It was two o’clock in the morning and the lights in the IAC eSports Club FOG division in Shanghai were still bright. 

The practice match just ended, and it was free time now. The players in the base were washing up and ordering takeaway. There was only one person left in the training room — Shi Luo who was in his seat playing the game.

It wasn’t that Shi Luo was diligent, but it was the end of the month and he still owed more than 20 hours of live broadcast time to fulfil the terms of his contract.

Shi Luo, account name: Evil, 19 years old, young, skilled, unfortunately quite handsome. Two years after his debut, he was one of the domestic league’s top tier gaming celebrities. He was the poster boy for the IAC team, their cash cow and their pillar.

The celebrity himself, though, didn’t like doing live broadcasts. But according to his contract, he had to do at least 30 hours of live broadcasts a month. So, barring any incident, at least 29 hours of those would be broadcasted at the end of the month. 

Just after the practice match ended, the club manager called again. Shi Luo couldn’t put it off any longer and he finally started to make up work.

Only two or three minutes after the live broadcast started, Shi Luo’s live broadcast room had more than 3 million viewers. The barrage was densely packed, and they had overlapped over one another until it was almost impossible to make them out.

[I’d been expecting this broadcast, hhhhhhhhh …]

[Ha ha ha ha ha It’s that beautiful time of the month when Shi Shen is forced to open business.]

[It’s the 29th already, there’s not much time left for Shi Luo Xuanshou.]

[It’s the 29th already, there’s not much time left for Shi Luo Xuanshou. +1]

[The end of each month is when my husband accompanies me day and night. Just as I thought! Husband, you’ll keep me company for the next 25 hours, right? Are you happy? Are you?]

[Look here. Look here. Look here. After the preseason matches next month, it’s going to be the transfer period. Is my husband still going to be at IAC next season? Will you be transferring this year?] 

[Yes, it’s time for the annual transfer again. They said all the teams would be making some pretty big moves this year. I’m waiting for that big shake up in the league.]

[IAC’s boss’s heart isn’t on the game at all. He only wants to make money. He’ll only hold back the team. My husband, the earlier you transfer, the earlier we can rest assured. Asking for a transfer!]

[Stop with the speculations. Every year, everyone goes crazy during the transfer period. Just calm down, alright?]

Near the transfer period, the e-sports fans would all be in an unstable mood, and an argument inexplicably broke out in the barrage. However, Shi Luo wasn’t the single bit affected. After all, he hadn’t opened the barrage interface. 

Shi Luo opened the FOG game client, logged in to his side account and waited. After a short while, he entered the game.

FOG, the domestic translation for “Within the Fog”; it has been six years since its public beta, and its popularity has only increased year by year. It was now ranked top 3 among the world’s most popular games.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

FOG is a four-on-four confrontation game. In each game, the player and his teammates would be placed on one end of a map covered in dense fog. At the other end of the map would be their four opponents. Players have different abilities and tasks depending on their jobs. The ultimate goal is to clear away the fog on the other side of the map, leaving your opponents nowhere to hide.  Then the team that kills all their opponents and destroys the opponents’ resurrection stone first, wins.

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Vtl Oeb kjr erfv ab qijslcu j rlvf jmmbeca ktfcfnfg tf vlv ilnf ygbjvmjrar. Lf tjvc’a qijsfv atlr rlvf jmmbeca wemt atlr rfjrbc jcv lar gjcx kjr nfgs ibk. Rjaegjiis, atf ifnfi bo tlr afjwwjafr atja atf rsrafw wjamtfv klat tlw kjr jnfgjuf. Vtl Oeb kjr mbwqifafis lcvloofgfca. Eec bo atf wlii qijsfgr mbeiv gjgfis xffq eq klat tlr gtsatw jcv tf kjr erfv ab rbib-lcu wjamtfr. Vb ibcu jr tlr afjwwjafr kfgfc’a mbwqifafis afgglyif, atfs’v klc. Ccv lo atfs kfgf … atfc tf’ii pera ajxf la jr agjlclcu.

Such as this match.

The other striker in the team opened the match by letting the other team take his head. He had completely no awareness of his movements, and he shot haphazardly, exposing his position. Less than ten minutes into the game and hadn’t contributed even half a point; what’s more, he gave up three heads to their opponents.

In low level matches, he would often be matched with some endearingly silly teammates. Shi Luo didn’t care. In this match, he had already gotten two heads from their opponents. He had upgraded and he could do this 1V4. 

But his pig teammate who’d handed over his head, clearly didn’t have such a good mentality. After dying for the fourth time, he started to idle and type out curses in the team chat.

[Thief fierce thief strong]: [Medic, what’s going on? Are you sleepwalking? You’re not providing cover with that photon shield and you’re not adding blood. Then why are you even here? ]

[Thief fierce thief strong]: [You can see I’m taking hits here, why aren’t you helping? What are you playing? If you can’t play then leave! Just f*ck off! ]

[Thief fierce thief strong]: [Why are all these stupid c*nts who can’t get points playing medics now? What? You’re just gonna leech off some points? ] 

Shi Luo was in a 1v2 face off, after killing the opposing team, he glanced at the team chat.

