The Queen’s Avatar - Chapter 3 Lifelong Dreams of Glory

The stadium was so quiet, you could even hear a pin drop onto the ground. The ending had happened so fast, the fans didn’t know how to react. Some were ecstatic, some were disappointed and most of the people had complex feelings. Not everyone was Paradise’s fan, some were standing by Golden Ichor.

It took a minute or two before someone slowly stood up and clapped. It was a great game nonetheless and both teams deserved recognition. Yet just when all hope was lost for Pandora, the screen flashed with a series of text as the host read it aloud.

“IT’S OVER! The first team to win the championship goes to Golden Ich-…PARADISE?!” Yan Mo was just about to announce the winner when he suddenly looked at the big screen.

The game was over, that was for sure. Except… the victor wasn’t team Golden Ichor.

It was the other way around! Black Lotus’ was actually the last one standing!

What happened?

Upon the midst of confusion and shock, Pandora was undoubtedly delighted.

“We won!! We Won!!” All of Pandora was jumping in joy when they saw Yerin come out.

“Yeah, you guys have worked hard, lets go claim our trophy!”

It was then the producers and analysts replayed the scene of what happened.

During the activation sequence of Paradise using Rising Dragon Soars the Sky, Yerin had quickly used the skill Shadow-Steps, creating an after-image of herself before using the blademaster’s ultimate skill.

Formless Phantom Blade.

The Rising Dragon had actually chomped on the shadow of Black Lotus, whereas the real Black Lotus’ immediately used a skill to close in on Paradise before striking out for a total of 13 times.

Formless Phantom Blade or Mirage Blade was the blademaster’s most powerful skill. The skill relies on the combo amount of sword strikes to deal damage. A higher combo would yield a higher damage output, whereas the final hit of the ability would induce a small knockback effect while also stunning the target for 1 second.

Everyone had understood, the fans, the hosts, producers and the members of both Pandora and Golden Ichor.

The most important reason was that Pandora had never given up from the start. Whether they were in a tight 2v3 situation or the odds in a fight were extremely unfavorable, Pandora had continued to persist through the turmoil.

“Pandora! Pandora! Pandora!” The fans erupted in cheers as they excitedly waved their banners and posters congratulating the players.

“From a dire situation in the game where the odds of them winning were below 20%, to an extremely tight 1v1 situation, the last player to stand is none other than Pandora’s team captain, Black Lotus!

Congratulations to Paradise! They have truly earned the title of the best team in Korea!”

Everyone on Pandora was shocked as they looked at Yerin while walking towards the center of the stage.

“What? Unsatisfied? Should I have done something else?” Yerin teased her teammates with a slight giggle.

Everyone furiously shook their heads. Do something else? What else could have been done in that situation? It was just that they were in a bit of a shock, after all they had also thought they had lost upon seeing the dragon chomping on Black Lotus’ avatar.

“Haha, that’s enough. Come let’s lift the trophy on 3.” By then, they had already stood before the glorious and imposing trophy.

All 6 players on the team were huddled around as Yerin counted down.

Three

Two

One

The players then lifted the trophy while shouting aloud. “PANDORA!”

The fans erupted into cheers once more as they all clapped.

Yan Mo saw the excitement so he quickly went up on stage to interview Yerin.

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“Congratulations once again for winning the championship, you must be extremely joyful. What do you think of becoming the champions, and what future goals do you have for yourself or Pandora?”

“The victory doesn’t only belong to me, but Pandora as a whole. Everyone in Pandora has worked days and nights all for the sake of victory, so I would like to thank them as well as the fans who have supported us throughout the season and playoffs.”

Giving off a bright smile, Yerin calmly answered the question while giving a bow towards the audience and the cameras. “Truly, thank you.”

“Haha, Pandora has proven itself as the best team in all of Korea right now, but during the match, you experienced numerous hardships, how would you evaluate your opponents or more specifically, the match?”

“Our opponent were constantly able to keep up with our pace while changing the trends of the game countless times, but we were able to overcome those situations, therefore we are slightly better.

We are the champions, this is our Glory.”

…

On the other side of the stadium, Heechul walked out of the booth towards his team with his head hung low.

There was no one to blame, they were outdone by Pandora in every aspect. Perhaps they had lost since the start of the match, becoming too complacent, growing careless thinking they could easily win.

“Heh, I guess that’s it…we lost.” Yeon Woo muttered aloud as he watched Pandora letting out tears of joy claiming their Glory.

“Lose? I don’t think so, only I can be the winner!” Jaehyun was still furious but when he suddenly saw someone from the Alliance[1] walk up on stage, the edge of his lips curved upwards with an evil grin.

“WAIT!” The agent screamed aloud as all the lights in the stadium turned on.

Seeing this, everyone including the host, staff, players and audience were stunned as they all yelled out anxiously.

