"It appears this bizarre turn of events is stumping our Chessmaster to no end," Vi said. "In that case, may I propose a suggestion that'll possibly liberate you from this unsolvable dilemma?"

  "Shoot,” Yuel said.

  “If you’re uo e to a decision by yourself, then how about we employ a majority vote?”

  “You want everybody to vote oher they agree with a DK rerun?” Yuel asked.

  “Indeed.” Vi nodded. “We all shall cast our votes to decide the fate of the Meme Jedi! Will we grant him the rank of a master and allow him to use his dark meme once again? Or, will he have to switch to a different meme? The Senate will decide his fate.”

  “Hmm. I suppose that’s an option.” Yuel nodded. Once again, he had to be remihat he wasn’t carrying the eeam on his shoulders.

  Everybody participated in that game, so they had their own opinions and clusions about it. Therefore, for difficult dilemmas like this, where Yuel couldn’t decide on his own, it made seo rely on his teammates’ opinions.

  “The us cast our votes!” Vi raised his hand. “First, everybody who wishes to see the Meme Jedi unleash his Dark Force again - raise your hands!”

  “I vote tht?” Luke thrust both hands into the air and waved them around.

  “Hrm. This decision revolves around your Meme Force so that surely makes you biased, but I believe your vote should t as much as anybody’s in this case. Do you agree, o great Chessmaster?”

  “It’s questio I’m fih that.” Yuel didn’t want to waste any more time mulling over random dilemmas. The whole point of this majority vote was to finally reach a decision, so Yuel didn’t have time to create any more difficult questions for himself.

  “So, we have two votes thus far,” Vi announced. He ted himself and Luke in favor of the Dark Knight strategy.

  “Just to make sure,” Yuel said. “You’re not voting in favor just because it sounds more ‘eaining’ or something, are you?”

  “I fess, eai value indeed pys a big role in this decision,” Vi admitted. “Using this Dark Knight strategy on a petitive stage makes for a far more engaging esports story!”

  “Figured…”

  “However, that’s not all!” Vi added. “There are numerous bes to using this strategy once more.”

  “Oh? I’m listening.”

  “For ohere’s psychological warfare,” Vi expined. “The enemy had already suffered one crushi from this strategy, so I’m certain this experience burself into their minds. They will not be able to recover easily from this, so a rerun of this strategy should shake them up mentally once more.”

  “Hmm. I only partially agree,” Yuel said. “I’m sure their mental fortitude is strong enough to overe that kind of trauma, but it’s true that this pick will likely ruffle their feathers.”

  “I shall! And, then there’s also the matter of the enemy’s strengths. They are the very epitome of a hyper-defeeam, therefore fighting them with a defensive lineup of our own is a recipe for defeat.”

  “That’s an oversimplification,” Yuel said. “But, overall I agree.”

  “Therefore!” Vi stretched his arms dramatically. “We must csh against them with the most powerful offense we muster! We must bust through their shields and thhly destroy them! And, as it stands right now, the only css the Meme Jedi employ for the job is the infamous Dark Knight.”

  “Hmm. Another oversimplification, but it’s rgely true.” Yuel didn’t have any strong objes to any of these arguments.

  In fact, Vi was eg some of the arguments that Yuel already sidered. However, the hyperbole phrasing of these arguments made them sound that much more appealing than when Yuel sidered them.

  There was no denying that Vi made a solid case for himself. Even if 90% of his decision robably fueled by the desire to see a more “eaining” game, he heless had some solid arguments to support his decision. And, it seemed like his strong vi also spread around the team and affected others.

  “Yo, that sounds sick!” Lars raised his hand. “I’mma join in, too!”

  “Why?” Yuel demanded.

  “Because we should be pushing offense, dude. You sae smoked these dudes in the previous game, right? It’s all thanks to that sweet offense. We couldn’t do anything cool like that in the first game.”

  “I suppose that’s true.” Yuel knotted his brows. “But, do you really believe this tactic will work twi a row?”

  “We’ll never know until we try it, yo! I say we go all in and bust through their defenses!” Lars thrust a fist to illustrate his point. “Like, real talk. Their team kinda reminds me of Howard’s annoying defense, so I totally wanhese dudes apart!”

  “I see.” Yuel had nothing else to say because a part of him felt that was as well.

  Even though there were definitely differences between Cato and Howard's shot-calling tactics, their essence felt very simir. It's almost as if they were molded from the same base, coached by the same mentor.

  Both were hardcore defensive shot-callers who built their teams like an iron wall that could withstand any attack. The only striking differeween them was that Howard’s defense tive in the sehat it mainly covered the team’s ots on demand, whereas Cato fortified his team up to eleven from the get-go in order to minimize any potential risks.

