Chapter 218
The second match, which the commentators predicted would be a defeat for the Wealth Gap, proceeded smoothly.
[Nice cover. Thanks.]
[Top, you held on well.]
[Seojun! Bottom minions are piling up again.]
Wind Blade endured the Dokkaebi’s gank, while the bottom and mid lanes soaked up minions as sparingly as possible, retreating under the turret and managing to avoid melting to it.
After covering top, Seojun returned to base and was able to purchase his first rune, at an extremely early timing.
By then, others hadn’t even saved half the gold needed for a rune.
At this moment, the hundreds of thousands of viewers watching the match expected Seojun to choose a quick purchase that would gain some immediate advantage.
[Which first rune will he buy? He’ll grab something super efficient right now, right?]
[If it were me, I’d go one step further and enhance Radiant Blessing. Extend the invincibility time like crazy lololololol]
[As Bangju said, if the goal really is to harass the opponent, skill enhancement is the standard lololol]
But the rune Seojun chose first defied their expectations.
[Basic Attack: The blade becomes imbued with magic, increasing damage. The magic imbued in the blade can be freely extended and retracted.]
It was a rune that let Kael freely extend or reduce the range of her basic attacks at will.
Though it also enhanced damage proportionate to the magic imbued...
[?????]
[This ain't it lolololol]
[When damage is the problem, he buys this rune?]
In games, you win some, you lose some. That’s how balance is tuned.
The rune Seojun bought had the advantage of freely extending attack range, so its damage amplification effect was lacking compared to other runes.
It couldn’t be helped.
[No lol, with that many invincibility skills, just get in close to the enemy. Why extend range out of regret?]
[It’s not even meant for hitting distant targets in the first place]
[Need a Kael nerd to explain this rune]
Thus, people demanded commentary on Seojun’s choice.
Gamers are the kind who find it amazing that engineering students memorize the entire periodic table, yet themselves memorize over a hundred heroes’ skills and the effects of commonly used runes.
But even they didn’t know the runes of heroes that weren’t typically used, and that’s when they needed the commentators.
However, the commentators were gamers too.
If a thing had appeared in a game at least once, maybe, but if it hadn’t, what could they know to comment on?
Luckily, Kael had plenty of nerds. Meaning there were many who knew even such useless runes inside out.
And when there are many, at least one will post.
Something that could never happen with Eric.
[How to use that rune.]
==
According to research by Kael nerds, that rune can have two advantages.
1. Attacking enemies from a distance. (This is obvious)
2. When facing Kael, have you ever stopped thinking about blocking the sword, just held your weapon in front of your body, stood still, and dared her to “try cutting my vitals—your blade can’t pass through”?
At that moment, you can use it like turning off a lightsaber just before it clashes, passing through, then turning it back on.
Of course, the original blade doesn’t disappear just because the magic is turned off, so you need to manage the range well.
Thus, it was judged theoretically possible.
Anyway, aside from the range increase, considering only the damage increase rate, it’s about 80% of other runes, so it’s not too bad.
Just think of it as making vital hits a bit easier.
Still, it’s something abandoned by Kael nerds.
==
-Number 2 is crazy lololololol is that even possible?
└If it’s Jin Seojun, it’s possible
└No way he aimed for that lololol
-Anyway, it means you can adjust range and hit vitals more easily.
-80% damage compared to other runes, so not a terribly bad rune? Though it’s a “why bother?” lolololol
-But damage is still lacking, dammit
-I get it, he’s gonna cycle through invincibility skills every 7 seconds and be super annoying lolololol
└For real lolol
└Vicious bastard
[Kim Penguin, you were right]
[Yay! We get to see Game 3!]
[Fine. Tormenting the Dokkaebi should be fun too.]
In the end, the reaction to this choice, even if positive, concluded in Wealth Gap’s defeat.
[At this crucial power-up timing, he buys something like this?]
[Is he treating the tournament like a joke?]
[Guess he’s just a dumbass who doesn’t know his own team lacks damage.]
-And what about you? How did you know Wealth Gap lacks damage? You just assume that because the commentators were yapping, huh?
└Shut it (OP)
For the negative ones, defeat was a given.
The commentators were no different.
Penguin, who had accurately performed a word-for-word oral copy-paste of the Kael nerd’s community post (giving credit where due), predicted defeat once again.
[With this rune choice, it’s truly become irreversible. Now, all that remains for Bat is to endure! Just endure! Until when? Until Bat’s teammates grow enough to close the gap that only Seojun had widened alone!]
