Chapter 77: Journey to Diamond (3)
The promotion matches finally began.
[Current Viewers: 8.7k]
Almond thought 8100 viewers would be his peak, but the viewer count had already increased again.
'Almost 9000...'
That meant Almond had successfully retained the new viewers. Of course, it was hard to tell with only two days of data. Besides, he was about to play an important game.
— Yesterday was way too easy
— I wonder if today will be easy as well?
— Wow, the game has already started? I was too late…
Close to 9000 people watched Almond's avatar.
Almond muttered as he ran, "I'm going to the Arsenal again."
He had abused this same strategy since his last placement matches. It involved destroying all the rare equipment and weapons in the basement, which gave him the advantage.
— Arsenal again!
— No surprise...
— There's no reason he shouldn't go there. It always works out.
— For real.?
— Again and again!
It would work out this time too if everything went according to plan.
Vrooom—?
Suddenly, he heard a motorcycle coming from behind him.
"!?"
Someone had already found a motorcycle and headed directly toward the Arsenal. Upon closer inspection, it looked like they were heading toward Almond.
"I think they’re coming to me—"
Almond threw himself to the side. His reaction was impressive. As expected from someone who tied the record for Stay Alive.
"Right?" He dodged the bike and continued talking to the viewers.
— Kya! This is JeonJaPa level movement!
— LOL Damn!
— Wow!
— That's nuts!
The viewers felt impressed after seeing Almond unscathed.
Vroooom!!!
The motorcycle simply passed Almond. Everything still seemed fine, but Almond felt something unusual.
'What the?'
He caught a glimpse of the motorcycle rider’s lips.
The rider smirked and laughed at him. He didn’t seem disappointed, but smiled instead. It seemed like he would come back to hit Almond.
Slam!
The casualties began as the biker made his way to the Arsenal.
[Jensen → PlayingSat]
[Eliminated!]
[99/100]
[Jensen → QuitQuit]
[Eliminated!]
[98/100]
Two deaths appeared on the kill log.
'Jensen...'
Almond sensed something unusual and noted the player's name.
— As expected of the Arsenal.
— The Arsenal is so ruthless!
— Wow
— Oh shit, I would’ve given up if it were me.
'Ah, right.'
Almond ran to the center of the Arsenal after a moment of silence. He had to quickly block off the basement entrance.
However…
"Aaaagh!"
"Kugh!"
Vrooom!!!
A motorcycle went down the basement through the tight staircase and ran over all the players in its path.
"A motorcycle using the stairs..." Almond muttered in surprise.
— Plat I MMR sure is different.
— His driving skills are crazy.
— There are a lot of hidden skilled players since it's one tier away from diamond.
— Almond’s MMR is too high since he was on a win streak.
— Wow!
— Is this the notorious hell of high platinum?
— You want to get to diamond? You shall not pass!
Almond shifted his attention from the basement because he didn't care about the equipment. His win condition depended on finding a bow on the first floor. No one usually looted the first floor except for Almond because it only had low-tier weapons like bows and knives.
He could annihilate everyone once he found a bow. However...
'Where did all the bows go?'
He couldn't find a single one.
Swoosh!
Just then, a jungle knife flew toward him.
Shaaah—?
It cut a few strands of Almond's hair off. He barely dodged it by bending his body.
"Here comes another one!" The opponent threw another knife with a shout.
He thought Almond wouldn’t be able to dodge after bending over, but Almond struck his arm out this time.
"Thanks for the weapon."
Tak!
Almond grabbed the knife that was just thrown at him. His tests at Fantasia hadn’t been for show. Those tests actually helped to significantly level up his skills. Catching a knife in mid-air was no problem anymore.
— LOL
— Thank you for the weapon!
— Wow, so sexy!
— Insane!
— Stop Almond! You're too good!
"Huh...? Huh?"?The opponent hesitated for a moment before taking out another knife. He positioned himself for another throw.
'Why isn't he throwing?'
The opponent circled him and looked for an opening instead.
'Because I’ll just dodge it again?'
The opponent took precautions because he would be in a bad position if Almond successfully dodged again.
'When is he going to throw it?'
When would the opponent throw? Did he even want to throw it? When would be the best time to hit the opponent?
'When I throw it?'?
The opponent planned on attacking right after Almond.
Like in MOBA games, the best time to strike was when the enemy attacked other minions. It was basic knowledge to aim for the enemy when their attention was elsewhere.
Swoosh!
Almond winded up into his signature pitching position.
Then…
Swoosh!
The opponent matched him and threw their knife.
'I knew it.'
As expected, Almond had assumed correctly.
"Huh?"
He deflected the opponent's knife with his own after feinting a throw.
Clink!
Almond grabbed the opponent's knife in the air after blocking it.
"What the..."
"You don't have another knife, right?"
The opponent had carefully timed his attack because it was his last knife.
"Damn... what the fuck?"
The opponent turned around to run after grasping the situation.
Thwack!
However, a knife perfectly pierced his back.
[Almond → ArsenalJungler]
[Eliminated!]
[96/100]
— Wow!
— Kya, this is Almond!
— So satisfying!
— How does Almond make it look so easy?
Almond didn’t have time to celebrate.
Swoosh—?
He heard something ripping through the air again and quickly dodged. Sparks appeared where he had just been.
Clang!
A knife bounced off the ground.
