Chapter 68: Scouting for Hidden Gems

The Eternal World Olympics, abbreviated as Elimpics, is a platform-wide competition.

This meant that broadcasters could recruit any team members they wanted, but there was an unspoken tradition in the Elimpics of forming teams from their own platforms.

This tradition allowed matchups like “V-TV versus Mirinae” to emerge, which viewers enjoyed more.

As an entertainer, it was my duty to maximize consumer happiness.

So, I started by scouting players from V-TV.

I opened the program created by the competition’s organizers and reviewed the 1-point participants.

Iron 5 was treated as a 0-point rank, while Iron 4 through Iron 2 were considered part of the 1-point lineup.

There weren’t many participants. Iron-tier players were the reverse of challengers in rank—rare to begin with.

From that already small pool, finding someone who streamed their gameplay was even harder.

I inspected each person regardless of position.

Iron players didn’t have expertise in their roles anyway.

Even if they switched positions during the tournament, it likely wouldn’t make much of a difference.

I started with a male player.

His main position was an outer solo lane, and his go-to character was Marvin Flyle, the same one Bunnyrun played.

Sounds promising, right?

“I swear, where’s our Guardian, and what are they doing?”

That’s what he said right after getting sliced apart by the enemy outer solo laner.

Uh… hmm…

Can a Guardian even make it to the outer lane within three minutes of the game?

Setting aside that question (since even after ten minutes, the outer solo lane is usually ignored rather than supported), why would you blame the Guardian after losing a solo fight?

Does he think the outer solo lane is like a top lane?

You’re in a one-on-one duel, buddy.

Even the enemy Guardian didn’t come to the outer solo lane.

Both sides ignored it, so why blame “our” Guardian alone?

Let’s move on.

Maybe I was being prejudiced because he was an Iron-tier player.

After all, blame-shifting like that is common even among Diamond-tier players.

I tried to set aside my bias and assess his skills objectively…

“So close. That could’ve been a win.”

The broadcaster muttered after the team fight ended.

While I agreed with his sentiment, I couldn’t bring myself to empathize.

Nobody could empathize with that horrific team fight.

Why were all the skills aimed at thin air?

What about basic attacks? Why were they hitting nothing?

And the movement—why was there none?

If I had to describe it, it felt like both teams were desperately trying to lose. It was bizarre.

Both teams clearly wanted to win; they weren’t throwing the game on purpose.

But since they believed their incorrect plays were correct, the result was a disaster of epic proportions.

Honestly, missing skills was something I could tolerate.

Even at the Challenger level, there were moments when I couldn’t understand why someone used their skills the way they did.

But their complete ignorance of basic gameplay mechanics was hard to overlook.

They had played over 300 games this season alone.

Counting previous seasons, they had played thousands of matches.

Shouldn’t they at least know the correct order for securing objectives by now?

I wouldn’t criticize someone for not knowing advanced strategies.

But the early-game objective strategies were well-established.

You could pick them up after just a few matches.

There were over a hundred million tutorial videos about this on MiTube.

So why?

Before I spiraled into a mental breakdown, I quickly closed the stream.

My head throbbed.

I had been arrogant.

How foolish of me to think I could understand alien minds.

It was a miracle I got away with just this much mental strain.

“…And I have to watch this dozens more times?”

It was exhausting, but I had made a promise to Paepae.

I vowed to assemble the strongest team in history.

I couldn’t give up here.

The next broadcaster I checked out was another man.

His position was Main Carry. His primary character was…

…You’re kidding, right?

I couldn’t believe it and hurriedly opened his stream.

Then I shut my eyes.

Watching him play the support character João da Mata as the Main Carry was… devastating.

In League of Legends, it’s not unheard of to see supports stepping into the ADC role. It even happens at the pro level.

But Eternal World isn’t League of Legends.

The limitations of support characters were too glaring to let them fill the Main Carry role.

But what terrified me most wasn’t that.

It was the fact that none of his teammates reacted to his pick.

Why?

Were they soulless?

Or brainless?

Ugh.

I clutched my head and sank into my chair.

An unsettling thought bubbled up in my mind.

What was that just now?

A thought completely at odds with my intentions had surfaced, as if possessed by a demon.

This was it.

Bunnyrun must’ve gotten her hands on a hypnosis app.

Give it up, Bunnyrun.

No matter how much you try to hypnotize me, you can’t control this super developer’s actions.

Regaining my composure, I checked out the next broadcaster.

“……”

Han Yurim: Paepae, should we just not participate in the tournament?

PaePae: Giving up?

Han Yurim: I suddenly got an idea for a game. I think I need to go develop it.

It wasn’t a lie. I genuinely came up with ideas for how to design a villain.

Like how creativity surges when you’re forced to work on something you dislike, being dragged through this made my brain spin at full speed.

Paepae: Giving up?

Han Yurim: We die together if we must.

I kept checking broadcasters after that.

