Chapter 27: What are you doing?

[Me: Hehe;;]

The reason why 3-minute top honorary believer sent me a whisper was simple.

No matter how bad the game process and result were, one cannot curse at a current pro player to their face, so this was a small behind-the-scenes whisper.

Since neither I nor 3-minute top honorary believer were people who streamed individually, there was really nothing to feel awkward about.

Of course, I decided to maintain the stance of just quietly listening.

[3-minute top honorary believer: Red Cup winner, yet you throw away someone like ᄌᄀᄎᄋ… what’s wrong with you?]

[Me: I was lucky, haha.]

[3-minute top honorary believer: From what I see, your form seems insane these days.]

[3-minute top honorary believer: Even so, how could you completely dominate Yoon-ki like that? It feels like I’m facing someone else.]

[3-minute top honorary believer: So does that mean a duo?]

That was probably the real purpose.

After all, even though their jungle in the previous match was a Red Cup winner, they lost due to the jungle difference, so it seemed like a natural reaction.

‘In reality, the jungle difference was a factor.’

Well… to be precise, that was due to Yoon-ki’s early misplays, which had a huge impact.

If it weren’t for me, Yoon-ki wouldn’t have made such reckless plays.

That’s how much Yoon-ki had underestimated me, and I properly returned the favor this time.

‘Next time we meet, he probably won’t do the same thing.’

No matter what, it’s hard to tolerate a champion like Karthus making such ridiculous plays like a Blue-Blue route.

‘Well… I’ve been patient until now.’

Having to control anger due to someone else’s anger issues feels like being forced to be good at anger management… It’s a feeling that one can’t understand unless they’ve experienced it firsthand.

‘Not anymore.’

I can stand against Yoon-ki.

No, not only can I stand against him, but I can also deal a fatal blow to him.

I realized that fact clearly in the previous game.

[3-minute top honorary believer: You?]

[3-minute top honorary believer: Pretending to be AFK?]

Ah, we were in the middle of a conversation.

[Me: If I win one more game, I’ll be rank 1.]

[3-minute top honorary believer: That’s why we should duo more.]

[Me: Is that so???]

[3-minute top honorary believer: Don’t you trust me?]

[Me: I trusted you until yesterday, but today, I’m not so sure…]

[3-minute top honorary believer: No, the last game was such a huge injustice. It’s obvious that it was ᄌᄀᄎᄋ. Want to check the replay?]

Objectively speaking, 3-minute top honorary believer isn’t bad at top.

‘If they were bad at top, they wouldn’t even be at this rank.’

In the previous game, due to Yoon-ki’s throwing, the top was pushed to the point of being hopeless. Plus, 3-minute top honorary believer’s strength isn’t in tank champions.

They usually play aggressive champions, I thought… Now that I think about it, that seems a bit strange.

‘Did they pick tank first?’

If it was a first pick for top and no swap was given, then picking a tank would have been unavoidable.

‘I don’t quite remember.’

Maybe because the in-game content was so memorable, I don’t clearly recall the pick-ban process.

Well, it wasn’t an important issue.

‘Anyway, top…’

Naturally, the Renekton from the previous game came to mind.

If I were to ask ten people who carried the previous game, about half would choose Renekton for his outstanding performance.

‘The other half would obviously choose me.’

Anyway, Renekton’s carry potential was outstanding, and more importantly, our synergy was pretty good.

‘Is he a pro from China?’

I shook my head.

Just because someone is a foreign pro doesn’t necessarily mean they’re from China.

Although the league levels have somewhat leveled up recently, Korea still dominates in solo rank. This means the Korean server has become somewhat of a study destination for top-tier players globally.

‘He could be a pro from Europe, North America, or even somewhere else.’

Alternatively, he could be a Korean amateur or trainee, thinking outside the box.

Even though he looked foreign, there were also many players who intentionally chose that concept.

‘Whatever it is, we’ll meet again if fate brings us together.’

In high-ranking solo queue, once you face someone, you’ll encounter them many more times.

At that moment, a whisper rang out.

[3-minute top honorary believer: Hey???]

[3-minute top honorary believer: If you’re not going to play, just say it. I need to queue.]

I realized I had made someone wait for too long.