  In that sense, Cato's team was far more annoying to deal with. It almost felt like bashing your head against a wall. The guy had an absolute dedication to defeo a fanatic level.

  a banced lineup ever hope to bust through that wall…? Yuel was doubtful. Maybe if our team had more people with high meical skills, then we could've tried to brute force our way through that angle. But, as it stands, there's only Lars and Kai to carry us in that department. So, we're not “intimidating” enough for the Leopards unless we use a very aggressive lineup.

  In truth, Yuel was aware of this for a while now. He uood that the most surefire way to bust through the enemy's thick wall of defense was by ramming a hyper-aggressive lineup into it. heless...

  "I still think it's a bad idea," Yuel said. "I agree that we o focus on offense, but this meme lineup won't work a sed time. We're not pying against amateurs here."

  "Yeah, I know, dude." Lars nodded. "But, this is like the best thing we’ve ght nht? Like, other than DK, what other strong attackers do ya py, Luke?"

  "Hehe, I'm gd you asked!" Luke smiled meaningfully. "I’ve just remembered I py Orc, too! Though it's still a work-in-progress, so it's not on par with my DK yet."

  "Sick, haha! That's also one heck of an aggressive meme, right?

  "Yes, it sure is," Yuel answered. "I suspect it's probably more stable than a Dark Knight as Jungler, but if Luke calls it 'work-in-progress' then I doubt we expect much."

  "Nah, man, it totally works," Luke insisted. "It's a savage Jungler css."

  "If it's so savage, then why I've barely seen you py it in the club?"

  "Weeeeelp, I 't py the same css all the time, ya know?" Luke shifted his eyes. "Besides, I ushing my DK and all that. 't be chasing too many new csses at the same time."

  "In other words, you cluded your Or’t ready or at least isn’t as good as your Dark Knight."

  "Haha. Yeah, guess that about sums it up. Dang, I was trying to make it sound like a promising idea but ya had to shoot it down like it’s a bad idea.”

  "Because it clearly is,” Yuel said. “With the Dark Knight, at least you radiated a lot of fidence. You’ve clearly put a lot of hours into the css, which is why I was willing to give it a shot in the first pce. But, sidering how much you’ve been w on it, I doubt you had any spare time to work on Orc as well.”

  "Yeah, true dat.” Luke nodded. “Orc was my other didate for a spicy offensive Jungler meme, but I settled on DK after pying both of them for a while. Still feel kinda bad about how I left my homie Or the dust smh.”

  "Welp, sounds like it’s settled then," Lars said. "This makes it clear that DK is our only way forward if we wanna go hard on the offense."

  "So it seems." Yuel sighed. "heless, I'm not voting for it. I still think our ces to win like that again are so low that using a banced lineup instead would be better."

  "I think so too," Kai said. "These guys aren't dumb, they'll adapt. So, if we try hitting them with this meme again, then we'll have a very bad time."

  "You tarty poopers for real, huh." Luke shook his head. "Just believe in the power of memes!"

  "Yeah!" Lars pumped a fist. "His DK rekt them once, so he destroy them again!"

  "Believe in the Meme Force!" Vi joihe propaganda.

  heless, Yuel and Kai didn't budge. Even if Dark Knight was currently the team's only option for f an overwhelming offeeam, they k just wouldn't wain.

  In fact, the three goofs probably realized that as well. They probably just thought that using Dark Knight again will be more iing than having Luke pie of his Setup Junglers.

  "So, the vote is currently 3-2," Yuel summarized. "Ben, what is your vote?"

  "M-Me?" Ben jumped. He quietly stayed on the sideline while the heated debate was in session, but suddenly he found himself at the ter of the attention. "Um, I don't think I have the right to vote..."

  "Yeah, WTF?" Luke pined. "Only the actual team members should have the right to vote here. Ben wasn’t oage with us back there, so he doesn’t know jack shit about the situation.

  "heless," Yuel objected and turo Ben. "You watched the two games, right?"

  "Yes, of course." Ben nodded. “I watched everything.”

  "So, I'm sure you have an opinion about that Dark Knight, too,” Yuel said. “In fact, your input may even be even more valuable than ours because, as Luke said, you weren't on stage with us. You’re almost a ral observer here, so your opinion should be more impartial than ours."

  "I really don't think that I..."

  "Just tell us what you think," Kai pressed. "There's nht’ or ‘wrong’ answer here. Nobody is going to judge you."

