Chapter 30

The afternoon, which should have been filled with the pride of having completed another day of grueling training, felt like a funeral home.

“I have something to say.”

“Good. We needed an explanation, too. About what in the world happened.”

The five of us were huddled together in Leader Shin Aram’s room.

Under the stern and serious guidance of Kim Dain, the debriefing of today’s incident began.

Although I hadn’t been on this team for long, Coach Bae Yungi’s training methods, no matter how I looked at them, were strange.

From my perspective, I couldn’t possibly see them as being for the good of the team.

If anything, wasn’t the method we all agreed on the right path for the team?

Of course, I could be wrong, so I would discuss this part with everyone and follow the consensus.

That was the explanation I gave my teammates.

“I’d like to hear your reasons for thinking that way first.”

“First of all, I thought it was strange that he was preventing us from following the flow of the First Division League.”

Following the game flow of the First Division League.

It meant honing more difficult Skills to be usable in actual matches and learning more complex tactics.

Watching the games played by the top teams in the First Division League, nothing ever came easy.

They used a ton of Fakes, and the Skill Chain Attacks that came out during an Engagement were so complex that a normal person wouldn’t even know what was happening.

Of course, reaching this level wasn’t something we could achieve with just a few months of practice.

I knew that from the start.

It was true that my teammates had Talent, but that didn’t mean they were players who could be called geniuses.

If they could internalize such a difficult Build-up in just a few months of the Off-Season and apply it directly in the League, they deserved to be called geniuses.

So, while we practiced these complex plays, our team’s Win Rate might have dropped a little.

But to become players worthy of a higher league, we had to go through this process.

“This is what I think. If we’re satisfied with staying in the Second Division League, there’s no need to do what we’re practicing now. No, it would be better not to. But that’s not it, is it? You all said you want to go to the First Division League.”

“Of course. Ask 100 players. If you ask them if they want to play in the First Division or the Second Division, they’ll all say they want to play in the First Division.”

Hwang Jua’s reaction was as if I’d asked something obvious, and the others were the same.

Then, the Leader, who had been quietly silent, spoke up.

“I don’t know why Coach Bae is acting like that. Whether it’s because he’s upset that we decided on our own training method, or if he’s really satisfied with us remaining a Second Division team.”

“It could be both.”

“Either way, isn’t that bad?!”

Whatever the reason, one thing was certain.

That we had to keep moving forward without stopping here.

That we could endure getting a little lost for the sake of the future.

“You know we trust you, Dami, right?”

“Yes.”

Kim Dain, her eyes full of trust, grabbed my shoulders with both arms.

The reason the teammates had all decided to change the training method was partly because the intention was good, but the fact that I constantly praised their potential had a huge impact.

This year, I had received Offers not only from Super Sylph but also from numerous First Division teams.

That meant my current skills were more than good enough to play in the First Division.

The fact that I, such a person, had told them that changing their training method would reduce the time they’d spend floundering when they later went to the First Division, and that if we united as one, we would definitely succeed in our Promotion, seemed to have given them great strength.

The points I had mentioned in the game.

The points I told them about, how fixing certain aspects of their play would make their games go much better, must have also been a big part of what made them think, “Wow! This was it!”

That must be why my teammates continued to trust me even in this confrontational situation.

Because even though my outward appearance was that of a young player who had come up from the Third Division League, they felt that my core was that of a real comrade they could rely on.

After reconfirming our consensus, we discussed how to handle the situation going forward.

“For now, let’s just follow what the Coach says during training.”

“Then when do we do our real practice?”

“I have a plan. Would you like to hear it? It’s simpler than you think…”

Several days had passed since Bae Yungi threw cold water on our training.

It was now mid-December.

They were days of forcing ourselves through training that didn’t even feel like training, but I still turned on my stream every single day without fail.

“Everyone! Your cutie~ Dami is here today!”

-Hey, Seo. Cut the crap and just start a Rank Game!

-You’re climbing again today, right?

-What would actually happen if she hits Legendary…

-What Legendary? She’s a Second Division scrub. There are tons of First Division women who can’t even do it.

-Then why are you watching this stream?

-FR, you’re watching because you’re curious if she’ll actually do it too.

-I’m not a Seo Dami fan, but. Her streams are fun~.

-Classic line from people who say they’re not fans. They’re already fans.

-lolololol

In less than a week, I had already surpassed Master and reached Grandmaster.

With an incredible Win Rate, I showed off the feat of entering the top 30 percent of the Grandmaster Upper Bracket.

