[Esports] I Started an Online Romance with a Big Shot After Retiring Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Habit

[KW-RedMoon: Duo queue?]

The moment Shen Yanjin saw this sentence, his hand moved faster than his brain. By the time he came back to his senses, he had already sent a team invite to Duan Mingyue.

Duan Mingyue didn’t accept, but typed instead.

[KW-RedMoon: Wait a moment, this account’s rank is low. I’ll switch accounts.]

[KW-RedMoon: Can you join a voice channel?]

Shen Yanjin was just about to say yes, but fortunately, his brain finally recovered at this moment and stopped his foolishness.

Typing was one thing, but once he turned on the mic, wouldn’t it be all over?

[UOOW: My mic is broken, still being repaired wuwu.]

[UOOW: Can only listen, is that okay?]

Duan Mingyue didn’t mind. He sent him the voice channel password, then went to find his smurf account.

Taking advantage of this time, Shen Yanjin hurriedly spent a hefty sum on Taobao to buy a complete set of sound card plus voice changer.

He asked the seller: “Male to female, can it be tuned? Preferably a cute girl voice, the kind that must be indistinguishable. Money is not a problem.”

The seller straightforwardly stated that since money was not a problem, he would spare no effort, gathering the power of the entire shop to tune a cute girl voice for Shen Yanjin that even his own mother wouldn’t recognize as a man.

Shen Yanjin paid with satisfaction.

However, the sound card and voice changer would take a few days to arrive. During this time… he could only get by with the lame excuse that his “mic is broken.”

“Hello?” A sound of chair legs scraping the floor, then the microphone being held, a rustling sound later, Duan Mingyue’s voice appeared in the headphones, “UOOW?”

Five years ago, Moon God had just come of age. His voice still carried a kind of youthful rawness, which was already enough to tease; five years later, he had shed that rawness, gaining the deep laziness of an adult man. The end of every sentence rose slightly, seeming to carry a smile, making Shen Yanjin’s heart tingle.

He unconsciously wound the headphone cord with his finger, his ears and neck burning hot.

It really was Duan Mingyue.

Not a dream, not his fantasy, and not separated by a live stream.

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He bit his lip hard, suppressing the joy in his heart, and typed.

[UOOW: Heard it~]

He paused, then thinking that he was now a cute girl persona and didn’t need to pretend otherwise, he followed his heart and continued.

[UOOW: Moon God, your voice sounds so nice.]

Duan Mingyue saw it and chuckled lightly: “Is that so? Thanks.”

At the same time, he marked another X in his heart.

They were fundamentally two different people.

How could he mistake someone just because of one RANK match?

He sneered at himself, skillfully restrained his excess emotions, and smiled: “No problems, right? If no problems, I’m queueing.”

Shen Yanjin was still immersed in the joy of reuniting with Duan Mingyue and didn’t notice the subtle change in the other party’s emotions at all. Hearing this, he busily typed: I’m all good, you queue.

Duan Mingyue didn’t speak again and clicked queue.

Since both of their scores were not high, and there were relatively more players at this time, they got in without waiting long.

Shen Yanjin noticed that Duan Mingyue took a smurf account not listed in his player profile, wondering where he got it from again.

He muttered inwardly “Indeed a smurf maniac,” then seeing Duan Mingyue pick Southern Tower Blade Master, he locked in Ice Witch almost without thinking.

Immediately, both of them froze.

Blade Master plus Ice Witch—this was the jungle-support roam combination YanGold and RedMoon loved to use most five years ago.

Right up until Shen Yanjin deleted his account, this combination in their hands maintained an astonishing one hundred percent win rate.

So much so that seeing Duan Mingyue’s Blade Master now, Shen Yanjin subconsciously picked Ice Witch.

Habit really was a terrifying thing.

He wanted to explain, but feared making it worse, so he simply smashed the broken pot and started playing dumb and acting cute.

