Season 5: Chapter 95. Into the Room of Truth (2)
Almond was deeply puzzled.
‘What is this atmosphere?’
He didn’t know about others, but he knew what kind of person Choi Sa-Rang was. Not just the Choi Sa-Rang he'd met at the hospital, but also as a commander at the world championship. She was the type who controlled people with an air of constant authority, so who was this person in front of him right now?
Hehe.
Sweet Potato doesn't play
LIL
that much, but you're good at it.
Hehe~ ."
Almond possibly saw it a bit differently from reality. It was a wide gap from the person he'd known, who resembled a well-bred noble daughter at a social gathering. He'd never seen this version of her before.
What was she thinking? Her acting ability was considerable.
‘Well, that's how she was able to live as a man for years without being found out.’
She had lived as a completely different person for years. A pivot like this would mean nothing to her. In that case, why did she suddenly change her approach?
‘Going soft on purpose?’
The simple read was this. They weren’t playing in something like the world championship. It was an event match, so she was coaching gently.
"Next, Almond."
His name came up last. He couldn't help but feel anticipation.
‘Is she about to praise me too?’
He didn't think she'd ever properly praised him before. Because Almond knew her true identity, he understood exactly how significant her recognition would be. His eyes lit up with expectation. Then, a cold wind suddenly swept through her previously gentle expression.
"No comment." She declined to say anything, not a word about him.
There was no praise or feedback.
‘What?!’
— LOL
— Almond got passed lmaooo
— Hm?
— lmaooooo
— Why are you crushing our boy's spirit!
— What lmao
— Acquaintance pass lmaooo
From here, Almond sensed something ominous.
"Let's do three games with the Smart Young Man as the main caller."
He didn’t receive a single comment. Then, out of nowhere, she made him the main caller for three games.
‘This is strange.’
His head was clearly registering that something was off.
‘But I'm the main caller.’
His mouth opened wide into a grin. Still, he was the main caller. Couldn't he try out everything he'd been thinking?!
At that moment, Streamer Garden was in a festive mood for the first time in a while since the Cheese Village content. This online community focused on streamers.
Naturally, the start of competition practice for a streamer tournament was a big deal. On top of that, this tournament featured streamers from both platforms. For viewers with platform pride, it was the perfect opportunity to make the most of their investment.
Views did well when viewers were this invested, but incidents also happened often. Especially during this period, small sparks tended to become major fires that threatened to incinerate everything. Viewers would only look back later and think, “That's what all the fuss was about?” Maybe this situation was the same.
"Why is Sang-Hyeon in another nepo controversy?" Ju-Hyeok scrolled and laughed in disbelief.
This controversy had followed Sang-Hyeon during his company days, through the first Acorn Jelly collab, through
Battle Large
, and even at the world championship.
[Is that really not nepotism lmaooo]
[Almond is always getting called a parachute, is he in the airborne unit?? lmaooo]
[Propping up Almond again]
[They have nothing else to prop up so they're pushing the Smart Young Man?]
[Honestly, Choi Sa-Rang is more of an Almond parachute than anything lmaooo]
Someone was pushing Almond, someone forced him in, some factions are artificially propping Almond up, etc. This kind of controversy never stopped.
‘Didn't think it'd happen this time too.’
Almond was now a massive streamer, big enough that such controversy would be embarrassing to start. The moment any crack appeared, people like this showed up immediately to bite. The spark that lit the fuse was this post.
[3rd place trending: Is the Knight Order team just Almond and his sidekicks?]
Almond brings in a coach with ZERO experience, who beats all the active and former pro coaches to become the coach.
And that person also happens to have a connection to Almond going back to the world championship.
And now that same person just happens to want to make Almond the main caller??
How is this different from installing your personal connection as coach and colluding with them?
— Fr...
— ZERO EXP
— The damn Smart Young Man lmaooo didn't think anyone would actually push him
└ 2222 This destroys the credibility
— zero careers and they're using him... kinda cringe lmao
└ You don't even know what cringe means
└ Sure, nut gang, cringe away ^^
— Because of this Tortilla went to Paprika
└ Genuine national resource loss
└ National resource lmaooo is Cheese a country?
└ Platform tournament right now so yes it's a country lmao
└ Are you a platformist? If not a country then what is it
└ lmaooooooooooooo
— Honestly feels wrong to make her coach over just one win
When streamers held tournaments, multiple streamers would head toward a single objective, leading to inevitable conflict along the way. Even without friction between the streamers themselves, there were plenty of cases where viewers latched on like this.
The Knight Order team didn't just have Almond's viewers. People cheered for Sweet Radish and Sweet Potato too. In their eyes, Sa-Rang becoming the coach and making Almond the main caller felt grating.
"Meanwhile, Sweet Radish himself accepted it. Why are you people going off?"
Ju-Hyeok faced controversy constantly, but never got quite used to watching this kind of internal combustion. His ability to handle it just kept improving. How to respond to this situation was obvious.
‘Just do nothing!’
They just needed to let it be. The results would speak for themselves. Everyone would accept it after winning the games. Lose, and no one would give them credit. The streamer Almond had always cut through controversy like this.
‘But...’
This time, even Ju-Hyeok felt uneasy. He shifted his gaze to the monitor.
‘Why would Choi Sa-Rang want the Smart Young Man to be the main caller?’
Choi Sa-Rang had seemed completely unconvinced of Almond's command ability. Suddenly, she made him the main shot-caller.
‘This...’
Ju-Hyeok, quick to read things, understood.
‘Damn. That's what this is.’
