FOG [e-sports]

Chapter 48

Shi Luo had actually been expecting NSN’s loss to Sacred Sword.

It was true that NSN has changed to a more powerful sniper this year, but Saint’s sniper wasn’t weak either. Comparing the two, NSN didn’t have any exceptional advantage over Saint.

Last year’s domestic champion Team Saint was defeated 2-0. It was only normal for NSN to be defeated by Sacred Sword.

Not to mention, Wawa wasn’t as skilled as Angel Sword.

Shi Luo typed and replied to Wawa.

[Evil]: [How many times were you cycled?]

[Awa]: [*Shaking all over*...In the second game, 21 deaths! ]

[Evil]: [That’s not bad. You still haven’t broken my record. ]

[Awa]: [Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah I hate it! Why am I not an assassin-type medic! ]

[Awa]: [If I were like Yu Shen, I could have at least killed them once or twice, instead of just being beaten over and over!]

Shi Luo typed.

[Evil]: [No need to study Whisper. His style of play isn’t suitable for you. Your milktank play is pretty good. It just as good as the other medics’.]

[Awa]: [But milktanks can’t kill!]

[Awa]: [Shi Ge, do you know how dirty they play?! ]

[Awa]: [One time we winded up face to face. It was three on three. We staked it all but we still couldn’t beat them. But that’s not the problem!!!]

[Awa]: [Sacred Sword killed out two strikers and when I was the only one left they didn’t kill me! ! ! Shooting left, shooting right, they deliberately missed and had me run away by myself! ! ! ]

[Awa]: [Are they teasing a dog? ! ! ! ]

Shi Luo frowned. He hadn’t encountered Sacred Sword in two years. After their reorganization, Sacred Sword’s style became more and more disgusting.

What kind of sick joke was that?

[Evil]: [How many to how many?]

[Awa]: [......]

[Awa]: [Same, 2-0. ]

[Awa]: [I feel like I’m gonna explode from how angry I am, but...I can’t tell you the details. ]

[Evil]: [I understand. I didn’t want to ask either.]

[Awa]: [There are only two choices before me now. ]

[Awa]: [One way is to switch to a striker, sleep on brushwood and taste gall, lie low and bide my time.]

[Awa]: [The second choice...is to add another hour to my daily training T0T.]

[Evil]: [Then you’re going to have to make sure you get some rest. Strike the proper balance between work and rest.]

[Awa]: [55555...You’re not a good friend. I’m going to go look for Angel Sword Gege to cry.]

In the training room, Puppy, who had just finished a game, stretched his body. He tilted his head, saw Shi Luo and raised his hand. “Old Qiao, Player Evil is playing on his phone during training time.”

Old Qiao himself was playing on his phone. Without even raising his head, he said, “He’s waiting to enter the game. What’s wrong with messing on your phone in the meantime?”

“He obviously isn’t,” Puppy said lazily, “Look at his computer screen, he hasn’t even queued up.”

Shi Luo looked up, expressionless. “NSN has finished their practice match.”

Old Qiao hurriedly put his phone aside and said anxiously, “How’d it go?”

Except for Yu Sui, who was still playing a game, all the others in the training room turned to look. Yu Sui took off the headset and placed it on the table but he kept his eyes trained on the computer screen.

Shi Luo put down his phone, “Same, two to zero. Wawa is considering switching to a striker.”

“What is with NSN’s Feng Shui?” Chen Huo was distressed. “Are they going to have another medic beaten into retiring? Why is my NSN always short of medics?”

Puppy slowly shook his head and sighed, “NSN can’t have another medic turned striker. Advise Wawa not to seek his own death. It was already a miracle that you were able to do that back then. It won’t do for Wawa to try it too.”

Old Qiao knocked Puppy on the head, “Wawa is just kicking up a fuss. How could he possibly suddenly change jobs? If he changes jobs, where would Gu Gan look for another first line medic?”

They were all expecting this result and so it didn’t rattle them much. But after listening to Shi Luo talk about the details of how dirty Sacred Sword played, they couldn’t help but curse.

“What a bunch of sh*t, coming over here and throwing their weight around!” Chen Huo became angrier and angrier. He slapped the table with a ‘bam’. “I’m curious, did a hundred medics go disco dancing over our old boss’ ancestral tombs? How come they’re so malicious towards medics? F*ck it. Pure nanny medics are humanity’s angels, alright? I spend all day going about begging other teams’ medics to team up with me. Whenever they agree to play with me, I sometimes find myself unable to curse out loud. These people really are...”

Puppy coolly said, “They obviously take pleasure in humiliating medics. Except for our medic who licks blood off his blade, all the other medics are so easy to bully. Moreover, they have no need to worry that those medics would retaliate. They can play however they want. Sacred Sword’s substitute sniper substituted for me before. There was a time when he played in a match and the way he played got me confused. The opponent only had the medic left. Do you know how he toyed with that medic?”

