Chapter 8: The Valley is Always Clear

Late evenings or early morning streams always have an audience.

And among them, there are quite a few streamers who tirelessly strive for viewers and money, regardless of the time of day.

Durang, who had even won a streamer tournament, was one of them.

“…I almost got tilted.”

Durang’s stream, the largest of its kind, had more donations pouring in even though it was closer to dawn than night, more than when there were more people.

—Congratulations.

—Diamond.

—Our Durang is indeed a skilled streamer.

—Wow.

—I shouldn’t say bad things like he got carried by the bus and barely touched Diamond, right?

—lololol.

—This game was honestly too much.

“Ah, yes. I admit it. I got carried.”

The laning phase itself didn’t even exist because the support was trolling, and other than level, there was only one thing he was ahead of the opposing AD carry.

Usually, when a support does something worse than going AFK, Durang, like other streamers, would forcefully say not to criticize him and defend his own skills.

But this time, Durang cleanly admitted that he got carried.

“Honestly, it would be disrespectful to this person to argue here. Is it True-nim?”

After checking the nickname of his team’s mid laner in the post-game stats screen, he showed infinite respect.

—The Great True.

—God of Carries.

—She was just really f*cking good.

—If Durang was even as good as the dirt under her toenails, he would have reached Grandmaster long ago.

—lololol.

“Hey. I’m not that bad.”

—Looking at the record, she seems like a former pro?

—Win rate 88%.

“Okay. I admit it. I’d be grateful if I were even as good as the dirt under her toenails.”

—Isn’t she just a pro’s smurf?

—No, she’s a middle school girl.

—What bullsh*t are you saying?

—It’s true (Stream_Link).

—????

—Is this real?

—It’s really the mid who just played with Durang?

—What is this?

—Insane.

Normally, everyone refrains from mentioning other streamers, but this time, curiosity won over the rules.

“What, a middle school girl? A third-year middle schooler?”

As he said that, he naturally sent a friend request to True.

—???

—This guy……

—Is the police station open even at dawn?

—Don’t put him in a holding cell, just put him directly in prison, right?

—Durang, who can’t forget the taste of the bus, is even trying to ride a prisoner transport bus…

—That’s what spooning guys are like.

—He got carried, and instead of saying thank you, he’s doing this?

—Just say you want to duo, damn it.

—He wants to ride the bus driven by a middle school girl and climb the ranks while playing, right?

—It’s really disgusting how he’s trying to eat for free without even putting a spoon on the perfectly prepared table.

I knew it, I knew it.

“Hey, I just purely thought she was good and wanted to have a conversation, I’m definitely not going to duo.”

While he was saying that, a sentence suddenly appeared in the all-chat window below the analysis screen.

“Oh, I got startled.”

—lolololol.

—Middle school girl is really angry.

—Durang, quickly apologize.

He wondered if his viewers had gone over to her stream, which was still small.

But judging by the unusual typing speed and the barrage of curses that came up in an instant, it was easy to see that it wasn’t at least a mistake related to him.

“That friend seems to have suffered a lot too.”

Having been subjected to malicious sniping by viewers countless times during live broadcasts, he felt an unknown sense of camaraderie with the person named True.

“Since this is also fate, I hope she accepts the friend request.”

—???

—Is this guy serious?

—All the streams I watch have gone downhill, if you go downhill too, what am I going to watch!

—I think it’s obvious why LOCK separately teaches players about personality and SNS lol, g.g.

—Goodbye to the downhill.

—Are donations refundable?

—Why is that your money, you b*stard?

—lololol.

“No, it’s really not like that, I’m trying to create video content later if she reaches Grandmaster or something.”

Even though the distinctiveness of solo queue tiers has decreased these days, with that level of overwhelming skill, it seemed possible to reach not only Grandmaster but also a middle school Challenger with a little exaggeration.

“You know. I really have a good eye.”

There were even players who debuted as pros after collaborations.

Durang’s Lock playing skills were unknown, but his eye for talent was real.

—Why is this guy a streamer?

—If he had just quit streaming and become a Lock scout, he would have bought an apartment in Gangnam with the commission he received from the players.

—lol.

—This guy just likes streaming.

It’s not like it wasn’t true, Durang actually did a lot of content where he said a word to promising people he met in solo queue or even had them as guests to introduce them to viewers.

“Well, I’ll worry about content later, let’s just watch this for now.”

As if she couldn’t lose to her, it was clear that the trolls were also provoking True.

If they were bad, they should have just left quietly.

The trolls reacted violently to her chat, and thanks to that, they ended up becoming enemies again, not in the Rift, but in reality.

—lolololol.

—What’s her DPS on that?

—It’ll probably hit 1000 as a baseline.

—Durang, try making her an AD carry.

—She’ll probably be good at AD carry too lolol.

—The troll idiots are scared.

—Look at them becoming quiet lol.

The trolls, who were talking a few words at first, gradually kept silent due to True’s long and fast life advice.

“Editor-nim, when you make the video later, that chat part…you know, right?”

It was so raw that it would be better to cover it with mosaics.

“Middle schoolers these days are scary.”

—I think I’d lose if I fought her.

