One day after the scrimmage with the Apples, the Leopards already met up to discuss their next opponents. There was no rest for the champions. Such was the packed schedule Rodriguez prepared for them. It almost felt like a world tour, with a match scheduled every other week. 

"Alright, so everybody is here." Cato nodded in satisfaction.

"Isn't the 'Emperor' missing?" William asked.

"He'll not be attending."

"Is that so." William frowned. "That's a first. Usually, he at least attends the meetings."

"He promised to look over the data later and read the summary."

"Yo!" Ronald raised a hand. "Where do I sign up for that deal?"

“My, my. Is that the right attitude for a captain-wannabe?” Cato criticized. “I have the feeling the Leopards will struggle HARD next year.”

“Meh.” Ronald made a face. “I’ll handle these meetings way better once I’m the captain. Yours put me to sleep half the time.”

“Well, I’m very sorry about that.” Cato glared at the brat, and the brat glared back at him. They were at odds about anything and everything, as usual.

“Anyway,” Cato moved on. “I trust the Emperor to go over the details once he’s free. You all know how serious he is about these things. That’s one of the few things I can appreciate about that rascal.”

“Fair enough,” William agreed with that sentiment. The others shared a similar sentiment.

“Emperor” was the nickname Ronald coined for the team’s sixth phantom player. Though, technically speaking, it was more accurate to say that the Emperor was the “fifth player” while Ronald was his temporary sub.

But, in practice, Ronald was scheduled to play in most of the team’s scrimmages this year. The Emperor will only make an appearance when he deemed it absolutely necessary.

It was a peculiar arrangement, but everybody had no choice but to accept it. In fact, most of them preferred it when the Emperor was away. Between Ronald and the Emperor, even Cato wasn’t sure which troublemaker he’d rather have on the team.

“What is that dude up to, anyway?” Ronald asked.

“He has a practice match today against pros,” Cato explained.

“With pros?” William frowned. “A team from the region?”

“Yeah, the Sweepers.”

It was a well-known name around these parts. It even made a certain smartphone addict unglue his eyes from his precious phone for a moment.

“Oh.” Matthew raised his head. It was only natural for him to be curious. After all, the Sweepers was Esmeralda’s team.

“It’s an odd arrangement,” Cato said. “From what Coach told me, StormBlitz has a practice match against the Sweepers today. And, our Emperor will be taking a part in that.”

“StormBlitz is practicing with the Sweepers?” William frowned further.

“Yep, that’s a thing, apparently,” Cato said. “Not the most legal arrangement, I’m sure. You remember Aegis from StormBlitz, right? Ignis from the Sweepers is his older sister, so they get special opportunities like that. An awesome deal, I gotta say.”

“It sure is.” William grumped. He’d also rather spend his time practicing against pros instead of playing Ranked or preparing for these boring middle school matches.

From the two scrimmages so far, it was clear that most of the region was nowhere near the Leopards’ level. Fighting these guys was a waste of time. It was always one-sided stomping that didn’t benefit either side.

“My, is somebody jealous~?” Cato smiled impishly.

“A little, I suppose.” William didn’t deny it. “I’d gladly trade Ron away to get a brother on a pro team who can arrange games for me.”

“Say what!?” Ronald jumped. “Bro, that’s just plain cruel! You gonna forsaken me just like that!?”

“Maybe.”

“I can’t believe it… sob.”

“Oh, no! You broke his fragile little heart!” Cato pretended to care. “Anyway, this is what’s happening today. I get the jealousy, I really do. It’s a huge privilege to be able to face off against pros. But, then again, we also get the same deals, don’t we?”

“Fair enough.” William nodded.

Thanks to Rodriguez’s connections, the Leopards also got to experience a handful of practice matches against C-League and B-League pros. They stopped doing that recently in order to concentrate on the upcoming scrimmages, but they definitely gained lots of experiences from these difficult fights.

"So," Ronald started. "Lemme get this straight, the Emperor gets to skip this entire meeting in order to play with pros? Dang freakin’ lucky! How do I sign up for that deal?”

“By getting three 10/10 scores on my player ranking list, for starters,” Sonya commented.

“Dang, that’s harsh!” Ronald held his head. “How far am I, again?”

“Quite far, I’d say.”

“Gaaaaah!” Ronald’s head dropped for a moment, then jumped right up. “But, I’mma get there, mark my words!”

“Sure.”

Everybody expressed it in different ways, but all of them were rather unsatisfied with this arrangement. It was always the Emperor who got special treatment on topics like this.

"All in all," William started. "I say it’s a good thing. The pros will trash him hard enough to kick him off the high horse."

"My, quite harsh, aren't we?" Cato smiled innocently even though he was of the same mind.

In fact, it wasn't just Cato and William. Pretty much everybody in the room thought the exact same thing. The only exception was Matthew, who already returned to his phone games and refused to spare a single nanosecond of his attention on this trite topic.

"Anyway." Cato clapped once to get everybody's attention. "The Emperor went to do what the Emperor needs to do, that’s not today’s topic. We've gathered here to discuss Stratus, so let's get started. I trust you all watched the replays?"

"Yep," Ronald replied. "That was some unexpected clown fiesta."

"It’s definitely not what I expected to see in this match." William nodded.

“It defied many expectations, yes.” Sonya agreed as she pushed her glasses

“Mhm.” Matthew merely nodded in affirmation, with his eyes still glued to his phone. Even as the meeting started, he was still absorbed in his games.

