Chapter 37: Umk

Even after Team C’s defeat, the tournament practice matches continued.

Each game saw numerous reversals, and various players fought neck-and-neck, maintaining the tension.

And then.

[Yes, today’s schedule has now concluded.]

[The main matches are scheduled for Wednesday, so everyone will need to practice sufficiently until then.]

“Alright, did you hear that? Baekro. Time to practice.”

“H-Hey… Oppa? Namu Oppa?”

“You gotta do what you gotta do. You absolutely must get 3 kills next round. You can’t go home before that, okay?”

“Uwaaahhh….”

With Baekro dragged off to the practice room, her arms held by her crewmates, all the streamers participating in the tournament departed for their own broadcasts.

And for me, the long-awaited practice day had arrived.

“Ah ah, can you hear the mic well?”

“- ⸻ _”

“…Hello?”

“⸻Ah, yes, yes. I can hear you clearly.”

After a moment’s pause, a man’s voice came through the headset.

A voice quite familiar to those watching my stream.

-Juha

-Jumin has arrived

-The expert has appeared~!

-Over here, Jumin-ssi

-The Izo expert has appeared~!

It was the voice of Jumin, the VIP of our room whom I had met a few days ago.

Because today was finally that awaited day.

[Starting to learn Izo from the expert.]

Anyone who wants to get good at Izo? Gather ’round.

---

“Aren’t you nervous?”

“Yes…., I think I’m okay.”

I was worried he might be nervous appearing on stream alone, unlike last time, but this seemed alright.

Well, it’s not like my stream is that big anyway.

Most of the recent increase in viewers is apparently because my story is circulating in those places called ‘cafes’.

‘Turns out there are Virtual fan cafes here too.’

Although, perhaps because Vtubers themselves are rather niche, the member count isn’t particularly large.

Still, since I’m the first Korean one, the attention within that small cafe must have been sharply focused on me.

“Then… shall we start by learning what kind of character Izo is?”

“Ah, yes.”

The first lesson began with theory.

Jumin questioned me like some professor on an entertainment show.

“First, Cheongha-nim. What do you think is this character’s most important feature?”

“…Well, the bow, wouldn’t it be?”

In a game where everyone else is shooting guns, firing lasers, and setting up turrets, he’s the only one fighting with arrows.

“Ah, that’s correct.”

They even give other melee weapon characters reinforced suits or steel armor, but leaving only him like this feels a bit unfair.

Is he supposed to be some kind of Hawkeye senior?

“So, unlike other characters, these arrows are affected by gravity, you see? So what you need to do is….”

“Aim slightly above the target to shoot, right? Because they fly in a parabola.”

I answered Jumin’s continuing explanation in advance.

Because once I start something, I’m quite the passionate student.

“Yes, have you tried it a few times?”

“Ah, yes. I’ve actually shot a bow a few times.”

I had experience shooting a bow a few times on variety shows back in the day.

Among the cast members who appeared with me then, well, I was considered pretty good at hitting the target.

Although it felt somewhat like lip service, even the instructor said I had talent for a beginner.

“Yes, and Izo’s position is basically… a mid-range sniper? You can think of him in a similar vein.”

Drawing the bow increases the power per shot but slows down movement speed.

Thanks to this, a typical Izo struggles at close range.

“If you inevitably get caught, you have to resist with Storm Arrows, but fundamentally, you need to manage aggro well to operate effectively.”

Unlike the bullets of other characters, Izo’s arrows aren’t easily heard.

So, while the tank and other allies draw fire, you pierce enemies with powerful arrows from an unknown location.

Due to the nature of projectile weapons without hitscan, it becomes incredibly difficult to hit once the enemy starts moving.

“Alright, let’s take a look in practice then.”

Jumin then took me to the Training Grounds populated by AIs.

“Okay, let’s learn how to use the skills this time.”

Simultaneously, the form of the arrow Jumin selected for Izo changed.

Unlike the original, it was an arrow with a blunt tip.

It was the Sonic Arrow that reveals enemy locations.

“Now, if you press the left Shift key, you can fire an arrow that reveals enemy positions, similar to a sniper’s ultimate.”

It had the same effect as another character’s ultimate ability.

‘Of course, that one has its own advantages too.’

The sniper’s position detection is an ultimate, so it can’t be activated constantly, but in return, the entire map falls within its range.

Izo’s Sonic Arrow, on the other hand, only activates if an enemy is within its range, but being a skill, it has the advantage of being usable anytime the cooldown is up.

In that sense, for Jumin, who could land his arrows properly, this was more convenient to use.

“Now, you just need to hit alleys where enemies frequently enter, or targets like the enemy team’s tank.”

“Ah…..”

I don’t grasp theoretical lessons well, but I understood what this meant at least.

Thanks to the arrow itself being small relative to the map size, if you stuck an arrow in a location unknown to the enemies, those just emerging would have a high chance of dying mysteriously without knowing why.

Shooting the arrow at a tank wasn’t much different.

It wasn’t as stealthy as an alley shot.

But since tanks, the core of the team, always move with their teammates, it provided real-time location updates for the allies.

