Volume 1 - CH 17

Playing Fish Trapped in Secret Room

Book 1: The Storm is Coming

Chapter 17

Dt did not just skillfully use Google Maps, he also had Korean friends to guide him whenever they needed extra help. Both of them had never been in Korea before but surprisingly, they managed to take the public mass transportation------subway, to reach the competition arena.

The lobby of the auditorium was crowded with fans.

A young Korean boy ran out to greet them when they arrived.  He looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old; more like a young fan here to watch the game if not for the name tag hanging around his neck which had the name of a popular team on it.

Though nobody knew them, everybody knew this young boy.

Some affectionate girls were already pushing each other as they came over.  They used the young boy’s back as the background and made a V sign with their fingers to take a selfie.  “Hello.”  He used slightly rusty Chinese to greet the guest Ai Qing first. “I am Inin, Dt’s friend.”

“Hello.”  She looked him up and down.   “You are……”

He understood her question immediately. “I have one fourth Chinese blood, one fourth Korean blood, and the rest is more complex and diverse.”

Ai Qing chuckled.

The three chatted a while.  To be more precise,  it was she and Inin introducing themselves to each other.  They walked in from the VIP entrance after they finished their introductions.  There were several girls standing beside the fenced off VIP area.  They pulled Inin’s arm and talked to him in a low voice in Korean.  It looked liked they were pleading Inin for something.

“They are asking me whether I can help them find out which number is an empty number.”  Inin explained to Ai Qing.

“Empty number?”

“Usually only a limited number of the audience is allowed for this kind of competition.  They need to come here four or five hours earlier in order to get a number.”  Inin was talking and led them to their seats.  “But some of audience who has the number may not be on site when the number is called to enter.  Then this number becomes an empty number.  Those young girls were very smart.  They don’t have a number, but they just wait for empty numbers and then they will come in pretending to be someone else.”

“Won’t they get caught?”

‘Of course they might get caught.”  Inin shrugged his shoulders to express his helplessness.  “Sometimes, when a number is called, there might be a dozen girls that come out.  It really is dumbfounding.”

Inin left after he had settled them down.

StarCraft 2 was not very popular in China.  The public did not pay much attention to this game.  She knew even less about this competition than the fans onsite.  So she picked up a promotional brochure with great interest and read the introductions of the four teams.

Then she saw Inin’s picture in the brochure.

How could he be so laid back?

He even came out to welcome Dt when it was about time to start the semi finals……

“Did you know him from the tournament?”

Dt nodded silently.

“Last year’s WCS?  In the same regional tournament?”

Dt shook his head.  “He was at the American Region.”

If she remembered correctly, WCS gave up the Chinese Region last year.  They only set up the Korean Region, American Region, and European Region.  But all eight qualified players in the American Region were all from Korea.

Then this friend of Dt should be one of the eight.