Chapter 28 ◎ Entertainment Match ◎
At 3:00 PM, the Entertainment Match began on time.
Lin Sumo sat upright in front of the screen waiting for the draw results, not daring to breathe loudly. His concentration rivaled the moment of checking college entrance exam scores.
Group A was divided into three subgroups. Lin Sumo and Yu Pei were assigned to the same subgroup and the same faction. Pei Yun and Xiao Lanyu were in another subgroup, fortunately also on the same faction. Jiang He was assigned to the third subgroup.
It was an entertainment match; everyone was there for fun, so they didn’t fight as hard as in an official match. Plus, although the teammates hadn’t practiced coordination with the randoms, they had the necessary game sense. After the first segment, all five members of Trust successfully advanced.
“No challenge,” Jiang He said in the team chat during the break. “Getting into the top three will be a breeze.”
Yu Pei laughed. “Let’s hope so. Ideally, the rest will be this easy too.”
After a fifteen-minute intermission, the second segment began.
The screen switched again to the familiar drawing interface. Lin Sumo suddenly felt it looked a lot like the lottery scene at some company annual parties he had seen online.
While he was uncontrollably chuckling, the draw results came out.
Lin Sumo looked closely, and the corners of his mouth, which had just risen slightly, snapped back down instantly.
Heh heh.
Damn it, speak of the devil.
The internal team voice channel automatically switched to the voice channel of the drawn teammates.
Lin Sumo let out a breath and gave a fake smile. “Hel-lo, Brother Marksman.”
Pei Yun: “Heh.”
“But to be honest,” Lin Sumo said, “We have one mid-laner and one marksman. The team basically has double carries. We have a good chance of winning against others.”
Pei Yun didn’t respond immediately. A moment later, he said, “I’ll take Jinx.”
“Are you sure?” Lin Sumo selected Ahri, sounding uncertain. “If you get caught, I won’t care about you.”
“Don’t care,” Pei Yun said. “Just don’t get caught and die yourself.”
As the prompt for the game start sounded, Lin Sumo said, “Tch, who are you looking down on?”
The official custom map was similar to a pentagon. The two players from the same team were placed at two of the pentagon’s five corners. Lin Sumo looked around. Aside from himself and Pei Yun, he only saw Jiang He with a player from another team. The others were likely in the other two groups; the matches for the three groups were happening simultaneously, so he couldn’t see their situation.
At the start of the game, Pei Yun was shooed away by Lin Sumo to farm the jungle, while Lin Sumo went to clear the minion wave.
To clear minions, one had to go to at least the center of the pentagonal map, so a confrontation was inevitable.
When Lin Sumo arrived at the center of the map, there were already five people including himself. Although it consumed mana, Lin Sumo still threw his Q skill, Orb of Deception, at the other opponents.
Lin Sumo actually didn’t like chasing people down early game without farming up, but just as he was about to finish clearing the minions, another person suddenly appeared diagonally across from him. In two or three moves, the opponent controlled him and frantically auto-attacked him.
Lin Sumo: “?”
Lin Sumo glanced at the time, estimating that Pei Yun should be mostly done clearing the jungle, so he thickened his skin and yelled for help directly.
Pei Yun came out of their own jungle area. “Idiot, shut up.”
The opponent probably hadn’t expected Pei Yun to arrive so quickly and froze for an instant. The control effect wore off just then. Lin Sumo retreated with a sliver of health, throwing a combo of Q and W skills at him before leaving.
Using the passive stacked from farming the jungle, Pei Yun flew to the opponent’s face and took his head with just a W and E skill.
Lin Sumo: “Handsome!”
Pei Yun mocked, “Stop yapping, hurry up and go farm. If you get caught again, I won’t come to save you. You can fend for yourself.”
“Alrighty,” Lin Sumo surprisingly didn’t retort to his mockery. “Wait until we farm up in the late game, then we’ll wipe them out in one pot!”
Pei Yun suddenly chuckled in a low voice for some reason.
Lin Sumo thought he might be hallucinating. “Huh? What are you laughing at?”
Pei Yun had already returned to normal as he destroyed a tower. “Nothing.”
Just as Lin Sumo said, they both picked high-burst heroes. Once they farmed up in the late game, they killed anyone they saw, and if there was no one, they hit towers and the crystal. Their coordination was as tacit as could be.
