Chapter 69: Carry Me; Coach, You…
On the day a match ends, one can afford a moment of indulgence. But the day after returning to the base, one must immediately return to a training state. The cubs were already very familiar with this routine, and Zuo Chi didn’t need to say much. On the flight back to Nancheng the next day, the cubs consciously stopped mentioning anything related to eating, drinking, or having fun.
“In the finals, barring any accidents, we’ll be playing against ZAP. Everyone knows what ZAP’s results were last year.”
Back-to-back champions. Although ZAP’s performance at the World Championship last year was lackluster, they were two-time champions in the domestic region. There was an eighty percent chance they would make it to the finals again this Spring Split. Such an opponent would be much harder to crack than anyone they had faced before.
The cubs, who had been high-spirited after just winning against KVG, visualized ZAP’s strength and immediately became well-behaved.
Zuo Chi successfully suppressed the cubs’ arrogance and stifled a laugh. “We have one week to prepare for the finals. Regarding what everyone needs to practice… first is the mid-carry composition. Don’t think that just because we wiped the floor with KVG, our mid-carry play is good. If you go up against BLUE, it’ll shatter upon contact.”
“Next, Fugui, you and Wall need to practice your coordination more. The finals are a BO7; it’s impossible to pick an initiation draft for Wu Yang every single game.”
“Understood. Wall and I are tied together for the next few days. We’ll train until we’re dead, train until our hearts beat as one, train until we’ve sworn eternal oaths—”
Wall kicked him. “Train all you want, but what the hell are you talking about?!”
“Finally, Land. Although you haven’t neglected your tank junglers, you still haven’t played them much in training matches…”
“I understand. Don’t worry, Coach.”
After a few simple instructions to give the cubs a general idea of the hellish training week ahead, Zuo Chi adjusted his seat, leaned back against the headrest, draped his team jacket over himself, and closed his eyes to rest, considering it a way to catch up on sleep for the coming days.
[Congratulations to the Host for completing Main Mission 6. The mission reward “Acclimatization Pills × 7” has been issued.]
[Now issuing Main Mission 7: Win the first Professional League Championship Trophy. (The Host has already led the team to the finals and is only one step away from the Spring Split championship trophy. Take that step, announce the ascension of a new king to everyone, and lay the first brick of the VEX Dynasty!)]
[Mission Reward: Ultimate Draw Luck for the World Championship Group Stage. (This ultimate draw luck seems a bit different compared to before. The system cannot reveal more to the Host, but in short, anything produced by the system is bound to be a premium product!)]
[Detected changes in the player attribute entries for Team VEX.]
[Name: Wang Fugui. Game ID: Million. Position: Solo Lane.]
[Blue Entry: Stronger Against the Strong (Entry change) — Purple Entry: Stronger Against the Strong, Even Stronger Against the Weak. (After this period of tempering, his fundamentals have become increasingly solid. His floor has been raised significantly; he will no longer be led astray by weak opponents into making ‘rice-serving’ plays.)]
After dozing for a while, he was woken up by Ning Luzhao. The plane had already landed.
The cubs exited the airport yawning one after another. Zuo Chi called various teams he had good relationships with to schedule training matches. Seeing the cubs looking wilted, he remarked, “What’s this? Now that you’ve got your World Championship tickets, your skin is getting loose? Where was that excited momentum from last night?”
“Coach Zuo, we’re just sleepy.” Fugui’s yawns were bringing tears to his eyes. “That milk tea from yesterday was way too strong. I didn’t close my eyes all night, and my stomach hurt so much I went to the bathroom three times.”
Wu Yang said gloomily, “Thanks to him, I didn’t sleep well either.”
Zuo Chi detoured to a nearby pharmacy to buy medicine for diarrhea. “Why didn’t you say so earlier… Take the medicine and go catch up on sleep once we’re back at the base. I happened to schedule the training matches for tonight.”
“Yay—”
“What ‘yay’? Go to sleep early tonight. Tomorrow during the lunch break, make up for what you missed today.”
That evening, the other semifinal match ended. As expected, ZAP advanced, becoming their opponent for the finals.
Whether the defending champion would hold or a new king would be crowned—even before the league’s official Weibo could post, all sorts of prediction posts, tarot readings, and metaphysical threads were flying all over the internet.
[Just a passerby, purely rational prediction: ZAP’s foundation far exceeds VEX’s. VEX has exposed too many of their hole cards and has surely reached their wits’ end…]
[Tarot analysis, interpreting the cards for the two teams separately…]
[Metaphysical Bazi prediction: Which team’s players will be in a better state on the day of the finals…]
After seeing many such posts, a clear pattern emerged—ZAP fans predicted ZAP would win regardless of whether they used metaphysics or science, and VEX fans did the same.
Although they refused to yield in predictions, the fans of both teams generally minded their own business until the league officials, who had gone mad for engagement, reposted a certain Weibo—the thread about that unfinished training match between VEX and ZAP before the Spring Split started.
The high-voted comments from several months ago were still hanging in the comment section.
[Could it be that ZAP crashed? They lost to VEX, so they don’t dare announce the training match results?]
[The person above is a joke. ZAP just won a championship; would they lose to a third-rate team like VEX? Why don’t you say VEX was bloodily abused and were so ashamed they begged ZAP not to announce the score?]
The fans of both teams exploded.
It was truly difficult for the league officials to rack their brains to find common ground between the two final teams.
