Season 5: Chapter 98. Frog Sous Vide (2)

Tap tap tap tap!

Even while running, Sweet Radish glanced sideways at Almond once more.

[DumbYoungMan]

“Pfft.” He couldn't help but smile at that nickname floating above Almond. "Ahem."

Sweet Radish suppressed the laugh and started working his head.

‘Think... think.’

He had to show something in exactly three games. Hadn't the coach basically said she would watch exactly three?

This was a test. If Sweet Radish failed to pass it, he would have to change his nickname to something like Dumb Radish. He had to nail this.

'First things first, I have the lead here, right?'

Nobody besides Almond had particularly wanted to call the shots. Realistically, only Black Tea could also fill this role. However, she was the classic carry type who found making calls annoying. She excelled at situation briefings, but briefings didn't matter much in Survival mode. The five players mostly stuck together the whole time.

'Then, I need to distribute.'

[Artifact Box]

[Open]

Pop.

The box opened, and weapons spilled out.

"The distribution... will be the same as before."

"Yessir~"

At least the weapon assignment was set from the start. Almond would receive the bow, Black Tea the gun, Sweet Radish the spear, Sweet Potato the shield, and Lemon the staff.

'Not the most stable comp, but the ceiling is high assuming we have the skills to back it up.

Given Sweet Radish's nature, he'd want an extra-tanky DPS here. This wasn't a bad setup either. One more carry meant big advantages when they had the edge in skills.

Black Tea looked around. "Uh... there's no bow."

'Hm?'

That was possible. Artifact boxes didn't guarantee every weapon type was evenly distributed. Adapting to variables like this was one of Survival mode’s skill elements.

"Then, a gun? Just one gun?"

"Yeah."

Sweet Radish seemed more flustered than Almond. "There's no other ranged weapon?!"

"That's fine. I'll just take a dagger."

Swoosh.

Almond grabbed the dagger like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Ah..." Sweet Radish ran through the options.

Adding an assassin would improve the raw class balance.

'For this Knight Order lineup, having two carries to protect and pushing as a five-person defensive wall is exactly right.'

Lemon had no initiator instincts, and Sweet Potato's skill level was somewhat uncertain. In situations like this, the best approach was staying together and protecting the carries. An assassin didn't fit this strategy.

He asked, "Bro, what champion will you play?"

"I'll play Flashy Blade."

Sweet Radish hesitated. It wasn’t quite a pure assassin, but still a late-entry DPS.

'And that makes the composition a bit top-heavy.'

On top of that, Flashy Blade was basically useless before level six.

— LOL back to Flashy Blade again

— Just straight-up two weapon build

— Almond on Raina and Flashy Blade would be peak lmao

— Flashy Blade is genuinely slow for survival mode though...

Flashy Blade was less about mobility than zone control. He was fast in short bursts, but played the game slowly over time like positioning archers on castle walls and advancing steadily in Civil Empire. This was awkward in Survival mode, where the battlefield constantly shifted.

Sweet Radish tried to gently persuade Almond without putting his foot on it. "I respect your Flashy Blade skills, but..."

Suddenly, Almond shook his head. "Oh, wait. I don't have to play Flashy Blade. What do you want?"

Almond changed his stance.

"I'll play whatever champion Sweet Radish wants."

Sweet Radish was dumbfounded.

'What? What is this textbook nice-guy way of talking?'

— What LOL

— No soul in those words lmaooo

— What did he hear in there???

'But... this is good regardless.'

Soulless or not, those words couldn't be taken back, even by Lord Almond.

***

Right after the game started, Almond had said to his viewer-only channel, "For these three games, I'll just unconditionally do whatever Sweet Radish says."

— ?

— Hm?

— Why?

— Huh?

Ba-bam!

[Factose has donated 10,000 won.]

[This isn't a Dumb Young Man, this is a Smart Young Man. Wrong role.]

— lmaooooo fr

— He just needs to do the opposite

— lmaooo right

— When he doesn't call the shots, he's smart, when he does, he's dumb...

A very smart conspiracy was actually hidden in this.

"Because... that way, Sweet Radish will go into the truth room too."

— Wow

— What

— LOL

— IT’S A REVENGE TRANSFER?!

— lmaooooo

— What happened in there??

This only made the viewers more curious about what had happened between Almond and Choi Sa-Rang in the truth room.

Ding!

[CleverYoungRevolution has donated 5,000 won.]

[What happened in the truth room? I'm being serious!]

Donations like this poured in, but Almond maintained total silence. More donations came in asking.

Almond conspicuously suppressed the urge to speak. "Mm!"

— "Mm" LOL

— Truly iron-lipped

— Sealed lips!

— Is there an embargo??

— So annoying fr

— Did someone slap a gag order on you?

— This is really irritating

— At this point, it's not a truth room, it's a mystery room

— lmaooo

Ding!

[TankMan has donated 10,000 won.]

[ChoiXinPing and Almond and the Mystery Room...]

— LOL

— Superpower!

— Wow...

— His mouth is behind a golden shield

— Fr...

— TankMan has arrived LOL

Even this mocking donation went unanswered from Almond.

Ba-bam!

[RubySword has donated 50,000 won.]

[What did you do in the truth room? I'm dead curious!]

— Wow

— What the

— RubySword is being serious

— Wow...

— Game over...

Seeing RubySword step in, Almond decided that just staying silent wouldn’t be enough. "Hah... I suppose I have no choice but to put it up for auction. I'll whisper it to the winner. Starting from fifty thousand..."

