Chapter 171
<Streamer Gallery>
[NoName) Why isn't she streaming solo again?][27]
Why does she keep participating in every scrim without fail, yet never start a stream!!!!!!
I can't watch the scrims from NoName's POV, so it's frustrating enough to kill me, like trying to eat a sweet potatoㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Comments]
-She's busy as hell right now; she says she'll do a solo stream after the match
└ She could at least turn it on during scrims; is that so hard?
└ I dunno either
-If she starts a solo stream, she has to greet viewers one by one and accept donations
└ You become a streamer to take donations, don't you? Do you stream to win tournaments?
└ NoName kind of seems like she doesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Don't try to understand a child's mind. Just accept it.
-I heard she's busy outside the game too; isn't it because it's exam season at school?
└ Finals should still be a month away, though?
└ Her academy is pretty academically intense to begin with.
-Go check NoName's VTube, she uploaded something that obviously looks freaking insane just nowㅇㅇ
└ What is it?
└ I don't really get it;; Just go look, how long could it take?
[Is Kariri hitting Diamond today?][32]
NoName taught her the suicide-assassin meta, and she's climbing the ranks at a bizarre pace
It's hilarious that she keeps winning games despite feeding ten deaths every timeㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Comments]
-Her scrim win rate climbing too is genuinely comedy
└ It was in the 30% range at first, too
-She's doing the most insane clown show trying to keep Kariri's character aliveㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Even the viewers' all-out backseating content—she's just a streaming genius
└ Mining a pearl from the mudㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Probably doesn't have time to reach Diamond, but Plat 1 is still pretty damn good
[The day Kariri rage-quit a scrim.real fact][53]
This is a video uploaded to an overseas VTube channel, and she went to Desire Land wearing her main avatar, legendaryㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Comments]
-Is that NoName and Adela beside her?
-Good! When it's time to have fun, you should have fun properly!
-Cuteㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Kya~ Now that's Kariri. Why care what other people think?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ (Poster): Exactly, exactly. In Korea, apologizing only gets you flamed harderㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Is the tournament a fucking joke? She already caused enough trouble for her teammates, and now she's off playing around? What a childish mindset.
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└ (Poster): For real.
└ That's scary as hell
└ Is he mentally ill?
└ Why did this guy hit the berserk button?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
* * *
ACK's former first-team coach 'Hwanggu,' current first-division pro gamer (and current unemployed person) 'LG Chaos,' was watching the match as a coach.
“You lost sight of the assassin! Everyone watch out for backstabs!”
“Kariri, I think you need to stick with me! They're definitely going to dive in to target me, the mage!”
“We're also two-versus-three with NoName over here!”
“Daltori, bring the lane all the way over to me. Once Yongcheol joins us, they'll force a teamfight.”
There were no quests, no capture points, and no objectives had spawned.
On top of that, they were outnumbered.
“Even if we lose the teamfight, fight for now.”
At NoName's confident command, a 4v6 teamfight broke out.
Kariri took the first hit.
“Get ready to switch formation. Kariri, move inside, and Brownie, take her place. Simsimman, jump over here as soon as you finish capturing, and Yongcheol, stick close to Daltori and watch for assassins circling around from behind. Don't spread out under any circumstances.”
It was NoName's command, one they had long since grown accustomed to.
In an instant, Kariri switched positions with Brownie, who wielded a Zweihänder, keeping her health at a manageable level.
As a class ill-suited for defense, she dropped to her knees and was stunned in an instant, the incapacitation message appearing.
But protecting the mage was always the top priority.
Next, needless to say, was the healer.
Ching—!
NoName's sword rang out sharply.
The man who had brought down his greatsword did not panic.
It was a scene that had played out countless times over the past week.
Even without mana, surely a one-on-one would be fine? Her head was severed, and she died.
Then what about three-on-one? Her heart was pierced through completely, and she died this time too.
She was on a completely different level from the start.
If NoName were given enough time, she could stubbornly take on any number of opponents.
But that didn't mean there was no counterplay.
Locking down the healer and starving the rest to death had become widely accepted as the standard way to face Team The Blory.
And to counter this standard—or to throw their opponents' strategy into confusion—they had practiced over and over throughout the past week of scrims.
