Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: In This Brutal World
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In the usual official league season, solo rank standings didn't draw much attention.
After all, the image was firmly fixed that all the real pros vanished to prepare for matches, leaving it as a scrap among the nobodies.
But with ultra-popular streamer Jeon Jeonseol and the fairly evenly matched streamer Once duking it out for 1st and 2nd, it was impossible for it not to become a hot topic.
Their rankings seesawed back and forth for a good while.
💬 Comments — Anonymous Jeon Jeonseol always messing around with weird games and her skills tanked lololol Look at that winrate dropping lol Now she can't even pretend to be good anymore — Anonymous If 2nd place sucks that bad, what are the 2 million below? Monkeys? ↳ Reply Welcome, electric dog ↳ Reply What about the 2 million below lol — 2nd Place: Finally noticing us? ↳ Reply Crazy bastard lololol — Hate her in moderation. Got an inferiority complex? Armchair critics relentlessly tore into Jeon Jeonseol, who had lost her former overwhelming dominance.
But after a grueling week-long battle, Jeon Jeonseol rose back to an overwhelming 1st place.
Once in 2nd would need a 10-game win streak just to catch up.
In truth, Once overtaking Jeon Jeonseol's score was thanks to tier inflation.
The more players there were, the more LP liquidity got pumped in, and with more high-rankers, people matching them got more chances to climb higher.
To put it simply, while Jeon Jeonseol was grinding through a bracket where wins gave +7 and losses cost -30, Once breezed through one with +12 on wins and -25 on losses.
It happened while Jeon Jeonseol was distracted by another game, Meteor Story.
And now, she was refocused.
💬 Comments — Anonymous Where'd all the idiots pushing the Jeon Jeonseol has-been narrative go? Planted the flag back on the summit in just a week? Just took a quick break playing -Meteor- lol What has-been, skills dropped, outdated era? Total bullshit If you can't read the game that badly, just quit already Dumbasses like you pretending to be experts turn the gal into a landfill lol — Anonymous We get that Jeon Jeonseol is good at the game, but why are you so hyped up? ↳ Reply Overimmersed soup stock — So you make more money than Once? Higher tier than Once? ↳ Reply I'm Bill Gates with 20 billion golden calves at home — But playing -Meteor- is kinda weird. That's the game that got caught blatantly rigging probabilities, right? ↳ Reply Gasp! ↳ Reply Are you calling the player of Meteor Story—who pioneered the GOAT gacha system first in Korean gaming history—irrational and foolish? ↳ Reply Yeah ↳ Reply I agree 💬 Comments — Anonymous Haters, get out! (Jeon Jeonseol's rank record occupying #1 spot) (Photo of red-wigged Jeon Jeonseol) From today, Team A Gal belongs to Jeon Jeonseol ⭐ Top Comment — Anonymous We worship you, GOAT — Anonymous (Flutter flutter) — Anonymous Why shit up Team A Gal when you got your own gal? — Anonymous History's greatest GOAT Jeon Jeonseol — Anonymous Praise her This was what happened on the surface of the internet world, open to anyone.
And in a secretive spot no one could just peek into...
💬 Private DMs Once: Still a wall that's tough to get over. Once: Always learning a ton from you. Thanks. Once: But no plans to hop into the Challenger Discord? Once: We watch each other's games and replays, discuss, do casual scrims and stuff. Once: If it's too much hassle, no pressure to say yes. Jeon Jeonseol: Hm Jeon Jeonseol: Invite me Once: (link) Gladiator gathering.
A Discord server exclusive to Teamfight Arena Challengers.
Not ruthless enough to boot you for demotion, but first-timers had to verify their Challenger status with an admin.
Once: Told the admin already, so skip verification. Thankfully, the inviter handled the hassle.
About 90 members in the server.
Pretty substantial, considering there were only 300 Challengers total.
Not everyone was active, of course.
Tons just joined and ghosted.
Still, far from a dead server—right now, folks were streaming games with spectators watching.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Jeon Jeonseol has entered the server! Wave hello! #Chat board system message.
A few reacted instantly.
💬 Server Chat — JMG Wow
— JMG For real?
— Tryit Fanatic0 Heukseu
— Tryit Fanatic0 Beoseu
— Once Managed to coax her in lol
— Jeon Jeonseol Hello everyone
— JMG (Greeting emote)
— Tryit Fanatic0 (Greeting emote)
— Once (Greeting emote)
— Jeon Jeonseol (Greeting emote)
Jeon Jeonseol accepted the server invite out of boredom, plain and simple.
As mentioned many times, she didn't really have friends.
Bored enough to dive headfirst into an RPG that erased time most efficiently.
The Discord server split into two zones: text/image/file chat channels, and voice channels for video calls, screen shares, and voice chat.
Jeon Jeonseol slipped into a voice channel where about seven people were spectating a game.
"Hello."
—"Whoa!"
"?"
—"Who turned on YouTube? I hear a girl's voice."
"Not YouTube, it's an actual girl."
—"Gasp!"
—"Far as I know, there's only one woman in Challenger."
—"Whoa, is that really Legend?"
No one grinding Challenger was clueless about Jeon Jeonseol.
And the reactions to her appearance didn't stop there.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
Notifications chiming every time someone joined the voice channel.
It jumped from seven to twenty-three in seconds.
Suspiciously, none of the newcomers opened their mouths right away.
Jeon Jeonseol had a gut feeling.
They were all waiting for her to speak first.
"Ah, hello?"
—"Hello!"
—"I'm a fan."
—"I'm Jotmanggame."
—"Nice to meet you."
—"You finally came!"
Over ten voices piled in at once, audio turning into garbled mush.
"Everyone, calm down."
—"Ah, just too excited, sorry."
—"We match up in games a lot—remember me?"
—"Why'd you ignore my invite and only join now through Once?"
—"Everyone wait your turn to talk?"
—"Audio's overlapping way too much."
Down to five or so this time, but still a messy overlap.
Hard to make out anything substantial.
In that brief silence...
—"Ah! Fuckin' noisy as hell!"
The streamer sharing their screen killed the broadcast and bailed.
Sudden chill in the air.
—"Why's that rude asshole talking like that?"
—"We were kinda loud though."
"Sorry. I'll head out."
—"No! No way! Legend, don't go. Someone else can stream."
—"Guy's a total Gyeopsik. Zero manners."
Jeon Jeonseol had a fierce premonition.
Already screwed.
Shouldn't have accepted the invite?
Some folks would say:
You knew damn well what happens when you join a social server.
But hear her out.
She was genuinely wronged.
No friends, felt lonely, wanted to chill with people, chat about games healthily...
But they go and simp, turn fanboy, confess—how the hell is she supposed to control that?
Take responsibility by staying solo forever, dying alone?
Can't utter a word to any guy unless you're down to be his girlfriend?
What kinda bullshit logic is that?
"Ugh."
Jeon Jeonseol let out a groan loaded with meaning and left the voice channel.
Then a DM pinged out of nowhere—private message.
📩 DM Juicy: Legend, you're too much. Why ignore my server invite but accept Once's? Juicy: You two dating? Who the hell sends messages like that?
Do I even know you?
Once has history, we match often so familiar, even friended—but you're a total stranger.
Like I'd accept a rando server invite.
Just thinking about having to explain that made Jeon Jeonseol's head spin.
Why were there so many people lacking basic common sense?
📩 DM Once: Sorry, Legend. Once: But don't leave the server yet. Once: I'll sort it out clean. Once messaged too.
He clearly hadn't anticipated this mess—panic seeped through the text.
Jeon Jeonseol decided to let it slide, just this once.
She was starving for people to talk games with.