“A competition?”
Shock colored the features of LIFE’s members as they sat at the meeting table in the middle of the training room, and their manager nodded.
“It’s organized by Candy Cone inc,” she explained, “the Candy Cone Cup. You’ve probably heard of it, am I right?”
They all nodded, looking more like a class than a team of rookie gamers.
“Doesn’t it have a bad reputation though?” asked Chang Hui, “and after all, last year…”
“They’re re-branding slightly,” she explained, pushing her slipping glasses up, “after the infamous brawl last year, they were bought out by Shark Smiles, and they’re a subsidiary company to them now. Shark Smiles intentionally extended invitations to multiple well known E-sports groups in the hopes of garnering a following and clearing their name.”
Wu Biaoqing frowned, “You think big shot E-sports groups are actually going to join?”
“Obviously not,” she scoffed, “but they’ll probably send their secondary teams as a courtesy, since Shark Smiles is in the process of acquiring XtraF.”
“Yan-jie, are you saying you want us to go because of our live stream partnership?” Xi Zhe asked, leaning back in his chair.
“Well, sort of,” she nodded, “but it’s mostly to establish a dominating presence early on. You’re all new, and competing in a competition with a higher win assurance means that we’ll be able to spread our appearance of an upcoming team not to be taken for granted.”
“We can win even if it’s against the bigger teams,” Wu Biaoqing said like it was nothing, “but it’s a good idea. The more pressure we can put on them, the better. It might score us some practice matches as well, if we’re able to capture their interest.”
“Precisely.” Yan Shufen smiled.
“I’m in if Wu-ge is,” Xi Zhe nodded, “it’ll be a good nerve practice for the domestic preliminaries after all.”
The room stilled for a moment, because everyone knew exactly who would need practice for something like that.
People’s mental states were fragile, especially right before competing, but Wu Biaoqing had it arguably worse than them—
Which was proven in the last Cand Cone Cup tournament.
Wu Biaoqing, noticing the gazes, nodded, “I agree.”
“BAD, UWO, Hardcore, ESSU, and-” she hesitated for a moment, “AFK were invited. Out of them, only UWO and Hardcore agreed. BAD, ESSU, and AFK are sending their secondary teams Crypto, SWA, and… ZD.”
“AFK has a secondary team now?” Chang Hui gasped, “Those assholes—”
“Chang Hui.”
Wu Biaoqing’s voice was soft, but it shut his friend up immediately.
“Thoughts?” Yan Shufen asked helplessly.
“It should be fine,” their captain replied, “right, Wu-ge?”
Isolation hummed, “Make sure to inform the staff not to place ZD and us together. Other than that, it’ll be fine.”
“What, you’d beat someone up again?” Men Wu laughed, only for the room to go awkwardly silent once more.
Wu Biaoqing shrugged, “Probably.”
The official announcement of Candy Cone Cup’s team line up a few hours later caused quite the stir on weibo, especially with all the rumors and speculation surrounding the previous year’s tournament, and the buzz of excitement building wasn’t just contained to one platform.
When Wu Biaoqing started his live, it was the first thing the chat discussed, viewers trying to press him for details.
[BaobaoBaobei: dearest isolation, how could you keep this big news from us!]
[Z.fx2207: damn, seeing him in an actual competition… :isolationcry:]
[prettyfly: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH]
[retreat2defend: Is it true? Are they really competing?]
[misguided_apples: passing away peacefully 55555]
[WuDu990: do you know the competition line up already? Do you know who you’ll be competing against first?]
[prettyfly: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH]
“Yes, we’re really in the Candy Cone Cup tournament. No, we won’t know who we’re competing against until the day of the competition, and it’s random.” Wu Biaoqing dutifully explained, “I wasn’t keeping it from you, our manager didn’t tell us until earlier today.”
[Topofthe.world: so sweet and pure ;;]
[BaobaoBaobei: our family’s isolation is too cute for this world! :isolationblushie:]
[Heaven_Sent: +1]
[onceamoon: +2]
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.
[WuDu990: +3]
[notsotough: +4]
“‘Cute’?” Wu Biaoqing echoed, digging his own grave, “how am I cute?”
[Heaven_Sent: you’re so cute!]
[prettyfly: Terrifically cute!]
[misguided_apples: impossibly cute!]
Wu Biaoqing glared at the computer in exasperation, “be serious.”
[RedCamellia (supermod): Cutest.]
