Ch20 - You’re insane ah!

Edited by xiin, kat, and Noks

By the time Ai Zhe realized something wasn’t right, it was already too late.

The increase in the number of messages in the barrage mentioning Mac was bound to be noticed. If people noticed, it would lead to discussion, and if there was discussion, it would lead to controversy.

Let alone the fact that Mac himself was a very controversial person.

[Has Mac already fallen to the point of shooting up the rookie concentration camp?]

[Don’t mention Mac here, okay? Anti-fan ba!]

[Why can’t they mention if they feel someone is similar?]

[Don’t blindly talk nonsense and make up stuff when there’s no evidence! Stop blackening Mac!]

Originally, the barrage was under control. Then, one party thought Momo was similar to Mac, while another party thought that they should shut up if they don’t have proof. Some people provided evidence, but then other people felt their evidence was too weak.

The more they argued, the more inflamed they became, and after being unable to convince the other party, they began to curse each other out in Ai Zhe’s livestream.

From here, a third party appeared, and then a fourth…

First Party: Cursed out Mac

Second Party: Cursed out the First Party

Third Party: Cursed out the First Party and the Second Party

Fourth party: Cursed out the above three parties

The four parties were very busy cursing each other out for a while, and vulgar words flew all over the screen. The moderator was so busy deleting lines in the barrage and banning accounts that she was about to take flight.

Ai Zhe bore witness to this brutal scene once he came back to his senses. He was left stunned for a long time before he finally found his voice, and sternly said, “Mac isn’t here. Don’t mention him.”

He told a bold, bare-faced lie.

Some of the more perceptive viewers in the barrage suddenly responded— [Didn’t you previously say you didn’t know Momo’s main account ID? How can you dare to be sure he isn’t Mac?]

“Hey, is there something wrong with you guys? Even though you don’t have enough evidence, you still want others to agree with you?”

Ai Zhe’s temper wasn’t necessarily good, but he was usually very tolerant. Ordinarily, he was just joking around whenever he berated people, and pretty much never criticized people seriously, much less his stream followers.

But when it came to Mac, he suddenly couldn’t stay calm, and said, “I also think his style is similar to Mac’s, but did I say anything? I didn’t, because I knew that wasn’t sufficient evidence. Maybe he’s a fan of Mac? Maybe he’s Mac’s son? If I had proof, I would have beaten him to death a long time ago. If I don’t have the evidence to convince others, should I force you all to bow and decree that you have to believe me? If you refuse to believe, should I curse you out until you do? Do you think I have mental issues?”

An anchor’s words already held more weight than those of the barrage. Additionally, Ai Zhe had chosen a very flattering angle to base his speech off of, thus successfully making some people fall speechless.

Even so, there were still many trolls who continued to argue, and their accounts were immediately presented with 24-hour bans by the moderator.

Ai Zhe hadn’t muted himself when he had spoken, so the rest of the team had heard him.

After a moment’s hesitation, Ruby asked him, “What’s the matter?”

Wen Xi was bewildered, and asked, “Who is Mac?”

“It’s not important, just that some people think Momo’s style is similar to Mac’s,” Ai Zhe said, immediately switching to an easygoing tone, “Aiya Mac ma, everyone knows who Mac is la. Whenever that ID appears, there’s always a big bloodbath.”

After hearing his response, Wen Xi still didn’t know who Mac was, but he also didn’t know whether he should ask about it.

What made him feel strange was—this whole thing had to do with Mo Chen, so why did he stay silent? It couldn’t be that he had muted Love Pig again ba?

“Momo, is your mic still on?” Wen Xi asked tentatively.

“It’s on,” Mo Chen pretty much replied immediately, before calmly reminding Wen Xi, “I have 16 kills now.”

Wen Xi: !!!

During the time that Ai Zhe had been speaking, Mo Chen had taken two more kills. He now had a total of 16 kills.

Wen Xi only had 19 kills—only a difference of three!

Wen Xi hurriedly looked at the upper right corner of the screen. There were six people left in the game.

That was to say, if Mo Chen could kill all four people left besides them, he would beat him and win the bet!

Perhaps his viewers could feel Wen Xi’s stress, so his livestream’s atmosphere was quite harmonious.

Once in a while, someone would ask [Is Momo Mac?], but no one would acknowledge them. Such a line in the barrage was then allowed to slowly scroll up the screen, leaving not even a shadow in its wake.

