Since life itself has become virtual reality, my options for leisure activities have narrowed down drastically.
Gaming? I’m so tired of it, so pass. Movies and other video entertainment cost money, so pass on that too. In the end, I was left with V-tube and internet communities that were far from my taste.
The first reason being I couldn’t easily empathize with their culture, and the second reason was that if I stumbled upon negative comments about me, my mood would be ruined that day.
But today, I especially didn’t want to work.
Is this the power of money?
The temporal freedom brought by capital made my body—or rather, my mind—lazy. I started surfing the sea of information, buried in my bed, looking for something to indulge in.
Even though I don’t usually check the gaming category on V-tube, the third video from the “Documentary 4 Days” series aired yesterday popped up in my recommended feed.
In less than 12 hours, it was about to surpass 4 million views.
I had already seen the general content yesterday, and it was sure to be filled with nasty comments about me, so…
In the end, the video I chose was Brahms’s Ballade for Piano, which I had previously saved as an interest. It reminded me of the music my former teacher loved.
I played the song and closed my eyes, but sleep wouldn’t come.
Was it the fear of falling asleep and possibly dying the next day?
Or was it the habit that had stiffened over 6 years? Afternoon naps were difficult.
I tried to forget the bad memories of yesterday with the beautiful melodies, but that damned Documentary 4 Days still popped into my head. It was not because of the fear of dying.
After all, in my situation, using it illegally without any identity registration means that even if I got banned, I could just find my way back in.
That process being quite bothersome, I tried to avoid getting banned as much as possible…
4 million…
That’s a larger number than the population of most cities.
Is there no prince among them to save me from this wretched prison?
As it is human nature to seek a glimmer of hope in despair, despite having tasted despair many times, I was foolishly sending an SOS request again.
I realized once again that humans are more indifferent to others than I thought.
What a cruel fate.
I could never escape the position of a bird in a cage.
In my past life, I couldn’t withstand the power struggles of the empire’s nobility, bound by the massive chains called the imperial court.
If given a chance at life again, was it such a great sin to wish to live freely in a place where no one knew me?
Having grown to dislike human contact, I was now physically trapped somewhere.
No wonder I find myself resenting the gods.
Yet I lacked even the courage to commit suicide.
I could ask why death meant anything since I had already died twice, but there was an intense intuition that this life was truly my last.
I had a reason. When I was first born, I had one Mongolian spot on each hand, but one had disappeared in my past life, and this time it was completely absent.
If those spots signify my lifespan, then this must be my last chance.
My body was sending signals that it was nearing its limit.
Waking up from the capsule consumed too much energy, and I hadn’t checked on my body for almost a year. The physical reactions from the outside were enough to reach the inside without filters.
For the past few weeks, I began to feel tingling in my limbs, and sometimes I had chills or sweated cold.
After a tight schedule, I felt a creepy sensation like something like a centipede crawling all over my body as I fell asleep.
Especially when that centipede seemed to bite me, I even screamed in surprise.
Of course, there was no centipede under my blanket.
There’s no way my body would be okay without proper nutrient intake. It’s a miracle that I’m still alive.
The music is nearing its end.
Rest was sweet, but I can’t endure the subsequent silence and emptiness.
Above all, I have too many centipedes in my room.
In the end, I could only venture into a battlefield devoid of centipedes again today.
But today just seems like an unluckily bad day.
[General – Collect 10 Mysterious Murals (0/10)]
[Legend – Achieve 15 Kills in 30 Minutes (0/15)]
[Myth – Achieve Double Ace Twice (0/2)]
“This is too tedious…”
Looking at those ridiculous missions that pop up now and then, the urge to quit the game surged.
But according to almost 6 years of experience, rather than choosing the option to quit and look for easier missions next game, it was more efficient to do my best to clear each game.
There was no guarantee that such ridiculous situations wouldn’t arise in the next game anyway.
I had to take pictures of murals, but I also had to go for kill missions. Moreover, the notoriously difficult Double Ace requires everyone on both teams to die in a single team fight. Twice even.
The most orthodox method was to hog resources so that my allies couldn’t grow while the enemies had no one notably strong. But intentionally setting up such a match was absurd.
I contemplated the randomly assigned position.
Playing as a mid laner would have more influence, but clearing the mural mission would be relatively difficult. Other lanes are not to mention, so without hesitation, it seemed wise to change spells.
*
“Smite for Liquidation?”
No way, right…?
Sae-min’s reflexes went on high alert as soon as the allied mid laner changed spells to Smite.
He had wanted to play Jungle Rammus, as usual, but with this, two junglers would be on the team.
‘Does this mean he wants to jungle?’
Even though Sae-min switched his spell to Ignite, the ally remained silent, so he was likely wanting to jungle.
