LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 103
Have you ever been to a theater where all the actors and audience have left?
In the space where the dazzling sets, delightful music, and colorful lighting have all vanished, there is only myself to face.
Now, the space I can proudly call my home is filled only with silence.
The unwashed plates towering in the sink, the cleanly picked chicken bones, and various pieces of clothing, from outerwear strewn carelessly across the sofa to underwear just tossed aside.
I had just taken a shower.
Water was dripping from my hair, soaking the living room floor, but I didn’t really need to worry about that.
In a day or two, it would naturally evaporate. I vaguely heard from viewers who went to the army that leaving a bit of water on the floor helps in this dry weather.
‘What’s this…?’
Before entering the room, I stepped on a Polaroid photo that lay on the floor.
Picking it up to check, it was one of the many shots taken yesterday with the camera that Ha-ru had brought.
Yuna, who didn’t have her phone, had been thrilled to receive a bunch of photos from Ha-ru.
And it must have fallen when Ha-ru realized she had doodled a mustache on her own face during our little game of tag at home.
“I should return this to her at the academy tomorrow.”
Ha-ru had been whisked away early in the morning by the man in sunglasses, and Yuna had packed her up nicely to send her home by morning.
Professor Cheon had quietly woken me up earlier that morning while the children were still in dreamland.
[It seems I need to go to the United States right now.]
For a moment, I thought I was dreaming and blurted out, “America?” but he calmly explained the situation.
Some of the technologies to make potions in solid form were coming from the United States, and the State Department there had not approved the technology transfer.
The domestic researchers had worked hard to appeal that it wasn’t for commercial use, but they still maintained a rigid stance, so it was revealed that he had to go himself.
[Don’t play the game for too long. And don’t skip meals! Make sure to eat!]
… Well, he said he’d come back tomorrow evening at the latest, so I could think of it as just a business trip to Busan.
The house, now empty of everyone, felt far too big for me to wander alone.
I couldn’t help but think maybe I should have left Yuna behind.
Although I hadn’t drunk any alcohol, a wave of extreme fatigue washed over me.
Maybe it was because I hadn’t felt the warmth of another person for a long time.
I still felt as if the two girls were hugging me tightly on either side.
It seemed like they had promised each other and snuggled me in the middle like a pillow, laying their arms and legs across my body and dozing off.
Just because they were young children, I shouldn’t think they were light. After hours of that, it felt unexpectedly heavy, sometimes making it hard to breathe, inducing coughs.
Yet, contrasting with the fatigue I felt now, I felt quite refreshed.
I had no idea how long it had been since I slept so deeply without dreaming.
Returning to the room, I shook off the water from my body with a towel.
A smaller surface area was useful at times like this.
When I wrapped the towel around me, there were hardly any spots left wet.
I had the urge to climb into the capsule naked, but this wasn’t just my house.
Even if no one was watching, I thought it was only right to keep a modicum of decency, so I threw on a white dress that reached my knees.
Maybe I mistakenly believed I had dried off properly; the silk dress clung to my still-wet body.
Now, it was too annoying to change into something else, so I just threw myself into the capsule.
Before going for a full dive, I noticed myself unwittingly preparing the broadcast settings and let out a sigh.
It was simpler to adjust the settings with a few clicks of my fingers than manually moving through the setup window in virtual space. For someone like me, who sought extreme efficiency, it was something I had to remember…
‘But I didn’t promise myself that I would start broadcasting right away.’
I had only planned for a light warm-up.
The current time was a bit earlier than the promised hour with the viewers, at 11 in the morning.
Since I’d already finished setting up the broadcast, it would be unreasonable to go back, so I froze the chat window permanently and concluded that just streaming the broadcast screen was a decent compromise.
There was no need to tire myself out by interacting with people too early.
The title was…
[Starting Streaming: 0:00:01 – NoName]
[Legend of Legends – For Those Missing Warmth (no chat)]
[Broadcast Time – 0:00:01]
[Number of Viewers – 1]
*
The reason I chose Legacy of Legends as my game was simply that it was the only game I knew how to play.
Visiting the main hall after a long time was filled with vibrant energy from many people.
Sure enough, the place with the most people was the ranked games.
However, my feet wandered to the adjacent neighborhood.
[Custom Game]
[tag: 1vs1]
As I always emphasize, League of Legends’ essence cannot be deemed simply a physical game.
When watching videos from decades ago, the era of professional gamers playing on computers, it was somewhat a game where physical skills and strategy harmoniously blended, but nowadays it leaned too far toward strategy.
Deciding games based on gaps formed in the lane phase had become a rarity.
Always having the potential for a comeback may spark excitement, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that it relied too much on luck.
However, one-on-one battles were different.
All the complex concepts like power graphs by champion levels, matchups, and range could simply be summarized as ‘physical’.
Especially when comprehensively evaluating individual strength to gain an advantage over the opponent was always thrilling.
Above all, the greatest merit was that it took less time than an average League of Legends match.
It had been a while since I moved my body vigorously in virtual reality, so starting with League of Legends, a game with lower freedom, seemed like a plan to gradually adapt.
[Room Title: PayMustardSauce password 2-digit number (1/2)]
[]
While rummaging through various rooms and refreshing the page, one room title caught my eye.
It didn’t seem like it was a game made to play with friends, but oddly enough, it had a password.
In the past, I would have ignored it and looked for another room, but the tier of the person waiting inside caught my attention.
[PayMustardSauce – Challenger]
Challenger. A level far beyond the Master rank I had achieved months ago.
