Chapter 43: Blessing in Disguise (1)

— It's 3v1. Is this possible?

— It's a little much...

— Even the blue zone is on their side.

The viewers began to doubt if Almond could win. Some even felt certain that Almond wouldn’t win.

— Damn, one got knocked out?

— The second one was an instant kill?

— The trajectory was insane.

— Shudders..?

— It's suddenly 1v1.

Almond quickly changed the tide of battle. It went from a 3v1 to a 1v1 situation. The last opponent was a sniper, but anything could happen in a 1v1 situation.

— No way, he's really going to get first.

— Please...

— The opponent is a sniper, so he has no chance of winning.

— Maybe if he discovers him first...

— Doesn't he have to chase the guy who’s crawling?

— Why isn't he chasing him?

— Chase him, Almond!!!

— Huh? That's a different direction.

— Damn, they're tricking him.

— Wow...

— Oooh!!! One landed!

— What's next?

— Next is..!

— Huh?!

— Wow!!!

— Damn...

[1st Place]

He could almost hear the cheers from the chat when the victory text popped up on the screen.

— Woooow!

— Jesus...

— Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond!

— That was insane.

— Is he really 1st?

— Almond, you madman.

Who would’ve thought he would achieve 1st place as a solo squad? And while using a bow too? Nobody could've predicted this from the way he landed with his parachute.

[Solo Squad Victory! Mission Successful!]

[250,000 won has been donated.]

[Victory with the bow! Mission Successful!]

[210,000 won has been donated.]

He cleared the donation missions and cashed in the rewards.

‘460,000 won!’

One round earned him 460,000 won. This was a huge sum for Almond.

“Thank you very much!”

Almond bowed to express his gratitude as more donations poured in.

[Omega has donated 10,000 won.]

[Boss, you were bang on today!]

[Horuru has donated 5,000 won.] historical

[This person must've been Robin Hood in his past life.]

[Miho has donated 50,000 won.]

[Almond, you're so good hehehe.]

One of the many donations caused a stir.

— Oh?

— Miho?

— It’s the real Miho. Give a shout out!

— Shout what out. They already donated LOL

— Hahaha

— Miho!

The viewers didn’t cause a stir because of the 50,000 won donation, but because of something else.

‘Is that person famous?’

It seemed like someone famous had donated.

“Thank you, Miho. And thank you to Horuru, Omega, and Dormang. Thank you for the donations.”

Regardless, Almond didn't know who they were. He wouldn’t pretend to recognize someone he didn’t know, so he moved on. He thought the moment would pass, but..

[Miho has donated 50,000 won.]

[Are you looking for a clan? Hehe]

Miho donated another 50,000 won. They had donated 100,000 won altogether, so he couldn’t just ignore the question.

‘Clan?’

Almond never thought about joining a clan.

‘I’m just a beginner.’?

He needed some clarification since he just started playing despite his high level plays. An offer to join a clan so soon made Almond think that he must be quite good.

— Miho is offering?

— Wait, for real?

— Miho being Miho.

— Cherrypicking like always.

.

— LOL

— Are you changing to a CEO player?

— Ah, I’d be thankful if it’s Miho.

Miho seemed to be a female streamer judging from the chat. She only gave these kinds of offers from time to time.

Why would she choose Almond? Did he have that much potential?

“Oh, I should practice more since I'm just a beginner. Thank you for the donations, Miho.”

Almond politely declined since he was still a beginner. Not that he would be a hindrance to them, but because he wouldn’t be able to showcase his skills as much if he played in the higher ranks. It would affect Almond's image as a skilled player, so he declined for business reasons.

[Miho has donated 50,000 won.]

[Ah, shucks. Contact me anytime if you're interested!]

“Wow, thanks again for the donation. I'll definitely give it a thought.”

Sang-Hyeon thanked her once more and ended his stream.

“That's enough for today. Bye, Treevy!”

***

Chiik—?

Kim Ju-Hyeok waited for him as he exited the capsule.

“Wow.”

It seemed like Ju-Hyeok had already searched for who Miho was judging from his expression.

“She's no joke.”

He smiled like a fool at her photos on the screen.

“Wow..”

Sang-Hyeon was still a man and also became infatuated with her photos for a moment. Especially the photo shoot when she cosplayed as her nickname, the Nine-Tails..

“Kuhm, let's be professional.”

Sang-Hyeon came back to his senses and looked at a different screen.

“Hmph, of course.”

Despite Ju-Hyeok's words, his eyes were still on Miho's photoshoots.

“What are the reactions like?”

“Ah, right. The reactions..”

Ju-Hyeok showed Almond their home ground at KAF.

[Almond, Battle Large, Success...]

[Is he a natural? He’s even good at Battle Large.]

[We should be thankful that he even touched Kingdom Age...]

[Almond playing Kingdom was fun to watch...]

[The knight ending was really good.]

“The reactions are good. They're mostly talking about Kingdom Age,?but that's expected from KAF.”

“How about Battle Large?”

“Ah, their biggest community is Battle31..”

Ju-Hyeok’s expression suddenly darkened. The reactions he saw went something like this:

[Almond, that smurf. I reported him.]

[He got a donation from Miho. FUCK.]

[He received a donation from Miho? Reported.]

[First as a solo squad? The worst type of smurf.]

