Season 3: Chapter 47: Turning the Tables (3)
"Haah..."
Click.
After uploading the video, Ji-Ah unknowingly clasped her hands together.
[Premieres in 1 hour!]
As soon as the premiere was announced, people flocked in droves.
— Almond's statement LOL
— So quick to respond;;
— Is this how fast Almond reacts?
— They prepared the video as if they were waiting. Is it an explanation?
Some people already perceived this video as an explanation to the controversy. Ji-Ah thought she had sufficiently concealed it, but it seemed people were guessing based on the timing of the upload.
However, the public generally didn’t think so, which was according to Ji-Ah's intentions.
— Will it be relevant?
— Isn't it just a video uploaded because Almond played Hitman well??
— What, an explanation already? LOL
— Is there something to explain? Honestly? LOL
— An explanation? Just Almond showing off their super playstyle
— Just watch and you'll know
The chat in the premiere waiting room grew increasingly active. People were gathering.
[Current Waiting Audience: 41,000]
The waiting audience reached a whopping 41,000. For a video that wasn’t a live broadcast and one that could be watched at any time, an audience of 41,000 was a significant figure. Not even popular YouTubers could pull these numbers without some effort.
— Haters flocking LOL
— How many people are there? Seriously~
— People are really piling in LOL
The waiting audience showed no signs of decreasing, steadily growing to even higher numbers.
[Current Waiting Audience: 58,000]
Nearly 60,000 people were waiting. At this point, only around one minute remained until the premiere.
[Premieres in 1 minute!]
The number in front of the waiting audience finally changed to 60.
[Video Premiere!]
Eventually, the video started premiering.
— Let’s go!
— To the Digital World!
— Finally
— Haters gonna hate LOL
***
The video started with Almond saying, "Ten million won?"
That was when he misunderstood that the first prize was ten million won.
— Ten million won, again!? LOL
— Here's how everything started LOL
— In the beginning, there was ten million won...
The scene was meant to explain why he chose the Hitman booth. Of course, in the video and in reality, Almond had never explicitly said, “I’m going here because they give more points for playing well.”
'The video can be interpreted differently.'
If they juxtaposed the scene when he asked with the scene of him choosing the booth, people would understand the simple cause-and-effect that Almond chose Hitman to win the prize money.
— Is this why you went? LOL
— After all, the one that pays the most has the highest potential
— This is common knowledge -_- Show why it was so much.
— All because of the ten million won lie LOL
Thanks to this, people believed Almond went to that booth simply because of his greed for points instead of the collusion. This was the power of editing. That was why Ju-Hyeok insisted on using the power of a video to clarify this situation.
Now, the most actively engaging part was about to come.
'Will they take it well?'
Ji-Ah's heart raced. So far, the reactions were good, but it was just the early stages. The real test was now.
Ji-Ah's eyes focused as she watched the chat.
"Let's begin."
After Almond entered a capsule inside the booth, the screen transitioned to Almond's gameplay screen. It was a mission akin to a tutorial for escaping the executive office in Hitman Simulator.
Almond, hiding under a large desk, quickly began to take down the enemies.
Ratatat!
Bang!
One by one, the enemies fell as he shot them.
— Wow, consecutive headshots LOL
— His shooting is killer!
— That’s why the points were so high, geez
At that moment, Ji-Ah focused on what an enemy NPC said.
"The enemy is estimated to be an elite agent. Requesting corresponding support troops."
Live viewers could have overlooked this comment, but Ji-Ah emphasized it significantly. She increased the audio, focused the camera on the NPC, and even added subtitles.
[Due to continuously hitting headshots, rookie agent Almond received the highest difficulty...]
It highlighted that Almond unlocked the highest difficulty through his skills. This legitimized the points he received afterward.
She added a tooltip-like note on one corner of the screen for this.
[Challenge point payout rates multiply depending on the difficulty.]
