***
***
A little before the start of the 3rd match.
“And… Wouldn’t it be better to lose the 3rd match as well?”
Coach Davis gathered the players and brought up the topic related to this match.
“C-Coach…”
“They have vowed to execute player Seong Jihan. There must be some trick in the 5th match map. A 50 percent chance, it can happen at any time. We can’t entrust humanity’s fate to a coin toss.”
“Then we’ll end up losing anyway…”
“Yes. But losing doesn’t mean people will die. Especially player Seong Jihan will survive.”
For humanity, Seong Jihan now accounted for more than 50 percent of their power.
In addition to playing such an important role as a key card in the Space League, he also earned a significant portion of points for humanity on a regular basis.
“A 50 percent chance, it’s indeed worrisome.”
“Although I think player Seong Jihan can overcome the elves’ tricks…”
“That’s right. Didn’t he even resolve the brainwashing of the constellation King of Humans”
Even if they really had bad luck and ended up going to the 5th match, the representative team players believed Seong Jihan could resolve it, but,
“Is there a need to take the risk?”
“If player Seong Jihan gets executed by any chance, only a terrible ending awaits humanity.”
“I agree with the coach. Don’t you remember the last game against the Zojin race? We lost even to the 20th-ranked race because player Seong Jihan wasn’t there. It’s better to just take 1 loss.”
Still, to avoid even the slightest possibility, the players generally agreed with the coach’s opinion.
“Player Seong Jihan… You’re okay with it, right?”
Coach Davis asked for the opinion of the person in question.
Although he devised this strategy to save Seong Jihan, if he himself wanted to go out, they couldn’t stop him, so his attitude was cautious.
Seong Jihan listened to this silently and asked him a question.
“How do you plan to lose?”
“I had the second-string players practice in advance. They will commit suicide with poisoned daggers.”
“Ah…”
The representative team players looked at Coach Davis in admiration.
As expected of the humanity representative team’s coach, not just anyone can do it.
When did he even prepare for such a thing?
“Suicide…”
“Do you have any concerns, by any chance?”
When Seong Jihan trailed off, Coach Davis watched him with anxious eyes, but,
“No. Let’s do that.”
Seong Jihan soon nodded and expressed his consent.
In fact, he wondered if the World Tree Elves would let them commit suicide so meekly, but,
‘Rather, from my perspective, it might be better if it fails. If we start losing here, it will be difficult for humanity to accumulate enough points to get promoted from the bronze league.’
Seong Jihan thought it would be fine even if the plan failed.
Anyway, no matter what scheme they plotted in the 5th match, he was confident he could break through it.
And then,
“Yes, understood!”
At Seong Jihan’s answer, Coach Davis’s face brightened.
This looked as if the coach had received permission from the player Seong Jihan and made the final decision, but the watching coaching staff and players thought it was natural.
‘Whether it’s the Korean national team or the humanity representative team, Seong Jihan’s importance is absolute.’
‘He’s a player above the coach anyway.’
The 3rd match started as planned.
At first, it seemed like the game was flowing according to Coach Davis’s intention.
Flash! Flash!
Most of the 50 players who participated in this match began to log out.
-No… What is this?
-Seong Jihan isn’t coming out, why are they committing suicide?
-Did the coach throw the game by any chance?
-Ah! It seems like they don’t want to go to the 5th match; If they’re unlucky there, Seong Jihan might get executed.
-Aha… It’s better to lose than have Seong Jihan die.
-But if we lose like this every time we face the World Tree Elves, it’s too much of a loss…
-Before that, we need to build our own strength and win in situations like the 1st and 2nd matches.
The viewers, who were initially surprised by the suicide of the humanity representative team, quickly grasped the situation and supported it, but,
“Oh… Are you going to commit suicide?”
An elf who flew like an arrow towards the human side rushed to a warrior who hadn’t died yet.
“We can’t let that happen.”
Then, the elf opened his inventory and took out a leaf.
He immediately fed it to the surviving human warrior.
“Ugh…”
Then, the human warrior’s poisoning was quickly healed.
The elf saw that and smiled brightly.
“We’ll be the ones to commit suicide.”
He stabbed his own neck with the wooden sword he was holding.
Poof!
Then, the sword pierced right through the elf.
Swoosh…
The elf’s entire body split apart and still turned to dust and disappeared.
-Wow, what’s with the elf’s speed??
-The map was too small… They found out about the suicide mission too quickly
-No, but it’s also creepy how they immediately noticed and killed themselves, haha.
-Look at them dying after eating the leaf?
And following his lead, the elves’ suicide parade began.
Poof! Poof!
The elves who were running towards the human side, when the leading elf committed suicide, all stopped their advance and, took out their wooden swords and stabbed themselves.
=Ah. What kind of scene is this…!
=Can there be such a bizarre match? In the 3rd match, all the players from both sides are commiting suicide…!
=The, the only one surviving. The only player is Nguyen!
=Humanity wins the 3rd match!
=He will automatically be selected as the 3rd match MVP like this…
=It couldn’t be helped! The elves died too quickly!
Humanity, who won the 3rd match in the blink of an eye thanks to the elves committing suicide in an instant.
Coach Davis saw this result and distorted his face.
“Those crazy elf bastards…!”
What the hell did they prepare for the 5th match that they committed suicide in such unison?
Moreover,
“The elves’ crazy regenerative power… Why didn’t it apply this time?!”
“I saw earlier that they only committed suicide with wooden swords. Could it be related to that?”
“I think so. I saw the magicians also taking out small wooden swords from their inventory and stabbing their necks…”
“Phew, it’s really creepy!”
