Season 3: Chapter 67: The Devil of Interviews (2)
Historically in Europe, Spain's Invincible Armada was said to be the epitome of the famous but ineffective meme. It became famous simply because it was named the Invincible Armada, not because it was actually invincible. Some even claimed that when Spain named it the Invincible Armada, they wanted to overstate their relatively weak naval power and divert attention away from their army.
Of course, disparaging the Invincible Armada in Europe was controversial since neighboring countries rarely respected each other.
No one expected such a remark from an East Asian country.
"For Korea, France was like Spain's Invincible Armada."
Non-European regions believed that this Armada was truly invincible, but England narrowly defeated it in the end.
Almond dared to mock it!
"It just has the word invincible in it, nothing more."
With just two sentences, Almond attacked both their previous and next opponent in his interview.
The reporter felt taken aback.
"Ah...! Yes, that's true! I've also heard that the Invincible Armada never actually proved to be invincible?!"
— Lololololol
— It's true
— Insignificant Armada lol
— Originally, they crashed their ships and fought hand-to-hand
— Crazy lol
— The Spanish must be happy watching this interview
— The French might be even angrier lolololol
Unintentionally, Almond fired the starting signal to revive an old tradition of the international competition.
— This is how you do an international competition interview~
— Is it time for some trash talking? lol
— Is the trash talk coming back?
The national competition was essentially a place where one fought as civilizations based on their respective countries' past histories. Such provocations and mockery had been quite common.
A sensitive period once existed when any comment stirred reactions, but that had quieted down. However, gamers missed it.
— So fun
— Spain must have something to say lol
— This is it
Nothing was more entertaining than conflicts in sports. A bit of trash talking was always the culture across sports.
Of course, Almond didn't exactly understand this culture. He just spoke his mind.
The reporter pointed the microphone at him again.
"Player Almond, you mentioned that France’s advantages and strength didn’t matter and that Spain is nothing special either! Could you tell us which opponent is a difficult one?"
France was nothing special and Spain was not invincible. Could it be Italy?
"It's Mongolia."
"Mongolia...?"
‘They’re not in our group, are they?’
The reporter intended to ask about the greatest threat in the same group and was slightly taken aback.
— Huh?
— They’re not even in the same group
— ????
— He's aiming for the grand win lolololol
— Is he insulting Italy? France? Spain? I really don't know
— LOL lol lol
— "Move unpredictably"
— Reporter: (Save me)
While the audience teased Almond for his offbeat response, the reporter was secretly astonished.
'Usually, Korea doesn't even make it past the group stage.'
Mentioning Mongolia as a threat implied that Almond believed they would advance through this group. Until now, the group stage had always been the entirety of the international competition for Korea. This group of four nations had been the entire world to Korea for ages.
The reporter didn’t even bother to specify that the question was referring to nations in their group.
However, Almond was already looking much further ahead. Not out of any pretense or because he was showing off, but he was genuinely aiming higher.
The reporter swallowed dryly and asked, "Mongolia... may I ask why?"
Mongolia was a threat for an obvious reason. Their civilization had the most victories in international competitions and, historically speaking, they possessed an unmatched military prowess.
However, the reporter wanted to hear more about Almond's perspective and not just the obvious answers. The reporter grew curious about this ambitious young man.
"Um... they've won a lot... and I heard they're the strongest..."
"?”
‘Huh? He just heard they were strong...?’
The reporter looked perplexed. Did Almond just hear it from someone? He didn’t choose Mongolia because of any grand ambitions?
— Lol "Cookie said..."
— Shockingly, Almond is a newbie at this game
— There's no way he knows much lol
The reporter was greatly flustered.
"Ahem. Alright. Thank you so much for the interview!"
The reporter hastily retreated as if escaping and the interview abruptly concluded.
Almond felt satisfied.
'Am I getting better at talking?'
He felt quite pleased with himself, thinking his eloquence was improving.
***
Meanwhile, the commentators watched the interview from their table.
"Wow. Mr. Almond doesn't talk much, but it’s always impactful when he does," the caster said with a chuckle.
OrangeKing chimed in, "I thought Mr. Almond applied the focus trait to his tongue! Each word he fires is no joke!"
— Focus on the tongue lol
— Lololol
— For real lol
— Other countries watching the interview will be furious lol
— Master of trash talk
"Everything is a psychological nerve war! Great! This is sports, right?"
— ??
— Where's the sportsmanship?
— What exactly is sports here? lol
— This should rather be called hip-hop lol
After the MVP interview, the broadcast also neared its end.
"Yes! Then, we'll wrap up today's broadcast by informing our viewers that South Korea has started refreshingly with a win against France!"
"Thank you!"
"See you again!"
***
Psssh…
The capsule opened and Sang-Hyeon raised his upper body.
"Wow!"
Clap, clap, clap.
Ju-Hyeok clapped as if he had been waiting.
"MVP! Congratulations! Eh?!"
He patted Sang-Hyeon on the back and congratulated him.
Sang-Hyeon smiled brightly as he stepped out of the capsule. He seemed to be in a good mood from the victory and asked something peculiar.
"Hey, don't you think I did well in the interview this time?"
"Yeah, sure. The part about shooting the knight... what?"
Interview? No, it would have been better not to do one.
"What are you talking about…?"
