FOG [e-sports]

When Old Qiao pushed the door open, this was the scene he was met with.

Old Qiao glanced at Shi Luo. After feeling embarrassed for a second, he tentatively asked, “Were you crying?”

Shi Luo: “...”

“You... weren’t that vulnerable before.” Old Qiao couldn’t understand, “Why do you cry so much now? Before, you cried when you hit the top 100 on the national server and now, you’re crying because we lost today. You... What about when we get to the World Championships? What are we supposed to do with you if you end up crying all day?”

When Shi Luo was about to explain, Old Qiao said consolingly, “It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s because you’re young. Sigh, I shouldn’t have said anything...”

“Based on the normal admission age, at your age, you should be at home, eating and drinking your fill, being waited upon by everyone as you entered third year... But entering this business, its like taking the college entrance examination time and again. What’s more, it’s the kind where the results are broadcasted live. If you don’t test well, no one will be there to coax you but there won’t be any shortage of people who’d want to rain down abuse.” Old Qiao has been very forgiving towards Shi Luo because of his young age ever since two years ago and it was still the same now. As he spoke, his voice became a lot gentler, “But what use is there to look for Yu Sui when you cry? How could he possibly comfort you? You’re better off looking for me. I’m a lot better at comforting people than he is.”

Yu Sui, who was in the middle of sending accounts to the training partners, didn’t raise his head when he heard the words and said, “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m very good at comforting people. Just now, little Shi Luo cried to his heart’s content in my arms.”

“Cried my-...” Shi Luo swallowed back the word “ass”. He wasn’t in any mood to explain. He took two more tissues and wiped his face. “I understand, I won’t cry anymore.”

“If you really must cry, make sure you do it behind everyone.” Old Qiao walked to his seat and replaced Yu Sui, “And you must make especially be sure not to do it in front of the cameras... Do you know why the sprayers insulted you so fiercely today? In the second game... and at the end of that game, your expression turned ugly. They noticed that you had a mentality problem, so they deliberately targeted that point even more. These dumb*ss sprays... they make sure to step on where it hurts. If they know it’s easy to mess with your mentality, in the future, they’ll try to mess with you even more. Even during interviews, don’t say anything. Don’t ever expose your real weakness.

Shi Luo said perfunctorily, “Understood.”

Shi Luo glanced at Yu Sui and felt inwardly relieved. For now, the sprayers still haven’t found his real weakness.

After setting up the custom game mode, the three of them simply talked about today’s game. After half an hour Chen Huo and Puppy came over, and the four players returned to their respective positions and started to simulate the situation of today’s game, letting the sparring practice imitate Saint to fight against themselves. .

Having just lost the match, playing this kind of game-replay training was the most nauseating. Old Qiao had been worried that Shi Luo would be upset about this. He didn’t expect that Shi Luo would be the most serious about this than anyone. In the middle, he even asked Old Qiao to give the opposing striker a little more economy to increase the difficulty of his training.

No matter how good the sparring team was, there was still a big gap compared to the active pro-players. For simulation practice games, if the team members felt that the opposing team had insufficient counter-training ability and weren’t putting enough pressure on themselves, they could ask the coach to give the opposing team some help. In any case, this was their our own custom server, they were free to change any of the game settings.

“Is Shi Shen feeling anxious from being scolded today?” Puppy smiled, “Why are you suddenly so motivated? Don’t worry... After a few days, the sprayers won’t be scolding us anymore. You just have to bear with it until next Tuesday.”

Chen Huo was at a loss. While playing, he asked, “Why? Why would the sprayers forget about us by next Tuesday?”

Yu Sui was taking cover behind a tree and quietly took away the head of their training partner sniper. He said, “Next Tuesday is the regular season game between Saint and NSN. After the game, they’ll be spraying whoever loses that match. They won’t care about us anymore.”

Old Qiao was speechless, “You...”

“Oh, this is the product of our experience being sprayed. What’s the matter with you?” Puppy sighed, “This is a conclusion I’ve made from blood and tears&#k2026;”

Old Qiao slapped Puppy on the back, “Concentrate!”

After they increased the sparring team’s economy and gave them upgraded equipment as their initial equipment, the players began training their counter-attacks for Saint. They polished their &#k2018;desperate straits’ tactic they used during the game and Yu Sui developed a new tactic as well. As a result, they had to train and polish that tactic too. They kept practicing until they reached five o’clock in the morning. In the end, it was the sparring team’s medic who couldn’t bear it and called for a stop.

It was rare for Zhou Huo to accompany everyone during their training. Originally, he wanted to take some publicity material showing how everyone kept on training until the wee hours of the morning. He wanted to send out it out to abuse their fans. But he hadn’t expected that they would play round after round after round until it was turning light in the horizon. Zhou Huo had been sleeping on and off on the sofa. Hearing that everyone was finally about to call it a day, he hurriedly picked up his phone and blurry-eyed, took a video.

