Chapter 23.2: Was that damned new guy finally willing to come out?

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

The training match was in the afternoon. As they neared the afternoon, everyone queued for a match to warm up.

Wei Xiao was also eager and wanted to try, but he was only here to watch the match and could only stare on with wide eyes.

Tang Chen dutifully put his poor acting skills to use again, “Ouch…” He glanced at Wei Xiao.

Wei Xiao received the message and helped him curse, “That spicy chicken newcomer!”

Tang Chen continued to look at him, “Ouch, ow…”

Wei Xiao continued to help him scold the guy, “He’s a lazy bastard that doesn’t even come for training matches!”

Tang Chen was having difficulty continuing the act, “Owwww…”

Wei Xiao was very distressed for God Tang’s sake, “F*ck, what a dick!”

What was fortunate was that Wei Xiao had only cursed this guy in his heart.

Chen Feng couldn’t watch on anymore. Could that even be called acting?

This was called an uncouth show!

He glanced at Tang Chen, “Are you constipated?”

Tang Chen: “???”

Chen Feng: “If your neck isn’t broken, then just deal with it.”

Tang Chen looked at Wei Xiao again. He was practically about to start crying.

Wei Xiao couldn’t help himself and started, “How about…”

Everyone looked at him abruptly, their gazes all pinned on the same thing.

Except for Lu Feng––he was debugging his keyboard, his long fingers tapping lightly on the keys.

Wei Xiao: “I’ll go find a backrest for God Tang?”

Everyone in the training room: “………………”

Tang Chen: “F*ck!”

Wei Xiao: “Ah?”

Tang Chen hurriedly added, “I mean, thank you! But there’s no need. I’m fine, I can do it, it’s really no problem.”

Looking at this forced smile and listening to the grievance in his voice…

Heartache!

Those who knew the truth and those who didn’t all felt heartache and distress!

God Tang acknowledged one thing. He was only suited to playing games in this life. As for acting and so on, he should leave it to the professionals!

When the time came, L&P built a custom room and invited FTW.

Wei Xiao sat beside Chen Feng and watched the projection from a center seat.

Both teams entered the room, and Wei Xiao saw L&P’s line up.

As the runner ups for last year’s championship, L&P was a powerful team with a well-deserved reputation.

The five members of the team were all celebrities on the world’s personal ranking list.

Gary was L&P’s strongest player, but he wasn’t L&P’s team captain.

It was funny. As a North American team, the captain of L&P was a Chinese person––

Yuan Ze.

He was once the most invincible top-lane in FTW, guarding the canyon with a double-handed sword. If he guarded the pass, 10,000 troops still wouldn’t be enough to get through––Marshal!

He was also the senior who’d taken care of Close the most, brought him into Glory, won the world cup with him, and then left him at the peak of their glory.

The next year, Yuan Ze debuted as a L&P player and sent his old employer FTW into a round trip for the finals.

It was also in that year that he gave up his position in the singles competition when he learned that Lu Feng was participating and never signed up for the singles competition ever again.

As the singles participant for L&P, Gary fell beneath Lu Feng’s blade again and again.

However, FTW couldn’t win against L&P.

Lu Feng also didn’t have a chance to win against Yuan Ze.

This kindness, gratitude, grievance, and resentment was something that everyone in Glory knew. Wei Xiao was even able to recite it all from memory.

He looked at the IDs and frowned, “Yuan Ze isn’t playing?”

Chen Feng sneered, “Not sending up their second team is already considered as showing respect for us.”

Wei Xiao: “……”

He might be angry, but the gap between FTW and L&P was really quite significant. Even if they really arranged for their second team to play, it would still be hard to say if FTW would win or not.

On the L&P side, everyone other than their top-lane was from their starting line-up. Especially when it came to Gary, he immediately became excited when he saw Lu Feng and typed crazily in his crippled Chinese, “Close, wait for me to explode you!”

Lu Feng ignored him.