—Yeah;;

—At that level, she could almost inherit the title of orphan maker?

—lolololol.

—How middle schoolers survive in the Twisted Treeline.

In the end, the one-sided violence that wasn’t even a fight—

[BlueberryMojito has left the game.]

It ended with the trolls running away.

Yeah.

This is the game.

People should relieve their anger.

—Whoa.

—I’ll behave well. 

—I’m scared…

—1 middle school girl > 3 trolls.

—Is her fighting power real?

—Streamer, I’ll be a good viewer from now on.

“Don’t worry. You don’t have any reason to be treated the same as those low-level wastes, do you?”

—That’s right.

—We’re good.

—Good viewers didn’t see anything just now.

—lol.

—It seems like something went through the chat window…?

—Ahem.

—Nothing happened…!

At this point, it can be said that at least minimal self-defense against malicious snipers has been established.

Of course, some twisted people feel joy at seeing a person’s anger, so the sniping itself won’t stop, but anyway, if they keep climbing, they’re just like dust that can’t keep up and will fall off.

“If you can keep up with my rank climbing speed, well, keep trolling.”

As I continued to play the game, I got a rough idea of the climbing speed.

It was like that until now that I was climbing at a speed that ordinary users could never keep up with, but rather, as the tier went up, the number of users who had a proper concept of the game increased, so I also had more opportunities to demonstrate what I could do.

As there are more victory plans, the probability of winning also increases.

In other words, from my point of view, the higher the tier, the easier it is to climb.

So, if there’s a troll who keeps sniping and interfering while I’m climbing tiers faster than now, I’ll coax them and put them in ST’s 3rd team.

If they can do that much, it’s a talent in itself.

Of course, I’ve only seen Fraud do that in my entire life.

When I was struggling in the first team, he retired alone and was enjoying a happy life harassing his juniors.

I’ve never felt the fact that I didn’t have any juniors below me as much as I did then.

Anyway.

“Now, I’m really going to press this, okay?”

Even while looking at it, I wonder if that number is correct.

During my pro days, my annual salary had a different number of zeros in my bank account, and I was one of those who often received donations of 1 million won, but that amount of money in just a week of streaming was not something to be taken lightly, even if I was a used rookie.

Encouraged by the viewers’ encouragement, I pressed the mission success button without further hesitation.

—Congratulations.

—Millionaire.

—lololololol.

—She deserves it.

—You worked hard.

—You said it was a safe asset.

—It’s your skill~.

—Who cares?

—I didn’t bet.

—G.G. if it was super fun from Friday night.

—Where did my Friday go?

—4 hours of Saturday also disappeared.

—Gravity distortion.

—I admit it if it’s that big.

What do you mean nice?

I banned a few viewers who crossed the line for a week as an example and was about to close the game window, but then an alarm came.

“Durang, that’s the AD carry from earlier.”

I hesitated for a moment at the friend request from the AD carry who played like a human, but seeing the empty friend list except for a few school friends, I decided to just accept it.

As soon as I accepted the friend request, a chat came up.

[You may not know, but I’m streamer Durang.]

[There’s a content called Lock Guest Seat, and I was wondering if you could participate later if you have time—]

I roughly read and skipped the chat that followed. It was obvious what he would say.

“What? But this person was really Durang?”

—I told you throughout the game, you girl.

—She probably didn’t see it because she was playing hard.

—Every minute of that game, there was 1 kill lolol.

For reference, the reason I know the name of that streamer is simple.

He was one of ST’s partner streamers.

Of course, it’s not yet, but anyway, it wasn’t someone I didn’t know.

From what I remember, he wasn’t a bad person.

—Accept immediately.

—Are you hesitating about this?

—It’s a chance to become popular.

—Are we getting out of our small streamer broadcast?

—I can’t lose small streamer True.

I sent a reply soon.

Unlike when dealing with the trolls earlier, with courtesy and formality.

[I’ll contact you in a month after reaching Challenger.]

Since it’s come to this, it’s okay to adjust the deadline on my own.

—The fact is, she might quit streaming itself to go pro if she reaches Challenger lol.

—lololol.

“I won’t do that, so don’t worry, and I’ll end today’s broadcast here.”

—Bye.

—True bye.

—Go to bed before your mom comes again.

—Bye.

—What about my sleep pattern?

—It’s already f*cked up, so it doesn’t matter.

—lololol.

I turned off the stream that I seemed to have kept on for almost a whole day, and then went straight into the blanket and went to sleep.

So I woke up just before the end of Saturday morning.

As I was eating lunch with half-closed eyes and in a daze, Mrs. Jang asked me from the side.

“So how did it go yesterday?”

I quickly put the runaway sleep behind me, took my parents to the computer, and ran Lock.

It’s trivial, but it’s important to persuade my parents little by little like this.

But unfortunately, what we faced was not a Diamond emblem.

“This f*cking.”

Damn game company.

They abolished the league, abolished the tournament, stopped updating the game, and now they’re even touching my account.

“Nice words. Our daughter.”

I had a lot to say, but I repeated the word patience in my heart many times while looking at my parents’ faces.

Yeah.

I like Lock, how can I like the game company?

…I should make a smurf.