Season 3: Chapter 20: If They Survived (3)

Screeeeeech...!

The capsule opened.

"The champions of the challenge are coming out!"

"Wooooow!"

Cheers and applause rang out from the audience near the booth.

Bubblegum jumped out of his capsule first and burst through screaming, "Grrrrwoooah! Cackle! Bang! Killed them all!"

He began to fire away, forming guns with his hands, clearly thrilled.

— LOL.

— Carried hard.

— Empty wagon LOL!

— So funny LOL.

— Crazy LOL.

— Fact: There were no guns in this game.

Bubblegum moved in front of one of the cameras, leaned in, and shouted, "I told you I would do it! I said I'd win a challenge!"

— Bubblegum is making a bigger fuss because he's embarrassed about the bus incident.

— LOL.

— It's funny LOL!

— Big corporate behavior.

"Ah! What an impressive entrance, Bubblegum! And now the real heroes are coming out!?"

— The real heroes LOL.

— Fake hero Bubblegum LOL!

— Fake gun, fake hero, fake play... What is he really...?

— LOL LOL LOL~

"Takoyaki!"

“Wooooow!”

Takoyaki appeared, his hair looking very different from his in-game persona.

"Almond!"

Following Takoyaki, Almond emerged from the capsule.

Then, the cheers truly exploded.

"Kyaaaaaaa!"

"Almond!!!"

"We love you!"

"Wooooow!"

If there was a contest for dinosaur-like screaming among fans, Almond would probably beat Jello in popularity. The response in the venue was that heated.

"Wow~! Is it because of his good looks? Or because he carried hard? The cheers are incredible!"

"Right, I never knew this challenge booth could get this noisy?!" a commentator chimed in.

Understandably so, since the space wasn't as large as all the cheering made it seem.

When Almond waved, the cheers intensified and the commentators had to stop talking.

"Wooooow!!!"

"Come, come! This way! Please come this way!"

A staff hurriedly ran over to escort them.

Almond, Bubblegum, and Takoyaki stood side by side, holding up a giant gift icon model.

[100 Bibikun Chickens]

Click! Click!

Flashes and shutter sounds erupted. The trio, seemingly used to it, slowly waved and accepted it.

"Ah. I finally won. Thanks, Almond," Bubblegum repeatedly expressed his gratitude and made a promise. "Call me if you need anything later. It doesn’t have to be about games."

"Not having to be about games shows you mean it, bro," Takoyaki teased from the side.

“Puhahaha.”

The three burst out laughing and this moment was well captured on camera.

Click!

"Did you eat already?"

"Yes. Earlier, from that food truck..."

After all the shooting and gifts were rewarded, Bubblegum and Takoyaki decided to go eat.

"Then, we should go by ourselves."

"Miho will be disappointed."

"Hey. Don't talk about that!"

"You shouldn't say to not talk about it, bro."

"You shouldn't say not to not talk about it, bro."

An infinite loop continued as they kept talking about this secret that Miho and the three would go out to eat.

Sang-Hyeon had already eaten anyway, so he didn’t care.

He started talking to the viewers, "Um. Everyone. You saw that, right? Enjoy the chicken. Those who received it."

[Nietzsche said, "Couples should go to hell" but it was Nietzsche who went to hell.]

— LOL

— Why is Nietzsche going? LOL

— God is dead so he had to go~

— AHAHAHAHA!!

Donations flooded in and obscured his goggle view.

"*%(#&@(@*"

"@&*$*@"

Jessie was wildly talking to her colleagues. It wasn't in English, but maybe Danish. From her gestures, it seemed she was introducing him as Almond.

Then, she turned to Sang-Hyeon and pointed to her phone camera.

"Can I...?"

It seemed like she was asking if it was okay to take a picture together. Almond nodded, indicating it was okay.

The thrilled Jessie took several pictures next to Almond.

Click! Click!

— I’m so jealous...

