“Only the strong survive in this harsh world.” A metallic voice resounded after Gate of Sheol vanished. Gregory's soul was sucked out, both figuratively and literally.

  “Only the strong”, huh. Gregory took off his gsses and rubbed his eyes. It was just a dumb scripted line, but it strue right now. Gregory was pletely overwhelmed by Roi because he wasn’t strong enough.

  Of course, part of it was Dark Knight’s fault. That overpowered edgy boi was the best at bullying during the early game. But, even beyond that, Roi totally outpyed Gregory at every step of the way. Gregory thought he knew how Dark Knight was supposed to be pyed and how to beat it, but Roi tered everything. Damn it...

  In the end, Gregory was just a weakling, he couldn't do shit. This one-sided battle made it crystal clear: he had no future in Solo Lane. By himself, he was a worthless pyer.

  “Tai,” Howard called out. “I need you to gank Top.”

  “Okay, on it!”

  “It'll be great if you get a kill, but driving Roi out of ne is good enough.”

  “I'mma kick his ass, no problem!” Taison cimed with a fident grin. “Gonhere in a jiffy.” He said while clearing the Wolf Camp.

  “You know,” Gregory muttered. “You could've gotten there earlier to help me if you didn't farm camps the whole day.”

  “Hey, farming is important too, ya know? Gotta get vegetables from somewhere, right? Khaha.”

  “Hirious.”

  “I mean, hey, you didn't call for help or anything. How the hell should I know you’re in trouble?”

  “That's... fair, I guess.” Gregory pursed his lips. Right, it wasn't Taison's fault. Like, sure, if Taison were a half-det Jungler with sharp deaking, he would have noticed Gregory’s situation and would have rotated to Solo as quickly as possible. But, Taison was just a braihug, so what did Gregory expect?

  “Anyway,” Gregory tinued. “Don't uimate Roi. He's strong.”

  “Well yeah, he's pying DK.”

  “It's not just that. He's just strong, in general.”

  “No problem, yo. I'mma avenge ya, my brudda!”

  “Good luck with that.” Gregory smiled wryly. With this gung-ho attitude, Taison will probably burn and crash too. Despite the friendly advice, a part ory actually wished to see it happen. If Taison puts on an even fight against Roi here, then...

  “Heeeeere es Taison!” Taison leaped onto the ne from the jungle and crashed onto the enemy minions. As soon as he nded, he swept through the remaining minions with his nce. Awesome! All the weak dawgs were dead, so it gonna be a pure 1v1 now!

  Okay, let's go! Taison dashed toward Roi and thrust his nce. Wham! Easy hit! That slowpoke tried to sidestep, but no dice! Ain't nobody getting away from Lightning Speed Taison!

  Still, though, that dude had over half his HP bar. The heck was Gregory doing here until now?

  “Yo GG,” Taison called out. “Didn'tcha fight this guy? He's healthy like a damn horse!”

  “Didn't you check his HP before jumping him?” Gregory made a face. “I almost got him, but he restored like 30% after killing me. DK kinda got a passive, in case you fot.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Taison shrugged. Welp, that sucked ass, but no problem! He just gotta beat Roi from half HP to zero. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

  Taison maintained his distand thrust his nce again. Bullseye! Another hit! The fight only started and it’s already 2:0 to Taison!

  But, Roi ain't no pushover, he won't keep taking a beating like some wuss. Edgy Knight charged his bde with some edgy magic stuff and sshed through the air.

  Oh shit, it's that thing! Taison excimed. It was that thing! The high damage shit! What was it called again? Dark Fart or something? Anyway, it was ing!

  Taison rolled aside and dodged that shit. Khaha! Easy! Now, back to offense- keh!? “When did he-!?”

  Roi was right in front of him! When did that mofo close the distance!? Shit, this ain't good! Taison had to create some space again- geh!

  Edgy Knight sshed without any chill, taking off like 10% from Taison's HP. Damn, even a simple basic hit like a truck! But, now it was Taison's turn! Ha!

