Chapter 76
Like a war without smoke, the two teams began a crazy secret contest starting from the mid and bot lanes. You catch me once, I catch you twice; you catch me twice, I’ll catch you three times.
Mid and bot weren’t enough; the flames of war spread to the top lane at twelve minutes. Often, inexplicably, several burly men would pop out of the grass to form a Mahjong table.
Kills erupted like flowing water as if they cost no money, and various small skirmishes emerged one after another.
Commentator C shouted in satisfaction: “Looks like these two teams are playing high (excitedly). It feels less like a match and more like a Ranked game.”
Commentator B said, “Although it looks like the kill count for both teams is rising, KW is actually still occupying the initiative in rhythm.”
In the end, WL is a tower-pushing game; one cannot win by killing people. In the kill exchanges between KW and WOF, KW was able to gain an advantage of a tower, a dragon, or jungle economy most of the time.
Being counter-ganked by Ice Witch for the fourth time while trying to catch someone, EE’s face changed color: “F*ck… why is he everywhere?”
“Calm down.” SeeD looked sloppy, but he was also a veteran, and his mentality was very stable. As a carry not getting a huge advantage, his psychological pressure was immense, yet he still had energy to spare to comfort others. “It’s fine, watch me carry this game.”
The mid tier-1 tower didn’t fall as fast as the last game, but Kai was truly too bad. He insisted on competing in wave pushing, willing to lose minions just to run around everywhere. Occasionally two burly men would spring out from the grass; it was annoying as hell.
Without EE saying it, SeeD could also feel how good Sliver’s Ice Witch rhythm was. This goodness definitely wasn’t “hugging thighs” as the outside world said, but a radiance released from himself.
Originally, one Duan Mingyue was enough to give WOF a headache for half a day. Now add a Shen Yanjin. The most terrifying thing was that these two people’s thought processes seemed to grow together, like carbon copies. Every time they caught someone, the damage and control coordinated seamlessly, making one’s scalp numb.
SeeD believed his coordination with Yue Fengling in Top-Mid was unique in the whole league, but alas… the meta. WOF’s jungler was a rookie, and the support had just barely stabilized. The earlier schedule was considered easy, so their record looked okay, but what about later? Could they still make it to Worlds this year? He actually didn’t care; Yue Fengling was already an old player, how many years did he have left…
“SeeD,” Yue Fengling interrupted his wild thoughts, “Come top, no vision.”
SeeD snapped back, blushing a little; he actually zoned out during a match: “Ah, coming.”
Using a combo to forcibly take away Song Yuan under the tower, SeeD had just stepped out of the tower range when an ice circle appeared under his feet, and an ice-blue snowflake fell beside him.
“Sliver is also very bad.” Commentator C laughed. “Casting skills like this, it’s like he’s letting SeeD choose himself: do you want to be frozen or do you want to be slowed?”
SeeD’s Flash was on CD, and he had no Cleanse. He could only choose the lesser of two evils, gritting his teeth and choosing to be slowed.
The cold light of ice blue emerged on his character, and in the next moment, Duan Mingyue’s appearance became almost inevitable.
“Damn.” SeeD frowned. “Sold (Sacrificed). Captain Yue, hurry and go, can’t save me.”
Bot lane AD stifled a laugh: “Cough… you overthought it. Captain Yue went back to base long ago; he’s already bought his items.”
“…”
SeeD looked at his gray screen, inexplicably feeling a bit melancholic.
EE also laughed a few times along with him, but his face was still very ugly. Playing against RedMoon, this rookie was like a dish; his jungle was almost counter-jungled to rot. Ganking was always countered—either by Duan Mingyue or by Sliver, and sometimes by both together. His mentality was about to explode.
Although the kill count wasn’t behind, a simple glance at the equipment panel allowed one to calculate that the economic advantage had already been pulled very wide.
And it was completely imperceptible, like boiling a frog in warm water, slowly falling into defeat.
The more EE played, the messier he got. Plus, being caught and killed by the Jungle-Support duo in the jungle again, blood rushed to his head. In a heat of the moment, he blurted out: “Damn it, the hot search said they are a gay couple, really didn’t say it wrong—”
SeeD said in a low voice: “Zhang Ziyi! Sorry referee, the rookie in the team is ignorant. Please help cut this part out, thank you.”
