Chapter 64
After the ROD incident, as soon as the photos from the club came out, it basically lit a fuse on every major forum.
【These days it's getting easier and easier to be a pro player. Just coast along, job done.】
【Now I understand why there haven't been results for several years. Before they could blame it on FS breaking up the team, but now, heh, it's obvious the players themselves don't want to win.】
【Others I could understand, but Yizhan just lost the regular season and now they're going to clubs? These people have really given up.】
【With this kind of attitude, getting the entire server wiped by European Holy Sword wouldn't be surprising.】
【Reasonable speculation: was Holy Sword strong the past two years because of Whisper, or because their club management is inherently that strict?】
【Whisper himself went to the club, what more proof do you need? Time to rip off this fig leaf. You really think our server got strong just because Whisper went back?】
【Used to really like these teams, but now... You do you.】
【NSN taking a tumble is one thing, but Saint and Free are the same? I must have been blind.】
【Believing clubs are monasteries is my own stupidity. Yu Sui has had so many female fans since his debut, saying he's been single this whole time is a lie. Angel Sword is famously warm-hearted, definitely flirted with plenty. Chen Huo was bragging ages ago about having dated no fewer than ten girlfriends. Evil? Hah, what good can come from someone who started as a streamer? He's definitely even more into it.】
【Time for the players' fangirls to wake up now.】
【Don't ask, just say you're training all day. How else do you trick fans?】
【Don't ask, just say we'll keep working hard next year, then keep coasting along with a clear conscience.】
The forum trolls ran with the topic, getting more and more vicious. The players' fans naturally fought back, making things even more chaotic. Shi Luo refreshed the forum once and it lagged once, flame posts multiplying endlessly, with too many personal attacks for the moderators to delete.
After Zhou Huo caught his breath, he started scrolling through posts too. He was hesitant—players could act on impulse, but he couldn't. As public figures, sometimes players step in shit while walking down the street, and sometimes it's better to handle things quietly than to spread rumors twice over. Like that little streamer who tried to蹭 Yu Sui's popularity last time—Zhou Huo absolutely could not make any public clarification, he was trying to avoid it entirely.
Zhou Huo was usually best at handling these issues, but today's mess was technically his fault. He knew his mind wasn't clear right now, too angry to think straight, and he didn't dare make decisions.
Zhou Huo glanced at Shi Luo, awkward. "The receipt from dinner is still there. It has the payment timestamp on it. I'll take a photo and post it on Weibo, prove we just had a meal and came back, then we won't respond further. Let's not make this bigger, okay?"
Shi Luo shook his head. "No."
Zhou Huo was anxious. Just then, Yu Sui came downstairs after his shower.
Shi Luo sat to the side smoking, glanced up at Yu Sui, noticed he still hadn't blown dry his hair, and tossed the towel from his shoulder to Yu Sui.
Yu Sui caught it casually and wiped his hair. Old Qiao noticed nothing wrong, and gave Yu Sui a summary of the club situation.
"These idiots messed with the little god." Old Qiao passed Zhou Huo's phone to Yu Sui. He was also torn. "He wants to drag Angel Sword and the others in, go all in. You... what's your take?"
Yu Sui was flipping through the exposé and mock帖子. He looked up at Shi Luo, a hint of amusement flickering in his eyes.
Ten minutes later, Saint and Yizhan were pulled into a temporary group chat Zhou Huo had set up.
【Saint - Angel Sword】: [...I never flirted with fans.]
【Saint - Hallucination】: [I'll f*** their ancestors, our captain being a warm guy is somehow wrong?!]
【Saint·Manager】: [I must say, none of our players have ever been involved in anything like this. Today was purely accidental.]
【Free - Handsome Chen Huo】: [Trolls don't listen to reason? My trash-talk from 500 years ago got dug up.]
【Saint - Hallucination】: [I'm about to explode! My mom's 40th birthday last month and I didn't even have time to go home! You think I'd waste time whoring?!]
【Yizhan - Manager】: [We did just lose a match, but matches have wins and losses. Our results aren't great, but our players can't be told they can't even eat just because results aren't good, right?]
【Coach·Qiao】: [Okay okay, we all understand.]
【Yizhan - Manager】: [The post came out and all our players are depressed. Getting flamed for losing is expected, but this bulls*** is way too unfair.]
