Chapter 47
Shi Luo choked, yanking his hand back like he'd been electrocuted, and blurted out in embarrassment: "You were pretending and you still had to say it out loud?!"
Yu Sui straightened the hem of his T-shirt and said softly, "You were rubbing so seriously, I couldn't live with my conscience."
Shi Luo had wanted to say "you still have a conscience?" but on second thought, this person really did have a conscience, and saying that would only hurt his feelings. Shi Luo's face flushed red, and after a long moment, he ground his teeth. "How very forthright of you..."
Shi Luo took two steps back and sat on a cushion on the floor, lit a cigarette, and smoked in silence with his ears burning red.
Yu Sui watched Shi Luo quietly. "You've been off since you came back from the match. I didn't know what was wrong with you, so I wanted to trick you into coming out and ask."
Shi Luo exhaled a puff of smoke, frowning. "Couldn't you just call me directly?"
Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo, countering, "If I called you directly, would you have come? Would you have let your guard down... and told the truth?"
Shi Luo took another drag and didn't answer.
The last time "having a nice chat" happened between the two of them seemed to have been two years ago.
Since reuniting, there had always been other people, other things standing between them. And even when they were alone, they couldn't be completely at ease.
Yu Sui didn't have any of that sentimental melancholy about it—you need time to get back to that relationship without any barriers. They'd been apart so long. How could just saying "it's all in the past" actually make it the past?
Misunderstandings could be cleared up, wrongful accusations could be cleared, but wounds need time to heal.
Yu Sui observed Shi Luo's expression. "Did I accidentally do something to make you unhappy?"
"No." Shi Luo muttered. "I just came back and saw a mediation show video on your computer desktop. I got scared, thought... thought..."
Yu Sui looked confused. "Thought what?"
Shi Luo grumblingly slurred, "Thought you were really going to send me and Baozaoshu to that kind of show."
Yu Sui: "..."
Yu Sui tried to look like a normal person. "I just hadn't seen this kind of thing before and was curious. No way would I actually make you go on something like that..."
"I figured as much." Shi Luo took another drag, reluctantly admitting, "I just had a brain malfunction during dinner, and I wasn't thinking about it after that."
Shi Luo looked at Yu Sui distrustfully. "Your stomach is really okay?"
"Really fine." Yu Sui was completely clear about his own BS. "Not even a bit uncomfortable. Pretending was just to trick you into coming find me."
Shi Luo angrily snatched back the water he'd poured for Yu Sui.
Yu Sui reminded him, "But I already drank from it."
Shi Luo's eyes gleamed. Just because he drank it, did that mean he couldn't get revenge?
Shi Luo took a drag of his cigarette, then flicked some ash into Yu Sui's water cup.
The gesture couldn't have been more rude.
But seeing Shi Luo's openly defiant expression mixed with a hint of regret at his own rudeness, the corner of Yu Sui's mouth curved up.
He was still that same kid.
Yu Sui's phone suddenly rang. Shi Luo frowned. "Zhou Huo? He's the one who asked me to look after you just now. You talk to him, I'll leave first."
Before Shi Luo could stand up, Yu Sui shook his head. "It's Gu Qian."
Yu Sui pressed the speakerphone.
"Yu Sui?"
Gu Qian's voice came through the phone. "Congratulations on your first win, God Yu."
"Thanks." Yu Sui glanced up at Shi Luo. "Shi Luo is with me. What's up?"
Through the speaker, Gu Qian said, "Evil, I watched your match today. You played well."
Shi Luo muttered, "I didn't perform well. The coordination is still off."
"That's normal for a newly formed team. You'll work it out with time. There's something I wanted to tell you guys." Gu Qian's tone on the other end of the line grew more serious. "European Sword team has reached out to us about a practice match."
Yu Sui and Shi Luo's eyes met.
Gu Qian continued, "By the way, Sword contacted Saint yesterday."
