Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: It's Really Easy, Right?
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Friday after school.
I arrived in front of the building sent by the streamer who had unintentionally sniped me while I was riding in my dad's car.
'It's been a while.'
This place felt familiar in many ways, probably because it was where players from LOCK managed their personal YouTube channels a lot.
"You can head up alone, right?"
"Yeah."
Since it didn't take long to get home by car anyway, Dad headed back.
—Knock. Knock.
I rummaged through my hazy remaining memories and knocked on the streaming room the streamer had mentioned, and the door opened right away.
"Huh?"
But the one who opened the door wasn't Multi-nampy—it was Durant, the streamer I'd run into once or twice in ranked games during the early days of his broadcasts.
Looks like the two of them were buddies.
"Uh, True?"
"Yes. That's me."
"Whoa......"
These kinds of stares were starting to feel familiar.
At this point, there wasn't even any fun in watching people's reactions anymore.
He stared at me blankly for a moment before snapping out of it and guided me to the table set up in the streaming room.
"Have a seat for now. Myung-won—no, Multi-nampy—is still setting things up, so it'll take a bit. Help yourself to the snacks over there."
"Thank you."
"No problem. I should be the one thanking you—I even touched Master thanks to you."
He flashed a friendly smile and called out to Multi-nampy, who was grunting away in the back, wrapping up the final stream setup.
"Hey, the guest is here!"
No sooner had he spoken than Multi-nampy dropped what he was doing, turned his head, locked eyes with me, and rushed over to the table.
"Nice to meet you! I'm streamer Multi-nampy!"
For some reason, the guy who suggested the collab was more nervous than the invited guest—me.
"Just in case there's any issue, the PC is streaming the full format process live, and even though you said the mouse and keyboard are fine, I brought a bunch just in case."
Shelves on one side were stocked with various keyboards and mice—he'd clearly prepared thoroughly.
"What about the VR device?"
"Of course. We have the latest pro player model in the back of our streaming room. You can use that for playing with Challengers after the explanation stream."
In front of a wall plastered with soundproofing foam stood exactly what he described: a massive egg-shaped chair used by pros, paired with a VR device that looked expensive at a glance.
"I've always wanted to try the ones pros use. Perfect timing."
A craftsman doesn't blame his tools, but if you're going to use them, better to use the good stuff.
As soon as the waiting room popped up with the stream title, viewers flooded in.
Of course, the stream didn't start right away.
Multi-nampy, occasionally showing his face on cam with the mic on, asked viewers to promote today's stream while setting up.
Thanks to that, viewers kept growing.
A bit more time passed, and suddenly other voices mixed into the quiet hum of the fan being broadcasted.
Once the PC format finished, the live cam turned off briefly then back on.
"Alright, Multi-nampy here. And Durant's joining too."
"Ehehe. Got it. Got it."
Durant cleared his throat pointlessly and started with the line viewers wanted.
"Today's guest—you all know her, right? The middle school girl first-ever Grandmaster, here today aiming for Challenger: True, Hong Eun-seol!"
"Third-year middle schooler, aiming for LOC pro: current Grandmaster Hong Eun-seol, nickname True."
I recited my prepared greeting as I entered the cam frame.
Of course, like my usual viewers, the greeting itself wasn't the point.
I'd heard they had three chat moderators, but even they couldn't keep up with the insane speed of the scrolling chat.
"Alright, today's stream will be in two parts."
Thankfully, everyone was a streaming veteran, so hyping the mood while feeding info to viewers wasn't hard.
"Part 1: hack explanation plus True playing solo queue on keyboard."
"PC fully formatted, only LOC installed, and the keyboard/mouse are ones I brought from home at Nampy's request—no room for doubt."
"And with two more wins today, Challenger promotion is on the line."
I clicked the LOC icon to open the login screen.
"Let's jump right in. Gonna queue till Challenger promo, so straight to the action, yeah?"
While queuing, I tweaked sensitivity in settings.
"Need any finer adjustments? Or feeling tense?"
"Nah, this stuff doesn't affect me much."
I'd seen pros who couldn't play without ultra-precise sensitivity, but I wasn't like that.
Ever since starting pro play, my environment kept changing wildly, so I'd long since tuned out that level of fuss to survive anywhere.
And 15,000 viewers? Peanuts compared to the crowds at the LOC World Cup finals.
Anyway, prime gaming hours meant the first game queued fast.
"Actually, on the way here, I decided what champ for game 1."
Before viewers could spam picks, I locked in first pick.
She's a mage champion, but closer to an assassin: the illusionist.
"This champ has a lot to show and explain with pure mechanics."
Especially since she's not popular among VR players.
She has a bind CC skill, but in first-person, it's too easy for enemies to dodge with view correction.
Plus, there's a delay before the bind applies—if they back off far enough, it cancels outright.
So you have to think about hitboxes and focus on control.
Like now.
"If you press S here, the champ stops, right?"
"Watch laning: enemy wants to hit me and minions with skill, so tightrope between, then just outside range like this."
—Tap.
The enemy champ was one I'd seen—and played—endlessly as a pro.
Her range was etched in my brain, no need to measure.
Then AA trade, land guaranteed Q damage, watch her try to move, bind at the end.
My bind range slightly outranges her main skill, so dodge lightly and close in.
Unload skills on the frozen enemy in lane center, then retreat to my side as minion line forms.
"If she doesn't base, kill angle."
"Didn't base? Kill."
Too late even if she noticed.
Enemy greedily farming minions at that HP? Punishment time.
No AA this time—skill in, bind first.
Then a brief Flash mindgame.
—Flash!
Perfect timing—both Flash simultaneously.
"It's really easy, right?"
Laning was over.