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Season 2: Chapter 139. Public Opinion (2)

"I think we can do it next year," he said.

This statement implied that they could potentially win next year\'s competition.

Her gaze shifted toward Hui-Chul\'s abdomen and she slightly started trembling. Could it be that they couldn’t even look forward to next year?

Hui-Chul clarified before any misunderstandings could grow, "Because I\'m not sure if that person will continue playing next year."

"Ah, I see," his partner nodded in understanding. "That person also seemed to have health issues, right?"

"Yes," Hui-Chul confirmed, knowing his partner was aware of Almond\'s condition since they discussed it before.

Almond shared many similarities with Hui-Chul, except perhaps his affection for Civil Empire. Hui-Chul was a general game streamer unlikely to continue doing this next year. So what?

"Winning was never the goal," Hui-Chul\'s partner recalled their original objective. "Honey, don\'t be sad. Winning was out of the question... Making it to the main event and reaching the top eight was the goal, wasn\'t it?"

Hui-Chul nodded, agreeing to what was considered an impossible goal by the community. Achieving it would be a remarkable feat or at least a stepping stone to greatness.

"Yeah, I wasn\'t even thinking about winning, but..."

Hui-Chul couldn\'t shake off his disappointment.

"It seems more regrettable now that it’s within reach. If only we had known a little sooner... even if it wasn’t a year, just six months..."

Hui-Chul was aware that Almond had started streaming less than six months ago. Before that, Almond had worked in a successful corporation unrelated to this world. Hui-Chul was indulging in impossible hypotheticals due to his regret.

"Would it have been better if we hadn\'t known? Is that what you\'re thinking?" his partner inquired.

"No," Hui-Chul shook his head with a big smile. "I can\'t be that foolish."

His partner sat on his lap.

"Right. It\'s fortunate that we found him now even if we can’t win the championship. I\'d be so happy just making it to the main event. I might even cry."

"Yeah, that\'s true," Hui-Chul agreed with a smile. However, he couldn’t fully hide the bitterness lingering at the corners of his mouth.

"Let\'s just focus on what we need to do right now. That person still has a lot to learn. We need to decide how to teach him. If we keep this up, we might not even make it to the main event."

"Right."

***

After achieving A+ rank, Sang-Hyeon decided to take a break.

[Kimchi Warrior: The scrimmage will start at 7 P.M. Get some rest and I\'ll see you then.]

Reading the message, Sang-Hyeon\'s eyes drifted to the clock at the top of his screen.

"At 7 P.M, that means..."

It was currently 5 P.M. He could eat dinner and get back in time. That seemed like a good plan.

[Logout]

With a soft hiss, his custom capsule opened. Sang-Hyeon sat up and looked around. The person who usually greeted him after the capsule opened wasn’t there.

"He hasn\'t come back yet."

Ju-Hyeok hadn’t returned from the award ceremony preparations. He was probably shopping for clothes with Ji-Ah and wouldn’t return until after dinner.

"Hmm."

Sang-Hyeon scratched his head, looking somewhat troubled.

"What to eat?"

Dinner was always prepared by Ju-Hyeok. Upon reflection, it seemed that Ju-Hyeok had been taking care of various aspects of Sang-Hyeon\'s life beyond his managerial duties.

Shortly afterward...

Crunch, crunch.

Predictably, Sang-Hyeon was munching on almonds he\'d taken from the cupboard. He didn’t even realize when he had taken them out.

Crunch, crunch.

The savoriness spread in his mouth, improving his mood. He continued to munch on almonds with one hand while scrolling through the community on his phone with the other.

"?"

Something felt uncomfortable.

"Ah."

He tapped his head and moved toward the computer. Why bother eating almonds at the dining table? He could just sit at his computer, munch on them, and browse the community there. Sitting at the dining table had become a habit from eating with Ju-Hyeok.

Thump.

He placed a bowl of almonds on his computer desk.

[Embul]

He entered the community.

"I wonder how BornToB is doing."

