Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Unlike the bunch of slow-witted rascals in the training room, Yuan Wei immediately guessed what had happened. At once his fingers trembled, even unable to speak coherently. “… Can you guys control yourselves a little?”
Mo Huaifeng placed both hands in his pockets and said calmly, “He bit me first.”
Ji Zhiyao was extremely embarrassed. “Yes, that’s right, what will you do with me?”
“You did such polluting things that will incur the wrath of all gods and men at the base and you still think you’re reasonable?”
Ji Zhiyao stared innocently at him. “I’ve already done it.”
Yuan Wei indicated that he wasn’t too willing to continue talking to them, however when he saw the cardigan on Mo Huaifeng, he could not help but ask again, “You guys heading out?”
Ji Zhiyao shot back, “Yes, finding a place to do some indescribable things.”
“Damn it!”
He turned towards Mo Huaifeng, hoping that his Captain could rein in this bewitching concubine who was bringing calamity to the country and the people. However, he clearly saw indulgence flash through Mo Huaifeng’s eyes. Everything went black at once for Yuan Wei. Gritting his teeth, he roared in a low voice, “May I trouble the both of you to wear your caps and masks when you head out together! Don’t let me see whether on Tieba, Weibo, in the replies or comments, see any of your names appear!”
Ji Zhiyao curtsied elegantly. “Noted, mammy Yuan.”
Without waiting for Yuan Wei to say anything more, the two rushed directly towards the door of the villa, not forgetting to grab the caps left in the living room midway. The grievance in Yuan Wei’s heart eased up significantly, he sighed bitterly and entered the training room.
…
Ji Zhiyao actually wasn’t a great fan of going out for walks, in comparison, he preferred to sprawl out comfortably on the sofa at the base. But if there was a Mo Huaifeng beside, this “dislike” would immediately become a “like”.
Though Mo Huaifeng did not say it, Ji Zhiyao happily took his silence as implying that he actually thought the same way too.
Tonight’s moonlight was very beautiful.
The base was not too far from a famous riverside attraction in S City, the night wind was perfect now, hence Ji Zhiyao suggested, “Let’s go for a stroll by the riverside, the wind now is great, it should be very comfortable there.”
To Mo Huaifeng, as long as it was with Ji Zhiyao, it did not matter where they went, even if it was just sitting down at a random spot, he would still feel very at ease. Thus he nodded, giving his tacit approval.
Walking there would take around a little more than ten minutes. Both of them walked along the mule path towards the riverside.
Ji Zhiyao suddenly asked, “Captain, have you ever thought about what you are going to do if you retire in the future?”
“Retire?” Mo Huaifeng looked towards Ji Zhiyao. Ji Zhiyao nodded. “Yeah. I think about it once in a while, other than eSports, it seems I can still do law, or become a spare-time broadcaster. But you’re different, other than eSports, it doesn’t seem like there are any other things that you are especially fond of.”
With that, Ji Zhiyao gazed quietly at Mo Huaifeng, awaiting his reply.
The moonlight was a little faint, he was barely able to see Mo Huaifeng’s eyes clearly. They were very bright, like Mo Huaifeng, they had a unique charm.
Ji Zhiyao suddenly felt the impulse of wanting to act indecently.
Mo Huaifeng deliberated seriously, then said, “After retirement, I probably will return to inherit the family property.”
“…”
He was still too young.
“Just said whatever came into my head.” Mo Huaifeng’s lips curved slightly. “If I retire, I will probably stay in Mix to be a coach, or manage the club, promote eSports in another manner. Indeed, there aren’t many things that I like, those that I will persist upon, are probably only eSports and you.”
There was a moment when Ji Zhiyao’s mind went blank. Then he stopped in his steps, calling out solemnly, “Captain.”
Mo Huaifeng responded very joyfully, as if already expecting Ji Zhiyao to be touched at heart.
“The unexpected flirting, left me bowing. You’re trying to seduce me into throwing myself into your arms while I wasn’t paying attention. Crafty, too crafty.”
Mo Huaifeng’s expression flipped. Though it couldn’t be seen too clearly, his expression became darker and darker without a qualm. Staying silent for a few seconds, Mo Huaifeng said, “You’re really mischievous.”
“Passable, passable, let’s be more humble.”
As they spoke, they’d unknowingly arrived at the riverside. Because it was gradually getting late, there weren’t many people enjoying the cool here. Ji Zhiyao leaned on his arms on the railing, feeling comfortable all over.
Mo Huaifeng squinted with him, looking out at the ripples in the river. After some time, Ji Zhiyao said, “Captain, do you know what DiamondJ did after retiring?”
“Bought the shares of some small clubs, helps to train battleteams from time to time.” Mo Huaifeng paused then asked, “Why are you suddenly asking about him?”
“Just curious.”