Saint—the Angel Sword team, last year's champion of the Chinese server.
"Did the European teams all die? They have no one else to scrimmage, they had to come to our server?" Shi Luo squinted. "Who won?"
"Sword," Gu Qian said.
"Best of three?" Shi Luo pressed. "What was the score?"
Gu Qian sighed. "Two to nothing."
Shi Luo stubbed out his cigarette. "Damn."
"The contents of practice matches can't be disclosed—that's basic professional ethics. Saint's manager couldn't tell me more details, but contacted our manager today and said if European Sword comes asking for a practice match, we could consider declining." Gu Qian paused for a few seconds. "The reason is probably... even though their roster changed, their overall playstyle is still the same. They're especially good at tilting people in steamroll situations and play kind of dirty. You know what I mean."
Worried they might not understand, Gu Qian spelled it out more directly. "In steamroll situations, they don't end the game, they don't break respawn stones, and they still love making the healer guard other people's respawn stones to farm kills."
Yu Sui sighed. "No need to help me remember the details. I remember what I did."
Gu Qian's blunt energy overflowed as he agreed. "Yeah, exactly like how you used to轮 Shi Luo back then!"
Shi Luo felt uncomfortable all over and quietly lit another cigarette.
Gu Qian continued, "I originally thought that after you guys left, Sword would be struggling for at least one more season. Didn't expect that after reorganizing, they could still steamroll the first place team in our server."
"They had nothing to struggle with." Yu Sui set his phone between himself and Shi Luo and spoke slowly. "We didn't just leave suddenly. Half a year ago, Sword's management was already trying to get me to re-sign. I never agreed. Sword must have started assembling their new team half a year ago or even earlier."
"That makes sense..." Gu Qian on the other end sounded thoughtful. "That explains it. They had plenty of time, and this time they bought out two entire teams, giving them a huge pool of players to choose from."
Gu Qian added, "So that explains everything to me. Two years ago I didn't understand—why would a European club know so much about things on our server and be able to contact Ji Yanhan immediately? Turns out they specifically buy faltering teams. Hmph."
Shi Luo didn't care at all about Sword's various shady operations. He cut Gu Qian off and asked, "Captain Gu, so after Saint's manager warned you, then what? Did you decline the practice match?"
Gu Qian on the phone said, "No."
Shi Luo: "..."
"We accepted," Gu Qian said.
Yu Sui smiled faintly.
"Captain Gu, you..." Shi Luo ground his teeth. "...I'm thanking Sword team in advance for the tilt礼包 for Wawa."
"What else should we do? Refuse them?" Gu Qian said. "NSN may not have achieved much in recent years, but we've been a veteran club for ten years. You can lose the battle but not the spirit. They've come right to our doorstep—can we really be so afraid of them that we'd refuse a scrimmage?"
Shi Luo had nothing to say.
Yu Sui said softly, "A veteran powerhouse doesn't refuse."
"Evil, even though you've only been with NSN for two months, I've always considered you a former teammate." Gu Qian said seriously. "Don't let those two wasted years at IAC make you lose your pride as a professional player. We can lose, but we cannot be afraid. Remember that firmly."
"..." Shi Luo wanted to explain that he was only worried that Wawa's fragile mentality couldn't handle it—if it were just him, he'd have no fear. But he always respected Gu Qian and didn't want to talk back, so he just listened obediently. "Sorry, Captain Gu. I understand."
Gu Qian, true to form as an entry fragger himself with his wide spray pattern, kept going. "And don't let yourself fall just because you went to Free—a new team that's been around less than a month with no cultural heritage. You can always consider NSN your home team. Remember our team motto and let it be your motto: Never Say Never. Do you understand?"
"..." Yu Sui asked hesitantly, "Gu Qian, are you opening all-chat? Even if Shi Luo has a home team, it should be FS, right?"
