Chapter 161

“No. Why do that now?”

Wave asked with his mouth hanging open, apparently speechless. He seemed dumbfounded.

Of course, Seo-jun had something to say.

“Well, I can’t see the chat.”

“Ah…”

Wave understood immediately, then tilted his head again, wondering if this was really right. Seo-jun ignored Wave and said.

“Now. Please explain.”

-No way! Why now of all times! You’re being so brazen about it too LOL!

-Everyone’s watching and you want to do a tutorial? Streamer, please be more consistent…

-Sometimes you should read the room too…

-But now you probably understand how precious we are lol?

-The streamer has always been like this. Sorry sorry sorry

Well, he’d never done it before, so some guidance was necessary.

He knew what the skill was like, but didn’t he need to properly adjust to the feel of it?

A few lines from viewers’ chat would have been enough, but he couldn’t see them.

[Good. Listen well, descendant. Our art unfolds based on shadows. Imagine the shadow covering your entire body.]

Skill name.

Shadow Arts.

Seo-jun used the skill before the minions arrived.

Rustle.

Seo-jun’s shadow on the ground climbed up his body and darkly stained it.

His body was covered in shadow, and Seo-jun felt connected to something.

In that state, move only your body sideways. It should be slightly faster than usual.

“Got it.”

-Both of them gritting their teeth and speaking informally to each other is hilarious LOL

-Pride lmao

-Why does the streamer talk like this even to AIs? LOL

-The way Wave is just watching from a distance though lmao

Seo-jun moved sideways.

Then his overlapping body split apart.

Where Seo-jun had been standing, a shadow-formed body remained in place.

A new body had been created, but his vision hadn’t changed.

‘So I can’t send it far out of sight to fight.’

The duration wasn’t that long anyway.

Plus, the shadow-formed body had limited health, so the opponent could quickly dispel it.

[Now try moving your clone. If you move normally, only your real body will move. Visualize it. Picture that you can control the clone in front of you, making it walk and swing its arms like you do.]

‘As expected.’

This sensation was indeed connected to the clone.

Strange and foreign.

He’d heard that people with physical disabilities who played VR for a long time were good at this character.

Probably because of the similarity in moving with an unfamiliar sensation.

Moving another body felt like having a third arm or leg attached.

Actually, it was even more intense than that.

The original shadow tilted its head and loosened its neck.

He couldn’t feel the sensation of movement.

He could only confirm with his eyes that the clone was moving.

That made it even more foreign.

[Minions are spawning.]

Soon the clone sank downward, traveled along the ground to Seo-jun’s feet, and returned to its original position.

A shadow formed again beneath Seo-jun’s feet.

“Are there any other important points?”

[The shadow fragments your consciousness…]

“No, not that stuff.”

What he was talking about now was clearly hero concept and story-related, which Seo-jun considered a useless feature.

In fact, that kind of talk was the reason they added conversation mode.

At least in The League, the developer and Seo-jun might be completely incompatible.

[Ugh. If you wish, you can switch places with your shadow. But be careful, as enemies can notice this too. And shadow mages have a mission…]

As the AI started to say something useless again, Seo-jun brought up the interface.

“Get lost then.”

[What? Wait…]

This was enough.

“How dare some upstart made less than 10 years ago speak informally to me…”

When Seo-jun spoke for broadcast purposes—truly only for broadcast purposes—Wave started moving.

“Hahaha! That was great. Shall we try laning now?”

The minions had arrived.

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Seo-jun grinned.

-That was the reason for speaking informally? Lol

-Old-fashioned to the core lol

-Still, he’s not wrong lmao

-If you think about The League heroes, they really haven’t been around for 10 years

The minions approached and began fighting the enemy minions. They formed ranks.

Seo-jun watched Wave beyond them.

After waiting a moment, the skill’s cooldown finished, which he confirmed in the interface at the bottom of his vision.

Zen’s weapons were dual assassination blades.

