The next challenge

It was time for the bonus round. A battle royal between me, Sven, Leona, and Astrid.

“So, what’s the punishment?” Leona asked eagerly.

“1st place is free. 2nd has to eat a piece of wasabi salmiak. 3rd has to eat a hair cupcake, while last has to eat both,” Astrid suggested.

“Let’s do Wyvern rainforest 15 turns,” I suggested.

“Looks like you really don’t want to try the salmiak,” Sven teased.

“I’ll try some, just not with wasabi.”

We then began the game. Unlike other boards, this one required you to purchase huts and would award you more crowns the more gems you deposited to a hut. To steal crowns, a rival simply needed to deposit more gems than you and the crowns were theirs. It was going to be a very intense game.

"This time, I'm gonna beat you," Leona declared.

                                                                                   ...

By the 5th turn, the game essentially became a brawl between Sven and I.

“You could at least let us buy ONE hut,” Leona grumbled.

“Sheesh, I just shaved my head, and now I’m gonna have to eat all my hair? Give the bald girl a break,” Astrid groaned.

Those two would be lucky just to get a bonus crown. Sven and I were playing in peak cutthroat mode. At the start of the 11th turn, Astrid received a pity gift of 50 gems.

“Finally, the luck’s starting to kick in!” she shouted as she smacked her head.

She never got the chance to spend them as I triggered a duel.

“You think you can beat me? I’ll humble you Crowboy!” Astrid declared.

Unfortunately for her, the minigame was skill based and I completely decimated her.

“NO! THAT WAS SO CHEAP! I never even got a chance to make one mud ball!”

Sven grimaced as he realized this payday meant I was going to snag his prized three crown hut.

                                                                                  ...

“Overwhelming victory!” I declared as everyone stared at the results screen.

That duel had decided the game. I took 1st place with 10 crowns, Sven was 2nd with 3 crowns, and Leona managed to get 3rd with no crowns, but more gems than Astrid. Regardless of my victory, I decided to try a piece of salmiak.

“Bleh! Too salty.”

Leona tried a piece as well with and without wasabi.

“It tastes a lot better with wasabi,” Leona stated.

Sven and Astrid disagreed, as they struggled to eat their pieces of wasabi salmiak.

“Ugh, the salmiak’s been ruined,” Astrid groaned.

As everyone went to check on the cupcakes, I looked at the views.

“60,000!? We actually went up during that Jamboree game? Damn, maybe I should try streaming Jamboree more often,” I thought.

                                                                             ...

Everyone returned, and Astrid and Leona began eating the cupcakes.

“BLEH! Your hair tastes terrible. I’m going to need more wasabi.” Leona groaned.

“ACK! Ugh, I thought the lingonberries would improve the taste, but hair just sucks to get in your mouth,” Astrid lamented.

After completing their punishment, the girls began the outro.

“Thanks to everyone who came and supported us!”

“Make sure to like and subscribe to us as well as Svenfjordsalt and Crowboy50.”

“Thanks to the mods as well for dealing with that intense chat. Well, guess we’ll raid someone. Know anyone that’s live Leona?”

“Hmm, Oh! Valentino’s live.”

“Valentino? Heh, him and I go way back. Well, time to raid!”

The two raided Valentino’s channel as he played Pilemen 4.

“WHOA WHAT!? 50,000! Who raided!? Leona? What were you streaming?” Val asked in confusion.

“Astrid’s bald now,” Leona typed.

“Wait Astrid’s bald? What are you talking about? I literally just got home.”

Chat informed Valentino of what went down.

“Well big OOF for me. I should have tried watching it at work. Well guess I’ll be watching the vod.”

Astrid then turned to me and Leona.

“We’ve still got an hour and a half left in this room. Might as well help you guys out with tidying up your channels.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” I asked.

“After that massive success, both you and Leona are going to see an uptick in your channels. I assume once you got home, you’d feverously get to work making Leona’s channel look nice. The moment Leona showed up here for the challenge was the moment I decided I’d give her a hand. I originally planned for it to be a consolation prize, but well I’m the bald one. Besides, it’s better if I show you how to get some emotes in your chat.”

Astrid was 100% correct. There was undeniably going to be a massive uptick in viewership for Leona’s channel. Heck, her Wich follower count was now over 100 and climbing rapidly. Getting Leona’s channel to high quality was now my next main objective. I wouldn’t want people to think the high-quality today was simply due to Astrid. But still, it was really nice of Astrid to graciously offer to help with this. She undoubtedly had more experience with this anyway.

“Do you know how to get a good BRB screen?” I asked.

“Yep. You can actually just take a picture or gif of some real footage and use that instead of an animation.”

“Wait I can do that!? In that case…”

Leona positioned a camera and grabbed a tube of wasabi. She then wrote “B R B” on the table with wasabi.

“That ought to work right?” she asked cheerfully.

“It’s simple, but very on brand for you. I think it’s a great starting point,” Astrid affirmed.

We spent the rest of the time sprucing up both mine and Leona’s channels. I had been hesitant to work on mine, but Astrid had insisted.

“Come on, you’ve got a talent for this too. Besides, you collab with Leona a lot. It’s hard to believe a selfless guy like you is the same guy who eviscerates people in Jamboree. Come to think of it, how good are you at that game?”

“I’m not invincible, though the only times I’ve lost was when I had bad luck or everyone ganged up on me. Though I’ve gotten better at dealing with the latter.”

“Hold a “Beat Crowboy” stream. Considering how many people saw that bonus round live, I assume many want to take a shot at you. Me included.”

“Still salty about losing the pity gems?”

“Yes, though it did give me some inspiration for a solo challenge, so look forward to it tomorrow.”

                                                                                ...

I exhaled as we looked at our work. Both Leona’s channels and mine had received a massive overhaul. Now we each had nice channel backgrounds as well as custom emotes and title cards. We thanked Astrid and Sven as we cleaned up before heading home.

“Let me know when you come up with a new challenge, I’m down whenever wherever!” Leona yelled.

“That’s what I like to hear. I’m glad I met a girl like you,” Astrid said as she waved goodbye.

Leona then turned to me.

"Thanks for the support. Though what would you have done if I was the baldy?"

"Same thing I did back then, clap along to Zeck's theme song as you get waxed."

"Ha ha! Glad you get me. Though would you still want to be with me even if I was completely bald?"

"You bet. Even if people called you ugly, I'd stick by you no matter what. You're the reason I'm being so bold instead of laying depressed in my room."

"So, you gonna confess to me?"

My face went red. However, I maintained my composure.

"When the time is right. I WILL confess my love for you."

Leona went red in the face before smiling.

"Heh, I guess you want the confession to be a spectacle. No worries. If you're planning to confess in under a year, I'll wait."

It was decided. I WOULD confess my love to Leona, and based on Leona's reaction I assumed she would accept it. Once her channel, and mine were stable I would confess to her on stream.