Chapter 103

I had a way out, but I came back for you.

The two seemed deeply moved by this fact.

“I-I’ll definitely win…!”

<Me too! I, Kato Mikane, will definitely win!>

The two were brimming with momentum.

But a game couldn’t be won just by two people playing well.

UA was a five-person game.

That meant I had to find a way to raise the skills of all the team members as evenly as possible.

“I went to Japan and watched all of Team Kamui’s games.”

“Yes.”

<Yes.>

“It feels a bit like I’ve become a spy, but honestly, it’ll be hard to win in our current state.”

Team Kamui, the World Championship victors, had no discernible weaknesses.

Kato Mikane was such an outstanding player that she stood out, but the players in other positions were also exceptionally skilled.

Super Sylph, on the other hand, had many shortcomings.

It was an unavoidable fact that they were behind in terms of raw talent as players.

Super Sylph’s current domestic league ranking was third, following last year’s champions, Galaxy, and Artemis.

Third place, when they should have been aiming for first in Korea…

And there were only about three months left until the World Championship.

I could personally feed Yunseuli experience points to raise her skill level, but the other players were the problem.

Shin Aram, Kim Dain, Hwang Jua.

No matter how hard they tried, it was a fact that it would be difficult to close the skill gap with the positions these three played by this year’s World Championship, as I couldn’t teach them directly.

If not just one, but three players were significantly lagging in skill, the chances of winning were slim, no matter how good the strategy.

‘Then is there really no chance of winning?’

If I had to pick one thing, there was a single point.

Stamina.

Super Sylph might have been lacking in other areas, but in stamina, they weren’t far behind Kamui.

This was because from the moment Seo Dami joined Super Sylph, they had been diligent with their stamina training.

Now, more than a year and a half had passed since then.

Super Sylph, having consistently undergone nearly national representative-level stamina training, boasted stamina for prolonged battles that was undeniably top-tier in the country and at a world-class level.

In other words, if they could just drag the game into a prolonged battle, they would have a fighting chance.

“By the way, why are you guys still in third place…?”

“There’s still the second half of the season.”

<We can climb higher.>

“No, that’s not it.”

I actually thought Super Sylph was a team that could have been in first place long ago.

That is, if they had fully utilized all the resources on the team.

What did that mean?

This team still had a secret resource, a hidden card of immense power that hadn’t been revealed to the public.

The existence of Park Chaerin, who could serve as both a coach and a player.

But while they failed to secure first place throughout the entire first half, Super Sylph had not once put Park Chaerin on stage.

It wasn’t incomprehensible.

Relying on Park Chaerin, in the long run, could be more detrimental than beneficial to the team.

‘Let’s see. How old is Coach Chaerin this year…?’

That winter when Dami was looking for a Second Division League team.

When I first met Park Chaerin after going to the Star Prism team house for an interview, Coach Park Chaerin was already twenty-seven.

Two years had passed since then…

The coach was now twenty-nine.

On the other hand, the team’s starting Sniper, Kim Dain, was twenty-one.

No matter how much Dain had yet to develop, having a twenty-nine-year-old coach do it for her wouldn’t be good for the team’s future.

It was no different from being so desperate for immediate results that they were robbing Kim Dain of her chance to grow.

Looking at the team’s potential, there are times when you have to trust and nurture a player even if the results aren’t there right away, and that time was now.

The Coach and the Front Office probably thought the same, which is why they still hadn’t played the Park Chaerin card.

But.

For this year’s World Championship, at least, her help was desperately needed.

No matter how good Super Sylph’s stamina was, they needed at least one comeback card to pressure Kamui, and there was no card more suitable than Park Chaerin.

“The Coach has never said anything about being disappointed about not being a starter, right?”

“No. I think the Coach considers the suggestion of her playing as a player to be half a joke.”

Why wouldn’t she?

Even among Super Sylph’s fans, there were many who asked if they couldn’t just try using Park Chaerin once.

Wasn’t she a former Gaia National Representative?

She was someone who had played in Korea with an annual salary of over 10 billion Won.

But Park Chaerin herself knew the essence of this problem better than anyone.

That her playing as a player right now wasn’t necessarily the best thing for the team.

In fact, with Park Chaerin’s close guidance, Kim Dain’s skills were steadily improving.

Excluding Dami and Yunseuli, Kim Dain was also the fastest-growing player, and although she wasn’t selected for the national team this time, she was currently considered to be among the upper bracket of Snipers playing in the domestic league.

Coach Park Chaerin herself seemed satisfied with her current achievements as a coach.

But even so!

For this year’s World Championship, we absolutely had to borrow her power.

