Being the Villain Is Something You Get Used To...!

"W-what the hell kind of insane nonsense is that all of a sudden!?"

Heukrangi shrieked at me in a voice thick with pure horror.

"Bullet-nim, that's too much!"

"Bullet-nim, you're a woman too! How could you even say something like that!"

Even the usually mild-mannered duo, who almost never got angry, piled on with scolding.

"…Bullet-nim. We finally just barely managed to get into the tournament, and now you're trying to get us kicked out again?"

Last of all, Aura pressed in with a voice so cold it could freeze blood. Hearing it, my whole body started shaking like a lamb dropped in front of a wolf.

Only then did it hit me. I had done something completely thoughtless.

"W-wait a second…! I-I think there's some kind of misunderstanding here. I-I'm not saying this because I have any, um, malice toward you all…!"

Considering the attitude I'd just put on display, it was more than fair for them to take it that way.

Maybe it was because I'd openly criticized the entire team, but the chat exploded into a carpet-bombing of hate.

The viewer count had multiplied fivefold in an instant. That many people had stampeded in for the sole purpose of roasting me.

There's no backing down now…!

No take-backs. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Once the cards were on the table, you couldn't pick them back up. All that remained for me now was to push forward.

"J-just listen for a second."

"…Go on."

Thankfully, Aura allowed me to speak. Her voice was still as frigid as Antarctic ice, but if I played this right, maybe I could even drive polar bears extinct.

"R-right now… how's our team atmosphere?"

"Good, right? Considering our win rate, the fact it hasn't exploded yet is basically a miracle."

"Th-that's the problem…."

"What are you even talking about all of a sudden!"

"The atmosphere is good, so why is that a problem! If it's good, that's a good thing, isn't it!"

The duo pushed back hard against my words.

"Th-think about it for a second, common sense. A team with a four-percent win rate being this warm and fuzzy… i-is that normal…?"

"…We lost to the Pizza Beer team and dropped to three percent."

Aura corrected me in a gloomy voice.

"A t-team with a three-percent win rate should not have an atmosphere this good…! Wh-why is it good? Why on earth is everyone so bright…?"

"If you ask me that, I'm not sure how to answer, but… maybe it's just because everyone here is nice?"

"H-Heukrangi-nim is a nice person…? Th-that's a little… s-sounds like a massively inflated ego…."

"You fucking bitch."

"I-in my opinion, the reason our team atmosphere is so good is because we have no competitive drive…!"

"Competitive drive?"

At Aura's question, I nodded.

"Yes…! I-it feels less like a team that gathered to win and more like a team that just showed up to hang out… like the kind that treats participation itself as the point…?"

When I'd first checked the team vibe, I'd actually thought it was a plus. Better than everyone being depressed, right? But once we actually played matches, I understood.

These people have zero intention of winning. No—it's like the concept itself doesn't even exist in their heads.

Heukrangi?

This girl had clearly only signed up so she wouldn't get buried if she skipped the tournament entirely. No real goal. Her skill tier was already mid at best.

The duo?

Same deal. I'd checked earlier—both of them were VTubers sitting at around four hundred and three hundred viewers. Just watching them play, it was painfully obvious they'd mostly shown up to stamp their faces on the event.

It's like they don't even know the basics.

Aura?

She at least still had a hunger for victory, but she had no idea how to chase it. On top ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of that, the endless losses and the single-digit win rate had crushed whatever motivation she had left.

"Th-this is material I personally pulled from the Zibzig Gallery. Take a look…."

I screen-shared a scrim video from another team and hit play.

Their play was better than ours, sure. But even they were a complete ragtag mess. Which was probably why they had the second-worst win rate after us.

"No, fucking hell. Play better. Give me a proper heal already, is that so hard? You just click the mouse, right?"

The moment defeat flashed on screen, a man spat curses as if he'd been waiting for it.

"Your positioning was dogshit, so why are you crying about heals? The enemy dove our backline so the healers were busy saving each other. How the hell am I supposed to heal you?"

"Then don't get dove."

"Then you peel for me."

The back-and-forth grew rougher by the second, raw emotion bleeding into every voice. Even through a recording, the bloodlust came through crystal clear.

"S-s-s-so? How was it?"

When the video ended, I carefully asked my teammates. My body was trembling so hard it was a little difficult to speak.

"Brutal, yeah. But why are you shaking? You're the one who brought the video."

"Y-y-you're not wrong, but… I-I only skimmed it a little before bringing it over… th-this is kind of s-scary…."

"So are you saying we need to fight like that too?"

Aura asked in a voice of pure ice.

"W-we don't need to fight that roughly, n-no…."

If it got that bad, I honestly didn't think I could survive it. This body was far too fragile. It wasn't that I was weak!

"I-if our team is the extreme of zero conflict, then that team is the opposite, right…? But whose win rate is higher…?"

