FBPP C25

Chapter 25

Nasarun was almost at full HP. He’d dodged every skill Juno threw with movement, taking only a single hit from the tank’s auto. Arhen, by contrast, sat at roughly thirty percent even after gulping one of the sap globs. His engage and skills were on cooldown, and his ultimate was already active.

Nasarun waited calmly. With Arhen’s ultimate engaged, a single graze from any of his skills could be lethal. Even if Arhen’s skill cooldowns all reset, if the ultimate expired first it would be preferable.

Arhen wasn’t ignorant of that calculus. Having taken down Urs, Arhen’s ultimate timer was ticking down more slowly than expected. Between the two melee guesstimating each other’s windows, Arhen was the first to jab forward.

His aim was toward the crate beside Nasarun. Arhen sidestepped diagonally and instantly flicked his aim, shooting a blood chain. Nasarun, realizing a split-second too late, rolled left—but the final strike of the homing chain found its mark.

A brief stagger opened the gap for Arhen to close entirely. Just as a single hit on Arhen with his ultimate up would spell disaster for Nasarun, a scratch on the half-blooded Arhen would land Nasarun in the same scoreboard grave. Neither side could afford even a grazing touch.

At that moment a green glow washed over Arhen’s form. Almost simultaneously, a pink sheen blended in: Seraphin’s buff. She’d tracked the timing and wrapped the buff around him while preventing Horyeong from slipping between them.

Mipsang requests assistance.

The enemy sub-tank had latched onto our ADC. The ADC—who’d been focus-firing the enemy main tank in the meatshield clash—pinged for help in panic.

But that was the rear situation; if the enemy carry ceased to exist, dragging our ADC out or not would be meaningless either way.

Nasarun tried to create distance with movement and a basic attack, but his mouse sensitivity didn’t seem high—the character turned sluggishly, his path predictable.

Arhen’s basic strike pierced exactly where Nasarun would land. During Arhen’s ultimate, his autos convert his own blood into crystalline blades—daggers born from air. Nasarun was hit by a true auto, staggered, and Arhen’s combo began.

Blood blades pierced and slashed. Arhen used an auto to cancel recovery, forcing the next skill in immediately and trimming the damage cycle’s slack to a minimum. Sensing death, Nasarun made no attempt to drink more sap.

JiniHaniJihani has slain an enemy.

Double kill!

The carry line on the enemy was gutted. It was, for all intents and purposes, a won teamfight. Because the main tank had left the meatshield to protect the ADC, the enemy main tank had drifted inward to engage; he’d intended to help Nasarun, but Nasarun fell sooner than expected—momentarily leaving the enemy main tank uncertain of his target.

Ding!

AkashaPhilban requests assistance.

Arhen dove the enemy support, Horyeong, whom Seraphin had kept occupied. Seraphin pivoted her focus and began holding the enemy main tank in place—relentlessly trading autos to cancel whatever skill the tank used to escape.

Mipsang has slain an enemy.

With the joined main tank’s help, the allied ADC finished off the enemy sub-tank. Seraphin handed the pinned main tank over to our main tank and resumed distributing buffs to each teammate one by one.

JiniHaniJihani has slain an enemy.

Triple kill!

Mipsang has slain an enemy.

Double kill!

Five kills on the scoreboard.

[All] Thunder (Urs): Why do I have this weird feeling?
[All] Thunder (Urs): Arhen smells like rotten Hanj i.
[All] HalmiFlower (Nasarun): I’ve felt it since before. Rehen, what’s the main’s IGN again?
Hanj i? The man who had been mechanically spamming buffs with a blank face opened his info tab.

JiniHaniJihani (Arhen) / 7 kills 0 deaths 3 assists / Damage dealt 41.1k / Damage taken 12.9k

The name Han Ji-han — anyone who’d dug even a little into Zenox would know that handle. This wasn’t just another Platinum-tier melee; Ji-han’s last Nasarun play hinted at something beyond coincidence. At first it could be chalked up to fluke, but the repeated use of interrupted autos, the way he used the forward momentum of autos as an impromptu evade by turning aim—those patterns repeated enough to force recognition.

Now watching Arhen, Kang Kyung-woo’s mind filled with conflicting thoughts.

Both Nasarun and Arhen were characters many melee players avoided. For Ji-han to wield either so fluidly in three years seemed unlikely.

And two former Master-tier players were already sniffing “Hanj i” in chat. Assuming JiniHaniJihani was an alt of Han Ji-han wasn’t far-fetched; rankers always had smurfs. But Han Ji-han had been a known name three years ago. Would he really be trolling on an alt?

[All] JiniHaniJihani (Arhen): Just stop caring about me, you bunch of whiners; yet here you are typing. lol
[All] Thunder (Urs): Oh… the edge and the blown-up personality—this speech is literally Han Ji, right?
[Team] Mipsang (Yuji): ?? Han Ji? Han Ji-han?? for real?
[All] JiniHaniJihani (Arhen): Don’t you think maybe you’re just bad?
[All] Thunder (Urs): —— What the hell are you saying, so annoying. Are you Han Ji or not?
[All] JiniHaniJihani (Arhen): Overly self-conscious much? Always getting curb-stomped yet you talk like you only lose to Han Ji—why? lol
JiniHaniJihani has slain an enemy.

