Chapter 252. We Were Not Wrong (1)
Swish.
Four swords appeared in front of Almond.
''!''
''... Crazy.''
Wind Sword and the Beast hesitated for a moment. They momentarily faced each other in a standoff.
[One de Art]
[Remaining Time: 00:08]
Meanwhile, two seconds had passed.
The casters quickly began exining. They expected a super y from Almond, but still worried about him.
"Almond should also be careful!"
"Right! His health is just a little over 20%!"
shy de with four des was also difficult. In less than 0.1 seconds, the yer needed to move to apletely different ce and immediately find the opponent to sh at. He also needed to include a Spinning Strike for more damage. All the while, his vision would be rapidly changing due to spinning.
Beginners would be lucky if they didn’t vomit in the capsule.
The average intermediate yer would randomly swing their de and not even know where to sh.
"There''s a saying that using shy de gets most dangerous when using his ultimate skill! Of course, I''m speaking from personal experience!"
Moreover, shy de already had less than 30% of his health when activating his ultimate skill. The four des also all moved differently.
Attacking the enemies while shing once every 0.5 seconds and also mentally controlling the des without throwing them took incredible skill.
It was a skill that could induce vomiting depending on the yer.
"Yes! The nickname for this is shy Firefly! You gotta be careful—"
[Remaining Time: 00:06]
With six seconds left, Almond raised his hand.
Bang!
One of the four des flew away.
"de number one has been fired!"
OrangeKing urgently followed Almond.
The floating de technique was very difficult, so the casters started exining it with numbers.
"Where is it going! de number two was also fired. One each ising toward the Beast and Wind Sword!"
"SweetRadish deflected it!"
"SweetPotato dodged it!"
"But the de came back and attacked!"
"Now de number three and four also joined just now!"
"They’re being attacked!"
At first, they ran or deflected the des. As one more de joined, their health started to gradually wear down. More scratches began appearing on their bodies.
[Remaining Time: 00:04]
Four seconds remained.
SweetRadish and SweetPotato executed the countermeasure for the floating de technique.
“Stick to me! Stick to me!”
“Okay!”
They took each other''s backs and fended off the des as much as possible. They could deflect all of them as long as they didn’t show their backs to the enemy. They just had to hold on for four more seconds.
One...
"Huh? Almond shed! He shed to number one!"
Whoosh!
Almond appeared between SweetRadish and SweetPotato.
Whiz!
[Spinning Attack]
Almond rapidly spun and dealt simultaneous damage to both of them.
Zaaaap!
"Nooo! Almond is trying to stop them from having each other''s backs, right!?"
"His judgment is crazy!"
"But Almond''s health is also low, isn''t it!?"
SweetRadish and SweetPotato charged at Almond.
Almond would be dead if they both hit at the same time.
Whoosh!
[sh]
However, Almond naturally disappeared.
"Almond shed! He’s above the Beast!"
"His four des can freely move, so it''s hard to know where Almond will sh to!"
Whish!
With his body turning in the air, Almond appeared and cut off the Beast''s head.
Swish!
"That damage was crazy!"
The damage gradually increased as spinning attacks stacked.
The Beast struck hard with his front paw, but…
[sh]
Bzzzzzt!
Almond appeared at the Wind Sword''s lower back this time.
Strike!
Almond cut off his legs with a spinning attack.
SweetRadish and SweetPotato''s health dropped even lower than Almond’s now.
[Remaining Time: 00:02]
Bzzzzzzt!
Almond disappeared again, and only his des remained visible. He attacked like a shadow using de Energy.
"He shed to number one! Number two is still shing in mid-air!"
"Number three is stabbing while number four shes!"
"Wait, is that number four? I don''t know anymore!"
The casters couldn''t keep up with the speed.
[Remaining Time: 00:00]
The duration of the floating des ended at that moment.
Four des simultaneously sprang up and red blood sprayed everywhere.
"Both, both of them are falling!"
Both yers copsed onto the ground.
At that very moment…
— Woahhhhh!!!
A resounding scream came from the audience and echoed out.
***
Click.
Ji-Ah saved the clip and said, "Hey, Yeon-Joo. I saved today''s highlight. I’ll airdrop it to you."
"Okey-dokey~"
Tap, tap.
The ttering keyboard sounded busy.
"You should cut all the highlights to about five minutes, okay? Make it totallypact."
"Roger that!"
The atmosphere was warm andfortable, but a strange tension swirled in the air. This was because of the approaching deadline.
"Ji-Ah, when does the finals end today?"
"Probably nine o''clock...? If it''s dyed, maybe at ten? We should expect nine though."
"The embargo immediately lifts once the tournament is over, right?"
"Yeah, you can just upload it right away."
Due to tournament rules, they couldn''t upload in-game highlights to their personal channel until the game ended. This measure helped to focus the number of views in one ce.
Soon, that would be over.
However, they didn''t know who would win and who would be the runner-ups.
Ji-Ah turned back to the monitor.
''Still, they won one game.''
She looked at the highlights while editing as the other side of the monitor yed the live finals.
Ji-Ah''s gaze turned back to the [Winning Interview] folder.
''Which of the two will go up...''
In the folder, she looked at the files [Win - The Real Final] and [Loss - Final].
The first one would be posted with a victory interview if Almond won, and the second would be posted with his pre-recorded past story if he lost.
The two files almost had no differences, but Ji-Ah hoped to upload the first one.
