Chapter 31

Professor Cheon asked me not to have too high expectations for the academy.

In fact, I felt that even if I were to fail, I wouldn’t be too angry because the admission officers’ standards seemed low. This wasn’t just a mental victory; it was my honest feeling.

The professor also told me not to worry too much, and I decided to no longer dwell on the past results.

While he was doing the evening dishes, there was an announcement over the apartment intercom about children getting injured at the playground yesterday, and he asked if I was okay.

I had to pretend not to know, feeling guilty for no reason.

“Anyway, that’s a relief. It may seem safe on the surface, but accidents can happen at any time and place,” he said.

“Yes, that’s true. By the way, it seems there won’t be a Nature Journal this week?”

At times like this, it was better to change the topic quickly.

“They say they are having a celebration for their 181st or 182nd anniversary this week. It seems they will publish everything next week.”

“I see. That’s unfortunate.”

“They say once you get admitted to the academy, even if you’re an elementary school student, you’ll be busy. It’s a good strategy to play as much as you can while you still have time.”

“I’m telling you not to expect too much. Well… I’ll keep that in mind.”

Seori and Ji Hye should have returned home safely, but I still worried a bit about Lara.

It seemed that her parents were likely divorced or perhaps she was an illegitimate child.

It appeared that someone presumed to be her father lived within this complex.

Her mother must be leaving Lara at the playground, letting her father take her away.

Such a clichéd and common story.

But just as reality is never like a drama, those Cinderella stories rarely come to be.

Her grandmother seemed to have difficulty moving, so how could Lara continue living in that house?

As Seori said, I had no choice but to visit often to check in on her.

‘Should I try streaming again after a long time?’

Now that I didn’t need to earn money from broadcasting… I felt uneasy when I stopped doing something that had become habitual.

‘Oh?’

Now that I thought about it, didn’t I use magic today? Not just 3rd circle but a full 4th circle?

[Streaming starts: 0:00:01 – No Name]

I decided to turn on the stream and look up how much mana fees generally would be on the internet.

In this dimension, mana doesn’t exist at all.

However, in this strange world where mana can be borrowed through the Idea Realm, using magic in its natural state was quite tricky.

To put it metaphorically, it’s as if the ocean is vast but you have to fill a huge bucket with just a shot glass of soju.

That’s why advanced countries install base stations throughout the entire nation to improve mana access efficiency, allowing a shared bandwidth agreed upon by each country.

The Korea Mana Corporation was a government-owned market-oriented enterprise responsible for collecting mana fees, and excess revenue was used for the development of magic in South Korea.

“The Korea Mana Corporation’s mana fee chart implementation… Type (B) casting… 4th circle…”

The mana fee structure was truly complex.

Some were progressive taxes, while others were regressive. There were various charges like basic fees, mana usage charges, and environmental control fees attached, and even for the same circle of magic, the tax rate to be paid was determined based on classification.

Unless you ran a program, it was impossible to know until the bill came.

However, after checking summarized information on the Tree Wiki, it seemed that magic below 1st circle was mostly exempt from taxes no matter how many times it was used, and from 2nd circle onwards, the fee was 10,000 won per use based on single casting, rising to 100,000 won for 3rd circle, increasing tenfold.

Magic of 6th circle or higher was managed at the national level, and it couldn’t be used through regular means.

[Streaming Time – 0:03:51]

Of course, there were certain exemptions for those in lower socioeconomic tiers in mana fees.

Notably, the tax exemption for magic up to 2nd circle stood out. I thought it would be ideal to teach healing spells like Organizational Regeneration to Lara.

Children who often get hurt frequently visit hospitals.

But so many endure and wait until their ailments worsen due to not having money.

With some preliminary healing magic, wouldn’t they grow up healthy, even if not abundantly?

[Streaming Time – 0:06:42]

[Viewers: 1482]

[Welcome to the chatroom! (The delay will be lifted after timeouts.)]

-11111111111

-Mom, I can’t breathe!

-Why did you freeze the perfectly good chat room?

-I rushed here as soon as I heard the notification, what’s going on?

-Mana fee structure… this is rare.

-No Name! No Name! No Name! No Name! No Name!

Is this what it feels like when the Soyanggang Dam collapses?

Chaotic texts pour down from the sky.

“Today seems to have more people,” I noted.

