Season 4: Chapter 226. The Closing Show (1)
The Dragon of Streaming Destruction manifested not underground, but on the surface.
Even so, everyone deep below could feel its presence. Its third roar shook the world to its core.
Kugugugugugu...!
Countless rubble fell from the ceiling. The library’s metallic shell began to crack and split apart.
Potato Servant blocked a pitch-black monster’s claw. “Th-This is insane! Aren’t we all going to get buried here!?”
Bang!
“Ugh... My shield!?” Cracks spread across Lemon Servant’s shield as she blocked a troll’s club.
Her shield was made of the same silver metal as the library’s exterior, which the Dragon of Streaming Destruction’s roar had just shattered.
Orange grabbed the fallen Saintess and shook her. “Saintess! Saintess!?”
She didn’t respond.
Orange panicked and wondered if it was his fault because she had collapsed right after talking to him.
“Uaaaaaah! Wh-What do I do!?”
Thump thump thump thump!
Having completely lost his mind, Orange violently shook her large head to wake her,
only for her head to repeatedly smack into the ground at high speed.
— Stop shaking her, you psycho
— You’re going to kill her yourself
— Orange waited his whole life for this moment of revenge lol
— Holy shit look how fast he’s shaking her
— You making a Saintess smoothie or what? lol
“M-My chakra didn’t run out and make you collapse, right!? Please just say that much! If I fall into the abyss, my chakra will drop even more!”
“Hey!” Shrimp, from Paprika, rushed over and smacked the back of Orange’s head. “Get a grip! Didn’t the Saintess give you something to do!? Did you do it?!”
Kugugugung...
Even as they spoke, the library continued to crumble.
“Huh?”
“I’m asking if you figured it out! How to save Treevy!”
Orange’s eyes wavered. “Th-That is...”
Something still bothered him.
“I did figure it out.”
That much was true. However, Treevy’s power ultimately had to stay connected to the Treevy platform itself. He was about to ask the Saintess when the Dragon of Streaming Destruction appeared, and she suddenly collapsed.
“Then let’s go. Now!”
Orange hesitated, uneasy about just leaving. “W-Wait, what about the Saintess? And aren’t they getting pushed back over there by the monsters?”
“You don’t want to save Treevy? That was basically her dying wish!”
Orange screamed, “She’s not dead!!”
— LOL
— Why did you declare her dead just now?
— No way, dying wish lol
— Orange fighting for his life not to fall into the abyss lol
Just then, a shout rang out from Zelu’s side.
Kugung!
He was fighting three trolls at once.
“What the hell!? All my chakra just disappeared! Even if you donate, the buffs won’t apply! Don’t donate. No, wait, just donate anyway! This is your chance to throw a million won! You still won’t kill me!”
His chakra disappeared? Hearing that from Zelu, the man with an absurd amount of chakra, was shocking.
At the same time, Orange understood.
‘This is what it means... Resolve disappeared.’
Cheese, Paprika, and Treevy were separate platforms. Their chakra had only been linked because of the holy magic called Resolve. The Dragon of Streaming Destruction’s roar had also destroyed the spell.
With that, every chakra connection had been cut. The power of the relics vanished. And without the relics, the monsters would overwhelm them.
‘Even the Lord is getting pushed back.’
Even the mighty Guardian, Lord Almond, couldn’t handle the massive horde rushing in.
This stage could only be cleared with relics. Orange’s instincts, honed through countless RPGs, screamed that truth at him.
He shouted for everyone to move to Treevy, “E-Everyone, go to Treevy!”
“What?”
Orange desperately cried through the chaos, “The viewers have to move to Treevy! That’s the only way! If not, everyone dies!!”
Almond tilted his head while drawing his bow. “I’m not going.”
Some had already moved over.
“It’s too slow, everyone. Please move a bit faster.”
Moving viewers from one platform to another wasn’t that easy. If it were, platforms wouldn’t be locked in such vicious competition.
— On my way
— Yeah, going
— Go go
— Moving now~
Viewers said they were going, but the numbers barely changed. They needed something more decisive.
Almond clapped his hands as if he’d figured it out. “Ah.”
— An idea??
— What is it
— No way
— Beware the moment he realizes something...
“Ju-Hyeok, turn off Cheese.”
— ?
— ???
— !?
— ...?
— Breaking news: Almond says, “Cheese, get out!”
— Cheese Village without Cheese lol
— Turn Cheese off? Hahahahaha
— No way lol
— That’s brutal
— Cheese is crying right now
— Destroying Cheese Village... you’re taking even that from them, Almond!?
— Breaking: Almond rumored to transfer from Cheese to Paprika
This stunned not only Almond’s viewers but also Kim Ju-Hyeok, who was managing his chat outside. Every Cheese streamer present felt shocked too.
“He’s gone insane.”
“He’s lost it.”
“H-He’s really going to do that?”
***
Cheese’s CEO, Choi Da-Hee, felt the most shocked by all this. She had been riding high on the surging viewership.
“W-What did this person just say? D-Did he just tell Cheese to get lost?”
Team Leader Joo Ok-Ji waved in a panic and tried to calm her down. “N-No! He said to turn Cheese off! Turn it off! Turn it off!”
“That’s the same thing! He just told us to get lost!”
