“This… this is?”
I felt like my current body had better physicality than my old self. Even using difficult skill combos that would have been tough before felt smooth now.
– Nice job lololol
– I only spun the cube and didn’t notice, but your physicality is insane??? Guess you’re leveling up an alt.
– For real, looking at your match history, you have no records from last season, so you must be a fresh account.
I was still in the laning phase. In the midlane, there were various champions. Among them, I was playing Irelia.
Irelia was a champion where it was important to either kill minions or use skills on marked enemies to reset the cooldown of Bladesurge, making trades crucial.
She was a champion that heavily relied on the player’s physicality. In coordinated tournaments, Irelia wasn’t used much, but in solo queue, there was no champion more suitable. It was easy to dominate when the opponent was less skilled.
Even now, I was easily overpowering the enemy team’s champion, Orianna. Of course, if you knew how to manage distance and timing, Irelia couldn’t easily stick to you, but this was Diamond 2~3.
As a former Master, I could easily dominate the opponent. The moment there was a tier difference, even slightly unfavorable matchups could be overturned. That’s the charm of this game, isn’t it?
The thrill of overturning unfavorable matchups with jungle intervention or individual physicality was one of the reasons it was hard to put this game down.
And carrying the team to victory by dominating the opponent felt incredibly satisfying.
Even now, I dodged Orianna’s ball with Bladesurge and used Vanguard’s Edge. The skill shot was flawless, hitting Orianna perfectly.
And with the following Bladesurge-Ultimate-Bladesurge combo, I cleanly sent the enemy champion back to the fountain. It felt like my physicality had skyrocketed after transforming into this body.
Even though it’s still a child’s body, if it’s this good now, I can’t even imagine how much stronger I’ll get as I grow.
– Ah, damn, mid diff, GG.
– Are we even in the same tier lol? You died three times before level 6.
– Overflowing with crap.
Some delusional people say there’s no all-chat in League, but here, all-chat was alive and well. Normally, you’d fight the enemy, but that’s just how the game is. Teammates fighting each other in chat was much more common.
The enemy team didn’t comfort their struggling teammate but instead whipped them into shape. In return, the person playing Orianna sold all their items and ran down mid. As expected, it was a predictable outcome.
Having played thousands of games in a season, this was a familiar scene. No, it was one of the scenarios I’d seen so many times I was sick of it.
This is League, after all. I wiped my nose and took down the Orianna running mid. The game ended in a surrender.
I clicked past the victory screen. Since it was a 15-minute surrender, there was no need to check the damage stats. I received four honors from my team and finished the game.
– If only I didn’t get trolled, I could carry.
– This guy seems like a Challenger, huh?
– Challenger is a stretch, but maybe the lower end of Grandmaster? Brain mechanics are lacking, but physicality is good.
Seeing the viewer count, which had somehow reached 20, I couldn’t help but laugh. No mic, no cam, and this many viewers was insane. I’m not some popular or well-known streamer, after all.
Currently, I was Diamond 1 with 0 points, just five more wins until my Master promos. With a record of 30 wins and 8 losses, my win rate was incredibly high. Compared to Challenger players who mostly have 50-60% win rates, my nearly 80% was bizarre.
Honestly, even Challenger players could achieve this win rate on a smurf. It could be even higher if I duoed.
It was just an inflated ego. Except for the games where I got trolled, I mostly won, so my self-esteem was sky-high.
I felt exhilarated playing League so far. As someone who had been stuck in Master for years, I saw hope of reaching Grandmaster. The game was going that well.
– That’s it for today, bye.
– See you tomorrow.
– Is your ID your kids’ names?
Some people still misunderstood me as an older person. Hana, Bora, Haru—those names aren’t that unusual, right? Though, considering how I acted in Icarus, there was no reason to think I was an elementary school student.
I logged off. Tomorrow, I had a routine physical check-up, so I needed to sleep early.
—————————————–
Whirrrrrrr.
As I entered some cylindrical device, something started spinning and scanning Hana. Hana stood in the machine, arms spread out, staring blankly.
“Hmm… Is she not growing taller?”
“Height and weight haven’t changed from before.”
“There’s nothing particularly different from before in the other tests either.”
Back in the day, they would have thoroughly examined Hana through various detailed tests, but now, that wasn’t necessary. Hana had become a South Korean citizen, and there were already research results from before.
So, Hana’s physical examination was over in less than 30 minutes.
Bora flipped through the documents and said,
“But the efficacy of her hair keeps getting better, doesn’t it?”
When they made green tea with Hana’s hair before, they didn’t know the exact length, but if they needed to use 10cm of hair back then, now they only needed 5cm to achieve the same effect.
The lotion was the same as Starlight Green Tea. This meant the efficiency of Hana’s hair had skyrocketed. The CEOs of Starlight Green Tea and the cosmetics company would be grinning from ear to ear. They could produce more products with the same amount of hair.
And Hana’s hair color was getting darker.
They didn’t know if there were any effects from Hana’s blood or other body parts, but now such research was classified as child abuse, so they didn’t delve deep into it.
The current tests were just to check Hana’s condition. You could say it was just for show.
“By the way, isn’t Hana the richest person in our research institute?”
Hana, who wasn’t even 10 years old, was the richest person in the institute. Bora nodded at that remark.
“Right. Even though we set the royalty rate low as a condition for her citizenship, it’s still like that. The structure is such that Hana’s royalty rate increases over time, so if a bit more time passes, won’t Hana end up buying the entire research institute?”
Given Hana’s wealth, which would grow with the proper royalty rate, it was entirely possible. It would just take some time. And the money she received each month now was more than what average people could earn in a lifetime.
Hana, freed from the biggest obstacle in life—money—was slightly enviable. She was like a rich, upper-class person who didn’t have to work.
Bora quickly flipped through the physical examination form and put it down. Then she went downstairs, picked up Hana, and returned to the room.
————————————
I was eating jelly. The soft, sweet taste was easily addicting.
While eating the jelly, I suddenly felt pain around here. Wondering if something was wrong, I rushed to the mirror to check the sore spot.
“My tooth is loose…?”
Before, I didn’t pay attention to my teeth because I was too busy, but it seems this body still has baby teeth.
Oh no…
Does that mean I’ll have to lose more teeth? I grabbed my front tooth and wiggled it back and forth. It was loose. I would have to pull it out, but I was so scared.
It’s going to hurt so much… I hurriedly ran to the office. The office was full of people working hard. It seemed like the number of people in the office was increasing.
I approached Haru and said,
“Haru, my tooth is loose.”
I opened my mouth wide and showed Haru the wobbly front tooth.
“Really…? If it’s this loose, you’ll have to pull it out…?”
Haru looked at my condition and said that. How are they going to pull it out? It would be nice if they could do it gently and painlessly.
But contrary to my expectations, it didn’t seem like they would pull it out gently. Haru brought a thread from somewhere. Then we went to my room. I followed with a sense of foreboding.
Haru smiled and tied the thread to my front tooth. I could predict what was going to happen next. Surely, they would tie the thread to the doorknob and slam the door, right…?
My prediction was spot on. Haru prepared to close the door.
“On the count of three, I’ll close the door.”
“Uh… okay.”
I looked at Haru with trembling eyes. I hoped they would pull it out without pain. But it’s going to hurt, isn’t it? I thought I should brace myself as much as possible when Haru counts to three.
“One!”
“Two!”
SLAM!
“!?”
