Chapter 138: Raina (1)
"Hm??Young man, you had another person?"
The lady server stared at Ju-Hyeok and Ji-Ah with an interesting look.
"No. I just coincidentally met someone I knew, so I sat with her."
The server patted him on the back and gave him a sly look. Ju-Hyeok tried to brush it off and finished what he was telling Ji-Ah.
"Anyways, thanks to you the revenue was high. This one's on me."
"No, it's okay. I earn more anyways. I'll buy it."
"..."
Right. Now, Ji-Ah earned more.
Ju-Hyeok turned red.
Ji-Ah saw that and asked him, "Or you can buy it, Mr. Ju-Hyeok."
"... No that's alright. You buy it."
Ju-Hyeok dug into his food, thinking he should've also gotten extra noodles. They naturally talked about Almond while eating.
"How does that guy only eat that?"
Ju-Hyeok didn't have many complaints living with Almond, but he couldn't understand his eating habits.
"When we eat though, he eats well. I wonder if this is some type of archery mental training?"
"No way..."
"Argh. I need to get a new streamer or something."
"Why get more streamers? Is it because I earn more."
"Hey! Why are you like that too? It's so I can get busier and not have to worry about things like this."
"It's because you want more money so you can buy me more pork stew."
"Argh! Let's just eat."
Ju-Hyeok continued to devour the soup.
"Ah... but I have a problem."
"Hm? A problem?"
Ju-Hyeok stared at Ji-Ah with interest because it was the first time Ji-Ah had spoken about her problems.
'I wonder what it is? The guy from the other day?'
The man who stood in front of Ji-Ah's house was of concern. The neighborhood was dangerous and Ji-Ah looked like she couldn't properly defend herself. There were also cases of crazy ex-boyfriends on the news recently...
"I'm trying to make videos, but turns out I don't know anything about LIL."
"... Ah."
He loosened up, but tensed right back up again.
“Oh? Now that I think about it, I don't know either..."
Now that he thought about it, Ju-Hyeok didn't know much about LIL either.?LIL was only easy to start playing. The more in-depth the game got, the more difficult it became to understand, especially siege mode.
"I've seen escort and survival mode often in the past, but I didn't really watch siege mode because it wasn't my type."
"You know the other two? Right, you watched a lot of gaming streams."
"Yeah, I'm a big donor, remember?"
Right, Seo Ji-Ah donated large amounts in the past. Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon always wondered why she donated such amounts despite her living conditions.
'Let's ask about it next time.'
It was an uncomfortable question.
"I guess you do have to learn LIL since you need to edit the videos and such."
"That's right. So the videos might come out later than usual."
"Hmm..."
Ju-Hyeok thought for a moment. Almond didn't know much about LIL either. It worked for his character for the moment, but he'd never reach a higher rank if he didn't know why or how he was winning games.
"Should the three of us gather and study the game?"
"Oh... that's not a bad idea."
Ji-Ah stopped to check her phone.
"Oh? But Almond's streaming right now."
"Huh? In the morning?"
Ji-Ah showed him her phone. She was right. It had been some time since he turned it on.
[Learning today too~ morning LIL!]
The title was tacky. This would only happen if Almond came up with stream titles by himself. Regardless, something interesting was unfolding.
— What did you do to Raina!
— Noona! Come back!
— Noona, don't go...
— Weren't you close with her?
— The fall hurts the higher you are... hehe.
The champion didn't respond to him.
"... I can't pick Raina?"
***
[Champion Raina doesn't want to play with you.]
"... What?"
— LOL
— Almond panic!
— Isn't this the first time we've seen him this shocked?
— Even the popular guy gets rejected!
— Haha! That's what you get for acting all cool!
The chat mocked him in various ways. Meanwhile, Almond was looking for ways to figure out a solution.
'It seems like this doesn't happen only to me.'
The chat was making fun of him, but not questioning the situation. Instead, the chat indicated that it was finally happening, which meant this was predictable behavior.
'So it's not a bug or anything serious...'
He could maneuver around it. The problem was he had to start a game right now.
"Hey, you said you want ADC. Why aren't you picking?" the teammate beside him asked because he stood still for so long.
"Ah... I can't pick Raina."
"Raina?"
The teammate frowned as soon as he heard the name. The other teammates talked among themselves as well.
'Raina?'
'Thank god he couldn't pick her.'
'Sigh...'
This was the reality of Raina's reputation. However, it didn't matter to Almond because he couldn't choose her anyways.
"Just pick someone else."
"But... I don't have anyone else."
"Huh?"
"The only champion I have is Raina."
"What..."
The teammate finally noticed his account level.
"You're Level 2? Then..."
"Do you know what to do?"
Could his teammates help him?
"Puhahaha!?Raina must not like you. What can you do!?"
"Did you do something to Raina? Haha, good going Raina user."
To no surprise...
He again experienced what foolish thinking it was to expect help in LIL. He thought of LIL's motto, stranger danger.
— LOL, don't try asking for anything in LIL...
— This is LIL!
— They're so happy haha.
