Chapter 204. The Calm Before The Storm (2)

It was a bright morning the day before the tournament. As soon as Sang-Hyeon woke up, he reviewed his practice schedule out of habit.

'We don't have any.'

Today, there was no practice. They were finally over. The more difficult league was waiting for him, but Sang-Hyeon preferred the official matches over practice. He felt good.

'It's finally over.'

The two weeks of practice were finally over. It was also almost two months since he started streaming.

'I earned a lot of money shooting arrows... and Ju-Hyeok moved out too...'

Sang-Hyeon looked back at all that had happened so far. A lot happened in a short time.

'Streaming isn't so bad.'

Streaming had given him a lot of rewards. He could earn much more than he would as a salaryman, and he now had a fanbase as well. Thanks to the in-house tournament, he now consistently had 18,000 viewers. Sometimes, he would go past 20,000 as well. It was an unfathomable number compared to when he started.

[Subscribers 230k]

His YouTube channel was growing as well. Ji-Ah told them the subscribers were low compared to the views, so there was plenty of room for growth. She told them they could aim for a million subscribers.

[Almond's damage spree using frames #Shorts]

[Dodging endlessly #Shorts]

[A deadly smile (For real) #Shorts]

[Almond eating his own kind #Shorts]

They started to change up his YouTube as well. They used to only upload 10-15 minute videos, but now they were also uploading short videos too. They edited the highlights of the video or anything interesting in short bits.

Ha Yeon-Joo, the new editor hired by Ji-Ah, was responsible for this. Since she had a good knowledge of how LIL worked, she was able to offer a helping hand to Ji-Ah. Ji-Ah handled the pay and profits for her end, which was good for Sang-Hyeon.

However, it was tiring when she requested for him to wear a special rabbit cosplay for their 100k and 200k subscriber special. Sang-Hyeon declined, telling her he needed to focus on the tournament, but she reached out again when they hit 300k subscribers. Sang-Hyeon thought she was making these requests for herself, not for the subscribers.

'Oh... it's gone.'

Clank. Clank.

Sang-Hyeon's spoon, with all the milk gone, scraped the empty bowl. He finished his cereal while deep in his thoughts and unconsciously grabbed the corn cereal sitting on top of the table.

Wooosh.

The sugar-coated almond and cereal fell into the bowl. He poured in the milk and started his second round.

"Hey... are you really going to finish that all by yourself?" Ju-Hyeok asked him dumbfoundedly.

"This? Of course."

"No. That."

Ju-Hyeok pointed at the mountain of cereal boxes Green Diamond had sent them.

"Ah..."

Ju-Hyeok suggested that they should give them out to those around them because there were so many. It would also help promote the cereal as well, or give them out to viewers. He thought there were too many to keep around.

"Hm. Let's try eating it first and decide."

This was how Sang-Hyeon responded every time. They should only give it out if they couldn't finish it all. Why would they give out almond cereal to others? Sang-Hyeon couldn't understand.

"This has a long expiration date too. There's no need to be so rash."

"What's the point of trying to eat all of this?"

"I'm not forcing myself to eat it."

"..."

Ju-Hyeok nodded and shoved the cereal into his mouth.

That was right. Even Ju-Hyeok was eating cereal for breakfast. He determined that they would never finish the cereal if he didn't.

'Anyway, I wonder what's going on with Ju-Hyeok and Ji-Ah.'

Sang-Hyeon felt that they had a certain connection a while back, but he wasn't sure now because he was so busy with practices.

'Whatever happens, I just hope they stay on good terms.'

Whether they dated or even got married didn't matter. If anything, Sang-Hyeon would congratulate them. His only worry was if the two grew apart.

Sang-Hyeon liked the current situation. He thought they had great teamwork.

"Anyway, are you really going to say everything during the interview?" Ju-Hyeok asked as he was scrolling through his phone.

"The interview?"

"The one you said you're going to talk about personal reasons."

"Ah..."

Sang-Hyeon remembered then. The post Ju-Hyeok discovered and showed him. There was a post about him on KAF, a community he rarely visited now.

[Evidence that Almond learned archery professionally]

This post analyzed and directly compared Almond to a professional archery player's form, release, and how they held the bow. It was similar to what Cha Hyeon-Ju posted a while back. The only difference was that it seemed like it was written by an amateur and not a professional archer. Kingdom Age players liked to dive in and analyze. This post was just another result, but that post was gaining attraction in KAF.

— Suddenly talking about Almond?

— Out of nowhere? But the analysis seems pretty legit.

— These days they don't shoot like that.

— I saw this post a while back. When he played Kingdom Age or Battle Large, he shot like that.

— Another analysis?

Thankfully, not a lot of people took the post seriously. The post only gained attention because of how much effort the user put into the analysis. The problem was that 1000 KAF users already saw the post after it gained popularity. KAF users were twenty times more involved in the internet community.

