Chapter 104

“Ah, it’s so easy! Is this all you guys can do? Were these friends giving me advice in my room all this time? I even prepared multiple chicken gifticons on purpose today, and at this rate, I’m going to gain weight! If we don’t win the Spring tournament this time, you guys will be responsible!”

In TK Pathos’ streaming room, a one-on-one battle with viewers was in full swing.

Pathos was a professional gamer who had transitioned from China’s 2nd league for a long time and finally joined TK at the beginning of last year.

Within TK, there were doubts and criticisms about why they had recruited a rookie with no career, but that was now a thing of the past.

Pathos had faced a near-dismissal after finishing 5th in last year’s Spring season, but suddenly exploded in skill during the Summer, earning the runner-up title and receiving the final MVP at the World Championship, proving himself.

Now that his value had soared, Pathos was the first to announce a contract renewal with TK, garnering immense popularity from fans.

To see if his form from the World Championship still held, he smoothly advanced to the winner’s bracket in the Spring playoffs.

Among the pro gamers who made it to the playoffs, he was the only one who voluntarily turned on his stream and planned a one-on-one battle with the viewers.

– The physical is just insane, hahahaha

– How does he solo kill with Yuumi, lol?

– If Pathos had played top, he would have done well too.

“Shall we do the final match now? I’ll take one more person. I think I might just give all the gifticons to whoever wins.”

Once again, he created the room without any particular expectations. It was Pathos’ specialty to keep the audio on while setting up.

“Top? When I started League, I only played top. But the influence was just too small, so after I managed to climb to Challenger as an amateur, I ended up only playing ADC after saying let’s go with ADC. The problem is that League’s position balance doesn’t match every season. Sometimes it’s jungle meta, and looking back at this year, it’s completely bottom meta, right? There’s never been a top meta. Everyone knows when Seongjae manages to solo kill in a tournament but still loses; when he manages to land a solo kill, they lose the game, right?”

– The influence of top is nonexistent, so he plays it like solo queue, lol.

– Looking at the stats, he’s first in solo kills and first in damage per solo kill, just charging in.

– Damn, couldn’t break through again.

– What was the password?

– Top is truly a garbage lane.

“Oh, you’ve entered. The password was 77. Shall we check out our cute viewer’s rank?”

Pathos casually checked the opponent’s tier.

“Diamond 1? Cute.”

Still, it seemed like a reasonable duel could be expected for the final match, unlike the previous one.

However, judging by the demeanor, there was a sense of disharmony that felt off for a viewer.

Usually, fans would often ask for a handshake first, but this person showed no interest in him at all.

[…? Should I call you Mustard then?]

“Wow, can this really be happening? This person seems to have come just to play one-on-one.”

– How did he break the password, lol?

– Creepy.

– How could you not know Pathos while playing?

– Could it be that the name change made it unrecognizable?

– He’s a broadcasting genius, hahahaha.

– His voice is really funny, lol.

– Oh, Fiora vs. Irelia.

Pathos didn’t mind this amusing situation. In fact, he enjoyed it.

So he kept provoking him. He couldn’t help but anticipate what kind of reaction there would be once he won the one-on-one and revealed his identity.

[That’s why long-range dealers like Mustard can’t escape the derogatory nickname ‘spoon.’]

Eventually, having hooked a big fish, Pathos struggled to hold back his laughter.

– Calling the World Championship winner a spoon, lol.

– It’s not a spoon, more like a giant excavator, hahaha.

– This isn’t just a kid’s concept, right?

– The opponent is the very essence of top.

– Let’s give this guy a lesson~ let’s give him a lesson~ let’s give him a lesson~ let’s give him a lesson~.

– Huh? Is that NoName?

“This guy has quite the mouth. Take this, you brat! Does it hurt? Ah, missed the weakness!”

As expected from a Diamond player, he seemed to have a decent understanding of the laning phase. It’s common sense to face such players with full power.

“I’m guessing you’ll place your E here? In that case, I’ll respond! Too predictable!”

– The opponent is nearly dead; the game is over.

– Irelia is putting in some work.

