The One Destined to Succeed
After that storm named Luccia swept through my room and left in a flash, the chat was busy laughing at me.
-You should’ve done it then lol
-Seriously, why make life harder for yourself for no reason?
-That snowball from not doing it back then really rolled all the way here, huh?
“I should’ve just said it back then….”
“Haa….”
-That sigh carried a whole lot of emotion, lol
-Why are you sighing?
-Si-a, don’t you love him? You’re abandoning your wife?
-Hey, Hazy, the cam’s on right now. Watch your expression
Saying I loved her was hard enough already, and today the cam was on too, which meant my reaction was visible to everyone. That only made it even more humiliating.
I should’ve just said it then. Why had I pretended I would and then never gone through with it, only to drag things out like this?
“Let’s practice first.”
-Yeah, we should practice
-You’ve gotta win before you can say you love her
-But if you don’t win, does that mean you don’t have to say it?
I caught myself staring at the chat while I launched the game and thought about it for a moment. Huh. Did it work that way?
Come to think of it, they’d said I was supposed to say I loved her in my winner’s speech. So if I didn’t win, did that mean I didn’t have to say it? If I thought that way, Si-a would probably tear me a new one, wouldn’t she?
I shook my head and brushed off the ridiculous thought. It was disrespectful to Red hyung and Killer Sniper hyung, too. If I’d entered the tournament, then I should give it my all.
“Man, now I’m nervous for no reason.”
-Of course you’re nervous. You’re saying I love you for the first time
-If you get shaky and your aim goes wild, you know what happens, right?
-Practice more. Hurry up
Yeah. Better keep practicing so I didn’t have time to think about anything else.
With that in mind, I focused on the game that had just started.
As the tournament time drew closer, more and more people began to gather. When our teammates joined in, the voice chat rooms for the tournament started filling up.
Then Si-a finally came into our voice chat room too, and our whole team was together at last.
“Si-a. Have you cooled off at all toward Hazy yet?”
“For now, I guess?”
“There’s a condition attached to that.”
“What condition?”
“If we win, Hazy has to say I love you in his winner’s speech!”
“Then we’ve got no choice but to win.”
At Si-a’s words, Red hyung’s fighting spirit ignited. Of all things, our team was basically one giant fake-marriage ship, so there was no escaping a situation like this.
Seriously, it looked like I was going to be forced to yell “Si-a, I love you!” in my winner’s speech no matter what.
And so time passed, and the tournament began. First they explained the prize money according to placement and the various special awards, and honestly, because Watch’s parent company was a major conglomerate, the prize pool was insane.
Five hundred million won total for one day of gaming. That said it all.
“You could probably pay for a company dinner just by participating.”
“Right?”
They were running four matches, ranking everyone by total kill points plus survival points, and they were giving prize money all the way from first place to twenty-fifth.
First place alone was fifteen million won… and even the lowest ranks were getting the same payout from a certain cutoff downward, which made it feel like you could really treat it as a participation fee for a company dinner.
As they roughly explained the rules, it didn’t seem like there’d be much of a problem as long as nobody used hacks or hired a substitute.
“Hazy. Accept the invite.”
I took the invitation Red hyung sent me and entered a privately created room packed with people. Apparently I was the last one, because I ended up in the hundredth slot on the list.
While the casters said everyone was almost ready, the game started. Once loading finished and we entered the waiting screen, voices erupted from all over the place.
“Hello.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“We’re going to school first. Be ready when we come.”
“We’re raiding the military base. Stay out of our way.”
The in-game mics were chaos. People were saying where they were going and telling others not to come, or daring them to follow their squad if they were so confident, while others—like me—were greeting everyone because it was their first time in a tournament like this.
By the time I was wondering what I was supposed to say, the hyungs and Si-a were already talking to other people.
“Us? We’re absolutely going hero meta.”
“Oh, nice to meet you. We’re taking first place.”
“It’s just a fake marriage! What do you mean a real relationship!”
Si-a’s line was a little strange, but I decided to let it go.
After a short wait, the game finally began. Please, let me avoid being dead weight. Please!
Just one decent contribution! Not more, not less—exactly one decent contribution!
*
Match 1: Si-a 4 kills, team total 10 kills, 1st place.
Match 2: Si-a 2 kills, team total 5 kills, 3rd place.
Match 3: Si-a 3 kills, team total 7 kills, 2nd place.
Those were our results over three matches. In the first match, the whole team survived, but in the second and third matches I only got one kill before dying, which meant we couldn’t make up the difference from being down a player.
But there was nothing I could do about it, because the one who kept killing me was none other than Gu-ri-nim. The current number-one player on the Korean Battle Sky server… in pure skill, he was equal to Red-nim or maybe even better. There was no way to beat him.
More importantly, why was Si-a so good at this?
I’ll make sure we win no matter what, so brace yourself. Got it?
Was she really doing all this just to hear me say I love you? The thought sent a sudden chill down my spine.
So the saying was true after all—when a woman bears a grudge, frost can fall even in the middle of summer….
As I was thinking that, the standings appeared.
