Chapter 1

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

The eyes of everyone in the room focused on the young boy whose head was nervously bowed. The face of that green youth who was only fifteen years young was flushed red. Finally, he clenched his fist, and with eyes blazing, he summoned up the courage to say: “I want to become a member of Titans’s main team!”

Song Mingzhe was one of the main team members of ‘Titans’, a professional esports team of the worldwide renowned multiplayer shooting game “Alarm Dawn”, commonly shortened as AD[1]. He listened to the boy’s words and patted him on the shoulder admiringly, and earnestly wished him, “Keep what you said today in mind and train well in the youth training team, you hear me?”

The boy made a deep bow. “I do! Thank you, Song ge!”

The boy turned to face the man sitting on the gaming chair beside him and bowed once more. “Thank you, Captain!”

Hearing the boy’s words, the outer corners of the captain’s eyes narrowed slightly, and a charming smile arose from the curve of his mouth. “You’re welcome.”

The boy’s eyes shone. He blushed and bellowed “Yes!” excitedly, then puffed up his chest and left.

Having sent away the child from the youth training team who had wanted to see the captain’s elegant demeanor, Yao Sen stretched his body and turned his chair to face the computer. He clicked on the game icon with a practised ease, and then leisurely logged into his side account.

More than two years ago, Yao Sen was recruited by the Titans Club, who had made an exception and allowed him to join the third team after spending only a week in the youth training team. Before he even had the chance to warm the third team’s bench, however, Yao Sen overpowered the members of the second team in the selection matches and officially became the fastest Titans member to join the main team since the club was first established.

After finishing school, esports was Yao Sen’s full-time job. He took over as captain not long after the former captain retired, taking on a team that was dropping in rankings, losing sponsors, and had low morale.

Even so, it was precisely this team that won the Asia Championship last year with a victory that shocked the Alarm Dawn esports circle’s gods, launching a counterattack from a weakened position[2] to obtain the crown.

Yao Sen’s personal rank reigned at the top of the Asian server, and the two characters of his name flattened the Chinese AD esports circle, turning the previously low-ranking Titans into a legend that reached the top of the Asian server overnight.

This ‘God Sen’ who was the talk of town tore open a bag of potato chips, preparing to rank up his side account.

Wang Yuxi, who had been teammates with Yao Sen for two years, leaned over from his seat next to him and said, “Why do you suddenly want to go rank your side account today?”

“The account’s rank dropped.” Yao Sen, who was holding his bag of potato chips, said indifferently, “I’m going to see if there are any girls around and carry one.”

Yao Sen’s side account was neither ranked high nor low, so it was easy to rank up. He chose the four-member team queue and swept a cursory glance at his teammates’ IDs. His gaze fell onto the player named ‘Shao Mengmeng’ and quickly locked a target in his heart.

Yao Sen was relatively thick-skinned and directly tapped out a message.

Five Elements Lack Wood[3]: Shao Mengmeng

The other party also replied very quickly: Hello?

Five Elements Lack Wood: I’ll carry you

Shao Mengmeng: Ok

The other two teammates made fun of how Five Elements Lack Wood hit on a girl after barely meeting her, but Yao Sen didn’t talk nonsense and directly entered the game. This kind of amateur match was not without difficulty——the difficulty lay in how one was able to make it look as if winning was not effortless.

Shao Mengmeng: You play very well

The corner of Yao Sen’s mouth hooked up. Even though it was no fun playing with amateurs, carrying and hitting on girls was still enjoyable. Their other two teammates saw that they were chatting up a potential disturbance and quickly retreated. Yao Sen readily accepted their decision and invited Shao Mengmeng to duo queue, and the other side quickly agreed.

After playing two rounds, Yao Sen unexpectedly found that Shao Mengmeng’s gameplay was not bad, and even faintly had a hint of professional qualities. Yao Sen casually sent a friend request soon after.

Five Elements Lack Wood: You played well, have you practiced?

