FOG [e-sports]

Chapter 56:

Shi Luo returned to his seat. He was still logged into his side account in the game client. Shi Luo quickly clicked to queue for a match and the game started immediately.

He was afraid Yu Sui would have seen something if had been even one second late.

Shi Luo played his side account uneasily. Actually, he didn’t have the least bit confidence that he hadn’t been seen.

The “E” had already hit the chat window. Yu Sui had probably already been upstairs at the time. There’s every possibility that he had seen it.

Of course, even if he’d been seen, Shi Luo could explain it away. He’d say that he actually wanted to type “en”, but he accidentally pressed the uppercase key.

It made sense — barely.

Shi Luo shook his head. He’d almost lost his head. He returned behind the bunker and loaded some bullets, taking a deep breath.

But the problem was, right now, the frightening thing was how does he explain it to Yu Sui?

Under his thin T-shirt, Shi Luo’s chest was pounding nonstop.

No, that’s not it.

Right now, this wasn’t the most frightening thing for Shi Luo.

For professional players, especially those who’ve been playing for many years, the name they respond the most to was no longer their given names but rather the name that they see everyday in the game, the name that accompanies their registered player ID.

For Shi Luo, he is more responsive to “Evil” than “Shi Luo”.

Shi Luo knew very well that just then, for some unexplainable reason, he had been about to type out “Evil.”

Shi Luo has always admitted that he was partial towards Yu Sui. Just now, his emotions had indeed been agitated when his passerby teammate had mentioned that small-time anchor. He instinctively wanted to stake his claim. But using Whisper’s main account to tell this to a random stranger was simply going too far.

This went far, far beyond just staking his claim.

Shi Luo’s head wasn’t in the game and he was killed. While waiting to be resurrected, Shi Luo carefully tilted his head and snuck a peek at Yu Sui.

Yu Sui though looked completely the same as usual. His next game was already in progress, and his expression was no different than the one he usually wore.

Shi Luo looked at Yu Sui.

In their entire team, Yu Sui was the quietest when playing.

Chen Huo was the noisiest. When things weren’t going his way, he’d spray. When things were going his way, he’d still spray. When he played like sh*t, he’d curse and when he played wonderfully, he’d shout it out for everyone to know. So long as he was in his seat, Chen Huo could rarely be quiet for more than three minutes.

Shi Luo, himself, often threw insults but he’d usually type it out. He didn’t often yell out verbal abuse but he typed quite furiously on his keyboard. Strikers had the most keyboard operations. What’s more, he used blue switch keys. When playing, he often seemed to be abusing his keyboard judging from the nonstop clacking and rattling.

Puppy played a sniper, crawling in the underbrush, targeting his opponents. There weren’t a lot of keyboard operations. However, after years of watching the confusing play of passers-by teammates, he has cultivated the habit of making deliberately ambiguous insults. From time to time, he’d let out some truly acidic comments.

Only Yu Sui could go on for an entire night without talking.

Unless they are in the same matches, his other teammates, even when in the same training room, wouldn’t ever know whether Yu Sui was on a winning or losing streak. Whether he played well or not, his expressions were almost exactly the same.

Shi Luo was feeling a little guilty and he would cast sidelong glances at Yu Sui from time to time. However, it was hard to make out anything from Yu Sui’s expression.

If he were forced to say what he could make out from Yu Sui’s expression, it would be…

Shi Luo chewed his gum hard. It was a bit of an uncomfortable thought but, it would be that Yu Sui was really handsome.

Free didn’t have any regular season games the past two days and everyone had been working hard to raise their rankings. Inside the base, these internet addicted teenagers laid bare their true slovenly everyday selves.

The same went for the league’s number one medic.

He wouldn’t blow dry his hair after washing, letting it air dry naturally. What wouldn’t dry was the towel he had draped around his shoulder. Everyday, he’d don on a pair of sports pants and a T-shirt. When it’s cold he’d put on the team jacket. He hardly ever wore his shoes properly. He didn’t spare any thought for his 10,000 yuan worth limited edition sneakers, stepping on its back and turning them into slippers.

Occasionally when he had to go out, he would bend down and lift up the back part, slip it on and head out. It couldn’t be more convenient.

But despite being so careless and casual, he was still handsome.

Back then Yu Sui had played so hard and had gained a bad name for himself. And yet so many of his girlfriend fans stood by him. There was a reason for his. He had the capital for it.

You’re disappointed with his moral character? You can still stan him for his skills. You don’t understand the game nor do you care about skills? No problem. You can always stay for his slag man face.

Shi Luo couldn’t help remembering that small time anchor who piggybacked off Yu Sui’s popularity. His typing became noisier and noisier.

