Chapter 264. New Leap (3)
Almond made a slightly awkward expression when he received the question about how to get a girlfriend from ForeverAlone.
"Ah... ForeverAlone, is it really you?"
— Pointless question, haha.
— Are you asking if he's truly single or just metaphorically alone like his username? Lol.
— Some nicknames can blow up even with casual questions!?
— It's really him haha
— Real single, in every sense.
Almond confirmed it was really ForeverAlone and stroked his chin in thought.
"Girlfriend, well... First of all, thank you for the 100,000 won."
— Just thanks for the donation, lol.
— I don't know about your love life, but thanks for the 100,000 won~
— ForeverAlone… so pitiful, lol
Almond tried to answer the question, but the next question already came in.
Ding.
[Qurious! has donated 10,0000 won!]
[Do you still keep in touch with your archery friends?]
'Ah, it's the same person from earlier.'
Qurious! was the person who initially asked for the Q&A session. Apparently, he requested the Q&A to ask this question.
"Another 100,000 won, thank you."
The viewer already spent 200,000 won just to ask this question.
Almond decided to carefully answer this one, "I lost contact with them, but we recently reconnected."
— They contacted you after you became successful?
— Was it because of you streaming?
— Freeloaders~?
— Sneaky~!
Almond's answer created many misunderstandings among the viewers.
"It's not that they contacted me because of my success or anything. I actually blocked them all."
— Oh, I see.
— Why?
— People, please. You can't just say whatever you wanna say.
— Mr. Nuts! Report all these people!
The mood in the chat quickly changed.
Almond was used to this.
"I blocked out everything related to archery. I didn't watch the Olympics and never read the news. I didn't even know Hyeon-Ju won a gold medal."
— He suffered a lot...
— Aww :( He purposely blocked everyone...
[TheBusinessMan has donated 1000 won!]
[Why didn't you become a coach?]
— Uh... the question lacks soul.
— Why didn't you donate 10,000 won?
— You get what you pay for with that donation ^^
— Put some effort into it!
Although a few comments criticized the small donation, everyone knew they were joking.
Almond didn't pay much attention to those comments and answered the question.
"As I mentioned earlier, I didn't want to do anything related to that field. I'm not really coaching material anyway."
— Wow, you answered that?"
— Almond spoke a few words for just a thousand won?
— ShyNapoleon got a full-on headshot with a 1 million won donation.
—Wow, is this how you do business?"
[TheBusinessMan has donated 5,000 won]
[Thank you for the answer…!! I'm a college student and don't have much money... I thought you could have made a lot if you coached, so I was curious.]
"I did struggle financially at times... but I just couldn't get myself to find a job related to that field. I wanted to keep my distance from it."
It seemed irresponsible in some ways, but it was a difficult thing for Almond to overcome back then.
'I'm thinking a lot about those times these days.'
As they continued to exchange questions and answers, Almond recalled more about those days.
Viewers continuously asked about Almond's past, often accompanied by large donations. It was nice to receive so many donations.
'I can't just keep talking about this.'
Almond decided to wrap things up.
"Most of my past is already laid out on YouTube, so I don't have much more to say. Aren't you curious about anything recent about the tournament?"
At that moment, a familiar donation came in again.
[ForeverAlone has donated 200,000 won!]
[Hey, bro. How do you get a girlfriend? Please teach me.]
— Lolololololol.
— Ask questions about the tournament!!!!
— This motherfucker, hahaha.
— What is this? Dormammu from Dr. Strange?
The chat room, which had turned into a sea of tears, was suddenly filled with laughter.
"Ah... I forgot. My apologies."
Almond scratched his head and smiled apologetically. He completely forgot about ForeverAlone's question.
"First, thank you for the 200,000 won, ForeverAlone. Honestly, it varies from person to person... but you'll naturally meet someone... someday."
However, Almond provided an unsatisfactory answer. Honestly, it wasn't a question that had an answer.
— ??? But my girlfriend just happened to be there naturally.
— Breaking news: Almond says girlfriends naturally appear.