Their comments didn’t faze Sang-Hyeon.

“This is the place.”

“You knew?”

“Yeah, I read the chat.”

“I always think this, but you're really calm. You’re even shameless sometimes.”

“Well... it's not a big deal.”

“You're not going to do anything about it?”

Sang-Hyeon thought for a moment about Ju-Hyeok’s question. They mistook him for a smurf because of his unbelievable performance in the lowest rank.

“Hmm... I don't know. It's probably because I made my bio code private. Should I make it public again?”

He only left his bio code exposed when he started as a streamer because he didn't know better. Leaving it open had been better for his character, but he also risked leaking his personal information.

Just recently, he received security texts warning him of login attempts from China. Since then, he had made his bio code private like other streamers.

“No, not your code. You want to share your earnings with someone in China?”

“Hmm... Then there's nothing I can do, no? I guess bad attention is still attention.”

“I guess.”

Ju-Hyeok casually nodded as well.

“I don't think this will be a problem. It could be an opportunity.”

“Opportunity?”

“You become even more popular if you overcome a controversy, right? It's a blessing in disguise.”

***

The blessing in disguise seemed to have remained in disguise the next day.

[Your account has been suspended.]

Sang-Hyeon received an email from the Battle Large?admins.

“Hmm?”

He blankly stared at the message while sipping his coffee.

‘Seems like this is a bigger deal than I thought..’

“Hey, Ju-Hyeok! Come take a look at this.”

Ju-Hyeok got up and put on his glasses to read it.

“What the. What's going..”

What he read through his foggy glasses dumbfounded him.

“Damn, these guys must be great?at their jobs.”

Ju-Hyeok felt baffled before getting angry.

“How can they suspend you without even checking the facts?”

“Hmmm..”

“Don't you have anything to say?” Ju-Hyeok questioned Sang-Hyeon, who still had the same blank expression.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. It should work out. Let's just respond to them on the website.”

Tatatak.

Sang-Hyeon messaged the Battle Large?admins and seemed unfazed by the problem. However, they didn’t reply even after he waited for hours.

“Hmm... I didn't expect much, but their support team isn't that helpful either.”

Ju-Hyeok finished his meal and snobbishly said, “Do you think they'd respond to your message when they didn’t even bother to check your record?”

Ju-Hyeok went onto KAF after complaining.

“You know what? Maybe this is better.”

“Better?”

“Yeah, let's try to change the situation with this.”

“You think it’s possible?”

“Of course, you said that bad attention is still attention, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let's get some more attention with this.”

“Ah!”

Sang-Hyeon understood what Ju-Hyeok was getting at. He quickly went to his channel and made a post.

“Should I write it?”

“You should write it first.”

“Okay.”

Sang-Hyeon vented his frustration with a new post. He made sure not to sound too whiny and just got to the point.

[Hello, this is Almond. I have some bad news.]

The post mentioned his suspension in Battle Large.?Not long afterwards, people began commenting on the post.

— What the heck is this? LOL

— How could they suspend you after your first time playing?

— First time smurf.

— Wow... that must be frustrating.

Most of the comments comforted Sang-Hyeon about the ridiculous incident and insulted the support team.

Ju-Hyeok headed to KAF and also made a post there while pretending to be a viewer.

[Breaking News: Almond is a smurf!]

His post had a provocative title on purpose. It also contained a screenshot of Almond's post.

Then...

‘The support team determined he was a smurf because he was too good.’

The comments began to pour in.

— First time smurf. Good one LOL

— There are smurfs who stream what they’re doing? Is the support team retarded?

— They just banned him because of too many reports.

— This is all because Almond is a small timer.

— Still, he’s a Punk partnered streamer.

— What the fuck is wrong with the Battle Large community? They reported him knowing this, no?

— They’re blinded by jealousy.

The responses on KAF were quite aggressive. As expected of a community full of maniacs, they were loyal to their streamer and angry at the wrongdoings against Almond.

[Trending Issue: Almond, smurf...]

Thankfully, the post attracted enough attention and began trending.

The post was titled, ‘He's a smurf, but it’s his first round.’?It even spread to other gaming communities.

— LOL look at the support team. What a joke.

— I knew they would be like this.

— First round smurf. Good one.

The Battle Large?admin team already had a notorious reputation for their past actions and behavior. This incident only became the perfect firewood to fuel more hatred toward them.

The Battle Large and Kingdom Age?communities caught on fire along with other video game communities. They only had one thing in common.

— But how good is he? For them to assume that he’s a smurf without even looking at his history?

Everyone grew curious about Almond's skills. How good was he to spark such an incident?

— For real. How can someone get that many reports in one game?

└ There's a collection of his plays. Go take a look.?

└ Do you have the link?

└ (Link)

└ Wow, he's insane.

└ The hell? What is that...

└ He’s just annihilating everyone.

The users who watched his plays were in awe of his skills. His skills remained consistent despite leaving Kingdom Age.

— Are there no videos?

— Where's the full video?

— Looks like it doesn't exist yet.

The users wanted more than just highlights.

The following morning..

[There's a new video on Almond's YouTube channel (Link)]

The video seemed to be about his controversial solo squad victory. Seo Ji-Ah spent the night editing this masterpiece. It had a provocative title as well.

[I got suspended as a smurf after my first round...]