Chapter 232. Swimming Pool Party (1)

Chapter 232. Swimming Pool Party (1)

"Almond, you should share your thoughts too."

Almond didn't have much to say, so he blurted out some random advertising slogan to ease the situation.

Miho appeared determined to not back down until she heard his thoughts.

Sang-Hyeon contemplated with a brief pause. What were his thoughts? How did he feel about making the playoffs?

He wasn't sure. However, he did recall the thoughts that came to mind when they made the playoffs.

"My thoughts about the playoffs... I just want to play against High Protein again ASAP."

"Shit, really?"

— Wow, impressive...

— As expected, his face is full of confidence!

— OMG~ That's right!

— His face is so cool...

"You went through a lot against High Protein last time, but you still want to play against them?"

"Yeah. I feel like we can win this time. I want to face them and win ASAP."

— Nut-style taunt!

— Ignoring ForeverAlone?

— Invisible ForeverAlone, lol

"Oh, yeah. What about ForeverAlone?"

"ForeverAlone?"

— ??? Was that even a thing?

— Like he didn't expect that name at all, Lmao

— Wait, did he forget who ForeverAlone' is?

Fortunately, Sang-Hyeon hadn't forgotten who ForeverAlone was. Even if he sometimes seemed indifferent to his surroundings more than others, he remembered ForeverAlone.

"Oh, ForeverAlone... I do remember."

"And...?"

"I don’t really have anything to say. Besides, I don't even know if it’ll be ForeverAlone or someone else in our next match."

Sang-Hyeon scratched his head and placed a few more almonds into his mouth. He wanted to wrap up the interview.

"Wow, did you all see that? Almond isn't interested in the world!"

— Miho, will you wear a swimsuit again if you play against ForeverAlone?

— We're not interested in Almond either!

— Doesn't BlackTea get any questions??? LOL

— BlackTea could be your next match too, you know!

The interview conducted with Miho's camera concluded there.

"Now it's over~ Miyaho~!" Miho ended the interview with her usual greeting on stream and turned off the camera.

— No, even Miho isn't interested in us...

— Crying...

— Don't go!

***

Afterward, all the interviews conducted by the Treevy team also ended.

"Nice! Everyone worked hard today!"

"Thank you so much!"

Their noisy exchange of greetings went back and forth. A slightly tipsy Sang-Hyeon said goodbye to everyone and got into Ju-Hyeok's car.

"The viewers were quite something, weren't they?"

"Yeah, it seems so."

Sang-Hyeon leaned back in the rear seat with a disheveled appearance, but he smiled in satisfaction.

Despite being a little tipsy, he felt good because the joint stream went well.

"I guess it's because it was your first drinking stream and your first outdoor group meetup, so you received a lot of attention."

Knock knock.

Someone tapped on the window.

"Ah, it's Miho."

"Hello! You must be Manager Ju-Hyeok, right? I heard about you from Director Oh!" Miho warmly greeted Ju-Hyeok and handed him something. It was a dessert.

"They say eating something sweet helps with a hangover!"

"Oh... Thank you."

"And this is anti-drowsiness gum, so you won't doze off on the way."

She even included a small gift for Ju-Hyeok.

"You really didn't have to do this... Haha."

Ju-Hyeok hadn’t prepared anything for today. He didn’t expect Miho to personally bring him anything because he wasn’t even her manager.

He quickly realized that this onslaught of gifts wasn't just due to her extroverted personality. There was also something else.

Ju-Hyeok sensed that Miho wanted to say something, so he subtly steered the conversation in that direction.

"I heard from Director Oh that you still haven't found a manager yet?"

"Yes. Haha... Seems like there aren’t many talented people available," Miho scratched her head and avoided eye contact.

It felt like she had something to say, but couldn't find the words.

'Is it even hard to find one from Bubblegum Entertainment?"

Hiring another manager shouldn't be that difficult for Bubblegum Entertainment, but finding someone trustworthy was challenging. That would be a difficult task no matter which company it was.

Ju-Hyeok seemed to understand what Miho was trying to say.

She probably wanted to ask Ju-Hyeok to become her manager. She couldn't ask for it directly, so she used small gifts and hints to convey her message.

