Chapter 73: Do you really want a lot of brownies?

by Afuhfuihgs

Chapter 73: Do you really want a lot of brownies?

Many professional players challenged, fought, and fell.

[LegendaryWarrior has donated 10,000 won.]

—”I worship you, GOAT. The one and only, unparalleled greatest dagger duelist in history.”

“Calling me the greatest dagger duelist makes it sound kind of lame.”

<Worship.>

LegendaryWarrior had beaten professional players in ranked matches before.

But that was in a 5v5 team game.

Even if she performed exceptionally, it was hard to pinpoint exactly how much of the victory was attributed to her.

Because of that, detractors were quick to discredit her skill with all kinds of excuses.

But this was a 1v1.

A battle with no room for excuses.

A perfectly fair fight where both players used the same champion.

The game mode itself might not have the same level of complexity as the main game, but there was no better way to prove pure mechanical skill.

If both players were throwing daggers at the same speed, why was one side always winning?

Because they were simply better.

What more needed to be said?

In the main 5v5 game, mechanical skill wasn’t as important as people might think.

Some might argue, “If mechanics matter so much, why not just play a 1v1 game instead of a 5v5 one?”

But they couldn’t deny the simple truth.

LegendaryWarrior was dominating every single mechanical fight.

And with games being so short, the cycle of matches was rapid.

It took less than five minutes to finish a match and move on to the next one.

That made her impact even greater.

Opponents were falling left and right in an instant.

Most people were thrilled by the rise of a new hero, but some fans of professional teams and players were worried.

There was nothing to gain by challenging her.

If they won, it was expected.

If they lost, they’d be utterly humiliated.

So, wouldn’t it be better if their favorite players just didn’t challenge her at all?

Losing to LegendaryWarrior would get them ridiculed and immortalized in community forums.

That concern wasn’t unfounded.

All across online communities, her defeated opponents were being paraded like fallen war heroes.

[Author: XX] [Title: Selen Cut LOLLLLL]

[“Goodbye. Just another ordinary player who only debuted in an era without LegendaryWarrior.”]

[Author: XX] [Title: No More Smurfing!!!!!!!!]

[“His name literally means ‘smurfing’ but he’s the one getting smurfed!”]

[Author: XX] [Title: Breaking News: Blaze is Dead]

[“Found with his entire body pierced by daggers.”]

<It’s both a funeral and a festival.>

Many who had no interest in cooking streams or chocolate events flooded into the broadcast upon hearing about the downfall of famous professional players.

The viewer count skyrocketed from 30,000 to 55,000.

Fans of the pros who hadn’t yet challenged LegendaryWarrior were all thinking the same thing.

“Please, don’t challenge her.”

“Please, don’t step up and get crushed.”

They couldn’t even wish for someone to defeat LegendaryWarrior and reclaim honor.

Because she seemed unstoppable.

This woman.

But let’s consider things from the perspective of the pros who did step up.

At this point, who even cared about brownies anymore?

If a mechanical monster existed, wouldn’t you want to test yourself against it?

That hunger for competition, that passion for the game—wasn’t that the reason they became pros in the first place?

What did they stand to lose by challenging her?

Their fans’ trust, their supporters’ expectations, their pride.

What could they gain by winning?

Homemade brownies and glory.

It wasn’t surprising that new challengers kept appearing.

[XX has donated 1,000 won.]

“What kind of low-rank players are barging in here? Step aside and let the pros play.”

“Why are you saying that? Anyone should be able to play.”

LegendaryWarrior, despite secretly believing that Master-ranked players were bad, had enough tact not to say it outright.

But as the chat’s complaints grew louder, a Master-ranked player withdrew voluntarily.

They stepped aside to make room for more pros.

“Not even sure if there are any more pros left… Oh, there’s one.”

The atmosphere made it feel like non-pros weren’t even allowed to enter.

And in that stage set for pros, LegendaryWarrior continued cutting them down.

[StrangeGuy has donated 1,000 won.]

—”Why are the dojos coming to her instead of her going to the dojos? LOL”

More and more fans were becoming upset or frustrated watching their favorite players get humiliated.

But since everyone was losing, it somehow made it easier to accept.

If only one player had lost, their name would be dragged through the mud forever.

But if everyone was losing…

Then maybe it wasn’t about their favorite player being weak.

Maybe it was just that LegendaryWarrior was a monster.

[XX has donated 1,000 won.]

“Go, LegendaryWarrior!!!!!”

“You have to keep winning.”

“For the honor of the players you defeated.”

Even Selen, who had lost while managing to land five hits, was being reassessed.

Because as LegendaryWarrior kept winning against other pros while getting hit even less, Selen’s reputation rose.

At least he landed five hits.

At least he preserved the honor of the top-ranked team’s veterans.

“Who landed the most daggers on LegendaryWarrior today? Selen.”

[XX has donated 1,000 won.]

