! In truth, money wasn''t the reason Almond did this interview. He earned over ten million won in the first month of streaming and had yet to cash in his contracts and YouTube revenue. Money wasn''t the reason for this interview. He interviewed to maintain a good rtionship with Fantasia. He only mentioned money to draw a line with Yu Ha-Yeon. He didn''t want rumors of them having this interview because they were close. In this industry, there was nothing good to gain from being involved with women. Several viewers wanted to watch him stream with her, but he backed off here for today. "I¡¯ll get going now." "Ah, yes. Thank you so much," Yu Ha-Yeon bowed formally at a 90-degree angle and bid him farewell. "..." Fantasia''s?This World?channel was now silent with only her remaining. ¡°Phew.?The interview was longer than expected, right?¡± The silence was broken as Yu Ha-Yeon turned on Almond¡¯s stream again. ¡°I''ll end the stream here today. I have to go eat as well.¡± ¡ª Nooooo ¡ª What the? Only chatting today? ¡ª He''s going after the LIL announcement. ¡ª So can we expect LIL to start tomorrow? Almond''s stream ended shortly afterward. The silence returned. Yu Ha-Yeon thought to herself in the silence, ''So he''s going to y LIL.'' She noted Almond''s next steps because, for some reason, she felt like they would cross paths frequently in the future. *** Chiiik¡ª? The usual sound of pressure releasing was heard as the capsule lid opened. As always, Sang-Hyeon crawled out from the machine. "Phew." Was it because he didn''t y any games today? He was clean and dry without a speck of sweat. "Hey, today''s interview was good." "Oh, you''re awake?" "Yeah. I didn''t think you''d just go for it, but the deed was done once I woke up!" Sang-Hyeonughed off Ju-Hyeok''s joyful scold. "How are they reacting?" "It''s better than I thought. I thought there''d be a lot of hate, but it''s actually not that bad." "Good. God, I''m hungry." Sang-Hyeon headed towards their fridge. "What to eat for dinner today..." In Ju-Hyeok''s eyes, he looked so carefree. They were transitioning games tomorrow because of his sudden announcement, yet he looked free of worry. The carefree Sang-Hyeon stared into the fridge until it started beeping at him. ''Potatoes... tofu... frozen beef?'' He thought of beef soybean soup with the ingredients in the fridge. Sang-Hyeon recalled when Ju-Hyeok cooked it well. ''Should I ask him to cook it?'' Sang-Hyeon carefully nced at Ju-Hyeok sitting at theputer. Would he cook it for him? He felt bad asking every time. Before he could even ask, Ju-Hyeok spoke to him first with his back turned. "Hey, how did the interview even start anyways?" "Ah, Fantasia''s channel contacted me first. They donated." Ju-Hyeok was working. Asking him to cook wasn''t a good idea. Sang-Hyeon continued to look through the fridge. ''Is there anything else... something simple...'' He was looking for simple retro food, but there was only a sports drink in the fridge. Beep. Beep. The fridge beeped louder and louder, alerting him to close the door. Ju-Hyeok grew impatient and shouted, "Hey! I''ll cook it for you, so just close the door." "... Huh? Really? Haha.?S-Should I?" Sang-Hyeon scratched his head, acting oblivious. "What ingredients are in there?" "Potatoes, beef, and tofu. Let''s eat beef and soybean stew! There are some veggies left too!" "Oh geez," Ju-Hyeok smirked, baffled by the situation. Sang-Hyeon acted surprised, but he already had a menu in mind. Ju-Hyeok had a slightly annoyed look on his face, but he was inwardly pleased. ''This guy''s fallen in love with my cooking.'' The guy who always ate cereal or almonds to fill himself up started growing attached to homemade food. Ju-Hyeok''s n to slowly convert Almond''s tastebuds wereing into effect. "Then, I''m going to start cooking. You go over there and take a look at the LIL champions. There''s some I already chose." "Oh, okay." Sang-Hyeon reluctantly went to theputer. He was excited thinking about the food. *** Sang-Hyeon sat in front of theputer and scrolled down. ''Let''s take a look...'' On the screen, there was unfamiliar art. [Sana: Light''s Melody] [Leonard: The Lion King] [Abyss: Ruler of the Void] [Hosea: Ruler of the Deep Sea] These were all champions from the game, LIL. Almond scrolled through again. There were several colorful illustrations. Scroll. Scroll. It was endless. ''There''s so many.'' He was aware, but seeing it directly made him realize how much there was. There were over a hundred champions. There was much to learn because all one hundred champions also used different skills Sang-Hyeon decided to look at the champions that Ju-Hyeok researched for now. ''Sana...'' The highest ranked of these champions was one named Sana. The champion shot arrows made from light. She and her allies would recover their HP if she hit the random targets that appeared on enemies. "Hmm..." After reading the description, he realized there was much to learn about even just one champion. Sang-Hyeon decided to watch her gamey videos. For him, watching and learning were more effective. Of course, he chose to watch JeonJaPa''s videos because that guy was the best in the industry. However... ''There are no videos in thest three years.'' All of his videos were too old. LIL was constantly updated and this resulted in frequent changes to the game. It was apletely different game from three years ago. At the pro level, the videos would be useless. ''But should I still take a look?'' The meta had changed, but Sang-Hyeon wasn''t a pro. There weren''t any significant updates. For an amateur like him, it wouldn¡¯t matter too much. Sang-Hyeon wanted to watch the best of the best and see why he was a legend. *** "..." Sang-Hyeon couldn''t keep his mouth closed. How much time had passed by? ''It¡¯s time already?'' He smelled the delicious soybean. The food was ready, which meant quite some time had passed. He nned to only watch one, but had already watched three videos. JeonJaPa''s gamey had the power to lure in the viewer. It wasn''t showy, but clean and simple like watching an expert. His skill, which was at the peak of all yers, infatuated the viewers. JeonJaPa''s exnation of Sana differed from what Sang-Hyeon read from the description. She was a healer who fought in the backlines, but was much more offensive and took the initiative. ''Is this where the difference of understandinges from?'' It was a three year old video, but Sang-Hyeon still decided to keep it in mind. Suddenly, his ears tickled as he heard a voice. "Almond." ¡®?!¡¯ Sang-Hyeon was surprised because it was a girl''s voice. "Why are you so surprised?" "J-Ji-Ah? When did youe?" It was Ji-Ah. "You''re like a human radar in Battle Large. How did you not know..." "I can''t do that in real life..." "I see. Mr. Ju-Hyeok called me over. I was here like twenty minutes ago. Looks like you''re watching JeonJaPa." "Ah, yeah. I''m preparing for LIL." "Oh..." Ji-Ah''s lips formed a smile. Ju-Hyeok called for them from the kitchen, "Alright,e!" Ji-Ah ced down her backpack and waddled to the dining table. As she sat, the four-seat table finally looked like it was filling up. It felt good. The food was delicious as well. Tak. Ju-Hyeok ced down the hot stone bowl with his thick mittens. "Woah." It was the ideal beef and soybean stew Sang-Hyeon wanted. "Alright, this is the special beef stew version jh2, mixed with a recipe from YouTube and my special touch." "... What is that weird science fiction name for a stew?" "Version 2 soundsme." "It doesn''t..." "Ah, whatever. Let''s just call it the stew of the future. In celebration of today''s negotiation." ¡°Pfft,¡± Sang-Hyeonughed, thinking about today''s meeting. The meeting was worthy of celebrating for the future. "Hmm.?Old people talk again." "You wouldn''t know, kiddo." "I see." Ji-Ah looked like she didn''t care and started digging in. It looked like she didn''t care who said what. Sang-Hyeon asked as he stared at her, "Anyway, how did Ji-Ahe?" "I just called her over. Every time we eat, she''s so excited toe. I thought she''d like it if we invited her again. Besides, we have a lot." "Good. The food is good," Ji-Ah replied that she wanted toe over often while chowing down the food. Sang-Hyeon blew on the stew to cool it down and ced a spoonful in his mouth. The savory taste of the soybean wrapped around his tongue while the fatty oils from the beef topped it off. The scent of leftover veggiesplimented the umami taste. Soybean, beef, and veggies. The three went hand in hand and perfectly harmonized with each other. Sang-Hyeon was impressed. "Good." "Right? It''s good?" Sang-Hyeon''s eyes were fixed on Ji-Ah. "No, I''m saying good job calling Ji-Ah over." "What the..." Ju-Hyeok seemed disappointed, but Sang-Hyeon didn''t need to tell him how good the food was. How quickly he was eating was already proof of how delicious it was. As the stew was cooling down, the arms of the three didn''t stop moving until the stew was no more. Ju-Hyeok started talking about how he was a better cook than Gordon Ramsey and Ji-Ah ignored him by talking about JeonJaPa. The only one listening was Sang-Hyeon. He watched them talk and babble on about their respective topics. He felt a strange sensation of fulfillment and wanted to remember this moment. *** The next morning. Crunch. Sang-Hyeon was eating almond kes for breakfast. Ju-Hyeok had a defeated look. ''This guy... he''s still...'' He hadn''t given up. ''There''s going to be a day where he begs for my stew in the morning.'' Bling. When there was bad news, there was also good news. A message came in. [Punk Manager Oh: Fantasia contacted us. Please check the email! The descriptions are in there!] Fantasia decided on a new price. Ju-Hyeok quickly opened the email. While he was opening it, he felt like his heart would explode. ''How much is it...'' How much did they raise it by? He quickly opened the email with his heart thumping. [The contract is attached. Additional negotiation is difficult, but you''ll be satisfied.] The email itself didn''t say much. "Dammit." Ju-Hyeok was let down by the anti-climatic moment. He had to open the contract to find out the details. [Advertisement Model Contract.pdf] It was in a PDF format. Reading through it, the details were the same. There was only one thing that was different. [Amount: 50,000,000 KRW] The amount. "... Fifty million won?" "?" Even Almond turned his head while eating his almond kes. "What is? Don''t tell me..." He felt it as well. The number he just heard... "The new amount for the ad! The ad! Oh my god! It''s fifty million!" That was the new amount for the advertisement. "W¡­ W..." Sang-Hyeon got up from his seat with his arms in the air. "... Woooooah!" "Kraaaaa!" Ju-Hyeok got up alongside him and screamed. Chapter 120: Game Transition (2)

    Chapter 120: Game Transition (2)

    The new price was raised from twenty million to fifty million won. The negotiation raised the total by thirty million won. Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok excitedly screamed. "Kraaaaaa!" "Wooooah!" p! They didn¡¯t forget to high-five each other. "Kya, you''re insane, Hyeok!" "You too, Hyeon." They smirked and gave each other a rarepliment with wide smiles on their faces. They were about to receive over fifty million won! ''Wow...'' Sang-Hyeon was about to lose his mind. ''Fifty million won. That''s crazy.'' Ju-Hyeok called Manager Oh and thanked him. "Ah, Manager Oh. I saw the email. Can you talk right now? Ah, no, I just wanted to thank you. Haha..." Sang-Hyeon started writing a reply to Fantasia instead of Ju-Hyeok. Tadadak. [We''re d the negotiations from yesterday worked out...] A business email that didn''t sound too excited about the amount, but thanked them for their proposal. Bling. [We''re thankful...] There was a quick reply to the email. In the email, a new date was set for a meeting and photoshoot. [Ad progression dates.pdf] ''Phew, it doesn''t interfere.'' The dates didn''t interfere with the hospital schedule nned for next week. ¡°Hahaha,¡±?he couldn''t stopughing. ''Everything is working out.'' Bzzzt. Sang-Hyeon''s phone started ringing. It was usually Ju-Hyeok''s that rang, so it was unusual for Sang-Hyeon''s to ring at this time. [This World message] A message from This World? Sang-Hyeon was confused. When was this linked to his cellphone? For Sang-Hyeon, who wasn''t good with technology, this only made it more convenient. He opened his phone and checked the message. [Bubblegum: I heard the news!] "Oh!" It was a congrattory message from Bubblegum. [Bubblegum: I heard the ad is confirmed! Good luck!] [Almond: Yes! Thank you! ^^7] Sang-Hyeon didn''t scream, but raised his fist in happiness because Bubblegum messaged him first. *** Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok decided to splurge today. They ordered pizza for lunch and not just any pizza, but a new vor. "It''s so convenient ordering food," Ju-Hyeok said as the cheese on his pizza stretched out. "I feel a little bad for the delivery person though." "Ah, yeah. They probably hateing all the way up here..." "But it''s still good." They only felt bad momentarily as they continued to eat the delicious pizza. The two cackled as they finished eating. They also finished a bottle of c and rested while patting their full bellies. "Argh, I''m full." "Sigh. Those who are in their thirties sure are different. I don''t know how guys in their twenties would feel like." "K-Kumph..." "The older brother is going to shower." Ju-Hyeok headed to the bathroom and suddenly wanted to take a rxing bath. Sang-Hyeon muttered, ¡°Petty guy,¡± under his breath andy on the sofa to watch LIL videos. This time, he didn''t watch JeonJaPa''s videos. JeonJaPa''s videos weren''t ideal for a beginner like Sang-Hyeon because he barely talked. To learn and improve his skills, guide videos were more helpful. [Sensei] Out of them, a YouTube channel called Sensei was the most popr. It thoroughly exined wave management, vision control, etc., which Bubblegum''s stream didn''t go into too much detail about. It was set up in a way for beginners to easily understand. However... "... Yawn." The problem was Sang-Hyeon wasn''t very good at listening to lectures. His eyes slowly closed and opened as the sun moved to a different location. "... Hm?" ¡®What just happened? Am I still in This World?¡¯ Sang-Hyeon scratched his head and was surprised to see the time. He slept close to three hours. Sang-Hyeon shook his head, "Sigh. How could I?" For him, the best way to learn was by doing it. He dragged his body up, stretched, and walked to the capsule. Why not give it a go? Since when did he study everything bit by bit? He couldn''t forget his foundation just because he had more viewers now. The foundation of Almond''s stream was tackling new problems with no prior knowledge. ''No one thinks I''ll do good on my first try anyways.''? Unlike Battle Large, LIL had a much bigger learning curve. Sang-Hyeon went to look at themunity forums, thinking no one would expect him to excel on his first ythrough. [Wow, Almond''s ying LIL today? I''m so hyped up!] [Is he really moving on to LIL? He''s probably going to pick a champion that uses a bow. It''d be so cool if he yed a hard character like Raina.] [But does he even have good mechanics? All he does is shoot arrows.] [Since his VNS is super high, I bet he''ll be good.] [He''s finally entering JeonJaPa''s home ground.] "..." Sang-Hyeon was speechless after checking themunity forums. Funnily enough, these users had high expectations for someone who had never yed LIL before. ''Ah.'' He figured out why. ''It''s because it''s Battle31 here.'' This wasn''t the LIL?Battle Large more than LIL and had affection towards Almond. Since Almond''s main game was Battle Large for a while, they were hoping he''d also do well in LIL. They wanted to feel like their game was more difficult than LIL. ''Let''s take a look at LIL.'' He decided to take a look at thergest LILmunity. [LIL Pro] Themunity was called LIL Pro. As the name suggested, it used to be amunity full of aspiring pros. Since it was full of them, the content on the website was high quality. Thankfully, normal users could browse the posts and learn from them. However, the tides changed one day and normal users overtook themunity. Now, it was the biggest forum for LIL. The odd thing was it started as amunity for aspiring pros. They had high expectations for any yers or streamers that yed?LIL. ''There''s nothing about me yet.'' From a nce, he couldn''t find any posts about him. It was understandable because other than Battle31, how many users would talk about Almond? Almond decided to search for his name. There were likely some users from Battle31 who also posted here. ''As expected...'' There were a couple of posts about him since yesterday, but they were all negative. [I heard there''s some nobody named Almonding to y LIL] [He might''ve been decent in Battle Large... but will he survive in this jungle? Keke...] [LOL I bet he will reach Gold, get the victorious skin, and run away.] [His skill is obvious from him not even reaching Challenger in Battle Large and fleeing to this game.] [He and Bubblegum ying as a duo would be something else.] It was not nice. "So this is?LIL." He knew from the stories that LIL was a challenging game, but seeing it firsthand made his eyes hurt. ''Well, who cares? I''m going to y it anyways.'' Chiiik¡ª? Sang-Hyeon went inside the capsule machine. "Are you going to y LIL?" He heard Ju-Hyeok from behind him. "Yeah. I have to y?LIL today." "Then I should start analyzing. We''re going to lose a lot of viewers, so I need to bring that number back up." Ju-Hyeok sat in front of theputer and added, "Hey. Honestly, I''m a bit nervous." "Why are you nervous?" "I hear a lot of streamers go downhill after changing games. I even dreamt of you going downhill today." "Don''t say anything like that. Besides, it was a good reaction, right?" "We don''t know what will happen once we actually start." "... I guess." Anything could happen in this industry. "What can we do? We just have to face it head-on." "Yeah." Sang-Hyeon gave a thumbs-up and went inside the capsule. King. [Full dive system activated.] Several starry lights approached Almond as he entered the virtual world. Inside the virtual world were several icons floating around him. Out of these icons, he clicked on a program he previously downloaded. [LIFE IS LEGEND!] The words, LIFE IS LEGEND!, popped up and the game booted. If things went ordingly, the first thing he''d be greeted with would be the tutorial. Since LIL was a challenging game, it initially forced the users to y through the tutorial. The tutorial would take some time toplete. ''Should I... stream?'' Would people like watching the tutorial? It could be frustrating for them to watch. Almond thought for a moment, ''Let''s turn it on.'' He didn''t think about it for long. YouTube required a more refined video, but the genuine experience was what mattered for streaming. No matter how good a yer was at a video game, making mistakes and taking time to learn new games was inevitable. Being able to watch all that process was the joy of streams. Besides, the viewers who came to watch Almond were here for him as a person despite him ying a new game. For them, it was good to extend the stream time. [Do you want to start streaming?] Almond turned on the streaming feature. He usually turned on his stream right away, but there was an additional thing he had to do. [Tag Change] He had to change his tag for the stream. [Battle Large -> Life Is Legend] It felt like a new beginning. [Stream Title: A beginner with no experience, Almond''s LIL tutorial] [The stream is starting!] *** Chiik. A red cigarette lit up. The smoke went up towards the sky, lit by the sunset. It went up and up as if it wanted to join the clouds, but eventually faded away. "Phew." It felt good, letting the smoke out from the body. Satisfied with the product, the girl nced at the cigar between her fingers. It was imported from Cuba and worth the wait. The feeling of her head spinning and the guilt of smoking came, but it was worth it. "Ma''am, what''s the point of smoking that as soon as youe out of the hospital?" "... Ah, you''re ruining it." The girl frowned and red at the butler. "It''s not like I smoke it every day." "Kumph..." She took out a hairband from her purse and raised her messy hair. ''Since I tidied up my hair, I''ll finish smoking.'' She inhaled another deep breath of the cigar. The smoke came out again. Chiiik... The ashes fell from the bud of the cigar as it burnt out. The girl put the ashes in the ashtray beside her. Maybe it was because of her hair color. The ashes resembled her. The fact that it burnt away¡­ was also just like her. The girl asked as she stared at the ashes, "When is my next diagnosis?" "Ah, I booked it for next week." "Alright, I hope the results are good." Despite what she said, there was no hope in her voice. "It''ll be good. You''ll be back at the top as if there was never an absence." Those words didn''tfort her. "I''m going to finish this here. Go wait in the car." "Yes, ma''am." The butler walked away, and the girl picked up her phone with her free hand. ''He said he''s going to y LIL, right?'' Almond was streaming and ying the tutorial. How would he do? Would he be talented in LIL as well? ''It won''t be easy.'' She rated Almond highly, but?LIL was a question mark. This game was different from all the other games he had been ying. The game started. Chiik... The cigar burnt even quicker as she watched him through the smoke. ¡°Wow... the scenery is lovely,¡± Almond was curiously looking around with a bewildered expression. Chapter 121: Tutorial (1) [Bonus Image]

    Chapter 121: Tutorial (1) [Bonus Image]

    The stream began and viewers started gathering. ''I wonder how many will show up.'' In the previous stream, there were over 10,000 viewers. It peaked at 15,000 during his interview with Yu Ha-Yeon. ''It''s unfair topare it to that.'' There was a boom in viewers because of the YouTube videos uploaded on that day. They weren''t the usual fans who came to watch Almond. From Ju-Hyeok''s calctions, Almond had around 7000-8000 fans. Other than that, the viewers who came on and off were usually tuning in for special events such as interviews. These viewers had the potential to be Almond''s fans, but were equally likely to grow disinterested. As a result, they had to set their expectations to around 7000-8000 viewers. Ju-Hyeok had to consider how many would stay when they transitioned to LIL. Even though they were fans of Almond, they started by watching him y Battle Large. ''Around half of them probably?'' He predicted around half the viewers would stop watching him, meaning he could start ying with 4000 viewers. ''What can you do?'' There wasn''t anything they could do. LIL and Battle Large were such different games that he needed to focus on the stream¡¯s growth. They would eventually get back up. After the intro was over, the viewer count showed up. [Current Viewers: 6.3k] Almond was relieved after seeing the chat. ''Okay, if it''s this much...'' It wasn¡¯t bad. It was 2300 more than 4000. There were probably viewers who came in without reading the title as well. Tomorrow, there would be more. ... Was what Almond kept telling himself. ''How could this be?'' He was unexpectedly getting affected by the viewer count. No matter how much he told himself that it didn''t shrink much, he couldn''t shake off the fact that he only had 6000 viewers. ''Are you crazy? Pay attention.'' He started shaking his head to focus and read the chat. ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª Are you really ying LIL? ¡ª Aren''t you going to y Battle Large? ¡ª Noooo ¡ª You''re going to stop ying Battle Large!? You''re betraying us!? ¡ª AlHahahaha! ¡ª Hi, Almond! ¡ª Wow, he''s really ying LIL? ¡ª He already has LIL on. "Yes. As the title says, I''m going to y LIL today." ¡ª Noooo ¡ª Battle Large... ¡ª Ahh... ¡ª Bye bye Battle Large¡­ [GoddessTears has donated 10,000 won!] [Today''s my birthday! B-But it''s not like I''m asking you to y Kingdom Age...] "GoddessTears, happy birthday! Kingdom Age..." ¡ª Happy birthday! ¡ª Wow! HBD! ¡ª GoddessTears HBD! ¡ª Kingdom Age what? Say it! ¡ª He can''t continue... ¡ª The end is a given¡­ [Vegeta has donated 10,000 won!] [Are you going to quit Battle Large for good?] "Thank you, Vegeta. Unless something speciales up, I won''t y it for a while. I want to try ying LIL." He was being honest. Almond wanted to move on from realistic video games to fantasy-based games. He wanted to experience the superhuman abilities that were impossible in real life. Of course, there was arge fanbase that was disappointed. ¡ª Noooo ¡ª Why are you ying that bad game! y Battle Large! ¡ª Battle Large is much more well-made... ¡ª Hey! If we''re talking about that, Kingdom Age is the best! [KAFCEO has donated 1000 won.] [Hmph. Now can you rte to how I felt when he moved on from Kingdom Age?] [RubySword has donated 3000 won.] [Almond, good luck in LIL!] "Thank you RubySword for the words of encouragement! Thank you, KAFCEO. I''m not done with Kingdom Age." ¡ª Just say you''re done with it! ¡ª Then y it! ¡ª Kingdom Age isn''t your side girl. ¡ª Rosenita will remember this. ¡ª You''re saying that while you have the LIL tutorial on... "I''m serious..." Almondughed and scratched his head. "Well, anyway. Should I start with the tutorial? I have to pick a champion..." ¡®Hm?¡¯ Almond panicked once more after checking the viewer count. He had to pick a champion in the champion selection, but that was skipped. Almond was thrown straight onto the battlefield. Currently, he was a normal human without control over a champion. "Huh? How do I pick Sana?" ¡ª LOL! This noob... ¡ª The scent of a noob! It''s beautiful! ¡ª Wow, that''s hrious. How does he not know? ¡ª So adorable how he researched Sana beforehand. ¡ª So you were gonna y Sana. Well too bad! You''re stuck with the default! ¡ª Sana is a little iffy. Just start with a tier 1 champion. Now that he thought about it, he had to pay in-game currency to buy champions. It was unavable in the tutorial. He was only given three choices. Chak! [Warrior] [Archer] [Priest] The default sses showed up in front of him. [Pick a card you desire.] "Ah... So this is how progression works?" Most yers hesitated here, but it was a no-brainer for Almond. [Job ss - Archer] After the archer card glowed, it transformed into a new card. [Raina: The Cold-Blooded Evil Archer] Raina was the archer champion Almond could use in the tutorial. ¡ª Let''s go, Raina! ¡ª Ah, Raina?! Almond''s screwed. ¡ª Almond''s going to learn for sure. ¡ª Worse than Sana LOL ¡ª Isn''t Raina tier 4?? ¡ª Almond''s luck... ¡ª Raina noona! ¡ª Noona, kill everyone! Kill Almond too! So he can go back to Battle Large! ¡ª Teach him a lesson, Raina! Judging from the chat, it seemed like he could get champions other than Raina. Raina was an archer who was two tiers below Sana. What did they mean by getting taught a lesson though? Was it because she was a terrible champion to use? "What do you guys mean I''m going to get taught a lesson¡ª" [Champion Raina''s legend is dwelling inside your body.] m! "Huh?!" Arge thud rang from within his body. Was it a special effect? Almond panicked. For a moment, it was so realistic that he wasn''t sure if the effect was in-game or in real life. Woog! Both of his hands glowed bright blue. It started to glow brighter and brighter until a light shot up straight into the sky. Then, something fell into Almond''s hands. It was a bow dimly lit with blue lights. Almond stared at the bow, hypnotized by it. ''Wow...'' . Almond stared at the bow like a child and the viewers enjoyed the scene. ¡ª LOL Is this the first time he''s ying a game like this? ¡ª The newbie is so cute! ¡ª LOL The game didn''t even start yet ¡ª The newbie smell is so good! ¡ª Warning! It''ll get stinky soon! [NewbieHunter has donated 10,000 won!] [Oh yeah... I haven''t smelled this in a long time...] "Ah, NewbieHunter. Thank you. Was I too obvious?" ¡ª Yeah ¡ª Yes! Make it more obvious! ¡ª Making fun of Almond is so adorable! Almond was impressed too easily. He had seen it multiple times in streams, but actually ying it was a different sensation. Suddenly¡­ [Hey, Summoner, what are you doing?] He heard a voice in his head. "!?" After his shock passed, he realized the champion''s voice was in his head. It was Raina. ¡ª LOL He''s shocked again! ¡ª Is today just a montage of him getting surprised? ¡ª Someone make a montage of this. ¡®What''s that voice¡­¡¯ [Why are you standing there like an idiot? Go forward.] In LIL, the champion narrated what was going on in the game. [This summoner is quite frustrating. Are they an idiot?] They cursed at the yers as well. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª That''s it! ¡ª That''s it! Teach him a lesson, Raina! ¡ª The sexy voice! I''m melting... ¡ª Noona, punish him more! Curse him! "H-Hmph. This champion is a little mean. I must''ve taken up too much time. I''ll move forward for now." Almond picked up the bow and followed the path in front of him. He couldn''t see any enemies yet, but soldiers were walking alongside him. Chul-kuk. Chul-kuk. They faced Almond and greeted him. "Good morning, Summoner!" "Hello!" "I''m going to have dinner in hell today!" The soldiers ran ahead with determined voices. After following them, he started to see the enemies. ''Are they there?'' To be exact, he could see the enemy turret. Beneath the turret were the enemy soldiers running towards them. They were identical to the allied minions, even their faces, except their outfits were in a different color. It was an eerie sight. As soon as the soldiers made eye contact, they started fighting with swords. "Dieee!" "These damned bastards!" Kang! Kaaang! Therge swords shaped like blunt weapons mmed against armor. As the armor started to get damaged, more soldiers came from behind. "Aim!" the soldier leading the army shouted. Then, the soldiers lined up and approached with a step. These soldiers were all carrying bows. "Aim!" The same thing was heard from the enemy lines as well. They acted the same way as if they were a mirror. "Fiiire!" Swoosh! Swoosh! The team of archers fired their arrows. All the arrows perfectlynded on the soldiers in the front lines. The soldiers fell, looking like hedgehogs with arrows sticking out of them. The courageous ally soldiers fell as well. [Don''t just stand there like an idiot and help the soldiers, will you? Pull your bowstring.] Raina spoke to him while he dumbfoundedly stared at the battle scene. Almond finally readied his bow. Piiing... The bowstring made from magic made a strange noise like an instrument as it was pulled. ''How strange.'' Thanks to the magic, he couldn''t feel the bow''s weight when he pulled the string. For normal people, this was morefortable. However, this felt awkward for Almond. Regardless, he needed to get familiar with this feeling. [How is it? It''s a special bow called Demian. As long as it has magic, even an olddy walking by can pull it. Of course, it only reacts to my magic. Try pulling it as much as you can.] Almond listened to her and pulled it as far as he could. Since he could stand still and shoot, he readied himself in a shooting position. He extended his waist, leveled his arm, and pulled on the bowstring with minimal movement. [Anyway, do you even know how to use a bow... Huh?] Creak¡­? As the blue string stretched, it rested on Almond''s lips. Just then, a light blue mana arrow appeared. Raina seemed impressed. [Wow, you made an arrow right away? Maybe you''re someone of use after all?] ¡ª Is she letting him go already? ¡ª S-She''s usually not like this... ¡ª Who''s this bright-voiceddy? ¡ª Damn... ¡ª Complimenting him just on his form... ¡ª I think it''s his looks¡­ The viewers were upset to see Raina, notorious for being mean, act nice. Raina changed her tone as if she read their minds. [Hm. No. There''s no way a first-time summoner can do that. He''s probably an idiot who''s just showy.] ¡ª Raina''s denying reality LOL ¡ª I knew it! ¡ª This is it. ¡ª Kya! So satisfying! This is Raina! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Suddenly an idiot LOL ¡ª This is Raina. [Well, your form isn¡¯t bad, but let''s see how well yound them! Take a shot at where I point at.] A blue target appeared on top of the enemy soldier. Almond released his shot without a hint of hesitation. Even Raina didn¡¯t notice his infamous phantom release. There was no need to position and aim. It was like an animal''s instinct. Once everyone returned to reality, the arrow was already flying and perfectlynded on the center of the target. Pang! The target made a noise and turned to smoke. [Huh¡­?] It was a perfect bullseye and felt like watching a perfect circle being drawn, a perfect shot. Raina was silent in disbelief. ¡ª LOL Raina, are you bugged out? ¡ª It''s probably because she''s seeing this first-timer shoot so well. ¡ª Archer Almond... you''re crazy here too! ¡ª Raina: How the frick did you do that! After a moment¡­ [... You¡¯re quite lucky.] She determined that it was all luck. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Lucky you! ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª LOOOL After seeing Raina in denial, the chat was filled withughter. Raina spoke up, sounding like she was suppressing her feelings. [Wipe that smug face, Summoner. It''s the real thing from now on. Here, try hitting this.] "When did I..." Bzzzt! Did Raina want to prove a point? She ignored Almond and increased the number of targets. Every soldier, including the soldiers far away, had a target above their heads. The targets weren''t even all at their heads. Some of the targets were on their waists or legs. One had targets on both arms. He could feel Raina smiling behind him. As usual, Almond stood still and pulled his bowstring. Chapter 122: Tutorial (2)

    Chapter 122: Tutorial (2)

    Almond was suddenly faced with multiple targets due to Raina throwing a fit. ¡ª Wait, what is this? ¡ª This is a tutorial¡­? ¡ª W-What the fuck? Is this an Almond-style tutorial? ¡ª A special treatment! The progression for the tutorial was different from usual. Normally, an easy target appeared for the yer to get used to hitting. However, it seemed like Raina was trying to teach Almond a lesson. Raina was like a bully at work, giving impossible tasks. It was the same technique she used as a soldier. "Huff," Almond simply took a light breath to ready his shots. Instead of panicking as Raina intended, he was calm. If anything, her shouting bothered him. The multiple targets didn''t faze him though. Since Almond didn''t know the original difficulty of the tutorial, he wasn''t surprised by it and didn¡¯t find it difficult. He readied his bow and shot as he normally would. Pang! ¡ª ?! ¡ª He''s shooting already? ¡ª Kya! ¡ª He doesn''t even aim before shooting. He simply and lightly fired the arrow as he always did. Itnded softly and perfectly on the target. Thwack! In the center of the light blue target. Pung! As the targets blew up, additional damage was inflicted and the soldier''s head burst. It seemed like they were low on HP in the first ce. [Maybe it wasn''t all luck? But you need to hit all the targets. These targets have a time limit... Hm?] Right after that, the other targets behind the soldiers were hit. Pung! As the bonus damage was inflicted, the soldier''s HP was cut in half. "Urk!" While the soldier was screaming, another arrow flew and hit the target in the neck. Pung! A blue light glowed and made a loud noise. [Right. If you hit three targets in a row... the magic damage gets stronger and inflicts more damage...] Raina was exining her passive, Mana Exposure. Every time the champion hit a target, the magic damage on the arrow increased. Every three hits, the mana exploded and inflicted arge amount of damage. However, it sounded like she was forcibly exining it because she had to. Pung! Another soldier''s head exploded. Again, the blue target was hit by another arrow. The fourth target was already hit. [Sigh¡­? F-Four... hmm. Very lucky? From the fourth shot, the damage doesn''t increase as much... but the spirit level increases...] Pung! Pung! The damage was significant enough to one-shot the soldiers. The soldiers hit on the arm burnt away from the mana and those struck at the abdomen blew up. Almond kept shooting. He couldn''t hear a word from Raina because he was focused on shooting. His bow and the targets were the only things that existed in the world. [What the spirit level is... it brings me, the legendary figure, into the battlefield...] Pung! Pung!! The targets blew up every time he took a shot. He felt like he was in a fighting game that he yed as a child. Even though he was shooting arrows, every shot felt like it packed a punch. Enriched with this sensation, Almond kept shooting. Since he didn''t have to reach for an arrow to shoot, his shots were unbelievably quick. Pubububung! This was the biggest difference between?Battle Large and LIL. It was unrealistic. He had superhuman strength. Almond was experiencing the difference at its peak. [If my spirit level fills up... you can use more power... and...] Swoosh! Suddenly, six shots were fired at once. After that, more continued to follow. Multiple targets made a satisfying noise as they blew up. Pubububung! Thirty targets were now reduced to below ten. ''Nine more.'' He could count exactly how many targets remained. Almond''s bow suddenly glowed blue. Pubububung! Five targets suddenly disappeared. ''Four more.'' Four targets remained. Creak¡­? Did he just pull the bowstring? Before this train of thought could finish¡­ Pang!! The next four targets were gone in a blink. They disappeared almost simultaneously. To the naked eye, it was indistinguishable. [And I''ll... help you fight together...] Right around then, Raina''s exnation finished. [... How can this be?] In the end, Raina couldn''t help but disy her awe. ¡ª How can this be? ¡ª How can this be? ¡ª LOL ¡ª Wait, Raina¡­ you''re giving up? ¡ª She''s throwing in the towel! ¡ª Noooo Raina! ¡ª Wow, as expected of Almond. The viewers rejoiced at this rare sight. Almond finally nced at the chat. ''Oh? It''s over?'' He realized that Raina stopped exining. ''Is this the end of the tutorial?'' It ended with Almond not learning much. He heard Raina exining, but nothing went into his head. He was like a student who finished listening to a lecture, but learned nothing. "Uh, Raina¡­ I didn''t hear anything you said. Can you say it again?" ¡ª LOL ¡ª This guy wasn''t listening at all?! ¡ª ??? Why listen to Raina! Just dodge and hit everything! ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Do you think she will? LOL ¡ª The answer: stfu. ¡ª That won''t work on Raina... ¡ª Almond can''t pay attention haha For some reason, he thought he could hear Raina grinding her teeth. Just when he was about to search for a guide alone, Raina told him she would exin again. [... It''s been a while since I''ve had a useful summoner like you. I''ll exin one more time. Just this once.] ¡ª ??? ¡ª Is this a bug? ¡ª ?????? ¡ª Raina?! What happened to my Raina?! ¡ª It must be a bug. Report him! ¡ª Can Raina see faces? Damn... ¡ª Almond''s good looks do it again¡­ [The spirit is...] *** The ultimate was a skill that allowed the champions to be summoned to the battlefield once the spirit level was filled up. It was like a god descending. A descended champion had destructive power that went beyond a normal summoner. Therefore, the timing of this ultimate yed a major factor in victory. The criteria to fill up one¡¯s spirit level were different for every champion. "Ah, so you''re saying the quicker I hit my targets, the quicker I can stack up my spirit level, right?" [That''s right. You can use the ultimate skill if you stack up a hundred stacks.] The way to activate Raina, The Cold-Blooded Evil Archer''s ultimate, was to hit the targets that appeared four times in a row. The third shot increased the summoner''s damage. Starting from the fourth shot, every target hit raised a stack called the "Pride of an Archer". [Pride of an Archer x 27] Almond currently had 27 stacks collected. He earned it by hitting all the previous targets. The stacks weren''t because he hit 27 targets, but because he hit 30 targets in a row. He needed to hit 4 shots in a row to start stacking. It was a difficult task and fitted the name, pride of an archer. He was curious. Did he have to repeat this a hundred times to get a hundred stacks? Wasn''t that too difficult? Raina answered him. [A normal soldier is one stack, rare monsters are five stacks, epic monsters, and other summoners are ten stacks.] Thankfully, the stack rose in increments higher than one. If an enemy summoner was hit four times in a row, the stack rose by ten stacks. In theory, a thirteen-hitbo was enough to stack up the ultimate. This meant that to have Raina be viable, he needed to target only summoners to continuously use her ultimate. She was a difficult champion to use. [Alright, try to get stacks and use the ultimate.] After Raina''s exnation was over, his stacks reset. [Pride of an Archer x 0] Someone suddenly appeared before him as if on standby. m! The man wasrger than a normal soldier. He glowed with a head made of fire. It was clearly another summoner. "Are you my target?" The man shouting confidently was... [Beginner Bot] [Ignite - The Wildfire] It was a practice bot. "What the?! Why''s a beginner bot so cocky?" ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahaha that''s true ¡ª Don''t hate on the bots! ¡ª Almond looks so confused haha The viewersughed at Almond''s pure reaction. However, the beginner bot Ignite wasn''t so kind. . "You''re too cocky!" re! Ignite ran toward him with a body on fire. "Die!" The other soldiers were pumped up by Ignite and charged with him. This was one of the abilities the summoner had in battle. It was simr to soldiers being pumped up and charging forward while following theirmander. However¡ª Above Ignite''s body, blue targets appeared. Almond pulled his bowstring. Up to this point, it was easy to see what was happening, but it wasn''t easy after that. The only thing they could see was¡­ the blue light from the bow and a meteor shower raining down in the darkness. It was consecutive shots of mana arrows that seemed like fireworks. All the arrows stuck onto Ignite as if they were mas. Pubububung!! Countless arrows became stuck on him. Bright thorns pierced all over his ming body. There were countless arrows. As the intense mana covered Ignite''s body¡­ Pung! There was an explosion. The passive of hitting three arrows in a row activated, resulting in the mana arrows blowing up. Boom!! After a couple more explosions, blue smoke covered the area. Swoosh... As the smoke cleared, a ck figure was losing its bnce. It was¡­ "W-What the..." Thud. Ignite fell and died. ¡ª ??? ¡ª I mean, it''s a beginner bot and all, but how can it die this quickly? ¡ª What the? Are those itsst words? ¡ª Insane ¡ª Did he just say what the? ¡ª Wait, is it dead? ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Even Ignite can''t believe it¡­? Almond thought as he looked at Ignite''s me path, ''Wow, this game is fun.'' *** [N... No way.] Raina couldn''t hide her surprise anymore. What did she just witness? "Can I use my ultimate now? But how do I do it?" However, the summoner only wanted to move on. [Huh? No, you can''t. You need to get 100 stacks to... huh?] [Pride of an Archer x 120] He already had 100 stacks, plus an extra 20. [All those shotsnded on the target¡­?] Raina finally realized all his shots weren''t just for damage, but aimed at the target. Every single shot¡­ ¡ª Huh?! 120 stacks?! ¡ª I''m going crazy!! ¡ª What is this? I''m going out for lunch today. ¡ª Did they all hit the target??? ¡ª Almond, you''re insane! Almond, you''re insane! ¡ª Wow, that''s satisfying. Yeah, this is Almond! ¡ª Mom, I''m scared I''m going to turn into Ignite! Raina moved on to the next stage. [Alright... I''ll teach you how to use the ultimate.] Chapter 123: Tutorial (3)

    Chapter 123: Tutorial (3)

    The meteor shower created by the blue arrows reflected off of Ju-Hyeok''s frameless sses. Around fifteen arrows suddenly rained from the sky, all hitting their targets. Even Ju-Hyeok, who always watched Almond''s stream, couldn''t keep his mouth closed. It was a jaw-dropping performance. "... Wow." The chat went wild. [Alright... I''ll tell you how to use the ultimate.] Raina, who seemed reluctant at first, started exining quickly to Almond. ''I think I built some rapport with her.'' LIL wasn''t like any other MOBA game. There were different genres mixed with it. One of the game''s features was the ability to build rapport and friendships with the champions. Even if summoners fought with the same skill, the level of rapport they built affected the fight. Building rapport was simr to how well a summoner worked with the champion. In that case, it was a good sign that Raina was starting to act more friendly with Almond. ¡ª Wow, she already looks close to Almond. ¡ª I''ve nevere this far with Raina... but he does it in the tutorial?! ¡ª Hmph! I''m not jealous because she''s low tier! ¡ª If it''s like this in the tutorial, what will happenter?! The viewers were thinking the same thing as Ju-Hyeok. Everyone was witnessing Almond''s incredible skills firsthand just from the tutorial. "He''s showing them from just the tutorial. Good." Almond''s first LIL stream was going to leave an impactful impression. [Current Viewers: 7.5k] The number of viewers had already increased by a thousand people. p! p! Ju-Hyeok pped and cheered. "Alright. Let''s hit 10,000 again." They could do it. No, they had to do it. After transitioning games, they had to recover the number of viewers within the week. Otherwise, it''d be a failure. ''What can I do...'' Ju-Hyeok nced at the statistics program on his right screen. He grabbed his pen and started jotting down the important data. He needed to form a strategy based on what kind of viewers were watching and what other streams they watched. That was Ju-Hyeok''s job. *** [Not just the ultimate, but every other active skill has a Link Movement...] While Raina was exining, Sang-Hyeon also took notice of the viewer count. ''7500... It''s recovering. Or are they new viewers?'' He went from 6000 to 7000. Considering it was just the tutorial, the rise wasn¡¯t bad. However, he couldn''t tell if they were his previous?Battle Large viewers or new viewers watching him y LIL. He left those questions for Ju-Hyeok to figure out with the data. [Summoner, are you listening?] Almond was startled. "Ah, yes. Of course, the linked movement..." [Sigh. I''m not going to exin this twice, okay!?] "Yes!" This wasn''t good. Almond was both disappointed and surprised with himself. The viewer count was affecting him. It was unexpected. ''Why am I like this?'' Before he knew it, he was already acting like a streamer. For him, the viewers were an important existence to him. As a result, he became swayed by the numbers. He couldn''t shake it off easily despite knowing the number of viewers would inevitably decrease. Almond started shaking his head to gain focus again. ''Let''s pay attention. How will I win the match if I keep my eyes on the scoreboard instead of the ball?'' He recalled what his senior, who yed basketball, once said. Almond''s top priority right now was to give his viewers the best video game performance through his stream. That was the only thing he could do right now. If he focused on doing that, his viewers would return just like how the score would change if he had his eyes on the ball. [... Alright? Okay, try it out.] "...?" Damn, he let it slip by again. [... Hey!] *** Ever since childhood, Almond had no talent for listening to other people. In his defense, he had a knack for listening and letting it out the other ear. This talent was helpful for archery. During the act, nothing got to his head except the shooting itself. Unfortunately, this talent was holding him back with Raina. [... Hey!]? Raina couldn''t help but shout. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Raina''s shouting! ¡ª The special package ¡ª I like it! Raina''s voice was always calm to fit the image of a champion. However, she just sounded like an angry woman now. [Are you ignoring me? Or are you deaf?!] "I-It''s not that..." ¡ª LOL ¡ª Almond''s in trouble! ¡ª Almond... you''re the same as me. Can''t pay attention in ss. ¡ª I can tell what you were like in school, boss. ¡ª Geniuses can''t pay attention once they''re in their own world. The viewersughed at the sight of Almond getting scolded. Almond looked like a human for once. These little hups made watching streams worth it, so it wasn''t a bad oue. [Sigh... I can''t do this.] "T-Then should we stop here? We can do it next time." Almond sounded genuine. He thought turning the game off and on would reset her mood since Raina was a video game character. ¡ª Is this guy really trying to end the stream here?! ¡ª Hey!! At least beat the tutorial!! ¡ª What the! Are you insane? ¡ª Raina''s going to be so pissed! ¡ª Boss! This is all autosaved! The viewers panicked because Almond was notorious for ending streams out of nowhere. They were also worried Raina would go on a rampage because she hated giving up. However, everyone was surprised by what happened next. [W-What!?] Raina asked in surprise. [W-What are you talking about? Why are you stopping?] "Because I can''t do it..." [T-That''s... alright. This is thest time, okay? Listen carefully.] Raina continued teaching Almond. She unintentionally filled the chat with question marks. ¡ª ????? ¡ª ??? ¡ª Raina...? ¡ª Breaking News: Raina can now see faces... ¡ª B-But to me... ¡ª What''s going on? It seemed like Raina didn''t want to lose Almond as a summoner. *** Raina finished her ultimate''s exnation once more. [I''m only specially exining again because it''s hard toe by a summoner like you, okay? Now, try it again.] The exnation wasn''t anything special, but Almond''s ability to focus was incredible. ''So if I do a certain action, it activates.'' Link Movement. Activating skills in full-dive gaming was inefficient because the systemcked a keyboard. Setting up a virtual keyboard to activate skills took too long. There was also another method, which was to think about the skill to activate it. This was the mostmonly used feature in games such as Kingdom Age. However, for LIL, the skills activated from the mind were unreliable because the yer''s thoughts were unpredictable in the chaos of battle. It worked in Kingdom Age because that was a singleyer game, but it was difficult to pull off for LIL, a multiyer fighting game. The solution?LIL found was Link Movement, which was when a certain action was initiated to activate the skill. Link Movement was a ss of precise movements that couldn''t be done identally, but were efficient. It mainly used finger movements. ''So the edge of my hand, with my middle finger and thumb...'' For Raina, the ultimate activated if the yer made an X with their right thumb and left middle finger. ''Like this?'' As soon as Almond made the action¡­ SLAM! A loud noise echoed. [Ultimate - Evil Archer] A bloody text appeared before him. The letters looked sticky and creepy. [I am going to activate the contract we made with blood.] Unlike Raina''s friendly voice from earlier, an eerie voice came out. Crackle! Red and sticky blood shed all over the area. It looked likeva made out of blood. From theva emerged a figure. The white skin, blue cape, and blonde hair contrasted greatly with the darkva around the figure. "You have finally summoned me, Summoner." Looking over his shoulder, Almond saw his face reflected in the wall while looking up. After meeting eyes with him, Raina''s crimson lips formed a smile. ¡ª Rainaaaaa! ¡ª Kya, Raina''s ultimate is always something else. ¡ª This is the best game! ¡ª Shiet! ¡ª Skill: kill everyone with your beauty, activate! After Raina turned around, she pulled on her bowstring. Creak¡­ She made a perfect draw pose as her delicate blue cloth and blonde hair waved. Her pose looked like a carefully chiseled statue shining beautifully. On top, a blue mana aura enveloped her. Woong¡­! The air around her started trembling as the bow gathered mana. The blue light started gathering, creating sparks. Bzzzt...! It was pure energy being condensed. The power was now in the hands of Raina. Her delicate, white hands finally released it. Tang! The collected energy was released like a horse back into the wild. Kwaaaaaa!!! It enveloped everything in its path with a white light. Almond, the summoner, shut his eyes from the energy¡¯s bright light. "..." Rumble... Thend still shook, unable to fully absorb the impact. ''... Wow.'' As the smoke cleared, the enemy turret''s HP was nearly depleted. There were no signs of enemy archers or soldiers near the area. They were all burnt away by the beaming light of energy. "This is my ultimate. As soon as I''m summoned, it activates." Gulp. Almond felt it as soon as he saw Raina''s ultimate ability. ''This is it.'' He even thought Raina was more befitting of the bow than him. After checking Almond''s expression, Raina formed a smile. It was a genuine smile. "I''m not done teaching yet, but I think you can go into a real battle now, Summoner." "Did I learn all the skills?" "No, not yet. But it''s too much to exin everything one by one. You learn as you get beat, right?" She smirked with a smile as if tofort him. After that, Raina disappeared and the tutorial was finished. ¡ª Noona, don''t gooo! ¡ª Noona, you''re killing me! ¡ª Noona, kill us all! ¡ª She''s so pretty... ¡ª For real. This is why you y Raina! [The tutorial is over!] [Try ying a real match!] *** Almond was summoned into the lobby where he could start queueing up. A text appeared before him. [Choose your summoner name.] A nickname. Almond was going to choose Almond, but it was already taken. [This nickname is already in use.] ¡ª LOL! Identity theft. ¡ª Almond is a rare nickname. ¡ª How''s Nuts? He tried Nuts, but it was taken as well. ''Wow, this is hard.'' He could tell right away how many more people yed this game than Battle Large. "Hmm... Guess I have no choice. I''ll go with something a lot of people don''t know about." [Lazy Soldier] Almond decided to name himself the mobile video game he would be a model for. [Summoner name has been set to Lazy Soldier.] "Oh, it worked." Thankfully, the name was avable. It was like a sign for him to advertise the game. ¡ª This guy''s crazy... ¡ª You tricked me! This is an ad! ¡ª Thinking about an ad now... ¡ª Were you in marketing? ¡ª What is this? ¡ª This guy LOL ¡ª AD King Almond started queuing up right away. [Summoner level is too low for ranked gamey.] He couldn''t y ranked yet. ¡ª Bye, newbie! ¡ª Where are you trying to go! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Almond can''t even y ranked¡­ "Ah... right. My level''s too low." Almond scratched his head. ''I guess I''d just hold them back.'' It was unfair to y ranked since he only knew how to use one champion. If Raina was banned in the champion selection, he wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything. His teammates would only be frustrated by him. "Hmm. Then let''s y a simple game with normals." He found a normal game in five seconds. Shiiiik! As the scenery around him changed, he found himself in a magical environment. There were four other summoners with him. As soon as Almond entered, he could tell what kind of game it was. "Ah, fuck. He¡¯s Level 1?" Chapter 124: Normal Match (1)

    Chapter 124: Normal Match (1)

    There was a new post on LIL''s biggestmunity, LIL Pro. [Beginner archer Almond''s Raina tutorial.jpg] It wasn''t even a gif, just a screenshot. However, it disyed the situation well enough. In the screenshot were the many targets that Raina put up. ¡ª How many targets is that? ¡ª Is that a bug? ¡ª Big pro~ ¡ª Big pro! ¡ª Is that really the tutorial? ©¸ Judging from the soldier minions outfit, it looks like the tutorial.? ¡ª Are there a lot of targets to train him? Isn''t there supposed to be a time limit? ©¸ It''s probably different depending on how close you are to the champion. ©¸ To have that many targets, you''d need to reach almost maximum rapport. ¡ª Ah, it''s Almond. Is this the guy? That beat JeonJaPa? ©¸ STFU, what do you mean by he beat him!? ©¸ VNS means nothing. It''s like saying holding your breath longer is swimming better. ©¸ I heard he beat his diamond record too. ©¸ STFU, that''s because JeonJaPa didn''t take it seriously. ©¸ Suck-up! Suck-up! Suck-up! All thements thought it was interesting as well. Of course, it eventually turned into a fight with the JeonJaPa fandom like usual, but the results were good regardless. [Big 195] [Lil 6] The post made it to the big pro section of the website and received 195 bigs. Ju-Hyeok was confused by the new terminology. "Big¡­? Lil?" The lil used in this context was ng for the word little. Little was a thumbs down, whereas big was a thumbs up. Any posts that received many bigs from users were bumped up to the big pro section, which was the trending posts. "It''splicated." Every gamingmunity had its own terminology and definitions, which made it difficult to keep up with. "Well, as long as we made it to the big pro section." All in all, Ju-Hyeok''s n was a sess. [They''re talking about Almond in LIL Pro.] The one who made the post reach big pro was Ju-Hyeok himself. He announced it to Battle31 and KAF, where most of Almond''s fans were when he discovered the post mentioning Almond. Afterwards, Almond''s fans swarmed in and gave the post bigs, which allowed it to reach the big pro category. "Alright, they''re still there." Ju-Hyeok smiled at the fact Almond''s fanbase was still active. Someone could ask, ¡®Was this fraud? This isn''t fair!¡¯ But that didn''t matter. The world ofmunity forums was like a jungle, and Ju-Hyeok knew that. It was survival of the fittest. The post that stayed alive became a hot topic! Meanwhile, Almond was thrown into a different type of jungle. *** "Ah, fuck. He''s Level 1?" It was the first thing he heard as soon as he entered the waiting lobby. An ally wasining because of his low level. ''Wow.'' He expected the start to be hostile. ¡ª Oh shit ¡ª Look at his pose. Is he Darth Vader? ¡ª Bro, it''s a normal match... ¡ª Shut your mouth... ¡ª Everybody shout! Stop! The yer beside him added, "Yeah, fuck. How unlucky." "Sigh. I guess it''s normal, but what kind of shitty queue is this?" In LIL, the yers couldn''t see each other''s faces. Only the user could look at themselves, whereas the others could only see the champions they chose to y as. Even if they knew who Almond was, they couldn''t recognize him because his current nickname was Lazy Soldier. "Hey, you! Lazy Soldier or whatever, just go support." Almond was surprised by the tone of their voice. He was so shocked that he didn''t even have time to feel insulted. ''So, is this LIL?'' It was a given to start by cursing andmanding others in this game. The surprising thing was that this was considered good manners. As they say,?¡®When in Rome, do as the Romans do.¡¯ Almond had no choice but to follow these rules. He had to say something strong in response... ¡®Sang-Hyeon! You''re too nice for a guy who ys sports, huh? You can be nice, but not during the game! Alright, repeat after me, ____! ___!¡¯ Sang-Hyeon never had the opportunity to take his ser yer senior''s advice since he stopped being an athlete. Now that he thought about it, LIL was simr to a team game like ser. Sang-Hyeon decided to try using the advice after ten years. "____! ___!" Boom! Almond closed his eyes and locked in Raina right away. He felt strange, but good at the same time. It seemed like the viewers thought the same. ¡ª LOL ¡ª So satisfying! ¡ª Wow, this is my first time seeing Almond swear. ¡ª So this is what you were like in school! ¡ª Damn... ¡ª This is the alpha male! ¡ª So refreshing! Show them who the alpha is! ¡ª Damn, it feels like I''m back to my school days, boss. "Stop!" The lobby went silent because the others didn''t expect a Level 1 user to talk back. "..." The only thing that could be heard was Raina''s cold voice. [Picking me again? Imend your courage.] The bright blue bow, Demien, was given to Almond and a blue cape wrapped around him. ¡°Raina?¡± ¡°Did he just pick Raina?¡± His allies mumbled as they saw him picking Raina... but nobody said anything else thanks to the ser yer''s advice. Instead, the others cursed at the ones who insulted Almond. "You fuckers, you should''ve just kept your mouth shut. Now look, he picked Raina. It''s just norms anyways." "Yeah, I''ll just go support. Anyways, Raina is a hard champion. I wonder if he picked her because of how she looks." Everyone started to pick their roles as the game was about to begin. Almond was also annoyed with the rude duo, but decided to focus on the game for now. ''Let''s just focus on my gamey for now.'' This was just a normal game. The match was for him to practice his gamey. Winning or losing wasn''t as important. After he thought about it like that, he felt much morefortable. "Everyone picked their roles?" "Yes." "Let''s go." Everyone finished their preparations. Boom. Boom. A nerve-wracking music began to y. [Entering the battle in 5 seconds!] [5] Everything turned to darkness. [4] [3] [2] [1] Shaaa...! Suddenly, a bright white light shined in his eyes. Then tall mountains and a clean river stream greeted him. ¡°Kraaawr!¡± He even heard the cry of a dragon, an epic monster. ''It''s starting.'' [Wee to the battlefield!] It was the start of his first battle. *** Once they were in the match, the yers became quiet. They were busy heading to their top, mid, and jungle lines. Almond was ying as the ADC (Attack Damage Carry), which yed a role in inflicting damage from a distance. He was located at the bottom of the map. ADCs had high damage, but they were weak early game. Hence, they had a support summoner with them to help them early on. The support followed him to the bottomne. "Hey, Mr. Low-Level," the support running alongside Almond to the bottomne was the first to talk. "Yes?" "You know how to leash the jungle, right?" ¡®Jungle leash?¡¯ He didn''t know. He only knew from watching the videos. The support asked a rhetorical question, expecting Almond not to know. Almond just silently nodded. The support further exined, thinking Almond wasn''t sure. "Follow me. Leashing is helping the jungler kill the monster early on, so they can gank or counter jungle quicker." "Ah..." There were several new terminology in that one sentence. ''It''s like my first day of work.'' He felt like this when he started working and learning an entirely new vocabry. These terms were alien to him. Thankfully, Sang-Hyeon watched countless?LIL?videos before today. (The problem was that they were videos of Bubblegum!) Still, he knew what role the jungler was. It was a role that didn''t have a fixedne and roamed around the forests hunting the monsters instead. The jungler leveled up by killing these monsters and helped their teammates by infiltrating theirnes. This was called ganking. Leashing was the act of helping the jungler kill the monster easily early on to make ganking easier. The supporter was exining it to Almond. "Alright, we just wait here for the monster toe out. I''ll get hit while Mr. Soldier, you¡¯ll attack." ¡ª Mr. Soldier LOL ¡ª What a nickname ¡ª What a weird name for a person LOL ¡ª Soldier haha ¡ª Open your eyes, Mr. Soldier! "Ah... Yes." Almond waited until the monster came out. "How many times do I have to hit it?" "Just enough so it doesn''t die. The jungler needs to get the money and exp. We need to run to our line and get it too, so don''t kill it." The support continued to exin nicely. Almond liked this support. "Alright." The jungler was the friend of the top liner who ignored Almond earlier, but Almond decided to help him out because of the nice support. [Sumin has registered a mission!] [Oppa! Let''s go for our first victory! Fighting!] [First Victory] [100,000 won] Almond pressed his right temple to mute his in-game mic and thanked the donor. "Oh, Sumin, thank you for the mission. I''ll try to win." The support stared at him strangely, seeing his mouth move. However, this was usually the way yers whispered to each other. "Alright, it''sing out." Kugugugung¡­! As the ground shook, it copsed and turned into dirt. Suddenly, three wolves the size of a house came out. [Grey Wolf] It was the monster that the jungler needed to kill. The jungler backed off to let the support take the hit. The support who picked a tank champion charged forward with a shining shield. ¡°Grrrr!!¡± The wolves red at them and pierced the support''s shield with their teeth. m! Then¡­ "Alright! Let¡¯s go in!" The jungler beheaded the wolf with dual-wielding axes. Slice! "Hey! Mr. Low-Level, shoot!" the jungler shouted as he swung his axe. [Targeting] He heard Raina''s voice and saw several small targets appear on the wolf. [I made it specially for you.] ''Why is it so small?'' Was it because the wolf was big? He was confused, but the targets were as big as a human thumb. The easy targets were gone because the tutorial was over. However, there were a good amount of targets at around fifteen. Every time he hit a target, his attack would increase and the explosions also grew. ''Alright, he said right before it dies.'' Almond decided to hit half of the targets. He readied his bow. Bzzzzt...! A blue arrow formed in his hands. Pang! The first shot was fired. Pung! The tiny target exploded in the center. "... What?" The supporter holding the shield couldn''t close his mouth. ''He hit the target in one hit?'' A Level 1 yer hit Raina''s target, notorious for her difficulty, and a tiny one at that. ''Raina''s targets get smaller as the amount increases... fifteen is just...'' The fact that Raina gave fifteen targets didn''t make sense. Raina only gave around two targets to low-level yers because it became smaller as the number of targets increased. Every LIL user had probably heard,?''You idiot, you''re lucky I''m even giving you two targets.''?How small were those targets though? The jungler wanted to take a closer look at the size of the target, but didn''t have a chance. Puuung! Meanwhile, another target disappeared. Pung! Pubung! Pububung! Suddenly, four targets disappeared. "Huh... huh?!" The targets kept blowing up. Pung! Pubububng! Another three, then another five more. "W-Wait, at this rate..." The wolf''s HP was instantly reduced as if it was a bug. The jungler quickly hurled their axe after returning to their senses. Swoosh! The only thing that the axe struck was the end of the wolf''s grey fur. Chiiik... The wolf was copsing. "Krar...!" the wolf''s cry echoed out and it died. "... Huh?" Almond was confused. This wasn''t supposed to happen. He was only supposed to bring it to the brink of death. [Level up!] Instead of the jungler, Almond leveled up. Almond killed the monster instead of the jungler. It all happened so fast that there was nothing he could do. Normally, the jungler would get upset. However, he reacted differently seeing how ridiculous the situation was. "H-How did you do that, sir?" ¡ª LOL He''s suddenly so polite. ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Almond killed the wolf in like one second?! [WildChanho has donated 10,000 won!] [Almond, the consecutive shooter!] [PassingCamel has donated 10,000 won!] [The tongue extension surgery isplete! ^^] Chapter 125: Normal Match (2)

    Chapter 125: Normal Match (2)

