Collaboration Day 3 (1)

Moon Naru stared at the current standings and let out a pterodactyl shriek of pure shock.

“Our ranking right now is… kyaahhh!! We’re in sole first place!!!”

A miracle had happened. A brand-new team had climbed to undisputed first place in their very first season.

It was the day Diafle cleanly crushed 5EX. On the same day, Wizard Air White Witch suffered their first match loss of the season. They were swept 0-3 by RTH Crown, which put them level with Diafle in wins and losses. But with a set differential five points worse, they dropped to second place.

In truth, Wiz hadn’t managed their set differential poorly. They simply had to compete against Diafle, who had managed theirs almost perfectly. Across five wins, Diafle had only dropped a single set. Even the one loss they suffered against Wiz had come after a grueling 2-3 full-set battle. Meanwhile, Wiz had dropped four sets across their five wins, and their lone loss was that humiliating 0-3 sweep.

Jeong Hong-gyu, chairman of both the Korea Football Association and SMDC, was scheduled to visit the Wangsimni Battle Center. The reason was simple: SMDC had become the sponsor of 5EX ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Robotics.

Three members of the Red Devils had come looking for him the moment they heard the news, intent on giving him a beating.

“That bastard Jeong Hong-gyu, what the hell. He completely screwed up the Asian Cup and still has the nerve to show his face.”

“Apartments collapse, soccer collapses. Everything he touches turns to crap.”

After the apartment collapse disaster, he had even presided over the Asian Cup catastrophe. Yet the man responsible still clung to his position like a stubborn weed.

“So what exactly are we supposed to do to that Hong-gyu son of a bitch?”

“Just attack the old fart however we can!”

“He’s not some cybernetically enhanced chairman from a sci-fi story. Three-on-one, he doesn’t stand a chance.”

“No matter how much he works out, he can’t beat three people at once.”

Jeong Hong-gyu might have taken good care of himself, but he was hardly capable of winning a three-on-one brawl. Taking care of your body didn’t automatically make you competent. King Sejong the Great had been severely obese, after all.

If this had been a soccer stadium, Jeong Hong-gyu would have been surrounded by heavy security. But this was the Wangsimni Battle Center. His influence held zero sway here, and the place was packed with incredibly powerful weapons.

“What are we even going to hit him with? A plastic bottle seems too weak, right?”

“Throwing rocks could go wrong and hurt someone else.”

Then their eyes landed on a battle robot. It was the visiting team 5EX’s Delta Steel, conveniently left out with its controller right beside it, almost begging to be taken.

“That’s it!! That’ll work perfectly!!”

“Hey!! That’s crossing the line!!”

Even to the Red Devils, who only had a passing knowledge of battle robots, it looked easy to handle. After all, the thing looked like nothing but a skeleton.

The day before, 5EX had plummeted to sole twelfth place with no hope of improving their set differential. Now they had even lost one of their robots to theft. With security this sloppy, it was no wonder their team performance was garbage.

Near Jonggak Station stood the esports arena Legendary League Park, also known as L2 Park. In a corner of the nearby flowerbed, dozens of magpies had gathered.

(Did someone feed the birds…? Not pigeons, but magpies…?)

One esports fan approached ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of curiosity. The magpies scattered in an instant.

“Whoa!! Who the hell dumped a corpse here!!!”

The magpies had gathered to feast on the body.

“Call the police, quick… 1-1-2!!”

Before long, articles with headlines like this began popping up everywhere.

For some reason, the story appeared under the sports section on nearly every portal site. Perhaps because the chairman of a sports association had been found dead near a sports arena. The fact that they were completely different sports was, of course, the ironic part.

The Diafle players were also reading the article in their waiting room. The overall reaction could be summed up in one phrase: “Serves him right.”

“I never liked that old fart Jeong Hong-gyu, but getting eaten by magpies makes him seem a little pitiful.”

“He tried to pardon match-fixers, so he deserved to die, sis. Right, Cheong-hyeon?”

“You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, Cheong-bi. Match-fixing is absolutely unforgivable.”

The absolute refusal to tolerate match-fixing was one of the fundamental principles of sports.

“What did they kill him with, anyway?”

“Looks like they stole Delta Steel and used it. That’s what the autopsy said.”

“How did they even manage to operate it properly?”

“I’m sure they knew how to move it. The real issue would’ve been precision.”

The standard methods for controlling a battle robot were widely known. Stealing one for a short time and using it as a weapon wasn’t that difficult.

The autopsy notes summarized in the article read as follows. Given that he was the chairman of a large corporation and his family didn’t seem particularly concerned, the autopsy had probably been rushed.

1. Both ankles were completely fractured after being struck by a metal blunt weapon.

2. There were signs of impact on the head from a metal truss structure.

Even the weakest battle robot was devastatingly powerful when used against a human. It was the same as how even the easiest mountain in the Himalayas would kill an ordinary person who tried to climb it.

“Why did they dump him at L2 Park of all places? That spot has nothing to do with anything, right?”

“If you walk from Wangsimni Arena to the Football Association, you’ll understand.”

The Korea Football Association was located near Gyeongbokgung Station. Legendary League Park was near Jonggak Station. The Wangsimni Battle Center was near Sangwangsimni Station. If you opened a map app and put the pieces together, you could figure out why the body had been left at L2 Park.

“No matter how weak a battle robot is, it’s basically a deadly weapon against a person.”

“Enough about that old man. The match is about to start, so hurry up and get over here!”

“Naru, you look happy the arena sold out.”

“Cheong-hyeon, I’m a pro too. Of course it’s nice to have lots of fans~!”

The Daejeon Mechatronics Arena had sold out for the first time since Diafle’s founding. All six hundred seats for the home side and all six hundred for the visiting Samryeong side were completely filled.

“Wow, the stands are packed!!”

“Our popularity has really grown. We’re pros because we have fans.”

The cheers of twelve hundred battle robot fans filled the entire arena.

“We’re in sole first now!! Keep flying higher, Diafle!!”

“We can even beat the first-place team!! Samryeong fighting!!”

Set One: SSR P3nTa9on versus DFL V-Killer.

“If V-Killer had kept its original red-and-black paint job, the contrast would have been striking.”

“That Shia Live paint scheme looks like a high school uniform.”

Navy blue uniforms tended ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to give off a studious, goody-two-shoes impression.

“I thought it might come out with a skirt like the others, but it’s in its default form.”

“Pentagon’s calm yet intense black-and-blue default coloring is really cool!”

The black chassis with blue accents on the band-style armor—that was P3nTa9on’s standard paint scheme. Since the parent company’s corporate color was blue, the robot had been painted accordingly.

It probably had something to do with the parent company’s main industries being semiconductors and smartphones. Their business required cramming as many functions as possible into a single device.

“Will Samryeong Electronics show the same philosophy when they officially enter the robot business?”

“Who knows. They did name the team RCC in advance, though.”

RCC stood for Robot Combat Club. It was a team name that symbolized outstanding technical prowess. It was typically used when the parent company was already involved in specialized robotics. The name helped prevent confusion with their existing business lines.

“From fifth to ninth place, every team is sitting right at five hundred. This is Samryeong’s chance to climb!”

“Three! Two! One! Match—begin!”