Chapter 185: Late Change (4)
"Ehehehe!"
"Invasion success!"
"Amazing! Amazing! Nice!"
"This'll be a great practice match!"
The five players from Green Tea Bagging hiding in the bush successfully invaded the three players. One player got away, but there wasn't much they could do about that. Their advantages would eventually play out as long as they returned to their respective lanes. If they got greedy and spent additional time here, they would lose experience points and gold from the minions.
'Or it could be even worse.'
GreenTea, a Master tier player, had much experience with greedy teammates wasting time, experience, and gold.
'It's a stupid thing to do.'
Obtaining gold and experience through minions and jungle monsters was a safe asset. Killing enemy champions, on the other hand, was a less reliable asset. A single enemy champion was worth about 30 to 40 minions in value. When a minion wave arrived, approximately 20 minions came together. The interval between minion waves was around 20 seconds. This meant that even if you comfortably killed only the minions from two waves within 40 seconds, you could gain more benefits than killing an enemy champion without any risks.
'40 seconds = one kill.'
That was the general formula.
'20 seconds = half a kill.'
Twenty seconds reduced it to half a kill.
What was the point of counting half a kill? Five enemy players were approaching him. If he managed to waste twenty seconds of their time, that was worth 2.5 kills.
From the perspective of Green Tea Bagging, twenty seconds of time wasting was already a waste. There were other complicated factors, but it was best simplified like that.
"Hey, everyone! Recall!"
GreenTea repeatedly emphasized that they needed to return.
[Recall]
[Remain out of combat for 8 seconds]
Woong...!
All the players whispered to each other as they recalled.
"Alright, everyone buy items and go to their lane—"
Pang!
A large mana explosion cut off GreenTea.
"Kugh!"
The gigantic machine, which was standing beside GreenTea, started to sway.
Creak...!
When the large robot swayed, the others screamed as well. The recall was canceled.
"W-What the!?"
GreenTea turned around in surprise.
'Is this guy crazy?'
Ran was running toward them with his blonde hair bouncing around. It was Almond.
'He's chasing five people on his own?'
He was chasing the five players who had turned their backs and let him live. If this was reality, it would have been a stupid choice. However, this was the battlefield and they were summoners. There was no point in being afraid for their lives.
'He's making a judgment like this...? Is he a Silver in the end?'
Crunch.
GreenTea crunched his teeth.
"Whatever. Get him!"
"Okay!"
Kugugng!
All of the teammates turned around. The blonde boy faced off against a giant beast and Sana. He stopped in his tracks.
'He stopped in his tracks as soon as we turned around...'
GreenTea could clearly tell Ran's intentions. Ran had no plans to kill them, but just wanted to keep them stalled.
'If it's like that...'
If Ran wanted to, he could delay all five of their recalls.
'Even if we can't catch him, we need to chase him away.'
They had to kill or threaten his life and chase him away.
***
OrangeKing was excitedly shouting, "Ah! Right now, Almond! Almond is blocking all five players by himself!?"
All five players turned around and faced off against Almond. Regardless of the situation, the scene visually provided a highly dramatic effect.
Kugugung...!
All five players started running. Since none of their range was as long as Ran's, even Sana started running while preparing her bow.
"T-The five of them are all running! They must be looking to get him, right!?"
"I'm curious to see how Almond's going to answer back..."
The analyst was also nervous as he fixed his red glasses. White light reflected off of his lenses.
Bzzzt.
Almond was collecting white mana at the tip of his thumb. The analyst's eyes widened.
"Is Almond choosing not to run away?"
"It seems that way!!"
OrangeKing spat everywhere in excitement.
"Is he going to show us something?!"
Was he going to do something in a 1 vs. 5 situation? Almond was only level 1 at the moment. The only difference was the skills of the players. OrangeKing's heart was pounding. If he could show them something here...
'Can he change the situation?'
OrangeKing's curiosity could be satisfied.
***
Bzzzt...!
White mana energy collected at the tip of Almond's hand. A small pistol silhouette formed on his left hand.
Bzzzt...
It flickered like a hologram that was out of battery. It was different from when he was using a bow. Then, a large bright bow shone.
'It's... difficult.'
Ran's figuration ability was difficult to use.
— Is this really going to work?
— Is he able to shoot?
— For Ran, every shot is important…
The viewers were worried watching Almond. Almond was collecting his thoughts.
'Breathe, aim, shoot.'
He was repeating these three steps over and over to himself.
'If I knew this would happen, I should've watched the shooting category more carefully.'
At the athletes' village, archers couldn't help but feel a sense of competition from the shooting athletes. To be more precise, it could have been a feeling of inferiority as firearms were considered superior weapons compared to bows and arrows. It was unfortunate, but some senior athletes would mock the archers for amusement. That was why Sang-Hyeon never bothered to learn their methods.
'But I've seen them a lot.'
Although he didn't learn from them due to the senior athletes' watchful eyes, Sang-Hyeon had observed them from a distance on numerous occasions. They would position their feet shoulder-width apart, aligning their shoulders with the target they were about to shoot. The shoulders, arms, gun, and gaze needed to be straight. Unlike archery, there was no process of pulling back a bowstring, so there was no need to exert force apart from supporting the gun.
Therefore, they seemed to minimize any unnecessary movement by relaxing the upper body as much as possible. The remaining hand would be placed in the pocket or rested on their pants. Otherwise, it would cause interference and disrupt their aim. That meant no upper body muscles were utilized for the task.
'Lastly, breathe...'
Once the posture was set, they would regulate their breathing. The principles of breathing were the same. They would exhale, leaving just the right amount of air. At the moment of release, they would pause precisely when they pulled the trigger. His trembling index finger straightened out.