[All] JiniHaniJihani (Arhen): Spend your chat time on map reading; you stick your eyeballs in chat and keep getting assassinated, lol
[All] Thunder (Urs): What the hell, you—so annoying—are you Han Ji?
[All] JiniHaniJihani (Arhen): Yo, my bro told me to quit if I couldn’t do melee properly. So you who talk back—bye, uninstall.
[All] HalmiFlower (Nasarun): So, Rehen, is your main actually Han Ji-han?
[All] JiniHaniJihani (Arhen): Shut up, Nasarun. You play Nasarun like a clown and have the nerve to call yourself Master, what a guy.

JiniHaniJihani baited arguments from every direction. Kang Kyung-woo, watching the monitor, frowned and scattered a heal potion on the floor in the recording. No way. Even if Han Ji-han had been famous for his temper, he hadn’t been this extreme when Kang had met him. Kang tried to deny it to himself. He even pushed aside the weird satisfaction at seeing HalmiFlower and Thunder get flamed directly; admitting that the play was crisp and that their synergy hit perfectly stung his pride.

Yet an unsettling feeling kept skittering across his mind. He’d been in a bad mood already, and dealing with a lunatic in-game made his head ache.

Kang Kyung-woo silently hit the record button.

Is this guy crazy?

AkashaPhilban: Bro, when are you coming? @JiniHaniJihani

Ji-han, just having finished a talk-show shoot and sitting in the car, checked his phone and was floored. In the Cheongpadong guild chat that he’d joined for territory events, AkashaPhilban had pinged him by name.

Lately, Ji-han had been grouping for guild missions and using game nights to mess with AkashaPhilban’s fragile mentality. If AkashaPhilban was offline, Ji-han sometimes queued alone; if he was online, Ji-han always dragged him into ranked as party bait or support.

Still, AkashaPhilban wouldn’t be the type to ping his bro in OliveTalk with a mention like that.

“What’s up?” Tae-hyun, in the driver’s seat, peered into the rearview to read Ji-han’s face.

“Nothing. Just tired.” Ji-han turned off the phone and dropped it into his pocket, leaning his back against the seat.

“You must be. You were good today though. Nice work.” Tae-hyun said.

Ji-han tilted his head and yawned. As he steered the car out of the lot, Tae-hyun mentioned the mechanic’s estimate.

“The repair estimate came in. Do you want me to send it to that—athlete guy? Or should I send it?” Tae-hyun asked.

“Send it. He’ll understand.” Ji-han said.

“The amount is—ugh. I’m worried he’ll make a thing out of it.” Tae-hyun said.

“If he says he can’t pay, he just won’t. Big deal.” Ji-han shrugged. Money was a river he barely noticed. He no longer cared much about the car; it was junk now—scratched and a hassle. Why bother fixing it?

“Hey! Don’t act like that—if someone shoves you for an apology, you better charge them.” Tae-hyun protested.

“Okay, okay. I’ll get it.” Ji-han said.

He’d spent eight hours clowning in front of cameras. He looked at the orange juice wedged into the car cupholder and thought: Even if the orange content was 0.4%, they still called it orange juice. The peel was the same human—Seo Ji-han—so if the inside was a little different, who cared?

There was nothing left for him to go around choking or cursing about; no one would haul him off the road. The engine hummed.

Buzz—

Ah. Another ping. Fuck.

AkashaPhilban: @JiniHaniJihani Bro, you didn’t answer the bro—when you coming? You always pop in but not today?
Ha.

JiniHaniJihani: Why the hell are you whining? What does it matter what time anyone logs in, bro? Submarine dude, shut up and do your thing.
No filters, and it felt cathartic.

OliveTalk was saturated—nearly sixty unread messages. Was today the territory event? Skimming the chat showed posts about occupation and a voice chat link.

AkashaPhilban: lol bro, how long you been in the guild and you’ve never come to a territory fight? That’s not manners @JiniHaniJihani

What the fuck. The event hadn’t even started; no one had told him that joining a small occupation scuffle was compulsory.

JiniHaniJihani: lol bro you the guild leader now? Why you making rules so you can flex?
Ji-han sent the razor-sharp message and toggled Do Not Disturb without reading replies.

He had no interest in clutching his phone and trading messages with strangers who’d been online for hours. AkashaPhilban only deserved that level of attention when they were flinging insults across a monitor—in real life it was just tedious.

“Hey, what do guys hate most about other guys?” AkashaPhilban asked out of nowhere.

“Guys? What… isn’t it the same for everyone? Aren’t you a guy?” Ji-han replied.

“No, I mean—what’s the thing that makes you recoil hearing it? I hear a lot I hate, so I wondered what’s universally repellent.” AkashaPhilban said.

Ji-han leaned his arm on the window frame and rested his chin, staring out. Seoul at one in the morning still pulsed with life.

“That’s a weird question.” Ji-han said.

“Like, how would you feel if a guy who was cursing you five minutes ago suddenly started being all lovey-dovey?” AkashaPhilban asked.

“Suddenly?” Ji-han.

“Yeah. Suddenly. One moment swearing, the next buttering you up.” AkashaPhilban.

“That’s just crazy, right? Kinda scary.” Ji-han answered.

But why was this guy like that? After duoing a few times, AkashaPhilban behaved like he’d developed some faux closeness.

Ji-han closed his eyes and tipped his head back.

“Bro, I’m going to close my eyes for a bit.” AkashaPhilban said.