Chapter 521

Posted by Kuze, ? Views, Released on March 2, 2025

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[‘Brazil Killer Love Kim’ advances to the Round of 16; will the next opponent also be Brazil?]

[No Name and Kim Love both advance simultaneously to the Round of 16. “Tied with the United States.”]

[Asian players reunite at the stadium… Chinese, Korean, and Japanese viewers are filled with emotion.]

As soon as the match ended, articles began to flood in as if they had promised to do so.

This year, Love Kim had never struggled against Brazil in any of the evaluation matches.

As expected, she led the game to victory step by step based on her overwhelming aura output.

[We announce that Love Isabel Kim has won in the match between Group H’s 1st place and Group G’s 2nd place.]

“Waaaaah!”

Once the referee confirmed the final result, we could finally relax and celebrate our victory.

Brazilian fans had already started to get up and leave the stadium.

While Love Kim was preparing for her interview, two screens appeared simultaneously on the scoreboard.

One was the highlight of Love Kim finishing her opponent with a Sonic Boom.

The other was the 112th match of the national exchange competition taking place at the same time, the final match of the Round of 32.

“I should have gone there to cheer! I bought the wrong ticket.”

“It’s fine as long as one of us advances.”

Brazilian fans climbing the stairs expressed their regrets, glancing back occasionally.

“NaeMe!”

“Oh.”

Love had changed her clothes and walked toward our section before the interview.

I leaned over the outer fence and reached out to shake her hand.

“You came to cheer for me! I heard you were here during halftime. I looked for you for quite a while.”

“Congratulations on advancing to the Round of 16. You prepared well for today’s match.”

“Yeah. There’s nothing better against Capoeira than this Taekwondo kick. Yapp yapp!”

Love demonstrated a high, 180-degree kick toward the sky.

Just then, I thought to myself how envious I was of her long legs.

“Wait? Is NaeMe Love here right now? Waaaaang Kim Love! I’m a fan!!! Kuekk!”

On the side, Saetbyeol quickly ran out without looking ahead.

Bam!

Saetbyeol, who was hit on the forehead by Love’s foot, fell backward.

“Ugh…! Are you okay?”

Love covered her mouth with both hands in shock at the unexpected incident.

After a while, Saetbyeol staggered up, barely holding onto the railing.

“I-I’m fine, hehe. You shine so much in person that it’s hard to see in front of me—”

“You don’t seem fine at all.”

“Don’t worry about my sister and go hurry to your interview.”

“I’m sorry, NaeMe unnie! I’ll definitely apologize properly later because I’m busy!”

While Saetbyeol was on the ground, I noticed Hiroyuki pacing nervously nearby.

“Ugh, at least help her up.”

I helped Saetbyeol to her seat and took care of her red, swollen forehead.

“Ugh, NaeMe unnie, it hurts.”

[Simple Casting: Heat Transfer – Conduction]

I pressed a magic circle onto my palm and carefully placed it on her forehead.

“Yikes, that’s cold!”

“Please stop being so fidgety and stay still. It fell off!”

“NaeMe seems to get along well with her sister.”

Taken aback by Luo’an’s smile, I couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

“Ha… if Saetbyeol unnie is left alone, she’s destined to perish somewhere on the street.”

“Hey, you! How dare you curse such a heavenly sister!”

“Keep this magic circle on for ten minutes.”

“Ugh!”

I playfully tapped her forehead and refocused on Love’s interview.

I needed to pick up some good phrases to use too.

Meanwhile, Narita Mei, who was watching a U.S. talk show on her phone, grabbed my sleeve.

“NaeMe, look at this. It seems Murphy is going to predict the matches from the Round of 16 to the finals.”

“Is it live?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, that old man is on again? At this point, he seems to enjoy being criticized.”

Hiroyuki crossed his arms and expressed his dissatisfaction.

When mentioning Murphy, it was the former U.S. Secretary of State, Ulysses Murphy.

A legend of magical dueling and a key figure in establishing the framework of the national exchange competition.

This year, he announced the U.S.’s return to participation.

He has attracted global attention during this season.

“Is it the beginning of Murphy’s curse?”

[In my opinion, the candidate for winning this national exchange competition is…]

As the word “curse” suggests, his predictions are notoriously wrong.

* * *

The next day.

I saw off the Narita siblings and Luo’an at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Since they belonged to the national team, unnecessarily prolonging their stay would be a waste of taxpayer money.