Mo Huaifeng remained silent, his voice much softer when he spoke again. “You still have a long way to go.”
Ji Zhiyao’s smile reached his eyes, but he did not speak.
They enjoyed the night winds for another short while, Ji Zhiyao pulled out his phone and took a glance. “It’s already 10:30PM, let’s go back. I reckon they’ve already gone mad waiting for supper.”
Mo Huaifeng frowned, obviously wanting to spend more time together alone. “They won’t starve for a few hours. In this period of time they’ve become fat beyond recognition.”
“Slaughtering can only be done after fattening the cattle up.”
Mo Huaifeng was stumped.
“Let’s go, we’ll come out again when we have time in the future.” Ji Zhiyao grinned as he hung his arm around Mo Huaifeng’s shoulder and forcefully dragged him away.
On the way back, the little barbecue stall that their battleteam loved the most was still open. Ji Zhiyao and Mo Huaifeng walked in and ordered a pile of takeaway barbecued skewers for the few people grumbling that they were starving in the group chat.
When they returned to the villa, the few people in the living room who were starving till their eyes were unfocused rushed out upon catching the aroma. Heng complained that it was scalding while grabbing the food. “Captain, NoHomo, why are you guys only back now? The few of us were going mad with hunger.”
Ji Zhiyao replied lazily, “You’re already lucky to get food, if you continue b*tching I won’t bring anything back next time.”
Nuo chewed on a chicken wing as he said slightly questioningly, “Do you guys feel that NoHomo’s tone sounded especially like Captain?”
Xiao agreed, “Yes yes yes! I was feeling that there was something amiss, turns out my son has been led astray by Captain.”
Ji Zhiyao retorted, “One is marked by the company one keeps.” Glancing towards Mo Huaifeng’s unkind expression, Ji Zhiyao added on in his own words, “Even if I’ve been led astray, it’s by all of you. There are five of you and only one of Captain!”
Nuo blinked quickly. “This could be calculated like this?”
Heng chimed in, “It is indeed so in numbers, but in terms of the level we’re at, all five of us cannot even compare with Captain.”
Mo Huaifeng laughed coldly, as if he was about to spit out some verse of the day that would cause them to choke to death in the next second. K caught the sight and hastily remedied the situation. “Dig in all of you, no one is allowed to talk!”
…
Training time the next day began at 12:30PM.
Ji Zhiyao woke up at 11 and headed downstairs half-awake, seeing that it was only Xiaofei and the stats analyzer in the training room. He raised his hand and greeted them, then stretched himself before asking, “Why aren’t any of them coming?”
Xiaofei replied, “They played together till 1AM last night, they’re probably not up yet.”
“Wasn’t it an off day? Each of them working so hard, I feel like I’ve been lied to.” Ji Zhiyao thought of himself who was already out on his bed like a dead pig at 12 midnight, suddenly feeling some form of guilt.
The stats analyzer laughed and said, “We’re in group B, so the upcoming five rounds of competition would be against the winners from group A. The few battleteams that advanced yesterday, I’ve already sorted out a set of materials on the computer, Tall Boots, Wan Ning, Skitters, LA, Nx. The hardest to tackle would be Tall Boots, but you guys have never met LA, so you might want to study their videos beforehand.”
Xiaofei nodded. “We’ll check it out by ourselves first.”
“Sure, the rest can handle it themselves when they’re up.”
Ji Zhiyao raised a question then. “I don’t think the format of the advancement rounds would be the same as the opening rounds? I saw a video from the previous qualifiers, there weren’t any 1v1 and 3v3 matches in the advancement rounds.”
The stats analyzer nodded in agreement. “That’s right. That was also a point I was going to make; there are only three matches of 5v5 in the advancement round, each match worth five points, to add up with the total points from the opening round.”
“Alright, got it.”
Calculated so, if Xiao and him took turns for each match, he would be able to play at least one match against each battleteam. As a reserve, it was enough for him.
Ji Zhiyao turned on his computer and first downloaded all the materials given by the stats analyzer from the cloud.
During their performance tournament tour, he had played against both Wan Ning and Nx, and had witnessed Skitters style of playing too. That left him with only Tall Boots and LA, whom he wasn’t certain about. Ji Zhiyao first opened LA’s file, and loaded one of the videos, put on his ear-mics and watched in seriously from the start till the end.
At the end of it, Ji Zhiyao realized, LA was especially attentive towards the resources in the jungle, their carry was their jungler.
In that case, a battle between the junglers would be necessary, seems like it would be lots of fun.
Ji Zhiyao’s finger knocked lightly on the surface of the table as he pondered over some matters.
After some time, he closed the video of LA’s competition, then went on to read the competition information on the members of LA battleteam, including their team fight, damage and more stats. When he was done with all that, he opened another file with Tall Boots’ information.
The first member he read about was Lan Guang.
