The door to the training room was pushed open and Duan Chi walked in from behind Panda, casually asking, “What’s going on?”
Panda turned around and stared at him with an indescribable expression.
Duan Chi was completely confused. “What?”
“……………Nothing.” Panda forcefully swallowed back the words that had nearly slipped out. “The new budget has come through. I was asking whether any of them wanted to add anything, as long as it’s related to the competition.”
His brother certainly worked fast when it came to transferring money. Duan Chi had just gone upstairs to wash his face and had taken care of a few other things while he was there. Hearing Panda, he casually asked, “Does An God want anything?”
Panda’s gaze became even more peculiar but unfortunately, not a single person present understood what was going through his mind.
Lin Anke shook his head. “There’s nothing I need.”
Before he joined the team, DG had already prepared everything for him. The computer was a whole level above the setup he had previously used at TIG and even the peripherals were custom made with his professional ID printed on them. Lin Anke could tell that much.
He simply assumed that these were basic benefits provided by a wealthy club and had no idea that the other players, including Danqing and the others, had paid for their own peripherals out of their own pockets.
“It’s really strange. These days, you can have money and still find nothing to spend it on.” Panda rubbed his chin, completely ignoring the pitiful look on Danqing’s face. Right in front of the team’s young boss, Duan Chi, he waved his hand generously and declared, “Then we’ll just save it up. After the next competition, I’ll take everyone out for a big meal. We’ll eat whatever’s most expensive!”
Duan Chi raised an eyebrow and casually sent Panda the name of a restaurant on WeChat.
Duan Chi: 【Little Courtyard Hot Pot. We’ll eat there next time. If you have some free time recently, go take a look first. If the dishes aren’t good enough, I’ll have someone arrange for some ingredients to be air freighted over in advance.】
Panda’s phone vibrated.
He opened the message and, without understanding why Duan Chi had gone out of his way to tell him through WeChat, casually replied with an OK.
After Panda left, Yuanshan came over to remind everyone, “Anyone who isn’t currently in a game, stop for a moment. Those of you who are already playing, finish this match and don’t start another one. I’ve just arranged a practice match.”
Adam: “I’m almost done. Give me a minute.”
Another BO5 practice match came to an end.
Yuanshan went through the replay with everyone one by one and Duan Chi still had the same old problem.
“You still need to pay more attention to this. If you can get away, then get away. An ADC dying even once can throw off the entire tempo. Don’t play AD so aggressively. Even Adam isn’t as willing to fight as you are.”
Yuanshan casually pointed out a few moments when Adam had hesitated and consequently missed several opportunities to catch and keep the enemy in place, then continued speaking about Duan Chi.
“Selling your support once isn’t going to make Encore eat you and he should’ve been telling you to leave too, right?”
Lin Anke was also somewhat surprised.
Without exaggerating, Duan Chi was practically the boldest ADC he had ever seen. No matter what the situation was, he dared to turn around and fight back and this wasn’t the first time he had pulled off an extreme play just to save Lin Anke.
The coaching staff had already noticed it before. Duan Chi seemed completely unaware of the concept of valuing his own life. The moment he saw his support getting left behind, he would immediately turn around and go back in. He was practically overflowing with the kind of loyalty that was least appropriate for someone playing ADC.
“I understand. I’ll be more careful next time.” Duan Chi also knew that he had been taking some risks. In a competitive match, a single mistake could often determine the outcome of the entire game.
Once the review was over, Yuanshan told everyone to go practice on their own and correct the mistakes they had just identified.
Duan Chi received a WeChat message.
He opened it, read through it for a few moments and replied: 【Okay.】
Then he tapped copy and began editing something on his phone.
Lin Anke had originally wanted to speak to him again about the issue from earlier but seeing that he was busy, he decided not to interrupt him. He returned to his own computer and hesitated over whether he should start another livestream.
Danqing suddenly slammed his hand against the desk in frustration. “Why has the game developer adjusted the hero balance again?! Our magic carry heroes are practically getting nerfed into the ground, while the junglers are still getting buffed. This is driving me crazy!”
Adam poked his head over. “Did they release the announcement? I’ll go take a look.”
Hearing that, Lin Anke casually opened the official WeChat account he followed and found the official account for Starfall Echoes.
Danqing was right. Several of the stronger magic carry heroes had had their damage reduced, while a few less popular jungle heroes had received reductions to their skill cooldowns.
Although the changes had little direct connection to the bottom lane, adjustments to other positions could still affect the pace and rhythm of an entire match. As a professional player, he still needed to have a clear understanding of the changes.
Lin Anke carefully read through the entire announcement. By the time he finished, he had a general idea of how the changes would affect the game. Yuanshan also reminded Jiangnan that he could start practicing some of the newly buffed jungle heroes recently and test how strong they actually were in real matches.
Lin Anke exited the official account.