Even his spraying was subpar.

Although the team’s medic wasn’t all that sharp, he was a lot stronger than this piss-poor shit of a striker, “Thief Fierce Thief Strong.” The shield cover he’d given Shi Luo just now was very timely. There weren’t any problems.

The medic was probably young or good-tempered, and he’d been insulted for a long time before typing to say: [I’m not just muddling along, I was helping the other striker just now.] 

One stone set off a thousand waves. The piss-poor striker was provoked and the team chat started beeping nonstop.

[Thief fierce thief strong]: [You can only assist one striker? Do you only have one hand? Are you handicapped? ]

[Thief fierce thief strong]: [Do you know how to play or not? If you can’t play, can’t you just stop digging pits for your teammates? ]

[Thief fierce thief strong]: [You’re a f*cking c*nt! If you think I’m going to give you free points then think again! ] 

This guy was shit at playing the game but he typed pretty fast. The medic didn’t seem like the type to scold people and after typing out a few sentences to explain himself, didn’t type again.

Shi Luo looked at the team chat interface, paused his movements, and in the end, typed nothing.

That’s why he didn’t like doing live broadcasts.

Opening a live broadcast would take up network speed and it would influence his operation, that’s a given. But the most annoying thing about doing live broadcasts was that the league had regulations that stated that active professional players mustn’t display any negative behavior in the game, including but not limited to trash talking or spraying other players. 

So many people watched during the live broadcasts and the chat records served as irrefutable evidence; getting penalized was a matter of course.

It wasn’t worth being penalized for something like this.

Shi Luo upgraded his equipment and continued to charge forward alone.

This “thief fierce thief strong” saw that no one was paying him any attention and threw in angrily: [Damn it, I met three useless medics in one night and lost three matches in a row. All these medic players are stupid-*** b*tches!! Stupid-*** b*tches! ] 

The chat notification beeped, and Shi Luo narrowed his eyes at the chat interface. After a second, he pushed the mouse aside and started typing.

Beginning with Shi Luo’s first sentence, “Don’t insult the medic. Come on, let us two have a contest”, the barrage in the live broadcast room went crazy.

[Pfft, I knew he wouldn’t be able to help it.]

[You think the no. 1 sprayer in the country in those days is playing a joke on you? After playing professionally for a few years, you think he’s forgotten how to insult people?] 

[A spraying contest with Evil? Is he looking to die? No one can out trash talk him ha ha ha ha …]

[This person’s ability to set off mines is amazing. Don’t you know that Shi Shen’s first in-game occupation was a medic? How can he tolerate insults to medics?]

[Ha ha ha Shi Luo’s using a side account, and this guy has no idea that this is Shi Luo.]

[It’s been a long time since I saw the Little Master’s artful spraying, I’ve missed it a lot. Look at that pro-gamer hand speed, look at this huge vocabulary, and look at his flexible use of obscenities! Ah…feels so good.] 

[Aren’t professional players not allowed to trash talk other players? Isn’t he afraid of being penalized?]

[There’ll definitely be a penalty. Just wait for the announcement on the club’s official blog. That’s 10,000 yuan down the drain.]

[My God, he’s still raining down abuse? What’s with this hand speed hhhhhh …]

Shi Luo was expressionless as his fingers flew across the keyboard. 

The penalty wasn’t based on the number of insults. One insult had a fine of 10,000. A hundred insults also had a fine of 10,000. In any case, this 10,000 yuan was as good as gone, so why not curse this little sh*t some more?

This “thief fierce thief strong” obviously couldn’t keep up with Shi Luo’s hand speed. After a few minutes, he was scolded and trash talked blind. Once Shi Luo insulted him enough, he picked up his mouse and continue the game.

For low level games like these, it didn’t matter if they were missing a teammate. Shi Luo and the two other team members quickly and accurately destroyed the enemy’s resurrection stone and a big “win” popped up on screen.

In the chat interface, the other two teammates thanked Shi Luo, and Shi Luo did not reply. When he was about to withdraw, the “thief fierce thief strong” who had been idling for nearly 20 minutes, mystifyingly sent out a sour statement: [So what if you won? It’s just because your opponents were also sh*t! They better not team me up with this kind of medic anymore. ] 

[Thief fierce thief strong]: [If you can’t play a medic then study more. Watch how pro-players operate, like Whisper. ]

[Thief fierce thief strong]: [Look at how other medics play. You can only help one teammate? Stop making me laugh. ]

[Thief fierce thief strong]: [Good thing Whisper’s going to return to China. When the time comes, you can watch his live broadcasts. Hehe, I hope I never see you again! ]

This “thief fierce thief strong” quit the game after finding a venue for his sour grape-ing. The other two teammates immediately comforted each other and ignored him. Shi Luo looked at the chat record and was shocked. 

A few minutes later, Shi Luo canceled his next match, got up and went downstairs.