— Instead of spending money here, add it to your dating budget!
However, ForeverAlone didn't give up.
[ForeverAlone has donated 50,000 won.]
[Do women dislike men who game? What kind of men do girls like?]
It was a question that sounded very immature.
— Lolololololol! Is that guy horny?
— He's in his 20s. I understand, lol.
— Girls dislike men who ask such questions here, you dummy...
— How would that nut (Almond) know? Every woman has liked that guy since birth.
"... I don't think it has anything to do with gaming. It's different from person to person. Thank you for your donation again."
— Breaking news: Almond doesn’t care.
— Why does every word feel like the cold, hard truth? Lol!
Many teased ForeverAlone.
Almond, unaccustomed to such a topic, wondered if he should say more.
'I feel like I need to say something.'
Almond already received 150,000 won and wanted to offer at least a semi-satisfactory answer.
"People who are reliable and responsible are usually popular, right? As for looks, that's a personal preference... so you don't need to think much about that."
— Preference? Lol
— You sneakily omitted the most important part, lol.
— Name? Almond. Hobby? Face.
— Breaking news: Almond: "My hobby is my face."
— Call Walnut right now! Almond is glitching!
— Cool hockey kids. Their hobby is their face... I should make a note of that...
The chat couldn’t get over the face as a hobby comment.
"Ah, I meant preference, not hobby. Looks really aren't that important. You can see that when you look around."
Almond scratched his head and smiled awkwardly.
— That's true.
— Honestly, girls really don't care much about looks.
— This is the cliche of Beauty and the Beast, lol.
When the chat began to calm down with Almond's efforts, another donation returned everything to where it started.
[Kawaiii has donated a whopping 500,000 won!]
[Awkward Almond is so kawaii!]
"Holy, 500,000 won... Thank you."
— Crazy lol
— ForeverAlone... Do you see this? Don't ever ask Almond for relationship advice again.
— Ah, that's what he meant by hobby. Noted!
ForeverAlone made an additional donation.
[ForeverAlone has donated 1,000 won.]
[You deceived me.]
— What did he expect? Lol
— Dropping his donation to 1,000 won is hilarious lol
— ForeverAlone has good broadcasting sense, lol
"ForeverAlone, thank you. I didn't deceive you... looks really aren't that important..."
Boom!
[Enterance has donated a whopping 1,000,000 won!]
[I'm a newbie who came in after seeing the story! You look hotter live! Wow!]
A moment of silence followed.
— Hahaha!
— Immediate counter-evidence!
— Counter-attack!
— Run away, ForeverAlone! This isn't the place for you!
Despite the awkward situation, Almond said thank you first.
"… 1 million won… Thank you. I should do something… um…"
Almond couldn't just say thank you after receiving as much as 1 million won. After pondering, he stretched out his hand, made a heart, and shouted, "Chikicha!"
— Crazy, hahaha!
— What's suddenly happening? Hahaha!
— So, does this mean you beat ForeverAlone?
— Extreme damage to ForeverAlone, hahaha!
— That's too much!
— LOOOL!
After that, ForeverAlone didn't donate anymore and left the room.
Later, other members of the tournament joined.
[BlackTea has donated 300,000 won!]
[Among the tournament ADCs, who was the hardest to deal with?]
— LOL, Almond only has one answer, haha.
— Is this for real?
— Wow, BlackTea is here too, hahaha.
"Ah… Of course, it's BlackTea. Thank you for your donation!"
— Info: Only the latter part is the truth.
— BlackTea is, after all, a Challenger. Ofc she was the hardest ADC.
Ding.
[GreenTea has donated 350,000 won!]
[Among the tournament ADCs, who's the best? Excluding Almond]
"It's GreenTea!"
— Nuts are going crazy, hahaha!
— The phrase 'Dog in nuts' is true!
— His reaction speed is insane!
Ding.
[BlackTea has donated 600,000 won!]
[Did I… did I hear that right?]
"I believe that skills go according to ranks."
— Info: BlackTea is Challenger, but GreenTea is Master.
