Chapter 70:
Puppy, generally the most pa.s.sive one among them, wanted to eat while doing a game review. Old Qiao was so happy that he crouched on top of the second floor stairs and yelled towards the kitchen, asking the cleaning aunt to bring dinner up.
Old and new grudges against Sacred Sword had piled up and was now completely unresolvable. All these people were now full of interest at the prospect of facing off against Sacred Sword in the World Championships. While waiting for the cleaning aunt to deliver the food, Shi Luo even asked for a pen from Old Qiao. He pulled over a piece of paper and start to compute the probability.
“Don’t try to compute it. I’ve watched the World Championship lot draws these past few years, so I know.” Old Qiao shook his head and said superst.i.tiously, “There’s no need to believe in probability. What you’ve got to believe in is karma. Based on my experience, this kind of lifelong enemies are usually bound to encounter each other in the group stage. Sacred Sword’s the team that has the most bad blood with us. There’s an 80% chance we’ll run into them.”
“According to what you said, we’ve also got old scores to settle with Saint and NSN so we’re also likely to encounter them.” Chen Huo still retained a bit of rationality. He looked at the formula Shi Luo had written and said, making a show of being earnest, “You still have to believe in science… …For the group stage, it’s a double round-robin and two of the four teams will make it through in each group.. If we do wind up in the same group with Sacred Sword and we want to squeeze them out at this stage, we’re gonna have to make sure we win both games of the double round robin to ensure that the Sacred Sword won’t have that high a score. Then we’ll have to hope the other two teams in our group are great and we can work together to step on the Sacred Sword so that they’ll wind up at third place in the group. Uh… that’s gonna be a bit difficult.”
Shi Luo continued to adjust the formula, “It is best to kick them out during the group stage. If we can’t stop them at group stage, we can still hope for the quarter-finals…”
Puppy nodded, “The quarterfinals are fine too. Last season’s champions, going back home as only one of the top eight is plenty humiliating too.”
Chen Huo suddenly remembered something and said, “This year’s World Championship is going to be in Berlin! If we kick them out by the group stage or the quarter-finals, they’re going to have to drop out early and be humiliated in front of their home crowd. Oh, that would be so much fun.”
“Even if we don’t meet in the group stage…” Shi Luo spread the paper in his hand, “a.s.suming, our two teams and Sacred Sword both qualify for the quarterfinals, based on the compet.i.tion rules that teams from the same region can’t be grouped in the same half, then here’s a 50% probability that we’re going to run into Sacred Sword. That’s quite a high probability.”
Chen Huo waved his hand, “a.s.sume a bit more arrogantly! We and the other Chinese team are both going to make it to the semi-finals, then no matter which half, Sacred Sword will run into us! Once we meet, we’ll handle them and send them packing! ”
“So, us and the other team from the Chinese region, will have three chances to intercept Sacred Sword before the finals.” Puppy smiled, “I like this… I hope the draw will be more effective then. Hope we meet early, the group stage or the quarterfinals. It’ll be interesting to send our old club packing that early.”
Zhou Huo was helping the cleaning aunt to bring up the food and he was shocked when he heard this, “What kind of crazy talk is this? Other teams are wishing they’d never run into Sacred Sword but you guys are planning to meet them at group stage. Don’t you guys want to keep on living?”
“Seems like they don’t.” Old Qiao had been infected by their desire for revenge, and said, “It doesn’t matter if we place or not, but the Sacred Sword has to die sooner.”
Shi Luo put away the pen and paper, and took his food, “Eliminating Sacred Sword and placing in the compet.i.tion aren’t mutually exclusive ideas. If we want to keep going higher, we’ll run across Sacred Sword sooner or later.”
“The premise is that we can beat them. If we can’t beat them, they’ll be sending us packing in the group stage.” Zhou Huo put the food out, “Are you going to do the game review?”
Old Qiao nodded, turned on the projector, and began to review the game.
The game review for ordinary practice matches actually weren’t so strenuous. All through out, Old Qiao kept skipping to the timestamps of the crucial points he had noted down when he watched the matches. He praised them for things that were worthy of being praised and sprayed them for things that were worthy of being sprayed. Except for Yu Sui, who as before had made almost no mistakes, everyone else more or less had some problems.
Zhou Huo had also been watching from the side, watching the game review as an amateur. He said, “I hope they’re not going to be doing any more practice matches tonight. This much has already been pretty intense.”
“We don’t have any matches scheduled for tonight. If we had, we wouldn’t have been able to do the game review. Please remember your mistakes. Gather them together with the ten games yesterday.” Old Qiao swallowed his mouthful of food. He smoothed out his throat and said, “Gather them together and do your own skills training tonight.”
