APGD 15

Chapter 15

After my match with Jung Jo-jun, I kept grinding ranked games without rest.

By the time I had played around four or five more games, it was already past 3 a.m.

Phew… I should probably wrap it up here for today.

Tomorrow, I had scrims scheduled with my teammates in preparation for the Presidential Cup.
Considering my condition for the next day, I decided to stop playing for the night.

So I’ve finally reached the MMR where I can match against Jung Jo-jun.

Even though it was unexpected that I’d run into him today, from now on, as long as we queued at similar times, there was a good chance we’d keep running into each other in ranked.

Still, I’m glad I seem to have left a good impression.

Right after our game together, I immediately went to check out his stream.
I knew that during this period, he was streaming regularly.

Sure enough, when I tuned in, I could clearly see that he had taken a strong interest in me.
He even went as far as pulling up a replay mid-livestream to analyze my Ryosuo gameplay.

Wow. This guy really doesn’t sleep much either, huh.

Out of curiosity, I pulled up his stream on my phone again, and sure enough, he was still live.
Watching his dizzying energy and unique way of talking made me smile without realizing it.

Soon after, I just plugged my phone into the charger.
Maybe it was because I had been grinding nonstop since the online qualifiers earlier that day, but a wave of exhaustion hit me all at once.

Yaaawn…

I shut off my computer monitor and dove into bed.
The cozy feeling wrapped around me, and my eyes slowly shut.
It didn’t take long before I drifted off into a deep sleep.

—

About four hours later, my eyes suddenly shot open.

Ugh, cold.

I must’ve been completely knocked out.

The sun hadn’t risen yet, so the room was still dark.
I rubbed my arms with my hands, shivering, before dragging myself out of bed and plopping into my chair.

When I turned the monitor back on, the bright blue glow stung my eyes, making me squint until they adjusted.

Since I had only turned off the monitor earlier, the LoL client was still open.
And then—

Hm?

I noticed nearly 50 notifications.
Dozens of players had sent me friend requests.

And among them—

“Oh!?”

Jung Jo-jun’s nickname was there.

I immediately accepted his request.

He was already logged out, so I couldn’t chat with him.
But that was fine.

At least I’ve established a connection. No need to rush things now.

Everything has an order.
My “plan” was progressing smoothly, without a hitch.

That evening, on Battle of Legend’s biggest community forum, BeoRera (short for “Battle of Legend Library”), a post went up.

[Anyone see Geomjigeol’s stream yesterday? A literal monster showed up in ranked.]

The post itself was simple—just a link to a YouTube clip from Geomjigeol’s stream, along with a description:

*For anyone who missed the live stream, the clip’s up on his YouTube. Trust me, words don’t do it justice—you have to watch it yourself.

Basically, some next-level Ryosuo god appeared. His gameplay was insane. I legit got chills the whole time watching.

It felt like I was witnessing the absolute peak of what hard-carrying with Ryosuo looks like.

And get this—the enemy team had THREE pro-level players, and he still solo-carried.

The account name was “Penta.” Look it up—the win rate and KDA are unreal. At first I thought it was a smurf, but looking at the match history before Master, it kinda seems like the account changed hands?

Anyway, even Geomjigeol, the go-to Ryosuo teacher himself, was watching the replay on stream, and he straight up admitted he was impressed. Said the laning details were godlike, and the mechanical understanding wasn’t 100%—it was 200%.

Until now, the only Ryosuo at this level on KR server was Geomjigeol himself. But suddenly this guy pops up out of nowhere… who is he? Anyone know anything?*

Thousands of posts flood BeoRera every hour.
It’s basically a lawless zone of constant hype and bait.

Which meant, of course, that tons of players used it.

Since so many had watched Geomjigeol’s live stream, this post quickly blew up, racking up dozens of comments and hitting the trending list.

-Looked up his match history—insane lol
└ For real, is that win rate even possible in GM/Challenger?

-Watched the vid. Nearly lost my mind.
└ It was even crazier live last night lol
└ Agreed. That 1v4 bot lane fight gave me goosebumps.

-His tier graph is nuts; it’s like shooting straight into orbit.
└ If only my Tesla stock rose like that…
└ Mars, here we come…

-Not a smurf account imo. Champion pool before looks way different.
└ Yeah, probably an ID bought or borrowed by a pro.

Speculation started running wild.

-Could it be Chen Xiaoming’s smurf? His play looks about that level.
└ Nah, the reaction speed and aggressive trades feel more like Wang Wei.
└ Bruh, no way. Chen and Wang are gods, but this ain’t them.

