Chapter 205. The Calm Before The Storm (2)

Almond started streaming and told the viewers that today's stream was to communicate and share recent news, but it was because his ads were pushed back.

When Almond was about to move on to the ads, he was stopped by a question.

[LoudScream has donated a whopping 100,000 won!]

[Almond! There are rumors of you doing archery a while back. Is that true?]

'I knew this would happen, but..'

Almond would be lying if he said he hadn't expected the question to come up. He was anticipating the question and was ready to answer.

"Ah, about that. I did see that."

— ??? Archery?

— It's even more bizarre to say he didn't do archery with those skills, lol.

— What does he mean by that?

— What is that? Tell me about it, you idiots!

"Since there are some who don't know about this, let me pull up that post first."

Almond immediately logged into KAF and clicked on one of the trending posts. It was a comparison between an archer's shooting posture and Almond's.

— Wow, their god has come.

— Entering his home ground, lol

— Holy shit, the man himself showing up.

— I'm so jealous of the user.

"Wow... He's analyzed it diligently. Looking at it like this, it does seem quite similar, doesn't it?"

Almond admitted the similarities between the professional and himself.

"And the last sentence on the post, 'Even though Almond uses a traditional bow in Kingdom, he incorporates a lot of modern archery postures... This could be attributed to bad habits formed due to long archery practice...' They're sharp about this too."

There were some inaccurate claims because a professional archer didn't write the post. However, the overall argument left no room for rebuttal.

It was a clear fact that his shooting with the medieval-style longbow resembled the posture of modern archery. As a result, Almond eventually changed his posture.

"Well, there are significant differences between the improved modern archery and traditional longbows. That's why I've been making a lot of changes to my posture lately."

Almond spoke as if he was admitting the suspicion and acknowledged his experience with archery.

— Woah, what is this? Is Almond a real expert?

— OMG, no wonder he seemed so professional.

— Wow, so he's learned archery?

"I did learn archery."

Almond acknowledged his past experience quite simply.

Then the questioner followed up with another question.

[LoudScream has donated a whopping 100,000 won!]

[Wow! Thank you for the response! So is that also why Cha Hyeon-Ju follows you...?]

"Ah, Hyeon-Ju and I are friends from high school."

— Really?

— Who's Cha Hyeon-Ju?

— Interview fees are so expensive, lol

— Who is that?

— She's an archer, an Olympic gold medalist.

[FactKiller has donated 1000 won.]

[Here are some facts! Cha Hyeon-Ju is the Olympic gold medalist in women's archery! She made headlines for achieving a gold medal again after three years! Known for her natural beauty and personality, she's been ranked 1st in daughter-in-law candidates before!]

— Thank you, FactKiller!

— A true Fact Killer, LOL

— Your username is too scary!

— A fitting username.

— Thank you, FactKiller!

Almond chuckled and nodded.

"I didn't know either until recently. She's doing really well these days."

— What? Are you just finding that out now? Is he an outsider? Lol.

— You sure you're friends~?!

— Almond the loser..?

— Loser Almond!

— How did you end up learning archery??

The questions seemed endless, so Sang-Hyeon decided to wrap up at this point.

"I'll stop here with my personal stories."

— Noooo~~~

— Tell us about your first love!

— Ahhhh, pleaseeeee~~

— Boooooo~

Viewers booed in the chat, but Sang-Hyeon decided to ignore them. He could tell the rest of his stories another day.

[Official_Self has donated 3000 won.]

[Oh! Almond! I was the one who posted the analysis article. I feel like a true fan now. (sob)]

"Ah, thank you, Official_Self. You've proven that you deserve your username twice now."

— Hahahaha, for real.

— Wow, I'm jealous now.

— I envy the true fans! Let me be one!

— He identified himself, lol.

"Anyway, I'll talk about my personal life during the upcoming interview. I will share it there."

— Interview?

— What interview?

— Are you finally going to meet with the National Damien Association?

— WTF, National Damien Association, LOL.

"It's not the National Damien Association. It's an interview with the LIL producer, Police. We agreed to do the interview on the day of winning the championship."

At first, the viewers couldn't comprehend and process what Almond just said. This phenomenon occurred when someone said something absurd so confidently.

— ???

— What?

The viewers, who belatedly understood what Almond said, showed their reactions.

[RubySword has donated 10,000 won!]

[You can do it! You're amazing!]

[ShyNapoleon has donated 10,000 won!]

[You got this!]

"Thank you, RubySword and ShyNapoleon."

As always, fans were cheering for Almond, and viewers were making fun of Almond's comments.

— Winning interview, LOL!

— Talk about getting ahead of himself.

— Way ahead!

— Too confident!

— Overconfident!

Some viewers teased him for getting ahead of himself. There were even some donations lightly making fun of him.

[SweetRadish has donated 1000 won.]

[I will remember this... Almond.]

Almond now averaged 10,000 viewers. He didn't fall for such pranks.

"LOL, this must be a prank, right? He wouldn't only donate 1000 won."

Almond asked with a somewhat uncertain expression because he was not entirely convinced.

— Haha, you got so scared!

— So cute, lol

— Almond: The 1000 won is a fake.

— Of course, it's not real.

— I thought it was real for a moment, haha

— It can be real! Just accept it, you loser!

— Checking if it's a joke with 1000 won is hilarious.

Observing the viewer's reactions, Almond felt relieved that it seemed like the 1000 won donation wasn't really from SweetRadish.

'People would naturally think that SweetRadish will win.'

Even though Almond expressed confidence in winning, he was aware of the reality.

The High Protein team was undoubtedly the strongest in terms of current strength.

'In the scrim, we won 13 games and lost 5, but 2 of those losses were against the High Protein team...'

They had two scrim matches against the High Protein team and lost both.

