READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 84 - Scared? Irritated?
Inagika wasn’t a good singer.
“You, if I become a constellation with you…!”
“The night when stars fall, a fleeting wish~♬”
Karaoke Loser Trait 1. Stands around for a long time watching others sing, then barely manages to reserve a song out of courtesy, but lacks the confidence to sing better than the others.
Karaoke Loser Trait 2. Once the song starts, the karaoke enthusiast (the one who really loves singing) barges in and forces an unwanted duet.
Karaoke Loser Trait 3. The other person ends up singing better than you.
Karaoke Loser Trait 4. You can’t hit the high notes, and your voice keeps getting drowned out by the other person’s.
So the song that Inagika had finally reserved was now being completely buried by Anna, who was enthusiastically taking over.
Of course, Anna didn’t have the slightest bit of ill intent, nor did she understand the feelings Inagika was experiencing.
The first thing Rinco saw was that scene.
“Sorry, Rinco-senior. I know you’re busy, but thanks for coming.”
“It’s fine. I wasn’t that busy anyway.”
Rinco sat down on the edge of the bed.
Though they were broadcasting a karaoke stream, this was, after all, Rion’s room. With nowhere else to sit, she found herself sitting on Rion’s bed, wondering if that was okay.
Rion was probably watching this broadcast from Japan, but what would she think about it?
“One, two, three, four… Where’s Chel?”
“Chel went to sleep. She needs rest if she’s going to keep going through the night.”
“You guys really stream hardcore, huh.”
Singing without a break until Laura finished her rank climb? No matter how you looked at it, it was a crazy idea.
Rinco thought she should contact Ichika or some of the others later. Some of them might be willing to help, even in the middle of the night.
Even if they just sang two or three songs, it would take some of the load off.
“This won’t last much longer anyway. Laura’s in the final push for her promotion match.”
Sora casually showed her phone.
On the screen, Laura’s promotion match was playing. Of course, since time flowed differently over there, it was being played at 5x speed.
If Sora wanted to watch leisurely, she could’ve slowed it down to normal speed. But this wasn’t about watching for entertainment—it was just to check on Laura’s situation.
“I see a lot of familiar faces.”
Shina, Vincent, and Narin.
“Looks like she’ll be promoted smoothly. She’s on the same team as Narin too.”
“Is she good?”
“Narin’s good, yeah. But even more than that…”
Rinco shrugged nonchalantly.
“She’s the complete opposite of me.”
***
【Your allied thief has killed an enemy assassin.】
【The enemy Beast Tamer has killed your allied saint.】
【The enemy mage has killed your allied heavy armored warrior.】
【The enemy mage has killed your allied martial artist.】
【The enemy dual swordsman has killed your allied archer.】
【Your allied dragon knight has killed the enemy Pathfinder.】
A new kill log popped up. Let’s review the situation for a moment.
There were six kills in total.
One of those was my kill—taking out Mashina.
But except for the last one, the remaining four were all our team’s deaths.
“Looks like our main force lost to theirs.”
The conclusion was simple, but the situation was far from that. In fact, it was downright disastrous.
Things were looking a bit grim.
Just as I thought that, something came flying from afar.
‘A mini-dragon, huh.’
Flap, flap.
Flying toward me was a baby dragon with its tail wrapped around a sword.
Now that I thought about it, our main force consisted of five members, but there were only four death logs.
That meant our dragon knight—Son Narin—was still alive.
‘Is this thing telling me to follow it?’
The baby dragon flitted around me.
The dragon knight’s first skill was called
Calling it “control” was a bit of a stretch. The mini-dragon’s combat capabilities were pitiful. Its only ability was to fire a single flame ball, a skill primarily used for scouting.
So I followed the mini-dragon.
As I followed it, I arrived at a cave a little distance from the game’s starting point.
There was a campfire, its flames almost extinguished.
“Welcome!”
In front of it, Son Narin greeted me with a bright face.
“Sorry! You played the role of the decoy so well! I couldn’t keep up!”
Son Narin immediately apologized, bowing low.
Considering she was a senior VTuber who had debuted quite a while ago, her humility was surprising.
In the military, rank meant little outside your own unit, but that didn’t seem to apply to VTubers. Even if they were from a different company, a senior was still a senior.
You didn’t need to be excessively formal, but you had to show some respect—something Rion had told me before.
“I think saying you did badly is a bit inappropriate. You managed to take one down, didn’t you?”
“No! I definitely messed up! I should have anticipated this…”
Sigh.
Son Narin let out a self-deprecating sigh.
“Do you know Vincent? His full name is Vincent Edward.”
I had heard the name before.
He was one of the male VTubers who competed in last year’s Streamer League. Though he wasn’t on the same team as Rinco, so I didn’t know him very well.
“Vincent’s good at shotcalling. That’s why we got caught up in his strategy.”
Son Narin explained what had happened.
The enemy team consisted of “Cavalryman-Beast Tamer-Dual Swordsman-Mage-Pathfinder-Thief,” an unusual combination.
There was no healer like a saint or battle priest.
No ranged sustained damage dealer like a gunner or technomancer either, so their endurance in battle was significantly lacking.
It wasn’t a composition you’d expect to see in a pro match. The balance was too skewed.
But in ranked games, people sometimes lock in weird picks without worrying about team composition.
That’s what Son Narin had thought during the ban-pick phase.
“They called for an early rush.”
Every composition has its strengths.
In their case, it was a rush comp, leaning heavily on charging in.
The cavalryman used their overwhelming mobility to disrupt our formation.
The mage teamed up with the Beast Tamer, riding the giant wolf while casting spells wildly.
And then there was the Pathfinder’s ultimate,
If it had been a coordinated teamfight, we might have won.