  Taison’s nce dug into Edgy Knight’s chest. Goal! He totally owhis- whoa! Bck ooze sprayed at him from the Dark Knight's wound! And it hurt, yo!

  Pulling out the big guns, huh? Taison flinched. Edgy Knight cloaked himself in a bck aura. It was that Nightmare crap, Dark Knight's sed ability. Taison properly remembered this name, because it was so spot on. 1v1 against this shit was a legit nightmare, yo!

  At low ranks, there were a bunch of shitheads who thought they're good at the game by bringing Edgy Knight to 1v1 mode. Heck, Taison did that shit too at first. The css seemed hel broken, no joke. The win streaks he had were hel funny.

  But, eventually, Taison came across stronger oppos and that's where shit got real. These bastards did everything they could to ruin Taison’s game pn as a Dark Knight, which led to some of the most frustrating gaming experiences EVER. An Edgy Knight who didn't start strong in the early-game was trash ter on, so eventually, Taison moved on from this disappointing mess of a css.

  But, to REALLY move on, Taison first had to be strong enough to beat the trashbags who tinued pying Edgy Knight. To bee da best, he fought lots and lots of Edgy Knights until he figured out how to deal with that mofo. So, there’s no way this shitty css will take him out in 1v1!

  Nightmare reflected like 40% damage and buffed the heck out of Edgy Knight, but it also gradually sapped Edgy Knight's HP. So, Taison just had to maintain his distand let Roi burn himself out.

  e at me, yo! Roi taunted by rapidly stepping bad forth. As much as he liked charging at the oppo’s face, Taison had to py the waiting game for now. I’mma let Roi wipe out his own HP, khaha.

  Siaison became passive, Roi took the initiative and tried closing the distance. But, too bad, sucker! Edgy Knight had no movement options for shit! While Bck Fart was on cooldown, Roi didn’t have any ratacks and only had his basics to rely on. As long as Taiso let that mofo get into melee rahis fight was ez.

  Roi approached from different sides and angles, but Taison just stepped away every time. A game of cat and mouse, heh.

  I know whatcha trying to do, but it ain't gonna work. Taison smirked. Roi clearly tried to er Taison against one of the jungle walls, but Taison was smarter than that. Whenever his back was forced to a wall, he re-positioned himself with a roll. Keep trying, fam. You ain’t ering the mighty Taison!

  Tick tock. Tick tock. Dark Knight's HP went down with every tick. Dude has already lost like 5% since he entered Nightmare.

  Damn, he's go his HP. He was already down to 30% because of his Nightmare and he hasn’t achieved mu return. This was getting bad. Taison was hel healthy at 70% HP, so there's no way this gonna be a fair fight. Especially, there's Lancer’s ult to look out fuess I have to scram. At least, I got myself an easy escape route. Thanks for being so cooperative, Tai! Lol.

  Oh, finally. Taison grinned and ched his mouse. The dark fog around Dark Knight dispersed. Nightmare was out of the picture, so now they could fight like real men!

  Except, apparently Roi had no iion to fight. He just turned around and dashed! Fuuuuu! He gon away!

  Damn, I fot to block his escape route. Derp. Taison smiled wryly. While he was busy running away from Roi, he rotated to the opposite side of the ne and opened an easy escape route for Roi. Welp, damn. Good damn job, Roi. A 200 IQ py.

  But, it ain't over yet! There was still Gae Bolg! Taison just had to close the distance a little and unch himself at Roi!

  Follow me, by all means. Roi threw some gnces behind his back, to see if Gae Bolg was ing. “Dan, you ready to jump on Tai when es?”

  “I’m not doh the wolves yet, but I'll be there.”

  “You still messing with the wolves? Lol, you slow as fuck, boi.”

  “Hey, not my fault CssSoft ’t give Venomancer a proper jungle clear ability.”

  “How you even py that slowpoke.”

