NoveLight ™
"...Such a busy day, our Eugene."
"What can I do? There are so many people calling for me."
Harmony and Dice's joint stream, with 900,000 viewers.
In other words, the tsunami created by the earthquake called Eugene from the other side of the ocean hit Korea, causing a disaster of its own. Of course, this was only a small part of the national pride frenzy happening in Korea right now, and naturally, the baby Viyams had no say in this process.
Due to the unbelievable actions Eugene had shown, it was well-known that whenever he went live, the average viewership would reach 1.8 million. However, Harmony and Dice had momentarily forgotten that when Eugene took a break from streaming, viewers would flood in their direction instead.
Eugene had taken a long streaming break.
The sniper competition video, just released less than 24 hours ago.
Viewers with nowhere to go.
Only one day left until departure.
When all these elements came together, the stream from Harmony and Dice, who were supposed to fly to St. Petersburg tomorrow, exploded into chaotic turbulence.
Had Harmony not locked the donation feature, the stream would have exploded in more ways than one.
Harmony entered her personal community and clicked on the humor category.
As expected, reaction and analysis videos or posts about Eugene's appearance were flooding the community, reflecting the chaos of the current situation.
"Wow."
"Now, we start, Ye-rin."
The content of the competition video that the two had watched earlier flashed through their minds.
Random target shooting, long-range shooting, and rifle assembly followed by shooting. The flow of the video showed Eugene and Logan performing the mission first, and then the Korean team carrying out the mission afterward. This happened three times, and in the remaining 1-2 minutes, there was an interview.
Naturally, no one cared about the interview part, only the scenes where Eugene and Logan alternated between spotter and sniper, completing the mission at lightning speed. These moments were burned into everyone's minds.
The most popular scene was when Eugene and Logan hit a target at 2.1 km with just three shots, and the part that lasted only a few dozen seconds became a clip that started spreading around the world.
"Seems like some people quickly boarded the national pride bandwagon."
As expected.
In other words, review videos or reaction videos were starting to appear everywhere.
The languages visible immediately were English, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. From Asia, Europe, and the Americas, there were reactions from people claiming to be former special forces members, and there were dozens of posts that had translated and posted captions after capturing these reactions.
If you weren’t perceptive enough, it would be hard to work as a YouSpace creator, as the review videos went up at an incredibly fast rate. This was especially true in the U.S. and Europe, where the upload time was around 11 AM U.S. time, making it more likely that these videos were uploaded faster in the West.
Naturally, the first to upload had guaranteed views. Even videos from channels with only around 7,000 subscribers got over 100,000 views.
Of course, as small channels scrambled to catch up with this flow and desperately tried to gain some popularity, the adulation for Eugene reached an absurd level, progressing from the first to second to third verse of praise.
But then...
"...So, why is the conclusion ending up as praise for me and Dice?"
Naturally, public opinion started to lean toward praising Harmony and Dice for accomplishing something similar to the difficult task.
Perhaps there was already a woman in Korea who had shot a 1.5 km target.
But at least no one had ever attempted that indirectly in front of 2 million viewers in history. Sure, there might be sniper videos from overseas if you searched YouSpace, but at least there was no such precedent in Korea.
Thus, the two could boldly talk about it when the opportunity arose, even if they didn’t brag every chance they got.
But if given the chance, it would naturally lead to some self-praise.
"...By the way, it was a bit difficult when we shot in Hawaii, wasn’t it?"
"Of course. Without Eugene, it would have been impossible. We had already learned a lot about breathing techniques, so it was lucky. Otherwise, we’d have wasted all our ammo. The Laufforce rounds were 15,000 per shot..."
"Yeah. Those were ridiculously expensive. Later, I heard Hyun-a said she didn’t want to shoot anymore after hitting just one. I wonder how hard it must have been for her to say that."
"Not easy at all."
Joking aside, it was undeniable how far they had come.
It had only been 1 year and 3 months, but Harmony could no longer recall the days when she had dropped the magazine and panicked. She had learned everything about the military, small-scale tactics, and weapons she might have never known her whole life, and she had fully internalized it.
The same applied to Dice. There was no longer anyone who had lost their mind after being killed by a grenade trap like the nameless person from last year.
Eugene’s curriculum not only affected their skills in virtual reality but also had a broad impact in reality, which was evident in the performance they displayed while handling firearms much more skillfully than most people in Hawaii.
Of course, that wasn’t all.
"Because of that, I’ve started exercising, too, just because I feel self-conscious while hanging around Eugene. Dice, you feel the same, right?"
"Of course."
The chubby fat around their cheeks, bellies, and arms started to melt away.
And it wasn’t because anyone forced them, but because they chose to do so. If this had been virtual reality, it might have been different, but with their physical fitness being insufficient in reality, they couldn’t have performed at the level Eugene had set without making an effort.
Thus, they naturally started aerobic exercise, and every day, they would run on the treadmill and ride the cycle until their bodies were drenched in sweat and their breath was at its limit.
It was truly an amazing positive cycle.
Although they weren’t sure how things would go when they visited Russia, considering that Eugene would arrive on the day the Asia qualifiers officially began, Harmony and Dice had long ago decided to regulate their food intake during the trip.
Although it was highly likely that Eugene would come alone, if Shark or Polar Bear suddenly appeared on vacation, that would be a disaster in itself. It wasn’t that they disliked those two, but before friendship, the predator-prey relationship came to mind.
That said, the two leaned back in their chairs and added:
It was past 11 PM, and they had to leave for the airport early the next day. A long journey awaited them, from Korea to Moscow and finally to St. Petersburg, with 20 people, including Harmony and Dice.
"We’ll do well. We probably won’t stream tomorrow. We’ll stream from Russia next time. See you later."
"We’ll win 1st place easily. Goodbye!"
And with that, the stream was quietly turned off, and the two finally lay down in their beds.
Harmony and Dice were living in the same house. A tradition of sorts had formed after spending a night at Eugene’s house before leaving for the Final Championship in the U.S. a year ago.
In the dark house, the conversation continued.
"By the way, I wonder what Eugene is doing right now."
"Well, I guess he’s probably doing something extraordinary again."
Hearing that, Harmony nodded. It was such a believable statement.
As the two headed to their respective rooms, the strange thought of Eugene in a helicopter, firing a .50 caliber sniper rifle, flashed through their minds as they drifted into sleep, slowly succumbing to exhaustion.