Season 5: Chapter 48: The Enemy Within (1) |
The mission prize money had piled up higher and higher. Several communities started paying attention to Almond’s match. Naturally, the LIL Pro Survival board was buzzing. Even Streamer Garden, where users could say they knew Almond fairly well, started talking.
On the LIL Pro Survival board, where most didn’t really know Almond, the reaction was simple enough.
[BornToB? I heard he’s absolute trash. That’s good news. Huge win.]
On Streamer Garden, where people actually knew Almond, one thing above all shocked them.
[3. But Almond… how does he even remember BornToB?]
They felt surprised that Almond remembered him at all. So surprised, in fact, that this short post climbed all the way to third place on the issue rankings.
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Honestly, my memory is fuzzy too. I thought he had completely forgotten him LOL That guy forgets everything all the time!!
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— Gi-Chan, you really shouldn’t be doing this here
— LOL seriously
— Gi-Chan was the victim though… BornToB was the perpetrator
— Oh damn, that’s true
— Even the Lord remembers being the victim…
— Lord’s victim, BornToB
BornToB had been the assigned commander when Almond first started practicing Civil Empire. He had been brought in to train Almond harshly and used only one strategy: the Archer Rush. BornToB had been a lifetime B-rank commander.
In Civil Empire, the effectiveness of a strategy changed drastically depending on the recruited soldiers. Using only one strategy made no sense. BornToB hadn’t insisted on doing only that from the start. The national team’s think tank leader, Kim Chi-Seung, had ordered him to use nothing but the Archer Rush at the time.
As long as Almond spawned as an archer, the win rate would go up anyway. It allowed Almond to jump into battles quickly and build experience. Through that strategy, BornToB broke past his lifelong B-rank ceiling and reached A-rank. Almond also gained enough experience to participate in the national team practice matches.
The Archer Rush, born of sheer obsession, had been a happy ending for everyone involved back then, except for one small side effect.
“I’ve prepared a strategy…”
After that, BornToB could no longer live by using a variety of strategies. He’d been captivated by the efficiency of repeating just one thing. And he wasn’t the only one affected. His viewers were the same.
— Bartender. The usual.
— Let’s go~
— Why explain? Same thing again, no? Just run it
They started watching him precisely because they were fascinated by BornToBe stubbornly sticking to the Fast Archer Rush and overcoming his limits. With that audience as a foundation, BornToB became a MixedNuts affiliated streamer. He helped out with work there and grew fairly close to Ju-Hyeok. After Civil Empire, he had no reason to cross paths with Almond again.
‘So this is where we meet.’
After all, he was a streamer too. Coincidentally, he ran into Almond during placement matches while practicing for the Platform War.
‘This is a chance…!’
BornToB didn’t think it was a chance to make his stream famous? No, he wasn’t that commercially minded.
‘A chance… to show my strategy.’
He just wanted to prove himself.
“I’ll get to show the Fast Dagger Rush to Mr. Almond, my benefactor.”
— For real, for real
— LOL this is legit
— A chance to get certified by the master!
— Is that really what you should show your benefactor…?
The Fast Dagger Rush consisted of picking daggers first, contracting an assassin champion as fast as possible, and killing the enemy damage dealers from behind. Surprisingly, it worked quite well.
Almost no one contracted an assassin champion first, so teams neglected their backline and got punished for it. Early fights usually revolved around shields clashing in honest, straightforward brawls.
“Just take the blade for now.” Right on cue, Almond allowed him to take the blade. “We’ll swap later.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve got a guaranteed win strategy.”
Almond said he had a strategy too. Even if he was a benefactor, BornToB was a Civil Empire player and a MixedNuts employee.
“Mr. Almond has a strategy…?”
He knew better than anyone how absurd that sounded. The Smart Young Man’s win rate was 26% lower than his.
— LOL
— LOL exactly
— Civil Empire players see right through it instantly
— LOL total nonsense
***
Meanwhile, LetMeTank hadn’t revealed her status yet.
“B-BornToB… who is that?”
She was already shocked that BornToB turned out to be a streamer. The reactions from the surrounding streamers weren’t good.
“Seriously, how do you put Civil Empire’s Bubblegum on the same team as Bubblegum~?”
