Ch18 - Mac.

Edited by xiin, Kat, and Noks

[AHHHHHH Momo is really too doting!]

[I’ve avenged you, awsl! What kind of heavenly love is this!]

[I was so moved I cried wuwuwuwu!]

The barrage was full of similar lines, flitting across Wen Xi’s screen so quick that his eyesight began to blur.

He was about to speak, but hesitated. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what to say, but for some reason, he wasn’t willing to shatter the atmosphere.

He had to admit that, for a moment, Mo Chen had really flustered him.

Ai Zhe couldn’t hear Mo Chen, but he was also shocked when Mo Chen suddenly killed himself with a grenade after killing the botter. After a while, he finally reacted and reminded Wen Xi, “Don’t forget to report the person from just now!”

Wen Xi let out an “en,” before finding the botter’s ID and conveniently filing a report.

SGH dealt with bots really strictly. After confirming that a player had ever used a bot, not just their ID, but also their IP address would be banned.

That was to say, once a reported player was found to be running a bot, not only would their account be suspended, but they would also be unable to use that wifi network to login to the game again, much less their computer.

If he was running a bot in an Internet cafe, then the entire Internet cafe would be crippled. Most likely, even if the cafe’s owner was willing to let it go, the other guests would really want to put him in a sack and beat him to death.

However, there were few players in SGH who ran bots. After all, everyone knew SGH was a pay to play game. The suspension of an account meant that all their equipment would then become completely useless, which was undoubtedly a huge loss for the player.

Therefore, most players dared not take the risk, and the more they spent on the game, the even less willing they would be to run a bot.

That was also why more botters were found in the low-ranked matches than in the high-ranked ones.

*

“Let’s go again, let’s go again!” Ai Zhe exclaimed, pulling everyone back into the team and decisively starting another match.

Then he spoke tentatively, “Momo is really powerful ah! Even just taking into account the speed you used to rush upstairs, you must have practiced that maneuver before ba?”

Mo Chen had unmuted the voice channel at the end of the match just now, so he could hear Ai Zhe’s voice again.

He replied lightly, “You could do it too.”

Ai Zhe: “…”

If he could, then he would have already done it, okay!

After a moment of silence, Ai Zhe opened his mouth again to ask Mo Chen, “Speaking of which, how did you know he was on the third floor?”

“Heard him,” Mo Chen responded with these two words, but his tone was dull, to the point of containing a trace of indifference.

Wen Xi blinked.

This wasn’t the first time he had sensed it—Mo Chen really only seemed to be gentle towards him.

Towards others, whether it was that cute girl they had met while eating or the Ai Zhe who kept crazily bombarding him with questions, he always seemed to keep people at an arm’s length.

Not to even mention Ruby.

From the start of the livestream until now, Wen Xi hadn’t heard Mo Chen say more than half a sentence to Ruby.

Ai Zhe was obviously aware of Mo Chen’s indifference, but he still didn’t give up and exclaimed, “You heard it? Wtf, awesome ah bro! You can actually hear which floor a player is on? This isn’t something that can be attained through training, it’s innate talent ba!”

Mo Chen replied, “People always like to say that people who are stronger than themselves are innately talented.”

Ai Zhe: “…”

[Lolololol this taunt!]

[This taunt is too intense!]

[Momo goes after Love Pig every day lololol!]

Hearing Mo Chen “go after” Ai Zhe, Wen Xi’s heart flipped, and he was very worried that Mo Chen would be attacked by the viewers.

He had never thought that these sorts of messages would actually fill the barrage.

Perhaps it was because his stream followers had already formed a prior first impression of Momo, so they interpreted all of Momo’s “emotional abuse” towards Ai Zhe as him “fighting with his love rival.”

If someone else had all of their questions mercilessly shot down by Mo Chen, even if they didn’t blow up, they would at least start to sulk ba?

However, who knew if it was for the sake of the atmosphere of the livestream or what, but instead of becoming angry, Ai Zhe continued to provoke danger and said, “Your strength must be better than mine la! No matter how blind someone is, it’s very obvious, so I’m curious. With this kind of strength, why aren’t you playing professionally?”

Unexpectedly, Mo Chen didn’t answer his question immediately.

Wen Xi finally managed to figure something out from Ai Zhe’s nonstop questions—did he suspect that Mo Chen was a professional player, and was deliberately feeling him out?

That really was the case, but it was also a bit different from what Wen Xi had speculated.

Ai Zhe not only suspected that Momo was a professional player, he also suspected that Momo was a professional player that he recognized.

In their last match, especially during the last few minutes when Mo Chen had killed the botter, as Ai Zhe had watched the back of Momo’s avatar, it had overlapped with that of another avatar.

A certain professional player’s avatar.

