Editor: Decembery
A week’s worth of time passed in the blink of an eye under all kinds of targeted training programs.
It was once again Saturday, heralding the beginning of “Century Finale’s” summer regular season’s quarter finals where Bluefin was to face off against the Eagle Riders on their home court.
Bluefin was an experienced club that had obtained the Star Alliance cup a couple of years back and had always had some rivalry with the Eagle Riders club. They also often had training matches with each other—judging by their performances in the recent past regular games, both sides seemed to be concealing some sort of “secret weapon” and tacitly didn’t arrange any matches in recent days.
Bluefin’s coach had been Coach He’s teammate for two years, so he happily waltzed into the Eagle Rider’s rest area before their game.
“Yo, Lao He, lemme have a look at your treasures.”
“Go go get out, the game’s almost starting, what do you think you’re going to see?” He Jingxing was originally conducting the pregame meeting with all seriousness before the other popped in. He immediately stood up to shoo him out, “If you really want to have a look, why don’t you bring your family’s Qi Chen over for me to have a look at too, huh?”
Bluefin’s coach grabbed onto the door frame in refusal to leave, “Qi Chen has already been playing for a year, what new tricks can he unveil?”
He Jingxing scoffed, “Heh, he definitely wasn’t as good last year, it’s like something suddenly clicked into place for him—who knows what you secretly fed him, you even tried so hard to hide it that you didn’t accept our invitations to practice games!”
Bluefin’s coach laughed, “What? That’s a false accusation! Obviously it was me who sent you guys an invitation and Li Tingzhen wanted to hide your Omega, so he ignored me!”
He Jingxing pried the other’s fingers off the doorframe with a dark face, pushed him into the corridor, and closed the door right behind him.
In the break room, Zhou Shu couldn’t help laughing out loud. “Grandpa Dong is still such great bros with our Coach He! Since we haven’t played practice matches against them in a while, I thought they had a fight and broke up or something!”
Bluefin’s coach was named Dong Zhi, though the team members usually call him Grandpa Dong.
Mu Feibai glanced at him. “You’ve also watched the recordings of the earlier group rounds, since Qi Chen improved so much, Grandpa Dong definitely planned to hide him.”
Zhou Shu thought for a while and agreed, “Yeah… Coach He was right—who knows what miracle food Grandpa Dong gave Qi Chen. He could only fight me to a draw last year, so how did he get so much stronger this year? Thank goodness Zhu Zhaoyang and the others didn’t improve that much, otherwise, I’ll be trembling in my boots…”
“Trembling?” Mu Feibai replied, “With that time you’re spending being scared, why don’t you think about how to improve instead?”
“…” Zhou Shu had nothing to say, “Captain, you’re suddenly really good at stewing chicken soup, huh?”
Preparation time quickly ended and the teams prepared to formally enter the arena.
Starting from the quarterfinals, the competitors’ entrance would be accompanied by a 360 degree virtual projection showing the player’s name, ID, and personal introduction. Therefore the players were to enter one by one.
When Mu Feibai’s introduction appeared, applause and screams erupted within the arena. Neon signs and flashing lights unceasingly blanketed the audience seats as though the glittering Milky Way—it was completely unlike the usual stillness of an away game.
“That’s the power of a celebrity player, always the most eye catching wherever he goes.” Zhou Shu chatted to Qiu Yu in a lowered tone, “Last year’s Star Alliance cup was held in the western area of the First Star District, yet the cheers when captain entered was still super intense! It gave me the illusion that we were still in our eastern area…”
Qiu Yu was also influenced by this blanketing cheer and couldn’t stop a smile breaking out.
He reached out and patted Zhou Shu on the shoulder, “You keep fighting too, one day it’ll be like this for you as well.”
Zhou Shu sighed and shook his head. Hearing his name being announced, he quickly headed onstage with a little jog.
However, all that welcomed him was bland but still polite clapping.
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.
Itbe Vte: ……
If not for the fact that he had such a buddhist attitude and that he was long used to such treatment, his mentally would probably crack into itty bitty splinters just based on the lackluster attitude in this area.
Pwwfvljafis joafg, atf rqbailutar bcmf jujlc mbcnfgufv jcv Hle Te’r nlgaeji qgbpfmalbc jqqfjgfv. Ktf fifmagbclm ygbjvmjrafg’r nblmf vgjwjalmjiis jccbecmfv: “SQX Sjuif Elvfgr yjaaif afjw—Hle Te, Jeqlv!”
Ca bcmf, atf nbiewf bo mtffgr jujlc gfjmtfv jcbatfg qfjx—
“Cttttttttt ubv Hle! Lf’r jmaejiis atlgv lc atf ilcfeq!”
“It’s the little angel Cupid! He’s so cute ahhhhhh I’m dyinggggg!”