— Almond's mind changed in almost one frame!
— This is how you learned to cover your mistakes at Ahsung?
— Dang, he has good logic.
— Did they fight again? What's going on, lol.
— GreenTea, are you behaving like this after losing your rank match? Haha.
[SeriousEVER has donated 10,000 won!]
[Everyone... ForeverAlone just vented his frustration about not having a girlfriend. Do we really have to witness this love fight here? Have we ever thought about ForeverAlone's pain? That poor child is scarred. If love flows into his heart 10 years later...]
Pop.
The donation stopped abruptly. Even the viewers fell into a thirty second silence.
"Long messages are not allowed."
— Nice! Cut it off!
— Wow, this is real power, isn't it? Haha!
— Isn't this more like Walnut brain power?
— Long messages are not allowed here. You can't do that for just 10,000 won.
***
'It seems good so far.'
Ju-Hyeok smiled while watching Almond's stream.
Almond did well even with the awkward talk-show format that he had only tried a few times. The overwhelming attention could’ve been a burden, but he handled it okay.
Almond answered their questions and more than one hundred thousand viewers stayed on his stream.
'Thank god I sent messages to BlackTea, GreenTea, and ForeverAlone.'
Ju-Hyeok's efforts contributed to the success of Almond’s after-party stream. He discreetly entered the other players' streams and dropped hints about Almond's stream.
Since Almond's viewer count was already high, others would also want to participate. Their donations also helped Almond's stream prosper and earn more money.
Ding!
[Bubblegum has donated 200,000 won!]
[Wow! Almond! I'll teach you how to play LIL!]
— Haha, that comment!
— Gum! Gum! Gum!
— Wow, Gum bro!
— Wow, he'll teach you well!
— That's right! Almond doesn't know shit about LIL!
Bubblegum also started his own stream and dropped by Almond's stream a bit later. His comment had once been plastered all over his stream, making all the viewers laugh.
Afterward, they connected their Discord channels and exchanged various stories.
Miho and the other members also joined, contributing to a lively conversation. At one point, even SweetRadish joined.
By the time the stream ended, the viewer count had reached almost 150,000. It concluded with an astonishing number.
"Wow. Well done." Ju-Hyeok leaned back in his chair and muttered, "It was an amazing ending."
A sense of pride washed over him.
Winning the tournament and even the after-party with the Balloon Stars members concluded with so many viewers.
He couldn't have been more satisfied than now.
***
The next day, Ju-Hyeok felt refreshed in the morning.
The power of being the top trending topic on YouTube was immense.
'Subscriber count, view count... everything is rapidly increasing.'
Even if it was just a short-term spike, only the subscriber count increased, but many people also learned about Almond.
'His past story video is on top of the trending chart...'
That was encouraging. Almond topped the chart with a highly personal video revealing his past and it also explained who he was. In other words, people would remember Almond right now more than ever.
— Oh, that archery boy?
— The person who got injured and became a streamer?
— Ah, I know him. He used to be an archer and now he’s a streamer... he even won a gold medal.
Such additional narratives made it easier for people to remember him, like how mothers remembered their children's friends by what they did and where they were from.
[Ji-Ah: Ju-Hyeok! It's really amazing! All the tournament highlight videos have at least 500,000 views now!]
Views on the other videos also skyrocketed.
'It really means his fans have increased.'
The newly incoming viewers continued to watch Almond's other gaming videos. This indicated that the current buzz wasn’t just a one-off thing.
'The tournament-focused content has especially skyrocketed.'
They uploaded the tournament highlights after the embargo was lifted. Ji-Ah had prepared throughout the tournament, so they gained more views with those than other videos.
In particular, scenes featuring Flashy Blade neared one million views even though they only posted it less than twenty-four hours ago.
The good news didn't end there.
'Hmm?'
While sipping a cup of coffee, Ju-Hyeok opened his email as always.
One email caught his eye.
[Hello, I am the PD in charge of Evening Wide on Channel SCB.]
A major channel had contacted them.
Follow current novℯls on f(r)eewebnov𝒆l