Chapter 69:
When he returned to his dorm room, Shi Luo turned on the lights and squinted. It took a few seconds before he got used to the harsh light.
Shi Luo rubbed his hair and began to clean up the messy room. He pulled over the suitcase that he had left shoved to one side, tore up the messy consignment note on the suitcase, then pushed the suitcase under the table. By the way, he also put away the few spare keyboards and computer mice on the table. He then saw the half-dead flowers and plants on the windowsill so he unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and watered the plants. He then threw the mineral water bottle into the trash can and saw the laundry hamper. He put in a few dirty clothes, opened the door and put it outside, ready for the cleaning aunt to wash tomorrow.
Shi Luo closed the door, turned and looked around. There was nothing left to clean up. Normally, when Shi Luo returns to the dorm at this hour, he would take a shower and fall asleep. Today, he walked to and fro, feeling not the slightest bit sleepy. .
He even feels like playing a couple of matches!
Shi Luo wandered around in his room two more times, but in the end he was too restless. He sat on the bed, picked up his phone and sent a message to Yu Sui.
[Evil]: [Are you asleep? ]
Yu Sui didn’t reply.
Shi Luo took the phone, exited the chat interface and looked through Weibo. He then clicked back on WeChat, but Yu still hadn’t replied.
Shi Luo played two rounds of a mobile game, after which, still no reply from Yu Sui.
Shi Luo frowned, and just when he was debating to knock on his door, his phone buzzed.
[Whisper]: [I was just taking a shower. ]
Shi Luo looked at the phone screen. The corners of his lips ticked up slightly.
Why take a shower? No need to ask.
Shi Luo took a deep breath, feeling his heartbeat speed up again.
[Whisper]: [Can’t sleep? ]
Shi Luo inexplicably felt a little guilty. He raised his hand and turned off the light. He lay on the bed without even taking off his clothes. He leaned against the wall, holding the phone and after a moment’s pause, typed:
[Evil]: [I’m already sleeping. I’m lying down. ]
Not even a moment later, Shi Luo’s phone buzzed.
[Whisper]: [En, continue pretending. ]
Shi Luo smiled and scratched his head. Although he didn’t want to admit it, he really… couldn’t fall asleep.
He didn’t feel like sleeping at all. He was very spirited, the kind of spirited that made him want to knock on Yu Sui’s door.
But by this time, if he wanders around, it will be all too easy for him to be found out. The risk of some sort of mishap was too high. Shi Luo, at least for now, didn’t dare to do anything at the base. If he was discovered by his teammates… it would be a bit too embarra.s.sing.
But now he wanted to chat with Yu Sui; very, very much so.
Shi Luo scratched his neck and typed, reluctantly admitting,
[Evil]: [Can’t sleep. I close my eyes and all I can think of is you. ]
A few seconds later, Yu Sui replied. Instead of typing a reply, he sent over a voice message.
Shi Luo clicked on it, and Yu Sui’s voice came out: “Me too.”
Shi Luo leaned against the wall, gritted his teeth, and typed:
[Evil]: […Don’t send voice messages. ]
[Whisper]: []
[Evil]: […I really can’t take hearing your voice right now. ]
[Evil]: [Don’t speak. Otherwise, I really won’t be able to sleep. ]
Shi Luo took deep breaths. It seemed like what Yu Sui had said into his ears when he was in his dorm just now still hadn’t dissipated. At this moment, he really couldn’t quite bear to listen to slag man Yu’s voice. Shi Luo sent another message:
[Evil]: [Did you do that intentionally? ]
[Whisper]: [What? What’s so intentional about sending a voice message? ]
[Evil]: [You fu-..Did you already forgot what you just said? ]
Shi Luo regretted it after he sent the message. Before he could withdraw it, Yu Sui sent several messages.
[Whisper]: [I didn’t forget, which sentence do you mean? ]
[Whisper]: [I like you? ]
[Whisper]: [Should I go faster? ]
[Whisper]: [Lou Luo, why so h.o.r.n.y? ]
[Whisper]: [Which sentence was it? I’ll take note of it and arrange it for you later. ]
Shi Luo wished he could knock him to death over the phone screen. Now, he really couldn’t sleep anymore!
