"Let's take a five-minute break," IronWall suggested.

  There were no objes. Everybody must've been a little tired after the st game, which certainly dragged out lohan it was necessary.

  Jin weled the recess as well. He revitalized himself by drinking half of his water bottle in one go.

  It was crucial to stay hydrated at all times to not lose tration, especially during such important matches. The coaches in Korea drilled that creed into him, so drinking water between matches became as mandatory as breathing.

  There are a few more minutes left. Jin thought.

  Everybody else was taking a break, but he didn't have such leisure. The uping game was going to be his st ce to prove himself today, so he had to e up with a winning game pn.

  Holy, as an individual pyer, I believe I performed alright. Jin analyzed. The rest of the team is the real problem. They're far too weak. And, it doesn't help that they're hellbent on pying defense 24/7. I ge anything about that?

  Jin didn't dare to pin during the game itself. He was cautious to not cause a rift between him and his teammates.

  But, now was the perfect time to voice his opinion oter, as a fellow teammate who was going to py with all of them again.

  "May I have a word?" Jin called out to the captain.

  "Sure," Howard answered and stepped forward. "By the way, I gotta say, you're being way too polite. We're all middle schoolers here, right? o be so uptight."

  "I still getting used to the nguage."

  "Oh, is that so? You're pretty fluent, so I thought you've mastered it by now."

  "I'm still Gold rank, at best."

  "Haha, alright." Howard smiled. "So, what is it? You got such a serious look on your face."

  "I want to talk about this team's game pn."

  "Oh, what's this? Trying to get info on the Leopards’ rivals?"

  "No, I have no suterest," Jin replied holy. It's not like this team will pose a threat to me even if I have to pete against them with the Leopards.

  "Then,” Howard tinued. “What kind of ‘game pn’ are we talking about here?"

  "This team’s defensive game pn," Jin specified. "This team excels at defense, I tell. But, it too defensive. We 't defeat pros with this method."

  "Well, that's a hot take if I ever heard one."

  "Hot take...?"

  "A troversial opinion," Howard expined. "It’s a way to say that people would disagree with what you just said."

  "So, you disagree?"

  "Yeah, for the most part," Howard said. "But, it looks like you got some experience pying against high-level pyers So, shoot. What do you think we should do in order to win?"

  "It simple,” Jin said. “The team needs better offe least some pyers o be able to attack after defending. Without that, we never win no matter how long we defend."

  "I see yle." Howard nodded. "Holy, it's not like this team's offense is bad or anything, you know? It's just that it's dangerous to go on the offensive against pros until you have an advantage."

  "But, how that advantage ever going to appear? By waiting on the defense? Maybe it works against school teams, but against pros?"

  "Touche."

  "Sorry, what?"

  "It means you made a goument," Howard expined. "It's not even English, I think. Probably French or something.”

  “Huh. So, you agree?”

  “To a certaient, yes. I admit, our current game pn has never brought us eveely close to winning against the Sweepers. But, then again, it's not like we're exactly expeg to win in the first pce."

  "You're not expeg to win...?"

  "Oh, my bad. I phrased that poorly,” Howard admitted. “Of course, we're trying to win as hard as we . But, we know that our oppos are much stronger, so we're ly expeg to get any easy wins from them."

  "So, you fight with the mihat you probably will lose?"

  "Well, not quite,” Howard insisted, even though it was just a matter of semantics at this point. “We reize that our oppos are stronger, so our top priority is to survive against them for as long as possible. But, of course, if we get an opportunity to turables ohen we'll take it."

  "Cssmancers is no survival game," Jin criticized. "No matter how strong your oppo is, you have to search for opportunity to attack."

  "Attag involves a lot of risks, especially against pros. We ’t do that often."

  "Yes, risky pys are bad if happen a lot. But, it necessary to take a risk sometimes. When you py against a better oppo and you only py safe, then you never defeat them."

  "Heh, this sounds like something that guy would say."

  "Sorry?"

  "Just talking to myself here." Howard smiled wryly. "Anyway, I get what you're saying. As long as we py it safe, we won't be creating any big opportunities for winning.”

  “Yes.”

