CH 4

Ever since Yan Lingjiang started participating in his club’s exclusive training, it had been a long time since he had seen Lin Xiao. The moment training ended and he came out, he heard of the spectacle at Black Rose team’s fan meeting. As soon as he saw the man in the report, he was able to recognize the face. 

The person who faced Yan Lingjiang now was wearing the same black shirt from the photo, which contoured his beautiful shoulder blades and perfect neckline all the way down to his slightly curved waist. He wore a pair of laid-back jeans and slippers that he casually dragged beneath his feet when he came outside of the bedroom, which made him look very shabby. His overgrown hair scattered sloppily across his forehead, and after not being exposed to the sun for an entire year, his face had become pale. His eyes were very deep; so striking that staring at him would cause one to subconsciously avoid them. 

Seeing Lin Xiao remain silent for a long time, Yan Lingjiang gloomily pulled out his mobile phone and flipped through the photos, then placed the screen close to his face, almost touching his eyes. “Don’t tell me this person isn’t you! Lin Xiao, someone accidentally took these pictures and sent them to me!”

Lin Xiao enlarged the photo on the phone, stared at the blurry figure for a long time and asked curiously, “Just how on earth did you recognize me from this faceless photo?”

Yan Lingjiang glared at him. “Shouldn’t you at least change your clothes before asking this?”

“Oh, sorry.” Lin Xiao glanced at himself once again and chuckled. While throwing the phone back to Yan Lingjiang, he repeated with a serious face, “You can rest assured, I no longer like men.”

Yan Lingjiang, “Who do you like now?”

Lin Xiao looked at him, puzzled. “Since I don’t like men, shouldn’t I like women?”

Yan Lingjiang, “…”

His meaning was very clear, but something felt off.

Lin Xiao leaned against the doorpost lazily. Seeing the man stop talking for a while, he couldn’t help but ask, “So to say, you came here today just to ask this? Are the current pro players as idle as you?”

“Aren’t you the idlest in the world?” Yan Lingjiang angrily pushed him into the room and closed the door. “Didn’t you always want to enter the esports circle? This time, there is a great opportunity, I came here as soon as I got the news.” He then pulled out stacks of paper from his bag. “Well, take a look for yourself.”

These were the plans for a club’s training camp.  He didn’t know where Yan Lingjiang got them from. In fact, even a detailed outline of the club’s testing process was written. Lin Xiao skimmed through the document briefly, then frowned in thought. This was obviously a great opportunity if he wanted to return to the league, but this Streamer team1

Yan Lingjiang had already prepared his posture, ready to see Lin Xiao jump in joy, but after waiting for a long time, he didn’t see the anticipated reaction. He couldn’t help but ask, “Don’t you understand?”

Lin Xiao looked up at him, his tone calm. “These conditions are very tempting.”

Yan Lingjiang looked at his overly composed expression, a little hesitant, he asked, “Are you upset about this opportunity? Why aren’t you happy?”

Lin Xiao thought for a while then slowly and carefully stacked the documents into a neat pile. He returned them casually. ” Unfortunately, I won’t be joining your club.”

Yan Lingjiang, “…”

Lin Xiao, “What’s wrong?”

After stifling himself for a while, Yan Lingjiang finally managed to spit out a single word, “Fuck!”

He grabbed the document and flipped through page by page, showing them to Lin Xiao. “This is the lowest threshold for a beginner in our club’s history. Although our club can only be considered half a behemoth in comparison to other teams, we are still one of the most popular teams to win the championship league. You should know that this is a favor so you have to grasp this opportunity for your future!”

Based on his original intentions, this club was not suitable to join and he felt sorry for the Streamer Club. Lin Xiao raised his eyebrows and forgot about trying to correct the other party’s statement, saying slowly, “Da Yan2  , umm, I’m really not going to be a part of the Streamer Club, I already have a team in mind.”

Yan Lingjiang’s rambling stopped abruptly, and he looked up at him. “If you won’t join, then where will you go?”

Lin Xiao avoided his sight, looked up at the ceiling, and coughed slightly, saying: “Black Soul Club.”

For a while, there was complete silence.  He received a dumbfounded look in return. 

He cleared his throat, trying to give an explanation, “I want to join the Black Soul team, but let’s make it clear that it’s definitely not for the reason you are thinking of…”

Yan Lingjiang’s voice suddenly interrupted and he shouted, “You still have thoughts about that You Jing in your heart!”

Great, you didn’t give me a chance to finish my sentence… Lin Xiao rubbed his temples and could immediately feel a headache coming on, but had no idea how to convince the other party. I can’t tell him it’s because I was the original creator of Black Rose’s old team, can I? 

He thought for a while and finally came up with a relatively reasonable explanation. “Actually, it really isn’t what you think. There’s a very important reason for me to decide on this.”

Yan Lingjiang, “I’m listening.”

Lin Xiao, “It’s nearby.”

There was a brief moment of silence, then Yan Lingjiang stuffed his things into his bag angrily and slammed the door. Upon leaving, he dropped a sentence, “The next time I’m free and decide to care about your life and try to help you will be the day I change my last name to yours!”

Lin Xiao rubbed his temples, thinking to himself. What’s so bad about the last name Lin, it sounds cute afterall.

***

Liuyun Team, training hall on the first floor.

Yan Lingjiang took a train ride that lasted until the end of the day and finally rushed back, making it in time for the second round of training. He had only stepped in with his backpack when he ran straight into a person’s arms without paying attention. As soon as he looked up, he saw a frosty face that wore a slowly raising eyebrow.

He hurriedly took a couple steps back and called out: “Vice Captain Zhang!”

