Chapter 9

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Please Pick Your Hanzo

pick your hanzo

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Yun Yun has a detailed hero training plan every single day, what standards his commonly used heroes should be at, he has a goal for all of them.

But recently his rhythm as Hanzo has been really good, and so on the other hand it made his McCree appear as though he couldn’t play the hero to its full capabilities in comparison.

Bottleneck.

This isn’t the first time Yun Yun’s been met with something like this, every time he starts finding it hard to play freely as a hero, he’d always choose to stop and think things over.

He’s still in the Asian server, and for now he hasn’t made up his mind on which hero he should keep practicing, so on the hero selection screen he quietly waited for his teammates to make the decision for him.

Whether he’ll take a carry, a tank or a support, it all depends on which position his teammates left behind for him.

[Team] Gim: Daylight why aren’t you taking Hanzo?

When Yun Yun saw this English sentence, he thought he had been hallucinating.

This person knows him?

Even though Yun Yun tried really, really hard to recall whether he’d met this person before, but his recognition of entirely English IDs were the exact same as his recognition of Korean IDs, even if the other person only had three alphabets, he still had no clue.

[Team] Daylight: have a try

The gist of it was that, he wanted to try other heroes.

Gim didn’t say anything else either, and quietly locked in his Reaper.

In the team of six, only Yun Yun’s icon was still left in the selection phase.

So now they have Reinhardt, Zarya, Reaper, McCree, and Ana. Composition wise, they still lacked a support.

Yun Yun hesitated briefly between Lucio and Zenyatta, and decided to go with Zenyatta.

Even though Lucio’s Crossfade music boosting ultimate that provides a speed boost and health regeneration was irreplaceable, but in the Asian servers, he leans more towards Zenyatta.

For people who frequently pick Hanzo, playing as the defensive team on a map like Hollywood, they would always feel like their opponents would use the same tactics that they would: which is for Zarya to use her Graviton Surge to grab a bunch of people together, and pair it up with his twin dragons ultimate in order to achieve a team wipe in one fell swoop.

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Yun Yun held down the key for close combat attacks in a happy mood, listening to the sounds of Zenyatta’s praying orbs and his legs vibrating, it looked really interesting to him.

Zenyatta, this character designed as a robotic monk, was really unique. He was dressed in an Indian attire, the hat atop his head had a piece of feather attached to it as it swayed with his movements, his whole body sat cross legged and hovered in mid-air, and while he was filling up on explosives, he would make a circle with both hands’ fingers crossed and looked fully the part of a monk, paired with his floating orbs, waiting for the go signal.

Among the selection of Overwatch heroes each with their own variety of unique characteristics, Yun Yun liked him the best.

Because he’s very cute. Zenyatta’s robotic machinery was the complete opposite of Genji’s one meant to portray an air of strength and violence, his every action pre-set in the system were brimming with kindness from Blizzard.

When he poses his right hand in a victory pose, or when the hands on his back begins clapping happily, you may not be able to see emotions in Zenyatta’s innocent robotic slits for eyes, but it still somehow gave off an air of naive cuteness.

Yun Yun bounced his way to the defensive checkpoint in Hollywood, and happily used Zenyatta’s pre-set movements.

“Hey.” Reaper’s deep voice appeared next to him.

That teammate that suggested he play Hanzo was currently greeting him.

So then Yun Yun’s Zenyatta stood next to Reaper, like a peacock displaying its feathers, three of his golden arms reached out from his back and clapped cheerfully, right when his hands were in the middle of retracting, he fist bumped with himself.

And so, Gim just stood there dumbly staring at Yun Yun endlessly repeating this action, up until the female voice of the system announced “Defend the objective,” only did he raise his twin guns with much reluctance and walked to the front.

Yun Yun looked at the back of his figure and threw him an Orb of Harmony, a skill meant for healing. The orb hung at Reaper’s head and looked like he had been given an orange balloon. It was adorable.

In the Asian servers, a Hanzo would appear on teams as both offensive or defensive, and was no longer anything out of the ordinary for the players.

When Yun Yun saw that the attacking team was shooting out tens of red arrows from the main entrance, he quietly hid behind Reinhardt, refusing to move and expose his location to the enemies’ line of sights.

After all, no one knows what tricky angles a practiced archer could use to find its target.

