Chapter 11
1.
-This bitch is insane lmaoooo
-What???
-Did I just hear that wrong…?
[W-what kind of outrageous thing is that all of a sudden!?]
Heukrangi shouted at me in a horrified voice.
[Bullet, that's so mean!]
[How can you say something like that when you're a woman too, Bullet!]
Even the Girl-Smell Duo, who hardly ever got angry, scolded me.
[…Bullet, after finally managing to get into the tournament, are you trying to get kicked out again?]
Finally, Aura pressured me in a voice that sent a chill down my spine. Hearing it made me tremble like a lamb before a wolf.
Only then did I realize I'd acted without thinking at all.
“W-wait a second…! I-I think there's been some kind of misunderstanding. I-I didn't say that because I have any m-malicious intent toward you all…!”
Considering how I'd acted just a moment ago, it was only natural they'd think that.
-Hey, you fucking bitch, what the fuck is that way of talking?
-Do you not have a mother?
-Who the fuck do you think you are, talking shit to our girls, you bitch?
-This nobody bitch's gone crazy lmao
-We were nice to you, and now you think you're on our level?
-Fucking mosquito bitch lol
Maybe it was because I'd openly criticized the entire team, but the chat window was hit by a carpet bombing of insults.
『1,012 viewers…』
The number of viewers had quintupled in an instant. All those people had swarmed in just to curse me out.
‘I can't back out now…!’
No take-backs.
Once you'd laid your cards down, you couldn't pick them back up. All that was left for me now was to move forward.
“P-please, hear me out first.”
[…Go ahead.]
Thankfully, Aura let me speak. Her voice was still as cold as the ice in Antarctica, but if I played my cards right, maybe I could drive polar bears to extinction?
“W-what's the atmosphere like on our team right now?”
[Good? Given our win rate, it's practically a miracle we haven't fallen apart yet.]
“Th-that's the problem….”
[What are you talking about all of a sudden!?]
[If the atmosphere's good, what's the problem!? Isn't that a good thing!?]
The Girl-Smell Duo objected to what I said.
“P-please think about it rationally. D-do you really think a team with a 4% win rate should be this ch-cheerful…?”
[…It dropped to 3% after we lost to Pizza Beer’s team.]
Aura corrected me in a dejected voice.
“A team with a 3% win rate shouldn't have such a good atmosphere…! Why, why are you all so cheerful? Why are you so upbeat…?”
[I don't know how to answer that, but maybe it's because everyone's just nice overall?]
“H-Heukrangi is a n-nice person…? Th-that seems a little… like your ego's a bit too inflated….”
[You fucking bitch.]
-LMAOOOO
-Even now, she won't let that one go lol
-You alligator-snapping-turtle bitch…
-Once she bites down, she never lets go!!!!!
“I-I think the reason our team has such a good atmosphere is that we don't have any competitive drive…!”
[Competitive drive?]
I nodded at Aura's question.
“Y-yeah…! We feel more like a team that got together to hang out than one that came here to win… Like just participating is what matters…?”
When I'd first checked out the team's atmosphere, I thought it was a good sign. It was better than everyone being discouraged. But after actually playing some matches, I understood.
‘These people don't want to win. No, it's like the thought hasn't even crossed their minds.’
Heukrangi?
At a glance, this woman only entered because she was afraid she'd be forgotten if she skipped the tournament. She doesn't seem to have any other goal. Her channel's in an awkward middle ground, after all.
The Girl-Smell Duo?
They were the same. When I checked earlier, one was a VTuber with around 400 viewers, and the other had around 300. Even just watching them play, it was obvious they were mainly here to get their faces out there.
‘It's like they don't even know the basics.’
Aura?
She at least had the desire to win, but she didn't know how to go about it. And the constant losses and single-digit win rate had worn down her motivation, too.
“I-I got this material straight from Jibjig Gallery myself. Take a look….”
-Whoa;
-A nasty site ㄷㄷㄷ
I shared my screen and played a scrim video of another team.
They were playing better than us, but they were still a total ragtag bunch. That was probably why their win rate was the second-worst after ours.
「No, fuck. Just play better. I told you to heal me properly. Is that so hard? You just have to click the mouse, don't you?」
As soon as the defeat screen appeared, a man started cursing as if he'd been waiting for it.
「Your positioning was dogshit. Why are you whining about heals? The enemy team was diving our backline, so the supports were helping each other out! How was I supposed to heal you?」
「Then don't get jumped.」
「Then you should've watched my back.」
Their words grew increasingly harsh, and their voices were full of emotion. Even through the video, I could feel the tension vividly.
“S-so, w-what do you think?”
When the video ended, I carefully asked my teammates. My body was trembling so badly that it was a little hard to speak.
[That was pretty intense. But why are you trembling? You brought the video.]
“Th-that's true, but I only watched a little before bringing it… It was kind of s-scary….”
[So are you saying we should fight like that too?]
Aura asked in a cold voice.
“W-we don't need to fight that harshly….”
I didn't think I could handle that kind of thing in the first place. This body was just too timid. It wasn't me who was weak!
