Chapter 51: Unexpected Audience (1)
Only successful marketing could have achieved a feat like 5000 viewers so soon. Ju-Hyeok’s experience working at big corporations was beginning to pay off.
'Thanks to my experience.'
Ju-Hyeok had been close with the marketing team even though he wasn't part of it. What they worked on always interested him.
‘Noise marketing is a double-edged sword, but it's the best for those with nothing to lose.’
They always used to say that.
‘Look at diss battles in hip-hop. It's always better for whoever is less popular.’
Almond's feud with the admin team had strongly favored them. Their increased viewer count had been a direct result of that.
[Current Viewers: 5391]
They hadn't planned to take advantage of the situation like this, but it unexpectedly resulted in a huge success.
Ju-Hyeok could see on his database that most viewers had tuned in for the first time and came from a specific link, which resulted in the sudden increase.
'Now it's up to us to maintain this.'
He pointed his cursor at Almond running through the virtual desert.
'It's up to you now.'
Continuing like this wasn’t guaranteed just because they reached 5000 viewers now. They were more likely to fade away like most trends.
It was up to Almond to take advantage of this opportunity and retain the viewers.
'If it's you, you can do it.'
As always, Almond would get it done with no sweat.
***
Did Ju-Hyeok's wish reach Almond?
Almond went on an unstoppable rampage after his 1v4 victory.
Thwack!
His arrow quickly flew and pierced an enemy's head.
— Another kill!?
— Again!
— How many times is this!?
These players were only bronze rank at best. They became powerless once they lost their brief chance to kill Almond.
"Alright, I'll loot the corpses now."
Almond had figured out the strategies to play in this tier.
[ApocalypseFarmer has donated 10,000 won.]
[What's the point of farming when you can just kill them and take everything!]
[BigFarm has donated 1000 won.]
[This is Almond, who gave up farming!]
It was more efficient to kill players and loot their items than farm. The skill gap between Almond and the players in this tier made this the best strategy. They didn’t possess accurate aim and lacked game sense.
Shuffle, shuffle.
He quickly looted their bodies.
[First-aid Kit x1]
[Bandages x2]
The first-aid kit was a great find, but Almond wasn't too impressed.
"I need to find a helmet. I can't seem to find one."
He already found two kits, but still no helmet. That was all he needed to complete his set.
— This tier is shit, so I think the other players don't know how to farm very well.
— No one has a helmet lol?
— You're dead if you show up in front of Almond without a helmet.?
— 12 kills already!
Whether it was luck or not, no enemy he encountered had worn a helmet. Thanks to that, he easily eliminated 12 players with a single headshot each.
"I want to find a helmet..."
He thought it was essential to find some protection because killing didn't mean everything in this survival game.
[HelmetMurderer has donated 5000 won.]
[Why are you looking for a helmet from a player? Don't you usually look for them in houses?]
— That's true LOL
— Haha, he's not wrong.
— That is weird now that you mention it.?
"Ah, HelmetMurderer, thanks for the 5000 won donation. I decided not to farm because I end up with nothing anyways. I'm just going to find someone with one and kill them."
— Farming humans.
— Almond-style farming.
— Nutty-style farming.
— A true helmet murderer.
Almond's confidence caused a commotion in the chat. This was the type of genius that the audience wanted to see. Their satisfaction came from watching an overpowered player bending the rules.
"Anyways, I’ll only target those with a helmet from now on. I'll let everyone else slide by."
Almond doubled down on his new strategy and began moving after checking the blue zone.
[SmallDilemma has donated 1000 won.]
[So, are the 23 remaining players safer with or without a helmet?]
— They're screwed! LOL
— It's a dilemma no matter what they do.
— Their greatest predicament.
— Without a helmet, for sure.
— Run from Almond's hunt!
"Thank you for the donation. Hmm, I'm not sure. Oh? Someone is over there."
Thwack!
As if swatting a fly…
[Almond → EvilMoral]
[Eliminated!]
[22/100]
Tadadang!
The enemy fell while pulling the trigger and fired his bullets into the air.
"So noisy... doesn't even have a helmet..." Almond muttered to himself, annoyed by all the noise the enemy made.
— Damn.
— What was that?
— Was he a fly?
— Saying he was noisy after shooting him lol
— Poor guy.
[NutMorals has donated 5000 won.]
[??? Just die quietly if you suck at the game!]
[HelmetMurderer has donated 5000 won.]
[Uh... Didn't you just say 5 seconds ago that you'd let them live if they didn’t have a helmet?]
The question caused Almond to scratch his head.