But in a chaotic skirmish, with fights breaking out from all directions, they had the upper hand. As a result, our team was swept away.
“I wonder how much I’ve tormented them.”
I crossed my arms.
Mashina had clearly prepared a strategy specifically to counter me.
And it wasn’t just my imagination.
‘That’s why they banned Dark Knight and Berserker. I knew something was up.’
It was strange for an international player like Vincent to be playing on the Korean server. The most natural conclusion was that he was duo-queuing with Mashina.
Mashina and Vincent had banned my two best picks.
The moment they saw me pick the Phantom Thief, they must have realized they were matched against me. So they convinced their team to go for an early rush comp, which succeeded. Unbelievable.
“So, I’ve been thinking. What if we let them go for the boss?”
The enemy team had four members left. Our team had only me and Son Narin, a bleak situation.
Still, Son Narin spoke in a cheerful voice.
“I’ll try to interrupt them while they’re doing the boss fight! Maybe I can steal the boss kill!”
“Boss steal, huh.”
Stealing the boss was a last-ditch effort.
It was a common strategy in AOS games too. You disrupt the enemy’s objective and sneak in the last hit to turn the tide.
It was a reasonable suggestion. Things were looking so bad that betting on a slim chance might be the only option.
The problem was that the enemy wasn’t going to give us an opening to steal the boss.
“There’s a flaw in your strategy. They’ve got four members, and we’ve got two. Won’t they just overwhelm us with their numbers?”
“Then we’ll run to the ends of the earth! If we keep running, they’ll give up chasing us and go back to the boss, right?”
“You seem to be forgetting that the Beast Tamer has a tracking skill.”
“Even so, the tracking isn’t perfect. I think we can outrun them!”
Son Narin was basically saying that if we dragged things out long enough, something unpredictable might happen. It was the classic “let’s just lie down and see what happens” strategy.
But that was more of a persistence-based strategy, bordering on wishful thinking.
I could praise her for her never-give-up attitude, but…
“Let’s just go for a teamfight.”
As if that was going to work.
I said what I had to.
***
Narin was moving with Laura.
Whether they fought or ran, they had agreed that staying in the cave was a waste of time.
“Do you really think we can win if we fight?”
Narin asked.
The name Kisaki Rinco still lingered in her memory.
They had even exchanged a few light messages recently.
And Aurora was Rinco’s most cherished junior.
Aurora was fairly well-known, and there were even rumors that she was Rinco’s successor. From the little Narin had seen, she certainly had star potential.
But Narin didn’t particularly care about Laura.
People often misunderstood Narin, thinking she was an outgoing person.
But in truth, she was rather indifferent inside.
“I think winning a teamfight is nearly impossible! We need a different strategy!”
That was Narin’s honest assessment.
The word Narin hated most was “give up.”
She absolutely loathed the idea of giving up on anything.
In that sense, Laura’s suggestion to just “teamfight” rubbed her the wrong way. It felt like she was proposing a reckless charge to throw the game away.
So Narin had no intention of agreeing to Laura’s suggestion.
“Are you scared?”
…
…What?
“We’re two, and they’re four. If each of us takes out two, we win. You’re not confident?”
“…”
Oh, she’s trying to provoke me. Dropping the formal speech too, huh?
I’m clearly her senior. Is it because she’s Rinco-senior’s successor? She’s got some nerve.
Narin smiled brightly.
“Alright! Let’s do it! If I don’t, I’d be less than human after hearing that!”
“I didn’t say anything that extreme. Are you mad?”
“No! Not mad at all! In fact, it’s great motivation. Yes, really great motivation. I’m actually thankful. Yes.”
“You’re irritated.”
“No, I’m not.”
Narin was irritated, but she refused to admit it.
Thankfully, she was one of the VTubers in SerenadeKR, known for her kind demeanor. Even when scratched, she never showed anger toward others. Yes, she was scratched, but she wouldn’t lash out.
She didn’t even let it show in her expression. Always wearing a smile, she was the model VTuber. Even though she was scratched.
“I’m really not irritated at all, okay? Is this really alright?”
“Stop emphasizing it. You’re making it too obvious.”
“But with just a dragon knight and a phantom thief, isn’t it tough? I’m not saying this because I’m irritated, I’m genuinely curious!”
“If you don’t believe me, I can do it alone. You can hide and watch my performance.”
Laura seemed resolute. She truly appeared confident, and Narin quickly realized that trying to convince her otherwise would be futile.
In that case, the only option was to bet on the strategy with the highest chance of success. Fighting together had a better chance than fighting alone, however slim that might be.
Narin hated giving up and disliked compromising, but…
She wasn’t socially inept. She decided to go along with Laura’s plan for now, and if it didn’t work out, they could fall back on stealing the boss.
“But Laura!”
“You may call me Lady Laura or Miss Laura, if you’d like.”
“No thanks! I’ve been wondering for a while, why are you carrying Shina on your back?”
That had been bugging Narin.
On Laura’s back was the corpse of an assassin.
The name hovering above the body was one Narin was very familiar with. It was Mashina, Narin’s direct junior.
“I’m thinking of cutting off her head.”
“…What?”
“Wouldn’t it startle them if a teammate’s head suddenly flew their way? Then we could ambush them and raise our chances of winning.”
Laura said this in an elegant tone.
She’s crazy.
That’s an insane idea.
“Let’s do it right away!”
But Narin wasn’t exactly normal either.
Narin, the woman who never gives up.
As long as she didn’t have to give up, she would do anything.
That’s the kind of person Son Narin was.
“Should we gouge out her eyes too? That’d scare them even more!”
“You’re just as crazy.”
“That’s not something I want to hear from you!”
Fortunately, with what little humanity they had left, they managed to avoid actually gouging out the eyes.