121. Oh, Cut the Crap! Seriously!!!
121. Oh, Cut the Crap! Seriously!!!
***
The reason the Gauntlet Match was called the highlight of ACK.
It was a real 1-on-1 duel between famous pro players.
And beyond team strength, the fact that a single player's individual skill could flip the tide of battle was also quite appealing.
Even if there was a gap in the number of aces between teams, cases of one truly exceptional player overturning that gap happened more often than one might think.
And now.
Not even in an ordinary Gauntlet Match, but in the pro league, there was a player who had achieved an All-Kill in the Gauntlet Match.
......
G1 dormitory.
"Heyyy~~"
Minha, slightly tipsy, called out to Minseong in a thoroughly smug voice and held out her glass.
"...?"
Minseong looked at her as if to say, what do you want, but when Minha twitched the corner of her mouth and held out her glass once more, Minseong let out a small sigh and picked up an unfamiliar bottle of wine on the table.
Glug, glug.
As Minseong poured the wine, he looked at Minha with obvious displeasure.
Minha let out a snicker and opened her mouth in a lazy drawl.
"The All-Killer, I mean! Huh? When she holds out her glass, you should pour it right away, quick-quick! Huh!? Minseong, why are you so clueless?"
"...No, ha. Seriously, Minha? If I'd been the opener, I would've gotten the All-Kill."
"What bullshit, you little shit~~ Didn't you see Jinhyeok get absolutely wrecked by Roland when he went out as opener?"
Minha let out a short laugh and turned her head to look at Jinhyeok, who was seated across from her.
"Ah, seriously."
Jinhyeok looked at Minha as if he'd bitten into something foul, then turned away and moved his chopsticks toward another side dish.
"Hey, Jinhyeok, that was, you know... there was a matchup thing, right? The Knight Class is so good at exploiting weaknesses, what could a sword-and-shield warrior do against a knight?"
Minseong, who had followed Minha's gaze, laughed awkwardly and deliberately talked Jinhyeok up.
"Ahem...!"
Jinhyeok coughed awkwardly and looked at Minseong as if to say thanks, and Minseong snickered. Seeing Minseong like that, Minha also laughed in disbelief.
"Pfft... this little shit really has a way with words."
Right now, a small celebration party was being held at the G1 dormitory.
—First 8-win streak since the team's founding.
—Overtaking TSJ to reach 1st place in the ACK League standings.
Actually, the head coach had said he would book a decent barbecue place or even a restaurant, but when Kang Hyeok said he wasn't feeling well and probably couldn't go, the team players said they should just party at the dorm, and so the party was happening here.
Kang Hyeok had said several times that they didn't need to do this because of him, but the G1 players paid no mind.
And so G1's team dinner became a spread of takeout and late-night delivery food laid out lavishly in the dorm.
And now, with not only the G1 players but the coach, head coach, and manager all together, it was quite lively.
"Cheers!"
"Cheers!!"
"No, who clinks wine glasses like beer mugs? Seriously... ridiculous."
"Who cares~ Just enjoy it!!"
"Ahh!!"
Everyone raised their glasses high in a toast. Minha laughed in disbelief midway through, but the other players just smiled broadly as if to say, what's the big deal.
Then one of the people who had downed their drink suddenly spoke up.
"No, seriously, I saw a whole new side of Minha today!? I doubted my own eyes, like, has she always been this good? Seriously!!!"
The speaker was G1's coach, Han Siwoo. Unlike his usual self, he spoke frivolously, unable to wipe the smile off his face as he continued to sing Minha's praises.
"No, I mean, she completely toyed with Roland. The whole time I was watching, I couldn't stop being amazed!"
"Minha's the type who delivers when it counts. Well, she did play a bit better today."
Kang Hyeok, who wasn't feeling well but had joined the celebration for a while because he knew it was being held at the dorm because of him, responded to Siwoo's words.
"...Bullshit."
At Kang Hyeok's sudden praise, Minha's mouth opened and closed for a moment before she spat out a single word and picked up her glass again.
"Oh? Minha's embarrassed."
Minseong giggled as he looked at Minha and said that.
"Oh, really?"
"The great Yu Minha, embarrassed by someone's words?"
A few other G1 players also snickered and looked at Minha as they spoke.
"Kang Hyeok doesn't usually give compliments. But he just complimented her, so I guess she got embarrassed."
Jinhyeok also snickered and chimed in.
Minha, who had been drinking wine, hastily set down her glass and shouted.
"Oh, cut the crap! Seriously!!!"
"Wait, so she really was embarrassed?"
"Pfft... look at Minha's face turning bright red."
As the players kept trying to tease her, Kang Hyeok spoke up with a small, exasperated voice.
"Hey, hey, that's enough. What are you going to do if she actually gets mad?"
"...Ah, seriously, why are you the one saying that?"
Minha growled with her face faintly flushed, and Kang Hyeok looked back at her with an expression that said, well, what do you want me to do?
"Ah, fuck."
In the end, Minha let out a small sigh and turned her head away.