From the fact that Wall and Beyond originated from ZAP’s second team and were now facing their old club in the finals, to the old rumors that ZAP wanted to buy Land as their starting jungler to replace Every—only for VEX to issue a statement refusing and declaring Land “not for sale”—and finally to VEX taking Every’s fans to court…
In a single day, old grudges and new hatreds had the smell of gunpowder reaching a peak.
[VEX should thank ZAP. If we hadn’t sold Wall and Beyond to you, could you have made it to the finals?]
[Wall and Beyond were just second-team subs at ZAP with zero play time. They only made a name for themselves after coming to VEX. If anything, the credit goes to Coach Zuo and the other teammates. What the hell does it have to do with ZAP? You’re really good at putting gold on your own face.]
[Can Land fans stop leaching off Every’s hype? What championship does Land have? Please come back and talk once you’ve actually won a trophy.]
[I wonder who exactly got tilted because ZAP wanted to buy Land and is now spewing filth on the internet every day. So hard to guess.]
[Who’s tilted? Would Every, a championship jungler, get tilted because of a jungler with zero titles? I really envy Land fans; so ordinary, yet so confident.]
[Fun-seekers say watching the fans fight is more exciting than the actual match.]
The cubs were forbidden from looking at social media, so Zuo Chi and Manager Li could only communicate in private.
Manager Li had done quite a bit of internet surfing himself. “No wonder the Arena Professional League is getting more and more popular. Are the match officials former marketing accounts? They’ve maxed out their ‘fanning the flames’ skill. I’m almost too embarrassed to ask ZAP for a training match now.”
“You won’t get one. I expect it’ll be hard to get a training match even after the finals are over,” Zuo Chi said softly. “ZAP never schedules training matches with Top-4 teams. After all, they’re all championship competitors; they’re afraid of exposing their tactics.”
“Then how do they train before a match?” Manager Li was curious. “Honestly, when I was the manager at VEX before, I never considered studying a战隊 like ZAP. They were too far away…”
“They prefer reviewing their opponents’ match videos and then playing training matches against their own second team or trainees—Storm told me.”
ZAP was a veteran powerhouse team; even their second team was decent. VEX’s foundation was too shallow; it would take another two years to pull together a capable second team.
They didn’t have a second team, but they could play training matches against other Top-4 or Top-8 teams.
Teams like BLUE—Storm said the two teams were so close they could practically merge into one.
Zuo Chi also studied ZAP’s match replays, but his thinking was slightly different—rather than racking his brains to find a way to break the opponent’s play, it was better to polish their own system and control their own rhythm.
In any case, for now, their team’s macro play was the most mature. Just the point of three people sharing a wave to secure last-hits was something poorly coordinated teams couldn’t manage; not only would the last-hit not go to the carry, they might not even get the last-hit at all, causing their economy to fall behind.
But because his team had practiced for so long, 99% of last-hits went to the core position of that game.
Therefore, by reducing their own mistakes and perfecting the details, the cost-performance ratio should be higher.
Manager Li peeked into the brightly lit training room at the five cubs, their hair messy and headsets on, still practicing. A look of parental heartache crossed his face.
“Coach Zuo, after the finals are over, no matter the result, give the cubs a holiday… Twenty-four hours a day, they’re basically soaked in the training room except for when they’re sleeping. Even if they were made of iron, they couldn’t…”
“Coach Zuo?”
Manager Li turned around; Coach Zuo had already fallen asleep in the seat beside him.
Sleeping anytime, anywhere, at any size—this skill was truly… a bit heart-wrenching to witness.
Manager Li didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He checked the time—it was 3:00 AM. He hurriedly rushed into the training room. “Still playing, still playing! Every one of your eyes is bloodshot. Get lost and go to sleep, all of you!”
“Just finishing this five-man queue.” Ning Luzhao answered familiarly and glanced at him. “Where’s the coach?”
“Coach Zuo fell asleep on the hallway chair. Wake him up when you’re done and head upstairs to the dorms to sleep.”
Ning Luzhao gave an “Mm,” decisively notched a triple kill, and commanded his teammates to push the enemy crystal.
He stood up, took off his jacket, and walked toward the training room door.
Fugui was still clicking the crystal. “Hey, hey—Ning-god, where are you going?”
Wu Yang said, “Where else? To call Coach Zuo, obviously.”
Zuo Chi had taken a short nap… He hadn’t actually fallen into a deep sleep; he could hear the people around him talking, but his eyes were closed and he had no energy to speak or move.
He thought he would get up once the cubs went to sleep.
Just as he was waiting for the sound of the cubs’ footsteps flooding out of the training room, he was suddenly enveloped in the familiar, faint, fresh scent of laundry detergent.
He jolted his eyes open and saw Ning Luzhao’s face very close to his.
The young man’s almond eyes were hazy with sleepiness, expressing a silent question.
He was draped in Ning Luzhao’s jacket, as the back of it prominently displayed the ID “Land.”
“…Coach is awake.”
He nodded slightly. “What… were you planning to carry me back to the dorm on your back?”
“Does Coach still have the strength to walk?”
He stretched his hand out from under Land’s jacket. “You carry me then. I don’t know what’s wrong tonight, but my head is spinning like crazy and I don’t want to move.”
Ning Luzhao furrowed his brows. He pressed the back of his hand against Zuo Chi’s forehead just as they touched.
“Coach, you have a fever.”
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