Seeing his teammate, the soul hunter Varus, pick left him unsure about his spell, but he didn’t seem to be a total troll.
As the game aged, people who discard their manners often pop up. It’s only polite that I surrender.
With each match being precious, Sae-min eventually changed his character.
[Welcome to the Battlefield.]
The weather is slightly cloudy, with winds from the northwest, and the morning sun shines.
The blind nicknames of allies and enemies engraved in the monument announce the start of the game.
[Don’t cry mumu]
[Working hard without anger]
[NoName]
[Hit once, hit twice]
[Cheetah is crying]
And Sae-min wanted to cry.
[Working hard without anger: No, I met this troll again.]
[Working hard without anger: I dropped out of the promotion match because of him yesterday, and I’m catching him again in this tier, is this real?]
[Cheetah is crying: The King of Mordekaiser has arrived!]
[Don’t cry mumu: It hasn’t even been a month since Season 10 started, and this guy already has 600 games played.]
“Why am I in the same tier as NoName?”
Sae-min knew he wasn’t the best at League.
But he was proud that he had done his utmost within his position. But to have that effort reduced to being on the same level as a troll like that was disheartening.
His eyes gleamed with resentment.
After all, even worse situations were often encountered in the rank hell reality. This was a flavor so familiar, a scent so known.
No matter how likely a match seemed to be a loss from the start, often doing your best would lead to surprise victories.
He slammed the staff down with determination.
[Don’t cry mumu: It sounds like a Mid jungle duo with LeBlanc.]
The staff fell limply to the ground.
*
Hit once, hit twice was irked by the upper body. Just when he thought he got a satisfying support, now the top and mid were causing havoc.
It was ridiculous for a late-game carry ADC to go help a mid-lane that got crushed, but now the teammate spitting it out was beginning to feel resentful!
[Cheetah is crying: Are you going to the failed lane?]
[Working hard without anger: I’m originally a jungler so sorry… I’ll try to hold on as much as possible.]
[Don’t cry mumu: 4:0]
[Don’t cry mumu: If the enemy comes to gank once more, I’ll throw the match.]
In a 3 to 2 skirmish, the disaster of having 3 allies die turned all motivation to dust. The midlover seemed to soothe them with a dodge.
Hit once, hit twice figured at least he knew who was the best in this team. After all, late game was an ADC battle. Repeating that mantra, he deliberately ignored the kill score.
[Perfect Nature (Jared): 4/1/7]
[Perfect Number (Kai’Sa): 3/0/4]
But the monsters on the upper body wouldn’t even let the beleaguered ADC rise.
They’d kill in the lane and dive when they teleport. They kept rapidly assaulting, even on the now trudging path to the castle.
[Cheetah is crying: We can’t win anyway, let’s surrender.]
[Cheetah is crying has commenced a surrender vote.]
The third box filled quickly.
Sae-min could tell that in this situation, despite everything, nobody else was against surrender. It was a loathsome name called ‘NoName’.
Surprisingly this time, he seemed to be taking the game seriously; his kill score was a decent 2/0/0, both scores earned at bottom.
But no matter how much he seemed serious, his trolling nature shone through; suddenly being at the opposite side of the allies, accumulating meaningless resource score without helping the team win at all.
Even if you were in Bronze or Silver, you’d understand how desperate the situation was. It hadn’t been 15 minutes, and the gold gap was about 5,000 to 7,000.
Sae-min, who usually doesn’t readily accept surrendering, agreed to the vote.
But until the vote finished, it never reached a unanimous decision.
[Cheetah is crying: We have to wait until 20 minutes for this.]
In 5 minutes, even with 4 votes, they could finish the game.
With nothing changing in those 5 minutes, everyone began to move sluggishly.
Sensing this atmosphere, the allied jungler ‘NoName’ pinged for the first time.
[Gather here]
The second Guardian’s nest.
Usually, top, jungle, and sometimes mid would join for 3v3 skirmishes, but today for some reason, both teams congregated.
That doesn’t happen often unless it’s a celestial realm solo rank match.
‘Is anyone over there calling the shots?’
If this continues, there’s going to be a 5v5 team fight.
Sae-min was determined to buy even the stopwatch he normally avoided due to his lack of mechanics.
The items of the ranged ADC were 2 core to 1 and a half.
However, the opposing mid jungle seemed to mock this, already eyeing 3 cores.
‘The jungle levels were 2 levels apart. If it came down to a Smite fight, I would definitely lose.’
His head became progressively clouded.
But they had already arrived at the Guardian’s nest.
The opposing team was already taking cover and ready to engage. If anyone stepped forward, countless skills would rain down, leading to a battle.
Next to Sae-min, NoName was hiding in the bush.
