Everyone Wants to Be the Protagonist
At times when the situation was bad, people tried to become the protagonist in their own story.
That's not about finding a way out of the mess.
Most people's thoughts split into two kinds.
One group wished they could have done something differently to make the outcome better, filled with regret.
The other calculated that even the worst case was still better than this one, and found some comfort in that.
I was on the first side.
Of course, I sometimes daydreamed about even better conditions, but I won't call myself one-sided.
Because I knew it could have gone even worse.
If I had hit my head against my father and gone blind, or if something else had gone wrong and I couldn't even live my daily life, or if I had been driven out of the house in this body...
Compared to those situations, at least I had a roof over my head now.
And I was lucky enough not to go hungry.
My life had been downhill since the moment I suddenly became a woman, but thanks to my mother killing my father, the brakes had finally been applied.
Well, thinking that way was no different from sinking to the bottom of a lake and having nowhere left to sink further.
Anyway, I didn't have the strength or the means to swim back to the surface.
But if I got used to slowly drowning, it might be peaceful and enjoyable in its own way.
Better than thrashing around trying to escape a man-eating shark and getting bitten.
……Of course, actually having water fill my lungs would be horribly painful.
I wonder if I thought it would be better if I had just died from a broken neck, like I did when my father beat me and I wished I never woke up from the shock.
Metaphors are metaphors.
Anyway, I'm the only one thinking about it, and there's no one to nitpick.
Who cares.
Anyway, it was still the same situation now.
Actually, it was almost like there was no one, but boasting that someone had come to visit me was a stupid thing to do, but...
But it wasn't like the chat I had sent into an empty space had been noticed.
So I quickly refreshed the broadcast site.
Luckily, after that it became a blank page with no records.
Celeste probably hadn't seen it.
“I guess someone really did come and go. There's a message in the chat window…… uh, why did you refresh it?”
“Huh? Ah, habit.”
……She had seen it.
Her eyesight must have been pretty good.
It wasn't like I had reached a higher score than her as a ranged dealer for no reason.
But the good thing was that she hadn't seen the content.
If her eyesight had been that good, maybe she would have seen the words, but since it wasn't, it was a relief.
Luckily, Celeste didn't take issue with me deleting the chat history.
It wasn't important how someone had messaged.
“It's a shame. I could have been your first viewer.”
Celeste sounded a little odd when she said that, but of course she had been the first viewer.
No one else had watched my broadcast except the helper bot and me.
But if I said that, it would mean everyone had seen me boasting in an empty space that I was doing well.
So I didn't answer.
While pretending to focus on the game.
Because the situation was right in front of a decisive team fight that would decide the game's outcome.
Nash Baron, who would give a huge buff that strengthened attack power and magic ability, and buffed all nearby minions when defeated.
The two teams had gathered there, deciding who would take him down.
Of course, my team had the main force positioned there, while I was pushing the opposing lane all the way.
Using Fiora from Kancho's Studio.
Setting a trap for the opponent.
Depending on the composition, while I was doing that, the enemy team might have forced a fight or tried to kill Nash Baron.
But they knew they couldn't.
Our team composition had already chosen champions that could freely enter and exit the battlefield, since we gained an advantage in small-scale fights.
Theirs was a composition that synergized in official team fights, like they were heading to some tournament.
In other words, as long as we didn't mess up the ganks, they wouldn't be forced to fight.
Knowing that, our team's support Dhurma had even equipped an item that gave a movement speed buff.
But it wasn't like we could burst Nash Baron either.
Recently, most new champions had skillsets that dealt damage proportional to lost life force, so the jungler wouldn't be able to safely take the last hit on Nash Baron without thinking about it.
The enemy had five, and our main force only had four, so even if the numbers were favorable, if we kept ganking and checking on each other...
I would push the lane and destroy the turret.
So what was your choice?
The opponent tank that no one had seen yet, K'Sante, had come to mark me.
It was probably because he thought I wouldn't dive with just me alone since I was tucked behind the turret.
I had wanted to call for two or more of my own, but whatever.
If the enemy saw four faces on their side, it would be different.
Both sides were 4v5.
As tiers got higher, both teams read each other's numbers and made the best moves, constantly moving and poking each other.
So the variable was created here.
Running at a giant thug holding two huge tonfas with just a sword.
The timing was the moment the mark on the enemy was reset.
K'Sante had reacted to my lunge, but it felt a little late.
Since he was behind the turret, he probably didn't think I would dive solo against a tank.
That was enough.
After all, fights were decided by the tiniest details.
The tank being sturdy was obvious.
Hitting a tank with full life force while the turret was getting damaged was foolish in any normal situation.
