Chapter 12
1.
「Me : First things first, upvote if you wanna kill the healer duo « these bitches lol」
The moment I sent that curse-filled message, the others reacted like they'd been jolted.
[N-no…!]
[H-how could you say something so awful…! W-who are you!?]
I didn't say a word. Neither did Aura or Heukrangi.
「5829 : For real lol I hit Tab and checked the enemy supports' healing, then looked at our supports' numbers and could only sigh lol」
A message popped up almost immediately. I watched it and grinned.
-These bitches had a lot bottled up lmao
-I thought the first person to speak was Bullet, but is that someone else???
-Holy shit lol
「4912 : A support's job is to support the team, like the name says. These bitches think standing in the back and healing is all it takes lol They're fucking clueless」
Someone else, who'd been quietly watching, joined in. Maybe it was Heukrangi or Aura.
「Me : Why are we losing? Because the healers can't use a single skill properly, their positioning is dogshit, and they can't heal for shit. That's why.」
Not to be outdone, I typed away furiously too.
[W-waaaah! That's so mean—!]
[We're doing our best too!]
The Girly Duo sniffled and complained.
「Me : Quit whining lol What do you mean, you're trying hard? Your skill's been the same every day lol」
「4912 : Don't try hard, get good, for fuck's sake. Did you come here to have fun or something? You're in a tournament, so what the hell are you talking about effort for???」
「5829 : I looked up your match history. You haven't even played 100 solo queue games, and you're talking about effort? Have you got no shame?」
[Sniff, sob….]
[Waaah….]
Had those three insults in a row really hurt that much? Now they were outright sobbing.
[H-hey, why are you crying…!]
[R-right. D-don't cry…!]
Heukrangi and Aura tried to comfort the Girly Duo, looking flustered. Honestly, even that bothered me.
「Me : Never trust a woman's tears. A woman cries by nature when things don't go her way. - Socrates.」
-You crazy bitch lmao
-This is 100% Bullet lol
-For real;;
[Are you actually a psychopath, Bullet?]
“W-why would I be…!?”
I jumped in surprise and answered.
[Hey, 4885. That's you.]
“N-no! How could I say something that awful…!? S-Socrates… Th-that guy was a real bastard…! That's totally misogynistic, isn't it…? S-sis!?”
-Misogynistic, my ass lol
-Holy shit lol
-What a dodge;;
-For real ㅠㅠ Socra?tes? That guy… sounds kinda like a Korean man ㅠㅠ
The more things got like this, the harder I had to push. And honestly, I wasn't too happy with the situation as it was.
「Me : lol Seems like both of you have a special talent? Professional mood-killers.」
「Me : If there were a bunch of simps around, your tears might work, but there are five women here. What are you gonna do? Or should we launch a counter-crying operation? All of us cry?」
-Counter-crying operation, holy shit lmao
-Professional mood-killers, holy shit lmao
-You crazy bitch lmao
-All of us cry, my ass lol
「Me : I guess people used to comfort and coddle you whenever you cried. But where I'm around, I will absolutely, abso-fucking-lutely never put up with it.」
[P-please stop—!!!]
[O-okay, we get it! We get it…! Waaaaah!]
「Me : Yeah. I'm not stopping until you stop crying. Let's see who gives in first.」
Maybe they'd sensed I meant it, because the Girly Duo's tears soon stopped.
[Sniffle, s-sorry… This is the first time I've been cursed out like this, so I guess it shocked me….]
[Like 4885 said, I guess we did bring down the mood… S-sorry….]
“I-I guess that could be true. That 4885 person is really awful…! I think I know who it is, but I won't bring them up in case it causes trouble for them, and also because of the rules…!”
[Who the hell is 4885?]
“A guilty conscience needs no accuser. Hmm….”
[What a shameless bitch….]
Heukrangi muttered under her breath. I heard every word, though.
“Th-then let's make a new room and talk again…! A-and I think we should change how we're doing this… You can't keep trying to guess who's who…!”
[You're not just saying that because you got found out, are you?]
“Huh? I was just trying to be considerate of you, Ms. Heukrangi…?]
[You crazy bitch….]
