Season 5: Chapter 66. Remnants of Almond (1)
When the second-place result came in, at least on the surface, Ju-Hyeok looked far more shaken.
"No... no!"
Thud.
He'd been standing there cheering them on, and now he nearly collapsed to the floor. The mission had failed.
"This can't be happening."
Nearly four million won disappeared. He had no idea what that sum meant to Almond, but it was catastrophic to him. The strength drained out of him so completely that he slid right off his chair and hit the floor.
Crash!
If he'd had his own viewers, the chat would've been flooded with laughter at the landing. He was literally face-up on the floor, spread-eagled.
Ju-Hyeok didn't even think about getting up.
He just stared at the ceiling and muttered, "Damn it."
All that money disappeared in an instant, and Almond had failed a mission of all things.
'It’s the first time, isn't it...?'
As far as he could tell, this was the first mission Almond had actually tried to complete and failed.
'At least, it’s the first one ShyNapoleon ever gave him.'
A streak had been broken. Streaks usually carried bad connotations, but good ones existed in sports too. Some athletes even built rituals specifically to maintain them. Even the most rational people went to see fortune tellers when they felt anxious enough.
Ju-Hyeok was the same. He didn't really believe in it, but he'd look that stuff up when things felt uncertain enough. Clinging to the streak, Almond had completed every mission ShyNapoleon gave so far. They ended up believing in that absurd streak. Such was the nature of streaks.
While they held it, they felt invincible. The moment it broke, they shattered like nothing at all. The world was always startlingly indifferent and simply moved on.
'Like the accident that happened to Sang-Hyeon.'
It took the most precious thing from someone without a second thought. Then, life flowed on as if nothing had happened.
Ju-Hyeok lay there, blinking up at the round fluorescent light overhead.
'Wait.'
He suddenly sat up.
'What if it's affecting him?'
His worry shifted to Sang-Hyeon. That guy had a rock-solid mentality in general, but not when it came to competition. Sure, he'd been saddled with two Bubblegums. However, Sang-Hyeon didn’t have a convenient enough brain to use that as comfort for the loss.
'Usually, it's very convenient.'
Except in competition, he was very inefficient and pointlessly hard on himself.
Ju-Hyeok pulled himself off the floor. The four million won wasn't the problem right now.
Ba-bam!
[RubySword has donated a whopping 300,000 won!]
[My deepest condolences to the dearly departed Almond]
Ba-ba-bam!
[Xiaolongbao has donated a whopping 500,000 won!]
[Here to present my condolence gift.]
Almond just sat completely still as donations poured in around him.
'What on earth is happening...?'
Almond maintained a blank expression to the end. The more he held it, the higher the donations climbed. Not just the big ones, tens of thousands, twenty thousands, even hundreds of thousands flooded in like a broken dam.
'Wait.'
Would this actually surpass the original mission payout? When that thought crossed Ju-Hyeok’s mind, Almond's lips twitched slightly.
'This guy...?'
Ju-Hyeok finally realized.
'The camera wasn't broken?'
Even he had wondered if the screen had frozen, but Almond had deliberately put on a blank face. His expression of despair was a form of protest. That was it.
Almond had converted his own devastation into entertainment for his viewers and cashed in on that entertainment.
'This is completely a streamer move.'
The biggest streamers often used this technique, specifically the most experienced ones. When Almond had competed in the world championship, he still leaned more toward being a competitive player than a streamer. After the win, something had shed off him. Through the
Survival Craft
collab stream, he became something else entirely: a complete streamer.
Ba-ba-bam!
[BigSon has donated a whopping 1,000,000 won!]
[A Smart Young Man...]
The donations finally crossed a certain threshold. Almond, who had been reading the room, snapped into a ninety-degree bow.
"Thank you! BigSon! Xiaolongbao! RubySword!"
Pffft!
" Ju-Hyeok burst out laughing before he knew it.
— lmaooooooo
— lmao
— The truly terrifying thing is... this guy is actually getting smarter over time...
— Smart young man indeed... money is just something you earn~
— Why do five consecutive wins when you can just stand there?? lmao
— Let's go
— lmao he actually made back over 400k
— Truly a Smart Young Man... lmao
Maybe Almond had become a genuinely smart streamer now.
When they exited the game, they received their ranks. All five placement matches had finished.
Hummm!
[Platinum 4]
A gold-tinted badge rose into view.
— The system actually gave him a fair read
— Made money and got the tier!
— Fair enough
— Four first places and one second, so
Considering the highest one could place from rank matches was Platinum 3, it was only one tier off. This was a decent enough result. The whole below Lemon treatment had probably been averted. And the money lost to the mission failure had been more than offset by the endless donations from viewers mocking him.
Just the donations from that one match reached over 500,000 won. Several major crises had appeared, and Almond had turned every single one into an opportunity.
'Can we do normal matches now?'
The saying went that one mountain always hid another behind it. At this point, they'd climbed an entire mountain range. Wasn't it about time the crises stopped and he got a breather? Almond briefly thought that.
"Hey, Almond, want to go again? That last one was a waste, honestly."
And yet, a mountain was waiting for him the moment he stepped out.
— lmaooooooo
— No way
— lmaooo
— Ah...
— Back to the silent protest
— Is he human?
— Mountain Bubblegum lmao
— Gum after gum lol
Ding.
[DietingFromScratch has donated 10,000 won.]
[Is this a time-loop story?]
— lmao fr
— Time loop lmao
— The Bubblegum curse
— This is cruel
— The genre is soulslike, actually
Whether it was a time loop, horror, or soulslike... Anyone could slap a label on it, and it'd fit because this situation encompassed all three. Almond always had to overcome the powerful enemy known as Bubblegum. The absurd twist was that the enemy was actually his ally. The cycle kept repeating itself.
