What on Earth Do I Do with Her?
What on earth should I do with her...?
A packed schedule wasn't something unique to the players and trainees.
Once the players finished their fierce battles, the stage belonged to the coaches and analysts.
After a scrim, they would dissect the matches frame by frame, compiling evaluations and feedback.
While it was undoubtedly a crucial process, there was no need for everyone to gather for it every single time.
Usually, everyone had their designated roles.
As long as the key points were shared, the structure allowed everyone to handle their own business.
However, the recent scrims had been quite significant, making a collective review session necessary.
And so, the meeting room was bustling for the first time in a while.
As the agenda items were checked off one by one, the topic everyone had been waiting for finally came up.
It was a name that absolutely could not be left out of this meeting.
"Trainee Yu Nabi... her skills are improving incredibly fast. Her raw combat power is impressive."
"I guess Coach Seo's eye for talent really is different."
"Oh, please. She still has a long way to go," Hero replied.
"No, seriously. If she keeps up this form, we could honestly put her on the Academy roster."
Nachal, an active Academy player, had been thoroughly crushed by a rookie trainee.
Even considering his recent slump, it was an unexpected result.
What was worse, the matches themselves had been almost entirely one-sided.
Once could be a fluke.
But over a total of five matches, the final score was 4-1 in Nabi's favor.
By the end, Nachal's face had turned pale and grim, showing a clear disparity in their skill levels.
To be honest, it was almost pitiful.
Objectively speaking, Nachal wasn't a bad player.
He had enough skill to easily aim for a starting spot in overseas leagues.
Even within the IKL, he could secure a spot on the roster of a lower-tier team.
Since his main class, the Monk, was highly viable, he was more than capable of subbing in and making plays.
But this was the SnowWitch headquarters.
SnowWitch was a team that raised and recruited players with one goal in mind: winning championships, whether in the 1st Division or the Academy league.
Naturally, their standards for evaluating players were exceptionally strict and cold.
Because of that, they were sometimes forced to make cruel decisions.
In the middle of the meeting room, a casually tossed question pierced the heart of the Academy coach.
"What do you think, Coach Choi?"
In the pro gaming scene, bonds formed easily.
Teammates lived and ate together, sharing joys and sorrows. They faced the same enemies, prepared together, and put their heads together to cooperate.
They became bound by a tight-knit camaraderie, like brothers-in-arms.
Coaches and directors were no exception to this process.
Just as Hero was currently very close with the 1st Division players, Coach Choi of the Academy team maintained excellent relationships with his players.
To him, Nachal was like a younger brother.
They had known each other since before Nachal became a trainee, and Choi had been there for every step of Nachal's career.
Coach Choi even referred to his current Academy players as his "sons" and "daughters."
"Well, to be honest, I've known Nachal for a long time," Coach Choi said. "Even though he's struggling right now, I still believe he has room to grow. His performance up until the last league wasn't bad either."
"So... you're suggesting we watch him a bit longer?"
"No, not necessarily."
But in sports, personal feelings could not take precedence.
Thus, there were times when one had to personally voice the opinion to let go of a player who felt like a younger brother.
A subtle pain bled through his seemingly cold tone.
"Even taking that into account, the match was simply too overwhelming. It's also true that the gap between us and Blue Serpent's bruiser line is currently too wide. We need to make a change, one way or another."
As a team coach, he had to say what needed to be said.
He knew that shielding a player by force would never lead to a good outcome.
Moreover, Yu Nabi was a trainee actively pushed by Coach Seo Hee-ryun, the famous "Hero" known for her incredibly high standards.
Hero would surely want to put Yu Nabi on the Academy roster as soon as possible.
Even in her current state, Nabi's talent was extraordinary.
If they debuted her as a pro and let her gain experience, she would quickly turn into a monster.
Coach Choi wasn't sure if he could match Hero's legendary eye, but he wasn't blind either.
Yet, for some reason...
The meeting, which was naturally leaning toward calling Yu Nabi up, came to a sudden halt.
And the one who stopped it was none other than Hero herself.
"I'd actually like to wait a little longer," Hero said.
"Pardon?"
"Anyway, our match with Blue Serpent for this round is already over. It'll take some time for the round-robin to cycle back, and it's not like we won't make the playoffs if we keep things as they are, right?"
"Well... absolutely not. We'll secure our playoff spot within the next few matches. Even if other teams make roster changes, we'll be fine."
"Then there's no need to rush. The higher-ups are just worried that our trainees are falling behind and that we might lose the next-generation competition. That's all. Delaying it by a month won't make Nabi disappear."
