Chapter 14 - Promotion Match (4)
Promotion Match (4)
Translator : Elizabeth
[Harim has been slain by SION!][Double Kill!][SION is on a rampage!]
"Hmm."
Looking at Harim, who died once again by being pierced by my rapier the moment he stepped back into the Jungle, a satisfied expression crossed my face.
"Good."
Killing a player the moment they respawn. This was the so-called 'spawn-killing.' I usually didn't attempt this often because it carried a high risk—requiring me to ambush the enemy near their own base—but to reduce Harim’s influence on the game to zero, this much was necessary.
Harim: 0/3/0.
Harim had now met his third death. His earned gold was a disaster, and since he had spent more time dead than alive, he hadn't even managed to unlock his ultimate skill.
On the other hand, I had already secured four kills. Among the eight players in the game, I was first in gold and first in level. The growth gap between Harim and me had widened beyond control.
SION: 4/0/0.
“…….”
The fact that the enemy Jungler had secured four kills even before Low Tide—the time when one can officially intervene at the Beach—meant the game had significantly tilted in the enemy’s eyes. Unless the enemy dealers on the Beach or the Plain managed to pull off more kills on their own, the initiative would not be easily reclaimed.
They had only two shreds of hope left. One was to slay 'Leviathan,' the sea dragon that appears in the Beach's waters 15 minutes into the game, to obtain a powerful area-of-effect buff and experience to overcome the growth gap. The other was to somehow hold out until the very late game and aim for a dramatic reversal using the special items provided by the hot-air balloons.
In fact, it was a famous story in the pro scene how a team once employed a desperate 'space defense' strategy, used a special item to land a guaranteed stun on the entire enemy team, and snatched a comeback victory. Of course, that was in the pro scene and a very specific case... but theoretically, it wasn't an impossible scenario.
Considering those factors, the enemies would likely play as passively as possible, hiding near their towers to try and hold out.
"I should go group up."
If that happened, a frustrating stalemate would ensue. There was no benefit in losing the current momentum and tempo, so I planned to join the Plain, which was easily accessible from the Jungle, and break through that side first.
— Ugh...
"Huh...?"
...Just as I was about to stop the spawn-killing and head for the Plain, Harim came back into my sight, walking into the Jungle once more after having respawned.
— Dammit...
Perhaps because he had been spawn-killed twice in a row due to carelessness, he was exceptionally tense this time, scouting his surroundings warily. I simply smiled and readjusted my grip on the rapier.
No matter how much he guarded himself, I was currently receiving attribute enhancements from the Golden Monkey buff and my skills, as well as stat-boosting effects from various items bought with gold. As a Speed Swordswoman who had already achieved explosive growth, Harim would never be able to react to or block my attacks, no matter how much attention he paid.
Even in the off-chance that enemy reinforcements arrived or an ambush was waiting... I had the Speed Swordswoman’s ultimate skill to fall back on, so I didn't have to worry about dying. In the first place, it was because of that ultimate that I could attempt risky plays like spawn-killing.
"...Good."
Hiding among the thickets, I nodded as I watched Harim. I might be leaving for the Plain, but taking one more kill before I go wasn't a bad idea.
"Whew..."
Taking a deep breath, I took my stance and aimed my rapier at Harim’s heart—a spot that would ensure instant death. Then, like a track athlete, I bent my knees slightly to gather strength in my legs and burst forward, kicking off the ground.
Whoosh.
The sound of the wind in my ears, and the cold air brushing past my cheeks. Because of the buffs and item effects, everything around me looked slow, as if in slow motion, and all my senses came vividly to life. Even the movement of a single bead of sweat rolling down Harim’s forehead entered my sight.
— Huh...?
Harim, sensing the distortion in the surrounding airflow, turned his head, but it was too late. My rapier was already piercing through the gaps in his light armor.
— Uh? Huh?
“…….”
Before he could even dream of the word 'counter-attack,' my eyes met Harim’s as his heart was pierced. Turning pale and unable to hide his bewilderment, he looked as if he were asking:
When, where, and how did you attack?Just what are you?
