Chapter 152: Ji-Ahs Effort (1)
Three hours before Almond finished his stream, Ju-Hyeok was drinking a hangover pear drink while carefully watching him.
Then, suddenly—
“Pfft!” he spat out his pear drink.
"W-What the!?"
It was because of the unexpected kiss scene. If Ju-Hyeok's reaction was this bad, he could only imagine how wild the chat was.
— Raina, confess yourself! Confess! Raina!!!
— Die! Almond! Die! Almond!
— I'm going to take back the mission reward~!
— If I can't become Almond, I might as well die...
— This can't be...
— I'm going to go play story mode right now!
The chat quickly scrolled upward and reflected off of Ju-Hyeok's glasses. There was almost a glitch in the system.
"Wow... it's this bad?"
He was surprised as well, but the chat's reaction was violent. Ju-Hyeok's hands were moving quickly because several chat messages were inappropriate. Even while he was banning them, he was impressed.
'Even then, that guy is still focused.'
Almond wasn't even paying attention to the chat. He was completely immersed in the story mode.
Was it because of that?
[Current Viewers: 12k]
The number of viewers increased to 12,000.
'We recovered all the viewers we lost from changing games.'
They gained the highest number of viewers after starting to play LIL. It was close to their peak from?Battle Large. After two days of playing LIL, Almond was about to reach the second prime in his streaming career.
'And if he were to earn three stars?'
They would strike while the iron was hot.?If Almond were to clear three stars, his stream could reach a new prime. Almond's squad was close to victory.
— Wow, Yuria is about to die...
— What a rebellion!
— Go, minions!
— Mott... is he really dead?
Almond emerged victorious from what seemed to be the last stage of the three-star clear. Almond and the minions spectacularly defeated Yuria.
— Wowwww!
— That was crazy.
— Insane mechanics.
— Almond is skilled with the blade too! Reminds me of his 1v1 with BubbleSniper.
— Wow...
— Damn! Almond, marry me!!!
When Almond had to sacrifice himself after Bart appeared, the chat was filled with tears. Afterward, when the other story about Raina, Demian, and the minions came out...
'It's a success...'
[Current Viewers: 15k]
Almond reached an all-time high for his live viewers that day.
'I think he's found himself a place as a variety game streamer now!'
The biggest worry for variety game streamers was losing viewers every time they transitioned games, but that wasn't a problem for Almond. Instead, he gained more viewers.
'This is talent.'
If this wasn't talent, what was?
"... But what's he up to now? Is he changing games again?"
Despite attracting all these viewers with LIL, he was booting up a different game. It was Battle Large.
***
— Are you finally streaming in parts now?
— ??? Battle Large?
— Suddenly playing Battle Large?
— Ah, I think I know what he's up to.
Almond was booting up Battle Large. Before the viewers realized it, he was already inside a familiar helicopter.
Dudududu...!
The propeller was louder than ever.
"Jump offf!"
"Jump, you bastards!"
Like always, the NPC soldiers behind him shouted.
— Wow, what a long stream today. Nice.
— Is he going to play two games every time now?!
— Almond, you're finally ready to stream like a normal person?
— A long stream and Battle Large?!
— Isn't it too much for him?
Some viewers wanted him to play two games like other variety streamers, but unfortunately, he couldn't.
'Healthwise, I can't play two games.'
Their assumption was wrong. Almond didn't boot up Battle Large to play it.
"I'm going to do my reaction now."
Tak.
Almond got ready in his descending form.
— LOL, he turned it on just to show us something?
— Look at this, Battle Large fanboys! Your game is only good for suicide!
— LOL, are you going to get first and die?
— Kya~ this is Almond.
"I can't play until victory. I'm running it short because I'm tired."
— ???
— Huh?
— But you don't even have a bow?
— Is he going to do something else?
He had no bow or arrows for his reaction. This was an unusual situation for Almond's stream because it had never happened before. Since he received over 3 million won in donations, he had to at least do this much. At least, that was what Almond thought.
"This time, I'm the arrow!"
With that, he threw away his parachute backpack.
"W-What are you doing!"
"Hey! Are you crazy?!"
The NPC soldiers screamed what the viewers were thinking.
Tak!
Regardless, Almond jumped off the helicopter.
"Thank you for the donations—"
He turned into an arrow and screamed as he fell.
Swooosh—?
Despite the strong wind resistance, Almond perked his eyes wide open and kept his eyes on the target. The target was the head of a player who jumped off first.
— LOOOOL
— This guy is insane.
— Wow.
— Bullet Almond?
— Almond would do well as a turret.
— He's finally become his own weapon.
Swoosh!!
Almond's body landed directly on a player's head.
"A-Argh, what the—"
Unfortunately for the player, they were eliminated alongside Almond as 100th and 99th place.
[100th]
[Better luck next time!]
The reaction ended with a rare text appearing on his screen.
[Stream over.]
And just like that, the stream was over.
— Did you know? A person dies if they're hit by an Almond.
— LOL, poor guy.
— This is true survival.
— Did you know? Almond dies if he's hit with money.
***
Chiiik—?
The capsule opened after a long time. After a while, Sang-Hyeon walked out drenched. Ju-Hyeok was about to give him a towel, but took it back.
"Wow... I don't think a towel is going to do the job."
He said it mockingly, but was worried. Ironically, Ju-Hyeok's source of income was in Almond's hands, so he had no choice but to worry for him.
'Doesn't he need proper help from the hospital…?'
