Chapter 29

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Chapter 28 | 🤐 Contents 🤐 | Chapter 30

******

Translator: Silvery

PR: Decadence

TL Rec: Play a round of Tetris @https://tetris.com/play-tetris first.

Also, watch this: https://youtu.be/W6Y858742uY?t=310

Invisible tetris is the end credits of Tetris Game. Only by beating it then can you be considered to have beaten the entire Tetris. This knowledge shall come useful in this chapter.

******

No one from Team 7 dares to believe their eyes.

Eyes glued to the stage, Cen Rui is beside himself with surprise:

“Captain, please pinch me once. I promise. I won’t tell the teacher.”

Team 7’s Captain wordlessly brings his pincer fingers down on his own thigh.

Even if they do believe in Jin Linkun and Yu Sheng, no one would have ever imagined that things would escalate to this extent.

Pencil in hand, Liang Yifan is bent over a sudoku. That pile of Rubik’s Cubes rotates at lightning speed in Jin Linkun’s hands.

He does not even look at them. With an easy twirl of long and slender digits, the rubik’s cube is spun twice in a dizzying swirl of colours, returning back to its original form.

“F7: 9. H4: 6. E8: 2.”

His hands never once paused. Leaning back in his chair to catch a glimpse of the sudoku, his hand skids over for the next cube:

“…F. That’s right. ABCDEF. The 6th row from the top.”

Liang Yifan finds it a bit hard to keep up. He’s thrown into a disarray as he fumbles to scratch off the misplaced number and fill it in the box above.

“Are you sure that isn’t a bot?”

Xia Junhua’s jaw is on the ground. He blurts out in a hushed whisper:

“Solving Rubik’s Cubes while completing sudoku… If he’s got four hands, won’t Old Liang really be able to win without doing a thing?”

Cen Rui doesn’t wait for the Captain to reach over and pinch him. He brushes a hand over his thigh, unable to bear hurting it:

“You can say that again. Even now, Old Liang is clearly doing nothing…”

“You mustn’t say that. Liang Yifan plays quite an important role here.”

Team 7’s Captain is a nice guy. Even while he keeps his eyes on the stage, he doesn’t neglect to correct the members’ misconception:

“Look, he’s going to help Sheng Ge adjust his chair now.”

……

With this to-and-fro as their medium, Team 7 finally confirms what they are seeing isn’t an incidence of folie à deux.

Jin Linkun has already cleared the 9 basic 3×3 Rubik’s Cubes. They’re lined up in a neat row with their white surfaces turned up.

While the staff were switching them out for higher level cubes, he smoothly retrieved the pencil from Liang Yifan and filled in two more pages of Sudoku, signalling for the very important Student Liang to go help adjust that slightly low office chair for his Sheng Ge.

“See?” Cen Rui gloats, “I told you so. Rubik’s Cubes and Sudokus are the Study God’s secret weapons.”

……

In the still silence that envelops them, the boy with the ID: Sleep_Early_Wake_Early shifts his glasses and mutters under his breath:

“Well, if that’s the case, God Kun’s pretence has really worked too well…”

Truly, it had worked way too well.

If one were to look at the present situation, Jin Linkun’s lead comes incredibly close to being described as ‘utterly crushing’.

The two representatives on the other side have truly participated in competitions before. They aren’t slow by any means. Yet, despite that, they are still unable to keep up with him. On top of everything, given the appalling visual stimulus that is playing out before them, even the strongest competitor with a heart of steel would be slightly shaken up. They end up making a few mistakes too amateurish by their standards.

When the Rubik’s Cube is upgraded to 4×4 and the Sudoku is turned up in difficulty, both parties’ speed slow marginally at last. Nonetheless, Jin Linkun continues to build a growing gap between them.

Team 7 is simply stunned to the core. Even when this lull in the pace finally gives them an opportunity to catch their breaths, they still remain utterly floored.

The air around Team 2 is heavy. As they look on at the series of events unfolding onstage, a spectacular range of colours crosses their faces.

“What’s there to panic about? We’ve still got Dan Zhuo!”

No one could have predicted this to happen. Team 2’s Captain’s face contorts into a deep-seated scowl and he says in a low hiss:

“He specializes in Tetris too! When it comes to that game, it’s not a battle of speed, but a battle of endurance! Just wait till they’re connected to the projector—”

Before he can finish his words, Yu Sheng has already raised a hand and slammed it down on the button on the desk.

Dan Zhuo’s head whips up. His pupils shrink at the sight.

Before anyone can say a word, he hastily ducks his head back down, hurling himself at the screen to punch down hard on those keys.

L18 is the highest level the game can be set to start at. Once 130 lines are cleared, one shall automatically advance to L19, where the time interval from the appearance of a tetrimino to its landing cannot exceed 0.6 seconds.