"Oh, but..." Miho glanced around as if she sensed something and spoke softly, "My contract is ending soon."

"... Really? With Fantasia?"

Ju-Hyeok knew what Miho was implying, but he deliberately led the conversation in a different direction to make sure.

As expected, Miho took the bait.

"No, I'll keep being a partner streamer. It's the management contract that's ending soon."

"Ah... I see."

Miho's contract with Bubblegum Entertainment would soon expire. Did she not intend on renewing it?

"I thought you would renew it..."

"I haven't decided yet. What I'm saying is that you can decide however you want."

"Oh."

Ju-Hyeok was surprised. This essentially meant that Ju-Hyeok could have as much flexibility as he wanted.

"Director Oh wouldn't think the same though..."

Director Oh also had connections with Bubblegum Entertainment. He was likely planning to move there once he quit.

"It's not like I'm ending it on bad terms, so don't worry."

After that, Miho pulled her hat down. Her model-like body couldn't be hidden even with her hat pressed down. In fact, wearing a hat over her pink hair made her look even more suspicious.

"I'm just taking an autopilot taxi. Bye!"

With a swish, Miho quickly disappeared.

Ju-Hyeok scratched his head and looked at Sang-Hyeon.n/(OvELB1n

"I didn't even offer to give her a ride. Miho is way funnier than I thought..."

No response came back, just the sound of breathing in the back seat.

"... Are you asleep?"

Sang-Hyeon had already fallen asleep.

"Sigh. What a lucky guy."

***

After their dinner party, only three days remained until the playoffs.

"Today, I'm going to play the Drift Assassin."

Sang-Hyeon continued streaming all day for the past three days. This was natural for a full-time streamer, but he also had strategic reasons.

"This time, I’ll give the Drift Assassin a try, alright?"

He showcased himself playing as many mid-lane champions as possible during the streams.

Although his first games with these champions were the equivalent of shop picks, Sang-Hyeon continued to execute high-level plays, and his rank kept increasing.

He certainly played the mid-lane position much better than ADC.

Sang-Hyeon ranked up to Diamond I, but his MMR almost reached the Grandmaster level because of a winning streak.

This allowed him to compete against Grandmaster mid-players in regular solo queue matches.

"I definitely play better in the mid-lane than playing as an ADC."

— Isn't that obvious?

— Hold on, don't fool yourself!

— You're better than me, you nut.

— He's so good...

He wasn’t using a bow-wielding champion, so he didn’t perform as well as when he played against BlackTea.

At best, he played decently. He wouldn’t be able to beat ForeverAlone like this.

"Storm Ninja is still pretty decent."

He tried Storm Ninja and Spiritmaster Melly a few times and occasionally overwhelmed Grandmaster players with them.

— It's not bad = Challenger level

— Crushing grandmasters’ heads = pretty good

— Almond's Bronze-Silver-Gold-Plat-Diamond-Master = Not good.

— How many times?

Sang-Hyeon performed well with the familiar champions, but didn’t do so great with the new ones. He realized something from this.

"It’s just a lack of practice."

He simply couldn’t display 100% of their abilities due to insufficient practice.

— Did you just realize that you need to practice now??! Wow...

— Almond's only weakness: walnuts

— You're talking like it's some great realization. So annoying!!

Even with the blessing of image training for over a decade, Sang-Hyeon couldn't perform well enough with completely new champions because of the virtual reality physique.

He hadn't even used all of these champions’ skills throughout the games. That indicated that he wasn’t being very efficient with them. This also resulted from juggling and rotating between too many champions at once.

Almond was aware of this. It was better to focus on a few characters instead.

Despite that, Sang-Hyeon chose this training method for a reason.

— Wow, but now the number of champions he can use has greatly increased...

— How many are you even trying to play? Just stick to one or two.

— Hey Almond, we should just give up if you can do everything perfectly from the start! Oh my goodness!

— Didn't he play more than ten champions in two days? LOL.

The reactions that Almond wanted began to pop up. He wanted everyone to know that he could use multiple champions well, instead of walnuts being his only weakness.

'Tako was also planning something like this.'

The opponents believed that they could hinder Almond with bans. This belief wasn't entirely wrong. After all, he actually struggled a few times because of it.

