Chapter 261. The Memories (2)
Chapter 261. The Memories (2)
Approximately five years passed after the traffic accident and So-Yeon's death.
"... Realistically, rehabilitation to the point of a professional athlete will be difficult."
Sang-Hyeon, whose face no longer showed great turmoil at the doctor's words, nodded.
Despite putting effort into rehabilitation for five years, he never fully recovered. It wasn't meant to be.
"Yes, I understand."
A significant amount of time had already passed. He had been living for a considerable time just focusing on surviving in his reality without archery.
For about a year, he visited the hospital out of mere habit for check-ups. He was just hoping no further problems would hinder his daily life.
"You can receive various benefits by getting a disability rating. The person in charge will inform you about this."
"Okay."
Declaring that he would give up on rehabilitation also came with benefits.
First, he received a certified doctor's note of disability. Then, he received government grants and various benefits.
Sang-Hyeon received college tuition, which was meaningless to him, and special hiring practices in large corporations.
Of course, what he wished for was to be hired by a large corporation. He already discussed it with his coach.
"My grandmother's health is deteriorating... I also need to get a job quickly. I think this is a good opportunity."
The doctor quietly stared at Sang-Hyeon.
Sang-Hyeon was a patient he had seen for five years. A boy he had watched grow into a young man.
That boy was now attempting to take on the role of a young man living in this world.
"You've worked hard, Sang-Hyeon."
The doctor extended his hand for a handshake.
"Come and see me if you need anything."
"Thank you."
Sang-Hyeon politely shook hands, said goodbye, and left the hospital. He was ready to start a new life from now on.
Since then, he didn’t pay attention to anything related to archery. He needed to adapt to his new reality, so he couldn't be distracted by such things. He juggled with part-time jobs and prepared for job interviews.
Even if the special hiring practices for disabled people were easier, he couldn't be useless once they hired him.
He began to read books and crammed English, which he had no interest in before. Starting from the basics, like a high school student... No, it was almost like starting from middle school.
Maybe the good thing was that a new goal invigorated him. He intended to adapt to a company and devoted himself to studying hard.
However...
"Hey, newbie. Is this your resume? Isn't this an error?"
Company life was a field that couldn't be mastered through studying.
"Did you get hired through a special disability hiring process?"
Apparently, it wasn't clearly communicated to his supervisors and superiors. It was probably because of the confidentiality policies.
The company could've just written the reason down on his resume, so he didn't have to repeat it every time. He always had to explain the reason from his own mouth.
"If you find it hard to say, I'll just assume you got here through connections. It's essentially the same thing."
"... Okay."
It could’ve been the supervisor showing consideration and keeping Sang-Hyeon's secret, but the reality was far from it. Whatever the intent was, the five years working in that company weren’t particularly bright.
It wasn't because they mistook him for entering through connections. It was because his poor working skills could be mistaken for having pulled some strings.
No matter how much Sang-Hyeon tried, it was difficult for him to shine among the monstrous new employees who seemed to have been trained just for company life since elementary school. Sang-Hyeon had no choice but to admit it.
The five years in that company were a series of bitter experiences for him, a feast of defeats.
However, he had to admit one thing. That experience had been valuable for him.
Those times made him the person who now stood in front of this microphone.
***
'That was so long ago.'
Sang-Hyeon suddenly swallowed the memories flooding in along with his bitter saliva.
"The Sang-Hyeon in the video is indeed Almond! Wow~! Thank you for the great answer, Almond!"
Applause passed through the audience.
"But... why did you quit? You had extraordinary records!"
It was an endless story. The trials and emotional waves that swept through those times. How could Sang-Hyeon explain it all?
Sang-Hyeon didn’t know how to start.
"Of course, you don't have to answer that," the caster cautiously added.
Sang-Hyeon could feel the caster’s gaze saying it was really okay to not answer the question, but Sang-Hyeon had chosen this stage himself.
There was nowhere else like this to shake off the lingering spirits of the past that would emerge later anyway.
He conveyed all those memories in a single sentence.
"I retired due to an injury in my right arm."
Silence flowed throughout the stadium, but it wasn't a heavy silence.
They didn’t know the whole story. They just knew that Sang-Hyeon retired because of an injury... That was it.
That one sentence contained a gap that could never be filled. The audience could never fully understand the hardships that Sang-Hyeon went through, but that was okay.
It was enough if Sang-Hyeon could provide a neat explanation to the fans' long-standing questions here.
He didn't think everyone had to fully understand his pain. That would be too much to ask for.
"I've been doing archery since middle school, retired due to an injury, worked in a company, and became a streamer after a restructuring retirement."
That sentence simply compressed his ten years.
Yes, that was good enough for the interview. It would be enough if Sang-Hyeon could express gratitude to his benefactors here.
"... So, do you still have problems with your right arm?"
The question Sang-Hyeon had been waiting for came out.
"Yes, I can't move it precisely enough to do archery."
"Even here?"
"No, I'm free in the virtual world. However, there's still a problem with the running time. If I use my right arm too much, I can't play for long."
"So that's why you played with one hand?"
"Yes."
The quiet audience began to murmur.
— OMG, was it because of an injury?
— I didn't know.
— Is the right arm still affecting him?
"But were you okay in the finals? You've never played with one hand."
"I was using an old second-hand capsule before... "
"A capsule?"
"Yes, but I got great help recently and got a new capsule. It's been fine since then."
"Oh, is it Aston's Plato?"
— Wow, it's Aston.
— Does the capsule really make a difference?
— Aston never fails.
Sang-Hyeon chuckled. They mistook it for Aston's Plato model.