Shi Luo hadn’t wanted to remember it. His neck was thoroughly red and he typed quickly, [If you send it again, I’m going to take a screenshot of it! ]
[Whisper]: [Go ahead, send it to whomever you want. We should come out and then we won’t need to hide. ]
Shi Luo wasn’t actually a thin-skinned person. Against a normal person, he’d be able to withstand whatever they throw at him. No problem. But compared to Yu Sui, he did indeed fall a little short.
Shi Luo honestly admitted defeat: [Captain…]
[Whisper]: [Okay, I won’t bully you anymore. ]
[Whisper]: [I was really throwing a bit of a fit just now and I deliberately made a fuss. ]
[Evil]: [Why the fit? Angry I won? ]
[Whisper]: [It has nothing to do with that. ]
[Whisper]: [Your reaction just made me a little regretful. ]
[Whisper]: [I couldn’t believe I suspected that you were straight… If you’re straight, I don’t think anyone would be bent. ]
Shi Luo’s ears burst red and he quickly typed: [Stop talking! ]
Shi Luo found it a bit unbearable. He could even imagine Yu Sui’s quiet laughter.
Shi Luo rubbed his face, and then decided to go for broke. [You weren’t able to tell? ]
[Whisper]: [I’ve seen through a lot of people but then you are the only one I’ve ever liked. There’s just no comparison. ]
The heat on Shi Luo’s face instantly spread to his heart. He leaned against the wall and thought, ‘Slag man Yu really knew how to court someone’.
Shi Luo typed: [Yu Sui, now I really can’t fall asleep. ]
Yu Sui didn’t send back a reply. Instead, he called.
Shi Luo was momentarily started and he then picked up.
On the other side of the phone, Yu Sui laughed quietly. “You really can’t sleep anymore?”
Shi Luo sighed softly and with a helpless tone, “En…”
It was already three o’clock in the morning. Their other teammates must already be asleep at this time. The base didn’t have very good sound insulation and Yu Sui’s also kept his voice very low. “Lie down first and I’ll chat with you for a while. You’ll fall asleep once you get tired of talking…”
Yu Sui smiled, “Look at your boyfriend’s exemplary service. It even comes with after-sales.”
Unsurprisingly, Shi Luo and Yu Sui both got up late the next day.
Neither of them got up until 1 in the afternoon. It was almost 2:30 by the time they had washed up and eaten breakfast. They then headed to the training room.
“You guys were late for less than half an hour. And since it’s also the first time, I’ll only deduct 20,000 yuan each.” Old Qiao was already in the training room. He looked up at them without raising his head, “I take it that there are no objections?”
Yu Sui’s expression was as usual, “No.”
Shi Luo shook his head and then hurried to turn on his computer. He entered his pa.s.sword and quickly opened the game client to log in to his account.
Puppy, who lost the match yesterday and was forced to treat everyone to a midnight snack, was very satisfied. “Very good, my world is now back in balance.”
Yu Sui said as he turned on his computer, “Where was the imbalance? A sniper not being able to beat a striker in a 1 on 1. Now that’s some special loser skills.”
“Even as a medic, you weren’t able to beat him either,” Puppy said coldly. “To be honest, I’m beginning to suspect that Manager Zhou arranged these matches so that I’d get everyone food and give you two a chance to flirt. I’ve been used! I was nothing but a tool.”
“You’ve always been a tool. We still play NSN today. ROD’s been in pretty good shape recently. Don’t get suppressed again.” Speaking of last night’s midnight snack, Chen Huo was very satisfied. “By the way, I kind of like this midnight snack game. Can we play it again today?”
Shi Luo’s eyes lighted up but he endured and didn’t chime in.
Yu Sui was last to log-in to his account. Old Qiao created a virtual room and pulled in the people from NSN. He connected everyone to voice chat and told them to get ready.
“Rejected!” Puppy said weakly while waiting for the countdown. “I’m saving up money to buy a house. I’ve already looked around the area of our base and I want to buy a villa here. So no one better think about robbing me in the future.”
Yu Sui said, “You don’t even have a girlfriend. Why are you in such a hurry to buy a house?”
Puppy looked at Shi Luo. Half-jealous but not bitter, he said, “Nothing wrong about preparing for a rainy day, right?”
