Chapter 21: Substitute Candidate
KW Training Base.
Duan Mingyue didn’t know someone had already set a trap for him, just waiting for him to step in. After a day of training ended, he took off his headphones, rubbed his temples, exhaustion hard to conceal on his face.
In esports competitions, people had to follow the meta (version). Every data change would trigger a large wave of chain reactions; character strength lay on a fine line.
For example, right now, the jungle-support roam strategy in the new version was buffed heavily. As a result, the keen top-tier teams in the pro circle were working overtime to practice this strategy.
And the lower-tier teams, although confused, seeing everyone practicing it, simply practiced it blindly too.
The result was that now in high ELO games, scenes of supports abandoning ADs to roam everywhere with junglers could be seen everywhere.
But KW Team’s jungle-support roam practice was going really unsmoothly. accurately speaking, there wasn’t a single smooth part.
“Brother Moon…” Lu Yuan walked over with an apprehensive expression. “Don’t be angry, I’ll practice more.”
Duan Mingyue put down his hand and looked at her indifferently.
For how many years had KW’s training matches not had more losses than wins like today?
Most games were stomps against them. The few games won were desperate comebacks. There were even two games where KW almost got shaved bald (zero kills), not getting a single kill.
The reason was none other than the coordination between Duan Mingyue and Lu Yuan being truly too poor.
Lu Yuan couldn’t keep up with Duan Mingyue’s rhythm the whole time, nor could she read his tactical intent at all. She only knew how to foolishly roam, falling behind in experience and levels the entire time.
Her disjointed play directly dragged down the entire KW team’s rhythm, defeat collapsing like a mountain.
And this was only a training match.
Duan Mingyue sized up the woman in front of him.
Her features were correct and charming, skin fair and tender. Every smile, every move, revealed an outstanding temperament from her bones.
But beneath the beautiful skin was a vulgar, stupid soul.
Duan Mingyue still remembered when Lu Yuan first joined the team. She wasn’t the most talented one, but she was the most meticulous, diligent, and enduring one.
When Lu Yuan pursued him relentlessly, he genuinely had the thought of replacing her. Later, the support he had his eye on suddenly deleted their account and left. Plus, Lu Yuan somehow became much more well-behaved, so Duan Mingyue kept her.
Now… neglected ranking, scattered mechanics. Duan Mingyue tried to find a trace of the shadow of the girl who trained all night back then from the woman standing before him, but he failed.
A trace of disappointment flowed undisguised from his eyes.
“Six years.” Duan Mingyue stood up. “Think about it properly yourself.”
After speaking, he turned sideways and walked past Lu Yuan, leaving the training room without looking back.
Outside the door, Kai was leaning against the wall playing with his phone stand out of boredom. Seeing Duan Mingyue walk out, he hurriedly leaned forward: “Captain.”
Duan Mingyue glanced at him: “What is it, something up?”
Kai said: “Yes.” But he didn’t continue, instead meaningfully looking around the surrounding environment which had no privacy to speak of.
Duan Mingyue understood his meaning: “Come to my dorm.”
As a world-renowned wealthy team, KW was inhumanly rich, waving a hand to buy an entire small building by the river near the city center as a training base. The building had four floors. The first floor was for youth training, the second for first-team training, and the third and fourth floors were dorms for all members.
Duan Mingyue’s dorm was on the fourth floor. The entire first team had single rooms with ensuite bathrooms, over thirty square meters, excellent lighting, and cleaning ladies to help clean, not much different from living in a hotel.
No choice; they were all young masters and misses worth millions, delicate branches and jade leaves, needing careful service.
Opening the dorm door, Duan Mingyue gestured inside: “Enter.”
Kai shrunk his round body with difficulty, squeezing in through the door crack.
He had no mind for pleasantries. As soon as the door closed, he spoke frankly: “Captain, our team’s support should be subbed.”
Hearing this, Duan Mingyue didn’t show a surprised expression. He smiled: “Continue.”
Kai spoke his mind quickly: “Lucida’s mind and state aren’t on the competition at all right now… There are only two months left before the Spring Season starts. Pardon my bluntness, in such a short time, our team’s jungle-support roam combination can’t be trained up.”
Duan Mingyue was noncommittal. He sat down on the computer chair: “Then do you have any recommended candidates?”
Kai pursed his lips, hesitating to speak. He hesitated: “…No.”
