Season 5: Chapter 137. Exercising Power (1)

"I think I need to exercise some power," Sa-Rang said to Su-Hwan while the first scrimmage game was underway.

"Why would you exercise power? For the sake of those trolls?"

Su-Hwan seemed to understand what she meant.

Sa-Rang prepared to go into the game herself to play a match.

He jumped to his feet to stop her immediately. Setting aside the fact that JeonJaPa's identity would be exposed, it would be too hard on her body. At least, Su-Hwan felt he had to prevent that.

"No. Don't. Those people aren't worth it."

"I don't want to."

"What? Gaze into the community and the community gazes back... Don't you know that Nietzsche quote?"

"You think it's because of the community posts?"

"It is, though." Su-Hwan pointed at the messages Han Woo-Joo had sent on the monitor.

Obviously, that was what she was angry about!

Sa-Rang shamelessly shook her head at his words. "It's not."

"It is. I saw it..."

"It's a trust issue. If our team doesn't trust their coach, they can't win the game."

She knew well what these waves of public opinion ultimately did to a team. If that was true even in the professional world, how much more would it affect streamers where public opinion effectively meant money?

"Hey, but you didn't trust your coach either."

"I'm an exception."

'What kind of person...'

Su-Hwan's desire to stop her instantly vanished.

"How exactly will you exercise power? You can't cast spells even in mid."

Su-Hwan would soon come to understand the answer.

"You'll see."

By the time four of the five games had passed without feedback, he had a rough idea.

"Th-this person... is doing it again."

Sa-Rang had used this method back in her JeonJaPa days to bring teammates in line. She would make the team lose by showing all sorts of strange play in scrimmages.

'We'll start winning from now on.'

JeonJeonPa would say this and begin winning scrimmages in a row. Not just scrimmages, she swept the entire season's tournament without a single loss and went on to claim the world championship.

From that point on, teammates and everyone connected to the team worshipped her as a god.

“From now on, we'll get first place.”

She was using the same method right now.

***

“From now on, we'll get first place.”

Only after hearing these words did Sweet Radish realize.

'... I haven't been trusting this person.'

In less than a second, rebuttals to those words flooded his mind. Setting aside whether those rebuttals were actually right or wrong, Sweet Radish noticed the distrust that he harbored toward the coach.

'Everything the coach said was right. I knew it was right... I acknowledge that she beat Tortilla too...'

Acknowledging and trusting seemed to be entirely different things. Sweet Radish glanced sideways at the time. Nobody would know he was glancing sideways, of course.

[Time Limit]

[09:54]

They barely had ten minutes remaining. With only this much time, she said they'd get first place from now on? How? It was hard to believe.

At that moment, Sa-Rang pointed her chin at Sweet Radish, as if reading his mind. "Hard to believe?"

"Oh... more than that, why exactly didn't you give feedback for four games..."

"Consistent play across four games builds high-quality data."

Wasn't it merely to distinguish the difference between having and not having feedback? The Knight Order's data from four games with the exact same approach was premium information that was far easier to analyze. The technical term was thick data.

"We have no time for persuasion. First, Sweet Radish."

"Yes?"

The feedback began immediately.

"You've been choosing routes in all four games. Open your eyes a bit wider. Your routes are still a bit trapped. We're running a split. You need split-compatible thinking. You keep playing like a five-person party that's just short on numbers."

"Oh... yes. My, my eyes are already pretty wide."

"... Don't talk back."

"Yes."

"And don't lie."

“Pfft!”

Sweet Potato and Black Tea laughed the hardest. The frozen atmosphere thawed slightly at her joke.

— LOL

— lmaooooo

— ??? Why are your eyes like that?

— Not knowing if the coach is joking or not is what makes it so funny lmaooo

— Eyes wide from the start

— Cute... Coach...

"Anyway, is it always Sweet Radish who selects the routes?"

"No, it's more like... whoever pulls out the best answer first. I'm just a bit faster. Can't help it."

"Okay."