  “Yeah, he’s slow as heck, but shredding tanks is fun. Anyway, no problem. I'll gank Tai if he es.”

  “Roger,” Roi nodded. I'll slow down a little then, to give Tai more hope about catg up. level bait, lol.

  “Hey, I get him!” Taison excimed as Roi was almost within rahe guy kept turning around while running, he probably thought Taison will eventually give up. Not in a million years! Taison gonna chase his prey to the end of the world!

  “Alright, Tai. That's enough,” Hoierced Taison with a sharp tone. “You did your part, now retreat.”

  “Yo, but I almost got him! Just a little more and I'mma kill his ass!”

  “Or, maybe just a little more and you'll get your ass ganked instead. I haven't seen Dan for a while now.”

  “Oh shit, for real?” Taison backpedaled. “Oh hey, there's uy.” He spotted the Venomancer peeking from ihe jungle. “Yo, my man. How's life?” Taison used a hand-wavie ihe game, then got the heck of outta there. Phew, he almost had his ass ganked for real. Too bad he couldn't get that sweet kill, tho.

  “Good job,” Howard nodded. “That should be enough to make Roi retreat. I bet you're salty about missing the kill but trust me, your tribution was huge. It may not look like it right now, but you saved the entire game.”

  “Just doing my job, khaha.”

  “.........” Gregory silently watched how the whole situation unfolded. He had nothing to do because he was dead, so he closely followed the Taison vs. Roi fight. He saw every part of it.

  Taison actually fought on equal ground against Roi, the guy who kicked Gregory’s ass without breaking a sweat. Taison failed to score a kill, but even just driving Roi out of the ne was huge. It ralized the situatiory caused in Solo Lah his inpetence.

  Why? This didn’t make sense. Yeah, sure, Gregory didn’t main Solo, so it’s uandable why his bat skills were g. But then, what about Taison? The guy didn’t main Jungler, yet he put on a strong show anyway. It didn’t make any sense.

  Was Gregory just... weak? Was that the truth? No matter which role he pyed, he couldn’t deliver results. Was that the extent of his worth? Was he forever doomed to remain “GG”, the joke of the club? Dammit...

  This stupid respawn timer is taking too long. Let me bato the game already! Gregory refused to accept this reality. He wanted another shot to prove he wasn’t some useless weakling.

  While waiting for the timer to tick to zero, something ued happened in Bot Lane.

  An ally has been killed!

  The sed death ieam. This time, it was Ellen. That was a rare occurrence.

  Ellen alyed safe during the early game and hid behind her pokes. Gregory khis all too well because he was often on the receiving end of Taison’s rants whewo cshed. In practice matches, Ellen’s pokes always triggered Taison to the poiarted overextending just to get a few hits on her.

  As a result, Gregory always had to do something to salvage the situation before Taison screwed himself and the team. Man, these matches were such a pain. The most Gregory ever achieved was stopping the foetting killed. They never actually mao ter Ellen’s poking.

  So, to think Yuel and Lars found a way to score a kill on that poking mae... Holy, it retty impressive. Gregory missed hoy went down, but it must have been something out of this world. Yuel probably came up with another one of his bullshit pns and Lars pulled off some inhuman stunt. It’s frustrating to admit, but these two were... good. Really good.

  And, Taison retty good too, even as a Jungler. Only Gregory didn’t perform for shit. No, he wasn’t even “Gregory”, he was just “GG”. He didn’t even deserve a proper name because he was trash. Fuck...

  “Well,” Howard smiled. “I suppose that’s how this match gotta go.”

  Huh? He was smiling? Even though his rival just shat on him real hard? Gregory found himself staring in disbelief.

  “Something wrong?” Howard asked.

  “Uh, nothing.” Gregory shifted his eyes away. “I just thought you’ll be more salty about losing to Yuel.”

  “Oh, trust me, I AM salty. Very salty.” Howard cimed so but there was still a faint smile on his face. “It’s just that I knew I might be biting off more than I chew, so I live with this result. Turns out Lars’s Trickshooter is pretty damn good after all, haha.”

