Season 5: Chapter 64. Revolt of the Trash (2)
As if he couldn't believe what he heard, Almond asked, “I can't respawn?"
— Yep
— The shadow swallowed everything
— No shrine lol
— Team Almond without Almond lol
— There's no shrine anymore...
Even after they explained, he asked again, "Why not?"
— lmaooo
— Denial lmao
— Explain why you WOULD respawn first, nut
— lmaooo
— He's been getting explanations this whole time and he still says why lol
Almond's eyes kept flicking to the mission window.
[Mission]
[5 Consecutive Placement 1st Place Finishes]
[2,380,000 won]
It had climbed to the 1,900,000 range when he met BornToB. Then, the amount jumped to the 2,300,000 range when Almond died. Even right now, the mission pot was still climbing.
No, it was skyrocketing right now, which made perfect sense. The only hope Team Almond had of winning was their ace, Almond, who had died with no way to respawn. For all intents and purposes, the game was already lost.
Ah...
This can't be happening," Almond muttered without even realizing it.
He'd barely ever experienced a mission failure before. The shock would be something else. That pile of money just sat there, taunting him, like a dog wagging its tail.
Ding.
[lolololol has donated 5,000 won.]
[lolololololololololol]
Even his viewers had fun rubbing it in with donations. The automated voice laughed out a long, automated cackle.
— lmaooooooo
— lmao
— lmaooooooo
— lmaooo
Laughter flooded the chat. Almond sat there in silence, still scanning the map for a Resurrection Shrine that wasn't there.
"No, but... where did that Kraken even come from..."
He tried blaming the Kraken that had appeared out of nowhere. Not that he could sue a Kraken for the mission payout. It was entirely pointless. His viewers shut that down too.
— That's what comes out when you rob the vault
— Popcorn pulled that thing in lol
— Robbing the vault gives you a bit of a handicap
Ahem.
Almond went quiet again after learning that even the Kraken had been Popcorn's doing. His mind kept circling back.
‘What if I'd done this instead? That would've been better.’
Popcorn had been noticeably tilting a bit after switching to the Phoenix. Even he hadn't fully adjusted to it. If Almond had played a little cleaner in that moment, he could have ended it before the Kraken ever showed up.
'Did I panic too?’
The Phoenix’s ultimate skill had rattled him. Almond hated that the most right now. His greatest strength was supposed to be his unshakeable mentality. For a moment, it had vanished.
Maybe Popcorn had intended that. Whether it was intentional or not, Almond felt furious at himself.
'Losing control at a moment like that.'
The Phoenix had hit harder than expected, and he'd gotten impatient. The one thing he could never afford to do in archery.
‘Just this one last shot and it's a gold medal.’
That thought was the most direct path to defeat. Even as that final arrow left the string and found the target and the crowd erupted, an archer had to already be waiting for the next one.
Even if it didn't exist, that was the rule. For them, a gold medal wasn't the destination. It was just a byproduct of the process. That was how it was supposed to be.
'I've been a streamer for too long.'
In a placement match of all things, he'd run into Popcorn and let impatience push him into charging in headfirst to end it fast. He had felt a pressure that he'd never felt in archery, which was being part of a team.
'I thought if I didn't do it, we couldn't win...'
Bubblegum, BornToB, and Choco Shroom’s presence had weighed on him like stones. He couldn't trust them, which meant he had to carry everything himself. Popcorn had read that psychology perfectly.
[LostButFoughtWell has donated 10,000 won.]
[You lost, but you fought well. Hahahaha]
The words were kind enough, but the AI voice laughed through every syllable. It sounded nothing like sincerity. Even if it had been genuine, Almond couldn't accept it.
— lmaooo
— lmao
— The voice lmao
— I mean he did fight well though
— Basically a draw tbh
— Popcorn won but his whole team is out, so
Popcorn's team had been eliminated, and Almond's was still alive. Almond had seen that much, but he couldn't bring himself to feel good about it. His mind was still back in that fight.
'He was relaxed the whole time.'
That was the one thing he'd walked away with after facing Popcorn. Almond had chased him down relentlessly and landed hit after hit, but Popcorn looked like he was playing with a nephew at a family gathering.
Not that nephews weren't terrifying in their own right sometimes. One never knew what they'd pull next. That was exactly it.