Still, since an absurd loss might occur, Muscular Penguin hedged at least a little insurance.
[Ah, but of course, if they let their guard down against Zombie Seojun, they could lose!]
And the last remaining, that is, the 20,000 fans—a minority compared to the whole—fought hard.
[I don’t care!!!!]
[Fan club, assemble!]
[What if it becomes broken when combined with other runes? I trust the streamer!]
[Tiny handful bastards]
==
Fan Club
The firepower’s seriously lacking? lolololol
Yeah, you lost Game 2~
==
-^^son of a bitch where do you live?
-Hey lolololol out of hundreds of thousands, a few tens of thousands are obviously going to be outnumbered, aren’t they?
-Is there a fandom that can’t end up a tiny handful? Even the Travel President couldn’t.
-Chars of these bastards: As soon as they win, they pretend to be fan club.
└Just tell them to do Game 3 properly lolol (OP)
-The streamer is supported by a million Kael nerds
└If they pick Kael and lose, they prolly won’t support lol (OP)
* * *
Back in the PC days, there was a composition.
A combination of a hero who exerted overwhelming carry power under certain conditions and a support hero who could perfectly assist.
Like Seojun now, it involved eating jungle and lane simultaneously, but Seojun hadn’t experienced that himself.
Since he’d never played PC games.
And it wasn’t as if that composition appeared when transitioning to virtual reality.
Many had tried, but it never emerged for one reason.
There was no hero combination with the same synergy and carry power as the PC-era composition.
Then how did Seojun know about it?
‘It was thanks to the true Alpaca, actually?’
Alpaca had once said something.
Just eat all the minions and carry, please. And take a day off today.
It was a passing remark, but Seojun was enticed by the first part.
The latter part he naturally ignored.
Anyway, after looking into it, no such composition existed. Lee Dongsu, his advisory role, also opposed it.
But if there isn’t one, you can just make it.
‘If we try, won’t it work out somehow?’
If not, oh well.
That was his thinking.
[Bottom Dokkaebi incoming! Yunho, snap out of it!]
[The lane’s heavily stacked, Seojun, come quick!]
Seojun, already aware the Dokkaebi was coming, was on his way to the bottom lane.
The enemy gank was neither faster nor slower than expected. Exactly as he’d thought.
[Don’t hold back your ultimate.]
He said that to the bottom laner. The key was surviving until he arrived. If they died before then, it’d be the same as not landing the ultimate on them anyway.
[Alpaca, take that lane. Hat, grab onto his pant leg if you can.]
While moving, Seojun watched the mid situation and gave orders. The minions gathering in mid now couldn’t be picked up by Seojun, who was rushing to bottom.
He had to tell them in advance for easier subsequent lane management.
He reached bottom immediately. A fight was in full swing. More precisely, a chase.
The one fleeing was Ha Yunho.
The distance to Yunho closed in an instant.
And at that moment, Seojun extended his sword’s length.
If Kael’s original sword was slightly longer than a shortsword, now it had a length a bit longer than a two-handed sword.
Of course, extending it didn’t increase power. Attack speed remained the same.
But it could be cumbersome.
Mastering this was up to the gamer.
And Seojun was adept with long weapons too.
“Seojun! Punish them!”
“Grass-bastard, you’re dead.”
“We have the Dokkaebi too, you know?”
Amid the chaos, Seojun’s sword moved. He cut diagonally across the vitals of the approaching enemy support.
As he cut the enemy’s vitals, he naturally shortened the blade’s length. Adjusted appropriately as the enemy drew near.
By now, he was already accustomed to handling new runes in-game.
He continued, cutting the next vital.
Then the next.
To him, who knew the patterns, a D-rank support’s movements were meaningless.
Even in that brief moment, he repositioned the enemy, led them where he wanted, and cut vitals in the optimal state.
Slash!
In just a few seconds, the two-stage mark symbolizing Judgment Blade appeared above the enemy support’s head.
From the moment he cut the sixth vital, Seojun took his eyes off the support without hesitation.
The next target was the backline AD carry.
He ignored the Dokkaebi chasing Yunho.
Behind him, the support tried to catch Seojun.
The enemy AD carry, who had been targeting Yunho, also pulled back while firing arrows.
[Radiant Blessing]
But to escape Seojun, who had gained a brief movement speed buff from cutting vitals, they should have just fled.
The AD carry tried desperately to stop Seojun as he closed the distance and began cutting vitals again.
But that attempt was buried, and Grass quickly made the decision to retreat.
Slash!
