Season 4: Chapter 131. Fishing (2)
At this hour, the Knight interviews hadn’t even begun. Hardly any streamers were online. If Almond didn’t try fishing now, then when?
[Random Status Effect: Dizziness]
[Random Status Effect: Triple Gravity]
[Random Status Effect: Freeze]
[Random Status Effect: Poison]
...
Boom! Boom! Boom!
However, viewers showered him with every status effect imaginable as if they truly believed fishing meant the end of the world.
“Uuugh...”
Staggering under the dizziness, Almond pressed his bluish, poisoned hand to the doorknob. Triple gravity dragged him down with crushing weight, but he somehow managed to open it, only to be frozen solid.
Thunk.
— lolololol
— Beautiful
— \o/\o/\o/
— In Cheese Village, we’re the true gods \o/
— Only 100,000 won to torment Almond? lol \o/\o/
— People are insane lol
— Save the world from its end! \o/
Donations flew in as if gathering for a Spirit Bomb, each one tagged with 100,000 won.
“St-Still... I’m going... to fish...!”
When the freeze effect wore off, Almond ground his teeth and forced the door open.
Creak.
— Ruthless, utterly ruthless
— Was he a fisherman in his past life?
— He’s still going fishing?
— At this point, shouldn’t he beg us for mercy? lol
— He’s baiting donations! Pay him more!
Some thought Almond was milking them for money, but that wasn’t the case. Almond was simply the kind of man who doubled down when people tried to stop him. This world just happened to demand 100,000 won each time someone tried.
Bababam!
Bababam!
Bababam!
...
The fanfare kept blasting away. His donation balance climbed in real time, zeros stacking one after another.
— Threaten to fish = instant fortune, noted...
— Fundraising genius
— Getting this much in a world with no money?
— You are watching a true money-hungry beast grind his teeth for more donations.
— lol but is he actually gonna do it?
***
A little later, a general store door creaked open.
“What... what in the world!?” The shopkeeper, Selly, rushed over in shock. “Why are you in such a state!?”
The customer, battered with every status ailment, turned out to be Almond.
“Ah... well... I tried to go fishing...”
“What were you planning to catch!? Did you run into Leviathan itself?”
“Levia... what?”
“N-Never mind. Please, come inside.”
— lololol
— Unreal
— The Nuttilion finally crawled there lol
The bombardment of donations finally subsided once he reached the store.
“Phew.” Catching his breath, Almond straightened up and addressed Selly. “I’d like to get a fishing rod.”
“A fishing rod? We don’t sell those. Simpler tools are better off made by hand.”
“Ah...”
A fishing rod was too simple for the store to even stock.
— RubySword wins~!
— lololol so they don’t sell it?
— omg
— Why not sell it?? lol
— His face lol
‘Damn.’
Deflated, Almond glanced around the shop for anything that could be useful for hunting.
“But really, for the village’s hero to be reduced to this... Just how grueling was that rescue mission?”
“Excuse me...?”
Almond had no idea what the man was talking about. As far as he knew, he had simply shoveled up a bunch of Fertile Soil from ForeverAlone’s farm.
“You’re the one in that giant photo on the village’s bulletin board!”
‘A giant photo?’
Almond couldn’t make sense of any of this.
— #&#(#(@
— ??
— What’s he talking about?
— #!!%#$
A few filtered chat messages suggested something that Almond’s viewers also didn’t know. Most of them had no clue since it all happened overnight.
— ??
— A hero???
— If he’s a hero, then I’m a sage lol
— The Nuttilion, a hero?
— Everything about this is so wrong lol
From their perspective, none of Almond’s actions made him deserving of being called a hero.
“Where’s this bulletin board?”
“In the plaza. It was put up by The Bubble Daily.”
Even the name of the paper sounded like a troll.
— lolol The Bubble Daily
— Gum bro lol
— What, he became a journalist?
— Gum is the newspaper boss now??
— Sounds like the type of paper full of misprints
Almond left the shop and rushed straight to the plaza.
The shopkeeper hadn’t lied. A massive bulletin board stood tall with bold letters on it.
[The Bubble Daily]
Articles were plastered across it.
[The Great Freedom Fighter Bubblegum Rests Here]
==== ====
While others bowed to the invaders and paid tribute, martyr Bubblegum hurled himself into molten lava to resist. To preserve the village’s identity, he later founded the daily paper known as The Bubble Daily...
==== ====
From the very first article, its credibility was already in tatters.
— lolololol
— Scam rewriting history lol
— Freedom fighter my ass
— What is this historical distortion?
— Not “freedom fighter,” more like “freedom scammer” lol
Surprisingly, actual comments could be seen beneath the article.
— Miho: Mr. Bubblegum, I honor you again today...
— Pickle: Does “martyr” mean dying by heat? Then I agree, lol.
— Donuts: Down with this so-called journalism built on lies!
— Takoyaki: Show your disapproval by pressing “X.”
Apparently, the comments required their real usernames.
— Real username comments lol what is this?
— Donuts lmaooo
— A true dislike system
“Looks like the Nonghyup Union doesn’t like Bubblegum?”