The top 30 percent of Grandmaster.

It was safe to say that this was about the maximum a female Second Division League player could reach.

In fact, on the East Asia Server, not a single female player from the Second Division or below had ever achieved Legendary, and even including the First Division League, the percentage was not high.

It was that difficult for a woman to achieve Legendary in Rank Games, where games were played regardless of gender.

After all, they had to compete against male players who were superior in Physical and Prolonged Battle Stamina.

And perhaps because of these difficult conditions, the number of Viewers on my recent streams had increased even more than during my hugely popular first broadcast.

-Look at the Viewers pouring in.

-20,000?

-What did she even do to get 20,000 already?

-It just means people are that excited.

-STA RT A RANK GAME AL REA DY!!!

After streaming consistently for a few days, the number of fans who wanted to see me play the game rather than my cutesy act had become much greater.

There were only about two weeks left until the end of the Rank Season.

Naturally, countless other Pro Gamers besides me were streaming, but among female Streamers, my broadcast was maintaining the most unrivaled Viewer count.

When I won against the Japanese players yesterday, the Viewers had even reached the high 30,000s.

The Korean flags flooding the Chat window were a bonus.

I started searching for a Rank Match and checked the status of my Mission Donation funds.

To my surprise, the amount written there was 53,000,000 Won.

Not 5.3 million Won, but 53 million Won.

The fact that I had announced I would donate the full amount to a good cause brought in more than expected, and my Matchmaking luck was good.

Not just Korea-Japan matches, but Korea-China matches as well.

As my Tier rose, international matches were happening more often than I thought.

Of course, the opponents weren’t from overseas First Division Leagues, but in any case, a match against a pro player from another country was always one of the most interesting topics for Viewers.

-Watching General Seo, I seriously don’t understand why our country is ranked in the top 10.

-FR, she just beats the crap out of everyone she sees, so why are we getting stomped?

-Because you can’t fill a team with five General Seos…

-lolololol

-Upvote if you’re starting to think General Seo’s price tag isn’t that expensive.

The game began.

As my rank climbed, I could feel the skills of the Users around me rising rapidly.

I had long since broken through the average section of the domestic Second Division League.

Female Users became rarer and rarer, and male Users filled their spots.

Some Users frowned just because I was a woman, while others recognized me and asked for a handshake, happy to be on the same team.

It was true that my recognition had increased, but not every User knew who I was.

However, one thing was certain: once the game started, even those who had ignored me would quickly change their attitude.

It was only natural.

The reason Users ignored female Users was mostly due to prejudice.

The perception that women can’t play games.

But who was I?

The starting Attacker of a First Division League who would have been on the national team if I hadn’t been hit by that damn truck.

I was Han Youngin, the Ace of Team Magnus with an Annual Salary of 1.5 billion Won.

While streaming, I pushed the Performance I could exhibit in Seo Dami’s body to its limits.

Fortunately, at eighteen, a player’s dynamic visual acuity and Reaction Speed were at a Level comparable to an adult’s.

The only things I felt I lacked now were Muscular Strength and Endurance, but thankfully, those aspects weren’t very noticeable in Rank Games.

There weren’t many Users who tried to drag out a Prolonged Battle to win at all costs; most games proceeded in an aggressive manner.

You’re attacking me one-sidedly? That pisses me off.

I don’t know about defending, I’m just gonna shoot too!* That was the style.

Just as I felt properly warmed up after winning three games in a row over the course of an hour.

The fourth game was found, and I noticed the Chat window getting noisy.

-It’s Kim Seunga!

-Kim Seunga is on the other team!

-Is Seo Dami finally getting her first loss?

-Whoa. She got matched here.

Normally, the Chat would have been filled with comments like, “Who the hell is Kim Seunga, you nerd!” but this time, there was no such reaction.

It couldn’t be helped.

Kim Seunga was someone that anyone who played UA couldn’t possibly not know.

Kim Seunga, twenty-four years old this year.

The starting Attacker for the women’s First Division League team, Artemis.

She was a top-level domestic player who had been active as a National Representative during this year’s Asian Games.

Our active periods overlapped, and she was also known as someone whose Talent was top-tier in the country.

We had even trained together for a while when we were called to the Athletes’ Village, so you could say we were somewhat acquainted.

‘Looks like she’s streaming too…’

The game hadn’t started yet.

People who were watching multiple streams at once saw that the two of us had been matched and were spreading the news.

<If I lose, my score will drop a lot, right?>

‘It depends on the Rating.’

