Chapter 32

At the same time, in the IAC base, Shi Luo received a friend application.

Shi Luo opened it. It was NSN’s former deputy manager.

When Shi Luo first went to NSN, he and Zhou Huo were in the same club for only two short months. Later, Shi Luo transferred, and Zhou Huo went to another team not long after.

Zhou Huo explained his current situation to Shi Luo. Shi Luo then found out that he was to be his future team manager.

After exchanging a couple of polite words, Zhou Huo brought up the matter of the live broadcast to Shi Luo. After half a minute’s hesitation, Shi Luo replied to Zhou Huo.

Yu Sui was contacting the FOG China Division headquarters to retrieve the game account that had been cancelled back then. He opened the voice call with the headquarters employee and typed back a reply to Zhou Huo.

[Yu Sui]: [I refuse.]

[Shi Luo]: [No. ]

Zhou Huo: ...

Zhou Huo could understand how Shi Luo as the perceived victim could still be nursing a grudge, but what he couldn’t understand was that not only did Yu Sui refuse, his reply came even faster than Shi Luo’s! Zhou Huo quickly replied back to Yu Sui.

[Zhou Huo]: [I don’t know just what it is that happened between you two, but the situation now is like this, your fans are absolutely hostile to each other and you two will soon be in a team. If we’re always going to be in this kind of deadlock, I won’t be able to progress my work.]

[Zhou Huo]: [The new team has just been established. As a manager, there’s a lot of work I need to do and a lot of that will require the fans’ cooperation. ]

Yu Sui replied quite happily: [If the fans won’t accept it and won’t cooperate, then let them. ]

[Zhou Huo]: [...]

Zhou Huo had a lot of confidence in this team that he was about to take over. Even if they won’t be able to produce the best results, they will certainly be a mainstay in the first league. With all four players at this level, there was absolutely no need to doubt it. But if he were to appraise the team’s style, Zhou Huo was quite sure that such a team of filled with such wicked people wouldn’t get anywhere good.

[Zhou Huo]: [Whisper, there’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you since years before. Aside from a championship trophy, there’s something else you can give to your fans. ]

[Yu Sui]: [I’m not giving them anything else.]

[Zhou Huo]: [I ask with only the best of intentions. But, Yu Shen, did you know that as early as two years ago, no, maybe even earlier than that, you’ve already earned yourself the nickname of ‘scumbag’? ]

It was only after he had completed the application and saved his account that Yu Sui took a look at his phone. Zhou Huo had already sent over several messages.

[Zhou Huo]: [Setting aside the fact that our chances of winning the championship this season isn’t all that great to begin with, are you saying we’re going to let the fans rip us a new one all the way from the qualifiers to the playoffs? That’s a huge pressure to put on the players. ]

[Zhou Huo]: [There aren’t a lot of people like you who are completely immune to negative remarks. Everyone cares about what fans say about them online. Evil and Chen Huo quarrel all the time with the sprayers. Obviously, they get affected easily.]

[Zhou Huo]: [My job isn’t to simply increase the number of fans. It’s also to give the players a relatively relaxed environment that comes from enjoying a relatively favorable public opinion. That way, the players can focus on the game without unnecessary pressure weighing down on them.]

[Zhou Huo]: [This is where my responsibility lies. ]

[Zhou Huo]: [Of course, it’s also my job to do my best to increase the team’s relevance and commercial value. Boss, you’re both my boss and my player. My position is definitely a bit difficult. Right now, can we agree on a few simple rules? When it comes to the operations of the team, can you listen to my arrangements? ]

Yu Sui was about to type ‘no’, when he thought about it and said, [Use your own discretion.]

[Zhou Huo]: [... OK. ]

Yu Sui put on his headphone and was preparing to queue up for a game when his phone buzzed again.

[Zhou Huo]: [But in case a situation comes up, I’m gonna be completely shameless and ask. Were you and Shi Luo together?]

Yu Sui looked at the phone and smiled.

Has he committed some grave sin that people were taking turns to stab his heart today?

Yu Sui typed. [No. ]

[Zhou Huo]: [That’s good. I’m not holding out much hope but you really won’t agree to the live broadcast?]

