[TS] Malicious Sniper

A personality that can’t concentrate on one thing for long.

It’s just how I was born.

Even when playing a new game that’s really fun, I get bored quickly. Such a useless style of personality in life.

But despite having this personality, there’s one game that draws me back—League of Legends.

That’s why.

The reason I started watching Curry’s broadcasts again.

After that incident, I tried not to watch for a while.

Like a smoker who couldn’t quit, I eventually began to watch Curry’s broadcasts again.

But I didn’t log in with the flower shop owner or Barcode’s account.

I didn’t want to attract unnecessary attention while the heat of the controversy was still simmering, so I watched without logging in.

Days passed, and more days went by.

And so time flowed like water.

Now that the buzz around ‘Barcode’ had cooled down to the point where it was mentioned jokingly in broadcasts,

If Barcode, who had gone silent, chose to strike back at Curry now,

Wouldn’t it fan the ember into a massive blaze?

I couldn’t help but watch from a distance.

…Even while thinking that way.

[Nayun Queen mk 2]

The sight of me nurturing a side account with such a nickname made me laugh out loud.

“Man, I really… must be insane.”

After a moment of introspection, I waited for Curry’s broadcast to start.

I knew well how absurd it was for me to impersonate myself and snipe Curry,

Yet despite that, I couldn’t stop thinking about the excitement of what would happen afterward.

So I put Nayun Queen mk 2 in the same tier and score as Curry, and waited for the broadcast to start. Soon enough, Curry’s broadcast began.

Familiar progression.

Familiar reactions.

And thus began the promotion match of an unknowable season.

During that time, snipers who shared the same thought as I did impersonated ‘Nayun Queen’ to snipe,

But those who sniped just to grab attention showed worse skills than Curry and lost.

While I was about to time my snipe, I belatedly discovered that Curry had vanished from my sniper account’s friend list,

But it didn’t matter since I had a history of successful sniping under Nayun Queen from the beginning.

As I waited, Curry’s master promotion match was at a 2-2 state.

How fun would it be to snipe the last match and drop them from the promotion series?

People say we find pleasure in others’ pain; clearly, that statement holds some truth.

Feeling a bit guilty, I was just waiting for Curry to queue up when suddenly,

Curry started picking up the atmosphere and began to talk.

To summarize his words:

He was telling me to snipe him.

The moment I heard that, I had one thought.

Curry must be as crazy as I am.

After finishing his story, Curry started queuing,

And I pressed the match button at the same time.

After about a minute of waiting,

The match was finally made.

Since we hadn’t met on the same team,

Curry had to be on the enemy team.

Comparing the ban lists on both the broadcast screen and mine, I was certain.

I had succeeded in sniping Curry’s last master promotion match.

And so the game began, and I called Curry on Discord.

“Curry, are you regretting this?”

After a long silence, Curry chuckled lightly and answered softly.

“Nope, not at all.”

*

After my long-awaited survival report took the form of a sniper in Curry’s master promotion match,

It stirred quite the buzz around me.

Considering that there was chatter about me without even needing to check, it seemed the incident had become more of a topic than I thought.

Well, Curry had already uploaded the sniper clip to his channel, so it’d be stranger if there wasn’t any talk about me.

In one sentence, the situation could be summarized as: ‘All the attention was drawn towards me.’

But the one who was the center of that attention was taking a break, so naturally, Curry was bearing the brunt of it instead of me.

The ‘malicious fandom’ that had come from here and there was something Curry couldn’t possibly handle alone.

Curry even asked me to do a comeback broadcast, so one could imagine how tough it was for him.

But I wasn’t the type to simply comply with such requests; if he came at me like that, I’d only make it worse.

So I deliberately kept my broadcast off and drew attention from Curry’s channel with Barcode’s account.

“Ah, damn… if it wasn’t for the enemy jungle…”

Right before taking a solo kill, the enemy jungle swooped in and stole it.

