“Sorry for taking your time, kids,” Nicole said. “Good luck with your project. I’ll help with whatever you need. Also, Vinnie, you borrow my PC for this. I don’t have any urgent work, so I feel like taking a break today”

  “Oh, so we’ll have two powerful maes at disposal!?” Vi smiled meaningfully. “With two PCs, we’ll have double the power!”

  “Is there a good way to split this task between two PCs?” Yuel asked.

  “Why yes, there is,” Nicole said. “You have two separate tasks, right? You o record raw footage from the game itself, and you gotta bihese recs in a video editor.”

  “Yes, that sounds abht.”

  “So, that’s the two tasks for you. One will go over the repys and gee the raw footage, while the other will hahe video editing. It’ll save you a lot of time.”

  “I will,” Vi agreed. “Naturally, I shall be in charge of video editing. Therefore, Chessmaster, I’m leaving the rec in your care.”

  And so, everybody’s roles were decided.

  Vi and Nicole instructed Yuel on how to use their video rec software. Capturing footage from the repys was the easier part of this eask, so it made sehey assig to him.

  If I k’d be this easy, I would’ve prepared all the footage myself yesterday. Yuel already went over the entire scrimmage yesterday, so he could’ve recorded everything along the way.

  Unfortunately, now he’ll have to go over everything again. Oh well. I already have all the timestamps and their descriptions, so I’ll just have to jump to these ses one by one.

  And so, Yuel went over every timestamp and made the software record the game footage from the relevant camera ahe hardest part was to position the camera effitly for every py, whietimes required him to record the same se multiple times until he .

  Vi was helping him at first, but a lot of footage accumuted over time, so Vi had to start stitg it all together.

  The two of them worked tirelessly through the m, then took a break around lunch.

  Yuel joihe family at the table and had spaghetti with meat. It was good. trary to Nicole’s messy appeara seemed she had her cooking down.

  “Actually, my dear father is the one who hahe toll of cooking,” Vi whispered. “My mother is a mutant who live off instant noodles.”

  “Oh, I see,” Yuel said. “Instant noodles are great.” He felt a sense of radery with Nicole.

  No matter how much the rest of the world ridiculed instant noodles, Yuel had allies out there who supported instant noodles from the shadows! Viva instant noodles!

  After lunch, Vi came up with a suggestion. “Let us take a little break after eating.”

  “I’m fih a little more rest, but do you have something in mind?”

  “Allow me to show you some of my glorious videocrafting!”

  “As long as it doesn’t take too long,” Yuel said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

  “Worry not, for it’ll take but a fleeting moment. I’m sure you will find the tents of these videos most iing.”

  “Is that so.” Yuel had his doubts, but he pyed along for now. Tiredness assaulted him after eating lunch, so he needed some rest either way.

  “Alright, let’s see.” Vi navigated through the many folders ihe general “Videocraft” folder. It seemed he was saving all his video editing projects there.

  There were folders inside folders inside folders. Some of the folders had nothing but a single folder i. Vi probably prepared the ground for produg multiple videos for that particur topic, but then stopped after a single one.

  Such meticulous anizing. I approve. Yuel nodded.

  “Here it is! I’ve found the Holy Grail!” Vi excimed. “Lo and behold, the glory of your past!”

  “Ah, it’s that match.” Yuel reized it immediately, for it featured unfettable names such as boBreaker and Freezer. It was StromBlitz’s sed-string scrimmage from st year, the one in which Yuel and Lars debuted on the petitive stage.

  Like Vi’s previous showcase, this video was also apanied by loud entary. “And, another oes the dust! boBreaker exhibits her lightning-speed killing teique once more!” Vi’s voied from the speakers.

  For once, Vi was on point. This was indeed an iing video to watch. It went over the key pys of the scrimmage and even provided semi-informative entary about the unfoldis, albeit with a little too much hype.

  “It appears WildDragon subbed out,” the entator informed. “Instead es in... Gunz! Who is this young man? The team must have strong faith in his skill to drop him into the game at such a critical moment. Will he live up to the expectations!?”

  Not too long after that, Lars already established himself as a threat.

  “AND IT’S A KIIIIIIILL!!!!” the entator hyperventited. “Gunz just subbed in moments ago, but he’s already deliveris! Such overwhelming strength! Is he really just a sed-string pyer!? Just how powerful is the main roster of StormBlitz!?”

  The video covered the scrimmage from start to end by jumping through the most important moments. The entary was both hype and informative, giving the match a narrative that was mostly on point.

  “It’s well-made,” Yuel admitted. “Surprisingly so.”

  “C-Could it be!? Is that a pliment from the ever-critical Chessmater!? The man with the Mystic Eyes of Nitpick Perception!?”

  “I itpick it if you want,” Yuel said. “Some of the cuts were a little abrupt. Also, your entary got way too loud a few times.”

