Sparrow Hunting

“Hueeee…”

The moment the match ended and I returned to the waiting room, I collapsed.

I didn’t care about the gazes around me.

It felt like the tiny brain inside my head was burning up.

But, that’s a misconception. My temperature didn’t actually rise.

It’s just that my brain, whipped to its limit, is sending me signals to rest.

“Blood Demon King-nim…!”

Blood Demon King Lover. Snow Mage followed my instructions faithfully.

Until the very end of the game, she never left the center lane.

The fact that I could play the game so freely was largely due to her.

“Just… just how did you fight like that…?”

How did I fight? I just gave it my all.

I tried to change the subject with an awkward smile, but I couldn’t because of the piercing gazes I felt from all directions.

The other teammates who came to the waiting room with me.

Every single one of them was looking at me.

Their gazes flickered with a strange sense of awe and a faint expectation.

We played the match on the same map, but they didn’t see me fighting at the crucial moments.

They must be curious, very curious.

But what I needed was rest.

The break given after the match is only about 5 minutes.

To play the next match, I had to cool down my brain.

“Yeon-nim… just…”

“Weren’t they broadcasting our match in real-time? I think you can just rewind it…”

“Ah, that’s right…!”

Bisuz-ssi, who was talking to me, nodded at those words and started waving his hand in the air.

The other teammates also started making similar gestures to Bisuz.

“Heok…”

An exclamation of shock appeared on Bisuz-ssi’s face as he started looking for the match video.

As I tilted my head, hearing the short, gasping sound, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Um, there are 20,000… 20,000 people watching our match?”

“20,000 people? Is that a lot?”

“Ah, of course… it’s a small number compared to popular players in the first tier like Wild-ssi, but it’s a number that we second-tier players can only dream of…”

Bisuz-ssi said that and looked at me with strange eyes.

Not only him. The other two players standing next to him were the same.

I shrugged and avoided their gaze.

Because no matter how many average viewers there were, it didn’t really hit me.

As time passed, and all the matches were over.

A message announcing the waiting time appeared before my eyes.

It was then that Bisuz-ssi found our match video.

He spread the found video out largely in the air so that everyone could see it.

From the start of the first match, the observer’s gaze flies around frantically.

Immediately after identifying the location of the enemy and our team, the observer stuck to one user and didn’t think about leaving.

Of course, the observer was fixed on me.

“Hmm…”

The teammates watched the match video and constantly exclaimed in admiration.

At the same time, they kept glancing at me.

I strongly suppressed the twitching corners of my mouth and turned away.

Everyone must have known.

That the number of viewers for that match increased so much was all thanks to me.

Everyone must have known.

That we were able to win that match was thanks to my super play.

Admire my play, praise my skills.

Send me more passionate gazes.

“Amazing…”

The short exclamation of admiration is disappointing. I needed more direct praise.

When I subtly turned my gaze, I could meet Snow Mage’s gaze in the air.

A strange smile was on her lips.

“As expected… you’re really amazing!”

Snow Mage, who met my gaze, spread her arms wide and showed an exaggerated reaction.

I’m very satisfied. As expected of the quick-witted Snow Mage.

“It’s an amazing play… so much that I want to keep it forever…”

A W.S affiliated player muttered while watching the video.

I also agreed with his words.

Even when I recalled past memories, I could count on one hand the number of times I had shown such a brilliant play.

“Hoo…”

It seems that meaningless emotions have settled in the players while watching the video.

They nodded with faint sighs.

As if they all had the same thought, they started looking at me with shining eyes.

Is that it?

Could that be it?

Are they all admiring my wonderful appearance and trying to applaud me?

The corners of my mouth keep twitching up.

I covered my mouth with both hands.

Bisuz-ssi exchanged glances with the other teammates around him and slowly opened his mouth.

“From the next match, I think we should proceed in a way that is entirely tailored to Yeon-nim. What do you guys think?”

But what flowed out of Bisuz-ssi’s mouth was not praise about my awesomeness.

An extremely professional remark, he threw away all his pride in order to increase the win rate even a little.

“I think that’s right too.”

“No objections.”

There was no need to even ask for Snow Mage’s opinion.

Because she always followed my will.

“Really, are you okay with this? Everyone?”

It must have been a difficult decision. They must have had pride as professional players, but they bent it.

To me, who wasn’t even a user who usually played VRS.

They handed over the command of the game to me, who came over from another game.

While playing the game, Bisuz-ssi respected me as much as possible.

But, the direction of the game itself followed his words.

