Chapter 31

The personal fan meeting continued even after that.

Sniping was easy to spot. Whether it was banning Thierry, typing “I’m a fan” in chat, or having Han Yoorim in their nickname.

—

“Damn, I should’ve sniped when my tier was still low.”

—

The bus that’s already passed won’t come back. You have to grab the opportunity quickly when it’s given.

Though slightly overshadowed by the fan meeting, I’ve now declared a no-streaming challenge all the way to Challenger.

There was no time for distractions.

This time, Thierry got banned again.

And the pick I went with was “Aslan,” a main carry specialized in escaping.

It was clear they were determined to avoid me.

If they keep that up, their own growth will be stunted, but mine will be too.

“Ormal” isn’t a character with great mobility. A Tier 3 fan, “TouchMeAndIBite,” came at me with the intention to fight, and that’s why I lost. If they play like this from the start, it’s hard to chase and kill them.

In other words, that guy had tailored a strategy specifically for Ormal.

I pondered. Even if I picked Ormal differently from what the opponent expected, I could still grow as much as I wanted, but stepping into the opponent’s plan wasn’t my style.

It’s more fun to mess things up here.

So I immediately picked a mobility-focused character.

This character, also released as a scout, wasn’t suitable for the City Core, but was Ormal really suitable either? It’s all about how you use it.

And so, I roamed the entire city with my team’s scout. The mobility was so good that I even swept the outskirts of the city.

I literally swept up kills, and the results came quickly.

[10/0/3]

The game ended before the Tier 3 objective even appeared.

This wasn’t a kill-death ratio you’d see in the early game. This was the kind of ratio you’d see in the celestial realm diving into the abyss.

It was growth you’d never see in Master queue, but from my perspective, it wasn’t that surprising.

This is why you need to learn a variety of strategies.

If you keep getting countered, you won’t grow.

If you only stick to the standard playstyle every day, you won’t know how to adapt.

Whoosh. Boom. The enemy base exploded. It happened just 10 minutes into the game.

Early surrender requires a unanimous vote. Usually, one person opposes, preventing an early surrender, but since I killed every enemy at least once, they all pressed the surrender button in unison.

In the chaotic lobby chat, I found the enemy main carry and sent a friend request.

I placed my newly collected fan, Glass Princess, into the Tier 4 fan group.

“I’ve never played your game, but I’m still a fan overflowing with affection.”

—

“What even is the classification criteria? Some get Tier 3 even if they curse, and some get Tier 4 even if they only praise. Isn’t it just whatever you feel like?”

—

Originally, interviewers weren’t supposed to reveal their criteria. Because others wouldn’t understand.

In my case, the classification criteria was “feeling,” so I had to keep it even quieter.

Honestly, if I said it outright, I knew exactly what kind of comments I’d get.

“I’m already at Master Tier 1. I’ll reach Challenger soon.”

—

“Master Tier 1, 2, 3, then Grandmaster Tier 1, 2, 3, and then Challenger, so yeah, it’s quick. Are you really going no-streaming for a week?”

—

Exaggerating. It’ll take a few days.

I quickly queued up again.

The queue popped, but no one on the enemy team banned Thierry.

No sniping this time? It was slightly disappointing, but I didn’t hesitate and picked Thierry.

I’ve memorized the mechanics of many characters, but in the end, I’ve played Thierry the most. It’s hard to bring out the full potential of other characters like I can with Thierry.

The game starts.

As I moved to secure objectives quickly, I glanced at the bottom-left corner.

A chat message popped up.

“Light is You” (City Core): I’m a fan.

What? Did I get sniped?

Thankfully.

I’ll be there soon.

—

Rumen is one of the top pro gamers right now.

Since becoming a pro gamer was his dream from the start, he began gaming with that in mind.

There were times when the game he aimed for suddenly collapsed and floated away, but in the end, Rumen became one of the first-generation pro gamers and a legend in <Eternal World>.

It was when Rumen, after a busy overseas schedule, entered a break period.

He received a message from an old friend.

Pape: Hey. Unicorn came back.

Unicorn. Hearing that name, Rumen immediately thought of a certain person.

A connection from about 10 years ago, “VirginUnicornLoveDog.”

That gloomy, suffocating, and unpleasant playstyle gamer came back?

Rumen: How do you know?

Pape: I met them. They’re still the same.

Rumen: Of course they are. It’d be weirder if that personality changed.

Pape: They’re using the nickname Han Yoorim, and it’s the same for their stream.

A stream, huh.

Intrigued, Rumen logged into V-TV.

Han Yoorim. Searching brought up the channel. The viewer count was 5,739. Quite a lot.

Entering the stream, a female voice could be heard.

For a moment, Rumen thought Han Yoorim was duo-ing with someone else. Because a female voice was coming from the stream.

But no.

Han Yoorim was solo ranking. They weren’t even using voice chat.

“Was she a girl?”

That bastard Pape. He didn’t tell me this. He definitely wanted to see me get surprised.

