I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work-Chapter 90
<Hit-the-Mark Tournament>, <GaeMo Tournament>, <Well-Played Tournament>...
Among all the streamer tournaments hosted by Pazizik, there was one defining feature: the player auction that took place a week before the event.
The popularity of this auction was no joke—it even had dedicated livestream coverage.
For viewers, the excitement came from seeing how much their favorite streamer would sell for,
or how many times they’d get passed over.
Sometimes, unexpected bids would spark discussions, like a streamer with zero Combative experience getting drafted early—or not at all.
And if, due to some bizarre chain of decisions, all the weaker players ended up on the same team...?
That’s when the community war began.
“What the hell is this coach thinking?!”
“How do you manage to screw up a draft this badly?”
“Welp, there goes my streamer’s chance at winning...”
But the high-tier players serving as team captains had just as much of a hard time.
It wasn’t like they wanted to draft a terrible team.
There were 20 players total, divided across five skill tiers (Tier 1–5).
Even within the same tier, roles varied wildly—some players could cover multiple positions, while others were locked into one.
A proper team needed at least one shot-caller (IGL) and a Tactical player (Smoker),
but spending too many points on them could wreck the entire draft.
On the flip side, being too conservative meant missing out on a solid team composition.
And, of course, captains also had their personal preferences—
they needed teammates that fit their coaching style and personality to ensure smooth team synergy.
On top of all that, each player auction lasted barely a minute.
So, while monitoring the remaining pool, captains had to adjust strategies on the fly,
manage their remaining points, and draft five players, one from each tier.
Not an easy job.
Even with meticulous planning, something always went wrong.
[Auction Order]
Magia (3) - ...... - Kamik (1) - Crkemang (5) - Bazubi (4) - ...... - Serena (2) - Taro (1)
And to make things even more chaotic, the auction order was an absolute disaster.
The two most crucial players—Serena and Taro—were at the very end of the auction.
[Wow. This auction is going to be insane. Look at this lineup—it's pure madness!!]
[Could you explain why this order is such a big deal?]
[Let me remind everyone—there are only four players who can function as shot-callers. And out of them, only two are high-priority picks: Tier 1’s Taro and Tier 2’s Serena.
The fact that these two are at the very end of the draft? This is disastrous.]**
Even though Combative had added skills to make it more accessible, its core was still a tactical military FPS.
A well-coordinated team always had the upper hand.
And to execute proper strategy, a strong shot-caller (IGL) was mandatory—
since high-ranked captains couldn’t issue detailed in-game commands themselves.
That’s why high-tier IGLs were worth their weight in gold.
And among them, Serena (Tactical, Smoker) and Taro (Infiltrator, Flashbang Initiator) were top-tier picks.
Instead of yelling, “Throw smokes!” or “Flash in!”,
it was always better to have a player who could do it themselves while leading the charge.
Plus, Taro was last year’s tournament champion and MVP.
Every team wanted him.
[Expect absolute silence until Serena’s turn. It’s going to be like the calm before the storm.]
[Exactly. No one’s going to spend points early—not when the two most important players are at the very end.]
In other words, most players—including me—were guaranteed to go unsold.
An unproven player,
whose only submitted clip showed them recklessly diving in, taking two kills, and immediately dying?
First auction slot?
Of course...
[As expected, Magia has gone unsold.]
[It’s understandable. While Magia is well-known in Battle Colosseum, they’ve only played Combative for a few days.
Their clips showcased strong mechanical skill but were far too aggressive for Combative’s playstyle.]
[Exactly. But at the same time, Magia is a high-value player to snag at a cheap price. No one wants to be the first to bid and risk overpaying—so captains are letting them pass for now.]
[Right. The strategy is “Let’s draft the key players first, then circle back later.”]
I had expected this outcome, so I just nodded.
Meanwhile, the viewers sighed in relief.
— Phew.
— No way we’re picking up dead weight this early lol.
— Thank god, no hype train for this one.
— Nice, free ride to a good team!
— Getting drafted cheap and landing on a stacked team is the best play.
:: Anonymous Donor has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::
:: "Why did you play Combative in a private match? We have no idea how good you actually are, so we don’t even know your price range lol." ::
“I was too busy working to stream.”
— You streamed Wicker Town, though! 😭😭😭😭😭
— Just do it like Wicker Town!
— Pls, Gia, we’re begging you.
“There’s a misunderstanding here.
I streamed back then because it was my job to oversee the members.”
:: Anonymous Donor has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::
:: "Demon King Magia—what was that all about?" ::
“I got thrown into a big role by accident and just did my best.
Same reason I joined this tournament—if I perform well, it’ll boost Parallel’s reputation.”
— Sigh, I might as well talk to an AI at this point.
— Y’all are wasting your time. Magia doesn’t listen lol.
— These guys still haven’t given up? LMAO.
— Just sit back and enjoy the show, dudes.
As expected, the auction continued with player after player going unsold.
Only a handful of Tier 4 and 5 players were picked up.
But everyone was holding their breath for Serena’s turn.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
At this point, she and Taro were the only names that mattered.
[Uhh... Serena? Serena, are you okay?]
[She’s gone completely silent. The pressure must be insane.]
[14 consecutive unsold players... this is getting crazy.]
Th𝗲 most uptodate novels are published on ƒгeewёbnovel.com.
[One team is about to get completely screwed. Everyone left has over 950 points saved up.]
And then, Serena’s name was called.
The auction, which had been silent until now, instantly exploded.
Youngun: 500p[OH MY GOD, FIVE HUNDRED?!]
[What the hell, Youngun just gave up on drafting a Tier 1 player?!]
