Chapter 4
[Bronze 3—Waiting to Snipe in Real Time]
To think I’d actually try sniping in my own tier.
-The greatest output Bronze 3 has ever produced: NoName lol.
ㄴIt’s okay even if they’re not Diamond!
-Let me get a free win too.
[Proof of Successfully Sniping NoName]
(Hawawa Kariri-con)
Instead, I offer you cute Kariri-chan~
-Who the hell is this nobody?
ㄴYou don’t know Kariri-chan? She’s a Vtuber with 890,000 subscribers, and she’s ex.treme.ly.fa.mous.
ㄴWhere do these fucking jokes keep coming from?
-Jotopia is real.
[Encountered NoName while duoing on Diamond mid/jungle smurfs (screenshots included)]
Got brutally stomped (results-screen screenshot)
-Why is this actually real?
-Legendary top and bot laners who can’t win even with Diamond mid and jungle lol...
ㄴSo this is why I can’t escape the depths.
-What the hell, Vargo went 21/2/5?
ㄴHe got a penta, quadra, and even a Double Ace. He really got the whole package.
ㄴIt was a 30-minute game and the jungler’s RS was 330, holy crap.
-Was the theory that NoName is the strongest of the sniping, stream-sniping, smurfing, and trolling bunch actually true?
ㄴWhat does “sniping, stream-sniping, smurfing, and trolling” mean?
ㄴA sniper, a stream sniper, a smurf, and a troll.
ㄴThe fact that you’re comparing someone who stomped the depths with a Challenger says it all lol.
ㄴThey said the opponents were Diamond.
ㄴThree people on the team were Bronze. What difference does that make? You clearly know nothing about LoL.
-Seriously, buff assassins. One bruiser got fed and the game couldn’t be turned around.
ㄴ( OP ) We had the game won, but the mood turned sour when he got a penta in the Rift Herald team fight.
ㄴCan we get a recording?
ㄴ( OP ) I forgot to record it, so I tried watching the replay, but maybe it’s a replay error—the footage is glitched only for NoName, so there aren’t any usable screenshots.
-At this point, isn’t NoName actually a high-performance, high-computing bishoujo AI made by Riot?
ㄴThe end of the human era has arrived.
ㄴWhy did you tack on “bishoujo”?
ㄴThat’s got a whole lot of personal bias in it lol.
ㄴFucking pedophile, gross.
-Why did they suddenly try so hard this game?
ㄴ( OP ) Dunno?
As Docu 4 Days became a sensational hit, the public’s attention naturally turned to its cast.
Unlike celebrities, who would hit back with every legal measure their companies could muster if someone sniped them even in VR, these were famous people closer to ordinary civilians.
Playing a game or two with them wasn’t a problem.
In particular, when Shuvi, the Resonance streamer who had appeared as the de facto protagonist of the first episode of Docu 4 Days, publicly allowed people to snipe her, sniping culture began to take off in earnest.
It was no different for LoL.
[Rabbit Is a Tortoise: I climbed all the way to Challenger to play with Hyebam^^ Let’s have some fun together^^]
[When Hyeji, Night Falls: Are you out of your mind? Spend that time paying attention to your real life.]
But most viewers weren’t high-elo. In these circumstances, it was perhaps inevitable that they would go wild over sniping NoName, who was Bronze 3.
NoName wasn’t exactly pleased with the situation.
‘My game time has gotten shorter. More than anything, the games are unpredictable.’
From the perspective of someone who needed to clear only their quests as quickly as possible and move straight on to the next game, snipers were a nuisance.
Games dragged on for an hour, while other times the fortress fell before fifteen minutes had passed. Unless it was a Mythic quest, most achievements didn’t pay, so they were simply wasting their golden time. It was only making NoName more stressed.
‘I feel like I’m losing 5,000 won a day. This isn’t going to keep happening, is it?’
Since NoName had received around 500,000 won as an appearance fee, even simple arithmetic showed that it would become a loss after a hundred days.
[Game found]
[Declined]
A match found in less than a second was unsettling.
Five minutes of waiting was an awkward amount of time in which to do anything, so NoName’s attention turned to the community.
