To Live Again, For the First Time!

[2045 is the number for the roman numerals MMXLV, which is also the name of Kayden's guild.]

When Kayden saw who his team was going against, a small smirk formed on his face.

'Haha, what great luck we have. We have to trash them this time.'

Kayden was very familiar with their opponents; in fact, their whole guild was familiar with them.

"You know them?"

Theodore noticed Kayden's reaction when looking at him from his peripheral vision.

"We've gone against them a couple of times. We're familiar."

'Familiar huh?'

But that was not nearly as interesting as the other party's name. Theodore was thoroughly stupefied.

[You're against 'Handsome Fivesome']

'Is it just me or is everyone intensely uncreative? No, I should say that everyone is just too creative.' He thought.

"Isn't this party name a little… forced?" Theo didn't know what else to say.

"They're just a group of narcissists, but don't underestimate them too much. Our battle records against them are about 50/50, we only win around half of the times we play."

They sure sounded like they played each other a lot, but Kayden didn't elaborate too much as the game was about to start.

The screen displayed a 3 second count down and the moment they started; the party's communication channel was open.

The first 2 minutes were just Dyson giving out a few orders. Even though he didn't know much about Theodore's skill level, he was quite familiar with his own team member's proficiencies. He was also adept at leading a small team, so this was nothing really.

His leadership skills were clear after the first phase had passed. Genie was attacking the beasts from the other team's side while Theodore was providing support. Dyson had great trust in Genie's skills so even if Theodore was lacking Genie would be able to make up for it.

If Theodore could handle his own, that would be even better as they would have a field advantage later in the game.

Dyson was familiar with Handsome Fivesome's strategies… all 5 of the players liked to attack the other side's team members. All 5 of them played attack roles with no supports, but they were still a force to be reckoned with. Truth be told, they all found support boring, so no one wanted to do it.

They were all playing for a good battle.

If they weren't good at their attack roles, they would have most likely have been slaughtered countless times by other teams.

The first thing that team handsome did was slay the beasts in the middle lanes so that they could quickly reach the team's side and start the battle.

When they had seen that they were going against team 2045, they all got fired up. It had been a while since they last fought and so they all thought it was about time they made it clear who was above the other. After all, after taking into account wins, losses, and ties, they were more or less evenly matched.

Even after the game had gone on for 4 minutes, they had yet to realize that there was actually a new member in 2025's team.

They did however notice that there were only 2 players defending the middle lanes. That was Dyson and BBAD.

All of the members of team handsome were the type of people who only played for a good match, none would be satisfied with an overwhelming win and so even if they had a numerical advantage, they still split up.

They didn't really know where the other three were, so they just went back to their own base since the starting protection on the towers they had to protect was already about to dissipate, which is also when they noticed the two members hunting their beasts.

On their side.

"Hey, I'll take the mage, you guys can take the support!" [Super Handsome] said.

"No, it's ok. You don't have to I'll take the mage; you can take the support." [Handsomer than the Others] insisted.

They both acted as if they were doing the others a favor when they knew full well that was not the case.

[Genie33] was fairly famous especially among people who played against this semi-expert. Which numbered over the thousands, Genie was really online all the time which is why this player was pretty much a figurehead for 2045's guild. Genie was also the only one proficient at the role of the mage, well they never needed another one, so they didn't bother looking for one.

As for the other members of the guild. They all took the guild's best interests into account and so they didn't bother trying to play mage either, they would always have Genie there so there was no point in fighting for the role, not that there would be any issues with having two mages.

"You guys are too kind, I won't burden you, I'll take the mage. Mage against mage, it's only right I take this task." [Handsomest] didn't wait for the other's response as he went for the kill.

[Super Handsome] and [Handsomer than the Others] were dumbfounded.

'What is this, we are all civilized people, can't we talk it out? Why do you have to be so violent?' Both of them shared this sentiment as they watched their team's mage go fight against the other team's, leaving only the support for the two of them.

"This support isn't enough to fill in the gaps of my teeth." [Super Handsome] sighed.

"I see that you seemed tired, since you can't help it, I'll take the support. You can just sit back and watch." [Handsomer than the Others] replied, taking the support was better than nothing.

"No way, we shouldn't take the support out just yet. Let the support help the mage out and make [Handsomest] suffer a little." [Handsomer than the Others] thought for a bit before agreeing, he had really wanted to go against Genie and since this opportunity was taken away, he thought he'd at least take the support, but watching a good show wasn't too bad either.

Just when he was about to express his agreement, he realized that [Super Handsome] had already left to fight the support.

"What the hell!"

"I can tell that you are very tired today, your countenance doesn't look too good, I'll take him." [Super Handsome] had long left and was about to engage in a battle leaving [Handsomer than the Others] to be stunned by himself.

'Countenance my ass.'

Not wanting to hear more, he promptly muted the comms.

'What the heck! Is this what they mean by the villains always lose due to talking too much? Next time, I won't waste my words on these people!'

'Wait.'

'That's not right, they are the villains! How did I become the villain?'

[Handsomer than the Others] hadn't been paying much attention to the ongoing game during his daze and when he looked back. His screen only displayed 2 words. [You're DEAD.]

'What the hell just happened?'

Well, though he had spent some time AFK (away from keyboard), it would be near impossible for both [Super Handsome] and [Handsomest] to have finished their battles. The most likely possibility would be that the 3ed member of the other team had come over without him noticing.

'I don't recall 2045 having a member called [Doorii]?'

He thought back to all the battles they had against 2045 before, but he indeed didn't recall any Doorii.

[Handsomer than the others] turned on his comms and his ears were instantly bombarded with the overlapping voices of his teammates.

"Did you see that! I can't believe it. How can supports even do that? Is he a moderator playing in disguise as a normal player while using hacks?" [Handsomer than the Others] was happy to hear that [Super Handsome] had suffered a loss, but when his brain had finished processing what he had just heard, he was also stunned.

"What do you mean by the support? What support? What happened?" [Handsomer than the Others] still had no clue what was going on, but he had an inkling from what [Super Handsome] had said, even so, as a battle maniac, he didn't want to believe it.

"You're finally back on! What do you mean by what do I mean? You weren't much better, in fact, you died faster than I did. At least I put up a fight." [Super Handsome] huffed.

"I was just away for one moment. Tell me what exactly happened while I was gone." [Handsomer than the Others] didn't want to say that he was simply in a daze when he was killed.

"Just watch the replay." [Handsomest] who had been fighting Genie said.

He too had just died.

[Handsomer than the Others] quickly clicked the replay.

The next scene sent him into a state of absolute shock.