Have You All Been Looking at Me Like That?

Even Yu Nabi couldn't completely ignore the aftermath of charging straight through a blizzard.

To make matters worse, the battlefield this time was the infamous Cursed Mangrove.

Separated far from her main force and with her health severely depleted, the unfavorable conditions pushed her to her limits.

Which meant... she couldn't pull off a monstrous feat like a solo team wipe under these circumstances.

But just as Nabi had her limits, Eunha Gaming was also pushed to their brink.

Eunha Gaming had to face the Berserker while suffering from the worst possible status effect: Confusion.

In a situation where it was difficult to even distinguish friend from foe,

losing only their two ranged damage dealers could almost be considered a decent trade.

The moment the supporter's mass purification spell was completed,

the near-death Yu Nabi lost the last of her strength and collapsed.

And so, the Berserker fell.

Perhaps it was only natural.

The Berserker herself probably hadn't expected to survive after diving so deep into enemy lines alone.

Paradoxically, the reason Yu Nabi ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had maintained such a bizarrely high survival rate until now was that she knew exactly where to draw the line.

If you charge in blindly like this, death is the only outcome.

So we managed to kill her... but what do we do now?

A mass purification spell wasn't something only Eunha Gaming could cast.

The fact that the area-of-effect Confusion had been lifted on one side meant the other side was in a similar state.

While Eunha Gaming possessed superior supporters, the time they had bought was entirely consumed by their struggle to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠take down Yu Nabi.

Now that SnowWitch's main force had stabilized the situation,

the flow of the battlefield shifted once again.

Eunha Gaming no longer had any ranged damage dealers.

To make matters worse, one of their supporters, the Enchanter, was severely wounded.

They had to turn the tide of the match while being slowly eaten away by the battlefield's toxic miasma.

Their only sliver of hope lay in a swift, decisive battle.

With the Berserker gone, they held the advantage in close-quarters combat power. They had to push forward at all costs and end the game.

Eunha Gaming went on the offensive, while SnowWitch calmly focused on defense.

Having stripped away each other's primary weapons, they now had to clash using their opponents' specialties!

But miracles did not come easily.

Holding the numbers advantage, SnowWitch dominated the game until the very end.

...Have you all been looking at me like that this whole time?

Endure subtly avoided my gaze.

Seeing how he didn't even try to make an excuse, he must have been completely serious.

He was just as bad at lying as I was, and it showed all over his face.

The others weren't much different.

At the casters' words, not only my teammates but even the coaching staff were struggling to hold back their giggles.

When I glared at them resentfully, they turned their heads away, but the corners of their mouths remained curled upward.

If it had been the old me, I would have definitely pouted big time.

Even if I knew it wasn't true, I would have grown depressed, wondering if they were secretly mocking me.

Fortunately, as the time we spent together in the team house grew longer, I stopped harboring such misunderstandings.

Still, I'm going to remember all of your faces.

If I act really upset, I might be able to get them to buy me some snacks later.

Actually, the snacks didn't really matter. I just liked it when they quietly approached me to cheer me up.

It felt good to be absolutely sure that they didn't hate me.

It put my mind at ease.

It might be a bit petty of me, but at least I wasn't throwing a tantrum.

Hearing them say that, I couldn't really deny it.

Ever since I debuted and started pulling off good results,

there had been several attempts to copy me.

I heard that players in the Academy league, and even in the first division and overseas leagues, had tried it.

And the results? A total disaster.

They would miscalculate their damage output and end up dying pointless deaths.

They probably didn't understand the build properly.

My Berserker build relies heavily on judging whether to take one more step forward or back at every single moment.

Its true value only shines when you can precisely measure the risk of death.

Anyway, this is all because my public image was framed so weirdly.

More and more people think I'm just a fool who only knows how to charge and attack.

Though quite a few analysts have come to recognize the truth by now, for some reason, none of them speak up to defend me.

It was time to head into the next match.

Guided by the staff, we entered the stage in a single file.

After exchanging brief nods with the opposing players, I confidently stepped into the capsule.

This game.

What strategy would the opposing team bring out this time?

What did they talk about after the last game ended?

They must have exchanged serious feedback, leading to bold adjustments and decisions.

Because that's exactly what we did.

To gain even the slightest advantage.

To take even a single step closer to victory.

Pro gamers are creatures capable of discarding a solution they spent days preparing in a single instant.

The competitive world I had yearned for looked exactly like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this.

It was suffocatingly fierce, yet incredibly fun.

It was clearly a grueling journey, but I didn't dislike it at all.

Lying in the capsule, my heart still fluttered with excitement.

I felt like I finally understood why pro gamers were so obsessed with competition.

Winning was just too much fun.

It was so thrilling that the pain of defeat became terrifying.

So, I absolutely wanted to win.