A 30-minute timer started, and the opponent team charged forward aggressively, unlike their usual strategy.
"Skill: Mirage"
One of the opponents who had a wand as his main weapon unleashed a skill.
Suddenly, for team Neutron, the five opponents now appeared to be fifteen.
"It's level-30 Mirage, everyone. Focus on the shadow." The Captain warned everyone, but suddenly, a gunner from the opponent team stopped in his tracks after getting into range and knelt down, activating the third mode of his hand cannon, the missile launcher.
He firmly placed it on the ground and clicked the trigger. A huge missile was launched into the air that reached its peak altitude within a second and changed its direction towards the targets.
"Dammit, he used the unique skill right away." Masaru's face turned black as he had never expected such a move right at the start of the battle.
Each class has three unique skills, and a player will acquire them for every 50 levels. Their damage is far higher than other skills, but at the same time, their cooldown is also incredibly high. In thirty thirty-minute professional match, a player would only be able to use it once.
Just like weapons, the unique skills can also be customized by collecting different rare materials, although their overall damage will not be changed. So, except for top professional teams that will have large guilds below them, no one would opt for such a thing.
And this is exactly what happened right now.
Despite having knowledge of almost every possible strategy in the game, Masaru made a wrong judgment.
Instead of asking his guardian to erect a barrier, he asked everyone to disperse and dodge, believing that it was going to be a missile strike that enveloped a wide area, as it should.
However, in the next second, he found out he had made a blunder. "Sh*t, they customized the skill."
The missile that was supposed to strike them down suddenly changed its form in the middle of its trajectory. As soon as it reached the peak, it split into more than twenty projectiles and rained down on the opponents, covering a wide area of over five times the original.
With the effect of mirage still working, the twenty projectiles now appeared sixty, and the team didn't know which one was real and which one was an illusion. They were forced to make their self-judgments.
"Fu*k. I was played." Masaru realized it was because of the mirage that he wasn't able to distinguish between the second and the third unique skill of the Gunner.
But then, he also realized something else. "Guys, it was split into twenty, so their damage will also be only five percent of the original. We just don't need to dodge them. Saeko-chan, get ready to… Ugh…"
All of a sudden, his chest was pierced by a dagger from behind, although no one is standing there earlier.
Masaru was caught off guard by a sudden ambush, and his eyes fell on the incoming opponents. There are five players, and because of Mirage, there should be another ten illusions added to them.
That makes a total of 15 people, and he could still count them as 15, but there are only 4 shadows instead of five. Something clicked in his mind. "Oh, F**k, he used a clone, and then, the original used short teleportation to teleport right behind me before ambushing."
By the time Masaru realized the ploy, the opponent team's assassin released a bunch of skills one after another in a combo to finish him right away without even giving him a chance to fight back. Because everyone is far away and is distracted by the projectiles, they don't have enough time to help their captain.
With their main attacker out, Team Neutron fell into a disadvantage.
In three minutes, team Everglade has five players with two substitutes still waiting, while team Neutron only has one player left on the battlefield.
*Ding!
"Congratulations, Team Everglade, on becoming the champions of the Eternal League." The host announced with great excitement, bringing joy to Everglade fans and great disappointment to Neutron's fans.
Masaru took out the headphones and slammed them onto the table. "Dammit…"
One month later;
Neutron club headquarters, Tokyo;
"Kazuma-san, you kite the mobs; Masaru-Nii-san will tank the boss; Sasha, Tatsuya-senpai, and Saeko-chan will take care of the damage dealing; I will take care of healing." A 22-year-old Riku gave quick orders to the rest of them as they reached the final stage of the dungeon raid.
Name: Matsuo Riku
DOB: 7th Sep, 2022
Age: 22
Ethnicity: Japanese
Birth Place: Kyoto
Designation: Main member, Vice-Captain of Team Neutron
Class: Guardian
Experience: 6 years
Nickname: Riku
IGN: Fisheye
Annual Salary: 101.4k dollars
Relationship Status: Single
*
Matsuo Riku is the little sister of Matsuo Miko. After Miko left the company, she became the vice-captain of the team. For years, she has been groomed to be the next captain. With Miko's absence and Captain Masaru getting older, she had been leading the team in the game, under Masaru's supervision, so that she could succeed him as the captain later during the league competitions.
Currently, she was leading the team to clear a level-150 dungeon raid of five-star difficulty with their original accounts.
Almost ninety minutes later, the six-member party got resurrected at the dungeon's entrance.
"Sigh…" A deep sigh escaped from the captain as he took a glimpse at dispirited players while their party was wiped out by the boss. "I'm sorry, guys. My APM dropped in the middle. I guess the age is catching up to me. If Redgar were in my place, the raid would have been cleared."
The 27-year-old captain of Team Neutron, who had long passed his peak, apologized to everyone in the room.