Kill points: 22. Placement points: 21. Total: 43 points. Our team was in first place.
But we couldn’t relax. The gap between our team and second and third place wasn’t that huge, so one wrong stumble could still cost us the whole thing.
“At this rate, I think we need to force early fights.”
“But if we do that and fail to place, isn’t that a different kind of disaster?”
“That’s true too….”
Kill points were the wild card. If it were only placement points, we could’ve just played the hiding game and stayed within the rankings, but because kills mattered, another team could rack up a ton and leapfrog everyone.
“Then let’s split the squad.”
“Huh?”
“Red and I will drop somewhere crowded and try to farm as many kill points as possible. Can Si-a and Hazy try to play for placement?”
“...Are you serious?”
“I may be a fake-marriage addict, but I know when to keep it together.”
If he was saying that much, then he had to be serious. But what did I know? If hyung said that was the right move, I should just follow him.
“If you think that’s best, hyung, then let’s do it.”
“What about you, Si-a?”
“Sounds good.”
“Then it’s settled.”
And so the third match began. Si-a and I decided to land far away from the flight path, while Red hyung and Killer Sniper hyung headed for the military base where lots of people were sure to drop.
“Feels like we’re doing a solo squad run.”
“Let’s do our best.”
“Fighting!”
“Please survive and meet us later, hyungs.”
By the time we jumped from the plane and opened our parachutes, the kill log had already started lighting up.
“Red hyung, there’s someone on top of that building.”
“Got it.”
When I opened my parachute and came down, there wasn’t a single person around. Unless someone came in with a vehicle, it looked like this area would stay empty.
By contrast, the hyungs were so tense they barely spoke. I figured that made sense. A few seconds could change the prize money they’d receive. Former pros really were different.
“Two confirmed kills.”
“Ah, I’m dead.”
While Red hyung got two kills, Killer Sniper hyung’s health dropped in a flash and he went down.
“Hyung, there’s a squad here, and another squad near the runway.”
“Damn, this is rough.”
“Should we try moving up in a car or something?”
“Hard to say. I think we just have to fight.”
While Si-a and I were busy looting, hyung picked up another kill.
Since they’d already gotten three kills, Si-a suggested we shouldn’t push our luck and should regroup, and everyone agreed. We decided to meet at the ping Killer Sniper hyung had marked.
“Whoa! Those maniacs!”
Red hyung suddenly shouted as we were driving to the meeting point in a car. From the way his health had dropped, it seemed like he’d run into enemies while trying to leave the military base.
“We’re gonna die here.”
“Can’t you hold out until we get there?”
“There’s another squad getting ready to move from behind us too, so I don’t think so.”
“Then at least get a kill.”
“Guess I have to. Hazy, just take Si-a and get inside the stadium and bunker down in a building.”
Not long after he said that, hyung died.
“At least I got one more kill.”
“How the hell did you pull that off? Yoon Red really is Yoon Red.”
“I don’t care anymore. If you two can just make it into the top three, then second place overall should still be possible.”
So in the end it was up to me and Si-a. How was he supposed to “reduce the burden” and then pile this on us instead?
“The reason the final match is like this is because Killer Sniper hyung died without getting a single kill.”
“Honestly, if only you’d stayed alive at the start of the second match, Hazy, we’d have been at least second place.”
“Well, I can’t exactly argue with that.”
Leaving the hyung who was shamelessly fighting with facts behind, we headed for a little cabin-like place in the center of the stadium.
Fortunately, it was untouched, so the loot was still there.
“Oh? There’s C4.”
“We could blow a wall near the house and shoot through it.”
“Should we just leave it for now?”
As time passed and the play area shrank, the number of remaining players began dropping too. From fifty to forty, to thirty, and eventually to fewer than twenty.
“How is the circle shrinking right onto our position?”
“Just give us second place, please!”
By then the safe zone had become so small that gunfire started sounding very close. Every time a fight broke out, three or four players vanished from the count, and before long there were fewer than ten left.
“Ah….”
“Not at the very end!”
And of all things, the final safe zone appeared up on the ridge.
It was an area where two ridgelines faced each other across a gap, so there was a good chance at least one team had already taken it.
“Hyung, can this C4 stick to anything besides walls?”
“Huh? I think so. Not to people, but it should stick to cars or trees.”
At hyung’s words, I quickly grabbed the C4 and went down to the first floor. It was just an idea that had suddenly popped into my head, and I wanted to save it for the absolute last possible moment, but you never knew how things would turn out.
When I got back downstairs, Si-a had already recovered all her stamina.
Ten seconds before the circle shrank again, gunfire suddenly erupted from far away, and at the same time four kill notifications popped up.
“Five left?”
“If we don’t count us, that’s three, so it’s either 2:3 or 2:2:1?”
I’d been fine until then, but the moment I heard that, I suddenly got a little tense. Just how much prize money was riding on mine and Si-a’s hands?
One bad aim could wipe out at least two million won. Miss one shot and two million just evaporated into thin air? Great, now I was even more nervous.
“At this rate, all we can do is pray the enemy team is on the back ridge.”
