VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～

『Oooooooooooh!! Fierce, so fierce! That’s right, this is the type of fight I was hoping for! I got the urge to join noooow!! If you so wish for, I could go and join right-』 (Emperor)

「No thanks, please spare us.」 (Hind)

「You plan to kill us!? No way!」 (Yumir)

I would rather not get into a fight with the Emperor right now.

He made a face as if all his spirit had deflated, but even if we fought the Emperor in our current condition, I can already see how it would end…

Besides, if the Emperor doesn’t announce the victors, the system will keep those two in their current KO status so I’d prefer if he hurried it up.

I’ll try to hint at it with my gaze.

『…Ooh, I forgot! The victors are Yumir and Hind! It was a splendid display of teamwork! With this, the pairs participating in the finals have been decided but…I can’t contain my excitement towards these 2 contrasting pairs! Wahahaha!!』 (Emperor)

After announcing the winners, the Emperor left the stage in high spirits along with his laughter.

From this moment until the finals, there will be another short interval.

On the other side, Rose shook off the hand Licht worriedly offered her and stood up.

After glaring at us, she descended from the stage alone as she gritted her teeth in frustration.

Licht bowed to us and disappeared after chasing after Rose in a panic.

…Well, I guess there’s a lot going on but we probably shouldn’t have to worry about it.

Being left alone on the stage, Yumir and I silently high fived.

Once we did, due to the barrage of cheers, the realization that we had really won started to come down to me.

Unknowingly, we started to smile…however, there’s still a match left.

「Alright, Yumir. Shall we head back to where everyone else is?」 (Hind)

「Yeah, you are right. We have to prepare for the next match.」 (Yumir)

On the hallways that lead to our seats, a multitude of players tried to talk to us.

The outline of their comments were congratulating us on our victory and commenting about how our opponents put up a great fight.

Since bettings were involved, there were also bad mannered players that were pouring abusive comments on us…the surrounding players looked at them coldly and for the ones that got out of hand they just reported them to the admins to silence them.

You could say that the players hated cold water being poured on this festive mood.

「Hero-chan!」

「Yumir-san, congratulations! Good luck in your next match!」

「You did it! You guys are the pride of Sala!」

Oh, the last person was a player from the desert? Or was he a NPC? I wonder which one it was.

Regardless, hearing that type of comment makes me happy.

Though in this case, most of those comments are directed towards Yumir…

「True Self! Make me a remote weapon too!」

「Me too! Please, let us defeat an area boss together!」

「!?」 (Hind)

Like that, since a while ago, words for me that I couldn’t understand were mixed in with those sent to Yumir.

They were coming from both genders too.

Towards them, Yumir replied displeased.

「This guy’s remote weapon is only me! This position…I won’t hand it to anyone else, I definitely won’t!! For sure!」 (Yumir)

「Sorry, I can’t understand why you are having that kind of possessiveness…」 (Hind)

「Why!?」 (Yumir)

I mean, I could understand if she was talking about her position as my partner, but what the hell is the position of a remote weapon…?

I had this feeling that something wasn’t right but unfortunately, there was no one here that said anything about it.

This interval wasn’t long enough for us to log out, but it was possible for us to gather our thoughts.

We returned like that to our seats and I looked at the familiar faces absentmindedly.

After thanking everyone, our talks were wholly focused on the next match.

The first one to start the conversation was Mitsuyoshi-san.

「So, do you have a plan to deal with Albert? Hind-kun.」 (Mitsuyoshi)

「I’ve more or less thought of a plan. I don’t think the rate of success would be high though.」 (Hind)

「Eh!? You have a plan!?」 (Tobi)

「It’s not really something I’d go as far as to call a plan though. It’s more like something to make us be able to fight on more even ground.」 (Hind)

We’ll do something about their attacks and make it a battle of attrition.

We have to take the flow of the match no matter what and create the flow ourselves.

That being said, the minimum requirement is for us to even out the power difference.

「First off, we’ll defeat Philia-chan and make it a 2v1. If we don’t, we’ll most likely lose after all.」 (Hind)

「You are saying that quite lightly, Hind-kun. Won’t it be quite difficult to create that 2v1 situation? Most likely, both of them will come at you at the same time, right?」 (Selene)

「It’ll be fine, Selene-san. We have only 1 chance at making it work, but we can make Albert Aniki powerless for a few seconds. We’ll do something about it in that time.」 (Hind)

From now on, it all depends on Yumir.

Albert Aniki is not someone at the level I can deal half assedly, so once it becomes 2v1 I’ll fall back and concentrate on supporting.

This all depends on how well Yumir will be able to deal with him.

In that regard, I think she’s in top form today, so I’m having these expectations that we might be able to do it.

Once I summed up things, Tobi looked upwards while putting his hand on his chin as if he was thinking about the previous match.

「It’s true that Yumir-dono’s movements in the Licht fight were quite nimble. The way she dealt with those 2 at the end made her seem like she was a mini Albert.」 (Tobi)

「I’m not that macho you know?」 (Yumir)

「He didn’t mean it that way…」 (Hind)

He probably meant that the way they fought was similar.

It’s true that as Tobi said, getting to the same level will be impossible but it gave the feeling of being something close to it.

「Yumir-san was so cool!! That last counter attack was so….!! Like this! Or maybe like this!!」 (Lyco)

「Yes. Lyco and me were so excited that we even unintentionally stood up.」 (Sai)

As if taking advantage of Tobi’s words, both of them started to praise how well Yumir moved in the match.

Lycoris-chan, who was copying Yumir’s movements by moving her hands was quite cute.

However, if you praise her too much she’ll go into ecstasy so I’d prefer if she kept it in moderation.

Just as I thought, the more you praise her, the more her cheeks loosen…

「So these two are fans of Yumir-san? They sure have weird tastes…」 (Riizu)

Then, Riizu poured cold water over them with such words.

Yumir’s expression quickly switched into that of anger.

「Hey you, are you trying to pick up a fight with me? I don’t mind doing a preliminary fight here before the finals you know? Ah?」 (Yumir)

「Can you drop it? You are in public now. So unsightly.」 (Hind)

Maybe Riizu did it so that Yumir returned to her previous state, but she probably also meant it.

Though, she could change the way she says things…no, it’s fine for now. I’ll give her a sermon later but we don’t have the time for that now.

I quickly made a strategy and explained it to Yumir as carefully as I could.

It was one in case we were able to quickly develop it into a 2v1 and another one in case we weren’t able to.

「…Something like that. Also think of when we don’t succeed, always…」 (Hind)

「Wait wait, Hind. You are saying this in hopes that…I’m the one that will be able to make an advantageous situation right? If we lose the initiative, will we really be able to win like this?」 (Yumir)

「Nuh…」 (Hind)

It’s true that I’m depending on how the fight goes at the start…

Now that she mentions it, it’ll end up with me leaving it all to Yumir, so you could say that the only part where I’ll have to give my best is at the conclusion.

「…I got it. Let’s not take the time we fail into consideration. In those cases we would have to make up for the difference in strength after all…leave it to me.」 (Hind)

「Umu, we are going to win! You and me, both of us!」 (Yumir)

「Ooh, you sure are fired up. Senpais, do your best~.」 (Siesta)

With Siesta’s lazy way of encouraging us, our fighting spirit vanished in thin air.

It was a bit exhausting, but since we calmed ourselves down a bit, I think it was good for us.

Being sent off by the cheers of the friends surrounding us and the words of encouragement of the people around us, we headed towards the final stage.