CH 44

As the Spring Festival approaches, other teams have gradually granted holidays to their players.

While JW’s players are on break, the staff still need to stay at the base.

During the offseason, they have some work to take care of.

The operations department edited the video of the last team-building event into two parts and uploaded them online.

Immediately, a wave of excitement swept through the esports fan community.

Fans expressed their admiration for JW’s wealth and the requirement for real-name verification.

Fan comments were diverse:

“I saw Rat getting beaten up by Golden Silver Bun again; can’t you guys do something about the internal bullying? Doghead.JPG”

“The atmosphere in JW’s WOC sub-team is like this; they have two normal people and three creative minds.”

“If you’ve watched Sugar God’s livestream, you wouldn’t think he’s a normal person.”

“What’s wrong with Sugar’s livestream? He’s so cute! Mom loves him.”

“Don’t say ‘mom,’ can’t you stop being so excessive?”

“At least, the atmosphere in their team seems normal, on the surface.”

“Don’t you think it’s childish for them to use Sugar God’s friendship and OVO’s fan tickets as a tournament reward, just like real-life CS with OVO?”

“Speaking of which, please broadcast live when the kids go to OVO to get a free meal. The official account manager should do a live broadcast.”

“+1, curious about the style of JW going to OVO for a free meal.”

“So here’s the question: If the friendship attempt between Sugar and the Ocean King fails, will he give up?”

“As far as I know, absolutely not. So, did Ocean King add Sugar as a friend today?”

After JW’s team-building video was released, OVO’s official account manager even came to JW’s official account to gain some attention. The hottest comment under JW’s official account was:

“OVO Esports Club: Today, Ocean King is also running hard to add Sugar God as a friend.”

Subsequently, the topic “Did Ocean King add Sugar God as a friend today?” even trended on Weibo.

This is a direct reflection of WOC’s game popularity and the popularity of Jiang Min and Cen Yu as star players.

As for whether Cen Yu added Jiang Min as a friend, the answer is no.

Because every time Jiang Min logged in, he either duo-queued with Yu Hao or duo-queued with other teammates. Although Cen Yu replied to his private messages, every time Yu Hao would find various reasons to distract his attention, which eventually prevented him from adding Cen Yu as a friend.

But, spurred by the high popularity on Weibo, he was determined to successfully add Cen Yu as a friend, whether for personal or face-saving reasons.

Jiang Min didn’t pay much attention to the Weibo trends; his barely used Weibo account still had a “Happy New Year” post from the previous year.

Today, as usual, he was duo-queuing for ranked matches with the Gold and Silver Buns brothers to climb the ranks.

In these days of ranked games, his points fluctuated, and although he didn’t make it to the top of the national server, he climbed to the second position, just one step away from the first.

Jiang Min wasn’t particularly eager to be the first on the national server. He thought it would be good enough to reach the second position in a relaxed manner.

However, the Gold and Silver Buns brothers showed even higher enthusiasm than him, as if they were about to reach the top of the national server.

They originally thought they would encounter many difficulties on the way to the top, just like Little Lock Sauce did, blocked by many people.

Unexpectedly, there were no actors on this road at all.

Jiang Min, although not very communicative with other players, surprisingly enjoyed high popularity among fellow players.

Perhaps it was due to his strength and personal charm; nobody dared to bully him like they did to Little Lock Sauce.

So, Jiang Min’s journey to the top of the national server was quite smooth.

Winning a few more games, and his points would be enough to reach the top of the national server.

Just after finishing a ranked match, Jiang Min was about to take a break when he received a private message from Ring, the 4th position player of AFK Esports.

AFK.Ring: [Sugar God~ QAQ]

Mid-lane Old Driver: [.]

AFK.Ring: [We have a training match later~]

Jiang Min was puzzled.

Why did AFK have a training match, and what did it have to do with him? Moreover, it was close to the holidays; which team would still have the energy to play training matches?

Nevertheless, he still had to be polite.

Mid-lane Old Driver: [Good luck]

AFK.Ring: [Sugar God, I’m nervous~ QAQ]

Ring, as a young player who had just turned 18, was very talented as a 4th position player. However, he was still like a child in terms of mentality.

Mid-lane Old Driver: [You’ve played in the World Championship; what are you afraid of in a training match?]

AFK.Ring: [It’s not that, but this training match is as important as the World Championship, Sugar God QAQ]

Mid-lane Old Driver: [You guys arranged a World Championship match?]

Jiang Min was curious.

Ring, although young, was usually quite confident.

What kind of training match could make him worry like this? Which team did AFK arrange a World Championship-level match with?

AFK.Ring: [….PH Esports]

Mid-lane Old Driver: [……]

PH Esports wasn’t a team from the Z country’s WPL; it was a team from the neighboring South Korean region.

In this season’s World Championship, they reached the finals but ultimately lost to the European powerhouse Morden, securing the runner-up position.