As the atmosphere between the two began to feel subtly charged, Minseong snickered and poured wine into Minha's empty glass.
"Oh~~ what's this, what's this~~ are we getting a team couple too~~~?"
"Hey. Say one more word and I'll smash this glass right into your head?"
Minha, looking at Minseong, muttered coldly while gripping her glass. Minseong quickly averted his gaze from Minha and raised his own glass.
"Come on, come on~ Tonight we all get drunk and die!!!"
Minseong raised his glass and shouted loudly, as if trying to change the mood quickly.
"Let's all die~~~"
Several others raised their glasses together.
Clink!
Clink!!
Watching the players, Siwoo snickered and once again confirmed the unbelievable reality.
They were still far from the championship, but they were 1st in the league.
And the fact that they had risen to 1st by overtaking TSJ, a team that had never once given up the top spot, was enormous.
Just thinking about that fact kept making Siwoo smile.
"No, man. Are you that happy?"
Kang Hyeok looked at Siwoo in disbelief and asked. Siwoo nodded.
"Yeah, I'm happy. No, I think this is the best I've felt since I started coaching. I mean, we're 1st. 1st! To overtake TSJ and take 1st, even if only for a while. Honestly, it still feels like a dream."
Seeing Siwoo's voice tremble slightly as if he were giving a small speech at the end, Kang Hyeok poured wine into Siwoo's glass.
"We have to win this year, right?"
Kang Hyeok raised his glass with eyes full of ambition. Siwoo likewise raised the glass that had been poured for him and replied.
"Yeah. We have to win."
Clink!
Even as he said they had to win, honestly, it hadn't felt real until now.
Every league, every season, while preparing for the finals, he had honestly thought the chances of winning were extremely slim.
No matter how hard they tried to reach it, no matter how many new strategies they devised.
He couldn't see hope.
The depth of TSJ, the team with Jeanne d'Arc.
The more Siwoo researched the team and its players while devising strategies, the more he felt that their depth was endless.
But this year, for the first time, they had an 8-win streak, and now even TSJ's Jeanne d'Arc had declared a hiatus.
That championship no longer felt like a mere dream.
Since the founding of the ACK League, they had achieved the incredible feat of reaching the finals every league.
That alone was certainly a remarkable record and accomplishment.
2nd place out of 10 teams.
By any measure, it wasn't a bad result.
But the G1 players and coaches all knew what was being said among fans and in the community.
'Five-time runners-up.'
'They'll just get second place anyway.'
'Perennial 2nd place.'
On the surface they pretended to be unfazed, but everyone was conscious of those words, whether they showed it or not.
As professionals, the feeling of winning versus finishing runner-up was completely different.
Having to always watch someone else pass you by and smile brightly in the finals was never a good feeling.
As a coach, Siwoo sometimes even wondered how the players must feel if even he felt this way.
"...Ah, now that I think about it. Isn't the scrim with Rin the day after tomorrow?"
Minseong, who had been drinking, suddenly set down his glass as if he'd just remembered and spoke. Siwoo nodded.
"Yeah, that's right, this weekend. The 16th and 17th, and the time... we've got it set for 1 p.m."
"Wow, time really flies. Seriously. To think the scrim date with Rin is already coming up."
As Minseong said that in amazement, Minha silently held out her glass for no particular reason.
Glug, glug.
Laughing in disbelief, Minseong nonetheless poured wine into Minha's glass.
And now.
The one who had pushed for the scrim with Rin was none other than Kang Hyeok.
So several of the G1 players looked at Kang Hyeok, and Minha and Minseong were no exception.
The reason he had deliberately arranged a scrim with a non-pro.
No one had openly questioned Kang Hyeok about it, but everyone was curious.
No matter how much buzz she generated on NewTube or how famous she was in the community, she was strictly not a pro.
As far as some of them could tell, she was a streamer. Someone who did internet broadcasting.
Receiving their gazes, Kang Hyeok raised his glass and spoke calmly.
"Everyone's going to feel a lot during the scrim."
What you felt after facing Rin couldn't be explained in words.
She was someone who felt like a different kind of wall from Jeanne d'Arc.
Kang Hyeok was certain that through the scrim with Rin, the other players would also feel and realize something.
Whether in terms of play or understanding, there was definitely something to be felt.
Proof of that was that he himself had changed since the time he faced Rin.
Thinking about it, the All-Kill in the match against BS was also largely due to the memory of that time.
Rin's movements, receiving attacks as if letting them flow past and then counterattacking. The image of Rin from that time was still vivid, as if seared into Kang Hyeok's mind.
And when he later found out that Rin's movements weren't a skill or anything like that, but simply momentary reactions...
'Even with Jeanne d'Arc around, there's a chance this year.'
That was what Kang Hyeok was thinking.
***
—BaTalk!
At the sound of the BaTalk notification, Serin reflexively opened her eyes.
'...Ugh.'
Through her hazy consciousness, she reached out by habit and picked up the phone lying nearby.
She rubbed her eyes blankly and checked the time, then was a little surprised.
August 13.
9:36 a.m.
"...9 a.m.?"
I actually woke up at 9?