A week and a half before summer break ended, Howard called Yuel to his house. He wao discuss topics reted to managing the club in the uping year, especially the club’s entrance exam. The exam will be held shortly after the school year begins and, this time around, Yuel will be rgely in charge of it.

  It felt like a waste traveling all the way to Howard’s house just for that. Yuel had to take two buses to get there. He suggested meeting at a more ral pce like school, but Howard insisted. “Captain’s orders.” What a zy tyrant.

  But holy, Yuel was a little ied too. After all, Howard’s older sister was a Cssmancers pro. What kind of person was she? She went by Ignis and pyed for the Sweepers, a B-League team. Yuel saw some of her matches because he khe name, but otherwise, she wasly a very well-known pro.

  Still, a pro ro. She participated in official tours, which came with rge crowds, professional entary and everything. pared to StormBlitz’s members, her skill was nothing short of impressive. She’d probably even mop the floor with somebody as strong as Roi in a Top Lane duel. So, meeting su amazing pyer would be like meeting a celebrity-

  “Too bad,” Howard said. “Sis isn’t home.”

  “H-Huh?” Yuel was taken aback. He hasn’t eveioned her.

  “You’ve been ogling the pce from the moment you entered. But, too bad. Being a pro means w like any other person, so she won’t be home until evening.”

  “Oh, I see...” What a bummer. Yuel hoped at least one good thing would e out of wasting time and money on two buses to e all the way out here. Oh well.

  “Heya, Yuyu~” A familiar voice greeted him as he ehe living room. Oh no, it’s Ellen.

  “You were practig together?” Yuel asked.

  “Nope, we’re on a date and you’re interrupting it. Hmph~” Elleeo pout.

  “She’s just freeloading here,” Howard said. “She’s like a bunny, she dies from loneliness. So, I have to take care of her. It’s quite the pain.”

  “My, Wardy is such a bully. And here I am, grag him with my presence.”

  “More like, here you are breathing down my he whole summer.”

  “Tehe~”

  So, Elle much of the summer at Howard’s pce? Well, there’s nothing odd about a Support and Carry training together. Uher roles, Bot Lane was about pying as a duo, so pairing with random people online was nothing short of frustrating. Especially for the Support, who was helpless when the Carry was an uncooperative self-tered dimwit.

  Besides, Yuel already heard about Howard training with the first string throughout the summer. Training i without inf anybody else, not even Yuel.

  “Doi training?” Yuel asked.

  “The truth is,” Ellen giggled, “We’re eloping~”

  “.....” Howard didn’t answer right away since he must have caught the accusation in Yuel’s tone. He studied Yuel for a moment, then replied. “What do you mean?”

  “I heard you’ve been training with the first string and that’s why you don’t show in the clubroom.”

  “Yeah,” Howard nodded. “I just invite everybody here. As you see, I got a lot of space.” He stretched his arm, presenting the big living room.

  Ihis space was well-tailored faming. It had three desktop puters, two ptops, two game soles and two wide TVs. Ellen was currently in the middle out various skins ora HD TV, which almost looked like she was disseg some with a microscope. That TV was huge.

  From what Yuel could tell with a ghis living room could host at least 7 pyers across the different ptforms. This was some amaziup.

  “Do live in a gamier or something?”

  “Heh, I get that every time. Sis brings everything she get for cheap.”

  “I see.” Thinking about it, these soles looked like they were from the previous geion. The ptops weren’t very wide, they probably didn’t support an amazing resolution and possibly couldn’t even handle most mames. Also, only one of the puter monitors looked modern. The other two were CRT, reminding the relics at school. These things belonged in a museum.

  “Still,” Yuel said. “That’s an amaziup you got. I’m surprised your parents allow all of this in the living room.”

  “Oh, they don’t live here anymore. They ran away.”

  “Ran away...?”

  “Yep,” Ellen interjected. “And they left poor Wardy with a huge debt too. Such a tearjerker story, sob.”

