Hiss!
The sound of a beer being opened knocked Wu Biaoqing out of his daze, and he watched as the members of life chatted lively around the table, nursing a cup of juice instead of alcohol.
Xuan Qi sat next to him, downing his third drink of the night, and he repressed a sigh, wondering absentmindedly if Xuan Qi had a bladder of steel.
“What are you thinking about?” The team captain asked, blocking Chang Hui from stealing the meat he was grabbing with his chopsticks.
“A little bit of everything,” he replied, shrugging, “it’s been a long day.”
“Well, tomorrow will be longer, mister undefeated.” Xuan Qi chuckled.
“God, don’t remind me…” Wu Biaoqing frowned.
“The pressure is on, huh?” he asked, taking a sip of his drink, a cheap canned beer they’d bought cases of to ring in the end of the first day of the tournament, “everyone’s watching you now. They expect something from you. I guess crypto is a bit lucky right? No matter how badly we play, we’ve already been flamed to high hell, so it won’t bother us!”
“Yeah,” the fellow gamer nodded awkwardly, shifting in his seat, “if we win our first round tomorrow, we’ll be going straight to the final.”
“Wow…” Xuan Qi gasped, the warm lighting of the restaurant reflecting off his face, making him look a bit younger, his eyes sparkling with awe, “impressive.”
Wu Biaoqing hummed, “it’s thanks to my team.”
The captain sighed, “you’re all so good at what you do. You work well together and shit— better than us. We’re always arguing about something or other, and they’re always blaming me when we lose.”
“That’s not fair,” Wu Biaoqing huffed.
“But it’s mostly my fault,” Xuan Qi continued, “I’m the captain, but I’m inexperienced, and I don’t have any strategies. I’m not much of a leader, either. I mean… your captain is younger than me, and he’s better in every way. Most captains are.”
“Xi Zhe is talented,” Wu Biaoqing agreed, “but so are you. You’re the one carrying your team most of the time. You can’t win without teammates that work with you.”
“Mm,” the captain hummed, before taking another large gulp of his beer and turning to face his friend, the lights overhead casting a shadow against his face, “I’m going to quit.”
Wu Biaoqing nearly dropped his drink, managing to set it down just in time as he choked, “what?”
“I thought about it for a while,” he explained, “my parents want me to come home. Plus, auntie has been asking me if I’d be willing to help out at their company. I think He Weizhe told them I was thinking about going back and finishing my business degree, because they keep trying to get him to take over.”
“But…” he felt a crushing sense of helplessness as he spoke, “but you’re so young. You have plenty of time. If Crypto isn’t working out, just join a different team.”
“Wu Biaoqing,” said Xuan Qi, “it’s been three years since I came back. For two of them, I worked to pull Crypto up to where it stands now. I’m only one person though. I have to know when to call it quits, right?”
He flashed a bright smile, so out of place in the discomforting conversation, such a startling contrast to his words.
“…it’s your choice,” he settled on, after struggling for a while trying to think of something to say, “but I would love to play a match against you. A real match.”
“That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” His friend agreed, “we’ve barely gotten to play against each other. It would be cool to face each other in an actual competition.”
“But… you’re quitting.” Wu Biaoqing finished.
“Yeah,” nodded Xuan Qi, “it’s a shame.”
“Is there a reason?” He asked after a beat, listening to the laughter of his teammates in the background, “besides your team.”
“Well, you know how my parents are,” he shrugged, “they’re not really convinced. Especially after the laughing stock we became today, there’s not much I can do, can I? There aren’t any teams with openings. The older teams are at their strongest, and the newer teams don’t have any room. I don’t want to be a benchwarmer.”
“…you could start your own,” Wu Biaoqing suggested, “you have the money. I have the money if you don’t.”
Xuan Qi laughed at that, “would you join me? We’d make a great team.”
“If it means you’ll keep playing, I will.” He looked at him then, eyes pleading.
“Oh, you know you can’t promise that,” the other said, adding something else that was muffled with a loud exclamation from Men Wu and giggles erupting across the table.
“…you’re right.”
“I know.”
“I would if I could.”
“I know.”
The conversation stretched on into a quiet pause as they soaked in the lively atmosphere, both still taking sips of their respective beverages.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“I’m glad we got to play against each other professionally, even if it wasn’t very good.”
“You played beautifully.”
“You played better.”
Another sip, and Wu Biaoqing asked at last, “is there any other way?”