“This isn’t abusing the fans... This is f*cking abusing me...” Zhou Huo murmured as he began recording, “You all are werewolves...you almost killed the sparring team making they stay up this late...”

Old Qiao quickly took down notes, writing down the summary while also discussing with Yu Sui about the omissions in their second countermeasure. He smiled, “How do you think we produce results? If we don’t overcome this problem, if we meet again with Saint in the playoffs, they might still use this method to get us. And it’s not just Saint. Other teams with decent medics who’ve watched this game, might have also been tempted by this strategy. They’ll stubbornly practiced this method to specifically target us. We can’t not solve it. Alright...Rest up, rest up. We’ll continue tomorrow.”

Shi Luo rubbed his eyes, “F*ck Angel Sword... I’m going to sleep.”

For the next few days, Free stopped all external practice matches. They had closed door training and concentrated on overcoming this difficult problem. To avoid exposing their tactics, none of them did a live broadcast during this time. They focused on training and they polished the tactic they picked up from Sacred Sword — the “Out of ammo and no economy left” tactic also known as the “Let’s see who lasts longest” tactic. Finally, they were no longer afraid of running up against Saint, but Yu Sui still hated this method and thought it was stupid.

They’d already used this during the second round of their match and they had also polished their play of this tactic. But using this tactic would draw out the duration of the match. Normally, a round of the game would end in 20 minutes if it goes well and 30 minutes if not. But using this “Out of ammo and no economy left” tactic, would take at least fifty minutes, maybe even an hour; otherwise they wouldn’t be able to drag their opponents to death, unable to force their opponents to use up their economy.

Yu Sui wanted not only to win; he also wanted to win quickly.

Therefore, their closed door training couldn’t finish. Yu Sui continued to polish his new tactics. During this period, Shi Luo, Puppy and Old Qiao also proposed new ideas, all of which had their merits, so they had to give them a try.

Chen Huo has always hated using his brain. He never came up with any excellent tactics. During their days of closed door training, the thing he was most afraid of was someone suddenly saying, ‘I also have an idea we can try...’

“Everyone has ideas. My teammates have ideas, the coaches have ideas, the data analysts have ideas... They all have ideas...” Chen Huo scolded, “The most dumbfounding thing is, even Manager Zhou had an idea yesterday!!! What? Does he even know how to play this game? How dare he have an idea?!”

“He was just giving a suggestion, although his suggestion was ridiculous...” Old Qiao appeased, “Alright, although the other suggestions weren’t as reliable as the first one, but at least we’re not afraid of them anymore. There won’t be any training until tonight. So, gather points or play some matches. Do what you want.”

Chen Huo’s expression relaxed. “Damn it, I haven’t logged on to the national server for so many days. My ranking must have dropped for sure.”

After dinner, the prohibition was officially lifted for the four of them and Shi Luo returned to national server.

After several days of closed door training, not only has his rank on the national server dropped, but he was also behind his live broadcast hours. Shi Luo looked at the backend record of his live broadcast channel. He found that he hasn’t broadcasted even ten hours yet for this month.

Shi Luo opened a live broadcast. Afterwards, he didn’t queue up and only stayed waiting with his game client on.

Zhou Huo had just called Yu Sui down. It seemed as if he was going to have Yu Sui take a look at this month’s financial accounts. He should be back in a while. Shi Luo wanted to double row with Yu Sui.

Shi Luo was nestled in his gaming chair, playing on his mobile phone. After waiting for about ten minutes, Yu Sui still hadn’t come up yet.

Shi Luo had opened an empty live broadcast to accumulate some hours. The fans watching his live broadcast didn’t understand what was going on. His live chat was filling up with question marks. Shi Luo waited for a while, but Yu Sui still hadn’t returned. His live chat was still sending out question marks. Shi Luo opened the voice function. While playing his the phone, he explained to the viewers, “Whisper went off to do something. I’m waiting for him to see if he’ll double row with me.”

The fans hadn’t seen anyone for so many days. So naturally, when they saw that Shi Luo had opened a live broadcast, they were all very excited.

[TAT, is my team finally out of closed door training? 】

[What do you mean ‘if’ he’ll double row. It has to be double row. 】

[*Mysterious smile* Shi Zai, why does it sound like you’re so familiar calling Shi Shen’s name? When did your relationship become so good after you made up? 】

[*Excited* So I can see Yu Shen from Shi Zai’s viewpoint again? *Cry*...The playoffs haven’t arrived yet, and Yu Shen has already disappeared again. 】

[What were you doing these days? Why did you all disappear without a word? Are you doing some sort of confidential training? 】

[Waiting for Whisper with Shi Shen! Come on, Whisper! 】

[Wait for Whisper+1, hurry, hurry, hurry...]