Almond was concerned about BornToB. Was it because he suddenly cried or because of them playing together for so long? It was hard to say, but BornToB was certainly on his mind. Not that he wanted to continue playing games with BornToB. He hoped BornToB wasn\'t receiving too much flak.

"...?"

Sang-Hyeon was taken aback by the unexpected reactions. A lot of posts praised BornToB\'s fast archer rush and some even adored him.

The top post on Embul was:

7. If you suddenly find BornToB likable, upvote like crazy lol

A post asking for likes if users liked BornToB reached seventh place due to its high number of likes. Further searches on BornToB revealed numerous posts.

[BornToB might have lived as B rank just waiting for this day.]

[BornToB was just waiting for Almond. He’s actually an S+ level talent.]

They all featured such titles.

[BornToB is actually the daughter of the British royal family. He came to Korea to marry Almond and pretended to be bad at Civil Empire.]

[BornToB is actually the president of the USA. He’s playing games with the nuke Almond to prevent a nuclear war.]

And so on.

"What\'s going on...?"

Sang-Hyeon felt something was off. It seemed unclear in the beginning, but all the posts seemed like jokes now.

Why did they all suddenly uplift BornToB to such an extent? If a community suddenly propped up an underdog, it was usually for simple reasons.

First, it was simply for fun. This aspect wasn\'t really problematic. It was just a joke meant to be laughed off.

However, the second aspect was more contentious.

"Some other purpose..."

Sang-Hyeon quickly sensed something with his accumulated experience in communities.

"This is it."

It was a takedown strategy.

[This proves B rank is on par with A rank lol]

[A rank guys better keep quiet now lol]

[Riding the night bus to A rank was all thanks to this~~]

It wasn\'t about uplifting BornToB but elevating the status of B rank itself. Thereby diminishing the prestige of A rank. Most community users were ranked lower than A, so tarnishing the honor of A rank to make it seem no different from B rank was their goal.

BornToB was merely being used for this purpose. Similar content also made it to the top posts section.

10. B >>>> A, A+

15. After GodToB came, ABC = Bronze Silver Gold

‘Sigh...’

Sang-Hyeon was confused about whether to feel happy or not. He was glad BornToB wasn’t receiving so much hate now, but something felt off.

‘He did well today.’

Sang-Hyeon hoped someone would recognize BornToB’s efforts, but the community never reacted the way he wanted it to. He closed the window after having browsed enough. He grew full on the almonds and felt his eyelids close. Then, his gaze turned toward the sofa.

“Yawn... let’s take a nap.”

Sang-Hyeon’s mind became as blank as BornToB’s. He forgot about everything and decided to take a nap.

***

Somewhere else, these individuals also couldn’t enjoy the compliments toward BornToB. It was the group chat full of stream snipers.

[CheesyAttackJudge: ... What is this?]

[CheesyAttackJudge: You went out so confidently to win by any means and lost like that?]

[SandSpoon: LOL, seriously, what did you mean when you said you would win by any means?? LOL]

[BoySchool: ... Sigh.]

[SandSpoon: Say something. Did you even do it properly?]

[BoySchool: Why don\'t you try? brat.]

[VeryVeryCastle: Hey, watch your language.]

BoySchool\'s speech became increasingly rough as if he lost his reasoning.

[BoySchool: No, why did this guy even come here? Just to start trouble, it seems. What\'s your rank?]

[VeryVeryCastle: If you keep this up, I\'ll have no choice but to kick you out.]

Then, the others demanded an explanation.

[Ronaldo: BoySchool, sir. What tactics did you use and what didn\'t work? You can at least say this much, right?]

[CheesyAttackJudge: I agree. I think you have a duty to explain.]

[SandSpoon: Were you watching his stream? You were against someone who only uses the same tactic? LOL]

[Ronaldo: No way LOL]

Pressed by the other members, BoySchool reluctantly responded after a moment of contemplation.

[BoySchool: ... Yes, I took a peak at the stream.]

Everyone paused for a moment, except for SandSpoon.

[SandSpoon: LOLLLLLLLL]

[SandSpoon: Crazy LOL so funny why did you lose then?]