“He’s so pretty and cool at the same time, I also want an Omega like this… Why!!! Why am I a Beta! Wahhhhhhh!”
Zhou Shu: ……?
Judging by those negative comments online, he thought Qiu Yu’s entrance would have started a bloodbath. But… why was this screaming volume not in the least inferior to that of their family’s captain?!
Mu Feibai was also a bit surprised. He leaned around Zhou Shu, who he stood in line with, and raised an eyebrow towards Qiu Yu.
The negative attitudes leading online conversations have never ceased in recent days. It was to the point that even Coach He couldn’t stand it and specially pushed back Qiu Yu’s turn to broadcast to prevent him being affected by them. However, looking at the live audience reactions, most of them clearly really liked him.
As expected, as long as one had strength in the esports world, they would never need to worry about being neglected by the fans.
All that opinion-leading and smear campaigns online would only ever amount to a dancing clown’s tricks in the face of truly exceptional strength.
“Ooh ooh ooh, god Mu looked at him! His smile is so pampering!”
“Little cutie Qiu Yu, turn around and look at your captain ah!”
“Gaze into each other’s eyes! Quickly! My camera’s as thirsty as a man lost in the desert!!!”
Unfortunately, the cheers drowned out everyone’s words and Qiu Yu could only hear a voiceless clamour echoing in the arena.
Hence he expressionlessly looked straight ahead, waiting for this boring formality to end.
Afterwards, the audience cheered twice more when Bluefin’s captain Li Yuxin and celebrity player Qi Chen entered. The entrances of all players finished and players from the two teams walked into the centre to shake each others’ hands.
“God Mu is still really popular.” Li Yuxin smiled as he greeted Mu Feibai.
“You’re not too bad yourself.” Mu Feibai casually retorted.
The two’s hands separated and it was Zhou Shu’s turn. Li Yuxin maintained his smile, “Fighting.”
Zhou Shu cheekily replied, “Have some mercy, Lao Li.”
Li Yuxin had already let go and walked to Qiu Yu’s side.
“Looking forward to competing against you.” He used both hands to shake Qiu Yu’s hands, his gaze revealed his sincerity.
Qiu Yu looked up at him, the corner of his lips quirking up, “See you on the battlefield.”
He then quickly let go to greet Qi Chen, who followed behind Li Yuxin, and similarly briefly shook Qi Chen’s hands without revealing any emotions like nervousness or intent to challenge.
As the pre-game formalities ended, Bluefin’s players walked into the competition room, took off their jackets and prepared to enter their game cabins.
Li Yuxin suddenly patted Qi Chen’s shoulder. “Be careful of that Qiu Yu.”
He had already played in the professional esports scene for six years, growing from an unnoticeable little player to a battle team captain. His six years of competition experience allowed him to intuitively guess whether they would meet any significant obstacles during the game at the moment he shook hands with his opponents.
Mu Feibai was, of course, the greatest threat, and Zhou Shu has also become much more confident compared to a couple of years ago. However, Qiu Yu…
He was obviously just an incomparably delicate Omega, yet his aura wasn’t weak in the slightest and even made him feel fear the instant they shook hands. He didn’t doubt that if this were to be a 1v1 arena match, he would be fated to lose.
Both sides quickly loaded into the game and the map was randomly selected—it was an ordinary defense-offense map among ruins in the forest. In this map, one couldn’t rely on any special tactics. What really decided victory or loss was a pure collision of strength.
“Start in the regular formation,” Mu Feibai immediately commanded, “Du Chen top, I’ll take mid, Zhou Shu bottom, Xiao Lin support, and Qiu Yu jungler.”
Qiu Yu didn’t have any objections and picked out a compound bow from the weapons store.
Mu Feibai immediately noticed, “You’re using a bow this round?”
“En,” Qiu Yu nodded, “Qi Chen has really good hearing and so can accurately judge a shooter’s distance and position just by the sound of a gunshot.” This was his conclusion after watching the recordings from previous games.
Mu Feibai nodded, not doubting Qiu Yu’s judgment in the slightest.
Outside of the game, the commentators also noticed Qiu Yu’s choice that differed from his usual. “Oh, he chose to use a compound bow this time.”
“As everyone knows, Qiu Yu is currently ranked first in all shooting related leaderboards in Century’s Finale. Of which, his score in archery is shockingly high and worthy of admiration.” The other commentator smiled, “This is his first time choosing a bow as his weapon in the professional realm. Having made this choice in the forest map is indeed fitting.”
“However, don’t forget that using a bow places much more pressure on the player’s physical body than a gun, so I think this may not be a very wise choice. His body is already having a hard time adapting to the game cabin. If he chooses to use a bow, then he may really only be able to last one game.”
On the in-game battlefield, Qiu Yu used an extremely short amount of time to clear his half of the jungle and used the energy sent back to the base to strengthen his compound bow and three arrows. Immediately afterwards, he unhesitatingly headed straight for Bluefin’s jungle with his bow and arrows in hand.
