C7 Part2

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Chapter 7: The Battle Horn Sounds (Part 2)

Before going to sleep, Qiu Ying suddenly started to suffer from period cramps. After turning off the lights and getting in bed, she curled up into a ball, wrapping her arms around her knees, shaking. Tears fell onto her pillow; they would not stop. The phone on the bedside table vibrated. It was a WeChat voice message from Ji Xiangkong.

“You’ve stopped streaming for the past few days, did you get sick?”

Qiu Ying struggled to sit up. Her voice was dry. “I’m fine now… How do you know?”

“I’m subscribed to you, beautiful streamer.”

“Ah, isn’t training stressful?”

She had just spoken when Ji Xiangkong called her phone directly. “Your voice sounds really low. What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine, just sleepy.” Qiu Ying did her best to make her voice sound relaxed and happy, not wanting to let him to discover her own depression. She joked, “Sing me a song.”

“That’s a bit hard. I’m completely tone-deaf, I can’t even sing the national anthem.”

“It doesn’t matter, I won’t laugh at you.”

“Alright. I’ve never sung for anyone else before, but I’ll make an exception for you this time.” Unexpectedly, Ji Xiangkong took it seriously. He cleared his throat and suddenly lowered his voice to warn, “You aren’t allowed to record it.”

Although he couldn’t see, Qiu Ying still nodded sincerely.

Ji Xiangkong prepared to sing Joker Xue’s song Ugly.1 When the first note sounded, Qiu Ying raised her ears and held her breath. After an audible breath, from the other side of the phone came—

“Ugly chi—ld ——”

“This love of mi—ne ——”

Unable to hit the high notes, Ji Xiangkong hoarsely sung like he was struggling with someone trying to strangle him. Qiu Ying’s shoulders shook with the effort of keeping herself from laughing.

After the song was over, Ji Xiangkong went back to his low and gentle voice from before. “Happy?”

Qiu Ying laughed until she was coughed and lightly patted her chest. Everything that had accumulated over this short period of time seemed to be swept away, and her entire body felt much lighter. “Yes, that’s so good. I’m afraid that it’ll be unforgettable for my whole life.”

Flowers and jewelry, honey-sweet words; none were as good as the song he sang to make her happy.

At the very end, they fell into long silence. Neither spoke a word, neither hung up the phone.

In the dim room, the wind lifted up the curtains from time to time. Qiu Ying listened to her steady heartbeat and felt something warm in her chest. From the beginning when she could only look at Ji Xiangkong’s unresponding profile picture, to now when she could hear his voice from time to time, she had always had an especially unreal feeling.

During the countless days and nights she spent alone, she thought of him. His long eyelashes, his handsome brows, his habit of tilting his head whenever he spoke, the curve of his smile, his eyes which contained stars within them…

“Ji Xiangkong…”

“Yes?” The other person also seemed to be sleepy, his reply a little husky.

“Nothing.”

Finally, after they said goodnights to each other and ended the call, Qiu Ying turned sideways and buried her face into her pillow. So soft she could barely hear it herself, she slowly said, “I miss you very much.”

Perhaps she could only stay by his side a little longer if she hid her love for him deep within her heart.

In the middle of October, a piece of explosive news caught the attention of Conquer players worldwide.

This year’s Seattle World Finals Champion, America’s Titan’s young genius Jeffery Chen became the first player to qualify to 9,000 points in matches, currently ranking No.1 in the world!

What was even more frightening was that he gained his points randomly. Each qualifying game, he fought with a hero randomly selected by the system.

Conquer had over one hundred heroes in total. The amount of heroes that professional players were skilled in was called the “hero pool.” The deeper the hero pool, the more heroes they could choose to play during games, and the more flexible tactics could be. North American players could now proudly say, Jeffery Chen was an exception, as he didn’t have any sort of “hero pool,” but rather — a “hero sea”!

