The League’s Hei Yueguang Has Fought His Way Back [E-sports] Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Domineering “Take it off yourself, or should I help you?”

Mu Jiu was momentarily stunned, instinctively refusing: “No need to trouble you, I can take a taxi back.”

“Get in, it’s hard to get a taxi around here.”

Mu Jiu looked down at the ride-hailing app that had remained unresponsive, then looked at the exceedingly domineering Shi Wen. Ultimately, he opened the passenger door and got in.

Just as he got in the car, Shi Wen leaned in close. Mu Jiu couldn’t help but shrink back a little. Shi Wen slightly lifted his eyelids to glance at him, then pulled the seatbelt from beside him. After buckling him in, he sat back properly and prepared to start the car.

To conceal his panic, Mu Jiu tried his best to maintain a calm tone and said, “Just drop me off at the Huzhong campus of A Da.”

“Not bad, you got into university,” Shi Wen released the handbrake and turned the car around. The atmosphere inside the car instantly dropped a few degrees.

A Da was a renowned university nationwide. Mu Jiu getting admitted was certainly worth celebrating, but what angered him was that Mu Jiu had already been in A Shi for a year. Knowing perfectly well that Shi Wen was in A Shi, he had only come looking for him now.

Mu Jiu had started school early. When Shi Wen pulled him out to play tournaments at sixteen, he was already a high school sophomore. After he forfeited the match and returned to continue his studies, he was now nineteen, meaning he should be a college sophomore.

He had gotten into A Da and attended school here for a year. If Shi Wen hadn’t threatened him today, he probably would have continued hiding and avoiding him.

When Shi Wen leaned close just now, Mu Jiu caught the faint smell of smoke on him.

Shi Wen didn’t smoke before. Some people would choose a method to relieve themselves when under extreme pressure. He couldn’t help his mind from wandering—was it because he forfeited back then that Shi Wen picked up a smoking addiction?

If so, his sins had truly grown even greater.

Mu Jiu lowered his head, picking at his fingers, his thoughts in a mess. Shi Wen seemed to be concentrating on the road, but from the corner of his eye, he kept paying attention to the other side.

He was too thin. Fastened by the seatbelt, he looked like a paper-thin slice sitting in the passenger seat. He really hadn’t taken good care of himself these past few years.

Arriving at the destination, Shi Wen pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned his head. His gaze caught Mu Jiu off guard, and Mu Jiu immediately averted his eyes.

“Um, ge, thanks,” Mu Jiu said, preparing to open the door and leave. Just as he was about to pull the door handle, he heard a few crisp clicks inside the car.

Shi Wen had locked the car doors.

Mu Jiu forcefully pulled the handle a few times, but there was no response. He slightly widened his eyes in surprise and a bit of disbelief.

Shi Wen admired his bewildered expression, further confirming that he was hiding something.

The Mu Jiu of the past wasn’t like this; he had been a proud, clear, and high-spirited youth. Now, even if Mu Jiu tried his best to disguise it and treated everyone with a smile, he couldn’t hide the exhaustion deep in his eyes.

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Just what exactly had he been through?

Shi Wen reached over and grabbed Mu Jiu’s right wrist. The black wristband on the slender, pale wrist was extremely conspicuous.

Mu Jiu struggled desperately, his brows tightly furrowed together, but even using all the strength in his body, he couldn’t shake the other party in the slightest.

Lowering his eyes, he could see the veins bulging on Shi Wen’s forearm; he wasn’t giving an inch.

“Take it off yourself, or should I help you?” Shi Wen stared at him seriously.

He felt that when dealing with Mu Jiu, he couldn’t use methods that were too gentle and passive; otherwise, he was afraid he could wait until he was eighty and still not see him turn back.

“Ge…” Mu Jiu cast a pleading look, intending to stir the compassion of the person in front of him.

Shi Wen turned a deaf ear. In the past, he loved to pretend to be pitiful to get away with things. Trying to just muddle through this time without saying anything was impossible.

Failing to succeed, Mu Jiu tried to break free from his grip again.

The two of them remained locked in this stalemate for a long while. Finally, Shi Wen let him go, watching as Mu Jiu dawdled and dawdled before finally peeling off the wristband on his hand.

The lighting inside the car was dim, but Shi Wen could still clearly see the hideous, terrifying scar concealed beneath that wristband. He instantly froze, his pupils shrinking violently.

After the sound of the car doors unlocking clicked, Mu Jiu quickly put the wristband back on and fled in a panic.

Watching Mu Jiu’s fleeing back, Shi Wen felt a bit of remorse, propping his forehead up with one hand. A headache throbbed.

Things were even worse than he had imagined.

Shi Wen pondered for a long while before finally pulling his phone out of his pocket. He dragged a number out of his blacklist and dialed.

“Beep—beep—beep—”

The phone rang for a long time, very clearly in the quiet car. The person on the other end answered the phone and coughed twice in a pretense of seriousness. “Ah, hello, what’s the matter?”

