The moment the scoreboard hit 0 kills and 4 deaths, an embarrassed laugh started slipping out of Jeong Tae-yeon's mouth.
-get out
-leave
-lmaooo got absolutely bodied
-out
-???:Challenger players really are something else.
-Tae-yeon you should've been keeping up with the game
-nah he was playing on a laptop and still ended up like this
Momoji, who had been watching Jeong Tae-yeon's stream and chat, muted her mic and whispered conspiratorially to her viewers.
"Wait, guys, is this for real? Are we allowed to make fun of him?"
-fps is just brutal once you start tilting, no coming back
-he's just warming up, his form'll come back soon right?
-so once this match ends he goes from oppa to just a friend, yeah?
-lmaooooooo
-if momoji's shook because her teacher's getting wrecked, big like
-nah just watch, he'll bounce back.
The opponent named [Woniwoni>.<] kept poking around the entrance of the passage known as the dog hole, racking up kills one by one.
Throw a grenade and they'd vanish before it landed. Sit back with a sniper and they'd tease you—just a sliver of a silhouette peeking out from the side, enough to waste your bullets.
It looked like they were just messing around. And then—
Bang—!!
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 mojimoji♡]
"Wow, what the— that's insane speed."
In a flash, they'd dart out, land a one-shot kill, and disappear again.
Momoji had been watching through Tae-yeon's screen, but curiosity got the better of her and she tried picking a fight herself—only to die without a prayer.
"I— okay, Tae-yeon-nim. Actually no, since I'm clearly not getting first place, it's just Tae-yeon now. Anyway, I'm just gonna watch through Tae-yeon's screen."
-made a new friend lol
-lmaooooooo
-that playstyle is so infuriating
-was the dog hole always that good of a spot?
She switched fully into commentary mode.
Momoji retreated to the lobby entirely and pulled up Jeong Tae-yeon's stream on a big window.
Part of it was that Woniwoni had single-handedly locked down the dog hole on the map's flank—wandering around carelessly would just be handing over free kills.
And honestly, watching the two of them go at it was way more entertaining.
Sure, right now it was less of a fight and more of a one-sided beatdown.
'Like the viewers said, once Tae-yeon-nim warms up, it should be more even, right?'
No matter how good the opponent was, they weren't Challenger level.
There'd been no high-tier emblem on the loading screen.
One odd thing, though—they were running a title called "Weapon Master," something Momoji had never seen in Dead Zone before.
It looked intimidating in red, but surely it wasn't as hard to get as Challenger.
Momoji had full faith that Tae-yeon would turn things around.
Jeong Tae-yeon, noticeably quieter now, spoke in a measured tone.
"Right now, I can't tell if they're confident or just getting sloppy. They keep running the exact same play, over and over. It's working, so they keep doing it. If I want to win, I need to break their momentum. Going in again."
Getting outplayed in a sniper duel once was one thing—giving up here would be the real mark of a second-rate player.
He'd only been playing Dead Zone for two years, but Jeong Tae-yeon had nearly a decade in FPS games overall.
A gamer's pride didn't allow for retreat.
This time he took a different entrance and angled toward the dog hole where Woniwoni had set up camp.
"There are moments where they move back and forth unpredictably, like a whack-a-mole—as long as they're not hacking, that's probably them trying to read the enemy's position."
Click—
He flicked on his scope and waited for that moment.
One second, two seconds, three seconds, four seconds, five seconds….
"…?"
-they're not there?
-maybe they actually went somewhere else this time
-they've had zero deaths so they might be running low on ammo
'Huh? That's weird. Why aren't they coming out?'
Past fifteen seconds with the scope up, the pressure was starting to build.
In his experience, a sniper staying in one spot too long never ended well.
The sniper's high damage came at the cost of slow reload speed and single-shot fire—making it dangerously vulnerable to ambushes.
'Right, they've been holding that spot for a while too. Honestly, it doesn't even make sense—everyone's been lobbing grenades into that dog hole just trying to flush them out.'
Which meant the team's entire grenade supply had been swallowed up by that one passage.
