Cp. Cp. Cp. Cato joined in on the audience’s appuse.

  "Wat?" Ronald blinked with a dumb face. The rest of the team wore equally puzzled expressions.

  "I have to say, it was a fine performance by our oppos." iled fidently as he cpped. "Yes, a fine circus performance, don't you agree?"

  He tinued g, loudly enough to not get drowned out by the thundering appuse of the audie was important to divert the team's attention from the rest of the se, t them out of that mud they were drowning in.

  "I have to admit, they pyed us well," Cato tinued. "Nobody saw these memes ing, so it’s no wohe audience finds this praiseworthy. Seriously, to think that they have memes that they py at such a high level. This is some bona fide circus."

  Cato fidently spouted all of that while his hands tinued g, almost as if against his will. With every loud cp he produced, a part of him cracked.

  This was wrong. This wasn't how today’s match was supposed to go at all. The regional champions had no business losing to some memes, no matter how ued the picks were or how profitly the oppos used these off-meta csses.

  heless, Cato tinued with this narrative.

  "I don't know about you, but holy, I lowered my guard a little in this match,” itted. “Also, I pletely failed to read between the lines during the drafting phase, which is how we ended up with an unfavorable matchup. Seriously, it's almost no exaggeration to say that we lost all the way back during the drafting phase, haha."

  Cato's palms started hurting from all the loud g he was doing. However, the pain he felt inside overshadowed all of that.

  The more responsibility he took upon himself for this defeat, the more numb his palms felt. However, this couldn't begin to pare to the pain tearing him apart from the inside.

  "So yes, they really caught us off-guard with that circus,” Cato tinued. “I say they deserve this appuse if nothing else. But, they won't get to hear it a sed time. Now that we know they like pying like circus monkeys, we'll have no problem dealing with them ime, right?"

  He passed the ball to his team but only silence respoo him. Even though his speech seemed to have some effe them, it failed to erase the frustration and dissatisfa they felt.

  Cato’s teammates probably agreed with him to aent. However, they struggled to overe the humiliation that came from losing a fiesta game like this.

  Fortunately, oeammate finally grabbed that ball and followed up on Cato's opener.

  "Yeah, you're right," William said. "They had the element of surprise on their side, that’s mainly what got us good. Nobody could’ve expected something like this. And as you said, many of our problems started all the way in the drafting phase, which was rgely your responsibility."

  "My, you’re holding nothing back, are you~?" iled impishly, doing his best to hide the irritatioually felt on this particur topic.

  Meme or not, it felt like Yuel strategically outsmarted Cat this drafting phase, pying him like a fiddle. It was frustrating to no end.

  heless, asked all of that with his smile. This was her the time nor the pce for him to cry about his fragile little feelings.

  Right now, Cato was more than willing to take a few hits for the team if it improves the atmosphere. As such, William's brutal words were wele, as armor-pierg as they were.

  Besides, it didn’t feel like William was actually trying to attack Cato there. On the trary, it seemed William uood Cato's iions to some degree. That's why the guy stepped forth and pyed along with Cato's little performance.

  This is what you wanted, right? William asked by making eye tact, to which Cato responded with an approving nod. Huh, so he got a thicker skin than I expected. Not too shabby.

  If it was William in that position, then he would have never been able to say such things. He couldn't have taken sujust bme upon himself in order to relieve the team of responsibility.

  Being able to joke about his own misgivings was a quality, or perhaps a defect, that only Cato possessed. This was the definitive proof that this was far better suited to be the team’s captain overall.

  The best William could do here was to help this beat himself down. Therefore, William pyed along with the little narrative that Cato weaved for the team's sake.

  Even though William wasn’t the captain, his words carried almost as much weight as Cato’s in this team. As such, his support practically doubled Cato's persuasiveness.

  Thanks to that, everybody slowly started lifting their heads. The joint speech of the two influencers dragged the rest of the team out of the mud of depression they were sinking in.

  Of course, everybody still had plicated feelings about the game’s oute and there was nothing Cato could possibly do to ge that. heless, they all started ing to terms with the result, slowly but surely.

  "Don’t worry, they won't be able to repeat this again," Cato promised. "Now that we know what kind of tricks they pull, we'll crush them thhly game, right?"

  "Of course," William said.

  "Damn straight!" Ronald pumped a fist.

  "Right." Sonya pulled up her gsses. "Unventional low-tier tactics like that only work once, and only if they have the surprise element. So, Stratus won't be able to reproduce it a sed time."

  "Yeah..." Matthew nodded in agreement but his head was still hanging low. However, it wasn't because he was feeling down or anything. It’s just that his eyes were glued to his phone uhe table while he was rapidly clig on it.

  "Haha, get a load of this bruh!" Ronald ughed. "We're all mopping like bitches over here but bruh is already back to pying his mobile games! You 't make this shit up, haha! I always tell ya: Matt might be quiet and all, but he's the realest one, word."

  "Huh," Matthew responded vaguely.

  Frankly, he had no idea what were these words that Ronald had just tried t together. Was that even English? The "realest one"? What did that even mean?

  Well, no point thinking too hard about it. Matthew shifted his focus back to the mobile game, where he was locked in an intense fight with a weekly boss. Or, at least it looked inteh all the special effects. Iy, it was just a turn-based game and the battle was set on auto for the most part, so Matthew only had to occasionally cli the characters to activate their ultimates.

  heless, it was a critical situation. Matthew had only one ce to face this boss this week and he had to get the highest score possible to cim the best rewards.

  It was supposed to be a no-brainer like usual. Matthew had dohis boss many times already. He had already developed a surefire strategy that worked every time.

  Yet, this time, he made one wrong move due to a ck of tration. And, it was a critical mistake.

