Season 5: Chapter 153. Potato and Sweet Potato (3)

Sa-Rang finished her feedback and came out of her capsule. Staying in the capsule for too long did no good anyway, so she came out whenever a gap appeared.

'They’re still talking.'

Sitting in front of her computer, a chat notification popped up.

[Popcorn: Hey lol what's this about getting first place in every scrimmage? Not like you?? Did something get to you?]

[Marshmallow: Right. Trying different things in scrimmage is good though.]

It was a group chat with her old teammates. She'd normally ignore it, but typed back since they were making so much noise.

[Choi Sa-Rang: Omfg are you guys not practicing?]

They were crude words, but the corner of her mouth somehow stretched into a smile. This group chat had been completely inactive for a while. After the Civil Empire world championship, it started coming back to life little by little. With the Platform War prep, it had become noisy again.

[Popcorn: Hey, what's going to be left for you if we start practicing too~ lmaooo]

[Cosmic: Lmaooooo fr fr]

[Choi Sa-Rang: Yeah? Prepare to be humiliated in front of everyone ^^]

[Popcorn: You can talk after climbing up to where we are~]

Crack.

Of course, the gladness was brief. Mixing words with them immediately felt irritating.

[Popcorn: Getting first place in scrimmages right now isn't what matters~]

Sa-Rang knew that scrimmage rankings weren't important. Competitions and scrimmages were different. Nobody knew that better than the CK team players. They never did particularly well in scrimmages, yet what had been their results?

Their team held the record for most championship wins. Still, Sa-Rang had declared that she'd win first place in all the scrimmages. Why?

[Choi Sa-Rang: It's different from what you're thinking. This is a streamer tournament.]

[Popcorn: Hm? What is?]

[Choi Sa-Rang: First, the level is terrible. Not being able to get first place here is different from not getting first in a pro scrimmage.]

[Popcorn: Terrible lmaooooo]

[Banana: I see]

Sa-Rang had analyzed not just the Knight Order's games, but quite a few other teams as well, including Paprika. She felt it then. Cheese's current level was significantly lower than Paprika's.

Winning first here was the basic requirement for being prepared enough to face Paprika. No matter how disconnected a scrimmage was from actual competition, floundering at this stage meant no chance of winning against Paprika anyway.

They weren’t simply concerned about first place itself.

[Marshmallow: So you don't have to practice other strategies? If you only use one, everything gets exposed... isn't using just one strategy to win first place a problem?]

It was stubbornly pursuing first place with one strategy. This was a very dangerous approach.

[Choi Sa-Rang: Look at the scrimmage schedule]

Of course, she had an answer for this too.

[Choi Sa-Rang: This isn't like a pro scrimmage schedule. It's sporadic, not much practice time at all. Multiple strategies? In LIL, if you perfect even one, opponents know what's coming and still get caught out.]

[Marshmallow: What]

[Cosmic: Wow she's writing a whole essay. Must have really gotten to her.]

[Popcorn: Lmaooooooooooo]

[Cosmic: Hey get her more worked up lmaooo]

Everyone said those things, but seemed glad to finally have JeonJaPa talking a lot in the chat. Perhaps that was why they also watched the Knight Order's games as if they were coaching staff and left comments.

[Popcorn: Ah but why are you so harsh on Sweet Potato? You'll knock his confidence]

[Choi Sa-Rang: That person needs to be disciplined]

[Popcorn: lmaooooooooo]

[Cosmic: lmaooooooooo]

[Choi Sa-Rang: He's not the type that would change by being disciplined anyway]

She meant it. Sweet Potato had big reactions, but didn't seem to actually shake much.

[Banana: Not many people maintain their sanity while being disciplined by you... he actually might have lost it]

[Choi Sa-Rang: Is that so? Then forget it.]

Of course, what she'd observed could be wrong. She wasn't particularly concerned either way. Sweet Potato was bad anyway.

[Banana: ???]

