Season 5: Chapter 94. Into the Room of Truth (1)
"Damn it. If you think we're wrong, then EXPLAIN it properly! You think just because your mechanics are decent, everything we say is wrong?!"
Thud.
A man slammed the dormitory door and disappeared. The remaining members in the living room slowly looked away. “
Hah...
Here we go again.”
“Can't he just let it go?”
“How? He's openly dismissing everything we say.”
“Choi Sung-Hyun is too self-righteous. And it's not like he's actually teaching us anything.”
Sa-Rang sat in her chair, unable to move. She couldn't fire back a word or push further.
‘Why have you suddenly gone quiet again?’
‘No idea. Did he just get scared?’
Nobody could understand why she was staying silent or why she wasn't pushing back at a moment like this.
‘It's exhausting.’
Being a woman, and on top of that, a woman with a body that wasn't quite right. It wasn't easy making her case in this organization that felt like the military.
Even a moment ago, when he'd raised his voice at her, she'd been startled. She'd barely kept it in. Not wanting to look weak, when she felt the heat rising behind her eyes, she turned her head away and muttered something deliberately harsh instead.
Hah...
Damn it."
Showing weakness here would be the end. In this world, the weak were treated worse than the wicked. That was the nature of competitive environments. Seeing her like that, the other members exchanged glances.
"Hey."
Someone gestured with two fingers to the mouth.
"Oh, yeah."
Without another word, they just drifted outside. Smokers apparently shared some kind of telepathy. The other members all left. Sa-Rang sat alone in the living room and curled in on herself. She brought her fingers to her lips.
‘Is it... really that good?’
Maybe she'd understand what they felt if she smoked one of those. “
Hooo. ”
Sa-Rang drifted through the memories faintly scattered in the smoke.
‘Damn them all.’
Looking back, the professional path had never been smooth. People remembered JeonJaPa only from the peak years and assumed she'd walked a straight royal road from the start.
The beginning had been nothing like that. Why else would she have touched cigarettes, something she'd never even considered, just to try to have a conversation? Thanks to that, she was still in debt to nicotine even now. There was nothing better when thoughts grew complicated.
‘Breathe.’
It wasn't a coincidence that while smoking, she ended up thinking about how she'd started smoking. Back then, she'd been young and didn't understand why they were the way they were, so she'd looked for simple solutions like this.
Even when CK was complete and winning championship after championship, she still hadn't understood why they pushed back or vented their frustration. Why didn’t they just give everything for the win? Why did they keep complaining? Why... couldn’t they just do it? That had always been her question.
‘I didn't know. Until then.’
Sa-Rang finally understood in
Civil Empire
. She'd watched how the team members trusted and followed Hui-Chul. It clearly had nothing to do with in-game skills, but was something more fundamental than that. Something that couldn't be grasped, seen, or even expressed in numbers.
‘I still don't fully understand it.’ “
Hooo.
” Sa-Rang exhaled smoke again and shook her head.
Honestly, she still didn't completely know what to do or how. Through experience, she at least knew that she needed to spend this time settling her emotions.
Right now, she didn't even have the JeonJaPa halo that at least existed before. Going in and giving blunt feedback like normal would definitely cause problems.
‘How do I... actually change their minds?’
Changing a person's mind was genuinely difficult. It couldn't be approached carelessly.
Tap. Tap.
She knocked away even the lingering feelings into the ashtray and returned to her capsule.
Whoosh.
Sa-Rang reappeared in
This World .
"Oh? You all stayed?"
She assumed the others would have stepped out for a short break. They were right where she'd left them, heads together and conferring.
“Hey. Why do you think she's upset?”
“Because of the Smart Young Man stuff.”
“No, that's not it. Then what is it?! We completely wrecked them out there!”
“Or maybe she was just really focused and needed a smoke!”
“You have no read on people...”
They'd been holding a council on why the coach looked upset.
Sweet Radish tried to play it off with a cheerful front. "Oh,
uh... haha!
We were just doing strategy planning."
"While muting your mics and whispering...?"
They got caught.
— lmaooooooooo
— lmaooo fr
— Who do you think you're fooling lmao
— LOL
— What were these people even doing??
‘Doesn't matter.’
Sa-Rang let it go and moved to the point. "I actually wasn't focused on the game itself."
"Oh,
haha.
I see...
Hm?
What? Why?" Sweet Radish asked, startled.
Didn't she watch the game?
"Because the game was... a mess... garbage... I mean, it was all over the place."
— She said all three and then revised lmao
— You already said "garbage" though
— LOL
— Three times haha
"That said, Sweet Radish, the play where you predicted streamer tendencies and went to the Vault first was good."
Ah...
yes."
Receiving praise, he went quiet.
— What?!
— He just needed to be told that?
— This guy lol
"Sweet Radish seems to understand this already, but for everyone else, Survival mode is an extremely fast-tempo game. Leveling is fast, and almost every team will be leveling up simultaneously. Especially in competition, widening that gap will be very difficult."
Lemon raised a hand and asked, "Oh? Hard to widen the gap? Why?"
"Because everyone will have their routes optimized coming in. The current state of Survival team ranked is... similar to when the mode first launched, when everything was chaotic. Nothing was optimized yet, and Sweet Radish benefited a lot from having it optimized already. Simply knowing things ahead of time is an advantage."
Sweet Radish made a slightly stung expression.
— It was just pre-studying
— Ouch... lol
— Not pure talent, it's official!
"Which means in the actual tournament, casually touching the Vault would leave you permanently behind in levels."
Streamer tournament or not, a competition was a competition. Goofing around in a tournament for content and losing would lead to a complete collapse. This wasn't solo, but a team game. And the team wasn't just the five of them, but every viewer cheering them on. Doing that would be a betrayal, so everyone had to play optimally for victory.