Thus, returning to the home country was mandatory for now.

I gave Hiroyuki five minutes to have a video call with Saetbyeol, who was feeling very regretful.

“Hiroyuki, if you have time, help Luo’an find people.”

“Why should I do that?”

“If you don’t want to, fine. Oh right, I should make sure to tell Saetbyeol unnie to never contact me again.”

“W-wait! I need to know the story first or at least who we’re looking for to decide!”

“Have you decided to help, Hiroyuki? If you just find someone, I will never forget this favor.”

“Hmm, let me think for a second…”

“Wow, a trip to China sounds fun! Luo’an is even going to be our guide, so what’s the problem? Hiroyuki, let’s go!”

And so, the children I met through the national exchange competition departed for the Eastern country, each carrying different dreams.

When I returned to the lodging, it was 3 PM, a time when it felt awkward to invite someone to have lunch with.

The lights were off in the dark restaurant.

I poked my head into the kitchen and asked the resting chef.

“Can I take this?”

“Hmm? Of course, you can take as much as you want, No Name! Would you like me to pack it all into a box?”

“Oh no, just a bite-sized piece.”

I gathered French toast and Pulled Roti (grilled chicken) from the restaurant into a container.

“Has it gotten too cold?”

While I was prodding at the meat with a fork, it wasn’t the texture I wanted.

“I guess I’ll need to microwave it for a few minutes.”

Just then, I suddenly remembered the prediction talk show Mei watched yesterday.

I turned on the broadcast and played Kariri’s opening song to gather viewers.

[♬: Reverse Jinx / Kariri Cover]

It matched perfectly with today’s content.

[No Name]

[Just Chatting – A Simple Lunch]

[Broadcast Time – 0:05:14]

[Viewer Count – 18,956]

– Kyaaaaaah! Stop with the Japanese song!!!

– It’s dizzying to hear it after a long time, haha!

– Why does this have 15 million views…? Is the world really coming to an end?

– Such a suggestive title, teacher.

– Congratulations on advancing to the Round of 16!!!

– GoGo for the lunch?

– NaeMe, isn’t managing your diet hard? T_T T_T

Ding!

With the sound of the microwave, the song ended.

“Yikes… it’s hot. Whew, whew.”

I blew on it until the steam dissipated enough and carefully moved the side dish container to the table.

“Thank you for the meal. So this is called Pulled Roti, which is a French dish. It’s just chicken breast.”

– Isn’t it just chicken breast?

– You should call it chicken breast, not chicken breast, or it sounds sad.

– Please uphold the social nature of language.

– Is it that chicken? haha!

– Isn’t lunch too meager? You’re a national representative after all.

[‘Majangdong Sword Master’ donated 5,000 won!]

– NaeMe is living on this without any luxuries; how dare we indulge in fried chicken.

“Please don’t belittle our chicken. Chicken, cover your ears. You’re not the kind of thing that should be heard!”

Rustle—

I sliced the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and popped one into my mouth.

The viewers were shocked.

“It’s not that the lunch is meager; I was initially going to skip it, but I thought I should eat something, so I casually picked this up from the restaurant. By the way, has everyone seen the Round of 16 match-ups that came out? I turned on the broadcast to talk about that.”

I spoke politely while wiping my mouth with a napkin.

– Wow, South Korea has two representatives!

– Up until a month ago, people were saying at least 12 would advance from Europe, but turns out that wasn’t the case! Haha!

– Damn it, it’s NaeMe again; I have to worship her!

– That Uncle Murphy is on again, haha!

– Uncle? Now it’s Grandpa.

– He seems like a real man for predicting Germany alongside the USA since it draws less ire.

“I watched that broadcast too.”

The strong favorite, and Ulysses Murphy’s original pick, remains Nathan Chen.

He has never let his barrier drop below 50% in all his matches.

On the opposite bracket, he had to choose between Japan’s Kamikita Emika and Germany’s Aaron Krüger, eventually picking the latter.

“However, if you really think about it, the so-called Murphy’s curse might be unfair. The probability of being wrong in predicting who will come in first is much higher, and there’s no way an American can spit out bitter words stating that the U.S. won’t win in a talk show. I previously saw he had many accurate predictions, though.”

– But wouldn’t he actually enjoy the badmouthing? Haha!

– For real, haha!

– Murphy’s blessing, haha!

