"It's Hyperbeam!" Shouts Ricard. "Avoid it!"

"H-hyper-what…?" Clara, unable to stand up, can just watch as the gorilla is preparing his ultimate move.

Laura and I exchange a look. We don't know what to do. Hyperbeam is similar to the instant death light beam from the previous dungeon. If we try to save Clara, we might get swept up by it too… Furthermore, there's nothing that stops the gorilla from turning its head and aiming the beam at us if we try to save her or provoke him.

Why are all Magic Engineers obsessed with instant-death lasers!?

Do their brains rot after choosing the faction, and they can't think of anything else? Or is it because they replace their brains with robotic parts? I, a pure flesh transhumanist, will never understand them.

Ricard clicks his tongue. "Tsk… this is the only way…"

Surprising everyone, he pulls Clara's Champion towards him, using Dark Grab, and causing the gorilla to aim at him. Ricard then puts Clara behind him, shielding her from the incoming attack.

"Don't move even a millimeter."

The gorilla's skill finishes charging at that moment. Light bursts forth from his mouth, but Ricard, standing still in front of its path, opens his arms and loudly proclaims, "You shall not pass!"

Haha, it seems I'm not the only one who likes to say famous phrases while playing the game.

The light advances in a beam, engulfing Ricard and Clara, repeating what happened in our last preliminary match. Shit. I hoped I'd never see this again…

But, unlike the previous time, the light lasts only for an instant. It passes through Ricard's and Clara's position and creates a large hole in the faraway wall. A hole with the shape of a person's silhouette, in negative.

Ricard and Clara are still alive. He blocked the light's path with his body and protected her. Now, he's at 1 HP, sure, and he would have died if it weren't for his skill…

But they're alive, that's all that matters.

After releasing that powerful move, the gorilla stops moving completely. Now it's the time to strike!

But I stop even before casting a single spell. Even after all this, only a third of the gorilla's HP is gone, and he won't take long to recover from Hyperbeam's backlash.

"We can't keep up like this…"

We must find another way to do this. Trying to defeat that gorilla will take too long, and one or more of us might die in the process. Unlike other ultimate-like skills, Hyperbeam can be used more than once each Dungeon Invasion…

Using the short lull, I approach the dungeon core, right in the middle of the flat clockwork tower. Now that the gorilla has stopped momentarily, it's time to analyze the current situation.

"Hmm… I see…" I ignore the others' shouts and focus on the task at hand. I smash my staff on the core, but as expected, it doesn't break. It's invulnerable for as long as there are monsters alive nearby. "If only we could make the gorilla move away… Ah!"

Suddenly, a crazy idea comes to mind. Why fight the stupidly powerful gorilla when the requirement to break the dungeon core is that there aren't any enemies close to it? To win, there's no need to defeat it.

My gaze lands on the platform's edge. Then, I turn towards my teammates, who are attacking the immobile gorilla.

"Hey, Baldy," I shout, so he can hear me. "Can you pull the gorilla towards the edge?"

Ricard sends me a bewildered gaze. "What are you talking about? Of course not! Are you crazy?"

Maybe, but this and that are two separate matters. Still, his answer gives me the information I needed: he can't use Dark Grab to move the gorilla around.

"Then… How long until you can use Taunt again?"

"I can already use it."

Did a minute pass already? Chasing after me, fighting and getting rid of Clara, charging and recovering from Hyperbeam… It checks out.

"You're right." I nod and add in the most neutral of tones. "Then, use it and jump down the tower."

"...Sorry. What!?" Ricard looks at me with a ridiculous expression. "Are you crazy!?"

Again with that? My brain is fine, okay? But instead of complaining, I point towards the dungeon core, then at the gorilla.

After training with Marta, we've come to realize a few things. But the one that matters right now is that there's no right or wrong, that the only thing that matters when in a PvP match is achieving victory. That, as long as we achieve our objective, the process doesn't matter.

This doesn't apply to PvE, where the objective should be to have as much fun as possible. Otherwise, the game will get very boring, very fast.

But for PvP… anything goes.

"Just pull the gorilla away," I say.

"Ah!" Ricard finally understands what I mean. Being the one who's most obsessed with points, he immediately agrees. The few points we'll get by defeating the gorilla aren't worth the points deducted by the time spent, or even worse, the points deducted by one of our deaths.

We've all agreed to follow the 'anything for victory' mentality, and he knows that, now that we're so close to it, breaking the core is the only thing that matters.

