Chapter 20 : Prove

Since Malphite’s impressive teleport, the laning phase had proceeded smoothly.

The balance of the laning phase, which had been unstable from the start, was stabilized by the jungler and top lane interventions.

Achilles didn’t give up a solo kill, and I, too, didn’t give Achilles the chance for a solo kill.

If I had secured a kill, I would have needed to pressure the opponent even more, but against Showdown’s Achilles, it was practically impossible.

Of course, I had the lane control for now, so I was faster in joining fights. However, if I became greedy and lost my lane control, it would affect the objective fights.

For example, if a dragon fight broke out, the first to join might be Showdown’s Achilles, not me.

It was the worst-case scenario, and just thinking about it made my legs tremble. To prevent this, I pushed the wave to ensure Achilles couldn’t leave the lane.

[The dragon had been slained!]

Thanks to our jungler, JG Jerk, the bottom lane was cleared, and we defeated the dragon.

[The enemy had slained the Rift Herald!]

That didn’t mean the enemy was sitting idle, though.

Malphite, who had used his teleport to save Jerk, was struggling against the enemy Orun.

To make matters worse, Amumu, who had slained the Rift Herald, was summoning the Herald and preparing for a dive.

It was a critical situation for Malphite.

From the moment the Herald had been slained, I had already pushed the wave and was heading towards the top lane.

By the time I nearly arrived, the Herald was ramming into the tower.

Malphite tried to hold on, but he was cleanly taken down by the combo of Amumu and Orun’s ultimates.

If he had his ultimate, he might have been able to hold on until I arrived, but unfortunately, Malphite’s ultimate was on cooldown.

Still, thanks to Malphite’s desperate resistance until the end, Amumu, who was left with almost no health, managed to dodge the tower’s attack and came down.

Naturally, I was there, and I finished Amumu off with a simple combo, mixing in some auto-attacks between skills. Orun tried to chase and finish me off, but I had to give up as Achilles was coming up.

[What’s this?]

[I thought you were pretending to be a girl, but are you serious?]

[I usually don’t like rebels, but I kinda like Malphite ]

[Jerk , are you a named player?]

[Please give me an invite 1st try, please give me an invite 2nd try, please give me an invite 3rd try]

[The chat is a bit chaotic]

[How is a girl this good, and I’m stuck in Bronze…]

I glanced over.

As I returned to the lane, I stole a peek at the chat.

Each specific message that caught my eye seemed to fulfill something deep inside me.

I didn’t understand why I felt like this, and frankly, I didn’t want to understand it either.

I absolutely hated things like streaming, especially when it was troublesome.

I shifted my focus back to the game screen.

While I had been momentarily distracted, a skirmish broke out in the bottom lane.

As always, Jerk had done well and launched the enemy ADC and support into the air. After seeing that, I quickly switched the screen to mid lane.

I had just returned to the lane after backing up top.

The bottom fight wouldn’t last much longer, so I wasn’t too worried.

With that in mind, I pushed the wave to prevent Achilles from leaving mid.

But Achilles abandoned the minions and boldly dashed to the bottom lane. Realizing the fight was dragging on, I bit my lip in frustration.

‘I shouldn’t have even glanced at the chat…!’

I should have expected Amumu, who had just respawned, to counter-attack.

I should have been more aware that Malphite and Orun’s teleports were available.

But I got distracted by the chat and missed the crucial moment, losing the timing to join the fight.

[Enemy Triple Kill!]

As a result, Achilles secured a triple kill against three of my teammates.

I endured the invisible gazes of my teammates as I farmed the gold turret.

…Even in the midst of all this, the gold turret still felt satisfying.

It made me think: I truly was someone who had been stained to the core by being a Leori.

Now that Achilles has secured 3 kills, I had to focus from this point forward.

No, it wasn’t just about focusing—I had to give everything I had to this game.

Even if solo queue and ranked were different games, the skill of the pros was real.

More than anything, I felt ashamed of myself for letting the chat’s aggro pull me away from making proper decisions.

[Turret destroyed!]

Still, I earned a significant amount of gold from destroying the first turret.

Returning home, I used the accumulated gold to buy Guinsoo’s Rageblade and the Thornmail in full.

With my second core completed just 15 minutes into the game, there was no longer any need to play the laning phase against Achilles.

[The turret has been destroyed!]

Right after the mid-tier 1 tower was destroyed, our bot-tier 1 tower was also taken down.

Lillilill  is heading out.

I pinged that I was going to the bottom lane.

In order for our ADC, Baein, to grow safely, I needed to send him to mid lane where the tower was still standing.

There was nothing more dangerous than an undone ADC farming in a towerless lane.

The risk of missing the first turret was something I can’t compensate, who had been taking all the gold, could handle on my own.

As I headed down, Achilles followed me to the bottom lane as well. It seemed like he understood the purpose and benefits of a lane swap perfectly.

Well, considering the opponent wasn’t just any ordinary challenger but Showdown, who had won the World Championship, it would be strange if he didn’t know basic concepts like this.

Still, this wasn’t the League; it was solo queue. At least I was in a better state than Achilles at the moment. On top of that, with the current item patch, Achilles hadn’t yet completed any first core items. Any item he could build was awkward for him, and it wasn’t performing well either.

On the other hand, Yune was a champion known for building the insanely strong Guinsoo’s Rageblade.

No matter what Achilles did—whether he laid down smoke or made flashy plays—if it came down to a fight, I would win, and Achilles knew that well.

As I kept an eye on the minimap while continuing to split push, I noticed something strange about the enemy’s movement.

