Dawn team was training in an orderly fashion, preparing for the tournament at the city sports stadium this weekend.
Wan Yi and Wan Li were finalizing the team roster. Wan Yi turned to Xu Qing, who had just arrived to deliver food: “Xu Qing, do you want to join us? Do you have time this weekend?”
Xu Qing pointed at himself: “Me?”
“Yes, do you want to come hang out?” Wan Yi showed Xu Qing their registration form. There were indeed many empty slots, and their team only had a pitiful five members. They did not even have a coach yet.
Xu Qing: “I do have the time.”
Wan Yi immediately picked up a pen and wrote Xu Qing’s name down: “Then I am putting you on the list of accompanying team staff.” After finishing, he looked as if he were afraid Xu Qing might change his mind: “A small team like ours needs a cheerleader, right? Qing, you absolutely cannot abandon us.”
Xu Qing held back his laughter: “Of course. I will make a banner for you all tomorrow. How big should it be?”
Wan Yi waved his hand: “That would be too much trouble. Something like 1.8 by 2 meters will do.”
Wan Li slapped the back of his older brother’s head: “You planning on using that as a blanket?”
As the group was chatting, a string of insults erupted from Tiger Bro in the corner, causing everyone to glance over. Tiger Bro was sitting in a chair in the corner, hunching his back, bouncing his leg, and spewing profanity that made everyone frown. Among the members of the Dawn team, only Tiger Bro used that much foul language daily; there was no explicit rule in their team forbidding cursing.
Lu Xinyu, the oldest among them, looked at Tiger Bro’s active camera: “Won’t your stream get banned?”
No sooner had Lu Xinyu finished speaking than Tiger Bro’s screen went black, and a warning notification popped up. This was followed by an even louder outburst of rage from Tiger Bro, who stood up while knocking things over, his face full of impatience: “Is your mouth a cursed crow’s mouth? Truly unlucky!”
Wan Yi, listening from the side, frowned: “Your stream got banned because you were spewing garbage. What does that have to do with Commander Yu?”
Hearing Wan Yi’s words, Tiger Bro became even angrier and stood up from his seat. Regardless of his physique, Tiger Bro was undoubtedly the heaviest among them, and his standing figure still held quite a bit of intimidation.
They were all at an age where they were hot-blooded, and Wan Yi stood his ground: “What, you want to fight? You think I am afraid of you?”
The atmosphere in the not-so-large training room grew explosive. Wan Li tried to hold back Wan Yi, while Xu Qing and Lu Xinyu grabbed Tiger Bro, sitting him down on one side before things calmed down.
Pei Shiyu, having heard the noise, walked out of his bedroom with a cold expression. “Want to fight?”
Wan Yi and Tiger Bro both stopped immediately. If Tiger Bro’s presence was a reckless kind of intimidation, Pei Shiyu possessed a natural coldness and an indescribable air of ruthlessness. It was the same ruthlessness he displayed when he took down four people by himself the other day. Everyone knew the difference between someone posturing and someone who could actually do what they said. Pei Shiyu was undoubtedly the latter.
After speaking, Pei Shiyu sat back at his training station as usual. If the training room had been filled with gunpowder earlier, it was now filled with a deathly silence because of his arrival. Pei Shiyu was not one to smile often, but his mood today was understandably worse. Was it morning grumpiness?
Xu Qing tilted his head, looking at the half of Pei Shiyu’s face facing him, which had a noticeable sleep crease on it. Perhaps there was another reason for his anger. But when they had woken Pei Shiyu up early that morning, they had not noticed any signs of morning grumpiness.
Pei Shiyu, of course, was not grumpy. He had just slept too long and woken up late, causing a bit of hypoglycemia. To make matters worse, he was greeted by his teammates fighting the moment he got up. It would be a miracle if he were in a good mood. Because of the palpitations caused by his low blood sugar, he naturally did not notice the other teammates carefully checking his expression.
Pei Shiyu ignored the tension in the team. He lowered his head and buried himself in eating the entire box of spicy stir-fried meat Xu Qing had brought, which improved his mood significantly. After tossing the food container into the trash, he returned to his seat and looked up, only to find everyone straightening their posture because of his movement.
Pei Shiyu sank comfortably into his gaming chair, his hand resting on his stomach. He had eaten too fast and felt a bit bloated. Half-lifting his eyelids, he spoke in a calm tone: “The team is just starting out, and I have not established many rules. We have not been offline together for long, and I thought rules were a restriction for everyone.”
Everyone in the small room turned their gaze toward him. Pei Shiyu scanned the room, meeting the eyes of Xu Qing, who was leaning against the wall in the corner. Pei Shiyu paused for a moment.
Xu Qing spoke up very proactively: “Should I step out?” After all, he was an outsider to the team.
“No need.” Pei Shiyu looked at the team roster on the table, where Xu Qing’s name was clearly written in the accompanying personnel column, and the corner of his mouth curved up slightly: “You are considered an external member of our team now.”
“You are not an outsider.”
Xu Qing nodded with a smile, sitting steadily without moving.
Pei Shiyu continued: “The only requirement for the Dawn team from now on is no internal infighting.”
After Pei Shiyu spoke briefly, the team resumed their internal training. Tiger Bro’s main streaming account was under a lockdown, so he started tinkering with a secondary account to resume streaming.
Pei Shiyu frowned imperceptibly: “No streaming allowed during internal five-player practice matches.”
Tiger Bro curled his lip, muttering to himself: “Acting like they are some big KOL team.”
His voice was not loud, but the room was small, and Wan Yi immediately lost his temper upon hearing it.
Wan Yi: “I think you are doing this on purpose to stir up trouble!”
Tiger Bro slammed his phone onto the desk: “So what if I am doing it on purpose?”
