Season 4: Chapter 224. A Moment to Be Remembered Forever (4)
A few hours earlier, Almond had been humiliated. He couldn’t participate in the puzzle after they tied him to a pillar. With his mouth gagged to begin with, he could only communicate through his viewer channel.
“They’re doing the puzzle without Almondoyle... This must be for entertainment, right?”
— ?
— ??
— Hahahaha just admit it
— Entertainment? For Almondoyle...?
Did Almond look dejected? Support donations began pouring in.
Ding.
[RubySword has donated 10,000 won.]
[Wow, a communication stream for once! Lucky~]
— That makes sense lol
— Seriously, how long has it been since it was Almond and not Lord Almond
— It really is lol
Ding.
[Aurora has donated 10,000 won.]
[It’s finally Almond! I’ve been waiting because it’s been nothing but that crazy dictator Lord Almond and wack detective Almondoyle!]
— Hahahahaha
— Wack detective lol
— Ahahaha
— Critical hit
Ding. Ding.
The donations kept coming.
“RubySword, Aurora... and seven others. Yes, thank you for the donations.”
— You don’t read the ones under 10,000 won? Lol
— And seven others hahaha
— Not even named...
— that’s impressive considering EggPlant basically engraved their name without even donating that much
Almond stared quietly at the chat. Then, he shifted his gaze to the remaining time displayed at the top.
‘Looks like I need to stay in Survival Craft until that timer runs out.’
[17:14:07]
Roughly seventeen hours remained. Whatever that restriction was, they had to accomplish something within that time frame. It likely had to do with the Expedition Squad progressing the main scenario, so he couldn’t take a long break like going to sleep. At most, he could step away briefly to eat.
“It’s about time to eat. Since I’m tied up anyway, should I just grab some food and come back later? Feels like today will be a really long journey...”
— Ah
— Is the stream ending?
— No!!
— Are you going to lose all your chakra? Lose all your chakra? Lose all your chakra?
— Gasp
— Nooo!
The viewers clearly felt disappointed. Many first-time viewers had come because of Survival Craft. They wanted to watch the main scenario unfold from Almond’s perspective. They didn’t want the stream to end now.
‘Same for me, honestly...’
Almond also didn’t want to end the stream and restart it later after drawing in so many viewers. Then, a message arrived from someone particularly sensitive to the viewership.
Ding.
[Ju-Hyeok: Survival Craft has a standby mode.]
‘Oh.’
Almond immediately opened the settings and found it.
“I’ll set it to standby mode and go eat. I’ll be right back.”
— Oh
— Nice
— Come back quick
—Going to fight your own kind, Almond? Lol
— Damn, Almond using standby mode too! He’s a full Survival Craft streamer now~
— This exists? lol
Sandbox games like Survival Craft allowed players to live an entire life within the game. Long play sessions were the default, and a function for players to step away briefly was essential.
“I’ll be right back.”
[Standby Mode]
Ping.
Almond’s avatar entered standby mode.
“No wonder. Lord, were you sulking?”
Almond didn’t respond no matter how much Maid Black Tea stretched his cheeks. Of course, he had already left.
***
Sang-Hyeon estimated that it would take around one hour for them to solve the puzzle.
‘I’ll just eat some cereal, have coffee, take a walk to digest, and then come back.’
With that in mind, he got up and headed to the living room.
“I could’ve just had cereal.”
“What are you talking about? You’re basically pulling an all-nighter today.” Ju-Hyeok headed outside with a grill and a mackerel in hand. “You need good protein, idiot.”
Barbecuing outside was Ju-Hyeok’s latest obsession.
“You’re grilling fish out there?”
“We have a yard. Why shouldn’t we use it?”
Sang-Hyeon had never really cared about food beyond its basic nutritional value. Setting up a barbecue in this tiny yard to grill fish had never even crossed his mind. His grandmother had only ever dried red peppers in the yard.
“Come on out. I’ll show you.”
“Oh...”
At the top of the hillside neighborhood, smoke rose into the evening air as the sun set.
