Chapter 21 : Merge request ?

After claiming victory in the showdown, I played a few more solo ranked games.

During the games, I didn’t pay much attention to the broadcast, only occasionally dropping a random comment here and there. …Though I did sneak a peek at the chat every now and then, I made sure not to show it outwardly.

About four hours had passed since I started the stream.

[Live]
[Current Viewers – 8,623]

As I was queueing for another match, I had nothing to do, so I checked the viewer count and immediately felt that something was off.

When the broadcast first started, the viewer count was around 6,400, and the last time I checked, it was around 6,700.

But now, the number of viewers watching my stream had surpassed 8,600.

Even though the shocking truth about the identity of the mysterious “Yone Master” being a woman had been revealed, it was almost impossible for the viewership to exceed 8,000 at this time of day.

Such a thing could only happen with top-tier streamers or popular BJs.

Unable to understand the current situation, I opened a new tab and brought up the internet browser.

The first thing that caught my eye was an article related to me, pinned right at the top.

As I scrolled through, it was all about me, and every time I read something related to myself, I couldn’t help but feel a strange itch somewhere in my body.

I wondered if other community sites were in the same state.

Opening a new tab and visiting another community, I swallowed nervously.
‘What the hell…’

I couldn’t understand.

Why in the world were 8,600 people watching my stream?

Was it because my energy on stream was good?

No. It was just a few mumbled words I said over the past two hours.

Was it because I was dominating at LoL?

That part was true, but there were plenty of other streamers and BJs who were just as good.

There was no reason why so many viewers would flock here just because I was good at the game.

Could it be because I’m a female Challenger?

But even then, there had been other female Challengers before me.

And not just any female Challenger—she was the first and the only one, with a decent appearance to boot.

Of course, she caused a stir at the time, but the flames of interest quickly died down.

As I tried to think of reasons to understand the current situation, my mind became increasingly tangled. I decided to clear my thoughts by browsing through the community, looking at posts related to me.

There were comments about how my voice was domineering and sexy.

Some said they liked the tone of my voice when I spoke as if I were a queen, disdainful and with a stern face.

Others said they liked the contrast of my usual polite speech and the way I switched to informal language when I was angry, calling it “gap moe.”

There were all sorts of strange posts, but there were also quite a few normal ones praising how well I played Yone.

‘Is my voice really that good?’

Since I became a woman, I had never once thought about my voice.

Even before becoming a woman, I hadn’t paid much attention to it.

As I was lost in thought about my voice, the match was found.

I clicked the accept button and immediately selected Yone for my portrait.

Then, during the ban phase, I banned the most disgusting champion, Jui.

Since this was my first time streaming, my throat was dry, so I stood up to get something to drink.

“I’ll be right back to grab a drink.”

I casually informed them of my reason for leaving and stepped out of the room.

I went downstairs to the first floor, opened the fridge, and grabbed a cold bottle of barley tea.

After picking up the barley tea, I returned to my room on the second floor and immediately felt that something was off.

“…Yone got banned?”
While I was grabbing the barley tea, the opponent banned Yone.

Well, it wasn’t completely incomprehensible.

Yone had skyrocketed in popularity due to the OP-level item, Gu In-su.

So, it wasn’t entirely surprising that Yone was banned.

[Of all champions, Yone got banned]

[Barcode, can you play another champ?]

[Is Barcode gonna dodge like the other one-trick masters?]

I glanced at the chat messages coming up.

Most of them were along the lines of, “Since Yone got banned, Barcode will probably dodge.”

But here’s the thing—I had no intention of dodging at all.

I scrolled down and selected *that* champion from the middle of the list.

– “Death is like the wind. Always by my side.”

[Yasuo?]

[Barcode’s Yasuo first pick… this is rare]

[Is the Wandering Swordsman watching?]

[Yasuo NTR]

[But does Barcode play Yasuo well?]

The reaction from the viewers to my Yasuo first pick was heated.

It made sense—no matter how good I was with Yone, people would eventually get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again.

Just as people were starting to get bored of watching my Yone play, the mysterious Yone master picked Yasuo first?

Naturally, the reactions were buzzing with excitement.

As I set up Yasuo’s runes, I muttered quietly to myself,

“I may not be as good as the Wandering Swordsman, but I can handle him.”

[The older sister who knows how to handle her brother…]

[Heh…]

[Has she finally gone crazy?]

[The older sister knows how to handle her little bro ᄋᄌᄅ ᄏᄏ]

[She actually handles him well though]

[Info: Barcode’s first Yasuo game]

[The ally picked Yasuo first in his first game? How can they endure this without dodging?]

As the viewers pointed out, it was indeed my first time playing Yasuo on this account.

At least on this account, it was my first game.

‘I’ve played him a lot before though.’

Before this account, known as the mysterious Yone master, I had played Yasuo on other accounts and actually did pretty well with him.

When I took a break from sniper plays and pushed the Nayeon Kongdu account to Grandmaster, I mostly used Yasuo.

And right now, Yasuo, like Yone, was one of those champions who could fully leverage the power of the OP-level item, Gu In-su.

Of course, Yasuo’s difficulty was much higher than Yone’s.

But in the end, Yone and Yasuo share similar skill mechanics, and I was a master at handling Yone to the extreme.

So, I picked Yasuo, and the enemy mid lane chose Katarina.

Thinking about the matchup between Katarina and Yasuo, there was really no reason for them to pick Katarina as a counter.

At the very least, Yasuo didn’t have a disadvantage in that matchup.

In fact, Yasuo was favored—he wasn’t at a disadvantage at all.

Both teams continued with their picks, and before long, the game began.

Carnet was one of the most famous Katarina specialists.

Among the masters, he had the highest recognition and was the one who had established Katarina’s item build.

