"Greetings." A boy was standing outside Stratus’ waiting room as if waiting for them to e. He wore a sophisticated smile as if he knew all the secrets of this world. It was her than Howard.

  "Yo, what's up dude!" Lars waved.

  "Loud as ever, I see," Howard replied with a wry smile.

  ".............." Yuel didn't say a word. What is he doing here? That’s the only response he could muster. Seriously, it’s one ued enter after aoday...

  As if to kill the silence, Vi excimed loudly. "Oh! This is her than the great Aegis, in the flesh!"

  "You mean, the captain of StormBlitz?" Kai asked.

  "Ihe one and only! The unbreakable wall, the ultimate st line of defense - Aegis!"

  "Huh." Kai tensed up a little, and so did Luke and Ben. "So, to what do we owe the honor?"

  "Honor? Please, I’m just a middle schooler like the rest of yht?" Howard chuckled. "I came to watch today’s scrim, so I figured I’ll drop by to wish you good luck. I'm sure you'll .

  "Why thank you." Kai made a face at the obvious underlying message. “Rest assured, we’re going to win today, with or without luck.”

  “Oh, fident, aren’t we?” Howard nodded. “The Stratus of this year is really made different, it seems.”

  “Of course. Don’t even think of paring us to that sorry excuse of a team this club had before. This is a braratus.”

  “Totally, yo!” Lars reinforced.

  “Indeed!” Vi added. “We shall quer the regionals together! With our powers bined, eveionals are no threat to us!”

  “Y-Yes, we do it,” Ben added meekly.

  “Damn straight,” Luke agreed. “We’re real serious about taking it home. This is no longer a club.”

  So says the memer. Yuel retorted mentally, but he stayed quiet throughout the entire exge.

  “ we pass now?” Kai demanded.

  "Oh, I’m blog the entrance, right? You go ahead." Howard moved away from the door. "Before you go, I’d like to borrow my ex vice-captain for a moment, if you don’t mind. I have a private matter to discuss."

  "... sure." Yuel finally respoo the se for the first time.

  “Well, we’re going ahead then,” Kai said as she passed through the door. And, despite their curiosity, the others followed suit.

  And so, only Yuel and Howard remained in the hallway.

  "How is the club doing?" Yuel asked.

  "Heh. You got some nerve asking that after you abandoned your post."

  "I don't remember signing a tract to be StormBlitz's vice-captain forever."

  "I totally should've made you, though." Howard sighed.

  "Is Gregory that bad at his job? I heard he’s the new vice-captain."

  "Let's just say he requires a lot more maintehan I'd like to spare. The whole point of having a vice-captain is to make the captain’s life easier, but with Greg that’s not really the case, haha…"

  "My dolences."

  "Heh, why are you talking about it as if it's somebody's else business? It's all your fault, you know? You were supposed to bee the perfect vice-captain, the type who'd handle everything by himself without ever b me." Howard sighed again.

  "It's true that I wouldn't have minded doing most of the work for the sake of improving the club," Yuel said. "But, even for me, it’s not easy to muster the necessary motivation when I’m not even part of the first-string.”

  "Holy, if I khings will turn out this way, then I would've made you and Lars py Top and Mid on the first string. You weren't half bad in these roles against Taurus."

  So, he watched the repys. Yuel cluded. "Sorry, but pying Top and Mid isn't for us."

  "A, you had no problem pying them in an official scrimmage for fames straight."

  "We were just testing the waters," Yuel said. "I wao see how far we get without showing our cards. But, the enemy forced our hand."

  "You meario that subbed in, right? Not gonna lie, these guys look like a real pain in the neck, haha."

  "I'd watch out for them if I were you," Yuel warned. "If they bee starters for the regionals, then Taurus won't be an easy team to take down, even for StormBlitz."

  "Duly noted." Howard nodded. "But, o worry about my team. I don't see us losing to someone of that caliber. I admit they might pose a challenge or two, but that's about it."

  "fident as ever, I see."

  "I have every reason to be. This year, StormBlitz is going to be the stro it ever was."

  "Huh. Do you have statistics to back that up?"

  "No, but I'll make it obvious beyond a shadow of a doubt by winning the nationals."

  "Is that so." Yuel had nothing to add.