“…let’s just continue on with the game,” he said after a pause, clicking on the solo queue without even asking the chat.
Before he could even begin early-game development, however, a loud sound erupted in his headphones.
Bang!
{LIFE.Isolation was killed by a headshot by ZD.Poet. 10 second cooldown enabled.}
[WuDu990: Fuck??]
[retreat2defend: Matching with Poet right after the CCC team announcement… is this premeditated?]
[misguided_apples: How could it be? Expressionless is a rookie, the only way the two of them would know each other is if Candy Cone forced them to cooperate, and we all know how Poet gets when someone tries to make him do something]
[Heaven_Sent: like that MeowNow interview… *shivers*]
[onceamoon: +1]
[Topofthe.world: +2]
[BaobaoBaobei: +3]
“It was a coincidence,” Wu Biaoqing, who had gone silent, finally replied, hand clutching his mouse harder, “we… don’t know each other. It was random.”
[misguided_apples: poor baby working hard to fight the rumors (╥﹏╥)]
[notsotough: we believe you!!]
At that point, Wu Biaoqing had already re-spawned and began planning in his early-match stages.
Most people don’t attack right away, because even if you killed your opponent you would be wasting time you could spend gathering resources and preparing to topple their crystal.
Usually, it wasn’t until the mid or late game stages where the players would fight it out in order to claim victory.
However, if one’s opponent likes to be spontaneous or risky, they might attack first thing.
Or, if one’s opponent hated them…
It would be equivalent to a proclamation of that hatred for all to see.
Poet was usually calculative, and rarely took risks, so the only plausible reason the chat room could come up with was marketing for the Candy Cone Cup.
Wu Biaoqing knew better, of course, that there was a deeper meaning behind it.
He sighed, adjusting in his seat to sit taller, more focused than he’d been in the previous casual matches, prepared to fight back—
Bang!
{LIFE.Isolation was killed by a headshot by ZD.Poet. 10 second cooldown enabled.}
[onceamoon: is anyone else getting a sense of dejavu??]
[Heaven_Sent: FW: finally, I’m getting my revenge!! Karma!!]
Wu Biaoqing looked down, feeling a familiar, overwhelming pressure.
Just like before, it seemed Poet wasn’t keen on letting bygones be bygones.
He stalked forward into the forest again, knowing that the chance of a developmental victory was slim to none.
He took a deep breath, listening intently.
Bang!
A hit, knocking down his health, but not killing him.
Bang!
{ZD.Poet was killed by a headshot by LIFE.Isolation. 10 second cooldown enabled.}
[prettyfly: this is really…]
[dirtylaundry: it feels more like a personal battle than a random match!]
[Z.fx2207: feeling bad for isolation 555]
Their expressionless god retained his silence, hands shaking ever so imperceptibly.
This was not a match he could win.
Bang, bang!
{LIFE.Isolation was killed by ZD.Poet. 10 second cooldown enabled.}
Wu Biaoqing took a deep breath, closing his eyes to calm down, and ignored the live chat as he pasted in the in-game chat a simple link.
LIFE.Isolation to ZD.Poet — Try it 😊 https://www.mayoclinic.org/zh-hans/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/anger-management/art-20045434
ZD.Poet — You ************ [System Notice: This message has been partially censored due to foul language]
With that, Wu Biaoqing merely shook his head and clicked the button at the top of the screen.
{LIFE.Isolation has forfeited the match. ZD.Poet is the winner by default.}
A sea of text flooded the screen as the ‘you lose’ message appeared.
[L@dylu3k: Holy…]
[lovelypeaches: is this really the isolation we know?]
[BaobaoBaobei: the passive aggressive smile??]
[sevensenses: I didn’t know he was capable ;;]
[Topofthe.world: our naive expressionless is all grown up now 5555]
[WuDu990: quit acting like grandmas and grandpas]
[Z.fx2207: but why forfeit so early on? If he tried, I don’t think it would’ve been impossible for him to win. He and Poet are pretty evenly matched all things considered.]
[prettyfly: Wu Biaoqing, what aren’t you telling us?? (´；ω；｀)]
Among the messages constantly popping up on the screen, there was only one not related to Poet or the match.
[RedCamillia (supermod): staying on solo?]
Wu Biaoqing thought for a moment, but the lingering fear of matching with Poet again made him decide against it.
“No,” he replied, trying to pass it off as a casual switch, “Xi Zhe is live now, I’ll ask him if he wants to duo queue.”
