Season 5: Chapter 90. The Calls? (2)

“Th-the calls?!” Almond asked with such desperate urgency.

Choi Sa-Rang finally couldn't hold it in. "Pfft!"

Why was he working so hard to prove his own intelligence?

‘It’s better if he doesn't.’

It would be ideal if Almond's abilities came packaged with a brain on top, but not having one was actually better for some people. People didn’t easily change. More often than not, weaknesses and strengths were the same thing. Most of Almond's extreme physical gameplay came out precisely because he wasn't thinking.

‘If he starts using his head in a half-baked way... it'll actually end badly.’

Sa-Rang crossed her arms and focused on each screen. She was trying to watch each teammate's expression, voice, and decision-making. It seemed like she'd need to focus more on the individuals than on the game because the game was not normal.

‘Why did three teams end up at the Vault?’

It wasn’t that great a Vault.

Sa-Rang briefly closed her eyes and took a breath for no real reason. "Hah."

The irritation was already setting in. She grew annoyed when she saw strange choices, especially in a situation like this, where countless strange choices had piled up to create a strange game. Frustration was inevitable.

‘What kind of game is this?’

She began to regret her decision to coach on impulse.

***

A player needed exactly two things to get stronger in LIL: items and experience. Survival mode was no exception. In Survival mode, the player could even choose which of the two to prioritize. The conventional choice of experience growth was simply killing monsters. Some people went for the Vault instead because it produced rare items.

However, robbing the Vault always meant temporarily falling behind in levels. That was a major risk in a fast-tempo mode like Survival. If this were a real tournament, this would be a bad decision. Fortunately, this wasn't a tournament, and these were streamers.

Zelo was losing his mind. "These absolute maniacs! Three teams are going for the Vault?!"

"Is everyone here~~ a STREAMER?!"

— lmaooooo fr

— Everyone's a streamer LOL

— Survival mode is just completely empty haha

— lmaooo

— Dopamine based strategy

— Who plays survival team ranked??

Even without Choi Sa-Rang, everyone could tell something was off. Pretty much every team was a streamer team. They'd all been thinking about broadcast entertainment and had ended up here.

"This is NOT NORMAL!"

Tat tat tat tat!Bang!

Zelo wildly fired shots in every direction and screamed, but his team was already in the worst position.

[LazySoldier → Bubblegum]

Boom!

Bubblegum went flying.

Dying first every single time without exception, Zelo's fury was reaching cosmic levels. "FIRST ONE OUT! DAMN IT!"

— LOOL

— LMAO

— First one out!!

— So funny

— This team is winning every comedy award

— Lmao

— He's actually just saying it out loud lmao

ForeverAlone at least had a sword and put up a fight at the front. "N-no! Don't give up yet! Zelo!"

Clang! Clang!

Then, he spotted someone mid-battle.

"Oh, oh no... is, is that Almond hyung?!"

ForeverAlone perked up at the sigh of Almond.

Creak.

The Lord ruthlessly fired an arrow first.

[Headshot!]

Boom!

"Oh. It's ForeverAlone."

— lmaooooo

— Arrow first, greeting second

— The Greeting Arrow Method~!

— The Lord's grace!

ForeverAlone took the hit and snapped back to reality.

"Right. We're enemies... we..."

He acted like this was some kind of destiny.

— We...

— Why is he filming a movie alone?? Lmao

— You'd think they were brothers LOL

"Damn... we even ate tteokbokki together and everything!"

— ?

— lmaooo huh?

— You just ate tteokbokki together

— What do you mean “and everything”

— "And everything?”

The memory of sharing tteokbokki together flashed through ForeverAlone’s mind like a montage.

"Heave-ho!"

Shunk!

Sweet Radish came charging in out of nowhere. His spear pierced into ForeverAlone's back.

[SweetRadish → ForeverAlone]

Boom!

ForeverAlone became a rune spirit.

"Ah..."

— What are you doing?

— He went blank lmao

— LOL

— Gi-Chan you're the breadwinner of this team, stop slacking

As expected, the scolding came in ferociously the moment ForeverAlone died. Not just from viewers, but from his own teammates too because he had been carrying.

"NO! ForeverAlone! You can't just die like that! You have to carry the rune spirits and run! Carry the rune spirits and go! Come on!?"

Bubblegum added his Challenger disrespect on top. "Ah... Challenger doesn't seem like much."

— LOL

— lmaooo

— Zelo is absolutely ruthless

— Carry the rune spirits and go!

— Insane

— these guys' energy is too much

[SweetPotato → BokChoy]

Pop.

BokChoy also showed up and added a line. "Did you SEE THAT?! This is a bug right? It's definitely a bug."

The usual bug conspiracy theory happened on cue.

— Come on!

— LMAO

— Conspiracy theorist incoming

— lmaooooo

— Insane

‘I miss it...’

ForeverAlone closed his eyes and thought back.

‘The days of being a servant...’

He recalled the glorious days when he'd held the title of Servant.

Ba-bam!

[Condolences has donated a whopping 100,000 won!]

[Go, the Three Losers! The Rotten One vs. the Bad One vs. the Never-Had-It One]

— LOL

— lmaooo

— The Three Losers hahaha

— Zelo, Bubblegum, and ForeverAlone LOL

— "Never-Had-It" was too brutal lmaooo

— Whoa 100k!

— Someone made a poster of them too lmao

"Thank you! Condolences! We'll carry those logs! Heeave-ho!"

At least the donation income was flowing well.

***

Black Tea muttered while trading gunfire with another team, "Oh wow. That was Zelo's team just now?"

Bang!Crack!

Lemon grinned and tossed heals at Sweet Radish. "That lineup is brutal."

Clang!

Sweet Radish was going toe-to-toe with opposing melee bruisers, trading spear strikes. Sweet Potato was also carrying out his tank role faithfully on the side.