  “In truth, I’ve been fog mainly oing the team’s defense during these scrimmages. I want to see how our defense holds up against pros, and find what areas we still have to work on."

  "That doesn't sound like a winning game pn."

  "It totally doesn't, does it? Haha." Hhed. "I'll be real with you, I didn't even sider it ossible to win at our current level. I mean, I also eained such ideas at first, but it didn't take long to realize the huge skill gap between us and pros."

  "So, you gave up on winning?"

  "Not quite. I'm just trying to make the most out of these matches,” Howard expined. “I focus oeam's stro points, like its defense, a how effit they are against pros.”

  “But, that doesn’t win games.”

  “Yes, it’s harder to win this way. But, we’ll be instantly destroyed by them if we don’t focus on our strengths. So, we have to stick to defense if we want to have a fighting ce at all. Any talk about winning only e after that."

  "Hmm." Jin wasn't sure how to respond. So, for him, testing out the team’s skills is more important than winning. Instead of taking calcuted risks in order to get a ce to win, he would rather py it safe and stretch out the precious scrim opportunity. There is some merit to this mentality, but I think it’s a waste.

  By the end of the day, the pros were just regur oppos. There was nothing special about them except for their high skill level.

  Therefore, it was best to treat them as sud fight hard in order to seize victory. That was the ultimate form of practice. It simuted real matches as accurately as it could possibly get, which should help the team grow the most.

  Then again, I was never in charge of aire team. Jin thought. Maybe priorities ge somewhat when you’re in those shoes.

  Perhaps it was reasoo allocate a few of the matches for testing out specific team skills. However, it was definitely a sin to waste all the pro matches on that alone.

  But, it’d be rude to phrase things like that. So, Jin took a moment to sider his words.

  "I uand your position,” he said. “But, I ask you to ge that approach for one game? I want to aim for a win and show we fight baot only defend."

  "In other words, you want to leave a good impression that badly, huh."

  "... yes, that’s how it is." Jin sidered denying it for a moment, but this captain should be reasonable enough to uand.

  "We switgressive game pn," Howard said. "But, are you absolutely sure you want that?” He paused for a moment as if pting something. “I really shouldn't be sharing this info with an enemy, but let's just say that our ‘best offense’ is still a work-in-progress."

  "Meaning?"

  "We have a pyer who provide great offense, but it es at the cost of creating many, many openings in our defense. I actually tried using her offense a few times before, back when I believed we had a ce at winning. But, let's just say it vinced me to stop doing that for now, haha."

  "I see." Jin realized he robably asking for too much.

  By the end of the day, his teammates for this match were low-caliber pyers. They weren't pying defensively just because they wao, they were just that much more fident in their defehan in their offense.

  Depending on how fwed their offense is, this entire idea might backfire horribly. Jin reasoned. From what I’ve seen so far, this team's defense is about the only good thing about it, so we might be irouble if we seal away that trump card.

  "Alright, I uand," Jin said. "In that case, may I py the offehe rest of the team keep pying defense like usual. I only he team to back me up when I open an attack. Is that possible?"

  "An iing idea. Sure, we try that." Howard nodded. Julia might actually synergize well with this sort of game pn, but I prefer her to sit this o. I don’t want to show her pystyle to the Leopards before we get to py them. Besides, she's not ready for this level of petition; she’s far too unstable as it stands.

  Therefore, Howard rejected the idea of having Julia py as the team’s offense. However, he had no qualms about Jin fulfilling that role. In fact, the more this guy revealed about his skills, the better.

  This is all precious info. Howard thought. The possibility of us fag this guy at the regionals is still not off the table. So, I have to use this opportunity to study him as much as possible.

  With that, the team's nen was decided. The StormBlitz pyers will focus on defeheir stro point. Meanwhile, Jin will be in charge anizing attacks, which the rest of the team promised to follow up on.

  As far as Jin was ed, this was a goement. He achieved his goal of shifting the team’s pystyle, ever so slightly.

  I should be able to leave an eveer impression this game. Jin ched his fist in fidence. I'll show them that good offense stump even these so-called “pros”.

  With the p in motion, Jin was sted to impress the judges in this game and earn himself a spot on the pro se. Or, so he believed...

  DarkestCymore