Aim Assist Lv.1 — Active

1.

Their captain, Pizza Beer, looked up from the private lobby he was setting up and answered.

"We're scrimming Aura Team today."

"You're not wrong, but we've never played them. So we might as well. And you know what kind of spot Aura Team is in right now."

That seemed to click for the rest of the roster.

"Looking at the community, a lot of people already hate Aura Team."

"Exactly. If we stomp them 3–0 in a situation like this, how good is that going to look?"

Pizza Beer’s mouth curled into a crooked grin.

"And our recent scrim record's been pretty rough. Moments like this, you take your medicine."

"We work the punching bag, get our form back. Next scrim, I'll book us a real team."

2.

Aura gave a quick rundown of the other side while we sat on the ready screen.

Heukrangi's voice was bright with energy.

"U-um… their win rate is almost fifteen times higher than ours. Can we actually beat them?"

The healer duo scolded me with voices full of life. Managing to sound that cheerful with a four-percent scrim win rate was a talent all its own.

Still, it's a positive.

If the team had already drowned in losses, no amount of carrying from me would have been enough to lift the mood. In any sport, momentum matters. With energy like this, if we could just catch a wave, we might actually have a shot.

"D-do they have signature heroes? Preferred maps? Anything like that?"

"I-if you're bad at the game, shouldn't you at least grind analysis…?"

"W-what's the reason…?"

"A hundred and twenty-eight teams…?"

That was a far bigger field than I'd imagined. Five players a team meant, by simple math, six hundred forty streamers competing. At that scale it wasn't just an event match—you could call it a full official tournament. No wonder NOVA Syndicate was sponsoring it.

"S-so how does the format work…?"

"S-so how many teams advance, then?"

"Ahh…"

So exactly half the field survived.

"Th-then that's doable, right? Pure probability, that's fifty percent…"

So this scrim is the fork in the road.

If we got crushed again, the team would probably lose the will and drive for the tournament entirely. Winning wasn't mandatory. But we at least had to show ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we had a chance. Aura knew that—which was why she'd dragged me in by force.

"L-let's win one…!"

A massive transport ship settled slowly onto the landing zone. The interior of the base filled the screen, and the prompt appeared: Select your hero.

"O-okay…!"

I locked Odin without a second of hesitation.

A sleek chassis of violet metal and a crimson lens; a submachine gun mounted on the right arm, a plasma cutter on the left.

Any guy would love this hero.

Of course, I wasn't a guy anymore—and the controls were so janked that nobody used him anyway.

See? The second I picked him, the team piled on like they were cornering a rat.

"P-please trust me. If I want to get the most out of what I can do, Odin is the best pick…!"

"You've already killed the vibe about as dead as it can get, so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take that…"

"I-I get it. You couldn't hold it in last time either, with that comment."

The countdown ended, and we poured out of our spawn toward the central capture point.

This battlefield was Red Outpost—a control-point map where both sides fought over the center. Hold the point long enough and you win.

In capture maps, the first fight mattered most. Like a lot of games, defense in NOVA Syndicate was far easier than offense.

Given the skill gap, there's no way we break their hold if they dig in first.

So we had to take the opening fight. No other path to a win.

Heukrangi's call rang out as the enemy team all appeared at once. I scanned their heroes—nothing that looked like a real threat to me.

"Supports! Dump heals and buffs on me as hard as you can!"

I shouted and immediately flipped the robot's form.

Wheeeeen— clack—

My FOV blew wide open as the massive frame reassembled itself into an armored vehicle.

"Push—!"

On my call, the whole team surged toward them.

Dududududududu—!!!

The chaingun mounted on the APC screamed with a beastlike roar. The chain spun into a frenzy and dumped dozens of rounds in streams of light.

Clink-clank—

Shell casings cascaded down the side of the screen like a waterfall, hammering the floor. Gunfire and metal tangled into one noise that crushed my ears without mercy.

Fire rate that vicious came with vicious recoil. My aim vaulted skyward in an instant. Dragging the mouse down barely kept it under control.

That was why people said only high-sens players—or cheaters—could run Odin.

I was a low-sens player. But I had something else.

Activate.

A clear ding rang through my head.

My hands changed. The mouse slid across the pad like it was carving a groove. Even then, my crosshair never wavered—it glued itself to the enemy tank's torso.

Dudududududududu—!!!

Chaingun rounds shredded the enemy barrier to ribbons. They held for a moment—and only a moment.

Shraaang—!

The shield shattered, leaving the tank exposed to the storm of bullets. APC mode was about to drop. Didn't matter.

Dududududu—!!!

Two seconds is enough!

Dozens of rounds punched through armor and flesh. Right before the kill, APC mode unlocked and my firepower cut out cold.

"Tsk."

I'd missed the finish by a hair.

The enemy tank was just about to take heals from their support when—

A black shadow bloomed behind the tank. A masked figure—Phantom—materialized and lined up on the tank's head.

Bang—!

The Night Flame shotgun spat darkness.

Bang—! Bang—!

The enemy scrambled to collapse on Phantom, but Heukrangi's hook snagged one of their DPS by the throat.

Bang—!

On the fourth blast of darkness, the enemy tank's body came apart and spilled across the floor.

Aura's shout ripped through comms.

Heukrangi howled, completely lit up.

Without their tank, the enemy team collapsed. After sacrificing one DPS and one healer, the last two barely escaped the outpost alive.

Good. Now we just hold.

A capture map—and we'd first-picked Red Outpost Alpha, the easiest point on the easiest defense map in the mode. And my Odin was, on paper, the best defensive hero in the game.

"I-if we lose from here, we all hang ourselves from the ceiling together!"