Season 5: Chapter 89. The Calls? (1)

Even after the coach selection tournament ended, messages kept popping up in the CK group chat.

Bzzt.

[Cosmic: I think we could've won in the simulation]

The same Cosmic who had first said, “How is Choi Sung-Hyun supposed to coach?!”was now claiming he thought they would have won all along.

[Banana: now you say that?]

[Banana: you're embarrassing, Comic!]

Banana made sure to note this, but Cosmic completely ignored him and said what he wanted.

[Cosmic: but the real coaching problem starts from here lmao]

The actual difficulty of coaching was only beginning.

[Popcorn: fr lmao]

Popcorn agreed. Not because he'd actually thought about the content, he just found teasing his friends too enjoyable.

[Cosmic: coaching is honestly like half mental support, not strategy and tactics. you think she can do that. honestly lucky if she doesn't blow the team up lmao]

[Marshmallow: lol]

[Popcorn: fr lmao]

[Banana: that's... hmm.]

Cosmic’s reasoning fairly convinced all of them. Everyone suddenly agreed because the way Choi Sa-Rang had operated as a player in her active years wasn't exactly humane.

[Popcorn: I can see that team falling apart except Sweet Radish lmaooo Sung-Hyun won't last lmaooo]

[Cosmic: lmaooooooooooo fr]

[Marshmallow: lmaooooo]

[Banana: lmaooooooooo fr Sung-Hyun won't last~]

They laughed freely, anticipating when their old friend's mask would start to slip.

***

‘First, let's see how they play.’

Choi Sa-Rang would watch at least one game. That was the most basic starting point in coaching.

‘One game will tell me everything.’

Some people often said that one game of LIL contained an entire life. Choi Sa-Rang agreed with that to a degree. LIL had a way of pushing players to their absolute limits until their true nature came out.

Even among pros, at least one out of ten games would see someone lose their rationality. That was how stressful a game was. Correspondingly, the satisfaction of winning became that much more intense.

‘The bottom always shows eventually.’

Watching a skilled player in a single game would show not only their playstyle and champion range but also their personality and values. Of course, she already had some existing data.

‘I roughly know Sweet Radish.’

Sweet Radish was quite a veteran player beneath that easy exterior. A professional gaming career had a retirement age so young that he was only two years younger than Almond. In terms of his career, he was a very solid veteran player.

Crackle.

“Ah. Can you hear me, Coach?” Sweet Radish asked.

"Yes."

“Okay. Just checking. We just play normally now, right?”

"Yes. Pretend I'm not here."

Sweet Radish’s personality remained unchanged. He double-checked what had already been said and was the type to test the bridge before crossing it. This showed plainly in his gameplay too. The player who would probably clash with him the most was...

‘Almond.’

Sa-Rang's gaze shifted to Almond, who was fundamentally an entity full of variables.

In a way, at his core, Almond wasn't that different from Bubblegum. He was basically uncontrollable. The moment he saw an angle, he'd take it. The only difference was that Almond's success rate was overwhelmingly higher. Ultimately, there was a difference in execution, not in basic human nature.

Sweet Radish, by contrast, repeatedly thought things through in his head and only moved when he was genuinely satisfied. Of course, being an ex-pro meant his repetitive thinking process ran at an extraordinary speed.

Ordinary people couldn't tell it was happening and even occasionally mistook Sweet Radish for being bold. They couldn't see his calculations because his speed was several times theirs.

‘But that kind of approach makes it hard to shine in big tournaments.’

The problem would occur when Sweet Radish met an opponent with decision-making equal to or greater than his own. He needed two or three iterations, but if an opponent only needed one or just committed with even half of one, he'd be left completely helpless.

‘Finishing second his whole career... was probably because of that.’

Ultimately, Sweet Radish's ceiling as a player had been second place.

‘And he brought in a Tier 2 coach... Ahem.’

A mean thought crept in, but Sa-Rang shook her head.

‘I'm more curious about the others.’

She already knew Almond and Sweet Radish well enough. Her gaze shifted to the others.

‘Sweet Potato, Lemon, and Black Tea...’