The bottom lane consisted of a former Challenger player trying to regain his past skill, and the mid lane was a recently retired professional player. It was impossible to defeat High Protein.

Realistically, Balloon Stars' goal seemed to be aiming for second place.

'But regardless of that, our goal is to win first place..'

Aiming for first place was purely Almond's ambition.

"Anyway, did you all understand? I'll talk about it during the winner's interview."

Almond managed to wrap up this topic and was now getting to the main topic.

"Last time, I received a 500,000 won donation and couldn't give out the reaction. So, this time!"

Chuck.

Almond raised his phone.

"Let's try a reaction in Lazy Soldier! It'll be fun, right?!"

He was about to start the advertisement.

***

Suddenly, as the advertisement began, the chat started scrolling rapidly.

— He's getting paid twice for his reaction?!

— If you become a streamer, you can infinitely print money!

— This guy is showing off the money he earned elsewhere!

— LOL, is he really doing it?

— I knew he would do it

— Are you going to stream with Miho?

"I don't think we can stream together. It's a game meant to be played solo."

Raising Lazy Soldier, or RLS, was clearly following the classic formula of the typical mobile game with a knight raising simulation as its main theme. The distinctive feature of such games was that there wasn't much advantage in playing together. The real gameplay came when players met opponents and fought against them.

Almond synced his phone with the computer and opened the mobile game screen.

"I'll just start playing alone."

The character selection screen appeared.

"Check this out. It's the Almond character," Almond mentioned while showing the character options.

The characters were divided into paid and free options. Users had to pay for the Almond character.

"Once you get this, you'll be set from the start."

— No kidding, you jackass, lol

— He's trying to make us open our wallets again!

— Teach us properly, man!

"Once you pick Almond, you can see me with short legs. Look at this with a huge head. It seems perfect for reactions. I bet I can always hit myself in the head."

— A streamer who likes having a big head because it means having a bigger target...

— The energy is exploding as the advertisement starts! Haha.

— This is my first time seeing Almond talk so much. My heart is pounding... do more ads...!

Because users had to buy Almond as a character, it started as a 3-star.

[Almond ★★★]

Almond was a character in charge of the archer position, and among the 3-star characters, he had decent abilities.

"Now, one of the game's features is that these characters here have really advanced AI. All we have to do is provide them with resources and give simple instructions."

The game wasn't just Almond alone. It progressed as the player gathered several teammates.

The remarkable thing was that artificial intelligence was exceptionally advanced. They could experience conflicts among teammates just like real people, and their combat effectiveness could decrease if the environment wasn't favorable.

"The resource support is crucial. I'm receiving gems now, so I'll quickly build some nearby buildings."

For example, if there wasn't enough food for the combatants, they wouldn't be able to perform well.

"It's not just about the combatants, you see? That's why I have to buy these cook characters. As their name suggests, these warriors have a mischievous personality. If they don't have these amenities, their temperaments worsen."

Clank.historical

Almond immediately purchased a cook and placed them in a suitable position. He had already set up a kitchen for the cook. Then, the cook started preparing the food.

In the game, Almond smiled broadly after eating the prepared dish.

"With this high satisfaction, my combat abilities will improve significantly."

Afterward, Almond advanced through the stages one by one, starting with Stage 1.

Initially, Almond had to defeat one goblin, but the number of monsters increased as he progressed.

In Stages 2,3,4 and beyond, stronger monsters began to appear.

The short-legged Almond fought bravely against the monsters.

Thud!

Around Stage 8, a dark elf's arrow struck Almond's head and killed him in the game.

"Ah, this wasn't a mistake, people. It was a reaction," Almond nonchalantly claimed. "Alright, we need another combat companion for Almond. And for that, we'll need gems..."

Almond managed to handle the advertisement fairly skillfully for the first time.

He showed dedication by processing through the stages until Stage 25.

In comparison, Bubblegum quit at Stage 15 after multiple deaths.

After finishing up with RLS, Almond began talking again.

"Also, a commercial I filmed was aired. It's for an almond snack. This is delicious."

— Another ad?

— This guy is really nuts.

— Wow. But I do want to see it, haha.

In the end, Almond played the cereal commercial as well. It was a video that had been completed and sent to him two days ago. The video started with the sunset background on the rooftop of an office building.

— Wow, his presentation in the ad is impressive

— For real, he's like a professional in ads.

— OMG

— Looks like a commercial for energy drinks.

Right from the beginning, the reaction was positive.

Chub. Chub.

The most favorable reaction came from Ju-Hyeok's expression, which looked like he was angrily chewing and swallowing almonds.

— Lol, what's this?

— Is he the one who kicked me out? I'll remember this...

— The manager is working hard, lol

— That reaction looks so genuine though!

— LOL, what's going on?

— Poor manager..

"Ju-Hyeok is really good at acting."

***

While Almond's streaming was in progress, SweetRadish was also streaming. He wasn't gaming, but was talking and discussing tomorrow's tournament.

As they were both streaming, a notification sound chimed.

[SpicyNoodle has donated 10,000 won!]

[Video Donation: Almond's recent statement, lol]

SweetRadish received a video donation. When he played it, it was a clip of Almond talking about the interview.

“It's an interview with the LIL producer, Police. We agreed to do the interview on the day of winning the championship.”

Almond's statement was filled with determination to do the winner's interview.

"Oh, it's Almond," SweetRadish responded professionally without showing any sign of hesitation. "You mean you'll never reveal personal matters, right? I'll make sure to protect your privacy."

— LMAO

— Wow, what a response, Lol

— Compared to the trash talk in LIL Champs, this is a piece of cake!

— SweetRadish! SweetRadish! SweetRadish!

SweetRadish casually brushed off Almond's provocation, and the next day arrived. It was the first day of the league.