[SandSpoon: Why did you take a look at their stream when all they use is the same strategy? LOL]

To this, BoySchool added on as if he felt it was unfair.

[BoySchool: No, that\'s why I thought naturally I could block or counter first... then the map could be used effectively next... but setting up two screens turned out to be more complicated than I thought...]

[SandSpoon: LOL you never tried it before and this was your first attempt??]

[BoySchool: And you, have you tried stream sniping? Is that something to brag about? Then why don\'t you go and try??]

[VeryVeryCastle: Enough, stop it.]

VeryVeryCastle tried to intervene, but it wasn’t effective.

[Ronaldo: Now, CheesyAttackJudge, won\'t you say something? Aren\'t you going to stream snipe? LOL What kind of logic is that?]

[CheesyAttackJudge: Let\'s calm down first. It\'s always been the case that to punish evil, one might commit a greater evil...]

[CheesyAttackJudge: But if that evil is only committed against evil, then it\'s okay to deeply reflect on it later, isn\'t it?]

[SandSpoon: Wow, that concept is amazing LOL]

[Ronaldo: Spouting nonsense LOL]

[CheesyAttackJudge: Your words are too harsh.]

Then, CheesyAttackJudge asked something to a user with an unfamiliar nickname.

[CheesyAttackJudge: But Ronaldo? Since when have you been here? It seems you didn\'t talk before.]

[CheesyAttackJudge: Have you been here from the start? I don\'t think I\'ve seen you on Embul either.]

He noticed that Ronaldo wasn\'t an original member of the chatroom. Initially, it was unclear whether a user had changed their nickname, but it turned out to be a completely new person upon checking.

[VeryVeryCastle: This person joined us when we were not talking for a while.]

Ronaldo had joined them when the chatroom was deactivated after AK47\'s humiliating defeat.

[CheesyAttackJudge: Is that so? Wasn\'t this place password protected?]

[VeryVeryCastle: It doesn’t require a password. You just need to know the chatroom name to enter. We didn\'t set a password because that would make it too inaccessible...]

This room was basically where extremists gathered. This time, they just happened to take on the task of stream sniping Almond.

Originally, it was just a common open chatroom waiting for users to join without any passwords required. The chatroom’s name was only a bit difficult to figure out.

[CheesyAttackJudge: How did you join, Ronaldo? It wouldn\'t have been easy to find the chatroom’s name.]

CheesyAttackJudge kept pressing Ronaldo for an answer.

[Ronaldo: I searched for the chatroom’s name and joined.]

[CheesyAttackJudge: You have to know what it is to search for it, right?]

[Ronaldo: I have connections, of course I know.]

[CheesyAttackJudge: Connections? How do you know us?]

A long silence followed.

[VeryVeryCastle: ??]

[BoySchool: What is it? Say something.]

[SandSpoon: He\'s not going to say he\'s Almond, right? LOL]

[Ronaldo: I\'m not Almond.]

[Ronaldo: But I\'m someone who knows him very well.]

[Ronaldo: Actually, I\'ve been observing this place for a while because of certain circumstances...]

Then, Ronaldo revealed his identity and caused an uproar in the chatroom.

[Ronaldo: I\'m Almond’s manager you bastards.]

Almond’s manager? Not many of them understood what this meant right away.

[VeryVeryCastle: ???]

[BoySchool: ...?]

[Brr: ?]

Only two of them responded.

[CheesyAttackJudge: Ah fuck]

[SandSpoon: Ah shit...]

Snap.

Ju-Hyeok took a screenshot and left them a final message.

[Ronaldo: Alright, if everyone gets it now, disperse!]

The silence only lasted for a moment before they all quickly made a move. As if on cue, all the members fled without looking back.

[CheesyAttackJudge has left the chatroom.]

[Brr has left the chatroom.]

[BoySchool has left the chatroom.]

[SandSpoon has left the chatroom.]

[VeryVeryCastle left the chatroom.]

Only Ju-Hyeok remained, but that didn’t matter because he had already screenshotted everything.

[Almond and BornToB’s last promo match was stream sniped (with evidence)]

A new post appeared on Embul.