Even well-built dealers wouldn't try it without leading with another tank.
But even that was rare because the tank had enough time to call for backup.
But Fiora was possible.
Her passive dealt fixed damage proportional to the enemy's maximum health, so it could melt a tank just like a dealer.
Of course, it had the condition of breaking the mark, but it was still doable compared to other champions.
Even in the sudden start of the fight, K'Sante had calmly positioned himself against me behind the wall.
To make sure I didn't activate all four marks of the ultimate Duel.
I counted his skills and broke my marks too.
Even though K'Sante was huge and easy to fight inside the turret, Fiora's agility was more than enough to pierce that.
I even spun my mouse wheel to zoom in on the screen, and clicked the tiny spot between the turret and K'Sante's edge to make Fiora move.
If the opposing mark was broken by the lunge sliding in and stabbing, it would lay a healing plate on the ground.
That would give me just enough sustain to last against the turret and K'Sante's power for a while.
Now it was just about finishing K'Sante.
Even in his defensive stance, K'Sante had lost over half his life force, so he revealed the blade hidden inside by smashing his tonfas.
Giving up on being a tank and going all-out as a warrior to fight me.
It wasn't just a lazy wish to take a little less damage and rely on the turret's power.
It was a show of will to actively fight the blade wielder who wanted to harm me.
Yeah, that's the kind of wild energy that was needed.
I had been bored watching the jungler only check on lanes.
The sweet whisper that team fights were better for us as long as we didn't break.
But if you were standing on the top lane, you had to know when to let out the anger suppressed in your chest.
You know that too.
If you killed me here, you would be the one leading this game to victory.
Everyone wanted to be the protagonist and wanted to be recognized for what they did well.
But did you know that would be poison?
In this situation, abandoning defense and charging forward would take you beyond the turret's protection.
What I had forced myself into between you and the turret was to lure you into that.
Even though I had better items than you, the turret damage was too much.
But the guy didn't run away.
He knew I was in a near-death state from the turret and thought it was worth fighting.
Forgetting to even breathe, I focused on K'Sante's movements.
For the guy who had abandoned defense, the only crowd control left was dropping the ground with his tonfas to lift the opponent.
But he wasn't stupid, so he wouldn't waste it.
The effect clearly showing that airbone was ready appeared as a gust of wind around K'Sante.
I knew Fiora could block it with a response.
So when I aimed for the mark on his body and slid in with the lunge.
He would be targeting that moment.
Normally people are distracted by something they're doing and have trouble reacting to other things.
But since I had already expected that, it was easy to react to it.
Response could be cast while using the lunge.
It was also K'Sante's winning spot.
Airbone had been blocked by the response, but K'Sante had also avoided it by blinking.
All the deadly skills of both sides had been used up, and both were in near-death states.
But in this life-or-death situation, only I had survived.
Since blink was still left, I used it to dodge the down smash and stabbed the vital point, then finished with the lunge and basic attacks again.
Now only 30 life force remained for me.
K'Sante had only one tonfa swing, and I would have died.
If K'Sante had reacted like a blade when I entered behind the turret, he would have thrown another basic attack.
That was exactly the difference.
After breaking the shield like that, I mowed down the minions and recovered my condition.
The enemy team, shrugging it off, created the result of both teams losing one in the mutual fight.
Of course, I had destroyed all the inner turrets in the meantime.
Our team's survivors had been chasing and getting bitten while trying to prevent the enemy survivors from returning, but thanks to him holding them back, I had easily shattered the enemy core.
Only then, as the word “Victory” appeared, the tension melted and all my strength left me, and I slumped.
Then the chat window that came into view.
Somehow they had known and entered, and the viewers were chatting.
This game, I guess I had shown off a pretty good lineup while doing well.
I wonder if the viewers were impressed?
- Gathering: How did I get injured in the eye and leg?
……But once the chat actually came into view, it wasn't very pleasant.
Well, it was something I could be curious about.
It was a game broadcast, why would you come to someone without a camera and ask something like that?
The other viewers had been roasting me for asking questions that went too far, but...
I felt bad that my ego had been pulled by that question.
I did well.
So why not just praise my play? Why do you care about my bad eye and cut-off leg?
Of course, I could have said it nicely and accepted it, but I ended up answering back sharply.
“The eye, I guess it happened because I hit my head against my father and it went blind. The leg, it was a little injured at first, but if I went to the hospital without telling anyone, people might see the bruise and I dragged it out, and it rotted and had to be amputated. The disinfectant sold in stores didn't work well. Anyway, when I was blind, my father felt bad and didn't hit me for about a week. That was good, though.”