Chapter 87: Almond with Practice (1)

Chapter 87: Almond with Practice (1)

"I'll get Diamond in two weeks."

One week had passed since he made that controversial statement.

A few posts about it appeared on the community forums.

[Hey, this Almond bastard lied about getting Diamond in two weeks!]

However, clicking on the post would reveal the truth.

[He's going to do it in one week, fuck!]

— LOL So true.

— Almond this guy! He tricked us!

— Real fucking shit!

— For real.

— He actually lied. This guy!

— Almond needs a spanking!

It was actually a positive post and not a negative one. Other posts with similar content popped up.

[Who's the guy who's about to reach diamond in one week?!]

[Wow, it was really possible?]

[Wasn't it game over once he got into plat 3?]

[Ah, I believed in Almond since day 1!!! I should've bet on him or something!]

[Who's that?! Who bet against Almond and is now hiding?!]

Of course, some mean posts also appeared like usual.

[Hey, this is the hardest part on the road to diamond]

[For real. Plat 2 & 3 ain't shit. Plat 1 is where it counts. Y’all don't know shit!]

[It's not weird if it takes a week from this point.]

[He'll roll back down once he loses. These fanboys are getting ahead of themselves.]

[Tomorrow, he'll probably be back in plat 3.]

Most of these people were either fans of JeonJaPa, jealous of Almond, or just hated the world.

One thing was certain despite the two sides. Almond's journey to Diamond received a ton of attention. Countless posts on different communities featured Almond's name.

"Wow..."

Sang-Hyeon felt amazed after he woke up and looked at the community reactions. He saw countless posts talking about him.

'It's 7 A.M.'

He thought he was still dreaming, so he rubbed his eyes to wake up. His blurred vision began to clear.

[It's not weird if it takes a week from this point.] n0Velusb.c0m

[He'll roll back down once he loses. These fanboys are getting ahead of themselves.]

[Tomorrow, he'll probably be back in plat 3.]

As expected, he wasn't seeing things. A crazy amount of attention was on him.

'Is my content that good? No way,' Sang-Hyeon shook his head.

His journey to Diamond had been similar to other streamers. Everyone aimed to reach higher and also had winning streaks, so why did he get all this attention?

'It's because of this.'

One post hinted at the reason.

[Did you watch Almond on Fantasia's channel? Personally, I like the unedited version better.]

He went to Fantasia's YouTube channel and saw the two new videos they uploaded.

[Almond's Analysis EP.1 - Yes! It's Almond!]

[Almond's Analysis EP.2 - Record? What's that?]

The edited videos made a bigger impact than the live ones and the number of views was on a different scale.

[241k views]

One had already reached 241,000 views and it was hard to believe they uploaded it this morning. Most likely, everyone kept mentioning Almond because of these videos. Fantasia's channel had 600,000 subscribers who just found out about Almond.

— Wow, I didn't know anything about Almond, but this guy is crazy!

— Almond? He’s the best archer I know...

— :o Crazy...

— Ha-Yeon chan is so cute!

— He's so handsome!

— This is my first time seeing him, but he's so cute! Why is his interview so short...

— They edited out his archery scene. I wanted to rewatch it... He looked so good in it.

└ 2222 Same!

└ 333 Me too! Too bad it's not there.

A handful of people got to know Almond for the first time. Actually, most of them just found out about him.

Almond was popular among gamers in their twenties, but Fantasia's subscribers ranged from 10-50 year olds. For them, Almond was a new face.

[I became a fan after seeing him on Fantasia's channel.]

[It was my first time seeing Almond, but his videos are entertaining too. He's pretty famous already.]

[Woah, I'm so glad he has more fans now]

[Can we finally stop recruiting now? Lol]

Many different communities showed new affection for him.

[I hear Almond is challenging another JeonJaPa record.]

[He said he would reach diamond in two weeks!]

[Seems like he'll do it in one week haha]

Everything happened with great timing. Almond already received a lot of attention on his journey to diamond. Naturally, everyone focused on his rank. A sudden wave of attention like this would’ve overwhelmed most people.

'What's the fun if the stakes aren't high?'

Sang-Hyeon enjoyed this feeling. He knew they would cheer even greater if the stakes were higher. The thought excited him as he imagined all the doubt, jealousy, and anger towards him changing into awe. It sent a jolt all over his body.

Sang-Hyeon loved sports because of this jolt. He could only experience this feeling once or twice a year as an athlete, but he felt it every day since he started streaming.

'Maybe I am cut out for streaming.'

He seriously considered that streaming was more of his forte than sports.

'Do I crave attention?'

He did. He craved it like drugs. That craving naturally pulled his body up from bed this morning.

Sang-Hyeon hadn’t fully woken up at 8 A.M. yet, but his mind had. He headed straight to the capsule.