“Actually, our team’s youth training camp hasn’t recruited supports for three years. Even if supports came, they would be filtered out.” Kai hardened his heart today, laying everything out. He plopped onto the chair opposite Duan Mingyue. “The second team’s support is even worse than Lucida. Thanks to him, the second team stopped at runner-up for two consecutive years.”
Duan Mingyue frowned. The matter was more serious than he thought.
He said: “Why has no one told me about this all along? …Lu Yuan did it?”
Kai said: “I also found out about this by coincidence. As for whether she did it or not, I don’t dare to be certain, so I haven’t said it. Moreover, there are people spreading rumors, saying…”
Duan Mingyue tapped his finger on the armrest: “Saying what?”
Kai swallowed: “Saying all these things are tacitly approved by you, Captain. Because Lu Yuan is the future young mistress of the Duan family, and half of KW belongs to the Duan family. So, no matter how she throws her weight around, no one dares to stop her.”
Hearing this, Duan Mingyue laughed instead of getting angry. He curved his lips, thumb thoughtfully rubbing his lip.
After a while, he said: “I know.”
Know? Know what?
Kai had dealt with quite a few players in this circle, so he always felt that people who could be team captains were extraordinary.
Like WOF’s Yue Fengling, FTK’s Yu Lan… all were tough nuts who didn’t show anger or joy, only spoke half sentences, and had brains that turned super fast.
He barely suppressed the impatience in his heart, observing the expression: “Captain, do you have a candidate in mind?”
Did he?
Did it count as having one?
Duan Mingyue didn’t answer, a hazy ID emerging in his mind.
Unfortunately, the owner of that ID wouldn’t possibly come.
Seeing him silent, Kai pressed: “Is it… UOOW?”
Duan Mingyue froze, repeating: “UOOW?”
Kai felt it was completely reasonable after saying it, slapping his thigh: “Yeah! Her positioning, one look and the basics are very solid. And her awareness is also very good, operations are quite confident too.” He was certain Duan Mingyue was interested in UOOW. The more he thought, the more reliable it seemed: “Although she’s only Diamond, but… Brother Moon, aren’t you duo-queueing with her recently? Bring her to try. If it works, it works; if not, forget it. It won’t delay anything.”
Duan Mingyue didn’t wish to explain anything, only saying: “I’ll go to the youth training camp in the near future.”
Kai finished saying what he needed to say, nodded, and stood up: “Then I’ll go do autonomous training.”
Duan Mingyue saw him to the door.
Before leaving, Kai seemed to remember something and asked: “Captain, if my mouth isn’t cheap for a moment my heart isn’t at peace. I’m stupid, can’t understand twists and turns. You and UOOW, are you really in that relationship?”
Duan Mingyue said: “Truthfully, no.”
Kai said: “Is it ‘no’, or ‘temporarily no’?”
Duan Mingyue felt Kai was asking a bit too deeply today, saying displeasedly: “Why ask so much?”
Kai explained: “Not that I’m meddlesome, I just want a definitive answer. Just in case, one in ten thousand, if Captain you and Lucida really have that kind of story…”
Duan Mingyue was angered by him: “No, impossible.”
Kai breathed a sigh of relief, saying: “Right, right.”
Seeing Duan Mingyue’s expression wasn’t good, he quickly greased his soles and slipped away.
Duan Mingyue closed the dorm door. First, he called the person in charge of youth training. Without alerting the enemy, he only said he would go there recently. After all, the club was interlinked; if really investigated, who knew which big fish would be implicated.
The person in charge of youth training hadn’t realized the seriousness of the problem yet, agreeing foolishly.
Hanging up the phone, Duan Mingyue rubbed his phone. Asking himself honestly, he did consider UOOW as a candidate for the team—of course, on the premise that UOOW’s level was indeed qualified. It was just that their relationship was really too complicated.
Duan Mingyue could more or less sense that UOOW had good feelings for him.
But the problem was, his good feelings for UOOW largely stemmed from someone else.
Separated by a screen online was one thing, but if really brought to reality, Duan Mingyue imagined it and felt the situation might be even more complicated than Lu Yuan.
Moreover, he had a bottom line and principles; he couldn’t do things like deceiving feelings.
After struggling with himself for a while, Duan Mingyue laughed: Nothing has happened yet, what am I struggling for here?
Wait and see while moving forward.
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