C17 Part2

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Chapter 17: Journey on Fire (Part 2)

In the evenings, all the members of the team would go through a debrief of the day’s training in the meeting room. Ji Xiangkong sat at the very front, legs folded and leaning casually against the back of the chair. “Everyone needs to strengthen their awareness. Think as deep as if you were playing chess, and predict what your opponents’ next moves will be. Do the right thing at the right time and the right place.”

The competition they’d just finished yesterday was projected on a screen. Ji Xiangkong paused the recording, turned to Pei Xi, and said, “Look, the opponent at bot is moving forward and their skills are on CD. If you don’t keep on farming monsters after you finish clearing out this jungle and gank down to bot, you’ll be able to take a kill and suppress their economic development.”

Pei Xi focused on the screen, humming in acknowledgement.

“What I’m going to say next is for Xia Ling, but everyone else can listen as well.” Ji Xiangkong came out of his cross-legged seating position, leaned forward, put his elbows on the table, and said systematically, “In the competition, remember to constantly check the map and consider questions like: Where might the opponent be? How long is the difference between you and the internet? Has your location been revealed? Is the opponent on the alert?”

Qiu Ying dipped her head down to work on her notebook and discovered that Xia Ling was also seriously taking notes.

“If the opponents choose to organize an ambush, how long will they need to come over? How should you escape?

“Which of your teammates are in danger where you can easily gank to them? Which tower might be the target of our opponents’ next attack?

“Which equipment should you use now?

“When a teamfight starts, how will the opponents move? Which position should you take up to guard against them?”

Once he saw Xia Ling grow blank from listening, Ji Xiangkong smiled. “Once you accumulate actual combat, this process of deep consideration will continue to quicken until it becomes a conditioned reflex. Before that happens, I’ll help you.”

After that, they went through a complete debrief of their previous competitions. Every time they came to a critical teamfight, Ji Xiangkong would pause it frame by frame and conduct a pre- and post-battle analysis using the minimap, heroes’ lines of sight, target selection and other information. He identified the tactical hints revealed through the opponents’ positions, analyzed whether their team members had made the best choices in this battle, and which operations could be optimized and which mistakes were made again and again.

Qiu Ying had sorted out all of this data and put it in each member’s documents folder in order to help arrange their targeted training.

The meeting lasted until 4 in the morning. Qiu Ying slept for two hours and no longer felt tired, but after she got up she discovered that Ji Xiangkong’s room was still lit with light. She softly pushed open the door to see him still working, and she couldn’t keep her nose from stinging a bit.

Hearing movement, Ji Xiangkong turned around, eyes slowly curving. He motioned to her with a smile in his exhausted voice. “Come here, recharge.”

Qiu Ying obediently ran over and he folded her onto his lap, resting his chin on her head. Occasionally, he dipped his head to kiss her cheek.

As she leaned on his warm chest, Qiu Ying slowly curled up into a ball, falling asleep like a cat beneath his gentle caressing.

It was already nearing noon by the time Qiu Ying woke up laying on Ji Xiangkong’s bed, the only person in the room. After Qiu Ying washed up, she ran downstairs. The members of the team had long since gone to the training room to fight, leaving some food for her on the dining table.

A new day began once more.

“We’ll go up until here today, now go rest.” Ji Xiangkong closed his computer. “Xia Ling, stay behind.”

Lin Yixuan cried out, “Unfair! You’re giving special treatment to this brat again! Me too, me too!”

“Don’t make a fuss, hurry on to bed.”

Lin Yixuan flung out a paper napkin and pretended as if he was wiping away tears, saying with a thready voice, “Then, when will you bestow your favor upon me once more?”

Ji Xiangkong laughed as he kicked at him. “Get away, don’t leave me with this kind of impression.”

Lin Yixuan ran off, turning his head back again and again after each step. But Pei Xi was still standing there, unmoving.

Ji Xiangkong waved his hand at him. “You too, don’t look at me like that, it’s no use.”

After clearing out the area with great difficulty, Ji Xiangkong could finally settle down enough to give Xia Ling extra coaching. He’d recently arranged practices for Pei Xi and Xia Ling to lane together every day, and his progress was even larger than he’d imagined.

Pei Xi and Xia Ling were two completely different types of mid players.

Pei Xi tended toward individual development, equipped himself for his own improvement, and came and went completely alone. During a 1v1 mid fight, he could ruthlessly suppress the enemy mid.

Meanwhile, Xia Ling was the same as Cris had been ten years ago, mids who were extremely biased toward their teams. They took up very few resources, could cooperate with their teammates even without words to organize an attack, control the rhythm, and kickstart a situation, but in the early game their laning ability to fight solo battles weren’t quite top-notch. Other teams had caught onto this point and wanted to destroy him in the early game.

Ji Xiangkong hooked up the corner of his mouth slightly. But this was not a method without a solution.

After the special training ended, Xia Ling went back to his room and fell onto the bed. As he listened to the ticking of the clock, fragments of memories clambered into his mind, as if time was slowly turning backward.