Could these people actually blend together? Playing house while streaming and running hard toward a real victory were completely different things. They would probably argue along the way. Even so, the drive toward victory couldn't stop even in a streamer competition.

‘If what's waiting at the end is those people...’

She knew the opponents were no pushovers. They'd need to be ready.

***

Team Knight Order all landed safely and located their artifact boxes.

"Oh..."

For Almond, who had suffered from Bubblegum all this time, even landing without incident felt like a meaningful accomplishment.

"Nobody died."

— lmaooo is that something to be surprised about??

— Wasn't that because nobody got killed...

— Almond finally experiencing the real world after the Bubblegum gaslighting era lmaooo

— The logs feel... lighter!

— Wow this is refreshing already!

Every single Knight Order member was significantly better than any teammate Almond had encountered during the placement matches. Above all, they could actually communicate. He couldn't have been more relieved.

"Hey! Potato Servant, you little...!"

Thwack!

Sweet Radish kicked Sweet Potato in the rear just as he reached for a weapon. That felt thoroughly satisfying.

"Pick up a shield, you lowly creature!"

— LOL

— lmaooo

— This is it!

— Military discipline?

— lmaooooooo the shield

"B-but... I'm not very good at tanking!"

"What do you mean, not good!? Is there ANYONE here willing to tank? Among these elders!?"

Sweet Potato silently looked at the rest of the group. Everyone avoided his gaze and just picked up their own weapons. Black Tea grabbed a gun, Almond grabbed a bow, and Lemon grabbed a staff.

‘Nobody? Damn.’

Sweet Potato hoisted the shield.

— That's just you

— ??? If you feel it's you, come forward

— lmaooo why are you even looking around it's obviously you

— FYI: Sweet Potato is actually decent at tanking lmao

— You literally play tank.

Sweet Potato was actually reasonably good at the tank role. Still, he muttered with all the indignation of someone deeply wronged, "To think I, of the noble Potato Servant lineage, should fall even to the Tanky lineage..."

Apparently, being demoted from the honorable title of Potato Servant all the way to Tank was a deeply personal affront.

— lmaooooo Tanky lineage

— This is a bit rough ngl...

— Potato Servant has dignity!!

Sweet Radish decided to play the bruiser role. "Alright, I'll take the spear."

His main pick as a pro had been mages and assassins, but it was better for the strongest player to sacrifice and take a different position.

‘The bruiser controls the initiation timing too.’

Sweet Radish, setting the engagement timing, would work well for everyone. With that, the weapon distribution wrapped up fairly smoothly. Even Almond, who always insisted on three or four tanks every game, was uncharacteristically quiet this time. Sweet Radish's shot calling was in a completely different league.

"Since it's obviously going to be a lot of streamer teams in the queue, the smart play is to patrol the Vault routes. These people are going to be dopamine-addicted. They'll all be touching the Vault at least once, so we take kills there and use them to rush the Abyss Shark. Something like this... This route here..."

Sweet Radish projected a hologram map onto the floor and traced the routes.

Almond had never seen this function and whispered to his viewer channel, "Wait, that's actually a feature?"

If he got caught not knowing this, they probably wouldn’t give him the shot calling rights.

— lmaooo what?!

— I've never seen it either

— Why is he only telling us lmao

— What is this LOL

— Nobody ever uses it lol

— In solo queue you'd draw it and nobody would look

— Sweet Radish must have played a lot?

As it turned out, Sweet Radish had memorized Survival mode as thoroughly as Siege mode. He had engraved the entire map in his head.

Even the Challenger-ranked Black Tea expressed surprise. "Wow. Sweet Radish oppa is actually a Survival mode veteran?"

Anyone could tell he had put in real hours.

"Yeah, I hit Challenger in this a while back. It's actually pretty fun and well-designed. People just look down on it." Sweet Radish smiled brightly and walked confidently ahead.

A moment later...

Sweet Potato, hiding in the bushes, cried out, "Wait, wait! They're actually here?!"

Another group had really come to rob the Vault.

Black Tea ground her teeth. "What? These lunatics are already going for the Vault?"

"Vaults are easier the earlier you come. This isn't the Kraken Vault, so robbing it is an option. Dopamine addicts won’t pass this up."

