Season 4: Chapter 25. First Mission (1)
Ghostwo Busters was being developed as a series. Following the current trend, they had launched the game's first act and planned to sell future content as expansions.
‘At this rate...’
Assistant Manager Kim couldn’t help but feel uneasy. The currently released content was shorter than they originally intended. It only felt longer during alpha testing because the difficulty was relatively high.
‘They might actually finish it within a week.’
The main story so far included uncovering clues at the university and capturing the culprit. Almond and Bubblegum had only just entered the Theology Department building, but their pace was unusually fast.
More than anything, Assistant Kim had just seen how the duo overcame their biggest weakness, strategic thinking.
‘Pure luck!’
He had no other word for it. It was just luck. Bubblegum possessed absurdly strong natural luck. It seemed greater than any physical skill or so-called brains.
‘He was just flailing around like a troll, and somehow dropped the bell.’
If Bubblegum hadn’t dropped the bell, the duo would’ve been stuck at that part for a while. Almond could only think of dodging and hitting everything, and Bubblegum couldn’t move the way he wanted. That gap had been filled by pure chance.
Gulp.
Assistant Kim nervously glanced over at Manager Kim.
"What the? I thought Almond wasn’t the smart type? But he figured out the bell thing right away?"
Of course, the manager pointed it out. He had been looking forward to watching the duo flail because of their biggest weakness, but they solved it better than expected. Almond hadn’t brute-forced it with strength this time either. They had solved it properly.
"Th-tThat was a coincidence! Bubblegum just dropped it..."
"No way! Almond said it was a strategy! He called himself Almondoyle, remember?"
‘Holy crap!’ Assistant Kim almost blurted, ‘You actually believe that?’
He barely held back and tried to reason with the manager.
"The Grade 3 oni were just there for fun. They had a quirky gimmick. That’s all."
It wasn’t technically a lie. Who would seriously design monsters like rapping oni? They were just extra mob characters for flavor.
"Hey, they didn’t even let the oni finish the song? Wasn’t that track outsourced?"
"Well, the next yokai is different. The one I mentioned earlier, that’s the real one."
"Hmph. Fine, just die once. Please, just once!"
Manager Kim now openly cursed them. And understandably so, because the game was designed around trial-and-error deaths. It’d be great if the players in the ad actually died now and then.
***
After defeating the oni, Bubblegum sounded noticeably more confident.
"Did you see that?! Guys! Wahaha! I told you. I can do it!"
— ?
— ??
— LMAO
— If he couldn’t do even that, Almond would’ve used him as target practice already
— Gotta admit, he did well this time
— That cope is strong
"C’mon, I basically killed them all by myself~!"
Bubblegum had indeed taken down eight oni in that battle, which was nearly the entire wave. Of course, the setup practically guaranteed it.
Ding!
[FactSlayer has donated 10,000 won!]
[Goalkeeper: "Let’s be real, I blocked all the shots myself."]
— LOL
— DEAD accurate
— LMAOOOO
— This analogy hits hard
Bubblegum shut his mouth at the perfect burn.
"Smartass viewers..."
He ground his teeth and blamed the chat under his breath. As always, Bubblegum always lost against the chat.
Ding!
[KoreanLangGuardian has donated 5,000 won!]
[Do you know the origin of the phrase “piece of gum?” It comes from people saying, “Huh? It’s just Bubblegum?” which eventually became a phrase for anything easy or weak...]
"Permabanned for long messages!"
The donation message got banned, but a polished announcer voice had already read it aloud.
— LOL
— OMG it sounded so real
— Kids are gonna think it’s the real origin lol
— (Tragic Gum Story) It’s on Wikipedia like that too
— Can’t unhear that
"Even if you guys don’t give me credit, I bet Su-Yeon will! Right?"
Bubblegum truly believed this.
‘She’s not looking down on me because of my face. It’s because I haven’t been useful yet.’
He thought Su-Yeon treated him differently because of his lack of contributions and not his appearance.
"Su-Yeon?" Bubblegum finally called out to her.
— Oh no, he really went there
— Bruh
— This is gonna go badly...
— To be fair, he did do well this time
Because Bubblegum rarely had chances to shine, he felt the need to emphasize this for further credibility with his viewers.
"How was that, miss? Just now?"
"Ah... Huh?"
"I mean, I took care of all those oni, right?"
"Oh... really?"
"?"
Bubblegum waited while blinking with a question mark on his face. That was it?
— HAHAHA
— Oh my God
— "Oh... really?" LMAOOOO
— Damnnn
— So it was the face after all
— ??? Contestant #1 screamed internally.
"She must be exhausted! Haha! No wonder, she blocked like a dozen attacks, right? She probably doesn’t even have enough energy to stand..."
"Oppa!"
Suddenly, Su-Yeon ran over to Almond.
"H-Huh? What is it?"
"Your clothes! They’re getting all dirty!"
Almond had been poking around the back corner of the storage room covered in dust.
"Oh... uh, sorry!"
Su-Yeon frantically brushed the dust off with her hands. Meanwhile, Bubblegum stood frozen in disbelief. His heartbreak was inversely proportional to the flood of donations.
Ding!
[Su-Yeon has donated 30,000 won.]
[Almond! Are you okay?!]
— She’s fangirling so hard
— She launched like a rocket lol
— Don’t do this to Bubble...
Ding!
[RegulatoryCommittee has donated 50,000 won.]
[This game is cyberbullying. I’m filing a report.]
— Lmao the committee is here
— Clap~ hardworking civil servants!
Ding!
[Intel has donated 10,000 won.]
