A Genius Top Laner Who Targeted My Favorite Streamer

Chapter 2 – What I’m Good At (2)

“What? How did you do that?”

“You didn’t even use Ignite?”

“·····Be careful, the enemy is using Teleport.”

“Okay.”

Lee Jonghyun, who was playing the mid AD assassin Zed against the enemy mid AP Ahri, replied calmly.

“Was that luck?”

Jonghyun couldn’t believe that Jimin had killed his opponent rather than being killed. He thought maybe the enemy had recklessly tower-dived and died, but it seemed like they died in the middle of the lane during a trade.

“Jimin’s actually good?”

“Are you sure you’ve only played against bots? You don’t have a secret account?”

“Haha·····”

Jimin was just embarrassed by his friends’ praise.

“I think I’m getting excited.”

He was still worried about making mistakes and ruining the fun moments with his friends.

But at least Jimin felt like he could enjoy it much more than before.

“Ugh, Nidalee’s spear hitbox is garbage.”

“It doesn’t matter, she can’t even stand in lane anyway.”

When Zed in mid had nearly killed Ahri, Nidalee attempted a gank. However, Nidalee’s spear aimed at Ahri, who was next to the tower, narrowly missed.

But the situation was already dire with Ahri being pushed back to the minion line after losing the trade badly. The mid laner Jonghyun was smoothly pressuring the enemy mid.

[Ally has been slain.]

[Ally has been slain.]

[Enemy Double Kill!]

“What the hell.”

Jungle player Sangchul, who had been watching the bottom lane fight, cursed.

“I told you we should back off.”

“I said if we catch Ezreal and Karma, we need to keep fighting.”

“What’s the point of catching Ezreal if we’re getting hit by all of Nami’s bubbles?”

The bottom duo grumbled after giving up a double kill to the enemy Nami-Lucio combination.

Against a Nami-Lucio composition with strong late-game potential, and with Lucio getting a double kill, the situation had clearly become difficult.

“Just hang in there.”

Jonghyun, who was continuing to have a good lane phase with Zed, said.

As the highest-ranked player at Diamond 4, he felt a heavy responsibility.

[Enemy has been slain.]

[Ally has been slain.]

“Ah, it ended up like this.”

“So close.”

“Nice.”

Jonghyun sighed after killing the enemy Ahri using his ultimate and all his spells.

However, he unfortunately died after taking tower shots. The silver lining was that he pushed the lane completely before dying.

Nevertheless, there was already a CS difference of 20, and he was a level ahead.

I think I need to do better, but the mid gap is already widening.

[Enemy has been slain.]

Huh?

Huh?

A victory report from our team.

Since this isn’t a high-tier game or professional match, it’s not really surprising, but this time is different.

Phew, survived.

In the top lane, Jimin’s Teemo just got a solo kill against the enemy Renekton.

What, again?

That’s insane.

Renekton still only has 16 CS?

Jimin hasn’t farmed much either…

Jimin was still making many CS mistakes because his mechanics weren’t fully warmed up.

Nevertheless, his damage exchanges with the enemy Renekton were nearly perfect, and in the end, Renekton, who failed to properly calculate Teemo’s damage over time, used Flash to escape but died anyway.

Jimin, are you a natural talent?

Two solo kills doesn’t make sense.

I just got lucky…

This time, even Jimin’s Teemo barely managed to secure the solo kill when he was on the verge of dying himself. That’s why, from his perspective, it was clearly just luck.

How about focusing the game around top?

That sounds good.

Jonghyun in mid suggested to Sangchul in jungle that they should prioritize the top side of the map.

Nedalee had already taken all three of the first scuttle crabs. If they could secure the remaining crabs and take the Rift Herald as well, it would be perfect.

Jimin, slowly apply lane pressure.

Huh? What does that mean?

Ah…

Seeing how Jimin was dominating the enemy top laner, Sangchul momentarily forgot that Jimin was a beginner. Lane control isn’t something you can do just because you have natural mechanical skills.

So I just keep hitting him and try not to die?

Uh… yeah, that’s right.

Still, the mid laner probably knows better than the jungler.

With this thought, Jonghyun, who was about to give advice to Jimin, had nothing more to say.

Oh, what’s this? This looks good!

Sangchul, an aggressive jungler who loves diving, liked the lane situation in top.