Shao Mengmeng: Practiced for a bit

Five Elements Lack Wood: Turn on the mic?

Shao Mengmeng: No need

Yao Sen directly switched his own mic on, cleared his throat, and said, “Why don’t you turn it on? It’s more convenient.”

Shao Mengmeng: No need

Yao Sen: “You really won’t? I rarely come across a female player in a random match who plays so well. Why don’t we have a chat?”

Shao Mengmeng: Thank you

Shao Mengmeng: I’m a guy

Yao Sen shredded the potato chips in his mouth to tiny pieces, calmly glanced at Shao Mengmeng’s reply and said, “If you don’t want to turn on your mic, there’s no need to look for this kind of reason. Just say it up front, it’s okay.”

Shao Mengmeng: I really am a boy

Yao Sen eyed the other person’s ID for two seconds and said, “…Why don’t you turn on your mic and prove it?”

Shao Mengmeng: This is my little sister’s account. I’m helping her rank.

After a while, the small loudspeaker icon next to Shao Mengmeng’s name lit up, and a cool and clear male voice rang out through his headphones.

Shao Mengmeng’s timbre was somewhat cool and slightly higher than the average guy, yet there was no lack of charm and magnetism, carrying an innate feeling that would keep strangers away. “Sorry.”

“…..”

“…..”

This short period of silence was truly awkward. Yao Sen planned to save himself a little face and confidently said, “Bro, you played really well and your voice sounds nice. Keep up the effort.”

Without waiting for the other party to respond, Yao Sen threw down his headphones and logged out. He lamented at how his online love affair had been strangled in the cradle before it could even begin.

Upon seeing this, Wang Yuxi said, “What’s up? You’re not carrying?”

“I did carry,” Yao Sen replied. “I carried a dude.”[4]

The sound of Wang Yuxi’s howls of laughter immediately invaded his ears.

–

The next day, the Titans would leave for the professional esports training centre in B City. Before the start of the domestic competition, which was still a month away, the club planned to let the group of kids who had just joined the youth training team experience the atmosphere of pre-competition training to broaden their horizons.

This domestic competition was still a sponsored cup in nature and did not limit the minimum number of teams sent by each club, so it was possible to send both the main team as well as the youth training team.

Teams like Titans who had won the Asia Championship were not too interested in the domestic cup, as it didn’t quite measure up to the Asia Championship. However, it was still a good opportunity to train the youth team.

The club’s Manager Guo contacted an esports training centre in B City that they’ve had long-term cooperation with in advance, and the Titans team members immediately checked in at that time.

The members of the main and second teams took advantage of this time to go to B City to relax and play friendly matches to guide the youth training team’s practice.

After Yao Sen led Titans to win the Asia Championship, sponsors and livestreaming platforms who wanted to offer them contracts drifted over to the club like snowflakes.

Alarm Dawn’s gameplay was actually divided into two versions: the professional version with stronger expertise and was a purely technical and skill-based competition, and the version for entertainment purposes that had better equipment. The pros tended to use the professional version.[5]

Currently however, the domestic livestreaming industry was famous for their non-professional competitive players. There was still a huge difference in the attention given towards professional esports and the equipment competition, but Yao Sen was not interested in joining the fancier livestreaming industry for the time being, so the livestreaming contract offers were either rejected by him or pushed onto his other teammates.

Before going to bed, Yao Sen posted on Weibo, saying that he was going to be in closed-door training for a few days. The circuitry of his fans’ brains were different from that of ordinary people, and as soon as he expressed that he would be going to train, a cute group of young fans felt distressed for him and commented “take care to rest.” below his post. There were also a group of fake fans who were happier than anyone else when he said he would train.

@Titans_Sen: Month-long closed-door training starts tomorrow.

[Sen ge finally remembers that he’s an esports champion! Spread the word!]

