12:31:01
Back Room of Owl’s Old Repository.
In the back room of Fox’s store, all members of Team Fox and Friends gathered. Aether, Midas, and Cypher sat around the metal table with curious expressions on their faces while Fox and Vix stood on either end of a large holographic screen floating in the air in front of them.
“The next team that we will be facing in the ‘Round of 32’ is,” Fox pressed the remote in her hand causing the screen to flash, “...Coldplay.” Unlike her usual spirited expression, her face looked very severe.
At her announcement, a hand shot up into the air. “Yes, Aether?” she asked the questioner.
“Are they famous?” Aether asked.
“The team itself is pretty new, only having registered this year,” explained Vix. “However, its captain, Dancing Gunslinger - Oma, and vice-captain, Drunken Fist, Lona, are pretty famous in the game’s circle.”
Fox, Midas, and Cypher nodded their heads seemingly knowing those names. Aether, however, had a ponderous expression as he continued to think quietly.
Noticing his expression, Vix curiously asked, “What’s up?”
“Nothing. It’s just that,” Aether slowly replied. “I can almost swear that I’ve heard this name somewhere before. I just can’t seem to put my finger on it.”
The others looked baffled at his answer.
“The name? Coldplay?” questioned Fox.
Aether nodded his head. “Yeah. Do you know about it?”
“Nuh-uh,” Fox shook her head. “Yesterday, when I got the announcement from the organisers about details of the next match, was the first time I heard that name.”
“The name sounds very cool,” Cypher softly whispered.
“I know, right!? Man, I thought I was the only one who thought that,” Midas exclaimed. “Such a cool name!” His eyes blazed with awe.
Vix suddenly burst into giggles. “Ahahaha, cool name,” he repeated and continued laughing.
Aether, who noticed his subtle tone change immediately said, “I got that reference. It is indeed very cool!” He then also joined Vix in his giggles.
“Reference? What reference?” Midas asked while bobbing his head. He did not understand why Aether and Vix were suddenly giggling.
“What’s so funny– Oh! I get it!” Having been struck by a bolt of realisation, Cypher also joined the duo in their laughter. “How very cold of you. Not letting me in sooner!”
“Relax, Cypher. No need to be so icy,” smirked Aether.
“Yeah, yeah,” Vix nodded his head. “You just need to chill! AHAHAHA!!” The trio burst into even louder laughter.
Fox watched this happen from the sidelines and rubbed her forehead to stall the oncoming headache. “Seriously, you guys are worse than children.”
Midas tugged at Fox’s sleeves and asked, “Boss, why are they laughing? I don’t get the joke.” The incomprehension was evident in his eyes.
Patting Midas’ hands, she replied, “Ignore them, Midas. They’re idiots.” She then glared at the giggling trio and slammed her hand on the table. “Enough! We’ve got to continue our meeting!”
“Oh, save it, Fox. You’re just jealous that you didn’t get the joke sooner,” Vix brutally revealed Fox’s inner thoughts causing her to blush red with shame.
“N-no, I’m not!” She tried to defend herself only to grow incensed as their laughter turned towards her. Stomping heavily, she rushed towards Vix, grabbed him by his cuffs, and strangled him. Being used to such violence, Vix easily slipped her hold and began running away.
“Stop running away, coward! Come and face me like a real man!” Fox screamed as she ran after Vix.
“Oh, please! What’s with the sexism? Why don’t you fight me like a real woman?” Vix immediately mocked before continuing to run in circles.
Aether and Cypher watched the ensuing pandemonium with great entertainment. They even lamented the lack of snacks to nibble at as they watched all hell break loose.
Midas, the only innocent and uninvolved member of the chaos, watched the proceedings with a tilted head.
And like usual, the day for Team Fox and Friends began.