The broadcasting team had noticed the difference in Almond's play when he switched capsules to Aston's.
"No, Divers supported me with a custom capsule."
Ping.
Sang-Hyeon displayed his current connection information.
The cameras zoomed in.
OrangeKing, who was next to him, spoke up, "Huh? It's a capsule code I've never seen before. Is it Divers? I know all of Divers' supply models because they make entry-level capsules."
Sang-Hyeon nodded, "Yes, it's a new brand called NOVA by Divers. The CEO heard my story and supported me for free. He said he needed a tester anyway."
The broadcasters were surprised.
"For free?"
"Wow, custom ones are really expensive..."
The caster asked Sang-Hyeon again, "Did your run time increase because of this capsule?"
"Yes, if the capsule hadn't changed, I couldn't have gone through five games because of my right hand. I want to take this opportunity to say thank you for supporting me."
Sang-Hyeon concluded the interview.
"I will post more details about my personal life on my own channel."
Sang-Hyeon thought he shouldn't take too much time for his story when it was a victory interview for everyone.
The interview naturally moved to the next person, and the story about Sang-Hyeon's past momentarily faded from the audience's memory. It faded naturally as if Sang-Hyeon had talked about his high school days...
It ended just like that.
'Well done.'
Sang-Hyeon felt satisfied.
'Well done, Yu Sang-Hyeon.'
***
"Holy Fuck!"
Thud.
Ju-Hyeok jerked too hard and hit his knee against the desk, but he didn't care and exclaimed.
"Well done! Yu Sang-Hyeon!"
The interview had been more nerve-wracking than the final match.
It could’ve seemed long-winded to some or others could think Sang-Hyeon was just selling his emotions. However, he only said what was necessary and ended the interview. That alone was enough to draw reactions.
— :( Did he retire because of an injury?
— Noooooo!! :(
— He still shoots so well... that's unfortunate....
— His calm tone makes it even sadder...
An undeniable allure in Sang-Hyeon's story captured public interest.
In such cases, no matter how briefly Sang-Hyeon described his story, people would go out of their way to dig deeper and spread it.
Moreover, once the tournament ended, Ji-Ah would immediately upload the video. It was an interview that detailed Sang-Hyeon's story in much greater depth.
It wasn't just about Sang-Hyeon. His archery friends, the archery association, and even his former coaches participated in the interviews.
Ji-Ah and Yeon-Ju had worked hard to get all these interviews.
“Ladies and gentlemen! The enjoyable tournament has ended!”
Ju-Hyeok had been waiting to hear this.
“We will come back next time with funner and more exciting content! Goodbye!”
The broadcast ended with thunderous cheers.
Gulp.
Ju-Hyeok swallowed again and nervously checked the YouTube channel.
Sang-Hyeon hadn't come out of the capsule yet. He was probably discussing things with his teammates.
Ding.
[Ji-Ah: Ju-Hyeok, it's uploaded!]
Less than a minute after the tournament ended, Ji-Ah messaged Ju-Hyeok.
The video had been uploaded to YouTube.
[The promising archer who became Almond]
The title was sufficiently provocative. Ju-Hyeok liked it.
The views started to increase one by one.
[Views: 2]
[Views: 10]
[Views: 32]
[Views: 183]
Ju-Hyeok wanted to immediately share the link in community forums, but he waited instead.
'I have to be patient.'
[Views: 1.3k]
Finally, when it crossed the one-thousand mark, he copied and pasted the link into every community forum.
[Almond's real story is uploaded on YouTube.]
Most community boards were already discussing Sang-Hyeon's archery days, so Ju-Hyeok's post quickly gained attention.
[Archery of Kingdom, Almond could have been a national athlete!]
Sang-Hyeon's story appeared as popular posts in KAF and the Battle Large community, Battle31.
[Remember Almond, who broke a record in Battle Large diamond? He won a gold medal in the national archery championship, lol]
Of course, Almond was the hot topic on LILPro.
[Almond finally spoke about it in the final interview!]
Several posts like these also appeared on BigPro.
Ju-Hyeok's post quickly gained likes.
— Will a video be uploaded separately on Almond's channel?"
— It seems like it was prepared in advance.
— Isn't the embargo lifted? Amazing!
└ Is there an embargo for Almond's story?
└ Maybe there is because they decided to reveal it during the finals interview?
— Dang, the interview was too short. It was hard to breathe. I'm going right away.
— Our nut bro lived a sad life...
— Wow, it's not even 10,000 views yet, but it's already trending.
The fact that Almond uploaded a video to his channel slowly spread in the community.
[Wow, what he said in the interview was just the tip of the iceberg, LOL.]
[Almond was one of the victims of an auto-pilot taxi incident, wow.]
[Almond was very poor but tried to make it through archery... I'm so glad he's doing well now!]
[Did you guys watch the video? He’s got a lot of interviews.]
The video contained stories about Sang-Hyeon's financial struggles, joining a company named Ahsung, stories about his grandmother, and more. It had everything except stories about So-Yeon.
Anyone would be curious about these things, even those not interested in Almond.
[What are you guys talking about? Let me watch it too.]
[What is it, you fanatics?]
The video's view count started to explode.
[Views: 108,000]
Within less than an hour after being uploaded, the video crossed 100,000 views.
According to Ju-Hyeok's calculations, they would definitely make it into the real-time trending videos at such a speed.
#Real-time Trending 58th place
Sure enough, the video entered the real-time trending chart within an hour.
'Something is...'
Ju-Hyeok had a feeling at that moment. He felt different from before.
'The atmosphere is different.'
It seemed like this was the start of Almond’s golden days.