"Okay, I'll do it. But you'll owe me a big one. You'll have to do whatever I ask you after this match is over–"

"I'll forgive you the next time you make an error instead." I cut him.

"...Fine."

Ricard approaches the tower's edge and waits until the golem starts moving. Meanwhile, I tell everyone to move away. We don't want any more surprises. It'd be a disaster if someone made a mistake and had an absurd death.

The rest of the plan goes without a hitch. As soon as the gorilla awakens, Ricard uses Taunt and jumps down the tower. The golem, forced to attack him until the Taunt effect disappears, doesn't hesitate to jump right after him.

Ricard won't die. He'll be fine, thanks to his skill.

"Haha," I chuckle. "This is why fixing the monster's AI is so important."

I didn't say it out loud, but there was always a chance that the dungeon owners would have modified the gorilla's AI to make sure it would never move away from the dungeon core. But I had my suspicions earlier, when the gorilla left the clockwork tower's top to chase after me.

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I feared that this wouldn't work, but we're lucky. The gorilla's AI didn't contemplate this possibility, and now, it's a free game.

Clara pokes her head out, watching the two fall. "Whoaaah! Even as it falls, it still looks so big!"

Of course it does. If it looked big when we were at the bottom, it'll look the same when we switch positions. The distance is the same, after all.

Not wanting to waste any time, I start smashing the dungeon core with my staff once more. It makes a dull *Bonk, bonk!* sound, until, after a few strikes, the gorilla has fallen enough and *Crash!*, it finally breaks.

Shortly after, we hear the fanfare sound that congratulates us on our victory, followed by the clattering sound of the gorilla hitting the ground. Laura, Clara, and I decide to drop down the tower, now that fall damage has been disabled, and reunite with Ricard at the bottom.

While they talk, I approach the gorilla, now completely immobile, and start kicking his leg.

Who said it'd be a great idea to form a team with four Magic Engineer players? To hell with them! "Damned Magic Engineers! You're ruining this game with your stupid instant-death lasers!"

…Let's pretend I never thought of playing their faction before discovering the Flesh Monstrosities. You'll keep my secret, right?

Outside DMA, I go down the stairs and move towards the living room. There, I find my objective, Marta, watching the TV.

"Hey," I greet her, "Have a moment?"

My older sister turns around, wearing a smug face. "You've only finished your matches now? I completed mine a long time ago."

Well, sorry for not being as good as you. Furthermore, we're in the 4vs4 category. It's understandable our matches are longer than yours, who only has to manage yourself!

"That's great," I force a smile.

My smile must have looked a bit forced, because she furrows an eyebrow, realizing my inner thoughts, and asks, "...What do you want? I'm busy, so say it fast."

Although the game gives us the total points achieved after every preliminary match, and adds them together to make it easy for us, we have no idea how close or far we are to the '50 positions' in the real tournament. There's no post in the forums recording previous year's scores, but I'm sure Marta knows. Furthermore, we would like to know where the points we got came from, as the game only gives us the total amount, not how many we got for clearing the dungeon, killing monsters, and the time it took to do it, nor how many were deducted.

This is just the first half of matches; we'll have another identical session tomorrow. We need to know how to adapt and improve.

I explain to Marta that we want her to tell us if we have enough points, and ask her if she can break down our points to allow us to see where we're good and where we're lacking.

After my explanation, Marta scratches her cheek, a mix of fury and exasperation in her voice.

"Aaagh, fine, I'll do it. I was the one who taught you, and now you're kind of my students… It's my responsibility to make sure you get to the top 50."

I still find it weird when she helps us without asking for anything in return, but talks as if she hates it.

"Nice! Then, how close are we to the objective? Do we have enough poi–"

Marta raises a hand to stop me. "I won't tell you yet. First comes the point breakdown."

"Eeh? Why not!?" I act as shocked as I can to try to stimulate her guilt. "Are you going to leave me with the doubt all the time? How am I supposed to focus if you don't tell me?"

"I won't tell you now because you won't listen to me after knowing it. If I say you're fine, you'll be too happy to focus. If I say you aren't, it's the opposite effect, same results."

Tsk! My try at emotional manipulation didn't work.

Well, at least I tried. Also, she's right. I won't be able to focus if she tells me this first. I hate to admit it, but she knows me very well.

"...Fine. Point breakdown first."