“Maybe,” Xuan Qi admitted, “but I dunno if I’d be able to find it. I’m not a serious person, y’know. If I like something, I’ll do it until I stop liking it, or it stops being fun to like it. Right now, it’s only really fun when I’m not with my team.”
Wu Biaoqing hummed, “if you ever need me, I’ll be here.”
“I know,” his friend replied, “it’s not like I’m going to disappear. We just reconnected didn’t we? I’ll be there to bug you for some more matches soon.”
Remembering Xuan Qi’s insistent pestering for matches before they lost contact, he laughed softly.
“Yeah, right. I’ll be sure to keep in touch.”
“Good!”
He punctuated the exclamation with final sip, before grabbing another can.
“Y’know, I thought that if I worked hard enough, it would somehow make my team stronger,” he sighed wistfully, “it was a stupid dream.”
“It was wishful thinking,” said Wu Biaoqing, “maybe stupid, but in a good way.”
Xuan Qi rolled his eyes, “let me mope a bit, will ya? I’m supposed to be all sad that I’m giving up without even winning a championship.”
“Right,” Wu Biaoqing nodded, before adding hesitantly, “I’ll be here for your… moping?”
His friend laughed again, “yeah, thanks dude.”
They sat quietly again as Wu Biaoqing got a refill of his juice, and Xuan Qi ate a bit of the food in front of him.
“He Weizhe talked about you,” said Xuan Qi, “he said he wants to play against you. You should organize a match.”
“We need all the practice matches we can get,” admitted Wu Biaoqing, “tell him to email Yan Shufen. She’ll organize something.”
“He also said you blocked him,” his friend continued, “and that you told him to bother Jiang Yu if he wanted to talk about LOW.”
Wu Biaoqing scratched the back of his neck, muttering with an uncomfortable laugh, “haha, did I say that…?”
“So,” the gossipy captain asked, “why’d you block him?”
“I quit gaming,” he explained, making Xuan Qi gasp.
“You quit gaming?!” He exclaimed loudly, shocked, causing some unpleasant looks to be shot their way from other tables.
“Yeah,” Wu Biaoqing nodded, embarrassed, “but I’ve been back for a while. I should apologize to him.”
“I’m sure he won’t care,” said Xuan Qi, “you know how my cousin is. He just cares about fighting people who are strong, not about anything else… I mean, seriously, he hasn’t had a single girlfriend!”
Wu Biaoqing, who was aware of He Weizhe’s frequent visits to nearby gay bars, said nothing.
“Yeah, he does have the disposition of a monk,” Wu Biaoqing noted, “he talks less than I do. If anything, I’d say he’s the expressionless one.”
“Tell me about it. Every family gathering it’s all, ‘work is good. Living is good. The fans are good.’ Rinse, recycle, repeat!”
The laughed together, before he added, “but he does have a big obsession with Bluestar. He’s still looking for him, and I’m like, he’s probably not coming back so why bother?”
Wu Biaoqing paused, “even He Weizhe can’t find him? With his connections, it should be easy.”
“Well, you’d think,” explained Xuan Qi, “but there was barely any information on him to begin with. They never passed the contract stage either, so the company he was supposed to sign with just gave up after a while and trashed all his info. He talks about it all the time, saying that the future of esports is dull without Bluestar.”
“Well, he was a huge fan,” Wu Biaoqing shrugged, “and he’s never been one to let things go without a conclusion. But I doubt Bluestar wants to be found, so he’ll be hard to track down. Honestly, I think it’s best to leave it alone.”
“Even though such a good player went missing?” The captain frowned.
“Well, everyone has their own reasons for things,” said Wu Biaoqing, “it’s better not to interfere and allow them to make their own choices, especially if it’s a hard one like abandoning something so important.”
Xuan Qi hummed, “I guess you’re right.”
“Hey, Xuan Qi, Wu-ge, do you want to join us? We’re playing a game!” Said Men Wu, pulling out a stack of cards.
Wu Biaoqing sighed, “…they’re going to be miserable tomorrow morning.”
“Well then,” his friend laughed, clinking their drinks together in toast, “to tomorrow!”
“Yeah,” Wu Biaoqing echoed, “to tomorrow.”
—
Despite their complaining, Yan Shufen still dragged them up early, citing live interviews as her reason.
Despite not drinking, they were still up rather late playing games and being generally loud and obnoxious, so Wu Biaoqing was thankful his interview had been scheduled the day prior.