This professional player stood at the peak of SGH, and was an unsurpassable myth that everyone could only look up to.

In a legendary high-ranked match on an overseas server, this person had used a single handgun to obtain 20 kills and win first place.

This player didn’t just have good marksmanship, but also possessed an incredibly deep understanding of the game.

Any player would feel inferior in front of him, and experience the sense that “in fact, everyone is being played by the game, and he’s the only one actually playing the game.”

His name was Mac.

In addition, he had a more familiar title— “sharpshooter god”.

Unfortunately, he had been late in arriving at the last professional league competition. His team, CLM, which had made it into this international competition after putting in great efforts, ended up with a huge deficit in points early on during the first day itself. This led the highly regarded team to become public enemy number one overnight, and the team was attacked by netizens until it nearly dissolved.

Among all the team members, the one who had been attacked the most terribly was undoubtedly the criminal whose lateness had left CLM with no choice but to use a substitute player, the leader of the CLM team—Mac.

After that, the CLM e-sports club officially apologized for the incident on Weibo, but didn’t mention the reason why Mac had been late, which brought him another wave of hate.

Therefore, Mac had become a very controversial subject of late. Some people admired his skills, while others questioned his character.

If someone mentioned him, then there would definitely be people coming to hate on him; if there were people hating on him, there would definitely be people trying to white-wash him.

The comments were endless, and the controversies relentless. It could be said that this matter was always in the limelight.

This was why Ai Zhe didn’t directly ask Momo if he was Mac, and instead used a bunch of different questions to probe him.

Ever since Mac’s “accident”, Ai Zhe had never declared that Mac was his idol and his lifelong aspiration.

But even if he didn’t say so, he still regarded Mac as a God and worshipped him silently.

——Yes, Ai Zhe was a Mac fan.

He asked that question and almost subconsciously held his breath, as if his own breathing would cause him to miss Mo Chen’s answer.

However, while Ai Zhe was waiting nervously, Mo Chen responded in a light tone, “Professional competitions, huh. When Wen Xi plays, I’ll play.”

Ai Zhe: ???

Wen Xi: ….

After hearing his answer, Ai Zhe seemed to hear something breaking and collapsing in his heart—the idol I worship can’t be this flirtatious!

“Alright ba.” Ai Zhe gave up on trying to feel Momo out, and was now convinced that Momo couldn’t be Mac.

After all, his impression of Mac was that he was relatively cold. His voice, when he was playing the game, was like that of an emotionless machine, and he had never smiled in front of the camera.

But, to be honest, when he had first contemplated that Momo might be Mac, Ai Zhe had also really felt that their voices were a little similar.

*

In the second match, when they were on the plane, Ai Zhe unprecedentedly asked, “Where are we jumping to?”

No one was more surprised to hear him ask such a question than his partner Ruby. “Don’t you always jump to Area F?”

Ai Zhe said, “Haven’t you been looking down on me for always jumping to Area F?!”

Ruby asked, “Will you be able to play well if we jump to other areas ma?”

Ai Zhe replied, “Wow, don’t act like I can only play in Area F, okay? We also have Momo with us in this match, so what even is there for me to do?”

Hearing this sentence, Ruby and Wen Xi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

After forming a team with Momo, Ai Zhe had begun to walk further and further down the path of slandering himself.

That aside, after failing to win the argument against Ruby, he actually asked Mo Chen, “Momo, where are we jumping to?”

Mo Chen was too lazy to deal with him, and thus replied, “Wen Xi, choose any area.”

Wen Xi reacted after a moment’s hesitation and opened the map to take a look.

In this match, Area F was in the center, and Area M was beside it.

“Then just… Area M?” He said uncertainly.

Mo Chen replied, “Okay, Area M.”

Ai Zhe: “…”

Ai Zhe regretted his actions, he deeply regretted them— he shouldn’t have asked Momo!

He obviously knew that this person only had eyes for Wen Xi, so he really must have had a hole in his brain when he went to ask Momo! He just stuffed a big bite of dog food into his own mouth!

Some of the stream followers also become aware of what was happening.

[Inexplicably picking up the smell of a harem battlefield?]

[You’re not alone!]

[Love Pig, you must never fall in love with Momo. Xixi will be sad!]

Ai Zhe: ???

“Wtf, sometimes I really want to know what’s in your guys’ heads!” Ai Zhe resentfully surrendered to the barrage’s thought process and exclaimed, “Laozi is a straight man, okay ba! Straight man! Even if all the people in the world were dead, and only Momo and I were left, I still wouldn’t be with him!”

“……” Mo Chen also resentfully surrendered to Ai Zhe’s thought process and retorted, “Why do you think you can survive to be one of the last two humans in the world? Based on the three kills you gathered last match?”

Ai Zhe: “…”

[Lololololol!]

