Chapter 161
CHAPTER 161
“Huh? Why now?”
Wave asked without even thinking to close his mouth. He seemed completely dumbfounded.
Of course, Seo Jun had his reasons.
“Because I can’t read the chat.”
“Ah...”
Wave immediately understood, then tilted his head as if wondering whether this was really happening, while Seo Jun ignored him and spoke.
“Now then. Hurry up and explain.”
- Noooo lolololol why NOW of all times?! Why are you acting so confidently about it?! lololololol
- You're doing the tutorial in front of everyone watching? Streamer, please never change...
- Sometimes you should really learn to read the room...
- Still, I guess he finally understands how precious we are? lol
- He’s always been like this. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
Well, since he had never used it before, a little guidance was necessary.
Knowing what a skill did and properly adjusting to its sensation were two different things.
A few lines of chat would have been enough.
But he couldn’t see them.
[Good. Listen carefully, descendant. My—no, our secret art is built upon shadows. Imagine your entire body being covered by shadows.]
The skill’s name:
Shadow Secret Art.
Before the minions arrived, Seo Jun activated the skill.
Sabrok.
The shadow beneath Seo Jun climbed up his body, dyeing it in darkness.
His entire body became enveloped in shadow, and Seo Jun felt as though he had connected to something.
[Now, move only your body to the side. You should be slightly faster than normal.]
“Understood.”
- Both of them are trying so hard to speak casually to Seo lololol
- Their pride lololol
- Why does the streamer even act like this toward an AI? lol
- At least Wave is just watching from a distance lol
Seo Jun stepped to the side.
The overlapping body split apart.
A body made entirely of shadow remained standing where Seo Jun had originally been.
A new body had appeared, but his field of vision had not changed.
So I can’t send it far outside my vision and fight with it.
Not that the duration was very long anyway.
Moreover, the shadow body possessed a fixed amount of health, allowing opponents to dismiss it quickly if they focused it down.
[Now move your clone. If you try moving normally, only your own body will move. Visualize it. Imagine that the clone before your eyes can walk and swing its arms just like you, and that you are controlling it.]
As expected.
So he really was connected to the clone.
The sensation was unfamiliar and strange.
He had once heard that people with physical disabilities often became exceptionally good at virtual reality after long exposure.
Perhaps it was because they became accustomed to moving through unfamiliar sensations.
Controlling another body felt like suddenly having a third arm or leg.
Actually, it felt even stranger than that.
The original shadow tilted its head and stretched its neck.
He felt no sensation of movement whatsoever.
Only through his eyes could he confirm that the clone was moving.
That made it feel even more unnatural.
[Minions have spawned.]
The clone suddenly sank downward, traveled through the ground, and returned beneath Seo Jun’s feet.
His shadow had reappeared beneath him.
“Anything else I should be careful about?”
[The shadow is formed by splitting your consciousness—]
“No, not that.”
What the AI was talking about clearly sounded like hero lore and backstory.
Seo Jun considered such things completely useless.
Ironically, those kinds of conversations were the very reason the dialogue board existed.
At least within The League, the developers and Seo Jun might have been fundamentally incompatible beings.
[Hmph. If you wish, you may switch places with your shadow. However, your enemies can notice this as well, so be careful. Also, shadow practitioners carry a mission—]
The AI started rambling again, so Seo Jun opened the interface.
“Then get lost.”
[W-What? Wait—]
That was enough information.
“Where does some brat that hasn’t even existed for ten years get off speaking casually to me...”
Just as Seo Jun said that—for the stream’s sake, purely for the stream’s sake—Wave finally started moving.
“Hahaha! That was fun to watch. Shall we begin the laning phase now?”
The minions had arrived.
“Sure.”
Seo Jun smiled.
- So THAT'S why he was using casual speech? lol
- Peak boomer behavior lol
- Good thing the AI couldn’t actually hear him lol
- To be fair, the heroes in League really haven’t even existed for ten years, have they?
The minions approached and began fighting one another.
The formations collided.
Seo Jun watched Wave beyond them.
After waiting briefly, he saw from the interface at the bottom of his vision that his skill cooldown had refreshed.
Zen’s weapon was a pair of assassin blades.
They resembled the assassin blades he had used in Dawn of the Assassins.
