Chapter 124: Normal Match (1)
There was a new post on LIL's biggest community, LIL Pro.
[Beginner archer Almond's Raina tutorial.jpg]
It wasn't even a gif, just a screenshot. However, it displayed the situation well enough. In the screenshot were the many targets that Raina put up.
— How many targets is that?
— Is that a bug?
— Big pro~
— Big pro!
— Is that really the tutorial?
└ Judging from the soldier minions outfit, it looks like the tutorial.?
— Are there a lot of targets to train him? Isn't there supposed to be a time limit?
└ It's probably different depending on how close you are to the champion.
└ To have that many targets, you'd need to reach almost maximum rapport.
— Ah, it's Almond. Is this the guy? That beat JeonJaPa?
└ STFU, what do you mean by he beat him!?
└ VNS means nothing. It's like saying holding your breath longer is swimming better.
└ I heard he beat his diamond record too.
└ STFU, that's because JeonJaPa didn't take it seriously.
└ Suck-up! Suck-up! Suck-up!
All the comments thought it was interesting as well. Of course, it eventually turned into a fight with the JeonJaPa fandom like usual, but the results were good regardless.
[Big 195] [Lil 6]
The post made it to the big pro section of the website and received 195 bigs. Ju-Hyeok was confused by the new terminology.
"Big…? Lil?"
The lil used in this context was slang for the word little. Little was a thumbs down, whereas big was a thumbs up.
Any posts that received many bigs from users were bumped up to the big pro section, which was the trending posts.
"It's complicated."
Every gaming community had its own terminology and definitions, which made it difficult to keep up with.
"Well, as long as we made it to the big pro section."
All in all, Ju-Hyeok's plan was a success.
[They're talking about Almond in LIL Pro.]
The one who made the post reach big pro was Ju-Hyeok himself. He announced it to Battle31 and KAF, where most of Almond's fans were when he discovered the post mentioning Almond.
Afterwards, Almond's fans swarmed in and gave the post bigs, which allowed it to reach the big pro category.
"Alright, they're still there."
Ju-Hyeok smiled at the fact Almond's fanbase was still active.
Someone could ask, ‘Was this fraud? This isn't fair!’
But that didn't matter. The world of community forums was like a jungle, and Ju-Hyeok knew that. It was survival of the fittest. The post that stayed alive became a hot topic! Meanwhile, Almond was thrown into a different type of jungle.
***
"Ah, fuck. He's Level 1?"
It was the first thing he heard as soon as he entered the waiting lobby. An ally was complaining because of his low level.
'Wow.'
He expected the start to be hostile.
— Oh shit
— Look at his pose. Is he Darth Vader?
— Bro, it's a normal match...
— Shut your mouth...
— Everybody shout! Stop!
The player beside him added, "Yeah, fuck. How unlucky."
"Sigh. I guess it's normal, but what kind of shitty queue is this?"
In LIL, the players couldn't see each other's faces. Only the user could look at themselves, whereas the others could only see the champions they chose to play as.
Even if they knew who Almond was, they couldn't recognize him because his current nickname was Lazy Soldier.
"Hey, you! Lazy Soldier or whatever, just go support."
Almond was surprised by the tone of their voice. He was so shocked that he didn't even have time to feel insulted.
'So, is this LIL?'
It was a given to start by cursing and commanding others in this game. The surprising thing was that this was considered good manners.
As they say,?‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ Almond had no choice but to follow these rules. He had to say something strong in response...
‘Sang-Hyeon! You're too nice for a guy who plays sports, huh? You can be nice, but not during the game! Alright, repeat after me, ____! ___!’
Sang-Hyeon never had the opportunity to take his soccer player senior's advice since he stopped being an athlete. Now that he thought about it, LIL was similar to a team game like soccer. Sang-Hyeon decided to try using the advice after ten years.
"____! ___!"
Boom!
Almond closed his eyes and locked in Raina right away. He felt strange, but good at the same time. It seemed like the viewers thought the same.
— LOL
— So satisfying!
— Wow, this is my first time seeing Almond swear.
— So this is what you were like in school!
— Damn...
— This is the alpha male!
— So refreshing! Show them who the alpha is!
— Damn, it feels like I'm back to my school days, boss.
"Stop!"
The lobby went silent because the others didn't expect a Level 1 user to talk back.
"..."
The only thing that could be heard was Raina's cold voice.
[Picking me again? I commend your courage.]
The bright blue bow, Demien, was given to Almond and a blue cape wrapped around him.
“Raina?”
“Did he just pick Raina?”
His allies mumbled as they saw him picking Raina... but nobody said anything else thanks to the soccer player's advice. Instead, the others cursed at the ones who insulted Almond.
"You fuckers, you should've just kept your mouth shut. Now look, he picked Raina. It's just norms anyways."
"Yeah, I'll just go support. Anyways, Raina is a hard champion. I wonder if he picked her because of how she looks."
Everyone started to pick their roles as the game was about to begin. Almond was also annoyed with the rude duo, but decided to focus on the game for now.
'Let's just focus on my gameplay for now.'
This was just a normal game. The match was for him to practice his gameplay. Winning or losing wasn't as important. After he thought about it like that, he felt much more comfortable.
"Everyone picked their roles?"
"Yes."
"Let's go."
Everyone finished their preparations.
Boom. Boom.
A nerve-wracking music began to play.
[Entering the battle in 5 seconds!]
[5]
Everything turned to darkness.
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
Shaaa...!
Suddenly, a bright white light shined in his eyes. Then tall mountains and a clean river stream greeted him.
“Kraaawr!”