The update notes and professional matches were irrelevant to NoName anyway. Today, too, ego-searching was the main activity.
[Search: NoName / Filter: Today]
[387 results found]
As expected, it was all trivial stuff. Just as NoName was about to turn their attention back to the game—
-Digging into the NoName Horror Stories (long post warning)-
Despite being a painstakingly written post of considerable length, it had attracted only a few comments and been buried without making the featured posts. NoName found it by chance.
[Digging into the NoName Horror Stories (long post warning)]
[Author: Working Hard Without Getting Angry]
NoName is just a troll?
I don’t think so.
(...)
* * *
“So why do we have to snipe NoName?”
“Hit Once, Hit Twice, I’ll explain it all again from the beginning.”
“I understand your explanation, okay? And I told you not to call me by my nickname, but by my name, remember?”
“You chose it yourself, though... Anyway, got it, Ye-eun.”
Ye-eun didn’t bother adding that her older brother was the one who had come up with the nickname.
The gist was this.
That there had to be a valid reason NoName was trolling, that NoName couldn’t speak for some reason, and so on.
It was all Semin’s nonsensical speculation, but out of the affection she felt after duoing with him all this time, she agreed to play along for this one game.
‘Well, I climbed to Silver easily enough too.’
She’d heard that Semin had originally lived mostly in Silver to Gold. As an added excuse, he claimed he simply hadn’t adjusted yet because it hadn’t been long since he returned to school after his military service.
In reality, he did show skill far superior to that of a true Bronze local.
“Do you really think we can snipe him in this bracket? And it’s not like we’re the only ones doing it.”
“At worst, we break even.”
“You said he can’t talk, right? How are you planning to communicate?”
“I can send signals with my eyes too, just like him. Like this.”
Semin’s eyes blinked at regular intervals.
Just as he said, NoName’s signals supposedly spelled SOS in Morse code. Apparently, it was some obscure distress-signal system that might have been popular in a movie fifty years ago...
I didn’t know the details, but it was certainly an interesting story to talk about.
Indeed, in the video, she opened and closed her eyes at regular intervals.
NoName queued for the next game as soon as the game ended.
If they searched for a game at the same moment NoName became able to invite them, they could at least hope for a higher probability of matching.
[Game found]
“Shall we go in?”
[Accept 1/2]
[Accept 2/2]
[Match found]
Pitch-black darkness engulfed them, and before long, their vision cleared.
It was the dome-house-style waiting room that had become familiar to any virtual-reality gamer.
Ten people revealed the avatars they had painstakingly created, their figures emerging into the light.
Of course, customization wasn’t mandatory.
Since these were game-specific sub-avatars used only for waiting in the game, not their main avatars, it was difficult to guess who anyone was from their appearance alone.
Those who found decorating their customizations bothersome had barely added one or two ornaments to the default characters.
NoName was one of them.
Because of that, it was impossible to tell whether this person was a troll or a beginner until the game began. Besides, interaction had been disabled to prevent abuse.
Semin looked around.
Of those set to the default avatar, one was on the allied team and one was on the enemy team.
They had to be among them.
Ye-eun still maintained her bored posture.
Come to think of it, if they were going to snipe him, wouldn’t it be better for the two of them to split up?
They had duoed together out of habit until now, so perhaps she had started without even realizing it.
As they thought about this and that, their pick order approached.
Since Semin took games seriously, he picked jungle Rammus as always.
From the allied first pick through the enemy’s fifth pick, all ten champions were selected, and the countdown began.
The grandfather clock announcing the time to depart for the battlefield rang out clang, clang, urging them on. Control of their bodies was taken away, and the champions began moving on their own.
The farther the distance from the dome house to the battlefield, the longer the loading time. In other words, it was proof that someone was using an old-fashioned capsule.
‘It’s incredibly far!’
‘At this rate, it’ll take two minutes? Maybe even more than three?’
It was good news for Semin.
In an age when cutting-edge capsules were appearing in droves, loading times like this were rare.
Perhaps NoName wasn’t using a very good capsule, because they often experienced absurdly long loading times like this.
When they reached the outskirts of the battlefield, an event began in which Minotaur gatekeeper NPCs came and distributed one pass to each player.
