15. Trash Character?
Manager Cha spoke up.
"For the early stages of the stream, we have to stick to the concept. Most broadcasts pull aggro like that at the start anyway."
"Yeah, I guess they do."
I nodded, and Manager Cha's eyes lit up.
"And the Chairman's concept is..."
"My concept...?"
"Hmm. It's a bit hard to put into words, but simply put, something like 'a multifaceted psycho bitch'?"
The moment he said it, laser beams of murder shot from Miley's eyes. But Manager Cha—either he'd survived a near-heart attack and evolved into his final form, or something—didn't flinch at her killing intent. Instead, he boldly declared it outright.
"Crazy people always blow up online. It's noise marketing, basically. It's all for the Chairman, so please don't look at me like you want to kill me."
Not exactly bold, then—just determined to say his piece. Looking closer, his legs were trembling like leaves.
Shivering all the while, he said earnestly,
"Absolutely, under no circumstances can you reveal your voice. We already have a schedule set for when to disclose your gender and appearance through voice and visuals. So don't say a word. Just turn off voice entirely."
"...Then how do I communicate?"
"Uh, well. Handle all communication with Cognitive Acceleration chats. We're only doing Soul Frame for a while anyway."
Manager Cha grinned as he said it.
"Honestly, just the way you chat like that will have viewers treating you like a total nutjob on their own."
And just like that, I lost my voice.
With Cognitive Acceleration, my thoughts sped up in an instant.
The whole world slowed to a crawl around me, until it finally froze solid.
Accelerating one second by a few hundred times must look like this.
This had to be the max for Cognitive Acceleration.
I could probably push it further, but who knew what strain it'd put on my body? Better stick to the character limits listed in the settings.
In that frozen moment, only telekinesis could move.
I summoned the virtual keyboard again and hammered out a chat with telekinesis. Tap-tap-tap went the keys, and once I hit enter, I released the acceleration.
My message popped up.
And right away, a bellow exploded from behind me.
"Dude, just turn on your mic, you psycho!"
"Communicate with us, communicate!"
"Ugh, should've dodged."
Were these guys here to play or just to whine? They trailed after me, spewing curses.
Honestly, I didn't get it.
No matter how infamous Minder was as a troll pick, I wasn't throwing the game—I was playing straight. Why the constant griping?
It was enough to make me want to throw now.
Maybe that's why Minder had a troll rep. Get enough bullshit like this, and even diehard fans who loved the hero ended up turning dark side!
I shoved the thought aside and fired up Cognitive Acceleration again.
Then I spread Telekinesis Wave toward the position I'd just briefed. Boom—the telekinesis rippled out, pinpointing the enemy players. Virtual keyboard up, tap-tap-tap.
"How's he even typing chats like that?"
"Virtual keyboard while running or something?"
My teammates still weren't focusing on the game. I briefed them, but no one seemed to listen. Hell, were these clowns even on my side?
Did they take an IQ debuff or something?
Eh, low tier—probably par for the course.
Might be better to ditch 'em mid-game.
I glanced at the viewer count hovering in the upper left of my vision.
As expected: 0 viewers.
What new streamer draws a crowd right away? Especially one who didn't say a word and just grinded games endlessly—what fun was that to watch?
A couple had popped in earlier, but with no chat reactions or voice, they bailed quick.
Manager Cha, you bastard. Is this concept for real?
I had my doubts, but what choice did I have? Had to trust him.
With that, I kicked off the ground and leaped. Telekinesis-boosted, I shot up several meters in a blink, sticking to the building wall.
Peering down, I spotted two heroes charging between the structures.
One was Explosion, with blast powers. The other, The Batter, wielding a baseball bat.
The infamous "Batting Ball" duo.
Explosion had instant-blast skills whose damage scaled with charge time. True burst potential meant charging forever.
Which made him trash originally.
Who charges that long unless the enemy's brain-dead?
But then his blasts got a buff: object destruction. And boom—he became broken tier.