A big wave had already formed, and Renekton had less than half health after taking hits from Teemo.

The enemy jungler Amumu had already been spotted heading towards bottom lane.

Jimin, take the tower aggro first!

Okay!

With a slightly tense expression, Jimin attempted to dive with Sangchul.

First, he took the tower’s aggro while firing a blinding dart at Renekton.

[Enemy has been slain!]

Nice! That was smooth.

A perfect tower dive. Nedalee who got the kill slips away smoothly. She was already gradually widening the growth gap, and now she’s got wings too.

“Renekton has no teleport, his life is ruined.”

“If this were solo queue, it would be time to quit.”

The bottom duo, who had been pushed back by the enemy Lucian-Nami composition, were now rejoicing at the rift that had formed elsewhere.

“……”

‘Am I doing really well?’

Jimin had worried about being caught by the enemy crocodile monster, but now it looks incredibly weak. And his friends are enjoying themselves.

“Kill Renek first!”

“He’s melting like butter.”

Herald teamfight.

Renekton, who was picked for the top objective fight, can’t even fulfill his role as a meat shield anymore.

The Lucian-Nami duo who had been dominating the enemy bottom lane couldn’t do anything against the three fed top-side champions.

[Triple Kill!]

“Nice!”

“Easy, so easy.”

The 5v5 Herald teamfight ends in victory with 4 enemy kills.

Meanwhile, Jonghyun’s Zed has already swept up 4 kills.

[Victory!]

“What’s with the 25-minute surrender?”

“They’re so bad.”

The enemy team lost their will to fight due to the powerless Renekton and the burst damage shown by Jonghyun’s Zed.

The opposing team, unable to catch Jimin’s overfed Teemo even in a 2v1 situation in the side lane, found no reason to continue the game.

“Looking good from the first game?”

“Jimin, you’re really good.”

“Didn’t Jonghyun do everything?”

“No, I just got a bit ahead.”

‘Does that make sense?’

From mid-game, Jonghyun had been constantly watching Jimin.

That distance control that seemed to be taunting the enemy champion.

The movement that narrowly dodged all non-targeted skills thrown from outside vision.

He clearly saw that unless the enemy used a flash combo, they could never hit Jimin.

“Jimin, what other champions can you play?”

“Me? Well…”

Jimin was troubled. He knew too few champions.

“Maybe Rumble?”

“Rumble is good.”

“Better than Teemo.”

“But if I get countered, it might be tough.”

“Let’s just go to the next game for now.”

The second game proceeded smoothly.

“Hmm…..”

“Huh?”

Jimin was once again watching Sangchul’s monitor rather than the champion selection screen.

“…”

Would that pretty woman appear again this time?

“Huh?”

“What is this?”

Jimin and Jonghyun, looking at Sangchul’s monitor, were surprised for slightly different reasons.

“Hey, if you’re going to watch something, watch a real woman. Why are you watching an anime character?”

“There’s a real person behind it anyway.”

“Ugh.”

Sangchul had always been interested in internet broadcasts.

Jonghyun turned his eyes away from Sangchul, who was watching a VTuber stream, to choose his champion.

“Aren’t you watching that person’s broadcast from earlier?”

“Huh? Who?”

“The one with long hair from before.”

“Oh, Dahee noona?”

“Dahee?”

“Yeah, her nickname is Yudai, but nobody calls her that.”

‘So her name is Dahee.’

Jimin quickly stored this information in his head.

“Wasn’t she your favorite streamer?”

“I do like her, but right now Hirose Haruka’s broadcast takes priority, sorry.”

“Is she Japanese?”

“No, she’s Korean though?”

“…”

Now that he listened, her fluent Korean made it obvious she was Korean.

Jimin was ignorant about the world of internet broadcasting. Of course, he didn’t find it particularly strange.

Rather, because it was something he didn’t know about, it was more interesting and mysterious to him.

“Alright, I’ll go with Rumble top, Azir mid, so I’ll take Graves.”

“Do as you please.”

Sangchul, who played Nidalee in the previous game, chose the carry-type jungler Graves this time.

‘What? The opponent is Emerald 1?’

Jonghyun, who had been watching Jimin closely, was surprised.

Second game.

