He gently rested his chin on Jian Yao’s head—the only relatively “intimate” gesture he could think to offer.
But Wen Zhe released him within three seconds, putting distance between them once more.
“Go back. I won’t lose like this.”
Especially not on your birthday…
Wen Zhe smiled bitterly, his voice slightly hoarse, as if gathering great courage to look at Jian Yao. “Wait for me to come back. I have something to tell you.”
Maybe it was just Jian Yao’s imagination.
But when their eyes met, Jian Yao caught a fleeting glimpse of loss in Wen Zhe’s gaze.
Wen Zhe had already turned and walked toward the lounge. Jian Yao couldn’t shake the feeling that if Wen Zhe left now, they would never see each other again.
Yet Wen Zhe’s name seemed stuck in Jian Yao’s throat, impossible to call out.
Like a walking corpse, he forced himself to gather his spirits and head toward the spectator seats. Faintly, a familiar voice drifted to his ears.
“Eight million isn’t a small sum, right? A deal that kills two birds with one stone—isn’t that exactly what you’d want?”
“I only have one request: after the second match, let the players bring their own equipment.”
Jian Yao walked out of the backstage area, unwilling to listen further. The chatter from fans felt piercing, but he automatically tuned out the noise, his gaze settling on Wen Zhe’s seat before he slowly closed his eyes.
I believe in him. He’s Wen Zhe, after all…
He is Wen Zhe.
Wen Zhe pushed open the lounge door just as Su Ze’s complaints hit him like a stray bullet. “Instead of wasting time complaining, think about how to win the next match.”
“I wish I knew, but this keyboard is our biggest obstacle.” Su Ze collapsed onto the sofa, clutching a pillow and pounding it furiously. “Damn it!”
Zhong Yu also sat beside Su Ze, watching as the pillow endured the assault. His eyes drifted to the replay screen, where the commentator’s pause signal was displayed. “Looks like there’s no way out. We’re exposed, they’re hidden. It’s clear they’ve set us up to lose.”
Fu Feng stood nearby, his expression dark. As the head coach, he had reported the issue immediately, but the league had turned a blind eye.
By now, the game being played—both on and off the stage—was painfully obvious.
Wen Zhe opened his phone. Every trending topic was about AFG, each marked with a glaring “explosive” tag.
His mind grew even more restless. He tossed the phone aside and closed his eyes to rest, but the moment he did, Jian Yao’s evasive gaze flashed in his mind.
“Captain!”
Su Ze shouted right next to Wen Zhe’s ear. Wen Zhe frowned and opened his eyes. “I’m not deaf.”
“Oh,” Su Ze feigned surprise. “Seems like you’re not just deaf—you’re forgetful too. That’s not good for someone so young.”
“Speak plainly.” Wen Zhe pinched the bridge of his nose, his impatience fully exposed.
“Fine. We called you several times, but you didn’t respond. It was like your soul had left your body.” Su Ze sat beside Wen Zhe and spoke slowly. “Are we really going to lose like this?”
“No,” Wen Zhe replied without hesitation. He checked the time and stood up, walking toward the computer desk. “Fifteen minutes left. That’s enough.”
With that, he tapped the desk. The others understood the signal and immediately gathered around him.
“Perhaps the solution is much simpler than we thought,” Wen Zhe switched to a third-person perspective as soon as he entered the game. “This should work.”
“Like this? Using third-person view?”
“Mm, watch closely.” Wen Zhe manipulated the character forward and backward, the subtle changes in movement magnified infinitely in the eyes of professional players—
“I get it! Look at the hands!”
“Exactly.”
Wen Zhe continued demonstrating. Each time he moved in a direction, the character’s hands would swing slightly in the opposite direction due to momentum.
“But there’s still a problem, Captain. Even if we know one direction, we still don’t know the other three, right?” Xu Xu frowned slightly as he leaned in.
Su Ze followed up on Xu Xu’s words: “Yeah, yeah, what do we do about that?”
“Simple—” Wen Zhe’s hands didn’t stop moving. “During the last round, I tried pressing the same key four times in a row, and the direction never repeated twice.”
“So that means we can get the direction we want by pressing the key at most four times?” Su Ze finally understood. “It’s a bit hard on the fingers, but it’s a good way to crack it.”
“Mm, we need to coordinate with the mouse. We can’t change two directions at once, so we have to rely on the mouse to adjust. Everyone can do that, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“Ah, for an old-timer like me…” Xu Xu sighed dramatically, paused mysteriously for three seconds, then winked with his right eye. “Piece of cake~”
…
Su Ze glanced at Zhong Yuyi, and the two exchanged a look before turning away in tacit understanding. “Xiao Yi, let’s go check the replay.”
“Okay.”
As the two left, only Xu Xu, Jiang Ning—who didn’t dare move—Chen En—who automatically tuned things out—and Wen Zhe, whose eyes showed no emotion, remained.
“Seeing you so motivated puts me at ease.” Wen Zhe stood up and patted Xu Xu’s shoulder.
Xu Xu didn’t feel awkward at all. He put his arms around Jiang Ning and Chen En and complained about the others. “You two are the only ones who really stick with me, not abandoning me at a time like this.”
“Well… that’s…” Chen En was about to speak but stopped when he met Xu Xu’s warning glare. “Exactly, we’re brothers. Let’s hug it out.”
