Chapter 28: So-Called Hard Evidence
Shen Yanjin had heard many similar evaluations: a sharp blade prone to hurting oneself, a double-edged sword with equal pros and cons. But he had never taken them to heart.
But once Duan Mingyue said it, he cared terribly.
He scratched his hair, a bit annoyed.
The current change in playstyle was merely because his teammate was Duan Mingyue, so Shen Yanjin was willing to abandon his edge and play around Duan Mingyue. In reality, he had always been that double-edged sword; he never changed.
Hearing Duan Mingyue’s fair evaluation devoid of praise gave Shen Yanjin an indescribable sense of loss.
He had never recognized him, nor appreciated him.
His expectations over these years were nothing but a one-man show.
Duan Mingyue sensed his mood was off and asked puzzledly, “What’s wrong? You know him?”
“…En.” Shen Yanjin answered vaguely. He had just told Duan Mingyue smoking was bad, but now he wanted a cigarette himself to dispel the gloom. “Sort of. I… I learned a bit of strategy from him.”
Duan Mingyue saw he didn’t want to elaborate and thoughtfully skipped the topic. “Then you really learned the essence.”
Shen Yanjin’s mind was a mess, and his speech lost some of its previous boundaries. He asked, “Moon God, you mentioned the Youth Training Camp earlier. Did something happen?”
Duan Mingyue didn’t answer but asked back, “You’re very curious?”
Shen Yanjin laughed, playing dumb. “After all, it’s a place I might go to in the future…”
Listening to the young girl’s naive laughter in the headphones, Duan Mingyue unconsciously tapped his finger on the desk twice.
He had indeed gone to the Youth Training Camp.
Three days ago, Duan Mingyue arranged a time with the camp manager. The first team had a day off from practice, so he took the opportunity to go downstairs.
The second floor and first floor sounded very close, but in reality, the Youth Training Camp was arranged on the south side of the floor, with separate elevators and stairs, and a side door for entry and exit.
Plus, the team had explicit rules: youth trainees and second-team members could not disturb first-team members without cause. So, despite being in the same building, the Youth Training Camp and the first team were like two different worlds, rarely intersecting.
Since few people streamed and they spent little time together, the Youth Training Camp was relatively quiet, with almost no sound except keyboards and mice clicking.
Perhaps someone had leaked the news that Duan Mingyue was coming; every trainee watched their screens with 120% seriousness, sitting even straighter than usual.
Before coming, Duan Mingyue thought he had plenty of time and could maybe rest a bit after handling things.
The result was that he stayed in the Youth Training Camp for six hours. Almost all the staff were fired, and two coaches were asked to leave the team.
That KW actually harbored such a group of parasites who only took wages, did no real work, and oppressed people with authority every day—even Duan Mingyue himself was shocked.
After showing the last person out of the reception room, Duan Mingyue sighed and rubbed his brow.
He truly realized what “Gold and jade on the outside, rotten cotton on the inside” meant.
KW was a powerhouse team backed by the Duan family, fed by over a dozen sponsorships, with a base in the most prosperous city center.
But too much is as bad as too little. The first team was already like a palace drama. Then there was the second team—one manager couldn’t handle it all. Duan Mingyue hadn’t paid attention to management, leaving things to others while he focused on competing. The result was—
KW’s interior was completely rotten.
What was more interesting was that among so many people, not one mentioned Lu Yuan’s name. One coach stammered for a long time; several times Duan Mingyue felt he was about to say something, but in the end, the coach lowered his head and left silently.
Very strange.
Duan Mingyue didn’t lie to Shen Yanjin; he was genuinely annoyed.
The greater the ability, the higher the position, the more sh*t one had to manage and know.
Even rehiring and using connections for handover took time. Duan Mingyue had to manage it.
Truthfully, he was exhausted and irritable now. But the more it was like this, the more Duan Mingyue displayed a gentle, smiling front.
He thought for a moment and smiled slightly. “It’s not a big deal… Don’t worry, when you come to youth training, I’ll open the back door for you. Absolutely superior treatment.”
Shen Yanjin blushed and stammered, “I thought Moon God was someone iron-faced and selfless who wouldn’t do such things.”
Originally, he wouldn’t.
But under these circumstances, if he didn’t, then even if Shen Yanjin was the King of Heaven, he would be screened out upon arrival.
Of course, Duan Mingyue wouldn’t say this aloud. He asked, “Disappointed?”
Shen Yanjin couldn’t help shaking his head. “I’m very happy.”
Shen Yanjin was a sensitive person; he could often quickly detect others’ attitudes toward him.
Duan Mingyue had intentionally kept a distance before, joking yes, flirting no.
But ever since he started sending photos to Duan Mingyue, the relationship between the two had invisibly drawn much closer.
Shen Yanjin cleared his throat and focused back on the game. “Moon God, I’m in my promotion series.”
Every time a player advanced a major tier in WL, there were five promotion matches. Winning three meant successful promotion; losing three meant dropping points and losing the qualification.
UOOW and Moon Steed were in similar ranks, both Diamond. Finishing this promotion series meant advancing to Master.
Duan Mingyue glanced at his score. “I’m about the same. One more game and I’ll get the promotion qualification.”
Shen Yanjin played three times with Duan Mingyue and went straight from Diamond to Master. This speed was like riding a rocket.