‘I don't know what this kid is going to do. It makes me a little uneasy, but I'm going to win anyway.’
That was the energy Almond had felt from Popcorn.
'Damn it.'
Crunch .
It stung. After all, Almond had studied his opponent. He'd prepared. And this was all he could do. As Almond's expression darkened, another donation came in.
[JustMaybe has donated 10,000 won.]
[Almond, please don't cry! You never know, right? If they pull off a miracle teamfight...]
— Who's crying lol
— ??? "Hey, are you crying?"
— Why are you making him cry lol
— Who said he was crying
— Almond's expression is rough tho lol
— Coolly climbing mission pot says hi~
That kind of comfort was useless.
"I doubt it." Almond genuinely wasn't sure of anything at the moment.
— lmaooo
— I've never seen Almond look this gloomy lmao
— "I doubt it" king lol
— Watching 3 million fly out the window will do that~
— Mission failure hitting THIS hard?? lol
— Bubblegum x Almond relationship on the rocks lol
Maybe it was because three million was about to disappear. He almost wished that were the reason. At least that would be simple. What was it, really? This slow burn in his chest rose from somewhere deeper.
"I'll watch for now, at least."
Almond steadied himself and turned his attention to his remaining teammates. His eyes were quiet, not expecting much.
On the other hand, Zelo watched with plenty of tension.
'Please... please. There's no version of reality where these guys actually win and I have to twerk, right?'
He was in his capsule, but he could feel it. Cold sweat was trailing down his back. That was how tightly wound Zelo was.
"There's no way those potbellied tanks... are going to pull something off here, right?"
— lmaooooo
— Potbellied tanks lmao
— Taaank~
— It's four against five?
— Placement match, so who knows
— What if the Kraken shows up again?
"Potbellied tanks are honestly less legitimate than regular tanks! This doesn't make sense. It just doesn't."
It was easy to say, but Survival mode had so many variables. That Kraken was still out there wandering around. If it went after the other team instead of Almond's?
"Oh no. The Kraken... Wait, there's still a Kraken out there? Does anyone know how the Kraken picks its target?"
— Whoever woke it up
— It kinda follows whoever first awakened it
— Whichever child is crying
— It's just random
"Whoever's crying can get out! You think this is funny?!"
— "Whichever child is crying" lmao
— lmaooo
— Most people haven't played survival mode so they have no idea, it's amazing
— The Kraken tends to go for whoever, um... yeah...
The chat continued trolling with no real information.
Zelo was losing his mind. "I'm actually desperate here!!"
— lmaooo
— Why are YOU desperate, what can you even do
— Nothing you do matters
— He's desperate lmao
— Twerking takes a lot of preparation!! Waaah!
Zelo was a nervous wreck. Watching them down there, those people were seriously gearing up for a last stand. They actually believed they could win.
Meanwhile, trash dared to dream of revolt.
"We have a lot of tanks. We also have the Abyss Shark's Gills. If we dig in and fight a war of attrition in the Shadow, we might actually win this."
LetMeTank called the play, and everyone nodded like they were of one mind.
"I'll hold this side."
"Then I'll take this one."
"Oh! They're coming!"
Among the enemy champions was Terrorist Bonnie. She fired a Hextech rocket launcher.
Boom!
Team Almond ducked behind the ruins for cover. Besides Bonnie, the enemies also had an unusual champion called Spirit Sorcerer Melly.
Ugh!
The soldiers that the Spirit Sorcerer raised from monster corpses came rushing in from every direction.
"A Spirit Sorcerer?! What?"
"I've never seen one do this..."
"Wait, don't Spirit Sorcerers need minions to work...?"
Everyone was thrown off. The ghost soldiers that the Spirit Sorcerer had raised looked nothing like what they'd seen before. Without minions in Survival mode, the skill had been rebalanced. Here, the Spirit Sorcerer harvested souls from monster corpses to conjure ghost soldiers that were far stronger and more persistent.
Ughhh!
A wave of accumulated ghost soldiers crashed in from all sides. On top of that was Bonnie's poke fire and bruiser champions storming the ruins from every angle.
Boom!
Full-scale combat instantly erupted. BornToB shoved forward with his shield and activated his ultimate skill. Bubblegum's ultimate skill was still on cooldown.
