God’s Left Hand

Ai Qing became quiet when she heard the name Gun.

Fortunately, the results of the compet.i.tion were just being announced.  All’s team won by an overwhelming margin.

This was their first championship in China after they had come back.

All, as the team captain, stood up and led his team to shake hands with their opponents.

Then, he took over the microphone from the commentator.

Everyone quieted down and watched the once conceited teenager on the VS platform.  

He used his hand to smooth over his bald head and started laughing after a moment of silence.  “I won’t dare to be c.o.c.ky in front of our old captain and first sniper.  Years ago, I and Xiaomi were kind of forced to retire after the three main players of our old team left…...as for the reason for the disbandment of our old team, many fans have blamed Gou Gou.  The fact is that the reason why I came back this time is because what Gou Gou had said to me before.”

His words were very suggestive and stirred some of the audience.

Ai Qing didn’t expect All would mention her.  She intimidatingly shook her iced tea as a warning to not talk nonsense or suffer a blow to the head.

All with microphone in hand signaled everyone to be quiet.

“Solo’s team in those days wasn’t always winning.  I had thought about giving up.”  He walked to the edge of the podium and suddenly sat down cross-legged with one hand under his chin imitating what Ai Qing used to be like.  “Just as I was wondering what to do, Gou Gou sat down next to me just like this and said, ‘c.o.c.ky All, do you know why I like CS so much?’  I thought to myself, what bull, certainly it’s because of Solo.”

Now, it wasn’t just the audience, the contestants grew excited.

Someone loudly whistled.  Even Baona couldn’t help himself from applauding and shouted,  “Don’t just talk nonsense, give us a juicy story.”

Ai Qing looked at Solo in the distance for help.

Solo felt helpless, too.  Who could stop the only one with the microphone from talking?

All kept his posture, challengingly took a look at Ai Qing, and put the microphone next to his mouth to continue.

“Certainly, I wouldn’t dare to say that directly so I pretended to ask her why.  She earnestly said to me:  It’s all because people play CS like to say thanks.  When they are looking for another soldier, they say ‘need a soldier with high quality, thanks’; when looking for a team, ‘a strong team, one which has played all 4 maps, thanks’; even when people suspect someone is cheating and are already steaming mad, still they say ‘the one on the other side, turn off the thing, thanks!’  Then, someone from the opposite side would yell ‘I’m not using any cheats.  If I did, my whole family will die! Thanks!’......”

TL: I have no idea what sort of CS game she’s playing...

These were familiar words to any player.

If you have played Counter Strike, be it a newbie or a veteran, everyone will always use the word thanks.  This is a CS tradition.  A lot of people smiled after hearing such light-hearted words from All.

“So, I’ve come back.  Back to this world where after you yell and curse, you still have to say thanks.”

With unanimous applause, All threw the microphone back to the commentator and switched back to his old self.

Ai Qing bit her straw and looked at all the reporters on the stage.  She turned to ask Baona,  “Do you have any plans to help support all these enthusiastic young CS players?”

“That’s what I came here to do.”  Baona said,  “We can’t just rely on Warcraft, like we rely on ping-pong and diving.  Solo’s also thinking this way; that’s why he uses himself as an example by switching to Starcraft II.”

At the moment, Solo in the distance was picking up his club’s black jacket, pulling it over his own white short sleeve.  As he was dressing, the lights on the podium gradually dimmed.

All the CS players slowly left and there were only two computers left, one each on either side.

Grunt, without anyone noticing, had already sat down on the right side of the podium.  Solo pulled up the zipper of his jacket, walked onto the stage, and sat down in front of the computer on the left side.