  “Stop making shit up,” Howard chuckled and patted Ellen’s head. This special teique always turned her on mute.

  “I didn't mean they abandoned us,” Howard expined. “They just moved to a newer house. They badgered sis to move out because as you see she has been redesigning this living room into a gamier. But, sis kept doing whatever she wanted until my folks got fed up and moved out instead. Hirious, right? Haha.”

  “That’s quite the story...” Yuel didn’t even know where to begin. It's like Ignis kicked out her own parents so she keep pying Cssmancers. Scary. “Your sister must be really something.”

  “Right? Right?” Ellen acted proud for some reason. “Sis Ignis is so cool~”

  “Who are you calling ‘sis’?” Hoinched her cheek.

  “,” Ellen leaned against Howard’s arm. “She gonna be my sister too.”

  “As if you get to decide that.”

  “Tehe~”

  Why am I here again? Yuel averted his eyes from this embarrassing rom. The specifics of their retionship has never been quite expined, but it's clear they had something going. They also apparently spent much of the summer together and now Ellen was hinting at marriage... Weren’t they still in junih?

  “That’s enough,” Howard tapped on Ellen’s on the head and created distance. “You’re making uest unfortable.”

  “My,” Ellen winked. “Sorry, Yuyu. Fot you’re still green to all this love business.”

  “.......” Yuel just narrowed his eyes.

  “Return to your dress-up, Elly,” Howard said. “I called him here to discuss club matters. But if you really want, you join in.”

  “No way.” Ellen hopped away and tinued messing around with skins.

  “Sorry about that,” Howard said. “Let’s get down to business. As I said, the main thing I want to prepare for is the entrance exam. This time you’re the vice-captain, so yoing to be in charge of everything.”

  “Of ‘everything’? Isn’t that the captain’s job?”

  “I told, the captain is responsible for the first string while the vice-captain hahe menial stuff. I gonna work you to the bone.”

  “Sounds like fun...” As, Yuel couldn’t retort. Last year, during his entry exam, it was Howard who handled most of the operatiohe one who presehe exam on stage, the one who answered questions and so forth. Despite being presented as the vice-captain, he was registered as the actual captain in everybody’s minds.

  “Of course,” Howard said. “If you run into any trouble, you talk to me. But, don’t run to me for every little thing. I expect you to handle everything from start to end.”

  “I uand.” It’s going to be a big job and holy quite the hassle, but Yuel had no choice here. Howard did it st year and Yuel will do it this year. Step by step, Yuel was walking down the same road which Howard traversed.

  “Here,” Howard handed over a USB stick. “It got everything you need for the exam. There are examples of opening speeches, test questions, how to grade pyers and so on. Make sure you study all of it before the new year.” Hrabbed one of the ptops a over the tents of the fsh drive.

  This is great. Yuel o himself. Most of the pnning process was already handled for him in these dots. He only had to execute the instrus.

  “The pn is the same as st year,” Howard expined. “It’s something of a tradition. A three-part exam: First we make them run, then answer a quiz and finally we test how good they are.”

  “I see.” It’s a weird feeling. Just a year ago, Yuel was among the examinees whled through this intense exam. But in a couple of weeks from today, he’ll be responsible for putting others through the same hellish test. On one hand, he felt like he came a long way and was no longer a “rookie”. Oher hand, he was going to torment new rookies and possibly crush the hopes and dreams of many kids who wao py Cssmancers petitively. It’s rough.

  “Do we have to follow these instrus to a T?” Yuel asked. “Or, we’re allowed to innovate?”

  “It’s a tradition, but not a hard rule. As I said, you’re in charge of the exam this year. You ge whatever you want, as long as it makes sense. I’ll have the final say, but I won’t make your life hard as long as you don’t suggest anything dumb.”

  “Did you update anything st year?”