UA Rank Games had a Rating adjustment system, so if you were matched against a team with more skilled players, you would lose fewer points even if you lost.

Moreover, if you won, you could get more points than usual, so it couldn’t be seen as entirely bad.

‘And there’s no need to think we’ll definitely lose.’

Since it wasn’t a team rank, it would be a game where both sides were heavily dependent on the luck of the draw for teammates.

If our teammates were more skilled, we could probably find an opening to exploit at least once, no matter how strong the opponent’s Ace was.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Seo Dami from team Super Sylph! Let’s have a good game!”

The player Waiting Room.

I approached my newly matched teammates first, extending my hand and greeting them warmly.

Once you reach this high of a bracket, you often see people you’ve been matched with before, so I was preemptively trying to get on my allies’ good side.

That way, we could have a smooth game the next time we met.

For example, something like this.

If an ally played like crap and you spent the whole game criticizing and fighting each other, what would the atmosphere be like if you met again as allies in the next match?

It would clearly be a gloomy picture before it even began.

Because this kind of thing was commonplace in top-tier games, the saying that a User with a bad personality could never climb to the top was accepted almost as an established theory.

‘That kind of unlucky thing can’t happen. It absolutely can’t.’

As I was greeting them with a bright smile, one of my teammates stared at me with a sullen face.

“Pathetic. Do you want to raise your score that badly?”

The real-time translator was working, so it was a foreign player.

Judging by the hairstyle and clothes, she was definitely a Chinese player.

A female User with her hair in buns on both sides.

She looked to be around Dami’s age, but her attitude was quite prickly.

“If you want to win, just listen to me. I’ll raise your score for you.”

This wasn’t just directed at me, but at our entire team.

Uh oh? Starting off this aggressively…

I was startled and quickly surveyed the atmosphere.

Sure enough, one of my teammates, already angry, was spewing profanities, asking who she thought she was to be telling them what to do.

The translator automatically bleeped it out, but I clearly heard him say, “you damn chink.”

For reference, UA strictly managed profanity and trolling during games.

That guy would probably get a Sanction for at least three days after this game.

However, this Chinese player’s Mental was no ordinary one either.

Seeing her retort without even batting an eye when the guy got angry proved it.

“You. You don’t know Shanghai Cheonhwa?”

“You’re a player for the Shanghai team…?”

“Yes.”

At the mention of Shanghai Cheonhwa, the man shut his mouth.

The female player then smirked as if to say, “I knew it.”

Shanghai Cheonhwa.

A powerhouse team that regularly made it to the UA World Championship Main Round, a stage that Korea had never once reached.

It was such a formidable team that the consensus in Korea was that they would only have a fighting chance if they formed an all-star team with the Aces from each team.

“…You’re a trainee, right?”

The man retorted timidly.

To say, “Who cares if you’re a player on some Chinese team or not,” the opponent’s weight class was too high.

So, as a last-ditch effort, he poked at her, asking if she was a trainee, but she coolly replied, “I’m a Starter, though?”

‘She doesn’t look that old, but if she’s good enough to be a Starter, she must be really good.’

A Starter for Shanghai Cheonhwa would mean she had a Rating worthy of being in Legendary soon.

It seemed she was matched to Balance out Kim Seunga, who was placed on the opposing team.

I opened the information window to see her name.

All pro players in UA had a P Mark signifying their Pro License and used their real names instead of a Nickname.

‘Chen Sui.’

Even before I could check her name, talk about her was already flowing in the Chat.

Since tens of thousands of Viewers were watching the stream, there were already people who knew her name.

-They’re saying it’s Chen Sui?

-Is she really a Starter?

-She is, but she’s a Starter starting next year. She’s nineteen.

-Then she’s basically twenty.

-Still, that’s amazing. Think about how many kids in China want to be players.

-And she’s not even bad. They all play games now instead of table tennis.

It was indeed amazing.

At nineteen, she had broken through all that competition to claim a Starter position on China’s top team.

She was only a year older than Dami, but she was a player from a completely different starting point.

‘Nice. A reliable ally.’

Just when I thought we had a good chance of winning this round if we played well, the Battlefield was decided.

A research lab set up in a space station.

The One-on-One rule Battlefield was revealing itself with a flash of light.

‘Lucky me.’

I grinned as I watched the massive structure begin to materialize in the vastness of space.

An all-time Win Rate of 71.4 percent.

The stage I liked the most and was most confident on.

The space Battlefield, Nicaea Research Lab, was beckoning me to come on in.