---
“Like I was telling before, Team Coldplay is a new up-and-coming team and our next opponent in the Ascenders Cup. They are led by Oma, the ‘Dancing Gunslinger’, a veteran Gunner who is very renowned within the game’s professional scene for his skills. He is assisted by his long-time partner, Lona, who goes by the moniker of ‘Drunken Fist’. As the name suggests, she’s a Brawler and a very good one at that,” explained Vix, now possessing a black eye.
He then turned to his assaulter, Fox, who had a pouty expression on her face and kept her arms folded against her chest, and said, “Care to continue? Captain?” Vix darkly announced.
Perhaps realising that she had reacted too fiercely, Fox shot him an apologetic look before faking a cough to relieve her awkwardness. She then walked up to the screen and took over, “As our magnanimous vice-captain pointed out, our main threats this time are these two players.” She pointed at the avatars on the screen.
“Don’t get me wrong, the three other players are also good. However, these two, Oma and Lona, are simply on a different level.” She then pressed her remote causing a video to play on the screen.
The rest of the team watched the soundless video play with great interest. Their gazes, which were relaxed at first, became heavier as the video progressed and the skills of those two players became more pronounced.
The video that Fox was playing right now was the previous matches played by Team Coldplay. To describe their battle; it was simply… stunning.
Since Fox and Vix had already cut out all the unnecessary parts, the video only played for less than thirty minutes. When it finished, the atmosphere around the table was serious.
Being the oldest and most skilled player amongst them, Aether released the breath that he was holding and said, “Wow.” He was impressed.
“They are incredible,” said Cypher.
“They are super-duper awesome!” exclaimed Midas.
It was evident that the opponent’s performance had shocked and amazed Team Fox and Friends.
Noting the expressions of her teammates, Fox then subtly glanced at Vix and nodded her head. The latter, catching her signal, reached into the box by his feet and retrieved a few slim, transparent electronic tablets.
Handing a tablet to each member of the team, he said, “If you take a look at the data that I’ve compiled laid out on the tablet in your hands, you will see the performance of our opponents represented in empirical values.”
Taking a deep breath, he heavily said, “In terms of bare data, our opponents, this includes all members of Team Coldplay, outstrip us in terms of game awareness, mechanical skill, and reaction times. We are simply outmatched.”
Vix tapped on his tablet which caused the screens in the hands of the others to change. The opponent’s data was now being shown side-by-side with their own. A peek at the difference table caused the faces of each member to pale considerably.
“This, of course, does not include Aether,” Vix swiped on his screen causing the larger common screen to flash and display Aether’s comparison data. “Aether is the only member of our team whose performance in each field outclasses that of our opponents.”
Unlike the others, whose numbers were displayed in red signifying that they were lesser than the opponents, Aether’s numbers were displayed in green. In certain fields such as ‘instant decision making’ and ‘situational awareness’ his numbers were displayed in purple, signifying that he surpassed them by a large margin.
After giving his teammates a few dozen seconds to digest his words, Vix then resumed speaking. “So far, we’ve managed to beat our opponents overwhelmingly. This can be attributed to our superior skills and intricate planning.”
“However,” Vix’s tone deepened. “If we were to face Team Coldplay with our current skills, we would get crushed.” He bitterly shook his head.
Everyone seemed to jolt with shock. Their previously blazing eyes now looked still. ‘Crushed’. Otherwise known as, ‘getting one-sidedly beaten’. For wanna-be champions of the tournament, such an evaluation was simple soul-crushing.
Vix and Fox quietly watched their teammates ponder. The latter gazed at them with worry while the former watched them calmly. The navy blue-haired strategist had intentionally been harsh with his words. He had a reason for doing so.
While the others hadn’t shown it, Vix’s sharp senses had noticed something negative about the team.
Unknowingly, their recent stream of successes –be it winning overwhelmingly in the first two rounds of the tournament or the joining of a god-level player like Aether– had inflated their egos and made them overconfident. Again, they hadn’t shown this overconfidence overtly but subconsciously exposed subtle signs of it.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
As the eldest son of one of the top bigshots of this city, Vix had undergone strict education from his youth. And through such strict education, a few important concepts and adages were branded onto his very bones. One such adage was as follows.
