Chapter 157

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

As expected, he found one.

It was about Bug battleteam whom he was very concerned about.

[Title: About the question of why a certain Korean reinforcement did not go on.

Everyone should have watched the national qualifiers this afternoon, some people might have such a question, why did Big Fish who played the 1v1 not appear even once in the three matches of 5v5 later on, and was instead swapped with an unknown young reserve?

OP has a friend who is volunteering during these few days at the gymnasium, he could be considered half a staff member. OP then found out that, for the 1v1, Qiang did not intend on sending Big Fish on at all. During the final confirmation of information, Big Fish secretly changed the name of the participant without permission, that was why he got to go on.

There’s something even more shocking, at that time my friend happened to walk past and heard Big Fish saying something like Chinese are unworthy of eSports, Qiang was especially agitated, in immense anger, he almost got into a fight with Big Fish.

OP thinks, this is probably the reason why Big Fish wasn’t put on. But I somehow feel that their club should have considered beforehand about how Big Fish should act to attract fans, Qiang has probably offended all the club and the Korean reinforcement players.

That is all.

I am a passerby turned fan of Qiang now.]

[1st comment: Is this information true? Although I find that Big Fish plays too aggressively, but he looks very delicate, how could he be so insolent.]

[2nd comment: Agree with OP’s view, have already become a fan of Qiang. It’s not up to others to criticize the great China!]

[3rd comment: I’m about to die laughing from the 1st comment, you may know a person’s face, but not his heart, get it? Fortunately I never had a favorable impression of Big Fish.]

[4th comment: At this time I really miss my great Diamond. If DiamondJ was here there wouldn’t have been so many trivial matters!]

[5th comment: Although Big Fish’s words are very inappropriate, but it’s not right to rob someone’s right to compete too.]

[6th comment: Hoho, the one above what do you mean? Sucking up to the Korean reinforcement? Chinese are the ones giving him his salary and he still has the face to act that way?]

[7th comment: I hope the Korean reinforcement gets out of China! I want Bug battleteam to still be an all Chinese team!]

[8th comment: No matter what he’s still better than the one with an abnormal sexual orientation.]

...

Damn, turns out there really was an inside story.

Ji Zhiyao raised his phone and said anxiously, “All of you quickly go look at Tieba!”

“What post?” Nuo questioned perplexedly.

“I’ll send the link into the group, you guys take a look.” Ji Zhiyao sent the web page link into the WeChat group, then handed his phone to Mo Huaifeng, Mo Huaifeng took it very naturally and skimmed through it quickly.

A few minutes later, Nuo said, “Just by looking at his mad dog style of playing I already felt that he wasn’t anything good. Indeed.”

Mo Huaifeng returned the phone to Ji Zhiyao, saying indifferently, “It’s most likely true.”

Ji Zhiyao asked nervously, “Then will Qiang be banned from competing?”

“No.”

Ji Zhiyao’s eyes lit up. “Really? That’s great.”

Mo Huaifeng’s lips curved slightly. Though Yuan Wei who saw this scene had not been hinted at to speak, he still clarified the stakes clearly, saying, “For this matter, it is after all an internal conflict of the battleteam. If Qiang did not raise a hand, it definitely won’t go as far as being banned from competing; if he did, as long as the club keeps things under and settles it in private, Qiang will not be banned from competing. Let alone Qiang has reason on his side. If the club bans Qiang from competing, aren’t they in another way, admitting that the club bought a Korean reinforcement that slandered China. In such a situation, they know what to do with their options.”

Ji Zhiyao understood him and said in relief, “That’s good.”

Mo Huaifeng turned to him. “So, if you have time to study gossip here, why aren’t you reading the information of our opponents tomorrow?”

“... Got it.”

Mo Huaifeng continued to rest with his eyes closed, Ji Zhiyao made a face at him, then opened the materials that the stats analyzer had uploaded.

An old friend, Stickers battleteam.

Stickers’ mid-laner, “God’s Left Hand”, one person carrying the entire team,

Sticker’s jungler, the model of persistent hounding.

They played once against each other the previous time during the performance tournament tour, Ji Zhiyao’s memory of this battleteam, was limited to only that.

But a long time had passed since the performance tournament tour, the stats analyzer’s database had been refreshed with a new batch of information and records.

Ji Zhiyao opened a video.

This video was composed of many single parts, Ji Zhiyao finished watching it once, then replayed the part that belonged to Stickers’ jungler.

In the video, Sticker’s jungler had two players of his opponent team at his heels and was only left with a single bar of health. Before he was about to walk into the defense turret, he paused for a moment, giving the two players a chance to throw themselves forward.

Then Stickers’ jungler released his ultimate ability.

Pushing the opposite mid-laner slightly to the side by his stun, the angle was very ingenious, as it just happened to be within the range of the turret, the opposite mid-laner was still disorientated and was directly worn to death by the turret.