“Right? Ugh. I want to blow this up.”
Choco Shroom and Bubblegum, in particular, looked miserable.
— Are they allowed to say that?
— Coming from you guys? LOL
— Well, Choco Shroom is Silver at least
‘Another Bubblegum…’
LetMeTank swallowed dryly.
‘Do I just have to do damage myself?’
She glanced at BornToB’s blade. Could tanking really carry this? No matter how skilled Almond was, could he overcome a matchup like this?
“Fish!” Almond shouted as he fired his bow.
Pwoong!
“F-Fish!?” LetMeTank looked over in confusion.
It was a Deep Sea Fish.
“Ah…”
— Fish LMAO
— It is a fish though LOL
— First time I’ve heard someone call it that haha
— This team is doomed!
— Fi… fish?!
She thought the viewers were doubting Almond’s shot-calling just because of that one word.
“Everyone, you can call it a fish.” She swung her blunt weapon and smashed the Deep Sea Fish while defending Almond. “Honestly, it is basically a fish.”
— That face card is disgusting, seriously
— You can tell he doesn’t even know the game
— Like that’s why people are mad?!
— See one thing, know ten
“Face card. What’s that supposed to mean? Mr. Almond is insanely good at this game. Why are you all like this? Are you trying to cancel me?”
Thud!
Thunk!
Even while chatting with her viewers, LetMeTank steadily brought her blunt weapon down, one swing at a time, on the Deep Sea Fish. Their health bars started to drop.
‘They’re just Deep Sea Fish, anyway.’
Despite the name, they were basically just boxes that dropped money and experience when a player hit them. Nothing was supposed to happen while fighting these.
“Uwaah?!”
Wooooong!
[Heal]
Choco Shroom suddenly cast a heal. However, the heal went straight to the monster.
“Ah, I’m sorry. I, I didn’t realize it was a heal…”
LetMeTank stared in horror. Honestly, today was the first time she learned that monsters could be healed.
“Didn’t you guys say Choco Shroom was at least Silver?”
— That is Silver, yeah
— LOL she’s Silver in Siege, basically unranked in Survival though
— Choco Shroom? She’s the weakest among us, you know?
— That’s the reality of Silver. You wouldn’t know since you’re Master.
— If that’s Silver, then…
Either way, the fight slowed down a bit thanks to Choco Shroom’s heal.
Thoom!
LetMeTank’s mace swings and Almond’s almost supernatural chain of headshots barely made the timing work.
[Level Up!]
[Lv. 1 → Lv. 2]
“About five seconds late.” LetMeTank was the meticulous type. She even tracked the timing of their level. “That’s still within recoverable range. Mr. Almond, your aim is seriously good.”
— LetMeTank should be shotcalling!
— Not a very Smart Young Man…
— Step back! Almondoyle!
— Okay, yeah, he shoots well
— Just say you’re Master already!
Bubblegum and BornToB, maybe because they were on their main weapons, didn’t cause any trouble. Aside from Choco Shroom, the next hunt passed without incident.
“Whew. We’re back on schedule this time. Everyone is doing well, right?”
The fact that she even worried about their timing while farming monsters was already a sign that something was wrong, but LetMeTank deliberately pushed that thought out of her head.
***
In Survival, the Red Turtle fight usually started around levels 2 to 3. Some strategies skipped the Red Turtle, but Almond chose that route.
“We’ll take the squid.”
“Squid? You mean the octopus, right?”
“Yeah. That one.”
— LOL
— Squid??
— An octopus is a squid now?!
— To Almond, everything’s a squid
The Abyss Squid was actually a high-level monster. Almond had meant the octopus, a common Red Turtle alternative. It was much weaker than the Red Turtle, making it far easier to kill. However, it didn’t give any buff rewards.
— First time seeing Almond skip Turtle
— Going octopus here?
— He totally picked this just to mess with the bald guy, 100%
— Takoyaki has entered the fight~
Viewers were shocked that Almond, who always insisted on the Red Turtle, had changed his plan.
Ding.
[EggPlant has donated 3,000 won.]
[Almond saw Choco Shroom heal and felt a wall instantly LOL]
Amazingly, EggPlant had nailed Almond’s thoughts exactly.
