Chapter 190: New Challenger (4)
The analyst was impressed to see Almond dodge the rifleman's bullet while landing his white energy.
"Wow, this is something else."
OrangeKing straight up screamed, "Wowwwww! What just happened!?"
— My ears!
— So excited.
— He's turned red!
— Wow, Almond, what was that?
— It almost seemed like a bug;
— Is Almond living in a different dimension all on his own?
"Wow!!! You can't help but be impressed! He dodged a bullet!? How's that possible?! WhiteChicken didn't miss. He shot well!"
"Yes, he shot well. It was probably just past him, but Almond showed an impressive reaction speed."
"It really puts JeonJaPa's VNS level into perspective!"
"That's right. He almost doesn't seem human."
— He isn't human.
— Yeah, I think he has nut blood running through him.
— He's beyond human!
— Red glasses official: Almond isn't human.
"But why did Almond fake them out and attack?"
"Probably because of the recoil Ran has when he attacks. It's hard for Ran to dodge if he's shooting at the same time."
If Ran used his discharge, he wouldn't have been able to dodge the rifleman's bullet.
"Ah, so that's why he just pretended to attack and shot right away after dodging!"
"Yes! The rifleman is nimble too, but because of the recoil, he slightly slows down. Almond was able to hit him with a frame-perfect shot. Meanwhile, the rifleman lost his timing because of the shock."
"He really is a damage machine!"
Almond continued to deal damage in the small openings frame by frame. There was no explanation other than that he had a high VNS score.
"WhiteChicken is probably feeling frustrated. The rifleman can shoot much quicker, but why was he the one hit... he probably doesn't understand right now."
"Right now, Almond ran outside of WhiteChicken's range. He seems hesitant, right?"
"But he shouldn't engage right now."
"All WhiteChicken needs to do is play defensively for now."
"Ah! Speak of the devil! Almond stepped forward again!"
Almond stood near the end of WhiteChicken's range again.
"He's taunting him as if to say, You can't hit me!"
"What will... WhiteChicken do?"
"Ah! WhiteChicken! He seems to have taken the bait! He pointed his gun again!!"
WhiteChicken looked determined to kill Almond.
"Ah! WhiteChicken looks determined to kill Almond!"
Meanwhile, Almond looked determined to kill WhiteChicken as well.
“I see a kill…”
"Almond is looking for a kill as well!"
"A kill? Is there something I can't see?"
"Does he think the support is far away right now!?"
— Ex-pro OrangeKing is so confused!
— OrangeKing can't see the kill either!
— Wow, he sees a kill there?
***
Tako asked in confusion, "A kill?!"
As he finished asking, Almond charged forward.
Tako followed in shock. "Hey! Why are you going off alone!"
"Support me!"
Tako followed him for now because he requested help.
"No, you can't charge forward like that!
Swiff!
The support came out from hiding and threw their hook of light.
.
"!?"
Chiik!
The hook brushed past Almond's shoulder, but didn't damage him. Hook of Light - Leah's eyes were full of shock.
'He dodged it again?'
Ran wasn't a quick champion, but wasn't too slow either with his skinny figure.
'He's slightly dodging the hitboxes.'
Almond was using the advantage of Ran's skinny body to the fullest extent.
Tang!!
The rifleman pulled his trigger again. This time, he aimed for the heart instead of the head. The rifleman gained bonus damage if he damaged a vital.
However—
— Again?!
— What the...
— It's like a bug...
— That's insane…
Thwack!
His shoulder bled.
[LazySoldier - HP 79%]
It was impossible to completely dodge the bullet, but Almond evaded getting his vitals hit. Thankfully, the damage was low. Meanwhile, the white energy finished charging up.
[Pure Finish]
His right hand was in his pocket and his left was pointed at the rifleman's body.
Wooong...!
The gun shone a bright light. Right before the discharge, the rifleman pulled his trigger once more.
Taaaang!