[Popcorn: lmaooooooooooooooo knew this would happen!]

'Actually, the important thing is something else.'

By pushing for first place this time, she wanted to see the other players' reactions.

***

Just before the match began, they waited for the moderator to appear. During this time, streamers could go around interacting with each other or planning additional strategies.

Sweet Radish gathered the five Knight Order members with a serious face. "S-so, I should figure it out... Did the coach actually say that?"

"Wh-why? Did she give some hint?"

"Oh, she said the split was good." Almond only remembered that part.

— That's your answer?? LOL

— That's a hint?

— lmaooo

— Almond is currently splitting his left and right brain

— lmaooooooooooo

From beside him, Sweet Potato muttered nothing but self-deprecation. "I... I'm trash, so I won't say anything..."

Black Tea cut in. "Nobody's listening anyway."

"Damn..."

"Hey~ Sweet Potato~ heard you joined an MCN?" His friend, White Chicken, appeared.

Beside him was Green Tea, Black Tea's boyfriend.

"Hi tea~."

"I dare you to say ‘Hi tea’ one more time. I saw that you uploaded like 20 Shorts of you shooting me dead?"

"Ahem. The husband earns and brings it home. What's the wife saying?"

— Did you learn from Bubblegum lmaooo

— Infinite shorts rights

— lmaooooo

— LOL

— Wait why is Black Tea's face getting red...?

— Green Tea lmaooo

— Those do get good views though~

Green Tea actually didn't know why Black Tea's face had gone red either. Normally, nonsense called for a punch. That was his angle. Why was she acting like that?

'Is she sick?'

He wondered if Black Tea had a cold.

'H-husband? Wife!?'

Black Tea was actually surprised because Green Tea had never mentioned marriage before. The mention of husband and wife startled her.

'I thought marriage was something only I was thinking about.'

Black Tea thought to herself privately that Green Tea was still a man, after all.

Green Tea, in the meantime, had no awareness of his words and just looked at her with worry.

White Chicken, having been an old High Protein comrade with Sweet Radish and Sweet Potato, was itching to tease them. "But Sweet Potato, you're really~ completely awful, aren't you? Hm?"

He was targeting the more approachable Sweet Potato.

"Wh-what?"

"The coach officially roasted you, right? She said you were the worst. It was even posted as an announcement."

That was obviously a lie.

Sweet Potato fired back, "Hey, you... Did you spy on our feedback?! How did you know the coach said I was bad!?"

"Wait. Did she actually really say you were bad?" White Chicken grinned. "Bwahahahahahahaha!"

— lmaooooooooooo

— Sweet Potato... no...

— lmaooo he confessed himself

— lmaooo official confirmed

— FYI: she never actually said he was bad...

"This damn..." Sweet Potato's self-esteem was shaved down another notch.

Lemon came beside him and patted his back. "Oppa, it's okay. The coach said Iron Ball was good."

"I-is that true?"

Actually, Lemon had no such memory.

"Yeah."

However, she said yes.

"O-oh... phew... damn those Nonghyup people. You really can't change old habits." Sweet Potato resolved to destroy the Nonghyup above all else.

Sure enough, the Nonghyup's so-called leader also arrived.

"Hey~ Sweet Potato~ Sweet Radish~ Heard you joined an MCN? Congratulations~!"

It was Donuts.

'Hm?'

Almond tried to stay quiet, but he felt something was off when even this person came over. The others were acquainted with Sweet Potato, but not Donuts.

'Did Sweet Potato become a marked weak point?'

Some other kind of intent could be felt.

"But Sweet Potato, you're a bit of a sweet potato, aren't you? Ugh, so suffocating. Someone give me a cool drink~ hm?Ahahahaha! It's all for your own good~ you know right!?"

— lmaooooooooooo

— Boomer king 980 points

— Wow...

— Hm? Wait when did I get called into the manager's office?