Old G amused himself, “Ten, I’m going to explode you ten times!”

Chen Feng was really disdainful, “Has Gary changed Chinese teachers? He now sounds like a non-mainstream speaker rather than a northerner?”

Wei Xiao: “It’s not non-mainstream.”

Chen Feng: “Hm?”

Wei Xiao: “Think about it, think carefully, this is clearly a blind imitation.”

“………………”

Looking at this Wei Xiaoxiao who was so clear on how to kill culture, Chen Feng was very worried!

Because it was a user-defined battle, the two teams soon entered the BP interface.

The so-called BP, was also an important part of a MOBA game.

Glory had 11 heroes and over 100 talents. Players had a myriad of choices and countless strategies available to them.

BP was the abbreviation of Ban and Pick. The former meant to disallow a hero from the match, and the latter was where heroes were selected. As the name suggested, the BP stage was a stage where heroes were disabled and chosen.

Although they hadn’t yet officially entered the canyon, the sparks of warfare were already ignited.

Banning was a whole area of study, and choosing heroes was an even bigger school of study.

If banning was used well, they could restrain the other side during their lineup setup. If successful, then one would have already won half the game.

If they didn’t use such tactics for a MOBA game, then they weren’t even qualified to play the game.

Wei Xiao stared at the projection, his heart cold.

L&P played really dirty. They had six ban spots, and they were all allocated to Close. Almost all of the heroes Lu Feng was most powerful with were banned.

Lu Feng’s hero pool was very deep. As a champion of the singles competition, there wasn’t anything he couldn’t use.

However, being able to use it didn’t mean it could just be used like that.

The hero lineup, restraint, and what was strong in the current version all needed to be considered in 5v5 matches…

In short, there were too many variables to consider. This was why there were so many usable jungler heroes.

Even if Lu Feng could use other heroes after his core heroes were banned, it still meant that FTW’s core line up had been infinitely compressed.

L&P’s BP setup had really attacked FTW.

If Lu Feng was suppressed, then FTW would have already lost halfway. This sentence was one that had circulated around the international arena for a long time.

Wei Xiao was angry watching it, but he didn’t do anything.

FTW took Lu Feng as their absolute core. As their core, he could only be oppressed like this.

There were also teams in domestic competitions who dealt with FTW like this, but the players had different ability levels, and it was impossible for a domestic team without a top-class player to target Lu Feng continuously.

As long as they couldn’t target Lu Feng to death, FTW would still have a chance to win the game.

As the head coach, Chen Feng had absolute say during the BP segment.

He wouldn’t force anyone to pick up a certain hero, but as a spectator, he could also see the situation on the other side.

This was very important, since he could remind the players in the game to make more accurate decisions.

After ten minutes of back and forth, the line up was determined.

Although Lu Feng had been suppressed, Old G didn’t have it easy, either.

Since they were all aiming at junglers, then they would target them until the end. The remaining ‘old, weak, sick and disabled’ hero options would all rely on their personal strength!

After the match began, Wei Xiao forgot to even blink.

Professional players would never perform the same kind of brainless rush that casual passerby players did. Every step and every action was well thought out in advance.

The support Bai Cai was responsible for opening up the field of vision and feeling out the whereabouts of the other team.

The mid-lane Ning Zhehan stepped cautiously and focused on leveling while keeping an eye on the dynamics between the rest of the team.

The bottom lane’s Yue Wenle looked very relaxed, but in fact, his position was the riskiest because junglers liked to target the ADC who were weak in the early stages and became crazy in the later stages.

The jungler was Lu Feng. He could finish off the jungler creeps very quickly and didn’t waste a single second of his time while seizing the resources in the canyon.

The top-lane…

Wei Xiao was a little worried about Tang Chen. His neck situation was so serious, yet he had to concentrate and slowly grind down the health of his opponent top-laner. He was under great pressure.