During that split moment of distraction, his matrix* had quickly accumulated several stacks of tetriminos.

(*Playing Board / Screen)

When Yu Sheng beat him to it by slamming down the button to connect their consoles to the projector, it meant he was a step faster and cleared 130 lines ahead of him. Right now, they have entered the PK format. The rate at which both players’ tetriminos appear shall be synced and turned up accordingly. If he’s even the slightest distracted, that could very well spell the end of this competition.

Dan Zhuo’s heart races in his ears. Cold sweat trickles down his face, which he rubs at violently. Still, he can’t help but flick a glance at Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng is leaning back in his office chair as he punches on the keys. Upon sensing his gaze, he looks up as well and the edges of his lips turn up a sliver without a trace of warmth.

……

“Suppress him right from the start with your speed.”

“It won’t take long for him to crash.”

Recalling the trigger words he’d said outside the washroom, Dan Zhuo speedily tears his eyes away to focus on his own screen. His heart sinks into his stomach.

His mind’s already tipping off the balance. With a tremble of his hands, he misplaces yet another Z-shaped tetrimino.

The sounds of consecutive tetrises* on the other side blare out loudly, clearly mocking him to his face.

(*1 tetris = 4 lines cleared at once)

Dan Zhuo grits his teeth, shaking off the unnecessary thoughts as he fixes his eyes on the screen, continuing to punch the keys away at the speed of light.

Team 7 has only just relaxed no thanks to Jin Linkun. But immediately thereafter, their hearts are flung onto a high speed railway again by the tetriminos appearing in a blur.

“How could we be so careless? And here I was under the impression Sheng Ge might start off at snail’s pace and let us catch a break.”

Cen Rui can’t take it in. His eyes flicker between both sides as though he’s watching a tennis match and he lightly rests a hand over his swirling eyes, massaging them:

“Does this generation really demand so much out of our academic tycoons?”

“Academic Gods.” Xia Junhua corrects solemnly, “It’s ‘God’. Don’t you lump them with us… Truthfully speaking, I think those tetriminos are starting to flash like lightning.”

“This is the red and white* classic edition of Tetris. They are currently at level 21.”

(*Red tetriminos against white background)

Vice-Captain Kong Jiahe has done plenty of homework on this. Now that he finally has an opportunity to explain, he adjusts his spectacles and interrupts them:

“The drop rate now lies between .5 to .6 seconds. It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that they are lightning fast…”

“Nope. 0.6 sec is already not lightning fast to me; That’s nothing more than a flash of light.”

Cen Rui can’t refrain from raising a hand to press down on his vision-improving acupoint twice:

“Since you guys might not have time to look the other way, I’m telling ya — We’re already done with Sudoku. That’s it. We’ve got one match down in the bag.”

He stretches out his tiny little head and he continues to relay:

“God Kun is currently working on one of those three 5-by-5 Rubik’s Cubes. Their colour combi is god levels of weird. Looking at it on the general whole, they look like one of those fuzzy mosaics – I don’t know why, but I think Sheng Ge also seems a little more bloodthirsty than God Kun.”

Cen Rui withdraws his head, making an educated guess:

“This could be because he really despises Liang Yifan’s schoolmate. Or then again, it could be that Sheng Ge is better able to understand the value of that toilet to us…”

Xia Junhua keeps his eyes peeled to the visualizer. He absent-mindedly tsukkomis:

“In your live report, is Liang Yifan no longer worthy of being anything but an adjective?”

“Of course not – Old Liang contributed significantly to this match. He completed 80% of the sudoku filling work. Right now, he is pulling out a paper napkin, and God Kun is saying something to him.”

Spontaneous Commentator Cen Rui instantly cuts to a fair and proper report. He turns his gaze and passionately puts the spotlight on Liang Yifan.

“Old Liang is now walking towards Sheng Ge! Old Liang is helping Sheng Ge to wipe off his non-existent sweat! Old Liang scampers off under Sheng Ge’s Killing Intent… THE FUUU—?!”

Even though he is slightly loud, no one can be bothered to shush him.

That’s because everyone on site shares equally bulging eyes and dropped jaws as they look up at the visualizer. The whispers at the start are gobbled up by awed silence.

On the screen, the falling tetriminos blink into nothingness right after they fly into position.

Dan Zhuo grasps his mouse tautly. His eyes remain riveted to the raining tetriminos as his fingers fly across the keyboard, desperately trying to memorize their shapes and locations when they land.

Covered Matrix, otherwise known as Invisible Tetris*. This is a mode where every mino 10 lines and below shall disappear right after landing. One can only get by by forcing themselves to memorize the shape and gaps of these tetriminos when they are locked in. Therefore, this is a mode which requires extraordinary memory and impeccable focus.