“Victory!”
“Tsk tsk tsk,” Lin Sumo couldn’t help saying. “I admit, I underestimated you before. You kid can actually be this awesome.”
Pei Yun suppressed the laughter in his tone. “Mental case, scram.”
The break time passed quickly. Lin Sumo looked at the familiar interface and yawned unconsciously.
Drawn three times already, so boring.
The second segment eliminated most people. Only Lin Sumo, Pei Yun, and Yu Pei remained from Team Trust.
Probability is truly a magical thing; Lin Sumo successfully drew Yu Pei in the third segment.
Lin Sumo was a bit confused for a moment. “No, he’s a jungler. In-game he chases me around, and now I have to solo him?”
Yu Pei’s laughter came through the receiver. “It’s okay, don’t be too rigid about classes. I might not be able to beat you.”
When the draw results were announced, Lin Sumo glanced and saw Pei Yun happened to match with Fair’s ADC.
30 seconds later, Lin Sumo and Yu Pei were placed on the solo map.
Lin Sumo picked Taliyah this round, while Yu Pei took Riven. As soon as it started, Lin Sumo stared unblinkingly at the screen, as serious as one could be.
There was no need to dawdle in a 1v1. Lin Sumo encountered Yu Pei within seconds. He didn’t hesitate and cast his Q skill, Threaded Volley, directly. Yu Pei dodged quickly with his Q skill, then hit Lin Sumo with the second cast of his skill.
“Fuck.” Lin Sumo couldn’t help swearing.
He retreated a bit. Seeing Yu Pei didn’t chase, he stayed near the tower to clear minions.
Because it was a solo match, leveling up skills was faster. Once the W and E skills were available, Lin Sumo cast E to lay the minefield, used W to shove Yu Pei into the minefield, and finally followed up with a few auto-attacks, taking Yu Pei’s head first.
Lin Sumo pursued the victory, destroying the first tower by the time Yu Pei respawned and arrived. By the ninth minute, he pushed the crystal directly.
Yu Pei applauded him from the other side. “Little Mo-mo is indeed very amazing. Congratulations.”
Lin Sumo smiled too. “Thank you, Captain Yu.”
Their group finished around the middle. The match screens of the other unfinished groups appeared on the display.
Lin Sumo looked around and found Pei Yun’s group hadn’t finished yet, so he moved his mouse to enlarge their match.
Pei Yun was using Xayah against the opposing Jinx. The match was already nearing its end. While constantly adjusting his position to dodge attacks, Pei Yun used Q-AA-E and R-Q-E-AA combos to beat the opponent until they had no power to fight back. Before long, he pushed down the opponent’s crystal.
Lin Sumo couldn’t help thinking, This guy is too awesome. His Xayah is so slick, no wonder his national ranking is so high.
As Pei Yun’s solo match ended, the Entertainment Match also came to a close.
Lin Sumo took off his headphones and heard the host say, “Let us congratulate Trust’s Solve, Trust’s Print, and BFD’s Star for achieving the top three in this Entertainment Match!”
Amidst the tsunami-like cheers and applause from the audience, the three walked to the podium.
After a brief data comparison, the host announced the rankings: “Please welcome the third place—Player Star from BFD—”
Star walked onto the podium and waved to the audience.
“Is everyone surprised that the remaining two players are both from the top-tier team Trust, and both are rookies just starting out this year…”
Lin Sumo squeezed next to Pei Yun. It wasn’t visible on the surface, but he was secretly making small moves behind his back.
Like his hands were itching, he fiddled with Pei Yun’s hand and even pinched the flesh on his hand a few times.
Pei Yun: “……”
“…I won’t keep you in suspense. Next, the second-place winner is—Trust’s Player Solve!”
Suddenly hearing his ID called, Lin Sumo was at a loss for a moment. He only knew to go up to the podium after being slapped by Pei Yun.
After confusingly putting on the medal, the host spoke again: “The player who won first place in this Entertainment Match is—Player Print from Trust!”
Pei Yun was used to receiving awards at school. He walked onto the stage calmly and composedly; he and Lin Sumo were simply people from two different worlds.
Host: “Congratulations again to the three players!”
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