This subtly informed viewers that the points varied vastly depending on the difficulty, explaining the mystery of the 10,000 points.
Originally, the interview that Ju-Hyeok conducted was supposed to explain this. However, Ji-Ah decided to use this scene instead of showing the interview.
'After all, it doesn't make sense to interview them when we’re being accused of collusion with them.'
She was thinking from the viewers' perspective. It had only been a few hours since the issue surfaced and they already had interviews to insert between video clips? Not everyone was as quick and diligent as Ju-Hyeok. Some people would think that they had pre-recorded the interviews.
A perfect appearance could make everything seem contrived as if to say, "Look, they colluded after all! They even have interviews ready!"
Ji-Ah chose this method instead. Of course, this approach wasn't 100% foolproof.
'... Will it be convincing enough?'
Ji-Ah felt nervous about how the viewers would react.
Soon, chat messages started appearing.
— Were there difficulty levels???
— Are the haters really going to crash and burn this badly??? LOL
— Elite agent sounds like the highest difficulty
— Was this the deal?? LOL
— First try, highest difficulty, wow
Ji-Ah's eyes sparkled.
'It worked...!'
The audience was taking it well. They were accepting the cause and effect. Of course, some were still intent on criticizing Almond.
— Simply because of the high difficulty, such scores come out?? LOL
— They're really watering it down, aren't they
— Highest difficulty gives 10k points? That's how you do it?
It was okay. In the video, Almond didn’t stop after receiving the highest difficulty.
Ratatat!
Bang!
Almond continued to shoot aggressively as he advanced. Next to his screen, the challenge points per kill were being calculated.
[+10]
[+10]
[+10]
Here, Ji-Ah added more subtitles.
[The rookie agent Almond went out of his way to kill even those he didn’t have to, struggling unnecessarily.]
The second reason for Almond's high points was that he killed even those he didn’t need to.
— Rookie agent wreaking havoc LOL
— That’s Almond for you LOL
— He just killed everyone even if he could have passed by, wow
— Are there jobs where you get paid more for getting lost? Gosh~!
More and more viewers began to agree with the content. There were still detractors, of course.
— 300 points already, how on earth did he make over 10k? Huh?
— Too quick to say it’s not collusion, are they being paid?
— 300 points, LOL where are the rest then?
That was still fine. After all, Almond wasn't done yet.
"Agent! If you shoot that car..."
Ratatat!
During a mission where he was supposed to stealthily follow an enemy, Almond shot the enemy’s car instead. Ultimately, a fierce shootout erupted on the road.
Ratatatatat!
Bang!
Almond had installed a machine gun behind the car and began firing at the enemies.
Dudududududududu!!
Cars smashed and collided with each other. Flames engulfed the surroundings. It looked like hell on earth. Even amid this chaos, Almond continued to intercept the enemy forces.
Dududududududu!!!
This scene was the first climax in terms of his points climbing rapidly.
[+10]
[+10]
[+10]
[Current Challenge Points: 1,670pt]
The points suddenly jumped from 300 to 1,670.
— He didn't need to kill these guys either? LOL
— OMG LOL
— Wow, already over 1,600 points?!?
— Points going to Mars!
— Mom! I told you this is really going to Mars!?
Around this time, the chat messages that had been picking a fight began to decrease. Of course, they started decreasing, but weren’t completely gone yet. Around 15% of them were still left.
— What LOL, a massacre for just 1,600 points???
— Why do fans like this? LOL. Their favorite streamer is about to crash LOL
— Oh man, even after all that sweep, only 3,000 points^^ Where are the other 7,000? LOL
'It's okay.'
Again, it was fine. Almond didn’t stop there.
“Agent! It seems stealth is impossible. We should switch to a sniping mission.”
The remaining points came from the sniping mission that appeared. Almond proceeded to choose a sniping location.
“Agent? The location you've chosen... are you sure?”
Almond picked a sniping spot 3.5 km away.