But still, someone gave Almond some real advice.
"That happens if the rapport is too low... but for Raina, not only is it difficult to raise it, but also difficult to lower it. Weird..."
He couldn't play the game because of their rapport level? Almond was confused and stuck without a partner.
"Just dodge!"
"I'm dodging."
Dodge or dodging was when a player left the waiting lobby before the game began. The terminology derived from dodging a risky teammate or bad composition of champions. These days, most people called it dodging. Right now, Almond had to do that.
"... Dodge right now. If you don't have a champion, it dodges automatically anyways."
"Yeah, don't waste our time."
If he dodged, he couldn't play a game for the next ten minutes to prevent players from repeatedly dodging.
"Sigh, alright."
***
Almond had to cancel the queue and leave the lobby.
[You have left the lobby while in champ select.]
[You have been given a 10 minute penalty.]
"What am I supposed to do? I can't pick Raina."
Almond talked back to the game, but there was no reply.
— LOL cute
— Who are you talking to?
— Whatever~
— He seems pissed.
"How do I earn rapport again with Raina?"
— Who knows~
— I don't know ~
— I don't know!
— We can't give Raina to you, Almond. Did you think you could have it all?
His viewers were no help.
'I don't even have money to buy a new champion from the store...'
He couldn't even buy a new champion. He had no money because he had only completed the tutorial and one game. He tried to buy a champion using cash, but everything else required in-game currency other than in-game cosmetics.
If he wanted to earn currency, he had to play games. But he couldn't! There must be another way.
LIL was one of the most popular games and for a while as well. There must be another way to solve the problem.
'Look at how the viewers are reacting. No one thinks it's weird. They're just making fun of me.'
If it were a strange situation, the viewers would be more surprised and searching for solutions before he did. However, that wasn't the case. They were making fun of the newbie.
Eventually, they would tell him what to do. Almond couldn't just sit around and wait for an answer though. He wanted to quickly hear the solution.
"Oh well."
He was a variety game streamer and didn't have to play LIL.
"I might as well play Kingdom Age to try out the Rosenita route—"
As soon as he mentioned the unpopular game Kingdom Age…
Bling.
[DamienAssociation has donated 10,000 won!]
[We'll throw you a bone. If you go to the champion management screen, you can talk to Raina.]
[LILfan has donated 10,000 won!]
[Please forgive LIL! There's an option to talk to her. Head over there!]
[HeadsmellslikeNUT has donated 20,000 won!]
[Talk to her!!!]
Countless donations poured in.
"Ah, I see. Should've told me earlier."
— Almond is the master of cash flow.
— Do I still look like an Almond? He is 'die'almond.
— Streaming genius Almond.
— No! Let him play Kingdom Age!
— Don't play lame games!
— So funny how they're stopping him from playing Kingdom Age, haha.
[KAF has donated 10,000 won!]
[You guys are so mean!]
"Thank you, KAF. But I swear I'll play Kingdom Age again one day. I promise."
After Almond said that, he clicked?[interact] with Raina.
— This mother.
— One day = in the cyberpunk era.
— Clicks interact right away, LOL.
***
Interacting with a champion was a feature in the game where the player could give gifts or interact with their champions. They could build rapport even outside of the game.
[Welcome to the interact screen.]
The plaza was hidden below the cliff surrounded by waterfalls and trees. It was the interaction plaza. The place looked like it'd be filled with forest elves, but only one girl was sitting there. She stared blankly at the waterfall as Almond slowly approached her.
"Raina."
She slowly turned to him. Her blue eyes shone brighter than usual.
"What brings you all the way here?"
Her voice was cold again like in the beginning. Did her rapport level go down? He double-checked.
[Rapport: 0]
One hundred was the maximum rapport reachable. He was surprised to see it so low. His viewers were right. Raina was a difficult champion to approach.
— LOL, zero!
— Hahaha
— Haha~ Good for you~
— But isn't it usually zero if you don't do anything?
The viewers laughed at Almond because Raina, who was once nice to him, was now so cold.
[ForNow has donated 1000 won.]
[For now, try talking to her. You need to talk it out. With Raina, presents don't work on her.]
Gifts, victory, activity, etc... There were multiple ways to build rapport with champions, but with Raina, it was only possible by talking to her.
"Raina, you don't have any plans to go to the battlefield?"
"If you came here to talk about that, give it up. I don't want to talk about it," Raina coldly cut him off.
— LOL, she doesn't want to talk to you.
— Ah, so satisfying! This is the cold archer we know!
— Being able to solve it through conversation is impossible.
— Time is the best solution.
The viewers were happy to see their expectations come true.
[DameinClub has donated 10,000 won!]
[Tsk tsk. The other donor doesn't know because he's a muggle, but it's hard to raise Raina-chan's rapport with conversation alone. You need to give it some time.]
Even the donation read out loud by a weird otaku voice told him that time was the only solution to raise the rapport.
'I need to wait?'
Almond was confused because that didn't seem to be the case.
[Rapport: 30]
He only said one thing and her rapport already increased by thirty.