-(Chat restricted – 600 seconds)

-(Chat restricted – 600 seconds)

-What’s happening right now?

-(Chat restricted – 600 seconds)

-(Chat restricted – 600 seconds)

-Moving

-(Chat restricted – 600 seconds)

-(Chat restricted – 600 seconds)

-(Chat restricted – 600 seconds)

-(Chat restricted – 600 seconds)

“Ah, so there was a way to freeze the chat window.”

The falling words seemed very dystopian. It reminded me of a scene from a movie where hamburgers and meatballs rain down.

[‘HoyaMuyaHo’ donated 1,000 won!]

-Hold on, host! You can adjust the chat effects and size!

-Wow, so you auto-blocked all of that by yourself?

-That’s crazy lol I thought I was banned as soon as I got here.

-Arsteria artisan’s 20 block per second mad movie ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ

-What’s with the ones that dodged it lol

Indeed, chat windows look more psychologically stable when small and square.

When I typically streamed for an audience of 10 or 20 people, it was on a completely different level than how people were flocking in now.

Most people were commenting that they came after watching the VTube video.

They referred to it as a mad movie.

I had compiled and edited good moments from the 50 games I played with Sia and Master.

Since viewers spammed the chat with links, I couldn’t ignore it.

[156 million views · two weeks ago]

I thought there were already thousands of people regularly in my room, but compared to this, the numbers were starkly different.

[The stars are truly blue, while my hometown burned down – Arsteria Mad Movie]

With a somewhat embarrassing title to say out loud, the video began to play.

It started with grand background music and Arsteria’s dialogue. Although it failed in balancing, the story of Arsteria was well-received.

A girl, burning with the single-minded goal of avenging the empire.

Arsteria slowly vanished into darkness, with various conversations following.

[TK Pathos]

[Who is this person? No Name? I’ve heard a lot about him. He’s really good.]

The evaluation began with a young man’s opinion.

[Anaconda]

[I can’t win. The design is fundamentally flawed for this champion.]

Then came the voice of resignation, accompanied by a deep sigh.

[LB Control]

[Isn’t it a bug? It feels like this guy hits twice as hard when he catches Arsteria.]

The volume rose and the ambiance intensified.

[Miroking]

[AAAAAAAH!!! I want to quit LOL! I feel like I’m going insane!!! AAAAAAH!!!!!]

… And then the mad movie began.

About 8 minutes long, it felt long yet short.

I had something I wished to convey to the viewers before the broadcast, but since I hadn’t organized my thoughts yet, I decided to watch the mad movie to the end.

It started with a pentakill achieved in the bronze 3 rank in the first game.

Memories of fighting with my skill hit rates and range calculations came to mind.

The creator of the video seemed to have analyzed all my plays; it highlighted when I used my W and E skills at each part and captured the climax of the pentakill.

Skipping over the tedious winning streak in silver and gold, the video went straight to the plat rank.

The scene of one of Arsteria’s grabbing techs at level 11, [R-Q-Attack-W-R-(R lv up)-rrrrrr], was shown to the world.

At level 11, I didn’t evolve the ultimate skill but used the same usual combo from level 6.

By evolving the last R, not only could I chain the added 5 star fragments, but the 11th star fragment’s criteria could switch with the 10th, allowing for a total of 16 supernova damage.

The creator even displayed portraits of the famous players I had faced above the champion’s head.

Anaconda, Miroking, and various pro players.

Especially every time they appeared, the viewers cheered, causing me to feel slightly embarrassed to look at the chat.

[8:30/8:38]

The video was now approaching its end. The screen started to fade out. Just as I was about to close it.

[The stars are noble and beautiful. It is always humans who assign meaning.]

“Huh, what the hell!”

I was startled when my voice unexpectedly appeared at the end of the video.

-LOL

-That’s an embarrassing history lol

-You’ve got some serious karma.

-Star Orphan’s stepmother lol

-It would’ve been great if you had streamed your strategy in time.

“…”

As I thought back on when I might have said such words, I recalled that during the last broadcast with Sia, I was simply reading Arsteria’s lines out loud, feeling bad for chasing the viewers away when they entered my room.

I had just read them matter-of-factly from the top.

Looking back at it separately, it felt quite embarrassing.

The viewers expressed their opinions and wishes chaotically, but overall, they had one common theme.

They wanted strategy streams.

They consistently wanted to know how I handled Arsteria.