“If you have problems with micro-manipulations, repeat the action and make corrections. Repeat it a thousand times and even deep-rooted habits can be corrected. If it’s a coordination problem… Well, we can’t have you delaying your other teammates’ time, so I’ll just have to find you a training partner. Those who need a training partner to a.s.sist in their practice, tell me in advance.”
Shi Luo raised his hand while eating, “Give me a training partner, one that can play striker.”
“Okay, anyway, I’m free tonight. I’ll do it.” Old Qiao looked at Puppy, “You need one too?”
Puppy nodded, “I need three. Any job position.”
Old Qiao promised, “The data a.n.a.lyst will recruit some moving targets for you in a while. Anyone else?”
Yu Sui shook his head. Chen Huo took a paper towel and wiped his hands. Just to join in the fun, he said, “Is there a girl in our club’s sparring group?”
“You want one to accompany you while you play? Would you like her to have a good voice and be able to sing too?” Old Qiao glanced at Chen Huo, and lectured patiently, “Other teams’ sparring groups are made up of their young trainees who do it for free. Only us! Either I have to do it or the data a.n.a.lyst will find retired players for you. All the players we find for you have the technical skills and the game consciousness. Do you know how much this kind of training partner costs per hour?”
“One thousand yuan per hour.” Old Qiao sounded pained as he said it, “Every time Puppy does target practice, he needs three training partners. That’s one thousand per person multiplied by how many hours. You do the math. So, can you please learn how to appreciate this a bit!”
Zhou Huo, standing by the side, smiled. “Really, I’ve been working for first league teams for several years now and this is the first time I’ve seen a team as extravagant as ours.”
“It’s a bad habit left over from our time at FS.” Old Qiao had finished off his food, “They all know how to run wild.”
“How am I extravagant? When Yu Sui was practicing using his dagger, he always asked for four sparring partners at once. And each practice session lasted for several days.” Puppy has had his fill. He was already back at his desk. “It can’t be helped. Our captain’s developed a taste for luxury and pleasure. But this is the first time I’ve heard that the price has risen to a thousand. I remember it was five or six hundred before we went abroad.”
Old Qiao said, “The rates rose a long time ago.”
“Look, there’s another way to make money. When you retire later and you really find yourself with no money to spend, you should do this too.” Chen Huo collapsed in his seat and said to Puppy, “Didn’t you say today that you were poor? In the future, you could work as a training partner.”
“I can’t do this.” Puppy shook his head. There was still some time before his training. Puppy opened a live broadcast to get in some hours. “It’d be fine if the player I accompany is a genius but if he doesn’t play as well as I do, I might not be able to behave myself and act as a target even for 1,000 yuan an hour. I’d probably be unable to control my temper and fire back to teach him a lesson. A training partner beating a player…that would just be too unsightly.”
Puppy said this as he lazily turned his head. He then shouted, “I’m turning on a live broadcast! Put your clothes on properly!”
Chen Huo reluctantly put on the shoes he’d kicked aside, “This is f*cking annoying and all just for some added live broadcast popularity.”
“You don’t know sh*t. Everyone who comes to watch my live broadcasts are our team’s fans.” Puppy adjusted the webcam and said h.e.l.lo. “Yes, I’ve started another live broadcast. Who is that behind me? This is our team’s Manager Zhou… You want him to get out of the way? Okay.”
Puppy slowly turned his head and said, “Manager Zhou, sorry to trouble you, but could you step aside. You’re blocking my viewers from seeing Shi Luo.”
Zhou Huo quickly stepped aside.
Puppy was still explaining to fans, “Yes, we just finished dinner. Why is Shi Luo still eating? That’s because he eats a lot…”
Shi Luo glanced at Puppy and in a move that showed his complete unwilling to go along with Puppy’s wishes, he turned his seat around so that his back was facing the camera and continued to eat.
Chen Huo and Old Qiao were still talking about the wages of training partners. When they mentioned that training partners needed to have a good temper, Chen Huo looked at Yu Sui and said, “Yu Sui’s OK. When he and Shi Luo team up, he really gives off training partner vibes. If we do get eliminated by Sacred Sword at the World Tournament and the team goes bankrupt and has no money, Yu Sui could do this. Really, I’ve always felt that Yu Sui has a special temperament for this.”
Mutual roasting within the team always came very suddenly. There’s no sign of it coming, no reason for it. Before you know it, someone’s already making a fuss. Yu Sui was long accustomed to it and didn’t care about it. Instead, he asked Old Qiao, “I’m going to be a training partner. How much would I make an hour?”
Old Qiao was stunned and he said, hesitantly, “You? If it were you…”
Old Qiao couldn’t give a price, so he turned to look at Zhou Huo, “How much would it be for Yu Sui?”
