Before Ronald loses his motivation, it was necessary to rekihe fmes of passion in him. The fastest way to achieve that was to vince him that his ne oppo was, in fact, petent.

  "You may be thinking Bckhole isn't all that because of his 5/10 meical skill,” Cato said. “But don't ighat 8/10 deaking. That's rather high and implies he's capable of being shrewd."

  "Eh, it's not that high," Ronald insisted to write Bckhole off. "I think the guy did pull a couple of tricks in the previous scrim, but overall, he didn't leave much of an impression."

  "Let's also not fet that he's backed up by their shot-caller, whose deaking even the ever-harsh Sonya rated as 10/10."

  "Correct," Sonya said. "He stands at 7/10/10 at the moment."

  "Dang, two 10s!?" Ronald excimed as if he saw this data for the first time. "And even his meical skill isn't too shabby. Bruh is an absolute unit, what the heck."

  "It's just aimation based on the few games he showed us,” Sonya said. “His deaking as a shot-caller is defiop-notch, even if it looks questio times. And, assumihe one who single-handedly hahe drafting phase, then his drafting ability suggests that he’s extremely knowledgeable about the game."

  "My, he's almost as aplished as me~" iled from ear to ear.

  "Actually, his stats are a little better than yours."

  "Say what!?" Cato gasped. "Since when!? In which area is he better??? I demand to knht in this instant!"

  "I demoted your score to 7/9/10 for now."

  "M-Me? A 9/10 in deaking? Surely you jest."

  "I admit I'm not 100% sure about this demotio. Maybe you do qualify for 10/10."

  "But of course I do! In fact, I'm preeeetty sure that the st time I saw my stats they showed a 10/10 in there."

  "That was a long time ago," Sonya said. "You never really ask me about my up-to-date evaluation of you, so I assumed you don’t care even if something ges."

  "I didn't ask until now because I was rather satisfied with the score." Cato pouted. "May I please know how I got demoted from godhood to this peasant level of 9/10?"

  "You should know that yourself," Sonya said. "It's because of the way y out games unnecessarily."

  "Oh, that's all?" Cato sighed in relief. "And here I thought I had some gring weakness I wasn't aware of."

  "Yring weakness is that you don't realize that dragging out games IS a gring weakness. You write it off as if it's nothing but it's actually a huge deal."

  "Nah, not really. It's just something I enjoy doing, but I always know when to stop myself."

  "Yes, you sure knew how to stop yourself in the first game today."

  "My, as merciless as ever, aren't you..." iled wryly. Maybe his self-trol really wasn't as fwless as he thought it to be.

  In that sense, he shared a small simirity with Ronald. Both of their scores were influenced by how much they uimated their oppos.

  If Cato khat the eeam was weak, then he dragged out the game to torture them and break their spirits. Oher hand, when he knew he was going up against a strong team, then Cato cut down on that bad habit.

  Yikes, just the idea of paring myself to that brat makes my skin crawl. Cato shuddered. Anyway, I've learned my lesson from the first game, so I'm not pnning t out anything anymainst Straus. In other words, I'm in my plete form with that godly 10/10 deaking! But, this brat oher hand...

  Ronald might’ve started out this game as a 10/7/8, but he was soon going to dee into a sorry state of like 8/5/6. Yes, even his "game knowledge" would plummet. It's like his entire brain rotted once he started uimating his foes. He would fet to take into the simple things that even Bronze pyers knew. It could get really hairy.

  So, I have to put him ba track. I'm not into babysitting but nobody else is going to do this for me.

  "Ba topic," Cato started. "I believe we’ve ablished that Bckhole is detly smart and that he receives advice from somebody even smarter than him." But not smarter than me.

  "Yep.” Ronald nodded. “It sounds like they got a bunartasses oeam."

  "That's why I insist it's very possible that Bckhole pys the way he does in order to throw you off. They’ve probably figured out by now that you're an expert at losing focus."

  "What? , I'm not that bad! Everybody makes mistakes, bruh."

  "Yes, but some do that more than others."

  "Bleh, you gonna keep painting me as a scrub, aren't you?"

  "That's the pn."

  "Dang, these levels of disrespect, haha." Ronald ughed dryly. "Anyway, I dunno. I doubt these guys are really pnning anything. Pretty sure that's just Bckhole's level."

  "Maybe it is, but it's best to exercise caution. I think we've all done more than enough uimating for one day, don't you agree?"

  "Yeah, guess that's true." Ronald smiled wryly. Nobody had to remind him how and why they lost the previous game. "Okay, fair enough. I'll treat this guy as a semi-potential threat for a couple more waves."

  “Not a semi-potential threat but a very likely threat.”

  “That’s asking for too much, bruh. There’s a limit to how much you ask me to fool myself. I know for a fact that this guy ain’t that good.”

  “Fair enough,” Cato ceded. “Just please, for the love of god, don’t you dare lower yuard a yourself killed. They have a Dark Knight oeam and we have to make sure we starve it to death.”

  “ht, there’s the DK too. That bruh is dangerous for sure.” Ronald nodded. “I bet they gonna call him over here soon since Bckhole is clearly struggling against me. So yeah, I actually see Bckhole trying to lower my guard so that the DK ganks my arse.”