‘Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.’
If he did not correct his issue from its root and allowed it to grow within this team, Vix understood that it would become impossible for his team to become champions. He had to pull it from its roots and correct the distortion as soon as possible.
And to do that, Vix had to knock his teammates down by a few pegs.
That being said, the data which he compiled and presented were absolutely true and without a hint of falsehood. Vix wasn’t lying when he said that each of them, except Aether, was outclassed by the members of Team Coldplay.
If they did not undergo an evolution within these five days, their dreams of reigning victories would come to a swift end!
“What must we do?” Cypher hoarsely asked with his head lowered. Vix narrowed his eyes on this teammate of his and noticed that his tightly clenched fists were trembling.
His gaze then passed around and he noticed that the other members were also more or less reacting similarly. Their faces seemed depressed but their eyes seemed to burn competitiveness.
A pleased smile appeared on Vix’s face. Good. This was exactly the reaction that he was hoping for from his teammates.
“Do you want to know?” he asked.
“Yes,” they answered in unison.
“Do you want to avoid being crushed?”
“Yes!”
“Do you want to win!?”
“YES!!”
“THEN YOU MUST EVOLVE!!” Vix bellowed at the top of his lungs. He fiercely turned around and pressed on the remote controlling the large, common screen.
The blank screen flashed to life and a blank screen containing a single word appeared before their eyes.
[OPERATION METAMORPHOSIS]
---
Vix’s impassioned speech alighted the hot-bloodedness within their hearts and the latent potential within their souls. At the height of their morale, they jumped into the matter of training.
“Wanting to improve in all aspects in only five days is sheer folly.” Vix harshly barked, dousing their burning passion. “However,” he quickly added.
“It is possible for us to improve certain aspects of our strength in order to prevail over our opponents,” he finished. Pointing at the common screen, he elaborated, “Let’s start with Midas for example. Your ‘decisiveness’ is the lowest amongst all players.” Vix pulled up a chart.
“Due to your lacking ‘decisiveness’, you lose ‘initiative’ during exchanges almost 55% of the time. This is simply unacceptable,” Vix shook his head while Aether faintly nodded his.
Aether had to admit, Vix’s foresight was indeed very sharp. As he had pointed out, Midas lacked decisiveness which often resulted in him missing opportunities to seize the initiative. In frontal combat, ‘initiative’ was often the difference between victory and defeat.
“Your training over the next few days will be focusing on training your decisiveness. You will learn to seize ‘initiative’, thereby increasing the rate of your successful confrontations.” Vix sharply gazed at the bony youth. “Understood?”
“Yes, vice-captain!” Midas nodded and promptly saluted. He seemed to be a little frightened by Vix’s aura.
Turning his head, his gaze landed on the next target. “Fox,” he barked.
The pink-haired young lady unconsciously straightened her back and stared at her teammate. “Y-yes, Vix?” Similar to the bony youth, she also found Vix’s current aura to be frightening.
“To tell you the truth, your skills as they are right now are simply… trash.”
“Uh?” Fox seemed shocked for a moment before narrowing her eyes. “Oi. What did you just call me?” she asked, threateningly.
“Trash. T. R. A. S. H,” Vix repeated. Not a shred of kindness or tact was found anywhere on his body.
Just as Fox was in the midst of standing up dangerously, Vix unfolded his hands and pressed his remote. The common screen blinked to life and played a video of the ‘Dancing Gunslinger.’
Fox's eyes were inadvertently drawn to the large screen. Seeing the video, her body stiffened and her pupils expanded. Even her mouth seemed to have gone agape.
