Chapter 117: Chapter 116

Winning.

“Taking down the opponent and securing victory” is the very essence of PVP gameplay.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say there’s no one in the world who dislikes winning. After all, every loss comes with a price, whether it’s a drop in rank points or a hit to one’s pride—who wants to experience that?

But the truth is, everyone has slightly different views on the value of victory.

Let me give some examples.

Suppose the team lineup has five players who’ve chosen 2 melee DPS, 2 ranged DPS, and 1 support. To maximize the chance of winning, the last player should ideally choose a tank. Yet, many players would still pick another DPS simply because they dislike playing tank.

Or let’s consider Mahjong—what’s the best way to increase your winning odds?

There are many ways, but Mahjong requires a certain degree of study. Although it’s partly luck-based, if you don’t know theories like the “Five Blocks Theory” or the “Suji Theory,” you’re relying solely on luck to play.

Sure, after many hours of playing, you might pick up on patterns instinctively. But without some prior study, you’re essentially running headfirst into the game, making your playstyle inefficient.

And this principle applies to other games as well.

Learning about character matchups, strategies, and unique skills for each character improves your win rate, even if it’s not Mahjong.

Of course, few people actually study this hard just to play games.

People often play games to avoid studying—who wants to study to play a game? It sounds absurd.

So, while winning is always the primary goal in games, some people feel it’s more important to enjoy themselves first. They don’t want to take the game too seriously.

“Not really my favorite type.”

It’s not just because I take gaming seriously.

I get that everyone has their own way of enjoying games, but in team-based games, these kinds of players can be frustrating.

In extreme cases, they’ll mess around, saying, “Why so serious? It’s just a game!” It’s fine if all teammates agree, but otherwise, it’s just inconsiderate.

“The rules are simple: land a single hit on me, and I’ll count it as your win. You can try as many times as you like.”

Custom Duel in Single Combat Mode. I said this while facing Mero.

I’d even set my HP to 1.

I picked my Dark Knight character and removed all armor except my gauntlet. So, if I couldn’t evade or pull off a perfect guard, I’d lose immediately.

“Are… are you serious, my lady?”

“What do you mean?”

“If I win, then, um…”

“Do whatever you like.”

I said it with confidence.

While some light physical contact like a handshake might be fine, a noble lady letting someone touch her chest—even of the same gender—was a major faux pas. It would give the impression of being “too easy.”

Not that it mattered, since I had no intention of letting Mero lay a hand on me.

“Do whatever you like????”

“Don’t lose your maidenhood, my lady!!!”

“Is she really offering her first time to Mero?”

“Sora’s in tears LOL”

“female: netorare”

“About to lose her purity in 1 second LOL”

“‘Do whatever you like’? Hehe… Aurora, you’re dead today…”

Mero, whose fans nicknamed “Gold Sunshine” for her audacious behavior, gave a mischievous smile. Though neither blonde nor tanned, her punkish demeanor fit the title.

She picked her Paladin and charged forward, wielding a massive sword.

“Your chest! I’m coming for it!! Roaaaar!!!”

Her approach was so clumsy, it was hard to believe she was even a girl. The “skinship villain” had finally lost it.

The chest is a symbol of motherhood.

I’d read somewhere that humans might subconsciously enjoy touching chests due to memories of infancy, regardless of gender. If that were true, Mero was suffering from a serious case of maternal deprivation.

But a strong will doesn’t guarantee that your body will keep up.

Full of openings, I stepped in and tripped her.

Thud!

Mero went down in a spectacular fall.

“Ugh…”

“Try again.”

I left her on the ground and put some distance between us.

But Mero clearly wasn’t happy with that. She scrambled up as quickly as possible and swung her sword at me.

“Raaaagh!!!”

“Must you shout like that?”

I remarked, unimpressed, but she ignored me. The sword swung right in front of me.

A wild, unrefined swing.

The kind of attack that assumed I wouldn’t be able to react—just a thoughtless lunge.

Because she’d focused too much on speed, her balance was thrown off, and her stance was poor.

Clang!

Timing my move, I struck her sword from her grip.

Her loose hold was at fault.

“Huh?”

Mero’s eyes widened, shocked at how easily her sword was knocked away.

If she’d at least tried throwing a punch, she could have won. With my HP set to 1, all she needed was a single hit to secure victory.

But Mero never realized that.

I stepped forward and sliced off her left hand.

Swoosh!

Her left hand flew up into the air and then hit the ground with a thud.

Then, I embedded my blade into her right elbow.

“W-wait…!”

Mero shouted, but I didn’t stop.

I pruned her like a tree, methodically cutting away each part.

First, the shoulder, then an ear, then a slash across her abdomen.

“Final fate of the harasser LOL”

“Big thumbs up if you’re on Team Sora LOL”

“Sora’s main squad stands strong”

“Breaking news: our lady rises even higher in purity level”

“Mero’s getting diced up LOL”

“Ah, true K-discipline at its finest…”

“Is this a cooking show?”

“That knife work is kinda hot LOL”

I kept swinging my sword.

Memory is an incredibly subjective thing.

Some people, after winning four times and losing once, would play more cautiously, haunted by that one loss.

Others, after only winning six out of twenty matches, convince themselves they’re playing perfectly, conveniently forgetting all their losses.

And Mero was the instinctual type.

So, I intended to engrain this experience deep into her bones.

Thoroughly.

Extremely thoroughly.

Splat!

Mero’s head was severed from her neck, and before it could hit the ground, I gently caught it.

My poor friend Mero.

All that remained was her head.

Gently closing her eyes, I set her head on a nearby rock.

“Again.”

