Hwasong High Charity Recon Tournament — Aftermath (4)
The pace of the game began to accelerate sharply, and before long the global gold lead had ballooned to four thousand.
Jin Gyeo-wool's Larr had single-handedly demolished the enemy top outer tower.
The Cerberus that Nidalee had secured earlier was released mid, and Azer's mid tower—the very foundation of his scaling—crumbled along with it.
Stripped of the calm growth their champions needed, AverageDiamond grew restless. The support getting picked while greedily contesting a worthless ocean dragon was the perfect example.
And once Johnny's feet came free and he began exerting influence down the river into bot, AverageDiamond couldn't mount any real resistance. The bot outer tower fell as a matter of course.
"How are you reading the situation right now?"
From Lee Do-jin's perspective, the first set was already as good as over. Winter Kingdom's average tier was low enough that they might still throw later, but the entire time he watched he could feel the whole team moving under a single, steady order.
"Winter Kingdom is overwhelmingly ahead. If they don't force anything and just keep operating at this pace, they're taking set one."
After collapsing the red team's bot outer tower, Winter Kingdom laid siege in front of the inner tower for nearly three full minutes. They finally brought it down and peeled back.
Poke raining in from every angle was driving AverageDiamond insane—Johnny's Q/Twinkle Stars and E/Sleepy Stars, Nidalee's Q/Javelin Toss, and Larr's Q/Whoosh Boomerang on top of it all.
Riding the momentum, Winter Kingdom knew no restraint. There were a few small skirmishes with minor kill trades in between, but Larr's split-push line control had long since hit its stride. The other four players began roaming as a tight pack centered on Choi Go-yun, and the enemy's inner towers fell one after another.
The lead opened naturally through pure macro. By the time anyone blinked, the global gold difference was seven thousand.
Winter Kingdom's merciless poke now hammered at the red team's top inhibitor, and a tense standoff stretched on. With both sides' global health bars roughly halved, the word "Peacock" surfaced in Winter Kingdom's team voice chat.
"Ah! Straight into a Peacock try! That's going to be nearly impossible to stop!"
"They traded evenly in the top fight, but Winter Kingdom has Nidalee—their sustain is ridiculous. While AverageDiamond recalls to top off, Winter Kingdom is already racing to the Peacock pit and whaling on it. Like you said, they can't contest this."
Even Lee Do-jin couldn't find a single flaw. He had worried the sheer tier gap would make them struggle, yet whatever bound this team together, they never wavered.
It almost feels like watching a squad that's practiced together for years…
Amateur teams creak against pros for simple reasons—and pros creak for the same ones. Player form dipping, and teamwork falling apart. Assuming a team is running properly, those two are the biggest problems. The reason Winter Kingdom wasn't yielding an inch to AverageDiamond despite the base skill gap came down to teamwork.
Gyeo-wool does her own thing fine if you leave her alone, so just leave her… The jungler. Is this kid the one holding the team together?
Lee Do-jin was freestyling the analysis, but he was roughly right. He even found himself thinking—perhaps a little too generously—that Winter Kingdom's teamwork might be better than his own hastily assembled roster this year.
"The Peacock-buffed shock troops are crashing top and bot at the same time! Top has Larr solo shoving with a Guardian Angel wrapped around her—there's no stopping her!"
The game had entered its endgame. Unable to 1v1 Larr, two players collapsed onto her side; that left the bot inhibitor getting hammered, so bodies flooded back that way. In the gap, Jin Gyeo-wool's Larr smashed the top inhibitor.
A brief 4v5 skirmish bot cut down Lee Yeong-bin's Jayal, but Larr joining after shoving the top inhibitor instantly stabilized Winter Kingdom's crisis.
Global gold difference: ten thousand.
Winter Kingdom could now push all three lanes simultaneously even without the Peacock buff. This time Larr went bot while the other four grouped mid for a 4-1 split. Watching the base towers melt was almost fated.
ValKyrie has destroyed the red team's inhibitor!
LuckyLucky has destroyed the red team's inhibitor!
Two inhibitors falling at once. Three-lane waves crashing in.
"Ahh~ they can't hold this!"
"Outstanding work from Winter Kingdom. They weathered the early tier gap cleanly and showed the absolute best play their composition could produce."
"Exactly! Couldn't have said it better."
And just like that, set one was over.
"As the Nexus falls—! GG!"
"GG."
The finals wrapped in set two.
