Editor: Decembery
(also changed the title to sorrow- thought it was more fitting than disappointment😊)
Although all participating teams of the Star Alliance Cup were champions and runner ups of the Century’s Finale tournaments in their respective Star Districts, there were still gaps between the overall capabilities of the esports sector in each district. The Eastern First Star District, where the Eagle Riders were based, happens to be one of the top three strongest districts in terms of esports.
Furthermore, Mu Feibai also had quite the good luck in drawing lots. Other than some anticipation for Team EL from the Western Eighth Star District, there weren’t any other more notable teams in the bracket Team Eagle Riders drew. Therefore, there was little doubt as to whether the Eagle Riders would progress.
Of course, after Team Eagle Riders emerged from their bracket on a winning streak, the Star Alliance Cup organisers brought them bad news—
“What? Players can’t remain inside the game cabin between games?”
Hearing this, Mu Feibai’s expression instantly clouded over, “Why not? When was this rule added?”
“It was newly added this year,” He Jingxing said helplessly, “It’s said that right before the competition began, the Eastern Third Star District made some complaints. It’s just that it hasn’t been decided on back then. After KKL missed out on qualifying, the Eastern Third District raged and lodged a protest to the Century’s Finale tournament headquarters.”
After a pause, he continued, “The headquarters probably considered that very few people would wish to remain in the game cabin between games, and acceded to their demands. It has just been made known that this rule would come into force in this year’s tournament.”
“They’re just targeting Qiu Yu.” Mu Feibai gritted his teeth, “So weak yet so troublesome!”
If players were prohibited from remaining in the game cabin between games, that meant that Qiu Yu must undergo massage therapy at the end of every game he plays. Only then could he go on field again. Even counting the break time before and after every game as well as the ten minute pauses during each game, they must still hold on for at least thirty minutes in order to buy enough time for Qiu Yu.
Although it wouldn’t be an issue when facing weaker teams, the matter of buying time wasn’t so simple when meeting a stronger one.
Those Star Districts clearly schemed this—although Qiu Yu was strong, his weaknesses were still quite obvious.
Despite this, Qiu Yu himself wasn’t in the least worried. “Then let’s do it like this—I’ll play in rounds one and three in BO3s and rounds one, three and five in BO5s. Just try to drag things on a little in between, it’ll be fine.”
Mu Feibai was still concerned, “But even if you have enough time for treatment, it’ll still be difficult to recover to your peak condition. The intensity of the Star Alliance Cup is so high… are you really able to hold on?”
Hearing this, Qiu Yu smiled and blinked towards Mu Feibai. Turning towards He Jingxing, he said, “It’s not like I haven’t improved at all, you know. After training my physique for so long, the game cabin’s pressure isn’t as great as before. I can basically recover after half an hour of massage treatment.”
As for the apparent weakness he displayed in the previous games, it was all an act.
It seems like his acting was too good and even fooled his teammates.
Mu Feibai looked at him with a frown, “Are you sure?”
Qiu Yu smiled, “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”
……
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.
Team Eagle Riders’ opponent in the quarterfinals was Team TNS, from the Western Eighth Star District.
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The existence of such a ‘substitute’ allowed for much flexibility in TNS’s strategies, making them very difficult to be accurately countered strategy-wise.
The Eagle Riders had naturally also studied TNS, as well as faced them in practice matches and ranked games.
“However, absolute strength beats all trickery,” after arranging the general strategy, He Jingxing smiled, “Their overall strength is inferior to ours. As long as we don’t act callously or underestimate them, victory will be ours.”
After all, the Eagle Riders had never lost a single game so far in the case that both Qiu Yu and Mu Feibai were on field at the same time.
Without suspense, the Eagle Riders played steadily in the first game and obtained victory without any large waves.
Qiu Yu was helped out of the game cabin by Doctor Qi and, under the cheers and screams of the audience, headed towards the infirmary to undergo treatment.
