Handcam Verification (1)
I went down in spectacular fashion. The only silver lining was that I'd managed to break my fall, so I hadn't actually gotten hurt that badly.
"W-Wait, ADC! Are you all right?!"
RockSolid came rushing over, his face drained of color.
"Stay back! Get away from me!"
I snapped myself upright in an instant and yelled. RockSolid froze mid-step, then spoke in a worried voice.
"Th-That's not—you're bleeding! We need to stop the bleeding first…!"
He looked thoroughly flustered. Why? Why was he acting so completely at a loss?
…Or was this it? Was this the moment?
The face-crushing roundhouse kick moment?
But contrary to my fears, RockSolid stayed right where he was.
"J-Just wait a moment! I'll be right back!"
And with that, he vanished somewhere before the words had even finished leaving his mouth. My brain couldn't keep up. He was going to leave—now—when the perfect chance for revenge was sitting right in front of him?
—Thud thud thud thud!
It couldn't have been more than three minutes. Somewhere in the distance, while I was still gritting my teeth through the pain, the sound of another earthquake came rumbling back.
"ADCCCcc!"
In his hands were disinfectant, bandages, and ointment.
"Huff, huff… I got them!"
RockSolid clutched the disinfectant and reached toward my knee. I could see that massive palm coming straight at me.
"I'll treat you first. There's dirt in the wound—risk of infection…"
"Stop."
"Excuse me? If we don't treat it right away…"
"Look at this first."
With my relatively uninjured left hand, I shoved my smartphone in RockSolid's face.
112
"You put so much as a finger on me and you know what happens."
"What? No—why are you doing this? This is ridiculous!"
"…I'm pressing it?"
"I swear on my life I only want to treat the wound! I stake my honor on it—I have absolutely no ulterior motives!"
"Why would I trust your honor? You're a damn bottom-tier nobody."
"You're bottom-tier too! And what does rank even have to do with any of this?!"
Saying that, RockSolid edged a little closer.
"Anyway, stop being so stubborn. What are you going to do if it scars?"
"…"
He looked genuinely desperate. Looking back on it, there was something off about the idea of him taking revenge now. The perfect window had been right when I first went down.
"…Just the wound. Anything funny and I hit the button."
Maybe revenge wasn't the only thing on his mind. The logic of a lunatic was something a normal person could never fully grasp, after all.
"I'm the one treating you, so I don't know why I have to be the one walking on eggshells…"
I let RockSolid handle the wound. First he poured on the disinfectant, and—
"Aaaagh! Shit! That burns like hell!"
The pain defied imagination. This was no ordinary disinfectant. Even Guan Yu, sitting there carving the poison out of his own bones while playing Go, would have bawled like a little girl if someone dumped this stuff on him.
"Disinfecting always hurts the worst. Just bear with it a little longer."
"…Nngh."
RockSolid kept going. That enormous frame of his crouched down, carefully applying a bandage. Fighting through the pain, I stared down at the top of his head.
…This bastard.
What was this? Every single movement was careful, almost delicate. If he were really some revenge-obsessed maniac or a stalker, he wouldn't be acting like this. And the fine motor control didn't match that mountain of a body at all.
Maybe he's not actually a bad guy…?
I was still glaring suspiciously at the crown of his head when—
"All done."
RockSolid finished the treatment and stood up.
"How is it? Feeling a little better?"
…What was I supposed to say here? Under normal circumstances, this would be the part where you said thank you. But nothing about this situation was normal.
"No, it hurts like a bitch. You suck at this, seriously."
I shoved my phone into my pocket and kept going.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not grateful at all. If you hadn't followed me in the first place, I never would have gotten hurt. Right?"
That was fair. I'd told him how many times not to follow me, and he'd still come after me and caused this whole mess. When you got down to it, he was the one who'd started all of this.
"About that… I'm truly sorry."
Unexpectedly, the apology came without resistance.
"It won't happen again. I'll be more careful…"
He seemed genuinely remorseful. On top of that, his shoulders had slumped completely—he looked thoroughly deflated.
Why do I feel guilty…
That was weird. No, why should I? I was the one who got hurt.
Anyway, I pushed off the ground and stood up.
"I'm going."
"Ah—yes. Can you walk on your own?"
"Yeah."
RockSolid started to offer a hand, then caught my look and quietly pulled it back.
"Please get home safely."
—Limp, limp.
My knee hurt, but it was walkable.
I'd made it about ten steps when some nameless unease made me glance back over my shoulder without thinking.
…He's completely crushed.
This guy's shoulders looked ready to sink into the ground.
He said it wouldn't happen again.
From tomorrow on, he'd probably pretend not to know me even if we ran into each other. That was the feeling I got.
"…"
It left a weird taste in my mouth.
"Hey."
I called out casually. RockSolid flinched and lifted his head. I scratched my head once and muttered, gruff as I could manage.
"…See you around."
With that, I turned my back.
A moment later, a voice full of energy rang out behind me.
"Yes! Please get home safely!"
Back home, I checked over the spots where I'd been hurt.
Weirdly thorough.
The workmanship was flawless. He'd pressed a little hard in places, but that was fine in its own way. Better than having it too loose.
Nothing looks seriously damaged. Time to open the shop, then.
Morning exercise was done, so the plan was to eat and go live right away. A model of diligence, truly. Of course, "going live" just meant playing games from morning till I passed out, same as always…
Stream ON.
Asgard ON.
"CashBox, welcome."
I'd raised the shutters, but a match wasn't going to pop anytime soon. This was the Abyss, after all—far fewer people down here than in the heavenly ranks. On a bad day, you could take a whole nap and still not get a game.
"Ah."
Come to think of it, hadn't I uploaded a video to YouTube last time? The one with my dazzling mechanical outplays—my mad movie. The thought hit me late, and I opened the site.
—16 comments
"Already?"
I'd only just made the channel, and yet a surprising number of comments had piled up in no time. What kind of comments could they be? Heart fluttering, I scrolled down. My smile did not last long.
"…"
Not a single compliment. Nothing but mockery and insults.
—Seething…
"Oh, these little shits for real."
"Th-They just have no eye for the game. Yeah. Zero game sense."
What do you people know about ADC? This is how you're supposed to play ADC.
I muted the rank parrot and clicked back to the YouTube homepage. The idea was to at least change the screen and reset the mood.
But as I skimmed the algorithm's recommended videos, something strange caught my eye.
"…What is everyone doing?"
Didn't streamers usually show their faces on cam?
Why were they showing their keyboards instead of their faces?
—Challenger ADC Handcam Coaching
—Handcam verification. Not using hacks
—Diamond local handcam stream
There was a weird common thread running through all of them. None of them were showing their faces—they were showing their hands and keyboards.
"Handcam? Is showing your hands the trend now?"
If it was a trend, I had to jump on it. I might have been a rookie streamer, but falling behind on trends was not an option.
"Ah, for real?"
Hacks. Illegal programs that auto-dodged skills and auto-landed them for you, from what I knew. Which meant any streamer confident in their skill was running a handcam, right?
"Then I should do it too."
I'd been on a massive hot streak lately, racking up win after win. A streamer whose skill suddenly skyrocketed in the middle of a chaos like this? Way too suspicious. I needed to turn it on immediately.
"What? I've been on a win streak lately too—people might get the wrong idea. Better to clear my name early, right?"
I was going to ride this all the way to Challenger. If I didn't want people talking behind my back later, I needed to do the handcam verification now.
No.
These little shits…?