# Chapter 60
Yu Sui's voice came through Shi Luo's livestream, and the chat exploded instantly.
【I'm crying, this is a dream come true—I actually heard God Yu's voice on Evil's stream... Two months ago, I would've never believed it even if you killed me.】
【Watching God Shi's streams requires a strong heart to handle life's ups and downs...】
【Is terrifying us fun, huh? Fun, huh? FUN?!】
【Stanning this team is going to be the death of me...】
【Stanning this team is so hard, always worrying whether the medic and fragger are getting along.】
【Are we here to watch technique or what? What are fans always worrying about?】
【We came to watch technique, but is it so wrong to also hope the players get along?】
【We're fans of our own team, worried about our own team—where's the crime in that?】
【Can't blame fans for being sensitive. God Yu's teams have too much bad luck. My God Yu really has terrible team fortune.】
【Can't blame fans for being sensitive +1】
【Can't blame fans for being sensitive +2. The original FS crew all have terrible team fortune. We live in constant fear that something will go wrong and the team will fall apart.】
【Can't blame fans for being sensitive +3. I always feel the vibe between these two is off. Can't quite explain it, just... weird.】
【Now that you mention it, it really is a bit weird... God Yu's attitude toward Evil has always been puzzling. He was the one who hurt himself a thousand times to firmly keep Evil here back then, and now he's the one playing favorites with Evil at every turn.】
【Your God Yu's attitude toward our Shi-bao has always been puzzling, even two years ago.】
【Don't ask, the answer is a parent's doting affection.】
【Don't ask, the answer is special treatment for the player he personally brought into the scene.】
【Don't ask, the answer is that the "team camaraderie" at Free only exists between God Yu and Shi-bao.】
Shi Luo glanced at the chat, cleared his throat, and clicked to rejoin the queue.
On the other side, Yu Sui also clicked to queue. Intent on teasing Shi Luo, Yu Sui continued playing his own game below. Chen Huo burned through experience cards like they were free, and Shi Luo found himself grinding his teeth. He wanted Yu Sui to heal him but couldn't bring himself to ask. He was the one who said Yu Sui shouldn't treat him like a boyfriend, he was the one who said Yu Sui shouldn't be too nice to him during streams—and now the other man had老老实实 followed those instructions. The tables had turned, and now *he* was the one being difficult.
Shi Luo would bear the consequences of his own actions. For every match, he played as if he had no medic, treating it as weight training. Shi Luo was forced into all sorts of极限 maneuvers. Meanwhile, Yu Sui was having the time of his life fragging. Miraculously, after six or seven games of duo queuing like this, they kept their win streak alive, climbing even higher in the rankings.
"If I could take a moment of everyone's time." At half past twelve, Zhou Huo entered the practice room. "I'm heading to bed now, but let me give you all a heads-up about the schedule for the day after tomorrow and some recent developments. Those streaming, please turn off your cameras and mics for just a bit."
Everyone complied, taking off their headsets but keeping their eyes on their screens, multitasking without missing a beat.
"Yu Sui, Shi Luo, you two aren't fighting, right?" Zhou Huo asked with genuine concern. "I just checked Shi Luo's stream, and some people are saying you two had an argument?"
Shi Luo's face grew warm. He murmured vaguely, "No, we were just playing around."
"Good, good. One thing—oh wait, it's past midnight now, so it's already tomorrow." Zhou Huo patted his head. "Tomorrow's regular season match against NSN. Their venue is right here in Shanghai, so we don't need to wake up early, but do watch your rest. No staying up too late the night before. This is our first encounter with a strong team this season—no room for carelessness. The forum folks are already setting up analysis threads, and their professional breakdowns are almost making me believe them. NSN's fans and ours have been暗中较着劲, everyone's putting in extra effort, and we should try our best to maintain our winning streak."
"The regular season has been going on for a while now, and looking at things, last season's champions Saint are still steady. Regular season determines playoffs, playoffs determine Worlds spots. There are only two spots, and if Saint keeps performing like this, they should secure one without trouble. The other spot is either NSN's or ours. It's only our first year as a team—we shouldn't have such big ambitions. But I don't need to tell you, every player wants to go to Worlds. We all know where we stand."
