NOVEL NEXT Chapter 15
The Wandering Swordsman’s wager proposal.
It was sudden, but I accepted the Wandering Swordsman’s offer.
The terms of the wager were simple.
If the Wandering Swordsman defeats me even once in the next three matches, he wins; otherwise, I lose.
If the Wandering Swordsman wins, I have to turn on my broadcast for a day.
If I win, the Wandering Swordsman must grant one wish within reason.
It was truly a simple wager, but at the same time, an unexpected one.
I wasn’t sure what the Wandering Swordsman planned by forcing me to broadcast.
But once the wager was established, I had no intention of backing down.
Above all, the Wandering Swordsman was just too cocky.
I didn’t know what he wanted from me,
but betting on a win-lose condition meant
he thought he could beat me.
Thus, the match was set, and I checked the broadcast screen.
Exactly three seconds after my match was confirmed, the Wandering Swordsman was also matched.
Instinctively sensing that I had successfully sniped an opponent with experience, I hit the accept button.
*
The Wandering Swordsman’s broadcast saw more viewers as time passed.
The viewer count was nearing 5,000, and while it was a company-level stream with the low-microphone Leori performance,
the actual owner of the broadcast, the Wandering Swordsman, was fully focused on winning the wager.
[Why are there 5,000 viewers in this room?]
[It’s a broadcast walking the lonely and romantic path of the abyss]
[What the heck is that, you weeb?]
[I don’t know the Wandering Swordsman, so why am I here for the Leori stream?]
[What on earth is that?]
[Get out, influx!!]
[Fact: Everyone here is a new viewer]
[It’s the first broadcast of the day, so they’re all influx, right?]
[Wow, but how come we keep meeting nine times in a row?]
[Both the Wandering Swordsman and Barcode are terrible.]
Chat messages kept rolling in.
When a streamer doesn’t check the chat, viewers usually stop chatting as well.
Yet, even without a microphone or much interaction, the chat was extremely lively.
In fact, the reason for the active chat was simpler than expected.
The Wandering Swordsman’s broadcast was like a movie.
Continuously losing but refusing to give up, getting back up multiple times, like a protagonist in a shounen manga.
The Wandering Swordsman was displaying visible growth against the mysterious Yone Master.
So much so that even viewers noticed the clear improvements.
And thus, the viewers continued to cheer for the Wandering Swordsman overcoming adversity.
[What kind of broadcast is this?]
[It’s a movie-watching broadcast.]
[I need some cider… like, seriously.]
[So when does the villain die?]
[When does the protagonist win? Ah, lol.]
[It’s a terrible balance movie, but I won’t quit.]
[Please just get out already.]
Although the process was frustrating,
the viewers didn’t leave the broadcast.
No, they couldn’t leave.
[Will he finally win once?]
[This really has king-level potential.]
[If we win just one team fight, the game ends.]
The ‘potential for victory’ that the Wandering Swordsman had only seen now started to appear among the viewers watching the broadcast.
[The Elder Dragon has respawned.]
The Elder Dragon, which would decide the outcome, had regenerated.
The enemy team had four or more dragons; they absolutely had to secure the Elder Dragon.
This fact was known by the Wandering Swordsman, by my allies, and by the entire enemy team.
Everyone playing this game knew it, leading to plays that could only be described as ‘art.’
[Our team stole the Elder Dragon!]
Diving in with a sound wave and knocking the enemy Eles away with his ultimate, our ally Riku secured the steal.
Yone entered the fray, targeting both the marksman and support stacked on the hill in an instant.
However, as if he had already foreseen that strategy, our ally Varus dodged with a flash.
There were so many exchanges that I could no longer put them into words.
Strategies succeeded or fell apart.
After a minute-long heavenly clash of arts, the enemy team ultimately took the win.
Really, we missed catching Yone by just a thread.
And the only one left standing in the team fight, Yone, headed towards mid.
Scrape-
Scrape-
Yone’s solitary blades echoed through the canyon.
The noise, like a curse to the enemy and a blessing to the allies, kept ringing out.
[Wow, it came to this?]
[So freaking close, for real;;;]
[I feel like I’m going to lose my mind!]
[We lost, but fought well.]
[Why does Equalizer’s duration feel endless? Lol.]
[Seriously, that Equalizer went overboard for four hours.]
[I feel like I’m losing my mind, losing my mind, losing my mind.]
[Wah, I’m a baby viewer, I hate being frustrated.]
[Gimme some cider!!!]
Even if I tried to hold on to hope, the one who revived the fastest among the allies was the supporter Karla.
But even then, I had to wait a long 30 seconds.
It was obviously a matter of course that in that long time, Yone would finish the game—it was something anyone new to Leori could achieve.
Thus, the ninth challenge, the second round of the wager, came to an end.
Now the Wandering Swordsman had only one chance left.
But he wasn’t worried.
The ladder to get over that tall wall was now nearly complete.
“Phew…”
Taking a deep breath, the Wandering Swordsman turned the last queue.
Forget the wager and everything, it was simply the ‘desire’ to win that moved his body.
All his nerves were focused on one single goal now.
For the first time in his life, the Wandering Swordsman savored a sense of freedom.
After a long time of patience and oppression,
the time to win had finally come.
That’s how the final game began.
*
======
TOP Malphite
JG Amumu
MID Yasuo
AD Kai’Sa
SUP Alistar
Vs
TOP Aatrox
JG Evelynn
MID Yone
AD Ashe
SUP Braum
======
The final game that would decide the outcome of the wager had begun.
