The Wall I Can't Overcome

Our ways of thinking are fundamentally different.

“Thank you. …And I’ll be waiting.”

With those final words, Gaeun logged out of New Dimension. He climbed out of the reverse capsule and stared up at the ceiling.

“Haa…”

Thud!

He swung his fist as hard as he could into the wall.

“Haaaa…”

In the end, he had won. Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had lost. It refused to fade. And that was exactly why he was so frustrated.

After retiring from his kickboxing career, this was an emotion Gaeun had never once experienced as a New Dimension pro gamer. Of course, he sat at the very peak right now, but that didn’t mean he was invincible. He was a gamer who knew the bitter taste of defeat all too well.

Still, the feeling from every loss until now was completely different from what he had felt in that fight against Lene. An overwhelming ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wall—the kind he had never encountered before. Sure, the system’s time limit had helped him win this time, but his instincts whispered that without it, he would have lost for certain. If the match had gone to a third set, he wouldn’t have even managed a proper attack.

And Gaeun couldn’t deny that instinct.

“Just what the hell was that…?”

He had been the one dominating from the start. But the moment Lene said those words, the situation flipped completely. No matter what techniques or mind games Gaeun used, none of them worked on her. If he moved one beat faster, she struck two beats faster. If he tried to slip into a half-beat delay to create an opening, she used that very slowness against him.

The result? Gaeun hadn’t been attacking at all. He had been desperately struggling just to survive. All he could do was block her strikes, and even that was barely keeping up. Even though the warhammer was the weapon with the most openings during attacks, he couldn’t push forward. He couldn’t find a single gap.

“…So that’s why Jaehun-hyung was so desperate to get her.”

There were three main playstyles for a top laner in AOS mode. The first was to safely pass the laning phase and then shine in large-scale team fights. The second was to accept some losses in lane and roam to support allies, creating overall gains for the team. And the last was to overwhelmingly crush the lane, then forcibly draw the enemy’s attention and rotations toward yourself, making things comfortable for your teammates.

Lene was, without question, the third type. And if the third style succeeded, the returns were greater than doing the first and second styles at the same time. Of course, failure came with equally massive losses, which was why most pros avoided attempting it.

“…What’s the problem with that? I don’t think I could have stopped it anyway.”

Even if you blocked it, you were still forcing the opponent to invest multiple players. At the pro level, that fact alone was an enormous advantage.

“…What a shame.”

He hadn’t experienced it himself, but the picture was already forming clearly in Gaeun’s mind. The enemy jungler and midlaner forced to rotate top. The losses they would suffer because of it. The snowball that would form from those losses, eventually destroying the enemy nexus.

But in the end, it was only an imagination. When he remembered Lene saying she had absolutely no intention ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of becoming a pro gamer, a pointless sense of regret lingered.

“…Well, there’s still plenty of time.”

He had already sent her friend requests in both Miscode and New Dimension, so he could create opportunities to talk. And even if he didn’t, with her skill, she would definitely climb all the way to Ex-grade. Then they would have no choice but to meet, whether she wanted to or not.

“…It would be nice if she at least became a streamer for our team.”

If Lene ended up on a rival team… Just imagining it was horrifying. Gaeun let out a bitter laugh.

When they met again in PVP, he would talk to her more. If she didn’t like being a pro gamer, how about a team-affiliated streamer? Of course, he had no intention of losing the next time they fought.

“I still have a long way to go…”

With that thought, Gaeun headed off to take care of his schedule. All while having no idea what Lene was thinking right now.

★

After calming down the suddenly chaotic Lene fans, I noticed that over five hundred viewers had disappeared. There was only one person who could cause that. It really showed just how much influence he had in New Dimension. To think that a single person could make five hundred people come and another five hundred leave. Of course, plenty of my fans were still here, but I couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.

“So everyone… what should we do now?”

The fans were demanding PVP as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Even the people who had said they wanted to see Albion when I first turned on New Dimension were now shouting for PVP.

But… I had no choice but to refuse their requests.

“Um… I’m not planning to do PVP.”

The chat reactions split right down the middle. Some asked when I would do PVP if not now. Others agreed that after a match like that, it was reasonable to take a break.

“No, um… well… that is…”

But my thoughts didn’t belong to either side.

“PVP rank matches… I probably won’t be doing them again in the future…”

“No… everyone, just think about it. If my rank goes up, that means I’ll run into pro gamers like Gaeun more often, right…?”

“Honestly, don’t you all think I could reach it pretty quickly?”

“Anyway, the higher I climb, the more I’ll have to face pro gamers… I don’t want to play exhausting matches like that every single game…”

“Even if you say that… How about we play AOS mode instead…?”

“Hmm…”

Why was the level of trust toward me so low? I was working so hard on my streams, too.

“Anyway, I probably won’t be doing PVP rank matches anymore…”

“Umm… I’m tired right now, so I don’t want to do the Albion raid either…”

To be honest, I wasn’t even confident I could clear it if I tried again right now. Asking me to start a raid that could take who knows how many hours? No way, even if it killed me.

Then… there was only one thing left, wasn’t there?

“Everyone. I think I’ll end the stream here for today…”

“No, isn’t two hours already plenty…?”

“Umm… If I act c-cute… will you let me go…? H-hehe…”

I wasn’t really sure how to do aegyo, but I tried to sound as cute as possible anyway.

I didn’t know why, but the response was positive. Some told me not to keep using this kind of thing to end streams, and others warned that I would regret turning it off. There were a few opposing voices, but they were in the minority. In the end, I was able to finish my long-awaited return stream in a surprisingly warm atmosphere.

★