Chapter 45 - Third change.
After competing in solo for the past few days, playing side by side again as two felt unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. However, to be fully honest, the feeling felt pretty good.
You Liangxing, remembering the promise of complementing him with a healer role which he had previously broken, chose a healing hero in this match.
Instead of Cai Wenji, he chose Ming Shiyin.
Ming Shiyin’s ultimate ability allowed him to transfer his health to an ally at the cost of his own through an ability link. However, he differed from Cai Wenji in the sense that his heal was a single-target ability and his scope was far more limited. However, it could not be considered as a specialised healer since adding health was more like a side occupation. His main utility was that he could fixate himself on one of his teammates while granting them a higher damage output and attack speed throughout the process. Therefore, netizens had jokingly given him the moniker of ‘King’s Glory’s Core Equipment’.
Whenever he a.s.sisted a teammate, he allowed his teammates to deal explosive damage; and if the teammate was an excellent player, having a Ming Shiyin in lower ranked games was equivalent to having a cheat, where meeting them would result in certain death.
You Liangxing chose Ming Shiyin with the intention to a.s.sist Ah Sheng, and when the game started, he immediately used his first ability to link up with Ah Sheng’s Peiqin Hu to enter the jungle to clear the monsters.
One standing in front of the other; it looked rather harmonious.
Kang Shengzhe’s choice, Peiqin Hu, was quite particular as well. In King’s Glory, he had earned the nickname of ‘Losing Money Tiger‘.
It derived from the fact that buying him was a loss of money. His in-game viability was extremely terrible because he could not effectively kill mages, nor could he cut down the marksmen, and he was considered as one of the trash heroes that was poorly received.
No matter the controversy, it was bound to have an effect in Kang Shengzhe’s hands, as seen in how he claimed kills breezily, to say nothing of the fact that he had You Liangxing as company for the entire process. Wherever he went, he would leave deaths in his wake.
At the end of the game, both the enemy and ally jungles were Kang Shengzhe’s territory alone. As he sought out his opponents in the map, he would clear the jungles while he was at it, and in one game alone, he took a total of twenty kills.
And throughout the entire game, You Liangxing’s Ming Shiyin would accompany him no matter where he went. During the twenty-minute duration, the purple ribbon of his ability link had never broken once.
It could be described as extraordinarily powerful.
Ming Shiyin’s abilities had a distance restriction, and the greatest difficulty that Ming Shiyin players faced were teammates who they could not synergise well with and follow. However, when it came to You Liangxing and Kang Shengzhe, the former actually managed to remain inseparable with the latter in a steadfast manner, as if they were two people with the same body.
Before the enemy’s crystal nexus shattered, his teammates were all sending out text messages.
[Ally Da Ji]: — 666.
[Ally Lao Fuzi]: — Can this younger brother pay respects to the master?
[Ally Di Renjie]: — Awesome.
After that match, Kang Shengzhe felt exceptionally free from inhibitions and happy, and before they opened another match, he typed in the friend’s chat interface: — Ming Shiyin is feasible.
Ming Shiyin was an auxiliary but his attack range category belonged to that of a melee, who could only attack the opposing side if they were close enough. It was fairly easy for him to die by the hands of others once a fight broke out, but in this game, You Liangxing had two kills and nineteen a.s.sists, with no deaths to his name.
You Liangxing: — It’s decent.
[don’t want to move]: — True, after all, I was protecting you.
You Liangxing: k2026;..
Since they were chatting, Kang Shengzhe noticed that You Liangxing’s account had risen from gold to platinum after the previous match. After pondering about it for a while, he could not help but ask: k2014; Liang Liang, is this your smurf account?
You Liangxing: k2014; No.
It wasn’t? Kang Shengzhe felt weirded out instantly. In his perception, You Liangxing’s skill level did not belong to gold or platinum, and the silver rank that he had when they first met was all the more insignificant.
Was it because he hadn’t played in too long, which led the absence of a rank in his account?
[don’t want to move]: — Liang Liang, how long have you been playing the game?
You Liangxing calculated it for a moment: k2014; More than half a month.
[don’t want to move]: — … More than half a month?
You Liangxing: — En.
[don’t want to move] made no movements, and You Liangxing felt odd. Suddenly, on WeChat, Ah Sheng sent him a ‘kneeling with both knees on the ground’ expression.
