Ch.3129 – Mad Movie

I asked Professor Cheon not to have too high expectations for the academy.

Honestly, I wouldn’t even be upset if I got rejected because the admissions officers seemed subpar. This wasn’t just mental gymnastics—it was my genuine feeling.

The professor told me not to worry too much, and I decided not to dwell on past results anymore.

While he was washing dishes in the evening, the apartment announcement system mentioned that some children had been injured at the playground yesterday, and he asked if I was okay.

I had to pretend I didn’t know anything, feeling a bit guilty.

“Anyway, I’m glad you’re alright. Things might look safe on the surface, but accidents can happen anywhere, anytime.”

“Yes, that’s true. By the way, is there no Nature Journal this week?”

It was better to quickly change the subject in situations like this.

“They’re having some kind of 181st or 182nd anniversary event this week. Looks like they’ll publish everything together next week.”

“I see. That’s unfortunate.”

“I hear that even elementary students get busy once they enter the academy. It’s good to play while you can.”

“I told you not to have expectations. But… I’ll keep that in mind.”

Seori and Jihye’s friends must have gotten home safely, but I was still a bit worried about Lora.

It seemed like her parents were either divorced or she was born out of wedlock.

The person I assumed to be her father probably lived in this complex.

Her mother was likely abandoning Lora at the playground, hoping her father would take her.

Such a common and predictable story.

But reality isn’t like dramas, and Cinderella stories rarely happen.

Her grandmother also seemed to have mobility issues—how could Lora continue living in that house?

I guess I’ll have to visit regularly to check on her, as Seori suggested.

‘Maybe I should stream again after all this time.’

Even though I no longer need to earn money from streaming… I get anxious when I stop doing something I’m used to.

‘Wait a minute?’

Come to think of it, didn’t I use magic today? Not even 3rd circle, but 4th circle magic.

[Streaming starts: 0:00:01 – NoName]

I started the stream and decided to search online for approximately how much mana fees would cost.

In this dimension with no inherent mana, magic could only be borrowed through the Idea realm, making natural spellcasting quite difficult.

To use an analogy, it was like trying to fill a large bucket with water using only a shot glass, despite having a vast ocean available.

That’s why advanced countries installed base stations throughout their territories to improve mana connection efficiency, allowing the use of nationally agreed-upon bandwidth.

The Korea Mana Corporation was a government-affiliated market-type public enterprise responsible for collecting mana taxes, with excess revenue used to promote magical development in South Korea.

“Korea Mana Corporation February 1, 2051 Mana Fee Table… Type (C) casting… 4th circle…”

The mana fee structure was incredibly complicated.

Some had progressive taxes, others regressive. Basic fees, mana quantity fees, mana environment adjustment fees, and various other items were all packed together, with additional tax rates determined by classification groups even for spells of the same circle.

Without running a program, it’s impossible to know the bill until it arrives.

However, looking at the summary on TreeWiki, spells below 1st circle were mostly tax-exempt regardless of frequency, while 2nd circle spells cost about 10,000 won per single cast, 3rd circle 100,000 won, increasing tenfold with each level.

Spells above 6th circle were managed at the national level and couldn’t be used through normal methods.

[Stream time – 0:03:51]

Of course, there were special provisions for lower-income brackets in mana taxation.

Particularly notable was the tax exemption for spells up to 2nd circle. I thought teaching Lora healing magic like tissue regeneration would be perfect.

Children who get injured often need to visit hospitals frequently.

But many end up with serious illnesses because they can’t afford treatment and just endure the pain.

If they could receive some healing through magic in advance, wouldn’t they be able to grow up healthy, even if not affluent?

[Stream time – 0:06:42]

[Viewers: 1482]

[Welcome to the chat! (Freeze has been released due to operation timeout.)]

-11111111111

-Mom I can’t breathe!

-Why freeze a perfectly normal chat?

-Came running as soon as I heard the notification, what’s going on?

-Mana fee payment structure… this is rare

-NoName! NoName! NoName! NoName! NoName!

It felt like a dam breaking.

Text was pouring down from the sky chaotically.

“There are quite a lot of people today.”

-(Chat blocked – 600 seconds)

-(Chat blocked – 600 seconds)

-What’s happening right now?