[The challenge points for the Boss Sniping Mission is 0.5 points per meter. Other elite agents award 0.2 points per meter.]
Ji-Ah added this explanation. These were precise figures that Ju-Hyeok had obtained directly from the booth staff.
[Error!]
The problem wasn’t the figures, but the fact that Almond had failed the mission.
— Huh? Failed?
— He failed and ran LOL
— What, failed??
— Fans of nuts crashing and burning~ LOL
— LOL
At this point, the ratio of chat messages mocking Almond almost rose to 40%. These people hadn’t watched the live and only saw this video, so they didn’t understand how this failure actually turned out. Many other chat messages from fans who had watched it live began teasing these ignorant viewers.
— Ah what to do LOL, I’m so worried, Almond is really crashing LOL
— OMG, as a fan of nuts, I’m tweaking! Shaking! Can't believe the sniping missed! My life is over LOL
"Agent, you need to run!"
During the process of escaping after the sniping failed, Almond shot down many elite agents again.
Ratatat!
Ratatat!
He gained more points from all of them too.
"Requesting to reassign sniping points!"
Eventually, he received another sniping mission.
[4.1 km]
Almond chose a point located a staggering 4 km away.
— 4.1km??
— Damn, that’s even harder than before LOL
— Is this going to be a fail too? He couldn't even handle 3.5 km
— Going to crash and burn LOL
While some felt excited about the distance of 4.1 km…
Ratatatat!!
As the gunfire started, such chat messages disappeared.
Ratat! Ratat! Ratat!
Gunshots rang out not once, not twice, but repeatedly.
— Wow, that's far
— Is he piercing bulletproof glass by shooting the same spot??
— LOL, insane
— This guy just plays the game well
Viewers were amazed to see Almond penetrate bullet proof glass by repeatedly hitting the same spot despite the challenge of a 4.1 km snipe.
Those killed by his sniping included five bodyguards inside and the boss. The total points he gained from that were tremendous.
[Current Points: 8,100pt]
With a dramatic sound effect, the arrival of 8,000 points was announced.
— Insane LOL, he's racked up the points
— This is inflated
— Oh, so it was a bug...
— LOL, bug indeed
— This guy just plays the game well, he just plays the game well
— 8100! 8100! 8100!
— The points aren't bugged. It’s just his aim that’s bugged LOL
Of course, those who intended to criticize Almond probably noticed something odd.
— But it still doesn’t reach over 10k?
— Happy with 8100 LOL, it’s still a disaster~
— So the rest of the points were just added as a service, huh? LOL
Almond had 11,000 points in total with only 8,100 currently accounted for. Certainly, some would view this as strange. This mistake was made by those assuming all 11,000 points came from the Hitman booth.
"Idiots."
For these individuals, Ji-Ah focused on the number reflected in the corner of Almond's goggles in the final scene.
[Current Challenge Points: 2,900 pt]
Shortly after the Hitman Simulator points were tallied…
[Current Challenge Points: 11,000 pt]
Eventually, it reached a total of 11,000 points.
— Wow
— Woah!
— Feels so satisfying!
— Wow
— The points are exploding!
Originally, Almond already had 2,900 points. Afterward, voices of criticism in the chat completely disappeared.
— So even without playing Hitman he was already first? LOL
— Insane, he originally had 2900 points
— This guy was born to be first place
Even without playing Hitman, it turned out that Almond would have won first place anyway. Those who had slandered Almond ended up not gaining anything.
— The logic of all the haters just got countered, must be dizzying LOL
— Haters in season 18287 utterly destroyed!
— You again!? Haters!? Destroyed again!?
"Phew!"
Thump.
Ji-Ah flopped down on her desk with all the tension gone.
"Thank goodness."
All her worries had washed away cleanly.
Now, only the final blow remained. She uploaded the second video Ju-Hyeok had given her to share with the community.
[The Real Identities of Those Hating on Almond.avi]