"...."
But there was no reason for me to answer that question.
[Harim has been slain by SION!][Quadra Kill!][Dominator!]
...The familiar voice merely echoed across the battlefield.
02.
[Harim has been slain by SION!][Quadra Kill!][Dominator!]
"AAAAAAAAAGH!! F***ING HELL!!"
As he met his fourth death at the hands of Gale, Harim felt his string of reason snap. Although he aimed for a 'healthy, skill-based broadcast' and usually refrained from minor swearing on stream, he couldn't suppress the rising anger right now.
It wasn't just four deaths. It was four consecutive deaths to the same opponent—someone he had inwardly looked down upon. Furthermore, the last three were 'spawn-kills,' dying pointlessly as soon as he respawned.
Before he could do anything after reviving, he was dead in an instant. His heart was pierced by the rapier of a silver-haired girl who appeared from who-knows-where, and his vision went dark. From the start of the game until now, Harim had been thoroughly toyed with by Gale.
"F***!! F***ING HELL!!"
Casting aside his persona as a streamer, as a gamer who had reached Grand Master, there could be no greater insult to his pride.
"Seriously, are you f***ing crazy?!"
But the most infuriating thing was that he couldn't make any excuses for this desperate situation. All four deaths were solo kills by Gale, without any intervention from others.
Yes, once could be called a mistake. Twice could be called being careless. Three times could be called the opponent being good. But from the fourth time... it was just that he was bad. Being solo-killed four times by the same opponent was a matter of skill, not luck. From four times on, the problem lay with the person being killed.
‘F**, seriously...’*
When he faced Rank 10 Guan Yu Bi-so-ryong, the two deaths he suffered were while supporting other frontlines, so he could at least blame others. He could say it wasn't a Jungle Gap, or that if the dealer had been better, they would have won.
<User123 has donated 1,000 won!>【This is just an overwhelming Jungle Gap.】
“…….”
...But now, the cause of the game's collapse lay entirely with Harim himself. Even if he wanted to blame others, he couldn't. The five kills recorded for Gale and the desperate 0/4/0 etched into his own profile were screaming nothing but 'Jungle Gap.'
‘Gale...’
From those numbers, Harim began to feel a massive wall between himself and Gale. Between that Speed Swordswoman and himself was a wall he could never overcome—a wall so high he couldn't even see the top, its height beyond measure. The more he slammed his head against that wall, the more Harim couldn't stop himself from feeling miserable and ashamed.
「 LMAOOOOOO 」 「 Is the phone number here 040? 」 「 Wow, now this is a Jungle Gap 」 「 The Archer is sobbing LMAO 」 「 Me 」 「 ???: I’ll play for real now LMAO 」 「 You said the Speed Swordswoman was easy, you b*stard LMAO 」 「 Lock 」 「 Gale << just a god, for real 」 「 Host, with what mind did you look down on a ranker lol 」 「 "J U N G L E G A P" 」
"Sigh..."
With Gale taking four kills, the game had been flipped. Since it was a level of skill and performance clearly incomparable to the enemy Jungler, Harim being mocked and compared by the viewers was inevitable. It was clearly Harim’s broadcast, but the viewers were praising Gale and mocking him. Malicious trolls—the so-called 'Buntang' (disruptors)—who had heard the news joined in, making the chat window even more chaotic.
<User123 has donated 1,000 won!>【???: I'm not really worried about the Speed Swordswoman... (while being solo-killed 4 times)】
"Ugh..."
But the most embarrassing thing that made him grit his teeth was having the statements he made before the game unearthed. Before the match, Harim had utterly disregarded the Speed Swordswoman build—commonly called a 'troll build'—and had lumped Gale, its creator, into that same category. He had viewed her skill as mediocre and dismissed her Rank 7 position as mere luck.
Those insults and mockery had come back to Harim in the form of a humiliating record: 'four consecutive solo kills.' Since starting Legend Frontier, had there ever been a time he was this embarrassed?
‘No, it’s still okay. I can do this...’