【Manager·Zhou】: [Image]
【Manager·Zhou】: [What I mean is, I'll post the receipt from when we paid earlier, let everyone see the timestamp. Not much else to say. Angel Sword, do you still have your receipt?]
【Saint - Angel Sword】: [I do.]
【Saint·Manager】: [I have it here, I'll take a photo right now!]
【Saint·Manager】: [Okay okay, you post first, I'll follow. Yizhan, retweet from the official account. Lucky we kept the receipt. Crisis averted.]
【Yizhan - Manager】: [Averted.]
【Manager·Zhou】: [Averted.]
【Free - Evil】: [I don't agree.]
【Manager·Zhou】: ...
【Yizhan - Manager】: [Evil?]
【Saint·Manager】: [Wait, you... what are you planning?]
【Free - Evil】: [No need for official accounts. I'll post myself. No staff giving me talking points. I'll say whatever I want.]
【Yizhan - Manager】: [Um... you don't have to be this aggressive, right?]
【Saint·Manager】: [That's a bit too aggressive.]
【Manager·Zhou】: [Shi Luo, seriously, listen to me. It's unnecessary.]
【Yizhan - Manager】: [Right right, though we also feel like committing murder, but it's really unnecessary to add more trouble for your players. Today we just had bad luck. One clarification is enough.]
【Saint·Manager】: [Yes, let us handle this. You players should be training, don't worry about it.]
【Manager·Zhou】: [We'll as managers make the clarification. Anyone with a brain will understand, and of course they'll stop flaming.]
【Free - Evil】: [Is stopping the flames enough to end this?]
【Free - Evil】: [Why is it always "stop the flames and we can move on"?]
【Free - Evil】: [Those who were flaming us before, just pretend it never happened? On what basis?]
【Saint - Hallucination】: [On what basis?!]
【Saint·Manager】: [???]
【Saint·Manager】: [Hallucination, why are you joining the chaos!!]
【Saint - Hallucination】: [When those people were flaming me, they even cursed my mom! Stop the flames and it's over? Is anyone going to apologize to my mom?!]
【Manager·Zhou】: [...]
【Saint·Manager】: [...]
【Saint - Angel Sword】: [I don't agree either.]
【Saint·Manager】: [?]
【Saint·Manager】: [Wait, Angel Sword? What's wrong with you guys?]
【Free - Handsome Chen Huo】: [I'm listening to Shi Luo this time.]
【Free - Puppy】: [I'm listening to Shi Luo this time too.]
【Free - Handsome Chen Huo】: [I've been through hell and high water. Used to hold back because of the Yu Sui situation, didn't want to cause trouble. Now what else is there to be afraid of?]
【Free - Puppy】: [+1, we don't start trouble, but a few of us aren't afraid of trouble either.]
【Manager·Zhou】: [...]
【Manager·Zhou】: [Whisper, say something!!]
【Free - Whisper】: [?]
【Free - Whisper】: [I've always been following Shi Luo's lead.]
【Manager·Zhou】: [You all...]
【Yizhan·Manager】: [Yu Sui, don't do this.]
【Saint·Manager】: [What's gotten into you all today? Don't drag us along!! Zhou Huo, control your players! Don't lead our players into madness!]
【Manager·Zhou】: [If I could control them, this group chat wouldn't exist today...]
【Free - Evil】: [Almost got affected by this morning's forum drama. I refuse to be led around by these trolls anymore.]
【Free - Evil】: [I shouldn't have been influenced by these people in the first place. If I can handle it, I'll handle it. If I can't, I'm useless. There's nothing to hide or fear.]
At the Free base, only Yu Sui and Shi Luo were on the first floor. Yu Sui watched Shi Luo's messages in the group chat and smiled. "Have you finally figured it out? Starting to prepare for going public?"
Shi Luo was still typing. After sending the last message, he ran a hand through his now-dry hair and murmured, "Not just that."
Shi Luo glanced at Yu Sui, paused, then said softly, "A few days ago I was overcautious. Kept thinking I had to be careful with my words later on, otherwise I'd accidentally drag you down. I just managed to wash your reputation clean—I can't let you get blacklisted again because of me."
Yu Sui's heart warmed at that. He looked at Shi Luo with tender eyes. "And now?"
"Now I've figured it out." Shi Luo locked his phone screen. "I shouldn't have underestimated myself, and I shouldn't have underestimated you."
"As long as I play seriously and have a clear conscience, what's there to be afraid of? Get flamed, just flame back."
