After another lively meal, Wu Biaoqing walked back to the bathrooms by their waiting room, wondering absentmindedly why it seemed almost like a recurring setting.
He ignored the thought as he checked his text messages, some rambling from Zheng Shun about things that had happened during the competition.
Zzzshun
And not only was the line crazy long, all the autographed pictures were already sold out! I’m telling you, E-sport fans are crazy!!
qingqing010
Aren’t you an esports fan?
Zzzshun
…
Zzzshun
Blocked.
qingqing010
You wouldn’t block me.
Zzzshun
Just watch!
qingqing010
Oh?
There was a moment of silence, and he wondered for a second if Zheng Shun would really block him.
Two minutes passed until he received a new message.
Zzzshun
I couldn’t do it (╥﹏╥)
qingqing010
Told you.
Zzzshun
Hey! I’m still mad at you!
qingqing010
Sorry
Zzzshun
An apology? My mind is blown…
qingqing010
for stating the obvious
Zzzshun
And there it is ( ･᷄ὢ･᷅ )
Zzzshun
You’re lucky you’re so handsome!
qingqing010
So you admit you’re after me based on looks.
Zzzshun
Of course not! That’s just an added bonus. I’m here for your amazing gaming and good advice ⁄(⁄ ⁄ ⁄ω⁄ ⁄ ⁄)⁄
qingqing010
Lying isn’t cute
Zzzshun
Let a man thirst after a man in peace ( ; _ ; )
qingqing010
??
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.
qingqing010
Ktja’r ujs.
Zzzshun
Vjsr atf bcf ktb mjiir jcbatfg ues yjys
qingqing010
P cfnfg rjlv P’w cba ujs jr kfii.
Zzzshun
Gjwc la ifa wf jqqgfmljaf sbeg yfjeas (¬_¬)
qingqing010
Tbe mjc jqqgfmljaf la ogbw atf nfcef, abq nlfkfg.
Zzzshun
sbe’gf remt j yeiis!
qingqing010
C tjcvrbwf bcf
Zzzshun
Vb tjcvrbwf atja rfflcu sbe bc atf mbwqfalalbc rmgffc bmmjrlbcjiis lrc’a fcbeut… P cffv j rfiolf…
qingqing010
I’ll send one if you send one
Zzzshun
(;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)
Wu Biaoqing laughed to himself as he washed his hands, already planning to ask Yan Shufen for help with pictures, when the door to the bathroom opened.
For a minute, it was peaceful, the normality of just any other person walking into a shared space—
And then it wasn’t.
It was like the air dropped a few degrees as Wu Biaoqing felt a chill run up his spine, and his breath hitched.
A young man in a green uniform stood in the doorway, frozen in shock, as the door closed behind him with a loud bang, breaking the silence in the tense atmosphere.
Wu Biaoqing was the first to look away, turning off the faucet that was cold against his fingers, and he grabbed a paper towel to dry them, his hands shaking as he did so.
“…Xiao Wu,” he called out softly, the familiar voice echoing through the small bathroom, and it felt as if Wu Biaoqing’s heart was breaking all over again, “your- your team is in the finals. Congratulations.”
“Mn,” Wu Biaoqing hummed, but his entire body was tense, his breathing heavy as he struggled to keep himself from losing composure, “I heard you won the tie breaker.”
“Yes,” Jiang Yu replied, sounding a bit breathless, “Xiao Wu, how have you been—”
“Stop.”
His voice cracked as he spoke, and Jiang Yu seemed to notice it, notice the way tears beaded against his eyelashes like the raindrops during that day outside of the police precinct, the way he shook and swallowed dry as he mustered up the courage to speak.
It was as if he could see through the strong front he was putting up, and it was as terrifying as it was infuriating.
“Stop- stop pretending like you care,” he finally squeaked out, “I don’t have time for whatever forced conversation you want to have where you pretend everything between us is perfectly fine.”
Jaing Yu frowned, “That’s not what I’m doing. I just wanted to see how you’ve been doing. I—”
As he finally got his body to move, hitting their shoulders together by pure accident, Wu Biaoqing cut him off once more with the simple phrase, “I’ll see you in the finals.”
Whether Jiang Yu reacted to his words or not, Wu Biaoqing wasn’t sure, too focused on getting out and as far away as possible.
But, if he were to look behind him as the bathroom door closed again, he would see Jiang Yu standing still, fist clenched tight, all the words he wished to say choked down once more.
