The Finals (2)
At first, I simply liked playing the game. Then I realized I had a talent for it. My rank climbed, and the people around me began to praise me.
And one day, I heard this:
"You're this good. Why not try streaming?"
The broadcast I started without a second thought became an enormous opportunity. All through my school years I had been an ordinary-looking girl, buried in the crowd of my classmates; once I started streaming, I began to shine. I hadn't changed in the slightest, and yet people praised me and sent donations for the single reason that I was good at the game. And so greed took root.
What if I became even better than I was now? What did being good at the game even mean? Oh—I only had to raise my tier. With that thought, I even mobilized the connections I had built while playing, and through duo queue I became the first female BJ ever to reach Challenger.
But had my greed gone too far? At some point, haters began to appear. They called it a duo boost, mocked me as a Hyeji, and in the end they even tore down my looks. It was absurd.
I was someone who had reached Challenger, the highest tier in Legend of League. And people who could barely even cling to Diamond dared to criticize me? The more it happened, the harder I clung to my stream and my popularity. If my broadcast grew bigger... if my fame grew greater... then surely even the packs who dared to sneer at me wouldn't be able to run wild.
Then, one day, I happened to watch 19Sonyeo's stream. Reaching Master in the top lane was respectable enough, but that was all it was. On top of that, as if she were trying to reel in male viewers, the entire broadcast was nothing but dirty talk and a cheap, vulgar way of speaking. And yet, strangely, 19Sonyeo didn't draw nearly as many haters as I did. No—she had far more fiercely loyal fans. It wasn't fair. Why was I the only one being treated like this?
I spread ugly rumors about 19Sonyeo among the BJs I was close with. Haters piled onto her after that, and later I even heard she'd gotten into a spat with another BJ. I felt a little easier inside. And I understood. I can just keep doing it this way. From then on, I took care of a few more BJs who didn't sit right with me. Manipulating public opinion was easy. The world of female gaming BJs was smaller than one would think, and in that world I boasted a solid network and real power.
Afterward I went on nipping likely rivals in the bud whenever they sprouted, and to swim in a bigger pond I began entering tournaments. I focused especially on the Ladies Cup, where the attention far outstripped the scale and the level of play. For the past year I had even gone so far as to lock in a fixed roster. Teammates whose skill sat above average, and teamwork that held firm. This year, the championship was ours.
That was what I had thought—until a crack ran through the plan. The person stirring up the biggest storm in the solo-streaming scene of late. BJ Hani. Even her face was an eyesore, and on top of that she had tremendous popularity and real skill at the game. And she was entering this tournament on the same team as 19Sonyeo. I had to stamp her down, one way or another. If I didn't cut the sprout, she had the momentum to catch me in no time. But the moment she was actually in front of me, I was overwhelmed. The impressions and the gymnastics routines I had drilled so hard were swallowed whole by Hani's specialties.
Watching Fighting Girls' disastrous teamwork afterward let me set one worry down, but the grudge remained lodged in my chest. How dare she humiliate me. I would give her a pain that getting knocked out of a tournament couldn't begin to compare with. I steeled myself and decided to use a method I had already pulled once before. I installed miniature cameras in Shindaeryuk TV's Pangyo studio and in the restroom at the tournament venue. The other bitches' disgrace would be caught on film as well, but I could simply count that as a bonus. Given a tournament stretching past two weeks and long match times, they would use it at least once. And then I would have a powerful leash—one that let me yank Hani around however I pleased.
I'm the best. Every bitch with any chance of climbing above me has to be eliminated.
My mind snaps back. This is the tournament hall. The finals are underway.
I slip Ezreal's poke and Xeros's one after another, but from a blind angle Jason's lightning blast comes screaming in. I try to dodge, but a person has only one body, and there is always a limit. In the end I burn my shield to cut the damage, and that should have been the end of it.
You goddamn bitch. You're finished this time, too.
Once the tournament was over and I retrieved the cameras, I would grind every one of them under my heel. I am biting down hard on my lip with that thought when a dark shadow suddenly falls across me. In the instant I think oh no, Evil Queen closes the distance with her lash, sticks to me on her E, and at the same time dumps her ultimate's area damage all around us. I fire my own ultimate at nearly the same moment, but Evil Queen's burst is simply too much, and too little health remains after Jason's poke. I die on the spot.
