Four members of Almond’s team had died. They talked among themselves in their private team chat.

[OstrichEgg: Can’t believe he missed that LOL]

[HamPunch: Isn’t he just a massive troll? Honestly, worse than me.]

[Yoyoyo: No, I was basically murdered by himㅡㅡ He’s been desperately trying to get the bow since earlierㅡㅡ]

[OstrichEgg: This is hilarious LOL]

When they first died, all of them naturally cursed Almond. Despite his insane plays, he had straight-up abandoned their rune champions.

[Baegi: Wow... he seriously did this on purpose]

[OstrichEgg: I don’t think it was on purpose]

[Baegi: You don’t think so? Why have you been defending him this whole time??]

Among them, only OstrichEgg hadn’t shown much hostility toward Almond. That just made Baegi angrier. Wouldn’t anyone get mad if their house were burning down and someone next to them was laughing?

[OstrichEgg: I’m not defending him. Just judging by his playstyle, it doesn’t feel intentional. He literally pulled out a bow and killed everyone.]

[Baegi: That was just last hits. Sure, he plays Raina a bit, but is it normal to ditch all four rune champions and go solo? He got all four of us killed.]

Baegi sounded genuinely furious.

[Yoyoyo: He came in trying to kill us. I felt it from the start. He’s like a spy sent by the enemy team.]

Yoyoyo, who possessed the bow, had even more reason to feel that way. Almond really had wanted him dead.

[HamPunch: He called me a bug.]

[Yoyoyo: That’s because you fell off the map the moment you showed up.]

A brief silence followed.

[HamPunch: He’s charging straight at the Abyss monster?]

Meanwhile, Almond rushed headfirst toward the enemies fighting the Abyss Shark.

[Yoyoyo: Is he not going to the Sanctuary???]

[Baegi: Fuck, he’s just killing himself]

[HamPunch: Bug out in a second]

Almond’s teammates had developed genuine hostility toward him and started chiming in one by one.

Boom!

[LazySoldier is Legendary!]

The chat went quiet.

[Baegi: No, even so...]

Boom!

[LazySoldier Triple Kill!]

Another enemy went down.

[HamPunch: Bug out~]

[Yoyoyo: Yo...? What is this?]

[HamPunch: Are we actually winning?]

HamPunch had already switched sides.

[LazySoldier Quadra Kill!]

Four enemies fell.

[Yoyoyo: Damn~ Nice shot, LazySoldier!]

Yoyoyo switched sides too.

[Baegi: Huh?]

[LazySoldier Penta Kill!]

Soon, Almond achieved a solo pentakill.

[Baegi: My man, LazySoldier! I believed in you the whole time!]

Baegi shouted excitedly.

[OstrichEgg: That guy is Almond.]

Only then did an Almond viewer reveal the truth.

[Baegi: ?]

[Yoyoyo: Huh?]

[HamPunch: Almond? The guy from the world championship??]

***

Raina’s red lips moved softly. “As expected of you, Almond...”

The chat scrolled by faster than Almond’s dynamic vision.

‘T-This is insane.’

Even Ju-Hyeok’s eyes couldn’t keep up.

‘What is this?’

Adjusting his glasses, Ju-Hyeok pulled up multiple monitors at once. He could feel it.

‘As expected of you, Almond...’

That line made an enormous impact.

[Why is she calling him Almond and not LazySoldier? Is this a bug?]

[Raina knows Almond’s real name??? What is this?]

[Is Raina actually alive? LOL She’s using his real name.]

Raina calling him Almond was extremely strange since his LIL username was LazySoldier. Every other champion recognized him as LazySoldier.

— It’s not even his real name? LOL Almond is just a nickname

└ Oh, right. Feels like a real name though

└ LOL

— Obviously staged, fake video smh

— Is this for real?

Some people were calling it staged. Honestly, that made sense. A champion mentioning a summoner’s real name didn’t seem possible, but longtime Almond viewers didn’t feel that way at all.