It was called a pass, but it was actually an all-purpose status window that displayed the allies’ overall stats and general information about the battlefield. The enemy nicknames could also be checked here.
“Take this, adventurer seeking the legacy. It is valuable, so be careful not to lose it.”
The status-window tutorial was, of course, skipped automatically.
Semin hurriedly checked the nicknames first.
[NoName(Evelynn): 0/0/0]
“They’re here!”
“But they’re on the other team?”
“We can invade.”
A strategy of picking a fight before the real battle had even begun.
Meeting NoName was the first priority.
Semin immediately sent an assist ping toward the eastern forest on the enemy side. The teammates who checked the team compositions were clearly reluctant, but they couldn’t exactly leave him to go alone.
Led by Semin and Ye-eun, all five bunched together and boldly crossed the border.
If they had come this far, there would normally be one or two people keeping watch, but strangely, not a single person was in sight.
“A ward?”
“No... it’s not a ward.”
There was no sign of anyone in either the northern forest, where one teammate had gone scouting, or the eastern forest they were in now.
In other words, NoName wasn’t anywhere on the battlefield.
“They have no intention of playing this game at all.”
* * *
[An abnormal physical response has been detected]
[Log out of the capsule immediately]
“......”
[Response time exceeded]
[Forcibly disconnecting]
[Error]
[Forcibly disconnecting]
[Error]
[Wait time exceeded]
[Rejected]
[An abnormal physical response has been detected]
[Log out of the capsule immediately]
[Rejection]
[Rejection is not possible]
[Response time exceeded]
[Forcibly disconnecting]
[Error]
[Error]
[Error]
“It’s so noisy...”
All sorts of warning sounds were desperate to torment me.
They were notifications I had seen from time to time before.
I once had this thought: if I finished three days’ worth of work in just two days, even if it meant staying up all night, wouldn’t I be able to rest for a day?
My paltry challenge had only brought back a system warning about my physical condition. The frail body of a young girl wouldn’t tolerate even one sleepless night.
[Error]
[Error]
I really feel like I’m going to die.
No, I want to die.
Besides, whenever anyone approached nearby, my expression smoothed over as if nothing were wrong, while my entire body stiffened like a wooden doll. It was an unpleasant feeling, as if this body weren’t mine.
And when the stiffness eased, the pain I should have endured over a short period returned doubled.
It hurts so much.
Every time I breathe, it feels as though my airway is being torn apart.
But I can’t cough or anything.
Because this isn’t reality.
Every step I take feels as though my limbs are being crushed.
But I have to keep walking toward the battlefield.
Because that’s what the system requires.
My heart is tightening.
My head feels as though it’s about to explode.
[Error]
[Error]
“Are you all right? The others have already reached the battlefield! You’d better hurry over!”
A familiar voice reached me. This high, crisp voice belonged to none other than the fox-eared merchant Riri, the child who always sold worn-out boots and low-quality potions in the starting village.
Although she was an AI, in a way, she might have been the person I had encountered most often in this life.
In this desolate world where conversation with people had been fundamentally cut off, I took her small body into my arms.
“Why... why are you doing this?! W-wait a moment!”
A strangled “uehek” escaped Riri’s mouth.
‘Just a little longer. Stay like this, Ruri... no, Riri. I’m having such a hard time... I’ve been having such a hard time.’
“This body may not look it, but I’m of the noble bloodline of the great Kingdom of Yernika! Someone like you can’t just handle me however you please!”
“...”
“I shouldn’t... I shouldn’t...”
Normally, continuous physical contact with NPCs in LoL was blocked. But so what? My body had been riddled with bugs from birth.
The little ball of fur seemed to resist at first, but gradually nestled into my arms.
Her warmth was truly gentle and comforting.
“My past life is already beginning to fade, but I still vividly remember my memories with Mom. They come to me as soon as I wake up, when I’m preparing for a game, and even when I close my eyes to sleep.”
“Hmm... Was your mother a good person?”
“I don’t know. I was too young. I only remember that she was foolishly kind...”
She must have been.
If she’d had any sense, she wouldn’t have sacrificed her life for me.
In the oldest memory I have, the mother and daughter held hands tightly in a blood-soaked battlefield.