Hero was the one currently managing Yu Nabi most intensely.
Since the person who should have been the most impatient was taking a step back, no one pushed the call-up any further.
However, this wasn't a declaration to keep the status quo forever.
Including Yu Nabi and Nachal, a total of three players on the current Academy roster were practically confirmed for replacement.
If they failed to show significant improvement in this round, they would eventually be demoted.
Still, this was a massive saving grace.
In this world, many players vanished into the shadows without ever getting a single chance to prove themselves again.
Coach Choi was grateful that his precious players had been given at least a sliver of opportunity.
After the meeting ended, Coach Choi approached Hero privately.
"Thank you," he said.
"Oh, excuse me?" Hero blinked.
"I'll whip the kids into shape. And when Yu Nabi eventually joins the Academy team, I promise I'll coach her with everything I've got."
"Ah... yes. Let's both do our best."
Meanwhile, Hero hadn't reached this conclusion out of pure kindness.
She was breathing her own sigh of relief.
In truth, with Yu Nabi's combat power, it wouldn't be strange for her to join the Academy roster immediately.
Nabi's growth rate had been so fast that it far exceeded even Hero's expectations.
Normally, Hero would have gladly supported the call-up to let her gain experience.
In-game characters were superhumans who far surpassed real-world humans.
They could easily perform backflips or do one-handed handstands.
However, if you asked an ordinary person to do that in-game, they couldn't do it right away.
Because their original bodies belonged to ordinary humans in reality.
Even if they were suddenly given an outstanding virtual body, they couldn't control it at will.
Since they didn't know the limits of what they could do, they were bound to face restrictions in utilizing their physical forms.
Yet, Yu Nabi had no such limitations.
It was as if she had never used a physical body in reality before.
She absorbed teachings without any fear or preconceived notions, as if she had never hurt herself by moving her body incorrectly.
Between a canvas already filled with drawings and a pure white, untouched canvas...
It was obviously much easier to paint on the blank one.
Yu Nabi's rapid growth was backed by this very factor.
In any case, the fact that the player was growing by leaps and bounds was wonderful news for Hero.
However, there was one critical reason why she couldn't be used as a player just yet.
- Coach, I finally ranked up today!
- I've wanted to reach this tier ever since I started the game.
- Thank you!
- But for my personal assignment, it says I have to talk to a stranger...
- Do I really have to do this?
- Seriously?
- Can't you just make me play more games instead...?
It was her absolutely disastrous level of social skills!
Hero had confidently told Phantom that she "had a plan," but... of course she didn't.
If she could cure this level of social anxiety in one go, she shouldn't be coaching a pro gaming team.
She should be writing psychiatry papers to contribute to the mental health of all humanity.
Right now, Yu Nabi's combat power was strong enough.
However, building teamwork with her teammates was practically impossible.
It had been the same during the Challengers Cup that Nabi won.
The only times she truly shined were when she operated alone, either in 1v1s or as a detached force.
Fundamentally, she was in a state where giving and receiving orders or cooperating was impossible.
This fact hadn't really changed during the scrims either.
And yet, the reason the other coaches hadn't noticed was... because her raw combat power had become too overwhelming.
Since she smashed the game through pure combat regardless of teamwork, they assumed her skills had improved and that she was ready for an immediate call-up to the Academy team.
Sure, she would probably do fine in the 2nd Division.
She would likely tear most teams apart with her beast-like combat ability.
Hero was confident she could raise Yu Nabi's combat power to the 1st Division level within this season.
But what if she faced a true S-tier player like Lee Seul-bi?
What if she ran into the star players currently dominating the 1st Division?
Would she be able to solve every problem with raw combat power then?
Of course not.
She would show an unimaginably disastrous performance and lose.
That was the reason Hero opposed Yu Nabi's call-up.
Yu Nabi wasn't ready yet.
Hero clutched her throbbing head.
What on earth do I do with her...?
It wasn't like she had a bad personality.
The kid was kind and pure, so there were no worries on that front.
But the moment she had to play while listening to someone else's directions, her brain froze.
She would end up playing purely on instinct, making her no different from a wild beast.
Simply raising her combat power to turn her into a Lu Bu-like figure was also a bad move.
The IKL had already seen a monster like that run wild before, so they had some experience dealing with irregular-level combat power.
Come to think of it, that person...
Didn't they say she used to have some personality issues?
But her personality supposedly mellowed out a lot after she started internet streaming?
Wait.
Oh?