Chapter 11: Belief
Shen Yanjin had to admit, everything Duan Mingyue said was true.
He didn’t know UOOW, and had no relationship with UOOW whatsoever. If one insisted on a connection, they were just passerby teammates who met by chance in RANK.
It was just that luck was a bit better, timing a bit more coincidental, and a momentary whim had led to a trending topic.
But in his heart, he still couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
Duan Mingyue continued to reply to the bullet screen.
“Then why chase after him like that?” He gave a short, teasing laugh. “Don’t you guys think the way he got scared and ran around everywhere was quite cute?”
“Hate me? No way.”
“Shall I pet him again then?”
“Really not a girlfriend, don’t know them, haven’t even added as a friend.”
“But I am interested.”
“Can’t I be? I think it’s perfectly fine.”
“Lucida? Heh…”
Duan Mingyue smiled slightly and said very matter-of-factly, “Lucida and I are just teammates. We were before, and we will be in the future.”
Shen Yanjin froze upon hearing this. His heart, which had sunk to the bottom of a valley, was tossed up into the clouds again, making him smile unconsciously.
They say the person who falls in love first definitely loses out.
Although Shen Yanjin’s feelings hadn’t reached that extent yet, he truly experienced the apprehension of being swayed up and down by the other person’s every word and action.
It was like his heart was tied to a string held by Duan Mingyue; if he wanted him up, he couldn’t go down.
Now calming down slightly and thinking again, Shen Yanjin also felt his previous guesses were a bit too imaginative.
He licked his lips and switched back to the game interface.
The Blade Master still stood in place, not moving. The early game rhythm was already huge enough that even without his participation, the game showed a one-sided trend.
While their crystal hadn’t been completely destroyed yet, the little kitty hiding in the bush walked out and affectionately rubbed against the Blade Master’s calf.
This game was lost, and points were dropped, but Shen Yanjin felt cheerful.
Just as he was about to click queue, the chat software in the bottom right corner dinged and donged.
[TWG-Wind: Duo queue?]
[TWG-Wind: Carry me to top two hundred.]
Wind, Shi Feng, Jungler for TWG Team. He had a good relationship with Yue Fengling, and by extension, a very good relationship with Shen Yanjin as well. He was one of Shen Yanjin’s few friends in the alliance.
Shi Feng’s jungling style was aggressive. Unlike Duan Mingyue’s style where rhythm and offense were integrated, he preferred the feeling of carrying the whole game himself, rarely caring about the feelings of laners. Once, because he consumed too many resources, he had the honor of being called “competition tumor” alongside Shen Yanjin.
Perhaps because birds of a feather flock together, Shi Feng loved to look for Shen Yanjin to duo queue whenever he was free. Magically, although both had strong personal styles, they unexpectedly complemented each other, and their win rate was surprisingly high.
Shen Yanjin paused.
To be honest, he didn’t expect Shi Feng to actively seek him out for duo queue after he retired.
He typed: “You streaming?”
Shi Feng replied: “No, almost end of the month, haven’t hit the quota yet.”
Shen Yanjin said: “Too slack, aren’t you?”
Shi Feng said: “No, actually hit it long ago. But yesterday the coach made me practice jungle-support roam with Aiai, and I dropped over two hundred points straight.”
Shen Yanjin understood.
Aiai was TWG Team’s Support. His protective support play was superb; there were often scenes where the enemy bot lane five-man dived two, yet he still protected the ADC and escaped safely.
But the problem was, his engage support play was truly a shortcoming.
Shi Feng excelled at jungle carry characters with less control and more damage. To play the jungle-support roam strategy, the support had to pick someone who could control and detain enemies. This directly led to Aiai’s strengths being unable to be utilized, while his weaknesses were highlighted vividly.
Dropping two hundred points in a day—just listening to it made Shen Yanjin feel sympathy. Since he happened to be free, he didn’t decline and agreed straightforwardly.
At the same time, he gave Shi Feng a heads-up.
[Sliver: Telling you in advance, I haven’t played high ELO games since I retired.]
[TWG-Wind: ? You’ve only been retired for a few days?]
[TWG-Wind: As long as you’re better than Aiai, it’s fine.]
[Sliver: …Logging on.]
Shen Yanjin logged out of his smurf and logged onto his main account.
He had been using this account since before he went pro. Until his retirement now, counting carefully, he had used it for nearly eight years.
Shen Yanjin didn’t consider himself nostalgic, but it was inevitable to develop feelings for it.
The last login was a week ago.
He partied up with Shi Feng. The two pulled up a voice channel and started queuing.
In the voice channel, Shi Feng said “Hi” with extreme exhaustion and feebleness.
Shen Yanjin was amused: “Why do you sound like you’re burned out?”
