[Party] Jaheun: Mid
[Party] Jaheun: Mid ball
[Party] Jaheun: Where did everyone go?
No one responded to Jaheun’s irritated message. Limousine was just as pissed, but he was still in the middle of combat and didn’t have the luxury to type. If they had any decency, they’d at least apologize—or come up with an excuse, damn it……
The ball was about to spawn, so he went to the center, only to find that the only teammates there were Jaheun and himself. They ended up facing all five enemies at once, and Jaheun was the first to go down. Limousine was holding on, but barely—he was basically in death throes mode.
No matter how high-ranked you were, no one could survive a focused gank like that. Even in the chaos, managing to take out two of them was a miracle.
Wondering what the hell the rest of the team was doing, he checked the map—only to see that after scoring the last touchdown, four of his teammates were still clinging to the enemy dual-blader at the goal point, wasting time. And it was still going on.
Now that he was dead and had time on his hands, Jaheun’s nasty personality exploded.
[Party] Jaheun: It’s already absurd that four people can’t kill one guy
[Party] Jaheun: If you can’t kill him, just leave him and come down
[Party] Jaheun: What’s the reason for standing around there doing nothing?
[Party] Dazzle: We’re stuck and can’t get out;
What a load of crap. That pathetic excuse just made his fingers fly faster.
[Party] Jaheun: What in the world can hold four people in place for over 30 seconds?
[Party] Jaheun: Is it a hidden skill or something ㅋㅋ
[Party] Jaheun: Isn’t it embarrassing to get pinned like that all at once?
[Party] ChuchuBingka: We’re waiting at the respawn point. What the hell do you want from us?
[Party] Jaheun: So you’re too good to run away, huh?
[Party] Jaheun: Then at least get a kill or something; you’re just getting toyed with
[Party] Dazzle: ;; Your tone is kind of harsh
The party members, clearly offended by the abrasive tone, latched onto his words and turned the blame on Jaheun.
[Party] ChuchuBingka: I’m sorry for being late due to pulling aggro, but could you maybe talk more nicely? This is supposed to be fun
[Party] Dazzle: We’d get it if you just said it nicely;; Your attitude though
Oh, really? Now they were acting like the victims. Before Jaheun could spit fire in return, Limousine, who had just died and finally had free hands, exploded with rage.
[Party] Limousine: ㅋㅋ Say what you want, but let’s stick to the facts
[Party] Limousine: Pulled aggro my ass…… we wouldn’t be saying any of this if you’d actually shown up eventually
[Party] Limousine: ‘We’d get it if you said it nicely’ ㅋㅋ You’re really pulling every excuse out of the book—if you need hand-holding and lessons here, just give up your rank and drop down
[Party] Limousine: So when is that dual-blader finally dying? Did he secretly get a buff? Will he die sometime today??
[Party] Limousine: How do four of you not kill one person???? Is it bad gear or just bad hands?
Jaheun’s chat was almost the voice of reason in comparison. The fiery rant left the party stunned and quiet. But Limousine wasn’t done yet.
[Party] Limousine: If you realize you were screwing up and dragging the team down, you should at least have the decency to apologize ㅋㅋㅋ
[Party] Limousine: You really think you’ve got the right to talk back to someone who actually went to mid, fought 2v5, and died trying to hold them off?
[Party] Limousine: Can’t move the ball, can’t get kills, won’t listen
[Party] Limousine: Can you at least do one of those, or are you barely even human?
[Party] Limousine: Seeing people like this flaunting their gold medals just makes me lose faith in the whole system
[Party] ChuchuBingka: ;;;
After that, the party chat went silent. Seemed like no one had anything left to say. As they shouldn’t, fuckers. It had been a while since Limousine had seen people this shameless. That match ended in a loss as both Limousine and Jaheun, now disheartened after the blow-up, started half-assing it.
“Hey, let’s wait a bit before we queue again.”
“Why?”
“I’ll be pissed if we run into those assholes again.”
“……You’re really mad.”
“Wouldn’t you be? Who the hell do they think they are, acting like that when they’re the ones who messed up?”
Jaheun looked at Limousine, who was fuming, with a peculiar expression. What was he looking at? Like it was surprising or something. Limousine, still bristling with aggression, shot him a sharp look.
If you queued right after a game ended, you were likely to match with players in the same score range, meaning they might run into those guys again. Not wanting to even see their faces, Limousine suggested they eat first and continue later. They agreed to take a break before returning. By now, it had become second nature to throw down a campfire item on the field like it was routine.
Neither Limousine nor Jaheun expected anything, but surprisingly, their team’s luck improved after that. The points that had been hovering between 7,000 and 7,500 for days shot up quickly to 8,000 like none of the past had ever happened. Looking back, the fact that their last season had ended in the high 12,000s meant this slump had been the actual anomaly.
Hopefully, they could reach 9,000 before the day was over. That vague thought crossed Limousine’s mind just as a notification popped up saying their team match had been found. His long-abandoned dream of reaching the Prism tier in a day had died a quiet death back when he became a deranked Gold.
During the countdown before the game began, he absently scanned the list of teammates—and then paused. A familiar nickname caught his eye.
[Clan] Limousine: ?
[Clan] Limousine: What the hell are you doing here?
[Clan] Americano: Ah fuck
[Clan] Americano: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Why are you here?
Americano and World Map were on the same team. Apparently, they were duo-ing—there was an indicator showing they were originally queued as a pair. Why were these two here? Why were they together? ……Well, guess they’d probably win this match. That cold, logical conclusion did make Limousine feel more at ease, but it didn’t answer his questions.
[Whisper] Limousine: So it worked out?
[Whisper] Americano: Yeah, yeah, no worries
Okay, so it had worked out—but then why were they duo-ing? Didn’t she say they were kinda seeing each other and broke it off……?