[LazySoldier - HP 72%]
Almond strangely maneuvered his body and avoided a fatal hit. It was Ran's turn.
[Discharge]
White mana shined and flew forward. The rifleman threw his body, trying to dodge it.
Kwagwagwang!!!
"Kugh!"
He was heavily hit.
[WhiteChicken - HP 59%]
WhiteChicken was almost at half HP. The rifleman lifted his gun and pulled his trigger again. This time, he seemed to have realized something as well.
'He dodges everything in the upper portion of his body.'
WhiteChicken came to terms with the fact that the opponent could dodge all the bullets. He fired at Almond's upper body because there were more vitals, but for Almond, it was easy to dodge them.
'Then...'
Clack.
He continuously pulled the trigger.
Tang! Tang!
Blood splattered from Almond's legs. It was effective. For Ran, who was slow with his feet, attacks toward the lower portion of his body were effective.
[LazySoldier - HP 65%]
Almond was losing quite a bit of HP as well. Meanwhile, Tako and Leah were fighting and rolling around in the mud.
"Arrrrgh!"
"Let go! Let go!"
"I can't let you go!"
Almond double-checked and saw that he couldn't receive any help.
'Did he find out?'
The opponent was shooting toward the lower half of his body. Almond tried to dodge left and right...
Tang!
But WhiteChicken got the hang of it. Another bullet hit Almond's legs. Just then…
"Why am I fighting you!"
Tako shook off Leah and shot a net toward WhiteChicken. He ignored Leah and aimed for WhiteChicken.
"Urrrgh!"
[Slowed down by the net!]
WhiteChicken fell and got dragged away. However, Tako wasn't the only one preparing for a surprise attack.
"I have one too, you bastard!"
Leah fired a skill at Almond as well. She learned that Almond couldn't dodge if it was aimed toward his lower half and threw her hook toward his legs.
[Hooked! Movement is limited!]
Slam!
Almond fell on the ground as well. The sticky mud splashed all over his face.
"Urgh."
Splat.
Almond spat out the dirt in his mouth.
'I need to still fire.'
His plans changed. The only way to live was to shoot. Even while he fell, he lifted his left hand and charged up. The rifleman also aimed his gun toward Almond despite being on the ground.
[Discharge]
Kwaaang!
Almond's finger bounced back and WhiteChicken's rifle fired as well.
Paang!
Taang!
There was a white explosion on WhiteChicken's right shoulder.
***
During this chaos, the casters went crazy.
"Ahhhh! Is this the kill Almond saw!?"
"I-I can't believe he was able to calculate all this?!"
The two were rolling around and shooting at each other in the mud.
[LazySoldier - HP 32%]
[WhiteChicken - HP 29%]
Their HP was slowly declining, but the battle didn't stop.
Tang! Pang! Taaang!!
A couple of attacks missed, but the fight came to a point where one person had to die.
[LazySoldier - HP 5%]
[WhiteChicken - HP 11%]
The fight was about to end as their HP reached a critical point.
Pssht!
[Debuff cleansed]
The two were cleansed from their debuffs at the same time. The rifleman aimed at Almond and Almond quickly hid behind a minion.l
Ting!
The bullet bounced off the minion's shield.
'Almost died there.'
He took a breath of relief and stood behind the minion. Then he charged up more white mana at the end of his thumb.
[Recharge]
This was the last time he would charge it back up.
'He's better than I thought.'
For the first time, Almond acknowledged the opponent's skill. He could feel the difference in skill between a Master tier and a Grandmaster.
'It was a kill...'
Ignoring that the supporter was hiding, it was a blatant mistake for the enemy to advance too far. However, their subsequent response was impressive. Ultimately, it turned into a close-quarter battle. The dynamics became completely different from what was expected. Their agility to swiftly change targets from the upper to lower body was astonishing.
'Anyway, it's down to the last shot.'
As a result, the two were down to their last shots. The two supports were intertwined with each other again. It was the final battle between Almond and WhiteChicken alone.
