Season 4: Chapter 45. Subset vs. Superset (3)
— What’s he trying to do now? LOL
— What does that even mean?
— ??
A flood of question marks filled the chat. The old Almond would’ve just ignored them and done what he wanted. Ever since his return to streaming, he kept hearing the same phrase from Ju-Hyeok.
“Communication is key! Communicate!”
Communication was everything to grow beyond a certain size as a streamer. He couldn’t just rely solely on his gaming skills or star power. The true strength of a streamer was the ability to interact directly with viewers live.
"Subset and superset strategy," Almond said to the viewers as he took off running.
— Whoa
— The math nerd has returned
— What is he even talking about?
— LOL what now?
"To win Oh Sang-Gi’s favor, we need to create a set within the larger set of the Modeling Club, right?"
Almond tried to explain his theory as clearly and perfectly as he could. Instead, it had the opposite effect.
— ??
— This is what happens when you keep telling him he's good at math LOL
— Here comes the nonsense theories
The viewers only felt more confused. Most people froze up the moment math came up. They wouldn’t possibly understand a lecture about subsets and supersets. However, they were about to find out very soon that Almond’s explanation was spot-on.
"But what if only Gum and I are left in this set?"
His explanation didn’t convince them. His actions did as he flipped his sword and smacked the student in front of him.
Thwack!
Bubblegum, following behind him, finally understood.
‘Holy crap. So this is it!’
The algorithm Oh Sang-Gi used to select members was based on picking a pair within the club. What would happen if only two people remained? That pair would automatically be chosen, but how did the players make sure it would be them?
Almond had just demonstrated this loud and clear.
"Everyone except me and Gum hyung, we’re putting them into a subset."
— LMAO WTF
— That’s what he meant by complement?
— HAHA
— Okay this is definitely math.
— To me, math is murder. (Literally.)
— sksksk
This was Almond’s concept of a superset and a subset.
***
Having grasped the idea, Bubblegum joined in.
Thwack!
He whipped out his staff and started knocking out students.
"Kyahhhhh!"
"R-Run!"
The students responded with textbook NPC panic and sprinted for the front door.
"Mahabanya~~!"
Had Bubblegum reached some kind of enlightenment? He summoned a perfect barrier again.
Wham!
A barrier blocked the front entrance like a wall, and the students crashed into it.
"Gah!"
"Urgh!"
Seeing the barrier, the remaining students split left and right while screaming.
"H-H-Heeeek! The red-haired and yellow-haired ghosts are here to kill us!"
"S-Save meee!"
— LOL
— Red and yellow ghosts sksksk
— Ghostbusters who became ghosts themselves
— They’re possessed!
— This is wild
Wham! Wham!
The supposed red-haired and yellow-haired ghosts rampaged through the club, knocking out students left and right with their weapons.
"I’ll take the right!"
"Okay! I’ve got the left!"
They took out all the students near the front doors and split up to chase down the rest.
— Why is Gum suddenly reliable? LOL
— He may suck at games, but he’s deadly serious about NPC slaying
— Streamer Jojo style
Even Bubblegum, who usually swung wildly and missed, performed impressively this time.
"You bastards! You all laughed at me, didn’t you?!"
Some deep personal resentment motivated him.
— LOL he’s terrifying
— Who laughed tho? LOL
— I mean it was funny!
— He’s so insecure, LOL
"My time has come!"
Bubblegum, now lit with rage, chased after the club members. Almond also hunted down the fleeing students in a flash.
***
Around thirty minutes passed.
"Phew... last one!"
A limp student was flung on top of a pile.
Thud.
The student landed on top of a stack of unconscious students, neatly arranged like pizza boxes. Almond had found this storage room in one of the clubrooms. Its best feature was a latch on the outside that allowed the players to lock the door.
"Hey, Almond! Over here!"
Bubblegum ran up and held out a padlock from the on-campus convenience store.
Click.
Almond promptly shut the door. These NPCs wouldn’t be escaping anytime soon.
Tap. Tap.
Almond tapped the door and wrapped up his explanation.
"This is the subset. We’re the superset. Okay?"
His determination to communicate remained to the very end.
— LOL
— Yes... yes...!
— Got it. Please don’t put us in the subset...
— We’re sorry! We’re sorry!
— Long live Almondoyle! Praise be to Lord Almond!
Of course, this communication was a little one-sided.
Ding.
[Nutty has donated 50,000 won.]
[How to be #1 in your class = Knock everyone else unconscious.]
— LOL TRUTH
— We’re just talking about math formulas, right??
— Why even bother solving problems? LOL
— Now this is "real problem solving."
— He’s just too good at math, that’s all.
— Galaxy-brain level tactics
***
"Wh... What the?"
It wasn’t the Kim duo mumbling in shock. It was Kim Ju-Hyeok.
"What the hell is going on right now?"
He had stepped away for a late-night snack and returned to watch the stream only to find a bizarre scene of college students being chased and knocked down. This was supposed to be an exorcism game ad.
‘Is this... even okay?’
Ju-Hyeok started to worry. Was this even functioning as an advertisement? Well... viewers were certainly watching. His eyes drifted to the viewer count.
[Current Viewers: 185,000]
The number kept climbing. It had already surpassed the previous peak of 140,000 by an additional forty thousand. And this was all during an ad stream.
‘Even if it’s a mess for the ad, this will be insane leverage during negotiations.’
