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【70】 Jealous Ranran, Maple is in for Trouble
They soloed for three games. Three whole games, all with heroes chosen by Maple himself, yet the result was a complete and utter defeat.
Maple’s face was ashen.
He wasn’t a low-key person to begin with. He had started a livestream right after agreeing to the duel with Wen Ran. He had previously posted some snide comments about Wen Ran on his side account, and because of the 27 million transfer fee, there were plenty of people who disliked Wen Ran.
Maple hadn’t thought he would lose to Wen Ran. But after three consecutive matches, he realized he truly might not be able to beat him.
Group S players didn’t lack fans, and his stream count stabilized at several hundred thousand. After witnessing his crushing defeat three times in a row, the bullet comments began to shift from [I want to see what kind of person is worth 27 million] to [???].
At some point, a wave of Wen Ran’s fans poured in. You could tell just by looking at the comments.
[No way, no way? Is there really someone humiliating themselves like this?]
[Tsk, even my grandma’s dog would shake its head at this gameplay.]
[I’m dying of laughter. This is the guy who wanted to transfer to WK before, right? The rumors were plastered everywhere. Just asking, does your face hurt?]
[If you can’t transfer, it means you’re not as good as him. Suggest seeing an ophthalmologist; Pink Eye Disease (Jealousy) needs treatment too.]
[Swore solemnly to solo with him, resulted in getting beaten until your head almost fell off. If I were you, I’d delete my account and run. Can’t afford to lose this face.]
[Heartache for my Little Sprayer, having to be a pre-match sparring partner for others.]
One after another, sarcastic and infuriating. Maple’s face turned green, and he shut down the stream directly.
Wen Ran found out about this under his own Weibo.
Many of his fans were active online and had watched the stream. They quickly came to tattle to him.
[Not bad, not bad, didn’t embarrass us.]
[You were really tolerant with that Maple guy. Didn’t even spray him a few times in the game?]
[My silly son, he was using you as a livestream gimmick, and you foolishly soloed with him. Luckily you won, otherwise, imagine how badly you’d be flamed.]
[Use your brain, will you!]
Wen Ran was confused until he saw the screenshots sent by fans and figured out the sequence of events.
In the perception of Maple and his fans, Wen Ran had intercepted the transfer opportunity that should have been his. Plus, Maple was a fan of Wind. If Wind hadn’t returned this season, he wouldn’t have been this jealous and angry.
Wen Ran switched to his side account and posted a Weibo.
[It’s useless no matter how jealous you are. He is my partner!]
After all, Jiang Yan had said directly in the interview that he came to find him.
After the training match ended, before everyone dispersed, Brother Wu came in to give a few instructions. Finally, he turned the conversation to Wen Ran: “Dawn, did you solo with Maple?”
“Yeah,” Wen Ran didn’t think there was anything to hide. “I beat him.”
“This…” Brother Wu’s expression became very complicated. Was I asking about winning or losing?
“You are a public figure, don’t be so impulsive,” Brother Wu said. “He even started a livestream.”
“There are already a lot of comments online driving the rhythm (instigating drama).”
Brother Wu said this intending to protect Wen Ran. “Although there are good and bad comments, you’d better not look at them for the next two days.”
Weibo never lacked marketing accounts, especially given WK’s high topic engagement. Wind’s return + a 27 million new Mid laner—with this configuration, if they couldn’t win the match, or even if they didn’t win with a beautiful score, rhythms would be started.
The rhythm regarding Wen Ran was of two types. One said he was arrogant, intentionally messing with mentalities by soloing before the match. The other used extreme praise to laud Wen Ran, starting directly with the 27 million figure and crowning him the number one Mid laner in the league.
Wen Ran looked straight into Brother Wu’s eyes. “Am I afraid of rhythm?”
He was someone who dared to clarify things to viewers via livestream back when he was a nobody, fearing no streamers.
“I’ve seen some of the comments online. They aren’t even as good at cursing as I am.”
Brother Wu: “……”
Other teammates: “???” Is this something to be proud of?
Brother Wu swallowed and decided to change direction.
“Those praising you as amazing… with so many marketing accounts posting together, it’s likely they want to ‘praise-kill’ you (set you up for failure).”
“Don’t take it to heart.”
Wen Ran hummed. “I know.”
Brother Wu was overwhelmed. “The PR department is already trying to contact people to delete comments, but at this stage, with the match coming up, we can’t make any major moves momentarily.”
“If he wants to post, let him post,” Jiang Yan spoke up. “Dawn is amazing to begin with. Isn’t it good that someone is willing to do free publicity for us?”
Brother Wu was stunned. “Wind, you mean…”
“Let nature take its course,” Jiang Yan said. “He sought out Dawn for the solo himself; the only one with a broken mental state will be him.”