Watching the flames catch, Ju-Hyeok excitedly explained why he’d bought the grill. “Think about it. We’re at the top, so no one’s downwind to smell the smoke. We’ve got a yard. This is totally lucky, right?”
Sang-Hyeon watched and nodded slowly. “When you put it that way... Yeah.”
The only real hurdle to barbecuing here was hauling the equipment up. Once that was done, everything fell into place.
Ssssss!
Smoke rose along with the smell of something delicious.
‘Grandma liked charcoal-grilled food too.’
Sang-Hyeon suddenly recalled her explaining the taste of charcoal grilling. He always thought it couldn’t be done at home. Apparently, he’d been wrong.
‘This is kind of amazing.’
Watching Ju-Hyeok’s back as he happily grilled the mackerel, Sang-Hyeon thought that maybe a home wasn’t defined by its size or location but by who lived there.
“This would be chaos indoors with oil splattering everywhere, but look at this.”
Ju-Hyeok placed the grilled mackerel onto a plate. The skin had turned a perfect golden, glistening with oil.
“Clean, right?”
“Wow...”
“One more~.”
Thud.
Another large mackerel landed on the plate.
“This one’s mine.”
This fish clearly looked larger.
As Sang-Hyeon stared at it, Ju-Hyeok muttered, “What? I’m bigger than you.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
After a brief, awkward silence, they carried their plates inside. As the front door opened, a soft spring night breeze drifted in. Sang-Hyeon suddenly recalled what he’d heard in Survival Craft earlier that day.
“This is the energy that once led a great city. Momentary, yet remembered forever.”
Maybe it referred to moments like this. A fleeting instant that passed quickly, yet lingered somewhere else in life, continuing to give people strength.
“Ah...”
It finally clicked.
“This is huge, Ju-Hyeok.”
Ju-Hyeok stared back at him.
“That time thing. Isn’t that Treevy’s shutdown time?”
The timer had appeared to all residents. Sang-Hyeon finally realized it was the server shutdown time.
Ju-Hyeok, carrying his soybean paste soup, looked baffled. “Uh... yeah. That’s the shutdown time.”
After all, this was common knowledge.
Sang-Hyeon looked visibly excited. “Right! The shutdown time! That’s what it was! Wow... I need to tell them.”
Ju-Hyeok sighed.
‘You’re the only one who didn’t know.’
He didn’t say it out loud. Instead, he just picked up a piece of mackerel and ate it.
“Mmm!” Ju-Hyeok shuddered with pleasure as he shoveled rice into his mouth.
Sang-Hyeon shuddered too out of a different kind of excitement. “This is crazy. It just hit me out of nowhere like sudden inspiration. How does that even happen?”
He kept admiring his own strategic brilliance.
Ju-Hyeok, in his own way, was admiring something else. “Yeah. Truly impressive. Wow. What a terrifying brain. Absolutely terrifying.”
***
“No, my lord! This is not the time to go on strike!?” Zelu clutched Almond by the collar and rattled his oversized head back and forth. “Th-This guy is unbelievable!”
Treeana barked, “Stop trying to wake him and block them already, Zelu!”
Aside from Almond, Zelu possessed the strongest combat power.
“A-Ah, alright! Th-That said, you don’t have to yell like that!”
“Hurry!”
— Hahahahahaha
— So frustrating lol
— The Saintess’s force tho
— That was refreshing
In the meantime, the monsters finally broke through the outer wall.
Kwaaang!
“Kraaaaagh!”
[Troll]
At the very front stood a huge troll that boasted terrifying regeneration. This monster could hardly be stopped one-on-one.
“Trolls!? Why are there so many!?”
“I’ll take them on!” Zelu raised his red hammer and charged.
Swish.
Four knights sprinted after him.
Kwagwang!
Bang!
They clashed against the monster horde right at the entrance.
Orange tried to follow. “I-I’ll go too...!”
The Saintess caught him. “Orange.”
“Yes?”
“You have something else to do.”
“Why? I-I want to fight too.”
“Your relic isn’t meant for combat.”
Orange possessed the Mirror of Recollection. Anyone could see that it wasn’t meant for combat.
