Chapter 198
Spoon said he absolutely wouldn't fight.
This was something you could sense without getting a direct answer.
First, you could tell by the hero picks.
I'm not talking about Dual Pistol Luke.
Dual Pistol Luke isn't exactly a passive early-game pick.
But the hero the enemy support Gongbeolle chose, Mother Lea.
She's a hero with a position similar to the Saintess of Radiance, belonging to the same faction as Kael.
'The more she heals...'
Fighting isn't advantageous.
To be precise, she's good at simple trades. Her sustain is a strength.
But in an all-out fight where one side dies, not just trading blows, she's at a disadvantage.
In other words, she's a hero whose effectiveness skyrockets if given time.
To counter that, you need to end their life before they get the time to keep healing—that's what Lumi has to do.
That's why they picked her.
However.
'If they really commit to not fighting no matter what, there's nothing you can do.'
It's easy for Spoon to play passively to the point where Seojun can't make any plays.
All he has to do is not make mistakes, control well, and simply not respond to fights.
It's a limitation that arises because he's playing a hero called Eric, bound by the specs set in the game.
So what should he do here?
The answer came quickly.
What the enemy wants is stable farming.
He's confident in that, which is why he's actually happy Seojun came to the bottom lane.
Then you just stop him from farming.
How?
"Go ahead and shoot, I said."
If you fire two bullets, why not just block them both?
One with a basic attack, like they've been doing to each other.
The other with a skill—the Chain of Destruction summoned 3 seconds later.
-Stopping his growth?
-lol did he just block a bullet with a chain? A fluke?
-The captain's skills are back!
-Yeah, that's a lesson for someone who uses cheap tricks like telepathy
-But can he do it again? He's Eric lol
Even if Seojun just succeeded, it couldn't be dismissed as a mere fluke.
Because it's the Chain of Destruction. Because Seojun had to predict 3 seconds ahead.
Most importantly.
-Even if you can time it, how do you aim it?
-Didn't you just see him hit it?
-That's because it was the first time it happened to him
-It's different now
You can time it. When a minion's health will drop, and when the enemy will attack for the last hit—that's simple.
It's not for nothing that they say to aim for the moment the enemy hits a minion as an opening to trade.
Because it's so obvious. And the reason you have to give them that timing, even knowing it, is because of the minion last hit.
A laner can never resist a minion last hit.
But timing your skill doesn't mean your prediction succeeds.
Spoon would have made the same calculation.
Spoon raised his gun. He concentrated his magic power and mentally formed a bullet.
Then he declared to Seojun.
"Fine. Let's see you try."
He didn't sound particularly confident. Maybe because Seojun had already gotten him.
The fact that Spoon had to take the minion right now didn't change.
Currently, Seojun had two melee minions remaining and three ranged minions alive.
Both melee minions in front were near death.
From Seojun's perspective, Spoon had to fire at the left minion now.
The right minion required waiting a beat for its health to drop further.
In other words, Spoon's immediate choice was to target the left minion, then hit the next one.
'Therefore...'
The timing is easy to read.
The health of minions is something even a Bronze player can predict.
The problem lies elsewhere.
Seojun himself wasn't entirely confident he could pull it off perfectly.
'Still, if this works, things might change.'
Seojun just smiled, his arm raised, leisurely watching Spoon's choice.
About 1 second left.
If it doesn't work, he'll just find another way.
-Spoon, just give up the left one and secure one safely
-Stop talking nonsense, like the captain predicted where he'd shoot lol
-For real lol it's hard to hit this one
-Ah lol Spoon's not an idiot, he'll aim somewhere else
-But if he's a guy who sees the future, how hard is it to predict one thing like that?
-You think so?
Soon.
3 seconds passed.
* * *
Spoon didn't avoid the contest. It's best to grab as many minions as possible.
However, instead of his old habit of aiming for the head, he aimed for the shoulder.
'He hit it last time because I always aimed for the minion's head.'
The bullet is small. So you have to predict its exact trajectory.
Spoon hoped Seojun couldn't do that.
'Please.'
The crazy predictions Seojun showed against him before were only when the target was Spoon's own body.
'Right?'
[Right]
Gongbeolle quietly did his job. Even though that chain wouldn't target him.
At the same moment as Gongbeolle's telepathy, a chain shot out from the magic circle.
Seojun had already prepared a mana orb in front of his palm.
And.
Bang!
Spoon pulled the trigger.
Bang!
One more shot.
Two bullets flew toward the minion's shoulder, slightly staggered.
For an instant, the battlefield entered Spoon's vision as if in slow motion.
Then the trajectories of the projectiles that didn't collide with each other were drawn. And he saw the point of impact.
'Ah, shit...'
Bang!
Clatter!
Clang!
Both shots were blocked.
Just like before.
He read him.
He even read where he would shoot. That man.
Witnessing the result with his own eyes and hearing it with his own ears, Spoon shouted.
"Seriously! Are you a real cheater?!"
-?????
-Wha haha
-He hit it again?!
-Kgh! Cassandra the bartender!
-Just how far are you getting read, Spoon!
Seojun saw that Spoon was calmly surprised even at himself.
Unbelievable.
'That expression is definitely... No. Fine. Let's stay calm. Whatever happens, no fighting.'
Spoon didn't lose his composure and fired a bullet at the remaining minion to his left.
The fight wasn't over; he had only missed two minions so far.
And.
Clang!
"Ah..."
A magic circle was faintly visible behind Seojun.
The opponent had even prepared this in advance.
* * *
"Ah! Player Seojun! He blocked Spoon's bullet aimed at the minion again!"