— Dopamine addicts LOL

— With streamers in queue this was basically guaranteed LMAO

— Who's it going to be??

— Feels like it'd be Zelo and Choco Shroom's team if they're going for the vault loool

Sweet Potato, crouching in the bushes at the front, vibrated with excitement. "D-do we go NOW?!"

"No, you idiot."

Thwack!

Sweet Radish bopped him on the back of the head.

"Why the hell NOT!? They're gonna rob the Vault!"

The enemies were already hammering at the side of the Vault wall, chipping away bit by bit. Players could use a hint and solve the code, or just brute-force through. Either way was fine. Of course, doing it this way risked waking up the guardian monsters. This team seemed to know what they were doing because that didn’t happen.

Rumble...

The wall steadily crumbled.

Sweet Potato was dying of frustration. "WHY won't you let us go!?"

Sweet Radish remained unmoved. It wasn't time yet.

"There's another team."

"Huh?"

"Because of the shadow's shape."

[The Abyss Shadow will descend shortly!]

The shadow began falling, and another team appeared.

‘How did he even know that?’

Almond had moved past not understanding to not even wanting to understand.

— What??

— How?!

— Oh he read it from the monster positions, wow

— Were those guys forced to go for the vault?

— Ohhhh

"Those two teams will fight each other."

Crash!Tap tap tap!

The two teams actually started hurling skills at each other.

— Jackpot lmaooo

— Oh wow it's real

— What?

— This has to be scripted

— After watching the Smart Young Man stream and now watching THIS it's genuinely healing lmaooo

— Is it possible to be this good?

Sweet Radish seemed to be operating on a plane above everyone else. Almond felt a sense of crisis. This was wrong. The other team members swallowed nervously while waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Almond gulped for an entirely different reason.

‘I, at least, need to be the one to call the attack.’

He'd wanted control over combat calls.

"Attack!" he shouted and charged.

Sweet Radish was momentarily caught off guard. "Wait, bro! I should go fir..."

Sweet Potato rushed in and screamed, "LET'S GOOOO!"

The rest of the team ran too. Everyone had been waiting for the attack signal anyway. Their reaction speed was extraordinary. The only problem was that Almond, the carry, was at the front.

The enemies also noticed them.

"Another team! Another team!"

Charging in while both teams were firing at each other wasn't exactly advantageous. They could catch concentrated fire from both sides at once, especially with the carry running ahead. The aggro level was just different.

"Over there! The archer! The one with the bow!"

"Fire!"

Crash!Boom!

A barrage rained in from the enemies.

‘We're... so cooked!’

Sweet Radish thought this was a disaster. The way things were going, they had voluntarily flew into the jaws of both teams.

However, Almond flowed through everything with fluid footwork and dodged all of it. How he even managed to do so was beyond Sweet Radish's comprehension.

‘Insane.’

— Oh

— What?!

— Whoa...

Creak...

Almost simultaneously, Almond drew his bow and shot an arrow.

Thoom!

The arrow perfectly pierced a head.

[Headshot]

From the very first shot, damage that had no business appearing this early in the game came pouring out. The enemies lost their minds.

— The attack too LMAO

— Whoa!

— ??? Hey nut, looks like you forgot what I'm like.

— This is it!

"DIE!"

Bang!

Black Tea's gunfire and Lemon's fireball immediately followed.

"BURN!"

Crash crash crash!

Then, Sweet Potato charged through the flames. "TAAANK!"

Smack!

His Shield Slam landed a perfect stun on the lead enemy.

— LOL

— lmaooo it's tanking now

— BornToBe’s spirit lives on... LOL

Sweet Radish's spear drove in from behind.

Shunk!

The Knight Order perfectly entered the enemy formation. It was a reasonably successful initiation.

At this moment, Almond called out, "Th-the calls?"

— lmaooooooo

— That's such a reach fr lmaooo

— Bro. Please stop.

— Kill everyone first and THEN say that lmaooo

— LOOOL

— Why are you in such a rush today??

— lmaooo Smart Young Man feeling the pressure from Sweet Radish

— Th-the calls?