[TS] Malicious Sniper

Since the touching teleport of Malphite, the laning phase flowed smoothly.

The balance of the laning phase, which was unstable from the start, was stabilized by the involvement of the jungle and top.

Akili didn’t give away any solo kill opportunities, and I definitely wasn’t about to give one to Akili either.

If I had scored a kill, I should have pressed the opponent harder to earn my keep.

But, against the Showdown Akili, that was almost impossible.

Of course, since I had the lane control for now, I’d be quicker to join in when needed.

However, if I got greedy and lost that lane control, it would affect the objective fights.

For example, if a dragon fight broke out and it was Akili from Showdown joining first instead of me.

Just imagining that was the worst-case scenario, making my knees weak, so I pushed the lane harder to keep Akili stuck there.

[You have slain the dragon!]

Thanks to our Jerk doing so well, the bottom lane also opened up, and we got the dragon.

[The enemy has slain the Rift Herald!]

But that didn’t mean the enemies were just sitting back.

Malphite, who had used teleport to save the Jerk, was struggling against the enemy Ornn.

Even Amumu, who had slain the Rift Herald, was preparing to dive by summoning the Herald.

It was a critical situation for Malphite.

I had already pushed the lane before the Herald died and was heading to the top.

By the time I nearly arrived, the Herald was bumping into the tower.

Malphite was trying to hold on somehow, but he was neatly taken down by the combo of Amumu and Ornn’s ultimates.

If only Malphite’s ult hadn’t been on cooldown, he might have held out until I got there.

Still, thanks to Malphite’s desperate resistance until the end, the Amumu who was left with barely any health managed to avoid the tower’s attack and came down.

Naturally, I was there, and I easily finished off Amumu with a mix of basic attacks between skills.

Ornn tried to chase and finish him off too, but had to give up as Akili was coming up.

[What a lucky break]

[I thought it was a woman pretending to be a man, but now that I see it, is it real?]

[Waaah~ I wanna hear that baby voice]

[I normally hate rascals, but Malphite is actually likable, for real]

[Jerk is doing really well, is he a known player?]

[Please acknowledge my first time, please acknowledge my second time, please acknowledge my third time]

[The chatroom is quite chaotic]

[If a woman plays this well, what does that make me, a Bronze?]

Glance, glance

While returning to the lane, I peeked at the chatroom.

Every time a specific message caught my eye, it felt like something inside me was fulfilling.

I didn’t understand why I was feeling this way, and I didn’t want to understand either.

What I found annoying was that I absolutely despised things like broadcasts.

I turned my gaze back to the game screen.

While I was distracted for a moment, a fight broke out in the bot lane.

As usual, the Jerk performed well and dealt with the enemy AD carry and support, and with that scene, I switched my view to mid.

I had just returned to the lane after backing from helping top.

The fight in the bot lane would end soon anyway.

So, thinking like that, I pushed the lane so that Akili couldn’t escape mid.

However, Akili abandoned his minions and dashed down to the bot lane, and realizing late that the fight was dragging on, I bit my lip.

“I shouldn’t have looked at the chatroom…!”

I should have considered that the Amumu who just revived would do a counter-gank.

I needed to be conscious that Malphite and Ornn still had their teleports.

But, distracted by the chatroom, I missed an important moment and messed up my timing to join.

[The enemy scored a triple kill!]

As a result, Akili took down three of our allies.

I withstood the invisible gazes of my teammates while I took the turret gold.

…Even amidst all this, the turret gold felt delicious, making me think.

I really was a person dyed with League of Legends down to my bones.

Now that Akili had gotten 3 kills, I had to concentrate from here on out.

No, I needed to put all my effort into playing this game.

Even if solo queue and ranked are different games, the skills of the pros were real.

Most importantly, I was embarrassed that I couldn’t make the right judgment because I was aggroed by that silly chatroom.

[You have destroyed a turret!]

Fortunately, I earned quite a lot of gold from taking down the first turret.

Returning home, I purchased Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Steelback in one go with the accumulated gold.

With my second core completed in just 15 minutes, I no longer needed to lane against Akili.

[The turret has been destroyed!]

Just after the mid-first tower was taken down, our bot lane’s first turret also fell.

IlilIililI (Yone) was going down.

I pinged that I was going to the bot.

To help our AD carry, Vayne, grow steadily, I had to send him back to the mid where there were still towers left.

Nothing was riskier than an AD carry farming without any tower protection.

I could shoulder the risk of losing the first-tier turret since I had monopolized the gold.

As I descended, Akili followed me down to the bot lane.

It seemed like he understood the reasons and benefits of the lane swap perfectly well.

Of course, this wasn’t just any ordinary challenger; it was Showdown, who had won the Worlds.

So it was strange that he didn’t know something as basic as League of Legends common sense.

But still, this was solo queue, not ranked, and at least I was in a better position than Akili right now.

Besides, due to the current item patch, there wasn’t a clear first core item that Akili could go for.

