Shining Solo Queue Warrior (5)
“Viego’s growing so well right now that the game’s gotten a lot more comfortable.”
“That’s all thanks to how hard Jimin crushed the lane for us!”
“Ah, is that so?”
“Hahaha, yeah. Confirmed—you’re the type who gets weak to praise.”
“…”
At first Park Jimin had been a little tense, but he could feel his heart steadily settling.
This is fun.
No—this unfamiliar environment was even starting to feel enjoyable.
“Ooooh, again!”
“Ah, so close.”
Right after baiting out a wasted Equalizer missile, Jimin’s Aatrox carved into Rumble’s body once more. If not for Rumble’s final shield, the kill would have been instant.
“Huh?”
“Ooooh!”
“Whoa.”
“That’s insane!”
Allied ADC Ezreal’s ultimate landed cleanly on Rumble. It had flown in almost immediately after the trade—Jimin hadn’t even registered it.
“Looks like he just chucked it for support, but it hit perfectly.”
“Heh… I’m really grateful.”
Ezreal’s ultimate was a solid tool even in lane. For it to intervene in a top-lane skirmish like this…
“Aaah, let’s start chunking the top turret. Where’d their jungler Sejuani go?”
Already leading in CS, Jimin was now chewing into turret gold as well.
“The Darkin Blade! Ah, perfect.”
“Aatrox really needs that Q level-up and his core item. Now it feels way more doable.”
Having finished his first core, Jimin wore a quietly triumphant expression.
Thank goodness.
He’d worried about putting on a poor showing after coming all the way out here. Yet the game was unfolding this well.
“Waaaaah!”
“Got him.”
The laning phase still wasn’t over. Unable to endure the freeze any longer, Rumble dared to take CS—and Aatrox’s greatsword delivered judgment.
“Ah, good.”
This time he didn’t miss the solo kill.
“A solo kill in the very first game? Things are looking wild today.”
“Heheheh.”
True to a broadcaster used to handling guests, Sunny’s reactions were oversized. To Jimin, though, it felt like pure energy.
“Rumble can’t even think about walking up right now.”
“He’s playing really carefully. But once the gap gets this big, there’s nothing bad in it for me.”
Rumble needed to go hard early. Yet Jimin’s Aatrox had effectively erased Rumble’s prime entirely.
“A kill mid too! This game is rolling too smoothly, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, my teammates are playing really well.”
Allied mid LeBlanc and jungler Viego had taken down enemy mid Ahri. The upper half of the map’s raw power was overwhelming.
“But Jimin appeared like a comet out of nowhere. What made you start streaming?”
“Um…”
A difficult question. Not because the question itself was hard, but because he didn’t know how to answer it.
I should’ve gotten permission first.
Jimin didn’t want to casually bring up Dahye’s story, no matter who else he mentioned. But if people looked it up, the whole thing was already public knowledge. He couldn’t lie.
“There’s a streamer on the same platform as me named Yu Dahye. I was a fan of hers. It’s a little embarrassing, but I watched her stream a few times and queued solo rank hoping to get into the same game. I got a little attention from that, and that’s how I ended up on stream, I think.”
“Heheheh.”
“I’m sorry. Back then I didn’t know that was a bad thing.”
Jimin confessed his own wrongdoing. It was a little selfish, but airing it himself like this somehow made his chest feel lighter.
“If you don’t know much about internet streaming, that can happen. Of course.”
“Yes. I apologized for how badly I messed up back then, and Yu Dahye even played games with me and cheered on my streams. I’m still really grateful to her.”
He said that much and no more—he didn’t mention that he and Dahye had grown personally close. It would only stir up unnecessary trouble, and even if it wouldn’t, he had no desire to go around advertising it.
“So you started streaming thanks to a streamer you’d always been a fan of?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Jimin smiled shyly.
I should apologize to her.
There had been no lies, but Dahye’s name had come up far too often. She liked keeping things quiet in her personal life even if she was fine with it as a streamer.
“Huh?”
“…”
He’d relaxed enough to take questions, but he hadn’t been playing carelessly.
“What kind of positioning is that?”
“Whew.”
He cut in from the flank and dove into the enemy formation. Skills rained down; he dodged every dodgeable one while drawing aggro. The moment his allies pounced, Aatrox slipped back into view and swung that greatsword again.