    "H-How did you do that, sir?" The jungler couldn''t hide his surprise. As a jungle yer, he was more interested in Raina''s capabilities than the results of the match. "Is Raina jungle the way to go?" Normally, Raina was a ss cannon ADC who died to jungle monsters easily. However, this Raina could kill the monster in two seconds when it would normally take around seven to ten seconds. Judging from the result, she seemed like a viable option. She could be a hidden OP (overpowered) character. "Ah... Sorry, I hit too many targets... I''m sorry," Almond scratched his head while apologizing. He knew how detrimental killing the jungle monster was for the jungler. "Oh... I see... because you hit too many targets..." The jungler stared at the sky dumbfoundedly. He looked like a person with no purpose anymore. "How am I supposed to jungle now..." The support came up with an idea. "How about I help the jungler out for a bit since it turned out like this? Raina, try to survive a bit on your own. Since you''re a higher level, it''ll be doable." It wasn''t a bad idea. ''By myself?'' The only problem was that this was Almond''s first game, and he had tone alone for the first time. [Hurry up! The soldiers are about to sh.] He had to decide quickly. Almond decided he''d try surviving alone. "Alright, I''ll go." He had to face off multiple enemies alone again. This felt like deja vu. ¡ª Pro solo Almond... ¡ª He even started Battle Large as a solo squad LOL ¡ª He''s 1v2 in his first game as ADC?! ¡ª Haha, this is the life of a star! *** sh! nk! When he arrived at thene, the soldier minions were already shing. "Oh? He''s here." "Only one?" The enemy ADC and support were already killing the allied minions. As Almond approached, the two whispered to each other. [Summoner, should I put some targets up?] Raina asked as soon as she saw the enemy yers. She was asking to prevent the same mistake with the wolf from earlier. Almond hesitated. ''The targets get smaller as they increase in number.'' He could hit the tiny targets, but it was a safer bet to increase the target size since they were moving targets. "Give me around ten." He reduced the number from fifteen targets to ten. [Ten? Alright.] Swoosh. Ten blue targets appeared above the enemy summoner and minions. They were as big as a hand. Now, hitting them all quickly and consecutively in a row was possible. *** The enemy bottom duo was confused. "Huh? Why are there so many targets?" "Yeah, was this even possible?" Raina normally didn''t put up this many targets. "Doesn''t this just fire back?" The enemy ADC mockinglyughed. Many targets didn''t necessarily mean a good thing. Most of the time, it was harder tondbos and reduced the overall damage. [Since there are two enemies, it''s better to fight safely.] Raina continued to advise Almond. [It bes difficult if one of them focuses on hitting you.] As she said, the enemy support approached him and crossed the center line. They came closer, but not enough for Almond to hit them. "The balls on you foring alone. I won''t let you get any exp." There were several minions surrounding him, but none of them attacked the enemy support. "Argh!" "Urk!" They were busy fighting with each other. The minions were programmed to fight each other by default and only attacked other champions if they attacked an allied summoner. "Alright, alright. Let''s see." The enemy support was holding arge staff. [Cuifan - Sorcerer of the Sulfur Swamp] The enemy champion was Cuifan, a mage. It was a champion Almond knew. This champion summoned eerie creatures andmanded them to attack enemies. "Moan!" Every time it summoned something, it made an ufortable noise. Squirt. A ck swamp,rge as a monster, appeared before Almond. From the swamp emerged arge toad. "Croak!" The sorcererughed out loud. "Have a taste of this disgusting toad, Raina!" "Urgh..." The swamp toad didn''t seem easy to approach just by looking at it. Interacting with it in virtual reality was no better. ¡ª Urgh... LOL ¡ª Looks like Almond can''t handle gross things! ¡ª Ah, I can''t resist this. Bring some rice! ¡ª The perfect side dish. Some viewers with a better tolerance made fun of Almond, but Almond''s expression didn''t change. Just then, the toad spat out something disgusting at Almond. ¡°Crooooak!¡± "!" He wasn''t sure if it was saliva, mud from the swamp, or vomit. One thing was for sure. He didn''t want to be hit by it. Tak! Almond reacted quickly and dodged to the left. Chiiik... Smoke came up from the spot where Almond previously stood and the ground melted. Pang! Almond''s blue bow silently quivered. An arrow was shot. Thwack! The arrownded perfectly on the center of the toad''s forehead. The low HP monster disappeared immediately. "Oh, not bad?" The summoner didn''t look surprised at all. He could summon as many toads as they wanted. As long as the summoner had mana, it was possible to summon more and more. The summoner started reciting a spell again. A different toad came out from the swamp. ¡°Crooooak!¡± It fired some more vomit and continued to repeat this. ''This isn''t easy...'' The support was annoying. Almond had tost hit the minions to earn money, but the toad was in his path. "Croak!" The toad came out again. Almond dodged left and right. Eventually, he eliminated the frog by shooting at it. He had survived, but didn¡¯t get anything in return. Chiik... Chiik... The acid was melting his surroundings. ''It''s limiting my space.'' The environment was getting smaller and smaller. He would get hit by the acid if this continued. ¡ª It''s so gross how it melts the ground. ¡ª Oh shit! ¡ª He has good reactions though. ¡ª It''s 1v2 for now! You can do it! ¡ª Disgusting toad... ¡ª Ew¡­ He could step on the melted ground if he wanted to, but it would greatly reduce his speed and HP. Then, he would be prone to getting damaged by the enemy support and ADC. ''I can''t keep dodging like this.'' He had to survive as long as possible because it was disadvantageous to fight 1v2. However, if this continued, the entire environment would be a swamp. He would fall and die. And he wasn''t even earning gold because he couldn''tst hit the minions. Eventually, he would die and not be able to afford any items. If that happened, the game would be in jeopardy. "Look at his face! Hahaha!?How is it? Gross, right?" The sorcerer seemed pleased, watching Almond suffer. "Raina, look sadder!" It was understandable. Most people picked Raina because of her looks. ¡ª That guy is crazy. ¡ª He knows how to have fun. ¡ª You gotta y norms like this to have fun. [Should I teach you about my dash skill?] Raina asked Almond. He hadn''t leveled up a skill yet from leveling up earlier. Since the enemy was targeting him, Raina advised him to level up the dash skill. [If you have a dash skill, you can move toward the sorcerer and attack him. Of course... the enemy ADC will attack you.] A dash skill... It sounded good, but would he be able to utilize it properly? [It''s easy to activate. The Link Movement is just rolling forward. If you roll quickly, you gain movement speed and attack.] "The dash skill is... rolling?" ¡ª LOL As expected from a low tier champion. ¡ª She''s acting as if she''s teaching him how to teleport LOL ¡ª Oh no... Raina... ¡ª Yeah, that''s what a low tier character is all about! "Roll." It was better than nothing. Almond decided to bet on this rolling skill. "Alright, I''ll learn it. And change the target to above the sorcerer." [Alright.] After learning the rolling skill, Almond turned his gaze to the sorcerer. "Ahahaha! How is it!? Huh? Bring some rice! Hurry!" The sorcerer rambled on as if it was a skill in the game. His lips were moving, but he was set in ce. He knew Raina''s range and never crossed the middle line. ''It won''t reach.'' Pang! Almond fired an arrow to try it, but it faltered right before the sorcerer. "Kahahaha!?You don''t know your range? As an ADC!?" No matter how Almond fired, he couldn''t shoot beyond the set range in the game. ''I only have one chance.'' Almond decided to face the toad''s attack head-on and charged forward. Tak¡ª? "... Huh?'''' Cuifan suddenly stopped in his track. He was surprised to see the archer charge toward him, but his surprised look turned into a smile. He smirked with a thick smile, "Is this a suicide mission? Hey, gunner! Back me up!" He asked his ally ADC for support. Once Almond approached them, they could both target him and kill him. All Raina had to do was survive, but she couldn''t resist and crossed the line. But¡ª "I''m killing you," Almond replied with a smile. Suddenly, countless targets appeared before the sorcerer. [20 targets] Twenty targets the size of a nail appeared. ''Are you crazy? You''re making the targets this tiny?'' The sorcerer thought Almond was trolling. How would it be possible to hit all these targets? Instinctively, Cuifan knew something was wrong. His instincts were correct. Swoosh! Almond pulled his bowstring as he grew closer to his target. Pung! Suddenly, a target exploded. And the next one. Paang! Two targets exploded. Then a third one. Paaang! Since he hit three in a row, the mana explosion passive came into effect. [30% HP reduced] Cuifan received a warning message. "Kugh! H-How is it so quick..." Three targets exploded, but that wasn''t all. The enemy archer was shooting at the targets quickly with 100% uracy. The blue bow trembled like a wild tide and continued firing. Pubububung! Four, six, nine... suddenly, eleven targets exploded. Pung! The second and third explosions urred. [80% HP reduced] Cuifan''s heart started to stop in fear. He felt it would be over if he were hit again. "Hey! Hey! Don''t just CS! Come over here and help!!!" Cuifan screamed, hiding behind the toad he summoned. The toad blocked Almond''s path, but Almond didn''t care. He charged forward. ¡°Croooak!¡± The toad barfed something out. ''Now.'' This was the time to use his rolling skill. Almond quickly threw his body to the ground and rolled. Ssh... The toad''s vomit fell behind Almond and he received some damage. [Skill. Rolling. Activated.] [Movement speed increased by 20%] [Bonus attack damage 30] As soon as he rolled, he received a buff. Almond took this opportunity and pulled his bowstring as far as he could. Creak¡­? He aimed at the target on the back of the fleeing Cuifan. The blue mana arrow rested on his bow and glowed. Wooong...! Even after rolling, his pose was still and steady as he released. Pang! The bright blue arrow flew towards Cuifan''s back. "H-Hey! Help!" "I''ming! But why''s your HP..." Before the enemy ADC could finish their sentence¡­ Tang! The twelfth target exploded along with a mana explosion. Pung! The sorcerer''s head exploded. [First blood!] This was the team''s first kill. 1. CS is the abbreviation of Creep Score. It means tost hit creeps for higher gold. Chapter 126: Normal Match (3)

    Chapter 126: Normal Match (3)

    The jungler walked around with their shoulders slouched. They were ying as the champion, Mad Axe Murite. "What a strange thing to happen." Normally, Murite could quickly kill monsters and would already be Level 3. However, he just reached Level 2. The reason was that the Lazy Soldier ADC picked Raina without hesitation and stole his monster. He didn''t know how she killed the monster so quickly. Seeing how quickly the wolf died, he thought it was a bug. ''What was that?'' As a Silver yer, it was the first time he saw a jungle monster die so quickly. And Raina''s ount was Level 1. He couldn''t figure out what was going on. Is that what talent looked like? ''Nah.'' Even in videos, he had never witnessed speed like that. Maybe JeonJaPa... "Hey, Jungler. I think I should go now," said the support roaming with him. "Huh?! What are you talking about?! I''m only Level 2! Your ADC took my jungle monster!" "So I helped you get to Level 2. If this 1v2 continues, the bottomne is screwed." "Sigh." The jungler, Murite, was in a tough position. If this continued, he''d continue to fall behind the enemy jungler. He could already hear his friend, the topner, scolding him in the back of his mind. ''Does our jungler... not have a..?'' He was stressed thinking about it and couldn''t contain his rage. "See if I ever gank bottom... fuck..." "Haha..." the supportughed and turned around. There was nothing he could do. ''If I don''t get there quickly, the ADC will die.'' Lazy Soldier''s ount was Level 1, which meant the yer was aplete beginner. As Raina, she was able to kill the wolf quickly, but stillcked game experience. If the 1v2 pressure continued, she''d quickly die. "Okay, then I''m going to go. Whether you gank or not is up to... huh?" The support stopped in their track. [First blood!] [Lazy Soldier -> DobyObey] Lazy Soldier? Wasn''t that the Raina? The ADC that went alone? "Huh? Isn''t that our ADC? How did she get first blood alone?!" Murite shouted. He seemed more excited. "Wow... you''re right. Is the other team throwing?" [Double Kill!] [Lazy Soldier -> Daaang] "?" "...?" The jungler and support looked at each other. It was a 1v2 situation, but Raina pulled off a double kill. How could this happen? "What''s going on?" "What the... she can''t be a smurf..." "Is she abusing a bug? She has the wordzy in her username too, so I can imagine it." "Hmm... You''re right..." The two tried to understand the situation, but imagined what they couldn''t see. They just needed to continue and do their jobs. "Ah, hey. Help me jungle a little more then. Bottomne is already won anyways." "... Alright," the support nodded. There would be no one even if he went to the bottomne. *** Did the ADC get angry because his support died? The enemy ADC charged forward without thinking. The enemy ADC was a gun-wielding champion called Paul. Paul was blonde and wielded a shotgun. He tried to fire the shotgun¡­ but as soon as he entered Almond''s range, the targets around him exploded and he died. [Double Kill!] "What the. I died." Right now, every shot Demien took was like a shotgun shot. He died much more quickly than the sorcerer who died before him. It was thanks to thebo Almond stacked up earlier. ¡ª The two suddenly died? ¡ª ?!? ¡ª What did I just witness? ¡ª ???? ¡ª That''s crazy. ¡ª Raina is OP as hell! ¡ª I want to be Almond''s towel. ¡ª Wow ¡ª Look at his movements! ¡ª ??? 1v2? So a free double kill? ¡ª Almond is crazy! Almond is crazy! Almond is crazy! Almond is crazy! ¡ª Moooooom! Look at Almond! Moooooom! Look at Almond! There were countless messages in the rising chat. Almond won a 1v2 fight in his first match. Even surviving would have been impressive, but he achieved a double kill. Raina couldn''t help but be impressed as well. [As expected of my summoner.] She couldn''t find any more excuses for Almond''s talent. The y proved his skills. ¡ª Suddenly ''my summoner.'' ¡ª He''s hers now, LOL ¡ª What''s with the sudden change of attitude haha ¡ª What happened to the ''cold-blooded archer''? ¡ª Is this... the life of an alpha male? Thanks to his y, he received many donations. [JHL has donated 1000 won.] [What did I just witness¡­?] [ArtOppa has donated 5000 won.] [Wow! Almond... so good!] [RubySword has donated 10,000 won!] [Do you see this? This is Almond! LIL bros!] [KAF CEO has donated 10,000 won!] [This is because of Kingdom Age, you losers!] He received four donations in a row. It was the most he got after he started ying?LIL. "Thank you, Camel, ArtOppa, RubySword, and KAF CEO for the donations. But this is Raina''s bow." ¡ª Raina''s bow, LOL ¡ª That''s true ¡ª Yeah, it''s not from Kingdom Age. ¡ª Kingdom Age fans think they raised Almond... ¡ª Kingdom fanboys are hrious. The chat became a little brighter. Almond was relieved. ''There''s more viewers...'' [Current Viewers: 8.1k] He suddenly had 8000 viewers and even saw new usernames in the donation lists, which meant he had new viewers. These viewers were here to watch him y LIL. It was a good sign that there were more viewers like these. For a variety steamer, it was important to have a variety of viewers. "T-That guy killed our summoner!" "Kill him!" He aggroed the soldier minions. They would normally fight each other, but targeted the enemy champion if they attacked their allied summoner. Almond easily cleaned up the minions charging at him with the bow. Since he could easily kill champions with hisbo hits, the minions were a breeze. ''I have quite a bit of gold.'' Since he also killed all the soldier minions, he had some gold in his pocket. Almond checked the death timers of his enemies. They would revive in five seconds. He had to quickly go back to the base and buy some items. "Alright, I''m going back to the base to buy some items." To recall, all he had to do was stand still without engaging inbat. Then the skill activated on its own. [Recall] Wooong¡­! The recall took around five seconds unless it was interrupted by an enemy. But, there were no enemies near Almond because they had all died. *** Thud. He came back to the base. From here, Almond bought an item that Raina suggested. "Huh? Mr. ADC!" He met his support. "Ah, Mr. Support. You''re here," Almond happily greeted him. The support seemed like a decent guy. He was responsible for helping the jungler from falling off in the game. "Yes. I helped the jungler a little bit more since you got a double kill." "That''s good." "Now, we should go together." "Yes." "But how did you do that earlier?" "Sorry?" "Not only did you kill the wolves in an instant, but you also got a double kill as well. Did the enemy throw?" ¡®Throw?¡¯?Almond momentarily thought about what that meant and realized the support misunderstood the situation. ''Ah...'' The supporter found it hard to believe that Almond killed two enemies alone because he was only Level 1. "Uh... The enemy screwed up. It seems like they got cocky because I was alone." Instead of exining what happened, Almond gave a simple exnation and headed toward the bottomne. "Ah, they must''ve dived under the turret." Diving under the turret meant the champions dived in to attack their enemies while being protected by the turret. The turret¡¯s damage was powerful, so a small mistake could be detrimental. "Yeah, something like that." ¡ª LOL true. It''s called Almond Dive. ¡ª Yeah. Acting cocky in front of Almond is basically diving. ¡ª It''s so cute that the support is so innocent. ¡ª Imagine the support''s face when he sees the rey. The support believed him because even if Almond was a beginner, killing two enemies under the turret was easy. "I see." "Yes, I got lucky." "Good work. Now, it''ll be way easier! Let''s go to the bottomne!" The support ran with Almond to the bottomne with a big smile. Shortly afterward¡­ *** [Double Kill!] Almond quickly rolled in and annihted two enemies. "H-Huh?!" the support couldn''t keep his mouth closed after seeing Almond¡¯s mechanics. "...You said you killed them because they dived you?!" "Haha... Let''s just get the turret." "W-Who are you?!" "Let''s get the turret first." ¡ª LOL poor guy ¡ª Exin it to him!! ¡ª The support looks like he wants to talk to you, haha ¡ª It''s just business... ¡ª Is all you care about money, Almond!? Because the two enemies were missing, the bottomne''s first turret was destroyed quickly. Crumble¡­! [Your team has destroyed the first turret!] [Extra gold is awarded.] [Level up!] As a result, his champion level grew to Level 6. Now, he could use the ultimate ability. *** "Then fucking gank with us!" Meanwhile, the enemy team was fighting. "Are you guys fucking nuts? You guys lose a 1v2 and expect me to gank? You think I just have time on my hands?" The jungler, who needed to help everyne on the map, was arguing with the bottomners, who died twice in a row. "You''re saying that because you haven''t seen this guy!" "STFU. How can you guys talk after being solo-killed by Raina, twice?!" "Soe and gank! Why aren''t youing when he''s alone?! He''s actually insane. It''s like he''s hacking!" "Shut the hell up. Then make thene gankable or something! It''s just two corpses there the whole time. Do you want me to set up a funeral or something?" Even the top liner who recalled chimed in, "Kya! You''re correct, mighty jungler. Instead of ganking those idiots,e to me!" The top liner didn''t care about the game''s oue and randomly called for the jungler. Nobody understood the sorcerer and the ADC''s frustration. Brrr... The bottom duo was frustrated. ''This guy is actually insane! He''s a monster! We need to stop him now!'' ''No one believes us...''? Chapter 127: Ultimate (1)

    Chapter 127: Ultimate (1)

    [If you turn Level 6 on the battlefield, you can learn your ultimate ability.] Starting from Level 6, a champion could learn their ultimate skill. It was the strongest ability the champion could use. If a champion were to reach Level 6 before everyone else, it was the best timing to use the ultimate. [You''re the only summoner who reached Level 6. You could probably fight anyone and win. As expected of my summoner.] ¡ª Is Raina okay? ¡ª Is her dialogue bugged? ¡ª Why''s she so different? ¡ª Did Raina change bodies with somebody else? ¡ª Noona! You weren''t nice to me! What happened?! I even bought all the skins you told me to buy! ¡ª Raina must''ve been hit by a truck or something. This isn''t the Raina I know. ¡ª Apparently, Raina has facial recognition. Please shut down the server. ¡ª It''s because he''s so good at shooting~ ¡ª I''m so upset... Raina¡­ Raina was acting beyond friendly. She was almost flirting with him. Raina''s fanboys were jealous watching it unfold. She had a loyal fanbase because of her cold personality and beautiful looks. Ironically, these fans refused to use Raina in a ranked match. "Everyone, calm down. She likes what she likes." Almond calmed his fans down. He had other problems. LIL was a team game, which meant even if he was doing well, the game''s oue was unpredictable. [Smebu! Double kill!] [Enemy is on a killing spree!] Almond''s top liner died. It was the yer who cursed him in the waiting lobby. His jungler friend died alongside him. To top it off, the mid-liner died as well. [Smebu! Triple kill!] [The enemy is on a rampage!] A triple kill? The game was in jeopardy. If it were just the top and jungle, it''d be fine. With the mid champion dead as well, their turret was in danger. ''I know that the mid turret is really important...'' The only one left to defend it was Almond and his support. [Let''s go mid. If the mid gets taken, it''ll get dangerous. We have to stop it.] Raina advised Almond about the same thing as well. Almond nodded and told the support, "Let''s go mid." "Alright." The enemy bottomne was grateful. . "Wow, shit¡­! That guy must''ve gone mid." The ADC, Paul, was visibly d to return to hisne. It was humorous to watch the blonde gangster look so relieved. The sorcerer beside him didn''t say much except rte with his ADC. "Phew! Thank goodness. These top, jungle, and midners... get a taste of their Raina!" "But they''re going to me us for snowballing them..." "... Fuck." The two scratched their heads with dumb looks on their faces. They needed to focus on killing the minions to catch up. "Do you think... we''re going to lose this game?" "Never! Don''t you know our top liner, Valkyrie? It''s the most OP champion right now and they just got a triple kill. How could we lose?" "Ah, Valkyrie is pretty OP right now." "Not just OP, she''s the daughter of the developers or something. I swear! She''s way more OP than my toad... If it was ranked, she''d be banned for sure." *** Raina''s ultimate was powerful, but it wasn''t easy to activate. The summoner needed to have a hundred "Pride of an Archer" stacks to have her descend. It only started to stack by one after four consecutive hits and by ten if it was against other champions. Theoretically, if the champion got fourteen stacks in a row against a champion, it was possible to activate it immediately. ''It''d be nice if I had the stacks ahead of time.'' Almond arrived early in the mid. He should''ve already had almost a hundred stacks from killing the bottom duo twice. [You can''t use the ultimate yet. You need to fully stack the Pride of an Archer.] Currently, he was at zero. For some odd reason, the stacks only started to count after he leveled up his ultimate skill. This was one of the small reasons Raina was rated so poorly. It wasn''t because she didn''t have potential, but because activating her skills was tricky. LIL was crazy to introduce this champion to beginners in the tutorial. Another crazy thing was the enemy midner Almond was facing. [TwoMidGo] [Electric Wizard - Kaizad] [Lv.5] He spoke with a smile, "Did hee to defend mid? Not on my watch!" The wizard kept aggravating Almond whilest hitting the minions, thinking he was out of range from Raina. "You''re going to stop me as Raina?" Almond could hear his taunts and stood still because he wasn''t in range yet. "Try defending it." The enemy gathered blue energy and taunted Almond. Bzzzt! The enemy was ying as the Electric Wizard, Kaizad. Kaizad kept ncing at the right bushes. Was there somebody hiding there? "Mr. Soldier," the support noticed something strange and advised Almond. "Mr. Soldier, don''t go. The jungler is..." They didn''t know where the enemy jungler was. If the jungler hid in that bush, the low HP ADC would die instantly. In this case, there wasn''t anything the support could do. All they could do was give information to the ADC. "... Huh?" But the supporter''s advice didn''t reach Almond. Tak- Almond already rolled in front. [Spurite registered a mission!] [Wow! If you kill that annoying guy, 50,000 won!] Because of this mission¡­ ¡ª Capitalism roll! ¡ª LOL ¡ª Zero hesitation ¡ª What? Mission? Roll. ¡ª This streamer rolls for 50,000 won! "M-Mister?" The support, unaware of the situation, panicked. The enemyughed at Almond. ''He fell for it!'' The wizard pressed down on the center of his hand with his thumb, activating a Link Movement. [Shock Explosion] Blue electricity came out from the center of his palm. Bzzt! The blue electricity wrapped around his body and flowed on the ground like a river. Bzzzt... If the electricity struck a champion, they not only lost damage but also became momentarily stunned. If that happened, the jungler woulde and finish the champion off. "...?" But the electricity didn''t reach the champion. ''She rolled over here?'' Instead, an arrow came flying and the target on the center of his forehead exploded. Pung! He felt his skull shaking. ¡ª Wow! Rolling forward and backward. ¡ª What a feint. ¡ª Kaizad is useless without any skills. ¡ª Kya! The wizard panicked. The enemy rolled toward him, then backward while shooting her arrow. The rolling skill didn''t activate the buff twice, but he rolled to bait out the skill. It was instantaneous speed and decision-making while shooting precisely at the target. All three urred perfectly in sync. ''Her mechanics are?'' The wizard recalled the bottom duo''s warning. ¡®That guy is a monster! We need to stop him first!¡¯ ''Is he really that good?'' Swoosh! Another arrow followed. Kang¡­! A dark shadow appeared, deflecting the arrows. "What the! Why can''t you hit it?!" the hammer warrior screamed with his back turned. As expected, the wizard wasn''t alone. ¡ª Ah, see. There''s the jungler. ¡ª An obvious bait. ¡ª Shame. "Ah..." The Electric Wizard Kaizad came back to his senses. "S-Sorry." They could win as long as he paid attention andnded his skills. If he worked together with the jungler, he would win. Wasn''t it obvious? Mid and jungle were the strongestners, especially in the early game, out of the mid, jungle, ADC, and support roles. Kaizad cast a different spell, hiding behind the hammer warrior. [Shockwave] Bzzzzt! A blue spark suddenly fired in a straight line. This time, it was meant to hit and slow an enemy from a distance. "!?" Ta-dak. Raina rolled and dodged it easily. She pulled on her bow as if she was waiting. Creak¡­? She was at an angle where the hammer warrior couldn''t block it. They couldn''t keep up with her movements. A blue arrow flew and hit the wizard''s vital point. The blue target exploded. Pung! And another one in the shoulder. Pung! That was the third hit, which activated Raina''s mana explosion passive. Kwaang! He lost 40% of his HP. ''T-This is impossible.'' She would be tier one if a yer could roll around and urately hit targets with her arrows. Everybody would want to y her. "Move! I''ll kill her!" The jungler jumped into the sky with his giant hammer. Arge shadow formed on top of Raina. The hammer crashed down, destroying the environment around them. Crumble!!! The ground trembled like a river. There was dust everywhere, making it difficult to see. As the dust cleared up¡­ "!?" There was no sign of the enemy. ''Where...'' Creak¡­? Behind him, he could hear an arrow being pulled. Raina was an arm''s reach away. The hammer warrior was dumbfounded. Who would think of drawing their bow at a melee distance against a warrior champion? He swung his hammer to punish her. Swoosh! She would''ve turned into a pancake if he hit her, but the hammer hit nothing. Instead, he felt a weight on his shoulder. Almond had climbed on top of the hammer with his bow fully drawn. The warrior looked up as Almond quietly released his arrow. Pung! The blue arrow perfectlynded on the target on his forehead. The hammer warrior lost his bnce and dropped his hammer. "W-What the." A warrior without a weapon was weak. He turned around and ran away because the weapon would eventually return to him if he created enough distance from it. However, it was a mistake to show his back to Raina. Pububung! The three targets in his back exploded. Boom! Another mana explosion activated. The warrior almost lost his bnce, but continued to flee. As long as he could run far enough for the hammer to return to him, he had a chance because he had a skill where he could deflect projectiles. However, Almond''s arrow was merciless. Arrows continued to fly and ripped through all the targets. [Your HP is below 30%!] Despite being a tanker, the hammer warrior¡¯s HP was cut by 70%. However, he continued to run. ''We''re fucked.'' He couldn''t deny it. He was no match for her. At that moment, he realized that the gank failed. Just then¡­ Bzzzt! Kaizad fired his magic once more. ¡®Right, I wasn''t alone.¡¯ He saw hope, but it instantly disappeared. "Mr. Soldier!" The enemy wasn''t alone either. The support put up a shield in front of Almond. Tung¨C The electricity couldn''t go through the shield. As a result, Almond could focus on his shooting. He rapidly fired three more shots. Instead of the hammer warrior, they were aimed at Kaizad. "!?" Kaizad expected Raina to aim at the hammer warrior, who was close to death and couldn''t react in time. ''Right... I''m low on HP too...'' All three shots perfectlynded and activated the mana explosion. Kwang! Kaizad disintegrated in a blue fire as if he never existed. [Mission sess!] [Spurite has donated 50,000 won!] ¡ª Wow, killed him already! ¡ª The mission is like a death note. Done in three minutes. ¡ª Kya!! ¡ª The mission was barely up... ¡ª You can turn into Light Yagami if you donate! [Lazy Soldier is unstoppable!] After killing the midner, his focus was now on the jungler. Swoosh¡­! Countless numbers of Raina''s targets appeared on the jungler¡¯s body. For him, it was like facing the grim reaper. He now had his hammer in hand, but... ''Dammit.'' He had to admit that there was no hope. ''He''s way better.'' Countless blue lights covered his vision. The increased damage from thebo hits and consecutive mana explosions quickly reduced his HP... [LazySoldier is legendary!] Thud. Eventually, he fell. ''Lazy Soldier... I''ll remember you.'' He whispered hisst breath without knowing that the nickname was for an advertisement. Chapter 128: Ultimate (2)

    Chapter 128: Ultimate (2)

    Meanwhile, someone on Almond''s team was reviving at the fountain. It was his midner, VietADC. "I shouldn''t have gone top," he shouted for everyone to hear while frowning. "Fucking troll. I should''ve known from the champ select." The toxic ones were usually bad at the game as well. CoolChampion was the username of the one who insulted Almond for being Level 1. "I should''ve known from the childish username." VietADC didn''t know CoolChampion''s actual age, but was sure his mental age was at most fifteen because the topne gap was so big that the enemy had farmed enough to win a 1v3. "How is a 1v3 possible? 1v3?!" Since the enemy got a triple kill, they''d be more powerful now. [Smebu is unstoppable!] [Smebu -> CoolChampion] The announcement echoed again. It was their ally, CoolChampion dying. "Sigh... Mid and top turret is going to be gone." Smebu was the enemy topner. Being unstoppable meant that he was getting stronger and stronger. The game sounded over until... [LazySoldier double kill!] [LazySoldier is unstoppable!] Another unstoppable summoner appeared. "What the... is it the Raina from earlier?" It was Raina. After growing stronger in the bottomne, she was quite powerful herself. If the enemy''s hope was in the topner, theirs was on the bottomne. A Level 1 yer was their hope. It seemed bleak. ''If a shitty Raina yer gets kills early, it''ll be bad in thete game...'' Since VietADC''s main role was ADC, he knew better than anyone that it was easy to pick up kills early on. If it were all luck, it''d be obvious during the mid tote game. What mattered was the damage dealt as an ADC. If that were low, the game was doomed. ''Well, at least they defended mid.'' The results looked good for now. VietADC went back to mid, reassured that the mid turret still stood. *** The support shouted with their jaws on the floor, "Wow! Mr. Soldier! Who are you?!" They spat everywhere while shouting excitedly, "T-This is seriously next level!" The gamey Almond showed was unbelievable. How could the ADC fight against the jungler and midner in a 1v2? It was clear that mechanics yed a heavy part in LIL''s gamey. A yer would usually die in a situation like that, especially if they were an ADC. Instead, the other two yers died. It wasn''t their fault either. The only mistake was Kaizad missing their skill against Almond because of his feint, but even that mistake was caused by Almond''s evasiveness. It was all due to Almond''s skills. "... Are you using a bio-code glitch or something?" The support kept asking and stuck beside him. ¡ª I think that guy wants to duo with him, LOL ¡ª For real ¡ª This is why tools need to stay in their ce~ ¡ª Obviously, the support wants to duo with him, LOL "... No." "Then have you reincarnated or something? How''s this possible?" "Haha... Let''s just push mid." ¡ª Talk to the support, LOL ¡ª Poor support... ¡ª Hey! Why is a tool talking to the king?! Hmph! As VietADC joined them, they could easily destroy the enemy mid-turret. Almond received arge amount of money again. [Recall] He recalled back to the base and purchased items. He just bought the items Raina rmended. Almond felt much stronger now. [None of them can stop you, except for their topner.] Raina reassured him that he grew stronger. Afterward, he peacefully farmed for a bit. Tang. Tang. All he had to do wasnd the arrows just before the minions died. It was the most rxing time on the battlefield. Almond used this time to talk to the chat. "Ah, the game''s finally quiet now." The interval of fights in LIL was much more frequent than in Battle Large. In one round of LIL, a yer could fight with the enemy hundreds of times. It was difficult for a beginner like Almond to y and stream simultaneously. He had tomunicate with his viewers at least while he farmed. ¡ª He''s finally talking to us. ¡ª Can''t me him. He''s super focused. ¡ª He''s nervous because it''s his first round. ¡ª AlHa! Almond hai! ¡ª You were so cool earlier! As Almond started reading, the chat increased. "Ah, thank you for the 50,000 won mission earlier, Spurite." Almond thanked the donor earlier as well. [Spurite has donated 50,000 won!] [50,000 won wasn''t much... here, have more!] ¡ª ???? ¡ª Wow ¡ª Um ¡ª This is just reprinting money! "Thank you for the continuous donations. What are you talking about! 50,000 won is a lot too!" ¡ª Hey, put some soul into it. ¡ª Hey, LazySoldier. Be honest. ¡ª Almond (doing 3 ads): 50,000 won is a lot too! Almond was truly thankful for the donation, but his viewers were right. For him, 50,000 won wasn''t much anymore. The Lazy Soldier advertisement alone was worth 50 million won. However, he couldn''t ignore a mission because of the amount. He needed to give it his all whether the amount was high or low. ¡®Out of all the sessful streams, there weren''t any that took missions lightly.¡¯ Just like Ju-Hyeok said, missions were a vital part of a stream. He could naturally show off his skills for viewers and donors to enjoy. Therefore, Almond rolled forward as soon as he received the mission. "It''s not the money. I give it my all for every mission," Almond honestly said to his viewers. [JamJam has registered a mission.] [Then 100,000 won if you wear rabbit ears and y!] "..." [Mission declined.] ¡ª LOL ¡ª What the hahaha ¡ª What did you say a second ago? ¡ª Almond, you''re amazing! "Sorry? Did something happen?" Raina rescued him just in time. [Summoner, let''s go top.] Since they pushed the bottom and midne, it was time to push the topne. "Ah, I need to go top!" ¡ª (Liar) ¡ª Give us rabbit ears... ¡ª Ah, boss. You''re saving it for your 100,000 subscribers special event, right? I believe you! *** The topne was located beyond the humid jungle. Thene was unofficially called thene for men because of how lonely it was. Out of the five roles, it was the role where individuality mattered the most. Almond''s topne looked lonelier than usual. Swoosh... It looked like Battle Large''s desert. "... This ce feels a little different than the others." He met eyes with his solo topner. CoolChampion turned red and scratched his head. "Ah... You see..." Upon looking closer, Almond figured out the user had cursed at him earlier. "Our turret''s been destroyed." "Ah... Why?" "..." Almond was genuinely asking, but the topner''s expression froze. The support chimed in and exined, "It''s because our top lost badly, so the turret got destroyed. Just like our bottomne earlier." "Ah..." Almond understood right away with their bottomne as a reference. "I-I didn''t lose that bad..." CoolChampion tried to protect the little pride he had left, but failed. "If this isn''t losing badly, then what is? Just shut up and tank for us." Unlike his kind attitude to Almond, the support was assertive towards the topner. "... Ah, sure. I''m not a tank though... I''m a damage dealer..." "Just go in front! The jungler could be hiding! It''s alright if you die!" "Ah... Okay." CoolChampion obeyed and walked forward. ¡ª LOL, he should''ve just yed as a tank. ¡ª What happened to that big man early on?! ¡ª Is this the same topliner from earlier? Damn... ¡ª He''s whipped into shape! ¡ª Haha loser. ¡ª Damn, the support is spicy! "Sigh, thene is pushed way back. Alright, alright. Let''s put our bodies together and push forward. We''ll clean up." "Okay..." Their line was pushed way back. It was a hassle to push forward again because the enemy would likely use it as an opportunity to gank. Somebody needed to stay in front and act as the sandbag. This was the role of a topner. The topner led the way and gave vision to the team while Almond and the support continued to kill the minion soldiers. They pushed thene further and further in. After 2-3 minutes, they could finally see the enemy turret. Some friendly faces greeted them. "Huh¡­!? Huh?" "Ah shit, they''re back!" The bottom duo returned to the topne to defend the turret. It was the sorcerer Cuifan and the gunner Paul. They took a step back because of their PTSD from Almond. "...?" CoolChampion couldn''t understand why they were panicking because he hadn''t seen Almond''s gamey. ''Bottom did good, but aren''t they overreacting?'' He thought their reactions were odd because their bottom received the better ouepared to how badly he lost the topne. "R-Raina! You''re disgusting! Call the jungler! Call for him!" "I-I don''t think I can stay here any longer..." The two looked like they saw a ghost. He couldn''t believe this was the fear a Level 1 user was causing them. "Just push it quickly." Almond started firing his arrows as if the enemy bottom duo weren''t there. Pung! Pung! Since the turret prioritized minions, the champion could freely hit the turret. However, when their allied champion was hit, they changed their target. That meant if a fight urred under a turret, whoever was on the same team as the turret had a great advantage because turret shots had 100% uracy and immense power. However, it didn''t matter because the enemy duo was cowering in fear. Pububung! Pubung! Almond continued to wear down the turret. The turret would be destroyed at this rate, but the enemy duo backed off as if they had given up. ¡ª What are they doing? ¡ª Are they that scared? ¡ª There¡¯s a three-level gap. ¡ª They''re dead if the support gets turret aggro and Almond dives them. ¡ª Their topner is so confused, haha ¡ª Where''s the enemy topner? Almond read the chat and became curious as well. ''Where''s the enemy topner¡­?'' The bottom duo wasn''t a problem, but he needed to be wary of the enemy topner. Even Raina had warned him. Brrrrrr...! Suddenly, he felt a strange sensation. "... Huh?" He felt the ground rumble. "What''s wrong with the ground?" "Huh? What is?" The other yers weren''t aware, but Almond could feel it as the top scorer of Fanatasia''s minigame. ''Something ising.'' In every game, there was a buildup before the ultimate skill. Especially in LIL, it was much more apparent. Almond could instinctively feel something big wasing. Just then, a faint shadow appeared. It was much too big to be a champion''s shadow. Almond rolled back with all his might. Ta-dak! "Dodge¡ª" Swooosh¡­! He could hear it. A single beam of light fell from the sky as soon as the light hit the ground. SLAM! The earth shook like a tsunami and the immense shockwave enveloped their surroundings. Swoosh!! The sandstorm spread along with the shockwave. Finally, they could see therge figure. [Smebu] [Valkyrie - The Firm Wing] [Lv.6] It was the enemy''s strongestner, Smebu. Charrr! Its wings made out of iron des fluttered. Valkyrie activated her ultimate and descended, ready to use her wings as weapons. "Ta-da!?I''m here to clean up your mess, you losers!" *** Smebu currently had five kills and activated their ultimate ability. ¡°I''m here to clean up your mess.¡± Valkyrie was full of herself, ready to clean up whatever mess her allies left. However, the mess was a lot bigger than she imagined. Her confident smile disappeared because of a certain red light. "Huh? What the¡­?" [I''m going to activate the blood contract now.] A crimson light brightly shone as Raina spoke. Bzzzt¡ª? The red energy enveloped Almond. "What the? How many stacks did Raina get? How badly did you guys fuck up?!" The enemy topner was Level 6, but Raina was beyond Level 6 already and fully stacked. Something unbelievable was happening. [Ultimate - Evil Archer] "Goddamit, this mother¡ª" He couldn''t finish his sentence. [Ultimate Skill - Demian''s Liberated Arrow] Kwakwakwakwang!!!! All of Raina''s stacks were pooled into this one arrow. Their surroundings were covered in a shining white light. ¡ª Poof! Bye bye! ¡ª Ta-da! You''re gone! ¡ª Are you the only one with an ultimate? ¡ª Ultimate: Noona, you''re killing me!! Chapter 129: Ultimate (3)

    Chapter 129: Ultimate (3)

    Valkyrie was normally a tank champion. She had a high base HP and defense. It would usually be impossible to kill her in one shot. However¡­ [Warning! Critical damage!] [50% of HP reduced!] Beep! The damage Valkyrie received was so critical that a warning appeared on her screen. Fifty percent of her HP disappeared in one hit, which was unfathomable, especially for a tank. She screamed in anger, "Fuck this game! Why do I always get a shitty team!" Her allies fed the enemy Raina as if she were their only child. Raina''s attack had more than 100 stacks. "How does Raina have 150 stacks already?!" Raina needed to have reached at least 150 stacks to achieve great damage. She red at the bottom duo behind her and couldn''t contain her anger, "How many times did you let her hit you!? 150 stacks in 7 minutes? Are you kidding me? Even bots wouldn''t get hit this much!" The useless bottom duo were the ADC and support. [Cuifan - Sorcerer of the Sulfur Swamp] [Lv.4] [Paul - The Gunner] [Lv.4] Cuifan and Paul opened their mouths, trying to give an excuse, "W-What... we only died twice!" "It''s because mid and jungle died to them! We only died before she turned Level 6! So the stacks have nothing to do with us!" ¡°Sigh.¡± Smebu was speechless. This wasn''t an excuse. It was more like a confession. "You guys died twice before Level 6? Are you guys inbreds?" Pung! Smebu felt a striking pain on the back of her head. It was Raina''s shots. ''Huh? Ignoring the turret?'' Raina was approaching and shooting at them despite their turret being up. Most champions'' range was smaller than a turret''s, except for Raina''s during her ultimate. Thanks to Raina''s help, the mana arrows could fly further. ''Right, Raina''s ultimate... her normal attack range grows longer too. It''s been so long since I''ve seen her that I almost forgot.'' Valkyrie decided to block the attacks for now. Charrrr. Therge wings covered her back to protect the summoner. The sharp des covered her openings and blocked most of the projectiles. However¡ª "!" Pung! The arrows continued to hit. ''What?'' It came in between the tiny openings in the wings. Raina was aiming at those small openings from far away. ''I-Is this a bug¡­?'' Sometimes in a game, there was a bug where the skills went through the map. The scene resembled just that. Pububung! She lost 10% more of her HP. It was a one-sided encounter. Swoosh! Another blue light shed. Pung! No matter how she blocked, the arrows found their target. Pubung! Now, two arrows came at once. The damage was two, no, three times stronger because Raina was shooting in her summoner''s pose. Puung! [HP is below 40%] The arrows hit her not only once, but several times this way. Valkyrie had no choice but to admit the skill gap. She felt a wall between them. Valkyrie nked out for a moment, immobilized. It looked like she was stunned as if a truck was about to run her over. [What are you doing, Summoner? Aren''t you going to fly?] The champion, Valkyrie, couldn''t hold it in any longer and scolded her summoner. [You''re going to use me and lose to that annoying blue girl?] Smebu came back to her senses. "Yeah, I''m in my ultimate!" She forgot that she was in her ultimate after witnessing Raina''s skills. She was ying as the most OP tier 1 champion in the game, Valkyrie. When Valkyrie used her ultimate, she turned into a giant with wings of des attached to her back. She descended as her legendary icon instead ofing down herself, but that was enough because these wings could do anything. It could defend the summoner, attack, and above all... Fly. p! Valkyrie pped with the back of her hands and activated a Link Skill. [Flight] p... The iron wings started to flutter. The summoner would normally be too heavy to carry, yet the wings carried them into the sky. Witnessing these giant, eerie wings formed with hundreds of des fluttering in the air like feathers was a sight. Swoosh! Swoosh! Arge circle formed on the sand beneath them. Swoosh! It fluttered once more. Taaak! The figure sparked up into the sky. ''I''ll show you why Valkyrie is so OP.'' She flew into the sky, but that wasn''t all. She moved her fingers and did another Link Movement. [Hail of des] Charrrr. The des in the wings lined themselves up one by one and pointed toward the ground. *** ''She flies¡­?'' Almond was a little taken aback. He didn''t expect her to fly. This situation was unusual for him, who only yed realistic video games. "Ah, shit. It''s the flight and hail of desbo! Let''s just run... we can push this turretter!" "Mr. Soldier? I think we should just back off for now. We''re lucky to have survived Valkyrie''s OP ultimate, especially with that idiot feeding her..." Almond could hear his allies screaming in fear to flee. Judging from the situation, he understood because the enemy seemed like a hassle. Hailing des while in flight? ''Should I run?'' He could run if he wanted to, but what was it? He recalled some advice his coach used to tell him. ¡®The old tales speak of a legendary archer able to shoot even a bird from the sky.¡¯ Archery skills good enough to hit a bird in the sky. This was amon saying even to those unfamiliar with archery. People didn''t take it seriously as it was amon idiom. An archer who could hit a flying bird. This saying was famous because of one reason. It was much more difficult to hit an object mid-flight than on the ground. Since the dawn of archers, the excitement of hitting a flying target had been prevalent. ''A flying bird...'' Valkyrie''s shadow loomed over Almond from the sky. ''I''ve never even thought about... shooting something in the sky.'' Almond imagined shooting something onnd multiple times, but never anything flying in the air. Thump- His heart thumped loudly. "Mr. Soldier, hurry! If you die, she gets a lot of gold because of your bounty!" the support kept persisting. "There''s no point in fighting during her flight and hail of des!" He was right. Fleeing was the correct choice. The enemy was in her ultimate form and using her skill, Hail of des, which rained down des. Running away from the rain was the right y. But why was his heart pounding? Thump- Thump- ''I want to shoot.'' If he fled here, the enemy''s flight would stop and his excitement would too. He wanted to shoot while she was in the air. Almond didn''t want to lose this opportunity. He aimed into the air toward Valkyrie, who looked like a speck of dust. "M-Mister?!" "I don''t want to lose this opportunity." "Oppor...tunity?" The support was dumbfounded. What he saw as a danger, Almond saw as an opportunity. "If you want to run, run." Almond recalled the first time he stood before a target and readied his blue mana bow. Bzzzt¡­! He couldn¡¯t hear anything else anymore. Kwang! With a loud noise, a red text appeared before him. [Hail of des] ''It''sing.'' Chaarrrr! The des started raining down on him. The falling des covered the sky and fell all at once. "Dammit! I don''t know what you''re talking about, but I''m going to try blocking it for now!" The supporter had no choice but to run at Almond and raise his shield. Chuk! However, none of the desnded on the shield. Almond started flicking his bowstring. As he fired arrows one by one, they grew quicker and quicker. Countless mana arrows were in the air. It looked like the bow was spewing blue me. Raina''s bow also fired rapidly beside him. All the arrows started to deflect all the falling des. Kang! Kang! Ka-gang! Countless arrows deflected the countless des. The shing of the red des against the blue arrows created a spark of mes. Fwoosh! The sparks rose up higher and higher. "... What?" The support couldn''t believe it. Valkyrie''s hail of des was being pushed back! Kagagagang¡­! Countless arrows shed against countless des. ¡ª Damn ¡ª What am I even watching right now? ¡ª I''m going to report this as a bug. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Jesus Christ ¡ª I gave up trying to understand. I''m just going to report. ¡ª I''m going to y Raina today... The sparks eventually reached the top. The arrows pierced through the des and one arrow finally struck Valkyrie. Pung! An explosion urred as a blue target was hit. Valkyrie''s figure, flying majestically, started swaying. "!" She looked like a fly losing bnce. Even from this distance, Almond could tell she was panicking. Even then, it was difficult to hit her. Trying to hit a target flying all over the ce in this 3D environment was also a new challenge for Almond. ¡ª Damn, that champion is too OP ¡ª Acting up again... ¡ª So annoying... ¡ª Look at her skills! How''s that allowed?! ¡ª Even if she fucks up, she''s still OP ¡®Valkyrie was OP?¡¯ Almond slowly smiled. If he killed her, he''d be praised even more. Creak¡­? He made a quick, soft, and motionless full draw and release. Pang¡­! Valkyrie lost her bnce and flew in circles. Pung! Another merciless arrow struck her as Almond''s release continued. Once, twice... five times. Pung! Pububung! All five hits perfectlynded on the blue targets appearing on her. "T-Teacher! What is your identity?!" The topner kneeled on his own. At the same time, Valkyrie fell to the ground. Thud! [LazySoldier is legendary!] [LazySoldier -> Smebu] Legendary, it was the biggestpliment he could receive in the game. ¡ª Look at the top groveling, LOL ¡ª LOL. We''ll give you a pass, top. ¡ª Wow... I can''t believe I was able to witness this LIVE. My Life is Legend... ¡ª Almond is legendary! Almond is legendary! Almond is legendary! ¡ª It''s so dumb, but it works because he''s so good ¡ª How can you just deflect them all... you''re not supposed to do that... ¡ª I''m actually going to report him. This HAS to be a bug. ¡ª Game knowledge: 0, mechanics: 100, game: victory. Anyints? Almond''s ount was Level 1, but he was legendary in this match. From this point on, the game took a pivotal turn. *** Afterward, Almond couldn''t figure out what was happening. ¡®It''s good to kill the epic monster now.¡¯ ¡®Now let''s go mid and push it out.¡¯ ¡®Be careful. It''s the two turrets defending the enemy nexus.¡¯ He just followed around and listened to the support''s advice. The game was almost over. "The end is near!" "Wow... can''t believe we''re going to win this. Hahaha." Crumble¡­? Thest two turrets guarding the enemy nexus crumbled as well. ¡®Now, if we just break the nexus, we''ll win!¡¯ Almond was about to achieve his first victory. A smile started to form on his face. [First victory] [350,000 won] The mission reward wasrge as well. ¡ª Kya, a no-death victory in the first game... Is this talent? ¡ª Bubblegum: At least I''m better than Almond at LIL! ¡ª Poor Bubblegum¡­ ¡ª Gummy¡­ Baaam! A trumpet noise that hadn¡¯t been heard in a while resounded. [IUrFather has donated a whopping 700,000 won!] [Wow, Almond! ^^ I love watching your streams! It''s my payday and you got your first victory as well. Congrattions!] 700,000 won. Combined with the mission reward, it was a total of 1.05 million won. If arge donation like this happened, Almond couldn''t just let it slide. "Wow! IUrFather, thank you very much!" The viewers were shaken in fear of his excited voice. ¡ª A no-death victory? Impossible. Kill him with the donations! ¡ª Don''t end the stream! ¡ª Stop the stream from ending! ¡ª Wait... this amount is... ¡ª Almond... the only thing that can kill you is donations. ¡ª Almond''s suicide ending? Amazing. ¡ª But how''s he going to kill himself in LIL? ¡ª I wonder how he''s going to die this time¡­ Their fear was confirmed. Almond was thinking the same thing. ''But this arrow disappears mid-air...'' He was trying to figure out how to have the arrownd on his head. It was the hardest Almond thought since the game began. While thinking, he nced at his stacks. [Pride of an Archer x 114] "Oh ho." Almond''s eyes looked eager. [W-What are you trying to do?] Raina asked him after catching on. Almond summoned her. [Ultimate - Evil Archer] Chapter 130: Lazy Soldier (1)

    Chapter 130: Lazy Soldier (1)

    Raina''s arrows disappeared once they reached a certain distance because it was made from mana energy. It was made like that in the game to limit the champion¡¯s range. Unfortunately, Almond couldn''t shoot it in the air for his signature performance because the arrow would disappear before itnded on him. However, there was more than one way to cook an egg. [Ultimate - Evil Archer] Almond suddenly summoned Raina. Kwang! A red light shed as Raina was summoned in her ultimate form. ¡ª ??? ¡ª What happened? ¡ª Ultimate? ¡ª Is this the performance? The viewers, alongside Raina, were confused. [W... what the... why are you summoning me now?] There was only one reason to use the ultimate right before victory. It was for a performance. Raina didn''t like the summoners who summoned her just for a victory pose. As expected, Raina''s fanboys started chiming in. ¡ª Our Raina hates things like this... ¡ª Your rapport with her is going to go down... ¡ª 700,000 won donation to reduce the friendship level?! ¡ª Weeb TMI: Raina hates being summoned like a trophy when it''s not in battle. She detests the summoner because she has a lot of pride¡­ The fanboys were unofficially called the Demian Association. Almond was initially surprised to see how many of them were in his stream, but understood when he saw the viewer count. [Current Viewers: 9k] There were more viewers now. They were here to watch the rare Raina gamey and likely came from the Demian Association. ''Raina hates these things.'' Almond didn''t know Raina''s preferences, but what could he do? He already received a donation and Raina was already summoned. "Hey, everyone. I got over a million won in donations. I can''t just ignore it, right?" Almond tried to calm his viewers down with his streaming tone. ¡ª It''sing. ¡ª A big one ising! ¡ª Sure! ¡ª I can''t overlook this! No! I can''t! ¡ª Argh!!! I can''t even! ¡ª Are we kindergartners? Almond positioned himself for Raina''s ultimate ability. Normally, Raina would fire off on her own, but rerouting it with a Link Movement was possible. All he had to do was point with his thumb. Fwip. He pointed his thumb at his forehead. [... What are you intending?] Raina asked him with a confused look. ''... S-She''s asking me?'' Raina''s AI was impressive. He assumed she would shoot if hemanded, but now he felt sorry. "This is... hmm..." Almond didn''t know what to say. "It''s like a ritual for the holy people..." "Holy people?" ¡ª Raina looks pissed!! ¡ª Commanding Raina to shoot at you? Lucky you!! ¡ª Angry Raina? I love it! ¡ª But are you trying to get Raina to kill you? Is that even possible..? ¡ª Am I the only one who finds holy people hrious? ¡ª How creative. ¡ª ??? The hell is a holy person? Whatever expression Raina had on her face, whatever excuse Almond used, her bow was drawn. Bzzzzt¡­! The condensed blue mana rested on her finger and turned into an arrow shape. [Well... fine. So you''re saying there''s a special reason for this, right?] Despite her reluctant look, it seemed like she wouldply. ¡ª What the? Is she going to do it? ¡ª So AI can detect faces! Case closed! ¡ª Raina! Come back!! ¡ª Raina, since when did you obey the summoner so well?! The viewers were jealous, but Almond''s allies were excited at his celebration. "... Oh! ADC, are you going to celebrate? We have to see this!" "Kya, a ceremony? We can''t resist it!" Meanwhile, the enemy team was begging for them to end the game. "Ah! Just end it already, you bastards!" "Disgusting." They shouted and shouted, but who would listen to the losers? No one struck their nexus. "Yeaaah! Let''s go, Lazy Soldier!" "Rainnaaaaaa!" "Ah! Top dif?!" "Jungle dif!!" They raised their arms and made more fun of them. Just then, Raina released her bow. Kwagwagwagwang!!! The path ahead of her shone with a bright white light. It signaled arge mana explosion. "Bye, Treevy!" Almond raised his arms in the air and took it head-on. ¡ª ? ¡ª ?? ¡ª What... are you doing¡­? ¡ª Is he stupid? ¡ª Is this a prank? ¡ª ?? ¡ª LOL, I knew it wasn''t possible. The chat was filled with question marks. Swoosh... After Raina''s ultimate was over, Almond stood still with his LazySoldier avatar. ''... It didn¡¯t hit me.'' Almond only yed realistic games and forgot one crucial detail. In this game, friendly fire had zero effects. [Is this all? Summoner?] Raina was confused. Meanwhile... "Wow! Good ceremony! Let''s break it now!" "Why did you raise your arms? Whatever, jungle carry!" "Top dif!" The teammates thought he was doing a strange ceremony before hitting the nexus. Pung¡­! Finally, the enemy nexus exploded and lost its golden light. [Victory] The victory text appeared before him. The game was over. ''Ah...'' Almond wanted to move, but couldn''t right after the game. He stared at the victory screen with his arms in the air as if he was being punished. [I thought you were using me for something important.] He could hear Raina''s cold voice behind him. It was a disaster. ¡ª LOOOOOOL ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª Hell yeah, Raina''s upset. ¡ª Ah, this is Almond! Honestly, he was getting too smart in Battle Large, so it was no fun. ¡ª Hey son, if you don''t study, you will be Almond! I like that Mom! Almond was thinking of ways to escape this awkward situation. ''Right, I had this.'' He remembered a virtual button he ced on the bottom right corner of the screen for showmanship. If he nced at it, the button activated. Press! [Stream Over] The button immediately ended the stream. ¡ª ???? ¡ª Huh?! ¡ª Wait, did he pull his inte? ¡ª Teacher!! Was this necessary?! ¡ª Wow ¡ª Damn. He''s filthy. ¡ª Was this all a buildup for this? ¡ª Is this... a pro? ¡ª ???? ¡ª Are you serious?! ¡ª Hey!!! At least show us your damage! The viewers who didn''t know about the stream button thought Almond had pulled the plug. It was virtually the same thing. "Phew,"?Almond sighed a breath of relief and exited LIL. ¡ª Hey! Almond! At least show us your damage! ¡ª A twist after twist... ¡ª Total damage! Show us your damage¡­ After the viewers vented their frustration, the chat disappeared. [The stream is now over.] [Do you want to watch this channel?] A list of rmended channels came up and the viewers couldn''t type anymore. [1. Miho] [A sneak peek at the new game''s outfits] [2. Bubblegum] [Struggling in Bronze after Almond''s help!] [3. Takoyaki] [Training over. I''m moving forward with my forehead.] *** Chiiik- The capsule lid opened and Almond walked out more drenched than usual. "... Phew." He could already tell inside the capsule, but LIL took arger physical toll on him than any other game. Tak. As always, Ju-Hyeok tossed him a towel. Every time he did so, Sang-Hyeon felt like a boxer. The only difference was that Ju-Hyeok alwaysughed at him. "Wow. You sure know how to y the game." "Shut up." "No, but for real. It looked like you were having fun." Ju-Hyeok mocked him, but as a friend, he knew Almond was immersed in this game because of more than just streaming. Especially during the normal match after the tutorial, Almond waspletely into it. Even more than when he first yed Battle Large. "... That''s right." Sang-Hyeon nodded without hesitation. LIL was fun. He felt it was in another ss from the games he previously yed. No other games gave him the explosive fun that LIL did. ¡°Pfft,¡± Ju-Hyeokughed and realized he was correct. "Don''t get drunk on yourself, Mr. Gamer. It won''t be long before we have to y our game,?Lazy Soldier." "Ah... Is it?" Ju-Hyeok showed him the schedule on his cellphone. "The first schedule is tomorrow for our ad shoot." "Ah¡­!" It was tomorrow. Did that mean he couldn''t y LIL the next day? For some reason, Sang-Hyeon was disappointed. "Yeah, I need to do the ad." Regardless, he liked the advertisement because it meant money, which was good for Ju-Hyeok and Ji-Ah. Almond headed to the bathroom to shower. *** Shaaaa... Ju-Hyeok could hear the shower turn on. He went on themunity forums to see their reactions. ''He reached 9000 viewers towards the end.'' The viewership peaked at 9000 today. Considering they started with around 7000 viewers, it was impressive how quickly they recovered. Since Almond started with four viewers, this wasn''t much trouble for him. Judging by the trend, it seemed like time would be their solution. However, seeing what everyone thought about Almond ying LIL?was important. First, he went to KAF and Battle31, where most of Almond''s fans were. He saw a post with the following title: [This is the power of Kingdom Age archery!] Despite Almond not having yed Kingdom Age in a while, a post with his name was still in the trending section. Themunity had impressive loyalty. [Raina surprised after seeing Kingdom Age archery in action. LILtards are getting shocked at seeing Kingdom Age archery. OP Valkyrie is getting shot down by Kingdom Age archery.] The user put the following titles with a gif of those moments. ¡°Pfft,¡±?Ju-Hyeok couldn''t help butugh out loud. What about the archery in Kingdom Age? However, thements agreed with the user. ¡ª Kya! The pride of Kingdom Age! ¡ª Kya! We knew you could do it! ¡ª This is the power of Kingdom Age! ¡ª Wow, Kingdom Age is so different now! There are flying creatures too now?! ¡ª Wow! You know Kingdom Age?! Most of thements were like that. Thements that were too serious were mocked. ¡ª That looks like Demian''s bow... is that Kingdom Age''s archery? ©¸ Stfu ©¸ Fu ©¸ Get out ¡ª Sorry, but that''s not Kingdom Age archery. Its name is Demian, Raina''s bow. Demian is made from blue mana and... ©¸ A nerd pretending to be a nerd. ©¸ Why is someone from the association here¡­ ©¸ Gtfo This time, he checked Battle31. Thismunity was muchrger than KAF and was Almond''s most recent fanbase. However¡ª ''There aren''t many loyal fans.'' Since themunity wasrge and the game was big, there weren''t any trending posts about Almond. However, several posts mentioned him. [Did you see Almond y LIL? He''s insane.] [He killed it as ADC Raina.] [The fanboys are at it again for just a normal game.] [Everyone ignored Almond when he was in bronze, but the results speak for themselves.] [Stop talking about Almond!] [The fight between Raina and Valkyrie in their ultimates was breathtaking. You have to watch it.] [Raina is always breathtaking, you idiot.] There was a sh with the posts. They were trying to turn the public''s tide using the posts. "Hmm..." Ju-Hyeok thought for a moment and made a post. [This is the power of Battle Large archery!] It was the same post as earlier, but with a different name. ¡ª LOL so prideful. ¡ª I am kind of proud of him. ¡ª Battle Large is a good game for sure, but thepany is... ¡ª Oh¡­ Despite constantly criticizing Battle Large, they still loved the game. They felt proud. ''Good...'' After jotting down new data about themunity, Ju-Hyeok moved on to LIL Pro. This ce was going to be messy. "Phew..." Thismunity housed the same violent personality as actual LIL yers. Ju-Hyeok nervously clicked on the website. Chapter 131: Lazy Soldier (2)

    Chapter 131: Lazy Soldier (2)

