Chapter 95: Two Rabbits (2)
"Wow, farming at the hospital isn’t bad."
Almond fully stocked up on painkillers and bandages after farming the entire third floor. He also found two med kits and should be able to restore his health from 1% to 100%. He could only freely farm like this thanks to the stream snipers.
"This is all thanks to my snipers. Thank you."
Almond mocked them with a wink and the viewers laughed.
— LOL What a mean guy.
— Those guys need to rewatch this.
— God Ji-Ah will make it into a video anyways.
— Don't you know that people will post montages of it online first??
— For real.
Almond imagined the expressions of his stream snipers and widely smiled in satisfaction. He had a good feeling about this round.
"But..."
Swiff.
Almond pulled out the huge bow from his back.
[Recurve Bow]
"I'm glad I found a bow."
The bow was common, but the hospital was only filled with medical equipment and not weapons. Fortunately, he found one.
Ting...
Almond headed to the roof while fiddling with the bowstring.
"I just need to eliminate anyone who approaches the hospital."
***
Viewers grew suspicious of Almond's strategy because he preferred fighting head-on, but chose to play it slow. That didn’t seem possible because Almond always played with skills.
— I feel like he'll run out after not being able to hold it in.
— Yeah, how will Almond stop himself?
— He won't. He's used to killing everyone.
Playing slow and relying on skills to kill belonged to two different areas of expertise. A player needed immense patience to play slowly.
The plays Almond had made so far were the opposite of being patient. Anytime he faced a player, he would kill them on sight and the viewers enjoyed watching that.
He had a personality that never backed down from anyone. The viewers expected Almond to shoot everyone on sight again when he proposed to camp on the roof.
Stomp. Stomp.
The first sacrificial lamb appeared. A player could be seen walking in the distance. He wasn't coming towards the hospital. He was just looking for a place to hide after the blue zone shrunk.
Stomp. Stomp.
He continued walking until he went out of sight.
— No way! Almond actually didn't shoot him!
— Wow!
— Almond! You've grown up!
— No way.
Almond didn't move at all as the player walked around for about a minute. He stood like a statue with his bow ready in case the player approached the hospital.
The enemy player didn't approach, so Almond didn't shoot. He successfully avoided a meaningless fight. Almond was a little late, but this was the basics of a survival game.
“Phew,” Almond sighed in relief.
He had a hard time resisting the urge to kill that player. He could’ve killed him if he took the shot. It would’ve been a silent kill too thanks to his bow.
However, anyone watching nearby would realize someone was at the hospital. He didn't want to risk revealing his location.
Regardless, Almond fully stocked up on medical equipment, which would be useful in the late game. He needed to wait it out if he wanted to use what he had farmed.
He didn't randomly kill because he wanted to play with reason. Instead of relying on his gameplay skills like a beginner, he wanted to gradually become a veteran who used strategy and tactics.
More players passed by, but Almond held back his shots. The number of players continued to decrease even without him.
[66/100]
Thirty-four players died already and Almond had killed none of them.
[The blue zone will shrink in 30 seconds!]
He took his time and checked the next location. The hospital remained in the blue zone after it shrunk. It did move to the edge of the circle though.
Almond could stay in the hospital if he wanted, but he decided to move. Higher ranked players knew better than to stay at the circle's edge.
"I should move."
He took into account the next time the blue zone would shrink and the one after that too.
***
Meanwhile, the stream snipers who died in the chaotic Arsenal complained online.
[This cheap Almond pussy. Was he too scared to come to the Arsenal?!]
[Ah! He throws a curveball now? This guy's crazy]
[He plays by his own rules, fuck!]
Ju-Hyeok smiled as he scrolled through the forum and commented on every post.
— Thanks for the compliments.
Playing cheap. Playing by his own rules. These were all compliments to a gamer. No gamer would feel insulted after hearing this. The stream snipers knew that too, but their anger blinded them and they unintentionally complimented Almond.
Clap clap clap.
Ju-Hyeok clapped in excitement.
"Good job, Almond. It's just like how we practiced."
He flipped through his notes full of writing. The page he flipped to was full of text as well. Surprisingly, the notes were all about Battle Large?strategies and not numbers.
'It's pretty hard for a video game.'
Ju-Hyeok underestimated planning a strategy for this game. He had a newfound respect for gamers after painstakingly planning.
It would’ve been much simpler to plan a route against just one player, but he had to factor in a hundred players with similar skills. This greatly multiplied the difficulty of planning strategies.
A normal person wouldn’t be able to plan out all the different strategies and routes. Ju-Hyeok and Sang-Hyeon spent days putting their heads together and barely came up with one or two routes.
.
Almond wouldn't be able to repeat this strategy, but it would be good enough to reach Diamond. He was proving that it worked right now.