"…Theirs is higher."

"E-exactly… I even heard that team's win rate is around twenty-five percent…."

That was still a lost cause of a number, but it was incomparable to three percent.

"So in other words, having conflict is better than having none?"

"Yes… At least when you clash, you walk away with something…."

Whether that something was skill or content clips.

In fact, that team ranked in the top five for viewership out of all one hundred twenty-eight teams—and they didn't even have a single big corporate streamer.

"Isn't it possible the real issue is just that we lack skill? Lack of individual ability?"

"Th-that's six of one, half a dozen of the other… B-basically… everyone started without a coach, and anyone over a certain tier isn't even allowed to enter… so in the end, we're all the same trash, y-you know…."

"Too little conflict. Too little competitive drive. I get that. But that doesn't mean we can just force ourselves to start fighting at this point, does it?"

For Heukrangi, that was a surprisingly sharp point. So she did have a brain in there after all….

"Y-you're right… That would be hard. In the end… w-we need a complete overhaul of our constitution…!"

"An overhaul how?"

"F-first of all, all of us should start speaking casually…!"

"Casual speech?"

"Yes…! Wh-what I've felt while playing is… we barely make calls as it is, but even when we do, our sentences are way too long…! So when the moment actually comes, the words we need just don't come out cleanly, you know?"

Watch their ult.

That was all you needed to say.

We've taken a lot of damage so their ult is probably charged pretty high by now. Therefore, we need to be careful of the enemy's ultimate ability.

We were out here writing full academic papers on the fly. All of us!

"O-on top of that, we're currently being way too respectful and polite with each other…! I-it feels fake, if that makes sense?"

"T-to break through that, I think we need to drop the formalities…!"

"Huh. That… actually kind of makes sense?"

"Heukrangi-nim doesn't even need to be convinced… You've been talking casual and rude all by yourself this whole time anyway…."

"You're the one telling us to do it, you crazy bitch."

"S-so? What do you all think?"

I ignored her and asked the others for their opinions.

"Well… should we give it a try for now?"

"Okay!"

"Sounds fun!"

"Th-then starting now—go!"

"………."

With the sound of my clap, the voice chat fell dead silent.

"Wh-why isn't anyone t-talking…?"

"Ah, now that I actually try to use it, it feels a little awkward. I mean—awkward."

"Y-yeah!"

"Hehe, it's harder than I thought…."

At their reactions, I furrowed my brow. This was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not the picture I'd wanted. At this rate, things were only going to get more awkward.

"Th-this won't work… I-I'm taking drastic measures…!"

"Drastic measures?"

I went into bubble chat and opened an anonymous room.

"C-come in here…."

"An anonymous chat room? Why all of a sudden?"

"R-right now our team has way too much pretense and politeness…! We need to vomit up everything that's sitting in our guts right here…! That's the only way we can climb…!"

"…This isn't just because you've got a lot you want to say yourself?"

"N-no way…! I-I have no complaints about our team, n-n-n-n-none…."

"You very obviously have a fucking ton. And why aren't you talking casual?"

Heukrangi said, sounding thoroughly done with me.

"…Talking casual to people you don't know isn't exactly easy. For a shameless person like Heukrangi-nim, sure, it's simple, but."

"You fucking bitch."

"It does look kind of fun, so should we try it?"

"O-okay!"

"I-I think it might be good for me to try it once too…!"

Aura and the duo accepted my proposal.

"Ah, but if we do it like this, whatever Bullet types will show up on stream. I'll have my editor make a new room and re-invite everyone—sound good?"

At Aura's words, I bobbed my head.

"S-sounds good…!"

That had been bugging me a little anyway.

"Does that even matter? The one who's gonna type the most in here is still Bullet either way."

"I-I'm going to type less, okay…?"

"Then the one who types less will be you."

"Then that means all of it is me either way…!"

"And what am I supposed to do about that."

"…Y-you piece of shit bitch."

"What was that?"

"Ah, nothing…!"

After a short wait, an invite arrived from an unknown account.

"Editor sent the invite. Everyone get in. Ah, and we need to change the stream layout—editor's gonna share the screen."

I covered the display and immediately hit accept. Once the necessary steps were done, the anonymous chat room the editor had created appeared on the broadcast screen.

Every participant name was displayed as a random string of numbers, so there was no way to tell who was who.

"Everyone's in, right?"

"Yes…!"

Everyone, myself included, answered.

"Then let's start. From now on, nobody talks out loud—everything goes in the chat. Got it?"

"Yep…!"

An empty anonymous chat room with nothing posted yet. I wondered how to open.

Start soft?

I considered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it for a moment, then shook my head. What we needed right now wasn't a carrot—it was a whip. To change this team, someone had to become the villain.

I'll be the dark knight…!

Whoosh~

And then I hammered the phone keyboard at full speed.

Fuuuuuck, I can't hold it in!!!