55. Please Set Up a Scrim
55. Please Set Up a Scrim
***
[????]
[Is this bait?]
[Aren't the ACK playoffs coming up soon? Why would a coach be watching tweetie]
[Rin getting a pro offer??]
[At this point in the season??]
[No but who makes a pro offer through a stream donation lol]
[Could be fake or bait in the first place]
Even looking at the chat reactions, everyone was uniformly confused.
"I'll open whispers for the nickname that donated, so if you really are a pro team coach, please leave a whisper explaining why you want to talk with me. I'll reply after today's stream ends."
Because they said they were a pro team coach, Serin had some idea of their intent, but for now she was in the middle of a stream.
Making a donation like that out of nowhere during a stream aside, she had clearly written her email among the banners under the channel, so why go out of their way to donate like that...
'...Email?'
Then she paused for a moment.
Sua had written the business-related email address among the banners while helping with the setup, but I still hadn't checked that email.
In the first place, it had only been three days since she started streaming and became a streamer. She hadn't expected any such emails to arrive.
On top of that, she had already announced that there would be content to select a NewTube channel editor tomorrow, so she figured anyone interested would have sent their editor-related emails by this evening at the latest.
So she had planned to check everything at once after today's stream ended...
But now that she thought about it, someone might have sent an email for a purpose other than the editor position.
Ding!
Immediately after, a whisper notification arrived.
[Han Siwoo : I sent an email yesterday evening to the address written on the banner, but since I received no reply, I had no choice but to donate. First, if I have disrupted your personal stream, I sincerely apologize. However, it is truly urgent, which is why I reached out this way. Please check the email titled G1 and contact the number written inside just once.]
[Rin : Yes. I'll check the email after the stream ends and reply. I hadn't gotten around to checking it.]
Even as she checked the whisper and replied, Serin felt dazed.
The content was hard to dismiss as bait or impersonation. She couldn't be certain, but it seemed likely this really was a pro team coach.
'But do people normally show up and donate like this just because you didn't reply to an email?'
She wondered just when they had sent the email for them to come find her stream directly like this, but since it ended there, she slowly opened her mouth.
Her main job right now was streaming.
"For now... I've decided to check and reply after the stream ends. There's nothing I can tell you viewers about it right at this moment."
[Wtf is this real???]
[No way, he's actually a G1 coach??]
[Whoa what lol]
[Is Rin seriously making a pro debut?]
[No but who recruits a pro at the end of the season lol something's off]
[For real, what's the point right before the season wraps up]
Looking at the chat going wild, I abandoned my plan to finish going through the prepared topic posts.
Even after the stream ended, she had to work out, and she also had to check the email from the person who appeared to be a coach and reply. On top of that, she had asked Sua yesterday for help with the NewTube editor situation, so she also needed to talk with her about that.
A relentless string of packed obligations.
Just a few days ago, she had been spending her days without much thought. This was a drastic change, like a completely different life.
'Still... this is what living is, I guess.'
Being busy doing something gave me the feeling that I was gradually adapting to this world.
"I'll wrap up the community check here and move straight into Another World Arena."
The donation had made things chaotic just now. And she felt like she had spent too much time on the greatsword dancer topic, so she might not have enough time left for Another World.
So she changed direction and simply logged into Another World right away.
The current viewer count was around seven thousand.
Maybe because the greatsword dancer explanation had gone on a bit long, the viewer count wasn't rising any further and was holding steady at that line.
[go go go go go go go go]
[I've been waiting just for Another World lol]
[Radio-style streams are nice too, but I'm here to see Rin's skills]
[For real]
[I'm here because Rin's cam is pretty lol]
[Greatsword again today!?]
[I want to see the Crescent-Moon Weightttt]
[Greatsword! Greatsword! Greatsword! Greatsword! Greatsword!]
[I came from NewTube and want to see the Crescent-Moon Weight]
[I came to see Rin use the greatsword though;]
Even the chat reactions changed completely the moment she said she would play Another World. It was as if they had been waiting for the stream just to see that.
"You viewers really like this, huh?"
Serin smiled lightly and immediately linked the stream setup to the Another World capsule.
"Oh, and today I'll be using the Crescent-Moon Weight. I'll bring out the greatsword again next time when I feel like it."
With those words, she logged into Another World.
As her vision darkened once again.
She repeated one thought to herself.
—Jeanne d'Arc.
The nickname of the person who had suddenly donated a large sum of two million won.
The more she thought about it, the more it was a rare username.
That was all Serin's impression of the nickname Jeanne d'Arc amounted to.
***
ACK Pro Team G1.
It was currently ranked third in the ACK League and was riding a six-game win streak with surging momentum.
