“Yaaaaah! I’ll kill you all and turn you into my eternal undead soldiers! Hahaha!”

On the screen, I see Ricard recklessly jumping into a group of enemies. Those are Fredloq’s vanguard, the monsters he uses to give himself some time so he can snipe out the enemy.

This is a very good tactic… but it doesn’t always work. Like right now.

After all, surrounding Ricard’s champion with lots of weak enemies isn’t a good plan. He can not only kill them fast thanks to Whirlwind but he also heals as he deals damage. So any amount of damage Fredloq can inflict upon Ricard will be offset by the health restored by his innate skill. In not so long, I expect Ricard to emerge victorious, and then Fredloq will have nowhere to run.

Which makes me think. Are they really that bad? Did the rest of the Dragon Knights team rely on Makarel so much that they can’t properly act now that she’s dead? Or it might be just Fredloq?

I don’t know, but… We’ll see how it goes.

Of course, it isn’t like I can actually hear Ricard’s screams and shouts. After all, we can’t hear anything from this control room.

It’s just that, after soooooooo many times having to listen to him when he turns into ‘roleplay mode’, I can imagine everything he says just by looking at his movements and actions.

Honestly, it isn’t that hard. He mostly repeats the same things all the time.

I can almost see his spit flying everywhere, like a completely deranged maniac! If only this wasn’t a game…

“Hahahaha! So tasty! This is what I live for! Now that I finally recovered my peak, it’s time for the main dish!”

Ricard raises his hands up as he laughs, before turning his head in Fredloq’s direction, who, by the way, is trying to run away right now.

But it’s too late now… poor guy… he unleashed Ricard’s full crazy mode and there’s no way to stop him now… only one of them can survive, and I certainly wouldn’t put my bet on Fredloq. Mostly because he’s a ranged champion who already lost his frontline mobs.

Oh, and I forgot to say, but Ricard isn’t alone either. He has the few remaining undead, those that didn’t participate in his clash against Makarel, with him. In short, four skeleton archers. That’s all, the rest were destroyed at the start of the match.

But since that’s too few support mobs, he borrowed my Good Followers. And he didn’t ask about it! Not like I could have given him permission since I’m dead, but still! He didn’t ask me if I could lend them or not!

“I swear, Baldy… If a single one of them dies, you’re going to pay for this…”

I put an evil face. At the same time, I strike my palm with my fist, in the typical thug-like pose.

“If a single one of them dies… no, if they get a single scratch, you’re going to pay, Baldy. I’m going to force you to… to… I don’t know, I’m going to force you into doing something! I’ll decide on what later, but assure you you won’t like it! Hahaha!”

After fooling around for a while, I once again turn to look at the screen.

As expected, Ricard caught up with Fredloq and has him surrounded with the help of the skeleton archers and my Good Followers. MY Good Followers.

“If nothing goes wrong, Baldy will kill Fredloq and we’ll have the advantage. It’s going pretty well now that Makarel is dead...”

A feminine voice says right next to me.

Oh, yeah. I’m not alone in the room. Still wearing her sexy secretary outfit and those sunglasses that make no sense in this dark room, Laura’s sitting on her chair and watching Ricard’s foolishness too.

I’m tempted to stick close to her the remainder of the match, like an actual haunting spirit, so that she gets the creeps when she watches the replay… But I’ll hold myself back for now. I don’t want to upset her too much.

Just blowing into her ear will have to do.

I move right next to her and prepare to blow into her ear - not like it will have any effect at all, but it’ll show when she watches the replay, as every viewer can see and hear the dead players - when I notice something.

“A shadow…?”

Something is moving through the room. I can’t see it properly. What is it? If I didn’t try to blow into Laura’s ear, I wouldn’t have noticed.

The shadow jumps at us after getting close enough! I’m dead right now, so the target must be Laura!

“Shit! This isn’t a shadow! It’s Nanashi!”

Now that they’re moving, I can see there are a few more shadows. This must be Nanashi’s assassin squad, moving undetected to achieve victory while we’re distracted by Ricard’s and Fredloq’s fight!

“Lily! It’s an ambush! Run! You can’t die here!”

But as expected, she can’t hear my voice, and the shadow draws closer.

Oh, no! I call bullshit! Now that we finally had a chance to win this game, having defeated Makarel…! This room works as the core room too! If Nanashi kills Laura, they’ll win this match because the core is right next to us!

The shadow moves forward. I see a dagger appear, reflecting the screen’s light. The shadow then swings the dagger, surrounded by an ominous light. This must be the effect of some skill, who knows how dangerous this attack might be!

“Lily! Evade!”

I want to pull my hair right now! I can’t do anything! We’re doomed!

“Noooo! We can’t lose like this!”

But then, Laura disappears and Nanashi misses the attack, passing through my phantasmal champion and dropping to the floor.

““W-what!?””

Both of us shout at the same time. I’m as surprised as Nanashi right now.

