(Ah I forgot to schedule this chapter sorry it’s a couple of hours later than usual!)
Editor: Decemebery
All six members of the Eagle Riders assembled for the pre-game interview that evening. They answered all the pre-planned questions and collectively declined the media’s invitation to a more in-depth interview.
Social media was extremely efficient in this era, and the Eagle Riders’ interview and other video snippets had already been edited and formally posted by the time the top four teams gathered at the Star League’s headquarters.
Of course, they didn’t let the extra footage taken in the garden go to waste.
Mu Feibai and Zhou Shu were often seen in media interviews, while Du Chen Lin Jinxi and Lu Cun also showed up quite often in front of the cameras. Hence, it was only Qiu Yu who was carried away time and time again and hadn’t appeared in interviews yet. Therefore, Qiu Yu’s fans immediately felt the blood rush their heads in excitement when they saw the extra footage!
[It’s god Qiu! It’s a real god Qiu, living, breathing, and training in the real world!]
[He dared to wear shorts and short-sleeved t-shirts outside, even curled his sleeves onto his shoulder, this Omega is a little intense ah (not trying to say Omegas can’t bare their arms and legs, just purely expressing worship!]
[Siha siha (drool) this god Qiu covered in drops of sweat, this glowing porcelain skin, I can’t anymore, my phantom limb is swelling (drool)]
[Hahahaha laughing to death, god Mu what were you doing when you grabbed the corner of his shirt?]
[??? Little angel Cupid, what is your hand doing?]
[As a coarse manly man, I am very logically suspecting that god Qiu held onto the hem of his shirt to wipe off his sweat… no wait, how can— could it be that he has this habit?! (shock)]
[!!! Little angel Cupid wiping sweat with the hem of his shirt?! I also want to see god Qiu’s abs!]
[Begging for a sneak photo! Hefty rewards offered! @EagleRidersAllMembers]
[No! Mama won’t allow it!!! Mu Feibai what are you doing? Just quickly give your family’s little angel a sports towel! (Gifting him Du Chen’s is also ok! (Sprouting gibberish.jpg)]
This was a rare occasion where the comments were peaceful. There would occasionally be a comment criticising Qiu Yu for showing too much skin, not wearing a neck brace, or not abiding by an Omega’s virtues, but the fans would quickly argue back until they fold. Those who only hated on Qiu Yu for the sake of hating on Qiu Yu all of a sudden realised that, at some point in time, they could… no longer muster up a sizable force against him?
“This is the esports circle, where strength is king.” Zhou Shu smugly raised his bracelet, “Everyone has been conquered by your abilities and defended you willingly! Don’t worry about those sunspots, they won’t be able to cause any more waves!”
Qiu Yu buried his head and continued to eat, unable to agree with Zhou Shu’s optimistic outlook.
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.
Where there exist people, there will be conflict. He didn’t believe that he alone would be able to make everyone put down their prejudices—he was more inclined to believe that the voices of those whose views didn’t align with his were merely temporarily suppressed. Once he trips up, they would return with a vengeance and kick him when he’s down.
Yo mbegrf, tf kjrc’a atja ybatfgfv ys atflg bqlclbcr jcskjs.
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Ktfs kfgf ybat atf ragbcu afjwr lc atflg Vajg Glraglma jcv boafc jggjcufv ab tjnf qgjmalmf ujwfr. Ktfs tjnf fnfc obeuta abufatfg obg atf Vajg Ciiljcmf Jeq lc atf qjra, rb atf qijsfgr tjv j ubbv gfijalbcrtlq klat fjmt batfg lc qglnjaf jr kfii. Fqbc rfflcu fjmt batfg, atfs kjixfv eq jcv fnfgsbcf ugffafv fjmt batfg klat j rwlif.
“Yo, Feibai.” Wu Song placed an arm on Mu Feibai’s shoulder and cocked an eyebrow in his direction, “Long time no see, so it’s finally your turn to experience what it’s like to be no.2!”
He was obviously referring to Mu Feibai being pushed down on the leaderboards by Qiu Yu. People in the circle all knew that Mu Feibai was quite even-tempered and wouldn’t be antagonised by these kinds of jokes, so Wu Song had no worries when speaking.
