Chapter 26: Greed
Seeing Duan Mingyue stop moving, Mao Qiude leaned over to take a look and asked with slight surprise, “You’re interested in this person?”
Duan Mingyue had only looked at him longer because the face seemed familiar. Hearing Mao Qiude’s surprised tone, he actually became interested. “What’s wrong? Isn’t this someone you recommended?”
“No…” A strange emotion flashed across Mao Qiude’s face. “He… to be honest, he is indeed the optimal choice in my consideration, and his playstyle fits the meta very well. It’s just that there are some bad rumors about him in HG Team.”
Duan Mingyue had no interest in gossiping about other people’s affairs. He just glanced casually and spoke casually, not taking it to heart. He gave a half-hearted “Oh” and asked, “Is there anything else?”
Mao Qiude said, “That’s it. Calling you over was mainly to discuss the substitute candidates.”
Duan Mingyue smiled. “Alright, then I’m going. Don’t you still have to prepare for the second team’s training match?”
“En.” Mao Qiude patted his shoulder. “As long as you know what’s what, I won’t worry about the rest.”
Duan Mingyue nodded.
Returning to the training room, Kai was actually there.
He was facing the computer, practicing last-hitting minions.
This was the most basic operation in WL, yet also the most core one. No minion wave meant no economy; no economy meant no equipment; no equipment meant no team fighting, leading to total collapse.
So as a professional player, such training had to be done almost every day until muscle memory was deeply engraved in the brain.
Hearing the noise, Kai turned his head, his eyes lighting up. “Captain, when do you plan to go to the Youth Training Camp?”
Duan Mingyue froze, smiling faintly. “What? Nothing is settled yet, and every single one of you knows already?”
Kai hurriedly cleared his name. “I’m wrongly accused, my Lord! This lowly one absolutely hasn’t blabbed a word to anyone else!”
Duan Mingyue believed him. Kai loved to meddle a bit and talked a lot, but he wasn’t someone who spoke carelessly. On the contrary, Duan Mingyue considered him the most measured and shrewd person in the team besides himself.
Duan Mingyue scoffed. “Forget it, it’s not a big deal. Probably the person in charge of youth training leaked it.”
Kai said, “Then he told Lucida, and Lucida broadcasted it to the whole team?”
This speculation was very reasonable, but Duan Mingyue never commented on things without evidence, so he didn’t reply.
Kai muttered on his own, “This woman is really… She said she was willing to obey the team’s arrangement and urged you, Captain, to go to the Youth Training Camp, shedding all those tears. Nine out of ten, she knows clearly that there are no support seedlings in the camp, so she dared to let you go with peace of mind. …By the way, Captain, how is that UOOW matter going?”
He changed the subject, his eyes instantly filling with gossip. “I watched the recording of you two being sniped by the streamer team today. Holy sh*t, her Mermaid is truly godlike. Those few sacrifices later were also beautiful, trading one for three, one for four. I can only say, there are gaps even between Mermaids.”
Hearing this, Duan Mingyue’s brow relaxed, and he smiled. “En, let’s see how it goes.”
While the two chatted happily in the training room, neither noticed a graceful figure standing outside the door at some point.
Lu Yuan leaned against the doorframe, her eyes icy and her face full of resentment.
She bit off her newly manicured nail. Blood flowed down her snow-white wrist, but Lu Yuan seemed to feel no pain at all. She picked up her phone and dialed a number.
“Hello?” She lowered her voice. “Help me deal with someone…”
Unlike the internal strife within KW Team, Shen Yanjin’s life these past few days was like a child who got an interview opportunity at their dream company—happy and excited. Of course, there was also a trace of apprehension caused by telling a colossal lie.
This trace of apprehension failed to defeat the joy in his heart. Overjoyed, Shen Yanjin even accepted Yue Fengling’s duo queue invitation.
Entering the voice channel, Shen Yanjin greeted him very enthusiastically. “Hi, Old Yue, long time no see. Living well recently?”
Yue Fengling showed cold indifference to his enthusiasm. “RedMoon personally begged you to join the team?”
Shen Yanjin said shyly, “Not yet.”
Yue Fengling pulled the corner of his lip. “But soon? Do you still need me to act with you?”
Shen Yanjin froze.
The bigger the lie, the harder to cover.
If he stopped here, he would still have a way out when exposed later.
But humans are greedy creatures who take a yard after gaining an inch.
Duan Mingyue was straight. He couldn’t possibly like the self known as Shen Yanjin, YanGold, or Sliver.
