Chapter 2: Request to Add You as a Friend. Turn on the Mic.
The bullet chats in the video surged like a flood after Land finished that sentence.
[Likely his final delusion before going to the sub bench.]
[Is a ‘championship’ some kind of worthless trash nowadays? Anyone can just mention it.]
[Whatās wrong with an esports player wanting a championship? Land didn’t play well, so talk about his play; thereās no need to mock him like this.]
[This is esports. Trash is trash. If he wants a championship, tell him to show some skill.]
Over an hour later.
Hearing the announcement for his stop, Zuo Chi took off his headphones and exited the subway. He went to a convenience store by the street to buy a cup of instant noodles and then returned to his rented room in the dark.
The small room, less than ten square meters, could only fit a bed and a computer desk, but it was kept very clean.
After boiling water for the noodles, he turned on his computer, pulled up the replay of the match, and began repeatedly dragging the progress bar to watch.
As he watched, he wrote and drew in his notebook.
By the time he finished watching all three games and Land’s first-person perspective video, it was already past three in the morning by the time he finished his review notes.
In the esports industry, turning day and night upside down was common. Zuo Chi wasn’t feeling sleepy, so he simply logged into the game and started a ranked match.
In a match around the top 1,000 rank in the national server, it took over three minutes of matchmaking to get in.
He was playing the Support role. Several teammates were communicating actively, typing in the chat box.
[Night Owl: Can the support pick a tanky initiator to follow me? I’m a booster playing on an order, I’ll carry you.]
[Don’t Like Sichuan Peppercorns: OK.]
[Night Owl: Jungler, gank for me often! I’m a national-server marksman.]
[Rizhao: Mm.]
The match began.
At two minutes, the Marksman tried to greed for the wave alone and was tower-dived and killed by the enemy Marksman and Support, giving up First Blood.
During the five-minute dragon fight, the Marksman dashed right into the face of the enemy solo-laner and was killed again.
At thirteen minutes, the Marksmanās gold was the second lowest on the team, with a score of 1-5-1.
[Night Owl: F*ck! Does the support even know how to play? Ignoring me from the start is one thing, but don’t you even know how to peel for the marksman during teamfights?]
[Night Owl: If you don’t know how to play, just fck off back to the fountain and go AFK, you fcking idiot.]
In the VEX team base, the lights in the training room on the second floor were still on.
The boy with light grey short hair sat at the computer wearing headphones. His long fingers tapped on the mouse and keyboard. The assassin hero on the screen moved as if controlled by invisible threadsāflanking, avoiding vision, dodging crowd control, entering the fray to harvest souls, and killing the enemy carry.
“Triple Kill!”
“Land?! Why are you still playing ranked this late?”
VEX team manager Li Jing, wearing pajamas and yawning, leaned over to Landās side and glanced at the screen. He first marveled at Landās god-like score, but was soon drawn to the foul insults in the chat box.
“Is your Marksman and Support fighting? This ID ‘Night Owl’ is cursing quite filthily.”
Land reached out and moved his headphones aside slightly.
“It has nothing to do with the Support.”
“Go rest immediately after this match… the sunās about to come up if you keep playing,” Li Jing urged. “I know you feel bad about losing the match, but even a body made of iron canāt handle pulling all-nighters like this.”
“Mm.”
“…I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and saw the lights on. I thought we had rats. Iāll sit here and wait for you to finish.”
It was a game with a massive lead in the early stage, but because the Marksman was busy typing insults, the teamfight damage gradually became insufficient, allowing the enemy to drag the game out until their items were complete.
[Night Owl: Why is the support scared to speak? You a mute?]
[Night Owl: I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to meet a brain-dead support who doesn’t know how to play in every single ranked game.]
Li Jing: “Tsk, your support has a pretty good temper. Being cursed like that and not talking backāhey, Land, why are you turning on your microphone?!”
Land clicked twice on Night Owlās avatar.
He said lazily: “Done barking? Do you have no clue how youāre playing?”
Zuo Chi had the habit of muting all teammate text messages as soon as he entered a game.
Mainly because there were too many flamers in the game, and he was too lazy to argue. Once muted, out of sight, out of mind.
Now, suddenly hearing a slightly familiar boyish voice in his headphones, he adopted a “popcorn-eating” mindset and instinctively clicked on the team attribute panel to unmute.
Let him see what was going on.
Oh, the Marksman was flaming the Support.
Meaning, flaming him.
Their jungler-god was speaking up for justice. What a good kid!
Hearing the voice, Night Owl quickly turned on his microphone as well.
“Fck! You think you’re hot sht just because you stole a few kills, Jungler? What, is this support your ancestor? You’re so eager to jump out and protect them?”
“Even a dog on the street isn’t as protective of its master as you. You think you’re so great? Then play by yourself. Do idiots even deserve to win? F*ck!”
After saying that, Night Owl controlled his hero back to the fountain and started spinning in circles, clearly intending to throw the game.
Li Jing had a massive headache. “Land! Why are you opening your mic to curse? Todayās trending search was already… Sigh! If someone is streaming this ranked match, or if someone recognizes youāre a pro playing on a smurf and records a video, do you know how many marketing accounts will be talking about this tomorrowā”
“I don’t browse marketing accounts.”
