Chapter 86: Power Suit Play (3)
Without context, the title of the YouTube video sounded quite cocky.
[Battle Large Ep.6 - Yes, Almond Is Using A Power Suit.]
Who cared if Almond used a power suit or not? That would've been an understandable response.
However, only one thought crossed Ju-Hyeok’s mind after watching the video.
'God Ji-Ah!'
Who cared if she acted a little noisy when she drank? Who cared if she acted a little rude? She was a goose who laid golden eggs!
"Rank 21?! It's only one video, but it's still a big deal!"
He considered it a huge achievement even though only one of the three videos trended.
Other videos in similar rankings came from channels with millions of subscribers that were slowly losing popularity or channels with around 300,000 subscribers that were gaining popularity.
However, Almond only had 50,000 subscribers.
'This is insane.'
That meant Almond’s subscribers were the cream of the crop and the channel was still growing if their views exceeded the subscriber count. The difference between those two numbers would only become more significant as the channel exponentially grew. Almond's channel, with only 50k subscribers, was doing just that.
'Several channels have stopped growing despite having popular videos. We need to make it count.'
Countless channels had one-hit wonders and simply peaked there. They couldn't let that happen and needed to focus more than ever.
'Anyways, already 50,000... Should we do some kind of event?'
Ju-Hyeok felt surprised every time he witnessed their growth. Despite being the manager, the channel grew so quickly that he didn’t even notice when they reached 50,000 subscribers.
For most YouTubers starting out, 10,000 to 20,000 subscribers was already impressive. However, the usual standards didn't apply to the gifted. Their editor was also gifted, so they achieved more than double the results.
"Haha…" Ju-Hyeok suddenly felt bitter. He had an impressive resume, but didn’t possess such gifted talents or remarkable passion.
Still, society accepted him more for being this way. It didn't feel terrible, but blindly following the rest of society... Wasn't that a bit sad?
‘How have I been living until now? My thirty years…’?
For some reason, he felt that his thirty years differed from Sang-Hyeon’s.
"?"
‘Ah, that's right.’?
Sang-Hyeon was only twenty-eight years old.
"Damn."
***
Thump.
Sang-Hyeon bounced up from bed.
'Ah...'
He had a crushing headache from overdrinking last night. It felt unfair because he still had nightmares despite how much he drank.
He noticed that his shirt was wet after wiping his forehead. He glanced at his pillow and saw that it was also soaked with sweat.
‘You know that everyone is chasing your shadow, right?’
He was tired of that voice. It made his heart skip every time he heard it in his head. Thankfully, he only heard it in his dreams and wasn’t hallucinating.
"It's been a while since you overslept. Hm??Bro?"
He could see Ju-Hyeok's shadow through the crack in the door and heard his voice. Ju-Hyeok must've sensed that he had woken up.
"Yeah, I drank too much."
"Yeah, it did seem like that, little bro. You even confessed that you were younger."
How annoying. Ju-Hyeok was the pettiest of the pettiest. Just because Sang-Hyeon tricked him into thinking that they were the same age. One or three years apart... what was the big deal?
"Yeah, you're lucky you're older, Old-Hyeok," Sang-Hyeon insulted him like Ji-Ah and headed to the bathroom for a shower.
Ju-Hyeok began shouting, but Sang-Hyeon couldn't hear him anymore because of the water. It was probably something stupid anyways.
Shaaaa...!?
Watching the water made him recall yesterday's game.
'The power suit... it was fun.'
His heart began beating faster as he relived the feeling in the power suit. It felt different from using a bow. The bow gave him greater excitement, but the power suit felt good too. What was this feeling?
'Fun?'
Was he really enjoying video games and not just because of the bow? Was he starting to enjoy capsule gaming? It was a new feeling because he had never felt fun from anything other than archery.
Sang-Hyeon bent his head down.
'Well, whatever it is, being excited is a good thing.'
He decided to focus on what was in front of him rather than dwelling on his feelings.
Shaaaa...
Sang-Hyeon returned to the hot water and closed his eyes.
'I need to get diamond.'
The most important thing to him right now was reaching Diamond. He promised his viewers and would also get to meet Bubblegum.
It would open up a path for him to keep streaming in the future, which would allow everything to continue. He could keep using the bow.
***
Sang-Hyeon dried himself and checked the community reactions. Looking through the forums daily became one of his new habits before streaming. He wanted to see if there were any special news or new comments.
'Hm?'
He spotted something interesting.
[The rank of Almond’s video right now!!! It's insane!]
‘Almond's video?’
If they were talking about YouTube, Ji-Ah probably didn’t upload anything because she also overdrank last night.
Was one of his old videos trending? Was that possible?
Sang-Hyeon scratched his head and clicked on the post.
[19. Battle Large EP.6 Yes, Almond Is Using A Power Suit.
Almond's video is top 19! Holy crap! And in only one day! This is so exciting!]
He suspected the post was fake at first, but it seemed real after he checked the comments.
— Woah, it's true.
— Wow!
— Is top 19 good? I don't know YouTube rankings that well.
└ Yeah me neither. I just watch whatever pops up on my algorithm. The rankings have so many weird videos so I don't bother.
└ I'm not sure either, but isn't top 19 impressive considering how big YouTube is? You dick.?
└ Why are you so mad? LOL
└ A mean nut!
— Top 19... that's crazy. How high will he fly?
└ Haven't you seen how many quickly fall?
└ He could fall at any time since everyone calls him JeonJaPa’s rival. Needs to be careful.?
└ Speaking of that, did you see JeonJaPa turn on his stream last night? I was so surprised.
└ Yeah, it seemed like he turned it on by accident. Seems like he's alive.