Don’t tell me they’re seeing each other again? That would mean World Map really is the trash option. Limousine fired off that biased judgment and glanced sidelong at World Map. Whether he was deliberately pretending not to notice or genuinely forgot, World Map stood calmly near Americano, just staring at the map.
[Clan] Limousine: Still not Prism tier yet?
[Clan] Americano: Nah, I only need 50 more points
[Clan] Americano: Just queued for a quick one, and bam, there’s our Mousiney ^^
[Clan] Americano: How many points do you have left?
[Clan] Limousine: Just hit Platinum
[Clan] Americano: Wait, how’d that match us together? Is the queue that dead?
[Clan] Moto: Mousine-nim is Platinum now?? Damn, guess the battleground system really is busted
Battlefield matchmaking was designed to ensure that the average score of each team remained roughly equal. If the team with the higher average won, they’d earn fewer points; if the lower-scoring team won, they’d earn more.
With Americano at 9,950 points and Limousine at 8,032, that meant the opposing team was likely averaging somewhere in the low 9,000s.
If a team had more high-average players, it often resulted in a firepower gap during mid-control fights. Naturally, it was a disadvantage.
[Party] Americano: I’ll take first ball
[Party] WorldMap: I’ll go to the side
[Party] Jaheun: Use sword stance as soon as we hit mid
Of course, that only applied to normal parties.
< The battlefield has begun. >
< A Milky Way Sphere has appeared! >
Though their scores had been tanking due to bad matchmaking luck, both Limousine and Jaheun were originally Prism-tier players. With Americano and World Map—also Prism-tier—on their team, it was effectively a Prism vs. Platinum match.
It was no surprise that the enemy team couldn’t keep up.
For once, Limousine and Jaheun gave up their usual safe roles of taking the first ball and supporting it, diving into the mid-fight instead. Limousine grabbed a dual-blader charging toward Americano, who had picked up the ball. As the enemy was yanked into the center, Jaheun was ready, immediately following up with a combo. A critical must’ve landed mid-chain, because the kill message popped up before the full combo was even over.
< ‘Jaheun’-nim has defeated ‘Joah’-nim. >
< 30 points awarded to the White Team! >
The moment Jaheun’s combo landed, Limousine spun around and charged toward an archer trying to poke from afar. He stripped the archer’s invulnerability skill in an instant, forcing a reaction, switching target lock to Limousine and activating a damage reduction skill.
‘That’s still gonna hurt.’
That’s how it was with full gear. Even a skill that felt like being poked with a toothpick would hit like a kitchen knife when used by a maxed-out character.
Limousine landed a couple more attacks under invulnerability, and the archer’s HP dropped by half almost instantly. The archer scrambled to use defensive skills, backing away to create distance. Ranged DPS classes, regardless of type, typically had low HP and defense. So the standard was to maintain a safe range where melee attackers couldn’t reach while dishing out heavy burst damage.
Like hell he was going to let them do that.
There’s always a fleeting moment—right after one defensive skill ends and just before the next one is activated—when a player is completely vulnerable. Just before the archer could slip out of range, Limousine timed it perfectly and landed a stun skill. The archer, who’d been moving, froze in place, and the barrage of attacks came to a halt. As Limousine adjusted his stance to land the final blow, he caught sight of Jaheun being launched into the air.
‘What the—? What got him airborne?’
Getting launched meant being completely exposed—easy prey for ranged DPS. It wasn’t uncommon to be dead before even touching the ground. One of the ranged attackers, the archer, was still tied up with Limousine, so Jaheun wasn’t dropping instantly, but his HP had already been chipped away significantly. If left alone, he’d be dead in seconds.
Clicking his tongue, Limousine stepped back from the archer and moved into range to cast a party skill on Jaheun.
“Wind Shield.”
< For 2 seconds, damage received by nearby party members is nullified. >
A swirling blue wind wrapped around Jaheun’s fragile-looking body, fluttering like paper in a storm. It was the visual effect of the party shield skill. A hidden quest reward from a brutal grind back in the day.
The stun must’ve worn off, right? When Limousine glanced back at the archer, his suspicion was confirmed—the archer had broken free while Limousine was distracted with Jaheun, retreated to a safe distance, and now had invulnerability up. Limousine briefly reviewed his cooldowns. The combo he originally intended was no longer viable. It’d be a bit wasteful to use this skill here, but…… saving it could cost him more.
He dashed at the archer again. Best to secure kills while he could.
< ‘Limousine’-nim has defeated ‘BlackGlasses’-nim. >
< 30 points awarded to the White Team! >
< ‘Americano’-nim has successfully delivered the Milky Way Sphere. >
< 200 points awarded to the White Team! >
Looks like Americano had made a clean touchdown, too. Losing this match would’ve been the bigger surprise. Man, she’s climbing to Prism tier fast. Must be nice.
After scanning the area, Limousine headed toward the enemy base, where Americano and World Map were already stationed. Despite having just scored, the two of them weren’t budging from the goal zone. Looked like they were planning to kill the respawning enemies right as they came back.
Jaheun, meanwhile, stayed in mid, presumably waiting to grab the next ball. I’ll go ahead and clear the path for you, hyung. As Limousine hustled up the lane, he spotted Americano and World Map already locked in battle up ahead. The mid-fight had gone so well earlier that they’d racked up a body count, and now the goal area was packed with respawning enemies.
Well, what could they do—couldn’t just not kill them.
A frenzy of flashy skill effects lit up the screen as chaos erupted—a kill-or-be-killed melee that was the true thrill of the battlefield. The 2v4 standoff had been turning against them, but with Limousine’s arrival, the fight evened out. Now this felt like a real battlefield.