Shi Feng sighed: “Put in my shoes, you’d be burned out too. I dare say looking across the whole alliance, there isn’t a jungler who can withstand one game of Aiai’s engage support. Absolutely not.”
Shen Yanjin said: “Even RedMoon can’t?”
Shi Feng said: “Even RedMoon can’t.”
Shen Yanjin was greatly surprised: “That exaggerated?”
Shi Feng said: “You don’t know, I really… I f*cking wanted to kneel and beg the coach yesterday to buy you for our team… Hey, speaking seriously, how about you come to our team? If I play two more games like yesterday’s, I’m afraid I’ll die young.”
Shen Yanjin looked at his wrist, smiled self-mockingly, and repeated the line he said to Yue Fengling word for word to Shi Feng.
This made Shi Feng laugh: “RedMoon personally begging you? Kao, anyone with a dream is amazing.”
Shen Yanjin smiled, didn’t say much, only pretending casually: “Recently I see quite a few teams practicing this strategy. Is it very strong?”
“Strong.” Shi Feng told the truth. “People follow the meta. KW Team is also practicing this thing.”
Shen Yanjin’s heart relaxed. Seems Duan Mingyue duo-queueing with Lu Yuan was to practice the strategy.
But… two pro players practicing jungle-support roam in Diamond rank?
He felt a bit confused, tilted his head, and didn’t think deeper.
Shen Yanjin hadn’t played high ELO games in WL for a while. His hands were a bit rusty at first, but after ganking lanes twice, the feel came back, and he immediately felt like a fish in water.
Shi Feng had coordinated with him for a long time. Once they got going, almost no extra communication was needed. The two chatted nonsense intermittently, winning more than losing, and the points were quickly earned back.
“Thanks, thanks,” Shi Feng looked at his ranking of one hundred and thirty-nine and sincerely gave a thumbs up. “Good brothers walk together for life.”
Shen Yanjin rubbed his throbbing wrist and sneered: “That’s enough.”
Shi Feng grinned: “Sliver’s majesty hasn’t diminished from back in the day. Really not planning to come to our team? Can’t lower your requirements a bit?”
Shen Yanjin looked at his wrist, smiling bitterly, but joked verbally: “Not a single bit.”
“Fck… so precious.” Shi Feng was amused, knowing he was joking, and didn’t take it to heart. He just said: “Thanks. If you have any difficulties, ask brother for help anytime.”
“Don’t worry, won’t be polite with you.”
At this time, TWG Team needed to start training matches. Shen Yanjin knew this clearly, didn’t babble much with him, exchanged a couple of simple sentences, and slipped away.
The pain in his right hand wasn’t intense, but it more or less distracted him. Towards the end of playing just now, Shen Yanjin was already a bit absent-minded.
In this state, even if the team didn’t fire him, he couldn’t play for long.
The doctor’s words reappeared in his mind.
Either gamble, or bid farewell to the arena completely.
It wasn’t that Shen Yanjin wasn’t tempted, nor that he couldn’t be ruthless; he just truly couldn’t afford to lose.
What if it failed?
He couldn’t imagine.
Checking the time, after helping Shi Feng rank up all afternoon, it wasn’t early anymore. Outside the window, the setting sun cast a blood-red afterglow, reflecting on the floor like boiling lava.
Shen Yanjin turned off the computer, then smiled helplessly and bitterly at his reflection in the black screen.
He left his hometown at seventeen, running to Cloud City alone to chase his esports dream with only two hundred yuan on him, and he somehow survived.
When he bought this house, Shen Yanjin even felt everything was developing in a good direction.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t like that.
The pain of injury, the cursing of the audience, the cold words of teammates, the indifferent and snobbish eyes of managers—almost every single thing made him toss and turn sleeplessly at night.
Good couldn’t get better, but bad could always get worse.
The weirdest thing was, now that he retired and those tortures were far away from him, he actually started to miss those times.
Standing inside his team’s soundproof booth, separated by glass from the sea of people and light-up signs, he could see Duan Mingyue in his team uniform adjusting equipment while turning his face to laugh with teammates.
The handshake session after the match was the time Shen Yanjin could stand closest to Duan Mingyue each time.
The man’s palm was warm and dry, with thin calluses on the knuckles from long-term mouse contact. Holding his hand not too lightly or heavily, shaking it once, then letting go.
At this moment, as long as Shen Yanjin gathered the courage to look up, he could meet Duan Mingyue’s smiling gaze.
Whenever that happened, he would recall once again the reason he stood in this arena.
📖 Advance Access: Complete Novel
- Option 1: Note your email on PayPal/Ko-fi.
- Option 2: Email proof to beezzzreads@gmail.com.
- Option 3: Comment below.
Recommended Reads
