Chapter 17 ◎ He Is ◎
The two returned to the training room one after another, just in time to hear Song Hong say, “Where did you two go? I was just about to announce something and realized two people were missing.”
Lin Sumo gave a perfunctory excuse, then heard Song Hong say, “Sigh, I remember when you first came, you called people Manager Song, Captain Yu. Now you just speak perfunctorily. People really do change.”
Lin Sumo looked at his heartbroken expression: “……”
The others were holding back laughter until their stomachs hurt. Lin Sumo said coolly, “Thanks. Thanks to you, in the future it might just be ‘Hey, that one over there’.”
“Enough,” Pei Yun interrupted. “Song Hong, what were you going to say just now?”
“Oh,” Song Hong raised his voice. “You and Lin Sumo might not know, but in previous years around this time, the league officials organize an entertainment match. It’s not mandatory, entirely voluntary. Whether to participate or not is usually decided internally by the team and then reported.”
“Heard of it before, watched it a few times,” Lin Sumo listened silently. “And then?”
Song Hong rubbed his forehead. “Logically speaking, aren’t you supposed to be the one with the best brain among us?”
He cleared his throat and continued, “Our club never forces players, so now I’m asking if you want to participate.”
“I have no objection.” Jiang He spoke lazily, slumped in his gaming chair.
Yu Pei said slowly, “I think if we can go, we should go.”
Song Hong slapped the back of his head. “Nonsense, if we couldn’t go, why would I ask you?”
Everyone else said they had no objection. Song Hong looked at Lin Sumo, the only one who hadn’t spoken. “Lin Sumo, what about you?”
“Me?” Lin Sumo said. “I have an objection.”
Everyone present immediately looked at him.
Lin Sumo looked at Song Hong. “Did you just say I should be the one with the best brain among us?”
Song Hong: “?”
Others: “?”
“I’m not,” Lin Sumo pointed his chin at Pei Yun standing next to him. “He is.”
Pei Yun: “……”
Song Hong: “……”
Other teammates: “……”
Song Hong was helpless. “Fine, fine, fine. So, Young Master, do you have any objection to participating in the match?”
Lin Sumo suddenly realized everyone was staring at them. He blinked in confusion and finally shook his head.
“Alright,” Song Hong looked down and took out his phone to type. “I’ll tell the officials. You guys continue training. The arrangements will be sent to you later.”
The others replied with scattered “Okay”s.
While they were training, Shen Chen observed and said, “NGU and Fair played a regular season match this afternoon.”
They were playing a four-man squad. Lin Sumo asked casually, “Mn, how did it go?”
“Fair won, 2:0.”
Lin Sumo almost aimed his ultimate askew.
He turned his head, shocked. “Wha-wha-what?”
Pei Yun called him in the microphone: “Don’t get distracted.”
Lin Sumo had to turn back and refocus on the screen.
NGU was a veteran LPL team, while Fair was different. Fair was a new team established only in the last two years. Although they hadn’t been around long, their results over the two years had been decent.
Lin Sumo always thought Fair’s results were outstanding among new teams, but not enough to crush NGU… right?
After finishing the four-man squad game, the teammates took off their headphones. Shen Chen said, “Done? If you’re done, let’s review the Fair vs. NGU regular season match.”
Afraid they wouldn’t be willing, Shen Chen added timely, “Fair is currently ranked first in points.”
“Holy crap!” Jiang He suddenly yelled. “I didn’t check the rankings for two days, and they’re already first? Shen Chen! Aren’t we reviewing? What are you waiting for?”
Shen Chen was stunned by his reaction, then smiled. “Alright, alright, review.”
His rare enthusiasm was like snow in the desert.
And such an event certainly couldn’t be missed. They geared up, ran toward that clearing, and began enjoying it all.
To their heart’s content.
Chapter 18 ◎ Because I Like Him Too Much ◎
The Trust Club was wealthy and equipped with a dedicated replay room, so Shen Chen shooed them all in there.
Lin Sumo walked at the very back. He lowered his head, staring at the ground in a daze. As a result of not paying attention, he accidentally bumped into someone’s back.
Lin Sumo quickly snapped back to reality. Just as he was about to apologize, he heard Pei Yun’s flat voice: “What, did your eyeballs fall on the floor?”
Lin Sumo swallowed the apology on his lips and changed it to, “No, fell on you.”