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[[Team] UOOW: Brother, can I pick this?]

Duan Mingyue snapped back to reality, gave an “En” and said: “Sure, do you know how to play this character?”

Seeing he didn’t seem too suspicious, Shen Yanjin breathed a sigh of relief.

[[Team] UOOW: Don’t worry Brother, I know how to play this character! I’ll help you slow, help you control the enemies, absolutely won’t steal your kills!]

Duan Mingyue said: “It’s fine if you steal them. You don’t need to go bot later, just follow me.”

[[Team] UOOW: Okay! I’ll follow Brother tightly~]

While the two of them were singing in harmony here happily, the teammates were unhappy.

Blade Master plus Ice Witch, what kind of Taliban configuration was this? Were they here to self-destruct in ranked?!

Without the cover of the noble little gold badge, teammates began to interact “friendlily.”

[[Team] Just A Moment: ??? What the hell, Ice Witch support? Are you here to feed points?]

[[Team] Wens: I’m convinced. Just one game away from promotion, giving me these kinds of cow-horse teammates. What sh*tty matchmaking mechanism is this?]

[[Team] Eating Salt as Rice: Is 3rd Pick an internet princess? Bringing her own Jungle King?]

The teammates were too enthusiastic. Shen Yanjin couldn’t handle 1v3, and having a bit of baggage, he felt embarrassed to curse in front of Duan Mingyue. Holding it in for a while, he decided to endure.

A little impatience spoils great plans; a gentleman’s revenge is not too late after three minutes. See the truth when the game starts.

But Duan Mingyue obviously didn’t think so.

He looked at the chat box and curled his lips.

Shen Yanjin only heard a crisp sound of keyboard typing from the headphones, followed by a loud enter key sound, and a new message popped up in the team chat box.

[[Team] Moon Steed: En, guaranteed win if you don’t feed.]

It felt really good to have someone stand up for him, duo queue with him, and carry him to rank up.

Game started. Shen Yanjin hummed a little tune and followed Duan Mingyue into the jungle.

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On the screen, the blue-skinned girl wearing a witch hat held a staff, obediently following behind the man carrying a big blade like a little tail.

Duan Mingyue was still carefully instructing him.

“Later if there are too many people, when I tell you to run, just run directly. Don’t worry about me, got it?”

Shen Yanjin typed obediently: “Don’t worry Brother, I run super fast.”

Duan Mingyue smiled: “Super fast? Sounds like you’ve already decided to sell me out. Feeling a bit sad.”

Shen Yanjin gave a pretend naive “hehe” laugh and didn’t refute, but thought inwardly: Sell you? How could I possibly sell you! I’d rather die myself than let you die, fck!*

Fortunately, such a life-and-death, heaven-and-earth-moving scene didn’t appear in this game. Duan Mingyue didn’t hold back or mess around. With a nineteen-kill godlike Blade Master, he seriously took down this Diamond game with Shen Yanjin.

Under the enemy high ground tower, Duan Mingyue was slaughtering everyone, while teammates watched from the fountain and typed.

After one game, the teammates’ tone had completely changed.

[[Team] Just A Moment (Blue): Jungle King Brother, do you still need a duo partner? I’m female, can be mature or loli, can play mid and support, definitely play better than this Ice Witch. Super good, super obedient, can show photos. Give me a chance?]

Shen Yanjin had been on edge the whole game, afraid some operation of his would be too sharp and reveal clues to Duan Mingyue. So not only his mechanics, even his item build was done blindly and randomly, trying hard to blend into the Diamond tier. He only put effort into a few key kill points; the rest of the time was all messing around.

Seeing it was finally about to end, unexpectedly, this Chen Yaojin (meddler) jumped out.

Shen Yanjin’s face was all red—from anger.

A 3-7 Mid laner had the nerve to call him bad, and even poached right in front of him?

Shen Yanjin ground his molars hard.