Xu Xu wore a gratified expression, becoming the “life winner” with an arm around each, comfortably sitting on the sofa and discussing with Su Ze and Zhong Yuyi.
The half-hour break passed quickly. As the four walked to the backstage entrance, they ran into Li Yan.
“Yan Jie, sorry.” Wen Zhe’s gaze fixed on the four SG members already on stage. “We’ll win this round.”
“It’s fine. The real challenge begins after this match. I’ll always believe in you, fighting for AFG. And because of you, AFG is AFG.”
Li Yan looked at the four with determined eyes, a faint glimmer in them. “In the name of the wolf—”
Everyone tacitly stacked their hands together and raised them into the air. “Climb to new heights!”
“In the name of the wolf, climb to new heights. AFG will win!”
The camera shifted back to the stage as the second round began.
Unexpectedly, the map was still Spring—
Two rounds in a row with the same map… the probability of that was incredibly low…
Even the attacking and defending sides and the players remained unchanged. SG might as well have announced to everyone—”I bribed the league, I’m throwing the match.”
But this time, things wouldn’t be as easy as SG had imagined.
The moment the AFG team entered the game, they switched to third-person view, swiftly and skillfully adjusting their positions. However, they still couldn’t match the speed of a standard keyboard, and the Guardian Spirit was defeated first by SG.
“Regroup by the river.”
Wen Zhe issued the command, and the other three immediately understood his intention.
The only one left confused was the referee standing behind them, completely baffled as to why the team would gather by the river.
Upon learning AFG’s strategy, the four SG players, who were already slacking off, became even more smug. “Are these guys out of their minds? Gathering by the river just makes it easier for us to wipe them all out at once.”
“Exactly! Let’s finish this match quickly!”
The SG players, acting like untrained amateurs, rushed toward the river without considering the consequences, fully exposing themselves.
Just as SG prepared to close in and eliminate AFG, they found no one by the river.
“How could no one be here? Did the referee give us the wrong info?”
As the players approached the river, they failed to notice the AFG team hiding underwater. The moment they stepped close to the seemingly calm surface, Zhong Yuyi swiftly summoned green vines, pulling all four of them into the water in one go.
The brief stun from the vines alone wouldn’t have been enough to send them straight to their deaths, but combined with the venom from the vines’ fine thorns seeping into their bodies, the outcome was far from certain.
Unfortunately for SG, there was no “uncertainty”—the vines worked in perfect sync with Wen Zhe’s “Dang.”
Less than thirty seconds after being dragged underwater, without even catching a glimpse of their opponents, all four SG players were eliminated by AFG’s momentum.
“Yes!!”
Jian Yao couldn’t help but cheer loudly, his voice filled with unexpected excitement. Watching the Black Wolf team on stage, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride.
Wen Zhe glanced over and met Jian Yao’s gaze, offering a relaxed smile.
This was the arena. Even if they resorted to a few tricks and faced obstacles, one should never underestimate a team determined to win.
Mo Wen: “Let’s congratulate AFG for taking this round! Who would’ve thought underwater combat would come into play? Truly worthy of the finals!”
Xiao Xiao: “Indeed! You can see the fans’ excitement reaching new heights! It seems the warm-up for the finals is over, and we’re even more excited to see what these two teams bring next!”
“How could this happen!”
SG’s coach, Zhang Yanming, was the first to lose his composure. Tossing his headphones aside, he stormed back to the break room in a rage. “How could you still lose after all that? What were you even doing?!”
“We didn’t expect it either. It won’t happen again. We’ll definitely win 3–1!”
“You’d better!”
“Coach! Coach, something’s wrong!” A substitute player rushed in from outside the door. “You need to see what the league just announced!”
Zhang Yanming took the phone and looked, his pupils dilating in shock. “How could this be…”
At the same time, everyone in AFG’s practice room was equally stunned—
[After an in-depth investigation by the league, it has been confirmed that AFG’s equipment was indeed questionable. The current 1–1 score between AFG and SG in the finals will be reset to zero. The league has also terminated its contract with the brand sponsor. We deeply apologize for this incident. Starting from the third match, players will be allowed to bring their own equipment without restrictions. We wish everyone an enjoyable viewing experience. Thank you.]
“What does this mean?” Xu Xu was the first to speak up. “This guy takes everything and leaves nothing behind? I need to learn a thing or two from him. Truly, you’re never too old to learn.”
“They’ve taken all the benefits, and now they’re profiting.” Su Ze was about to speak when Zhong Yuyi immediately covered his mouth. “Let’s discuss these matters back at the club. The important thing now is to focus on the match.”
In the VIP seats, Jian Yao first heard the murmurs from the audience before opening his phone.
The act was truly impressive—accepting payment for match-fixing assistance, then pretending to be unaware and terminating the contract with the client to pocket compensation, and…
Recalling what he had overheard in the corridor earlier, Jian Yao turned to look at Li Yan beside him, hesitating.
Li Yan, however, appeared relaxed. “I know what you want to say. Promise me you’ll keep it a secret.”
Jian Yao was slightly taken aback, lowering his gaze as he replied, “Alright, I promise.”
Eight million…
So, in this world, only money can buy the right to “fair treatment”…
And what hurts the most is that the league’s actions have made the audience believe this is just a minor incident…
Why?