‘She’ll definitely create a variable.’

Thus, we decided to start the groundwork in advance.

If Super Sylph made it to the World Championship and faced an absurdly strong team.

We would ask to be allowed to use the Coach-as-a-player card.

There was no need to ask her to practice with the team beforehand or make other trivial requests.

Coach Park Chaerin, who was diligent in observing team training, devising strategies, and analyzing opponent data, would be able to do her part whenever she was put into a game.

“Then let’s ask the Coach about that, and we’ll review our strategy once more.”

“Strategy?”

“Yes.”

Super Sylph’s current rank was third.

With the rankings starting to solidify, there was one viable method for Super Sylph to climb higher without resorting to the extreme measure of deploying Park Chaerin.

A change in strategy.

“I haven’t seen many of your matches, but there were a lot of aggressive patterns. That was intentional, right?”

“That’s right.”

<They said defensive games don’t fit the trend and are boring, so the fans don’t like them…>

Super Sylph’s current game direction was largely centered around aggressive strategies and tactics.

This was a trend seen not only in Super Sylph but in most Pro League teams.

Defensive games are no fun.

The perception that it wasn’t professional to just drag out time and look for a comeback by ambush was rampant among fans.

In soccer terms, it would be like locking down the goal for 90 minutes, lying on the ground, and then aiming for a counter-offensive or a penalty shootout.

Since playing this way inevitably made the game’s flow sluggish, it was true that the fans’ reactions were poor.

But even if it was bad, we had to try it.

Why? Because if we didn’t practice, we would stumble in a real match.

Being able to fully execute a strategy you’ve never used before when suddenly asked to is purely in the realm of talent.

On this team, only Seo Dami and Coach Park Chaerin were capable of performing such a role.

Yunseuli still had areas where she was lacking, and it went without saying for the other players.

In that case, we needed to practice it before the World Championship.

We had to go for a prolonged battle against Team Kamui, so there was a limit to what we could do with only aggressive tactics.

“To win against a world-class team, you have to know how to fight defensively too.”

If we changed the flow of the game right now, the fans’ reactions might be bad.

Fans might criticize the games for becoming boring or even wonder if our skills had declined.

But this training was an absolutely necessary task to achieve our goal.

First goal: win the domestic league.

And then, win against Team Kamui.

Once we achieved these goals, the fans would retract their negative reactions as if they had never existed and applaud us.

“Then let’s give it our all for the rest of the year.”

“Yes!”

<By the way, Oppa. Is your health okay now?>

Just as we were setting our direction and about to start training, Yunseuli asked.

She was asking if I didn’t have to worry about my health for the time being.

“I was planning on stopping by anyway.”

<Where?>

“Where else but the hospital.”

While I returned to the team and resumed training, I also stopped by the hospital to check on my body’s condition.

My body, which had been lying unconscious for a long time, had become as weak as it could be.

That had been the cause of several near-death experiences, but the situation was different now.

I had confirmed that by being able to use the energy of the ley line, I could now naturally heal my body’s condition as well.

‘This is it. This is it! With this method, I might be able to get up again someday.’

As I drew in the power of the ley line and infused it into my body, I could feel that energy melting into my bones and blood, bringing a faint vitality to my body.

The speed was a bit slow, but still, in half a year? A year at most? It seemed my body’s health would recover considerably.

Then, I might not have to live attached to the kids’ bodies anymore and could return to my own body, as a pro gamer.

As Han Youngin, who was loved by the fans as the team’s ace.

Of course, there was a mountain to climb before that.

Even if I recovered, if I couldn’t beat Kamui this year, it would be a huge problem.

Kato was the type of person who would chase me all the way to Korea, demanding I keep my promise.

That kind of thing shouldn’t happen, but if Kato really did chase me, what should I do then?

Should I flee the country…?

Having spent even a short time with Kato, I knew better than anyone how terrifying she could be.

If Kato came at me cloaked in the power of the ley line, even if she was a woman, she was not at a level I could handle.

While seriously drawing up an escape plan, I used Seo Dami’s mouth to request defensive strategy practice from the team.

The purpose was singular.

To prepare a way to win against a strong team, no matter what.

Both Director Lee Gangseon and Coach Park Chaerin readily agreed to Seo Dami’s proposal.

“Alright. Let’s give it a try.”

A big reason for this easy decision was that Super Sylph’s current match record against the first and second-place teams was too poor.

The current first-place team in the domestic league was last year’s league champion, Galaxy, and the second-place team was Artemis, led by Kim Seunga.