In the lounge on the first floor, team manager Zhao Feng was looking at WeChat. When he saw Shi Luo coming, he sighed. “I’ve been getting all these complaints. Did you just trash talk a random player? I told you, you can spray as much as you want when you play in private. But if it’s a live broadcast then bear with it as much as you can. When you do it this publicly, when people ask me, what can I say? I can’t cover it for you even if I want to, you … ”

Zhao Feng was looking at WeChat as he babbled, when he finally looked up and saw Shi Luo, he was startled. “What’s wrong with you? What’s with that look? I-I didn’t say anything about you …”

Shi Luo’s looked gloomy. Without saying a word, he turned around to head back upstairs. Halfway there, he turned and went back. 

Manager Zhao stared at Shi Luo in shock, “What the hell are you doing?!”

Shi Luo stood still and asked coldly, “Yu Sui is coming back to China?”

Zhao Feng was unable to utter a word.

Zhao Feng nodded cautiously. “Yes, he may even possibly be back already.” 

Shi Luo’s lips moved without a sound, and it took a while to slowly say, “No one told me.”

“Who would dare to tell you? Everyone knows you two … Sigh, I was going to tell you! It’s just that we’ve been busy lately and the transfer period’s coming up soon. There’s so many things I haven’t gotten ’round to yet.” The more he spoke the more he seemed inadequate. He smiled apologetically and said, “For your sake, we didn’t consider signing him. That’s all there was to it.”

Several of his other teammates came into the lounge. His teammates felt that there was something off and they were baffled as they looked at Zhao Feng and Shi Luo.

Shi Luo also realized his loss of composure. After a moment, his lips remained flat as he said, “It’s nothing. So he’s back. I just wanted to ask.” 

He headed back upstairs to continue his live broadcast. It was as if nothing happened just now.

In the lounge on the first floor, Shi Luo’s teammates were quite puzzled. Bewildered, they asked, “What happened? Who’s back?”

Zhao Feng pursed his lips. “Whisper, Yu Sui. He came back from the European league.”

The medic on the team was startled. “Whisper!!!” 

Zhao Feng shot him a look, telling the medic not to be so loud. The medic hastily covered his mouth, and then whispered, “Whisper’s back in our region?! Which team is he going to? F*ck, this year’s transfer period is really going to be earth-shattering.”

Zhao Feng shook his head: “No one knows yet where he’s going.”

The youngest in the team, their sniper, entered the pro-scene late and so he wasn’t familiar with the situation. He said, “Yu Shen, the former no. 1 medic in the domestic league, currently the European region’s no. 1 medic, three consecutive World Championships … who doesn’t know of him? So? What’s wrong with him coming back? What does it have to do with Shi Ge? ”

Zhao Feng sighed. “It has a lot to do with Shi Luo.” 

“Two years ago, Yu Sui was still the strongest player in our region, and Shi Luo was just an unknown ordinary high school student.”

“Shi Luo originally didn’t want to join this industry. It was Yu Sui who personally signed him into his own club, promising a lifetime contract. Afterwards, he personally …”

“Packed up Shi Luo and sold his contract to another club for a high price.”

The teammates looked at each other in blank dismay. 

Zhao Feng shifted in his seat to a more comfortable position, and slowly said, “I’m going to tell you about this now so that you’ll understand the situation. You’ve got to know things clearly so you won’t say anything to set him off.”

“Before starting his pro career, Shi Luo had been doing well in school, exceptionally well. Shi Luo didn’t want to go down this path so he would occasionally do some live broadcasts. Of course, his family didn’t agree with him.”

“Shi Luo hasn’t contacted his family up til now. No one knows if it’s because of this that he’s had a falling out with his family. No one dares to ask.”

“His live broadcasts were quite popular at the time. It ranked high on the Chinese servers. He was soon discovered by several clubs. Shi Luo was still playing a medic at that time. There’s always a shortage of good medics. There had been a lot of clubs who contacted him and he refused everyone, including me. At the time, what he told me was that he didn’t want to play professionally. But then for some unknown reason, he joined Whisper’s team.” 

“Because of this, he offended several clubs. He’d said that we were wasting our time and that he’d never ever play professionally only to go to Whisper, huh …”

“You all know what happened after that. Not long after that, who knows what got into Whisper, he rebelled against the domestic league, took his team and left. It made him infamous…” Manager Zhao Feng glanced upstairs and pursed his lips. “We shouldn’t be talking about this so listen up.”

Zhao Feng loosened his grip. “At that time, the European region was forming their Galactico Team. They were missing a first class medic and Whisper suddenly decided to go to the European region to develop. Those he could take with him, he took with him. Those he couldn’t, he sold their contracts for a high price and that was how Shi Luo was sold to the NSN team. ”

The people in the room were rendered speechless.

After a long while, a team member whispered, “… Shi Luo was used purely as a money-making tool.”

One person asked bewilderedly, “At that time, Yu Sui’s team was already the strongest in the country. He’d even won the world championship. So, why?”

“Who knows? Everyone has their own aspirations. The contract fees over there are indeed higher, and their business operations are also very well-developed.”  Zhao Feng continued slowly, “Because those top-level players left two years ago, our region suffered a lot. We missed the World Championship for two consecutive years. Whisper, though, had done well for himself. He became the runner-up in the World Championships during his first year in Germany. The next year the Galactico Team finally clicked, and they won the World Championship. He is indeed amazing. He can find glory anywhere. ”

The team’s sniper curled his lips in contempt. “He ran off to play for an enemy region. What’s so glorious about that?” 