“I-if our team is at one extreme, with no conflict at all, then they're at the opposite extreme, right…? So whose win rate is higher…?”
[…Theirs is higher.]
“Th-there you go… I even heard that team has a 25% win rate….”
It was still a pretty hopeless number, but it was incomparable to 3%.
[So you're saying it's better to have conflict than none at all?]
“Y-yeah… At least you'd gain something from clashing with each other….”
Whether it was skill or good content for their streams.
In fact, that team ranked among the top five of the 128 teams in viewership alone. And they didn't even have any big-name streamers.
[Could it just be that we're lacking skill or ability?]
“Th-those are basically the same thing… T-to begin with, everyone started without a coach, and people above a certain rank can't participate… So in the end, we're all pretty much in the same boat….”
[I understand that there's too little conflict and too little competitive drive. But it's not like we can force ourselves to start fighting now, is it?]
That was an unusually sharp observation for Heukrangi. So she could think things through after all…
“Y-you're right… That would be hard. In the end… we need to overhaul the whole team's habits…!”
[What do you mean by overhaul?]
“F-first, we should all start using informal speech with one another…!”
[Informal speech?]
“Y-yeah…! From playing the game, I noticed that not only do we barely make callouts, but even when we do, we talk way too much…! It feels like we can't get the words we need out right when we need them.”
‘Watch out for their ultimate.’
We should say it like that.
‘We've taken a lot of damage, so their ultimate is probably almost charged. We need to watch out for it.’
We all end up writing a whole dissertation like this. Every last one of us!
“A-and on top of that, we're being way too respectful and polite to each other…! It feels… f-fake, I guess?”
-For real;;
-True
-The vibe is way too giggly…
“I-I think we need to start using informal speech to break through that…!”
[Well, that kind of makes sense, maybe?]
“Heukrangi, you don't have to be convinced… You've been rudely using informal speech all by yourself this whole time….”
[You told me to, you crazy bitch.]
“S-so, what do you think?”
I ignored what she said and asked the others for their opinions.
[Well, should we give it a try?]
[Sounds good!]
[It sounds fun!?]
“Th-then let's st-start!”
[………. ]
As soon as I clapped my hands, the voice chat went quiet.
-Cough, cough…
-I can't breathe ㅠㅠ
-There's not enough oxygen…!
“Wh-why isn't anyone t-talking…?”
[Ah, it's a little awkward when I actually try to do it. I mean, it feels awkward.]
[Y-you're right!]
[Hehe, it's harder than I thought….]
Their reactions made me frown. This wasn't the scene I'd wanted. At this rate, things would only get more awkward.
“N-no, this won't work…! I'll take drastic measures…!”
[Drastic measures?]
I opened BubbleChat and created an anonymous chat room.
“C-come in here….”
[An anonymous chat room? Why all of a sudden?]
“O-our team has way too much pretense and politeness…! We need to let out everything we've been keeping inside here…! That's the only way we can improve…!”
[…Isn't it just that you have a lot you want to say?]
“N-no way…! I-I don't have any complaints about the team, n-none, n-none, n-none, n-none….”
[You clearly have a fuckton. And why aren't you using informal speech?]
Heukrangi said incredulously.
“…It's not easy to use informal speech with people you don't know. It might be simple for shameless people like you, Heukrangi.”
[You fucking bitch.]
-LMAOOOO
-A bitch who can't lie…
-You should try lying for once, damn it;;
[It does look fun, so why don't we give it a try?]
[S-sounds good!]
[I-I think it'd be good for me to try it too…!]
Aura and the Girl-Smell Duo accepted my suggestion.
[Ah, but if we do it this way, people will see that Bullet's the one typing. I'll ask my editor to make a new room and invite everyone again. How about it?]
At Aura's words, I nodded.
“S-sounds good…!”
That had been bothering me a little, too.
[Does that even matter? The one who's going to type the most in here is obviously Bullet, right?]
“I-I won't type much…?”
[Then you'll be the bitch who types the least.]
“Then that means all of us would be me…!”
[So what?]
“…Y-you bitch.”
[What was that?]
“N-nothing…!”
After a short wait, an invitation arrived from an unfamiliar account.
[My editor sent the invite. Everyone join. Oh, and we need to change what's on the stream, okay? My editor will share their screen.]
I covered the screen and immediately clicked the accept button. The necessary steps were soon finished, and the anonymous chat room made by the editor appeared on the stream.
Everyone was displayed as a random number, so there was no way to tell who was who.
[Is everyone in?]
“Yes…!”
Everyone answered, myself included.
[Then let's start. From now on, don't say anything out loud. Type everything in chat. Got it?]
“Yes…!”
The anonymous chat room sat empty. I wondered what I should do.
‘Should I start off gently?’
I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head. What we needed now wasn't a carrot, but a whip. Someone had to become the villain if we were going to change this team.
‘I'll be the Dark Knight…!’
Flutter~
Then I rapidly tapped away at my phone's keyboard.
「Me: First off, upvote if you wanna kill the healer duo « these bitches lol」
Fuuuuuck, I can't take it anymore!!!