Amidst the surging shame, Harim performed self-hypnosis. He brainwashed himself into thinking he could still save the game—that he could still win.
‘The only one who got kills is Gale. If I support the Archer or the Fighter, we can somehow do this.’
Whether it was a relief or not, Gale was the only one on the enemy team with recorded kills. That meant the people on the other frontlines hadn't achieved significant growth yet. Furthermore, hadn't his allied Archer recorded a kill and taken control of the Beach?
If Harim gave up his role as a Jungler and supported the Archer purely in a supportive role to drag out the time as much as possible, a chance might appear in the late game...
[Baekseul has been slain by SION!][5 consecutive kills!][Avatar of the Battlefield! SION is on a rampage!]
"Huh...?"
But Harim's hopeful scenario was shattered by the announcement that reached even the respawn waiting area.
"The Fighter...?"
Gale, who had been spawn-killing him in the Jungle, had apparently joined the Plain, and news came that the Plain's Fighter had been slain by her.
SION: 6/0/0.
Gale’s kill count rose once more. ...Not only that, an even more desperate announcement followed.
[Red Team's Plain Tower has been destroyed!]
As soon as the Fighter died, one of the Plain’s defensive towers collapsed. And what that implied was beyond imagination. The Fighter's respawn time was quite long, and the Archer or Hacker at the Beach were far too busy with their own problems to support the Plain.
Normally, Harim as the Jungler should have rushed to support and fill the Fighter’s spot, but he too was stuck in respawn time. That meant there was no one to protect the Plain, and the enemy Samurai and Gale would easily push through to the final line of defense.
...The Plain frontline had been completely breached. Since the enemies would focus solely on that spot now, the Archer and Hacker would have no choice but to give up the Beach and head to the Plain to defend their base. Once they let go of the Beach—the only lane they had control over—the possibility and method of winning would virtually disappear.
In simpler terms, the game was completely blown open.
...A new holographic screen appeared before Harim.
■ ■ ■ □
"Huh...?"
Whether they felt this round was already ruined and hopeless, the three other players—excluding Harim—had simultaneously pressed the surrender button. Seeing this, Harim’s eyes trembled.
‘N-No, wait...’
No. He couldn't surrender like this. This was his promotion match to Mythic, a position he had barely reached; he couldn't surrender so pointlessly. He might fall into another losing streak, so was he supposed to go through all that hell again? No, that was unthinkable.
"H-Hey!"
Harim shouted toward everyone via voice chat.
"I-It's still winnable! We can save this! I'll go support the Archer! So please, cancel the surrender quickly!"
In Legend Frontier, a surrender can be cancelled if the button is pressed again within 7 seconds. Harim pleaded for them to press that cancel button, as a sliver of possibility still remained.
<Sigh...>
Then, someone who heard him let out a deep sigh over the voice chat. it was the allied supporter, roooobot, a player in the top 30.
<Yeah, we could have saved it.>
"Right? We can save it! So hurry and cancel—"
<...If you hadn't been spawn-killed three times in a row, that is.>
“…….”
At roooobot’s voice cutting him off, Harim’s mouth snapped shut.
<If not for that, we could have made something happen. You’ve turned Gale into a literal monster, so how the hell are we supposed to win?>
"T-That’s...!!"
"What...? Still, that’s..."
<...Jungle Gap, GG.>
"Gah...!!"
At roooobot’s final words, Harim’s chest felt tight. That one sentence, naturally belittling and doubting his skill, felt like it crushed everything in him. But he couldn't say a single word back.
SION: 6/0/0.Harim: 0/4/0.
“…….”
Jungle Gap. It was a perfectly correct statement, a fact. On the enemy team, Gale had carried, and on his own team, he had been spawn-killed three times in a row, snatching away even the last shred of hope. Harim’s arrogance and carelessness had ruined everything.
[Your team has surrendered!][Defeat!]
The surrender passed, and Harim's promotion match ended. Now, he would have to go on a winning streak again just to return to this position.
"F-F***ING HELL!!"
