Ch60 - Would you like to try it out?

Edited by kat

Liu Weizhe made several phone calls and called different people in succession, but the results were all the same.

“You want me to be a substitute for CLM? Do you want me to experience the feeling of being cursed into withdrawing from the e-sports circle?”

“Substitute? Even if I was in the starting lineup, forget it. If I’m going to be a substitute, I’d rather go to YEY or MQ ba.”

“Be a substitute? Sorry, let me consider it some more.”

“You still need to consider it more? Last time you said that I needed to give you time to think about it, and I already gave you half a month…” Liu Weizhe’s patience had been gradually worn away, and his tone couldn’t help growing impatient.

Before he could finish speaking, the other party hung up.

Obviously, the other party’s “want to consider” was just a euphemistic refusal.

Liu Weizhe sighed and pressed the button to darken his phone.

He should have expected this kind of scene a long time ago.

CLM had been stuck in a weird cycle since a long time ago. Those who were strong weren’t willing to join, and those who were weak were looked down upon.

The several people he had just called had all been in CLM’s youth training team, but they had all left in the end. The people remaining were each more and more noob.

He knew that CLM’s youth training team wasn’t reliable, and the contract wasn’t binding. It wasn’t so much training reserve players as providing a platform to give those who wanted to play e-sports professionally a chance to gain some experience.

There was no other way. If they didn’t do it like that, then even fewer people would want to join.

Could they really just tie their hopes to the secondary team’s players?

Were there really no better candidate?

Liu Weizhe forced himself to calm down and think things over patiently, before dialing another phone number.

“Hello?” There was a trace of hesitation in the other party’s youthful voice.

“Hello, is this Jiang Xinyi? I’m Lina, the manager of CLM. There’s a chance for you to play together with Wency during a competition right now, would you like to try it out?”

“Holy shit?!”

*

When Liu Weizhe arrived at the competition site, the game hadn’t started yet.

“Have you bought the medicine? Should we let Xiao Wei take it?” Chen Xiao’s brow was completely furrowed, and he was obviously a mess.

Liu Weizhe gave him a faint glance and knew that at this time, the more calm and self-confident he behaved, the more in control of the situation he would appear. Therefore, he responded with a very calm tone, “Leave it to me.”

He sat down randomly and took out a bottle of medicine from his shopping bag, pouring some of the powder into a measuring cup before transferring it into Chen Wei’s thermos. He said in an irrefutable tone, “Drink a few mouthfuls before going up to play.”

Chen Wei obediently agreed and drank a bit.

It’s said that good medicine tastes bitter, but this medicine was actually sweet. The light sweetness had dissolved in the hot water, and diffused with the heat across the tip of his tongue, which made Chen Wei feel a lot more comfortable.

He breathed a sigh of relief, put down the thermos, and went down to play with his heart at ease.

Chen Xiao looked at his peaceful figure, but he couldn’t settle down and sat down beside Liu Weizhe and asked, “What did you give him to drink?”

“Medicine,” Liu Weizhe said lightly.

Chen Xiao looked at the shopping bag, “You bought more than just one kind of medicine.”

“En,” Liu Weizhe said, “I bought both Chinese medicine and Western medicine, Western medicine to target the specific problem, and Chinese medicine to condition the whole body. Using them together produces the best effect.”

Chen Xiao picked up the medicine Chen Wei had just drank and looked at it. “You only gave him Chinese medicine to drink?”

Liu Weizhe replied, “Western medicine has significant side effects. I’m afraid he will get sleepy in the middle of playing, and Chinese medicine is gentler.”

Chen Xiao asked, “Will it work?”

“It won’t,” Liu Weizhe blurted out.

Chen Xiao’s eyes widened in disbelief. He looked at him in surprise and thought he had heard him wrong.

However, as if he knew what he was surprised at, Liu Weizhe repeated lightly, “It won’t work. Even if it works, the effects wouldn’t show up so soon. However, it does have a great psychological use.”

That was true.

After drinking the medicine, Chen Wei’s face obviously looked better than before, and he felt that his heart had finally settled down.

His change wasn’t brought to him by the medicine, and was a psychological effect.

Chen Xiao let out a long breath. “Fortunately we have you.”

Hearing these four words, Liu Weizhe’s expression became a little strange. He opened his mouth, but said nothing in the end.

Mo Chen was no longer worried about Chen Wei’s state, since he knew what the more pressing matter was. “How has the substitute search been going?”