In the suffocating standoff, his eyes were unnervingly calm.
The enemies began to seize the Guardian, realizing the allies had no intention of making a move. If the second Guardian fell to the enemy, reversing the game would be impossible.
But rushing to intervene, they were poised to be devoured.
In this critical situation, NoName’s Varus jumped out first.
The enemies seemed to have been waiting for it, as all five charged out of the Guardian’s nest, launching an offensive against Varus.
“Danger!”
While Sae-min hesitated, top-laner Mumu and the ADC ‘Hit twice’ joined the fray. The skills pouring down were a jumbled mess.
Sae-min thought coldly.
His role was to assassinate the opposing ADC. But where could they possibly be?
There had clearly been five when they came out of the nest, yet only four were visible. So where is…?
“Hahahahahahaha”
With the voice of a bewitching woman echoing from the side, hundreds of bullets rained down.
[You have been eliminated]
[You have been eliminated]
“Oh… no…”
The enemy ADC’s Ultimate landed beautifully.
Not only did he need to kill the opposing ADC, but he also found himself losing half his health instead. With an already grown Jared and Kai’Sa cleaning up was simply an easy feat.
If anything good came out of this, it was that the ‘Cheetah is crying’ who had picked a Grab-type champion had managed to pull the enemy ADC during their ultimate. This allowed NoName and ‘Hit twice’ to get on the scoreboard.
[You have eliminated an enemy!]
“Oh, right, Stopwatch!”
In the end, Sae-min failed to buy time with his Stopwatch once again in this team fight. Why does his vision narrow whenever it’s a team fight…?
There was nothing left. Although Jared and Kai’Sa had used their ultimates, they were still much stronger than imagined, dealing significant sustained damage with normal attacks.
Ultimately, thanks to the support being sacrificed as bait, even ‘Hit twice’ could not escape death.
“Why are you all so blatantly taking Miss Fortune’s ultimate?”
As he appeared in the waiting room, the rage boiled over. It was all the more frustrating since he didn’t even get to experience a proper team fight before dying.
Barus would soon join him here. Surely, Mumu would have a lot to say to him. But contrary to expectations, news of defeat did not arrive.
Those spectating the battle in the battlefield relay screen couldn’t help but be speechless.
“What’s that?”
Mumu’s first remark was June’s.
As soon as ‘Hit twice’ died, Varus jumped the wall and took down the enemy top who had been poking at them from afar with explosive barrels in one swift motion. As soon as he snatched the enemy’s soul, he began pumping skills into the fray again.
[Triple Kill]
Kai’Sa hurriedly tried to stop it with a stun, but with his unique skill, Varus cleansed the hard CC.
With two barrels set in the rear, he hit both Jared and Kai’Sa simultaneously.
But even though he absorbed the enemies’ soul and restored health, he was still at half health.
One hit from Jared would finish him off.
Through shadow doppelgangers, Varus threw three shurikens at him that couldn’t be missed.
In a situation where any movement would guarantee hits, Varus fled from Jared, charging toward the now isolated Kai’Sa.
With dodges executed so deftly that even the return of a stun didn’t hit him was the icing on the cake.
[Quadra Kill]
Jared had just used his shadow doppelganger, leaving him with no movement options. But the reason he was able to smile until the end.
“What now? My ultimate is back?”
The ultimate skill from Jared granted him definitive damage against enemies.
There’s no need to land shurikens; a single normal attack would be enough to take Kai’Sa down on the brink of death.
Having calculated the situation precisely, Jared left the death mark on Varus without a moment of hesitation.
But immediately afterward, Kai’Sa’s ambush skill struck. His normal attacks were interrupted just as he dodged, and though he tried to throw some shurikens, Kai’Sa nimbly avoided them with her short mobility. It was just a matter of time before the turn passed.
“No, not even ignite!”
In the final moment, his spell returned just in time for him to set Varus ablaze with ignite.
[Penta Kill!]
But level up.
And a victory announcement followed soon after.
With his health restored, Varus survived dramatically and emerged as the final victor.
‘What am I looking at right now?’
Sae-min was left speechless, mesmerized by the scene resembling a mad movie.
“Is NoName a total beast? But this wouldn’t have happened without my grab.”
“Only the jungle has people.”
Others felt the same way.
“Hold on, what’s he doing?”
After the seemingly eternal battle, Varus staggered around, looking unsteady.
Unexpectedly, the neutral monster Baron appeared in the 20-minute mark, coming into his vision.
glimmer glimmer
An odd standoff between Baron and Varus.
In a voice unheard by anyone, NoName bluntly replied,
“What are you looking at? Bow your head.”
A large dragon’s breath engulfed Varus.
[You have been eliminated.]
[Double Ace]