They didn’t have much time to go back-and-forth in a ten-minute feedback session. She intended to cover all the answers within the time frame.

"I'll explain the difference between regular route selection and split route selection."

Da-da-DUN...

A large map appeared behind her.

"In a split, you can use the map broadly. Encountering enemies would be a problem, right?"

"Yes."

"Go to places with widely spread key objectives where other teams would find landing uncomfortable. The core isn't going to the best place for us. Go to a place that's worse for other teams, but is an acceptable second option for us. Surprisingly, you can farm without running into anyone and gain advantages nicely."

'Oh...?'

Sweet Radish's head rang.

'How could this be? The core wasn't choosing the best. It was choosing the lesser evil.'

Ding!

The coach pulled up a photo next.

"I'll show some examples. Open your eyes wide and look."

"Wi... they're wide."

— LOL

— lmaooooo

— Eyes wide open!

— Already asking for the impossible

"Game 1, here, here, here."

Sweet Radish looked at the starting points she was pointing to and genuinely widened his eyes. Of course, nobody noticed, but he opened them earnestly.

'That was it.'

With examples, the picture formed immediately in his head.

"Game 2, here and here."

"Game 3, here is best for us..."

"Game 4, here."

She gave rapid-fire instructions that took into account Sweet Radish being a former pro. It was quite fitting for the amount of time they had. Sweet Radish genuinely began to understand through the examples.

'Damn... I finally get it. My eyes are finally opening! Not figuratively, actually!'

Sweet Radish shuddered with realization.

[Time Limit]

[08:13]

Time flowed on.

Sa-Rang immediately moved to the next point.

"Next, I asked you to think about the two-person split, Lemon and Black Tea."

"Oh..."

Lemon and Black Tea looked at each other.

Gulp.

Both of them swallowed dryly.

"Change it this time. How will you change it?"

"Um..."

Almond raised his hand. "I'll go to the two-person side."

Sa-Rang pointed at him and agreed. "Next? Who wants to pair up?"

"Um..."

"Lemon, call."

"Yes!?" Lemon had just been briefly considering it because she got paired up.

The answer had already been decided.

"A carry needs support beside them. You don't know that?"

"Oh, I know... sigh..."

"Black Tea."

"Y-yes!?" Black Tea also felt startled at suddenly being called out.

"Black Tea, you’re really bad at briefing."

"Oh... yes, I'll try to fix..."

"It’s your personality, so it can't be fixed."

"..."

— lmaooooooooo

— In the end...

— Oh no...

— LOL

— No time, so she's just hammering it in lol

"You fit perfectly in the three-person team. From there, keep to orthodox physical attacks and carry-type contracts."

"Yes...!"

"Oh, and more than that, coordinating with Lemon and an orthodox mage is fine too. There will already be a carry balanced accordingly to our team's final composition. You're a Challenger... Can you make that judgment?"

Black Tea was a carry Challenger, but an orthodox mage? She didn't know what that meant, but they had no time.

Black Tea answered with her usual thunder, "Sir!"

"And Sweet Potato."

Sweet Potato had been praying not to get called.

"Yes?"

"Bubblegum always tries to take Iron Ball."

"Yes."

"We’ll take it first."

"!?"

— ?

— Beating down the dead horse...

— Vicious...

— Hmm. This is arguably...

— Wow

— This is almost a war crime

— Starting from 10th place~

"Wh-what's the reason for going that far... Could I ask? I believe in strength, but I also believe that cooperation is important..." Sweet Potato tried to appeal that keeping agreements was in the spirit of what streaming was about.

"Setting cooperation aside, you don't have strength."

After that, she showed fifteen of the 130-plus screenshots to explain exactly why Sweet Potato was playing poorly, sealing his mouth.

"... Understood."

Sweet Potato, from that moment on, applied a This World item to change his mouth display to an X mark.

— Sweet Potato troll?

— The folder name is Sweet Potato Troll lmaooo

— LOL are there actually 127 more photos behind those?

