[TS] Malicious Sniper

– Did you know that the mysterious Yone master was a woman?

– That person was a woman?

– Yeah. But honestly, it’s just a bubble.

– It’s true, it’s a bubble. She wasn’t that good either. I actually met her yesterday and wiped the floor with her.

– Those one-trick ponies should have their rank dropped by 500 points.

– If she was good, she wouldn’t just barely be in Challenger rank.

…

…

…

As I replayed the Temple broadcast video from early yesterday morning, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

While it didn’t show directly on the broadcast, the sound of conversations between Opera and Drill echoed clearly.

To be honest, I thought the summary I saw earlier was exaggerated.

It was just a verbatim transcript of Opera and Drill’s conversation.

How on earth should I respond to this? No, how should I handle it?

From the start, both Opera and Drill weren’t exactly known for their good image as players.

Even without making any special gestures, their self-destruction seemed all but inevitable.

In a way, wasn’t this situation them targeting me?

In simple terms, I felt pretty dirty.

Like stepping on dog poop while walking down the street.

Recently, I had only found joy in tormenting Curry, but their little jab felt like a refreshing rain after a drought.

While I delighted in the thought of how to thoroughly trample them, I first summarized Opera and Drill’s actions.

1. The barcode is a Yone one-trick.

2. The barcode is just scraping by in Challenger, nothing but a bubble.

3. The barcode’s skill is below that of their own lot.

After wrapping up their words and actions, I couldn’t help but chuckle again.

It seemed like there was an underlying assumption that they could simply disregard me.

I thought I’d spent enough time in Challenger, setting unprecedented records, but to them, I must’ve looked like a joke. To backstab someone so openly like that…

Having made up my mind about how to gift them my finest revenge, I logged into League of Legends.

Currently, my tier was Diamond 1 at 80 LP.

I still hadn’t moved out of Diamond 1 yet.

Meanwhile, Opera and Drill had both surpassed 100 points in Master.

The point difference was even more substantial than I thought, but I didn’t care.

Since the new season started, I hardly played any real games.

Why bother when I could always have fun tormenting Curry instead?

There was no need to engage in the tedious grind of solo queue, and I had only game about 20 matches this season.

In terms of matches, Opera and Drill have completed over 50 in duo ranks, but I didn’t want to nitpick on that.

Having checked my current score, I started prepping for my broadcast kill.

I turned on my camera only when teaming up with Curry and checked if my broadcast equipment had any issues.

Setting the title to “No-Mic Hardcore Gaming Broadcast,” I left a message for Curry.

I wrote that I probably wouldn’t be able to join for the couple’s living content for a while, and then I went ahead and started the broadcast.

[Baha]

[Baha]

[Did you know Opera and Drill were talking behind Barcode’s back?]

[What’s up with the No-Mic Hardcore Gaming Broadcast…]

[For real, those guys were ridiculous.]

[I almost wanted to say I wanted to beat up those pros with no awareness.]

[Is this really the Challenger Scraping Broadcast? Haha.]

Since it was an impromptu broadcast, I didn’t have a manager to maintain the chat room.

As a result, the chat became chaotic in an instant, but I completely ignored it and queued up for a match.

The decisive reason I was disrespected was precisely because of my score.

I just needed to climb higher than those punks, venture to heights I hadn’t reached yet, and that would be it.

That was the best revenge I could serve up, and to do it, I had to conduct an unconventional broadcast.

Talking non-stop while gaming looks easy, but it’s actually quite tough.

That’s why I labeled it a No-Mic Hardcore Gaming Broadcast in advance and turned my camera on as an alternative for sound.

Of course, whether the camera would perfectly substitute for sound was uncertain, but I didn’t care much since the broadcast wasn’t my priority right then.

Last season, Opera’s highest score was 1321 LP.

Drill’s highest score was 1185 LP.

It may be impossible to exceed their scores right now, seeing as it’s the beginning of the season.

However, with the rank system changed, the minimum cut-off for Challenger was set to 500 points.

As a result, no users had yet surpassed the score of 500, meaning no one had reached Challenger.

Currently, the ranking showed that a Challenger BJ was ranked first at 250 LP.

I intended to surpass all those aiming for Challenger and be the first to earn the title.

Naturally, I didn’t plan to stop there; I aimed to boost my rank points before the heat of this controversy subsided.

Honestly, I didn’t need to go through with this, but I just wanted to try it.

What would happen if I were to be the first to reach Challenger in this situation?

I was incredibly curious and couldn’t resist the excitement of how people would react.

To compare, it felt quite similar to the exhilarating sensation before tormenting Curry.

Before long, I was matched, and I pulled Yone’s portrait.

Unfortunately, the opposing team banned Yone, forcing me to go with Talon.

Despite the chance that it was a targeted ban, I didn’t dwell on that because my broadcast had just begun.

Besides, it was I who unintentionally prompted the targeted ban from the start.

I hadn’t blocked the screen while matchmaking.

By not obscuring the screen, I had unknowingly sanctioned targeting.

Given that, the ban of Yone had a high chance of being a targeted ban, but I didn’t mind.

This way, I wouldn’t have to hear complaints about being a one-trick pony.

It was true that I excelled with Yone, but it wasn’t like I was terrible with the other champions in League.

No one would be able to spout such absurd hearsay.

Determined to show them, I dived into the game that had just begun.

That day, Barcode’s broadcast performance stood at 7 wins, 0 losses.

Even after shutting off the broadcast, the following solo queue record was also 4 wins, 0 losses.