Suddenly, NoName deliberately took a hit from the enemy's attack.
Then, using ‘Twilight Doppelganger,’ which she gained when her health fell below 15%, she deceived the enemy and instantly rejoined the main group.
She appropriately healed Kariri, whose health was hanging by a thread,
and Kariri, who had instantly transformed from an assassin into a berserker, handled the two-on-one with ease.
And thanks to NoName forcing her through a special ranked-game boot camp, Kariri's movements had become even more precise.
She casually blocked a blow stabbing at her waist from behind with her claws.
Her red eyes turned toward the knight.
“This is gonna sting!”
Five blades of sword energy tore through the earth.
* * *
“Why didn't you take the detour here? Even if you couldn't stop them, you should have checked it as Plan B.”
Coach Hwanggu pointed out the opposing assassin taking a long detour to kill the mage Daltori.
“Even if we spotted them first, there was no guarantee we'd win.”
Name chimed in to defend him.
“You can never win if you play that safely.”
“Their opposing assassin was Diamond. If we went scouting and happened to lose, we wouldn't even have a foothold for a comeback.”
“I told you, if you check first, you absolutely won't lose! This is a team game!”
[‘Firestarter’ donated 10,000 won!]
-Coach Hwanggu, though, we lost in a similar situation during the last scrimㅇㅇ
“Ah, that's what I'm saying. Listen carefully, guys. Just because something produced a bad result in practice doesn't mean it was a bad choice. Sometimes you have to know how to choose the right option.”
Hwanggu's idea of ideal macro play was to pick out, at every decision point, only the option with the highest expected win rate.
“To put it another way, what was it... Say I was pushing an old lady's handcart from behind on a hill, and the wheel broke. I can't say, ‘Oh, helping her caused this! I should never do that again!’”
-What did the grandma ever do to deserve this, Hwanggu?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Oh dear, guess our grandson can't give us pocket money now...
-You'd better prostrate yourself, right?
“Huh? On the other hand, say I swung my fist at someone because I was in a bad mood, but it turns out that person was a pickpocket! Am I going to keep punching people like I'm in GTA? I'll end up in prison! My life will be Bronze.”
[‘luckysukebe’ donated 5,000 won!]
-Bullshit mode ONㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Woof woof
“Anyway, I sent him because Simsimman could join 18 seconds later from this point, so as long as Yongcheol stayed with us, two people would be enough to hold them off. The paladin had also gotten pretty strong by then.”
“An assassin doesn't have to get a kill. If they just disrupt the backline, both you and Kariri will collapse too, you know?”
“A heal-assassin can handle even two versus five. I tested it.”
“Ha!”
Coach Hwanggu slapped a palm onto his forehead.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-That damn heal-assassinㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-It can't win, but it doesn't get pushed back eitherㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-First time I've seen Hwanggu get shut downㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Everyone knows it makes no sense, but it weirdly works
-The heal-assassin meta is coming...!
-An unkillable hedgehogㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“Chaos. Do you happen to have any footage we recorded before?”
“Ah, yes, Coach. But this is really...”
A video edited to show only scenes featuring NoName and Kariri appeared.
They had even gotten permission to bring out the automatic extraction application used for feedback on pro matches for Ttagapdae.
As expected, it showed Kariri somehow remaining in the 20% health range while receiving NoName's healing.
Scene 1.
The strongest four-person composition: one shield knight, two knights, and one mage.
With their frontline firmly established, sharp swords rushing in from both sides and powerful fireballs raining down from behind, Kariri crossed her arms and hunched over.
With their backs together, NoName continued building up her parry stacks.
Eventually, NoName jumped over the shield knight, springing off Kariri's back.
The blow, stacked with Rule the Nation, Pacify the World, and Mirage Strike, was far from weak. Especially when the target was a mage.
Scene 2.
This time, they were using a backdoor strategy, aiming to destroy the enemy Yggdrasil.
Rather than standing back-to-back, they pressed their shoulders together and held their sword and claw pointed straight ahead.
They took ordinary arrows and spells from afar, while parrying the big abilities away as appropriate.
Scene 3.