[misguided_apples: men are all the same… hiding the truth…]
[L@dylu3k: :isolationsigh:]
[WuDu990: +1]
[Z.fx2207: +2]
[onceamoon: +3]
[lovelypeaches: +4]
“Captain,” Wu Biaoqing turned to talk to his teammate, “will you play some duo matches with me?”
Xi Zhe, who had just taken a sip of water after finishing a solo match, choked.
“You want to what?” He asked incredulously, as if he had just witnessed a resurrection, and Wu Biaoqing resisted the urge to face palm.
“Duo. Queue. With. Me.” He enunciated every world clearly, flicking his captain on the forehead to punctuate the final one, “Need me to repeat it?”
“No, no,” Xi Zhe shook his head, rubbing the spot where he’d been flicked, “you’re so mean.”
“…who woke everyone up at 3am because someone used your tea?” Wu Biaoqing shot back, sending a match request to the captain.
[Topofthe.world: ooh the drama]
[misguided_apples: have some popcorn 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿]
[BaobaoBaobei: 🍿]
[Heaven_Sent: 🍿]
[sevensenses: 🍿]
“And I’ll do it again if you don’t shut up about that!” Xi Zhe huffed, making Wu Biaoqing roll his eyes.
“Yan-jie almost murdered you last time,” Wu Biaoqing scoffed, “let’s not tempt fate again— unless you really have a death wish.”
The captain sighed, accepting isolation’s invitation defeatedly.
“You owe me more tea,” he declared, “and it better be like… whatever kind of fancy rich people tea you can get.”
“I’ll get you some Da-Hong Pao,” his friend replied nonchalantly, “is that good enough?”
According to Xi Zhe’s sour, ‘I hate rich people but at least I’m benefiting’ expression, it was more than enough.
[Z.fx2207: Damn, the world of third generation wealth is different.]
[L@dylu3k: Sometimes I forget he’s the Wu Biaoqing, and not just our cute little isolation 555]
[lovelypeaches: screw spoiling him, he should spoil us!!!]
[WuDu990: wait, expressionless is wealthy?]
[onceamoon: Not just wealthy, filthy rich! His dad is Wu Fu and his sisters are Wu Yanxiu, Wu Duxin, and Wu Chengxiao!!]
[Topofthe.world: Fuck, he has four different rich people to fall back on, he’s handsome, he’s talented, and he’s smart?! God isn’t fair!]
[sevensenses: your complaints just sound like praise lolol]
{RedCamellia donated 1 globe with the following message:
‘Will you have some with me?’}
“Hmm,” Wu Biaoqing pretend like it was a hard decision, “Xi Zhe had to beg me last time…”
{RedCamellia donated 1 globe with the following message:
‘Please. I’m begging you.’}
Oddly, he felt his heart beat faster, his ears so hot it felt like they were burning–
That had never happened before when his friends jokingly begged him.
Weird.
He swallowed dry, masking his unusual feelings with a laugh, “alright alright, come see me after the tournament and we’ll have some together.”
[BaobaoBaobei: ahhh they’re going on a date!1!!1!!!!111!!!]
[Heaven_Sent: Damn, why does RedCamellia get special perks?]
[Z.fx2207: Are you the one showering gifts at him?]
[Heaven_Sent: …point taken.]
“Hurry up and lock in already, I don’t want to wait all day.” Xi Zhe grumbled.
Wu Biaoqing, who’d gotten distracted waiting for the other’s reply, hummed his agreement as he went to click the start round button.
{RedCamellia donated 1 globe with the following message:
‘It’s a date then.’}
…safe to say, he misclicked and accidentally left duo mode.
Really weird.
The author has something to say
Hello everyone! I’m adding this after the chapter to make everyone aware, but because of my classes, chapters might not always end up getting released on Saturdays but I’ll try my best to get them out within a Friday-Sunday timeframe each week so that there’s still somewhat of an established schedule. Sorry for the abrupt change!! I didn’t expect school to sneak up on me before I got more chapter drafts completed (￣▽￣””)
Hahahah I love how flustered he gets!!!
Also I’m really curious about what happened with this ZD team. And WBQ dropping a link to an anger management site and then leaving was really a brilliant exit! Very powerful and savage <3
AGHHH YUMMY YUMM YUMM YUMMEH DOG FOOD AHHHHHUUUHHHH