With my competitive spirit rising, I randomly typed in a number.
If it was wrong, I’d just look for another room.
[P/W: 77]
[PayMustardSauce’s Game – Valhalla’s Battlefield · Private Choice · 1v1]
‘This worked…?’
It seemed to be a lucky day.
In one corner of the waiting room, an ordinary-looking man waved at me.
“Wow, you came in right after creating the room again. Was the password too easy?”
“…?”
“Oh, you’re quite shy. I understand. So, which champion shall we pick?”
Feeling a bit hesitant from his overly friendly welcome, I dismissed it as him just having a hermit-master persona and moved on.
“Can I pick?”
“Hmm, let me see your tier… oh, Diamond 1? You can’t really pick just any champion, can you? Haha.”
The tone of respect paradoxically overflowed with leisure.
“Then I’ll go Irelia against Fiora. See you at the top.”
“Ooh, romantic! Can I be Irelia?”
“No, I’ll be playing Irelia.”
Irelia, one of the 51 original champions in Legacy of Legends.
A champion with a unique skill mechanism that had not changed from the previous version.
I believed my body would remember the champion I used often back when missions were assigned, even if it had been a while since I last played her.
“Oh, no matter how much I’m an ADC, that match-up will be tough for you. Are you sure you don’t want to win a Chicken Gifticon?”
Ignoring the man who had been talking nonsense for a while, I organized my runes for the battlefield.
He hunched down next to me, continuing to strike up a conversation.
“You know the rules, right? Two kills or rs100 each. You can go home whenever you want. Still, since you picked a hard champion, if you get just one kill, I’ll add you!”
“You’re very confident.”
“Haha, it’s a bit of a professional habit.”
“I’m curious about what your profession is.”
“Uh…? You don’t know who I am?”
“While playing a 1v1, do I need to know who Mustard Seed is?”
“Really? You have no idea? How did you find this room, then?”
“I just browsed for a one-on-one room—”
“Wow, what a coincidence! Then nice to meet you! You can just call me Mustard!”
“Uh, okay…”
[Welcome to the battlefield.]
A northwesterly wind blew.
*
The background of the one-on-one battlefield looked ominous.
A battlefield set against the backdrop of the sun sinking beneath the horizon.
I glared at the woman wielding a blue rapier before me.
The moment she moved even a single step, she would charge at me and cleave my body in two.
Indeed, even possessed as the game character, her smiling face was quite irritating.
Even if her smile is annoying, I would only let Hiasen slide. The rest was unforgivable.
“Then I’ll be counting on you! I’ll take it easy, so don’t worry and feel comfortable!”
“…”
Six soldiers marched in unison toward the opposing formation.
But the same went for the opposing team.
As expected, Fiora stood far ahead, blocking the middle lane so I couldn’t even gain experience.
It felt like she was saying, “Come at me if you dare.”
Though I was level 1, the psychological war had already begun.
Fiora had to hit her weaknesses, while Irelia had to land her marks.
Fiora distinctly had the upper hand in matchups. Even if Irelia used her e-skill, Fiora could easily counter it with her w-skill.
To disrupt the familiar standoff, I decided to launch a simple psychological ploy.
If Fiora’s dash missed, I could easily gain dominance from early levels, so I swayed my body closely, maintaining just the right distance.
However, given the opponent, they didn’t carelessly throw out skills.
“Aren’t you going to get any experience?”
I wouldn’t fall for such a low-level provocation.
I was keenly aware of the range to gain experience.
Just as an enemy soldier was about to fall,
clang!
I dashed in with my sword toward Fiora, landing a blow.
“To gain experience, you’ll have to suffer a bit!”
The words from my opponent were laced with frivolity, but surprisingly, their response was sharp and deadly.
When both sides were fighting in a brawl, Fiora was the one with the advantage, and with the Bone Shield rune, while I lost 250 health out of my 600, the opponent barely lost even 200.
Up until this point, it was all within expectations. After all, I benefited from the “Winds of Regeneration” rune, so my health recovery would be faster. The HP difference would become negligible the moment I hit level 2.
However, it seemed Fiora felt unsatisfied with this; perhaps she decided to try for a bit of a trade as she turned to face me.
Irelia’s skill had an 11-second cooldown and was 2 seconds faster than Fiora’s. However, it was obvious she was trying to force me to retaliate.
If I used my skill to charge back at Fiora, I would be putting myself in a position to get hit hard.
Thus, we exchanged hits once and then moved our champions deeper toward the stronghold.
At this point, I was already sure.
When she turned for her fourth auto-attack, I was convinced the game was mine.
Our allied ranged soldiers joined in, diligently chipping away at Fiora who was trying to return to the lane.
“I’ve already won this game.”
“Just being relaxed? I think you should take a look at your health…?”
“That’s why AD carries like you, Mustard, can’t escape the title of ‘spoon.’”
“Eh…?”
He was indeed a genuine ranged dealer user. I had seen his stats during the time of transport into the battlefield and thought to mention it.
The mechanisms of battling in a 2v2 lane and a 1v1 lane were completely different.
While the bottom lane with a range advantage could push their minions into the stronghold, giving them a unilateral advantage, Irelia was actually stronger when positioned in front of the stronghold. Being a melee character, I didn’t have any means to counter her.
Mustard was obviously taken aback, his grip on the rapier slackening enough to let it droop to the ground.
“Wow, you make taunts sound so serious! So where do you stand in the lanes?”
“I’m in every lane.”