The Demolisher’s ultimate skill also activated. Massive bombs rained down on the ruins in rapid succession.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Enemy ultimate skills fired all at once, kicking up a massive cloud of debris.
Then, one changed everything.
[Ultimate Skill: Nail Scatter]
Whoooosh!
LetMeTank scattered a spray of nails. BornToB and Bubblegum threw themselves forward, driving those nails deep into everything around them. Ghost soldiers, contractors, whatever was in the way... Everything caught nails indiscriminately.
"Damn it, pull the ghost soldiers back! They're healing off this!"
"There's a Paladin?!"
A Paladin in the middle of a brawl like this?!
The healing kept ticking.
“By God's grace, the sins that run through your blood are forgiven.”
The Paladin's ultimate skill activated.
[Ultimate Skill: Conversion]
For a duration equal to the number of nails driven in, the nailed enemies temporarily became the Paladin's allies. This terrifying skill came with an equally brutal cooldown. LetMeTank had been hoarding it this whole time, waiting for exactly this moment.
— Whoa
— What
— No way
— Right here???
— She's insane
— Let's go
Three of the five enemy contractors turned around. Most of the ghost soldiers flipped too.
"Wha...?!" Bonnie, who had been attacking from the back, panicked. "Damn it!"
She had no choice but to slide and fall back.
Beeee!
[You are in range of the Abyss Shadow!]
The Shadow had already caught up.
"Wh, WHAT?!"
The ruins were the Shadow's next center. Now, her own three teammates were blocking the entrance with no way to push through. She had to wait for the conversion to wear off.
[Abyss Gill Breathing]
[Time remaining: 14 seconds]
Still, they'd come straight from taking down the Abyss Shark. The gills were still active.
Ha... hah...
We held on."
A brief opening appeared. LetMeTank forced the converted enemies to fight each other and chipped away at their health. One of them was about to die.
[Enemy Eliminated!]
[LetMeTank → GiveUpCarry]
— Let's go
— Whoa
— LetMeTank??
— This is something!!!
— Small streamer power!
Bubblegum was still alive as well as BornToB and Choco Shroom. It was four against four.
"Oh my god, she killed one!"
"The Shadow is coming! Hold a little longer! We're healing off the nails!"
When the conversion ended, LetMeTank scattered nails into the ghost soldiers again.
Boom! Boom!
Bubblegum and BornToB drove them in, and their health climbed back up.
Bubblegum gasped, "W-we can do this!"
It really felt like they could win. They were almost there.
[Enemy Eliminated!]
[ChocoShroom → HeavenSmiles]
Choco Shroom had taken out Bonnie.
"Nice!"
"YES!"
The momentum surged. An enemy bruiser burst into the ruins. The wind swordsman swung through the air with an invisible, shapeless blade.
Slash! Slash!
The enemy pressed LetMeTank hard and closed in on Choco Shroom. Another bruiser, a lance dragon, came in from behind.
THUD!
BornToB pushed back with his shield.
[HP: 12%]
BornToB was one hit away from death. Right then, Bubblegum's ultimate skill cooldown finally cleared.
[Ultimate Skill: Spin-and-SLAM!]
Thunk!
Bubblegum planted a stake in the ground and spun wildly around it as an axis.
THWAM THWAM THWAM!
Both enemy bruisers went flying.
"Insane!"
[Abyss Gill Breathing]
[Time remaining: 3 seconds]
The enemies' gills were running dry, and the Shadow still hadn't reached the ruins.
Hah...
I-I'll hold them!"
BornToB reset his position, and Bubblegum locked down his lane.
[The Abyss Shadow descends!]
The Abyss Shadow contracted one more time. The moment they'd been waiting for was coming when everyone's health hit zero. The tanks would be the last ones standing.
With quiet resolve, Bubblegum said, "Let's make a promise. If we win this, we're all uploading this match to YouTube together. The title will be... Revolt of the Trash."
— Why does everyone have to be trash
— lmao the trash thing again
— lmaooooo
— Bubblegum is just a baby... a useful baby...
— All confirmed trash lol
No YouTube video by that title was ever uploaded.
CRASH! "?"
Because a Kraken tentacle erupted from dead center of the ruins. The very person who had just said those words, Bubblegum, went flying straight up into the sky.

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