Chapter 69
After returning to his dorm, Shi Luo turned on the lights. His eyes squinted, taking several seconds to adjust to the harsh brightness.
Shi Luo ran his fingers through his hair, tidied up the messy room, dragged over the suitcase he'd tossed aside, peeled off the tangled baggage claim tags stuck all over it, then pushed the suitcase under the desk. He also sorted out the spare keyboards and mice on the desk, then spotted the half-dead flowers and plants on his windowsill. He twisted open a bottle of mineral water and watered them, tossed the empty bottle into the trash can, then noticed the laundry hamper. He dumped a few dirty clothes inside, opened the door and placed it outside for the auntie to wash tomorrow.
He closed the door and turned around, looking around the room. Nothing else needed organizing. Usually at this hour, Shi Luo would take a quick shower and crash. But today he'd been walking in and out, and not the slightest bit sleepy.
He even wanted to play a few rounds of solo queue!
Shi Luo paced around his room again, but ultimately couldn't resist. He sat on the bed, picked up his phone, and sent a message to Yu Sui.
【Evil】: [Asleep?]
Yu Sui didn't reply.
Shi Luo exited the chat interface and scrolled through Weibo, then opened WeChat again. Still no reply from Yu Sui.
Shi Luo played two rounds of a mobile game. Still no reply from Yu Sui.
Shi Luo frowned. Just as he was debating whether to knock on the door, his phone buzzed.
【Whisper】: [Just showering.]
Shi Luo stared at the phone screen, the corner of his mouth curving up slightly.
No need to ask why he was showering.
Shi Luo took a deep breath, feeling his heartbeat accelerate again.
【Whisper】: [Can't sleep?]
Shi Luo felt inexplicably guilty. He turned off the lamp with a tap, clothes still on as he lay on the bed, leaning against the wall holding his phone. After a pause, he typed:
【Evil】: [Sleeping now, lying down.]
But moments later, Shi Luo's phone buzzed again.
【Whisper】: [Mm, keep pretending.]
Shi Luo laughed a little, running his fingers through his hair. Though he really didn't want to admit it, he indeed couldn't... sleep.
Extremely unwilling to sleep, extremely wide awake, to the point where he wanted to knock on Yu Sui's door.
But causing trouble at this hour would be too easy to get discovered, and too easy for things to go wrong. Shi Luo at least didn't dare to do anything in the base yet. If the teammates found out... that would be too awkward.
But he really wanted to chat with Yu Sui right now. Really, really wanted to.
Shi Luo scratched his neck, finally admitted defeat, and typed:
【Evil】: [Can't sleep. Close my eyes and you're all I can think about.]
A few seconds later, Yu Sui replied. Instead of typing, he sent a voice message.
Shi Luo pressed play. Yu Sui's voice came through: "Me too."
Shi Luo leaned against the wall, grinding his teeth as he typed:
【Evil】: [...] Don't send voice messages.
【Whisper】: []
【Evil】: [...] I can't handle your voice right now.
【Evil】: [Don't send voice messages, or I really won't be able to sleep.]
Shi Luo took a deep breath. What Yu Sui had whispered in his ear back in Yu Sui's room hadn't seemed to fade away. Right now, hearing Yu Sui's voice was truly unbearable. Shi Luo sent another message:
【Evil】: [Are you doing this on purpose?]
【Whisper】: [What, sending a voice message is intentional now?]
【Evil】: [You special... What you just said, forgot?]
After sending this message, Shi Luo regretted it. Before he could retract it, Yu Sui had already sent multiple messages in rapid succession.
【Whisper】: [Didn't forget. Which sentence are you referring to?]
【Whisper】: [I like you?]
【Whisper】: [Need me to go faster?]
【Whisper】: [Luoluo, how can you be so shameless?]
【Whisper】: [Which one was it? I'll mark the key points and schedule them for you later.]
Shi Luo wanted to smash his face into the phone. He definitely couldn't sleep now!
Shi Luo absolutely didn't want to recall any of it. His neck was bright red as he typed at lightning speed: [One more message and I'll screenshot!]
【Whisper】: [Screenshot away. Send it to whoever you want. Might as well go public, then we won't have to hide anymore.]
Shi Luo wasn't actually thin-skinned. Put him against any normal person and he could definitely hold his own. But compared to Yu Sui, he really was lacking a bit.
Shi Luo honestly conceded defeat: [Captain...]
【Whisper】: [Fine, I won't bully you anymore.]
【Whisper】: [I was in a bit of a mood earlier. Intentionally made a big deal out of nothing.]
【Evil】: [What mood? Mad that I won?]
【Whisper】: [Nothing to do with that.]
【Whisper】: [Your reaction made me regret some things.]
【Whisper】: [Actually doubting you were straight... After all that, if you're straight, then no one in the world is gay.]
Shi Luo's ears burned bright red as he typed quickly: [Don't say another word!]
Shi Luo couldn't handle it anymore. He could even imagine Yu Sui low-key snickering right now.
Shi Luo rubbed his face, decided to go all in: [Never seen one before?]
【Whisper】: [I've seen plenty of people, but you're the only one I like. Nothing to compare you to.]
The heat on Shi Luo's face instantly spread to his heart. He leaned against the wall. Yu Sui really knew how to romance someone.
Shi Luo typed: [Yu Sui, I genuinely cannot sleep now.]
Yu Sui didn't reply with text. Instead, he dialed a voice call.
Shi Luo startled, then answered.
On the other end of the phone, Yu Sui laughed quietly. "Really can't sleep?"
Shi Luo let out a soft breath, his tone helpless. "Yeah..."
It was already past 3 AM. The other teammates were definitely asleep by now. The base had poor soundproofing, so Yu Sui's voice was very low. "Lie down first. I'll chat with you for a bit. When you're tired from talking, you'll be able to sleep..."