Whereas on the other side, Stickers’ jungler seemed to have grown an eye in the sky, he left the mid-laner alone and instead used his abilities right away, working hard at poking the opposite jungler that was being held back by him.

With a trifle of health, wiped out two opponents with half their health each, this could be known as an educational historic scene.

This jungler had made a tremendous improvement!

Ji Zhiyao told himself that he must be completely focused during their competition, he must, when everyone thought that Stickers was about to rise up, hold on tightly to the skin of the back of their jungler’s neck.

That’s right, that’s the way!

The van came to a stop, they’d arrived at the base.

The national qualifiers had prepared a four-star hotel for participating players to stay in. But considering that the venue was in S City itself, not far from Mix’s base, everyone chose to return to the base to train and sleep.

Pushing open the front door of the base, Heng inhaled fiercely. “My god, there exists such a scent that is so pleasing and refreshing. Our base, I’m back!”

K shouted, “Heng you bastard stop right there! Actually running all around the villa with your shoes on! Auntie just tidied the place today, I’ll kill you!”

Both of them were a tumbling mess, the others followed behind, watching on as they entered. After some time, K and Heng became tired and walked into the training room, collapsing into the chairs, panting.

Mo Huaifeng asked, “Are you guys confident of thrashing Stickers tomorrow?”

His voice sounded nonchalant, but K and Heng instantly sat upright upon hearing it, K said, “Don’t worry Captain, we’ve been through all the great storms, we won’t capsize in a small sewer.”

Heng nodded in agreement.

Mo Huaifeng scoffed, then said to everyone, “For tomorrow’s competition, 1v1 Heng will go, 3v3, me, Heng, Ji Zhiyao, for 5v5, we’ll have Heng and Xiaofei, Xiao and Ji Zhiyao taking turns, any questions?”

Everyone indicated that there was none.

“Then we’ll train first.”

The moment they started training, it went on all the way past 9PM.

Ji Zhiyao was seriously starving and ordered a takeaway of spicy hotpot, then curled up in his chair, preparing to take a break.

He picked up his phone and scrolled Weibo.

Regarding the revelation posted on Tieba in the afternoon, Bug had given a response.

[BugOfficialWeiboV:

Announcement:

This afternoon, during the opening match of the national qualifiers, our team’s current mid-laner Big Fish went against the team’s internal rules, tampering with the application form without permission; at the same time, made insulting remarks towards Chinese eSports. The battleteam and the club have decided after a discussion that Big Fish will be banned indefinitely from competing as punishment, during the national qualifiers, the duties of a mid-laner will be handed over to the reserve Puppet Cat.

We are grateful for everyone’s support and thank you to all the friends who like Bug Battleteam, we will continue to forge ahead with our original aspirations in mind.]

Banned indefinitely from competing, this also meant that Big Fish as their mid-laner would not be used again, all the way until his contract expires. This essentially equates to him being useless already. Bug battleteam was putting everything on the line, to give the public an answer.

But this way, with Bug battleteam’s current capability, it would be very difficult for them to make it into the top three.

Ji Zhiyao couldn’t help but feel slightly regretful.

He sighed, then went on to read other posts.

As the qualifiers have officially opened, the revelations and comments in the scene about the participating battleteams have increased. Ji Zhiyao read and scrolled and found another shocking piece of information.

Skitters’ current jungler was sleeping with his fan!

The account that revealed this was an alternate account on Weibo, but because there were records of conversations on WeChat, in addition to the fact that Skitters’ current jungler had publicly showed off his girlfriend previously, the amount of reposts had already exceeded 2000.

Ji Zhiyao tapped to open the image and realized that the display picture of Skitters’ jungler in this screenshot was exactly the same as the one lying in his WeChat contacts, the way he chatted was also very similar.

If it wasn’t someone paying big money to mess with Skitters’ jungler, this information was most certainly true.

It gave Ji Zhiyao such a scare that he silently lifted his water glass and drank a mouthful of water to steady his nerves.

Yet the sound of him swallowing was a little loud, Mo Huaifeng was not wearing earphones, and heard it very clearly, hence he asked, “Are you a water buffalo? Drinking so loudly.”

“... I didn’t, I’m not, I’m not admitting it.”

He pushed Mo Huaifeng’s arm lightly. “Some revealed that Skitters’ jungler is sleeping with his fan, yet it seems like he already has a girlfriend.”

“What has it got to do with you, it’s not even you who did it. What’s there to be agitated about?”

Seems rather logical, he had no way of rebutting that.

Hence Ji Zhiyao hugged his phone and went silent.

Another ten plus minutes passed before the delivery man called to inform him to go out. Ji Zhiyao brought his takeaway back in slippers and opened the box. The aroma of the spicy hotpot was very strong, very quickly, the entire training room was filled with its spicy smell, so tempting that it made the rest not want to continue to train anymore.

Xiao found his phone and ordered the exact same thing. Nuo patted his tummy and asked, “NoHomo, let us brothers share the food?”