└ Is he sending a message to Almond?
└ LOL Why would he do that?
└ Come back to reality! Almond fanboys!
— Woah, even his YouTube is doing well. It's usually Treevy or YouTube, not both. This guy has it all…?
└ His editor is insane!?
└ For real. I heard she was a fan too. That's crazy.
Sang-Hyeon became sure that his video was trending after seeing all the jealous comments.
"Wow... top 19."
Ju-Hyeok butted in while Sang-Hyeon was feeling impressed, "Yeah, top 19 little bro. We were 21 earlier. Seems like we're going up."
Ju-Hyeok continued eating.
"What’s with the videos? How did she upload them?"
"Only Miss Ji-Ah knows the answer to that. I think she's sleeping now."
"Wait, she's way younger than us. Why is she Miss. and I'm little bro?"
"Because she's not a mortal. She's a god. Tsk. Tsk." Ju-Hyeok shook his head as if to say Sang-Hyeon didn't know anything. "You'll know when you watch the video."
"..."
‘This guy's crazy.’?Sang-Hyeon kept that thought to himself and decided to watch the videos first as Ju-Hyeok suggested.
He felt worried because Ji-Ah would’ve basically been drunk while making these videos.
***
"Ji-Ah is a god," Sang-Hyeon concluded. "She's probably a god and I was just lucky enough to receive her blessing."
Ju-Hyeok laughed at Sang-Hyeon's reaction, "What did I tell you, little bro." He continued calling Sang-Hyeon little bro.
Sang-Hyeon thought for a moment about how to stop him. He finally opened his mouth, "Did you know? Usually, the older person doesn't call the younger one anything. It’s only the younger one who calls the older one something."
“Yeah… I know that, little bro.”
"The younger person is the one who has to go through the trouble of finding the appropriate words. You’re acting like you're younger than me by doing all that.”
"Fuck…" Ju-Hyeok quickly gave up on calling him little bro. "Well, whatever! I think we're past that age at this point! I'll let it slide since I'm the bigger person!"
Sang-Hyeon was impressed at how quickly Ju-Hyeok got over it. No wonder the elite could easily integrate into society. He learned something new from Ju-Hyeok again and still had much to learn.
"Let me eat some too." Sang-Hyeon naturally took a seat and went for the food Ju-Hyeok had cooked.
That guy was getting better and better at cooking. Just like an elite, he had no limits to what he could do.
Tak.
Ju-Hyeok's chopsticks stopped in their tracks, "Hoho. You should just munch on some almond flakes or something."
"So petty…"
After a small chopstick battle, Ju-Hyeok confessed that the pot still had some food. They didn’t have any other side dishes, but there was quite a bit of mapo tofu left over.
The combination of Chinese and Korean flavors enveloped the rice. It tasted delicious and was easy to eat. What did Ju-Hyeok watch to make something like this?
"Ah, we have 50,000 subscribers now. Shouldn't we do some kind of event or something?"
Sang-Hyeok blanked out for a moment. 'I hadn't thought about it.'
He only thought about kicking Ju-Hyeok for a one million subscriber special. Other than that, he didn't give much thought to any milestones.
"Hmm... I don't know. I can't think of anything. You figure it out."
"Alright," Ju-Hyeok replied and quickly finished his meal. He went to analyze other channels.
Sang-Hyeon finished his meal and washed the dishes.
'It's already 3 P.M.'
He headed to the capsule and prepared to stream.
Five days had passed since he promised to get Diamond. Two more days and he would reach the halfway point.
'I think I'm plat 2 now...'
He already reached Platinum II before the halfway point and advanced much quicker than expected. However, he couldn't let his guard down yet. All his time would go to waste if he went on a losing streak.
Of course, Almond didn't even think of that possibility. It sounded crazy, but he wanted to achieve his goal in one week instead of two.
└ Two weeks? I think Almond's going to reach Diamond in one week.
Almond made that comment and headed into the capsule.
***
"My lady, don't you have anything to say after yesterday's incident?" the butler asked.
The wheelchair faced away from him and she didn’t seem interested in replying.
"Didn't the doctor say? A little bit more and—"
"I know. It was an accident," she coldly responded.
Her eyes were fixed on the TV that displayed Almond's channel like usual.
“I got plat 2 faster than expected, right?”
The butler turned to the noise, "Do you feel some kind of competition against him?"
"I've already answered. Get out." Her voice sounded cold as a frozen pillar.
The butler sensed the genuine anger in her voice and left the room.
"So?"
The girl became alone again.
“I might be able to get diamond this week, right? Haha.”
Her eyes focused on the screen again as if she had been alone the entire time.
“Anyways, let's do it.”
After his light declaration, Almond ended the day with a winning streak. Every victory pushed his rating even higher because his MMR was already so high.
He reached the Platinum I promotion matches in just a day.
"Haaa…"?She felt baffled.
Almond ended his stream there for the day.
“I'll continue tomorrow.”
He streamed again the next day at 3 P.M.
She rolled her wheelchair into the room and turned on the TV.
His Platinum I promotion matches turned out quite chaotic. Several players tried to get in his way, but he crushed them all.
Almond abused the same strategy over and over again. He simply swept the Arsenal in the beginning and it kept working. The simplicity was almost beautiful. That’s right. His straightforward strategy contained a certain pureness because he only relied 100% on his own skills.
After reaching Platinum I, he played a couple more games and boosted his rating.
Then, the next day arrived.
“It's finally been a week.”
Seven days had passed since Almond declared that he would reach Diamond.
Crack...
She couldn't resist her old habit and bit her nails.
“I'll try a little harder today.”
She felt nervous, but Almond's condition seemed better than usual.