Chapter 79

Mission accomplished in one week.

Seo Dami had once again earned the Wings of Light, the symbol of a Legendary.

She had achieved it much faster than last year, and it was an accomplishment made while many pro players were struggling to adapt to the new meta season.

-Super Sylph’s Ace!

-Seo Dami is still going strong.

-This is really meaningful.

-Stay with the team for life!!!

While many players were worried that their form might drop in the upcoming season, Seo Dami had proven that she would remain as strong as ever.

And perhaps because of this, Dami continued to receive a steady stream of personal messages.

Even though they knew she had already signed a two-year contract with Super Sylph, the number of teams looking beyond that had noticeably increased.

-If you join our team, Ms. Seo Dami, we will offer you the best treatment in the industry, surpassing your current contract conditions.

Offers poured in from both home and abroad.

Seo Dami’s caliber was now considered to have surpassed the domestic level, enough to secure a starter position even if she went overseas.

Her young age was also an advantage.

Dami, who would be playing in the First Division League next year, would only be twenty years old even after this month passed and the new year began.

Considering that a Pro Gamer’s prime is typically established around the age of twenty-three, Dami was truly a rising sun.

Some had previously voiced opinions that an annual salary of 2 billion Won for Dami to play a season was a bit too expensive, no matter how you looked at it, but such opinions had long since vanished.

It was already a given that Super Sylph would profit from Seo Dami in the future; the only difference in opinion was now about the extent of that profit.

And Super Sylph’s good fortune didn’t end there.

Jung Yunseul.

Jung Yunseul had also joined this challenge, and she too was subtly receiving offers.

Although her skills were less than Seo Dami’s, she was a year younger, and the rate at which her skills had grown during the second half of the Second Division League season was unbelievable.

Of course, my teachings were behind it, but in any case, to industry insiders, Yunseuli was a super blue-chip stock with a high probability of hitting her peak.

With the situation being what it was, many fans of other teams were envious of our team’s growth.

-Is that team’s Front Office good at their job? Or does the Director have a good eye for players?

-Probably both.

-She was a bit late to get promoted, but wasn’t Jung Yunseul originally called a once-in-a-generation Talent in the Second Division League?

-Sigh, some people get promoted straight to the First Division League.

-Our team is still floundering in the Second Division!

-Should I just switch to being a Super Sylph fan?

-You’re still not cheering for Super Sylph?

-Hurry up and get on board.

-Super Sylph is the team that will bring home Korea’s first World Championship trophy!

-lololl;;

-loll

Not only Dami and Yunseuli, but our team’s players were generally young, which also meant that as long as we kept re-signing them, they could maintain their prime for a long time.

And so, we welcomed January.

As the new year began, UA released an official statement.

They had gathered meaningful results over the past month.

It was a statistical report that began with words of gratitude for the support of the users.

UA announced that in the month of December, with the update centered on the Skill Custom System, they had secured a staggering 80 million new users globally.

80 million in just one month.

It was an incredible number.

Many other games didn’t even reach that number when combining all their users worldwide.

But UA had attracted that enormous number of people as ‘new’ users in just one month.

And UA’s announcement didn’t end there.

『We believe this update was certainly an enjoyable experience for our general users. However, we are also aware that many officials are expressing discomfort regarding the operational aspects of the League.』

Many teams were expressing discomfort.

This was an undeniable fact.

There were quite a few teams, even in Korea, that couldn’t adapt to the new season’s meta.

The problem was usually adaptability; not all players, even those receiving high annual salaries, were excellent at adapting to change.

In response, the UA management announced that they would view this entire year as an adaptation period and plan to adjust the balance accordingly.

The announcement stated that the update, carried out with the justification of attracting new users, had already sufficiently achieved its goal, and that they would also fully consider the league’s complaints.

The teams, having confirmed the official announcement, put their regrets aside and spurred on their preparations for the new season.

It was already January.

There were only about three months left until the season’s opening.

“Everyone, watch closely. When Acceleration is stacked, even a First Division Pro Gamer can’t handle that speed properly. It creates openings. Not to mention the Mana consumption.”

During team training time.

Coach Park Chaerin gathered the players in the meeting room and continued her explanation, showing them prepared materials and videos.

The changes in the game brought about by Skill Custom.

Countless skills had been introduced into the game, but as time passed, a picture emerged where they were gradually divided into mainstream and non-mainstream.

“Until last month, there were many skill setups that supported the Ace, but you can see that they are declining again as time goes on.”

A downward-sloping graph curve.

In Rank Games now, it was rare to find skill setups that went all-in on the Ace like before.

This was because it had been proven through multiple verifications that this wasn’t as dynamically efficient as thought.

When teammates used skills to support an Attacker to nearly double their existing Firepower, the Mana consumed for it was usually far more than double.

