Season 5: Chapter 171. Royal Decree (1)

Sang-Hyeon sometimes seemed like a stubborn mule, but he actually wasn't. His life was a series of acceptances. From a young age, he had to accept his parents' sudden absence and the following poverty. Then, he simply tried to overcome it all through archery. He even had to accept the unexpected accident that prevented him from continuing that.

Working at Ah-Sung despite the stigma of connections was simply him trying to overcome something called a major corporation. He had no other options. One couldn't move forward without accepting and acknowledging reality. He'd thrown himself completely into office work at a major corporation that he never had any affinity with.

Did accepting things get easier with practice? He worked desperately hard, but had also long since accepted that his abilities were lacking compared to his coworkers. That was also why he easily came to terms with the layoff notice and why he'd been able to quickly find his next path.

This was how Almond came to be on the path of a streamer. Thinking Almond was a stubborn mule was very shallow. Almond always accepted what needed to be accepted. He'd been the same about the Platform War.

'The Platform War will be a 25 vs 25 fight.'

This was, in fact, a framework that Paprika created. When they first heard about this, Cheese and other viewers reacted differently.

— Cowardly people

— What kind of chaos are they trying to create lmaooo

— Does that even make sense?

— Can't even share exp

— Wow they're going to team up? Disgraceful

They believed teaming up was disgraceful, but Almond had recognized it immediately.

'There's no reason it can't be done.'

Some would say this was because his gaming career was short, so he had fewer negative experiences with teaming up. However, Almond was also a famous streamer. He'd always been a victim of teaming up. He just never thought of himself as a victim.

When teaming up became a strategy, he'd only been excited. It was an all-views moment. Grievances solved nothing anyway.

'If Paprika will do it anyway, we need to respond.'

Even if the archer in the next lane whistled and rained down all kinds of jeers to break his concentration, no one would hear anyone shouting, “That's wrong!” or “That's disgraceful!”

The target said nothing. It simply stood there waiting to be hit. The one way to communicate with it was to draw the bow and shoot the arrow, embed it in the dead center.

Bang!

[DumbYoungMan → KimMari]

The whole world went wild.

"YEAAAAAAAAAAAA...!!"

***

"Dumb Young Man! Even the Dumb Young Man is racking up kills! Completely overwhelming them!!"

"Paprika!? Can they fight back!? Is a counterattack possible!?"

"They'll try...!"

Two Paprika members had instantly become rune spirits, but their ability to counter wasn't completely gone. They'd come in with two teams combined, so they had at least minimal fighting capacity. The problem was that the two teams were separated with the Nonghyup between them, meaning they were already outnumbered.

"For Paprika to counterattack, they need to kill the Nonghyup stuck between them right now!"

"But! But! The Nonghyup is dodging too well!? Orange King! What's going on here? Why are these old men so agile!?"

The Nonghyup was entirely focused on dodging, having perfectly read Paprika's psychology.

— Old men lmaooooo

— Old men lmaooo

— Did the day trading training actually work?

— Nonghyup...

— Nonghyup awakened

"There's no way old men are this agile! It's just the information exchange speed being too different!"

"Oh...! What you mentioned earlier!?"

"Yes! They say life is about direction over speed! Survival mode is too! Moving in the accurate direction is far more important than speed! That's why there's no disadvantage in speed!"

Acorn Jelly led the Nonghyup. He was continuously receiving position briefings from the Knight Order's ForeverAlone, who was marking where it would be good to escape to.

The observer seemed to want to emphasize this by inserting ForeverAlone's voice.

[ForeverAlone: Run here]

[ForeverAlone: Here! Here!]

[ForeverAlone: If you get sandwiched, it's over! Even while fighting back, come to our side!]

— What the

— Wow so detailed

— Information warfare

— The tech gap is just different

— Asymmetric capability

ForeverAlone was also a Challenger. Hidden behind his flashy physical play was exceptional judgment, which was why he excelled at every game. He was only bad at the social survival game. Everything else he could handle.

"So effective! Both teams have Challengers or above calling the shots!"

"Oh...!"

With ForeverAlone as the brain of Can't Can't Can't, they could pass orders to every team. Every team could be considered as basically equipped with a Challenger's brain. ForeverAlone was paired with Sweet Radish so he could receive Sweet Radish's orders directly.

[Sweet Radish: Gi-Chan, we'll constrict as we move up. Move northeast while squeezing!]

[ForeverAlone: This way. Southwest. Come here.]

The Nonghyup and Knight Order now moved like soldiers controlled by two Challengers.

"Sweet Radish and Challenger dual-coooore!!"

Bang!

Orange King jumped up and shouted excitedly. Right now, Cheese had effectively installed a Challenger dual-core CPU.

The analyst explained why Orange King was so excited. "Right now, Bubblegum and Choco Shroom are peacefully farming over there. They’re also hearing all of these briefings, right? That means Cheese knows the entire map's situation even while hunting."

"Oh, I see!?"

Before the caster could even finish his response, Orange King cut in. “Right now, Magical Girls...! They're moving up in case they might need help! They’re going into Paprika's territory..."

Just as he was about to read the overall map situation, Orange King suddenly jumped again.

"FIREEEEEEEEEE!!"

— You startled me

— lmaooooooooo

— Fire lmaooo

— lmaooooo

Crash!

A Fireball landed on the Brunch team led by Omelette. It was Lemon's magic.

