CH 18

Song Xue-Yang turned on a computer for him. "We train till about seven, then go for dinner. If you're bored, feel free to play around."

Shen Huai nodded and sat down.

This training room was obviously set up for the primary team members to train. According to the official regulations of "City of Despair", each professional team should consist of seven active players, and this training room had exactly seven computers.

However, right now, only four of the computers had someone sitting before them. The rest of the computers were parked on empty desks, clearly unclaimed.

With only four members remaining from their 7-man team, this was undoubtedly a critical period of transition for Maple Moon. Whether or not they would be able to keep their top-8 ranking in the pro leagues next year would really come down to the level of the players Song Xue-Yang manages to recruit this year.

Shen Huai peeked at the screens of the others as he walked past behind them, and he found that they were all playing the same minigame.

Wooden blocks rained down against an all black background, as the player controlled their character to constantly leap from one block to another. The blocks dropped very quickly — a split second of hesitation was enough for a player to fall into the sea of flames at the bottom of the screen along with the block they were standing on. Additionally, mini-bosses would appear randomly at the four corners of the screen to shoot projectiles while the game was running, so the player had to take care not to be hit by projectiles even as they were jumping blocks.

The daily training of pro players was not limited to the actual game they were competing in. Many minigames with simple rules and one-dimensional controls were even more suitable for them to use as practice. For example, this particular minigame was obviously being used to train their positioning awareness and responsiveness.

Shen Huai observed from behind the group. The counter at the top of Zhou Ning's screen displayed 935, proving that he had already jumped on 935 wooden blocks. His movements were stable, and though he stayed on each block for a relatively longer time, he was always able to seize on the best moment to jump to the next block.

Hai Xing's counter displayed 1372. The wooden blocks on his screen were raining down extremely quickly, and then two bosses appeared on the screen at the same time, their projectiles blasting out like fireworks. His jumping was very messy, his character looking like it was jumping around wildly for no purpose. Each time, it seemed like his character was nearly about to fall, but then it didn't. It was neither consumed by flames nor struck by projectiles, which was rather amazing.

Fan Jing-Ming's counter was also at about 700. He was jumping very fast, stopping on each block for barely an instant, swiftly able to locate his next landing point.

Shen Huai glanced at Song Xue-Yang's computer last, and he was shocked to find that Song Xue-Yang's counter read 2614, twice as much as the others!

The blocks plummeted down his screen like meteors, almost indiscernible, and there were currently four bosses on screen at the same time. The special effects as they fired the projectiles almost filled the entire screen... there were traps everywhere!

However, Song Xue-Yang remained composed, his face still smiling and relaxed. His character even seemed like a youth with ADHD, jumping twice on every single block in a very rhythmic pattern.

Shen Huai's competitive spirit flared. He returned to his computer and found the same minigame, and a small pixel man appeared on his screen.

The character was very easy to control, only requiring the use of the four arrow keys on the keyboard. Left and right to move, up and down to jump and land.

For the first two times playing the game, Shen Huai only managed to reach about 600 before plunging into the sea of flames or being killed by projectiles. However, he quickly figured out the pattern.

Only two blocks at most would appear on the same horizontal plane. The boss' projectile skills would often hit their mark if they were too close, but as long as the player stayed further away, it would be easy to slip between the gaps and avoid the projectiles. Every boss would only stay on the screen for 30 seconds, and only two bosses at most would release skills at one time. Shen Huai only needed to remember the refresh sequence of the bosses to avoid them.

Sure enough, his third time playing went much smoother than before. Shen Huai managed to go up to 2583, and just as he was about to exceed Song Xue-Yang's score, Song Xue-Yang suddenly stood up and clapped.

"Basic training is over. Everyone get into teams of two for arena battles."

Shen Huai jumped and quickly clicked on the button in the upper right corner to close the program. By the time he realised Song Xue-Yang hadn't discovered him playing, he was too lazy to reopen the game to play again.

This was the first time he was experiencing the atmosphere of a pro team's training. There were no superfluous noises other than the tapping of keyboards and the clicking of computer mice. Everyone's eyes were trained on their computers, and even when they spoke up to communicate with a teammate, their words were brief and to the point, at times only needing one or two words.