    It was worse than he expected. Ju-Hyeok''s hands started trembling after seeing the first post on LIL Pro. [Look at Almond, this nobody LOL] Even the first post he saw was harsh. The rumors were that a normal person went insane after ying ranked for a month. The everyday users of the website were in a worse state. Nobody was sane here, but Ju-Hyeok still decided to check it out. It was better that he, the manager, checked it out before Sang-Hyeon did because it would affect his mentality even a little. [Who is he? Why the fuck is he so good? He was insane on Raina.] "Ah...?Shit." He was baited. Ju-Hyeok thought he was getting used to themunity forums, but he was still an amateur. ¡ª For real. ¡ª Don''t write posts like this. You''re going to get a lot of haters. ¡ª Almond? Isn''t he a Battle Large streamer? ©¸ He switched over to LIL recently. ©¸ Ah, for real? Was he a variety streamer? Yet he still achieved a new record on Battle Large? What a guy. ¡ª You''re from Battle Large, aren''t you? Get out! ¡ª ount level: 1 / Wins: 1 / Rank?: Unranked / Skill?: World-ss??? ©¸ LOOL ©¸ Go up to big! ¡ª Almond, sir, you can''t do this here. ¡ª Almond, I see you use AK Tel~ ¡ª If we want to see Raina''s true skills, he''s gotta y the escort mode. Tsk, tsk. Ju-Hyeok scratched his head with a bitter smile. "Thements are..." The post was good, but thements were fierce. Almond hadn''t done anything in particr yet to beplimented. All he did was y one normal game. He only yed the siege mode out of the escort, siege, and survival modes. He had only yed 20% of the game''s content, so it was no surprise that LIL?users were biased. [You''ve gotta admit, Almond has talent in Raina.] [Whether it''s normal or not, it''s hard to see a performance like that against other users. You idiots can''t see the potential?] [LIL users are the worst. The worst users of the inte are all from here.] However, there were usually some posts that were in favor of them. ¡ª Why are you sucking up to an unranked? Tell him toe after he ranks up. ©¸ Big pro fuckers are all talk, no show. ¡ª Battle31 ignored him when he was bronze ranked too, but it was even worse than that because he was actually a nobody. ©¸ Do you feel left out? ¡ª Isn''t Battle Large famous for banning him because of his looks? Why are youparing those idiots to us? ©¸ Do you feel left out too? ©¸ I think you''re the one who¡¯s an idiot. Almond was famous for being undefeated. The videos are still up. ©¸ For real. It''s a popr video from Almond''s channel ^^ ''Now that I think about it, that''s right.'' When Almond first started ying Battle Large, themunity reactions were also harsh. It was so bad that he got reported multiple times and got banned. There were so many reports that thepany hadn''t even verified it before banning him. They were all the same people. Eventually, these people would turn out like the Battle Large folks. ''One day, they''ll recognize Almond.'' It was unknown when that would be because LIL was a difficult game, but Ju-Hyeok firmly believed that day woulde. Ju-Hyeok screenshotted a few postsplimenting Almond, although there weren''t many. [But isn''t it nice to see him give it his all every time he streams? His streams are short, but he''s drenched in sweat all the time.] [I''m a diamond, but judging by his skills purely on Raina, he''s really good. He''ll shine if he ys siege mode.] [Almond will take over LIL as well! Us nut crew solemnly swear!] [Good luck, Almond!] Innocent cheers, positive reviews,passion, etc. All of them would help Almond one way or another. He put these screenshots into a folder named "Cheering Almond". Ju-Hyeokpiled them to show Almond if his mentality ever broke down, but Sang-Hyeon must be invincible because it never broke. ''Instead, I read it on repeat...'' Ju-Hyeok scratched his head with a bitter look. He considered renaming the folder into "Cheering Ju-Hyeok". ''Anyways, is there any interesting news?'' Ju-Hyeok headed to the big category to see if there were any posts, even if they weren''t about Almond. Most of the posts were talking about the tournament. Some were about the champion patch updates and talking about how they were useless because of the nerfs... There wasn''t any talk about streamers, but then... [Raina vs. Valkyrie''s sh. I wanted to show you this...gif] "... Huh?" Could this be Almond? Ju-Hyeok fixed his sses. Nothing showed up when he searched for it. *** The next day at 5 A.M., there was an emergency in the Fantasia meeting room because of today''s photoshoot. "Camera 3!" "Yes!" "Camera 2!" "Yes!" "Lights 1!" "Yes!" The process was numbering off all the equipment one by one. It was to prevent any mistakes from happening during the shoot that was about to happen. "Hey! Pay attention. They''re calling you!?" "S-Sorry!" "Sigh..." There was shouting everywhere because everybody had gathered together for this one shoot. Everyone was on edge. Even those getting scolded broke out in a sweat, but it looked like they had noints. Supervisor Koh, who was in the studio, shouted while putting a pen behind his ear. "Alright, the cameras are all set up with no problems. Everybody got the message about the extra shoot we''re doing, right?" All the staff nodded, but didn''t look happy. "A 3D shoot was added in as well, so the 3D crew is here too. 3D? Where are you?" "Here!" A crew sitting closely in one studio section waved back to him. The supervisor put a man''s face up as a hologram and exined, "This Almond person was added inst minute, so we don''t have his bio code yet. Please get his eye color and fingerprint bio code right away. Have the design team get to work." "Yes!" "There''s a scene where the character and the person are together, so we have to do it at the same time on set." "Okay!" "There''s not only 3D, but another crew added. You guys should''ve all got the ns already. Did you check it?" "Yes!" the staff replied excitedly, but didn''t seem happy. ''We already have a tight schedule, yet they added another person?'' ''Why did they decide sote?'' ''Who''s that...'' ''Seems like an exception for Almond.'' ''It''s the new guy Punk is pushing for.'' Supervisor Koh was aware of how the staff felt. However, the fact that Almond was added didn''t matter. He was a nuisance. ''Manager Oh... he should''ve decided quickly.'' He didn''t want to be ufortable around his staff. This situation was the worst for theseborers. If it were higher-ups, a simple bow to them was all that was needed. "Alright. Let''s take a break and we''ll check the equipment." Supervisor Koh crossed out lines from the schedule using the pen from his ear. He was crossing off the finished tasks. In his organized schedule, one red writing was out of ce. ''Almond''s character studio work.'' Supervisor Koh wanted to rip the heads off of the higher-ups who decided having hime herest minute was a good idea. "Who is this guy? Why are they rushing him..." He took a second nce at Almond''s face. It was new to him. He stared at his face briefly and muttered, "... He is good-looking." Almond''s face was great for the camera. He looked like an actor or a model. His face was shaped to reflect light and shadow perfectly and matched Western and Asian looks. All in all, he looked good. His personality was still a mystery, but his face was wee in the studio. "But do mobile game yers... like these kinds of people? It''s not like this guy has a lot of viewers either... hmm..." Aside from that, the supervisor was still confused about why they picked him. Bubblegum was a major name with a friendly middle-aged man character with 50-60,000 viewers. Miho would undoubtedly be a must-pick for men willing to open their wallets for her. However, Almond seemed iffy. He didn''t even have 10,000 viewers on average. He finished off with 9000 yesterday. He was above an average sryman, but not necessarily big enough for this ad. "Hm. Well, as a mid-thirties man, I''m angry because he''s so good-looking," a manager friend of his butted in from beside him. "... Really?" "I''m kidding. He looks like a lot of twenty to thirty year old guys will like him. Of course, girls will like him too. Seems like he''d be popr with the mass... but age is the problem." "Right? The problem is... lots of mobile gamers are middle-aged men." "That''s right." "Maybe this game is targeting the younger people." The supervisor left it at that, but was still curious. It continued to sit with him, and he didn''t like that. *** "Phew. It''s finallying together." After rehearsing the steps and procedure, Supervisor Koh nodded in satisfaction. The work was finally over. "Since there''s an hour left, let''s take a break on your own." "Yes!" They finished preparing ahead of time. Supervisor Koh left the studio to grab a smoke upstairs. The ce was filled with employees when he heard a shout in the distance. "Lazy Soldier came up on the trending searches in LIL Pro!?" Trending search? Usually, it wasn''t good news if a mobile game came up on trending search during the development phase. The game''s poprity affected Supervisor Koh as well. He could feel one side of the ship growing heavy... "Yes! H-Here..." "Oh..." They first discussed it with a serious look, but startedughing with a festive look. Thankfully, it seemed like good news. Supervisor Koh was relieved. Why did ite up on the trending search? He went over to them and asked, "What are you talking about? Trending search?" The manager in charge of the project hadn''t heard him. He continued to shout until his face turned red. "This is incredible! It''s top ten! I heard it was top fifteenthst night!" Sometimes it was possible to trend by pure luck, but if it was maintained from the day before, it was a bigger deal. Supervisor Koh asked again, "Why did it reach trending?" "Huh? Oh, Supervisor Koh, when did youe?" the manager finally noticed him. "I came up to take a smoke, but I heard you guys." "Ah, were we that loud? Hahaha! Take a look at this," the manager in chargeughed loudly and disyed his phone. [Raina vs. Valkyrie''s sh. I wanted to show you this...gif] There was a post with the following title. He felt troubled because the title referenced an old copypasta. [Isn''t Raina and Valkyrie''s fight legendary? It really is the battle of the greatest. Is this Raina, the loser we knew? Raina is legendary¡­] Underneath the text was a gif of Raina deflecting Valkyrie''s hail of des with her arrows. Supervisor Koh had to fix his sses to take a closer look. After finishing the video, his feedback was this, "Isn''t this set up?" He felt it was staged. That''s how unbelievable it was. "I was a LIL yer once too. It doesn''t make sense." "No, man. It came from a stream." "A stream?" "Look here." Tap, tap.? On the screen was Raina''s username. [LazySoldier] [Evil Archer - Raina] [Lv.7] ¡°... Huh?! Puhahaha!¡± Supervisor Koh startedughing. "We''re so lucky!" What a coincidence. How could the username be LazySoldier? "... Hey, do you think this is purely by luck?" "Sorry?" "This is the original vid. Take a look." If this wasn''t luck, then what was it? Supervisor Koh turned to stone as he stared at the face in the bottom right corner of the screen. It was the face he was studying earlier. ''Almond¡­?'' It was Almond. Chapter 132: Lazy Soldier (3)

    Chapter 132: Lazy Soldier (3)

    [Raina vs. Valkyrie''s sh. I wanted to show you this...gif] Ju-Hyeok smiled as he clicked on the post. "I knew it¡­!" Even though Almond was a beginner and despite it being a normal match, his y was jaw-dropping. First in Kingdom Age and now in LIL as well. ¡ª Why''s he standing there and fighting? LOL ©¸ Because it''s cool! ©¸ Hahahaha? ¡ª Is this staged? ©¸ Even if it was, how is this possible? ©¸ For real, how''s this possible? ©¸ That''ll take maybe a hundred tries? ©¸ If anyone yed LIL that much, they''d die. ©¸ They''d die before being able to do this, LOL ¡ª Damn, this is fucking cool. ¡ª Kya! This is something else! People wondered why Almond made that y, but it was gaining attention. This LIL post was in the big category. But that wasn''t everything. "Huh¡­?" [10. LazySoldier] LazySoldier was in the trending searches in LIL Pro. Ju-Hyeok fixed his sses and took a closer look. "Is this possible?" He checked how many people viewed the post. [1789 views] It wasn''t even 2000 views, yet it was trending? Not all of them would search it up either... "... Ah!" He finally understood how Almond¡¯s name was trending on the search list. "This guy is enjoying it..." *** LIL Pro was originally a website strictly for the game. However, it grew into a general gamingmunity after gaining poprity. Afterward, it turned into amunity forum for the top 3 games. The fact that a new video game title was in the search rankings made it worth millions of won in terms of money. Supervisor Koh couldn''t believe it. ''Almond did this?'' He couldn''t believe Almond achieved it. [9. LazySoldier] The keyword was now ninth. "Is that... Almond?" Supervisor Koh had to double-check. "Yes! This guy changed his nickname to LazySoldier because he''s promoting it! Hahaha!?And all for free! We need to give our promos to guys like this! Isn''t this the perfect guy? Doing something like this?" Indeed, it was Almond. Supervisor Koh scratched his head. The manager''spliments continued, "Apparently, he mentioned the game again during his interview on Fantasia''s channel. My employee told me. Isn''t that incredible? So different from you, who frowns all the time while expecting things to work out." "Wait..." ¡®Why insult me?¡¯ Supervisor Koh continued to frown and asked about something he found odd, "But did Almond have this much influence? The manager said..." He recalled the manager mentioning Almond had under 10,000 viewers. How could a streamer with less than 10,000 viewerse up on the trending searches just because he made one supery? It was a little strange. "No way. Almond doesn''t even have 10,000 viewers. There''s no way he can have this much influence." "That''s weird. He has under 10,000 viewers, yet he still came up on the trending searches with one super y?" The manager smiled and waved his hand, "Lol! That''s actually the best part." The supervisor wanted to tell him he sounded even older by trying to sound young with the ng, but he let it slide. What was the best part? "Think about it. Why would Lazy Soldier be in the search rankings instead of Almond?" It was strange. His name should''ve been moremon if the original scene was from Almond''s channel. Instead, Lazy Soldier was in the trending search list. "This youngster has a way of doing things..." The manager showed him a clip. It was Almond finishing his stream. What a strange way to end the stream... "This is just him being crazy." "Ah, yeah. It''s a donation celebration. Apparently, he normally does this. Anyways, that''s not what''s important. Look at the chat." ¡ª Ahhh! The damage! ¡ª Aren''t you going to show us your total damage dealt? ¡ª You''re crazy... ¡ª Cool guys don''t show the damage chart, even though he carried his first-ever game. Damage chart. Everything made sense after seeing that phrase. "Ah!" After every LIL match, there was a variety of data disyed. It showed who did the best, the total damage dealt to the enemy, received damage, etc. Naturally, the viewers were curious to see his damage chart and searched for his name. Since Almond''s username was LazySoldier, that name inevitably came up on the trending searches. "Apparently, there was a case like this before too. He reached Diamond and turned off his stream right away, which forced the users to search for his name on Javer. It looks like he used that strategy again." "So that''s why it''s up!" "That''s right! The fight scene you just watched added to the fire!" Was it a coincidence? It didn''t seem like it because this wasn''t his first time. Everything seemed nned, from the creation of his username to the timing of his stream ending. Tap. The manager ced a hand on his shoulder. "Be nice to him when hees, okay?" "Hmm... Is that necessary? Just for something like this?" "Director Park." "?" "You know that guy is sensitive to things like this, right? He goes crazy for trending searches. It doesn''t even look like it was staged. And this game is a cob with Weplug. The stocks he has in thispany..." "..." Director Park. As soon as he heard this name, Supervisor Koh became dumbfounded. The managerughed. "Anyways, I''m going to tell him that the game came up on the trending search without any foul y. Be nice to peanut or chestnut or whatever his name is. Make sure he does well." "It''s Almond." "Yeah, that. Anyways, good luck. I hear that you have a lot of trouble with Director Park, right?" "..." Supervisor Koh nodded without a word. *** Meanwhile, Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon started getting dressed early for their schedule. It had been a while since they got ready so early. The two were full of excitement. Since it was their first shoot as a model for an ad, they excitedly got ready. "Alright, let''s go!" Ju-Hyeok shouted excitedly as he opened the door. m! The stairs of hell greeted them, and their excitement instantly disappeared. Everything became meaningless in front of these stairs in the slums. After ten minutes¡­ "Huff... Puff..." Sang-Hyeon was fine, but Ju-Hyeok was dying and collecting his breath. "Are you still tired even after going up and down here every day?" "S-Shut up... Phew..." Ju-Hyeok didn''t have the strength to argue and waved him away. Honk! Honk! Just then, arge van arrived. It was the car Punk sent them. A friendly face greeted them as the door opened. "Hey! Have you waited for a long while?" It was Manager Oh with a big smile. He was the one who decided to bring a car for them since they didn''t have a vehicle. "No, we just came. Instead, it looks like I won''t even have time to catch my breath. Haha..." Ju-Hyeok pointed at the stairs with his red face. Manager Oh''s expression shook after seeing the stairs. ''They live... there? Isn''t this the slums?'' Manager Oh was unaware of how Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok lived. Since they were handsome and previously worked at argepany, he assumed they were from a wealthy household. Sang-Hyeon started archery at a young age as well. Archery was an expensive sport... ''And he''s been an ident too?'' As Manager Oh recalled Sang-Hyeon''s ident, he became speechless. His mind went nk thinking about Almond¡¯s difficult past. "Hm, hm." Manager Oh cleared his throat and spoke up. It wasn''t his first day out in society. He could hide his surprise easily. "Haha, is that so? Must be good exercise. Is that why you guys are so healthy? Get on, quickly." He fixed his expression and moved aside. The atmosphere would change once they entered because there was a surprise guest. "Hello!" Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon stared at the backseat in shock after hearing the bright idol-like voice. Ju-Hyeok banged his head on his way into the van. "Kugh!" Miho looked at Sang-Hyeon and ignored Ju-Hyeok''s scream. "Almond, this is the first time we''re meeting in person, right?" Her smile was even more unrealistic in real life than in This World. "Ah... Hello," Sang-Hyeon awkwardly greeted her. He had an awkward look because he was surprised. Miho understood and started giving excuses for why she was in the van. "My manager is on vacation, and I can''t drive..." "Don''t you have a car?" Manager Oh cut her off. "It''s in service..." "But you said you can''t drive?" "Y... yeah. I can''t drive well and got into an ident, so my car is in the shop, is what I was going to say." Miho had to send her expensive car without any problems to the shop. She smiled brightly as if nothing happened. "So that''s why I''m in the van... haha..." Manager Oh turned around and shook his head with a smile. "Ah, yes..." Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok simply replied because they didn''t know what to say. "Alright, let''s go. The van is lively thanks to Miho!" Manager Oh cheered her up after making fun of her as the van started up. Vrooom¡­! Miho, Ju-Hyeok, and Sang-Hyeon started naturally talking to each other after around fifteen minutes. It was possible because they had the same objectives. Miho and Ju-Hyeok were also both extroverted. Manager Oh suddenly said something to Sang-Hyeon in private, "Uh... Sang-Hyeon, there''s something I couldn''t tell you." Miho and Ju-Hyeok naturally turned their heads as well "..." Manager Oh hesitated after noticing them, but started talking anyway. "We did our contract a littlete, right?" "Yes." "You should know because you''ve worked in an office before. If workers get extra workst minute, they get angry..." Manager Oh exined to them that there was arge increase in work because Sang-Hyeon was added at thest minute. Therefore, the staff could be unfriendly toward him. Of course, Manager Oh would be there to prevent it from happening. However, he couldn''t watch andin about every little detail. And even if he did witness something, it''d be difficult for him to chime in. "... So please understand." He apologized with a sorry look, "I''ll apologize in advance." "No, thank you. I should be thanking you for signing me on even though it''sst minute." Sang-Hyeon waved his hand, signaling that it was alright. However, Ju-Hyeok looked angry. Miho stared at Sang-Hyeon with a concerned look. "Don''t worry. I''ll help you out. These types of shoots are my specialty, so I know it well." "Yeah, Miho will help. She''s a true pro." "Thank you." "Oh, we''re here. Get off, get off!" They got off at Fantasia''s headquarters and felt the pressure from the tall building. They passed by the lobby and headed towards the elevator in the center. They needed to get to floor 20. The entire floor was a studio set up for photoshoots and such. [20F Fantasia Video Studio] The four were greeted with bright white lights, countless cameras,rge ss, and matte floors as soon they got off the elevator. "Here. Fantasia''s studio." It felt different from thest time Almond streamed with them. There were much more staff and equipment this time around. Gulp. Sang-Hyeon gulped. If what Manager Oh said was true, all those staff members would act unfriendly towards him. As expected, he made eye contact with several staff members. ''W-Why is everyoneing to me?'' Most of them were approaching Sang-Hyeon. He nced towards Manager Oh, confused as to what was happening. He was already shaking hands and greeting other people. Just then, the first one to approach him was a man. "You''re Almond, right?" One after another, people guided Almond as if he were on a red carpet. "Nice to meet you, Almond! Please,e over here! Our team is the 3D team!" ¡°So you''re Almond. You look better in person! We''re the makeup team. Even if we act out, please understand.¡± Suddenly, Sang-Hyeon was split off from Miho, Ju-Hyeok, and Manager Oh. "It''s... not that bad?" Despite hearing this, the staff was unfazed. Chapter 133: Studio (1)

    Chapter 133: Studio (1)

    Considering Manager Oh''s warning... "Hello, Almond! Please,e over here first!" "Please standby for a moment!" "Almond, right? We''re the 3D team! Did you listen to the exnation already?" The studio''s atmosphere was very positive. Everyone looked so bright and friendly that Manager Oh felt overwhelmed. What happened? However, it didn''t seem like Manager Oh was lying. ''It does seem like it''s busier because of me.'' There was an overwhelming number of people attached to Sang-Hyeon. Not only the 3D team that Manager Oh told him about, but also the makeup team was with him to reduce the time. While everyone else received their makeup in the cosmetic station in the lobby, Sang-Hyeon received it surrounded byputers and holograms. "We''re going to check your bio code first." To his left, they checked his fingerprint, eye color, and hair as they opened up his bio code. On his right, they were designing Sang-Hyeon''s 3D character in real time. "Alright, close your eyes." In front of him was the makeup team. "But, does this guy really need makeup? He''s so good-looking." The soft brush touches followed the generic voice of a makeup artist. "Almond, let''s turn around for a moment. Alright, over here." This was the 3D team''s request. They were cautious because the makeup team had to reposition, but they turned around with Sang-Hyeon without a hint of concern. It felt like the makeup artist was painting in the air. Although, he did worry if it was going well... ''Wow... that''s crazy.'' ''Why did a person like that only appear now?'' ''Did he live under a rock?'' Judging by the assistant''s reactions, it seemed it was going well. *** Manager Oh was confused as well. ''Hm? This is different from what I expected. Supervisor Koh told me...'' Supervisor Koh Joon-Seok called him earlier, angrily telling him to deal with the studio''s atmosphere alone. Heined and med Manager Oh for adding Almondst minute. He was warning him ahead of time that they would get revenge using the studio''s atmosphere. Manager Oh was annoyed with how he talked, but couldn''t say anything back. Until the shoot was over, Supervisor Koh had the authority. If the studio''s atmosphere was negative, the models were the ones affected by it. And the individual who led the atmosphere was the supervisor, which meant the supervisor had authority for the time being. But the studio''s atmosphere was fine. Instead, it seemed lively. Manager Oh approached Supervisor Koh and asked him, "What happened? You called me all angry, but things seem fine?" "Well... I ran back and forth. I redid the ns as well. Everything they''re doing over there? We just came up with it. It turned out better this way." Supervisor Koh wasn''t the type of person to put effort into his work. Manager Oh suspiciously stared at Supervisor Koh''s expression. "... Really? What''s gotten into you? You''re usually azy bum." "Because it''s important." "It wasn''t important earlier, but now it is?" "..." "So there is something?" Manager Oh smiled. "Sigh..." Supervisor Koh didn''t want to say anything. He just wanted to move past it. "Hey, Manager Oh. You seem like you gained some weight?" Dammit, it was the manager in charge. "Hey there! You look good! I heard you won the amateur golf tournament the other day." "Ahahaha!?You heard about that already?" "Anyone who golfs knows already! I need to golf more so I lose weight." "That''s your charm." Manager Oh greeted the manager happily. It was obvious what he''d ask now. "Supervisor Koh looks like he''s in great condition today! He''s running around getting things done. Earlier today, he was ready to roast me alive." It sounded like he wasplimenting him, but he was curious about what was happening. "Ah..." The manager in charge nced at Supervisor Koh for a moment. They met eyes and he signaled him?¡®NO,¡¯?but it was ineffective. "Don''t you know about the trending search?" "Trending search?" Manager Oh nced at Supervisor Koh. "... I didn''t hear anything about that." Supervisor Koh looked away with a frown, but the manager persisted. "Wow. You didn''t tell him about it?" "I-I just met him." "You''re so petty," the manager lightly scolded the supervisor and told Manager Oh about the incident. Manager Oh and Supervisor Koh didn''t know because they had been busy since the morning, but one of the staff found out on LIL Pro that Lazy Soldier was 9th in the top searches. Manager Oh''s widened. ''What the¡­?'' "This is all thanks to Almond the streamer! The one who''s here today..." Almond and the way he ended streams... Manager Oh was shocked to hear everything. It wasn''t an act. He was genuinely shocked. ''What¡¯s with our luck?!'' Manager Oh was familiar with Almond''s personality and knew this was all a coincidence. He knew Almond just left the stream because he had no choice. That was his character, but he got lucky again. Although he did deserve some credit for changing his name to LazySoldier. That small act resulted in this. Luck came to those who were ready. This was a prime example of that. ¡®It seems like some people have all the luck, but what does that have to do with Supervisor Koh acting all nice¡­¡¯ The supervisor wasn''t the type of person to act nice just because they reached trending searches. Koh Joon-Seok wasn''t a diligent worker at all. The manager in charge exined, "I just got back from reporting it to Director Park." He whispered to Manager Oh, "He''s an older fellow, so he loves it when we reach the top searches." "Ah..." "He ordered us directly to put Almond in all the shoots. Not to leave him out at all." By contract, it was a given to have Almond in all the shoots. This was just a way of the director reiterating to give him special care. And why was Supervisor Koh so reactive to hismands? It was obvious. ''Supervisor Koh probably has some ties with Director Park for a promotion. How long is he going to be an assistant manager?'' Supervisor was a temporary title. Originally, he was just an assistant manager. Manager Oh knew well that Supervisor Koh was on Director Park''s side. As a result, he bowed down to any words from Director Park. ¡°Pfft,¡± Manager Oh couldn''t help butugh. Supervisor Koh had been acting all cold and mighty this morning, but the situation changed in a couple of hours. "Well, that''s what happened. Good luck. We''re lucky to have this happen at the start of the project. It''s a good thing, right? I''ll just be an old man distracting everyone if I¡¯m here, so I''ll get out of the way. See you." The manager in charge left. Only Manager Oh and Supervisor Koh awkwardly remained. Manager Oh approached him and put a hand on his shoulder, "Wow. Can''t believe this happened." Tap, tap. He tapped on Supervisor Koh¡¯s shoulder as if he was treating someone under him. "Seems like you''ll have to execute this well." Supervisor Koh couldn''t respond to Manager Oh''s smile. Manager Oh wasn''t wrong because he did have to execute this well. *** Was it because Manager Oh bent Supervisor Koh''s will? The studio''s photoshoot went very well. Of course, that was from the perspective of the models. They were like a car going through an automatic car wash where everything was ready for them. They had to followmands, make poses, and move around. Instead, the staff was hard at work. All the staff behind the camera were fanning themselves despite it being the middle of winter. "Phew. I''m dying." "This is a lot of work..." They were given the sacred break time. "Let''s take a break for a bit." They weren''t sure if it''d be five or ten minutes of break time. Since their supervisor advised them not toin, they gathered quietly in a corner andined quietly. "Hey, can''t we turn off the heater?" "Didn''t you see what Miho was wearing? The supervisor will go apeshit on us, telling us don''t you think Miho will freeze to death?" The staff was hot, but they couldn''t turn the heat down since Miho was wearing an exposed outfit. "Sigh... I''m hot even in a t-shirt." "It''s cause we''re running around. Miho just has to stand still." The staff was hot because they had to run around under the lights. Ju-Hyeok suddenly returned with a huge box after leaving earlier. Creak¡­? A big man carrying a box followed him as well. "Ah, yes. Over here. Thank you." "Phew.?Yes yes. Have a good one!" m! He ced down a box of drinks. "I bought some drinks. Have some before you work." The staff''s heads turned around. "Wow!" "Wow! Thank you!" "Oh no, you didn''t have to..." Supervisor Koh also approached the box of refreshing drinks, happy to see them. "Haha, I had nothing to do because everything was so well done. Here, have a drink." All the staff came thanks to their break. "Oh? It''s almond milk." "It''s my first time drinking this." "There''s a power potion as well!" "Woah, did you get almond milk because you''re Almond''s manager? Hahaha!" "I''m going to try out the almond milk. I hear it''s low in calories." "You''re worrying about calories now of all times? I''m going to drink the sports drink power potion before I die." Mumble. Mumble. The staff gathered around and started talking, naturally creating a positive atmosphere. A small event recovered their moods. ''Wow, they really know how to get things done.'' Supervisor Koh stared at them as he took out an almond milk. The manager and streamer were lucky, but he had to admit they got things done. Supervisor Koh was forcing the workers to act nicely to them and didn''t actually think very fondly of them. ''Almond milk...'' It didn¡¯t ur to the supervisor, but the staff''s heads were likely filled with the word almond now. If it were a different drink, the manager would''ve shined more than the manager. However, it looked like the manager wanted Almond to be remembered instead of him. The supervisor¡¯s gaze naturally turned to Almond. "He¡¯s in the position of power." Almond was gulping down his drink as Supervisor Koh stared at him dumbfoundedly. ''... Why are you drinking that?!'' He assumed Almond would be drinking almond milk. *** Their break was over. "Woah!?It''s an actor! An actor! I made it!" "Hey, I''m the one who made it. A chibi Almond." Almond''s makeup and his?Lazy Soldier character were simultaneouslyplete. "Alright, take a look and see how the character is." Inside the screen was Almond''s mini character walking around. The character was simplified, but strangely looked simr to Sang-Hyeon. It wasn''t just because the water pouch he carried around looked like an Almond. It looked like Sang-Hyeon. "It captures the most identifiable features of the bio code and makes it. That''s why you''re good-looking even though it''s very tiny." "Ah..." "Now, we can finally go into the shoot!" It seemed like a long time had passed. ''It''s only been two hours?'' The shoot was just beginning. The studio''s white lights brightly shone towards Miho and Bubblegum posing for the camera. They were quite skilled. Miho looked perfect just standing still. She was also skilled in looking at the camera from the right angles since she was a model. She was like a fashion magazine walking around. Bubblegum made all sorts of faces that made the staffugh. ''... Can I do that?'' He would be fine if it were a simple interview, but being a model was very awkward for Sang-Hyeon. What could he do? He already decided to do it. ''I''ll probably get better as I do it.'' Almond emptied his head. "Almond! If you''re ready, pleasee over here!" Chapter 134: Studio (2)

    Chapter 134: Studio (2)

    "Wow! Almond, the makeup looks really good on you." Miho was the first one to greet him as he approached the photo shoot. Sang-Hyeon replied with a smile to thank her. Miho tried to add on, but¡­ "Uh, uh... Miho, you can''t move yet." "Ah, yes..." The photographer stopped her. Afterward, she could only steal nces at Sang-Hyeon. "Almond, stay here for a moment. The main photographer is going toe soon." "Sure." Sang-Hyeon leaned against the wall, waiting for his set to be prepared. As the white studio lights moved around, his set quickly became ready. Beside him was Bubblegum doing his own shoot. Sang-Hyeon watched him for a bit. Since it was his first time seeing Bubblegum in person, he was intrigued. He wasn''t as professional as Miho, but he was skilled. Bubblegum noticed and greeted him. Sang-Hyeon replied with a smile. Tap, tap. Someone tapped Sang-Hyeon on the back. "?" He turned around and was confused to see nobody. "Over here. Here." He heard something below him. "Hello! Almond!" Almond wasn''t tall, but the girl standing before him was quite short. She was around 150 cm in height. "I''m the main photographer. I hope for the best." She looked and sounded like a child. Sang-Hyeon was surprised that she was the main photographer. "Ah... Yes, nice to meet you." He was worried because she didn''t look like a pro and he wasn''t a pro either. ''Will this work out...'' Manager Oh thought the same thing from a distance and asked Supervisor Koh about it, "Who''s that person? You said you were going to take special care of Almond!" "Huh? Don''t you see that I''m busy right now? I am taking special care of him." "Look at Almond''s photographer. I told you to put him with a veteran since he''s new." "...?" Supervisor Koh nced at the photographer and shrugged. "Oh Soo-Young? I did put a veteran with him, Manager Oh." "... Really? She looks young." "She is young, but she started when she was even younger. From our connections, she''s the best one to take photos of guys." He gave a list of famous names she was responsible for. If it were true, she was a veteran photographer. "Hmm... Is that so?" It seemed like Manager Oh was still in disbelief. Supervisor Koh noticed him continuing to nce toward them and reassured him. "Her skills are undeniable, but her preference is a little... weird. No, it''s more like she gets way too into it." "?" "She''s pretty hyper. And... it''s fine if she likes the way it turns out, but if she doesn''t, then she¡¯ll just quit." "What?! Then what happens?" "... If that happens, it''s more work for us. We have to ask another photographer to take his photos. Manager Oh, there''s a solution to everything, so just mind your business." Manager Oh frowned, but didn''t say much. This wasn''t a big deal for a studio of this size, but he was uneasy about putting a strange photographer with Almond because it looked like Supervisor Koh wanted to intimidate the neers. *** sh! A voice was heard after Sang-Hyeon''s first shot. "Oh shit!" And it continued. "It''s really good! You''re very good-looking! Woaaah!" sh! "Wow! You''re a piece of work! Even more impressive than the actor I worked with recently." sh! "Shit!" This was alling from one person. "Greeat!" Oh Soo-Young was an energetic individual. Sang-Hyeon was worried that she would use all her energy for the day in this photoshoot. Her way of taking photos was unusual. Sang-Hyeon barely changed his pose, but she ran around taking pictures of him from different angles. For Sang-Hyeon, it was easy as a beginner. However, as an athlete, he was concerned about her stamina. Tadak. Tadak. She ran all over the ce with her heavy camera while screaming and shouting. "Shiiiit! I love it! One more time in this pose!" She showed him an example of a pose. Chuk, chuk, chuk.? She approached Sang-Hyeon and fixed his clothing for him as well. He could feel the heat from her when she came close. Her eyes were bright and shining. Oh Soo-Young seemed to be satisfied with her photoshoot today. "This is your first photoshoot, right? You''re like a statue standing still. There''s nothing awkward about you." Sang-Hyeon stayed quiet because it didn''t seem like she was looking for an answer. sh! sh! She was busy pressing the shutter and shoving the camera before his face. "It''s amazing! You''re doing fantastic. Very sexy. Is this a game for women? I want to y it too!" Her hands and feet were restless, but so was her mouth. It was a part of her job as well. "Just debut as a celebrity now, please? You''re born to be one." Sang-Hyeon started gaining confidence after listening to all thepliments. ''Seems like it''s going well.'' He naturally pulled off all the poses. The photo shoot was going great. However, there were difficult parts as an amateur. "Alright, should we smile naturally? Naturally as possible. Bright too!" He was trying to smile naturally. It was the hardest task for beginners. Staring at the camera nkly wasn''t difficult, but smiling naturally was hard for anyone. Sang-Hyeon was worried he''d look awkward, which resulted in an awkward smile. "Hmm¡­? It''s not like we''re taking a photo for your passport. Think about something funny. Not too funny, just enough to make you smirk." Sang-Hyeon thought about it. He thought of Bubblegum rolling around in Battle Large. ¡°Pfft,¡± a smile naturally came out. "Hmmm. No, no. Your face has much more potential than this. There''s no bright feeling right now. Something more genuinely funny." What did she want him to think of? Sang-Hyeon''s face froze and the photographer added, "How about something happy instead of funny?" A happy moment. As soon as he heard that, he recalled a certain moment. It was when he was eating with Ju-Hyeok and Ji-Ah. He thought of when his dining table was almost full. He hadn''t given it much thought at the time, but that was the memory he recalled. His eyes and lips slowly formed a smile. "Ohhhhh!" sh! The photographer was impressed and continued pressing her shutter. "Shiet!" sh! sh! sh! ''But his right hand is a little awkward.'' After several shoots, Oh Soo-Young noticed Sang-Hyeon was ufortable with his right hand. It wasn''t a big issue, but she could tell that he was self-conscious about his right hand. ''Did he not want to say anything?'' Something like this was usually discussed before the photo shoot, but Sang-Hyeon hadn''t brought it up. "You look good!" That meant Oh Soo-Young didn''t have to bring it up as well. It was polite to let it slide. "This time, we''ll try with your right hand in your pocket!" *** The photoshoot wasing to an end. Bubblegum, Almond, and Miho finished their photoshoot together as well. "Good work." "Almond, you did well despite it being your first time. Wahaha." "We''re almost done. You''re very good." The staff gathered andplimented him. ''Did I worry too much for no reason?'' He was nervous because it was his first photoshoot. After all, Sang-Hyeon''s lifestyle was far from all this. However, everything proceeded smoothly despite his worries. ''It was much more fun than I imagined it''d be.'' Instead, he had fun. The studio was fun with all these people running around, giving various poses, andpleting posters individually. He thought he was built for this. "Alright, this is thest one." Now, the most important one was left forst. It was shooting a video, and it''d likely show up the most in ads. Sang-Hyeon''s task was simple. All he had to do was run towards the green wall and shoot a green turret in the distance, which the CG would take care of. "It''s simple, right? Since it''s something you do every day," one of the staff asked him. The staff handed him a simple recurve bow. Sang-Hyeon''s eyes shook as he stared at the bow. "... Almond?" the staff member asked him again because he didn''t reply. ''Are you stupid, Yu Sang-Hyeon?'' Sang-Hyeon questioned himself. He didn''t consider that he''d have to shoot a bow. He was toofortable because of the rehearsal. He felt stupid because he couldn''t predict this happening... It waspletely reasonable as well. Ju-Hyeok panicked and interfered, "We didn''t hear about this beforehand." "Sorry?" the staff member looked confused. Who would report every little detail? It wasn¡¯t like there was any nudity. What was the need to notify someone known for using a bow that he would have to use one for the shoot? It was a strange question and Ju-Hyeok knew that as well. ''I need to reject them, but naturally as possible...'' Sang-Hyeon could refuse if he persisted, but there would be rumors about him floating around. Manager Oh ran to them. "Hold on. Hold on. Let''s briefly talk for a moment." He grabbed the staff member and dragged him to Supervisor Koh. "Huh... huh? W-What are you doing?!" "Ah, it''ll just be a moment. Let''s take a break for now!" The shoot came to a pause as Manager Oh interrupted. The cameraman shooting Miho and Bubblegum stared in their direction in confusion. Ju-Hyeok went over to Sang-Hyeon and said, "Sorry, I made a mistake. I was just excited about shooting an ad. I didn''t expect..." "Sorry." "Huh?" Sang-Hyeon walked away after saying sorry. "Hey, where are you going?!" "To the washroom." *** "W-What''s wrong?" the staff being dragged by Manager Ohined. Supervisor Koh questioned him as well, "What?! What''s going on?!" "Hey, there''s something I didn''t tell you about." "What is it? Why are you dragging my staff around?" "It''s..." Manager Oh scratched his head.?''Ah... What should I say?'' He managed to turn their attention away for now, but was thinking of the best thing to say. "It''s just that¡­ Almond''s been getting some medical work done... on his arm." "Medical work? On his arm?" "Yeah." "You didn''t tell us that before?" "You didn''t say anything about shooting a bow either. Other than that, there''s no problem." "It looks fine¡­?" Manager Oh was speechless. He said it was hurt. What was the problem? "It does seem painful," Oh Soo-Young butted in. She was the photographer in charge of Sang-Hyeon. "He seemed very self-conscious of it in the photoshoot earlier... he looked ufortable." Manager Oh felt relieved while Supervisor Koh looked stressed out. "Sigh... This is a pain. Why did a capsule streamer hurt his arm?" "What are you trying to say? Do game streamers only y games? Why he got hurt is none of your concern! Just know that this is too much!" "Urgh..." Supervisor Koh couldn''t talk back to Manager Oh. "Sigh... When does the medical work finish? We need this scene because Almond''s character shoots arrows... We''ll try to move our schedule around..." ¡®Damn, are they willing to move around their schedule for this scene?¡¯?Manager Oh started breaking a sweat.?''I didn''t imagine this.'' Gulp. Was there a limit to his excuses? He didn''t imagine them waiting for Sang-Hyeon¡¯s arm to be fixed. "Ah... This isn''t a matter that''ll be fixed in a couple of days¡ª" m! The ss door opened as Sang-Hyeon walked in. His face was wet as if he washed his face. There was a moment of silence as Sang-Hyeon walked in while they talked about him. Sang-Hyeon''s eyes burned with determination as he stared at the staff. Chapter 135: Studio (3)

    Chapter 135: Studio (3)

    "Hey, where are you going?!" "The washroom." Sang-Hyeon brushed past Ju-Hyeok and ran to the washroom. Thankfully, no one was in there. m! Sang-Hyeon mmed his hands on the sink. He was breathing heavily and his heart pounded. Was he scared? No. Sang-Hyeon grabbed his chest. He was angry. Clench... His white shirt was losing threads. He remembered that he was wearing a borrowed costume and released the pressure. The crumpled shirt slowly gained its shape again. Sang-Hyeon turned towards the mirror and faced his familiar face. The Sang-Hyeon in the mirror had some meat on his face, red cheeks with a less defined jawline. His mirrored self told him shamelessly, ¡®I''m going to stop because it''s not fun anymore.¡¯? ¡°Kugh.¡± He couldn''t breathe for a moment. Sang-Hyeon nced down. He could see his immature eyes through his hair. No matter how well he pretended to act, he was still closer to being a child. He couldn''t bear the weight of a life-changing lie. His right hand trembled as it turned on the sink. Ssh... Warm water flowed out. He gathered the water with his trembling hands and sshed it on his face. Ssh. He needed more and spun the right side of the knob to turn the water colder. Again, he sshed himself on the face. The cold winter water sharply dug into his skin. "Sigh..." He finally came back. In the mirror, he could see a wet Yu Sang-Hyeon entering his thirties and staring back at him. He asked himself, "What''s wrong?" The two met eyes. "You''ve never been repulsed by seeing a bow in real life... What''s wrong?" Someone was asking questions, but nobody answered. "Is it because they asked you to shoot?" There was still no answer, but that seemed to be the case. No one had approached him with a bow and asked him to shoot since the ident, at least in real life. Sang-Hyeon''s eyes in the mirror became scattered. It was a habit he had when he started thinking. "Should I tell them it''s difficult because of my injury..." He sought excuses to exin why he couldn''t use a bow. He had to think of a natural excuse because there was a limit to how much Ju-Hyeok and Manager Oh could cover for him. An injury would be viable. Everyone would ept it. However... "What about the next shoot?" This was bound to happen in the future again. What would he do then? Should he tell them it was a permanent injury? That wasn''t a bad idea. Or should he use this opportunity to tell them honestly about it? No matter how good Manager Oh and Director Han were at keeping secrets, people would eventually find out. ¡®Yeah, let''s do that. There''s nothing bad about it.¡¯? How far would the rumors go if only the studio crew knew about it? Sang-Hyeon released his hands and put them on his waist, thinking he found the best solution. "..." But he couldn''t take another step. His sticky and uneasy shadow wouldn''t let him go. He could hear So-Yeon''s voice from the shadow. "You''re shameless." Sang-Hyeon''s eyes opened. He was finally back to himself. *** Manager Oh and Supervisor Koh were raising their voices. "Sigh... When does the medical work finish? We need this scene because Almond''s character shoots arrows... We''ll try to move our schedule around..." "Ah... This isn''t a matter that''ll be fixed in a couple of days¡ª" "Shouldn''t you at least tell us what kind of injury it is¡ª" m! Sang-Hyeon entered after opening the ss door. "¡ªI mean." "...Sang-Hyeon?" Sang-Hyeon walked through the silence to the staff. "I''ll do it. Give it to me." "... Sorry?" the staff''s eyes widened. ''I heard you were injured?'' Judging from what Manager Oh said, wasn''t he unable to use a bow? "I''m alright. You can give it to me." Sang-Hyeon returned to the studio. The set made for Sang-Hyeon was empty. Miho and Bubblegum stared at him worriedly. Ju-Hyeok looked down, deep in his thoughts, unaware of Sang-Hyeon walking in. "Are you sure you''re okay with this? We can push it to another date if you want." "That''s alright. Manager Oh must''ve exaggerated because he was worried about me." Ju-Hyeok lifted his head after hearing Sang-Hyeon''s reply to the staff. ''Huh?'' And he saw what Sang-Hyeon was holding. ''?!'' He was about to shout at Sang-Hyeon to stop, but Ju-Hyeok stopped himself. ''He''s doing it out of his own will.'' The staff and supervisor weren''t forcing him to do it. Rather, Sang-Hyeon was taking the bow out of their hands. ''What happened? I was thinking of a bunch of excuses.'' Ju-Hyeok thought of a handful of excuses, assuming Sang-Hyeon couldn''t use the bow. ¡®Could he use it?¡¯ Ju-Hyeok was confused. "O-Okay, I¡¯ll give it to you. If there are any problems, please let us know." Sang-Hyeon took the bow from the staff member, who double-checked with him. ''Is he really going to do it?'' Gulp. The camera PD sent a signal. "Alright, raise your hand if you''re ready. All you need to do is run quickly behind the obstacle and shoot at the target." *** Thump, thump, thump¡ª? Sang-Hyeon''s heart was usually calm, but it was pounding right now. His blood rushed, and he sweated profusely as if he was losing all his fluids. Sang-Hyeon clenched his teeth. ''I can do this.'' He was going to do this. It wasn''t false confidence. There was no reason he couldn''t do it. ¡®Their request is simpler than I thought.¡¯ After he analyzed the situation and calmed down, he could see it. ''I can do it with this hand.'' It wasn''t that his right hand didn''t function. It just didn''t function delicately. Normally, his hand slightly trembled and this trembling grew stronger when he started typing for a long time. This handicap only affected him when he had tond a bullseye for an archery target, but now? What was their request? Did they want him tond a bullseye on a professional target with a professional recurve bow? No. All they wanted was for him to hit a green target far away. The green target was enormous and about twenty times bigger than an archery target. Even someone who wasn''t proficient with a bow could hit it. ''If I fire it using a new way, it''ll be easier.'' There was another reason Sang-Hyeon thought he could do it. He recently learned a new war technique for his game. The time it took to ready this bow was much shorter. It allowed him to fire quickly, and his trembling didn''t matter. It prioritized speed over precision, which was perfect for this situation. Precision didn''t matter. He nned to fire many shots and hoped for one to hit. ''It''ll work.'' The problem was he never used the technique in person, but Sang-Hyeon decided to believe in himself. Chuk. He raised his hand. "Are you ready, Almond?" "Yes, but... there''s only one arrow here. Are there any more?" *** Sang-Hyeon requested more arrows. Ju-Hyeok was confused as he watched it unfold from a distance. "Ju-Hyeok, will Almond be okay?" Manager Oh sat beside him. "Is there something wrong with Almond?" Miho was sitting beside them as well. Bubblegum watched from a distance. ''Was it a bit noisy earlier?'' The incident with the staff from earlier gained too much attention. They also had to wait for Almond to finish the shoot. "Ahem..." Ju-Hyeok signaled to Manager Oh that he couldn''t say anything since Miho was there. Manager Oh nodded but couldn''t just send her away. Since it was her turn next, it was strange to send her away. "Manager, is there something wrong with Almond?" "..." Ju-Hyeok kept his mouth shut and didn''t even look at her. He wasn''t doing it intentionally, but he thought he''d cough up the truth if they met eyes. "Hello?" Miho asked again. She had a nice personality. If a person were ignored, they would usually back off. However, she continued to ask him with an innocent smile. Ju-Hyeok started to feel bad. "Hmm...?No, I think he was just... feeling unwell. That''s why he went to the washroom... and it''s probably because it''s his first time doing a busy shoot like this." "Ah...!" Miho smiled brightly and nodded. "Right, I was like that at first too." "I see." He replied like a robot, but Miho didn''t seem to care. Rather, she pointed at Sang-Hyeon like a happy child. "Oh! It looks like he''s about to shoot now! This is my first time seeing someone shoot an actual bow, but why does he have four arrows..." "Huh?" Ju-Hyeok followed her finger and nced at Almond. There were arrows in between his fingers¡ªa total of four arrows. ''That''s...'' It was the war technique Almond used in Battle Large. It was a strategy used to consecutively fire four arrows in a row. ''Will that work?'' It was possible since the one who spread the technique did it in real life, but Sang-Hyeon had never done it in person¡­ "Wow! That''s the technique I saw in the Battle Large?video! I didn''t know it was possible in person!" ''We don''t know that yet...'' Miho was happy, but Ju-Hyeok couldn''t think properly. Sang-Hyeon quit archery because of his right hand, yet he volunteered to do so. And he was firing not one, but four shots at once? He was about to perform a war technique he wasn''t used to. Ju-Hyeok was confused as to what was going on. Chuk. Sang-Hyeon raised his hand again. "Alright, I''m ready!" Tang! As the te came down, the cue sign went up. Sang-Hyeon started to sprint forward, rolled his body, and stood before the obstacle. "Woah¡­! He''s good!" "Woah, we didn''t even tell him to roll. He''s a natural." Manager Oh and Miho were both impressed. Sang-Hyeon moved as if he practiced multiple times. ''That guy... is just naturally athletic.'' Ju-Hyeok was quietly impressed. Sang-Hyeon lifted his bow behind the obstacle. Creak¡­ Finally, one of the arrows in his fingers was nocked into ce. ''Will it work?'' Before he could finish his thought¡­ Pang!! The arrow flew as soon as he nocked it into ce. "!?" The arrownded on the lower half of the green pir. ''It hit...'' Did this count? It was iffy. It wasn''t the perfect shots Sang-Hyeon normally showed off. ''Why on the lower half?'' ''What''s going on?'' Manager Oh and Miho became startled. It hit, but why did hend it there? Did he miss? The two looked confused. ''Damn, he missed.'' Ju-Hyeok, who had seen Sang-Hyeon shoot before in videos, knew something was wrong. However¡ª Pang! The next arrow flew. Thwack! This time, a little bit higher. "Oh!" "It worked!" The people got up with their mouths open as if to say something, but Sang-Hyeon''s next arrow was already in the air. Swoosh¡ª? The third arrow flew through the air and hit above the other arrows. Thwack!! This time, it was much closer to the center. And thest... Pang!! The arrow quickly flew. If the target were a person, it would¡¯vended perfectly on the head. Thwack! ''It worked¡­?'' ''!'' ''...!'' There was a moment of silence. The PD took a look at theputer screen beside him. He could see the real-time CG of the giant''s head being perfectly struck with an arrow. The PD raised his hand. "Cut!" He smiled with an okay sign. "Alright! Very good! This is insane? I can''t believe he did this in one try?!" Sang-Hyeon put his trembling right hand into his pocket and sat down. He had a smile on his face dripping with sweat. Chapter 136: Studio (4)

    Chapter 136: Studio (4)

    The targetnded softly on the target. All four arrows managed to hit. Even though it wasn''t perfect, it wasn''t the worst. Of course, it was unsatisfactory considering Sang-Hyeon''s original skills. Sang-Hyeon knew this wasn''t enough for him to pick up the bow again. This bow was poorly designed. The target was twenty timesrger than an actual target, and he was twice as close to it. He could barely put his trembling right hand in his pocket, and the outfit he borrowed was drenched in sweat. He felt sorry, but he was still smiling. ''At least this way works.'' He could still shoot. He could still challenge himself. Sang-Hyeon was satisfied with that. *** "Wow!" "Amazing..." The supervisor came out to check on the noisy studio. He nced at the four arrows embedded in the green target. ''Didn''t he say his right hand was injured?'' He didn''t doubt it because Manager Oh wouldn''t lie about such a thing. Besides, the photographer confirmed it as well. ''Then... did he challenge himself?'' That meant Almond attempted it in an injured state to finish the shoot in one shot. The action scene was difficult for a normal person, but he finished it on his first try. Supervisor Koh set his eyes on Almond. "Huff... puff..." Almond was sitting down and catching his breath with his right hand in his pocket. The way it was awkwardly inside his pocket, it looked like he was trying to hide it. Anyone could tell he was exhausted, but he still had a smile on his face. ''A smile...'' Miho and the other staff cheered him on, but Supervisor Koh felt a stinging feeling in his chest. He knew that the smile wasn''t just frompleting the task. Only the supervisor, who was old enough to experience the ups and downs of life, could tell what kind of smile it was. ''What did you go through...'' Why did a guy who was only thirty have a bitter smile like that on his face? If he could smile like that, why did he challenge himself? ¡°Phew.¡± Supervisor Koh took a light breath and walked toward Almond. "Hey, Almond. Are you okay?" "Ah, yes." Sang-Hyeon naturally got up as Supervisor Koh approached him. He still didn¡¯t forget his manners. "... Tell me if there are any problems. We can go straight to the hospital." "It''s alright. It''s nothing much." Despite him saying that, Almond still had his right hand in his pocket. A polite guy like that still kept his hand hidden, which meant he wanted to hide something. Supervisor Koh purposefully looked away. He looked at Almond''s teary eyes and couldn''t tell if it was sweat or tears. "Alright, Almond. You did excellent today. Out of all the new models, you were the best." "Sorry?" Almond¡¯s eyes widened at the suddenpliment. "Maybe even better than some experienced people." "...?" Supervisor Koh was cold throughout the entire shoot. He wasn''t fond of Sang-Hyeon because he was new and joinedte, yet the higher-ups cared for him so much. Anyone in Supervisor Koh''s position would''ve thought the same, but now... "Why so surprised." Not anymore. The supervisor''s eyes were filled with genuine emotion instead of cold, soulless eyes. "You did really well today. Anybody would think the same even if our CEO came." "Thank you." "No, thank you." "...?" Supervisor Koh felt the same sensation as when he first held a camera and pressed the shutter. It was only a moment, but his eyes were filled with determination. Looking at Almond naturally brought out the burning passion he once had. However, that burning passion was only a fond memory now. "It''s just that¡­ seeing you made me think of the good old days." "..." "Anyways, you were great today." Supervisor Koh smiled and patted Sang-Hyeon on the shoulder before walking away with his almond milk. "Everyone will fondly remember this." *** "Wow! Did you see!?" It was rare to see Miho shout so excitedly. "Almond, were you always athletic? How did you do it in one take..." The funny thing was that Ju-Hyeok should''ve been the happiest, but he had the gloomiest look, along with Manager Oh. Manager Oh dragged Miho away after seeing Ju-Hyeok. "A-Alright, you should get ready for your next shoot." "Huh¡­?" Miho was confused because she thought everyone would be cheering. She turned around to get another look at Almond, but Manager Oh turned her head the other way. "Do you want to be caught up in a scandal?" "... Huh!!?" They shouted so loudly that everybody could hear them as if they were in a scandal. "Sigh. How does a girl like you continue to stream?" "W-What... I was just impressed..." Miho turned red. Manager Oh felt bad about her innocent reaction but had to turn her attention away. "Where did you send your manager to?" "..." Miho looked away and avoided Manager Oh''s eyes. "You said you sent them on vacation. Why did you send them away?" "Uh..." "And why did you leave your good car back home?" "B-Because I''m not good at driving..." "Huh?! You''re not good, but you still know how to drive." "..." "If you don''te with your manager next time, I''m going to leave you out of the schedule." This meant that Manager Oh wasn''t just warning her, but was serious. Of all the streamers, Miho always needed a manager with her. First of all, she was a girl streamer and needed someone to guard her against fans. They were the second line of defense for her spontaneous behavior. But¡ª "I didn''t send them on vacation," Miho replied with an exhausted voice. "... What?" "Vacation... I didn''t send them." "Then did Bubblegum send them?" "No, that old man doesn''t intervene with things like this. Sigh," Miho looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath. "We had a big fight." Manager Oh couldn''t hear the rest of the story. "Miho! Come here!" The shoot was ready and she had to stand before the camera. *** Ju-Hyeok ran to Sang-Hyeon, who came into the waiting lobby. "Hey... does it work again?" The sentence was vague, but it was obvious what he was asking. ''Work...'' It looked like that for other people. Sang-Hyeon shook his head with a bitter smile. "Does it look like it works..." Sang-Hyeon nced at the four arrows lined up in a straight line on the green figure acting as the giant. Looking at it this way, it did seem like it. However, an archery coach would smack him on the head. "At first it was weird, but it worked outter on, right? Otherwise, how did you do it?" "With this uracy? No way." "Y-You at least shot it. And multiple times at that! If you practice more..." "No, actual archery and how I did it in Battle Large are different. Thebat style draws less and is specialized for shooting multiple times." "... So?" "What do you mean so? It means it uses the arm less, so I can shoot more. If it were an actual archery technique, I wouldn¡¯t even be able to shoot twice." "Ah..." "In archery, even a slight miss from bullseye is a big deal... so it''s practically impossible." "I see," Ju-Hyeok nodded. He didn''t ask any further. It looked like Sang-Hyeon didn''t want to talk about it. Tap. He just patted him on the back. "Anyway, good job. It was a good one-take." "Alright." "We''re done, so let''s take a break." "Sounds good." After an hour, the shoot finished. The three streamers outside looked exhausted. "I want to grab a drink, but it seems like a stretch, right?" "Haha..." Bubblegum made a suggestion, but everyone was too tired. "Let''s save it for next time." Bubblegum and his manager returned to their car while Manager Oh, Miho, Sang-Hyeon, and Ju-Hyeok returned to their van. "Everyone, good job." After everyone thanked each other, the car started. It was starting to get dark outside as the headlights brightened the road. It was already 8 P.M. It was rush hour, and the traffic was heavily jammed. Manager Oh nced at them, worried that they would be annoyed. However, they were all knocked out. The traffic seemed like a blessing instead. "Where should we go first? I don''t think it''ll matter where we go," the staff driving asked. He asked whether to head to Miho''s house or Sang-Hyeon''s first. It was like asking who he wanted to be left alone with. "Go to Hoogye first." "Alright." Manager Oh decided to go to Miho''s housest. There was still a story he needed to hear from her. *** "Alright, we''re at Hoogye." Tap, tap. They finally woke up after he tapped them on their shoulders. Ju-Hyeok fixed his frameless sses and looked around with a surprised look. "Did you have a good night?" "Ah¡­! I''m sorry." "It''s alright. This is why we drive you guys around." Ju-Hyeok never imagined he''d fall asleep with Manager Oh sitting beside him. That was how exhausting today''s shoot was. Sang-Hyeon, who was one seat over, felt the same. He was still sleeping with his mouth wide open. Ju-Hyeok had to hit him on the forehead to wake him up. "Huh..." "What do you mean, huh? Wake up. We''re here." Sang-Hyeon got off without saying much while scratching his head. He didn''t even look surprised. The more Ju-Hyeok watched him, the more interesting he was. "Thank you." "Of course. See you next time!" Manager Oh closed the door as the van left. Vroom... Hearing the engine drive away because of their busy morning, they felt empty. Blink, blink... The orange streetmp made a blinking noise as if it was dying. Underneath the light was the stairs of hell. "... Sigh." "Let''s go." Sang-Hyeon zoomed past him as if he never slept. Ju-Hyeok was annoyed by his stamina. Sang-Hyeon looked back. "Uhh... Hey, the pay statement. I think the YouTube payday is today. I just got it." "...?" Ju-Hyeok looked up at Sang-Hyeon, trying to catch his breath. That was right. Today was payday. Ju-Hyeok forgot about it because their YouTube was linked to the emails of Sang-Hyeon and Ji-Ah, the editor. "R-Right, but can''t we checkter? Damn..." Ju-Hyeok loved money like everyone else. Seeing the pay would feel good, but this hellish staircase erased all those thoughts. Sang-Hyeon smirked, "Ah, right. You have terrible stamina. Is it because you''re over thirty..." "T-This mother¡ª" Just as Ju-Hyeok imagined choking him by the neck¡­ ¡°Kyaaaaa!¡± They heard a girl scream. The two turned around towards the shout. "!?" "...?" A familiar door faced them. It was Ji-Ah''s house. They got goosebumps thinking about the man hiding the other day. "... W-What the." "Did something happen?" As soon as Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon were about to run toward the scream, they heard another shout. ¡°No wayyyyy!¡± Chapter 137: Studio (5)

    Chapter 137: Studio (5)

    YouTube revenue was one of the main sources of ie for streamers. The more views they received, the bigger the profits. Sometimes, it was two to three timesrger than the profit from Treevy. On rare asions, it was up to twenty times more. Almond currently had 110,000 subscribers and an average view of 200,000. Some of his popr videos almost reached a million views as well. With these numbers in mind, they could picture how much profit they would gain. Some people often predicted revenue by analyzing different channels. YouTube profits were easily calcble. [Almond: YouTube revenue statement came out. Check it out.] Boom. Ji-Ah''s heart thumped as soon as she saw the message. ''Will I get around... five million won?'' Since Seo Ji-Ah was interested in videos, she pictured a number in her head. Because of her experience working at a video cafe, she could predict the amount. ''Ten million¡­? No, there aren''t enough videos. Not yet...'' She had to continuously remind herself not to get ahead of herself, but she couldn''t help but try to calcte the amount. ''Let''s not get ahead of ourselves. Seo Ji-Ah, please.'' The views were fine, but the number of videos was the issue. They had only uploaded around twenty videos despite uploading one every other day. Almond''s streaming career was too short. ''Let''s just check it out.'' It was better to quickly check it out rather than hold it off. Her mouse went to the revenue statement. Thump. Thump.? Her mouse nervously shook. Click. She pressed the mouse with great effort. "!" The eyes in her reflection were about to pop out. "Kyaaaa!" A number greeted her wide eyes. [Total Profits: 23,552,890 won] It was 23 million won. Per the contract, 40% of this was Ji-Ah''s. "Noooo way!" Thud! She mmed her table as she got up from her chair, but she didn''t care. Nothing came to her as she read those numbers. "A-A person can earn 20 million in one month..." She would''ve never imagined this amount working in an office. What job could earn this much? Ji-Ah was a college graduate with contract jobs as her experience and making fan videos as a hobby. "This feels... like a miracle..." This was a miracle. A once in a lifetime miracle. "Thank goodness. I did it..." Thank goodness she got Almond''s signature that day. It was a blessing that she liked Almond. Despite everyone''s criticism, donatingrge amounts to him paid off. ¡®Thank goodness I just sat home making videos¡­¡¯ Normally, she would regret everything. Society would criticize her for doing all this. Yet, all of these things were paying off for her. It was the first time she felt proud of what she had done. Everything she had done in the past was full of regrets and things that needed to be fixed. All the stress she felt at the office was like a shback. It was only a month ago, but the memories were already distant. ¡®Is that all you can do?¡¯ ¡®Freaking college graduates... an obedient high schooler would be much better.¡¯ ¡®You seemed full of yourself because you were dating Supervisor Lee. What are you going to do now? Huh? Puhahaha!¡¯ ¡®Why did Supervisor Lee fall for a girl like you?¡¯ ¡®Why is a girl so secretive? What are you doing at home alone instead of attending work dinners?¡¯ Ji-Ah bit her lip. "Urgh..." She tried to withstand it. ¡®I don''t want to be held back because of you.¡¯ Thest thing she remembered wasn''t so distant. The memory dug into her head despite it being an older memory. "Sniffle... sniffle..." She started crying and fell beside her bed, letting out everything she withheld. *** m! Ju-Hyeok snatched Sang-Hyeon''s phone out of his hand while catching his breath. "Wow, holy shit. How much is it for her to be like that?!" It was the first time he heard Ji-Ah shout like that. Of course, he was curious. Sang-Hyeon, curious as well, checked the phone. "Woo..." "Kuu..." ¡®23 million.¡¯ As soon as they saw that, the two shouted louder than Ji-Ah and raised their hands. "Keuuuuaaah!" "Wooooaaaah!" Ju-Hyeok turned red and shouted, "Wow! Then did we just make 30 million won in one month? Huh? Are you crazy Almond?!" "I-Is that so??Woooaah!" Treevy''s profit was 11 million while YouTube''s was 23 million. Even when they excluded their hefty ad, they earned over 34 million won. Ju-Hyeok, who was receiving the least (Sang-Hyeon added a little more), earned around 8 million won. It was because YouTube earned them 23 million won. "Dad! I want to be Seo Ji-Ah when I grow up!" "Stop being so talented, Seo Ji-Ah!" The two shouted random memes to each other, expressing their happiness. The two drank a beer to celebrate. After they realized how old they were, they went to their rooms and fell asleep. It was a short celebration. *** The next day, the happiness of their revenue and their ad was only for a moment. Crunch. Crunch. Ju-Hyeok could see Sang-Hyeon chowing down on almond kes like always. He felt a bubbling sense of rage in him. ''Sigh. What a stubborn guy.'' He opened the fridge to make something, but frowned. ''It''s all used up...'' No ingredients remained. He had to go grocery shoppingst night, but he forgot about it because of the shoot. There wasn''t even any instant noodle in sight. The only thing left inside were almonds, corn, and choco balls... Only cereals were left. Determined to eat a proper meal, Ju-Hyeok headed out. "Hm? Where are you going?" "There''s nothing to eat because we haven''t gone grocery shopping in a while." "There''s almond kes?" "..." "There''s choco balls as well... because you said you were tired of..." "Whatever, man!" m! Ju-Hyeok angrily shut the door and left. "This nut doesn''t ever bother to fill up the fridge even when things run out." Even though he wasining, he knew why. Sang-Hyeon didn''t fill up the fridge because he didn''t feel any responsibility and thought that cereal was sufficient! As long as the fridge was full of almonds and milk, Sang-Hyeon would see it as enough food for him. Creak. Sang-Hyeon''s head popped out from the window. "Hey, if you''re going out, take the trash. I put it out at the door." "..." *** Therge garbage bag made a loud noise as it fell to the ground. m. Ju-Hyeok tidied his hands and walked to the pork stew restaurant he often visited. Since that was the only ce open, he had no choice. "Can I get onerge pork sausage stew, please?" He sat down as usual and ordered right away. After he poured himself some water and took out his utensils, he met eyes with someone. "... Huh?" "... Oh." It was Seo Ji-Ah. The two couldn''t hear the notification in their pockets because they met eyes. Bling.? [Almond has started streaming!] [Tune in quickly!] *** ¡ª What the? In the morning? ¡ª Kya, look Mom! Since I''m jobless, I can watch Almond! ¡ª AlHa? ¡ª AlHa in the morning? ¡ª Perfect... just in time for my almond kes... ¡ª The best time for OG fans There were quite a few viewers despite him turning on his stream early. [Current Viewers: 3.4k] He had around 3400 viewers. It was a decent number considering he turned it on early without notice. Pang. Almond''s avatar appeared and waved to them. "Hi, Treevy!" ¡ª AlHa ¡ª AlHaha! ¡ª What''s today?! Is it an ad today!? ¡ª Hihi Almond wanted his viewers to be more friendly with him, so he tried to make it a habit to turn on streams for little things. "I just thought of something this morning." ¡ª What weird thing are you going to say now? ¡ª Nut saying. ¡ª It''s nut saying, so just ignore him~ ¡ª IT''S AN AD ¡ª You rested yesterday for an ad, but it''s another ad today too?! The viewers assumed Almond turned on his stream only for an ad. However, it wasn''t an ad. "Unfortunately, it''s not an ad." ¡ª Unfortunately, LOL ¡ª Haha ¡ª He seems really disappointed... ¡ª Aren''t you going to wear a rabbit ear? "I won myst LIL match, but I''m not sure how I won. So I''m going to y today to practice and study the game a little. I turned on the stream a little earlier today for that." ¡ª Oh...? ¡ª But you suck at studying. ¡ª You skipped all of Raina''s teachings though... ¡ª Just stick to shooting arrows. ¡ª Aren''t you going to kill everyone with your arrows anyways? We know~ "Alright, I''m going in." Almond ignored their mockery and started LIL. [Life is Legend] Swoosh. His environment suddenly changed. The blue sky and sharp mountains greeted him with the following texts. [Escort Mode] [Siege Mode] [Survival Mode] There were three modes. "I''m going to review siege mode for now. I need to at least know what I''m doing." Almond needed to practice siege mode and learn at least one thing before switching around. [Siege Mode] He clicked on it before the chat could say anything. Then, a message appeared. [Quest ''Win 1 or y 5 games'' has beenpleted.] [ount has be level 2!] Hepleted the quest. "Quest?" ¡ª It''s for beating the normal gamest time. ¡ª Raina forced him to y it haha. Learn by getting hit! "Ah, I see that was part of the quest." He wasn''t aware because all he did was act on Raina''smand, but it seemed like hepleted a quest that raised him to Level 2. It was good news because he needed to level up quickly to y ranked. [Complete the next quest.] [Quest: Win 3 games in siege mode.] For the next quest, he needed to win three games. He was d the quests would be automaticallypleted since he was going to y siege mode anyways. Almond quickly queued up for a normal game. [A match has been found!] Boom. After a sudden sh of light, he was beside four teammates. "Sigh. I swear, if I meet that guy again." "Argh. That damn poison dart rabbit..." ¡ª LOL as expected ¡ª What a scary start... ¡ª Still better thanst time. ¡ª Kuku... a familiar scent. Thankfully, no one said anything to Almond this time. It seemed like they had a bad experience in thest round though. The atmosphere wasn''t good. "Alright, alright. Where do you guys want to go?" One person tried to lead the conversation. Almond was the first to respond since he could only y botne. "I want to ADC. Bottom..." Was it bottom? Almond checked the map and confidently answered, "Bottomne." "Alright, we have an ADC. I want mid." "Then, I want jungle." "I want top." "...?Ah, fuck. I''m support. I was just changing skins." Everyone had their roles set. [Choose a champion.] Almond had no choice of champions because he only had one. [Raina: The Cold-Blooded Evil Archer] Almond picked Raina and prepared to hear her yell at him, but that didn''t happen. [Champion Raina doesn''t want to y with you.] ''... But Raina is my only champion?!''? 1. Roughly 15,000 USD at the point of trantion Chapter 138: Raina (1)