The Another World pro league ACK was now in its third year and heading toward its conclusion.
But of the pro teams that had existed since the league's earliest days, only two remained.
TSJ.
G1.
Those two teams.
The reason only two teams remained was not that the league itself had struggled to draw interest and participating teams had pulled out. The growth of the ACK league had been so explosive that the brand teams that had joined in the early days had naturally been pushed out.
The small and mid-sized brand teams pushed out by the entry of major corporations into the ACK pro scene were either swallowed whole by those corporations, or followed the path of disbanding due to rising player maintenance costs and league fees.
That was why the two teams that had existed since ACK's earliest days, TSJ and G1, had longer histories than other teams, and each possessed enormous fandoms.
Even their core players had not transferred, remaining as symbols of their respective teams and protecting them, which made their value even greater.
Their league results were 1st and 3rd respectively.
And now.
In the G1 dorm, an argument was taking place.
"Hyeok, seriously... you want me to set up a scrim?"
Coach Han Siwoo, who had been arranging scrim schedules and working on strategy, let out a deep sigh and looked at Kang Hyeok.
The league was now heading into its final stretch, and the ACK Summer Season would all wrap up this week.
Moreover, this year was especially important, with the first-ever international competition being held.
One of the team's core players, 'Kang Hyeok,' had suddenly started saying something strange.
"No, seriously, just one day. Just one day is enough. Siwoo, if you face this person called Rin, you’ll get more out of it than several scrim matches, I’m telling you."
They’d taken a team-wide day off to rest up before the end of the season, but Kang Hyeok had apparently spent his break in a completely different way, because he had suddenly started talking about some user.
—Rin.
Aside from the Another World user nickname Rin, there was no properly confirmed information about them.
The only information that came up no matter how much you looked was that they were a 'female user' with quite outstanding skill.
With the playoffs approaching and things so busy there was no time to breathe, Han Siwoo had still looked into it a little, and even in his eyes, the user called Rin was certainly buzzworthy.
—That they had defeated 8th-ranked Plea and 39th-ranked Gosu.
Both were well-known players in Another World, and even Siwoo, who had been a G1 coach for a year, had known their names for a long time.
Since the team had long had Kang Hyeok, a greatsword user, he hadn't thought much about Gosu, but Plea was someone Siwoo himself had extended pro invitations to several times.
"No, if you watch the video of her playing against Plea, doesn’t it hit you right away too, Siwoo?"
Kang Hyeok said as he pulled up a NewTube video on his monitor.
"...Yeah, I know."
Siwoo himself had replayed the video several times.
Because he had long been very interested in the user called Plea, not the user called Rin. In fact, Siwoo had seen the video itself earlier than Kang Hyeok.
Siwoo himself still hadn’t given up on scouting Plea, and he also considered her someone whose duels alone could help with strategy.
Another World nickname Plea, real name Yoon Sua, 23 years old, on leave from Seoseong University.
Now widely known as a streamer and NewTuber, she had outstanding star quality in and of herself. Her skill also kept her in the single-digit Challenger ranks, so even considered as a roster addition, her qualifications couldn't have been better.
It wasn't that there were no female pros in the ACK league scene now, but a player like Yoon Sua, with both looks and exceptional skill, was rare.
So in fact, most teams other than Han Siwoo had tried to make contact with her.
But Yoon Sua herself had absolutely no intention of going pro, so in the end she simply existed as a named user.
Han Siwoo had also half given up by now.
Whether as a NewTuber or streamer, she was reportedly already earning tens of millions of won a month, and in his view, she had no reason to go pro.
"Fine. I get it, I get it. I'll try making contact, but if it doesn't work out, I'll set up another scrim for that day, so keep that in mind."
He couldn’t get a definite yes, so he needed to have a backup plan.
"That’s Siwoo for you. When you say you’ll do something, you do it. And I obviously know the league is in its final stretch, so I’m not thinking about resting."
The absurd demand to contact the user called Rin and set up a scrim schedule.
Even Siwoo, who had no choice but to accept it, felt frustrated.
Siwoo knew as well that the user called Rin had outstanding skill.
But the ACK League was by no means an 'Individual League.'
If you had to categorize it, it was closer to a 'Team League.'
To break it down by exact ratio, individual matches accounted for 20%, and the remaining 80% or so was allocated to team match results.
"..."
There was no coach or player right now who could rein in Kang Hyeok, G1’s captain and the person who set the team’s atmosphere.
Even the other players followed Kang Hyeok, so it was right to listen to him.
'Well, Hyeok isn't completely thoughtless, so there must be something to it.'
Even as he thought that, Siwoo was at a loss as to how to make contact with the user called Rin.