A silver player and a master player had a 1 vs. 1 match and both of them were streamers. It was an event that received tremendous attention from the start and a hot topic that caught fire without any kindling. Ju-Hyeok added fuel to the fire.
[Silver vs. Master! Big event! Points gambling!]
[Free points! Silver vs. Master!]
[Silver vs. Master?! Free points?!]
The oil that Ju-Hyeok added was the betting system where viewers could place bets with the points they collected. When it was implemented, the reactions were always intense regardless of whether it turned out favorably or unfavorably.
[Oh shit, I'm gonna go and get some free points too!]
[Damn. Is silver Almond finally going to get taught a lesson?!]
[Almond fanboys were getting annoying. They're all betting on him winning, LOL]
When the discussion about this betting system first arose, the reaction toward Almond was exactly . People thought it was obvious that Almond would lose, so they believed in earning points from it. Many hurtful words were also written.
However, neither Ju-Hyeok nor Almond paid much attention to it. Almond was the type of person who would dive in even more when faced with criticism, and Ju-Hyeok believed in Almond's abilities. Ju-Hyeok was actually more focused on observing the opposing side.
'But what about StrawberryShooter?'
It didn’t bother Almond, but what about StrawberryShooter? Could he handle the pressure as a Master and overcome this situation with gambling involved...
The answer finally appeared just as Ju-Hyeok anticipated.
"... T-This can't be."
StrawberryShooter's knees struck the ground.
He couldn't. He didn't have what it took to overcome this situation.
"I-I can't believe I didn't even win a round..."
StrawberryShooter fell apart. It was difficult to determine whether it was due to his mentality or skills. Regardless, the outcome was decided. It was a clear victory.
"The main ADC is Almond! StrawberryShooter will go in as the substitute ADC! The end!"
With Tako's final shout, the highly anticipated event ended.
— Almond! Almond! Almond!
— A silver beating a master...
— Master losing to silver?!
— Did you know? Almond is stronger than Strawberry! Did you know? Almond is stronger than Strawberry! Did you know? Almond is stronger than Strawberry?
— Mom! I want to be a peanut when I grow up! Mom! I want to be a peanut when I grow up! Mom! I want to be a peanut when I grow up!
Almond received several praises and donations.
[KeRuRu has d 100,000 won!]
[Woww! Raina, you're so cool!!!]
[DameinClub has d a whopping 300,000 won!]
[T-Take good care of Raina...]
[GambleKing has d 10,000 won!]
[Wowww! Thanks to you, I earned so many points!! Thank you!!! I believed in you!!!]
[Announcer has d 100,000 won!]
[From now on, silver = master in this stream, okay?]
Countless donations poured in. Almond couldn't even calculate or read all of them.
"GambleKing, KeRuRu, DamienClub... thank you..."
While Almond was thanking everyone, StrawberryShooter was getting hate messages.
— I bet on you. How the hell did you lose to a silver player???
— Almond > Strawberry
StrawberryShooter had no choice but to shut down the comments. However, these people didn't stop there. They moved on to the community.
[Wtf is wrong with Strawberry?!]
[He lost to a silver???]
[He picked Paul and lost to Ran. He even lost to Raina as the poison rabbit. Amazing~!]
[He just walked up as Paul and died. Why didn't he pick a close-range champion, then? Fuck, my points...]
[Why did he rush in like that? Was his mentality fucked up???]
[Almond did better than he normally did. He must not have stage fright.]
The hate was immense. All the users who lost points left their two cents in every community. The posts were shared and shared...
[Bronze = silver = gold = plat = diamond = masters]
[Master ranked is easy~]
[Master association is going to sue you for defamation.]
The community posts were endlessly ruthless. Even LIL Pro, one of the biggest communities, temporarily had a server shutdown.
[*The server is unstable. Please check back again soon.*]
StrawberryShooter looked at Tako after checking his phone.
He was still lying down on the ground on the battlefield.
He didn't respond even though he was close by. Did he have himself muted? Sometimes, players did that if they didn't want to talk.
That didn't seem to be the case.
Tako approached him silently and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, you just need to do well in the tournament." Tako brushed his hair and smiled. "At least you got to keep your hair."
Sang-Hyeon's capsule lid opened.
"Hey! The Silver that beat Masters! Master-beater! You got a new nickname!"
Ju-Hyeok approached him while laughing and tried to throw him a towel.
"... What the. Are you okay?"
Did he focus too hard? Sang-Hyeon hadn't even played for an hour, but he was drenched as if he had played for six hours.
"It was my first time meeting a Master, so yeah..." he muttered as he wiped himself with the towel. Sang-Hyeon was blanking out.
"You can... play in the tournament, right?"
Ju-Hyeok suggested he could drop out anytime, but Sang-Hyeon rejected that.
"I can do it. It's only because it was my first time facing off against a Master player."
