Chapter 49

The Practice Room in the hotel’s basement was divided into sections.

Each country had its Access Devices installed in a separate room, creating an environment where we could come out and rest comfortably during practice without worrying about other teams.

And so, the game practice began.

The Rank Game, which we started to gauge each other’s skills amidst the gloomy atmosphere, was truly a sight to behold.

“…I already want to go home.”

Kim Seunga muttered.

The skills of the Third Division hooligans, who had shattered the mood from the very beginning, were truly a mess.

It said it all that they were struggling even against high-level regular players in the Diamond Tier.

It would have felt lacking even if we had brought the best player from the Third Division, but since they had picked young players for the purpose of nurturing prospects, their skills were bound to be even lower.

Still, my situation was a little better.

Until just a year ago, hadn’t I been an active player in the Third Division League with Dami?

Having experienced firsthand what the players there were capable of, I could activate a positive circuit in my brain that thought, ‘These guys aren’t so bad.’

But Kim Seunga was different.

She was an elite who had started her career in the First Division League from the get-go.

So she had no reason to be interested in or look into Third Division matches, and thus had no idea what the situation was like there.

“These guys are pro players? Is Korea doomed now?”

Kim Seunga muttered dark thoughts to herself, and I had to make sure her words didn’t get picked up by the camera.

The moment we stepped outside the Access Device, a camera would follow us.

It wasn’t hard to guess that if I let out a string of curses like, ‘Those fucking bastards call themselves players,’ they would probably be so happy they’d be grinning from ear to ear.

“Unni. You have to be patient.”

When I tried to soothe her, Kim Seunga said.

I have no confidence in teaching them.

Mentoring, my ass, I just want to pack my bags and go home.

She said it was such a waste of time to give up her training during the Break Period and come all the way here.

Just as Kim Seunga, facing an abyss of darkness, was getting depressed, PD Kim Seungha entered the Practice Room.

“I have something to tell you. We’ve scheduled a Practice Match for tomorrow.”

“Against who?”

“Russia.”

Russia.

The ones who had been acting snotty since the Lobby were our first opponents.

“Will the Practice Match be broadcast too?”

“No. There’s no Broadcast scheduled for the Practice Match.”

However, he did say that a summary would be edited and released to the users.

In other words, if we played half-heartedly just because it was a Practice Match, we would be perfect targets for criticism on the Community.

“What are the other teams doing? Is everyone practicing?”

“No. They unpacked and went outside the hotel.”

“They went out?”

Hearing that, I wondered if we were being too sensitive.

It felt like everyone else was out having fun, while only we, the objective last-place team, were practicing to death.

‘Will one day of practice even make a difference in the kids’ skills?’

Just as I was thinking that maybe we’d be better off going on a food tour of Jeju Island, PD Kim Seungha added a word.

“Only the Chinese and Russian teams.”

So not everyone went out to play?

“What about Japan?”

“The lights were on in the Practice Room next door.”

As expected of the strongest team.

The undisputed number one team in the Asian region, Japan.

Japan, the only Asian team considered to have the competitiveness to win the world tournament, had a different attitude even when approaching an event tournament.

I could feel their determination not to allow defeat, no matter how much of an event tournament it was.

“Would you like to go and say hello?”

“No.”

I cut off the PD’s suggestion with a single word, as he probably wanted to capture a shot of the Japanese and Korean teams greeting each other.

Why would I throw them firewood when there was nothing good to be gained?

I had no gifts to give to people who were eagerly waiting for our downfall.

“You said the Practice Match is with Russia. I’d like to focus on preparing for Russia for the time being.”

Leaving the PD, who was showing a hint of disappointment, behind, I asked Kim Seunga.

“What should we do now?”

There was less than a day left until the Practice Match.

I wondered if tiring ourselves out would make much of a difference.

I wanted to make them do Stamina Training, but if they got muscle soreness, their already garbage-level skills might just break through the floor and reach the inner core.

“Let me think about it.”

As Kim Seunga was lost in thought with her chin in her hand, I offered my opinion.

“Unni. Is the Artemis Team all on vacation too?”

“My team? No? They’re probably all training at the Team House. But why do you ask about my team’s vacation?”

“The scouting report team. Do you think we could get some help from them?”

After warming up together and checking the team members’ skills, I concluded that it was impossible to make a big change through training in just one day.

Thus, the plan I came up with was not to rely on our teammates, but to have the people we could trust take care of it themselves.

“The rosters should all be out, so let’s gather some data on the opposing team.”

Information on which players from each country had entered was already out.

If we knew their names and nationalities, it wasn’t difficult to gather data on what kind of games those players had played.

However, that was only true for a First Division League-level scouting report team.

For example, what if I contacted the Super Sylph Team House and asked Park Chaerin to gather some data on the Russian players?

Having never done such a thing and lacking the skills, she would never be able to finish the job in a single day.

‘Even a day is too late. This is a task that’s only meaningful if it’s done in at least half a day.’

The match was tomorrow morning.