"Huh? Hey, you're going in right away?" Ju-Hyeok got up already and asked in surprise.

However, Sang-Hyeon didn't respond. He couldn't see or hear anything. He walked to the capsule as if hypnotized.

'I'll get to Diamond today.'

After he made that decision, he could hear the non-existent crowd cheering around him.

Chiiik...?

The capsule opened and Sang-Hyeon entered like usual.

[Training Tutorial]

[Free Space Training]

Sang-Hyeon turned on the training tutorial instead of the stream. He would stream at 3 P.M. like always.

'I have plenty of time.'

It was 8 A.M. and still five hours away from lunchtime. He had quite a bit of time and would prepare in advance.

He recalled the doctor’s warning that he couldn't use the capsule for long. Sang-Hyeon put off practicing because of that, so he could stream. However...

'Today...'

It wouldn’t matter today. He could feel it. He felt like he could spend all day in the capsule. He was sure he would still be able to stream after practicing.

This drive came from the countless new viewers he saw slowly learning about Almond. He wondered what kind of cheers he’d receive after achieving Diamond. Such thoughts motivated him even more.

Thump. Thump.

He booted up the training as his heart raced.

***

[Connecting to YouTube.]

The free training allowed other applications to run alongside it. The application he used most was called weapon master. This program gave him access to many different weapons. His next most used application was YouTube.

He planned on practicing while watching some videos today.

[Archery used in actual wars]

He played the video that he fell in love with a long time ago and wanted to perfect these techniques.

'There's a limit to sports archery.'

He could feel it. He needed to learn archery appropriate for battles.

The form he learned over the years would slowly change, but he was happy as long as he could shoot arrows. It didn't matter whether it was battle archery or sports archery. What mattered was the archery most appropriate to the situation. He didn't care about any particular way of shooting.

Pang! Pang!

The man in the video jumped off a ledge and quickly fired his shots.

Sang-Hyeon carefully mimicked his pose. It felt significantly different from sports archery. One had to quickly and efficiently aim at the target, whereas sports archery took its time to accurately aim at the target with a scope.

His target would become immobilized as long as he struck.

Paang! Pang!

Sang-Hyeon copied the man in the video and jumped off the virtual walls while shooting his arrows. He fired four shots in mid-air.

He shot faster than before, but wasn't happy when he checked the target. The arrows were slightly off-target. Only one arrow struck the bullseye and the rest landed near it.

His accuracy significantly decreased to the point where he had to choose between speed or accuracy. However, Sang-Hyeon didn't want to give up on accuracy. Maybe it was his pride as an archer, but shots in the game would be meaningless if they didn’t hit the vitals. He couldn't sacrifice accuracy for anything.

He wondered how to quickly shoot while maintaining accuracy.

'What if I do it like this...'

Sang-Hyeon instinctively changed his form from the video. He tried combining sports archery and battle archery. Combining them didn't guarantee a better outcome like mixing hot and cold coffee.

Phew.

Sang-Hyeon took a deep breath and headed up the virtual wall. He flew in the air and quickly fired.

Piing! Ping! Ping!

He could feel a different sensation from the bowstring.

"!"

He checked the target after landing and smiled.

"Good."

Hot and cold coffee didn’t mix well, but it seemed like speed and precision could mix.

"Next is the curve shot."

Satisfied, he played the next video without taking any breaks.

***

Sang-Hyeon finished his training.

Chiiik—?

The capsule lid opened.

"Hey, are you okay? Aren't you overworking yourself?" Ju-Hyeok looked worried after seeing him.

Sang-Hyeon checked the time. It was 1 P.M. He had practiced all day without eating.

"Let's just eat."

He showered first before eating.

"Wow, you're eating a lot today."

Sang-Hyeon usually didn’t eat much, but today was different.

'Why don’t I feel tired at all?'

He trained as long as he normally streamed, but still seemed okay.

Was this the same person who collapsed after 3-4 hours of gameplay?

"Phew, I'll let the food digest a little and go back inside."

Sang-Hyeon began stretching until 3 P.M.

[The stream is starting!]

His stream began right on time.

— Wow! He turned on his stream!!!

— Are you doing it today!? Let's get to diamond!!

— Let's get to DiAlmond!!

— DiAlmond... another flavor of almond.

— Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond! Almond!

— I love you, Almond!

— Woah, it's my first time watching him live hehe. It'll be crazy if he gets to diamond.

— Kya!

— Wow... it's 3 P.M. again. I'm still at work...

— This is why I prepared for 20 years to be jobless...

The chat quickly rose. Almond could tell right away that many people came to watch. He calmly waited for the intro music to finish.

Du-dun...

The drum echoed out.

"It's finally been a week," Almond cut straight to the chase. "I'll try a little harder today."

[Current Viewers: 9.3k]

Around 9000 viewers came to watch.