The Skewed Ratio
After washing up, something about the whole situation still felt strangely off-balance. All four of them changed into the Diafle Monarch team uniforms. (My uniform… I’m a pro now too…!) Black tops with cyan patterns, cyan bottoms with black patterns. It was a unique and genuinely pretty uniform.
“Is the logo a butterfly mask?”
“It’s supposed to give off a killer-wearing-a-butterfly-mask vibe.”
“But… sis, don’t we still not have a defender?”
V-Killer, Lycodon, Scary, and Neptune were all attackers.
“Ah, the new recruit just signed. He should be done showering in the men’s bath by now.”
“He’s older than you guys, but he’s still a rookie, so we need to show him the ropes.”
The first defender was Jang Jae-hyeon’s Pacifism.
“I already knew about Jae-hyeon oppa’s robot because of the unusual name. Pacifism.”
“It was named right around the outbreak of the 22-Year War, so don’t brush it off.”
Pacifism, a linear motor flipper robot. The name came from the war started by the bald warmonger with blue eyes in 2022. It was chosen in the hope for peace. Its biggest advantage was the linear motor, which meant no limit on how many times it could flip during a match. From above it looked like a hexagon with a flat rear edge. It carried a powerful flipper designed to lift and hurl opponents. From the side it was wedge-shaped, and from the front the center was deeply recessed.
“The name is ‘Pacifism,’ yet any opponent it throws ends up completely disoriented.”
The flipper’s power was incredible. A clean hit could KO the other robot outright.
“They were going for irony. Pacifism running around smashing everything to pieces.”
Another player who had just finished showering appeared.
“Seong-gyeom op… pa joined too. I remember being surprised when he showed up with that giant stag beetle.”
Jang Seong-gyeom’s defender Elaphus could be described in just three words: giant stag beetle robot. It combined a crushing crusher and a lifting lifter into a single pair of pincers. Those crusher-lift pincers were exceptionally long. There really is a stag beetle called the Elaphus stag beetle that looks exactly like it. The lifter mechanism resembled the wind-up toys from late-2000s educational broadcasts. Because it walked like a clockwork toy, its weight limit was one-and-a-half times higher than normal, making it quite sturdy.
“That’s a technique they used back when Naru was still a baby, but it works surprisingly well these days.”
“Doesn’t your Neptune use something similar, sunbae? That clamshell-like drum robot.”
“Mine just has a similar silhouette, that’s all.”
Kang Cheong-hyeon’s Neptune was a vertical drum spinner. From above it featured sloped armor designed to deflect horizontal spinners. From the side it also carried reverse-sloped armor to handle vertical spinners.
“We’ve been doing player introductions so long it’s already the middle of the night. Get some proper sleep and we’ll see each other tomorrow.”
“Each room has a nameplate, so find yours easily.”
(Whoa… my own room in the dorm…?)
“Kyaaa!! I have my own room!! This place seems optimized for rest…”
The personal player rooms were designed with relaxation in mind. You could leave a personal laptop there and even sketch out simple designs.
“I’ll hang my uniform here and get some sleep!”
(I wonder what my first pro season will be like…? We’re an expansion team, so even making the playoffs would be a miracle.)
The recruitment news alarm rang from 3 a.m. Moon Naru had set it right before she joined.
“ORS 2nd Team’s cannon, Pandemic Survivor, is coming to our team?”
Kang Cheong-hyeon, who was already awake in the next room, came over and answered.
“Team ORASTY said she didn’t fit their style at all, so they sent her our way.”
Team ORASTY / ORS — A team whose status has shifted dramatically over the years.
2018–2019: Just another average RCLK squad
2020–2021: The dominant force of RCLK
2022–present: A strong RCLK team that prefers robots with distinct personalities yet stable performance.
Lee Na-seong’s Pandemic Survivor carried an extremely powerful projectile weapon. However, increasing the ammo count had left its armor paper-thin. Since her 2nd-team debut in 2020, instability had kept her from ever reaching the first team. ORASTY decided to transfer her elsewhere. The idea was to let her join a team that could actually use her strengths. Both sides saw it as a winning move. In the end, she landed with the newly founded Diafle Monarch.
At 6:24 a.m., right before the usual wake-up time, another recruitment alarm rang.
“Hapagornis is joining our team?”
“She got crushed by you, but before that she was pretty good.”