Marta turns off the TV and stands up, and we move to the table. But before she sits, she takes out a stack of paper and a pencil.

What does she want to do with that…? A shiver runs down my spine.

"If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right. It's math time, my dear brother."

'Math time!? I'd rather you kill me now instead–' "Ouch"

Marta smacks my head, "I know you don't hate it, you wouldn't have chosen Computer Science if you hated math. Stop thinking about weird things and tell me everything."

Now even Marta can read my thoughts!? …Or is it true that they're written on my face, as other people have said? If it is, I'll have to bring a mirror with me at all times to check if that's true. It'll be the end if my (in-game) enemies can know what I'm thinking ahead of time!

I tell all our adventures to Marta, from the time it took, to how we cleared the dungeon, to the deaths we had. At a few points, she glares at me as if we committed the gravest of sins, but other than that, she remains silent, writing numbers on the page. At some point in time, Clara joins us, adding her 'unique' view to my explanations.

It isn't until the end that Marta says something.

"There are plenty of points I want to retort, but this one's the worst: how did you manage to get a TPK even after my training, while facing an instant-death laser machine?"

Her eyes bore into me, as if she were trying to drill a hole.

"I-it's… we didn't catch up on the cooldown reduction… until it was too late…"

Marta nods. "That's certainly tricky, but I would have realized the gimmick after the third shot. The fourth at the latest. Hmm… was my training not good enough…?"

The hair on my whole body stands up, imagining what might come if I don't stop her right now.

"N-no! Your training was perfect!" I say. "It's our fault, we're stupid!"

Marta's gaze continues to bore into me. "From now on, follow your friend's… was it Laura…? Follow your friend's plans exclusively. You're only allowed to use your plans when those have already failed."

"But I'm the team leader…!"

"...Did you say anything?"

"N-no, madam! It must have been your imagination!"

A short silence follows, broken by Clara. Thank you, Clara. Your brother loves you!

"You didn't tell us if we got enough points yet!" She complains. "Are we doing fine, or do we need more?"

Marta thinks for a while before answering.

"You're… so-so. You'll need to do better tomorrow if you want to qualify for the event. Hmm…" With a hand on her lips, Marta's gaze wanders between us and the paper filled with numbers in front of her. "From this paper, you'll notice that the best way to get points is to clear the dungeon as fast as possible. Faster means more points, and also less time for deaths."

I understand, but not at the same time. Where is she going with that…?

"Tomorrow, try to find a predictable dungeon and blitzkrieg it. Don't bring support mobs unless you can carry them. If you can reach the dungeon core and break it without deaths within 10 minutes, you'll get a significant boost in points. Even better if you can do it two or three times. As for the rest of the dungeons, just don't die. Not a single death, both for you and your support mobs. You should get enough points this way."

Clara and I exchange a look, not sure what to say. We'll have to talk about this with Ricard and Laura.

We try to stand up, but it seems like Marta isn't done speaking.

"Not many players know, but points aren't everything. Except for outliers that get far more points than any other team, those from the top 100 range are picked by hand by the DMA staff. Originality, clever tactics, and teamwork are key to this. They want competent players for the event, because there'll be many spectators. This is the reason they never publish the rankings. You're lucky to be in the 4vs4, which is the one with the least competition."

Having said this, Marta's usually fierce glare turns meek. She looks away before adding. "I… I put in a good word for you… Don't let me down."

Hey, that's nepotism, and I love it!

Having said everything she had to say, Marta glares back at me, pushing the page in my direction.

"Take this and leave." The page is now filled with numbers to the brim. "This is just an approximation, as not even I can give you perfect numbers with your descriptions, but it'll serve you well enough."

"Thank you, Marta."

"Hmph! If you–" She snorts and is caught by Clara's hug, unable to finish whatever she was going to add.

"I love you, hehehe!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Marta awkwardly pats Clara's head, doing her best to hide the smile on her face. "Now go, I want to finish what I was watching before you came."

Clara and I happily grab the paper sheet and leave, going to find Ricard and Laura at our agreed-upon spot. Before we leave, though, Marta adds something that makes me freeze.

"Oh, and don't rely on luck. The staff in charge of selecting will quickly eliminate those that won without any tactics or teamwork, relying exclusively on luck to make it through."

Wait a moment…

Don't rely on luck, you say!? Guys, I'm sorry, but we might be screwed already…

"Aah, how much I love 'smart' AI. I'll never get tired of exploiting it."

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