— ?

— What

— ??

— "No choice"?? lmaooo

— Extracting money from this??

— Forget it, not doing it

— We don't even need to know

— "Smart Young Man"

With those words, everyone immediately said they didn't need to know.

"Anyway, I'll follow whatever Sweet Radish says for all three games. That's the minimum revenge."

Almond tried to wrap it up with that, which only made things worse.

— ???

— lmaooo

— What did they do to you that requires revenge???

— Why are you taking revenge on your own teammate lmaooo you maniac lmaooo

— Got hit by Choi Sa-Rang and taking revenge on Sweet Radish lmaooo

— Did you actually get the paddle?

How could this not make everyone more curious about what Choi Sa-Rang had done? Above all, calling this revenge was too funny.

— Though if you do this, you'll probably all get first place?

— Sweet Radish might not go into the truth room

— He only goes in if you make the calls lmaooo

— The best judgment

Viewers felt that with Almond not interfering or judging anything himself, the odds of winning first place actually shot up.

Almond seemed to genuinely think this was some form of revenge. "You'll see for yourself."

He thought that not using his brainpower would put them at a disadvantage.

"You'll play whatever champion I say?! Thank you!"

Boing!

Sweet Radish jumped with joy.

'Over-react now to absolutely make sure that he can't take it back later.'

This was very carefully calculated behavior. Sweet Radish was locking Almond's words in, but it looked different to Almond.

'He's messing with me on purpose.'

Sweet Radish's exaggerated reaction felt like ridicule, as if saying, “I'm THIS happy that the Smart Young Man isn't calling the shots!” It was an unavoidable misinterpretation. Even Almond's own viewers thought the same.

— Sweet Radish happiness montage

— Jump! LOL

— He jumped so high

— lmaooo insane

— lmaooo he really loves it

Viewers piled on, teasing Almond.

— "Dumb Revenge"

— So funny taking revenge alone lmaooo

— Revenge the victim doesn't know about

— Revenge with no victim

— If this counts as revenge, Oldboy had a happy ending.

Almond ignored the viewers for now and listened to Sweet Radish's calls.

Sweet Radish held out a staff. "Bro! Please take this!"

"A staff?"

"Yes! I think Spirit Sorcerer would be good?"

"Okay."

"Okay, okay~!"

Sweet Radish, thoroughly delighted, gave a thumbs up and turned around. "Alright! Let's go! Knight Order! HURRAH!"

— lmaooooooo

— He's so pumped LOL

— Sweet Radish energy is through the roof lmaooo

— More excited than his Servant days?

Watching the energized Sweet Radish, Almond said to the viewer channel, "Hmm... Does everyone know about the frog sous vide?"

A random remark came out of nowhere.

— ?

— Frog sous vide??

— Hm?

Sous vide was the process of cooking ingredients at a consistently low temperature, roughly 4 to 60 degrees. Was Almond suddenly talking about frog cuisine? Of course, he wasn’t.

"If you put a frog in water and raise the temperature very slowly, it apparently just swims around cheerfully. Even when it hits one hundred degrees, it dies without realizing that it's being boiled."

— Why is that sous vide

— That's the boiling frog theory

— Frog sous vide lmaooo

— Though technically sous vide is accurate LOL

— Why is he saying this???? fr the nickname is doing a lot of work

Everyone realized that the frog sous vide was referencing the boiling frog theory, but most viewers didn’t grasp why Almond brought it up.

"Right now, Sweet Radish is the frog sous vide. Every time he happily issues a call, the temperature rises one degree. When the water boils, he’ll go into the truth room."

— ??

— Wow

— LOL

— The frog sous vide theory

— that's what this was LOL

— That's diabolical

— lmaooo insane

— So funny

— Is there a frog attack drone available?

— The pettiness is unreal

— He's hexing him

Ba-bam!

[lmaooo has donated 10,000 won.]

[Isn't this just intentional trolling though?]

Was that framing it too extreme? Now, even suspicions of deliberate trolling came up.

'Hm? That's not it.'

Almond seemed to think this wasn't right either and clarified. "No. That's not it... I'll still try my best, but with Sweet Radish handling all the calls, the ranking will eventually..."

He added more of this and that.

— Flustered lmaooo

— Dumb Young Man...

— lmaooooooo oh that's cute

"Anyway, you'll see for yourself. No, really, I'm not trolling."

Almond stopped mid-explanation and claimed that they would all see. He was an athlete. Intentionally losing a game for other reasons was repulsive to the extreme. That was absolutely impossible for him.

"Oh?" He realized something mid-sentence. "I've never used a staff before..."

Almond had no idea how to use the staff that he grabbed without thinking.

— lmaooooooo

— Immediate troll

— That's some setup

— Troll has arrived~

— The groundwork is insane

— lmaooo insane

— If Almond performs badly and they lose, the community will have something to say...

— Almond starting to sweat

Other weapons were one thing, but the staff was serious. Almond vividly recalled the catastrophic outcome it had produced in Bubblegum's hands. This wasn't even a placement match. These streamers were training for a real tournament.

'This is bad.'

Ding.

[View artifact description]

Suddenly, Almond widened his eyes and started frantically reading everything related to the staff. He couldn't become a troll after receiving tough feedback!

— Frantically opening the manual LOL

— Only reading it NOW?!

— So it takes this much pressure to make him read descriptions...

— lmaooo Almond is reading the description! Insane!

— Reading it in such a hurry LOL

— If only he'd read the Mana Ray description for Sweet Radish at the time...