Chapter 40 : Scrim

“This is all for today’s stream.”

[Bye bye~]

[Ending already]

[Please show your face before you go ]

[Bye bye~]

[Already leaving?]

[I just got here, and you’re ending already]

[What’s happening right as I arrive…]

After streaming for about six hours, I declared the end of the stream with a tired voice. Some viewers asked to see my face before I left, but I had no intention of showing it, so I immediately pressed the end stream button.

“Whew…”

I sighed deeply, feeling the fatigue.

Practicing various champions for tomorrow’s scrim had left me completely drained.

While I had no problem sitting in front of the computer for half a day just playing games,

doing it alongside streaming added a lot of extra things to worry about.

‘Is Ji-hye okay?’

Managing the chatroom for six hours straight was definitely not an easy job. In fact, being a manager could be even more exhausting than streaming.

I went downstairs to check on Ji-hye.

I initially headed straight for her room, but sensing activity in the kitchen, I changed direction. In the kitchen, Ji-hye, looking bright and not at all tired, was busily cooking.

Ji-hye, who was cooking, turned her head at my presence and smiled.

“Bunnie, good job on today’s stream.”

“Good job? No way. Was being a manager hard today?”

“Not at all! In fact, it was fun.”

“Really? That’s a relief then.”

I went inside to watch Ji-hye cook.

Ji-hye was frying pork coated in a potato starch batter.

Just by looking at the cooking process and the appearance of the food, I could tell what she was making.

“Are you making sweet and sour pork (tangsuyuk)?”

“Yes. Originally, I planned to make ‘ggwabaorou’, a Chinese dish similar to tangsuyuk.”

“But?”

“I didn’t know if you preferred the sauce poured over the dish or on the side, so I decided to make tangsuyuk.”

I wanted to ask what she meant by her confusing statement, but

it felt awkward to interrupt Ji-hye, who had already refocused on her cooking. So, I took out my smartphone from my inner pocket and searched for ‘ggwabaorou’.

The search result showed that ggwabaorou is a dish similar to tangsuyuk, but with a sweet and sour sauce poured over it.

Understanding Ji-hye’s words belatedly, I chuckled softly.

As long as it wasn’t inedible, I generally enjoyed all kinds of food.

Naturally, I didn’t care how it was served, whether the sauce was poured over or on the side.

Although it was a minor consideration,

it made me feel respected, and I felt good about it.

I moved to the dining table and waited for Ji-hye to finish cooking.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the day of the scrim between Ohapjijon and Curry Breakers,

the members of Team Ohapjijon were sharing screens and analyzing Curry Breakers’ strategies.

If they could just defeat Curry Breakers, there would be no team left to hinder their victory in the representative selection.

The analysis process went smoothly.

Top, Latte, who overcame a lack of game sense with overwhelming mechanics.

Jungler, Jericho, who preferred highly aggressive plays.

AD Carry, Cooldog, who aggressively positioned to maximize damage.

Support, Antenna, who missed no detail and prioritized safety.

They had calculated each player’s style, synergy, and overall team dynamics, knowing exactly how to handle various situations. Yet, one person remained an unpredictable variable.

“What do you think?”

Curry asked his teammates while reviewing Barcode’s scrim matches.

There was no immediate response, and the atmosphere grew heavier.

Barcode had used over 15 different champions in scrims.

Although Barcode didn’t play every champion at a “Yone” level, most champions played were handled excellently.

“This… I don’t know. Whether we analyze or not, we’ll only know by facing them.”

“Analyzing the in-game content doesn’t seem to change much.”

Nian, the support for Team Ohapjijon, and Shingiru, the jungler, broke the silence with their remarks.

Nian, a well-known former pro player with multiple domestic league wins, had excellent game sense despite declining mechanics due to age.

For someone like Nian to say, “I don’t know,” it was fair to consider Barcode an extraordinary player.

Similarly, Shingiru, renowned as one of the best amateur junglers alongside the ‘Mysterious Yone Master,’ couldn’t readily assess Barcode either.

High-tier junglers typically coordinate with the mid-laner to progress the game.

Even Shingiru, who had coordinated with various mid-laners in solo queue, couldn’t pinpoint ‘Barcode’s’ style.

Barcode had shown such diverse play during the scrim period.

“The bot lane seems fine… I’m more worried about mid and top.”

Ras, the AD Carry for Team Ohapjijon, spoke with a worried tone.

Like Nian, Ras was also a former pro and a soul mate from the same team. There was no bot duo in the pro league that could match Ras and Nian’s combo.

So, Ras had to worry about Curry in the top lane and RogueSwordsman in the mid lane. Objectively, Curry couldn’t beat Latte, and RogueSwordsman couldn’t beat Barcode. Just as Barcode’s Yone was always banned, RogueSwordsman’s Yasuo would definitely be banned.

“Let’s end here and reconvene at the scrim later.”

“Good job.”

Finding further analysis meaningless, Ras was the first to leave the call.

Nian followed Ras, and Shingiru left to warm up before the scrim.

Thus, only Curry and RogueSwordsman remained in the [Strategy and Analysis] call.

“RogueSwordsman.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t feel too pressured, just play comfortably. Ignore what others say.”