'Where's WhiteChicken?'
Almond couldn't see anything. If he stuck his head out, he'd be instantly shot.
"Tako! Where's WhiteChicken!"
"The right bush!!!!"
This was the only way he could find out the location.
'Right bush... he's probably aiming at me.'
If he stuck his head out and shot, he'd lose because the gunshot would be quicker. However, he couldn't dodge it either because the opponent was already aiming at him. What was he supposed to do?
***
"Almond! He's charging up behind the minion's shield!"
"WhiteChicken and Almond are both below 10%!"
"It's my first time seeing Almond pushed to a corner like this!"
"It seems like that's the case because Almond is continuing to force the fights."
"WhiteChicken is reloading in the bushes right now. What do you think will happen next?"
"Just like the wild wild west, don't you think the quicker one will prevail?"
"Ah! That's right! Down to the last shot!"
"Yes, it seems that way."
"The two are low-leveled right now and have no skills learned, so it'll probably come down to who shoots quicker."
"If it's like that, the rifleman has the upper hand. The bullet is going to be quicker than Ran's mana shot."
Just then…
Bzzzt!
From behind the shield minion, only Almond's hand popped out. Leaning against the back of the minion, he bent his arm upward. The commentators had no time to explain what he was doing. Without even looking at the enemy, Almond immediately took the shot. And he did it from behind his back.
"Ahhh—"
Right as OrangeKing was about to say something…
Pung!
WhiteChicken died as he was reloading in the bush.
[Enemy eliminated!]
[LazySoldier -> WhiteChicken]
The fearful battle came to an anticlimactic end, at least from WhiteChicken's perspective.
[Dead]
[Reviving in 23 seconds]
***
It was anticlimactic for WhiteChicken.
"W-What is this!?"
"A no-look shot! He shot behind the minion without even looking, so the opponent couldn't react to it!"
However, the people watching had other things to say about what they witnessed.
— ????
— What just happened??
— Is this possible?
— All RNG
"This was possible on Ran?! I guess there are benefits to shooting with one hand!"
The casters spat out in excitement at the shocking scene.
'Wow, that was lucky.'
Almond was relieved at the no-look shot he was able to land. Even he wasn't 100% sure the shot would land. Since he would lose the speed battle, this was his last resort and it landed.
— Save our planet, Almond! Save our planet, Almond!
— Wow, what a guy.
— This works!?
— Wow, the balls on him.
— Ran with one hand... he's a sharpshooter!
It was a performance that resembled a circus act. It was possible because luck was on his side. However, luck only took him this far. On that day, Balloon Stars was demolished within 20 minutes. Almond fought fiercely until the end, taking down three additional opponents before the game ended. However, the difference in skill was inevitable.
"GG~~~!"
"It was fun! Wow, but you can sure tell the skill difference, right?"
"Yes. Almond and Tako did well in the bottom lane, but it wasn't enough for the other lanes."
"I think High Protein was able to show us exactly what it meant to play like a team..."
As the casters' voices faded, Almond's avatar was transported back into This World.
***
"Sigh," Almond let out a deep breath and sat down.
"... Almond."
Tako approached him and patted him on the shoulder.
"You did really good."
"..."
‘What was the point? We lost?’
But Almond kept it to himself and nodded.
"Hey, this is a practice match, okay? Don't get too down over this. Just learn during our feedback."
"Alright."
"You did really well today. There probably isn't much I can say during the feedback to you, but you did amazing."
"Yes."
Almond simply responded mechanically, ‘Yes, yes.’ The feedback session lasted for about an hour that day. However, Almond's capsule remained closed even after one and a half hours, even after two hours. There was no intention of broadcasting either.
[Kim Ju-Hyeok: Hey, why aren't you coming out? What are you doing?]
Ju-Hyeok messaged him, thinking it was suspicious. Only two words came back to him.
[Yu Sang-Hyeon: Solo queue]