Seizing the Initiative
"A festival for women summoners! Welcome back for the Legend of League Ladies' Tournament draft ceremony. Hello, everyone watching—I'm BJ Life, and I'll be your host."
"Hello! I'm BJ Redback, co-hosting with him today."
The hall was wide enough to pass for a wedding venue. Hard light stabbed down from every direction, and up on the low stage at the front stood Life—who had called the Blame Cup as well—and Redback, a former pro who had joined a collab last time through Soldier's connections.
They were hosting the Ladies' Tournament, so they had put on suits. Dressed up, by streamer standards. High-end broadcast rigs framed them from every angle, and all of it was going out live on Shindaeryuk TV's official tournament channel. I checked my phone. The viewer count had blown past a hundred and fifty thousand in a blink, and it showed no intention of stopping there.
I looked back at the hosts.
"An incredible number of women summoners applied for this tournament. Unfortunately, as we announced from the start, the field is fixed at the round of sixteen, so a fierce internal review narrowed it down to sixteen teams."
"Teams that didn't make the cut will have another chance in the winter season, so please apply again then."
The hosts kept the show moving with an easy professionalism, and now and then the cameras swept the room. Round tables stood spaced across the wide floor—eight of them in all. The members of every team in the tournament sat around them, and the nameplate on each table carried that team's name.
"All right! Before we introduce the teams, we have a congratulatory address from the pride of Shindaeryuk TV, CEO Seo So-gil."
"Everyone, a warm round of applause!"
Clap, clap, clap—!
CEO Seo So-gil's address dragged on, about as thrilling as a principal's morning lecture. I was letting it wash over me when Mia, beside me, suddenly jabbed an elbow into my ribs.
"...?"
I turned to her, baffled, and she signaled frantically for me to look forward. I did—and met CEO Seo So-gil's eyes. Everyone around us was looking at me too.
"Ahaha, was my voice too small? I was saying I've been very impressed by your recent work."
"Ah—yes! Thank you. I'll keep working hard."
"Good. I'm expecting great things."
And with that, CEO Seo So-gil's address was over.
God. That scared the hell out of me.
Why is he suddenly talking to me?
"..."
The people around us seemed to read it differently. My teammates were delighted I had caught the CEO's eye, insisting the only road left was a long, unbroken winning streak. The BJs from the other teams watched with open envy.
Revia was among them.
She had made her name as the first woman BJ to reach Challenger. Of course, the backstory was messy. Support being her main role was one thing, but she had played an absurd amount of duo that season. Perhaps she had felt the backlash—afterward she cut down on duos—but she had never touched Challenger again, and people sneered that she was a fake Challenger.
"All right, let's officially begin the draft ceremony. I understand the method is extremely simple. How does it work?"
"Yes! Allow me to explain. It's simple. Each team's representative comes forward, and we hold a charm contest."
"A charm contest?"
"Yes. A live vote ranks the teams, and the top four receive draft rights. Starting from first place, they may designate which of the bottom eight teams they will face in the round of sixteen."
"Whoa! That is going to be brutal. Look—Team We Won! Captain Revia's eyes are no joke. That's a carnivore already picking out its prey!"
"Ah, don't gang up on me. Where else are you going to find a carnivore with eyes this sweet?"
Revia put on a pout and bickered with the hosts. Public opinion on her was decent enough, and when it came to Legend of League, she was known as top-tier among the women BJs.
"This is fun."
"Hm? Fun how, unnie?"
"It's nothing."
I waved Mia off—she was tilting her head—and reached back through my memory. To what I had walked into in the restroom before the event began.
"Unnie, did you see the Fighting Girls roster this time?"
"See what?"
"Oh, come on, pretending you don't know again. You said it last time. There's a bitch who gets on your nerves. You meant Hani, right?"
"Ha... Miyeon."
"I get how you feel, unnie. I don't know why someone with a face like that is skulking around the game scene instead of just running a cam show. Lately she's been playing nothing but Legend of League for a whole week, acting like she's going to hit Master. Isn't that, like, zero professional courtesy?"