"One more match?
Hm?
Was it a coincidence? Bubblegum's audio stuttered, stretching out like a broken cassette tape.
"Ooone moooore maaatch?
Hmmmm? Huuuuuh?
— lmaooooooo
— Audio bug what lmao
— lmaooo
— This is a horror game now lmao
— Almond's face lmao
Almond took an involuntary step back. "My placement matches are all done."
Ah...
so, so you're not playing anymore?" Bubblegum asked carefully like he couldn't bear to hear the answer.
"You're Platinum 3 now, right? A few more and you'd be Diamond?”
“Could be Gold."
— lmaooooooo
— Let's go
— lmao fr
— lmaooo
Under normal circumstances, Almond wouldn't care about dropping a rank or two. However, the exchange with Popcorn had pushed his mind and body to their limits.
Bwahaha!
Th-that's true? Yeah... yeah, fair enough, Almond."
Bubblegum patted his shoulder and stuck out a thumb. "It was fun. Thanks to you, I actually felt like I was good at the game for a while... I think I got addicted to that feeling."
He meant every word and smiled warmly.
— Gum...
— Oh man...
— All he ever wanted was to feel good at the game...
'That's right... This is who he was.'
Almond recalled the streamer he used to watch alone at home, cracking open a beer after getting chewed out at work. He had watched Bubblegum to get through the day. Bubblegum reminded him of that slightly goofy but warm older guy who was always at the neighborhood playground when he was little.
"Hey," Almond called out to that version of him, "No."
His answer was still a no.
Tch.
— lmaooooo
— That was a whole setup?? Lmao
— lmaooo
— He was acting
Bubblegum hadn't given up on squeezing in one more match.
Hmph.
Just you wait until the Platform War, Almond. We'll see if you're still so smug by then.
Bwahahahaha!!
Whether out of embarrassment or something else, Bubblegum left that parting line like a B-tier villain and disappeared. — ? — ??
— Lmao what
— What
— Is he a new Team Rocket recruit??
— I want to use Thunderbolt right now
Click.
Sang-Hyeon pulled himself out of the capsule. He'd finished his placement matches and ended the stream for the day.
"Oh. You're out? Hey, the mission failure actually made for some great content. Ji-Ah is going to love it... Huh?" Ju-Hyeok walked in with a wide grin. "You’re covered in sweat?"
Sang-Hyeon was soaked. This almost never happened after they'd gotten the premium capsule, especially considering it was just a placement match. Somehow, Sang-Hyeon's face looked a shade paler than usual.
"Hey. Are you feeling okay?"
"A hot shower will fix it."
His voice sounded several notes lower than normal.
Ju-Hyeok didn’t miss that.
'Is it what I think it is?'
No matter how he looked at it, this seemed like fallout from the Popcorn fight.
'But he didn't lose to Popcorn.'
It was fair to say their team had lost because of Popcorn, but Almond didn’t lose to him. Still, trying to comfort him right now would only make things worse. It always did.
Shhhhh...
The sound of water filled the bathroom. Not long ago, Almond had been humming, "The Lord's Blessing." Now, there was nothing.
Thunk!
Something struck the wall hard. Startled, Ju-Hyeok pushed the door open.
"Hey! Did you fall..."
He thought Sang-Hyeon had collapsed, but Sang-Hyeon's fist was resting against the tile.
Even with Ju-Hyeok standing there, Sang-Hyeon said nothing. He just stood under the hot shower, staring straight ahead like he couldn't hear or see anything.
'Well.'
At least he hadn't fallen. Ju-Hyeok quietly closed the door again.
Then, he muttered under his breath, "This idiot... the hell. That was so cool."
With a face like that, it looked like a scene out of a movie. If Ju-Hyeok had done the same thing, it would've just been some guy being embarrassing in the shower. Somehow, that annoyed him. Ju-Hyeok timidly pressed his own fist against the wall.
Bop.
'Is this... how you do it? Like this?'
He adjusted his head angle and tried to get the right pose. It didn't really seem to be working out.
'Do I need a hot shower too?'
Splash!
The pool’s blue water parted around the woman's body. She pushed through it without hesitation, driving herself deeper. Her long dark hair trailed behind her through the white foam. She moved with her legs pressed together, her body undulating like a mermaid luring sailors to their fate.
The beauty of it, she only became truly free once she entered the water. The way she couldn't walk when she came back to shore, she really was like a mermaid.
Splash!
She turned and twisted through the water, spending a few moments in the freedom that her breath would allow.
Puh... ha!
She broke through the surface. Someone who looked like a coach came over and seemed to report something.
"Not bad, considering how long you've been away. However, the muscle mass in your lower body has visibly decreased."
"I figured... as much."
She looked down at her own legs, blurred beneath the water.
"Yes. But if you keep at it from here, you'll recover to where you were before in no time. And above all... you've decided to start rehabilitation training again! You're absolutely going to get better!"
The coach clenched both fists, full of enthusiasm.
On the other hand, the woman who actually needed the rehabilitation just floated onto her back and murmured at the ceiling, "Right. I should."
"But to start rehabilitation again out of nowhere... Is something going on? Oh, not that, of course, you should always be doing rehab. I just meant...!"
"I wanted to run again." "...?!"
Sa-Rang smiled quietly at the look on his face.
"Relax. Not running on two legs."
Ah...
"I just want to be well enough to get into a capsule."
She lived in a world where even that simple phrase, running on two legs, was enough to make someone freeze. Her wish was simply to visit, just briefly, the world where that was possible. It was a very modest wish. "..."
Even at that, the coach couldn't give her a straight answer. He averted his eyes, struggling to find the words.
"You don't have to answer." Sa-Rang let him off the hook. "It's just one last act of desperation anyway."

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