Yu Sui laughed. "See? Your boyfriend's service is top-notch. There's even after-sales support."
---
The next day, without surprise, both Shi Luo and Yu Sui woke up late.
Both woke up around past 1 PM. By the time they'd washed up, eaten, and arrived at the training room, it was nearly 2:30 PM.
"Less than half an hour late. Given it's your first time, each of you only gets fined 20,000." Old Qiao had been in the training room all along. He glanced at the two of them. "No objections?"
Yu Sui's expression was natural. "None."
Shi Luo shook his head, quickly powered on his computer, entered his password, and immediately launched the game client to log into his account.
Puppy, who had lost yesterday and treated the entire team to late-night snacks, was quite satisfied. "Good. I'm balanced now."
Yu Sui was booting up while speaking. "What balance? A sniper couldn't win a 1v1 against a striker. You managed to be trash with style."
"You couldn't even beat a medic." Puppy said coolly. "Honestly, I even suspect Manager Zhou set up that match yesterday just to make me buy late-night snacks while you two flirted. I'm literally just a tool."
"You're a tool anyway. Today we're playing NSN again. ROD's been in good form lately—don't get压制ed again." Chen Huo was satisfied with last night's snacks. "Also, I quite like this game where teammates buy late-night snacks. Can we play it again today?"
Shi Luo's eyes brightened. He held back from agreeing.
Finally, Yu Sui also logged into his account. Old Qiao set up the room, added the NSN players, and connected the voice call to start.
"Reject!" Puppy said while waiting for the countdown, looking listless. "I'm saving up to buy a house. I've got my eye on this residential area where our base is. I want to buy a villa here too. No one try to rob me anymore."
Yu Sui said, "You don't even have a girlfriend. What's the rush to buy a house?"
Puppy glanced at Shi Luo, his tone half-sour: "Can't I plan ahead?"
Chen Huo, waiting for Old Qiao to call the start, said, "Short on cash? Learn from Shi Luo. Do underground boosting on the side. Monthly income of a million is no dream. I'm also short on cash. If I could play striker and wasn't a jack-of-all-trades type, I'd do boosting too."
Shi Luo shot Chen Huo a look. "There's better money in those 'desperately seeking wealthy women' ads on telephone poles outside. Go ahead."
Old Qiao covered his face helplessly, grinding his teeth as he said quietly, "We're on voice with NSN! Can you guys have some shame?!"
In the voice room, Wawa's timid voice came through. "Is this... how you guys normally mess with each other's mentality before practice matches?"
"Not at all." Puppy said lazily. "Before official matches we always attack each other first. Pressure training. Kids shouldn't imitate this."
In the voice room, Gu Qian said, "Don't imitate. Don't get distracted."
Wawa, shocked by the Free team's full squad of bad apples corporate culture, muted himself.
After the perfunctory round of mutual bashing, both teams entered their respective voice rooms. The practice match began.
ROD's form had indeed recovered—possibly even better than before the girlfriend's birthday celebration fiasco. As everyone had predicted, professional players just needed to be viciously flamed by brainless trolls a few times to stabilize their mental.
Over the afternoon, they played eight rounds total. Free went 6-2.
After the practice match, both sides connected briefly to chat before exiting the custom map and voice rooms.
"Not sure if it's my imagination." Puppy rubbed his neck, slowly saying. "Why do I feel like NSN was holding back a bit? This isn't the first time I've felt this. Several times we've played practice matches against them, and I always feel like they're hiding something."
Shi Luo grabbed a bottle of mineral water, took a couple sips. "Not a错觉. Wawa at minimum was definitely hiding things."
Shi Luo often duo-queued with Wawa, so his understanding of Wawa was stronger than anyone else's.
"Normal." Yu Sui wasn't surprised. "We didn't use all our tricks to win either."
"Looking forward to playoffs." Chen Huo also took a sip of water, smiling. "NSN hasn't had results in years. Old Gu's been itching to make it to Worlds. There are only two spots. I wonder if NSN can make it this year."
"Worry about yourself. You know there are only two spots. Saint isn't playing practice matches with us anymore. NSN's started hiding their moves against us..." Old Qiao sent the practice match video to everyone. "If Saint and NSN end up qualifying and we're cheering them on from our own base, the entertainment value will be maxed out. Yu Sui... motivate everyone."
Yu Sui hated doing things like this the most. Back when he was in FS, whenever Ji Yanyan偷懒 let Yu Sui host team meetings, Yu Sui always muddled through. Now he was the boss himself—there was no escape.
Yu Sui received the video file from Old Qiao. "There's prize money."
These were players who would curse freely knowing each outburst cost them 10,000 in fines. Their desire for prize money had long faded. The team's expressions didn't change.
Yu Sui continued slowly: "Next season's signing fees will increase."
Everyone remained unmoved.
Old Qiao complained: "Give us something more exciting!"
"No passion, but I can share a World Championship detail." Yu Sui adjusted the team jersey that kept slipping off his shoulder, slowly saying. "World Championship... it's hard to say who's making it from our region. But in the European region, Saint is definitely getting in."
"Our team and Saint aren't in the same regional group. According to the World Championship group stage rule that teams from the same region don't face each other, if we both make it to Worlds, there's a high chance we'll be drawn in the same group during the group stage."
"Let me share some information: since Saint was founded, they've never stumbled in the group stage. Their worst finish was third place."
Yu Sui raised his eyes to look at everyone. "Whether you can create a historical record of Saint being humiliatingly eliminated in the group stage—that's up to you."
Before Yu Sui even finished speaking, the other three's eyes had all lit up.
The laziest of the bunch, Puppy, slapped the table. "Quick quick, send me the file. What dinner? Forget dinner. Review review—I'll eat while reviewing."