Chapter 54: Unexpected Spotlight (1)
Ju-Hyeok felt surprised too.
"Huh?"
Tadadak.
He quickly searched the list of popular donors on Treevy.
'I feel like I’ve seen that name before.'
PersistentThrower was a unique and memorable nickname. No average person would donate 1,500,000 won their first time on a stream.
Ju-Hyeok searched for the username to make sure it wasn't anyone suspicious.
"Ah."
As expected, the name came up on the list. Strategist, the other donor from earlier, was also on the list. The two had been active since the legendary game, Manasword Origin,?10 years ago. Thankfully, they had a long history with no other issues.
'There are those who donate and boss people around, but I don't think they're like that.'
Instead, it was a blessing they stopped by the stream.
They could just have the same IDs, so it was best not to make a big deal out of it. Only the amount they donated mattered: 1,800,000 won.
"Kya, are you seeing this Manager Park? Look at Sang-Hyeon earning big money! How is this possible? How much is this? Huh? Those big companies have nothing on us!"
Ju-Hyeok of all people would know since he used to work at a big company. It was unlikely to ever earn over 2 million won in a day unless it was certain huge companies.
***
Almond's eyes widened at the sudden donations. Thankfully, he received it after winning. Otherwise, even he would’ve lost focus.
"I think the feisty one is you! I really don't know how to react... I can't even shoot myself with an arrow this time..."
— LOL The first thing he thinks of is shooting himself.
— Damn!
— Are you going to end the stream?
— 300,000 won reaction was a cartwheel and ending the stream.
— LOL this guy.
— Five cartwheels?!
He couldn't shoot himself with an arrow since Battle Large?wasn't an open world game. Almond briefly thought about it.
"Ah!"
He didn't think for long as the ideal location popped up in his head: the waiting lobby.
[Entering Lobby]
Dudung, dududung.
Battle Large's?signature drum music played as he entered the lobby. He could freely move his character here and various items lay on the ground.
Boom, boom.
Grenades already went off on one side of the lobby.
Almond's eyes scanned the ground until he found a compound bow.
— No way.
— Oh no...
— Damn!
— Almond! Must you do this! Please, say something!
— He's insane!
The longtime viewers already knew what would happen when Almond's eyes landed on the bow. However, the new viewers only felt confused.
— What's wrong?
— Isn't he getting ready for another match?
— Calm down man...
The new viewers thought the others were just overreacting for no reason. However...
"Phew, finally found it. I'm going to do it now."
Almond pointed his bow at the sky and everyone understood. Anyone who had seen or heard of Almond's stream at least once was familiar with this.
— :o Is he really going to do it?
— Shudders…?
— The legendary scene.
— LOL
— Raise the price for this reaction, please!
— 1.5 mil is enough lol?
— Oppa, your stream is worth at least 10mil!
— Nooooo!
Viewers cried out in the chat, but Almond committed to it.
'My character and credibility are at stake.'?
The two most important attributes of a streamer were their character and credibility. Almond felt his were on the line in this situation.
"Alright... here I go!"
Pang!
He performed three front flips in a row and the arrow he shot straight into the air disappeared.
Swoosh—
He spread his arms out wide.
"Bye, Treevy!"
Thwack!
The arrow perfectly landed on his forehead.
— Woooah...
— But why three times? Isn't it supposed to be five??
— Spin five times! Spin five times! Spin five times! Spin five times!
— Insane man...
— Holy shit!
— Bye, Almond...
— Bye bye!
— Come again tomorrow!
The stream hadn’t ended yet.
"..."
Almond just stood there with his arms stretched out.
'Wha, what?'
Ju-Hyeok was supposed to end it, but he must've made a mistake. Almond tried to cover up the error by naturally continuing the conversation.
"Oh, it's three times because... the price went up?"
Blip—?
The stream finally turned off.
— LOL
— He messed up the timing lmao
— What's going on?
— Does he know how to exit the capsule like an average person?
— Someone donate Almond a new capsule, please.
— This guy!
— He said the price increased lol!
— He’ll never admit that he can't do five haha.
— Then does it cost 500,000 won to end the stream now?
— Breaking! 60% price increase for front flips!
***
Chiiik...
The capsule slowly opened as steam came out from the pressure.
"Ow, my head hurts."
"Hey, sorry. Pfft,” Ju-Hyeok apologized and failed to hold in his laughter.
