Chapter 18: Peacock Fanning Its Tail
Coming out of the dungeon, Shen Guanchao logged off the game and walked into the NAVA training base conference room with the team’s data analyst.
With the Spring Split preliminaries approaching, various league teams gradually resumed normal training to welcome the arrival of the new season.
In the following month or so, Shen Guanchao only played a few rounds of Arena with Xie Jingchu outside of training hours. Their interactions gradually became sparse.
Approaching the Spring Festival, the Spring Split officially kicked off.
At the opening ceremony, after the eight-minute-plus new season promotional video passed, players from the two teams took the stage one after another.
The schedule was randomly assigned.
In the first match of the regular season, RSG faced NAVA.
At the beginning of the season, the two major domestic powerhouse teams clashed, directly keeping the heat of this match high.
Amidst the host’s introduction and fans’ cheers, Shen Guanchao walked to his pre-arranged position. The man had a slender figure and handsome appearance. Standing among professional players, he looked like a crane among chickens.
His popularity crushed other players several times over. The fans’ screams were about to lift the roof, exaggerated enough to be clearly heard even backstage.
On the RSG side, Lihua Na, who was already seated, withdrew her gaze and sneered with Soso beside her: “Fans are shouting so loudly, and that silly bird just waved twice? Acting high and cold?”
“Normal. Acted cool too much.” Soso packed his peripherals. “If I were at his level, I’d act like that too.”
“I wouldn’t just dye my hair purple; I’d dye my whole person green to tell everyone—I am the biggest focus of the arena!”
Hearing this, the RSG coach knocked his notebook on Soso’s head. “Train more, dream less, understand?”
“You two are rhythm-baiting (creating drama) here before the match even starts. I don’t even dare to listen to this episode’s Mic Check.”
Besides the duo on the RSG side, the moment Shen Guanchao appeared, the bullet comments in the official Alliance livestream were also very colorful—
[Just a Spring Split opening ceremony, why is this little purple-hair acting so cool today?] [Same as above (ls), I also feel this guy is exceptionally pretentious today.] […Even used hair gel to style it!] [Could he have saved up some big move?] [What are you thinking? Using a big move in the opening match? Probably deliberately being flashy because Lihua Na is on the opposite side. Those two enemies for eight hundred years must mock each other whenever they meet.] [Sigh…] [So flashy, making people’s hearts flustered too. Husband is so handsome today.] [I still feel something is wrong.] [Relax, basic operation. This guy fans his tail like a peacock every day, saying something like ‘not narcissistic means not young.’] [Someone from next door come catch this demon.] [Pure passerby, why is this person so awesome? Quickly lower your status!] [Already imagining the scene of Flesh getting his ear twisted by Flower backstage later…] [Asking for a tutorial on “NAVA·Flesh” getting beaten hahahaha] …
On the arena, Shen Guanchao couldn’t see these teases. He pulled his sleeves up to his elbows and adjusted his peripherals without looking sideways.
Lu Wuxu sat next to him and joked for a couple of sentences. A few minutes later, he turned serious. Both teams confirmed their equipment and accounts were intact, and the game entered the preparation interface (ban & pick).
Fox, who had the first pick right in the team, asked: “Pick what?”
As a top team in the Alliance, NAVA not only possessed excellent players but also a powerful coaching team. Pei Zhi, based on the synthesis of opinions from analysts and other coaches, said: “RSG’s Lihua Na is famously difficult to deal with. Pick dispel control and rewind, bring combat support drones.”
As Pei Zhi’s voice fell, Fox made the choice as he said.
Opposite, Lihua Na pondered for a moment and indeed locked in the two skills “Rewind” and “Wind Rising,” also picking a combat support drone, gathering the sticky trio set.
Shen Guanchao glanced at her from afar, locking in “Dispel Control” and the flexible “Bayonet,” bringing a light shield drone.
Two old foxes with their own plans were prepared to give the other a hard time and dampen their spirits.
Facing the region’s number one main attacker, Lihua Na didn’t bring “Weakness.” At the start, she rushed recklessly into Shen Guanchao’s face, wearing him down for a wave.
At three and a half minutes, the first kill broke out between the two sides.
[First Blood] [“NAVA·Flesh” killed “RSG·Flower”]
Commentator A: “Although Lihua Na was killed by Flesh in this wave, it doesn’t matter. Nana bought time for her teammates in Zone A and stalled Flesh’s support. Soso and Sun over there have successfully taken out Lu!”
“Zoe is also low health. Can they kill him?!”
Just as the commentator finished speaking, Soso charged towards Zoe.
Fortunately, Zoe opened a hexagonal photon shield at the critical moment, barely maintaining his health line. RSG’s medic Sun was relentless, circling behind him. Just as he was about to strike, a heavy cannon shot suddenly landed on him.
[“NAVA·Flesh” killed “RSG·Sun”]
—Shen Guanchao arrived in time. RSG failed to trade one for two and instead let the opponent profit, falling into a disadvantage. Finally, they were leveled at the seventeenth minute.
RSG’s coach underestimated Shen Guanchao’s support ability, letting Lihua Na choose the old trick of feinting to the east and attacking the west, resulting in a defeat in the season opener.
As a veteran powerhouse team, they absolutely could not be shaved bald (swept 0:2) at the beginning of the season.
This would affect the team’s subsequent sponsorships.
In the second game, RSG adjusted tactics and fought a war of attrition for nearly forty minutes, winning with difficulty.
Shen Guanchao rubbed his wrist and walked off the stage, cameras filming all the way.
When he returned to the lounge, he took his phone back from the staff and replied to Xie Jingchu’s message.
[Flesh: Came to the venue?] [Xie Jingchu: Here, sitting in the audience.] [Xie Jingchu: Do you have time after the match… or do you have to go back to training?] [Flesh: Players can use the remaining time on match days freely. Go out for a meal, go shopping or something.] [What, want to ask me out?]
Before Xie Jingchu came, Mu Xinyue had exhorted repeatedly, teaching him how to ask the person he liked out on a date—step by step, playing hard to get, pouring out the Mu family’s love bible.
The student, however, went his own way and threw a straight ball.
[Xie Jingchu: Want to…] [Can we have a meal together?]
Shen Guanchao agreed readily: [Sure, if we win, I’ll come.]
With the confidence of inevitable victory, he returned to the stage again.
In the third match, RSG was speed-pushed by NAVA.
RSG’s steady operating mode worked once, but the second time it wasn’t so effective.
When the operation flow met the ultimate speed-push flow—
At two and a half minutes into the start, Shen Guanchao took Soso’s head, then coordinated with Zoe to target Lihua Na. While outputting high damage, he maximized his support speed, his fingertips almost creating afterimages.
Lihua Na could do nothing about Flesh, who was as flexible as a loach. She turned to change strategy, but by this time, their operation had already been torn open by NAVA, with no retreat available.
When the match reached the twenty-first minute, RSG ended with regret.
Thus, in the first match of the Spring Split regular season, NAVA took RSG two to one.
Shen Guanchao took off his headphones and led his teammates to shake hands amidst the screams of the whole venue.
During the post-match MVP interview, he unusually didn’t taunt the camera asking how his old friends at RSG had become noobs again recently. Instead, he answered a few routine questions properly and patted his butt and left.
Soso clutched his chest, choking: “Is he possessed? Dressed in such a sky-explodingly flashy style, yet behaving more properly than the Alliance’s legal department.”
“Who knows.” Lihua Na smiled, holding a cigarette in her mouth and lighting it. “Maybe he’s in love.”
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