A sound of scuffling came from the other side, and a female voice scolded: “It’s rare for our son to call home, what are you pretending for? Talk properly!”

“Dad.”

“Mm, unless you plan to retire and come back to inherit the family business, make whatever else it is short.”

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“You’re overthinking it. I just want to ask you to help me look into something.”

Returning to the dorm, Mu Jiu didn’t go upstairs immediately. Instead, he sat on the bench downstairs for a while. The early summer breeze blew him a bit more sober. Whether it was because he ran too fast or something else, his violently beating heart slowly calmed down.

Looking down, because of his panic, the wristband wasn’t put on properly and was twisted in the middle. The spot on his arm where Shi Wen had just grabbed him burned in waves, traveling along his nerve endings right up to his face.

After adjusting the wristband, Mu Jiu leaned against the back of the bench and let out a long sigh of relief.

He knew he couldn’t hide it from Shi Wen, but he didn’t expect to be exposed so quickly. In the past, Shi Wen rarely used such a domineering attitude towards him. He could only say that time truly could change many things.

Thinking about this, he went upstairs only to find that the dorm was still brightly lit. His other three roommates were still enthusiastically playing a three-queue.

Li Qingming, having been eliminated early on, sat facing the computer screen gnawing on an ear of corn, admiring his remaining three teammates continuing to fight in the match. Seeing Mu Jiu return, he decisively sent out a four-queue invitation.

Mu Jiu had already sorted out his emotions downstairs before coming up, so he didn’t show the slightest clue of his turmoil. He agreed in a brisk tone, turned on his computer, and logged into the new account he had just registered.

Li Qingming poked his head over to Mu Jiu’s desk, looked at his game interface, and then his gaze fell on Mu Jiu’s face.

He was the only one in the dorm who watched the league.

As he sized him up, he rubbed his chin with two fingers, his tone suspicious: “Mu Jiu, you look very familiar.”

He couldn’t shake the feeling that he had seen him somewhere before. This feeling had been there from the first glance he took of Mu Jiu when school started, but it grew even stronger when he watched him play Wuxian Weidu.

Mu Jiu’s expression remained unchanged. After entering his password, he clicked open his profile page. On it was the ID he had casually changed it to: juice. He brushed it off perfunctorily: “Is that so? Maybe I just have a common face. Weren’t we going to four-queue? Add me first.”

Originally, he just had some doubts, but hearing Mu Jiu’s shameless words, Li Qingming immediately pounced over to choke his neck.

That face of his, common?

After some roughhousing, Li Qingming completely tossed his earlier doubts to the back of his mind. Plus, it just so happened that the other two roommates also finished their match. Pulling Mu Jiu into the team, they started their four-queue.

Having finally gathered enough for a four-queue, the roommates rubbed their hands together, ready to go all out.

“Mu Jiu, don’t be afraid. We brothers are all pros, we’ll definitely carry you to victory,” Li Qingming guaranteed, patting his chest.

After all, when school started, just looking at Mu Jiu—such a good student with excellent character and academics—he didn’t look like someone who played games. Later, when Mu Jiu applied for credit by examination and passed on the first try, it further confirmed his guess.

Another roommate listened and deflated his ego, joking: “You’re the worst one here, Li Qingming, and you’re talking about carrying people.”

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“Roll to the side,” Li Qingming stretched his leg and kicked his chair.

Amidst their bickering, they queued into a match. Seeing the opponent’s avatar was Xuenv, a roommate was quick-eyed and nimble-handed, instantly banning Xuenv, looking smug: “See that? High-end mind games often start before the match even begins.”

Listening to them, Mu Jiu shook his head helplessly. His own account didn’t have many of the newly released characters, but this newly bought account had all the characters. He roughly flipped through them, checking the role positioning of each character.

“Oh right, Mu Jiu, what position do you want to play? We’ll let you have it.”

His roommate spoke very magnanimously. After all, he was a newbie, right? He needed protection.

While reading the character settings, Mu Jiu’s gaze uncontrollably stopped on one character panel, and he replied: “I’ll play ob.”

“Commendable courage,” the roommate nodded, sighing that newborn calves are not afraid of tigers.

Because the ob position needed to protect teammates, they often clashed directly with the boss. Not only was the operational difficulty high, but the psychological pressure was even greater.

But if the kid wanted to play it, let him play. After getting beaten up a couple of times, he would behave.

The character Mu Jiu had just looked at was the newly released support role, Gongchengshi. When duo-queueing with Bleach, he had mentioned that this was a relatively strong character in the current meta.

Because he specialized in mechanics, the elimination speed on the dissociation table was slowed by 15%. His skill was the self-developed Muqiang. By consuming his health, he could generate Muqiang of varying lengths on the map. The boss had to swing their blade to destroy the Muqiang, and the blade-wiping speed for destroying the Muqiang would be 30% faster than hitting a human.