  “My, I’m gd you finally developed a brain and started thinking about the bigger picture.”

  “Dang, the sheer amount of shade this guy throeople.” Ronald shook his head. "But yeah, I see what you're saying. The DK’s presence makes everything about this situation more exg. These guys are cooking something up, I just know it!"

  With that, the fme rekindled once more in Ronald's eyes. With that, Cato's work was done here.

  Phew, finally. Cato sighed in relief. My, sometimes I feel like a babysitter here. But, I suppose that es with the role.

  As the captain, it to him to polish his chess pieces. He had to make sure all of them were and shiny so they could bring out their true potential on the pyboard. The process of getting there was tedious but the reward was usually worth it.

  There is something rather satisfying about maniputing my own teammates into perf better~ Cato grinned. It's like I'm a trickster overlord, one who even fools his own allies for the sake of obtaining victory! Muhaha!

  As he tio indulge himself in such thoughts, the game moved on to the fourth wave. It was time for Bckhole to face Ronald once more.

  Will the enemy do a better job this time? Did Yuel and Bckhole already e up with a terpn?

  If they're going to try anything, surely their pn will involve the DK. Cato deduced. "Hey Will, I suspect their DK is going to gank Top in this wave or the ."

  "I figured as much." William nodded.

  "Good, since we’re on the same page here, I'll leave this to your judgment. Do what you during your jungling routine."

  "Got it."

  Perhaps these instrus came off as wishy-washy for a shot-caller, but that was for the best in this case. William was petent enough to make his own calls. In fact, in terms of deaking ability, William could’ve easily bee the shot-caller if he so desired. Even Sonya rated his deaking as 10/10.

  Problem is, he's a tiny bit too self-tered. Cated. But well, that made it much easier for me to get reized as the sole shot-caller of the team, so I'm not pining.

  Surely, if William had any i in calling the shots for the team, then he and Cato would have run into many flicts. After all, their game philosophies cshed rather hard at times. Cato promoted eternal defense whereas William advocated swift elimination. Needless to say, these troaches were as inpatible as they could get.

  For the better and the worse, William mainly cared about his own performance, so he had little i in telling others what to do. For example, this self-tered mi was the reason that William didn’t say anything to Ronald despite how obvious it was that the brat’s fighting spirit was diminishing.

  As the older brother who pyed with Ronald more than anybody, surely William was aware of just how badly Ronald’s performance suffered when the kid started losing i. A, William didn’t say a single word oter. Instead, Cato had to be the oo step forward and say something.

  But, why was it like that? Did William really not care about his teammates’ performance? Well, not quite.

  It’s all because William was heavily preoccupied with his own matters. He nning his jungling routes in advance, weighing the pros and s of various alternatives, trying to predict the enemy's movements, et short, he had no time to babysit other pyers, not even his own baby brother.

  Perhaps it es off as a little cold-hearted, but at least I know I trust him to make the best calls for himself. After all, he's preoccupied with himself like 150% of the time. My, what a narccisit~

  While Cato was busy cheg on everybody and analyzing the entire board situation, William was far better focused on his own affairs. That fact, bined with William’s solid deaking, allowed the guy to often make superior calls for himself than what Cato could provide him.

  Well, perhaps "superior" is to of a word here. Cato objected to his own thoughts. They’re just somewhat "better optimized", I suppose. Yeah, that sounds better.

  Either way, with all of that in mind, it was generally safe to let William do his own thing in the jungle. Not only did this have the potential to lead to better pys than what Cato could e up with, but it also took a load off Cato's shoulders. After all, making shot-calls for the Jungler was very taxing, so it was o have a petent Jungler who could hahat part by himself.

  But, what about the enemy Jungler? Was LegendaryMemer also that kind of self-suffit Jungler who made Yuel's life easy?

  I believe he is, but I also feel like strongly denying it. My, I’m so fickle~

  A pyer who boldly brought memes to the petitive stage was obligated to be self-suffit at least to some extent. The entire premise of winning with memes was ridding on Memer’s css mastery, so the guy had to know what he was doing.

  But, to what degree was Memer really self-suffit? How much was Yuel involved in the deaking process for the Dark Knight's as?

  I felt like Yuel’s tactics were ever-present throughout the previous game. Cato thought. Many of the DK's big pys felt like moves that Yuel would e up with. Of course, it’s alossible that Memer just had simir ideas himself, but many of these shot-calls just screamed "Yuel" to me.

  If any of that was correct, then it implied two things. Firstly, uo, Yuel was burdened with monit his Jungler and calling the shots for the Dark Knight. Sedly, this meant that whatever the Dark Knight was going to pull will likely be a very "Yuel style" move.

  In other words, I have to be on the lookout for hints of an ining unorthodox attack. Cato cluded. Then again, I believe I’ve advised my minions suffitly, so I’ll just have to trust them to do their job from there.

  Cato properly fueled Ronald's fighting spirit, as well as warned William about the potential of an ining gank on Top. From there, it to the two pieces to handle any ued situations to the best of their ability.

  So, what kind of bizarre move will Yuel pull in the uping wave? Or, was he pnning something big for the wave after the ?

  With all these big questions hanging in the air, the game proceeded to the fourth wave...

  DarkestCymore