Chapter 45
Three days later, at the Wild Bulls home arena, the Wild Bulls team faced the new team Free.
Zhou Huo was now "one of their own." He knew that the group had conflicts with the Wild Bulls team two years ago, but didn't know the specifics. Zhou Huo was extremely sensitive about it, repeatedly warning everyone that under his leadership, there absolutely could not be any violence within the team.
"New team, new season, new atmosphere." On the way to the Wild Bulls arena venue, Zhou Huo tried his best to boost everyone's morale. "I'm not asking you to exceed expectations, but you have to show your full strength. Let everyone see, understood?!"
None of the four gaming addicts were moved—everyone except Yu Sui was buried in their phones.
The only one not on their phone was still resting with his eyes closed.
Zhou Huo sighed: "Never mind, you should all know the score."
Only Old Qiao was free, so Zhou Huo had no choice but to chat with him: "What exactly was the friction between you guys and the Wild Bulls? Why has the relationship always been so awkward?"
"That's not friction." Old Qiao said wistfully. "That's a blood-soaked feud, from when Violent Shū was still a substitute rookie. You want to hear it?"
Of course Zhou Huo wanted to hear.
Old Qiao patted his belly and began slowly. After Old Qiao finished, the others in the van who had already made peace with the past grew increasingly grim-faced. When they heard that Yu Sui had been sent directly to the hospital, Shi Luo looked almost completely dark.
Zhou Huo carefully watched everyone's expressions and regretted: "Should I... not have asked about this at this time?"
"Too late." Chen Huo rubbed his wrist. "Haven't seen these old enemies in years, I wonder if they're all doing well..."
Shi Luo said coldly: "We'll see them in a bit, won't we?"
Zhou Huo covered his face in pain: "Why am I such a gossip..."
Half an hour later, the group arrived at the venue. There were so many fans on site that the driver didn't dare stop, driving directly into the arena's underground parking lot.
Everyone went from the underground parking lot directly to the backstage rest room. Zhou Huo kept a tight watch on Shi Luo while Chen Huo watched the others like a hawk, terrified someone might sneak off to the Wild Bulls' rest room. Fortunately, the regular season waiting time wasn't long—they waited less than an hour in the rest room before the match began.
This was Free team's first official competition, and the venue was packed.
Not only were the spectators enthusiastic, without surprise, aside from the Wild Bulls team, all ten other league teams were probably closely watching this match.
During the pre-match equipment testing, Chen Huo tried his mic and smiled: "You think, in the bases of those other ten clubs, aren't they all watching the livestream?"
Puppy laughed a little: "Don't want to be that conceited, but I figure... probably."
Chen Huo raised an eyebrow: "Wonder what they're saying about me, probably all cheering us on, right? Oh man, I barely dare to put in any effort, afraid of revealing too much tactics—I'll just play it casually."
"Don't be too optimistic." Shi Luo said coldly. "They're all teams competing for playoff spots, why would they cheer for you? Setting that aside, maybe Ji Yanhuan is also watching the livestream, waiting to watch us make fools of ourselves."
Talking about Ji Yanhuan got everyone awake. Chen Huo's fighting spirit was instantly ignited: "Play it well! We absolutely must play it well! Old grudges and new ones."
Puppy忍住笑感叹："时洛，你这个鼓励队友的方法我喜欢。"忍耐笑感叹道："Shi Luo, I like your method of encouraging teammates."
Puppy finished debugging his equipment, leaning back in his gaming chair: "Captain, aren't you going to say a few words? According to tradition, before the first regular season match, the captain gives a pre-match speech of at least three thousand words."
Yu Sui adjusted his mic: "Thanks, not that much to say."
"Go through the motions." Puppy looked toward the glass soundproof room on the right side of the venue. "Look at Wild Bulls over there, Violent Shū is giving an impassioned speech pointing out the battlefield, definitely encouraging his teammates. Say something too."
Yu Sui lightly breathed, performing his obligations perfunctorily: "Play well."
Puppy clicked his tongue: "A few more words! Every year, you're always slacking off."
Yu Sui had no choice: "Fine..."
Yu Sui looked at the computer screen, then after a moment said: "Our team is too new. We have no achievements whatsoever as a team, just came up from the promotion tournament, and now in the eyes of the other clubs in the league, we're just gatecrashers. If we want others to respect us, there's only one way—win."
"Until now, there are still some old FS fans blaming us for cutting off FS's path to promotion, thinking we stole FS's league spot." Yu Sui looked around the competition venue. "I always handle such gossip with only one method—let results speak."
"Let our competition results tell the entire league that in this place, in this season, there will be a place for Free."
Shi Luo stared, couldn't help but look at Yu Sui.
Chen Huo murmured: "Whisper is Whisper, every time you..."
