HITG Prologue

Prologue:

I am good at gaming.

This was certain.

From my elementary school days, when I barely knew anything, to now, when I’ve grown a bit, no matter what kind of game it was, I have always been among the top 1% of players.

But there’s always someone flying above the ones who run.

I was painfully reminded of that truth four months ago.

“Fuck this shit!”

I spat out a curse and slammed my keyboard. The expensive gaming keyboard flickered with colorful lights.

“They won again? That piece of shit…”

The enemy team had stormed our base and was relentlessly pounding the Nexus. I was already dead, staring at the gray-toned death screen with an expression full of rage when the enemy team’s chat appeared in red text.

[All] LVS gamgack (Serata): Jg gp¹

[All] LVS gamgack (Serata): no?

[All] LVS gamgack (Serata): Hehe

[All] ifyouinterfereyoullbeblocked (Luna): Ikr LOL

[All] thatismyminion (Umpa): Waah Such a Comfortable ride²~

What? Jungler Gap?

My eyes burned with anger.

Are you kidding me…? A pro player wins a jungle fight against a regular user and dares to talk about a skill gap? Of course, you’d win! If I had the skills to crush you in the jungle, I’d be making bank as a pro gamer, not wasting time here! Just how thick is his skin?

“Ha, this is pissing me off…”

Before I could even react, the game ended.

The screen changed, and the damage chart popped up. Even though I was the jungler, my damage output was twice that of the laners.

These damn bastards…

[LVS gamgack: Hey, sleepy]

[LVS gamgack: Got a sec?]

As I stared at the frustrating damage chart, a chat message appeared. The enemy jungler had messaged me.

But I wasn’t interested in whatever he had to say, so I quickly hit the exit button.

“Haa…”

I was about to quit the game altogether, knowing that if I started another match in this state, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate.

Just then, a yellow light flickered in my friend request window.

“What now?”

I checked it out, only to see that the enemy jungler had sent me a friend request.

He was a currently trending pro, an absolute beast at the game, and on top of that, had a face good enough to attract fans wherever he went.

But all I could do was frown in frustration.

“How many times is this now?”

I didn’t care how impressive he was.

What mattered was that he had just been on the opposing team and had handed me yet another humiliating loss.

I smirked and clicked the mouse.

[Decline]

Did you think I’d get all excited and accept just because you sent me a request?

While I was at it, I finally did something I had been considering for a while—adding that bastard to my block list.

“Now that feels a little better.”

LVS’s jungler, Gamgack.

A player I had faced dozens of times but never once defeated.

While I was stuck at Grandmaster, struggling to climb higher, he had reached Challenger just two weeks into the new season and now hovered around the top rankings.

If the high-tier ladder between Grandmaster and Challenger wasn’t so short on players, I wouldn’t have to run into this monster so often.

And of course, since we both played jungle, whenever we did meet, he was always my opponent.

Whenever that happened, I had no choice but to painfully experience firsthand just how high and thick the wall of pro players was.

Dodge?

No way. My pride wouldn’t allow it.

I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and chugged down the cold liquid, letting out a heavy sigh.

Honestly, the reason I was so frustrated had a lot to do with him.

For some time now, after every game we played together, he had been sending me friend requests.

If that wasn’t trolling, then what was?

It stressed me out so much that one time, I even dreamed about accepting his friend request and chatting with him.

Even in the dream, when I saw his message saying, “Want me to teach you how to jungle?” I got so pissed off that I almost exploded.

“Ugh, enough of this.”

Thinking back on all the humiliation I had suffered at his hands, something inside me snapped.

I had just turned 24 this year. Getting this worked up over a game was honestly ridiculous.

I returned to my seat and stared at the monitor screen for a moment.

HOL.

Full name: Hero of Legend.

The undisputed number-one online game, a famous AOS game with massive global tournaments.

Gamgack, being a popular pro player in such a game, must be making loads of money.

‘Well, he hasn’t been doing much since last fall’s world championship.’

There were talks about him taking a break or something, but whatever.

The point was that this game was a huge deal with a massive player base.

Even though I was among the top 0.01% in the game, it felt meaningless.

The only reason I kept playing was the lingering desire to defeat Gamgack just once.

I slowly blinked, then, without hesitation, shut down the game and uninstalled it.

After all, classes were starting next week.

Since I was returning to school, there was a mountain of things I had to catch up on and study.

I clearly wouldn’t have any time for gaming.

My prediction was somewhat accurate.

Between returning to school and picking up a part-time job, I barely had time to sleep, let alone play games.

But that was only during the semester.

Once vacation started, I suddenly had a lot of free time.

I still had my part-time job, but since my schedule had been set according to my school timetable, I only had to work three times a week for five hours each.

The first week of break was spent drinking with my classmates, but after two weeks, I found myself rolling around my room in boredom.

“Should I play a game?”

The words slipped out without much thought, and HOL immediately came to mind.

Ever since I deleted it, even when I went to PC cafes with friends, I only logged in with a secondary account.

My main account had been gathering dust for a long time.

“What should I do…?”

Muttering to myself, I instinctively opened a web browser.

I figured I might as well check the forums to see what was going on these days.

Just as I placed my fingers on the keyboard, a familiar term appeared in the trending searches.

[Genoris]

It was an MMORPG that had been gaining a lot of attention lately.

Almost unconsciously, my mouse moved toward the trending search.

<Popular game ‘Genoris’ abuzz with the release of a new class…>

<Genoris unveils the new class ‘Dark Mage’—trailer released!>

<Fresh off the press! Watch the latest Dark Mage gameplay video here…>

So the new class release was causing a frenzy.

Dark Mage? What kind of badass name is that?

I naturally clicked on a YouTube video.

On the screen, a chibi-like, five-head-tall character wielded a sharp-tipped staff, casting various skills.

“Hmm…”

I carefully examined the footage and skill descriptions while absentmindedly touching my lips.

With basic controls, you wouldn’t even be able to land proper damage before getting killed.

The skill combos were insanely difficult.

‘If you mess up the sequence even a little, you only deal 70% of the intended damage while also burning through extra mana. On top of that, the attack range shrinks significantly.’

Everyone was excited about the new class, but realistically, only one in ten players would be able to master it.

I clicked my tongue and began installing Genoris.

Ironically, it was the fact that the class was so brutally difficult that ignited something in me.

“Well… I’ll just try it out for a bit.”

Even though there was no one around to hear me, I still made an excuse out loud as I patiently waited for the installation bar to inch forward.

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Note [←1]

Dodge: In team-based games, forcibly closing the client during character selection to avoid playing a match.