When he asked, he knew that Liu Weizhe’s answer would disappoint him. Sure enough, Liu Weizhe replied, “Right now, only the secondary team can substitute for him. Some of them have reached the level of the top ten in the national servers, so at the very least they won’t turn into a lootbox upon landing.”

Who among the players playing in the competition hadn’t ranked in the top ten of the national servers?

Whether it was the national or overseas servers, the ranking was updated every three months, and the people who broke into those ranks changed every quarter.

Wen Xi, for example, had played increasingly fewer solo games since joining CLM. In addition, he had gotten used to playing in the overseas servers and basically didn’t play in the national server anymore, so in the current national solo rankings, he didn’t even rank in the top 50.

In other words, this data was fluid, and could only be used as the minimum standard for selecting professional players. It couldn’t be used to directly measure the strength of a player.

One couldn’t look down on the substitute who took part in the competition for Mo Chen and was cursed as noob until he withdrew from the entire e-sports circle. He had also been in the top ten of the national server.

So, hearing the manager’s words, Mo Chen was really not happy at all.

However, the manager’s next sentence was, “But I also found a kid who hasn’t made it into the top ten of the national servers. Do you want to try him?”

Mo Chen paused for a moment, not expecting that the manager who had always been so reliable would actually find such an unreliable person.

But after he was silent for a moment, the corner of his lips rose up. “Of course I am willing to try someone you found.”

Liu Weizhe just knew that he would say that. He picked up his cellphone and sent a message to the person who had just added his QQ, explaining the time and place of the “interview”.

After that, he added another sentence: In front of the team captain, don’t say that you like Wency. If you have to say something, change it into another word, such as admire.

Jiang Xinyi: Eh? Why ya? I just like Wency. I’m his fanboy~

Jiang Xinyi: To be honest, if Wency hadn’t joined CLM, I wouldn’t want to go to your team at all!

Liu Weizhe: If you want to fight alongside Wency, listen to me.

Jiang Xinyi: ….

After that sentence, Liu Weizhe pressed the button to darken his cellphone screen and watched the game attentively.

Chen Wei’s condition did decline in the first solo match, but he struggled to make it to the fourth circle before he died.

He probably realized that in his current condition, he couldn’t make it to the finals, so he just went all in, getting into head-to-head gunfights whenever he could. When he was killed, he actually had 5 kills in his hands.

On the other hand, who knew what kind of stimulation Ling Shuyi had received, but although he was also killed in the fourth circle, he took nine kills before he died, which could be regarded as an extraordinary performance for him.

With their hard work, CLM’s points ranked in eighth place this match, and the impact on the total score would still be within the scope of what everyone in CLM could accept.

After Chen Wei had just stepped down, he was fed medicine by Liu Weizhe. This time, he was fed Western medicine.

Then Liu Weizhe took Chen Wei back to the hotel to rest, while the rest of the members continued to stay at the competition site.

In the second duo match, Mo Chen and Wen Xi cooperated tacitly and harmoniously with each other again. They survived until the final circle and obtained a large number of kills, stabilizing CLM’s points.

However, they all knew that the most important event was the afternoon’s squad match.

“How is Xiao Wei?” Chen Xiao asked worriedly about Chen Wei’s state.

“He’s sleeping,” Liu Weizhe responded, “In half an hour, I’ll ask him to get up to eat.”

Chen Xiao let out an “en” and said nothing more.

Half an hour later, Liu Weizhe woke up Chen Wei.

After taking the medicine and going back to sleep, Chen Wei woke up hazily. His entire person seemed to have weakened, and everyone looked at him with great trepidation.

Fortunately, after eating the lunch that everyone brought back for him, he felt much better, and his throat wasn’t very sore.

“It feels like it’s working!” he said with some excitement.

Liu Weizhe rolled his eyes. “You already have a sore throat, so talk less.”

However, even if they complained, whether it was Liu Weizhe or anyone else, everyone who saw him like this couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

Chen Xiao patted him on the back and encouraged, “Good luck on the game in the afternoon.”

Chen Wei let out an “en” sound.

However, something still went wrong in the afternoon competition.

It wasn’t so obvious in the solo match, but as Chen Wei’s teammates in the squad match, it didn’t matter if it was Mo Chen, Wen Xi, or Ling Shuyi, they all obviously felt that Chen Wei’s reaction speed had become slower—When he saw his teammate fall, he was a half beat slower in helping him up, and when he heard Mo Chen’s orders, he also responded half a beat later.