I felt a bit dizzy even before the game started, and it got worse once I entered.
The enemy top, jungle, and support were all tank champions.
‘The Sunfire Aegis is just too OP.’
After playing nine matches with the Wandering Swordsman, I could roughly tell which items had OP-level performance.
Sunfire Aegis, a core item for tanks; and the Eclipse that assassins use.
Both of these provided absurdly powerful stats, so much so that they could make my head spin as I experienced them myself.
Of course, if someone asked me if Sunfire Aegis was better than Guinsoo’s Yone, it would be a tricky question to answer.
Still, while Eclipse is less OP than Guinsoo’s Yone, Sunfire Aegis was equal to it.
[Minions have spawned.]
Nothing happened during the invade phase, and the minions spawned.
The minions soon reached the lane, and my tenth laning phase with the Wandering Swordsman began.
‘What’s the feeling like…?’
It felt like touching a sharp blade that’s been honed to perfection.
A blade so sharp that even brushing it could cut.
The aura radiating from the Wandering Swordsman’s Yasuo was so intense that it was unsettling.
Some might call me flustered, or say I was overreacting, but
I would rather they told me it was just an illusion.
In order to dispel this uneasy feeling I had,
Yasuo farmed all the minions without ever sacrificing his shield.
I could have removed the shield through auto-attacks, but that would only put me at a disadvantage in trading.
Since I couldn’t clear the shield with poke, I had to give up on the minion wave during the early stages.
But I couldn’t completely give up the minions, and every time I did, Yasuo made trades without crossing the line.
The Wandering Swordsman delicately danced on that line, wasting my ally’s time in the jungle.
In fact, my ally Evelynn was preparing to gank mid where the enemy had no vision.
‘Surprisingly…’
After wasting Evelynn’s time in mid, Yasuo charged in like a ghost to initiate a trade.
Even that trade ended short and sweet without overstretching for a kill.
Clearly, in the previous exchange, Yasuo had a chance for a solo kill on me.
Yet, Yasuo chose to look beyond the immediate solitary kill in front of him.
From Yasuo’s perspective, if Evelynn had come at that moment,
the lane would get tangled up, and he could be killed due to the loss of health from getting the kill.
With Amumu showing on the enemy top and Evelynn being unseen, he made the best choice possible.
He gave up a solo kill to slowly, very slowly, strangle me to death.
“Hah.”
Having read his intentions, I let out a hollow laugh.
The monster who maintained his Challenger position just with his physical prowess was none other than the Wandering Swordsman.
Now he had some level of ‘brain logic’ too; how many people can now stop his Yasuo?
Due to the sudden growth of the Wandering Swordsman, the burden and pressure only deepened.
Ah, it wasn’t so sudden, was it?
The experience accumulated over the past three months while facing me
had fully filled up due to just the previous match, leading to a level-up, perhaps?
That silly yet amusing thought filled my mind.
The Wandering Swordsman before me no longer resembled the person I knew.
The pressure I felt was similar to what I’d experienced with ‘him,’
the living legend I’d met once before.
That pressure radiated from Yasuo.
‘I need to focus…’
When too much concentration is expended on a single game, it’s not the body that gets worn out; it’s the mind.
Physical skill can cover for mental fatigue, but mental fatigue cannot be compensated by physical skill.
My female body was so fragile,
but all this time I had been covering that weak body with mental strength.
While I thought exercising helped me become a little more tolerable,
it seemed that being healthier only helped my body, not my mind.
[First Blood!]
With such poor concentration, it felt like…
*
[First Blood!]
“Phew… phew…”
The Wandering Swordsman exhaled sharply.
In the previous situation, he was so focused that it felt like his nose was bleeding.
He wasn’t actually bleeding, but if this continued even a little longer, it felt like he would.
It was his first solo kill accomplished under fully met conditions.
Sure, there were times in the past he’d managed to take down the mysterious Yone Master,
but those were losses in some shape or form.
He was up against one enemy mid yet felt like he was facing two during the lane phase.
Now he was finally liberated from that pressure.
The Wandering Swordsman achieved the glorious ‘true solo kill’ and didn’t let his focus drop.
As he said, it was a glorious true solo kill.
He hadn’t completely secured victory over his opponent yet.
Thus, the Wandering Swordsman started to drive the game based on the advantage he had earned.
As the team’s mid laner, he exerted influence over both sides, pressuring the entire lane.
It was finally the moment when the blade that had been sharpened for so long began to shine.
That light generated synergy with his allies, and the balance of the game began to tip rapidly.
Yasuo and the ‘tank’ Malphite with tremendous synergy.
The ‘tank’ Amumu had the most influence during a team fight.
And then there was Alistar, a pseudo-tank who put wings on Yasuo.
For the first time, the game started to tilt toward the allies instead of the enemies.
However, even though the balance had been disrupted, winning the game wasn’t as easy.
Even a toothless tiger is still a predator.
Even a Yone that couldn’t grow mustn’t be underestimated.
[We’ve slain the dragon!]
[We’ve slain the Rift Herald!]
[We’ve slain an enemy!]
Slowly, very slowly, he maneuvered the game.
He kept stacking advantages without pausing to think.
Though it seemed insignificant at first, as they accumulated and rolled on,
they could form a massive snowball big enough to break through that high wall.
Krieeeeek!!!
[We’ve slain Baron!]
[It’s over!]
Now victory was truly within reach.