— Holy shit, that was it?
— Yeah, Turtle would be impossible…
— If she healed the Turtle, the game would literally explode LOL
— LMAO
“I didn’t switch to octopus because of Choco Shroom, EggPlant.”
Choco Shroom flinched at hearing her name. She turned to Bubblegum. “Mr. Gum, h-he’s doing that on purpose, right?”
Bubblegum shook his head. “No? He’s just reading donations.”
— Betrayal!
— When it’s him, it’s on purpose, huh
— LMAO
“Oh, r-really…?”
“What, you doubting the Smart Young Man? Were you anti-Smart-Young-Man faction? Huh? Wanna split into factions?”
“Eeeek!? N-no!”
— LMAO
— Another Smart Young Man has been born…
— LOL
— LIL’s Smart Young Man
***
Not long after, Almond’s team encountered the octopus. Maybe because the Red Turtle route was popular this round, no enemies appeared nearby. The hunt went smoothly.
“I’ll go in first! Cover me!”
Thud!
LetMeTank smashed down with her mace, and Bubblegum charged in right after.
“Okay!”
He blocked the octopus’s tentacles with his shield so they wouldn’t latch onto LetMeTank.
Wham!
A tentacle slammed into Bubblegum’s shield, then another stretched out. If it hit, any player would be bound and immobilized for a long time.
“I’ll cut it!”
Slash!
BornToB cleanly slashed the tentacle off. Against an octopus, just controlling the tentacles made it several times easier than the Red Turtle.
Pwoong!
Pwoom!
Meanwhile, every one of Almond’s arrows landed.
[Level Up!]
[Lv. 3 → Lv. 4]
They reached level 4 easily, and a rune box appeared. Naturally, everyone’s gaze turned to Almond. Somehow, he’d ended up with the authority.
“Contract… LetMeTank,” Almond said it as if it were obvious.
“What?” LetMeTank froze.
“Go ahead.”
“M-me!? Me!?” She had been quietly watching for a chance to swap weapons and transition into a DPS role.
More importantly, Hammer Paladin wasn’t a champion one rushed into contracting.
‘He really hasn’t played Survival much, has he?’
LetMeTank was actually Master rank in Survival. She just hadn’t played in a while, so she was doing placements after the seasonal reset.
“Uh… Hammer Paladin has really weak solo synergy, so you usually contract another tank first…”
Almond looked like he didn’t see the issue. “Then just contract a different tank.”
“What?!”
— LOOL
— LMAO
— So the goal was just tank, huh
— This guy’s crazy
— Tank insurance
— He never actually cared about Hammer Paladin at all LMAO
— ??? No bread? Then eat meat!
“B-but Bubblegum can tank too… and he’s literally holding a shield!”
“Bubblegum is a guaranteed tank. We need to lock in the uncertain tank first.”
Almond was openly saying, ‘I don’t trust you.’
— LMAO
— LOL
— Not even trying to hide it
— This is hilarious
— He’s way too transparent
Just then, a savior stepped in.
“I-I’ll do it. I’ll contract.” BornToB saw an opening to rush an assassin contract.
— Going for a pick here?
— Trying to assassinate the team instead
— What is this guy doing LOL
— BornToB feels dangerous…
— This is a total disaster
— Stop being greedy and just go Iron Ball already
— Placement final game is actually insane
Pshing!
An arrow flew in.
“Dodge it!”
“Hey, I’ll contract!”
BornToB seized the moment and dashed for the rune box.
‘I’ll prove the Fast Dagger Rush works!’
Thud!
A shield blocked him.
“Ack! Ack! W-where!? What’s happening!?”
Bubblegum had been flailing around, trying to find where the arrow came from, and ended up blocking BornToB’s path.
“G-Gum! I, I…!”
Booom!
[Mana Explosion]
Blue flames scattered and engulfed BornToB.
Almond’s eyes went wide.
‘Huh?’
— Huh
— What?
— No way
— Damn
— Oh…
— Ah…
That was Raina’s skill.
***
[Beginner’s Tip]
[Did you know? Life is lonely, especially the road to victory. In Survival, there are times when you can’t even trust your allies’ words.]
