Still Unranked
"Gasp!"
"Oh my, Professor Park!"
An elderly man collapsed, foaming at the mouth.
The middle-aged man who had been looking at me favorably halfway through the interview spoke up, offering an awkward smile in an attempt to salvage the situation.
"Miss Jeong-ah, your interview is over. You may head back now."
"Ah, yes."
"Or, you're welcome to look around the academy before you leave. Harman Academy is famous for its beautiful scenery."
It was glaringly obvious that I needed to get out of there. I slipped away with an awkward smile.
Was showing sword qi to old folks with one foot in the grave a bit too intense?
Since the royal ministers of Asteria loved it, I had mistakenly assumed these interviewers of a similar age would feel the same. Back then, whenever I showed them my sword qi, they would analyze it, saying things like, "It's much sharper than before," or "Your mana has become denser." Come to think of it, they had no choice but to be thrilled about the hero protecting their continent growing stronger.
Having unintentionally ended up terrorizing one of my interviewers, I was about to head straight home, but...
"It really is pretty..."
I decided to take the professor's advice and look around the academy. The grounds were beautifully landscaped, featuring everything from a small, babbling lake to a gorgeous array of colorful flowers in full bloom. Since I was already here, I figured I might as well enjoy the view. It would also be a good chance to familiarize myself with the layout of the academy I'd be attending.
That was when it happened. As I was quietly slipping past the classrooms to avoid disrupting any ongoing lessons, I witnessed a peculiar sight in one of them.
“Heis! Is Heis going to sweep them all here?!”
“How is he this good?! H2!”
Isn't that Asteria?
A massive screen hung inside the classroom. It was playing gameplay footage that looked unmistakably like Asteria, and judging by the audio, it seemed to be a live broadcast of a professional match.
Aren't they supposed to be in class?
Puzzled, I looked around and noticed a sign on the classroom door that read: CA Room. It must be club activity hour.
"What? AT Prion lost again?"
"Aren't they going to end up winless this season at this rate?"
"Not completely winless, but it wouldn't be surprising if they get relegated to the second division next season."
A mixed group of boys and girls were sharing their thoughts as they watched the pro match. Some of them seemed to follow the pro scene quite closely, offering sharp analyses.
"They just built the roster wrong. Mix isn't even that good, so why did they spend so much money to sign him?"
"Seriously. I could do better."
"Cut the crap."
The banter flying back and forth among the students gathered in small groups was hard for me to follow, since I didn't watch pro matches. So this is the CA Room, and they do club activities here. What kind of club is this anyway? A virtual reality game research club or something? I was just about to turn around and leave when—
"Honestly, I think Geummisa is better than the pros."
"Who's Geummisa?"
"Wait, you don't know Geummisa?"
An incredibly familiar name drifted through the doorway.
Every student attending the academy was an Awakened. However, that didn't mean all of them possessed the exceptional talent worthy of attending a state-funded academy. Most of them had mediocre abilities, and some were barely any different from ordinary people. The students gathered in this club room fell into the latter category.
They were the children of wealthy families who had secured admission through recommendations from influential elders. Unlike the other students at the academy, they didn't need to stress over grades or build up their resumes. Naturally, they had formed a club solely to indulge in their shared hobbies—and this was the result.
The video playing on the massive screen had changed before I knew it. It had switched from the pro match to a gameplay video of a user named Geummisa playing Asteria.
"Her customization is insane. Who is she?"
"A katana? People actually use garbage weapons like that?"
"You know Samurai. That guy is Grandmaster."
"Only Samurai uses it. And honestly, if Samurai didn't use a katana, he'd probably be in Challenger by now."
"Why on earth would anyone use a katana..." The boy who had been grumbling in disbelief let out an involuntary gasp the moment the video started playing.
"Whoa..."
In the gameplay footage, which looked as if someone had filmed her from the side, a petite girl was slaughtering enemies while wielding a katana as long as her own body. Her incredibly clean, fluid movements struck a chord deep within the hearts of the boys. It was the latent romanticism of the katana that everyone harbored in some corner of their minds... Yet, everyone gathered here knew that for an ordinary player, pulling off such moves was utterly impossible.
"That weapon is not supposed to look that easy..."
"She handles it so effortlessly."
"That's exactly what makes her amazing."
If someone makes something look easy, it means they are a true master of their craft. Asteria was by no means an easy game, yet the player known as Geummisa had a knack for making the game itself look incredibly simple.
"Is there no video from her perspective?"
"Probably not, since she's not a streamer."
"But her username is JjungwooPark? Why do they call her Geummisa?"
A Q&A session ensued for those curious about Geummisa, and most of the members of the Harman Academy Asteria Club nodded in agreement.