“Tsk! Did you really think I would forget about you, Nanashi? With so many cameras, it was easy to know where you were all the time!”

From my right, Laura’s voice makes me turn my head. Ooooh, she knew about the attack and used Blink at the last moment!

“I knew you wouldn’t be deceived like this, Laura! I always knew you would avoid that attack! Hahaha…!”

As I try to deceive myself, Nanashi raises from the ground and raises his weapon once again.

“So you knew… but this doesn’t change anything! You’re surrounded and outnumbered!”

At his words, more enemies appear from the shadows. Yeah… this doesn’t look good.

“Who said I’m outnumbered?”

She presses one big blue button and the ceiling opens, dropping several monsters into the room.

“”W-what!?””

Once again, both Nanashi and I exclaim at the same time.

Hey! Stop copying me already! Do you want to be like those crazy fools from the Mad Rat’s Cult, who copy everything I do!? Because if so, I’ll have to take drastic measures…

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Oh, now I remember! This is what Laura asked me when planning the match! She wanted to have some surprise in case an enemy managed to reach the control room… I just didn’t expect her to use it to drop several monsters on top of the enemy!

Yeah, all those big colored buttons come from my faction, so she had to ask me to create the mechanism first… I just didn’t listen to the rest of the plan.

“Now that things are balanced, let’s fight this out, Nanashi. Let’s see who’s the best!”

She seductively licks her lips and strikes the ground with her whip.

He snorts in response.

“Hmpf! You’re going to fall today. Killing Makarel is the most you can achieve! You did the impossible, but we’ll show you we can hold our ground too!”

Hah, what a prideful guy! Look at him, being so proud about being carried through the whole tournament! You got it so easy thanks to my older sister, but now you want to be recognized by the viewers as a good player…

You’re so shameless!

It’s the first time everyone will see if they are as good as they seem. Because let’s be honest, fighting under Marta and winning every match can make anyone look powerful, even if they’re total noobs.

The fight starts as Laura’s demons, those that fell from the hidden ceiling traps, and Nanashi’s assassin squad, clad in dark hooded robes, clash.

Unlike what happens in most fights between players, both Laura and Nanashi focus their efforts on reducing the number of enemies instead of directly fighting each other.

Hoh, it seems like both are quite good at making plans and focusing on victory over everything else… I slowly move to the side so I can see everything without getting too dizzy.

And talking about being good or bad, what’s happening on Ricard’s side? By now he should have killed Fredloq, right?

I once again look at the giant screen. In there, I can see Ricard struggling against a new group of enemies. They are…

“Hoh, isn’t that the last member of the Dragon Knights team, Drago?”

It looks like everything was a trap. Fredloq was the bait, and Ricard was the fish who ate it. Right now, Ricard’s troops are struggling to survive, and Fredloq, who was surrounded a while ago, is now about to escape the siege.

“Agh, it doesn’t look good… If nothing changes, Baldy will be against two players at the same time…!”

Something is launched in my direction. I instinctively duck, and it passes over my head. It’s… a humanoid charred corpse, with molten lava-like veins. One of Laura’s Hellspawns. The cloaked monster that threw the corpse in my direction receives a fire spell attack from behind and dies too.

Aaah, that scared me! Wait a moment… I’m dead already! They can’t do anything to me! There’s no need for me to worry about them at all!

But still, it’s annoying! I can’t see the screen like this! Angry at the situation, I shout.

“Hey! Can’t you see I’m trying to watch that screen!? If you want to fight, do it somewhere else!”

But they ignore my plead and continue the fight. As expected. They can’t hear me…

I return to look at the screen and see Ricard continuously slashing at Fredloq’s corpse while laughing like a lunatic.

He did it! But it isn’t really good, because to achieve it, he had to jump into a group of enemies, and those aren’t weak ones…

The combat continues. More corpses come flying my way “Hey, do you have something against me, or what!?” and the number of support units from both sides falls at an incredibly fast rate.

Ricard managed to survive so far, but Drago is now facing him.

He spent too much EP and MP in the previous fights, so there’s no hope for him. Also, Ricard himself admitted that Drago is better than him in melee combat… the outcome of this fight is evident.

By the way, he’s on top of a corpse pile right now, shouting something. I’m sure it’s something like “Hahaha! It doesn’t matter how many weaklings you send against me, I’ll kill them all and feed on their souls!”, I’m sure about it.

My surroundings finally calm down as only two or three slackers from each side remain alive. Laura and Nanashi turn to each other, preparing for the final clash.

“You were quite good. But now there are no more weaklings to protect you! Any last words!?”

“Heee… I never said I needed them to defeat you, you know?” Laura stretches her whip between her two hands as she talks. “Now that we’re alone and have some time… Tell me. How do you want me to punish you? Fufufu!”

Nanashi quickly gains the upper hand and moves behind Laura, ready to attack. But once again, she avoids the strike with Blink and swings her whip.

