Chapter 131: Lazy Soldier (2)
It was worse than he expected. Ju-Hyeok's hands started trembling after seeing the first post on LIL Pro.
[Look at Almond, this nobody LOL]
Even the first post he saw was harsh. The rumors were that a normal person went insane after playing ranked for a month. The everyday users of the website were in a worse state. Nobody was sane here, but Ju-Hyeok still decided to check it out.
It was better that he, the manager, checked it out before Sang-Hyeon did because it would affect his mentality even a little.
[Who is he? Why the fuck is he so good?
He was insane on Raina.]
"Ah...?Shit."
He was baited. Ju-Hyeok thought he was getting used to the community forums, but he was still an amateur.
— For real.
— Don't write posts like this. You're going to get a lot of haters.
— Almond? Isn't he a Battle Large streamer?
└ He switched over to LIL recently.
└ Ah, for real? Was he a variety streamer? Yet he still achieved a new record on Battle Large? What a guy.
— You're from Battle Large, aren't you? Get out!
— Account level: 1 / Wins: 1 / Rank?: Unranked / Skill?: World-class???
└ LOOL
└ Go up to big!
— Almond, sir, you can't do this here.
— Almond, I see you use AK Telecom~
— If we want to see Raina's true skills, he's gotta play the escort mode. Tsk, tsk.
Ju-Hyeok scratched his head with a bitter smile.
"The comments are..."
The post was good, but the comments were fierce. Almond hadn't done anything in particular yet to be complimented. All he did was play one normal game.
He only played the siege mode out of the escort, siege, and survival modes. He had only played 20% of the game's content, so it was no surprise that LIL?users were biased.
[You've gotta admit, Almond has talent in Raina.]
[Whether it's normal or not, it's hard to see a performance like that against other users. You idiots can't see the potential?]
[LIL users are the worst. The worst users of the internet are all from here.]
However, there were usually some posts that were in favor of them.
— Why are you sucking up to an unranked? Tell him to come after he ranks up.
└ Big pro fuckers are all talk, no show.
— Battle31 ignored him when he was bronze ranked too, but it was even worse than that because he was actually a nobody.
└ Do you feel left out?
— Isn't Battle Large famous for banning him because of his looks? Why are you comparing those idiots to us?
└ Do you feel left out too?
└ I think you're the one who’s an idiot. Almond was famous for being undefeated. The videos are still up.
└ For real. It's a popular video from Almond's channel ^^
'Now that I think about it, that's right.'
When Almond first started playing Battle Large, the community reactions were also harsh. It was so bad that he got reported multiple times and got banned. There were so many reports that the company hadn't even verified it before banning him.
They were all the same people. Eventually, these people would turn out like the Battle Large folks.
'One day, they'll recognize Almond.'
It was unknown when that would be because LIL was a difficult game, but Ju-Hyeok firmly believed that day would come. Ju-Hyeok screenshotted a few posts complimenting Almond, although there weren't many.
[But isn't it nice to see him give it his all every time he streams? His streams are short, but he's drenched in sweat all the time.]
[I'm a diamond, but judging by his skills purely on Raina, he's really good. He'll shine if he plays siege mode.]
[Almond will take over LIL as well! Us nut crew solemnly swear!]
[Good luck, Almond!]
Innocent cheers, positive reviews, compassion, etc. All of them would help Almond one way or another. He put these screenshots into a folder named "Cheering Almond".
Ju-Hyeok compiled them to show Almond if his mentality ever broke down, but Sang-Hyeon must be invincible because it never broke.
'Instead, I read it on repeat...'
Ju-Hyeok scratched his head with a bitter look. He considered renaming the folder into "Cheering Ju-Hyeok".
'Anyways, is there any interesting news?'
Ju-Hyeok headed to the big category to see if there were any posts, even if they weren't about Almond. Most of the posts were talking about the tournament. Some were about the champion patch updates and talking about how they were useless because of the nerfs...
There wasn't any talk about streamers, but then...
[Raina vs. Valkyrie's clash. I wanted to show you this...gif]
"... Huh?"
Could this be Almond?
Ju-Hyeok fixed his glasses. Nothing showed up when he searched for it.
***
The next day at 5 A.M., there was an emergency in the Fantasia meeting room because of today's photoshoot.
"Camera 3!"
"Yes!"
"Camera 2!"
"Yes!"
"Lights 1!"
"Yes!"
The process was numbering off all the equipment one by one. It was to prevent any mistakes from happening during the shoot that was about to happen.
"Hey! Pay attention. They're calling you!?"
"S-Sorry!"
"Sigh..."
There was shouting everywhere because everybody had gathered together for this one shoot. Everyone was on edge. Even those getting scolded broke out in a sweat, but it looked like they had no complaints.
Supervisor Koh, who was in the studio, shouted while putting a pen behind his ear. "Alright, the cameras are all set up with no problems. Everybody got the message about the extra shoot we're doing, right?"
All the staff nodded, but didn't look happy.
"A 3D shoot was added in as well, so the 3D crew is here too. 3D? Where are you?"
"Here!"
A crew sitting closely in one studio section waved back to him. The supervisor put a man's face up as a hologram and explained, "This Almond person was added in last minute, so we don't have his bio code yet. Please get his eye color and fingerprint bio code right away. Have the design team get to work."