—”Wait, have pros always watched LegendaryWarrior’s stream this much? They were all secret fans LOL.”

<Nah, it’s not because she’s a girl. She’s just that good. It’s all about strategic analysis.>

<Sure, sure. But if you were watching her cooking streams, you’re caught red-handed LOL.>

<Let’s make a list of everyone who challenged her today and archive it LOL.>

The final challenger fell.

She opened another game room.

Ten seconds passed after she revealed the password, but no one joined.

She had already defeated over ten professional players.

It wasn’t surprising that no one wanted to step up anymore.

“Looks like this is the end. Should we call it a day? No one has won the brownies.”

<“End.”>

<We’ll see them in the tournament starting from the spring season, right?>

<Please, save our Blue Dragons!>

<Someone’s mad that their master got their head chopped off. LOL.>

<Whatever, they all lost. Have a drink~>

<LMAO. The opponent was Legend. Losing to them is as natural as getting wet in the rain.>

<Unbeaten, invincible, radiant.>

[LegendVictory has donated 100,000 won.]

“I enjoyed watching. That was awesome. I’m rooting for you, GOAT.”

Just as the stream was winding down, that person appeared.

The undisputed strongest player in Teamfight Arena.

The one known as Teamfight Arena itself—Victory had entered the custom game.

ASC Victory – <One match?>

<Victory! Victory! Victory! Victory! Victory!>

Then, a flood of chat messages poured in.

It wasn’t just the chat that was excited—Legend felt the same way.

A worthy opponent had finally arrived.

“Hey, are you sure about this? You’ve got a lot to lose.”

Legend had never once thought they were worse than Victory.

But the fans might think differently.

If a newly-emerged player like them were to defeat Victory—the absolute strongest, the pinnacle, the legend—it would be shocking.

But the moment Victory entered, the outcome was already decided.

Running away now would just make him look ridiculous.

The fight had to happen.

ASC Victory – <GG.>

Originally, Victory had no intention of joining this event.

But his teammates, Cellen and Squid, kept urging him until he was dragged in.

Cellen wanted to see Victory in action.

Squid wanted to restore some of his honor after getting utterly destroyed.

“It’s not that I’m bad—it’s just that she’s freakishly good!”

Not that there were many people left who doubted that anymore.

Still, it felt right for Victory to be the one to bring this story to its conclusion.

The final battle began.

What does it mean to dodge and land daggers in a duel between Knife Acrobats?

A straight projectile, incredibly fast attacks, and a moderately long range.

At the pro level, you’re expected to see and dodge daggers at max range.

For regular players, even that is difficult.

Most non-top-tier challengers couldn’t even close the distance and were toyed with before dying.

And then there was the 50% to 70% range—

If you can react and dodge daggers at this range, you’re in the top-tier of pros in terms of reaction speed.

But just seeing a dagger coming isn’t enough.

The moment the dagger flies, the player has to right-click to command their movement, and since characters don’t teleport, their movement speed also plays a role.

Because of the extra steps involved—inputting a command and then actually moving—sometimes you react in time but still can’t dodge.

Yet, Legend dodged every single dagger from this distance.

They saw the daggers faster and reacted faster than anyone else, shifting the game from a guessing contest to pure skill.

Even if you rely on intuition, you’ll misjudge one or two times out of ten.

But if it’s pure reaction speed, then a 100% success rate isn’t out of reach, right?

And then came the 30% to 50% range—

The range where Cellen had hit a wall.

A range considered impossible to reactively dodge, believed to be purely a mind game.

Yet, at this very range, Victory and Legend were dodging every single attack.

Something no one else could do—only these two.

Hit rate so far: 0%.

<Wait… This isn’t a mind game? They’re actually reacting to it???>

When fighting Cellen, Legend had taken five hits at this range.

Because they weren’t even trying.

There was no way they were going to lose, so they got sloppy.

But Victory was different.

A worthy opponent.

An opponent they actually thought could beat them.

They focused every ounce of their energy, eyes wide open, dodging everything.

Of course, catching a ball while zoning out and catching a ball while laser-focused are two completely different things.

As a result, after 30 seconds of dueling, the total number of daggers that hit either of them:

Zero.

Now, there were only two choices.

A test of endurance, to see who would break first.

Or close the gap even more and turn it into a pure mind game.

At an even closer range, dodging reactively becomes impossible for anyone.

You have to dodge preemptively, predicting the throw before it even happens.

A game of reads and instinct.

Legend chose to move in closer.

Endurance battles weren’t in their favor.

Victory was fresh.

Legend had already taken down over ten pros, burning through a lot of focus.

And they were a woman.

Women naturally have lower stamina than men, with a few exceptions.

It sucks, but that’s just how it is.

That’s just the body they were born with.

As they entered the range of pure instinct and reaction speed, Legend smirked and casually said:

“You really want that brownie, huh? You’re trying so hard to win.”

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