"I didn't know how to turn off the stream because it was so sudden, so I just disconnected the capsule..."
"No wonder, you damn..."
Sang-Hyeon frowned, but held back his words. It was his fault for giving Ju-Hyeok such a responsibility.
"I'm going to shower."
"Ok, I started heating the water about an hour ago."
"Thanks."
They lived in a small house in a poor neighborhood, so they had to heat the water system first to use hot water. This would be even more important in the winter that was soon approaching.
***
Shaaah…?
Sang-Hyeon thoroughly washed away all his sweat in the steaming shower. Being enveloped in this warmth felt as satisfying as going to bed after being up for three days straight.
'Solo mode was quite challenging even in bronze rank.'
He had overworked today even though he thought solo squad would be significantly easier than squad mode. That hadn’t been the case.
'The grenade player... was dangerous.'
The one who silently rolled the grenade had surprised him. He was different from the other bronze players and perfectly tossed the grenade.
'Let's try harder next time.'
He would have difficulty in diamond rank if he couldn't overpower bronze players. As always, he encouraged himself in the mirror.
'Let's do this. You can't do any worse.’
***
After a warm shower, Sang-Hyeon searched his cupboards for something to eat when he heard good news from Ju-Hyeok.
"Sang-Hyeon, is Bubblegum someone famous?"
"Oh, yeah. I used to always watch him."
"Apparently, he was in your stream."
"What?"
Whip—?
Even the calm Sang-Hyeon felt surprised during times like this.
'Bubblegum? In my stream?'
Sang-Hyeon always watched his stream after a stressful day at work. Bubblegum had been a great comfort and role model for Sang-Hyeon, except for his skills.
'He's watching me?'
Ju-Hyeok nodded.
"You know the sniper who was shooting at you when there were only three people left? Apparently, that was Bubblegum."
"Really???"
No wonder he was terrible.
"Yeah, it's true. Look at this."
Woong.
Bubblegum's stream played on the hologram that Ju-Hyeok projected. A chubby man was screaming in it.
— Wow, that crazy bowman!
— Yeah, who’s that bowman from earlier? I'm going to spectate him.
— Wow, how can you use a bow like that? He's incredible! What? It's only his second round? Don't lie, everyone.
The bowman they were referring to was obviously Almond.
"It's... true? He even spectated me?"
Sang-Hyeon continued blinking in disbelief.
"Over 50,000 people watched."
"..."
‘50,000 people watched? Incredible!’?
Sang-Hyeon didn’t know how to react, but that wasn't important right now.
'Bubblegum really watched my stream.'
The streamer who comforted him during his days as a salaryman. That friendly, lovable streamer… Sang-Hyeon became a streamer because of his influence. He helped to make the current Almond today.
'Bubblegum...'
Sang-Hyeon choked up and turned away from Ju-Hyeok, who would overreact and make fun of him again.
"Hey, where are you going? Aren't you going to check the community reactions..."
"I'll check them in bed. It’s not like we need to do it together."
Sang-Hyeon already turned around.
"Oh... yeah. Okay."
Ju-Hyeok noticed something was off and simply nodded.
'The community reaction is crazy...'
It was a shame, but he let Sang-Hyeon go and quietly cleaned up after himself.
Ting.
He turned off the holograms and the living room became dark.
They went to their respective rooms and shut their doors.
Creak.
***
Sang-Hyeon lay on his soft bed and read the community reactions on his phone. First, he searched for Bubblegum because their unexpected collaboration would’ve caused quite a stir.
'Hmm?'
However, no one mentioned it anywhere.
'Was it not a big deal?'
This tiny event must not have been a big deal since Bubblegum was such a popular streamer. It didn’t attract much attention and must’ve only been a special moment for Sang-Hyeon.
'Hmph.'
Sang-Hyeon had no desire to be noticed. It was enough for him to have a special moment he could hold onto, but he honestly felt disappointed. It would’ve been nice if his interaction with Bubblegum had trended.
Sang-Hyeon moved on to check other websites. He looked at Battle31's hot posts and their most recently trending section.
'Hm?'
The contents seemed strange as if he was dreaming.
1) Almond's crazy play
2) Almond destroying BubbleSniper
3) Almond vs. BubbleSniper: grenade payback.gif
4) Today's gatcha outfit
5) Almond, you're crazy! Going through 4 players!
6) Almond's 4v1 feint was insane.
7) Almond's highlights in only one round!
The entire chart only contained posts talking about Almond.