🦤 Day 3 of Anniversary Celebration 🦤
“I know!”
Manager Qian’s expression turned solemn and righteous. In his heart, he naturally knew exactly who was right and who was wrong!
“It must be that bastard Sun Sheng’s doing! Is your Weibo account still in their hands?”
Yi Xingran hadn’t even had the chance to nod before Manager Qian had already delivered his perfectly impartial verdict on the matter.
“They’re deliberately trying to smear you! They’re using the fact that you haven’t even been officially announced yet to stir up trouble in advance, dragging the entire team into it and using you to generate publicity for themselves! Damn it, what a filthy tactic!”
Manager Qian planted both hands on his hips.
“Just wait. I haven’t even released the dirt I have on them yet! They want to play the whole public opinion game and manipulate the narrative with me? Then this time, I’m going to make sure we settle the score with them properly!”
With a loud “bang,” Manager Qian stormed into the training room in a whirlwind and then hurriedly stormed right back out.
A rustling sound came from behind him.
Yi Xingran turned around with a cold expression and immediately met a pair of eyes filled with curiosity.
Su Letong had been caught red handed. He froze completely on the spot.
Beneath that pale pink hair, Yi Xingran’s pair of almond shaped eyes were filled with murderous intent. His mood looked particularly foul and his entire face was marked by coldness and impatience.
Su Letong’s inquisitive gaze gradually turned into one of pure terror.
Su Letong: I’m, I’m screwed!
Yi Xingran couldn’t understand why this little support had been secretly staring at him over and over again. He was just about to ask him when the little support suddenly panicked.
“I.. I…. I didn’t see anything!”
“?”
Su Letong looked as though he was about to cry. He knelt on his seat, wrapped both arms around the backrest of the gaming chair and wailed as he begged for mercy.
“Wuwuwuwu, Big Brother, don’t kill me!”
Yi Xingran was somewhat baffled. He reached up and scratched at his hair, completely confused.
When had his obedient, quiet person persona fallen apart?
Pei Du had something to attend to and left ahead of everyone else. It was still early and on the first day after their vacation had ended, the people in the training room had yet to arrive in full.
With two consecutive “clang, clang” sounds, Park Seokho entered the room making quite a bit of noise from the moment he came through the door, seemingly expressing considerable disdain toward Su Letong’s attitude of “sliding onto his knees” to beg for mercy.
Tsk.
Su Letong immediately shut himself up. He shrank his neck and hurriedly turned back around.
The training room fell silent for a moment. The only sounds remaining were the rapid clatter of keyboards and the clicking of computer mice.
The top laner, Cao Hanwei, had been delayed by a late flight and hurried over as soon as he could. The moment he stepped through the door, he immediately shouted in his booming voice,
“Tong! Have you finished climbing the ranks?”
In order to ensure that professional players maintained a certain level of competitive intensity and form during the offseason as well as during their regular training, the league had introduced a new regulation: active professional players were required to maintain at least Diamond I in solo or duo queue on the Super Server. Otherwise, they could face penalties and might even run the risk of failing the official roster review.
After hearing Cao Hanwei’s question, Su Letong felt even more miserable. His entire body seemed to wilt downward.
“Don’t even talk about climbing the ranks. I’m about to drop all the way to Diamond IV, wuwuwu…”
At this moment, the joys and sorrows of humanity were somehow both the same and completely different.
Cao Hanwei flashed a toothy grin. “Then I’ll carry you! We’ll duo queue together!”
As everyone knew, the difficulty of climbing to Diamond I varied drastically depending on which position you played. For a support player, climbing through solo queue was particularly difficult, because a support was inherently hard pressed to control the pace of the game alone, or, as people commonly put it, to carry the entire match.
Because support players were so heavily dependent on their teammates’ cooperation in solo queue and because Diamond ranked games were filled with players of wildly varying skill levels, it was common to see games where someone would either completely dominate or completely feed. Whenever they encountered teammates who didn’t trust them or refused to follow their tempo, the experience could be unbelievably frustrating.
Take Su Letong, for example. He had just been cursed out by the randomly matched ADC on his team, who had absolutely torn into him. Because anonymous mode with hidden IDs had been enabled, Su Letong had been rewarded with the glorious titles of “rank parasite” and “Bronze trash.” He was so furious that his entire body seemed to flatten against the gaming chair, his eyes practically turning red.
“That was my promotion series, wuwu! My promotion series!”
Cao Hanwei waved his large hand dismissively. “What are you afraid of? Come on, your big brother will carry you and slaughter our way through the entire Rift!”