Any item would be ambiguous for Akili, and he couldn’t bring out proper performance.

On the other hand, Yone was a champion known for picking up Guinsoo’s, an immensely overpowered item.

Whether Akili used a smoke screen or made some flashy plays, whatever he did.

If we fought till the end, I would win, and Akili knew that fact too.

While focusing on the minimap and continuing to split, I noticed something odd about the enemy’s movements.

The bot lane and jungle were piling into top to secure the soon-to-respawn rift herald, but the enemy jungle and bot weren’t showing up at top.

Chills ran down my spine at the thought of invisible enemies.

Then suddenly, Akili moved forward.

Instinctively noticing that the enemy team was targeting me, I calmly assessed the situation.

The enemy Thresh had already shown up in the bush he had prepped ahead of time.

Following that Thresh, Kai’Sa and Amumu were coming down to the bot lane.

Running away was impossible.

So, the remaining choice was ultimately one.

To fight.

To fight desperately and at least take down Akili with me.

I approached Akili instead and traded blows.

Akili tried to create distance using his ult and E, but.

With my Q stacked twice and my ult, I closed the gap quickly and finished him off.

Not running away and instead fighting was a quick decision made possible.

But there were still many hurdles to cross, and my chances of survival were close to zero.

Having successfully taken down my first target, Akili, I was feeling greedy and aimed for Kai’Sa next.

I focused hard to dodge Amumu‘s bandages and Thresh‘s grabs.

But being pushed back by Thresh’s chain whip, I was slowed by the spirit prison.

Yet undeterred, I attacked Kai’Sa.

As Amumu prepared to initiate, I flashed towards Kai’Sa just in time.

It was a matter of extreme reflexes.

By the tiniest margin, I managed to evade Amumu‘s ultimate zone and met my end alongside Kai’Sa.

[Kill Denied!]

Although Kai’Sa received the kill.

With a 4-to-1 situation, taking down two enemies was certainly worth something.

[The Rift Herald has been summoned!]

While the enemies were at me, our team took down Ornn and summoned the herald.

[The tower has been destroyed.]

[The tower has been destroyed.]

In an instant, the top-tier two towers and the inhibitor tower were pushed.

If I had died without earning any gold, it wouldn’t have been that big of a gain.

I was on a bounty, and if I had died without securing even one kill, the enemy team would have pushed the bot second-tier turret.

Having summoned the herald, Thresh and Akili likely retreated, while Amumu and Kai’Sa hunted the respawned dragon.

Yet, I had taken down Kai’Sa and Akili, leaving the enemy with nothing to gain.

Amumu and Thresh had to return to defend the inhibitor, which allowed our team to take the dragon naturally.

From there on, it was continuous operation.

Slowly taking down towers, we increased our global gold lead.

Seizing complete vision control while stealing enemy jungle mobs, we stifled their growth.

Hostile diminishing operation continued, and as Thresh ventured into the dark minimap, it was clear he wanted to light it up.

Thresh slowly entered the bush where the four of us were hiding.

Like a fly diving into a flytrap, Thresh was crushed in an instant.

With at least Vayne and a well-fed Yone available, and with the enemy losing one member, it was time for Baron.

The newly spawned Baron was weak, and since we had vision, there was a solid reason to hit Baron.

Thus commenced the Baron burst.

The enemy was aware that we were hitting Baron, and they had placed wards on the hillside above the Baron pit.

We removed their wards while continuing the Baron burst.

‘We could get stolen from…’

As long as Amumu was alive, there was certainly a chance of that happening.

Thus, I used my Q stacked twice to escape the Baron pit and approached a blind spot for the enemy using my E to the bush in front of the river.

Then, I flashed over the hillside and unleashed my ult onto the four enemies standing in a line.

Yone’s perfect four-man ultimate erupted, bolstered by Malphite’s unstoppable force.

Following that, the Jerk entered and used Rulie’s ultimate for an airborne.

In total, four airborns accounted for free DPS on Baron pit by our Vayne.

It was truly a chaos-grade CC combo and a perfect teamfight execution.

[Finish!]

In the end, we wrapped it up, stopped hitting Baron, and headed to top.

Only the primary inhibitor tower had fallen, and with no inhibitors down, a good number of our minions were there.

With four enemies out for 30 seconds and only Thresh to defend, I felt victorious.

Turning my gaze to the chatroom again, I saw the reactions were fervent.

Not just hot but extremely hot.

The kind of heat that couldn’t be seen even in spicy curry rooms.

Looking at the heated chatroom, I felt an inexplicable itch in my chest.

A need to release something welled up from within.

After tearing down the enemy twin towers.

Finally, as the Nexus was destroyed, the word ‘Victory’ emerged at the top of the game screen.

As soon as I saw the word “Victory,” I opened my mouth.

“Simply put, I carried.”

It was a casual, nonchalant declaration, thrown out as if it meant nothing.

Yet, in the basic black waiting screen, I was smiling.

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