  “Not really,” Howard shrugged. “I decreased the number of questions on the quiz to make our lives easier when grading, but that’s about it. I like this filtering system, that’s one reason I went to Riverstod not to Leo. I khe Leopards are a strong team with a coach, but I believed this entry exam would do a good job pig the best pyers. And well, going to Leo requires two buses every m. Not fun, right? Haha.”

  Says the guy who forced me to e here with two buses. But it’s true, there’s some merit to this hardcore exam structure. It was creative ahe examinees ooes from start to end, which made it feel like a meaningful experience.

  But, as to whether the exam did a good job seleg the “best pyers” for the club... Yuel had some objes. “The way I see it, the st part where we test their Mancer skills is the most important part of the exam.”

  “True.”

  “So, what if we skip the first two parts and only do that?”

  “Had a feeling you’ll go there,” Howard smiled wryly. “A cool idea, but impractical. There are like a hundred freshmen ly every year. You really want to privately test ead every one of them? You’ll have to host at least 50 test matches.”

  “That doesn’t sound too bad. If we assume an average match sts half an hour including preparations, then 50 matches are about 25 hours. Last time, the exam sted for four days, so we need about six hours a day and we’ll be good.”

  “That’s some quick math you did there.” Howard nodded. “So, you’re saying six hours a day, every day for four days, is nothing?”

  “I wouldn’t say ‘nothing’, but it’s not that hard. I’m sure I manage.”

  “Yes, you maybe manage. But don’t fet you need 8 examiners, which is almost everybody from the club. You really think they’re going to be fih this routine for multiple days in a row?”

  “Well, that’s...” Hard to say. There’s a good e will be worn out, especially the likes ory and Taison who were always the first to pihey weren’t having fun. In theory, the idea of pyi games rookies sounded like fun, but...

  “I’ll tell you from experience,” Howard said. “Everybody thinks it’s fun and games at first, but it doesn’t take long till you hear sighs and pints.” He provided some of the reasons behind it.

  The examiners often had to py their sedary roles and follow some specifistrus to maintain bance. Sometimes, they also had to stray from their game pn to not overwhelm the examinee or to create various sarios to test the rookie on. The more oftehings were he less the exam felt like pying a real game. It started being a chore.

  “Also,” Howard added. “There’s another reason to filter so many pyers before this stage. There’s a huge differeween grading a hundred pyers or just twenty. With twenty, you more or less remember who is who and how they impressed you iest. With a hundred? Good luck.”

  “Yeah, memorizing a hundred pyers isn’t easy. I think I pull it off, though.”

  “Yeah, maybe you . A guy who recreate full chess matches from memory probably handle a hundred pyers. But, others ’t. So, you won’t be able to get much valuable input from them sihey won’t even remember who they tested.”

  “I see. You’re right, we need some filtering,” Yuel admitted defeat. If it was only him handling everything, he could have pulled it all off. However, to stage real test matches, he needed everybody’s help. It’s unfortunate, but he couldn't demand too much from them.

  “You’re really adamant about skipping the first two tests. You hate them so much?”

  “The ideas themselves aren’t bad, but some skilled pyers may fail the exam because of these tests,” Yuel expined how he and Lars barely made the cut during the entrance exam. The one-kilometer race test would have failed Yuel for sure if not fging he picked up over the summer. Simirly, Lars almost failed the quiz test and barely scraped by in st pce.

  And, there was another problem: cheating. By learning about the tents of this exam ahead of time, it’s possible to prepare for the first two parts in advand gain an unfair advaaison trained all summer for the one-kilometer race, whereas Gregot his hands on a list of quiz questions from previous years. Yuel didn’t mention any names, but he brought up variations of these cheats as examples.

  “I get what you’re saying,” Howard nodded. “Question is: do you have better alternatives? Exams are never perfect, so it’s easy to pick them apart. But once you’re in the shoes of the examiner, for the first time you realize how tied your hands are.”

  “I have to agree.” Yuel knotted his brows. Even though the current exam structure had many problems, it was a necessary evil for filtering didates. It held as a “tradition” for a reason. It's not like everybody was satisfied with it, it’s just that they couldn’t think of better solutions.

