After I was sold for 1,005 points, the rest of the auction barely registered in my mind. The only thing I remembered was Furia laughing beside me, saying I'd completely lost it mentally.
While I was sighing like that, a message popped up on the official Quasdae channel.
-Is anyone scheduled for something afterward?
One of the Quasdae staff members had posted it. I didn't have anything planned, so I casually replied.
-I don't have anything scheduled.
-Me neither.
-I'm good.
.
.
.
Starting with my message, the other players each gave their answers as well. I wasn't sure why they were asking about our schedules, but there was no harm in sharing, so I just responded. After confirming that no one had plans, the staff explained why they'd asked.
-After the official broadcast ends, we're thinking of doing a quick scrim with the teams from the mock auction. Would that be okay?
They wanted to throw together a scrim on the spot.
UR-ranked players and coaches wouldn't be able to grasp the strengths and weaknesses of lower-tier players all at once. The purpose was probably to get a general sense of everyone's overall skill through this improvised scrim.
If that was the goal, I had no choice but to participate.
'This is my chance to prove my real skill after being overvalued. I absolutely have to prove it.'
I had to prove that I wasn't worth 1,005 points. I couldn't let them complete a team that would force me to carry the entire load.
The scrim was arranged, and until the official broadcast ended, I talked with Furia.
"Am I really worth 1,005 points?"
"Haha! After Margus hyped you up like that, you've gotta at least be worth that much."
"No, but 1,005 points for someone who only got SSR because of physical ability is way too much…."
If this had been during the PC days, I would've just resigned myself and thought I had to carry no matter what. Back then, I'd streamed for a long time and had plenty to prove.
But this wasn't PC. I wasn't used to the game Battle Hill yet, and on top of that, I still hadn't adapted to the capsule.
'The movements I picture in my head aren't coming out.'
There was some kind of delay, which made it extremely difficult to play the way I wanted. In that situation, 1,005 points felt like they were trying to choke me to death.
So this time, I was determined to prove it properly.
While I was thinking that, I heard Ponia's voice in the official broadcast interview. They were interviewing the UR-ranked players one by one, and it was her turn.
I cleared my head and started watching the interview.
"Let's find out why our UR-ranked player spent 1,005 points on Pilgong."
-This guy's grinding his teeth.
-At 1,005 points, that's basically guaranteed pack mule.
-He hasn't even adapted to the game yet. Anyone would be mad at that price lol.
-1,005 points lololol what the hell lol.
-Aren't they just trying to drown him lol.
The viewers must've found my point total ridiculously high because the chat was flooded with laughter.
I focused and listened seriously to the conversation between Ponia and the commentators.
"Hello, Ponia!"
"Hello."
-It's the goddess!
-Now I get why everyone says her voice is amazing!
-Her voice is insanely good.
-So that's why Furia said he wanted to join Ponia's team.
-With a voice like that, I'd move even after death.
She'd only said hello once, and my chat exploded. Honestly, even to me, her voice was on a completely different level, so I couldn't really argue.
Still, she was the one who'd spent 1,005 points on me - my assassination target - so I watched the interview without reacting.
"I think this is what viewers are most curious about. You spent 1,005 points on Pilgong. What were you thinking?"
The commentator immediately asked the question I wanted answered. That just showed how many people were puzzled by her spending 1,005 points on me.
I listened carefully, wondering what on earth she'd been thinking, when an unexpected answer came from Ponia.
"I actually started internet streaming because of Pilgong. I watched all the way through his final PC broadcast. I'm a hardcore fan, so I picked him."
A hardcore fan.
That one sentence explained everything. Things like that had happened a few times during PC Quasdae too, so it wasn't unheard of.
But the fact that she'd watched my final PC broadcast told me just how much of a hardcore fan she was. That meant she'd been among the fewer than 100 average viewers back then.
'I don't remember seeing the nickname Ponia in chat.'
I'd never seen it in the viewer list either. While I was still flustered by the fact that she was supposedly my hardcore fan, the interview continued.
"Oh, I see. I guess that's something you can do because it's a mock auction. So you picked him because you're a hardcore fan?"
"That's part of it, but when I heard he beat Margus, I thought I had to recruit him immediately."
"Oh? Really?"
"Yes. He used to carry the load during PC Quasdae, and considering he fought Margus in a pure physical matchup and won, I believe he's worth over 1,000 points."
Ponia said it calmly, but the more I listened, the paler my face became.
If she was really my fan, I wished she'd stop overhyping me. That thought wouldn't leave my head. After that, she talked about other teammates and why she chose the coach, then the interview ended.
