Chapter 26: CH 26

About feeling too dull and boring, Xiao Yin also took off his eye mask and started looking at his phone.

After some struggles, RongYi finally finished a relaxing massage session. The masseuse brought over some tea, and Rong Yi lay flat on his back, almost losing all his energy.

The crying and howling from the neighboring room continued until almost the same time, like a few fish flapping around until they finally died.

Although the process was painful, Rong Yi did feel relaxed after the massage.

Rong Yi lay there for a while, almost falling asleep. He heard Xiao Yin getting up to drink tea and opened his eyes, struggling to sit up and weakly going to get some water.

Xiao Yin sat cross-legged in front of him, drinking tea with his head down. Rong Yi felt lazy and didn’t say anything, sipping the tea from his cup. The tea had some refreshing spices in it, which was invigorating.

“Let’s go.”

After some time had passed, Rong Yi checked his phone and got up, suggesting they leave.

Xiao Yin nodded and followed him out the door.

The world outside was bright.

The three kids in the neighboring room had been quiet for a long time. Rong Yi peeked in and saw that all three of them had fallen asleep.

Their assistant woke them all up, and the VIT group thanked and bid farewell to Lin Yi.

This was their last day off before the A group competition.

Lin Yi often travels with the commentary team and doesn’t stay in the city for long. Before leaving, he held onto Rong Yi and gave him a hug: “Yi Cub, keep up the good work! Although we can’t say it on the surface, I hope VIT will win the championship this year! Bring them down for me!”

Rong Yi nodded and hugged back tightly, “I will!”

The group returned to the club. Hui Mao and Ci She are young and after the massage, they look refreshed and still need to train late at night to maintain their feel. Rong Yi, on the other hand, is getting old and tired, and he hesitates between practicing overtime and going to bed. It was then that Xiao Yin said to him, “Go to sleep. Let’s discuss the regular A-team game plan tomorrow morning.”

Rong Yi thought about it and agreed, thinking that Xiao Yin made sense. He walked upstairs, thinking Xiao Yin would stay to work overtime, but Xiao Yin also walked upstairs and turned off the equipment. It seemed that he was going to rest.

Rong Yi spoke without thinking, walking to his own door and tilting his head, then suddenly asked Xiao Yin, “Do you want to sleep together?”

Xiao Yin clearly hesitated for a moment.

Rong Yi was stunned himself and then cursed himself for his brain not functioning properly. This was something he used to say to XiaoYin often when they were dating, usually even more brazenly – he would directly ask, “Brother, will you sleep with me?”

With their recent high level of intimacy, he couldn’t help but want to tease and flirt with Xiao Yin whenever he saw him, which was a dangerous line to cross.

As expected, Xiao Yin paused for a moment and said, “Not today.”

Finally, Rong Yi breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he saw Xiao Yin lower his head to check his phone and flip through the calendar. “Can we do it on the 5th of next month?” he asked.

Rong Yi stuttered and forgot how to save the situation. “Uh, then maybe we can talk about it when the time comes.”

“Okay, we’ll talk then,” Xiao Yin nodded, then went back to his room.

Rong Yi shook as he returned to his own room and looked at the calendar hanging on the wall. This month had just started, and if they followed the second round of regular matches in Group A, there would be four consecutive matches with little to no rest time.

The 5th of next month happened to be the end of the second round of regular matches, and the five-day holiday would immediately lead into the knockout phase.

He joked with Xiao Yin, but it seemed like Xiao Yin didn’t take it as a joke. He seriously picked a time when he was free.

Rong Yi decided to control his mouth from now on.

After returning to VIT, he finally slept a full night’s sleep.

When playing matches outside, he usually has trouble sleeping because the environment is unfamiliar, and he can’t relax until he’s used to the bed and surroundings.

The next day, Rong Yi woke up feeling refreshed and was at his station at 6:30 a.m., studying the schedule for Group A.

They had already completed their matches in Group B and were promoted to Group A. In the second round of the regular season, all team’s points were reset, and the matchups were determined based on the previous promotion and relegation rankings.