Yu Sui replied: [No. ]

[Zhou Huo]: [Can you give me a reason? ]

Yu Sui knew that Zhou Huo wouldn’t give up that easily. He might as well explain. He was too lazy to type and so he picked up his phone and sent a voice message. “This &#k2018;real situation-true feelings’ live broadcast is gonna be boring. I can guarantee that not a word would be said throughout the whole thing. The fans would be even less willing to accept that. Faking teammate camaraderie&#k2026;I wouldn’t be able to pretend and I don’t want to. I’m even more unwilling to make him pretend. It’ll be boring and it’s unnecessary.”

In the first place, top players who’ve reached this far shouldn’t be distracted by this kind of thing. Zhou Huo also knew that he had no choice but to give up.

After sending off Zhou Huo, Yu Sui put on his headphones, opened the game client, debugged the basic settings, logged in and queued up for a game.

After Yu Sui returned to China, when he’d been staying at NSN, teaming up with Wawa, Yu Sui applied for a side account on the national server. These days, his side account was also within the top 200 of the national server, barely enough to play. At least he was no longer abusing newbies. But the higher the rank, the longer the wait to enter a match. While waiting for the match to start, Yu Sui stared absent-mindedly at his screen.

What was the use of doing a ‘same frame’ live broadcast? To pretend with Shi Luo that they’ve let things go?

Not to mention that Shi Luo hasn’t let anything go, Yu Sui himself hasn’t.

Were they going to put on an act to appease the fans?

Forget about it.

Even if they didn’t have to act, for now, Yu Sui didn’t want to be in the same frame as Shi Luo.

He finally entered the game. Yu Sui glanced at his teammates and muttered softly, “F*ck.”

At the IAC team base, Shi Luo wasn’t normally so proactive but the closer he was to leaving the team, the more he felt like he had to go through the motions of doing his job, to stand at the last mound of his job. After watching the training match, Shi Luo opened a live broadcast.

After entering the game, Shi Luo took a look at the names of his teammates. None of them had a team name in front of their names. None of them were side accounts that he recognized either. Looking at their opponents though, Shi Luo saw an acquaintance, Team Saint’s medic, Angel Sword.

Shi Luo typed in the team channel. [The opponent’s medic is a pro-player, a first-rate milktank. Try your best to target that one. ]

Two of his teammates typed out an “ok”. Only their own medic hadn’t said anything. Shi Luo has always been more tolerant towards medics. Thinking that he may have exaggerated the opponent’s ability and made their own medic unhappy, he typed:

[IAC-Evil]: [Don’t mind their medic. I’m sure you’re pretty amazing yourself. Just follow after me. I’ll take care of you. ]

Their medic still didn’t speak. Shi Luo thought the other party might be the reserved type, or an expert meizi who was embarrassed to speak. He didn’t pay it any mind and typed: [Follow me. We’ll win. ]

After a full minute, their medic slowly typed: [OK. ]

There was a general lack of top medics in the pro circle. Since Whisper went to Europe, there were fewer top medics in the local division, but Team Saint’s Angel Sword was definitely one of them.

However, his style of play was different from Yu Sui’s as well as Shi Luo’s own play from before. Angel Sword was a pure auxiliary medic, the type that could pour milk onto his teammates. His skills were top-notch and he had great awareness. Whenever, Shi Luo gets put onto the same team as him, he feels very reassured. Not only would Angel Sword never compete against him for heads, but he would also pay particular attention to this position. He would secure the most optimal position to be able to cover every corner and patch up his teammates. He gives timely shield cover and whenever he gets even the littlest bit scratched up by the enemy, he’s there to patch him up. He was considerate to the extreme.

Recently, Wawa keeps pulling him in as a training partner. Whenever he reached the point when he was better off dead than living, Angel Sword always comes to mind. What was a milktank-type medic? This was a milktank-type medic!

However, Shi Luo didn’t have such high requirements from a medic that he was randomly teamed up with. They just needed to not ‘AFK’, not wander off carelessly, not stray and block his field of vision, not rob of him of heads, not squander away the team economy, provide a shield when his own shield breaks and add blood in a timely manner when he’s in urgent need of it. If they could do that, that was fine.

