Chapter 155

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Mo Huaifeng was stumped.

“So taking into consideration your safety, you sit beside me forever, like right now.”

Yuan Wei interrupted, “Damn it, if both of you continue to flirt, I will directly expose your secret to the entire team. This way I wouldn’t have to stay so close to both of you to make sure that they won’t hear your conversation, I still want to live for another two years.”

Mo Huaifeng darted a glance at Yuan Wei in displeasure, then sneered coldly.

Ji Zhiyao thought, compared to the thickness of Captain’s skin, he seemed to be quite a distance away.

The very first match of the national qualifiers, was played by Lan and Tall Boots.

1v1, played by the mid-laner captains of both teams.

Ji Zhiyao had played with Xiaoye previously, but the shock that he had felt then was far beneath that which he was feeling now, watching the match from an omniscient point of view.

As a mid-laner. Xiaoye and Lan Battleteam’s captain, Bone were both very familiar with playing solo in a lane. After all, usually in the match, this was their home ground.

By the means of teasing movements, Xiaoye wiped out the incoming wave of minions with no damage taken, at the same time also lessen Bone’s health by two bars; and when Bone realized and was about to do as he had done, he had already been targeted by Xiaoye who had already bought some low level equipment, at this point, both players leveled up together, Xiaoye’s abilities had been upgraded.

Qing Tian: “Everyone can see. Ye-god has brought out the rampage style that we’re all very familiar with, now attaining three level-one abilities, he has directly locked onto Bone. Bone’s health was already rather low to begin with, now it’s dropping steeply.”

Nian Nian: “Only five minutes into the match, the very first kill has been born! Ye-god in the early phase, with a sufficiently strong advantage together with his movements, managed to wear Bone down. In comparison, Bone has lost a wave of minions and lagging behind by one kill, the situation is not optimistic.”

At this point, the second wave of minions had yet to spawn from the fountain, Xiaoye moved forward with his minions from the first wave that survived and went directly to pushing the turret.

When Xiaoye had destroyed a third of the defense turret, Bone respawned and followed behind the second wave of minions to strike back forcefully, Xiaoye was forced to retreat out of the range of the turret.

Bone seemed to have lost his senses, going ahead in pursuit under the condition where his gold and level were both below Xiaoye’s.

Nian Nian: “What’s going on? Did Bone see that Ye-god was missing a bar of health and decided to bring the game to an equal with his pursuit?”

Qing Tian: “I don’t quite understand why Bone wanted to chase after Ye-god in such a situation, what he ought to do more now is to hide under the turret and develop himself cowardly.”

Nian Nian: “Perhaps Bone has a hidden surprise for us.”

Qing Tian: “It does not seem so.”

In the middle lane, Xiaoye put away his large sword, Bone had been killed once again.

Everything following that became a natural occurrence, Xiaoye pushed down Bone’s defense turret, undoubtedly clinching the victory for this 1v1.

Ji Zhiyao could not understand and discussed with Mo Huaifeng in a low voice, “That attack earlier was a little sudden, if he had not gone forward, the match would’ve dragged on for a longer time. Why did Bone attack suddenly?”

Mo Huaifeng paused for a moment before replying, “Suicide style assault?”

“Screw you.”

Seeing his helpless smile, Mo Huaifeng’s lips curved slightly into a small smile, saying, “There’s no point dragging it. He knows he wouldn’t be able to beat Xiaoye, so he chose to end it quickly.”

Ji Zhiyao found that very logical. “Have you watched their battleteam compete? How’s their 3v3 and 5v5?”

“Hurts the eyes.”

Yet Ji Zhiyao did not buy it, as an eSports battleteam that managed to successfully qualify for the national qualifiers, no matter how weak they were, they can’t be as bad as to hurt one’s eyes.

But the subsequent matches indeed were challenging his optic nerves a little.

3v3 Lan Battleteam’s jungler could not defend the bottom lane, running all around the top, middle and bottom lanes, feeding madly the whole time and allowed the opponents to push through three defense turrets directly to destroy their crystal. Much less needed to be said about the 5v5, the jungle was in full bloom with creeps, the turrets were already made a hideous mess by Tall Boots 20 minutes into the game. After two matches, Lan Battleteam did not even play the third, directly announcing that they admitted defeat.

Ji Zhiyao witnessed everything with wide eyes, when the judge announced that Tall Boots was advancing with the result of a full 20 points, he heard Mo Huaifeng say this one line, with slight mockery, “This is the overall current condition of Chinese eSports.”

Most clubs, with the aim of making money in mind, formed battleteams mainly for the sake of participating in various activities to attract fans; the training framework is terrible, the capabilities of the battleteams are poles apart from the strong battleteam of other countries, even during the triennial national qualifiers, they would admit defeat out of pride, because they were losing too terribly.

Lan Battleteam was only one of the many examples.

Battleteams worse than that, also existed.

So when the layers of shell are being peeled away, the battleteams that are truly passionate about eSports, are a meager lot.

