Chapter 111
"A百年难得的好分组，居然就让我遇到了……居然就让我遇到了……" Zhou Huo was so thrilled that he stopped filming the players altogether, turning the camera around to film himself instead. Filled with emotion, he said, "I'd actually been thinking about the group draw for a while now. I was mentally prepared for the worst—running into Holy Sword, plus the strongest North American team, plus the strongest Korean team, all lumped together with us into an ultimate death group. And given these players' terrible luck, that probability was really quite high!"
Zhou Huo sighed. "I'd even considered the possibility of being eliminated in the group stage. I only thought about how we could lose—I never imagined..."
Zhou Huo bowed to the camera, his heart full of gratitude. "Ancestors above, you really came through! You sent us a free-pass group. Thanks, thanks! My转发 of that lucky fish wasn't for nothing, thanks to the lucky fish! God bless China!"
Zhou Huo got so excited that after his selfie, he went back to filming the players. Everyone on the team except Zhou Huo himself had fairly grim expressions, with Shi Luo's face especially dark. Zhou Huo, with no sense of self-preservation, shoved the camera right in Shi Luo's face and happily asked, "Evil, why aren't you happy?"
"Others are going to Worlds..." Shi Luo radiated killing intent, coldly saying, "But mine suddenly became the Asian Cup. Should I be happy?"
Lao Qiao couldn't hold it in and sprayed a mouthful of water.
"What's wrong with playing in the Asian Cup? Asian teams are warm and hospitable..." Zhou Huo was overjoyed. "Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, hahahahaha oh right they really are all Asian hahahahaha..."
Shi Luo's heart ached from anger. He pushed the camera away so Zhou Huo couldn't film him and continued frowning at the draw results.
Their own team was settled, but their former team hadn't been drawn yet.
In the livestream, Group B had already been completed—it was fairly balanced, with one Korean team, one North American team, one Swedish powerhouse, and one Japanese punching bag.
"Old Gu's team is probably going to run into Holy Sword..." Chen Huo looked at the remaining eight teams that hadn't been drawn yet, scratching his head and frowning. "Most of the remaining teams are strong ones. NSN's going to have a tough time this year."
Shi Luo was still hung up on Holy Sword, coolly saying, "There aren't that many easy targets to begin with, and we've got three in our group alone. Of course the rest would all be strong teams."
Zhou Huo had just stopped being cheerful, but at these words, he brightened up again, pounding the table while laughing silently. "Three easy targets... I don't even know how we'd manage to lose..."
Yu Sui picked up a cushion and threw it at Zhou Huo. Zhou Huo behaved for less than half a minute before hugging the cushion and laughing again.
Group C's draw began, and the first team drawn was NSN.
Everyone's expressions grew more serious.
Group C's second team: a strong North American team.
Group C's third team: a strong Korean team.
"Damn..." Zhou Huo's smile faded a bit. He laughed nervously. "This script... is a little... why does it look a bit like that nightmare I had..."
Shi Luo's brow furrowed little by little.
Chen Huo took a deep breath, murmuring, "Don't tell me this year's protagonist script belongs to NSN..."
Puppy said quietly, "I feel like Old Gu is done for..."
In the livestream, after the officials finished introducing the Korean team, they began drawing the final slot for Group C.
The official unrolled the final Group C slot: another Thai team.
The remaining four teams didn't have any regional conflicts, so Group C didn't require any position adjustments—the draw was valid. Group D's draw was effectively set as well.
"Not bad." Lao Qiao exhaled in relief and nodded. "Holy Sword is in Group D. Actually, besides our Group A having too many weak teams, the other three groups are pretty balanced—basically two or three strong teams with one easy target each."
"Group C actually has a bit of a death group vibe." Chen Huo looked at the groups displayed on the screen. "Both the North American and Korean teams in Old Gu's group are really strong. NSN's passage out of groups isn't that stable."
"Depends on them." Puppy watched the groups slowly. "The odds aren't bad—it all comes down to how they perform on the day... It's okay. I'd actually like to go to Group C. Group D would be fine too."
Zhou Huo glanced at Puppy. "What's good about a group where you can't guarantee advancement? Is dangling your heart in suspense fun?"
"The feeling of hanging by a thread is definitely not fun." Yu Sui leaned back in his gaming chair, watching the many powerhouse teams on screen, his eyes slightly brightening. "...But the feeling of personally eliminating a strong team is fun."
Puppy slammed the table and laughed. "Right! That kind of thrill can cancel out all the前期 hardship."
Chen Huo nodded in agreement, grinning wickedly. "The feeling of personally sending a powerhouse home... Wow, really, whoever's experienced it knows—it's爽!"
Zhou Huo couldn't relate. "Are you guys all S?"
Yu Sui turned and walked back to his station, calmly saying, "Wait until we reach Worlds. When there's a chance, I'll eliminate one right in front of you and you'll understand."
Zhou Huo was puzzled. "Uh... okay, I guess. But you guys need to drop this talk. When you're being interviewed, just say you enjoy challenging strong teams."
"Alright, we haven't even made it there yet. Are we already reserving a powerhouse to beat?" Lao Qiao was most afraid that these guys would get cocky and get eliminated in the group stage. "Back to training. I'll go gather data on the three teams in our group and work with our data analyst."
Lao Qiao was telling others not to get carried away, but he himself couldn't help smiling and quietly grumbling, "Damn, might not even be able to find good materials... Who the hell watches Japanese regional matches for fun?"
Zhou Huo's phone buzzed. He glanced at it and quickly恢复了喜气洋洋的神色. "NSN's manager just congratulated me. He said I'm lucky. Honestly, his tone sounded a bit sour."
