126. G1 vs Rin
126. G1 vs Rin
***
Scrim.
Short for "scrimmage," meaning a practice match, the word "scrim" had become widely used.
Because it referred to a practice match between teams that coordinated their schedules, it was commonly used to describe practice matches regardless of whether they involved pro teams or sports in general.
So for a single person to scrim against a pro "team" was, in and of itself, absurd.
It sounded far too strange.
......
—The day of the showdown.
Monday, August 16.
1:00 p.m.
Ten minutes before.
A light breeze swept through the interior of the massive Colosseum.
—Whoosh.
Inside the enormous Colosseum, the size of a domed stadium, the G1 pro team players had each taken their places.
Every one of them wore brilliant weapons and armor that were flashy, elegant, and gleaming in their own right.
The sight of those players holding their positions throughout the Colosseum was a spectacle in itself.
Not a single piece of armor or even a minor accessory was below Mythic grade.
Every piece was ultra-high-end equipment worth at least tens of millions of won.
And clad in such luxurious gear, each player radiated a distinctive presence.
A warrior in jet-black armor that seemed to swallow the pouring light, carrying a massive red greatsword.
An assassin in a black hooded robe reminiscent of a medieval killer, toying with a pitch-black dagger.
A sniper sitting aloof in a specially made matte, form-fitting combat suit.
Considering the name value each of those players carried, gathering in one place like this was clearly out of the ordinary.
And now, at the center of those players.
Clink!
Kang Hyeok, his iconic massive red greatsword slung over his shoulder, glanced around at the players once and gave a small nod.
It was, in a sense, an almost excessive show of force for a first meeting, but he considered even this necessary.
Since a single person like "Rin" couldn't do a team-style practice match, it would have been enough to send out only the player suited to the matchup.
But Kang Hyeok believed that the momentum of a first meeting mattered immensely.
They could see each other's expressions, the gestures each made as they moved, the arc of a swung sword, the direction a gun barrel pointed.
What awaited at the end of all that went beyond simple strength and weakness—it affected the mental side as well.
The players had clearly all hit peak form thanks to their win streak and reaching first place. There was surely some "arrogance" settled inside them, so he also intended to make them feel a certain amount of tension.
But even as he prepared, Kang Hyeok found himself wondering whether anyone could actually beat her.
The image of Rin deflecting attacks with a flowing, almost mystical ease was still vivid in his mind.
That hadn't even been an actual technique—it was nothing more than using a split-second flash of ingenuity—but it conveyed a difference in caliber all on its own.
The first wall he'd felt since Jeanne d'Arc.
Rin.
"I can't wait to meet her."
Relatively close to Kang Hyeok, the assassin leaning against a rock murmured offhandedly. A sharp-featured young man beneath the black hooded robe.
It was Minseong, regarded as one of the top pro players in the Assassin class.
—Swoosh, clink!
As if deliberately putting on an air of ease, he kept tossing the antique black dagger into the air and catching it, waiting for time to pass.
There was the anticipation of the scrim, but Minseong's excitement about actually meeting Rin was even greater.
A meeting between star and fan.
Minseong, a pro player, had taken on the role of a fan and was eagerly awaiting the moment that would soon arrive.
"...I honestly don't remember ever preparing for a scrim while waiting for someone like this."
A woman in a thin combat suit murmured quietly, as if finding it dubious.
Minha, slowly stroking her sniper rifle, checked the current situation with a puzzled look.
Preparations that would normally only happen for signing a sponsorship deal with a famous brand—now being made to meet a single ordinary person.
No matter which team they met or who they faced, the entire team had never gathered and waited like this.
—Eight-game win streak.
—Current first place in the ACK League.
On top of that, with their momentum piercing the sky and each individual player at peak form, the current situation felt unreal for no good reason.
'This really does seem excessive.'
Minha wasn't thrilled about the whole team sitting in the Colosseum waiting for one person, but she didn't go out of her way to show it.
Without another word, her gaze drifted to the one person at the center of the formation.
A man with a greatsword slung over his shoulder, wearing an unusually excited expression as if looking forward to what was to come.
Kang Hyeok.
'No matter how I look at it... this doesn't seem like simple acknowledgment.'
Even reconsidering it, this was too much for greeting an opponent for a scrim. This didn't feel like preparation born of simply recognizing someone's skill.
If anyone saw this, they'd think they were preparing in advance for a scrim against a team far above them.
The other two players.
Hajun, a Gunner class specialized in close and mid-range combat, and Jinhyeok, a sword-and-shield warrior using a one-handed sword and tower shield, were positioned at the far right and left ends of the formation.
About five minutes passed as the players waited, each anticipating the scrim ahead.
—Flash!
Suddenly, a cluster of light flickered like a blink inside the Colosseum. The beam of light gradually faded, leaving only a faint trace, and at its end, the figure of a woman emerged.
At the same time, a single step. The woman stepped forward.
Slither.
Her lustrous silver hair swayed as if radiating light itself, and beneath it, her face shone resplendently with a beauty that could only be called sculpted.
Her characteristically indifferent blue eyes swept across the interior of the Colosseum like starlight.
The moment the silver-haired woman in flowing red cloth appeared.
Every gaze in the Colosseum instantly fixed on her.
......
On the other hand, Serin marveled at the Colosseum's massive scale the moment she entered, and after spotting the G1 players not far away, she let out a small, slightly surprised sound.
"Ah."
Her voice, letting out a small exclamation as if she hadn't expected the players to be waiting like this, wasn't particularly loud.