Similar in design to the assassination blades he’d worn in Assassin’s Dawn.

The opponent’s hero was Tracker Tali.

‘Was she a typical Zen counter?’

A counter means disadvantageous in terms of matchup.

Wave hadn’t picked her randomly as his second pick—he came confident with a counter pick.

“I’m sorry about that incident before.”

“Ah. That incident…”

“I didn’t intend it at all. That Windstorm Sword-nim guy on top there is a terrible driver.”

“I’m sure you are.”

He didn’t believe it.

“Let’s finish that unfinished fight here, alright? The frying pan master.”

“…Yes! Let’s do it! Let’s give it our all.”

Seo-jun’s body was covered by shadow climbing up.

Shadow Arts

Then the shadow-covered body charged forward while the original remained in position.

Wave couldn’t tell which was the clone.

Zen’s clone was systemically impossible to distinguish until it was destroyed by time passing or taking a certain amount of damage.

You could guess from movement, though.

‘That’s Seo-jun-nim.’

Wave was confident it was the real body.

The approaching movement was natural.

Wave had been watching earlier when Seo-jun used the skill.

The reason he hadn’t interfered then was to properly gauge his proficiency. Though there wasn’t much to gain from interfering anyway.

The way Seo-jun moved his clone then was clearly that of a first-timer.

‘Though even that could be acting.’

Seo-jun was at least someone who acted first and thought later.

Looking back at Ground Zero, he’d never calculated things in advance either.

So there wasn’t much need for suspicion. There really was no scheme.

‘Arrogant… No, that’s not right.’

He just had confidence in his own skills, so he didn’t bother preparing.

‘He was like that then too.’

That was something Wave learned after properly researching his opponent following Ground Zero.

Wave adjusted his grip on his scythe-shaped weapons, his dual kama. Tali’s main weapons.

The handle had strings attached, allowing attacks at flexible ranges.

“You know I’m the counter, right?”

Wave swung his arm and naturally released his grip. The kama became a weight hanging from the string, drawing a half-circle.

Seo-jun didn’t answer.

“By the way, clones can talk too.”

The shadow approached and paused briefly as the kama passed through the air in front of Seo-jun.

Then Wave rotated his body along with the kama while approaching Seo-jun.

Seo-jun also moved closer rather than backing away.

Wave had expected this and pulled the string to catch the kama during rotation, shortening its range.

And then.

Clang!

Seo-jun’s assassination blade from his right arm clashed with the kama.

At the same time, the shadow’s mouth opened.

“Oh. Clones really can talk. Should I have done more tutorial?”

Seo-jun, who had successfully defended, aimed his other assassination blade at Wave’s side.

“Stop pretending it’s a clone. That’s your real body.”

“Is it?”

Though it was just a dark silhouette, you could tell Seo-jun was smiling.

Wave didn’t try to block or dodge Seo-jun’s incoming attack.

Zen’s real body attacks could deal additional damage after the technique ended, so normally you’d be careful.

Zen’s mark.

And Tali also had marks.

Both were heroes from the same school story-wise.

Tali carved marks on opponents whenever she attacked with her kama.

Up to three could be stacked, and marks that naturally disappeared after a certain time increased damage taken while active on the opponent’s body.

But the truly scary part wasn’t that.

“Hmm…”

Seo-jun who’d been attacked exhaled meaningfully.

“I told you I’m the counter, Seo-jun.”

‘He should know this.’

The kama and assassination blade pierced each other’s bodies, reducing both their health.

And then.

A mark showing two crossed kama appeared above Seo-jun’s head.

The mark’s truly frightening aspect lay in Tali’s skill.

Tracker Tali’s skill.

Mark Tracking.

A skill that consumed one mark on the target to instantly teleport behind them.

This mark could be created on jungle monsters and minions too, and the skill was charge-based, currently stackable up to 3 times maximum. Same as the number of marks.

“Four seconds left.”

Seo-jun stated the remaining duration of Shadow Arts.

