Qadir, Queenie, and the other tech students were allpletely stunned.
Goddess, coaching the Neverfall Navigators? And winning? Just how many hidden talents did she have? It was unbelievable!
In a corner of the audience, Miranda was taking pictures of Juniper. After snapping a few, she zoomed in on one of them.
"You know, I can''t help but feel...” Miranda stared intently at Juniper''s face, her own elegant features scrunching up in confusion.
"What is it?" Hayden immediately twisted open a water bottle and held it to his wife''s lips, his voiceced with concern.
“But..... it''s impossible,” Miranda murmured, taking a sip of water. She shook her head, then nodded again. “Then again, the resemnce is uncanny. Am I just overthinking this?"
"What''s on your mind, darling?” Hayden asked again, seeing her wrestling with the thought.
"I think our dear Juniper, from certain angles, bears a striking resemnce to Demon," Miranda answered in a hushed tone.
"Really?" Hayden''s deep-set eyes widened as he looked at the photo. Now that she mentioned it, there was a simrity, especially around the eyes.
But Demon was a man. He almost wished they were the same person. Then he wouldn''t have to be jealous of another man capturing his wife''s heart.
After the fourth round, there was a ten-minute break. In the backstage lounge, Juniper sat rxed on the sofa, a coffee personally poured by MystiCat in her left hand and a cookie in her right.
Mysticat and his three teammates stood before her.
"Ms. Payne, your strategy back there was absolutely brilliant," MystiCat said. His initial skepticism hadpletely dissolved, reced by pure admiration after thatst round. Even his form of address had changed, from "the kid whose name I don''t know" to a respectful "Ms. Payne," delivered with a formal tone.
It was a slightly strange scene: four men in theirte twenties, standing humbly and respectfully before an eighteen-year-old girl.
"Yeah," the other yers chimed in. "You adjusted our tactics countless times in just fifteen minutes."
"Ms. Payne, how did you predict the movements of every single Digital Sabers yer?"
"Hmm?" Juniper tilted her head up, a faint smile ying on her lips as she answered calmly, "I used my brain."
It was the simple truth. She''d just put a little thought into it, no other trick involved.
The four teammates fell silent. The jab had hit home.
"Ms. Payne, we''ll follow your lead for the fifth round," MystiCat said respectfully. "Just point, and we''ll shoot."
"Alright," Juniper said with a cool smile, pping her hands as she stood up. A dangerous glint shed in her eyes. "Then let''s make sure none of them leave standing."
"Yes, ma''am," the Neverfall Navigators replied in unison, their morale soaring.
The fifth and final round, the championship match. Fans both at home and abroad were in a frenzy arguing over who would take home this years esports title Digital Sabers still had more supporters, with most people believing the
Néverfall Navigators'' previous
"For the first ten minutes, handle the strategy yourselves," Juniper instructed from
her chair, arms crossed as she observed the match.
Ten minutester, MystiCat made a
careless mistake and was ambushed by an enemy yer
hiding in the brush. The team
down to three members. Digital
Sabers pressed their advantage, and
thirteen minutes in, the Neverfall
Navigators were wiped out.
This only reinforced the belief among the audience, and Digital Sabers themselves,
that the earlier reversal had been pure luck.
While waiting to respawn, MystiCat
snuck a nce at the silent girl beside him. He wanted to say
something, but her expression was so cold he didn''t dare That aura, that posture... it was just like Demon''s.
He immediately shook the thought away. Impossible. The stress of dealing with those five Digital Sabers bastards must be making him sick, causing him to hallucinate.