Chapter 172

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Ji Zhiyao frowned.

They were within an inch of victory for this match.

Mo Huaifeng rotated his wrist. “Stop dozing, let’s return to the waiting room for a break.”

Heng yawned. “I’m dead tired. Wrong choice of champions for this match, we can’t play like this for the next.”

They entered the participants passageway as they chatted. Nearing the waiting room, Ji Zhiyao said, “You all go in first, I’m going to the washroom.”

Mo Huaifeng replied, “Don’t we have one in the waiting room?”

“I want to poop.”

Hence Ji Zhiyao was jointly chased away by the four other people.

Ji Zhiyao made a few turns and came to the public washroom for participants set up by the gymnasium, then directly entered an empty cubicle, put down the toilet cover and sat on top.

He actually did not need the toilet and had came out for the sake of finding a spot to scroll Tieba and Weibo, to see what others were saying.

Reading Tieba and Weibo during competitions was something that both the stats analyzer and Mo Huaifeng explicitly banned, in order to not affect their mood to compete after. Yet Ji Zhiyao really couldn’t hold it in and so could only find a place to secretly go on these platforms.

He first went to Tieba.

In less than two minutes after the second match ended, there was already a new post about it on Tieba.

[Title: About how Mix was ganked on to death by a bunch of tanks.

I shall not go into details on how terribly they died, watch the video for more details [link], I’m now especially looking forward to Tall Boots clinching the championship, hehehehehe please don’t let me down.]

[1st comment: OP is definitely an antagonist. I feel that this match was especially exciting, everyone worked out and no mistakes were made, the only regretful point was Mix’s lineup wasn’t too good, as for everything else, there’s nothing worth criticizing. Tall Boots and Mix have always been equally matched, wasn’t it these two teams fighting for the championship title at the previous national qualifiers too?]

[2nd comment: Agree with the 1st comment. OP you click-baiter go to hell. Go up there to compete if you’re so good!]

[3rd comment: I don’t care about all these, I am only concerned about why my Xiao-god hasn’t been competing, it’s been two matches, is he planning to play towards the end? Or is he not going to play at all for this finals to give up the spot to the trashy reserve?]

[4th comment: Are you kidding me? Don’t try to come up with conspiracy theories all day long, aren’t you tired yet. Perhaps Xiao-god really has some special reasons and cannot compete.]

[5th comment: To think there are still people whitewashing this utterly uncultured cancer of the eSports scene, I’m defeated, I’ve decided to join Tall Boot’s fan club from this moment on, Tall Boots is the best, quickly clinch the first placing xoxo!]

[6th comment: Tall Boots is really strong, really looking forward to the next match!]

...

Seeing that most of the comments in Tieba were expressing anticipation for Tall Boots’ performance and the rest were either criticizing him or neutral, Ji Zhiyao tugged on the corner of his lips and rolled his eyes rather unhappily.

They were a very strong team.

This bunch of ignorant mortals!

Ji Zhiyao stood up, then pressed the flush and walked out of the cubicle.

He walked towards where the sinks were. There were a total of three sinks in the washroom, a man in black long sleeves stood before the middle one. Ji Zhiyao gave him a few glances and took no notice as he walked to the extreme right side to wash his hands.

He finished washing and shook off the water on his hands, as he lifted his eyes he accidentally found that the person standing in the middle had not left and was looking at him, his appearance extremely familiar.

Ji Zhiyao took a good look.

Damn, it was Lan Guang!

He quickly stood upright. “Hello senior.”

Lan Guang smiled. “No need to be so exaggerated brother, I only found you familiar so I took a few more glances. At first I thought I had recognized the wrong person, I didn’t expect it to really be you.”

Ji Zhiyao scratched his head slightly awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

When you meet your opponent for the finals in the washroom, what kind of questions should one ask? “Senior what a coincidence, you came here to poop too”?

He’ll probably be beaten to death.

Lan Guang continued the conversation. “You played very well, continue to keep it up. —I saw that you were holding your phone when you came out, I guess you were looking at Tieba?”

“Err, yeah.”

“It’s better to not look at those useless comments during a competition, that’s just how the ethos of the eSports scene is. Praised when you win and hated on when you lose, don’t let those people affect your mood. You played very well.”

Ji Zhiyao was slightly embarrassed from being praised. “Thank you senior, you are very strong too.”

With that, he glanced at his wrist watch. “Senior, the match will be starting in three minutes, I’ll return to the waiting room.”

Lan Guang nodded, the two people bid each other farewell.

Watching Ji Zhiyao’s figure leave, Lan Guang stood by the sink and was in a daze for a while.

He still remembered the scene where he fought Yao for the first time, back then Yao didn’t even dare to face him one on one, only continuously retreating and dodging. The only time he managed to kill was a successful ambush while he wasn’t paying attention.

