Chapter 67

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Yao Sen, seated on the sofa in the players’ lounge, turned to Wang Yuxi for a brief moment, wearing a complicated look on his face, before turning away. He couldn’t take it any longer and said, “Lao-Wang, stop shaking your legs. You’re making my eyes go blurry.”

The Titans players were making final preparations in the lounge as the final battle began in forty minutes.

Their earlier journey to the stadium was accompanied by fans waving handbanners to cheer them on, and a ring of reporters following at their heels with cameras to capture every minute expression on Titans’ players’ faces on the eve of their final match against Odin.

Titans and Odin’s logos were plastered on every screen in the main stadium, the black-and-red and navy blue-and-white team logos taking up the LED displays. It was hardly an exaggeration to say that the entire esports community was waiting for this moment with bated breath.

Although the four Titans players had competed in numerous championships, this was their first encounter with such a difficult opponent in the final match. Wang Yuxi, who had been nervous long before the game, couldn’t even walk in a straight line and had been taking deep breaths from the moment he entered the lounge.

Wang Yuxi tightened his grip on the water bottle in response to Yao Sen’s words, saying, “I’m so damn nervous! Ethan, that Yao… gah! Yao Sen, that Ethan! Geez, I’m so nervous that I got your names mixed up!”

Yao Sen patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry, there’s still forty minutes left. Calm down.”

“You’re always yammering away before our games,” said Bai Yue to Wang Yuxi. “But nothing ever happens.”

Wang Yuxi: “It’s different this time! We’re going up against Ethan!”

To the side, Song Mingzhe added, “There’s nothing to be worried about. Ethan is definitely not as strong as our boss.”

Wang Yuxi: “There he goes, Yao Sen’s brainless praise-bot.”

Manager Guo was conversing with Coach Gou on the other side of the room. He didn’t say much to the team; after all, he’d said everything he needed to say, and the rest was up to the boys themselves. Zhou Ziyu, on the other hand, was running around bringing tea and pouring water for his four big bros, pounding their backs and massaging their shoulders, clearly more excited than the four players.

There was a knock on the lounge door then, followed by the quiet entry of a very polite visitor. Shao Han stood at the doorway; Noah had just played a match to determine their competition ranking and he’d rushed over to find Yao Sen as soon as it was over.

Yao Sen checked the time and saw that he still had more than half an hour to loosen up and relax. When facing an opponent like Odin, a sense of urgency was unavoidable, and Titans’ second round loss to them weighed heavier than any of their previous matches.

Yao Sen got to his feet and went to the door, wrapping an arm around Shao Han’s shoulders and saying, “Baby, come take a walk with me.”

The two exited the stadium through the backdoor, where there was a small park. It served as a rest area for some of the audience members who were waiting in line for entry.

They stayed away from the crowds and sat on a bench in the shade.

Shao Han completely understood what Yao Sen was currently feeling. After all, Titans’s descent to the losers’ bracket was due to their loss to Odin, but regardless of the outcome of the final match, Yao Sen would forever be irreplaceable in his heart.

Shao Han’s voice was cool and gentle, infused with unwavering certainty and absolute confidence as he said, “I believe in you.”

Yao Sen chuckled. “Mm.”

Yao Sen’s mind became significantly more at ease during his brief outing with Shao Han—it was just like when he’d been wrecked with insomnia, and hearing Shao Han’s voice could get him to relax in no time. Shao Han was the only one who possessed the magical ability to calm him down.

The two stayed outside until ten minutes remained on the clock, at which point Yao Sen returned to his teammates to regroup.

When Yao Sen pushed open the lounge door, his three teammates were all neatly dressed in their uniforms and jackets. Coach Gou, who was standing behind them, gave them a nod.

“Get out there and show ‘em what you’ve got,” said Coach Gou.

The arena lights were blazing. The raucous audience shouted and applauded. Two rows of players in their distinctive team colours lined up in the centre of the stage; the enigmatic yet flashy red and black, and a steady yet intense navy blue, a visual feast.

Ethan and Yao Sen faced each other. “Finally!” exclaimed the former as he shook the latter’s hand.