This kind of rapport was not only the culmination of months and years of fighting alongside each other, but also based on the game knowledge shared by players at the same level.

Shen Huai was right there in the same room with them, but he felt like he was completely unable to blend into the tense atmosphere. He found himself a little envious, but he was mostly filled with a longing for the life of a professional player.

The alert of an incoming video call abruptly rang out through the training room. Shen Huai quickly turned off the media volume on his phone and said "sorry", but no one seemed to care. Everyone's attention remained on the computers in front of them, without even the slightest change in their expressions.

Shen Huai was rather awestruck by this. He did not say anything more, swiftly leaving the training room to make his way to the restroom at the end of the corridor.

The video call was from his father, Shen Nuo. Shen Nuo was clearly on a set — busy staff and dressed-up performers could be seen through the partly-open door behind him.

Shen Nuo asked without any preamble, "You knew that the company would be releasing the statement about your contract termination around this time. Why were you still hanging around outside?"

Shen Huai replied, "It was a class reunion. Liu Yue-Ran posted about it on Weibo previously."

"Oh, so I should have taken the time to go browse your classmate's Weibo?" Shen Nuo's expression was stern. His features were about 60% similar to Shen Huai's, just a little more rugged. The traces of time left by the passing years only made his face look more sculpted and masculine, and his brows were graced with the composure of one of the elite.

Shen Huai said nothing. Shen Nuo looked at the strange surroundings in his background and asked, "The car you jumped into last night belongs to the team you plan on joining?"

"No."

Shen Nuo did not believe it. After musing for a moment, he said, "Why don't I sponsor the team a little?"

Shen Huai: "......"

He had the feeling that his dad probably thought that he had been rejected by the team for being too weak.

"No need."

"What are you acting tough for?"

"I'm not. I can join a pro team with just my skills. I don't need you to intervene."

Shen Nuo choked a little. He felt like his son was growing up, while he was becoming more and more confused about how he should care for him.

Since his son didn't want him to intervene, he would not bring up sponsorship anymore. He only reminded, "Choosing a team is like choosing a film. Although the quality of the script is important, the director's skills and the cast's abilities are the true soul of the production. Without a good director and cast, even the best film can turn into a flop. Don't just look at a team's reputation. Whatever glorious results they've had is in the past. The leadership of the captain and the potential of the players are the capital required to become legendary."

Shen Huai was so surprised that it showed on his face. He would never have expected his father to tell him things like this, nor would he have imagined that his father who knew nothing at all about esports would actually be able to give him such insightful advice.

Shen Nuo snorted. "Why do you look so shocked? Your dad will forever know more than you!"

Soon enough, his assistant came calling for him to go and act, and there the video call ended. Shen Huai looked at the mirror on the wall and thought about the focused figures back in the training room.

Song Xue-Yang's ability to lead was unquestionable. He had been able to lead a 'flower vase' team to become a team which all the other pro teams were wary of today, not only by virtue of his own skill in the game, but also because of his ability to command the full trust of his teammates.

After Song Xue-Yang's deliberate cleansing of the team, the ones who remained were all extremely serious and hardworking. Shen Huai could tell that Song Xue-Yang was aiming for the podium, perhaps even the champion's trophy.

When Shen Huai returned to the training room, everyone was still the way he had left them, as if his leaving had not drawn anyone's attention. Each and every one of them spared no effort in completing their training tasks — such an atmosphere made his heart clench in subconscious urgency.

He had not logged into the game for three days at this point. Previously, he had still been an actor, so acting was his job and main focus. But now that he was planning to become a professional player, how could he continue to spend his time leisurely while the rest of the top players in the world were squeezing every second they had to train?

Shen Huai immediately went back to his seat and clicked on the icon for "City of Despair". However, he did not log into Ash Wing's account or MuWanGe's account, instead creating a new account in the professional region.

Looking at the eight major character classes in front of him, Shen Huai hesitated for a moment before choosing the gunner. When the system prompted him to enter an ID for his character, he recalled the braised prawns which he had not had enough of earlier that afternoon and then entered "BraisedPrawns777" into the ID input interface.

