Chapter 3: Explanation – Young and Ignorant
However, he quickly adjusted his state, and another white stake successfully hit the Snow Woman. The bullet screen went silent.
Everyone thought the Shrine Maiden’s next step was to continue smashing black stakes onto the Snow Woman, triggering the disintegration stun to help Spirit Guide rotate, replicating the previous play. But unexpectedly, the Shrine Maiden backhandedly smashed the black stake onto herself.
Next, like a roadblock, she intercepted between the Snow Woman and Spirit Guide, escorting Spirit Guide’s rotation the whole way. Because both Spirit Guide and the Snow Woman had white stakes on them, when the Snow Woman approached the Shrine Maiden, she was continuously slowed, while Spirit Guide moving away from the Shrine Maiden continuously gained a speed boost due to the repulsive force. The Snow Woman could only watch helplessly as Spirit Guide rotated into the sports field, completely stripped of any temper.
[Holy shit, Shrine Maiden can be played like this?]
[No time to mourn the Snow Woman, making her debut next is the Roadblock build Shrine Maiden.]
Compared to the classroom’s high-wall area from before, the sports field was clearly more convenient for the Shrine Maiden to flex her skills. Mu Jiu controlled the Shrine Maiden, predicting 100% of the Snow Woman and his teammate’s movements. The colors of the curse stakes switched dazzlingly fast; onlookers could only see a figure glowing with black and white light jumping up and down across the map like a flashing disco ball.
Annoying the Snow Woman to no end, she directly gave up on the Spirit Guide who had already been on the table, turning around to focus entirely on killing the Shrine Maiden.
[666, not even acting anymore, has this Shrine Maiden’s stakes missed even once this game? Kids, this is hacking.]
[The game can be lost, but the Shrine Maiden must die.]
[It feels like returning to that painful era of being repeatedly jumped by humans.]
Ultimately, Spirit Guide successfully followed the other two teammates to open the escape gate and flee. The pitiful Shrine Maiden was placed on the Dissociation Table and eliminated, but the three escapes secured the game’s victory.
[The corpse, lived?]
[That bro who was going to eat shit just now, don’t leave, I took a screenshot.]
After finishing the match, Bleach collapsed exhaustedly into his chair; not physical exhaustion, but mental exhaustion.
If he had known earlier, he shouldn’t have been a rubbernecker and dragged Nine into a duo-queue. It was fine if they won, but if they lost and the haters scolded Mu Jiu because of it, wouldn’t the captain tear him apart?
It was also his lack of consideration; he hadn’t anticipated Nine’s return would bring such massive popularity.
Bleach silently looked up and glanced at Shi Wen. His face was gloomy enough to drip water, his eyes dead set on the computer screen. Bleach couldn’t help but shiver.
He didn’t doubt in the slightest that if the internet cable had a physical form, Shi Wen would have already crawled through it to strangle Mu Jiu.
On the other side, Mu Jiu seemed to sense something as well. Ever since Shi Wen’s voice came through the mic, he hadn’t said a single word. For a time, the mic was terrifyingly quiet.
Right at this moment, an unfamiliar account entered the voice room. Before Bleach could react, that side directly began hurling abuse: “Forfeit dog, how do you have the nerve to come back? What right do you have to come back? Do you know how many people you miserably harmed? You don’t deserve to play esports!”
Before the other side could finish, Bleach immediately and nimbly kicked the person out of the voice room, his tone tinged with anger. “I told the fans not to enter the room. I don’t want this kind of fan anyway; no matter what, personal attacks are wrong.”
Conversely, it was Mu Jiu who forced a couple of bitter laughs to smooth things over. “Um… it’s fine, just let them scold. It really is my fault.”
He caused the team to stop at the top four; he caused three teammates to retire on the spot. These curses were what he deserved.
“Is this all you have to say?”
Shi Wen, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke up, talking to him across the short span of the network cable. His voice was deep, making it impossible to read his tone.
“…” Mu Jiu didn’t speak.
It was too heavy. When he decided to come back, he knew he would inevitably face scolding, but he truly hadn’t figured out how to face him yet.
Shi Wen waited for a long time again, and all he got was his silence.
Despite sounding rather peaceful, it wasn’t hard to hear the icy chill in his words. “Heh, fine.” After saying that, he directly left, turning and heading up to the second floor.
He shouldn’t have harbored any expectations for him. He was always such an irresponsible person, coming as he pleased, leaving as he pleased.
Compared to all this, it was truly himself, who had actually waited for him for three years, who was more ridiculous.
“Ah, ah, ah, um, Nine, are you returning this time to reminisce about the past or…” preparing to come back to play professionally?
Bleach didn’t want to see the atmosphere become so oppressive, so he interjected with a question.
He didn’t finish the rest of his sentence, but he believed the other party could understand.
If Nine decided to return to the professional arena, the pressure he would have to face would make today look like a drop in the ocean.
“Yeah.”
The youth’s muffled response came from the other side.
For some reason, even though Bleach didn’t have a deep relationship with Mu Jiu before—after all, they weren’t on the same team back then, and their most interaction was just the game they played—a thought of “as expected” inexplicably rose in his heart.
From Mu Jiu’s operational logic, one could see his attitude towards handling things: daring to fight and take risks, yet possessing some of the impulsiveness of youth.
When Nine went abroad to play tournaments back then, he was only sixteen. After battling for half a lifetime, he was now just barely nineteen.
Bleach shook his head. Sure enough, he was still young, always acting recklessly without regardless of the consequences. “It’s gonna be tough,” he sighed silently to express his concern for his future.
He didn’t know why Mu Jiu forfeited back then, but regardless, this incident had brought harm to others. Judging from Shi Wen’s attitude, and Mu Jiu having no intention of explaining the matter himself, returning to the competitive scene after retiring would be as difficult as scaling the heavens.