    Chapter 138: Raina (1)

    "Hm??Young man, you had another person?" Thedy server stared at Ju-Hyeok and Ji-Ah with an interesting look. "No. I just coincidentally met someone I knew, so I sat with her." The server patted him on the back and gave him a sly look. Ju-Hyeok tried to brush it off and finished what he was telling Ji-Ah. "Anyways, thanks to you the revenue was high. This one''s on me." "No, it''s okay. I earn more anyways. I''ll buy it." "..." Right. Now, Ji-Ah earned more. Ju-Hyeok turned red. Ji-Ah saw that and asked him, "Or you can buy it, Mr. Ju-Hyeok." "... No that''s alright. You buy it." Ju-Hyeok dug into his food, thinking he should''ve also gotten extra noodles. They naturally talked about Almond while eating. "How does that guy only eat that?" Ju-Hyeok didn''t have manyints living with Almond, but he couldn''t understand his eating habits. "When we eat though, he eats well. I wonder if this is some type of archery mental training?" "No way..." "Argh. I need to get a new streamer or something." "Why get more streamers? Is it because I earn more." "Hey! Why are you like that too? It''s so I can get busier and not have to worry about things like this." "It''s because you want more money so you can buy me more pork stew." "Argh! Let''s just eat." Ju-Hyeok continued to devour the soup. "Ah... but I have a problem." "Hm? A problem?" Ju-Hyeok stared at Ji-Ah with interest because it was the first time Ji-Ah had spoken about her problems. ''I wonder what it is? The guy from the other day?'' The man who stood in front of Ji-Ah''s house was of concern. The neighborhood was dangerous and Ji-Ah looked like she couldn''t properly defend herself. There were also cases of crazy ex-boyfriends on the news recently... "I''m trying to make videos, but turns out I don''t know anything about LIL." "... Ah." He loosened up, but tensed right back up again. ¡°Oh? Now that I think about it, I don''t know either..." Now that he thought about it, Ju-Hyeok didn''t know much about LIL either.?LIL was only easy to start ying. The more in-depth the game got, the more difficult it became to understand, especially siege mode. "I''ve seen escort and survival mode often in the past, but I didn''t really watch siege mode because it wasn''t my type." "You know the other two? Right, you watched a lot of gaming streams." "Yeah, I''m a big donor, remember?" Right, Seo Ji-Ah donatedrge amounts in the past. Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon always wondered why she donated such amounts despite her living conditions. ''Let''s ask about it next time.'' It was an ufortable question. "I guess you do have to learn LIL since you need to edit the videos and such." "That''s right. So the videos mighte outter than usual." "Hmm..." Ju-Hyeok thought for a moment. Almond didn''t know much about LIL either. It worked for his character for the moment, but he''d never reach a higher rank if he didn''t know why or how he was winning games. "Should the three of us gather and study the game?" "Oh... that''s not a bad idea." Ji-Ah stopped to check her phone. "Oh? But Almond''s streaming right now." "Huh? In the morning?" Ji-Ah showed him her phone. She was right. It had been some time since he turned it on. [Learning today too~ morning LIL!] The title was tacky. This would only happen if Almond came up with stream titles by himself. Regardless, something interesting was unfolding. ¡ª What did you do to Raina! ¡ª Noona! Come back! ¡ª Noona, don''t go... ¡ª Weren''t you close with her? ¡ª The fall hurts the higher you are... hehe. The champion didn''t respond to him. "... I can''t pick Raina?" *** [Champion Raina doesn''t want to y with you.] "... What?" ¡ª LOL ¡ª Almond panic! ¡ª Isn''t this the first time we''ve seen him this shocked? ¡ª Even the popr guy gets rejected! ¡ª Haha! That''s what you get for acting all cool! The chat mocked him in various ways. Meanwhile, Almond was looking for ways to figure out a solution. ''It seems like this doesn''t happen only to me.'' The chat was making fun of him, but not questioning the situation. Instead, the chat indicated that it was finally happening, which meant this was predictable behavior. ''So it''s not a bug or anything serious...'' He could maneuver around it. The problem was he had to start a game right now. "Hey, you said you want ADC. Why aren''t you picking?" the teammate beside him asked because he stood still for so long. "Ah... I can''t pick Raina." "Raina?" The teammate frowned as soon as he heard the name. The other teammates talked among themselves as well. ''Raina?'' ''Thank god he couldn''t pick her.'' ''Sigh...'' This was the reality of Raina''s reputation. However, it didn''t matter to Almond because he couldn''t choose her anyways. "Just pick someone else." "But... I don''t have anyone else." "Huh?" "The only champion I have is Raina." "What..." The teammate finally noticed his ount level. "You''re Level 2? Then..." "Do you know what to do?" Could his teammates help him? "Puhahaha!?Raina must not like you. What can you do!?" "Did you do something to Raina? Haha, good going Raina user." To no surprise... He again experienced what foolish thinking it was to expect help in LIL. He thought of LIL''s motto, stranger danger. ¡ª LOL, don''t try asking for anything in LIL... ¡ª This is LIL! ¡ª They''re so happy haha. But still, someone gave Almond some real advice. "That happens if the rapport is too low... but for Raina, not only is it difficult to raise it, but also difficult to lower it. Weird..." He couldn''t y the game because of their rapport level? Almond was confused and stuck without a partner. "Just dodge!" "I''m dodging." Dodge or dodging was when a yer left the waiting lobby before the game began. The terminology derived from dodging a risky teammate or badposition of champions. These days, most people called it dodging. Right now, Almond had to do that. "... Dodge right now. If you don''t have a champion, it dodges automatically anyways." "Yeah, don''t waste our time." If he dodged, he couldn''t y a game for the next ten minutes to prevent yers from repeatedly dodging. "Sigh, alright." *** Almond had to cancel the queue and leave the lobby. [You have left the lobby while in champ select.] [You have been given a 10 minute penalty.] "What am I supposed to do? I can''t pick Raina." Almond talked back to the game, but there was no reply. ¡ª LOL cute ¡ª Who are you talking to? ¡ª Whatever~ ¡ª He seems pissed. "How do I earn rapport again with Raina?" ¡ª Who knows~ ¡ª I don''t know ~ ¡ª I don''t know! ¡ª We can''t give Raina to you, Almond. Did you think you could have it all? His viewers were no help. ''I don''t even have money to buy a new champion from the store...'' He couldn''t even buy a new champion. He had no money because he had onlypleted the tutorial and one game. He tried to buy a champion using cash, but everything else required in-game currency other than in-game cosmetics. If he wanted to earn currency, he had to y games. But he couldn''t! There must be another way. LIL was one of the most popr games and for a while as well. There must be another way to solve the problem. ''Look at how the viewers are reacting. No one thinks it''s weird. They''re just making fun of me.'' If it were a strange situation, the viewers would be more surprised and searching for solutions before he did. However, that wasn''t the case. They were making fun of the newbie. Eventually, they would tell him what to do. Almond couldn''t just sit around and wait for an answer though. He wanted to quickly hear the solution. "Oh well." He was a variety game streamer and didn''t have to y LIL. "I might as well y Kingdom Age to try out the Rosenita route¡ª" As soon as he mentioned the unpopr game Kingdom Age¡­ Bling. [DamienAssociation has donated 10,000 won!] [We''ll throw you a bone. If you go to the champion management screen, you can talk to Raina.] [LILfan has donated 10,000 won!] [Please forgive LIL! There''s an option to talk to her. Head over there!] [HeadsmellslikeNUT has donated 20,000 won!] [Talk to her!!!] Countless donations poured in. "Ah, I see. Should''ve told me earlier." ¡ª Almond is the master of cash flow. ¡ª Do I still look like an Almond? He is ''die''almond. ¡ª Streaming genius Almond. ¡ª No! Let him y Kingdom Age! ¡ª Don''t yme games! ¡ª So funny how they''re stopping him from ying Kingdom Age, haha. [KAF has donated 10,000 won!] [You guys are so mean!] "Thank you, KAF. But I swear I''ll y Kingdom Age again one day. I promise." After Almond said that, he clicked?[interact] with Raina. ¡ª This mother. ¡ª One day = in the cyberpunk era. ¡ª Clicks interact right away, LOL. *** Interacting with a champion was a feature in the game where the yer could give gifts or interact with their champions. They could build rapport even outside of the game. [Wee to the interact screen.] The za was hidden below the cliff surrounded by waterfalls and trees. It was the interaction za. The ce looked like it''d be filled with forest elves, but only one girl was sitting there. She stared nkly at the waterfall as Almond slowly approached her. "Raina." She slowly turned to him. Her blue eyes shone brighter than usual. "What brings you all the way here?" Her voice was cold again like in the beginning. Did her rapport level go down? He double-checked. [Rapport: 0] One hundred was the maximum rapport reachable. He was surprised to see it so low. His viewers were right. Raina was a difficult champion to approach. ¡ª LOL, zero! ¡ª Hahaha ¡ª Haha~ Good for you~ ¡ª But isn''t it usually zero if you don''t do anything? The viewersughed at Almond because Raina, who was once nice to him, was now so cold. [ForNow has donated 1000 won.] [For now, try talking to her. You need to talk it out. With Raina, presents don''t work on her.] Gifts, victory, activity, etc... There were multiple ways to build rapport with champions, but with Raina, it was only possible by talking to her. "Raina, you don''t have any ns to go to the battlefield?" "If you came here to talk about that, give it up. I don''t want to talk about it," Raina coldly cut him off. ¡ª LOL, she doesn''t want to talk to you. ¡ª Ah, so satisfying! This is the cold archer we know! ¡ª Being able to solve it through conversation is impossible. ¡ª Time is the best solution. The viewers were happy to see their expectationse true. [DameinClub has donated 10,000 won!] [Tsk tsk. The other donor doesn''t know because he''s a muggle, but it''s hard to raise Raina-chan''s rapport with conversation alone. You need to give it some time.] Even the donation read out loud by a weird otaku voice told him that time was the only solution to raise the rapport. ''I need to wait?'' Almond was confused because that didn''t seem to be the case. [Rapport: 30] He only said one thing and her rapport already increased by thirty. Chapter 139: Raina (2)

    Chapter 139: Raina (2)

    The most important thing for Raina was her summoner''s skills. She watched carefully how much her summoner could bring out her potential in the real world. That meant only the best archers could build a high rapport with Raina. Other techniques hardly ever worked. Gifts and activities had the opposite effect. The best way was tomunicate with her, but even that was ineffective. However, Raina rated skills highly. A skilled archer could easily win her over. It was rare, but it was possible. Almond was that case. [Rapport: 30] After one remark, her rapport went from 0 to 30. His viewers became angry seeing it unfold. ¡ª What the?!? ¡ª Is this a bug? ¡ª It''s supposed to say 3.0, right? ¡ª This is why I hate alpha males. How can you get 30 from saying one thing? Most people would get pped in the face if they kept talking to her. Seeing him reach 30 right away made the viewers understandably jealous and upset. However, they were jealous for the wrong reasons. It was his archery skills, not his looks, doing the work. ''Is this enough to y?'' Almond thought this was enough and asked her again. "Raina, are you now ready to go back to the battlefield?" "What? I just told you. If you''re here to talk about that, just leave." [Rapport: 20] No way. He couldn''t repeat what he just said simply because her rapport was higher. He had to think rationally. Anybody would hate it if someone kept repeating the same thing to them. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Are you stupid Almond? ¡ª He''s just a kid... he doesn''t know anything. ¡ª Just wait a bit. Waiting was a strategy, but Almond wanted closure. He wanted to at least apologize since he made her upset. ''This is kind of cool.'' Most of all, he was interested in this interaction system. LIL champions were more advanced and had more freedom of interaction than Kingdom Age NPCs. ¡®What an incredible game.¡¯ He became curious about how their conversation would unfold and how he could raise her rapport from now on. He decided to apologize to her and see how she would react. "I''m sorry, Raina." "What are you sorry for? You didn''t do anything wrong," Raina cut him off as if she was expecting him to speak up. ¡ª This is the Uchiha technique: what are you sorry for? ¡ª Oh shit! ¡ª Infinite loop, on! ¡ª This is like an uppercut, right? I''ve never dated anyone, someone please tell me... ¡ª Trap card, activate! Judging by her expression and tone, she seemed angry. However, this was virtual reality and not real life. He could see her rapport level. [Rapport: 50] Her rapport went up by 30 again. Unlike her cold attitude, it was obvious she was feeling better. Thankfully, Almond could continue his conversation. ''Will it work if I tell her what I''m sorry about?''? He would usually be speechless, but this was different. She was obviously upset because he used her ultimate form as a method of celebration. "I summoned you even though it wasn''t for a battle." "Why?" "Hmm..." Almond didn''t know she would ask him why... "You can summon me if you want to since I have no choice, right? What''s wrong with that?" ''Oh my god.'' Almond was speechless. ¡ª Is this what dating is like¡­? I''m going to run away! ¡ª The first barrier... ¡ª Hey! You nut! Think of something quick! Almond had to quickly think of an answer. How would one apologize if they didn''t know the reason? His past experiences in social skills and human interactions shed before his eyes and gave him an answer. First, he had to sympathize with the situation. "Even though that''s the case, I think I''d get angry being summoned like that too." Raina looked away as he gave the right answer. [Rapport: 60] He could see the rapport level, so it didn''t matter. Almond continued to talk. "That won''t happen again since I did it because I didn''t know." "What didn''t you know?" "That you wouldn''t feel good about it." [Rapport: 80] Her rapport level went up to 80, but her tone was still cold. "Why do you care whether I feel good or not? We''re just a summoner and champion rtionship." ¡ª Damn, she''s just saying the same thing. ¡ª Just date... ¡ª Raina should just change her name to Whyna. ¡ª Is she ying Jeopardy? She''s just answering questions. ¡ª Get a room, you two! ¡ª Raina noona... we can see your rapport level... let''s not trick ourselves. ¡ª LOL, Raina noona is so cute. Just like the viewers were saying, the answer was already fixed if this was a dating simtor. ''I don''t think that''s it.'' However, Almond didn''t think that way. It seemed like Raina wanted to say something else. Almond and Raina only knew each other briefly and didn''t know each other well enough to feel intimate emotions for each other. Instead, Raina told him she didn''t want to be treated like a tool. Despite her role to be summoned at the summoner''smand, she was asking him not to use her like that. Even though that was their rtionship by default, she wanted to be recognized as her own entity. It was what Sang-Hyeon felt when he worked in an office. He wanted to be recognized as a co-worker instead of being treated as an errand boy or someone who got there through connections... Since he felt that was what Raina was thinking, he gave her the answer he thought was correct. "I care. We''re teammates." Raina was silent. [Rapport: 90] She didn''t reply, but the rapport level answered back. Raina checked Almond''s eyes to see if he was lying. [Rapport: 95] Her rapport level grew. "I''m d you think that way." Finally, her voice wasn''t cold anymore. ¡ª 95!!! ¡ª Damn! ¡ª You might reach 100! ¡ª Y-You were this easy? Noona, nooooo! "There''s a reason I hate things like that." Raina was now feeling much better. She was about to tell him why she hated those things. ''Huh? Is this...'' Almond could instinctively feel something was about to happen. "It''s an old story." Raina was about to tell him a certain story. Just like Almond predicted, this wasn''t any old story. The stories that champions told had a connection with a legend. If the summoners fully understood the legend, they could bring out further potential from the champion on the battlefield. ''Is this story mode?'' The legend was heard through story mode. Almond continued to nod, unaware of what he would hear. He was interested in Raina''s story. "Tell me." He met eyes with Raina for a moment. After a short moment, her lips slowly formed a smile. [Rapport: 100] Her rapport went up to 100. And then... "It''s a long story." "That''s alright." "Alright. Then..." It was the first time he saw Raina smile brightly. [Raina''s story mode unlocked.] The entire world came to a still. The waterfall froze in ce with its bubbles stationary as well. Time had stopped. The environment turned ck and white as the following texts appeared in blue. [Do you want to start story mode?] *** ¡ª Damn! Story mode?! ¡ª Hell yeah! ¡ª Cold-blooded? More like a warm-blooded archer. ¡ª Alright, now show us the real cold-blooded archer! ¡ª Alpha male''s temperature: 95 degrees ¡ª Rapport 100?? ¡ª What''s going on? He fucked up and apologized, and the rapport went up!? ¡ª It means he''s this good with the bow~ ¡ª Wow, story mode already? The viewers were ecstatic because story mode was only unlocked after reaching a high rapport. Normally, it urred when an ount was between Level 10-15, but Almond reached it at Level 2. ''Story mode... I think this is pretty good.'' Almond knew that story mode was good the quicker it was unlocked. However, he wasn''t exactly sure why. "Story mode is good, right?" ¡ª Yes. Very good. ¡ª Super good. ¡ª You''re super lucky that you unlocked story mode already. ¡ª You''re going get so much EXP. ¡ª I want to congratte the developers for giving facial recognition to the AI in LIL! ¡ª Raina! You weren''t like that to me! Hello?! ¡ª I''m going to refund all of Raina''s skins today¡­ As the viewers said, it was good that he unlocked story mode so early on. [Raina Story Mode] Reward: Large amount of EXP, small amount of legend coin, improved rtionship with Raina, skill mastery increase. Estimated time toplete: 6+ hours Money, EXP, improved rtionship, and skill mastery. The rewards were everything he needed in LIL. Nothing was a waste. The rewards were better the earlier they were earned. In terms of an RPG game, it was like Almond using a legendary weapon at Level 2. Almond wanted to y story mode and checked the time. ''What time is it...'' It was 10 A.M. He hesitated. Before he was a LIL yer, he was a streamer. It was more important for his stream to do well. ''Should I just wait until more people are watching?'' His current viewers were excited, but there were only 5000 viewers because of the time. It was better to stream it when more viewers were watching since it didn''t matter when he yed story mode. There was a bigger problem as well. ''I wanted to practice siege mode.'' He turned on LIL?to y siege mode and learn more about it, but was stuck in story mode. His practice was pushed further back. "Hmm... I wanted to practice siege mode. What to do..." He decided to dy a bit and honestly exined it to the viewers. Then came this response. [RubySword has donated 10,000 won!] [If you do this, you can learn siege mode as well!] Finally, a piece of good news. He discovered he could learn siege mode while ying the story mode. ¡ª Ah, Raina''s first story is like that. ¡ª Oh yeah, right. ¡ª For real. ¡ª Don''t spoil it! Raina''s first story had to do with siege mode. ''Hmm...'' The view count was low, but he had no reason to stop if he could learn siege mode. Almond made a decision. [Yes] The paused world resumed again. Shaaaa... The waterfall started falling again, and Raina''s golden hair flowed with the wind. sh! The whole world turned white. *** [Beginner¡¯s Tip: All summoners respawn in the base after death except in survival mode.] Chapter 140: Minion (1)

    Chapter 140: Minion (1)

    The light disappeared and what appeared was a in as white as the light itself. It was a snowy field. The light reflecting off the white snow relentlessly prated the gaps between the snowkes. "Urk." Almond couldn''t help but shut his eyes. He tried to look around and withstand the light, but... Swooooosh¡ª? All he could see was the howling wind carrying snow. Suddenly, he felt someone kicking him in the shin. Thud. It felt like a heavy boot. "You guys can clean up the rest of the corpses." Almond stood still, confused. "Yes." The children around him answered instead. That was right. There were children. They moved relentlessly asmanded by the soldier from earlier, dragging the blood-stained frozen corpses to the cremation site. Even those corpses didn''t seem all that big, somehow resembling children. "Hey, you." A young voice called for Almond. Almond looked back and was shocked. ''Raina?'' A child was standing there and looked exactly like Raina. ¡ª Raina noona...? No, not anymore. ¡ª Hey, Raina is now protected by thew. Careful what you say~ ¡ª Raina!!! ¡ª Damn... this is my first time seeing this. What happened? ¡ª Is this Raina when she was young? She looked sixteen years old at most. The young Raina wore nothing but thin garments on the snowy road while dragging a corpse and asked Almond, "It''s my first time seeing your face. Are you a captive of Taran? What''s your name?" It was time to choose his nickname. ¡ª Thank god it''s not Lazy Soldier ¡ª It''d be hrious if it were Lazy Soldier, LOL ¡ª Thank goodness she asked Not only did the chate into Almond''s view, but so did Raina''s youthful eyes. It was a lively blue color that could only be seen in children. Her blue eyes seemed like it was frozen from the blizzard. He couldn''t bring himself to say his name was Lazy Soldier. "Almond." It was his first time telling Raina his real name. "Almond? What a strange name," Raina said in a dry tone and tightened her thin garment once more. She gave Almond a light shove and walked past him. "If you stand still like that, you could be next." Upon hearing those words, Almond nced back at Raina dragging the bodies. His gaze extended up to the snow-covered hill. On top of the hill, something sharp and pointy could be seen. ''A turret?'' It was the turret from siege mode. The turret mercilessly attacked any champions or minions approaching with its magic attacks. Near the turret was a mountain of corpses. Almond asked his viewers privately, "Is that mountain all corpses?" ¡ª I think so... ¡ª Oh, this is realistic siege mode ¡ª LIL is a terrifying game, everybody! ¡ª That''s creepy. ¡ª Fact: LIL users are scarier. ¡ª If we kill the soldier minions, they''re the ones who clean them up? Oh no... ¡ª No spoilers. ¡ª Everybody, don''t spoil. Judging from the chat, this map was the real-life version of the siege mode. Almond was cleaning up the mess after a match. But who were all these children? Who were they fighting? ¡®And who am I ying as? What''s going on?¡¯ He had never seen the LIL?story mode in a stream, so everything was new. Bubblegum, who he mostly watched, mainly yed Battle Large and Mana Sword. ''I guess it''s better that I don''t know.'' There was no fun in ying the story mode if he knew everything. That was why other viewers insisted others keep spoilers to a minimum. They wanted to see Almond look surprised and cry when the moment came, so he could further immerse himself in the game. A donation came at the perfect time. Bling. [RubySword has donated 10,000 won.] [Almond! Change your stream category to LIL story mode! Unlike theme game Kingdom Age, there''s an option that can automatically filter spoilers!] Games with an official contract with Treevy had certain special features. "Ah, RubySword, thank you for the valuable information." During games like this, it was a useful feature. [LIL Siege Mode -> LIL Story Mode] As soon as he changed the game category, the game asked him a question. [There is a narrative in this game. Do you want to enable spoiler filters?] [Yes] Now, he could y without worrying about spoilers and fully enjoy the story. ¡ª LOL! You just turned it on? ¡ª The most interesting newbie. ¡ª A streamer who''s only yed a month... ¡ª It''s only been a month, but it feels like he''s been doing it for five years. "Alright, I''m going to resume the game. I don''t know what''s happening, but I should do as they say for now. ¡ª Yeah ¡ª Just go with the flow. ¡ª Story mode is more fun without knowing anything. Almond nodded and looked at the mountain with the turret on top. ''Do I have to go there?'' The children around him climbed the mountain, ncing at Almond, and signaling him to do the same. It seemed like Almond had to do the work for now. Otherwise, as Raina said, he''d be one of the corpses. ''Let''s go.'' He climbed the hills to survive. Stomp. Stomp. As he struggled to lift his frozen legs, they sank deep into the snow with eachborious step. A chilling sensation crept up to his knees. Since it wasn''t real, he couldn''t feel the pain of the coldness freezing his skin or the dampness caused by the wet environment. He could feel his body trembling though. The pain wasn''t recreated, but the ufortable sensation of the cold was. Because the ufortable sensation felt so real, he thought he was truly cold during this moment. "Argh..." Almond shook his body once more and headed towards the hill''s peak. Stomp. Stomp. As he pushed forward through the snow... "Phew. We''re here." He arrived at the top of the hill. As he took a deep breath, he could see his breath scatter through the wind. And then he saw the mountain of corpses. As he predicted, the pile he saw earlier was a mountain of corpses. It was censored to create a disconnection from reality, but he still felt ufortable. A human corpse was... "Urgh..." Almond instinctively looked away. He met eyes with Raina down the hill. She stopped dragging the corpse and stared at Almond as well. She stared at him for a while as if she had a gripe with him and continued to drag the corpse. He wasn''t sure why she acted like that, but he ignored her for now. Almond''s main priority was moving this corpse. He selected the smallest corpse and pulled on it. "Huh¡­?" But it wasn''t that easy. "This is kind of hard." Almond wasn''t too strong in this mode. A well-built man would have difficulty pulling a dead body, let alone the strength of a child. ¡ª %*@*@ ¡ª There''s no pointining to us. ¡ª LOL, the same as me ¡ª &&$*# The chat was filled with strange characters. It was the method to censor the spoilers. Almond wouldn''t be able to get help from his viewers. ''How do the others carry it?'' Almond looked around at the other children. Everyone could drag a corpse because they were using a rope. "... I don''t have a rope." Almond was the only one without a rope. Even he was surprised by hisck of awareness. How could he figure it out sote? The chat was filled with mockery of him. *** Almond had to walk back down to grab a rope. Then climb back up to drag the corpses. When he thought this was the worst kind ofbor, he dragged the final corpse. "Arrghh.... ahhh!" Thud.? With a shout, he threw the final corpse into the incinerator. He sighed deeply and sat in one corner of the incinerator. Almond moved the corpses for now, but he couldn''t understand the objective of this story mode. "What am I supposed to do now? I started without any knowledge, so..." Suddenly¡­ Bling. [Clear Criteria] ¡ï: Survive ¡ï¡ï: Annihte the enemy ¡ï¡ï¡ï: Raina''s reason A window popped up as if the game heard Almond''s question. To get one star, all he had to do was survive. Starting from two stars, it was more difficult. Especially the third one, he had no idea what it meant. ''Raina''s reason?'' It seemed like it had something to do with why Raina got angry. However, it was too vague to be sure. "This third one... it''s natural to not know it, right?" ¡ª Yeah, it''s always vague. ¡ª Three stars are always hard to clear ¡ª If you get three stars, you get a special reward. But no one can beat Raina''s. ¡ª Getting three stars is like a dream. Just give it up. ¡ª That can only be done by pure luck. Just focus on getting two stars. ¡ª Raina three stars is possible? I''ve never seen it happen. ¡ª There are only rumors of peoplepleting it. It was normal not to know? Nobody had ever beaten it? It seemed like out of streamers, no one could clear it. [DemianClub has registered a mission.] [500,000 won if you get all three stars!] "?" Almond was surprised because it was a viewer who had never spent much money. "Will you be okay?" [DemianClub has donated 1000 won.] [This is how I feel toward Raina-chan. You won''t be able to do it anyways, uwu. You don''t have what it takes to win her! ><] The way he talked was unpleasant, but Almond understood that he''d have no regrets about the mission. "Thank you for the 500,000 won." ¡ª Look how confident he is. ¡ª Hey! You can''t beat that! ¡ª Are you saying you can do it? ¡ª Raina, three stars?! ¡ª That has nothing to do with skills! Whether skills mattered or not, Almond wanted to beat it. Achieving the highest rank always made him excited. Just then¡­ Creak. The storage door beside the incinerator opened, and arge soldier entered. "Hey, you. Come to the arsenal if you''re done." The storage was an arsenal. "... Yes!" Almond was now obedient like the children around him. ¡ª Hey, did you forget you''re the Lazy Soldier? ¡ª So into it. Just like a newbie. ¡ª It''s like watching myself in high school! FML. ¡ª An obedient Almond...? Yahtzee! As he entered, he saw the other children warming up by the fire. ''Everyone was resting here?'' Despite not feeling actual coldness, Almond felt a sense of betrayal and quickly hurried to sit beside them. "Another battle will start soon." He could hear the children be startled. They didn''t say anything, but were noticeably shaking. Not from the cold though. "Here are the weapons the minions ahead used." ¡®Minions?¡¯ Almond checked who he was. He was a minion. The same minions who kept forming in LIL siege mode. The soldiers who blindly ran to the towers were called minions. They were the weakest entities in the game, caught and killed by summoners to produce gold and EXP. Now, he was one of those minions. "Pick a weapon you can use well. It''ll be the sole weapon to defend your life." Thud. The soldier carelessly dropped the weapons. All the used weapons had traces of blood and rust. None of them were taken care of. But then¡­ "!" Shuffle! All the children ran for it like a herd, trying to get the best one. Almond ran without hesitation as well. Of course, the weapon he chose was the bow. He chose the best one out of the pile. However, another white hand reached out for the same bow. Tak. "...!" "?" He turned around and met Raina''s blue eyes. She looked at him sharply and asked, "Do you... know how to use a bow?" *** [Beginner¡¯s Tip: Minions are the lowest tier and only listen to themands of their higher-ups. They mostly do the dirty work and, in siege mode, are the first to charge for the turrets.] Chapter 141: Minion (2)

    Chapter 141: Minion (2)

    Story mode was the hero''s legend told by the champions themselves. The higher the understanding of legends, the more power a summoner could draw from their champions. In other words, even if the champions were the same, theirbat abilities could vary depending on the summoner. It seemed unfair, but the developers rified that this mechanic was also a part of being skilled in?LIL. ''This is... good.'' Ju-Hyeok, who knew all of this prior, recognized what a great opportunity this was for Almond. Starting story mode at Level 2 was like starting an RPG game with a legendary item. ''We need to get more out of it.'' There were currently around 5000 viewers, but there was potential for more. Unfortunately, there weren''t many viewers since it was early in the morning and half of Almond''s audience was unaware that he was streaming. Ju-Hyeok started typing on his phone as if the screen was about to break. "What are you doing?" Ji-Ah was curious about what he was doing and stopped eating. "Manager''s work." "... Are you sure you''re not ying Candy Crush?" "Candy... what are you saying. Kiddo, this is very important work." Ju-Hyeok continued to focus on his work. [This guy unlocked Raina''s story mode from one normal game] [What?! It''s possible to reach max rapport with Raina by using your looks?.gif] [How to reach max rapport with Raina by just talking.gif] [LIL''s biggest alpha male.gif] [As long as you''re good with a bow, her rapport is easy to gain. Something you guys can''t do.gif] Ju-Hyeok was doing important manager work on themunity forums. Not only did he post on LIL Pro, but also in the?Kingdom Age and Battle Large forums to attract reinforcements. These users wanted reassurance that?LIL was an inferior game to theirs and hoped more than anyone else that Almond would achieve new things in the game. ¡ª Even LIL can''t handle Almond. ¡ª "LIL is not hard. Almond just hasn''t yed it yet." by Treevy chat ¡ª Raina story? A Batte Large yer does it in one round. Are all LIL yers just stupid~~? They were all childish, but this immaturepetition helped raise the posts in LIL Pro to the big category. "Oh... oh." Ji-Ah, watching it unfold behind him, was impressed. ''Is it going to work?'' The most important part was the instantaneous effect. ''Is it working!?'' It would be impossible to have it trending if he lost this chance. Tadadak. He visited several posts andmented on the link to his post to promote it. Ju-Hyeok felt it was unnecessary, but he had no choice since they recently transitioned games. ¡ª You''re really trying to promote him, huh? ¡ª I gave it a lil cause you''re begging so much. ¡ª I gave the post a big because I felt bad. I''ll send it to big pro. The effort paid off. The post earned lots of big and made it to the big pro category. [Big!] [How to reach max rapport with Raina by just talking.gif] "Oh!" "It worked!" p. Ji-Ah and Ju-Hyeok high-fived and smiled. ''... I feel ashamed.'' ''It is a bit weird.'' He felt weird feeling happy from fabricating a poprmunity post. "Ahem. Let''s just eat." "Yeah..." Ju-Hyeok continued to eat afterpleting his task while ncing at thements. ¡ª Almond? ¡ª Oh, this is Almond. ¡ª Where is he living right now? I can''t resist some almond kes in the morning! I''m headed there now! ¡ª Oh, Raina''s story mode? I can''t resist this! ¡ª Damn, Almond does some funny things in LIL as well? ¡ª Wow! You know Almond too?! *** "You said your name is Almond, right?" Young Raina stared him down. "If you''re picking up the bow because you''re scared of the frontline, then leave it alone¡­." Almond wanted to scold the little girl, but he couldn''t because he was also in the body of a child. ¡ª Raina''s the same as when she was young, LOL ¡ª Holding hands with Raina?! Lucky you¡­ ¡ª I should''ve picked up the bow too! So I can hold hands with her! "I''m grabbing it because I''m good with a bow." "Ah, okay." She obliged, but her expression said otherwise. It was as if she knew what Almond was going to say. Whatever the case, Almond didn''t care. All he needed was the bow. "Then I''ll take it... huh?" However, Raina didn''t let go of the bow. "Take something else." "... Why?" "Because this is the best one." "That''s why I''m trying to take it." "Someone who doesn''t even know how to drag bodies knows how to look at bows?" "I probably have ten more years of experience than you." Almond replied a little too seriously because Raina poked his archery pride. The viewers thought they were watching children fight each other. ¡ª Uh, Almond? Aren''t you taking it a little too seriously... ¡ª LOL, You''ve been ying games for a month now! ¡ª Experience?: A Decade ¡ª 16 years old, but you have 10-year experience? ¡ª Did you actually turn into a child? ¡°Haha,¡± Raina gave a rareugh. "Ten more years? Did you start when you were in your mother''s belly?" "Just give it." Almond tried to force the bow away from her. He instinctively felt that he needed the bow because the first star criterion was surviving, the next was eradicating the enemy, and the final was Raina''s reason. "No, I don''t want to¡­!" "Give it!" There was nothing about having to keep Raina alive. She''d survive anyways because this was her past memory. He didn''t find the need to give the bow to her. "Hey, you." Arge soldier approached them. m! "Kugh!" He suddenly kicked Almond. "Give that bow to Raina." Thud. Almond fell to the ground with a defeated look. "You use this." A cheap-looking bow was thrown in front of him. "W-Why! I grabbed it first!" "...?" The soldier turned around and gave an intimidating look. "Hey, minion. This is your first battle. Raina has five victories already, so she has the say. Do you have a problem with that?" The premise was that this was Almond''s first battle. From the beginning, he had no chance topare with her in terms of experience. "... No." Almond had no choice but to pick up and use the cheap bow. ¡ª Noooo... ¡ª I can''t believe Almond is being treated this way... ¡ª He''s the only newbie... ¡ª What can you do? Raina''s the main character! You should''ve given up early, you nut. ¡ª Bow lover Almond¡­ That was right. What could he do about the situation since Raina was the main character. Almond came to terms on his own and collected as many arrows as possible. He thought this was the best way to increase his survival chance. A soldier shouted loudly, "Thirty seconds before everyone gathers!!!" Rumble! All the children stepped out. Almond was a littleter than them because he received the bowte, but Raina was ahead of him. ''Why''s she in front if she''s an archer?'' *** "Gather around!!!" The soldiersmanded them to gather around the base of the turret. It was the same ce where they cleared the corpses earlier. From there, they could see the battlefield on top of the hill. It looked simr to the siege mode map. The only difference was that there was a pile of snow and the map looked bigger and more realistic. Instead of the summoner''s perspective, they were in the perspective of a minion. "The summoners areing! Everyone, stand on the sidelines!" Chuk. The children followed themand and stood by the sidelines. Almond did as he was told as well. After everyone moved to the side, a hidden path was revealed. It was for the summoner to walk through. ''So there are summoners here too. It''s probably not a user, right?'' Normally in the game, the users were the summoners. Since this was story mode, it was most likely not. In terms of the narrative, it was a powerful character. Who was it? Almond stared intently at the base, curious to see who woulde out because once the game began, they would spawn there. Boom!!! Five shining white lights fell from the sky and summoned the champions. It was as if angels were descending from the sky, at least from the perspective of a minion. "Wow..." "They''re so cool..." "I want to grow up and be a champion too!" All the children were impressed. The strict soldiers let them have this moment. ''Do the minions turn into champions?'' Since Almond didn''t know anything about?LIL''s story mode, he could only decipher everything they said. They could turn into summoners because Raina could also turn into a champion. "Wow!!" "Champion!" "Thank you!" The summoners walked on the path, greeting the minions on the sidelines. There was even a girl smiling at them. "Wo! I want to grow up and be a summoner!" "Yuria! Look over here! Yuria!" "Wo!" As the girl walked by, a loud cheer was heard. ''Bow...'' She was holding a bow. Almond turned around to see Raina''s reaction. "... Yuria! You''re so cool!" At the end of the day, Raina was still a child. He couldn''t imagine seeing Raina shout like that. It was a strange feeling. She didn''t hesitate to cheer for champions who didn''t use a bow. ''Is Raina going to turn into that summoner?'' Almond looked at the champion again, but besides carrying a bow, she had no simrities to Raina, The Cold-Blooded Evil Archer. He couldn''t say anything because the summoners and champions werepletely different. "I''ll win this time again, for sure." Raina promised to herself, tightly holding the bow. ¡ª I want to be Raina''s bow. ¡ª Me too! ¡ª I''m good with being her arrow. ¡ª My career goal is now Raina''s bow. It seemed like Raina repeatedly used that bow. He thought it would be hers by now, but it seemed like they took it away every time because of safety reasons. While he was in his thoughts, all the champions passed by. The soldiersmanded them again, "Minioooons!" "Yes!" m. Everyone answered in unison, stomping their feet. Almond just pretended to respond by mouthing the words. "30 seconds before the battle! Get ready for attacking position again!" Thump, thump! Countless children moved at once. The noise from the armor was so loud that birds in the trees started to fly away. "Row 1!" Chuk. The minions in the first row readied their weapons to charge forward. Sniffle... sniffle... Someone was crying in the back. It seemed like they knew someone in the front row. "Charge!" On the mark of the soldier''s g, the first row of minions charged forward. "Arrrrgh!!!" "Kraaaaagh!" It was more like a scream rather than a shout. Among them was Raina. ''Can she live like that?'' Almond recalled the siege mode and remembered that the first row of minions died indefinitely, but Raina was in the first row despite being an archer. Would she be able to survive until the battle was over? He was worried, but moved on. ''Raina will probably live.'' Raina turning into the evil archer champion was a fact. He didn''t need to worry about her. Instead, he had to worry for himself. "Next! Row 2!" After a short moment, the second row was called out. They charged in, screaming as well. There was no news about what happened to the first row of minions. "Row 3!" "Row 4!" It was almost Almond''s turn. He was in row 8. "Row 8!" Chuk! The children beside Almond got into attack position and lowered their bodies. "Attack!" With a simplemand, the entire row 8 started to charge forward. "Aaaargh!" "Graaaaa!" "Dieeeee!" The screams were ear-deafening. The children were screaming to ovee their fear. They ran for a while until... "There!" "T-The enemy!" They met the enemy minions and the courageous children slightly backed off. ''What are they doing?'' Creak¡­? Almond was in front of them, readying his bow. *** [Beginner¡¯s Tip: In siege mode, you can earn gold and EXP by killing minions. You can level up and learn new skills if you gain enough EXP. Gold can be exchanged for new and better items.]? Chapter 142: Minion (3)

    Chapter 142: Minion (3)

    Thwack! The arrow Almond firednded perfectly on the enemy minion''s head. Unlike actual LIL gamey, there were no HP bars. Thud. Once they were hit on the head, they instantly died. Almond felt a thrilling sensation at the ends of his fingertips. It was a sense of reality he hadn''t felt in a long while. ¡ª Kya! As expected, first shot, headshot! ¡ª It''s been a while since we''ve seen such a clean shot. Come back to Battle Large now! ¡ª Wait, it''s story mode and there are bows? Why not just y Kingdom Age?! ¡ª The most dangerous tool: Almond''s arrows. The viewers were excited too since it had been a while since they saw him do a headshot, but the children who ran together with Almond stared at him wide-eyed. "...!" "W-What the?" "Did he... just shoot from our side?" They were surprised to see him kill a minion so far away. ''Huh...?'' Meanwhile, Almond was interested in something else. Wooong...! As he killed an enemy minion, blue energy enveloped him. ''Mana?'' It was mana and the following text appeared before him. [1 Mana obtained] [A strange power can be felt.] [You need more to perform something magical.] Once minions were killed in this mode, they rewarded mana instead of gold. Judging from the exnation, he would grow stronger the more mana he gained. Once he had enough, he could also use magic. Or turn into a champion. ''I think I can turn into a champion.'' Magic aside, he could be a champion if he earned enough mana. At least, that''s what he felt like. Not only did the other minions motivate themselves to kill the enemy by shouting their desire to turn into a champion, but Raina also charged in first and aspired to be one by killing as much as she could. "O-Our archer is better!" "Kill them!!" "Run!!!" "Kraaaaa!" Whether it was because his arrow narrowly hit the minion through their helmet or the enemy arrow missed them, the allied minions were filled with morale even though he only killed one minion. Tudududu...! The children in row 8 started charging forward. The enemy minion ran as well. The countless children rumbled thend and collided in the center. m! Kang! Thud! They used their fists, pierced with their spears, and some even identally cut their allies with their swords. It was utter chaos. Allies and enemies mixed, rolling around all over the ce. "Arggh!" "Keugh!" "Kraaaa!'' The only way to tell them apart was the cape around their shoulders. The enemy was red and the allies wore blue, but even the capes were tearing apart. Regardless, Almond had to use them as a point of reference as he readied his bow. He readied four arrows in between his fingers. As the first arrow was ced onto the bow, pang! The air ripped as the arrow flew through. Thwack! "Kugh!" The arrows flew by countless allies and pierced the enemy''s head. Once again, he gained mana. Almond pulled his bowstring once more. Thwack! Again, another minion fell. And the next arrow and the arrow after that were fired as well. Thwack! Thwack! The minions fell as the arrownded perfectly in their foreheads. "Phew..." Almond continued to rapidly fire his shots as if he were venting from his studio experience. The arrows swept the minions as if they were scripted. "Wow..." The other archer beside him stared at him in awe. "W-Who are you? It''s my first time seeing you." Almond was focused on his shooting and gave a one-word answer, "Almond." ¡ª Kya... simple dimple! ¡ª "Bow." ¡ª Boss! These people don''t know what an almond is! ¡ª What''s that! Despite his light answer, the archer''s eyes were shining. "Your name is Almond? Amazing..." ¡ª Almond, your name is amazing! ¡ª What an incredible name! ¡ª Almond is an interesting name. The archer didn''t mean his name was amazing, but the viewers mocked him anyways. "My name is Teo." The archer introduced himself as Teo, but Almond couldn''t hear him. His sole focus was on shooting the arrows. His bow furiously shook and his quiver started to empty. When his quiver was finally empty, no more minions were in sight. [Current Mana: 20] [It''s still not enough to do anything.] 20 out of the 30 minions instantly died. He had incredible uracy. The allies mumbled in shock. "T-They''re all dead?" "One row is all dead...!" Even during their celebration, Almond quietly picked up the fallen arrows. The next row of minions woulde shortly if this was like a normal LIL game. ''There''s not much.'' Out of the fallen arrows, there weren''t many left avable to use. "Hey, you''re Teo, right?" "Huh... huh? R-Right. I''m Teo." "Give me your arrows." "What? But I don''t have much... if I give you this..." "You suck at shooting anyways. It''s better if I use them." ¡ª LOOOL ¡ª You''re so mean, hahaha ¡ª But he''s not wrong! Teo thought momentarily and epted the truth, handing over all his remaining arrows to Almond. "Y-You have to do well." Almond equipped the quiver without replying because the next round of minions wasing. He aimed his bow at the enemy minions again and his bowstring started flickering. The arrows in his quiver disappeared in an instant as did the enemy minions. "Wow, wow..." While Teo couldn''t keep his mouth shut, a loud voice behind them struck him. "Hey!!! You!!! You''re incredible!!!" Almond felt like he was being hit by the sound. He turned around and saw a huge body bigger than a normal person. Judging from the faint light surrounding them, it seemed like they were a champion. He recalled seeing them earlier. "... A summoner?" Thud. This time, he was hit on his head by their hands instead of the sound. "Haha! You''re as cocky as your skills! It''s Mr. Summoner for you! Mister!!" "M-Mr. Summoner." "Yes! Good job, minion. Now hit the turret!!! I''ll attack as well!!!" m! The champion leaped ahead, turned into light, and mmed into the enemy turret. m!!! The skill was as rowdy as his voice. ¡ª It''s Bart! ¡ª Iron Monster Bart! ¡ª A true alpha male. He''s the same here, LOL. The champion that the summoner was using was Bart The Iron Monster. "What are you doing!!! Charge! Hit the turret!!!" As hemanded the minions, Bart was fighting the turret with all his might. In a normal game, the turret hit the minions. However, it was the opposite in this mode. Bzzzzt! The magic energy from the turret continued to shoot at Bart, but he seemed fine after using a certain skill. "Let''s go!" "Fire!" "Break it!" Turrets were the natural nemesis of minions. How many countless allies died to those turrets? The allied minions charged forward while shouting. Spears and knives pierced the turret. It was unrealistic that these weapons would shatter it. Still, the turret started to crumble since this was a video game. Eventually, it made a loud noise as it crumbled down. Rumble...! "Incredible!!!" Bart shouted as he ced a g where the turret was. "Wow!!!" All the minions shouted as if it was over. "We''re alive! We''re alive!" In normal gamey, they would have to defeat another turret and destroy the enemy nexus to beat them. Still, the battle was over in this mode. It was more realistic this way. "... Almond! Almond! Almond!" Suddenly, a child started chanting his name. It was the kid from earlier who introduced himself. "Almond?" "What''s that?" As the other minions mumbled, the child spoke up again. "It''s this guy''s name! He says it''s Almond!" Then the other minions joined him. "This guy killed almost everyone using his bow!" "Ah! That was you!" "Wo!" "Almond! Almond! Almond!" "Almond! Almond!" . The viewers filled the chat with their excitement as well. ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! ¡ª Those minions are the same as us, LOL ¡ª Treevy minions. ¡ª Mom, I want to be Almond when I grow up! Mom, I want to be Almond when I grow up! Mom, I want to be Almond when I grow up! ¡ª The strongest nut in the universe: Almond. After he received an embarrassing amount of praise from both sides, the first battle was over quickly. [After some time.] The scene quickly skipped, and Almond was back at the arsenal. "Oh, what the. You''re alive?" He could hear Raina''s voice. Raina was unsurprisingly alive despite being in the first row. "Speak for yourself. How did you live? I saw you were in the first row." "I went top, but you probably went mid since you were row 8." It seemed like the rows went to differentnes depending on the order. As a result, he couldn''t see Raina. "But it''s the same situation even though you went top, isn''t it? How did you survive?" "I just did." ¡ª I guess she''s still a child, after all. ¡ª Watch your tone, youngdy! ¡ª Omg! ¡ª Boss, I think she needs a spanking. "Then how did you survive? You couldn¡¯t even move a dead body by yourself." "I just did." Almond acted immaturely to Raina to match her. She was a child, but so was Almond. Acting his role was more entertaining to his viewers anyways. ¡ª Hahahahaha ¡ª Almond, the child actor! ¡ª ??? Why are you acting childish? ¡ª Waah! I''m baby Almond! ¡ª Almond, when did you turn into a baby peanut? ¡°Pfft,¡±?Raina let out a slight smile. "I don''t even have to see. You didn''t do anything in the backline, right?" "You think that''ll get me to tell you?" "..." Raina frowned because Almond didn''t fall for it. "You probably don''t want to say anything since you just cowardly hid in the back." "Still not telling you." ¡ª LOOOL ¡ª Almond''s straight up a child now, LOL ¡ª Almond! This is acting, right? I can''t tell! ¡ª 200% into his role. ¡ª You look like you''re at least a teenager! Why are you acting so young! "This..." Raina''s cheeks turned red. He couldn''t tell if it was because she was upset or if she knew his intentions. "Whatever. I can just ask the others." Raina quickly turned around and walked away. She was going to ask the others? That was what he hoped for anyways because anyone from row 8 that Raina asked would say the same thing. "Oh, Almond? He was the best archer I''ve ever seen..." "Almond? He was basically Yuria today!" "Almond? He was crazy today! He killed all two minion waves by himself!" Raina''s shoulder started shaking because she didn''t hear the answer she wanted. "L... Lies!" Whether young or grown up, she asked questions and expected predetermined answers. Raina turned around again, stomped towards Almond, and told him, "You! Stand in the same row with me tomorrow." "Why?" "We need to determine who''s better." She was persistent. As he stood still, Raina pushed forward. "It''s a promise." She put out her pinky to make a pinky promise. Almond thought this was unnecessary, but he made a pinky promise to her. Raina turned back around and walked away toward the fire. ¡ª Is this how this normally happens? ¡ª Maybe you have to be a better archer than Raina. ¡ª Wow, crossing fingers with Raina... jealous! This kind of development wasn''tmon. Almond felt he made a good promise because new routes and developments always made the broadcast more exciting. ''It''ll be a sess if I get three stars.'' The stream and story mode was going well. Now, all he needed to do was get three stars and it would be a perfect YouTube video. As he thought that¡­ [After some time.] It cut to the next scene. "Minion!!! Get them!!!" The battle began again. Almond, as promised, ran to the battlefield beside Raina. This time, he was in the first row with her and only a few enemy turrets remained. How did Raina survive in the first row? What was Raina''s reason? What was the purpose of this story mode? He felt that all of his questions would soon be answered. *** [Beginner¡¯s Tip: In siege mode, the nexus can be destroyed for victory after all turrets have been destroyed.]? Chapter 143: Minion (4)

    Chapter 143: Minion (4)

    Almond could sense that the stream was going well. ''Oh, there''s quite a bit now.'' The new progression in the story mode intrigued more viewers toe and watch. ¡ª Oh wow, it''s Raina''s story. ¡ª It''s been a while since I''ve seen it. ¡ª Wow, unlocking Raina''s story at lv 2?? envious¡­ ¡ª It¡¯s currently 11 AM and New York Times says Almond and Raina are the best brunchbinations! ¡ª It''s my first time watching this LIVE. I''m so excited!! ¡ª Is this where you pinky promised Raina to meet? [Current Viewers: 7.6k] Almond started in the morning with 5000 viewers, but nearing lunch hour now, he had around 7k. He was getting tired after streaming for longer than usual, but having many viewers at this time motivated him. ''Seems like I just need to focus on the game.'' He was receiving enough attention. All that was left to do was immerse himself in the gamey. The stream would naturally be sessful. "Row 1! Get ready to attack!!!" the soldier bellowed in a booming voice. Almond gulped and went into position. "You. You kept your promise," Raina bumped him on the shoulder. "You''re braver than you look." "We''re just starting together." "Normally, everyone avoids the first row even though we need mana." Raina nced at the minions behind them. "Pathetic." Suddenly, the pathetic minions started shouting. "Yuria!!" "Mr. Bart, you have our utmost respect!" "Yuria! We love you!" "I want to be a summoner when I grow up too!!! Please remember me!!" The champions were walking by them again. They seemed more tired than earlier. This time, they hurried across and didn''t respond to the cheers. Almond didn''t see all five of them together because, unlike before, they were in the middle ofbat. Whip! A blue g was raised from the base and the horseman shouted, "Row 1!! Attack!!!" The children in row 1 rushed forward in unison. Stomp! "Aaaaargh!!!" "Let''s gooo!" "Kill them all!!" Kugugu...! As the row charged forward, the earth shook. Raina went out of her way to get ahead of everyone else. Why did she position herself in the frontline if she was an archer? Almond wasn''t sure, but he ran beside Raina as promised. Almond kept his promise to her, thinking it''d help him achieve ''Raina''s Reason'' to earn three stars. "Over there!" Raina shouted as she saw a red g in the distance. She sped up once more and charged forward. Tadadak. She was now ahead of the horseman. Nobody said anything despite the archer running ahead. Creak... Raina pulled on her bowstring. Pang! ''Huh?'' Almond was shocked to learn she could already envelop her arrows with mana. The mana-filled arrownded on an enemy minion''s heart and exploded. Boom! Their armor shattered and the minion fell. Raina rolled backward to dodge the arrows being fired at her. The enemy lowered their guards, focusing on Raina, and became vulnerable to the spearmen. m! The allied minions sessfully pushed them back over the center line. This was why Raina charged ahead. "Alright! Raina!" "Kya! As expected of Raina, you''re the best!" The allied minions recognized her feats and cheered her on. Raina smiled at them and pulled her bowstring again. Bzzt. Once again, the arrow was filled with mana. ¡®How does she do it? I have mana too?!¡¯ As he thought that¡­ [A new skill is about to be learned.] A text appeared before him. A new skill? It was talking about Raina''s mana arrows. [Mana Arrow] [Can be activated once in focus. Arrows will be faster and easily pierce through armor.] [Mana Consumption: 1] ¡ª ??? ¡ª What the!? ¡ª This exists? ¡ª Damn. ¡ª Maybe it onlyes out if you make a promise to Raina! ¡ª Damn, this is the Almond I know! Was this a new discovery as well? The viewers were excited. After his promise to Raina, every scene unfolding was new. ''This is good.'' For a streamer, this was a great situation. However, he felt uneasy for some reason. ''Something is odd.'' Almond readied his mana arrow. Since this game was yed in first-person mode, skills were activated by thought because there were no other yers to disturb their thinking. Bzzt! A blue energy formed at the tip of the arrow. He could feel it even before shooting that it wasn''t as powerful as when he was a summoner. But¡ª Pang!!! "Kugh!" It was strong enough to shatter the cheap armor on a minion. Raina, who was beside him, looked at him in surprise. "What the...!?" "Look ahead." Almond shot down a melee minion running toward Raina. Pung! The minion''s head red up in blue mes as it copsed. Raina''s face turned bright red. She felt a mixture of anger and embarrassment for being careless after seeing an archer better than herself. "No way..." Almond could also perform several tricks that Raina couldn''t. He could ready four arrows, fire them all at once, and even bend arrows to hit enemy minions near allies. Pabababang! Countless minions copsed in front of him. "H... how..." Raina was also shooting down minions diligently, but her pride was being shot down at the same time. ¡ª Raina''s so confused. ¡ª It''s like Rock Lee meeting Sasuke for the first time. ¡ª Minion Raina can''tpare against Almond. Maybe if she was a champion. ¡ª Her eyes almost popped out seeing the curve shot, LOL ¡ª Raina is one of us! ¡ª Raina (10 minster): Mom, I want to be Almond! ¡ª Shocked Raina looks so cute! She tried copying him by shooting consecutively, but missed a couple of shots. Still, she hit 90% of her shots. The only ones suffering from their battle of pride were the enemy minions. "W-We''re being pushed back!" "Dammit! Their champion''s not even here and we''re being pushed back?!" "Kugh!" "Stop them! If we give up the turret, we''re done for!" "S-Shield soldiers!!" The red team tried to push back with their shield soldiers, but they copsed from Almond''s serenade of arrows. He curved the shots around the shields tond them. "What the, our minions won again today?" He heard a girl''s voice from the back. Judging from the light shining off her body, it was a summoner. She was the summoner who contracted with the current evil archer, Yuria. Bzzzt...! Yuria muttered as she pulled on her glowing white bow, "This turret''s going to be gone soon too." Puuung!! She gathered energy and fired off a strong st, knocking down several minions simultaneously. "Argh!" "Kugh." The minions were swept away like a tsunami crashed into them. "What the?! Why are our minions pushed so far back!?" The enemy summoner came, trying to block further damage. "Alright, everyone! Attack!" However, the blue team''s minions charged in unison toward the turret after Yuria¡¯smand. Thanks to Yuria distracting the enemy champion, the enemy turret was easily demolished. They had no choice but to flee as the battle was over. "Hey, you." Yuria tapped Almond. "Yes." "You have a good shot." He could feel Raina''s re. "Thank you." "Next,e mid. Since we pushed the tier two turrets, now we just need to destroy the next two turrets before reaching the nexus." "... Isn''t this mid?" "This is top. Red... no, you must be a new captive of Taran seeing as you don''t know much." "Yes." "Still, you''re overflowing with talent," Yuria bent down and told him as she patted him on the head. Her golden hair tickled Almond''s ear. "Make sure you don''t die. Otherwise, I think I''ll have a hard time." Before he could answer¡­ [After some time.] There was another time skip. *** They were back at the fire in the base camp. It wasn''t their usual home base. Instead, they were in the game''s jungle where they could see the enemy''s crumbled tier two turret. "Sigh. Cleaning the corpses is harder, I swear." "Yeah..." Judging from the conversation, Almond and the minions had just finished cleaning up the corpses. ''Thank goodness I don''t have to see that again.'' Almond was relieved that he was a yer and sat near the fire. The other children made way for him because they revered him. He pretended to eat the rock-hard bread they gave him and carefully studied Raina because he felt something odd about her. ''You called them pathetic earlier.'' Raina was chopping wood and making fire for the other minions. She didn''t have a nket, just the thin garment she wore, but she was busy handing out nkets to the younger minions. The center of the fire was reserved for the younger minions. "Tom,e over here. It''s too cold over there." "B-But Raina, what about you?" "I''m alright since I''m bigger than you. I don''t get as cold." "Really?" "Yeah. Come here and eat this." She gave the smallest minion, Tom, her only bread to eat. ''You said you wanted to earn mana and turn into a champion.'' It was strange. Almond felt uneasy not only because of her actions, but because of what he learned about the mana arrow. ''What is she doing?'' Using a mana arrow consumed 1 mana, which meant it negated the mana reward if a minion was killed using it. If she continued using the mana arrow to kill minions, she would never earn enough to be a champion. But why? Why did Raina fight so hard like that? ''Is this Raina''s reason?'' This seemed like a clue to achieving three stars. The viewers thought the same as Almond. ¡ª But why''s she using the mana arrow? Isn''t she going to collect more? Almond''s a yer so it makes sense, but Raina''s weird. ¡ª She''s nice to the kids because $&#(*@( ¡ª It''s Almond''s first time using the mana arrow. This &*(@*@()# ¡ª I''m so curious. ¡ª Is he going to earn 500,000 won? ¡ª DamienClub is probably worried now. ¡ª It''s almost 700,000 won now! Who added more? ¡ª Damn, I just found out I said the answer because of the spoiler filter warning. Since 9000 viewers were throwing in their guesses, there was bound to be an answer among them. He was getting more and more viewers curious to see how the story''s new route was unfolding. Almond felt that this was the best opportunity. "I''m going to eat ande back." The opportunity to fill his grumbling stomach. ¡ª You mother&@#^@ ¡ª This *(@!??$ again?! ¡ª What a streamer. ¡ª Shudders¡­ That wasn''t a spoiler filter. It was a harshnguage filter. ¡ª Aren''t you going to do the mission!? Aren''t you going to do the mission!? ¡ª Do the mission! Do the mission! Do the mission! Even viewers threatened him with the missions, but it was useless because he had a n. "The mission is good for 24 hours. Pfft." With that as hisst words, Almond paused the stream. ¡ª Who set the mission to 24 hours?! Make it 3!!! ¡ª DamienClub is truly ballsy. Why did he set it to 24 hours? ¡ª Ah... this guy''s going to leave us hanging again?! ¡ª At least he''s not turning on an ad. ¡ª The worst type of cliffhanger. They could hear something from his mic just as the chat wasining. "Ah, everyone, I''m going to turn on an AD before leaving." He turned on the Lazy Soldier''s first round of teasers with him appearing in it. *** [Beginner¡¯s Tip: Summoners stay in their respectivenes, focused on their enemies while eliminating the minions. This is called thening phase. Once the turret in theirne is destroyed, thening phase is over.]? Chapter 144: Rainas Reason (1)

    Chapter 144: Raina''s Reason (1)