“It’s coming!” Even the commentator couldn’t help laughing.
“The iconic high-way robbery style jungling is here again!”
“We still don’t know whether Li Yuxin can hold back Qiu Yu. It seems that, since he entered the professional arena, Qiu Yu has yet to make a mistake on field except for the time he wasn’t feeling well.”
“Wow, it seems that Bluefin is playing quite stable this round.”
“Well, it would be more accurate to say that they’re playing a little too conservatively.”
“Especially looking at the couple of spawning positions of special type mutant beasts in the jungle. Li Yuxin has constantly been paying attention to movements in those areas and it looks a little like he’s imagining the grass and woods as enemy soldiers ah…”
Five minutes later, the special type mutant beasts respawned and Li Yuxin immediately called over the support and adc to cover him and advance.
But… the person he had expected to see never appeared.
“What is Qiu Yu doing?!”
“He actually didn’t show up to rob Bluefin’s special-type mutant beast! He instead chose to go around to the other side of the jungle, stole their normal mutant beast and aided Zhou Shu in destroying the first tower!”
“Even though they didn’t get the special crystal nucleus this time, big bucks are still rolling into their team’s bank!”
“Wait, that’s not the end of it!”
“After helping to take down the first tower, Qiu Yu chose to advance deeper into enemy territory alone. He has looped around the back of Bluefin’s team members and ambushed Wang Bi, who is on his way back to base with the special-type mutant beast’s crystal nuclei! Qiu Yu is so fast!”
“This isn’t highway-robbery style jungling anymore—this is purely highway robbery!!!”
However, this bout of robbery unfortunately ended without success.
After he realised the direction Qiu Yu was moving in, Li Yuxin quickly dispatched two team members to escort Wang Bi and the nuclei was eventually safely sent back to Bluefin’s base. They even almost killed Qiu Yu who had ventured deep into enemy territory alone.
“You didn’t get to rob them?” Mu Feibai asked in the team channel.
“En, Li Yuxin was more alert than I expected and made precautions in time.” Qiu Yu glanced at the game information on his pad, “You took down Qi Chen.”
The reason he went to stir things up behind the enemy’s lines wasn’t actually because he wanted that special nuclei, but rather to give Mu Feibai a chance to break Qi Chen’s growing momentum since the beginning of this season.
As long as the other’s momentum was broken, the next two rounds would be easier to play.
“Just borrowing your grace,” Mu Feibai smiled, “I’ve just sent him back to the base.”
“Nice.”
Qiu Yu dragged his body-full of injuries and a giant bunch of stolen crystal nuclei back to his family’s base. The base’s energy was replenished and Qiu Yu healed his wounds before he headed straight back to his jungle to solo-kill his family’s special-type mutant beast.
The game progressed according to plan. Qi Chen was completely within the palm of Mu Feibai’s hand and Li Yuxin was also unable to find any breakthrough points on Qiu Yu’s side. The scales slowly but surely tipped towards the Eagle Riders battle team and no further complications arose even until the game ended.
“It’s a bit of a shame ah, Bluefin’s double core team formation was still unable to turn the tides when meeting the Eagle Riders’ double core formation.”
“However it must be said that many of Li Yuxin’s commands were worthy of praise. He was able to mitigate the threat Qiu Yu brought in the jungle multiple times and didn’t let him rob a single special-type mutant beast this game, which allowed for such a stable defense. If he could get a chance to retaliate, there might still be a chance for Bluefin to win this game…”
The commentators suddenly noticed a commotion among the audience seats when they were analysing the results of the first game.
After observing for a moment, one of them realised the reason. “Huh? Qiu Yu actually applied to remain in the cabin in the time between games. It seems like he’s going to be in the lineup for two consecutive games… can his body stand that?”
nagisa: yasss finally getting some actionnnnnヾ(≧▽≦*)o
OOH RIGHT – don’t forget to vote in the fanart contest guys! Thank you to everyone who participated~~ They look amazing(´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)
Preview for the next chapter hehe
The facts proved that Qiu Yu could, indeed, stand it. Even more, his performance in the second round was fiercer than that in the first…
Woah so excited! So there’s 2nd round right, it’s BO3 match then?
Thank you for the update~~
Smart move—recouping in place! Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️
Thank you for the chapter! 🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Yaayy Qiu Yu! ヽ(>∀<☆)ノ
Ahhhh I hope this match goes well and that Qiu yu won’t suffer too much after…
Thank u for the update!
Menunggu 😣
I hehe-d
Love how the comments taste werent able to realize qiu yu was strategically luring their attn to him to give mu feiba free time with qi chen. It wasnt so much li yuxin commanding well to protect the mutant monsters as much as it was mc forcing his hand.
Commentators* autocorrect is so wonky