Soul Frame didn't let you smash most stuff. Exceptions existed, and now Explosion's blasts qualified.
Objects dealt collision damage on impact.
Yep.
Batting Ball: Explosion shatters objects, The Batter smacks the debris like baseballs for massive damage!
Duo, huh.
According to Miley's data, that combo needed practice between synced duos.
Whatever. Duo or not, didn't matter.
I eyed my allies scrambling to regroup, then scanned around with another Telekinesis Wave. Seemed like these two were the only enemies nearby.
The other pair wiped?
Or split up.
Didn't matter. I watched the duo hurl objects at my three "allies"—who weren't helping anyway—while timing my move.
Both were pure DPS and bruiser—no detection at all.
No way they'd spot me closing in.
...Now!
Explosion was shattering the ground for debris. The instant his skill hit dirt, I dropped from above onto both their heads.
My airborne body plummeted with gravity.
Cognitive Acceleration—on.
Thoughts raced; everything halted.
And moments later...
—KABOOM!
Acceleration released—the entire ground around the Batting Ball duo erupted in telekinetic fury, shattering and flipping upside down.
Just like how Explosion became god-tier off one special ruling, Minder was busted on paper.
Solid auto-attacks via telekinesis. Wide-area detection. Team shields. Even a nuke ultimate.
Specs screamed overpowered hero.
The catch? Cast times.
Minder's skills took forever.
As a hero built around acceleration, you couldn't cast while sped up.
Without it, normal play was impossible. With it? Casting became hell.
No targeting correction.
Soul Frame showed skill previews with glowy guides. But Cognitive Acceleration killed them.
Implementation limit, probably.
So: needed accel to function, but accel made range invisible. Ultimate trash.
Time to change that perception.
The blast one-shot Explosion. Glass cannon design—big hits meant instant down.
The Batter survived, sadly.
Bruiser tankiness.
"Wait—what? Minder?"
His eyes bulged as he clocked me. I swung telekinesis at him.
Even post-ambush, his response was sharp.
Scooping the stunned Explosion, he bolted out of my sightline.
Simultaneously, he batted a rolling rock shard like a cannonball straight at me.
Nice.
Clean harass-escape combo.
Textbook.
—Crunch! Crackle!
Of course, useless against Minder.
Acceleration, barrier.
Pin the coords right, and defense was easy. Just mind stamina.
Trying to hide and rez, huh.
Glanced at allies: all down. Two dead. Shredding three with rocks? The Batter was smurfing, minimum.
Alt account farming?
Not my problem.
Do my job.
I kicked off, telekinesis accelerating my body.
Instant top speed—like flooring a sports car. Normies lost control at this pace, but I was used to it.
"Whoa, shit. He's keeping up?"
I closed the gap; he let out a hollow laugh.
No matter how beefy The Batter was, lugging dead weight slowed him.
He decided to fight.
Dumping Explosion aside, he spun his bat and tsked. The tossed hero yelped.
"Hey! Don't chuck me, asshole!"
"Ugh, bro. Never again. This sucks. No carry potential."
"That's 'cause we got trolled. Bad luck today. Yo, let's proper this for a clip..."
"Nah. No more. Can't hack it. No wonder pros don't touch it."
The Batter bantered casually, oozing confidence.
Then he smirked at me.
"First time seeing a non-troll Minder in this bracket. Wild. Comm-ish is trash, though."
"......"
Hm.
Insulting my comms?
"Chasing like that—body control's solid. For a traaaaash..."
I triggered Cognitive Acceleration.
One second stretched hundreds long. I roughly calculated every terrain coord around him.
Basic attacks everywhere.
Telekinesis Explosion
Telekinesis Explosion
Telekinesis Explosion
Telekinesis Explosion
Ult in his core.
Singularity
Finally, virtual keyboard.
Prep done. Acceleration off.
"...sh pi"
—Crunch
The Batter's body crumpled instantly. Dead.