‘Seriously, everyone else gets combat relics. I’m the only non-combat one? Just because I’m small fry? That’s too much!’
Orange seethed internally. To make things worse, the Mirror of Recollection didn’t even come with instructions.
The Saintess calmly said, “You were the first to find me. I will entrust you with the most important role, so do not worry.”
— Ooooh
— Finally
— Is this Orange’s escape from small fry status?
— Huge
Treeana, who always scolded Orange, was assigning him a crucial mission. This made his heart race.
“I’m like Frodo from The Lord of the Rings!
— Easy there lol
— Frodo lol
— He is Frodo sized though
— Orange is so hyped hahaha
One didn’t always have to be the protagonist. Some roles were more important. Orange had imagined something like that.
“While they hold the line, read the books here.”
“What?”
— ?
— ??
— Huh?
— Eh?
“I said, read the books.”
“W-What do you mean by that?”
Ding.
[WhatTheOrange has donated 5000 won.]
[I’ll cut down monsters, you read books.]
— Holy shit hahaha
— This is insane hahaha
“It is important. The way to restart Treevy is hidden within these countless books.”
Orange looked across the library. “S-So that’s it?”
The shelves stretched endlessly.
‘This is insane... There are way too many.’
One person couldn’t possibly read everything.
“I’ll do it.”
However, the Saintess had entrusted him with a rare responsibility. He decided to try.
“Alright then... You guys cut down the monsters! I’ll read the books!”
— Hahahahaha he’s really doing it?
— I can hear his chakra draining already lol
— ??? This might be a boring stream... but if it’s for Treevy...
— Go scrub!
While the others cut down monsters, Orange turned pages.
***
After confirming that Orange was searching through the books, Treeana approached the collapsed Almond.
Tap... tap...
She stepped slowly, perhaps still not used to the weight of an oversized head.
‘Why isn’t he getting up?’
Almond was essential to fighting the Dragon of Streaming Destruction.
It would be a problem if he didn’t wake up. At the very least, she needed to reclaim the Bow of Hope.
“Almond.” Treeana came closer and tapped his face lightly. “Hmmm...”
He definitely didn’t seem normal.
She asked just in case, “Don’t tell me you’ve been sulking all this time?”
Almond still didn’t respond.
“Guess not.” She carefully removed the bow from his back. “At least I can fire this...”
Then, it happened.
Flash!
Life returned to Almond’s eyes as he sprang up.
He grabbed Treeana’s hand that had reached for the bow. “Saintess! This is bad!”
Treeana jumped in surprise. “Y-You only realize it’s bad now? Hurry and help them. Leave that and...”
She tried to pull away, but Almond wouldn’t let go.
His eyes sparkled as he babbled on about a crucial discovery. “That timer! The one we can see!”
She could only stare at him in shock.
“I think it’s the Treevy server shutdown time!”
“That is correct, but...?”
Almond jumped excitedly. “I knew it!”
Treeana lost her balance and fell to the side.
Thud!
‘This... lunatic.’
She stared at him, dumbfounded.
Almond no longer cared about her.
He asked his viewers, “Who’s the best at deduction?”
— ?
— Huh?
— Did you put something weird in your food? Lol
— Look at the chat, man
— No way hahaha
— You just figured that out now?
— What is this? lol
No one responded. Still, he pointed to himself.
“Almondoyle.”
Treeana, still on the floor, couldn’t believe it.
‘His condition is worse than last time...’
Angry shouts came from the group fighting the monsters.
“Hey! Bastard of a lord! If you’re up, help us already!”
“Oh, right.” Almond ran over to the knights, beaming. “Guys, this is huge! You know what that timer is?”
— LOL hahahahahaha
— The huge thing is that you ate and came back lol
— No way hahahaha
— What did Almond even eat?
— This bastard is just getting revenge for being left out of the puzzle
— Never underestimate Almondoyle again! (Big trouble)
That day, countless posts in the community speculated on what Almond had eaten for dinner. The leading candidate was stir-fried hallucinogenic mushrooms.