After several games, Su Letong, whose eyes had originally only been slightly red, finally burst into tears.
The bright red 【defeat】 displayed across the game interface was both glaring and painfully conspicuous. Su Letong didn’t even dare to cry out loud. It was simply too embarrassing! He was a professional player who had only just won the Spring Split championship and now he was about to fall out of Diamond!
Chen Yi was busy, while Pei Du had always preferred solo queue, so Su Letong didn’t dare go looking for him either. His warmhearted, big brother type teammate Cao Hanwei had cheerfully waved him over and then proceeded to lead him straight into a five game losing streak. Su Letong felt as though the sky itself were about to collapse.
He somewhat wanted to ask Park Seokho for help, after all, jungle support synergy could quickly establish momentum and take control of the game. If they built up an advantage in the early game, having two players deal with three was hardly a problem. It was practically the perfect weapon for climbing the ranks!
“Op.. oppa, um, I…”
“Qie.” Park Seokho clearly understood exactly what he was trying to ask. He lifted his nostrils toward the ceiling and gave a cold, contemptuous snort before muttering, “Sseu re gi.”
Another little piece of trash.
Yi Xingran happened to be passing behind them. His brows drew together slightly.
That pronunciation sounded familiar. Early that morning, Park Seokho seemed to have said the exact same thing about him.
He stopped in his tracks and glanced at Su Letong. The moment Su Letong met his gaze, his entire body stiffened and he seemed a little frightened.
Maybe it wasn’t actually a swear word?
Seeing that Su Letong didn’t seem to be reacting particularly strongly, Yi Xingran raised his foot and was about to leave.
But just as Su Letong began gesturing animatedly, trying to ask Park Seokho to duo queue with him, Park Seokho suddenly shoved his keyboard aside. A disdainful “hmph” escaped through his nose as he shifted his gaming chair and abruptly stood up.
The gaming chair, sliding backward, unexpectedly slammed into Yi Xingran, nearly knocking him off balance.
It was far too obvious that he had done it deliberately.
Yi Xingran immediately grabbed Park Seokho by the shoulder. With enough force to make the man’s body buckle, he pressed him firmly back down into his seat.
Su Letong was so startled that he instinctively stepped backward. When he saw the extraordinarily cold expression beneath Yi Xingran’s pale pink hair, he froze in shock all over again.
……That expression was so fierce. It was much colder than the way he had looked earlier.
Even his tone carried an oppressive irritation, as though if Park Seokho refused to do as he said, Yi Xingran might snap his neck with a single crack the very next second.
“You bump into someone and don’t even know enough to apologize? Didn’t your parents ever teach you?”
“&l^&*%^&)……!”
A string of incomprehensible words came pouring out in a rapid, garbled stream and the man seemed to be cursing angrily under his breath.
Yi Xingran irritably ran a hand through his hair. “What the hell is that gibberish? I told you to say ‘sorry.’ You don’t understand ‘sorry’?”
Park Seokho seemed to genuinely have no idea what he was saying. Su Letong, however, understood perfectly well. He was far too frightened by the escalating confrontation and hurriedly stepped forward to mediate, timidly tugging at the hem of Yi Xingran’s clothes.
Yi Xingran frowned and glanced sideways at him. “I told him to apologize. Why are you apologizing to me?”
Su Letong wanted to calm both sides down but his Korean wasn’t very good either. He went back and forth between them for a long while, awkwardly trying to soothe both parties. In the end, Park Seokho violently shook him off and stormed out of the training room in a fit of anger.
What the hell?
What kind of manners were those?!
Yi Xingran cursed under his breath. “Is he always like this on the team?”
Su Letong scratched his head slightly. “Maybe it’s because he’s in a foreign country and can’t communicate properly. He doesn’t usually interact with us very much…”
“You’re pretty good at empathizing with people. If you’re that miserable, then go back to your own country instead of earning this money here! Who are you putting on that stinking face for all day?”
Thinking of Park Seokho’s match fixing behavior in his previous life, Yi Xingran felt a wave of disgust rise in his stomach.
He had betrayed teammates he’d spent three whole years with, people he’d lived and fought alongside day after day and yet he still had the nerve to pretend to be some innocent victim?
“Look at that attitude of his, looking down on everyone like they’re beneath him. If he doesn’t want to deal with you, then stop bothering with him too! Why keep offering your warm face to his cold ass?”
Yi Xingran reached out and straightened Su Letong’s jacket collar, which had been pulled crooked during the commotion, then turned around and started to leave.