Xiao Lanyu, walking ahead of them, turned around upon hearing the noise. “…No, why are you two arguing again?”
“Can’t help it,” Lin Sumo shrugged. “Who told me to like him too much.”
Pei Yun: “….?”
Xiao Lanyu: “……?!”
It took Pei Yun a long time to squeeze out a sentence: “…What do you mean? Lin Sumo, what kind of madness are you suffering from now?”
Lin Sumo walked past him in two or three steps. As he passed, he said roguishly, “Literal meaning.”
—Where did the literal meaning come from? Just pure annoyance.
Inside the replay room.
Shen Chen was debugging the laptop in the room, planning to use the projector to cast the match video onto the big screen.
The windows of the replay room were open, and the evening wind poured into the room gust by gust. However, Luowen was located on the southeast coast, so this wind made the muggy night slightly cooler.
Lin Sumo sat in the corner by the window, resting his chin on his hand and staring blankly at Shen Chen adjusting the projector.
The wind gently blew his hair, lifting the ends. Lin Sumo closed his eyes as the hair brushed lightly against them, then shook his head to force the hair back into place.
Lin Sumo turned his head and suddenly saw Pei Yun sitting opposite him, looking in his direction.
He froze for two seconds, then without thinking, raised an eyebrow at the person opposite him and made a provocative expression.
But what Lin Sumo didn’t know was that from Pei Yun’s perspective, as soon as he made eye contact with Pei Yun, his normally colored face immediately flushed red.
From an angle Lin Sumo couldn’t see, the corner of Pei Yun’s mouth unconsciously lifted.
“Done!”
Shen Chen finished adjusting the projector and shouted from over there. Instantly, everyone in the replay room looked his way.
“Time is tight, so I’ll start directly?” Shen Chen asked. “Are you guys okay?”
Yu Pei yawned. “Okay, okay, just start.”
Twenty-five minutes later, the group finished watching the first game of Fair’s BO3.
Jiang He asked sincerely, “I recall… didn’t Fair like to play guerrilla warfare before?”
Fair indeed used to like playing guerrilla warfare in games. A game usually dragged on to thirty or forty minutes, but this time they actually won a game in twenty minutes.
“Uh-huh,” Shen Chen responded. “Just observed their playstyle… they probably changed tactics.”
“Switched to fast-paced offense,” Lin Sumo chimed in.
Shen Chen said, “Let’s finish watching the remaining two games first.”
So he clicked on the replay of the second game.
Another twenty minutes passed, and the screen once again showed Fair’s victory.
Fair played with a much faster rhythm this game than the first, winning cleanly and neatly.
Jiang He crossed his legs. “Looks like it. They abandoned guerrilla warfare and went for fast offense.”
Lin Sumo looked up from his phone. “I just checked the schedule. Our next match is against Fair.”
The huge replay room fell silent instantly.
Yu Pei thought for a moment and said, “After the review, continue training first. Tomorrow, we’ll find the sparring team to simulate their tactics and come up with more countermeasures.”
Back in the training room, Lin Sumo opened the game again.
The next second, he moved his mouse and sent a screenshot to Pei Yun.
So as soon as Pei Yun returned to his computer, he saw the screenshot of the national server rankings Lin Sumo sent him.
Trust-Solve, Taliyah, National Rank 51.
[Pei Yun]: [Mn.]
Lin Sumo, sitting 108,000 miles away from him in the training room, typed indignantly on the other end: [What ‘mn’? What do you mean!]
[Pei Yun]: [Literal meaning.]
Lin Sumo: “……”
Before he could continue spraying, Pei Yun sent over an image.
Even without opening it, Lin Sumo recognized it as the LoL national server leaderboard; he had just screenshotted one for him.
Lin Sumo was a bit surprised but still opened the screenshot.
What caught his eye was a line: Trust-Print, Xayah, National Rank 34.
Lin Sumo’s just-calmed heart broke instantly: [No, why is your rank so much higher than mine?!]
Pei Yun didn’t reply for a while. It wasn’t until Lin Sumo was about to start a game that he suddenly received his message.
[Pei Yun]: [Maybe because I like you too much.]
Lin Sumo: “……”
He suddenly understood a little why Pei Yun’s face had been entirely black back then.
Damn it, now that he’s been disgusted by Pei Yun like this… why does he suddenly feel that his annoying self back then really deserved a beating?
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