At the very least, they wouldn’t be in a weak position over viewership numbers. After all, the reigning top streamer, Zelo, had a live average of two to three hundred thousand.
Even if this was a collab and comeback stream, breaking 180,000 during a promo stream was an incredible feat. Ju-Hyeok checked the online community reactions. Even after over seven hours of continuous streaming, their mentions only increased.
[Looks like Bubblegum is getting better thanks to Almond?]
[Let’s go, Bubblegum!]
[Bubblegum’s barrier was god-tier lol]
[Hang in there Almond, just a bit more hehe]
Entirely different corners of the internet were talking about Bubblegum and Almond. Bubblegum showed up mostly in streamer-focused communities like Streamer Garden or random cooking and car forums due to his older viewer base.
Meanwhile, game-centric communities like LIL Pro and Embul discussed Almond because his gaming career had left a mark there.
[Big: Almond’s Exorcism Game Stream, Current Status LOL]
==== ====
Chasing college students instead of ghosts
(Video clip)
==== ====
— What even is this? lol
— This is... an ad?
— The ad sponsor is probably in tears
— They’re out here catching people instead of ghosts
└ LOL is the modeling club actually a subset?
└ Yeah, someone posted a theory on another thread
— They’re basically game busters now lol
└ Game busters, lmfao accurate
Every kind of forum mentioned their collab stream. Normally, mixing audiences came with risks. Either both streamers flopped, or they both blew up. It was clearly the latter for this Gum-Nut Duo.
[Big: The Gum-Nut Duo’s Game Demolition Power]
[Big: Investigating Bubblegum’s Luck-Based Powers]
[Big: Bubblegum’s Balloon Stars Era Gameplay, lol]
Now, even LIL Pro featured posts about Bubblegum.
[#1: Almond is hotter than I remember, huh? Hehe]
[#3: After only watching Bubblegum, it’s refreshing to see young blood like Almond~]
[#7: Didn’t Almond say he wasn’t feeling well? I’m a bit worried...]
Their collab stream attracted a wide age range of viewers and grew at an explosive rate.
‘By tomorrow...’
Negotiations between platforms would start in earnest. Ju-Hyeok looked forward to it.
***
"All right, time to jump to tomorrow."
Bubblegum activated the in-game time skip feature from the menu.
[Time Skip Activated]
The dark sky instantly brightened again, and the sun rose over the campus. The students, who had previously disappeared, flooded back in with the morning light. It was morning lecture time.
Bubblegum pushed the time forward a little more since club meetings took place in the afternoon after classes.
"There."
The sun began to dip once again, painting the campus in the late afternoon glow. Students headed home as Bubblegum and Almond made their way toward the club building. They opened the clubroom door with casual and shameless expressions.
"Oh? The two new members came together? Come in, come in. Everyone is a bit late today..."
The teacher greeted them warmly and glanced around the empty room.
Almond’s lips curled into a smug grin.
— LMAO
— Wow, it actually worked
— This is insane
— Peak gameplay lol
— Wait, does this mean they actually get selected??
"Where is everyone?"
"No idea~"
Bubblegum and Almond exchanged their usual deadpan banter and sat in their seats.
"Looks like no one is coming to the club today, huh?" the teacher disappointedly remarked.
Then, Oh Sang-Gi appeared and stepped forward from who knows where.
"More will come, teacher."
Aside from him, the only students present were Bubblegum and Almond.
"Really?"
"Yes. They’re on their way."
He genuinely believed more students would show up.
Bubblegum quietly laughed and replied, "Pfft. Ain’t no one coming, man."
Of course, only the viewers could hear him.
— LOL dark-mode Bubblegum
— The sin of disappointing him... haha
— Bro they’re literally stacked in a storage room
— No coming back from that lol
Oh Sang-Gi kept glancing at the clock.
"They’re supposed to come."
His feeble AI mind couldn’t possibly grasp why they wouldn’t.
"I have to bring someone," he muttered quietly and turned his gaze toward Bubblegum.
Bubblegum looked like an ideal target, but Oh Sang-Gi’s expression stiffened when his eyes landed on Almond.
— Is the superset vs. subset theory kicking in?
— He knows taking that guy might end in disaster
— Will he really pick Almond?
— If he does, it’s a legendary time saver
"Anyway, today’s lesson continues as usual!"
The teacher clapped and moved to the front for the modeling lesson.
Almond could’ve pretended to mess up to avoid attention. Instead, he performed flawlessly as if to say, “What are you gonna do about it?”
"Wow! Bravo! That was even better than yesterday. Simply perfect!"
Oh Sang-Gi’s face grew stiffer, but he had no choice.
"Ahem."
After class ended, he approached Almond hesitantly.
— Here comes the shadow boss lol
— Is it really happening??
— This is wild
He fumbled his words like he didn’t even want to say them.
"U-Um... Th-Th-There’s someone I k-know who w-wants to s-see you. H-He could connect you to... lots of p-p-people. W-Wanna meet him?"
— Did his brain lag out? Lol
— Almond is like his natural enemy
— He keeps saying, "This is dangerous," but his body keeps moving
— Too many polygons for Sang-Gi’s CPU lol
— Poor guy is broken at this point
Almond calmly nodded.
"Sounds good."
Dun dun.
[Quest Clear!]
[You’ve uncovered the thread of the mastermind!]
Almond suddenly cleared a quest he had never even received, and his spiritual energy also rose.
[Spirit Power Has Increased]
[New Spiritual Ability Unlocked]