“The team that includes Wild-ssi is also playing the game in a format that is entirely tailored to Wild-ssi. Because that has a higher win rate.”

“Oh…”

“To be honest, there were parts that I intentionally ignored until now. I knew that Yeon-nim was outstanding, but I didn’t know that you could show this level of play.”

Bisuz-ssi said that and changed his character to a Paladin.

He, who always played only aggressive characters, took out a Paladin specialized in defense.

“I checked the video comments. You’re the master of a fairly influential guild in Deron and you’re running several raids at the same time… You don’t have that much experience in RPG games, but you’re not completely ignorant either. RVR experience and the ability to judge situations as a raid leader. I know all of that. That’s why I’m asking.”

I was more burdened than anything else by this sudden turn of events.

I hesitated and slowly opened my mouth.

“Still… wouldn’t it be better for someone with more experience than me to give the orders?”

“I want to win.”

“Yes…?”

“I think it’s better to follow Yeon-nim’s judgment than for me to give orders. I think that with the ability to judge situations that you showed through the video, you can lead the team to victory. It’s a judgment as a professional player. That has a higher win rate.”

Do the other teammates think so too?

I heard their answer a little while ago, but maybe their minds have changed in the meantime.

I blinked and looked at the two knights standing around me.

They nodded, feeling my gaze.

“Aigo…”

The headache is getting stronger. I’m going to end up leading people again in an unexpected place.

But, it wasn’t a bad feeling.

I was always used to this kind of position.

“Euhm… I’ll try it that way for now…”

Bisuz-ssi smiled lightly at my words and nodded.

That smile was somehow heavy.

Then there’s no time to be doing this.

I got up from my seat and approached the small table.

The time spent replaying the video was 4 minutes.

The remaining break time was 1 minute.

It was too tight of a time to come up with a plan.

A total of 8 matches were played.

The teams that won and moved up were 4, including us.

As I looked at the list of teams that came up like that, there was a team that my time naturally went to.

Jupiter.

The team that the hateful sparrow’s nickname belonged to.

That team also won and came up.

What is that bastard thinking right now?

Maybe she’s glaring at the team I belong to, just like me, and working her head hard.

I had a hunch.

The next match is against this team.

It’s an absolute feeling. I was sure of it.

“Bisuz-nim, do you know the players on this team?”

“Ah…”

Bisuz-ssi groaned as he looked at the team I picked out.

His gaze moves quickly.

30 seconds until the next match starts.

“There’s no time…”

“It doesn’t have to be detailed. Just the players’ characteristics. Just what kind of play style they prefer.”

“If it’s that…”

Bisuz-ssi started talking about the information about the pro players on the team that Jupiter belongs to as briefly as possible.

W.S-Jin. A skilled first-tier. Knight. Prefers aggressive play over stable play.

N.R-Keibon. A player who recently moved up to the first tier. Assassin. Prefers a play style that generally follows the flow according to the team member’s tendencies.

S4-gus12. A rookie in the second tier. Doesn’t discriminate against jobs. Information was lacking.

That was the end of Bisuz-ssi’s explanation.

My gaze checked the nicknames of the users below.

Jupiter.

KingChestnutBreadNight.

Both of them are users of Deron.

I knew Jupiter’s tendencies better than anyone else.

The other one, KingChestnutBreadNight, whose nickname is even hard to pronounce.

There was no information about him.

10 seconds left.

“Ah, ChestnutBread-nim… that person was a mage ranker.”

It was Snow Mage who gave me the information about KingChestnutBreadNight.

5 seconds left.

But there was enough time to come up with a plan.

Concentrate.

Don’t waste time.

Feeling the white pain that was consuming my head, I recognized that the surrounding time was slowing down.

4 seconds left.

Divide the time.

Use 0.1 seconds of time for a long time.

In the extremely accelerated time, think freely.

Assume all situations and come up with a plan.

But, the bouncy sparrow was the biggest obstacle to coming up with such a plan.

I take a low breath.

There was no time being wasted.

I closed my eyes, checking that the stopped count was moving.

0 seconds left.

With a bright light, the entire team is moved to the battlefield.

The next match has begun.

The semi-finals of the conquest battle.

The opponent I faced was, as I expected, the team that Jupiter belonged to.

“Blood Demon King-nim…! That sparrow is on the opposing team…!”

Snow Mage also knew Jupiter very well.

When Jupiter was still wandering around as a human male character, Snow Mage used the shamelessness and fraudulent crowd control skills unique to ice mages to harass Jupiter all day without killing him.

“Snow-nim. The sparrow is mine.”

“Yes, yeess…?”

“She’s mine.”