"If she's talking like that, she really must be your hardcore fan."
"If she's my fan, can't she stop overhyping me?"
"It's fate."
"I don't want to hear that from someone who got sold for 300 points."
If I'd been overpriced at 1,005 points, then he'd been sold at a fair price for 300. That made his attitude even more annoying.
Seeing Furia laughing beside me while I was suffering like this made me seriously consider punching him.
While we were having that pointless conversation, the official broadcast ended, and finally, it was time for the scrim. Furia and I moved straight to the official channel.
"There are a lot of people."
"Well, yeah. You don't often see twenty streamers gathered together."
I looked around, checking the streamers' faces. There were quite a few people I thought it would be nice to connect with through this Quasdae.
And for some reason, someone glaring at me also caught my eye.
"Who's that?"
"Hm? That's someone named Ramen, an SR-ranked player. I've heard he's considered one of the better picks among the SR rank."
"Then why is he staring at me like that?"
"Isn't it because of the interview earlier?"
"The interview?"
I asked Furia back, not recalling anything that would explain it.
I hadn't been the one interviewed, so I couldn't see why I'd be getting that kind of look. I considered the point difference, but since I was an irregular, that didn't seem like a reason either.
While I was thinking that, Furia offered his guess.
"Ponia said she's your hardcore fan. Maybe he's jealous?"
"She didn't say she was his girlfriend. Would someone really glare like that just because she said she's a fan?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's just that kind of fan room atmosphere. That's the only thing I can think of."
If that really was the reason, it was a little scary. It meant other viewers from Ponia's stream might react the same way. Just as I was feeling slightly unsettled, the scrim finally began in earnest.
"That guy was the werewolf back then?!"
The moment the werewolf appeared in the Quasdae participant introduction video, Ramen shouted. It had only been a few days ago, so he still hadn't calmed down.
Whenever he thought about the mission money that had been on the line, his vision still went dark. On top of that, he'd fallen into a trap and been killed in a single blow, embarrassing himself in front of his viewers.
'So the one who humiliated me back then is that guy over there?'
Thinking that, Ramen glared at the official broadcast.
-Why are you so mad?
-Probably because he failed that money mission.
-It was almost a million won on the line, so I get it.
-Still, even with money involved, is there a reason to react this strongly?
-This is kind of off-putting.
The viewers were typing that something seemed off, but Ramen didn't see any of it.
While he was grinding his teeth, Ponia appeared in the interview. Ramen had always been a huge fan of hers, so just seeing her on screen eased his anger.
Then she said she was a hardcore fan of Pilgong, the one who had humiliated him.
'Ponia is a hardcore fan?'
Unforgivable.
Soon after, a scrim with the temporary auction teams was hastily arranged, and none of the participating streamers declined. Ramen came to the official channel, eyes blazing as he searched for Pilgong.
'I'll kill him. At least that guy, I'll kill him myself.'
Ramen, who usually did whatever he wanted, absolutely hated when things didn't go his way. And this Pilgong was someone he couldn't control.
So he glared at the streamer named Pilgong. If the viewers or fellow streamers had known what was going on in Ramen's head, they would have thought the same thing.
Cut ties.
"First, we'll be playing a total of three scrim matches. Each match will be on a different map. The teams will remain as they were formed in the mock auction."
"Will we be given time to plan strategies?"
"Yes, you'll be given time for strategy. We'll start the first match right at 4."
After hearing the staff's explanation, everyone grouped up with their teammates and moved somewhere they couldn't be overheard. Furia and I also headed to our respective teams.
"Even if we're close, it's a match. I won't go easy on you."
"Cut me some slack. I can't beat you anyway."
Furia warned me he wouldn't hold back, and I half-jokingly asked him to go easy. Maybe because he knew I wasn't entirely joking, he laughed and headed to his team.
Furia and I had lived in the capsule world for different lengths of time. That meant beating him would be difficult.
'I'll give it my all, but the gap is obvious.'
Even beating Margus had been a gamble that relied on luck, so it would probably be the same this time. That's what I thought. Though the person who picked me and my teammates seemed to think differently.
"I'll tell you the operation name for this temporary scrim."
Including me, four teammates gathered in front of Ponia. After confirming everyone was present, she began explaining the strategy for this scrim.
Actually, there wasn't much to explain. Just hearing the name of the strategy made it obvious what it was.
"Our team's operation name is Pilgong Jige-kun (Pilgong the Pack Mule)."