***
The casters eximed while watching reys of the highlights.
"He was literally shing from east to west! Almond was really shing! Not Tako, I''m talking about Almond!"
"That''s right. I didn''t expect this level of y. Wow..."
"Amazing! He yed like that at such a moment?"
They mostly eximed about it because there wasn’t anything more to say.
"I can''t say anything else, but wow. There’s nothing more to say! If it were me, I would just ban Almond right now!"
The angle of the sh had been perfect. His way of dealing damage also seemed to be measured precisely.
"It really looks like shy de is OP when you watch this," OrangeKing said as if he recalled something funny.
"If any of you think that shy de is actually OP, I rmend watching this video."
Ting!
OrangeKing ced a link above his hand.
On the thumbnail, Bubblegum’srge round face appeared.
"What is this?"
"It''s shy de highlights by Bubblegum. Also known as a fail montage, you know?"
— LMAO.
— Just hearing it makes meugh already.
— That''s a really famous one!
— It''s gonna be like the Iron Ball, but just spinning vertically
— Is this really a highlight? LOL.
— It''s Bubblegum''s fail montage, LOL.
"This is really entertaining. I felt like I was against a wall after watching it."
"A wall?"
"Yes, a cliff and I took a sharp dive in MMR."
The caster burst intoughter at OrangeKing''s response.
"No way!"
— MMR cliff LOL.
— LOL.
— Almond can''t ever follow up to that insane talent.
— This wall is a cliff too, LOL.
“You''ll realize that shy de isn''t actually OP as you see here.”
"Ah-ha, that''s right. Everyone, please watch the video that made OrangeKing, the ex-professional yer, speechless! We wille back soon when the second round’s ban-pick phase begins!"
***
"Nice!" Ju-Hyeok shouted and punched the air.
"He won! Woah!"
The game was difficult, but they won with shy de hard carrying them.
"There must be different views on shy de now."
Although many praised Almond, the public never fully acknowledged Almond when he debuted in LIL due to the nature of the league with countless professionals.
Such reactions were expected, but Ju-Hyeok felt different this time.
Almond had used his hidden card, shy de, and carried hard in this match.
Ju-Hyeok believed that everyone’s perception of Almond would change by the end of today, not even before the second round began.
''Let''s see.''
Ju-Hyeok guessed that there would be new posts on BigPro by now and checked thetest one.
[??? Hey, JeonJaPa. What are you doing?]
The post had such a title. A humorous picture of the topner, Popcorn, appeared when Ju-Hyeok clicked it. Popcorn was an old colleague of JeonJaPa.
[JeonJaPa! Can''t you hear me?]
Suchments appeared below. There was a gif of JeonJaPa momentarily closing his eyes and getting up below the post.
[Ah... Briefly... I went to help.]
— Hahaha, literally.
— He really helped out after a long time, haha
— By the way, why did JeonJaPa retire? Why did he go MIA without saying anything... He was a legend.
— If you were going to help, help our Bubblegum bro.
└ Would you like to reincarnate into a chubby older man, leaving behind Almond, who has 387 ex-girlfriends?
└ 387 ex-GFs, hahaha, crazy. That means you meet them more than once per day.
└ Why is the number so specific? Haha
└ Fact: Walnut can''t remember that many people. So this is a lie.
└ Gum bro is cute too!
— Upload this
— Today, Almond was just like JeonJaPa.
— OrangeKing said at least 0.8 JeonJaPa today.
└ Really?
└ No, it''s a lie
└ Are you an idiot?
That meant someone had reincarnated as JeonJaPa and showed a great y. It usually only appeared in professional games, but the meme was also used for today''s game. Almond had shown quite an impressive match today.
In fact, it was the highestpliment an LIL yer could receive.
"Ooh!"
Ju-Hyeok felt excited and looked at the other posts too.
The next one had a title that read:
[???: Almond!!!]
It also had arge picture of JeonJaPa with his arms crossed.
Written inrge, bold font was:
[Today only.]
This was a meme that meant JeonJaPa gave Almond permission to use his name. It was proof of people properly praising Almond in LIL now.
— Haha, JeonJaPa is very active today
— Almond is world ss now. He’s gettingpared to JeonJaPa!
— To be honest, today is 1.0 JeonJaPa for sure.
— Just now, Almond yed the first set just like JeonJaPa.
Almost noments like ''That''s not it'' or ''That’s crossing the line,'' ever appeared.
"He truly proved himself today."
Ju-Hyeok proudly smiled. He knew best how much effort Almond put in for shy de.
Not only in the capsule, but Almond even practiced his movements in the yard and swung around something like a pole with his trembling, pitiful arms.
At first, Ju-Hyeok couldn’t understand why he would do so much for a non-professional game, but now he knew.
For Almond, the stage wasn’t important. What mattered was winning, proving himself, and being recognized.
It was the same for Ju-Hyeok too. Whether the stage was at apany or being someone''s manager, all that mattered was for him to prove himself and get recognized.
It wasn’t about how shy the stage was, but how much one shined.
''By the way, shy de is really going to get banned now. What a waste.''
Showing off such ys would definitely get shy de banned.
It was regrettable since Almond had prepared that hidden card for days. Now, they would simply ban the champion.
Ju-Hyeok looked at the second game’s ban picks.
''...?''
Strangely enough, shy de appeared again and no one else took him. It was Almond''s shy de.
''They didn''t ban shy de?''