—
“Well, it’s been an incredible afternoon!” The host exclaimed, an enthusiastic grin on his face as the anticipation within the audience grew to an all time high, “we’ve seen many amazing rounds, but in the end, two teams have proved themselves worthy of the final match. After a brutal tiebreaker against Hardcore, the victorious team was none other than the fan-favorite rookie team of this season, ZD!”
The crowd roared as the members of ZD walked into the limelight, their green-clad figures illuminated in the bright stage lighting.
There was an especially large reaction by the fan girls of Zeng Yuan and Jiang Yu, who were captivated by their dashing youthful looks that were especially noticeable in the good light.
However, as Zheng Shun sat down, he couldn’t help but mumble, “not as handsome as Wu Biaoqing…”
A few fangirls nearby shot death glares at him, but he ignored it in favor of watching as the hosts continued their banter.
“Zeng Yuan is an incredibly capable leader,” Liang Enlai remarked, “he knows the strengths of his teammates and their weaknesses, and he’s not afraid to admit his own either. A captain who’s willing to admit his faults and continue to improve because of that is rare and admirable.”
Qian Liqiu hummed thoughtfully, “he does tend to lose his cool with Jiang Yu though. During the break, I heard them yelling about what to get for lunch, and it was like listening to an old married couple bickering!”
The hosts laughed together before continuing, “it’s hard to say what the outcome of this match will be, as both teams are incredibly skilled.”
“Exactly,” Qian Liqiu agreed, “after all, their opponent is the first team to enter straight into the final in two years! LIFE!”
As they stepped out onto the stage, the crowd’s cheering was deafening, and Wu Biaoqing was glad once more that the competition provided headphones were noise canceling, because he could only imagine how distracting it would be mid game otherwise.
There were a few fans who shouted loud enough that he could almost make out what they said among the chaos, and he blushed as a particularly enthusiastic fan asked if he and RedCamillia were really meeting up right as the yelling died down, which caused a second uproar amongst the fans who understood.
With a mixture of embarrassment and smugness, he nodded, which only caused them to grow louder, before he finally sat down and put his headphones on.
At the beginning of the competition, and even only a few hours before, he thought his anxiety would be at an all time high during that moment—
It was his first real match against Jiang Yu in a long time, not to mention he would have to deal with Zeng Yuan too.
But despite his constant anxiety around the final, especially when it was official that they would be going up against ZD, and especially when they came face to face a few minutes before, all he felt as they began to prepare for the match was a subtle, jarring sense of calmness that spread throughout his body as if he were numb to the world around him.
There was only one thing that mattered at that moment—
Winning.
Because for all his nervousness, and all his fear, the only way to really disprove all of those groundless thoughts and feelings would be to successfully beat ZD, and hold the trophy for the 2023 Candy Cone Cup in his hands.
He didn’t want revenge, he didn’t want a rivalry, and he certainly didn’t want to befriend Jiang Yu again.
He simply wanted peace, and as locked in his skin and watched the loading screen, he realized that it wasn’t as difficult as he’d thought to feel peaceful, even in the midst of something so important.
Win or lose, prove himself or fail, the outcome was going to happen—
Maybe it was better to focus on the present instead of getting caught up in a future that hadn’t yet come to pass.
“Are you listening?” Asked Chang Hui, knocking him out of his daze, “you’re still feeling alright, yeah? You can do this?”
Wu Biaoqing hummed, “it’s now or never.”
“Right, I was saying that we should attack first,” Xi Zhe continued explaining to the team, “Jiang Yu and Zeng Yuan might know your weaknesses, but you also know theirs, so we need to utilize that. I doubt they’d expect us to go for it in such a complicated situation when we normally play defensively, which we can use to our advantage.”
“Sounds good to me,” he nodded, “Zeng Yuan will be tricky, but I’m confident I can take care of him. As for Jiang Yu…”
“It’s not like you’re fighting them alone,” Chang Hui scoffed, “if you can’t handle Jiang Yu, I will!”
“Overconfidence doesn’t suit you,” Men Wu teased, earning an earful of curses from his fellow teammate, “but I agree! We’ll be here for you, Wu-ge.”
Wu Biaoqing smiled then, and it felt as if the final piece of a puzzle had clicked into place—
What did it matter if his old trainee team fell apart?
He had a better team, a stronger team, a team full of wonderful people he could count on to always have his back, and that was more than enough.
—
The first thing the audience noticed as the random realm selection finished was that Wu Biaoqing, who had played as a warrior-thief for the entire duration of the competition, had actually chosen to be a warrior-assassin!
Only Jiang Yu and Zeng Yuan understood what he was doing, both of whom were surprised.
