They went to the PC room where Sangwoo worked part-time. The manager happily gave Sangwoo a free drink, saying that it was his first time there as a customer.
âWhat do you want to play?â
âWhichever one you want, sunbae. I know how to play all the online games that have been released.â
âSomething I play a lot these days⊠BG? OW? LoL? What are you best at?â1
âI do ok at Battleground and Overwatch. Iâm not that good at League of Legends. Itâs been a long time since I played it, too.â
âThen letâs play that one.â
It was a joke, but Sangwoo just calmly said âOkayâ and double-clicked on the game icon. Jaeyoung used a colorful combination and chose an assassin character that does heavy damage. Sangwoo, on the other hand, chose an ugly utility tank.2
While waiting for the game to start, Sangwoo meticulously checked the skill sets and team build of new characters on the game information site. Jaeyoung, who was reading a webtoon, was shocked when the game loading window appeared.
âYou said you werenât good at it, but Diamond rank?â
It meant that he ranked within the top 1-2% last season. Jaeyoung broke out into a cold sweat.
His bad premonition was reflected in the game like that. Unlike Jaeyoung, who relied on his animalistic sense and physicality, Sangwoo was the type to win by thoroughly calculating the enemyâs movement and skills.
âCanât you calculate the skill damage?â
âDonât you calculate the opponentâs spell cooldown?â3
âIf I said Iâm going to the pit, you have to take damage and take out the enemyâs telekinesis.â
âWeâre in the middle of the game, so why does the CS look like that?â4
âIf itâs not lethal, try buying some.â
He criticized Jaeyoung in a very calm voice for two hours straight without getting angry once. The superplay, which Jaeyoung normally used to perform, strangely ended as a futile attempt in front of Sangwoo, and surviving through his intuition, made him seem like a novice who didnât calculate. Ultimately, it had a similar atmosphere to being in the study room: the reward of taking a break by playing games didnât change the mood at all.
Jaeyoung made a mental note. From now on, donât fight Chu Sangwoo in , , , and .
âShit. Weâre gonna have to play Kartrider or something.â
*Notable point: Game Genius Chu Sangwoo
*Findings: No huge abnormality
(4)
Friday, April 11, eighth day of coming to the study room
Study Room Entrance Time 6:31p.m. / Study Room Exit Time 10:02 p.m.
*Excerpts of main scenes: Mw Mw5
It was about half past nine. Jaeyoung, who had completed the status, inventory, and even the skills page, was exhausted. He laid on the cot for 15 minutes and dozed off for a while.
âSunbae, itâs time for me to go.â
He woke up to Sangwooâs voice, but since he was sleepy, he purposely didnât open his eyes. Jaeyoung was so drowsy that he couldnât say goodbye to Sangwoo. Shortly after that, he heard the sound of packing by the desk.
âWake up. Youâre supposed to finish the roulette and title today.â
A stiff but somehow pleasant voice was heard from a distance.
âAre you asleep?â he asked.
Jaeyoung didnât respond.
âSunbae, are you asleep?â
Same question, but the voice had gotten slightly closer.
âAre you really⊠sleeping?â
The voice came from a very close distance. What was it? Was he going to doodle on his face again? Jaeyoung pretended to be asleep. His eyes were closed, since he was trying to surprise Sangwoo by suddenly getting up.
Jaeyoung, who originally was going to joke around with that word, couldnât get up. There was silence, paralysis, slowness, a pause in time, and confusion. All conditions of abnormality seemed to have happened. As his view darkened, he could feel Sangwoo crouching over him while looking closely at him.
âFor real, right?â
He heard the voice right in front of him, feeling the hot breath hit his eyelids. Sangwooâs fingertips brushed past his forehead. Soon, his fingers fiddled with his hair. What kind of situation was this? Jaeyoung was out of breath, but he calmly showed his acting skills by keeping his eyes closed.
The time that was difficult to bear continued. Jaeyoung decided to move by pretending to turn, because he thought his face would cramp if he tried to endure for much longer. Then a soft âsomethingâ touched his lips.
He had to hold back from opening his eyes. Jaeyoung maintained his composure with superhuman power.
Soon that âsomethingâ separated from his lips. When he opened his eyes, Chu Sangwooâs back was disappearing through the door.
*Findings: â»Signs of obvious abnormalities foundâ»
âW
Footnotes:
BG = Battleground, OW = Overwatch, LoL = League of Legends.
In games like this (e.g. OW and LoL), the utility tank is a character that doesnât do much damage on its own, but is capable of taking damage and disabling the enemy team in many ways. It is an important role when fighting the enemy team (and often goes unnoticed, a lot like Sangwoo).
Spell cooldown is the time between casting the same spell twice.
CS stands for creep score. In LoL, each base spawns minions which the players kill for gold and experience. The total number of minions killed by all members of a team is its creep score.
Jaeyoung is using shorthand where âMwâ refers to the word âmwahâ which is an onomatopoeia for a kiss sound.