— Wow...

— Must have taken frame-by-frame screenshots~ lol

— 130 cuts from 4 games

After sealing Sweet Potato's mouth, Sa-Rang explained the Iron Ball pick.

"It's not because Sweet Potato plays Iron Ball well that I'm saying to take it. When you're not used to splitting, a champion that can quickly join from a long distance is essential. Iron Ball is just the most manageable of those, which is why I'm telling you to take it."

"Yes. I'll shut up and do it, coach. What if Iron Ball isn't available?"

"Leave that to Sweet Radish. Pick something else that can join from a distance and also open initiations." Sa-Rang looked at Sweet Radish, who nodded.

"Oh, yes. I have a few in mind, but what priority is getting Iron Ball?"

He was asking whether to pick Iron Ball as the first contract. That would change the route selection too.

"It would put the opponent at a fairly high disadvantage. Early drafting is fine since it’s a tank."

— Bubblegum... he's right here...

— Bubblegum is getting beaten...

— Bad One...

— Gi-Chan sobbing lmaooo

Ba-bam!

[EyeSnow has donated 100,000 won!]

[Could it be that she's trying to get back at Zelo's team for messing with them earlier~?]

A donation appeared on Almond's side. Donation and chat windows floated in the back. Sa-Rang had clearly seen it too, but didn't particularly answer.

— lmaooooo makes sense

— Wow

— Must be that

— Ahh hilarious

— Probably fr

— Otherwise having a genuine grudge against Bubblegum makes no sense

— Sa-Rang didn't answer LOL

"No time."

Not answering at all felt a bit much, so Sa-Rang simply moved on. It wasn't a lie.

[Time Limit]

[03:18]

Too much time had been spent on Sweet Potato. She had to move on immediately.

"About the two-person split group, Lemon."

"Yes."

"You'll be supporting Almond's tempo and coordinating with Black Tea to balance magic and physical damage distribution when contracting."

"Yes, sir!"

"Almond."

"Yes...!"

Almond was expecting some weighty mission to be dropped on him.

Tap!

Sa-Rang bopped Almond on the head with a balloon bat. "Stop picking fights with everything you see. You're a fighting rooster."

"...?"

— lmaooooooooo

— Refreshing~!

— Special medicine!

— Head cracked open so we'll win now

— Orange King's special feedback

"In Survival mode, the gains from resolving things through combat aren't that large compared to the risk. That's why it's called Survival mode. And we're running a split. You proposed it yourself. You need to make it work? Play accordingly."

Almond's eyes went wide.

'My strategy...!'

The coach acknowledged it. No, JeonJaPa acknowledged it. The split was his idea!

"Yes, sir!"

— Wow

— She said our split...

— That energy!

— About to claim split copyright lmaooo

— Got recognized!

"Almond will call the two-person group's route."

"Oh."

He was even the leader of the two-person party.

— Almond wins!

— Oh!

— Class president of a group of two lmaooo

— Almond doesn't need to game anymore he's satisfied LOL

— Finally!

— He's giving the calls!?

— What did Lemon do to deserve this?!

"As I said, Lemon will handle the briefing. Relay the situation to the three-person team and help their judgment. This is important."

"... Oh, yes, sir!" Lemon was bewildered.

'Can I actually do this?'

It was only a scrimmage, but she was worried.

"But do I not play mage this time then?"

"For this game, go support for now. We're getting first place."

— Wow...

— What?!

— The confidence

— She seems to actually be doing it

— Though this is the first time she's pointed out everything thoroughly...

— She's completely overhauled everything, can it actually work??

After that, she used up the remaining time pointing out Almond's dumb decisions.

Beeeeeeep!

[Time Limit]

[00:00]

The feedback ended.

"Let's go!" Sweet Radish raised his hand with a determined expression and entered the game first.

'Let's try it. Right.'

He still didn't fully trust Sa-Rang, but he understood everything she said. Something... felt like it was coming together in his head. Something was stirring.