Moreover, it was hard to say the efficiency was very high in terms of speed or defense either.

Let’s take stacked Acceleration as an example.

If an Attacker used an Acceleration Skill while a Supporter had already cast Acceleration on them, that player could draw out a more powerful effect than the maximum increase that the Acceleration skill itself possessed.

But there was a trap here.

First of all, the increase wasn’t even double, and it wasn’t easy to control it fully.

Acceleration skills already required judgment and kinetic vision that surpassed human limits.

But to go one step further and achieve perfect control in a state of hyper-acceleration?

This was a truly difficult problem.

There were cases where players would misstep due to the overwhelming speed, and some players’ Attack Power would even drop because their Aim became unsteady.

Of course, not everyone was like that.

The world’s top-tier players.

Among World Class players, there were occasional glimpses of them perfectly handling stacked skill effects.

Like Katarina Verona, the Attacker for the European League champions, the Crusaders team.

Kato Mikane, who won last year’s World Championship, showed herself using stacked skills quite effectively on her personal broadcast.

But even those players didn’t have a game where they were carried by receiving an all-in buff stack of skills throughout the entire game.

The analysts’ evaluation was that it was better to use stacked skills, which came at the cost of massive Mana consumption, only when absolutely necessary, at the right timing.

As they prepared for the season by changing their builds, the team members were all lost in similar worries.

“Is it… even possible to raise this?”

Kim Dain, who was in the middle of shooting practice, let out a sigh.

It was because her skill proficiency seemed to have hit a wall, refusing to increase any further.

As they entered preparations for the new season, UA had implemented an enhancement of the Advanced Mode’s effects along with the Skill Custom System.

What did this mean?

Previously, if you honed a skill to its maximum and perfected it, you could score up to 100 points, but now it meant you could raise the skill efficiency beyond 110, even 120 points.

The problem was that raising the proficiency beyond 100 points was ridiculously difficult.

The player with the highest high-difficulty skill proficiency in Super Sylph was Seo Dami.

She was the only player who could execute the Acceleration Skill at nearly 100 points.

But even Dami struggled immensely to adapt when the ceiling for her Acceleration Skill proficiency was raised.

She would often cling to Yunseuli and mutter, “Oppa, help me—.”

If this was the situation, how would the other team members be?

Not just Yunseuli, but Shin Aram, Kim Dain, and Hwang Jua were all racking their brains.

“Isn’t the very idea that we can enhance it further from here a lie?”

Hwang Jua, exhausted from practice, plopped down and grumbled.

But there was no choice but to keep practicing.

In fact, Park Chaerin would occasionally demonstrate her shooting skills, and her skill proficiency was, at a glance, at a level exceeding 100 points.

In other words, when the league opened, someone would bring a high-proficiency skill, and the players who couldn’t would be left behind in the league.

The players continued their skill training under pressure and burden.

Watching Yunseuli consistently practice Purifying Lightning Strike, I thought.

<Ah, if I helped, I think I could refine it a bit better.>

It seemed I had a knack for refining skills.

The fact that I had instantly found the right skill for Yunseuli, and even now, as I shared the sensation of her skill training, I was getting a feel for how to use Mana more efficiently.

<Ah, that’s not how you do it.>

It was at that moment, as I silently thought to myself so Yunseuli couldn’t hear and moved my hand.

“Huh?”

<Huh?>

The same sound escaped from Yunseuli’s and my mouths at the same time.

Is it because it’s time to go home?

It was about time for my energy to run out and for me to go recharge.

But I didn’t think I’d be going today or tomorrow, yet today, suddenly, I was able to move Yunseuli’s body again.

Wondering if this was a coincidence, I moved my body for a moment as if to warm up.

It moved well.

Our places had switched.

‘We’ve… switched places, right?’

<It seems so. Why did this suddenly happen?>

Even if she asked for a reason, how would I know?

I didn’t even know why I got hit by a truck and ended up possessing someone else’s body in the first place.

I said we should focus on skill practice for now, since we didn’t know when our places might switch back.

First, Purifying Lightning Strike.

A skill that imbued an attack with lightning, causing a paralysis effect on the opponent.

If its proficiency was honed by increasing its Mana Efficiency, it was something that could definitely become a powerful skill.

I shouldered the Rifle and began firing at the target.

Simultaneously, the Mana decreasing with the use of the skill began to be meticulously checked on a graph.

<Awesome!>

Yunseuli, who was watching this, widened her eyes and exclaimed in admiration.

Not long after initiating the skill, the Mana Efficiency had begun to rise.

‘Yunseul. Focus, focus! We don’t know when an opportunity like this will come again.’

<Yes, sir!>

Yunseuli’s eyes shot open as she concentrated her mind to feel the sensation of using the skill.