Naturally, when there is harmony in the live chat, there will always also be disharmony. After losing the game a few days ago, the entire Free club went invisible. The sprayers had nowhere to send out their abuse. Now, among the entire team Shi Luo was the first to resume live broadcast. The sprayers finally found some place to vent. They turned up uninvited, filling up the live chat.

[After avoiding the limelight for a few days, you’re finally doing live broadcasts again? 】

[Can you not mentally collapse the next time you lose a game? Can you not mentally collapse the next time you lose a game? Can you not mentally collapse the next time you lose a game?】

[Awesome, so now you can’t even manage without Yu Shen. When you lost the game, you even had to ask Yu Shen to comfort you. Now, you’re forcing Yu Shen to accompany you to play on the national server. Looks like we know who’s the weakest link in this team. 】

[Young Master Shi’s so NB, Young Master Shi is so powerful. When can Young Master Shi stop being so butt-hurt all the time? 】

[He has a weak mentality, an ugly expression during competitions, a bad temper, and now he’s taking up his teammates’ time...]

[Can you stop wasting Whisper’s time? Can you? He’s a champion medic. What are you? 】

Actually, Shi Luo didn’t have that many black fans. But all the haters of the entire team were now gathered on Shi Luo’s side; add to that a few of Yu Sui’s duwei fans. For a moment, things seems to be in utter turmoil.

The administrator of Shi Luo’s live broadcast room was trying hard to mute these sprayers. Shi Luo’s fans were also spraying back. But black fans kept sprouting up. Even the administrator of his live broadcast room sent private messages to Shi Luo to try to persuade him to just proceed with playing a match and not to call Yu Sui anymore so as to avoid giving more topics for the sprayers.

Shi Luo put his phone aside and looked at the live chat, his expression unchanged.

He didn’t spray back, nor did he go play a match by himself.

About ten minutes later, Yu Sui came upstairs.

“Captain.” Shi Luo turned his head to look at Yu Sui. Expressionlessly, he said, “I bought you as a training partner last time...can I cash in on that now?”

Yu Sui was startled. He closed the door of the training room, walked behind Shi Luo and looked at the live chat of his live broadcast. He instantly understood.

Yu Sui smiled, “Of course.”

That tiny bit of anger in Shi Luo’s heart dissipated in an instant. He didn’t allow himself to be swept away by the sprayer’s rhythm. If the sprayers didn’t want him playing double row with Yu Sui then he was definitely going to do a live broadcast of his double row with Yu Sui. Let’s see just who was going to f*ck up whom.

When Shi Luo sat down and was about to pull out his keyboard, Yu Sui said, “Wait.”

Shi Luo was startled. Yu Sui said, “Turn on you webcam.”

Shi Luo turned on the camera without even asking for the reason.

“Anyone who’s working as a play partner should know his place as a play partner...” Yu Sui made sure that he appeared through the webcam. He raised his cuffs and rubbed his wrists. He looked at Shi Luo’s gaming table, and whistled, “Come, let me serve you.”

Yu Sui bent slightly to set up the keyboard for Shi Luo. He then picked up the headset with one hand, “What are you dodging for...”

Shi Luo didn’t expect that Yu Sui would help him with even this. He froze for a bit and Yu Sui put on the headphones for him.

He didn’t know whether Yu Sui did it intentionally or not, after putting on the headphones for Shi Luo, he even lightly fixed his disheveled hair for him. Another round of screams appeared on the live chat.

“Your mouse...” Yu Sui took Shi Luo’s mouse and put it in place. He then pulled Shi Luo’s hand and set it on top of the mouse. He said seriously, “Would you like me to adjust the dpi?”

The live chat was going crazy. Shi Luo held back a smile, shook his head and said nothing.

While doing all this, Yu Sui brushed against Shi Luo’s arm. Yu Sui whispered, “Cold? Your arms are cold...”

Yu Sui took off his own team uniform jacket that he had draped around him and put it on Shi Luo’s shoulders. “Tell me if you still feel cold and I’ll get you some thicker clothes.”

After carefully taking care of Shi Luo, Yu Sui went to his own seat. Shi Luo glanced at the live chat again, [Who can lend me a million so that I can experience Whisper’s service for myself?] This comment was copied and set one after another in an endless stream, completely drowning out the sprayers’ comments until they could no longer be found.

Translator’s note: Did you all see the new cover? It’s so pretty! It’s the manhua promo pic. FOG’s getting a manhua starting November. So, technically, it’s not the novel cover but I was so sick of the blue novel cover with the weird rabbit that I just couldn’t not. The mods were nice enough to let me change it into the manhua promo cover. =)