Qi Zhefeng put on pulse massage gloves and pressed down on Qiu Yu’s shoulder blades.
“It’s much better than before.” His tone remained flat and expressionless, “You’ll recover after half an hour of treatment and your game won’t be affected.”
Qiu Yu’s eyelids dropped, “I still wish to continue competing.”
Qi Zhefeng replied, “It would be very difficult with an Omega’s physique.”
Qiu Yu huffed a breath of air from his nose. It was difficult to tell whether that was in self-mockery or disdain.
Qi Zhefeng continued, “Genes, hormones, biological structure, all these innate elements determined that Omegas will never be able to train their physiques to the level of an Alpha. The upper limit is merely the average Beta physique. Even if you went ahead with gland removal surgery, your physique would still be an insurmountable barrier.”
“I know.” Qiu Yu’s tone was even, “I never expected to be able to beat up Alphas in reality. It would be enough to be like the average Beta and no longer need to only go on field in alternating games.”
Hearing this, Qi Zhefeng fell silent for a while. “I thought that come next year, once you’ve obtained enough funds and surgery approval, you won’t be remaining in the team.”
Qiu Yu was taken aback.
Right, wasn’t his original plan only to play for the Eagle Riders for a year and leave after the surgery?
When had his thoughts begun to revolve solely around the competition?
“Mhm, that’s right.” Qiu Yu returned to himself and muttered quietly, “I won’t be playing in competitions next year.”
At that time, he would be free to go to many, many places in the Star Alliance without the influence and restrictions of the Omega gland.
He could try new things that he hadn’t experienced in the Apocalypse. He could go travelling, go sightseeing, and eat good food. He could also find an apprenticeship and learn some skills he was interested in. He could even find a woman—or a man—and experience a peaceful love away from the fires and gunsmoke.
At that time, there would no longer be any need for him to trap himself in the hail of bullets.
Even if those bullets were virtual.
After the treatment, Qiu Yu put on his competition suit and pulled open the infirmary door.
From the direction of the competition, sounds of passionate and unceasing cheers echoed, accompanied by whistles and applause. In such clamour, the rhythmic cheers of “EWG! EWG!” could be clearly heard.
Stunned for a moment, Qiu Yu quickly thought of something and took big steps towards the Team’s waiting room.
The moment he pushed open the waiting room door, he was greeted by his teammate’s excited smiles as they exited the stage. Mu Feibai’s eyes were burning and bright like stars. He walked to the front and made a beeline for Qiu Yu. Reaching out, he gave him a short but forceful hug.
“We won!” Mu Feibai said, grinning, “Du Chen performed so exceptionally in this round! And Lu Cun as well! You have to watch the recording, they cooperated to act out a scene of a fairy in the sky! Not to mention TNS, even I didn’t expect it and got a fright!”
Hearing the unconcealed joy in Mu Feibai’s words, Qiu Yu shifted his gaze and looked at Lu Cun.
Lu Cun’s little cheeks were flushed red, eyes sparkling. He looked unblinkingly at Qiu Yu, the corners of his lips curving up, “Master! We won! I used the strategy you taught me last time and I did it! I didn’t embarrass you!”
Zhou Shu placed an arm on Du Chen’s shoulder and said in place of the socially awkward child, “Xiao-Du also learned from your ways, he did indeed improve after being tortured by you so many times.”
Du Chen pursed his lips. After a moment, he said, “Improving is natural, we can’t always rely on Qiu-ge himself to win the competition.”
Mu Feibai smilingly patted Qiu Yu, “We can get off work early today, aren’t you happy?”
Qiu Yu finally recovered and smiled, “Of course.”
“Alright! I’ll treat everyone to fried chicken!” Mu Feibai exclaimed.
Seeing that the kids had celebrated enough, He Jingxing finally cut in, “Xiao-Du and Xiao-Lu performed very well in the game just then, but our victory can also be attributed to the fact that TNS made a very significant mistake. Don’t become arrogant and underestimate the enemy after a single victory.”