Still, if it meant shutting down Woniwoni's annoying positioning, maybe it wasn't such a bad trade. That's what he told himself.
The moment he'd made up his mind, Jeong Tae-yeon lowered his gun and moved out.
'So where would they be right now?'
Coming out of the dog hole and getting back to base—roughly seven seconds.
From base, carefully cutting angles to find a new position—a generous ten seconds.
Accounting for the time Tae-yeon had wasted, Woniwoni's rabbit-eared character should be popping up somewhere in the enemy's territory right about now.
"Alright, where are you coming from—whack-a-mole time."
He moved fast, climbing up on a box.
Crouching and standing between boxes, over and over.
Jeong Tae-yeon scanned the enemy side with flashy movement.
The moment he zoomed in to take a shot at an enemy he'd spotted—
From the side, bang—!! again.
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 mynameistaeyon]
"What the—!"
0 kills, 5 deaths.
"Oh no. What do we do? It was the dog hole again."
And once again, Momoji muted her mic and chatted with her viewers.
-holy shit that's brutal
-they threw so many grenades in there they just hid deep and waited;;
-lmaooooo
-Jeong Tae-yeon's mental is about to shatter.
He was a fellow streamer she was friendly with, and she had brought him on as a teacher of sorts, so she was a little worried—
"AAAARGH! You little— where did that kill effect even come from. How many times do I have to see this."
On Jeong Tae-yeon's death screen, the kill effect [Woniwoni>.<] had set up was on full display.
Woniwoni's character—a rabbit-eared beastkin—was throwing a thumbs-up while shouting 'You were a magnificent warrior!' A perfectly normal emote.
Except they'd taken a bullet-hole target emoji and slapped it right over the 'warrior' part.
So instead of 'You were a magnificent warrior!' it read: 'You were a magnificent target!'
While Jeong Tae-yeon screamed at the infuriating emote—
"Wait, you could set it up like that? A magnificent target… pfft—!"
-lmao got matched with a real menace
-oh so that's how it works.
-is this a targeted hit? they're way too good.
-never seen that before, pretty creative ngl.
The relentless provocation—intentional or not—finally cracked Jeong Tae-yeon's composure. He went ballistic and swapped to a rifle.
His weapon of choice: the MF5, the mobility king. He grabbed the SMG and charged straight into enemy territory.
Tatatatang—!
[mynameistaeyon ╓╦═─ Haaaappy]
[mynameistaeyon ╓╦═─ IcarusKang]
[Double Kill—!]
"Oh, looks like he's going in for the kill himself."
Jeong Tae-yeon's movement looked sharp and confident as he cleanly took down two enemies.
Both sides of the map had one narrow passage each—the so-called dog hole.
Each one started near a team's base and let you pop out at the flank near the enemy's base.
Where Tae-yeon was heading now: the entrance to Woniwoni's team's dog hole.
The plan: push through with a rifle and hit them from behind.
[mynameistaeyon ╓╦═─ (HEAD)SharksTooth]
Forget the embarrassing performance up until now!
[3 kills, 5 deaths]
Jeong Tae-yeon racked up 3 kills in a flash, showing off the firepower of a former Challenger.
The long-awaited dog hole was right in front of him.
Gulp—
Even Momoji watching through the stream held her breath.
If he could take out the demon of the dog hole right here, she could already see the momentum swinging completely.
Just as she was thinking, 'Is he finally warmed up?'—
"Huh."
Jeong Tae-yeon entered the dog hole and turned to look down the long corridor.
Way at the far end, Woniwoni was already scoped in on him.
Their eyes met.
Bang—!!
Without mercy, one shot.
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 mynameistaeyon]
[3 kills, 6 deaths]
['You were a magnificent target!']
He died, and there was no escaping the mocking emote.
Six consecutive deaths to a single player.
"……"
Unlike Momoji, Jeong Tae-yeon had a cam—and he slumped sideways in his chair with a short, hollow sigh.
Then he opened the equipment menu and changed something.
"Hm? What did he switch?"