As expected, Mu Feibai wasn’t in the least bit bothered and jabbed back with a laugh, “Then look at yourself, aren’t you the “third” party then?”
Qiu Yu squeezed My Feibai down to second, Wu Song, who was originally ranked second, naturally fell to third, so Mu Feibai purposefully used an unflattering phrase.
Wu Song had played in the professional circle for many years already, so his face was even thicker than Mu Feibai’s after years of practice. He didn’t at all take offense and instead turned to Qiu Yu, reaching out a hand. “Hi, I’m Wu Song, Infinite’s current captain.”
Qiu Yu put down his chopsticks and got up to shake his hand. “Hello. Qiu Yu.”
Wu Song asked with a smile, “Does the little angel have any plans of jumping ship? Wanna come join us Infinite next year?”
“Go, go, go,” Mu Feibai hurriedly tried to drive him off, “No way my ge would favor your battle team.”
“Oho, you recognised him as your gege already?” Wu Song asked suggestively.
“Yeah!” Mu Feibai still felt proud about it, “My gege is so strong, it’s my honour!”
Qiu Yu: ……
Zhou Shu whispered loudly in his direction, “Don’t mind him, Qiu ge. Be careful of being infected by his shadiao-ness.”
They were to play semi-finals against each other tonight after all, so the teams went their own ways after greeting each other and chatting for a couple of sentences. The Alpha on Infinite’s team, Liu Ruihan, stood in a position furthest away from Qiu Yu the entire time. The two didn’t shake hands and only nodded to each other with a slight smile in greeting.
“Infinite is very strong, don’t let down your guard and underestimate them,”
He Jingxing held a meeting in the break room prior to the night’s game.
“Wu Song and Liu Ruihan are to retire after this year, so this is their last chance to hold the championship cup. They won’t break easily, so prepare for a tug-of-war situation.”
Their basic strategies have already been determined. Qiu Yu would play in the first, fourth, and fifth rounds, and try to cinch victory on all three. If any of the three were lost, the possibility the Eagle Riders would win the overall competition was practically nil.
If they stopped at the top four, the Eagle Riders would have no fate with this year’s Star Alliance Cup—the Star Alliance Cup only invited a total of sixteen teams from the Eastern and Western areas, comprised of the top two teams in each Star District’s Summer Regular competition.
The competition was about to begin. Before the players entered the arena, He Jingxing patted Qiu Yu’s shoulder with a lighthearted smile, “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, our team is still young.”
Even if they missed competing for the Star Alliance Cup this year, they would only be held back for one year. Mu Feibai and Zhou Shu were only 20, so they still had at least five years to try for it. Liu Jinjie would be back next year, and Du Chen and Lu Cun would also grow in skills and experience. They would have to give up on breaking the curse of three consecutive Star Alliance Cups… but that was it.
Qiu Yu understood what Coach He meant and nodded.
If the pressure due to the gaming cabin was severe enough to pose a threat to his life, of course, he wouldn’t force it. However, if there was no threat to his life, he had no fears and would never become a deserter.
“The entrance procedure has concluded, and the game has formally begun! The players have already entered the game, and we can see that the map randomly selected for the first game is the Research Institute on Doc Coast! Half the map is in water, it’s of high difficulty—let’s anticipate the two teams’ collisions on this map!” The commentator’s voice was full of excitement.
“As expected, the Eagle Riders assigned Qiu Yu to the jungle, and on Infinite’s side, their captain Wu Song is jungling. The submerged lane will be a contest between the two Alphas, Mu Feibai and Liu Ruihan.”
The first round started off with a bang, featuring much-anticipated battles on a complex map. Both Infinite and the Eagle Riders utilised a dual-core lineup. The most exciting confrontations took place in the submerged lane and the cave nearby, centering around Mu Feibai, Qiu Yu, Liu Ruihan, and Wu Song. The two sides advanced and defended for a long while, however, there still weren’t any clear inclinations of the scales of victory.
This lasted until Qiu Yu managed to obtain the special-type nucleus from a water lizard after a brutally fierce free-for-all and suffered an assassination while escorting the nucleus back to the base. At that very moment, it became clear to him that his combat style was actually almost completely figured out by his opponents.
This was how the game was different from battles in the real world.
After a battle, a briefing would only be of use to those who actually attended and were lucky enough to survive the battle, and even that was limited to the portion of the battle they personally participated in.
