# Chapter 134: Side Story
The atmosphere of the Free team had the World Championship organizers worried.
Free Club was damn awesome.
Free Club was the first team in history to break multiple competition records in their debut year.
All four players on Free Club were prodigies.
Free had the most popular star player in the entire league...
...and so on. The championship committee genuinely acknowledged all these impressive achievements.
But that didn't mean this club could celebrate their championship victory after just reaching the quarterfinals.
It certainly didn't mean that players Chen Huo and Puppy could go take photos with the championship trophy placed right in the center of the venue after only advancing past the quarterfinals.
And it absolutely didn't mean their emotionally unstable manager who wouldn't stop crying could contact the game officials after just qualifying for the semifinals to start warming up celebrations for when their team won the championship.
This Eastern team had overstepped.
They were being completely insufferable.
Mainly because it wasn't just them being arrogant—their strength was evident, having beaten everyone in the BO5 against Holy Sword. The real annoyance was that they'd infected another team from the Chinese division.
For some inexplicable reason, the NSN Club had started walking around like they owned the place too.
Their quarterfinal opponent, the Swedish team, had already filed a complaint with the organizers. NSN had caught some kind of plague—right after Free finished their match, NSN had happily gone over to ask their quarterfinal opponent if they wanted to delete anything after losing.
The honest, rule-following Swedish team couldn't afford to mess with them, so they wisely reported NSN to the committee first. NSN got warned by the organizers, and only then did they reluctantly behave.
NSN was just blindly riding Free's high, so the organizers could still scare them into compliance. But Free was another matter...
Everyone knew what Holy Sword had done. The organizers turned a blind eye and pretended not to notice several things.
For example, staff reported that several Free players had seriously discussed whether they should find a secluded spot overseas to beat up the Holy Sword captain.
Or how after the quarterfinals, when the two teams ran into each other backstage, Free's players had swaggered over to Holy Sword's owner and started whistling and making noise.
Or how player Evil had created a Twitter account right after the match and gone straight to town—celebrating Holy Sword's first-round quarterfinal exit while threatening: if they met again at next year's Worlds, every time he faced Holy Sword, he'd delete their account again.
The championship committee officially pretended none of this happened.
"...Ease up a little. You're way too wild."
On the day they sent Holy Sword packing, the entire Free team had crowded into Zhou Huo's hotel room. Chen Huo was draped over the back of the sofa with a bottle of wine, watching Shi Luo type furiously on Twitter. "Every time you see them, you delete them? What's next, are you going to rob them like a bandit?"
Shi Luo ignored Chen Huo, took a couple gulps from his own bottle, and continued to dance wildly on Holy Sword's grave.
"Ah, it must be pretty rough being a Holy Sword player." Puppy had already had his fill of fun. He was streaming, interacting with the chat while pretending to be the voice of reason. "Having your account deleted once a year, having to start from scratch every time... Their new season opener is going to be hilarious. Four brand-new bare accounts going against other players—hahaha, that's so funny..."
"Serves them right! They only dropped to the second seed pool because they wanted to bully weaker teams... and then they kicked a铁板, didn't they? Now they know who's really capable of being arrogant. Hmph..."
Lao Qiao was slouched on the sofa. He clinked glasses with Zhou Huo, took a sip, and squinted at the wine in his cup, slightly tipsy. "Hey, this wine is really good. What is it? Local?"
"No, I brought it from home." Zhou Huo had no idea how much he'd drunk. His face was bright red, and his words were slurring. "I had someone air freight it over. Specifically saved for celebrating our championship! Fifty thousand a bottle... I prepared a full six bottles."
"Damn, damn." Lao Qiao nodded continuously while refilling his glass. "Expensive wine just tastes better, but..."
Lao Qiao took another sip, squinted, and tried to think seriously for a moment. He actually couldn't remember whether his team had won the championship or not.
If he couldn't remember, he decided not to bother thinking about it. Lao Qiao shook his head and clinked glasses with Zhou Huo again.
Three players, one coach, one manager, plus six staff members—ten people total—went through six bottles of high-proof alcohol with chips and popcorn. And they all got completely drunk.
The one person in the entire club who couldn't drink had done two full hours of post-match interviews. When he finally returned to the hotel, this was the scene that greeted him.
Yu Sui looked at the room full of drunks and asked seriously, "Does anyone... remember that we just barely made it past the quarterfinals?"
The entire room of kings turned to look at Yu Sui. Their minds were clouded, but their postures remained regal—each and every one of them staring with contemptuous eyes.