Mo Chen frowned and realized that he could no longer slow down and wait for him. He said, “Wen Xi come with me, Chen Wei…”

He hadn’t finished talking when he saw Chen Wei get shot by YEY’s two snipers, one shot downing him, and the next finishing him off.

Mo Chen froze for a moment, before swallowing the rest of his words.

However, he didn’t know that Chen Wei let out a secret sigh of relief after his death.

He knew that he was dragging down the team’s hind legs, and he also knew that Mo Chen had already tried his best to include him, so he had been ready very early on to be abandoned by Mo Chen.

However, Mo Chen didn’t give up on him until he had died in battle, which made him feel comforted, but also gave him a deep sense of guilt.

After he was killed in battle, Mo Chen counterattacked by headshotting YEY’s Thunder. Wen Xi followed up with an arrow to finish him off, which counted as avenging Chen Wei.

The YEY team found that they couldn’t beat them head-to-head, so they could only temporarily retreat to other places.

Then, when the position of the fifth circle was announced, CLM and MQ met, and CLM was caught off-guard.

[MQ destroyed CLM!]

When Caster A-Yi shouted out this sentence, there was an uproar, and Chen Xiao frowned.

Mo Chen and Wen Xi had jointly killed MQ’s CC, but MQ had an obvious advantage in short-range gun fights. They counterattacked and killed off those two with only a sliver of health left, and along the way, also killed off a Cat.

After CLM was wiped out, the remaining three people of MQ successfully survived to the final circle, killing YEY’s last person and winning the championship for this match.

Seeing that the winner was MQ, not YEY, all the CLM members let out a breath of relief—MQ’s points were much worse than theirs, so it wasn’t that easy to catch up.

Indeed, when the final total scores were released, CLM was still in first, YEY was still in second, and MQ was third.

However, there were only a few points left between YEY and MQ. It was nearly negligible.

“Sorry, I was the one who didn’t play well…” Chen Wei voluntarily admitted his mistakes.

Everyone comforted him, of course.

Only Mo Chen didn’t say anything. After a period of silence, he asked the manager, “When can the person you mentioned come?”

“Tomorrow afternoon at 3 o’clock,” Liu Weizhe replied.

“Basic information?” At this moment, Mo Chen’s tone was very cold, as if he had returned to his state from before Wen Xi had arrived.

However, Liu Weizhe could tell that unlike that time, Mo Chen wasn’t desperate to avoid ruin, but was just hiding his uneasiness and anxiety about the future.

Liu Weizhe didn’t speak nonsense and responded to him bluntly, “Jiang Xinyi, male, 18 years old, in the third year of high school. Most commonly used weapon: a bow.”

Mo Chen: ???

Everyone else: ?!

When they heard that the new person’s most commonly used weapon was the bow, everyone was surprised, including Wen Xi.

Although they had the archer assassin in their team, there were only a few people in the SGH circle who could use the bow, let alone those who used the bow as their main weapon.

However, Liu Weizhe’s next sentence was, “Hit rate: 37%.”

Everyone: ….

His next words were, “His first contact with SGH was half a month ago.”

Everyone: !!!!

Chen Wei couldn’t hold back anymore, complaining with his “hoarse duck voice”, “Can’t you finish saying everything at once ma! Making us suffer through a rollercoaster of emotions while listening…cough, cough.”

“You’re coughing now.” Liu Weizhe frowned.

Chen Wei replied, “…No, I’m choking on my saliva. Cough, cough, cough.”

Chen Wei’s state wasn’t suitable for complaining, so Ling Shuyi took his place, “Liu Jie, wouldn’t it have been quicker if you just directly said that he is a naturally gifted person? But you had to release his stats one by one…”

“My summary would be subjective, while the data is more intuitive,” Liu Weizhe responded to him expressionlessly, and then went on, “It’s true that the bow is his most commonly used weapon, but I didn’t say that he is good with the bow. His hit rate with the sniper rifle is about 80%, and his headshot rate is 60%.”

“WTF!” Ling Shuyi did not expect for there to be more powerful stats. “He plays so well with the sniper rifle, so why does he want to use the bow?”

“Copying someone bei,” Liu Weizhe blurted out.

Ling Shuyi: ….