“For now, we should just get in the car and rush.”
As soon as the zone started shrinking, we jumped into the car and headed for the ridge right in front of the houses.
Praying that no one was there, we got out the moment we reached the ridge. While Si-a watched the front, I checked behind us and to the sides, and since there was nothing at all, it seemed like everyone had gathered on the next ridge over.
“Then it’s definitely 2:3.”
“If the circle forms on our side, we might still be okay.”
But unfortunately, the zone had formed closer to the enemy ridge. That meant if we wanted to win, we had to cross the ridge and fight them head-on.
In that case, there was only one thing left to do.
“Si-a, do you have any Potatoes left?”
“One left. Why?”
“Listen carefully from here on.”
I told everyone the plan I had in mind. It was probably the only way we could win.
“You’re insane.”
“If you don’t want to win, just say so.”
Of course they’d react like that. Fair enough.
But everyone knew it too. We weren’t winning this the normal way.
“Hazy.”
“Yeah?”
“C4 explodes ten seconds after you place it.”
“Hyung! I told you that won’t work!”
“Then do you have any better way to win? They’ve got the ridge, and they even outnumber us.”
“...No, I don’t.”
“And besides, we picked you for exactly situations like this.”
Come to think of it, hyung had said he picked me because of the sense I showed when I took down the hacker.
Wait, wasn’t the first reason that I was a vicious fake-marriage addict?
“Now I don’t even know anymore. If it fails, it’s a dumb stunt; if it works, it’s a legendary moment. It’s the last match, so let’s do it without regrets.”
“...But what if we don’t win? What about the promise you made with me?”
At Si-a’s voice, I suddenly remembered the promise I’d made earlier. If we won, I was supposed to say I loved her in the winner’s speech.
At her question—what if we didn’t win?—I took one deep breath, closed my eyes, and just blurted it out.
“...I love you.”
“......Huh?”
“If we win, I’ll say it again.”
“...Wow. Seriously?”
“Hyung, I think I just heard that wrong.”
I’d said it. In the end, I’d really said it. As if reality itself was reminding me that this was real, my face was burning with embarrassment. And for some reason, I immediately regretted it.
Why had I avoided saying something that simple for so long? I should’ve just told her back then.
What I’d said to Si-a that day came right back around to me.
Doing it in a situation like this made it sound like I was saying it anytime, anywhere.
“I’m going. Make sure you throw the Potato!”
Leaving my embarrassment behind, I pulled out the C4 and stuck it to the car. With a steady beeping sound, a red light began flashing on the side of the vehicle.
*
Facing a 2:3 situation, In-su, who was on commentary, calculated the possibilities.
If Yoon Red’s team got no more kills here and finished second, they’d earn six placement points and, with up to four kill points, a total of ten. Added to their existing forty-three points, that would bring them to fifty-three overall.
The opposing team was currently in second place overall, but aside from the four kills they’d already secured earlier, they had no kills at all in this match.
Even if they killed the other two players and took first place, they’d get ten placement points and six kill points, for sixteen total. Added to their existing thirty-six points, that would put them at fifty-two overall, which meant Yoon Red’s team had already clinched the championship.
“Actually, first place has already been decided, you know?”
“That’s right. Yoon Red’s team has already secured the win, but the players in the match don’t know that!”
As the caster said, the players in the game had no way of knowing, so all they could do was try to get one more kill than the other side and keep fighting for the win.
In the middle of that, In-su caught Hazy doing something strange.
“Oh? What is Hazy doing right now?”
“At a glance, that looks like C4—did he attach it to a vehicle?”
He had attached the C4 he’d picked up before leaving the house to the side of the car.
Before even the casters could fully figure out what he was doing, the beeping grew faster and faster.
And the first to realize Hazy’s intent among the commentators was In-su.
“Ah! Wait, don’t tell me Hazy player is…!”
“What is it?”
“He’s going to ram that car straight into the enemy team! C4 has a wider blast radius and stronger power than a normal grenade!”
“And the moment you said that, the car’s moving!”
“Si-a player is throwing a grenade too!”
The instant In-su finished speaking, the car Hazy was driving surged toward the enemy. Si-a’s grenade seemed to be forcing the opposing team into one side, because all three enemy players dodged it and gathered in one spot, exactly where Hazy’s car could crush them.
The opposing team opened fire on Hazy, who was driving alone, but Hazy nudged the car left and right just enough to avoid dying while still heading toward the enemy ridge.
“He’s here!”
“At least Hazy player has been caught… but one of them got run over and knocked down!”
“Wait, do they not realize the C4 is attached?”
By then the warning beeps from the C4 were getting faster and faster, and the opposing team seemed to catch on at last. Unfortunately, it was already far too late.
-Boom!
The vehicle exploded, and at the same time the screen turned gray. That meant the game was over.
“Incredible!”
“What on earth is this player?”
“From the grenade usage when they took down the hacker to the C4 attached to the vehicle today! An unbelievable legendary moment has just been born!”
Later on, the scene went on to receive an overwhelming number of votes in the game company’s official video and ranked first for Best Moment of the Year.