Clearly, no one remembered.
The room reeked of a bizarre mixture of popcorn and red wine. Yu Sui, who hadn't touched alcohol in years, couldn't handle it. He didn't even want to enter the room—just the smell made him want to leave. He took off his jacket and tossed it by the door, sat down on top of his jacket with the door open, scrolled on his phone for a while, and only entered the room once the alcohol smell had dissipated a bit.
Puppy had already fallen asleep sitting on the floor, leaning against the sofa. His stream was still on. Yu Sui glanced at it—
【Is that Yu God back???】
【Hahaha Whisper is such a clean freak, he probably doesn't even want to enter this room.】
【I can feel Yu God's despair. Kids, do you guys remember you still have to play in the semifinals?】
【Yu God啊啊啊啊啊啊 look at the camera!!】
【Whisper, please check Zhou Manager's phone, I think he got drunk and already booked your return flight tickets for tomorrow!】
【There are moments when it really feels like you guys came here just to play in the quarterfinals. Slight smile. Are you guys just planning to leave after finishing?】
【Can't stop laughing, why is my team's alcohol tolerance so bad? The only one who can hold his liquor is the one who's quit drinking now, hhhhhh...】
Yu Sui waved at the camera. He noticed some chat messages asking: 【You fought a deletion war for him, but he's still not going public with you?】
Yu Sui's lips couldn't help but curl upward. "Doesn't look like 'someone' has any intention of doing that."
What the fans needed to go public about, they all knew. Someone in the chat deliberately typed: 【Maybe he just doesn't like you enough.】
Yu Sui smiled wryly.
The fans, afraid Yu Sui might take it seriously, quickly buried the message saying Shi Luo didn't like Yu Sui enough. Instead, they started a queue, copy-pasting congratulations on Yu Sui making it past the quarterfinals.
Yu Sui thanked the fans, stood up, and looked over everyone in the room—
Yu Sui rubbed his neck and sent a message in the club's group chat, asking the accompanying staff who hadn't joined the drinking session to take care of everyone.
As for a certain someone among this nest of drunks, that was naturally Yu Sui's responsibility alone.
Yu Sui scooped up Shi Luo and half-carried, half-supported the guy back to his room.
Shi Luo probably still had a tiny spark of competitive spirit left. Though his eyes had gone glassy from drinking, he still had a shred of sense. After Yu Sui helped him lie down on the bed and a moment passed, Shi Luo suddenly grabbed Yu Sui's shirt hem.
"Tomorrow..." Shi Luo's eyes were red, staring straight at Yu Sui. "...is there a practice match scheduled? What time?"
Yu Sui asked back, "If there is, can you even get up?"
Shi Luo's gaze remained fixed on Yu Sui. Obviously, he couldn't understand a word Yu Sui was saying.
This fierce rookie who dominated the competition stage was now lying呆呆 on the bed, looking inexplicably cute.
Yu Sui ruffled Shi Luo's hair. "Relax. There's no practice match. What would we do if there was? You can't get up, so I'd dual-account both your characters for you?"
Shi Luo slowly turned to look at Yu Sui, getting distracted by the wrong thing. "You... can play dual accounts?"
The league's unanimously recognized number one support player thought about it. "For just a practice match, I could manage. Can't promise a win though."
Shi Luo's brow furrowed slightly. "The flanker..."
"I can play that too." Yu Sui kindly reminded him. "Baby, your first regular season match—when someone temporarily switched to flanker mid-game, who spent the entire match being your support dog and carried you to an MVP? Forgot?"
Shi Luo went quiet for a moment, then suddenly laughed.
Shi Luo's face was half-buried in the pillow. "You were playing with me..." Shi Luo's eyes were closed, and he suddenly started replaying the match. "Not a single mistake the whole time. Even at that insane pace, you kept track of everyone... No wonder the Holy Sword owner hated you so much when you left... How are you so amazing?"
Yu Sui wanted to be modest, but upon冷静 reflection, he really was goddamn awesome. So he just nodded. "Thanks."
They dawdled for a while, and midnight had already passed. Yu Sui didn't want to delay any longer. He started helping Shi Luo undress to get him to sleep.
Yu Sui unzipped Shi Luo's jacket. Shi Luo was very cooperative—Yu Sui said lift your arms, he lifted them; said lift your head, he lifted it. Yu Sui got the young master sorted out without much trouble. "Want some water?"
Shi Luo shook his head, looking down at the drawstring on his sweatpants. Slowly, he asked, "Why isn't this... being untied..."