At the thought of the dizzying, desperate situation, only curses could escape Harim’s mouth. Furthermore, it was a match where he gained nothing. If there was anything he gained, it was the exposure of his own 'bubble' instead of Gale's, and the parade of 'Narak' in the chat.
“…….”
Harim checked the detailed performance metrics with a miserable heart.
MVP: SION (Jungle)Losing Team MVP: LifeWhatToDo (Beach)
As expected, the MVP was Gale, SION. The losing team MVP went to the allied Archer, the only one who recorded a kill. And the match time—the time it took for the allies to decide to surrender—was...
‘9 minutes and 51 seconds...?’
Only 9 minutes and 51 seconds. As far as Harim knew, it was a record for the shortest match. It was even shorter than the 10 minutes and 38 seconds it took for Alice—the Rank 1 individual player 'Death God'—to crush a streamer who had provoked her.
"Haha..."
Harim himself had become the protagonist of that dishonor. He had become the one in the record books who would surely be roasted across the communities. And the only reason for this record-breaking defeat was that he had ignored Gale and failed to be wary of her because she was a Speed Swordswoman.
If he had respected her, if he hadn't been careless because of her build, and if he had played cautiously... would anything have changed? Would he have promoted? Would he be wearing the Mythic title and receiving praise right now?
...But the match was over. There was nothing Harim could change.
[Excessive profanity has been detected in the previous game!]※ Voice chat will be restricted for 30 days as a penalty.
“…….”
What remained for him after this miserable game was a 30-day voice chat restriction.
"Hah, Gale, that f**ing btch, making me look like a total idiot..."
No—perhaps a hatred for a certain ranker remained as well.
03.
Last season, the news that Rank 1 'Death God' Alice had ended a game in just 10 minutes against a streamer who provoked her became a hot topic across all communities. Everyone was amazed and couldn't hide their admiration for Alice, wondering how it was possible to end a Mythic-tier game in 10 minutes, especially against a fairly skilled streamer.
Furthermore, since it was broadcast live, the evidence and her performance were vividly archived, leading players to analyze Alice's play and build while praising her even more.
---
[Holy sh*t, Gale cut the game in 9 minutes LMAO][THE GALE][You're all dead. I'm playing Speed Swordswoman in ranked now.][Honestly, it was over since the Invade. The Ninja did so well.][Spawn-killed three times? You wouldn't even see that in Bronze lol][Rankers are really something else. Carrying even with a trash build LMAO][HR was acting so high and mighty, this serves him right lol][Gale-hwang (Gale the Emperor) teaching a lesson to a sh*t-ralysis Swordmaster lol][What skills and items do I need for Speed Swordswoman?][Wait, what's with Gale's customization? It's so well done.][That dodge at 4:28 was legendary.][Ah, the God of Speed...][Gale << this b*stard just likes being fast lol]
---
"Hmm..."
Thus, it was only natural that I—who had broken Alice's record against a streamer in the same way—would receive everyone's attention. Perhaps Harim, who had disregarded the Speed Swordswoman, was a fairly famous streamer, because everyone who had watched his broadcast was setting the community ablaze with talk of him and our match.
Getting a surrender in a Mythic ranked match in 9 minutes... was certainly something noteworthy.
"Is this... a good thing?"
I scratched my pale-skinned chin. It was an unexpected turn of events, but I felt a sense of pride that people seemed to be acknowledging the Speed Swordswoman build. If I had known a live broadcast would have such an impact, I should have recorded and uploaded videos a long time ago.
"...It's not bad."
With a smile, I continued to refresh the community posts. I felt like leaving comments on the posts asking about the Speed Swordswoman build, but I hesitated, fearing it would be too obvious it was me. Maybe I should record a lecture video when I get a chance. ...A lecture video for budding Speed Swordswoman aspirants.
Yeah, that didn't seem like a bad idea.
"Huh...?"
While continuing to browse the community, a single post whose recommendation count was rising rapidly suddenly caught my eye. The post went beyond having many recommendations and soon rose to the popular posts list. It was a record-breaking speed.
"What is this...?"
Frowning, I heavily clicked on the post.