The work had to be finished by evening for us to be able to look at anything and come up with a countermeasure.

Hearing my opinion, Kim Seunga said it seemed helpful and immediately contacted the Artemis Team.

The plan was to analyze the opponent based on this data, and for me and Kim Seunga to Carry the game.

Until the call came, Kim Seunga made the team members play games nonstop.

It was an order given out of the judgment that while it wouldn’t be of great help in improving their skills, she couldn’t stand to see them get criticized for going out to play.

The long-awaited reply from the scouting report team came in the evening.

[Initial analysis results for the Russian team.]

Kim Seunga printed out the materials, handed them out to the team members, and we decided to gather in a room to watch the videos together.

And so we began watching the game footage of the Russian team.

Unusually, Russia had formed this event team with two Snipers.

First was the Team Leader, Svetlana Smirnova.

She was the very same blue-eyed beauty who had ignored us in the morning.

Twenty-six years old.

Although she was already past her prime, the Sniper was the position in UA that could remain active the longest.

The Stamina burden was relatively low as they ran less compared to other positions.

Anyway, Svetlana was called a national treasure of Russia, so there was no doubting her skills.

With those outstanding skills, she had once even brought Russia to the Semifinals of the UA World Championship.

But no prime lasts forever.

Svetlana had at most about two years left to play.

It was certain that her country’s UA competitiveness would decline after her retirement, so Russia seemed to have decided to take this opportunity to give a young Prospect a chance.

After all, if not for an event like this, a Prospect from another team would rarely have the chance to be taught by her.

And so, the one who seized the opportunity this time was a Prospect from Russia’s Second Division League.

A seventeen-year-old girl called Irbis, Yekaterina Malagichi.

Irbis meant snow leopard.

It was a nickname she got for quietly taking down opponents before they could even spot her.

“Look at this level. This is the skill of a seventeen-year-old who just debuted?”

Watching the video, Kim Seunga marveled at the Russian team’s Sniper skills.

It was natural for Svetlana, who was called a national treasure, to be good, but the skills of Yekaterina from the Second Division were also formidable.

Every shot was a hit.

Her skill at hitting enemies with moving shots while on the move, not to mention when standing still, was extraordinary.

Looking at her skill alone, it was questionable why she had debuted in a Second Division team instead of the First Division.

“This is why gaming is all about Talent.”

Kim Seunga, who herself possessed no shortage of Talent, grumbled.

“This is a problem, though. If their Snipers are that good, there aren’t many strategies we can use…”

To deal with a Sniper who possessed the ability to hit enemies regardless of distance, we had no choice but to rely on Physical.

Whether it was through Blink, or by using a Smoke Screen and pushing Acceleration to its limit.

We had to break through the enemy’s incredibly sharp attacks with our Physical, but there was no way a player capable of such movements existed in the Second or Third Division.

‘Except for me, that is.’

Moreover, hearing that the enemy had two Snipers, a plan came to my mind.

The Slope Shield Operation.

This operation, coincidentally, was also a plan related to Seunga.

‘So it turned out like this.’

Five years ago.

When I was called up to the national team’s preliminary Entry and first met Kim Seunga at the Athletes’ Village, she and the women’s team were in the middle of practicing to break China’s Double Sniper Strategy.

And the one who helped Kim Seunga with her practice back then was me, who had become surplus manpower after failing to make the main Entry.

I had received help with my Swordsmanship, and Seunga and I clicked well, so I helped her as if it were my own business.

We prepared hard and worked just as hard, but unfortunately, Korea ultimately couldn’t beat China.

In an interview at the time, Kim Seunga said she had no regrets because she had shown 100 percent of what she had prepared.

But I heard from another player that she had cried silently behind the scenes.

She must have felt it was unfair.

She had done exactly what she had prepared, but the game fell apart because a teammate made a mistake.

I sometimes thought about it.

What if it had been Seunga and me in that spot?

I thought that Korea probably would have won against China that day.

Of course, men and women playing a game together was something that could never happen outside of a Rank Game, but this time was different.

In Seo Dami’s body, the chance to truly work as a team with her had arrived.

To Kim Seunga, who was agonizing over how to approach the game with us, I cautiously brought it up.

“Unni.”

“Yeah?”

“Didn’t you practice and use a counter to the Double Sniper five years ago? At the Asian Games.”

“Huh? How do you know that?”

“I’ve been watching the matches since I was young. It’s a national team match, after all.”

Kim Seunga said.

She said that thought had come to her as soon as she saw that Russia had a Double Sniper.

“But what’s the point of talking about it? Even you can’t pull that off. It’s something that even players with the Talent to get into the national team trained for over two weeks, grinding themselves down.”

It wasn’t a strategy that could be perfected in a day.

In reality, even the national team players had failed in the match against China, so it would be futile for us to bring it up as a solution.

So we had to find another way, she said.

But I shook my head and disagreed with her.

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“It wasn’t your fault we lost that game. We lost because Jin Suyeon slipped up at the end. She couldn’t pull off the Acceleration perfectly.”