  Tch, I cast that buff way too early. Matthew clicked his tongue. I was supposed to wait a little longer until the vulnerability state. Damn, this might actually ruiire run. And, they fixed that exploit where the battle restarts if I disect my , right? Ugh.

  What a drag. Seriously, how could he mess up during su important fight? He thought that doing the weekly boss now would be a great way to distract himself from the team’s defeat but it ended up backfiring.

  Maybe I’m not so fine, after all. Matthew realized.

  His earlier pse of judgment against the boss was caused by him losing himself in thought. And, what was he thinking about? About the ret game, of course.

  Though, his s were a little different thahers’. Sure, he was unhappy with the defeat like any pyer would be, but it didn’t him nearly as much as the others.

  Holy, sometimes I feel they’re putting this team on a pedestal. Matthew criticized. Yes, we’re pretty good, but that’s mostly because our club is big and we have a coach. So, it’s not like it’s impossible for us to run into pyers who got superior skills.

  The others expected this team to steamroll in the region but that retty naive of them. In the end, the Leopards were just aeam like any other. It was just blessed with a coad ied the legacy of the “regional champions”, that’s all there was to it.

  I mean, this is a team that got somebody like me pying on the first-string. Matthew thought. This is proof enough that there’s nothing special about it.

  Due to his lower expectations, Matthew didn’t find himself too frustrated with this defeat. He simply wrote it off as a rare occurrehat could happen at any moment due to a bination of human error, bad luck, and unusual circumstances.

  heless, one particur py kept him deep in thought even after the game was over. It was about that brief moment when he mounted an offense against Stratus in Mid, back when the eeam was ganging on him and Cato from all sides.

  Seriously, what was I doing? Matthew paused the mobile game ahe question sink in. It was too difficult for him to properly focus on the weekly boss while this question was still hanging at the back of his mind.

  Was it logical for me to focus on Bckhole there? I wouldn’t say so. Matthew criticized his performance post-facto. That wasn’t the target I was supposed to focus on, a...

  He charged straight at InformationBckhole back then. His target was her than Vi.

  But, what was Matthew really trying to achieve there? He should've focused his attacks on literally anybody else, yet he picked Bchole specifically.

  And as expected, his as achieved little to nothing. Though he successfully delivered some damage on the Berserker, it didn’t have any real impa the enemy’s push. In short, it was a waste of time.

  Do I hate the guy? Matthew couldn’t help but ask himself that.

  During that teuation, his first instinct was to attack Vi. Matthew khat he was doomed either way, so for some reason, he felt like shing at Vi in his final moments.

  But, what did Matthew really think of Vi, that messiah-plex guy? This was the dude who offered Matthew fake salvation that only further escated the violence against him back then. But, at the same time...

  Holy, I have no idea what to think. Matthew sighed i. I’ve been trying tet everything about that period of time, and I’ve done a good job at that.

  It took him about a year of rehabilitation, but Matthew mao move on and fet about these dark times. Much of it was thanks to Esmeralda and Cato, who were by Matthew’s side during these difficult times.

  Those two introduced Matthew to the world of Cssmancers, which helped distract him from the ive thought he was having back then. After that, he met more people in the club with whom he could properly i without being bullied.

  So yeah, for all is of purposes, Matthew recovered from that traumatic past. He return to society as a funal human being who could hold his head high as he talked with others his age.

  Of course, social iions were always a drag, but at least now, Matthew had the option to actually partake in them whenever he felt like it. He was no longer an outcast who existed solely to serve as a punchbag for delis.

  And, as weird as it souhe one who pushed Matthew toward taking the first step toward this salvation was actually... Vi, sorta.

  It wasn’t a gentle push, definitely not. That hero-plex idiot probably only cared about satisfying his own ego when he reported Matthew’s situation to the authorities.

  That fool’s meddling did nothing more than give Matthew false hope. In the end, it only further escated the aggression toward Matthew. Some “help” it was.

  heless, it was that escation that finally broke Matthew ao his transfer. It was brutal and painful, but it also freed Matthew from the bullies’ clutches.

  If not for that, then I might’ve tinued living as a passive victim even now... Matthew shuddered at the thought.

  All in all, Vi probably had good iions when he did what he did. His as ultimately did sorta free Matthew from the depressing circumstances.

  Sure, first Matthew broke down and had to spend a long time rebuilding himself. But eventually, he revived like a phoenix auro normal life. And now, his life was far better than it used to be.

  So, should I be thankful? Or, should I still resent the guy? Ugh... Matthew couldn’t make up his mind and it bothered him to no end. He had never had suplex feelings toward anybody.

  Normally, there were only three types of people out there:

  1) The people Matthew hated with every fiber of his being, like the goddamn bullies from grade school.

  2) The people Matthew had a favorable impression of, like his teammates and especially Esmeralda and Cato.

  3) The people Matthew didn’t care about, which was like 99.99999999% of humanity, to be ho.

  But, then there was Vi who belonged in all three categories, yet fit in none of them at the same time. What a peculiar creature.

  Well, I dunno. Matthew gave up auro the weekly boss that atiently waiting for his input. No matter how much I think about it, I really don’t uand what I should be feeling about this guy. So, best to just fet this and move on.

  In the meahe pep talk tinued. Cato and Vi said a few more things to boost the team’s morale, but it all went in one ear and out of the other for Matthew.

  Still, he found it impressive how Cato was able to e up with these big speeches even in situations like this. Truly, Cato able captaie his questionable personality.

  I ’t really help him in any way, so the least I do is act like I’m not bothered by the defeat at all.

  Being indifferent toward the team’s crushi might help the ain some fidend overe the frustration as well. At least, that’s what Matthew hoped.

  DarkestCymore