To prevent match-fixing and other violations, every team’s match voice comms were monitored and recorded for preservation.
EE was startled, instantly sobering up a lot. He regretted endlessly: “S-Sorry…”
“Talk after playing.” Yue Fengling frowned. The news before the match had spread everywhere. He had reminded the team members in the lounge early on to keep their mouths shut about this matter. He didn’t expect such a slip-up to still occur. “Play the match first.”
“Yes…”
Naturally, Shen Yanjin couldn’t know WOF’s internal voice comms. SeeD looked at the Ice Witch on the mini-map who was clearing vision wards one auto-attack at a time, and dazedly zoned out again.
If his sexual orientation and romance were exposed, he definitely wouldn’t be able to be as calm and composed as him, performing stably.
Just substituting himself into it slightly, imagining a bit more, he felt it was terrifying.
SeeD pulled the corner of his mouth. Looks like he’s strong not just because of the meta. Just this psychological quality, I can’t compare.
…………
Shen Yanjin was panicked.
While panicked, his heart was also very calm, his competitive state stable, even very good. He never knew such two completely contradictory moods could appear in one person at the same time.
He could clearly feel his brain becoming more and more excited. This situation was abnormal. Shen Yanjin thought it was probably a stress response due to the mood being too contradictory and overly entangled.
He didn’t notice that in the voice channel, he, who should have been responsible for commanding, hadn’t spoken for a long time.
Everyone detected Shen Yanjin’s abnormality, but everyone tacitly didn’t remind him.
Duan Mingyue naturally took over the task of commanding. Fortunately, Shen Yanjin didn’t make any major mistakes. Instead, WOF fell into disarray, their condition worsening, gradually unable to withstand KW’s offensive, and lost the second game.
KW won 2-0. There was no post-match interview. The commentators had obviously received notification as well and wrapped things up crisply.
Back in the lounge, Shen Yanjin held his phone, looking at that familiar app icon. His finger moved over it several times, then hesitated and didn’t click it.
Finally, he steeled his heart and clicked it open. On the trending search list, Sliver and RedMoon’s IDs were very high profile, sitting side by side at the top of the list, not removed.
But, to his surprise, following closely behind them in second place was actually Lucida, Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan match-fixing, Lu Yuan persuading rookies to quit, Lu Yuan KW youth training, Lu Yuan slander…
One by one, in minute detail.
From her persuading KW’s substitute support to quit, to her intentionally filtering out support players in the youth training camp, and then later splashing dirty water on UOOW, and trying to use money to persuade Shen Yanjin to fake matches in scrims.
Each item occupied a hot search individually; each item was enough to make a person never be able to turn over.
Shen Yanjin thought blankly: Lu Yuan is finished.
And he had thought he was finished.
Under the related topics, the cursing had already blossomed. Many were unfollowing and stepping back to trample. The higher a person flies, the more painful the fall. Moreover, one thing might be whitewashed, but with all these things added together, it was impossible.
Shen Yanjin scrolled twice, didn’t continue watching, and instead clicked into the first topic with his and Duan Mingyue’s IDs written on it.
[@HG E-Sports Club: Industry insider reveals, KW Captain RedMoon and member Sliver, recording of true love confession. Suspected to be the first same-sex couple in WL.]
His eyelid twitched. He clicked open the comments.
Top comment number one.
[KW Eternal God: I suspect your [Horse Head]* suspect. Why isn’t the match-fixing team dead yet? What industry insider, just report that match-fixing dog Lucida’s ID number directly. You think you are fishing, actually you lost your [Horse Head], got it? Lucida splashed dirty water on Moon God and UOOW flirting before, now starts slandering Sliver. Anyway, whoever is a better support than her, she slanders. To be honest, whoever believes this is a big idiot.] (TN: “Horse Head” or “Ma” sounds like “Mom” in Chinese slang, usually implying “You lost your mother” – a common insult).
This comment had over a hundred thousand likes. Scrolling down, it was basically all the same tone. Not a single person believed the matter between Sliver and RedMoon was true. Occasionally there were a few CP fans, but they were all joking.
Like the story of the boy who cried wolf. Lu Yuan previously splashing dirty water on UOOW, only to be face-slapped by Duan Mingyue starting a live stream on the spot, had already dropped passerby trust in her to freezing point. Now, let alone bringing out a recording, even if she brought out photos, probably no one would believe her.