Zhou Huo paused, then added, "And then there's the matter of..."
Zhou Huo sighed. "Let me fill you in first, so you're not caught off guard when you hear it on your own and get even angrier. Holy Sword—that sketchy team of theirs—literally just posted about how they finished their scheduled practice scrims against our region. They got跨海 educated, and you can imagine how nasty the forum comments are."
"They didn't mention us specifically—they don't have the face to. But here's what happened. After their match against us, Holy Sword laid low for a few days, then proceeded to scrim every single team in our region. Swept them all."
Chen Huo couldn't help but laugh. "They hit up everyone one by one? Are they sick in the head?"
"They posted on Twitter with a screenshot: 'Unlocked the achievement of going undefeated in the China region.' " Zhou Huo spread his hands, utterly exasperated. "They're not wrong—we did lose to them. And... one thing one thing—if that scrim had actually gone through to completion that day, our odds of winning weren't great either."
Shi Luo said coldly, "Then let's scrim them again?"
"I don't particularly want to, but my opinion is secondary anyway. Holy Sword has also made it clear they don't want another scrim. After I mocked their manager last time, Holy Sword said they still need to iron out some issues, and they'll consider continuing after they've磨合ed more." Zhou Huo looked at the group and shrugged. "Fine, I got us a bit of face too, saying we're a restructured team that needs磨合, and that one of our players has no international experience."
Shi Luo—the only player without international experience—said nothing, just shot and finished off another enemy.
Puppy chewed on this for a moment, then turned to Zhou Huo. "Wait a minute... why do we know everything Holy Sword farts? The moment they say something, the forums somehow know about it instantly and start骂开了?"
"Here's the thing." Zhou Huo glanced at Shi Luo, his peripheral vision sweeping over to Yu Sui. "As luck would have it, an hour before Holy Sword posted that tweet, NSN's sniper RO.D posted on Weibo celebrating his girlfriend's birthday, with a photo of them blowing out candles together."
Old Qiao whistled low. "Oh no. He just stepped on a hornet's nest."
"Don't try to reason with trolls. Even after RO.D clarified—saying they weren't scrimming Holy Sword today, that he'd only taken this one day off this month—the trolls don't care. 'You lost the match means you didn't play hard enough. Didn't play hard enough means you didn't want to win. Why didn't you want to win? Your head's full of romance, that's why.' "
Zhou Huo苦笑ed. "Logical? No. But do people believe it? Way too many."
"Our region got wiped clean, and players were already feeling憋屈 and looking for somewhere to vent. RO.D was just unlucky enough to撞在枪口上. His Weibo's already been bombed."
"So... that's why I'm telling you all." Zhou Huo didn't look at Yu Sui and Shi Luo again, as if the next part were just an offhand remark. "I'm reminding everyone—try not to post casual Weibo content recently, especially anything entertainment-related. The worst thing, the absolute worst thing, would be suddenly announcing that you're dating someone. The players' anger hasn't cooled yet. We don't need to be cannon fodder. If you must post on Weibo, stick to training-related stuff. I've already coordinated with a few friendly team managers. When you get knocked down, you take it with grace. We did get schooled, so for now we keep our heads down. The club's official account will post more content about you all training hard to try to ease the tension."
Zhou Huo glanced at Chen Huo's monitor nearest to him. "Don't read the stream comments—there'll always be people stirring things up. Don't bring this up during streams either. It's too late tonight, and this wave of drama hasn't fully发酵 yet. Tomorrow it'll definitely be discussed even more. We don't need to stir up trouble."
Zhou Huo added meaningfully, "If any of you have content that isn't related to training or competition that you really want to share, just hold onto it for now. Wait until this wave of drama passes."
Shi Luo had no intention of going public anyway. He knew Zhou Huo was speaking to him and Yu Sui, so he said directly, "Understood."
Zhou Huo smiled. "That's all then. Train well, and don't let it affect you."
That's how the scene always works—吹 when you win,喷 when you lose. There's no "love and peace" fairy tale. Get beaten to a pulp when you drop in performance? That's just how it goes. Everyone had long since gotten used to it, and no one thought much of it. They just kept playing their own game.
