Chapter 116
The person who could make Whisper think about him unceasingly for three years, never wavering in his original intention, was naturally no ordinary individual.
Shi Luo had always been calculating when it came to Yu Sui, and he never hid or concealed this calculating nature—instead, he made sure to explain it clearly to Yu Sui.
"I'm doing it on purpose, I'm wearing you down, I'm getting information out of you, I'm making you care about me more."
Shi Luo looked at Yu Sui and whispered back, "...一边发挥出色抢了你们的MVP，一边让你以为我紧张坏了享受着你的渣男体贴，这冲突么？"
Shi Luo's eyes were filled with the special possessiveness he'd had for Yu Sui since he was younger. "I'm taking advantage of how much you care about me, making you give me your room key first, letting me kiss and touch you... so what's the problem?"
Yu Sui lowered his gaze to look at Shi Luo and smiled.
No conflict at all, nothing wrong either.
That overwhelming desire to possess... felt oddly familiar.
Shi Luo had been like this since childhood, and Yu Sui himself had said it before—calculations from someone you don't like are just schemes. Calculations from someone you love? That's called flirting.
Yu Sui simply adored when Shi Luo pulled this kind of stunt on him.
"Everyone says I'm great at dating..." Yu Sui touched Shi Luo's chin and sighed softly, "Once you're two years older, you'll probably be even better at breaking hearts than me."
Shi Luo lowered his head, lightly brushing his lips against Yu Sui's fingers, murmuring, "Captain, watch me closely... don't let me break someone else's heart."
Yu Sui smiled faintly. "Don't worry... I'll be watching so closely it won't even be funny."
The teammates had all changed clothes and were waiting in the lounge. Several local staff members were also present. If they delayed any longer, someone might come knock on the locker room door. The two of them couldn't continue enjoying their private time—they needed to change into street clothes and head back to the hotel right away.
The Northern Hemisphere had already entered winter. Going outside in team uniforms would definitely freeze them to death, so the players all wore their own casual clothes to the competition venue, then changed into team uniforms once inside the temperature-controlled arena. After the match ended, they naturally had to change back.
Yu Sui let out a soft whistle toward Shi Luo. "Who's changing first?"
The person who changed first would be watched completely naked by the other. Shi Luo's eyes darkened slightly as he rasped, "You."
Yu Sui didn't waste any time, pulling his jacket open with a flourish. He hung the team jacket up, then removed the team short-sleeve underneath as well. Yu Sui grabbed the thick hoodie and pulled it on, eyes glinting with amusement as he said softly, "Time God... when you change, I keep my eyes closed the whole time."
Shi Luo wasn't about to play the gentleman game with Yu Sui—he wanted to look.
Yu Sui was equally generous, kicking a chair over with his foot and sitting down. He changed out of all his clothes, then quickly hung his team uniform up. He ruffled Shi Luo's hair. "I'll wait outside for you. Hurry up."
The brief intimate moment during the tense competition period had ended. Shi Luo changed into his street clothes, wrapped himself in a thick down jacket, and headed out with everyone from the club. They exited the venue and boarded the bus back to the hotel.
The group stage double round-robin was divided into two cycles. The first cycle of Group A had concluded. There would be two rest days between cycles—normally a time for other teams to review their experiences and analyze their group opponents, striving to achieve better results in the next cycle. Free didn't have such concerns. After the first cycle, both the teammates' skill levels and Shi Luo's condition had reassured everyone. Within those two days, Free was already starting to research the teams from other groups that were likely to advance.
NSN's Group C was somewhat of a death group, but Gu Qian, Wa Wa, and the others had performed quite well, losing only to the North American team. They scored two consecutive points in the first cycle, and if they could maintain this form, advancing from the group stage shouldn't be too big of a problem. Holy Sword was in Group D, which had a similar situation to Group A—there was a huge gap between the strong and weak teams. Holy Sword could basically take on ten opponents alone in Group D.
What really annoyed Shi Luo was that Holy Sword was demolishing the other teams in Group D even more ruthlessly than they were.