“Hey, don’t be so narrow-minded. As clubs, we’re in competing regional divisions. We’re not enemy countries. These matters are of little interest, but …”  Zhao Feng made some allowances, “Be that as it may, everyone still wants for these types of players to stay within our region. Look, how many fans does Whisper have right now? This is maybe just the ten or twenty percent that remained. Back then, when he suddenly moved to another division, he truly made a lot of fans angry. For every thousand that wanted him dead, ten thousand would curse him. Seeing how he still has this many die-hard fans, you could tell just how good he was then. ”

A member of the team glanced upwards and whispered, “If he weren’t amazing, he wouldn’t have been able to get Shi Luo to reject so many of the clubs for him. Hey, isn’t it that Shi Luo offended a lot of clubs? Then how did Shi Luo end up on another team? ”

“You can still sign people who’ve offended you ba.” Zhao Feng couldn’t help laughing. “When faced with profits, who would care about something like this? Back then, he was a medic known as” Little Whisper “. When they heard Whisper was selling his contract, there wasn’t anyone who wasn’t interested. Captain Gu Gan of the NSN team has always been good friends with Whisper, and Whisper sold Shi Luo to the NSN team. ”

The other striker in their team muttered, “… Shi Luo must hate Whisper.” 

“Probably … but who knows? Nothing good was being said about Whisper back then, but Shi Luo never said anything about him. No one could say anything about Whisper in front of him. Any mention of Whisper would get him angry.” The manager shrugged. “Then Shi Luo changed his job to a striker. NSN was very good about it. He wanted to change so they let him. He wasn’t forced to play a specific job. But NSN had been lacking medics and they had no shortage of strikers. NSN also didn’t want to waste his time making him watch the dispenser, so they decided to sell his contract to me. ”

Zhao Feng smiled shrewdly, “Of course, I got the better end of that bargain. Who could have thought that Shi Luo’s development as a striker would totally go against the natural order? In less than half a year, he had reached the top of the domestic servers and became our team’s chief striker. If Whisper had known, he would have regretted selling him for only three million yuan.”

Everyone laughed, and one of their teammates sighed. “No wonder Shi Ge had such a big reaction… I only heard that Shi Ge had spent several months with Whisper’s team, but I didn’t expect so many things to have happened.”

Zhao Feng followed with a sigh, “What I know is also limited. But it was really chaotic two years ago. Our league has had a lot of trouble in recent years because of the capital shocks. The enmity between these players now probably arose then.” 

After listening for a long while, the medic on the team probed out, “Manager, now that Whisper’s back, won’t he come to our team?”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Zhao Feng looked pensive, and patted the medic’s shoulder with a hearty smile, “What are you afraid of? It’s almost impossible. Look at your Shi Ge, do you think he’d ever get along with Whisper?”

Snfgsbcf ijeutfv jcv ajixfv jybea batfg ubrrlq.

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Ktf ilnf ygbjvmjra kjr ralii bqfc, jcv atf yjggjuf kjr ralii lc j tfjafv vlrmerrlbc.

[He’s back. He’s back.]

[It can’t be that he only just found out Whisper’s coming back, right? Did he leave just now because of this?]

[There’s so many people in his team, and so many people in the league. Did no one tell him?] 

[Probably no one dared to tell him…]

[Which team will Whisper go to? Can’t he come to IAC?]

[Impossible. If he did, come the next day, they’ll be carrying a corpse out of IAC headquarters. Shi Luo and Yu Sui, one of them would definitely be dead.]

[Ha ha ha ha, come to IAC. That’ll be fun to watch.] 

[What do you want Whisper to do in IAC? Can the new fan just shut up?]

[I’m not in the mood to bring up the past, okay? So don’t provoke people.]

[Just asking, but are there any CP fans here? Just now this knife stabbed into me. I’m losing blood, I need my sisters to quickly pull it out and comfort me. TAT.]

[The barrage just turned strange. Just what’s going on?] 

[That’s unexpected. He was only away for five minutes.  And now, he’s able to play like usual. My son is all grown up. I’m so proud.]

[Looks like he’s not completely unaffected. I think I heard the sound of a lighter. I’m calling it. Evil’s smoking ‘cause he’s off camera.]

Shi Luo didn’t say anything and he entered the match. He took a deep drag of the cigarette and then snuffed it out against the ashtray. He then continued to level up his side account.

When playing at this level, Luo Shi didn’t need to think. He could rely on muscle memory to get him points. He played five games in a row and won five games in a row. In each game, he was the MVP. Shi Luo’s mom-fans were endlessly gratified. The little whelp has matured and he was now a steady and stable player. Although he’ll still engage in a bit of spraying, he was no longer so easily affected. Take a look at this calm and light attitude, look at this unfazed manner, look at his steady playing! 

Naturally, there was no shortage of black fans in the chat room of popular players such as Shi Luo. There were always repeaters in the barrage. Going on and on about how Shi Luo only knew how to abuse players in low-level matches like these.

The haters would often send it out on the chat and when Shi Luo was waiting in the queue, he looked at the barrage interface and happened to see one.

