Chapter 156

[GG!]

[The first round of scrim is over! His Fate, His Own Making faced off against One Bite, and the winning team is One Bite!]

Tae-woo’s team name was ultimately decided as His Fate, His Own Making. From what Seo-jun observed, Tae-woo seemed to genuinely hate that team name.

But what could he do? It was a democratic society.

One Bite was the name of the team with A-tier ADC Spoon.

The team’s ace, Spoon.

And ADCs were often teased for being called “spoons,” so they probably just went with One Bite to match that.

Actually.

He wasn’t sure what the exact meaning was.

‘One bite.’

Back in high school, whenever a friend came back from the school store, there was always that one classmate who would shout “just one bite!”

To be precise, he wasn’t really a friend but more like Seo-jun’s lackey number 453, and that student’s specialty was showing off a single bite so devastating that even demons would bow down in respect.

It didn’t matter if it was a drink or bread.

Once you gave permission, half of it would disappear and come back—a miracle that even amazed Seo-jun.

Was it because of that memory?

Spoon’s team name felt quite threatening to Seo-jun.

“What a commercial break this is.”

Rumi let out a deflated sigh, her mood clearly dampened after the entertaining match got cut off.

From his brief observation, she was a true Travu.

Actually, aside from Seo-jun being slightly unusual, most people were basically Travus, and many streamers had started as Travus too.

Ha Yoon-ho, Kim Tae-woo, and Alpaca were all cases like that.

“Alright. We got word that the next game is ours. Let’s enter The League now.”

Since it was a scrim, watching chat while playing was now prohibited.

They didn’t just rely on conscience for this.

Travel had a separate mode that banned stream monitoring. The exact name was Focus Mode.

When streamers activated this Focus Mode, they couldn’t access any chat at all. Not from other Travel channels either.

And viewers could check whether the streamer had this mode enabled.

It created an environment where streamers could immerse themselves in the game.

“Of course, that’s just the excuse.”

This mode had been updated after a controversial incident where a streamer with four-ringed eyes got caught stream-monitoring during a tournament and faced criticism. While Travel packaged it nicely as Focus Mode, everyone knew that wasn’t the real intention.

Of course, it was better for everyone to have such a clear system. Except for those trying to cheat.

Still, it was human nature not to create systems to solve these kinds of problems unless something truly major happened.

However.

The authority of Surface, which owned fifty percent stakes in both Travel and The League, was remarkable.

They updated the new mode in just one week after the controversy broke.

Their effort to maintain their monopoly was truly impressive.

Knowing that if they showed any harm to consumers, courts and governments from various countries would immediately draw their swords and tear the company apart, they were very consumer-friendly.

“See you guys after the game.”

Seo-jun activated Focus Mode.

-Don’t go

-Yay! The streamer can’t see chat now lol

-Alright, time to mess around?

-Ready, BestDefense?

-Of course, Assassin

-(This comment was killed by a mod passing by)

-o7

-What if the mod abuses their power?

-You’re getting cut too lol

-Lmao they’re really abusing it

The chat filled with such rich content disappeared from view.

[The League is launching.]

After entering the game, Seo-jun received a game invitation message from the tournament operations team.

And upon entering the lobby, he could hear the voices of the commentators broadcasting live.

[Alright! With player Seo-jun as the last to arrive, everyone’s here! Wealth Gap vs Bat!]

He was last again.

‘By the way, Goblin’s team name is Bat? They really half-assed that team name.’

Wealth Gap wasn’t one to talk.

Navigator’s voice could be heard.

[Then we should look at team power first, right? According to information obtained yesterday, Wealth Gap’s jungle issue seems quite significant.]

[Ah, it was three mids, right?]

[That’s correct. Since top and mid are the most similar lanes, this team’s problem is said to be jungle.]

[Right. It’s the only position in League that doesn’t do laning.]

Jungle.

While top, mid, and bottom fought in their respective lanes, jungle was a position that roamed around the spaces called jungle in the middle of the map, hunting monsters and helping each lane.

[And according to intelligence obtained yesterday, player Windstorm Sword is said to be worse than player Alpaca.]