Living in a villa with a swimming pool, driving a Tesla to and from school, his cheat-like life and beautiful skin completely enveloped Jeffery Chen in a bright and blinding protagonist halo. When the video of this brilliant student who studied at MIT ridiculing Cris after their game hit trending once more, the quotes of “It’s really hard to be like me;” “Winning was too easy;” “Remember this, you were killed by Titan’s Disaster” and so on were formed into emoticons and widely circulated.

After the previous earthquake that was the transfers had ended, the finalized rosters of China’s major teams were also passed into foreign forums. No one expected that the rising Jeffery Chen of the esports circle would publicly call out Ji Xiangkong on Twitter: “VPG’s upper management is really interesting. In the esports circle where strength is king, how can a Chinese team put up with a handicapped teammate?”

The first thing the hardworking “bellboys” did was spread screenshots of these words around. Once this remark was released, it was like an adrenaline shot to Ji Xiangkong’s antifans. They sat up even straighter and cavorted around with excitement: “Look, look, even this young genius says so!”

Because he possessed a Chinese heritage, the Chinese opinion of him soared rapidly. Fans branded him “trophy child,”2 using him to point out the faults of active professional players and even threatening, “Although we lost this year in the Global Finals, the winning team still has a ‘Chinese glory,’ so it’s not a loss!”

Unfortunately, the glory they spoke of was extremely shameless. Jeffery Chen took to Twitter extremely quickly to say, “I am an American.” Below was attached a picture of him wearing the stars-and-stripes flag and lifting a trophy.

This time, the Chinese Conquer circle was in an uproar. Quite a number of players immediately blackened against him, and a portion of Ji Xiangkong’s antifans then turned their guns to a different direction in righteous indignation.

“Ji Xiangkong! If you have the guts, beat him up on court!”

“Only we can mock our esports social flower! Who’s this guy who kneels down and licks the feet of his American daddy!”

After watching all of the above events as an onlooker, Qiu Ying couldn’t help but lament that it was like she was in a livestream room. These antifans could also be considered as unblackening for him.

And another thing, they were already halfway through with the CPL fall season. This competitive season, a group system was introduced wherein sixteen teams were evenly split among the Groups A and B to carry out with their regular matches. They played ten games a week, best of three. The winner received one point, the loser didn’t get any points, and this continued for three months. The top four teams of each group in the regular matches would enter the playoffs to fight for the final title.

Legend had reorganized with Pei Xi at its core. They kept Huo Yao and Lu Feng, and introduced two other new primary team members who were good at resisting pressure. After Cris retired and Ji Xiangkong left the team, the once agile and elegant play style that would pleasantly surprise the audience from time to time did not appear again. Instead, it had changed into something similar to Dragon’s— a risky four-protect-one.

The difference between them and Dragon was, they were not protecting the late-stage big brother ADC, but rather, the mid, Pei Xi. Everyone else all gave up their resources to Pei Xi as much as was possible, prioritized protecting him, working for him, blocking attacks for him, healing him…

As the widely-recognized genius player, Pei Xi possessed a reaction- and hand-speed that was able to decimate all other players. His endless and unlimited operating made him live up to expectations — again and again, in a situation where his teammates were completely destroyed, he singlehandedly killed three, or even four, opponents!

During games, you could often hear the commentators shout—

“Legend’s been defeated to the point of collapse, but Summit Pei Xi hasn’t even given up an inch. He’s like a god of war! Even with low HP, he isn’t nervous about escaping, instead, he’s still thinking about how to kill!”

“Oh my God! The existence of a person like Summit practically destroys the balance of the game!”

The male fans were brought into submission by his heroic performance, themselves fantasizing about turning the tide to save the world. The female fans were confused, but every time the camera gave a close-up to Pei Xi, they would tear out their throats in screaming, “Ahhhh! Emperor Pei! I want to have your babies!”