"Should be recorded, right?" Yu Sui instantly relaxed, adjusted his mic, and asked. "If they want our team to make season promotional materials later, they can just clip from this."
The referee monitoring the in-game voice chat for Free's team said: "Recorded."
Yu Sui felt relieved: "Mission accomplished."
Chen Huo rolled his eyes: "I actually thought you were seriously trying to inspire us."
After some banter, the referee signaled that the match was about to start. Everyone settled down, and the game began.
The moment the countdown finished, the four of them transformed like different people, putting away their playful expressions and immediately rushed out from their spawn point.
From Free's perspective, the half of the map belonging to the Wild Bulls team was shrouded in thick toxic fog—nothing could be seen.
Chen Huo and Yu Sui paired up and pushed directly to the boundary between both maps. Shi Luo went solo down one path to quietly clear the toxic fog on the left side of the map. Puppy, as the sniper, was the only character with a scope, so he temporarily held the rear of their side to provide scope view and report enemy positions for both flanks, as well as opportunistically snipe when appropriate.
Wild Bulls had always been aggressive at the start, sending two flankers and a medic together to push the front line. Whether they would do the same this time was uncertain. Puppy quickly reminded: "Chen Huo, clear the fog in three seconds—the other side likely has three people, I still can't see clearly on my side."
Chen Huo stuck close to the map boundary and placed a purification dish. At that moment, he was essentially bait. True enough, before his placement channeling finished, someone from the thick toxic fog on the opposite side had already fired. Yu Sui had been waiting for exactly this moment—relying on the sound of gunfire to pinpoint the position, he appeared directly from behind cover with a dagger slash. Chen Huo seized that half-second to successfully place the purification dish, then stood and opened fire. The two worked together to take down one of Wild Bulls' flankers—the kill was credited to Yu Sui.
Wild Bulls' other flanker also had half his health stripped, hastily retreating into cover. On the other side, Puppy said: "Shi Luo, leave now or you'll be discovered—stop clearing and go find Yu Sui and Chen Huo."
Shi Luo had been timing for an极限 moment, not meeting up with Yu Sui since leaving the spawn point, and at this point had no shield or any buff states. He wasn't greedy either—after hearing Puppy's words, without waiting for the next purification dish to finish placing, he撤退 and went to regroup with Yu Sui: "Give me a shield."
Yu Sui topped up his and Chen Huo's health, then put a shield on Shi Luo. The three of them hid behind cover together, waiting quietly.
The sound of rustling grass near the map boundary became increasingly obvious. Shi Luo and Chen Huo emerged from cover at the same time and fired, accurately taking down the other Wild Bulls flanker in the thick fog.
"Good, clear the fog now." Puppy felt relieved. "Both flankers are gone—they won't dare come close for half a minute."
Chen Huo continued clearing the front fog to draw fire. Shi Luo circled back to the left side of the map to clear the side path.
This was a tactic the group had used frequently before—relying on solid individual player skills, using one flanker plus one medic to 2v3 against the enemy's two flankers and one medic, while another flanker quietly cleared the side path, leaving the enemy stretched thin.
Wild Bulls also had a sniper monitoring the entire field, so naturally they would discover Shi Luo's movements before too long. But as long as Yu Sui and Chen Huo could hold the front-line firepower, they wouldn't be able to spare anyone to deal with Shi Luo. Otherwise, in just a moment, the front map would be torn open at high speed by Yu Sui and Chen Huo, striking straight at the heart.
Puppy held the rear, watching the enemy's movements while secretly sniping, couldn't help but tease: "I feel like Violent Shū's mental state is about to break—three people fighting you two evenly, so embarrassing."
Violent Shū's mental state truly was breaking. After their three-front-line players gradually couldn't compete with Yu Sui and Chen Huo, they stealthily pulled out one flanker.
Yu Sui第一时间察觉正面毒雾后的脚步声不对："对方好像少了一个人，时洛留神。"第一时间 sensed that the footsteps behind the front toxic fog weren't right: "It seems like the enemy has one less person, Shi Luo—stay alert."
Shi Luo, who was alone quietly clearing fog, whispered: "Heard it."
Shi Luo timed it perfectly, not rushing for speed, trying to stay behind cover as much as possible while placing purification dishes, not bothering about overlapping purification zones, steadily and surely taking it step by step, never exposing himself outside cover the entire time. When the Wild Bulls flanker pushed over, he didn't panic either, simply stopping his actions, staying completely still behind cover, waiting for the enemy to make the first move.
Shi Luo and the Wild Bulls flanker mutually guarded each other for almost a minute. After one minute, the Wild Bulls flanker couldn't hold out any longer, fired a side shot—only to be instantly taken down by Puppy, who had been watching him the whole time.
"Nice." Puppy sighed. "Shi Luo's so solid, this position you held for me was perfect."