"Three times can't be a fluke! No, it can't be! Player Seojun practically sees the future!"
"If this continues, it could become a truly viable strategy. Preventing him from taking minions."
-Wow!
-Wow, he's blocking this?
-Kyah!
-Guys, go back and watch when Spoon was floating
-For real, telepathy <-- that bastard was the bad guy clouding the prophet's vision.
-What the hell is this guy
-In the midst of that, his expression lol lol lol was kinda funny
"That expression Player Seojun just had. Can you interpret it?"
"Yes. That expression seems like a spoonful of 'Oh, this actually works?' and two spoonfuls of 'I think I'm kind of awesome'! Player Seojun himself seemed a little surprised! But he quickly resumes pressuring Spoon like before!"
-hahahahahahahaha
-Of all things, one spoon two spoon
-But seriously, this works?
-Is this insane skill?
-Yeah
"Now, now. In the league, the speed of most projectiles is roughly that of a slightly slow baseball. Fast, but you can react to it, yet if you lose focus for even 0.1 seconds, you'll get hit before you know it."
Bangju, who primarily does commentary, began explaining in streamer style.
"Yes. That's right, isn't it?"
"So to some extent, you can see it and deflect it. But prediction is a different story. Everyone knows Eric's skill, right? The skill's hitbox is so narrow, and it's notoriously hard to land, which is why Eric doesn't even have a cost like mana. Don't you realize how incredibly difficult it is to perfectly predict a bullet's trajectory with that Eric?"
Even in the PC era, there was a hero with a similar mechanic.
That hero shot a hurricane, and the hurricane's size was as big as the hero.
So it was a skill that landed surprisingly often.
But Eric's is a chain that targets a single point.
If you even add a cost to the skill, the difficulty skyrockets, and even now, no one really plays him.
And yet he predicted a bullet with such a skill.
-I get it, I get it
-This is insane skill, acknowledged
-Kyah!
-hahahahaha he's freaking good
-But he can't kill him, right?
It didn't seem to resonate that deeply with the viewers.
Bangju knew the reason.
'In the end, he can't kill anyone.'
And the fact that there is a countermeasure.
No matter how well your head understands how amazing it is to predict someone's every move, for your heart to race, you ultimately have to win the game.
[Gongbeolle! From now on, instead of direction, tell me the minion's body part! Damn! I can't trust myself at all anymore!]
-hahahahaha
-Why can't you trust yourself
-If you follow your own will, it gets blocked
While Bangju was lost in thought for a moment, Arin and Penguin exchanged words.
"Ah! Player Spoon announces his countermeasure so that Seojun can hear it too! It seems like he's letting him know he's found a solution right away!"
"This time, he didn't say it over team voice."
"Haha. I'd love to hear off the record how Gongbeolle-nim relays it."
"Since team voice could expose the next game's strategy, it gets reviewed off the record after the game ends, right? I'd really love to hear it. Since all the strategy's already been exposed anyway. And right now! The ranged minion's health is dropping!"
-For real lol
-I'd like to hear how Gongbeolle controls him
-Will it work this time?
-Telepathy seems ridiculously broken
-Deflecting attacks is even more ridiculous
-Well, magicians can read psychological tricks too, maybe it's similar
-Then why can't he read Gongbeolle?
-Could he not?
Clatter!
The magic circle that had been created just before Spoon announced the changed strategy to Gongbeolle.
A chain shot out from there and flew at Spoon.
"Ah! This time, the chain flies half a beat faster toward Spoon! He panicked and couldn't attack!"
-Kyah!
-That was created before Spoon even spoke, right?
-Did you calculate even this?!
-Seems like he really calculated it.
-This time he's sending it at himself to disrupt him lol lol lol
-What a freaking incredible bastard lol lol lol
Thud,
Spoon's health, hit by the chain, dropped significantly once more.
Gongbeolle immediately returned to his original task.
[Sacrifice]
"Read again! Again! He's not just reading his actions, he's reading his very thoughts!"
Seojun gave Lumi a different instruction.
[Lumi, from now on, just stand in front of Spoon. Be a nuisance.]
[But if I get hit and my health drops?]
[You can just recall.]
[Then there'll be a time when you're laning alone, Seojun... Ah. Understood.]
-Ah lol telling the support to recall so they'll fight
-Still don't think they'll fight lol lol lol
-But Gongbeolle alone is enough to break through
-So what's gonna happen this game?
[Ha. Seojun, are you ignoring me? If this keeps up, I might catch Lumi!]
[We'd be glad if you fought.]
[Ah. Seriously. I won't fight, even out of spite.]
[Scared?]
"Even as he speaks, Player Seojun is carefully taking his own minions. The gap is widening."
[Geomsin - CS 22]
[Dapdaphaeseo Sangchegam – CS 19]
The 3-minion gap would only grow from here.
Bangju could see it.
The moment Seojun hit level 5, the moment he could use his skill every second, the gates of hell would open for Spoon.
But.
'Hmm. The wealth gap could be an issue. If it goes like this, it'll just delay Spoon's scaling timing.'
Scaling.
Short for "return of the king," it's a term for a hero that struggles early, finishes farming, and then carries the late game with devastating power.
Well, there are still many variables.
While Bangju quietly analyzed the situation, the screen shifted again.
"Now, while the Ace match is getting fiercer, if you look at mid...!"
* * *
And.
Among those who predicted the flow and tried to show off their foresight, Bangju wasn't the only one who thought the wealth gap would be tough.
[If this goes on, Hanipman has no choice but to win—]
Not just Bangju.