NOVEL NEXT Chapter 27
[Me: Haha;;]
The reason why the 3 Min Top School Honorary Member whispered to me was simple.
No matter how bad the game went, you couldn’t just insult a current professional player to their face, so this was a way to timidly gossip behind their back.
Anyway, neither I nor the 3 Min Top School Honorary Member was someone who did personal broadcasts, so there wasn’t really anything to worry about.
Of course, I would maintain a stance of just listening quietly.
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: You, a Red Cup winner, what the heck…]
[Me: I was just lucky, lol]
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: Nah, I’m serious, these days your form seems insane.]
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: I mean, is it really okay to play Yoon-ki like that? I thought you were someone else.]
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: So, wanna duo then?]
That’s probably the real purpose.
Since last game, even though our jungle was a Red Cup winner, we lost due to jungle difference, it was a pretty expected reaction.
‘Although there was a jungle difference indeed.’
Well… strictly speaking, it would be right to say that Yoon-ki’s early game blunders had a huge impact.
If it were someone other than me, Yoon-ki wouldn’t have made those mistakes.
That’s how much Yoon-ki underestimated me, and I paid him back properly this time.
‘Next time we meet, he won’t be able to pull that stunt again.’
No matter what, it’s hard to tolerate playing champions like Karthus doing a Blue-Blue route even for someone as patient as me.
‘Well… I’ve managed to hold it in until now.’
The feeling of being forced to control your rage due to someone else’s rage disorder is something… you wouldn’t know unless you experienced it yourself.
‘But not anymore.’
I can stand against Yoon-ki.
No, I can go beyond just standing against him and deliver a fatal blow to Yoon-ki.
I had already realized this thoroughly from the previous game.
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: Hey?]
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: Don’t pretend you’re offline.]
Ah, I was in the middle of a conversation.
[Me: If I win one more game, I’ll be first, sorry, lol]
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: ? So we should duo even more.]
[Me: Is that right???]
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: ㅇㅇ, don’t you trust me?]
[Me: I trusted you until yesterday, but today it’s a bit… lol]
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: No, seriously, the last game was so unfair. Anyone could see it was jungle difference. Should we go check the replay?]
Of course, objectively speaking, the 3 Min Top School Honorary Member isn’t incapable of playing top.
‘If he couldn’t play top, he wouldn’t even be at this rank.’
In the last game, due to Yoon-ki’s throwing, the top lane was unplayable, and besides, the 3 Min Top School Honorary Member’s strength is not tank champions.
He usually plays aggressive champions…
Now that I think about it, that was a bit strange.
‘Was it a first pick?’
If it was a first pick top and we weren’t even swapping, then a tank first pick can’t be helped.
‘I can’t remember well.’
Maybe it’s because the gameplay was so impressive that I don’t recall the ban/pick process.
Well, it wasn’t a big deal.
‘By the way, top…’
Naturally, the Renekton from the last game comes to mind.
If I were to ask ten people who carried the last game, about half would likely raise their hands for Renekton, as he performed exceptionally well.
‘The other half is definitely me, though.’
In any case, the carry potential Renekton showed was immense, and more importantly, he had a pretty good synergy with me.
‘Could he be a foreign pro from China?’
I shook my head.
Just because someone is a foreign pro doesn’t mean they are necessarily from China.
While the level of leagues has become somewhat similar recently, the solo queue environment is, after all, undeniably dominated by Korea, which means Korea’s servers have become a kind of study abroad destination in the Legends of League.
‘Could be a pro from Europe, North America, or even other regions.’
Or perhaps, in a twist, a Korean amateur or trainee.
For now, even though he looks foreign on the surface, there are quite a few users who adopt that concept intentionally.
‘Whatever it is, if fate allows, I’ll see him again.’
After all, in the top solo queue, once you start facing each other, you’ll likely keep running into them countless times.
Just then, a whisper sounded.
[2]
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: Excuse me???]
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member: If you’re not going to play, let me know. I need to queue.]
Thinking about it, I had left someone waiting for too long.
‘One game should be fine.’
Duo doesn’t always mean losing,
Actually, strictly speaking, duos tend to have a higher win rate than solo queue.