When he graduated middle school, a boy who had aspired to become an NBA star since his childhood was told that he had become disabled.

He didn’t dare to face his teammates, didn’t dare to face his classmates, didn’t dare to face to anyone. The cheers and celebrations of the court became the harshest noises, gazes that watched him as he walked like the sharpest knives, and the throbbing of every breath he took stripped the sunlight away from him.

After the despairing life that he lived, like a walking corpse, he was worn away by the convincing of Gu Jiayi, one of his classmates, and would often go to her house to game on the weekends. When he first started, he would just find a corner to hide away and play by himself, until there came a time when he was dragged into a team by his other classmates. He couldn’t keep a cry from escaping when they were at a critical juncture, and he called his teammates for help. They cooperated perfectly.

When they won, his teammates enthusiastically high-fived him. It was in that moment that his tears caught him off guard and fell.

He was originally a bright and lively boy, so how could he be willing to let the suffering of life bury him alive?

His talent in the game made him regain his long-lost competitive spirit. He began communicating with others and his personality was no longer so surly, but he still could not face that injury in his heart, he couldn’t fill the void from being away from the arena, couldn’t keep on walking with his head held high.

Afterward, he met someone. That person told everyone, “in the very beginning, basketball was also a game, and it slowly developed into professional leagues like the NBA. Esports is officially recognized as a sports by the country and while it’s different from something like basketball, the spirits they convey are the same.”

That person said to him, “Xia Ling, do you want to become a hero? Heroes won’t easily bow their heads to fate.”

His voice was slow and with a sureness that comforted him. “When we’re teenagers, it seems like we have nothing at all. But what we don’t know is that that plentitude of time we hold in our palms is the greatest wealth of all. It bears our hopes, dreams, as well as opportunities for unlimited returns.”

Xia Ling’s hand clenched into a fist, then loosened, then clenched again. There was something recovering in his chest as his body grew hot from his roiling blood and his eyes glowed with the longing for victory.

He believed in that person.

He also believed in himself.

Their battle situation heated up across the next few days. On Sunday evening, Ji Xiangkong invited everyone out to eat hotpot for a hard-won chance to relax. Everyone chatted enthusiastically. When they left, they happened to bump into a group of people at the door.

The person at the very front was wearing a red pullover paired with red pants, a cap covering his head. Black sunglasses were atop the bridge of his nose and his clothing was flashily conspicuous, but he looked like he didn’t want to be recognized.

“Yo, isn’t that this year’s tryout champions?!” He wildly dipped his chin. “It wasn’t easy for you guys to win two rounds, so you should take this time to celebrate, ‘cause maybe you won’t have a chance to once next week comes around.”

Ji Xiangkong laughed without paying it any mind. Next to him, Qiu Ying turned her head and made a sound like she was flicking something out of her teeth.

After Ji Xiangkong was kicked out, two more people from VPG retired and Qi Yue finally got his wish to become their captain. Now he couldn’t wait to fly up into the sky, shoulder to shoulder with the sun.

Qi Yue’s eyebrows drew together slightly, pretending to heavily shake his head. “How unfortunate. Looking at your team’s points in the second-to-last game, you probably won’t be able to make it to the relegations this season. Will you play the tryouts next year?”

“Our target isn’t the relegations, but to get a ticket to Seattle.” Ji Xiangkong smiled without a care in the world. “Don’t forget that when it comes to climbing up from the very bottom up to the champions, there’s no one more experienced than me.”

Qi Yue snorted. “That’s you hugging thighs.”

Ji Xiangkong raised his eyebrows. “Oh? Why do I feel like I was training with a weight on me last year?”

“Whaddya mean?”

Ji Xiangkong ignored him, but Qiu Ying by his side couldn’t keep herself from putting in, “If we can say that the BPer who’s responsible for choosing a lineup of five out of around a hundred players is playing cards against the opponent, then the players’ hero pools are the cards in his hands. We can count the heroes you can play on one hand and you’re not willing to practice any new ones. If Xiangkong plays all day with garbage cards, isn’t that a heavy burden?”

Qi Yue stalked up his neck to retort, “Our battle results are better than yours now!”

Qiu Ying planted both hands on her hips. “How long has it been since the Spring Season started? Everyone is looking at each other, hiding their ultimate tricks without using them. The ones laughing in the very end will be the heroes, got that?”

Qi Yue’s face ashened. He pointed at her for a very long time, unable to say anything, before finally spitting out: “Let’s wait and see!”

Qiu Ying rolled her eyes.

From beginning to end, Ji Xiangkong was watching her with a smile in his eyes. Qi Yue was opening his mouth when he took a preemptive step forward to grasp her hand and go off as if there was no one else present, walking as he dipped his head next to her ear to say, “Where do you want to go for dessert?”

Qiu Ying’s aggressive aura from just now disappeared instantly. She wrinkled her nose cutely. “I can’t, I’m afraid of getting fat.”

Ji Xiangkong’s eyes curved as he tucked the loose hair by her cheek behind her ear. “You’re so pretty, you won’t get fat.”

Lin Yixuan followed with a few words and laughed like normal.