Thinking back, even back then, Han Yoorim’s speech was feminine. Always using polite speech, with a demeanor that seemed like a heavenly woman.

Of course, despite the speech, her actions and content were missing about seven screws, but that was when she was young.

She wouldn’t be like that now.

“Have you played my game?”

“I guess not. You’re not a true fan.”

“What part did you find fun?”

“Guess it’s not the story.”

“Glad you enjoyed it.”

I was wrong.

I told Pape, but if that person changed, it’d be even weirder.

Still the same.

Seeing her mercilessly torment the enemy main carry like a psychopathic murderer brought back old memories.

Getting endlessly ganked at level 1 and nearly losing my mind. It was a strategy you couldn’t stop even if you knew about it, so I suffered for a while until it got patched.

Because of her, the game developers probably lost about 100 million hairs back then. That’s how much Han Yoorim loved exploiting the game’s structure.

Recalling the past, Rumen rubbed his forearm, then blinked at Han Yoorim’s antics after the game ended.

Sending a friend request to the sniping viewer and placing them in the [Fan-Tier 3] group.

Is… that even allowed?

Though not a professional streamer, Rumen had his fair share of streaming experience. These days, pro gamers naturally end up streaming more due to personal streaming contracts that come as a bonus.

From what Rumen knew, feeding snipers like that wasn’t supposed to happen.

Because it makes sniping worse. Honestly, it was practically begging viewers to snipe.

Sure enough, from the very next game, countless bad handshake requests came in, but Rumen immediately understood. He got why Han Yoorim fed the snipers.

Can’t resist the fun of breaking pots.

The sight of her picking up a club and personally hunting down confirmed snipers was so exhilarating that even Rumen wanted to copy it.

It looked incredibly fun.

After collecting snipers one by one, Han Yoorim reached Master Tier 1.

Thinking she might stop soon, Han Yoorim kept queuing up.

Master Tier 1, huh.

Rumen checked the tier of his hidden sub-account.

It was exactly Master Tier 1.

Amused, Rumen quickly logged into his sub-account and queued up.

The queue popped.

Rumen checked Han Yoorim’s stream. Han Yoorim’s queue had also popped.

Did it work?

Soon, the ban/pick screen opened, and Rumen habitually banned the current OP character.

Then he checked Han Yoorim’s stream.

Her screen was the same as his.

Success.

Rumen smirked and picked his main character.

He didn’t ban Thierry on purpose.

It wasn’t a great character anyway, and if they were going to face off, he wanted Han Yoorim at 100%.

The game starts.

“Light is You” (City Core): I’m a fan.

He didn’t particularly like showing off like this, but to signal that he was sniping, there was no other way.

Rumen secured the objective as usual. While doing so, he kept an eye on his surroundings.

Thinking about the patterns I’ve seen so far, it was about time.

Sure enough, Han Yoorim revealed herself.

It’s a pretty fast tempo. It’s the kind of play you can’t do if you’re not confident in your skills.

Rumen summoned a Summoning Beast.

The character Rumen chose was ‘Han Chanhyuk’. It was a summoner character.

A character similar to Thierry, capable of handling any situation with various Summoning Beasts.

Unlike Thierry, Han Chanhyuk was a character that all current City Core pro gamers had to handle.

The difficulty was less than half of Thierry’s, but the performance was decent. If you couldn’t handle this, you shouldn’t be a pro.

Well, being in City Core, Han Chanhyuk isn’t an easy character. You had to control each Summoning Beast individually, giving it a feel of an RTS game.

But in the end, it’s easier than Thierry. Being a ranged character, it’s already unfair to compare.

The community often fought over which was better, ‘Thierry’ or ‘Han Chanhyuk’.

Personally, Rumen thinks Han Chanhyuk is better.

No matter how versatile Thierry is, what’s the point? It’s impossible to reach the peak. Han Chanhyuk, who’s used even on the world stage, is a hundred times better.

A wolf covered in shadows stood in front of Han Chanhyuk.

The Summoning Beast, Shadow Wolf, had two skills: [Bite] and [Howl]. Bite was a common basic attack enhancement skill, but Howl was different. It was a debuff skill that reduced the opponent’s defense.

Han Chanhyuk had a total of four types of Summoning Beasts. The ultimate Summoning Beast had one skill, so you had to handle a total of seven skills freely to play Han Chanhyuk properly.

Rumen controlled the Shadow Wolf forward and summoned a bear and a snake. Controlling these three and throwing in some basic attacks would make most opponents die without a breath.

‘Unicorn. What are you going to do?’

Rumen looked at Han Yoorim with half expectation and half excitement.

Han Yoorim opened her mouth.

“Have you ever tried my game?”

“No. I haven’t.”

“Really?”

Immediately, a puddle formed under Han Yoorim’s feet. Rumen hesitated.

A water human with a spear, a water human with a sword, and a water human with a bow guarded Han Yoorim.

It was Thierry’s water element derivative skill.

