Season 4: Chapter 121. The Battle for Public Opinion (1)

ForeverAlone was farming peacefully as always. The world had been in uproar the day before on the server, but none of it really mattered to him.

“

Haah.

Done. I’m pretty much ready for the Farmer’s Second Advancement now, aren’t I?”

All he did was farm. Just as he’d been the first to earn the Farmer class, he also aimed to be the first to advance it.

— ForeverAlone, the whole village is in chaos right now

— Talk to people once in a while, lol

— Forget farming, start your own server

— The true shut-in farmer life...

Viewers kept telling him to interact with others.

“

Hah.

I do talk to people, you know?”

He had his own source of village news through a very reliable informant.

Knock knock.

Right on time, that someone knocked on his door.

“Ah, you’re here.”

“

Wahaha

, still farming as usual?” Bubblegum came to visit him.

Once a farmer himself, Bubblegum had been tricked by Acorn Jelly into chasing All Black. After failing miserably, he switched paths to become an Herbalist. However, he had another side job too.

— Bubblegum Daily News lmao

— Cheese Village’s one and only journalist

— The Bard enters the chat

He was also a Bard, an in-game journalist of sorts. Roaming all over the village to gather herbs meant plenty of time to gossip, and he turned that into his secondary profession.

“So, anything exciting happened today?”

“Exciting? Are you kidding? I fell into lava and died.”

“What? Lava? That death alert I saw was you?”

“Yeah! A Lava Shaman invaded and wrecked the place!”

“Huh...?”

— LOOOOL

— How does he not know this?

— Same, I only watch ForeverAlone’s stream so I was shocked too

— Wait, really? hahahaha

The viewers who only watched ForeverAlone felt just as shocked while those who kept up with other streams were more shocked at his obliviousness.

“You seriously didn’t know?”

“No. I told you, I just farm all day. Hyung...”

“R-Right. I thought that was just... a figure of speech.” Bubblegum blinked, flustered.

“Anyway, come in. What are you selling today...?” ForeverAlone liked to stockpile herbs for emergencies.

Ding.

[Loser has donated 3,000 won.]

[So desperate to talk to someone that you’re wasting money again lol]

— HAHAHAHA true

— Why even buy herbs, dude?

— Keeps doing it anyway

— Rich man problems...

He claimed it was for emergencies, but never actually needed any. It was pointless. Still, they sat at the table sipping tea.

“

Ahh

, that’s good.”

As usual, Bubblegum paid for his tea by spinning out endless stories about village events.

“So, Black Tea went back to reclaim some stuff from the Nonghyup, but Green Tea stopped her.”

“What? Green Tea?”

“Yeah. He was like, ‘I’m... still Nonghyup.’ And Black Tea shouted, ‘Move aside!’ But Green Tea was like, ‘I can’t! I don’t want to hurt you, Black Tea! Please turn back!’ It was like a spy romance movie.”

Of course, his tales always came with a heavy dose of exaggeration.

— ?

— ?? Wasn’t it just a headlock and done? Lol

— This guy’s embellishment skills hahaha

— OMG

“

Whoa...

Insane. Black Tea betrayed us? This isn’t a spy film... What’s so special about the Knights...?”

“They say the benefits are insane. They have Fertile Soil, and now anyone who joins gets a full iron set.”

“Seriously? Then tons of people will apply.”

“The interviews haven’t started yet, but yeah, there’ll be a lot.”

“Wow... maybe I should try too?”

— Do it

— Yeah, time to meet people lol

— Exactly, go for it

Then, Bubblegum launched into the tale of how he heroically tried to stop the intruders and fell into lava. His viewers, who knew he had just tripped sneaking away, burst into laughter.

— HAHAHAHAHAHA

— Bro isn’t a bard, but a novelist

— There isn’t even a “Writer” class, but this guy is roleplaying it

— He thinks he’s Frodo omg

Fortunately or unfortunately, ForeverAlone only half-listened. His mind had wandered elsewhere.

‘I want to join the Knights too.’

He already wanted to get closer to Almond. Now that the Knights were officially recruiting, the temptation was too strong to resist.

***

“Ah, I’m back. Lunch was so good.”

