Chapter 8
Chapter 8
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Canyon Always Clear
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Even late at night or in the early hours of the morning, there's always demand for streams.
And among them, there were no small number of streamers who ran full throttle for their viewers and money, day or night.
Durant, who had even won a streamer tournament in his own right, was one of them.
"...That was seriously close to a loss."
Among those types of streams, Durant's—the heavyweight of the bunch—was hitting even higher donation peaks past midnight than during prime time.
"Yeah, yeah. I admit it. I hopped on that bus."
The support was straight-up trolling, making laning phase impossible. Aside from levels, there was only one thing ahead of the enemy ranged dealer.
Normally, when a support pulls worse shit than just leaving, Durant would defend himself like any other streamer—insisting it wasn't his fault, praising his own skill.
But this game, he straight-up owned riding the bus.
"Honestly, denying it here would be disrespectful to that player. True, right?"
After the game ended, he checked his mid laner's ID on the results screen and sent infinite respect.
"Heh. Nah, I'm not that serious."
"Okay, fine. Even her toenail clippings would be a godsend for me."
Usually, mentioning other streamers was frowned upon, but curiosity won out this time.
"Wait, middle schooler? Like 8th grade?"
As he spoke, he casually sent True a friend request.
"C'mon, I just saw she's cracked and wanted to chat. No way I'm duoing."
Right then, a message popped up in the all-chat at the bottom of the analysis screen.
"Whoa, startled me."
He wondered if his viewers had invaded her stream while she was still pissed.
But seeing the blistering typing speed and instant barrage of swears, it was clear this wasn't about him.
"That friend must've had a rough time too."
Having endured countless toxic sniper attacks from viewers mid-stream himself, he felt an inexplicable kinship with this True character.
"Since this is fate, I'll send the friend request."
"No really, not like that. If she hits Grandmaster later, I wanna make a collab video or something."
No matter how diluted Solo Queue tiers had become lately, that overwhelming skill could easily push past Grandmaster to middle school Challenger with a bit of hype.
"You know me. I got the eye."
He'd even scouted pros who debuted after collabs.
Durant's LoC play might be questionable, but his scouting eye was legit.
In fact, he'd done plenty of content hyping promising players he'd met in Solo Queue or inviting them to guest spots.
"Anyway, content plans for later. For now, check this out."
The trolls were clearly itching to scratch at True, as if they couldn't stand losing to her.
At least leave quietly if you're gonna suck.
The trolls reacted hard to her chat, dragging the fight from the Canyon to real life.
The trolls, who started with a few jabs, went silent under True's long, rapid-fire life advice.
"Editor, when you cut the video later... you know what to do with that chat part, right?"
It was raw enough to need mosaics.
"Kids these days are scary."
In the end, the one-sided beatdown—not even a real fight—wrapped up with the trolls fleeing.
Yeah.
This is gaming.
You gotta vent when you're pissed and move on.
"Don't worry, you guys aren't trash like those low-lives, so no lumping you in."
This much at least covers basic self-defense against toxic snipers.
Of course, the real twisted ones get off on rage, so the attacks won't stop, but they're just dust that can't keep up anyway.
"If you can keep up with my climb speed while trolling, go for it."
Playing more games gave me a feel for my climb pace.
It's an insane speed no normal player could match, but as tiers rise, more players with solid game knowledge appear—giving me more chances to shine.
More win plans mean higher win rates.
In short, higher tiers are actually easier for me to climb.
So if trolls wanna keep sniping during my rocket climb, I'll bait 'em gently and dump 'em in ST3 or something.
That level of trolling dedication is talent in itself.
Though in my life, the only one I've seen commit like that is Proud.
While I was scrapping in first division, he retired solo and lived happily tormenting juniors.
Never felt the lack of juniors under me more than then.
Anyway.
"You guys cool if I actually hit this now?"
Hit Diamond Before Stream Ends
1,261,000₩
I stared at that number, doubting if it was real.
Pro days had fat salaries and million-won donations often, but hitting this in a week of streaming—even as a washed-up rookie—is no joke.
Fueled by viewer cheers, I smashed the accept button without hesitation.
Nice my ass.
I banned a few line-crossers as examples for a week and was about to close the game client when a notification pinged.
"Durant? That's the ADC from earlier."
I pondered the friend request from the one decent player, then glanced at my near-empty friends list—only a few school buddies—and accepted.
The second I did, chat popped up.
I skimmed the rest. Knew what was coming.
"Wait, this guy's actually Durant?"
Simple reason I knew the streamer: one of ST's partner streamers.
Not yet maybe, but not a stranger.
And from memory, not a bad guy at all.
I replied promptly.
Polite this time, unlike with the trolls.
Might as well set my own deadline.
"Won't happen, so chill. Stream's wrapping here for today."
I shut down what felt like a 24-hour stream and dove straight into bed.
I woke up just before Saturday noon.
Munching half-asleep lunch in a daze, Mrs. Jang asked from beside me.
"So how'd yesterday go?"
Sleep vanished in an instant. I dragged my parents to the PC and fired up LoC.
Small steps like this to convince them bit by bit.
Unfortunately, no Diamond banner greeted us.
[Inappropriate Player Chat]
[We've detected inappropriate chat from you via our systems. To prevent harm to the game, please understand this penalty: 7-day chat ban and 3-day Solo/Duo Queue suspension.]
[Type 'I fully understand and agree']
"Fucking..."
Goddamn game company bastards.
Scrap the league, scrap tournaments, halt updates—not enough, now they touch my account.
"Good girl. Our daughter."
So much to say, but I swallowed 'in' repeatedly staring at my parents' faces.
Yeah.
I like LoC, not the damn company.
...Time to sell this smurf.