"Yes!"
"There's a scene where the character and the person are together, so we have to do it at the same time on set."
"Okay!"
"There's not only 3D, but another crew added. You guys should've all got the plans already. Did you check it?"
"Yes!" the staff replied excitedly, but didn't seem happy.
'We already have a tight schedule, yet they added another person?'
'Why did they decide so late?'
'Who's that...'
'Seems like an exception for Almond.'
'It's the new guy Punk is pushing for.'
Supervisor Koh was aware of how the staff felt. However, the fact that Almond was added didn't matter. He was a nuisance.
'Manager Oh... he should've decided quickly.'
He didn't want to be uncomfortable around his staff. This situation was the worst for these laborers. If it were higher-ups, a simple bow to them was all that was needed.
"Alright. Let's take a break and we'll check the equipment."
Supervisor Koh crossed out lines from the schedule using the pen from his ear. He was crossing off the finished tasks. In his organized schedule, one red writing was out of place.
'Almond's character studio work.'
Supervisor Koh wanted to rip the heads off of the higher-ups who decided having him come here last minute was a good idea.
"Who is this guy? Why are they rushing him..."
He took a second glance at Almond's face. It was new to him.
He stared at his face briefly and muttered, "... He is good-looking."
Almond's face was great for the camera. He looked like an actor or a model. His face was shaped to reflect light and shadow perfectly and matched Western and Asian looks.
All in all, he looked good.
His personality was still a mystery, but his face was welcome in the studio.
"But do mobile game players... like these kinds of people? It's not like this guy has a lot of viewers either... hmm..."
Aside from that, the supervisor was still confused about why they picked him.
Bubblegum was a major name with a friendly middle-aged man character with 50-60,000 viewers.
Miho would undoubtedly be a must-pick for men willing to open their wallets for her.
However, Almond seemed iffy. He didn't even have 10,000 viewers on average. He finished off with 9000 yesterday. He was above an average salaryman, but not necessarily big enough for this ad.
"Hm. Well, as a mid-thirties man, I'm angry because he's so good-looking," a manager friend of his butted in from beside him.
"... Really?"
"I'm kidding. He looks like a lot of twenty to thirty year old guys will like him. Of course, girls will like him too. Seems like he'd be popular with the mass... but age is the problem."
"Right? The problem is... lots of mobile gamers are middle-aged men."
"That's right."
"Maybe this game is targeting the younger people."
The supervisor left it at that, but was still curious. It continued to sit with him, and he didn't like that.
***
"Phew. It's finally coming together."
After rehearsing the steps and procedure, Supervisor Koh nodded in satisfaction. The work was finally over.
"Since there's an hour left, let's take a break on your own."
"Yes!"
They finished preparing ahead of time. Supervisor Koh left the studio to grab a smoke upstairs.
The place was filled with employees when he heard a shout in the distance.
"Lazy Soldier came up on the trending searches in LIL Pro!?"
Trending search? Usually, it wasn't good news if a mobile game came up on trending search during the development phase.
The game's popularity affected Supervisor Koh as well. He could feel one side of the ship growing heavy...
"Yes! H-Here..."
"Oh..."
They first discussed it with a serious look, but started laughing with a festive look. Thankfully, it seemed like good news. Supervisor Koh was relieved.
Why did it come up on the trending search?
He went over to them and asked, "What are you talking about? Trending search?"
The manager in charge of the project hadn't heard him. He continued to shout until his face turned red.
"This is incredible! It's top ten! I heard it was top fifteenth last night!"
Sometimes it was possible to trend by pure luck, but if it was maintained from the day before, it was a bigger deal.
Supervisor Koh asked again, "Why did it reach trending?"
"Huh? Oh, Supervisor Koh, when did you come?" the manager finally noticed him.
"I came up to take a smoke, but I heard you guys."
"Ah, were we that loud? Hahaha! Take a look at this," the manager in charge laughed loudly and displayed his phone.
[Raina vs. Valkyrie's clash. I wanted to show you this...gif]
There was a post with the following title. He felt troubled because the title referenced an old copypasta.
[Isn't Raina and Valkyrie's fight legendary? It really is the battle of the greatest. Is this Raina, the loser we knew? Raina is legendary…]
Underneath the text was a gif of Raina deflecting Valkyrie's hail of blades with her arrows. Supervisor Koh had to fix his glasses to take a closer look.
After finishing the video, his feedback was this, "Isn't this set up?"
He felt it was staged. That's how unbelievable it was.
"I was a LIL player once too. It doesn't make sense."
"No, man. It came from a stream."
"A stream?"
"Look here."
Tap, tap.?
On the screen was Raina's username.
[LazySoldier]
[Evil Archer - Raina]
[Lv.7]
“... Huh?! Puhahaha!” Supervisor Koh started laughing. "We're so lucky!"
What a coincidence. How could the username be LazySoldier?
"... Hey, do you think this is purely by luck?"
"Sorry?"
"This is the original vid. Take a look."
If this wasn't luck, then what was it? Supervisor Koh turned to stone as he stared at the face in the bottom right corner of the screen. It was the face he was studying earlier.
'Almond…?'
It was Almond.