Ji Zhiyao swallowed a mouthful of beancurd skin, then grinned. “No. I got you to order takeaway with me earlier, you said you wanted to lose weight.”

Nuo who wanted to lose weight hugged himself sorrowfully.

But the spicy hotpot from this place was really quite delicious, Ji Zhiyao took a few bites, then picked up a piece of crab meat and moved it to the side of Mo Huaifeng’s mouth. “Captain, have a taste.”

Xiao chimed in, “NoHomo just give up, Captain has always hated eating the food that another person has eaten...”

Before he had finished his sentence, Xiao turned silent.

Because Mo Huaifeng bowed his head and took the crab meat that Ji Zhiyao was holding into his mouth, without the slightest bit of hesitation.

The others stared on.

Mo Huaifeng swallowed after chewing a few times, then commented, “Not bad indeed.”

Ji Zhiyao pulled back his chopsticks, fully satisfied and continued to eat his food.

As he ate, he realized that everyone else with the exception of Mo Huaifeng was looking at him, hence he stared back with a confused expression.

Xiao sighed, “My son, right now I’m still suspecting that, the reason why Captain abducted you back here was to prepare to use you as a child bride.”

Ji Zhiyao almost choked to death on a mouthful of rice.

K added some embellishments, “Tsk tsk tsk, the world is going to the dogs, human hearts are no longer what they were in the past.”

Mo Huaifeng stated without even turning his head. “Shut up and train.”

With the exception of Ji Zhiyao, everyone else instantly curled up, shivering.

...

As they were competing in the afternoon, the members of Mix did not go to the gymnasium to watch the matches in the morning, instead they had a good sleep, then went for a charcoal barbecue lunch close to noon. Having eaten and drank their fill, they then drove to the gymnasium.

The first round of competition in the afternoon, was Mix vs Stickers battleteam.

Everyone stayed in the waiting room, when the entrance of the 1v1 player was announced outside, Heng stood up and adjusted his wrist guard while saying, “I’m going, my brothers.”

He was after all a man who had seen the storms, there wasn’t a bit of nervousness in his expression. The stats analyzer nodded, together with a word of blessing, “If you can’t win, then don’t come back anymore.”

Heng walked grinningly out of the waiting room.

There was an LCD screen in the waiting room, sourced from the same setup as the several times bigger one that was facing the audience in the gymnasium, allowing them to watch the players compete from an omniscient point of view.

Ji Zhiyao stared earnestly at the screen, watching as Heng and Stickers’ mid-laner bow.

A solo match officially began.

When it came to picking champions, Heng instantly locked a champion that he was very skilled in. What was unexpected was that, Stickers’ mid-laner also locked the exact same one.

This was a mirror image!

As they first entered Heroes Valley, Heng saw his opponent’s choice, he froze for a second, then continued moving to the turret in the middle lane with the minions and saw Sticker’s mid-laner under the turret opposite.

After wiping out the minions and smoothly leveling up to level two, Heng directly pounced onto Stickers’ mid-laner, attacking with two abilities and his auto-attack. But because there wasn’t enough damage, Stickers’ mid-laner had already managed to get out of Heng’s attack range when he was left with one-third of his health.

Heng was not dejected and made a few circles in the most centralized spot, then shifted back to under the defense turret, to wait for the second wave of minions.

Because he missed out several minions, Stickers’ mid-laner’s gold and level was a small cut below Heng’s throughout, and only dared to hide behind the minions, cowardly killing a few of the opposing minions.

Watching to this point, Ji Zhiyao was basically certain, that Heng would surely win this match.

Stickers’ mid-laner seemed to have sensed the bad turn in his situation, when he knew that he wouldn’t be a match for Heng, began to use the strategy of harassing from time to time. But Heng was stable as always, completely unaffected by his provocation, his mind all on throwing his abilities and auto-attacks onto Stickers’ mid-laner.

The health of Stickers’ mid-laner dropped rapidly, Heng grabbed the chance, after a set of damage, successfully took the kill.

As there wasn’t anymore obstacles, the minions destroyed half of Stickers’ defense turret. Heng walked over after finishing off Stickers’ mid-laner, then destroyed the other half of the turret at once.

With the various advantages in level, gold and defense turret, Stickers’ mid-laner lost out in his offense and was killed once more, three minutes after respawning.

The first round, Mix was victorious.

Heng returned back to the waiting room through the participant’s passageway, Nuo stepped forward and bumped elbows with him.

The stats analyzer noted a few things on his notebook, saying at the same time, “Not bad, you won quite easily. May the next round be the same.”

Heng was very pleased. “We will. Old Ning, you must have some confidence in us.”

The stats analyzer rolled up the book in his hand and dropped it on Heng’s head. “Don’t be complacent, if you make a mistake in the next round, I’ll let Captain settle you.”

Heng was instantly frightened.