# Chapter 112
They hadn't exchanged a single word since the draw, and after checking the results, Yu Sui had been grinding his ranking solo the entire time—not once glancing Shi Luo's way.
Shi Luo really hadn't expected that.
Of course, Shi Luo's livestream fans had expected it even less.
【666666……】
【hhhhhhh, just a reminder, we can see your in-game chat.】
【Some national server players,表面上在认真冲分，其实是在听小朋友直播。】(Some top-tier players, seemingly grinding seriously, are actually listening to a kid's stream.)
【跟一个渣男谈恋爱是一种怎么样的体验？谢谢时崽，见识到了。】
【跟一个特别会撩的渣男谈恋爱是一种怎么样的体验？谢谢时崽，见识到了。】
【跟一个特别会撩游戏又打的特别好的渣男谈恋爱是一种怎么样的体验？谢谢时崽，见识到了。】
【So Whisper's in my stream with me???】
【To be real, I couldn't figure out what kind of god could crack our cold-shouldered Time-ge. Now I get it.】
【Now I get it+1, I couldn't figure out why Time-god was so clingy on that smurf account. Damn, give me a boyfriend like Yu Trash and I'll be even clingier!!】
Yu Sui had Shi Luo's stream running in the background, which made Shi Luo even more careful about what he said. He wanted to end the stream but that would've been too obvious. The worst part was that just earlier he'd been thinking about how his fans would miss him for a while, so he'd turned on the camera…
Shi Luo tried to manage his expression, to make it look like he didn't care. He kept clicking open the game client to check the queue. The wait time kept increasing, but he just couldn't get in.
Shi Luo hadn't spoken for several minutes when a message from Yu Sui popped up in-game.
【Free-Whisper】: [Too embarrassed to talk?]
【Free-Whisper】: [Should I close the stream?]
Shi Luo rubbed his brow. This guy was at it again, pretending to be considerate… If you really cared that much, why did you even say anything in the first place?!
The comments started flooding the screen, begging Yu Sui to stay, not to leave.
Shi Luo cleared his throat. Just as he was about to speak, he caught a few comments that weren't quite so supportive.
【Are you serious, this is cute? What's cute about this?】
【Anyone saying "cute" needs their head examined. This is definitely staged. Game chat being visible on stream—these are pros. You think they don't know?】
【If my teammate was distracted chatting with someone while I was grinding rank, I'd **** them…】
【I don't believe this isn't affecting his game. High-level matches like this? Not affecting him??? If they lose, whose fault is it?】
【66666, top-five national server games, slacking and putting on a show, and people still find this cute. Incredible.】
【So being handsome means sabotaging your teammate is cute. Sure, sure.】
【To tell if a player is washed up, just check if they're in a relationship. Worlds… you know what I mean.】
【This match is definitely a loss. Sympathizing with their poor teammates in advance.】
Shi Luo's stream had always had high traffic. Shi Luo himself was a flamer, so he always got his share of haters. But now that Yu Sui was involved, there were even more bizarre haters flooding in. The stream moderators could only ban so many people—there were always more copy-pasting their vitriol about Shi Luo and Yu Sui.
Shi Luo squinted.
If it had been before, Shi Luo definitely would've grabbed the mic and fired back. Nobody owes anybody anything. You flame me, I flame you. Dog bites dog, nobody's a saint. Fair and square.
Shi Luo wasn't actually immune to hate the way Yu Sui was.
But now…
Shi Luo paused. "Mods, don't mute anyone. No need."
After hesitating for a moment, Shi Luo clicked open the in-game friends chat with Yu Sui. Just as he was about to type, remembering Yu Sui could hear him, he spoke into the mic. "Whisper?"
"I'm still here. If you can hear me, send me an emote in-game. Any emoji will do."
The moment Shi Luo finished speaking, Yu Sui replied in-game:
【Free-Whisper】: [Heard you. Go ahead.]
Shi Luo said, "I'm sending you an OB invite in-game. Is that okay?"
Shi Luo glanced at the comments, his voice calm. "Someone said they wanted to see what the top-five national server games look like. Can I cast your gameplay from my stream?"
Before Shi Luo even finished, a system message appeared in-game.
【System: Your friend Free-Whisper has invited you to Spectate from their perspective. Lost in the mist, friends walk together. Do you accept?】
Shi Luo clicked accept.
Shi Luo's queue was automatically cancelled. After a moment to load, Shi Luo's screen switched to show Yu Sui's game.
When spectating a friend, you can't perform any actions. Shi Luo索性双手离开键盘，拿了根烟叼着，左边看着余邃游戏内画面，右边看着直播助手里刷刷闪过的弹幕。(With nothing to do, Shi Luo pulled his hands off the keyboard, grabbed a cigarette and held it between his teeth, watching Yu Sui's gameplay on one side and the rapid-fire comments scrolling past in the stream software on the other.)
Shi Luo's fans were all telling him he didn't need to do this, that he should just ignore the haters. They were also worried Yu Sui would get backlash if he really lost, urging Shi Luo to end the spectate. Shi Luo said nothing, just replied, "Just watch."
In-game, Yu Sui's match had been going for less than ten minutes. Both sides had traded five kills each—the game was roughly even.
Shi Luo continued interacting with the comments while watching.
"Why am I just holding the cigarette and not smoking… The others don't smoke, so it would be rude if I did."
On screen, one of Yu Sui's teammates accidentally fed a kill.
