"I will now tell the teams. When I call your name and the team, step aside from the rest, please!"
Miranda shouted.
The players nodded and stood at attention like a good group of soldiers, while Fang Raon lazily stood on one leg, scratching the back of his leg with his other foot.
"Fang Raon... Red Team."
Everyone turned to Fang Raon, and he walked to the right side of Miranda and slid his hands into his pockets.
"Machary, Blue Team."
Miranda said.
With straight posture, buzzcut hair, and a powerful stride, Machary took the left side and stood tall with his hands behind his back.
He seemed like an actual soldier, and he was one of the recruits that several guilds tried to recruit during the recruitment phase.
In the end, he chose Rose Records, but nobody knew why, as there were few guilds that were stronger than that.
"...Please, let me join Machary’s team!"
A few players prayed under their breaths. It already looked like Blue Team had an advantage over Red Team.
In everyone’s eyes, Machary was way stronger than Fang Raon, as they all saw Machary’s strength during the recruitment process.
He is a monster!
"Nathan, Red Team."
Miranda said.
"..."
Nathan didn’t react much and walked next to Fang Raon and straightened his posture to stand stiff like a tree.
He didn’t mind joining Red Team because it meant he had a chance to become Team Leader.
If he had joined Blue Team, there would be no chance because they had Machary, but against him, they were unlikely to win.
"Tauro, Blue Team."
"Whew..."
Tauro let out a sigh of relief, high-fived Machary, and stood next to him.
They were already friends, so he was happy to be chosen for the Blue Team.
"Alexia, Red Team."
With a click of her tongue, Alexia walked over to the Red Team and haughtily crossed her arms as if she didn’t want to be here.
She had dark black hair and piercings, looking like a delinquent, and seemed to hate the life she was born into.
"Adrian, Blue Team."
"Let’s go..."
Adrian pumped his fist, joined the Blue Team with a smile on his face, and looked towards one of the blond-haired girls that hadn’t been chosen yet.
He was praying for her to be chosen to Blue Team as he had a little bit of crush at her, and wanted to show his cool side!
"Markus, Red Team."
A brown-haired young man nodded, walked over to the Red Team, and joined their circle, trying not to let his disappointment show.
"Kira, Blue Team."
A short-haired young woman nodded nonchalantly and joined the Blue Team, but she also felt disappointed.
She led her own party all the way to the 6th floor, which showed her talent as a party leader, and thought that she had a high chance of becoming Team Leader.
However, now with Machary on her team, the chance of that happening became very slim.
"Lucy, Red Team."
Miranda said.
A cheerful blond-haired young woman ran excitedly over to the Red Team, and greeted everyone with a big smile on her face.
"Ah..."
Adrian looked disappointed.
"Debra, Blue Team!"
"Justin, Red Team!"
"Billie, Blue Team!"
"Trevor, Red Team!"
"Abdul, Blue Team!"
In that moment, the teams were officially chosen, and each team had seven members each, and they stared at each other.
"Red Team—Fang Raon, Nathan, Alexia, Markus, Lucy, Justin, and Trevor!"
"Blue Team—Machary, Tauro, Adrian, Kira, Debra, Billie, and Abdul!"
Miranda said the teams once more, and the two teams eyed each other, and in paper, it seemed fair enough.
However, nobody knew of Fang Raon’s strength.
"It should be fair enough of a match, and now, I will be choosing the Team Leaders!"
Miranda shouted.
"Blue Team’s leader will be... Machary!"
Miranda said.
With a nod, Machary stepped forward confidently, and he looked like he already expected to be chosen.
Therefore, he wasn’t really showing much joy.
Other players of Blue Team just clapped, as they expected that already.
’...It looks like Machary won’t have any trouble getting his members to listen to his orders since they already respect him.’
Fang Raon thought.
"Red Team’s leader will be... Fang Raon!"
Miranda said.
It turned silent as everyone turned to Fang Raon and had looks that said, "What the hell? Why was he chosen?" across their faces.
Nathan was pissed off as well.
’...Without Fang Raon here, I would’ve chosen Nathan as Team Leader as he had shown leadership qualities, but Rock wanted to put him in that position, so I did.
’It will be interesting to see whether he can get all these egos in check or whether they will get crushed by the competent Blue Team.’
Miranda thought, and at that moment, she brought out a floating camera from empty air and made it hover high in the air.
"I will be streaming the entire training exercise, so everything you do will be heard and seen by everyone over in Rose Records.
"It’s your only chance to show what you’re made of!"
Miranda shouted.
The players looked at the camera, nodded, and looked very serious.
"Blue Team, you can now go to the other side of the island, where you’ll find your flagpole, and wait there.
"When you hear a whistle, the training exercise will start and won’t end until one flag is all the way up at the top of a flagpole!"
Miranda shouted, and with the whistle in hand, she started walking towards the mountain in the middle.
The camera stayed hovering in the air, and it started transferring video feed to her stream channel.
People watching from home slowly started to join her stream, and while Miranda wasn’t all that popular of a streamer, she often had 200-300 viewers on average.
"Let’s move!"
Machary shouted and started marching towards their base, and every member of his team followed him with no hesitation.
Red Team members were awkwardly standing around. They looked disconnected. It didn’t feel like they were a unit.
’...Now, I have to make them work together as one cohesive team.’
Fang Raon walked to the forest, picked up a big rock, and put it down next to the Red Team, and then stood on top of it.
He was now the tallest person.
’I’ve never talked publicly before, and I feel sick at my stomach, but I must do it or I’ll die during my next training session with Rock.’
Fang Raon took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and his blue eyes turned a shade deeper...