(*Covered Matrix’s a direct TL. Invisible Tetris is the formal name: https://youtu.be/W6Y858742uY?t=310 )

Dan Zhuo had specially trained for this mode and entered a couple of similar tournaments before, so he knows his limit lies around a minute or so. But when it comes to a formal match, he may or may not be able to endure a longer period of time.

Be that as it may, his composure has completely fled him in this moment of time. The more his mentality falls apart in his franticness, the greater he screws up in-game.

Beads of sweat track down his face. Against his better judgement, he flicks a second glance upwards.

Perched back comfortably in his nicely adjusted chair, Yu Sheng maintains the same pace as before, methodologically typing away at the keys.

On his side of the screen, the near blurs of the tetriminos vanish the moment they are locked in. Yet, the score on the right still climbs with no limit in sight. Time after time, the game blares continuously to declare the clearing of a line.

Dan Zhuo hastily withdraws his gaze, but before ten seconds has passed, he wounds up pressing on the wrong key again. In that instant, he’s overridden with panic, and the record he’s been keeping in his head caves like a house of cards.

The tetriminos stack up to 10 lines and beyond in a heartbeat. A glaring red X pops up on the top of the screen.

And so strums the ear-piercing signal to stop the game.

Yu Sheng quirks a brow. Guided by his memory, he slots in the two last minos before he lifts his hands.

Freed of the player’s control, the blocks stack up to the ceiling in just a matter of seconds. The game automatically ends.

2 out of 3 wins in their favour. They have already won.

The students of Team 7 can hardly contain their excitement. Yet, they school themselves to chat in hushed tones lest they disrupt Yu Sheng and Jin Linkun.

A few girls bear red-rimmed eyes. Old Wan beams jovially, fishing out his phone to make an order for milk tea. The boys can’t sit still; They wrestle in a bid to go get the sweetened drinks. Badly suppressed ecstasy washes over the entire Multi-Purpose Hall soon enough.

Dan Zhuo had played so fast it’d hurt. Uncontrollable tremors shake his hands. Seized by fury, he slams down harshly on his keyboard.

Yu Sheng doesn’t even spare him a glance. He easily pushes the keyboard away from himself and rises to head over to Jin Linkun:

“1V1?” He suggested.

Over on this side, Jin Linkun had been fiddling with the final 5×5 cube and was left with two 6×6 ones. His eyes light up at his words and he briskly scoops one up to toss over to Yu Sheng.

He picks the other one up for himself, entrusting that mostly recovered cube to Liang Yifan’s hands. He sits up a little straighter in his chair.

Student Liang Yifan has already completely mastered his craft in the span of this match. While using one hand to guard that 5×5 cube professionally, he speedily gives up his own seat to Yu Sheng and in a very practiced manner, retrieves a bottle of mineral water from the side to pour a full glass for each Boss Bro.

“Fuck me. Old Liang looks so natural, it’s simply heart-breaking.”

Cen Rui cradles his milk tea of victory, unable to stop the grin from spreading over his face:

“Really. Frankly speaking, there is dignity in winning without doing anything. In this match, Old Liang has contributed much to the battle.”

Xia Junhua points out:

“Hold back that smile, and you might just sound a little more believable.”

“Impossible.” Cen Rui waves him off, “This is the joy welling up from the deepest depths of my heart. This feels helluva awesome. Did you catch Dan Zhuo’s expression just then? God, I want to snap a pic to keep as a souvenir.”

“That doesn’t sound appropriate. Take care not to rub it in their faces.”

Team 7’s Captain still retains some IQ points (unlike him). Covering half his face with a hand, he tries to shield his expression as well:

“But with that said, we can organize a small-scale celebration on our recovered territory tonight.”

He is already drawing up plans in his head. He scribbles enthusiastically on a piece of paper while he turns to look at the still ongoing match onstage:

“If possible, I would like to invite Sheng Ge and God Kun as well…”

“Inviting the two Boss Bros to party in the toilet with us?”

Xia Junhua mercilessly rips into his fantasies:

“Captain, wake up. It took tonnes of effort to get back our toilet. Don’t let your victory-addled mind let it go to waste again.”

……

2 wins out of 3. With Jin Linkun and Yu Sheng each scoring a segment under their belt, no matter how the final segment turns out, their victory is already ascertained.

But should they win at Rubik’s Cube as well, they would have shut out Team 2 with a score of 3:0.

These past two days, the forum had been going on about Team 2 having the winds behind their backs. Team 2 had been uppity to no end before Team 7’s faces. Having bottled up their anger for so long, Team 7 is currently so high, no one can put an anchor on their moods. Even with the Captain’s reminders, they can’t help savouring the sweet taste of triumph as they buzz in their seats, highly anticipating the results of the final match.

Meanwhile, the two Boss Bros who take no part in their triumph are currently fiddling with Rubik’s Cubes onstage.

