[TS] Malicious Sniper

I stared at the nicknames of Opera and Drill on the enemy team for a while.

In my heart, I acknowledged that those guys had simultaneously targeted me.

But my normal, rational mind couldn’t comprehend the reality in front of my eyes.

It was funny that the ones caught gossiping weren’t even ashamed to play the game.

And then, when the targets of that gossip surpassed their scores, they started targeting me in the morning hours?

Just like Curry said in the clip I saw earlier, those bastards were professional gamers without a professional ethic.

“Wow…”

They say when you’re too baffled, laughter comes out.

That’s exactly how I felt in this situation, and because of that, my no-mic concept was shattered.

Letting out a sigh mixed with a hollow laugh, I went into the stats site to check the records of the two.

Surprisingly, the matching times of both were similar.

Not just similar; they were almost identical.

The matchmaking system is structured to prevent frequent matches with the same person.

Of course, in the higher ranks, there aren’t many users, so you end up facing the same people, but these two weren’t in that case—they had matched their game times on purpose.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t explain the gaps between their records.

After checking their records, I returned to the game screen, bought items, and headed to my lane.

Even without taking any action here, the viewers would probably notice something odd about Opera’s record.

I shifted my gaze and, as expected, there were messages in the chat raising suspicions about Opera’s record.

Turning my attention back to the screen, I shook off all the distractions in my head and focused on the game.

The enemy mid champion, Jui, wasn’t an extremely tough champion, but he wasn’t exactly a fun opponent either.

Silas’s ultimate has the effect of stealing opponents’ ultimates, but Jui’s ultimate didn’t really have much impact as a utility skill.

Aside from that, Kai’Sa, Pantheon, Udyr, and Fionna’s ultimates weren’t great fits for Silas either.

In a way, the reason the enemy composition was like this was because I had first picked Silas.

The enemy didn’t really have a reason to choose champions that worked well with Silas since they picked Silas first.

Still, there was a certain thrill in using Silas’s unique ultimate-stealing ability, which was a bit regrettable.

With nothing happening during the invade phase, the laning phase began.

Basically, Silas had no choice but to farm against Jui in the early stages.

This wasn’t just true for Jui; it applied to all ranged champions.

I leveled up Q and farmed properly, and as the second wave hit, the timing for the third minion wave arrived.

Quickly clearing two nearby minions with help from the tower, I reached level 3 faster than Jui.

At the same time, I used E to close the distance on Jui, who was stepping forward to hit level 3.

Jui threw a Sleep Bubble to stop my approach, but I dodged it with some movement and used W to close the distance again.

Since Jui couldn’t connect his only skill to stop my approach—the Sleep Bubble—my damage trade was bound to be one-sided.

When Silas’s unique skill combo hit and Jui’s health dropped below half, it was clear.

I thought I could secure a kill with a returning Q skill and a flash passive auto-attack, but Jui seemed to see the angle and immediately used Flash to retreat into the tower.

At this point, Jui had to make a choice.

Should he give up the sizeable minion wave and go home?

Or should he stay under the tower and die to me?

Usually, the former is the rational choice, while the latter is the emotional one.

He knew all too well that if he forced himself to endure here, he would break.

But he couldn’t just let the huge wave of minions slip away.

As my allied minions began to move toward the enemy tower, Jui stayed behind the tower, only gathering experience.

It was the least bad choice, but the results still wouldn’t be good.

Jui didn’t give me the distance of a flash EW, but I boldly used Flash E to move forward and used E again.

If Jui managed to dodge my chain here, he would incur massive losses.

But of course, I was confident in hitting my chain, and in fact, my chain hit Jui perfectly.

[First Blood!]

I got the first blood, but I was left in critical condition thanks to the tower’s attack.

However, since the enemy Udyr had shown on top, I managed to escape safely from the enemy’s den.

I had never lost while playing League of Legends.

There had never been a time when I lost after getting a first blood on an opponent.

Reviving the sensation of the undefeated myth I had with Yone, I continued the game.

*

Most of the viewers recognized Barcode simply as a streamer who gelled well with Curry and played League of Legends nicely.

This was obvious since many viewers had entered after the collab with Curry rather than when he was streaming as the Unknown Yone Master.

Thus, the majority of viewers were shocked by Barcode’s play displayed on the broadcast.

Even if they were challengers, it wasn’t easy to create such a dominating gap that destroyed the balance of the game.

On top of that, these players had all finished the previous season as challengers, so the shock factor increased even more.

Of course, the chatroom’s heat was unbelievable for the morning hours.

As the target caught gossiping illustrated their ugliness, Barcode displayed his refreshing comeback— it was the purest version of a soda!

The endlessly heated atmosphere peaked when Barcode’s Silas single-handedly overcame a 3v1 to secure a triple kill.

[What? Chin-up? Bubble? LOL]
[Your bubble is the real legend as you all are fourth-strong with Lannis’s upper body.]
[Is Barcode truly the goddess of League of Legends?]
[Yeah, it’s a bubble… Unbeliev’Bubble.]
[Ah… That was just crazy! Odd duo!]
[If your skills and personality are both bubbles, then why even be a pro?]
[Our Lannis fandom always supports the eternal love between Opera and Drill!]
[Not just any gamer, but they really made a pro-gamer out of them LOL.]

