Ju-Hyeok scrolled through the community. “First off, the reaction is good.”

Even if it were only normal games, Almond had finished in first place a lot. It was enough to make the community sit up and take notice.

[How many times has Almond gotten first in normals, seriously??]

[He was good at Battle Large too, but might actually be better at Survival than Siege]

[Why Almond is better at Survival?!]

This was LIL Pro’s Survival category board. Among themselves, they shortened it to SurvivalPro. LIL Pro cheekily replaced LIL with Survival because most users there insisted that the main mode was Survival.

‘So this exists too.’

Ju-Hyeok had visited LIL Pro many times, yet he only discovered a board tucked away in a corner like this for the first time.

‘Is it unpopular? No, that can’t be it.’

Survival didn’t lack popularity. Its popularity was on par with Battle Large.

‘The community participation is just low.’

Plenty played it, but most were casual players. Very few dug deep enough to use a separate community like this.

‘If you’re going to do community stuff, you’d just do it on LIL Pro. Why come all the way here?’

The main board on LIL Pro was more than enough since Survival was still part of LIL. No one had any real reason to come here and talk, yet these people had gathered anyway.

‘The ones here are... the real ones.’

Why had they bothered to carve out a separate Survival community and migrate over? Obviously, these hardline Survival loyalists believed that Survival had to be the main mode. Then, what kind of treatment would Omelet, an extreme Siege fundamentalist, get here?

[Big: Watching that trash Omelet get smashed feels so damn good~]

He was basically their arch-enemy. Not just Omelet, but all the hardline fundamentalists he represented were their enemies too.

[That trash talked big about Siege and then got farmed in the tutorial lol]

[Siege Bronze supposedly equaled Survival Challenger LOL. So what is Omelet then?]

What about Almond, the one who had toppled Omelet, the former leader of those fundamentalists?

[Big: Warning! Starting today, we will praise Almond. Any opposing statements will be banned.]

To them, he became their hero. Ju-Hyeok ended up drifting into this board for this reason.

‘It kept popping up whenever I searched Almond.’

LIL Pro was so vicious that Ju-Hyeok’s skin practically crawled every time he searched for Almond there. However, one place oddly worshipped Almond.

‘There really are all kinds of people.’

Still, Ju-Hyeok understood them. Wasn’t it the same back in the early Kingdom Age days? People wanted everyone to recognize the things they loved instead of being dismissed. Almond and Acorn Jelly had made Kingdom Age famous. After that, those fans had turned into rabid dogs. This felt like the same logic. These users were grateful to Almond.

[Big: Omelet lol got absolutely wrecked by Almond and now he’s pretending to be chill, it’s hilarious]

[Big: Almond “If you’re not a bot, prove it” clip exists]

[Big: Legendary update on that Omelet cult lol]

Omelet had strutted around with Siege pride, and Almond had laid him out miserably. Of course, they felt refreshed. That satisfaction turned into a genuine fandom for Almond.

[I’m so happy the Platform War is Survival mode]

[Almond is doing placements right now!]

[Almond got a placement match, damn... no way a Raina ban happens, right? lol]

“Hmm...” Ju-Hyeok scratched his chin while studying the board’s trajectory. “This... could work.”

Their firepower wasn’t major, but he felt it was usable.

“Police wants to push multiple modes in the end.”

Ju-Hyeok had researched the company Police quite a bit. He had learned that Police wanted to diversify LIL. Their RPG version of LIL, the Legend’s Tale project, and even the story modes attached to each champion were all part of that intention.

They wanted the other modes in the same LIL client to carry the weight of independent games. For this reason, they also sponsored the Platform War and made it Survival. Police and these SurvivalPro users wanted the same thing: the revival of Survival.

“Maybe we can even get some official support.”

If the company wanted to revive Survival, they couldn’t ignore this community. SurvivalPro was serious about it.

[Guide: Route design centered on Ignite]

[Guide: Dual-blade build where two bruisers are key]

[Guide: Core route guide that got me to Diamond]

Normally, guides filled this board. Their expertise was top-tier among amateurs. It felt like looking at the early era of LIL Pro. Industry people would one hundred percent check a place like this. They would reference it too. If Almond started showing up here more and more? Police would start watching Almond’s trajectory as well.

‘Results matter in the end.’

A streamer tournament was about performance, but it was ultimately a viewership battle. What mattered was how much presence Almond could build through this. Almond could become the face of Survival’s revival like how Bubblegum had collaborated with Police before.

***

“We’re going into placements.”

This consisted of ten normal games. By now, Almond had grown reasonably familiar with Survival’s rules. He was ready for ranked.

[Ranked Game]

[Searching for teammates... 1/5]

The queue started. At the same time, a mission popped up.

Ba-bam!

[ShyNapoleon has registered a mission!]

[Five straight first-place finishes in placements]

[500,000 won]

Five straight first places were absolutely not easy.

— Damn

— They’ve been farming him so hard lol

— Look at that safe asset

— Five straight firsts is a bit much

— Placements are actually not easy

— Five in a row?? damn

“Thanks for the mission, ShyNapoleon.”

Still, Almond always welcomed a mission. He waited in the queue, whistling in a good mood.