After originally listening to Jiang Xinyi’s bow stats, Chen Xiao and Mo Chen both had tangled expressions. However, after listening to his sniper rifle stats, their expressions both cleared up—no wonder Liu Weizhe took a fancy to this person.

Having these stats just half a month after coming into contact with the game, it was obvious that this person had potential.

There was no doubt that if they pulled him into their team and cultivated him, he would become a strong force in the future.

Thinking like this, the CLM members were secretly relieved, and showed expectant expressions.

Chen Wei was a bit curious and asked, “Where did you find such a talent ah?”

Ling Shuyi added, “Yeah, he has only been in contact with the game for half a month, so he’s probably still creating bloodbaths in the rookie concentration camp ba? How did you notice him?”

Wen Xi didn’t interrupt during the whole process, but he now also opened his eyes wide and looked at Liu Weizhe, obviously very curious.

He didn’t expect that in the next second, Liu Weizhe would turn his gaze to him. “He was the one that wrote that post analyzing Wen Xi in the forums.”

!!!

Everyone was once again shocked!

They didn’t know how many surprises this little classmate Jiang Xinyi had hidden on his body?!

As soon as Liu Weizhe saw their expressions, he knew that they all knew of the post’s existence—Didn’t he tell them not to read the forums during the competition? They were all so disobedient! He really should confiscate all their cellphones!

However, since they all knew about it, it saved him the effort of explaining.

Thinking like this, Liu Weizhe continued, “He deliberately left a message in the post and hoped that everyone would go grab a look at what he was like. Since he has sent out such an invitation, of course I want to see how godly he really is. Along the way, I checked his game ID and analyzed his game stats.”

Everyone had on confused expressions after hearing this—Message? What message? Why didn’t they see anything?

“His forum ID is Jiang, which was most likely his last name, while his game ID is Newing. Doesn’t that look like New Wing? So I guessed his real name was Jiang Xinyi.”

“Then I read his personal profile in the game, and there was a math problem there, and the answer was exactly 11 digits. It looked like a cellphone number, so I just casually noted it down.”

Liu Weizhe talked as though it was all very natural, but everyone was stunned after hearing him.

This probably counted as a grandmasters’ battle ba.

Later, they looked at Jiang Xinyi’s personal profile in the game, but that math problem that Liu Weizhe had talked about looked no different from scrawled gibberish to them.

Sure enough, the world appeared different through a star student’s eyes.

“I’m guessing you’re the first one to look for him in the game.”

Even Mo Chen, who usually liked to look on coldly from the sidelines, couldn’t resist complaining now.

“It seems so,” Liu Weizhe replied solemnly, “It’s so strange. Why?”

“……” No one wanted to talk to him.

Fortunately, he just showed off with that one sentence, and then returned to the subject at hand with his next words, “This person is a bit arrogant and likes to imitate people. The purpose of analyzing Wen Xi, practicing with the bow, and leaving a message was all to make people pay attention to him. Therefore, when I called him and asked him to come try out being a substitute, he agreed almost immediately. But he made a condition.”

“What condition?” Mo Chen asked.

He was filled with curiosity about this person now.

Liu Weizhe looked at him in silence for a while and said, “He wants to play duos with Wen Xi.”

Hearing this sentence, the curiosity on Mo Chen’s face disappeared instantly and he blurted out, “Don’t even think about it.”

Liu Weizhe: “….”

Wen Xi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Just when he wanted to complain, he was preempted by Chen Xiao. “What’s wrong with you? Wake up, this is the competition!” he said while grabbing onto Mo Chen’s shoulders and shaking him.

Mo Chen, of course, had clear priorities and wouldn’t really mind Wen Xi playing duos with others. However, he had been serious when he blurted out those words, so he didn’t rush to clarify himself and asked instead, “His reason?”

“He admires Wen Xi,” Liu Weizhe calmly responded, “The reason why he analyzed and imitated Wen Xi was all because he admires Wen Xi and thinks that he’s very powerful. Wen Xi is his idol, so it’s very normal to want to play duos with your idol ba?

Mo Chen asked, “This was the condition that he put forward to join the team?”

Liu Weizhe replied, “Yes. He said that as long as he is allowed to play one duo match with Wen Xi, he is willing to sign a contract.”

Mo Chen pondered for a while, before letting out a “heh” sound. “We’ll have to see if he has the ability to do so.”

