Season 5: Chapter 131. The Red Pill (1)

Sweet Radish watched Almond walking ahead and thought of his own pro days for some reason.

'Pro days...'

Honestly speaking, they weren't particularly good memories. He'd never won a championship, and his best result was always second place. Even that didn't last long.

Sweet Radish thought that nobody would remember him after retirement. That was just how second place worked. In the end, history only remembered first. Everyone else was forgotten, even second place, the closest to first.

Fortunately or not, a back injury had given him a military service exemption, so he'd started streaming without much of a gap. Sweet Radish started fresh as a streamer. He'd put most memories of his old pro days behind him. During broadcasts, he talked about his pro days even less than Orange King, who was from an earlier era.

Why was this untimely nostalgia from a dusty past washing over him now? Sweet Radish stared at Almond.

"When do we regroup... when..."

The split strategy filled Almond's head and spilled out of his mouth. That was how immersed he was in the game. Just to find the right strategy for this team's win, he'd gone to the trouble of inviting Orange King for private tutoring and struggled alone to find something. After the coach recognized him, he was now even more excited to make it work.

'This sight, I've seen it a lot.'

Sweet Radish felt like he'd seen this a lot in his pro days. Maybe he had done the same.

'But why don't I remember...?'

The memories were now all blurry. At some point, the game had just become work. The feeling he'd had on the day he decided to retire... He only remembered that clearly.

'I want to finish quickly and go home.'

He'd had that thought in the finals, no less. After that, he announced his retirement following his last second place finish.

***

“We're contesting the Turtle right now!” Black Tea urgently informed them.

“Turtle...!?” Sweet Radish asked in shock.

“Oh shoot! Dangerous!” Lemon shouted.

In Survival mode, the importance of monsters was well-known. Weak mobs like Abyss Fish and jellyfish had no particular abilities. Killing extremely important monsters like the Red Turtle and Abyss Shark brought significant rewards.

As with life in general, not every team could share these good things peacefully. Only half the surviving teams could claim them. The first checkpoint among those was the Red Turtle.

“The Turtle?! Weren't we supposed to kill the octopus? We're in split mode!?” Sweet Radish told them.

The Red Turtle's substitute was an octopus. It was tougher but rewarded more while the octopus was weaker and rewarded less. Usually, teams tried for the Red Turtle after reaching level three.

“Ugh! Whatever! We’re level three. We should go for the Turtle! Come join us!” Black Tea urgently said.

The Knight Order had quickly leveled Lemon and Black Tea to level three through the split.

“Hey, that's only your level!” Sweet Radish said.

The other three had only just cleared a lower Vault and reached level two. They had a champion, though.

“Isn't this too greedy!?” Sweet Radish asked.

He thought they'd already been too greedy. Black Tea wanted to try the Red Turtle too. With a split, there were two captains. Add Almond, and that made three.

“I think this is the time to regroup,” Almond said.

A split always went like this. A constant string of variables popped up.

“It's not like I wanted this! I just got pulled into this situation!? If we can't get through here, we die! Come support! Support! Oh no! Lemon is a rune spirit!” Black Tea shouted.

Nothing could be seen from here. They could only trust their allies' voices.

“Damn...! On my way! Carry Lemon! We have a champion! Can we make the angle!?” Sweet Radish asked.

“O-okay! Angle? Yeah, we can make the angle!” Black Tea assured him.

“I’ll go ahead and draw aggro!” Sweet Potato said.

Fortunately, Sweet Potato had contracted Iron Ball. This had been Sweet Radish's idea because Iron Ball could help them regroup quickly, making it easy to compensate for the early split's risk.

[Rumble!!]

Weeeeng!

"Going in~!"

Iron Ball turned out to be more difficult to handle than expected. Hard as it was to believe, Bubblegum was actually fairly good at Iron Ball.

"Oh no!?"

LIL was also a VR game. Everything was in first person. Split operations, which used to be done casually in the PC game days, had become the exclusive privilege of top-tier teams for a reason.

"Wh-where!?"

Bang!

Sweet Potato crashed into the completely wrong spot. Moving too fast to even check the map, he lost track of where he even was and struck the Red Turtle's backside.

"Roooaar..."

The Red Turtle woke up.

“What! Who hit the Red Turtle already!?” Black Tea screamed while running away.

Sweet Radish’s shoulders drooped, and he sighed. "Haah... damn. This isn't right."

'Every single thing is crazy.'

They had executed such a daring split.

***

[8th place]

Da-da-DUN.

The results came in. They placed worse than before, effectively last with 8th place. Luckily, two teams had been eliminated before them.

"..."

Everyone silently approached the coach, who gestured for them. She had multiple screens up and waited quietly. Sweet Radish had even considered turning off the chat. Comments asking why they were cowering before the coach were genuinely irritating.

'You come try it.'

Standing in front of the coach, even making eye contact was difficult. This time, even more so. Hadn't they just received a harsh evaluation in the previous game?

"Compared to before..." The coach opened her mouth. "It was better."

Every player other than Sweet Radish felt shocked, including Almond.

"Mistakes were made in the middle, but the decisions were mostly right. The landing spot too... Well, it wasn’t optimal, but seems like you thought it through reasonably. The reasoning was right."

In an 8th place game, one could barely see anything given how quickly it ended, yet she found the well-made judgment calls within it.

"There was a better stable option besides the Turtle here, right? The octopus might be a bit disappointing, but running a good split might even let you rob the upper Vault..."