Giving her a few minutes for realisation, Vix said, “Do you understand why I called you trash?” He then waited but did not receive a reply from her. Having expected such a reason, he indifferently continued, “The Dancing Gunslinger, Oma, is known for his fluid, dance-like combat style. His skills in mid-range and long-range fighting are nothing to write home about. He’s perfectly average in those areas.”
“However,” Vix’s tone sharpened. “When it comes to close-range combat, he turns into a monster. The 10m radius around him is an unchallenged death zone. Enter it, and you will leave a bullet-riddled corpse.”
“As you can see, the Dancing Gunslinger challenges the norms and traditional playstyle of the Gunner. He has created a unique playstyle that makes use of the Gunner’s above-average agility and the game’s rapid-fire guns. This, coupled with his inhumane reaction times and monster-like adaptability makes him a true force to reckon with.”
“If you were to be compared with him in mechanical skill and combat awareness, you are just trash. Garbage. Unrecyclable waste,” Vix harshly criticised.
Just as when the light within Fox’s eyes seemed to be on the verge of disappearing and falling into the abyss of despair, his words continued, “That being said, it isn’t like you are hopeless.”
Fox turned to face Vix akin to a dying man finding water. He said, “As excellent as the Dancing Gunslinger is, his playstyle is inherently flawed. The Gunner isn’t meant to be played at close-range at all! It is a character, carefully crafted to engage one’s opponents in mid-range and long-range combat!”
“And this is where,” Vix flashed a sneaky smile, “you shine.”
He then assigned her specific training tasks to accomplish in this five-day period. Fox graciously received her thanks, saluted Vix, and headed towards her VR pod to begin training.
Now, there were only two left.
“Cypher,” Vix turned to face the smaller boy.
“Yes, vice-captain.” Facing Vix’s unrelenting aura, Cypher was strangely composed. His eyes looked calm and determined while his back stood straight.
“Do you know where you are lacking?” he asked.
Cypher shook his head.
Changing the screen behind him once again, he said, “You play PeaceKeeper, the most popular and newbie-friendly character in the game. And honestly, you’re pretty good at it.”
“Thank you, vice-captain,” Cypher received the unexpected compliment.
“However!” Vix sharply yelled. “Your problem is the same as the Dancing Gunslinger’s!”
“The same as our opponent?” This time, Cypher seemed really shocked.
Nodding his head, Vix explained, “As I had just pointed out, your playing of the PeaceKeeper is against the commonly established norm. Your unique playstyle of the character, while unique and certainly excellent, fails to excavate the full potential of the character.”
Without giving Cypher a second to contemplate the meaning of his words, Vix continued, “Tell me, what kind of a character do you think the PeaceKeeper is?”
The sudden esoteric question caused Cypher to falter. “What kind of a character the PeaceKeeper is?”
“That’s correct. Give me your headcanon of the character. If the PeaceKeeper was a real, actual person, how would he be? In your own words, please.”
Hearing his request, Cypher looked lost. To be honest, he had never given such deep thought to the character.
What kind of character was the PeaceKeeper? Why did he choose it at the start? Why does he play the character the way he does?
Vix’s one request caused branches of question to grow within Cypher's mind. Lowering his head, he intensely thought for a few minutes. Having arrived at an answer, Cypher raised his head, opened his closed eyes, and answered, “The PeaceKeeper is… strong.”
Vix furrowed his brows at his answer. “Strong?”
Cypher nodded his head in reply. “He is strong, tall, and unbending. He never flinches before a calamity and never turns his back on a challenge. He is unafraid and courageous and does not fear heading into danger. He is…!”
‘...everything that I am not.’ Cypher left the final sentence unsaid.
The reason he chose to play the PeaceKeeper. The reason why he was attracted to the character in the first place was simply as he had answered.
Cypher played the PeaceKeeper because it reminded him of everything that he was not. He played it because doing so made him feel… strong.
“I see.” Vix did not speak any further. A tense atmosphere settled as neither party spoke. Vix continued to deeply gaze at Cypher while the latter gazed at the ceiling.
