Season 3: Chapter 45: Turning the Table (1)
"… Huh?"
Having lost a whopping 1,400 points, the fundamentalists no longer had the energy to participate in the auction.
"Hey, hey. Surely, we still have... how many points do we have now?"
"… Sigh."
"We still have over 2,000, right? Should we bid more? Huh?"
They had been taken advantage of in various ways. Now, even if they combined all their points, they barely had over 2,000. They couldn’t beat the opposition even if they had more than 2,000 points.
Despite repeatedly trying to trick the opponent, they had been tricked themselves this time. Moreover, the blow was devastating this time. It was a knockout defeat.
[Remaining Points: 0]
One of the fundamentalists, unable to contain himself after seeing his remaining points, screamed, "Ah, aaaaahhhhh!"
Their screams of despair even reached Sang-Hyeon.
— Lmao
— We can hear everything lol
— These crazy fundamentalists lol, that’s real madness lol
— Just give up on Raina~
— Raina would probably prefer Demian going to Almond anyway~~
— This is real education lol
— Fundamentalists’ joy lol lol
— The fundamentalists' backs are bent like a bow…
With the troublemakers gone, the auction could not have proceeded more straightforwardly. Sang-Hyeon could purchase whatever he wanted peacefully until Raina’s bow came up.
When Raina's bow did appear, there was no significant competition. Simply having more than 2,000 points meant no one could compete.
The other challenger with 2,600 points had gone off to bid on another mobile game figure and third place with 2,100 points couldn’t spend all their funds on Demian.
Naturally, the bow went to Almond.
"Congratulations! Number 14!! Raina's limited edition bow! Demian is yours!"
A roar of applause followed.
Ding.
Raina’s bow appeared on Sang-Hyeon’s phone screen. Not just on his screen, it rose up as a hologram.
"Wow…"
The holographic projection was quite detailed. Of course, the actual item he would soon receive would be even more spectacular since it was a limited edition piece.
— Wow
— After Raina’s robe, now Raina’s bow too :(
— Now even the bow...? :(
— Raina’s bow thief lol
— Did you really have to take it all to be satisfied!?
As Sang-Hyeon acquired Raina’s bow, the chat overflowed with messages of jealousy.
Sang-Hyeon playfully added fuel to the fire, "Ah. Is this bow any good? I genuinely don’t know."
— This man, the level of deception is different lol
— ??? Handsome and rich at 184 cm, but is my life okay with this? I really don’t know
— Don’t know what? #*@&*@*(*
— What kind of nonsense #(%@(&*$@ -_-
While most took his joke well, a few fundamentalists in his stream still hurled harsh words. Rather than feeling bad, Sang-Hyeon enjoyed the situation. Perhaps it was the ease of the victor.
When a streamer was in a good mood, it impacted the viewers. They seemed to find the fundamentalists' meltdown amusing too.
— Lmao, the fundamentalists are flipping out!
— Haha crazy lol
— These must really be the fundamentalists
Sang-Hyeon also found delight in viewing the lively chats of his members. His eyes caught another detail in the bow’s description marked with [+more].
"There's a description here. I'll take a look. Not sure if it's good or what..."
— LOL
— Crazy nut, caught another wacky concept
— They’re in for it now, gonna go all day with this LOL
"I'll read it and if it's no good, I'll just sell the bow~"
Sang-Hyeon was reading the description to a dying corpse and launching the final attack.
[The item is a projection from the sanctuary of the deity Raina, closely resembling the weapon Demian in the current dimension. It is characterized by its subtle blue luminescence, especially prominent under moonlight. Although it does not compare to the original, this is as close a replica as the dimensional engineers could achieve for now.]
The description itself was crafted to maintain the concept.
— Perfectly immersive description LOL
— Love stuff like this
— So it's like a projection? To our dimension?
That was just about the bow, but the additional description was also intriguing.
[Although merely a projected shadow, the purity of this projection is so high that it exerts its influence even across dimensions. This influence will be helpful not just in small battlefields, but also across vast lands and seas in the open world.]
What did that mean? Sang-Hyeon pondered for a moment. From a small battlefield into the open world...? He decided to read the rest of the description.
[O contractor beyond dimensions, from now on your battles will not be forgotten beyond the sanctuary. Your epic will be passed down as a story, spanning generations until it eventually becomes a legend.]
'No longer forgotten beyond the sanctuary...'
Sang-Hyeon recalled the story modes of LIL. Ran’s story mode did not cover life on the battlefield. However, memory had always been a crucial element in the story modes that occurred on the battlefield.
'Stepping out from the battlefield... now the memories won't disappear?'
LIL currently consisted of three battle modes: Survival, Siege, and Escort. All these modes were individual matches and each game did not affect one another. According to the lore, the sanctuary always erased all of one’s memories before restarting. (Of course, it was because it was just a game.)
What did it mean that memories would no longer be forgotten? How could a previous match impact another one?
A small appended code made it clear.
[Legend's Tale Authentication Code: *******]
The answer was that it wasn’t just another match. They were not talking about the current game, Life is Legend. They were referring to Legend's Tale, which was an MMORPG. Meaning, this bow would have a certain value in Legend's Tale.