Jimin’s lane opponent was an Emerald 1 user who chose Aatrox. Moreover, their highest tier last season was Diamond rank.

Even as a joke, it would be hard to dismiss this as nothing—the opponent was a user with considerable skill.

‘And they picked Aatrox in most of their games.’

In the current patch, the top champion Aatrox isn’t an OP champion, but he’s still Tier 1. In comparison, Rumble is around Tier 3.

No matter how you look at it, if Jimin was a beginner, this would be a challenging situation.

“This person is pretty good.”

“·····”

But somehow, Jimin is handling the lane phase quite well.

Aatrox can drain a lot of health with one combo, but Jimin is barely avoiding it with his movement.

“Sangchul, I think you can come now?”

“Huh?”

‘What’s going on here?’

In contrast, Jimin’s Rumble is landing every harpoon on Aatrox. Despite teleporting in, Aatrox is now cornered with low health.

“Oh! Diana is heading top!”

“·····”

There was a slight lack of vision in the top lane, causing them to miss the enemy jungler’s gank.

Aatrox and Diana rush toward Jimin.

Graves is too late to help.

[First Blood!]

“Huh?”

Aatrox died.

And Rumble is mercilessly pounding Diana with his Overheat punch.

[Double Kill!]

“Wow, that’s insane!”

“Jimin, what was that!”

“Whew, I survived·····”

His friends thought he would die to the gank so they weren’t watching, but Jonghyun saw everything from start to finish.

The decision to dodge enemy skills and quickly flash forward to melt Aatrox.

He repaid the enemy gank with a double kill through perfect skill distribution.

Sangchul’s Graves steals Diana’s jungle camps. The game has already heavily tilted in their favor.

“You can do that much with Rumble?”

“I got lucky. I don’t know Diana well, so I was nervous for a moment.”

“You don’t know Diana’s skills?”

“Yeah, I’ve played Aatrox before because he looks cool, but I don’t know Diana.”

Park Jimin says with an innocent expression.

Jonghyun knew that Jimin couldn’t tell lies.

[Victory!]

Sangchul’s Graves created a jungle difference, and the fed Rumble turned the Rift into a sea of fire with Equalizer missiles, winning the second game as well.

Jonghyun, who had confidently picked Azir to carry, had been watching only Jimin the whole time.

***

“I haven’t seen this friend before?”

“Yes, he doesn’t visit PC cafés often.”

“My, he’s tall too.”

The owner smiles with that typical middle-aged woman’s smile.

Jimin and his friends, with their excellent free rank record from the PC café, found their way to a pork cutlet restaurant.

“There’s a lot of food here and it’s delicious.”

“Jonghyun comes here at least three times a week during vacation.”

“It’s not that often.”

Since it was Jimin’s first time at this restaurant, he just looked around curiously at everything.

The five king-sized pork cutlets they ordered arrive.

“I’ll pay first.”

Without even cutting his pork cutlet, Jonghyun got up from his seat. Since they wouldn’t be ordering anything else anyway, they decided to pay right away.

Of course, the hidden reason was that he had noticed Jimin looking concerned about it for a while.

“I’ll treat next time.”

“It’s fine. I was planning to treat you here today anyway.”

“Jimin, eat a lot. Thank you for the meal, hyung.”

‘Sure.’

The friends started cutting into their pork cutlets while Jimin sat there with an apologetic look.

“The sauce here is really delicious.”

“For king-sized cutlets, the thickness is pretty good too.”

Praises about the taste came from all around.

“Eat.”

“Huh? Oh, okay.”

Belatedly responding to Jonghyun’s words, Jimin cut into his pork cutlet and ate.

“It’s good, right?”

“…Yeah.”

Even though he had certainly eaten pork cutlets like this before, this taste was new to him. A combination of familiarity and unfamiliarity. If it was positive, it meant this was a great restaurant.

“Jimin, have you really never played solo queue?”

“Huh?”

Jimin looked up at Jonghyun’s question. Looking at his face, Jonghyun, who normally didn’t know how to be casual, seemed more serious than usual.

“Yeah, I thought my mom wouldn’t like it if I played games at home.”

“A guy should be able to play some games.”

Jonghyun kept looking at Jimin, who was avoiding eye contact.

“What? Why me?”

“Because Jimin is really nice but seems to have trouble fitting in.”