  “Indeed, it’s as you say.” Vi slumped on his chair and created a ext file called “Chessmaster’s Criticism”. Inside, he wrote down the points Yuel brought up. “Yes, what else? Hit me with your worst shot! I fear nothing!”

  That’s quite the attitude. Yuel blinked in surprise. Few people could accept criticism so willingly. Most people, especially kids their age, were immediately repulsed by any hint of criticism.

  But, not Vi. He took the matter seriously. There was a genuine desire to learn from his mistakes and improve.

  Therefore, Yuel couldn’t hold back. It’d be disrespectful for the person who wao improve their craft.

  “This rotation to Top ointless in the grand scheme of things, so you might want to cut it out. The video is already long as it is.

  Also, about this fight between Average and boBreaker, you almost had it right. It was bait but it wasn’t a spontaneous one. I arra ahead of time.

  Also, the reason we went for this py here was because...”

  On and on, Yuel pointed out small mistakes in Vi’s delivery and Vi accepted it all with open arms. In turn, that gave Yuel more motivation to tinue. Diligent students like that were the best. Yuel could lecture them for days.

  “That’s about all I have,” Yuel cluded.

  “Phew, that was a torrent.” Vi sighed in relief and slumped on his chair. After a whole hour of reviewing, he ended up with a huge text wall of notes. “You tore my beautiful video to shreds. I feel like a part of me just died.”

  “It looked like you wanted ho criticism, so I didn’t want to hold anything back. When somebody is gerying to improve, I have to hit them with everything I got.”

  “I see. I shall be more careful iure.”

  “Yes, you really should be.” Yuel smiled wryly. “But, all these problems aside, your video is really well-made. Do you have any other videos of the same quality?”

  “I have a few others I worked hard on,” Vi said. “As, none of them lives up to this quality. This one video is my personal masterpiece! The ultimate S tier videocrafting sorcery!”

  “I see. Holy, I think you have a knack for it.”

  “Really!?” Vi jumped. “W-Well, of course I do! After all, I hail from a lineage of great journalists aors. I’ll disgrace my family if I don’t prove myself worthy in the same fields!”

  “Did you upload these videos anywhere?”

  “About that...” Vi fell silent for a moment. “I did not. They’re for personal use only.”

  “I see,” Yuel said. “That’s a shame. You could start a CssTube el with this tent. It’s already a huimes better than the average clickbait tent that gets thousands of views it doesn’t deserve.”

  “You really mean it!?” Vieared up.

  “Yeah, I meant it. It’s that good.”

  ”This must be a cold day in hell. To think that Chessmaster, the arch-demon of criticism, is approving of my hard work!”

  “Hey now.” Yuel made a face. “But really, it’s a shame. You should sider sharing these videos o’ll definitely bring more io the middle school petitive se.”

  “Ihat might happen.” Vi wore a difficult expression. “I might start uploading the videos one day. But, I’m not ready yet.”

  “I’m sure your parents advise you oopic.”

  “They’ve advised me plenty,” Vi admitted. “But, it’s just... I don’t feel like I’m ready to face the world yet.”

  “I see.” Yuel had nothing else to add. If Vi himself was so opposed to the idea, then there was nothing that could be done.

  “Somebody like me doesn’t deserve to...” Vi mumbled these st words but Yuel didn’t catch them.

  After a moment of awkward silence, Vi was ba his feet. “Very well! Let us tinue our videocrafting! With our birength, we shall quer this difficult task!”

  “Right. Let’s get back to work.”

  The two of them parted ways, each returo their respective w station. Yuel tinued rec raw game footage, whereas Vi cut and stitched the tent together.

  Nicole gave them a few tips along the way, mainly to make sure her son wasn’t going overboard with adding effects. The moment everybody took their eyes off him, he spped a special effect or twenty on the video, just because.

  By the end of the day, Yuel finished rec all the relevant parts and Vi was nearly doh the editing.

  “I shall finish the remaining work by tomorrow,” Vi promised.

  “Okay, I’ll hold you to that,” Yuel said.

  Vi had already proven how serious he was about the ehing, so it was alright to give him the be of the doubt for once. Probably.

  Vi carried himself like an inprehensible , but deep down he was a dedicated kid who genuinely wao see his teammates do well. There was no greater fun for him but to capture others’ moments of glory. He waratus to improve and perform eveer in the game, for it’ll make florious story.

  I almost feel bad for doubting him before. Yuel smiled wryly.

  For example, there was that silly i with the flyers the club used for advertising itself. Everybody agreed that Vi will hahat task, but Yuel came that day with a few printed flyers of his own, just in case.

  Fortunately, it proved to be unnecessary. Vi brought a stack of flyers and they were even well-designed, courtesy of his mom. That was the first time Vi proved himself as a dependable teammate despite his etric personality.

  I really don’t get this guy sometimes. Yuel smiled to himself on the way back. But, I don’t dislike him. He might be a goof, but a dependable one.

  And so, Yuel was vihat Vi will live up to the promise and will deliver the finished video to school tomorrow. Or, will he…?

  DarkestCymore