Saturday came around. It was one day after the Taurus scrimmage.

  Yuel spent the entire day watg ag repys of the scrimmage, examining every nook and y. He listed down all the important pys with the appropriate timestamp for each py.

  Hmm. I should’ve asked somebody to go on the offensive here. Yuel criticized his own decisions as he watched the many embarrassis the team suffered that day. But, I’m surprised. This game was actually a lot closer than how I remember it.

  Frankly, the first two games against the enemy’s infamous Triangle felt terribly hopeless at the time. However, after watg the repy, things no longer seemed as one-sided as he remembered them to be. There were multiple ways to ter the enemy’s offense, but Yuel failed to pick them.

  Some of these ters are evey obvious. Why didn’t I go for any of them?

  Yuel khe ao that himself. He was stu the mentality of pying safe and steady, which wasn’t the right response for the enemy’s Triangle formation in many of the critical situations.

  The team ushed bad its defense couldn’t withstand the enemy’s pressure, so they had to find a way to go on the offensive. But, Yuel ighat fad insisted to stick to defense, as pointless as it was.

  If I just told Lars to split-push back then, we might’ve woh game. Instead, it took Yuel all the way until the 5th game to finally wake up and gh with this obvious solution. They had a ce to end this scrimmage with a score of 4-1, but Yuel let that opportunity slip right through his fingers.

  But, I have to say, I thought Taurus pressured us much harder than this ih game. But, turns out we were actually doing alright. It was another case of his memory not aligning with the footage.

  Memory was a curious thing. The subjective impressions and feelings Yuel experienced amidst the inteuation trampled over his objective reasoning.

  That’s why analyzing the scrimmage post-facto was so important. The repy footage was unbiased, showing only the objective truth of the game.

  By watg the game again through an objective lens, Yuel corrected the biased memories he formed during the game itself. Thanks to that, he could arrive at many new realizations.

  This was one reason why piling a video of important pys was absolutely necessary. Everybody will learn a lot by watg objective footage of themselves pying these critical games.

  Unfortunately, not everybody had the patieo sit through the entire repy and search for such important moments. Therefore, Yuel had to find all the juicy ses for them.

  And, in order to pile everything into a video, Yuel went to visit Vi’s p Sunday. That apparently had some video editing skills, but it was best to take it with a grain of salt.

  I won’t believe it until I see it for myself. Yuel thought on his way to Vi’s pce. But, he seems to have SOME credibility, at least.

  Ba Friday, Yuel demanded some proof from Vi. It’d be a waste of time to travel all the way to Vi’s ply to achieve nothing, so some proof was in order.

  Surprisingly, the plied with the request. In fact, he sent han 10 videos.

  Yuel checked them out one by one, and...

  “And then, he goes for the triple kill! What a marvelous dispy of skill! Truly, he is the Insa of the Apocalypse!” Vi’s voied.

  The microphone is a little loud. Yuel criticized immediately. But, that wasn’t a real issue, so he tinued watg.

  The video itself showed Lars fighting his way through multiple enemies in a row, sg a triple kill in the process. It was simple footage cut from a repy, with a few fake “camera effects” to make certain moments look more inte was nothing spectacur but it got the job done.

  The rest of Vi’s videos were the same. They showcased the pys of various teammates in Ranked matches, apanied by Vi’s loud entary.

  All in all, it assable tent. With a little bit of polish, Vi could even start a career as YouTuber by posting these. It’d be titled something like “TOP 10 PLAYS WITH LOUD ENTARY!” That’ll attra audience. Probably.

  Either way, these videos were proof enough that Vi possed at least minimal editing abilities. In fact, it must’ve been one of his hobbies, seeing as he sent over 10 videht away.

  Just how many videos did he actually make in his free time? That had to be a lot of work.

  If he enjoys making videos of hype moments, maybe I should ask him to make videos for us on a regur basis. I pile important moments from our Ranked matches and he’ll turn them into a video. OR, maybe I should stop being zy and learn some video editing myself.