[Gasp! Where did you get such premium information?]

[Travel. So everyone should use Travel! Haha! Boss, are you watching? Haha!]

[Hohoho!]

Seo-jun was surprised.

He never knew Navigator had that kind of PPL side to him.

It was such otherworldly hosting that he wanted to see the viewer reactions.

[Then let’s look at the Bat team now.]

[Yes!]

[First, what to watch out for is A-tier jungler player Goblin. Obviously, jungle has the highest influence in the game. So if the jungler plays well, you can win the game, and this team has the best jungler.]

[It’s a strong team. While they weren’t classified as a strong team officially, what kind of existence is a Challenger jungler? They can’t help but be threatening! Looking at today’s scrim results should make things clearer. Oh, by the way, Penguin-nim, who do you think will win?]

[Of course it’s Seo-jun—no, Wealth Gap.]

[What’s your reason?]

[Want to make a bet?]

[No.]

[Ha! Still, I’ll bet. If Bat wins, then this time I’ll…]

[This time!]

* * *

Pick and ban time approached and everyone turned off the audio being broadcast.

“Let’s go with banning the enemies’ main picks like we discussed yesterday.”

Ha Yoon-ho, who had thought most about strategy, gave the order.

It was something they had roughly discussed beforehand.

“Understood.”

Alpaca, who had first pick, responded.

When they said the enemies’ main picks, they were really talking about one specific hero.

Lee Shin.

This hero, whose name somehow sounded like a male child born into Joseon’s royal family, was Goblin’s most-used hero.

They banned Lee Shin first, then sequentially banned the most-picked heroes of players B-tier and C-tier.

And the enemy team.

“Huh? At this rate, it doesn’t look like they’ll ban Kael.”

When the enemy made their second ban, Rumi commented.

The enemy had only banned heroes unrelated to Seo-jun.

“Do they think it’s manageable because of the nerf?”

Alpaca was handling the bans, so he spoke without taking his eyes off the interface in front of him.

“Could be that, or they might want to test it directly.”

Seo-jun listened to their conversation and thought.

Or maybe.

“They might be keeping us in check.”

“Huh? What do you mean, Seo-jun-nim? What kind of check?”

In the end, Kael wasn’t banned.

“If I can’t reveal other heroes I can play in practice games, that would be bad news for the other two teams in our A group.”

“Ah.”

It was good for Seo-jun’s team too since they could hide their strategies.

Still.

“This feels a bit insulting though.”

Ha Yoon-ho smiled grimly.

“They probably feel no need to show their hand. Since we’ll get crushed in the group stage anyway.”

“Still, they’re definitely looking down on us!”

“Well, there’s probably some of that feeling too.”

Even if they acknowledged Seo-jun’s skill, being a weak team didn’t change. League was a team game, after all.

“Seo-jun-nim. How about not playing Kael?”

“Hmm.”

“You wouldn’t… would you?”

Ha Yoon-ho whipped his head toward Seo-jun standing beside him.

He could guess what kind of misunderstanding he was having.

“Ah, no. I can play many others. I’m all prepared.”

“Phew. But you haven’t played any of those even once, right?”

“Probably not?”

“Great!”

The conversation was strange, but no teammate raised any objections.

“I’ll go with Kael for now.”

“Yes. But you do have backups ready, right?”

Ha Yoon-ho asked again, still anxious.

“Of course. Um, Zen? That one looked interesting too.”

“Zen? Shadow Mage Zen?”

“Yes.”

A hero that used an additional shadow body.

Ha Yoon-ho chuckled as he selected the hero.

“Another difficult hero.”

At that level, it was natural talent…

* * *

“Hello. It’s an honor to face you.”

After starting the game and heading to mid, the enemy team’s mid player greeted Seo-jun.

The enemy mid was B-tier. Main position top, sub-position mid.

Currently, a D-tier player was in the enemy team’s top lane.

“You’re streamer Hat-nim, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m honored you remember me.”

Emphasizing honor felt a bit like provocation.

To be precise, the opponent was showing competitive spirit toward Seo-jun right now.