— What the lol

— Is today Sweet Potato day?? lmaooo

— Manager Donuts domain expansion is insane!

Sweet Potato, being humiliated by even Donuts for the first time in his life, was dumbfounded.

At this, Lemon stepped forward again. "Eww~ you're so old~. We don't need advice~!"

— Cute lol

— The counterattack isn't even working, it's just cute...

— lmaooooooooo

— You're old~! LOL

"No, if I'm old, can't I give one piece of advice? Hm?" Donuts responded back without flinching. "Hmm~?"

He was smiling.

"Here, everything is business. Can't even give each other advice? That's why you can't beat us! You need to have bonds! We're family. Family! Look!"

The old men gathered again to show off their Nonghyup performance.

— Ha

— lmaooooo

— You are old...

— Family indeed. The three idiot brothers.

— Donuts' resolve

"You get it, Sweet Potato, you fool! MCN business relationships have limits. That's what I'm saying~. You have to be good yourself! It's the kind where they only support you when you're good! If you're bad, there's nothing in it for you. I'm telling you!"

Mental attacks toward him resumed.

'Hmm. We can't have this.'

Almond, who'd seen enough, stepped forward. He decided to drive these people away.

"This isn't Sweet Potato."

"Hm?" Donuts adjusted his glasses. "Who? Isn't Sweet Potato the one who joined an MCN? Or did only Sweet Radish join?"

"No, this isn't Sweet Potato."

"Hm? What are you..."

"This is Potato." Almond decided to just insist on this.

— LOL

— lmaooooooooo

— You think that's going to work again lol

— Uchiha Potato

— Trying to fool people with potato again lmaooo

— At least it's the same famine crop this time

— Potato illusion technique!

"Po-po... Potatooooo!?"

The moment Donuts heard the word potato, his face went bright red. In the end, his teammates dragged him away.

"H-hyung, we need to leave."

"Hyung! Ignore it. There's a saying. When someone appears and points to a sweet potato, calling it a potato, never answer. Just run..."

— Potato legend

— Uchiha Potato is legendary

— lmaooooooooo run~

And so the potato repellent technique made the Nonghyup disappear quite noisily.

"Y-you...! Don't live your life like that! Hm!? I, I still ask to leave out the French fries when I eat a burger...!?"

"Phew." Almond felt relief as Donuts' voice gradually faded away.

He turned around to check on Sweet Potato.

'Hm?'

Except for Black Tea, everyone seemed to be in poor condition. The atmosphere felt heavy and oppressive. This wasn't actually because of the Nonghyup.

'Hmm...'

Almond had felt this before. It was an emotion familiar to people who practiced archery.

'Is this... pressure? But why? It's just a scrimmage.'

He didn't understand why they were feeling pressure because he hadn't taken Sa-Rang's talk about winning first place all day very seriously. From the start, Almond was someone who'd said from his very first national team competition interview that winning was the goal.

"Hello! Cheese players and teammates, everyone!"

Camebert appeared.

"As I mentioned last time! Through this joint scrimmage, we will be determining the number one team in terms of strength!"

Talk spread among the streamers. There was nothing particularly worthy of concern, so Camebert continued.

"Not just first place, but all priorities in the actual competition will effectively be determined. Understood?"

The word “However” appeared large on the screen.

Da-da-DUN!

"Oh, of course, the actual competition and scrimmage will be different. Enormous variables are waiting. According to information that the organizers released today! The Survival mode we'll face in the actual competition will have new elements added."

This time, the murmuring was quite loud.

"What? Seriously? A different patch version?"

"Hm? What's being added?"

"Oh, I see, so this is a promotional tournament for a new version. Insane."

Camebert waited until the confusion settled. Then, he delivered his closing line.

"Rather than simply devising strategies to win this scrimmage, what will be important is fundamentally studying Survival mode to develop your improvisation skills!"

With that, the second scrimmage began. Today, the gap between teams would be confirmed.