Chapter 99: Reaction (1)
"Kyaaaa!"
Slam!
Ju-Hyeok got up and slammed his desk.
"It worked!? It really worked!? HA HA HA!" he couldn't suppress his laughter and excitement.
Ju-Hyeok couldn't believe it. This promotion match had several highlights, but the last one was unbelievable.
"I can't believe it."
He felt impressed as a viewer and manager. Ju-Hyeok went to the community forums to see how the audience reacted.
He thought, 'There's probably a lot of people thinking the same thing.'
Ju-Hyeok had never felt this way before and never browsed the community forums out of his own curiosity.
'I knew it!'
As expected, the community forums had turned into chaos because of Almond.
[Breaking News! Almond won his first promotion match!!!]
[Almond beat Takoyaki and won 1st!]
[Almond's about to evolve into diamond!]
Ju-Hyeok immediately saw the countless posts about Almond. They weren’t trending yet because they were so new, but the number of posts was overwhelming. In fact, the posts weren't trending because there were too many.
That didn’t matter. Trending posts existed to show users what topic was trending. But...
[Almond! Almond! Almond!]
[I'm quitting peanuts today and only eating almonds!]
[Every play after the double shot was insane.]
[JeonJaPa, come back now!]
[JeonJaPa? Who's that? JeonJaPa? Who's that?]
The overwhelming discussions about Almond made it apparent who was trending. The Battle31 community was plastered with Almond's name. Every post mentioned him and users were on the forum like during peak hours.
'It's this much.'
Ju-Hyeok somewhat grasped a sense of Almond's popularity on Battle31. Even if it was temporary, he felt proud simply as a fan and not even a manager.
'Alright, that's good.'
[10. Trending post request! Almond's double shot.gif]
[9. Trending post request! Almond's grenade shot.gif]
[8. Human turret Almond.gif]
Now, trending posts with Almond's name began appearing. Montages of Almond's plays and meme posts also came up.
'Wow.'
More trending posts about Almond reflected in Ju-Hyeok’s glasses.
Bing. Bing. Bing.
Ju-Hyeok watched everything unfold live.
[7. Almond died!?]
[6. Why Almond's decision to bandage the grenade was crazy.]
The top trending post had a simple title:
[1. Almond > JeonJaPa]
[Like if you agree.]
— For real. Today, you have to admit it.
— We'll let you have it for today, Almond!
— I'm JeonJaPa's fan, but Almond's the winner for today.
— A lot of things are going to change after today.
— STFU you guys are comparing a streamer to a pro gamer?
└ Read the room.
└ Loser!
└ So serious...
Even though it was just for one day, the fact that a post about Almond being greater than JeonJaPa trended number one was incredible.
"That's insane."
It definitely meant a lot.
***
Almond didn't even reach Diamond yet, but the chat already celebrated.
[DiamondSword has donated 5000 won.]
[Scream and shout! Di-Almond!]
[Caster has donated 10,000 won!]
[Almond is starting!]
[OhMan has donated 50,000 won!]
[You're basically Diamond. Let's just do another mukbang.]
He won first place in the first match, so the rest of the promotion matches would be a breeze. However, he wasn't done yet. If Almond somehow placed 100th, then his victory would become meaningless.
Almond didn't let his guard down.
"Thank you, but I haven’t been promoted yet."
He thanked his donors and looked down from the helicopter.
'Should I go to the Arsenal now?'
He already used the strategy they came up with and wasn't sure if it'd work twice in a row. The previous round worked well because all the stream snipers went to the Arsenal. The difficulty would be tripled if he repeated the same strategy.
'The hospital route has its flaws.'
He realized why players didn't start at the hospital and almost lost because of his lack of equipment.
'Hmm.'
Almond thought for a moment.
Meanwhile, the helicopter was still in the air and the soldiers inside screamed at him.
It was time to make a decision as he spotted the Arsenal below.
Chak...
He could hear players dropping to the popular location, but there weren’t as many as he expected.
Was this a clean round with no stream snipers? Did they give up knowing it was futile? That was unlikely.
They must’ve split up. Almond’s curveball separated them into two groups. As a result, fewer players dropped to the Arsenal.
"I've decided what to do this round."
Almond made up his mind after some contemplation.
"Fan service!"
Paat!
He jumped without hesitation and brushed past the clouds. A familiar storage came into view.
— Wowwwww!
— Is he going to the Arsenal? Hell yeah!
— Boss, you're not going to be Ghandi anymore?
— The ruthless general is back!
— Wow! This guy's back to his roots!
— He's going to get lots of praise now.
Thud.
Almond successfully landed and headed straight to the Arsenal.
***
After landing, Almond ran straight for the gates. He planned to enter through the first floor. Going to the second floor and using the hill tank strategy was alright, but this round was about fan service.
He planned to personally greet every fan who wanted to meet him. Almond was in even better condition than the previous round. He felt confident because all he needed was to finish in the top 10.