"Shit!"
BANG—!
The curse and the shotgun blast of the keyboard tear out of me before I even remember that this is a tournament. My face twists like a demon's.
The ambush lands. In a single breath I cut down Lula and splash the ultimate's area damage onto Jinxon right beside her. With the fight erupting at their backs, Kamin and Kassasu begin to waver. Fyzn, who had been trying to play a role like mine, is reduced in an instant to a dog that chased a chicken and came up empty.
"Nice! Keep shoving them with the poke, just like that. Then we chain it into the Herald."
Under the relentless poke, squishy Kassasu is the first to backpedal. They have to know it too. From the moment Lula was cut down and half of Jinxon's health was shaved away, this teamfight was already hopeless. What was holding them in place was stubbornness. If the Herald fell as well, on top of a game already tilting little by little, clawing it back would be far too hard... That feeling was the enemy team's fatal mistake.
When you disengage, you disengage clean. Unless you want to get picked apart like this.
I was a silent hunter. After cutting Lula down I slip back into stealth, keep my distance, and watch them. Our poke erupts. One by one, I ambush the enemies who have fallen back with their health hanging by a thread.
Double Kill!
Evil Queen is dominating the battlefield.
Once Jinxon and Kassasu fall as well, Kamin and Fyzn flee without a backward glance, but the game has already tipped. With the Herald we claimed, we shove through the first and second mid towers and lock the match down. And in the middle of it all, assassinating Jinxon and Lula all over again off an overwhelming lead—that was the highlight of the game. In the end it closed a little past the twenty-five-minute mark. A truly overwhelming victory.
At a result far more one-sided than anyone had expected, the hosts and the crowd alike began to murmur.
Regardless of the crowd's confusion, our team carefully stepped out of the soundproof booth and moved to the waiting room. The second game was set to begin after a thirty-minute break, so there was no time to waste. A short round of feedback, and at the same time we went over the strategy for the next match.
Meanwhile, on stage, popular BJs invited as guests were putting on a show: a girl-group dance from famous cam girls, a strongman act from the mukbang BJs, even cross-dressing gags from the muscle-bound fitness streamers. The colorful spectacle held the viewers' eyes, and in that time we finished reviewing the operation we had prepared.
"Mm... I'm gonna hit the restroom for a sec."
"Unni, me too!"
It was a question I had carried since my school days. Why did girls like swarming off to the bathroom in a pack? The moment the words left my mouth, Yerin's hand shot up, and Mia—after a bit of hesitant glancing—quietly tagged along. In the end, the three of us went together.
"Unni, I did good just now, right? Honestly, if you only look at my Xeros, that's basically Platinum!"
"Yeah, yeah. Just play it like that again this game."
On the way I cooed over her, a little mental maintenance for Mia. I was in the middle of it when Yerin suddenly grabbed my arm in front of the restroom.
"Uh, uh? Ah... right. Of course you did great too, Yerin."
"No, unni. Wait a second."
Yerin slipped a hand inside her top and fiddled with something. Then she gave one firm nod and said we could go in now.
"Huh? What was that? Kind of anticlimactic."
Every so often, watching Yerin, she does something I simply can't make sense of. Well... nothing has gone wrong because of it so far, so I don't think much of it. Anyway, we used the restroom and returned to the waiting room.
By then the performances were all over, and the two hosts were pointing at the numbers from the first game—damage dealt, gold earned, and the rest—and walking through them.
"Five minutes left. Everyone, please get ready."
A venue staffer comes over to tell us the break is ending. I tremble, just a little. Win this match, and we are the champions.
"All right. We can all see this through to the end, yeah?"
"Let's finish it with this game."
"Preparations are perfect!"
"Then let's go!"
Waaaaaah—!
With Captain 19Sonyeo at the front, we step out of the waiting room. The crowd's cheers pack the path to the stage solid, and every one of them smiles and waves. All of their support, and our will aimed straight at victory.
Only a single step remained until the championship.