Chapter 21
“I don’t think I’ll be able to talk while playing. Sorry, but I’m turning off my mic.”
“Huh?”
Name’s voice cuts out.
Sia couldn’t understand what on earth was happening for a moment.
[‘YuriDoctor’ donated 5,000 won!]
-You bastard, you were hiding your true troll nature all this time for this!
‘What happens now?’
There had been a mountain of things to ask—questions for the stream, personal questions, and so on—but in an instant, she had completely upended Sia’s plans.
“For now, I’ll focus on the game. It might’ve felt like too much pressure since it’s your first one.”
But it took more than this to fluster Sia now; she had already become a full-fledged professional streamer.
To keep the chat from erupting too violently for the moment, she enabled subscriber-only mode and decided to focus on the game.
As befitted a high-elo support, she had tried Asteria as soon as the champion was released.
She agreed that Asteria was Riot’s masterwork, a stylish champion with a high ceiling whose skill set offered both carry potential and fun.
But the champion’s excessive balance considerations meant that every game exposed its drawbacks: it required a deep understanding of the champion in lane, and positioning during large-scale team fights was exceptionally difficult.
In short, a flashy-looking dud.
It was a champion that wasn’t particularly strong in lane and, even if it somehow got fed, was prone to dying mysteriously—a classic case of neither use nor abandonment.
Interest in Asteria gradually cooled, and now people were reduced to waiting for Riot’s buffs.
When NoName locked in Asteria, the viewers let out sighs.
What makes a troll a troll?
They don’t care whether the game is won or lost; they play solely for their own amusement.
Teammates who had solemnly banded together into a single team lost their morale because of one person.
It was a hollow experience anyone who played LoL had probably suffered at least once.
They used their past experiences as fuel to pour their anger onto Name.
But the situation reversed the moment Name scored a triple kill.
[‘AsteriaMain’ donated 10,000 won!]
-Is this how strong Asteria is at level 6? Then what the hell have I been doing all this time...
After Asteria was released, countless montage videos flooded the internet, but most of them only began after reaching level 16 and unlocking rank-three ultimate.
Because using ‘Supernova’ increased the number of star fragments to 20, finally allowing it to deal ultimate-level damage to multiple targets.
But NoName, as if to show them all, hit every one of the ten marks in just one second without wasting a single use.
As if to prove this was no fluke, her kill count continued to rise without restraint.
[An ally has been slain]
While Name and Sia pushed the side stronghold, three allies recklessly started a team fight and suffered a crushing defeat because they were outnumbered.
And of all places, they had been caught at the nest of the neutral monster Baron Duke.
If things continued like this, a game they had been winning could turn around.
“Since Baron seems to be gone, wouldn’t it be better to at least push an inhibitor?”
Sia cautiously offered her opinion, but.
[Support – NoName]
“You’re really going? That’s insane. All five of them are alive.”
Regardless, Name didn’t even push the wave all the way in and immediately sprinted toward the nest.
“No, I’m telling you, your shutdown is worth 1,000 won! If you die too, this game will turn around.”
Name was definitely fed, but as an ADC, she wasn’t ahead in levels. Their actual stats were roughly comparable.
Sia thought she understood why Name was being so hasty.
‘It’s true that if their tank gets even further ahead, we’ll have almost no way to break through in the next dragon fight.’
But was that really important enough to gamble everything on a single fight?
Again, this was Bronze-Silver-Gold territory. A chaotic place where the outcome could flip at any moment, even with a 10,000-gold lead.
As someone who favored playing it safe, Sia wanted to play for the late game.
Even the dead teammates began pinging.
[Danger!]
[Retreat!]
[Support – NoName]
Of course you’re not going to back off. Fine, let’s go. Who would’ve thought I’d focus this hard in Bronze-Silver-Gold?
Asteria’s possession percentage had reset.
As Name and Sia came into view in mid lane, the enemy team also took notice and made thorough preparations to enter combat at any moment.
But Asteria’s movements were strange.
“Did you take attack speed for this?”
She had made use of the fact that using Q on jungle monsters and lane minions could also increase her possession percentage. Precisely when she reached mid lane, a wave of enemy minions came rushing in.
Name moved along the optimal path, passing through all six minions and instantly raising her possession percentage to 30%, then immediately slaughtered all the raptors, completing 60% possession—in other words, 750 range.
-Q speed? This person doesn’t seem human.
-Wow, her mechanics are insane (literally insane)
-It’s virtual reality, so aren’t mechanics also brain mechanics?
-Even LoL, despite its limited freedom of movement, still follows real-world reaction speeds.
Baron had 3,000 health left.
It was too much to give up, but with the fed bot laner right in front of them, ignoring her was difficult too.
From 60% possession onward, the increased range was overwhelmingly noticeable with every autoattack.
Relying on her long range, Name kept poking them, forcing the enemy team to choose.
Fight or run?
She had planned to commit once possession reached 100% and her range became no different from that of a melee champion, but instead Name used that expectation against them and refrained from raising her possession recklessly.
She ignored the tank whose health barely moved and focused on the fragile damage dealers and support.
Since she was an ADC who had already secured ten kills, even a single hit from her was devastating.
Once her harassment reached the jungler as well, the jungler made up his mind and ordered an all-out attack.
“You keep messing around like that, and you’re dead!”
Even if Asteria backed off here, they could simply turn back toward Baron.
Their allied top laner still had plenty of health, so they initiated, figuring a four-versus-two was worth trying.
Huh?
