Chapter 79: The Hidden Gem I Alone Knew

• “Camilla is dominating the battlefield!”
• “The Lord of Fear, Camilla!”
• “This is my ballroom,” Camilla declared, proclaiming her territory!

She moved freely across the battlefield with no hesitation.

As Camilla moved without restraint, enemies were swept away like autumn leaves, leaving no trace behind.

The viewers cheered at the rare and impressive Camilla gameplay, but I, the player, couldn’t hide my confusion.

It was understandable, though. The build I was using was the “Stable Camilla (while maintaining mobility with daggers)” build.

It was a build chosen for exploration.

After receiving a significant buff, I wanted to compare it to my usual build to better understand the differences between this and past performances, while also checking out the new skin.

But the results were unexpected. This was more than just a little problematic.

<Kayak’sMilkPlease donated 1000 won!>

• “Is something wrong?”

“Camilla is… too strong.”

With this build, such power should not be possible.

After all, the weapon used was a dagger, which was relatively weak.

The build was designed for mobility, not sheer damage.

To fully utilize the build, the gameplay should have focused on assassinating enemy heroes who were already softened up by teammates and quickly supporting other lanes when needed.

But what is Camilla doing right now?

The result was contrary to the creator’s intentions for the build.

While mobility was being utilized, Camilla wasn’t providing support or assistance; she was just running around alone, quickly killing everything in her path.

On top of that, she was playing beyond her weak body, pushing herself to extremes.

Of course, the early-game advantages helped a lot, allowing for a snowball effect to take place.

However, this power felt excessive. Just last week, this level of strength wasn’t present.

To one-shot enemies, at the very least, she should have been using a two-handed sword or dual swords, not just daggers.

As the player experiencing this, I felt overwhelmed, so I could only imagine how confused the enemies must have been.

Camilla moved so fast that they couldn’t catch her, and if they left her alone, all their damage dealers would be wiped out.

If the tanks swung their weapons, the formation would collapse.

This was no longer just a matter of being strong or having good performance.

This was overpowered—OP, as the term goes.

Camilla had finally surpassed the 1-tier and become an OP champion.

[Wow! Camilla! Camilla is OP!]

[Will the era of Camilla being OP ever come?]

[I’ve been playing Camilla since Season 1, when she wasn’t even listed in the tier chart, and now Kayak is becoming such a big deal.]

[You must be so emotional, teacher.]

[Our daughter has grown so much…]

[You need to cry now.]

[How much did they buff her?]

[No wonder she’s playing better than usual.]

[The buff was just 3 lines? Is that really enough?]

[They boosted skill base damage, defense growth, and health, so it’s expected.]

[The biggest buff is increasing base stats.]

[This is bad. Lol.]

[This will definitely lead to a nerf. Well done. Lol.]

“Dangerous…”

But even so, I couldn’t fully rejoice.

The worst outcome I had feared when looking at the patch notes had come to pass.

Top of Form

“Too strong, and you’ll be nerfed to the point where you can never return! Ionix, you bad guys! Are you messing with our Camilla again?”

[Don’t use too strong skills… It makes you weaker.]

[Forbes’ top-rated company that does the worst balance patches.]

[??? : Camilla’s power in the top lane will be slightly reduced. Her defense capabilities in siege will be weakened. Camilla’s mobility… her ability to create variables…]

[Aaargh! Ionix! Please, don’t nerf her!]

[This much power in Grandmaster-Challenger tier? Nerf her already, lol.]

[…Teacher, hang in there.]

[Now that it’s come to this, let’s enjoy it while we can before the nerf, haha.]

[Then what will happen after the nerf?]

[What do you mean, what will happen? We’ll just play a different hero.]

[Kayak… leaving the beloved Abyss.]

I infiltrated the enemy’s backline, succeeded in a 3v1 dribble, finally took down the enemy’s ADC, and survived to return to my team’s base.

Then, countless pings and chats from my team members appeared.

• Tempest (Nixon) has pinged CamillaYahae (Camilla)!
• Tempest (Nixon) has pinged when the enemy disappeared!
• Tempest (Nixon): CamillaYahae – Survival
• Tempest (Nixon): What was that just now?
• Tempest (Nixon): That was insane;;
• GreatswordIntoTwinSwords (Jerome): Kayak Bus is delicious, haha.