However, it would cause his opponents some trouble if he broadened his range of champions to such a chaotic extent.

Almond already demonstrated his ability to handle shop picks in the tournament. Now, he was playing every champion in solo queue.

[Raina'sAlmond has donated a whopping 200,000 won!]

[Play Raina for us! This is a reward for your hard work.]

As Almond focused on other champions, some people missed his old main champion.

Thud.

With a gesture he had grown quite accustomed to, Almond raised a finger heart and nodded.

"Thank you for your support, Raina'sAlmond. I'll play Raina next."

— LOL, what's wrong with the ID?

— Almond's most excited fan, LOL.

— TMI: This was what Raina actually said.

— Aren't you afraid of the DemianClub?!

— That’s a lot, even for us...

[Money’sAlmond has donated 10,000 won.]

[Swimsuit party at the tournament? It's going to be a couple set with Mihwa.]

"A swimsuit party... Are you talking about a pool party? And it's not Miwha, it's Miho."

— LOL

— You can tell they're not interested in Miho at all.

— Swimsuit party, hahaha, it's a pool party!

— Are you trying to say what you really want? Lol.

— The swimsuit party seems lit.

— Mihwa, hahahahha.

Almond consistently entertained around 20,000 viewers on his stream by himself. The amount of donations had significantly increased. Donations of more than 10,000 won now overshadowed the donations ranging from 1,000 to 2000 won.

"But does Ran have a swimming pool party skin?"

— Yeah.

— Blonde swimsuit Almond...

— But isn't it difficult for Ran to play against BlackTea’s team? He's too weak in the early game.

— ForeverAlone might appear too,

— Even if it's BlackTea, he can fight them with his honey trap.

[Almond’sDonor has donated 10,000 won!]

[Wow, are you really doing this!?]

— Almond won't wear just anything with 10,000 won. You need to sponsor him with at least 50 boxes.

— No way, hahaha

— Nope!

— Hey, woman! Enough now!

"Hmm... I'm actually considering it," Almond pretended like he was contemplating it.

He had no intention of doing so, but it was just to tease his viewers.

— Cash Grab;;;

— Hey. Once you step down that path... you'll be dancing to zeroes!

— He won't do it.

— No, I'm thinking about it (cuz it's 20,000)

Almond laughed and tried to settle things down.

"No, I won't do it. Now, stop it with these donations."

However, it already went beyond his control.

[Almond’sSponsor has donated 10,000 won!]

[Mission: 'Try the Pool Party Ran skin during the tournament.' Registered.]

It started with a supporter registering a mission.

[Mission]

[Try the Pool Party Ran skin during the tournament.]

[10,000 won]

Anyone could keep registering for this mission to raise more money.

Ding!

With a sound, the mission funds quickly jumped to 50,000 won.

Ding! Ding!

The sound rang out again, and within a moment, it reached 100,000 won.

Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!

As the stream was about to end, it surpassed 1.8 million won.

"Umm..."

At this point, Almond wasn't pretending anymore. He was seriously contemplating it.

'I should've just pressed [Mission Failed] in the beginning.'

The situation was getting out of hand.

"I'll see what that swimsuit looks like."

He would decide after looking at it. That was what he settled on.

— Crazy, haha. Are you really doing it?

— LOL.

— YAYY!

— WOWW! Almond in a swimsuit!

— Quick, clip it and share it!

— Alright, introducing~~~ the player! Let's gooo!

***

Finally, the day of the playoff match arrived.

[Solo Is Back Vs. Balloon Stars]

As everyone expected, Solo Is Back had advanced through.

"Solo Is Back has advanced after a fierce five game battle against Red Carpets."

The casters took turns explaining today's matchup.

OrangeKing grabbed the microphone, "Yes! After all that hard work to get there, they're facing Miho in the swimming pool party skin!"

"Isn't that the rewarding part of coming this far?"

"Oh, you're right! No wonder, ForeverAlone was working so hard yesterday until his nose bled!"

OrangeKing created a lively atmosphere using Miho as the sacrificial lamb. Laughter echoed throughout the audience.

The ban-pick phase began and the casters were shocked.

"Huh?"

"Wow?! This is clearly a provocation!"

"They... They're doing it like this?!"