Arranging the runewords needed for the activation of Purifying Lightning Strike and drawing up Mana to receive its effect.

As my concentration reached its peak, the graph instantly shot upwards, and the skill proficiency began to rise.

‘Remember this well. For skill proficiency, it’s not just about increasing Mana Efficiency. Activation time is also important.’

<Yes!>

In a match, the win-loss was often decided by who could complete their skill faster.

To an ordinary person, it might feel like a truly insignificant difference, but to a Pro Gamer running with Acceleration, that small difference could be the deciding factor that determined victory or defeat.

And just as I was riding that momentum, Dami, who had sensed something was off, tilted her head slightly and approached.

“Practice going well?”

I was deeply focused at that moment, so I just concentrated on shooting without a word, but Dami watched quietly and only after one shooting cycle was over did she stick close behind me.

“Strange. Why do I smell Oppa….”

As Dami sniffed, my concentration was bound to break.

“Hey! Why are you sniffing over there!”

“Huh? It’s my Oppa. What is this? What is this? What is this?”

When I told her our places had switched, though I didn’t know why, Dami went “Hmm~” and added a comment.

“Then you could come to me for no reason, right? Right?”

<Tell her to wake up from that dream because it’s never going to happen. That greedy girl!>

Yunseuli shrieked that she had only been with me for half a year, but Dami was so greedy she was trying to take Oppa away.

“Both of you, be quiet. If you two get distracted, you won’t win the championship. You think winning the First Division is easy?”

“I’m sorry! I’ll focus!”

Dami quickly apologized and returned to practice mode.

But there was a difference: before, she had been practicing far away, but now she had come to practice right next to me.

As if she was asking me to watch her practice.

Her intentions were so transparent that I let out a chuckle and told her to get into position.

It was a rare opportunity to teach Dami and Yunseuli at the same time, so I thought I should do my best.

There’s a saying that accidents always happen without warning.

It was like that when I first met Dami, and today was exactly that kind of day for me.

Early March.

A month before the season’s opening, I had finished coordinating opinions with the kids.

We had agreed that after I finished my next energy charge, I would stay with Yunseuli again.

Dami was greatly saddened by this decision, but it couldn’t be helped.

Control of the body could be switched with the person I was with, but it wouldn’t transfer to a third party no matter how hard we tried.

“Then you can just come to me!”

“Then the training efficiency would drop.”

“……”

Dami argued that I could just take the lead when teaching Yunseuli while staying with her, but Dami herself knew well that it was an unreasonable demand.

The reason I was able to make Seo Dami be called a World Class player in the women’s division in just one year was thanks to the training that shared sensations.

Feeling another’s experience as if it were one’s own.

There was no training method more broken for improving one’s skills.

And if Super Sylph’s championship was the top priority, now was the time to focus on Jung Yunseul rather than Seo Dami.

Seo Dami was already close to completion as a player.

On the other hand, Yunseuli still had much to learn.

When thinking about who to possess, it was natural to choose Yunseuli, who had more room for growth.

The most desirable arrangement was for me to teach Yunseuli directly and advise Dami from a third-person perspective.

“So you’re leaving tomorrow?”

“Probably?”

Judging by the faintness of my soul, it seemed I would return to my original body sometime tonight.

“Then let’s sleep together today.”

“Sleep together?”

“We always slept together anyway….”

<My goodness! How scandalous!>

No, what’s so scandalous about it?

Isn’t bathing a bigger problem than sleeping together?

Various thoughts crossed my mind, but Yunseuli didn’t tease Dami any further.

Her tone suggested that since she had secured the privilege of having me with her, she could turn a blind eye to this much.

And so, we had to spend a rather uncomfortable night.

The beds in the team house were single-sized, so they were a bit narrow for two people to sleep in.

But Dami didn’t care and slept hugging me as if I were a doll.

To be precise, she was hugging Yunseuli.

<Should I give her a flick on the forehead and tell her to go back to her own room right now?>

Yunseuli, who must have been quite uncomfortable, tossed and turned before chiming in.

But I couldn’t bring myself to flick her forehead.

When I turned my head slightly, I saw that Dami was already sound asleep, snoring softly.

Dami was asleep, and Yunseuli was asleep.

And when dawn came.

I felt a sensation as if I were flying somewhere.

And a moment later, the pitch-black darkness I had experienced before welcomed me.

I thought, I’m back.

To my body that couldn’t move an inch.

Now that I could freely switch control, I should charge as much energy as possible. That’s what I was thinking.

I suddenly felt my mouth go dry.

‘This can’t be….’

In the quiet dawn.

The sound of the patient monitor, which informed me that I was still alive with its regular graph.

That sound, which would normally have been unremarkable, now felt like the background music of a horror movie to me.

The reason was simple.

My soul was no longer charging.