“What’s happening?”

“So Strange!”

“What the hell?”

“This guy is from the Alliance! What is he doing here? Unless…”

Without wasting another second, the agent quickly gave an answer that caused everyone watching to erupt in anger. “The upper-management of Golden Ichor suspected that Pandora was using third-party programs to disrupt the fairness of the game. After going through an extensive investigation, we have reached the conclusion of Pandora cheating in today’s match.”

“WHAT? BULLSHIT! WE WON TODAY’S MATCH FAIR AND SQUARE!” Minhyuk was the first to yell out as he was still emotional.

Yerin and the rest of team Pandora had to hold him back as they were all trying their best to remain calm. “Calm down, we still don’t know what happened. Perhaps this situation isn’t what it seems.”

“Hmph, see for yourself.” The agent then passed a tablet with information on today’s operations over to Yerin.

“No wonder today’s frame rates were a little choppy…there was something like this running in the background.”

Silently thinking to herself while browsing through the details and statistics, Yerin finally knew realized what happened.

They had been framed! She knew best that this was something premeditated and it was something impossible to get out of…there was nothing they could do.

It was then that Jaehyun walked up to Yerin softly whispering into her ears. “Haha, in the end, this is what your so called ‘hard work’ lands you. The Glory and trophy should of been originally mine! But who knew that you were able to beat us, you should’ve just kept your head down and FF’ed! Then there wouldn’t have been such a situation, don’t you agree? How about I give you a piece of advice?

Announce to everyone here that you were the only one who cheated, and your team had nothing to do with it. That way Pandora would still live on, otherwise wouldn’t you just drag the whole team down with you? A 1 for 6 trade, you can’t get a better offer than that!” Letting out a slight chuckle, Jaehyun glanced at Yerin seemingly, as if he already knew the decision she would make.

Clenching her fist, Yerin couldn’t find a rebuttal. She knew he was right, even if he had not mentioned this, she would have still done the exact same thing. They couldn’t fight the accusation, there was already proof! The only thing she could do was to minimize the impact.”

Was there really no other way? Tears started welling up in Yerin’s eyes without her even realizing. She didn’t even remember the last time she cried. Despite being born an orphan, working at a young age, while also struggling to live, she had persevered without shedding a single tear, yet now…

She told herself to stop crying countless times in her head, yet tears kept flowing out.

Sometimes people cry not because they’re weak, but because they have been strong for too long.

Slowly opening her mouth to speak, her lips trembled as she spoke out. “I h-have nothing to say. I would like to apologize for cheating, Pandora has nothing to do with this situation, I will bear all the burden and consequences.”

As soon as the words flowed through the stadium, everyone including Pandora was stunned.

“W-what? Did I mishear…?”

“Black Lotus actually admitted to cheating?!”

“There’s no way…”

Even those on her team didn’t believe her. “Yerin what are you talking about? Now isn’t the time to joke around, quickly tell everyone the truth.”

Taking a deep breath, Yerin repeated what she had said causing everyone to become furious. “I’m sorry for letting down the fans, I will accept the consequences for cheating alone. My only wish is that you leave Pandora out of this.”

Without waiting for anyone to react, she quickly sped off backstage only leaving with one sentence… “Terminate my contract, you guys have worked hard and do not deserve this at all, but sometimes life is unfair, continue to work hard and fight for what you believe. Good luck.”

“What do I do now…?” Not knowing where to go, she walked around the city of Seoul numerous times when she suddenly saw herself on a big screen hanging atop a tall building.

“Due to Black Lotus’ using a third party program in the finals of Glory to undermine the fairness of the game, we the Glory Alliance would like to apologize to all of the eSports community. Secondly, Ha Yerin will officially be suspended from any Official Korean Glory Tournaments for 3 years. After further investigation knowing that Pandora was unaware of this, they will remain in the professional scene, however their rights to the Championship will be revoked and given to Golden Ichor instead. Thank you everyone who still support Glory and the eSports community as a whole, as the chairman of the Korean Glory Alliance, I deeply apologize for this, and will make sure such an incident will not happen again in the future.” The broadcast could be seen ending after the chairman took a deep bow.

Hearing this, Yerin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Why was the world so unfair? What had she done to deserve this? Why was this life of hers so hard…?

Three years…how could she wait that long? She didn’t have anyone to financially support her! She needed to go to college and find a stable job for her future.

She couldn’t take any more risks…

This was the end of her Glory Career.

Oddly enough though, she felt as if she was finally freed. It was like the chains tying her down had finally snapped.

As if her body had become lighter, perhaps she no longer had to work as hard as before?

Yet this feeling was accompanied by a complicated smile.

“Let’s go.” Turning around, Yerin decided to completely focus on her studies, giving up her lifelong dreams of Glory.

Chapter end