Chapter 3: Snipping

“Guys, you really can’t snipe me today. I need to rank up.”

[Who would think she’s going to Diamond lol]
[Iron stuck! Iron stuck! Iron stuck! Iron stuck!]
[Bronze train departing choo choo]

Leni, a major streamer with an average viewership of 15,000. Like all her viewers, I started watching her broadcast for some unknown reason and became completely enthralled. In modern terms, I’d say I’ve become a Leni stan.

I had some pride in it. When I first started watching, her viewership was only around a thousand. Of course, a thousand isn’t a small number, but it’s insignificant compared to now.

Actually, you could say it’s all thanks to me that she became a major streamer. She always says, “I’m here because of you guys,” so… It’s not exactly wrong, right?

“Alright everyone, before we start, let’s do what we need to do.”

-[LeniFan]LeniDanceWithMe donated $1.
〔Time to collect~〕

[Money-grubbing form is insane]
[At this point, isn’t she intentionally avoiding ranking up?]
[How much has she raked in this week with the promotion excuse?]
[She can’t rank up, so what’s with the money grab? lol She always crashes and burns.]

-Mission registered.
-Mission registered.
-Mission registered.

Before the official start, countless donations flooded Leni’s donation window. The recently trending donation method called ‘Missions’. If Leni achieved the goal of ‘Bronze promotion’, she would take all the pledged money.

Success would be great, of course, but even having that much money on the line was a boon. Even if she failed, some viewers would just let the mission succeed anyway.

So, some streamers intentionally drag out missions. The longer the mission becomes a long-term goal, the less they have to worry about content, and they can steadily collect donations.

Well, in Leni’s case, I think it’s just pure skill issues.

“Thank you everyone for the missions~ Oh right, I have something to tell you. Today I…”

Even though a considerable amount of mission money had accumulated, Leni didn’t immediately queue up but started her usual casual chatter.

It was a kind of warm-up. Making viewers gradually become more engrossed, increasing anticipation for today’s broadcast, and making them stay as long as possible.

“Hmm….”

It was always the same, so I would have thought the same as usual… but today felt different.

My Master-level gut feeling was screaming. She genuinely wants to rank up, and she changed the subject to avoid snipers.

[Rank game starting.]

So I also started queuing for a ranked game, timing it appropriately.

-Du-dung -Du-dung

“Alright everyone, let’s go into our first game of the day!!”

[??????]
[Nice sneak queue~]
[Wow, the stealth queue is insane]
[Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go]
[Snipers, are you paying attention? Snipers, are you paying attention?]

And as expected, my gut feeling wasn’t wrong. It really was like that, but…

-Du-dung -Du-dung

“Oh.”

[ThrowOrNotThrow donated $10]
[LeniLeniLeniLoveYou joined the game.]
[llililllll joined the game.]
[SuperRedFlavorLeni joined the game.]
[aqeioqvqr joined the game.]

I failed miserably at sniping.

-LeniNing is on a rampage.
-LeniNing is legendary.

=Victory!

“Kya! Did you guys see that? That’s my real skill!”

[yessssssssssssssssssssssssssss]
[Insane, insane, insane, insane]
[Mom! I want to be reborn as Leni’s mouse!!!]
[Promotion series let’s go!]
[11/1/7! 11/1/7! 11/1/7!]

A clean 3-game winning streak. At the end of it, Leni’s 7th attempt at the Bronze promotion series.
It wasn’t just the result; her carry was very prominent in all three games, so the viewers’ chat was exploding.

“Haa….”

However, I couldn’t share their joy. I was experiencing the crushing defeat of failing to snipe three times in a row.

-Defeat!

[genGodTierGame(Assassin): Ugh,
Leni snipers, give it a rest]
[LeniInLeniIn(Mage): lol You should just stop playing at this time then]
[genGodTierGame(Assassin):
ing locusts]

On top of that, I was on a clean 3-game losing streak, making me even more demotivated.
Why are there only players who are this bad in this tier? They’re really no help.

“Alright everyone~ Let’s take a short break and then go straight into the promotion series. I’m really going up today.”

Leni was completely beaming. And in contrast, my expression started to sour.

Click

I started biting my nails unconsciously. A bad habit I developed after becoming a woman and a sign that I’m extremely anxious.

I had to come up with a plan.
Going back without sniping would be the biggest shame in my life.

Was my queue timing off?
No, I could say with certainty that it absolutely wasn’t.

The glorious future of successfully sniping her, receiving countless praises in chat, and finally ending up on the popular posts board… perhaps for that future, my senses have been working perfectly so far.

In the end, there was only one problem.