“He probably didn’t mean it! I-It was just a threat! And this is originally an event anyway, right!? Commemorating Treevy’s last moments, that, that kind of...”
“No! All that takes is viewers opening both platforms at the same time! Why turn one off!? And why ours...”
Then, it happened.
Ping.
Almond’s broadcast feed vanished.
***
Tap.
Ju-Hyeok pressed his forehead. “Is this really right...?”
He had briefly hesitated when Sang-hyeon told him to turn it off, but did it anyway.
Sang-Hyeon was in charge of decisions involving the stream.
Ju-Hyeok trusted Sang-hyeon’s innate star power.
“Still, is this really the right decision?”
Could shutting down the stream on an entire platform honestly be considered the right call?
“For now... let’s see where this goes.”
Even Ju-Hyeok couldn’t predict how things would unfold. The Cheese Village content had already secured more than enough viewership. It was nearing its end, and Treevy had less than a day left to live anyway. Even if things went wrong, it would only be a few hours of damage at most.
Ju-Hyeok had done the bare minimum of calculation. That made it a gamble worth taking on Almond, the streamer. Of course, only someone with Kim Ju-Hyeok’s level of trust could make this decision.
Meanwhile, another person had already been watching on Treevy.
Choi Sa-Rang sipped her drink and promptly choked. “He actually did it...?”
She never imagined that Almond would really shut down his stream on Cheese.
***
At the same time, the communities exploded into chaos.
[#1. BREAKING: Cheese Village >> Renamed to Just Village]
— Holy shit lol
— This is insane
— The Lord actually turned Cheese off
— Did he really turn it off?
— Yeah, it’s really off
— What a lunatic lol
— Fake madness: Bringing Paprika into Cheese Village content // Real madness: Actually saying “Cheese, get lost” in Cheese Village content
— For real lol
— Damn lol
— How serious is he, actually?
— Come visit! Just Village!
— Holy shit lol
— Just Village lol
— That sounds like an insult somehow
Posts about Cheese being turned off in Cheese Village flooded Streamer Garden. The story spread to unrelated communities as well.
[Big: Hey Zelu, you said you’d destroy Cheese Village?]
===== ====
(Image)
“Only I get to destroy Cheese.”
==== ====
The photo showed Almond pulling back his bow in the Civil Empire tournament. He looked utterly magnificent.
— Holy shit lol
— An arrow that transcends boundaries...
— I kill platforms lol
— He cut through chakra, and now even platforms... Heavenly Demon Almond
— This guy is insane lol
— So if you win the world championship, you can shoot platforms too?
[Big: Youngest national archery prodigy... competes again at thirty and shatters another lens.]
==== ====
— Holy shit lol
— The lens lol
— So that’s what it was
— Damn, Almond still got it
— He’s been gaming instead of archery all this time, apparently
— That title is insane, total clickbait
— Lmao
These posts endlessly spread across the internet, and Almond’s chakra continued to rise.
[Current Viewers: 247,000]
It hadn’t quite reached its previous peak, but the Treevy viewership had surged to a significant level.
— Watching this in 720p hurts
— This crazy nutcase lol
— A clever young man
— Forcing everyone into refugee status lol
— Absolute command GOAT
— The moment he wore the Lord’s hat, he became a master tamer
Almond briefly scanned the chat. “Oh...”
Gireeek.
He drew his bow again. The arrowhead aligned with the countless monsters piled ahead.
Wooooong!
Once more, the Bow of Hope ignited in violet flames.
[11:17:05]
With less than twelve hours remaining until the server shutdown, this was Treevy’s final sacred flame. For the closing ceremony, the flame revealed itself one last time before everyone.
“Strategy?” Almond, proudly satisfied with his own strategy, released the arrow. “Almondoyle!!”
The arrow, laden with resentment from being tied up during the puzzle, tore through the monster horde and brutally carved out a path.
Puh-buh-buh-BOOM!!!
— Kyaa
— Strategy? Almondoyle!
— This is insane, Almondoyle
— Mom! I want to grow up and get captured by Almondoyle!
— Damn it, Almondoyle! I like you!
— Guardian skill feels so good lol
— This is it~
“Damn it! I’m turning Cheese off too!”
“M-Me too! I’ll turn it off!”
Zelu and the other streamers began shutting down their Cheese streams after witnessing Almond’s dramatic spike in power. They charged down the newly opened path and pushed back the monsters that tried to regroup.
Orange hoisted the Saintess onto his back and shouted desperately, “Just run! We have to get back to Treevy City! There’s no time!”
They could only use Treevy’s power until the server timer ran out.
“R-Run! Everyone, run!”
“Waaaaaah!”
The Expedition Squad ran along the miraculously opened path.
— There are so many people on Treevy
— Holy shit, it’s been so long!!
— Upvote for the happy Treevy CEO landing the last hit on the Dragon lol
— Network usage fee? Yeah, I’ll drain it one last time and bail
— Those telecom bastards should just die once
— Watching this in 720p really feels like end-of-the-world vibes
— I feel like I’m actually participating, this is so fun lol
— Filling one slot with your headcount feels this satisfying...
— They really did get stronger, damn
Every member of the Expedition Squad blazed with violet flames.