By the time I had reviewed around 34 players, I was ready to compromise.

Maybe I should at least pick someone who knew how to secure objectives?

Guardians were simple button-clickers. I could just make Chun Hye-eun memorize a script and follow it…

[Inner Demon: What about the Main Carry?]

…Maybe Moss or Bunnyrun could take the Main Carry role, and the new recruit could handle scouting or the outer solo lane.

[Simma : “You’re already nervous with Paepae playing the babysitter as a support. And now you want to send a solo scouting agent on an independent mission to the outskirts? Are you confident you can win if their main carry gets 10 kills and shows up for a Tier 3 objective fight?”]

Oh, heavens above!

Thud. I slammed my head onto the desk.

There was no answer to this predicament.

[Simma : “So, are you giving up?”]

No.

Even if we end up utterly defeated in the competition, giving up is the one thing I refuse to do.

I made that decision right from the start.

[Simma : “To keep your promise with everyone?”]

Not really.

It’s just that participating in the competition will help with game development anyway.

There’s no reason not to do it.

So what if I get some flak for losing? People live their lives getting criticized anyway.

[Simma : “… Farewell, then.”]

Simbao! Where are you going?

Come back!

But there was no response.

Although it was regretful that my comrade vanished, I managed to clear my thoughts and organize the situation thanks to that.

If I can find someone decent—at least around Gold level… No, even Silver would be manageable. Is there anyone out there?

Hmm.

[Chae Narin]
[Tier: Iron 2]
[Primary Role: Support]

This time, it was a woman.

I turned on her stream.

The game had just started.

Chae Narin was trailing closely behind her main carry. A support player who should be leading early objectives acting passively? Minus one point.

Her character was ‘João da Mata,’ a champion with mostly target-based skills. Basically, a character anyone could play.

A character simple enough to play with your feet? Plus one point.

Chae Narin and her main carry roamed the map erratically. That pathing was so absurdly bad that I didn’t even feel like thinking about it anymore.

Then, a scout appeared in front of Chae Narin. I was taken aback.

Why?

Because in Iron Tier, a scout’s role isn’t to locate enemies. It’s to farm objectives until they accidentally bump into someone.

Stream-sniping? Impossible—I’m the only viewer. A coincidence? The paths they were on shouldn’t have intersected in the first place…

But then again, this tier doesn’t follow logic.

Maybe it’s just happenstance.

Let’s watch the fight.

The enemy scout, Ishikawa Yuzuru, laid down steel wires.

I had no idea why he was setting up traps right in front of an enemy, but at least he used a skill—so he earned a bonus point for that.

Can’t we recruit him to the team?

If I start streaming him now, it could work, right?

No? Fine, forget it.

Chae Narin’s ally, the main carry, used a skill. An elemental bullet sliced through the air.

sahyang is quite a challenging champion to play. It’s ridiculous for an Iron player to pick a character like that without any sense of responsibility…

Wait. I stopped myself mid-thought.

Am I possessed by the devil again?

Bunnyrun! Snap me out of this trance!

Swish. The enemy scout dodged the elemental bullet using a wire action.

Based on Iron-tier data, there was no way this move was intentional, but just the fact that it looked like movement earned another bonus point.

Seriously, can’t we recruit that guy to the team?

Not everyone starts as a pro streamer, right?

Meanwhile, Chae Narin clumsily used her skill—a targeted crowd-control ability.

If she’d used it earlier, she could’ve chained it with her ally sahyang’s abilities for more damage advantage.

But her timing was so late it felt like she woke up in a panic and fumbled to press the button.

She managed to bind the enemy, but there was no follow-up. Her CC ability was wasted, just like that.

The enemy scout, seeing an opportunity—not intentionally, just by sheer luck—charged at Chae Narin.

Iron players don’t have the capacity to track cooldowns. Even though she used a skill just seconds ago, it didn’t matter.

The enemy scout’s blade sliced through the air.

Swish.

Chae Narin’s health dropped.

No movement.

Skill timing? Snail speed.

There was nothing to see here.

Terrible.

I sighed and moved my hand toward the button to end the stream. It was time to find the next streamer.

And then, at that very moment…

Chae Narin’s movements changed.

She suddenly started dodging every attack with precision, slipping in basic attacks in between with surprising finesse.

What the…? Was she hiding her true strength?

That thought barely crossed my mind before she went back to her sluggish self, getting hit by skills and dying as pitifully as she had before.

Coincidence?

But the movements seemed too natural for it to be mere chance.

Curious, I rewatched her gameplay to analyze it.

While there were occasional flashes of brilliance, most of the time, she stood idly and died repeatedly. Over and over.

She seemed completely incapable of focusing.

… Could it be? Is she one of those players?

Found her. My main carry.

Now, all that’s left is the guardian.

With a cheerful heart, I began scouting streamers again.

After clearing the hardest mission, finding a guardian should be a breeze.