"After the hospital..."
Ju-Hyeok looked at his notes. He checked the possible routes in relation to the shrinking blue zone. Almond only had one place to go judging from how the blue zone shrunk.
'The forest by the cliff...'
***
Stomp.
A text appeared after Almond passed a certain point.
[Cliffside Forest]
The text indicated the new location. As the name suggested, this location was a forest full of cliffs and would likely be the game's final stage. The area was quite large.
'It's probably best to go on top of the cliffs.'
Almond looked up at the terrifying height of a cliff. He could see it through the forest leaves. Brown rocks and sharp edges stuck out.
Just by looking, he could tell whoever camped there would have the upper hand. It looked like it only had room for one player and they would be able to see the entire forest beneath them.
There was no other place better than there. Victory would be no issue if anyone managed to reach it. However, every other player also knew this.
'I’ll be vulnerable as I climb up the cliff.'
A player would be safe once on top, but they would be fully exposed while climbing. The player had to climb with their back towards the enemies. It was a crazy act and a risky gamble.
Sometimes, the gamble paid off. Many hoped for that and attempted the climb. These players were called climb players.
A good amount of players also hunted these climb players. Most of them hid in the forest and aimed for the cliff. When a climbing player came into view, they shot them down.
Ju-Hyeok and Almond had planned a strategy for the cliffside forest too.
'Aim for the players who are aiming for the climbing players.'
First, he would target the players on land aiming for those climbers. To put his plan into action, he scouted a few locations ahead of time and spotted a couple of thick trees that resembled the ones in the Amazon.
Almond planned on climbing the trees instead of the cliffs. Trees would be much faster to climb since they were shorter. He would still have a good view of other players up there.
Other players also wouldn't see him because of the leaves. Besides, only Almond could take advantage of this strategy because he used a bow. Guns made too much noise. The players in this rank had enough skills to trace the noise and find the attacker.
This strategy only had one downside. He needed help to stop the cliff climbers, but other players would take care of that for him.
Stomp. Stomp.
Someone approached the tree that Almond had marked.
"!"
Almond panicked and hid.
'I can't avoid fights now.'
He tried to play it slow so far.
[51/100]
Almost half of the players had been eliminated, which meant the final stage had arrived. Besides, he couldn't give up this tree. His strategy would fall apart if he gave it up.
Creak…?
Almond tightly pulled the bowstring and prepared to fire his first shot.
— Are you finally shooting, Almond!? Are you finally shooting, Almond!? Are you finally shooting, Almond!? Are you finally shooting, Almond!??
— The first shot of the game!
— He ain't Ghandi anymore!
The viewers grew excited for his first fight in the promotion matches.
"!?"
However, he held back his shot.
'One more?'
More than one player approached. One came from the left and one from the right with the giant tree in the center. They couldn't see each other because of the tree, but Almond could see both of them.
The other enemy would discover him no matter how quickly he shot.
The bow was silent, but it wasn’t invisible. They also wore bulletproof helmets, so they wouldn't die from one shot. Almond still needed a bulletproof helmet or vest of his own. It would be game over if both of them aimed for Almond.
The situation didn’t look good. Almond hadn’t done anything wrong. This was just bad luck, which was bound to happen in a game with 100 players. Winning was always difficult.
— Time to choose!
— Left and right. Thankfully, no one's behind him.
— Where does he have to shoot first?
— Won’t they just shoot each other if he waits it out?
— They might notice him. He needs to strike first.
— It's over if both of them shoot at him.
Almond made his decision. He placed two arrows between his fingers and drew the bowstring as tight as he could.
Creak…
A moment of silence followed. The tip of his arrows slightly shook as he thought about the shot.
Paaang!
The two arrows quickly flew.
Thwack!
Thwack!
He struck them both in the head.
— ????
— Are you hacking?
— What just happened?
— Double shot...
— What the…
"Urk!"
"Hm?"
Their heads swung back from the impact.
'That guy?!'
'There.'
They discovered Almond and pulled their triggers.
Tududududu!
Blood splashed from Almond's body. At the same time…
Swoosh—?
Two more arrows flew out.
Thwack!
Thwack!
Almond perfectly struck their heads again.
[Almond → DinoMan]
[Eliminated!]
[49/100]
[Almond → Ugaga]
[Eliminated!]
[48/100]
They simultaneously collapsed after the successful double shot.
It had been Almond’s first shot of the game too. A wave of donations poured in to celebrate his fancy shot.
[Holy... has donated a whopping 100,000 won!]
[Guacomole... I-I can't believe it...]
[Dino has donated a whopping 100,000 won!]
[That's freaking insane.]
[Liar! has donated a whopping 500,000 won!]
[I-Is this real?!]