Respect, but competitive spirit to win.

“Kael got nerfed, so will you be okay?”

The smile confirmed it.

“Yes, well. By the way, Hat-nim, you’re the one who rushed straight to save Goblin-nim during Ground Zero and died, right?”

“Yes…”

“I remember the expression you made while dying too.”

“…”

“I have a pretty good memory.”

Seo-jun smiled as he pointed Kael’s sword at him.

“Haha.”

Hat also responded with a somewhat awkward laugh while raising his arms.

The hero Hat had chosen was Bekal, Avatar of Stone.

His passive was Rock Skin.

The ability to partially petrify his body was Bekal’s characteristic.

Petrification hardened part of his body to reduce incoming damage and applied slow to whoever hit him.

However, since the petrified area couldn’t move properly, wore off quickly, and could only cover a small area at once, properly timing the petrification just before getting hit was the measure of a Bekal player’s skill.

Bekal’s arm momentarily swelled up and turned into cracked gray rock before returning to normal.

‘He’s planning to play defensively.’

As expected, the enemy team seemed intent on directly facing Seo-jun’s Kael to test his skill.

Well then.

He should give them a proper demonstration.

Minions entered the lane and they maintained distance from each other, watching for opportunities while last-hitting low-health minions and trading pokes.

Then.

[Goblin → Ha Yoon-ho]

[Goblin → NotRumi]

Double kill!

‘Already?’

His two bottom lane teammates had died.

[Sorry. The enemy was lying in ambush.]

[We were ambushed while doing leash.]

[I was late. Sorry.]

Leash refers to when bottom lane users help their team’s jungler kill the first jungle monster, then arrive at lane slightly late.

But getting ambushed on the way meant the enemy team didn’t do leash.

“Our Goblin-hyung is fast enough at jungling by himself.”

“I see.”

Goblin didn’t receive leash and quickly cleared jungle monsters alone, then joined the fight while Seo-jun’s teammates were fighting the ambushers.

It was an unpleasant opening blow.

“Shall we test things out a bit then?”

Hat bent his waist and punched the ground with his fist.

The ground where Bekal’s hand touched rose up and approached Seo-jun like a wave. It was too fast to completely avoid.

Bang!

The ground gradually rose higher and became almost like a boulder when it reached Seo-jun, exploding with a loud noise and dealing damage to nearby creatures.

This was Bekal’s skill, Rock Wave.

‘The radius isn’t very wide.’

He approached quickly but couldn’t get very far away, yet was still able to avoid it.

“Too bad.”

“Try shooting one more, then.”

Seo-jun gripped his sword properly and positioned himself right behind his team’s melee minions.

Standing like this made the enemy feel awkward due to his presence behind them whenever they tried to last-hit minions.

‘Now.’

The enemy approached closer. They had to get close to attack minions, or use a skill.

As the distance closed, weak points appeared on Bekal’s body.

Seo-jun attempted a horizontal slash to target that weak point.

If the torso swelled up and turned to stone, he could just pull back temporarily.

Pop.

But the opponent seemed to have been waiting and stretched out his arm to attempt petrification. Not to block Seo-jun’s sword, but just putting it out to get hit.

This was movement that would be hard to produce without preparing before the game started.

‘A bit cocky.’

Seo-jun, who had originally planned just to test things out, changed his mind and sharply twisted his wrist inward while releasing his grip.

The sword spun and grazed past Hat’s fingertips with the pommel while Seo-jun’s hand passed over it.

The enemy couldn’t react to the sudden change in situation.

The enemy’s thinking had probably stopped at blocking attacks with a petrified arm or having Seo-jun back off.

Click.

As a result, Seo-jun’s arm moved without interference, caught the sword that had completed one rotation in front of Hat’s body, and was able to strike the weak point.

Slash!

‘Where’s the next weak point?’

As he prepared to continue the combo.

[Goblin → WildAlpaca]

This time the jungler died.

* * *

-LOL

-B-tier really can’t compete with him LOL

-Still, looks like this one’s a loss though

-Self-strengthening movement

-Finally time to pay back the karma!