[Streamer Gallery]
[NoName] “Why isn’t he starting his personal stream again?”
“He’s always participating in scrims, but why won’t he go live?!”
“Watching scrims from NoName’s perspective is like eating a raw potato; it’s so frustrating that I could die from it! laughs”
[Comments]
– “He’s really busy right now, they said he’d stream after the match.”
└ “Can’t he at least turn it on during the scrim? Is that too hard?”
└ “I don’t know that either?”
– “If he opens his personal stream, he has to greet every single viewer and accept donations, right?”
└ “Is he streaming for donations then? Is that why he’s doing it? To win tournaments?”
└ “Seems like NoName might be that way, laughs”
└ “Don’t try to understand a child’s mind; just accept it.”
– “He said he’s busy outside of gaming, something about school exams?”
└ “But finals are still a month away, right?”
└ “The academy has always been pretty intense about studies.”
– “NoName, you better check V-tube! I can tell from the moment I saw it that something epic has been uploaded, okay?”
└ “What’s that?”
└ “I don’t really get it; just go watch it! How long can it take?”
[Kariri, are you hitting Diamond today?]
“I’m currently ranking up weirdly with the suicidal assassin meta, thanks to NoName.”
“It’s hysterical that we keep winning games even while getting 10 deaths. laughs”
[Comments]
– “The winning rate for scrims is climbing too; it’s really funny.”
└ “It was in the 30% range at first!”
– “Doing whatever to save Kariri’s character; this is a complete train wreck! laughs”
└ “The viewers give their all to provide advice; she’s just a genius streamer.”
└ “Digging for pearls in mud! laughs”
– “I don’t think I’ll reach Diamond in time; but hey, Platinum 1 is good enough.”
[Kariri’s scrim quitting day. Real fact]
“This is a video uploaded on overseas V-tube where she’s hanging out with her main avatar in Desire Land! What a legend! laughs”
[Comments]
– “Isn’t that NoName and Adella next to her?”
– “Good! When you’re playing, you should play hard!”
– “So cute! laughs”
– “Why is Kariri so concerned about other people’s eyes? laughs”
└ (Author): “Yeah, if you apologize in Korea, you get more hate! laughs”
– “Is the tournament a joke? They’re causing so much trouble for their team members, and then they go off having fun like it’s nothing!”
– “Deleted comment.”
– “Deleted comment.”
– “Deleted comment.”
– “Deleted comment.”
└ (Author): “Wls”
└ “That’s terrifying!”
└ “Are they nuts?”
└ “What made them hit that panic button? laughs”
*
ACK’s former main coach ‘Hwang-gu’ and current 1st division pro gamer (and current unemployed person) ‘LG Chaos’ were watching the match as a coach.
“Didn’t catch the assassin’s vision! Everyone, be careful from behind!”
“I think Kariri should stick closer to me! There’s no way they’re not coming after a wizard like me!”
“We’re also at a 2:3 against NoName!”
“Dal-tori, pull your line over to my side. If Yong-cheol joins us, we’ll forcibly engage in a team fight.”
There were neither quests nor capture zones, and no objects had spawned.
On top of that, they were at a numerical disadvantage.
“Even if we lose the team fight, just fight!”
With NoName’s confident voice, a team fight began at a 4 to 6 setting.
The first hit came from Kariri.
“Prepare to change formation. Kariri’s moving in, and Brownie, take the position! Shinsim Man, after your capture, jump over here immediately, and Yong-cheol, stay close and scout for assassins from behind. Don’t you dare scatter!”
This was a command that NoName was already well accustomed to.
Kariri quickly swapped places with Brownie, who was using a Zweihander, to maintain precise HP management.
As a class unsuitable for defense, she quickly knelt and showed the faint message of being incapacitated.
But protecting the wizard was always the priority.
Next in line, of course, was the healer.
Clang!
NoName’s sword rang loud.
The man who struck down the great sword did not panic.
This was a scene that had played out countless times over the past week.
“Couldn’t it be okay for a one-on-one if I had no mana? Oh, look! My head just got chopped off.”
“How about a 3 to 1? That was also a case where my heart got pierced and I died.”
She was on a whole different level.
As long as NoName was given enough time, they could stubbornly face off against whatever the opponent threw at them.
But there were ways to counter that, too.
The method of sealing off the healer and drowning the other members was widely recognized as the standard for dealing with ‘The Blory’ team.