[You only ever use your side accounts when you do live broadcasts. Guess you only want to show off on low-level matches. If you’ve got what it takes then use your main account.]

Shi Luo was immune to this low-level insult. He glanced at it and continued to wait in the queue. Unfortunately, the system automatically canceled the queue when the queue timed out. Shi Luo simply logged out of his side account, and logged onto the main account on the domestic server provided by the league to every pro player. 

Naturally, there was a cheer in the live room.

His main account had already reached the top of the national rankings so of course, the queue was slower. Shi Luo clicked on the ‘ready’ button. He leaned against the back of his gaming chair, a cigarette between his lips, waiting patiently to enter the game.

While waiting, Shi Luo looked at his in-game character, and became a little lost in thought.

Luo Shi was indeed affected by the news of Yu Sui’s return to China. 

This wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about. There’s no point in denying it. After two years, his former captain, his former model for his in-game job, his once ultimate goal as a professional … and the person he once hated the most has returned to the local scene. Wasn’t it normal for his mood to be a bit volatile?

Shi Luo had long expected Yu Sui to return to China, but he didn’t expect it to be so soon.

Shi Luo was very clear on the number of years on Yu Sui’s contract. If he remembered correctly, there should still be three months remaining in Yu Sui’s German contract.

Shi Luo gently tapped on the keyboard and said silently in his heart: three months in advance. 

But it also made sense. Since Yu Sui was back, he was definitely going to continue to play. The new season begins in two months. Yu Sui needed to sign with a new team before the start of the new season. Afterwards, he’ll use around a month to get used to playing with his teammates and adapt to the domestic league’s rhythm. That way he’ll greet the new season in perfect shape.

He had arranged everything very thoroughly.

The live broadcast was still on so it wasn’t convenient to use the computer. Shi Luo picked up his phone and entered a few keywords to search for related information.

The news of Yu Sui’s return to China came out three days ago in the hottest e-sports forum in China. The news spread so extensively. The matter everyone was still arguing about was Yu Sui’s “rebellion” against the domestic region. However, right now, there was a shortage of medics in the domestic league so they were still happy to see him return. Other than that, there was little concrete news. Over and over again, it was said that Whisper has reportedly left the European region and will return to register in the domestic region. 

When will he return, which team will he join afterwards… There was no useful news.

Shi Luo set his mobile phone aside, and countless team names appeared in his head.

Except for Team Saint, which utilized medics as its core, any number of teams were possible.

Including the team he plays for — IAC. 

What Zhuo Feng said was nice to hear. For his sake, they wouldn’t sign Yu Sui. When Shi Luo heard this he wanted to laugh.

Either for the club’s overall business value, or for the team’s performance, or just for the buzz it would generated, as long as it could bring realizable benefits to IAC, Zhao Feng and the other senior executives wouldn’t take into account what he felt about the matter.

For these purely commercial clubs, he was nothing more than a player that could bring in relatively more money. Shi Luo had already seen through these trivial matter two years ago. Now, these embarrassing and beautiful words were just truly laughable.

Yu Sui, this money tree, has now returned.  Zhao Feng must have contacted him and now it was simply a matter of whether he could get him to join or not. 

If he really were to join then…

Shi Luo’s lips moved, he unconsciously looked at the computer screen.  The match hasn’t started yet.

Shi Luo glanced down at the barrage. The barrage was discussing which team Whisper would join, and the analysis was surprisingly logical.

[Let’s leave the bottom teams out of the discussion. They wouldn’t be able to afford it.] 

[We can also take out Saint. That team lacks medics the least or it could be said that they’re not lacking in first-rate medics.]

[IAC can also be excluded, right? Although IAC’s medic is pretty average, if Whisper goes to IAC, then this year’s transfer period won’t just be the earth-shattering, it will be apocalyptic.]

[Yeah, let’s leave it. If Yu Sui goes to IAC, I’m worried that Shi Luo will sneak into Yu Sui’s dorm room and kill him in the middle of the night \= \=]

[NSN might be possible. Yu Sui has a good relationship with their captain. I just don’t know if NSN is willing to spend that much money.] 

[When we take everything into account, the Bison team is the most likely. The club owner is very rich and can afford Yu Sui no problem. Though it’s kind of a shame to have Yu Sui match up with those strikers on the Bison team.]

[Ha ha ha ha ha! In any case, the Bison team’s owner is filthy rich. He could just buy Shi Luo too.]

[Yeah, hahahaha.  He could buy them both and as long as they can keep from killing each other, next year’s World Championship will be in the bag.]

[Although I want to have Shi Luo transfer to Bison, can’t you stop always pulling Shi Luo and Whisper together? I’m sick of people trying to make this into a thing.] 

[Please don’t add fuel to this.  The fans would go crazy if these two went to the same team.]

Shi Luo stared blankly at the barrage, and calculated the possibility that he and Yu Sui would be on the same team next season as the fans thought.

Yu Sui comes to IAC.

Or maybe he and Yu Sui would both be bought by Bison. 

Then the probability is …

Before Shi Luo could come up with a formula, he finally entered the game.

Those at the top tier would always run into people they know. The other striker on Shi Luo’s team was NSN’s team captain, Gu Gan.