Ignoring the damage he took, Nanashi throws the dagger at Laura. It hits its target and leaves a purple mark. Is that… poison? She clicks her tongue and uses Revitalize on herself.

“Playing dirty tricks? I like it!”

“There are no dirty tricks in combat, succubus!”

Both of them clash a few more times, and Laura realizes she’s disadvantaged in melee, so she decides to use drastic measures.

“Hah! Let’s see how you survive this! Hellfire!”

The whole control room is engulfed by black flames, damaging everything inside it. Yes, this includes both Laura and Nanashi.

“Are you crazy? Well, I just need to kill you faster!”

Like this, the fight reaches a new height. Nanashi is hard-pressed because he’s taking lots of damage, and assassins aren’t the most resilient of units. In contrast, Laura has Revitalize to heal herself, which means she can survive for a lot longer.

That is, only if she doesn’t run out of MP first.

This fight would be so easy if she could use the Charming Eyes… but she was forced to use them to save herself before, during the grand melee, when Nanashi surprised her by suddenly switching targets to her.

So the skill is now on cooldown. Otherwise, she could easily kill him.

“Go, Lily! You can do it!” I cheer from the side. “If you kill him and survive this, I’ll follow one of your wishes!”

The fight continues, and the first one to fall is Nanashi. The trigger for the Guilty Pleasure skill activated at the worst time for him, and he was immobilized right when he was going to release his last attack.

The dark flames disappear as she releases the spell.

“Hah… I’m out of MP…” Laura looks at her stats. “If only I had enough to cast Revitalize once… I’m sorry, Mad Rat. It looks like it’s my end too…”

I want to ask why, but then I notice there’s a purple color covering part of her face. Hmm… it must be that damned poison again!

“Noooo! Lily! Not you! My most devout and sexy assistant!”

I cry as her champion drops to the ground. And soon, there’s a phantasmal version of herself looking in my direction.

I see Nanashi looking at me with a weird look on his face. Oh, yeah, I forgot about this… the enemies turn into phantoms too, so he heard my shameful cry… Agh, somebody kill me so I don’t have to face that stare!

He leaves the room in the direction where Drago is, though I’m not sure why. Not like I care.

“I’m sorry… I died too.”

She apologizes once again, dropping her head in shame.

“Don’t worry, you did well. At least you protected the core.”

Do you know what’s the best about this? That even if she watches the reply and listens to my promise, I don’t need to follow any of her wishes! Because I said I would do it if she killed him and survived! But she died, so…

I look at the screen again.

“Oh, what a nice timing! To be able to see the exact moment Baldy dies!”

“Hmm…? Oh, so he died too. I was too focused on my combat to watch what he was doing. Will we lose the match, then? Because the only one remaining is him, and it’s coming in this direction… he’ll break the core and win the game.”

*Tsk, tsk, tsk!* I tsk. I make sure to do it in the most annoying way I can, giving myself as much importance as possible.

“I think you’re forgetting about someone else.”

“You mean… Lemon? But didn’t she disappear somewhere?”

“Yeah, but...”

I look at the game’s clock. Since everything started, quite a lot of time has passed. It should be about time to know what Clara was doing all this time. Either she dies, or she breaks the enemy’s core. But it should come any moment now.

“Ah, here it is!”

At the same time I say it, the game’s window announcing the end of the match appears in front of us.

Hey, if I’m not wrong, everyone except for Drago and Clara died in this match, right? Hahaha! We were like dominoes, falling one after the other!

…wait a moment!

Now that I think about it… what did I exactly do in this match? Weren’t I quite useless all along? The only thing I did was press the auto-destruction button, and I didn’t even manage to achieve my objective…

Lame! I suck! I didn’t achieve anything a all in this match! Literally, everybody participated actively in it, and it was only I that did nothing at all!

Shame on me!

Though I won’t admit it in front of anyone. Let’s keep this a secret between us, ok?

“We achieved the impossible! We won!” I shamelessly say.

“We did it!”

Excited about our victory, Laura forgets about acting cool as she usually does and hugs me.

…because it can’t be a convoluted tactic to seduce me, can it? Nah, there’s no way.

I quickly refocus on what’s important. We won this match! The match that nobody thought we could win! Against the strongest team with a crazy pro player, my sister! And we managed to win!

“Hahahaha! Nobody can stop our team now!”

[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]

Surprising everyone, even themselves, The League of Evil defeated the Dragon Knights and reached the semifinals.

What nobody expected was the influx of viewers, curious about the team who defeated a professional player. The next match, the one against the Sword&Sorcery team, would reach the highest viewership of them all, including those matches between high-ranking players at the level 20 tournament.

The League of Evil’s popularity, as well as its awfully lame name, was skyrocketing. Would they reach the moon, or self-destruct midway? Though most viewers wouldn’t mind the former, the general opinion was closer to the latter.