Dragon retained its original team, lineup, and playing style that emphasized “solidness” and “stability.” Newland, which had just advanced into the ranks of the strong teams, was still in the limelight. The five of them, consisting of a veteran and four newcomers, were full of vigor and vitality. Perhaps one day this team would be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the three giants.

And the team that the gaming community paid the closest attention to was, of course, VPG, who after losing the god of war Pei Xi had introduced the esports social flower Ji Xiangkong.

VPG was the champion of the 2nd Conquer Global Finals. Two years ago, when they had stood at the top of the world, the soul of their team, their commanding captain, Summer, had been in a car accident and suffered an arm injury. It had ended his professional career. From then on, VPG had fallen into a very long downturn, nearly falling out of the top three. The club kept their four champion team members, and had just been searching for a fifth person.

Perhaps it was because the other four people were declining in their condition. Although VPG had introduced the top-notch mid Pei Xi last year, they still couldn’t reverse their decline. Their results were always ranked after Legend and Dragon, the perennial third place.

Now, the VPG that had completed its break-in period was like a sharpened sword, entering a wild comeback.

The audience was pleasantly surprised to see — Conquer’s best partnership two years ago, the “Double-Moon Duo,” had returned!

Double-Moon Duo referred to the ADC Yue, Qi Yue, and the support Poker, Shen Yue.3 They were always in the same lane on the field, inseparable. Countless players always remembered that the year VPG had been the champions, Shen Yue was loyal and devoted, consistently helping out Qi Yue all 360 degrees throughout sea, land, and sky. And once Qi Yue raised his vigor and vitality, whoever attacked his support would be chased to the ends of the earth and beaten to death.

Professional teammates were in each other’s lives for a long time, so they had a tacit understanding when acting together that didn’t require any words. Unfortunately, ever since their captain had left, the Double-Moon Duo rarely displayed its excellent operating again. In addition, Pei Xi’s presence completely overshadowed theirs. Now that they were making a comeback, it was honestly quite exciting.

Just as everyone was madly searching for battle highlights of the Double-Moon Duo, as well as videos of their brotherly interactions with arms around each other’s necks, VPG came up with another new trick. They split up the Double-Moon Duo to fearlessly use the “Jungler-Support Pair” tactic, leaving the audience completely dumbfounded.

Because big brother ADC was generally a late-stage hero, they were the opponents’ primary target in the early stage where they weren’t strong and would usually follow the support when they changed lanes. When using the “Jungler-Support” tactic, the support abandoned the ADC and coordinated with the jungler to go and kill people. The ADC had to spend gold to survive and prevent the opponents from launching a sneak attack. The repeated success of the support and the jungler inevitably controlled their opponent’s development and brought their own team to an economic advantage. Just like the autumn wind sweeping up fallen leaves, there had been a number of games where they’d decimated their opponents in a team fight before even reaching the midpoint of the game.

But just as the opponents gave into accepting that VPG would be disassembling their ADC and support lineup, the next game, Double Moon came back as a duo once again. No one was able to predict what would happen.

It was like VPG had been bloodily reborn. Not only had the Double-Moon Duo awakened, the mid, Lion Lu Sheng, switched back from solo offlaner to mid, which was the position he was best at. The jungler, Scar Tong Wu, was unyielding and brave, vastly different from his previous depressed image when he would just let Pei Xi pick up the pieces after he died terribly.

The audience was confounded to see that the current VPG was no longer “one god carrying four legs” nor “the cheat Pei Xi and his four backup dancers,” but a well-trained army!

Looking at the CPL leaderboard, VPG had been repeatedly defeated at the beginning of the competition season, and now — they firmly held down first place in points. CEO Shu Wen clenched her hands into fists.

Her choice was indeed correct!

The current captain, Lu Sheng, was naive, and Pei Xi’s disposition was doomed to make him incapable of being a good leader.