And in order to counter this standard or confuse the opponent’s strategy, they had practiced from the scrims they had conducted all week.
Suddenly, NoName intentionally allowed himself to be hit by the enemy’s attack.
And when dropped below 15% health, he used the ‘Twilight Clone’ ability to deceive the enemy and swiftly rejoined the main force.
Providing ample healing to Kariri, who almost bled out,
In a blink, she transformed from an assassin to a berserker and easily took down two enemies.
Thanks to NoName’s ongoing press into the ranked games, Kariri’s movements became even more refined.
She gracefully deflected a sneak attack from behind with a flick of her nails.
Her crimson eyes locked onto the knight.
“This is gonna sting!”
Five sword veins ripped through the earth.
*
“Why didn’t you take the detour here? Even if you can’t stop them, you should at least confirm Plan B.”
Coach Hwang-gu pointed out the opposing assassin taking a long route to dispatch the wizard Dal-tori.
“Even if we discover them first, there’s no guarantee we win.”
Na-me chimed in to defend.
“If you play so safely, you’ll never win.”
“The opposing assassin was Diamond. If we happen to lose during reconnaissance, we won’t have a chance to turn things back around.”
“If we confirm first, we can’t possibly lose! This is a team game!”
[‘Burned’ donates 10,000 won!]
– “Hwang-gu, but you lost during a similar scenario in the last scrim.”
“Ah, that’s right. Let me explain, kids. Just because there’s a bad result from experience doesn’t mean it’s a bad choice. Sometimes, you have to know how to pick the right choice.”
Hwang-gu’s ideal gameplay involved picking only the options with the highest expected winning percentage at every crucial moment.
“For example, if I’m pushing a grandma’s cart from behind on a hill and the wheel breaks. I can’t just say, ‘Ah, helping her led to this mess; I should never help again!’ like that, right?”
– “What did the grandma ever do to you, Hwang-gu? laughs”
– “Aww, my grandson won’t get his allowance now…”
– “I guess I gotta park the cart?”
“Uh? Conversely, if I got mad and swung a fist at someone, but they turned out to be a pickpocket! Would I keep swinging my fists around like I was playing GTA? Because then I’d end up in jail! That’s what life is Bronze.”
[‘luckysukebe’ donates 5,000 won!]
– “That’s nonsense. laughs”
“Anyway, Shinsim Man will join us 18 seconds later; Yong-cheol just needs to stay close, and two of us should be enough to handle things. The Paladin has been growing well during this time.”
“Assassins have purpose in getting kills. Even just disrupting the backline can take both you and Kariri down!”
“Healer-assassin can handle 2v5 even! We’ve tested it!”
“Ha!”
Hwang-gu placed his palm on his forehead.
– “laughs”
– “That healer-assassin! laughs”
– “You might not win, but you definitely don’t get pushed around either! laughs”
– “It’s the first time seeing Hwang-gu flustered! laughs”
– “Everyone knows it’s nonsense, but it kind of makes sense…”
– “The healer-assassin meta is coming…!”
– “An unkillable porcupine! laughs”
“Chaos! Do you have that footage we recorded earlier?”
“Ah, yes, Coach. But about this… it’s…”
A video edited to only include scenes with NoName and Kariri emerged.
They had even obtained permission to extract it for analyzing pro game feedback using an automated extraction application.
As expected, the bizarre scene of Kariri, while maintaining a health percentage in the low 20s, receiving healing from NoName streamed.
Scene 1.
In a composition dubbed the strongest 1 Shield Knight, 2 Knights, and 1 Wizard.
Clearly positioning themselves, sharp swords surged from both sides, while the backline rained down powerful fireballs; Kariri crossed her arms and curled her body.
NoName, with his back against Kariri’s, continuously stacked his parrying hits.
Eventually, NoName deftly leapt over Kariri’s back and beyond the Shield Knight.
The combined strike from both his moves, ‘Taking the World’ and ‘Fateful Shot’, was no insignificant blow—especially aiming at a wizard.
Scene 2.
This time, the strategy aimed at backdooring, striking the opposing Yggdrasil.
Not merely back-to-back, but standing shoulder-to-shoulder with swords and claws extended toward the front.
They deftly parried incoming arrows and spells while suitably deflecting the larger attacks.
Scene 3.