Slam!
Almond slammed open the door and ran into the Arsenal.
[News has donated 10,000 won!]
[1 second before a wave of handshakes!]
The donation acted like a starting whistle. The players running around in the Arsenal stopped in their tracks and stared at Almond.
"Aaaaaaalmond!"
"Boss! Give me a handshake!"
"Mom! Buy me an almond!"
"OhohohohMan!"
They all charged at him. As the donation stated, a wave of handshakes came forward. Everyone had their arms out. Some held knives with ill intentions.
“Pfft,”?Almond felt baffled. "I didn't think they'd be so direct."
They all ran towards him so straightforwardly that it surprised him.
— An army's coming for you!
— The Arsenal's a party now.?
— Why wasn't I invited to the party?!
— Holy shit, I'm getting dizzy.
— Wait, that's all his stream snipers?!
— How many fans is that?!
— A clusterfuck!
This party of players had missed out on the earlier game. Most stream snipers die early, but all of them were still alive since the match just began.
'Well, I did make a promise.'
Almond picked up a knife from the ground with determination. It was a jungle knife.
Swish.
He grabbed the knife with a familiar pose and ran toward his fans. They also ran toward him.
— Alright, let's go in and die!
— Almond! You're giving up this round!?
— Isn't that too dangerous?
— Almond's a baby if he doesn't have a bow…
Almond's viewers felt worried because he ran straight into the crowd with only a knife, but he was used to fighting other players in the Arsenal with knives. His knife skills had become quite impressive.
Swoosh—
The knife swung towards the first opponent reaching for Almond's hand. The opponent swung his blade as well, but only managed to trim Almond's hair.
Meanwhile, Almond's knife was more accurate and the opponent’s blood gushed out.
"Ahhhh! Boss, I'm dying..."
He really died.
[Almond → MuggleMalfoy]
[Eliminated!]
[99/100]
The others didn't hide their intent after the honorable first death.
"Do you think you can beat JeonJaPa's record!?" the second player shouted and charged at him with a knife.
Almond followed the opponent's swing and slashed his shoulder. Blood gushed out again, but the opponent didn’t die yet.
Almond pushed him to the side and ran toward the next opponent.
The next player swung his sword and scratched Almond's cheek. Their arm ran parallel to Almond's and Almond stabbed him right through the forehead.
Thwack!
Even more blood than before gushed out.
Almond didn't even have time to take the knife out. He grabbed the opponent's arm and spun him around. The opponent naturally dropped the sword and Almond immediately grabbed it. Then he turned around and slashed the player behind him.
Swish!
The player running up from behind had their arm slashed off. Almond went along with the momentum and kneed him in the abdomen. The opponent instantly collapsed.
Another player approached him, but Almond crouched and dodged the knife. He picked up another sword while dodging and threw three knives into that player's abdomen.
"Agh!"
"Damn, look at his skills."
"I-I don't want to do this. I'm just going to go."
The confident stream snipers died and crawled on the floor. Others on standby gave up and fled. They shamefully pretended to blend in with other players farming the Arsenal, but that was their downfall.
Almond picked up a rope and headed to the second floor where a bow and arrows greeted him.
"Trying to get to the basement?"
The stream snipers panicked after seeing where Almond went.
— PTSD ON!
— They're getting traumatized!
— Kya! Duck tank!
— Kya! Nerd tank!
— Ah... they're all going to die. This is also a type of assassination.
— Everyone who tried to blend in is panicking now.
They tried to run away after grasping the situation, but Almond's arrows flew quicker.
[Almond → NormalUser]
[Eliminated!]
[87/100]
[Almond → BusanPsycho]
[Eliminated!]
[86/100]
He cleared up the Arsenal faster than usual. It was swept clean, which was only possible because fewer players came. The stream snipers had divided up due to the earlier game.
— You're nuts!
— This is it!
— Ah! So refreshing!
— (meme about feeling better)
— I feel like I drank a refreshing cold drink!
The viewers had fantastic reactions to the perfect fan service.
[SoupLover has donated a whopping 100,000 won!]
[Kya! So re~fresh~ing!]
[DoDoRi has donated 10,000 won!]
[So satisfying! This is Almond!]
Big and small donations poured in.
"Ah, thank you to SoupLover, DoDoRi, and everyone else. I feel refreshed too!"
Almond mentioned something else as he thanked his donors.
"Ah, I didn't do a reaction for the 700,000 won from last time, right?"
— ???
— You're going to do it now?
— You're in the middle of a game
— Are you going to end your stream?
The viewers worried because Almond suddenly brought it up. Was he going to end the stream even though he hadn’t reached Diamond yet? There was no way.
"No, not right now. I'll do it in this game though, so just keep that in mind."
Almond left them with an odd statement. Then he headed into the basement to finish farming.
As always, he burned down the Arsenal and the blue zone didn’t appear in his favor.
"I'm going to the historic sites."
He moved on to the next location.