And the tank can’t just abandon the team and go elsewhere, so either way, it’s an annoying skill for the enemy team.

“And next, for Storm Arrows, you just need to hit enemies that come close. Be careful, the cooldown only starts after firing all five shots.”

“Ah, looks like the E key ability changed then?”

What I remembered was an arrow that bounced off surfaces everywhere it hit.

It seemed the character itself had been reworked and changed.

No wonder nobody died from ricocheting arrow fragments last time.

“Okay, this time, let’s look at movement.”

After learning all the basic skills, we started learning about movement next.

Izo is a hero with Wall Climb and a horizontal Double Jump ability.

Using these skills to quickly secure high ground before the enemy is important.

“Alright, like this…”

In the Colosseo map, Jumin instantly climbed a wall and jumped to the adjacent building.

What was that, how do you do that.

“…….I can’t do it.”

There’s a saying in Korea.

‘A crow-tit trying to keep up with a stork will tear its legs.’

Just like the saying, my skills were nowhere near enough to follow the expert’s movements.

Cheongha repeatedly fell to the ground.

-Yep, this is walker-Izo

-That’s the real Izo hahaha

-Ah, I feel relieved again now.

“….Don’t tease me.”

Do you think I want to fall?

They probably couldn’t do it well themselves if they tried, yet who are they to talk.

“Yes, now you can shoot from places like this.”

“Ah, it certainly looks hard to catch someone here.”

There must be several spots like this on each map.

How on earth do people memorize and navigate these places?

That a person could possess that much dedication to a game.

I felt a sense of respect.

And it seemed I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

-Jumin is crazy good

-Cheongha, move away from the camera

-Can’t see~!

-Ugh, I could never do that.

-Cheongha, hurry up and follow with the camera.

-Camera crew, move it.

“……..”

Seriously, these people.

The streamer of this broadcast is me, okay?

If I followed my heart, I’d turn the camera away, but since he’s the guest I invited, I couldn’t just intentionally keep him out of frame.

Ultimately, doing what she could, Cheongha decided to send a message.

“Oops, mistake.”

Shortly after, Cheongha, who was following Jumin heading to the next point, fell to the ground.

-??? You fall from there?

-Excuse me?

-There’s no soul in that ‘oops’.

-Is the streamer sulking?

-Why sulk over something like this? hahaha

-Watching this person, she’s actually pretty cute hahaha

“No, no, me sulking? No way.”

I just miscalculated the skill cooldown while trying too hard to imitate the expert’s movements.

It absolutely wasn’t an intentional fall.

#[Anonymous Supporter donated 5,000 Won]

-No matter how I look at it, she’s sulking hahaha

N-No, I’m not.

“Cheongha-nim, are you okay?”

“….Yes, I’m fine. Let’s quickly move to the next spot.”

After briefly bickering with the chat, I followed Jumin, who had returned to get me, to the next map.

“So, what do you think?”

“Hmm, I’m still not sure….”

After the special Izo lecture concluded, Jumin asked me.

Honestly, it’s not like listening to an expert briefly makes you instantly proficient; I just thought I needed to understand the theory first.

Still, having learned the method at least, I felt like I had more of an answer than before.

Jumin, pondering my words, continued.

“Then, would you like to watch me play exactly like that?”

---

Jumin immediately started queuing for Quick Play.

His appearance on the Discord screen was the very definition of an expert.

“….That’s actually possible.”

The words escaped me without thinking.

-? You just saw it.

-You were just playing with the streamer

-It’s the exact same route?

“No, I know we just did it together.”

No matter how perfectly you practice choreography, watching it performed live on stage feels different from seeing it in the practice room, doesn’t it?

[Juminjuni -> tpgbreathe55]

Izo’s arrow damage, on a full charge, is 125 for a body shot and 250 for a headshot.

It was enough damage to silence most characters, excluding tanks, in one hit.

「Let the dragon consume my enemies!」

Kwaaaah-!

After using his ultimate to properly disrupt the enemy formation, he charged in with his allies, leading several team fights to victory.

Izo could immediately deal damage after firing his ultimate to charge the gauge again, and coupled with Jumin’s excellent aim, his ultimate cycled incredibly fast.

[The dragon obstructs vision quite a bit, so our team can hide within the dragon to approach the enemy.]

It was a kind of applied technique born from the difficulty of hitting enemies based solely on their name tags.

To think that was actually possible.

Experts really are different.

Just as everyone was watching the movie-like performance.

Ddiri-ring-!

-Mom is h—

Along with a faint voice, Jumin’s Discord connection abruptly cut off.

“…..?”

Her avatar made a dumbfounded expression at the sudden development.

-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Ah, don’t tell me

-What was that? ㅋㅋ

-Did Jumin’s mom come?

-Are you crazy? ㅋㅋㅋ

-The high school senior walks on eggshells again today

-This is nuts lmao ㅋㅋㅋ

-How has he been donating all this time?

“…..Is this really a Mom-crash?”

Regaining her senses, Cheongha spoke quietly.

Of course, only after discreetly turning off her Discord mic.