He glanced at the message sent by the event organizer, paused for a moment, and then laughed, feeling somewhat complicated.

Their first match in the second round of the regular season was actually against RS.

Unlike the first round of matches, where each group played against its own members, after the second round, there were usually internal matches within Groups S and A, with the ranking determined by the number of wins and losses, to decide the seating for the playoffs.

Xiao Yin also came down with a cup of coffee and saw him studying the schedule, so he came over to look with him.

“Do you know what RS has been up to lately?” Xiao Yin asked.

Rong Yi shook his head.

The team’s AI analysis had always been completed by Xiao Yin alone, while Rong Yi had a more intuitive sense of strategy and opinions, with Xiao Yin responsible for adopting and implementing the strategies based on the data.

“They’ve been playing pretty chaotically lately. I’ve watched their entrance matches, but they’re getting better,” Xiao Yin said.

“During competitions outside, he usually has trouble falling asleep because the environment is unfamiliar, the bed is not his own, and he can’t feel at ease.

The next day, Rong Yi got up refreshed and ready at 6:30 am to study the schedule for Group A.

They had already completed the schedule for Group B and moved up to Group A. In the second round of the regular season, all team scores were reset, and they faced off based on their previous promotion and relegation rankings.

He looked at the message sent by the tournament organizers and paused for a moment. After taking a second look, he couldn’t help but smile, feeling a bit complicated.

In their first match of the second round, they were actually going to play against RS.

Unlike the first round where each group played against each other, in the second round, it was mainly a round-robin within the S and A groups. They would be ranked based on their win-loss records, and their positions in the subsequent elimination rounds would be determined accordingly.

Xiao Yin also came down with a cup of coffee and saw him studying the schedule, so he sat down to look with him.

“Do you know anything about RS’s recent performance?” Xiao Yin asked.

Rong Yi shook his head.

Xiao Yin had always been the one to analyze this part alone, while Rong Yi had more intuitive feelings and ideas about strategy. Xiao Yin was responsible for adopting and implementing these strategies based on the data.

“They’ve been playing pretty chaotically lately, and I watched their entrance matches, but they’re getting better,” Xiao Yin said.

Rong Yi pulled up the list of coaches for RS, and the head coach who had already been announced was a well-known coach named Zhou Shanyang, who had been poached from another team.

“Coach Zhou has been in the league for more than five years, and his experience is definitely rich. He’s also good at poaching people,” Rong Yi closed his eyes and thought about several matchups, “His BP skills are very strong, he’s good at dismantling fires, and he likes to switch players.”

“Likes to switch players?” Xiao Yin caught onto a key point.

Rong Yi raised the corner of his lips, “But whether or not RS lets him switch is another issue.”

Besides this, the coach had a long-standing problem of resorting to any means necessary on the field, such as seizing any opportunity and reason to request a rematch when in a disadvantageous position. Additionally, he was known to take advantage of the tournament format, such as in a single elimination tournament where there were always loopholes to exploit. For example, he might send out his second team to play a match, even if the second team players were banned, the main team members would still play without incident.

Everything he did was within the rules, but he and Rong Yi did not see eye-to-eye.

Besides this, the coach’s skills were indeed very strong.

As a support and commanding core, Rong Yi had once been thoroughly researched by him, and they had played many difficult matches.

“There’s one more thing,” Xiao Yin read the report sent by the operation team and handed it to him, “Your popularity rating is about to surpass the first place.”

Rong Yi: “?”

He took the report and looked at it, then went to the league’s official website to check.

Under strict voting validation, his votes unexpectedly soared all the way, and now he’s only two thousand and some votes away from the second place, leaving the third place far behind.

On the official website, his black little avatar stands out at the second position, very conspicuous.

It’s a bit surreal.

The operations team seems to have expected it though–although Xiao Yin treats their department like air, they still have some aspirations for their small business, and they upload short videos of member highlights every day. They happily handed over the report.

