Chapter 21 : Add friends_

A super-enhanced version of the batting ball combination, tentatively named the Home Run Ball combination.

I named it. Because it hits everything out of the park like a home run.

[It would be easier to cut off the Home Run Balls first. Before the Bruisers realize their Ion exploded and calculate our C.]

The suspicious masked man flinched at my words, then nodded as if he understood something.

“You mean the Home Run Ball is that modified batting ball combination, right? Yes. I think that would be better, too. That combination doesn’t have any characters with detection abilities or view checks.”

[Home Run Ball.]

“……Yes. That’s what the Home Run Ball combination is like.”

Mm, satisfactory.

Our masked man also used the nickname I made.

It seemed like I had succeeded in one of the quests that Deputy General Manager Cha had given me.

I checked off the ‘create a buzzword’ checkbox on Deputy General Manager Cha’s checklist that I had saved in my head. I guess people will call that kind of combination ‘Home Run Ball combination’ from now on.

Good, good.

[Then let’s get right in.]

“I’ll pull the aggro once. I’ll make it confusing whether it’s C or if we just encountered them on the path, so please assassinate Explosion or Professor in the meantime.”

[Okay, got it.]

I immediately kicked off the ground and turned on cognitive acceleration. I reinforced my body with as much psychokinesis as I could, and then, end.

Then, my body shot up as if exploding. I flew high up in the air, then accelerated again to glide.

Then, I could see the entire battlefield of Soul Frame, the view of Neo City. Among the characters in Soul Frame, there aren’t many heroes who can see this view on their own.

[Wow, Minder can see this too]

[The view is awesome]

[But your allies will curse you out for trolling lol]

[Hey, stop messing around and go eat some creeps]

[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

I was enjoying the scenery for a moment.

[Is that Overload’s ultimate?]

I saw a huge ultimate skill in the distance.

I reported to the masked man in team chat, watching a giant snake made of bones sweep across the ground.

[There’s an Overload about 2 kilometers southeast. I just saw him use his ultimate.]

“Hmm, Overload is a bit annoying…… Let’s hope another team takes care of him. Okay, I understand.”

[I’m going in soon. Match the timing.]

“Okay…… Wait. I said I’d pull the aggro first, so assassinate them? Why the sudden change of plans…….”

[Going in.]

I shook my head as I typed that chat.

Asking me to just assassinate some weak mages. It’s an act of disrespecting me and Minder. I mean, Minder is not a kid to be treated like that.

‘And I already saw the angle.’

I stopped gliding exactly above the Home Run Ball combination. I stopped my body with psychokinesis, then accelerated downwards again with psychokinesis.

-Paaang!

This time, I kept the acceleration at maximum, so the sound was a bit loud. A sonic boom went off, but it doesn’t matter.

[Now!]

Because I’m entering at a speed similar to the speed of sound.

In the blink of an eye, the ground is right in front of me. Perhaps because he’s a psychokinesis hero like me, I can see Professor slowly raising his head in slow motion as if he noticed something.

‘But it’s already too late.’

I stop time with cognitive acceleration.

And quickly cast skills.

‘Psychokinesis Explosion’
‘Psychokinesis Explosion’
‘Psychokinesis Explosion’
‘Psychokinesis Explosion’
‘Singularity’

And once again.

‘Psychokinesis Explosion’

At the same time, The Batter, who was twisting his body to hit another home run, had his limbs twisted, crumpled, and crushed like tissue paper.

He fainted and retired.

‘As expected.’

Normally, a properly grown The Batter would need at least one or two more Psychokinesis Explosions on top of the 4+1 to faint, but this guy must have only focused on damage, because he exploded with just 4+1.

I predicted it based on the range, and I knew it.

Professor tried to react immediately after seeing The Batter’s instant death, but the Psychokinesis Explosion that I had cast beforehand exploded right next to my side.

-Kwagwang!

The shock of the Psychokinesis Explosion hit me and the Home Run Ball team.

The Home Run Balls were standing on the ground, so they only took damage, but I was hit by the shock of the explosion, and the angle of my fall was twisted.