As the first formidable opponent that he met after becoming a professional player and also an existence amongst the top on the international rankings, Lan Guang had a special position in Ji Zhiyao’s heart. Ji Zhiyao really admired Lan Guang’s capability and held him in high esteem, but because he was slightly weaker he never had the chance to face him directly.
Ji Zhiyao zoned out slightly, but was suddenly reminded of Xiaoye’s words from yesterday “he is looking forward to playing against you.”
A corner of his lips lifted, revealing a determined smile that was unique to a youth, cocky yet not obnoxious.
Ji Zhiyao finished going through the information and began to watch videos again, bringing out his notebook and pen at the same time.
The materials on Tall Boots battleteam from the stats analyzer were quite extensive. Not only did they include information from the previous qualifiers, there was also data from the usual tour tournaments, performance tournaments, these helped in deriving some special habits that players had.
Take for example Xiaoye, he was a mid-laner who had the habit of roaming all three lanes. Generally speaking, mid-laners with such movement habits would usually miss out the first few waves of minions, as a result their level and gold in the early game would be slightly lagging behind that of their opponent’s mid-laner. However Xiaoye often worked together with Lan Guang, plundering the opposite jungle once the match begins and getting a kill whenever he appears at the top and bottom lanes, thus this problem had never occurred to him.
And Lan Guang’s strength was very well-balanced. Not only were his handling standards up there, good in jungling, and similarly skilled in cooperating with his teammates, aggressive in his playing, he essentially had no weak points.
Seems a little difficult to deal with.
Should they be considering pushing through the middle lane?
Ji Zhiyao sighed, closed the video and deliberated carefully.
He had been in thought for a while when the sound of a chair being dragged sounded by his ear. Turning his head for a look, Mo Huaifeng sat down beside him and met his eyes. “Looking through the materials?”
Ji Zhiyao was melancholic. “Yeah. At Tall Boots now, feels like it’s gonna be difficult.”
Mo Huaifeng agreed with him. “They’re indeed very strong. They’ve been working together for five years, chances of winning against Mix has always been 50-50, it was also a narrow win for us at the previous national qualifiers.”
Ji Zhiyao scratched his head. “Forget it. I was originally intending on studying all their strategies, doesn’t seem that easy.”
“There are infinite changes to strategies, you’d be better off training.”
“Makes sense. Captain want to play together?”
Mo Huaifeng turned on his computer. “Invite me.”
“Okay!”
Both of them entered a match.
They played two matches, midway with the exception of Nuo appearing looking as pale as a ghost and lying on the table after coming in, the rest of their teammates all walked in drowsily and began training.
Ji Zhiyao touched his tummy. “I’m a little hungry. When is Auntie coming to make lunch?”
Mo Huaifeng glanced at the time on the bottom right corner of his screen. It was already 12:40PM, usually at this time, Auntie would have been done with lunch. He brought out his phone and texted Yuan Wei while placating Ji Zhiyao, “Let me ask.”
Yuan Wei replied very quickly: [Oh dear, I forgot to tell you guys. Auntie called me this morning to apply for leave, her grandson is ill, she needs to stay home to take care of him. Why don’t you guys just order a takeaway?]
[DB.MHF: What else can you remember?]
[ManagerYuanWei: Well I’ve been looking out for some good resources, intending to let all of you film an advertisement after the national qualifiers while your figures are still good.]
[DB.MHF: What advertisement, I’m not doing it.]
[ManagerYuanWei: But I’ve already talked to NoHomo about it.]
[DB.MHF: …]
[ManagerYuanWei: He did not object to it.]
[DB.MHF: I got it.]
Mo Huaifeng put down his phone and announced, “Let’s order takeaway, Auntie has something on, she won’t be coming.”
Ji Zhiyao didn’t think much of it and began to pick his food after replying “okay”. However Nuo started to wail, “Captain, it’s not like you didn’t know that I was suffering from diarrhea for a good half of last night! Now you’re making me eat takeaway the moment I wake up, you want me to die.”
“You’ll be fine.”
Nuo wept bitterly. “Captain, you can’t treat me like this! I’m the same as NoHomo, we’re both your biological sons.”
Mo Huaifeng was stumped.
Ji Zhiyao was mentioned out of the blue and dazedly lifted his eyes to stare at Nuo.
A great idea suddenly popped into Nuo’s mind. “Oh yes, doesn’t NoHomo know how to cook? NoHomo, please save me!”
Mo Huaifeng shut him down at once. “No.”
At the same time Ji Zhiyao replied, “Sure, what do you want to eat?”
Mo Huaifeng was stumped.
Nuo sobbingly ignored Mo Huaifeng and decisively latched onto Ji Zhiyao. “There are still groceries left in the fridge that Auntie bought yesterday, I’ll eat whatever there is, as long as I can secure my life.”