[President Sen, where are you training? I’ll have someone make a banner tomorrow and hang it up for three days and three nights to celebrate]

[I can’t believe God Sen is going to start training!!!! Everyone clap for me!!!!]

[Don’t listen to Sen ge’s nonsense. Recently there’s only the domestic competition, Sen ge must have gone out to play in the name of the youth training team [doge].]

[The landlord[6] is a sensible man. Aren’t you afraid that Sen ge will deal with you?]

The next day, the Titans team members set off to B City and headed directly to the esports training centre. The eyes of each and every member of the youth training team glimmered, wishing they could rush in and personally touch the new devices with their own hands.

But when everyone was about to go in, Manager Guo came out from the training centre with an anxious and solemn expression, saying that there was a problem with the arrangements.

When Yao Sen asked, he found out that the timeslot of their lease had not been inputted. Previously, Manager Guo had already requested to rent the place to the person in charge of the reservations, and since Manager Guo and that person had a good relationship, they immediately came to a verbal agreement. Yet because that person became busy right after, he forgot to leave a formal reservation record.

In the past few days, the person in charge of reservations had changed to someone new. They paid close attention to detail and did not see that there was a team reservation in the last month, so they directly rented the base to another esports team.

At present, that team was also waiting in the lobby. The managers of the two teams were red in the face as the person in charge apologized awkwardly, trying to console the two for half a day and yet not knowing how to get to the bottom of the matter.

Manager Guo was still in the wrong, a verbal agreement did not have any credit. The other team had a proper reservation record and the rent had also been paid. But they were all already here and couldn’t just go back home again.

Yao Sen: “Which team is it? Are they famous?”

Manager Guo: “Noah’s Ark, I’m guessing you know them.”

Yao Sen raised an eyebrow, the Noah’s Ark Team was also a rising dark horse in recent years, and had entered the top five in last year’s Asia Championship. They were indeed a team to be reckoned with.

Seeing that the faces of the youth training team were all nervous and worried, for fear that this team training would fail, Yao Sen asked, “Do we currently have a solution?”

“The person in charge is contacting another cooperative club to ask if there’s any room available, and if so, we can arrange for some of our team members to go there,” Manager Guo sighed. “It’s just that all the people in Noah’s Ark have to live here. They don’t have as many people as we do, and there are still some rooms left. I’ll see if I can talk it over with them again… This matter is my fault.”

“It’s not your fault as long as you can resolve it.” Yao Sen said, “Is their captain here yet? I’ll go and have a chat with him.”

“The captain didn’t come, but the vice-captain is here.”

“Whoever’s fine, it doesn’t matter.”

Not even two minutes after Manager Guo went inside, a boy dressed in white appeared. The boy was tall and his attire was simple, clean, and elegant, and his lags clad in black trousers were long and straight. The sight was pleasing to the eye and made his heart warm[7], and Yao Sen’s first impression was very good.

Yao Sen’s eyes shifted to the vice captain’s face.

The vice captain’s eyebrows were long and thin, and he had a fair complexion with a warm tone and good skin that was rare among boys. His lips were thin, and his cupid bow were a soft light pink. His natural black hair was fluffy and soft.

Frankly, it was not out of the ordinary for professional e-sports players to stay up late, and such good skin was indeed quite rare.

The man before his eyes had a breathtaking appearance, yet the look in his eyes as black as ink was cool and indifferent. However, you couldn’t say that it was the type that was cold and detached, but more of the kind that was cautiously polite in the face of strangers.

It was as if Yao Sen’s heart had been electrocuted, his pulse beginning to rise rapidly without any warning. Without knowing why, he touched his chest and thought to himself, when did his heart rate become so irregular?

In his lifetime, the number of times that he had felt this way was only three times. The first time was when he saw a video game shown on a plaza’s big screen for the very first time in his childhood. The second was when he led his team to the Asia Championship finals and won the match with a counterattack—

The third time was now.