Thanks to the precisely calculated angle, I flew to the left and crashed. Sigh, they said using skills for self-harm would deal damage, and it’s true. My HP has been reduced too much.

‘Minder, this is too squishy.’

If I had known this would happen, should I have used Barrier? No, if I had done that, I wouldn’t have been able to meet the time limit and would have had a hot head-butt with the ground. If I hit the ground with this much acceleration, it’s instant death even in Soul Frame, where fall damage is low.

“Seriously, this person is crazy.”

As I was getting up, rubbing my side, I heard a voice from afar.

“But…….”

Soon, like a scene from a movie, the masked man is seen walking forward, strolling through the air.

“Very, well done.”

Not a pitching machine that just throws balls to batters like the Professor in the Home Run Ball team, but a truly noble and virtuous hero who deserves to be called ‘Professor’.

I don’t know if it’s because we’re both psychokinesis heroes and our codes are similar, or if it’s just a concept that psychokinesis users can feel the abilities of other psychokinesis users, but I could clearly see Professor’s use of psychokinesis.

He creates a spear of psychokinesis in the air, and the arm of psychokinesis that sprouted from his back throws the spear of psychokinesis as if throwing a javelin.

But the main body is like a gentleman, extremely elegant.

It’s like showing what it really means to be aristocratic.

‘That’s a real Professor.’

Because, as they say, he’s a professor who doesn’t get his hands dirty.

[Ugh, that guy is so annoying every time I see him]

[Ranked #1 on Forbes’ Most Elegant Hero]

[?? Do they measure that?]

[Of course it’s a joke, you idiot]

[The psychokinesis graduate students do everything for himㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[boring]

[What was that just now?]

[How did The Batter explode in one go??]

[Why is The Batter getting one-shotted lolololololol it’s so ridiculous ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[This is a broken hero]

The chat window is bustling.

But, there seemed to be some misunderstanding. I typed a message to correct the viewers’ misunderstanding.

[It seems like he focused on extreme damage to maximize the range of the Home Run Ball combination. That’s why I think I was able to blow him up with 4+1. I’ll have to check if there was actually a damage loss, but I think he would have exploded with 3+1.]

[He’s calculating this even here ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[What’s 4+1, 3+1? Psychokinesis Explosion and Singularity?]

[Probably?]

[Who uses those terms ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Ah, who? Our ‘streamer’]

[ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ]

[Minder, we must, right? Minder, we must, right? Minder, we must, right?]

[Damn, I’m definitely not playing ranked for a while.]

After chatting with each other for a while, the viewers started to imitate my chat as if they were stuck on something.

[But 4+1, 3+1 sounds pretty cool.]

[4+1, 3+1, 4+1, 3+1, 3+1, 4+1]

[4+1, 3+1]

[4]

[4]

[+]

[4]

[3]

[4]

[Stop it]

[Spamming]

[4]

I scratched the back of my head as I watched.

Hmm, spamming is a 30-minute ban. Why aren’t these guys getting banned.

◈ ◈ ◈

The Home Run Ball combination, and Ion and other Bruisers.

We grinded both of those teams.

We cut down many other teams as well. Considering that there were two people missing, we were really driving a huge truck.

But.

Unfortunately, we didn’t win.

“We lost this.”

[It can’t be helped.]

Because we couldn’t stop the infinite growth stack-type hero, Overload, from growing. It seems that all the users caught in the same game had a soft thought like, ‘Ah, Overload. Well, someone else will stop him, not us.’

Overload even has a passive skill called ‘Life Force Vessel’ that prevents assassination, so I can’t even use my specialty, assassination.

In the end, we were swept away by the endless army of skeletons and had no choice but to GG.

【Defeat!】

Looking at the defeat screen, I gritted my teeth.

‘If I had done a little better, we could have won.’

If I had gone to mess up Overload’s stacks as soon as I found him, I could have stopped his growth or killed him!

I can’t help but sigh.

But I can’t even sigh. Because my voice will come out.