After that day, that small time anchor made several more attempts to create a splash and garner attention with limited success. She desperately insinuated that she had added Yu Sui on WeChat and they have already had “a few exchanges”.

Those who were unscrupulous and wanted to take advantage of the situation followed suit, saying in a vague way that after Yu Sui returned to China, they had been in contact with him.

Girls who’d been linked to Yu Sui by even the tiniest bit two years before were, of course, better able to pull off this sort of sham. Most of the time, they would say, “When Whisper returned to China, naturally I wanted to meet up. But I didn’t want to disturb him. Pro players are so busy after all. Of course, even if I’d really seen him, I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone, lest anyone say I’m piggybacking off his popularity.”

With so many blanks left in their narratives, it opened the way for people to speculate. It made people feel as though they (female) really had some sort of reunion with Yu Sui.

All these were people of very little fame and couldn’t make much of any waves on their own. Zhou Huo played his cards well and refused to even cast them a glance. Yu Sui himself paid them no attention.

However, sometimes, when Shi Luo saw these, he wanted to rise to the bait.

He wanted to find these people and ask them plainly. Just where did you meet Yu Sui? Was it in-game? Why do you keep mentioning him? Are you some poor soul who’d died under his dagger? Why are you hanging about here like some ghost waiting to prey upon his life?

Shi Luo tapped forcefully on his keyboard. He’d feel vexed every time he thought about those people.

Being at the same base with Yu Sui all day, Shi Luo knew better than anyone how untrue those claims were.

But it was still annoying.

It might not be true now but it might be true in the future.

Yu Sui was already 21 years old.

In another year, he’d be legal to get married.

Yu Sui was better at everything. There was nowhere to put him where he’d be safe. He was always going to attract people’s eyes.

What if he brings back a little wife in the future…

No matter how hard Shi Luo beats the balcony railing or even if plucks off all the thorns from that cactus, he would no longer care about Shi Luo.

Naturally, he would have someone else to care about.

Shi Luo knew very well just how good Yu Sui could be when he was being good to someone.

No one could stand against it.

When that time comes…

If Shi Luo tries that trick with the blanket again, he’d really be considered as a green tea b*tch.

Shi Luo spit out the gum and replaced it with a cigarette that he held between his lips. The expression on his face was vicious.

During the span of a short game, Shi Luo’s thoughts had already wandered, flying thousands of miles away.

When Shi Luo finished his match, it was exactly midnight.

The new month had started. Zhou Huo came upstairs and checked on everyone’s rankings. All four of them were in the top 100 and all of them qualified.

Zhou Huo was very satisfied. “Not bad, not bad. Everyone came within standard in the first month. Now you only need to maintain your rankings next month. It should be much simpler, right?”

“This is no longer about this being simple or not.” Chen Huo looked at his national server ranking and heaved a sigh, “Really, is there anyone here who cares about getting his pay docked? No one’s actually gonna miss this bit of money, right? Take a look at the national ranking list! It’s an abyss of suffering! This has already become a matter of pride!”

Puppy nodded in agreement. “I already didn’t care about getting my pay docked in the first place. You can deduct the money. It’s fine. But when I think about how if I lose my place in the top 100 some other player from some other team would surpass me, forget about the deduction, that’s simply unbearable!”

“That’s right!” Chen Huo glared at Yu Sui with bitterness. “It’s even more unbearable when it’s someone from your own team. It’s even more infuriating, when that someone should have had his points deducted but didn’t!”

“What a grudge. Let’s end a bit earlier today.” Zhou Huo informed them, “I just asked the driver to go out and buy crayfish for you guys. It’s at the first floor. Go to bed after you’ve eaten.”

Everyone got up to leave. Yu Sui was the slowest.

Yu Sui had noticed how Shi Luo had kept shooting him glances just now.

Recalling how Shi Luo had used his own main account to type out that letter, Yu Sui dragged his steps to fall behind Shi Luo, narrowing his eyes.

After paying such careful attention to that matter that has long been on his mind, was it finally going to yield some positive results?

They all went to the first floor and each tore open the take-out boxes. They put on gloves and started peeling crayfish. Zhou Huo looked at Yu Sui, “Yours is here. I know you can’t eat spicy food. Here’s some shrimps with egg yolk and garlic.”

It was already so late in the evening, even though it wasn’t spicy, Yu Sui still couldn’t eat a lot of it. He peeled a few and had a taste but didn’t eat anymore after that. He went to the kitchen and took a bowl of the rice porridge the cleaning aunt had prepared for him.

While peeling spicy crayfish, Shi Luo looked at Yu Sui. After a moment’s hesitation, he asked, “…stomachache?”

“No.” Yu Sui sat down and slowly ate his porridge. “It’s really late, eating too much will hurt my stomach.”