But contrary to expectations, she dashed forward even though her possession was still at 85%.
They were practically feeding themselves to her; there was no way she could pass up the meal.
On top of that, she had become isolated after opening up some distance from Lulu.
Just then, perhaps the allied support saw the same opening and used her ultimate on her, but.
[Wild Growth!]
Lulu’s perfectly timed ultimate and Polymorph.
Asteria even leaped over that, targeting the ADC at the very back of Baron’s nest.
“What are you doing?! Stop her, quick, before—!”
“Kill her, now!”
While mid and jungle hurried back, top even used their ultimate to protect the ADC, but.
Asteria disappeared right before their eyes, leaving behind only a ward.
“What? Where’d she go?”
“Hey, behind the wall...!”
[Possession – 95% / Range 1000]
Asteria unleashed indiscriminate bombardment from beyond the nest.
The ADC melted in an instant, and the support who had tried to protect them was killed along with them.
They tried to give up on Baron, even if belatedly, but...
Now an incarnation of the stars, she showed no mercy to the traitors.
She used a Blast Cone to cross back into the nest, dodged every CC ability, and finally completed 100% possession.
“We’re so fucked, damn it.”
[La Asteria Salva Ermum]
With an animation of stars exploding in the sky, star fragments lodged indiscriminately around them.
And all they could see was Asteria’s cape fluttering.
[Triple Kill!]
Five star fragments severed the Heretic’s Chains.
[Quadra Kill!]
Ten star fragments destroyed the Watcher’s Shotgun.
[An ally has stolen Baron Duke!]
And even the blacksmith, who had held his position until the very end, was forced to kneel beneath the stars’ radiance.
[Pentakill!]
“Amazing...”
* * *
People say that, given the nature of solo queue, the game ends before Asteria can show her late-game carry potential.
But I didn’t agree.
More precisely, I didn’t agree with ‘Asteria’ as a champion built around armor-penetration items.
Naturally, if you built items that way, given Asteria’s current stats, it was only natural for her average win rate to settle in the low 40s.
In that case, she’d probably hit a 50% win rate around the 30-minute mark.
But if the goal was to boost her early growth and snowball the game from there, no matter how I thought about it, I believed an attack-speed build was the right choice.
Until the increase in range reached a point the enemy couldn’t even notice it.
They would underestimate Asteria, only to be caught off guard when they realized she had somehow moved beyond their reach.
With Lulu’s excellent laning ability, and if her ultimate was used at the right moments, I concluded that, in theory, this combination had no point in the game where it was at a disadvantage.
[Victory!]
“Whew. We’re done, everyone!”
After my pentakill, the enemies lost the will to fight, and it didn’t take long for their stronghold to fall.
Sia, who provided timely support from behind, also deserved no small share of credit for our victory.
Whenever I relentlessly pressed the enemy with Asteria, she was always at my side.
If I deliberately allowed the enemy to approach, she seemed to read my every thought, perfectly using Polymorph and her ultimate to pull off even bait plays.
[‘Largo’ donated 110,000 won!]
-You got 22 kills in total?!
“Thank you so much for the 5,000 won per kill mission, Largo!!! Our NoName is really good, right? I’ll spin the donation roulette later, when I’m alone.”
[‘NightSkyHye’ donated 10,000 won!]
-A pentakill on your first stream? This collab is already looking wild.
“Thank you for the 10,000 won donation too, NightSkyHye!”
So many people were celebrating our victory.
Some expressed their feelings with money, others with paid fireworks.
‘Congratulations.’
I turned around at the sound, but
all that brushed my cheek was a ticklish northwest wind.
“Yeah... thanks.”
[Joining voice chat: NoName, WhenHyejiBecomesNight (2/2)]
“Sorry for leaving without saying anything.”
“Whoa! You startled me, suddenly taking off like that. You were, like, really good!”
My avatar changed from the tall Asteria back into tiny NoName.
“Want to say something to the viewers? Since this is a collab, shouldn’t you do something?”
“Um...”
I watched the endless stream of chat messages pouring down.
Some congratulated us, some said they had fallen for my gameplay, and so many people were curious about ‘me.’
In short, questions made up the majority.
-Hi hi
-That close-up is insane
-NoName, are you really a woman?
-Do you think she is?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Just a typical netkama.
-A typical netkama (a pentakill on Asteria in her first game)
-Even if she were a guy, I’d simp like crazy.
-How old are you?
-What’s your relationship with Hye-Bam?
-Why aren’t you climbing out of Bronze with mechanics like that?
-You play 8,000 games a year, so I’m really curious about your real lifeㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-You barely played recently. Was there a reason you quit the game?
“A woman... I think so. But I wouldn’t want you to simp for me even if I were a man.”
“I’m seven. My birthday hasn’t come around yet.”
“We’re in the same clan.”
“I don’t care much about tiers.”
“It’s a little difficult to tell you about my real life.”
“It’s because I lost my reason to play games.”
As I answered each question earnestly, Sia tried to stop me.
“Name! I didn’t mean you had to answer every question, haha.”
“You should’ve told me sooner.”
You deliberately waited to tell me, didn’t you?
But Sia smoothly dodged the issue by suggesting they move on to the next game.
“I was originally going to ask you about it gradually while we played together, but you’ve already told me everything?”
“I won’t turn off my mic again.”
“Hehe. Shall we go? We’re using the Asteria-Lulu combo again, right?”
“No, I want to play Kai’Sa this game.”
I suddenly wanted to feel the wind to the fullest.
The cool northwest wind.