Instead, I sighed in chat.

[Sigh.]

“You, could you at least sigh out loud…….”

[Sigh, sigh, sigh.]

[It seems like the streamer is having a hard time]

[Sigh, sigh, sigh]

[It feels weird to think that a hairy man is typing this ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Looking at the streamer’s height, isn’t she a woman?]

[She could be a middle or high school student. Or a short man.]

[Considering her physical, she’s likely to be young. Soft brain.]

Tsk.

But I soon regained my composure.

Defeat is a part of life, you can’t always win. It’s not uncommon for the number one pro player to be C’d and explode and lose. You can’t always win in games.

[Anyway, it’s the first defeat, it’s a shame.]

[Because of that damn Minder hate, people keep throwing;;;]

[But even I would dodge or throw the game if Minder came out in the Diamond rank tier ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[‘Obviously a throw’]

[Ahㅋㅋㅋㅋ It’s not a throw, it’s sincere ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[If you say it’s sincere with Minder, that’s even scarier;;;;]

[Thank you all for your support.]

As I typed that to the viewers, the masked man next to me nodded as if he had realized something.

“Ah, I forgot you were streaming. I was so immersed in the game that I completely forgot. Haha.”

[But who’s smurf is this]

[idk]

[Looking at how he plays, it’s definitely a smurf. At least a high ranker from The Hundred.]

[There aren’t that many Hundreds who are this good at Professor team. It should be possible to find out?]

[But his movement was more like a Bruiser than a Professor, no matter how you look at it, he didn’t seem like a Professor expert?]

[What are you talking about ㅋㅋ He was damn good, don’t be a hater]

[Professor elegantly throwing spears was so sexy, I almost came ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

└ Chat with severe sexual harassment is a warning. 3 warnings for 30 minutes chat ban

[???]

[3 warnings for sexual harassment, you crazy bastard ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

I looked at the masked man who was still in the game result room even though the game was over. It seems like he has something to say to me, but he seems hesitant because of the broadcast.

[Do you have something to say? My fault?]

Then the other person was momentarily flustered, then hesitated.

Soon, he swiped the air and pressed something. But nothing changed.

I guess he sent a friend request. I turned off the notification sound because it’s annoying, hmm…….

Should I accept this or not?

‘For now, let’s accept it.’

The other person was surprisingly good, and after I reveal my voice later, I’ll be playing other heroes besides Minder, and I might be able to get help then.

‘Because he’s a good player anyway.’

It might be easy to get tips?

I immediately opened the friend request window. Wow, there are so many. The maximum display is 100, and it’s already 100.

I clicked on the ID at the top.

I guess this ID is correct if you look at the application time.

As soon as I accepted the friend request, a message came immediately.

[I’m sorry, but could you please turn on the private friend chat for the broadcast?]

[whatwhat]

[Smurf duo? No way;;;;]

[The streamer is main]

[Bus duo no way;;;;;;]

[No, the streamer’s skill is not here, what smurf or bus ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ you crazy people]

[Looking at the win rate and saying that, it seems like a group of crazies gathered to hate ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[But it would be better if they duo? Anyway, because of the Minder debuff, there are a lot of trolls, so a normal game should come out;;;]

[For real, as soon as the game starts and they see Minder, they all go AFK, so many throwers, we need to stop that]

[It would be better if we go to the ranker or high ranker section……]

Hmm, the chat reaction is not as bad as I thought.

Some friends are reluctant, but the general opinion is that they don’t want to see the trolls of the Minder haters.

Well, if we duo, the masked man in the duo won’t throw out of the 4 teammates, so the troll ratio will be reduced by 1/3.

[Okay.]

But, if he just wants to duo, why is he asking me to hide the chat?

I was puzzled, but I turned on the private chat option.

And then I sent a message via friend chat.

[I turned it on.]

[Ah, yes. Thank you. First of all, what I wanted to do was a duo request. Instead, could you give me some tips about Minder? And I would appreciate it if you could tell me if you are aiming to become a Soul Frame pro.]

Huh? Pro?