Chapter 85: Power Suit Play (2)

The plaza had one of the simplest designs in

Battle Large

. It was an open field as its name suggested. The only obstacle in the area was a large fountain in the center.

As a result, chaotic battles constantly took place in this controversial zone. Some players criticized that it took away the slow-paced survival factor of the game and dumbed it down too much.

However, it worked well for Almond’s strategy of crushing everything in his path.

'It's over.'

Almond became certain of victory after seeing the blue zone shrink towards the plaza. The final battle would take place there. The game was heading in that direction.

— Time for a plaza battle?

— Damn, isn't this Almond's first time in the plaza?

— A plaza battle is no fun.

— I like it because it's so chaotic.?

— It's too chaotic. Everyone dies right away.?

The location was controversial, but most of Almond's fans felt excited because he preferred fighting head-on. Besides, he had nothing to fear with the power suit.

— A plaza battle is in Almond’s favor with the power suit.?

— For real.?

— For real for real.

— And he has a lot of arrows too.

— He has a lot of medkits too.

— But a gun would be more useful.

— I want to see what happens whether he wins or loses.

Almond headed to the plaza and his viewers looked forward to what would happen.

Tang—?

He quickly moved with the power suit.

***

Tak.

Almond arrived at the plaza first.

"I guess I’m the first one here."

He finally reached the plaza after killing seven more players on the way.

— That's because you killed everyone on the way.

— LOL Of course, you're the first one to get there after killing everyone.

— Hahahaha

Almond didn’t arrive first because of his speed. He simply killed everyone ahead of him.

"Let's get ready…"

The first one to arrive had the best opportunity to settle into a good spot that would increase their chances of victory.

[FakeSpecialist has donated 1000 won.]

[There are no good spots in the plaza...]

[GhandiMeta has donated 5000 won.]

[Maybe the 2nd floor right outside the plaza?]

Almond prepared to head towards the 2nd floor according to the chat.

"The building at the end..."

It didn’t look too good. The building was too close to the blue zone and had a good chance of being excluded once the blue zone shrunk again. That would put him in a bad spot later in the game.

[PaPaPa has donated 50,000 won!]

[Why don't you just circle the fountain and shoot everyone? It’s not a bad option with your skills.]

"Oh, PaPaPa. Thank you for the 50,000 won. I’ll take your advice. Alright."

— This freaking sellout!?

— Hey, hey you!

— Can't ignore his true feelings.

— But the fountain? Are you sure?

— The fountain's in the center, so I don't think it'll be affected by the blue zone. Isn't it too exposed though?

Several viewers expressed their opinions, but Almond still chose the fountain. His instincts told him that the fountain would be the best spot.

He could run around the big fountain and eliminate targets on sight. Best of all, it would remain in the center of the blue zone. The fountain would be safe even if the blue zone shrunk further.

"There are lots of suggestions, but I'll give it a try."

Almond walked to the plaza's fountain comprised of nine giant statues divided to form a large square. He had plenty of room to hide thanks to its size. However, he did get wet.

— Huh?

— In the water?

— Wet Almond...

— Wet Almond is so sexy...

— Isn't there a debuff if you get wet?

— Oh, he's not using a gun, so he should be good!

Splash!

Water splashed everywhere as he went into the fountain. It wouldn’t affect anything since he used a bow. Any weapon that didn’t use gunpowder would remain unaffected.

'They're coming.'

He could see an enemy coming through the blue zone in the distance. The first customer to enter the plaza.

Creak…?

Almond quietly pulled his bowstring.

Trickle.

The trickling water masked his presence.

Shiik.

He aimed up.

***

The camera angle switched to a bird's eye view to look down at Almond.

"Oh," Ju-Hyeok had forgotten he was watching a video. He became so immersed that he thought he was Almond. "Why's the camera angle changing now?"

The video had been in the first person point of view until this point. Ju-Hyeok felt disappointed that the camera angle changed, but he found out right away why it did.

Paang!!!

The arrow flew straight and cut through the water.

Shaaaa…

The scene came straight out of a Hong Kong action movie.

"Oh!"

It didn't just look cool. This camera angle perfectly captured the arrow's trajectory. The moment only grew more tense as the perspectives switched back and forth.

Shaaaaaaa!

The water split and splashed around as the arrow raced closer to the opponent's panicked eyes.

Thwack!

The arrow finished its journey.

[Almond → Johntelia]

[Eliminated!]

[16/100]

The perspective changed back to the bird's eye view. Almond killed one player, but more were coming. Countless players entered the plaza from various directions.

"Huh?"

Ju-Hyeok felt surprised. He hadn’t known so many players were after Almond when he watched the stream live. This situation could only be seen thanks to the bird's eye view. He started counting the number of players, "

Woah...

It was 1v12?!"

He couldn't tell it was a 1v12 back then because Almond only fought one or two enemies at a time during the live stream.

— Kya, what a clean shot

— Boss! Another one on the left!

— This one doesn't have a helmet either. Find a helmet if you see Almond's name!

Ju-Hyeok could tell the viewers also didn’t know at the time when he saw the chat from the stream.

Of course, the twelve players approaching Almond didn’t know they would be facing only one opponent.

Pang!

Just then, another arrow ripped through the water and headed toward a player.

Thud!

The arrow struck his head, but he survived thanks to his helmet. Then he quickly dodged to the side.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

However, two more arrows immediately followed as if they predicted his movements.

