Chapter 65: Legend! Kyaaaaaaa!

4 PM. During Ascend’s daily routine, it was both dinner time and free time.

Victory’s teammates gathered around him.

“Self-proclaimed friend of Legend, Mr. Jeon Woo-seung. What are your thoughts on the incident that occurred early this morning?”

“…”

“Breaking news! Victory, Jeon Woo-seung, 19-year-old professional gamer, was revealed to be the only one feeling a one-sided emotional bond! Shocking!”

“Why did you go that far for someone you’ve never even seen in person?”

The backlash from Legend’s surprise drunken stream didn’t just land on her.

Victory, the self-proclaimed friend of Legend, who once put his professional reputation on the line to defend her against cheating allegations, also became a target.

If it were just a normal friendship, staying silent would be expected.

If they were close, then quietly showing support would be the right move.

But to publicly defend her and even explain things on her behalf?

That’s practically treating her like a partner in fate.

Yet the person in question turned on a drunk stream, saying she was lonely and had no friends.

Even if what she meant was “I have no friends to hang out with right now,” the optics weren’t great.

People don’t read between the lines.

Victory’s teammates, who had only recently left their high school days behind, weren’t about to let this go.

They relentlessly teased him.

A similar thing had happened before—right after it was revealed that Legend was a girl.

“I mean, I was too busy to hang out. She might’ve felt a little left out.”

Victory had secretly joined her Magical Fight stream while riding the high from the movie.

He had immediately been caught, received a DM, and still tried to deny it.

Maybe that had hurt her feelings?

It made sense to him.

“Look at this guy acting like Buddha! So understanding and compassionate!”

“Are you guys dating or what?”

“Wait… so you’re NOT gay!?”

The teasing wasn’t stopping.

“Come on, I didn’t do anything wrong! And no, we’re not dating, and obviously, I’m not gay! Where are you even getting this from?”

“What did you do, then? What’s the backstory here?”

“Every single thing you do reeks of ulterior motives.”

“You always shut down your female fans hard, so we assumed. But seeing how you act with Legend? Looks like you just hadn’t met a girl you actually liked.”

“‘Legend’ and ‘girl’ still don’t feel real in the same sentence.”

“Se-woong’s been watching her stream every evening too.”

“‘A lady,’ huh? Pfft! What kind of old-fashioned term is that?”

“We don’t even know if she’s older or younger than us.”

“Victory, so what is it? Older or younger?”

“Hmm. It’s a secret.”

“Oh, so it’s a special secret just between you two!?”

“Nah, I just think it’s better if I don’t say anything unless she does first.”

“Classic PR-friendly answer from the number one controversy-free pro!”

“Take notes, dumbass.”

“But come on, you could at least tell us!”

“That’s how information leaks happen.”

They all settled in to watch the stream.

By the time Legend’s viewer bullying disguised as audience interaction segment wrapped up and she moved on to Teamfight Arena, the teasing had died down.

“Alright, time to queue up.”

“Let’s go, let’s go!”

“Yoohoo!”

“Wait, why are you all suddenly queueing at the same time?”

“This is just normal viewer participation.”

All five teammates queued up together.

Victory wanted to stop them, but technically, he had no reason to.

Who could blame pro players for using their free time to practice?

He did the same thing all the time.

When the match began:

<9 out of 10 players are pros, what the hell.>

<Legend! Legend! Legend!>

“Guys, the game hasn’t even started yet. Why are you already hyping it up?”

“Damn, her voice is nice, though.”

“Hey, Ju-an! You’re on the enemy team! Turn off the stream! That’s stream sniping!”

“The match hasn’t even started yet. Let me just listen for a bit!”

“I’m on her team, so I get to listen the whole time.”