-(Chat blocked – 600 seconds)

-(Chat blocked – 600 seconds)

-Moving

-(Chat blocked – 600 seconds)

-(Chat blocked – 600 seconds)

-(Chat blocked – 600 seconds)

-(Chat blocked – 600 seconds)

-(Chat blocked – 600 seconds)

“Oh, so there’s a way to freeze the chat.”

Text falling from the sky feels too dystopian. Like that movie scene with hamburgers and meatballs raining down.

[‘HoYaMuYaHo’ donated 1,000 won!]

-Wait a second, streamer! You can adjust the chat effect and size!

-Wow, did they manually block all those messages by themselves?

-lmao I thought I got banned as soon as I joined

-Asteria master’s 20 blocks per second highlight reel, damn

-How did some people manage to avoid getting blocked? lol

The rectangular, smaller chat window was definitely more psychologically comforting.

Unlike when I used to stream to 10 or 20 viewers, people were now continuously flooding in at a completely different scale.

Most of them mentioned they came after watching a VTube video.

A highlight reel, they called it.

It was a compilation of my best moments from the 50 games I played with Sia and Master.

With viewers spamming the link in chat, I couldn’t avoid watching it.

[156 million views · 2 weeks ago]

The thousand or so viewers in my room seemed like a lot, but that was nothing compared to this number.

[The Stars Are So Blue, Yet My Homeland Burned – Asteria Highlight Reel]

The video played with a somewhat embarrassing title.

It began with epic background music and Asteria’s dialogue. Despite balancing issues, Asteria’s story had received praise, and a brief snippet was shown.

A girl burning with determination, driven solely by her desire for revenge against the Empire.

Asteria gradually disappeared into darkness, followed by conversations from various people.

<TK Pathos>

[Who is this person? NoName? I’ve heard a lot about them. This guy is really good.]

It started with a young man’s assessment.

<Anaconda>

[It’s impossible to win. This champion is fundamentally flawed in design.]

Next came a voice of resignation with a deep sigh.

<LB Control>

[Is this a bug? When they hit Asteria, it seems to hurt twice as much as when others do it.]

The volume increased and the atmosphere intensified.

<Miroking>

[AAAAAHHHHH!!! I’m quitting LoL! I’m seriously going to lose my mind, I’m going to go insane AAAAHHHH!!!!!]

…And then the highlight reel began.

The video was about 8 minutes long—lengthy in some ways, brief in others.

I had something I wanted to convey to viewers before streaming, but it wasn’t fully organized in my mind yet, so I decided to watch the highlight reel to the end first.

It began with a scene of achieving a pentakill in the first game at Bronze 3.

I remembered fighting with razor-sharp immersion and careful range calculations.

The video creator must have analyzed all my plays, highlighting when I used W and E skills in each section, and properly emphasizing the pentakill climax.

Skipping the mundane winning streaks in Silver and Gold, the video jumped straight to Platinum.

The scene revealed one of Asteria’s level 11 techniques: [R-Q-basic attack-W-R-(R lv up)-RRRRRR].

At level 11, instead of evolving the ultimate skill, you use the same ultimate combo as at level 6.

With the 10th R, you evolve the skill, allowing you to use 5 additional star fragments consecutively, and the 11th star fragment’s effect changes to the 10th, resulting in a total of 16 supernova damage hits.

The creator even displayed portraits of famous players I had faced above the champions’ heads.

Anaconda, Miroking, and various LoL pros.

Viewers went wild whenever these players appeared, making me feel embarrassed to look at the chat.

[8:30/8:38]

The video was nearing its end, with the screen fading out. I was about to turn it off when…

[Stars are nobly beautiful. It’s always humans who give them meaning.]

“What the heck!”

I was startled when my own voice suddenly appeared at the end of the video.

-lolololololol

-Self-inflicted cringe moment lolololol

-Karma hits hard

-Star orphan’s stepmother lolololol

-This is what happens when you don’t do tutorial streams when asked

“…”

Trying to remember when I said such a thing, I recalled that during my last stream with Sia, I had read some of Asteria’s lines to appease viewers who had entered my room.

I had just read them.

In order.

Monotonously.

From top to bottom.