“…So?”

“If there was no problem with the strategy and the person was the problem, then of course we should try it again. And I’m confident I won’t make a mistake.”

I’m different from Jin Suyeon.

Trust me and let’s try this one more time.

Then we can win.

As I pushed my opinion, Kim Seunga looked at me with a ‘what on earth is this girl’ expression.

If I were in Seunga’s shoes, it would have been a difficult thing to understand.

A Second Division player was saying, ‘I saw that strategy five years ago too~ I’m more confident I can do it better than the national team players, so trust me and let’s try it.’

With a dumbfounded expression, Kim Seunga glanced at the camera in the corner of the room.

“You know you can’t take this back once we start, right?”

“If we fail, you’re the only one who loses.”

Seunga whispered the last part in my ear.

The previous conversation would have been captured on film, so if the strategy failed, I would become a player who was all talk and no skill.

But I was confident.

What was the reason I had wanted to participate in this event in the first place?

It was because there was no better stage to make Dami a star.

But for me to become the main character and take down Russia with Kim Seunga?

Russia, who was considered a powerhouse worldwide?

If we succeeded, I might be able to see fans all over the country chanting Seo Dami’s name.

As I insisted until the end that I could do it, Kim Seunga nodded her head as if she had no choice.

“If you put it that way, I can’t say no. Then let’s go down and practice a bit before bed.”

“You’ll be surprised when you see it~?”

“We’ll have to see about that.”

Kim Seunga was half-convinced until the very end.

After checking the video sent by the scouting report team, we headed back to the basement Practice Room.

It went without saying that the corners of my mouth curled up into a grin.

My heart began to pound, just like it did five years ago when I first entered the Athletes’ Village.

Late at dawn.

Main PD Kim Seungha, who had brought the footage, was reviewing the video on his laptop.

The task was to decide what to cut and where to splice.

It was his job to extract entertainment from the hours of footage that the camera had followed them around and filmed all day.

“Jingyu. Anything interesting on your end?”

“Not yet.”

A small sigh escaped the main PD’s lips as he reviewed the footage with his Hubae.

As expected, the Korean joint team’s Game Performance was terrible.

The skills of the Third Division League players were particularly abysmal.

If things continued like this, they might be ejected without a single win against China, Japan, and Russia, just as everyone had predicted.

Who would enjoy watching the Korean team get beaten up just as everyone expected?

The most interesting scene from today’s filming was Seo Dami disciplining the Third Division players, so if they aired it as it was, it was guaranteed to be a flop.

‘There are variety shows, and then there are variety shows.’

Just as he was shaking his head, thinking that even an educational program would be more entertaining than this, there was a reaction from the footage filmed at the Team House.

Seo Dami’s confident statement about crushing Russia.

As his drowsiness vanished, PD Kim Seungha, who had reviewed the video before and after, asked his Hubae.

“What do you think of this?”

“She’s a nutcase, isn’t she? Did she forget for a moment that the camera was rolling?”

A nutcase.

In other words, it meant it would attract a lot of Aggro, so it was very good.

“But are you going to use this?”

“There’s nothing else to use.”

“If this airs as is, won’t Dami just end up looking like a fool?”

The Hubae seemed worried about Seo Dami’s reputation.

She had confidently said, ‘Trust me and let’s try this strategy!’ but if they got completely thrashed by Russia, the internet’s reaction would be ice-cold.

He thought that Korea could never beat Russia, and Kim Seungha felt the same way.

The first broadcast was tomorrow, and if they attached the results of the Russia Practice Match to this to make the first episode, Seo Dami was destined to be hung up on the Community and stoned all day.

“Why, you don’t like it?”

“No, I mean… Dami is still the next-generation player who will be responsible for the Korean national team in the future… If she gets traumatized here…”

“Well, well? Are you a Seo Dami fan?”

“No, not really a fan.”

“Not a fan, my ass.”

PD Kim Seungha clicked his tongue.

What a sight, a PD who wasn’t thinking about saving the broadcast but was fidgeting with worry about a cast member getting stoned.

Besides, this wasn’t some malicious editing or anything.

It was truly Seo Dami, without a single grain of MSG, persuading the team to trust her.

If he didn’t even use this as a source, he was at a loss as to what to fill the one-hour slot with.

“And you never know. Who knows? Maybe we’ll beat Russia?”

“Nah. That’s a bit…”

The Hubae, who seemed to be a definite Seo Dami fan, shook his head as if to say that wasn’t going to happen.

“If we just win, she’ll become a real Superstar.”

Saying so, PD Kim Seungha began editing the video.

Of course, even as he said this, he didn’t really think Korea would beat Russia.

But exactly eight hours later.

Watching the Practice Match held before the official match, the two PDs shot up from their seats and gasped, “Huck!”

Kim Seunga’s backup, and Seo Dami’s Attack.

At the same time as they displayed a synergy that made the viewers’ hair stand on end, Seo Dami’s shot struck Svetlana’s head.