'What?'

Sweet Radish was surprised.

'I didn't see that?'

The alternative she'd presented was exactly correct. Actually, he'd wanted to do the stable high-return design.

'I definitely looked at the same map...'

He couldn't believe that route had been on the map. What happened?

"Clear away the preconceptions and erase everything you've known. Look at the map like you're starting fresh."

It was as if she read Sweet Radish's thoughts.

"The will to do a split is there, but the route is chosen regardless of the split."

They were still looking at the map as a five-person team. The world built for splits was still invisible.

"But there were good choices too..." The coach pointed to Almond. "Thinking the three-person team would be low level and deciding to at least make a champion by going the lower Vault route. That was good."

Almond's expression brightened. "Yes!"

— YESSSS

— He's so happy lmaooo

— Oh oh oh...!

— lmaooooo

"Lemon and Black Tea... taking out the mage and carry to level them separately. That was also good. Actually, tanking seems important when two people are hunting together. However, more often than not, they can't kill things because the damage isn't there."

— ~

— This too???

— Wow

— Suddenly angel mode

— What

— Was this game actually good? In 8th place??

Sa-Rang pointed to Sweet Radish next.

"Next, Iron Ball is actually useless when going as five. Switching to Iron Ball for the split was good. At that moment, you broke free from preconceptions. The pilot was the issue, though. That can be... fixed with practice?"

“Uggh.” Sweet Potato instinctively lowered his head.

"Answer?"

"Yes! Y-yes! I can! I will!"

— Startled af lmao

— Answer??

— lmaooooo

— Where’s Sweet Potato’s compliment...

"Lemon and Black Tea's two-person side... the actual hunting compatibility was good. Getting two carries to hit level three together isn't easy. Well done."

“Hehe.”

Lemon and Black Tea looked at each other and smiled.

"But..." The coach pointed to Black Tea. "The briefing is too self-centered."

"... Oh."

Briefing was a concise way of relaying the situation. It was different from calling the shots and instead provided information to help make the calls.

"There are more variables because Survival mode has a wider map than Siege. Allies are going on voice alone, so the two-person team needs to practice briefing well. A loud voice is fine."

"Oh... yes."

— Loud voice lmaooo

— Be loud but self-centered briefing isn't good lol

— lmaooooo

— Vocal chord lord

"So, will you continue with this? The two-person team?"

Sa-Rang pointed at Lemon and Black Tea. Strangely, she turned back to Almond. Probably because Almond had suggested it. He'd been the one who proposed the carry-focused split.

"Oh... no. I think we need to try more to know..."

"On hold?"

"Yes."

"Hmm..." Sa-Rang pondered something briefly and added, "Even if it's on hold, I'll say this. Lemon, if you're putting yourself in a two-person team, you need to know you're a mage, not support."

"Oh... hm?"

"Why are you playing the mage like a support? In a two-person team, you're actually as much a protagonist as Black Tea, but you're only helping raise Black Tea.'"

"But I only have a staff, so how..." Lemon was flustered.

As an uncontracted staff user, she didn’t know if she was support or a mage. If one looked obsessively close enough, they would see it.

"You used ice and whirlwind three times each. After switching to heal, you didn’t use it fifteen times. Fireball came out twice... Every time you switch to heal, check Black Tea's status, and then put in CC. Black Tea is such an excellent carry that it was fine... With an average player, the two of you couldn't have hunted together. There wasn’t enough damage."

— Curious...

— What the?

— Are you a stalker?? lmaooo

— Wow...

— Breaking it down with numbers...

— ???

— Is there a program that calculates this?? lmaooo

— Wow

— Feedback god...

Sa-Rang clapped once and looked at everyone.

"Everyone's been sulking over 6th and 8th place. Get it together."

She could deliver words of comfort, after all. Everyone felt a surge of emotion.

"It'll get much worse going forward."

— ?

— ??

— Hm?

— What?

— lmaooooo

— What does that mean?!

"You'll completely dismantle and reassemble, right? Can something function properly while being assembled?"

The Knight Order members were playing LIL together for the first time. Not every member had a high understanding of Survival mode. They were completely rebuilding themselves.

"The ranks that come out during the process are nothing. We're practicing to play well when it counts. Tomorrow's scrimmage will be hard too. Other teams will all be using already verified tactics."

Everyone listened to her carefully, especially Almond. His eyes were practically shining.

'Almond bro is really working hard.'

Sweet Radish felt it every time. Almond seemed to trust that woman to an unusual degree.

Sa-Rang seemed to feel that gaze too. She looked at Almond briefly before turning away.

"But handmade assembled products are far better than factory-line products. Keep finding the right way for this team. Don't worry about others. Nobody knows your LIL path better than you, except me."

"Yes!"

From the remarks, it looked like practice with the coach's involvement was ending for now.

***

After the stream, countless attacks on Coach Sa-Rang and Almond started appearing on LIL Pro. Orange King's defense statement had long since lost its effectiveness.

— Wow Sa-Rang is seriously so arrogant

— The two of them conspiring is getting old

— lmaooooo she says it'll get worse but we're supposed to be happy about that???

— What practice?? There are already verified strategies, hipster disease

— How are you going to reassemble in this short a time??

However, a new medicine was being administered to these people.

[Almond & Sa-Rang’s Red Pill feat. Orange King]

The medicine was called the Red Pill.