[Me: Let’s go]
*
SY Dormitory.
Maybe it was because the new season was just around the corner, but the inside of the dormitory was bustling.
The sound of someone (mostly top) shotgun-ing just beyond a thin panel had become familiar and turned into white noise, while the coaches were extremely busy with feedback and various heated tasks.
The players were just as busy.
After scrims ended, during personal practice time, the players hurriedly dove into solo queue.
And…
SY YunGi, Park Yoon-ki, couldn’t take his eyes off the result screen from the previous solo queue.
[Defeat]
A single letter glaringly on display.
An indelible mark he could never get used to.
Normally, it would be something to shrug off since it was just solo queue, but Yoon-ki couldn’t tear his gaze away.
The defeat he just experienced was shocking enough for that.
“…”
He lost.
He lost completely.
Few people have made Yoon-ki feel like this before.
Yet, in the end, even those people knelt before Yoon-ki.
Red Cup winner.
With that, he proclaimed to the world that he was the best.
Yet, to feel this way because of some amateur?
Moreover, the opponent wasn’t even some rising star that appeared like a comet.
If that were the case, Yoon-ki might have felt, “Ah, I must be getting old,” and sensed a generational shift, but the opponent was someone he had faced countless times before, to the point of being painfully familiar.
Prisoner.
An opponent he was so accustomed to, who he had seen for so long.
Yoon-ki still remembers when he first faced Prisoner.
Back then, Prisoner was an amateur master who consistently held the number one spot in solo queue, and Yoon-ki was one of the rising stars just starting to gain points.
But…
‘He’s so bad.’
Looking at Prisoner, who was number one in solo queue back then, Yoon-ki genuinely thought that.
To the point that he had such thoughts, Yoon-ki completely steamrolled over Prisoner every time they met.
‘Is this really number one?’
Now that he’s learned a lot about the Legends of League, it’s different, but back then, Yoon-ki’s perspective on the game was astonishingly simplistic.
Only physical skill.
In that sense, it was hard to believe that Prisoner was number one.
In terms of tier, he was at best around high Dia and Master?
‘Even the ranking number one couldn’t even compete with me. Hehe.’
Those were the thoughts of Yoon-ki, who was just starting to get out of his middle school phase.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Yoon-ki’s point of view back then was completely wrong.
In reality, not long after appearing in the upper echelon, Yoon-ki completely wrecked Prisoner and received tons of attention, being offered trainee positions from numerous teams, including Korea’s top esports team SY.
Soon, Yoon-ki joined SY and began to shine distinctly among the trainees gathered in that team.
It didn’t take long for Yoon-ki to secure a position that had practically been vacant.
And then came the wins, wins, wins.
Winning in the domestic league, international competitions, and reaching the dream stage of the Red Cup.
Yoon-ki had achieved it all.
Of course, from that point on, Yoon-ki’s record against Prisoner started to show some losses, but it was merely a solo queue statistic.
Yoon-ki didn’t mind much.
More than anything, even if he lost to Prisoner, in his mind, it’s not like he truly lost to him; it was merely the result of a game.
‘Running away like that… I must be pretty scary, huh?’
Yet, even so, if there’s one part where Yoon-ki cares about Prisoner even a little, it would be related to Rainbow.
Prisoner is an old gamer, and although Rainbow isn’t as seasoned, he’s still considered somewhat of an old gamer.
Maybe because they’ve spent a lot of time gaming together, they were quite close, and in fact, Rainbow held Prisoner in high regard.
“Prisoner? He’s good. For sure.”
‘What the heck is so great about Prisoner?’
Although he never showed it, every time he heard that, Yoon-ki couldn’t understand Rainbow.
Because no matter how he looked at it, the one who was good was him.
In truth, Yoon-ki’s thoughts weren’t wrong.
An amateur versus a Red Cup winner.
There’s no way to even compare.
But…
He was thoroughly trampled by someone whom he had internally looked down on all this time.
It wasn’t because he fell for Prisoner’s tricks, like before.
He simply lost.
Literally, he was defeated.
As Yoon-ki was brooding over his defeat, a familiar voice rang out.
“What are you up to?”