Chapter 40

Seo Dami, who had fallen into a light panic, calmed herself with a deep breath.

In a game, when your surroundings were shaking and you couldn’t grasp the situation, the most important thing was how quickly you could regain your composure.

Seo Dami recalled the things she had learned from Han Youngin over the past year.

‘In situations like this, I have to be calm.’

After steadying her breathing, Seo Dami tried moving her arms and legs.

Everything was just as it had been before the accident.

There was no awkwardness at all.

After all, she had shared the exact same sensations when Han Youngin moved her body.

What was certain was that she could move her body again.

Then where on earth had Han Youngin gone?

Seo Dami sat on the bed, closed her eyes, and concentrated.

Having been together for the past year, she could always feel Youngin’s presence, whether she was asleep or awake.

How much time passed as she focused, her eyebrows furrowed?

Her eyes flew open.

‘He’s, he’s here!’

She could feel the presence of someone sleeping soundly inside her head.

It was surely Han Youngin, nine times out of ten.

It seemed that as she, who had only existed in his mind, rose to the surface, Youngin had entered her mind in her place.

Knowing that Youngin was still with her, Seo Dami quickly regained her composure.

‘He’s not just going to disappear all of a sudden, is he…?’

Seo Dami pulled the covers back over herself and thought.

There was no need to wake a sleeping person.

There were still a few hours left until breakfast, so it seemed best to get some more sleep for now.

Seo Dami had pulled the covers over herself to avoid waking Han Youngin.

However, she couldn’t sleep a wink all night and ended up greeting the morning.

<What is going on…!>

And then, the inevitable happened.

Han Youngin woke up with a shriek.

“Did you sleep well?”

<Gi-give me back my body!>

“What are you talking about? It was my body from the start.”

<Right. Of course.>

Han Youngin grasped the situation faster than Seo Dami.

He realized that this bizarre phenomenon called Possession was finally entering a stage of normalization.

<I guess it’s about time we parted ways.>

“What? No!”

<……?>

“I still have a lot to learn. Don’t go yet.”

<W-well, can’t I just teach you after I return to my original body?>

“What if you go back and can’t wake up? What if you’re just lying there, unable to say anything?”

As she said it, Seo Dami winced.

She felt she had been too insensitive, as Han Youngin himself would be more aware of that possibility than anyone.

However, Han Youngin himself spoke as if it were no big deal.

<I’m a vegetable… so that could happen.>

If that happened, it would be very frustrating.

Didn’t patients who had been in a vegetative state often say such things in their memoirs?

That they could hear every conversation happening next to them but could do nothing, which made them terribly sad.

“No. Oppa, you’ll wake up right away even if you go back to your body. Don’t worry. What I said just now… was a mistake. I’m sorry.”

<It’s nothing to be sorry about.>

It was something he would have to face someday anyway.

Han Youngin himself thought he couldn’t live like this forever.

Living together in one body with Seo Dami until they grew old…?

And his own body would be lying in a hospital forever?

That ending, too, was fraught with problems one way or another.

<This is for the best. You needed to practice what you’ve learned so far anyway.>

Real combat was different from running simulations in one’s head.

If he had to leave someday.

And if that process had begun today.

He decided to think of it as an opportunity to check whether Seo Dami had properly learned and mastered everything before then.

<Think of it as comeback mode starting today. We’re going in with our heads on straight.>

When morning came, Jung Yunseul knocked on the door and came to find her, as always.

She then hugged Seo Dami, but her reaction was different from usual.

“What’s this? Our Unni is a little different from usual.”

Startled, Seo Dami asked, “How am I different?” and she replied that she couldn’t pinpoint why, but she just seemed gentler.

Han Youngin grumbled, “What’s wrong with me!” but Jung Yunseul wasn’t the only one who felt a strange sense of disharmony.

Kim Dain, Hwang Jua, Shin Aram.

And even the Coach, Park Chaerin, asked, “Dami, is your Condition not good today?” so something was clearly different.

In truth, it was inevitable.

Seo Dami and Han Youngin had very different personalities.

The original Seo Dami was fundamentally an introvert.

A player who couldn’t even dream of doing Fan Service full of aegyo, who just diligently played her assigned role.

In Super Sylph, you could say she had a lot in common with Shin Aram, but the problem was that in recent practice matches and real games, Seo Dami’s contribution to the game had been huge.

To the point where you could call it a double Order, Seo Dami proposed many strategies and paid close attention to coordinating her teammates.

So what would happen if she suddenly became less talkative and her attitude changed?

<The atmosphere would get awkward right away…>

Han Youngin continuously encouraged Seo Dami, telling her she could do it.

Fortunately, today’s opponent was not a difficult team.

Royal Gaming.

The team that finished last Season in 5th place.

Considering the improvement in her teammates’ skills, honed during the Off-Season, they were an opponent they could easily beat as long as Seo Dami did her part.