“There's nothing more to see here. Stop.”
-This is just a frag movieㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The deceased's... no, the current eighth-grader's insane frag movieㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-One hit kills you, so how the hell is she parrying all of that?
-Kariri's eyesight is insane too;; Can she actually see the arrows?
└ They've been practicing just that with NoName all day
└ Oh shit;;
“All right, I admit it. But this isn't because my theory is wrong—it's because you, NoName, are outside the bounds of what's possible. This normally shouldn't work... You just forced it...! And made it work. Honestly, if this is possible, then the theory is meaningless, isn't it?”
“It was the optimal decision.”
“Your optimal decisions are too extreme. What I aim for is a game where we win 70% of the time when everyone contributes 0.9 of a person's worth. But look at you—you and Kariri have to contribute 1.5 people between the two of you just to barely reach a 60% win rate, maybe. Do you understand how different the underlying approach is, even though both are optimal?”
“I understand. But to perform at our tier, that's preferable.”
“What do you think, Kariri? Are you okay?”
“...”
Kariri had remained silent ever since the coach asked her.
“Kariri? Ms. Kariri? Hellooo?”
[‘Hoomusae’ donated 20,000 won!]
-Thirty minutes on feedback?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Kariri's standing there unconscious?
“Huh? Yes...?”
-Pya pya pya pya
-Wow, that soundㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Was she spacing out?
-So cute
-Honestly, Kariri had plenty of disappointing moments, but she hasn't had a single truly bad one lately.
But even when the coach questioned her, Kariri kept nervously biting her lips and rolling her eyes around.
“Coach, about Kariri! I think someone's ringing the doorbell outside right now, so I should go check quickly!”
“Oh, really? Then go.”
“I'll be right back!”
-There she goes again!
-At this point, does she have a boyfriend or something?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-No way, she's not that kind of girl. It's Kariri: 100 community skill, 100 loner energy, 0 sociability.
└ Ugh, I can smell the simp sweat;;
-She just seems to hate doing scrims
-Scrims are basically collabs too; it looks bad that she keeps leaving
-Seriously, how long is she going to use the doorbell excuse?
-At least she didn't rage-quit like last time; she paused it, so I think she'll be back soonㅇㅇ
└ The Honeybee kids have all cracked their headsㅋㅋㅋㅋ Look at them covering for her.
└ If you're a fan, of course you'd cover for her. Should I curse her out instead?
└ That's why she causes controversies every time she collabs.
“Whoa, whoa, don't fight, everyone. You're all using the same chat room right now, so you shouldn't fight.”
While each streamer calmed their viewers down, Name sat on a tree stump and continued waiting only for Kariri.
-Isn't our streamer saying anything?
-I'm proud to have the NoName mark in front of my nickname!
-NoName is just a baby... Her favorite thing in the world is stirring up trouble...
-Was she Pororo?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Pororo likes playing, not stirring up trouble! Don't distort the factsㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-For us, stirring up trouble is playing!
Then a donation appeared in the middle of the members of Team The Blory.
The stiff, mechanical TTS, with no special settings enabled, began reading out the message.
[‘zxcvbnm’ donated 1,000 won!]
-It's unit 13xx, right?
-?
-?
-?
-What is it?
-Home address?
-???
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
From Kariri's avatar, which had turned into a stiff wooden doll, Seol Yoonseul's scream faintly rang out.
“Kariri? Kariri!”
“What was that? What was that sound?”
It wasn't a sound coming from her while connected to VR, but a voice transmitted through the microphone outside the capsule.
Everyone sprang to their feet and approached Kariri to check on her, but there was no life in her eyes.
Even when they repeatedly shook her body, frozen rigid in virtual reality, she did not return.
Their only option was to bring themselves as close to her ear as possible and shout.
“Ms. Kariri, is something wrong? Ms. Kariri?”
“Ah, what is it? Don't joke around... Hey, you're starting to scare me... It's a joke, right?”
Daltori trembled, her face frightened.
No matter how long they waited in silence, Kariri did not reappear to brush it off as a joke.
[Kariri – Offline]
Name's VR connection cut off immediately afterward.
[NoName – Offline]