He put on a serious front and leaned into Yao Sen’s ear. “To be honest, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.” He fist-bumped Yao Sen’s shoulder, and asked half-jokingly, “Did you beat Kevin to avenge that pretty boyfriend of yours?”

“Absolutely.” Yao Sen winked, smiling innocently. “He made my baby cry.”

“Haha! I had a feeling that was it!”

Yao Sen never foresaw that the words he whispered to Ethan before the match started would later be listed by the foreign media as one of the top ten “mysteries” in the league—what exactly did Titans’s captain say that day?

The remaining three Titans members, who were listening in on their captain and Ethan’s nonsense, could only shake hands in silence with the players opposite them, both sporting polite but awkward smiles on their faces.

Once the players were seated, the platforms in the arena slowly rose, and the lights around the seats were lit up in each team’s colours. Yao Sen swept a glance at the audience from afar and, sure enough, he spotted Shao Han amongst them.

Yao Sen let out a lengthy exhale, then clasped his hands and stretched his arms in front of him. “This is it, guys,” he said.

Wracked with endless nerves, Wang Yuxi tried to regulate his breathing. He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. “Don’t be nervous, don’t be nervous…” he chanted to himself. “When I get back after this match, I’m going to drink all the milk tea I want. Four Seasons green milk tea, here I come!”

Bai Yue: “Control yourself, Lao-Wang. Do you want this year’s batch of new recruits to find out that they have a senior who weighs in the hundreds?”

Wang Yuxi: “I only weigh 77 kilos! Se-ven-ty! Se-ven!”

Bai Yue: “But you’re only 177 centimetres tall.”

“I weigh an average amount! And I’m 179 centimetres tall with shoes on, thank you!”

“You and I weigh the same, but I’m four centimetres taller than you.”

“Are you guys sure you want to discuss your body weights three minutes before the game?” said Yao Sen. “Anyway, Wang Yuxi, I really don’t think you should be drinking any more milk tea. You’re as chubby as a baby right now.”

Wang Yuxi opened his mouth to retort, but then paused and took a deep breath. With a rare bout of sternness, he said, “All right bros. You don’t have to distract me to help me calm down. With you guys here, I have no reason to be nervous.”

A small smile graced Yao Sen’s lips as he looked at the big screen. When he spoke, his voice was steady and full of unshakeable conviction. “I’m not going to talk any more strategy, just trust your gut. Don’t you guys think the colours of our country’s flag go really well with our uniform? Shouldn’t we wrap it around our shoulders at least once?”

When the countdown reached zero, the big screen displayed the map they would be playing on.

The drawn map was Map D. To a team like Odin, it didn’t really matter what map they would be playing on, as they were a team with the ability to analyse and adapt in a short amount of time that the average team lacked.

For a team with less experience, such as the Titans, the simpler the map type, the better. More complex maps allowed for surprise attacks that were difficult to defend against, which was Odin’s specialty.

They had already fought Odin once. The team wasn’t flawless to the point of invincibility, or Titans wouldn’t have been able to get a point off of them.

In his mind, Yao Sen filtered through every previous confrontation, every last offensive attempt, and relayed the accumulation of his commands to his members. “Our primary target is their scout. He’ll stay off the frontlines in the early stage, but make sure to snipe him as soon as you identify him.”

“Okay,” the other three chorused.

The four of them carried out Formation B, which was an aggressive defensive tactic. Odin lacked the iron-wall defence Lincoln had; their style of attack was a sharp and all-consuming one, which was not that much different from Titans’s. As such, there was no reason to give up their strengths and stick to their weaknesses where defence was concerned.

Since they were going to fight recklessly, they would give it all they got.

Team Odin had a scout who was in charge of surveying the overall terrain in order to relay the best strategy to his teammates. He served as the team’s eagle eye, quickly sifting through chaotic situations to determine the best course of action.

This scout was so well-protected that he would almost never be exposed in a direct confrontation. After the first airdrop, Titans were hit by Odin’s first surprise attack; Ethan was so staggeringly fast that Yao Sen almost didn’t notice him, and he could only dodge by relying on his instincts that had been honed over the years. He managed to avoid a hail of gunfire that followed, but was hit in the shoulder by a crossbow arrow.