<4 Ascend players LOL, aren’t they all watching the stream too?>

<Ascend / controversy / sniping>

<It’s all just coincidence, of course~>

<Ascend has 4 players in, but Victory isn’t here.>

<Breaking news: Victory and Wild are in the other queue together.>

<They really are friends, huh?>

<They probably wanted to play with her too. Why didn’t they get matched together?>

<All the top-ranked players queued, so they got split into different lobbies.>

<The Legend Effect™.>

<If 97th place isn’t even high enough to match with them, how broken is this queueing system?>

<Doesn’t Victory lose out just by playing? He gets so little LP for winning and loses a ton if he drops a game.>

<Do you think he’s a rank-obsessed loser like you?>

Legend was ranked 97th.

Victory was 1st, and Wild was 2nd.

Victory and Wild, along with over eight other top-ranked players, queued for a game, causing the matchmaking system to split them into different lobbies. As a result, the two were unable to play with Legend.

Of course, this didn’t mean all these high-ranked players were Legend’s fans trying to snipe her.

It was simply beneficial for top players to queue together whenever possible.

The nature of the game itself favored tougher matches with skilled opponents—players enjoyed testing and improving their abilities.

Outside of gameplay, there was also the ranking system. If a high-ranked player ended up in a low-queue—a lobby where the average rank was significantly lower than theirs—they would gain fewer points for a win but lose a massive amount for a loss.

Because of this, it was common for top players to match against each other.

Sniping itself wasn’t inherently bad.

The issue arose when snipers deliberately acted strangely to make it obvious.

As long as they played seriously, there was no problem.

In the end, Victory and Wild were off doing their own high-rank matchmaking, while Legend found herself in a game with four members of Ascend.

The Ascend players were split into two teams, making it a 2v2 matchup.

Was this what they called perfect balance?

<Selen down! Taewon down! Bring out Victory!>

<Legend! Legend! Legend!>

<Mom, when I grow up, I want to marry Legend! Mom, when I grow up, I want to marry Legend! Mom, when I grow up, I want to marry Legend!>

<???: She’s probably just an average player. If she went up against actual pros, she’d get stomped. (Actual quote)>

<Pro-level play only matters in 5v5 competitive. Solo queue isn’t the same, dumbasses.>

<Why is chat losing its mind? Isn’t it just Ascend players fighting each other?>

<Breaking news: Sensei reaches rank 88.>

“She’s… pretty good.”

Selen Choi-joo. 24 years old. The eldest member of Ascend.

Until now, he had thought Victory’s praise of Legend was exaggerated.

Memories tended to be romanticized, making things seem better than they actually were.

Even if someone had been a top player in one game, that didn’t guarantee they would excel in another.

But after losing a match against her, he could see why Victory was so fixated on her.

She was a genius.

Next game.

<Ahhh! Legend is on a win streak! She’s breaking through the heavens!>

<???: Just a temporary boost. She’ll crash down eventually. (Actual quote)>

<She’s proving the haters wrong… absolute GOAT.>

<Now I’m addicted. This is my drug.>

Selen, two consecutive losses.

“I just need to win once.”

“Hey, aren’t you coming to eat?”

“I’ll order delivery.”

If you lose, you don’t eat.

You play until you win.

That’s just how a pro gamer’s mindset worked.

1 win.

But not against Legend.

Selen’s only victory came from being on her team.

Legend: 3 wins, 0 losses.

Selen: 1 win, 2 losses. (With the single win being with Legend as an ally.)

“…….”

His stomach churned.

Like a boiling kettle.

He felt like his frustration was about to explode.

“Hey. We need to get ready for scrims, right?”

But what could he do?

Other than staring at the clock nearing 7 PM, cursing his empty stomach as he shoveled down food before scrims.

He couldn’t just keep dodging his responsibilities to try and snipe a streamer in solo queue.

He was a professional gamer.

He didn’t have the luxury of deciding when to play or not on a whim.

And so, Selen Choi-joo went off to scrims, his insides still boiling.

“Legend! KRAAAAAAHHHH!”

But Legend had no idea any of this was happening.

She only knew about which pro players she queued into because chat kept telling her.

How was she supposed to imagine that someone out there had gotten completely fixated on her over a few solo queue matches?