Chapter 17

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

When the four of them came back from dinner, Manager Guo happened to be looking for Yao Sen, and the two of them went straight to the lounge.

Manager Guo asked, “Did you appear in Noah’s vice captain’s livestream a few days ago?”

“I soloed with him for a few rounds, what’s up?”

“You never signed with White Shark, yet you turn around and show up on another platform. That stream stayed at the top of the list for a long time, and the person in charge of the White Shark Livestream has been bugging me all day long about when you’d sign with them,” Manager Guo said. “The contract has been changed according to your conditions. You’d stream at least six times a month for a minimum of ninety minutes each time, which means that the platform’s cut has been slightly raised. They’ve already given me the contract, and I’ve looked over it carefully. You definitely won’t suffer any losses. Will you sign?”

“Sure, I’ll sign,” Yao Sen took the contract and flipped through it, taking note of several clauses about the awards cut and contract breaches before finally signing. “When do I start?”

“Next week, but they wouldn’t hate it if you start tonight.” Manager Guo put away the contract, then remembered something else, “One more thing, isn’t it your birthday next Wednesday? The official website will put up a scrolling banner. People from the website will take some pictures tomorrow–you can sign your autograph and write a sentence to boost morale, that kind of thing.”

It was fine if Yao Sen was asked to sign, but writing a sentence was a little difficult. First off, he couldn’t think of any other slogan than “Titans is the strongest”, but he didn’t want to be forced to pour chicken soup. Secondly, apart from his pretty nice-looking autograph, the rest of his handwriting was an extremely tragic sight.

Manager Guo probably also realized that this was hard for him, so he told him to ask whether Bai Yue was willing to be his ghostwriter. Bai Yue had extremely nice handwriting. Moreover, it was very similar to Yao Sen’s signature, so it would look completely authentic.

So after the outsourced staff came, Yao Sen easily signed and left, directly assigning the task of coming up with a slogan to Bai Yue.

When Bai Yue returned, he directly complained about Yao Sen in their WeChat group.

Bai Yue: @YaoSen you’re such a handsome dude, but why is your handwriting so ugly?

Yao Sen: The uglier the handwriting, the handsomer the man.

Bai Yue: …I didn’t say that my handwriting looks nice

Wang Yuxi: What happened?

Bai Yue: I was forced to become a sharpshooter.

*枪手 = sharpshooter, also means someone who produces a piece of work for someone else to pass off as their own… it’s a pun

Wang Yuxi: Sharpshooter? Aren’t you a support?

Bai Yue: I meant that he made me write for him. Are you stupid?

Wang Yuxi: Then you could just say that you’re a ghostwriter! Lao-Gou made me practice instant positioning[1] for two hours today, my hands are fucked

Yao Sen: I signed with White Shark yesterday

Wang Yuxi: You signed with White Shark too?

Bai Yue: You don’t stream though?

Yao Sen: It’s only six times a month. Not a problem.

Wang Yuxi: Why do I need to do it twelve times a month?

Bai Yue: Because you only have game fans. Yao Sen not only has game fans but also face fans. He’s worth two of you.

Wang Yuxi: [This old woman will tear you up when I’m done with my makeup.jpg]

Wang Yuxi: By the way, isn’t next Wednesday Yao Sen’s birthday, what are your plans?

Yao Sen: What can I plan, drink beer and eat crayfish?

Wang Yuxi: Do you think you’ll have a local tyrant fan bag you a billboard or something?

Yao Sen: Wake up, I play games, not make movies.

Yao Sen: How about you guys raise money to bag me one?

Wang Yuxi: Billboards are impossible, but we can get you an LED sign.

Yao Sen: Where do you want to hang a sign? Over my bed so I can turn the lights off and disco-dance in every colour under the sun?

While chatting in the WeChat group, Yao Sen found that it was time for Shao Han’s live broadcast, so he simply blocked the group and directly entered the broadcast room, leaving Bai Yue and Wang Yuxi chattering in the group.

At the beginning, Coach Gou was also in the group. Although the coach didn’t speak much, his sense of presence was truly too strong. His ID made people’s heart race, like he’d come out at any time and @ someone to get back to training.

Therefore, Yao Sen pulled the four of them into a new group. Among them, Bai Yue and Wang Yuxi were the most active. Old Song was basically a lurker–once in a while, he’d encounter serious e-sports topics or topics about Yao Sen and send it to the group chat, displaying his innate devotion as a Yao Sen fan.

Before long, a new member was added to the group: Zhou Ziyu.

On Saturday, Zhou Ziyu’s custom-made team uniform was delivered. Coach Gou held an official team meeting with the five of them that afternoon and arranged the future training regimen, hoping that Zhou Ziyu would be able adapt to the main team’s training rhythm as soon as possible.

After the coach left, Zhou Ziyu looked at his new seat and new machine. For a while, he didn’t dare to believe it was real. He turned his head to look at the four people of the main team, and his nose suddenly soured. He bowed deeply to the four, his voice choked with sobs and excitement, “Thank you for giving me this opportunity, everyone!”

“You earned the opportunity yourself. From now on, we’re all on the same team, no need to be so formal,” Wang Yuxi patted Zhou Ziyu’s shoulder. The latter lifted his head and sniffed, nodding vigorously.

Yao Sen said, “Ziyu, sit between Old Bai and Old Song first and watch how they play as supports, just ask them right away if there’s anything you don’t understand.”

“Okay,” Zhou Ziyu looked at Yao Sen, hesitated for a moment, then asked somewhat bashfully, “Captain… can I shake your hand before I turn on my computer?”

“Shake my hand?”