"Ah... Did I say that? Haha…"
Almond continued to farm while laughing. The chat was filled with laughter as well.
'There's a lot of donations today.' Almond thought to himself as he found an energy drink in the enemy’s backpack.
Almond didn’t receive that many donations as a video game streamer. Similar streamers like Acorn Jelly experienced the same thing. The number of donations was much lower when compared to the number of viewers they had.
Because of that, Almond felt surprised when he saw the number on the bottom right corner of his screen.
'Wha… what the!?'
The number was so ridiculous that he wondered how to keep calm.
[Current Viewers: 5549]
He suddenly had over 5500 viewers.
What Ju-Hyeok once told him rang in his ear, 'I heard it’s possible to stream as a career once you pass 5000 viewers... with a monthly earning around 7-8,000,000 won...'
The salary, benefits, and sucking up he had to endure while working at a company passed through his mind.
'Wow...'
Almond's mouth twitched as if he was on a rollercoaster. He fought the urge to smile and maintained his calm.
'I shouldn't have looked at it.'
It was best not to check the number of views during a stream. Almond repeated this in his head and focused on the game.
Did he leave an opening as he was thinking?
Roll...
Almond turned around at the unsettling sound and a grenade greeted him.
The grenade stared at him as if to say, 'Hello?'
Almond's pupils shrunk into beans.
'?!'
He had to quickly make a judgment at this moment.
When was it thrown? Was the pin already gone? Could he outrun it? The distance looked iffy. Would he die if he went to kick it?
Or—
'That's it.'
Almond took out an arrow and rolled over at the last moment.
***
Bubblegum's stream sniper was a popular Treevy meme. It categorized those who weren't good at the game, but matched with Bubblegum to harass him. Some of these players intentionally went on a losing streak to wait for Bubblegum in the lower ranks.
A user named BubbleSniper roamed around, "Ah... Where’s Bubblegum... he's somewhere here judging from the stream."
He was a mean stream sniper who helped Bubblegum reach the final only to kill him and was more than capable of doing so as a diamond ranked player. He was even more skilled than the I Love Mondays team who used to be in the lower diamond ranks.
'Is that him?'
He felt a presence and hid. His reactions and judgment were on a completely different level from other players in this rank.
Tadadang!
As expected, gunshots echoed out.
'What's that?'
The gunshots didn’t last long. Did they already die?
His sharp gaze looked around and discovered Almond looting the corpse.
'It's not Bubblegum. Then I gotta get rid of him.'
He glanced at Almond's equipment: a compound bow,?ballistic vest, but no helmet.
'One grenade should do the trick.'
BubbleSniper slowly took out a grenade and took the pin out with his teeth.
Ting—?
A quiet metal noise rang out.
One of his specialties was assassinating an enemy by rolling a grenade toward them.
'Everyone except Bubblegum needs to die.'
He delicately held the grenade like an egg and slowly released it. At this rate, it would blow up in 10 seconds.
'1… 2… 3...'
He completely let it go on the fourth second without even worrying about it exploding in his hand.
'4!'
Roll...
The grenade rolled quieter than normal.
'Around 2 more seconds.'
The enemy had precisely 2 seconds to act only if?they had instantly discovered the grenade. It was too far to kick away and too close to evade, just the perfect distance.
Tak.
Only 2 seconds remained. What could a player in this rank do?
'It's over...'
Before he could finish his thought, the enemy turned around faster than he expected.
'What the?'
Almond had reacted slower than usual because he was deep in thought, but it looked like a near-perfect reaction from BubbleSniper's perspective.
'He still won't be able to dodge it. He'll take a lot of damage even if he does, so it'll be easy to finish him off.'
Even with such a quick reaction, BubbleSniper's precision made the situation impossible to deal with.
However...
"!?"
Ting!
He could hear the grenade bouncing again and towards him this time.
'What the, using an arrow?!'
Almond shot the arrow at a strange angle and caused the grenade to bounce.
The grenade would’ve blown up if he aimed directly at it and nothing would’ve happened if he struck too far away. Despite all these variables, Almond perfectly struck it at a 45 degree angle that sent it bouncing away.
He did all this while shooting and rolling backward.
Swoosh—?
The grenade returned to BubbleSniper, who only had 0.2 seconds left to react.
"Fucking game. This must be a bug..."
BOOM!
BubbleSniper flew and struck the nearest wall without even finishing his sentence.
Thud!
"Kugh!"
His vision grew fuzzy due to the impact, but he could still hear a voice.
"Oh, this one has a helmet."
"What???"
Thwack!
An arrow pierced his neck before he could speak up.