    As Sang-Hyeon exited the capsule, Ju-Hyeok was on standby. "Hey, the ad teaser came out. Let''s y it." "You scared me! When did youe?" Sang-Hyeon clenched his nose because Ju-Hyeok reeked of alcohol. "What''s that smell?" "Ji-Ah and I had a drink at the pork stew restaurant." The two celebrated the sess of themunity posts promoting Almond and shared a bottle of soju. When the excitement died down, they saw the three empty bottles beside them. Ji-Ah was more excited than usual because of her pay. "Shame to those who drink during the day." Sang-Hyeon repeated exactly what Ju-Hyeok said to him back then. "How will you get through the day drunk in the morning?" "What are you talking about?" "If you start the day drunk, you won¡¯t be able to think rationally throughout the day and won''t get anything done. Then you''ll be stressed about that the next day, so you''ll drink again. And again for a month, then a year..." "Okay, okay, I get it. Tell them you''re going to y the ad. I''ll turn it on." Ju-Hyeok raised his arms in defeat. Sang-Hyeon chuckled and went back into the capsule to tell his viewers. The viewers weren''t happy to hear that he would y an ad. ¡ª Baka Almond! He only cares about money! ¡ª Chat: care less about money! // ???: why // chat: just don''t! // ???: how''s that possible? ¡ª We''re SICK of it. ¡ª Go to hell, capitalism! ¡ª Children... Almond only sees money. However, discovering that Almond was featured in the ad piqued their interest. "This isn''t just any ad. I was the model for it. Bubblegum and Miho are in it too." ¡ª Oh, is this the one you went to the studio for the other day? ¡ª Almond is in it??? ¡ª For real? ¡ª Miho too!? ¡ª Damn, Almond?? ¡ª Wow! You''re in a videomercial!? Hell yeah! ¡ª Damn, you''re world ss! All the viewers knew there was a big difference in pay between a random ad and a videomercial. [RubySword has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [Wow! Congrattions on bing Fantasia''s model! I didn''t know because I didn''t read the announcements!] [Eggnt has donated 50,000 won!] [Damn! A real model now! I can''t believe you''reing out in a videomercial!] ¡ª Just by ying the AD, you earn money?? ¡ª Shooting themercial earns you money. Turning it on earns you money and you earn money for doing it... a true alpha male. ¡ª Wow, I''m so proud of Almond. I''ve been watching him since Kingdom Age, hehe. ¡ª As expected of Kingdom Age Almond! Even shooting a videomercial! Go Kingdom Age! ¡ª Kingdom fanboys are amazing. They''re everywhere! The viewers continued to chat. "Alright, I''m going to quickly eat." The screen turned ck. [FANTASIA] Some text with a clean font appeared. [WePLUG] It was a well-executed ad that was supposed to run for a limited time. [Presents...] The background music changed and an actor appeared on the screen. The man looked annoyed when he started to speak, ¡°Hey, Pam.¡± ¡°Yes! You called for me, soldier? Teehee!¡± A fairy with a funnyugh came to his side. It looked like a fairy from a children''s tale. The man looked at the fairy and said something with a determined look. ¡°We killed... the devil king.¡± ¡°Yes! We killed him!¡± the fairy answered back cheerfully. ¡°It took 10 years¡­¡± ¡°You''re right. It took you 10 years! You sure took your time! Teehee!¡± The man looked angry, ready to swing at the fairy. ¡°I went through all that trouble in this wretched ce to kill it! I killed it for sure!!! So now you have to keep your promise!!!¡± It seemed like the man was promised a reward for killing the devil king. He started shouting at the fairy. ¡°Teehee!?Promise? I did keep it.¡± ¡°I asked you to send it to my house. You said I''d get paid for it as well. You said my warrior''s tale became famous among other fairies too. You said you''d send me home with 30 million won!¡± ¡°I did send it to your house.¡± ¡°Sigh... You did?¡± The man angrily opened his curtains. Swish. As the curtains opened, a bright light shone in. The city in the distance was burning with monsters killing people left and right. The only building standing was a tower across the river that was crumbling down. The gate opened and the world fell into doom. It was a miracle that the man''s house was unaffected. ¡°What do you mean this is my home!! This isn''t Earth!!!¡± ¡°This is home.¡± The fairy tapped the wall with her wand and pointed outside the window. ¡°And that''s Earth.¡± The fairy was holding in herughter. ¡°It''s just as I promised! Ah, I put 30 million won in your bank ount as well! That was a promise too, right?! But I don''t know if you can use it! Teehee!¡± ¡°This bitch! What are you nning?!¡± ¡°Huh!? What do you want me to do about Earth turning out this way!?¡± ¡°You made it this way! You used me and sold my tales!!¡± ¡°Teehee! Do you have any proof!?¡± The man couldn''t hold it in any longer and grabbed the fairy by the neck, shaking it around. ¡°Hey!!! ¡ª! ¡ª! ¡ª!¡± Judging from his expression, it seemed like he was heavily cursing. The next cutscene started ying. ¡ª LOL ¡ª That''s hrious. ¡ª No wonder he''szy now. ¡ª For real. ¡ª Is this a cob with WePlug? No wonder Pames out. ¡ª Oh shit! ¡ª Hey! Pam! Die! Then the gamey footage was shown. It was a generic mobile game ad. [I fell for the damn fairy! But I still need to live!] Bubblegum rolled around wearing a tanker outfit. ¡ª Hahahaha ¡ª It''s Bubblegum! ¡ª Can that tank even dodge any skills? ¡ª He''s suffering here too... ¡ª He seems super weak for some reason, LOL ¡ª A tank with terrible aim? Even better. [Gather teammates!] Miho appeared as a priestess, burning all the enemies in sight. She was like an angel descending from the sky, but her outfit was the opposite of innocent. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Noona! You''re killing me! ¡ª The outfit is insane... ¡ª Almond... Ipletely understand if you need to take your time. ¡ª Bring the gacha! I''ll pay whatever it takes!!! After a single smile from her, the chat was filled with all sorts of memes. ¡ª If Miho blesses us, she can cure cancer. ¡ª If Miho had been born a little earlier, she could''ve prevented wars. ¡ª If Miho was born a thousand years ago, she''d be the Cleopatra. ¡ª If anyone asks how our country is doing, just show them a magazine of Miho. ¡ª Only Miho knows our fates...! And thest text appeared. [Get stronger!] Almond appeared. ¡ª Oh! ¡ª Finally, the peanut appeared. ¡ª Almond! ¡ª Wow! The reaction wasn''t as strong as Miho''s, but it wasn''t too bad since it was still Almond''s stream. Almond leaned against a tree and faced arge monster. ¡°Kraaaawr!¡± As soon as the giant was about to approach Almond, his eyes lit up and he quickly moved to the next hiding spot. m! The giant''s mace swung down and destroyed the spot where Almond was just standing. Then, Almond pulled his bowstring. Pabababang! Four arrows lined up on the giant from his crotch to his head. ¡ª Wo! ¡ª I don''t think that''s CG! ¡ª Insane. ¡ª Did he shoot it himself? It looks the same as in the game. ¡ª Wow, he can do it in real life too? ¡ª Wow! Even though CG technology evolved, the viewers could distinguish if the 3D model of a person was real or not. The viewers could instantly tell it was actual footage of Almond and recognized his ability to shoot well in person. ¡ª He must be really athletic in real life too! ¡ª So cool! Oppa, take me!! ¡ª Oppa, I''m dying!!! ¡ª That''s incredible¡­ ¡°Kroaar¡­¡± The giant copsed with all the arrows embedded in him and covered the screen. m! [Raising a Lazy Soldier] Themercial finished. *** Crunch. Sang-Hyeon was impressed as he finished his almond kes. "Wow, they can do this in one day? That''s crazy." The current video technology was truly astounding. It was a world where even a full-dive game was possible in a regr home. He could¡¯ve never imagined a world where everything would be so essible. "Yeah, this is the teaser video. The full version is still unreleased." Ju-Hyeok couldn''t take his eyes off the video. "It does make me excited even though the game is for a limited time." "The viewers are excited too. No one left even though themercial was running. Only like 500 left." Slurp. Sang-Hyeon finished the cereal because he didn''t want to lose further viewers. "I should get back soon." "But will that be enough? You ate cereal in the morning too." "If I''m full, I can''t focus." Sang-Hyeon started stretching and got ready to get back into the capsule. Whip, whip. The way he stretched with expertise was impressive. It was clear that he was an athlete back in the day. "Hey." Ju-Hyeok grabbed him by the shoulder. "What?" Sang-Hyeon answered back with his head between his legs while stretching. "... Are you Batman or something. Anyway, tomorrow is the doctor''s checkup, right? "Ah, yeah. I know." "Don''t go too hard today." "Don''t worry. I won¡¯t." Since Sang-Hyeon was talking upside down, Ju-Hyeok couldn''t trust him. "Fine, alright." "Good." As Ju-Hyeok sat in front of hisputer, Sang-Hyeon finished stretching and opened the capsule. *** Almond went back inside the capsule. He read the past donations and checked the mission reward. ''This much?'' It started at 500,000 won. [Mission] [Earn Raina''s three stars] [1,250,000 won] It reached 1.25 million won already. The viewers doubted he would be able to earn three stars. ¡ª Almond, are you going to see the ending today? ¡ª Beating it one go? ¡ª Finally? The viewers wanted to see him y to the end, which meant he''d have to y all day to beat the boss and finish the content. ''I''ll do it today. When else will I do it?'' Contents like story mode exerted his body, so it was better for him toplete it earlier. For a game like LIL, he''d be greeted by the grim reaper if he were to y all day. If it was Raina''s story mode, it was possible because the battles were short. He had time to take a break in between. "I need to get the mission rewards. I''ll beat it today." The mission time limit was only until today. He couldn''t let 1.25 million won go. ¡ª Wo! ¡ª Let''s gooo! ¡ª Kyaaa ¡ª Wow! Almond''s first long stream! ¡ª Really? A wishe true! ¡ª I just ordered some chicken! ¡ª Me too!? ¡ª I''m going to get some BBQ! ¡ª Me three! The viewers were excited to hear the news. They talked about ordering delivery food and started donating. There was even a big donation. Baba bam!!! [BigHandColony has donated a whopping 500,000 won!] [Kya! Let''s beat this today! You can do this!] A username he had never seen before donated 500,000 won out of nowhere. He could tell from the username that it was someone big... ''Huh?'' ¡ª Damn, is it really him? ¡ª The big daddy is here. ¡ª Wow! It''s him! ¡ª He''s the holy one! It was a famous user. ''It''s the rich donor from Bubblegum''s stream.'' Almond had seen the name before. That guy was a frequent donor for Bubblegum''s streams. Anytime Bubblegum stated he would stream for a long period, the user always donated. ''So now I''ve turned into that streamer as well...'' Once again, Almond felt how different his life had be and started the game. "Thank you, BigHand! I''ll clear it today! The reaction''singter!" ¡ª I knew it. ¡ª He''s going to end the stream again. ¡ª I wonder how he''s going to kill himself in story mode. ¡ª This man... I wonder what he''d be like in a coffin? ¡ª The same old reaction, LOL ¡ª I love long streams. He started up LIL again with many viewers excited to watch him. Chapter 145: Rainas Reason (2)

    Chapter 145: Raina''s Reason (2)

    The donations for today''s game were higher than he expected. The mission reward was 1.25 million won and BigHand''s donation was also significant. ''Who knew story mode would do this well.'' Was it because they were curious to see the third star criteria and Raina''s reason? Normally, there were hardly any donations in story mode gamey because it was boring. However, today''s stream was doing quite well. [Current Viewers: 9k] He had umted almost 10,000 viewers. Considering it was morning, it was an impressive number. Sang-Hyeon was very satisfied. ''People recognize hard work.'' Turning on the broadcast and practicing?LIL in the morning had a positive effect. At least, Sang-Hyeon thought so and was unaware of what Ju-Hyeok was up to in themunity. ''Three star clear. Let''s just focus on that.'' The stream was sessful. Sang-Hyeon just needed to focus on his gamey. [Story Mode] [Would you like to continue?] *** He could see the remains of the tier two turret. ''Right, we pushed up until the tier two turret.'' Now, the only turrets remaining were the two guarding the nexus. Crackle... Crackle... The fire crackled and gave off heat. They were in a base camp near the ruins. He could see several children warming their bodies near the fire. It was the blue team''s minions. Most were shaking in cold or fear and sitting down, but Raina was running around. She added wood to the fire where the youngest minions rested and gave them nkets. She whispered something in their ears, but Almond couldn''t hear her. Almond thought again that it was odd. ''She cares about these minions a lot.'' He recalled what Raina said before the story mode began. ¡®There''s a reason I hate things like this.¡¯ What did she mean? She was referring to Almond using her ultimate for foolish purposes, but this memory had nothing to do with that so far. ''Let''s think about it a bit more.'' The only connection he could find was that life as a minion was far from being respected. They were being used and discarded like ves. Did Raina dislike the feeling of being used because of memories from this time? ''I wonder if it has something to do with that?'' Almond could see the possibility. If he was in her ce and lived a life like this, he''d feel sensitive about it as well. He muttered the possible answers as if he was talking to the game system. "Is the life of a minion Raina''s reason?" Theoretically, it made no sense that this would work as a three star clear. However, Almond''s video game knowledge was heavily limited. He just acted based on his thoughts. [Unfortunately, it''s not. However, there is a connection.] Surprisingly, he received a reply. It was wrong though. ¡ª LOL, this guy''s trying to beat it the easy way. ¡ª Do you think that''d work, LOL ¡ª Wait, they actually replied? ¡ª Damn, is this beginner''s luck? ¡ª What a unique way of approaching it! ¡ª So this is why it''s best to go in without any knowledge. He was made fun of because he was wrong, but Almond didn''t think it was a failure. ''There''s a connection?'' He earned new information otherwise unobtainable if he hadn''t done anything. The life of a minion wasn''t the answer, but it had a link. He also learned that the system would answer his questions. [Some time has passed.] There was another time skip. "Huh?" The sight of allied minions preparing tounch an attack appeared before him. "They skipped the scene where we gather this time." ¡ª I think they skipped it because it''s too repetitive. ¡ª Is there a reason? ¡ª Ask the system like you did earlier. ¡ª Remember to put your hand up! The viewers mocked him to raise his hand to ask a question. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t have time to do that. "Row 1!! What are you doing!! Run!!" m! Someone behind Almond harshly pushed him. When his senses came back, the allies around him were running forward. ''Ah, am I row 1 again?'' Almond started running with them. He could see Raina''s blonde hair in the distance. ''I should fight with Raina this time as well.'' Fighting beside Raina made it harder to survive, but he got used to it after a couple of times. Surviving wasn''t hard, but the point of this game mode was to observe Raina despite them being in the first row. "Raina!" "Almond? Why are you sote?" Rainained to him, but her voice became significantly softerpared to their first meeting. ¡ª He even won over baby Raina... ¡ª Hey, hey, it''s not his looks. It''s his bow skills. ¡ª LOL ¡ª This is older Raina''s doing! There''s no way Almond can win over both! Almond didn''t even have time to give her a reason. "I-It''s their champion!" The enemy champion was already there. ''Damn.'' This was the first time he faced the enemy champion this early in the game without an allied champion. ''For the minions, it''s probably an everyday thing.'' He was just lucky, but minions were always exposed to this danger. The enemy summoner was ying as an assassin champion. Almond didn''t know LIL?very well and couldn''t guess who it was. Pung! The enemy''s champion disappeared into the shadows. "!" Almond, sensing danger, rolled away. Chak! His senses were correct as bloody fog spread everywhere. ''What the?'' He couldn''t make sense of what was happening. The speed was difficult to keep up even with his eyes. This was the power of the champions as seen from the perspective of minions. After the ck mist briefly passed, Almond simply saw the round heads of minions rolling on the ground. One of the heads approached Almond and spoke to him, "A-Almond..." "Teo? Dammit!" he loudly cursed and briefly forgot he was in a game. "I... came to the first row... to be like you..." It was the child who talked to Almond after Raina. The child who cheered him on and chanted his name. ¡ª Noooo! ¡ª Teoooo!!! ¡ª I''m sorry... ¡ª Damn... what a turn of events¡­ ¡ª Where''s Raina? He couldn''t see Raina. ''Raina? Where is she?'' Almond came back to his senses and looked around. ''Where is she?'' Raina was out of sight and the allied minions beside him were also gone. In a sh, the archer minions were beheaded. Seven to eight children instantly died. Thismonly happened when minions met champions. Swoosh! Even though only one shadow brushed past them, the shield minions in front were swept away as their armor shattered. "Kugh¡­!" "Urk!" The other minions couldn''t fathom fighting back against the champion. Only Almond had his sights on the enemy summoner. The shadow was fluttering. There was rage in Almond''s eyes. He pulled on his bow as if possessed and aimed at the enemy summoner. "D-Dodge! Almond!" "What are you doing!?" As he aimed his bow at the enemy summoner, the allied minions far away shouted at him. "There are still enemy minions! Why are you shooting the summoner first¡ª" They were shouting as if it were a rigid rule or something, but it was just gibberish. It didn''t even reach Almond and he already released his hand before he could respond. Swoosh! The arrow flew delicately. A blue fire was ignited on the enemy summoner''s forehead. Pung! It was a bullseye. "Idiot! The summoners have the champion''s protection, so they''re barely affected by our attacks!" He could finally hear Raina. She was muddy all over after rolling around from somewhere else. "Hurry and¡ª" She tried to tell him to hurry up and run, but Almond''s arrows had other ns. Pang! Pang! Pang! Pang! He continued to shoot at the summoner and shadows reappeared around the champion. It seemed like the champion could travel to other shadows. Swoosh...! The figure reappeared behind Almond and Raina. He had arge longsword and shed at them. Swoosh! Almond wasn''t even there anymore because he dodged forward a moment ago. He instinctively knew the summoner would appear at his back and his arrows didn''t stop. Pung! Pung! Pung! Three arrows flew simultaneously. The summoner returned to the shadows to chase Almond, but the same thing happened. Almond held the title for being the best at dodging. Even though he was in the body of a minion, he still had those skills. The summoner continued chasing, but he was the one being constantly hit. After this repeated three or four more times¡­ Stomp. The summoner backed off. "... N-No way." Raina couldn''t believe a minion forced a summoner to back off. To minions, a summoner was like the sun and hard to even look at. However, Almond was aiming at the sun without a hint of error. He readied his bow as if he was hunting wild animals. His arrows pointed at the summoner like he was aiming at the other minions. Pububung! The summoner was hit by the rain of arrows and backed off again. If he could dodge all the arrows andnd his attacks, he would win. He was ying off those rules to the extreme. ¡ª What the?! ¡ª Hey, you''re not supposed to be able to do this! ¡ª You''re going to get bugged out like this, LOL ¡ª Damn, your gamey is next level. ¡ª If this was my minion, I''d already be in Challenger ~~ ¡ª I told you the blue team is OP?! At the end of the day, Almond was still a minion. ''I''m out...'' He ran out of mana and arrows. The summoner charged at him during this opportunity. The terrifying shadow enveloped Almond and he couldn''t do anything but run. Then¡­ "Agh! Aren''t you the same guy fromst time!?" Kaang! He could hear a loud shout behind him and someone deflected the enemy summoner''s attack. It was the ally summoner, Bart The Iron Monster. [Some time has passed.] The scene instantly moved on. *** ''What the?'' It was the first time a battle scene was skipped over. He wasn''t even near a firece and found himself eavesdropping on a conversation in a forest. "The boy pushed back a summoner." It was Bart''s voice. "Hmm... This is a dangerous irregrity." It was the summoner with a bow, Yuria. There were other summoners present as well. "He was amazing, but almost too good. He was better than Raina." "Raina tries her best to keep the minions in ce, but another guy like this..." Almond''s gamey helped the blue team win today, but they seemed to dislike it judging from the summoners¡¯ reactions. Was it a normal reaction? Did he do something wrong? It didn''t make sense. They didn''t like someone fighting for their lives on the battlefield and providing results? ¡ª ?!? ¡ª Woah, what''s going on? ¡ª Damn, I''m getting goosebumps. ¡ª My head''s going numb. ¡ª What is it? What''s happening? The viewers were shocked as well. Then, Almond learned something painfully obvious. ''They don''t... risk their lives.'' The minions were the only ones risking their lives, not the summoners. And another thing¡­ ''Wait, where am I?'' He checked his surroundings again. He was in a tall forest, but the summoners were gathered in an open field that looked familiar. ''The incinerator.'' This was where the minions came to dispose of the corpses after a battle. "Anyways, let''s wrap it up and continue to observe tomorrow." Yuria finished the conversation and activated something in the incinerator. Woong...! A bright light glowed. He thought they would surely burn the corpses, but that wasn''t the case. "!" The corpses were transported somewhere else. After the bodies disappeared, he could see on the ground that it wasn''t fire but magic. The magic glowed again and the corpses reappeared. It looked like most of the corpses were wearing red. And then... ''What''s going on?'' The corpses started walking out. No, they weren''t corpses. They had light in their eyes. The summonersmanded them to change from their red clothing into blue clothing. Just like that, they turned into the blue team minions. Chapter 146: Rainas Reason (3)

    Chapter 146: Raina''s Reason (3)

    "Huff... Puff..." After witnessing the scene unfold, Almond ran for his life. He didn''t even know where the base camp was, but he continued to run. He could instinctively feel that he saw something he wasn''t supposed to. "Huff... Puff..." After he ran for a while, he could see the fire and quietly sat with the rest. It seemed like the other minions and soldiers didn''t notice. Almond finally calmed himself and read the chat. ¡ª That''s so creepy.? ¡ª What''s going on?! ¡ª This is LIL''s story mode?! ¡ª Damn, you must be on the path to three stars. He privately talked to his viewers. "No wonder the minion count didn''t go down. I was curious where they were getting them." ¡ª For real. ¡ª I didn''t think about it since it was a game, LOL ¡ª I guess this is the real reason. ¡ª So if you die in the red team, do you turn into the blue team? From what he witnessed, minions resurrected in the other team every time they died. It wasn''t like the team always respawned just because they changed sides. If the number of deaths didn''t match up, they would likely have forced them into one team. However, the number of minions dying in LIL was always simr because minions were always sacrificed whether a team won or lost. "I don''t think they''re aware that they respawn back and forth. One thing is for sure. The corpsese back to life... And the summoners don''t really care about the battles." ¡ª Yeah, I think so too. ¡ª These guys are just game addicts ying for fun. ¡ª They didn''t seem desperate and scolded Almond for doing well!? [RubySword has donated 10,000 won!] [Wow! This is so exciting! Raina''s storyline was always boring, but seeing it like this is different!] [RainbowBlunt has donated 10,000 won!] [Since we have your attention, I''m slipping in a donation. Just wanted to tell you I''m having fun watching!] [HwangGunDang has donated 5000 won.] [Hey, minions! Let''s just overthrow them!] [ScrewKingdomFans has donated 1000 won.] [Wow! It''s better than Kingdom Age, right?] As soon as he talked to his viewers, the donations swarmed in. ¡°Ah, thank you RubySword, RainbowBlunt, HwangGunDang, and ScrewKingdomFans. I''ll focus on the game again.¡± Right after Almond finished talking, the next scene appeared. [Some time has passed.] *** He was back on the battlefield. This time, instead of the soldiers, a summoner stood before them. It was Bart The Iron Monster who rescued Almond yesterday. "Alright! We''re about to beat the filthy enemy, Taran, thanks to you guys! Their nexus is in front of us!!" As Bart said, Almond''s team had already destroyed the enemy''s top, mid, and bottom turrets. The nexus was the only thing remaining. "If we destroy their nexus, the enemy summoners can''t be resurrected anymore! Victory will be ours!" Bart shouted as he pounded on his chest. "Today! We''re going to share that victory!" The minions raised their hands and cheered, "Yeaaaaaaaah!" Almond yed along, but studied the minions. He tried to find who was resurrected yesterday, but couldn''t tell. ''I can''t tell.'' The battle continued restlessly. He didn''t have time to individually check the minion''s faces. ''Wait, what about Raina?'' Maybe Raina could tell. Coincidentally, she was right beside him. "Hey, Raina." "... What?" "Did you know that we got a lot of new minions on our team?" . "I''m not sure. I only know my squad well." That was right. There were countless minions, so there was no way she would know them all. What happened to the minions who were close to Raina? All of Raina''s squad members usually survived, but yesterday was a fierce battle resulting in the deaths of countless minions. "Did your teammates from your squad yesterday get back safely?" Raina paused for a second. "... I don''t know. Who cares." Raina cut him off with the wave of a hand and resumed listening to Bart. ''What?'' Raina cared for the minions, but she was watching her words. Just then, Raina grabbed Almond''s hand. Almond looked up at her, but Raina was still cheering at Bart to the point where tears rolled down her eyes. She held his hand firmly as if to give him something. Raina''s lips were saying something, but Almond couldn''t decipher it. ''So there is something.'' He couldn''t understand what she was saying, but understood her feelings. ''Raina knows.'' It seemed like Raina knew the gist of what was happening. Almond was starting to put the pieces together. *** Two turrets guarded the nexus. Getting to this point took immense effort because the minions guarding the threenes were all gathered here to defend it. It was triple the usual cavalry. "Noooo!" "Stop them!" The enemy fought harder because they were backed into a corner. No matter how hard they fought, they couldn''t stop the arrowsnding on their foreheads. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Every time Almond flicked his bow, the minions fell. "Kugh!" "Urk...!" Pung! Pung! Raina continued to shoot beside him as well. Their allies were pushing back the enemy line little by little. "The turret! We can see the turret!" "The nexus is close!" The two turrets guarding the nexus were now prone to attacks. The enemy line was quickly pushed back. However, that meant the two turrets could also attack them. Crackle!!! Unlike the other turrets, which were fired using a straight shot, these two turrets attacked all over the field like a thunderstorm. The attacks were fired like a messy drawing. "Aaaargh!" "Kuugh!" The allied minions disintegrated, but that didn''t stop the others because backing off wasn''t an option. If they turned back now, they''d be killed by the allied summoners. "Shoot them!" "The end is near!" "Victory will be ours!" The minions threw their bodies at the turrets and attacked with all their might. The summoners didn''t hold back either. "Fight to the end!" a summoner said as they blew up. Almond didn''t feel a hint of desperation or soul in the line because they would resurrect in the nexus again anyways, but that was just Almond''s thinking. The minions, touched by the summoner''s words, charged in even quicker. "The summoner gave us a path!" "Make a path using his sacrifice!" "Graaaaawr!" "Aaaaaargh!" Countless minions died just because the summoner died, but nobody had the leisure to mourn because victory was before them and defeat was imminent for the enemy. The two sides red at each other as they charged. "Stop them!" "If we stop them once, we have a chance!" A couple of brave minions from the enemy''s first row ran out. "Die, you bastards!" "Get out of Taran''s territory!" Standing on the first row, Raina pulled her bowstring at the minions holding sharp axes and spears running toward them. Archers were normally in danger in closebat, but the enemy''s charge was simple. For Raina, it''d be no problem taking them down. But then... "...!" Raina''s arm started trembling. The enemy was getting near, but she couldn''t shoot at them. One of the minions was three steps away and raised their axe¡ª Swoosh! The axe aimed for Raina''s neck. Even then, Raina couldn''t react. She was just staring at the minion''s face. "Raina!" Pung!! A blue arrow flew from the left and killed the minion swinging the axe. "Raina, pay attention!" Almond shouted and ran towards her. Another minion was swinging a il toward Raina. ¡°Charrrge!¡± Almond ran in between them, grabbed Raina, and fell back. m! The murderous il struck where she once stood. The rocky ground was sttered with dirt everywhere. The swing was so strong that anyone hit would turn to dust. "Ah, ah..." Despite almost dying twice, Raina was lying down speechless and unable to do anything. She had her mouth open, trying to say something. ¡°Charrrrge!¡± The enemy minion readied their il again, ready to strike. The enemy was smaller than the other minions. Almond could tell who it was. ''I knew it.'' It was the minion Raina always gave her nket to. The minion Raina always advised to fight in the back was now in the red team in the first row. The minion didn''t have any memory of Raina. Swoosh! "Die, bitch!" "Tom! Sniffle...!" His name was Tom. Almond muttered the name while pulling on his bow. Even though he fired quickly while lying down, the arrow hit Tom''s right hand. Thud! The il fell and another arrow struck Tom''s forehead. "Kugh...!" Blood bled out from Tom''s eyes. "Tom! Tom! Tooom!" Raina, whether it was because she didn''t care or was unable to, couldn''t hide her tears anymore and started bawling. "Julia...! Tom!" The minion with the axe from earlier was named Julia. With that thought, Almond covered Raina''s mouth. Raina''s shocked, confused, and sad eyes looked up at Almond. It was more like a re. "We can''t get caught." "Sniffle... Sniffle...!" Raina nodded. She clenched her teeth to try and stop her tears. Her teeth dug into his hands, but it didn''t hurt because this was a video game. Her tears and saliva rolled down his left hand. The sight was more painful, but there was no time to console her. "You motherfuckers! Dieeee!" Because the next minion running at them was also another familiar face. ''Teo...'' This time, Almond recognized the minion''s face. It was the minion who chanted Almond''s name. Teo pointed his knife at where Almond and Raina were lying. Almond couldn''t shoot because he covered Raina''s mouth with his hands. Almond rolled to the side, holding Raina, and grabbed Tom''s il. Swoosh! He spun around, swinging the il. Teo was a terrible fighter. His sword swing left too many openings. The il made a fearsome noise as itnded perfectly on Teo. m! "Kugh!" Teo was squashed and Almond used this opportunity to get up. He muttered as he looked down at Teo,?''You should''ve just stuck with a bow... Why did you pick the sword, Teo?'' He thought for a moment that he could hear Teo''s voice. ¡®Wow! Almond. Do you think I can ever shoot like you?¡¯ Almond''s gaze turned to the ground. His quiver was scattered all over. "Dieeee!" An enemy minion used this opportunity and ran toward him. Even though Almond couldn''t use his bow, the minion was no match for him. Swoosh. Almond slightly bent his body and dodged the de ever so slightly. It missed by just a hair. After he dodged it, he used the opening to grab the minion by the neck and pulled him in. "Urgh!?" The enemy lost their bnce and was dangling in Almond''s grip. Almond pointed at the minion with the one arrow he managed to pick up. "You''re a face I don''t recognize." Relieved, he punched the minion''s neck three times. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! The enemy minion copsed like a puppet without strings. Almond looked back at Raina. She was trembling on the ground, trying her best to stop crying and not get caught. ''If I get caught, I¡¯ll get erased.'' A minion who knew the secrets couldn''t fight and had their memory erased. Raina knew she didn''t want her memory erased. Therefore, she always stayed low and pretended not to care for other minions. However, she couldn''t bring herself to attack the reincarnated children on the other team. Raina probably had her memory erased every time this happened because killing her teammates was where she drew the line. ''As expected, Raina did care for her teammates.'' Now he understood everything. All of Raina''s actions and her reasons. Why Raina fought in the first row, used up her mana, and gave it her all. And why... she had to call the children she loved pathetic. He finally figured out Raina''s reason. "The reason is...radery." The love and friendship she felt toward herrades. This was the reason for all of her actions. Bling. [Raina''s Reason (¡ï¡ï¡ï) clear route has been discovered.] [Help Raina escape this battle!] Chapter 147: Rainas Reason (4)

    Chapter 147: Raina''s Reason (4)

    Raina''s reason wasradery. Almond got the answer correct. ¡ª Wow! Three star route is unveiled! ¡ª Damn! ¡ª He actually did it? ¡ª But they''re telling him to escape the battle? ¡ª Damn, Raina... so sad... ¡ª Was this actually possible? All the minions were children who hadn''t reached adulthood yet. Out of them, there were children younger than others. Raina always cared for and tended to them. Raina fought in the first row so they wouldn''t get hurt. Someone else would be in her ce if she didn''t go in the first row. Also, if she did well in the first row, the minions behind her would be safe. ''Same with the mana arrow.'' He figured out why she used up all her mana as well. The rumor about a minion earning enough mana to be a summoner was a lie. She didn''t care about being a summoner. Instead, she despised them. All she wanted to do was defend the minions. ''Even calling them pathetic...'' However, she couldn''t let the summoners or soldiers find out. If they did, she''d be dragged in and have her memory altered by them. Raina seemed to have already experienced it a couple of times. That was why she ignored the weaker minions by insulting them, but always cared for them more than anyone when it was night. Only Almond, unaffected by the cold and hunger, noticed because the other minions were distracted by their cold and hunger. That was how Raina protected not only her memory, but her allies as well. ''It was all for her allies.'' Raina did well. She won the battle and minimized the deaths of the children she cared for. However, even for her, there were difficult situations. "Sniffle... Sniffle..." It was when the very minions she cared for were running at her with the intent to kill. ''It seemed like Raina didn''t know.'' Raina wasn''t aware that allied minions resurrected. Not only her, but other minions didn''t seem to notice either. First, it was because it was hard to see the enemy''s face during a fight. Secondly, unlike Raina, the minions weren''t very close to one another. Andstly, there weren''t any minions who survived as long as Raina. Because of these three reasons, only Raina could recognize her previous allies. Normally, she''d have her memory altered by the summoners at this point. Afterward, she''d return to fighting this endless battle as a minion. This time, it was different. This time, she had Almond. "Don''t cry. You have to resist it for now." Almond covered her mouth and dragged her into the trees. "The summoners didn''t see yet, but they''ll find out if you continue." Raina nodded, but still couldn''t stop her tears. Since her memory was altered every time, she never imagined that her previous allies would resurrect to kill her. "You..." Raina could barely squeeze out her words and tearfully said, "You know." Raina looked up at Almond. She was deeply sad, but he also saw a sliver of hope in her eyes. She barely moved her lips and whispered in case someone heard, "T-That our memory keeps getting altered..." "Yeah, that''s right." "And that they were going toe out as enemies... You knew that too, right?" "Yep." "Sniffle..." Raina started crying again. She used her two hands to grab onto Almond because she needed support. "I just had my suspicions... Why did I not know?" "Because you probably got caught at this point already." "How did you know?" There was no reason for him not to exin, but the exnation was too long for now. "We should finish this battle first." "... Yeah." For the first time in the game, Almond wasn''t ying for survival. [Raina''s Reason (¡ï¡ï¡ï) clear route has been discovered.] [Help Raina escape this battle!] He was given a specific task and focused on getting the two of them out of there. "Raina, we''re going to have more time after the battle. Let''s talk then." "Alright." Raina was now back to her senses. "Don''t get caught. I''ll shoot them down for you." "..." Raina''s eyes shook. "Are you... okay? But Teo..." Almond firmly grabbed Raina''s shoulder, trying to tell her to pay attention. "I''m alright. I won''t get caught." Almond was full of determination. "And don''t worry about the children. Once they die, theye back alive as our team." They were just minions... She seemed to be relieved after hearing those words. Raina nodded, "... Alright." *** After Raina calmed down, the battle continued. It was the blue team''s victory. The light in the enemy''s nexus faded and the summoners couldn''t revive. "Yeaaaaah!!" "We wooooon!" The summoners and minions were overjoyed. "Good job, minions!" Iron Monster Bart shouted on top of the nexus remains. "We won thanks to your blood and sweat!" Despite what he said, Almond couldn''t tell what the reward for the minions was. He thought it would probably be nothing and didn''t know what would happen after their victory. [Some time has passed.] There was suddenly a time skip. [Loading...] A rare loading screen popped up. Did the game have a lot to prepare for? Almond used this opportunity to talk to his viewers. "The story usually ends here, right?" ¡ª Yeah ¡ª Usually, the story mode is finished here. ¡ª What''s going to happen now?! ¡ª I think you need to make an escape n! ¡ª Wow, but how are you supposed to escape there? Where are you even supposed to go? "I have no idea how to escape." ¡ª Yeah, how are you supposed to get out from the battlefield? ¡ª There''s no information. ¡ª Hey, but at least they''re telling you that you have to escape! ¡ª I can''t tell if it''s too much freedom or there''s just not enough instructions. It was the first time Raina''s three-star clear was being broadcasted. There were rumors about yerspleting it, but it was never shown on video. ¡ª But isn''t Almond the first one to do it? ¡ª There are only rumors about people clearing it three stars, but no actual proof. ¡ª I think he is the first one. ¡ª We''ll be able to seeter. ¡ª I think it''s the first in Korea, for sure, at least. Koreans don''t care about the lore of some low-tier character, LOL There were talks among the viewers wondering if Almond was the first to achieve three stars. As a result, they were also unaware of what was about to happen. A path no one had taken before. It would undoubtedly be difficult. "I''m going to y assuming I have to give it a second try." Almond decided to go in thinking he''d have to give it a second try, but it didn''t seem like he''d be able to do that. [CantResist has registered a new mission.] [500,000 won if you clear it on the first try.] A new mission was registered. If he beat it on the first try and earned three stars, he''d be rewarded 500,000 won. ¡ª Damn! Today''s crazy! ¡ª Another 500k? ¡ª He already has 2 mil on the line! ¡ª Why''s everyone talking as if Almond already achieved it? He has to do it on the first try! Not only that, his mission reward was greater now. [Mission: Earn three stars today.] [1.95 million won] The mission reward umted up to 1.95 million won. This was a result of people adding to the pile of 500,000 won. "Wow, CantResist, thank you. Then I''m going to try and attempt to beat it in one try." ¡ª You weren''t going to try earlier? ¡ª Almond 5 seconds ago: I''m going to assume I''m doing it twice~ ¡ª You really can''t resist 500,000 won though. ¡ª Damn! Look at Almond''s mission rewards today! ¡ª This is when game channels blow up! While the chat was making fun of Almond for being obsessed with money¡­ "Almond." A soldier stood in front of him with a terrifying look. "What are you doing? I told you to give me your weapon." Chuk. He put his hand out, pestering him. ''Weapon? Ah... Right.'' They had to return their weapons after the fight was over. ''How am I supposed to escape then?'' Could he escape without a weapon? He wasn''t sure, but Almond obliged for now. "... Don''t just stand there doing nothing. Chop some wood at least." "Yes," Almond gave a simple reply as if he was back in the office. He didn''t take his eyes off the weapons to see where they went. ''They''re going to the arsenal.'' It looked like he was carrying them to the arsenal. During the battle, they kept it open and even rested inside. Crank- Now, it was locked with chains and a huge lock. "Make sure to have it cleaned before the next fight," the soldiermanded and disappeared. Only a few watch guards remained, sleuthing around the ce. "What are you doing? Get some firewood, clean the bodies, and raise the trees!" It was strange. What kind of war was this? After a war, the winners usually imed thend and the soldiers either moved to the next battlefield or went home. However, they were preparing for the same battle again? It was simr to cleaning up the battlefield after a mock battle in the military. ''This isn''t a battlefield...'' It was a practice range for summoners to practice. ''If it''s a practice range, it won''t be very big. It''s possible to escape.'' Escape seemed easier than he imagined. ''Let''s try to meet up with Raina while we''re cleaning up.'' They could form a strategy if they met during their clean-up time. *** Raina was organizing the grass. It looked like she eagerly awaited Almond because she was constantly checking around. As soon as she discovered Almond, she blinked at him when no one was paying attention. Almond naturally dragged a body near her and went into the bushes. "Almond." Raina grabbed and dragged him into the bushes where they were out of sight. ¡ª Stop this romance! ¡ª Boss, I don''t know about adult Raina, but child Raina too? I can''t let this go... ¡ª Chris Hansen would like a word. ¡ª Damn, Almond! Let go of that hand! ¡ª Wow... I want to y story mode too... ¡ª LOL, Raina''s the one who grabbed him. Why''s Almond getting the hate? Haha. Raina wanted to see if he was telling the truth, so she looked him straight in the eyes when asking questions. "How did you know? How much do you know? Tell me exactly what you know." Since Almond had no reason to hide anything from her, he told her everything he saw and predicted. "Sigh...?I see." Raina didn''t look very surprised because she also had her suspicions. "I think this is the best time to say... everything seems to be in despair," Raina muttered and looked at Almond. It sounded like she wanted him to rte, but Almond was speechless. He hadn¡¯t been in this world long enough to feel despair. "Let''s escape, Raina. We can get out of here." What he could do was get out of here with Raina. He assumed she''d be shocked, but she nodded as if waiting for him to say that. "Alright." Raina even said this, "After you came, I started having hope." "...?" "I already have an escape route in mind." Swiff. Raina took out a parchment that she had clearly worked to find and showed him a map. ¡ª Damn, Raina is smart! ¡ª LIL map! ¡ª Raina has a n? Then this might not be that difficult? Raina knew a route. This could turn out much easier than he expected. However, one question brushed past Almond. ''Then why did she fail to escape?'' The map was perfect without missing a single ce. Raina''s memory remained intact, so why? "But there''s one hard part." Raina pointed at the edge of the map. There was a big red dot that said,?¡®door.'' She grabbed Almond''s hand and told him, "You... no, we have to kill a summoner." The red dot guarding the gate was a summoner. ''So this is why she couldn''t leave.'' ¡ª Obviously, our Almond has to kill them! ¡ª Our Almond? ¡ª It''s a team effort! ¡ª Sounds like he''s doing all the work... ¡ª But Raina grabs his hand like it''s nothing new. Isn''t this a bug? ¡ª Help Raina escape! Please, Almond! *** [Beginner''s Tip: Top, mid, and bottomne minions constantly charge toward the enemy. Use them to destroy turrets and the nexus to achieve victory!] Chapter 148: Hunting Summoners (1)

    Chapter 148: Hunting Summoners (1)

    "You... no, we have to kill a summoner," Raina said with a serious look on her face. ¡ª Kill a summoner? ¡ª Is that even possible? ¡ª This is worse than Emilia, LOL ¡ª LOL, how are you supposed to kill them? ¡ª Damn... is he going to be able to clear the mission? The viewers were upset at the difficulty of the story mode. She said we, but it was likely up to Almond toplete the task judging by how the story was progressing. Almond couldn''t deny it and became speechless for a moment. ''A summoner...?'' From the perspective of a minion, they were god-like beings. Minions had very limited physical capabilities while the summoners could use abilities and skills beyond their power. Since they had a champion''s blessing, it was hard to kill them even if they were repeatedly hit in the vitals. Minions, on the other hand, were lucky to survive if attacks slightly hit them. The difference in strength was like a human and an ant. Raina was suggesting that a fellow ant kill a human. "Sure." The allied ant, Almond, nodded and agreed to kill the human. Raina''s eyes widened and she smiled. "Alright, let''s do it." She put her hand out, offering to shake his hand. ¡ª You were holding hands just a second ago... ¡ª Please stop this romance... ¡ª Stop it! ¡ª She just can''t keep her hands off of you. Almond grabbed her hand. Then Raina said, "I''m Raina Lusen." Lusen was herst name. Almond also needed to tell her hisst name, but he obviously didn''t have one. "I... can''t remember mine." "I see." Raina didn''t care because, in this world, forgetting wasmon. "I''ll try to make another map by tomorrow to give to you. Let''s meet here again." "But¡ª" "?" "How did you draw this map? Because..." ''Because your memory doesn''t go that far back.'' He couldn''t bear to finish his sentence. "Ah, I didn''t draw all of this." "What?" "When I picked it up, it was almostplete and I just finished it." She picked that up? Almond turned the map upside down, thinking it was odd. There was a tiny word written on the back in strange writing. ''De, no, is it du...? Hmm...'' It looked like an alphabet, but he couldn''t make out the word because it was so messy. He just decided to go with the game''s flow. The two came out from the bushes and continued to clean the battlefield. [Some time has passed.] The scene cut to the next day. Bling. [Raina''s Map] After he acquired Raina''s map, a minimap appeared on the bottom right of his screen just like in the game during an LIL match. Raina was in front of him. "Alright, listen to me carefully. If we screw up even once, we''re done for." Raina pointed at a ce on the map and started exining. "This is where we''re at right now." She continued to passionately exin how they were going to escape undetected and how they''d acquire weapons and¡­ "The summoner..." How they were going to kill the summoner. "Is here." Her thumb trembled as she pointed at the map. Even the thought made her nervous. "You really have to listen carefully for this part." *** After the exnation was over, the n was executed. Almond, Raina, and some minions she managed to convince gathered in the middle of the night. Mott, Holy, Jay, etc¡­ It was the children who were often in Raina''s squad. And Tom, Teo, Julia... they were here as well after resurrecting as the blue team. They couldn''t remember, but it was easy to convince them to escape since they had no prior knowledge about the summoners. Everyone was eager to escape. "Just follow me and don''t forget to be quiet." "Alright." "Everyone remembers the n, right?" "Yes, you went over it a lot." She went through it with Almond twice, but went through it multiple times for the other minions. "Alright. There''s going to be a way better world outside." A better world... It wasn''t a guarantee, but Almond didn''t speak up. No, he couldn''t. He couldn''t speak up even if whaty beyond the map was hell. "Really, Almond?" One of the minions grabbed Almond by his shirt and asked him. It was Mott, who followed Almond around more than anyone else. Mott also insisted on only using the bow. "Yeah, of course." As he replied with a smile, Mott copied him and smiled as well. "Then, let''s go." *** It was a dark night. They couldn''t see anything ahead of them. The moon was crescent as well. Even though this ce had three moons, they were useless. "There''s nothing to see," one of the watch guards muttered. He was sleepy. The warm torch and crackling mes tickling his ear didn''t help either. "You should take a nap." "Hmm..." A junior soldier told him to nap, so he leaned against the wall and couldn¡¯t resist the urge. "Should I?" Since his bow was in the way, he removed it and closed his eyes. That was a mistake because he dropped his bow and became Almond''s first target. Swoosh. The grass near them shook, but the other watch guard was counting the stars and didn''t notice. It was thanks to the minions being so short as well. Shiing. Almond took the dagger from the watch guard lying down asleep. "Huh...?" The guard woke up to the moonlight, but his vision instantly turned upside down. Stter! In this upside-down world, red blood flowed and he saw the crotch of a boy looking down at him. Stter...? He shouted when he found out that the red blood gushing out was from his neck. "...! ...!" Only the wind filled his vocal cords. He tried to scream, but nothing could be heard. Instead, the guard beside him screamed. "What... Urk!" Thwack! Almond''s dagger struck his jaw-dropped chin. The dagger shattered his chin, piercing through his tongue and the top of his mouth. "Kugh...! Urghh...!" The guard backed off. He red at Almond with rage and pain as he swung his sword at him. Almond raised his dagger and softly brushed the de away. Kagagang...! Almond managed to brush it off, but his dagger shook because of the difference in strength. The guard, sure of his victory, lifted his de again. "Die...!" Kang! Kang! As the sh of des continued, Almond''s disadvantage grew. Then, Almond threw the other guard''s long sword between his thighs. Swoosh. Raina emerged from the bush behind them and grabbed the long sword. "Huh...?!" When the guard turned around and discovered her, Raina''s blue eyes glimmered to the left. The reflection of the moonlight against her blonde hair and the de could be seen as she spun and cut the guard''s body in half. Slice! Despite being minions, the guard''s body was cut in half thanks to the momentum of the spin. The torso slowly slipped off and fell to the ground, making a pool of blood in the grass. ¡ª Damn, look at their teamwork. ¡ª Now she can say ''we.'' ¡ª These are the teammates we want! ¡ª So cool... ¡ª Almond''s good with a sword too! ¡ª Raina is so cool holy! ¡ª I just want to watch Raina on repeat. The viewers and the minions were surprised to see Raina and Almond''s teamwork. "Wow." "D-Damn." "Urgh... huh?" The minions covered each other''s mouths and stared at the corpses of the guards. ¡°Phew¡­¡± Almond and Raina took a light breath, but nothing more. Raina raised her long sword and struck down on the lock. m!! The lock shattered as the mana-filled sword struck it. "Here, everyone grab a weapon." *** Raina and Almond filled their quivers with arrows. They also carried an extra dagger and long sword because arrows were limited. ''I hope that situation doesn''te...'' Raina and Almond didn''t want to imagine such a situation, but they had no choice. Almond even tried to pack small shurikens as well. Raina checked everything, starting from the most important items. "The crossbow for capture?" "Got it." The minions replied in unison. "Good. What about shurikens?" "Got it." After confirming they had the necessary items for the n, Raina left the storage. "We can''t drag this on for too long. Despite how useless these guards are, they keep a strict schedule." Raina even knew the watch guard''s schedules. She had been nning this for a long time. Raina opened the map, pointed somewhere, and then looked up at the stars and moon to figure out the time. "Right now, they''re patrolling here and the least amount of people are here." Her fingers scattered all over the map as she spoke. Almond didn''t understand immediately, but her routes appeared on the minimap. "Let''s go." Raina, Almond, and the minions closed the arsenal and took off. *** How much time had passed? Almond felt like he was walking for thirty minutes. Walking for thirty minutes wasn''t tiring, but the added element of staying undetected and hiding as they went consumed more stamina than usual. ''I''m starting to get tired.'' They arrived at their destination after evading all the patrol routes, crawling, running, and climbing through trees. ''Is it there?'' He could barely see because it was so far, but two torches were beside what looked like a door... ¡ª Is it that? ¡ª Oh! It''s a door! ¡ª Minions, a little more¡­ Gulp. Almond waited for Raina''s next orders. "Outside the door is a summoner. There''s always one guarding the door to the battlefield." The one guarding the most important ce was not soldiers, but a summoner. "R-Raina... will we really be able to do it?" "I-If we go back now..." "Huff... puff... I-I''m tired." The smaller minions were exhausted. "Be quiet, you guys. Raina did everything up until now," Mott scolded them. "Let''s push a little more." Holly, the minion slightly more mature than the others, massaged their shoulders and reassured them. Raina stared at them for a moment and turned towards Almond. "Almond." "?" "... I''ve never gone past this." Raina firmly held Almond''s hand. "This could be thest time." Her blue eyes shined more than usual like an ocean at a resort. "So I want to tell you now." The ocean approached him closer. The ocean was deep enough to drown anyone who fell into it, but no one could resist it. Anyone would be curious to see what was below those deep, sparkling eyes. "I won''t forget." Raina''s lips covered Almond''s lips. In his head, he could hear something. Almond didn''t know what it was because the intense, wet, and warm sensation clouded his thoughts. If her eyes were like the blue ocean, her lips were like the warm sun. But the promise she said was... "Even if I lose my memory, I won''t forget." It was a promise she couldn''t keep. Almond wanted to say something in reply. "Oh my, so scandalous. Why don''t you guys just do it?" White light shined and passed them. Kwaaang! Suddenly, everything in his sight disintegrated into white. Screams could be heard. BEEP¡ª? The deafening sound in his head covered the screams. His body burned as if his whole body was on fire. Almond threw himself on the ground and started rolling. Beep... As the sound in his head died down, he started to see again. "A-Almond..." He first saw arge arrow pierced through Mott''s head. "It''s Yu¡­ ria... run..." *** [Beginner''s Tip: A minion will not attack a summoner first. They will prioritize the enemy minions and the turret next. Minions will only start attacking if there is nothing else to attack or the enemy summoner is attacking an ally summoner.] Chapter 149: Hunting Summoners (2)

    Chapter 149: Hunting Summoners (2)

    "I''ll exin how we can kill the summoner." Raina told them about a crossbow, which was used for capturing. "It shoots out a rope with a hook like a harpoon. The soldiers usually carry it around to capture us." That was why she insisted on scavenging the arsenal for soldiers. "Mott, Holly, Jay, Tom, and Teo will hold the crossbows." Everyone, except the girls Julia and Mellie, had to carry a crossbow. "The summoners are unaffected by our attacks. I''ve known that for a while now." Raina exined everything she had investigated and learned from Almond to the children. "But Almond showed me yesterday that attacks do work on them. It''s just that the attacks are weak." She ced a single rock on the ground. "This is the summoner and this is us." The branches on the ground were tinypared to the rock. The branches represented Raina and the children in her squad. "From what I''ve learned watching the summoners fight, the summoner''s attacks on each other are even sometimes ineffective due to the strength of their protection. That''s how strong their champion''s blessing is." The champion''s blessing in the game was simply called the HP bar. For Raina and the minions, the HP bar seemed like arge shield. "But the champion''s blessing doesn''t go on forever either. Most importantly..." Tak. She took out a thin thread and tied the sticks and rock together. "They''re weak to attacks that deter their movement." "T-This is what the crossbows are for?" Mott asked. "Yeah, Mott. Very smart!" "Haha..." Mott smiled, d to hear thepliment. "This harpoon-like crossbow shoots a hook that ties a knot to its target. I can''t show it to you guys yet because the soldiers always keep it locked up." It meant that they had only one try to seed. There was no opportunity to practice. "Umm..." Tom carefully raised his hand to ask a question. "But the hook won''t dig into the summoners because of the champion''s blessing." The champion''s blessing enveloped the summoners like a secondyer of skin. Before that broke, no attacks would reach them. The hook wasn''t an exception either, but Raina knew that. "Yes, that''s right. So we''re going to aim for something else." Raina had a n in mind. The n that came out of her mouth was ridiculous even for Almond. ''... Is that even possible?'' It was dangerous and extreme, but... "Almond! Let''s do our best!" Mott said as he clenched Almond''s hand. "If it''s you, you can do it!" "Alright." Mott''s smile shined brightly. Teo smiled alongside him. Teo had no past memories, but was still fond of Almond like before. Would Mott be the same if he ever lost his memory? *** ''I should''ve looked at his smile a little longer back there.'' Almond finished recollecting while staring at Mott''s severed head. ''That was the only viable n.'' He realized why Raina''s n was so dangerous and extreme. ''To kill something like that, we have to do something extreme.'' High risk led to high rewards. If they wanted to kill a monster like a summoner, they needed to factor in that much risk. "I changed ces because I felt like something was off. I see you guys are doing something cute?" The summoner who surprised them was Yuria. The white light shining from her outshone the night. She waspletely different from when she fought the assassin champion. ''She''s much stronger.'' The blue team didn''t win for no reason. Yuria was much stronger than the assassin champion. Her blue eyes were wide open and filled with murderous intent. Fighting her would be on another levelpared to the distracted summoner fromst time. Almond prepared himself. Creak¡­? Yuria pulled her bowstring. "Everyone can either die or just give up ande here." An unknown white energy was forming on her bow. He didn''t know what it was, but judging from the earlier battles, they''d all die if the energy was fully gathered. He survived the earlier shot because he was lucky. Yuria couldn''t use one shot to kill all the scattered minions, but would he get lucky again? Almond shook his head. ''We have to strike back.'' They had to fight back. Just like Raina said, a fight with the summoner was unavoidable. ''But what about Raina?'' Almond looked around and checked if Raina had survived. If she died, everything was over. ''She''s over there.'' Thankfully, he could easily spot Raina. However, she wasn''t in the state to fight back. "Ah, ah..." Her eyes lost focus. She seemed out of it like most minions when facing a summoner. She was trembling and waiting for death. Even the mighty Raina was helpless when she was a minion. Almond had no choice but to raise his arms. "We surrender." Yuria wanted Raina and Almond alive anyways. ¡®Try not to die. Otherwise, that''ll put me in a difficult position.¡¯ It was what Yuria told Almond, which meant she didn''t want him on the red team. The summoners didn''t kill strong minions like Almond. Instead, they captured them and erased their memories like they did to Raina. He didn''t know how they altered memories, but it''d be more cumbersome than killing him. They went through the trouble to have the minions stay on the blue team. ''Seems like I''m right.'' Almond was correct. As he approached her, Yuria smiled. "Come closer." Yuria signaled him toe closer using her bow. The white light at the tip of her arrow shone at its brightest. If she released the arrow, Almond would instantly die. Almond approached her, trying not to turn his gaze towards it. "Hey, Raina. I''ll give you a special chance as well," Yuria told Raina, who was still shuddering. ''She''s going to kill the rest of them.'' The other minions were simply Raina''s distractions and Yuria would mercilessly kill them. ''How many minions are left?'' Meanwhile, Almond tried to figure out how many minions remained. If the n were to work, at least four needed to be left alive. ''I wonder if she knows?'' Almond nced at Yuria. Yuria was checking her surroundings as well. She was unaware of where the other minions were. This meant there was hope. Whip. She suddenly turned around and aimed at Almond. ''What the?'' Almond was surprised. "If you don''te here right now, I''m going to kill this guy as well. I think you two are close, right?" Thankfully, she was just using him to threaten Raina. Raina, hearing the threat, slowly picked herself back up. Her legs were still shaking, but her eyes were back in focus. "Dying or going to you, it''s the same thing..." Raina looked directly into Yuria''s eyes. A minion looking directly into a summoner was like staring at the bright sun, but Raina was unfazed. "Isn''t that right? It''s all the same. My memory is erased and like a ve, like a toy, I''ll be used in your silly ys." Wrinkles formed between Yuria''s eyes. "Silly y?" "War? Taran?! When we die, we go and fight for Taran anyways! What''s different!" ¡°Sigh,¡±?Yuria took a deep breath while muttering, ¡°You found out that much.¡± "It''s not ying. It''s training." "What...?" "Anyway, you found out too much. I won''t even be able to convince you." Creak... Yuria pulled on her bow. Raina was still frozen and wouldn''t be able to dodge the arrow. It was a miracle she was standing on her powerless legs. "It''ll be better to kill you off." If Raina found out that much, she wouldn''t surrender anyways. She had to kill the other minions, who listened in as well. ''But...'' Yuria felt something odd as she pulled her bowstring. ''Why did the other guy surrender himself?'' Kang! She felt a warm sensation on her left arm. Her bow lost bnce and the arrow fell. The burning white energy immediately disappeared. "I knew it. My damage isn¡¯t bad." She turned around and saw that it was Almond. Unlike before, his eyes were filled with murderous intent. "You...?" Ting...! Yuria released her bow instinctively, but a bow without an arrow was useless. Nothing happened. She just gave him another opening. "Champion Raina can shoot even without an arrow, but it seems like you can''t." Swoosh! Almond''s dagger struck Yuria''s chin. Puung! Blue sparks flew off from the impact of the dagger. Yuria''s neck turned around as her eyes shone white with rage. At the same time, Almond shouted at the top of his lungs, "Now¡ª!" When he saw how many minions were alive, more than he expected had survived. They had all been crawling to their positions. ''If what I saw was correct...'' Charrrrrr! Hooks flew in from all over the ce. It was the hooks from the crossbows. The ropes attached to the hooks formed a star around Yuria. "A rope crossbow? That won''t..." Yuriaughed because something like a hook wouldn''t dig into her skin. She thought it was better to kill the child in front of her instead of dodging. Yuria''s foot lit up with white energy as she kicked Almond in the stomach. Kwaaaaang! The kick caused a white explosion. The damage was weakpared to her shots, but the damage was critical for a minion. However, Yuria was an archer at the end of the day. She wasn''t skilled in closebat. Almond, who could dodge the attacks of an assassin, dodged the kick and the explosion. Instead¡ª "!?" Charrr! Ting! Yuria was the one who failed to, no, chose not to dodge. "T-The hooks are together?" The hooks came from all directions, but weren''t aimed at her skin. As the hooks were being pulled in¡­ nk! This was the moment they were waiting for. The moment when the hooks linked to each other. The hooks tightened around Yuria''s body. "Urgh...!" Coincidentally, she was standing on one leg. As her two arms and thighs started to tighten, keeping her bnce became difficult. Yuria swayed back and forth, left and right, and then¡ª m! She fell forward and the minions were startled. ''It works.'' ''Summoners can also fall!'' ''It worked!'' Raina was right. Even for summoners, the capturing technique worked. Now, Almond had to do his job and finish her off. ''''But we''re missing one.'' It was the hook Mott had to fire, which was needed to finish her off. Just then¡ª Charrr! "?" A hook flew in from somewhere and struck the tree behind Almond. The rope led to... "Huff... Puff... Took me a while to find this." It was Raina. She seemed to havee back to her senses. She loosened the rope and shouted, "Almond, hurry!" Almond was already in motion. He grabbed the loose rope with one hand and ran towards Yuria. He tackled her and aimed for her head. "Let go of me! Before I kill you!!!" Yuria''s hysteric voice echoed. It seemed like she was about to kill them using her teeth, but that was only for a moment. Whiff! "You''re the one who''s going to die." Almond wrapped the rope around her neck. Raina pulled the trigger, causing the rope to rewind. Shiiiik¡ª? The rope tightened around her neck while pulling her up. Chapter 150: A Long Story (1)

    Chapter 150: A Long Story (1)

    Yuria was bound all over. Creak... A tight rope was choking her neck. "Kugh...! Kugh!" Yuria''s eyes gradually turned white. She was losing consciousness. "It''s working! It''s really working," Raina shouted. Although Yuria was under the protection of the champion''s blessing, it didn''t mean she was invincible. Without the nexus, a summoner could die. The protection from the champion''s blessing and the power of the nexusbined resulted in the half-immortal summoners. "If one of them is taken out of the factor..." Raina grabbed the rope and pulled it even harder this time. "You guys will die too!" Creak...! As the rope tightened, Yuria became more frantic. Even though she was defeated, she was still an archer. Her arm strength alone could crush a minion. She snarled, messing up her beautiful lips. "These... these minions..." Bzzzzzzzt! White light gathered into her hands. sh! Her tied hands were released because the hands were tied to her lower body. "Hands! Tie her hands! Untie her feet then tie them!" "Shit, I can''t untie it!" The tightly bound rope with hooks intertwined and wouldn¡¯t be untied easily. Yuria grabbed the rope choking her neck. "You all... are already dead... No, you guys will beg me to kill you¡ª" At that moment¡­ Swish! With the sound of wind splitting apart, Yuria''s left hand was knocked away. Pung! It was Almond''s arrow. "You think I''ll just leave you to do whatever you want?" At the same time, two more arrows flew. One hit the center of Yuria''s forehead and the other on her right hand. Pubung! Her right hand bounced back. Then the rope tightened around Yuria''s neck again. "Kugh...! You... you!" Yuria strained her eyes, but the glow faded away. The protection of the champion''s blessing was weakening. ''Victory is in our grasp.'' Almond emptied all of the arrows in his quiver onto the ground. Because victory was in his grasp, he had to give it his all now. "Hey, Almond! Here you go!" Holly, Julia, and other minions also ced their arrows in front of Almond. They were supposed to shoot it themselves, but decided this would be for the best after seeing Almond''s skills. Almond expressed his gratitude with his right hand. Chuk.? Four arrows were wedged in his fingertips and immediately moved to the bowstring. "Urgh.... urk! Eek!" Yuria attempted to untie the rope around her neck again, squealing like a cornered animal. However, the arrows were already shot. Almond''s arrows instantly bounced off both of Yuria''s hands. Pubung! Yuria''s arms fell powerless once again. "Kuuugh...!" Yuria tried to grab the rope again, but Almond continued to shoot her hands away. Almond''s speed of shooting the arrows was faster than her grabbing the rope. As this meaningless fight continued, Yuria turned a pale blue. Yuria would be out of oxygen soon. They were also humans who needed to breathe. Even while shooting Yuria''s hands, Almond didn¡¯t forget to shoot at other vital spots like her face and neck. Thwack! Thud! As this continued, the glow surrounding Yuria faded more and more. "Eeek¡­ urk...!" As if Yuria sensed something, she convulsed and emitted a blinding light from her body. "K-kill! I will kill you!!!" Yuria''s eyes red at Almond as if to devour him. But¡ª Almond''s arrow flew straight into her pretty eyes. Boom! There was a blue explosion in one of her eyes. Thwack! "!" And the other eye was hit by an arrow. From Yuria''s left eye, gooey red blood spurted out. "Aaaarggh!!!" A terrifying scream echoed. "What...?" "Did it hit her?" "The champion''s blessing¡­!" "T-The summoner... can shed blood too!" The children muttered in a daze. Even in shock, they didn''t let go of the rope. Even if they were careless, their fear of the summoner didn¡¯t wane. "Don''t let go!" "Pull it harder! She''s almost dead!" "Those without a tie, cut it with a sword! Or with the repair knife!" The children''s shouting echoed throughout the area. Julia and Holly, who weren¡¯t responsible for binding, quickly ran out. It was their turn to jump in. "Y-Yuria... die!" "You tricked us!" From their tearful eyes, sadness flowed out instead of anger. However, their swords were filled with an overflowing murderous intent. Thwack! Thwack! Two swords crossed and stabbed through Yuria''s abdomen, tearing her insides apart. Arge amount of blood sttered onto their faces. Red blood stains covered the pure white faces of the children. This only made the children more insane. "How many times have we died!? Who are you people?" "How many times did you kill me! Yuriaaa!!!" They screamed as if being stabbed and continued thrusting one after another. Since they didn''t have the strength to pull out the swords they had already thrust, they kept thrusting new ones. It was like creating some kind of unpleasant art. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! All the iron spikes they had brought were stabbed into Yuria''s soft white flesh. Now there was no ce on her body that wasn''t red. Despite that, Yuria didn¡¯t die. Her eyes still emitted her unique white light. However, that was almost the end. Swish¡ª? Almond''s newly shaped de swept by, severing Yuria''s neck. Without looking at Yuria''s severed head, Almond only grabbed the shoulders of the two children. "Enough." The children continued to stab with their knives even after the head was severed and eventually stopped. "... Huff... Pufff..." "Huff... Puff..." Covered in tears and blood, the children were shaking. It was unclear if it was because they were crying or just exhausted. "Yuria is dead." ording to Raina, one summoner guarded the door at a time. They seemed to dislike staying here when there was no battle. ''It''s probably because the nexus power doesn''t reach here.'' When there was no battle, the nexus lost its light. That meant summoners lost the ability to revive. Because the summoners became too ustomed to reviving, they hesitated even at the slightest danger and only kept one guard here at a time. "It''s over. Let''s get out of here." Now that the one summoner guarding the ce was defeated, their escape was almostplete. "Sniffle... Sniffle..." "Waaaah! Waaa!" Now that it was over, it was time to go. The children began to cry upon hearing that. "We don''t know until we get out. Let''s cryter." Almond helped each child one by one to get up. The main mission was to help Raina escape, but he also grew attached to these kids. The children sniffled as they took Almond''s hand and stood. Tadadak. He could hear a blonde girl running towards him from a distance. "Almond!" She immediately hugged him. Raina''s face was also covered in tears. "I-I never thought we would actually do it..." As soon as Almond felt Raina''s body temperature, he realized the strange sounds that had passed through his head earlier. "Raina." "... Yeah?" Almond realized it even more when he met Raina''s watery eyes. "Demian." Almond realized what hisst name was. "That''s myst name. I just remembered it now." Raina repeated the name. "Demian," she smiled. "It''s a nice name." "Now, let''s get out of here." Raina energetically nodded. Both of them turned toward the door at the same time. There was no one guarding the door. Only the white light remaining greeted them. [RubySword has donated a whopping 100,000 won!] [I-Is it over?! Congrattions!] [Dobby has donated 10,000 won!] [Wow!! Almond!! You crazy man!] [DemainClub has donated 10,000 won!] [Although I''m still salty about Almond taking Raina away as a fanboy, I watched this stream while crying. Sob... sob...] The donations poured in. Almond was trying not to look at the chat, but the donations popped up on his screen. They were mostly congrattory donations for clearing the story. However, as opposed to their excitement, the story wasn''t over. Thump...! A heavy sound echoed from the direction of the door. A huge, sturdy ck shadow roared. "You''ve created quite a mess,rades!" It was the Iron Monster, Bart. The minions'' faces were filled with fear. They had used up all the ropes. There was no time to untie and grab the ropes from Yuria either. "Why don''t you try ying with me now? Huh?" Bart spoke in a yful tone, but everyone could sense the anger in his voice. Almond pushed Raina''s back. "Go now!!!" Almond made a quick decision. "Run! I''ll buy some time!" "Wha¡­ What?!" Raina replied with bewildered eyes. Raina was about to say his decision was crazy, but she became speechless when she saw what Almond held. "Hurry up! Don''t let my life go to waste." Almond was holding Yuria''s bow. No one else could touch that bow unless they were as strong as the summoner. Bzzzt...! Surprisingly, a white light began to gather in Almond''s hands. [Mana: 300] [Something is about to happen now.] After Almond killed Yuria, he umted countless amounts of mana. ''Killing a summoner is the fastest way to be the next summoner.'' Killing a minion only increases one¡¯s mana by 1, but killing a summoner increased it by 300. Moreover, Almond sensed that a champion was reacting to him. Perhaps Almond was bing something simr to a summoner. "Hurry up, Raina! Please! Are you going to kill all the kids!? Mott died as well!" Raina and Almond''s eyes met again. Raina''s pretty face turned into a frown as she started bawling. Then she grabbed the fallen children while bursting into tears. One by one, they all began to run toward the door with Raina. "Huh? Do you really think you can make it there? Minions¡ª!" Bart growled and rushed forward. m!! The ground Bart where jumped off from shattered into pieces. This showed that Bart was flying at an incredible speed. Almond also pulled his bowstring. ''One shot or nothing.'' As Almond pulled back the string, his hand simultaneously released the bowstring. Swooosh¡ª? Almond''s arrow, which used to belong to Yuria, flew forward. The arrow struck Bart, who was rushing toward the children. Kwakwakwang!! Bart''s body was pushed back far away as a white light covered everything. [Loading...] At that moment, the game ended. ¡ª ??? ¡ª Did it work? ¡ª What about Almond? ¡ª OMG, did it really work!? ¡ª How did it work when he died himself? ¡ª- Wow.... does he have to do it again? Although no one knew whether Almond had survived, the mission wasplete. [Help Raina escape the battle! Complete!] The only goal was to have Raina escape safely. Almond''s survival wasn''t a requirement. [Achievement ¡ï¡ï¡ï] The image of a blonde woman sitting on the boulder was revealed as the bright white light gradually faded. It was Raina, fully grown. "I rambled on for too long." Looking down at the blue bow, Raina smiled sadly as the image of her childhood ovepped. [Story Mode Completed] *** [Beginner''s Tip: The battlefield in the game adheres to healthy and fair regtions, so please be rest assured while ying!] Chapter 151: A Long Story (2)