However, Seojun’s sword was simply faster. In just a few seconds, the ultimate was already nearly ready.
Seojun cut Grass’s vitals as they formed horizontally.
Grass was moving away, but Seojun pivoted his body with the momentum of the cut.
At the same time, as he spun, he extended the blade.
Again, the vital formed horizontally, and the smoothly continuous spinning sword generated the two-stage mark.
[Dokkaebi --> Ha Yunho]
As he turned, the Dokkaebi finally caught Yunho, but.
“Lumi, you couldn’t catch me, huh?”
“Regrettably.”
The Dokkaebi shrugged and slipped away backward and sideways.
He knew he couldn’t win right then.
[Judgment Blade]
Because two swords were already descending from the sky.
[Double Kill!]
-Kya! This bastard, two-man ult is just default for him
-I’m so f***ing jealous, really truly
-The streamer who owns every Kael nerd’s dream lololololol
-Could we even see a three-man ult this match? If it goes well?
-Isn’t that a first? lololololol
-Then win or lose, as one of the million Kael nerds, I’ll become one with the streamer and support lololololololol
-If it’s becoming one with you guys, the streamer is at a f***ing huge loss lolololololol
-What the hell did the devs do without changing the patterns!!!!
“Two-man ult, wow! I’m witnessing this live. Insane.”
“Lumi. Now, let’s prepare to end the laning phase.”
Somehow, he’d already saved enough gold to buy a second rune.
That meant the moderately well-farmed Dokkaebi had likely also scraped together enough for a first rune.
“Yes. But prepare to end laning phase? You’ve already got the gold?”
Seojun nodded and initiated recall. If he stayed still, he’d teleport to base in 8 seconds.
“That was fast.”
“I did eat two lanes.”
-lolololol pig bastard lolololol
-Let’s go just like this!!!
-If he goes f***ing crazy here and completely chokes out the enemy, winning the game is possible. Penguin even said it’s possible
-You think the Dokkaebi will just leave him be? Dokkaebi’s got a rune too.
-The streamer has to dominate through macro too, but that seems impossible
-But from that fight just now, he uses that first rune well—is the damage really lacking?
As he waited, Seojun thought.
Probably the viewers would be curious.
If it were the commentators, they’d certainly have mentioned that a lack of damage dealers could be an issue in teamfights.
If so, by now, since they haven’t had a proper teamfight yet and just saw him use the rune well, they’d be questioning whether the damage is truly lacking.
‘The damage is lacking, that’s true.’
Even if he alone had two runes. No matter how high his level.
Seojun knew it well.
‘Because of that, from the start, talk about my goal being just to harass others probably came up, I guess.’
He wasn’t sure about this.
No matter how many people in Travel misunderstand Seojun’s nature, would they really twist it that far?
Anyway, the goal of this match is victory.
Throwing the current game for the next one wasn’t his style.
Besides, didn’t he say he wouldn’t lose even once last time?
Then what was he thinking?
Macro? Not that. He’d brought the future forward, so why resolve it through macro?
Just fight, and the damage is lacking?
‘That, we’ll have to see.’
Seojun smiled as he bought his second rune at base and returned to the jungle.
* * *
[It seems like right now, just after purchasing the second rune, is the moment where the gap is widest—what do you think?]
After Heavy Mental was eliminated, saying he was busy, among the pros in their chat room, someone’s question had them all mulling it over together.
They’d find out if they fought anyway, but it was a hassle.
[Assuming both the Dokkaebi and Jin Seojun fight well, Bat wins.]
[I’ll vote for that too.]
[Dokkaebi fighting!]
[Taker. Too pathetic, don't you think?]
Even at Seojun’s strongest timing, the pros agreed with the commentators’ opinion.
[But...]
Except for one, Lee Dongsu.
[What, Dongsu.]
[Honestly, just admit you’ll lose Game 2! Just lose gracefully!]
[Right! Look at you, cheesing your way to victory by recruiting an unfair cheat player like that.]
[To be precise, it’s our coaches who got recruited, but still.]
[Anyway, total cheese. I cannot agree that Lee Dongsu is the best coach!]
Amid the idle chatter, Lee Dongsu didn’t get swept along.
Because, as if he’d glimpsed into Seojun’s thoughts, a chill ran down his spine and he couldn’t think of anything else.
[You said the damage is lacking, but if three Judgment Blades fall in a teamfight, would it still be lacking?]
[Probably?]
[Hmm... yeah. Would be lacking?]
[Then what if four fall?]
[...?]
[You serious, Dongsu, you can’t be...]