However, in a game, the battle teams’ cameras could record everything and anyone could enter any of their opponents’ perspective. That video could be replayed hundreds and thousands of times until every detail, even ones the players themselves were unaware of, would be scrutinised. The player’s habits would be analysed and countermeasures could be designed.
This was what the Eagle Riders did and their opponents were definitely doing the same thing.
Qiu Yu watched as his assassinator disappeared into bits of light and flicked his dagger.
The good thing was that strength conquers all.
As long as his combat skills could crush his opponents, he need not fear any plans that targeted him.
This tug-of-war battle lasted for a full forty-three minutes before, due to their advantage in base energy levels snowballing, the Eagle Riders finally emerged victorious.
The intensity of this round was much higher than expected. When Qiu Yu was carried out of the gaming cabin, he looked as though he had been soaked in water, and was as pale as a spirit that could disappear at any time.
“Captain.” As he was about to be carried out of the competition room, Qiu Yu called out in a pained voice.
Mu Feibai quickly jogged to him and met Qiu Yu’s flaming eyes. His breaths lightly shivered, yet his words brooked no objection. “Drag it on for ninety minutes, no less.”
“Promise.” Mu Feibai replied seriously.
Qi Zhefeng ran to the infirmary carrying Qiu Yu.
They entered and closed the door to see that Doctor Qi had just placed Qiu Yu on the infirmary bed when Qiu Yu pushed himself up into a sitting position and raised his hands to take off his shirt.
Qi Zhefeng raised an eyebrow. “Acting again?”
Qiu Yu replied evenly, “I’ve trained for so long, I can’t be worse than I was before.”
Qi Zhefeng put on the massage gloves. “Making them drag it on for ninety minutes… is this to dig a pit for Infinite?”
Qiu Yu took off his competition clothes and laid face down on the infirmary bed. “It’s also to make them do their best and not relax too much with the mentality that they would lose anyway.”
For two games to last ninety minutes, while deducting the ten-minute gap between rounds and the ten-minute pause that was allowed for each game, they just had to drag each game on for half an hour.
Qiu Yu had watched all the formal matches and practice games between the Eagle Riders and Infinite within the past half year. If he wasn’t on the field and the players in their current formation played with a mentality that expected a loss, it was very possible for the game to be won by Infinite within 25 minutes… Although one hour was technically enough for him to conclude his treatment, that scenario would be quite damaging.
Sadly, whatever one was most afraid of would occur.
In the second round, the substitute sent up by the Eagle Riders, Lu Cun, seemed to be a bit nervous and made a significant mistake not far into the game. It led to Mu Feibai being surrounded and killed, and Infinite played out a beautiful wipeout of their opponents.
Mu Feibai quickly called for a pause, however, the second game still came to an end at the thirty-second minute—the Eagle Riders lost.
“I’m sorry, it’s my problem!” Lu Cun cried with his breaths still in disorder, “At that time I shouldn’t have…”
“Don’t cry anymore,” Mu Feibai looked grim, “It’s also my fault for not controlling the rhythm properly as the commander. You’ve just entered the field and hadn’t warmed up yet, which I overlooked. Dry your tears and adjust your mentality, don’t let it affect the next round.”
In the next round, they must drag it on for 48 minutes even if they can’t win.
Infinite advanced with fierce momentum, yet the Eagle Riders were one down on their carry points—he had to hold the team up alone.
It was already very disappointing for them to lose the game. If he couldn’t even drag it on for long enough, how could he be worthy of the fans who supported him for this long, the fans who bestowed him the “god of war” title, and the coach’s efforts to train him for the past two years?
…Moreover, how could he be worthy of the one who faced waves of public sentiments and physical pain, yet never even flinched?
First?
I dont really understand the concept why but i guess its fun!
Plus, seeing comment section empty on such a good translation and story chapter is disheartening
Dw bro I’ll always be here I was just late ✊
Bahahahaha thanks guysss (❁´◡`❁)
Aaahhhh they have to win! They have to! 😭🙏🙏🙏
💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚 Thank you for the chapter!
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️
UWOOOOGH IM SO HYPED (thank you for the translation)
I want more Feibai and Qiu Yu interaction wuwuwuwu
Hello
Thanks for the chapter!