— Watch the full Raina 3 star clear on AlmondTube

└ No, it’s not Raina’s 3 star clear, it’s Ran’s story mode

└ ??? Seriously?

└ Yeah, you have to clear Raina and Ran 3 stars for Raina to recognize him differently

└ What kind of difficulty is that?

They had already seen Almond clear Ran’s story mode. It had been one of Almond’s most popular YouTube videos in the past.

[Ran 3-Star Clear: Raina recognizes Almond?]

The thumbnail even blatantly said [#RainaIsAlive]. Hardcore fans frequently used this phrase back then. Strangely enough, people didn’t use it much anymore. Some reasonably speculated that it stopped being used after that video went up. However, no one knew the truth.

Clap!

“Nice!”

Anyway, Ju-Hyeok was in a great mood. He had worried about what would happen if Raina just stayed mad at Almond forever. Sure, that would have been content in its own way.

“But this is the best possible outcome.”

Her sulking, then getting over it, was exactly what he wanted. She had even said Almond’s name. Did the solo pentakill bring that out?

“How many clips is this worth, seriously?”

He quickly captured screenshots from the community and sent them to Ji-Ah.

[Ju-Hyeok: Knock knock?]

He checked if she was awake. Seeing that the message was read, she was clearly watching live.

[Ju-Hyeok: I’ve got something for you to cook.]

[Ji-Ah: Hmm. Where are the goods?]

[Ju-Hyeok: I put them where I always do.]

He meant the newly established MixedNuts cloud office. Naturally, they hadn’t always put things there.

[Ji-Ah: Looks clean. As expected of a pro.]

[Ju-Hyeok: Heh.]

Ji-Ah, who had been resting after finishing the Cheese Village content, rolled up her sleeves at the sudden flood of work.

[Ju-Hyeok: I’m expecting 99% purity or higher.]

[Ju-Hyeok: Supply dried up for too long. Things went crazy.]

[Ji-Ah: Won’t take long.]

They had recently watched a drug-smuggling movie and gotten hooked on talking like this.

[Ji-Ah: LOL]

[Ju-Hyeok: LOL]

***

Boom!

As a bonus, Almond finished off the Abyss Shark that only had five percent health remaining.

[The Abyss Shark has been defeated.]

A single high-grade rune box appeared where the Abyss Shark fell. Unlike the rune boxes so far, a luxurious violet hue enveloped it. He opened it and found its contents to be just as premium.

[Rune of Vitality – Heroic]

[Health per Level +11%]

[Rune of Magic Resistance – Heroic]

[Magic Resistance per Level +10]

These were heroic-grade runes because the Abyss Shark was a level seven epic monster. Players even said that a team’s growth hinged on how quickly they killed the Abyss Shark. The reward was substantial.

“Whoa...”

Ding.

[Tutorial Tip]

[Did you obtain runes while contracted? Of course, summoners can strengthen themselves with runes as well, but it is more advantageous to hand them over to teammates who are not yet contracted.]

“Unfortunately... there’s no one left to take them. I’ll use them all.”

— Holy shit LOL everyone’s dead

— LOL you’re the one who killed them all

— Well, you’re alone, so what can you do?

— LMAO

— Bots aside, people come first

— Honestly, it’s better if Almond uses them than bots

Almond absorbed all the heroic runes.

Woooong!

His health and magic resistance increased for no particular reason. On top of that, he gained a buff from the Abyss Shark.

[Abyssal Gills]

[Within the Shadow of the Abyss, you take no damage for three seconds. Cooldown: three minutes.]

This was a powerful buff in a battle royale game where the battlefield kept shrinking. And it was permanent. Almond nodded in satisfaction. Then, he looted all the runes from the dead enemies as well.

From Rifleman Sharyl, he obtained a lifesteal rune that converted a portion of damage dealt into health, along with an attack rune. From Iron Monster Bart, he got a health regeneration rune and a defense rune.