Chen Huo was waiting for Old Qiao to yell ‘start’, and said, “Are you short on money? You should take a page out of Shi Luo’s book. You can secretly play for someone else. A monthly salary of a million won’t just be a dream. I’m also short on cash. Too bad I can only play as a striker. If I were an all-rounder, I’d like a piece of that.”
Shi Luo glanced at the Chen Huo, “You can make more from those "Baby Daddy Reward" ads they’ve got up on the telephone poles. Why don’t you go do that?”
Old Qiao covered his face helplessly. He gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, “Our voice chat is connected with NSN! Can you please act with a little bit of dignity?!”
Over the voice chat, Wawa’s timid voice came out, “You… do you always try to mess with each other’s mentality before all your practice games?”
“All the time.” Puppy said lazily, “We all even have to attack each other before official matches. Anti-stress training. But kids shouldn’t try it.”
Over voice chat, Gu Gan said, “Don’t imitate them and don’t let them mess with your head.”
Wawa was shocked by the corporate culture of the villain-filled Free team and closed his mic.
After some customary mutual trash-talking, the two teams entered their respective voice chats and the practice game began.
ROD really had mentally recovered. He was even better than before all that fuss about his girlfriend’s birthday. Sure enough, as everyone expected, the professional players needed to be blackened by brainless sprayers a few times to build up a strong and stable mentality.
After one afternoon, they played a total of eight games. Free had six wins and two losses.
After the training matches, the two teams connected their voice chats to exchange a few more words. Afterwards, they each left the custom map and voice chat.
“Was it just my imagination?” Puppy rubbed his neck and said slowly, “Why did it feel like NSN was holding back? It’s not the first time I’ve felt this. We’ve played several practice games with them before and they always seem to be hiding something.”
Shi Luo took a couple of sips of mineral water, “It isn’t just your imagination. Wawa, at least, was definitely holding back.”
Shi Luo often paired up with Wawa and knew him better than everyone else.
“That’s just normal.” Yu Sui wasn’t surprised. “We didn’t use all our strategies to win either.”
“I’m looking forward to the playoffs.” Chen Huo also drank some water and smiled. “NSN hasn’t delivered any results for several years. Old Gu holding back is because he wants to enter the World Championships. There are only two places. NSN doesn’t know if they’ll be able to get in this year.”
“Worry about yourself. You also know that there are only two places. Saint is no longer playing practice matches with us. NSN has begun to hide their tricks…” Old Qiao sent the practice match video to everyone. “In the end, if Saint and NSN get those two places, we’ll have to stay here and cheer for them, then their tactics would have been pretty effective. Yu Sui…why don’t you try firing up everyone’s spirits.”
Yu Sui found this kind of thing to be most annoying. In the past, when they were in FS, Ji Yanhan would be too lazy and fob off that responsibility to Yu Sui, who’d use it to get out of work early. Now, he was the boss and he couldn’t get away from it.
Yu Sui received the video file sent by Old Qiao, “There’s a bonus in it for you.”
For players who weren’t at all deterred by a 10,000 yuan ‘foul language’ fine, their thirst for bonuses has long been dulled. No one’s expression changed.
Yu Sui said slowly, “Your signing fee will be increased next season.”
Everyone still felt nothing.
Old Qiao said, dissatisfied, “Try being a but more impa.s.sioned!”
“I can’t do impa.s.sioned but I can tell you a little detail about the World Championships.” Yu Sui pulled up the uniform jacket that was about to slide off his shoulders. He slowly said, “The World Championships…It’s hard to say who can make it in our division, but for the European division, Sacred Sword is definitely going to make it.”
“We and Sacred Sword are from different regions. According to the rules that prohibit teams from the same region meeting in the same World Championships group stage, if we both enter the World Championships, there’s a good chance we’ll be in the same group as Sacred Sword.”
“Let me tell you. Since they established the team, Sacred Sword has never failed to pa.s.s the group stage. Their worst ever result for the tournament was also third place.”
Yu Sui raised his eyes and looked at everyone, “Whether we can serve them their greatest ever humiliation of washing out during the group stage, that’s going to be up to everyone.”
Before Yu Sui even finished speaking, the eyes of the other three all lit up.
The laziest Puppy slapped the table, “Hurry up, send me the notes. What dinner? We don’t have time for that. Let’s do the game review. We’ll eat and review.”