Shi Luo spent a short two months at NSN. During that time, Gu Gan had taken good care of him. Unfortunately, NSN was teeming with strikers, and the team couldn’t take on anymore. After Shi Luo changed to a striker and could no longer stay at NSN, it had been Gu Gan who contacted his current club to give Shi Luo a more suitable transfer contract. 

Because of the care he’d given him at that time, Shi Luo has always respected Gu Gan.

When Shi Shiluo entered the map and saw Gu Gan’s ID, he immediately greeted him.

[IAC-Evil]: [Captain Gu ]

Maybe Gu Gan didn’t notice but he never gave a reply back. Shi Luo didn’t mind and he made a mark on the map and started to probe his way forward. The team chat unexpectedly gave a notification beep. Shi Luo inclined his head and took a look. 

[NSN-GU]: [Yu Sui is returning to our region, did you know? ]

Shi Luo looked at the screen and typed after a while: [I just found out. ]

Shi Luo glanced at the barrage, and was just about to type a reminder to Gu Gan that he was doing a live broadcast, when the notification for team chat beeped again.

[NSN-GU]: [He came to my team. ] 

NSN, the team which lacked strikers the least.

Shi Luo stared silently at Gu Gan’s message for a long time.

Thinking of the fans’ clear and careful analysis on the barrage just now, Shi Luo suddenly couldn’t help laughing.  Then he couldn’t stop himself from having a laughing fit as he held the keyboard.

Yu Sui was going to NSN. There was now no possibility of them being on the same team. 

The fans can now rest assured.

Gu Gan was still sending messages nonstop. 

[NSN-GU]: [He will be at the warm up match with your team next Monday. It hasn’t been decided whether he’ll go up or not. ]

[NSN-GU]: [When the time comes, when you see him don’t make trouble. ]

[NSN-GU]: [You’re not a kid anymore. ]

[NSN-GU]: [I shouldn’t need to say this but I was worried that you’d suddenly find out during the match and it might affect your game. ] 

[NSN-GU]: [Although winning or losing the match won’t affect the team’s points for the season, I didn’t want to have an unfair advantage. You should mentally prepare yourself in advance. ]

Shi Luo had laughed enough and stared at the screen in a trance.

He had no idea if at this moment, at NSN’s base Yu Sui was standing next to Gu Gan’s computer, watching as Gu Gan asked him to take some precautionary measures.

Shi Luo rubbed the back of his neck and typed a question in response. [What’s there to prepare for?]

[NSN-GU]: [? ]

[IAC-Evil]: [Am I going to trade blows with him at the stadium? ]

[IAC-Evil]: [Don’t they say let bygones be bygones? I’ve forgotten all about those things.]

[IAC-Evil]: [By the way, just a friendly reminder, Captain Gu. Looks like you’ve just set off an issue. I’m doing a live broadcast. ] 

[NSN-GU]: [……]

[NSN-GU]: [… you. ]

Shi Luo typed with a smile: [Captain Gu was too fast. I couldn’t stop you. ]

After knowing that Shi Luo was doing a live broadcast, Gu Gan didn’t say anything more. Shi Luo also didn’t speak anymore. The two silently pushed against the opposing side. After the game, without even a greeting, they exited the map one after the other. 

Naturally, at this moment, none of the e-sports forums were very calm. Gu Gan had let out such big news that the forums exploded immediately.

There are too many points for the players to discuss. There were those hopefuls who were already dreaming about NSN winning the World Championships next season.  There were those who were regretting that NSN still lacked a great sniper. There were also those who wanted to watch the excitement and felt sorry that Yu Sui couldn’t be on the same team as Shi Luo. And there were still those who couldn’t set aside their hate and were still scolding Yu Sui for abandoning the domestic league before and thought that he was unworthy of returning. Reasonable discussions and personal attacks were flying all around. Then, there were the countless haters with private agendas taking the opportunity to create rumors. The forum administrators temporarily blocked posts until four or five o’clock in the morning, when the immortals could no longer stay awake and things gradually calmed down.

They’ve made enough noise and issued enough criticism that the rest calmed down and suddenly realized a problem: today was Saturday.

Saturday! 

In other words, after another day it would be Monday!

Every year, there was a three-month rest period after the end of the FOG World Championship matches until the start of the new season. During these three months, teams would officially or secretly reorganize. The professional league team that failed to secure their spot the previous year will go to play the qualifying matches. Newly transferred team members and coaches would familiarize themselves with their new team and teammates … During these messy three months, in order to keep the viewers’ attention and interest, the league inserted a one-month long period of preseason matches, which Gu Gan referred to as a “warm-up match”.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

The winning or losing of the preseason match doesn’t affect the team’s points. These were purely for the sake of profit and to remain relevant to their viewers. It was also to allow the newly transferred players to train and prepare for next season.

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IAC vs. NSN, it was a game that was already quite hot and now because of Yu Sui’s arrival, the interest in this topic quickly soared. In less than two days, fans of the two teams and Yu Sui’s local fans increased the ticket price of this warm-up match by more than ten times. On the day of the match, the fans surrounded the outside the stadium until not even a single drop of water could pass through. Shi Luo and Yu Sui’s fans had a little bit of contention, and their banners showing their support were all bigger than the next.

