Chapter 24

“Lost your appetite?”

“You trained so hard. Your Stamina is weaker than I thought~.”

Mealtime.

As I was picking at my food with my chopsticks, Kim Dain asked with a worried look.

Hwang Jua, who was next to her, placed a piece of meat on my spoon, saying that Stamina comes from a hearty meal.

But the reason I was so down wasn’t because I had no appetite, nor because the training was hard.

‘It’s all your fault!’

While eating, I put all my effort into erasing the memory of what had just happened from my mind.

“Dami’s boobs are big!”

“Don’t come near me!”

“Unni! She’s getting shy! Jjijji-ppong!”

“Uwaaaah-!!!”

<Kyaaaaak-!!!>

Hwang Jua, this one was the biggest problem.

Eighteen, the same age as Dami.

I didn’t know if she was just excited to meet a friend her age for the first time in a while, or if this was just her personality.

It was nice that she was showing interest, but Hwang Jua’s sense of personal space was way too close.

And for me, that was bound to be quite bewildering.

My outward appearance was Seo Dami, but wasn’t my inner self still a man?

Casually chatting in the shower room as if nothing was wrong, or the sudden touches, were very difficult things for me to handle.

And Seo Dami, who should have been helping me, just stayed silent in the shower.

<Pervert…>

‘What are you talking about!’

Dami complained that I didn’t even close my eyes, but I couldn’t.

Wasn’t this the first time I was properly using the Super Sylph Team House?

Imagine if I walked around with my eyes closed and hit my head on something and fell.

How would my teammates see me?

They’d probably think, what kind of idiot is this.

So I had no choice but to keep my eyes open.

There were even partitions in the shower room so we couldn’t see each other well.

The only problem was that they weren’t enough to stop the teammates’ pranks.

“It’s your fault!”

“What did I…?”

After glaring once at Hwang Jua, who had a clueless expression, I ate my meal like I was going into battle.

I was about to start some tough training, and I wouldn’t be able to endure it if I didn’t eat.

After stuffing myself like that, I was resting in the lounge when Shin Aram asked.

If I wanted to have dessert.

“No, I’m fine.”

“We usually just rest for about an hour after eating. If you can’t sleep, you can watch a movie, but we usually just sleep. Since we’re tired.”

Shin Aram said there was a sleeping room next to the Log In room and that I could take a nap if I was sleepy.

I checked the clock; it was 12:20.

If I ate quickly, I could sleep for well over an hour.

Just then, Kim Dain and Hwang Jua burst through the lounge door, shouting, “So everyone was here!” and put down a tray.

“DamiDami. Let’s have some ice cream~.”

Four spoons.

The portion was a mountain of ice that reminded me of an elephant’s meal.

Don’t these girls manage their diet?

They’re eating snacks so carelessly.

I was the same, but First Division League players were strict about eating snacks.

These days, sports, regardless of the discipline, are all based on science, on data games.

UA was no different.

In my case, during the Season, I meticulously maintained 11 percent body fat to improve my Game Performance.

This 11 percent figure was the result of countless studies, a product designed to provide the ideal Balance for a player.

The players called it the cut-off line.

It wasn’t like you’d get cut for going over by 1 percent to 12 percent, but you had to be prepared to get an earful from the Coach.

The reason was obvious.

Because it’s bad for your body.

Because it affects your Game Performance.

A player with fat on their body has less explosive power to unleash at crucial moments.

Impurities get mixed into the power needed to reproduce the Performance imagined in their head.

That’s not all.

When you gain weight, your recovery ability also worsens, taking longer for your depleted Stamina to come back up.

It’s obvious who would have better Game Performance between a player who recovers quickly after a short rest and a player who is tired no matter how much they sleep.

Of course, a slight difference in numbers wouldn’t cause such a drastic difference.

When the UA Pro League had just opened, there were quite a few players who relied only on their Talent and managed themselves poorly, but times have changed.

Maintaining peak condition through strict self-management.