The teamfight ended in a crushing victory.
“Wow, that was truly impressive. To take such an aggressive position from there…”
Jimin’s brilliant play combined with his well-fed teammates. It was the kind of sequence that was pure eye candy.
“Whew, that worked out.”
“Is this really Jimin? Incredible.”
Sunny kept heaping on the praise. Even the other staff members watching the recording wore stunned faces.
“Another solo kill! The damage is just ridiculous!”
“My items came out too well.”
Once the item gap yawned open, Rumble on the side lane wasn’t even allowed to meet Aatrox’s eyes.
“GG! Ah, that was a great watch.”
“Ah, we won.”
The moment victory locked in, Jimin broke into a grin. He’d been swinging that terrifying greatsword right up to the end.
“Your LP is already pretty high. The opponents you’re running into are no joke, yet you’re putting out this kind of performance.”
Sunny hyped him up with full force. As the one being hyped, Jimin simply nodded along.
“Is this game looking doable?”
“I think it’ll be fine.”
Top Kalista. The top-lane Kalista that had been generating so much buzz around Jimin was locked in.
“Isn’t Malphite basically the grim reaper against ADC champions?”
“Ah… in a pure one-versus-one, it doesn’t feel that hard.”
Jimin’s top Kalista was facing top Malphite—the champion who had traditionally feasted on physical-damage champions in SOL. Jimin paid it no mind.
“Last game Jimin literally swept them off the map. This time let’s hear some of that top Kalista know-how.”
“…”
Jimin had nothing to say, so he just suddenly grinned.
“What’s the most important thing when you play top Kalista?”
“Not looking at the bottom-side map too much?”
“Hahahahaha.”
Top Kalista had to be the main character. Rotations were almost never forgiven. She simply tore the opponent apart with her spears in as many pure one-versus-ones as possible.
“Oof! Oof!”
“…”
From the very start, Jimin’s Kalista hurled her spears with vicious precision. The boldly approaching Malphite had no choice but to back off.
“You have to keep reading the enemy jungler’s movements.”
Jimin spoke with a serious face. This was a champion that demanded delicacy; it wasn’t a situation for jokes. With such a fragile body, a delayed response meant death.
“Elise is doing great.”
Allied jungler Elise was securing vision cleanly.
“Oof, the CS gap is already ridiculous.”
Malphite could barely touch a minion under the pressure. An enemy jungle gank felt mandatory.
“Ah, it hit.”
“Heh.”
Kalista’s piercing spear punched through the minion wave and struck Malphite. His health plummeted; he had to run rather than merely play safe. Turret gold exploded.
“Whoa, is top already falling this early?”
“We still have to watch. It can flip in a single fight.”
Jimin kept the mindset of a tightrope walker.
“They’re coming.”
“Uh-oh.”
While he was applying pressure again, enemy jungler Lillia’s sharp gank arrived.
“Wow!”
Malphite’s Flash ultimate. Kalista slipped just out of range.
“Elise is on the way, so we’re fine.”
Once Malphite’s ultimate follow-up whiffed, the enemies couldn’t delete Kalista in one go.
“Ah, thank goodness.”
He’d dodged Malphite’s ultimate but still had to survive a brief two-versus-one. Jimin held out, and with ally Elise arriving in a flash they cleaned up both enemy top and jungle.
“What kind of movement is that? He saw Malphite’s ultimate with his eyes and dodged the whole thing.”
“Ah… with a Flash ult you can’t really react on pure sight. I was just thinking about it the whole time. If Malphite’s ult hits, you die instantly.”
“I see.”
Dodging it one hundred percent of the time was impossible. But Jimin’s constant awareness of the Malphite combo, his spacing and preparation, had created the super play.
“This puts us in a much better spot.”
“No way.”
“He’s not backing.”
Two-kill Kalista. Malphite was lingering on the lane longer than Jimin expected.
“They overextended a bit.”
“Heheheheh.”
Reckless movement. Kalista’s spears shattered the rock body of the Malphite who had walked up thinking he wouldn’t get pierced.
“What are they trying to do by attaching to me…”
“Hahaha.”