While the bottom lane and jungle were focusing on securing the soon-to-respawn Rift Herald at top, the enemy jungle and bottom lane weren’t showing up at top.

There was something unnerving about how the enemies were nowhere to be seen.

Then, suddenly, Achilles made an aggressive move forward.

Instinctively, I realized the entire enemy team was focusing on me, so I calmly assessed the situation.

The enemy Thresh had already revealed himself in the three-way bush he had set up earlier.

Following Thresh, Kasa and Amumu were making their way down to the bottom lane.

There was no chance of escaping.

That left me with only one option.

To Fight.

I would fight desperately, at least taking down Achilles in the process.

I closed the distance and traded blows with Achilles.

Achilles tried to distance himself using his ultimate and E, but with two stacks of Q and my ultimate, I continued to close the gap and quickly finished him off.

It was only possible because I made the quick decision not to escape and to fight right away.

However, there were still many hurdles to overcome, and my chances of surviving were close to zero.

With my first goal of trading with Achilles successfully achieved, I decided to be a bit greedier and targeted Kasa next.

I focused as much as possible, dodging Amumu’s and Thresh’s combined attack.

But as I was pushed back by the chain whip, Thresh’s Soul Shackles slowed me down.

Despite that, I kept attacking Kasa.

The moment Amumu made his move, I flashed toward Kasa.

It was a truly extreme reaction speed.

By a hair’s breadth, I escaped the range of Amumu’s ultimate, but I still met my death at the same time as Kasa.

[Kill Streak Blocked!]

Although Kasa got the shutdown, in a 4v1 situation, taking down two of them meant I had still earned my gold’s worth.

[Rift Herald has been summoned!]

While the enemy focused on me, our team managed to kill their Orun and summoned the Herald.

[The turret has been destroyed.]

[The turret has been destroyed.]

The second-tier tower and inhibitor tower at top lane were quickly taken down.

Had I died without getting any kills, it wouldn’t have been a big gain for us.

I had a bounty on my head, and if I had died without securing a single kill, the enemy team would have pushed our bottom-tier 2 turret.

But by taking down both Kasa and Achilles, the enemy gained nothing.

Amumu and Thresh had to return to defend the inhibitor, and naturally, the turn shifted as our team took the Dragon.

From there, it was a series of strategic plays.

We slowly demolished the towers, building a lead in global gold.

We completely controlled vision, stealing jungle mobs and suppressing the enemy’s growth.

It was a methodical strategy of suffocation, and when the enemy Thresh entered the jungle, trying to provide some light in the dark minimap, we continued to tighten our grip.

Thresh slowly entered the bush where four enemies were gathered.

It was like a fly diving into a Venus flytrap, and in an instant, Thresh was engulfed in gray.

With Baein, who had grown quite strong, and Yune, who was also well-developed, the enemy lost one of their members, making this a clear Baron opportunity.

The newly spawned Baron was weak, and since we had already cleared the vision, there was a solid reason to start taking it.

Thus, the Baron burst began.

The enemy knew we were hitting the Baron, so they placed wards on the hill above the Baron.

We cleared the wards while continuing the Baron burst.

*’We might get stolen from…*

As long as Amumu was still alive, there was definitely a chance of a steal.

So, I used my Q with 2 stacks to move away from the Baron , then used my E in an area where the enemy’s vision was absent to approach the bush in front of the river.

Then, I flashed over the hill and used my ultimate toward the four enemies who were lined up in a straight line.

Yune’s perfect 4-man ultimate exploded, and on top of that, Malphite’s unstoppable force added to the chaos.

Following that was Jerk’s engage and Ruli’s ultimate for the airborn.

With a total of four airborns, Baein was free-hitting inside the Baron .

It was a chaotic chain, a perfectly executed team fight.

[Finish!]

In the end, we secured the final blow and decided to stop the Baron hunt, heading to the top lane instead.

The outer inhibitor turret had fallen, but since the inhibitor itself hadn’t been taken, a considerable number of our minions had gathered.

With all four enemies out for 30 seconds, the only one left to defend the base was Thresh, who had been taken down earlier.

Confident of our victory, I turned my attention to the chat.

[Legendary teamwork fight, that was a good strategic fight]

[The enemy’s panicking is hilarious]

[That was truly amazing]

[Stop playing so well! Stop playing so well! Stop playing so well! Stop playing so well!]

[This is insane]

[Isn’t this person just a girl in voice, but a guy in body?]

[A rise of new god of this game is near]

[Challenger with a sexy female voice…?]

[That’s a rare one…]

[No wonder they call him the mysterious Yune master]

[Against Showdown, I won’t back down, a rogue swordsman is nothing]

[Why is our rogue swordsman suddenly getting hit?]

[1 win, 29 losses]

[I used to be a rogue swordsman fan, but now I guess I have to be a Barcode and Nuna fan]

[Hehe…]

[You’re actually winning this ]

The reactions in the chat were fiery.

Not just hot, but *very* hot.

The firepower was stronger than even what I’d seen in the curry room.

Looking at the heated chat, I couldn’t help but feel my chest itching.

A desire to vent something began to rise from within.

After demolishing the enemy’s twin towers,

And finally destroying their Nexus,

The enemy’s Nexus was shattered, and at the same time, the word “Victory” appeared on the game screen.

As soon as I saw the word “Victory,” I spoke up.

“That was easily carried.”

It was a remark thrown out carelessly, as if it was no big deal.

But in the black loading screen that was displayed by default, I was smiling.