After Ai Zhe died, Ruby had chosen to spectate from Wen Xi’s POV, and she did not dare to switch to Momo’s POV even more after listening to Ai Zhe’s speech.

Meanwhile, Ai Zhe still insisted on watching from Momo’s POV.

He was very clear that, if he changed POV’s now, the barrage would be full of lines saying that he was “afraid of being found out” and was “defaulting”. At that time, any explanation he tried to provide would give the impression that he was trying to bury a secret, and make him seem even guiltier.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to protect Mac. On the contrary, it was because he wanted to protect Mac too much, that he could only do this much.

What made him hate iron for not becoming steel was… Da Ge, I’ve already tried so hard to help you, so can you do yourself a favor ah!

Can you hold back a little?!

Can you execute a few less amazing maneuvers?!

Can you stop showing off your skills and making every shot a headshot?!

Holy shit, a headshot from 500 meters away! Such a handsome headshot… pei!

AI Zhe’s mood was especially complicated now. It felt very much like “the emperor isn’t anxious, but the eunuchs are.”

He could count as having picked up on the fact that, if Momo really was Mac, he didn’t have any intentions of hiding his identity—he was willing to risk the exposure of his identity in order to use his full strength, all to win his bet with Wen Xi.

What was more important: his reputation or a casual bet?

The average person would pick the logical choice.

At first, Ai Zhe had thought that Momo was just messing around with Wen Xi for fun, but now he really was a little uncertain—had he actually began to like Wen Xi ba?

However, Wen Xi was currently unable to pay attention to this matter, because he could clearly feel that he couldn’t keep up with Mo Chen’s pace.

Or rather, Mo Chen had begun to match his pace.

Mo Chen would aim at whoever he wanted to shoot, and he would kill the target before him every single time.

A bow’s arrow wasn’t as fast as a sniper rifle’s bullet, and adding on the bow’s long cool down period, the past few minutes had been very uncomfortable for Wen Xi.

He watched as Mo Chen’s kill count climbed from 16 to 18 to 19—the same as his!

[AHHHHHHHH, come on Xixi ah!]

[Wtf, can you guys stop sending messages in the barrage that will distract God Xi!]

That line was actually pretty accurate. Wen Xi was nervous, while the barrage was even more nervous than he was. Even Ai Zhe and Ruby, who had long since fallen in battle, couldn’t help but hold their breaths.

However, under everyone’s nervous gaze, the poor player who was being targeted by both Wen Xi and Mo Chen suddenly tossed a grenade at his own feet…

Wen Xi: !!!

Barrage: [?!]

Ai Zhe exclaimed, “Wtf, no way ba!”

Wen Xi looked at this person’s grenade in disbelief. It was only in the next second that he managed to react and shoot an arrow at him, but by the time he released the arrow, he already knew what the end result would be.

Simultaneously, he heard a gunshot and the sound of a bullet striking?

[Survivor was killed by a grenade. The remaining number of survivors is 1.]

With this final notification in the killfeed, the words “YOU WIN” appeared on Wen Xi’s screen, and his kill count was displayed as 19.

He sighed, not having expected it to end up like this. “Then it’s a tie…”

Mo Chen refuted, “I won.”

Wen Xi: ???

Mo Chen said, “I got 20 kills.”

“Uh, weren’t you unable…” Wen Xi had wanted to say, “Weren’t you also unable to grab the last kill?” but before he could finish his sentence, he thought of something and went to look at the killfeed in the upper right corner of the screen again.

[Survivor was killed by a grenade. The remaining number of survivors is 1.]

——Number of survivors is 1!

He looked at the notice just before that one.

[Momo used a pistol to kill Momo. The remaining number of survivors is 2.]

Wen Xi: “…………………………….”

There was a bug in SGH that hadn’t been fixed up until now, and which probably wouldn’t be fixed in the future— killing teammates or yourself also counted as your kill.

In addition, there was an obscure Easter egg that had been deliberately set by the game’s creators—bullets would rebound when hitting specific objects, and among these specific objects was something called “China Glass.”

Ai Zhe had been watching from Momo’s POV, so he clearly saw that Momo had used his sniper rifle to aim at the third party, but after the player had thrown the grenade at his own feet, Momo had resolutely switched to a pistol and fired at the nearby glass. As a result, the bullet bounced back and killed him…

“You…” Wen Xi no longer knew what to think of Mo Chen.