The mid was the pacemaker from the early- to mid-game who needed to be able to unite their teammates to attack during their strong period. And before, while Pei Xi was able to manipulate others, he really only liked to fight alone. He wasn’t good at communication and didn’t cooperate with others. There were five people in a game, and so this type of teammate was doomed to fail.

As expected, for a whole year, VPG never once defeated Legend in a game.

After the game was over, Pei Xi never participated in discussions. When a team lost a game, arguing and debating was extremely normal, and a suffocating silence was most terrifying. Shu Wen had seen Legend’s team members surrounding Ji Xiangkong to discuss the battle, Cris listening on one side with folded arms and from time to time adding a few words, eyes full of praise.

At that moment, she reaffirmed her belief. Chinese Conquer had countless good players, but leaders were always hard to find. Cris had invited Ji Xiangkong to join Legend in order to cultivate him as his successor.

Later on when Legend’s higher-ups kicked Ji Xiangkong out, Shu Wen saw hope once more. Disregarding the opposition of public opinion, she invited him to join them. The other four players of VPG were extremely strong in terms of individual ability, but they lacked a tactical warrior. Now, with strategic master like Ji Xiangkong joining the team, it could be said that they were transplanting wings to a tiger.

After entering VPG, Ji Xiangkong trained like crazy. Shu Wen knew that his brother, Lin Yixuan, had been sent to sit on the cold bench of Legend’s secondary team, completely unable to play during his most golden years, which made him furious. Ji Xiangkong frequently sought her out to discuss it, but her club was not a charity. Although Lin Yixuan was quite the gifted player, the settlement price for breaking a contract with Legend was not small. Shu Wen contemplated it again and told Ji Xiangkong, “It all depends on your performance.”

At the time, Ji Xiangkong’s face was absent of his usual careless smile. He looked at her evenly. “I understand.”

Shu Wen had hinted to everyone at VPG that they had to listen to Ji Xiangkong’s commands. Although they all had complaints at the beginning, they could only follow the boss’s instructions. Let the facts speak for themselves: under the perfect implementation of Ji Xiangkong’s subtle tactics, VPG achieved a 30-game winning streak, setting a worldwide esports Conquer record!

Ji Xiangkong didn’t have an extraordinary reaction or hand speed. In terms of esports, his physical condition was really only average. Many people all advised him to give up. But he had resolutely persisted to reach now. He was always the first person to get up in the club and the last one to leave the training room. After games, he was the first to replay the video and analyze each game down to its smallest details. In every hour and every moment, he was trying to improve his own operating.

The talk show Luogic Notes had once said that every person’s character eventually had a ceiling that held them down in place. You wouldn’t be able to break through it, not even in a whole lifetime — this was the true cost. Even if you knew this, you’d still try to fight against it. No matter what era this society was in, there were very few people who were able to stand out. They paid the cost that ordinary people like us were unwilling to. Even at the most key moment, the moment when they were nearly unable to see the light, they were still willing to pay the cost.

Shu Wen believed that with this kind of person on the team, VPG would no longer willingly yield. They could absolutely regain its former glory!

“GG Newland! Congratulations to team VPG for their 31-game winning streak!”

(GG: goodgame, a compliment to an esports opponent for playing well, but also meaning that they lost.)

Qiu Ying smiled so much for the camera her mouth nearly became numb. The lines “VPG! Strong! Invincible!” “Let’s go! Next one!” on the chat barrage caused were refreshing, but — hmph, you guys are some kind of scum. Before, you cursed our Xiangkong and wanted to kill him, and now you’re shouting out cheers!

previous chapter | contents page | next chapter

Footnotes:

1 One of Joker Xue’s popular songs. As you may guess, shows off a lot of high notes.

2 Literally translates to “other house’s child.” Basically, it’s like when your parents point to another family’s kid like “Why can’t you be like them? Look how good/smart/accomplished they are!”

3 They’re called Double-Moon because both of their given names are Yue (different characters), which are themselves homophonous with the Chinese word for “moon”

Like this:Like Loading...

Related