Chapter 57 : Double Sniper

Since the final match of the representative selection, Curry had been plagued by frequent nightmares.

These nightmares were mostly related to ‘Rockton,’ and as time passed, the scope of these dreams expanded to include ‘her,’ the one with three faces.

Just yesterday, for instance, Curry had even dreamed a horrific nightmare involving a broadcast with Barcode for their virtual marriage.

And now, as they were in the middle of the New Year’s civil war content, Curry was experiencing yet another nightmare.

Under normal circumstances, ‘Nayeon Queen’ shouldn’t have participated in the Platinum and Diamond civil war.

This was because her alternate character, ‘Nayeon Gongdu,’ had once reached Grand Master rank.

Curry clearly remembered it, and in fact, Nayeon’s top rating was indeed Grand Master. But before the season ended, something must have happened, because Nayeon’s record was now marked with an equalizer. As a result, the tier Nayeon finished with was Diamond 1, just barely avoiding a rule violation in the civil war.

If Curry wanted to nitpick, she could have found a way to exclude Nayeon Queen from the civil war.

In the past, she would’ve booted her out without a second thought, but now that she knew ‘Nayeon Queen’ was actually ‘Barcode’—

And especially since ‘Barcode’ was the same person as her boss, ‘Flower Shop Owner’—

Curry simply couldn’t exclude Nayeon Queen from this civil war.

However, that outcome meant that Curry had no choice but to take responsibility.

The responsibility for not daring to cut ties with Nayeon Queen.

And that responsibility manifested itself in the form of nightmares, which now became part of her reality.

The beginning of all these nightmares started when Evelynn summoned a herald and destroyed the first tower in the top lane.

Curry, who had been relying solely on physical strength to create a gap with the enemy top lane, could no longer ignore the pressure.

The enemy jungler was Evelynn, and without the first tower to reveal all hidden units, Curry was constantly exposed to Evelynn’s threats.

Until Evelynn appeared on the map, Curry had no choice but to play passively, unable to make aggressive plays and missing any opportunity for a comeback.

At this rate, it seemed like an inevitable loss. Curry’s Jayce pushed forward to take down the enemy Ornn, who had crossed the line. Though Evelynn was nowhere in sight, if Ornn hit level 13, it would be an unwinnable situation, so Curry decided to take a gamble.

She needed to take down Ornn here and seize the chance for a comeback.

With that thought in mind, as Curry attacked Ornn, a pink gauge began to rise above Jayce’s head.

“Oh, this is bad…”

[You were defeated by the enemy!]

By the time Curry realized Evelynn was nearby, the game screen had turned gray. Evelynn’s well-timed Flash EQR combo was more than enough to shred Jayce’s health by more than half.

“…Sigh.”

After the first tower was destroyed, Curry had played cautiously, avoiding any risky moves.

And yet, of all times, Evelynn was near the top lane, and she ended up dying because of it?

To be honest, it was a gamble worth taking, and it was true that the game, which had been flowing smoothly, seemed to have no clear answer. But in the end, the gamble failed, and the balance of the game, which had been barely holding on, began to tilt sharply in the enemy’s favor.

Evelynn, fully grown, started to impact the entire map, and Curry’s team’s damage dealers kept getting picked off by Nayeon Queen’s Evelynn. Despite this, Curry’s team didn’t surrender because they had won a teamfight around Brand.

During that Brand fight, Evelynn had overcommitted to kill Jayce, diving too deep.

The enemy team followed Evelynn and got caught in a narrow choke point, where they all met a miserable death.

Of course, that didn’t mean they had completely dominated the teamfight.

Only three of their team had survived.

Thanks to that, Curry’s team managed to take Brand and rapidly closed the gap with the enemy through solid map control.

[Is there a comeback chance?]

[Nayeon Queen, you’re not Barcode.]

[Nayeon Queen is the real deal, ugh, these newbs…]

[Old fart from Yellow City arrested.]

While her team pushed the bottom lane, Curry focused on the minimap, pulling her attention away from the chat.

During her split push, Evelynn hadn’t shown up anywhere.

Usually, without a teleport, Evelynn would likely be in the bottom lane. Curry assumed this, but she was wrong.

The enemy wasn’t just anyone—it was Nayeon Queen, or rather, Barcode.

Curry was certain that the Nayeon Queen she knew, or Barcode, would always be near her.

Confident in this, Curry never crossed a certain line.

She had placed a control ward in the top jungle bush, so as long as she didn’t overstep, she wouldn’t get caught.

But Curry was a top laner, and, frankly, she had the typical top lane mindset.

When Ornn purposely came for a fight, Curry didn’t back down.

Curry, who dominated in a physical duel, chased Ornn relentlessly until the very end.

[You have slain an enemy!]

As a result, Curry managed to take down Ornn.

Once again, the pink heart appeared above Jayce’s head.

“ot.”

[You were defeated by the enemy!]

Curry met her death at the hands of Evelynn, who ambushed her as if waiting for the perfect moment.

However, Curry just smiled and moved the screen.

Evelynn was visible in the top lane, and Ornn was dead.

A 4v3 teamfight had started in the bottom lane, and with the numerical advantage, they secured a victory.

Though it dragged on for a while, all of Curry’s team still had over half of their health remaining.

The game seemed to be nearing its end, and finally, the moment to strike back at Nayeon Queen had arrived.

While Curry happily thought of how to deal with Nayeon Queen, the following message appeared.

[Enemy Triple Kill!]

“Damn it.”

