After normalizing Riri, there were still things to do.
“Riri, the famous pig, thank you for your support. Ah, the mission funds. So it’s the mission funds. I will accept it well.”
As promised, half of the funds. I received half of what Riri was supposed to get for the mission, but it wasn’t like I could just zip my lips about it.
There are many trainers who just take the money and don’t provide any aftercare, but I at least had a sense of conscience. It was too obvious that a yo-yo effect was coming, and I couldn’t just sit back and watch.
“Craaack, my Mala Tang… my Tang Hulu…!”
The diet was over, but Riri was scheduled to stay at my house for an additional two weeks to receive aftercare. Now I had to gradually increase her regular food intake from the diet meals and create a lifestyle pattern to prevent weight gain.
Honestly, I didn’t plan on going this far. I guess I just unintentionally got passionate about helping Riri’s diet.
Looking at Riri, rolling around after getting her Mala Tang confiscated, I said, “You say that, but you don’t really want to eat it, do you?”
“True. Now that I’m here, I don’t really crave it. Why is that?”
Currently, Riri was normalized by me. After eating spicy, salty, and sweet foods regularly, she had been fed bland meals for the past few days.
As a result, even a little seasoning felt extremely salty and sweet, and her desire for spicy foods had significantly decreased compared to before.
Food preferences are habits. There’s a reason the term eating habits exists. After eating cleanly like this, when she truly craved something, she’d occasionally indulge in spicy food.
“Should we grill some meat? Or go out for Shabu Shabu?”
“Let’s just grill meat at home. I don’t want to go out because it’s hot.”
Riri answered like that and began to happily grill the pork belly she took out from the fridge. She even swayed her hips and hummed a tune. Was breaking free from the diet that enjoyable?
I had no particular feelings about it, but it must have felt like a feast to her. The only meat she had eaten recently was chicken breasts.
After finishing the meal with Riri, I logged into Abyss for the first time in a while. Lately, I’d been too busy to play the game and had only glanced at the patch notes.
Maybe because of that daily routine.
“Oh dear.”
My account score had plummeted by around 200 points.
It was due to not being able to play the game for so long.
I wasn’t particularly obsessed with the score, but it was still upsetting. I could see that my rank had dropped from about 30th to 89th in a vertical dive.
Disappointing, but it couldn’t be helped. The rules for the top-tier users in Abyss were applied more strictly. Just stepping away from the ranks for a bit would cause your score to drop in an instant.
It was. If I’m away from the rank for even a bit, my score drops like crazy in an instant.
I won’t run the game to raise my score and defend my rank, so to speak, to prevent parking or mummification.
“Hmm.”
Well, it’s not a big deal to raise the score again. Should I play a few rounds while I’m at it?
– Game found!
I started the ranked game with the background music of Riri washing dishes.
*
– Seventh Cloud (Nixon): Hello, Teacher ^^
– RxOmega (Haven): Wow, is Kayak the real deal?
– Dubai Chocolate (Shan): You’ve dropped a bit since you haven’t been playing… oh well, I’ll catch a good bus, hehe.
– Enter Key Except Game (Ian): An Abyss idol, wow.
– Only I Have Bad Luck (Lily): Kayak, turn on the broadcast.
– Weak Camilla (Camilla): Enjoy the game.
“Wow, everyone recognizes me. This is what it’s like being a superstar…”
I made all five team members chat.
Riri, having finished washing dishes, sat next to me, sipping coffee and marveling.
“If people notice you in game chat, does that make you a superstar…? Dahee, people recognize you too.”
“That’s true, but I mostly get sniped. Mun Ah, you’re so high up that you don’t get sniped, and people just recognize you purely through matchmaking.”
“Hmm.”
After making my pick, I got a short explanation.
So, in Riri’s case, it wasn’t truly recognizing her; it was mostly the viewers trying to snipe her, pretending not to know and acting like, oh, it’s Riri!
“Those snipers are the problem. They can’t read the room and pretend to be friendly. It’s not fun at all.”
“….”
I felt a slight twinge of guilt and kept my mouth shut. Truth is, I did keep my laundry clean, but I was originally a sniper.
Next to Riri, I couldn’t casually agree with her, cursing those guys, because that would just spit in my own face.
As I listened to Riri’s struggles for a bit, the game started. We transitioned from the loading screen into the game, but the team chat was disturbing.
– Seventh Cloud (Nixon): Wow, we’re up against Brutal.
– RxOmega (Haven): I got on the same team earlier and rode the bus, but he’s really good.
– Dubai Chocolate (Shan): Who’s Brutal?
– Enter Key Except Game (Ian): The enemy team has Cruyff.
– Only I Have Bad Luck (Lily): Nah, Kayak plays better. We’re winning, gg!
The medicine works better, we’re going to win for sure, bye.
“Brutal?”
I pressed the Tap key in the team chat to check the enemy team.
