Chapter 76: Teammate One: PiercerXI

The maid returned a moment later, offering a polite bow. "She has been notified and will be down shortly. Please, feel free to wait in the main lounge."

While we waited, Amanda couldn’t stop her eyes from wandering over the towering ceilings, crystal chandeliers, and polished marble columns. "Okay, I gotta admit... this place is insane," she whispered, leaning over to me. "It feels like a literal museum."

I casually leaned back against a leather settee, totally unbothered. "It’s decent," I said with a slight smirk. "Mine’s better."

Amanda rolled her eyes, letting out a soft sigh. "Of course you’d say that. You just have to brag every chance you get, don’t you, investor?"

"It’s not bragging if it’s factual, Luna," I replied smoothly.

Five minutes passed. Then ten. PiercerXI was nowhere to be found.

The maid reappeared, looking visibly flustered and apologetic. "I am so sorry for the delay. Let me check on her one more time." She hurried back up the grand staircase.

A couple of minutes later, the maid walked back down, looking completely stressed out—just as a sharp, annoyed shout echoed from the upper floor, bouncing off the high marble walls.

"JUST LET THEM UP ALREADY! I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF A RANKED MATCH, I CAN’T COME DOWN RIGHT NOW!"

The maid sighed, giving us a weary, embarrassed smile. "As you can hear... young mistress is currently occupied. Please follow me upstairs to her gaming room."

Amanda looked at me, her confidence instantly snapping back into place as a competitive grin spread across her face. "Yep. That’s definitely Piercer."

We followed the maid down a long, carpeted hallway on the second floor until she halted outside a pair of heavy doors. She knocked twice, sighed softly, and opened them for us.

The room was a massive, pastel-tinted haven, completely covered in soft pink carpet with lit-up faux-cloud installations hanging from the ceiling, casting a warm, neon glow over everything. Sitting right in the center of the room was an absurdly large, fluffy beanbag.

Lying flat on her back inside the beanbag was a girl in oversized pajamas, lazily tapping away at a custom mechanical keyboard. A heavy-duty monitor arm extended all the way from her desk, hovering just inches above her face so she could play at a 90-degree angle without even sitting up.

She didn’t glance at us when the doors opened. Her fingers executed a sequence of lightning-fast, pixel-perfect inputs while her eyes remained completely locked on the display.

"Hold on, give me a sec," she muttered, her voice dripping with pure, unbothered laziness.

A second later, the sharp sound of an elimination ping echoed off her surround speakers, followed by a bright VICTORY banner flashing across her screen.

She pushed the floating monitor arm away, let out a long, dramatic stretch, and slowly sat up in the beanbag, rubbing her eyes like a sleepy cat. "Okay, now I’m done."

Amanda shifted beside me, looking equal parts amazed and exasperated by the setup. "Piercer... you’re literally playing high-elo ranked lying flat on your back?"

Piercer finally looked past Amanda, her gaze drifting over to where I was standing. Her eyes blinked once, twice, taking in my tailored jacket and sharp posture against her fluffy pink background.

"Whoa," Piercer drawled, tilting her head with a faintly amused smirk. "Why are you dressed like you’re attending a corporate funeral? Who wears a full suit to recruit a gamer?"

"I experiment with styles," I replied smoothly, adjusting my cuffs without breaking a beat. "Different environments require different presence."

Piercer shrugged, slumping deeper into her oversized beanbag with an amused, lazy grin. "Fair enough. Honestly, when Luna told me some heavy-money investor was trying to start a top-tier esports team, I thought she was lying. Guess you’re the wallet behind the whole operation." She paused, folding her arms behind her head. "No thanks, though. Sounds like way too much work."

Amanda blinked, taking a step forward. "Wait—what?! No thanks?!"

"It seems stressful," Piercer sighed, rolling her shoulders. "And useless. Unless I’m the team leader, I’m not interested. I hate taking orders, and I already know you’re planning to be the boss, Luna."

Amanda’s eyes flashed, her competitive fire instantly taking over as she stepped into recruiter mode. "Piercer, listen to me—this is a massive opportunity! You complain all day about ladder matches being boring and brainless! This is real tournament-level competition! We get to face actual pro rosters, stack up against the best players on the global server, and destroy them on stage!"

Seeing the faint glint of interest flicking through Piercer’s lazy expression, I stepped in, my baritone calm and unyielding.

"And as for the stress," I added, locking eyes with her. "You won’t have to touch a single piece of logistics, legal paperwork, or corporate management. I cover 100% of the funding, housing, and operational overhead. Your only job is to play."

Piercer bit her lip, clearly tempted by the raw competition, but she held her ground. "I still need one more thing," she said, leaning forward. "If I join, I want to be the team captain. Period. I don’t follow anyone I can’t respect mechanically."

"Hey!" Amanda squeaked out, her face instantly turning flustered. "I’m the captain!"

"I can’t allow a flat handoff on leadership, Piercer," I said smoothly, a dark, calculating smirk spreading across my face as I looked between the two S-rank players. "Leadership isn’t given; it’s earned. So here’s the deal: beat Amanda in a 1v1 right now, on her setup, under official tournament rules. If you win, you get to be team captain. If she beats you, you join the roster under her call."

Piercer’s lazy posture vanished in an instant. She sat straight up in the beanbag, her eyes locking onto Amanda with a sharp, dangerous glint. "A 1v1 for the captain spot? Now that sounds interesting."

Amanda quickly grabbed my sleeve, yanking me a few steps back toward the edge of the cloud-themed room before lowering her voice to an urgent whisper.

"That’s a bad idea," she hissed, her eyes wide with sudden panic as she glanced nervously back at Piercer. "Investor, you don’t get it—she’s a monster in a straight 1v1! The last time we did a head-to-head, she completely smoked me! If I lose this, you’re actually gonna have to give her the captain spot because of your promise. Are you seriously sure about this?!"

I looked down at her, totally unbothered by her sudden spike in anxiety. I reached out, placing a firm, steady hand on her shoulder until she met my eyes.

"You’ve been grinding non-stop on that setup," I said, my baritone low, smooth, and absolute. "You took me out effortlessly, your mechanics are sharper than ever, and you have the drive she completely lacks. I didn’t back you just to watch you back down from a challenge. I believe in you, Luna. Now go take what’s yours."

Amanda blinked, my words hitting her right where her competitive pride lived. The panic in her face slowly melted away, replaced by a fierce, determined spark. She squeezed her fists, took a deep breath, and turned back to face Piercer with a sharp smirk.

"Alright, Piercer," Amanda called out, stepping up to the extra rig in the room. "Set up the lobby. Let’s see if that lazy aim of yours can actually keep up."