But in the voice channel, Duan Mingyue gave a short laugh and repeated thoughtfully: “Can be mature or loli, can show photos?”

Alarm bells instantly rang in Shen Yanjin’s mind.

He typed alertly.

[[Team] UOOW (Ice Witch): Not needed, Sister should find someone else.]

[[Team] Just A Moment (Blue): ? I don’t think I was talking to you.]

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Shen Yanjin smiled coldly. Obedient Support offline, Yin-Yang Master online.

[[Team] UOOW (Ice Witch): QAQ Wuwu, sorry, Sister don’t be angry~ I just think since Sister is so pretty and confident, why must you be the third person inserting yourself between others? Look, I play averagely and don’t look good, I simply can’t compete with Sister QAQ]

[[Team] UOOW (Ice Witch): What if Brother doesn’t want me anymore? QvQ Begging Sister to let us go, wuwuwu~]

Had to say, pretending to be a girl worked very well.

There was a set of mutual harm rules among the same sex. At least in this situation, this half-sarcastic way of speaking could achieve twice the result with half the effort.

The funniest part was, the Top laner was an honest person. Seeing he got carried to rank up lying down, he didn’t mention the “internet princess” thing at all, and instead started speaking up for Shen Yanjin.

[[Team] Eating Salt as Rice (Ghost Warlock): That’s enough. The young couple is duoing to rank up, what are you joining in for? Even bullying the little sister and seducing her boyfriend? Don’t want face for points, right?]

Just A Moment was like a lit firecracker, exploding the nest, and started passionately outputting with the keyboard in the chat box against Eating Salt as Rice.

Duan Mingyue lazily took the last head, glanced at the team chat log, and teased: “Didn’t expect you to be quite formidable.”

Shen Yanjin’s anger had subsided by now, calming down. Hearing this, he suddenly felt all his previous efforts were wasted.

Now, the baggage was gone, and he couldn’t pretend anymore. He simply let go, smashing the broken pot and typing: Ignore them, Brother, let’s go next game.

“Sure.” Duan Mingyue smiled, raised his blade, and cleanly smashed the enemy crystal. “But I still feel it’s a bit of a loss.”

Shen Yanjin didn’t react, asking blankly: Ah? Why?

Duan Mingyue lowered his voice: “Look, you called me Brother so many times, yet I haven’t heard a single one. Isn’t it a loss for me?”

Shen Yanjin was stunned, then his brain buzzed and stopped working.

Habit harms people deeply.

Solo queuing as support, he was long used to acting like a woman to coax teammate “sons.” Usually, “Brother, Brother” rolled off his tongue very smoothly. Just now, after locking in Ice Witch, Shen Yanjin had messed up his own footing a bit. Confusedly, he actually used this set on Duan Mingyue!

The scariest part was, he didn’t realize it the whole time, calling him that all the way through.

Shen Yanjin buried his face deep in his arms, wanting to change planets to live on from the bottom of his heart.

Seeing UOOW hadn’t replied for a long time, Duan Mingyue assumed the little girl was embarrassed. Just as he wanted to change the topic to pass over this matter, the private chat in the bottom left corner rang.

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[UOOW: Wait…]

[Moon Steed: ?]

[UOOW: Wait till the mic is fixed… I’ll call as many times as Moon God wants to hear.]

Duan Mingyue was stunned.

Duan Mingyue felt he couldn’t be considered a scumbag. Most of the time, he knew what he was doing and was very responsible. The fact that he remained unattached in this messy circle was proof enough.

But it was undeniable that he actively added UOOW and duo-queued with her, eight parts because he was chasing a certain ethereal shadow, and only the remaining two parts were interest in UOOW the girl herself.

Like now, looking at the message sent by the other party, what came to his mind was the scene five years ago when he mischievously tricked the little support into calling him Brother.

Duan Mingyue also felt that doing this was really scummy.

But his lips parted, and like a ghost at work, he responded with “Okay.”

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