Name: Masaru Jones
DOB: 5th Feb, 2019
Age: 27 years
Ethnicity: Japanese/American
Birth Place: Osaka
Designation: Neutron club owner, Team Captain
Class: Warlock
Experience: 10 years
Nickname: Librarian of the East
IGN: Albatross
Annual Salary: 217k dollars
Relationship Status: Engaged
*
"Don't say like that, Cap. Even if it were Redgar, the result would have been the same. We are just having a bad day. Moreover, it's supposed to be a 50-member raid," replied Sasha in English, which only Riku and Masaru understood what she was saying.
Name: Sasha Henadiyivna Shchur
DOB: 23rd June, 2024
Age: 21 years
Ethnicity: Russian
Birth Place: St. Petersburg
Designation: Main substitute of Team Neutron
Class: Gunner
Experience: 1 year, 6 months.
Nickname: Sasha
IGN: Pink Dolphin
Annual Salary: 86.4k dollars
Relationship status: In a relationship
*
Sasha originally came to Tokyo for studies three years ago, but her gaming talent made Masaru bring her into the club within a year. After training for a year, she made it to the team, not as a main member but as the main substitute. It is a position where a player will get into the battle as soon as one of her teammates dies.
Not being fluent in Japanese, she often makes mistakes. She has a very extroverted personality and likes soccer.
"Cheer up, mate. We only lost by 14% left." Zion tried to lighten up the mood while feeling a bit excited inside as he had the highest DPS. "We will clear it, this time."
Name: Zion Wagner
DOB: 12th Feb, 2021
Age: 24
Ethnicity: German/British
Birth Place: Munich
Designation: Main member
Class: Blademaster
Experience: 5 years
Nickname: Diamond Spoon
IGN: Golden Hawk
Annual Salary: 129k dollars
Relationship status: In a relationship
*
Zion Wagner is a second-generation rich kid, heir to Wagner Group, a top conglomerate in Europe. Thankfully, he wasn't the sole heir and was very poor in his studies. So, there isn't much pressure on this 24-year-old from his family.
In fact, Zion's father wanted him to succeed in his career and gain as much experience as he could so that he could build an E-sports club after retiring from being a pro gamer. Very down-to-earth and often tries to act as the mood maker of the team, but fails every time.
Just like every time, he failed to cheer up his colleagues. On the contrary, it only made the mood of the team even worse as they were reminded that they couldn't even defeat the boss.
A heavy sigh escaped from the youngest player, who was looking like a 5ft doll, whether it was her attire or her face. She leaned back and murmured, "This is the fourth attempt. Just a few months ago, it only took barely 45 minutes to finish it cleanly. Now, we played 5 hours straight, and still, no success so far. Mika's absence is becoming more and more evident lately. If only there were a skillful supporter in the party to provide buffs and attack the enemies at the same time…"
Name: Claire Lefevre
DOB: 31st March, 2027
Age: 18
Ethnicity: French
Birth Place: Marseille
Designation: 2nd substitute
Class: Knight
Experience: 6 months.
Nickname: Claire/Barbie Doll
IGN: Desert Haze
Annual Salary: 81k dollars
Relationship status: Single
*
As for this girl, she's a high school graduate who jumped into the gaming field contrary to her parents' wishes of attending Oxford. Despite being very intelligent with an IQ over 155, Claire isn't very knowledgeable and hates to learn new things. So, she often appears like a naïve young girl.
Her complaint about not having a buffer brought silence to the room. It reminded everyone of their past vice-captain who met with an accident just a day before the quarter-finals of the Eternal League.
Riku replied slowly, feeling disheartened, "We can't do anything. The doctors said my sister can't return to professional gaming even after rehabilitation and her successor is still a trainee. So, we might either have to put "Geronimo" aside to find a fresh talent or look for some Alchemist Elite who can take over the account. I'll talk to my sister about it."
"What we need isn't some Elite." Zion was against her idea. He said, "We are in need of a better mentor so that Captain could focus on his game."
When he pointed it out, silence filled the room for a moment.
"I thought of someone. How about Sky?" The ever-cool and handsome Shang Zhen, who is the visual of the club Neutron casually put forward a suggestion while chatting with the guildmates.
Name: Shang Zhen
DOB: 27th Nov, 2023
Age: 22
Ethnicity: Chinese
Birth Place: Hangzhou
Designation: Main member
Class: Saint
Experience: 2 years
Nickname: Prince
IGN: Eimzara
Annual Salary: 98k dollars
Relationship status: Single
"Huh!" Riku, Zion, and Masaru collectively looked at him in surprise. "Who?"
"Hmm, what?" Shang Zhen looked at everyone in confusion as he didn't understand such exaggerated expressions on his colleagues, "I'm talking about Sky, the Enchanter God, who never lost in one on one battle. Isn't he friends with you from the Challengers club? You can contact him. We don't need to wait for the transfer window."
"No way." Riku and Zion reacted collectively at the same time.
"Eh?" The new members could only look at the seniors in confusion.