“I didn’t do anything that great…”

Of course, I couldn’t ignore my own contribution as the pilot. The new buffs certainly helped, but being able to make such plays came from the experience I had built up over time.

However, the seriousness of the problem couldn’t be denied. One master-level player reaching the peak and blowing up the game? Not the usual struggle, but this easy?

At this point, nerfing was inevitable, and there was one compromise available.

“Hotfix. The answer is hotfix.”

Hotfixes. Emergency patches applied to fix serious bugs or excessively broken balance in the game outside of regular patches.

Better to be hit first, they say. Typically, after a hotfix nerfs a hero, it’s rare for that hero to be nerfed again. Often, hotfixes are less severe than regular patches.

I was desperately hoping for that. If I only got a hotfix and not a full nerf during the regular patch, my limbs would be spared—at least I’d only lose a couple of limbs.

“Please, please, let there be a hotfix… Camilla is too strong right now.”

[Prayer meta on]

[It’s my first time seeing someone begging for a hotfix.]

[So this is the secret hidden in hotfixes.]

[The old-timers are different, aren’t they?]

[Haha, beg as much as you can.]

[They should give her a hotfix, right? Her destructive power is insane right now.]

[What if they chop her limbs off with a hotfix?]

[They say the hotfix nerf is likely to be weaker than a regular patch.]

[Now, all we can do is pray.]

I simply prayed with both hands clasped together.

While continuing to queue, I took Camilla to a perfect score, making the statistics look absolutely crazy to anyone watching.

Top of Form

It was all to make Ionix implement a hotfix.

However, despite my efforts and hopes,

today, tomorrow, and even the day after tomorrow,

there was no hotfix, and Camilla was still strong.

“Wow, crazy…”

The man muttered quietly while looking at the screen.

The screen, now in black and white, seemed to mock him.

Not in color, but in black and white. This meant death.

Soon after, not long after his death, the screen flickered slightly.

It was a motion commonly seen when losing a game.

Perhaps noticing this, one of his teammates, who was sitting next to him, sneered.

“You’re really terrible, Choi Min-hyung.”

The man, Min-hyung, raised his middle finger to his teammate but then pleaded his case.

“No, this is really weird.”

“Weird? What’s weird?”

“Look at what that person is doing. It’s strange.”

“What happened…”

His teammate, Hyung-gyu, paused when he saw the replay Min-hyung was showing.

He thought something might be wrong.

But even though Min-hyung was a professional, he had been losing every time they passed, so there had to be a problem.

But he didn’t expect this kind of issue.

He thought maybe it was just bad luck, like meeting the wrong teammates or facing a team full of pros.

But this?

Hyung-gyu was at a loss for words and asked,

“Is he completely getting wrecked? Why do you die every time you meet this person?”

“…I did get wrecked, but that’s not the issue. Look more carefully.”

What did he want him to look at more closely?

Hyung-gyu, feeling annoyed, still thought if Min-hyung was showing the replay, there must be something, so he watched the screen carefully.

And he found it.

“What’s this? The damage is weird.”

“Right? It’s strange. With that build, the damage shouldn’t be like that, but it keeps bursting with just a tick difference. I don’t think I miscalculated the damage.”

It wasn’t just the damage.

Hyung-gyu watched the replay again without speaking.

Not only the damage but also the ping-pong ability, tanking power, and many other stats were all above average.

Yes, just like Min-hyung said, it was strange.

The character on the screen. The “Camilla” was performing in a way that felt a bit unnatural, and Hyung-gyu murmured unconsciously,

“Camilla was like this…?”

Min-hyung agreed.

“That person seems to be using her well. I think Camilla got buffed and is over-spec’d now. We should test this out.”

“Yeah, let’s rank together and test it. If it seems good, we can tell the coach.”

And so, the two players, with serious expressions, started testing Camilla.

Fusion Gaming. The current number one team in the Abyss League.

The moment they started looking into Camilla was when things started to get interesting.