The news of Evelynn’s triple kill caused Curry’s happy thoughts to immediately collapse.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Having killed Curry and returned home, I silently moved behind the enemy team, who was pushing the inhibitor.

Thanks to the previous teamfight, most of the enemy team had less than half health, and I still had my belt, ultimate, and flash available.

The enemy pushing the inhibitor started moving forward, beginning to take down the twin towers.

If I waited any longer, the game might really be over, so I waited for the perfect timing when the enemy team would group up.

I flashed forward, used my belt to approach again, and hit three enemies with my ultimate.

[Triple Kill!]

The absurd damage from my ultimate was enough to take down three of the enemy team members.

The only remaining enemy was Elise, who had dodged my ultimate with a well-timed tightrope maneuver after reacting to my surprise attack.

As Elise came down, I used my W and created some distance.

Perhaps realizing that I would kill her once my charm gauge filled, Elise tried desperately to close the distance.

However, without tightrope and flash, Elise couldn’t chase me, and the charm gauge soon reached its full charge.

[Quadra Kill!]

With Elise dealt with, I cleaned up the minions attacking the tower.

Even though we had won the teamfight, it was clear the balance of the game had shifted in the enemy’s favor.

Of course, if I hadn’t overextended during the Brand fight, this situation wouldn’t have occurred.

But the overextension had been intentional, and from the start, I had been hoping for exactly this situation.

After clearing the minion wave, I sneaked into the enemy’s blue jungle, hidden in stealth.

It was 99% likely that Curry, who had teleport, would respawn and head top lane.

Unless some unforeseen catastrophe happened, Curry would definitely go top.

So I waited patiently near the enemy’s first top tower.

The first person to show up was, of course, Curry.

Jayce cleared the friendly minion wave that had piled up nicely.

I cast W on Jayce, who had just used a round of skills, then closed the distance with my belt.

And with that, I used all my skills to end Jayce’s life.

[Dominator of the Battlefield!]

It was a meaningless death for Curry, who couldn’t put up any resistance.

After that, I didn’t care about the flow of the game and just went around looking for Curry.

Perhaps Curry noticed this, as he appeared in places completely different from where I expected.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t achieve my goal.

Once he revealed his location, I found him and killed Jayce.

Perhaps because it had been a while since I sniped as Nayeon Queen, I felt a burning desire to torment him more.

When I harassed him as Barcode, I had to walk a tightrope because my face was exposed and I was a streamer.

But as Nayeon Queen now, I could torment Curry without caring about anything.

-This crazy b*stard!!!

I heard Curry’s voice from behind, who had finished this internal war with 11 deaths.

I had placed my smartphone face down on the bed, so I normally wouldn’t be able to hear it.

But hearing it this clearly made me realize how much Curry was suffering.

‘He definitely knows…’

He curses even though he knows Barcode and Nayeon Queen are the same person.

I felt a little resentful, but unfortunately, the game was nearing its end.

I assassinated three people in the last team fight, and the remaining two soon met their deaths at the hands of my teammates.

With all enemies eliminated, our team advanced to the enemy team’s Nexus, and the internal war ended with the destruction of the twin towers and the Nexus.

I leaned back in my chair and reached for the smartphone that was on the bed.

After turning up the volume that I had lowered earlier, I checked on Curry’s condition as he was broadcasting.

“Hah… hah… that f*cking Evelynn…”

It seemed like Curry had already vented his anger once, as he was breathing heavily.

The angle of the camera was slightly off, and the keyboard was still intact, so it looked like he had slammed his desk.

A completely different sensation spread through my body compared to when I tormented him as Barcode.

The familiar feeling I hadn’t experienced in a while made me unconsciously curl the corners of my lips.

Tormenting Curry as Barcode felt like playing with a fun toy.

A toy I could move around, occasionally getting a special reaction from it.

Tormenting him as NayenQueen, however, felt like playing with a remote-controlled toy.

Though it might get boring if done repeatedly, tormenting someone was something that never got tiring, no matter how often it was done.

After the Platinum and Diamond rank wars ended, I logged out of NayenQueen’s account and logged into Barcode’s account.

The remaining wars were the Master and Grandmaster rank wars, followed by the Challenger wars.

There was no reason for me to participate in the Master and Grandmaster wars, and honestly, I had no reason to join the Challenger wars either.

But the mere fact that ‘Barcode’ was participating in this war was enough to create a reason.

Instead of the previously promised victory rewards, I requested different rewards.

Something like a phone date, or maybe a phone date, or something like a phone date.

As the ‘President,’ I could certainly demand a change in rewards.

And Curry would have no choice but to comply with my request.

The public would demand it.

I watched Curry’s commentary on the war for a while.

I wasn’t interested in the game content at all.

After quite a long wait, the Master and Grandmaster rank wars finally came to an end.

“Alright, let’s create the final war room.”

Curry, who had regained some of his mental composure after doing some commentary, proceeded with the final war.

Just before creating the private room, with only the final password left to set, Curry paused for a moment and then spoke.

“The password is 9881!”

I searched for the room by its title and immediately entered the password.

Once again, I was the first to enter the private room. I shifted my gaze to the broadcast screen.

“No way…”

Curry was staring at the screen with trembling eyes.

I couldn’t help but feel an inexplicable sense of joy as I tapped on my keyboard.

Ilillilill: Hello, Curry

My message appeared in the waiting room’s chat.

“The President… has joined the war.”

Curry, unable to hide his trembling, forced his voice out.