Defeat
Where on earth did that confidence come from?
Was challenging a pro gamer to a one-on-one bold, or was it just pure arrogance?
From their first meeting right up to this very moment, she had been someone he simply could not predict.
It started with that face that looked far too much like Camilla, then spilled over into her bizarre skill and knowledge. And even though she had been given permission, the sheer audacity of freely pointing out a stranger's mistakes — a pro's mistakes, no less — was something else entirely.
Back when one of his teammates had been glued to Kayak's stream, Min-hyeong hadn't thought much of it. Now, though, he couldn't help but take an interest. People like this actually existed?
He tilted his head slightly and stole a glance at the woman seated beside him.
A tiny head crowned with glossy silver hair. And those blue eyes.
Min-hyeong had already finished setting up, so he could afford to study her at his leisure. Her expression was serious — and yet the corners of her mouth were curled just enough to suggest she was quietly enjoying the whole situation.
It left him faintly puzzled. Was she not nervous at all? She was about to face a pro gamer, after all…
As a professional, Min-hyeong took considerable pride in his own skill. Last season he had even taken MVP in the league, hadn't he?
She must have the same competitive streak he did. Win or lose, she simply loved the game itself — loved going head-to-head with a strong opponent.
She really was a fascinating person. A rising star streamer, they said, and he could see why. Her whole character was so distinctive, so utterly unique.
Of course, looks had been the first thing that caught his attention. But now he found himself far more curious about who she actually was. Curious about the inside as much as the outside, you could say.
He watched her fiddle with her gear — putting her headphones on, taking them off, sliding her mouse back and forth — until suddenly she turned his way.
"?"
Min-hyeong whipped his head around before he even realized what he was doing.
God, she was ridiculously pretty. Stare too long and you'd go blank without noticing.
He had no idea why he'd looked away so fast. He hadn't meant anything by watching her, but the whole thing felt like he'd been caught peeping, and he'd spun around like a thief bolting from the scene.
A moment later, Kayak's voice drifted over, laced with laughter.
"Um, Min-hyeong?"
"Yes?"
"Just playing the game would be boring, so how about we make a bet?"
"A bet?"
Hadn't they already settled that whoever won the match would be right about the build?
And now she wanted a bet on top of that. What kind of bet, exactly?
"What… are we putting on the line?"
"Nothing major. More like a wish ticket. The kind of right where you can ask each other for a small favor — nothing too heavy."
Was this how witches in the Middle Ages used to smile?
Kayak's face carried a meaningful little grin, like she was already plotting something, and it made Min-hyeong uneasy in spite of himself.
A wish ticket. A wish ticket, huh.
Coldly speaking, he had no real reason to accept. He wasn't the type who enjoyed betting, and he didn't have any particular favor he wanted from Kayak either.
And yet refusing somehow made him feel like a coward — as if turning down a casual bet for fun would look like he was too scared to take it.
His teammates' muttering didn't help. They'd been listening in, and the comments started flying.
"Whoa, a wish ticket. I'd take that in a heartbeat."
"Chicken? Chicken? Choi Min-hyeong, you absolute softie."
"Guys, keep it down."
Captain Junhyeok shut them up, but the damage was done. Min-hyeong's resolve had already started to wobble.
It wasn't that he was easily swayed. The things they said just… made sense.
If I don't lose, it's fine, right…?
Considering defeat before the match even started was already a mistake.
Choi Min-hyeong. What had his tryout record looked like?
A one-on-one entrance test. The first-string and second-string candidates had taken him on in a gauntlet, and his final record had been ten matches, nine wins, one loss.
That single loss had come from Junhyeok himself — the captain of a team widely considered the best in the current era.
In pure one-on-one skill, he ranked among the absolute top of Fusion Gaming. And if you were the best one-on-one player on the number-one team in the country, you could fairly call yourself one of the strongest in the pro scene.
A pro, fretting about losing to some amateur…
A sudden wave of shame hit him.
What was he so afraid of? His opponent was practically buzzing with anticipation at the chance to face a pro.
He decided then and there to take Kayak's offer. Whatever she was scheming, winning would settle everything.
"Alright. Wish ticket bet it is."
Kayak's face lit up.
The game began.
Min-hyeong picked Lenok — the hero every pro was expected to know how to play. Kayak, as always, locked in Camilla.
Camilla's loadout was sparse to the point of absurdity. A two-handed sword with no shield, an iron pauldron covering her left shoulder, and beyond that nothing but stockings of questionable defensive value.
Just as Min-hyeong had said, one clean hit and she was dead. Or left so crippled she'd have to flee the field.