  This was some bizarre shit right there. That situation was “more than Howard could chew”? How was that even possible? Howard was the top dog of this club, so there shouldn't be anything he ’t hahat defeat should’ve pletely destroyed his fidence, yet Howard was smiling like he was having fun.

  “Looks weird to you?” Howard asked as if reading Gregory’s mind.

  “Well, yeah. I mean, you just got owned.”

  “You ’t wiime, right? Matches aren’t just about winning or losing, they also let you test your limits and teach you hings.”

  “You sound like these YouTubers who make ‘Top 10 Tips’ videos.”

  “Haha. Won’t lie, I listeo many of those. But, that’s a nice mio have, right? You should adopt it. Think about why you lost and what you learned.”

  “What I learned, huh,” Gregory mumbled. All Gregory learned from the fight with Roi was that he’s plete trash who couldn't py Solo for shit. Even a noob css like Dark Knight stomped him hard.

  “You seem to beat yourself over dying to Roi,” Howard said. “But, you gotta look at it with the right mind frame. Tell me, how would you describe Roi as a whole?”

  “The Lol Guy, kek.”

  “Heh, that’s definitely a thing. Anyway, when you look at Roi from your current position, what do you see? Just some senior from your club who pys Tht?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Gregory shrugged, not sure where this was going. Like, that’s what Roi objectively was, right? A senior in the club who pyed Solo and the enemy Gregory had to surpass in order to py Solo petitively in the uping year. Also, the Lol Guy, kek.

  “That’s a narrow view,” Howard stated. “You o think on a bigger scale. Roi is actually one of the best Top Laners I’ve seen in our entire regioill don’t know the regional lineups for the uping year, but I guarantee Roi will t among the stroop Laners iour.”

  The stro... Gregory ched his fists. He knew Roi was good, but THAT good? If Howard said so, then Roi probably warrahe praise.

  Thinking of it, Gregory heard something about Roi almost making it into the first string st year, so there was no doubt that everybody highly regarded the guy in the club. And, to be fair, Roi had the skill to back up that trust.

  “So,” Howard tinued. “If you think you lost to some nobody, you gotta reframe your perspective. You lost against one of the best Top Laners, so o beat yourself over it. You made a few mistakes and Roi exploited them, but that’s alright. Don’t focus too hard on the fact you lost. Instead, think about your mistakes and figure out how you gonna avoid them ime. That’s how you get better.”

  “I guess that makes sense...” Gregory’s words trailed. Maybe he was really beating himself over nothing. Just because he lost so pitifully against the “stro” didn’t mean he was necessarily weak. He just wasn’t as strong as Roi, that’s all.

  Yeah, it was only iable fory to lose that 1v1. He “bit more than he could chew”, as Hout it. Now, that Gregory learhe gap between himself and Roi, he should give up on proving himself superior and should focus on dealing with Roi in the ne.

  How should Gregory py against one of the stro Solo Laners in the region? To be fair, Howard already kinda gave him the answer a week ago.

  “Got it,” Gregory said. “I’ll py more defensively from now on.”

  “Atta boy,” Howard nodded. “I know you wao beat Roi and take his spot, but you’re not up to the challe.”

  “Wha-!?” Gregory coughed. Was Howard aware ory’s super secret pn to overthrow Roi all along? Nah, the guy robably just guessing based on circumstantial evidence. Seriously tho, Howard was borderline ESP sometimes.

  Good. Howard o himself. After they fihe versation, Gregory had a refreshed look on his faow, he’ll be more willing to listen to Howard’s dires and to py defense, maybe he’ll even be willing to turtle. Beien to a pulp taught that brat a good lesson. Good thing this problem fixed itself so early,

  That’s oroublemaker dealt with. , Howard focused his attention on Taison. This “throw-away” game was a good ce to test the waters and see how far their “Lars Killer” on could go. Its effectiveness will undoubtedly decide a lot in the uping battles...