  Howard's fidence was as high as ever. The guy had no doubt in his mind that he'll achieve the grand goals he set out for himself. And, just from listening to him talk so boldly, evearted believing that Howard might be able to pull it off.

  But, we'll take him down. Yuel promised silently. That’s one of the reasons I defected to aeam in the first pce. We’ll have our rematch, and this time, we’ll win!

  "Anyway,” Howard tinued. “From the teams I've seen thus far, the only ones who gonna pose a challeo us are the Leopards."

  "Is that supposed to be an i insult?"

  "Sorry to tell you this, but your team hasn’t vinced me yet. Sure, you’re not the Stratus of the past, but that’s about it for now.”

  “Is that so.”

  “I mean, you struggled pretty bad against Taurus, right? Your team made plenty of mispys. A stronger oppo would have ripped you apart for that."

  "That's… true, I suppose," Yuel admitted. “But, Lars and I didn’t py in our main roles throughout the whole scrim. So, most of the statistics there are irrelevant.”

  "If you say so. Either way, today is your ce to vince me that your team is worthy of my attention.”

  “Will do.”

  "Holy, I rather you don’t.” Howard smiled wryly. “We got enough problems to deal with as it is. Please, don’t increase my workload any further.”

  “Sorry, but I’m pnning to do exactly that.”

  “You’re the devil inate.” Howard chuckled. “Anyway, I think it’s about time I get to the real reason why I came here.”

  “Oh, are you saying you didn’t e here just to insult the team and hit our motivation?”

  “, you make me sound like a vilin.”

  “But, isn’t that your favorite trick?”

  “Is it?” Howard smiled, yet his eyes turned sharp like that of a hawk. He was silently telling Yuel to not pursue this topiy further.

  It’s totally something he would do, though. Yuel was vinced. I won’t be surprised if he told something to Roi and Dan before we had that seleatch. That might be why their performance suffered the way it did.

  Not to pass the bme or anything, but part of the reason Yuel and Lars lost the seleatch was due to Roi and Dan’s ckluster performahe two of them were good pyers, and they were cooperative during the practice leading up to the match. As, they fell short on the critical day itself.

  Of course, part of it was definitely Yuel’s fault. He prioritized his own agenda over the is of his teammates, believing that his strategy was the only thing that mattered. That already caused some dissatisfa during practice, and it exploded in his face during the real match.

  But surely, that’s not all there was to it. As dissatisfied as they were, Roi and Dan were mature enough to adjust. Though Roi pined about Yuel’s firm decision to include a Dark Knight in the lineup, the two of them still reached a promise in the end.

  They were reasonable pyers, all things sidered. So, I don’t see them falling apart the way they did just because they didn’t like some of my decisions.

  There was more to it, surely. Something happened on the day of the match, something that Yuel wasn’t informed of.

  I never properly talked to them after the match, so I don’t have proof. But, I suspect Howard might’ve told them something.

  It was very much possible that foul py was afoot, but there was no evidence. If Howard really pulled anything, then he did a good job c his tracks.

  heless, that sounded like a very Howard-like scheme. Therefore, Yuel was sure that the guy only came here today in order to mess with Yuel and his teammates.

  But, apparently, that wasn’t the case?

  “Believe it or not,” Howard said. “I came to share some intel with you.”

  “What kind of intel?”

  “About the Leopards, of course.”

  “You know something about them that we don’t?” Yuel had a hard time believing that. “I assure you, we researched them quite thhly.”

  “By watg repys of their scrims, right?”

  “Yes, naturally.”

  “But, what if I told you I have a piece of information that you won’t find in the repys?”

  “I’ll press doubt,” Yuel answered. “What’s yenda?”

  “Nothing special, really,” Horomised. “It’s not some amazing information that’ll skyrocket your ces of winning. But, it’s still something I think you should know, just in case.”

  “Well, I’m listening,” Yuel said. No harm in hearing him out, at least.

  “Before I get to the chase,” Howard said. “I take it you saw the two scrims the Leopards had so far, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “Now tell me, what’s your impression of their skill level?”

  Is he fishing for some sort of information? Yuel wondered. “They seem fairly strong. I’d say they’re on par with what’s expected from the regional champions.”