“Well this is a shock!” Exclaimed Qian Liqiu, “I figured LIFE would implement a new tactic, but I never expected it would be something this drastic. After all, it seemed that Isolation wasn’t the type to play in different skins. Every other member of LIFE has played in multiple different skins after all.”
“Wu Biaoqing is an incredibly talented player,” noted the co-host, “I doubt he would do something different during a time as critical as this for no reason. I have a feeling LOW may have something up their sleeves, considering this is Isolation’s favorite realm.”
Meanwhile, the main target of their conversation breathed a sigh of relief.
“Fuck, how are you so good at guessing what it’ll be?” He asked as they began developing their base.
Men Wu shrugged, “it’s not that hard, you just have to take a look at all of the realms from before and figure it out from there.”
“…that’s way too much effort,” huffed Chang Hui.
“It’s not my fault you don’t know how to do it!” His teammate shot back, and the two bickered even as Xi Zhe took Men Wu to gather troops.
Wu Biaoqing shook his head, “focus.”
He walked further into the map, the jungle realm, leaving Chang Hui to run and catch up.
They trudged their way through the forest, passing by and narrowly avoiding swarms of ZD’s troops as they ventured further.
“Are they troop magnets?” Chang Hui sighed, “I feel like they’ll beat us just because of that.”
“I’m sure Xi Zhe is doing fine, it’s not like collecting troops is hard,” he replied, “we should worry about ourselves. I hear someone coming.”
As he spoke, he maneuvered to hide in the bushes as his teammate followed.
Luckily he’d spoken in time, as right after they hid the game IDs for ZD’s Poet and Author came into view, though their characters were still obscured by the trees.
“Fuck, just our luck,” Chang Hui sighed, “should be turn around?”
Wu Biaoqing shook his head, before realizing after a minute that Chang Hui couldn’t see him, “it’s too late now.”
“I guess so…” his teammate trailed off as the sound of shooting echoed from the distance.
They both stilled.
Had they been discovered so quickly?
But as it died down almost immediately, and they were doused in silence once more, it didn’t seem to be the case.
“It looks like Jiang Yu is fighting with his teammates again,” Qian Liqiu laughed, “It’s a good thing this isn’t a professional competition, or they would’ve gotten points deducted for firing at a teammate!”
“Poet seems to be on edge,” added the co-host, “his anger usually has limits, but it appears that some sort of trigger is pushing him over the edge.”
Wu Biaoqing thought for a moment, before making a decision.
“Let’s go around and avoid conflict for now,” he said, “if we can get them to follow us, even better.”
“Isn’t that like– the worst thing that could happen right now?” Chang Hui huffed, “you don’t seriously think we can outrun them, do you?”
Isolation rolled his eyes, “of course not. Do you remember the first day I entered the trainee program, when I played that first match?”
Chang Hui hummed thoughtfully, “not really. I just thought you were cool.”
His teammate laughed, “I had to start playing warrior-thief instead of warrior-assassin when we played 1V1 because everyone complained it was unfair, remember?”
“Oh! That’s why you switched to maining warrior-thief,” his teammate noted.
“That’s the thing,” Wu Biaoqing smiled, and anyone who saw it would get the overwhelming feeling of being stared at by a predator about to catch its prey, “just because my main is different, doesn’t mean I’m not still playing with warrior-assassin.”
“Holy shit, so you mean–”
“That’s right,” he nodded, “Jiang Yu and Zeng Yuan probably picked up on why I chose it for this match too– it’s because I’m even better now.”
The author has something to say
Hello dears!! You may have noticed MIC’s absence these past two weeks, boy has it been a ride ;; First I was busy with the holidays, then my internet went down again, and now my phone stopped working… I believe it has some sort of virus or some other problem that’s messing with it’s functionality, but in any case it’s much more difficult to use so I need to take it to get fixed. If you’re wondering about the lack of emoticons in the A/N today, that’s why, since I usually use my phone for those XD
However! I finally managed to get chapter 20 out which I consider a major win. Chapter 21 will be out soon as well, I originally wanted to do a double update where I posted them both at the same time but my schedule has been out of wack due to the end of the semester so it’ll take longer then expected. Regular updates will resume starting monday, since I will finally be free! Little author is tired of studying.jpg
This was a relatively short chapter, mainly because I wanted to save all the action for the next chapter lol. Also, if anyone remembers if I already gave Zeng Yuan a username in a previous chapter let me know, because I forgot it so he’s got a new one XD
That’s all, see you next chapter!!
Thank you for the update!
I found this today and binged it! I’ll be patiently awaiting for the next update~
Aw I’m glad you’re enjoying it!! Thank you for reading~