Shaaa...
Ju-Hyeok deeply pondered as he heard Sang-Hyeon shower in the background.
‘The assessment is tomorrow, but... I'm curious if they'll be able to fix a hand that's been unusable for ten years.’
Anyone could figure out Sang-Hyeon's hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) had something to do with his right hand.
Like Doctor Song Ha-Na said before, the rest of his body carried the weight of his useless right hand, causing him to overexert his body. The problem was the nerve in his brain controlling his right hand was missing. Would going to the doctor frequently really solve this problem?
'He gets this tired even after playing story mode alone...'
Ju-Hyeok whipped out a large towel and threw it in the capsule while thinking that if this continued, the things Sang-Hyeon could do as a streamer would be limited.
'What if he goes out to a streamer competition?'
They would find the answers they were looking for at the hospital.
"I'm going to sleep first," Ju-Hyeok shouted into the washroom and left to his room.
He jumped into bed and checked his phone out of habit. On the screen were the community reactions.
[Big Pro]
It was the subsection of LIL Pro, comprised of the top posts.
'Let's see if there's anything...'
He wasn't anticipating much, but there were some unexpected results.
"This...?"
Something Ju-Hyeok wasn't expecting at all was gaining lots of attention.
[The worst streamer on the planet Almond & The hot-blooded evil archer Raina, kissing]
[Big 1910] [Lil 970]
It received almost 2000 bigs. Normally, a post with more than 100 bigs made it to Big Pro. It was an impressive figure for this post.
— Holy fuck. Are you serious?
└ LOL, this guy is actually pissed.
— Hot-blooded evil archer, LOL
— Demian fanboys are on suicide watch.
— Wow... that's so touching...
— Just play a dating simulator!!!
— It's just a Hollywood cliche kiss scene. Why are you guys overreacting? But I deleted LIL.
— I pressed big after seeing Raina, then gave it lil after seeing that guy.
— This story was so sad.
└ No spoilers, please.
└ You think you can get to this point? What the hell do you mean by no spoilers?
There were almost over a thousand comments as well. Ju-Hyeok's eyes closed as he went through each comment individually. Ju-Hyeok was tired too, almost as much as Sang-Hyeon.
'I'm never going to drink during the day again...'
Because he drank so early during the day, he wasn't in a great state.
'I'm sleepy.'
Ju-Hyeok stopped there and fell asleep. When he came back to himself, it was already the next day.
"... Urgh."
After he picked up his tired body, stretched, and opened the curtains...
"?"
The sun was brighter than usual.
"... The sun is in a weird place."
He dug through his blanket and found his phone.
[11:09 A.M.]
It was 11 A.M. The doctor's appointment was at 10 A.M.
"... Holy shit! Hey! Yu Sang-Hyeon!!!"
Slam!
He quickly opened his door and called for Sang-Hyeon, but there was no response.
"Hey! Wake... huh?"
Sang-Hyeon wasn't in his room either.
"... Did he go alone?"
Ju-Hyeok looked down at his phone.
[Sang-Hyeon: I'm just going to go alone. Just keep sleeping.]
There was a message from him.
'I thought he needed a guardian with him... or maybe not?'
He couldn't quite remember.
Then, suddenly…
Bling.
[Seo Ji-Ah: Check the group message.]
Ji-Ah sent him a message.
'Check what?'
He checked the group and saw that Ji-Ah had left a message. It was her telling them to check out the new YouTube video. Why didn't she just text him to check YouTube, then?
He shook his head and went to Almond's YouTube channel. There were videos of his first LIL?gameplay.
[LILmond-0 | Raina OP?]
[LILmond-1 | How to block a Hail of Blades using Raina!]
'Oh... she finally uploaded it.'
She said it would take longer because she needed to study LIL, but it didn't take as long as he thought. Did she send the message to brag?
'She can be cute sometimes.'
Ju-Hyeok smirked and checked the number of views. The number of views wasn't cute.
"What the!? Is this real?"
He checked several times, but it was real.
[297,000 views]
.
There were close to 300,000 views for the video, which was only five hours old.
'What's going on?'
The answer was in the comments.
— Is it 'that' hail of blades?
— Wow, so the play was from Almond.
— LazySoldier LMAO
— This guy is crazy for money.
— Wow, but this play is legendary.
— Too bad it's a low-level normals game. If he did this in a ranked, it'd be insane.
— So this was Almond!
Judging from the comments, most of the viewers already knew about this gameplay. The Hail of Blades play was trending on LIL Pro, and the username LazySoldier was searched for a while. However, most LIL Pro users weren't aware that LazySoldier was Almond.
— Wait, this is the same guy who kissed Raina?
— Then I understand.
— No wonder they kissed.
— No! I don't understand!!!
— Almond... I'll remember you...
Almond's name became famous after the kiss scene. Now they knew he was the player behind the infamous play. The video came out at the perfect time to use those two incidents in his favor.
"Kya... What great timing."
He had nothing to say other than the timing was fantastic. The momentum from the two incidents was incredible. The views were increasing by the moment, surpassing 300k.
"If it's this popular..."
Seeing how well the video was doing, something else came to mind. The video's trending rank. What rank was it at?
As soon as he was about to see its rank…
Bzzzzzzzt...!
His phone vibrated and changed screens.
[Punk Manager Oh]
'Manager Oh?'
Ju-Hyeok answered the phone in confusion, "Yes, Manager."
He usually never called him.
Manager Oh's voice sounded urgent.
"Now?