The team shuffled towards the building, Wu Biaoqing texting intermittently with Zheng Shun and Xuan Qi along the way.
As the two of them chatted that morning, Xuan Qi explained that he would announce his retirement after their next competition, a smaller competition that would be a redemption of sorts for their overwhelming loss during the first day of the CCC.
Regardless of if they won or lost, he would announce his retirement, and wish his teammates well—
it would be right around the time of the spring preliminaries, which meant that Crypto would not be joining the teams attempting to earn a spot in the playoffs that year.
As they neared the building, Wu Biaoqing noticed a blooming flower along the sidewalk, and he stared at its brightly colored petals with a frown.
The world around him clearly seemed to be flourishing, the weather turning as the seasons changed, and everything was so much different than before.
So many changes were being made, things he never gave thought to suddenly being altered, and it felt as if his world was being thrown off balance, like the tilt of the earth’s axis itself had somehow changed.
It made him realize that he too had changed, and not just in the way people he knew pointed out, but in subtle ways he never expected.
One of those changes was the addition of conversations with Zheng Shun in his day to day life, something he began to look forward to.
Another was that he’d begun to feel less anxious— or, there wasn’t a sudden absence of anxiety, but merely a higher tolerance to it as he slowly began to piece himself together.
It was a sudden, unexpected reminder that he was truly an adult now, beginning to make his mark on the world, and not a kid in his room playing video games, not a young adult watching Bluestars livestreams awestruck as he wondered if he could accomplish gameplay as magnificent as that.
Now, he was much stronger, but he was almost more put together, more grown into himself.
Not exactly less depressed, or less anxious, or anything else of the sort— no, he hadn’t lost any part of himself, he was simply beginning to discover the new part that came with growing up.
In a way, that was quite frightening, but as he stared at that blooming flower, he felt change could be both a frightening and a very pleasant experience.
“Hurry up, Wu-ge! If you stand outside any longer you’ll catch a cold,” Xi Zhe chided from the doorway.
Wu Biaoqing turned to look at him, then back at the flower one last time, and walked inside with a small smile tugging at his lips.
—
“And for the next game of today, we have SWA!” Announced the host.
SWA stepped out from the sidelines amidst the screams and cheers of the crowd, holding their heads high with pride, almost as if looking down on their opponents.
There was an air of hotheadedness to SWA that no other team could replicate—
Perhaps it was the work of all four severely entitled members energies’ working together, who knew, but they were dubbed the nightmare secondary team thanks to their ridiculous attitudes.
Regardless of how they acted, strength was key in E-sports, and as a strong secondary team that held a high standing in the previous year’s national championship, they had certainly proved their capability.
However, as Qian Liqiu’s voice echoed through the venue once more, LIFE’s entrance was far more elegant, and one thing was clear—
LIFE was ready to fight, and they were ready to fight hard.
“What a thrilling match up,” the host commented, “this is the round to determine if LIFE will be guaranteed a spot in the final! That means that it’s vital for them to win it. But matching up against AFK at such a critical point means that things aren’t looking too good for them.”
“AFK is definitely a strong opponent,” Liang Enlai agreed, “it’s hard to say who will end up winning.”
“Especially with Frost in the lineup this round, it’s even more of a toss up, though whether or not he’s switched out due to his hand injury remains to be seen,” said Qian Liqiu, adding thoughtfully, “for anyone who isn’t aware, Yu Nianzu seemed to have injured his hand backstage earlier this morning, so his performance this round may be affected. Luckily they have Spark to play in the event that he has to switch out.”
The co-host sighed, “it’s unfortunate that such a strong player won’t be up to par. I was especially looking forward to seeing him and Wu Biaoqing going against each other, but I’m not sure what strategies SWA will decide on now.”
“Well, regardless of what they decide, let’s just hope they don’t underestimate their opponent…” Qian Liqiu added.
Wu Biaoqing, on the other hand, was particularly annoyed at the randomly assigned realm.
Of the available realms in LOW, the abandoned kingdom realm could be considered the most annoying.
On one hand, the kingdom separating the two teams could be considered the prime spot to attack and kill other players, but on the other, the teams had to make their way around the city in order to gather troops, which meant it took significantly longer to gather troops and send them to the enemy’s territory.
For a team like LOW, which primarily used strategies that involved delicate time management, every second counted as a make or break in winning the match.
Regardless of whatever fancy moves Wu Biaoqing pulled, his team was still working behind him to get everything working properly, so that they would inevitably be victorious.