However, because the Muqiang consumed his own health, Gongchengshi players often easily got carried away drawing walls and killed themselves in the process. Yet if the wall drawn was too short, there was absolutely no need for the boss to destroy it; they could just detour around it and pass. Thus, Gongchengshi players developed a third style of play. Because the Muqiang itself had a 3D model, if the wall was generated the instant the boss passed by, they would be stuck and forced to destroy it.

For Mu Jiu, it should be relatively easy to pick up, and looking at the stats, it was also quite strong. So without thinking too much, Mu Jiu directly selected the character Gongchengshi.

The other roommates all thought Mu Jiu was a novice and intentionally coaxed him along. No matter what he picked, they didn’t care, treating it merely as a casual entertainment match.

Therefore, Li Qingming directly pulled out the character Yueshi, ready to mess around. At the start of the game, Yueshi could choose any two teammates for Gongqing. After Gongqing, damage was shared equally between the two. According to the CD cooldown speed, in most matches, the Gongqing targets could be changed three times per game, making it possible to achieve the grand spectacle of one person kiting the ghost while all four people get injured.

“Mu Jiu, just relax and play. I’ll have these guys tank the hits for you,” Li Qingming said with a cheeky smile.

However, he wasn’t able to smile for long. The map they queued into was Di Qi Jingshen Bingyuan. This was a newly released map. Li Qingming had just entered the map and found his beloved fragment to start deciphering when he bumped right into the boss head-on. Wailing like a ghost and howling like a wolf, he began kiting.

Just as he was about to take a hit, he shouted loudly: “I’m sorry, brother!”

With extremely fast hand speed, he pulled his Gongqing targets to himself and another teammate, Xuezhe. The positioning was rescue. The instant the skill took effect, Yueshi exactly took the hit. After sharing the damage, both of their health bars dropped by 25%.

Xuezhe: &%%&% He was momentarily stunned and didn’t speak, but one could feel that his internal cursing was very dirty.

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Finally, he couldn’t hold it back and cursed: “Roll away! I’m supposed to rescue people this match, how am I supposed to rescue if my status is dropped! Go die!”

Only then did Li Qingming realize. He had only been thinking about giving Mu Jiu a good gaming experience and couldn’t link Mu Jiu, but looking at the last remaining teammate—the frail deciphering position, Zuojia—he gritted his teeth and let it go.

Because if he accidentally pulled the boss to Zuojia while transitioning, let alone the words he’d get scolded with, the boss might just turn their head and switch to chasing him.

At the same time, because Yueshi brought the boss over, Zuojia was forced to abandon the fragment he had deciphered halfway and curse while running away.

One person’s disaster meant none of the four had peace.

Even though Li Qingming knew this in his heart, his mouth couldn’t admit it, remaining stubborn: “I don’t need you to rescue me, watch this pro’s mechanics!”

As he spoke, he solidly ate another three hits. At the final critical moment, his CD was ready, and he swapped the Gongqing targets to the other two, sparing Xuezhe from dying for love with him, though they weren’t far from dying for love anyway.

Xuezhe had tanked three hits for him, and the health bar on his body had already dropped by 75%. The remaining 25% health couldn’t even take a single hit from the boss.

Watching Yueshi get dragged onto the dissociation table by the boss, Xuezhe chuckled coldly. “Keep yapping. Let’s see who goes to save you.”

Li Qingming behaved, cupped his fists, and said solemnly: “Yifu, please give me one more chance.”

“I’ll go, you guys decipher.” Mu Jiu finished deciphering the fragment on hand. Over there, Yueshi‘s elimination progress was already past halfway. Just now, Yueshi had switched the Gongqing targets to the Gongchengshi he was playing and Zuojia.

With a margin of error of three hits, even if he wasn’t familiar with the character’s skills, he was confident he could protect Yueshi until all five fragments were deciphered.

The pacing right now was already very disadvantageous. The rescuer’s status was poor, the deciphering position was interfered with, and the total fragment progress added up to barely 200%.

Hearing that Mu Jiu was going to go, the roommates hurriedly tried to dissuade him: “Don’t, don’t, don’t, just sell him out and let’s play.”

It really wasn’t that they didn’t trust the ob; it was truly because the ob pacing fed kills too quickly, and he was too scared to watch.

Translator’s Notes:

A Da (A大): Short for A University.
A Shi (A市): City A.
Ge (哥): Older brother, often used for close older male friends as a term of endearment or respect.
Gongchengshi (工程師): Engineer.
Muqiang (幕牆): Curtain Wall.
Yueshi (樂師): Musician.
Xuezhe (學者): Scholar.
Zuojia (作家): Writer.
Xuenv (雪女): Snow Woman.
Gongqing (共情): Empathy.
Yifu (義父): Adoptive father. Used here as internet slang meaning “god” or “boss”, usually to beg someone for a carry in gaming.
Di Qi Jingshen Bingyuan (第七精神病院): Seventh Psychiatric Hospital.