  And holy, Yuel couldher. At least, not practical ohe one-kilometer race tested the person’s resolve, whereas the quiz tested their game knowledge and how ied they were in Cssmancers. Though imperfect, they had the right ideas and achieved their goals to some degree.

  “Alright,” Howard said. “If you’re not satisfied, try improving the parts you don't like. You’re supposed to be some kind of genius, right?”

  “Only others call me that. I don't think I'm that special.”

  “Anyway, try and see if you fix it. o reihe wheel, though. Take the current structure and tweak it until you’re satisfied. Or at least, more satisfied than you are right now.”

  “I’ll try to figure something out.”

  “It’s an important topic for the club, so I’ll listen to any ideas you have.” Howard stood up. “But first: I wa. It’s already three and we haven’t done shit yet. We’re sure taking our sweet time with this. I don't suppose yht lunch?”

  “No, I didn't think I’ll stay this long.”

  “Okay~!” Ellen joined out of nowhere. “I’ll whip something up for you-”

  “No.” Howard shot her down. “Just no. We still want to live, thank you.”

  “My, so mean. You don’t trust my cooking skills?”

  “Oh, I trust them. If they existed in the game, I’d level them up first because they one-shot people.”

  “Meanie,” Ellen hmphed auro the TV. “There’s nothing to eat in this house anyway.”

  “Yeah, I really o do some shopping already.” Howard sighed. “But hey, there’s always sis’ favorite: insta noodles!”

  “Bleeeeh. You call that food?”

  “Hey, they’re not that bad. You get used to them... after a while.”

  “Poor, poor Wardy. I better level up my cooking skills soon so I save you from this torture.”

  “I ’t tell if ‘level up’ means anything good in your case. I make stuff myself, alright?”

  “Yeah, when you’re not too zy to shop for them.”

  “Right, when I’m not too zy to shop for them,” Howard nodded with a sigh. “I swear sis live off insta noodles 24/7,” He turo Yuel.” Anyway, you heard it. There are only insta noodles. You in?”

  “Sure,” Yuel nodded. “I kinda like them, actually.”

  “You whaaaaaat?” Ellen thundered. “They don’t feed you at home?”

  “My parents work around the clock, so sometimes there’s nothing to eat when I’m home. Instant noodles are the best for times like these.”

  “I know the feel,” Howard said. “When you know you ain’t getting shit for dihat day, then you remember there are insta noodles. Instantly makes them taste a huimes better.”

  “Exactly.”

  “You two are a lost case,” Ellen shook her head.” Anyway, what about lil ol’ me? I also want lunch.”

  “Then, should I make noodles for you too?”

  “No way! Gimme somethi.”

  “The fridge is empty. Like, real empty. There’s only sis’ beer.”

  “The’s order something. Ple~as?” Ellen made puppy eyes.

  “You’re such a pain sometimes.” Howard crossed his arms, threw a g Yuel and then sighed. “Alright, fine. I’ll order pizza.”

  “Yeeeepie~! Wardy, you’re the best~”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Houshed Ellen away while she was trying to herself around him. “You alright with pizza?” he asked Yuel.

  “Yeah, but what about the price? We’re going to split it?”

  “Nah, I’ll just use sis’ cash. I’ll order some for her too so she doesn’t pin. I mean, it's her fault we don't have anything to eat in the first pce. Just whose house she thinks this is? We ’t even feed a guest.”

  “I see,” Yuel didn’t say anything further to not interrupt this flow of events. He did say instant noodles were fine, but a pizza topped that a huimes over. It was actually TASTY food. Junk food, but tasty. It’ll serve as reasonable pensation for having to take two buses to get here on this beautiful sunny day which he could have spent grinding Clsssmancers at the club.

  The pizza arrived shortly. Apparently, there’s a shop nearby and the delivery guy already reized Howard as a regur.

  After they finished eating, Yuel and Howard returo discussing the structure of the entrance exam.