Almond boldly confronted the controversy. After this, only discussions filled LIL Pro. It was too fierce to be called discussions, but it was about Sori''s counter.


    Articles about Sori''s poor performance werepletely drowned out. There was no longer even room to write such articles. Because Almond visited LIL Pro, fans spammed so much that it almost froze the site.


    <em>[Almond, take me!]</em>


    <em>[Loyalty ^^7]</em>


    <em>[Brother, we''ve taken over this ce.]</em>


    Such posts weren’t just trolls, but actually made it to the top.


    <em>[Big: When I grow up, I want to be Sori]</em>


    <em>[Only Yu Sang-Hyeon can handle me, right?]</em>


    <em>— Lololol.</em><em>— Wow, this is crazy lol.</em>


    <em>— His fans are everywhere.</em>


    <em>— He actually visited this ce himself, damn lol</em>


    <em>— lol, honestly, this is funny. Dreaming big~</em>


    <em>└ Really lol</em>


    <em>└ 2222</em>


    Posts about streamers didn’t easily make it to the top in a poprmunity like LIL Pro, and it shouldn''t. The cons outweighed the pros. It could unnecessarily create enemies.


    "Everyone, please stop attacking now."


    <em>— Stop~! lol.</em>


    <em>— If you were going to stop, why did you start, boss!? Huh!?</em>


    <em>— It''s already toote... We can''t go back to how things were…</em>


    Almond tried to calm them down, but not even their leader could stop them once the Nut squad started their frenzy.


    The bombardment on LIL Pro only stopped when the second part of his stream was about to begin. That meant they all stopped when the stream ended.


    "Now, we''ll start part two."


    The start of part two... Although it was called a start, it was actually an end.


    <em>— Noooo…</em>


    <em>— Starting the end lol</em>


    <em>— It’s the end, you dummy!</em>


    <em>— Starting the end~~~~</em>


    Part two was the national team scrim in <em>Civil Empire</em>. As expected, the stream ended because it was impossible to continue.


    "Bye!"


    <em>— Bye…</em>


    <em>— Goodbye!!</em>


    <em>— Goodbye.</em>


    <em>— Fighting!</em>


    Ju-Hyeok unintentionally rubbed his forehead while watching the situation on LIL Pro.


    "<em>Phew.</em> It''s finally going back to normal."


    If their bombardment had continued, it would have backfired on Almond instead.


    "Going directly into themunity is dangerous."


    Ju-Hyeok leaned back in his chair and thought about intervening next time. He took off his rimless sses that always followed him like a part of his body. As his muscles rxed, idle thoughts flooded in.


    <em>"Sigh."</em>


    While he was working, such thoughts didn''t bother him much. As a human being, he couldn''t help but worry continuously about Yu Sang-Hyeon. He knew this person well, yet not well enough.


    How did they be friends through work? It was like how any other people got close. Unlike others though, Ju-Hyeok feltfortable around Sang-Hyeon.


    Yu Sang-Hyeon was justfortable. Perhaps his self-centered personality and quirkiness appealed to Ju-Hyeok.


    Ju-Hyeok found such traits refreshing having always seen people stuck in molds. Even if Sang-Hyeon did some strange and asionally absurd things, he seemed consistent. He was someone with a solid core.


    Sang-Hyeon would’ve told him if he was employing him out of personal affection. Or it would be obvious.


    <em>''But... what if I don''t know him well enough.''</em>


    What if others saw it as Sang-Hyeon using Ju-Hyeok because of their friendship? Would that be correct? Would that perspective be more objective than Ju-Hyeok’s narrow first-person view?


    Maybe Yu Sang-Hyeon wasn’t weak to affection. Maybe Ju-Hyeok didn''t know Yu Sang-Hyeon as well as he thought.


    <em>p.</em>


    Ju-Hyeok pped his own cheek for no reason. Then, he straightened up again.


    "Let''s just think about G-Star."


    Regardless, Ju-Hyeok needed to give his best and achieve the highest efficiency as long as he was working as a manager. Whatever the employer''s thoughts, he got paid and had a contract.