Whether AverageDiamond's mental had shattered after the first-set loss or not, they left Winter Mosquito open in the set-two draft. Jin Gyeo-wool snagged it the instant it was free and detonated the game.
She had shown Winter Mosquito in four of the six matches, so most of the signature champions listed on her pre-submitted profile never even appeared at the tournament. Students who had been hoping to see her bruiser play on Fiona or Ireliaza were left with nothing but lingering curiosity as the event drew to a close.
"Congratulations on the win! Could we get a few words from each of you?"
"I'll enjoy the prize money!"
"Woohoo~"
It was a neighborhood tournament—what was there to say in a victory speech? Jin Gyeo-wool snorted and waited her turn. She had already decided long ago to donate her share of the prize money: a hundred thousand won.
But then—what was this? Lee Do-jin, who had been standing quietly beside the MC as the mic was passed down the line, suddenly stepped forward.
"Would it be all right if I interviewed Jin Gyeo-wool myself?"
"Huk. Player Lee Do-jin. Of course—whatever's convenient for you."
The auditorium stirred at once. Lee Do-jin, who hadn't shown a flicker of interest in any of the other players, suddenly wanted to interview Jin Gyeo-wool? Anyone could see how suspicious that looked.
Here was a man whose half-decent face pulled female fans in droves, yet who had sworn off any interest in women since his debut. And now, out of nowhere—Jin Gyeo-wool?
Wild theories bloomed unchecked in every head in the room.
"It's nothing like that. I've known her for a long time—she's like a little sister to me. I just wanted to do a personal interview."
"Really? I had no idea Player Jin Gyeo-wool was acquainted with Player Lee Do-jin."
Even the student who had been cosplaying as a caster snapped back into being an ordinary CCK fan for that one moment. Someone in the crowd would definitely be posting this to the Council gallery tonight; the boards would burn with this bait until morning. If you were going to gallery-post, you had to listen carefully. Gossip like this could not be missed.
"Jin Gyeo-wool. You're good. You've improved a lot since before."
Lee Do-jin's reason for requesting the interview was simple: he wanted to brand it into everyone's minds. Jin Gyeo-wool was his precious little sister, someone he had known since childhood. He had only kept his distance because he was busy and the weight of it felt heavy; he couldn't take responsibility for her right now—but he would not hand her over to anyone. It was a warning label of sorts.
Of course, Jin Gyeo-wool had none of those shared memories with Lee Do-jin. She simply felt good being acknowledged. Praise from a pro—someone who had stood at the absolute peak—was no small thing.
This moment. How long had he waited for it? How desperately?
"Oppa, you're so good!"
He had been eternal Diamond. He had struggled at the threshold of Master and never crossed it. He had been realistic enough to know the dream would never come true, and so he had started other work just to keep eating…
And yet, because of one person's words, he had never been able to let go of Recon.
"I want to become a brainy top laner like you someday, Oppa. My mechanics are total trash."
He had wanted so badly to see her again. He had wanted to keep the promise he made her.
"If you become a pro gamer later, maybe we can meet? I'll definitely come find you—as one of your fans!"
Because he wanted to meet her again. Because he hoped she would come find him as a fan. Bae Do-hyun had never been able to release that broken dream from his hands.
Those lovely, warm eyes. That thick ash-gray curly hair that looked soft and fluffy when it wasn't combed flat. The only way to meet the girl who always called him "Oppa" and came to find him at the convenience store where he worked… was to become a pro gamer.
Wearing Jin Gyeo-wool's face, Bae Do-hyun looked up at Lee Do-jin with a bright, open expression and asked:
"Can I… become a pro gamer?"
From the greatest player on record, Bae Do-hyun wanted confirmation one more time. Whether it was all right to dream of being a pro. Whether he could keep running toward the dream he never reached in his previous life.
Faced with Jin Gyeo-wool's bright expression begging for an answer, Lee Do-jin spoke in his usual flat tone.
"At this rate, it might be fine… but I'm a little worried on another front. How much sleep did you get while preparing for this tournament?"
Jin Gyeo-wool's body was trembling faintly. She wasn't holding a mouse, so the soul assimilation ability Spring and Winter wasn't active, and the accumulated fatigue was pressing down on her body in full.
"Ah… about three hours a night, I guess?"
The hall erupted in murmurs. For a mere amateur tournament—no, a third-rate event that didn't even reach second-class—she had pushed herself that hard? Students who had entered half-heartedly just to snag some prize money found themselves looking at Jin Gyeo-wool's tenacity and fighting spirit with new eyes.
