Almond and Bubblegum had once jointly sponsored a co-op exorcism game called Ghostwo Busters. The party consisted of two players plus an NPC named Su-Yeon.

It was notoriously difficult and categorized as a Souls-like game. At the time, Almond and Bubblegum became a hot topic after blasting through several sections using bug-like exploits. Almond had forced their way through with pure skills, but Bubblegum had created most of the bugs.

“Wait... Are you dead? Or alive?” Bubblegum clung to Zelo’s avatar, frozen stiff and trembling.

Zelo exploded in frustration. “No! I don’t know either! Bubblegum! Why did you do this to me?!”

Neither dead nor alive, Zelo suffered the most.

A busted bug had appeared.

Bubblegum leaned his face closer to Zelo and murmured, “Because... you humiliated me.”

He acted as if he had personally caused the bug.

— LMAO

— Bubblegum’s curse lol

— LMAO for real

— Bubblegum is having way too much fun lol

— Welcome to Bubblegum’s domain, rookie!

— Should’ve known when to stop poking him lol

— Isn’t this basically a divine power? lol How did the bug hit Zelo so perfectly?

Zelo shook his head. “No, not that kind of answer. I, I was seriously trying to kill him. Huh? Bubblegum, did you freeze me on purpose like this? Answer me.”

— Zeloooo lol

— LOL

— Such a sweet life, Zelo...

— LOOOOOL

In the end, Zelo lashed out pathetically. “I’m reporting you for bug abuse!”

Almond stepped in. “Wait, a report? Come on. We’re taking a big loss too. Zelo is dead, but no runes dropped. He’s a contractor.”

True, Almond’s team suffered from this as well.

Almond moved to mediate. “Zelo? We really wanted to kill you properly too. It just... turned out this way. We’ll make sure to kill you next time. Let’s not report anyone, okay?”

— LOOOOOOOL

— LOL

— Why does that sentence sound so wrong

— ??? Yes! We were seriously going to kill you

— Ahahahaha

— This is insane lol

— Zelo is actually scared lol

Zelo seemed unable to continue as if his mouth had frozen. Instead, he said to his viewers, “No... Hearing that from a serious, handsome, eight-heads-tall avatar instead of that stubby circus character from back then is kind of scary.”

— So true lol

— LOL

— The circus days were better~

— It was seriously glamorized back then

— He’s exaggerating again

— He’s just jealous because Almond is handsome

“What do you mean I’m jealous because he’s handsome? Huh? Just imagine top athletes at your school threatening to kill you next time and telling you not to worry. Huh?! Terrifying, right? It’s not like the movies, okay? You guys had an easy time in school...”

— This is crazy LOL

— LOOOOOOL

— Suddenly a life story

— Go talk to Gi-Chan instead

— HAHAHAHAHAHA

— Okay yeah that actually is scary

Still frozen like a cryogenic human, Zelo went on about his school days. Gradually, he adapted to his current state.

Almond turned away and headed toward the sanctuary. “Anyway, we should revive the others.”

Even though Zelo was still within the domain, the revival countdown continued. It hit the final second.

Tiiing!

[Revival!]

A beam of light poured down into the Sanctuary, and the fallen teammates revived.

“Whoa...!”

“No way. No way. He actually pulled it off!”

Filled with excitement, they had watched the entire fight. They had seen exactly how Almond handled the battle. At their rank, they couldn’t even follow his combat skills with their eyes.

In the end, they could only shout, “What’s the strategy?!”

“Almondoyle! Almondoyle! Almondoyle!”

They chanted for Almondoyle.

— What the hell lol

— That’s a strategy? Lol

— It’s smart though

— Look at Almond’s face lol

Watching his teammates chant Almondoyle, Almond couldn’t suppress a satisfied smile. Realizing he was smiling, he quickly composed himself.

“Anyway, good to see you all again.”

“Let’s do a cheer before we go!”

Bubblegum raised both arms and called out, “Sounds good.”

The five of them gathered in a circle, hands stacked together.

“One, two... three!”

“Fighting!”

United again, Almond’s team stood ready.

[Soon, the Shadow of the Abyss will fall.]

They would need to move elsewhere to avoid the Shadow.

“Another team dropped some items here. Grab those...”

They needed to quickly loot all the dead’s dropped weapons.

“Wow... He’s really frozen solid.”

They gathered around Zelo, whispering among themselves.

“So this is the legendary one the noble froze...”

“It really is Zelo.”

“In the beginning, there was Zelo.”

— LOOOOOOOL

— LOL

— Is this a museum or what lol

— In the beginning there was Zelo lol

— LOL

After exchanging a few comments at the frozen Zelo, they headed toward their next destination.

***

They had fallen slightly behind in levels, which made early hunting a bit rough.

“Ugh, we’re really underleveled.”

“It’s fine. Catching up is faster.”

The game applied a correction bonus when a gap in level existed between teammates. For this reason, teams at higher ranks often split into groups of two or three.

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

The team quickly caught up to level 4. Almond reached level 5, and Bubblegum pushed himself halfway to level 5.

“A rune box? Who’s taking the next contract?”

“Let the tank do it.”

The second contract after Almond went to Bubblegum. Three cards appeared. Iron Ball had been banned, so it didn’t come up.

“Bart is supposedly meta these days. Let’s go with him.”

“Bart has been good lately.”

Following the team’s recommendation, Bubblegum contracted Bart.

— Bart is in season right now~

— In season lol

— He is good though

— But... it’s Bubblegum...?

If it wasn’t Iron Ball, Bubblegum’s proficiency would be low no matter what. In that case, it wouldn’t hurt to go with Bart, who everyone said was strong right now.

[Iron Monster — Bart]

Thud.