Very soon, a little gunner dressed in novice clothes appeared in the starter town. "City of Despair" had always been popular, so even the most densely populated professional region saw new characters being created almost every day. The starter town was bustling, throngs of people coming and going.

The quests before level 20 were all very simple. For Shen Huai, who was already familiar with the controls of "City of Despair", it only took an hour for him to successfully level up to level 20, where he then entered the first main city "Nolva".

At level 20, players could find out more about the branches of the character classes from the NPCs at the Guild of the Gifted in Nolva, as well as obtain the skill points and weapons corresponding to their level.

Shen Huai received 10 skill points and allocated them to Precision Sniping, Shooter's Intuition, and Reload. From the list of weapons offered by the NPC, he selected a sniper rifle.

Armed with this gun, he could then go and take part in the hunt for the first public wild boss "Infernoza". When he got closer, a nearby player invited him to join their party.

[ Current ][ Fruity Vit-C ]: You here to clear Infernoza? Join us!

Shen Huai typed back an 'OK'. The other player saw his weapon and advised, "Snipers have low damage in the early stages so they're very hard to play. You should start out as a launcher first, then switch over to become a sniper once your level is higher."

In "City of Despair", the weapons used by the branches of a character class were not always the same. While players could redistribute their skill points at any time, certain class branches required the use of specific weapons. For example, most skills under the sniper branch required the player to be equipped with a gun muzzle.

Shen Huai typed. [ It's fine. ]

<Fruity Vit-C> didn't say anything more. It was just a level 20 public boss after all — they would be able to clear it with the numbers they had no matter what.

The warriors and swordsmen in the party pulled ahead to draw the aggro while the mages and gunners dealt damage from behind them. Shen Huai chose a relatively further spot to settle into prone sniping position.

A distinct characteristic of the sniper branch was that snipers dealt more damage the further away from the target they were. Additionally, a successful snipe would return 50% of the mana consumption of the skill. However, long-range sniping required accurate prediction of an enemy's movements, and this became harder the further away the target was. Shen Huai's sniping accuracy dropped drastically at the 800 metre mark — there weren't many in the world who could snipe heads from 1500 meters away like Song Xue-Yang.

The boss was very quickly dispatched by the mob. As Shen Huai laid on the ground, he thought of Song Xue-Yang's signature skill 'Rolling Snipe' and was suddenly gripped by the urge to try it for himself.

He activated Back Roll at the same time as Reload, his index finger rapidly tapping once on the key for Shooter's Intuition. Unfortunately, his character did roll out, but his gun did not stay with him.

Undeterred, he picked up the gun and got into prone sniping position to try again. This time, he didn't drop his gun, but the displacement effect of Shooter's Intuition firing did not trigger. He tried again another two times, but either his gun would drop or his character would not roll successfully. This made him realise once more how difficult Rolling Snipe actually was to execute.

He sighed and removed his headphones. At this moment, a cup of water appeared before him.

Shen Huai quickly turned his head, only to see Song Xue-Yang standing behind him with a bright grin. "Have some water."

Shen Huai thanked him, feeling self-conscious. He wished he could pull the plug on his computer as he looked at the little gunner on his screen who had lost his gun.

Had he seen? He must have seen me secretly trying to imitate him!

Shen Huai cradled the paper cup in his hands, hardly daring to look up from his cup. Right now, he could only be glad that he had been playing a sniper, so he was probably playing badly enough to avoid raising Song Xue-Yang's suspicions.

Just as he was thinking this, Song Xue-Yang's voice came from above him. "Your hand speed and responsiveness is very good. You can try playing an assassin."

Shen Huai twisted his head. "Why do you think I have good hand speed and responsiveness?"

Song Xue-Yang cheerfully pointed at the minigame Shen Huai had been playing on the desktop, and then he accurately reported his score. "2583."

How did he know?! His computer is clearly back to back with mine!

Shen Huai gaped a little, stunned speechless.

Song Xue-Yang's eyes curved up, the mole at the corner of his eyes seeming to twinkle. "Everyone's final scores are automatically compiled into my computer."

Shen Huai: "......"