— Seems like it's about Legend's Tale
— Wow, kind of like early beta tester privileges?
— Is this a rich kid's start?
— Wow, this is amazing???
— So that's why it's a limited edition.
The physical Demian figure was not just a real-world entity, but would also play a role in the new game.
"..."
Sang-Hyeon paused to grasp all the settings.
"Is this a good thing? I’m not sure..."
He teased the members once more.
— LMAO
— Definitely great
— LOL
— Winning even against a corpse...
— The fundamentalists who read the entire description must be too happy, probably dancing around~~ haha
***
Such a remarkable item had been stolen. How furious would the fundamentalists be? Even if it had no functions, their members had been desperate to possess it.
"... Was, was there such a thing?"
"Crazy."
Having discovered that the recently released Demian figure had such features, their composure burnt to ashes. It was too obvious who had written this post.
[Serious Analysis Needed: Are the points Almond received at the last challenge booth problematic??]
They had gathered in the G-Star event lounge, pulling out laptops and phones to start working. The post's main point was that Almond had received too many points at one booth.
"Ah... It would be good to know how many points it was."
The problem was their lack of solid evidence. They only heard the host's claim that Almond performed exceptionally well at one booth. They even reviewed the live stream on Almond's channel.
"Did he really haul in a lot?"
"Yeah. He played on the highest difficulty and cleaned it out. Even things that didn't need to be."
It seemed that the points earned from this booth were indeed significant.
Tadadadak.
They began to write additional provocative posts with various pieces of evidence and even added plausible rumors.
"Rumor has it that this booth won't be open tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. They got completely cleaned out."
How many points had Almond taken to the extent that the booth could not operate?
"And! Most importantly! It's likely that Almond received an advertisement contract from there. What does that mean?"
"Ooh...! Solicitation!?"
"That's right!"
They inflated the idea that Almond receiving an advertisement contract was also an act of solicitation. If they loosely worded it as, “Does this make sense? Disappointed in Almond,” it would make for a sufficiently inflammatory post.
To sum it up, Almond had agreed to a major advertisement there and received an absurd amount of points. That was how he overwhelmingly won first place and drew public attention... They completed their little scenario like that.
Tadadadadak... Thump!
The members uploaded all the posts.
"Will they bite the bait?"
Now, they had no choice but to wait for the community users to bite the bait they had thrown.
"They'll bite. Some are waiting for it."
They didn't expect users to be deceived by the bait. They were expecting that there would be haters ready to bash Almond. Once a few of them started acting as instigators and posting comments, even the general public with little interest in the matter could be swayed in the direction they wanted.
***
Just then, Ji-Ah was observing the reactions in the community after having finished uploading all the videos.
[Serious Analysis Needed: Are the points Almond received at the last challenge booth problematic??]
She witnessed such a post being uploaded.
"What? This is..."
At first, she didn't pay much attention. Before Almond became famous, she reacted to every such thing. After gaining some popularity, this had become routine.
She never thought such absurd and false posts could be persuasive. However, the world didn't always roll as predicted.
"... What."
Ji-Ah nervously tousled her hair, a habit when she felt annoyed.
“This is getting more attraction…”
Wasn't the earlier post rapidly receiving recommendations and starting to rise as a hot issue?
— Isn't this slander?
└ Once it's a hot issue, we'll know. haha
— Ah, no wonder the points seemed absurd.
— How much did one booth give??
— Did it hit ten thousand points?? Then, that's really crazy.
— Return the first place prize too damn it.
Comments revealed that several people felt infuriated. Challenge points were a sensitive topic not just for the fundamentalists, but also for other contestants.
Moreover, Almond had as many jealous haters as he had fans. Such tempting bait drove them crazy.
— There really is another force helping Almond
└ What, are they the Illuminati? LOL
└ This guy is really sick
People with such crazy ideas truly existed. If a post that seemed more credible than the Illuminati appeared, they would endorse it. Above all, what triggered them were words like “secret advertisement” and “collusion.”
— Did he receive an advertisement deal there too? Then, isn't it really collusion?
└ Still don't know about that, but the author is damn sure
└ It's G-Star, they get a lot of advertisements, can't say for sure from that
└ Isn't it funny though? Just happens that the booth that gave more than ten thousand points also has an advertising contract with him. And from an unknown gaming company?
└ Really LOL, smells fishy
└ There are actually a few famous games there, damn it
— Apparently, they gave out so much that the booth couldn't operate the remaining days.
Ji-Ah felt dumbfounded.
"People believe this crap."
They really believed that Almond obtained nearly all his points from one booth and agreed to an advertisement deal in exchange. Then, that booth had to cease operations. All of it sounded like implausible conspiracy theories.
Ji-Ah decided to verify it since they had some basis.
"Is it possible to talk? Oh, it's nothing much..."
She hastily called Ju-Hyeok to ask for the full story, but...
"Yeah. Seems like he earned the most there. Ah... so it's true."
Something was off.
"So, that booth isn't operating tomorrow or the day after... That’s true too."
Why was everything correct?
"Even the advertisement deal... he received one..."
Unexpectedly, the members' posts were based on facts.