Bubblegum’s fists turned into solid iron.

The champion Bart said, “Ah. Damn it. This was a scam contract.”

— ?

— What the hell lol

— ?

— Zero proficiency?

— LMAO

In Survival mode, players could use champions they hadn’t purchased. The zero proficiency rating was probably because Bubblegum didn’t own this champion.

Almond’s concern surfaced immediately. “Oh... You never bought Bart, huh...”

— Oh damn lol

— Isn’t this that old shop-pick strat someone used to do?

— That was YOU lol

— When you do it, it’s strategy. When others do it, it’s cheating lol

“No, my shop picks were strategic.”

Almond had won. Skill was everything in this game.

This wasn’t just any other player, but Bubblegum’s shop pick. Of course, Almond felt worried.

“Huh? A shop pick? No. I’ve... played this champion a few times.”

— ?

— ??

— Then what is it?

— Another bug? Lol

— No way lol

— Then he’s just really bad lol

Very rarely, if someone played extremely poorly, their experience wouldn’t be reflected in the champion’s proficiency or would even be reduced.

‘That’s even worse.’

Almond regretted bringing it up and headed toward their next destination.

“Let’s hit level six first and have the others do their contracts. After that, we’ll aim for the Abyss Shark.”

“Yes!”

The Abyss Shark was one of the main reasons why huge fights broke out at level 6. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say most teams built everything around this moment. Teams would truly start clashing.

[Enemy Double Kill!]

[Enemy Triple Kill!]

[Team One Out!]

As expected, a team had been eliminated.

[Team Eight Out!]

Two teams instantly died.

“Almond, the midgame gets easy once you clear out the teams you keep running into early.”

Almond’s team had eliminated every team whose routes overlapped with theirs early on. Things became calmer afterward. They peacefully hunted Abyss Squids. As long as they avoided the ink, these monsters were easy for their level.

Splat!

The squids sprayed ink in fixed patterns. As long as one stayed alert, it wasn’t hard to dodge.

Bubblegum rubbed his eyes with his iron fists. “Ugh!”

[Darkened Vision]

The ink had hit him square in the face.

Bart screamed before anyone else could say a word, “You damn contractor! What are you doing?!”

— LOOOOOOOL

— LOL

— Bart’s personality is wild

— Damn, Bart hyung is intense

— Bart is always like that, honestly

Bart was known as one of the more intolerant tanks. Both in personality and gameplay, a single misstep could lead to a complete collapse.

‘Hmm...’

Hearing that only made Almond more uneasy.

‘Now that I think about it, doesn’t he fall over if he swings his fists wrong...?’

Almond had faced Bart a few times in normal games. Sometimes, Bart would just randomly topple over. Things didn’t look good with Bubblegum as the contractor.

‘Why did we suggest Bart?’

Bart was definitely a strong champion, but letting Bubblegum use him seemed like a mistake. Takoyaki had once said that a truly good ban-pick considered not just the champion, but the abilities of the teammates as well.

‘Yeah... that’s asking too much.’

Of course, that kind of consideration was beyond Almond. He needed encyclopedic knowledge of the champions and players to do that.

‘We have to win.’

A lot was riding on this placement match. There were missions, and his standing within the Knight Order team.

Almond glanced over Bubblegum and the others. He was assessing their capabilities. Bubblegum wasn’t the only one on this team.

‘It’d be nice to have one more tank.’

For a marksman, the most important thing was always a reliable tank. If the marksman was strong enough, other damage dealers were almost unnecessary.

‘Who takes the next contract?’

Once they finished the Abyss Squids, a rune box would appear. Monsters above level five dropped them often.

Almond’s gaze settled on someone.

[MeowMeowPunch]

Whoosh! Whoosh!

MeowMeowPunch swung a mace vigorously beside Almond.

This teammate had boldly said earlier, “Honestly, I don’t trust that smart-looking guy.”

Honest advice came at a price.

“Punch.”

“Yes?”

“You look like you’ve got talent as a tank.”

“...?”

“Go tank.”

“I, I’m a mace user, though?”

At this point, Almondoyle’s standing on the team was nothing like before. Hadn’t the whole team wiped, revived, and seized the advantage under his orders? In the end, MeowMeowPunch had chosen the wrong side.

“There are tanks who use hammers too. Please contract as a tank.”

“Uh... but we don’t know what rune we’ll get, right? If it’s an attack rune, I’ll just go bruiser. I’m good at bruiser.”

Pop.

Right on cue, a rune box appeared as the monster fell.

[Rune — Rare]

[Defense +2 per Level]

[Rune — Heroic]

[On Hit: Health Regeneration +30 for 5 seconds]

MeowMeowPunch became speechless.

— Is this a bot match?

— Does it really roll like this? Lol

— LMAO

— ??? Honestly, I don’t trust that smart-looking guy

— What is this lol

“Alright, tank number two secured.”

Thump.

Almond gave MeowMeowPunch a push on the back.

“Uh... uh...”

MeowMeowPunch looked around at the other teammates. Their other weapons also suited a tank, but no one stepped forward. After all, no one wanted to be the meat shield.

“H-Hey. You...”

MeowMeowPunch turned to his duo partner, Scream Kicker.

Scream Kicker lowered his head. “Sorry. I... I want to be a mage.”

— This is insane lol

— LMAO

— Sorry. Become fertile...

— LOL

— Guys, before taking the rune, shouldn’t you thank MeowMeowPunch?

Scream Kicker didn’t realize something.

‘Who will be the next tank?’

Almond wasn’t satisfied with just two tanks.

*** 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

[Beginner’s Tip]

[Did you know? “Tanking is actually pretty fun if you keep at it!” is an April Fool’s joke that’s been going around among contractors.]