"Yo! No way!" Lars cried out as he watched his ser beam miss the target. That was supposed to be the killing blow, yoooooo!

  Of course, Lars didn't actually miss. After all, his 200% accuracy was incapable of such goofs. No, it rehat dude sidestepped the shot toward the very end!

  What a pro, yo! Lars thought. Though, I guess this one is partially on me, haha...

  Apprentece deserved some credit for juking that shot, but he only mao do it because Lars went for the head. If Lars shot the Orc’s bastead, then a st-moment sidestep like that wouldn't have been enough.

  Thinking of it, Yuel has been chewi about this habit every now and then but I just keep doing it. Lars rolled his eyes. It's like an instinct at this point, yo. Gotta polish that Sliech at all times! Or something.

  Holy, there wasn't any deep reason for these headshots. Lars just thought it was cool to always deliver headshots like that and he had the skill to pull it off, so he did it.

  Every FPS game he ever pyed rewarded him handsomely for this habit. Lars deleted many unsuspeg enemies from existeh his 200% headshot accuracy!

  As, Cssmancers didn't respect this skill. Aside from Gunslihere weren’t many csses that cared about nding headshots. What a shame.

  I shouldn’t have gone for the head there. Lars shook his head. But, what’s done is done. I just gotta nd the one and finish this, yo!

  But, that was going to be easier said than done. Apprentece had already recovered from Drow’s slowdown debuff, so dude was now even faster on his feet.

  To make things worse, the chase was quickly approag the enemy’s tower area. At this rate, Apprentece might actually escape to safety!

  But, of course I ain’t gonhat happen! Lars aimed his ser gun again, this time at the target's back. With the shot, he'll deliver that overdue killing blow and finally strike down the Korean pro that had been terrorizing the entire game!

  No, wait. Lars paused right before pulling the trigger. I o roll in first. He's barely within range and I don’t have the leeway to make any more mistakes.

  Lars had to finish this here and now. He couldn't mess this up, no matter what. Nia’s sacrifice won’t be in vain, yo!

  Yoing down dude…! However, just before he went for the roll, the world fell silent. Everything around him turned bck. He could only see his Elf and the Appretence’s Orc. The rest of the world vanished from existence.

  Lars's tration peaked, erasing everything unnecessary from view. There was only him and his target iire world right now.

  Oh, I know this feeling... Lars's body felt light, almost like he was floating. He was both rexed and hyper-trated at the same time. Every cell in his body was focused on the important task at hand.

  This rare feeling struck him every now and then during tense moments like this. It's like he ehe zone, yo.

  His inal pn was to roll forward and shoot Apprentece's back, but something about this didn’t sit right with him all of a sudden. He couldn’t quite expin this with words, but his instincts were ringing arms in his head. That idea was no good in its current form.

  He also roll. I gonna miss. Lars somehow reached that clusion. But okay, I got it.

  Lars rolled in as pnned, and then he fired a ser beam. On paper, this sounded exactly like his inal pn. However, there was one small but important differen the execution of the shot. It was something subtle that the oppo surely didn't see ing.

  Here it is. Jin nodded. You sure took your sweet time with this shot, but now it's over.

  He had been waiting for this very moment. This was Gunz's st ce to reliably score a kill here, as Jin was already about to reach the tower area. It was now or never.

  So, I just have to dodge this shot and I'm in the green. Jin thought. It should be easy enough.

  Shortly after hearing the ZAP of the ser beam, Jin rolled forward. Most likely, this decisive shot was not aimed at Jin's head like the previous oherefore sidestepping it wasn't an option. There was no choice but to roll the shot.

  Besides, rolling alsht Jin much closer to the tower, so it was like killing two birds with oo least, that's what the roll should've achieved.

  However, in the middle of the roll, something passed through Jin. A moment ter, his Orc spttered across the floor like a ragdoll.

  You have been killed!

  "Hull!?" Jin blurted. What did just happen? … no, of course I know what happened, but... what?

  Jin was in the middle of the roll back there. As suo matter where Gunz aimed when he fired, the shot was bound to miss. After all, Jin rolled AFTER hearing the audio cue.

  Ahe ser beam hit him. As unbelievable as it was, his Orc was dead now, that’s a fact.

  Did he realize my Dodge Roll came off cooldown? Is that why he shot it like that?

  Against most oppos from the region, Jin would have disregarded a result like this as a fluke. But, Gunz was different. The guy’s meical skills, especially his accuracy, were the real deal.

  No, this probably wasn't a happy act. He aimed for it. Jin reasoned. He aimed toward the ter of my body. From that ahis shot would've probably hit me regardless of whether I rolled or not.

  It was a slightly tilted shot aimed downwards. It could hit Jin’s ter if he didn’t move, and it could also track Jin’s roll as long as it wasn’t too horizontal.

  Tch. I sidered rolling sideways but it seemed unnecessary. Jin frowned. I thought getting to the tower as fast as possible timal against an oppo of this level, but it turned out to be a mispy.