Ji Zhiyao went silent.

Such silence continued all the way till Tall Boots, Wan Ning, LA emerged victorious in the first half of today’s games, when the other members were following a staff member towards the special passageway, preparing to leave the venue.

The others in the team who were discussing what to go eat noticed his listlessness.

Nuo called out, “NoHomo? NoHomo?”

Xiao asked, “What’s wrong with my son? Why are you so down?”

Ji Zhiyao upon hearing that he was named, blinked blankly, then replied in hindsight, “Woke up too early in the morning, I’m sleepy.”

Xiao was unaware that there was another reason, saying, “We’re deciding to go have hotpot, what do you think?”

“Sure, no objections, I’m alright with anything.”

Hence the people walking in the front were put at ease and turned back to discussing what dishes to order later on.

Mo Huaifeng walked behind with Ji Zhiyao. Taking the advantage that there was no one around, he slightly pinched his finger as a form of consolation.

Ji Zhiyao silently held him too, letting go after a second.

Yuan Wei who witnessed the entire course of things was stunned.

Damn it! The next time they say that others hurt their eyes they should first take a good look at themselves!

...

Because there was a second half of the competition in the afternoon and they did not want to miss it, the team came to the hotpot place closest to the gymnasium for lunch.

Pushing open the doors to the hotpot place, Ji Zhiyao realized that it was especially like a major gathering of eSports players, the entire place was filled with battleteam members that he had just seen at the gymnasium earlier, all standing in the lobby, chatting in groups of twos and threes.

Seeing them walk in, the room went quiet for a moment, then became even more lively than earlier, everyone obviously talking about Mix in low voices. Mo Huaifeng did not like such scenes, and his expression became slightly cold as he directly requested to be taken to their room.

Because Ji Zhiyao paid a few more glances to his surroundings, he dropped to be the last person behind the whole group. Just as he was about to enter the room and close the door, an arm suddenly stretched from the side hooked onto his shoulder, his entire body was pulled away and brought to the corner.

Ji Zhiyao looked up questioningly and found a young man grinning broadly at him. His appearance was someone that he had just seen earlier, Tall Boots’ Xiaoye.

Xiaoye greeted, “Mix battleteam’s jungler reserve, I don’t think I got it wrong?”

“It’s me. Nice to meet you Ye-god.”

“We’re all friends, don’t be so polite.” Xiaoye waved his hand nonchalantly, saying, “Last week I told Fi-god to get you to play the advancement match together, why didn’t you play?”

Ji Zhiyao appeared completely dumbfounded. “He didn’t.”

Xiaoye and him stared speechlessly at each other, after a very long time, he then kicked the wall out of anger, saying, “I’ve been lied to! Fi-god said it’s because I’m too lousy and cannot carry you. That’s why you didn’t want to play.”

What’s going on with him suddenly being made a horrid culprit out of nowhere?

Ji Zhiyao secretly held a grudge against Mo Huaifeng and hurriedly explained, “No. During Tall Boots’ first match earlier, I was watching the entire time, you played especially well.”

“Then I am at ease, I knew you wouldn’t have such bad taste. By the way, you must do your best in the matches that you will be playing later on. Two days ago Lan Guang told me, that he hopes to have a proper showdown with you.”

Ji Zhiyao’s heartbeat gradually quickened. Lan Guang was one of the top local junglers, to battle him face on had also been one of his long time wishes. During the training tournaments previously, the match against Tall Boots had been played by Xiao, hence Ji Zhiyao did not get the chance to play against Lan Guang. Hearing this now, he was naturally a little excited. “I will work hard.”

Xiaoye ended the conversation grinningly, “Then I go have my lunch. Knowing that there was no such matter, I feel much better, later on I must find Fi-god and deal with him properly.”

Ji Zhiyao parted with Xiaoye. When Xiaoye’s figure disappeared past the corner, he entered the private room for his own battleteam.

Everyone was already settled in their seats and were even done cleaning their cutlery already, there was only one empty seat left beside Mo Huaifeng.

Ji Zhiyao sat down.

Recalling Mo Huaifeng’s slander against him that he had heard from Xiaoye, Ji Zhiyao turned his gaze towards Mo Huaifeng, examining him once from top to bottom. Mo Huaifeng felt goosebumps rising all over him from his gaze and sent a questioning look.

“I was just checking if Captain was the roundworm in my stomach that had been missing for many years.”

Mo Huaifeng appeared blank.

“I met Ye-god just now.”

Mo Huaifeng was suddenly enlightened, but his expression had become slightly awkward.

Ji Zhiyao stared at him fiercely, Mo Huaifeng shot back, “What are you doing?”

Ji Zhiyao did not reply, instead he pulled out his phone from his pocket and typed: “Fi-god, just admit it if you’re jealous, don’t make it so obvious that you’re playing stupid.”