“…I’ll try.”

Curry swallowed hard at RogueSwordsman’s stiff response.

Getting this nervous over a scrim wasn’t good.

As Curry pondered how to ease RogueSwordsman’s burden, he quietly spoke.

“I haven’t even been in a relationship yet, I don’t want to break down like this. Let’s win and make a big statement.”

Leaving those words, Curry exited the call.

Left alone in the call, RogueSwordsman smiled.

Thanks to Curry’s self-deprecating joke, RogueSwordsman felt somewhat relieved and left the call, determined.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Finally, cleaning is done!”

As usual, Ji-hye finished cleaning and wandered around the house.

The house I lived in was quite spacious, but not so large that it required daily cleaning.

She walked around, checking for any dust or spots she might have missed, but

her thorough cleaning left no such places.

Now, the only task left for Ji-hye was to prepare a meal for Na-yeon.

Once the day’s work was done, she was free to do anything she wanted, except for going out without permission.

Was there any other job with such high pay for such little work?

With nothing else to do, Ji-hye returned to her room and lay down on the bed.

Maybe because the bed was so comfortable these days, she felt relaxed but not sleepy.

However, she soon got up.

Having lived a busy life since childhood, working part-time jobs,

suddenly enjoying such vast freedom was something she couldn’t adapt to.

She couldn’t just stay still, feeling an urge to do something immediately.

Ji-hye turned on the computer, which she rarely used except for her manager duties.

Sitting at the desk, she watched the computer boot up, then moved the mouse.

If there was no work, she would create some.

Ji-hye searched for ‘LoL,’ the game I played on stream.

As an official manager for Barcode, Ji-hye thought she should at least know the basics of LoL.

So, she started studying LoL, and naturally, she grew interested in it.

‘Should I try it once?’

Playing games where she practically worked?

She wasn’t skipping work; it was her free time.

Even if all the work was done, playing a game felt inappropriate.

A LoL streamer’s manager who had never played a single game of LoL? It’s laughable!

Would she slack off just because things got a little easier?

Maybe trying LoL could be beneficial for the team.

The internal debate raged, with the devil’s arguments winning over the angel’s.

In the end, swayed by the devil’s whispers, Ji-hye accessed the official LoL website and clicked the [Download] button.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The day of the scrim between Ohapjijon and Curry Breakers arrived.

Both teams agreed to stream with a 3-minute delay.

Without the delay, chatroom parrots could reveal the opponent’s position.

This condition was set to prevent such occurrences and served as a sort of restriction.

Before the scrim started, I joined the ‘Curry Breakers’ team call.

Ding-

“It’s about to start soon.”

“It’s just a scrim, so don’t be too nervous.”

“For saying that, Latte heyung, your voice is shaking too much, isn’t it?”

When I entered the call, Antenna, Jericho, and Latte were chatting.

“Only Barcode noona is late?”

“Late? We haven’t even started yet.”

After doing scrims for a while, I naturally started speaking informally with Coldog.

At first, I couldn’t get used to Cooldog’s playful attitude, but now I had built enough tolerance to joke back comfortably.

“Everyone, please accept the invite and enter the waiting room, then start your streams.” “Got it~”

I accepted Jericho’s invite and started my stream.

[Live]

[Follow-only mode (7 days)]

The 3-minute delay would be applied before the game started.

Since the ban-pick process hadn’t even begun, there was no reason to apply the delay yet.

I had already informed Ji-hye, so she would apply the delay once the game started.

[Hello~]

[Hello~]

[Revenge on]

[Hello~]

[Look at the viewer count rising ᄃᄃ]

[All the attention is here]

[Why hand cam? Why hand cam? Why hand cam?]

[Barcode, please greet us 1st try]

The chat was scrolling unusually fast.

Sensing something was off, I checked the viewer count.

[Current viewers: 12,309]

It hadn’t even been 10 minutes since I started the stream, and the viewer count had already surpassed 10,000.

At this rate, it could easily reach 20,000, maybe even 30,000.

Even though it was just a scrim, Curry was on the opposing team.

In front of countless viewers, hiding the fact that I was ‘Nayeon Queen’ and sniping in the scrim gave me an inexplicable thrill.

If, just if,

the fact that Barcode and Nayeon Queen were the same person was revealed,

just imagining it made my heart race.

I was worried the mic might pick up my heartbeat.

That’s how loudly my heart was pounding.

“They say they’re ready. Should we tell them we’re ready too?”

Jericho asked the team.

“I’m ready.”

“I’m ready too.”

“Let’s start soon.”

All the other team members gave the okay sign except me.

“Barcode?”

Jericho called out to me, the only one who hadn’t answered.

I turned the mic back on and quietly replied.

“I’m ready.”

“Then I’ll tell them we’re ready too.”

Jericho, having received confirmation from everyone, typed on the keyboard.

The sound of typing filled the air briefly, and soon we moved to the waiting room.


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anon
anon
1 month ago

TL tbh changing bunnie to unnie would be better, bunnie sounds waay too close to bunny and makes the whole thing weird😂

NHV-Admin
Admin
Reply to  anon
1 month ago

imagine the irony of being a blood lust werewolf and having a name of bunnie