The Shining Solo Queue Warrior (1)

“·····”

Park Jimin was queuing up for solo queue while chatting with Hwata on Discord.

Honestly·····

Lately solo queue had started to feel a little uncomfortable. He was managing well enough on his own, but there were moments when his teammates' decisions left him puzzled, and more often than not he felt like he couldn't quite keep up with the tempo.

Come to think of it, whenever Jimin wanted to ask something, Hwata had always been right there.

Jimin was genuinely surprised. Luckily a queue had just popped on his monitor, so the startled sound he made probably didn't come across as strange to the viewers.

If Hwata had asked him to write a formal pledge, Jimin would have signed it without hesitation.

It didn't fully click for Jimin at a hundred percent yet, but he took it as advice to study more and keep learning.

Ah·····

Hwata had written down his own phone number.

Gulp.

An unreal claim. But the person saying it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who he was, so Jimin couldn't just dismiss it as a lie. He was so flustered he nearly locked in the wrong champion.

The next message took a moment to come through.

Jimin had never heard anything like that. But there had to be a reason Hwata was saying it.

Someone who had suddenly appeared and treated him far better than he deserved. Ever since he started streaming—no, ever since he dropped out of school—people like this had kept showing up, and if he wasn't careful he might start taking it for granted. Jimin vowed he would never let that happen.

“Ah, I really need to win this one.”

Losing streaks were no good. Locking in Jayce, a champion he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was confident on, Jimin steeled himself for a must-win game.

“·····”

Jimin quietly googled the name. Asking out loud who that was might easily invite misunderstandings.

“Ahh.”

Lee Kangin—a high-elo gamer with two hundred thousand YouTube subscribers. The nickname matched.

He might have been on a recent losing streak, but this was a user who hit Challenger every single season since debuting on stream.

“·····”

Of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠course, Jimin didn't particularly care. By now he had gotten decent at handling games against well-known streamers.

“Oh, I came out ahead.”

Aatrox came in hard for a moment, but Jimin managed to trade properly. Most top laning phases were like this, but the Jayce versus Aatrox matchup especially put a premium on the early game—and depending on the pilot, the lane could swing dramatically.

“This makes things a bit more comfortable for me.”

Aatrox's main early skills had long cooldowns. Windows where Jimin could freely harass him started showing up often.

“·····”

His jungler wanted him to fall back. Jimin moved carefully and timed it out. Enemy Nidalee appeared in vision.

“Whew.”

Aatrox charged in. Nidalee threw her spear. Jimin slipped both with pure movement.

“The jungler had every reason to call for a retreat.”

Of course, beyond simply dodging the gank, there was no ping that could explain he was trying to waste the enemy jungler's pathing. Jayce harassed Aatrox in cannon form, then shoved him off with hammer form the moment Aatrox's skills came back up. The growth gap kept widening. After items came online, even Aatrox looked like he was struggling to hold the line.

“Yeah, this setup got a lot freer.”

Jimin landed an Acceleration Gate Q and converted to hammer form to pound on Aatrox. He didn't secure the solo kill, but Aatrox—who had already teleported in—was left with critically low health and a miserable stretch ahead of him.

“Ah, nice.”

Talon, who had been suffering against the enemy mid laner Cassiopeia, came sprinting top.

Talon cleaned up the Aatrox who had already been beaten down by Jimin and was stuck top, then casually walked out. Of course, on the way back, Talon didn't forget to drop a thumbs-up of gratitude.

A Jayce who never even considered getting hit by enemy skills, plus ganks that slid off him like water—top-side influence was coming online in record time.

“Whew, that was close.”

Aatrox had forced a fight at a pretty good timing. The result was still Jimin's solo kill.

He had put Aatrox—who had been desperately trying to claw the game back—to sleep for good. All that remained was a one-sided top gap.

“My teammates are playing really well this game.”

He was simply playing out the champion matchup the way it was supposed to go, but Jimin still felt grateful.

“We won.”

It was a win pleasant enough to make him forget the previous loss.

“Thank you so much for the 20,000 won, HitKingGyoza!”

A donation, and the chat scrolling faster than usual. Beating a relatively well-known streamer had clearly pumped up the reaction.