  Against a higher caliber oppo, Jin would’ve likely given his roll more thought. If he did, then Gunz’s ser beam wouldn’t have hit him in a million years.

  As, Ji for the “simpler” py here, expeg pretty muothing from his oppo. The tower area was right in front of him, so rolling directly toward it was the most attractive option.

  Essentially, he was fident that any roll would wholly ter Gunz’s shot, so there was o optimize anything further.

  I uimated him and I paid for it. Jin admitted. But really, who would’ve expected him to unch that kind of nasty attack?

  Even ba Korea, few pyers would’ve gone for a low shot like that. of tehere would’ve surely fired in a straight lio maximize speed and accuracy.

  Then again, ten out of ten of them would’ve already finished me off earlier in a situation like this. They wouldn’t have gone for unnecessary headshots.

  This made it difficult to rate Gunz as a pyer. His raw meical potential rivaled that of some of the stro pyers Jin entered ba Korea. heless, the guy cked the same kind of disciplihat was drilled into everybody in Korea, therefore he was uo unlock his full potential.

  He might have the potential to bee a strong oppo one day. Jin thought. But, this stagnating enviro doesn't do him any favors. Nobody possibly reach their full potential in a x enviro like this. But, I digress.

  In the end, no matter how Jin twisted it, he was killed. Yes, killed by these inferior pyers who grew up in this godforsaken stagnant enviro.

  This makes me look awful. Jin grimaced as he imagined his public image shattering into tiny pieces. If anybody from the ers was monit Jin’s performan this game, then they’d surely grill him for this amateur mistake. Then again, the values system of the West was quite different from Korea’s.

  In Korea, a mistake like that during an exam would’ve resulted in immediate demotion. But, here? They might eve slide, who knew?

  Perhaps that was just wishful thinking on Jin’s end, but he sincerely believed he might be able to get away with something like this. Even the reas of his teammates were lukewarm.

  "My, how unfortunate," Cato said. "You almost got away. It really came down to the wire."

  "... yes, it was close." Jied his eyes. He really didn't want to talk about this right now, yet Cato insisted on tinuing. The guy just loved rubbing people’s failures into their faces, didn't he?

  "I 't believe they caught you off-guard like that."

  "It was reckless push. My mistake."

  "Yes, it was reckless indeed.” Cato nodded. “Holy, I'm surprised you went for something like that. Did Vanishing really disappear from your mind at the time?"

  ".........." Jin was stumped. No matter whether he replies "yes" or "no", it'll make him look bad.

  If he admits that he failed to factor in Vanishing's position, it'll peg him as an amateur with bad map awareness. Oher hand, if Jin cims he didn't fet about Vanishing, then the whole push will e across as foolishly dangerous. There was simply no winning here.

  "... for short moment there, I fail to sider the Jungler's position." Jin chose the middle grouweewo answers, which retty much the truth anyway. It was just a brief moment of negligen his end, nothing more.

  "My, that's quite iing~" Cato was smiling for some reason. "Do you see, Sonya? Even the mighty Emperor maet about Vanishing at some point. You have to admit that girl got something special going for her."

  "Nonsense." Sonya pushed her gsses. "I kept delivering regur reports on her position, so I never fot about her."

  "My, is that so? Because I'm pretty sure your reports have been growing more scard irregur tely ~"

  This guy... Sonya scowled. How did he even notice that!?

  Indeed, Sonya's surveilnce was a bit insistent tely. She started out strong and delivered fwless periodic reports, but over time, those became less and less frequent.

  It just started feeling like she was going a tad overboard. Many of her reports didn’t provide muformation other than “Vanishing hasn’t been seen si time”. This sort of empty report only felt distrag, holy.

  In the first pce, VanishingFlower failed to establish herself as a threat that warrahis much attention from everybody at all times. What's more, stantly keeping tabs on Vanishing was lowkey hurting Sonya's performan the ne, as well as her ability to maintain global map awareness. Therefore, she had no choice but to ease up a little on that surveilnce gig.

  For the most part, this had been w fine for the team. Sonya still methodically reported every instan which she actually saw Vanishing rotating through the jungle.

  Also, she made sure to at least occasionally deliver these “empty reports” just to make sure everybody was aware that Vanishing’s position was unknown. That much should’ve been more than enough, but…

  Maybe I should've kept these reports a little more frequent after all. Sonya frowned. If I warned about Vanishing’s unknown position a little earlier, then Young-Jin could've made it out alive.

  Despite keeping perfect track of Vanishing the entire game, it felt like Sonya “lost” at the very end there. She had been keeping that fake phantom uight surveilhe whole time, yet at that critical moment, the ghost escaped and delivered a deadly assault.

  Fortunately, it doesn't affect the game at rge in this case. Sonya reassured herself. We've already won anyway, so this is just a small setback.

  In all but he Leopards had already won this game. It was just a matter of taking down the Colossus.

  heless, the eeam seems quite eted about this development. It was clear their morale skyrocketed after this kill, as they all started pying more fidently and aggressively.

  Unfortunately for them, it was all going to e to nothing...

  DarkestCymore