    With that thought, Ju-Hyeok pushed aside his thoughts and reviewed the G-Star schedule with participatingpanies.


    G-Star was a festival akin to a game expo. It was like a film festival in the movie industry where works were submitted and could potentially be exported to other countries. G-Star offered a simr stage for streamers, gamepanies, and stakeholders.


    And...


    <em>''For me as well.''</em>


    It was a great opportunity for Ju-Hyeok to shine as a manager.


    Gamepanies could promote their games to catch the eyes of investors. Streamers could secure advertising from gamepanies. In this process, the streamer''s manager yed a crucial role. It was like being the agent for an athlete who became a free agent in the sports industry.


    <em>''It’s not that grand, but…''</em>


    Of course, it seemed insignificantpared to the sports industry. However, what a streamer''s manager did was still a big deal.


    <em>''I just need to prove it.''</em>


    An opportunity to show off as a manager would soone. It was perhaps a sign. Amand to prove himself.


    Ju-Hyeok believed so. No, he chose to believe it was to his advantage.


    ***


    In the dim night, Ji-Ah began editing the day''s stream.


    Almond had tantly set up perfect moments for YouTube, making the editing process much easier.


    <em>[Ju-Hyeok: This was kinda funny. It would be good to include.]</em>


    Even Ju-Hyeok sent a message that captured a fewmunity posts. asionally, he would send over posts that were helpful for Ji-Ah''s editing. This made things quite convenient for her. She didn’t need to dive intomunities and sift through unwanted posts herself. The reactions that Ju-Hyeok selected often better framed the video''s concept.


    <em>''So this is...''</em>


    The posts that Ju-Hyeok sent this time were quite entertaining as well. It was good enough to base the entire video''s concept around them.


    <em>''Adding this concept to the educational content will be perfect.''</em>


    It was already great content with a good concept, so the views would undoubtedly increase. The result was evident the next day.


    ***


    The next day, a video appeared on Almond''s channel, which had been briefly inactive due to the shooting schedule for <em>The Avatar of LIL</em>. It wasn''t <em>The Avatar of LIL</em> video. That video would be uploaded to the channel operated by the production team.


    <em>[The Strange ADC Carry, Almond]</em>


    That was the title of the video. The thumbnail prominently featured the phrase, “Personal education of haters.”


    The video started by showing severalmunity posts.


    <em>[It''s fake]</em>


    <em>[Sori sucks]</em>


    <em>[The reason why Sori is trash]</em>


    <em>[Look at these idiots saying Almond isn''t faking The Avatar of LIL]</em>


    Each post made Almond fans frown. A caption appeared over them:<em> [Today, our nuts are facing numerous unwarranted criticisms...]</em>.


    Then, Almond''s face appeared and his screen was captured.


    <em>[He is now choosing his victim.]</em>


    The close-up edit showed Almond''s eyes sneakily shifting toward the chat.


    A momentter...


    <em>[SnowWhiteAndSeven Dwarves]</em>


    <em>Dun dun.</em>


    The camera zoomed in on one of the many haters.


    <em>— So it''s not fake?</em>


    <em>— You think there''s nothing fake in an advertisement broadcast?</em>


    <em>— Winning against Popcorn with a new character? lol.</em>


    <em>— Honestly, I could win too if I yed with a new character.</em>


    A caption appeared over this.


    <em>[Interesting messages that couldn''t be filtered one by one...]</em>


    Almond skipped the intermediary steps and spoke,<em></em>“I’ll clear up the misunderstanding. Please tell me your ID.”


    The showdown between Almond and the hater began. Everyone who watched the stream live already knew the oue.


    “Chikicha!”


    “Chikicha!”


    With two chikichas, the opponent couldn''t evenst three minutes and lost.


    The end of the video showed the state of LIL Pro, whichpletely changed.


    <em>[Can Zen win with onebo if everything hits during Sori''s Rope Movement? Really? Let''s calcte.]</em>


    The video ended by showing the full text of this post.


    The reactions were quite good. YouTube subscribers enthusiasticallymented and the number ofments was extraordinary.


