Season 4: Chapter 127. Bubble Daily (1)
“Huff... F-Fire?!”
Flames suddenly raged on all sides. Trapped in the eye of this storm, it was nothing short of terrifying for ForeverAlone.
“What the hell!? Is there a monster that breathes fire too?”
— Holy crap
— He’s doomed
— No way he gets out of that
— Noooo
— Slash-and-burn farmer lol
Never in his wildest thoughts did ForeverAlone imagine that his own villagers had set the fire. Never did he consider that this was a carefully engineered maze of fire. He sprinted around searching for an exit. Meanwhile, the flames consumed more and more of his field.
“Dammit...!”
The monsters screamed as the flames swallowed them up too. The one silver lining was that the monsters were also being cleared. The downside was that ForeverAlone would soon join that list.
“H-Hey... wait! If my house burns down, do I lose all my stuff!?”
— Eh
— If the house collapses, items go too lol
— Except for locked chests
— Put them in a chest!
“Chest? Chest?”
Hearing that locked chests would survive the fire, ForeverAlone frantically stuffed his valuables inside. Then, he braced himself.
“Feels like I’ve gotta take a hit once anyway if I want to get out!”
Whoosh!
He leaped into the inferno.
“Let’s goooooo!!!”
— This guy is nuts lol
— LOL
— Just watching makes me feel hot
— Bronze mad lad
Fwoosh!
He immediately caught on fire, but didn’t suffer critical damage.
‘Where’s the exit? Which way...?’
The paths grew narrower as the blaze grew thicker.
“Shit... wh-where do I...”
Even a Challenger-tier player met the same fate as the Union.
“Gaaaaaahhh!!!”
— LMAO
— Peak comedy
— At least he got content lol
— This is it, boys
[ForeverAlone has turned to ashes.]
Blinded in a panic, he dashed around aimlessly and burned to death. In his grayscale view, a text appeared.
[29 seconds until revival.]
‘Dammit...’
— HAHAHAHAHAHA
— That ending tho
— Pure suicide run lmao
— Hey, it was funny. That’s all that matters.
‘At least my gear is safe. I’ll just rebuild.’
ForeverAlone found solace in saving his items. Had he been more observant, he would’ve noticed that what remained beneath his corpse wasn’t simple ashes.
Crackle...
His body burned away, leaving behind black soil.
Thunk.
A shovel drove straight into it.
The Knights shouted half-heartedly.
“Fireee!”
“The fire is out~!!”
Thud! Thud!
They dug feverishly.
— LMAO
— Their “fire call” sounds like they found gold hahaha
— Unbelievable strat
— Crazy teamwork
How could they dig while the fire still roared? The trick was simple. Potato Servant had stocked his inventory with water blocks. In this game, anything could be block-ified, even water.
“The fire is out~!”
Splash!
He poured water over the scorched ground. Steam hissed, and the moment it cleared, Radish Servant and Almond’s shovels came down hard.
Clang! Clang!
Their speed and precision were insane.
— Look at that dig speed omg
— Their mechanics are wasted on farming lol
— Almond with the super play!!!
— Digging montage incoming hahaha
Radish Servant, an ex-pro gamer, and Almond, a world champion... Here they were, pouring their elite mechanics into digging dirt. They sprinted to wherever the flames died down and scooped up the soil at lightning speed.
“Next! Where’s the next one?” Radish Servant checked the time nervously.
Not a single Fertile Soil patch inside ForeverAlone’s property could be left behind.
“We can’t repeat the mistake with Black Tea!”
“Wait, here! Over here!!” Potato Servant poured water over the corpses, monster or human, it didn’t matter.
Steam hissed, and the shovels came down again.
“Haa! Haa!”
“Faster!”
“Huuurrgh!”
— Almond looks more focused than at Worlds lol
— This is his true calling hahaha
— Why’s he so serious about digging??
Almond’s eyes blazed as he dug. His crazy fervor almost looked frightening, but he had no choice.
‘We only have thirty seconds.’
With ForeverAlone dead, his land belonged to no one. In that thirty-second window, they had to take every patch of Fertile Soil. Luckily, ForeverAlone’s field wasn’t as big as Black Tea’s. However, with smoke blurring their vision and steam hissing everywhere, even one mistake could deplete all of Almond’s HP in seconds.
