The Genius Archer's Streaming Season 1 Episode 6
3. Who's Almond? (1)
A package game that's been out for a long time.
As with any game of this kind, over time, it inevitably develops an obsessive fanbase.
Kingdom Age was a game with a particularly devoted following.
No matter how many playthroughs you did, you'd never get tired of it thanks to its unique realism and difficulty.
Of course, there were also many players who got sick of it right from the start and dropped off. No, actually, that was the majority. That's why it was a game only for veterans.
The community had a similar personality.
Not many users, but an elite few.
While small in number, the post traffic rivaled that of moderately successful game communities.
Most of them were passionate gamers who exchanged information and studied solely to get better at Kingdom Age.
Given the circumstances, the patterns of posts that always came up were pretty much the same, and the posters were all familiar faces.
So naturally, this kind of fresh post would catch people's attention.
[I saw a weird stream today. A total newbie gets praised by Roman.]
Total newbie. Roman's praise.
These two words alone were enough to magically inflate view counts.
There was no Kingdom Age user who would see such a provocative title and not click in.
==== ====
Watch this video.
It's real. Below is that person's capsule physical info.
Roman goes and praises them to high heaven. Plus, the boss running away cutscene doesn't even show up and it just dies lolㅋㅋㅋㅋ
==== ====
The content of the post was simple.
Sanghyeon had killed the bandit boss in one shot, so even the cutscene disappeared.
On top of that, he received praise from Roman, the newbies' nightmare and toxic-talker.
There were attachments too.
He had clipped Sanghyeon's video and uploaded it, and below that, he attached the physical information that could be found in his stream's detail section.
In short, it wasn't just hearsay; it was a claim with evidence.
-Lmao, I thought it was obvious bait.
-What the hell. I thought this was a bait video. Why is it real though.
-Whysisreal...?
Generally, the reactions leaned heavily toward being extremely surprised. Or rather, there were many who simply couldn't believe it.
-Wait, the account was created yesterday?!
└Isn't this a fake?
└It's a fake. Fucking hell, how many times are you gonna fall for attention whoring? It's just引流.
└Dude above didn't watch the video.......
-Isn't this some bow challenge veteran on a sub-account?!!
└Sub-accountㅋㅋㅋㅋ On a capsuleㅋㅋㅋ
└Yup~ It's a sub-account. Just make a new physical body. What's so hard about that ㅋㅋ
└For realㅋㅋ
Everyone had played the game for a long time and had confidence in their own skills, so there were quite a few who couldn't believe it.
But videos don't lie.
In the capsule era, you couldn't fake your account either. Your fingerprints, iris, bone structure, and all other physical characteristics were your identity verification.
Furthermore, in a streamer's case, the creation date of that physical account was also displayed. Anyone could view it.
-Almond? I searched but nothing comes up. What's this.
-For real, where are they even streaming? Don't everyone use Trebi nowadays?
└Trebi is sparkling water you idiot.
-Looking at the screen, it is Tribi. For real, where is it.
-I'm the OP. That person is a complete newbie so looking back, their stream name was just auto-generated. Some kind of code numberㅋㅋㅋ Leaving the link here. Click it. (Link)
└Wowㅋㅋㅋㅋ They didn't even set a stream name?ㅋㅋㅋ
└If you think about it, what a dumbassㅋㅋㅋ
A stinging sensation.
Sanghyeon, who was browsing the community, paused.
"Ah... no way."
It was only then that he realized. He had just started the stream without even setting a stream name.
"Thank goodness. They put up the link."
Fortunately, the OP had left a link in the comments. This would be enough for promotional effect.
He patted his chest in relief and then checked the next reactions.
-No, that just means they're that much of a beginner....... How the hell did they do it...... Fuck.
-Catching the boss. Isn't that what even Jeonjapa doing the bow challenge couldn't do?
└Huh? Now that you mention it, I think Jeonjapa did say you need to catch the boss with a bow. That bastard has all-parry frames.
└They also said you need to nail it at the perfect timing with a bow.
└Something even Jeonjapa's physical skills couldn't do, a fucking bastard who made their account yesterday did it?
└Jeonjapa...... they were doing the bow challenge for a while and then just quit this game.
└Jeonjapa is too world-class...... to be playing this kind of trash game.
Sanghyeon was being compared to someone named Jeonjapa.
'Jeonjapa...?'
Sanghyeon didn't actually know the streamer with that bizarre name. He had only watched Balloon Gum's streams.
'I feel like I vaguely remember though.'
When he had once looked for skilled streamers, a name from the top rankings came to mind. He thought they might have been a former pro gamer.
And then he remembered something someone had written:
-Classical Wave, Dopa, and next is Electromagnetic Wave.