Momoji squinted at the screen trying to identify the new weapon, but she couldn't figure it out.
After the ten-second respawn timer ran out—
Jeong Tae-yeon boldly aimed toward the dog hole, Woniwoni's home turf.
'Is he just going all-in?'
That question was answered immediately.
Ping—!
He pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it into the dog hole.
She thought it was a regular grenade, but—
Psssssss—!! A smoke grenade burst at the entrance of the dog hole.
"Heheheh. Get down here! You little— I'm just gonna keep throwing smoke from now on!!! You can call me cheap, I don't care. GET DOWN HERE!!!"
Viewers started roasting Jeong Tae-yeon for being cheap after he smoked out the dog hole's sightlines, but he didn't care one bit.
"He's just been sitting in that dog hole the whole time—leaving him alone would make me the idiot. This is a strategic choice."
Fair point.
Momoji nodded along.
"I mean, his form's not back or anything, but… if you can't beat him in the dog hole, what can you do."
-lmao!!
-cold hard facts.
-Tae-yeon's gonna cry when he hears this later.
-it's true though.
It was a little sad watching a Challenger—supposedly the pinnacle of mechanical skill—suddenly tuck their tail, but it was also kind of funny, and honestly not a bad strategy.
"But it'd be hilarious if he still gets wrecked after all this. Right? Pfft. Can I make fun of him when it's over? Won't that hurt his pride?"
And wouldn't you know it, speak it into existence—
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 mynameistaeyon]
Forced out of the dog hole by the smoke, Woniwoni ditched their usual style, picked up a sniper, and pushed aggressively forward, driving Tae-yeon's entire team into a corner.
With the whole team's momentum surging, it turned into an outright stomp.
[Match Over.]
(100 : 49)
MVP
[Woniwoni>.< 23 kills, 4 deaths]
They'd been getting pummeled so relentlessly the match just ended.
[mynameistaeyon 10 kills, 10 deaths]
He'd managed to pick off enemies charging into the base and avoided going negative, at least—
"Heheh… y-yeah, I'm all warmed up now… yeah…."
The single sentence he squeezed out after the game was soaked in emptiness and awkwardness.
Momoji, watching from her stream, didn't jump into the voice channel right away—she laughed along with her viewers instead.
"Ah— pfft. Look at that face. Should we push the lesson to another day? Switch teachers? Hahaha, okay that's too mean."
-lmao his mental is literally crumbs rn
-go in there and hit him with 'YA JEONG TAE-YEON!'
-a deal's a deal lol
-but like, isn't the opponent just high-ranked too?
DuelKingChaechae: hh ah, that person seems really good. I think they've appeared on Angler-nim's NuTube too?
Momoji's eyes locked onto the chat mentioning another streamer's name.
"Oh? For real? So they were actually famous. No wonder! They were really good."
-oh really?
-are they Challenger?
-nah I checked earlier and they were unranked.
-could be a targeted hit if they have no rank.
DuelKingChaechae: they're definitely good;; rank doesn't really matter.
"Unranked? What? A Challenger smurf maybe? Tae-yeon-nim is Grandmaster, so that'd track?"
-probably yeah.
-that kill effect was genuinely evil lmaooo
DuelKingChaechae: the Weapon Master title goes harder than Challenger tbh. there can't be many on the server
-nah titles are just something you grind time into and unlock
DuelKingChaechae: ???what are you on about???
Maybe it was the excitement from the match, but the viewers had suddenly started fighting among themselves. She stepped in.
"Hey hey, why are you fighting. Stop fighting."
-honestly starting to think it was a targeted hit lol
-probably set the effect on purpose to tilt him and see the reaction.
DuelKingChaechae: go look up Angler's NuTube and that person's in it. it's definitely not a targeted stream, for real for real
-I saw that too but that was just with regular people.
More bickering.
'Now that I look at it, this one keeps throwing fuel on the fire.'
Click—
(Viewer temporarily muted: DuelKingChaechae)
"Please keep mentions of other streamers to a minimum. That's a 10-minute chat timeout~"
Troll: eliminated.