"I think... it might spread a little more."

Ju-Hyeok took that into account as he mentioned it to Sang-Hyeon.

"If you're going to tell them everything, I'll sit back without doing anything."

Sang-Hyeon nodded.

"Yeah, just leave it."

Sang-Hyeon had an interview with the developers and decided to use that as an opportunity to talk about this issue. He decided to leave rumors about him alone unless they were farfetched. After all, he was just getting started.

'Of course... they're going to find out right away.'

Sang-Hyeon smirked and browsed his RuneSta page. The follower list included Hyeon-Ju, Dong-Su, and other juniors from his archery days. They were Sang-Hyeon's past. Sang-Hyeon had followed them as well. They were following each other on social media. It meant he was slowly escaping from the shadow of the past.

“It's okay.”

He remembered what Hyeon-Ju said as she held his hand. He didn't get to see her after because he was busy, but he made a note to thank her the next time they saw each other. Those simple words were a big help to Sang-Hyeon. He learned that his past was nothing to be ashamed of. As a result, posts like this didn’t affect him.

[Apparently, Almond's following some professional archers!]

[Even Cha Hyeon-Ju, the gold medalist, follows him]

[Is that analysis post real?]

[Wow, followed by Cha Hyeon-Ju... She's so my type...]

Anyone could see the RuneSta followers list. Since Hyeon-Ju had a lot of followers for an archer, it gained some attention. Sang-Hyeon would've felt uncomfortable a while ago, but now he was unfazed.

'They might ask about it on today's stream.'

He could at least plan a little ahead.

***

Around 3 P.M., Almond's stream came on earlier than usual. But... before the tournament, Almond turned his stream on whenever he wanted to, so it wasn't odd. It was just him turning on the stream early.

— AlHa!

— Wow! It's been a while this time!

— Lunch time Almond?

— Hello~

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Thankfully, the viewers gathered despite the odd time.

[Current Viewers: 9k]

Even though it was during the day, close to 10,000 viewers were watching him. The count was rising, and it looked like it was also about to reach 13,000 soon enough.

Pat.

After the intro music was over, Almond's camera came on.

— ???

— Huh?

— What the?

The viewers were surprised to see the camera screen. Today, instead of a capsule, Almond sat at a table.

"Hi, Treevy~."

Almond waved and greeted them.

— AlHa!

— Hey! Why aren't you in the capsule today?!

— Aren't you going to play any games?

— Just chatting today?!

— Yay!

— No games today?

"Ah, I'm not going to play games today, since tomorrow is the tournament. I just turned on the stream because I felt like I should."

— LOL

— Because you felt like you should? You're a streamer!!

— For real, haha.

— Chef: I'm cooking because I feel like I have to.

— I came to work because I felt like I had to.

The viewers reacted to Almond's response. He just watched it unfold with a smile. No matter how skilled he was in games, he couldn't focus on the chat. However, he could give them his undivided attention right now.

'I feel good.'

Seeing the live chat come up made his heart pound. Was there a better system for someone to experience their popularity first-hand like this? He could understand why people got into streaming.

"Anyway, I turned on the stream to chat, so if you have any questions about the tournament or whatnot, feel free to ask me."

As soon as he finished talking, a donation popped up.

Bling!

[RubySword has donated 10,000 won!]

[How do you feel before the tournament?]

"I don't really feel anything. Other than the final, everything else is done online, so I'm not really nervous about it either."

— Damn.

— So bold!

— Kya~

— You're thinking about the finals already?!

— Hey! Who do you think is going to win!?

The chat had several questions, but he couldn't answer them all.

Bling!

[EggPlant has donated 5000 won.]

[Is there a team you're looking out for?]

Bling!

[KaMinSung has donated 1000 won.]

[Boss, I hope you don't forget and pick our girl Raina!]

Bling!

[Dodorico has donated 2000 won.]

[Who do you think is going to win?]

Etc.

Because there were so many donations, he was busy answering all of them.

"Thank you, EggPlant. I'm looking out for High Protein. We played two scrims against them and lost both... KaMinSung, thank you. If I pick whatever I want, I'll get in trouble with Tako. Dodorico, thank you. Who's going to win..."

— He's answering all of them!

— He's ignoring us unless they're donations!

— ??? I never said the questions would be free!

As the donations poured in, Almond skillfully answered those who gave donations. He was now a well-established pro streamer.

"I'll probably win, no?"

Even saying things like that was natural.

— LOL

— Kyaaa!

— Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond

— So confident!

"Alright, if you don't have any more questions..."

Almond was slowly trying to change topics from why he turned on the stream.

'I turned on the stream because the Almond and Lazy Soldier promotion got pushed back.'

He planned to do all the commercials on his stream before the tournament, but just then…

Bling.

[LoudScream has donated a whopping 100,000 won!]

[Almond! There are rumors of you doing archery a while back. Is that true?]

The anticipated question finally came.