182. Just the Two of Us, Closely
182. Just the Two of Us, Closely
***
Tepes's final combo looked plenty vicious even on screen.
'How would I deal with that?'
But at the end of it, Sua couldn't help admiring the sight of Serin using a new skill.
The skill sparked too much curiosity, but she felt awkward asking the older girl directly about it while she was busy interacting with her viewers.
Click. Click.
Sua went to the official Another World homepage and dug through the skill list until she finally found the skill Serin had used.
"Why are there so many skills that are some kind of dance?"
After wasting several minutes searching, Sua grumbled quietly and clicked for details on the skill called Fox Spirit Dance.
She read through the skill description carefully, then suddenly tilted her head.
"A condition that requires matching timing, and your HP gauge has to be below half... no, why are there so many usage conditions?"
The skill had so many restrictions that she wondered why anyone would even bother learning it.
Normally, among the countless skills out there, if one seemed impractical or lacked destructive power, most people simply lost interest in it.
Each class had dozens of skills. Some classes even had over a hundred.
On top of that, each skill had a separate "proficiency" system.
The more you used a skill, the more its refinement, activation speed, and even destructive power changed. That was why even pro players chose to focus on mastering only the most efficient skills.
"It's a skill that's hard to use outside of specific situations..."
The more she thought about it, the more this older girl seemed like someone without limits.
Her combat style wasn't fixed as aggressive or defensive, or any particular style, and even the skills she used were diverse.
Having satisfied her curiosity by reading through the skill, Sua soon moved on to her next thought.
The Five Million Project proposed by her MCN agency.
Slurp.
Sua sipped her kiwi smoothie and swept back her brown hair, murmuring absently.
"How am I supposed to lure her into the project?"
The simplest thing that came to mind was telling her it would help RinTube's channel grow a lot. That probably wouldn't be a problem to say, but she didn't want to.
If I brought it up that way, it felt like I'd be asking to do the project like some shallow opportunist. It was true that I'd received this project and promotion offer because of Serin, so I was benefiting from it. But I still didn't want to come across as shallow.
Serin might not think of her that way, but she didn't want to give her any reason to.
"Hmm..."
Was there an offer with a more definite merit that Serin could accept comfortably?
Sua mulled it over, then nodded and let out a single word.
"In the end, it's money, right?"
Nobody hates money.
It was a universal truth.
***
After logging out of Another World, Serin continued interacting with her viewers.
She was satisfied with the opponent she'd met at the end, and after promoting to Master Tier, she didn't feel like playing Arena anymore.
[A RinTube video just went up... looks like the editors are working?]
Several chat messages mentioned that a video of the scrim against G1 had been uploaded to NewTube, and Serin spoke up with a curious voice.
"They say a video went up on RinTube. Want to watch it together?"
She was curious how the video had turned out, so watching it together seemed fine. Besides, she knew the editors had agonized over this video quite a bit, so she was a little concerned.
She knew they had to coordinate with the G1 people, so she hadn't said anything about the video being uploaded late, but the editors had actually apologized to her, which made her feel almost burdened.
[Go go go]
[Did the G1 scrim go up?]
[Oh?]
[Plea, let's watch together!!]
[Wow, but why did it take a whole week to go up?]
[The editors are finally working lmaooo]
Seeing the chat reaction was decent, I decided to go ahead and watch RinTube.
Click.
She opened a new window and went to the RinTube channel. There were two newly uploaded videos.
She looked at the first visible video.
It had a simple title, "G1 VS Rin," and a thumbnail. My figure swinging the Crescent-Moon Weight and Minha holding a sniper rifle with a flustered expression were positioned as if crossing each other.
Serin smiled softly at the sight and put the video up on the stream screen.
—RinTube!
The signature intro with Hayoon's voice passed, and the vast Colosseum appeared, on a completely different scale from Solo Rank.
Then the screen closed up on the inside of the Colosseum, showing the G1 players standing in a line. Even on a second look, their appearances were dazzling. On screen, every one of them looked cool and beautiful.
Kang Hyeok, carrying a massive greatsword beneath pitch-black armor like a Berserker. Minseong in the guise of an assassin draped in a stylish black robe, and so on.
As the video slowly showed the players one by one, Serin felt puzzled.
'Did G1 send them a separate video?'
What I'd recorded started from the moment I connected, so this kind of production shouldn't have been possible. I figured G1 had probably sent a separate video.
It felt like G1 had planned to make a video from early on and prepared for it entirely.