“Besides,” he looked at Wen Ran with a smile, “Our Ranran beating him isn’t a problem anyway.”
Although Jiang Yan and Wind were the same person, the one sitting in the training room now was Wind. His serious demeanor during training and replays was completely that of the high-spirited genius Jungler, Wind.
Wen Ran had previously dreamed of being praised by his idol, of having his skills recognized. Now that it had suddenly happened, he felt a little shy.
Arrow Cloud and July both acknowledged Wen Ran’s skills. During the time they had been meshing together, they had truly witnessed how formidable Wen Ran’s mechanics were. His talent was absolutely top-tier, so it was no wonder the Captain liked him so much.
The coordination between the two was seamless, beautiful as a painting.
Arrow Cloud said, “The Captain makes sense. Maple indeed… isn’t on the same level as Dawn.”
Only Orange focused on Wind’s phrase “Our Ranran.”
Why would the Captain address him so intimately?
Among pro players, addressing each other by real names was relatively rare. When Wind addressed them, most of the time he called their IDs, or sometimes “Little Xu” or “Little Lin,” but those were very normal, ordinary forms of address. None compared to “Ranran.”
And did the Captain trust him that much?
That was Wind, already decorated with honors. He had seen all kinds of talented players, yet he rated Wen Ran so highly.
He hadn’t praised him much.
Orange felt inexplicably jealous.
Soon, the match day arrived. They had to go to the stadium early for the competition.
Wen Ran went out to use the restroom. Upon returning, he saw Jiang Yan standing at the corner of the stairs with someone standing in front of him.
The boy seemed a bit nervous, handing an exquisite large box to Jiang Yan. “Senior, first time meeting you. I hope you can accept this.”
Wen Ran saw the ID on his back clearly: FOX.Maple.
Jiang Yan didn’t reach out to take it, his tone casual. “Yo, bribing Big Brother to go easy on you in advance?”
“No!” Maple’s face turned red. “Senior, I don’t mean that. I’m very happy to be able to play against you.”
“I also really want to stand beside you and go on stage with you. If it weren’t for D…” Maple stopped there, forcibly changing direction.
“Senior, I like you very much!”
Maple said it all in one breath, his face blushing terribly.
Jiang Yan acted as if he hadn’t understood. “Tsk, openly trying to poach people?”
Maple: “?”
Jiang Yan’s team uniform wasn’t zipped up properly; instead, it was a bit loose. Wen Ran actually didn’t understand how someone could look so different wearing a shirt versus a team uniform—one elegant and casual, the other lazy and unstructured.
But without exception, both were handsome.
“However, Brother still suggests that during the transfer period, let your manager come to negotiate with the price.” Jiang Yan’s hands stayed in his pockets from start to finish. “It’s competition time now. Good luck in a bit.”
“It’s getting late, go back and prepare.”
Jiang Yan didn’t take Maple’s gift at all, walking directly past him back to the room.
“Sen…”
Maple wanted to say something more, but Jiang Yan had already walked past, so he could only give up.
He secretly clenched his fists.
Since there was no one else there, Wen Ran heard their conversation clearly.
From the moment he returned to his seat, he held a fire in his heart.
This Maple actually had the nerve to send Jiang Yan chocolates before the match? So he just didn’t like Wen Ran, but wanted to snatch his partner too!
Therefore, during the BP (Ban/Pick) phase, seeing Maple pick Ah Ji, Wen Ran looked up and said to the coach, “Coach, I want to take Sudis.”
Sudis countered Ah Ji, true, but the problem was, he wasn’t a Mid lane hero at all!
Sudis was classified as an Assassin but dealt physical damage. In online games, he was generally used as a Warrior on the Top lane. However, he was extremely operation-intensive with a high learning curve. Plus, being naturally squishy, he was easily insta-killed. So, despite high damage output, he was considered an off-meta, sewer-tier hero in online games. In professional matches, he was even more useless—unable to touch the carries and easily focused down.
When disadvantaged, he couldn’t tank damage, and his wave clear was poor. He practically came with his own headwind.
The coach was in a bind. “Dawn, are you sure? This is a professional match.”
If it were a normal solo, he wouldn’t care.
“I can,” Wen Ran said firmly. “Coach, please trust me.”
Jiang Yan understood instantly. He had seen the little rascal over there in the hallway earlier and knew he had heard the conversation between him and Maple.
Eavesdropping without hiding properly—truly stupidly cute.
He had been thinking about how to chase after him quickly to coax his precious darling, but Wen Ran had slipped away faster than a rabbit.
There were referees behind the competition area, and in front of other teammates, Jiang Yan could only swallow his words.
He just hadn’t expected that the little rascal would be so cute when jealous.
In this match, Maple was in for it.
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