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!"
Clap!
They didn’t forget to high-five each other.
"Kya, you're insane, Hyeok!"
"You too, Hyeon."
They smirked and gave each other a rare compliment 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 glad 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 planned for next week.
“Hahaha,”?he couldn't stop laughing.
'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 congratulatory 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 flavor.
"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 hate coming 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 cola 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 relaxing bath.
Sang-Hyeon muttered, “Petty guy,” under his breath and lay 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 popular. It thoroughly explained 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 the community forums, thinking no one would expect him to excel on his first playthrough.
[Wow, Almond's playing 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 played 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 the community forums. Funnily enough, these users had high expectations for someone who had never played LIL before.
'Ah.' He figured out why. 'It's because it's Battle31 here.'
This wasn't the LIL?community. It was the Battle31 community. Hence, most of these people enjoyed 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 the largest LIL community.
[LIL Pro]
The community was called LIL Pro. As the name suggested, it used to be a community 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 the community. Now, it was the biggest forum for LIL.
The odd thing was it started as a community for aspiring pros. They had high expectations for any players or streamers that played?LIL.
'There's nothing about me yet.'
From a glance, 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 Almond coming to play 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 playing 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 play it anyways.'
Chiiik—?
Sang-Hyeon went inside the capsule machine.
"Are you going to play LIL?"
He heard Ju-Hyeok from behind him.
"Yeah. I have to play?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 the computer 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 accordingly, the first thing he'd be greeted with would be the tutorial. Since LIL was a challenging game, it initially forced the users to play through the tutorial. The tutorial would take some time to complete.
'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 player 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 playing 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 glanced 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 you come out of the hospital?"
"... Ah, you're ruining it." The girl frowned and glared 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't comfort 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 play LIL, right?'
Almond was streaming and playing 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 playing.
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.