Shi Luo didn't speak. Twelve minutes into the game, Free hadn't lost a single kill, and Wild Bulls team had already given up five consecutive kills—this game was basically impossible to comeback.
At twenty-two minutes, Free smoothly took the game.
The opening was very smooth, everyone including Zhou Huo and Old Qiao in the backstage breathed a sigh of relief. In the next game, everyone's mood was much more relaxed. Shi Luo especially, relying on their significant advantage and his solid skills, began to settle personal scores, targeting Violent Shū throughout the entire game. Chen Huo and Puppy, on the other hand, kept saying "oh this isn't good" in the team voice chat while疯狂补刀. After the second game ended, the game interface showed that Violent Shū had been killed a total of fifteen times.
For the regular season opener, Free won without giving Wild Bulls team any room to argue.
"A crush, pure crush."
On the way back to base, Zhou Huo finally let go of his tension, looking at the post-match data analysis with delight: "Oh my, everyone's praising us—there's no need to be that surprised, right? With our lineup, crushing Wild Bulls should be expected, shouldn't it?"
Old Qiao appropriately poured cold water: "Wild Bulls can't be considered a top-tier team, don't get too cocky."
"I know, I know, I'm just happy the opening game went beautifully." Zhou Huo was overjoyed, and，顺便夸了一下时洛顺便夸奖了Shi Luo。"Evil, you've really grown. Honestly, I already prepared for the worst today. Our staff has emergency PR plans ready, specifically for today's possible emergencies, like you and Violent Shū having a brawl in the backstage..."
Zhou Huo looked at Shi Luo, gratified: "Thank goodness, Luo Bao grew up and didn't make me use this plan."
Shi Luo was speechless. They were all adults, how could they possibly still fight?
But Shi Luo was a bit curious about Zhou Huo's contingency plan and asked: "If I had actually fought him, what would you have done?"
"What would I do? You want to try?" Zhou Huo closed his folder and warned coldly: "We would contact an emotion reconciliation show, sign you and Violent Shū up together, then drag you both to the show filming site, letting you two tearfully reconcile and shake hands under the passionate mediation of the hosts."
Shi Luo: "..."
The moment Zhou Huo finished speaking, everyone in the van stopped playing on their phones.
Chen Huo sighed: "Yu Sui definitely gets his money's worth hiring you."
"Manager Zhou is truly a professional." Puppy slow-clapped, filled with admiration. "That's a bit too brutal, isn't it? How deep is that grudge... Though somehow I find myself looking forward to it?"
Old Qiao quietly said: "I'm a bit looking forward to it too—embarrassment and all. Honestly, I just like watching those kinds of shows, whatever silver-medal mediation, emotional rescue stations... they're actually pretty good."
Chen Huo imagined Shi Luo and Violent Shū appearing on such a show together, and exclaimed: "The ratings would explode! The whole league watching!"
Everyone was barely holding back laughter, except Yu Sui, who had basically never watched TV or any Chinese variety shows since childhood, was completely lost.
Yu Sui asked blankly: "What reconciliation? What show?"
"Oh, let me explain it to you!" Chen Huo's eyes lit up as he explained the whole thing. "Basically each side states their feelings and thoughts, then cries about how difficult things have been over the years, clears up misunderstandings. Then the host starts getting emotional, asking both sides: are you willing to forgive? If you're willing, you walk out the door and give them a hug. Finally, amid everyone's blessings, the show reaches its climax—two people crying as they run toward each other, embrace, and the show ends."
Yu Sui was still completely confused. After Old Qiao explained it again, he vaguely understood. Yu Sui's lips moved, about to speak but stopping.
Zhou Huo could tell Yu Sui wanted to ask something: "What's wrong? Still don't get it?"
"Got it." Yu Sui looked at Zhou Huo, hesitated, and asked, "You... have connections like that?"
Zhou Huo had just been blowing off steam just now. Where would he possibly have such unusual connections? But his university classmates did have quite a few in related fields—if he really looked into it, he might actually find a way. Zhou Huo wasn't sure: "More or less, why are you asking?"
Old Qiao had always protected Shi Luo, quickly said: "No no no, joking is joking—are you really going to send Shi Luo and Violent Shū to a show like that?"
Shi Luo frowned and looked at Yu Sui.
Yu Sui laughed: "Am I crazy? Just asking, never mind."
Everyone continued playing on their phones. Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo, then at Zhou Huo, hesitated for a moment, but didn't say more.
Yu Sui had never heard of such shows before. After being shocked, based on his own imagination, he actually thought it was pretty good.
Yu Sui thought such a show was basically他妈的天生为他和时洛量身定做的。
This was absolutely the best shortcut to solving problems!
Find some connections, go with Shi Luo together, then pull strings to get a few CCTV hosts skilled at emotional manipulation to mediate. Then at the end of the show, Shi Luo would cryingly throw himself into my arms—wouldn't that solve everything?