Before he could organize his thoughts, Ai Zhe had already started howling, “You fucking… this is way too much just for a bet ba! Did you really have to do it this way?!”

Mo Chen casually responded, “I could have headshotted him, but from that distance I would have only knocked him down. So long as the final blow wasn’t mine, the kill wouldn’t be mine. Thus, it was actually safer to kill myself—we were betting on who gathered more kills, not on who could live to the end.”

Wen Xi: “…”

Ai Zhe said, “You… all this just for a bet?!”

Mo Chen replied, “It depends on who the bet is with.”

Ai Zhe exclaimed, “You’re insane ah!”

Wen Xi was already speechless.

He would actually go this far… Wen Xi had definitely lost.

But at this time, what surprised him even more was—Mo Chen actually hadn’t muted Ai Zhe’s voice channel? Then why hadn’t Mo Chen said a word when Ai Zhe had been talking earlier, nor replied even with a simple sentence of, “I’m not a Mac”…

Wen Xi felt that he might have discovered something?

Ai Zhe obviously didn’t notice that detail and was still shocked by Mo Chen’s actions. “What exactly do you want my Xi to fucking do?”

Mo Chen asked, “What are you getting so excited about?”

Ai Zhe replied, “After going through such trials and dangers, not asking my Xi to do something wouldn’t make any sense!”

Ruby snorted, “Pfft… Who’s side are you really on here?”

Wen Xi also didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He felt that Ai Zhe was really too funny.

Mo Chen, however, had always stayed calm, as if the barrage hadn’t stirred up any drama surrounding him and as if he hadn’t shockingly killed himself to gain the last kill.

He said very calmly, “Don’t keep saying ‘my Xi’, it’s not like Wen Xi is part of your family. And as I said before we made the bet, I won’t make him do anything he doesn’t want to do. What are you getting so excited about? Did you fall in love with him or me?”

“Fuck!” Once again, Ai Zhe doubted his own judgment—such a shameless person definitely couldn’t be my male god!

Wen Xi laughed helplessly and said, “Okay ba, being willing to bet means I’m willing to concede a loss. What do you want me to do?”

Mo Chen pretty much didn’t even need any time to consider before he replied, “Sing me a song.”

Wen Xi froze, thinking that he had heard wrong. “That’s it?”

Mo Chen laughed and said, “En, that’s enough.”

[AHHHHHHH, how sweet, how sweet, how sweet!]

[Ahhhhhhh, my girlish heart!]

[AHHHHHHHHHH when exactly are you guys getting married?!]

The entire barrage screamed for a while, and amazingly, not even half a line related to Mac appeared.

Even Ai Zhe’s livestream was full of his viewers screaming and giving their blessings to this CP.

That group of people who had been attacking Mac had probably all been disgusted into running away by Momo ba, Ai Zhe thought.

He secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but still couldn’t help but complain, “You worked so hard, even killing yourself to win the bet, just to fucking listen to my Xi sing a song?!”

But by this time, Mo Chen had stopped paying any attention to him. He just acted willfully and said to Wen Xi, “Sing whatever you want.”

Wen Xi asked, “Now?”

Mo Chen replied, “No need, sing to me after ending the livestream ba.”

Wen Xi responded, “Okay.”

Ai Zhe: “…”

Ruby said, “How about you also sing a song for me?”

Ai Zhe replied, “Get out and make a right turn, thank you.”

*

Mo Chen had said that he would only play two matches, and he really did only play two matches.

After winning the bet with Wen Xi, he quit the game.

So for the next few matches, the three of them teamed up with passers-by. The effect wasn’t as good as when Mo Chen was there, but the team atmosphere was still harmonious, and Ai Zhe also finally got to happily experience a match of joyfully carrying other people to fly~

Wen Xi finished a few more matches and then ended the livestream. He called Mo Chen almost immediately after, but Mo Chen didn’t answer.

Wen Xi left him a message on QQ: When can I sing to you?

Wen Xi was someone who didn’t like to owe others. In the eyes of his stream followers, his bet with Mo Chen was probably seen as flirting, but he saw the bet as a task that absolutely had to be completed. So, he wanted to know when he could sing to the other man, thereby finishing the task and freeing himself from the responsibility.

However, Mo Chen still hadn’t replied to him by the time that night’s livestream began—he hadn’t called him back, much less replied on QQ!

Wen Xi suddenly became worried that something had happened to Mo Chen, and was distracted throughout the livestream that night. He completely relied on sheer instinct and muscle memory for his archery moves, which alone allowed him to gather more than ten kills per match.

