Chapter 40: First Place Alone (2)
I Love Mondays?was a four man squad and clan made up of different users who took a break from the game. The squad leader Calamari?even reached diamond rank in the past. They stopped playing for more than a year, so their ranks reset.
Thankfully, the game hadn’t changed much aside from the addition of new items and a few new maps. Playing on familiar, classic maps would help them recover their old gameplay skills.
‘This rank is gonna be easy as fuck.’
They felt excited and looked forward to dominating.
The two members that attacked both collapsed almost simultaneously when something fell from the sky.
Even then, the enemy still hadn’t shown their face.
‘What is that? What did they die from?’
In this moment, Calamari thought the game had changed from what he used to know.
***
“Phew, did it hit?”
Almond leaned against the wall on the roof. He couldn’t even peek to check if he hit the enemies because he shot the arrows backward. Fortunately, the kill log notified him that one had died.
[Almond → Mr.Krabs]
[Eliminated!]
[47/100]
— Man, wow.
— That’s crazy. This is beyond normal.
— Isn’t it just a fluke?
— Wow…
— Oppa you’re the best!
Smirk.
Almond couldn’t help but smile while reading the compliments in the chat. Their sense of awe at his actions somewhat baffled him.
‘This one was kind of cool.’
It was different from his usual shots. He landed the shot backwards without even seeing the target. From Almond’s perspective, it was a variation of his donation reaction when he shot straight into the air.
‘It’s good that I tried a lot of weird things when I was young.’
He and his friends often practiced trick shots like they were in a circus during his archery days. For example, shooting straight into the air and having the arrow land at a specific spot or hitting a flying arrow with another one. They often put on such clown shows. His coach used to scold them that they would break their bows. 𝐛𝗲𝗱𝐧𝐨𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝐦
Messing around like that turned out to be beneficial in situations like these.
As he reminisced about the past…
Slam!
He heard the door burst open.
One of the two who came for him hadn’t died yet and managed to get inside the house.
‘They’ll probably come through the rooftop entrance.’
The rooftop only had one entrance. He just needed to wait for the enemy to appear there.
Thankfully, Almond could see it from his current position. He stayed in the same spot and watched the door to avoid getting shot at by more bullets.
However…
‘The enemy has a gun.’
Almond was only using a bow. The speed of bullets would definitely overpower him in a one-on-one situation. The compound bow?had decent power, but nowhere near the strength of a gun.
Tak, tak…
He could hear slow footsteps coming up to the roof. Nonetheless, Almond took out another arrow without a choice. He had to face them regardless of what weapon they had.
The enemies would target him right away if he moved. It was impossible to dodge bullets unless the opponents just missed.
Almond didn’t like leaving his fate to others.
‘I’ll overcome this myself.’
He would push through with his own abilities because he trusted his archery skills the most.
‘They’re coming.’
Toong…
He could hear the last step on top of the stairs and the doorknob turning.
Crank.
‘I’ve got to focus.’
Almond concentrated like never before. He cut himself off from the world. Even his breath seemed too loud and his heartbeat too distracting.
He was in his own world right now as he drew his bow.
Creak…?
“!”
And he released.
Pang!
— ???
— ?
— It’s not even open…
The door didn’t open yet, but he had already fired his shot.
Creak…
The door slowly opened and a slight crack formed.
Swoosh…?
A breeze found its way through.
Thwack!
“Kugh!”
Creak…
The door fully opened. Not from a hand, but the weight of an entire body.
[Almond → Spongebob]
[Knocked Out!]
Almond’s arrow had struck the opponent in the abdomen.
— He perfectly timed the door opening!?
— What the…
— Almond, is he a god?
— He plays like a veteran.
— He shot low as well in case the enemy was crouching.
— Usually, only pros can do this…
— Wow… is this really your first time?
Only pros could pull off a difficult skill like perfectly timing a kill as the door opened.
“It was just good timing,” Almond nonchalantly said as he took some painkillers.
Such a skill required immense concentration and finesse to achieve. It hadn’t been an easy feat.
— Skills.
— We can’t time it. That’s why we lose everything in the stock market!
— Oh… what are these tears…
— Ah, just get the timing right! Of course!
The viewers thought he was either sneering or being too humble. He just made a perfect play.
The opponent would’ve never expected this caliber of play. SpongeBob became quite frustrated.
[SpongeBob: Hey, that guy is fucking crazy. I don’t think he’s supposed to be in this rank.]
[Calamari: What, why are you down? Isn’t it just one guy?!]
[SpongeBob: It’s one guy… but I died as soon as I opened the door.]
[Calamari: Ah, you fucking idiot.]
[SpongeBob: No, he perfectly timed the door opening and shot through the crack. How the fuck am I supposed to dodge that?]
[Calamari: ??? What are you talking about? How can someone like that be in this MMR? You probably just weren’t careful enough.]
[SpongeBob: Just come and revive me.]
[Calamari: How am I going to revive you? He’s going to shoot you down.]