[Lemon Double Kill!]

Omelette's team, whose HP had been running out, was being cleaned up one by one. Lemon's magic had landed perfectly at the end.

[Lemon → Sausage]

[Lemon → Bay]

Two burned up and died at once.

[Zelo: LET'S GOOOOOOO!]

[ForeverAlone: Nice shot Lord!]

[Black Tea: Good job Gyuri!]

The excited Cheese players could be heard.

— Wow lmaooooooo

— ForeverAlone calls everyone Lord lmaooo

— Refreshing~

— Lemon only plays staff and has great accuracy

— Is this over now?

"Oh oh oh!? This means Paprika Group B's head, the Brunch team, has four members dead!? Everyone except Omelette is dead!!"

The key to Paprika's resource-funneling strategy was the survival of the top-tier team. How well they survived and how well they grew determined the entire team's win or loss. They'd been demolished from the very start.

"No, even if they had one or two extra people! This is going too smoothly! They’re cleanly getting pushed!?"

The caster was puzzled. Looking at the Brunch team's specs, they had been dealt with too easily.

"Oh, about that! This too! I wanted to mention this too! The reason Paprika's Fireball communication method is so dangerous!"

Orange King delivered the answer.

"Suddenly!? Orange King!?"

"Yes! I have to say it! Fireball in raw combat is completely a cracked technique! The staff itself plays a tremendous role in the early game! But the cooldown is significant! And spending it as a signal flare! That's very risky for enemies who fully understand it’s a 25-person match!"

"Ohhhhh!"

Until now, this weakness hadn't been properly revealed. Paprika had been calculating for this to some extent. Since Cheese Group A's understanding of the 25-person system was so low, it had worked fine.

"Then, the twenty-five moving together was enough! The Fireball could just be waited out a bit before firing! But now!? What about now!?"

"Oh~! Right! Now that won't work! The enemy also has significant team coordination!"

After the caster's summary, Red Glasses added, "In Group A, it was like an army with guns versus an army with swords. In Group B, Cheese came with a submachine gun."

— lmaooooooooooooooooo

— Submachine gun lmaooo

— FYI: the scariest person there is the one with the bow

— lmaooooo

— Right

"The remarkable thing is that Cheese built that submachine gun based on feedback in just a few minutes. The fact that Group A and Group B had different strategies is truly shocking... and Paprika appears to have not expected it at all."

His analysis was correct. Paprika's players had no way to read the situation.

"In Group A, it wasn't like this. That's all that will loop in their heads."

The Group A match they'd seen was actually working against them. It only added to the confusion in their heads. Perhaps that was why they'd gone shell-shocked and chaotically fled.

"Oh, still! Player Omelette! He's actually running pretty well! The only survivor!"

The caster pointed out a hopeful note.

"Yes. Right now, Omelette looks to be trying to regroup with the others as much as possible! There’s no staff user, so communication is down! But he's navigating with his own instincts pretty well! But..."

***

"Heh... hah..." Omelette was running for his life. "Heh... hah... damn rune spirits! I-I'll revive you! Make Brunch Great Again!"

— At this point, isn't it just Make Brunch Again? lmaooo

— Omelette just surrender

— Brunch reconstruction project

— What is he saying when they're totally done LOL

— This isn't Omelette... it's Scrambled Eggs now...

— Were they ever great?? Lmaooo

Even the viewers mocked him.

'No. I can do this.'

Survival mode was literally survival mode. As long as one lived, there was hope. If he survived and reached a resurrection shrine with another team's help, he could aim for a comeback.

Thud!

Omelette ran into something in an unexpected place. A massive shield blocked his path.

[Donuts]

Another Cheese player appeared.

"The great Donuts is here."

— lmaooooooooo

— Since when was he great LOL

— Suddenly going world-class lmaooo

— ???

— Image crafting lmaooo

— Upvote if Orange King thought Cheese was getting destroyed and is now excited lmaooo

— lmaooooo

Behind him stood two old men in confident poses.

"Ins-insane... Donuts!?"

Omelette couldn't understand. He'd fallen into a trap, but the trap's address was wrong.

"It was definitely Can't Can't Can't and the Knight Order...?"

From his understanding, Can't Can't Can't and the Knight Order had set the trap. He hadn't even known the Nonghyup were here.

"Does that mean three teams dropped here? That can't be."

"Ahaha. Figure that out yourself."

The Nonghyup couldn't possibly be here too. It was too much of a loss.

'How did they block my escape route in the first place?'

The system didn't allow that kind of communication.

"What is this!? How are you here? Whose orders are you following to be here!?"

Omelette was an excellent player who knew all the variables, which was exactly why he couldn't understand.

Of course, Donuts had no intention of telling him.

"That..." He just raised his shield. "It is a royal decree!"

Crash.

[Enemy Defeated!]

[Donuts → Omelette]

Beeeeeep!

With a clamor, a chilling notification appeared.

[Team Brunch Out!]

Instantly, every Paprika player wandering around froze.

'The first-place team...?'

'What?'

'Insane.'

'They’re actually out?'

All the plans were falling apart.

— What the

— '&^%$'%&

— #(&$(&%$^$

— We're done;

— Wow

— Complete disaster lmaooo

— Over

— ^&'$^')&

Messages revealing enemy positions and strategies flooded Paprika's chat. Countless people ended up getting banned.