Like yesterday, he didn’t accompany Blue Wolf until the early morning, and instead ended his livestream around 11 p.m.

He didn’t expect to receive a call from Mo Chen just after ending his livestream.

“Wen Xi.”

Mo Chen’s voice was still pleasant to listen to. Wen Xi didn’t know if it was due to fatigue or because of some other reason, but his voice was a bit hoarse, which made him sound even more provocative. Wen Xi’s whole body broke out in goosebumps while listening to it.

Before Wen Xi could respond, Mo Chen chuckled and continued, “You really do intend to sing ah…There’s actually no need to be so serious about it.”

Wen Xi said, “…You even killed yourself to win, and you dare to tell me that I’m being too serious?”

“That’s true. But with regards to you singing, if you don’t want to sing, then you don’t have to,” Mo Chen said, “I just couldn’t think of anything else at that time, so I casually chose that for the sake of the livestream.”

Wen Xi was silent for a while. He could figure out what Mo Chen meant. He was saying that he had just casually set the penalty, so Wen Xi didn’t have to take it so seriously.

However, while they were competing, Mo Chen had been more serious than anyone about it!

Wen Xi suddenly realized something and said, “So, when you won against me, it wasn’t because you wanted to win, but because you were afraid of losing?”

Mo Chen asked, “Did you want to ask me what my main account’s ID is?”

Wen Xi was stunned for a moment before he replied, “…Yes.”

It was true—when Wen Xi had first proposed the bet, he had thought that he could take the opportunity to ask about the name of Mo Chen’s main account. Unexpectedly, Mo Chen had seen through him that early on itself…

Mo Chen said, “I can tell you, but only in private. If I had lost to you, then you definitely would have asked during the livestream ba?”

Wen Xi fell silent, because Mo Chen had spoken the truth.

But, the more he agreed with Mo Chen’s speculation of how the events would have played out, the more confused Wen Xi grew.

He hesitated for a long time, until he couldn’t help but ask, “If you already knew what I would ask if I won, then why did you still agree to the bet? Were you just that confident that you would win?”

If that was really the case, then Wen Xi didn’t know whether to say that Mo Chen was just wildly arrogant, or that he was looking down his nose at everyone.

However, Mo Chen responded, “No, you’re very strong, so I only had a ten percent chance of winning.”

A ten percent chance? You dared to bet on that?!

Wen Xi asked, “…So why on earth did you agree to bet with me?”

Mo Chen replied, “Because it was exciting.”

Wen Xi surrendered, he truly surrendered.

It suddenly occurred to him that this person had previously even wanted to bet their lives—Mo Chen would have to sign a contract with JJ Livestreams if he lost and so on.

If Mo Chen was the kind of person who would shamelessly call off the bet after losing, then that would be one thing, but so far, he had treated each of their bets very seriously.

Wen Xi did not doubt that if he had won the bet earlier and had asked Mo Chen what his main account’s ID was during the livestream, Mo Chen would have told it to him without any hesitation.

“Ugh, you…” Wen Xi didn’t know what to say to Mo Chen. Finally, he decided to act as his friend and admonished him, “A small bet may be fun, but a large bet is bad for your health. In the future, don’t treat your life or your reputation as a joke.”

Mo Chen replied, “Don’t worry, I know when to stop.”

Wen Xi expressed that he wasn’t at all confident that he actually did know when to stop.

“I haven’t bet with anyone else like this before,” Mo Chen said, and without waiting to hear his response, he added, “It’s getting late, so you should go to bed early.”

His voice suddenly became softer as he spoke, and Wen Xi could almost hear the sleepiness in his voice.

At this moment, Mo Chen was truly sleepy.

After he had accompanied Wen Xi to blow up the rookie concentration camp for two matches, he had had to spend more time training in order to adjust his state to compete with professional players.

In order to not affect training, he had his cellphone turned off all afternoon, which was the real reason behind why Wen Xi couldn’t contact him.

And now, he forced himself to talk with Wen Xi while half-asleep, regardless of how late he’d have to stay up for the call.

After hearing how tired he was, Wen Xi didn’t plan on dragging out their call. He went straight to the point and asked the question he was most curious about, “So, what is the name of your main account?” He paused for a bit before adding, “Mac?”

—

Juurensha: ….I think the summary for the novel spoils the question to that answer, huh?

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