Shen Yanjin suddenly understood.
Thinking about it, he should have realized—how could Duan Mingyue let her manipulate him? Lu Yuan thought she was the one hiding the knife; actually, Duan Mingyue was.
He remembered when he duo-queued with Duan Mingyue using the UOOW ID, Duan Mingyue seemed to have said he went to the youth training camp to handle some matters.
At that time, Duan Mingyue must have already known what Lu Yuan had done.
But he stayed calm and collected. After cleaning up the tricks Lu Yuan had played, he began to wait slowly.
To be able to interfere inside KW, without the help of the Lu family, it would have been impossible for Lu Yuan to do it.
Duan Mingyue didn’t just want to ruin Lu Yuan’s reputation; he wanted the Lu family to pay the corresponding price too!
So, a simple youth training issue or slander wasn’t enough.
Until he brought out that recording. Duan Mingyue found more things through that recording, so the time was finally ripe.
Shen Yanjin listened to that confession recording. It was indeed Duan Mingyue’s voice, no mistake. Lu Yuan used her last bit of cleverness here. She thought this was a sharp knife that could use worldly lack of understanding to take revenge on Duan Mingyue and Shen Yanjin.
However, her knife was no different from paper in front of Duan Mingyue.
HG Club was destined to disband. The official account still had a bit of popularity, so it was used to do this thing, considered squeezing out the last bit of value. After posting, it indeed triggered quite a bit of controversy.
But Duan Mingyue was unhurried. First, he exposed Lu Yuan’s precedent of slandering people for flirting. That matter had a lot of topicality at the time; after all, the whole net blackened UOOW, only to find the alt account opposite was Duan Mingyue, and the rumors collapsed without attack.
This time, coincidentally, the object was Duan Mingyue again. It naturally made everyone subconsciously think that this time, it was also Lu Yuan’s retaliatory behavior.
Then guide public opinion a bit, exposing Lu Yuan’s crazy paranoia towards Duan Mingyue with a mix of truth and falsehood. Naturally, people would feel this woman was hating due to love, intentionally spreading rumors.
Immediately after, expose the remaining matters one by one. Like a chess game, it was already a checkmate, yet the opponent seemed to be playing around, delaying the final kill, instead stabbing the knife into your heart step by step, unhurriedly, enjoying the process of torture.
Shen Yanjin felt his legs go a bit soft.
All the events connected into a line in this instant. While the truth was clear, it also made him shudder a little.
“Scared?” A pair of arms hugged his waist from behind, as if seeing through all the thoughts in his brain, speaking at the most suitable and appropriate time. Duan Mingyue lowered his head and bit the young man’s fair and soft earlobe, his voice carrying a smile. “Even if you’re scared, there’s no chance to run anymore.”
Shen Yanjin snapped back, grabbing the arm across his abdomen in a flurry: “The camera!”
Duan Mingyue smiled lazily: “The surveillance, cameras, and recording equipment in this room are all turned off. The others have already gone back to the nanny van first. I locked the door when I came in. Anything else you want to say?”
Shen Yanjin was silent for a moment, then said, “Let go.”
Duan Mingyue’s eye color darkened.
His little support was very smart and also very sensitive. So he knew very clearly that with everything he did, as long as Shen Yanjin thought about it slightly, he could immediately connect the joints within.
Father Duan once said he was a natural businessman, but Duan Mingyue didn’t think that was a compliment. Before, he didn’t know how to hide himself. He originally wanted to help a friend through a difficulty, but the result was the friend gradually distancing himself.
Only later did Duan Mingyue understand that a person like him would make people feel very terrified. Only then did he slowly learn to hide his sharp edges.
Others didn’t matter.
But if Shen Yanjin also distanced himself because of this…
Some obscure emotions swept across the bottom of his eyes.
However, before Duan Mingyue could continue thinking in detail, the next second, Shen Yanjin turned around and hugged him back.
He tightly embraced Duan Mingyue’s shoulders. The warm and clean scent on his body seemed to possess the power to calm the heart and mind. Almost instantly, Duan Mingyue’s mood was soothed very well by him.
“How could I be afraid of you.” Shen Yanjin smiled and kissed the man’s handsome brows and eyes. “Brother, I like you.”
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