Holy Sword really had a talent for being insufferable. They used their strength to deliberately employ whatever playstyle the opposing team was best at.
If the opponent specialized in fast-paced aggression, Holy Sword would match that aggression and end the match in under twenty minutes with crushing force, not giving them a single breath of respite.
If the opponent excelled at map control and guerrilla tactics, Holy Sword would engage in the same back-and-forth maneuvering, then拿下比赛 with superior technique and perfect节奏, showcasing their IQ and teamwork while enjoying every moment of the thrashing.
It went without saying that under such circumstances, the morale of players from other teams in the group would crumble to some degree after losing.
You thought that was your strongest asset, but Holy Sword would use the exact same tactics to crush you, leaving you no excuse whatsoever to comfort yourself.
After the matches, Holy Sword would even post a taunting tweet: [听说你们擅长快攻哦？]
Being abroad, they didn't need to bother with VPN. Puppy glanced at Holy Sword Club's tweet and said lazily to Zhou Huo, "You were saying we're all bad guys... Now you've seen the real thing. This is what actual villains look like."
Zhou Huo, although he tended to get a bit cocky due to his team's good results, had never gone this far. Zhou Huo clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Players should have fighting spirit and pride, but does it have to be like this? Can't they show a little respect for their opponents? If there's a young player with an unstable mindset... they might retire directly after returning from Worlds."
"Did you see their pre-match interview with their captain? Seriously, the moment I finished watching their interview, I knew these people didn't regard any other team in the group as human." Chen Huo had watched Holy Sword's first three BO1 matches and stretched. "He directly called most teams at Worlds trash, not even respecting the strong teams, so why would they respect a group stage team?"
After the pre-match captain interviews were released, Shi Luo had only watched Yu Sui's—never mind the other teams, let alone Holy Sword's. Hearing this, he reached for someone's tablet nearby, opened the game's official website, and searched for Holy Sword's pre-match interview.
Yu Sui's pre-match interview was under a minute long, but Holy Sword's captain's video was a full five minutes.
Zhou Huo had watched that video before. Upon seeing Shi Luo's reaction, he quickly tried to stop him. "Ah! What's worth watching? It's basically what Chen Huo said—don't waste your time. Aren't you all about to start another practice match soon?"
Old Qiao also frowned. "Don't watch it. I'll find Angel Sword. We're about to start the match."
Shi Luo pretended not to hear, his face cooling as he pressed play on the video.
Yu Sui had finished setting up the map room for the practice match and didn't stop Shi Luo.
Shi Luo despised Holy Sword and didn't even want to hear their voices. He turned the video volume to its lowest setting and pressed the倍速 button to watch the Chinese subtitles instead.
[Expecting Worlds? No, not really. What's there to look forward to at Worlds? We're not the kind of team that scraped and fought desperately just to earn a Worlds spot. This is just a normal end-of-season routine for our club.]
[There are quite a few strong teams at Worlds this year. Of course, I'm not talking about the group stage—I genuinely don't understand what there is to play in the group stage.]
[We haven't analyzed teams from other regions. No need to waste that kind of time.]
[The North American region—we often scrim them. They're quite strong, but they haven't beaten us in a long time. Hope they won't be scared when they face us again.]
[The China region—we played against all of them at the start of the season. Same result, no losses. Nothing to look forward to there either.]
[The Free team is slightly more interesting, because there are quite a few people who came from our club.]
Shi Luo's eyes paused. He pressed pause, then turned the sound on.
Shi Luo didn't trust translations. Official translations would soften intense language. He wanted to hear the original audio.
[Whisper really did spend some wonderful time with us. Hope he doesn't consider those two years a disgrace. Haha, even if he feels it's a disgrace, there's nothing he can do about it. There will always be two years in his professional career permanently marked with our team's logo. He'll never wash that off.]
Shi Luo's expression instantly chilled.
[Of course we're looking forward to meeting our old teammates. Then the results will teach rebellious Whisper a lesson, letting him know he made the wrong choice at the start of the season.]
[Hope Free can be tough and last a while, so we can face them.]