"Ha. That damn face."
"Unnie?"
"Listen carefully. You think that's natural? After she debuted she didn't even do cam shows at first, and when she finally did, it was mask-only. Why do you think that is? If her face had really been that pretty, she would have face-revealed and gone on cam from day one. But she didn't."
"Th-that's true, I guess?"
"It's obvious. She had the whole thing redone. Then, once the surgery swelling went down, she did the face reveal. You saw her and still don't get it? Eyes, nose, jaw—all of it, plain as day. A total surgery freak. A freak!"
"Oh my god, oh my god! Really? I knew something was off..."
Their voices drifted farther and farther away.
I had missed my timing and never caught their faces, but I carried more than a few skills tied to vocal mimicry and tone. Voice alone was enough to pick the culprits out.
Revia, and the bob-haired teammate chattering away at her side.
I had found them. Now it was time to pay them back.
At each table they chose the member who would represent them in the charm contest—in other words, the talent show. On our team, as we had agreed beforehand, I was the one going up. Mia and Yerin kept pestering me about what I had prepared, dying of curiosity, but I played innocent and told them nothing.
The first participant sang. The second danced a sexy concept.
The hosts, watching that chat roll in, moved fast. They briefly held back the third participant, who was about to sing, and asked whether anyone had prepared a different specialty. Revia lifted a hand, casual as anything.
"Oh! Revia, mind if we ask what secret weapon you've prepared?"
"Hmm... Ahring's dance motion changes with every skin, and I've prepared something on those differences. I also have a few Legend of League champion impressions ready."
"Now that is fresh. Let's shift the mood a little—we'll have Revia go first."
The fresh attempt drew a pretty warm response from the viewers. A backing track she had prepared in advance kicked in. Revia milked a shy little pause, then, from the center of the stage, began dancing Ahring's choreography—lifted from a famous girl group.
"Shall we... fall under it together?"
"Ooh! That's the stuff. That's the stuff."
"Even I can tell you really caught the feel. The practice shows."
Led by the nodding hosts, the participants around them began to applaud. Revia looked satisfied. She was relaxing too soon.
Quietly, I raised a hand.
"Huh? Hani? What's going on?"
Redback reacted at once, mic in hand, and came toward me.
"Ah, awkward timing, but one of the things I prepared is impressions. It overlaps a bit with what Revia prepared, so..."
"Ha! I-is that so? How did this happen?"
The moment the words landed, Redback launched into an over-the-top bit and looked to Life. Life jumped right in, playing along and fishing for the viewers.
"Revia shows an impression, and immediately you say you prepared the same thing? You're saying the quiet part out loud. What, that's nothing special—I could phone it in and still do it better."
"No, don't railroad me! I'm only saying I prepared hard too."
I acted flustered. In truth, Life had read me exactly.
Right.
I had waited for Revia's turn on purpose. Whatever she had prepared, I meant to show something far beyond it and wipe that stage clean out of the viewers' heads. But there was a limit to how far you stuck your head into a tiger's mouth. One of the things Revia had prepared, she said, was impressions.
I could have laughed. Wasn't this being served to me on a plate?
When I had shown off impressions on the Miracle collab, I had still been a nobody, short on recognition, so a fair number of viewers had no idea. The hosts didn't seem to know either. Still, they had caught a thread, and they pulled it. Life and Redback spun a versus out of thin air and asked Revia and me whether we were confident.
Revia, looking a little sour, said she would just have to give it her best. I reached for the textbook answer the Miss Koreas used to give on the old broadcasts, and parodied it.
"Eh?"
"Pfft—!"
Revia looked utterly thrown. The hosts couldn't hold their laughter in. The viewers were no different, howling hard enough to rattle the chat window off its frame.
"Uh, unnie...? Excuse me, I'm younger than you?"
"What? Oh! I'm sorry. I thought I was the little sister!"
"..."
Twenty-two this year. A full two years younger than me—and Revia's face had twisted up tight.