At two in the morning, Old Qiao pushed open the practice room door as usual and called out loudly, "Anyone in queue, cancel it! Finish the game you're in and don't requeue—time for bed!"
Shi Luo and Yu Sui had just wrapped up a match. Shi Luo took off his headset and didn't requeue, but he didn't shut down his computer either.
Shi Luo glanced at Puppy and Chen Huo. Puppy canceled his queue, shut down, and left. Chen Huo had gotten matched with Xiao Jun from Mountain Ten Thousand, and the two were going at it hammer and tongs.
Shi Luo opened Candy Crush and tapped away aimlessly.
Shi Luo blew a bubble with his gum, thinking: they only said no public announcements—they didn't say anything about doing things privately.
On the other side, Yu Sui closed his game client. Before shutting down, he noticed Shi Luo playing solo Candy Crush, and instantly understood what Shi Luo was thinking. A subtle smile flickered across Yu Sui's face—something that wouldn't be easily caught. He also didn't shut down his computer, casually cleaning up a few unnecessary replay files on his desktop.
Shi Luo's clicking was fast. After ten rounds of Candy Crush, he glanced over at Chen Huo—still not finished with that match.
"You're not done yet?" Shi Luo frowned.
"Hm?" Chen Huo turned to look at Shi Luo, completely bewildered. "Not done... Wait, why are you waiting for me?"
Shi Luo烦躁ly tapped his Candy Crush, not answering. *What the hell would I stay up late for waiting for you?*
From his seat to the side, Yu Sui—who was already on his phone—let out a soft laugh.
Shi Luo stared at his own computer screen, his ears slightly red from hearing that laugh.
*He* wanted to wait for Chen Huo to get lost so he could take advantage of Yu Sui in the practice room!
No public announcements doesn't mean no taking advantage!
Another two rounds of Candy Crush, and Chen Huo still wasn't done.
"Are you even any good?!" Shi Luo reached his limit, glaring at Chen Huo. "Here, get up! I'll play for you."
"Why?!" Chen Huo jumped, a head full of question marks. "Are you addicted to playing other people's accounts? First you played a round for Yu Sui, and now you want to get your hands on me?"
"No can do." Chen Huo kept playing while rejecting the offer. "Let me be clear—this account is my concubine. My lost-and-found concubine. I've been single for twenty-one years, and this account is what has陪伴 me the longest in my life. Nobody touches it."
Chen Huo spoke with conviction. "Besides, my account is a female character! If you got on it, does that sentence even make sense?"
Shi Luo froze for a moment. "Whose account isn't their concubine? That's how it is for everyone. What's the big deal? I've been on Yu Sui's account—big deal!"
"What do you mean, 'big deal'?" Chen Huo clutched his keyboard protectively. "His account is already dirty! Contaminated!"
The medic in question kept scrolling his phone without a word of rebuttal. He just nodded. "Mm, I'm dirty."
"You've got a thing for playing other people's accounts, go do some boosting on the side! You're a pro player, last season's national first fragger. If you did boosting, couldn't you make a百万 a month?" Chen Huo maneuvered his concubine, muttering. "Stop eyeing my concubine. I'm about to finish this match and cash in at least five points. Ranking up is hard enough—don't sabotage me."
Shi Luo felt his lungs ache from Chen Huo's words. He glanced at the ever-so-composed Yu Sui nearby—the man he could see but not touch—and his blood boiled. Irritated, he thought, "I only offered to help because you looked like you were struggling!"
Shi Luo shut down his computer and trudged back to his dorm, head down. Chen Huo finally relaxed, still muttering to himself. "He definitely had bad intentions. I could've figured out what he was up to with just my thighs. Shi Luo's definitely trying to throw my matches—that brat's always out to get me."
Yu Sui, who had already decided to let Chen Huo get killed in their next duo queue, said nothing as he stood up to return to his dorm. As he passed Chen Huo, Yu Sui casually pressed Chen Huo's auto-fire key.
*BANG BANG BANG*—a burst of gunfire. Chen Huo's position was instantly exposed. Chen Huo cursed Yu Sui at the top of his lungs while frantically looking for cover.