But what if it was UOOW?
This was his only chance to get slightly closer to Duan Mingyue than just a “teammate.”
Shen Yanjin’s lips trembled slightly. The denial that had slipped to his mouth circled around and was swallowed back.
“Yes.” Shen Yanjin raised his eyebrow, trying hard to make his tone sound like he was joking. “Better safe than sorry. Do the full set if we’re acting.”
Yue Fengling, however, had godlike perception. Hearing this, he had already guessed seventy to eighty percent of Shen Yanjin’s thoughts.
He sneered coldly. “Shen Yanjin, your guts are getting bigger and bigger.” Have you not thought about how you will face Duan Mingyue if you really join KW in the future?
Shen Yanjin really hadn’t thought about it.
He pretended not to understand and laughed it off.
How could others understand? This opportunity was once in a lifetime for him; if he missed it, there wouldn’t be another.
No matter how great the price, Shen Yanjin was willing.
Fortunately, Yue Fengling couldn’t be bothered to probe deeper and clicked queue.
Usually, when the two duo-queued, they would fish in troubled waters in the bot lane. Who knew that this time, Yue Fengling changed his nature? Whether he had seen the light or figured something out, he chose his best position, Top lane, and didn’t play AD to torture teammates anymore.
Shen Yanjin felt it was very strange and intuitively felt something was wrong.
And his intuition was quickly verified.
Yue Fengling said indifferently in the voice channel, “Come, let’s play top duo lane.”
Shen Yanjin: “…”
Fortunately, both were former pros with well-known IDs. The teammates they matched with thought it was some new meta strategy and were very peaceful, even joking around a bit.
This false peace was shattered ten minutes into the game.
Top lane went smoothly indeed, getting two kills and farming excellently.
The problem was that because the support was too far away, the bot lane and jungle couldn’t get roaming support. They were caught repeatedly by the opponent. Even if they didn’t die, they couldn’t farm minions, and their towers were mostly ground down.
One lane winning, two lanes plus jungle super losing.
In the end, Yue Fengling took Shen Yanjin to achieve twenty-three kills, Defeat.
After losing points, he truly didn’t feel heartache, even adding, “Looks like this strategy doesn’t work. Let’s try another.”
Shen Yanjin almost blacked out.
There was a reason Yue Fengling’s rank constantly hovered at the watershed between Diamond and Master.
He looked cold and indifferent as if interested in nothing, but in reality? His brain was full of unconventional tactics, one after another.
After a few games, Shen Yanjin was almost tormented to death.
The intensity on his wrist wasn’t high, but the blow to his spirit was too great.
He said painfully, “Hero Yue, spare me.”
Yue Fengling said, “Is your body comfortable? Still need an IV drip?”
Hearing this, Shen Yanjin’s brain belatedly connected it to the time Yue Fengling asked him to duo queue, but he bailed using a lame excuse.
Regretful, he said sincerely, “World’s Number One AD, I will definitely come whenever called in the future.”
Yue Fengling tried several strategies today and gained a lot, so his mood was fairly decent. Hearing this, he casually asked, “Then what if it conflicts with RedMoon’s time?”
Shen Yanjin didn’t hesitate, saying with slight shyness, “You can just assume I went for an IV drip.”
Ding.
He was kicked out of the voice channel by Yue Fengling.
Shen Yanjin didn’t mind. his mood was simply too good. Just hearing Duan Mingyue’s ID made him want to smile.
He picked up his phone, opened the chat app, and for the umpteenth time, scrutinized the blank chat box between him and Duan Mingyue.
Looking up, the daylight was perfect. Shen Yanjin thought about it, held up his phone, and took a photo of the scenery. Checking the result, he felt it was barely satisfactory, so he ran to the large floor-to-ceiling window in the kitchen and took another.
The effect was much better this time.
A patch of azure sky, floating with large, cotton-candy-white clouds. Sunlight spilled between the high-rise buildings, possessing a beauty unique to the city.
He chose the best photo and sent it to Duan Mingyue, then ordered takeout.
Takeout arrived, takeout eaten. Shen Yanjin opened the chat app again. The photo he sent sat there lonely, not having waited for any reply.
Although it was an expected result, a wave of disappointment still uncontrollably welled up in his heart.
Sighing lightly, Shen Yanjin had just put down his phone when he heard a message notification sound.
He hurriedly brought the phone back to his eyes.
[RedMoon: You took this?]
[RedMoon: Very beautiful.]
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