Chapter 156
CHAPTER 156
[GG!]
[The first scrim game has ended! Jipaljikgon faced One Bite Only, and the winner is One Bite Only!]
Tae-woo's team name had ultimately become Jipaljikgon.
After watching from the sidelines, Seo Jun had concluded that Tae-woo genuinely hated that name.
But what could he do?
They lived in a democracy.
One Bite Only was the name of Spoon's team, the team with the A-rank ADC.
The team's ace, Spoon.
And since ADCs were often jokingly called spoons, the name was probably based on that.
Though honestly—
Seo Jun wasn't entirely sure what it was supposed to mean.
One Bite Only...
Back in high school, there had always been one classmate who yelled "Just one bite!" whenever someone returned from the school store.
To be precise, he wasn't really a friend.
More like Seo Jun's subordinate No. 453.
That student's special talent was taking a "single bite" that would make even a ravenous beast blush.
Didn't matter if it was a drink or a piece of bread.
One bite, and half of it vanished.
Even Seo Jun had been impressed.
Perhaps because of that memory—
Spoon's team name felt oddly threatening.
“This is one of those advertisement breaks.”
Lumi sighed.
The interruption had clearly ruined her mood.
After observing her for a while, Seo Jun had realized she was a genuine viewer at heart.
Honestly, aside from Seo Jun being unusual, most streamers started out as dedicated viewers.
Many had gone directly from viewer to streamer.
Ha Yoon-ho.
Kim Tae-woo.
Alpaca.
All of them.
“Alright. We got notified that we're up next. Let's get into The League.”
Since this was a scrim, reading chat was now prohibited.
And they didn't leave it to people's consciences.
Travel had a separate board specifically for preventing stream-sniping.
Officially it was called Focus Mode.
Once activated, streamers could no longer see chat.
Or any other Travel channels.
And viewers could verify whether the streamer had enabled the mode.
It created an environment where streamers could focus entirely on the game.
Of course, that's just the official explanation.
Everyone knew the real reason.
The feature had been added after a certain streamer with four-ringed eyes showed up in a tournament, got caught stream-sniping, and caused a massive controversy.
Travel called it Focus Mode.
Everyone knew its true purpose.
Still, having a clear system was better for everyone.
Except cheaters.
Normally, society only creates systems like this after something catastrophic happens.
Yet—
The power wielded by Surface, which owned half of both Travel and The League, was immense.
The moment the controversy exploded, they pushed out a new mode within a week.
Their determination to maintain their monopoly was impressive.
After all, if they ever demonstrated behavior harmful to consumers, governments and courts around the world would tear the company apart.
As a result, they tended to be extremely consumer-friendly.
“See you guys after the game.”
Seo Jun activated Focus Mode.
-Go don't leave.
-Hell yeah, the streamer can't read chat anymore lol.
-Alright boys, time to have some fun.
-Ready, Great Kingfish?
-Of course, Assassin.
-(Message deleted by moderator.)
-X
-What if the mods abuse their power?
-You're gone too.
-LMAO they're actually abusing it.
The wonderfully productive chat vanished from sight.
[Launching The League.]
After entering the game, Seo Jun received an invitation from the tournament staff.
He joined the lobby.
Immediately, he heard the commentators' voices.
[And Seo Jun is the last player to join! Wealth Gap versus Club of Doom!]
Last again.
Club of Doom, huh? They really didn't put much effort into that name.
Not that Wealth Gap had any room to talk.
Bangju's voice came through.
[Let's start by looking at the team compositions. According to the information we gathered yesterday, Wealth Gap seems to have a major jungle issue.]
[Ah, the three-mid-laner team?]
[Exactly. Top and mid are relatively similar roles, but jungle is this team's biggest problem.]
[Makes sense. It's the only position in League that doesn't really lane.]
Jungle.
Top, mid, and bot fought in lanes.
The jungler moved through the neutral areas of the map, killing monsters and helping other lanes.
[And according to intelligence gathered yesterday, Baram Sword is apparently worse than Alpaca.]