Yun Yun threw out an Orb of Discord over the enemy Genji who had been scouting ahead, massively debuffing the hero and amplifying any damage taken, the Genji who had been nimbly climbing around now had a dark purple orb floating persistently above his head, no matter where he went or how he evaded, he could easily be found by Yun Yun.

Just as Yun Yun turned around and prepared to ambush the Genji at critical health who had hidden himself, his ally Ana made a weak wheezing breath, she was eliminated.

Hanzo had sniped Ana.

They had suddenly fell to a disadvantage, and was easily taken apart by the attacking team with a single ultimate.

Yun Yun was flinging Zenyatta’s orbs while exclaiming that they’ve lost their main force.

Five players from the attacking team rushed in at quick speeds, he could only constantly move backwards to stay at the backlines of the battle, hurriedly providing heals for his teammates who were down to critical health, and sneak in the Orb of Discord between their lapses of judgement and counterattack then. Zenyatta’s benefits became obvious in a team fight, he could launch attacks on the enemy team while healing his teammates, rarely was there anyone able to avoid Zenyatta’s destructive orbs.

And so, he raised a foot, and easily eliminated the Genji who had been down to critical health.

The first round of defense could be still be considered successful, even if they had given away a large prize to the enemy Hanzo in the beginning of the match, however, his following plays after that were nothing to write home about. Yun Yun was really grateful that Reaper had snatched the opportunity to kill the enemy Hanzo first in the chaotic team fight, otherwise if he had sent a scatter arrow into the group, it would have been hard to cooperate with Ana with his single-player healing and keep his teammates alive.

However in the second round of defense, it was clearly no longer as easy.

Yun Yun could only stand aside and watch as Zarya used her Graviton Surge to hold four of his teammates in place, he who had originally escaped out of the range of the red and purple coloured smoke could only turn back and activate his ultimate, Transcendence, forcefully healing his teammates. Even under concentrated fire from the enemy team they suffered no damages, and even managed to counterattack the enemy Lucio who wanted to take advantage of the chaos.

Just as they held the absolute advantage, the enemy Reinhardt raised his huge hammer and smashed the floor into two, they heard the voice lines, “Ryuu ga waga teki wo kurau,” and Hanzo’s red dragons came attacking from the front, Yun Yun looked to the sky in anguish and waited for the rest of his teammates to return to spawn.

He felt that the rate of which his teammates grinded out their ultimate skills was just, a tad bit too slow. In this game where the amount of damage dealt was equal to the rate a player’s ultimate skill was grinded, it clearly shows without a doubt that his teammates skills were just lacking, and that their skills landed less accurately than their opponents.

[Team] Gim: hanzo

Hanzo.

And then this Gim had exchanged his Reaper who had already grinded out an ultimate to full bar, for a Lucio.

Yun Yun felt that it was really odd, this is the first time he’s seen someone willingly take the initiative to swap out to a support so he could play as Hanzo. Not only that, he had willingly swapped out a Reaper who had an ultimate strong enough to achieve a team wipe.

If this were in the national servers then maybe it’d be a little easier to digest, after all he uses Hanzo constantly there, and his gaming history had really eye-catching scores, but… as for the Asian servers?

Yun Yun himself was too lazy to even count how many minutes of Hanzo he’s played on this account, and as far as he could remember, it was way, way less than his play time as McCree, Soldier 76, or Mei.

So, Hanzo?

He picked this hero, and at the moment he accurately shot down a frame on the wall with his first arrow, Yun Yun resolutely decided to put aside any questions he had for now.

He felt that they could win, and as for everything else, they can talk about it after they’ve won.

Today, Yun Yun’s gaming rhythm was especially good, he could only say that whenever he couldn’t experience the exhilarating feeling of landing headshot after headshot with McCree, his gaming sense as Hanzo wouldn’t disappoint.

It was like the two heroes could cover each other’s shifts, taking turns on break so Yun Yun could always have a hero that he could confidently take out and play.

This kind of thinking was honestly very unconventional, but once he eliminated the enemy Hanzo in one arrow and took away the enemy Ana along with him, it had become the truth.

The enemy Hanzo was not bad, but without Zarya’s ultimate, he was rarely able to hit moving targets, like an amateur hunter, relying entirely on beginner’s luck to catch his prey.

Contrarily, Yun Yun was completely different.