-Chen and Wang? Those BPL mid kings make KR mids look like clowns lol
└ True lol
└ But yeah, Chen on Ryosuo would definitely be that good.

-Whoever it is, I’m intrigued.

-Bronze perspective here: no clue who it is, but holy hell, he’s cracked.

Chen Xiaoming and Wang Wei—
the two titans of the BPL, often called the “midlane dynasty.”

Meanwhile, the Korean league was in a “midlane dark age.”
Basically, all the world-class mids were in China’s BPL.

So the majority assumed “Penta” had to be one of them.

But then—

-You guys are wrong. No way “Penta” is Chinese.

-I watched the live too. He typed in Korean in chat.

That revelation threw everyone into confusion again.

-Wait, he typed in Korean?
└ Doesn’t show in the YouTube upload, but it was there live.

-WTF, then it can’t be a Chinese pro.
└ What if it’s a Chinese pro who knows Korean?
└ Nah, Chinese pros type in English, not Korean.
└ Yeah, the way he typed Korean was totally native lol

-No way… there’s a monster mid like this in KR??

-But there’s literally no Korean mid with this level of mechanics…

-Then who the hell is he?!

-Kim Won-hoon or Han Kyung-soo maybe?
└ No way. Those guys can’t play Ryosuo like that.

-Is this finally a god-tier rookie mid in Korea??

Speculation and hype spiraled out of control.
The post and video view counts skyrocketed.

Meanwhile, only one day remained until the offline finals.

More precisely, 16 hours to go—Friday afternoon.

Han Moon-sang was still fuming, replaying the memory of his bitter defeat in the online qualifiers.

Damn it! No matter how I think about it, it’s unfair as hell.

Looking at the result, the skill gap had been overwhelming.
But too many things didn’t sit right for him to accept it.

Especially the enemy midlaner.

There’s no way their support carried like that with Chad. Impossible.

That was pro-tier gameplay, far beyond amateurs.

He was convinced they had used a booster, abusing the fact it was online.

That suspicion had long since taken root, blossoming into certainty.

No matter what, I’ll rip the mask off them.

The thought of losing his spot in the finals to a cheating team burned him up inside.
Even in his sleep, rage boiled over.

And so, he was throwing everything into exposing them—
filing reports to the organizing body,
posting replays in VolKorea (another big community like BeoRera),
doing everything possible to stir controversy.

But—

[Who cares lol]

[Accusing without evidence just makes you look pathetic.]

[I’ve always hated how you brag about being Challenger on here. Serves you right.]

[You lost, stop whining. If you think the tournament’s mismanaged, don’t join. “NuCalAssoc”?]

[It’s probably just a Challenger’s alt. No pro would smurf in some amateur cup lol]

Every time he posted, the replies were the same—mockery, dismissal.

Eventually, out of frustration, Han Moon-sang started flame wars in the comments.

[Did you even watch the replay before spouting BS? Not that a low-elo scrub like you would understand.]

[Lol I watched. Honestly, you just played bad. I even know four guys on that team personally. Definitely not boosting.]

Now people claiming to be acquaintances of the team appeared.

[Hey, instead of arguing here, why don’t you just hire a streamer to review it for cash?]

That suggestion suddenly reignited interest.

[Ooo, that sounds fun.]

[On DoWitch TV, “Rajan” is an ex-pro who does reviews. Perfect for this.]

[I checked the replay just now. Honestly, it is kinda suspicious. Let’s ask an expert.]

One of the “acquaintances” jumped on it:

[I’m 100% sure they’re clean. I’ll put up ₩500,000. You down? Or are you scared?]

The word “scared”—the magic word guaranteed to push any man’s buttons.

What? Scared?! This lying bastard…!

Unable to hold back, Han Moon-sang fired back:

[₩500,000? Screw that—₩1,000,000 bet, plus ₩500,000 fee for Rajan. I’m in. You scared? You scared??]

If the stakes were going up, he was going all in.

[Lol ₩1,000,000? Fine. Not scared. Let’s do it, bastard. I’ll wire Rajan right now.]

Slamming his keyboard, Moon-sang seethed with fury.

You’re dead meat!!

He immediately opened DoWitch TV.
Since he was already following Rajan, it didn’t take long.

[He’s live right now. I’m going in. Wait for it.]

After leaving that comment, he jumped into Rajan’s stream—
and, without hesitation, dropped a donation.

Ding!

[‘Han Moon-sang’ has donated ₩50,000!]
[Hello, Rajan! Could you mediate a ₩1,000,000 bet for us? I’ll give you ₩500,000 as a fee.]