Chapter 172: The Laughing Joker (1)
A silver player and a master player had a 1 vs. 1 match and both of them were streamers. It was an event that received tremendous attention from the start and a hot topic that caught fire without any kindling. Ju-Hyeok added fuel to the fire.
[Silver vs. Master! Big event! Points gambling!]
[Free points! Silver vs. Master!]
[Silver vs. Master?! Free points?!]
The oil that Ju-Hyeok added was the betting system where viewers could place bets with the points they collected. When it was implemented, the reactions were always intense regardless of whether it turned out favorably or unfavorably.
[Oh shit, I'm gonna go and get some free points too!]
[Damn. Is silver Almond finally going to get taught a lesson?!]
[Almond fanboys were getting annoying. They're all betting on him winning, LOL]
When the discussion about this betting system first arose, the reaction toward Almond was exactly like this. People thought it was obvious that Almond would lose, so they believed in earning points from it. Many hurtful words were also written.
However, neither Ju-Hyeok nor Almond paid much attention to it. Almond was the type of person who would dive in even more when faced with criticism, and Ju-Hyeok believed in Almond's abilities. Ju-Hyeok was actually more focused on observing the opposing side.
'But what about StrawberryShooter?'
It didn’t bother Almond, but what about StrawberryShooter? Could he handle the pressure as a Master and overcome this situation with gambling involved...
The answer finally appeared just as Ju-Hyeok anticipated.
"... T-This can't be."
Slam!
StrawberryShooter's knees struck the ground.
'Poor guy.'
He couldn't. He didn't have what it took to overcome this situation.
"I-I can't believe I didn't even win a round..."
StrawberryShooter fell apart. It was difficult to determine whether it was due to his mentality or skills. Regardless, the outcome was decided. It was a clear victory.
"The main ADC is Almond! StrawberryShooter will go in as the substitute ADC! The end!"
With Tako's final shout, the highly anticipated event ended.
— Wowwww!
— Almond! Almond! Almond!
— A silver beating a master...
— Master losing to silver?!
— Wow, what a legend
— Did you know? Almond is stronger than Strawberry! Did you know? Almond is stronger than Strawberry! Did you know? Almond is stronger than Strawberry?
— Mom! I want to be a peanut when I grow up! Mom! I want to be a peanut when I grow up! Mom! I want to be a peanut when I grow up!
Almond received several praises and donations.
[KeRuRu has donated 100,000 won!]
[Woww! Raina, you're so cool!!!]
[DameinClub has donated a whopping 300,000 won!]
[T-Take good care of Raina...]
[GambleKing has donated 10,000 won!]
[Wowww! Thanks to you, I earned so many points!! Thank you!!! I believed in you!!!]
[Announcer has donated 100,000 won!]
[From now on, silver = master in this stream, okay?]
Countless donations poured in. Almond couldn't even calculate or read all of them.
"GambleKing, KeRuRu, DamienClub... thank you..."
While Almond was thanking everyone, StrawberryShooter was getting hate messages.
— Wtf are you doing?
— I bet on you. How the hell did you lose to a silver player???
— Is this real?
— You're an idiot.
— Almond > Strawberry
StrawberryShooter had no choice but to shut down the comments. However, these people didn't stop there. They moved on to the community.
[Wtf is wrong with Strawberry?!]
[He lost to a silver???]
[He picked Paul and lost to Ran. He even lost to Raina as the poison rabbit. Amazing~!]
[He just walked up as Paul and died. Why didn't he pick a close-range champion, then? Fuck, my points...]
[Why did he rush in like that? Was his mentality fucked up???]
[Almond did better than he normally did. He must not have stage fright.]
The hate was immense. All the users who lost points left their two cents in every community. The posts were shared and shared...
[Bronze = silver = gold = plat = diamond = masters]
[Master ranked is easy~]
[Just die]
[Get out of masters]
[Master association is going to sue you for defamation.]
The community posts were endlessly ruthless. Even LIL Pro, one of the biggest communities, temporarily had a server shutdown.
[*The server is unstable. Please check back again soon.*]
StrawberryShooter looked at Tako after checking his phone.
"Huff... Puff..."
He was still lying down on the ground on the battlefield.
"Ju-Mo."
"..."
He didn't respond even though he was close by. Did he have himself muted? Sometimes, players did that if they didn't want to talk.
"... Tako."
That didn't seem to be the case.
"What do I do now?"
Tako approached him silently and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, you just need to do well in the tournament." Tako brushed his hair and smiled. "At least you got to keep your hair."
***
Chiiik—
Sang-Hyeon's capsule lid opened.
"Hey! The Silver that beat Masters! Master-beater! You got a new nickname!"
Ju-Hyeok approached him while laughing and tried to throw him a towel.
"... What the. Are you okay?"
Did he focus too hard? Sang-Hyeon hadn't even played for an hour, but he was drenched as if he had played for six hours.
"It was my first time meeting a Master, so yeah..." he muttered as he wiped himself with the towel. Sang-Hyeon was blanking out.
"You can... play in the tournament, right?"
Ju-Hyeok suggested he could drop out anytime, but Sang-Hyeon rejected that.
"I can do it. It's only because it was my first time facing off against a Master player."
"In the tournament, there are going to be Grandmaster and Challenger players too."
"Now, it's not a big deal."
Sang-Hyeon responded without hesitation and headed to the bath. He had something prepared on his own for the tournament.
"I have something planned..."
Shaaa...
Sang-Hyeon's voice faded away as the shower turned on.
***
The next day, Sang-Hyeon heard a noise in the morning. It wasn't his cell phone. It was the doorbell.
"Who is it?"
Sang-Hyeon, who was awake, went outside.-->
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