Ch.10499 – Hosting

“Ah, so easy! Is this all you guys can do? These are the people who’ve been backseat gaming in my stream? I even prepared multiple chicken gift cards today, but at this rate I’m just going to get fat! If I don’t win Spring this year, are you all going to take responsibility?”

TK Pathos was in the middle of one-on-one matches with viewers on his stream.

Paysauce was a pro gamer who had gone to China at a young age, bouncing around second-tier teams before joining TK early last year.

There had once been skeptical glances and criticism within TK about recruiting a rookie with no career achievements, but that was ancient history now.

Paysauce had finished 5th in Spring last year and nearly faced being cut, but his skills suddenly exploded in Summer, securing second place and even winning Finals MVP at Worlds, proving himself completely.

With his value skyrocketing, Paysauce was the first to announce his re-signing with TK, earning him massive popularity among fans.

His Worlds form hadn’t died down as he easily advanced to the Spring playoffs winner’s bracket.

And among all the playoff-qualified pros, he was the only one who voluntarily started streaming and planned one-on-one matches with viewers.

-His mechanics are just insane lmao

-How does he even get solo kills with Yumi lol

-Paysauce would have been amazing as a top laner too

“Shall we do the last match now? I’ll take just one more person. Maybe I’ll give all the gift cards to whoever wins.”

He created a room without much expectation. Not leaving dead air while setting up was Paysauce’s specialty.

“Top lane? When I started playing League, I only played top. But it had so little impact that when I was climbing to Challenger as an amateur, I switched to ADC and have stuck with it since. The problem with League is that position balance changes every season. Sometimes it’s a jungle meta, and this year it’s clearly a bot lane meta, right? Top lane has never been the meta. You all know how Sungjae hyung can get solo kills and still lose, or win despite being solo killed?”

-Top has zero impact, they play like it’s solo queue lol

-Hades is #1 in solo kills AND deaths, he just goes all-in

-Damn, couldn’t get in again

-What’s the password?

-Top is literally garbage lane

“Oh someone got in. The password was 77. Let’s see if I can smack our cute viewer around.”

Paysauce casually checked his opponent’s tier.

“Diamond 1? Cute.”

Still, unlike previous matches, the final bout seemed like it might offer a decent fight.

But something felt off about this viewer.

Usually fans would ask for a handshake first, but this person showed no interest in him at all.

[…? Should I call you Mustard then?]

“Wow, is this for real? This person seems like they’re just here for the 1v1!”

-How did they even crack the password lol

-Creepy

-How can you play League and not know Paysauce

-Maybe their nickname changed because of the random name generator?

-Streaming genius lmao

-Their voice is so deep

-Oh, Fiora vs Irelia

Paysauce didn’t mind these amusing situations. He rather enjoyed them.

So he continued to provoke his opponent. He couldn’t help but anticipate what reaction they’d have when he won the 1v1 and revealed his identity.

[That’s why ADC players like you, Mr. Mustard, can’t escape being called spoons.]

Having caught a big fish, Paysauce was struggling to hold back his laughter.

-Calling a Worlds champion a spoon lmao

-Not a spoon, more like a giant excavator lol

-Doesn’t seem like they’re pretending to be a kid

-The opponent is the essence of top lane

-Time for a lesson~ Time for a lesson~ Time for a lesson~

-Wait, isn’t that NoName?

“This guy’s got a foul mouth. Take this auto-Q-auto! Does it hurt? Ah, I exposed your weak point!”

As expected of a Diamond player, they seemed to understand lane dynamics well. It was only right to face such people with full effort.

“Going to place your E here? Then I’ll counter! So predictable.”

-Opponent’s almost dead, game over

-That Irelia’s pretty good

-Fiora has too much advantage here

-Could be manageable if they survive until level 6

“Ah, this Grasp of the Undying rune is too broken! When I go all in, I can’t find a kill opportunity!”

While Irelia was hugging the turret collecting CS, Paysauce decided to recall right in front of them.

“Should I cancel your recall? Am I going to let you go? And you call yourself a top laner?”

It was a win-win situation – either the recall goes through or it gets interrupted.

He was exploiting the psychology that 99% of top laners would inevitably try to interrupt the recall.

The moment Irelia dashed in with Q, Paysauce’s eyes lit up and he pounced.

“Didn’t expect this to be a kill opportunity, did you?”

His Bone Plating rune had also activated.

Judging that he absolutely couldn’t lose, he continued chasing the fleeing Irelia.

The distance to the turret was still sufficient. When the health difference had widened to more than double, he used his saved W skill to apply a slow.

The final vital appeared on the opposite side. With Fiora’s trick combo of auto-Flash, he was certain he could catch them. Paysauce pretended to turn around and give up, then suddenly used Flash.

Flash-

Flash-

“Huh?”

But Irelia used Flash at the perfect moment, and Fiora’s attack narrowly missed the vital.

With health awkwardly remaining, Irelia didn’t back off but instead used her extended auto attack range to hit Fiora once and land her E skill in that split second.

One more hit and Paysauce would fall. This wasn’t something an ordinary person could pull off.

Paysauce stretched out his arm, but his rapier couldn’t reach Irelia.

Close-range kiting.

Even among melee champions, there are attack range differences. With 4 stacks of her passive, Irelia had a slight range advantage over Fiora.

Using this, she forcibly squeezed in 2 auto attacks, impressing Paysauce.

But Irelia still couldn’t beat Fiora. The health difference was already too wide to overcome. Even if she came in with the mark created by landing her E, he was 100% confident he would win.

Just as he concluded this, Irelia used W in the opposite direction.

“What?”

As his gaze turned, one allied minion was hit by the skill and died.

“No way, level 6!”

Leveling up increases health and stats. And at level 6, you can learn your ultimate ability.