— Tank-DPS Raina, damn

— Lifesteal rune dropped?

— At this point, isn’t he really going to solo everything? LOL

— Lifesteal rune isn’t bad though, right?

— LOL lifesteal is trash on Raina

— Rune rich, damn

— Not even getting carried by rune luck

— Raina’s main damage is Mana Exposure magic damage, why would lifesteal be good?? LOL so many LIL newbies

Viewers argued back and forth about the runes, but Almond didn’t pay them much mind.

“I’m heading to the Sanctuary of Resurrection.”

This time, he truly set out to revive his teammates.

***

A short while passed.

“How do I even get there?”

Almond still hadn’t reached the Sanctuary of Resurrection.

— Just sprint straight there

— That one, that one

— LOL he keeps getting lost mid-way

— First-person view isn’t easy

It kept happening.

“Uh... Oh?”

At first, it was just bad luck. Every time he tried to reach a Sanctuary of Resurrection, the Shadow of the Abyss would close in on that exact location.

[The Shadow of the Abyss descends.]

Crackle...!

The blue sanctuary turned pitch-black.

“I’m screwed.”

— Damn

— Whoa

— Unfair LOL

The moment the shadow touched it, a Sanctuary of Resurrection became unusable. It lost all meaning. Avoiding the shadow, Almond headed for another nearby sanctuary.

“Huh? Monsters here. They look good.”

Along the way, monsters that looked far too tempting appeared. Fighting them delayed him again.

[The Shadow of the Abyss descends.]

Once more, the shadow fell and swallowed the sanctuary he had been aiming for.

— For fuck’s sake LOL

— This feels like watching Battle Large Almond...

— LOL

— What a guy...

— What is this shadow luck???

— Reminds me of his awful blue-zone luck

“This is because it’s a bot match, right? It’s a bit unfair?” Almond interpreted it optimistically. “I’ll just hunt more, then.”

— Solo hunting gets harder late-game

— You really need to revive them!

— The level gap is getting huge, would reviving them even help?

— Revival is mandatory, how do you win without it?

Hunting monsters alone in the late game with a champion like Raina was extremely difficult. Some monster attacks were unavoidable skills. Raina was an extremely fragile champion, which made team composition essential.

[Abyss Anemone]

[Lv. 10]

The Abyss Anemone’s tentacle attacks were a prime example.

Bzzzzzt!

They relentlessly chased players with lingering hit detection.

[HP: 87%]

However, Almond managed better than expected. Thanks to absorbing all the rewards from the pentakill alone, he had grown surprisingly tanky.

Boom!

Solo monster hunting suddenly seemed possible due to his explosive damage. Ironically, getting tank-oriented runes turned out to be a blessing.

— This actually works

— Tank-DPS Raina is insane LOL

— Wow LOL

— Is he really going to win solo???

Positive posts began appearing on the community as well.

[Wow, Almond is surviving for a long time LOL]

[Why is Almond lasting so long by himself?]

[Will he actually win this?]

[Almond LIVE: Is he really about to clear the mission solo? Five left LOL]

The mood shifted toward the idea that Almond would actually clear the mission alone.

[If this really works out, it’ll be legendary.]

Even if it was the tutorial, a Survival match where one player swept the others would draw attention. Then, someone threw in a wrench.

[Solo clear is impossible. Omelet is in that match LOL]

A streamer named Omelet was in the same game as Almond. Screenshots with proof were attached.

— Huh?

— Holy shit LOL

— Why is this happening?

— Whoa

— He’s participating in the Platform War too, huh

— Isn’t Omelet a grandmaster? LOL

— Ah... his whole team is alive... of course LOL

Omelet’s team had all five members alive, whereas Almond was alone.

— They’re going to meet soon LOL

— Whoa, not many left

— This is crazy LOL

— Wow

— Almond vs Omelet showdown, damn

— Their routes overlap

At this rate, they would meet soon.