The members toned down their smiles, but happiness still hovered around their figures. They nodded cheerfully back at the coach.
Qiu Yu thought, this is also quite good.
The members were all making progress. Mu Feibai learned from the strategies and tricks he employed, Du Chen had gained a lot of experience and Lu Cun was gradually catching up with the team’s rhythm under his guidance, no longer falling behind the team.
After competing this year, these children would become more mature and Team Eagle Riders would once more become a truly strong team.
And he could finally take a step back in peace and accomplishment.
……
The members gathered in Mu Feibai’s room and had fried chicken as a midnight snack. Watching the clock’s hand slide past 1am, they finally packed up and returned to their own rooms.
As Qiu Yu prepared to leave, Mu Feibai called his name.
“Are you not very happy today?” Mu Feibai examined Qiu Yu’s expressions carefully but couldn’t find anything out of place.
However, for some reason, he instinctively felt that the person in front of him wasn’t as happy as he appeared to be.
“No,” Qiu Yu was surprised, “You guys won, why wouldn’t I be happy?”
Even he himself didn’t feel that anything was wrong with his mood.
Mu Feibai accurately caught the keywords, “‘You guys’?”
Qiu Yu was taken aback.
Mu Feibai frowned, “It’s ‘we’, we won.”
As he spoke, his lips curved, “The way you said it made it sound like you don’t see yourself as one of the Eagle Riders.”
He put it lightly yet it was quite obvious that there was some apprehension in his voice.
Qiu Yu smiled.
His lashes lowered, “Of course, I’m one of the Eagle Riders. I expressed myself wrongly, I meant to say that you guys were able to win the second round of today’s competition even without me going on field. Of course, I would be happy.”
Mu Feibai looked at him, “Really? I don’t believe you.”
Qiu Yu: ……
Qiu Yu didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry and the strange melancholy cloud blocking his heart dispersed like smoke.
“No matter what you think, I’m really not upset.” He looked up at Mu Feibai, “What made you think that I wasn’t very happy?”
Mu Feibai couldn’t answer that clearly, “I don’t know, just instinct. It’s like that kind of… instinct. Ahem, it’s like you can only sense it but can’t really express it, you know?”
Qiu Yu glanced at him, “I don’t know.”
Mu Feibai observed Qiu Yu’s expressions and felt that he seemed a little more cheerful than before. He smiled, “Then maybe I was mistaken.”
He then teased again, “I thought our god Qiu suddenly discovered that we can also win without needing him on field, and felt a sense of crisis.”
Qiu Yu scoffed, “Paid leave, that’s more than I could ever ask for.”
Mu Feibai bent down slightly and placed his face in front of Qiu Yu’s. “What a shame, the few of us are still a little lacking. We’ll have to trouble gege to drag us up for another year before I can provide for gege in his old age.”
Qiu Yu stretched out a hand to cover Mu Feibai’s face and smilingly pushed him away, “Get out…”
tn: Decembery’s formally back! And all the previous unedited chapters are now all updated with edits, enjoy~~
thank you for the chapter!
That fairy thing… I tried searching it, it does only refer to what you have found “the name of a drama” and “basketball”. So I tried reading the synopsis from wiki (link : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Fairy), by the end the couple seem to be abandoning their immortality to live as humans. It might refer to that. I’ve never watched it though, so I don’t know if it’s the right one.. 🤔
The feelings I’m feeling in this chapter; if this were a drama I’d surely be crying! 😭😭
It’s like a mom bird, finally watching her hatchlings fly on their own akdhakagajsv
Dang Mu Feibai! Spot on with your intuition! Even Qiuyu doesn’t know that he’s not quite happy.
Thanks for the chapter!
💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍 Thank you for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter 🤣❤️
Dayum what a sensible guy this mu 😳