Ch.171166 – The Shepherdess

# <Streamer Gallery>

[NoName) Why isn’t she starting her personal stream again?][27]

She participates in every scrim but why the hell won’t she stream!!!!!!

Not being able to watch the scrims from NoName’s perspective is making me feel like I ate a sweet potato and I’m gonna die from frustration lol

[Comments]

-She said she’s really busy right now and will do personal streams after matches

└ She could at least stream during scrims, is that so hard?

└ I dunno about that

-If she streams she has to greet every viewer and respond to donations

└ Is she streaming for donations or to win tournaments?

└ That might actually be true for NoName lol

└ Don’t try to understand a child’s mind, just accept it

-She’s probably busy outside of gaming too, maybe it’s exam period at school?

└ Finals should still be a month away though?

└ The Academy is known for being academically intense

-Go check NoName’s VTube quick, she just posted something that looks like drama

└ What is it?

└ I don’t really get it… just go look, how long will it take you?

[Is Kariri reaching Diamond today?][32]

She’s weirdly climbing rank using the suicide assassin meta NoName taught her

It’s hilarious how she keeps winning games despite dying 10 times each match lol

[Comments]

-The fact that her scrim win rate is also going up is the real joke

└ It was even in the 30% range at the beginning

-She’s putting on a desperate clown show trying to save Kariri’s character lol

└ With viewers giving their all-out coaching content, she’s just a broadcasting genius

└ Finding a diamond in the mud lol

-Probably won’t make it to Diamond with the time left, but Platinum 1 is still good

[The day Kariri rage quit scrim.real fact][53]

This video was uploaded to an overseas VTube channel – she went to Desireland wearing her main character avatar lmao

[Comments]

-Is that NoName and Adella next to her?

-Good! You should play properly when it’s time to play!

-So cute lol

-That’s our Kariri! Why would she ever care what others think? lol

└ (Author): Agreed! In Korea you just get more hate if you apologize lol

-Is the tournament a joke? Total kid mentality to ditch your teammates and go play around

-Comment deleted

-Comment deleted

-Comment deleted

-Comment deleted

└ (Author): Wtf

└ That’s scary

└ Mental illness?

└ Why did she hit the seizure button lol

* * *

ACK’s former first division coach ‘Hwangoo’ and current first division pro gamer (and currently unemployed) ‘LG Chaos’ were watching the match as coaches.

“You lost sight of the assassin! Everyone watch for flanks!”

“Kariri, you need to stick with me! They’re definitely coming for me, the mage!”

“We’re in a 2v3 with NoName over here too!”

“Daltori, bring your lane and come to my side. If Yongcheol joins us too, we can force a teamfight.”

No quests, no capture points, and no objectives had spawned.

Plus, they were at a numerical disadvantage.

“It’s okay if we lose the fight, just engage.”

At NoName’s confident command, a 4v6 teamfight breaks out.

Kariri was the first to take damage.

“Get ready to change formation. Kariri moves inside and Brownie takes her position. Simsimman, run over here as soon as you finish capturing. Yongcheol, stick close to Daltori and mark any assassins trying to flank. Don’t scatter at all.”

This was NoName’s command, now familiar to everyone.

Kariri quickly swapped positions with Brownie, who used a zweihander, maintaining proper health management.

Being a class unsuited for defense, she quickly fell to her knees and announced her stun message.

But protecting the mage was always the top priority.

Next was obviously the healer.

Clang-!

NoName’s sword rang out strongly.

The man who swung the greatsword didn’t panic.

This was a scene that had played out countless times over the past week.

With no mana, would a one-on-one be okay? He died with his neck severed.

How about 3-on-1? He died with his heart completely pierced.

She was on a different level from the beginning.

Given enough time, NoName could persistently handle any number of opponents.

But there were ways to counter her.

The standard strategy when facing ‘The Blory’ team was widely known: block the healer and pick off the rest.

And to counter this strategy, or to confuse the opponent’s tactics, they had practiced repeatedly during scrims over the past week.

Suddenly, NoName deliberately takes a hit from the enemy.

And when her health drops below 15%, she uses “Twilight Clone” to deceive the enemy and instantly rejoins the main force.

She provides appropriate healing to Kariri, who has barely any health left,

And Kariri, instantly transformed from assassin to berserker, easily handles a 1v2.

Thanks to NoName’s special ranked game training regimen, Kariri’s movements had become more precise.

She easily blocks a strike aimed at her back with her claws.

Her red eyes turned toward the knight.

“This is going to sting!”

Five blade edges carved through the earth.

* * *

“Why didn’t you take the detour here? Even if you couldn’t block, you should at least check as Plan B.”

Coach Hwangoo pointed at an enemy assassin taking a long detour to eliminate the mage Daltori.

“Even if we spotted them first, there’s no guarantee we’d win.”

Namei chimed in to defend.

“You’ll never win playing that safely.”

“The enemy assassin was Diamond. If we went scouting and lost, we’d have no chance for a comeback.”

“If you just spot them first, you won’t lose! This is a team game!”

[‘FireStarter’ donated ₩10,000!]

-Hwangoo, we actually lost in a similar situation in the last scrim

“Look, listen up everyone. Just because something had a bad outcome experientially, doesn’t mean it was a bad choice. Sometimes you need to know how to pick the right option.”

Hwangoo’s ideal operation was to select the options with the highest win probability at every decision point.

“It’s like… for example, I’m pushing an old lady’s cart up a hill and the wheel breaks. I can’t just think ‘Oh, I messed up by helping! I should never do that again!’ That doesn’t make sense.”

-What did the poor old lady do wrong, Hwangoo? lol

-Oh my, I can’t give my grandson allowance now…

-Time to bow in apology?