But that small exclamation reached every player's ears with perfect clarity.
***
—An agreement only needs to be carried out exactly as made.
That was one of the things she'd learned the hard way in the world called Black Ark.
There was no need to complete a mission earlier than the set deadline, or to over-prepare supplies based on her own assumptions.
Sometimes people would even ask why she'd acted that way despite the kindness, because so few people actually appreciated the effort.
So at some point, she'd started thinking of meeting arrangements the same way.
Five minutes early.
Just arrive at a time that wasn't late but still had a little leeway.
......
Checking the time, she definitely wasn't late for the appointment.
12:55.
But when she saw that all the G1 players had arrived at the Colosseum earlier than her, Serin couldn't help but feel an inexplicable awkwardness.
"...Hello?"
She opened her mouth cautiously while scanning the faces of the players currently in the Colosseum.
Since she'd looked up the players beforehand for the scrim, the faces she was seeing now felt somewhat familiar even though it was her first time seeing them.
The notable thing was that the players she faced radiated such dazzling presence that she could even feel their distinctive momentum.
"Yes, hello. Rin, this is our first time meeting like this, right? It's a pleasure. I'm Kang Hyeok, captain of G1."
The man at the center of the players spoke with a cheerful smile, and she nodded.
"Yes. Kang Hyeok... player. Nice to meet you too."
The man in jet-black armor with a greatsword slung over his shoulder was Kang Hyeok.
G1's captain and core player.
The image of Kang Hyeok, who had pulled off the miracle of a reverse all-kill in a desperate crisis where he was about to be all-killed by Baekya, was still vivid in her memory.
"Just call me Kang Hyeok. I'm looking forward to today's scrim."
He was oddly friendly, and it gave her a strange feeling.
"Yes. I'm looking forward to the G1 players a lot too."
A peculiar sensation, as if meeting someone she'd already met before.
'But... today should be our first meeting.'
A sense of déjà vu, as if she'd met a player named Kang Hyeok somewhere before.
But then, as if on cue, the G1 players started talking to her, and the feeling soon faded from her mind.
"Hello! Rin! I watch your tweetie streams all the time!"
The sharp-featured man visible beneath the hooded robe smiled brightly as he spoke.
A player in the Assassin class, mainly fielded against ranged classes.
His player name was Minseong.
"A pro player watching my stream... that's a little surprising."
When I answered cautiously, he spoke with sparkling eyes, and it was almost overwhelming.
"Seriously, even during practice I'll turn on your stream just to hear your voice. I've watched every single regular broadcast too!"
"Really...?"
Hearing someone say directly that they were my fan was a novel feeling.
No, rather than novel... hearing that kind of thing face-to-face just made me feel awkward.
......
"I should call you Rin... right? Anyway, I look forward to today's scrim."
Unlike the other players, a long black-haired woman spoke to me indifferently. Her impression, clad in a stylish special suit, was so haughty it almost came across as cold, but that very quality seemed to be part of her charm.
Her player name was Minha.
Even though she'd clearly come over to greet me, I got the feeling that the woman's attitude toward me was cold.
G1's sole female player, and from what I'd researched, she was someone everyone in the sniper-type ranged class acknowledged—aside from Baekya, there was said to be no one in the ranged category who could match her.
"Yes. I'm quite... looking forward to you too, Minha."
Her all-kill in the previous three matches against the Knights of Charlemagne had definitely been impressive.
She was so good that... it had put me in a bad mood for no reason just watching.
......
"Wow. She's so pretty it's hard to believe she's a character."
The player holding a sword and shield with a sly expression was named Jinhyeok.
A player who used a one-handed sword and tower shield, emphasizing balance.
His combat style was unremarkable without any standout traits, but conversely, he was a player who had honed the fundamentals to an extreme degree.
"Well, it's a game character anyway."
She brushed off the compliment as being directed at the character, not making a big deal of it.
And finally, the last one.
"Hyeok praised you so much, Rin. I’ll be looking forward to today too, okay?"
A Gunner-type player who mainly used shotguns and pistols,
active at close and mid range.
His player name was Hajun.
The impact of his easy loss to Baekya last time had been significant, but he was still a player who boasted a fairly high win rate against close and mid-range classes.
Once the greetings with all five players were finished.
I forced down a sigh that threatened to escape.
Being surrounded by this many people was something I hadn't experienced in a while, and just making small talk seemed to exhaust me mentally.
On top of that, the famous ones here should have been the G1 players, not me, but every single one of them approached me first to greet me before I could approach them, which made me feel pressured, as if I'd become the famous player instead.
Once Kang Hyeok decided the greetings were all done, he looked at Serin and asked calmly.
"Rin, you know how the scrim will be run, right?"
Time to get down to business.
Serin nodded.
"Yes. I know."
The scrim format the coach had explained to me over BaTalk was really nothing special.
—1v1 matches.
Two matches per player.
First, one match against every player. After five total 1v1 matches.
Then a short break, followed by another round of five matches against the players.
Ten matches in total.
Simply put, ten 1v1 matches was the Monday scrim schedule.
G1 had estimated the scrim would take four hours.
But Serin figured around two hours would probably be enough.
The condition was that after the matches, there was no need for any feedback—just purely dueling.
I liked that the scrim conditions were simple.
"So who's dueling me first?"
I asked in case there was a set order.
One player spoke up.
"I'm first."
A woman with black hair flowing down to her waist, carrying a massive sniper rifle.
It was Minha.