Chapter 2: Forgot to Switch Accounts
On the other side, Shen Yanjin had already taken off his team uniform and changed into a thick down jacket. Shouldering his bag, he exited through the small rear door of the Sports Center.
Stepping out of the well-heated interior, the biting winter wind hit his face. He exhaled deeply—the taste of freedom seemed so pitiful.
His right wrist was still throbbing faintly. Shen Yanjin rubbed it, fished out his phone, and made a call.
“Hello? It’s me… Tsk, it’s not a scam call. It’s me, Shen Yanjin.”
Hearing the response from the other end, his expression softened, and he revealed a smile. “Yeah, it really has been a long time.”
“Five years? Haha, I guess it has been that long.”
“By the way, I retired. I’m going home to farm.”
“Pick me up? Sure. My flight is at five this afternoon, I should arrive by evening. Don’t worry, I’m definitely going to make you pay for a big meal.”
“…Games?”
Shen Yanjin smiled. One hand adjusted his backpack strap, hoisting the bag higher on his shoulder. “I’ll play. Of course I’ll still play.”
He reached out and hailed a taxi. “I’m getting a cab now. We’ll talk when I get back. Gotta go.”
Hanging up the phone, Shen Yanjin sat inside the car and let out a light breath.
The person on the phone just now was his childhood friend of many years, Lu Hui. Speaking of which, Shen Yanjin had been truly heartless and disloyal. Ever since he was selected for the team, he had left Bincheng alone to come to Cloud City. In five years, he had never once thought of going back, hadn’t even called his family, and had completely cut off contact with his old friends.
The only reason he contacted Lu Hui was that the relationship between their parents was too good. Since he was going back now, running into him was inevitable, so he figured he might as well call first to arrange a private meal.
Shen Yanjin turned to look out the window at the constantly shifting blue sky and white clouds. The dome of the sky was boundless and vast, but the ground was crammed with too many things.
Things that should be there, things that shouldn’t; the clean, and the filthy.
Yet it was so bustling and beautiful.
And he, stumbling in pursuit, searching aimlessly—five years of time, a road of thorns, exchanged for a bruised face and a swollen nose, fleeing in misery.
When he left home back then, Mother Shen had said to let him go, that sooner or later he would roll back on his own. Sure enough, her words had turned prophetic.
The phone in his hand buzzed twice, the lock screen lighting up. Shen Yanjin came back to his senses and looked down. A Weibo notification: Special Follow HG Esports Club mentioned you.
He paused, then tapped to open it.
[@HG Esports Club: Today, Support player HG-Sliver has officially announced his retirement. We will forever remember every bit of contribution you made to HG. The road ahead is long, take care. @HG-Sliver]
The Weibo post was very short, without even a video attached. It was so crude that it seemed the person retiring wasn’t a starting player for a major team, but a nameless nobody, some unpresentable passerby A, B, or C.
Shen Yanjin licked his lips and opened the comments. It was a uniform chorus of joy and congratulations, celebrating that HG had finally sent away the plague god known as Sliver.
He had originally intended to leave a “Goodbye” or “Take care” comment underneath, but thinking about it, he decided against it. They probably wished they never had to interact with him again until death; better not to jinx things.
With a slide of his finger, he switched to his personal profile interface. Shen Yanjin couldn’t think of any cool, domineering new ID for the time being, so he simply deleted the “HG” prefix, saving it as a solitary “Sliver.”
The wind blew into the car. He lifted his head from his phone in a daze, unable to describe the feeling in his heart.
Pain? Unwillingness? Humiliation?
It seemed to be none of those.
His mental state had shattered again and again; matches were lost again and again. It got to the point where today, when his teammates gave fake signals to intentionally sell him out, sending him to his death time after time, Shen Yanjin felt calm as still water facing the respawn screen.
He just felt a bit sentimental. They had been teammates for five years, yet they weren’t even willing to give him a glorious exit match. Was it necessary?
Forget it.
In the rearview mirror, the driver stared at Shen Yanjin for a long time before tentatively speaking up, “Young man, I saw you get in from over there. Did you just come out from watching the WL match?”
Shen Yanjin froze, then replied, “Yeah.”
The driver chuckled, “What a coincidence. My son also likes watching these game competitions. Whenever the team he likes loses a match, that brat gets so angry he won’t even eat.”
Shen Yanjin asked, “Is that so? Which team does he like?”