His opponent’s hero was Tracker Tali.
A famous counter to Zen, wasn't she?
A counter meant an unfavorable matchup.
Wave hadn’t picked late for no reason.
Taking full advantage of that opportunity, he had confidently chosen a counterpick.
“I’m sorry about the incident last time.”
“Ah. That incident...”
“It really wasn’t intentional. Wind Sword up in top lane just isn’t very good at driving.”
“I’m sure.”
Seo Jun clearly didn’t believe him.
“We’ll have to finish our unfinished fight here, won’t we? Strongest Frying Pan.”
“...Right! Let’s do it. We’ll both give it our all.”
Shadow climbed up Seo Jun’s body once more and enveloped him.
[Shadow Secret Art]
The shadow-covered figure charged forward.
Meanwhile, another body remained standing in the original position.
Wave couldn’t tell which one was the clone.
Until Zen’s clone expired or suffered enough damage to be destroyed, the system made it completely impossible to distinguish from the original.
You could only infer it through movement.
That one is Seo Jun.
Wave was convinced it was the real body.
Its movements were natural.
A little earlier, Wave had carefully observed Seo Jun using the skill.
The reason he hadn’t interfered was because he wanted to properly gauge Seo Jun’s proficiency.
Not that interrupting him would have gained anything anyway.
And from what he had seen, Seo Jun’s clone control was unmistakably that of a complete beginner.
Though there’s still a chance even that was an act.
At the very least, Wave knew that Seo Jun was the type to charge in first.
Even looking back at the Ground Zero match, none of his actions had seemed pre-calculated.
There was no need to be overly suspicious.
There was no elaborate scheme.
Arrogance... no, that's not it.
It was simply confidence in his own abilities.
He was the same back then.
That was something Wave had realized after reviewing Seo Jun more thoroughly following Ground Zero.
Wave adjusted his weapon—a pair of kama shaped like scythes.
Tali’s primary weapon.
Cords were attached to the handles, allowing attacks from freely adjustable ranges.
“You know I’m your counter, right?”
Wave swung his arm and naturally released his grip.
The kama dangled from its cord like a weighted pendulum, tracing a semicircle through the air.
Seo Jun didn’t answer.
“For your information, clones can talk too.”
The shadow approached, then briefly stopped.
The kama sliced through the air and passed right in front of Seo Jun.
At that moment, Wave spun together with the kama and closed the distance toward Seo Jun.
Seeing this, Seo Jun moved even closer instead.
As if he had expected it, Wave pulled on the cord while spinning the kama, shortening its range.
Then—
Clang!
The assassin blade from Seo Jun’s right hand collided with the kama.
At the same time, the shadow opened its mouth.
“Oh. So clones really can talk. Maybe I should’ve done more of the tutorial?”
Having successfully blocked the attack, Seo Jun swung his other assassin blade toward Wave’s side.
“Stop pretending to be the clone. That’s obviously the real body.”
“Is it?”
Though it was only a dark silhouette, Wave could tell Seo Jun was smiling.
Wave neither blocked nor dodged the attack coming toward him.
Ordinarily, Zen’s main body attacks had to be treated carefully because they could inflict additional damage after the technique ended.
That was because of Zen’s Mark.
And Tali possessed a mark as well.
The two heroes came from the same school in the lore.
Every time Tali attacked with her kama, she engraved a mark onto her target.
A mark could stack up to three times and would naturally disappear after a certain period.
While active, it increased the damage the target received.
But that wasn’t the truly frightening part.
“Hm...”
Seo Jun let out a meaningful breath after being struck.
“I told you I’m your counter, Mr. Seo Jun.”
Not that he’d overlook it.
The kama and assassin blade pierced the shadow’s body, reducing its health.
Then—
A mark shaped like two crossed kama appeared above Seo Jun’s head.
The true terror of the mark lay in one of Tali’s skills.
Tracker Tali’s Skill.
Mark Pursuit.
By consuming one mark on the target, she could instantly teleport behind them.
The mark could also be applied to jungle monsters and minions.
The skill used a charge system and could currently stack up to three charges—the same as the maximum number of marks.
“Four seconds left.”
Seo Jun announced the remaining duration of Shadow Secret Art.
“That’s nice. Plenty of time to get three stacks.”