Heng and the rest were looking at the menu, wanting to see if there were any more dishes that they needed to add on. Suddenly remembering that because Ji Zhiyao had came in later and hadn’t even gotten the chance to look at the menu, Heng lifted his head while calling out, “NoHomo, see if there is anything else you want. Captain’s treat, no need to stand on ceremony with him.”

With that, Heng caught a glance of Mo Huaifeng, his eyes that carried a naughty smile froze, as he instantly jumped out, as if he had seen a ghost, “What the f*ck! What the f*ck! I actually managed to see Captain blushing in my lifetime, damn my life has no regrets now!”

Originally not a single person had seen it, but the moment Heng cried out loud, everyone now knew.

They looked towards Mo Huaifeng together all at once.

Ji Zhiyao looked too. Strictly speaking, Mo Huaifeng’s face was not red, he still looked like he had no expression, but his ears that were completely red betrayed his emotions.

Xiaofei asked, “Could it be that Captain drank some adulterated alcohol?”

K teased, “Though Captain did not smile at me, I can sense that, the winter jasmine in his heart has already bloomed.”

Ji Zhiyao snorted out loud, winter jasmine, props to K for being able to come up with that.

Mo Huaifeng stood up without a sound, when Heng who discovered the truth and K who made the most noise thought that they were about to get a beating, Nuo raised three fingers. “It has begun. Three, two, one!”

Mo Huaifeng opened the door of the private room, the sound of the door slamming matched the snap of Nuo’s fingers perfectly. “Bingo.”

The others looked confusedly towards Nuo, Nuo pulled back his hand, saying, “That’s right, that’s how it is. He doesn’t even have time to turn angry from embarrassment, you guys are safe for now.”

The others stared.

Everyone ate heartily during the meal, they boarded the base’s van and sat resting in the van for a while, before rushing towards the gymnasium once more.

Bug Battleteam vs X Battleteam was the competition that Ji Zhiyao was looking forward to the most.

Bug’s mid-laner DiamondJ had quit the team, making maintaining a full Chinese team difficult. Hence Bug battleteam gave up on having an all Chinese team and brought in a Korean reinforcement, Big Fish. Big Fish on Korean soil, was a very well known grassroots player, his combat capabilities in Heroes was within the top 15th rankings. Because there were many strong players in the Korean server, this result could be considered exceptionally good.

The competition was set to begin officially at 2:30PM, it was 1:40PM when they arrived back at the gymnasium after lunch, just enough for them to close their eyes for a short rest in the van.

Ji Zhiyao also leaned into the seat and slept for more than 20 minutes.

He was woken up by the alarm that he had set himself. When he woke up, the others were still in deep sleep, the entire vehicle was filled with the rising and falling sound of snores.

Ji Zhiyao raised the volume of the alarm to the loudest, then placed his phone in the air and shook it, it took four to five minutes before he woke all the rest.

They walked drowsily towards the special passageway for participants that the gymnasium had set up, walking in to find the seats they had sat in earlier.

There were already quite a lot of people in the audience, seeing them enter, female fans screamed out loud agitatedly, picking up their phones and snapping away.

K sat all the way in, he skipped towards is own seat, not forgetting to look at the same time as he waved at the audience.

When he sat down, he asked Xiaofei, “How was that, didn’t my pose earlier look especially handsome?”

Xiaofei answered truthfully, “I was all focused on looking at the hair that was standing up on your head, I wasn’t looking at your pose.”

K and Xiaofei’s voices weren’t soft, Ji Zhiyao heard everything perfectly clearly even when he was sitting on the outside. He laughed, then brought out his phone, took a few glances and laughed even harder. “Congrats K-god for gloriously ascending the Weibo trending searches.”

As they spoke, the preparation on the stage was done and set to go. The commentators picked up the mic and announced the start of the competition.

Both teams entered the stage and bowed to the audience.

Ji Zhiyao’s gaze landed on all the similar looking fatties from Bug and found the one that stood out amongst them. According to the playing position of a mid-laner, Big Fish stood second in place from the left, with a head of cool mid-length scenester-styled colored hair, very fair and clear skin, his expression calm, seeming like an introverted person.

Yet Mo Huaifeng overthrew Ji Zhiyao’s statement very quickly. “Big Fish plays very aggressively, mad dog style. I heard that no Korean battleteam dares to take him in, because of this reason.”

“Then he should be able to work rather well with their jungler Boom, jungler and mid-laner team up, they’re both very aggressive.”

“It’s the exact opposite. It’s said that Big Fish has very high expectations for his teammates, wanting them to cooperate with him unconditionally. Not only so, he’s always been wanting to snatch the command of Bug battleteam from their ADC Qiang.”

“The command isn’t anything else, how could a Korean reinforcement that was brought in be so demanding of the team?” Ji Zhiyao’s eyes were wide open. “Qiang has been Bug’s captain for more than three years yeah, the battleteam overall has been cooperating well, how is it possible that they would give it to him.”

Mo Huaifeng twitched the corner of his lips. “This is also the reason why I am unwilling to use foreign players even for reserves, they’re really too ambitious.”