“Alright, let's hop into the next one quick.”

With some breathing room now, Jimin queued up solo queue again right away.

“Thanks for the 1,000 won donation. Ah····· that might be a bit tough, but I'll show it to you soon.”

One of the nice things about Sol was that the tier system gave you short-term goals.

Challenger, huh.

Grandmaster was already impressive, but Challenger was a special tier to anyone who knew Sol. Jimin figured that for his stream to grow even more, he needed to hit Challenger.

(If I put "Challenger streamer" in the title, it'd blow up, right?)

(Yeah·····)

“·····”

And Dahye's words came back to him as well.

“Ambessa? Hmm.”

Champion select. The enemy top laner had locked in Ambessa.

“I'll try Gwen.”

He picked Gwen, a champion the viewers had loved last time he brought her out. She had strong carry potential, and Jimin personally liked her a lot too.

“·····”

Jimin sensed it immediately.

“Huh? Challenger?”

He looked up his ally jungler and the tier was Challenger.

“Heheheh.”

Jimin laughed awkwardly. A quick search showed this person was seriously famous—five hundred thousand YouTube subscribers. Earlier, Lee Kangin with two hundred thousand had already seemed huge, and now the only phrase that came to mind was that there was always someone flying above the ones who ran.

Gulp.

But he needed to focus for now. Having a high-LP jungler on his team should mean a lot of help.

“·····”

Of course, the start wasn't exactly great. Ally mid Sylas died quickly to a gank.

Mid was picking a fight with the jungler from the very start.

“Hmm·····”

Jimin considered muting ally chat, but since he was streaming he decided not to yet.

Viewers who seemed more entertained by the team fight than the top lane itself were starting to show up.

“Hoo·····”

Jimin was hyper-focused on working out the laning phase. At least in the early stages, Gwen felt great to hit with. Once he won a trade, Ambessa would quietly slide back. Using the freeze technique he had drilled during the tournament period, he tormented his opponent—whenever she tried to take CS, he stabbed her with the scissors.

Jimin answered, but he didn't immediately back off.

Huh?

Instead, the moment Ambessa moved a little too casually, he stepped up and hit her even harder. Sejuani arrived late. Ambessa seemed to be debating whether to follow up or not. Jimin popped Ghost and kept dealing damage while dodging Sejuani's skills the entire time.

“Ah, I don't think I can finish them.”

All three champions gathered top survived. But the uncomfortable laning setup from the enemy's perspective hadn't been broken, and Sejuani left with nothing but missing health.

Jimin recalled and came back. With items in hand, he pressed Ambessa even harder.

“I think I've got her.”

Jimin used his ultimate. Meanwhile Ambessa's straight-line ultimate was just barely dodged. Under the merciless assault, Ambessa tried to run.

“Ah, thank god.”

He had just barely managed to catch her on the tip of the last scissor snip.

“Huh?”

Jimin was shoving the wave when Lee Sin pinged that he was coming top.

A clean dive. For an Ambessa with no teleport, a death sentence had just been handed down in lane.

The jungler gave a clean, understated expression of joy at the good play.

Gwen was taking the top tower. A hard-carry champion was already showing her true colors this early. Ambessa might scale hard starting from her first core item, but the item gap was already far too large.

The laning phase was already over. But the solo-kill show wasn't finished.

“Whoa!”

The enemy's fed Orianna. But once her Flash was down, she was nothing but prey for Jimin.

Jimin deleted the enemy backline and dominated the teamfight.

“·····”

He might have given up a solo kill early, but like any high-tier player, Sylas was putting in work in the teamfights.

“Ah, that felt good.”

Growing from the early game on a late-game champion, performing from start to finish, and carrying. From a top laner's perspective, was there a more satisfying game than this?

“Alright, let's have fun with it again today.”

“Huh? Do I?”

Jimin answered with a soft laugh. But he couldn't exactly bring up Dahye, could he?

“Jax first pick? Hmm.”

Jimin thought about what to play.

“This looks like a good game for Akali.”

He locked in Akali. She was a flashy champion, so she would keep the viewers entertained.

“Ah·····”

These people really knew every little thing, didn't they.