“Everyone says that if we shake hands with you before touching the mouse and keyboard, your hit rate will be passed on,” Zhou Ziyu touched his head in embarrassment, “It’s just to bless the mouse and keyboard.”

“……..”

On the side, Wang Yuxi was already laughing so hard that he rolled around in his chair, while Bai Yue and Song Mingzhe both spat out their drinks, nearly ruining their keyboards.

Yao Sen held out his hand, “Fine, come here.”

Zhou Ziyu promptly stuck out both hands to shake Yao Sen’s, his eyes brimming with longing and gratitude.

Yao Sen patted him on the shoulder, “Go ahead, next time you talk to your buddies about blessings, take your mouse and keyboards to a temple, it’s guaranteed to be more useful than me.”

Wang Yuxi: “Hahahaha where are you useful! The Goddess of Mercy doesn’t play games!”

That night, the five of them penta-queued several times, starting with Bai Yue bringing Zhou Ziyu along to familiarize himself with the attacking habits of the team’s two assaults. Zhou Ziyu listened very earnestly, jotting down quite a few things in his notebook.

After more or less familiarizing himself with the tempo of the team’s outputs, Yao Sen told Zhou Ziyu to go back and rest for the day with that day’s training session in mind.

Not long after Zhou Ziyu left, Jiang Yang came to solo with Yao Sen as promised.

With the remaining three people playing their own matches, Yao Sen pulled up the gaming chair next to him and said to Jiang Yang, who was standing at the door, “Come here, get on the computer.”

Jiang Yang kept his cool and sat down, taking a deep breath.

Yao Sen: “You ready?”

Jiang Yang: “Yes.”

“Start.”

More than two hours later, all ten solo rounds were over.

Jiang Yang quieted down and sat in his chair, frowning in contemplation.

Yao Sen sat there watching him and asked indifferently, “How do you feel?”

Jiang Yang stared at the screen in doubt, seeming somewhat hesitant.

“Does it feel like my hit rate isn’t actually as high as what you guys usually see on match broadcasts?”

Jiang Yang nodded hesitantly, “Captain, did you let me shoot you?”

“I absolutely didn’t let you take any shots whatsoever,” Yao Sen replied firmly, “Do you know why I have such a high hit rate in matches? It’s because I have supports.”

Jiang Yang stared at him in a daze.

“Don’t think that a high hit rate guarantees that you can just go crazy in the game. No matter how high your hit rate is, it’ll be useless without a good support,” Yao Sen took off his headphones. “Don’t underestimate the role of a support, and don’t overestimate the position of an assault. Your offense is good, but you have to learn to cooperate with them. Zhou Ziyu’s strength is nowhere near yours–apart from his teamwork.”

While he said these words, Wang Yuxi and the other three did not speak.

Jiang Yang tried to digest Yao Sen’s words. He finally stood up, clenched his teeth, and replied, “Captain, to be honest, I’m still not completely convinced about the substitute stuff. But since you told me so, I’ll try to do it, and I won’t give you the chance to reject me next time!”

“Good.”

Jiang Yang nodded to the rest of the main team and left with large strides.

After Jiang Yang left, Yao Sen leisurely took a sip of his drink. The atmosphere in the training room had been silent up until now, as if they were contemplating Yao Sen’s words earlier.

“Yao Sen,” Bai Yue finally couldn’t help piping up, “Tell us, how many shots did you let him take?”

Yao Sen calmly said, “Not much, just a dozen shots.”

“How did you turn black into white without changing your face?” Wang Yuxi couldn’t help admiring his captain’s ability to deceive people. “With no hit rate, a strong support would still be useless. Are supports so strong that they can keep your enemies motionless to let you shoot their faces off? Jiang Yang actually believed it… Your thick skin should really be rolled out with a rolling pin.”

Wang Yuxi was indeed right, and Yao Sen was naturally clear about this too. With a team of four, it wasn’t unreasonable for the output to be called the main position and the support to be called the secondary position.

Yao Sen: “Isn’t it fine if it makes him face up to the roles in a team?”

Bai Yue: “With your eloquence, you can be directly promoted to the head of an MLM scheme.”

*multi-level marketing

Wang Yuxi: “MLMs won’t fucking dare ask for him. Yao Sen would just talk them into turning over a new leaf.”

Song Mingzhe: “The boss can be a talk show host or something, aren’t those internet talk shows also pretty hot nowadays?”

Bai Yue: “I think Wang Yuxi is more suitable for talk shows.”

Wang Yuxi: “I’m not handsome enough.”

Bai Yue: “……this Achilles heel of yours.”

Wang Yuxi: “Yao Sen, you’re pretty good at this scamming education method, when I have a baby in the future, I’ll let them recognise you as their godfather. Help me teach them when they don’t listen.”

Yao Sen patted Wang Yuxi’s shoulder and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear, “Then I’ll try to get him to recognize two godfathers.”

Wang Yuxi blanked out for a moment, and it took him half a day to realize that he was talking about Shao Han. Wang Yuxi’s spirit of ridicule promptly came into play, dragging his voice and saying meaningfully, “Aiyo, Godfather Yao moves fast.”

“Don’t worry, Godfather will definitely find you a good one. We’re just missing the birth of your baby.” Yao Sen waved his hand, “Oh, sorry, I forgot that you don’t have a girlfriend yet.”

☆ ☆ ☆

t/n – i miss shao han ;___;

Footnotes:

[1] the literal term was ‘throw gun’, and it’s a technique in Counter Strike where you use a sniper rifle to move a very short distance to kill all enemies within that small distance

⟵ Chapter 16 | TOC | Chapter 18 ⟶

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