But there were downsides. They had too many consecutive wins, raising their hidden MMR (Matchmaking Rating). Consequently, the teammates they matched with were all high-ELO, and point deduction for losses increased.
Clicking the confirm match button, Shen Yanjin habitually checked his teammates’ IDs.
In high ELO, streamers weren’t rare.
But he didn’t expect the following sentence to pop up in the chat box.
[Star Universe Streaming – You Are My Kiss: UOOW, being an internet princess hooking up with men everywhere, is it comfortable? Does a girl have no sense of shame at all?]
[Star Universe Streaming – You Are My Kiss: That Jungle King brother, I advise you to open your eyes. This woman failed to hook up with Moon God, so she came to find you. You’re just a spare tire, you know?]
Two questions left both people in the voice channel a bit stunned.
After a while, Duan Mingyue locked in his character, holding back laughter. “…I’m a spare tire?”
Shen Yanjin, as a grown man, felt even more complicated than Duan Mingyue.
Before this, he absolutely never imagined a day would come when he’d be accused of “hooking up with men everywhere, having no shame.”
Using a voice changer now, he experienced firsthand what it meant to be mute eating yellow goldthread (suffering in silence).
Shen Yanjin struggled for a moment, stuttering, “Moon God, I… this…”
Unable to speak, he simply typed.
[UOOW: ? What are you saying?]
[Star Universe Streaming – You Are My Kiss: Still playing dumb?]
[Star Universe Streaming – You Are My Kiss: There is hard evidence on Weibo.]
[Star Universe Streaming – You Are My Kiss: I hate women like you the most. Promotion series, right? Watch me act (troll) you and it’s done.]
Those with promotion qualifications had a small icon next to their ID.
Shen Yanjin was confused by this senseless slander.
Sometimes the scariest thing wasn’t a villain, but a pure idiot.
He wanted to defend himself now but didn’t know where to start. This was pure fabrication from start to finish!
Helpless, he wiped his face and said, “I-I’ll go check Weibo.”
“Don’t rush.” Duan Mingyue curled his lips, his voice smiling. “Play first. Talk after.”
Hearing his calm tone, Shen Yanjin felt somewhat reassured. He obediently put down his phone, laughing and crying at the same time. “Where did all this come from…”
Duan Mingyue said, “Just bored people.”
Shen Yanjin couldn’t see that Duan Mingyue in front of the computer was the opposite of his tone—no smile on his face, eyes cold and severe.
He told Shen Yanjin not to check his phone, but he went on Weibo himself.
UOOW had absorbed a lot of heat from the two top traffic figures in the domestic WL region recently, plus a bunch of streamers playing with her out of boredom. Right now, the “Hard Evidence” mentioned by You Are My Kiss was already trending.
He read through it rapidly, ten lines at a glance. His lip twitched, showing no emotion, and he calmly exited Weibo.
That streamer kept his word. In one game, he fed and fed, spamming in the all-chat.
[[All] Star Universe Streaming – You Are My Kiss (Ghost Snow Woman): Follow my stream room xxxxx, specialized in sanctioning shameless bitches who seduce men.]
[[All] Star Universe Streaming – You Are My Kiss (Ghost Snow Woman): Come follow me quickly~]
It seemed he felt he was doing a good deed upholding justice.
Again, don’t fear villains, fear idiots.
Shen Yanjin didn’t mute him, just wanting to see what tricks this guy could pull.
The result was this guy’s touching IQ made him want to laugh.
In his years playing pro, the amount of flaming he endured and times he was trolled probably exceeded the number of meals most people ate.
Blackened by the whole internet, family greeted, intelligence questioned, insulted with slurs while being trolled in matches.
So now, watching this streamer, Shen Yanjin only felt the methods were too childish.
However, he was still very concerned about what the “hard evidence” the other party mentioned was.
In this game, that streamer fed twenty-four kills, while Shen Yanjin and Duan Mingyue took thirty-five.
Later, You Are My Kiss suddenly gained IQ. Instead of purely feeding, he went to help the enemy ruin his teammates’ mentality. Once the opponents were controlled, he pushed them to safety. When he saw Shen Yanjin going to gank, he broadcasted Shen Yanjin’s coordinates to the whole map.
The result was Shen Yanjin got caught and died in the final wave. Duan Mingyue killed two and got on the enemy high ground, but the opponents pushed one wave and destroyed the crystal first.
Duan Mingyue frowned.
He was worried UOOW, a little girl who hadn’t touched this circle much, would feel wronged and uncomfortable, her mentality exploding.
Unexpectedly, UOOW laughed out loud, acting as if nothing happened in the voice channel, smilingly saying, “People really do improve. He’s quite smart, knowing to report coordinates to the enemy. Moon God, wait a moment, I’ll go check Weibo to see who exactly is playing tricks.”
Duan Mingyue heard her voice as normal, without any strain, and his opinion of her instantly changed.
He heard UOOW’s voice was soft and mushy, very clean, and thought she was a child well-protected by her family. He didn’t expect her psychological quality to be so tough—simply born material for esports.
He remembered the “Hard Evidence” article he just saw on Weibo. Deep emotions flowed in his eyes, but his mouth smiled lightly as he said, “Okay.”
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