— Almond, the worst streamer ever...

— "God is dead" by. Jung Ki-Chan

Sang-Hyeon felt a bit flustered by her overly friendly behavior.

***

"Ah. Good, good."

Ju-Hyeok beamed with a friendly smile and nodded. It was inevitable for him to laugh as he swept up advertising deals at every booth. It felt like they were hosting G-Star at Sang-Hyeon's house.

"Ah, then, yes! Please take good care of it!"

"Yes. We will discuss and contact you!"

Everyone was bowing ninety degrees to Ju-Hyeok. He felt like a real manager leaving the booth. Was it right for someone accepting ads to be treated this way? The structure of superior and subordinate was quite amusing. Once a certain threshold was crossed, the subordinate could become the superior.

"So this is why the world is a livable place."

He hadn't realized this while at the company, but the world wasn't a place strictly divided into superiors and subordinates. In a lively dynamic market, those changes were even more fluid.

People in superior positions were cautious toward their subordinates. Subordinates were naturally cautious. A situation where everyone respected each other arose. There was no case like some manager always demeaning people.

"Let's see... Zombie School, Battle Large Ninja Mode, some mobile game..."

Ju-Hyeok checked off the deals he'd secured today as he headed toward the booth where Sang-Hyeon was. It was about time to start packing up.

"I shouldn't have to worry for about half a year with all this.! Heh."

Ju-Hyeok's lips were about to curl into a smile when—

“You need to clear your surroundings to step forward, Sang-Hyeon. Being swayed by acquaintances isn't good.”

Ju-Hyeok’s expression suddenly hardened at an embarrassing memory that resurfaced.

"Ha."

After hearing those words, Ju-Hyeok felt quite shocked.

'I thought we had a pretty solid relationship.'

Even though society had hardened him, betrayal by a trusted colleague would always hurt. Of course, Almond hadn't betrayed him. However, that statement made Ju-Hyeok imagine such a scenario.

'So I decided to prove it.'

Right now, Ju-Hyeok was working harder than ever at G-Star. He was prepared for a one-night, two-day boot camp. Thanks to this, he secured many ads and wanted to show that Sang-Hyeon could do well without a big company’s support.

'... But is that really true?'

Ju-Hyeok looked around again. Not a single person from big management was there. They had no reason to wander around G-Star like this. Ads would come to their company automatically. It was a concept similar to what Punk Corporation did for its partners, but Punk only circulated games it distributed while management oversaw all games.

Maybe Sang-Hyeon was already beyond needing to struggle at a place like G-Star.

Ju-Hyeok looked down at his briefcase with a bitter smile.

'What I was trying to prove wasn't that Sang-Hyeok could do well without a big company, but that I could do as much as a big company.'

His focus had been on proving himself as a manager. Maybe he was using Sang-Hyeon to prove himself. If the results were good, they would both be happy and nothing would matter...

'Am I really doing as much as a big company?'

Ding.

A message arrived just then.

[Sang-Hyeon: Save me]

[Sang-Hyeon: (Photo)]

Sang-Hyeon was asking to be saved with a photo of him being surrounded by three foreigners. Was it some kind of kidnapping? If it hadn't been for the G-Star venue in the background, Ju-Hyeok really would’ve thought that.

"...?"

Ju-Hyeok stared blankly for a moment before bursting into laughter.

"Ahahahaha!"

It had been a long time since he'd seen Sang-Hyeon so troubled. Or perhaps memories of working together in their past company had resurfaced.

"Ah, right. He was uncomfortable with foreigners... But what's with that expression? Uhaha..."

Or maybe... in a tiny corner of Ju-Hyeok’s heart, he felt a sense of relief that Sang-Hyeon still needed him and laughed.

"Ha... Ah. That’s so funny. I laughed a lot."

‘Let's put away complicated thoughts.’

If Sang-Hyeon needed him, that was all that mattered.