The next-generation candidate for New Zealand’s pride, Hapagornis. The name came from the scientific classification of a legendary monstrous bird from Maori folklore. Its shape was a textbook 4WD vertical spinner. It had a square body with four drive wheels. In the center sat a short, thick vertical spinner blade. Solid steel sloped armor flanked the blade. Depending on the opponent it could swap to forks that dug underneath. A thin, tree-like self-righting arm extended from the rear.
Breakfast time. Since it was the off-season the meal was lighter than usual.
“French toast set…? Must be because it’s off-season, right?”
“They’ll probably serve better food once the season starts.”
At 7:30, yet another recruitment alert rang even during breakfast.
“Moon Tae-sim is joining us? A veteran who only ever went to strong teams?”
“Tae-sim should have an easier time here, at least…”
Moon Tae-sim’s pneumatic flipper robot, Airheart. He named it after the characters in his own name—tae for typhoon and sim for heart. From above it resembled a squared-off heart; from the side it was wedge-shaped. A wide central bar functioned as a fast-moving pneumatic flipper. He had spent most of his career on powerhouse teams yet still endured many difficult seasons.
“There were dating rumors between Sau and Tae-sim, but that was four years ago.”
“Sis, I keep telling you that was just nonsense!”
The dating rumor between Na Sau and Moon Tae-sim had briefly exploded in 2019. Both Airheart and Lycodon had been struggling. In the end it remained nothing but a rumor. Airheart’s problems came from poor maintenance; Lycodon’s came from choking in big matches.
The players who had signed between dawn and morning arrived at the headquarters.
“Hi… Ms. Sharma…? My name is Moon…”
“Just speak comfortably in Korean. I’m fluent.”
(What? She really does speak perfect Korean.)
Sharma had lived in Korea since she was thirteen. She looked like a typical Indian person but held only New Zealand citizenship. Still, her Korean was flawless, with only a slight foreign accent.
“From now on, call me Jo Eun-ha. Use that name.”
“Eun-ha, why did you choose to do battle robots in Korea? You could have gone to India.”
“I’m a New Zealander. I don’t even know what’s in India.”
“There are plenty of other countries. Why Korea specifically?”
“Battle robots in other countries are too strict. I came here because it’s less rigid, Cheong-hyeon unni.”
Moon Tae-sim and Na Sau, who had once been the subject of dating rumors, were finally on the same team.
“Tae-sim, you suffered so much even on strong teams. This is an expansion squad. You sure you’ll be okay?”
“After living overseas for three years, I started missing home, Sau.”
“Na-seong unni, you finally escaped the second team!”
“I really don’t want to go back down, so I’ll have to perform!”
“Na-seong, the name ‘Pandemic Survivor’… ah, I get it now.”
It was named in 2020 when COVID-19 broke out. That alone explained everything.
“Survivor of the plague and butcher of the plague. It fits perfectly.”
The short-range horizontal spinner V-Killer and the long-range projectile robot Pandemic Survivor matched conceptually and also formed a nice close-range and long-range duo.
Moon Naru suddenly noticed the current gender ratio of three to six.
“There are six women… Are they trying to build a face-selling team?”
In some sports there had been teams built entirely around female players who lacked competitive skill, using their pretty faces for marketing. The result? They never won a single set all year and the team was disbanded.
“If that were the plan, they wouldn’t have recruited this unni even if they skipped Cheong-bi…”
(Cheong-hyeon unni… isn’t exactly the prettiest.)
“It just happened to turn out that way because of our recruitment direction.”
“Maybe they built the team around Cheong-hyeon unni and me?”
1. Multiple attackers who can deliver explosive fights
2. A small number of defenders to support #1
3. Promising rookies with suitable potential and personality
4. Veterans with appropriate salary to mentor #3
The Diafle front office had probably thought like this. Who were the available players that satisfied all four conditions? For 1 and 4 they had Neptune — Kang Cheong-hyeon and Lycodon — Na Sau. For 1 and 3 they had already secured V-Killer — Moon Naru and Scary — Lee Cheong-bi. All four players filling the first requirement were women. The snowball started there. In the end, the first (minimum) 5:6 gender ratio in RCLK history was set. It was a ratio you would never see in engineering fields, let alone battle robots.
“I’m here, Cheong-hyeon unni is here, and Tae-sim is here too, so it can’t be a face-selling team.”
“Of course, getting good results from the very first year won’t be easy.”