Zhou Huo happily replied to the NSN manager, muttering to himself: "The luck of drawing three easy target groups isn't something just anyone has. Really, Shi Luo was right—what's the point of superstition? All that incense burning and bathing—what good does it do? Better to have my shit infused with spiritual power. This guy..."
Drawing such an easy group, Shi Luo was already irritated. He couldn't stand Zhou Huo's神经兮兮 behavior and chased him out of the training room with force.
It was Shi Luo's first time making it to Worlds, and he'd originally wanted to cause devastation right from the group stage—first taking down North America, then cutting down Europe, and marching into the quarterfinals over a trail of corpses. Now his grand plans had fallen through. He was不顺眼 to everyone, and the thought of Holy Sword running wild in Group D with no one to teach them a lesson made him even more unhappy. His evening training was even more intense, one game after another, played at a frantic pace.
The stream fans, facing Shi Luo's monotonous broadcast, had initially dared not speak up, but eventually they revolted, spamming the chat asking Yu Sui to come.
【@Free-Whisper, there's a kid here who's lost his mind, are you going to handle it?】
【Please have Lord Yu sub in for a bit.】
【Is it because the draw was so good that Shi Jr. is too happy?】
【Should be too happy—it's a once-in-a-century good group draw hahahahah...】
【The Thai team in Group A is spamming crying emojis on Twitter. I'm dying.】
【Need Lord Yu need Lord Yu need Lord Yu need Lord Yu...】
【Stop spamming Whisper, it's not even Whisper's stream, that's not cool.】
【I feel like Lord Shi isn't in a great mood right now... Better not spam.】
【Feeling Lord Shi isn't in a great mood +1, not sure why, but let's not provoke the team tyrant.】
Shi Luo finished a game and quickly clicked to queue.
His Chinese server ranking was too high, so the matchmaking range was too narrow and queuing took longer and longer. While waiting, he opened the streaming assistant to take a look.
There were still quite a few people spamming about Yu Sui in the chat, and also quite a few people urging others to stop because Shi Luo could probably see it now and might explode.
Shi Luo paused, then opened the stream settings and enabled voice chat.
The stream room buzzed. The spammers talking about Yu Sui instantly disappeared, and everyone started timidly wishing Shi Luo success at Worlds.
"Not angry." Shi Luo adjusted his mic, his tone normal. "Whisper is solo queuing. It's not convenient."
The stream fans instantly relaxed. Some started spamming donations, others started sending blessings.
Starting tomorrow, they'd be in intensive training, and streaming wouldn't be allowed during practice matches. This was probably the last stream before Worlds. Shi Luo decided to turn on his camera as well.
It was his first time turning on the camera since his alt account was exposed, so Shi Luo felt a bit awkward. "...Let's chat for a bit. Don't spam donations—I can't see the chat."
Shi Luo didn't usually interact during streams, so the fans instantly got excited and started spamming the chat frantically.
In the camera view, Shi Luo glanced at his teammates and, after confirming they were all wearing noise-canceling headphones, dropped his voice by eight octaves: "Let's chat for a bit. We'll rest soon. Starting tomorrow we play practice matches. Once we get our visas, we'll go to Germany early to adjust to the time difference, get familiar with the food, and then it's Worlds."
Shi Luo looked at the chat and frowned. "NSN's group? Not bad... not as easy as ours."
"Not necessarily flying with NSN. Our manager wants to go early."
"Going early or late is about the same. Once we're there, we'll just find an internet cafe or ask the organizers for equipment and space to practice. Same thing—just adjusting to the environment earlier."
"Practice matches with who? Not sure yet. Whoever we can schedule. When we can't find anyone, Angel Sword and them will be around to help as practice partners."
"Angel Sword... yeah, their team offered to help us practice."
"No need for a translator. They all speak German..."
The chat was full of people asking Yu Sui to translate for Shi Luo. Shi Luo pretended not to see it. "I'm fine... The public places I'll need to go to all have English, should be no problem."
As soon as the conversation turned to Yu Sui, no one talked about Worlds anymore. The chat was flooded with questions about Yu Sui.
Shi Luo couldn't find a single other comment among the sea of spam. Unable to help it, Shi Luo lowered his voice even more after confirming everyone was solo queuing and couldn't hear him: "He... was just bored today."
"Just happened to see that I was still streaming."
"What do I usually call him? Yu Sui, Lord Yu, Captain, Whisper."
The chat wasn't letting up. Shi Luo couldn't help but add awkwardly, "...I used to call him Ge."
"Why call him Ge... because he's older than me."
"Calling Whisper over... he's solo queuing. Not possible."
"He can't hear me talking."
"It's not about his game volume. Our headphones are all noise-canceling—once they're on, you can't hear anything."
"Besides..." Shi Luo hadn't queued successfully yet. He checked Yu Sui's current status in his game client and said quietly, "He's rushed into the top five of the Chinese server this afternoon. He's going for the top spot, playing ultra-high-ranked games. There's no way he can spare any attention."
The fans knew this too, but just as Shi Luo finished speaking, his game friends list flashed.
Shi Luo clicked to open it—
【Free-Whisper】: [I can hear.]
【Free-Whisper】: [Not as focused as you think.]
Shi Luo: "..."
Shi Luo refused to believe it and looked over in Yu Sui's direction. Yu Sui was indeed in a game and was indeed wearing headphones.
During a moment when he needed to heal himself in-game, Yu Sui quickly opened the chat window and typed to Shi Luo.
【Free-Whisper】: [Have your stream on as background noise.]
【Free-Whisper】: [Think a top-five Chinese server game is already enough to distract me?]
【Free-Whisper】: [Lord Shi, how little do you think of me.]