[What!? Where did you get such premium information?]
[Travel. So everyone should use Travel! Hahaha! Boss, are you watching? Hahaha!]
[Hohoho!]
Seo Jun was surprised.
He hadn't expected Bangju to do sponsorship plugs like that.
He almost wanted to see the viewers' reactions.
The broadcast had entered another dimension.
[Now let's move on to Team Club of Doom.]
[Yes!]
[The obvious point of concern is their A-rank jungler, Dokkaebi. Jungle naturally has the highest influence in the game. If your jungler plays well, you can win. And this team has the best jungler.]
[They're a strong team. They weren't officially classified as one, but let's be honest—a Challenger jungler is always terrifying. Today's scrim should give us a clearer picture. By the way, Pengkwon, who do you think wins?]
[Obviously Seo Jun—I mean Wealth Gap.]
[Reason?]
[Want to make a bet?]
[No.]
[Hah! Even so, I'll bet on them. If Club of Doom wins, then this time—]
[This time!]
The draft phase was beginning.
Everyone muted the broadcast audio.
“Let's stick with the plan we discussed yesterday. Ban their signature picks.”
Ha Yoon-ho gave the order.
They had already talked about it beforehand.
“Understood.”
Alpaca, who held first pick, answered.
Though he said signature picks—
They were really talking about a single hero.
Lee Shin.
For some reason, the hero's name sounded like a prince from a Joseon royal family.
It was also Dokkaebi's best champion.
They banned Lee Shin.
Then they banned the preferred picks of the enemy B-rank and C-rank players.
And the enemy...
“Huh? Looks like they're not banning Kale.”
Lumi spoke after the enemy completed their second ban.
None of the bans had anything to do with Seo Jun.
“Do they think he's manageable after the nerf?”
Alpaca asked while keeping his eyes fixed on the drafting interface.
“Could be. Or maybe they just want to test him.”
Seo Jun listened to the conversation.
Or—
“They could be trying to pressure us.”
“Huh? Seo Jun? What do you mean?”
In the end, Kale remained unbanned.
“If I don't reveal any other champions I can play during practice games, that's bad news for the other two teams in our group.”
“Ah.”
From Seo Jun's team's perspective, hiding information was beneficial.
Still—
“This kind of pisses me off.”
Ha Yoon-ho smiled coldly.
“They don't feel any need to reveal their own cards. They'll see ours during the group stage anyway.”
“Still, they're definitely looking down on us!”
“Well, there's probably some of that.”
Even if they acknowledged Seo Jun's skill, the team was still considered weak.
And The League was still a team game.
“Seo Jun, then how about not playing Kale?”
“Surely not... right?”
Ha Yoon-ho whipped his head around toward Seo Jun.
Seo Jun knew exactly what misunderstanding he was having.
“Ah, no. Definitely not. I can play plenty of things. I've prepared lots of champions.”
“Whew. But you haven't actually played any of them even once, have you?”
“Probably not?”
“Excellent!”
The conversation was bizarre.
Yet none of the team members felt the need to question it.
“Let's just go with Kale.”
“Okay. But you're really prepared, right?”
Ha Yoon-ho asked again, still uneasy.
“Of course. Hmm... Zen looked fun too.”
“Zen? The Shadow Sorcerer Zen?”
“Yes.”
A hero that fought using an additional shadow body.
Ha Yoon-ho chuckled as he locked in Kale.
Another difficult champion.
At this point, it had to be a matter of personality.
“Hello. It's an honor to play against you.”
After entering mid lane, the enemy mid laner greeted Seo Jun.
The opposing mid was a B-rank player.
His main role was top lane, with mid as his secondary role.
Currently, a D-rank player was occupying top lane for their team.
“You're the streamer Moja, right?”
“Yes. It's an honor that you remember me.”
The way he emphasized streamer felt subtly provocative.
More precisely, the guy was showing competitive spirit.
Respect, certainly.
But also a desire to win.
“Kale got nerfed. Are you going to be okay?”