Every time Barcode’s Silas made shining plays, outpourings of criticism towards Opera and Drill reached an extreme level.

The fact that that duo had been gossiping about Barcode and that they had intentionally matched up in ranked games was all too clear to the viewers.

Even the fact that Opera banned Barcode’s Yone out of spite was common knowledge among the viewers when the final Baron team fight commenced.

In a situation where a huge gap had already formed due to Silas, when the enemy team’s carries fell, there seemed to be a chance of a comeback.

However, Silas, with all his items, was an undying monster.

He was an immortal beast, devouring enemies one by one.

[Quadra Kill!]

Despite the absence of the ADC, Silas achieved a quadra kill and chased after Kai’Sa, the enemy team’s only survivor, with Pantheon’s ultimate he had stolen earlier.

A comet’s spear struck behind Kai’Sa, and the red currents following the spear whipped around like a storm, engulfing her.

The merciless red currents, akin to a death sentence, snatched Kai’Sa’s last breath, which had been clinging to hope.

[Penta Kill!]
[Finish it!]

Once even Kai’Sas, the last flicker of hope, was engulfed by the colossal storm, system messages began appearing above the chat.

Messages indicated that four enemy team members had agreed to surrender, and soon followed by five members had agreed. When that message appeared, mere moments later, the enemy nexus was annihilated.

The viewers erupted into jubilant cheers.

Barcode let out a slight smile, then said quietly, as if it was no big deal,

“The bubble has popped.”

That remark from Barcode, breaking the silence throughout the game, was enough to ignite all communities related to League of Legends.

For the two, that fire would soon become hell, while it would be a warm light for Barcode.

“I’m sorry, but we’ll wrap up the broadcast here for today.”

With a satisfied expression, Barcode declared the end of the stream.

The viewers seemed to share the same sentiment as Barcode, showing no particular disappointment.

Thus, Barcode’s short yet intense broadcast came to an end, and the audience, lost with nowhere to go, dispersed into various communities.

*

Curry was involuntarily forced to watch Barcode’s broadcast due to a call from the manager in the morning.

He couldn’t watch from the beginning, but after having a rough idea of the situation, he gradually became engrossed in the broadcast.

Although he had made statements that sounded like fact violence yesterday, it didn’t entirely ease his anger, and he almost slipped up several times.

Certainly, Barcode wasn’t someone to like.

However, that didn’t mean he could pour his private feelings into public matters.

That was simply Curry’s conviction, and it was natural to be angry now that the duo had crossed the line publicly.

Not at all for Barcode’s sake.

Not to look good to Barcode.

There was absolutely no reason for making that statement.

Anyway, watching Barcode’s stream with all the unresolved anger was interesting.

At first, he worried, “What if Barcode loses?”

But as time passed, those concerns faded away as Barcode began to dominate his opponents.

Thinking back, Barcode was the one who smashed the Ohapjijon team made up of the finest members and won the platform tournament.

Before that, he had also set the unbelievable record of 50 wins and 0 losses in the Grandmaster and Challenger tiers while functioning as the Unknown Yone Master.

Realizing how stupid it was to worry about Barcode, Curry enjoyed the broadcast without any worries from that moment on.

As expected, Barcode continued to lead the game with overwhelming one-man carries.

Eventually, he caught the ugly fleeing Kai’Sas in the last Baron team fight and forced the enemy’s surrender.

“The bubble has popped.”

As if all the quiet contemplation had been for the sake of saying that, Barcode smiled faintly and declared the stream’s end.

With a satisfied look, Barcode finished the broadcast, and soon after, it went dark.

Although it wasn’t something he was directly involved in, just like when he got mad at the duo yesterday, Barcode’s words were enough for him to feel refreshed.

With that in mind, he considered whether to post a video targeting that duo.

Just as Curry was about to send a separate message to the editor to record for a targeting video rather than a live stream.

Knock knock-

Hearing the knock, Curry got up from his seat and left the room.

When he opened the door, Barcode, wearing a pleasant expression, came into view.

“I’ll make breakfast. Come on out.”

“O, okay…”

Curry hesitated for a moment but ended up following Barcode into the living room.

Sitting at the table, trying to sort out his cluttered thoughts, he realized that Barcode had already finished cooking and had moved the dishes to the table.

Not wanting to just sit still, Curry helped prepare the meal and quickly sat back down, while Barcode took a seat across from him.

“It’ll taste even better than yesterday! Please enjoy.”

As Barcode encouraged him to eat, Curry spoke awkwardly before picking up his chopsticks.

“You were awesome in the broadcast earlier.”

“Huh?”

Perhaps due to his quiet voice, Barcode asked back, and Curry clenched his fist, forcing his words out.

“I said you were awesome. In the broadcast earlier.”

“Hmm…?”

Curry couldn’t meet Barcode’s gaze and simply started eating.

---