Inside the IAC team’s nanny car, the team manager, Zhao Feng looked out through the window of the co-pilot seat and clicked his tongue. “Scary … Shi Luo, your normally soft and gentle sister fans are uncharacteristically fierce today. Looks like they came with swords drawn and bows bent.”

Shi Luo said nothing. He leaned against the back of his seat with his eyes closed, and headphones over his ears, blowing his chewing gum.

Zhao Feng looked back at Shi Luo and said, “Wearing headphones again. Did you hear me? Sigh… to tell you the truth, the boss will be watching the live broadcast of today’s match. He’s paying very close attention. He even sent me a message on WeChat. Give it to me straight, what do you think about our chances of winning today? ” 

Shi Luo chewed his gum, took off one of his earphones, and after a pause, said, “Twenty percent.”

Zhao Feng’s expression turned bitter when he heard these words. The other players in the car, though, suddenly relaxed. Shi Luo said that there was little hope of winning, which meant that it was totally normal to lose! They didn’t have to take the blame or receive a scolding!

The other three teammates looked much more relaxed and started joking and bantering. Zhao Feng, though, wasn’t reconciled to losing. “Don’t say that. Can’t you raise the teams’ morale a little? NSN’s sniper is pretty average, and their team hasn’t gotten used to each other yet. I think we’ve got a pretty good chance of winning… and as I’ve told you, the boss is watching. ”

“If the boss is watching, it’s 20%, and when he isn’t watching, it’s still 20%.” Shi Luo wasn’t about to make a military pledge in order to make the club owner happy. “Before, our probability of winning against NSN was at 50%, that’s all. Now, … ” 

After a short pause, Shi Luo continued, “Now they’ve changed their medic and patched up the team’s shortcomings. Our possibility of winning will inevitably shrink, isn’t this true?”

Zhao Feng naturally understood that and he laughed. “Don’t they say that you’re supposed to outperform yourself on the field? Well, it’s fine.  I wouldn’t want to put more pressure on you, just do your best out there, alright?”

The fans’ cheers receded in the background as the nanny car went into the underground garage. Shi Luo put on his team uniform and prepared to get off. “Of course, we will.”

The IAC team members and their entourage proceeded to their own lounge under the guidance of the stadium staff. They walked through a long corridor and passed by the lounge with the NSN team logo pasted on the door. Shi Luo paused in his steps and shot a glance at the tightly closed door. 

Manager Zhao Feng’s heart instantly jumped to his throat.

Although everything had been normal with Shi Luo during the past two days, Zhao Feng has worked with him for two years and could clearly feel that the young master had been suppressing his anger in his heart since he learned of Yu Sui’s return to China, and that anger was definitely not small.

He was very worried now that a single inappropriate remark might set off Shi Luo and he would suddenly kick open the door to the NSN lounge and do something that would land him on the front page of the newspapers.

Everything’s still fine. Shi Luo’s just taking a look. 

Shi Luo wore his headphones and blew a big chewing gum bubble, with nary an expression on his face. With his peripherals bag in tow, he entered the IAC team’s lounge.

The IAC team’s coach hurriedly emphasized the key points for each team member and adjusted everyone’s mood before the match. Since there was never anything to tell Shi Luo, the coach generally didn’t waste time talking to him. Today, contrary to his usual practice, he asked Shi Luo, “Evil, do you have any ideas?”

Shi Luo had been looking down at his phone this whole time. When he heard these words, he looked up, “What ideas?”

Coach wasn’t as cautious and meticulous as Zhao Feng, and he straightforwardly said, “Our team are all newcomers. Only you are familiar with Whisper. Do you have any points to mention? Things we need to pay attention to.” 

Coach said, “You should know best how Whisper operates, right?”

Shi Luo put away his phone.

No one could possibly be more familiar than him.

Back then, Yu Sui had been the one to teach Shi Luo how to play a medic; little by little, detail by detail, he had shaped him. Shi Luo was called “Little Whisper” at that time, not only because he played a medic very well, but even more because his gameplay was almost a complete copy of Yu Sui’s. 

No one understood Yu Sui’s customary gameplay more than Shi Luo did.

Shi Luo nodded. “Naturally.”

The coach was reassured. “This is a big advantage for us. In a moment, you should listen to Shi Luo’s commands in the early stage. We must pay close attention to Whisper. Don’t treat him as just a medic. He can kill people. You must never ever let him take your head. It would be best not to let him get even the auxiliary points in the early stages. This person will be terrible once he can use the public economy. If he manages to buy the three-faced photon shield in the later stage, he’ll be even more difficult to play against. Be careful, Shi Luo …”

Shi Luo looked up, and the coach emphasized: “For today’s match against NSN, don’t focus on Gu Gan. Look at their medic and target Whisper. Got it?” 

Zhao Feng stared at the coach all jittery.  His entire face spelled out: “Whisper, Whisper, Whisper, all the time! Aren’t you afraid of death?”

Contrary to what Zhao Feng expected, Shi Luo acted like normal. “Target Whisper, no problem.”

