Hero Academy (3-7)
Cho Seo-hyun muttered under her breath as she eyed the enemy team's BugKiller.
"Ah, shit… looks like that bastard's jungling this time…"
It meant that this time, the one called Bug Killer would be roaming the entire map, attempting ambush attacks just like Cho Seo-hyun did.
Furthermore, considering the skill he had displayed in the previous round, there was a high probability he would be just as active as Cho Seo-hyun in a normal match like this.
"Be careful this time. Top-lane sense and jungle sense aren't the same thing, but based on his control earlier, there's a high chance he's above average."
"Got it. I'll stay sharp."
With my reply, the game began.
Once again I paired with another character and headed to the bottom lane.
This time, my support character was a hulking fellow, like a golem.
Unlike that skeleton called Saint Blue from earlier, this guy was the silent type.
'Huh… are most people just quiet by default?'
[It is likely that most people's inclination is to play the game quietly until a problem arises.]
'Fair enough… that woman earlier was the weird one, then.'
No… a skeleton…
No matter how much I think about it, the term "woman" doesn't feel right. I just remember a skeleton...
And that same skeleton was currently wandering around right in front of me.
'Weird… now that we're actually enemies, I don't feel great about shooting her.'
[It is evident that the opponent is also being cautious.]
'Well… the ADC next to her isn't my problem…'
I pressured the enemy ADC and held the lane.
The start went smoothly enough.
In the first place, it didn't really matter who my support was.
From my perspective, the opponent was just fucking terrible…
'No matter how I look at it, the Hand Skill is broken… I'm just casually tagging them with arrows and firing, but it hits way more accurately than in reality
[I believe it is because your Aiming skill also assists with adaptation.]
For example, let's say someone practiced insanely hard in reality to perfectly master archery in their own body.
However, the moment they enter this VR, it is no longer their own physical body, and they must adapt to that again.
Compared to that, my Aiming skill felt like it auto-calibrated after just a few shots.
Like a mouse DPI suddenly changing and your hand adjusting in an instant.
In here, Aiming outperformed any archery technique etched into muscle memory by a wide margin.
I was busy toying with the enemy and snacking on minions when Lena's voice came through.
[Master, an ambush is expected.]
'Okay!'
I turned to the support beside me at once.
"Gank incoming. We should back off."
"…"
The support went beyond quiet — he flat-out ignored me
I was already easing backward, and he just stood there like a stone statue, rooted to the spot.
"Hey. I said there's a gank coming."
"…"
Then the guy who'd been eating my words suddenly started hitting minions.
And beyond just hitting them, he was killing them off to steal the gold for himself…
"Hey. a gank is com—"
"Fuck, I can't stand watching this!"
"…Excuse me?"
The support who'd been silent as a rock suddenly opened his mouth and spat curses.
"You should be thinking about shoving the tower already. What the hell are you poking around for up front?"
"Look, I'm telling you, a gank is—"
"What are you, Grandmaster? Like you'd know what's com— wait! Wait, wait!!"
A cloaked figure burst out of the brush and slammed into the support.
Instantly the enemy ADC and Saint Blue piled on.
'Fuck. Even if I wanted to save him, I couldn't.'
I ran without looking back.
The result, naturally, was that the support died.
And then, curses echoed across the battlefield.
"Are you fucking insane!? You just abandon your support and run away?"
This wasn't a private conversation; he was speaking through the all-chat so everyone could hear.
Baffled, I responded via all-chat.
"Haha… that's why I said a gank was coming…"
"Fuck this, I'm out!"
"…?"
…He quit.
Cho Seo-hyun and the rest of our team just stood there with their mouths open, too stunned to speak.
After a few seconds of silence, Cho Seo-hyun whispered to me.
"Of all people to get matched with…"
"It's fine. You don't need to come to my side."
A two-on-one wasn't worth her wasting time on.
"What? We're four-versus-five already. Honestly the game's over. We should just sit quiet and surren—"
"Let me play a bit longer. I want to get used to the skills."
"…Alright."
Fortunately, it seemed only that one support was a problem, as the other two allies proceeded with the game diligently.
For now, what I needed to get a handle on were the skills.
Since the match was already ruined, I thought I could actually test the skills without any pressure.
First, there were three basic skills and one ultimate.
The first skill bounced three times and dealt massive damage and a stun to the final target.
The second skill fired a linear lightning laser to deal area-of-effect damage.
The third was a backstep.
And finally, the ultimate...
'The projectile gets stronger the farther it flies?'
[It seems to be a skill designed to hit enemies at a great distance, rather than those nearby.]
Even reading the skill description left a lot unclear.
Essentially, using the ultimate fired an arrow, and its speed and destructive power increased in proportion to the distance traveled.
Furthermore, it was said that an area-of-effect stun was added if it traveled beyond a certain distance.
'No way to know without actually firing it.'
Getting a few shots off and locking in the muscle memory was the priority.
I muttered as I eyed the ADC and Saint Blue warily watching me from afar.
"…Guess I just have to try."
I was deep in the game when one of my teammates pinged me in ally chat.
I gave a short reply and lightly plucked the bowstring.
A woman's narration voice boomed through the game.
The enemy ADC took my arrow, face-planted into the dirt, and dissolved into dust.
Looking at it like that, I almost felt bad. The guy had come in as a beginner too — who could've guessed he'd get massacred like this?
The real absurdity was the ganking.
No matter how well BugKiller tried to sneak in, from Lena's perspective his movements were painfully obvious.