Puppy mimicked taking a shot, “He took that medic to practice his marksmanship. While playing, he’d say, ‘left hand, right hand, left leg, right leg’... And shoot each part.”

Old Qiao was completely disgusted, “F*cking piece of sh*t.”

“We can’t commit suicide in this game. Players in official competitions can’t voluntarily withdraw. The opponent’s medic could also resign to being toyed with as he was shot repeatedly.” Puppy shrugged. “By the way, I think our Evil deserves some praise regarding this. Lately, we’ve been playing together and I found out...that once we’ve established dominance in a match, if the last player on the other team’s a medic, he stops shooting and waits for the medic to withdraw on his own.”

Chen Huo looked at Shi Luo in surprise, “Really? I always thought that only Yu Sui was like this. He doesn’t kill players of the same job. What’s your reason?”

Shi Luo raised his eyes and glanced at a certain someone who was still playing the game. He looked down and fiddled with his phone, offering no explanation.

Refusing to kill the medic when they’ve already proved their dominance of the match was something Shi Luo had picked up from Yu Sui two years ago.

At the time, Shi Luo had asked Yu Sui a very similar question. Yu Sui tried to shake him off with a perfunctory answer, saying he wouldn’t bully someone with the same job as his. Later, when Shi Luo kept pestering him, he finally said that he was unwilling to kill a medic who couldn’t even use a dagger.

Yu Sui was extremely ruthless when playing the game but he was not interested in unilateral slaughter.

Haven’t players who’ve reached the high level matches had their fill of killing already? What was one or two kills off a medic?

This was indeed Yu Sui’s usual practice as well. However, after he went to Sacred Sword, he broke this rule with Shi Luo. Afterward, it gave rise to a series of mishaps and ever since then it became something both of them were unwilling to mention.

“Have you heard?” Zhou Huo pushed open the door to the training room. He came in and pulled out a chair to sit down. He sighed, “Sacred Sword beat NSN two to zero again.”

Old Qiao nodded, “Wava told Shi Luo. He was cursing out Sacred Sword.”

Zhou Huo looked at several people, a cautious look in his eyes, “Just a casual question, what are our chances of winning against Sacred Sword?”

After a moment of silence, Old Qiao said, “50-50.”

“Only half?” Zhou Huo was speechless, “How...conservative an estimate is this?”

“It’s not. The current Sacred Sword is the cream of the crop from three teams. What’s more, you can tell from how they played against those two teams. They simply crushed them. You know they’re strong. I was already giving us some free points by saying we’ve got a 50-50 chance against them.” Old Qiao was not optimistic. “Not to mention, that we’re still trying to get smoothen out our team play.”

“I’m under a lot of pressure right now.” Zhou Huo looked at his mobile phone with a bitter face, “I’m worried, worried that the manager for Sacred Sword’s gonna contact me any second now.”

Old Qiao’s expression turned a bit strange, “Are they... really picking through our division one by one?”

“Right now, it looks like it.” Zhou Huo said, “The first was last season’s champion, Saint, the second was last season’s runner-up, NSN. Who do you think is going to be the third one?”

According to the previous season’s ranking of the domestic teams, the next one would be IAC. Of course, no one knows whether Sacred Sword was actually doing it in that order. It was also uncertain whether they would be eyeing Free next.

Zhou Huo was exhausted physically and mentally, “There’s really no need for them to give our team that honor. We’re just a newly established team after all.”

Puppy looked at Zhou Huo and said slowly, “Uh...although it’s not good to say this, but just a little question. What happens if we refuse their invite for a training match?”

“Nothing good.” Zhou Huo looked at his mobile phone with a horrified expression, “We’d be getting off easy if all they did was mock us on Twitter for a month. I guess we should be glad they can’t use Weibo.”

“Why are you afraid of them?” Chen Huo looked at Zhou Huo and Puppy in confusion, “Let’s fight! Let’s beat these f*ckers! Why shouldn’t we fight? Are you afraid of them? If we win, we win. If we lose, we lose. In any case, our medic’s tough. What wind and waves hasn’t Yu Sui weathered through that he can’t suffer this setback?”

Puppy looked at Chen Huo like he was an idiot. “If we lose, we lose? Have you ever thought that if we lose too, it means that our entire region has been run through by their team? Let me ask you, who else in our region can stand up to Sacred Sword?”

Chen Huo was dazed for a couple of seconds. After some thought, he said, “Uh...it seems like there isn’t anyone.”

Chen Huo was quick to take back what he said. He cleared his throat and said to Zhou Huo, “Tell them we can’t possibly bring ourselves to fight against our old boss so we can’t accept their invite for a match.”