[Not looking forward to it. Except for the finals, we don't look forward to quarterfinals or semifinals either. No interest at all.]
[We're only looking forward to the finals BO5 this time. Everyone we face in the group stage is just a stepping stone—I'd hate to waste my shoes stepping on them. They're completely wasting our time.]
[We're only here to play that one finals match. Thanks.]
The interview ended.
Shi Luo murmured, "His professional career will always have two years marked with their team logo. He'll never wash that off..."
Chen Huo was silent for a moment. A flash of hatred crossed his eyes before he smiled. "Ah,宝贝儿, Shi Luo! Listen, I'm saying this in advance... our old team wasn't specifically targeting you. They're like this with everyone. Don't let it affect you too much, okay?"
"Shi Luo, I swear I'm not joking with you this time." Puppy looked at Shi Luo, his expression unusually serious. "Listen to me. Holy Sword isn't as dumb as you think. I've played at Worlds for many years, and as far as trash talk goes, I haven't yet encountered anyone more ruthless than Holy Sword."
Puppy took the tablet from Shi Luo's hands. "They're disrespectful, they're scumbags, but their trash talk isn't empty bravado—it's all purposeful. They provoke you before the match to destabilize your mindset, then after beating you, they attack your confidence and provide ammunition for haters to mock you. That's their goal. Don't think they're just单纯的骂人."
Yu Sui finished setting the practice match map, pushed his keyboard forward, and said, "It's true. Don't believe the rumors—they're not mindless. When I was at Holy Sword, they also provided me with trash talk scripts. What you just watched isn't necessarily their captain's actual opinion—it might have been written by their team's sports psychologist."
Yu Sui sneered. "Just trying to mess with my head, that's all."
Yu Sui spun his gaming chair to face Shi Luo and said casually, "I've already seen his interview. Didn't affect me."
Shi Luo was silent for a moment, working to digest Holy Sword's interview. Then he caught the information in Yu Sui's words. Shi Luo froze, squinting at Yu Sui as his voice cooled. "Your personal interview..."
Shi Luo's throat bobbed. His tone wasn't quite steady. "Your personal interview—they control everything at this dirtbag club? Do they even treat people like humans? How dare they make you..."
Old Qiao was seeing this interview for the first time too. His anger flared up. "They..."
"Hush..." Yu Sui cut Old Qiao off and said gently to Shi Luo, "What did you tell me in the locker room that day? Don't let it affect you, forget it? Remember?"
Shi Luo was stumped. He抿了抿嘴唇.
"They do provide scripts for every interview and trash talk session, making me read from them, directing me to attack key opponents purposefully. But..." Yu Sui said calmly, "I've never accepted one."
Shi Luo was stunned.
Zhou Huo was even more surprised. Zhou Huo was older than these players and had more experience. He'd been around various teams and seen plenty of dirty, rotten things. He said in astonishment, "A purely commercialized team like that... and you can refuse when the老板 tells you to do something?"
Yu Sui said, "Yes."
Chen Huo nodded lazily. "It's true... Your God Yu, even when he was traded here, was still more awesome than their本地选手. The老板 personally asked him to do something, and as long as he wasn't happy about it, he wouldn't do it."
Puppy shrugged. "Don't believe me? Go look through his records from the past two years. See if Yu Sui ever listened to them."
Zhou Huo was speechless, staring at Yu Sui. "How... how is that possible?"
Yu Sui said平静ly, "Because I'm not afraid of having my年薪 docked."
"Because they need me to win games for them."
"Because in the China region, I'm the nation's top healer, and in the Europe region, I'm the European server's top healer." Yu Sui thought back to Holy Sword's captain's interview and慢慢道, "My professional record does have two years marked with their team logo that can't be washed clean. But少爷我 wasn't sold to them."
"Other players who don't listen get punished—benched, watching from the sidelines, holding a water bottle." Yu Sui's eyes held a淡淡傲气. "If I don't listen, would they dare put me on the bench?"
Shi Luo lowered his gaze and slowly, deliberately started clapping.
Old Qiao grinned, slamming the table hard and letting out a痛快 roar. "牛逼！"