"Haaah!"

Thud!

He shoved away a bruiser who was trying to go two-on-one against Sweet Radish, deflecting shots aimed at Black Tea.

"Oh~ Potato Servant is~ actually decent?"

"Hah... BlackTea, I'm your oppa."

"Shut up! Potato Servant!"

"..."

— LOL

— Potato Servant xD

— He is older though...

— lmaooooo

— Sweet Potato LOL

Sweet Potato was genuinely quite capable in combat relative to his rank.

‘Our team is pretty solid?This feels good.’

The teammates were noticeably satisfied.

"We're ahead in levels too, and we're about to push the others out as well?"

The way things were going, they'd sweep not just Zelo's team but the other remaining team.

— Fr

— Yeah

— They'll probably run

— Looking for an escape lmao

"But where's Almond oppa?"

— Huh?

— What?

— Hm?

Almond had disappeared after killing Bubblegum earlier and hadn't been seen since.

"Where did the carry even GO this time?!"

— Call "The calls?" and he'll come running immediately

— Fr what's happening?

— He said he'd call the shots lmaooo

— lmaooo

— Almond's signature vanishing act

— He does this a lot lol

Black Tea couldn't believe it. "He, he does this a lot?"

This kind of behavior was unthinkable in Challenger games. Even Black Tea, who looked like she was playing chaotically, actually operated within some fundamental framework. She knew what lines not to cross, but this person had no such concept at all.

"Either way, push forward!" Sweet Radish drove his spear deeper in. "Our levels are all higher. We’ll win! They only have four people anyway!"

Choco Shroom, from Zelo's team, had taken out one enemy on her way past, bringing it to four versus four.

Bang!Crack!

Black Tea focused on dead-accurate rapid fire, Sweet Radish on precise hit-and-run, and Lemon switched to healer mode. The four-on-four was remarkably balanced.

Sweet Potato raised his shield. "They're running!"

The enemies were retreating.

"Nice~!"

Clap clap.

Everyone applauded, including Black Tea.

"Ahh, that's a shame."

Not finishing them off was frustrating. That would have been a chance to snowball hard.

"If we just take the Vault now, top three is basically a done deal." The conservative Sweet Radish said this to ease his teammates' frustration.

Black Tea generally deferred when she felt someone was clearly better than her. "Yeah... Well, I guess you know best, oppa."

Most LIL players operated like this. Problems usually arose when two players thought they were evenly matched. If the gap was clear, there was no point in arguing. Someone would just lose the debate and end up embarrassed.

‘I know that too.’

Even Almond knew this, which was exactly why he hadn't entered that argument.

Tap tap tap tap.

He just ran.

‘There.’

Creak.

Almond spotted his prey, lowered his stance, and drew his bow.

"Hooo."

He released the arrow as he exhaled.

Fwoosh!

The bowstring snapped, and an arrow buried itself in someone's head.

[Headshot!]

Boom!

"What?! Insane! Another one!?"

"What?! How are they all HERE?!"

The enemies felt shocked. They'd just come from fighting two other teams. What were the odds of running into yet another?

"This damn game, what the..."

Boom!

The sentence never finished. Two more arrows had already come flying in.

[LazySoldier is on a Rampage!]

***

"Hm?"

The Knight Order felt more surprised than the enemies. Almond had disappeared a while ago, but was apparently massacring people somewhere.

"Rampage... That means a third kill, right?"

"Wait, what? Did the Lord cut off their retreat?!"

The honorific slipped out naturally because Almond was out there solo-wiping the retreating survivors.

‘That can't be.’

Sweet Radish gulped almost out of fear.

‘At this rate...’

The Smart Young Man would get to call the shots! They had to do something too.

"L-let's run to the Vault too!"

"Sure."

Everyone made vaguely sour faces and moved toward the Vault.

[LazySoldier Double Kill!]

[LazySoldier has gone Berserk!]

Almond had already eliminated the entire team.

[Team 7 Eliminated!]

***

"Ha."

Sa-Rang's expression brightened for the first time during the Knight Order match. The unusual route was interesting enough, but the way Almond shot was genuinely striking.

‘How does he shoot a bow like that?’

No matter how good anyone else was at anything, it was all more or less within the same range to her. However, watching Almond with a bow, this alone offered her at least a small new kind of stimulation. She could watch it again and again and still find it remarkable.

‘Even back in Civil Empire, I noticed it... The moment he picks up a bow, he becomes someone else entirely.’

She had already commanded Almond before, so she knew his abilities well. The moment Almond held a bow in his hands in any game, his level would instantly elevate into another dimension.

‘I need to maximize this.’

Tap tap tap tap.

She jotted something down. Almond was at his strongest relative to everyone else in the early phase before everyone contracted. It had been the same in Civil Empire. Almond was far more threatening when he charged in first with a shortbow than when the longbow came out later. There was a genuine chance of ending the game outright.

‘But the retreat path was still risky.’

That said, Almond perfectly cutting off the enemy retreat had been entirely in the realm of luck. He didn't know this map yet and just ran. If his luck had been slightly worse, he would’ve ended up somewhere else and missed them. Then, he'd not only fall behind in levels but could have been killed in return. However, Almond had ruled that out and just ran.

‘That's actually a strength, though.’

With no delay in his decision, the enemies had encountered him at an unexpected time and place. Starting from a perfect position of psychological dominance, he'd picked them off one arrow at a time.

To the enemies, it felt like facing three or four opponents at once. In the end, this particular play was a perfect clutch from Almond. Nothing could be criticized about his solo initiative, solo execution, and perfect result.

"I’m still not giving him the calls."

Choi Sa-Rang had no intention of handing over command to the Smart Young Man. The more she watched, the more certain she felt.