‘One more game should be fine.’

Duo isn’t always a loss.

In fact, if we’re being precise, duo queues have a higher win rate than solo queue.

[Me: Hehe.]

***

SY Dormitory.

With the new season approaching, the inside of the dormitory was hectic.

The sound of shotguns from someone (usually top lane) hitting the target across a shallow panel had become so familiar that it was now just white noise, and the coaches were so busy with feedback and other tasks that they had no time to spare.

The players were just as busy.

After the scrims, the players busily queued up for solo rank during their individual practice time.

727…….

SY YunGi, Park YunGi, couldn’t take his eyes off the result screen from the recent solo queue.

[Defeat]

The one word clearly standing out.

A mark that was impossible to get used to.

Normally, he would have just brushed it off, saying it was just a solo queue match, but YunGi couldn’t pull his gaze away.

That’s how shocking the defeat he had just experienced was.

He lost.

He lost completely.

There were very few people who had made YunGi feel this way.

But in the end, even those few had knelt before YunGi.

Red Cup victory.

With that, YunGi announced to the world that he was the best in the world.

However, to think that an amateur made him feel this way?

Moreover, the opponent wasn’t a rising star who appeared like a comet.

If that had been the case, YunGi would have thought, ‘Ah, I must be getting old now,’ and felt the change in generations.

But the opponent was someone he had faced many times before, someone he was already very familiar with.

Prisoner.

An opponent who was already as familiar as one could be, someone he had seen for a long time.

YunGi still remembers the first time he faced Prisoner.

Back then, Prisoner was an amateur who consistently ranked first in solo queue, and YunGi was just one of the promising newcomers who had just started climbing the ranks.

But…

‘This is terrible.’

YunGi thought that when he saw Prisoner, who was ranked first in solo queue at the time.

YunGi genuinely thought this.

At the time, whenever he met Prisoner, who was ranked first, YunGi would completely crush him.

‘This is first place?’

Now, after learning so much about League of Legends, things had changed, but back then, YunGi’s perspective on the game was incredibly simple.

Only about physical skill.

In that sense, it was hard to believe that Prisoner was in first place.

If you looked at it tier-wise, Prisoner was barely at the top of Diamond or somewhere between Diamond and Master?

‘Even ranked first couldn’t compete with me. Hehe.’

That was the thought of YunGi, who had just gotten past his “edgy” phase.

Of course, that doesn’t mean YunGi’s perspective was completely wrong at the time.

In reality, it wasn’t long before Prisoner appeared in the high ranks, and YunGi quickly gained attention after easily beating him.

He was soon offered trainee spots by several teams, including the top Korean eSports organization, SY.

Soon, YunGi joined SY, and even among the standout trainees at SY, he stood out as exceptional.

It didn’t take long for YunGi to take the starting spot, which was almost vacant at the time.

And then, victory after victory.

Not just domestic league wins, but also international competitions, and finally, the Red Cup—the dream stage.

YunGi had everything in his hands.

Of course, by then, his head-to-head record against Prisoner had started to slide, but it was only in solo queue matches.

YunGi didn’t pay much attention to it.

More than anything, even if he lost to Prisoner, YunGi never truly thought he had been defeated by him.

‘Running away, huh? I must really be that scary, huh?’

However, if there was something YunGi still cared about regarding Prisoner, it was related to Rainbow.

Prisoner was an old gamer, and while Rainbow wasn’t as good, he was also considered an old gamer.

Perhaps because they had played together for so long, the two were quite close, and in fact, Rainbow highly praised Prisoner.

“Prisoner? He’s good. Definitely.”

‘What’s so good about Prisoner?’

Although he didn’t show it, YunGi couldn’t understand Rainbow at those times.

No matter how he looked at it, YunGi believed he was the one who was good.

In fact, YunGi wasn’t wrong in thinking this way.

An amateur and a Red Cup champion—there was no comparison.

But.

The very Prisoner, whom he had secretly belittled, had thoroughly crushed him.

It wasn’t that YunGi had fallen for one of Prisoner’s tricks as he had before.

He simply lost.

He was defeated, plain and simple.

As YunGi pondered over the feeling of defeat…

“What are you doing?”

A familiar voice was heard.