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 signature laughter. "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.
A complicated 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?" Bubblegum laughed awkwardly, thinking his small city was too much. It might've been because Almond was staring blankly 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..."
Almond laughed at the fact that Bubblegum was calling his stream those things. Just then, he heard another laughter.
“Hohoho.”
The bright laughter 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 explaining, "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 a large 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 our company'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 explained 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 relatively normal compared 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 plan for internet streaming.
"We just need to be aware of how to avoid the stream snipers."
As a veteran streamer, Bubblegum explained 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 playing 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 and come back around when our stream starts. I'm going to grab a snack."
"Alright, I'll see you later."
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 up later 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 popular 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-Hyeon laughed 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 was coming up with random things.
"Anyways, Mister Bubblegum must've taken a liking to you. It's rare for him to introduce his company people," Miho said the same thing as Ju-Hyeok.
"Really? But I just met him..."
"He's a quick judger. Not when he plays games though," Miho laughed 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—"
"Ah!" Almond suddenly got up from his seat.
Miho jumped in surprise too, "W-Why!?"
[10 minutes before the stream begins]
An alarm 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 relaxed 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 Bubblegum laughing at her.
"Dammit!"
She threw a rock toward Bubblegum's face in the sky.
***
Ding.
Almond's followers received an alarm at 6 P.M.
[Almond is starting to stream!]
The notification went to Bubblegum too.
"Ah, he's coming on now. We decided to meet up at 6:30, but he came a little early!"
— Wow...
— A master is coming...
— I'm so excited!
— Are they really going to be a duo?
— How are they going to play together? Their difference in rank is so big.
— Squad rank doesn't have a rank, so it's possible.
— Ah, squad.
— It's going to be fun
— Isn't Miho playing with them?
Bubblegum chowed on two more bananas and started his introduction, "Alright!"
Doom! Clap!
The introduction music perfectly matched his greeting.
"Today!"
Doom!
It was like watching a movie teaser.
— Wow! New technology!
— DJ Gum!
— LOL
— MC GUM!
It was comedy itself with Bubblegum.
"Genius vs. Genius, battle of the geniuses!"
— ???
— Who's the genius?
— Why are you both geniuses?
"Genius streamer vs. Genius gamer!"
— LOL
— Damn!
— He's a genius streamer!
— 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!"
Slam—
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.
— ??? When did he?
— Kya, this is the power of a 50k streamer, dodging the stream snipers.
— When did he queue up?
— As expected of Bubble.
— 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?"
— Oh! It's Almond!
— Shit!
— Hey, nut!
— That's Almond's avatar?
— 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.
— Look at Bubblegum's expression! LOL
— A pig who lost everything…?
— That's only relevant to you...
— LOL
— Hahahaha
— Bubblegum starting in the Arsenal... this is rare…
It seemed like Almond had no talent as a coach.