Han Youngin said.

He told her to do nothing more and nothing less than to imitate the Performance he had shown.

<From now on, you’re acting. Just like I’ve been doing until now. You know what I mean, right?>

‘Do I have to?’

Seo Dami’s tone was full of self-doubt.

Recreating the play Performance was something she could manage somehow, but imitating Han Youngin’s showmanship was the biggest hurdle.

<If you’re not confident, let’s practice beforehand. What are you going to do if you get the MVP today and have to do an interview?>

‘…….’

<You’re not going to do it? You don’t need my advice anymore, is that it?>

‘I’ll do it.’

<Don’t be shy.>

At Han Youngin’s prodding, Seo Dami let out a small sigh and then smiled.

The corners of her mouth rose awkwardly as Seo Dami spoke.

“Seo Dami… big victory…!”

<Excuse me. Ms. Seo Dami. Did someone hold a gun to your head and threaten you to say ‘big victory’? Seo Dami~! Big victory~!!! Is that so hard?>

“I-I can do it again.”

After practicing several times, she barely managed to get a passing grade.

Her face turning red was a bonus.

<I really don’t get it. You have such a good weapon, so why can’t you use it?>

“A weapon?”

<You have good visuals. That’s such a great thing for a Pro Gamer.>

Han Youngin said, clicking his tongue.

She might not like hearing it herself, but her looks were, of course, part of the reason she was able to command a top-tier Annual Salary in the Second Division League in one fell swoop.

How much would fans love a player who was not only good-looking but also skilled and had a lively personality?

No one would dislike a star who habitually told their fans they loved them.

<Don’t feel pressured, just think of it as acting.>

‘Acting….’

<I’ve also been acting out the image the fans want to see until now. You think I normally go around saying, ‘Unni, Oppa! I love you so, so much!’?>

Han Youngin just might, actually.

If all the Fan Service he’d done so far was acting, then Oppa should have been an actor, not a gamer. Seo Dami swallowed the thought.

But apart from that, the advice itself was definitely helpful, so Seo Dami was able to follow his instructions more easily.

“Unni, Oppa~. I love you~.”

Seo Dami, whose Fan Service had become much smoother, kept asking how she did this time.

Han Youngin replied mechanically, “Mm, good, good.”

It was because he was thinking about something else.

In truth, from the moment Seo Dami regained control of her body, Fan Service was not the priority.

Because no matter how good the Fan Service was, it would lose its luster if she screwed up the game.

<She has to do well…>

Han Youngin thought to himself as he watched Seo Dami giggle, saying, “I might have a little Talent for this acting thing~?”

Please, let the Comeback Match pass without any trouble.

Only then, even if something happened to him, did he feel he could leave with peace of mind.

Super Sylph vs. Royal Gaming, the first match.

The stadium was sold out again today.

Since Royal Gaming wasn’t a team with a large dedicated fanbase, more than half of the Spectator Seats were filled by Super Sylph fans.

-131 matches left until a perfect championship!

-The Great Sylph!

-Seo Dami!

-Seo Dami!

-Seo Dami!

As the fans chanted the names of Seo Dami and Super Sylph alternately, the players entered the Waiting Room.

Besides the two teams’ records, there was another point of interest in today’s match.

It was Royal Gaming’s player acquisition.

Royal Gaming, which had finished 5th the previous year, had recruited Kim Hyeona, an Attacker who had played for Super Sylph, for an Annual Salary of 220 million Won to fill the spot of a retiring player.

As you could tell from the Annual Salary she was receiving this year, Kim Hyeona was a pretty skilled player.

After all, she was a player Super Sylph had gone to great lengths to recruit to fill the void left by two veterans.

But as soon as her one-year contract was up, she rejected the team’s offer for Re-signing and left to find a new team.

It was a move made without a shred of hesitation.

It couldn’t be helped.

Before leaving the team, Kim Hyeona had judged Super Sylph to be a team beyond recovery.

Having watched the team fall apart without any chance to fix it as they racked up a Losing Streak, Kim Hyeona boldly left.

If there had been a player Substitution, she might have considered it positively, but unfortunately, as long as she remained at Super Sylph, the team’s roster was unlikely to change.

No matter who came, it was impossible to save this team.

Thinking so, she left the team without any lingering regrets.

She had received 240 million at Super Sylph, and the reason she took an Annual Salary cut to Transfer was for that very reason.

For a pro player, weren’t there things more important than money?

Kim Hyeona wanted to play for a team that was even slightly closer to championship contention before she got older and her competitiveness declined.

But what do you know.

Super Sylph became the most talked-about team in the country, with articles about them popping up nonstop throughout the Off-Season.

Seo Dami.

Everything had started with just one player.

To be honest, Kim Hyeona wasn’t happy about this dramatic change.