  “They’re not as strong as st year’s team, though,” Howard argued. “For example, they don’t have anybody of Fenrir’s caliber. You remember Fenrir, right?”

  “Of course.” Yuel nodded. “He gave you a lot of trouble st year.”

  “Yeah, I don’t even want to remember that...” Howard sighed. His rea was only natural, for Fenrir was the main driving force behind StormBlitz’s defeat st year.

  That beast instilled terror in his oppos, making them underperform. Even the skilled pyers of StormBlitz wereirely immuo that effect, and that created holes in their defenses despite Howard’s best efforts to cover everything up.

  It was a rare example of somebody actually ripping Howard’s defense apart. At present, Yuel could only dream of achieving a result like this.

  The rest of the Leopards were strong as well, but Fenrir definitely stood head and shoulders above them. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like the Leopards had anybody of that caliber this year.

  “I agree on that point,” Yuel said. “Overall, this year’s Leopards are probably weaker than st year.”

  “Right. Except, that’s not true at all,” Howard said. “What if I told you they got a secret sixth pyer?”

  “A secret pyer…?” That sounds like a spiracy theory if I ever heard one.

  “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.” Howard chuckled. “Something like ‘Look at the nerve of this guy, wasting my time on some spiraonsense’, right? Haha.”

  “Yes, it does sound rather dubious.”

  “I ’t bme you. I’d probably not believe it either if you came to me with that kind of fairytale. And, it only gets more surreal from here, so I hope yht your suspension of disbelief along today.”

  “Well, I’m listening.”

  “This secret sixth pyer is... Korean!”

  “Okay, now you’re pulling my leg.”

  “No, I’m dead serious.” Howard’s hawk eyes left no room fument. “I don’t know the whole story, but he used to live in Korea and moved over here because of his parents’ work or something.”

  “Huh…”

  “His English is pretty det though, so I bet he has been around for a while now. Maybe a year?”

  The fact he’s questioning his own ck of data makes it sound more real. Yuel thought. Either that, or he’s ing up with all of this on the spot. Hard to tell for sure.

  Regardless, Yuel decided to py along for now. “Okay, so they got a sixth pyer who happens to be Korean in in. Since you’ve e all the way here to talk about him, I take it he’s good?”

  “Oh yes, he’s good. Too good, I’d say.” Hrimaced. “Have you ever heard these absurd stories about how seriously Koreans take pro-gaming?”

  “I’ve read a little here and there.”

  Nowadays, it ractically impossible to be a part of any esports se without hearing some tales about Korean pyers. There were various articles, news, and interviews that covered their lifestyles and training regimes, highlighting their immense dedication to the craft.

  Holy, a lot of it sounded dubious and exaggerated. heless, it was a fact that Korean pyers stood at the top of the petition in many esports, including Cssmancers.

  Famous names like Maker and DimensionShift all beloo the Korean pro se. For years now, they’ve been dominating the petition on a global scale.

  Apparently, much of it was the result of how dedicated Koreao their esports se from a very young age. There were some articles that covered the harsh petitive enviros of their esports clubs, which showed no mercy even frade-schoolers.

  “I’ve also only heard bits and pieces until now,” Howard admitted. “A lot of these articles sound like exaggerated clickbait stuff, right? I mean, they make it sound like the coaches force kids to work full time, almost as hard as pros. It’s pretty nuts.”

  “Yeah, it does soureme, even to my taste,” Yuel agreed. Even he, a fanatic of training hard every day, found the Koreahods iicles quite extreme.

  For example, oicle mentioned a very spartan training enviro. Not only did the coaches ask the kids to dedicate every nanosed of their lives to the craft, but they also pitted students against each other.

  Essentially, the training envirourned into a battle royale. It was survival of the fittest. Anybody who fell behind was doomed to be exiled.

  It souoo extreme, too different from how training was done in the west. As such, it was easy to write it off as exaggerated media ce.

  “But, you know what?” Howard said. “After seeing this Korean guy in a, I started to think maybe these stories are true. They might really be holding some iraining regimes over there.”

  “How and when did you see him py?” Yuel interrogated, still uain about this whole little story.

  “You remember how StormBlitz gets opportuo py with the Sweepers, right?”