This was a basic rule that any player aiming for the Upper Bracket League had to follow.

So what about women?

There are clear physical differences between men and women.

That’s also the reason for separating the men’s and Women’s Leagues.

Female players, in the top tier, usually manage their cut-off line at around 16 percent.

The reason it’s higher than men’s is that women’s basic body fat percentage is naturally higher.

But look at what these girls are eating.

No matter how hard they practice, they eat ice cream whenever they want.

Eat cake. Drink soda!

If they keep eating like this, they’ll never achieve the golden ratio, not even if they die and come back to life.

It got to the point where Universe Cat, who used to control snacks, seemed more professional.

<That looks delicious.>

‘No.’

<It’s the Off-Season…>

Of course, there are players who say you can eat whatever you want during the Off-Season and just get back into optimal shape before the Season starts.

This is a matter of each player’s routine, so I can’t say anything about it.

However, it was clear that it wasn’t an easy thing to do.

Because if you eat without thinking about the consequences, you have to pay the price to get your body back.

In that case, it was better to control it from the beginning.

‘You ate a lot of fruit at home.’

<Fruit and ice cream are different.>

‘Even if they’re different, no. Endure it.’

<…….>

Or do you want to eat now and deal with the consequences later?

If you’re forced to run for days, for weeks, feeling like you’re about to throw up, the thought of wanting ice cream will vanish, won’t it?

As I warned her of the pain she would suffer as the price for her gluttony, Dami tearfully declared her surrender.

This is the difficult part of being a pro player.

It’s a world where you can’t do everything that others enjoy, where you have to give some things up just to survive.

‘Does Super Sylph not manage body fat?’

There’s no way Coach Bae Yungi, who played in the First Division, wouldn’t know about it.

Are they being lenient because it’s the second division?

After deciding to ask later, I asked what I was curious about.

“Unni.”

“Hm?”

“Why are there only four spoons?”

When I asked our quiet Leader where one person was, the answer came back that she was probably in the sleeping room.

“She always eats and then sleeps.”

“She’s a heavy sleeper…”

Is she really a heavy sleeper?

Or could there be a dark shadow in this team that I don’t know about?

Jung Yunseul.

The team’s youngest, whose complexion seemed dark from the moment I first saw her.

Saying that it’s not good to eat before bed and that I was getting sleepy, I said I’d go take a nap and headed to the sleeping room.

The sleeping room on the third floor was dark.

Only a small stand light at the entrance was on.

I moved by fumbling my way through the warm sleeping room.

<What are you doing without your phone?>

‘Right.’

As I wondered why I hadn’t thought of that and turned on the light, I heard a grunt.

“Jua Unni?”

“No.”

“Who is it?”

“Dami Unni.”

“Ah, did you come to sleep?”

“Yeah. I got sleepy after eating.”

Actually, I’m not sleepy, I came to see you.

It was also weird for me to be the only one not eating while everyone else was having ice cream.

“Is it okay if I come next to you?”

“…You’re not going to grope me or anything, are you?”

It seemed she had also suffered quite a bit at Hwang Jua’s hands.

She wrapped her arms around her shoulders and looked at me with wary eyes.

“I won’t do anything like that.”

“Then it’s fine.”

“Did I disturb your sleep?”

“I couldn’t fall asleep right away, so I was just lying down.”

“Everyone else is eating snacks.”

“Sigh.”

Jung Yunseul, who sighed as if to say that people who call themselves pros shouldn’t act like that, glanced at me and then opened her mouth.

“Unni, why didn’t you eat?”

“I’ll gain weight if I eat. It’s better to manage it in advance than to lose it later.”

“……!”

That remark must have been the trigger.

The girl who had seemed depressed at first impression became quite talkative.

“I’ve read articles about you, Unni, from time to time.”

“Which ones.”

“That you’re an all-time genius monster.”

“That’s an exaggeration. Stop it.”

Who would call a third-division player an all-time genius monster?

It was obviously an article a reporter wrote for Aggro to get me flamed.