Wave smiled and attacked Seo Jun again with the kama.
A pure test of mechanics began.
No other skills interfered.
Assassin blades versus kama.
Naturally, the kama held the advantage.
An ordinary kama would already be troublesome, but Tali’s could be swung while attached to a cord.
In contrast, assassin blades were designed not for open combat but for hidden ambushes.
Yet—
Four seconds.
The assassin blade knocked aside the spinning kama and pushed deeper into Wave’s range.
Wave tried to trade damage once more, but the distance had become too close to properly swing his arm.
Seo Jun, who only needed to stab, landed the hit.
Wave’s health dropped.
Three seconds.
Making a quick judgment, Wave attempted an upward slash at close range with his left-hand kama.
But Seo Jun spun his body.
Using his left hand to intercept the rising slash, he borrowed the momentum of his rotation and drew his right-hand blade horizontally across Wave’s cheek.
Two seconds.
In the middle of the close-quarters fight, Wave completely ignored defense and successfully landed another attack.
The second mark was applied.
One second.
Seo Jun switched places with the shadow at his original location.
I’ve lost this exchange.
His mechanics surpassed the weapon matchup.
Wave might be a Challenger-level player himself, but there was nothing he could do about that.
Some of his fans might have expected him to win even in a fight like this.
Wave had long since given up on that idea.
Sure, I fool around enough to drop out of Challenger sometimes, but there’s a reason I burned two bans just to force out his full strength.
[Mark Pursuit]
The shadows flickered.
Just as the positions of the shadows seemed to swap in an instant, Wave’s vision flipped as well.
He reappeared behind Seo Jun.
Zen’s standard trading pattern was simple:
Create a shadow, have the main body go in and deal damage, then escape when things became dangerous.
The damage dealt by the main body during the skill could trigger additional effects.
And Tali could neutralize that entire pattern with her own skill, which was why the matchup favored her.
He’ll know this and turn around, but—!
The strike following Mark Pursuit dealt bonus damage.
One mark was also active.
It was more than enough to recover the trade.
Seo Jun would obviously try to turn around and block.
But no matter how skilled he was, blocking the follow-up strike after Mark Pursuit wouldn’t be easy.
Because after teleporting, Tali entered stealth for one second.
Thinking that, Wave moved the instant his vision shifted.
But unexpectedly, the Seo Jun whose back he had appeared behind remained completely still.
Did he give up?
Wave easily landed the strike and looked at the shadow whose health had fallen to roughly the same level as his own.
Then, at that very moment—
The heavily damaged shadow was dismissed.
The one Wave had firmly believed to be the real body had been Seo Jun’s skill all along.
A clone that would have disappeared soon anyway even if left alone.
Wave slowly turned his gaze toward the center of the lane where they had been fighting moments ago.
Seo Jun stood there.
The shadow was gone.
“I told you it was a skill.”
“That was actually the clone?”
Wave replayed the clone’s movements from their duel in his mind.
Then he reached a conclusion.
Seo Jun had definitely practiced Zen beforehand.
If that were true, then even the whole tutorial act might have been calculated deception.
“Wow. Isn’t that a little too underhanded?”
Not that someone who had spent two bans for a counterpick had much room to talk.
Still, he had done everything possible to face Seo Jun at full strength.
Well, joking aside—
Did he really pull that off on the first try?
Wave was no longer sure what to believe.
Seo Jun smirked.
“Got it now? Then take a few more hits.”
Their positions had been reversed.
Instead of retreating toward the turret behind him, Wave now had no choice but to return to his original side.
The problem was that Seo Jun was standing right there and had no intention of letting him pass peacefully.
And—
Wave had spent the entire fight battling Seo Jun’s clone.
Which meant Seo Jun’s actual health had not decreased by even a single point.
The exact opposite of Wave.
I’m not going to die, but this loss is way too costly.
Wave reluctantly decided he would have to accept as much help as possible in the fights ahead.
Originally, he had intended to handle things alone.
Clearly, that wasn’t going to work.
And Seo Jun—
“Come on. You need to switch places, don’t you?”
He repeatedly clenched and unclenched his hand, recalling the sensation from moments ago.
This feels a lot more manageable than I expected.
What Seo Jun was thinking could be summarized in a single word:
Multitasking.
That was exactly what he was aiming for.