Chapter 9: Who is Acorn Jelly? (1)

[HORSE-RIDING BANDIT CONQUEST COMPLETE.]

A cutscene appeared as the remaining bandits died. The royals who hired the mercenaries as escorts praised Almond and promised to remember his name.

A young blonde lady stared at Almond from one of the royal carriages. She must’ve been the game's heroine, but something else caught Sang-Hyeon’s attention.

[Acorn Jelly has donated 100,000 won.]

[All perfect shots… is this for real?]

The chat reacted strangely to the donation from earlier as if someone famous had appeared.

‘Acorn Jelly? Is that someone famous?’

Sang-Hyeon stared at the chat window after his last shot.

His stream did well for a beginner, but a famous person coming to watch a stream with 200 viewers seemed unusual. The donation hadn’t been small either.

‘100,000 won…’

Donations began at 1000 won, so that was quite the amount. No ordinary viewer would donate so much.

— Hey, no reaction?

— Haha 100,000 won is a bit much. I’d be shocked too.

— What reaction? He’s not even a girl streamer. Just shoot some arrows for us.

— Shooting arrows for a reaction LOL

The viewers made fun of Sang-Hyeon, who froze from shock.

‘Ah… right, a reaction.’

Sang-Hyeon finally realized that he had to show some kind of reaction.

‘I haven’t thought about it yet.’

He never imagined he’d get a donation so soon, so he hadn’t planned any reactions.

“Hmm… reaction…”

He thought of something he used to do as a pro.

‘Yeah, that’s kind of funny.’’

This entertaining gimmick also showcased his skills.

“I’ll start my reaction. Here, I’ll do something cool.”

Sang-Hyeon nocked an arrow and aimed at the sky. Then he slightly adjusted the angle and fired.

Swoosh!

The arrow disappeared into the sky.

— ??? Is he actually shooting to thank the donation?

— Lmao this guy

— What is this? At least explain what it is before shooting loool

— Is this really a reaction to the donation?

Sang-Hyeon spread his arms out and shouted.

“Ta-da! Arrow disappearing magi…”

Thud!

The arrow pierced Sang-Hyeon’s forehead in the middle of his sentence.

[DEAD]

Almond died and the screen turned black. The chat erupted in laughter.

— What LOL

— Suicide show?

— Holy shit xD

— A man who dies for 100,000 won…

— 100,000 won for a shot in the forehead LOL

— The fuck just happened

— LOOOOOOOL

‘They seem to like it.’

Sang-Hyeon intended everything up until then.

Beep—?

Something went wrong with the capsule. The game and the stream suddenly shut off. A problem must’ve occurred because of the capsule’s old age.

“Oh?! Did I get disconnected?”

Sang-Hyeon panicked after disconnecting because of the 100,000 won reaction.

“What’s going on?”

He got out of the capsule with a red face and hair full of sweat. The temperature inside reached 33.2 degrees Celsius and felt like a sauna because of the older model’s poor cooling system.

“

Sigh

, I guess there’s nothing much to do for now.”

Still, he bought the capsule for a great price and couldn’t complain.

‘But what about the stream?’

Sang-Hyeon only worried about that. He quickly turned on his computer and checked it. Thankfully, the chat remained active.

— ??? He actually left LMAO

— Damn, his reactions are on another level.

— This is what you call modern art!

— ???

— What the?

To sum it up, a lot of

‘LOLs’

and

?‘???’

filled the chat. It became quite chaotic.

Sang-Hyeon began typing in the chat.

[I disconnected from the game.]

First, he explained why he disconnected.

— HAHA he actually disconnected?

— That’s freaking hilarious.

— You’re born to stream…

— Why’d you disconnect LOL

He didn’t know for sure why he disconnected either, but he made a guess.

[Ah, well, I think it’s because my capsule is an older model…]

The viewers laughed even harder after hearing that. They realized Sang-Hyeon hadn’t faked it for content, but that a real situation had occurred.

— Wait, I think he really didn’t mean to disconnect.

— A moment to remember.

— For real.

Sang-Hyeon lightly smiled despite the unexpected incident.

‘Maybe it’s a good thing.’

He felt a bit better after thinking about it. These types of accidents could be good for a content creator. Streamers and content creators thrived for these moments, so they could use them as more material for the day. Sang-Hyeon basically made free content out of himself.

— No way lol.

— Is Almond a content god?

— Is Almond just a dumbass?

— Out! After striking his own head!

— Can’t believe he shot his own head LOL

The chat reacted well to his stunt.