"Anyway, the game itself was a mess. First place in that match..." Sa-Rang's eyes moved briefly to Almond. "Was pure luck."
Almond had apparently expected something. His shoulders dropped a little. He wasn't the type to show big reactions, so only his own viewers caught it.
— Shoulders going down lmaooo
— Almond straighten up!
— "Almond carried" << thought we were getting that lmaooooo
— Baby's pouty~
— lmaooo
— Go on then, try saying "The calls?" here
"Anyway, I went through analyzing each player. Let’s start with Sweet Radish."
"Yes?"
"Sweet Radish leads with his head and plays with a plan. You're stable."
Ah...
yes."
"And your decision speed is fast on top of that."
‘Though you can't make first-place plays.’
She left that part unsaid. It wasn’t the right time yet. First place was a long way off. They didn't even know if they'd make the finals.
"Black Tea."
"Yes?"
"People say your mechanics are incredible, but that's not quite it. Your positioning is incredible. Despite your personality being so bold, you're very patient inside the game. You're exactly what a carry should be."
Ah... haha.
Yes."
It had become an impromptu player evaluation session.
— Black Tea getting flustered lmao
— lmaooo what
— Black Tea is blushing??
These all sounded like compliments, but there were barbs in every single one. Sweet Radish, who'd been a pro, was feeling it.
‘She sees things more clearly than I'd expected.’
He was especially caught off guard by the read on Sweet Potato.
"Sweet Potato doesn't play
LIL
that much, but you're good at it."
Sweet Potato felt startled. "Oh, oh, your grace is boundless!"
— Natural talent
— Wow
— What?!
— Isn't that saying he doesn't practice?? lmao
"You don't really try hard at other games either, do you?" "...!" “
Pfft!
” Sweet Radish couldn't help but burst out laughing.
It felt like she'd run a background check on everyone. Sweet Potato's expression was something to behold. Strangely, the feedback for Sweet Potato was very specific.
"Play more games before the tournament."
"Oh, yes!"
"Saying you're good for your playtime isn't a compliment."
"Yes!"
Thwack!
Sweet Radish hit him on the head to make sure he was listening.
"You heard that?
Hm?
Idiot."
Playing with Sweet Potato often left him grinding his teeth. He clearly had the talent, but just genuinely didn't play that much. It almost seemed deliberate.
"And Lemon..."
Lemon, right after Sweet Potato, tensed up sharply.
"Your fundamentals are very solid. Unlike Sweet Potato, you probably have a lot of games played..."
Surprisingly, Lemon still had low game sense. As support, she lacked boldness.
‘Probably because she always plays with Black Tea.’
Lemon played with a bright expression and upbeat commentary on the surface, but was constantly tense underneath. What would happen if someone always played with a higher-ranked teammate? It would be like meeting with a demanding direct supervisor and feeling like every action was being evaluated. Lemon’s skills didn’t match her playtime.
"Try practicing in solo queue for a bit. Pick any champion."
Ah...
just me, alone?"
"Yes."
"But then... who watches the str-stream..."
— The farming viewers need to eat too!?
— Wow
— She's a collab addict~ lmaooo
— What about the stream?!
— Fr lol
"Oh."
Was that a problem? Sa-Rang apparently hadn't anticipated that part, so she offered a simple solution.
"Then turn off the stream and do it." — ? — ??
— Ouch...
— Sacrifice your heart! Lemon!
‘Turning off the stream really would probably help.’
This was actually a question of how seriously Lemon would take this tournament. It wasn't just Lemon. This applied to every streamer here.
‘In the end, the one with the most burning desire wins.’
The very first thing Sa-Rang looked for when evaluating a player was pure desire. Did they have the straightforward obsession to win at any cost and the sense of staking everything?
When looking at the big picture, the person who had this the most was the winner. Not every pro competed like they would absolutely win. Some, on the doorstep of victory, thought second place was good enough. Some looked at last place and still had their eyes seriously fixed on first.
If Lemon valued this tournament over streaming, this team would produce excellent results. If not, she'd surprisingly contribute very little.
‘In that sense...’
Sa-Rang's gaze moved to the last player.
"Almond..."
He was the person with the most burning obsession to win out of anyone here. Anyone could just tell by watching them play. For this person, once the competition started, streaming came second. Hadn't it been the same at the world championship? Wanting the calling rights was part of the same impulse.
— Oh what's she going to say??
— Seems like she'll say something nice?
— He did carry this game~
— Almond's eyes lmao
Almond's eyes lit up when his turn came.
"No comment." Sa-Rang declined to say anything.
— lmaooooooooooo
— Why though LOL
— Just Almond suddenly??
— Wow
— What the?!
— What kind of politician is she?!
— Hm???
— Why are you only bullying Mondu?!
The corner of Sa-Rang's mouth faintly twitched upward, but nobody caught it.
"Let's play again, but this time..."
What she said next shocked them too much.
"The Smart Young Man will be the main caller. You get exactly three games." — ?
— This is scripted, right?
— The Smart Young Man lmaooo
— What the HELL LOL
— Oh...
— Almond is beaming lmao
— Wow
— She actually did it...
— Calling him the Smart Young Man is so funny lmaooo
— Wait is this REAL???
— Is this nepotism or something?! Seriously?!
— Coach parachuted in
— This is a setup to destroy the Smart Young Man, right? Right? Please...
Every single Knight Order member stared blankly at Choi Sa-Rang, completely dumbfounded.
Choi Sa-Rang wore an unreadable smile.
"Get in quickly."

Comments

Loading...