[The Almond computer chip~]
— LMAO she acts like he’ll die from a speck of dust
— I also wondered why she jumped up so fast
— That’s life as an alpha male...
Bubblegum completely agreed with the donations, especially with RegulatoryCommittee. He agreed a hundred times over. Still, he kept it professional because he was under contract to promote the game.
"Well, everyone~ this isn’t that kind of game~"
— Wipe your tears, bro...
— The burden of a breadwinner...
— We’ll remember... Oh Su-Yeon.
***
"There’s nothing left to take from the storage."
Meanwhile, Almond had rummaged around for anything a shaman could use. He only found more talismans.
"Well, at least I got more talismans..."
He glanced wistfully at the sword.
==== ====
He still couldn’t use it even after defeating the oni. Apparently, the way he handled the Earthbound Spirit had somehow disrupted his progression.
"I’ll just bring this along anyway."
— He’s really hung up on that sword lol
— Almond just likes swords. Doesn’t matter what they do
— Fine, do whatever. Why even ask? lol
Viewers had initially advised him not to carry it. In high-intensity VR games, carrying unusable weapons was cumbersome. Unless the inventory system used a virtual space, players generally discarded anything unnecessary to avoid discomfort during combat. If needed, they could always come back later for it.
"I’m bringing it~"
However, Almond ignored their advice and carried it anyway.
Ding!
[EggPlant has donated 1,000 won.]
[??? Don’t talk. Just carry it.]
— LOL
— LMAO
— A thousand won snipe from a veteran viewer
— Even 1,000 won can sting
— Deadly 1,000 won punch
"EggPlant, you’re getting a thirty-minute timeout."
— ??
— LOL
— 30-minute ban!
— He’s salty haha
— Guess it hit a nerve~
‘Why are they so against me taking it?’
Almond stubbornly left the storage with the sword.
"Guys, I figured out the bell strategy by myself. I saw the whole chat log back then. No one else thought of it, right?"
— LMAO he’s definitely salty
— Why’s he so sensitive about strategy...
— It’s not about the weapon, it’s about respect!
— A man who wants what he can’t wield... Almondoyle
– "Just admit I was right" lol
Almond narrowed his eyes at the chat, clearly ready to make an example out of someone.
— Duck and cover!
— Strategy? Almondoyle! Strategy? Almondoyle!
— He’s about to start banning again lol
Almond nodded in satisfaction after seeing several spam messages in the chat.
"Alright. Looks like we’re heading to the third floor now."
Their next objective was the third floor, where the students were supposedly trapped.
"Based on my deductions, I think something is waiting for us on the second floor."
— Please stop deducing
— 2F just got a death sentence
— This is how university buildings get gentrified
— RIP second floor...
Despite being obvious guesses, people feared Almondoyle’s deductions.
"No, seriously. Something big is on the second floor."
— ?
— Eh?
— What’s he talking about lol
— How would he even know??
— Probably, yeah
— Bro you killed the big one on 1F lol
"You’re gonna be shocked when we get to the second floor."
Almond sounded like he’d left something there himself.
— What, did he scout ahead or something?
— How would he know? lol
— He’s latched onto something weird again
Almond passed through the empty first floor and climbed the stairs to the second.
Then, he announced, "Well then, that’s all for today~"
That was the end of the stream.
— LMAO what?!
— Bruhhh
— LOL
— Streamer skill level: S++
— Already??
— Guess he couldn’t go long after all...
***
The most deflated ones weren’t the viewers.
"Alright, alright! This next one is different! We’re going to the second fl—huh?!"
It was Manager Kim and Assistant Kim.
"Eh?"
They had assumed the stream would last at least eight hours. They didn’t know Almond’s situation well enough to think otherwise.
"He’s logging off before we could teach him a lesson?!"
Assistant Kim looked betrayed. Meanwhile, Manager Kim was suspicious.
"Wait a sec. How does he know something is on the second floor? Don’t tell me Bubblegum leaked something?"
"N-No, no way. He wouldn’t spoil it. That would ruin the fun."
"Then, how did Almond know?"
"Well..."
The truth was that Almond didn’t know. Most likely, Almond just said it to mess with the chat.
"Ughhh! What was that timing?!"
Manager Kim clearly felt heated.
"Hey, at least we’re going home early."
"Haah... yeah. Better than pulling an all-nighter."
"Actually, didn’t that buy us another day of ad time?"
"Oh?"
Manager Kim had been so obsessed about schooling Almond with the next yokai that he hadn’t realized the stream ending meant more ad days.
"Now that you mention it... Huh, that’s true. We gained a whole day?
"Right? And if you compare it to the average pace, he’s progressing at double speed."
"That much faster?"
Most gamers put in ten-hour sessions while Almond had covered double the progress in half the time. That disparity was unfair, but it could’ve been worse.
"This is way better than I expected. Honestly, I thought he’d outpace us ten to one."
"Come on, ten times is a stretch."
"No, it’s a game where you’re supposed to die. If he doesn’t die, the gap just keeps growing."
Assistant Kim had been on the verge of despair when the Earthbound Spirit got one-shotted. Since most of the game was built around repeated deaths and retries, a player who didn’t die could cut the playtime by over eighty percent. If their playtime remained short like today, that meant a longer ad campaign.
"Man, you’re right. Whew... that’s a relief. Didn’t expect him to log off so early."
"Exactly. It’ll be huge if we get just two weeks out of this."
"Even one week would be amazing."
They left work smiling while dreaming of promotions, but that happiness wouldn’t last long because of what would happen in the next day’s stream.
"What the hell is this?!"
"Wait—why?! Is that from a rival company?!"