“The few games that B group played, the way Captain Rong played was really good–aggressive and with a lot of kills. This play style is the most popular among viewers. The views of those few videos have already increased. And coupled with Yu being a trendy hero, this result isn’t surprising. As long as the Captain puts in a little more effort, it’s not impossible to rank first.”

“It’s hard to say.”

Rong Yi lightly shook his head.

He didn’t have this competitive heart, but money and ranking were being handed to him on a silver platter, and normal people wouldn’t refuse. It’s just that he’s been in RS for too long and is too familiar with those small fan’s tactics.

“They’re still holding back and haven’t put forth their full effort.” Rong Yi said calmly, “Small fans and the RS official will both save their accounts and data, and in the last few days they’ll go crazy and rush to the top. These past few days they’ve just been trying to hold onto my position.”

After saying that, he smiled to himself.

Boring, so boring.

“But can I try to compete for first place?” Xiao Yin suddenly said.

Rong Yi glanced at him, feeling a bit curious and surprised.

“I’m used to being first in everything, and I’m not used to second place.” Xiao Yin said, “You’re my person, so the standards are unified in this aspect.”

Rong Yi: “…”

Xiao Yin, truly a top torture king and perfectionist.

Xiao Yin said, “Don’t worry, we have a sense of proportion in this matter, you don’t have to worry about it.”

“We don’t need unconventional means, I know you don’t like it,” and with a gesture to the operations staff, they nodded and went to work on the other side.

Since he said it like that, it was difficult for Rong Yi to insist, so he nodded.

He soon forgot about the matter. Hui Mao and a few others got up and Rong Yi quickly called them over to practice their coordination.

At 9 pm, all of them had finished their coordination training for the second round of the regular season.

Rong Yi lay on the sofa eating potato chips while Hui Mao sat next to him scrolling through his phone, suddenly saying, “Captain’s votes have really skyrocketed, he’s almost in first place.”

These kids always secretly pay attention to this matter, there is no other reason but that teenagers are competitive, they regard him as their captain, and each person is an integral part of VIT, which is clear to all four of them.

Ever since the last encounter with the people from RS, this grudge has been formed.

Rong Yi checked his account after a while.

He hadn’t logged into the public platform account for a long time, but when he did, the part of his large account that had lost a significant amount of followers had all been restored, and it was still growing.

Upon searching, it was the result of VIT’s operations.

Every day, the official account posts highlights of several platforms, such as him performing extreme escapes under Lu Feng’s command, or getting a pentakill in another B-group team’s match, which have become popular highlight moments.

The other members of VIT also gained more fans, but none of them are as popular as him.

Xiao Yin himself doesn’t have an account on this platform, his reputation has already been established and spread through word of mouth, and he doesn’t really care about these fans.

The VIT operations are mainly for paving the way for a few young children in China.

Without saying a word, Rong Yi watched the regular matches of other teams while eating chips. When he opened the platform, he saw that today’s match was between RS and LA.

LA’s performance has been declining in recent years. They struggled and were relegated to B last year, and only managed to come back to A last season. They have been hanging at the bottom of A group.

In the new season, LA has changed several players, including some popular ones. Rong Yi was also interested in their match against RS and thought it would be worth watching.

As the game started, Rong Yi focused all his attention and watched with his headphones on.

After watching for a while, Xiao Yin walked over and sat next to him, watching the game together. Rong Yi gave him one of his headphones.

RS should have easily crushed LA, as they hardly lost a regular match last year.

However, the team has been restructured, and Xiao Yun, as Rong Yi’s support, has just joined the starting lineup. It’s impossible for him to not feel any pressure, so it all depends on his performance.

According to league rules, new players are not scolded when starting a game. Xiao Yun’s play is average and she hasn’t lost a game since the one at the World Championships.

Today, the commentator is someone that Rong Yi doesn’t recognize. The league changes so quickly, and so do the commentators.

At the beginning of the game, both commentators and guests predicted that RS would win against LA 3:2.