But, I know he's listening. Cato performed attention checks from time to time and Matthew always passed them with flying colors. The guy was a multi-tasking machine.

“So,” Cato continued. “I assume that means you also watched the replays from last year's scrimmage. Chessmaster and Gunz played on StormBlitz’s second-string there, as unexpected as it is.”

"They sure pulled a number on Jenny's team last year." Ronald laughed.

"It was a close match," Sonya objected. "Jennifer did a good job leading the team. They only lost because Alex didn’t bother to try."

“Yes, Jennifer played well overall,” Cato agreed. “But, she wasn’t perfect. For one, her combo playstyle was a big drawback.”

“I… agree, I suppose.” Sonya bit her lip. “That scrimmage made me discover a couple of flaws with the game theory I provided her, so part of the responsibility lies with me.”

“My, always so quick to defend your girlfriend~”

"Ugh." Sonya pressed the thick-framed glasses up her nose. "Are you picking a fight?"

“I would never.” Cato pretended to be shocked at the mere prospect of somebody suggesting he was picking a fight, even though in actuality he did that on an hourly basis.

"History aside,” Cato continued. “It's clear that Chess & Gunz are two opponents we have to be conscious of. It's also worth mentioning they were just freshmen last year, yet they were good enough to compete against some of our best seniors." 

"Man," Ronald said. "Can't believe Jenny was mopped by some greenhorns."

"Nobody wasn't mopped." Sonya gave him the evil eye. "It was a close match."

"Anyway," Cato continued. “With players like Chess & Gunz on board, even a team like Stratus can become a threat."

"C'mon, you're exaggerating." Ronald waved his hand. "They seem alright, but they're no match for us. Am I right, bro?" 

"I hope they'll serve as a good warm-up practice, at least," William said evenly. "The last two scrims were complete disappointments, so I’m not expecting much."

"Yeah, I feel ya." Ronald nodded. "But hey, Gunz sounds like a fun opponent. Let's see who gets to kill him first!" 

"You're on."

The killing machines have already decided on a new killing race before the scrimmage even began. As always, they didn't have a shred of doubt regarding their victory.

"My, I'm glad you're so pumped for the scrim," Cato said. "With that said, we’ll be leaving the topic Chess & Gunz to the end of the meeting. Let’s discuss the rest of their team first.”

“Whaaaaaat?” Ronald exclaimed. “Cmon, man. They’re the only ones that matter, right? The rest are just scrubs.”

“The fact you say that is the very reason I’m leaving the big fish to the end. If we cover them first, it’ll give you an excuse to stop paying attention for the rest of the meeting.”

“Nah, I would never.” Ronald smiled innocently and shifted his eyes away. It was clear this rascal was only interested in talking about Chessmaster and Gunz. He didn’t register anybody else because they didn’t have a shiny title like “The guys who defeated Jeniffer’s team”.

“Anyway, let’s get started. Sonya, if you will." 

"Right." Sonya gave one final glance to the summary paper in her hand, then turned to the audience. "As usual, there are printouts that go along with the presentation. Flip through them as the presentation goes on.”

"Geh." Ronald flipped through a couple of pages from the huge stack before giving up. "Just give us the presentation, man." 

"On it," Cato informed. He tinkered with the projector's settings until the image showed up just right. 

"Nice!" Ronald pumped a fist. "The presentation is the only thing that matters, to be honest. Do we also have some videos to go along with it?”

“Yes,” Cato said. “The Filmmaking Club didn’t have the time to finish all our requests, but we already received most of the videos. As always, they have great quality.”

“Hell yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about. Nobody got time to read all this stuff. Just show us a presentation and some videos. That’s the good stuff."

"The printouts are mostly for reference anyway," Sonya pointed out.

"Well, I'm not reading any of that." Ronald shrugged. "Just hit me with that PowerPoint and some nice videos, that's all I need in life. It's way easier on the eyes than this Bible you printed here."

"I hope you’re aware that this ‘Bible’ I printed actually has the notes I used for making the presentation. This presentation couldn’t possibly exist without the notes." 

“Well, good job adapting that boring stuff into a way better format!” Ronald gave a thumbs up.

Is he making fun of me? Sonya pushed her glasses.

"Don't pay too much attention to that idiot," Cato whispered. "He says whatever comes to mind."

"That's true." Sonya sighed. Still, it'd be nicer if he praised me for my hard work instead of calling it ‘boring’. The presentation is more like a summary of what I did. The notes are the main part I’ve spent many hours writing and revising. Oh well.

"You did a great job putting all these notes together!" Cato showed her with praise out of the blue as if he read her mind. "You're doing outstanding work as my secretary."

"Who are you calling a ‘secretary’?" Sonya made a face.

"It's a prestigious position, you know? You’re the right hand of the man who'll one day rule the world. It’s a great honor." 

"Sounds like I'm the right hand of a kid with childish dreams."

"BUUUURN!" Ronald laughed out loud. "Man, she just TRAMPLED all over your sorry ass."

"Oh, didn’t you know?" Cato smiled impishly. "This is how our dear Sonya shows her affection toward others~"

These two tire me out. Sonya sighed in defeat. What was the thing that annoyed her a moment ago? She already forgot. Cato's nonsense washed all of it away.

As the chit-chat died out, it was time to discuss the actual topic at hand: their next opponent, Stratus.