"She could seriously go pro. I think she's the best among female players."
"I wish she'd finish her placement matches already. I want to see her go head-to-head with Samurai."
"They should've signed her instead of Mix."
It was a chorus of praise. Even those who had initially reacted with, "Who the hell is Geummisa anyway?" were won over after watching the gameplay footage recorded from Han-ah's perspective. Everyone gasped in awe during the part where she took down the stream-sniping duo.
Meanwhile, the girl watching from outside the CA Room quietly turned around and left the academy, her ears flushed slightly red as if she had just witnessed something incredibly embarrassing.
"We have to recruit her immediately!"
A man with burning, intense eyes slammed his hand on the desk. This was the head coach's office of the professional Asteria team, AT Prion.
Sitting behind the desk bearing his nameplate, the head coach blinked blankly. Despite the shocking intrusion and the sudden desk-slamming, he remained remarkably calm. This was far from the first time this had happened.
Avoiding the overwhelming gaze of his analysis coach, the head coach sighed, looking slightly weary.
"C-Coach Go, haven't I told you this countless times?"
Please include the subject and the object whenever you speak...
Only then did Go Sang-hun, the analysis coach of AT Prion, seem to realize he had acted entirely without context. He slowly bowed his head.
"I'm sorry, Head Coach. I was just in such a rush..."
"It's fine, Coach Go. It's not like this is the first or second time. I know it's all because of your passion for the team. It's because you love this team so much, right?"
"That is correct."
Go Sang-hun nodded his head vigorously.
"So, what is it? Who do we need to recruit?"
AT Prion was currently enduring their worst season yet, and it was a well-known fact that the roster desperately needed a rebuild. However, with a tight budget and no promising prospects in sight, everyone in the organization was at their wits' end. It was in the midst of this crisis that Coach Go Sang-hun had stepped forward, claiming he had found someone to recruit.
A player that could get Coach Go this worked up?
The head coach felt a spark of anticipation but kept his expression neutral. Coach Go Sang-hun was an exceptionally talented analyst. During his days as a pro player before transitioning to coaching, he was famous for dissecting opponents' gameplay frame by frame to formulate perfect counters, earning him the nickname 'AI'. He had been brought on as the analysis coach this very season, just as AT Prion began suffering an unprecedented, historic slump.
Fortunately, Go Sang-hun had quickly grown attached to the team, and he occasionally made passionate recommendations like this to the head coach, always with the team's best interests at heart.
Still, thanks to Coach Go's advice, we managed to scrape together at least one win.
Currently sitting at the absolute bottom of the standings, AT Prion had come dangerously close to setting an unprecedented record of going completely winless. The one who had prevented that disaster was the man standing right before him—the analysis coach who propped up the team from behind the scenes. Just who was this player he wanted to recruit? The head coach waited patiently for Go Sang-hun to speak.
"I'll show you the data first."
"Oh, you even prepared data?"
Go Sang-hun pulled out the laptop he had set down behind him, and the footage he spoke of began playing on the screen.
"A personal stream...?"
The head coach noticed something unusual about thirty seconds into the video. Chat messages were scrolling up in one corner of the screen, and a female voice was speaking as if explaining things to an audience. It appeared to be a live stream of someone playing Asteria.
I've never seen this face before.
He was surprised first by the fact that she was a female player, and second by her choice of a katana. Yet, true to Coach Go Sang-hun's keen eye, her gameplay in the video was absolutely flawless.
"She is indeed good."
"Right? She might be a katana user, but she can probably use other weapons too. Her fundamental combat sense is exceptional."
"Where has she been playing? Overseas? Or is she a youth prospect from another team?"
The head coach knew almost every domestic player. If it was a face he didn't recognize, she had to be from an overseas server or an obscure trainee. However, his guesses were completely off the mark.
"No, she's a complete rookie who has never played professionally or even been a trainee."
"An amateur?"
He hadn't expected the coach to suggest recruiting a raw rookie with absolutely zero league experience. Wouldn't a seasoned player with a solid grasp of team play be better? The head coach began to feel skeptical, but assuming Coach Go had a plan, he asked:
"Then what's her solo queue tier? Surely she's hit Grandmaster or Challenger at least once? She needs to be at least that high for me to pitch her recruitment to the front office."
"Well, about that..."
Go Sang-hun hesitated, which was highly uncharacteristic of him. Sensing something was off, the head coach prompted him.
"Don't tell me she's Master? If she's Master, the front office won't—"
"She's unranked."
"What?"
The head coach asked again, wondering if he had misheard. But Go Sang-hun's answer remained unchanged.
"She hasn't finished her placement matches yet, so she's still unranked."
"..."
The head coach began to feel a very deep, very real concern for the future of AT Prion.