About 20 years ago, Classical Wave and Dopa had dominated an era. Even Sanghyeon, who had no interest in games, knew about those two well.
He had even learned in school that the etymology of 'Jagangducheon,' the first pure Korean four-character idiom to be registered in the dictionary, originated from their grand rivalry.
Classical Wave and Dopa of Jagangducheon.
The one compared to those two who had dominated an era was the current Jeonjapa [Electromagnetic Wave].
"Whoa."
And he was being compared to that Jeonjapa right now.
Of course, there was a sizable faction that had objections to that comparison.
-Who the hell is Jeonjapa?
-Now they're attaching Jeonjapa to everythingㅋㅋ
-Ugh. Justㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-But it's true though. That is something Jeonjapa couldn't do, right?
-Hey. Don't you know Jeonjapa doesn't like package games in the first place?
└Whether they like it or not, it's a fact that they couldn't do what that person did.
└Fact) No one likes your life.
-Ugh, the scorpions are swarming again.
-It's basically Voldemortㅋㅋㅋㅋ If you say the name, you're fucked.
Sanghyeon closed the community window.
"Whoa..."
To be compared to the top tier of this industry already.
It was definitely burdensome, but he was a sportsman by nature.
He was the type to enjoy this kind of pressure.
"That's awesome."
Sanghyeon smiled, genuinely finding it amusing.
It was then.
Ring ring ring.
He received a phone call.
[Kim Juhyeok]
It was Kim Juhyeok. Come to think of it, he hadn't even properly thanked him. Thinking it worked out well, Sanghyeon answered Juhyeok's call.
"Hello."
"Hey. Did the stream go well?"
"Thanks to you, it went well."
"Really? That's a relief. The boss was a bit worried."
"I'm fine. It seems to be working properly."
"Did you get any viewers?"
"Uh... By the end, about 20 people were watching."
"T-Twenty!? What. On the first day?"
Juhyeok yelled so loudly that Sanghyeon flinched.
"Uh... I picked a good game, I guess."
"Wow. You're really talented. Why did you even work here?"
"Because they said they'd parachute me into a big corporation. Who wouldn't take that."
"You little shit..."
"Anyway, I'll buy you drinks next time. I need to stream."
"Huh? It's lunchtime right now? You do evening streams."
"Who cares about lunch or dinner. This is my job now."
"You never worked during lunch or evening at the company. Alright."
Click.
Juhyeok hung up, dumbfounded.
"Good grief..."
His mouth seemed to grumble, but it was smiling.
'I'm glad he's working hard.'
He may have scolded him with his words, but Yoo Sanghyeon was a very diligent person. Seeing that trait manifesting well in this game streaming industry, Juhyeok was satisfied.
"Ah."
He, who had been smiling with satisfaction, scratched his head.
"I was supposed to say something... I forgot."
The capsule room boss had definitely asked him to pass on a message. It had suddenly turned into a casual check-in call.
'What was it again...?'
Juhyeok racked his brain thinking about it this way and that, but it didn't easily come to mind.
It was something related to physical optimization or whatever. Juhyeok was also someone far removed from capsule games, so it was terminology he couldn't understand.
"Assistant Manager Kim!"
At the section chief's shout, Juhyeok completely forgot what he was pondering and ran off.
"Yes!"
"Look at this. Are you even able to swallow your food right now? Your subordinate is doing this..."
'Damn bastard...'
* * *
Crunch. Crunch.
Sanghyeon shoveled the almonds he had hoarded as snacks and emergency rations into his mouth and activated the capsule.
He wanted to eat a proper meal, but that would be a waste of time. No, to be precise, because of the community reactions today, food wouldn't go down.
His heart was pounding and energy kept surging through him.
He didn't need food. Attention was his food.
Gulp. Gulp.
Still, he had to satisfy his hunger, so he chugged down some milk.
If you eat almonds and then drink milk, it slowly expands in your stomach, making you quite full later.
It was also his own way of getting protein, carbohydrates, and fat all at once. It was a method he frequently used when he was really broke.
"Let's go."
Wiping the white marks from the corner of his mouth, Sanghyeon stepped into the capsule.
[Starting stream.]
He started streaming just like yesterday.
And then an amazing number appeared before his eyes.
[Current Viewers: 189]
"...What?!"
Sanghyeon's jaw dropped.
-Oh. Almond's here.
-What. Weren't they streaming in the evening?
-Nice.
-Ohlㅋㅋㅋ Came on right after I set the notification.
-Now you'll really see if you watch.
-Almond hi.
-Hi hi.
The noticeably increased viewers and chat.
'This much?'
He hadn't expected the firepower of that small community to be this significant.