After wrapping up the day with a cumulative score of 11 wins, 0 losses, people were reminded that Barcode was indeed the “mysterious Yone master.”

*

Grinding up ranks in League all day.

It was something I had always done since getting into League, but lately, I had been so inactive that my body must have changed, or maybe I just hadn’t exercised much.

When I woke up in the morning, I almost fell over from dizziness; it was hard—mentally and physically.

After about eight hours, each match felt exhausting, but my team luck wasn’t too shabby, and I managed to easily surpass 100 points in Master.

After having a cup of coffee to revive my spirit, I began preparing for another broadcast.

Yesterday, I jumped into solo queue right as I started the broadcast, but today, I planned to have some talk time first.

There wasn’t any special reason for this; I simply couldn’t game while munching on a sandwich that Ji-hye had prepared for me.

“Go for it, unni!”

Ji-hye quickly left after giving me a timid cheer.

A smile crept onto my face, and without wasting any time, I turned on the broadcast.

With a smile still on my face, I proceeded to eat breakfast, hiding it behind my sandwich.

[What’s up with the eating broadcast immediately after showing up?]

[Is this really the broadcast of the mysterious Yone master?]

[We’ve caught a malicious actor pretending to be new here!]

[Hey Barcode!]

[You reversed the score in just a day? Haha.]

[Seriously a legend.]

I read the chat messages flowing in one by one, gauging the atmosphere.

As expected, the viewers were enjoying themselves amongst themselves while I did nothing.

It wasn’t unexpected, since I had surpassed Opera and Drill’s scores just one day after the controversy exploded.

Just as I was about to wrap up my meal and dive into the No-Mic Hardcore Gaming Broadcast, a viewer’s message demanding a shift to “Yungdo” caught my eye.

Deciding to indulge a little longer, I opted to allow it.

Since the no-mic was a sort of concept, I didn’t turn on the actual microphone.

As I paused for a moment, a Yungdo clip popped into my feed.

Once I checked the thumbnail of the clip via the broadcast manager, a smile naturally spread across my face.

It was a clip from Curry’s channel, and even though I had only seen it for a day, it felt like I hadn’t seen it for ages.

As I pressed play on the clip from Curry, I immediately halted everything I was doing and went into full appreciation mode.

– There’s a lot of talk going around about Barcode, so I’ll just say one thing.

– Do those lacking basic professional awareness even qualify as pros these days? It’s a ridiculous world.

– What? Be careful with the protractor? What do I need to watch out for? They could sue me?

– Well, if you’re gonna be like that, just don’t get caught.

– [Hahaha wtf.]

– [For real, this guy’s outta his mind. Haha.]

– [Protractor breaker Bhukkare, whoa!]

– [I say what needs to be said, Coca-Cola.]

– [Yun insiders shocked by spicy Curry!]

– [This is the taste of my hometown! Haha.]

Normally, when such controversies or events emerge, those not directly involved would naturally tread carefully with their words.

One foolish comment could trigger another controversy, resulting in a loss for themselves.

But in the video, Curry was completely unfiltered, openly trash-talking the other side.

“Hehe…”

That could’ve been an act, but no matter how I looked at it, that was genuinely an angry Curry.

Though he pretended to dislike me on the outside, when it came to moments like this, he was unabashedly leading the charge in hurling insults, which I found almost endearing.

Of course, I was well aware of Curry’s personality, so I knew that his anger was purely about the situation, excluding any feelings about me.

Nonetheless, thanks to him, my somewhat sluggish mood began to perk up.

[Hahaha!]

[Curry’s totally unfiltered.]

[My woman, I shall protect her, what a sweet line…!]

[Sooo solid! Sweet Curry!]

[Ah, this is refreshing! Now that’s soda!]

Once the video wrapped up, I closed the donation message and cleared up my desk.

“Clearing up” is putting it mildly, as I mostly just pushed my dishes and glasses aside.

Regardless, having regained my spirits, I jumped straight to matchmaking.

It was early morning, so I expected the queue would take longer due to my high rank.

However, a match was found in just about 3 minutes, and once I clicked the accept button, I entered the pick phase, eager to pick Yone.

Hoping that either the opposing team would ban Yone or that some team member with a twisted mindset would take that role.

Sadly, my team did not ban Yone.

However, the opposing team’s fifth pick banned Yone, which left me thrilled to pick Silas.

Silas was a champion I’d been researching lately, and surprisingly enough, I had found his performance satisfactory so I used him quite often.

Both pick phases concluded, and the opposing team, who had banned Yone, went with Kai’Sa as their sixth pick.

Meanwhile, the fourth pick on their team followed by selecting Pantheon, which suggested that Pantheon was likely to be their support due to their team composition.

Kai’Sa and Pantheon.

A super common bottom combination.

But I couldn’t shake off the suspicion blossoming in my mind.

There’s no way they would queue up right after the drama just a day ago, would they?

It’s one thing if they have no sense whatsoever, but would grown adults behave like that?

More importantly, since the ranking system had changed, duo ranks are no longer possible for those over Master; thus, the chance that they were that duo was close to zero.

However, the opposing Kai’Sa did ban my main champion, Yone.

It was too suspicious to dismiss it completely.

Could it be possible that they’d instigated the controversy and targeted me?

Such a scenario seemed unfathomable in reality.

I decided that this was just paranoia, a mere fanciful thought and organized my muddled mind.

As the game began, I checked the nicknames of the duo in the opposing bottom lane and cracked a chuckle.

Opera and Drill.

These utterly dense idiots had targeted me.

---