[It’s started, it’s started! Momo’s daily going after Love Pig!]

[If you don’t seek death, you won’t die! Love Pig, why do you have to provoke Momo? I’m really about to die from laughter!]

“Ugh, I really have nothing to say!”

You could tell that Ai Zhe was really speechless now.

Ruby couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Actually, I think what Momo just said was quite reasonable…”

“Bullshit!” Ai Zhe continued to struggle while on his deathbed and argued, “I was just making use of a metaphor, do you understand metaphors? How can there be anyone who likes to pick on details and argue, like he does?!”

Wen Xi said, “I also think Momo has a point…”

Ai Zhe: “…”

Ruby agreeing with Momo had been okay, but after hearing Wen Xi open his mouth, these three people’s livestreams’ barrages went crazy, and the screen was completely covered with [lololol].

Ruby laughed shamelessly, Wen Xi was also amused by his own words, and Ai Zhe had started smiling angrily…

In this way, unlike the previous match, the four of them jumped off the plane with a rather relaxed and cheerful atmosphere in this match.

Mo Chen landed first, and it could be seen that he had paid attention to more than just parachuting down.

Although they didn’t know how he did it, he had obviously noticed and remembered the position of some enemies while he was parachuting, thus killing two people in succession just after landing!

“Tch, can I lie down again during this match?” After Ai Zhe landed, he had just switched to the first-person perspective and aimed at someone. Before he could shoot, he heard a bang—the person he was aiming at was headshotted by Mo Chen and fell to the ground.

“Obviously.” Ruby had already started to play with her avatar’s emotes, waving one moment, and dancing in the next.

As for Wen Xi, he felt as though he had caught onto Mo Chen’s shooting rhythm after the last match.

He deliberately seized the moment when Mo Chen shot to release an arrow at the target his bullet was heading towards.

[System] Momo knocked down Double with a headshot with a sniper rifle.

[System] Wency shot and killed Double with a headshot with a bow.

After getting a kill, he very pleased with himself~

Wen Xi didn’t realize that he was so happy that he had laughed.

When Mo Chen heard his laughter, his lips almost involuntarily curved up, and he asked, “Are you provoking me?”

Wen Xi immediately protested his innocence, “Slip of the hand.”

However, a few seconds later:

[System] Momo knocked Jack down with a headshot with a sniper rifle.

[System] Wency shot and killed Jack with a headshot with a bow.

He got another kill~

This time, not only was Wen Xi laughing, but Mo Chen also couldn’t help laughing, and he said, “If you have the ability, then steal all my kills.”

“I’ll try,” Wen Xi blurted out.

I’ll try?

These words made Mo Chen simmer with laughter—he was too cute… Did he grow up eating cuteness?

As these two people kept interacting, they didn’t realize that their interactions had overloaded a lot of stream followers with sweetness, and had also given their other two teammates goosebumps.

“Fuck! I can’t stand it anymore!” Ai Zhe howled.

“I can’t stand it anymore either!” Ruby agreed.

Ai Zhe said, “You two should stop stealing kills and just get married right here and now, okay! I’ll help you move the Civil Affairs Bureau here!”

Wen Xi asked doubtfully, “What’s the issue with stealing kills? I’ve stolen your kills too ah…”

Ai Zhe interjected, “Thank you, but don’t pull me into this ba! I don’t want to be hated on by Momo anymore!”

Mo Chen asked, “He had a kill for you to steal?”

Ai Zhe said flatly, “…What did I just say?”

[Lolololol my God!]

[Me a second before: So sweet, so sweet! Me a second after: Hahahaha fuck!]

[Love Pig is too funny ba, hahaha!]

For a while, the entire barrage was laughing, even the one in Ai Zhe’s own livestream.

It was obvious that when Momo had first gone after Ai Zhe, most of this barrage had defended Ai Zhe against his injustice. But for some reason, after Momo had continued to relentlessly go after Ai Zhe several times, the barrage had now developed into this weird scene.

However, it was in the midst of such a happy atmosphere that a line suddenly appeared in the barrage on Ai Zhe’s screen, making the smile on his face abruptly stiffen.

[Does no one think that Momo’s style is really similar to Mac’s?]

—

Juurensha: Dundundun! I…still feel a bit bad for our Love Pig getting constantly hated on by Momo (there is no competition Momo! Back off!) but at least he’s making the most of it. And let’s welcome Kat as our new editor, and xiin helping us out with gaming terms for now!

(xiin: only until divi’s back… divi, where are youuuuu~)

Kat: Is it really an gaming novel without a tragic backstory

Noks: I wonder if this Momo-Wency combo of knocking down and stealing kills is gonna be this couple’s trademark move? Also, welcome Kat!! And thank god for xiin… those gaming terms just fly over my head, and researching them doesn’t help much…

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