The Bitter Taste of Defeat

The situation had escalated into a full-scale wipe. Even our ADC—the last bastion—had been crushed by the berserker. In the flow of the game that followed, our team no longer had any strength left to resist.

ZX Hades (Berserker) [+300G] kill > V4 Fledia (Rune Mage)

KNT Thanatos (Necromancer) [+300G] kill > TPG Jellybear (Swordsman)

After picking up assists in the dragon team fight, the enemy kept feeding on our reset gold. Every time we handed over another 300 gold, the gap widened beyond control. The growth difference in every lane except bot showed no signs of closing.

Once the surrender vote appeared, there was nothing more I could do.

My last shred of lingering attachment made me cast the single opposing vote, but it couldn’t change the outcome.

“Ha…”

Maybe it was because I had only known victory until now. Or maybe it was because my accumulated record had been shattered in an unexpected place. It was just one solo queue loss, yet it hit me harder than I expected.

The flood of haters crawling out at the perfect moment and the Order’s keyboard warriors fighting back only sharpened my nerves further.

The scale of the broadcast meant it easily crossed a hundred thousand viewers. The sheer volume of troll comments was beyond control.

“Ha… this is fucking ridiculous. Are the managers not working? Why haven’t they banned these people yet?”

I tried to hold onto my reason, but the sight of them spamming hate overlapped with the empire’s citizens in my mind, and something inside me finally snapped.

“Haha… I’m genuinely curious, so let me ask. Is living like that actually fun for you?”

“How pathetic must your life be that a single streamer losing one game is enough for you to fill your self-esteem with mockery and curses?”

I didn’t stop at words. I started writing down their IDs and chat logs one by one, preparing to file lawsuits. Only then did they seem to realize something was wrong.

“What, you think anything will change now? I saw an article once about how after a big incident on a personal broadcast, the regulations on malicious comments got a lot stricter. You should all start preparing yourselves in advance.”

But by then my eyes had already rolled halfway back in my head. Nothing they said registered anymore.

The Order seemed to view the trolls negatively as well; the majority of the chat agreed with my stance.

“…The atmosphere isn’t right to continue the broadcast, so I’ll end the stream here. See you next time.”

I wasn’t in the mood to keep streaming and playing casually anyway. More than that, I needed to resolve the competitive spirit that had reignited after this loss.

After turning off the stream, I sent the lawsuit materials to my sister and immersed myself in the game again. At first, because my mentality had crumbled, I kept making momentary misjudgments that led straight to defeat. But as a day passed, then a week, then a month, I gradually regained my momentum and boarded the winning streak train once more.

Ten wins. Fifteen. Twenty. Before long I had climbed to a considerably high position.

I still hadn’t gotten my revenge on Hades. This time I queued with the firm intention of paying him back properly in a mid-versus-mid matchup.

“Hello?”

A call came through the capsule’s connected communication system. It was my sister. The game was temporarily put on hold.

“Sera. Want to come out for a bit and get some fresh air together?”

“Sure.”

“Then change into something comfortable and come down to the first-floor entrance.”

Come ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to think of it, I had been too immersed in the game lately. Taking a walk outside to clear my head sounded nice.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

“Wait a second.”

After changing and meeting my sister at the entrance, one concern suddenly occurred to me.

“But won’t our hair color and appearance stand out too much…?”

My sister gave a confident smile as if that wasn’t a problem at all.

“Think again about what kind of magic I used to create you.”

Hmm… holy magic was no longer usable, so that was out. The remaining options were black magic and illusion magic. Ah… illusion magic?

“Can you use illusion magic right now…?”

“Why wouldn’t I be able to? Even as we speak, the clone I made with illusion magic is handling all of Crescent’s work.”

“Now that you understand, come here for a moment.”

Following her suggestion, I stepped closer. She immediately dyed my hair black and even altered its length.

“Oh… I never imagined I’d see something like this in modern society.”

“Remember that I’m a more capable person than you give me credit for…”

But what about my eye color? Shouldn’t that be changed first?

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

“What about my eyes?”

She didn’t seem to have any intention of changing them.

“Hm? Blue or red is prettier than brown or black, isn’t it?”

…We’re supposed to be disguising ourselves. What is this…

“I know what you’re worried about, but I’ll block it with perception impairment magic. Unless someone checks with a camera, they won’t notice.”

Wait… then there was no reason to change my hair color either?

“Then why did you change my hair…?”

“You were originally strawberry flavor. This time it’s chocolate flavor…?”

“…So in the end it was just for your own satisfaction?”

“Oh… exactly right.”

“…”

I responded with a moderately contemptuous stare, deducting one point from my sister’s score for the day, then asked about our destination.

“So where are we actually going?”

“The first places that come to mind are the park, a café, or a restaurant… Where do you want to go first?”

“Let’s just go to the park.”

“Good choice.”

I followed her for a while. Then we arrived.

“Is this the right place…?”

What filled my vision was an overwhelmingly massive stadium. The only park-like elements were a few sculptures and benches beside it.

“Hmm… if you think about it, couldn’t this also count as a park?”

Like hell it could.