"I actually checked the match history before I came. This isn't a lie. Player Jin Gyeo-wool really practiced for two straight weeks sleeping only three hours a night. And all of that was for what?"
So that everyone watching would feel awe. So that everyone would understand that the girl named Jin Gyeo-wool was not taking this challenge lightly. Lee Do-jin was passionately agitating the students in the hall, clearing as many obstacles as possible from the path of her future debut. Jin Gyeo-wool caught his intention.
Still looking out for me, huh. Guess knowing each other a long time counts for something.
Perfect timing. She had always planned to announce Jin Gyeo-wool's grand ambitions to the world someday. With her confidence this high, whatever she said now would land hard on every person in the room.
"I am going to become a pro gamer."
The hall stirred again. Jin Gyeo-wool pressed straight into the next line.
"Right here—this world-famous League of Council star player you all know so well."
She pointed a finger at Lee Do-jin and shouted at the top of her lungs.
For Bae Do-hyun.
For Jin Gyeo-wool.
And for one nameless girl.
On the way home after tucking the sleep-deprived Jin Gyeo-wool into bed, Cha Ga-eul spoke to Han Yeo-reum.
"We're going to have to look after Gyeo-wool more carefully from now on."
Han Yeo-reum tilted her head with a puzzled look.
"Aren't we already looking after her pretty well?"
Jin Gyeo-wool had always been a bit of an idiot that way. Whether she got it from her mother or not, the moment she latched onto something she clung on with vicious stubbornness until her body started falling apart.
"We need to watch her so she doesn't push even harder. Once she puts together some amateur team, she'll bury herself in it even deeper."
"Ahh… yeah~ you're right about that~"
Han Yeo-reum puffed out her cheeks and chewed on her lip, then seemed to get an idea. She grabbed Cha Ga-eul by the shoulder.
"When she makes that amateur team or whatever, couldn't we just stick ourselves on as managers?"
Easy to say. Cha Ga-eul shook her head, calling it unrealistic.
"If girls hang around while the guys are practicing, the kids will feel uncomfortable."
"Come on. Then what about Gyeo-wool? She's a girl too."
That one actually cracked Cha Ga-eul's logic; she floundered. She never expected Han Yeo-reum—who usually only said dumb things—to fire back with something like that.
"Umm… well… I guess we can think about it, then."
Maybe she shouldn't have brought it up at all. Especially watching Han Yeo-reum start expanding the idea on her own. Whenever she got that vacant look on her face, she always followed it with some jaw-dropping proposal.
"Why don't we just be the coach and manager of the new amateur team ourselves?"
Cha Ga-eul, who dreamed of studying business management, as coach. Han Yeo-reum—who had no particular plans right now but was excellent at taking care of people—as manager. For Han Yeo-reum, it was almost planned out. Cha Ga-eul shut it down as nonsense.
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm already drowning in my own studying."
"You're so mean… InssGa-eul…"
"Human garbage?! What am I supposed to do about being busy? You know how many academies I go to."
"Can't you just free up some time on weekends? I can handle things on regular days~!"
"That's stupid. Neither of us knows the first thing about League of Council—what kind of coach would that make…!"
Cha Ga-eul snapped that it was absurd, but Han Yeo-reum had been completely serious from start to finish. She was always grinning like an idiot, but when it counted, she was the kind of girl who got things done.
"Fiiine~ whateverrr~ Then tomorrow I'll just tell Gyeo-wool we're doing it without you. Rock-head~"
"Yah! Han Yeo-reum!"
Having said that, Han Yeo-reum took off running toward the apartment complex. What an idiot. Thinking about it wasn't going to make it happen. A gaming organization was basically a company. Dive in without a plan and you were almost guaranteed to crash.
"Haa…"
But Cha Ga-eul couldn't break that stubborn streak of Han Yeo-reum's. The desire to stay close and protect a girl who threw herself at the world without any fear—that had been their shared feeling from the very beginning.
Cha Ga-eul let out a long sigh and adjusted her glasses. If left alone, Han Yeo-reum would obviously turn Jin Gyeo-wool's team into a complete mess.
Can't let that happen…
Chasing after Han Yeo-reum, who was already sprinting ahead, Cha Ga-eul made up her mind. They had come this far—she would grind a little of her life into it, even if it meant giving up some studying, at least until Jin Gyeo-wool joined a pro organization.
She wanted to see Gyeo-wool achieve her dream with her own two eyes.