  "Okay..." Ben's weak response left much to be desired, but at least it seemed he was ready to speak. "But holy, I don't know what to say. From the side, it looked like your teampy with the DK was very good."

  "Hehe, you heard that, chumps?" Luke grinned. "That's it, time to pack up, guys. We’ve won!"

  "Um, but, with that said..."

  "Oh shit, here it es." Luke facepalmed.

  "In the end, it was still a Dark Knight," Ben tinued. "The eime, I was scared that everything will fall apart from a single mistake. So, in that sense, I uand why it’s very dangerous to do this again."

  "Nah, it's all good, man. I'll mop them ezpz the sed time, too."

  "Maybe you will. It's hard to tell,” Ben said. “I'm more of a defensive pyer, so it's hard for me to analyze offensive lineups like this. But, I think it looked like a very ving lineup in that game."

  "Heck yeah, bro!" Luke gave a thumbs up. "I knew you were on my side all along!"

  "Be, you’re being a little wishy-washy" Yuel argued. "It sounds to me like you’re trying to avoid f a full opinion because you’re not an offensive pyer.”

  "Um, it’s not quite like that," Ben expined. "As I said, I only py defense, so the only thing I uood very well from these games was that the Leopards' defense is amazing. Nothing get past them!”

  “Is that so.”

  “Um, yeah, that’s how it looked to me. Their defense was without any openings! So, I 't even imagihe Leopards losing to anything but areme offense like the one you used."

  "Whoa..." Everybody was stunned. It was extremely rare for Ben to y bare his emotions so openly. He sounded like a total fanboy.

  "A-Ah, I'm sorry." Ben cmmed up after seeing everybody's stunned faces. "I said too much."

  "Nah, dude." Luke fshed a smile. "It was cool. You should share your opinion like this more often.

  "Yes," Kai agreed. "You're a part of the club like the rest of us. If you're still hung up on how you were forced to skip so much club practice, then fet about that shit. You have just as much right to voice your opinions as any of us does.”

  "Okay, thanks." Ben smiled softly. The fact he thanked Kai for something so obvious showed that he still had a long way to go before he truly overes his mental block. But for now, it was good enough.

  "So," Luke started with a cocky smirk on his face. "What I’m hearing is that Ben is gonna vote for DK, right?"

  "Um, I'm not sure..."

  "Say whaaat?" Luke's jaw dropped. "Bruh, you’ve just raved about how these guys got some insane defense and that DK is our only lord and savior! !"

  "Um, I only said that their defense is s that I don't see it losing to any offehat's not overwhelming."

  "Exactly! That pretty much trao 'Pick DK already, you dumbasses!'"

  "Ah, I didn't quite mean it that way..."

  "Please, Meme Jedi," Vi interjected. "Would you mind not putting words in the poor fellow's mouth? You’ve clearly made a giant logical leap from what he said."

  "But, that's pretty much what it boils down tht? DK is our only true aggressive optiht now."

  "Corre, it’s YOUR only aggressive option," Yuel said. "We try pig a heavily aggressive even without your DK.”

  “You seriously y an aggressive p without an aggressive Jungler? Bruh.”

  “True, it’ll be rough but it’s doable. Anyway, it sounds like Ben 't quite make up his mind on this matter."

  "I-I'm sorry..." Ben hung his head. "Is it possible to abstain? I don't feel fident voting for either option."

  "Of course, my guy!" Luke answered. "Abstain all you want, free of charge! o vote for something you’re not sure about, am I right?"

  "Unfortunately, I'm ined to agree with Luke this time." Yuel sighed. "It's not mandatory to vote. You’ve made your position clear enough."

  In short, there was no clear sensus oopic at present. heless, Ben’s perspective provided important insight.

  As a fellow defensive pyer, Ben saw the Leopards' defense as unbreakable. In his mind, only a very powerful aggressive force could possibly break through that blockage. Anything weaker than that simply won’t cut it.

  Will Nia be able to achieve that when she wakes up? Yuel wondered. Either way, we'll worry about that ter. For now, unfortunately, Dark Knight is the only real option oable.

  "Weeeeelp!" Luke snickered. "If Ben abstains, then it means Team DK won!"

  "I guess so." Yuel nodded. He still wasn't vinced but he accepted the oute.

  In the end, nobody knew for sure what was going to be best for the team in this particur situation. Everybody eg based on their own bination of logid gut.

  And so, it was decided. The game will be a rerun of Luke's Dark Knight.

  Will this questionable meme crash and burn as expected? Or, will it defy all expectations once again and deliver the team to victory!? Find out ime on Dark Knight Meme Z!

  DarkestCymore