At that moment, Curry naturally started droning on about ‘jungle difference,’

And I couldn’t help but start typing on my keyboard.

[Barcode(zxcv1234): Looks like you’ve quickly devolved into an ape after pretending to be human.]

[LOL]

[Welcome, Barcode.]

[Turn on the stream already!!!]

[So satisfying~]

[Choking back tears]

[Stop with the unfair accusations~]

“Nah, Barcode. Just look at our jungle. We’re dominating the lane matchups but walking right into the enemy jungle’s camp. The top needs to be taken down within 3 minutes so they can give up! Anyone cursing me here is just a fake top. It’s a lack of empathy! Have some empathy!”

Dude, that was the solo kill you just lost.

The enemy jungle just swooped in.

I couldn’t hold back against the guy who was pinning the blame on someone else and logged in as the flower shop owner.

{ Flower Shop Owner donated 100,000 won. }

– Please just go die, Curry.

“Oh! The Flower Shop Owner just donated 100,000 won! Thank you so much!”

His furious face instantly morphed into a bright one at the sight of the donation.

Seeing that, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was deliberately acting to encourage donations.

Still, I was satisfied that I got to release a bit of pent-up frustration under the guise of a donation.

[Hahaha]

[He’s obviously been emotionally manipulated ㅋㅋ]

[??? : Mission accomplished]

[Curry is just trying to collect money, isn’t he?]

[With that look of disdain, hmmm…]

[What kind of anger made you punch in 100,000 won…]

[Look at the corner of his mouth lifting up ㅋㅋ]

[Hey, are you laughing?]

Curry’s solo queue broadcast continued as usual, and I kept drawing attention while tormenting him.

However, the more I did that, a mysterious feeling began to creep up inside me.

Was it a kind of guilt?

Even if Curry forgave my past snipes, looking back, that leniency was possible only because he was Curry.

If he were just an ordinary streamer,

He would have probably either quit streaming years ago or utterly hated me.

In a way, I was doing to Curry exactly what those I hated did to me.

“I’ll end the broadcast here for today.”

[Kaba]

[Kaba]

[I just got here]

[Why are you ending so early today?]

[Kaba]

When I snapped out of my deep thoughts, the melody that played whenever Curry ended his broadcast filled the air.

Honestly, seeing him struggling alone was so pitiful it made me want to laugh.

Feeling guilty was a horribly hypocritical double standard for someone like me.

I thought about the days I had vowed to change after that day, but now here I was, feeling guilt over something that wasn’t too far in the past.

How could I possibly express these complicated feelings?

Maybe playing a game would help clear my mind. Just as I pondered that, the icon for a broadcasting program caught my eye.

After avoiding it for so long, I finally reached for my phone to text Curry saying I’d go live again and hope he would watch.

I moved my gaze to the screen and, after a long time, turned on the broadcast.

I switched the waiting screen to the broadcast screen and started playing music, waiting for people to gather.

[??? What’s this?]

[Huh!]

[What’s going on that the broadcast is on?]

[It’s morning right now, am I dreaming or something?]

[It’s night right now, what’s this about?]

[‘The real’ ones are saying it’s morning right now.]

[For a moment, I doubted my eyes, ㅋㅋ]

[Is this a hack or something?]

As the music neared its end, I decided it was time to speak, thinking enough viewers had gathered.

“It’s not a hack, everyone. It’s been a while, right?”

[Curry’s broadcast is afflicted by the malicious sniper, Barcode!]

[I guess since there was no notice, I should break through the challenger rank… right?]

[I missed you, sister ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]

[(Fumbling)]

[Ugh]

[The streamer Barcode must explain his irresponsible break!]

What kind of way to open this would work?

After a moment’s thought, I spoke up.

“Most of you know, but I’m the person who’s been sniping Curry for years now.”

“The reason I’m bringing this up now is that I just wanted to say it.”

“I know Curry has forgiven me, but I’ll admit I deserved all the hate.”