Crack...!
The gun materialized into light and turned into a slightly brighter hue. Now, only the discharge remained.
'He deflected Tako's attack with the greatsword earlier...'
Almond slightly altered his aim depending on his target. He aimed toward the bottom left.
'There.'
The trigger on his left thumb slowly moved.
[Discharge]
Pang!
Ran's white mana fired. The air in the open field ripped apart, sending out a shockwave.
Kwaaaaang—
***
OrangeKing shouted, "He's shot it!"
Where was the white energy flying toward?
'Giant machine?!'
It was the giant machine. Clank pulled out its sword, ready to deflect the energy.
'If it's like this...'
The giant machine could deflect ranged attacks. Unless it was a champion like Raina who could fire multiple shots at once, it was the worst for Ran where every shot mattered.
However—
'The legs?'
The white energy was aimed toward the giant machine’s bottom right portion.
Pung!!!
It was the giant machine's shin. The bright white mana sparked everywhere.
“Kugh!”
“What the!?”
“You couldn't deflect that!??”
“Are you trolling?!”
Creak...
A large shock swayed the machine's legs.
"Judging from the voice chat, it seems like they're blaming the machine. But can anyone deflect that?"
"Ah... If it flew in that direction, it's impossible to deflect it. Maybe if he had his blade ready, knowing the arrow would fly there."
The analyst shook his head as if playing as the giant machine.
OrangeKing, on the other hand, raised his voice, "If it was soccer, he shot at the top right corner! It's incredible!"
The chat was filled with laughter, seeing their contrasted reactions.
"But does Almond know how the giant machine works? It was quite precise."
"I don't think that player has that kind of experience..."
"Then do you think he made that decision from seeing the earlier play? Whatever the case, team Green Tea Bagging is continuing to run! What about Almond?!"
Bzzt!
More white energy started collecting at the tip of Almond's hand.
"This isn't a replay! Is he shooting again? If there's one thing different, he's charging up while walking backward."
Almond was slowly moving backward while charging. He was moving slowly, but trying to extend the distance between the enemy.
"... This is dangerous. It's hard to shoot as Ran while moving unless you are shooting with one hand."
"He's already using one hand! Analyst, look!"
"Huh?"
The analyst took a closer look while fixing his red glasses.
"Yes! Really! Today, he's not using a bow! He has his right hand in his pocket!"
The analyst stared dumbfoundedly.
'He's right?'
He didn't notice because of how tense the situation was. Almond had one hand in his pocket while showing an impressive performance. The scene was impressive and even more provocative seeing him like that.
'What a guy!'
He couldn't help but be impressed.
"So he hit the corner of the leg while only using one arm?"
"That's right!"
"... Wow."
Almond's skills were almost unbelievable. Ran's attacks caused a lot of recoils and hit heavily, but he could pull it off with one hand. It wasn't just the analyst who had this reaction.
— One hand in his pocket is so cool
— Why's he shooting like that? Is he making fun of them?
— Damn!
— He's like a real sniper
— He's using two weapons?
— He's a little worse with a pistol.
— Does Almond have two balls? How's he so good?
The viewers were also surprised to see Almond change his style. Even though there would be questions about why he did it that way, the fact that the two styles were assimilated was undoubtedly a remarkable achievement.
"Whether it's one hand or two hands! That's not important right now! The giant machine's HP is below 25%!? Then Ran's specialty one shot might happen!"
"That's why the giant machine is hesitating. Green Tea Bagging is in chaos right now. You can tell just from the voice chat."
The analyst turned on the voice chat.
“Hey, I'm about to die?”
“Why's your HP so low?”
“You can't even deflect that!?”
“How the hell am I supposed to deflect that!?”
“Almond's running away! Hey! Stop fighting!”
“Sigh. If the machine can't deflect, what's the point of having you?!”
“Just focus on killing Almond!”
“Almond is running away!”
“Just run! It's already too late!”
“I'm dying!”
“Then move, so we can go!”
— A clusterfuck
— It's not the machine's fault!
— It's hard to see from their perspective.
"LIL is a battle of mentality as well. Judging from this, we can already say Almond is carrying the team."
OrangeKing looked as if he was saying, 'I told you so.'
"In LIL, we have to see how it plays out."
"You're still not agreeing with me? Didn't you see Almond's judgment?"
"Hmph... Let's wait and see. Green Tea Bagging's advantage is still there."
"Is that so? If they drag on like this... usually the mid comes down to help!"
Right after he finished his sentence, Miho came out from the bush.
Fwoosh!
She picked ForeverAlone's main champion, Solia. Solia had an ability where she could charge forward using her flaming energy.
"Judging by how she leveled up the charge skill first thing, it seems like she's committing!"
Kwagwagwang!
As the raging inferno passed, it divided the enemy's formation in half. The enemies concentrated their fire on Miho, but almost all of their attacks missed. Both Miho's skills and their attacks were evaded. Even if one of Miho's flames missed, it remained on the ground and blazed fiercely. The enemy's machine gun was blocked by the flames, unable to join the rest of their teammates.
'Even if it burns, we have to pass.'
They made the decision to converge even if they were damaged. However, this was the third time they hesitated. In LIL, these hesitations were unforgiving.
Pung!
[Enemy eliminated!]
[LazySoldier -> Pickle]
"Ah! P-Pickle?!"
Pickle was the player playing as the Giant Machine.
"T-The giant machine died!"
"Ah..."
"Almond has pulled it off and killed him! Incredible! He's stalled five players and even managed to kill one! What's going on!?"