– Fiora is in a solid position.

– If I can hold on until level 6, it’s doable.

“Ah, is this ‘Wind of Rejuvenation’ rune too OP? It’s like once I play defensively, I can’t get any kill angles?”

While Irelia was sticking to the turret to farm the CS, Pathos decided to recall right in front of her.

“Should I go home? Are you really going to let me leave like this? And you still call yourself top?”

It was beneficial to go home or to get interrupted.

And he utilized the psychology that 99% of tops would inevitably come to interrupt.

At the moment Irelia charged in with her Q ability, Pathos lit his eyes and rushed in.

“You didn’t expect this to be a kill angle, did you?”

The Bone Shield rune had activated as well.

Convinced he couldn’t lose, he chased after the fleeing Irelia.

There was still enough distance to the turret, and when the health difference exceeded double, he used his reserved W skill to apply a slow.

The last weakness emerged in the opposite direction. With the calculation that he would definitely capture her if he used the auto-attack and Flash combination, Pathos pretended to give up as he turned around and then suddenly used his Flash.

Zap—

Zap—

“Uh?”

However, at the exact moment, Irelia used her Flash, narrowly missing Fiora’s attack.

In a situation where she had only a bit of health left, Irelia didn’t retreat but instead attacked Fiora with her extended auto-attack range and hit her E skill in that split second.

Even a single hit would be enough to bring her down. It was not something a usual strong-hearted player could accomplish.

Pathos stretched out his arm, but the rapier couldn’t reach Irelia.

Close-range kiting.

Even among close-range champions, there’s still a difference in range. With 4 stacks of her passive, Irelia had a slight range advantage over Fiora.

Seeing the opponent squeezing in two autos, Pathos couldn’t help but admire.

But still, Irelia couldn’t win against Fiora. The health difference was irreversible. Even if she managed to land her E skill and produce a mark, he was confident he would win.

Just as he concluded that, Irelia used her W in the opposite direction.

“What?”

The moment his eyes turned, one of his allied minions got hit by that skill and lost its life.

“Crazy, level 6!”

Health and growth stats increase with level-ups. And starting from level 6, he could learn the ultimate.

Neither of them had Flash, so getting hit by the ultimate at this distance was guaranteed. No matter how strong Fiora was, Irelia, who could use her Q three times, was impossible to stop.

A barrage of blades shot out right before his eyes, freezing Pathos in place.

He finally noticed the name floating above Irelia.

[NoName]

A name emerged from the distant side of his memory.

—

“When will you stop?”

“Just one more game… Can I ask just for one more?”

Pathos clung to Name.

Having won every one-on-one match with Name, it was already the third time.

Each time Pathos had pleaded with a pitiful look, but this time it seemed Name’s heart wouldn’t be easily moved.

The mysterious Irelia master suddenly left the room, and Pathos found himself in a situation where he had to pay attention to the chaotic chat.

– Hahahaha, 3 to 0.

– You got wrecked by a Tryndamere, huh? 77억~

– Irelia is a beast, huh? I can’t help but admire the speed of her skills.

– Pathos should just play ADC…

– Is NoName for real? I always thought they had amazing mechanics.

– GodName! GodName! GodName! GodName! GodName! GodName!

– Send the chicken gifticons quickly.

“No, this doesn’t make sense!”

– Of course it doesn’t.

– Hahahahahaha.

– How did he not lose a single game?

– This has gotten ridiculous, a dude bowing down!?

“What’s going on? Did the patch change so that Irelia is more favorable now?”

– The last patches for both were a year ago, though?

– A lost tier champion forgot by Riot, lol.

– Let’s just acknowledge we can’t play top.

– It was a feast for the eyes.

– Facts, facts.

With his nails bitten down to the quick, Pathos slowly recalled NoName.

Then he entered the stats check site and typed in her six-character nickname.

[NoName – Diamond 1]

And numerous records of playing Arsteria turned doubt into conviction.

“Wait a minute! This person was the one who made the Arsteria top trend, right? Just because of that, I dreaded playing solo queue! Top Arsteria, Mid Arsteria, Support Arsteria. When our team did jungle Arsteria, I felt like quitting, ugh!”