We made a new room and all changed our names and profile pictures to match. That way, no one could figure out who was who.
“W-we lumped all the supports together and cursed them out— I mean, gave them feedback… So n-next, I-I'll get evaluated….”
-Cursed them out?
-That wasn't feedback, holy shit;;
If the first round had been a free-for-all, this time we were putting people on the executioner's block one by one.
‘I still have so much more to say….’
I smacked my lips. I had a lot more to get off my chest about the Girly Duo, so it was a bit of a shame we had to stop here.
“P-please write everything in informal speech… A-and post it when I give the signal… One….”
Honestly, I wasn't too worried.
Without me going all out, we wouldn't have been able to put up a fight in either Red Outpost or Crystal Mining Zone.
Heukrangi or Aura, maybe. But the Girly Duo? Just looking at them, I could tell they wouldn't curse me out. They had their streamer images to think about, and more than anything, they both seemed soft-hearted.
“Three!”
「1234 : She acts like she knows her shit, but all she does is break shields with Odin. She doesn't do a damn thing else.」
“Hmm.”
It felt unfair, but I nodded for now. It was at least somewhat true.
「1234 : I don't know why she acts like she's some expert at this game lol She's about the same level as the rest of us, isn't she?」
“Hmm….”
It wasn't an act. I really did know a little more than they did.
Still, that wasn't bad. The insults had been mild. They must know it too, right? That I was this team's only hope!
Now all that was left was the Girly Duo. Probably.
‘They'll go easy on me, right?’
「1234 : Everyone had to drag the mood back up after she ruined it, and then she had the nerve to bitch about that. That's fucking ridiculous lol」
“Mm….”
W-wait… this is weird… They already said their piece, so why am I hearing this…?
「1234 : She says the problem is having five women on the team, but she's a woman herself lol Anyone would think she was a man or something lol」
‘W-well, that's true….’
I clapped with trembling hands, doing my best to hide it.
“A-all right, l-let's stop here…! I-I got more complaints about me than I expected… B-but I-I feel g-good right now… I-I feel… sniffle… happy inside….”
My voice was shaking.
[Whaaaaaat?]
[Hey, you're not crying, are you? After saying all that?]
“N-no.”
My eyes had started to sting for no reason.
“I-I think I'm just a little nervous, so my v-voice is shaking… sniffle….”
I really was fine. My body, apparently, wasn't.
“Y-you don't have to worry about me… L-let's move on… sniffle….”
「1234 : Never trust a woman's tears. A woman cries by nature when things don't go her way. - Socrates.」
“Waaah….”
[Are you seriously using the counter-crying strategy now?]
“Waaaaah!”
Socrates, that guy really was a misogynist…!
***
[………. ]
After the anonymous evaluations of everyone were done, the voice chat fell silent once more.
-Cough, cough…
-Gasp…
-Oh shit, not this again lol
-Ah, this is so embarrassing lmao
-How many times are we gonna see this today?
“S-so, we all got everything off our chests, right…? N-now there's nothing left bottled up, right…?”
[You seem to have the most bottled up.]
“N-no….”
It did hurt a little, but it was all true. Besides, if you really thought about it, it wasn't me who'd been insulted. It was the person who used to be in this body.
‘So it's fine. Mm-hmm.’
I nodded to myself and decided to let it go.
“S-so, I was thinking….”
[You were thinking?]
Heukrangi's jab made me bristle.
“F-for someone who blurted things out without thinking and even had to go on hiatus to reflect, that's a hell of a thing to say to me….”
[You fucking bitch. I thought we got everything off our chests.]
“Y-you started it….”
[So what was it you were thinking?]
Aura couldn't take it anymore and cut in between us.
“I-I read the Battle of Ruin rules from beginning to end, and it turns out there are n-no restrictions on switching roles within a team…?”
[That's right. But why…? Don't tell me…]
“Yes. That's right….”
I nodded.
“H-Harumong….”
[Y-yes!?]
Harumong was the younger VTuber in the Girly Duo. She usually played damage dealers, but had entered this tournament as a healer.
“L-let's switch roles…!”
Harumong's healing is hopeless. That was the conclusion I'd reached…!