[TS] Malicious Sniper

Thanks to Jericho actively accepting my opinion, the team name has become ‘Curry Breaker.’

After deciding on the team name, I waited until the last member arrived.

To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure who Streamer Latte was, so I looked up various things about Streamer Latte while waiting.

Streamer Latte.

Unlike other League of Legends-related streamers, Latte was 34 years old this year.

Physical abilities usually decline rapidly with age, but Streamer Latte seemed to break that stereotype.

He was a living veteran of League of Legends, maintaining Grandmaster with overwhelming physicality to cover his lacking brainpower.

“Married and working, huh…”

What was surprising was that Latte was a stable worker and a family man, someone you could see anywhere.

How could someone who had to manage both a job and a family maintain Grandmaster purely through physical skills?

I couldn’t help but doubt whether this person was really the same.

“Ah, I just got a message from Latte. It seems today’s going to be tough for him.”

“Is that so? I wanted to meet him for a greeting; that’s unfortunate.”

“Hmm, it seems like we should properly greet each other tomorrow evening and give a briefing on our upcoming schedules. Are you free tomorrow evening?”

I couldn’t immediately respond to Jericho’s question.

The evening time coincided with the hours when Curry was streaming Solo Queue.

After a moment’s hesitation, I thought of it as a strategic retreat for a forward advance and replied.

“Yes, that’s fine.”

“Ah, then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Ding-dong!

With Jericho leaving, I was left alone in the call room.

There was no reason for me to stay in the call room alone, so I quickly exited.

“I’m tired…”

These days, I’ve been so exhausted from streaming that I’ve even sacrificed my workout time.

Today, I had been sitting in front of the computer for over 30 minutes even after ending my stream, so the fatigue I was feeling was quite unusual.

Turning off my computer and throwing my body onto the bed, I fell asleep shortly after.

*

News of the injury of Streamer Ain, who was responsible for the mid lane in Jericho’s team, shocked many people.

Of all times, how could he get injured right before an important Platform Tournament?

As Jericho, who was usually close to Ain, revealed the details of the incident, many fans couldn’t help but worry.

Concerns poured in about Ain’s injury and whether Jericho’s team would disband because of it.

But the worries about the team completely disappeared with Jericho’s announcement released today.

The announcement stated that they had found a streamer to replace Ain, who couldn’t participate due to the incident.

When it was revealed that the streamer in question was ‘Barcode,’ a recently emerging female Challenger, many fans were ecstatic and filled with great expectations for the collab happening today.

And now, I was preparing for an unplanned collab.

I had suggested to Jericho, “How about we all do a collab before he posted the notice?”

And Antenna and Coldog accepted without any issues.

With Jericho also on board, more than half of the team had agreed to the collab, making it hard to refuse.

Besides, I was positively inclined towards the collab from the start, so I had no reason to decline.

With just one hour left until the promised time.

I could turn on my stream for the collab, but having nothing else to do, I started my stream instead.

[Live]

SDVIMVFoanVzY1YwSVhjamMzUkt1ZXY3OUpHZHJ5SEdNU2pqSkRSOWtXY1p6NEJEQi92VzNvSHNIMDBxeW9oKw

After starting the stream, I put on some music and went to the bathroom for a moment.

In that short span, the viewer count had increased to 3000.

When I shifted my gaze, I noticed the chat was overflowing with the word ‘Baha.’

It seemed like they were abbreviating ‘Barcode Hi,’ and every time I saw such a shorthand, it felt strangely surreal, as though I had truly become a streamer.

Well, considering how diligently I was streaming, it was indeed funny to think of myself as anything but a streamer.

[Baha~]

[Is it true that you joined Jericho’s team?]

[Barcode, please say hi, 1st try]

[What was Curry doing not bringing Barcode along?]

