Down with Heok-roro (3)
Stream ON.
Asgard OFF.
YouTube ON instead.
"Everyone, I've made up my mind. Starting today, I'm going to study a little."
I don't particularly enjoy using my head. Up until now I'd played purely on instinct, but the time had come for a change.
"No… I mean Asgard. Thinking about it, I've been playing way too much on pure instinct. I've been short on game theory."
"…You all know her, right? Yuri0921."
Yuri0921 was, for all intents and purposes, the best ADC among Asgard's entire player base — a user people called the God of ADC. Her peak rank had been third overall; if she'd just played more games, she could have contended for first.
Ooh. Her popularity was rock-solid.
I nodded and clicked on one of Yuri0921's videos.
"Then how about we analyze some of Yuri0921's footage."
In any field, learning from random nobodies has a hard ceiling.
If you're going to learn, you learn from the absolute best in the business.
The video I'd just watched was about twenty minutes long.
But it was so packed with tension it felt like five.
As expected. She's incredible.
Yuri0921's style was far more aggressive and flashy than the average ADC. If I had to put it into words, it was the kind of play that sent a shiver down your spine. Watching an ADC — a role that was supposed to be babysat in the back line — single-handedly carve through the enemy front was nothing short of shocking.
"From today on, she's my role model. Honestly, her playstyle is pretty similar to mine anyway. I figure if I just analyze her videos, Gold shouldn't even be a problem."
Decision made. I was going to become the second Yuri0921. Someday we'd both sit in Challenger, two legendary ADCs standing shoulder to shoulder on the same side of the map.
— Tremble, tremble….
"Anyway, be quiet. I'm studying ADC from here on out."
Whether the viewers laughed or not, I hit play on the next video.
They could pile on all the ridicule they wanted — I'd answer with results. Once I did, they'd flip overnight into pure praise. Public opinion always worked that way.
Yeah. Proving yourself with skill is what a real gamer does.
Just you wait, Pororo. I'm analyzing every single one of her videos, and then I'm going to beat the absolute hell out of you.
Watching her monitor in silence, Shin Yuri spat out the coffee she'd been drinking.
"Pfft…!"
HungADC's stream filled the screen — the usual Asgard broadcast. The only difference was that the idiot had suddenly put on a Yuri0921 video.
If that had been the end of it, Shin Yuri would have shrugged it off. Back when she'd played on her main account, logging in alone had flooded her with friend requests, and pro offers had come often enough that she was well aware of her own fame. He'd even played one of her videos for about a minute last time.
But HungADC took it one step further.
Shin Yuri wiped her mouth with a tissue and thought.
This feels weird.
It had been a long friendship — one that had held from their student days all the way into adulthood. For that same idiot to suddenly point at her and call her his role model left Shin Yuri with a thoroughly complicated feeling.
They say the darkest place is under the lamp…
Then her face went hot all at once.
The image of that fearless punk, thrashing around without a care in the world, failing to recognize the friend sitting right next to him and instead going on about role models — it was so ridiculous it was almost funny, and at the same time it was mortifying.
I wonder how he'd react if he found out it was me…
She could picture it without even trying. He'd either go blank like his soul had left his body, or start spewing curses in pure denial of reality.
"Ah."
Just imagining the scene was delightful. Getting to watch that reaction of his. The thought that she could keep it as lifetime blackmail material and tease him about it forever made a little flutter run through her chest.
"Basically, that makes me his master…"
If he was calling her a role model and studying her videos, wasn't that basically the same thing?
Shin Yuri watched the rest of the stream with more focus than usual.
Down with Pororo.
With that single-minded resolve, I analyzed a considerable number of videos. At this point I was practically Yuri0921 reincarnated.
"Bring it."
Could a bunch of Irons even handle me right now?
The game has started.
The match began, and a clean lane phase was underway — until the enemy hit level six and suddenly forced a fight. The muscular support with the shield flashed in and landed a skill on my Nike in the same motion.
— Fwaang!
My champion — a dainty, adorable Nike wearing the limited Particiel skin — was locked down, thrashing helplessly. The enemy ADC dropped low and closed in, dual pistols blazing.
— Ta-ta-tang!
A seamless combo, smooth as water. Mechanics good enough to rival mine. High odds this was a boosted duo.
"Khgh…!?"
I couldn't just take this lying down. I was a body that had just finished binge-watching every Yuri video. Clinging to that one thought, I reset my stance and immediately counterattacked.
— Pa-ba-bak!
I dumped every skill at once and beat the enemy ADC and support without mercy. The counter hit harder than they'd expected; they started backpedaling. But I wasn't about to let them go.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Both sides were sitting at roughly a third of their health. Normally this was where you'd call a truce and recall to base — but today's me was a little different. I pushed forward instead and charged my Q.
— Huuuut!
Nike drew her bowstring taut and walked straight in. Faced with that murderous pressure, the enemy support raised his shield and planted himself in front of his ADC.
A literal iron wall. If I fired Q like this, it would slam into the shield instead of punching through to the ADC.
But my voice came out full of confidence.
"Got you."
So what if there's a shield?
With Q still charged, I flashed. My position shifted, and instead of the support's shield sitting in a straight line, the enemy ADC's completely exposed body came into view. I released the Q right there.
— Piyung!
The arrow shot out like a bolt of lightning, slipped past the support's shield, and punched clean through the enemy ADC's torso in a single strike.
"Holy shit!!!!"
I'd landed something I'd only ever seen in a video — on the first try?
Am I a genius!?
The attempt was clean, but the enemy ADC didn't die. He'd survived by a single hair's breadth.
"Don't you run!"
Blind with kill hunger, I scrambled after him. But the enemy wasn't stupid enough to just die on the spot. Mortally wounded and bleeding nonstop, he was still fleeing behind his tower.
"Ha — one hit!"
One hit and it was a kill. But my arrow never reached him. Because a vicious shadow fell across the path I was taking.
"Whoa!"
The enemy support who'd been trying to block my arrows just a second ago. He planted his massively muscled frame right in front of me, flexing every inch of that physique.
The enemy support showed no mercy. With my flash already spent, he proceeded to beat me senseless. The shield that was supposed to protect his ally flipped into an offensive weapon, cracking me over the crown of the head and smashing into my face without restraint.
A moment later….
The screen turned gray.
— BANG BANG BANG!!!!!!
"Support, you piece of shit, why aren't you following uuuuup!!!!"
All style, no substance?
Honestly, they weren't wrong. Yuri0921's play was so flashy and aggressive you could say it was built on style.
But applying that measuring stick directly to me was something I could not tolerate.
"Sh-shut uuuuup…!"
Click-click-click-click!
I hammered out temporary bans in pure grievance and shed tears.