With full ally vision available in this game, she said the enemy's behavior was simple enough to predict with ease.
Couldn't gank… couldn't fight…
The enemy ADC's mental state broke on the eighth death and he force-closed the game.
On top of that, BugKiller kept throwing ganks at my bottom lane for reasons I couldn't fathom.
Thanks to that, mid lane and top lane had already swung hard in our favor.
BugKiller hadn't landed a single successful gank.
Why he kept charging in with such desperation was beyond me.
Lena saw it differently.
[Such commanders exist even in war. There are commanders who believe the fact that they lost is nonsensical, and so they continue to push the same strategy.]
'Incompetent bastard…'
But Lena's answer cut against mine.
[Many such commanders were actually quite competent.]
'What do you mean? How does that make sense?'
[Because they have been so competent in the past, they tend to believe that a single mistake occurred by mere chance.]
'…'
They repeated the same act to scrub the stain of failure off themselves.
They committed the same mistake again to prove that the blunder destined for the history books had never been the real problem.
[Furthermore, there is a high possibility that the person called Bug Killer continues these ambushes because of a lover.]
'Doesn't want to look pathetic in front of his girlfriend, huh…'
And so the situation spiraled toward the worst possible outcome.
He probably never imagined he wouldn't succeed in a single gank…
In other words, it was highly likely that a gambling psychology was at work.
And the result…
Two players on the enemy team hit surrender, and the game ended.
""Seriously, why haven't you played this game before, even though you have a VR device?"
"I only got it as a gift recently."
"With skill like that, you could practice a bit more and jump straight into ranked."
Cho Seo-hyun was hyped, heaping praise on my performance. I'd never been particularly drawn to online games, but after that shower of compliments, my thinking started to shift.
'Online games… I think I get why people play them. Being hyped up like that feels better than I expected.'
[In any field, once you become good at something, idolization occurs. Moreover, since games allow one to experience that phenomenon in a short amount of time, people tend to get more addicted.]
It was just as Armonia had said.
In any field, if you are good, people naturally look up to you, and admiration follows.
And as the number of people who look up to and admire you increases, your self-esteem begins to explode from within.
Above all, games are loved because, as long as you have the talent, superficial results are revealed immediately after just one or two matches.
Cho Seo-hyun was beaming, laughing about BugKiller from earlier.
"Did you see his face? He was so pissed. I am never forgetting that."
"Yeah, that one's staying with me too."
When the game ended and everyone gathered in the lobby, BugKiller was naturally there as well.
In a space where we could all hear each other, he was going nuclear, spewing abuse — especially at his own teammates.
Anyone could see the fault was his.
No matter how good he was personally, leaving a player of Cho Seo-hyun's caliber free meant the other beginners never stood a chance.
At least he had enough sense not to talk to me or Cho Seo-hyun.
Because the moment he cursed us, he would be showing the absolute pinnacle of patheticness…
Cho Seo-hyun grinned at me.
"One more game?"
"I'm down."
"Hell yeah… this time, same lane."
After the support fiasco earlier, Cho Seo-hyun volunteered to support herself so she could stand on the same lane as me.
"Isn't support kind of boring, though?"
"Hmm? Not at all. Games are better together, right?"
She laughed and gave my back a couple of pats.
"And if we're playing together, might as well stick close."
Cho Seo-hyun quietly muttered as she looked at the enemy draft.
"…We're screwed."
BugKiller. SaintBlue.
We met them as enemies again.
The problem was BugKiller's position this time.
"Looks like he can play a variety of roles."
BugKiller had locked ADC and arrived on our lane with Saint Blue.
"Hmph… guys like him usually just hop around grabbing whatever champ looks strong that patch."
As Cho Seo-hyun said, I could roughly figure out his tendencies.
After mouthing off at Cho Seo-hyun, he had picked jungle next game.
And after failing countless gank attempts against me as ADC, he'd picked ADC himself.
How should I put it... he seemed like the type to be very easily swayed by others.
"Still, he's skilled, so be more careful than last time. He's definitely a smurf."
"Understood."
I was curious.
The last two games had been against genuine beginners. This guy at least looked like he could play above the basics.
I really wanted to see how different he would be.
'How should I put it... he's no different from the guys before?'
[....]
Setting aside whether it was a crisis or not, I was just absolutely stomping him.
BugKiller, my primary target, had died to me six times. The remaining kills and assists were from the jungler coming down and dying.
Saint Blue had a few kill angles open, but the earlier acquaintance made me hesitate to finish her off.
'This is strange. He definitely seems good? His movements are unique… but it's not difficult at all.'
If I had to name the difference between BugKiller and the previous ADC, it was only that his movement was distinctive and his accuracy was higher.
That was it.
The way he zig-zagged with strange footwork made him look like a clown.
A clown who made an excellent target.
No matter how he danced, every arrow found his head with perfect precision.
[I believe it is because the Aiming skill is being used without passing through Su-ho-nim's cognitive abilities.]
'… Is that a compliment?'
[…It is a compliment.]
Shooting arrows without going through the brain? Was I supposed to take that as praise…
Either way — thanks to those brain-bypass arrows, BugKiller was getting slaughtered, and eventually the enemy team started roasting him in all-chat.
And if he just took that mockery lying down, he wouldn't be the BugKiller I'd been watching.
In the end, the game filled its full twenty minutes with mockery and abuse aimed at BugKiller, then ended on a razor-sharp surrender.