Season 5: Chapter 155. Family-Style Business (2)

Meanwhile, the two-person team also landed.

"There it is, the weapon box."

[Bow]

[Staff]

Almond safely secured the bow, and Lemon acquired the staff. This was one of the advantages of the split strategy. With each group opening a box, there was rarely a shortage of weapons or clashing of desired types.

"Good. Let's go, Lemon." Almond, as always, gave his bow a single pull and went ahead.

"Yes, sir~."

Ping!

Lemon pinged the target location and briefed the team.

[Lemon: Got our weapons~ heading to the target area to hunt~]

Almond cleared the way toward the pinged location and looked out for sounds of people or fights nearby. He paid attention to the nearby surroundings while Lemon kept her sights in the distance.

Lemon, following behind, whispered, "We're doing the same as last time, right? Lord?"

"Right."

— Lemon still calls him the Lord lmaooo

— The two actually communicate well without saying much

— Calling him oppa feels too small for someone like a lord so she calls him Lord apparently

Lemon's viewers seemed to have high expectations for this game because of the last scrimmage. No one complained about her being teamed up with Almond instead of Black Tea.

"Should I turn off chat this time too?"

When the suggestion to turn off the chat appeared, an uproar followed.

— No!

— AHHH

— I'll die!

— Why!!

— You going to turn it off in the actual tournament too!

Almond stared intently at Kim Gyuri’s digitally rendered eyes. Eyes carried deep human emotion, but looking into them now only revealed pixels.

'Hmm.'

Almond simply tilted his head.

"The chat? Why turn off the chat?"

"Y-you told me to last time..."

"Me?"

— lmaooooooooooo

— lmaooo

— Perps never remember...

Ding!

[Factose has donated 5,000 won.]

[FYI: The reason Almond has poor memory is because he's always the perp. For reference, Almond remembers everything that happened at Ah-Sung very well.]

— lmaooooooooo

— Things from Ah-Sung he remembers perfectly fr lol

— This feels true?

— That's why there's almost no memory of games...

— “Why Americans can't remember other countries' capital cities”

Tap.

Almond patted Lemon's back. "Let's just go quickly. We decided to raise our hunting speed, right? Did you practice?"

The two-person team's hunting speed was the core of the split strategy. Improving their hunting speed required repeated drilling.

"Oh..."

Lemon had practiced quite a lot, so she could say she had.

''Don't tell me things like 'I practiced this much.' Whether or not you practiced is shown in the game.''

The coach's words came to mind, so she couldn't say it easily.

"Just, well... uhh..."

'She probably did. I guess.'

Almond figured Lemon had practiced.

"Just go. Go."

Either way, they'd see.

"Oh, yes! Go go!"

After confirming no one was nearby, they ran toward the Abyss Fish.

***

The two-person team's hunting method was precarious. With only two damage dealers, nobody could take hits for them. They had to pull aggro and waste time swapping the target’s attention.

"Going~."

Lemon drew the aggro first. How?

[Fireball]

Crash!

The staff's most powerful and AoE magic, Fireball, dealt overall damage. The Abyss Fish foamed and chased after her.

Bubble bubble bubble...!

These monsters looked weak, but five of them together could beat one staff user to death in about five seconds.

"Save me~!"

After that, Lemon ran away. She didn’t just run but had spread them out for Almond to best shoot at them. A moment later, the Abyss Fish lined up perfectly for shooting.

Bubble bubble...!

With his bow drawn, Almond nodded.

'Nice.'

Lemon's movement was clearly different from last time.

"Shooting."

Bang!

The Abyss Fish closest to Lemon was killed. The ones coming behind all had their heads shot too.

Pop!

Bang!

Then, the Abyss Fish turned toward Almond again.

"Coming."

"Yes, sir~!"

They exchanged calls in very short syllables and passed the aggro back and forth.

"My turn!"

Lemon attacked the Abyss Fish again with her staff's basic attacks.

Bang!

Bang!

Lemon's staff hit accuracy was nearly 100%. Like this, the two swapped aggro like a rally at the last moment.

[Level Up!]

[Lv.1 ─> Lv.2]

Both became level two. Even after reaching level two, the exp bar had filled another third.

"Oh." Almond nodded. "You practiced."

"Hehe~."

— Wow, look at their hunting speed

— This is now awe-inspiring

— This is what a split is supposed to be like!

It was slower than a five-person hunting speed, but probably the fastest for leveling up. When a level was gained, one weapon skill appeared randomly. Almond got the bow skill, Multishot.

'Oh.'

This skill appeared for the first time in scrimmage.

"Multishot came out. Speed up."

This skill dramatically improved hunting speed, which was fortunate for them.

"Yes, sir!"

Lemon pinged the next area. It was the Abyss Fish again. She drew aggro first, like before, and lined up the Abyss Fish in a row.

[Multishot]

Whooooooosh!

About fifteen arrows fanned out in a semicircle, piercing through all the monsters. Every Abyss Fish was hit. On top of that, Almond's rapid fire at maximum speed headshotted them one by one.

Pop!

Bang!

One died for every hit.

[Level Up!]

[Lv.2 ─> Lv.3]

Another level up occurred.

"Wow, the level up is really fast!"

— What the

— Speed is insane

— Wow lmaooo

— Experience speed is crazy

— This is the split!

Almond definitely felt it.

'Lemon really practiced a lot.'

As the main damage dealer, he couldn’t gain any more speed beyond shooting faster and accurately hitting only heads. What could be reduced was the aim time.

From Almond's perspective, the aim time dropped dramatically when Lemon spread the monsters horizontally. All the targets were right next to each other and visible at once. Lemon had realized this completely naturally, which wasn't easy.

