C6 Part2

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Chapter 6: When Reality and Dreams are Enemies (Part 2)

“Alright, next, I’ll be speaking with the audience about ‘the scum of the world.’ Please tell me, what kind of emotional difficulties have you experienced?”

Almost a month had passed since she rejected the confession. When her “great aunt”1 visited, Qiu Ying’s mood fell down again and she arbitrarily changed the night’s livestream to emotional consultation. With some fan sisters as guests, she indulgently listened to her audience raise up various emotional problems.

The girl at the other end of the line was weeping beautifully, chokingly explaining, “At that time, he loved me so simply and humbly. But now he’s looking at the flirty b*** next door, what should I do to keep him from getting tired of me…”

Qiu Ying slapped the desk: “You should break up with this type of boyfriend immediately!”

There were several conversations that night. All of Qiu Ying’s answers were the same—

“Break up! What are you afraid of! Just tear him up if he doesn’t agree!”

“Break up break up break up! If your boyfriend was right next to me, I’d turn around and give him a slap!”

“Don’t say any more, I’m about to explode just listening to you! I’m telling you, to deal with scumbags…” Qiu Ying was speaking passionately when a WeChat from Ji Xiangkong suddenly popped up in her notifications. Shocked, she almost fell off her chair in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Ji Xiangkong: Streamer Qiu, this isn’t called emotional consultation, it’s called kicking the drowning devil to heal your wounds.

Qiu Ying’s face instantly flashed green and red. He… he… he was actually watching…

Ji Xiangkong: Are you free tomorrow?

……

Qiu Ying’s hands were trembling and her heart was about to jump of her chest. She sucked in a breath, showed her signature smile to the camera, summed up her words, and turned off the microphone and stream.

The moment the computer shut down, she sprung off her chair with her arms held high, ran barefoot into her bedroom, rolled around on her bed while wrapped in blankets, incautiously rolled onto the ground, and almost slammed her foot into the floor.

Qiu Ying climbed back up in embarrassment and tapped away on her phone.

Qiu Ying: I should have time tomorrow afternoon. How come?

Ji Xiangkong: To test the progress of your commentary studying. Is there an internet cafe near your house?

Qiu Ying: No, but I often go to the internet cafe Dream Traveler.

Ji Xiangkong: Okay, tomorrow afternoon at 2, wait there for me.

The next day, Qiu Ying arrived one hour earlier than the time they’d arranged to meet up and restlessly sat in the public area to look over some videos. As she was watching the highlights, a white and slender hand with distinctive joints tapped on the desk.

Qiu Ying turned her head; without knowing when, Ji Xiangkong had already been standing behind her, with a sports backpack on one shoulder. He leaned over and put one arm on the back of her chair. “Did you wait long?”

Qiu Ying shrank back and shook her head.

“Let’s go upstairs, I booked a private box.”

Seeing Qiu Ying uncertainly remain in place, Ji Xiangkong tilted his head. “I’m still pretty famous, so what should I do if I get recognized?”

Qiu Ying followed him through the hall. When they were waiting for the elevator, she lowered her head and pulled at the hem of her clothes uneasily. “I thought you wouldn’t talk to me anymore…”

“Why not?” Ji Xiangkong raised his eyebrows and quickly understood. He smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ve forgotten it all.”

Not far away, a figure silently watched them enter the elevator, one after the other.

“The new competition season is just about to start. Since I still have free time now, I wanted to use it to give you some special guidance.”

The box was a double-person room, with two high-end computers placed on the desks in front of a sofa. Ji Xiangkong started up one of them, gesturing for Qiu Ying to sit next to him, and clicked on the Conquer icon to enter the game.

“Here, play a round and let me see.”

Qiu Ying straightened up and began the game nervously. Her fingers trembled when they hit the keyboard.

This round, she played mid. She faced the enemy 1v1 in mid lane and as usual, held her breath to concentrate on raising her creep score.

(Creep score: gained by giving the last blow to the creeps with low HP, killing them. In MOBA-type games, you will only get gold if you do this successfully.)

“In a little bit, you can kill the other mid when he goes forward to help out his troops,” Ji Xiangkong lightly said on the sidelines. “You have all of the blue buffs, you move faster than him, and finally, the few basic attacks you used before were enough to make him run.”

Qiu Ying rarely took the initiative to kill people and at most used her skills to lower the opponents’ HP. When she heard him say this, she then boldly attacked. In seconds, the game system sounded: “First blood!”