He even heard the cry of a dragon, an epic monster.
'It's starting.'
[Welcome to the battlefield!]
It was the start of his first battle.
***
Once they were in the match, the players became quiet. They were busy heading to their top, mid, and jungle lines.
Almond was playing as the ADC (Attack Damage Carry), which played a role in inflicting damage from a distance. He was located at the bottom of the map.
ADCs had high damage, but they were weak early game. Hence, they had a support summoner with them to help them early on. The support followed him to the bottom lane.
"Hey, Mr. Low-Level," the support running alongside Almond to the bottom lane was the first to talk.
"Yes?"
"You know how to leash the jungle, right?"
‘Jungle leash?’
He didn't know. He only knew from watching the videos.
The support asked a rhetorical question, expecting Almond not to know. Almond just silently nodded. The support further explained, thinking Almond wasn't sure.
"Follow me. Leashing is helping the jungler kill the monster early on, so they can gank or counter jungle quicker."
"Ah..."
There were several new terminology in that one sentence.
'It's like my first day of work.'
He felt like this when he started working and learning an entirely new vocabulary. These terms were alien to him.
Thankfully, Sang-Hyeon watched countless?LIL?videos before today. (The problem was that they were videos of Bubblegum!)
Still, he knew what role the jungler was. It was a role that didn't have a fixed lane and roamed around the forests hunting the monsters instead.
The jungler leveled up by killing these monsters and helped their teammates by infiltrating their lanes. This was called ganking.
Leashing was the act of helping the jungler kill the monster easily early on to make ganking easier. The supporter was explaining it to Almond.
"Alright, we just wait here for the monster to come out. I'll get hit while Mr. Soldier, you’ll attack."
— Mr. Soldier LOL
— What a nickname
— What a weird name for a person LOL
— Soldier haha
— Open your eyes, Mr. Soldier!
"Ah... Yes."
Almond waited until the monster came out.
"How many times do I have to hit it?"
"Just enough so it doesn't die. The jungler needs to get the money and exp. We need to run to our line and get it too, so don't kill it."
The support continued to explain nicely. Almond liked this support.
"Alright."
The jungler was the friend of the top liner who ignored Almond earlier, but Almond decided to help him out because of the nice support.
[Sumin has registered a mission!]
[Oppa! Let's go for our first victory! Fighting!]
[First Victory] [100,000 won]
Almond pressed his right temple to mute his in-game mic and thanked the donor.
"Oh, Sumin, thank you for the mission. I'll try to win."
The support stared at him strangely, seeing his mouth move. However, this was usually the way players whispered to each other.
"Alright, it's coming out."
Kugugugung…!
As the ground shook, it collapsed and turned into dirt. Suddenly, three wolves the size of a house came out.
[Grey Wolf]
It was the monster that the jungler needed to kill. The jungler backed off to let the support take the hit. The support who picked a tank champion charged forward with a shining shield.
“Grrrr!!”
The wolves glared at them and pierced the support's shield with their teeth.
Slam!
Then…
"Alright! Let’s go in!"
The jungler beheaded the wolf with dual-wielding axes.
Slice!
"Hey! Mr. Low-Level, shoot!" the jungler shouted as he swung his axe.
[Targeting]
He heard Raina's voice and saw several small targets appear on the wolf.
[I made it specially for you.]
'Why is it so small?'
Was it because the wolf was big? He was confused, but the targets were as big as a human thumb.
The easy targets were gone because the tutorial was over.
However, there were a good amount of targets at around fifteen. Every time he hit a target, his attack would increase and the explosions also grew.
'Alright, he said right before it dies.'
Almond decided to hit half of the targets. He readied his bow.
Bzzzzt...!
A blue arrow formed in his hands.
Pang!
The first shot was fired.
Pung!
The tiny target exploded in the center.
"... What?"
The supporter holding the shield couldn't close his mouth.
'He hit the target in one hit?'
A Level 1 player hit Raina's target, notorious for her difficulty, and a tiny one at that.
'Raina's targets get smaller as the amount increases... fifteen is just...'
The fact that Raina gave fifteen targets didn't make sense. Raina only gave around two targets to low-level players because it became smaller as the number of targets increased.
Every LIL user had probably heard,?'You idiot, you're lucky I'm even giving you two targets.'?How small were those targets though?
The jungler wanted to take a closer look at the size of the target, but didn't have a chance.
Puuung!
Meanwhile, another target disappeared.
Pung!
Pubung!
Pububung!
Suddenly, four targets disappeared.
"Huh... huh?!"
The targets kept blowing up.
Pung! Pubububng!
Another three, then another five more.
"W-Wait, at this rate..."
The wolf's HP was instantly reduced as if it was a bug. The jungler quickly hurled their axe after returning to their senses.
Swoosh!
The only thing that the axe struck was the end of the wolf's grey fur.
Chiiik...
The wolf was collapsing.
"Krawwwr...!" the wolf's cry echoed out and it died.
"... Huh?"
Almond was confused. This wasn't supposed to happen. He was only supposed to bring it to the brink of death.
[Level up!]
Instead of the jungler, Almond leveled up. Almond killed the monster instead of the jungler. It all happened so fast that there was nothing he could do. Normally, the jungler would get upset. However, he reacted differently seeing how ridiculous the situation was.
"H-How did you do that, sir?"
— LOL He's suddenly so polite.
— Hahahaha
— Almond killed the wolf in like one second?!
[WildChanho has donated 10,000 won!]
[Almond, the consecutive shooter!]
[PassingCamel has donated 10,000 won!]
[The tongue extension surgery is complete! ^^]