Are you going for a counter-summon strategy?

Is that possible?

The Summoning Beasts in <Eternal World> basically have AI.

It’s made so that light users can have the Summoning Beasts use skills and attack enemies on their own.

Of course, the performance of this AI wasn’t great.

So, the higher you go, the more you turn off auto skills and auto movement, but Thierry didn’t have that option from the start.

You had to manually control the Summoning Beasts.

The developers did a balance patch, but thanks to that, Thierry’s water element skills are practically sealed.

Because there’s no one in the world who can engage in close combat while manually controlling Summoning Beasts.

Or is that it? Are you going to make all Summoning Beasts attack to buy time and kill the enemy in the meantime?

Master. No. That strategy might work up to the lower ranks of the Master tier, but not for Rumen.

Rumen is a manual summoner user who controls every Summoning Beast individually.

You can just ignore the Summoning Beasts that are attacking mindlessly.

Don’t you know who I am? What a pity.

Rumen, disappointed by the anticlimactic match, threw a basic attack.

Summoning energy flew towards Han Yoorim.

Twisting her body to dodge, Han Yoorim charged forward. Her Summoning Beasts followed beside her.

Rumen controlled the snake Summoning Beast to lure the water humans.

As if entranced by the snake’s tail, all the water humans attacked the snake Summoning Beast.

As expected, mindless attacking—.

Whoosh.

An arrow flew. The target was Rumen himself.

Rumen, with his health reduced, panicked but quickly regained his composure.

Faking an attack on the Summoning Beasts while targeting the main body?

You still have some leeway since it’s not a full-on battle yet.

That’ll be over soon. Let’s see how long you last.

Rumen controlled the bear and wolf Summoning Beasts to target Han Yoorim.

The water human with a sword blocked the bear Summoning Beast slamming the ground.

The water human with a spear stabbed the howling wolf Summoning Beast.

Han Yoorim was still running.

Whoosh.

Flames gathered on Han Yoorim’s sword.

Huh?

Rumen hastily used the snake Summoning Beast’s skill. [Gather]. A skill that moves all Summoning Beasts to the main body.

The bear Summoning Beast, which teleported near Rumen, slammed the ground. A skill that stuns one enemy in a straight line. But again, the water human with a sword took the hit instead.

Han Yoorim’s sword, avoiding the stun, targeted Rumen. The snake opened its mouth and charged, but the water human with a spear stabbed the snake, stopping its movement.

Now, the obstacles between Han Yoorim and Rumen were gone.

The sword cut through the air, and the flames melted Rumen.

In an instant, Rumen, with his health drained, was shocked.

What did I just see?

Close combat requires immense mental focus. There are too many things to pay attention to.

And you’re manually controlling Summoning Beasts during close combat?

That’s not something human multitasking can handle.

A hack would be more realistic.

Han Yoorim, who had Rumen on the brink of death, asked.

“Then, have you ever watched my game?”

“No.”

“Not interested either?”

“The types of games I like are limited.”

At the indifferent answer, Han Yoorim nodded and immediately swung her sword.

In the gray screen state, Rumen let out a hollow laugh.

The friend I met after a long time was stronger than expected.

Was her physical ability always this good?

Her multitasking or brain skills seem to have been like this before…

Even though I got solo killed, I can’t give up on the game.

Rumen continued to put up a good fight using various methods.

But it wasn’t enough.

Narrowly defeated, Rumen shook his head in the lobby.

I was trying to throw a surprise party, but I got thoroughly beaten.

This dilutes the fun of the surprise party. It’s a bit disappointing.

But I can’t keep hiding forever.

I should reveal my identity soon.

After waiting a bit, a friend request came from Han Yoorim.

Rumen turned on Han Yoorim’s broadcast and thought.

Where do I fall?

I only gave half-hearted answers, so am I going to be a 5th-tier fan?

“Light is You, hmm.”

Han Yoorim, lost in thought, soon dragged Rumen’s nickname into a group.

[Fan – 1st Tier]

Rumen was dumbfounded.

Why am I 1st tier?

Han Yoorim’s viewers thought the same.

———

Why is that guy 1st tier? He didn’t even care about you.

———

“Why 1st tier? Well.”

After a brief pause, Han Yoorim spoke.

“Because he’s overflowing with affection for me. Didn’t you notice from the way he talked?”

Rumen was extremely troubled by the provocation and fabrication.

Is this…

Is it okay to reveal my identity?

Rumen briefly considered the option of running away.

<ㅇㅇ님이 1000원 후원>

Looking at his pick, play, and nickname, isn’t that Rumen?

“Bbangbbang, you mean?”

Of course, that was nonsense.

People’s eyes were sharper than expected.

Sighing, Rumen fiddled with the virtual keyboard to reveal his identity.

But Han Yoorim spoke first.

“That can’t be. The old Bbangbbang was a… supporter, right? How can he handle the core?”

Really.

You’re still the same in many ways, Unicorn.

It’s good that you’re so consistent.