-MG_Brutal(Cruyff)
Is this the person? While I was staring at that nickname, Riri, who brought my share of coffee, started freaking out.
“Wow, Brutal? You matched with Brutal? You’ve already made it this far?”
“Do you know him?”
“Mun Ah, you don’t know?”
Then Riri started rapidly spitting out information.
“-That’s how he ended up on the Korean server. Totally epic. He’s probably streaming right now. Yep! The chat over there is going crazy. They met Kayak.”
“Wasn’t he American? So why do the viewers know me?”
“Your viewers seem to be a lot too, right? If Kayak is watching this, turn on the stream… Hooray for Great Kayak!”
Riri selected a few real-time chats from Brutal’s stream to read out loud. Indeed, there they were, chatting away about me. I didn’t know why they were causing a ruckus on Brutal’s stream, but they certainly looked like my viewers.
If a child misbehaves, the parents feel embarrassed. Knowing my viewers were going over there and doing that made it so I couldn’t even lift my head out of shame.
Next time I stream, I’m going to have to give them a piece of my mind. They aren’t even people I know, and they’re foreigners at that—this is international disgrace, disgrace.
“Do you really think those kids will listen? If they feel like they’ve crossed the line, you just have to hope they block themselves.”
“That’s true.”
To put it metaphorically, they’re viewers who don’t listen to their mother. My stream has a particularly high ratio of those rebellious little rascals. Strange, isn’t it?
“Well, that’s the nature of streamers…”
“What was that?”
“Nothing at all.”
Such a vague comment. Having relayed everything I overheard, I refocused on the game.
So my opponent is a trainee pro gamer? But they can’t compete yet because of their age. Yet they’re a high-skilled player who conquered the North American, European, and Brazilian servers.
So if I win, does that mean I’m the champion of the North American, European, and Brazilian servers?
“Hmmm.”
This is really… a condition that can’t help but ignite my competitive spirit. A 17-year-old young prodigy.
Just then, our lanes matched up perfectly. It feels like they set the stage for a big showdown. It’s like they’re telling us to go head to head.
I didn’t intend this, but how did such a match come to be? For the first time in a while, my blood is boiling.
“Well then… let’s see your skills.”
Facing Brutal’s character straight on, I adjusted my grip on the mouse.
*
‘Different.’
Brutal gulped as he faced my character, Camilla. It was a natural reaction as he felt that this opponent was different from anyone he had faced up to now.
I gulped as I looked at Camilla. It was a natural reaction that came from realizing the opponent was different from everyone I’d met so far.
Honestly, Brutal didn’t care much about the viewers buzzing with excitement. I’d run into famous users and recognized names plenty of times while playing on the Korea server.
This time, they were all in a frenzy over how I was going to lose? Everyone was silenced as Brutal overwhelmingly defeated a famous opponent.
Recalling past experiences, he thought it wouldn’t be anything special this time either. It wasn’t arrogance; objectively, it was impossible to stop Brutal unless you were at the pro level.
However, this time, Brutal’s expectations were thoroughly off. The viewers who were making a fuss about demons and overlords were about to face reality. The opponent I met this time truly had skills worthy of such titles.
Vwoom—
“Kuhk.”
Brutal’s character, Cruyff, hastily dodged the elegant kick flying his way. If I’d allowed that attack, it would’ve been painful. If my reaction had been even a moment too slow, I would have lost HP and handed over the advantage…
[The lane battle is insane ㄷㄷㄷㄷ]
[The guardian is definitely Camilla lol]
[Kayak’s skills haven’t rusted at all… Been playing for years]
[It feels like Kayak will get washed up faster than the server shutting down]
[Incredible! Who is this opponent daring to challenge Brutal?]
[Was it really a bad idea to go for that reversal?]
[Giving tips to Challenger lol You should get out]
[Brutal! You are America’s hope! Defeat that demon!]
[How did Kayak become the demon?]
[I was reading about the demon in the Korean server while using a translator lol]
[So funny ㅋㅋㅋ]
[But seriously, they really are in a demon position, dominating with 17 consecutive wins until coming to stop it]
I didn’t even have time to glance at the chat. It meant I was that on edge.
Had there ever been an opponent who pushed Brutal this hard? No, not a single one so far. I thought I’d have to be in the top 50 Challenger ranks to meet someone like this.
“Is this really the Korea server?”
From the very beginning until now, everything has shattered expectations. The worst team luck, the utterly different vibe of ranked games, the sudden emergence of high-skilled players, and even niche characters from these players.
Brutal smirked slightly at the engagement with the high-skilled player but soon burst into laughter out of sheer disbelief. The nickname of the opponent he’d faced came to mind, the meaning the viewers had mentioned.
“What exactly is weak about this?”
Camilla, the high-skilled player relentlessly pushing Brutal’s Cruyff, was strong. Much stronger than her nickname would suggest.
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