"What if Yu Sui loses? Games are about wins and losses. But he hasn't lost yet…"
On screen, Yu Sui coordinated with a teammate to make a feint push forward, allowing two teammates to safely plant six Purification Vessels.
"Am I scared Yu Sui will blame me if he loses… No."
On screen, Yu Sui dragged his low-health character backward, hiding behind cover to regenerate.
"Am I scared we'll fight… No."
"Have we ever fought… Yes. Even threw hands."
"Who threw hands first… Me."
"Why didn't Yu Sui throw hands back? Probably because the Juvenile Protection Law was still protecting me at the time."
The moment Shi Luo finished, Yu Sui couldn't hold back a laugh. His in-game character shuddered slightly. Yu Sui's low, quiet laughter came through Shi Luo's microphone and rang clearly through the stream.
In the stream, faint and distant, Yu Sui could be heard murmuring softly as he continued gaming, "Keep talking. Is constantly making me laugh cheating? Are you sent by the enemy team…"
Shi Luo's ears flushed red. He kept chatting with the comments.
"Why such a密集的直播 schedule today… Because after today there won't be any casual games to stream."
On screen, two of Yu Sui's assault-class teammates got a bit too aggressive and gave the enemy an opening. Yu Sui quickly shielded one teammate, then flanked around and cut behind the enemy. Relying on his tricky positioning, he directly killed the enemy medic with one knife. One of Yu Sui's teammates died, but the other cleaned up the battlefield—a one-for-three trade.
"The next stream probably won't be until after Worlds…"
On screen, the surviving assault-class teammate wanted to heal first, but Yu Sui pinged a signal telling him to plant the Purification Vessel first. Yu Sui himself provided cover for the assault while healing and shielding the teammate.
"What about Puppy? He can't stream either."
On screen, after respawning, the enemy quietly went to the side to clear toxins. Yu Sui's team's sniper hadn't noticed.
"During practice matches, everything is confidential. When scrimming, only coaches and analyst teams can enter the training room freely—not even the manager. Streaming is absolutely out of the question."
Yu Sui had already heard him talking about this. He pinged on the map to signal the sniper to coordinate. Yu Sui and the assault player flanked together. Three-versus-two, they wiped out two more enemies. Without waiting for the enemy to respawn, Yu Sui pinged to tell teammates to stop worrying about the map edges and push straight down mid.
"Is this level of gameplay hard for a pro player? Of course it's hard."
On screen, both of Yu Sui's assault teammates kept planting Purification Vessels. Yu Sui suddenly moved to the shrubbery on his teammate's right flank. A spinning kick—one kick launched the enemy assault player who had been crouching in the bushes, waiting to ambush.
"It's hard… but it depends on the person."
On screen, Yu Sui's spinning kick carried him behind the enemy assault player. Clean cut, clean kill.
Shi Luo watched Yu Sui's script-level mechanics, his eyes shining.
On screen, Yu Sui's team, emboldened by their advantage, pressed hard during the enemy's extended respawn timers. With the huge disadvantage from the enemy's sustained casualties over the past ten-plus minutes, they pushed all the way to the Resurrection Stone. One of Yu Sui's assault teammates was either riding the high of the moment or just wasn't the greatest sportsman—instead of breaking the Resurrection Stone, he stood on the enemy's stone to grief them. Yu Sui ignored him, drove his dagger straight into the Resurrection Stone, and the game ended.
In-game, Shi Luo refreshed the national rankings. Free-Whisper was now sitting firmly at third place on the national leaderboard.
The haters naturally had nothing to say anymore, their comments conspicuously absent.
Shi Luo bit down on his cigarette butt, glancing at the screen filled with nothing but "666666." No need to say anything more.
What's it like dating a smooth-talking渣男 whose game is also insane?
This. This is what it's like.
Shi Luo had only meant to clear some of the backlash for Yu Sui, to stop the idiots from flaming Yu Sui for "acting" in high-level national server games. He hadn't expected to get his face burned by Yu Sui's godlike plays instead. He was the one who ended up embarrassed. He exited the friend spectate. But before he could, Yu Sui sent another spectate invitation.
Shi Luo furrowed his brow. He took off his headset and turned to look at Yu Sui. "You still want me to spectate?"
In the training room, Yu Sui also removed his headset, hung it around his neck, grabbed a water bottle, and took a couple gulps. "You've been grinding a lot today. Spectate and rest a bit."
Shi Luo bit his lip. He thought to himself: You're not letting me rest. You're trying to kill me.
Shi Luo had indeed been playing at high intensity for quite a while today. After a moment's thought, he stopped queueing and just watched Yu Sui stream while keeping his own stream going.
Shi Luo let out a soft breath, silently praying Yu Sui wouldn't throw.
Yu Trash was here to back up his little boyfriend, of course he wasn't going to throw.
That night, Yu Sui won three consecutive national high-level games. Before the team's mandatory logout time, two years later,稳稳当当顺顺利利, Yu Sui pushed his main account back to the top of the national leaderboard right before the season was set to end.
After the final game, Yu Sui, the type to twist the knife after winning, didn't forget to send Shi Luo a friend message:
【Free-Whisper】: [How hard was that?]
Shi Luo's ears were completely red. There was no way to manage his expression anymore. Shi Luo raised his hand to cover the camera, barely managing to say, "I'll work hard at Worlds. See you after the tournament," and ended the stream in disgrace.