“Yay!” Qiu Ying gleefully turned to look at Ji Xiangkong, grinning.

“When you decide to move, try to think about how the opponent will react as much as possible, as well as how to respond to him.” There was a gentle smile within Ji Xiangkong’s eyes. “Okay, set aside this group of troops. Buy a pair of Boots and go to the bottom lane.”

Out of nervousness from the opposing hero’s sneak attack, Qiu Ying panicked and kept on aiming at the wrong target. Ji Xiangkong, next to her, suddenly reached out his hand to cover hers on the mouse. His body also leaned over, and he completed the operating for her easily. The system sounded once again: “Double Kill!”

Ji Xiangkong took back his hand without changing expressions and smiled. “Don’t be so nervous. I’m here.”

The place on the back of her hand where Ji Xiangkong had touched burst with heat; her body burned.

“Retreat, there should be three people across from you.” As he watched Qiu Ying frantically click on the mouse to return to base, Ji Xiangkong couldn’t help but smile. “Crazily clicking won’t help you run away faster. Also, don’t just run away blindly. If there are still enemies on the screen, look to see if there’s an opportunity to counterattack.”

He tapped on the desk. “Your teammates should be here… right now!”

After an eye-dazzling team battle, Qiu Ying’s game ID appeared again at the top of the screen: CherryQ2 has dominated the game!

……

“The enemies are missing at the top lane. You’ll probably have to move to mid lane, don’t go forward from your current position.”

……

“The enemy should attack right here. After you go through the wild zone, cut them off from the back.”When the game ended, Qiu Ying stared at the victory phrase “Conquer!” on the big screen and her own 15 kills 0 deaths stats. She couldn’t say anything for a long time.

It was too miraculous. Her operating progress hadn’t been advancing much, but she became braver and braver under Ji Xiangkong’s direction. For the first time in her life, she could feel the thrill of killing a great god and becoming a complete carry!

(Complete carry: game term, usually refers to someone who drives the flow of the whole field, sustains the entire team’s offensive power, and leads their team to victory.)

“Have you realized it yet? The key to winning the game is to grasp the rhythm and understand what you should do at what time.”

Qiu Ying nodded vigorously and suddenly thought that, if Ji Xiangkong had been serious earlier, then the original plot of that double-queue round would have been her massacring Qiao Xin!

“I watched a few of your nighttime streams commentating on games. Although you worked hard, you didn’t make a lot of progress.” Ji Xiangkong stretched his legs out, arms folded, leaning lazily back on the sofa. “In anything, hard work doesn’t always mean you’ll do well. The most important thing is to master the method.”

Qiu Ying took out her notebook quickly, like an obedient student, and wrote it down.

“Of course, you’ll become better the more you play and your operating will become better through experience. But it’s just like studying at school. If you just practice without thinking, you might be able to face some problems you know on the exams, but in the end, it’s just inefficient.”

Ji Xiangkong raised two fingers. “There are two points to this. Method and proficiency.”

“Using studying as an example again, you try to learn more by absorbing and digesting the knowledge. But, every time you do a problem, you need to understand, the purpose of learning is not only how to solve what’s in front of your eyes, but also how to analyze it.”

“When your thinking is correct, the next step is just proficiency. When you take a test, usually you can only bring out 80% of your strength, so you need high proficiency to reduce your mistakes.”

His voice was low and lovely when he spoke seriously, making him seem like a charming young noble.

“In the same way, for Conquer, operating a hero isn’t just about rote memorization of their equipment, level-up requirements, or the sequence of their moves. It’s about fully understanding his skills, his advantages and disadvantages, and his strongest and weakest periods. Only with a strong foundation will you be able to adapt well and be able to perform the most appropriate operating at the best time.”

“Conquer is just like playing chess, an intellectual confrontation. There are some high-level players who are have ‘high scores but low ability.’ When they play professionally, they face the problem of being too rigid and lacking in aptitude. It’s because they didn’t begin from mastering the key game skills and only have the experience they gained through actual fighting.”

After finishing explaining his theory, Ji Xiangkong started to replay the video of Qiu Ying’s previous livestream commentary, pausing from time to time to point out mistakes in her details. Organized and clear, his voice was gentle without hesitation. Qiu Ying could imagine him as the brain of his team, analyzing a video of the game with his teammates after a competition.

She forced herself to focus, but her ears continued to echo with the sound of her heart drumming. Sure enough, a serious man was the most handsome.

