Chapter 101: Reaction (3)
The viewers felt shocked as Almond aimed his bow.
— Almond, we know you're crazy, but this is too much!
— Killing himself in a diamond promo match??
— What a man!
— He's ending the stream now?!
— Wow...
— But why isn't he shooting above his head?
— 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.
— !?
— What the!
— Damn!
— Wow!
— Holy crap!
Thwack!
It perfectly struck the back of Almond's head.
— This guy is crazy!
— Insane!
— Wow!
— It worked!?
— I can't believe it.
[10th]
The text appeared and his screen turned black.
[The stream has ended.]
— ???
— Wait, so did he reach diamond or not?
— At least show us the results!
— Wow, he really left.
— 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 welcomed him with the following text:
[Diamond V]
He reached Diamond V and had been successfully 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—?
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 even complimented 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 glasses. "Sigh, that's a joke?"
"... Why do you sound upset."
"That wasn't a joke. It was the perfect finish for the up-and-coming 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-Hyeon laughed 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? Other companies 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. Many companies 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 explanation 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 accurately 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.
— Wow! Even the official homepage is promoting it!
└ Of course, Almond is world class now.
└ Kya, World Almond
— Is this real life? I've been watching him since he had a hundred streamers. I'm so touched.
— He was different from the start.
— He's incredible with a bow. I'm curious what he'd be like in other games. Anyways, congratulations.
└ This guy... I wonder how good he would be in LIL?
— 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 game company 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 unrelated 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 unrelated 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 Battle31 community 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 smaller community. However, they took pride in Almond since he started with them.
[Will he leave Battle Large now and come back to play the Rosenita route?]
[Will he come back to Kingdom Age? Hehe.]
[I know it's unlikely, but Almond, no second round?]
Some Kingdom Age players 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 unpopular game. At the end of the day, Almond was a partnered streamer who needed to gain revenue. Ju-Hyeok determined that he needed to play another popular game next.
If Almond also succeeded 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 player games.
Bzzt—?
Ju-Hyeok's phone rang. He glanced at his monitor and thought it would be another congratulatory 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 regular congratulatory message. Bubblegum’s picky manager actually complimented them.
Bzzt—?
Another message arrived. It was hard to ignore this one as well.
[Punk Manager Oh: Kya, that was impressive! The director saw his name come 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 collaborating?]
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 the last 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.