Zhang Fengyu caught a glimpse of his sullen face and asked, “What happened? Didn’t you see your friend?”

Yan Lingjiang pouted and replied, “I saw him, but …”

Zhang Fengyu lightly replied, “Oh, since he is not interested in the club at this time, don’t force him.”

Yan Lingjiang looked up at him. “How did Zhang Zhang know that he refused?”

Zhang Fengyu glanced at his face and said in a calm tone, “It wasn’t that hard to guess.”

Yan Lingjiang grinned. “Vice Captain Zhang, you are not only good at data calculations, but even your fortune telling skills are so accurate! Since you knew, you should have prevented me from going on this trip in the first place. I’ll have you know that the two-day ride back and forth was exhausting!” 

Zhang Fengyu’s mouth twitched slightly, but he didn’t respond. 

There was a sudden burst of laughter coming from the corner of the training hall. The people that had gathered there noticed Yan Lingjiang and greeted him immediately, “Da Yan, come and see this, there’s a talented anchor that is really amusing. No, this won’t work, I’m getting a stomach ache! If this continues, I really will die from laughter!”

When Yan Lingjiang heard that, he threw his backpack on a sofa nearby and went over to where the crowd was, curious.

The video they were watching was called <<Anchor sleeps while a tenth division expert slaughters jungle event!>> It was uploaded last night. In just half a day, the number of viewers broke the two million mark, and had been rising ever since. It was already ranked in the top three on the website’s popularity ranking list, falling a little behind the beauty anchor Xiaowu who dominated the list all year round with her tutorials.

When Yan Lingjiang went up, he just managed to catch the image of the summoner being thrown down from the tree by the ghost priest’s staff. Before he could laugh, he was attracted to the stick in the ghost hand. “What’s going on? Is the main weapon of the ghost priest Sodia’s Club?”

Zhang Fengyu watched this video earlier. He stood nearby and began to analyze slowly, “The crafty ghost priest conjured the curse spell, but only used five high-level control skills. In addition, he used three elementary-level control skills that would only add two unwarranted points, causing the freeze time to be 0.2 seconds. As a result he has saved 5 extra skill points in total, all of which were used to trigger the passive physical damage bonus.”

“The 5% gain may not seem like much at all, but paired with the Sodia Club weapon that deals 200 physical damage without a need for solid penetration, one can just sit back, relax and reap the rewards. In this way, having an additional 210 in HP that increases attacking power, is enough to cause considerable damage to the summoner class that has a defence value of about 185.6. As long as it is close enough, it’s not so difficult to kill people. “

“However, the moment both parties met, they both reacted after about 0.1 second. From the moment spells and summons were released to the time of defeat, the entire process took about 0.5 seconds, excluding 0.2 seconds of chanting time. This ghost priest, to have a hand speed of at least 220 or above, must be an expert. “

After the words fell, there was complete silence.

The laughter from earlier disappeared, the entire group suddenly felt worthless.

Going solely by the video, how on earth did the vice captain calculate both the damage defence value as well as the opponent’s hand speed?

Zhang Fengyu looked down and saw Yan Lingjiang’s dazed expression, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Yan Lingjiang pursed his lips. “Vice Captain Zhang, being your teammate is one of the most fortunate things in my life!” If I were your enemy, just hearing such a detailed analysis would be terrifying.

Zhang Fengyu hesitated, then slightly raised his lips. “I guess so.” He brought back his attention to the video, and said with a serious expression, “Unfortunately, this video hides the IDs of both people. Otherwise, this expert could be found.”

Yan Lingjiang also returned his attention to the screen, and he suddenly asked, “Is the ghost priest really that powerful? I thought it was just a joke because the anchor was stupid!”

***

With the frantic spread of the video, it quickly surpassed the 10-million-views mark by the end of the day and jumped to the #1 position based on number clicks. 

At the same time, on Weibo’s3 hot topic list, #don’t think too much! became the new hot search which revealed the video anchor. Zone fans took the liberty to forward the post unlimitedly. 

The phrase ‘don’t think too much’ became the most trending term in the Zone.

Lu Xing was very satisfied after watching the explosive effect he had caused. He reclined in his chair and opened his QQ account and selected the very eye-catching monkey icon.　

Chef Lu: Big red monkey, how are you feeling now? [Pats head]

Big Monkey: My audience in the live broadcast today has doubled! This is great! Very exciting! I can’t describe this feeling!

Big monkey: But, I still feel a bit lonely… (＞ ﹏ ＜) Just as lonely as a snowflake!

Chef Lu: What do you mean?

Big Monkey: Don’t you think the opponent from earlier was a bit weird? Do you know where the expert is from? 

Chef Lu: I’m not sure, but I should know shortly.

Big Monkey: Really? You know him4 ? [Surprised] [Surprised] [Surprised]

Chef Lu: No need to know him personally, but as talented as they are, there are several teams that are more anxious than us in trying to find him.

Slowly thinking about the last sentence, Lu Xing leisurely crossed his legs while gazing at the dark sky through the window. His eyes gleamed with curiosity. There hadn’t been such a mysterious expert in the league for a long time. Things are about to get interesting.

Plat : *sniff sniff* Does anyone else smell another CP? (^‿^｡) 

Streamer Team : This is another team in the eSports league….

Da Yan: The ‘Da’(大)  used here is usually reserved for eldest siblings/elder brothers.

Weibo: This is a Chinese micro-blogging website similar to twitter that netizens across China use as a platform to exchange information and voice opinions on social issues. The name itself means ‘micro-blogging’ in Chinese.

‘Him’: he or him / used for either sex when the sex is unimportant or in this case unknown.