“That’s good. I can definitely get 3 marks in that time.”

Wave smiled and aimed his kama at Seo-jun.

A pure physical fight began without other skill intervention.

Assassination blades versus kama.

Naturally, the kama had the advantage.

If it were ordinary kama that would be different, but Tali’s kama could also be swung while hanging from strings.

In contrast, assassination blades were weapons specialized for ambush attacks, not combat.

However.

4 seconds.

The assassination blade deflected the spinning kama and went deeper.

Wave tried to trade hits this time too, but his arm was too close to swing properly.

Seo-jun succeeded in his attack since he only needed to thrust.

Health decreased.

3 seconds.

He quickly made a judgment and tried to slash Seo-jun’s body from close range with his left kama, from bottom to top.

But Seo-jun spun his body, blocking Wave’s upward slash with his left hand while using the rotational force to horizontally slash Wave’s cheek with his right.

2 seconds.

In the midst of extreme close combat, Wave completely ignored defense and successfully attacked Seo-jun.

The marks became 2.

1 second.

Seo-jun switched places with his original shadow.

‘I lost up to here.’

Physical prowess that overcame weapon disadvantage.

Wave also played at Challenger level, but this couldn’t be helped.

Maybe some of Wave’s fans expected him to win even this kind of fight, but Wave had cleanly given up on this part.

‘Playing around too much and dropping from Challenger. Still, I didn’t pick this and ban that hero for no reason.’

[Mark Tracking]

The shadows flickered and positions instantly switched like magic, and Wave’s vision immediately changed too.

His position was behind Seo-jun who had returned.

Zen’s basic damage trading pattern was to create a shadow, have the real body engage and deal damage, then escape when dangerous.

Attacks from the real body during skill use could deal additional damage.

And Tali could neutralize this with her skill, giving her the matchup advantage.

‘He definitely knows and will turn around, but!’

The strike after tracking dealt additional damage. Plus with one mark active, it was more than enough to recover.

Here, Seo-jun would turn around to try blocking, but the strike after Mark Tracking wouldn’t be easy to block even for Seo-jun.

The body becomes invisible for 1 second after teleporting.

Wave thought this and moved immediately as his vision changed, but unexpectedly, the Seo-jun he’d gotten behind was standing still.

‘Did he give up?’

Wave easily landed his hit and watched the shadow whose health had dropped to his level.

And at that moment, the shadow with severely reduced health was dispelled.

What Wave had firmly believed was the real body was Seo-jun’s skill.

A clone that would have disappeared soon anyway.

He looked toward the center of the lane where they’d been fighting earlier.

Seo-jun stood there, freed from his shadow.

“I told you it was a skill.”

“Was that really the clone?”

Wave replayed the movements of the clone he’d just been fighting in his head.

And reached a conclusion.

Seo-jun had definitely prepared Zen in advance.

Then maybe even the tutorial talk was calculated acting.

“Wow. Isn’t that too sneaky?”

The one who had picked second with 2 bans wasn’t one to talk, but still, he’d done his best to respond seriously.

And he was joking.

‘He really did it in one try?’

Wave became uncertain.

Seo-jun chuckled and said.

“You figured it out, so take some more hits.”

Currently their positions were reversed. So instead of the tower behind him, Wave had to return to his original position, but the problem was Seo-jun was standing there and wouldn’t just let him pass.

And.

Wave had been fighting Seo-jun’s clone until now, so Seo-jun’s current health was completely untouched.

Unlike Wave’s.

‘I won’t die, but this is way too disadvantageous.’

Wave reluctantly decided to get maximum help for the upcoming fight. He’d originally planned to try it alone, but it couldn’t be helped.

And Seo-jun.

“Come on over. We need to switch places.”

He clenched and unclenched his hand, recalling the sensation from earlier.

‘This seems more doable than I thought.’

What Seo-jun was currently thinking could be simply explained in one word.

Multitasking.

Seo-jun was aiming for that.