Coach Davis let out a deep sigh.
He tried to save humanity’s greatest power, Seong Jihan, even if it meant losing by suicide.
But looking at the result of the 3rd match, it seemed like they would be forced to win the 4th match as well.
“In the 4th match, can’t we commit suicide… faster than the elves?”
“…We’ll try our best.”
Let’s die as quickly as possible somehow.
The humanity representative team thought so and selected only the players with the lowest health, mainly the mage line, and sent them out for the 4th match, but,
=The 4th match begins!
=This map is a dungeon map! ‘Seven Caves’. This map is…
The commentators who were about to explain the map before the start of the 4th match,
[The opposing race ‘World Tree Elves 200’ has been annihilated.]
[The race ‘Humanity’ wins the 4th match.]
[The 4th match ends.]
lost their words for a moment upon seeing the game that ended in an instant.
=The 4th match… didn’t even take 1 second!
=…Among the matches I’ve done commentary on, I’ve never seen a match end as quickly as this one.
=I thought the 3rd match was legendary, but the 4th match broke that record.
The ultra-fast Space League match that didn’t even take 10 minutes combined for the 3rd and 4th matches.
-It’s crazy today, really, haha. To see them committing suicide to lose against each other in the Space League.
-Oh no, I just ordered chicken, but will it end before it arrives?
-The 5th match is still left. That’s the main dish.
-Ugh, I hope nothing strange happens in the 5th match…
-The elves must have set a trap, but Seong Jihan will resolve it for us…
The 5th match that humanity tried their best not to go to even by committing suicide was approaching.
* * *
The coaches’ room of the Space League.
The coaches of both teams were summoned there for the ban-select card of the 5th match.
“Hoho. Coach, you used your head a bit. We almost won, you know?”
The Elf High Priest smiled and looked at Davis.
“It’s not like there haven’t been races that used this strategy. In the latter half of the league, races give up the game because they don’t want to be executed by us World Tree Elves.”
“…We weren’t the only ones?”
“That’s right. As they progress through the league, everyone learns their place. Rather than going to the 5th match and getting executed for nothing, they just lose quickly. And to the races that know their place… we show mercy. We end the game in the 3rd match. However,”
Smirk!
The Elf High Priest smiled from ear to ear.
“But humanity. You are different. You executed the elves and even killed the ancient elf… The entire World Tree Elf Alliance will wipe out humanity’s existence.”
“Ha. In reality, you tried to execute us and got hit back instead! Ancient elf? That bastard also attacked us first!”
Coach Davis raised his voice and refuted the Elf High Priest’s words, but the elf’s smile deepened.
“Hoho… It seems the weak don’t know their place. That’s the greatest sin. Today, we will kill ‘him’, your No. 1 ranker, first.”
While taking out the select cards she had saved, the elf.
Coach Davis also took out all his select cards in response.
Then,
[The representatives of the two races have gathered all the select cards.]
[The right to select the map will be randomly assigned to one of the two races.]
Zing…
A huge silver coin fell in the air above the table.
Thud! Thud!
When it hit the table, it bounced greatly and spun around.
One side had a human drawn on it, and the other side had a tree.
-No way, are they going to choose with a coin?
-The tree is the elves and the human is us…
-A coin toss after the suicide show… ??️
-Ah, please let us win!
The viewers prayed with one heart for the human to appear on the coin, but,
Tak!
What appeared on the top of the coin that settled on the table was,
“Hoho, as expected.”
A tree.
Flash!
When the tree appeared, the select cards in front of humanity disappeared, and the elf’s cards remained on the table.
“Ugh…!”
“Then, say your farewells to your No. 1 ranker. Humanity will soon follow, you know.”
The High Priest smiled and fiddled with the select cards.
Coach Davis sat down in his seat with a dumbfounded face.
The two coaches with a stark contrast of light and darkness.
The commentators also let out a sigh upon seeing this.
=Ah… The goddess of fortune turns her back on Coach Davis this time!
=The World Tree Elves… have a sense of kinship with other numbered World Tree Elves as well. Are they really all on the same side?
=It was also meaningful when the High elf Priest mentioned the latter half of the league. It seems like this isn’t the first time they participated in the Space League.
=Should such a race even be in the bronze league?!
=I’m worried about what map they will bring out…
And then,
“Using the select card, I choose the game map as ‘Constellation Laboratory’.”
The High elf Priest took out the map she had prepared.
[‘Constellation Laboratory’ map has special settings applied.]
[Would you like to load all the settings?]
[4 select cards are required.]
“Yes.”
At the High Priest’s answer, the information of the Constellation Laboratory map appeared.
[Entry conditions for the Constellation Laboratory.]
[Only the No. 1 ranker of the race can participate.]
Seeing this condition, Coach Davis swallowed his saliva.
“Only the No. 1…”
“Consider it an honor. It’s not a place for a race like humanity to enter. Originally. But since your No. 1 is special enough to transcend the race, we prepared a stage befitting him.”
Anyway, now that they were summoned to the Constellation Laboratory, it was the end for humanity’s No. 1 ranker.
The High elf Priest was confident of that.
And then,
“Constellation Laboratory…”
Seong Jihan smiled slightly while looking at the map name in the waiting room.
“Uncle…! What should we do? It seems like they prepared this on purpose!”
“Isn’t it good? The map name, it looks like there will be a lot to plunder.”
“Huh, plunder?”
“Yeah. I’ll go and come back. See you in a bit.”
He lightly waved his hand to the players who were looking at him worriedly and, for the first time in 5 matches, participated in the Space League game.
***
***
