Episode 37: Promotion (Project A)
The other team had hoarded their credits last round and come into this one with rifles. Of course they meant to baby those guns and walk away with a perfect round.
It went the other way. Defense won — and the rifles Chamber, Snake, and Raze had just bought transferred straight into our hands.
We'd at least held on to Jett's gun and Sova's, so if there was a mercy in it, it was that we'd dodged the worst of it.
None of that happens unless I soak up the kills with reckless play in rounds one and two, then break the round open on the third.
So, basically... ahem. I carried.
Something weird flashed through chat, but most of it was just people losing their minds over the play.
Mm. Good. Praise me louder.
They say even a whale will dance if you praise it. I've always been the kind of person whose whole mood climbs on every single compliment.
We'd saved two guns, but the other three of us were still pitifully armed, and the enemy folded the fourth round without a fight. The half ended 10–2. A rout.
Sides swapped for the second half. We set Killjoy's turret to watch C site and Garage, left Omen on B, and put the other three on A.
"Win this and the game's over. Lock in!" — Fade
Win a pistol round and the next one is very likely yours as well. Win this, and we go to 12–2. Match point.
For them, that made it a round they had to win with everything they had. I bought the Sheriff — the 800-credit pistol.
"Chamber, C Main. He's alone." — Killjoy
The instant the round started, on C Main — the wide road marked C on the map — Killjoy jump-peeked their Chamber.
Only Chamber. We still had no idea where the other four were, so moving early would have been stupid.
"Sova recon on B. It's B — B, B, B!" — Omen
They were hitting B the way we had in the first half. Omen, already on the site, dropped back and called for cover, but I didn't rotate straight there.
Once they stepped onto B and Omen spotted them, their positions lit up on the map. Counting the Chamber Fade had already found with Haunt, I figured nobody at that distance could hear my footsteps. I pushed A Main — the wide road marked A — and took ground all the way up to A Garden.
If they planted and rotated off, they'd run straight into me. If they stayed hidden on site, I could pinch them together with the teammates collapsing onto B.
I sprinted part of the way to A Garden, then killed my footsteps. Someone on their side might have stayed back specifically to catch a flanker coming from behind, and I wanted to be the one who caught them.
Slowly, carefully, I sliced the angles apart, checking every spot a player might be holding. At the mouth from A Lobby into A Garden, I peeked the fishing spot on the left and threw a prefire.
A prefire at an angle you've already called. Infuriating if you're the one who eats it — but Sova's position had been obvious.
If his reactions had been faster than mine, he might have been the one who won the duel. In this game, though, the player who peeks first is favored by the frames.
Sova was dead, which meant they knew where I was. Walking from here was a waste of time. I slipped straight into B Window — center window on the map — and peeked.
Fwoosh— fwoosh! Bang! Whip—!
For an instant I locked eyes with two of them and very nearly died. I'd primed Tailwind, my E, before the peek, and that was the only reason I got out.
"Whoa... I'm on ten HP."
Still, I had the two inside site pinned on the map, so it wasn't a bad spot. As long as I didn't die, they had to keep respecting me on B Window.
"Got Chamber. Everyone else is inside site." — Killjoy
Right on time, Killjoy caught Chamber rotating back toward C. Every living enemy was now stuck inside B.
Phoenix and Fade collapsing from A, Killjoy coming off C with Omen, who'd been playing that side, and me tucked on B Window — every path into B was sealed. Not even a pinch. A triangle.
They'd tried to stop exactly this. Chamber had been lurking, and Sova had been posted to eat anyone pushing up A Main. Both of them had died for nothing.
"Paranoia down. Go, go." — Omen
The spike was already down, so we were the ones on the clock. Omen's Paranoia, Fade's Haunt, and Phoenix went in.
A nasty little brawl inside cramped B site. Every even trade favored us, because we were the ones with bodies to spend.
I waited on my timing and peeked, and put a hole through the side of Snake's head while he was watching C Connect.
Bang!
Their Snake knew I was on B Window. Alone, though, he also had to watch Omen and Killjoy coming through C Connect.
From their side, the correct play was probably to take space toward B Window, where I was already one shot from dead. They didn't.
My own read: they were over-respecting me, still carrying what I'd done to them in the first half.
Either way, Killjoy was the one left standing. He stuck the defuse, a clean retake, and the round ran out to 11–2.
Given how favored the next round was for us, 12–2 was the likely number. Match point in everything but the scoreboard.
At 11–2, a normal team that drops the pistol saves for an eco so they can buy rifles the round after. One more loss and it was match point, so they didn't.
They force-bought, scraping every credit they had into weak guns. They lost.
Empty the wallet all you want — those guns were still worse than the Spectres we'd bought.
An 11–2 scoreboard, a gap in mental, a gap in the guns. The force buy failed, the round went 12–2, and it was match point.
One more point and the game was ours. The fifteenth round was a dogfight that left only me and Snake alive.
Bang!
"Nice!" — Fade
"Hoo~ Miss Jett, thank you for the carry." — Omen
"Entry bros, seriously, thank you! Shit, I finally broke my losing streak!" — Killjoy
I finished Snake with the Marshal and took the round. 13–2. The game ended on that scoreline, and at last I ranked up to Immortal.
A 31-and-10 KDA that didn't leave room to argue. Chat had nobody left doubting me, and the trolls were gone too.
Well. The managers were probably just deleting them.
"That's all for today, everyone. Thanks for watching — I had fun."
The broadcast hadn't even been on for an hour. I was ending it anyway.
"I have my entrance ceremony tomorrow, okay..."
"Then I'm really ending the stream. See you tomorrow evening — Eun-bye~"
I hit the end-stream button, stood up, and stretched.
"Hnnngh! Haaah... still, I'm glad I hit it today..."
Once I started high school, there was no way I'd have as much time to stream. I'd wanted Immortal banked before I walked in.
The day before the entrance ceremony, I got it.
"...So tomorrow's finally here."
High school, for all practical purposes the first time in my life. My real age wasn't seventeen, so there was none of that new-semester flutter — but I was afraid.
People say school is society in miniature for teenagers. Looked at straight, this would be the first time I moved through the world as a woman.
"Keep it quiet. As quiet as I can."
The plan was to drift through three years of high school like I was barely there. Becoming a student didn't mean I intended to make friends with a bunch of kids four years younger than me.
"Nothing's going to happen... right?"
I meant it. I wanted nothing to happen.
Ding-ding-ding, good mor-ning, ding-ding-ding— I got up before that cursed little demon melody could finish spilling out of the phone, and managed to kill the alarm.
I forced one bleary eye open and checked the time.
"Ugh..."
I'd prayed at the ceiling anyway. The numbers on the screen didn't change. With a deep sigh, I did my best to ignore how soft the bed was and got up.
"Nnnngh! Haaaaah..."
Damn it. The high-school entrance ceremony I had never once been waiting for had arrived all the same.