Suddenly, he remembered a conversation from the beginning of the semester with his homeroom teacher, Yoo Jinho.

“Jonghyun has a lot of friends and gets along well with everyone, so I’m asking you.”

“It’s not really that many, but okay.”

The day when the teacher asked him to become friends with Jimin.

He didn’t think it was a big deal. A tall but skinny kid who was often absent due to illness. It wouldn’t hurt to get along with him.

They became friends faster than expected. And although at first he found Jimin’s timid personality frustrating, at some point he came to like his innocent side. To the extent that he would comfort him on the day he dropped out, without anyone asking him to.

“Jimin, I think you have a real talent for solo queue.”

“Me?”

Jimin said in surprise.

Talent? For him? And in gaming, of all things? Could there be anything more mismatched?

Of course, seeing his friends’ reactions, it seems like he did well…

Since Jimin didn’t know Sol, it was impossible to know how good it was.

“Sol is super popular. If you look at Sangchul’s broadcast earlier, everyone plays Sol.”

“Yeah, even people who don’t know much about it say they’re getting into it.”

“If you’re good at Sol, a lot of people will like you.”

“I, I…”

His friends suddenly encourage him.

“I’m not sure.”

But still, he’s uncertain. Although he had fun playing today, the event of dropping out of school is shocking nonetheless. How could he focus on games?

“Just think about it, just think.”

“…”

Jimin wasn’t very talkative. Still, it felt like he was being acknowledged somehow, so he didn’t feel bad…

***

“I’m home.”

“You’re early?”

“Huh?”

Jimin came into the house.

His mom, who he had called earlier saying he was going to hang out with friends, was naturally at home.

“Weren’t you hanging out with friends?”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you stay out longer?”

“I played a lot.”

He awkwardly scratches his head and goes back to his room.

Just before entering the house, he was slightly worried because he couldn’t forget his mom’s expression from earlier in the day, but she doesn’t seem to be in a bad mood.

“Sigh…”

It was fun when he was with his friends, but once he entered his room, reality hit him.

Dropping out of high school in the second year.

And it was a mid-term dropout that had nothing to do with his own will.

While proactive people might consider dropping out, it was quite a disconnected story for Jimin.

-You have talent in Sol.

“…”

The words of his friend Jonghyun come to mind.

“Huh?”

-People like what they’re good at, so even if you think you’re just a little bit good at something, keep trying.

And then the teacher’s words from earlier today come to mind.

“Something I’m good at? But…”

Is Sol, the game, what he’s good at? Surely, being good at games would get him attention, but it couldn’t replace school life, could it?

“…”

No matter what he does, he can’t find an answer.

“Ah!”

Jimin turned on his phone and searched for something.

Avoiding a frustrating situation is human instinct.

He searches for Yudai on YouTube.

“Found it.”

YudaiTV, a channel with over 100,000 subscribers.

He plays the first video that appears.

[Confident School Bully? I’ll Explain.]

“What does that mean?”

It’s an unusual video title.

Although Jimin was 18, he wasn’t familiar with internet terminology.

“Why do you guys keep being curious about my past?”

-How scary were you that nobody would testify about school violence…

-Did you threaten to kill someone?

“·····”

Jimin glanced at the comment section zooming in on the right side of the video, then focused on the center.

“Haah·····”

And suddenly he paused the video and grabbed his face.

His face feeling hot wasn’t because of the summer.

‘I can’t watch this.’

Even looking for just a moment makes him feel unbearably embarrassed.

A face that was pure and cute yet mature, seeming to combine everything, with fair skin.

For Jimin, who didn’t understand the concept of ‘camera beauty,’ it was absolutely fatal.

“Yes, I somehow survived this time too. Wow, I really thought I was going to Diamond 3.”

“Diamond 3?”

-Sol plays solo rank the most·····

-Jonghyun is the only one here who’s Diamond, that’s really good.

-Jimin, at your level, you’ll probably surpass me in rank soon?

The conversation Jimin had with his friends while eating pork cutlets today flashed through his mind.

“Sol? I’m going to play it until I die.”

“·····”

-If you’re good at Sol, many people will like you.

-I think you have talent for Sol.

Words he heard from his friends.

Suddenly, one thought crossed Jimin’s mind.

I want to play games with this noona.