In the scene of the Colosseum where the players were waiting, a cluster of light appeared belatedly—up to the moment when all the players' gazes turned at once toward me as I appeared late.
Watching herself like this from an objective view was a little embarrassing.
[Insane lmaooo]
[Whoa, what's with this scale]
[The production is crazy]
[Wait, they said this is a scrim, but watching the video, Rin looks like the main character?]
[What's with all the G1 players gathered waiting for her lol]
[Don't tell me Rin was late lol?]
She checked to see how the viewers were reacting, and the fast-scrolling chat was full of people marveling at the players.
"I actually connected earlier than the agreed time. Maybe because everyone was so kind, the G1 players arrived first and waited for me."
She said she wasn't late while looking at the screen, and before she knew it, time in the video had passed and the pre-match scene appeared.
—The duel will begin shortly.
The hologram text that originally only displayed words now had a voice added, which sounded like Soyul.
It seemed like they'd directly added the kind of female voice you'd hear at an ACK tournament, and Serin couldn't help letting out a laugh.
"I think a RinTube editor dubbed this. What do you think? Nice voice, right?"
[What's with them preparing even this lmaooo]
[The voice is seriously good]
[I thought I was watching an ACK tournament]
[This is like a G1 in-house match, never seen a scrim like this before]
[Didn't they actually run it like a real tournament?]
[The detail is insane]
Then the countdown ended and the match began. The players on both sides launched themselves forward, and I could see myself among them.
The other players clearly moved toward designated positions or prioritized spacing. In contrast, my figure charging straight ahead on my own stood out unmistakably.
"It's kind of fascinating watching myself like this."
She deliberately said a few words while watching the video.
The scrim experience still left a strong impression.
On screen, Kang Hyeok and Hajun could be seen closing in from the sides, as if trying to shut me out as I broke their formation and pushed forward like a jutting rock.
But the screen suddenly cut to Minha, far away.
Minha had fixed a large-caliber sniper rifle onto a triangular mount and was taking a sniping posture, almost lying flat against the ground.
The moment the screen showed her hand gently pulling the trigger, a massive burst of fire erupted from the muzzle.
BANG!!
A huge gunshot rang out, and a single black trajectory rose from behind Rin, aimed at Hajun's heart.
Hajun threw himself toward a nearby obstacle as if he'd expected it. The black trajectory grazed his side by a hair.
The video caught and showed each of these moments, making it feel like watching an action movie.
"...The editors really worked hard on this."
Serin couldn't help admiring the fact that it had been edited so meticulously, and she gradually got absorbed in the video.
And at that very moment, Serin didn't know that another pro team was also watching that video.
***
The pro team "BS" dormitory.
A strategy lab set up in one corner of the dorm.
Famous pro teams had people dedicated solely to analyzing their own strength.
Predicting the opposing players' tendencies and signature skills, and anticipating who would be fielded for bans and picks, was extremely important, but analyzing the opponent's strength was always the most basic of basics.
So BS also had someone in charge of strength analysis.
Baek Seungmin, commonly called Coach Baek, was a coach and analysis officer who had newly joined BS starting from the summer league, and he had greatly influenced BS's current strong performance of third place in the league.
At some point, he had been earning recognition within BS among both the players and the coaching staff.
"...What's the goal here?"
The video he was checking alone in the strategy lab was the scrim video of G1 and Rin.
The coaches' interest in G1, currently first in the league, was higher than ever, and Baek Seungmin was no exception.
He'd heard they'd had a scrim, but the actually released scrim video of G1 and the person called Rin was, in a sense, shocking.
Click.
"Releasing the video... is it some kind of confidence?"
Seungmin stopped the video playing on his laptop and muttered with a small sigh.
He'd ended up admiring the video, and for a moment he felt the gap between teams.
Knock, knock.
At the sound of knocking on the door, Seungmin composed his expression and slowly spoke.
"Come in."
There was only one player who would come to the strategy lab at this hour.
Baekya, the player known in name and reality as BS's ace.
Clack.
"Coach Baek, why did you call me?"
Baekya's snow-white bob, reaching her shoulders, swayed lightly. When Seo Yuna asked, Seungmin smiled faintly and spoke.
"Ah, I called you because I wanted to have a close conversation with you, Baekya. Just the two of us."
"Just the two of us... closely?"
When Yuna grimaced, Seungmin realized his mistake and continued.
"About Another World, of course."
Only then did Yuna relax her expression and speak bluntly.
"Coach Baek, you know you say really weird things sometimes, right?"