[TS] Malicious Sniper

The news of the collaboration stream by the team ‘Curry Breaker’ formed by Jericho has become a major issue.

Five streamers, who usually rank among the top-tier corporations, are uniting for the Platform Tournament?

Just like how value changes due to rarity, the unexpected assembly of these five streamers has drawn enormous interest.

It’s to the point where Curry, the viewer count of the so-called President of League of Legends streaming, has dropped to more than half of his usual numbers.

This level of interest indicates that those keen on League of Legends and streaming have tuned into the broadcasts of the streamers belonging to Team ‘Curry Breaker’.

Among them, the overwhelmingly popular stream was, of course, the broadcast of Barcode, the only female challenger.

However, an overwhelming viewership isn’t always a good thing.

Like bugs attracted to a flower exuding a fancy and sweet fragrance,

the excessive attention can instead act as poison.

[What kind of confidence is it to blind-pick Gilius and then pick Talon as a counter? LOL]

[What a ridiculous pick! Is this really a challenger? Did she get boosted?]

[Gilius is good against AP, but definitely not weak against AD;]

[Information: All those girls who claim they are challengers were all boosted by ‘Oppas.’]

[A Gilius with Aftershock can dominate the trade even if he just uses E when Talon comes in. Are you an idiot?]

[I knew she was just pretending to make a mistake to attract aggro. Cyber slut, tsk tsk.]

[How much did you pay for the boost? Oh, did you just give it to him outright?]

Usually, Barcode’s toxic viewers would clean up the trolls who are obviously here to stir trouble.

But with the recent collaboration news, an influx of disruptive chatters quickly filled the chatroom.

During this time, Curry was also streaming, so the managers of his chat room were absent.

The chatroom had essentially become a lawless zone with no control or rules whatsoever.

‘…’

I just looked at the messages appearing in the chatroom and took no action to enforce any penalty.

While things were spiraling into chaos, I passively observed the filthy chatroom.

Once, I felt malice towards people like me.

Always, the devils wearing the masks of people who released deep-seated malice toward me came to mind.

Nausea surged within me, forcing me to close my mouth to contain my insides.

The ones I called friends and fathers.

Those who taught me that inflicting pain on others was the norm.

If it were the old me, I would have thought that was just how it was.

But now, it wasn’t.

After calming my insides, I held my breath and focused.

In that brief moment of contemplation, the ban-pick phase had ended, and we were in the loading screen.

The way to silence those who cursed me was simple.

Proving my skill here so they couldn’t utter nonsense.

I did it once before, what made anyone think I couldn’t do it again?

And thus, the game began.

*

Receiving the schedule from Curry and confirming it, the Wandering Swordsman logged into the platform.

Uninterested in other games, the Wandering Swordsman set the category to ‘League of Legends’ and sorted the streams by viewer count ascending.

No surprise, the top channel on the sorted streaming list was Barcode’s.

The title was simply ‘Team Collaboration’, but it had a staggering viewer count of 40,000.

Realizing once again how popular Barcode truly was, the Wandering Swordsman entered the channel.

The first thing that caught his eye was a chatroom filled with bitter malice.

Words like prostitute, slut, booster, gold digger, bitch, queen bee, sexual harassment, absurd unsolicited advice, and other masked criticisms.

He couldn’t help but doubt whether this was a normal situation, and the Wandering Swordsman soon figured out why.

Even with such blatant crossing of lines, there was no enforcement taking place.

Even when glancing at the viewer list, there were no managers present; not even a single chat bot.

Those who had flocked to Barcode’s stream revealed their ugly, vile nature that they had kept hidden until now.

They entered the controversial streamer’s broadcast and busily tore others down, hiding behind the disgusting mask of anonymity.

Jealous of others’ success.

Joining in and crossing the line without any repercussions,

that’s how this situation had come to be.

At least, that’s what the Wandering Swordsman thought.

The chatroom that made him feel nausea just by looking was now hidden from view as he shifted his gaze to the broadcast screen.

Inside the stream, Barcode’s Talon was actively trading with Gilius, who had strong wave-clearing at level one.

As a result, both Talon and Gilius found their health below half.

Gilius, barely holding on, moved forward to clear three ranged minions simultaneously.

In the meantime, Talon quickly cleared a close-range minion to reach level two.

It was a common scenario for Talon to get a kill at level two, and Gilius was aware of this timing.

While Talon was cleaning up the close-range minions, Gilius had already cleared the three ranged minions.

Suddenly, as Gilius leveled up, Barcode’s Talon launched his W.

As the momentarily returning W hit Gilius,

Barcode’s Talon used Flash to rapidly engage for a combo of basic attacks and Ignite.

Gilius, using Flash to escape too late, couldn’t endure the passive bleed damage and Ignite’s dot damage, ultimately falling.

[First Blood!]

“…What speed.”

The Wandering Swordsman wished he could rewind the moment he just witnessed.

A kill only Barcode could achieve, one only she could execute.

If Talon didn’t use his Flash when Gilius flashed too,

and if he hadn’t anticipated his death,

there was no way to resist even if the opponent was a challenger.