Zhou Huo stunned, “Are you talking about Yu Sui being a training partner? Er… Our club hasn’t opened this kind of business yet but if he has to be a training partner…”
Zhou Huo looked Yu Sui up and down and inexplicably found a new business opportunity. He seriously appraised, “The league’s no. 1 medic, medic for last year’s championship team, can play milktank and can also play a.s.sa.s.sin-type, temper is good occasionally, plus this face, and this figure, and this voice…”
Zhou Huo couldn’t help laughing, “You know, I really can’t decide. How much can you get?”
“Why are you all so unsure about this? Let’s pull in some audience partic.i.p.ation.” Puppy waved to his webcam and greeted the fans, “We’re having an auction for an hour of Yu Sui’s time as a play partner. If you seriously dare to, then come place your bids. Let’s see some high bids here. Come on, come on. …”
Puppy didn’t think too much about it and just enjoyed watching the excitement. In high spirits, he turned the webcam to face directly at Yu Sui.
Because of stomach problems, Yu Sui couldn’t train immediately after eating so he always has to take a short rest. At the moment, he was leaning on the couch in the training room and playing with his mobile phone. His manner seemed different from usual. Fans rarely ever got to see Yu Sui so relaxed and sluggish. They began to flood the live chat like crazy, sending him greetings.
[Yu Shen Yu Shen Yu Shen Yu Shen ah ah ah ah ah…]
[Whisper look here! Look at the camera! Let me take a screenshot! ! ! 】
[Where is my Luo Zai? ! ! ! *Cries* Forget about Yu Shen. 】
[What did he just mean? Why is Yu Shen going to play as a play partner? Is the club out of money? 】
[Is Free going to stop operations because they’ve gone bankrupt? ! Bankruptcy? What kind of miserable life does my Yu Shen have? ! 】
[Is there something wrong with the Free Club? So Whisper’s going to go into being a play partner? 】
[They’ve already turned the webcam to show us Yu Shen. Is this for real? 】
[*Scared* I was just going to ask why they were being so generous by letting us see Yu Shen. Turns out they’re already showcasing him for auction? ! 】
[Although it’s kinda embarra.s.sing to say it, but… If it’s for Yu Sui, I’m game! ! ! 】
[Who wouldn’t be willing to bid for Whisper? 】
[I’m blushing here… To be honest, I’ve wanted to say this ever since I saw Yu Shen and Shi Shen team up before. Teaming up with Yu Shen… Must be an amazing experience. 】
[Maybe Yu Shen would team up with me with his webcam on? Nosebleeds… I’m game too! 】
[I’m a male fan…count me in. 】
[Truth be told… When Whisper plays double row, his voice is really gentle and so nice. That’s why I especially like watching the live broadcast from Luo Zai’s perspective. That experience…]
[*Shy* Yu Shen is great when he plays double row. He takes such good care of his teammates. 】
[*Nosebleeds*… Can we really bid? 】
Amidst the lively conversation, the aura of weariness around 21-year old virgin Yu Sui’s body was becoming denser and denser.
Yu Sui raised his eyes and glanced at Puppy. He picked up the pillow on the sofa and threw it hard towards Puppy.
Puppy caught the pillow and watched the popularity of his live broadcast increased to 5 million. Puppy was in high spirits, “Of course it’s true! Let’s start the bidding. One hour of Yu Sui as a play partner, serious bidders only.”
After a brief madness, the live chat turned serious.
[Is this a joke or is this real? If this is for real, if it’s Yu Shen, one thousand an hour is OK for me. 】
[Are you crazy? That’s Yu Shen. Having him talk to you, team up with you, for a whole hour? A thousand for that? I say five thousand! 】
[If this is true, I’ll pay 10,000. 】
[I’m a fan of Whisper’s skills. I’ve liked him for five years and I’ll pay 20,000. 】
[I must say that I am disgusted by how you are objectifying him. I’ll give 25,000. 】
[*Covers face* if Yu Shen turns on his webcam, I’ll pay 30,000! 】
[*Also covers face* If Yu Shen is willing to open his mic and chat with the webcam on, I’ll pay 50,000 yuan. 】
Zhou Huo looked at the live chat in Puppy’s live broadcast room in shock. He gulped and muttered to himself, “Life really is full of business opportunities…”
Bids shot up one after the other and in less than three minutes, they had already reached 100,000.
Puppy took a chopstick and held it up. He said seriously, “One hundred thousand, going once!”
The live chat didn’t give a higher price, and Puppy solemnly said again, “One hundred thousand, going twice!”
The entire live chat envied Big Brother Iron Fan who was wealthy enough to sh.e.l.l out 100,000 but still no higher bid appeared.
Puppy was about to tap the mouse with his chopsticks, “One hundred thousand aaaand…”
“One million.” Shi Luo, who was finally full, interrupted Puppy’s bullsh*t auction, and said while packing away his bowl and chopsticks. “I’ve bought him for the entire night, so everyone else better scram.”