AFK must have spent a lot of effort and resources to arrange this training match. Jiang Min wondered how much effort it took to secure this match.

AFK.Ring: [Our Korean analyst used his connections; it was difficult to arrange this training match. I’m so nervous~~ What if we lose badly? QAQ]

Mid-lane Old Driver: [This is a good opportunity for practice; don’t panic, stay calm.]

AFK.Ring: [Sugar God~~ Wuu wuu wuu, can you come to our base and watch us play? I want you to cheer for me QAQ]

Mid-lane Old Driver: […. Now?]

AFK.Ring: [Yeah yeah! Come on, Sugar God~~ It’s the off-season for you anyway. I’m begging you!]

Ring seemed to be taking advantage of his young age, and since Jiang Min usually treated him well, he was unreservedly asking for encouragement.

Mid-lane Old Driver: [……]

AFK.Ring: [Sugar God, should I call a car for you?]

Jiang Min: …No, why is this kid so proactive? He hasn’t even agreed yet, right?

Mid-lane Old Driver: [Your base is too far.]

AFK.Ring: [Not far, not far, it’s only a half-hour drive~ Come on, Sugar God~~]

Jiang Min hesitated a bit.

As a hardcore homebody at heart, he wasn’t really keen on going out.

Being at the base is so much fun.

However, Ring genuinely seemed to need his encouragement. Following the principles of mutual assistance and unity with love in the WPL professional circle, should he go to the AFK base?

Just when he was in a dilemma, another message popped up in his friend’s private messages.

AFK.Ring: [Ah Min, I’m Lou-ge. Come and cheer for us. After the training match, I’ll treat you to a meal. Remember, we agreed to have a meal together during the break, right?]

This was Shu Lou.

Jiang Min thought about it; he did promise to have a meal with Shu Lou before.

Why not do it today?

So, he informed the Gold and Silver Buns brothers, informed Fan Dadi about his whereabouts, and drove away from the base in his rarely used RS5.

After Jiang Min left the base, the Gold and Silver Buns brothers exchanged glances and quickly took out their phones.

They both opened the same group chat on WeChat.

The group was named “Candy Observation Group” and consisted of only three people.

Wei Yabo typed: [Report, report, Sugar God has left the base!]

Wei Yafeng followed up: [It is reported that Sugar God is heading to the AFK base!]

Someone named “Fish” quickly replied: [AFK? Did he say why he’s going?]

Wei Yabo: [It seems like he’s going to watch the training match between AFK and PH and, by the way, have a meal with Lou Shen.]

Fish: [… Alright, got it. Report any updates.]

The twins replied simultaneously: [Got it!]

Fish was, of course, JW team captain Yu Hao.

Before leaving, he specifically created this group with the Gold and Silver Buns brothers to instruct them to regularly report Jiang Min’s daily activities.

This included but was not limited to what Jiang Min did every day and who he interacted with.

Although the twin brothers didn’t fully understand why the captain wanted them to report on Sugar God’s daily activities, since the captain said so, they followed his instructions.

So, after Jiang Min left the base, the two quickly reported the situation to the captain.

They were indeed quite competent intelligence officers, giving themselves a metaphorical pat on the back!

———-

Jiang Min drove the azure RS5 smoothly and reached the entrance of the AFK base.

AFK’s base was a rented villa, with the tightly closed gate displaying the AFK Esports Club logo on the right.

This was the situation for most esports clubs in the country.

Unlike CC and JW, who owned entire buildings and had entered a well-established operational track, many clubs still had very few members and only met the basic requirements for tournaments.

Since the number of members was small, there was no need for them to rent or buy an entire building. Renting a villa was more than enough.

At the entrance of the AFK team, there were still some fans squatting, but fortunately, not many.

During the off-season, almost none of the players came out, or they had already taken a break and returned home, so the chances of encountering players were minimal, and the fans’ crazy behavior had toned down a bit.

At this moment, the fans squatting at the AFK entrance saw a low-key RS5 arriving at the entrance of the base.

Jiang Min, wearing a mask with tinted car windows, was not clearly visible to them.

Inside the AFK base.

The base management knocked on the door and entered the training room of the WOC sub-team: “There’s a dark blue RS5 at the entrance, is it a friend of yours?”

Shu Lou, originally standing behind Ring and communicating with the boy sitting in the chair, heard the manager’s words and immediately looked up: “Oh, that’s Ah Min’s car, let him in.”

“Huh? Sugar God arrived so quickly?” Ring became excited.

“At this time, with no traffic, it’s normal to arrive quickly.” Shu Lou replied.

The door to the AFK base opened, and Jiang Min, amidst the AFK fans’ watchful eyes, drove his car into the AFK base yard.

At this moment, he still had no idea that AFK’s invitation for him to watch the match was a complete and thorough setup.

—–

Author’s Note: AFK’s plot, so why did they lure Sugar to do what?

1TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you ️”