“I don’t want to make excuses; this is my karma, so if you hate this part of me…”

Ding

A sudden donation sound interrupted my confession.

Who in the world would donate at such a timing?

Glancing at the message, immediately ready to ban the one that had written something strange, I shifted my gaze.

{ Curry donated 100,000 won. }

– Your broadcast is boring, stop the backtrack and just play solo queue!

I almost burst into laughter.

[The revenge of a gentleman ㄷㄷ]

[Kya, that’s Curry for you!]

[Wow, that’s refreshing ㅋㅋ]

[Curry has more experience in streaming!]

[This is some solid mirroring behavior lol]

[The mirror therapy effect is clear!]

Seeing the audience respond to Curry’s donation messages,

I realized that this serious mood wasn’t really fitting for me.

Right.

It’s been a while since I returned,

And it would be better to show something entertaining rather than just dragging this boring conversation.

The problem was that this was a broadcast I had thoughtlessly started, and my plan was to end after explaining and announcing.

And naturally, this plan didn’t include anything entertaining.

What could I do here to make the audience happy with this broadcast?

Without any filtering process, I blurted out what popped into my mind.

“How about I do a solo queue king challenge to apologize?”

[Seriously?]

[Can you really reach rank 1?]

[That statement…]

[Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!]

[If Barcode can do it, he can do anything!]

[Wait, if he stays up all week playing, he might actually reach it!]

As soon as I said it, I sensed something was off, but it was too late to take back my words.

With the solo queue rank 1 declaration, I could visibly see the anticipation in the audience grow.

If I were to cancel that promise now, wouldn’t it lead me to a worse outcome for a different reason?

[Are you scared?]

[Not even Barcode could reach rank 1…]

[Honestly, it seems impossible.]

[Let’s agree to deal with Zerotwo!]

[Zerotwo, let’s go!]

[What’s Zerotwo?]

I was confused by the word that was being spammed in the chat.

I looked up Zerotwo and grimaced.

Did I really look like that?

I despised what I saw in the camera.

“Ugh, damn.”

I imagined myself shaking my waist while doing that horrid dance.

Even if I were a woman, I would never do such a dance.

If I ever did, I would definitely do it in a room where no one could see me and just for a fleeting three seconds before sinking into self-loathing.

“Seriously, you want me to do this? Are you kidding me?”

Was my audience actually sincere in wanting me to do that dance?

I questioned, unamused.

[??]

[Wow wow wow]

[Every man’s dream, you know]

[That tone of contempt is mad!]

[Hahaha]

[How about a cosplay? A prom night E-boy look?]

[Scared?]

[Nah, if I reach rank 1, I won’t have to do it, right? Haha!]

The viewers shot back, seemingly enjoying my serious question.

Generally speaking, if a streamer starts to speak seriously, the audience tends to respond with ‘Don’t cross the line, guys.’

What the hell kind of viewers were these that they tortured the streamer this much?

Ding

{ Curry donated 50,000 won. }

– If you fail the solo queue king challenge, let’s do Zerotwo~

[Let’s go!]

[Let’s go, let’s go!]

[You’re so annoying ㅋㅋ]

[This guy isn’t taking it seriously!]

[Honestly, I’d really like to see Nayun Queen do Zerotwo, yup!]

With Curry’s donation sharpening the public opinion towards that side, I gritted my teeth.

Even though I was trying my best not to make noise, a sound slipped out.

Alright.

So this is how it is, huh?

“Fine. But if I succeed, Curry has to do Zerotwo!”

[Curry(toptop0630): ???]

[This is it!]

[Curry took a hit for being too cheeky, lol]

[Barcode is like a wild animal, eek!]

[How would a guy do Zerotwo? Haha!]

[He’s definitely going to be punished for that!]

Successfully shifting the public opinion in my favor, I smiled slightly.

“Shall we start now?”

All of this was for Curry’s Zerotwo.

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