The vice captain of Noah’s Ark had no idea that he had turned the contents of the Titans’ captain’s head upside down. He came over, politely extended his hand to Yao Sen and indifferently said, “Hello, Captain Yao Sen. I’m the vice captain of Noah’s Ark, Shao Han. The captain will be here in a few days. I…”

As soon as the familiar voice came out, Yao Sen blanked out. He stared at the vice captain’s face and asked, “Shao Mengmeng?”

Shao Han evidently froze, his eyes more than a little stupefied, and after what felt like half a day, he finally said, “…Five Elements Lack Wood?”

The people standing on both sides looked at each other in dismay, obviously not knowing how on earth the two of them could arrive at this moment, as if they had joined a secret club that could only be identified with a password.

Yao Sen quickly sized him up from top to bottom, thinking that it was absolutely impossible for him to admit to his previous mistake. A voice that made one vaguely feel like they were in a crematorium rang out: “You’re Shao Mengmeng, right? The one who teamed up with me the other day.”

Shao Han clearly didn’t expect that there would be such a coincidence in the world either. Slightly embarrassed, he stared at Yao Sen for a few seconds and replied, “It’s me.”

“No wonder I thought you played like a pro. It turns out that you really are one.” Yao Sen suppressed the indescribable leap of his heart and first laid out his business. “Considering that we know each other, can you guys give us a few unused seats? Don’t worry, we won’t disturb your training. “

“No problem.” Shao Han answered quickly without a note of discontent, “But I have a small request.”

Yao Sen raised an eyebrow and said, “Tell me.”

“Captain Yao Sen, can you play a friendly match with our youth training team?” Shao Han said. “My youth players were very happy to hear that you’re here and would like to meet you in person.”

Yao Sen stared at him pensively.

Shao Han saw that Yao Sen didn’t respond and asked again, “Is that all right?”

“Okay.” Yao Sen nodded. “Just one game?”

“Just one game,” Shao Han replied. “Thank you.”

After only chatting with Shao Han for a short time, Yao Sen was almost brainwashed by his pleasant clear and cool voice. It was a little cold, but it was still unbearably nice to hear.

As Shao Han was about to leave, Yao Sen stopped him once more with a cordial voice and businesslike manner: “Wait, Vice Captain Shao, is it convenient if I add your WeChat? It’ll be easier to get in touch.”

–

The author has something to say:

Fall in love and play games~ asking for a bookmark. Thank you!

☆ ☆ ☆

t/n – updates will be sporadic for now! one chapter of this novel is like 2 chapters of tsats and it’s a bit harder to tl. i promise to update at least twice a week though.

TOC | Chapter 2 ⟶

footnotes:

[1] the name of the game is ‘破晓警报 (pòxiǎo jǐngbào)’ which roughly translates to daybreak/dawn + alarm/alert so i went with daybreak alarm because it sounds… cooler… it’s actually shortened to ‘破警 (pòjǐng)’ which means break + alarm and i chose alarm break to… slightly shorten the name? it didn’t end up being that short though lol if you

[2] idiom: 以少胜多 (lit. using a few to defeat the many) to win from a position of weakness

[3] yao sen’s id is 五行缺木 (wǔxíng quē mù) which means

五行: the 5 elements (of chinese philosophy: wood 木, fire 火, earth 土, metal 金, water 水)

缺: lack

木: wood

i think it’s directly related to yao sen’s real name because the character used in his name is 森 which means forest. wood and forest? Lol

[4] yao sen is making a punny? joke here. the original text is ‘带把的’ (lit. bringing/carrying a handle), apparently handle refers to male genitalia because. Yanno. poor yao sen got catfished by his own expectations.

[5] hooo boy i got really lost tl-ing this paragraph so i mostly tl-ed it based on my own understanding. it shouldn’t be too far from the original text though but even so… apologies…

[6] referring to yao sen and and his weibo post

[7] 赏心悦目 shǎngxīnyuèmù: warms the heart and delights the eye

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