“But it’s true that you’re skilled. I saw the Highlights, too. From the Promotion-Relegation Match. You were good, weren’t you?”

“You saw that?”

“Yes. After you visited our team once. I was curious who you were.”

Jung Yunseul said.

That game against Jinyang Stars was a game we would have won if there had been just one decent human being among the teammates.

You… you know your stuff, don’t you?

“If I had played with you, we would have won that game. Jinyang isn’t a good team, are they? My gosh, does it make any sense for a game to be thrown because someone gets taken out by a flank Ambush without even using up all their Mana?”

“Exactly!”

“Sigh. All they had to do was use Acceleration, take a breath, and then Counterattack. Or they could have just used Drive from a corner.”

“Exactly, exactly!”

A Drive Skill refers to an Attack Skill that fires in a curved trajectory, not a straight projectile.

It was a Skill mainly used with Live Round weapons.

If, as Jung Yunseul said, there had been just one player in Universe Cat who knew how to make such a play.

That game was definitely winnable.

“It turned out for the best. Thanks to that, Unni, you came to our team.”

“That’s right.”

Jung Yunseul continued to talk about various things after that.

She said she had ruined this Season herself, but next year would never be like this.

She burned with the determination to finish the Season properly.

<She’s a friend with a different vibe than I thought.>

‘I know, right.’

She was a player who seemed to be a bit of a loner, making me wonder if she would just quietly disappear after her contract was up.

It was a common occurrence in the Pro Scene.

Cases where kids who were brought in with high expectations as all-time Prospects couldn’t even last a few years and retired.

But it seemed Jung Yunseul’s spirit wasn’t broken yet.

When I watched her during training earlier, she showed that she was trying hard to keep up.

From the way she talks, she seems like a friend with good Mental resilience, so why on earth was she like that this Season?

The reason Super Sylph’s ranking dropped to 8th was partly due to the team’s lack of synergy, but it was undeniable that the slump of the Attacker, Jung Yunseul, was the main cause.

The kid, burdened by the losses accumulated at the beginning of the Season, had collapsed rapidly as soon as May arrived.

Thinking about it that way, the Super Sylph kids were really nice.

If it were me, I would have cursed her out, rookie or not.

Maybe the other kids were thinking that.

What should we do about Jung Yunseul?

Helping a player who has collapsed mid-Season was an issue that the coach, the team, and the teammates all had to pay attention to.

“You know. Why were you in such a slump this Season?”

“Ah…”

I approached cautiously so as not to put too much pressure on Jung Yunseul.

I told her that I had received many Offers before choosing this team.

But when I reviewed each team’s Season videos to make a decision, the games looked very difficult.

She, who had been hesitating to answer my question, slowly opened her mouth.

And her answer was something I had never expected, something rather shocking.

“…Unni, by any chance, do you know a player named Han Youngin?”

“Huh?”

<Huh?>

Why is my name coming up here?

When I was slightly flustered, Jung Yunseul, who caught my reaction, her eyes sparkling, sat up.

“You know him?”

“Ah, I know him.”

“You do? Are you a fan?”

“…You could say I’m a fan.”

“Hmm. The way you’re being vague is suspicious. You’re not just pretending to know him when you don’t, are you?”

Jung Yunseul squinted her eyes suspiciously.

Damn it.

Do I have to pretend I don’t know myself?

Feeling a bit wronged, I began an impromptu introduction of myself.

“Han Youngin. Twenty-five years old. Position is Attacker. He’s the Ace and Leader of the First Division team Magnus. He’s a player with such outstanding skills that he was even called up to the national team for the Asian Games four years ago. His Annual Salary is 1.5 billion Won, you know? Although he doesn’t have a championship title yet, you could say he’s a truly exceptional player.”

I also added that he was a one-club man who debuted with Magnus and has played for only one team until now.

<That’s too much! Who knows that much information about a player from another team!>

‘It’s unfair! She treated me like a liar. I am Han Youngin!’