He was used to monitoring the team battles from the top of roofs, walls, and various other high vantage points, after predicting the enemy’s movements, he didn’t even need to look to consistently take them down in headshots, each ringing with a “Ding!” sound.

This kind of feeling was like he had written out a script, and the opponents were acting out their parts according to the story, the sound of their footsteps, gunshots, anguished screaming, and explosives, in the messy battlefield, everything was well within Yun Yun’s control. He only had his sights and hearing, but he could accurately catch every single probability.

The tides of battle changed really quickly after he switched to Hanzo, originally his team couldn’t provide enough damage, after his endless assaults of his twin dragons, that was no longer an issue.

And more importantly, Gim’s Lucio appeared more like a support than Yun Yun’s Zenyatta had been.

No matter if it was the timing of switching between speed boosting and healing, or releasing his sound barrier shields for their teammates, everything was perfect to a tee.

When Yun Yun wanted to launch an attack on the opposing team, he didn’t need to say much and he’ll receive speed boosting, and could quickly finish up the players at critical health who had tried to make a break for it.

Professional, he could only think of this compliment, the ability to observe the entire game closely without the need for communication, Gim, this person, could possibly be someone that was suitable to direct and lead a team.

However, Gim never said a word.

Many times Yun Yun could feel that between saving their teammates or Hanzo, Gim’s decision was so obvious that it was transparent—save Hanzo.

Yun Yun who had received his affection to the point of terror[1], had focused all of his attention into the game, deathly afraid that he would make a mistake that would greatly disappoint Lucio. Being held to such great importance gave Yun Yun a huge confidence boost, even when the opposing team had swapped out to a McCree and the gorilla, he was able to bravely charge in to 1v6.

And then, with his own bravery as the price, the enemy team was wiped.

Victory!

Yun Yun was still deep in thought about Lucio’s perfect timing with the speed boost, he had provided the boost at the precise moment it could provide the best effects for Hanzo to easily avoid Genji’s slaughter, if he had been late by a second or if he had chosen to give him a healing boost instead, his head could’ve been easily collected with one of Genji’s strikes.

These kinds of awareness didn’t belong to those of a player who just occasionally played as a support, but was more like that of a professional Lucio player who had thoroughly mastered the hero.

Yun Yun switched to the matchup screen and went into Gim’s match history, but then he suddenly received a notification from the system.

“Gim has sent a friend request.”

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Yun Yun really felt that today was a little like a fantasy.

He had practiced his aim like normal, began streaming like normal, and prepared to live another normal day, when he suddenly felt that something was wrong with the web page of his channel.

It was still the title of the stream from last night, and it was still the familiar pink colour, but on the leaderboards, the first place position that had previously been proudly dominated by OneMoon had changed hands to a different dictator.

CLD?

He came to a sudden realisation and hurriedly went to check the record log of gifts received, and the interface of the system diaplayed in plain sight, “Received 9999 stalks of golden roses gifted from CLD.”

9999 stalks of golden roses, according to Beling’s exchange rate, it was equal to 999 Chinese Yuan.

This amount for a small streamer whose name had no traction, was undoubtedly, practically money falling from the sky, but he completely had no impression of this CLD at all.

Yun Yun was kind of pleasantly surprised, and also kind of worried.

He wasn’t sure if this was a new viewer, or simply a randow rich viewer who unknowingly walked into the wrong streaming channel.

He opened the small group chat of his fans and decided to ask the little angels that spent long hours on the barrage comments of his stream.

Yingren: Has anyone seen a person called CLD send flowers?

Jiji: Someone sent flowers?

The group chat went silent for less than half a minute, and the screenshots of the leaderboard took over the entire screen.

FlyB: QAQ Holy f*ck golden roses! 9999!

Jiji: Oh mi god, gay-ying you’ve been sugar babied by a big boss!

OneMoon: This majesty’s leaderboard! Who! Where did this rich tycoon come from!

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Translators notes:

Boy do I wonder…?

Footnotes:

1. 受宠若惊 (shou chong ruo jing): Literally translates to “being coddled to the point of fear”, meaning being favoured so much you begin getting nervous instead, worrying that you would do something wrong to become undeserving of the affection.

Translated by: Yasu

Edited by: KV

Published: 2021/1/11

Last edited: 2021/1/15

yasu