The monsters' AI wasn't stupid either. If players ran too obviously, they'd try to return to their positions. She had to maintain a distance that looked like she could get hit, but didn't. Even pros failed occasionally. Lemon had succeeded two out of two times now.

'It might be possible.'

At this speed, the Red Turtle was definitely worth aiming for.

"Let's go toward the Turtle."

"Yes, sir. Let me check on the way!"

***

[Lemon: The Lord says let's wrap around toward the Turtle side]

Crackle.

Lemon sent a ping and voice message.

[Black Tea: Damn! We're done!]

A shocking answer came back.

[Lemon: Hm?]

[Black Tea: Ugh...! We're surrounded!]

[Lemon: Surrounded?]

The other team had encountered enemies, but not just one team.

'Hm? Two teams?'

Lemon checked the map and could see enemy portrait icons flickering at the dark vision boundaries. There were several of them.

[Sweet Radish: Right now, it’s the Nonghyup and... who are they!? Can't Can't Can't? Are you teaming up!?]

[Sweet Potato: Absolutely! The Nonghyup, those con artists!]

— Hm?? lmaooo

— Can't say no to the Nonghyup

— Legendary scrimmage teaming lol

— Wow two teams at once?

The three-person team had run into two enemy teams. One was Can't Can't Can't, and the other was the Nonghyup. As it happened, both harbored grievances against the Knight Order. The Nonghyup had lost first place because of the Knight Order. Their leader, Donuts, had also been humiliated by Almond. Can't Can't Can't had more practical reasons.

"I've come to reclaim my Iron Ball! You trash!"

— LOL

— lmaooooooooo

— “You trash” lol

— Bubblegum bro!

They'd anticipated the Knight Order would want Iron Ball and came to steal it from the start. How did they know the Knight Order would be here?

Zelo called out, "You clinging Knight Order people! Always splitting for your life! And you're actually here?! Splitting on this map is ONLY good right HERE. I knew it! Teaming up? This is called karma! Muhahaha!"

Right, the Knight Order's overwhelming first place with the split had been just the game before. Even in the four games before that, they'd held to the split throughout. Their strategy had already been predictable. This element had to naturally be considered when using a strategy.

'I missed this.'

Sweet Radish closed his eyes tightly.

'The best spot for splitting on this map... Of course, others would also see it.'

Their overall scrimmage results had been poor, but the Knight Order was unmistakably the top team power-wise. Winning overwhelmingly last time had made them more of a target. The enemies had figured out how the Knight Order liked to play the map for their split strategy.

'A strategy will inevitably get exposed.'

Given the tournament format, maintaining a secret strategy was very difficult.

'Fireball incoming.'

Crash!

A Fireball landed right beside Sweet Radish. He just barely dodged it.

“Phew.”

It didn’t end there.

Boom!

Another Fireball came flying. There were two enemy staff users.

'Again?'

Whoosh!

Sweet Radish barely rolled away again.

— What the

— Dodged everything

— Wow

— Movement lmaooo

— Challenger

Sweet Radish dodged both of the preemptive shots.

'Oh. What? I'm playing pretty well today.'

Sweet Radish felt that he was in excellent form today.

"You want a raw fight with us, huh!? You're just the Nonghyup!" he shouted confidently. Then he whispered to Sweet Potato beside him, "Sweet Potato, you're all I can trust..."

"Wh-what the... Why?"

"You're the only champion here!"

They had cleared one lower Vault, regardless. Sweet Potato had contracted Iron Ball, but had only reached level two with a garbage rune. On top of that, he was a garbage pilot.

Zelo confidently closed in. "Come on~ slowly~ clos-ing in. The Nonghyup is coming from fa~r away. Not like we need to do anything, right? Hm? Muhahahaha!?"

The Nonghyup also moved as if communicating with them, slowly cutting off the retreat routes.

"It's a-l-l for your own good! You think you can use the split in actual competition? This is tough love! Tough love!"

Donuts was coming from the west while Zelo approached from the east.

Sweet Radish, without anyone noticing, rolled his eyes and surveyed the map.

'Where?'

On the minimap, he could see Almond and Lemon's positions. More notable than their positions was their level. Both were at level three.

'High level... and...'

He checked the enemy positions with a side-eye again. Almond and Lemon's joining point was behind Zelo.

'Then, let’s go for Can't Can't Can't first?'

However, behind Zelo stood ForeverAlone with a sword.

'Gi-Chan... with a sword again...'

Swords showed enormous variation in firepower depending on physicality. ForeverAlone had mastered the sword. In physicality and combat tricks, he was a genius who rivaled Almond.

'Doesn't seem easy...'

Sweet Radish sent a voice message to Almond.

[Sweet Radish: Come around far to the west]

[Lemon: That takes a long time though?]

[Sweet Radish: I'll hold]

[Lemon: Hm...?]

Lemon was puzzled.

[Almond: Okay~]

Almond answered and immediately changed direction.

'He understood.'

Almond had been looking at the same map and saw the same thing. He was a predator and spotted his prey quickly.

'The Nonghyup... they'll regret showing themselves already.'

Flash!

Sweet Radish's eyes opened.

"Run!"

Sweet Radish ran toward the Nonghyup's side.

"Break through!"

Black Tea understood and ran while laying suppressive fire at Zelo's team behind.

"I... I'm trash!!"

Kiiiiing!

Sweet Potato's Iron Ball shot forward like an arrow.

— Ruthless LOL

— I'm trash lmaooo

— Not human...

— Toward the Nonghyup?

— That's definitely the right read

— The call here is genuinely incredible lmaooo

— Can they survive here?

— If they come out of this alive it's the championship

— Iron Ball lmaooo