<Sometimes you act like a child.>

‘Don’t be jealous. If someone asks what kind of player Seo Dami is, I’ll tell them the same thing.’

<I’m not jealous…>

It was then.

Jung Yunseul, who had been silent for a moment, slowly began to clap.

“……?”

<…….>

“I acknowledge it.”

“…What are you acknowledging?”

“Unni. You really know Youngin Oppa well, don’t you? I thought you were just playing along, I’m sorry for misunderstanding.”

And then she smiled.

Saying that she felt like she was starting to like me already.

“Follow me. I have something to show you.”

Where to? Weren’t you going to sleep?

The place Jung Yunseul took us to was her own room.

“Ta-da!”

‘What is this.’

The room had a much more girlish feel than Dami’s room, which I had seen for the first time.

The problem was the large poster hanging on the wall.

A huge bromide of me making a V-sign with my chin.

At the bottom, there was even a signature that said, Magnus team Attacker Han Youngin.

‘It even has my signature?’

I don’t remember making something like this.

As I wore that expression, Jung Yunseul shrugged her shoulders with a “what do you think?” look on her face.

“I made it myself. My Oppa is cool, isn’t he?”

<Did you hear that? She said ‘my Oppa.’>

‘She must be my fan.’

<Was it true that you were popular?>

‘You didn’t believe me!’

Leaving me flustered, Jung Yunseul, who was looking at the bromide with a nostalgic gaze, confessed that the incident in May had completely shattered her Mental.

May.

The time when I entered Seo Dami’s body.

“Since you’re a fan too, Unni, you’ll understand, but I had a really hard time back then. I was worried about what would happen if my Oppa died…”

‘He’s not dead yet, he’s alive and well right here…’

“They say he’s still unconscious. But he’s not dead yet, right? So I folded paper cranes every day.”

Opposite the wall where the poster was hanging was her desk, and on the desk were paper cranes that Jung Yunseul had folded.

‘Wow. Today is the first time I’ve seen someone who actually folds paper cranes.’

<Me too.>

She said she had already sent 3,000 paper cranes in a glass jar to the Magnus Front Office, praying for my recovery.

‘Ugh!’

I was deeply moved by Yunseuli’s heart.

No, with this much devotion, shouldn’t I have woken up a long time ago?

Thinking that there were fans all over the country waiting for news of my recovery, a corner of my heart grew warm.

“Yunseul.”

“Yes?”

“Thank you. Youngin will definitely wake up.”

“Unni. What do you mean, Youngin? Youngin Oppa is not our friend.”

“S-sorry. I was trying to say that Youngin Oppa will recover.”

“He will definitely wake up.”

We sat side by side on the bed like that, and I was able to listen to the story of Jung Yunseul, who called me her long-time idol.

Yunseuli was my true fan, who had nurtured her dream of becoming a Pro Gamer after getting to know me as a player.

‘Thank you, really. It’s thanks to my fans that I’ve been able to work hard as a Pro Gamer until now.’

If I could have my way, I would have wanted to give her a hug, but since I was Seo Dami right now, I promised myself that I would repay this kindness someday, when the opportunity arose.

“Oh!”

“What, what’s wrong?”

“I think I saw that you also had a sudden improvement in your Game Performance during the Season, Unni! Right!”

“Huh?”

“It’s true, isn’t it! Didn’t they say you suddenly awakened starting in May?”

Then she suddenly started looking up articles, and Jung Yunseul repeatedly exclaimed, “It’s true!”

“Oh my god, how can this be…”

The girl looked at me with a considerably surprised expression.

Just as I was thinking there was no way she could have found out, Jung Yunseul suddenly hugged me tightly.

‘……?’

<……?>

“Unni, you must have had a hard time too. It was such a difficult time for us.”

“Hey, I think there’s some misunderstanding…”

“But you’re really amazing!”

Jung Yunseul grabbed my shoulders and pulled away, then met my eyes.

“I only showed a shameful side at that news… But you were different, Unni! You awakened because you wanted to become a player who wouldn’t be a disgrace to Youngin Oppa! Right!”