This person sounded pretty awesome, but in the end, he was just a novice who had only played for half a month. If his strength wasn’t good enough, let alone duos with Wen Xi, he shouldn’t even think about joining the team.

However, Liu Weizhe’s lips drew up and he said, “Even if he has the ability, it doesn’t matter—He didn’t say that he must play duos with Wen Xi during the competition.”

“Ah.” Chen Wei, who realized what was happening, clapped his hands.

Ling Shuyi couldn’t help laughing. “Liu Jie is still the fiercest.”

Liu Weizhe glanced at the two of them. “How to play during the competition and how to allocate the personnel depends on the captain and the coach, of course. Games are games, while competitions are competitions, which he must be aware of. If you can meet his requirements without affecting the competition, then that would of course be best. If there’s really no other way—I’ll be responsible for brainwashing him.”

“Hahahahahaha, we’ll leave it to you!” Ling Shuyi said happily, and everyone was relieved.

Chen Xiao echoed his previous words, “With you here, we really don’t have to worry about anything.”

Liu Weizhe looked at him and smiled. However, the smile was fleeting, just like a flash in the pan.

Chen Wei had originally also smiled with everyone, but when he noticed Liu Weizhe’s smile, he was stunned.

*

The new member’s “interview” was scheduled for the afternoon of the fourth day of the spring competition.

Chen Wei’s condition on the fourth day was much better than that of the third day. He once again hid during the solo match and managed to make it to the final circle, but unfortunately he didn’t take first place and only took second.

Ling Shuyi also played better and better. He was besieged in the first circle, but he actually cut through a bloody swathe and killed off all the people laying siege to him. In the end, he died in the fifth circle, and took 16 kills in total.

In that match, after adding up both of their points, they helped get CLM to get first place again!

Seeing this result, the barrage in the livestream was boiling over.

[Who said Mac’s teammates were noob? Come out and get beaten!]

[Person before, don’t leave, it’s Momo now!]

[Isn’t it just because they weren’t playing with Momo that they didn’t look that noob?]

[Why are there people flaming Momo’s teammates as noob? To be reasonable, Windy and Kitty really were noob last year, but they have improved a lot this year!]

Next was the duo match with Mo Chen and Wen Xi. During the match, they didn’t choose a good jumping spot, so they were bombarded by attacks from the beginning. Although they survived until the end, they had less than 20 combined kills, so their points were surpassed by YEY and they only ranked second.

Fortunately, it was just the competition’s total points that mattered, and they had played well in the first two days of the game, so until the end of their game, CLM’s total points were still in the first place.

An unforeseen event occurred in the squad match that afternoon.

In the squad match, Chen Wei didn’t know whether his cold was aggravating him or what, but he accidentally pressed the F key and jumped out ahead of time.

As soon as he jumped, the others had to follow him. As a result, they landed in a very awkward place and directly became a target. In the end, only Mo Chen succeeded in breaking through the encirclement, and the others were all killed.

Mo Chen also didn’t live too long after that. In the second circle, he was attacked by two teams, and finally, after killing three people, he was killed by a grenade.

Their team’s total kills was just seven.

This incident shocked everyone at the scene, and even the casters couldn’t believe what was happening.

“My God…. CLM, what’s going on?” Bunny Ji thought that she was dreaming. “The whole team turned into lootboxes upon landing. After this match, CLM’s points will become precarious ah…”

“Windy made a mistake,” A-Yi said, “He jumped too early. Windy is normally responsible for keeping track of where the enemy jumps to, so he is the last to jump each match. However, in this match, he was actually the first one to jump.”

Bunny Ji said, “This mistake is too big…”

Along with the two casters, there was a hiss at the scene.

Chen Wei’s teammates immediately helped him back to the rest area.

“What’s the matter?” Mo Chen frowned and asked.

He felt that Chen Wei would not have made such a mistake no matter how uncomfortable he was.

Chen Wei also frowned and rolled up his sleeves, scratching his arm as hard as he could—His arm actually had lumps similar to mosquito-bites all over it.

Liu Weizhe saw his strange appearance and immediately grabbed his hand and ordered, “Let’s go to the hospital!”

—

Juurensha: Oh no, hopefully Chen Wei is okay! Also, noticing something going on with LWZ and the Chen brothers….

kat: poor Wen Xi didn’t have any lines this chapter, after joining CLM his job became being obedient and spreading dog food hahahah

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