The driver pointed to an ornament on the dashboard in front of the passenger seat. “There, that team.”
Shen Yanjin looked up and was amused. A little wolf cub wearing a crown and a red cape stood majestically. It was the mascot of team WOF, led by Mountain (Yue Fengling), one of his few good friends in the alliance.
And it was the limited edition from the National Championship venue two years ago. This thing was worth a fortune on the market now; rumor had it people were offering five figures for it. Unexpectedly, it was sitting casually in a taxi acting as a small ornament.
He said, “Yeah, that team is indeed worth liking. The ornament looks nice too.”
The driver smiled and said, “I picked up a guy the other day. Chatted with him for a bit. He didn’t have cash, so he gave me this to cover the fare. It happened to be the mascot of the team my son likes, so I accepted it.”
“…”
Shen Yanjin’s mouth twitched. The only person who could do something like that was definitely the rich second-generation Mid laner in Yue Fengling’s team who would have to go home and inherit billions in assets if he didn’t play well.
Catching a red light, the driver asked again, “By the way, young man, which team do you like?”
This question required no hesitation. Shen Yanjin answered decisively, “KW.”
The driver said “Oh,” then continued, “I know that team. They’re called the Champion Team or something, right? Their captain, Red…”
Shen Yanjin helpfully supplemented, “Red Moon.”
Red Moon, Duan Mingyue. KW Team’s Captain and Jungler. The pillar of the team, the absolute core figure. Six years ago, he led the KW team through thorns and thistles, killing their way from the secondary league all the way to the professional league, seizing the laurels.
This year, they had even broken into the international tournament, becoming the world champions under the spotlight of millions.
The reason Shen Yanjin started playing WL and entered the professional circle back then was precisely because he worshipped him.
Unfortunately, although the Support in KW played mediocrely, her health was excellent. Over the years, she never missed a match, rain or shine. Leaving aside that Shen Yanjin couldn’t get in at the time, even if he did, there would be no opportunity; he would only be guarding the water cooler.
So he had to join HG, which lacked a Support, thinking that if he stood in the opponent’s position, he could make Duan Mingyue take notice of him. Maybe out of appreciation, he would recruit him into KW?
However, no matter how hard he tried, he had to accept a reality—even if the other person played poorly, and he played well, he couldn’t push out a veteran member who had been through thick and thin with KW for over six years.
Besides, it was just Support; passing was good enough. KW didn’t rely on that anyway.
Later, Shen Yanjin established his footing in HG, and that ambition slowly faded.
“Right, that’s him.” Reminded, the driver uncle nodded with a smile. “He even got on the trending search today.”
Trending search?
Shen Yanjin opened Weibo. Sure enough, the number one trending topic was Red Moon Returns to China. HG-Sliver Retires had already been pushed down to second place.
Third was KW Returns to China.
Red Moon was just that outstanding; he needed a trending topic all to himself.
Clicking in, on the phone screen, a man in a red team uniform stood tall, his two legs straight and long. His fingers held the brim of a baseball cap, pulling it down low. The cold, hard lines of his jaw and his slender, distinctively jointed fingers were enough to spark one’s imagination.
There was actually a photo!
It should be known that Duan Mingyue was famous for hating photos. He avoided interviews whenever possible. The last time he appeared on camera was eight months ago. Photos were scarce; what a waste of a good face.
Shen Yanjin’s spirits lifted. He sat up straight. Like, comment, retweet, save image—all done in one smooth motion.
After doing all this, Shen Yanjin opened the photo again and savored it carefully, a hint of a smile unconsciously appearing on his face. The gloom in his heart dissipated quite a bit. Indeed, handsome guys cure all pain.
Just then, a message popped up.
[WOF-Mountain: . ]
[WOF-Mountain: You forgot to switch to your alt account on Weibo, didn’t you?]
Shen Yanjin froze.
[HG-Sliver: Huh?]
[WOF-Mountain: [Screenshot]]
In the image, with a dark profile picture and sitting on over eight hundred thousand fans, Sliver had updated his status two minutes ago.
[@Sliver: Welcome home Moon God~~ // @Red Moon Fan Club: Returning to the country. [Image]]
Fck.*
Shen Yanjin’s scalp instantly went numb.
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Didn’t switch accounts 😆
It’s great that our MC left such a backstabbing team! Moon God, whisk him away!
Thank you for translating ✨