But seeing that one line taken out of context was incredibly embarrassing.

Viewers chaotically expressed their opinions and wishes, but there was generally one common direction.

Tutorial streams.

They consistently wanted to know how I handled Asteria.

But I’ve never been talented at teaching others.

The reason I had read Asteria’s meaningless dialogue before was partly because I disliked it, but also because I lacked confidence.

“Asteria is a newly released champion.”

-Yeah, that’s right

-She came out on January 18th, but considering the PBE server, it was last year

-So what?

“Proficiency is greatly influenced by time. But don’t you find it strange? With the same newly released champion, some people become masters appearing on VTube regularly within just a week, while others become ordinary players waiting for their tutorials.”

-Don’t some people just have natural talent for certain champions?

-Paysauce was a Samira master since his amateur days

“Talent. Talent is a word that diminishes a person’s temperament and effort. If you insist on using the word talent, you should say someone has talent in reaction speed or judgment, not in a specific champion.”

How is talent for a champion determined?

Why doesn’t everyone try to see the truth beyond that?

“Let me use my Asteria as an example. Reading Asteria’s skill manual for 10 hours every day won’t improve your skills. Using each skill a thousand times daily won’t either.”

The core of LoL is relativity.

Results aren’t determined by my movements alone.

Someone who’s played 10,000 bot games can’t be better than a Master who’s played 1,000 normal games—it’s the same logic.

“The three most important elements for Asteria are, in order: positioning, skill accuracy, and laning. Conversely, skill distribution and kill calculation are relatively less important compared to other champions. Not that they’re unimportant.”

Since it seemed difficult to explain with words alone, I replayed the highlight reel.

“Level 11 Asteria ultimate technique? Why is this even important? The average health of a level 11 champion ranges from 2200 to 2400 for top bruisers. Is it worth risking a level-up manipulation mid-combo just to add 80 more damage? Will this raise your tier? It’s a waste of time. That’s why I don’t like this highlight reel.”

You should be thinking about landing one more basic attack during confrontation instead.

Humans are easily captivated by what they see.

Just as the ignorant were fascinated by black magic.

“The reason I could win this teamfight was because all five enemy champions had short range, and instead of maintaining immersion near 100, I kept it around 60, slowly chipping away at their health with pokes and forcing the timing. Look at the minimap—even during this, I’m managing lanes, and the enemy top fortress is being pushed, right? Asteria isn’t like Gnar or Shyvana. She’s not a champion that goes all-in on her ultimate.”

With the immersion system applied to champions, everyone thinks raising immersion to cycle ultimates is advantageous in teamfights.

A common error of ignorance and false causation.

“You probably already know that Asteria’s R is non-targeted, making skill accuracy important… Next is laning. Too many people who play champions with weak laning try to endure the lane phase and decide the game in teamfights. The paradox is that the weaker your laning is, the more you need to exert influence through laning to win the game.”

Champions strong in lane should naturally win lane and focus on methods to spread that influence across the map.

People who play such champions will mechanically perform in lane and improve their map reading abilities.

“Going even in lane with Asteria—that’s the key.”

This time I showed a lane match against Miss Fortune and Xerath in Diamond 2 at around 6:20.

“The opponents have non-targeted skills that are hard to dodge, skills that can be dodged, and they both have Comet runes. Theoretically, it’s an unfavorable matchup. How do we go even or win the lane?”

I played the video again.

In the video, Xerath uses Q and W skills, but my Asteria avoids them with simple diagonal movement.

Miss Fortune exploits this by using her unavoidable E skill on me, and Comet activates to supplement the insufficient damage.

“Comet fires in the direction we’re moving. If you apply this knowledge, you can move forward right before it hits, making the comet land in front of the champion, then move backward to avoid it.”

After that, Miss Fortune tries her E skill a couple more times, but I was able to avoid every single comet.

“Just dodging skills won’t win you the lane. That alone doesn’t fundamentally change the situation. But if you bait enemy skills to protect your minions, make them consume mana, and push the lane instead…”

Contrary to expectations, Miss Fortune and Xerath were pushed back to their tower and died heroically to a dive kill with their jungler.

“You can win the game.”

Because LoL is a simple game about getting kills, gathering resources, and using resource advantages to destroy buildings.