Xiaoye even told him that he was “temporarily not a threat”, he had firmly thought so at that time.

Yet now...

Lan Guang once again recalled the youth on the competing stage earlier who single-handedly killed their ADC and even took on two opponents at once from time to time.

He always had a premonition.

Yao, would become the next Fi-god in the country.

Just like China eSports, will never stop here.

...

Ji Zhiyao sneaked into the waiting room like a mud fish, once he stepped in, Xiao asked while sucking on a lollipop, “Son, are you suffering from constipation?”

Ji Zhiyao almost tripped over himself, and replied with a smirk, “Constipation my ass, I met Lan Guang in the washroom earlier. Feels like he was here to fish for information, fortunately I was quick-witted and got out quickly.”

The stats analyzer teased, “Even if he as fishing for information he absolutely will not act on an idiot like you.”

“What have I done wrong that rendered a personal attack from you?”

The stats analyzer pursed his lips and did not continue with that topic, but said, “Be more stable in the next match, stop stirring things. The second win, very critical. Don’t be dissolute, stay alive and well and clinch the championship title.”

Mo Huaifeng suggested, “Tall Boots is similar to us, they won’t be able to play such a bladder match again. We can try high burst damage again for this match.”

“... Don’t think that because you’re the Captain I wouldn’t dare to hit you.”

Mo Huaifeng frowned lightly. “I’m being serious. Consider the possibilities.”

The stats analyzer stayed silent for a while and said after deliberation, “It’s not that we can’t. I saw that their conditions weren’t that great when they were leaving the stage earlier, I reckon they can’t use all tank-like champions again. But you guys must think this through, if we lose again this time, I will be criticized as an idiot.”

Ji Zhiyao shrugged. “That’s alright. Anyway, we’re not the ones being scolded.”

“Shameless couple, shut up!”

Ji Zhiyao was happily playful for a bit, then heard the bell sounding from outside.

The third match was to begin.

He quickly stood up, nodded towards Xiaofei and Xiaofei, then followed behind Mo Huaifeng to enter the arena.

As the stats analyzer had guessed, when they saw they had chosen the exact same champions as the previous match, the hisses and jeers from the audience below the stage were so loud that they almost burst through the sky. Ji Zhiyao covered his ear-mic as he said, “I have a premonition, if we lose this match, we will be carried out of the gymnasium, showing everyone what was known as walked in vertically and leaving horizontally.”

Heng: “Stop talking, you are a demon.”

Ji Zhiyao sighed then saw the loading interface appear on the screen. He couldn’t see the expressions of the Tall Boots’ members, but he guessed that they would probably be shocked after seeing the lineup of their team.

The loading was done very quickly. As there weren’t any difficult champions to deal with from opposite except for the support, everyone’s expressions were very relaxed.

Once the game began, Nuo walked to the front to bait the opponent, Mo Huaifeng assertively trapped Tall Boots’ top laner and drew first blood. Lan Guang saw that something was amiss and ran to the top lane, wanting to help but ended up encountering his top-laner being killed. Nuo shrieked as he silenced Lan Guang, Mo Huaifeng whose skills happened to just finish cooling down took a double kill right away.

At the start of the match, together with gold from minions, Mo Huaifeng had earned almost 1000 gold, and took two kills from the opposite, Nuo earned two assists, the bottom lane had already nurtured a daddy.

Though the others did not get anything, they were still very pleased. Ji Zhiyao even started to hum a song, “Blow on, blow on, my pride and indulgence...”

Mo Huaifeng: “Stop singing, you sound terrible.”

His figure that had rushed into the bush paused, then made a turn and swiftly harvested Mo Huaifeng’s red buff.

Ji Zhiyao was as pretentious as he could be as he intentionally gasped. “My hand shook accidentally.”

Yet if his own boyfriend was willing to do them in, he had to bear it even if he was suffering. Fortunately he had already earned a substantial amount of gold with his level higher than the opponents and did not need a buff temporarily, hence he aggrievedly held his tongue.

Less than ten minutes into the game, the advantage for the bottom lane had been built on, essentially determining the dominant team for the game.

Meanwhile, the opposite ADC and support also began to fervently stir trouble. K was caught off-guard by a storm and wailed, “Can anyone take pity on this beautiful flower? He’s about to wrecked by the winds. Where’s the jungler? Oh my god! Can the jungler watch the lanes too instead of just knowing how to skip around in the jungle! Please!”

Ji Zhiyao: “Why are you sounding more gay in the way you talk?”

K: “WTF? You’re a mutt who only knows to jungle what right do you have to attack me?”

Ji Zhiyao: “This champion is efficient in jungling, what else should I do other than jungle? Retreat to the turret and hide under it for a while, I’ll come save you after I’m done with this bird.”