    Chapter 151: A Long Story (2)

    "Here''s where my story ends. I hope I''ve exined enough," the grown-up Raina said. Her story was over. It seemed like Raina didn''t want to say anything more about it. Almond had a question he wanted to ask. He was worried about the minion who was first defeated by Yuria. "Do you know what happened to Mott?" "... I don''t know." Raina''s gaze shifted to the blue bow. "I don''t know what happened to Mott or Demian, but..." Raina pulled something out. It was an old piece of paper with something drawn on it. Almond realized what it was instantly. ''The map...'' "I learned something new because of this map." It was the map that was made to escape the battlefield. She turned the map over to show the back. [Demian & Lucen] The handwriting was difficult to read. "I didn''t know what this word was at first. I realized after we escaped and I knew Demian''s name." The engraved names were Demian and Lucen. Lucen was Raina''sst name and Demain was thest name of the character Almond yed. "Demian and I had been working on this for a long time. We had been coincidentally hiding it in ces we unconsciously ended up going to." "..." How long did Demian and Raina work on this map? How often did they lose the map and repeat the process of forgetting and remembering...? Was that why Raina''s affection for Almond in the story mode grew stronger? Was it an unconscious oue? Almond was silent for a while, dumbfounded. Although his head was full of tangled emotions, he responded, "... I see." There was another brief moment of silence. Raina smiled softly. It was a sad smile. Almond asked again, "Have you ever returned to that battlefield to look for them again?" Raina was now a champion, a stronger being than a summoner. She was a legendary being who could easily wipe out the corrupt battlefield. "When I went backter, there was nothing. No traces left." Raina seemed to have gone back, but it was after the battlefield was already gone. "There were some issues with the minions, so there was no way it could continue being like the way it was before." "I see." "I''m a little sleepy." Raina finally stood from where she sat. He felt like he shouldn''t have asked her. Her reply wasn''t very pleasant. "Thank you for listening." Raina disappeared soon afterward. "She left," Almond muttered as he watched Raina disappear. Raina didn¡¯t end up exining exactly why she felt upset. Instead of telling him why, she shared one of her most painful memories. Thanks to that, Almond could sympathize with Raina''s reason more than ever. It couldn¡¯t be exined in a few words. Almond summarized his thoughts about why Raina disliked being called for nonbat purposes. It was probably because it reminded her of her life as a minion. During her days as a ve, she had to fight even without any justification or purpose. She was called to battle without proper exnations. Even after bing a champion and entering into a contract with a summoner, she still didn''t want to be controlled that way. Instead, she wanted to be treated as a colleague like how she treated the other minions. ''So... in short, is she asking me to treat her with care?'' Almond scratched his head. Although his conclusion seemed slightly off, it also felt somewhat urate. ''Anyway, it''s cleared.'' p, p. Almond pped his cheeks to return to himself from Demian. He was too immersed in Demian''s role and didn''t even look at the chat for a while. As Almond returned to streamer mode, he raised his hands and cheerfully said, "Everyone! We cleared it!" Donations started to pour in. [Eggnt has donated 10,000 won!] [Wow! On the first try? Sess!!! Congrattions!] [BaldClub has donated 50,000 won!] [OMG.. my Almond.. you''re my god!] [Vancouver has donated 10,000 won!] [This donation is from selling my sister''s shoes!!!] There were so many donations that it took a while to read them all. ¡ª Congrats on beating on the first try! ¡ª Almond, did you know that he sacrificed himself? Or he just cleared everything without knowing that? ¡ª Wow, three stars clear!!! ¡ª Wow, three stars! I can''t believe it! ¡ª No, it was cleared because the goal was just to help Raina to escape, you dumbasses. ¡ª It shows as much as you know ^^ ¡ª How did you know he was Demian? ¡ª Right, how did you suddenly know he was Demian? ¡ª Did you sacrifice knowingly? Was that the only way??? There were many questions about clearing the mission in the chat, as much as the congrattory messages. Most were curious about how he knew his name was Demian, but the final clue was the sound in his head. "You guys didn''t hear the sound?" ¡ª The sound? ¡ª Stop bsing us. ¡ª Don''t tell us you heard a calling. The viewers used Almond of lying, but Almond was serious. "When I made contact with Raina, I heard a whisper in my head. It felt like it was from the game." ¡ª Just say kiss. ¡ª I think you felt a death gaze from her fanboys. ¡ª Almond''s awareness of death. ¡ª He''s good at dodging ganks. ¡ª No wonder he''s good at dodging.? ¡ª Did you really hear something in your head??? ¡ª What a crazy game. "Yeah, I really heard it. It sounded like Demian, but at first, I couldn''t even tell or knew what it was. I found outter on." ¡ª Damn, it''s made so you can hear Demain? ¡ª LIL really cares about their story mode. ¡ª The developers should put this much care into their bnce patches. ¡ª Ah, so that''s why you knew you were Demian. [RubySword has donated 10,000 won!] [How did you decide to sacrifice yourself? Did you just do it unknowingly?] "Ah, RubySword, thank you for the donation again. Well, the quest did give the nuance that only Raina had to escape, so..." Almond checked the time. ''I wonder if I can say it all.'' He had some time left because the story mode ended quicker than he thought. ''I can change the stream a bit to exin what happened in the story.'' Almond decided to tell them how he made the decision to sacrifice himself. Game streamers tended to exin or discuss the game after long gameys. Almond was naturally making his stream into something simr. [MintChocoAlmond has donated 1000 won.] [I couldn''t watch the gamey earlier, but I got to watch him exin! Heck yeah!] Some viewers enjoyed this more than the gamey. "Thank you, MintChocoAlmond. I''ll tell you guys how I came up with the strategy to sacrifice myself." ¡ª Almond seems more talkative now. So adorable! ¡ª I think he''s excited because he cleared three stars. ¡ª I think he still thinks he''s Demian. It was a good sign because the streamer needed the spotlight, not the game, to be a variety game streamer. "The biggest clue I got was when I discovered my name was Demian. The name of Raina''s bow is Demian, right?" ¡ª He''s excited. ¡ª He''s flexing himself. ¡ª I don''t me him. He got three stars! ¡ª So he decided to sacrifice himself after discovering his name was Demian. "If she named her precious bow Demian, that must mean Demian was quite important. If he was so important, wouldn''t she still be with him?" ¡ª Yeah, you''re right. ¡ª That''s true. ¡ª We don''t know anything like that. Don''t ask us. ¡ª An important thing? What is this? Kids show? ¡ª Keke... I''m strong because I have no one important¡­ ¡ª Mans thinks he''s a cold-blooded prince or something. "But she wasn''t with Demian. Instead, her bow was named after him. That made me realize that there was no way she was with Demian... which meant that he died." ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Hey, you''re smarter than you look! ¡ª Oh... ¡ª Almond''s quite a smart guy! "And the quest description said it was helping Raina escape, so I knew at that point Demian had to die as well." ¡ª Nooooooo! ¡ª Oh, man... ¡ª Demian... ¡ª Bye, Demian¡­ Almond took a break there, watching the chat fill up with tears. After they stopped crying, he finished off. "I had to die to allow her to escape. That''s how I cleared it." ¡ª Sniffle ¡ª Almond''s so smart! ¡ª I thought you just had nuts in your head. ¡ª I demand a refund! This isn''t the Almond we knew! ¡ª Breaking news: Almond has a brain too instead of nuts?! "Nuts in my head...? What am I, mixed nuts?" ¡ª Mixed nuts haha ¡ª LOL ¡ª Perfect drinking snack. ¡ª You are mixed nuts! You have a peanut down there too! "I''m going to ban that peanutment." ¡ª LOL ¡ª Peanut ban! ¡ª Hahaha you guys are crazy. ¡ª Where''s the macadamia? ¡ª Speaking of, where are the Almonds? Almond''s exnation ended here. It was time to go back to his main job. "Anyway, should I start cashing in the mission rewards now?" Almond smirked and a wide smile formed on his face. Understandably so because the reward amount would''ve made anyone smile. ¡ª Capitalism smile. ¡ª That victory smile pisses me off, LOL ¡ª I''m going to screenshot this. ¡ª Wow... how much is all that? A total of 2.8 million won. 2 million won came from clearing the three-star mission and 800,000 forpleting it on his first try. "Thank you to CantResist for giving the mission! I''ll read the names of the others slowly as well." [Mission Complete!] As the mission sess button was pressed, a list of the donors¡¯ names scrolled past. It took him over five minutes to read all of them. ''Wow, 3 million won.'' He earned over 3 million won from the mission alone. Thanks to the donors congratting him forpleting it on his first try, he earned around 4 million won. Not only that, but a heap of rewards awaited him forpleting the story mode after he returned to the lobby. [Arge amount of EXP has been earned!] [ount has reached level 7!] First, he leveled up. [Daily Quest Cleared!] [4200 coins earned!] And he earned some coins. [A new rtionship has been built with Raina!] [Friendship -> Trust] A new type of way to measure his rtionship with Raina was formed. He didn''t know its current effects, but it deepened their rtionship. It wasn''t over yet. [Understanding of the legend has increased.] [Maximum legendary understanding (¡ï¡ï¡ï)] [Raina''s rolling skill has improved. Now she can stay invisible for 1 second after rolling. Cooldown 8 seconds.] Raina''s skill improved as well. ¡ª Damn! She can stay hidden while rolling now! ¡ª Damn. ¡ª That''s crazy. ¡ª That''s the power of three-star Raina! ¡ª Wow shit. Even Almond, who didn''t know the game well, could tell it was a good upgrade. Turning invisible every time he rolled would make it difficult for the opponents to fight against him. There were only a handful of yers in the world who earned this reward. ... Bababam! [You are the first to achieve this on the Korean server!] [Check out your new honorable border and badge!] There was only one in Korea. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Congrats! ¡ª Was he really the first one in Korea?! ¡ª If it wasn''t for Viking in NA, he would''ve been the first one worldwide. Darn! ¡ª Wow¡­ ¡ª Damn¡­ There weren¡¯t many rewards for being the first toplete it. He only received an honorary border and badge for cosmetic purposes to make the gamey fair. Giving gamey advantages to those whopleted the story mode quicker would be unfair. ''But still, what a reward. This is probably enough LIL for today.'' Almond checked the time. It was 8 P.M. He had been ying for ten hours. Even though it was story mode, ten hours was a new record for Almond. He couldn''t over-exhaust his body because he had a visit to the hospital the next day, but he still had to do something. "I yed for a really long time, but that''s enough LIL for today. I still have to show my donation reaction though, right?" It was the donation reaction. [KAFfanboy has donated 1000 won.] [Huh? Almond, but why are you turning on Battle Large? Turn on Kingdom Age instead!] Almond was booting up Battle Large for his reaction. ¡ª ??? Wow, it''s true! ¡ª What the? ¡ª Is he done with LIL already? ¡ª Maybe he likes the feel of real bows more. ¡ª Is it just for the reaction? No way?! ¡ª Breaking news: Battle Large is purely for reactions only now. Chapter 152: Ji-Ahs Effort (1)

    Chapter 152: Ji-Ah''s Effort (1)

    Three hours before Almond finished his stream, Ju-Hyeok was drinking a hangover pear drink while carefully watching him. Then, suddenly¡ª ¡°Pfft!¡± he spat out his pear drink. "W-What the!?" It was because of the unexpected kiss scene. If Ju-Hyeok''s reaction was this bad, he could only imagine how wild the chat was. ¡ª Raina, confess yourself! Confess! Raina!!! ¡ª Die! Almond! Die! Almond! ¡ª I''m going to take back the mission reward~! ¡ª If I can''t be Almond, I might as well die... ¡ª This can''t be... ¡ª I''m going to go y story mode right now! The chat quickly scrolled upward and reflected off of Ju-Hyeok''s sses. There was almost a glitch in the system. "Wow... it''s this bad?" He was surprised as well, but the chat''s reaction was violent. Ju-Hyeok''s hands were moving quickly because several chat messages were inappropriate. Even while he was banning them, he was impressed. ''Even then, that guy is still focused.'' Almond wasn''t even paying attention to the chat. He waspletely immersed in the story mode. Was it because of that? [Current Viewers: 12k] The number of viewers increased to 12,000. ''We recovered all the viewers we lost from changing games.'' They gained the highest number of viewers after starting to y LIL. It was close to their peak from?Battle Large. After two days of ying LIL, Almond was about to reach the second prime in his streaming career. ''And if he were to earn three stars?'' They would strike while the iron was hot.?If Almond were to clear three stars, his stream could reach a new prime. Almond''s squad was close to victory. ¡ª Wow, Yuria is about to die... ¡ª What a rebellion! ¡ª Go, minions! ¡ª Mott... is he really dead? Almond emerged victorious from what seemed to be thest stage of the three-star clear. Almond and the minions spectacrly defeated Yuria. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª That was crazy. ¡ª Insane mechanics. ¡ª Almond is skilled with the de too! Reminds me of his 1v1 with BubbleSniper. ¡ª Wow... ¡ª Damn! Almond, marry me!!! When Almond had to sacrifice himself after Bart appeared, the chat was filled with tears. Afterward, when the other story about Raina, Demian, and the minions came out... ''It''s a sess...'' [Current Viewers: 15k] Almond reached an all-time high for his live viewers that day. ''I think he''s found himself a ce as a variety game streamer now!'' The biggest worry for variety game streamers was losing viewers every time they transitioned games, but that wasn''t a problem for Almond. Instead, he gained more viewers. ''This is talent.'' If this wasn''t talent, what was? "... But what''s he up to now? Is he changing games again?" Despite attracting all these viewers with LIL, he was booting up a different game. It was Battle Large. *** ¡ª Are you finally streaming in parts now? ¡ª ??? Battle Large? ¡ª Suddenly ying Battle Large? ¡ª Ah, I think I know what he''s up to. Almond was booting up Battle Large. Before the viewers realized it, he was already inside a familiar helicopter. Dudududu...! The propeller was louder than ever. "Jump offf!" "Jump, you bastards!" Like always, the NPC soldiers behind him shouted. ¡ª Wow, what a long stream today. Nice. ¡ª Is he going to y two games every time now?! ¡ª Almond, you''re finally ready to stream like a normal person? ¡ª A long stream and Battle Large?! ¡ª Isn''t it too much for him? Some viewers wanted him to y two games like other variety streamers, but unfortunately, he couldn''t. ''Healthwise, I can''t y two games.'' Their assumption was wrong. Almond didn''t boot up Battle Large to y it. "I''m going to do my reaction now." Tak. Almond got ready in his descending form. ¡ª LOL, he turned it on just to show us something? ¡ª Look at this, Battle Large fanboys! Your game is only good for suicide! ¡ª LOL, are you going to get first and die? ¡ª Kya~ this is Almond. "I can''t y until victory. I''m running it short because I''m tired." ¡ª ??? ¡ª Huh? ¡ª But you don''t even have a bow? ¡ª Is he going to do something else? He had no bow or arrows for his reaction. This was an unusual situation for Almond''s stream because it had never happened before. Since he received over 3 million won in donations, he had to at least do this much. At least, that was what Almond thought. "This time, I''m the arrow!" With that, he threw away his parachute backpack. "W-What are you doing!" "Hey! Are you crazy?!" The NPC soldiers screamed what the viewers were thinking. Tak! Regardless, Almond jumped off the helicopter. "Thank you for the donations¡ª" He turned into an arrow and screamed as he fell. Swooosh¡ª? Despite the strong wind resistance, Almond perked his eyes wide open and kept his eyes on the target. The target was the head of a yer who jumped off first. ¡ª LOOOOL ¡ª This guy is insane. ¡ª Wow. ¡ª Bullet Almond? ¡ª Almond would do well as a turret. ¡ª He''s finally be his own weapon. Swoosh!! Almond''s bodynded directly on a yer''s head. "A-Argh, what the¡ª" Unfortunately for the yer, they were eliminated alongside Almond as 100th and 99th ce. [100th] [Better luck next time!] The reaction ended with a rare text appearing on his screen. [Stream over.] And just like that, the stream was over. ¡ª Did you know? A person dies if they''re hit by an Almond. ¡ª LOL, poor guy. ¡ª This is true survival. ¡ª Did you know? Almond dies if he''s hit with money. *** Chiiik¡ª? The capsule opened after a long time. After a while, Sang-Hyeon walked out drenched. Ju-Hyeok was about to give him a towel, but took it back. "Wow... I don''t think a towel is going to do the job." He said it mockingly, but was worried. Ironically, Ju-Hyeok''s source of ie was in Almond''s hands, so he had no choice but to worry for him. ''Doesn''t he need proper help from the hospital¡­?'' Shaaa... Ju-Hyeok deeply pondered as he heard Sang-Hyeon shower in the background. ¡®The assessment is tomorrow, but... I''m curious if they''ll be able to fix a hand that''s been unusable for ten years.¡¯ Anyone could figure out Sang-Hyeon''s hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) had something to do with his right hand. Like Doctor Song Ha-Na said before, the rest of his body carried the weight of his useless right hand, causing him to overexert his body. The problem was the nerve in his brain controlling his right hand was missing. Would going to the doctor frequently really solve this problem? ''He gets this tired even after ying story mode alone...'' Ju-Hyeok whipped out arge towel and threw it in the capsule while thinking that if this continued, the things Sang-Hyeon could do as a streamer would be limited. ''What if he goes out to a streamerpetition?'' They would find the answers they were looking for at the hospital. "I''m going to sleep first," Ju-Hyeok shouted into the washroom and left to his room. He jumped into bed and checked his phone out of habit. On the screen were themunity reactions. [Big Pro] It was the subsection of LIL Pro,prised of the top posts. ''Let''s see if there''s anything...'' He wasn''t anticipating much, but there were some unexpected results. "This...?" Something Ju-Hyeok wasn''t expecting at all was gaining lots of attention. [The worst streamer on the Almond & The hot-blooded evil archer Raina, kissing] [Big 1910] [Lil 970] It received almost 2000 bigs. Normally, a post with more than 100 bigs made it to Big Pro. It was an impressive figure for this post. ¡ª Holy fuck. Are you serious? ©¸ LOL, this guy is actually pissed. ¡ª Hot-blooded evil archer, LOL ¡ª Demian fanboys are on suicide watch. ¡ª Wow... that''s so touching... ¡ª Just y a dating simtor!!! ¡ª It''s just a Hollywood cliche kiss scene. Why are you guys overreacting? But I deleted LIL. ¡ª I pressed big after seeing Raina, then gave it lil after seeing that guy. ¡ª This story was so sad. ©¸ No spoilers, please. ©¸ You think you can get to this point? What the hell do you mean by no spoilers? There were almost over a thousandments as well. Ju-Hyeok''s eyes closed as he went through eachment individually. Ju-Hyeok was tired too, almost as much as Sang-Hyeon. ''I''m never going to drink during the day again...'' Because he drank so early during the day, he wasn''t in a great state. ''I''m sleepy.'' Ju-Hyeok stopped there and fell asleep. When he came back to himself, it was already the next day. "... Urgh." After he picked up his tired body, stretched, and opened the curtains... "?" The sun was brighter than usual. "... The sun is in a weird ce." He dug through his nket and found his phone. [11:09 A.M.] It was 11 A.M. The doctor''s appointment was at 10 A.M. "... Holy shit! Hey! Yu Sang-Hyeon!!!" m! He quickly opened his door and called for Sang-Hyeon, but there was no response. "Hey! Wake... huh?" Sang-Hyeon wasn''t in his room either. "... Did he go alone?" Ju-Hyeok looked down at his phone. [Sang-Hyeon: I''m just going to go alone. Just keep sleeping.] There was a message from him. ''I thought he needed a guardian with him... or maybe not?'' He couldn''t quite remember. Then, suddenly¡­ Bling. [Seo Ji-Ah: Check the group message.] Ji-Ah sent him a message. ''Check what?'' He checked the group and saw that Ji-Ah had left a message. It was her telling them to check out the new YouTube video. Why didn''t she just text him to check YouTube, then? He shook his head and went to Almond''s YouTube channel. There were videos of his first LIL?gamey. [LILmond-0 | Raina OP?] [LILmond-1 | How to block a Hail of des using Raina!] ''Oh... she finally uploaded it.'' She said it would take longer because she needed to study LIL, but it didn''t take as long as he thought. Did she send the message to brag? ''She can be cute sometimes.'' Ju-Hyeok smirked and checked the number of views. The number of views wasn''t cute. "What the!? Is this real?" He checked several times, but it was real. [297,000 views] . There were close to 300,000 views for the video, which was only five hours old. ''What''s going on?'' The answer was in thements. ¡ª Is it ''that'' hail of des? ¡ª Wow, so the y was from Almond. ¡ª LazySoldier LMAO ¡ª This guy is crazy for money. ¡ª Wow, but this y is legendary. ¡ª Too bad it''s a low-level normals game. If he did this in a ranked, it''d be insane. ¡ª So this was Almond! Judging from thements, most of the viewers already knew about this gamey. The Hail of des y was trending on LIL Pro, and the username LazySoldier was searched for a while. However, most LIL Pro users weren''t aware that LazySoldier was Almond. ¡ª Wait, this is the same guy who kissed Raina? ¡ª Then I understand. ¡ª No wonder they kissed. ¡ª No! I don''t understand!!! ¡ª Almond... I''ll remember you... Almond''s name became famous after the kiss scene. Now they knew he was the yer behind the infamous y. The video came out at the perfect time to use those two incidents in his favor. "Kya... What great timing." He had nothing to say other than the timing was fantastic. The momentum from the two incidents was incredible. The views were increasing by the moment, surpassing 300k. "If it''s this popr..." Seeing how well the video was doing, something else came to mind. The video''s trending rank. What rank was it at? As soon as he was about to see its rank¡­ Bzzzzzzzt...! His phone vibrated and changed screens. [Punk Manager Oh] ''Manager Oh?'' Ju-Hyeok answered the phone in confusion, "Yes, Manager." He usually never called him. Manager Oh''s voice sounded urgent. "Now? Chapter 153: Ji-Ahs Effort (2)

    Chapter 153: Ji-Ah''s Effort (2)

    While Sang-Hyeon was busypleting Raina''s story mode, the first thing Ji-Ah did aftering home from drinking with Ju-Hyeok was open her fridge. Gulp. Gulp. She finished a bottle of pear drink that was supposedly good for hangovers, sat in front of herputer, and nkly stared. "Hmm..." Ji-Ah normally started editing right away, but today, she was hesitating. ''Do I really need to study it?'' Since she knew nothing about LIL, she wasn''t sure what parts were worth highlighting or how to edit them. Battle Large and Kingdom Age were simple and straightforward, so it was easy for anyone to understand. LIL was different because it involved team y andplicated skills. ''This is a crisis...'' For the first time as an editor, she ran into a crisis. ''I can''t give up 20 million won a month.'' She didn''t want to give up either. The job was too good. When she imagined the job disappearing, she felt fear run down her spine. She didn''t want to lose a job where she could stare at Almond''s face all day, earn 20 million won, and not have to go into an office all because of LIL. Hello? "Hey, Yeon-Joo. It''s me, Ji-Ah." She called someone right away. Thankfully, they picked up because it was lunchtime. ¡°Who is this?¡± "It''s me, Ji-Ah. Seo Ji-Ah." ¡°Wow! Ji-Ah? Is this a new number? What happened?! Why did you suddenly quit? Was it because of that stupid Supervisor Lee? Huh? You didn''t say anything¡­¡± Ji-Ah wanted to hang up at that moment. She felt sorry because Yeon-Joo was one of the few close co-workers in the office, but she didn''t tell her about quitting. Instead, she was calling her to ask for help. ''If I ask for help right away, I''ll probably get called a bitch.'' Yeon-Joo was normally calm, but had a rough mouth among her friends. Ji-Ah decided to meet up with her to catch up. "What are you doing after work today?" ¡°After work? I''m off now. I asked to leave early. I wasn''t nning on doing anything. Do you want to meet?¡± "Oh, nice. It''s better that we meet quickly." ¡°Did you borrow money from a loan shark or something?¡± "Aish. It''s nothing like that." Borrow money? She could lend money now. *** Ji-Ah asked to meet at a brunch cafe. The cafes near all the offices were expensive, but the ce she chose was more expensive than the others. ''Is she crazy? Why did she ask to meet at a ce like this...'' Heo Yeon-Joo turned white as she looked around the ce. Everyone wore a casual outfit, but she could tell they were expensive clothing. She checked her outfit and looked embarrassed. Suddenly, she didn''t like today''s outfit. "For how many?" A well-dressed staff came up to her. She saw his jawline and thought he fit the bill to work in this cafe. "I''m with someone. The name should be Seo Ji-Ah..." "Ah, yes. I think she just went in." The man smiled and guided her in. She could see a small girl figure in the distance. Heo Yeon-Joo turned white again. ''Is she crazy?'' Seo Ji-Ah looked like she just got out of bed. "Hey, Yeon-Joo. You''re here." However, she looked calm as if she didn''t care at all. "Have a seat." "... Are you ying a character? Some rich Chinese?" "What are you talking about? I just wanted to spend some money. It''s been a while since Ist saw you." "No, I get that. But why do you look like that?" "What''s wrong with this?" Ji-Ah looked down at her tracksuit and made a confused look. She didn''t know what was wrong. "Sigh.?You have such a pretty face too. I feel bad your face ended up with an owner like you." "You''re prettier." "Eek..." Yeon-Joo grabbed her heart and made a funny expression. They joked around like this often. Ji-Ah smirked and handed her the menu. "Just order anything. All I need is an eggs benedict. I don''t care about the rest." "Anything? Everything?" "Yeah." "Wow. Let''s get married." "Shut up." Yeon-Joo didn''t order everything. Instead, she ordered one of the most popr dishes and decided to order drinkster. The handsome staff from earlier took their order. Afterward, they started to catch up. "Hey, do you know how noisy the office was after you left? I''m in a different department and even I heard about you." "...Why?" "The girl who refused to leave even after Supervisor Lee caused all that trouble suddenly leaves when he stopped? It''s... weird." "I just found a new job. That''s why." "A new job? Where?" Heo Yeon-Joo scanned Ji-Ah because it didn''t look like she was working at any office. "It''s like a... frencer job." "Ah..." Her eyes were filled with shame and a hint of jealousy. Afterward, they continued to talk about the office. "The project was a sess and Supervisor Lee changed jobs. He went to a biggerpany. I''m jealous, but I''m so d I don''t have to see that fucking prick again... He was always trying to hit on every girl..." "..." "Ah, s-sorry. Are you okay? It''s your ex-boyfriend, after all... Did I screw up?" "No," Ji-Ah shook her head. "I like it. Keep talking." ¡°Pfft,¡±?Heo Yeon-Jooughed out loud. She continued to badmouth Supervisor Lee, adding stories about his embarrassing past thanks to Ji-Ah''s honesty. "Here''s the food you ordered." "Wow." Ji-Ah''s eyes sparkled more than when they were badmouthing her ex-boyfriend. Nothing had changed about her love for food. Ji-Ah ate for a while without a word. She ordered Colombian coffee as well to revitalize herself with caffeine. Heo Yeon-Joo started to ask her, "Anyways, why did you ask to meet?" "Just to see you." "Don''t lie to me." "You said you''re good at?LIL, right?" ¡®LIL?¡¯?Heo Yeon-Joo was surprised to hear such a random topic. "Out of nowhere?" "You said you reached tinum... you bragged to me." "Yeah, but I''m gold now... It''s still good for a career woman!" "I didn''t say anything. Even if you''re bronze, you''re better than me, so don''t worry. Exin LIL to me." "... Here? Is that why you wanted to meet?" She wasn''t asking because she felt insulted, but because she was dumbfounded. Suddenly talking about games after she quit the office... "You..." Heo Yeon-Joo put her face right up to Ji-Ah''s. "What''s your new job? Are you an inte streamer?" Ji-Ah thought for a moment, but thought there would be no harm in telling her. "It''s something simr. I''m not the streamer. I just edit the videos." "Ohhh! Really? Who''s the streamer?" "... Someone called Almond. You probably don''t know." "Almond?" Yeon-Joo seemed to be unaware because he wasn''t that famous yet... "Kyaaaaa!" Ji-Ah was startled by a sudden scream. "Ah, ah, I''m sorry..." Yeon-Joo apologized to the next table and grabbed Ji-Ah by the hand. "A-Almond? Are you really Almond''s editor?" Yeon-Joo''s eyes were shining brighter than ever. "I, I''ll help you edit!" "That would be nice, but I have to do it on my own..." "I''ll help you! If I help you once, you can do it on your own. Before that..." "?" "Let''s go to a capsule room!" "Capsule room?" "It''s best to just do that!" Why was she so enthusiastic? She wasn''t like this normally. Yeon-Joo dragged Ji-Ah out. *** "Wee to Tenten Capsule!" Ji-Ah had been to capsule rooms before. She wasn''t aplete beginner like Almond, who had to sign up for his bio code. She was able to start right away and skipped the tutorial. She started ying against the introductory bots. [You''re so frustrating.] The champion she chose to y was the poison dart rabbit, Jacky. Just like the name suggested, the rabbit named Jacky shot poison darts. [Hey, do it properly. Are you trying to blow a poison dart or make out with it?] The tiny rabbit had quite the mouth. "Hey, Yeon-Joo... is he normally like this?" "Huh? Ah, yeah. Don''t worry about it. That guy''s character is supposed to be annoying. Anyways, try finishing off that tower." "Alright." Phew! Phew! Ji-Ah was blowing into a flute-like object. ''What am I doing...'' She felt strange, jumping around in a bunny suit and blowing a flute. Thanks to actually ying the game, she learned a lot. "Hey, you''re not bad? Even though it''s bots, there are lots of people who don''t get it at all." "I used to go to capsule rooms a lot back in the days." "I see." "Lee Kyung-Soo liked games." "Ah... Supervisor Lee liked it..." It was awkward for a moment. The two kept their mouths shut and focused on the game. [HeoHeoYeon is on a rampage!] [HeoHeoYeon is unstoppable!] [HeoHeoYeon is legendary!] The game ended in a victory thanks to Yeon-Joo carrying them. All Ji-Ah did was survive Jacky''s criticisms. After that, they cleared the intermediate and advanced bots. Ji-Ah now fully understood the basics of the game. [Never summon me again unless you''ll shoot the dart backward.] Until the end, Ji-Ah didn''t hear a singlepliment from Jacky. Ji-Ahined as she left the capsule room, "It''s simr to the office." "What is?" "Everything gets solved when I withstand the scolding." Yeon-Joo giggled again. The poison dart rabbit was also famous for shooting poisonous phrases, so Ji-Ah''s shock was understandable. "Thisdy is still ying that game. Now, should we go and edit?" *** "Phew,"?Ji-Ah let out a deep breath after working until morning. ''Thanks to Yeon-Joo, I could finish it in a day.'' She hadn''t intended to finish it in a day, but wanted to get as much as possible done when Yeon-Joo was helping her. As a result, she finished the video. It was already the next day though. Two videos had beenpleted. [LILmond-0 | Raina OP?] [LILmond-1 | How to block a Hail of des using Raina!] After she uploaded the videos for a live premiere, Ji-Ah nervously waited. As the video began, 7000-8000 viewers arrived. ¡ª Wow, is it that video? ¡ª LazySoldier was Almond?? ¡ª Hail of des... ¡ª Almond again... ¡ª Raina''s OP?! ¡ª Kya~ Almond! After the premiere was over, the views started going up. It rose to 50k, 100k, 150k, and continued... ''Wow.'' Eventually, it reached #5 on trending. Almond''s channel was in the top 5 trending for the first time. ''Top 5!'' It was a new record. She quickly sent a message to the group chat. [Check today''s video!] Tap, tap. Ji-Ah woke up Yeon-Joo, who was sleeping beside her. "Yeon-Joo, we''re fifth in the ranking." "Huh...?" Yeon-Joo checked the time to see if it was time for work. Ji-Ah could tell right away because she used to have the same habit. "Today''s Saturday." "Ah... That''s right. That''s why I asked to leave early yesterday. Anyway, what are you talking about? Fifth?" Yeon-Joo rubbed her eyes and barely got up. Ji-Ah¡¯s foldable bed for guests creaked, but Yeon-Joo still slept well. "The trending videos." "...?" Yeon-Joo stared at her phone for a while. "Wow... wow! Isn''t this incredible?!" "Yeah." Ji-Ah smirked and made a wide smile. She seemed tired, but seemed even happier because of that. "Ji-Ah! You''re amazing!" Yeon-Joo excitedly hugged Ji-Ah. "You made it really well!" "You helped me." "I, I just told you how LIL worked and what to do. You stayed up all night doing it!" "Whatever. Tell me what you want to do or eat." "Damn. You''re so cool." "Tell me quickly. Or something you want." "Hmm..." Yeon-Joo thought for a while. No, she pretended to think. There was something she wanted from the start. "Do you... meet Almond often?" Chapter 154: Meeting (1)

    Chapter 154: Meeting (1)

    The girl with the long ck hair asked, "What time is today''s diagnosis?" "The appointment is at 11 A.M." The middle-aged man carefully gave a suggestion, "The CEO wanted to take you there himself..." "No." The suggestion was instantly shut down. "I want you, the butler, to take me." "Ah... but still..." "Nope. Dad is too annoying." "Hmm... Alright." The butler could imagine the CEO''s disappointed look, but he had no choice since it was her decision. "Then let''s take our time eating before going. Should I call ady to help with your clothes?" Some clothes were difficult to wear on her own. The butler was like family, but they usually called anotherdy to help her change since he was still a man. "No," the girl refused even that because she didn''t want to seem like someone who couldn''t get anything done alone. "Alright." The butler showed himself out, and the girl went to eat. Bzzzt. The wheelchair moved on its own towards the table with breakfast. She slowly started eating the food while trying to enjoy the vors. It wasn''t... very good. She didn''t have the luxury to taste the food because only one thing was on her head. ''I wonder if the results will be good.'' She was about to receive some important news. It was whether she could receive another shot of the stem nerve boost. If she could receive the shot, she could properly walk around while the boost was active. Of course, her father would be strictly against it. She wasn''t nning on using it carelessly either. She knew thesting effects of taking the shot too many times. Some people questioned why she still wanted to take the shot. Still, little did they know there was a significant difference between being able to sometimes walk with treatment and being unable to walk at all. Tak. After twenty minutes of her boring meal, she ced her utensils down and headed to her room. It had been a while since she took out some nice clothes to go outside. ''... Maybe not a dress.'' She picked up a dress without thinking, but it wasn''t a good idea since the forecast said it would be cold today. However, she didn¡¯t easily change her mind because if today''s results were good, she wouldn''t be able to wear it for a while. After thinking for a bit, she made a decision. ''Let''s wear it.'' She took out a long, ck dress. Something like this would be easy for her. She could even wear underpants for the cold. Since she would be mostly indoors, the cold wouldn''t affect her either. After she rationalized it to herself¡­ "Phew..." She pressed a specific button on her wheelchair. Bzzzzt... The wheelchair chair went up and lifted her body like a baby walker. She moved to her bed in that state and pushed her body onto the bed. She quickly shoved her legs into the dress when she felt the softness on her back. After some trouble, the dress came up to her knees. Next, she bounced her pelvis and got it over her belly button. ''All done.''? After the button made a clicking noise, she could feel her waist tighten. The size still fit her. She finished putting the dress on, but it wasn''t over yet. She had to go back inside the wheelchair to wear her top. She slowly rolled her body and crawled beneath the bed. She practiced crawling from the floor into her wheelchair repeatedly. First, she needed to change her wheelchair to mount mode. Bzzzt. The wheelchair chair came out and turned toward her. She didn''t need to turn around to sit on it because the chair automatically changed positions once she sat. She grabbed the two handles using her arms, raised her torso, and lifted her body. Her arms shook, but it only took an instant. As long as she could withstand three to four seconds, she could sit. Tak. Her body fit perfectly into the chair that was in mount mode. Bzzzt. Her wheelchair went back into drive mode and her seat moved back into ce. Wearing a top was easy. "Phew." She felt proud. Unconsciously, she saw herself in the mirror. She saw her sad eyes. It was miserable. Her miserable feeling defeated her proud emotions. *** Today was a weird day for Sang-Hyeon. First of all, it was strange that the day started with Ju-Hyeok sleeping in. ''That guy is sleeping in?'' There was a doctor''s appointment in the morning today. Ju-Hyeok nned to go with him, but it didn''t seem like he was waking up. As always, Sang-Hyeon woke up early, brushed his teeth, and washed himself. Even then, Ju-Hyeok didn''t wake up. ''I''ll just go by myself.'' It was just an appointment. It would be weird if Ju-Hyeok went with him anyway. Sang-Hyeon didn''t understand why Ju-Hyeok wanted to tag along. He was runningte. Sang-Hyeon decided to go by himself and put on a jacket. He heard from the forecast that the weather would be cold today. ''There''s no time. Let''s go quickly.'' He checked the time while putting on his scarf and left. *** Ju-Hyeok sleeping in wasn''t the only weird thing that happened today. Since bing more popr, Sang-Hyeon had to always cover his face with a mask. Because of the cold warning today, he covered himself with a scarf. He didn''t think he''d meet any fans today, but to his surprise, he met one as soon as he took the stairs. "Almond." "Huh?" It was Ji-Ah. She asked him when he was leaving today. Was it to see him? She was at her door for some reason in the morning. "You''re going to the hospital, right?" "Yeah." "Did you fight with Mr. Ju-Hyeok again?" "No, he''s just sleeping in." "Ah... umm... I have a favor to ask." "A favor? What is it?" "My friend is a big fan, and she wants to see Almond..." "Ah, really? Who is it? It seems like she''s here right now." . Sang-Hyeon nced at the window and saw a girl peeking. "Hello!" She looked cute with her bright smile. "M-My name is Heo Yeon-Joo! Hahaha." Seo Ji-Ah''s friend awkwardlyughed and introduced herself to Almond. "It''s so nice to meet you! I''m a fan!" It seemed like she would just stare at him from the window. "She helped me with the?LIL video because I don''t really know LIL very well. She seems a little dumb, but she''s actually pretty smart." "Wow. Thank you so much." Yeon-Joo jumped in happiness as Sang-Hyeon smiled and thanked her. "H-He thanked me! Me! Kyaaa!" ''What an energetic person.''?Sang-Hyeon scratched his head. Ji-Ah made an awkward smile and quickly went inside to silence her friend. "Good luck at the hospital." "Yeah. You did well." *** The reason today was strange wasn''t because of Ji-Ah''s friend. He only ever had female fans run up to him, but today, a male fan approached him for the first time. "Wow. You''re Almond, right? You ride public transit too... Can I take a picture with you?" He met the fan in the subway. "Ah, yes. It''s me..." Sang-Hyeon scratched his head while removing the scarf wrapped around him. ''How did he recognize me?'' He was surprised someone recognized him despite wearing the scarf like a mask to cover his face. "Are we taking it in here?" he asked the fan because taking it inside the subway was a little odd. "Ah, no. I''ll get off with you." Really? He was an overenthusiastic fan. ''That means we have to stay together.'' Sang-Hyeon felt burdened that the fan had to wait for him to get off, but what was even worse was that he had to make small talk with him. "Let''s just take it here." Sang-Hyeon posed, holding the safety handles, and took a picture with the man. "Wow, thank you so much. I look like a squid in the picture, hahaha." "Hmm..." Sang-Hyeon wanted to console him, but couldn''t say much since it was true. The man really did look like a squid in the picture. Despite Sang-Hyeon staying silent, the manughed it off. Then he went to the next train on his own. He must''ve noticed that Sang-Hyeon felt pressured. Before he switched to a different train, he shouted, "Please, y Kingdom Age!" All the disinterested passengers turned around and looked at him. He seemed to have enjoyed the gaze because he started flexing his arms to them. "King~! You can''t beat me! ~Dom!" "... Wow." Sang-Hyeon looked away with a bewildered look. ''He was a Kingdom fanboy...'' Not only was he a Kingdom Age fanboy, but he was also thirsty for attention. Shouldn''t guys like that be a streamer? ¡°This station is¡ª¡± Five more stops were remaining. Sang-Hyeon estimated the time remaining and looked at his cell phone. *** As he left the subway station, he instantly saw the hospital. He suddenly thought to himself, ''Wow, there are a lot of weird people.'' He only met two, but their impacts were strong. He felt that the fans he had met until now were normal. ''I need to get used to it.'' None of them had ill intentions. They just had unique personalities. Sang-Hyeon tried not to care about it and headed inside the hospital. Little did he know that the fan he would meet inside would make his day even more strange. "You can wait over there." He was assigned a seat by the hospital reception. Sang-Hyeon''s waiting number wasn''t very long. He set the appointment a week prior, and the doctor wanted to take a special look at him. ''There''s quite a bit of people.'' Sang-Hyeon was waiting in front of a door with the sign,?''Specialization in Brain Wave Research.'' It wasn''t a small door like other diagnosis rooms and had two huge doors like a gate. He could tell from the door that the patients entering were here for a special assessment, but regardless, there were quite a lot of people waiting. ''I thought the assessment was specialized for capsules...'' Brain wave was mostly only associated with capsules. Did that mean everyone working here was associated somehow with capsules? There were elders and even a young girl in a wheelchair. All these people? ''The world sure has changed.'' Sang-Hyeon sat down in the waiting lobby while sounding like an old man. Roll. Roll. He could hear the sound of a wheelchair moving alongside children. He felt drowsy doing nothing when a wheelchair suddenly stopped in front of him. ''What the?'' Until then, Sang-Hyeon didn''t think it had anything to do with him. However, the person sitting in the wheelchair handed a small note to Sang-Hyeon. "Can I please have an autograph?" She said it so inly. It sounded like a deliveryman asking for a signature for a package. Sang-Hyeon lifted his head with a strange feeling inside of him. He met eyes with the girl. "...?" At that moment, his eyes lost focus and he stared nkly at her. The girl asking for his signature had long ck hair and sharp eyes. Herrge half-open eyes were visible through her straight, but fancy eyshes. When he stared into them, he saw something pure inside, whether it was aspiration or passion. But... ''She looks like her.'' She looked very simr to the Han So-Yeon in his memory. Not just how she looked, but the overall atmosphere she gave. It felt like she was made from the same philosophy, but he knew there was no way Han So-Yeon would be here. It was impossible. Still¡ª ¡®It''s not fun... is that a valid reason?¡¯ He could hear the voices in his head again, but this time, he could instantly tell they were hallucinations because the girl before him was saying somethingpletely different. "Sign. Please," she proudly asked for the autograph as if she left something with him. For some reason, she didn''t sound rude. The fact that she was sitting in a wheelchair probably helped. "Are you not going to?" The girl asked, tilting her head. Sang-Hyeon smirked because he realized he had nked out for a while. "Ah... Of course. You do know who I am, right?" "You''re Almond." He met eyes with her again. For some reason, he felt like she didn''t like games. That was the atmosphere she gave off. "... You look like you don''t like games very much." "I''m good at games," the girl responded to Sang-Hyeon''s question, which came out unconsciously. Her smile was almost taunting. "Maybe even better than you, Almond." The two met eyes and there was a slight spark between them. ''Better than me?'' Chapter 155: Meeting (2)

    Chapter 155: Meeting (2)

    "I''m good at games. Maybe even better than you, Almond." As soon as Sang-Hyeon heard that, he could feel something heating up inside of him. It wasn''t because of her seductive appearance. ''Better than me?'' It was, in fact, theplete opposite. No man would get angry over seeing a beautiful woman. Instead, he felt angry because she told him she was as good as him at video games. ''I can''t believe I''m being provoked by something like this.'' Sang-Hyeon was surprised by his own reaction and looked away. ''What''s wrong with me?'' He couldn''t believe he got upset just from hearing that she was better than him in video games. It wasn''t even about archery. Also, it was evident that the girl was just joking around. When did video games be so important for Sang-Hyeon? Or maybe it was because he felt sincerity behind the girl''s words. "What''s your name?" Sang-Hyeon held the pen firmly, wishing to get the autograph over with quickly. "I don''t need my name on it. Just your signature is fine." "Alright." Shshk. Sang-Hyeon wrote his signature and drew a tiny Almond beside it. After the girl received the note again, she burst intoughter. Her scary look and sharp eyes melted away from the smile. "What is this?" "It''s an almond." "Do you normally put this?" "Ah, I just started doing it because my signature looks boring. Is itme?" "Yes, but..." The girl told him the signature wasme without a change in her expression whileughing. "If I''m the first one, then I like it. I like being the first." Didn''t she just like my drawing? As Sang-Hyeon thought that, the nurse called for his name. "Yu Sang-Hyeon?" "Ah, yes." Sang-Hyeon signaled farewell to the girl with his eyes and went in for his assessment. *** After Sang-Hyeon was called into the diagnosis room¡­ "So his name is Yu Sang-Hyeon," the girl muttered to herself. Then she scratched her head. ''... But why is he getting the same assessment as I am?'' It was odd. Why was Almond getting the same assessment? The girl checked the name of the room he entered again. [Specialization in Brain Wave Research] ''It''s the same.'' He was getting the same assessment as she was. In this country, several hospitals specialized in the brain. However, brain wave research needed to be more extensive. The research itself was very particr, and only about five medical professionals in the country specialized in it. Among them was Dr. Song Ha-Na, who was here right now. She was not originally affiliated with this hospital either. She was here because the biggest hospital in the country, Ahsung Hospital, didn''t want to have a category they couldn''t handle. They proposed a partnership with her and brought her here. At a young age, Song Ha-Na was already a foundation board member. The girl''s gaze shifted to the door, her eyes gazing intently. Receiving treatment from the best also meant that the situation wasn¡¯t good. What was the reason? She was curious. ''But is he alone?'' He needed a guardian with him. *** As soon as he went inside the room¡­ "Hello, it''s been a while," Dr. Song Ha-Na greeted him with a smile. "Yes." "Have you been doing well?" "Yes, I''ve been doing well." "I''ve tuned in to your stream a couple of times." "?" Sang-Hyeon turned red. After hearing that she watched his stream, he first thought of his kiss scene with Raina. Sang-Hyeon could brush off most things, but seeing himself like that was embarrassing even for him. ''She probably didn''t see that...'' He hit peak viewership during his story mode gamey, and the clip of him kissing was repeatedly reyed. Sang-Hyeon kept denying himself. He told himself that doctors were busy and they didn''t have time to watch during that time. Unfortunately for him, the kiss scene was shown during the peak time at 6 P.M. "Fantasia needs to make a game like that too, right? I really thought it was a real person." "...?" "Raina, she was so realistic." "Ah..." She saw it. Sang-Hyeon was now even redder. Song Ha-Na giggled and added, "Oh my, are you embarrassed? I didn''t watch that scene." If she knows about it, she obviously watched it... "Ah... Thank you for not seeing it..." Song Ha-Naughed once again seeing Sang-Hyeon respond with no energy. Since it was a serious situation thest time he saw her, he couldn''t see her bright side. Now, instead of a doctor, she seemed like a university student. "I''m not watching the streams to stalk you, Sang-Hyeon. I wanted to see if you were limiting your gamey time. You seem to be sticking to it well like during the Battle Large mission to reach Diamond..." Song Ha-Na pinpointed all the times he had yed for over 3-4 hours. He was impressed that she knew. She was probably not watching all of them live, but checking the times of the reys. "... When you yed the story mode, you went way overboard." Song Ha-Na gave a doctor''s re to Sang-Hyeon. Sang-Hyeon had nothing to say. He was blinded by wanting to beat the story mode in one try and getting the mission reward. "How''s your body?" "I was alright during the story mode." "Was it because there wasn''t much movement?" "Yeah, I think that''s why." "Hmm... That''s useful information." Scribble. Song Ha-Na wrote in her note like a doctor. "Do you normally find any difficulty with your right hand? Daily?" "It''s hard for me to do something for a long time. Also, I can''t do anything delicate either." "Something for a long time... like what?" "Typing is the most noteworthy. When it''s bad, after three hours, I start shaking. If I take my time, sometimes I canst seven hours." "Ah, then when you worked in an office, it was probably difficult for you if you had a lot of work pushed back." "The other employees were burdened because of me." "... Hmm. How about delicate things?" "..." Sang-Hyeon paused for a moment. ''Archery.'' He couldn''t use the bow. Excluding that, nothing significant in his daily life required delicate control. What could he say in ce... "When I repair things... I have difficulty grabbing small nails." "I see. So there''s not much problem with daily activities, right?" Sang-Hyeon nodded. "That''s good. There''s a booster, but it''s costly and can temporarily make you better for the day. It treats minor cerebral palsy. The exact name for it is a stem nerve booster. It''s a momentary effect." "... There''s something like that?" Sang-Hyeon''s eyes widened. "Yes, but everythinges with a cost... A significant side effect was discovered with the booster, so it''s been banned. There''s another patient who wants to use the booster again, but it''ll probably never be allowed again. There''s a significant risk to the user''s life." The side effect seemed to be serious. Sang-Hyeon''s right hand trembled. He kept repeating to himself,?''another patient.'' A patient wanted the booster despite their lives being in jeopardy. What was the reason they needed the booster so badly? Sang-Hyeon seemed to understand a little. ''If I was still an archer, I wonder if I''d be the same...'' When Sang-Hyeon got into the ident, there was no such booster avable. ''I wonder what it''d be like if my right hand could function properly again...'' Sang-Hyeon''s heart pounded. ''Could I... stand in a stadium once more?'' His heart pounded even stronger. ¡®How would it feel, just one more time¡­ Maybe I can still get a gold medal.'' It was a funny thought despite athletes training every day for it. For some reason, he felt a surge of confidence. Wouldn''t it be okay just to receive the booster for game day? No practice, only the real deal... "Sang-Hyeon?" "... Yes?" "You have to sign this." "Ah..." A white paper was in front of him. "I have provided you with information regarding the avability of this booster, and this document grants me the authority to decide whether to give you a prescription for this booster or not." "..." It meant that he needed Song Ha-Na''s permission to receive the booster. "If you go against it, you''ll be punishable by thew. If we are to prescribe it for you, I need to discuss it with the hospital and the doctors of the association to give it to you." "That''s a little scary." "If you don''t sign this document, I won''t be your doctor anymore. Nowhere else in the country will ept you." "... Alright." Sang-Hyeon signed the document for now. ''It''s just a dream.'' He shook his head to wave the thoughts away. Scribble. He signed the document with his usual signature. "If I determine that it''s needed, I can prescribe it. So if something happens, please contact me." "Ah, alright. Thank you." Song Ha-Na smiled as if it weren''t a big deal. "Then, now... huh?" Sheughed out loud upon seeing the document. "What is this?" "...?" "This." Chuk. There was a picture of an almond where her thumb pointed at. "Ah... It''s by habit. Haha. Should I do it again?" Sang-Hyeon scratched his head. "No, it''s cute. Now, I''ll start the assessment. Your guardian is waiting outside, right?" "... Sorry?" Sang-Hyeon finally remembered why Ju-Hyeok wanted to tag along. "Your guardian isn''t here?" "Ah, yes. Do I need a guardian?" "Hmm, well, because the diagnosis happens after we put the entire body to sleep. Since we were at Fantasia''s facilityst time, we will do a specific brain wave analysis we couldn''tst time. This will cause you to be quite dizzy¡ª" In short, if he wanted to go home today, he needed someone to help him. "Then I''ll contact my manager, and we''ll continue." "Is that okay? Then, if you''lle over here¡ª" It wasn''t a big deal. He just needed to send a text to his manager. *** After around two hours¡­ "It''s done." Sang-Hyeon had no energy left in his body. "You''ll stay lying on the bed until your guardian arrives." ''He''s still not here?'' He couldn''t even speak. It was a strange, indescribable sensation. He barely picked up his phone and checked Ju-Hyeok''s message. [Ju-Hyeok: I''m going to Manager Oh because he desperately called for me!] [Ju-Hyeok: Should I at least send Ji-Ah?] [Ju-Hyeok: Hey, I think Ji-Ah is asleep. Just stay there.] There was a reason he wasn''t here. ''Why did Manager Oh call him?'' Sang-Hyeon didn''t know. He fell onto the bed, feeling dizzy. "This is a temporary waiting room, so you can stay here for another hour. If you need to stay longer, I''m sorry, but we would have to move you into a regr room and also charge extra. If your insurance doesn''t cover..." No. Even though he had money, an uninsured hospital stay wasn''t wee. ''Let''s just go after sleeping for an hour.'' Sang-Hyeon set his rm for fifty minutes and fell asleep, thinking he could at least catch a taxi. Then, fifty minutes passed by. "Urgh..." Dammit, his body was still the same. "Hello." "?" "I''m the guardian." A man was standing there, who he had never seen before. The man looked like a bodyguard befitting the guardian title. "... Who are you?" "The young miss sent me. She said you''re in a predicament because you don''t have a guardian with you..." Bzzzt. He brought out an electric wheelchair. "Have a seat for now. Your room''s time is almost up." Sang-Hyeon was a little worried that he was getting kidnapped. Of course, what would they do with a grown man like him... "Ah, Sang-Hyeon. Don''t worry. He''s one of my other patient''s guardian," Song Ha-Na told him. "Ah, I see. Thank you." "Yes, I promised I''d do it for free, but the hospital rooms are out of my jurisdiction... so I had no choice. I''m sorry." "No, it''s alright. Thank you." Sang-Hyeon ced his body into the man''s wheelchair. The man pushed him out of the hospital, quickly moving his feet as if he had a destination. He headed beyond the grass field into the open. The girl with the long hair from before waited for him there. *** Meanwhile, Ju-Hyeok and Manager Oh finally met. "Hey, Ju-Hyeok, I''m sorry for suddenly asking you toe like that." ]. Manager Oh got up from the table inside the cafe and greeted him. "Ah, yes. What''s wrong? The message you sent earlier..." "Ah, never mind that for now. Should we talk about the good news first?" Was there good news? Ju-Hyeok nodded for now. "Let''s do that." "The?LIL admin reached out to us for an interview with Almond. You know the?LILpany, right?" "Yes, Police... right?" The name of LIL''spany was called Police. All of their games were failures except for LIL. Thanks to the different game modes of LIL and making a hugeeback, they were now one of the biggest gamepanies in the world. "Yes, it''s an interview from Police Korea. I heard he was the first to achieve something on the Korean server, right?" Chapter 156: Offer (1)

    Chapter 156: Offer (1)

    He could only see her back, but recognized who it was because of her long hair and wheelchair. ''It''s the girl from earlier.'' It was the girl who asked for his autograph before his assessment. She helped as a fan of Almond. Even when Sang-Hyeon got close to her, she didn''t notice him and continued staring far into the mountains. ¡°Phew.¡± A soft breath was followed by the smoke from her cigarette. ''Oh, she was smoking.'' He thought the wheelchair and cigarette made for a strangebination. "Ma''am, I''ve brought the person you were talking about," the quiet man pushing Sang-Hyeon''s wheelchair told her. ''Ma''am?'' It was unfamiliar to see someone refer to as ma''am. ''It''s like in the movies...'' "Ah¡ª" The girl paused momentarily and quickly put her cigarette in her ashtray. When she turned around, as expected, it was the girl from earlier. Her faded lips smiled. "Now you''re in the same position as I am!" She was talking about Sang-Hyeon being in a wheelchair. Unlike her atmosphere, it was a light remark. "I guess so." "How''s the wheelchair?" "It''sfortable. Also... thank you. You didn''t have to do this." "The hospital fees are pretty expensive here. It doesn''t feel good if you''re forced to pay it." He thought to himself that the money wouldn''t matter to her. "Should I take you?" the girl asked him, pointing at the ck van parked ahead. It looked like arge van that celebrities rode because it had to amodate her wheelchair. Sang-Hyeon paused for a moment. ''What should I do?'' If he got a ride, his address would be revealed. He wanted to decline, but then he would have to return the wheelchair. Sang-Hyeon had nowhere to go. "You feel ufortable. Pfft." It seemed like the girl read his mind. "If we drop you off, you reveal where you live. If we drop you off somewhere far away, it''s hard for you to walk. And if you don''t follow us, you don''t have a wheelchair anymore. You don''t know what to do, right?" She talked as if she read the questions in his mind. Sang-Hyeon nodded. "Yes." The girlughed. "You''re honest, just like in your streams." Was he being honest? It was a strange standard for Sang-Hyeon. "Then¡ª" The girl looked at the man beside her and whispered something to him. The man didn''t look like a bodyguard. He was too old to be one. He was probably a butler or secretary. The older man nodded with an unwilling expression. The discussion was over. The girl looked at Sang-Hyeon again. "Did you eat yet?" *** The girl and her bodyguards apanied him to the restaurant. Bzzt. Sang-Hyeon was sending a text to Ju-Hyeok on the soft-moving wheelchair. [Sang-Hyeon: Hey, my fan rescued me. When can you get here? I think I need you to get me back home.] He replied right away. [Ju-Hyeok: Hey, that''s great news! I''m kind of far right now. Ji-Ah said she''ll go instead!] [Sang-Hyeon: Oh, tyty.] Ju-Hyeok asked Ji-Ah ahead of time. "You must be calling for help," the girl asked him without even ncing at his phone. "Ah, yes. I''m a burden, after all." "You''re not a burden. Do you like dim sum?" He nced where the girl was looking. It was a famous expensive restaurant that even he knew about. "Sure. I''ll pay for our meal." Sang-Hyeon offered to pay as thanks for rescuing him. "Hmm..." The girl looked around at the two bodyguards and one older man. "Normally, I''d ept. However, they have to eat as well. I''ll just pay for it with mypany card. It''s more convenient." "Ah, of course. I''ll get their food as well¡ª" "I''ve rarely donated. Please ept this as a donation." The girl firmly declined. She ordered a course meal for them because Sang-Hyeon had to wait awhile. Conversing with the girl wasn''t particrly awkward. Despite how she looked, she was easy to talk to. Since Sang-Hyeon wasn''t an awkward talker either, their conversation didn''t stop. Above all, the girl was interested in Sang-Hyeon and there was an endless array of topics. She especially showed interest in LIL. Eventually, the topic of Raina''s story came up. "Ah, congrattions. You were the first to clear Raina''s story, and you even got to kiss her." It looked like she intentionally brought it up. Her eyes were full of mischief. Sang-Hyeon answered slightly embarrassed, "You had to mention that." "Of course, it''s crucial. Kiss." The girl giggled and kept emphasizing it. Sang-Hyeon continued to put the dim sum in his mouth, hoping his face wouldn''t change color. The sensation of the dumplings popping in his mouth felt good. "How do you feel as the first to achieve it on the Korean server?" "I feel proud, but I''m not sure. It''s actually not that incredible. Most people in our country aren''t interested in Raina''s story. Thankfully, I''m the first." "Raina''s pretty popr even though she''s not very good." "Even so, her pick rate is the lowest in Korea evenpared to other countries. Koreans especially don''t like ying story mode." "But still, a first is first. I''m jealous." She really seemed obsessed with being first. "You probably have some coins now. Have you decided on your next champion?" "I think it''ll be Sana, but I''m unsure." "If you can master Raina, you''ll have no difficulty with most ranged characters. Sana is especially on the easier side." Plop. A dim sum went into her mouth. Sang-Hyeon was impressed by her ability to eat neatly while continuing to talk. Maybe it was because he knew she was rich, but she had a different aura. The saying that rich people lived in a different world existed for a reason. "Are you only going to y ranged characters?" "It''s because I''m good at them." "But in LIL, being familiar with various characters is good." "Is that so?" The girl nodded and put another dim sum into her mouth. "I rmend the shy de, Swift." shy de Swift, Almond knew this champion as well. ''It''s the one JeonJaPa often used.'' He couldn''t help but be familiar with it because he had studied countless videos of JeonJaPa''s gamey. That champion wielded a two-handed sword and could blink toward his de. The champion''s strategy was to throw the sword and move around, confusing the enemy. "You have great mechanics and quick decision-making. Judging from Raina''s story mode, you also look skilled with a de." "Ah, thank you. I''ll make sure to try it out." Sang-Hyeon nodded, noting it in his head. It was a reasonable suggestion. "So, what''s your n moving forward?" "n? I''m not sure." "Beating JeonJaPa''s record?" He met eyes with the girl''s smile. Sang-Hyeon felt a long silence after the question. In reality, it wasn''t. "It''ll probably be hard to beat JeonJaPa''s record in?LIL, no?" "If it''s you, Almond, it might be possible. Who knows? Despite what she said, Sang-Hyeon felt satisfied with her response. ''Weird.'' Was she originally a fan of JeonJaPa like Ji-Ah? Bling. [Ji-Ah: Almond, I''ming. Is there anything you need?] Ji-Ah sent him a message. Something he needed... there wasn''t anything in particr. [Just need to get here quickly.] [Ji-Ah: Okey dokey. Can Ie with a friend? I don''t think I can lift you on my own.] [Haha yeah, sure, that''s fine.] "Someone must be on their way." "Ah, yes. My manager is busy, so my editor ising instead." "Ah, is she the one... who donated a lot and became the editor?" She remembered him mentioning Seo Ji-Ah during their conversation. "Yes, that one." "It''s usually hard to see someone so close to their editor. It''s nice to see." The more he listened, the more he felt that she knew a lot about this industry. Sang-Hyeon curiously asked her, "Your work must be something in this industry." "No, I''m jobless." "Sorry...?" "Us jobless folk are usually interested in inte streams." Sang-Hyeon instantly turned toward the bodyguards and butler. The bodyguards kept calm, but the butler couldn''t hide his expression. He stared at the girl, confused as to what she was saying. "You''re probably thinking, what kind of family is this girl from? Why''s she living in suchfort?" "No. It''s not important what kind of family someone is from. It''s who they are that''s important." The two met eyes, and she turned away for the first time since they met. Her proud shoulders shriveled a tiny bit. "... That''s a good mindset." After an awkward silence, the meal was over in ten minutes. While Sang-Hyeon was enjoying his dessert, Ji-Ah messaged him that she was there. Ji-Ah ran toward him from a distance as he waited in the open field. "Almond!" She came with the friend he saw this morning. "She''s here. She''s much cuter than I imagined." The girl put her hand out, showing that she was happy to see him. "See you next time." Sang-Hyeon shook hands and thanked her. He got up and returned the wheelchair. The bodyguards ced the wheelchair at the end of the van with ease. "Almond, are you okay?" Ji-Ah approached and checked up on him. "Yeah, thanks to her." "Is she the fan?" Ji-Ah went on her tippy toes to see beyond Sang-Hyeon''s shoulder, but could only see her own reflection in the van''s tinted window. Bzzt. As the window came down, Ji-Ah''s face disappeared. Instead, another girl''s face appeared. She had seductive eyes, washed-out lips, and long ck hair. She had a strange atmosphere that seemed dangerous to herself and others around her. It felt like talking to her made the person stand on edge. She was an unforgettable person. "It was fun." She waved and left. Ji-Ah stared nkly at the van leaving. "Ji-Ah, what are you doing?" "T-That person..." Ji-Ah muttered something dumbfoundedly, but Sang-Hyeon couldn''t hear her. Heo Yeon-Joo butted in, "Ji-Ah!" Thud. She hit Ji-Ah on the back of her head. "Owch. That hurt." "What are you doing? nked out?! If we stay here, they¡¯ll give us a parking ticket! Let''s go quickly!" "Ah... Alright. Weird..." Ji-Ah scratched her head and walked toward Yeon-Joo''s car while helping Almond get there. *** Meanwhile, Ju-Hyeok was still with Manager Oh. He thought to himself,?''Everything he¡¯s told me up until now has been good news.'' They talked for a long time, but it was all about how the Lazy Soldier advertisers were pleased, LIL offered them an interview, etc. It was all good news. Just like Manager Oh said, he was starting with the good news. Manager Oh called him to ask for a favor and would probably bring it up soon. ''What is the favor?'' . Why was he taking so long to bring it up? "Kumph." Manager Oh drank another sip of the bitter coffee. "Ju-Hyeok, now we''ve gotten to the bad news. It''s more like... I need to ask for a favor." He was finally bringing it up. "Tell me." "You''ve probably noticed the entertainment department in Punk has a close rtionship with BubbleGum''spany." "Yes." "BubbleGum is entering a tournament. A streamer tournament." "... A streamer tournament?" Ju-Hyeok hadn''t heard about it. "Yes, there''s no specific information about it yet. It''s just ideas being thrown back and forth, but it''ll be hosted by LIL and Treevy. BubbleGum''s crew decided to enter together." "Yes." "But a streamer on the team can''t make it." "... Ah, okay." "They''re talking about recruiting Almond. They''re really desperate." ¡®An LIL tournament?¡¯ Ju-Hyeok had a dark expression.?''That guy can''t even y ranked yet.'' Chapter 157: Offer (2)