"In the tournament, there are going to be Grandmaster and Challenger players too."
"Now, it's not a big deal."
Sang-Hyeon responded without hesitation and headed to the bath. He had something prepared on his own for the tournament.
"I have something planned..."
Sang-Hyeon's voice faded away as the shower turned on.
The next day, Sang-Hyeon heard a noise in the morning. It wasn't his cell phone. It was the doorbell.
Sang-Hyeon, who was awake, went outside.
"Delivery. They wanted me to deliver in person."
"Ah... G... Green Diamond?"
The delivery men moved several boxes to his house when he opened the door. On the box, it read, Almond Flakes.
Sang-Hyeon felt like he was in Charlie's chocolate factory.
"Phew. The car doesn't come all the way up here. It was a lot of work."
"Where should we put it?"
"Hmm... Can you put it in the kitchen for now?"
The two delivery workers were diligently carrying and moving boxes. No matter how much they brought in, the boxes seemed endless. Sang-Hyeon also helped them, using both of his arms. Meanwhile, Ju-Hyeok woke up amid all this. His eyes, which were drooping from drowsiness, abruptly widened. The stack of almond cereal boxes, piling up like a mountain, reflected in his pupils.
"Alright~ that's everything!"
"Wow, thank you! Have a good day!"
Sang-Hyeon cheerfully greeted them, which he normally wouldn't do. Ju-Hyeok stared at the boxes and felt disgusted.
"Hey, do these not have an expiration date? Why did they give so much?"
They sent the boxes in celebration of the contract signing. However, the amount was ridiculous.
"Hey, help me put this in the pantry."
Ju-Hyeok angrily headed to the washroom.
'What's wrong with him?'
Sang-Hyeon shook his head and continued to diligently move the boxes into the pantry. Even when Ju-Hyeok came out after brushing his teeth, Sang-Hyeon was still moving the boxes. After filling the pantry, he moved the remaining boxes to the backyard storage.
'I hope the bugs get to it.'
Ju-Hyeok secretly cursed the almond cereal, returned to his room, and lay down. He wanted to sleep a little longer. Taking a nap sometimes led to nightmares. In that nightmare, zombies wearing upside-down cereal boxes attacked him. They made a crunchy sound every time they moved just like when eating almond cereal.
Almond booted up the LIL practice mode.
[Spectator: Takoyaki]
Takoyaki's avatar appeared. He yawned as he had just woken up.
"You're up early today as well."
"Because we decided to practice."
"Is today the sixth day? We're practicing your joker pick today..."
Takoyaki had been coaching Almond daily even before the ADC duel with StrawberryShooter. While it seemed unfair, all the team members had already agreed. After all, Almond was a complete beginner.
'At first, it was just about helping a beginner adapt... but now it's turned into training to create a secret weapon.'
However, during the training, their purpose had changed. The foundational training aimed at adapting beginners had transformed into tactical training to hone the ultimate weapon.
Tako was making his own joker card.
'We're going to use the fact that Almond's champion pool is small.'
Everyone knew that Almond only played champions that used a bow. The champions he would choose could be predicted, so it would be easy to target him. This Joker pick was to counteract that.
"Then let's try it again today."
Tako glowed and turned into a champion.
[Hammer Warrior - Ulte]
If a skilled player were to play Ulte, he could deflect most weak attacks with his strong body. It was the perfect counter for swift, light attackers.
[Flashy Blade - Swift]
Almond's back was bathed in the radiant glow of Swift's champion. Flashy Blade Swift, the secret weapon being cultivated for Almond, was like a trump card.
Almond skillfully twirled two daggers and approached Tako with confidence. Tako prepared himself, raising his hammer.
"I'm going to raise the difficulty from yesterday."
Tako's hammer warrior was suddenly fully equipped with armor. Every time Tako lost to Almond's swift, he wore a new item. Today, he was fully equipped with six items. He lost every time they practiced.
Almond stood in front facing Tako, who was fully equipped with powerful items as a hammer warrior. Even to the blind eye, it seemed unbalanced. One side was heavily armored while the other simply held two daggers, yet the person only wielding two daggers seemed oblivious to any sense of imbalance. Without any expression, he started running and swiftly blinked forward.
The hammer warrior tried to catch his breath while lying down.
"If your username was hidden... people would think you're Grandmaster."
Even though he was fully equipped, Tako lost to Almond. It was only a matter of time.
"But why Swift? If you played a different champion, you would've mastered 2-3 more... There are more bow-wielding champions."
Almond was the one who wanted to practice Flashy Blade Swift.
"It's because I can use this champion with one hand."
Tako was confused as Almond lifted his left arm.
'What's he talking about?'
Was he playing as Swift all this time with one hand? Swift required two hands to play because of his dual-wielding daggers.
'I lost to one hand?'
Tako found out something incredible on their sixth day of training.