However, with the addition of numerous new items, Katarina’s item build also needed a rework.

For an entire day, Carnet researched Katarina’s new item build, and eventually came to a conclusion.

Up until then, Katarina had been an AP assassin, always building AP items, but now she needed to build AD items. With the on-hit effect being applied to Katarina’s core abilities—her E and ultimate—AP no longer suited her.

And so, Carnet devised an unusual item build: *The Ruined King’s Sword* and *Kraken Slayer*.

The destructive power of these peculiar item builds turned out to be even more intense and overwhelming than expected.

After experiencing the power of this new item build, Carnet had a gut feeling.

This patch was going to be the season where AD Katarina would run wild and earn a notorious reputation.

…That’s what he thought, anyway.

[You were defeated by the enemy!]

That was until he met the insane physical damage of Gu In-su Yasuo.

The enemy Katarina was the famous named player Carnet.

He was often referred to as Katarina’s father, and rightfully so, as he handled her perfectly.

However, at least in terms of skill, he wasn’t so far ahead that he could ignore the difference in matchups.

If my skill level was a 10, then Carnet’s skill was around a 9.

With a poor matchup and skill lower than mine, it was almost inevitable that I would dominate the laning phase.

[You have slained the enemy!]

That was my fifth solo kill.

By the time we hit the laning phase, I had already completed two cores, making it far easier to pick up solo kills than to eat a slice of cake.

The situation was overwhelmingly in my favor, and it was unfavorable for Carnet’s Katarina.

“Ruined King’s Sword?”

At that moment, I couldn’t help but express my confusion when I saw the item Katarina had picked for her first core.

Usually, Katarina, as an AP assassin, would build AP items.

But Carnet, the one known as Katarina’s father, chose the AD item *Ruined King’s Sword* as his first core.

[Katarina is building Ruined King? ]

[Isn’t this a huge troll pick?]

[It’s hard to call it trolling since the enemy is Carnet]

[He probably built Ruined King because E and his ultimate have on-hit effects]

[AD Katarina really crossed the line]

The chat started to split over Carnet’s choice of building Ruined King as his first core.

The arena was opened in the chat, and seeing everyone fighting over something that had nothing to do with me was starting to annoy me.

I didn’t start this stream because I was excited about it, but seeing them argue about someone unrelated to me made me feel really uncomfortable.

If they had been arguing about me instead, I wouldn’t have been this bothered.

“If you keep fighting, I’ll end the stream.”

I warned them in a low voice, and the ones who had started the argument immediately stopped chatting.

That helped ease my mood a little, but I still wasn’t fully calm.

So, I focused on relentlessly hunting down the enemy whenever I could see them.

Especially Carnet’s Katarina, who was pretty much the cause of all this.

Whenever she showed up in lane, I chased her down and killed her riding on the minions.

Whenever she passed through the jungle, I ambushed her in the bushes on her predicted path.

Before long, after killing her repeatedly, Katarina had hit 10 deaths.

[This is too much]

[Just… kill… me…]

[Katarina, what did she even do wrong?]

[7 kills… 7 kills… 7 kills…]

[What kind of grudge could there possibly be to kill Katarina like that?]

[Hehe… If I die to Barcode-nuna, that’s a reward, right…]

By the time the game was nearing its end, the mood in the chat had completely shifted from earlier.

The comments praising and criticizing Carnet’s Katarina had all disappeared, and now only sympathy for Katarina was being voiced.

In the midst of that, I banned a viewer who hadn’t realized what was happening, and I spoke in a voice laced with amusement.

“Since you got banned by me, that’s a reward. Anyone else want to earn a reward?”

[Hehe]

[Hehe… Nuna, give me a reward too…] – (Message deleted)

[Look at how quickly they got banned before their message even showed up, haha]

[What was that reaction speed?]

[Something just happened]

[It happened, but it didn’t]

Every time a chat message asking for a “reward” came up, I hit the ban button.

The game had reached a point where I could focus on the stream, as everything was already decided. There were no more surprises, and the game ended with a hard carry from my Yasuo.

‘I’m tired…’

Streaming and playing the game at the same time had drained me, not physically, but mentally.

If I just streamed without thinking, I could keep going for longer, but at that moment, resting my tired mind and body was more important than continuing to stream.

“I’m ending the stream here for today.”

[?]

[?]

[Suddenly?]

[Don’t go!!]

[Nuna… don’t leave me… Nuna… don’t leave me… Nuna… don’t leave me…]

[?]

[Where are you going!!!]

[You should play 5 more games first]

Ignoring the reactions in the chat, I immediately pressed the “End Stream” button.

Since I hadn’t set a fixed time for streaming after saying I’d just stream for a few hours, I didn’t care about how I ended it.

Even if there was an issue, I could always just say I was too tired to continue.

“Many friend requests came in…”

I often received friend requests on this account, but after turning on the stream, I got way more than usual.

I hated the sight of them piling up, so I rejected each one individually.

How long had I been clearing them out?

Then, a familiar nickname caught my eye.

Lonely Gourmet has sent you a friend request.

Would you like to accept this new connection?

“…Curry?”

A friend request from Curry’s account.

I hesitated about whether to accept it or not, but in the end, I decided to accept the request.

Curry, also known as lonely gourmet, appeared online in my friend list.

I opened the messenger and sent a message to lonely gourmet.

Ilillilill: What’s up?

lonely gourmet: Oh, I’m the streamer Curry. I was really impressed by your stream today.

Ilillilill: I know. You’re famous, Curry.

lonely gourmet: Wow, you know me… I’m honored. Actually, if it’s alright with you…

I wondered what he wanted, as he was taking his time to write.

I patiently waited, and Curry’s next message came in.

lonely gourmet: …Would you be interested in doing a collaboration stream with me?