Shaa!

The water split twice.

Bangbangbang!

The player died while spraying his gun.

Almond felt glad to get another kill, but that kill had been too noisy. The remaining eleven players became aware of Almond's presence.

“The fountain?”

“Someone's at the fountain.”

“Damn, the center is already taken.”

The plaza had no other hiding place other than the fountain, so Almond’s location became obvious.

“They found out.”

Whip. Whip. Whip.

All eleven players turned towards the fountain and slowly closed in on him like a scene from a horror movie.

Chuck.

They aimed their guns at the fountain and slowly headed there. Every second they closed in felt nerve-wracking.

"I-Is this really going to work out?" Ju-Hyeok already knew the result, but still felt nervous.

The Almond on the screen calmly prepared to fire back.

Creak…?

The two arrows between his fingers disappeared as he drew his bowstring. It happened in a split second and looked like the arrows simultaneously flew off.

Shaaaa!

The two arrows flew, split the fountain, and perfectly struck the foreheads of the enemies heading toward him.

Thwack! Thwack!

Two players instantly died. The other players fired back in response.

Tududududu!

They started firing together and water splashed all over Almond.

Crack!

The statue spewing water shook.

Boom!

The marble exploded and dust scattered everywhere.

Meanwhile, Almond remained perfectly fine and readied his bow behind another statue.

Pang!

The water split again.

Shaaaa!

The opponent saw the arrow coming at him, “Oh…”

"Oh no," Ju-Hyeok finished his final sentence for him.

Thwack!

The arrow perfectly pierced the opponent’s head and bent his neck back. The immense power of the arrow due to the power suit blew the corpse away.

The enemies started firing at Almond again.

Tudududu!!!

Tadadang!

Almond spun around the giant statue and hid from their view. The statue blocked the gunshots before collapsing.

Crash!

The giant splash caused a wave as big as the statue.

Shiik!

Three holes formed in the wave as Almond shot his arrows.

Shaaaa...!

The three arrows cut through the water and the video suddenly slowed.

"!?" Ju-Hyeok's eyes widened. He could see the shape of the water around the arrows.

'It's... curved!?'

All three arrows curved. He wouldn't have been able to tell if he hadn’t seen the water trails. Almond had shot them too fast.

Ju-Hyeok thought it would be impossible for Almond to shoot from that position.

Almond hid behind statues, so an obstacle always stood in the way between him and his targets. The statues blocked the bullets and fell apart instead of him.

However, such obstacles didn’t hinder Almond’s arrows.

Shiiik!

The video sped up again. The water instantly split and revealed three arrowheads.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

One player survived thanks to his helmet, but the other two died.

"Woah..."

Ju-Hyeok's jaws dropped. He already watched it live once, but everything looked so different at different speeds.

Tudududu!

The one who survived began shooting and rolled to the side. He couldn't see Almond and his gunshots revealed his own location instead.

Pang!

Unsurprisingly, a curved arrow came flying and pierced his head.

Thwack!

He fell as well.

'The head... using a curve shot... repeatedly...'

The curved shot technique seemed unstable when Almond first used it, but he already perfected it in this one round.

He struck targets even farther away using curved shots.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Was this what it meant to be gifted? Ju-Hyeok felt like he was staring at a wall.

'How do you even beat someone like that?'

He foolishly questioned if the bow was overpowered. It felt like cheating to land shots by curving around obstacles in a survival game. That sounded ban-worthy.

Almond stuck to a simple strategy with his new technique. He continuously ran around statues and shot from angles that only he could hit.

Shaaaaa!

Shaaa!

It looked like an eagle was spreading its wings every time the water split and holes formed. As soon as the wings spread—

Thwack!

The last enemy in the plaza collapsed.

[Almond → DemiGrass]

[Eliminated!]

[1/100]

Almond's power suit video ended there.

***

Ju-Hyeok finally came back to reality after the video ended. He quickly checked the comments only to be welcomed by chaos.

— Boss, I'm plat 1. I'm confident I can't win. Please go to diamond.

— Robin Hood: I confess that I learned from this guy.

└ LOL

└ Teacher Almond?

— Woah, I watched this live, but couldn't tell what was going on since it was in first person. Water was splashing everywhere, the fountain was flowing, the statues kept breaking, and the power suit made me dizzy...

└ Your comment itself is dizzying LOL

└ Damn, I gotta rewatch it!?

— Stream was fun. YouTube was even better. Almond, the man who can do everything!

One of the top comments caught Ju-Hyeok's attention.

— Woah, it's already top 41 on trending!

He read that they were trending in the top 41 most popular videos.

'Really?'

That would be the most impressive achievement out of all the videos they ever uploaded. He quickly checked the rankings in the trending section.

[41. Miho's Ringfit Challenge!]

"Huh?"

Almond wasn’t at number 41. A completely different video appeared there. Ju-Hyeok couldn't find Almond's video anywhere near it.

"Ah...!"

Tak!

Ju-Hyeok facepalmed himself. He checked and saw that the comment had been made thirty minutes ago.

'That means...'

He scrolled to the top 40, but it wasn't there. What about the top 30? As expected, it wasn't there either.

Ju-Hyeok began to worry that the video wasn't trending anymore. Or...

"!"

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

[21. Battle Large EP.6 - Yes, Almond Is Using A Power Suit.]