This is somewhat unusual. Rong Yi tilted his head and felt that it should be 3:0.

LA is not the type of team that can confront RS head-on. You can tell this within the first five minutes of the game, even though they have changed players, they still have the old system.

However, the commentator seemed to attach great importance to this prediction: “What we want to say is that LA has shown a significant improvement in this season’s regular games, especially after changing players. They have won three consecutive games, which is really inspiring. They are now facing the league’s strongest team RS. If they win another game, then it is really something to be proud of, and even moving up to the S group is a possibility!”

With this kind of warm-up, fans from both sides were fiercely speculating. The atmosphere was very well crafted.

The results on the field were also very surprising. RS was unexpectedly evenly matched with LA this round, losing 1:2 in the first three games.

The most abnormal player was the support player, Xiao Yun.

Rong Yi lowered his eyelids and furrowed his brows: “Did Coach Zhou teach him this? He wasn’t this aggressive when he played support before, but he seems a bit…”

“A bit too showy,” Xiao Yin interjected.

Hui Mao also joined in, protesting: “Captain, don’t pay attention to the other supports, watch me more.”

Rong Yi smiled and gave him a seat, allowing Hui Mao to come in and watch together.

Today, LA’s offense was very strong, but as the former captain of RS, he felt it was somewhat strange to see LA being so strong.

You can be as strong as you want, but the clear breeze still blows over the mountain.

It’s not that he’s blindly confident in RS, but objectively speaking, there’s something weird about this.

It wasn’t until the second half, with RS on match point, that Xiao Yun successfully made a comeback with a team fight while defending the crystal, securing the victory.

The barrage was instantly flooded with a lot of compliments.

“What is a top support! This is it! Top support Xiao Yun!”

“Life and death depend on support! RS, how much more surprises are you going to give us!”

The two commentators also gave a lot of compliments.

But Capable still frowned.

Hui Mao also furrowed his brow: “This support is a bit… I don’t know how to say it, is this the level of RS?”

Rong Yi took off his headphones and looked at Hui Mao and Xiao Yin: “What do you guys think?”

“Talking about LA playing a fake game, we can discuss it in our team,” said by Xiao Yin in a flat tone. “Today’s game is indeed unusual, both sides changed their playing styles. RS went invisible in the bottom lane and blatantly supported their assist.”

Rong YI raised his eyebrows.

He knew the RS manager had no bottom line, and he knew the group of teenagers in the team had deep conflicts with him, but he still couldn’t believe they could break the bottom line to do such things.

“I know a little about LA. They dropped to group B last season due to management issues. They wanted to restructure their assets, but negotiations didn’t go well, and they were about to withdraw,” said Xiao Yin. “They approached me when I returned to China and asked if I was interested in taking over their team. I refused.”

Rong Yi took a deep breath.

“Understood.”

For both sides, this was a win-win situation.

RS intentionally changed their playing style, allowing Xiao Yun to aggressively open up the team fights and become famous with a remarkable performance.

LA could win an extra game in the big score, which meant they could continue to survive for one more day. Although they were giving Xiao Yun the spotlight, they were not losing anything.

Rong Yi couldn’t tolerate any sand in his eyes. He had never thought there was such a possibility.

He would rather believe that Xiao Yin was lying, but when he closed the exit page, the whole platform had already started the hype.

“#RS Xiao Yun turned the tables with an extreme move and succeeded in a 4v1 comeback#”

“#Reactions of major streamers tonight#”

“RS Xiao Yun”

The search volume was soaring.

With this move, the first and second places in the popularity poll quickly opened up the gap.

If Rong YIi had some basic respect for RS as a stranger he had worked with before, now he was completely disappointed.

Xiao Yin turned his head and leaned against the sofa. He suddenly lightly touched Rong Yi’s face with his fingertips.

Rong Yi was startled.

Everyone was present, but Xiao Yin’s fingertips were still on his cheek without letting go. He spoke in a calm and composed tone, “We are playing against them next Tuesday.”

“Playing too many roles makes it hard to know what’s real.”