Su Letong stood there in a daze for a moment before hurriedly chasing after him.
“Were you standing up for me?”
“……”
Yi Xingran stopped walking and turned his head slightly.
For some reason, he suddenly remembered the last person he’d stood up for.
That person had always looked at him in exactly the same way, eyes red and brimming with grievance, gazing at him as though he were desperately seeking comfort.
But what happened afterward?
Heh.
He was just about to start walking again when Su Letong suddenly broke into a smile.
His eyes were sparkling brightly and two faint dimples appeared on his slightly baby fat cheeks.
“You’re actually such a nice person! You’re not at all like what the trending searches said!”
“……”
Yi Xingran was silent for a moment before slightly raising an eyebrow.
“I’m a nice person?”
Compared with Park Seokho’s inexplicable act of deliberately bumping into someone, throwing things around and storming out of the room, the rumors that Yi Xingran had a bad temper, was short fused and bullied his teammates really didn’t seem to match him at all.
Su Letong nodded enthusiastically.
“Yes, yes!”
He circled around Yi Xingran as he spoke, telling him everything he had seen in those rumors online, only to receive a disdainful chuckle from Yi Xingran.
“Then why are you still holding onto me? Aren’t you afraid I’ll beat you up?”
“I don’t think you would. You didn’t hit anyone just now, so there’s no reason for you to suddenly hit me, right?”
“You…”
Yi Xingran narrowed his eyes, seemingly so dumbfounded by his stupidity that the corners of his eyes unconsciously lifted.
“Fine. You’re on a losing streak in ranked, right? I’ll carry you after we eat.”
“Can you play Yuumi?”
(Yuumi: Magical Cat Yuumi, a support champion with a unique “attach” mechanic that allows her to attach herself to an allied champion and provide shields, healing and stat bonuses. She is particularly well suited to tempo oriented junglers who want a soft support capable of helping them carry the entire game.)
Su Letong checked his mastery level on Yuumi and answered somewhat tactfully, “I don’t think I’m very good at playing her…”
Yi Xingran looked even sleepier. His eyelids were practically too heavy to lift.
“If you can play her, that’s enough. Pick her.”
Su Letong: “…”
Hadn’t he just said that he wasn’t very good at playing her?
Yet Yi Xingran’s seemingly careless tone carried an unmistakably domineering quality that left no room for refusal. Su Letong had always found it impossible to resist such confident words, words delivered almost like an order.
His hand trembled.
And obediently, almost without thinking, he locked in Magical Cat Yuumi.
“Ahhh, what runes and talents does Yuumi take again…”
Su Letong hurriedly fumbled around, scrambling to adjust everything before the game started.
The moment the match loaded, before they had even left the fountain, a message suddenly popped up in the lower left corner from their bottom lane ADC teammate.
【The Culling · Lucian: Fuck, another rank parasite.】
【The Culling · Lucian: Fuck, I feel like throwing up every time I see Yuumi! Can you stop coming anywhere near me?】
【The Culling · Lucian: What a garbage champion for leeches! There’s always one less person when team fights happen, it’s basically four versus five every time! If you love leeching that much, why are you even playing ranked?】
【Go play normal matchmaking instead, will you!】
Su Letong bit his lip.
He remained silent and didn’t say a word.
Silently, he opened the shop and purchased his support items.
Behind him, Yi Xingran, who had been dozing off just moments ago, slowly lifted his eyelids.
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
The translator promises nothing except gratitude and possibly more chapters.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Fire the hole!Chapter 2 · Dude, I’m here to save youChapter 3 · Plaster HeadChapter 4 · I’m well behaved, I don’t talk muchChapter 5 · It’s what Cross needsChapter 6 · What are you barking like a dog?Chapter 7 · “Ah! It’s so… so damn cold~”Chapter 8 · What are you looking at, you pervert!Chapter 9 · The cat I bought for free got dirty.Chapter 10 · Oh no! I forgot to switch to a smaller account!Chapter 11 · It’s my turn to performChapter 12 · Insults? That’s slander! This is slander!Chapter 13 · He’s a very nice personChapter 14 · Hunting TimeChapter 15 · A straight man sells himselfChapter 16 · The number one person who doesn’t eat stressChapter 17 · He is so vividChapter 18 · War! War! War! Kill! Kill!Chapter 19 Part 1 · What’s wrong with guys rubbing against each other?Chapter 19 Part 2 · What’s wrong with guys rubbing against each other?