Restart.

Sora had originally joined the tournament to play with Laura, but as it turned out, she’d been spending more time with the other teammates.

“Why’s it so hard to catch her… even though we’re on the same team?”

She was always on voice chat with Laura and synced her schedule with Laura’s as well.

But that was about it.

Once practice sessions started, they often found themselves separated.

This was due to two main reasons: first, Laura’s role as the “stray.”

The stray position generally required her to act solo, so as a support, Sora usually worked with the other teammates.

There were opportunities to coordinate with Laura during full-team practice, but another issue was simply getting all six members together at once.

Laura and Sora, both newbie VTubers, had relatively open schedules. Laura had her promotional project with “Aseosal,” but she often did it alone in the early morning hours.

However, the other four members were veterans with busy schedules.

As a result, full-team practices were rare, so Laura and Mero often ended up practicing together, while Sora usually trained with Rui.

“What game could we all play together as Leviathan members?”

Today, one member was absent—apparently a guest for someone’s birthday stream.

So Sora, being mentored by Rui and Valbara, suddenly heard Rui bring this up.

“A different game?”

“Yeah. Got any suggestions?”

Rui blinked.

While Leviathan was a team aiming for victory in the Fantasy League, that didn’t mean they had to exclusively play Labyrinthos.

In fact, it was encouraged to try other games. From an entertainment perspective, variety could draw a broader audience.

If all six Leviathan members only played Labyrinthos during the league, they’d primarily attract Labyrinthos fans.

But if, for example, they played something like Minecraft together, it could attract a different set of viewers, who might then tune in for Fantasy League matches as well.

Rui seemed to be looking for a game they could all enjoy together.

“Nothing comes to mind right now, but maybe we could spruce up MyRoom a bit?”

Valbara replied to Rui’s question.

“I’ve been wondering, why is it a cabin? Where did you even get that preset?”

“A viewer sent it to me for my personal stream.”

“Then it’s for your solo streams. Since we all meet in MyRoom, maybe we should make it bigger.”

“Is that so?”

“Imagine having a big monitor in a spacious living room where we could take turns playing video games. Just thinking about it sounds fun, right?”

“Ooh, that sounds great!”

Rui clapped his hands.

Turning on VR to play video games in a virtual space might sound ironic, but it could still be fun!

‘And I’m good at interior decorating.’

Sora realized something—among the Leviathan members, she might be the least noticeable.

Laura was a given, with Rui as the team leader, the “macho” Valbara, and the chaotic Mero. Each member was full of personality.

By comparison, Sora felt like an “extra” to Laura. Being a Labyrinthos beginner made it hard to assert herself, and lately, she felt she’d been fading into the background.

But if they started decorating MyRoom, her Minecraft-honed interior design skills would finally get a chance to shine.

“Yes! Let’s decorate MyRoom!”

Sora said, her voice brimming with excitement.

And just like that, plans began to form.

They would expand the current cabin to about six times its size.

On the first floor, they’d set up a communal living room and feedback room, with personal rooms on the second floor.

“A second floor with personal rooms…? That sounds familiar…”

The idea sparked a memory from Sora’s past.

“But isn’t having a room on the third floor inconvenient? It’s so far from the first floor.”

“Hmm? Didn’t you switch room locations?”

“What? You said you didn’t like having a room that far away.”

“I noticed last time we met, you’re a handful.”

“Oh…!”

Sora remembered her past Minecraft playthroughs.

Laura… can’t decorate.

“That’s right. She didn’t even set up her own MyRoom; I had to do it for her.”

Even in Minecraft, Laura didn’t handle any decorating, so Sora had taken it upon herself to do it all.

Well, there’s no helping it.

Looks like I’ll have to design Laura’s room again.

“She’s a handful.”

Sora shrugged. But hey, wasn’t this the perfect chance to chat with Laura?

“I’ll go let Laura know about decorating MyRoom!”

No one asked her to, but Sora ran off immediately.

Her steps felt light as air.

Labyrinthos has an odd quirk—bodies don’t vanish after death.

Like Aseosal, Deadraus is a company that aims for extreme realism in their games.

Their development philosophy holds that “immersive realism is the appeal of VR games,” so they’ve added every possible element, sparing only pain and sensory adjustments.

When Laura created her custom room with Mero, she specifically enabled the “corpse preservation” feature.

Thus, after multiple rounds of bloody duels, the map had become a field of corpses.

“…What?”

Entering the custom room to spectate, Sora gasped.

Severed arms, legs, and heads littered the ground.@@novelbin@@

Though the bodies varied slightly in appearance, they were all versions of the same character—Kaga Mero’s character, reduced to scraps of flesh.

Amid the blood-soaked earth, another Mero was in the process of dying.

Splat!

Both her arms had been severed, rendering her helpless. Laura held her lightly.

“My poor friend, Mero. You’ve failed to win yet again.”

Laura drove her blade into Mero’s collarbone.

“Tell me. How would you like to die?”

“S-save me…”

“Oh my, I asked how you’d like to ‘die.’ Why are you answering differently?”

Shing!

Laura pulled the sword out, only to bring it back against Mero’s neck, showing no mercy.

“Shall we try once more? But first—do you have any last words?”

Laura asked.

With a terrified expression, Mero gasped out,

“Your… chest… I’ll touch it someday…!”

“Do your best.”

Thwack!

Mero’s head flew from her body.

Roll…

Her head tumbled to the ground.

Laura picked it up and locked eyes with her.

“Once again, only your head remains. How pitiful.”

As she gazed upon her fallen friend, Laura expressed a hint of sympathy.

…What even is this situation?