“Huh?”

Now Jung Yunseul was even telling me she respected me.

It seemed a rather large misunderstanding had occurred.

“Unni. Thank you so much for coming to our team. I’m going to work really, really hard! So that I can be a source of strength for Youngin Oppa too! So let’s all do well together!”

“…Uh-huh.”

“Wow, but how can there be such a coincidence. Then again, if you watch Youngin Oppa’s games, you can’t help but become a fan. Right? Anyway, I’m so happy there’s someone I can talk to about this. Hehe.”

Jung Yunseul hugged me tightly again.

At this rate, if I just left her be, she looked like she would lie down with her head on my lap.

Why are there so many friends with a weird sense of personal space on this team?

Although in this case, I was the one who caused it.

‘Still, Yunseul is much more comfortable than Jua. She’s kind of cute, isn’t she?’

<I’m not so sure about that.>

‘Why are you being like this again? I told you what happened in the shower earlier was unavoidable…’

<It’s not that. I’m just saying I don’t know if Yunseuli is cute. How can I know after just one day? Maybe you just feel close to her because you’re her fan, Oppa.>

‘R-Right.’

Was it because Yunseul kept pressing on her chest, making her uncomfortable?

A slightly prickly Dami, Jung Yunseul, and I spent the rest of our lunch break together.

We chatted away, the topic being our memories of Han Youngin, who had now become our common interest.

After 2 PM, training resumed.

The Off-Season was a time for Stamina, and nothing but Stamina.

Our bodies, already heavily strained from the morning, were naturally bound to feel heavy, but Director Lee Gangseon and Coach Bae Yungi paid no mind and pushed the players hard.

Of course, this training was incredibly tough for me too.

It was just that I had a bit more tolerance for enduring it, since I had been down this road before.

“Don’t stop your legs! Hwang Jua! Your rotations are dropping!”

“Agh! Fuck!!!!”

A scream, not one you’d expect from a girl, echoed loudly.

The girls on the cycles cried out in pain as it shot up their thighs.

Among the five of us, I was the only player whose name wasn’t called out, as I silently endured to the end.

I’ve already done all of this before.

I’d even gone to the Athletes’ Village and cycled until I was sick of the sight of it.

“You’re a really amazing kid, aren’t you?”

Coach Bae Yungi, who was helping with the cycle training, said in admiration.

“This much is basic if you want to get to the first division. Right?”

“Of course, of course. You’re definitely going to succeed.”

“As expected. Dami Unni is amazing!”

“Hm? Dami and Yunseul, have you gotten close already?”

“Yes! We formed an alliance.”

Jung Yunseul answered the Coach’s question brightly.

“What kind of alliance?”

“That’s a secret.”

“Well, whatever it is, if teammates get along, it creates synergy and that’s a good thing.”

“Synergy my ass, I can’t, I can’t do it!”

Just as Hwang Jua collapsed, saying she couldn’t go on, Director Lee Gangseon announced the end of training, saying this was enough.

“That’s it for today! Wash up and gather in the Log In room.”

“Ugh! Dami, save me!”

“You won’t die from that. Could you please not cling to me.”

“Friend. You’re so harsh…”

My body was in the worst possible condition.

But the day had to end with a game, as always.

Since we could train while letting our bodies recover, a final game training session was a matter of course.

‘Another shower.’

Just when I was thinking I might develop a phobia of showers.

Shin Aram called me over, saying she had something to tell me.

What could it be?

I thought that no matter what she said, nothing could surprise me more today.

Hadn’t I been through quite a lot today?

However, the words that came out of Leader Shin Aram’s mouth were more than enough to shatter that assumption.

“Dami.”

“Yes.”

“Let me be the one to give the Orders during the evening game.”

“The… Orders?”

Shin Aram giving the Orders.

Hadn’t we all already agreed to change the shot-caller?

We all signed, so what is this nonsense!

One shock after another.

For some reason, today felt exceptionally long.