She didn’t know how long it had been before the door suddenly opened. Ji Xiangkong and Qiu Ying lifted their heads at the same time to see a person holding a plate come in. He was tall and thin, wearing a cap with the brim pulled extremely low, almost covering most of his face. Nevertheless, Qiu Ying still recognized him immediately.

…What is this guy doing?

Ji Xiangkong smiled and waved at him. “Yo, Pei Xi, when did you become a waiter?”

Pei Xi stiffened, lips opening slightly, and he closed them again. He set down two plates of braised pork on rice and then left without looking back.

“Is he practicing social skills?” Qiu Ying looked like she was choking on rice. “Experiencing the life of the working class?”

“This internet cafe is opened by the first retired Conquer World Champion, VPG’s previous captain, Summer.” Ji Xiangkong lifted his chin toward the door. “Pei Xi is his younger cousin.”

“No wonder I see him often,” Qiu Ying suddenly realized. “The service for boxes is really caring if the boss’s cousin personally delivers the food.”

“… See him often?” Ji Xiangkong frowned and then quickly tilted his head, smirking, “Does he want to talk to you? Should I keep some distance from you so that I don’t break your peach blossom luck?”3

“How can he? He has Qiao Xin!” Although she had already been rejected by Ji Xiangkong, hearing him say this was still a little discouraging. She wanted to keep her head down, had Pei Xi discovered that Qiao Xin had made him green? Did she need to give him a hint…

Ji Xiangkong looked at Qiu Ying, who was deep in thought, and collected himself into a slight smile.

As they ate, Qiu Ying discussed the disciplines of professional players with Ji Xiangkong.

“The best way to defeat a hero is to learn how to manipulate it.”

“You’re talking about the five positions. So a professional player not only has to learn about the heroes of their own position, but also how to play other positions’ heroes?”

Ji Xiangkong nodded. “Supports will usually play ADC, the big brother, in solo queue, so they can even better understand what the brother usually needs to improve their skills, and vice versa.”

Qiu Ying sucked in a breath. Conquer had over 100 heroes with many possible lineups, arrangements, and combinations. You would need to spend a lot of effort to grasp them all, not to mention you needed to practice their specialties.

She couldn’t help but lament, “It sounds so hard!”

“Of course.” Ji Xiangkong raised the corner of his mouth to smile at her, looking brilliant as he said, “Playing basketball with your classmates on the school sports field after school is called playing games. And esports is the NBA, the Olympics.”

Qiu Ying’s heart surged and she nodded; at this time, the door opened again—

“For you.”

Under the attention of two people, Pei Xi expressionlessly put a plate of popcorn chicken on the desk.

Ji Xiangkong raised his eyebrows. “Is there a special today?”

Pei Xi shook his head and stood there, with no indication of leaving.

The box was extremely quiet. Ji Xiangkong coughed lightly a little and gave him a “why haven’t you gone yet” look.

“It wasn’t me.” Pei Xi’s lips were tight, and it was a while before he finally spoke. “It wasn’t me who made Legend kick you out.”

Qiu Ying dropped her pen.

So awkward, a straight fastball as soon as he saw him. Didn’t he know to lead up with some psychological preparation first?

She swallowed and carefully observed Ji Xiangkong’s response. She saw him stand up and go to Pei Xi, slinging an arm around Pei Xi’s shoulders. “I know. Qiu Ying told me, you really admire me.”

Pei Xi glanced at Qiu Ying, his expression overcast like he wanted to smack someone; she almost spit out the water she had just drunk onto the screen. She’d never used the word “admire!”

Seeing Pei Xi move back uncomfortably, Ji Xiangkong actually decided to tease him more, his peach-blossom eyes curving with a smile. “What’s wrong, do you want an autograph? I’m happy today, so I can also take a picture.”

He’d just finished speaking when his hands became empty and the door slammed closed.

Ji Xiangkong turned to shrug at Qiu Ying. “VPG’s really worked hard. It must be pretty boring to be teammates with a guy who never says a word.”

Qiu Ying, dumbstruck for a long time, finally nodded slowly.

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Footnotes:

1 Chinese slang for a woman’s period.

2 The Ying in Qiu Ying’s name (樱) means cherry. By the way, Qiao Xin’s ID Floria is a reference to the Xin (馨) in her name that means fragrant, but I just didn’t note that coz… I don’t care about QX.

3 A fengshui term in terms of relationship and romance; when you have good peach blossom luck, then you’re popular and attractive, drawing people to you. You’ll also see “peach blossom” used to refer to relationships themselves

***

pei xi ah… pei xi……

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