The World's Laughingstock
Ghost Town Map / Information Gathering Mode
Use your camera to record 'Incident Traces' scattered across the map. Gather information across the map to uncover the truth of the past, or annihilate the opposing team to achieve victory. 'Incident Traces' may exist as data within the camera or as photo items. If the time limit expires, the team that collected the most 'Incident Traces' wins automatically.
A desolate, empty city. The building walls were cracked from years of neglect, decorated here and there with spiderwebs and ivy. On screen, three figures could be seen. The trio carefully climbed onto the roof of a building.
Inagika, who was playing an archer, seemed to have spotted something with her detection skill. Sora crouched low and moved in the direction Inagika was pointing. She crept forward on all fours, poked her head out, and spotted a burly, muscular man below the building.
"Calling a barbarian warrior a pervert is a bit much, don't you think?"
"Sh-shut up…."
When I pointed it out, Sora, who was sitting right next to me, looked a little embarrassed. Right now, we sixth-generation members were reviewing the replay. To be precise, it wasn't a replay recorded by the game system. We were watching footage Sora had personally recorded from her own point of view. The replays provided by Labyrinthos didn't record audio. On top of that, the camera work was from a god's-eye view, so a lot of information was missing. How Sora had felt while playing the game. As the Winter Team's coach, I needed to know that.
On screen, Sora and Inagika had that exchange. Soon after, Sora glanced at Chell as well. Chell nodded as if she understood. Seeing that, I pressed the stop button.
"May I ask why you made that decision?"
I looked away from the monitor and studied the faces of my fellow sixth-generation members sitting right beside me. Inagika still looked completely intimidated. Chell wore a blank expression. Naturally, the one who would answer my question had to be Sora, who was acting as their leader. Perhaps because she'd been called on, Sora answered with a slightly nervous look.
"…Because there was only one of them, and there were three of us."
"Give me a slightly more detailed answer, won't you?"
"If we split up clumsily, we'd just get picked off one by one…. And the victory condition this time was 'information gathering,' after all."
That's what Sora said. In 'information gathering,' just like in 'annihilation,' it was advantageous to use the map widely. The important thing was to collect as much information scattered across the map as possible. However, there was one major difference from annihilation. The 'incident trace information' was recorded as data within the camera or as photo items. What this meant was that if you could steal the camera and photo items held by the barbarian warrior on screen, you could snatch away the enemy's game progress.
"So you thought using our numerical advantage to take down the barbarian warrior was the correct answer."
"I see. Thank you for the good answer."
I nodded and pressed the play button again. I hadn't asked because I didn't understand. I simply wanted to test how far Sora could explain it. After all, Labyrinthos was a game where brainpower mattered quite a bit in addition to physical skill. Conversely, it was true that Sora and the rest of my fellow members lacked in the physical department. But if they could make up for it with brainpower…
Inagika on screen let out a startled cry. I stopped my train of thought and looked back at the screen. The barbarian warrior had set his weapon down on the ground. Normally, a barbarian warrior was a character who held one axe in each hand. But now he had placed the axe from his right hand on the ground and picked up the camera hanging from his waist. It seemed he had found an 'incident trace' and was trying to record it. Sora, who had caught onto this, was picking up a massive hammer. The character Sora was playing on screen was called a 'battle priest.' The 'battle priest' was a character famous in Labyrinthos as an aggressive supporter. In truth, Sora had seemed to want to play a backline supporter like a saintess or a bard, but those didn't work well in Arcade Mode, so she had given up on them. Sora hurled the massive hammer, the battle priest's weapon.
—Thud!
The massive hammer thrown from the building rooftop slammed into the ground. Then it erupted with a tremendous roar, exploding in pure white flames.
—Kwaaaaaang!!!
A burst of light. The barbarian warrior who had been right next to it was completely swallowed by the light. The battle priest's second skill, . It was a skill that caused an explosion centered on where the hammer had been thrown, leaving stun, flash, and 'Mark of Light' effects on all enemies caught in the blast. Even though it wasn't an ultimate skill, it was a high-value skill packed with effects. In exchange, its cooldown was extremely long. That was why it was a skill that tended to earn double curses from teammates if it missed. Fortunately, Sora's skill had landed perfectly, but unfortunately, that was all it did.
The barbarian warrior was under the building. But the sixth-generation members were on the building rooftop. They were several meters apart, so even if the crowd control had landed properly, it wasn't within range for her teammates to follow up.
Sora seemed to realize this too and looked flustered, but someone moved immediately. It was Chell. The sound of a horse's neigh rang out, and Chell, who was playing a cavalryman, leaped down from the building rooftop without a moment's hesitation. Right beside the barbarian warrior who was caught in the crowd control, the horse stamped its hooves. It was the cavalryman's crowd control skill, . followed by . Thanks to the several hours they had spent grinding 3-man queues, the sixth-generation members' coordination was quite good. It was an excellent CC chain. The problem was that they didn't understand the barbarian warrior's characteristics. Among Labyrinthos's tanks, the barbarian warrior had the highest crowd control resistance.
