━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Emilia didn't really want to pay much attention to the game that the 'Crimson Witches' were focusing on at the moment, but that didn't mean that she was slacking off during their practice sessions.
After all, her experience with video games and the like was so limited that it was laughable, and the crimson-haired girl didn't want to be disadvantaged in Arcadia later because of such a thing.
The full-dive technology might help her cover up for most of her shortcomings thanks to her inherently superior reaction speed compared to humans, but there was a limit to how much it could help.
Everything within the game had to follow its own rules, and that included the speed at which she could move her virtual body, as well as the strength of her attacks.
Fortunately, Emilia was a quick learner, and even the four 'veterans' on her team couldn't complain much about her 'skills'.
That was not to say that all was well within the 'Crimson Witches', though.
"Just who does she think she is? Telling me to not block her sight, as if I could have eyes in the back of my head to know where she was?!" Nico stomped her feet in fury.
Robin hummed. "Everyone else was honestly reporting their positions, but Miss Dark and Dreary is just too special for that, I guess."
Danielle just giggled, but didn't scold the two of them for mocking the heroine.
The crimson-haired girl sighed. 'I get that they're upset at Sylvia for not being cooperative enough, but… their behavior really isn't helping.'
Needless to say, they'd lost their first match after the reformation, despite the fact that Emilia had scored twelve kills without dying a single time.
The mockery they faced at the 'newbie' member being the MVP must have only made the situation more humiliating, but it wasn't like Emilia could have afforded to hold back.
If she did, what she would face from her teammates wouldn't be dissatisfaction, but hatred and blame for being the reason they lost.
And to rub salt to their wound, there had been dozens of blatant poaching attempts to get Emilia off of their team since, with a few even daring to directly knock on their front door with a contract.
Naturally, Danielle rejected them all, but ever since then, the already tense situation between their team members had become worse.
'They really look more and more like a hopeless case.' She sighed.
In fact, up until a few months ago, this seemingly hopeless team of the villainess actually used to be quite well-known for their amazing teamwork.
This was no surprise to anyone who knew that almost all their main members used to be childhood friends and classmates, and had practically grown up together.
But unfortunately, one of the girls developed a deep yet unrequited love for Danielle's only male friend, and when she realized it would never come true, she couldn't handle it and ended up taking her own life.
Simply losing their star player alone would have been a devastating blow on its own, but when the boy who had been the target of that girl's unrequited love also went abroad, unable to bear the guilt, things started spiraling completely out of control.
Rumors of the captain, Danielle, bullying her teammates and forcing them to suicide started spreading like wildfire, and all but two of her closest friends soon ended up quitting her team, further solidifying the rumors.
'Her bad personality might have played a role in making it all more believable, but…' Emilia narrowed her eyes suspiciously. 'There's definitely something fishy about how everything played out.'
Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to notice anything that would help her clear these doubts, and neither had Cynthia.
"Emilia! How long are you going to space out for? Do you want us to be disqualified for being late?!"
The crimson-haired girl didn't mind Robin's displeased glare as she nodded and motioned for her to lead the way. "Let's go."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Fortunately, whether it was the heroine or the villainess and her friends, they were all smart girls, and soon figured out a way to 'work' with each other after eating a few losses in a row.
It was a stroke of genius from Danielle, when she decided to switch up the 'leader' for a match out of desperation, seeing as how things couldn't possibly get worse.
Much to everyone's shock, under the undoubtedly novice new leader's clumsy instructions, they finally secured a victory after nearly ten continuous losses!
Even Robin, who usually refused to even look at Emilia, couldn't help but lift her up on her shoulders and run around cheering right on the stage in front of the audience.
"Ahahaha… we won! We won!"
Trailing behind, the heroine only blew at her fringe haughtily. "Sure, sure, it was my fault every time we lost, but now that we've won, it's all Emilia."
If it weren't for her words lacking a certain edge, and knowing the heroine's 'mulish' personality, Emilia would definitely have been offended.
As it was, though, she just giggled. "You did well, Sylvia!"
The bright-eyed heroine blanched in shock, having never expected anyone to hear her murmurs, then blushed in embarrassment, thanking the heavens for her dark skin hiding it perfectly.
Of course, in contrast to the cheerful atmosphere on the stage, most of the audience was actually quite glum.
Clearly, a majority were the fans of the team that had lost. It was only the preliminary round, and their team lost... to the Crimson Witches?!
"I thought they were a washed-out team of losers, with their most skilled member being a newbie who didn't even know all the rules of the game...? What the fuck is going on?!"
"How could the Hungry Tigers lose?"
Of course, this was a 'verified' rumor about Emilia, who was now widely considered 'mechanically gifted', but extremely dumb.
Most people thought it was a fair price to pay for her face, though.
But now that they'd seen this 'dumb idiot' defeat the team they'd bet on, most of the audience felt it was a little unreal.
"W-Well, dumb people often get lucky, d-don't they?"
"Right, it must have been luck!"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)