    Chapter 157: Offer (2)

    Ju-Hyeok was worried. ''How can a guy who hasn''t even yed a ranked game participate in a tournament?'' He believed in Almond, but he wasn''t delusional. He considered the facts when weighing the options. Almond was still a beginner when it came to?LIL. If he entered the tournament in this state, he wouldn''t be able to perform to his fullest. ''It''ll affect his image.'' What would happen if Almond, who was famous for being good, came backpletely defeated in the tournament? The aftermath would be unpredictable. There were many streamers in the past who appeared to be good in their streams, but faced miserable failures during tournaments. After the tournament, they transitioned from skilled-based gamey to being gimmick streamers. If the tournament result was good, it would help their image. However, it was usually the opposite. These skilled streamers were often unsessful at being gimmick streamers. That was the reason Manager Oh told him it was bad news. "How much time is left until the tournament?" "We have some time. Three weeks." Three weeks. Considering Almond reached Diamond in a week, Ju-Hyeok could see hope. But... ''It''s a different situation from Battle Large.'' Battle Large?was easy to understand for a beginner. There weren''t any particr strategies to learn. It was simple and straightforward. However, LIL''s siege mode was different. To properly y the game, the yer had to learn to y as a team and adapt to the various rules and situations. "... Why does it have to be Almond?" Ju-Hyeok asked somewhat defensively because he thought it would be better for Almond not to participate. "Hmm... This streamer tournament has rules for the ranks of participants to be fair. Only one yer from each tier is allowed. Bubblegum is Silver, Miho is tinum, StrawberryShooter is Master, and Takoyaki is Diamond." "Ah... So will Almond fill in as the Bronze yer?" "Yes. Anyone who''s Bronze or lower is allowed. To enter the tournament, the streamer needs to be somewhat famous too. From my point of view, Almond is perfect for it. And the viewers have high expectations for him as well." Manager Oh wasn''t wrong. ''Of course, they have high expectations.'' Among Bronze yers, Almond probably had the best mechanics. It was no surprise that people would have high expectations for him. For expectations to pay off, the results needed to satisfy those expectations. If the result was unsatisfactory, it''d have the opposite effect. "... I''ll discuss it with him." "Thank you." Manager Oh bowed and thanked him despite Ju-Hyeok telling him they would only consider it. The team seemed desperate to find a person. ''Why is Manager Oh finding yers for them?'' There were countless LIL streamers, and many of them were Bronze or lower. Why were they looking for a yer who was under Manager Oh? What was the rtionship between Bubblegum''spany and Manager Oh? It wasn''t a question to be asked here. Businesses required privacy. "Is that all you wanted to ask for?" "No, there''s one more." "... More?" "This isn''t a favor. It''s an offer..." Manager Oh continued talking. It was a long and serious talk. It made Ju-Hyeok think that this was the main reason for their meeting. He wanted to go to Sang-Hyeon, but he sent Ji-Ah instead. The distance was also an issue, but what he was facing now was an important moment in his life. "... You want me to be their manager?" Ju-Hyeok''s eyes widened after hearing him out. "When we talked before, you mentioned that you wanted to work with more streamers other than Sang-Hyeon. That''s why I''m offering this to you first." This was an opportunity. As with every big opportunity, big risks followed as well. However... ''It''s eventually going to happen.'' For Ju-Hyeok''s long-term goals, this was bound to happen. The ie he gained from Sang-Hyeon''s earnings wasn''t enough to satisfy him. Ju-Hyeok entered this scene in the first ce to have more streamers under his umbre. He had passion just like Sang-Hyeon had a dream. "I''ll give it some deep thought." "Yes, thank you, Ju-Hyeok." Their talk was over. After Ju-Hyeok bid farewell to Manager Oh, he quickly made a phone call. ¡°Hey, Mr. Ju-Hyeok.¡± "Hey, Ji-Ah. How''s Sang-Hyeon?" ¡°Almond is in the car right now heading home. His body just seems out of energy.¡± "Ah... Alright. I''ll be there soon." ¡°Okie.¡± Almond seemed to be in a better state than Ju-Hyeok thought. Ju-Hyeok grabbed a taxi and headed toward Hoogye, which was now his home. *** Hoogye''s downtown area wasprised of arge central urban region and several underdeveloped areas. These underdeveloped areas mainly consisted of standalone houses built along the steep mountain slopes. At first nce, it could have be an affluent neighborhood. However, due to the fine line between sess and failure, this ce becamemonly known as a run-down neighborhood. It was amon habit for mothers living in downtown apartments to warn their children not to y with the kids who lived there. Sang-Hyeon, who used to be one of those kids they shouldn¡¯t y with, now understood them. He bitterly understood... The scenery outside came to a halt along with the sound of the engine. "We''re here." Sang-Hyeon snapped out of his thoughts as he heard Yeon-Joo''s voice. He was reminiscing about the past after seeing his neighborhood during the car ride. "You''re still dizzy, right?" He could see Yeon-Joo smiling through the side mirrors. Her entire face smiled with her mouth. He didn''t know what she was like as a close friend, but he could tell that she was polite by second nature and had excellent social skills. "I''m still a little dizzy, but I think I''ll be okay. I think I''ve rested enough." "Still, just to be safe. Ji-Ah, do you want to take him home?" "Yeah." Yeon-Joo left to park her car behind Ji-Ah''s house because she couldn''t park behind Sang-Hyeon''s. The two got off the car to walk. Ji-Ah didn''t have to help him up. He was slow, but could climb the stairs. After they arrived at his house, Sang-Hyeon grabbed Ji-Ah by the shoulders and told her, "Ji-Ah, tell your friend I''m very thankful." "Alright." "You too. Thank you." "... Alright." Sang-Hyeon went inside his home after that and fell asleep right away. After a while, he woke up to a savory smell. ''Ah...'' He immediately went to Treevy, remembering that he had to put up an announcement. There was already one. The notice told his viewers that he was taking a break today because he wasn''t feeling well from the hospital visit. Ju-Hyeok probably wrote it. Sang-Hyeon made his bed and went out to the living room. Ju-Hyeok was making dinner. "Oh, you wake up when it''s time to eat? Sorry about yesterday. It was iffy for me to go." Sang-Hyeon sat down while nodding. "That''s alright. You called Ji-Ah for me. Anyways, what was the conversation with Manager Oh about?" "Ah, they''re nning to host a tournament and one of their yers ked. You know, those tournaments with streamers for fun. Like an in-house one." "Ah, yeah." Sang-Hyeon knew what it was because Bubblegum often participated in those. "They want you to y." "...?" It seemed like he''d be participating as well. "Is Punk hosting the tournament?" "No, Treevy will be hosting it..." "But why is Manager Oh reaching out to us?" "I''m not really sure. I think he has some kind of special rtionship with Bubblegum''spany. He seemed desperate." "Hmm." Whatever the case was, it wasn''t a bad offer. If Sang-Hyeon participated, he''d attract lots of attention. "But what''s the tournament? Battle Large?" "No, it''s LIL?siege mode." "...?" Sang-Hyeon couldn''t hide his surprise. "I''ve only yed one game." Because he had only yed one round. "That''s the problem. Think about what to do. The decision is ultimately up to you. You know that if you do badly on stage, your image is done for, right?" Ju-Hyeok brought the food over, giggling as if it wasn''t his problem. Sang-Hyeon looked inside the pot to see the source of the savory smell. It was soft tofu stew. Gulp. He realized he was hungry. "Why don''t you have some almond kes?" Ju-Hyeok noticed and tried to cut him off, but Sang-Hyeon gave a simple reply and already brought out rice for himself. The stew was enough for more than one person, so he ate without feeling guilty. Slurp. The red oil from the soup covered his mouth, stinging his mouth with spiciness. The broth with runny yellow yolk cleansed his palette, plus the texture of the soft tofuplimented the rice. "Hey, when do the results get back?" Ju-Hyeok asked him while eating the soup. "Hmm.?She said toe back next week. Oh yeah, something strange happened at the hospital today." "Something strange?" Sang-Hyeon told Ju-Hyeok about the girl he met today. "Hmm... I don''t know about strange. More like a thankful situation." "I guess..." It was weird though. Sang-Hyeon scratched his head as he put the spoon in his mouth. The red soup and white tofu warmed him. ''It''s good.'' The food was delicious. "Anyway, you''re getting really good at cooking." "It''s the power of YouTube. I''m watching other cooking channels these days too." "Phew... I shee..." Sang-Hyeon replied while trying to cool his mouth. Gulp. After swallowing everything, Sang-Hyeon told him as if it wasn''t a big deal. "I''ll enter the tournament." "...? Kugh!" Ju-Hyeok suddenly choked. "W-Why don''t you give it some more thought?" "What''s there to think about?" "I''m not kidding. If you do bad there, you''ll lose your image." Sang-Hyeonughed upon hearing that. "That won''t happen." Ju-Hyeok looked baffled, but nodded. ''Right, he''s always like this.'' Sang-Hyeon never got scared. When everyone was calcting the dangers, he only saw the opportunity and ran for it. And he always did it. ''What about me...'' Ju-Hyeok reflected on himself. He told himself that he was smart for looking into the future and considering the dangers instead of the opportunities. Even if he were to fail, it wouldn''tst forever. He was always still scared though. "Anyways, let''s go with it for now. I want to try it." Whereas Sang-Hyeon was the opposite. Instead of being afraid, these situations made his blood boil. These were the type of people who seeded. "Alright. What''s the big deal? Let''s do it!" After they finished their meal, Ju-Hyeok told Sang-Hyeon about the basics of the tournament. He also told Manager Oh about their decision. ¡°Really? This quickly? Kya, you guys are cool as always. Thank you so much.¡± Manager Oh repeatedly thanked him. Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon started to study specific strategies and rules for the tournament. Then, the next day arrived. *** It was a tiring morning. Sang-Hyeon could see his phone buzzing as the sunlight shone through the curtains. Was it a phone call? He picked it up, but they were all messages. ¡®Why am I getting so many messages?¡¯ The answer was at the top of his screen. [Bubblegum has invited you into a group chat.] "... A group chat?" All the message notifications were from the group chat and the members on his tournament team. Other than Bubblegum, three other team members were in the group chat. [Bubblegum: Wow! Everyone, Almond said he''s participating!] [Miho: Wo] [Tako: Good.] [StrawberryShooter: Hihihi!] They were talking about random topics, etc. They woke up early despite being streamers. It waste, but Almond greeted them. [Almond: Hello! It''s nice to meet you all! (_ _)] [Miho: Wow! Almond! Hello>~ Miho was the first to answer back. ording to Ju-Hyeok, Miho was tinum. [Tako: Yes! Almond! It''s nice to meet you! ^^7] Next was Takoyaki. He was currently Diamond, but he used to be a pro. He would probably be the team''s coach and yer. Thest yer was the team''s ace and the best yer on the team. [StrawberryShooter: Hi there. It''s nice to meet you^~^] It was StrawberryShooter, the Master tier yer. Ju-Hyeok repeatedly told him that StrawberryShooter was a very built man who was 185 cm tall and 100 kg heavy. They also talked about his position. [StrawberryShooter: But I''m also ADC. What should we do? Doesn¡¯t Almond only have Raina as a champ?] His position was ADC. There was a conflict of interest because Raina''s position was mostly used in the ADC position. Usually, master yers could y a variety of roles. [StrawberryShooter: Let''s work around it! I''m an ADC one trick as well >_<] Unfortunately, he could only y ADC. He raised his rank by only ying one role. Almond would likely have topete for the role against the highest-ranked yer, who was Master ranked. Chapter 158: Starting to Get Ready (1)

    Chapter 158: Starting to Get Ready (1)

    Their positions collided. It was amon thing that happened in streamer tournaments. Generally, the assigned coach had to make the proper adjustments in cases like this. [Tako: Well, since I''m the assigned coach, can I decide?] Tako came forward, and everyone was in favor. [Tako: It may sound obvious, but we need to give ADC to our team yer with the highest win rate.] It made sense because the team''s victory was the most important factor. [Tako: Well, for now, StrawberryShooter will be a better ADC for sure because he''s Master, and Almond is just a beginner who''s only yed one game.] This was also correct, but the decision wasn''t so simple. They had topare their options. [Tako: But one rotten apple outweighs the other four for this game. So if Almond ys a different position, we could have a lower win rate. So we need to experiment...] They needed topare StrawberryShooter and Almond both ying as ADC. It was the simplest and most surefire way to make a decision. [Tako: Even then, it won''t be a perfectparison. I can''t say who will be better, but I''ll still have to make the final decision. Is that okay with everybody?] Everyone agreed. [Tako: We need to decide on the position at least two weeks in advance to have at least two weeks'' worth of practice.] [Tako: We have three weeks until the tournament. We usually have a month, but we''ve already wasted a week.] A week was wasted because of the team member who flunked outst minute. [Tako: Almond, you only have a week. You have a week to get better.] This was why Manager Oh was in such a rush to find a new member. Almond stood by for now. [Tako: Almond, you said you started ying LIL three days ago, right?] [Almond: Yes.] [Tako: Honestly, it''s hard topare you with a Master tier. Theparison is almost meaningless.] [Almond: Yes.] [Tako: To at least be able topare with him, you need to work harder, right? Do you think you can reach Level 30 in a week? It''s the minimum level required to y ranked matches.] [Miho: Level 30? How''s that possible in one week?!] It was a hard task because even Miho expressed her surprise. Tako was firm in his decision though. [Tako: If he ys 5-6 hours every day, it''s possible. A high win rate ount levels up quickly too because there''s bonus EXP for win streaks.] [Bubblegum: Hey, isn''t that too hard?] [Tako: If he wants to match our tempo, he needs to at least do this much.] [Almond: That''s alright. It''s true that I''m still a beginner.] [Tako: Then we''ll expect good news, Mr. Almond. Try reaching Level 10 first, and we''ll see how you do as ADC.] [Miho: Lol oppa, why are you calling him mister. Are you trying to sound old on purpose?] [StrawberryShooter: Yeah, oppa, why are you mean to Almond!] [Almond: I''ll see you a week after I hit Level 30.] The awkward morning conversation finally came to an end. Or at least, he thought. Bling. [Tako: Mr. Almond.] [Tako: Can I call you right now?] Tako sent him a private message. Sang-Hyeon responded by calling him. "Hello." ¡°Ah, Almond. It''s nice to talk to you. I''m Takoyaki.¡± "Yes, it''s nice to meet you. What did you want to talk about?" ¡°Ah, it''s just that I was thinking about some new content.¡± Tako''s content idea was this. Since Tako was the coach, he could observe Almond starting today and give him feedback. It was perfect for Almond because he would get one-on-one coaching from a previous pro. "Do you think you can do that?" It was possible, but... Takoyaki also needed to gain something from it. That was the content. ¡°I''ll stream myself coaching you, and after the live feedback, I''ll do another rundown. It''ll be like I''m casting you. It''s content for me as well.¡± It seemed like a good idea. For streamers, this tournament was another form of content. At the end of the day, it was also for fun. This content could provide something for Almond that he wouldn''t be able to achieve on his own. ¡°But it''s inevitable that you have to show your screen on my stream. For that, I need your permission.¡± "I have no problem with it. Our screens are going to repeatedly appear anyway before the tournament." During the practice, the streams weren''t individualistic. It was like one giant coboration stream. ¡°But do you think you can reach Level 30 in one week? If you keep getting win streaks without losing, it''s possible. It¡¯s very difficult though.¡± "You said it was possible earlier..." ¡°That''s because I needed to sound firm as the coach... haha¡­¡± ¡°I see.¡± He really was just pretending to sound like that. "I''ll try my best to keep a winning streak." ¡°Alright. Just send me a message before you start streaming.¡± "Okay." The two bid farewell, and the call was over. ''He doesn''t seem like a bad guy after all.'' Sang-Hyeon initially thought he was a little weird, but he seemed fine after the phone call. ''There are streamers like this too.'' Sang-Hyeon didn''t even know who Takoyaki was. He had no idea that he had met Takoyaki in Battle Large and humiliated him either. Sang-Hyeon got up and stretched his body. ''Let''s go exercise.'' He woke up since there was nothing to gain from lying down. He decided to exercise just like his doctor advised him to. He put on his tracksuit and windbreaker before heading outside. "What the. Aren''t you going to eat breakfast?" Ju-Hyeok was eating a toast with fried eggs at the living room table. "I''ll eat after exercising." *** It was the morningmute time, or more precisely, the time just before starting work when people gathered and lingered. Around this time, onlinemunities began posting articles about Almond. Ju-Hyeok had developed a habit of monitoring multiplemunities on his screen. With a toast in his mouth, he clicked on his mouse rhythmically, resembling a seasoned Wall Street trader. [LIL Pro] Since the current game Almond was ying was LIL, the firstmunity Ju-Hyeok browsed was LIL Pro. [When''s Almond streaming today?] [Is he done with it now that he''s kissed Raina!? Turn on your stream!!] [Take care of Raina! Take care of Raina!] In LIL Pro, Raina was still the hot topic. [I''m going to try and attempt Raina''s three star too.] There were even users trying to copy Almond. [Instead of a kiss, I died while hearing her curse at me.] There was a video attached to the post. Ju-Hyeok was surprised to learn that Raina could curse harshly like that. ¡ª LOOOOL ¡ª Hey, why are you making a little girl say those things! ¡ª LOL, that''s hrious. ¡ª Is this really the same Demian? ¡ª Raina, my girl... escape with the next Demian. Even though the tactic for the three-star Raina route was revealed, it wasn''t easy to achieve. [You have to be insane with the bow to clear it. I don''t know how many attempts I''ve tried.] [My Raina doesn''t even talk to me!!!] [Raina three star is so fucking hard.] [Raina!! Save me!] Several posts were venting their frustrations as well. "Did you think it was easy to kiss Raina?!" Ju-Hyeok giggled to himself even though he wasn''t the one who achieved it. [KAF] Next was KAF. Thismunity was the most loyal to Almond. At one point, it was almost like a personalmunity for Almond. There weren''t many posts about Almond because he hadn''t yed Kingdom Age in a while, but sometimes there were traces. ''... What is this.'' As expected, there was a post that caught Ju-Hyeok''s eye. [1. Almond meets a Kingdom Age fanboy on the train.avi] It was the number one trending post on the forum. It was odd and almost overwhelming to still see his name rank first on the forum despite quitting the game for a while. ''Did something happen?'' The title sounded slightly ominous. Click. When he clicked the post, there was a video attached to it. The video was of a guy screaming, "King, you can''t beat me! ~Dom!" at Almond on the train. "Wow..." This type of attention seeker left Ju-Hyeok in awe. ¡ª LOOOOL ¡ª Wow ¡ª You''re crazy, hahaha ¡ª That''s freaking hrious Thements were filled withughter, and Ju-Hyeok couldn''t hide hisughter either. ¡ª Look at Almond''s face, LOL ¡ª He looks so defeated, haha ¡ª Almond: This is... my fan? ¡ª Hahahahaha ¡ª ??? No more Kingdom Age from now on Sang-Hyeon looked soulless inside the screen. Was it thanks to the video? There were also talks about the tournament that Ju-Hyeok couldn''t find on LIL Pro in KAF. [3. Almond''s participating in the streamer in-house tournament!!] A fan linked an article about it. There were already articles about it. ''They''re so quick.'' The reporter, the fan, and Manager Oh. The world was filled with people with quick feet. ¡ª Wow, really? ¡ª Miho, damn ¡ª Miho finally gets to y with Almond ©¸ She''s been wanting to y with him since Battle Large. ©¸ Almond kept declining. Does he have a girlfriend? ©¸ Of course he does. ¡ª It''s Bubblegum! ¡ª Hey, AcornJelly is in team C. All popr variety game streamers must be participating. ©¸ Yeah, for real. LIL put a lot of money into this. There were lots of talk about Miho because she was the sole female streamer on Almond''s team. [The one who rmended Almond the most was Miho.] He recalled what Manager Oh told him. She was a thankful person. Sang-Hyeon hadn''t done anything particr for her, but she cared for him in many ways. ''Miho''s manager...'' That was why Ju-Hyeok hesitated more. Creak. Sang-Hyeon came back from his jog. "Phew, what a run. What are you doing?" "Ah, I was browsing themunities. There are already articles about the tournament." "Ah, really?" "Yeah. I think there''s going to be quite a few viewers today." "Ah! Right. This morning..." Sang-Hyeon remembered and told Ju-Hyeok what he and Tako discussed this morning. "Oh...? Tako''s going to coach you? That''s good. I think it''ll be fun." Sang-Hyeon was relieved. ''If he thinks that way, it''s a good thing I epted the offer.'' Ju-Hyeok had a great sense for business ever since he worked at Ahsung. He could smell a sessful project from a mile away, but was terrible with stocks for some reason. All in all, it was a good sign in terms of business if Ju-Hyeok thought it was a good idea. "How is Takoyaki?" "Ah, I did some research about him. Takoyaki has more viewers than you and has experience winning when he was a pro in LIL, so his coaching should be effective. I think overall, it''ll be good." "Good." Sang-Hyeon headed to the kitchen. Ju-Hyeok observed him, suspicious if he''d cook. However, Sang-Hyeon took out some almonds from the pantry. Crunch. He ate them like popcorn and washed them down with milk. Then he smiled in satisfaction. ''Argh...'' It made Ju-Hyeok annoyed. *** It was dinnertime. "Hey, I''m going to start streaming." "Hmm. Isn''t it right on time with rush hour?" The best time for streams was usually after-work hours, lunchtime,muting hours, or sometimes even in the early morning. It was currently a somewhat ambiguous time around 5 o''clock, but when did Sang-Hyeon care about such things? "These days, I feel best around this time. I already told Tako as well." "Okie. I''m going to get ready too." Sang-Hyeon headed for the capsule, and Ju-Hyeok headed toward his desktop. [Stream is starting.] He turned on the stream, almost like a machine at this point. The intro music started ying... ¡ª 1!!! ¡ª Oh, stream ¡ª Hihi ¡ª Is the evening stream today? ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª This nut turns it on whenever he wants to ¡ª Consistently inconsistent The viewers started gathering. [Current Viewers: 7k] ''Seven thousand?'' Sang-Hyeon doubted his eyes for a moment. Seven thousand viewers right as the stream began? The intro music wasn''t even over yet. [Current Viewers: 9.2k] When the music finished, there were nine thousand viewers. And then... [Current Viewers: 15k] The number grew and grew until it hit 15,000. "Wow! What the!?" He could hear Ju-Hyeok screaming from outside the capsule as well. Almond felt the same. ''What the...'' Was this the power of the tournament? Chapter 159: Starting to Get Ready (2)

    Chapter 159: Starting to Get Ready (2)

    Fifteen thousand viewers was a new record. Considering he was streaming at an awkward time at 5 P.M, twenty thousand viewers would be within the realms of possibility. ''Did people gather because they''re curious about the tournament?'' When particr interest rose, it wasmon for viewers to tune in shortly to hear the answer they sought and tune out. As expected, there was a donation straight from the beginning. [EvilDemian has donated 10,000 won!] [All you did in LIL was steal Raina''s first kiss! How are you entering a tournament?!] [Pride has donated 5000 won.] [Are you really entering thepetition??] [RubySword has donated 10,000 won!] [Wow! A tournament!] The donations were all rted to the tournament. "Thank you, EvilDemian. That''s true... that''s all I did. Thank you to RubySword as well." ¡ª That''s more than enough! ¡ª Almond: Kissing Raina is all he did. ¡ª You''re our enemy now! [Reporter has donated 10,000 won!] [What''s your goal for thispetition!?] "Well, my goal is obviously to win the tournament." ¡ª Kya~! ¡ª This is Almond. ¡ª This is Walnut. ¡ª This is Peanut. [Reporter has donated 10,000 won!] [SweetRadish is participating this time. Do you think you can win?] "... Who''s SweetRadish?" ¡ª LOL ¡ª Hahahaha, are you serious? ¡ª Is this guy donating to write an article? ¡ª You don''t know SweetRadish? SweetRadish was the best yer among the retired professional yers. He only retired five months ago, so he was still in form. Even during his pro-era, he was famous for being good. His team was the prime candidate to win the tournament. [Reporter has donated 10,000 won!] [The team with AcornJelly!] "Ah... I see." ¡ª Almond doesn''t care. ¡ª ??? I don''t want radish. I want kimchi! ¡ª He''s so down now! ¡ª Get out of here, reporter! "SweetRadish must be someone good, but I just need to practice. First, the most important thing to me right now is to reach Level 30." ¡ª His goal is to win the tournament, but he''s now trying to hit Level 30? LOL ¡ª You''re not even Level 30 and trying to win the tournament?! ¡ª Day one of working out: What if I be a muscle monster? ¡ª So adorable. He expected the chat tough at him. Almond lightlyughed it off and added, "I''m going to y a new champion today. I hear you need to be able to y a variety of champions in the tournament. I have a bit of coins now, so I can probably buy more." ¡ª Ohhh! ¡ª Finally! ¡ª You''re abandoning Raina?! The chat erupted after hearing he was going to use a new champion. ''There are so many people. Every little thing causes a storm.'' ¡ª You''re getting rid of Raina?! ¡ª Wow... are you serious... ¡ª I thought you were taking care of Raina forever! I''m going to call the police! ¡ª Bad boy, Almond... ¡ª Hey, we''re going to crush your nuts!! Pick Raina now!! ¡ª So many fanboys, LOL ¡ª Am I the only one who misses her already¡­ Almond smacked his lips and slightly hesitated, but he had no choice. ''What can you do.'' Raina was at the bottom of the tier list, which meant it was difficult to use her in the tournament. Ju-Hyeok thought the same. ¡®You need to practice at least three other champions besides Raina, so even if they use three bans on you, you still have a champion you can use.¡¯ Ju-Hyeok learned from his research that tournaments had a rule where teams could ban certain champions, so the other team couldn''t use them. This feature was implemented to prevent OP champions from being used repeatedly. If they were to ban Raina, they wouldn''t be able to use her either. If a yer were to practice Raina for a year, a single ban would make that meaningless. As a result, many one-trick yers who could only y one champion weren''t effective in tournaments. Almond was in the same situation because he only yed Raina. "I need to practice with other champions. Otherwise, my team will say something..." ¡ª Use Raina to destroy everyone! ¡ª But you''re her first... doesn''t that mean something... ¡ª This cheater... ¡ª But he does need to practice. Raina will remember this. "So I''ll head to the shop now." The shop looked like a library and the librarian was a giant cat. "Wee! Summoner!" "I''m here to take a look at some champions." "Champions are this way!" Several books were lined up and he headed to where the cat pointed. These were all books with the legends of the champions written inside. Instead of having to read the cover for every single book¡­ Woong! A text appeared as he approached them. [The Mad Axe - Murite] [Sorcerer of the Sulfur Swamp - Cuifan] [Electric Wizard - Kaizad] He could see familiar names. Their legends were also interesting, but he had a specific champion in mind. "Where''s Sana?" He wanted to purchase Sana. ''There.'' [Sana - Light''s Melody] On the first page of the book was a beautiful illustration of Sana. If Raina was beautiful among humans, Sana looked like she wasn''t from this world. She had pale white skin, silver hair, and fascinating red eyes. Instead of armor, she wore a white robe that resembled heavenly clothes. He could understand why she was called a saint. ¡ª Kya! Sana''s the best! ¡ª Raina! Out! ¡ª Wow... ¡ª These guys change so fast, LOL ¡ª I like Raina more! I like Raina more! The chat went wild after seeing Sana''s illustration appear on the screen. There was a fight between Raina''s and Sana''s fans. Almond didn''t pay much attention because they weren''t seriously fighting. "I''ll go with this one." "Oh ho? Sana?" The cat made a weird face. "Light''s melody, Sana. She''s a wonderful champion. Truly wonderful..." The cat turned red. ¡ª What does he mean by wonderful? ¡ª Her skills, right? Her skills? ¡ª LOL, this freaking cat. ¡ª The cat''s a male? No... no...! "But do you have coins? Sana''s legend is quite expensive." [8,900 coins needed] [20,000 coins in inventory] He had enough money. "Yes, I''ll have her." "Ho? You''re a low-level summoner, but you have this many coins? However¡ª" The cat lifted his fat thumb. "Sana isn''t a champion that''s swayed by money. She loves peace." Almond stood still because he had no idea what the cat was talking about. "Unlike other champions, Sana doesn''t want conflict. She''ll want to see how your rtionship is with other champions," the cat told him with his face close to Almond¡¯s. "What that means is that you have to have a close rtionship with other champions! But..." "?" "A low-leveled summoner like you, there''s no point even looking. It''s best if you look for another champion." The cat smiled and tapped on Almond''s head with its nails. Woong! A blue light enveloped him. ¡ª Why''s the cat bragging about Sana? ¡ª The human earns money, but the cat takes it. ¡ª Why''s the pussycat so full of himself? ¡ª ??? If it was Kingdom Age, the cat would be silent¡­ "You have to have a friendship level above fifty to buy Sana... huh?" It was obvious to Almond what the cat was seeing. The only champion he owned was Raina and his rapport level with her was a hundred, which was well over fifty. "Y-You... are a summoner with a first achievement!" Thud. The cat fell back in shock. ¡ª LOL, he has good reactions ¡ª If you know that, serve him well! ¡ª The cat found out he was Raina''s first kiss. ¡ª Be careful, Almond. The cat could also be one of her fanboys. ¡ª I think he likes Sana more, so don''t worry. "Why didn''t you say anything earlier?" "What good would it be if I said something?" "If you''re a summoner with a close rtionship like that, you can make a contract with Sana at no cost!" At that moment, Sana''s book started to glow. "Oh..." ¡ª Oh... ¡ª Oh, man... ¡ª LOL ¡ª It''s been a while. ¡ª Sana for free?! ¡ª Damn... ¡ª How''s that possible?! First, he kisses Raina and now he gets Sana for free?! m! A loud noise echoed and white light shone from the sky. Bzzzzt¡ª? Within moments, the form of the champion Sana began to take shape. With a white gust blowing through her hair, her figure was truly that of a goddess from mythology. Among them, she was undoubtedly a goddess of benevolence. [Nice to meet you, summoner.] She put her pale hands out while smiling. Almond grabbed her hand. [You''ve sessfully contracted Sana.] [You may now interact with her.] [You may now select her for battle.] [You''ve unlocked skins.] [You''vepleted the quest, first purchase.] After a list of notifications appeared, Sana disappeared from out of the air. "Is there anything else you want to purchase?" Almond was going to take a look at other champions since he had plenty of money. "I''lle next time." But he wanted to y Sana right away. *** It was given to y the tutorial with first-time champions. However, Almond''s viewers didn''t give him a chance. ¡ª The tutorial is for pussies. ¡ª There''s literally no point in doing the tutorial. ¡ª These losers probably y ten games of tutorial before ying ranked. ¡ª At least donate to scold him. They wanted him to y normals, so they wouldn''t have to watch him y the boring tutorial. They wanted to see Almond get criticized by other yers. [BigHandColony has registered a mission.] ". [Mission: Win the first round with Sana without ying the tutorial.] [Reward: 200,000 won] ¡ª Damn, 200k won for one normal game? ¡ª First win 200k? Wow... ¡ª BigHandColonly is still around? ¡ª A saint! A saint! "You know how to negotiate, BigHandColony. Alright," Almond joked around, signaling to the other viewers and queued up for a normal match. ¡ª Capitalism nut. ¡ª We almost got his nuts. ¡ª Money man... ¡ª If you keep chasing money like that, your forehead will turn into a target. Thestment received a ban. Bling. [Takoyaki has donated 10,000 won!] [Thank you for the ban. Don''t joke about us bald folk!] ¡ª Is that really Tako? ¡ª Damn, it''s Takoyaki ¡ª Why''s a big guy like you here?! [Takoyaki has donated 10,000 won!] [I''m here to watch Almond practice. Or should I say, to see how passionate he is? But Sana is a weak champion when ying alone... I''ll watch carefully.] ¡ª That octopus is still like that, huh? ¡ª Tako, tako... ¡ª We''ll see how well you observe... ¡ª He forgot to observe the hair on his forehead. "Tako is going to give me feedback. He''s streaming it as well, so if you want to watch him, check out his channel too." As Almond exined, he found a match. [Teammates found.] [Transporting to the lobby.] He was transported to the waiting lobby. "..." There was silence among the five yers. ''Strange to see nothing is happening.'' Initially, there was always a fight for the positions, but he was lucky today. "Where do you want to go?" "I want to go bottom, ADC." Almond quickly dered his position. The other yers dered their own as well. ¡ª Wow, how peaceful. ¡ª This is Sana''s blessing. ¡ª It''s so weird to see no one swearing. "ADC, what are you going to y?" Almond''s support asked him. "I''m going to y Sana." "Ah, then I should y an offensive support." "... Yes, yes." Almond didn''t know what that meant, but pretended to understand and picked Sana. [Sometimes, to achieve peace, we must fight.] Sana went to Almond with an automated dialogue. However... [... Hmph.] He could hear a voice that wasn''t Sana''s. Chapter 160: Light and Shadow (1)

    Chapter 160: Light and Shadow (1)

    It sounded like Raina. He couldn''t believe it, but she was pouting because he hadn''t picked her. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Raina, you''re so cute! ¡ª Last time she didn''t even let you y her, LOL ¡ª Pick Raina please... Even if Raina rioted against him to pick her, Almond couldn''t. ''Nope.'' He was in a situation where he had to pick a new champion to practice. He had a mountain of things to practice, and only had three weeks remaining. His coach Takoyaki was also watching him. ''If I want the ADC position, I can''t just y Raina.'' The yer he was against for the role was Master tier. Almond had no reason to fight for the role, but he didn''t want to lose. "I''ll continue with Sana." Almond concluded that he was going to win today''s game as Sana. ¡ª Bad boy Almond ¡ª Raina... ¡ª Hey, he already yed your story mode! Shush! ¡ª LOL, isn''t Raina''s rapport going to get lower?? Regardless, the normal game started. The match started without any conflict in the waiting lobby. He had to win games like these to reach Level 10 and then Level 30 quickly to y ranked. ''Let''s win.'' Almond was determined to win as he kept recalling Sana''s skills. *** "Alright, Almond. The coaching stream is going to start," Tako started speaking in his usual broadcast tone. "I''m going topare Almond and StrawberryShooter to decide for our team''s position." Even as Tako was speaking, he knew it was impossible. ''Of course, StrawberryShooter will be ADC.'' This coaching content was to find a position that would work for Almond. ¡ª Wow ¡ª (apud) ¡ª This bald guy is trying to leech off other streamers?! ¡ª A mosquito in the winter...? ¡ª Is he evenparable to StrawberryShooter? "Mosquito? I have more viewers!" ¡ª But by the looks of it, it''s obvious he''s going to ovee you! ¡ª What are you talking about? Almond has more hair. ¡ª We''re talking about hair. What do you mean, viewers??? ¡ª LOL Tako''s viewers were ruthless. ''Damn bastards.'' Almond and Bubblegum''s viewers were saintspared to his viewers, but no one could me them because Tako built this audience for himself. "What do you mean I''m trying to leech off his hair?! If I could do that, I would''ve already done that during my fan meetings!" ¡ª LOOOL ¡ª Breaking news! A hair thief has appeared! ¡ª Will your fans have any hair to steal from¡­? While he bickered with his viewers, the game began. "Alright, Almond''s picked Sana, right?" ¡ª Commentator mode on! ¡ª He used to be an official caster! ¡ª Wasn''t Almond a Raina one-trick? "It''s true, Almond''s only yed Raina before. However, he picked Sana this time. It''s a good choice to pick a variety of champions before the tournament, but Sana needs good support to help her. The support picked Ulte, the hammer warrior. It''s a good champion that synergizes well with Sana. They''re an aggressive botne, so they could crush thene." ¡ª I think that support is Almond''s fan. There''s no way a random would y Ulte for him. ¡ª In a normal game? ¡ª Almond, please do well so Tako shuts up. Tako thought to himself, ''I don''t think Almond''s going to do well.'' Almond was a monster in?Battle Large, but what about in LIL? A yer could get by in Battle Large with good mechanics, but?LIL was different. The yer needed to have teamwork, macro strategies, and even leadership. It was a much moreplicated game. The game required more than simple mechanics. ''Especially a champion like Sana...'' Sana was an ADC with a healing ability, but had low damage. She needed support with high damage to back her up, so her synergy with the support was crucial. ''She''s not a champion who can do everything on her own like Raina.'' Tako exined the basics to his viewers. "Alright, take a look at this. What should I do if our support picked the hammer warrior and I picked Sana? Since ourne is stronger, what should we do?" ¡ª Beat the shit outta them, damn! ¡ª Shit on them! ¡ª Kill them, lvl 1! ¡ª Since you have a heal, beat them up! A certain synergy of champions had to engage in a chaotic battle as soon as they saw their opponents. Sana and Ulte, also known as the deathbo, was the current synergy. "As expected from my viewers! That''s right! You have to beat the shit outta them in the beginning. I wonder if the hammer warrior knows that?" ¡ª I bet he doesn''t... ¡ª Their rank is too low... ¡ª If the support knew that, they wouldn''t be in this rank. Most viewers expected the hammer warrior to remain still. The same went for Tako as well. This rank was too low to judge how they would engage inbat initially. "... Huh?" Unexpectedly, the hammer warrior charged forward and ignored the minions. ¡ª What the? ¡ª Hey, Tako, that guy''s charging forward! ¡ª ??? Tako panicked for a second, but he could tell from the swing that the yer was inexperienced. Swoosh! ¡°Arrrgh! What the!?¡± ¡°Damn!¡± Although the enemies were momentarily taken aback, they dodged all the attacks. It wasn''t because they were skilled. Rather, the attack was pathetic. "This is just charging in without thinking. He''s just running in head-on! It''d be better if he just stood still. What''s Almond going to do?" Swoosh! The hammer warrior ran in again, swinging his axes. m! The innocent rock shattered and caused a loud shockwave. "Ah... This is the worst. The support is way too deep in. He''s probably going to die..." Bang! Bang! The enemy ADC fired with their long gun, and the support pulled them in with ws. [First blood!] [Ally has been in!] The sound of hell beginning was announced. Almond had to fight against two enemies by himself for twenty seconds until his support revived. The enemy was stronger too now that they got a kill. ¡ª He''s fucked ¡ª Oh shit ¡ª First blood is the best when it''s your ally ¡ª LOL ¡ª Poor Almond... ¡ª Almond''s alone! "Twenty second death timer in the early game is like being dead for five minutes mid-game. Thene''s screwed." Honestly, Tako lost all hope. He didn''t expect Almond to show him anything this game. "This is over. Almond needs to y as safely as possible. He needs to live." As soon as he said that, Almond fought back. Creak¡­? His bow was aimed at the enemy yers. Tako quickly added on, "Wait, he can''t get emotional and fight back. It''s hard to fight alone as Sana..." Of course, Almond didn''t hear that and released his bow. Swoosh! "...!? What''s he doing!?" Thwack! The ck arrow perfectly struck its target. Pung! The target exploded. ¡ª Wooah! ¡ª Oh ¡ª He''s pretty good! The enemy looked bewildered because he didn''t expect Almond to hit the target from that distance. Tako had the same expression. "What''s happening? That worked? How did he hit it from that distance..." Tako couldn''t believe his eyes. It wasn''t simply the distance that confused him. "The minions were blocking his view too! How did he hit?" ¡ª For real ¡ª Is this a bug? I think the arrow curved!? ¡ª True ¡ª What a bug The arrow curved? Tako recalled what Almond did to him in Battle Large. LIL users were unaware of Almond''s curve shots. "It''s not a bug. It''s his curve shot. It works here too..." ¡ª That works? ¡ª Did he do it before?? ¡ª What the hell is that nerd?! Tako knew because he had been on the receiving end of Almond''s ghostly arrows. "Raina''s weren''t real arrows, so it didn''t work. Since Sana''s are real, it''s really effective." Sana was a character who shot real arrows. She had two types of arrows, a light version and a shadow version. The shadow arrows did damage, and the light arrows healed. Almond shot the shadow arrow. He was trying to learn Sana as a champion. ¡°Hmm... I think I got it.¡± Just then¡ª Three more arrows flew out. Swooosh!! "Huh?" All the arrowsnded before Tako could finish his sentence. Even though Almond fired three arrows simultaneously, they allnded perfectly as if a rope guided them. ¡°Kugh?!¡± ¡°What?¡± The enemy was shocked. ¡°Wow, Sana''s range is long,¡± Almond smiled and was satisfied with Sana''s abilities. ¡ª Doesn''t it feel refreshing after ying a champion like Raina? ¡ª How''s it so quick?? ¡ª It''s possible to shoot that quickly? Tako continued to cast, "He''s already reached fourbos. He''s pretty good at hitting the targets." The enemy allowed four arrows tond on their targets. Every time Sananded her dark arrows, she received a stack of the ''Curse of the Saintess.'' "If he''s reached the fourthbo, the curse is at three stacks. Then the speed bes slower, so it''s easier to hit. If he hits one more..." Thwack! Another arrow hit as if it heard Tako speaking. Pung.?Another target exploded. ¡°A-Argh! Fuck I can''t see anything!¡± ¡°You idiot, how can you get hit by all of it?¡± If the Curse of the Saintess reached five stacks, the enemy¡¯s vision became clouded. "Their vision bes clouded, and it''ll be even easier to hit the targets on them." Almond''s arrow flew out again. He was shooting quickly like a ghost. Pubung! Two more targets blew up. Seven consecutive hits made the enemy faint for 1-3 seconds. m! With a loud noise, the enemy fell like a statue. "Oh!" Tako let out an exmation. "Look at his mechanics!" ¡ª Wow, eight stacks in an instant? ¡ª He''s crazy! ¡ª They''re stunned! "Speed! uracy! He has it all!" ¡ª Tako''s so excited ¡ª Is the coach allowed to be like that? ¡ª What happened to objective criticism? ¡ª Better than StrawberryShooter? ¡ª But is this okay? I think he''ll lose the game. Tako finally quieted down. "Alright. Iplimented him, but it''s not the best y. Rather, the enemy¡ª" ¡°What''s going on!!!¡± the enemy support, Yasu, screamed and ran toward Almond. It was a dangerous situation. "¡ª Has an opportunity to attack." ¡°Kwaaa!¡± Yasu used his special charge attack and instantly approached Almond. Swoosh! The sharp, hairy figure spun and mmed against Almond. m! ¡°Urgh.¡± Almond fell back. Yasu got up and chased after him, who had fallen. Yasu looked like a feral beast with drool flowing from his mouth as he chased down his prey for the finish. Sana didn''t have movement skills, so she couldn''t dodge. "Ah... I think this is over. He needed to remember that there were two enemies and that he''s alone." Yasu went on top of Almond. m! Yasu''s knees pressed against Almond''s arms. "Ah, both of his arms are tied down. That''s the annoying thing about Yasu..." Almond twisted his body, but couldn''t get out. Yasu lifted his bloody ws and swung them at him. ¡°Dieee! Grrr!¡± The crimson ws went for Almond''s torso. Chaak! Chaak! [Warning! HP is below 30%!] Sana received a lot of damage because she was a weak champion. Yasu didn''t stop attacking and Almond''s HP fell to 10%. "Ah... This is the problem. If he wants to damage Yasu, he had no choice but to give himself some distance. He needed to y it safe. ying emotionally will make you end up like this." ¡ª Shit ¡ª Yasu is OP ¡ª Sana is good... but she has no escape skills ¡ª If only the support was alive¡­ "But I think it was a good attempt." Tako thought it was over and was ready to give the next feedback. He did well, and Tako figured he''d do even better next round as Sana. "He did plenty well enough. I see the potential. Especially the seven shots in a row earlier? That was insane. There''s nothing you can do about this game. Almond''s probably going to die here since his health is below 10%." At that moment, one of Almond''s arms came out. Twisting his body paid off. He quickly took out a light arrow. "Huh?" He couldn''t shoot because his other arm was still tied down, but Tako screamed after seeing the next y. "What the?!" *** [Beginner''s Tip: Did you know? Every time Sana''s light arrow hits a target, she heals herself and an ally. However, light arrows are only gained if she hits a target with her shadow arrows first.] Chapter 161: Light and Shadow (2)

    Chapter 161: Light and Shadow (2)

    Red blood sttered everywhere. Thud! Thud! His sight, clouded by redness, went back and forth. ''What''s going on?'' So this was what would happen if Yasu got a hold of him. Even while Almond was being attacked, he kept thinking about how he got attacked by Yasu. ''I didn''t realize their range.'' He didn''t know the range of their attacks. He knew what kind of champion Yasu was, but it was his first time seeing it. There was no way for him to properly measure its range. ''And I don''t even have any movement skills.'' Secondly, Sana had no movement skills. He thought he could dodge the attacks like he did with Raina, but Sana had to dodge the attacks ahead of time. [Warning! HP has fallen below 30%!] His health bar was depleted. It was the same with Raina, but all ADCs had low HP. ''What should I do...'' Even while Almond was getting hit by Yasu''s powerful ws and his head being rocked back and forth, Almond was looking for a solution. [Warning! HP is below 20%!] The salivaing out from Yasu''s jaws was terrifying, but at the end of the day, this was a video game. ¡°Grrrr.¡± The opponent was fully immersed in the game. He was screaming like an actual beast, trying to finish Almond off. "Dieeee!!" ¡ª Oh shit, is it over? ¡ª If he dies here, the game''s going to be really difficult... ¡ª I guess even Almond can''t do anything as a first-timer ¡ª He was really good earlier The enemy and the viewers thought this was the end. Only Almond was thinking otherwise. He didn''t stop twisting his body and sessfully pulled out an arm. ¡ª Oh, his arm! ¡ª His arm came out! ¡ª Good good! ¡ª But what''s an archer going to do with one arm? He took out an arrow of light with one arm. The quantity of the light arrows was finite. He gained one every time he hit a target that appeared on the enemy''s body with the shadow arrow. Thankfully, there was a target on top of Yasu''s right eye. He made a decision. Almond held firmly onto the arrow with wide eyes. At the same time, Yasu''s sharp ws drew a red line across his face. Chaaaaak!! *** Tako deemed that it was over. If Yasu got into that position, death was inevitable. It wasn''t any other champion either. It was the brittle Sana, so there was no hope. "Ah... That sucks. He made that decision because he''s a beginner, but it was still a good try." Then, he heard Sana''s voice. [I''ll open the divine sanctuary.] "Huh...?" A bright green energy enveloped Almond. Wooong...! This wasn''t possible. Tako''s eyes shook. "Wait, he lived?" Almond lifted the arrow and pierced Yasu¡¯s right eye with the arrow of light. The arrow disappeared as the target blew up, but the damage was already done. ¡ª Holy shit ¡ª He just stabbed him with the arrow?! ¡ª Damn, he''s quick-witted ¡ª Don''t you have to be at least tinum to think like that?? ¡ª Damn¡­ He thought of thrusting the arrow using his hands in that situation even though it was his first time ying as Sana. ''I can''t believe this.'' It wasn''t just his good mechanics. He also had fantastic decision-making skills. He had no hesitation. Afterward, he and Yasu continued to fight. Yasu kept trying to tear Almond apart with his ws, but Almond kept healing himself using the arrows of light. Thwack! Thwack! He continued to pierce the targets in Yasu''s chest, torso, and arms. His HP remained still and refused to go up or down. "Alright, I will exin to those who don''t know what''s happening. If the arrow of light hits an enemy target, a divine sanctuary appears nearby and heals allies. However, this arrow can also hit allies and summon a divine sanctuary near them. Okie?" ¡ª MC Tako ¡ª Is he rapping? ¡ª He''s talking quicker than the arrows being fired, LOL "Alright! But the arrows of light have a limit, right? What''s he going to do next?" There was a limit to the number of arrows, but no limit to Yasu''s ws. This time, Almond stabbed him with the shadow arrow. Thwack! Then he stabbed him right away with the arrow of light. "Wait, he''s going back and forth this quickly?!" He switched the arrows back and forth using one hand with perfect movement as if he practiced daily. "That''s crazy!" Thwack! Thwack! Yasu backed off after being hit by the shadow and light arrow. He felt like he could be killed. However, this hesitation only drove him to his death. Pung! Pung! Pung! Almond twisted his body out further andnded the arrows on the targets that appeared. "Oh?! T-This is the curse''s stack!" [Curse of the Saintess x 7] [Fainted!] Yasu fainted. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Damn, he managed to get the curse triggered?! ¡ª Kya~~~!! ¡ª Almond is better than Tako! ¡ª Yasu''s kind of stupid too. "Wait, now I''m not sure what''s going to happen! Why''s a low tierning phase so spectacr?!" It was then. Tang¡ª? A bullet struck Almond''s shoulder. The enemy ADC had shot him. "Oh, the enemy ADC joined in? Now it''s 2 versus 1 again. Can he do it?" Tako always said 2 versus 1 was impossible, but now he saw hope. Tang! Tang! The bullets continued tond on Almond''s body. [HP 9%] Almond didn''t care. He quickly took out more arrows of light. Yasu fully backed off now, so his arms were freed. Creak¡­? Almond quickly pulled on his bowstring. "Ah!?Both of his arms are free! He''s shooting! If he misses, he might die!" Swoosh! Tang! The trigger and bowstring were pulled at the same time. The enemy bulletnded on Almond''s shoulder, and the arrownded on the target above the enemy''s head. Pung! "Wow! He hit it again!" ¡ª How can he not miss a single one?! ¡ª He''s crazy ¡ª His HP is going up again! ¡ª If he missed one, he''d be dead. [I''ll spread the divine sanctuary.] The arrow of light disintegrated and Almond regained his HP. [HP 22%] "But the enemy is shooting back! I don''t think he can dodge that." Then, strong mana spewed out from the enemy''s gun. Kwagwang! Almond didn''t dodge and was hit, but he readied another arrow of light. "Almond determined that it was better for him to get hit instead of dodging! Is he thinking to get hit and just heal instead!?" ¡ª Is Tako just casting now? ¡ª Where''s the feedback? ¡ª ??? Feedback? Screw that! This is more fun! Three more arrows of light flew out. This time, it was targeting Yasu who fainted. For Almond, hitting still targets was too easy. Pububung! The target on Yasu''s right arm, torso, and right leg exploded with a white light. The healing fromnding those three targets was immense. [HP 48%] His HP was almost back to half. "Wow! It was a good decision to shoot Yasu. The ADC was far and has movement skills, so Almond could''ve missed. Right now, if he missed even a single shot, he could¡¯ve died. It was a good y to aim for Yasu! But now, Yasu is charging at him again!" ¡°Krar!¡± Yasu woke up and charged at him again. "How many arrows of light does he have left? He probably doesn''t have too many remaining. Is he going to make a super y by going back and forth again?!" As if he heard Tako''s wish, Almond equipped the shadow arrow again. He didn''t even flinch at Yasu running toward him and repeatedly released his bow while standing still. Pung! Pung! Pung! Pung! Several arrows pierced Yasu, who was charging toward him. "Yasu''s vision is clouded because Almond stacked the curses so quickly! But all the targets on Yasu are gone now! Almond is shooting quicker than the targets are reappearing!" Yasu''s vision was clouded again, but he still swung forward and aimed for Almond¡¯s head. Thud. Almond''s head swayed a little, but he fired the arrow of light without hesitation. "He''s shooting the arrow of light! But there are no targets???Ah! This time, to the ADC?" The arrow flew toward the enemy ADC. Pung! The target on top of the enemy¡¯s head disappeared, and Almond regained his lost HP. "Wow! Since he hit all the targets on Yasu, he aimed for the ADC? Right about now, the targets should reappear on Yasu!" The shadow arrowsnded on Yasu again. Pung. The targets that just reappeared blew up again. "He''s fighting both of them at the same time, right? Since his shots are quicker than the targets appearing, this is more efficient!" Meanwhile, Yasu swung with his ws and the enemy ADC pulled their trigger. The two simultaneously attacked! Kwagwang!! Almond''s HP decreased again. [HP 6%] It was dangerously low. "T-This is getting dangerous again. Can he do it with just one?" Since two enemies aimed at him simultaneously, Almond couldn''t handle the damage. However, he quickly found a way around it. Creak¡­? There were two arrows on his bowstring. "Wait, that works!?" Pubung! The two arrowsnded on the target¡¯s left and right arms as if in reply to Takoyaki. "The healing is doubled!" Almond targeted the enemy support and ADC back and forth. He didn''t miss a single shot while jumping around and shooting. ¡ª Damn ¡ª What am I witnessing? ¡ª Almond! Almond! Almond! Oh, wait, wrong channel¡­ The enemy was close to death while Almond''s HP went back and forth. Tako shouted at the top of his lungs in excitement, "His heal timing is perfect! He''s healing himself at 10%, so he gets the maximum heal!" Sana''s healing was more effective the lower her HP was. For example, if she healed when she had 80% HP, she only gained 3-4% from her sanctuary. However, if her HP was at 2%, she gained almost 20%. Almond was using this mechanic and ying to maximize his efficiency. ¡ª He''s insane! ¡ª Tako''s heating up!! ¡ª His mechanics are insane ¡ª I can''t believe he can pull it off. ¡ª Holy shit, I don''t even think I can pull it off against bots ¡ª It''s normal, but it''s still impressive. Eventually, Yasu fell. [Enemy eliminated!] It was hard to believe that Sana achieved a solo kill with her low damage. "This is like murdering him with a spoon... right?" ¡ª LOL, for real. I can''t believe he got him. ¡ª It''s like stabbing him a thousand times with a needle, LOL ¡ª ??? Kill me... It wasn''t over yet. [Double Kill!] The enemy ADC died right after as well. Sana got a double kill all on her own. On top of their corpses were over twenty arrows embedded in them to supply Sana with her healing. "Wow... he really won the 1 versus 2... You''re not supposed to y Sana like this..." ¡ª But he pulled it off so well, LOL ¡ª For real, Sana just stayed still ¡ª I think he misunderstood the assignment ¡ª What''s the point of moving if he''s going tond everything like that, LOL *** The game tilted in the favor of Almond''s team. It was inevitable because they overwhelmingly defeated the enemy in one of thenes. Above all, the enemy bottomne had split up. [Victory] Almond''s team won in the end. It was a quick match that ended in twenty minutes. Tako nodded in satisfaction. "Wow, that was fun. Low-tier ranked matches are always fun to watch." ¡ª LOL for real ¡ª They really fought to the death ¡ª Almond''s y style is so funny. He''s like a tank ADC. Tako, you''re irrelevant now! ¡ª Almond is better looking, has more hair, is taller, and is better at video games. How do you feel, Mr. Tako? ¡ª I''m going to watch Almond. Bye, Tako. Tako''s viewers were so touched by Almond''s ys that they joked about leaving his stream to watch Almond''s. Takoughed, but there was a worried look behind the smile. ''Anyway, what am I going to do?'' He was sure that StrawberryShooter would be a better ADC. He nned to pinpoint Almond''s ws and convert him into a different position. Since it was only Almond¡¯s second day ying, it wouldn''t have been difficult for him to switch. However... ''I never imagined he''d be this good...'' It was hard to determine since it was just a normal game, but Almond could be a better ADC than StrawberryShooter. Of course, Tako didn''t say that out loud because no one would agree. After all, it was only a normal game. However, Tako was a former professional yer and could see it. Almond had everything it took to be a star yer. ... It was troubling. *** [Beginner''s Tip: Conflict among allies is the greatest foe.] Chapter 162: Light and Shadow (3)

    Chapter 162: Light and Shadow (3)