[Who the hell opens with 500?!]
Typically, high-value players went for 500–600 points at most.
Starting at 500 meant Youngun was all-in—he wasn’t letting Serena go.
[That’s bias. Youngun is a Serena fan.]
[Still, 500?! That’s insane.]
[Serena, are you okay?]
[W-WHY?! WHY 500?! WHY?!]
And, of course, the other captains weren’t just going to let this slide.
Even if they had no intention of actually taking Serena, they could inflate her price to sabotage Youngun.
Sure enough, counter-bids started pouring in.
Pandral: 550pYoungun: 555pPandral: 600pYoungun: 605pIt was an amount that made it terrifying to jump in.
Everyone had their own limit when it came to considering Serena’s value as a pick.
Fandral’s threshold was likely 800 points.
Serena’s auction, which had been skyrocketing past the ceiling, finally halted when Younggun placed a top bid of 805 points.
— Sold!
The commentators erupted into chaos.
[Oh, it happened!! Younggun wins Serena with a bid of 805 points!!]
[A new record for the highest bid in the Combat Division of the Matched Tournament!!]
[But wait, is Younggun’s team going to be okay? This makes future tier auctions much harder. Wouldn’t it have been better to just let Fandral have her for 800 points?]
[Well, that just shows how much Raise trusts Serena. We have to hear from the star of this auction. Let’s connect with Serena for an interview.]
800 points? Even 500 points was expensive.
That was an insane amount of pressure for a player.
If they blew all their budget on a single player and she couldn’t perform, how would the public react?
It would be a total disaster.
Even if the broadcast didn’t completely collapse, countless players faltered under the weight of public scrutiny and chat pressure.
And during a tournament?
The chat was downright brutal.
If it were filled with constructive feedback, that’d be one thing—but it wasn’t.
It was full of trolls from all corners of the internet, waiting to pounce at the first sign of failure.
Sure enough, Serena’s voice in the interview was full of distress.
[Ah, uh. That. 805 points... is... uh... oh god.]
[Aaand there it is! Serena has lost all language functions.]
[All we can do is offer her our support, but... wow, this is rough.]
[Younggun really needs to build the rest of the lineup well now, huh?]
[But... the points... uh... aaaaaah! I don’t know!!]
[Hahaha! Let’s just keep watching the auction! Stay strong, Serena!]
[Stay strong!]
After the interview, I kept an eye on Serena through my second monitor.
Her expression was trembling with anxiety, and her voice had been on the verge of breaking.
She was completely overwhelmed by the pressure.
This is bad.
To me, she had always been a kind and meticulous mentor.
But she was still a rookie—barely a few months into her debut.
If it were Taro, last tournament’s ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ MVP, he might have been enjoying this.
But Serena looked like she was about to break down.
This wasn’t going to be easy.
Younggun had bid for her because he wanted her on his team.
But now, that very decision was about to backfire—Serena was on the verge of getting flamed.
The best-case scenario was that Younggun managed to build a decent team with the remaining 195 points.
But that was already looking grim.
For Tier 1, the only pick left was Kamik—the least favored player in the entire pool.
And as for Tiers 3 to 5? Those weren’t looking great either.
That suspicion became certainty when I saw how much last year’s MVP, Taro, sold for in the next round.
[Alright, Fandral secures Taro for 655 points!]
[It’s a little expensive, but still a reasonable price!]
Younggun had completely fallen into Fandral’s trap.
Now, the strongest-looking team belonged to Fandral, who still had 345 points left.
Meanwhile, the other two managers still had 950 points each.
And Younggun?
195 points left to build a team?
...No matter how I looked at it, this was going to be a scrap heap of failed picks.
***
In auctions, sometimes players who keep getting pushed back end up automatically assigned to teams.
Too expensive to spend points on, yet too valuable to let go.
It was better to just wait and see where fate placed them.
[Alright, and with that, Tier 3 player Magia is automatically assigned to Younggun’s team.]
[...Wow. Uh. Younggun’s team is... looking rough.]
[The final roster for Younggun’s team is Kamik, Serena, Magia, Bajubi, and Crkemang.]
And one of those players was me.
— Wow, we are so screwed.
— LMAO
— This is painful
— YOUNGGUN!!!!!
— Is this even a team???
— The weakest roster in history, lmao.
— We knew it was doomed the moment they spent 805 points on Serena... but we didn’t think we would be the ones suffering for it!!
— EMERGENCY!!!
Goddamn it.
It actually turned out this way.
Even the commentators were struggling to put a positive spin on our inevitable downfall.
[Wow. I usually don’t make snap judgments, but... this really does look like the weakest team in the tournament.]
[I agree. Serena is under way too much pressure now!]
Serena had gotten her wish to be on the same team as me.
But this team?
There was no path to victory.
A Tier 1 player like Kamik, who was great at charging in but useless without orders.
A Tier 5 player like Crkemang, who was infamous for ruining main orders by constantly talking to himself.
And a rookie like Serena, expected to keep those two in line.
Then there was Bajubi, who started every sentence with I’m sorry and was barely relevant in the scene.
And me—stuck with an AR and a no-charge rule, completely shackled.
It was clear as day that this was a disaster.
Meanwhile, the other teams were perfectly balanced.
I had planned to just coast along and pull my weight.
But at this rate, forget promoting Parallel—could we even get a single win?
[Alright, let’s hear from Magia, the last player to join Younggun’s team.]
[Magia, are you there?]
“Hello.”
[So, Magia, this is your first time competing in the tournament. How are you feeling right now?]
My head was already overloaded with thoughts.
So much so that I momentarily forgot this was an official broadcast.
“...I think we’re completely screwed.”