Pei Shiyu’s expression did not change: “Everyone, sit down.”
Tiger Bro and Wan Yi remained deadlocked. Pei Shiyu rested his long arms on the desk, tapping his fingertips, and repeated what he had said twenty minutes ago: “I said, the only requirement in this team is no internal infighting. If you cannot do that, then let us go our separate ways.”
Tiger Bro and Wan Yi sat down reluctantly. Seeing that they had no further intention to fight, Pei Shiyu turned his gaze to Tiger Bro: “Do you want to play for a KOL team?”
Exposed again, Tiger Bro stiffened and argued, chin stuck out: “Even in the KOL team rules, there is no prohibition against members streaming!”
Pei Shiyu: “Have you ever been in a KOL team?”
Tiger Bro: “I have seen their members stream.”
Pei Shiyu chuckled after hearing that. Tiger Bro felt uncomfortable, feeling silently mocked by Pei Shiyu: “What are you laughing at?”
Not to mention that the streaming for KOL team members was centrally signed directly with the club, even the coaches of the KOL teams would not dare to stream during practice matches. If someone were to stream in the morning during a practice match, they would be off the team by the afternoon.
But Pei Shiyu clearly did not want to waste any more breath on Tiger Bro. As for people like this who were simple-minded and only believed blindly in their own abilities.
Pei Shiyu: “A 1v1 match? If you win, you can set the team rules.”
Tiger Bro’s eyes lit up with eagerness upon hearing this: “You mean it?”
Pei Shiyu responded casually: “Yes, I mean it. If you win, you can be the team leader.”
Wan Li called out after hearing this: “Commander.”
Wan Yi sat firmly this time and pulled back his younger brother: “What are you worried about when he is playing against the Commander? Aside from that elusive Red Hair on the rankings, I do not believe anyone can beat the Commander in a solo match.”
Hearing his long-unused ID mentioned directly to his face, Xu Qing could not help but sit up straight; he felt a bit of netizen shame. He searched his memory, certain he had never mentioned his gaming ID to them, nor even that he played the game.
Xu Qing asked: “Pei Shiyu has soloed against the person you just mentioned?” When? As one of the parties involved, why did he not remember? Could Pei Shiyu be using a secondary account?
Wan Yi answered honestly: “That has not happened.”
Xu Qing was puzzled: “Then how can you be sure that only Red Hair and Pei Shiyu are evenly matched in a solo?”
Wan Yi said matter-of-factly: “You do not play games, so you would not know.” He then recalled the game where Xu Qing had helped him turn the tables: “You probably do not play often and do not pay attention to the Heavenly rankings, so you would not know.”
Xu Qing was rarely speechless, unable to reveal his identity, so he paused and said: “So, those who play often would know?”
Wan Yi replied with a tone of isn’t it obvious: “Who does not know among those who play often?”
Xu Qing was truly bewildered by Wan Yi’s confident tone: “Should I know?”
Wan Yi: “Our team leader’s game ID is ‘Jingzhe,’ which has been the long-time number one on the Q-region Heavenly rankings. The other, ‘Red Hair,’ has long been the number one on the V-region Heavenly rankings.”
Xu Qing nodded and said, “Mm,” he knew that part. He gestured for Wan Yi to continue: “So that is how you judge that only Red Hair can solo against your team leader?”
Wan Yi nodded firmly: “Does this not prove something? Like I said, you do not play often, so you do not understand.”
Xu Qing opened his mouth and then closed it, rarely in his life feeling like he did not know what to say.
While Xu Qing and Wan Yi were talking, Pei Shiyu and Tiger Bro had already started their solo mode. Pei Shiyu chose a standard jungler hero, which was not particularly advantageous in a solo match. Seeing Pei Shiyu choose a jungler, Tiger Bro picked a hero with a health bar as thick as a city wall.
Seeing Tiger Bro’s hero choice, even if he did not doubt Pei Shiyu’s ability, Wan Yi still cursed: “Disgusting.” Tiger Bro’s role was the top laner, responsible for absorbing damage for the team; compared to heroes in other positions, his health bar would be much thicker. However, top lane heroes were also divided into tank types and fighter types. Tank types could be simply defined as having the thickest health, while fighter types were relatively normal and required more operational skill.
In a 1v1 solo match, there was naturally not the full map of a 5v5, where everyone could exercise team coordination and tactics. A 1v1 solo was absolutely a case of when two narrow roads meet, the brave wins, because there was indeed only one path on the map. At this point, choosing a thick-health hero without any other room for maneuvering was somewhat contemptible.
Hearing Wan Yi’s dissatisfaction, Tiger Bro said triumphantly: “What can you do? Who told you I am a top laner? The Commander did not say I had to use a fighter to fight him before the solo.”
Pei Shiyu did not even blink: “Mm.” He did not care at all about what hero Tiger Bro had chosen; he just needed to kill him.
7 minutes and 20 seconds later, Tiger Bro’s crystal was pushed to nothing. Tiger Bro’s expression was gloomy. Wan Yi laughed gloatingly: “Even with such a thick health bar, the Commander still finished you off. Tsk, tsk.”
Tiger Bro wanted to fight, but remembering that he was in the wrong, he looked at Pei Shiyu’s expression and said unwillingly: “Fine, I admit defeat. I will not stream during practice matches. You keep being the leader.”
Wan Yi was speechless at Tiger Bro’s shamelessness: “You do not seriously want to be the team leader, do you?” How could a person be so thick-faced?
Pei Shiyu placed his phone on the table: “That was the condition I mentioned if you won. Now, I will state the condition for my win.”
Tiger Bro asked subconsciously: “What condition?”
Pei Shiyu looked up at Tiger Bro, his tone cold and polite: “Deliberately inciting infighting in the team and failing to meet the ability standards. Sorry, you are fired from the team.”