  “Largely thanks to your es, yes.” Yuel frowned.

  This reminded him of a salty moment from the past, of the time he discovered that StormBlitz’s first-string occasionally scrimmaged with pro pyers. It was like a sp to the face at the time, as he realized that he and Lars will never be a part of that high-level experienless they get into the first-string.

  In fact, that was one of the things that pushed Yuel to hold a seleatch against Howard and Ellen. So yes, of course he remembered that little tidbit. He remembered it VERY well.

  “In a ret scrim with the pros,” Howard said. “This Korean pyer joined in, as part of my team.”

  “He pyed on your side?” Yuel raised an eyebrow.

  “I knht? Pretty damn eous, haha.”

  “Sounds like an odd arra. Wouldn’t it make more sense for him to py alongside his team?”

  “It totally would, but there were some time straints at py. As you probably know, the Leopards have lots of scrims at this time of the year.”

  “Right.”

  “So, the coach didn’t want to distract them with pro scrims in the middle of it all.”

  “Then, why not wait for a better time?”

  “That’s what I asked, too.” Howard sighed. “Say, do you know Ro?”

  “I believe that’s the man who owns the ers and the Sweepers?”

  “Yep, you’re well informed as always.” Howard nodded. “Ever met him?”

  “No.”

  “Well, let’s just he’s the… easily excited type, to say the least. He got all hyped when he heard about this Korean pyer. His every other sentence was ‘wonderboy this’ or ‘wonderboy that’, like a broken record.”

  “The owner of pro teams was excited about some middle schooler? Why?”

  “Ruez probably fed him something.” Howard sighed. “The guy used to py on the Sweepers, so the two know each other. I bet Ruez overhyped that Korean kid to make this pro match happen ASAP.”

  “That part makes sense” Yuel agreed. “But, what I don’t uand is why would Ro be so ied in a middle schooler in the first pce? He’s in charge of pro teams, not middle school ones.”

  “ht. I fot to mention one small but importaail. That pro scrim? It doubled as ary exam.”

  “... what entry exam? For whom?” Yuel frowned. “Wait, don’t tell me it’s…”

  “Yeah, it’s probably what you’re thinking about but don’t want to believe. Yes, Ro seriously sidered recruiting this Korean kid to the pro se, probably into the ers.”

  “Wha…” Yuel’s mouth opened and closed. “Is he really that good?”

  “Oh, I got your i nht? Haha.” Howard smiled triumphantly. “Hmm. Is this Korean kid good enough for the pro se? That’s a hard question to answer.”

  “I take it he didn’t pass? Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t be having this versatiht now.”

  “A sharp observation.” Howard nodded. “Yeah, he didn’t pass. But, he didly fail either.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They put him on hold. They first want to see how he fares in the regur petitive se. But, the offer of going pro as a middle schooler isirely off the table.”

  “That’s… impressive. Very impressive.”

  “I knht? I wish I got an offer like that.”

  “Is he really that good?’ Yuel asked. “Did he achieve anything impressive in that scrim?”

  “I’ll put it this way: he gave sis a fight in Top. Like, a fair fight. She couldn’t go easy on him at all, and she was mad salty after every fight with him.”

  “So, he test Ignis in a duel?” Yuel frowned. “That’s definitely huge.”

  He had first-hand experience fighting Ignis, so he could attest to how strong she was. Even when she was drunk and taking things easy, she mopped the floor with Yuel in a 1v1.

  Yuel mao outsmart her a few times by taking advantage of her drunkenness, but it ook her too long to adapt and turables on him. And, if Ignis fought him at 100% of her power the eime, then Yuel probably wouldn’t have been able to even touch her. Indeed, Ignis ro pyer, through and through.

  I know I’m not an expert duelist, but I’m still det for the middle school level. So, losing that badly to Ignis shows how much ahead she is in terms of skill. So, if there’s a middle schooler who actually test her...

  The more Yuel heard, the more ing this intel was sounding.

  Of course, it was still too early to fully trust everything Howard said. Maybe this “secret Korean pyer” was just a boogeyman, and Howard actually came here to put pressure on Yuel for whatever reason.

  But for now, it was best to listen to the story, as absurd as that story sounded...

  DarkestCymore