“There’s nothing left to watch, so just stop.”
– “This is just a mad movie! laughs”
– “In mourning for the deceased… no, currently 2nd-middle school student’s ridiculously epic mad movie! laughs”
– “How can I parry all that when one hit would kill me?”
– “Kariri’s dynamic vision is insane too; can she see the arrows?”
└ “NoName and I practiced that all day.”
└ “Oh, snap!”
“Fine, I give up. But this isn’t about my theory being wrong; it’s you, NoName, who’s outside the norm. It shouldn’t even be possible, yet you made it happen by force! In fact, this makes my theory meaningless.”
“The optimal judgment is at play here.”
“The optimal judgment is way too extreme. What I’m after is a game where everyone contributes 0.9 of their part and has a 70% chance of winning. But look—you’re barely scraping a 60% win rate, having to pull off 1.5 worth of efforts with Kariri. Both may be the best options, but do you see what’s different?”
“I understand. But for the sake of tier value, it’s better this way.”
“What do you think, Kariri? Are you okay?”
“…”
At Coach’s questioning, Kariri had remained silent all along.
“Kariri? Kariri? Hey, hey.”
[‘Hoowoo Bird’ donates 20,000 won!]
– “Wasting 30 minutes on feedback? laughs Kariri fainted on her feet!”
“Eh? Yes…?”
– “Pyaa pyaa pyaa pyaa!”
– “Wow, such a sound! laughs”
– “Were you daydreaming?”
– “So cute!”
– “Honestly, Kariri had many missed moments, but she didn’t have a single moment where she didn’t perform well lately.”
However, despite the coach’s question, Kariri kept chewing on her lips and rolling her eyes, looking restless.
“Coach, it’s about Kariri! I think someone’s ringing the doorbell outside, so I better go check!”
“Oh, really? Then go ahead.”
“I’ll be back soon!”
– “There she goes again!”
– “At this point, doesn’t she have a boyfriend? laughs”
– “Nah, there’s no way she’s the type; a level 100 introverted loner with 0 social skills, that’s Kariri!”
└ “Ew, what a smell of broth; laughs”
– “Seems like she just doesn’t want to do a scrim.”
– “Scrims are a type of group activity, so it feels a bit weird to see her leave constantly.”
– “Seriously, how long are we going to have this doorbell joke?”
– “It’s not as bad as last time where she quit mid-game; I think she’ll be back soon, yeah.”
└ “The guys from Honeybee all busted their heads together; look at how they’re defending her!”
└ “Well, as a fan, of course, they would support her. Should we throw some insults instead?”
└ “That’s why she keeps causing controversies every time they stream together!”
“Whoa, whoa! Let’s not fight, everyone. We’re all using the same chat room, so we shouldn’t be arguing!”
While each streamer soothed their viewers, Na-me sat by the tree stump, waiting patiently for Kariri.
– “Is our Room Leader not saying anything?”
– “I’m proud that NoName has his mark next to his nickname!”
– “NoName’s a kid… loves to cause a ruckus more than anything in the world…”
– “Was he Pororo or what? laughs”
– “Pororo likes to play, but not to stir up trouble! Don’t twist it! laughs”
– “For us, causing trouble is just a game!”
And then, a donation appeared right in the middle of The Blory team members.
An impersonal mechanical voice without any particular settings began to read the content.
[‘zxcvbnm’ donated 1,000 won!]
– “You’re in room 13xx, right?”
– “?”
– “?”
– “?”
– “What’s that?”
– “Your home address?”
– “???”
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaak!”
From Kariri’s avatar that had turned rigid like a puppet, Seol Yoonseul’s shriek resonated faintly.
“Kariri? Kariri!”
“What’s that noise?”
This was not the voice emitted in VR, but from the microphone outside the capsule.
Everyone jumped up from their seats and rushed over to check on Kariri, but her eyes appeared lifeless.
Even repeatedly shaking her stiffened virtual body brought no response.
The only way to get through to her was to yell as close to her ear as possible.
“Hey, Kariri, is there something wrong? Kariri?”
“Come on! Stop joking around… If you keep this up, it’s getting scary… Is this a joke?”
Dal-tori trembled with fear on her face.
No matter how long they waited in silence, Kariri, who merely mumbled in jest, did not return.
[Kariri – Offline]
Na-me’s VR connection cut off immediately afterward.
[NoName – Offline]