The barbarian warrior let out a roar as his eyes glowed bright red. He shook off all the CC effects on his body, picked up the axe he had set on the ground, and charged at Chell. Originally, Sora's plan had probably been to use the CC chain to one-sidedly overwhelm the enemies. But with a single click from the barbarian warrior, the plan collapsed, and the barbarian warrior fought Chell on even terms far better than expected.
Perhaps panicked by the sight, Sora jumped down from the building as well. Thud!
Letting out a short groan, Sora somehow managed to land. But the impact must have been severe, because she couldn't steady herself properly. And for a moment, her vision was dyed red. It was proof that Sora's HP had been reduced to a sliver from fall damage. Still, she was alive. Sora quickly ran out to help Chell, but something flew out before she could.
—Whoosh!
An arrow flew and struck the horse Chell was riding. The perfectly aimed arrow pierced the horse's neck, and Chell was thrown from her mount.
A dismounted cavalryman had nothing left to do. Her head was promptly smashed by the barbarian warrior's axe and she died. After that, there was only Sora, now at critical health. She hadn't even recovered the hammer she had thrown to use her initiation skill yet. There was no way a support could fight a barbarian warrior. Sora died as well. Having killed the two of them, the barbarian warrior was seen leisurely climbing up the building. Barbarian warrior triple kill.
"You've become the laughingstock of the world."
That was all I could say. It wasn't easy for three people to rush one person only to get completely slaughtered. Even if you told a pro gamer to fight three bronzes, they probably couldn't guarantee a win rate. Honestly, even I thought I might not be able to win if I had to fight three people on flat ground. But the reason the barbarian warrior had taken down all three was also because it hadn't been flat ground to begin with.
" 'Laughingstock of the world'… Isn't that a bit too harsh?"
"What can I do when it's the truth? Shall we move on to feedback then. First, Sora, you're still too impatient. Play a little more calmly, won't you?"
"…Understood."
"Inagika, you get too nervous in critical situations. Try to take it a bit more lightly."
"S-sorry…."
"Still, the strategy itself wasn't bad, so let's aim to play more meticulously."
That's how I wrapped it up. I could have pointed out as many things as I wanted, but if I only pointed out the bad parts, people wouldn't improve. On the contrary, their play would become even more withdrawn, which would be a bigger problem. A person who overextends gains more experience than one who shrinks back. If you think about Souls-like games, it's easy to understand. Dying aggressively leads to experience that eventually lets you defeat strong enemies, but dying too passively only lengthens your playtime.
'Of course, if you play completely brainlessly, you won't gain anything no matter how aggressive you are.'
Sora did have a slight tendency to turn her brain off, but it didn't seem to reach the level of pure brainlessness, so it looked fine. Therefore, giving feedback while offering appropriate praise would be most efficient, and the team atmosphere wouldn't sour either. Besides, this wasn't a tournament that required being that strict.
"The tournament side of things, you don't really need to worry about it."
"What I'm teaching the Winter Team is really just for appearances. Since I taught Anna before, I thought it might be fun to teach my fellow generation members too. That's the feeling."
"But in truth, it doesn't really matter who wins the tournament."
"There's no special reward for winning. It's just something we're all doing to have fun together."
"I told you. The purpose of this event is to share subscribers."
That's what Rion had said. So it seemed there was no need to be too obsessed with winning or losing. What the viewers wanted was the picture of VTubers getting along well and happily chatting with each other. On the contrary, it seemed viewers disliked excessive competitiveness. Because the atmosphere could become too Spartan.
"There was a time when the VTubers played a mafia game."
"The A VTuber who was playing a citizen completely out-logicked the B VTuber who was playing mafia. She dismantled every single one of his arguments and completely shut him down so he couldn't do anything."
"In the end, the citizen team won thanks to A's carry, but the one who got the most hate that day was A."
"Because B's fans saw it as 'A is bullying B' and took it badly."
"If it were you playing alone, it would be one thing, but you shouldn't be too thorough when facing fellow VTubers."
"So you should only focus on the event matches."
That was how it was.
"Let's call it a day here. Once the schedule for the next collab is decided, I'll post a notice on SNS, so shall we disband for now?"
The broadcast ended. The moment the stream ended, Chell left immediately with a short "Goodbye."
"T-then… see you next time…!"
Inagika left as well. And so did I.
"Teach me some Labyrinthos."
Sora grabbed me just as I was about to leave VR.
"I want to practice more. What should I do?"