‘No, wait.’
Ju-Hyeok stopped himself. If he told Sang-Hyeon not to do interviews, it would only encourage that guy to do it more given his personality. He wanted to outright tell Sang-Hyeon what he really thought, but opted for a more evasive response.
"Ah, the interview. I thought you meant something else. Haha. You did well.”
"Let's see the reactions~"
Sang-Hyeon wasn't really listening. He was grinning as he headed toward the Embul community. He seemed to be hoping for praise regarding his interview.
'Hey, that's hell up ahead.'
Ju-Hyeok wanted to stop him, but how could he suddenly snatch the phone in Sang-Hyeon’s hand?
'As usual, the ones who excel always have a screw loose somewhere...'
Ju-Hyeok seemed to sense that there was a balance in creating humans. If one excelled at something, they screwed up in another.
For instance, Sang-Hyeon always wanted recognition for the things he was bad at like brain games or interviews that weren’t his actual talents.
He headed onto Embul, which he normally wouldn't visit, to satisfy that need for recognition.
"Huh? It's not working..."
"Not working? Embul?"
"Yeah, it must have crashed."
‘Oh, thank God.’
Was it divine intervention? Embul had crashed.
Ju-Hyeok wiped his brow cautiously as he ventured a guess.
"Anyway, you must have seen the reactions in the chat, right?"
He wanted to ask why Sang-Hyeon was seeking validation elsewhere when the chat would have surely given the right feedback.
"That's not a proper reaction. They just tease me."
"...?"
They teased him. Why would he ignore such reactions?
"Ah... haha... why isn't that a proper reaction...?"
"They distort the actual events to tease me."
"Exactly when..."
‘Exactly when did they do that? Even if our viewers like teasing you, they don't make things up to tease you!’
Ju-Hyeok paused.
'Wait?'
Now that he thought about it, had there been a time when that happened?
[Almond! Sorry! It’s not ten million! It's one million!]
Ju-Hyeok scratched his cheek as he recalled the ten million won incident. It made sense that Sang-Hyeon wouldn't trust the chat.
"Let's just rest for now. We're tired. Embul will probably be back by tomorrow."
"Oh. Wait. Isn't there also talk about this on LIL Pro?"
As expected, Sang-Hyeon wasn't listening. He just grinned and visited another community.
"No, hey. Why are you looking for Civil Empire discussions on LIL Pro!?"
Surprisingly, LIL Pro was quite heated with discussions about Civil Empire at the moment.
***
"Ugh, aaaahhhhh! We won! We won!! Manager! Director! Boss!"
"Elysia! You should call them by their nicknames. That's the corporate policy, not Director."
"Didn't your nickname get banned, Director? Anyway! We won! We beat France!!!"
"Yeah, yeah! I saw it right beside you!? Stop grabbing and shaking me! This is a new shirt..."
Squeal!
The Korean branch of Civil Empire was in a festive mood today. They had received increased support from headquarters and the recent atmosphere was extraordinary due to the national competition. Plus, Korea had lost in the LIL Cup.
"Jackpot! The viewer count also hit the jackpot! There were nearly 100,000 live viewers during the qualifiers!"
Thanks to that, they hit 100,000 viewers. In today's era, that amount wasn't that impressive considering the scale of competition between countries. For instance, Almond alone reached 90,000 viewers when he swept the G-Star challenges.
Despite this, the employees felt ecstatic. Happiness was always relative.
"Wow! We barely hit 30,000 last year! Can you believe we reached 100,000!? Admiral Yi Sun-Sin! Your 100,000 troops! We've done it!"
From barely hitting 30,000 viewers, reaching 100,000 on the first day was a real jackpot. It was like stock investments tripling overnight as if their ancestors helped them.
That was why an employee like Elysia clasped her hands and cried out to the ancestors.
"Admiral Yi Sun-Sin!? King Sejong! We're not getting laid off, right!? Huh?! The budget will keep coming, right!?"
"Calm down, Elysia! You should ask America that. Why are you asking our ancestors?! And you came from Taiwan, didn't you!?"
"Are you discriminating against me now!? I'm Korean too!"
"Ah, no. It was just a joke. A joke."
The Director quickly calmed the employees.
Clap! Clap!
"Now, now, everyone calm down."
He gathered their attention.
"What does our victory mean? It means we have a lot more work to do. So, as Elysia said, no need to worry about layoffs. That’s what I mean."
“Waahhhh!”
The cheer that erupted at the mention of no layoffs was like scoring a comeback goal. The Director wasn’t sure whether to cry or laugh.
"Great! Now that the water is flowing, it's time to row! We'll do a new user event and sprinkle some items... uh... Where did they say the new inflow was coming from...?"
"The LIL Cup is underperforming."
"Ah! Right! Let's also get active in the LIL community! Go at it and scrape everything up!"
Most of the 100,000 viewers had come over because the LIL Cup had flopped. Frankly, they didn’t come because Civil Empire was interesting, but because they wanted Korea to win.
While Korea's victory gave them a lifeline, the outcome of the next match was uncertain. No one knew how long this trend would continue. The company needed to attract as many viewers as possible now.
"Uh!? There's already a lot of talk about Civil Empire on LIL Pro!"
Indeed, the most prominent posts on the big board were all about Civil Empire.
Big) Esports' damn revival.