Nine 3×3 Rubik’s Cubes, six 4×4 Rubik’s Revenges, three 5×5 Professor’s Cubes. Jin Linkun remains just as fast as before, not showing any sign of slowing in spite of the long, bland, and repetitive motion.

Yu Sheng doesn’t think there’s much to pressing on a couple of keys either. In a practiced manner, he turns the cube in his hands, fingers a flurry as the spinning cube produces a long string of relentless clicking sounds.

“Friend.”

Finally, he has someone here to chat with him. While Jin Linkun’s hands remain hard at work, his mouth runs its course:

“Have you looked at the forum just now before the match?”

Yu Sheng is mystified:

“Why would I do that?”

“So you didn’t?” Jin Linkun’s guess was off the mark for once. Puzzled over it, he says, “…and here I thought you might have seen that post too.”

Yu Sheng was still swaying on his feet when he went to the washroom. Then, when he came back, his fighting spirit was topped up to the max. He’d even slammed Dan Zhuo into the ground and grinded him in. Obviously, there must have been some kind of reasoning behind it.

These past two days, Jin Linkun had been the one helping Yu Sheng to fend off problems of that sort. This time round, he had gallantly stepped out just as before to protect his roommate. In this manner, Jin Linkun had tried putting himself in Yu Sheng’s shoes and so he thought Yu Sheng must have received a sudden burst of motivation because he didn’t want to be encircled by those young ladies.

Yu Sheng had just finished teaching Dan Zhuo a lesson, thus those stuffy feelings in his chest have more or less disappeared. However, upon hearing what Jin Linkun said, the motivations for that fight abruptly come back to him.

Seeing Jin Linkun maintain his careless posture as if not weighed down by anything, Yu Sheng scrunches his brows and furiously twists the cube:

“No. I heard it at the toilet’s door.”

……

Jin Linkun: “Ah?”

Yu Sheng doesn’t respond immediately. The colours in the mid-layer are slowly coming together under the twirls of his hand.

The other has been unbelievably motivated today as well. Right off the bat, he had floored the entire crowd with his display. When Yu Sheng first got started, he had even worried whether Jin Linkun might have overheard those bastards from somewhere.

So it was the forum.

Yu Sheng doesn’t like visiting that site much, so he didn’t know there were people bullshitting on that platform. With deeply furrowed brows, he looks at the cube he’s holding again.

He shouldn’t get too distracted when it comes to these sorts of games. Nonetheless, he had gotten a good look at how Jin Linkun won these matches just now.

When this person shows his true abilities, he’s just…

Just way too fucking cool.

When he saw Jin Linkun turning the Rubik’s Cube idly while filling in sudokus as if neither requires much thought, Yu Sheng had thought – There is truly nothing that needs to be asked.

No matter what happened in the past. No matter what reason Jin Linkun had to back out of everyone’s gazes for that one year. So long as he’s here, everyone out there can only go on to bash their heads fighting for that second place.

Yu Sheng plunges into a short silence. Then, he speaks up:

“Things like forums. You don’t have to care about what they say there.”

Between Yu Sheng and those little ladies, who exactly wandered into the wrong washroom? Jin Linkun is still a bit confused over that matter, but he does approve of these words if nothing else. Full of smiles, he says:

“Yes, but I also think…”

“Shut up.” Yu Sheng, “I’m not done yet.”

Jin Linkun: “……”

Jin Linkun rubs his nose and shuts up compliantly. He continues to work on the last layer of the rubik’s cube.

Yu Sheng is already down to his last step. Hands not faltering in the least, he bites hard down on his lip.

Every time he wants to say something not thorny, it demands a great deal of effort from him, and he can only force out a few words after a long buffering time.

This has especially become so after Jin Linkun developed the habit of catching him captive by the head. The effort it’s taken has increased by a notch ever since then.

Yu Sheng runs his eyes over him. While both the other’s hands are still preoccupied by the V-cube, he speeds up his own action:

“……God Kun.”

His hands are nearly a blur. With a bob of his throat, he finally completes the last step.

Jin Linkun has only just started on his last layer. A bit startled, he turns to look at him.

Right before the match, Jin Linkun had heard him say those words to Liang Yifan, but since they were too far off, it’d sounded faint and so he thought he must have misheard.

Yu Sheng clasps onto that Rubik’s Cube, his gaze landing on Jin Linkun:

“Don’t take their crap.”

The youth has never been used to talking nicely, and he’s especially foreign to things like this. Tense shoulders are slightly drawn up. He speaks in a hard tone.

“You are the best. You’re stronger than them all.”

******

Silvery: God Kun’s swooning on the inside.

Decadence: Yu Sheng’s protective side activated!

******

Chapter 28 | 🤐 Contents 🤐 | Chapter 30

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