– Hahaha, that was them?

– I never imagined that being their identity, wow!

– What’s with Top Arsteria, anyways? Hahahahaha.

– There was a mad movie of Arsteria going around early in the season.

– Please, just play ADC as ADC…

“Woah, what is this? Ten, twenty… 50 wins in ranked games?

– ????

– Is this a person?

– Wait, they really played one game as Top Arsteria, hahaha.

– It’s hard to find games where they didn’t get ten kills.

– Why in the world are they only Diamond…?

[‘lightandreft’ donated 10,000 won!]

– Is NoName streaming now!

“Thank you. Ah, so they were a streamer. It wouldn’t make sense to waste such talent in this field. Ugh, am I going to be plastered all over VTube again?”

– NoName has no VTube channel.

– Even if they don’t, other recorders will spread it, right?;

– If a Rolled user is already thinking of memes, that’s a big thumbs up.

– It’s a recording more valuable than chicken.

– Speaking of which, they left without adding me.

– Are they really going to eat the chicken?

“I won’t eat it. What do you take me for? Oh, but you just exited the League client? What do I do now?”

[‘KetchupSource’ donated 3,000 won!]

– ipfs://<u>www.twish.ch/noname</u> Send it here, go go.

“Oh, you’re not really supposed to do stream-hopping during a live broadcast. Since the manager is away for a bit, I’ll just pop in, so please don’t tell anyone.”

Since they were registered on the same platform, as long as friend requests were accepted, they could use the gift-giving feature.

Pathos tried to comment that he wanted to friend NoName’s stream, but that plan was soon thwarted.

[This stream has chat disabled.]

“What?”

– Hahahahahaha.

– Hahahaha.

– Hitting legends all day, lol.

– Doesn’t Pathos know they’ll be here?

– That would definitely give me chills, lol.

– The broadcast title is ‘Someone Longing for Warmth.’

– Did they turn every person they met into a cold corpse?

– A total creep for sure.

– The chilling Mustard Sauce, hahaha.

Fortunately, donations to NoName’s stream were still open.

Pathos’ fans flocked to NoName’s chat and began mentioning the need to unlock chat.

Initially ignored lightly, as three or four donations piled up, it became impossible to ignore.

Name had no choice but to lift the chat restriction.

“Why come to someone else’s broadcast causing a fuss? Weren’t you the one who had a one-on-one match with me earlier?”

“Uh? I… well…”

“In any case, you won’t win against me no matter how many times you try. The skill difference is way too big.”

– Hahahahahaha.

– Look at how genuinely confused they are, lol.

– Hahaha.

– This is so funny, seriously.

– Gotta say it how it is, lol.

– Honestly, I played too nonchalantly as a Diamond.

– Pathos is properly facing humiliation today.

“I promised the person who beat me a chicken gifticon! I’m planning to give them all ten, so I was wondering if you could accept my friend request.”

“Why do you want to friend me?”

“Because if I friend you, I can send it via DMs…”

– Hahaha, how did the situation turn around?

– You’re the first to treat me like this; is this a strategy?

– It must be hard for Pathos to friend NoName, lol.

“Friend requests are kind of… Could you just give it to me for money instead?”

“Eh…?”

“One chicken is 30,000 won, so just $300 worth.”

“Ah… Since I’m in a public position, I can’t donate using this account…”

“Then I’ll politely decline. I need to start my broadcast, so please leave quickly.”

Name firmly conveyed the rejection, but Pathos couldn’t just let go of the gifticon present.

With the chat flowing faster and faster, biting his nails in deep thought, the light of an excellent idea suddenly illuminated his face.

“Ah, I just thought of a brilliant method! If you manage to persuade me well, you might earn back the 300,000 won easily.”

“…?”

With that, Pathos abruptly left Name’s stream.

Not long after, a notification chimed in Name’s quiet virtual space.

[TK Pathos has hosted 22,851 viewers!]

What he sent in return was none other than about twenty thousand viewers.