She had left the team thinking it was impossible for one player to change a team, but the other side was producing results as if to spite her.

Moreover, no one on the Super Sylph forums was looking for her anymore.

When the news of her failed Re-signing broke, she had seen comments like, “How are we going to manage the Season without Kim Hyeona?”

“It’s because the Front Office is incompetent.”

“Next Season is going to be an even bigger dumpster fire.” Seeing those, she had been inwardly pleased with her decision.

But as Seo Dami shone, her name was cleanly erased.

No, sometimes it was brought up.

Always in a negative light.

-I was so worried when Kim Hyeona left, but it turned out for the better~.

-This is a blessing in disguise.

-Hyeona cleared out so we could recruit our great Dami.

-Hyeona! Thank you!

Every time she saw posts like these, Kim Hyeona thought.

How can they do this?

How hard did I play for the team for a whole year?

They’re a team that would have been in the Promotion-Relegation Match if it weren’t for me!

Kim Hyeona felt extremely wronged.

It was as if people were saying it was her fault the team finished in 8th place.

As if no one acknowledged her hard work.

So, although she didn’t show it, she wanted to teach them a lesson if they ever met again.

She wanted to beat Super Sylph and tell them that everything they were saying was wrong.

‘Just you wait. I’ll show you exactly why UA is a team game.’

She acknowledged that Seo Dami was good.

But in a team game, there was a clear limit to a solo Carry.

Kim Hyeona thought that if she exploited that point, she could definitely gain an advantage over Super Sylph.

Besides, she knew the Super Sylph players better than anyone.

After coming to Royal Gaming and training with them, she realized her new teammates were in a completely different league as players.

She didn’t think that this gap could be closed by just grinding hard for a few months in the Off-Season.

Confidence that she could do it welled up in her heart.

She felt that if they just properly executed the team tactics they had practiced, they could definitely win.

“Fighting, fighting!”

“Let’s win this!”

Before heading out to the Battlefield, Kim Hyeona put her hands together with her new friends and pumped them up with Fighting Spirit.

At this moment, Kim Hyeona had no idea.

That the teams before them had had the exact same thought—to block Seo Dami’s scoring ability and gain an advantage through team play.

And so, the match began.

The first Set was on Boundary, a Deathmatch Battlefield.

It was a Battlefield where support resources like Heal Packs spawned over time in various places on the Map, and the Mana pack in the central hall area, in particular, demanded constant power struggles.

Shouting “Charge!” the Royal Gaming players moved stealthily and swiftly.

Though not as fast as Acceleration, they used the Tailwind Skill and the Silent Footsteps Skill, which erased their footsteps, to make it difficult for the opposing team to detect their location.

-Seo Dami spotted in the 3 o’clock corridor. Attack incoming!

A teammate who had found the enemy with Tracking Fox relayed the news through the in-ear.

The 3 o’clock corridor was right where Kim Hyeona was.

‘What kind of nerve does she have, rushing into a corridor alone without a Shield?’

A corridor.

A long, straight Route.

You could hide behind pillars, but Seo Dami was charging as if to say, “Go on, shoot me.”

Fine, go ahead and die.

Thinking that, Kim Hyeona and her teammates began to fire in unison.

Using an attack Enhancement Skill, its power was truly terrifying.

It was at a level where even a slight graze would make one’s Health Gauge go pashak! and be deleted.

A storm of Firepower enveloped the corridor, momentarily turning it into a honeycomb.

-Waaaah!!!

As the storm of Firepower swept over Seo Dami, the Royal Gaming fans’ Cheer erupted first.

But a moment later, as a grim reaper burst through the smoke and flames, Super Sylph’s Cheer hit back with a Counter.

-She’s alive!!!

-Go, General Seo-!

-Let’s go for a 2-game Win Streak!

First evasion with the Acceleration Skill.

And then, changing the trajectory of the remaining Live Rounds with Gravity Field.

Seo Dami, who had chained her Skills together like flowing water, deployed one more Skill.

Object Teleportation.

It was a Skill that didn’t teleport the user but sent an object to a desired location, used for things like sending a Bomb to a place where you couldn’t use a grenade launcher or throw a Grenade.

Since it moved a small object, it had the advantage of consuming less Mana than teleporting oneself.

Just as Kim Hyeona thought, oh no, at the black Smoke Screen that exploded at her feet with a pang*, she deployed her Whirlwind Skill.

Her intention was to quickly clear the Smoke Screen by blowing a strong wind.

However, her opponent’s movement was much faster.

Three Headshots that burst with blue lightning.

The lights on the Portraits of three Royal Prism players, including Kim Hyeona, who were blocking the corridor, flickered out.

<Our Dami! You’re doing great~ great~ great!>

A front-row seat in her own mind.

Seo Dami, with an excited Han Youngin tapping away inside her head on her back.

She began to shake the Battlefield.