Gender Swap: The Introvert’s Broadcast

I personally don't dislike playing top lane. It's the lane I usually prefer when I play solo ranked games.

But right now, I couldn't hold back a sharp comment.

"This is the most catastrophic reverse carry I've ever seen..."

Since starting Reore, I had never lost a game solely because of one top laner.
It was my first time realizing how ridiculously strong a male champion with scissors could get when fully developed.
When I faced him in the top lane before, I always won, so I never thought much about it.

[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Honestly, same.]
[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: That roast is so tempting…]
[Hwanhee: I can’t believe you’re holding back the insults.]
[Truly a saint LOL]
[Kang Hoo-min: Absolute trash.]
[Hey, hey!]
[Calm down, anonymous friend.]
[Why are you resorting to personal insults?]
[But honestly, if I were in your shoes, I’d probably go all out with personal insults, too LOL.]
[Not insulting them would be weirder.]

Ugh... That guy really…
Sigh...
Both Salok and Mangming, who were playing with me, seemed slightly annoyed.
Honestly, it’d be strange if they weren’t upset.
That guy showed such catastrophic reverse carrying and didn’t even bother to type a single apology in the chat.

But—

"Alright, I think it’s time to call it a day. We said just one game, right?"

It was time to part ways.
When Salok had suggested we play together, we had agreed on just one game.

[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Oh, come on, don’t end it.]
[You gotta play more.]
[Please, just one more game, please, please, please…!]
[This stream is so dry, seriously.]
[If you play one more, you could draw in more viewers.]
[You’ve got over 100 viewers now. Keep playing together!]
[Kang Hoo-min: Ending the stream now? For real? That’s wild.]
[Ending the stream? WTH LOL.]

The viewers were complaining about my lack of sense, but I didn’t care.
What could they do if I didn’t feel like playing?

"I think I’ll just go back to solo queue."

Playing games while chatting with others was fun, but after discovering the joy of solo ranked, normal games no longer appealed to me.

Oh... You’re leaving already?
Mangming sounded disappointed—

"Yep."

I responded firmly.
If I left any room for negotiation, I might end up playing another game.

Then I guess I’ll head out too.
What, just one game? Let’s team up again sometime. I’m off for now.
Not long after, Mangming and Salok left the game.

"Ugh… So tiring. Let’s get back to solo queue."

Playing games while talking to others left me feeling drained.
It was different from just talking to myself while streaming. Playing while chatting wasn’t really my style.

[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Did you really want to solo queue that badly?]
[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: You know you can play that anytime, right?]
[Throwing away a chance to grow your audience, LOL.]
[You’re never going to succeed, huh?]
[Fact: Streamers like you aren’t aiming for success anyway.]
[Hwanhee: Streams are only fun with a moderate number of viewers.]
[Hwanhee: Too many viewers make it boring.]
[Get more viewers so people can say, ‘I watch that guy’s stream.’]

"If you’re embarrassed to admit you watch my stream, just don’t watch it. Who cares how many viewers I have?"

Why would they make comments like that about viewer numbers?
Having a lot of viewers doesn’t automatically make a stream fun.
If someone’s embarrassed to be my viewer, it’s better if they don’t stick around.

[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Preach!]
[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: That’s the spirit LOL.]
[Hwanhee: Exactly, if you care about viewer count, just watch another stream.]
[Loyal fans are the best defense.]
[As expected, the true protectors of this stream are the loyal regulars.]
[Kang Hoo-min: But it’s still a little awkward.]

Ignoring the odd comments from regular viewers, I queued up for a game.
As usual, I selected top lane.
Not long after—

Ding!

The game notification sound played, and I quickly accepted the match.
The roles were assigned.

"Top lane. Nice. It would’ve been a hassle if I got another role."

I wasn’t too worried about playing other roles, but I genuinely enjoyed top lane.
That was enough of a reason to stick with it.

From my experience, playing jungle often yielded the best win rates, but it just wasn’t fun.

[What are you playing top lane?]
[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Another random pick?]
[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: I’m curious~~]
[What’s up with this mod’s sudden attitude?]
[I want to punch Cthulhu in the face.]
[Random pick! Random pick!]
[Didn’t you say you’d keep doing random picks?]