‘If it’s like this… Then I don’t need to explain myself.’

Sang-Hyeon quickly erased his explanation.

[No, you see what I did was, this was something I used to do back in the day. You have to measure the arch to the dot to hit your forehead. Normally, you’d take the arrow tip out, but since this is a game…]

Tap tap tap…?

He tapped away at the delete key.

[I’ll end my stream here for today.]

He left the stream after bidding them farewell.

[Stream ended.]

***

The viewers became lost in shambles after Almond suddenly ended his stream.

— What the… this guy actually left?!

— ROFL

— Wait, is that really it???

— What he targeted with his bow was actually his stream…

— LMAO

— He aimed for his stream with his bow hahahaha

— 100,000 won reaction: end stream.

— Hitting his forehead was the highlight.

— Even then, he was accurate LOL

Ending on a high note left the viewers hanging. Sang-Hyeon didn’t intend for that, but that’s what the situation resulted in. They wanted to keep watching Almond’s performance and felt disappointed when the stream suddenly ended.

— When does he stream again?

— I didn’t even get to watch him shoot.?

— I came late because I found the link after seeing Burka get killed :(

— As soon as I came, he killed himself and the stream ended lmao

— LOL that’s hilarious

— When’s his next stream? Does this guy have a schedule?

Their disappointment at not being able to watch Sang-Hyeon turned into anticipation for the next time.

— I don’t think so. He streamed in the evening yesterday, but lunch today. He does whatever he wants.

— It’s all up to him.

— Almond… what a guy…

— I’m turning alerts on and waiting for you, Almond!

The viewers left one by one after cooling themselves off in the chat from Almond’s exciting stream. Some of them rushed to the forums to spread what happened today. They even posted clips of his reaction.

People rarely clipped streams with only 200 viewers, but that just proved Almond’s performance today. The clips showed him shooting Burka, skewering bandits while riding his horse, and his reaction at the end that ended the stream. These three events made up the main clips.

The last clip became the hottest.

[You could say his aim was out of this world.]

The title above went along with Sang-Hyeon’s act of disconnecting from the game.

— Damn, his aim really sent him out of this world.

— This guy is driving me crazy.

— The title LMAO

— He’s skilled AND he’s acting like a clown. Almond, perhaps he’s a genius? (or an idiot)

— Insane aim skills and insanity itself… how rare.

Comments in the forum had great reactions as well. It seemed his act paid off.

Of course, the comments also had haters. They said the same thing under every post about him.

— Why does this small guy keep getting mentioned?

— I thought no promotions were allowed.

— Is there a cult for him or something?

— Seems like they have a fucking fan group for him already.

└ No, but this guy is actually pretty good.

└ Stfu, it’s the early stages of the game.

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

— Why are they so hard for a stream with only 200 viewers?

└ For real LOL

‘Only 200.’

“

Ahem.

”

Sang-Hyeon browsed the forums with a faint smile and got himself together after reading that. Such remarks didn’t faze him. He expected jealousy and spite as an up-and-coming streamer. He had already grown used to such things having lived as a genius.

“Let them fuck around.”

Those small comments didn’t sway him. He scrolled through all the negative comments unbothered.

— It’s like the return of the Acorn squad the way people are obsessing over him.

— Ugh, disgusting.

— Acorn squad LOL little squirrels.

— Acorn Jelly is actually good though.

— Comparing this small-timer with Acorn Jelly? They really are obsessed with him.

A familiar name kept popping up.

“Acorn Jelly…”

That guy donated 100,000 won to him today. No wonder he seemed famous. Acorn Jelly turned out to be the number one streamer for this game.

“I wonder if he’s any good?”

Sang-Hyeon grew curious about this Acorn Jelly and clicked play on one of his videos.

“Wow…”

Acorn Jelly mainly used a sword unlike Sang-Hyeon, but his skills were no joke. Even Sang-Hyeon, who never used a sword in his life, could tell Acorn Jelly possessed tremendous talent. It seemed like he already did multiple playthroughs and only played here and there.

One of the videos featured the bow challenge.

“

Ah

, I don’t know about this one.”

He didn’t do as well in the bow challenge from Sang-Hyeon’s perspective. Acorn Jelly must’ve thought the same because he gave up after only three attempts.

“But he’s good at everything else.”

Sang-Hyeon watched his other videos after the bow challenge when…

Beep—?

He suddenly received a long message in his Treevy inbox.

The title read:

[Hello Almond, I’m a streamer that goes by the name Acorn Jelly.]