Everyone laid bare their feelings since the comments used their real usernames. Why did the Union end up hating him? The next article answered this.
[Great Fire of Cheese Village: Only the Knights Ran Into the Flames]
The photo showed three men diving straight into an inferno. Unlike the earlier article, which only featured Bubblegum’s selfie, this one looked vivid and almost convincing.
— ?
— How did it come to this? lol
— Wow when was this picture even taken? lol
— Insane lolol
— Is... is this really history?
— Don’t tell me real history is twisted like this too, that’s terrifying lol
— Just like The Three Kingdoms
Viewers who knew what actually happened shivered at how dramatically Bubblegum had rewritten history.
==== ====
A great fire broke out near ForeverAlone’s farm. It threatened not just him, but all of Cheese Village.
However, no one even came close. No one wanted to face the monsters and the raging fire, which is only natural. Everyone fears death.
But heroes are different.
That was when the Knights appeared. They doused the flames and charged into the inferno without hesitation.
Though they failed to rescue ForeverAlone, the courage to run in made them heroes...
==== ====
This article had far more comments than the previous one.
— SweetPotato: How did you even take this picture????
└ Miho: Wow! The Knights! True heroes of Cheese Village!
└ CreamPuff: Our heroes!
└ Lemon: I’m proud to be a Knight!!
Sweet Potato’s comment sat pinned at the top.
‘So, Sweet Potato already knows, huh?’
Almond realized that the servant crew had stirred public opinion while he was away.
— SweetRadish: Potato Servant sprayed the most water. There were tons of monsters too!
Even Sweet Radish slipped in a comment, piggybacking on Bubblegum’s false narrative.
Almond’s viewers howled.
— lolololol
— These guys just hopped on the bandwagon lol
— The servants are a political group!
— The arsonists became heroes and left comments too lol
— Maniacs lol
— Lemon is way too cute though
“Hah.” Almond chuckled.
Knowing the truth, they were devils masquerading as saviors. Still, opposition did exist in the comments.
— WhiteChicken: You wrote this article without fact-checking, reporter? lol They’re the ones who set everything on fire. Heroes, my ass.
The truth held little weight against the powerful photo and the pinned comments.
└ Miho: Wow, conspiracy theorist! You’re the ones who crashed potato prices!
Instead of defending the Knights, others exposed the Nonghyup Union’s dirty laundry.
└ Doridori: For real???
└ Lemon: Yeah lol Donuts told everyone to quickly sell potatoes because Almond had planted them.
└ CreamPuff: Oh my god... I lost so much then too...
Miho suddenly brought up the potato incident. When potato prices entirely collapsed, others had shouldered the losses. Tracing it back, they had discovered that it was the Union’s doing. And yet, the Union still banked on sheer numbers.
└ GreenTea: Please stop spreading false rumors, Lemon.
└ Maekju: Cheap gossip lol what grudge do you have against the Union?
However, the Union’s efforts were pointless.
└ Miho: Grudge against who? ^^ I never mentioned the Union.
└ CreamPuff: Gotcha! Why don’t you take a seat over there?
They had activated Miho’s trap card.
└ Soju: Ugh, conspiracy theories again.
└ Lemon: Exactly lol. They’re the ones always scheming.
└ Soju: No, I meant you.
└ Lemon: That’s what I said. You, White Chicken.
└ Soju: ...
Lemon’s sharp tongue worked like judo, turning every attack back onto her opponents.
The Union couldn’t help but flounder.
└ Maekju: It’s you. You.
└ Lemon: iT’s yOu.
└ Maekju: ?
Donuts and the other Union leaders didn’t even participate, deciding that this battle wasn’t worth it.
— Lemon’s talent is nuts lol
— Miho’s trap card, terrifying
— Miho really lives up to the fox nickname
— Streamers are used to reading thousands of chat messages and fighting in comment sections. Scary stuff
— Miho only cares about Almond!
— These streamer comments are vicious lol seems like they usually go easy on viewers
— Feels like watching martial arts masters clash in the comment section
Almond nodded as he scrolled. “I think we’ll have to assign Lemon to the Cyber-Terror Division.”
— lololol
— On the Commander’s orders!
— Cyber-Terror lol
— That fits her way too well
Even amid the chaos, the Knight Commander thought about how to manage his personnel.
“For now, I’ll handle the Fertile Soil placement.”
— ?
— ??
— What about fishing?
— Wait lol
— Fishing abandoned?
They had sabotaged him earlier to stop him from fishing. Now, they clamored for it, but Almond turned his back and headed for Sweet Radish’s house.
‘Where should I lay it down?’
Fertile Soil and the Knight interviews consumed his mind. Fishing had completely vanished from his thoughts. After all, while he was gone, his members had fought so fiercely. He couldn’t afford to waste time on something like fishing. He ran straight to where he belonged, Sweet Radish’s house.
Pop pop pop!
Pop, pop!
Ding.
[AlmondSpecial has donated 5,000 won.]
[Fishing <<< the word itself was the bait.]
— Ah
— So that’s what it was lol
— Meta-fishing!
— omg lol
— Can’t believe it...
— Well, he fished plenty of money, cheers~
— He’s not alone anymore...