[TS] Malicious Sniper

After the year-end tax settlement fan meeting, fans who participated left their reviews.

The most notable place was the Curry channel’s community, and reviews appeared on various streaming or League of Legends related communities.

Normally, a flood of reviews would incite outrage among some hardcore community users, but this time it was an exception.

The ‘Flower Shop Owner’ participated in Curry’s year-end tax settlement fan meeting for the first time.

It became a big topic of discussion when it was revealed that the ‘Flower Shop Owner’ was actually the streamer ‘Barcode.’

Even those who didn’t know Curry or Barcode learned about the incident through posts titled ‘Summary of the Curry Fan Meeting.’

A streamer being the president of another streamer?

Especially the recently emerging ‘Barcode’ being the main character in this incident drew a lot of attention.

Most who had any interest in ‘independent broadcasting’ or ‘League of Legends’ encountered the incident in communities.

As a result, both Curry’s Mutube and Barcode’s Mutube skyrocketed in popularity.

In particular, Barcode’s Mutube, which had 65,000 subscribers, suddenly surged to 200,000 subscribers in just one day.

The view count for the first video, a compilation of highlights and hot clips on Barcode’s channel exceeded 800,000 views.

The second video, a highlight with streamer Curry, recorded 1.5 million views.

The comments section was insane, filled with “Streamer Barcode, turn on the broadcast!” types of comments.

Barcode, who often appeared on Curry’s streams, got even more of these comments following the incident.

It felt like Barcode was too busy watching Curry’s stream to stream himself.

In reality, it was true that Barcode wasn’t streaming because he was watching Curry.

“It seems like the second civil war has ended. Everyone seems to have shown skills not matching their tiers, but I hope it’s just my misunderstanding.”

[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Maybe they are all ‘actors’?]

[Silver-Gold No-Gold civil war ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Three out of four Golds are definitely actors.]

[I was on Team Thresh, and that’s obviously true.]

[It wasn’t a civil war, it was ‘Find the Actor’ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

I was preparing as I watched Curry’s stream.

I unfolded the user-customized room list and got ready to search whenever necessary.

“Ha… I think this was the case last year too. I’m feeling quite deflated after thoroughly checking their records.”

[Getting played last year and again this year ah ㅋㅋ]

[Feels like seeing a waiter deceived by fake IDs.]

[Even a three-year veteran part-timer wouldn’t be able to distinguish.]

[For real, lol.]

[This is dizzying.]

The issues of proxies or sub-accounts had always come up in the past.

However, back then, the scale of the broadcast wasn’t as massive, so things could be implicitly overlooked to an extent.

But during the recent Silver-Gold inter-room match, more than half of the ten players showed skills not matching their rank.

As user traffic increased, malicious players that weren’t there before began to emerge, leading to the current situation.

“Still, it was a fierce match, so I’ll let it slide.”

[If we start nitpicking now, it’ll never end.]

[This is the despair arc of the Curry room’s inter-room.]

[There was never any hope.]

[Everyone acted well, so it was enjoyable.]

[Thanks to the ‘actors’ for their hard work, I’ll forgive them.]

[Looks like ‘that’ guy is about to show up soon.]

Curry decided not to dwell on this issue and proceeded to the next inter-room match.

This time, although he was now a Diamond, Curry personally participated in a match for Gold and Platinum players.

As Curry was finalizing the last room settings, he quietly said.

“The password is 3891. Please come in!”

I typed the room title that Curry had written in the search box, and as soon as the private room was created, I pressed enter to search for the room.

One room with a password appeared, and I double-clicked on the mouse I had pre-positioned and entered the password.

My typing speed was faster than ever, and I successfully entered the user-customized room.

I was the first to enter, and before even a second passed, the room was instantly filled.

Glancing around, I noticed some familiar nicknames. Other sniper players like me.

“Haah… I’m going crazy…”

As Curry saw ‘Nayun Queen’s nickname on the stream, he let out a sigh.

He knew that Nayun Queen and Barcode were the same person, which must have added to his confusion.

[That guy was still alive?]

[Nayun Queen! Nayun Queen! Nayun Queen!]

[The longest-term has-been in the entrance gallery.]

[Can we kick the snipers out?]

[Barcode is just a worse version of that girl, for real.]

[Haven’t seen him for a while, so he was just waiting for this moment… ]

[Where’s Barcode? I miss her…]

[Look at this cold atmosphere.]

Whether because Barcode had recently been active or not, the chat room reactions were not favorable.

In fact, many viewers didn’t even know who ‘Nayun Queen’ was.

Now even the yellow city’s vermin were turning a blind eye to the longest-term has-been.

That was exactly Nayun Queen’s current image.

“Well… Nayun is also one of my viewers. I won’t kick anyone out for now…”

Curry trailed off, then slowly continued after a moment of thought.

“…But since it’s an inter-room we’re all trying to enjoy together, let’s keep some boundaries, okay?”

[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Nayun Queen, why aren’t you chatting about ‘Why me?’]

[The longest-term has-been is looking down now.]

[They all look like actors, so why would they keep boundaries? ㅋㅋ]

[Balancing on the tightrope with boundaries is totally possible.]

If they didn’t mistake me for Barcode, I should have been kicked out long ago, considering Curry’s personality.