– It’s just for fun.

– But it seems the curse plays a stronger role at decisive moments, making it more memorable for people.

I projected the Round of 16 match-ups onto a hologram and maximized the window size.

Left:

⦁ Argentina (Giselle Fisher) vs Italy (Monica Rich)

⦁ USA (Nathan Chen) vs Estonia (Rasmus Jani)

⦁ South Korea (No Name) vs Saudi Arabia (Soobyan Omar Hakim)

⦁ Sweden (Oliver Larsson) vs USA (Cecilia Nicole de Saampaio)

Right:

⦁ Switzerland (Lukas Schmid) vs Kazakhstan (Alikan Kazenov)

⦁ Brazil (Theodor Rodriguez) vs South Korea (Kim Isabel Love)

⦁ Japan (Kamikita Emika) vs South Africa (Solani Malangu)

⦁ Germany (Aaron Krüger) vs Australia (Caleb Ryan)

“So, Mr. Murphy has placed the U.S., me, Switzerland, and Germany in the semifinals? The final match will be U.S. versus Germany, and the U.S. will win.”

– To be honest, NaeMe should be in the finals.

– But if you only pick such overwhelming favorites, you can’t complain if you’re wrong, haha.

– Even so, isn’t Emika the reigning champion from last year? You can’t just write her off.

– Maybe she struggled against China and Egypt in the group stage.

– Did Britain, Spain, and Portugal just evaporate? Legendary, haha!

[‘Song Hee33’ donated 10,000 won!]

– I don’t know much about European flags. Which one among those is the French flag?

“Sadly, Song Hee33, there’s no France among those.”

– Lmao!

– The level of sarcasm is insane, lol!

– Europe is doomed, haha!

– Is it really that ridiculous with three seeds and getting past three stages, then into the Round of 32?

– This is 100% deliberate, haha!

– But calling it a disaster is a bit much since it’s tied with Asia for 5 teams, yeah?

– Five teams is a lot, but they previously said twelve would make it, haha!

– It’s karma, karma.

It was an upset when Giselle Fisher defeated Alexandre Rochefort in the Round of 32.

[‘figure15’ donated 100,000 won!]

– NaeMe! NaeMe! Who do you think will win between Italy and the U.S.?

I realized that people were buzzing because they considered it a preview of the finals.

The Europa champion, Monica Rich, versus the absolute powerhouse from the U.S., Nathan Chen.

In any case, no matter who advances, I’ll be the one smashing heads.

At this point, I don’t see why it matters.

“However, they both have to reach the quarterfinals to meet each other, don’t they?”

– Uh-oh.

– Whaaat?

– Eek!

– Wow!

Growing rebellious, I placed a bet on the upset.

“The U.S. and Estonia have such a wide power gap that it’s kind of…”

“Hmm… I still think Giselle Fisher could win against Italy. That’s what I’m thinking.”

[‘Lazy NaeMe’ donated 10,000 won!]

– NaeMe loves Messi’s country so much she could win an award.

[‘RecraftedIdH’ donated 5,000 won!]

– At this point, aren’t you both hiding something? Haha!

“No, I really have no acquaintance with Fisher. I just think she’s a player with potential.”

Objectively, Monica Rich might have the advantage, but since dueling factors from the day’s condition and other variables are so numerous, the outcome is uncertain.

I quickly gave brief reviews of the players who made it to the Round of 16 and moved on to the main topic of match predictions.

I stuffed the last remaining toast into my mouth and swallowed.

“I don’t place much significance on predictions, so let’s move quickly. The quarterfinals will be Argentina, USA, Korea, USA, Kazakhstan, Korea, Japan, and Germany from the left side.”

– From what I saw last time, the U.S. third seeds were pretty weak. Aren’t they just 14 now?

– Are you betting on Kazakhstan as an upset? Unbelievable.

– No matter how poorly Love Kim plays, she’ll take down Brazil, for sure.

– Japan vs. Germany is a super strong pick.

“Oh boy, Argentina is really something, haha!”

“Semifinals will be the USA, me, Korea, and Japan.”

– Why does it sound so cool when NaeMe says “me”?

– Woo~

– If two people from the semifinals are from the same country, that’s a national-level affair.

“But that means three women and three Asians? Haha!”

“I’ll go with the USA, NaeMe, Switzerland, and Germany.”

– Japan and Germany are really tough.