After an unknown length of time, Vix broke the silence. “I can see why you play the PeaceKeeper the way you do. That being said, have you never thought about the PeaceKeeper as a ‘protector’?”
Cypher’s eyes widened. His brain suddenly seemed to explode as a path that he had never seen before opened up within his mind.
A Protector. The PeaceKeeper with the large Tower Shield and his Rapid Folding Sword was a protector.
“Your playstyle of the PeaceKeeper is very aggressive. You always rush forward towards your opponents, seeking to use your overbearing stats to outrightly crush them,” Vix elaborated.
“But!” He turned. “Do you remember what happened in our last round?”
Cypher recalled the opponent’s changed tactics and bitterly nodded his head. “They drew me in, set up a kill box, and killed me. I couldn’t resist in the slightest.”
“Exactly,” Vix nodded his head. “They had to only fight you once to understand your playstyle and adapt to it. And this happened with them having no prior information about you.”
Unlike the Round of 32, which they were about to face, the opponents for the Round of 64 were announced on the day of the match itself. This resulted in both teams being unable to make any preparations against the other.
“Now imagine what would happen if the opponent had prior knowledge of your playstyle?” Vix suggested.
His PeaceKeeper would be slaughtered. He probably wouldn’t even catch sight of his opponent before dying helplessly.
Imagining such an outcome, Cypher’s fists clenched tightly. An intense sense of powerlessness consumed him from within.
Cypher was reminded of his conversation with Aether yesterday. He remembered telling the older man how weak and powerless he found himself to be. He told him that his friends and this game were what gave him the strength to continue living.
Now imagining this sense of power being ripped away from him within the game, Cypher felt his body grow cold. His pupils shook and his mind grew weak. The feeling of self-loathing and hatred slowly crept onto him akin to a poisonous snake slithering over his naked body.
It was a hateful feeling.
Biting down on his lips and drawing blood from them, Cypher announced, “...I don’t want to feel powerless. I don’t want this strength taken from me.”
“Then listen well,” Vix declared. He then gave specific instructions to Cypher. The one-sided exchange lasted for a good ten minutes.
At the end of it, Vix asked the smaller boy, “Did you understand all of that?”
Cypher nodded his head.
“Good. Then go now and begin your training,” Vix showed him a soft smile. He then sent him away.
With Cypher gone, only Aether remained. The older man watched the vice-captain with a warm gaze.
“You’re a good person,” Aether suddenly said.
Laughing weakly at Aether’s sudden compliment, Vix replied, “My family would disagree.”
Aether did not reply and simply nodded his head. He then looked at Vix with a faint smile and asked, “What about me, vice-captain? Got any advice for me?”
“I’m afraid I’m not at a level where I can advise you,” Vix honestly admitted. It was true. While being an excellent player possessing a keen eye, Vix was unable to see through the depths of Aether’s combat talent.
To him, Aether was just as unfathomable as the sacred land blessed by God; Eden.
“Well, don’t sweat it. I’ve noticed the areas where I’m lacking and the areas where I can improve,” Aether casually said. Unlike the rest of his teammates, Aether wasn’t a novice at combat. He possessed the eyes to recognise his faults and the knowledge of how to fix them.
“I can rest easy then,” Vix replied with relief. He then looked toward Aether and asked, “If I may ask you for a favour. Could you help me with something?”
Aether chuckled at his overly polite demeanour and replied, “You’re my employer, vice-captain. As long as it is something that I can do, you’re free to order me around however you like.” He bowed.
Giggling at Aether’s exaggerated reply, Vix proudly said, “Well then, employee Aether. You will now help me with my training.”
“Your wish is my command.”
The two friends headed towards the VR pods and immersed themselves in training. Time passed and the days rapidly slipped by. Before they knew it, five days had already passed.
It was the day of the match; the Round of 32.