"They're going to stop players from dating? From eating out? Who made that rule?"
"ROD handled it carefully, only let the team manager explain, handled it mild enough. Did the trolls let him off?"
"I shouldn't forget who I am just because I'm in a relationship." Shi Luo looked at Yu Sui, face cold. "Every time they flame a teammate, it's 10,000 yuan. I'll flame them all back without hesitation. That's who I am."
"No compromising, no taking this s***."
Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo perched on the sofa, and for a moment he seemed to see the Shi Luo from when he was still a streamer.
Always with a cold face, looking like someone you shouldn't mess with.
Covered in thorns, always on guard against everyone, but once you really got close, you'd discover how many endearing little habits this kid had in private.
This Shi Luo had always driven Yu Sui crazy.
Shi Luo saw Yu Sui wasn't speaking, his expression uncertain. "You..."
"Of course I'm the same as you." Yu Sui snickered. "All Villains—that name wasn't given for nothing."
Five minutes later, Shi Luo posted on his personal Weibo first.
@Free-Evil: [No whoring, no sleeping with anyone, and if I do sleep with someone in the future, it's none of anyone's business. Anyone who wants to flame, come at me in person. Let's spar. Anyone who doesn't dare flame to my face gets auto-rejected. Don't need that bulls***.]
Zhou Huo saw he couldn't talk them out of it, and had no choice but to follow, posting on the official account and sharing the receipt as proof.
The moment the evidence dropped, the wind shifted dramatically.
The normal players who had been dragged along by the trolls' rhythm were still the majority. They could see this might really be a misunderstanding, and quietly started deleting their own forum replies as they calmed down. The Weibo comments that had flamed the players before were either deleted or, for those that couldn't be deleted, quietly retracted.
The receipt evidence was solid. Moreover, by this point the party at the club still hadn't ended—the influencer who had exposed the photos of Yu Sui and the others was still posting selfies. Whether they were there for the influencer party or just happened to run into them, it was obvious with a moment's thought.
The trolls couldn't stand their ground anymore. They stopped fixating on the players being at the club, but within moments they turned their fire toward Shi Luo:
【What kind of attitude is this? Is this how public figures talk?】
【Impressive. Not satisfied enough flaming people in the stream, now flaming here too.】
【No results, but plenty of attitude.】
【Someone who's never even made it to Worlds, what are they always being so cocky about?】
But before the trolls could organize their firepower against Shi Luo, the real Worlds veteran Angel Sword immediately posted on Weibo too.
@Saint - Angel Sword: [Never slept with, flirted with, or harassed any fans. I'm done being lenient about this bulls***. I can vouch for all players from all three teams—no one has done anything that would damage the integrity of esports. Being nice is for normal people, not for trolls.]
Hallucination followed up with a Weibo post: [So now, will anyone apologize for cyberbullying me? Trolls?]
The moment these posts went up, not to mention anyone else, the fans of all three teams were stunned.
Usually when there's drama, getting it settled quickly is lucky. Having evidence to explain clearly is like the club base spontaneously combusting. But now? After settling it and explaining clearly, players can actually flame back too?!
Can it be this satisfying? Are they not worried about being accused of bad attitude?
Of course, after the rest of Free's players posted on Weibo, no one bothered about the players' attitudes anymore. Because the worst attitude was always saved for last.
@Free-Puppy: So someone who's been to Worlds is allowed to have a bad attitude? Fine. Anyone who slandered me and flamed me is an idiot.
@Free-Chen Huo: What about someone who's been to Worlds and won a Worlds trophy? Trolls? Can I flame you from a distance now?
@Free-Whisper: Is getting slapped in the face an addiction?
Zhou Huo had been overly cautious at first, since it was his first time managing a team where no one was afraid of dying. But now the die was cast, the Weibo posts were already up, so Zhou Huo decided to go along for the ride. He directly called out Holy Sword, who had been trying to destabilize other servers' mentality by fishing in troubled waters:
@Free Esports Club: @Holy Sword, is your team that scared of our server? Day after day, despite the time difference, you keep密切关注 our players' eating, drinking, and... other activities?
The moment Zhou Huo's Weibo went up, Saint and Yizhan clubs immediately retweeted. NSN, fashionably late, followed suit. In less than half an hour, Holy Sword had quickly deleted their previous mockery about Chinese players going to the club on Twitter.