[LOL]

[Got roasted enough during the collab that it traumatized me, you think I’d bring him? Haha]

[Barcode, please say hi, 2nd try]

[Honestly, if I were Curry, I’d have brought the Wandering Swordsman, for sure…]

[Barcode is literally just a one-trick Yone, right?]

[Fact: Wandering Swordsman is also a Yasuo one-trick]

[Info: Barcode’s sis also plays Yasuo well.]

[Heh… handling her siblings well…]

I scrolled up in the chat and picked a particularly attention-seeking comment to read out loud.

“Barcode, please say hi, 2nd try. Hi there, qyer1723!”

I continuously checked the chat history of the viewer who kept stirring up trouble.

[qyer1723’s chat log]

07:53:20: Barcode, please say hi, 59th try

07:53:22: Barcode, please say hi, 60th try

07:53:24: Barcode, please say hi, 61st try

….

….

….

00:01:12: Barcode, please say hi, 1st try

00:01:14: Barcode, please say hi, 2nd try

00:01:16: Barcode, please say hi, 3rd try

[Hahaha]

[LOL]

[The audacity on this dude, LOL]

[Real-time apprehension, haha]

[Public execution is hilariously funny]

The viewer with the ID qyer1723 was truly the embodiment of trolling.

All they did was type ‘Barcode, please say hi, n try.’

Even when I scrolled up to see the very first chat, it was all in the same trolling format of asking for a greeting.

“You successfully got a greeting! As a congratulatory gift, I’m giving you a ban.”

I moved my mouse to execute the ban on the greeting specter and, moving far away from the mic, cleared my throat so I wouldn’t be heard on stream.

“Well, I think all of you know what’s going on, but for those who are not aware, I will briefly explain that I will be going to Jericho’s team for mid.”

[For real?]

[Wasn’t that Jericho-style trolling?]

[Wha-]

[Well, it’s not too strange since Ain got injured.]

[But why did you ghost Curry?]

Seeing a comment that I couldn’t ignore, I hurriedly spoke up.

“I didn’t ghost Curry; it was Curry who ghosted me!”

[Huh?]

[What does that mean?]

[LOL, I get it now.]

[No wonder Curry’s mid was a Wandering Swordsman, lol]

[If Curry’s a hater, it’s totally understandable, lol]

Seeing the mood in the chat, I secretly laughed.

Maintaining my poker face, I continued.

“Ever since that collab, there’s been no contact… No offers… Oh, but don’t go to Curry’s chat and blame him or anything.”

[Wow, I didn’t see Curry like that]

[Curry sweetly set things up only to ghost you later?]

[Curry really messed this one up]

[??? : I will destroy Curry who ghosted me… that has been my only thought]

[When I meet him in the tournament, I will educate him.]

[Life-ending mistake!]

As I chatted with the viewers about this and that, time quickly passed.

Before I knew it, there were only about 20 minutes left until the collab time.

Ding!

A sudden alarm made me check Discord.

It seemed like I received a message from Jericho, suggesting that Latte wanted to say hi in advance.

After all, we would get to greet each other again in the collab later, but since there was no harm in saying hi beforehand, I entered the call room where Jericho and Latte were.

“Oh, you’ve arrived. Latte, this is Barcode, who will be taking over Ain’s mid role in our team.”

“Nice to meet you. I am Streamer Latte.”

“I, uh, I’m Streamer Barcode. Nice to meet you!”

I had introduced myself as a streamer yesterday, but I still wasn’t used to saying it.

“Since I’m awkward, if I do something inappropriate, please feel free to tell me.”

“Then let’s just skip that awkward honorific stuff… Please just talk comfortably.”

“Ah, well, if it’s awkward, then I’ll just speak casually.”

Hahaha!

[-Awkward-]

Hahaha!

Latte’s fumble was super funny, haha!

[Hahaha! So refreshing to hear!]

[‘Ahh, that was so smooth!’]

It seems that the viewers also struggled to breathe with Latte’s awkward formal speech.