"But the Evil ID was registered with our team." Gu Qian replied without hesitation. "No matter what, Evil came from us. Back when he was at NSN, he dared to stand up to Sword. Now you want to avoid fighting them?"
Shi Luo, paralyzed by Gu Qian's overwhelming righteousness, gave up explaining and勉强 said, "I-I understand. I won't... fall."
Gu Qian felt relieved. "I'll tell you the results after tomorrow's match is over. Goodbye."
Gu Qian's passionate speech completely dissipated the romantic atmosphere that had filled Yu Sui's room. The two exchanged a look, stood up无奈ly, and went back to the training room to continue practicing.
A formidable enemy was still watching intently. There was no time for all that stomach-aching nonsense.
The next day, Zhou Huo returned to the base. Taking advantage of everyone's lunch break, he leaned in conspiratorially at the dining table. "You guys know Sword team had a practice match with Saint two days ago?"
"We know." Puppy said flatly. "Yu Sui told us. Two to nothing. Rich former boss, scary former boss, impressive former boss, secretly."
"Hey, don't boost their morale!" Zhou Huo clicked his tongue. "But do you guys know how badly Saint got demolished in the second game?"
Old Qiao frowned. "How do you know these details? Let me say this first—we don't play dirty here. Stealing other teams' practice match intel is absolutely unacceptable. No matter when, no matter which server, this is a major taboo."
"Don't worry, I wouldn't get myself into that kind of trouble." Zhou Huo said softly. "It was Hallucination, Saint's sniper, who accidentally let it slip on his own stream because he was so angry. Hallucination's popularity is pretty low, not many people watch his streams, so most people didn't know. It only spread within a small circle."
Old Qiao relaxed. "Then tell us the details."
"I can't go into detail that much. Hallucination only mentioned a few things."
"Two games. The first one was acceptable, they just lost. You know how Sword's atmosphere is—the more they win, the more confident they get, the better they play. The second game they performed even better and crushed Saint from the very start." Zhou Huo glanced at Yu Sui, waving his hand. "It seems Sword had heard that Angel Sword was the best healer on our server, oh, the former best..."
"They specifically targeted Angel Sword for the虐, but Angel Sword is a pure support healer. He can't even use a dagger. He had no way to fight back when targeted. He could only take it—just got beaten the whole time. He couldn't even leave his respawn stone. Sigh..."
Chen Huo had just played ranked with Angel Sword yesterday. He frowned. "Damn, that guy's temperament is so good! Why pick on him?"
"To purposely恶心 people, obviously." Zhou Huo shrugged. "Fortunately Angel Sword has a good mindset. After getting targeted and血虐ed for a game, he didn't say anything. After the practice match ended, he just went about his business as usual and even led the team in a review session. Hallucination couldn't handle it and refused to review. He went solo queue instead. In the end, Angel Sword pulled him aside separately to review with him. That's when he couldn't hold back on stream and that's how we found out."
"Off topic for a second." Puppy's train of thought went a bit sideways, getting more envious as he listened. "How come other teams' healers are all so warm and gentle? Hallucination refused to comply, didn't review, and didn't even get beaten for it. Instead, Angel Sword took him aside separately for a one-on-one review? What kind of angel is this?"
Yu Sui swallowed his food and looked at Puppy. "What did you say?"
"Nothing, nothing." Puppy laughed nervously. "Just an observation. Sigh, Sword is also sick in the head. Everyone knows they bought players from two other teams. What's the point of coming all the way across the sea to show off?!"
"A pre-emptive war declaration, I guess." Zhou Huo shook his head. "They contacted NSN again today. Hopefully NSN can teach them a lesson."
Old Qiao nodded along. "Stay optimistic. NSN isn't full of pushovers either. They brought in a天才 sniper this year. Pretty vicious."
Shi Luo put down his chopsticks. "I hope so."
That evening, just after finishing a training match, Shi Luo received a message.
【AWA】: [Brother Shi, if I switched to entry fragger now, would it be too late?]