Neither had Flash. So getting hit by the ultimate at this distance was guaranteed. Even as Fiora, he couldn’t stop an Irelia who could use Q three times.

A mass of blades shot out before his eyes, and Paysauce froze.

Only then could he see the nickname above the Irelia champion.

[NoName]

It was a name emerging from the distant corners of his memory.

* * *

“How long are you going to keep going?”

“Just one more game… is there any way I could ask for just one more?”

Paysauce was desperately clinging to NoName.

NoName had already won all three 1v1s.

Each time, Paysauce had pleaded with pitiful eyes, but this time it seemed he wouldn’t be able to move NoName’s heart.

The mysterious Irelia master had suddenly disappeared, and Paysauce was left to deal with the chaotic chat.

-lmao 3-0

-Got destroyed by a one-trick? Ouch~

-That Irelia is a god-tier player! I’m just amazed at their skill speed

-Paysauce should stick to ADC…

-Is NoName for real? I always thought their mechanics were insane

-God-Name! God-Name! God-Name! God-Name! God-Name!

-Send those chicken gift cards quickly

“No, this doesn’t make any sense!”

-Of course it doesn’t make sense

-lmao

-Can’t even let you win one game lol

-A grown man getting on his knees?!

“What’s going on? Did the patch change make Irelia more favorable now?”

-Both champions haven’t been patched in a year?

-A tier 5 champ forgotten even by Riot’s balance team RIP

-Let’s just admit you can’t play top

-That was eye candy

-For real

Paysauce bit his fingernails and carefully recalled what he knew about NoName.

He went to a stats site and entered the six letters of her nickname.

[NoName – Diamond 1]

And with records of countless Asteria games, his suspicion turned into certainty.

“I remember now! This person was the one who popularized top Asteria! That one thing made me hate playing solo queue so much! Top Asteria, mid Asteria, support Asteria. When our team had a jungle Asteria, I wanted to quit regardless of being a pro, aaaaargh!”

-lol was that really them?

-Unexpected identity reveal

-What the heck is top Asteria lol

-Asteria montage videos were trending at the beginning of the season lol

-Please keep ADCs as ADCs…

“Oh my god, what is this? Ten, twenty… 50 ranked wins in a row?”

-????

-Are they even human?

-They actually played top Asteria once too lol

-Hard to find a game where they have less than 10 kills

-Why is someone like this still in Diamond…?

[‘lightandreft’ donated 10,000 won!]

-NoName is streaming right now!

“Thank you. Ah, so they were a streamer after all. Makes sense, you can’t waste talent like this in this industry. Wait, does this mean I’m going to be immortalized on VTube again?”

-NoName doesn’t do VTube

-Even if they don’t, other clip channels will pick it up

-Smiling at the thought of this hitting the front page of the League forum lol

-Better than chicken, getting immortalized

-Come to think of it, they left without even adding you as a friend

-You’re not going to just pocket those chicken gift cards, right?

“I’m not pocketing anything. What do you take me for? But they’ve already left the League client? What should I do?”

[‘KetchupSauce’ donated 3,000 won!]

-Send it to ipfs://www.twish.ch/noname

“I’m not supposed to raid another streamer during an official broadcast. But while my manager is away, I’ll quickly check it out – don’t tell on me.”

Since they were registered on the same platform, he could use the gift-sending feature if she accepted his friend request.

Paysauce tried to write a comment asking for a friend request on NoName’s stream, but this was quickly thwarted.

[Chat is disabled for this broadcast.]

“What?”

-lmao

-lol

-Today’s just one legendary moment after another

-Is she anticipating Paysauce coming?

-If so, that’s seriously creepy lol

-lol stream title: “Someone who misses warmth”

-Is it because everyone she meets ends up as a cold corpse?

-That’s straight-up savage

-Cold mustard sauce lol

Fortunately, donations weren’t blocked on NoName’s stream.

Paysauce’s fans flocked to NoName’s stream one after another, asking her to enable chat through donation messages.

After initially ignoring them, she couldn’t dismiss them anymore as three, four donations piled up.

NoName reluctantly disabled chat restrictions.

“Why are you causing trouble in someone else’s stream? You’re the one who had the 1v1 with me earlier, right?”

“What? Ah, I… well…”

“You wouldn’t win no matter how many times we fought. The skill gap between us is too big.”

-lmao

-Look how genuinely flustered he is lol

-lol

-This is seriously hilarious

-Gotta speak your truth

-Honestly, you played too casually because they were Diamond

-A Worlds champion getting humbled today

“Ah, I promised to give chicken gift cards to whoever beat me! I was going to give you all ten cards, so I was wondering if you could add me as a friend.”

“Why do you need to add me?”

“Because I need to whisper to send them to you…”

-lol why is the situation reversed?

-“You’re the first to treat me like this” – is this a strategy?

-Even Paysauce would struggle to get NoName to add him lol

“Friend requests are… Can’t you just give me cash instead?”

“Huh…?”

“One chicken is 30,000 won, so 300,000 won worth.”

“Ah… because I’m a public figure, I can’t make donations from this account…”

“Then I respectfully decline. I need to start my stream, so please leave quickly.”

NoName firmly expressed her refusal, but Paysauce couldn’t just pretend the gift card promise never happened.

With chat scrolling faster and faster, he bit his fingernails and fell into deep thought before his face suddenly lit up as if he’d had a brilliant idea.

“Ah, I’ve thought of a perfect solution! If you play your cards right, it’ll be worth much more than 300,000 won.”

“…?”

With those words, Paysauce abruptly left NoName’s stream.

Shortly after, a notification sound rang in NoName’s quiet virtual space.

[TK Pathos is hosting you with 22,851 viewers!]

What he sent as compensation was none other than around twenty thousand viewers.