[SpongeBob: He’s not? I’m crawling towards the first floor.]
Calamari felt confused after reading SpongeBob’s message.
“He’s not killing him? What’s with the confidence?”
Did he leave SpongeBob alive as bait to lure them in? That indicated his confidence in taking down the rescuer as well.
“Let’s just ditch SpongeBob and not go. He’s a pro if he really had perfect timing,” the other teammate, Patrick, spoke out of fear from next to Calamari.
“What?”
“It’s a trap. Let’s just ditch SpongeBob.”
“Bro, don’t you have any pride? Huh? Do you know what rank we’re in? We’re in a match with newbies and you want to run away?”
‘Why is this guy so serious?’
Patrick couldn’t understand Calamari because this was just a video game.
“He’s straight up taunting us.”
“You’re right. More of a reason for us not to go.”
“What are you talking about?! We promised to hit diamond once we started playing again!”
“We’re not going to get demoted just because we ran away, you squid…”
“My pride will get demoted.”
Calamari prepared his gun and moved forward.
Clink clank.
“Wait, you’re really going? I’ll go instead. You’re a sniper, so just watch over me.”
“How are you going to revive SpongeBob alone?”
“Ah…”
It was difficult to revive teammates because another person had to defend them while the revival process took place.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Patrick and Calamari gave up their high ground and went over to revive SpongeBob. They saw Mr. Krabs’ corpse on their way there.
“Poor Mr. Krabs…”
“Leave him. Look at his ID. That was his fate.”
The two walked downhill and checked on their injured teammate.
Thud. Thud.
“Shouldn’t we run?”
“Shut up Patrick. We have to walk slowly with our guns aimed at him, so he can’t pop out.”
“Ah…”
Patrick and Calamari slowly walked towards the building while pointing their guns at the third floor roof. Their aims slightly wavered, but it was still a decent strategy.
“Oh, there he is. Standing by the first floor doorway.”
“Sigh… pathetic.”
The two spoke without taking their eyes off their aim.
“We’ve got to keep walking like this until we’re clear.”
“Okay.”
They would be out of sight once they reached right in front of the building.
Thump. Thump.
The space between them and the wall grew closer. They were almost out of sight from the roof now.
Just then, as they let their guards down…
Ping—?
The air rippled and an arrow flew into the sky.
‘The head!’
‘It’s the head!’
Both of them felt chills down their spines. They knew the arrow would land on their heads. They were screwed after realizing how their teammates died.
They didn’t care about aiming anymore and dodged. However, they didn’t go forward because that would be too predictable. They had three directions to choose from: left, right, and back. They would end up further away from SpongeBob, but had no choice. The arrow would shatter their helmets and take away half of their HP.
“Hup!”
“Kuk!”
The two rolled away in their respective directions.
Pok.
The arrow landed in the sand after they successfully dodged.
“We dodged—”
However, they weren’t aware that Almond was waiting for them to let down their guard again.
Thwack!
“It…?”
An arrow pierced through Patrick's eyes as soon as he finished his sentence.
[Almond → Patrick]
[Eliminated!]
[28/100]
“What the?!”
Calamari felt confused at what just happened. It all happened too fast for him to register anything.
‘There’s no way an arrow could fly at that angle.’
However, the shadow above his head answered his question. It was Almond’s shadow.
Calamari lifted his head with fear in his eyes. He made an expression that came straight out of a horror movie.
‘Crazy bastard.’
He instinctively swore at Almond with his jaws dropped.
A man was falling from the sky with a bow.
Almond couldn’t find an opening to shoot the enemies, so he jumped off to get a clear shot.
“Hu, hurry—”
Calamari tried to ready his gun even though he was taken by surprise. However, he didn’t have enough time to raise the heavy gun and aim.
Thwack!
An arrow pierced right between his eyes. He wore a helmet, but it was only a common one that covered up to his forehead. He instantly died.
[Almond → Calamari]
[Double Kill!]
[26/100]
Thud.
Almond landed on the ground as Calamari’s body collapsed.
“Eeuk!”
Almond felt dizzy from the high drop.
“Phew… good thing I ate the painkillers,” he said while holding onto his head.
He would be rolling on the ground in pain if he didn’t take those painkillers.
[The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds.]
Now, only 26 players remained out of 100.
Almond searched the corpses, took more medications, and went on his way.
— Shudders.
— Crazy.
— How is this possible?
— I thought this was an action movie…
— How could he think of shooting while jumping off from so high…
— Crazy.
His audience showered him with praises and donations.
[G&J Law Firm has donated 100,000 won!]
[I’m going to sue you for making me piss my pants.]
[Shaking has donated 5,000 won.]
[I really pissed my pants. I’m going to prove it on the forums.]
[Aim-y’s Mom has donated 10,000 won.]
[A-Aimy! You were here! I told you not to follow someone bad like Bubblegum!?]
[Kiddie has donated 50,000 won!]
[Mom! I want to be Almond when I grow up… but I don’t think it’s possible!]