  Yuel really had to step up his game in that area. piling repy footage was an important tool for self-improvement. As such, he was hoping to learn the basics today by watg Vi do the job.

  Oh, that’s the station. Yuel cut his thoughts short and got off the bus.

  “So, you have finally, o brave traveler!” Vi started with a dramatic greeting, as usual.

  “Yeah, I’m here.” Yuel threw nervous gnces around them, to make sure nobody was giving them funny looks. If anybody asks, I don’t know this guy.

  Fortunately, there weren’t many people around. Maybe that’s why Vi allowed himself to act like his usual etric self in public like this.

  “Let us proceed to the den of my hidden craft!” Vi stretched his arms theatrically ahe way.

  “Right...” Yuel followed with fast paces. Let’s get out of here ASAP. Really, how he act like that in public? He must have nerves of steel.

  It didn’t take them long to reach their destination.

  “Here it is!” Vi presented a building by stretg both arms like a hyped tuide. “This is the Den of Video Crafting! Here, you’ll find mages whiously practice videocrafting on a daily basis.”

  “Great story. So, we go in already?”

  “Yes, but of course! Normally, only the chosen ones may pass through these magical gates. But, worry not! As a pupil of the videocraft school, I grant thee free entry this once!” With that said, Vi pressed oer. A buzzing sound came out, inf them that the entrance was now open.

  “It appears we were granted permission.”

  “Yeah, impressive…” Yuel rolled his eyes.

  The two of them rode the elevator to the seventh floor. The eime, Vi was hyping up this muuation.

  “This electric beast shall deliver us to our destination,” Vi was making zero sense as usual. In fact, it felt like he outing more nonsehan on an average day.

  I hope my brain cells will stay intact after today. Yuel thought. Being exposed to Vi’s nonsehe entire day robably as uhy as radiation.

  At long st, they arrived on the seventh floor. Thanks to Vi’s stant narration, that short elevator ride felt like a grand fantasy advehey didn’t even start w on the video yet, but Yuel was already feeling tired.

  “Here it is, the Den of Videocraft!” Vi led Yuel into the apartment.

  “Wele, wele,” a maed Yuel with a friendly smile and stretched his hand. This robably Vi’s dad. “The name’s Fabio.”

  “Yuel. o meet you.” Yuel shook the offered hand.

  “Mhm, I’ve heard many things about you.” Fabio nodded repeatedly and formed a camera with his hands. “‘A Genius Middle-Schooler. I like the sound of that! I already see the view t exploding!”

  “Hah.” Yuel instinctively backed away. There was a grown-up man in front of him who was ag as goofy as his son. Gulp.

  Like father like son, I guess? Yuel smiled wryly. Mom also sometimes says I resemble dad, so maybe it’s a on thing? Ugh. Two doses of Vi would be the end of me.

  “So, let me ask you this.” Fabiht a hand toward Yuel’s face, it robably supposed to be an imaginary microphone. “How do you feel about the team’s ret victory?”

  “Agh...” Yuel wao get out of here. Now.

  Even though they were inside a house, the man’s presence was incredibly ving. It felt like a real reporter was interrogating Yuel.

  Wait, he IS a reporter, isn’t he? No wo feels so real. Yuel gulped. He somehow walked into an interview without his knowledge. Drat...

  “So? How was it?” Fabio tinued. “It was the team’s first official scrimmage, wasn’t it? How did it feel to stand on the petitive stage for the first time?”

  “I feel the team still has a long way to go.” Yuel found himself answering seriously. “So, I came here today to pile a video for our match review.”

  “Blunt and to the point, I see.” Fabio nodded with a smile. “Most kids ye would be throwing a party to celebrate the team’s first victory, but I see you’re already thinking about the fight.”

  “It was just the first scrimmage. We’ll be fag stronger oppos iure,” Yuel found it oddly easy to keep talking. It’s as if the words just wao roll out of his mouth on their own. “Our oppos are the Leopards. We have to improve as much as possible before we challehem.”

  “Oh yes, the Leopards. The reigning champions of the region.”