    As Tako stayed still with a serious look, his viewers pestered him. ¡ª Where''s the feedback?! ¡ª You have to give some feedback. ¡ª Is there nothing to say?! ¡ª Give us a rundown! ''Ah, that''s right.'' Tako finally paid attention. Even though deciding who to assign the ADC role to was difficult, he was still streaming. Almond disyed an impressive performance throughout the game. [18/0/43] Almond¡¯s stats consisted of 18 kills, 0 deaths, and 43 assists. He had a 93% kill participation. It was easier to reach that percentage unless the yer was ying as a jungle. ''Even though it''s a normal game, it takes skill to reach those numbers.'' p! p! p! Tako apuded to raise the mood. "He''s a monster when ites to mechanics. A monster. If he was younger, he''d be scouted by a team." ¡ª Damn, that''s high praise. ¡ª For real? ¡ª But pro? Come on ¡ª You''re going to raise him to be a pro? ¡ª Is that all you have to say? Where''s the feedback?! "If we''re looking at his mechanics alone, I think he''s at least master." ¡ª For real???? ¡ª Isn''t that an overstatement? ¡ª Is he better than StrawberryShooter? ¡ª He did just do fucking amazing just now ¡ª But it''s hard to say since it''s a normal game The viewers were reluctant to give recognition, especially in the streaming industry. Such tendencies were strong. In a market where attention was easy to gain, reputation held little weight. ''Well... if they don''t have an eye for it, they won''t think it''s an overstatement.'' Tako brushed it off and continued with his content. "Since the first round is done, let''s connect our streams and give feedback." It was time to watch the rey with Almond and give some feedback. Almond did well, but he still needed some critique. Actually, he needed a lot. Almond kept making moves that showed his wed understanding. He was only at zero deaths because the opponents were terrible. *** [Victory] After this word came up, Almond smiled. "Guess I won." ¡ª LOL ¡ª Almond beat the world ¡ª Son! Only eat Almonds now! Son! Only eat Almonds now! ¡ª Almond''s going to be in Forbes! Almond''s going to be in Forbes! ¡ª Wow ¡ª Is it possible to y like that as Sana in the first round? ¡ª He''s actually insane. He''ll do better than he did in Battle Large. Even with a troll support, he demolished the other team. The score got out of hand because the opponent gave up halfway, but Almond''s damage was still the highest. "Wow, you''re really good. I''m serious." "Our ADC just blew up the game." Even LIL users, who neverplimented, couldn''t help but praise him. "Support difference!" The support was a troll until the end. He taunted his allies until the end and left to 1v1 the enemy support. ¡ª Fuck that support ¡ª LOL ¡ª If it wasn''t for him, the game would be over much quicker ¡ª But he''s good at diving, LOL [Missonplete!] [Win the first round as Sana without ying the tutorial.] [270,000 won] "Thank you to those who contributed to the mission." The initial 200,000 won BigHandColonly put up rose to 270,000 won. ¡ª I thought it''d be safe because the support was a troll... ¡ª Moooom! Almond stole my money! ¡ª Freaking support! Why didn''t you troll until the very end!? ¡ª Irresponsible troll¡­ The viewers who added on 70,000 won seemed certain that this mission would fail as they witnessed the ignorant rush of Almond¡¯s support. asionally, some individuals contributed money to raise the spirits of the streamers for missions that were bound to fail. It wasn''t with malicious intent. It was more like a child poking fun at a girl they liked. Of course, Almond''s skills didn''t allow such pettiness and he reaped all the rewards. Instead, he poked fun back at them. "70,000 more won? Gulp! Thank you!" ¡ª LOOOL ¡ª Gulp! ¡ª Gulpmond... so cute... ¡ª This clip''s going to go viral ¡ª Is gulping a new reaction? ¡ª This freaking nut¡­ [GiveItBack has donated 10,000 won!] [Who knew a Sana first-timer would get a double kill, LOL] ¡ª For real ¡ª Yeah ¡ª I almost bet 10,000 won. ¡ª It only went up 70,000 won because Almond got the double kill early. If it waster on, he''d probably earn over 500k won. "Thank you for the donation, GiveItBack. Sana is really good. I see what they mean by a champion that''s good, but easy to y." ¡ª Raina''s crying rn ¡ª Raina?! What about Raina!? ¡ª Raina''s better!!! "Oh, I just got a connection request from Tako. It''s probably for the feedback content. I''m going to hop into This World for a moment." He ignored thements about Raina for now and logged into This World to see Tako. "Hey~! Almond!" Takoyaki was waiting at the entrance. It was his first time seeing Almond even in virtual reality. "Almond, you look amazing in person as well." "Hello, it''s nice to meet you." ¡ª Why are they so awkward, LOL ¡ª Is this your first time seeing each other? ¡ª Apparently, Almond came inst minute. ¡ª Why did Tako shave again?? Is that a costume? "It''s your first time seeing me after that time in Battle Large, right?" "... Battle Large?" Almond didn''t remember meeting Takoyaki in Battle Large. ¡ª LOL ¡ª The bully never remembers ¡ª Hahaha, he actually doesn''t know ¡ª Yeah, he didn''t even put it in his YouTube video ¡ª Good thing because Tako''s not that popr on YouTube, haha "... Ahahahaha!" Takoughed out loud to clear the awkward air. ''How could this be?'' Even though he wasughing, he felt shocked. He sharpened his teeth all this time to get revenge on Almond. He even told Bubblegum all about it when they went drinking... He even shaved his head! ''He doesn''t remember me?'' No wonder Tako wasn''t on his YouTube video. Almond had no idea who he was. "S-Should we start the feedback?" "Yes!" Almond replied enthusiastically. Tako was satisfied with his attitude and put up his screen. "Good. Let''s take a look at when the game began. Normally, the game would be over at this point." Was the game over? Almond couldn''t understand the pro''s perspective. He didn''t realize how crucial early game skirmishes were for LIL''s siege mode. "It''smonly known as snowballing. It''s when the advantage is snowballed in the early game to the point where it''s difficult for the other team to return from. Theoretically, it was impossible..." Tako smiled as he spoke to not worry Almond. "Even on the pro scene, there''s always some sort of mistake. Even if it doesn''t work out in the early game, it''s not the end of the world. Even you, Almond, still won despite the difficult early game." Tako pointed at the scene where Almond''s support ran in. "Look. The support ran in and gave them a kill for no reason, right? If this happens, the opponentes ahead in EXP and gold. And he''ll buy a better item and get another kill." "Ah..." "He''ll get more money and EXP, right? Then it bes a little easier for them to get more kills. That''s what snowballing is." "It''s like the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." "That''s right. Consider it a fast-paced RPG game in MOBA or siege mode games. It''s hard to advance in RPGs if pay-to-win yers are taking up everything, right?" Theparison with a fast-paced RPG made it easier for Almond to understand. It was simr in the sense that the yer had to kill monsters, gain EXP and gold to improve, and destroy the enemy base to win. "This is the same thing. So, Almond, you did really good here. Right over here." Tako reyed the moment when Almond fought back and first knocked out the enemy. "Here, you didn''t back out and kept beating him down. Because of this y, you were able to swing the game in your favor. You fought 1 vs 2 until the end and beat them until your support arrived. Then the game was over. You did really well." ¡ª Oh~ what apliment ¡ª His first feedback is apliment? ¡ª The ex-pro is recognizing him! Almond''s viewers didn''t hear his initialpliment, so they were fascinated to listen to them. It was interesting to see an unranked beingplimented by an ex-pro. "It''s a great y. But!" Tako didn''t call Almond here just to give himpliments. "Here. This part." It was the scene where Almond got attacked by Yasu while trying to attack the enemy ADCs. "You got close to Yasu, and it became dangerous for you. Thanks to your super y, you made it out, but it was a dangerous decision. If the opponents were a little good, you''d have died there." "I see." ¡°Yes, if you want to make risky ys like that, you need to be aware of the opponent''s range, but you crossed it by a long shot. The enemy charged at you and tackled you without much effort. Here, instead..." Almond felt like he was improving just from listening to Tako¡¯s exnations. It was the sensation of learning new things. ''I can''t believe this game has so many fine mechanics to it...'' Ex-pros were different. Tako was not only an ex-pro with experience in winning, he also used to be a coach for a short while. ¡ª Damn, Tako looks so cool when he''s doing his job ¡ª Why did this guy quit being a coach? ¡ª Damn, his analysis is crazy ¡ª Oh shit, I''m learning some stuff too! ¡ª I guess he really was a pro! The viewers praised Tako for an informative broadcast because Tako usually made his judgments regardless of the oue. He clearly pointed out which decisions were the cause of the loss and which should have resulted in a better oue. By distinguishing between winning due to luck and winning based on sound decision-making, he guided yers to win the next game without relying on luck. "... Alright, I''ll stop here. After that, it''s meaningless because the enemy gave up." "Wow! Thank you!" Tako was taken aback as Almond bowed and thanked him. "A-Ah... It''s nothing..." He scratched his shiny forehead and cleared his screen. "Alright then. Until you beat StrawberryShooter, good luck!" "Yes!" *** Tako returned to his stream and had some unexpected first thoughts about his encounter with Almond. ''He''s very polite.'' Almond was a polite young man. He was simr to an old streamer who used to be an athlete. Another unexpected thing was his ability to understand quickly. He was great at understanding everything even though he didn''t seem like the bright type. "Hey, everyone. Don''t you think Almond''s pretty good at understanding things?" ¡ª Idk ¡ª Isn''t he just pretending to understand? Just to move on quickly? ¡ª He''s just nodding, no? ¡ª But honestly, if you''re stupid, it''s hard to be that good at the game. Even in decision-making, you need to be smart. ¡ª Almond''s worked in a bigpany before too. "He worked in a bigpany? Who did he y for?" ¡ª LOL ¡ª No, an actual corporation. ¡ª He''s from Ahsung ¡ª This guy only thinks about streamers¡­ "Oh, you guys were talking about an actualpany. I didn''t know, but..." Tako mmed on his table and changed topics. "It was only one round, you know. If we make a montage of Bubblegum in bronze, even he''ll seem like a challenger yer!" ¡ª For real ¡ª At my best, I''m better than JeonJaPa too! ¡ª So true Tako could tell instinctively Almond wasn''t a one-hit-wonder. However, intuition was intuition. As a coach, he needed to decide only using the facts. "Let''s see the next round. This round might be even harder. LIL is unpredictable." Almond queued up for his next match, which promptly ended with the enemy team surrendering in thirteen minutes. Chapter 163: Light and Shadow (4)

    Chapter 163: Light and Shadow (4)

    Thirteen minutes earlier, the second round was about to begin after the first game''s sess. Almond picked Sana and said something questionable, "I think I''ve got the hang of this." ¡ª Almond (1 win): I''ve got the hang of this ¡ª He did do really well ¡ª Do you feel like you can breathe while ying Sana after only ying Raina? They were right. ''This is perfect for me.'' Sana was the perfect champion for Almond. [I don''t think a summoner has been able to use my strength to the fullest from the beginning like you.] Even Sana admitted it. However, the viewers weren''t surprised because they heard Raina saying the same thing. Sana was also nicer than Raina. ¡ª Kya, Sana noona doesn''t hold back on herpliments! ¡ª But it''s unusual to see herpliment like that, no? ¡ª Sana noooonaaaa~ ¡ª Sana''s the best! Only after seeing Almond fight against the enemy bottomne did the viewers realize why Sanaplimented him. However, the start was a little odd... "Hey, support. Just start attacking the enemy support immediately." Almond requested his support to attack right away. "... Sorry?" "Just do it, please." ¡ª Hey, Almond, you''re not supposed to do that! He''s not even ying as the hammer warrior! ¡ª Are you crazy? He''s ying poke support! If he charges in, he dies right away! Almond''s support was ying a champion called the Luminous Magician Lumion. "Y-You want me to charge in?" Lumion was a fragile-looking magician champion. His specialty was poking the enemy with magic attacks from the back. His range was long, but he was fragile instead. Almond didn''t care though. "Just charge in when you think it''s a good timing." ¡ª ??? Go into your death when you think it''s a good timing ¡ª Are you crazy, LOL ¡ª ??? Check how far you''re going to fall before dying "... O-Okay." Lumion was convinced by Almond''s confidence. After about two minutes into theirning phase¡­ "I-I''m going in now!!!" Lumion charged in when the enemy became greedy and slightly overextended. "Aaaaargh!" The support charged in screaming, firing his magic everywhere. ¡ª LOL ¡ª Why did he have to be a good listener... ¡ª Don''t listen to Almond! How''s that possible! The enemy was taken aback, seeing Lumion run at them. "What the? Is he crazy?" "What do you mean? It''s a free kill! Kill him!" Their panic wasn''t for long, and they started focusing on Lumion. Thebination of fire magic and a powerful shotgun was aimed at him. Kwagwang! Lumion red up. Crackle! And turned to dust. Or at least, he was supposed to... [The divine sanctuary protects you!] "?" Woong...!? A green light appeared as Lumion''s health went up. "He''s alive?!" "Sana healed him! Dammit, hit him again!" Kwagwang!! Lumion''s HP fell again. He fell to 5% HP, but bounced right back up. [Current HP: 19%] ''I''m alive?'' He lived and continued to live. Every time the enemy attacked him, they continued to hear Sana''s dialogue. [The divine sanctuary protects you!] [I''m summoning the divine sanctuary!] [The divine sanc...] ''H-How''s this possible?'' The enemy continued attacking, but the HP bar stayed in ce. The arrow of lights continued to hit the targets appearing on the support''s body without fail. Even when the targets appeared on awkward spots, like on the end of his hands and feet, the arrows didn''t waiver. Watching this unfold in a ranked game, let alone a normal match, was incredible. ''Why is he not running out of arrows of light?'' There was a limit to the number of light arrows. Sana needed to hit shadow arrows on her target to earn them. The mechanic existed to prevent ridiculous ys like this, but it didn''t matter for Almond. Pung! Pung! The shadow arrows continued tond on the targets above the minions because he couldn''t reach the champions with his range. He was hitting the targets on the minions with his shadow arrows and his ally with the arrows of light, but very quickly. ''No way! This is the speed of shooting back and forth with his arrows?!'' Even though some yers could fire urately, no normal yer could fire this quickly. Lumion couldn''t keep his mouth closed. The enemy started shuddering in fear as well. "W-Why isn''t this guy dying!?" "Is he crazy?!" "How does he have infinite arrows of light?! Isn''t this a bug?!" "Fucking developers..." "Report him after this game. Fuck them." From the enemy''s perspective, it looked like a bug because Almond infinitely used the arrows of light. ¡ª He''s going to get reported again, LOL. ¡ª What''s he going to do about the tournament if he gets reported... ¡ª Breaking news: Almond... is not a nut. He''s a bug! Then Almond shouted, "What are you doing! Just keep shooting!" Lumion returned to his senses after nking out. "Ah... Ye-yes!!" He forgot he was fighting because his HP wasn''t decreasing. Lumion''s skill was back from cooldown, and he started firing his magic. Puuung! Pubung! The frantic enemy became an easy target whether they wanted to report Almond or not. [Double Kill!] The two that charged in to kill Lumiony t. ¡ª Wow! ¡ª Lumion double kill?! ¡ª This is crazy ¡ª Kya~ once he gets items, it''s over. ¡ª A double kill?! From this point on, the game became out of control. The enemy died to Almond every time they came to thene... [Victory!] Eventually, the enemy team surrendered after thirteen minutes unanimously. After the game, the enemy support had something to say to Almond. "LazySoldier, are you happy with yourself ying an OP champion like that in a normal game?" The support was cursing at him, but that was the bestpliment in LIL. ¡ª What apliment! ¡ª Nobel Prize for LIL ¡ª It''s like a thank you speech, haha ¡ª You should feel honored. ¡ª For honor! ¡ª This is like Almond''s award ceremony! *** "What did I just witness?" Tako didn''t mean to say it. It just came out of his mouth. Like a hup, he couldn''t control it. After watching Almond''s thirteen-minute performance, he couldn''t help himself. ''I''ve never seen Sana y like this.'' Almond''s Sana was special. Sana had to normally fight in the back because she had long-range, but low HP. Almond was like that at first, putting his support in front of him while he attacked from the back. By mid-game, it was different. He started to go forward. ¡ª Is that Sana, the hammer warrior?! ¡ª She''s like a rock ¡ª That''s crazy. This is hrious. He didn''t think to dodge because he didn''t feel the need to. He could stay on the frontline as long as he continuously healed himself. In fact, he didn''t die and out-healed the enemy''s damage. [TakoFromOsaka has donated 1000 won.] [Tako, isn''t she OP? Just make him y Sana] The donation was read in a funny voice. Tako made a bitter smile, knowing someone would mention it. "If doing that was so easy, everyone would y Sana." This was why it was hard to be a pro in this scene. Even if a yer performed well, the public credited the champion instead. "Should we take a look at Sana''s tier?" Scroll. He swiftly opened up LIL Pro''s analytic website. "Look, she''s tier two. If a champion is in tier two, you can pick it as a curve ball in tournaments or a counter pick. Do you really think she''s OP? No, of course not." ¡ª For real ¡ª Sana yers will know ¡ª Sana OP? You''ve never yed LIL then. Since the viewers didn''t know, Tako further exined. "What''s strong about Sana is her arrow of light. The debuff on her shadow arrow is not bad, but it''s too hard to pull it off. The damage is also too low." The arrow of light was basically Sana''s main weapon. It healed her allies while damaging her opponent. This type of mechanic was rare in this game. "The problem is that her arrows of light aren''t infinite. Taking out the arrows one by one from the quiver is also annoying. There''s no inventory either. You get one every time you hit a shadow arrow." ¡ª For real, LOL? ¡ª Taking it out of the quiver is so annoying ¡ª I''ve identally pulled it out so many times ¡ª Now that I see it, Almond hasn''t screwed up once. "Right. Look, you''re dead if you do this y and make one mistake." Tako showed Almond''s rey. Around seven minutes in, Almond was fighting in the midne. After he deflected all of the enemy attacks, he kept switching back and forth between his arrows at a low HP. "The game was over during this fight, right? But what if Almond missed a single arrow?" It was a cool scene, but what if he missed a single arrow? The cycle would be over, and he''d instantly die. There was a chance of losing if Almond, who had all the kills, died there. "It''s a high-risk, high-reward y." Almond was ying on edge the whole game with high-risk, high-return. "It''s like trying to day trade bitcoin and earning over a million won in one day. Do you think you can do that?" ¡ª Nope ¡ª No way ¡ª Bitcoin, LOL ¡ª Freaking coins... ¡ª Tako, you''re still doing that?! ¡ª Oh my, what aparison. ¡ª I wouldn''t even be able to do it against bots. I''d screw up while changing arrows. ¡ª For real, even against bots, I bet it''ll be hard. [TakoFromOsaka has donated 2000 won.] [Thanks for the exnation, but aren''t you going to give him feedback? Almond''s already queuing up for the next game.] "... Ah?" Tako was so into his exnation that he forgot he had to give Almond feedback. "There was no feedback to give this round." Almond''s macro ys weren''t perfect, but his Sana ystyle was so unique that it was difficult for Tako to say anything. It felt like he found his own path. ''This usually only happens with Master tier one tricks...'' "I''ll give the feedback all at once or whatever. Honestly, this round, there was nothing to say. His score was 34-0. What can I say?" ¡ª LOL I guess ¡ª 34 kills? Wow... ¡ª He gets like 50 kills in Battle Large too ¡ª They''re too low-ranked. They can''t handle Almond. "Alright, let''s take a look at the next around. He might reach Level 30 in three days. Who knows? He''s only yed two rounds." LIL gave a huge boost of bonus EXP for win streaks. Almond reached Level 20 that day. "Wow...?" Tako was speechless. He won nine games in a row in a heartbeat. Other thanpliments, there was no other feedback to give. ''His macro is even improving...'' "You did well, Almond. It was fun." Tako decided to stop his feedback stream here. Almond stopped his stream too. Tako sat on the bench and nked out for a while. ¡ª Hey, Tako, aren''t you going to say something? ¡ª Are you turning your stream off too? ¡ª Hey! What are you doing! "Ah, I''m turning it off. Go." Tako turned off his stream. "Sigh..." He sat alone on a bench in This World and stared at the fake night sky. The stars were fake, but he felt like one of them was him. ''Hey, Dong-Wook. There are still geniuses mingling among us... I think you''re right.'' He thought to himself, brushed his clean scalp, and got up. A shadow appeared before him. "Hey, Tako." The shadow had a low voice. "... What the? Jun-Mo?" It was Koo Jun-Mo, also known as StrawberryShooter. "Yeah, I just finished my stream as well. I heard you just finished too." "Yeah? I was just about to leave." "Ah, really?" Tako got up and headed into the portal. Koo Jun-Mo was behind him and asked, "Hey, I''m the ADC, right?" Chapter 164: Light and Shadow (5)

    Chapter 164: Light and Shadow (5)

    Tap. Tako¡¯s footsteps stopped. He said to Koo Jun-Mo without turning around, "... I told you I''ll make a decision." Koo Jun-Mo was silent and asked, "With a Master and an unranked?" "I told you. Since you''re a Master, you''ll do well in other positions¡ª" "You know I''m an ADC one trick." Tap. Tap. Koo Jun-Mo cut him off and walked toward him. "What are you hesitant about?" "Just stay still, and it''ll be decided. Why are you pestering?" "... Is this pestering?" Tako turned around and met eyes with Koo Jun-Mo. Koo Jun-Mo was taller and had to look up, but Tako''s eyes were unwavering. "All you have to do is wait. Isn''ting here and talking to me like this pestering?" "I think you''re being sensitive. I was just asking because I thought I would obviously be the ADC." Everything he was saying was true. From Koo Jun-Mo''s perspective, he thought the role would be his. Tako couldn''t say much since he thought the same at first. While Tako was silent, Koo Ju-Mo spoke further, "And you know that this tournament has prize money. It''s important for us as streamers. You know that my streamer character is... still a skilled yer." "So what you''re saying is you want to win, right? All we need to do is win." "... That''s... right... yes." His response was slow. "Sigh,"?Tako let out a deep breath. He knew this would happen. Winning wasn''t the most important to Koo Ju-Mo because as a streamer who already hit Master, he also had his side of the story. His viewers would have their own expectations for him. "You don''t have to y one role in this kind of tournament." This was the best answer Tako could give him for now. He could dive in further if he wanted to, but he didn''t want to touch a sensitive spot. "We can change freely during the tournament. Since I''m the coach, I''m going with the most optimal team." Tako was saying that in the worst case, Koo Jun-Mo wouldn¡¯t y ADC at all, but Koo Jun-Mo wasn''t satisfied hearing that. "... I think you''re the one who''s being sensitive. Weren''t we just ying in this tournament for fun?" ''For fun?'' Whiff. Tako approached Koo Jun-Mo with his eyes wide open. "Did you fucking say for fun? Listen to me. Winning is fun for me." "Hey..." "Winning was my entire job and I ran away because I became obsolete, but winning is still fun for me. Is that okay? Since I ran away, do I look like someone who just ys the game for fun?!" "N-No... that''s not what I''m saying¡ª" "As long as I''m the coach, even if it''s a small local tournament or whatever, I''m going to make my decisions solely for victory. If you have problems with that, you be the coach." Koo Jun-Mo backed off and was speechless for a second at the man who was significantly shorter than him. Koo Jun-Mo recalled what Tako had to do to continue his career as a streamer and thought of who was behind the mask of Takoyaki, the streamer. Tako was still the pro gamer, Oh Jin-Sung. "A... Alright. Calm down." "You better practice properly." After Tako finished, he took the portal and disappeared. ''... Did I catch him at a bad time?'' Koo Jun-Mo put his head down and let out a deep sigh. When he first arrived, Tako had a dark look. He shouldn''t have brought it up with him. His sense of urgency made him angry. ''If I was confident in my skills... I wouldn''t be like this.'' Koo Jun-Mo turned on the screen he was looking at earlier. He was also watching Almond''s stream and looking at Tako''s face. Tako had already decided to use Almond as the main ADC. It was understandable because even in his eyes, Almond''s skills were out of this world. He was relieved this person could only y in low-tier normal matches. "Sigh." Koo Jun-Mo let out a deep sigh and sat on the bench. It was the same spot where Tako sat earlier. *** Chiiik¡ª? As the sound of the capsule opened, Sang-Hyeon came out looking tired. "... Phew." Ju-Hyeok turned around in his chair by habit and threw him a towel. "LIL siege mode is pretty tiring?" Sang-Hyeon looked more tired than usual because he had yed for six hours straight. Since his y style was aggressive, it took more energy out of himpared to other yers. "I think I get tired easily," Sang-Hyeon muttered powerlessly. "Don''t say that. You did well." "The tournament is going to be way harder..." "I searched it up and apparently even?LIL?pros don''t y for more than eight hours. You did really good." "Okay. Well, if you say so. That''s probably right. I''m going to wash up." Sang-Hyeon massaged his right hand and headed to the bathroom. "Alright..." Ju-Hyeok didn''t look confident. Seeing Sang-Hyeon like that made him feel bad. ''Was the contract with the other streamer... more important...?'' Ju-Hyeok was confused as to what his priority was. The hospital visit with Sang-Hyeon, who he started from the bottom with, or a new opportunity with a different streamer? Logically, the second choice made much more sense because Ji-Ah could go in his ce. However, he still felt guilty because he hadn''t decided logically. During that moment, Ju-Hyeok was selfish and more interested in the opportunity with the new streamer. That was how he felt when he looked back at himself. Shaaaaa... As he heard Sang-Hyeon showering, he looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath. "Sigh..." ¡®Would Sang-Hyeon be able to participate in tournaments that could go on for hours? Why did Miho ask me to be her manager? Even though I know the answer, should I ept so I can be a management CEO in the future? Do I take the chance when it''s given to me? Do I act first?¡¯ "Sigh," he let out a deep breath again. Many questions and emotions weighed down on his chest, but they didn''t disappear. If he could get rid of all his worries with a deep breath, he wouldn''t have even left Ahsung. *** Shaaa... Sang-Hyeon looked down at his body as the hot stream of water poured down on him. Although he hadn''t been doing separate muscle exercisestely, his physique was still firmpared to the average person. With his keen eye for body structure, he could only see a slight deficiency in the muscles of his right arm. There were no issues with the other parts. In fact, his body was fit enough to be featured as a sess story on a gym poster. That was why he felt even more frustrated. ''My body is fine...'' Even though his body was perfectly healthy, he couldn''t exin this peculiar sensation of his brain not keeping up. He couldn''t properly exin to the doctor that the trembling in his right hand wasn''t muscle pain. What more could be said? Suddenly, the doctor''s words about gaming time came back to him. Could it be that he was pushing himself too hard? Sang-Hyeon didn''t feel any pain, just fatigue. Everything would be fine after a good night''s sleep. However, whenever this trembling urred, it was somewhat unsettling. It was a fear that lingered, even if only slightly. ''Do I have to find a solution?'' It was clear that stamina consumption was lower in story mode. Even though it was natural for there to be differences in stamina consumption among capsule games, there was a significant gap between what he knew and what he didn''t know. Now, Sang-Hyeon was almost certain. Even though he didn''t show it, he kept track of his fatigue levels while ying story mode and other games. Now, he had formted a confident hypothesis. ''If I do something I can do in person, my brain doesn''t be exhausted.'' If he only performed actions that were possible in reality, he could use capsules for a longer time. This applied not only to Sang-Hyeon, but also to other yers to some extent. It was said that games that reliedpletely on fantasy-like powers like LIL were much more mentally and physically exhausting than games based on reality. This could be due to sensory fatigue caused by dazzling lights and thunderous sounds or because yers had to exert more mental effort. Sang-Hyeon, however, formed his own hypothesis about it. ''If that''s right... I can extend my y time.'' He was thinking of specific training to extend his ytime. *** [Almond reached Level 20 today! He''s going to take over the world soon!] Ju-Hyeok browsed the LIL Promunity to cool his head. The first post swept away Ju-Hyeok''s worries. "Hahaha!" Taking over the world when Almond only reached Level 20 was funny even for Ju-Hyeok. ¡ª The fanboys are overreacting again, haha ¡ª They''re at it again ¡ª Are the nuts taking over LIL now?! ¡ª LOL, now it''s just funny There were probably peopleughing at the post like Ju-Hyeok, but some people recognized Almond''s skills. ¡ª If we''re looking at Almond¡¯s skills, I''m kind of excited for him at the tournament. ©¸ He''s for sure not a bronze. ©¸ Seeing how he''s destroying everyone in bronze, he''ll probably be t at least. Doesn''t that mean the team is OP? ©¸ Nono, but there''s a conflict of interest in the roles with the highest ranked yer on the team. They still haven''t solved that. ¡ª Isn''t the funniest team Almond''s team? The support is Tako staring him down with his shaved head while the ADC charges in without thinking, and the midne is a goddess... ©¸ LOL, are you writing a poem? ©¸ Are you their PR team? ©¸ If overreacting was a course, you''d get an A+ Of course, more people refused to recognize his skills. Even the best yer in the world, JeonJaPa, had anti-fans. ¡ª Whatever~ SweetRadish is going to win it all~ ©¸ That guy better win. He was a pro like yesterday. ©¸ 3 months ago = yesterday(?) Everyone was expecting SweetRadish to win the tournament. From his research, Ju-Hyeok learned that it wasn''t long since SweetRadish retired from the pro scene. Even during his pro days, SweetRadish did well. He hadn''t won like Tako, but still had an impressive history. ¡ª SweetRadish? In our nut universe, we don''t eat that~ only walnuts, cashews, or peanuts~ ¡ª SweetRadish? We don''t need that side dish here~! ©¸ Does he have a different name for the main dish? ©¸ Of course not, wtf? ©¸ This guy must be new to LIL. He''s probably here because of Almond... wtf do you mean is there a main dish, LOL. ¡ª I eat sweet radishes on the side all the time. Of course, he won''t be able to beat our Almond! ¡ª The Almond fanboys are fighting back using nicknames. So childish. ©¸ They''re probably kids. Almond and SweetRadish fans were already fighting, but this was great for Almond. The good news was that a normal person was beingpared to a previous professional yer. "If the public is on our side today, it''ll be perfect." They were gaining more viewers as well and slowly finding their ce in LIL. Bzzzt... [Manager Oh] Manager Oh was calling. It was rare for him to call at this hour. Ju-Hyeok quickly picked up. He replied in a serious, but excited tone after listening for a while, "... Did that really work?" ¡°It''s thanks to Almond having a good image. Congrattions.¡± Ju-Hyeok felt relieved. Before he added another streamer under his umbre, his gift for Sang-Hyeon had arrived. With this, he''d feel a little better. Chapter 165: Light and Shadow (6)

    Chapter 165: Light and Shadow (6)

    Ju-Hyeok got up, stretched, and ate toast for breakfast the next morning. Wipe. Wipe. With skilled movements, he did the dishes as well. Now it was a routine part of his daily life. There was one more thing about how he started his day''s work. He put on his slippers and headed out to the yard. Ju-Hyeok lit a cigarette and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "Phew." As he saw the white smoke fade into the air with his sleepy eyes, he smiled shyly. "This is the life." A natural smile formed on his face because everything was working out. He checked his texts again in disbelief. [Ju-Hyeok: Then I''ll see you on the meeting date.] [Manager Oh: Alright. Look closely at the contract and see what you need to change.] [Ju-Hyeok: Yes!] Ju-Hyeok was waiting for Sang-Hyeon to return from a run to tell him the news because it was confirmed, but there was even more news. Bling. [Ji-Ah: I''ve uploaded the video] Another video was uploaded today. It had been two days in a row since yesterday morning. [Ju-Hyeok: What the? Already?] [Ji-Ah: Story mode was like Kingdom Age from back then, so it was easy.] ¡®Ah, it was story mode.¡¯ Ju-Hyeok brushed past his hair. ''It''s time.'' These videos would have a huge influence. [LILmond | Raina''s Story #1 - Who am I? Where am I?] [LILmond | Raina''s Story #2 - Minion''s true identity!?] [LILmond | Raina''s Story #3 - The first in the country to get three stars!] Ju-Hyeok read the title of the third video and was impressed by her ability to attract viewers. It was truly the best title while using only facts. Even so, YouTube viewers were in disbelief. ¡ª Really? ¡ª You''re lying. ¡ª First in Korea??? Really?? ¡ª Isn''t this fake news? ©¸ No, it''s not. ¡ª (Deletedment) Ju-Hyeok tried to fight back in thements on his alternative ount and erased the negative ones on his main ount. Thanks to that, the views of the videos continued to go up. At first, it went up by 10k and 20k. In one hour, it went up by 200k. "... We did it again." Ju-Hyeok stared at the YouTube page with his jaws dropped. They got into the charts once again. #Trending Videos #Currently Hot 29th The YouTube hashtags started to appear on the video. It was 29th in the video game category. If this continued, there would be more neers from the videos, snowballing into even more. Soon afterward¡­ [Views 301] #11th It easily reached the top rankings and there weren''t many negativements this time around. ¡ª Kissing Raina was so touching... ¡ª So this guy is Almond... I''m subscribing starting today. He''s so good! ¡ª He''s good with the knife too! ¡ª Wow... 15:39, this is the climax. ©¸ For real ©¸ It''s like an actual movie. LIL''s bnce patch is shit, but you must credit them for this. ¡ª I can''t believe they hid something like this for three stars. ©¸ For real. ¡ª Fucking Police. How are we supposed to kill minions now that we''ve seen this? ©¸ For real... ©¸ Hey! If you don''t do your homework, you''ll be a minion! ©¸ I can''t let my daughter get married to a minion! Please leave! ©¸ I''ll be back! ©¸ What the hell are you guys on about ©¸ Is this a Netflix show? The viewers were touched, angry, and impressed after watching Almond y as a minion during Raina''s past. It brought a smile to Ju-Hyeok''s face, seeing the people enjoy the video in their own way. The only negativements he could find were people jealous of Raina kissing Almond. ¡ª What the fuck? You can actually kiss her?! ¡ª Raina... ¡ª My Raina betrayed me... ¡ª R-Raina! I''ll rescue you!! ¡ª We, her fans, are going to run you over!! ¡ª Take back Raina from Almond (0/10000) ©¸ I want in. ©¸ Every Korean should. NO Almond. ©¸ NO Almond! ©¸ LOL ©¸ NO Almond!! Sometimes, some people weren''t joking and went too far. Thankfully not in this channel though. ¡ª Wait, do you know how much money I spent on Raina? How did this guy, who spent nothing, get so lucky, clear three stars, and get a reward like this? I think we really need to do something about him. ©¸ For real. It pisses me off. ©¸ Why did they even make a gifting mechanism then? Fuck thispany. "..." Ju-Hyeok took back his statement. Even on Almond''s channel, some fans were overreacting. He could hear Sang-Hyeon behind him, "What''s that? Why are they so angry?" Sang-Hyeon was drinking a sports drink, drenched in sweat from his morning exercise. "Yeah, you''re back?" "Yeah. What are they talking about? Why do they hate me?" "You really don''t know?" "Because I cleared three stars first?" "Kind of." "What is it?" "Because you kissed Raina..." "?" Sang-Hyeon was confused and brushed it off, "Oh, they''re just joking." Ju-Hyeok wanted to tell him they weren''t, but he shut his mouth. It was probably better for Sang-Hyeon to think they were joking. "Anyways, thank goodness we''re in the slums. They won''t be able to find us here." Ju-Hyeok was relieved for the first time that they lived in Hoogye. ''Ah, I have to tell him about the ad.'' Ju-Hyeok was about to tell Almond about the ad Manager Oh was talking about. However... "Don''t we have any soft tofu stew or anything today?" Ju-Hyeok couldn''t believe what he was hearing. "What...?" Was he asking Ju-Hyeok if they had food? This guy, who always chewed on almonds, was asking him for food? "... Guess nothing." Sang-Hyeon saw Ju-Hyeok''s confused look and thought he was telling him there wasn''t any food and headed towards his room. "W-Wait. I don''t have any soft tofu stew, but I can make some kimchi stew." Ju-Hyeok quickly grabbed him. If he lost this opportunity, he would be stuck making breakfast for the rest of his life or having to eat almond kes. "Kimchi stew? We have kimchi at home?" *** "Wee to Oh Gang-Woo''s ten-thousand-year-old, traditional kimchi stew!" Ju-Hyeok brought him to Oh Gang-Woo''s kimchi stew restaurant. "... I was just going to eat whatever we had at home." "Just go in. Do you know how many coupons we have for this ce? We have to use it all. I hear we get extra food during lunchtime as well." "I guess you''re right..." Sang-Hyeon couldn''t say no to free coupons and grabbed a table inside. "Speaking of ads." "... Ah, yeah?" "Manager Oh contacted me." Sang-Hyeon''s gaze turned from the menu to Ju-Hyeok after hearing Manager Oh''s name. It was because he was concerned about something these days. "Manager Oh got an ad for us by himself." "By himself? Why?" ¡®Yeah, why did he?¡¯ Ju-Hyeok also thought it was odd as well. If you give this contract a good chance, I''ll try to get an ad for you guys. Is there something you want? The first one to make the suggestion was Manager Oh. Manager Oh offered them an ad for Ju-Hyeok to be Miho''s manager and for Sang-Hyeon to participate in the tournament. Of course, it won''t be through mypany. That''s my usual job. I''ll try to find it using outside connections. Manager Oh was even going through the trouble of using his connections to find them something. This meant that he was not only doing it for free, but was personally helping them out. Ju-Hyeok could onlye to one conclusion. "I think Manager Oh is looking to branch off on his own." "... On his own?" It meant that he would leave thepany to start his own practice. Ju-Hyeok predicted it would be an entertainmentpany. "Yeah. Why do you think he''s so secretive about his rtionship with Bubblegum''spany?" "Bubblegum''spany? Wouldn''t that be just switchingpanies?" "Hmm... I think he''s going into theirpany as a partner, and branching off on his own." Being co-owner of apany was close to having an individual practice. "Wow. What a career." Sang-Hyeon nodded while ordering a nine-thousand hell stew. He could sense it since Manager Oh was looking for a recement for Bubblegum''s team. However, that wasn''t enough to go off of. Working at Punk was already an impressive career. Branching off individually had big risks of its own. Sang-Hyeon wasn''t convinced just yet. "And he rmended me to be Miho''s manager." "!?" So that was it. Miho was under Bubblegum''spany and a partnered streamer with Punk. Punk was like entertainment, but being partnered with a game distributorpany was entirely different. "... Then whatpany are you going to be in?" . "I''ll be like half and half. It looks like in this industry, no one''s tied down to onepany." "True. Ahsung was just old school. These days, everyone''s like that." Sang-Hyeon nked out from hearing this news all at once. Ju-Hyeok being in charge of other streamers was only a matter of time, but it came quicker than he thought. That streamer was none other than Miho, a very popr streamer. "So... are you going to do it?" Ju-Hyeok shook his head. "I don''t know yet." "Did you tell that to Manager Oh as well?" "Hey! Are you doubting me? I said the same thing to him." "But you said Manager Oh got something for us..." Ju-Hyeok nodded as if he agreed with Sang-Hyeon. "That must mean Manager Oh is already leaning toward the other side." "Then what''s going to happen to the partnership with Punk? What about Bubblegum''s side?" "We have nothing to do with it. This is a matter between Bubblegum''s entertainmentpany and Punk. I don''t think they''ll kick out everyone from Bubblegum''s team just because Manager Oh quit. I think the partnership will stay." Sang-Hyeon got goosebumps. He thought it was ruthless whether it was Ahsung, Punk, or Bubblegum''s entertainmentpany. Survival in every industry was difficult. If there were individuals who were sought after, everyone went for them. There was no choice but to be ruthless... ''They must want Ju-Hyeok too. They did like him from the beginning.'' Wherever there was light, there were shadows. Especially in an industry where stars rose, the stronger the light, the darker the shadow. "So what''s the ad?" Sang-Hyeon tried to focus on the light for now. As long as he could bnce it, he felt like everything would pass by without anything significant happening. Ju-Hyeok smiled as he asked about the ad. "Should I say, as expected from Manager Oh? He brought something special." Ju-Hyeok''s email was full of random ads and small-time offers consisting of clothing brands, supplements, fried chicken restaurants¡­ Manager Oh knew very well that these types of ads were useless. "It''s a video ad for almond cereal." "... Oh?" It was an almond cereal ad and the most famous brand. "Thepany is based out of the country. The most famous one." "Green Diamond?" Sang-Hyeon asked with disbelief in his eyes. "Yeah. The one you always eat." "Wow...!" Sang-Hyeon made the happiest face he could make. Chapter 166: Gift (1)

    Chapter 166: Gift (1)

    An advertisement for Green Diamond? He found it even harder to believe than when he met Bubblegum. What seemed like a normal part of life, something he consumed without much thought, now felt as distant from reality as the sun and the Earth. He was aware of that disparity. However, things had changed now. Beyond his acquaintance with Bubblegum, he received an invitation from a streamer he was friends with to participate in a tournament. And now, Green Diamond wanted to make an advertisement with him. ''How is this possible...'' He felt dazed as if something heavy kept striking his head. Strangely, it didn''t hurt at all. Instead, it brought about an indescribable and pleasant sensation. "It''s true that we received offers for almonds before." . Ad offers to Ju-Hyeok had be nothing more than spam emails. There were so many of them that he had to be cautious in his selection. Especially when it came to almond-rted advertisements, he had to be particrly careful. Their brands would be closely intertwined as it was directly associated with Sang-Hyeon¡¯s streamer name and connected to food. That was why Ju-Hyeok wanted to choose the best, the toppany for this special opportunity. He was able to secure it through a deal with Manager Oh. "You know this one is different out of all those advertisements, right?" "Of course, it''s different. Green Diamond is..." Sang-Hyeon continued to nod. "It''s the most famouspany out of almond cereal kes, and they also make almond milk." "That''s right. It''s not even an ad where you eat it a couple of times. It''s amercial ad like we did at Fantasia." It wasn''t just a simple sponsorship arrangement. It wasn''t a one-time food mukbang event either. It was an advertisement where Sang-Hyeon would be the model for the brand. This kind of opportunity greatly enhanced his external image and offered significant pay in terms ofpensation. "This is a result of us declining all the small-time ads. It''s important to keep a good brand image for yourself." Indeed, it was true. Thanks to notpromising his image with small and insignificant advertisements and instead building it up carefully, these significant opportunities were nowing his way. Initially, Sang-Hyeon thought epting even small-scale advertisements to grow quickly would be beneficial. However, Ju-Hyeok''s words proved to be right. This guy knew how to envision the bigger picture. Having secured the Green Diamond advertisement, Ju-Hyeok was undoubtedly right in Sang-Hyeon''s eyes. "Yeah, you''re right. You did well." Sang-Hyeon admitted defeat. In the face of the Green Diamond advertisement, what more could he say? In this moment of victory, Ju-Hyeok unexpectedly felt a surge of excitement. It was because a certain thought crossed his mind. ''Wait... he just started eating proper meals.'' If Sang-Hyeon received more cereal aspensation, how much more would he eat? Now Ju-Hyeok didn''t even have a good reason to stop him. ''Green Diamond gave us this opportunity! The least we can do is eat their product! And it''s free!'' If Sang-Hyeon said that to Ju-Hyeok, he wouldn¡¯t be able to reply. ''Ah... Shit.'' *** Manager Oh invited Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon to a shared office the next day. It was a shared space with different businesses that could use it by renting it out, but it was very neat. "This is the ce I usuallye to for personal stuff..." Manager Oh told Sang-Hyeon as he tapped on his shoulder. "Isn''t this a dreame true?" "Sorry?" "You, Almond. Your dream. I hear you love almond cereal." "Ah, haha. That''s right." As they pressed the floor button in the elevator on their way to the meeting room, Manager Oh added an exnation after noticing the broad smile on Sang-hyun''s face. Even those who didn''t know Sang-hyun well could tell that something good must have happened to him today. "It will be a little less pay than from Fantasia." It was about the advertisement. "You know that these daysmercials are divided into sub-channel, major channel, and all channels, right?" "Yes." "Thismercial is for the sub-channel. Themercial fromst time for Lazy Soldier was for the major channel. Since there was also a character contract, the pay was high." As the format of TV broadcasting crumbled, the era of calcting TV ad rates by tform and YouTube ad rates had ended. The division of tiers by tform was no longer meaningful. Instead, advertising agencies now differentiated between major channels and sub-channels based on viewership. The criteria were simple. Channels with arge viewership were considered major channels, whether they were TV entertainment programs or individual broadcasts. Advertisers identified their target audience within these major channels based on age, gender, hobbies, and other factors to tailor their approach ordingly. Sub-channels referred to rtively smaller channels that followed the same advertising approach. Although they had fewer viewers, targeting niche audiences with unique interests could lead to higher loyalty. The all-channel system epassed all channels andmanded the highest ad rates. The previous advertisement for Lazy Soldier targeted major and sub-channels as it was a mass-produced mobile RPG. However, the advertisement for the almond cereal was surprisingly focused on sub-channels. "But what''s the point of a cerealpany targetting sub-channels?" "Well, not all themercials are going to the sub-channel. Just the version you''re doing." "Ah..." "You''re not that famous in the major scene yet, but I feel like that day isn''t far away." Almond''s poprity was still low. However, if he was ssified within the realm of Treevy''s game broadcasts, which were generally categorized as sub-channels, his recognition could be higher than that of mainstream celebrities. In such cases, there was often a phenomenon of high loyalty among viewers. Green Diamond aimed to capitalize on this phenomenon. This advertisement was impactful when viewers already knew what made Almond so special. The decision was made based on the judgment that it would be futile to distribute the advertisement to those who were unfamiliar with Almond. Ding. The elevator arrived at the meeting room floor. "Let''s head in." Ju-Hyeok walked forward while fixing his suit. *** A picture of Almond was floating on the screen in the center of the office. One person stuck his finger inside the hologram and asked, "I hear the person chosen this time is a streamer. Is he that person?" "That''s what I heard. The higher-ups already made a decision." "Wow. I guess streamers are what''s hot these days." "They were on the rise for thest ten years, and after capsule gaming... the word celebrity basically disappeared." "I used to be good at games too back in the day." Smack. The man with the funny look smacked his lips. "Oh gosh. Why don''t you try picking it back up? I hear he quit his office job and started video game streaming. Apparently, he''s gotten really big in just a month." "... Still, why would I quit a ce like Green Diamond to be a streamer?" "Yeah,pared to other workces, we''re usually on top. The work is easy and the pay is good. You''re just having the time of your life, right?" "Yes! Yes! I love it!" "This fool..." Green Diamond had recently entered the Korean market as a multinational foodpany, but it was apany where opportunities were everywhere due to the frequency of securing major deals or expanding its presence. Thepany was still seen as a lucrative opportunity for salespeople. The person in front, Manager Lee, should have been at the level of a supervisor based on his age, but was already promoted to be the department manager. Manager Lee murmured while looking at the various screens around him, "Anyways... we''ve spent a lot of money on this..." "Ah... That''s right. Good work on getting Actor Son on this." "We''re going to have to cut back on someone." "Hmm..." Although loosely referred to as the sales team, their role was quite the opposite of traditional sales. They were responsible for assigning tasks rather than bringing in business. Their goal was to allocate as many tasks as possible within a limited budget. However, a significant amount of money was spent in a recent negotiation, causing the need for price adjustments elsewhere to save as much of the budget as possible. Among the current advertising listings, the one that caught their eye was... "Hmm... If we''re cutting back, wouldn''t this guy be the best?" Streamer Almond. "This guy seems the easiest. Since streamers don''t usually get advertisements like this, they won''t be able to negotiate very well." The manager nodded. "Right? How much are we offering?" "50 million won." "Let''s not take a step away from that amount. Just set the mood as if we can''t make adjustments to the amount at all. y it like we''re just here to make a deal." "Hmm... Will that work?" "This guy." Manager Lee smiled and put his arm around him. "You don''t know anything, do you?" Fwhip. His thumb pointed somewhere behind his shoulder. "?" There was a staff from overseas visiting, sitting down looking over documents. "Nathan?" "Call him Wielsma now." "Ah... We''re pretty close." "Anyways, he''s now Wielsma." "?" Manager Leeughed out loud. "You can''t imagine how easy it''ll be for us to negotiate if we use those foreigners." "Really?" "Yeah. They''re here for work anyway and under my management, so I''ll show you how to use them. Watch and learn carefully." *** "Come in." When they entered the meeting room, three people were waiting. Two normal-looking men and one foreigner for some reason. "Hello." Even though his pronunciation was a bit unclear, he understood Korean etiquette and customs. He stood up and bowed as a sign of respect. Seeing that Manager Oh introduced them in Korean, it seemed there wouldn''t be any issues understanding each other. "Oh¡­ You¡¯re Almond. I''ve watched you ying Battle Large several times. Nice to meet you in person. (English)" It seemed like he had to use English for long sentences. The Korean person beside him was a trantor. "He said it''s an honor to see you in person after seeing your streams." "Ah, thank you." Sang-Hyeon replied awkwardly and sat in front of the table. ''This...'' Ju-Hyeok tapped Sang-Hyeon on the shoulder. Sang-Hyeon nodded as well. They couldn''t whisper since they were with clients, but they got the message by exchanging looks. ''It''s simr to before.'' They had experienced this before. Just because it was an overseaspany didn¡¯t mean they had no reason to be here. "It hasn''t been long since Green Diamond has expanded to Korea, so our higher-ups are still foreigners. We''re sorry for the inconvenience, but I''ll help trante." They made an excuse, but... ''They''re doing it on purpose.'' When they were at Ahsung, they experienced this several times. Koreanpanies often had difficulty expressing their opinions properly in front of foreigners who spoke English. Taking advantage of this, many ces conducted important presentations and discussions in English. It felt less burdensomepared to conducting them in Korean. Even with the use of interpreters, the negotiations didn''t proceed smoothly due to the cushioning effect provided by the trantor. Strangely enough, the side using English gained an advantage in such cases. Foreignpanies dealing with Asian counterparts were aware of this and actively exploited it. They purposely pretended not to understand Asian-ented English or put pressure on intimidating expressions. This could be demoralizing even for someone proficient in English because they were dealing with a foreigner. Proficiency in English and conducting negotiations in thatnguage were two different issues. At Ahsung, when a new employee joined, they first corrected their English starting with their ent. It served as a good way to train their subordinates. Even if they came from a study-abroad background and were good at English, they tended to be disheartened once senior employees started picking on their ents and using inappropriate vocabry in certain situations. However, one person easily survived the rigorous training from those senior employees. He was born in Georgia, USA and only spent his school years in Korea before returning to pursue his graduate studies in the United States. He was fluent in academic English as well as everyday English. His major was not domestic trade, but international trade. He also earned his master''s degree in the United States. This guy was sitting beside Sang-Hyeon right now. Kim Ju-Hyeok opened his mouth, "Actually... (English)" Chapter 167: Gift (2)

    Chapter 167: Gift (2)

    The first thing Sang-Hyeon heard when he first came to Ahsung was, "I''ll be informal with you." It was normal there to speak without greetings. They were even more intense than senior figures in the sports industry. It took him by surprise. However, Sang-Hyeon quickly understood the dynamics of the ce. No, perhaps he understood the way society as a whole operated. "Are you good at English?" "No... not at all..." "... What about Korean?" "Sorry?" "Do you not know how to speak Korean either? Why can''t you talk properly?" "I''m sorry." "You better learn to speak properly. This isn''t school." "Yes, sir." "Do you think we can have mimunication when there are millions on the line with every click?" "No, sir." The neers who entered had to quickly adapt and adjust. It was a situation where they had to suppress their excitement. No other expression could adequately rece the saying, ''Taming the road.'' This ce was like a modern-day wilderness. Untamed livestock would devour the humans. It was to avoid being consumed, to survive. "Here." Tok. The supervisor threw a textbook that was all in English. "Memorize this in six months. You''ll hear these terminologies more than you''ll see your own food." He looked at the crumpled book. It was filled with business terminologies in English. It was all printed out one by one and held together with a simple cover. The author was... ''Park Tae-Hyun.'' It was the supervisor standing in front of him. "Yes, sir." He was bullied more than the others because he had no college degree and got the job through connections. Thankfully, it wasn''t just Sang-Hyeon getting treated this way. "Fuuuck. How does this make sense? Why are they making us memorize all of this? They''re doing it on purpose, right?" "They didn''t even do this back in 2020..." "Maybe it''s catching on again." Three guys and one girlined while smoking. "They suddenly spoke to me in English. Fuck, I couldn''t understand a single term even though I studied overseas." "Me too... even their pronunciation is good..." "It''s like trade lingo, right? I don''t think studying overseas is enough to understand it. Maybe if you studied it as a major or something..." The neers found thenguage barrier hard to ovee and felt discouraged. Almost every neer in every department was having trouble with it, all except one. "Hey, Ju-Hyeok. I think you need toe take a look at this!" "Ah, yes sir, Supervisor Kim!" Tak. One worker finished his cigarette and ran off. Only one worker got things done while others couldn''t. *** He was once again pulling off something impressive in front of Sang-Hyeon, speaking fluent sentences with an upper-ss ent. His eloquence didn''t sound like something he had learned superficially. It gave off the impression of a well-developed linguistic ability. The other person seemed to be taken aback. ¡°Actually, you won¡¯t need that trantor beside you. You can talk to me directly, Mr. ...¡± ¡°Wielsma.¡± ¡°Ok, Mr. Wielsma. Nice to meet you. I¡¯m his manager, Kim.¡± The first thing Ju-Hyeok did was clear the annoying trantor away. He wanted to get rid of their shield. ¡°First of all. Thanks for the great opportunity. We really appreciate your offer. However...¡± After expressing gratitude for the opportunity, he went straight to the point. When it came to the main topic, it inevitably involved a proposed amount that was rtively low. This wouldn''t make him feel good, of course. It was always natural for the initial offer to be on the lower side. Foreignpanies, in particr, were known for their intense price negotiations. It was just a process that had to be gone through. Sang-Hyeon, who was observing, couldn''t help but be thankful that Ju-Hyeok hadn''t used those negotiation skills against him in determining their own value. Ju-Hyeok was like a giant serpent at the negotiation table. The other party was an armed individual who had just lost their interpreter as a shield. They were left to face Ju-Hyeok alone, wielding only their own sword. It was an overwhelming sight for anyone watching. The unfortunate foreign mercenary was a militia member who couldn''t properly wield their sword. Sang-Hyeon''s gaze shifted to the remaining two employees behind him. ''Actually... they¡¯re the main yers.'' He recognized that they had fallen into the trap. The foreigner wasn''t in charge, nor were they adequately prepared. They had been bound by the serpent''s coils without exerting significant force, helplessly withering to the bone. Swiftly, Ju-Hyeok wrote the desired numbers on the contract. *** "Phew." The long talk was over. The employees of Green Diamond left with dark looks on their faces. "What are we going to do about our budget..." "Man, I don''t know!" Ju-Hyeok looked at his watch and smiled. "... That took what, an hour?" "Ju-Hyeok... I didn''t think you''d be so good?" Manager Oh, sitting beside them, was impressed. "I was just born in the US. That''s all." "N-No, your English was great, but... you knew all of their patterns!" "Ju-Hyeok studied for his masters in the US as well. His studies were also in that area... so he''s bright when ites to it." Manager Oh was impressed during Fantasia''s negotiation, but this time he was surprised. It was understandable because he witnessed for the first time how incredible Ju-Hyeok was when he did his main job. "When I worked in the office, I was in charge of internationals." "Wow, I see. Sang-Hyeon, are you good at English as well?" "No, I can only listen and talk a little. Just basic conversation..." Since Sang-Hyeon got his office job through connections, he studied hard to improve his English. As a result, he was somewhat proficient at it. Unlike Ju-Hyeok though, he couldn''t continue long conversations or express himself freely. It was like a dream for him to speak like Ju-Hyeok. Roll. While Sang-Hyeon was impressed by Ju-Hyeok''s abilities, he looked at the contract again. [70,000,000 won] It was a higherpensation than his pay from the Lazy Soldier advertisement even though it was a lower-tier advertisement for the sub-channel. ''I''m worth more now.'' The words Ju-Hyeok had said came to mind. They received numerous advertising proposals, and they would eventually be the big shot in this industry. That meant they would be giants in the industry. Sang-Hyeon wasn''t sure of the exact tone to use that term, but if he were to think about the English that Ju-Hyeok had learned, it seemed like an excessive expression for an individual streamer. ''I''m confident in my headshot...'' A smile formed on Sang-Hyeon''s lips. It could turn out to be an excessive expression, but it didn''t displease him. *** Sang-Hyeon and Ju-Hyeok loosened their ties as they opened the building window. "Aaaargh!" Ju-Hyeok let out his pent-up scream. The people walking stared at them, but because this was a financial street, it didn''t seem that weird for workers to cheer after a sessful business. Sang-Hyeon also put his arms in the air, "Yeaaaaaah!" They screamed inughter and double-checked the amount on their contract. It was 70 million won. "Are you sure you''re a streamer? Not somemercial model?!" Ju-Hyeok wasn''t wrong. Sang-Hyeon''s ad revenue was getting higher than his streaming revenue. "This is all because I''ve taken good care of my image, alright?" "Alright, alright." Sang-Hyeon nodded with a smirk. His image and the way other people viewed him. His personality, his looks, and everything about him... They allbined to create an illusion, or as others would call it, an image. It was the most important thing for a streamer. ''So this is what Acorn Jelly was talking about.'' Acorn Jelly told Almond in the past that his image would pay off in the major scene. There was something Manager Oh also said during their meeting as well. Having worked for arge corporation... That''s something our people here really appreciate. Even the person who opened the door to the streaming market in our country had a significant impact because they came from a corporate background. While saying that, Manager Oh added that it was rtively easy for him to get advertisements for Almond. After all, advertisements were ultimately meant to positively affect apany''s image. In the streaming market, Sang-Hyeon''s image perfectly suited suchpanies. ''Ahsung... it was a good ce.'' He always thought that in moments like this. Despite enduring so much pain and considering quitting several times a day, there was a sense of fulfillment in persevering and staying there. Somehow, it had be one of the pirs supporting the current Sang-Hyeon. Where else could he have met Ju-Hyeok if not there? At that moment¡­ [Editor Seo Ji-Ah] Bzzt. A call came from Sang-Hyeon''s phone. "... Ji-Ah?" It was rare for her to call, especially during this time. Sang-Hyeon scratched his head and picked up the call. "Hey, Ji-Ah. What''s up?" ¡°A big deal!!¡± "A big deal?!" Ju-Hyeok panicked upon hearing that. ¡°First... we''re first!¡± "... First?" He was confused as to what they had gotten first in. Since it was Ji-Ah, it could only mean one thing. ''YouTube?'' Maybe he was really going to be a big shot after all. *** Just like there were music rankings for music tforms, there were also video rankings on YouTube. The rankings only included videos that were uploaded in thest three days. Today was the second day that Ji-Ah uploaded a video. [1.27 million] They reached 1.27 million views on their second day already. Beneath the video were the following hashtags: #Game #Trending #Rank 1 Trending Video It was just like Ji-Ah said. They were really number one. ¡ª Congrats on hitting number one!!! ¡ª Finally! Almond is finally world-ss! ¡ª Wow, he finally reached first. He was really moving up these days. ¡ª Almond''s so cute~ The most recentments were talking about it as well. People were starting to notice. ¡ª WTF? First one to clear Raina''s story? ¡ª Okay, this video deserves to be number one ¡ª Raina... does Almond hitting first make you feel better? ¡ª I watched it because it was trending. But is that really the streamer? He''s so good-looking... ©¸ He''s even better looking in person. I saw him on the train. ¡ª Wow, this guy is good. First time seeing him. ¡ª Hey, is this the guy that beat JeonJaPa''s record? Wow, he''s beating everyone''s records. ¡ª Record-breaker Almond Because the video was the number one trending, there were a lot of new viewers. Like a snowball, the number of views exponentially increased by the minute. The most interesting thing was the topment. ¡ª He did it first... A simplement had an overwhelming number of likes. After seeing thements'' replies, one could understand why it was the topment. ©¸ Is that really JeonJaPa??? ©¸ It''s really him!! ©¸ JeonJaPa? Why are youing out here?! ©¸ Holy... is that really him? ©¸ Please stream again!! ©¸ I hear he has health problems... ©¸ JeonJaPa is giving Almond a shout-out?! . The topment was from the pro yer who set new records in every tournament, JeonJaPa. ''Holy shit...'' Sang-Hyeon''s eyes couldn''t believe it. He received ament from the all-time greatest. No wonder this became a hot topic. It was like Messimenting on a ser yer or Michael Jordanmenting on a basketball yer. Thousands of people came to watch the video just to see thement. [LIVE: JeonJaPa gave Almond a shout-out...] [LIVE: JeonJaPa appearing in thements for Almond?!] Entire YouTube videos were being created just because of thisment. These videos naturally gave a brief rundown of who Almond was. Almond was getting free marketing from this onement. ¡ª This is the first time I''m hearing about him. He''s pretty fun to watch! ¡ª Wow, Almond''s really good. No wonder JeonJaPamented. ¡ª Damn. ¡ª Our oppa is the best! The marketing was effective and helped Almond''s video reach number one. ''Is this Raina''s present?'' He felt proud trying so hard in the story mode. Chapter 168: Silver vs. Master (1)

    Chapter 168: Silver vs. Master (1)

    They were on their way back home after their sessful negotiation. Finally, they could talk about their achievement of being ranked first on YouTube. As expected, the main topic of discussion was thements from online users. "There''s like ten new replies every time I refresh." "It''s that much?" They never thought JeonJaPa''s influence would be this great. ''Now that I think about it, I don¡¯t know about him.'' After arriving home, Ju-Hyeok immediately sat in front of theputer and researched JeonJaPa. While reading through the information on Wikipedia, he adjusted his sses. He murmured, "Hey, it''s true JeonJaPa had a significant impact on the gaming industry, but his greatest contribution was to the domestic streaming market." "... Really?" "Yeah. Since that guy appeared, the image of game streamers improved significantly and the average viewership increased tenfold." It was true that there was a time when having more than 10,000 live viewers was considered the highest level. Sang-Hyeon nodded his head. ''So that''s what happened after JeonJaPa appeared.'' Due to the poprity of online users, people''s attention momentarily shifted to capsule games and rted streams. In fact, Sang-Hyeon was one of those who discovered game streaming for the first time during that period. He didn''t know then that it was because of JeonJaPa. "I didn''t pay much attention so I didn''t know, but this guy was quite the looker himself." On Ju-Hyeok''s monitor was arge picture of JeonJaPa''s upper body. It was the face Sang-Hyeon always saw on broadcast while learning about LIL. It was an aesthetically pleasing face. With that face and being the world''s best in gaming, it was natural that he would skyrocket in poprity. Ironically, even Sang-Hyeon, who was focused on work at thepany, knew who JeonJaPa was to some extent. But... ''... Hmm?'' A strange sense of unease washed over him. The more he looked at the face, the more he felt it. Amid his wavering thoughts, Ju-Hyeok blurted out something unrted, "I don''t think you can turn into JeonJaPa, but maybe a value version of JeonJaPa." "What are you talking about?" The current difference between JeonJaPa and Almond was indescribable. "What? You can be the JeonJaPa of streamers or something. You''re good-looking and have a background that the public likes. If you score big advertisements on the major channel, you''ll easily get ten billion won... huh? Hehehe..." As soon as Ju-Hyeok started talking about money, heughed weirdly. Ten billion in a month would make anyoneugh. "JeonJaPa earns that much?" "Ten billion might be a little exaggerated, but... he earns to the point where numbers are meaningless. Apparently, he has five sports cars and an enormous house. There are even rumors that hees from a wealthy background." "Hey... you''re rich too." "You can''t evenpare him to me. Apparently, he''s as rich as in the movies." ¡®As rich as in the movies¡­¡¯ Sang-Hyeon felt that before from that woman. He scanned JeonJaPa''s face again. ''Hmm...'' He felt that the passing face of that woman resembled the man on the screen. Although they rarely spoke, the cheerful and lively atmosphere of the streamer and the dark, somber atmosphere of the woman from before were quite different. However, they did have a simr appearance. ''Are they siblings?'' The woman he met was also rich. If JeonJaPa came from a wealthy background as well, there was a chance that they were siblings because being that rich was rare. They also looked simr. ''What if they are siblings?'' Of course, he knew nothing about JeonJaPa''s family rtionship. It was none of his business. He simply thought that he could express gratitude for thement if they ever ran into each other. Sang-Hyeon decided to focus on what he had to do. The tournament was the most important thing right now. He had to start implementing the training program he devised from today onwards to achieve that. "Hey, I''m going to work out a little in the courtyard." "... Hm? In the courtyard?" "Yeah. A new training." "Sure." Sang-Hyeon stepped into the courtyard, turned on a YouTube video, and started exercising. Strangely, all the movements were focused solely on his left arm. Swish. Swish. Moreover, the exercises focused more on performance than typical strength training. It was almost reminiscent of swordsmanship. ''What is he doing? Does he think he''s still ying video games?'' While adjusting the curtains, Ju-Hyeok watched that scene and tilted his head in confusion. Despite watching for a while, Sang-Hyeon didn''t perform any other exercises. He simply swung his left arm vigorously or suddenly dashed in a different direction, performing movements that made him look like a crazy person. ''It does look like a hard workout.'' One thing was for sure, the exercise didn''t look easy. *** Tap. The woman ced a tablet on her knees and said, "I can at least do this much activity, right?" "..." The butler didn''t like it, but it was only a couple of months ago when she pestered him to go into the capsule. Compared to then, this was doable. ''Unless thedy has changed her tactics.'' He wasn''t sure what she was up to, but ignoring it was a good idea. "It doesn''t matter, but there will be articles. You know the influence you have in that industry, right?" "Of course~ I''m still popr~" He hadn''t seen her this happy in a long time. Even with that fact alone, it was worth ignoring the issue. "Are you interested in that person?" "Yeah." The butler stared at the woman in surprise. The woman just looked at him with a smile. "I like anyone who''s good." Bling. A notification appeared on thement she made. [Almond liked yourment.] ''Sometimes I don''t.'' Her eyes turned toward the dark room. It was where the capsule was. Bling. Another notification popped up. [Almond has started streaming.] The girl clicked on the notification out of habit. "... You can go now. I''m going to watch the stream." "... Alright." With hundreds of other spectators, she was part of the first wave of viewers. ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª AlHa! ¡ª AlHahahha~~ ¡ª Almond!! ¡ª Wow! Streaming! The happy messages from the viewers appeared. The woman just stared into the screen. ¡°Hi, Treevy~!¡± As always, Almond cheerfully greeted them. When she saw him at the hospital, he was a lot more calm... The woman scratched her head in confusion. ¡°I think I mastered Sana already yesterday¡­¡± Almond spoke as if he had something different prepared for today''s stream. ¡ª ??? ¡ª True ¡ª Taunting us already?! ¡ª You didn''t even do her story mode yet! Get her rapport level to 100! ¡ª Do Sana''s story mode, please! ¡°It''s true I didn''t do the story mode, but... it''s too long to do before the tournament. And to learn a new skill... is a lot of work. Besides, Sana''s rapport goes up pretty easily.¡± ¡ª That''s only for you... ¡ª Just for you! ¡ª Sana does go up pretty easily, but not as well as yours. ¡°Since I had some money left over, I bought more champions.¡± Almond showed the champions he purchased from the shop on his stream. He purchased four more. While Almond was showing the champions, the screen started shaking. The woman''s hands were slightly trembling.