But the reason Wu Biaoqing was annoyed had nothing to do with the fact that the realm didn’t fit their normal team style.
“Fuck,” he cursed, “I shouldn’t have made that bet.”
“I told you so,” Men Wu teased him, “out of all of the games so far, the abandoned kingdom has only shown up once! Of course it was going to be the realm for our matches”
His teammate sighed, “alright, alright. I’ll take you on a vacation, but you can’t tell my mom, okay? If she knows you’re coming to our private island, she’s going to insist on coming with us, and then I can’t bring Zheng Shun.”
“I have so many questions,” said a concerned Chang Hui as he began heading into the kingdom, “first, your private island? Second, are you really that convinced that you and Zheng Shun are going to hit it off in person?”
“Well, yeah, would we go to someone else’s private island?” Asked Wu Biaoqing innocently, “it’s not like I won’t give you options— as long as it’s not the one my mom frequents, it’s fine.”
“Why did I even ask,” Chang Hui groaned, repressing the urge to walk outside the kingdom and shoot Wu Biaoqing’s in-game character.
“And why wouldn’t we hit it off? I told you, it’s not good to automatically see the worst in things. I think it will turn out fine,” Wu Biaoqing shrugged, gathering troops happily and commenting, “ah, it’s nice to be a salted fish for once.”
“You’re one to talk,” Xi Zhe huffed, “are you collecting the troops right?”
“What do you mean right?” Wu Biaoqing echoed, “it’s… collecting troops. You walk past them.”
“Just- just do your job.”
Luckily, he was more than happy to do so, collecting troops and walking about with ease, and ended up not coming in contact with a single other player for the entire match, which ended victoriously—
It was peaceful, more peaceful than Wu Biaoqing was used to, which made him antsy.
“Are you sure this is SWA, like the SWA, that we’re up against?” He huffed, “there should be more fighting.”
Chang Hui, who was in the middle of a difficult shoot-out between himself and another member of SWA, nearly got out of his seat mid game just to smack his teammate on the head.
“Being a troop collector is too easy,” Wu Biaoqing lamented, “I want to switch jobs.”
Xi Zhe, who was tired of hearing him complaining, finally lamented, “fine! Go find someone to fight with. Die and respawn for all I care. I’ll have Chang Hui go through the side exit and collect troops.”
Chang Hui cheered, quickly retreating and escaping from the shoot out he’d been stuck in and dragging Men Wu along with him.
Wu Biaoqing wandered into the city through the entrance, wandering around aimlessly, and sighed.
The kingdom wasn’t much better in terms of action—
The area was so big that it would take a while to find anyone, or so he thought.
Bang!
{LIFE.Isolation was killed by SWA.Frost. 10 second cooldown enabled.}
“What the fuck?!” His teammates all gasped at the same time.
His eyes narrowed, and he straightened his posture.
Frost had just accidentally caught Wu Biaoqing’s attention, and anyone who’d ever played against him knew that it was a bad thing.
The author has something to say
This chapter was… significantly longer than I initially intended. I hope you enjoyed anyway! I wanted to add more gaming but it got so long that I had to cut it short. I struggled a bit on this chapter, mainly because I wanted to really invoke a sense of growth and change, especially within the first scene.
Wejc Hl delaalcu wjs cba rffw atja lwqbgajca ja olgra uijcmf, yea la’r j rluc bo j mtjcuf. Pa’r jcbatfg lcrajcmf lc ktlmt Qe Dljbdlcu lr gfjilhlcu atja atf atlcur jgbecv tlw jgf ribkis yfmbwlcu vloofgfca, jr atf qfbqif tf xcbkr mtbrf atflg qjatr lc ilof jcv rb vbfr tf. P jirb gflcobgmfv atf lvfj klat atf oibkfg jcv Qe Dljbdlcu’r atbeutar, atbeut P’w cba regf lo la kbgxfv jr oeiis lcafcvfv. Lbqfoeiis P mbcnfsfv la, ja ifjra rbwfktja (￣▽￣””)
In any case, we’re slowly nearing the end of the CCC arc, which means that we’re also getting closer to the end of the first book! I can’t believed it’s already been so long since I began uploading this, it feels like it just started yesterday… I’ll be sure to do something special to celebrate! And speaking of celebrating, MIC is officially over 50,000 words, which is pretty awesome!
Thanks for reading and leaving all your wonderful comments dears! I’m always looking forward to them after uploading new chapters (/ω＼)