  “Right. This scrimmage will be the real test.”

  “I see, I see.” Fabio nodded. “So, I presume yoal is to win the regionals this year and go to nationals?”

  “That’s the first goal, yes.”

  “The first? Hoho, ambitious. Then, you’re also pnning to domihe nation.”

  “And the world cup too.”

  “Such bold words!” Fabio cpped. “Ihese are words befitting a young genius! I wish you all the lu the world!”

  “Thank you.” Yuel nodded with a smile but something was bugging him.

  Wait, how did we even end up talking about all of this? Before Yuel realized, he went on and on, sharing everything on his mind with Fabio. It was an odd experience.

  “Kukuku, it appears you’ve finally reached the truth.” Vi smiled meaningfully. “Once you’ve fallen into the web, it is nigh impossible to climb your way out of it.”

  “What are you talking about?” Yuel asked.

  “You’ve been captured by her than the Information Absorber!” Vi stretched his arms theatrically. “His ability is to extract all the information the victim has! It’s an EX rank Noble Phantasm, a one-of-a-kind absolute skill! All your data is as good as naked in front of it! That’s the Information Absorber!”

  “You and you’re i stuff again.” Fabio smiled wryly and ruffled Vi’s hair. “I apologize on my son’s behalf. He has a bad habit of talking like this, using terms that probably nobody around him uands.”

  “It’s okay, I’m already used to it,” Yuel admitted. “Basically, he’s saying you’re a talented reporter who’s good at making people talk.”

  “Oh, impressive.” Fabio blinked. “You uood all that?”

  “Yes, unfortunately.” Yuel cracked a dry ugh. “I feel like I’ve been forced to study an alien nguage to uand all this nonsense. And, the scariest thing is that I actually learo uand most of it.”

  “Haha, I uand, I uand.” Fabio nodded. “I know my son be a little oddball like this, but I hope you stay his friend.”

  “Um, sure.” Yuel was at a loss for words for a moment. Friend? Well, I guess we are friends, sorta. I’ve never really thought about that.

  Ba StormBlitz, there was a clearer distin between a “clubmate” and a “friend”. Lars and Julia were Yuel’s friends because they always hanged out together. Oher hand, everybody else was just a “clubmate”. Yuel was on good terms with most of them, but they weren’t particurly close. In this way, everybody had their own small circles of friends.

  However, things were a little different in Stratus. The club only had seven members, six of whurly attended practice. Their lineups for Ranked matches were almost always the same, give or take one person. In other words, everybody spent time together in the club.

  As a result, they grew closer to each other. At least, Yuel felt closer to most of them than he felt close to the members of StormBlitz.

  He was on good terms with Vi, he had a truce with Kai, and he worked as Nia’s personal trainer. Even though Lars remained his closest best friend, the others were also important to him.

  Maybe this is the kind of club I was looking for all along. Yuel smiled softly.

  Ba elementary school, his desperate attempts to fit into various team sports were likely born from the desire to find friends to py with. And, in a way, that’s also what made him ied in Cssamancers in the first pce.

  However, somewhere along the way, that motivation took a back seat. Yuel focused more and more on improving at that game, paying little heed to making friends.

  heless, these thoughts ruly left the back of his mind. All this time, he was seeking more like-minded pyers with whom he could enjoy Cssmao the fullest.

  Who would’ve thought I’d find them in the club of the “weakest team in the region”?

  Of course, this club presented many challenges of its own. Its members had tons of issues that had to be addressed before they were ready to take on the powerhouses of the region.

  But, Yuel believed they’ll be fine. As long as they keep practig as hard as they’ve been doing until now, they’ll be ready to take on anybody. From there, Yuel will just have to make sure to provide good shot-calls ao lead the team to victory in any way he could.

  For that reason, he had to work hard with Vioday on piling a match review video. He believed he was best suited to hahis operation, therefore it was his responsibility to do so.

  With Vi’s help, they’ll produce that important video and boost the club’s skill level tenfold! At least, provided that Vi’s video editing skills were really up to par...

  DarkestCymore