An astonishing First Blood by Barcode’s Talon left the Wandering Swordsman speechless.

He made the chatroom, previously hidden, visible again.

And checked the messages that had just previously seemed repulsive.

[Freaking braindead bronze players getting all butthurt because a girl outplayed them is disgusting, LOL.]

[I’ve captured all the guys who made sexual harassment and personal attacks!]

[Let’s report those to Barcode later!]

[Looks like the chatroom got a bit cleaner after reporting to the platform.]

[The disruptive trolls have almost vanished!]

[Ugh… so sexy when she shows off her skills…]

[After Barcode picked up the solo kill, those mouths were shut, LOL.]

[Is this a miracle where the managers actually do their jobs?]

[For real, LOL. First time seeing the platform admins actually doing something.]

[Ugh… girl…]

[So satisfying seeing those disruptive trolls’ mouths sewn shut!]

[That level two kill by Talon was pure art.]

[My Talon can’t do that… is it a bug?]

[That’s because you…]

[Your fingers are the bug, LOL.]

Upon seeing the chatroom return to its original state, the Wandering Swordsman unknowingly felt a sense of pride.

He continued watching Barcode’s stream without even checking the schedule that Curry had given him.

*

During the preseason, I researched numerous build paths.

Not limited to the champion Yone, but also regarding the champions I mainly use.

With so many new and changing items, the fun of researching was delightful, and during that process, I discovered another build path that would follow in the footsteps of Yone’s broken itemization.

[No way to stop this.]

Two mid-solo kills.

Two jungle kills.

A total of four kills, and I headed towards my next target in the bot lane without a break.

“Please tell me the enemy bot spells.”

“The enemy Varus has all spells, but Ruler has no spells!”

“Start the fight now and respond!”

After the urgent briefing, Antenna, aware of my position, initiated the battle.

Antenna’s Thresh hooked Ruler, and at the moment Ruler’s ult was down, I leaped over the wall.

Thinking he was about to die, Varus immediately used Flash to create distance when I suddenly appeared.

Yet with both spells and skills used, Ruler was left helpless as he faded into gray under the triad of our assaults.

Sensing the danger of a turret dive, enemy Varus tried to retreat immediately.

But I used Flash to close the distance, then hastened it with Gale, and finished off the defenseless Varus with a Q-R-W auto-attacks combo.

“That’s just insane, I saw that earlier too.”

“It’s not even Yone, how is he closing the distance…”

Jericho and Antenna, each in disbelief, muttered a remark.

“But didn’t I just do well in that situation? ”

“Please read the room, you asshole.”

As Antenna reprimanded the slow-on-the-uptake Coldog, I confirmed that I had accumulated quite a stack of gold and returned home for resupply.

To rapidly build up my snowball, I picked up boots and Youmuu’s Ghostblade.

Having completed my two-core items by 15 minutes into the game, I roamed freely, continuing a one-sided slaughter.

“Latte, get ready for a dive.”

“I-I’m not old enough to be called an uncle…”

“Respond right now!”

Ignoring Latte’s words, I demanded a response.

Latte, who had picked Ornn for team fights, used his ultimate a beat earlier than my entry timing.

As the tower began to focus on Ornn, the enemy was stunned by the initiation.

After jumping over the wall, I rapidly finished off the enemies using the legendary item, ‘Gale’.

Gale allowed spell casting during dash, enabling the ridiculous combo of Gale’s W-Q-R basic attack.

Of course, Gale was primarily a mythic item for ranged DPS, but the damage loss was negligible even when built on Talon.

The advantage of this Gale build is the insane assassination potential through the long-distance engages which were previously the only drawbacks of Talon.

That essentially rendered the previous shortcomings of Talon irrelevant.

The impact of introducing this Gale Talon from scrims was truly overwhelming.

“Jericho, go in while rotating lens.”

“I’m not a bait, you know…”

“Eh? What did you say?”

“…Never mind.”

Jericho, who was about to say something, sealed his lips and blindly charged towards the ping Barcode threw.

Having become a living ward, Jericho spotted Kassadin lurking around.

“Here’s Kassadin…”

[The Conqueror of the Battlefield!]

Before Jericho’s briefing could finish, Barcode’s Talon dashed over the wall, swiftly eliminating Kassadin.

Even if Kassadin tried to widen the gap with Flash, escaping Talon was futile.

Turning into a ghost using his passive, Kassadin could only helplessly watch as Talon faded away.

After that, even masters and challengers fell prey to the baffling Gale Talon for the first time.

The game became nothing but a one-sided massacre perpetrated by Talon.

[Avatar of Battle!]

[Double Kill!]

…

…

…

[Enemy eliminated!]

[Triple Kill!]

“What did I just witness?”

Once the laning phase ended and the game’s balance shattered, Latte found himself with the time to finally take a good look at the map and gasped at the carnage posed by Barcode’s Talon.

The sight of Barcode single-handedly killing three foes instantly was so absurd it could not merely be explained by superior mechanics, rendering disbelief inevitable.

“What do you mean by ‘what’?”

Jericho remarked with a smirk, trying to suppress a laugh.

[Finishing Touch!]

“She’s our team ace.”

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