Chapter 92
Although RedMoon had a dark history of getting into conflicts with people in Rank and getting banned, his performance in official matches was always so stable. In so many matches over the past six years, it wasn’t that Duan Mingyue never got sick, but even if he played while ill, he never let the influence of pain spread to the arena.
Therefore, he earned the title “Moon God.”
He was the “God” of the arena.
Seeing Shen Yanjin not moving, Duan Mingyue thought he was truly so sensitive that he could empathize even watching others lose. He thought for a moment and said, “He was under too much pressure; it’s not strange to underperform. It’s fine, their time is still long.”
Hearing Duan Mingyue say this was quite novel. Shen Yanjin turned back, feigning surprise with a smile. “Even the Captain says things like this?”
Seeing him smile, Duan Mingyue knew he had overthought it, so he also curled his lips. “Why can’t I say things like this?”
“After all, Moon God has never underperformed in the arena, right?”
Perhaps it was Shen Yanjinâs illusion, but the moment his voice landed, Duan Mingyueâs expression darkened for an instant.
The man smiled faintly. “In this arena, there have never been gods.”
Shen Yanjin was stunned.
He had never seen such an expression on Duan Mingyue.
But it was only for that instant. The next moment, the man returned to his original appearance and smiled at him. “Let’s go, back to the base.”
That night, KW’s name was in all the trending threads on the forum.
Amidst these tactical discussions and player evaluation threads, there was a title that stuck out like a sore thumb.
ăUm… I want to ask the audience at the match today, was I the only one who saw RedMoon and Sliver holding hands?ă
The thread included a photo.
In the photo, in front of the dim player tunnel, the tall, handsome man and the pale young man beside him looked at each other and smiled. Their hands were tightly clasped together, the atmosphere extremely ambiguous. From the photographer’s angle, one could clearly see the tenderness and doting in the man’s curved eyes.
Because of this photo, all kinds of people were arguing in a mess inside. There were Moon-U shippers, RedMoon fans, Sliver fans, KW team fans, and random haters fishing in troubled waters.
One side felt Moon God couldn’t possibly like men and the picture was just brotherhood, not to mention the existence of UOOW. The other side brought out various evidence of ambiguity between Sliver and RedMoon, such as photos of the two riding in a luxury car together during the New Year. Both sides stuck to their guns, arguing endlessly. For a time, the heat was actually higher than other serious analysis threads.
Duan Mingyue naturally saw this thread too.
To be precise, the frantic Mi Yonghui shared the thread with him.
After reading it, he smiled and didn’t take it to heart. He simply forwarded the thread to Shen Yanjin, letting him decide whether to do PR deletion or leave it be.
Shen Yanjin looked at the thread and silently saved the photo. After thinking, he replied: “If there’s no impact, just leave it.”
He wouldn’t actively make it public, but he didn’t want to hide it secretly either.
Duan Mingyue naturally followed his lead completely.
The other semi-final was TWG vs. WOF, scheduled for two days later. KW’s opponent for the finals would be decided then.
The loser would play another match with SYG to determine the third place.
The finals were right before their eyes.
Inside the training room, the lights were bright. Song Yuan unhurriedly read out the gift list, while Kai frantically trash-talked his solo queue teammates. He seemed to have met actors [griefers], and his tone was full of resentment.
Neither Tans nor Duan Mingyue were there.
With the lesson of Sky Spirit and Mechanical Inventor last time, Shen Yanjin now practiced some weird stuff in Rank whenever he had nothing to do, making his teammates miserable. Seeing him, they didn’t give the ban slots to the opponents; they directly banned those strange characters he wanted to use.
Even so, it couldn’t stop Shen Yanjinâs footsteps in creating chaos.
To the point that some threads appeared on the forum discussing: What is KW’s support Sliver’s purpose in playing these weird things every day? Is it a tactic for the finals?
Even more people were discussing KW’s undefeated record so far this season.
As long as KW could win the championship in the finals, they would create history and become the first team in league history to win the championship undefeated.
Shen Yanjin was thoroughly famous now. When he first entered KW, public opinion was very poor. But in esports, hard power always spoke loudest. His mechanics and game sense were obvious to all. Even some of his past matches were dug out and re-analyzed. The conclusion was: HG members were all match-fixing dogs, acting [throwing games] around Shen Yanjin every day; they deserved to die.
In the past, Shen Yanjin might have been happy about the shift in public opinion.
But the current him didn’t care about those things so much anymore.
Someone walked into the training room. Shen Yanjinâs game had just ended, and he turned his head to look.
The person who came in was Mao Qiude.
And… beside him was a young boy who didn’t look very old.
This boy looked sixteen or seventeen at most, a bit thin, with yellow hair. Led into the training room, he nervously clutched the hem of his clothes with both hands.
“Pause training for a moment,” Mao Qiude clapped his hands. “Turn off the streams temporarily too. Let me introduce someone. This is the substitute Mid Laner promoted from the second team this year, Yeye.”
Kai muttered with a weird expression, “Grandpa [Yeye]? Holy crap, I reasonably suspect this name is taking advantage of me.”
“No no no, not Grandpa, it’s Yeye [Night-Night].” The kid blushed. “My real name is Ye Ye. The surname Ye as in leaf, the name Ye as in night.”
Although he was introduced as a substitute Mid Lanerâa position conflicting with Kai’s and arguably a competitorâKai showed no displeasure on his face. He smiled and said a few words, then went back to training.
It was as if he had expected Ye Ye’s appearance long ago.
Compared to his calmness, Shen Yanjin was actually more surprised.
The finals were right in front of them. Promoting someone at this time seemed a bit too sudden.
Perhaps Shen Yanjinâs surprised expression was too obvious. Duan Mingyue, who walked into the training room afterward, smiled at him and whispered, “Kai has a waist injury. Bringing someone up from the second team now is mainly for cultivation, not rotation.”