Judging by his smile, definitely.
“Well, anyway. You're Boja, right? During Ground Zero, weren't you the one who immediately ran over to save Dokkaebi and got yourself killed?”
“Yes...”
“I remember the expression you made when you died.”
“...”
“My memory's pretty good.”
Seo Jun smiled as he pointed Kale's sword toward him.
“Haha.”
Boja awkwardly laughed in return and raised his arms.
The hero he had chosen was Bikal, Incarnation of Stone.
His passive skill was Stone Skin.
Bikal's signature ability was partial petrification.
Hardening a body part reduced incoming damage and slowed whoever struck it.
However, the petrified section became difficult to move.
The effect wore off quickly.
And only one body part could be hardened at a time.
As a result, timing the hardening perfectly just before impact was considered the measure of a skilled Bikal player.
For a brief moment, Bikal's arm swelled and transformed into cracked gray stone before returning to normal.
He's planning to play defensively.
As expected, the enemy team intended to directly test Seo Jun's Kale.
If that was the case—
He'd show them something appropriate.
The minions arrived in lane.
Both sides maintained distance, farming low-health minions and poking cautiously.
Then—
[Dokkaebi → Ha Yoon-ho]
[Dokkaebi → NotActuallyADurumi]
[Double Kill!]
Already?
The two teammates in bot lane had died.
[Sorry. They were waiting in ambush.]
[They were hiding while we were heading back from leash.]
[I was late. Sorry.]
A leash referred to bot laners helping their jungler kill the first jungle monster before arriving slightly late to lane.
If the enemy had been waiting in ambush, that meant—
They hadn't leashed at all.
“Our Dokkaebi hyung clears the jungle pretty fast by himself.”
“I see.”
Dokkaebi had started without a leash, cleared quickly, then joined the ambushers while Seo Jun's teammates were still fighting.
A nasty opening blow.
“Should we test the waters a bit?”
Boja lowered his waist and slammed a fist into the ground.
The earth connected to Bikal's hand rose like a wave and surged toward Seo Jun.
Too fast to completely escape.
BOOM!
The rising ground grew higher and higher.
By the time it reached Seo Jun, it had become a massive stone pillar.
Then it exploded with a deafening blast, damaging everything nearby.
Bikal's skill:
Rock Shockwave.
The radius isn't very large.
Although it arrived quickly enough that he couldn't fully retreat, he still avoided it.
“So close.”
“Try again.”
Seo Jun adjusted his grip on the sword and positioned himself directly behind the front melee minions.
Standing there made things awkward for the opponent.
Every time Boja stepped forward for a last hit, Seo Jun's presence forced him to be cautious.
Now.
The opponent moved closer.
He had to.
Either to attack the minion or use a skill.
As the distance narrowed, a weak point appeared on Bikal's body.
Seo Jun immediately moved to exploit it.
If the torso hardened into stone, he could simply withdraw for a moment.
Then—
Suddenly.
As if waiting for exactly that moment, Boja thrust out his arm and activated hardening.
Not to block the sword.
He deliberately offered his arm to be hit.
A move that would have been impossible without preparing beforehand.
That's a little arrogant.
Seo Jun had only intended to probe him.
Now he changed his mind.
At that instant, he sharply twisted his wrist inward and released the sword.
The blade spun through the air.
Its scabbard brushed past Boja's fingertips.
At the same time, Seo Jun's hand continued moving upward.
The sudden change completely caught Boja off guard.
He had only considered two possibilities:
Either his hardened arm would block the attack.
Or Seo Jun would retreat.
Clack.
As a result, nothing interfered with Seo Jun's movement.
His hand caught the spinning sword directly in front of Boja.
Then—
He cut straight through the weak point.
SLASH!
The next weak point is—
Just as Seo Jun prepared to continue the combo—
[Dokkaebi → Wild Alpaca]
This time the jungler died.
-LMAOOOO they can't even handle a B-rank player.
-They're losing this one.
-A battle of equals lol.
-Is the karma repayment finally beginning?!