Although L&P’s top-lane wasn’t Yuan Ze, this person’s operations level was also top notch, and his skills were slightly superior to even the experienced Tang Chen as they fought in the same lane.

Wei Xiao vaguely sensed that the situation wasn’t good. This top-laner might make a breakthrough, and as it turned out…

In the first 15 minutes, the two sides had a lot of back and forth, and nobody held any big advantage. At 10:45, Tang Chen was solo killed by L&P’s top-laner, leaving a sudden gap in their defenses. L&P was like a wolf pack that had scented blood as they flew over and aced FTW in a 5v4 fight!

Wei Xiao clenched his fists tight. He really wished he could go up and play!

F*ck! They were such bullies!

God Tang was retired, but they were still abusing him so cruelly. It was too aggravating!

L&P was a team with very good operations. If they were given an opportunity to snowball, then one just had to wait for the avalanche!

40 minutes later, FTW was powerless and lost the match.

The training room fell into deep silence. Ning Zhehan’s experience was limited. He clutched at the mouse tightly, and his face was pale.

Yue Wenle also stared fixedly at the screen.

Chen Feng looked over, “Not bad. You guys managed to hold on for 40 minutes.”

Ning Zhehan was ashamed, “I made too many mistakes and was cut to death by Gary.”

In the last group fight, Ning Zhehan had died too early and hadn’t played out the DPS he should have output.

However, Lu Feng had also killed L&P’s mage, so the other side had also been lacking a major DPS dealer.

Tang Chen wasn’t acting this time. He spoke sincerely, “I’m old and can’t keep up.”

FTW’s lineup this time favored the later stages. If they’d been able to hold on for another five minutes, it would have been hard to say who would win and lose.

Unfortunately…

Chen Feng looked at him, “Still alright?”

Tang Chen’s neck really did hurt a little. He rubbed his temples, “What can we do if I’m not?”

Wei Xiao was to the side, his heart clenching fiercely. His hand was clenched even more tightly, but what could he do? He couldn’t do anything!

Chen Feng glanced at Lu Feng.

Lu Feng took off his headset. “Change people.”

Wei Xiao turned his head sharply to look at him.

Was that damned new guy finally willing to come out?

Who could’ve known that Lu Feng’s gaze would shift to him. Their eyes met, and Wei Xiao’s heart thumped hard.

Lu Feng: “Come play?”

Wei Xiao’s eyes opened wide, “Me?”

He pointed at himself.

The room became even quieter. It was even quieter than it had been when they just lost the game earlier!

It was a very big training room, but it seemed that only the sound of Wei Xiao’s breathing was left.

Lu Feng looked at him, “L&P is very strong. Want to try?”

Wei Xiao was tempted as soon as this remark came out!

L&P was really very strong.

All five people were very strong. Especially this substitute top-lane that pressured God Tang…

Wei Xiao was uncertain, “Can I?”

Tang Chen couldn’t help himself, “F*ck, if you can’t, who can?! Hurry up and get over here, laozi’s neck is about to break!”

To hell with putting on an act, just drive the kid over. That was the real way to do it!

Wei Xiao, who’d just been pressed into the e-sports chair by the ‘seriously injured’ Tang Chen was still a little confused.

Tang Chen: “Hurry, log in to your account.”

Wei Xiao: “Oh…”

He hadn’t reacted yet. Why did he need to switch accounts? Couldn’t he just use Tang Chen’s?

On the L&P side, the non-mainstream Old G began to yak on again, “Why’s there a change- who ix Professor?”

This Martian text made Wei Xiao’s eyes ache. He touched the keyboard and typed out two words to calm himself down.

And then…

The FTW training room became even more f*cking quiet!

Inside the battle room chat box––

Gary: “Why’s there a change- who ix Professor?”

Professor: “Your daddy.”

Juurensha: Finally forced WX to play! And yesss for face-con Soybean (he’s going to love living here, isn’t he)

apricot: why does this novel have so many good lines T.T

xiin: YES FINALLY