[Exhaustion: 83%]
[Dehydration: 70%]
[Breathing Difficulty: 12%]
The humidity and relentless fire suffocated them. True to its survival game roots, the system reflected all of this with harsh debuffs. Almond’s stamina drained little by little as every swing of the shovel grew heavier.
‘Why is this so damn hard...?’
He forced his eyes open, ignoring the weight pressing them shut, and kept digging. At this point, he only focused on the water being poured by Potato Servant. That was his only guide. If Fertile Soil appeared in front of him, he simply dug without caring where he was or how much they’d cleared.
Almond wasn’t the only one who had reached this trance-like state. Potato Servant also pressed forward with stinging eyes as he hunted for more fertile patches in the haze.
‘If we can just dig this up...!’
This was his ticket out of poverty. No longer would he be Potato Servant the slave, but Potato Servant the landowner.
‘Huh, but will I still be called Potato Servant again?’
The odd thought flashed in his mind, but he brushed it aside. What mattered right now was digging more and grabbing more. He yanked out another water block from his inventory.
Shhhh!
Steam exploded as the water hit the scorched earth.
***
Meanwhile, Black Tea and Lemon kept watch around the perimeter under Almond’s orders.
“Mmm... Nobody is coming. Wait... hmm?”
Despite the raging blaze, no villagers approached because of monsters that could still be lurking. Nobody wanted to risk it, nobody... except one.
[Bubblegum]
Clack.
Black Tea raised her sword. “You can’t go in.”
“Huh? Why not?” Bubblegum craned his neck, standing on tiptoes to peer inside.
“Step further and you’ll lose your head.”
“W-Whoa, scary! What’s your problem? Why not!? I trade here all the time!”
Yes, Bubblegum did work as a so-called herb dealer, but he was also a reporter taking advantage of ForeverAlone’s misfortune to get an exclusive.
“You’re with the Knights, huh? Is this press censorship? Are you silencing the media?!”
— LMAO
— Press in a tiny cheese village hahaha
— Bubble Daily is wild
“Hey! I’ve eaten dinner with your commander and even competed in tournaments with him! We even did collab streams together! Don’t you know who I am?!”
— LOL
— Actually true tho
— Old connections run deep
Black Tea hesitated. Everyone knew that Almond and Bubblegum were on friendly terms.
“What do you want?”
“A fire this big? As a reporter, I have to cover it.”
“There aren’t any cameras here.”
“Using the screenshot function, duh.”
Click.
Bubblegum framed his fingers into a square and snapped a shot. Black Tea grimaced and turned her face away.
“You’re seriously a reporter?”
“Of course.”
“Didn’t you use to chase All Black?”
“That’s when I discovered my true calling. Wandering around telling stories is my talent. I’m starting my own paper.”
— HAHAHA
— The confidence lol
— Let’s just let him through...
— Bubble Daily’s first issue incoming
All that time wasted chasing All Black... Bubblegum had now redeemed himself after finding his true talent: reporting.
‘I guess it’s not a big deal...’
Black Tea had no clue what Almond and the others were actually doing inside. With Bubblegum so insistent, she had little choice.
“Fine. Go. Print nonsense and you’re dead.”
“Geez! I get it. I get it. No need to threaten me.”
— Military dictatorship vibes
— Black Tea scary af lol
— He’s not even fazed hahaha
Bubblegum walked toward ForeverAlone’s burning fields.
‘Holy hell... It’s a disaster zone.’
The scene looked worse than he’d imagined.
“What the hell started this fire?”
The fire maze raged. Anyone else would’ve hesitated, but Bubblegum strolled straight through exactly where he shouldn’t. Somehow, as if charmed, he slipped through unscathed.
— Wait... he made it??
— What kind of sorcery is this?
— He’s literally clueless but invincible lol
Then, he saw them.
“Fireee!” Potato Servant lazily shouted and tossed water blocks.
Almond and Radish Servant rushed in from behind. Sweat streamed from their faces as they dug like firefighters in hell.
“Oh!” Bubblegum framed his fingers again.
Click.
***
The next morning, a headline blazed across the very first edition of The Bubble Daily.
[Great Fire of Cheese Village: Only the Knights Ran Into the Flames]
The photo had captured the three men in silver armor charging into the inferno and spraying water at the fire roaring around them.