[Rank game results applied. -11LP]

[Current Tier: Iron IV 7p]

The tier difference between Leni and me. She’s currently at Iron I 100p, practically the peak of Iron. And while there is an Iron V abyss, I was still practically at the bottom.

Roughly 1 million users actively play LoL. And there are about 100,000 users in Iron tier… so that means there are at least tens of thousands of people between me and her. Plus, there must be a lot of snipers like me.

So, no matter how much I queue at the same time, the chances of me getting matched with her are extremely low.

“No choice….”

There were two ways to increase my chances of sniping success. Her tier drops, or I go up.

Hoping for the former was difficult. Despite numerous sniping attempts, her tier had rarely dropped below Iron II. There’s a reason why Iron I is called ‘Leni Village’.

[Rank game starting.]

“Just you wait…”

Even though her broadcast was still on break, I started queuing. I had to start the destructive train towards Iron I.

Carrying was the only answer. Iron natives weren’t human, so expecting them to pull their weight was difficult.

Of course, despite being in such a position of heavy responsibility, I didn’t turn off Leni’s broadcast. There’s no point in playing LoL if I’m not going to watch this.

“Today feels really good. Can you guys see it too? My rosy future of getting promoted with a 3-win streak?”

-[LeniFan]Klovel donated $1.
〔Raise your hand if you see a 3-loss streak~〕

[lol]
[lol]
[Leni, Leni, even for you, a 3-win streak is a bit much]

[No, guys. Didn’t you see my assassin play earlier? And you’re still talking about a 3-loss streak after seeing that?]
[It was a fluke..]
[Who plays assassin if they can’t assassinate?]
[The opponent just fed lol]

-[LeniFan]LeniNingNing donated $10.
〔100 if you fail to rank up〕

“Ah~ Thank you for the $10, LeniNingNing. I’m really sorry, but I’m going up today. Buy yourself something delicious with that $100~”

Leni, armed with confidence.

Her promotion series officially began.

=Victory!

=Victory!

=Defeat!

=Defeat!

“Ah!!!!! Guys, stop sniping!!! It’s really hard for me!!”

[Win-win-loss-loss-loss, let’s go~]
[Are you coming to your senses now? Are you coming to your senses now?]
[Promotion? What promotion? The village head can’t leave the village~]
[Iron stuck! Iron stuck! Iron stuck!]
[Anyway, it’s the snipers’ fault~]

And the score so far was 2 wins and 2 losses. Only one win remained to reach Bronze, but she wasn’t in good shape after two consecutive losses. Everyone was already expecting a reverse sweep.

=Victory!

“Wow… That was tough.”

And I had played twice as many games as her, eight in total, with a good score of 5 wins and 3 losses. My 8-game score of ’19/58/45′ wasn’t bad either. Maybe not a carry, but at least I pulled my weight. My KDA wasn’t in the negatives, at least.

Plus, maybe because my account is new, the LP gains are generous, so I think I can reach Iron I quickly.

As long as there are no trolls.

[SuperRedFlavorLeni(Dark Mage): Warrior, are you human with 10 deaths?]
[TrashTalkAndDie(Warrior): Are you any better, getting solo killed 7 times in a row by a ranger as a dark mage?]

-SuperRedFlavorLeni left the game.

This is just unbelievable.
How can someone die 10 times in a single game? I don’t even die 10 times. I had a lot to say, but I didn’t want to waste any more time, so I decided to hold back. So much to say, so little time.

“Haa… guys, I’ll take it slow for the last game. I’ll definitely avoid snipers, so it might take about an hour~”

[?????]
[Scared????]

“But I’ll open the gambling hall for the first time in a while, so take a break and come back~”

There was no point in playing more ranked games here. I wouldn’t even dream of Iron I. And if Leni actually ranked up, sniping would become even more difficult. In the end, the only answer was to cheer for Leni’s promotion failure with all my heart.

-Ta-da

[A new bet has opened: ‘Promotion Success or Failure’]

Yes, I had to bet everything.
3 million of her channel points, which I diligently saved for this day. It was a high score, ranking within the top 10.

[Bet placed on ‘Failure’. Points bet: 3,000,000]

“Haa….”

All-in.
A life-or-death gamble with everything I had. If she succeeds in her promotion, I’ll just bite my tongue and die.

-Du-dung -Du-dung

[Alright everyone, shall we go?]

[Let’s go, let’s go!]
[Please normal outcome, please normal outcome]
[I bet my house on the reverse outcome..]
[Win-win-loss-loss-loss! Win-win-loss-loss-loss!]

And so, Leni’s final promotion match, with so much riding on it, began.