Qi Yue was treated as air as well as gagged up with dog food. Blue veins violently popped up on his forehead and he looked like he wasn’t doing quite well.

The Phoenix members paid no heed at all to this episode with Qi Yue. In the competition the following week, they were on fire, fulling demonstrating the results of their training.

“Summit’s appeared at mid lane!”

“Summit’s appeared at mid lane again!”

In the match’s early stages, when their opponents tried to use Xia Ling as an opening again, Pei Xi quickly appeared from the shadows. His strong support instantly turned the situation around as he suppressed and killed the mid to help Xia Ling establish an advantage.

This behavior was undoubted a huge psychological shock. The opponents didn’t dare to attack Xia Ling! The Grim Reaper was behind them at all times!

Their fear of Pei Xi made them shy away from playing all throughout, and after safely passing through the early game, Xia Ling entered his strong phase where he unleashed his strengths, cooperated with his teammates, and beautifully played the entire field.

“Here! High five!”

After winning another game, Ji Xiangkong took off his headphones and high-fived with his teammates.

“Do you know why Xia Ling’s been this brave recently?” Lin Yixuan laughed. “Before every game, this brat will scroll through all of the comments left flaming him for a super long time.”

Sun Zeyi rubbed Xia Ling’s head. “Didn’t we tell you to ignore them?”

Lin Yixuan whistled. “He’s a masochist, he gets more excited the more he gets flamed.”

Seeing everyone looking at him complicatedly, Xia Ling glared at Lin Yixuan. “You’re the one who gets more excited the more you get hit!”

Lin Yixuan turned to slap his butt. “Get over here!”

“Get lost!”

Successive days of victory boosted Phoenix’s morale. Their new competition lineup and bold tactical arrangements caused their competition to be full of drama, like a surprise attack, catching their opponents off guard.

Every day at noon, Qiu Ying would gather information online. She was pleased to find out the Conquer fans’ comments about Team Phoenix were getting more and more positive. In the most popular team discussion thread, one poster wrote: “The configuration of Phoenix’s team members are practically perfect, they can attack when they go in and defend when they retreat. They have a late-stage nucleus that’s as stable as Mt. Tai, a support that prioritizes the team above all else, two extremely aggressive killing machines, and also a sacrificial captain who’s fearless of burden.”

…Wait a minute, what the hell was this sacrificial captain who’s fearless of burden?

Qiu Ying looked up at the ceiling to think about it and it quickly dawned on her.

When the audience watched Phoenix’s games, they could often hear the commentators’ lamentations—

“Hey, hey! Your captain is in a lot of danger, how come you’ve all run off? You don’t care about whether he lives or dies?”

“Void is circling around alone to cut off the back rows! All of the locations are extremely bad! Teammates, hurry and rescue him…hurry and res…resc… His teammates have withdrawn!”

“Oh my God, Void has been thrown away again, I feel like he’s a gecko tail!”

The audience gradually became accustomed to Team Phoenix’s distinguishing feature — “blood-sacrifice captain”. In winning rounds, Ji Xiangkong was basically killed right from the start and the opponents took his blood. As time passed, everyone spat out all of the curses they had for Ji Xiangkong until there was no more left. Now after Void sent them his blood, the chat would be bursting with cheers: “It’s settled!”

When they saw someone flaming Ji Xiangkong for being a noob, Team Phoenix’s fans would swarm up, not to be outdone, to fight back.

“The hell do you understand! This is called ‘sacrificial death’ for our Captain Ji!”

“That’s right! The captain is someone to be sold!”

“Captain Ji’s final tactic: first shoulder the burden when the round starts, and his teammates immediately have no more pressure, they’re free to fight!”

As she looked at ridiculing chat messages like these, Qiu Ying couldn’t help but laugh.

In fact, sacrificial death wasn’t just a joke.

Even the newest Conquer players knew that going along with the troops that were the hardest to kill brought even faster growth, but Ji Xiangkong chose the most dangerous troops most of the time all in order to give safe resources who those who needed it more. Not only that, but being in a dangerous place could offer yourself a line of sight, attract the opponents’ attention, and make room for your teammates to farm money.

In one team, there would always be someone who was the vanguard, and one who would bear the first wave of damage.

Ji Xiangkong seemed to have a keen sense of smell, that he was always able to withdraw just before the opponents moved to gank him. If he didn’t go, then his death was mostly beneficial for the team. For example, he’d already replenished his troops to collect money to grind the towers; for example, he was creating a trick to keep their opponents in check while he directed his teammates to make a surprise attack on other lanes.

Battlefield fraudster Void. No one could guess what he was thinking. As a results, his opponents would occasionally see him exposed in a dangerous area, but they didn’t even dare to go forward to attack.

Every minute and every second of a game, both sides were fighting each other with all they had, playing a chess game.

It was just that for these inner games that top players played behind the scenes, unless commentators laid them bare, very few people would know of them.

But flipping it around, as Cris once said, “If Ji Xiangkong’s tactical intentions could be understood by everyone, then I can only say that he’s nothing more that that.”

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