But I had never really had a talent for teaching anyone.

The reason I had read out loud Arsteria’s lines, which were meaningless, was partly because I disliked it, but mostly because I lacked confidence in myself.

“Arsteria is a newly released champion.”

-Yeah, that’s right.

-It came out on January 18, but considering the PBE, it was last year.

-So what?

“Skill proficiency is greatly influenced by time. But isn’t it strange?

Even for the same newly released champion, in just a week, some become artisans who appear on VTube regularly, while others remain ordinary people waiting for their strategies.”

-Aren’t there natural talents for each champion?

-Peisos was a master even as an amateur.

“Talent. Talent belittles a person’s disposition and efforts. If you really want to say someone has talent, you shouldn’t say a specific champion has talent but rather that they have talent in reaction speed and judgment, right?”

How is talent for a champion determined?

Why does everyone refuse to see the facts beyond that?

“I’ll use my Arsteria as an example. Reading Arsteria’s skill manual for 10 hours a day won’t improve your skills. Even if you use each skill a thousand times daily, it won’t either.”

The core that permeates the game LOL is relativity.

My movements alone cannot determine the results.

It’s like someone who has played 10,000 bot games cannot perform better than a master with 1,000 games in general play.

“The three most important elements for Arsteria are position, skill accuracy, and laning. Conversely, skill allocation and kill angle calculations are relatively lesser aspects compared to other champions. It doesn’t mean they aren’t important.”

In the end, it seemed hard to explain in words, so I chose to replay the mad movie.

“How is the ultimate grab skill of level 11 Arsteria important?

The average health of champions at level 11 is distributed between 2200 and 2400 for top bruisers.

If you intentionally risk manipulating level ups to add 80 damage, will your tier rise? It’s a waste of time.”

That’s why I disliked this mad movie.

It would be better to think of dealing one more basic attack while holding the line.

Humans tend to be easily swayed by what they see.

Just as the ignorant have idolized black magic.

“The reason I could win this team fight is that the range of the opposing champions isn’t long, and instead of trying to keep the hit rate close to 100, I maintained it around 60, gradually whittling down their health with prolonged poking.”

“Look at the mini-map, even in this situation, we’re managing the lane, and the opposing top fortress is being pushed down, right?

Arsteria is not a champion like Gnar or Shyvana. She isn’t an all-in champion on her ultimate.”

As the champion’s possession rate system is applied, everyone thinks it’s advantageous to enhance their possession rates to cycle through ultimates in team fights.

The common logical fallacies of misunderstanding and false causes.

“It’s well known that Arsteria’s R is non-target and that skill accuracy is essential, but…

Next up is the laning phase. Many individuals who play weak laning champions seem to think they can hold out in the laning phase and resolve things in team fights.

The weaker your laning phase is, the more you must resolve the contradiction that the only way to exert influence is through the laning.”

It’s natural for strong laning champions to win the laning phase and spread that influence throughout the map.

In turn, those champions’ players will become mechanically skilled in lane and improve their map-reading abilities.

“Getting a 50-50 in laning phase with Arsteria. That is key.”

I showed a clip from around 6 minutes and 20 seconds, where I faced Miss Fortune and Jarvan in Diamond 2.

“The opponent’s skills are non-target but hard to dodge. Both have the comet rune, which is theoretically an unfavorable matchup.

How should we aim for a 50-50 or even win in this laning phase?”

I replayed the video.

In the video, Jarvan used his Q and W skills, but my Arsteria dodged them with simple diagonal movement.

Miss Fortune attempted to target me with a non-dodgeable E skill, triggering the comet rune to compensate for the damage.

“The comet shoots in the direction we’re moving. If we utilize this, if we move forward just before getting hit, the comet will land before the champion, and we can then back away to avoid it.”

After that, although Miss Fortune shot her E skill a couple more times, I managed to avoid it completely.

“Dodging skills alone doesn’t guarantee winning the laning phase. That’s fundamentally meaningless.

But if we can lead the enemy’s skills to avoid our allied minions, exhaust their mana, and we push our lane instead?”

The expected scenario was inverted, with Miss Fortune and Jarvan pushed to the fortress, and they tragically perished along with the jungle in a dive kill.

“You can win the game.”

Because League of Legends is a really simple game, where you kill, harvest resources, and break buildings based on resource advantages.