“Huh? Conversely, if I punch someone because I’m in a bad mood, and it turns out they’re a pickpocket! Should I keep swinging punches like I’m in GTA? That’ll land you in jail! Life bronze tier.”

[‘luckysukebe’ donated ₩5,000!]

-Nonsense ON lol woof woof

“Anyway, Simsimman could join us 18 seconds later, so we figured Yongcheol alone would be enough to hold them off. The paladin was well-fed at that point too.”

“Assassins aren’t just about getting kills. Just disrupting the backline can make you and Kariri collapse!”

“Heal-sassins can handle even 2v5. We tested it.”

“Ha!”

Coach Hwangoo slapped his palm against his forehead.

-lololololol

-That damn heal-sassin lol

-Can’t win but also can’t lose lol

-First time seeing Hwangoo get shut down lol

-Everyone knows it’s ridiculous but it somehow works

-The heal-sassin meta is coming…!

-The unkillable hedgehog lol

“Chaos. Do you have that footage we saved earlier?”

“Yes, coach. But this is really…”

A video appears, edited to show only scenes with NoName and Kariri.

They even got permission to use the automatic extraction application used for pro game feedback, just for this team analysis.

Sure enough, it shows Kariri maintaining around 20% health while receiving NoName’s heals.

Scene 1.

The strongest 4-person composition: 1 shield knight, 2 knights, and 1 mage.

With a solid front line, sharp swords attacking from both sides, and powerful fireballs raining from behind, Kariri crossed her arms and crouched down.

NoName, back-to-back with Kariri, continuously accumulated parrying stacks.

Eventually, NoName jumped over the shield knight using Kariri’s back as a springboard.

The combined strike of Chigukpyeongcheonha and Mirage Strike was substantial. Especially when the target was a mage.

Scene 2.

This time they were using a backdoor strategy, both trying to destroy the enemy’s Yggdrasil.

Instead of standing back-to-back, they pressed their shoulders together, extending sword and claw forward in readiness.

They took regular arrows and spells head-on, while parrying away the bigger skills.

Scene 3.

“Wait, there’s nothing more to see here, stop it.”

-This is just a highlight reel lol

-The amazing highlight reel of the late… I mean, current middle schooler lol

-How can she parry everything when one hit means death

-Kariri’s visual processing is insane too… can she even see arrows?

└ She practiced this all day with NoName

└ Oh shit…

“Alright, I admit it. But this doesn’t mean my theory is wrong—it means you, NoName, are an outlier. This shouldn’t work… but you’re forcing it to! Actually, this makes theory meaningless.”

“It’s the best judgment.”

“Your ‘best judgment’ is too extreme. What I want is a game where everyone does 0.9 of their share and we win 70% of the time. But look, you and Kariri are each doing 1.5 shares just to barely hit a 60% win rate. Both are ‘best’ approaches, but do you understand how they’re different?”

“I understand. But to live up to our tier, this approach is better.”

“What do you think, Kariri? Are you okay with this?”

“…”

Kariri had been silent in response to the coach’s question.

“Kariri? Ms. Kariri? Hello?”

[‘ParrotBird’ donated ₩20,000!]

-Burning 30 minutes on feedback? lol Kariri’s standing there in a daze

“Huh? Yes…?”

-Pfft pfft pfft

-That sound lol

-Was she spacing out?

-So cute

-Honestly, Kariri’s had some disappointing moments but not a single bad play lately

But despite the coach’s question, Kariri continued to show nervous behavior, biting her lip or rolling her eyes.

“Coach, about Kariri! I think someone’s ringing the doorbell outside so I need to go check quickly!”

“Oh really? Better go then.”

“I’ll be right back!”

-She’s ditching again!

-At this point, she must have a boyfriend lol

-No, she’s not that type, she’s 100% antisocial skills, 100% loner skills, 0% friendliness

└ Ugh, smells like jealousy…

-She just seems to hate scrims

-Scrims are a type of collab stream, it’s getting a bit much how she keeps leaving

-Seriously, how long is she going to use the doorbell excuse

-At least she paused instead of rage quitting like last time, so she’ll probably be back soon

└ All the Honeybee fans have lost their minds lol look at them defending her

└ Of course fans defend her, should we curse her out instead?

└ This is why she always causes drama during collabs

“Whoa whoa, don’t fight everyone. We’re all in the same chat room, we shouldn’t be fighting.”

While each streamer was calming their viewers, Namei sat on a tree stump, continuing to wait for Kariri.

-Is our streamer not saying anything?

-Proud to have the NoName mark in front of my username!

-NoName is a baby… who loves chaos most in the world…

-Was she Pororo? lol

-Pororo likes to play, not cause chaos! Don’t distort things lol

-For us, chaos IS playing!

And then a donation appeared in the middle of The Blory team members.

A rigid machine TTS voice with no special settings read the content.

[‘zxcvbnm’ donated ₩1,000!]

-Unit 13xx, right?

-?

-?

-?

-What is this?

-Home address?

-???

“AAAAAAHHHHH!”

From Kariri’s avatar, which had become stiff as a wooden doll, Seol Yoon-sul’s scream faintly echoed.

“Kariri? Kariri!”

“What’s that sound?”

The voice came not from the VR connection, but from the microphone set up outside the capsule.

Everyone jumped up to check on Kariri, but her eyes showed no signs of life.

No matter how much they shook her rigid virtual body, she didn’t respond.

The only option was to get as close to her ear as possible and shout.

“Kariri, is something wrong? Ms. Kariri?”

“Stop joking around… hey, if you keep this up it’s getting scary… this is a joke, right?”

Daltori trembled with a terrified expression.

No matter how long they waited in silence, Kariri didn’t return to brush it off as a joke.

[Kariri – Offline]

Namei’s VR connection was cut immediately after.

[NoName – Offline]