    <em>— Is it true that SnowWhite couldn''t evenst 3 minutes? lol</em>


    <em>— Who''s the guy who said their cup noodles won?</em>


    <em>└ Really lol, so funny.</em>


    <em>└ If you lose in 3 minutes, you can’t even beat cup noodles~</em>


    <em>└ LOLOLOL.</em>


    While many were thrilled that the opponent lost in just three minutes, others parodied thest post andughed at thements.


    Most importantly, this fact was revealed.


    <em>— He’s also a streamer. I didn''t know because he wasn’t that popr, but if you search his ID, he’s a streamer. A master of the star goddess.</em>


    <em>└ Wow, creepy…</em>


    <em>└ lol, they deliberately baited.</em>


    <em>└ The cunning SnowWhite...</em>


    <em>└ Holy shittt~</em>


    It was revealed that SnowWhite was also a streamer. Almost any secret would be uncovered with YouTube bringing in an iparable number of viewerspared to live streams.


    This made the viewers even angrier, and the view count continued to soar.


    <em>— He was a streamer and he was trolling?</em>


    <em>— Inferiorityplex...</em>


    <em>— Hey, the cunning SnowWhite. You started with "Spring Belly Fat Bubblegum" first</em>


    <em>└ Why BubbleGum all of a sudden lol.</em>


    <em>└ HAHAHAHA.</em>


    <em>└ It’s a party!</em>


    <em>└ The belly fat party! lolol.</em>


    "Wow, this video seems quite popr," Sang-Hyeon said while sitting on the sofa and looking at his phone after lunch.


    He was speaking to someone else, but no response came.


    "...?"


    Feeling awkward, Sang-Hyeon turned to look at Ju-Hyeok rummaging through the kitchen cab. At least, it looked like that.


    Ju-Hyeok was simply staring inside the opened cab.


    "Looking for something?"


    Still, no response came.


    "Hey!"


    "Ah... huh!?"


    Ju-Hyeok finally turned around.


    "What are you looking for?"


    "Ah... I was just thinking about G-Star."


    <em>Thump. Thump.</em>


    "And I’m looking for instant noodles. Let''s eat something light."


    It was unexpectedly noodles instead of a proper meal.


    A short whileter, a steaming red noodle soup was ced on the table.


    "Seems like you have a lot on your mind with G-Star," Sang-Hyeon casually said while sitting on the opposite side.


    Ju-Hyeok nodded and slurped a spoonful of noodles.


    "Yeah. A lot," he gave an uncharacteristically short answer.


    Usually, Ju-Hyeok would be talkative when a topic of interest came up.


    <em>''Was he really thinking about G-Star?''</em>


    Sang-Hyeon felt puzzled and worried at the same time. He wondered if Ju-Hyeok had seen those management staff approaching him or heard anything. If he was acting differently, that was the only exnation. Or else...


    "How''s Ji-Ah doing?"


    "Ji-Ah? Of course, Ji-Ah is doing well. Didn''t you see the video that was uploaded today?"


    <em>Slurp.</em>


    Ju-Hyeok focused on eating his noodles again.


    <em>''Ji-Ah is doing well? Then it''s really because of me?''</em>


    Sang-Hyeon looked at Ju-Hyeok with concern and his face suddenly darkened while eating the noodles.


    "... Ah. <em>Sigh.</em>"


    He suddenly remembered an incident he had forgotten.


    <em>''Was it that debit card? Could it be that he spent it all?''</em>


    <em>Thump.</em>


    Ju-Hyeok seemed to lose his appetite and put the noodle bowl in the sink.


    "I''m finished."


    Sang-Hyeon felt even more confused.


    <em>''What''s going on?''</em>


    It felt like he had done something much worse.


    Then, days passed by like that. Sang-Hyeon yed games, Ju-Hyeok managed the chat and scheduled advertisements, and Ji-Ah uploaded videos.


    Everything seemed to be flowing well as it always had, but the awkwardness with Ju-Hyeok still couldn''t be shaken off.


    And so...


    "Wee to G-Star!"


    The day G-Star started finally arrived.


    "VIPs, this way please!"