Murder by Donation

^{^Dream^}

Bahm-bah-rah bahm-bah-bah!

"Ah~ our Lily oppa...? What the— are you kidding me. Is that really Lily-nim?!"

Yena shot up from her chair at the sudden donation.

A million won, out of nowhere. And from a donor with a nickname and speech pattern she knew all too well.

"Lily-ssi just gave me her stamp of approval. See? I told you I could be Grand General."

Beaming, Yena slapped her character onto one of the three castles displayed on the panel—a picture of a two-heads-tall Yena brandishing a dagger with a thoroughly insufferable expression.

Devil said nothing, just staring at the chat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠window where question marks kept scrolling past.

Yena gave Devil's hair a friendly ruffle and opened her mouth, absolutely buzzing. "Aah~ anyway, thank you so much, Lily unni~! At the next ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Newdlebak session, I'll—"

Bahm-bah-rah bahm-bah-bah!

"...Lily-ssi?"

Bahm-bah-rah bahm-bah-bah!

"Excuse me."

Bahm-bah-rah bahm-bah-bah!

"...Lily unni. Is this your way of killing me?"

"...Ugh. Fine, I'll take it down..."

Grumbling, Yena peeled her character off the panel and dropped it into a container. The little figure sank in, utterly forlorn.

? Why though?

The perpetrator herself had no idea what she'd done wrong.

"So this is what I've come up with. What do you think?"

After a four-hour odyssey, the twelve-player mock teams had finally been divided into three. Yena positioned the panel squarely in front of the camera and revealed the members, starting with Team 1.

"Starting with Team 1. Honestly, the favorite to take the whole thing."

"...Not bad."

Devil nodded along.

It stung a little that Lily wasn't on the roster... no. Whatever. It was nothing, but regardless—the balance itself was remarkably solid. The lineup by position was good too.

"If nothing wild happens, I'd guess this is how it shakes out. You agree?"

Next up, Team 2~

"Team 2 is... looking at it this way, Team 2's pretty strong too."

In truth, since the balance of Teams 1 and 3 had been carved out first, the 'leftovers' naturally pooled into Team 2—but laid out like this, Team 2 looked respectably strong.

"What are you talking about, YenaTangTang oppa. Greedy? Anyone can see this is a perfectly 'honest' team balance."

Yena let out a haughty snort and zoomed in on the final team's panel.

Team 3's only weakness was the absence of a front-line tank—but they had two spearmasters, plus a druid to back them up. And finally, the absolute master of ambush, the calamity of the back line, the butcher of ranged damage dealers, the terror of every back-liner alive—Yena herself.

Was that not a flawless balance?

"Dunno. Anyway, that's it for today! Just you watch—this is exactly how the teams get picked."

"First things first, Leo, Choco, and I have to be split apart."

"We should separate Iron-nim and Truck Shield-nim as well..."

"Mages are generally better off divided. Leo can stack with a mage if need be, but two mages on one team wrecks the balance."

At that same moment, on the organizer's side of things, the team balance of the twelve already-confirmed Generals was being furiously fine-tuned between Vlack and his acquaintance Fracion.

The most fundamental rule of balance was to first split up the three strongest players—the 'Grand Generals.' After that came distribution based on the matchups between the Generals.

Rankers and pros were skilled enough to shrug off a decent bit of matchup disadvantage, but when the two players were of roughly 'equal' caliber, overcoming that difference was anything but easy. Matchups mattered that much.

Even with the team captain selection and drafting scheduled for March 7th, letting captains pick members wholesale would risk shattering the balance entirely. That was why they'd settled on a line-based selection system.

For instance, if the A-line held Lily, Yena, and Devil, then Team 1 could take only one of them—say, Lily—from the A-line. That way each team walked away with a balanced spread of positions, and no captain, however savvy their picks, could seriously break the equilibrium.

Fracion nodded along, then plucked up the blue-haired character pinned at the center of the panel—the beautiful, two-heads-tall spearwoman, Lily.

"What do we do with this one? Slot her into any line and I feel like the balance just gets steamrolled."

"Hmm... good question."

Frankly speaking, he wanted to hand her the Grand General title. Her popularity aside, if her gear, stats, and equipment balance came together properly, he judged she could go toe-to-toe even with a Grand General.

But if you asked whether she had to be given the title—no, he wouldn't go that far. Setting everyone else aside, there were already three people hovering right at Grand General level as it stood.

"Enough. If we follow that logic, then Yena-nim's a problem too, and everyone comes with too many variables."

They were all rankers in the low 300s, seasoned veterans in their own right, and potential to spare. On top of an all-time-great lineup, this year's Mock Siege was being run with a full three teams—who knew what variables might arise?

"All we can do is wish for the best."

And ideally, his team would be the one she landed on.

"...You're not planning to use organizer privileges to draft her first, are you."

"Don't spout nonsense, you bas—"

He almost said it. Almost. He had no intention of actually doing it.

Time is relative. To one person, four days can feel like forty; to another, like four seconds.

And my time moved very, very fast.

I woke at the same hour as always, washed up, brought back something to eat, and settled in front of the monitor. In my message box—usually brimming—a single friend request notification was waiting for me.

"March 7th."

The day of the Mock Siege team ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠selection had arrived.