Chapter 17
After that, a few uneventful days passed before Puppy, the former FS sniper, returned to the country.
Puppy had never been as popular as Yu Sui and Chen Huo, so his return was quiet and drew no attention. Only a few observant fans caught an unusual scent.
The timing of FS's former players returning to the country was too coincidental, wasn't it?
And Yu Sui, who was rumored to have joined NSN, still hadn't been officially registered on NSN's official website—he was practically a free agent. Chen Huo was even more absurd. Although he also lived at the NSN base after returning, he hadn't played a single training match. From start to finish, he'd only served as Wa Wa's practice partner for a few games. It felt like he was waiting for something.
Waiting for what?
Fans discussed it in small circles and made bold predictions: Wasn't Whisper about to form his own team?
A fan's prediction, originally posted on their personal Weibo, was screenshotted and reposted on an esports forum by someone with ulterior motives, instantly igniting a powder keg. The fans were at it again, again, again, again, again, and again.
Yu Sui truly was the man who had once united all the trolls in the esports world. A single rustle of leaves from him could drive millions of views. By that afternoon, the forums had been flooded with drama threads about him. Strangely, on this matter, Yu Sui's fans and haters reached rare agreement—both sides were equally unhappy about it.
The haters' reasoning was perfectly valid: the man who defected from the region is back. He should just join any strong team and make some modest contributions to the local region as atonement for his sins. How dare he form his own team? A team-wrecker doesn't deserve to carry that surname! Tch!!
The fans' reasoning was勉强能站得住脚 too—betrayal accusations, team-wrecking accusations, secret teammate retirement accusations, selling teammates accusations... So many accusations had long since worn the fans down until they lay flat and accepted the mockery. They wouldn't explain themselves anymore. After all these ups and downs over the years, those who stayed were the truly zen fans. Now they only hoped that God Yu could spend his final years before retirement peacefully at NSN, enjoy the life a normal esports player should have, and then retire quietly in the local region. Beyond that, the fans wanted nothing more.
Yu Sui's fans were being sufficiently humble, but Yu Sui himself was original sin. When NSN fans saw these comments, they quickly split into two camps. One group wanted Yu Sui to leave NSN's base immediately and go back to wherever he came from. The remaining group, while still cursing Yu Sui, hoped he'd stay and take Wa Wa's starting position.
Upon closer inspection, among those "NSN team fans" demanding Yu Sui get lost, quite a few were actually sock puppet accounts—anti-fans wearing NSN fan skins. Their true identities belonged to other teams. Most surreal of all, some had even expressed in other threads that they hoped Yu Sui would join their team...
Cursing Yu Sui was still necessary, but his individual skill was undeniable. Fans from other teams, especially those unsatisfied with their own team's medic, couldn't help but eye him covetously, thinking they could continue cursing him while having him join their team to atone and contribute.
During a break between training matches, Shi Luo curled up in his gaming chair, scrolling through the forums watching fan wars unfold. Once again, he found himself in awe of the forum veterans—their combat capability was truly something else. Back in the day, they hadn't managed to flame Yu Sui into a mental breakdown and retirement, truly a case of heaven failing to lend a hand.
The fact that the matter of forming a new team could be opposed by both haters and fans alike was probably a first in the entire scene.
Shi Luo had actually become immune to comments on forums and Weibo long ago. No matter how vicious the words, he remained unmoved. But seeing what Yu Sui's fans had written just now, for some reason, his chest felt a little tight.
Setting aside what came before, Yu Sui was truly the only player Shi Luo knew of who had lived through nothing but blood and thunder from the moment he debuted—never a single peaceful day.
When Shi Luo was still streaming at an internet café, Yu Sui had disguised himself as a underage kid to trick him. Later, when the two were playing together one day, Shi Luo, who had already grown suspicious of this non-mainstream minor, suddenly started his stream. Yu Sui, unaware, got exposed.
The moment Yu Sui's voice came through, the entire stream exploded.
That was Shi Luo's first exposure to the esports scene.
Shi Luo followed the clues and found his way into an esports forum. He searched for the ID "Whisper" and opened a whole new world.
Judging from those historical posts on the forum, Yu Sui's professional career, while勉强还算顺遂, was certainly not an easy one.
Yu Sui had also risen to fame young, even earlier than Shi Luo. When he played his first professional match for his first contracted team, Blade, Yu Sui had celebrated his sixteenth birthday less than a week before.
He had just barely met the FOG League's minimum age requirement.
Many players debuted young, but few who debuted young could start for a top-tier team. From that point on, Yu Sui lived at the center of every controversy. In the early years, haters attacked him for being too young, saying he wasn't worthy of the position and shouldn't have replaced veteran players in the starting lineup. Then, upon discovering his abilities were genuinely exceptional and he had earned his spot, they switched tactics—attacking his assassin-style medic playstyle for hogging the assault player's resources and unnecessarily complicating the team's overall strategy, calling him team poison.
Just when the team had finally gelled and Yu Sui's abilities were finally acknowledged by the haters, before he could achieve results on the international stage, the team's upper management started behaving terribly. The degree of their misconduct made present-day IAC look like a charity organization compared to what Blade had been.
The owner of Blade had never expected the team to achieve any real success. But in the year Yu Sui debuted, the team's performance improved by leaps and bounds, showing a隐隐有成为赛区第一的趋势. Nobody could have predicted that a team built around a medic as its core strategy could achieve such results. It was all a happy accident.
The owner of Blade Club, delighted by this development, seized the opportunity to suddenly demand all players sign an additional supplementary economic contract beyond their player agreements. This wasn't inherently unusual—many other teams did the same. But the Blade players all understood: the owner wanted to manage them like minor celebrities.
There had been signs of this direction half a year earlier. The club's publicity department posted eight player personal Weibo posts daily—not just filming them waking up or eating, but at worst, even filming players as they were falling asleep.
Back then, Yu Sui and the other more popular players—what time they woke up each day, what they wore, what they ate for lunch, what they ate for dinner, what color pajamas they wore before bed... fans knew everything. Zero privacy.
But even that wasn't the worst of it. Players were constantly required to appear at various events and film promotional videos during the competitive season. The only decent people on the team—the manager and operations staff—fought daily over the players' schedules. The team environment grew toxic, with not a moment's peace.
The Blade players were all young, almost all teenage boys. If things continued like this, their health would be destroyed. After a 48-hour stretch without rest due to activities, Ji Yanhuan—the eldest player on Blade and team captain at the time—could take it no longer. He led several teammates in terminating their contracts and formed his own team.
That became FS—later known as the sacred ground of esports.
This was in the early days, before player termination fees had escalated so dramatically. Several players hadn't renewed their contracts yet, and the captain, along with another veteran player, had accumulated savings from years of competing. They pooled their resources to help the younger players cover termination fees, making the exit relatively smooth. The new team was naturally poor in its early days, but at least they no longer had to participate in endless bizarre commercial activities or be filmed 24/7 with zero privacy.
Yu Sui could finally settle down and quietly hone his strategies under the shelter of his new club. After another year of team building, FS—starting from nothing—won the World Championship trophy, causing a sensation throughout the entire scene and establishing their legendary status.
Yu Sui officially became the blade of the region. The constant doubts that had followed him were finally beginning to fade.
But, good times never last. A few years later, Yu Sui was involved in the single biggest scandal that ever shook the entire scene.
Recalling the storms of his departure for Europe all those years ago, Shi Luo couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for Yu Sui's fans.
Falling for Whisper was truly an exhausting experience.
"We only hope that God Yu can spend his final years before retirement peacefully at NSN, enjoy the life a normal esports player should have"—this wasn't them playing the pity card to calm the drama. Those who could actually be fans of Yu Sui for so many years probably all felt this way.
They had felt sorry for you. They had cheered for you. They had cried and laughed because of you. They had shared in your glory and been cursed alongside you by thousands. They had been disappointed in you, and they had felt heartache for you. They had weathered every storm with you. Now, those who remained had become detached, wanting only for you to have a few days of peace and normalcy.
But Yu Sui simply refused to comply.
Training matches resumed. Shi Luo wasn't playing himself—he was observing his substitute player. He would be leaving IAC soon, and he was willing to handle pre-departure handover work, helping the substitute player quickly adapt to the match rhythm.
Observing didn't require too much concentration. Shi Luo just needed to record mistakes and points for improvement to give to the coach after training. Shi Luo's mind wandered while multitasking, and the more he thought, the more his head ached.
Right now, there was only news that Yu Sui might form a new team, nothing was finalized yet, and things had already devolved into chaos. What would happen when the official announcement dropped? Most terrifying of all—what would happen when the official announcement revealed that Shi Luo himself was transferring to Yu Sui's team?
Shi Luo's fans and Yu Sui's fans had been at each other's throats for years. Upon hearing that news, they'd probably excavate each other's ancestral graves.
Shi Luo couldn't even imagine the beautiful scene: when he and Yu Sui played on the same team, watching their fans from opposing stands forcing themselves to sit together, barely tolerating each other's presence.
If they could maintain superficial civility, that would be acceptable. But what if some hothead went nuclear and blew up the new team base?
Shi Luo absolutely did not want to appear on social news. He worried that if his own father saw it, he'd be overjoyed.
He needed to find a solution...
Recalling what Wa Wa had said that day—the best solution right now was actually to go public about their relationship directly. Then maybe, after collapsing from the shock, both sets of fans might swallow their pride and勉强接受 each other.
But the cost of that was a bit too high. It wasn't necessary. Shi Luo was confident he could find another way.
Shi Luo stared at the screen, thought for a moment, then picked up his phone, wanting to send Yu Sui a message. Then he suddenly remembered that they still hadn't re-added each other since deleting each other two years ago.
Shi Luo had forgotten Yu Sui's old phone number long ago. Even if he remembered, it probably wouldn't matter—the number was likely disconnected by now. Shi Luo frowned. He did have Chen Huo as a WeChat contact, but he really didn't want to talk to Chen Huo.
Shi Luo scrolled through his contacts carefully and, unexpectedly, discovered he still had Puppy as a friend.
Shi Luo's relationship with Puppy was just okay, but it was much better than with Chen Huo. Puppy was a decent guy, and Shi Luo had always thought highly of him. Shi Luo opened the chat interface and quickly sent Puppy a message.
【Evil】: Tell Whisper not to publicly announce my transfer to your new team for now. I have my own plans.
After sending the message, Shi Luo put his phone aside and continued watching his substitute's training match. After one game ended, Shi Luo picked up his phone. Puppy had replied with a voice message.
Shi Luo tapped it...
Yu Sui's voice came through: "Sure."
Shi Luo gazed down at his phone screen. Half a minute later, unable to resist, he played it again. Then a third time. And listened once more.