“Tsk tsk.” Chen Huo looked at Yu Sui pityingly, “You’re so young but you can no longer eat whatever you want for a midnight snack… Over here, we have a cleaning aunt. When you retire in the future and live by yourself, who’ll look after and cook for you? You’ll have to find a girlfriend who can cook so that she’ll cook porridge for you when you stay up late.”

Shi Luo tossed the crayfish head aside.

Old Qiao was quietly eating his own food. He shook his head when he heard this. “What kind of girl would accompany you while you stay up to play? What are you thinking?”

Chen Huo curled his lips. “There are lots of people who’d be willing to stay up late with Yu Sui and cook porridge for him.”

Chen Huo looked at Yu Sui and in his simpleton way, asked, “Right?”

Yu Sui glanced at Shi Luo, whose expression was getting worse and worse. The corner of his mouth ticked down slightly. He said lightly, “Eat your food.”

“I’m not wrong.” Chen Huo opened a can of soda and sighed, “Slag Man Yu won’t ever have to worry about no one wanting him in the future…”

Old Qiao held a crayfish in hand and brought up their recent training match. Everyone dropped the chit-chat. They were going to be playing against NSN the day after tomorrow, so they can’t take it lightly.

Yu Sui stopped eating after finishing off half a bowl of porridge. After discussing for a while about the tactics and strategies for playing against NSN, Puppy and Zhou Huo started talking about industry gossip once again. Yu Sui didn’t feel like listening to this and he got up to put his bowl in the kitchen dishwasher.

Shi Luo was uneasy all night. It was as if something had gone out of control in his mind. His mood kept swinging from good to bad and back.

Shi Luo felt a bit better when he thought of Yu Sui’s partiality towards himself but when he thought of Chen Huo teasing Yu Sui about having a girlfriend and about how Yu Sui did not directly refute it, he was so annoyed he wanted to hit Chen Huo.

Worrying about personal gains and losses was too torturous.

Shi Luo had on an ugly expression as he kept his head down and ate crayfish. Suddenly, he didn’t know who it was that was so reckless, but someone poked his back.

Shi Luo’s brows rose instantly, and he looked sideways…

Yu Sui just passed by.

Yu Sui walked through the first floor living room and out the base. Through the glass wall, he could be seen sitting on a deck chair in the courtyard.

Shi Luo’s anger disappeared instantly.

While silently cursing that this was just some high school slag man joke of a move, he silently took off his plastic gloves.

Zhou Huo looked at Shi Luo. “You’re not eating anymore? Don’t you like this restaurant’s crayfish the most?”

“I’m full.” Shi Luo got up and washed his hands. “You guys keep eating.”

Shi Luo picked up his phone and pursed his lips. After half a minute, he opened the door leading out of the base and walked into the yard.

Yu Sui lay on the large deck chair, playing on his phone.

Shi Luo sat on the other chair. With one foot on top of the deck chair, he asked carelessly, “What did you call me here for?”

Yu Sui put down his phone. “You seem a little unhappy.”

Shi Luo instantly turned hyper-sensitive. “No!”

Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo without saying a word.

This was what Shi Luo couldn’t stand the most; Yu Sui not saying anything, simply looking at him. Less than half a minute, he already capitulated. He knit his brows and said, “I’m annoyed.”

Yu Sui asked, voice low, “What’s got you annoyed?”

Shi Luo hesitated for a moment and then he decided to throw caution to the wind.

“I……”

The moment he uttered this single word, Shi Luo regretted it.

Even two years ago, Shi Luo had never been so intimate with Yu Sui like this.

Back then, they would often compare and argue about training. Not talking shop and having a heart-to-heart talk like this was very rare.

It was so awkward.

Shi Luo lit a cigarette. He pinched his brows and smoked.

Yu Sui didn’t press. He just quietly looked at Shi Luo.

“I…” Shi Luo let out a puff of smoke. He whispered in a self-defeated kind of way, “I get bothered when others get close to you.”

There was no change in Yu Sui’s expression. He asked, “Weren’t you always like this?”

“It’s not the same.” Shi Luo smoked more and more fiercely. He didn’t have the nerve to look at Yu Sui. He lowered his head and said, “Others mustn’t get close to you, they can’t receive any benefits from you and I…”

Shi Luo bit the cigarette butt until it turned completely bent out of shape. His voice became softer and softer. “I want more and more.”

Yu Sui nodded and repeated, “Others can’t receive any benefits but you can. And you want more and more…” Yu Sui paused and asked, “Shi Luo, what else do you want?”

Shi Luo was taken aback, and before he could sort out his thoughts, Yu Sui asked slowly, “Shi Luo, my first kiss was already yours. How much more…benefits do you want?”