"Again?"
Someone threw another knife at him.
"Now this is getting weird."
The basement equipment in the Arsenal usually distracted all the players, but these ones kept targeting Almond.
— Ah, they're stream sniping him
— I think so too.
— It makes sense. This is his first placement match after beating JeonJaPa.
— Almond, your fight with the stream snipers has begun. Good luck.
— This is what it means to promote as a streamer, Almond!
‘Stream sniping?’?Almond deeply thought about it.
"Hey! Hey! Land the shots you fucking idiots!" someone yelled from the 2nd floor.
'Who's that guy?'
The player who shouted ran away with all the bows and arrows. No one would be stupid enough to carry so many bows and arrows in this tier. He took all of them on purpose to put Almond at a disadvantage.
'Ah, I get it now.'
Almond finally realized he was getting stream sniped after seeing that. Now he understood why he couldn’t find any bows and why they kept targeting him.
'I've always thought it was a possibility.'
Almond knew stream snipers existed since he fought BubbleSniper before. However, they appeared in his stream sooner than he expected.
'Damn them.'
He felt annoyed that they targeted him as a team, but the viewers would also get angry if he got angry. He calmed himself down.
Chak.
Almond hid behind a container box, "I'll just pretend this is a solo squad game."
His first round in Battle Large had also been solo against other squads. He had more experience facing teams than individual players anyway. He relaxed a little once he assumed that mindset.
[EggPlant has donated 3000 won.]
[It's okay... we're used to getting bullied.]
"Thank you, EggPlant. I guess we're back to our roots."
— Haha back to our roots, you're right!
— Ah, that's right. You won your first game as a solo squad.
— LOL
— Not only that, but you pulled off a 1v4 feint.
— Kya, this is Almond!
The audience didn’t complain since Almond remained cool-headed. The streamer always needed to keep calm or they would just provide more content for stream sniping.
'There’s a silver lining if I win.'?
If he won, the video would show off his skilled gameplay while also being funny. Only if he won though.
Ssuk.
He readied the knife from earlier and came out from behind the box.
***
The following posts appeared on Battle31.
[What? Almond is better than JeonJaPa? I'll get him right now.]
[You shall not pass!]
[For real, I'm going as well.]
[I'll face him directly. Our tiers are similar.]
Countless people wanted to play against Almond after he became famous, especially skilled gamers who wanted to test his skills.
The problem was that they also feared facing him alone, so they decided to team up against him. As a result, they formed a five-man team to raid the Arsenal.
"This should be enough to get him, right?"
"How's he going to beat a five-man squad? I'll run away with all the bows."
"Let's reclaim JeonJaPa's honor!"
One player picked up all the bows and ran away. The other four decided to loot the knives early on and quickly kill Almond.
Almond made for an easy target because he always headed to the Arsenal.
"Huff puff. Hey! I'm running away!" one player shouted as he left with all the bows.
"Now he can't use any bows! Fuck him up!"
"Alright!"
"Roger that!"
The player with all the bows escaped to the second floor and watched as his allies attacked Almond. He prepared to cheer them on. However…
"Huh?"
The first teammate who attacked Almond had already died. Almond took away his knife and killed him when he tried to flee. He died a pathetic death. Why did he charge in by himself? Did he want to be a hero or something? It felt baffling to watch.
"Are you fucking stupid? Attack him all at once!"
Thankfully, the other three stayed together and hurled their knives at Almond from every angle. It seemed impossible to dodge, but Almond still managed to do so.
"Hey! Hey! Hit him, you idiots!"
The player watching grew frustrated at his allies who teamed up in JeonJaPa's honor. He began to boil with anger.
"D-Damn, he's out of sight!"
When he came to his senses, Almond had disappeared. He lost sight of him while fuming in anger.
"Fuck, if only we could check his stream..."
However, it was impossible to open another screen in virtual reality gaming. Any unpermitted apps would be quickly shut down. This factor greatly contributed to making virtual reality streaming a huge industry.
"Hey! Where is he? Did he just run away?"
"I don't know! He disappeared!"
"Check from the second floor—"
Pang!!!
The sound of glass shattering on the second floor could be heard.
'What the?'
The players instinctively turned towards the noise and saw that their teammate above had been struck in the head with a knife.
Thwack!
[Almond → LiveAlone]
[Eliminated!]
[89/100]
Their teammate died and appeared on the kill log.
"Phew, who's the one who said I should climb up using knives? Thanks."
Almond had burst through the windows after climbing to the second floor using two knives.
— LOL
— Damn, I can't believe that worked.
— So satisfying.
— Fuck that guy!
— Stream sniping gets you killed!
— I think it was Papapa!
"Ah, thank you very much Papapa. Excellent advice."
Almond looked down.
"Wow, is this what you call a jackpot?"
— LOL
— Hahaha
— Stupid stream snipers... now they're the jackpot!
— Jackpot! LOL
The dead player under Almond held all the bows and arrows for him like a present. Almond just needed to grab his favorite one from the pile.
[Recurve Bow]
He grabbed the recurve bow instead of the compound bow. The recurve bow was an older design, unlike the modern compound bow. It had less power, but more flexibility. It would be more useful against multiple opponents.
"I'll kill the rest of them now."
He finally acquired a bow and a large number of arrows. The only thing left to do was sweep the Arsenal clean.