It seemed he was too scared to kick me out since we had agreed to do a real collab before the new season started.

If he had kicked me out, he would have been ready to trash-talk me during the real collab, disregarding any courtesy.

In such a grim (for Curry) atmosphere, the inter-room started.

*

Ji-hye was now outside her home.

This wasn’t a careless outing; she was at a nearby mart because she had run out of ingredients.

Recently, Ji-hye often browsed cooking videos on Mutube and developed a strong desire to make something special.

It was a traditional Hungarian soup called goulash, a dream dish for someone like Ji-hye, who loved soup.

Of course, since it’s an exotic dish, she had already obtained Nayun’s permission before buying the ingredients.

With her shopping bag filled with ingredients from the mart, she was on her way home.

Once Ji-hye reached near her house, she noticed an unfamiliar black vehicle around the residence.

Vehicles typically don’t pass by this area often.

Most suspicious was the figure inside the car, who seemed very dubious.

A person donned in a black hood and a black mask.

Someone exuding a very suspicious vibe in her neighborhood?

Fearing she might be misinterpreting the situation, Ji-hye decided to hide and observe the black vehicle for a while.

“…”

Her arms, holding the shopping bag, began to ache.

Glancing at the time, she realized that thirty minutes had flown by.

Was the vehicle parked in a no-parking zone for thirty minutes?

It was clear someone had a purpose, and it didn’t seem like a good one.

But reporting to the police felt awkward at this stage.

Nothing had happened yet, and calling the police now could backfire.

At least I should tell Nayun first, Ji-hye thought as she cautiously moved away.

*

The game had begun.

I wasn’t in mid but in the jungle, and I certainly wasn’t being forcibly shoved into another position.

All my teammates wanted Nayun Queen to play mid, but I opposed the idea of me standing there.

After all, there was someone in the team who had mid as their main position already, plus I had practiced on a jungle champion specifically to take down Curry.

The jungle champion I selected was Evelynn.

Leveling up to six to gain her permanent invisibility passive was critical.

Since she wouldn’t be caught by control wards, reaching level six was crucial.

Due to Evelynn’s ‘importance of level six,’ she usually clears the full camp first.

But I started with blue, then ate the Frog and red, and jumped directly to top.

This was a three-camp level-three path, and since Evelynn’s ganking before six is subpar, this timing would be unexpected.

Boom!

Curry’s Jason immediately used Flash to escape my gank.

With the charm gauge fully stacked, he was sure to die when attacked, but thanks to the practice from tournaments, Curry’s awareness was razor-sharp.

While the charm was completed, Jason had already hidden behind the minions, making it impossible to target him anymore.

Unfortunately, my gank had failed, but I had successfully forced out his Flash, which was still a gain.

Thus, I resumed my full camp route and continued leveling up slowly.

[The enemy double kill!]

While I was trying to gank top, the enemy Eles targeted my bottom.

Having gotten baited attempting to set up a line, the bottom, which had used all its spells, ended up dying.

Even a bronze-silver user could confidently say, “Wow, this laning phase is terrible.”

As I pondered how to recover from this situation, I focused on hitting level six without ganking.

[Our ally is down.]

The absence of the jungler was a signal of despair for the allies.

Not only the bottom but also mid suffered a gank from Eles.

With Curry’s earlier Flash gone, our top, which had gained the upper hand, was getting crushed by Eles pushing up the lane.

It felt like I was tied helplessly in Eles’s web.

Judging by the movement and ability to play, he certainly wasn’t a Platinum or Diamond player.

Despite that, I continued full jungle farming apathetically and eventually reached level six.

As the passive’s permanent invisibility activated, a part of my screen darkened.

I stealthily infiltrated the lane deep while avoiding the enemy control ward marked by my support.

Just as I was standing between the bushes waiting for a gank, the opposing bottom began to aggressively advance to secure farm.

Seeing the Eles clearly arriving for a gank, I used charm on the enemy AD carry and followed up with Q to slow them down.

The unexpected arrival of Evelynn surprised their carry, Aphelios.

With a gravitational pull and all spells on cooldown, there was no way for him to escape.

Fortune smiled upon me as my ally Leona’s ultimate dropped onto Aphelios.

Having successfully taken down Aphelios, I moved towards Eles, who was targeting our AD carry.

While our AD carry fell prey to the joint attack of Nautilus and Eles.

Thanks to the fact that they stayed as far as possible in the tower, both the enemy jungler and support were left with significantly low health.

In contrast, Leona and I had more than enough health and managed to clinch victory in the 2v2 fight.

[Triple Kill!]

After securing a triple kill from a counter-gank, I returned home.

Now, all that was left was to hunt down Curry’s Jason.

Evelynn’s probably now up top…

“Heh!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Curry’s faintly heard mutter.

The image of Curry shadowboxing alone sprang to mind, forcing a smile onto my face.

It felt different from the time I teased Curry as Barcode.

But it wasn’t unpleasant at all; it felt even more exhilarating than before.

Now that Curry knew the true identity behind ‘Nayun Queen,’

Just thinking about Curry’s reactions every time I took him down made me uncontrollably excited and happy.

Having just consumed the freshly generated red buff, I headed straight for the top.

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