Random pick.
Selecting a random champion from my owned roster to play top lane.

"I’ll stick with random picks. There are plenty of ways to win already, so there’s no need to pick a meta champion."

Saying that, I clicked on the random champion option.

Shortly after—

"Ugh, this is boring."

I ended up with a yordle champion wielding a flamethrower, notorious for their raw power.
The whole point of random picks was to avoid playing overly strong champions, yet I got one anyway.@@novelbin@@

[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Wow, how do you land such a boring champion? LOL.]
[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: This is just sad.]
[This one’s a bit...]
[We’ll give you another chance.]
[But you’ve got to play it since it’s selected.]
[Why not just play Rumble?]
[Kang Hoo-min: Stick to the rules.]
[True fairness from the moderator, LOL.]

I thought about re-rolling, but—
Since it was already selected, I figured it was best to give it my all.

"Let’s wrap this up quickly."

Rumble wasn’t exactly the most exciting champion to play.

Platinum 5.
I never thought I’d climb ranks this quickly.
According to others in the community, even with talent, it usually takes months.
Honestly, I was a little shocked.

"My rank’s climbing fast."

It was a genuine comment without any hidden arrogance.

[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: For real.]
[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Why’s it going up so quickly?]
[Already hitting Plat 5 is nuts.]
[Well, it’s because you’re not losing games.]
[You’re just too good at the game, LOL.]
[You’d destroy the scene if you went pro.]
[Pro debut? At Plat 5, LOL.]
[Hwanhee: I don’t know about anything else.]
[Hwanhee: But climbing ranks this fast with random top champions is insane.]
[Seriously, LOL.]
[Kang Hoo-min: Looks like a ‘balancing’ patch might be coming soon.]
[Reore might start matchmaking you with weaker teammates. Just wait.]

Now that I thought about it, I had heard rumors about that.
Supposedly, if your win rate is too high, Reore deliberately matches you with weaker teammates to balance things out.
I wasn’t one to believe in such rumors, but…
Still, it didn’t hurt to keep the possibility in mind.

"Even if that happens… I feel like I could still win."

Weaker teammates don’t mean they’re outright griefing the game.
As long as I carried top lane, winning seemed possible.

"So, about matchmaking manipulation… I guess I’ll find out soon enough. I’ll be streaming again tomorrow at the same time, so drop by if you’re interested."

[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: Got it.]
[🗡️Omniscient Cthulhu: See you then.]
[Ending the stream so abruptly, huh?]
[The charm of ending without notice, LOL.]
[Hwanhee: See you tomorrow.]
[Kang Hoo-min: Too scared to keep solo-queuing, huh? Coward.]
└ User has been temporarily muted!

To celebrate ending the stream, I muted one of the more annoying regulars and then closed the broadcast.

[Stream has ended!]

The notification popped up, and I quickly shut down my computer.
Lying down on the blanket sprawled across the floor, I let out a long sigh.

"Ugh."

These days, spending hours streaming left me exhausted.
The comfort of lying on a soft blanket was unparalleled.
It’d be a disaster if I ended up with a stiff neck.

I exhaled deeply and grabbed my phone.

[Ifrit Gallery]

As usual, I logged into Ifrit Gallery.

But then, an unfamiliar notification popped up in the top-right corner.

[Currently ranked 15th most active gallery!]

"Gah!"

Was I seeing this right?
15th most active gallery?
Ifrit Gallery usually lingered around 40th to 50th place because it wasn’t very well-known.

Suddenly, it shot up the rankings?
That meant—

‘There’s been an influx of new users.’

An influx.
From where?
There weren’t many ways for new users to discover this gallery.

Feeling uneasy, I clicked on the top post.

[Author: Kang Hoo-min]
[Title: Why the hell is this gallery getting so many new users?]
[Content: All of you, get out.]

L: Veteran users rejecting newcomers, LOL.
└ Kang Hoo-min: Ridiculous, LOL.
L: So annoying, LOL.
L: How did they even find this place?
L: Dama, go die, Dama, go die, Dama, go die—

Ah.
It seemed to be my fault.
Apparently, viewers from my stream got curious about Ifrit Gallery and decided to check it out.
I had intentionally avoided mentioning the gallery too much during streams, but…

"Sigh."

It looked like I needed to take some measures.