Then, completely out of nowhere, he caught sight of a particularly conspicuous push notification in his following list:
“If Your Ex Boyfriend Is a Leo, You Should Immediately Block Him After Breaking Up. This Is Absolutely Not an Exaggeration.”
When had he ever followed a relationship advice account?
Lin Anke clicked into it and glanced at the account name, only to discover that it was actually a gaming news account he had followed in the past.
Had this blogger switched niches?
That was quite a drastic change.
Lin Anke thought about it for a moment before tapping unfollow. He had no interest in these deliberately mysterious, clickbait style promotional articles. Most of the accounts in his following list were gaming news accounts related to Starfall Echoes.
As he exited the page, he suddenly remembered that Xu Sheng seemed to be a Leo.
His birthday was at the end of July, which meant it was almost the end of the month already.
In previous years, Lin Anke would have prepared a gift for Xu Sheng well in advance. There had simply been too many things happening recently and he had completely forgotten about it.
But there was no need anymore.
Lin Anke exited WeChat, put his phone down and started playing ranked matches by himself.
Meanwhile, Duan Chi finished formatting the promotional article he had commissioned someone to write and posted it.
Afterward, he kept staring at the notifications, waiting for the likes to come in.
Instead of receiving any likes, however, he noticed that his follower count had dropped by one.
He opened his follower list and searched for Lin Anke’s username.
Sure enough, he had unfollowed him.
Duan Chi stared at the reduced follower count for several seconds before turning around and sending a message to his brother’s assistant.
Duan Chi: 【Help me buy a few more gaming news accounts. I want accounts whose follower lists include Encore.】
Assistant: ……Didn’t we just buy one?
But who could blame him?
The man was the boss’s younger brother.
So the assistant could only resign himself to the task and continue contacting bloggers.
Several days later, the official SEL tournament organizers released an announcement.
@SEL Starfall Echoes Professional League: Regarding the report alleging that player Encore was involved in match fixing, the tournament organizers have conducted a comprehensive investigation and reviewed the relevant match data. It has been confirmed that player Encore did not commit any violations of league regulations and there was absolutely no match fixing involved. SEL has always upheld the principles of fair competition and will resolutely safeguard fairness and impartiality in esports.
As soon as the tournament organizers released their announcement, Panda immediately reposted it through both the club’s official account and Lin Anke’s personal Weibo account, adding the following caption:
“There has recently been a large amount of false information circulating online regarding player Encore. We ask all viewers to remain rational and distinguish fact from fiction. Rumors stop with the wise. If anyone continues to fabricate or spread false information, the club will resolutely defend its rights and interests and will show absolutely no leniency.”
Duan Chi asked, “Has that Xu Qiao posted an apology on Weibo yet?”
Panda nodded. “He has, he has! He’s even going to livestream later! He kept trying to stir things up before, so this time his face must have been slapped swollen.”
Danqing was more than happy to watch the drama unfold. “Then I’m going to use my main account and go watch his livestream. How dare he bully our An God? I’ll make sure he completely ruins his reputation!”
Adam nodded. “Count me in too. I can get some traffic for myself while I’m at it.”
Danqing thought about it for a moment. “Our account has the professional player tag and I’m also a Level 10 VIP. My comments will be especially noticeable. When the time comes, we’ll humiliate him properly! Oh, right, Jiangnan, you’re not good at insulting people, are you? I’ll send you a few lines later. Just copy and paste them directly into the chat.”
Adam: “Why don’t we just start a livestream and go insult him ourselves?”
Danqing slapped the table in delight. “Holy crap, you’re a genius!”
Seeing them become more and more excited as they talked, Panda helplessly reminded them, “You’ll get banned if you livestream while insulting someone.”
Danqing thought about it and said, “It’s fine. We’ll just be sarcastic. The particularly civilized and polite kind.”
Lin Anke was sitting beside them but he suddenly froze.
He had actually been with DG for less than a month but…
Lin Anke suddenly remembered what Xu Sheng had said.
Haven’t you noticed that you don’t even have a single friend?
Lin Anke turned his head.
He saw Danqing excitedly discussing with Adam how they were going to help him get his dignity back. He saw Jiangnan expressionlessly opening the livestream. He saw Panda telling them not to fool around while simultaneously reminding them to watch their limits, because if they went too far with the insults, they would be fined.
For some reason, Lin Anke suddenly felt that Xu Sheng had been wrong.
He did have friends.
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ you know what to do
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · He was substituted off the fieldChapter 2 · I’ll avenge youChapter 3 · Leaving TIGChapter 4 · Point and shootChapter 5 · Join DGChapter 6 · Live stream collisionChapter 7 · MysteriousChapter 8 · Transfer NoticeChapter 9 · Want the championshipChapter 10 · Galaxy BattleshipChapter 11 · Be my DogChapter 12 · Post match ConflictChapter 13 · ReportedChapter 14 · Weibo CodeChapter 15 · Live Streaming to attract FansChapter 16 · Duan Chi’s horse was exposedChapter 17 · Emotional articlesChapter 18 · Match voice recording