K: “You would rather go for a bird than come save me, what grudge and enmity!”

K lamented while dodging here and there, when Tall Boots’ ADC was about to dive the turret for a kill, Ji Zhiyao suddenly leaped out and gave them a fatal strike from the back. K did not get any kills, only managing to earn two assists and instantly felt hopeless with life.

Ji Zhiyao: “Take it easy bother, it’s not too much for your lifesaver to take some of your gold right.”

K bawled out loud. “Get lost! I’m not listening!”

In comparison to the harmonious and comedic-like atmosphere at the top and bottom lanes, Heng and Xiaoye’s confrontation at the middle lane appeared to be full of lethality. Heng shook his leg while saying, “Ye-god, this old thing, still trying to put on an act, “running after taking a glance”, I’ve seen this pretense so many times since I debuted, would I fall for his tricks?”

Ji Zhiyao had just sneaked into the jungle, preparing to steal the little dragon, upon hearing Heng’s words, he laughed out loud. “Ye-god is a professional player, you’re a professional actor.”

Heng: “Captain can you discipline him? Cursing his own teammates for a man who is no kin of his?”

Mo Huaifeng paused for a moment and said while in thought, “... Now that you put it that way, he’s really a ‘wild’ man [2. Literal translation. The Chinese character for ‘wild’(ye) is the same as that in Xiaoye’s name. There was a wordplay using this character to suggest that since his name was Xiaoye, he was really a ‘ye’(wild) man. To refer to someone ‘wild man’, means that he/she is an outsider who does not belong with the family.]”

The entire team was silent for three seconds, then burst into loud guffaws.

They were so loud that even the serious commentator A heard them from his seat, he pushed his spectacles to rest higher on his nose and said, as though it was difficult to express himself in a few words, “... Seems like Mix is really having a relaxing time with this match.”

Presently, Ji Zhiyao rubbed his tummy that was aching from laughing with his right hand, his left hand remained on controls as he said, “Oh my god, Captain, you just wanted to make me die from laughing!”

A trace of a smile also entered Mo Huaifeng’s eyes. “Behave, don’t be dissolute, quickly take the win for this match.”

“Alright.” Everyone chorused.

In this match Mix essentially brought into play their peak standards, when it came to fighting for the big dragon, Tall Boots knew that they already had no hopes of turning the game around and directly surrendered.

Hence for the third match, Mix successfully won.

Three wins out of five matches, they’d already won two matches.

Yet after merrily entering the waiting room, Ji Zhiyao was drinking water when he saw Xiao lift his phone. “You guys don’t even know how badly Tall Boots is being criticized, it scared the crap out of me.”

The others all appeared to be very interested, Ji Zhiyao put the bottle down and casually asked, “What are they saying?’

“Because they surrendered, they’re saying that they do not respect the competition and eSports, pinning all sorts of titles onto them. Some even said that they didn’t surrender in the previous qualifiers, were they here to fake their competing after being bribed... my god, weren’t they the same bunch of idiots to praise Tall Boots when they won the second match? Even I can’t help bear have my heart ache for them after reading these.”

Ji Zhiyao frowned and recalled Lan Guang’s manner when he told him that the eSports scene was where one would be ‘praised when you win and hated on when you lose’, seeming like he was already long used to it... Hence he made a “tsk” sound and said, “What’s there to be pained about. They definitely would’ve expected the situation after surrendering and would be prepared to do well in the next match. Weren’t we also criticized for the previous match... if we have the time to feel sorry for them, why not prepare ourselves and go into battle with our best.”

Ji Zhiyao continued to drink after speaking, yet he found that the others were staring at him with a thoughtful expressions. He almost choked and made sure to hold on to the bottle before he asked, “Why are all of you staring at me?”

Xiao replied, “Nothing, just felt that I didn’t consider as much as an idiot child.”

“Screw you!”

The others chuckled, the stats analyzer clapped his on his notebook. “NoHomo is right, look at how complacent each of you are, just won two matches and you’re already prepared to throw a party for celebration?”

Nuo pouted. “You can’t put it that way, what does two matches represent? Two-thirds, when rounded up that’s one, a whole. It’s final, why can’t we be happy for a bit.”

The stats analyzer gave him a big smile. “I hope you’ll still be able to smile when you guys are clobbered up by the audience.”

Nuo exclaimed, “How could you curse us like this? Do you believe me when I say that I will hug onto you even when we are being pummeled?”

He couldn’t do anything to Nuo, this shameless mutt and turned towards Mo Huaifeng. “What lineup will you guys use for the next match? Captain any ideas?”

Mo Huaifeng thought for a moment. “No.”

“As a Captain you don’t have any ideas at all and you’re still rather righteous and confident about it?”

“If I would have ideas what do we need you for?”