Almond had always cut through controversy with results. She wanted to show the exact opposite of that.
‘This will be the end of the Smart Young Man...!’
The moment Ju-Hyeok realized this, he shot up like a defense minister confirming an incoming nuclear missile.
"A-alright! Editing team! Meet in the conference room for a moment!"
Videos like this were enormously valuable when prepared in advance. Above all, when editors understood the flow, the videos came out far more entertaining.
Ju-Hyeok walked into the conference room with a grin.
Ji-Ah followed close behind and whispered, "Ju-Hyeok. The editing team is just the two of us right now. Why are you calling a team meeting?"
"Oh. Just wanted to try it..."
"Good grief."
Macaron shuffled in awkwardly.
Ju-Hyeok cleared his throat and gestured to the table. "Alright. Director Seo, please take a seat."
He needed to get through this quickly.
‘Choi Sa-Rang won't drag it out.’
She had specified exactly three games because there was a high probability of finishing fast. '''
"JUMP!"
Five players all deployed their parachutes and descended. It was the Knight Order team. Each of them had a different expression on the way down. Almond, who finally got to call the shots, was beaming. Sweet Radish had his lips pressed together and looked grimly resolved.
‘She told me not to voice my opinion. Not even once.’
Just before entering the game, Choi Sa-Rang had pulled Sweet Radish aside and stressed this multiple times. She told him to leave all judgments to the Smart Young Man for exactly three games.
‘Fine... Let's see it. Damn.’
Sweet Radish didn't understand why it had to be this way, but he was also curious about the skills that had demolished Tortilla. For now, he decided to trust her judgment. All in-game commands would go through Almond.
Sweet Radish simply said to Almond, "Tell us where to go! Captain!"
"Over here!" Almond answered immediately.
Ting!
A ping dropped. He already had a route in mind, which was nothing like the textbook-optimized route that Sweet Radish knew.
‘You really are something else.’
Sweet Radish only thought that and moved according to the order. Since Sweet Radish followed, the other members stayed quiet too. They were noticeably more orderly than before. Only the occasional joke came from Lemon or Sweet Potato.
The moment they landed, artifact boxes greeted them.
"Weapons like this!"
Almond distributed the weapons briskly. It was essentially the same distribution as before with no real judgment required. What mattered now was route selection, not weapon assignment.
Almond had chosen a route with a very high ceiling, but this method completely failed to account for failure. If something like catching the Red Turtle fell through, the entire plan would collapse.
‘Still, he looked at the shadow position and set it up reasonably.’
It was just a difference in approach. The route made sense.
‘He's surprisingly sharp, after all.’
Sweet Radish knew it too. Almond wasn't dumb. He just hadn't spent years deeply grinding game knowledge, and his tendencies were extreme to a fault.
"There's a Turtle. We're taking it first."
Black Tea asked the obvious question, "And if another team shows up?"
Going for the Turtle first had enormous gains if it worked, but it was generally better to level a bit first. The Turtle itself boasted considerable attack power and defense, which caused delays and ultimately invited interference from other teams.
"If you hunt while circling around from this position like this, we can actually take out another team that comes."
Astonishingly, Almond had a very detailed picture of how this would unfold. It was detailed enough to surprise even Sweet Radish because it was insanely difficult.
‘You madman. How would that work?!’
It was amazing that Almond expected Sweet Potato and Lemon to follow this.
"L-let's try it."
Right now, the Smart Young Man was the main caller. They had no choice but to go along with it. The result?
[Team 3 Eliminated!]
Team 3 was eliminated. Who was Team 3? It was the Knight Order.
"WHAT!"
"NOOO!?"
[10th Place]
Just like that, they finished in last place.
— LOL
— This guy is either last or first lmaooo
— A team with two Challengers finished last lmaooo
— Whoa
— Unbelievable
— The plan worked!
— lmaooo so funny
— Though Almond did survive significantly longer than everyone else
— Almond: Why isn't this working?
— I get the idea, but it was way too much... '''
Pfft!
" Choi Sa-Rang barely held back a laugh because the result had come out exactly as she'd anticipated.
‘Without someone to check your ideas from the side, this is what you become.’
Every single one of Almond's plans was built around his own level of execution, which was comparable to hers at her prime. His ability with the bow was something close to bliss for anyone watching, but who could possibly replicate that?
‘He must have been frustrated.’
Almond had probably been frustrated every time his plan landed perfectly, wondering why the whole team couldn't move like him. At the world championship too, Almond had moved as a perfect chess piece. Naturally, small amounts of frustration would accumulate inside him.
‘Now, he'll understand.’
He would come to realize it. Forming a team was precisely because not everyone could move that way. Compensating for that was what teamwork meant.
A little while later, the results from three games came in. The record was extremely polarized. They finished 10th, 1st, and 10th.
— lmaooooooooo
— Another 10th lmaooo
— Ah...
— At least the one first place saved his dignity LOL
— That 1st was achieved through sheer stubbornness lmaooooo
— lmao
— Wow... awful
Whoosh!
After all three games, the Knight Order returned to
This World .
"There's not much to give feedback on."
"Pardon?"
Two out of three games were 10th place, yet there was no feedback?
"However, Almond, please come with me to a private one-on-one room." "!?"
— LOL
— The rest of you, out
— Wow
— Extra tutoring
— lmaooo
— What
"And please turn off the stream for a moment."
Almond felt startled by this, but the other streamers were even more confused.
'Hm?'
'What? Are they dating?'
'What? Are they fighting?'
'What? Is he about to get hit?'
Each had their own private theory, but just quietly waited for the two of them to come back.

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