Li Jing: “…”
Zuo Chi, feeling the helplessness of being unable to reach through the screen and slap someone, turned on his microphone. The mic he bought for a few bucks on Pinduoduo was of poor quality; his voice echoed, buzzing and sounding like he had a severe cold.
“Brothers, turn on your speakers and turn the volume down a bit; my mic is crap. Ignore the one AFK at the fountain; him being AFK means heāll feed the enemy less gold.”
He was only one win away from entering the top 1,000 of the national server. This game had already lasted nearly thirty minutes; it would be a real loss to lose now.
“Don’t surrender. 4v5 is no problem; we have a little Jungler-god.”
He began shot-calling over the mic.
“The enemy doesn’t know we have someone AFK yet; they won’t dare come out to contest the dragon. Rush the Great Dragon now. Solo-lane, don’t show on the map; hold this brush.”
“The enemy’s Red Buff is about to spawn. After they clear the wave, theyāll definitely go to the red side to take the buff. When the dragon’s HP is low, the jungler will solo it while the rest of us follow me to the red side to camp.”
The sound effect for the twenty-five-minute Small Dragon being slain echoed.
Zuo Chi crouched in the brush behind the Red Buff, watching the enemy Marksman and Support come to take the red.
The enemy likely thought they were still near the dragon pit since they had just finished the dragon, so the Support only checked the two brushes next to the Marksman before going to clear small jungle camps on the other side.
The moment the enemy Marksman finished the buff and moved closer, Zuo Chi used a dash followed by his ultimate to land a “knock-up” effect.
The Midlaner immediately followed up with a combo.
The enemy Marksman couldn’t escape even after using Flash and was instantly bursted down.
Now it was a 4v4.
“The enemy Marksmanās respawn timer is forty seconds. Push the high ground fast.”
“Can the Midlaner bait? Their comp only has the Midlaner for fast waveclear. Lure the enemy Midlaner out; the Jungler can use this vision gap to burst him.”
The Midlaner pretended to make a positioning error, took a CC hit, and was left with low HP.
The enemy quickly chased out of the high ground. The Jungler, positioned in a blind spot outside the high ground wall, used two dashes to enter and shut down the enemy mage.
“Protect the minions as they go in. Iāll tank the tower. Solo-lane, go in and force the enemies back. Don’t let them clear the wave. The rest of you, just focus the crystal.”
The enemy crystal exploded, and the “Victory” effect bloomed on the screen. Zuo Chi took a sip of hot water, satisfied to see on the settlement screen that his national rank had changed from 1002 to 990.
He quickly gave a “like” to the other teammates and reported Night Owl for AFK and verbal abuse. He returned to the matchmaking lobby, ready to start the next game.
A friend request popped up in the bottom left corner of the game.
[“Rizhao” has requested to add you as a friend.]
“Rizhao,” the little Jungler-god from the previous game.
Speaking of which, the little Jungler-god hadn’t spoken again after “speaking up for justice” in the last game, but the person’s voice was indeed familiar. He felt like he had heard it somewhere not long ago…
He clicked to accept the request.
[Rizhao: Duo queue?]
[Don’t Like Sichuan Peppercorns: No, I have stuff to do during the day. Going to sleep for now.]
He was going to VEX to coach in a few days; he had to pack his bags in the rented room and clean up during the day to prepare for moving out.
[Rizhao: Mm.]
[Don’t Like Sichuan Peppercorns: You play jungle well. Your style is a bit like a certain professional player.]
Land also liked playing assassin junglers and invading the enemy jungle at the start.
However, he didn’t feel comfortable directly mentioning Land’s ID. After all, given Landās current reputation, the person might think he was being sarcastic.
Just as Land finished typing a line, the avatar for “Don’t Like Sichuan Peppercorns” dimmed, showing “Offline.”
Li Jing, with quick eyes and hands, stopped Land from clicking into another ranked match: “What a pity. Judging by that Supportās voice during the shot-calling, they sounded quite young. We could have asked if they were interested in a tryout at VEX.”
In the current Arena Professional League, players who could shot-call were a scarce resource.
“You stop playing ranked too. Hurry back to the dorm and sleep… I’ll contact the new coach tomorrow. Since our team is already eliminated, the new coach can come a few days early.”
Landās gaze lingered on the text in the chat box for a moment. He exited the game and clicked the shutdown button.
“The new coach?”
“Yeah. Otherwise, without a coach, you players will be training like headless flies. Itās just not right.”
The Arena Professional League rules stated that a team cannot change coaches before the end of a season. Thus, after their previous coach fled, the manager, who was the “assistant coach” in name only, had to go on stage for the BP.
Now that VEX was eliminated, they could naturally let the new coach join the team.
Li Jing fumbled for his phone and pulled up the information of the new coach that the team management had sent him yesterday: “The new coach is named Zuo Chi. He graduated from Nancheng University. This year… heās 23 years old.”
In the esports circle, where the average age of coaches was over 35, 23 was truly far too young.
Just graduated, with no coaching experience whatsoever.
“Uh… 23 years old… Uh, Nancheng University, uh, a prestigious school… young and promising, young and promising. Land, tomorrow you tell the other players to tidy up. Let’s hold a welcome dinner for the new coach.”
Land let out a light chuckle as he rose from his gaming chair, a trace of irritation pressing down at the corners of his eyes.
“Another person shoved in by management?”
Recommended Reads
![Does A Broken Mirror Reunion Exist in Esports? [Esports]](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/esports-225x300.png)