Honestly, right up until I was about to say it out loud, I wondered if I was the one being weird, but thankfully I realized I wasn’t the only one who felt Latte’s awkward speech was strange.

“Wait… is my formal speech that weird?”

“Latte, should I be honest with you?”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s really, really weird.”

“You better watch yourself after saying that.”

“…I was just kidding, okay?”

Mumbling in a tiny voice only decreased the credibility of my words.

I had no idea what Latte’s ‘watch yourself’ even meant, but I could guess that Jericho was scared of that reference somehow.

Ding!

Ding!

“Hi there~”

“Hello.”

As the collab time approached, Antenna and Coldog also joined the call room.

“Since everyone’s here, let’s quickly discuss today’s collab. Is there anyone who hasn’t started their stream yet?”

When Jericho asked, no one responded.

It meant everyone had started streaming, and after confirming everything was in order, Jericho continued.

“The schedule is tighter than expected, so I wanted to introduce everyone, but what matters most right now is the Platform Tournament, so syncing our plays is what’s important, right? Since we’ve already exchanged greetings, let’s skip that and jump straight into a scrim match. That’s the end of today’s collab agenda.”

“Jericho, I heard you prepared a lot; is that really all?”

“What, you got a problem?”

As Jericho shot back, Coldog immediately closed his mouth.

Having wrapped up the opening remarks for the collab swiftly and concisely, Jericho sent the invite.

Upon accepting, we transitioned to a private room, where I saw the opposing team set to be our practice partners.

Two Challengers, two Grandmasters, one Master.

The composition was in accordance with the rules of the Platform Tournament, which prevented three or more Challengers from being on the same team.

“Isn’t the practice opponent’s level too high?”

“We’ve got two Challengers and three Grandmasters; what’s so high about that?”

Coldog jokingly replied while Antenna answered seriously.

As Antenna pointed out, our team included both Jericho and me as Challengers, while the rest were all Grandmasters.

In fact, Coldog and Antenna were both streamers with Challenger-level skills.

But for reasons beyond their control, both ended up finishing the previous season as Grandmasters.

With preparations complete, we moved from the waiting area to the pick phase.

The ban process began, and naturally, the opposing team banned my core champion, Yone.

I briefly glanced at the chat, noting that many of the viewers were worried about me.

It’s amusing that due to the image of being the ‘Unknown Yone Master,’ ‘Barcode’ had been branded as someone who could only play Yone.

I had tried playing Yasuo during my stream to change that perception, but not much changed.

However, the funny thing was that I had maintained a Challenger rank even before Yone was released.

Of course, I hadn’t achieved Challenger on the current ‘Barcode’ account.

It was on another account that I had casually played, which I now used as a ‘targeting’ account to get friendly requests from various BJ and streamers.

I had been consistently a Challenger since Season 6 on that account.

For someone like me, asking whether I could play champions other than Yone seemed absurd.

“What pick are you going to go with, Barcode?”

As my turn came, Jericho asked with subtle expectations in his voice.

The opposing mid lane had already picked ‘Galio,’ a choice advantageous for team fights.

Galio was a champion that excelled against AP champions.

Although it wouldn’t necessarily be a disadvantage against AD champions, the current situation was far from optimal.

With our jungle pick being the good, solid Eles, it still converged back to one champion I would pick.

Actually, there couldn’t be a more optimal situation than this one to play that champion.

“I’ll go with Talon.”

“Alright, understood.”

After picking Talon, the ban/pick phase proceeded quickly.

Finally, the first practice match began, and the lane phase started without any incidents during the invade stage.

“I’ll clear the 3-level camp and try to gank top.”

“Got it. I’ll play a bit safe then.”

Jericho shared his path, and Latte made a favorable line for ganking.

“If you pull, we can catch him.”

“Ah, I couldn’t pull. But Lurly’s flash is down.”

Just as Coldog and Antenna were taking the lane advantage, an unexpected victory call rang out from the mid lane.

First Blood!

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