With this mentality in place, Shi Luo took the medic to push forward, but the more they played the more surprised he was.

Their medic was more of an angel than Angel Sword.

After the game began, their medic gave a shield to both their other teammates. Afterwards, they followed him all the way, but they weren’t brainlessly following after him. In FOG, players were modeled to be solid substances. Not only can players jostle against each other but whenever players bump against anything on the map, it would produce a sound. Players could even judge the position of the enemy based on the sounds they make. That’s why unnecessary movements, like repeatedly pulling back the bolt of the gun or walking around could expose themselves. What Shi Luo feared the most was that the medic would follow too closely and reveal their position. But their medic was able to skillfully evade this problem.

Their medic’s familiarity with the map was unsurpassed. Not only could they always find the most suitable bunkers to hide in, they could also avoid bumping into any of the vegetation that could produce any sound. It was like they were hiding within the map.

They followed after him, not too near and not too far, always ensuring that he was within his healing range. They simply couldn’t be more fitting.

Soon after, Shi Luo took the opponent striker’s head. At the same time, their medic obtained auxiliary points. Both of them earned the authority to utilize the team’s economy. However, their own medic never used even half a point from the public economy. They confined themselves to using only their 1000 points of personal economy.

The public economy was limited but Shi Luo occupied all that could be occupied. He spent it very presumptuously.

With Angel Sword looking after the opposite team, the three other players seemed to have higher HPs than they did. But in the end, passer-by strikers were simply no match against Shi Luo. At around the 24 minute mark, Shi Luo’s team managed to clear out the opponent’s fog and he directly destroyed their resurrection stone, securing the win.

Shi Luo hasn’t encountered such an amazing milktank in a long time. After the game, Shi Luo didn’t immediately withdraw from the map. He sent the other a friend application and typed:

[IAC-Evil]: [Medic nb, when you’re free next time let’s team up. ]

Unexpectedly, the other party didn’t immediately accept his request.

The live broadcast’s barrage was speeding past. Shi Luo only ever looks at the live chat after the game. While waiting for the other party to reply, he took a look at the barrage and was dumbfounded.

[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...]

[666, the drama of the year. 】

[Can we submit the record of this game to be included in the e-sports headlines?]

[After two long years, we finally have new material.]

[Drama of the year! Drama of the year! Drama of the year!]

[Can Evil see the barrage or not! We’ve been howling here for half an hour! You even sent out a greeting to the other party! Are you stupid? That’s Whisper!!!】

[Are you sure? Whisper didn’t open a live broadcast. I looked at all the live broadcasts from NSN and I didn’t find a single clue. Looks like Yu Shen isn’t at NSN headquarters. 】

[Whisper has already moved bases.]

[This is definitely Whisper’s account. Whisper used this side account during one of Wawa’s live broadcasts. This is Whisper for sure. 】

[I watched Wawa live broadcast, I was pretty sure that account is Yu Shen, but now I’m not sure. Can Yu Shen actually play as a milktank? 】

[It could be his account but it’s not necessarily him playing, right?]

[I have the same doubt. Yu Sui can also play nanny? He hasn’t touched his signature long dagger throughout the game. I never knew he could resist the instinct to kill his opponents. Is this really Yu Shen? 】

[That’s him for sure. With this kind of map awareness, could it be anyone else?]

[I can understand where you’re all coming from but Whisper can actually play milktank?]

[Who else could it be besides him? Who else could use his account? It can’t be Wawa. Wawa’s milktank play isn’t that detailed. 】

[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I’ve been dead for two years. Why won’t you two still not let me off?]

[Tears spilling into the Huangpu River. It’s been two years and these two put their hands together to stab my heart! 】

Shi Luo looked at the barrage and details of the past game flashed through his mind.

Thinking back on it now, it really was him.

—————->>>>

Translator’s note: Some of you might be wondering about my use of word milktank for the healer instead of the more literal nursemaid/milk-mom/nanny and the simple explanation is...I thought milktank sounded better than nursemaid. That’s pretty much it. orz

Just keep it in mind that they all mean healer especially the traditional type of healer that does mainly healing.