Zhou Huo sighed, “Saint and NSN’s managers have contacted me. They’re also suggesting that I should try to refuse them if I can. I think so too. Although, this has got me a bit alarmed, fortunately, I’m pretty thick-skinned.”

Zhou Huo looked at Old Qiao, “What do you think?”

Old Qiao was silent for a moment and shook his head, “I can’t agree to accepting or refusing them so I can’t offer any opinions on this.”

Zhou Huo looked at Shi Luo, “Evil?”

Shi Luo had one foot on his gaming chair. He spun a lighter with his fingertips. Pursing his lips and shaking his head, he said, “Same, no comment.”

Zhou Huo looked at Yu Sui, “Whisper? Are you finished? What’s your opinion on this?”

Yu Sui hadn’t finished his game yet. He kept his eyes trained on the screen and said, “My opinion?”

Yu Sui quickly ended the game and pushed the keyboard in. He said, “I think we should play.”

Chen Huo gave a hollow laugh. “You don’t have to say it that strongly. If we lose, it’s your face they’re gonna walk all over the most. They told you before that you definitely wouldn’t be able to win the championship if you return to the domestic league. If you lose to them now, wouldn’t it just prove that they hit the nail on the head?”

“I don’t care about winning or losing. That’s not the problem here.” Yu Sui tapped lightly on his keyboard, “I just want to have a try against their new starters.”

Zhou Huo was dumbfounded, “Why would you need to do that? It’s good enough that you know how powerful they are. They’ve already carried off two teams. You can already tell how powerful they are.”

Yu Sui shook his head lightly, “If I don’t fight them myself, then I can’t grasp the details clearly.”

“If you want to know, just look at the videos of their regular season games.” Zhou Huo raised his chin and said, “You can just look for it on the internet.”

“It’s not the same.” Old Qiao, to the side, explain in a deep voice, “There are a lot of details that can only be grasped if the player themselves play. There’s no sense in watching a match from a bird’s-eye point of view.”

Zhou Huo blurted out, “Then go ask Saint and NSN!”

The other five people in the room all turned to look at Zhou Huo at the same time. Zhou Huo paused, and said helplessly, “I don’t understand. We can do it secretly, no one will find out anyway. What does it matter if we watch the video of their practice matches? Sacred Sword abused them so much, they’d probably be fine showing us the videos so that we can get revenge for them, right?”

“It’s a matter of principle. Even a team as disgusting as Sacred Sword wouldn’t steal a look at another team’s practice videos, let along Saint and NSN.” Chen Huo curled his lip, “This would be exposing the team’s tactics. Us professional players still have a bit of a bottom line.”

Zhou Huo said embarrassedly, “Okay, then... then there isn’t actually any need to schedule a practice match just to suss out their situation, right?”

Yu Sui said calmly, “If you don’t schedule a practice match with them early on, the next time we meet them might already be at the World Championship competition. Of course, assuming we can enter the World Championships. Then? When we get there, are we going to kowtow because we met a strong opponent?”

Zhou Huo remained undecided. While everyone was in a deadlock, Zhou Huo’s phone lighted up.

Zhou Huo tremblingly unlocked the phone. He glanced at it and slapped his forehead. He groaned out, “Sacred Sowrd’s here...”

“Time to make a decision.” Zhou Huo said helplessly, “fight or not? I’ll reply to them now.”

Yu Sui has already expressed his position. Old Qiao still refused to give an opinion either way. Puppy and Zhou Huo suggested not to fight. Chen Huo said that if their medic didn’t care, then he didn’t f*cking care either. Zhou Huo placed his last hope onto Shi Luo. He said pitifully, “Evil, now the number of votes is two to two. You’re the deciding vote! You don’t really want to fight, right?”

Shi Luo hesitated slightly, before he could speak, Yu Sui, to the side, suddenly coughed.

Zhou Huo was overly anxious and said angrily, “What are you? Some middle schooler?! Sending out secret signals?”

Shi Luo glanced at Yu Sui. He pursed his lips and said, “Play.”

Zhou Huo was disheartened and reluctantly replied to Sacred Sword’s manager.

Yu Sui picked up his headphones and put them, continuing to play. After a while, his phone buzzed. He picked up the phone and —

[Evil]: [I helped you out with that vote... Will you... play a few games with me during your live broadcast tonight? ]

[Evil]: [Not as an assassin-type medic, but... As a milktank. ]

[Evil]: [...OK? ]

Yu Sui turned his head to look in Shi Luo’s direction. Shi Luo was staring out the window, looking ill at ease.

Yu Sui took in a light breath. This felt a bit familiar.

Was little Shi Luo acting spoiled with him?