Shen Yanjin finally realized.
Careers in this industry were short, so while the veteran players could still play, they had to bring up capable and potential new players for cultivation. This way, the team roster wouldn’t have a gap, and the team wouldn’t plummet due to the helpless departure of veteran players. Passing down the torch; that was roughly what this meant.
Duan Mingyue gently rubbed his hair and didn’t say much more. He sat down at the station next to him and started his own training.
When returning to the dormitory at night, he suddenly said something out of the blue: “I’ve been playing for almost eight years.”
Counting the secondary league, the ID RedMoon had hung on the WL Alliance’s professional player list for as long as eight years.
Not just him, but Kai, Tans, Yue Fengling, Song Yuan… etc., were all veterans.
Saying it out loud, they were only in their twenties.
But in the esports circle, at this age, it wouldn’t be strange if they “retired into the grave” the next day.
Because of Ye Ye’s promotion today, Shen Yanjin had already been thinking about this. Hearing Duan Mingyueâs abrupt sentence, he inexplicably understood his meaning.
He said, “I’ve also played for almost six years.”
Duan Mingyue held his hand, kneading his knuckles. “Actually, Kai said last year he wanted to retire, but because we won the World Championship, he played for another year. Actually, not just him; I’ve had such thoughts too.”
Shen Yanjinâs brain didn’t process it immediately. He looked at the man blankly.
In his heart, RedMoon had always been the invincible character in the arena who conquered everything. Anyone, including Shi Feng and Yue FenglingâShen Yanjin had thought they would retire one day. Only Duan Mingyue was the exception.
He licked his lips and said dryly, “Why? Your condition is clearly…”
“Clearly still maintained very well?” Duan Mingyue smiled faintly. “My dad’s health hasn’t been very good, and the relatives have been very restless. So for the past two years, they’ve wanted me to go back and take over the family business. I didn’t agree.”
Shen Yanjin had witnessed the Duan family relatives. Back then, it was just a small matter of picking someone up at the airport, yet it was turned into such a trap. Duan Mingyue summarized it lightly with the word “restless,” but the hardships behind it were obviously hard for others to imagine.
Thinking back, Shen Yanjin belatedly realized that since joining the team, Duan Mingyue was often running around. Although training was completed according to quota, with various matters piling up, Duan Mingyue would leave the base almost every few days. Sometimes, even when back at the base, he would see the man handling work on his laptop.
Pressure from both sides; Duan Mingyue, caught in the middle, truly had it hard.
A trace of guilt flashed through Shen Yanjinâs eyes. He had been focusing on the competition these days and hadn’t noticed these obvious things.
Of course, it was also possible that Duan Mingyue intentionally didn’t let him notice.
All along, Duan Mingyue presented an effortless appearance in front of others. But when it came to pressure, his was definitely the heaviest. He was the only son of the Duan family, born with billions in assets, an esports genius, a traffic darling, with a god-given handsome appearanceâundoubtedly a winner in life.
However, with great power comes great responsibility.
Everyone is willing to simply spend money and enjoy life, but once responsibility is mentioned, everyone keeps their distance.
The fact that Duan Mingyue had thoughts of leaving probably meant he was truly tired.
Just as he said, in this arena, there have never been gods.
Stripping away the halo, he was just an ordinary person.
Shen Yanjin was silent for a while, then said, “Whatever decision you make, I support you.”
Duan Mingyueâs expression relaxed. He raised his hand to support the back of the young man’s head, rubbing the skin behind his ear with his thumb. “When I went to the youth training camp before, there were a few good Jungler players. Today when I went with the coach to pick up Ye Ye, we also promoted them to the second team. Let them find their feeling in the secondary league, see how they perform, and then promote them to the first team.”
Saying this, he took a step forward, pulled Shen Yanjin into his arms, bent down slightly, and rested his chin on the shoulder of the person in his embrace. “Your filter on me is too strong. I’ve always been worried you’d be disappointed in me.”
The man’s warm breath tickled his neck. Shen Yanjin laughed, “What filter do I have?”
Duan Mingyue said, “Didn’t you even love the ‘seriously ill me’ because of the association?”
Shen Yanjin was stunned, then realized he was talking about the imagination exercise Mao Qiude made him do on the day he joined the teamâtreating his own trash rookie Jungler like a Duan Mingyue in poor condition and supporting him with care.
Receiving the vulnerability and petty emotions transmitted by the man for the first time, Shen Yanjin only felt his heart turn into a complete mess of softness.
He said, “How could I be disappointed in you. I… In my second year as a pro, I created an alt account with the ID UOOW.”
Shen Yanjin suddenly mentioned something completely unrelated. Duan Mingyue looked at him.
The young man met his gaze, his eyes filled with smiles. “Do you know what this ID means?”
After asking, without waiting for an answer, he continued on his own: “It meansâthe reflection of the moon.”
UOOW, MOON.
Just like the moon reflected in the water. The reflection of MOON (M-O-O-N upside down/reflected) is UOOW (W-O-O-W).
Duan Mingyue was once too far away from Shen Yanjinâa cold, bright moon, attainable only in sight but not in reach.
He was dust in the mud, only able to look up with effort.
Sometimes he thought his own cleanliness could probably never be transmitted to the bright moon in his lifetime.
But he couldn’t give up, so he could only secretly kiss the moon’s reflection in the water on unmanned nights.
Shen Yanjin looked at Duan Mingyueâs rarely stunned face, smiled brightly, then raised his head and kissed the man’s lips forcefully.
He said, “I love you.”
Immediately, he felt the arms around his waist slowly tighten. The man’s deep voice rang in his ear, full of cherished affection: “I love you too.”
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