Mu Jiu could naturally hear that Shi Wen was angry just now. At this moment, his mood was a bit low. Sitting before the computer desk, he lowered his head and adjusted the wristband on his wrist.
A beam of light shone down from above. The shadow cast by his bangs covered his eyes.
“I know.”
Just as he himself had said, those curses were what he should endure.
He came back to make up for the regrets of the past, otherwise, it would forever be a hurdle he couldn’t get over in his heart.
“As long as you’ve thought it through.” Bleach pursed his lips and lightened his tone to liven up the atmosphere. “However, I still have high hopes for you.”
As he spoke, he started a few more matches. Mu Jiu, being in a bad mood, hardly spoke, just silently focusing on operating. And his usual role before retiring was OB; it looked as if he was trying to usurp the host’s role and beat the boss to death. The brutality of the scene made even Bleach, a boss player, feel his scalp tingle.
Following another hard CC long stun, Bleach couldn’t help but avert his eyes. “Hiss…”
Beating on the boss’s body, aching in his heart.
[May the whole world care for boss players; boss players unite and help each other.]
[Today Bleach isn’t flaming his teammates for being trash, he’s empathizing with the opponent.]
[So handsome, so handsome, so can SG really not sign him?]
[The person above, do you want to be cursed to death? Sign him and wait for him to forfeit again over a disagreement? Learn from past mistakes, learn from past mistakes, learn from past mistakes!]
He could say that Mu Jiu’s mechanics were absolutely flawless. If the clips from today’s stream got out, they would reach the point where people would accuse him of hacking. No wonder Captain Wen couldn’t forget him.
Being away from the game for three years, yet able to pull off such plays immediately upon returning… perhaps there truly were geniuses in this world.
Esports always spoke with strength. Bleach had a premonition that he would have many more opportunities to interact with Nine in the future.
Thinking thus, Bleach opened the match history, dragged his mouse down to show the fans a continuous streak of victories, and joked, “Thanks to the massive carry Nine offered. See, what did I say? Can’t carry me? All of you go reflect on yourselves!”
The bullet screen floated up a wave of boos.
[How does the streamer have the nerve to say that, an average of 15 seconds of kiting per match, all relying on Nine’s hard protection. If it were me, I’d expose you on the internet.]
[But, Nine is really strong… even though you can see his character pool is really outdated.]
[Just beating up noobs in casual matches, and now you’re blowing hot air?]
[Stop trying to whitewash the forfeit dog.]
Bleach smiled helplessly and bitterly. It seemed the fans truly fiercely resisted Nine’s return. After hastily bidding farewell to the fans, he turned off the stream.
After finishing up over there, Bleach returned to the voice room. Sure enough, Mu Jiu was still there.
Mu Jiu could feel that Bleach probably had something else to say to him, so he kept waiting. As expected, Bleach’s extremely serious voice came from the other side: “Nine, if you want to come back, you still need to explain clearly what happened back then.” He also didn’t believe Mu Jiu would be such an irresponsible person.
No matter what, he needed to give an explanation that fans could accept. Taking beatings and scoldings without fighting back like today would only make things worse.
Mu Jiu didn’t expect him to talk about this. He froze for a moment, eerily calm, as if the person being scolded wasn’t him. “It’s my fault, I have nothing to explain.”
It carried quite a bit of a “smashing a cracked pot” meaning. Listening to him, Bleach felt resentful for his failure to meet expectations, yet lacked the standing to advise him. Out of pity for a good prospect, he took a few deep breaths to calm his mood.
Who knew what was going on in this kid’s head. Say he was capricious, but his attitude of standing straight and taking the punishment for his mistakes was excellent. Say he was obedient, but he was incredibly stubborn; he just had to forfeit, and he just would not say anything.
At the same time, Shi Wen came down from the second floor fully dressed, his jacket draped loosely over the crook of his arm. He strode over, snatched Bleach’s mouse, looked at Mu Jiu’s flashing avatar in the voice room on the screen, and spoke abruptly, his voice laced with chill. “I know you’re in City A. Xiwu Restaurant. Roll over here. If you don’t come, you can try and see what happens.”
He spoke extremely fast, as if he knew what Mu Jiu would do once he heard him.
Bleach was also startled by Shi Wen coming over so suddenly. He stared blankly as Shi Wen spoke to Mu Jiu through the screen. And on the other side, Mu Jiu’s avatar flashed twice and rapidly went gray.
He ran away.
Shi Wen returned the mouse to him and fished his car keys out of his jacket pocket.
“How do you know Mu Jiu is in City A?” Bleach, rarely seeing Shi Wen this angry, leaned back in his chair, scanned him up and down with his eyes, and asked.
Shi Wen didn’t even lift his head. As he adjusted his cuffs, he explained concisely, “Game IP.”
Earlier, he was indeed blinded by anger due to Mu Jiu’s attitude. After returning and calming down, he immediately went to check Mu Jiu’s game IP. Missing without a trace for three years, then suddenly returning; it would be a wonder if he let him off.
Seeing his look of wanting to beat someone up, Bleach clicked his tongue lightly twice and advised, “He’s young and ignorant, don’t be so fierce, you’ll scare him away again.”
If he remembered correctly, it was Shi Wen who led Nine onto the professional stage back then. The entanglement between the two of them was truly not something a bystander like him could intervene in.
However, hitting someone leads to suspension.
Thinking this, Bleach cast him a slightly worried glance.
Translator’s Notes
- 666: Chinese internet slang for “amazing,” “awesome,” or “smooth operation.”
- Smashing a cracked pot (破罐子破摔 – pò guànzi pò shuāi): A Chinese idiom meaning to abandon oneself to despair, or to act recklessly and give up trying to fix an already ruined situation.
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