— Wow

— Streaming again already lol

— Such a diligent guy

— Guess Cheese Village is worth it? haha

Almond logged back into Cheese Village and went into an animated recap of his lunch with Hyeon-Ju. His first-ever brunch had left quite the impression.

“They made this cake that looked like a volcano. It had raspberry jam flowing out like lava!”

— Crazy

— Funny thing is, lava was actually flowing here too lol

— So Almond was the culprit all along?!

He noticed strange chat messages in the middle of his dessert story.

“Lava?”

Almond already knew about Paprika Village, so none of the messages were filtered for him.

— Those other villagers came and attacked with lava

— They even handed out a WANTED poster with your face on it...

— They came for revenge

— Oddly enough, they didn’t search for you directly and just tossed the flyers around

Almond chuckled. “You’re messing with me again, right? Nobody shoots lava. This is supposed to be a healing game.”

He could barely remember people’s names, but incidents like “You’re missing a zero?” and the

Zombie School

bathroom fiasco remained stuck in his head.

— ?

— How can he not believe this hahaha

— I mean... fair. It is unbelievable

“Ah, Lord Almond!”

The Almond Knights suddenly burst into Sweet Radish’s house. Almond could see the other servants hurrying behind through the missing front wall.

Potato Servant arrived first and shouted, “While you were away, something truly catastrophic happened!”

***

“It’s real...”

The Paprika Villagers had attacked with lava, melted the village square, and demanded food.

“Huh?”

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

“Ah, nothing. Just surprised my deduction was right.”

— ?

— ??

— What deduction??

— LMAO Almondoyle

“Ah... you had already deduced it? From seeing the damaged entrance, perhaps?” Radish Servant asked admiringly.

‘That was me who blew it up...’

Almond couldn’t admit that, so he played it off. “Uh, well... Something like that. It’s hard to explain.”

Radish Servant cued up a saying, and Potato Servant finished it.

“Who’s the best at deduction?!”

“Almondoyle!”

— HAHAHAHA omg

— This is too much

— Look at Maid Black Tea’s face in the back, legendary

— LMAO

— She looks disgusted through 2D pixels

Maid Black Tea, still unwilling to go that far, stood back.

However, Radish Servant leaned in and whispered to Almond in relief, “My lord, we need to discuss something privately. About those villagers...”

“Ah.” Almond nodded and turned to Maid Black Tea and Servant Lemon. “You two, get back to farming. We need to repair the damage and prepare in case they return.”

“Yes, sir!” Maid Black Tea answered crisply and saluted.

She left with Servant Lemon without asking any questions. That left only the original Knights.

“They’re most likely the very villagers you mentioned before, my lord. That wanted poster they distributed had you on it. The others didn’t notice, but we did.”

“

Mmm.

” Almond nodded.

He’d seen the flyer himself. They clearly held an immense grudge against him. After all, he had reduced their village to ruins.

“But who exactly are they?”

— He’s only curious now? Lol

— Only after killing them all does he wonder who they are

— The servants’ faces are priceless

Even Almond had no clue who they were. He thought they had just been around for one-off content, but they invaded Cheese Village for him. They clearly weren’t NPCs or AIs.

“I have a theory,” Radish Servant suddenly said. “I think I recognized one of them. Someone who even played in the

LIL

tournament.”

“What, what did you say?!” Potato Servant was so shocked that he slipped back into his old Sweet Potato self and blurted out informally.

— Dialect slip hahahaha

— Potato Servant: the original Sweet Potato

— So the old Potato Servant is still inside lol

— Guess lunch confused him too hahaha

He quickly corrected himself. “

Ahem...

I mean, are you saying they’re streamers?”

“At this point, doesn’t that make the most sense? This is a streamer-only server.”

If anything, the invaders not being streamers would be the stranger answer.

— @#($&!

— #@(@!)

— 3#!@!*

Filtered messages filled the chat.

Almond asked, “Whose voice did you recognize?”

“The last one who used a return scroll.”

Radish Servant knew that last person well since they both used to be pros. However, that person had left Cheese for Paprika.

“Orange.”

Almond also knew of that person, but not in a good light.

‘Orange?’