“This is taking longer than I thought.”

It just wouldn’t start.

— Can’t help it

— Yeah

— It takes a while

— Unpopular event lol

A recent patch had made it so placement matches only matched with other placement matches.

The game was probably carefully filtering for a match.

— The season has been going for a while, not many placements left

— Probably barely any placements

— They did this so placements only fight placements

“Ah...”

LIL operated on a seasonal system. Every time a new season began, all player ranks reset. Everyone had to go through placement matches again. That meant most players played their placements at the start of a season. Right now, the season was already well underway.

Almost no one hadn’t done their placements yet. Anyone scrambling to do them this late would usually be new.

— Probably just matching low-rank players together?

— All the streamers’ queues are gonna overlap, lol

— the queue is insanely long

— Looks like we’re about to meet every streamer still doing placements right now lol

Players who hadn’t cared about Survival were now suddenly playing placement matches. For the most part, they were streamers who quickly started playing because of the Platform War. This applied to both platforms. Either way, the chances of running into streamers during placements were extremely high.

Boom!

[Opponent found.]

— If Omelet shows up again, that’d be legendary lol

— Oh

— Got a match lol

— Omelet needs to prove he’s not a bot again lol

— Please let it be Omelet

The chat spiraled out of control.

Almond said, “Don’t mention other streamers. That’s rude, everyone~.”

— ?

— ...?

— ??? Omelet, if you’re not a bot, prove it

— “That’s rude,” says the guy himself lol

— Says the one who immortalized him in a video lol

— Hey, the Lord gets a pass, okay

At this point, he couldn’t stop the Omelet mentions.

‘If we actually meet him... that would be awkward.’

Almond felt a flicker of concern. He didn’t know how happy Omelet was about the whole incident. To Almond, Omelet was simply a victim who had been mistaken for a bot.

Almond had a conscience. Running into Omelet would be embarrassing.

‘If we meet, I’ll just pretend I don’t remember.’

As a clever young man, he already planned to weaponize his Almondoyle persona. However, he didn’t know that what he could predict was never the real problem.

[Entering the Shadow of the Abyss.]

Whoosh!

The screen went dark, and Almond found himself aboard a massive magitech airship.

‘Huh?’

He suddenly realized that he’d been wrong about two things. First, he had assumed that he’d only meet streamers on the enemy team. Second, he thought all streamers would be good at the game like Omelet.

“Uh? Almond?”

— ?

— ???

— Holy shit lol

— AHAHAHAHA

— He’s here... the disaster

— Oh shit

— Gum the Disaster lol

“What, what? You’re doing placements too?”

Things went wrong immediately. For a moment, Almond’s mind went completely blank.

He called out with a tremble, “G-Gum...”

The infamous Bubblegum was an ally.

— Holy shit lol what is this

— Of course it’s the first placement match lol

— This is Police’s curse lol

— This is actually legendary lol

— First placement match with ally Bubblegum?! The legend begins

— AHAHA

— The savior of the stream who came to ruin rank

Ba-bam!

The god of fate didn’t care about Almond’s rank, but it clearly intended to save his stream.

[RubySword has registered a mission!]

[Finish first in this match while keeping Bubblegum alive.]

[300,000 won]

— Wow lol

— This is insane lol

— 300k won??

— Holy!

— Damn

— GodSword

— Kya

A single match would decide 300k won, but he had to keep Bubblegum alive.

“Ruby... thank you for the mission. Yes, I’ll do my best.”

“Almond, what mission did you get? Mine says I just have to place mid-tier.”

— LMAOOOO

— LOL

— Look at the difficulty gap lol

— AHAHA

— Holy shit lol

— The difference in stream vibes lol

Almond didn’t explain his mission. Instead, he changed the subject. It felt like Bubblegum would get hurt.

“Ah... It’s a hard one.”

“Huh? If you’re saying that... it must be insane. What is it?”

“It’s just impossible... Even if you know it, you can’t clear it.”

— LMAOOOOOOOOOO

— Holy shit lol

— Impossible is a bit much lol

“Gum, when did you even play your normals?”

Almond was a fan of Bubblegum, so he knew Bubblegum’s recent streaming schedule by heart.

‘He didn’t have time to play normals, though?’

Almond had started Survival earlier than other streamers and was only now doing placements because he hadn’t finished his ten normal matches. Bubblegum hadn’t had time either, so when did he do them?

“Normals? What do you mean? Ah! You mean the rank restriction? Hahaha! I did that like a year ago.”

“A year ago...”

The normal game requirement didn’t reset each season.

“Is that what you were worried about? Hahaha!”

Pat. Pat.

Bubblegum laughed warmly and patted Almond’s shoulder.

Almond’s expression stiffened.

‘A year ago...’

— A year ago LMAOOOO

— His expression holy shit lol

— Then this is basically his first game, right? lol

— We’re doomed

— It’s over

— Almond, let’s just turn him into a rune spirit immediately

Ding.

[BeginnerTip has donated 3,000 won.]

[Sometimes, a stupid ally is stronger than a powerful enemy. Therefore, I am strong. Quote by Bubblegum]

For once, Almond thought that a genuinely useful tip had appeared.