Super Sylph had yet to win a single match against the first-place team, Galaxy, and their win rate against Artemis was also abysmal.

We were third in the league, and the fourth-place team was Blaze, but if you asked if our win rate against Blaze was good, that too was something that would make you tilt your head.

It was a slight win rate advantage.

There was a bit of a gap with the fifth-place team, but we were a team that could drop to fourth at any moment.

That was the objective state of Super Sylph at present.

“What exactly is a defensive strategy?”

In the meeting room.

Coach Park Chaerin handed out the materials she had prepared and explained to the players.

“Anyone know about defensive strategy?”

“Blocking well!”

Hwang Jua shot her hand up.

Of course, blocking well was a part of defense.

But it wasn’t the answer the coach was looking for.

The one who gave the answer Park Chaerin wanted was Kim Dain, who adjusted her glasses.

“There are a few ways to defend well. The first is to use Defense-type skills well, and the second is to evade attacks with your physical ability. And the third is…”

“There are three?”

While Hwang Jua was surprised, Kim Dain continued her explanation of the strategy.

“Good positioning. Just by having good positioning, you can completely avoid or deflect an opponent’s attack.”

“That’s our Dain. Thanks for the explanation.”

Park Chaerin gave Kim Dain a thumbs-up and added to the explanation.

“Honestly, even though the Director gave the okay, I’m still negative about our team focusing on defense training.”

“Why?”

“Because in terms of strategy difficulty, practicing defense is much harder than practicing offense.”

Park Chaerin explained the reason.

“Have you guys ever thought about why you don’t use more than two Defenders when you play?”

“Because Defenders have low attack power.”

“What’s wrong with low attack power? Defenders have good defense power instead.”

At Park Chaerin’s response, Hwang Jua shut her mouth with a “huh, that’s true” expression.

This time too, Kim Dain answered instead.

“Because the game of UA ultimately ends only when you attack.”

“That’s right. No matter how hard you defend, if you don’t score, the game never ends.”

The Deathmatch battlefield, where the team with the score advantage after 15 minutes wins.

To get a score, you had to subdue the opponent through attacks.

This was the same in Domination Battle.

To win in Domination Battle, you had to capture the control point, but if players from both teams were on the control point at the same time, the gauges would clash and neither side would charge.

In other words, to win a Domination Battle, you also had to attack the opponent to capture the control point.

“One-on-One is the same; you have to defeat the opponent to finish the game.”

“So no matter how well you defend, you can’t win the game if you can’t attack…?”

“Right. So if you’re talking about getting results proportional to the time spent on strategy practice, it’s much more advantageous to polish your offense than your defense.”

Ultimately, you have to be good at attacking to end the game.

Based on this logic, Coach Park Chaerin preferred practicing offensive strategies.

“Huh…? Then isn’t it right to practice offense rather than defense…?”

Hwang Jua muttered, looking confused.

She even asked Seo Dami, “Why did you suggest we practice defensive strategy?”

Coach Park Chaerin could have answered, but she passed the opportunity to Dami, making eye contact.

“Dami, why don’t you try explaining the reason?”

Given the chance to answer, Seo Dami began without hesitation.

She had to be confident, as I had already explained to her all the reasons why they needed to practice defense.

“Because ultimately, the team that better protects the advantage gained through offense takes the victory. But I felt that our team’s balance is a bit off right now because we’ve been emphasizing the offensive side.”

“Thanks for the answer. Dami’s right. To win a game, you can’t really separate offense and defense. Both are important. But one thing is for sure, most people I’ve seen, no, most gamers, when you make them practice something, their learning speed for attacking methods is much faster. There are no exceptions. If someone’s speed at learning defensive abilities is the same as or faster than their speed at learning how to attack, that person is born with a very special talent. Do you know what I mean?”

“Yes.”

“This is why I was reluctant to focus on defense practice right away.”

Park Chaerin said.

The request for defensive strategy practice that Seo Dami had made to the team was like the first step for Super Sylph to become a world-class team.

However, she also said that during that process, the results might not be easily visible, and it could feel difficult because it’s hard to master.

“I’ll stop with the scary talk before we even start. You can all do well, right?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Then let’s get started.”

And so, under Coach Park Chaerin’s command, the full-scale Defense Training began.

Although the coach had come from playing a different game, her long experience as a VR Pro Gamer was not to be ignored.

Moreover, after becoming Super Sylph’s coach, she was someone who studied the UA meta flow more diligently than anyone else.

How long had it been since they started training?

The coach, who had been breaking a sweat while assisting with the offense, got a strange look on her face and soon tilted her head.

“You guys… why are you so good at this?”