The coach then emphasized a few more points to note. When it was ten minutes before the match, the stadium staff came to verify the information of the players for the last time, and then informed them, “Your opponents, the NSN team’s starting line-up will be ROD as sniper, Gu Gan as striker, Xinran as striker and Wawa as medic.”

Shi Luo turned to look.  “What?” 

The entire IAC was dumbfounded. Zhao Feng confirmed, “The opponent’s medic is Wawa? Whisper won’t be getting on stage?”

The staff nodded. “Yes.”

Zhao Feng didn’t quite understand, and asked again, “Is Whisper here?”

The staff member replied, “He’s here. I just saw him.” 

“Oh.” Zhao Feng smiled, “Strange, NSN spent who knows how much to buy Yu Sui and they’re not going to let him play? Could it be that they didn’t want to expose too much of their tactics in the preseason? Not likely. Maybe Yu Sui hasn’t gotten used to playing with his teammates yet? ”

The staff smiled and said nothing. He left after confirming their information. Zhao Feng happily said to everyone. “Do your best! Break a leg! If Whisper isn’t going on stage, that’s all the better for us, Shi Luo …”

Zhao Feng asked. “What’s our chance of winning now?”

When Shi Luo frowned slightly, he didn’t know what medicine NSN was selling in their gourd, and he answered, “Forty percent.” 

Zhao Feng was dissatisfied: “In the car, you said that we had a 50% win rate against an NSN without Yu Sui. How can it become 40% after just a short while?”

Shi Luo opened his peripheral bag to get his own keyboard and mouse, and said, “They’ve got a momentum bonus.”

There was no need to mention who this “momentum” referred to.

After pondering for a bit, Zhao Feng had to agree. With Whisper as their trump card, regardless of whether the ace of the entire team was not playing or not, the confidence and vigor he gave to the whole team was enough. Zhao Feng smiled indifferently. “Let it be, then. Everyone should just do their best. This is already good news. This is the preseason’s inaugural match. Everyone, good luck out there! ” 

Everyone nodded. Zhao Feng glanced at Shi Luo, confirming that his mood was stable, before he could rest at ease. Zhao Feng self-mockingly smiled. Maybe he was just overthinking it. Looking at Shi Luo, he obviously couldn’t look more normal.

A few minutes later, after the staff came once again to inform the team, everyone stood up and followed the staff to the stage.

Shi Luo walked at the very front. He walked to the stage as usual while discussing a few things with the other striker on the team. They hadn’t reached halfway through the long corridor, when Shi Luo’s footsteps paused and he stood rooted on the spot. .

Less than five meters away from them, the NSN lounge door opened. 

NSN’s coach and team members came out in order.

NSN’s coach walked out in front, followed by Gu Gan. Behind him were Rod and Xinran who had their arms around each other’s shoulders, the two were followed by Wawa, and then at the very back … patting Wawa’s shoulder, was a person in civilian clothing.

Maybe it was because he had joined the team in a rush and the uniform with his ID on it hadn’t made it in time.

Evidently, this man hadn’t cut his hair in two years. His brown hair now went past his shoulder. 

German food probably didn’t agree with him, because now he also looked a lot thinner.

There are so many changes, so much so that the other people from IAC asks with a puzzled expression, “Who’s the tall handsome guy behind Wawa?”

Only Shi Luo could see through his totally altered back profile with a single glance and recognize his former captain.

Shi Luo looked at Yu Sui’s back and it was like he was nailed to where he stood. 

Since knowing the news of Yu Sui’s return, Shi Luo believed himself to be calm. He never forgot himself; he hasn’t made any fuss; hasn’t caused any trouble for the team, and hasn’t given any of the haters anything to joke about. He wasn’t agitated, he wasn’t irritable. Totally unlike two years ago when he’d so desperately made a scene and kicked up a fuss.

Shi Luo originally thought that this was because he had grown up, matured.  He was now able to calmly face the past and calmly face this person.

What a pity, this was just what “Shi Luo thinks”.

Suddenly, the ups and downs of Shi Luo’s chest grew faster. The mouse in his right hand gave a “clack – clack” as he began to fidget. 

“Shi Luo? Shi Luo?” Zhao Feng frowned, and gently patted Shi Luo, “What’s wrong?”

When Shi Luo took a deep breath, he accidentally choked.

Zhao Feng was confused, and he glanced forward. “Who is that?”

Su Luo’s expression gradually recovered. He said, “Whisper.” 

F*ck !!!

Everyone in IAC was startled. Zhao Feng was too surprised to say anything. “This, this …”

Everyone had made a lot of noise, and the NSN players who were walking ahead, all turned back, including Yu Sui.

Yu Sui was stunned when he caught sight of Shi Luo. 

Suddenly, the rise and fall of Shi Luo’s chest intensified. He turned his eyes away from Yu Sui’s. It was more than he could bear. He stared fixedly ahead and with peripherals in hand, he walked past the entire NSN team.

Luo Shi walked all the way forward, ignoring the staff who was signaling for him and his team to wait. He walked through the waiting area, directly into the dazzling stage bathed in lights. A tsunami of cheers burst from the spectator stands.