Yu Sui: "..."
Yu Sui lowered his gaze to look at Shi Luo, saying nothing.
But within half a minute, Shi Luo's ears had turned red.
Yu Sui's lips curled slightly. "...What dirty things are you thinking?"
Shi Luo closed his eyes and said nothing. His mind was filled with all of Yu Sui's clutch plays from the match.
The more he thought, the more his imagination ran wild.
Yu Sui watched Shi Luo with amusement in his eyes. After a moment, Shi Luo opened his eyes. Yu Sui saw that familiar intensity in Shi Luo's gaze and couldn't help but laugh a little.
Puppy.
Yu Sui's ears were heating up too. He cleared his throat. "Baby... how drunk are you exactly? Forgot? In six days, we have the semifinals."
Shi Luo went quiet for a moment, then said softly, "Does it affect you?"
Yu Sui had to admit, "...It doesn't affect me."
The atmosphere instantly became even more ambiguous.
Yu Sui rubbed his brow, glanced around the room, hesitated for a moment, then gave up. He sat down beside Shi Luo and pressed a kiss to Shi Luo's lips. "...Not tonight. No condoms."
Because of the alcohol, Shi Luo's reaction speed was much slower than usual. Yu Sui finished speaking, and it took a full ten seconds before Shi Luo understood.
Yu Sui was about to get up to get Shi Luo some water when, before he could stand, Shi Luo grabbed him by the collar.
Shi Luo's lips moved. He gripped Yu Sui's clothes tightly, and after a long while, he finally mumbled something indistinct against Yu Sui's ear.
Yu Sui's Adam's apple bobbed.
"I... can't control this anyway." Yu Sui tried to stay rational. "Cough... Aren't you the one who complains about the cleanup being difficult afterward?"
He couldn't bring himself to say anything more explicit than that.
Shi Luo was quiet for a long time. Because of the alcohol, Shi Luo's eyes looked damp, and in those dark pupils, there was only Yu Sui.
Shi Luo mumbled, "I... don't complain."
"If you can't control it, then just..." Shi Luo pressed his forehead against Yu Sui's chest, his voice a bit hoarse. "What would I complain about? You... you know how much I like you, don't you?"
...
If he could still hold back after that, there'd really be something wrong with him.
Yu Sui kissed the corner of Shi Luo's mouth. He thought about that chat message he'd seen earlier.
Someone actually thought you didn't like me enough.
---
The next day, in the quarterfinals in the right bracket, NSN faced the Swedish team. Free's people had promised solemnly that everyone would go to the venue to cheer for NSN, but just like when NSN made it out of groups, the whole group had slept through it again.
NSN was in excellent form. They won 3-2, successfully advancing past the quarterfinals and making it to the semifinals.
Naturally, making the semifinals meant it was time to mock the quarterfinals. NSN's owner and manager went wild after the match, mercilessly mocking the already-cold Holy Sword team.
After they were done insulting Holy Sword, NSN remembered there was another Chinese team that had also made the semifinals. The two teams weren't staying at the same hotel. NSN's manager wanted to invite Free to dinner to celebrate. But when they tried to contact everyone at Free one by one, no one responded.
By evening, they finally managed to reach Zhou Huo. Still half-drunk from the hangover, Zhou Huo thought NSN was calling to schedule another practice match, so he refused outright.
"Why would we schedule practice matches? You guys should just give up—the championship is ours."
NSN Manager: "..."
NSN Manager hung up on this lunatic.
As arrogant as Free was, they truly did rest for a full day and two nights. Because the competing players hadn't logged into the game client for over 24 hours to practice, Free Club received a warning from the championship committee, just like NSN had.
After issuing the warning, the committee specifically tried to reason with Zhou Huo: they couldn't be so reckless just because their players were talented. From the group stage onward, this team had been way too arrogant. A young team—how could they be so carefree? There were still semifinals ahead, and the competition would only get more intense. How could they take a full day's rest? Did they think every match would be as easy as the quarterfinals?
Five days later, Free won 3-0 in the semifinals. Following Holy Sword's defeat, they shut out the North American first seed team as well. Advancing past the semifinals, they secured the first ticket to the grand finals of this World Championship.
From then on, the championship committee didn't dare warn Free anymore.
Arrogance has its grounds when you're that capable.
The exceptional talent of four players chosen from millions wouldn't let Free down. Years of daily grueling practice wouldn't let Free down.
All the hardship behind them, winning matches now was just that simple.