There was a crossbow expert in team Odin whose aim was so deadly that his arrows dealt more damage than if he were to use a gun. A hit to the body and the next one would be the last, and a hit to the head meant instant death.

Yao Sen rolled across the ground, the muzzle of his gun bouncing around with him. But despite the shaky and rotating perspective, he managed to hit the distant crossbowman in the head with pinpoint accuracy. Unfortunately, his opponent was wearing a helmet, and one shot wasn’t enough to take him out.

As Yao Sen ducked into an alley, Odin’s No. 1 and No. 3 went toe-to-toe with Wang Yuxi, Bai Yue, and Song Mingzhe, while No. 2 went straight to solo Yao Sen. No. 4, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found.

Yao Sen: “No. 4 is their scout!”

Yao Sen was well aware that Odin’s plan was to eliminate him after separating him from the others, and even if Ethan was defeated in a 1v1 battle, the scout in the shadows could join the fight at any time and deplete Yao Sen’s ammo through attrition warfare. This strategy also kept their scout from entering the fray too soon and being killed by the enemy.

Ethan and Yao Sen’s identities had now been revealed in full, but none of that mattered. The two players traded fierce blows and bullets, and lines of fire cut through across an intangible barrier. The commentators’ voices were loud with excitement as they described the players as a fearless alpha wolf and a rampaging lion duking it out for the title of king.

When the scout finally engaged, it was two against one, and Yao Sen felt the strain gradually. He had no choice but to switch to defence and retreat, at which point a notification on the upper right corner of his screen informed him that Song Mingzhe had been eliminated.

Yao Sen: “Everyone hold! Fall back!”

Ethan realised Yao Sen was about to flee and didn’t hesitate to pursue him. The muzzle of his gun was like the fangs of an alpha wolf who had ruled a territory for an eon—he shot the window closest to Yao Sen, and the resulting glass explosion blinded Yao Sen’s vision for half a second, the time it took Ethan’s bullet to clear Yao Sen’s HP.

The first round ended five minutes later, with Odin being the first to score a point.

In the second round, Yao Sen was once again singled out by Odin’s ferocious offensive. Each of their players was extremely powerful on their own; even if Wang Yuxi was able to kill his way out of the blockade, Ethan denied him any further opportunities.

This time, however, Yao Sen took the lead and killed off Odin’s scout. As a result, their opponent’s movements were noticeably restrained and there was a brief lull in their offensive, but they quickly regrouped and launched their second attack.

That brief pause was supposed to be Titans’s chance, but by the time they realised it, it was too late.

When Yao Sen and Ethan were gunning each other down, Odin’s crossbowman dispatched Bai Yue. When the crossbowman came to flank Ethan, the stalemate was broken as Yao Sen got a bullet in his leg as Ethan blocked his escape route.

The surviving but bloodied Wang Yuxi and Song Mingzhe barely made it there in time, but Odin still had destructive weapons in their hands, and none of them had enough HP to sustain a single shot.

Grenades and flash bombs were hurled out at the same time. There was an explosion of flames and white light, and in the midst of the chaos, Yao Sen sniped Odin’s crossbowman, but Ethan effectively blocked him from turning the situation around.

Odin was up by two points at the end of the second game. An enormous pressure and sense of urgency hung over the Titans’ heads at that moment, almost constricting their lungs with it.

Every soul in the stadium was on edge. Both teams’ attacks were so fast-paced that it lit a fire in everyone’s hearts and dazzled everyone in the room. Everyone’s hearts beat in unison, as if mirroring the big screen countdown to the start of the third round.

Yao Sen’s fists were clenched as he stared intently at his computer screen. He then turned to look at his team members, seeing their tension, their refusal to give up, and the fire blazing in everyone’s eyes—there was no trace of hopelessness there.

Yao Sen kept his cool as he steadily laid out his strategy. This scene was recorded by countless cameras, and even the two American commentators couldn’t help but exclaim that the Titans captain seemed incredibly calm.

Not for any other reason, no. It was simply because Yao Sen believed, deep down, that the game was far from over. Team Odin wouldn’t start to relax, nor would Titans start to collapse.

☆ ☆ ☆

Chapter 66 | TOC | Chapter 68

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