Jimin typed in chat to rein in his teammates’ strange antics. Beside him, Sunny could only snicker.
“Is this a bug? Why does Kalista have three cores while Malphite has zero?”
“…”
Malphite’s play and growth looked completely broken. This couldn’t be called a normal high-elo solo queue game.
“Aaaah, victory!”
“Yeah, the enemy kinda stopped trying properly from mid-game on.”
They’d won, but the enemy team losing the will to fight after the game got twisted took a little of the satisfaction out of it.
“It’s fine.”
Sunny clapped Jimin on the shoulder like encouragement.
“Ah, today’s been so much fun, but this is the last game. What champion are we showing off?!”
“Huh? The enemy locked Aatrox… Jayce would be really good here, wouldn’t it?”
“…Jayce!”
There was no script, but the champion had already been decided. Jimin’s terrible acting made Sunny barely hold in her laughter.
“Player Jimin, watching from beside you, you’re just ridiculous. I heard your SOL career isn’t even that long. How did you get this good in such a short time?”
“…”
The mystery of Jimin’s short career. What would be the best way to explain it?
“I used to just play games however I felt like, but while preparing for tournaments on Jijik I got a lot of advice from Hwata. My skill jumped a ton around then.”
When things got vague, just credit the person you were already grateful to.
“Whoa, so learning from a former pro really is different?”
“Hahaha.”
Of course, even he didn’t fully understand his own SOL skill before that. If someone asked him to talk about that part, he wouldn’t have the confidence to answer properly. Better to keep circling around it somehow.
“But this physical talent has to be innate, right?”
“Ah… yeah, hehe.”
Jimin scratched his head and laughed. Sunny laughed with him.
“Whoa, the trades are already just—”
Jimin’s Jayce was mercilessly bullying enemy Aatrox.
“They’re overcommitting.”
Today the enemy top laners were oddly aggressive. Jimin was actually grateful—as long as they didn’t give up too quickly later.
“I took the advantage.”
“What was that movement just now?”
Aatrox’s greatsword and chains. Not a single one landed cleanly on Jayce. Meanwhile Jayce’s hammer and cannon stabbed only the places that hurt.
“Mid and bot are going hard right now, so I think I need to keep stomping too.”
Allied mid Orianna and bot Varus-Rakan were pressuring their lanes. Enemy jungle wouldn’t be able to focus on him much, so he decided to go even harder. The Serrated Dirk he’d rushed was the perfect weapon to finish that plan.
“Yes!”
“Ooooh!”
Acceleration Gate Q onto the fleeing Aatrox. Jimin smiled as he flashily claimed the solo kill.
“Wow, watching from the side, my eyes are truly happy.”
The host today seemed to have no job left except pure admiration.
“Even if their jungler shows up now, I don’t think it matters.”
Enemy team had locked Kindred jungle and Galio mid. Jimin felt zero threat.
“Triple kill! Whoa!”
After relentlessly stomping Aatrox, past the twenty-minute mark Jimin took down three enemy champions and walked away clean. The host had turned into a pure cheerleader, clapping nonstop. Jimin nodded with a smile, looking satisfied with his own play.
“GG! Aaaah, that was pure destruction.”
“My team luck today has been ridiculous.”
Mid and bot had kept leading their lanes the whole time. With Jayce detonating Aatrox top, a twenty-five-minute surrender was only natural.
“You were truly amazing today. Please give us a final greeting.”
“Yes. Thank you so much for inviting me to the Rising Sun channel, and thank you to Sunny here as well. I stream on Jijik under the name Jimin—please continue to support me going forward.”
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Every staff member on the channel burst into applause.
“Huh?”
Jimin had been texting while spinning up his own stream. Enemy champion select showed Sion.
“Might as well try Vladimir.”
He first-picked the Vladimir he’d been wanting to play.
“SomebodyKillMe, thank you for the 10,000 won! Haha…”
He’d worn a mask, yet somehow it still felt like he had exposed himself as the human Park Jimin. The chat felt subtly different from before.
“Nice.”
But nothing fundamental had changed. He was good at SOL. He was simply showing that.
“…”
From rank 300, Challenger began. The ranking was now within striking distance. Jimin was working hard to show his viewers not just skill, but proof.