But she insisted it worked. She'd said more than once that without this exact loadout, there was no point running the build at all. The whole one-on-one, the entire duel, had been set up to prove that claim right from the start.
And so the black-clad undertaker stood tall before a Camilla dressed in that rather flimsy-looking gear.
Min-hyeong found himself thinking of the old days — specifically, the day he'd walked into Fusion Gaming's tryouts with his heart full of hope.
Back then, too, he'd picked Lenok and run one-on-ones. One after another.
Plenty of things were different now. His opponent was Camilla. His opponent was a civilian, not a pro. And with the experience under his belt, he didn't shake the way he used to.
Still, the old memories came back — maybe because the person across from him looked far less full of openings than he'd expected.
Kayak simply held her two-handed sword firm and kept the same stance, eyes locked straight ahead.
It looked almost like a master granting the first move to a lesser opponent, and a small snort of laughter escaped Min-hyeong.
"Ha."
The match had already started. Whatever her intentions, there was no reason to hesitate.
Min-hyeong's Lenok raised his heavy greatsword.
Clang—!
It sounded less like blades meeting and more like a blunt weapon crashing down.
The weighty effect unique to Lenok's greatsword announced the start of the fight.
Among pros, Min-hyeong was known as an aggressive player, and his Lenok lived up to the reputation. After that first crushing blow, the pressure never let up.
Attack. Attack. And attack again.
Lenok's feet kept driving forward. For someone hauling a massive greatsword, his footwork was impossibly light.
He piled on without giving an inch of initiative. Camilla, for her part, was somehow slipping past the greatsword swings and the kicks that came with them — barely, it seemed.
"Whoa, Min-hyeong's not holding back at all."
"Look at that footwork. Full sweat mode."
"There's a wish ticket on the line… ahem."
Min-hyeong ignored the snide remarks from behind him.
More accurately, he didn't have the bandwidth to care.
She's… blocking all of it? Without missing a single one?
Kayak's responses were far better than anything he'd imagined.
On screen, Camilla's slender arms swung the sword and turned aside every greatsword strike.
Parries. An attack-nullifying technique that only triggered if you hit the exact key at the exact timing.
Listening to the crisp ring of steel on steel, Min-hyeong let out a hollow laugh.
Even pros don't pull this kind of thing…
And she was doing it with total composure, without a single mistake. It was a tightrope walk. One mistimed input and the whole thing backfired instantly.
At the highest level, a duel was almost like a turn-based game.
Min-hyeong's storm of consecutive strikes had ended. Now it was Kayak's turn.
A lightning-fast thrust. She slipped into the brief opening after his wide swing with startling speed.
But Min-hyeong was a pro who had lived through this exact situation more times than he could count. He knew every gap in his own offense by heart.
In fact, he deliberately left those openings as a psychological trap — daring her to attack on the fixed timing, ready to counter the instant she took the bait.
Kayak didn't fall for it this time either. As if she could see every pitfall he'd laid, she stepped back at a measured pace and kept up a steady, controlled offense of her own.
But as time wore on, the disadvantage tilted toward Kayak. It was a fundamental hero difference — a build and loadout difference.
And she claims she can overcome this?
In a war of attrition, Lenok naturally pulled ahead. For Camilla to close that gap, she would normally need defensive traits.
Kayak had said she could break this situation without them. How, exactly? Min-hyeong couldn't begin to picture it — and that only made him more curious.
By this point, the watching players had already sensed Min-hyeong's victory. As far as they could tell, there was no way to flip the board.
Only one person kept watching in silence with a gleam in his eyes: the team captain, Junhyeok.
This is it.
Min-hyeong, as the one actually playing, could feel the momentum shift too. Without rushing, he began to methodically cook his cornered opponent.
Camilla had been driven into a narrow stretch of jungle. There was nowhere left to retreat.
And just as Min-hyeong, certain of the win, swung his heavy greatsword—
Whoosh—
What?
Camilla suddenly planted a hand on the ground and kicked high into the air.
Ironically, that bold skill use produced a result no one expected. By the thinnest of margins, Camilla's body slid past the flat of the greatsword.
And her kick landed cleanly across Lenok's face.
A maneuver only possible in that cramped jungle. In a wider space, a counter this strange never would have been allowed.
Caught mid-acrobatic pose with a kick to the face, Lenok dropped into a brief stun — and Camilla seized the opening, rushing in to slash and recover in one clean motion.
A flawless trade. The health advantage now belonged to Camilla.
"Heh."
A soft laugh slipped out from somewhere behind them.
It came from the player usually said to never smile — the best of them all. From the team captain, Junhyeok.