You Liangxing: — …Why are you on WeChat?
[Ah Sheng]: — King’s Glory can’t express the full extent of my shock.
You Liangxing: ……
Then you must be rather thin-skinned.
You Liangxing: — Are you still playing?
[Ah Sheng] replied swiftly: — Playing. 〖Fearful〗
Returning back to the game, Kang Shengzhe did not gloss over his shock. He had never met someone who had grasped the game so quickly and saying that it was a gift of extraordinary talent would not be over-the-top.
Just as he was thinking, a message came from You Liangxing.
— How long have you been playing for.
[don’t want to move]: — Eight months.
Eight months was not considered long either. You Liangxing remembered that Liao Su had been playing the game for the better part of two years, but his skill level was no where near the proficiency that Ah Sheng had. His thoughts drifted into another tangent, and he could not help but recall something else.
You Liangxing: — Wait, is this your minor account?
Kang Shengzhe paused: — ….. En.
This was a question that You Liangxing had never thought about before. After careful consideration, he decided that it was normal; Ah Sheng was definitely not gold, and having a main account was a reasonable explanation. However, if he had to speak of the matter, there were parts of it that were quite delicate, considering how he had only been facing a person’s alternate account after playing together for so long and chatting with each other every day.
You Liangxing had to give himself a pause, but within a second, Ah Sheng sent him another message.
— I’ll add you on my main after we’re done.
You Liangxing: — …. Okay.
The words had arrived in a timely manner, and it did not grant him any s.p.a.ce to affect his mood. You Liangxing sincerely felt – frequently, in fact – this person’s intuition towards his current state of affairs was truly terrible.
The idle chit-chat ended there, and they returned to the topic of games. Before they began, Kang Shengzhe dragged his feet for a good while before he finally said:
— Liang Liang.
— Let’s open mics this round.
Now they were talking about the issue of opening mics again, You Liangxing’s relationship with Kang Shengzhe was far closer than the first time it was brought up. Without any hesitation, You Liangxing replied: — En.
Then he typed: But my voice….
Having typed it half-way, he deleted the entirety of the contents. He did not want to go out of his way to explain his voice; his voice was part of him, he was born with it and there was no need to forewarn people about it.
[don’t want to move]: — What do you want to play this round?
You Liangxing: — Anything goes.
Kang Shengzhe supressed his exhilarated mood and took a deep breath. Alas, there was still some nervousness floating in his chest.
Seriously, he wasn’t even this nervous on the day of his college entrance examinations.
[don’t want to move]: — Let’s play entertainment mode.
You Liangxing: — Entertainment mode?
[don’t want to move]: — En, the big brawls that occur in the entertainment mode and the normal playing environment are essentially the same, but it’s slightly faster in tempo and it saves time.
You Liangxing was not a person who was concerned about his rank; gaming was just a means to pa.s.s his time, and it did not matter if he was ranked or not. Therefore, he agreed: — Okay.
After he typed out the word, he accepted the invitation that soon followed. When they entered the buffering interface, You Liangxing unconsciously furrowed his eyebrows. While his reply might sound calm, his heart was not tranquil.
The feeling he had was similar to the instance where he had partic.i.p.ated in an amateur boxing compet.i.tion. His heartbeat was slightly accelerated even though there was no reason to be nervous, but emotions could never be controlled.
The game finished matchmaking too quickly, and You Liangxing did not have the time to turn on his microphone then. It was only when they entered the hero selection screen that he had the time to open his speech function, first choosing to listen in on all the communications before choosing to only speak in the party channel. Soon after, there the microphone icon appeared next to his avatar.
Simultaneously, a microphone icon next to Kang Shengzhe’s avatar went from a shallow hue to a deeper one, signifying that he had turned on his microphone.
It had taken them a few days, but the two of them finally opened their voice functions face to face.
The voice channel was quiet, and no one dared to speak first. While You Liangxing was waiting, he heard a rustling noise transmitted from the microphone of [don’t want to move], alongside the faint sound of breathing.
It was more disquieting than the quiet itself.
You Liangxing’s mind spun quickly, what should he say as his first sentence? h.e.l.lo? Or should he just open a topic like they would daily?
In the silence, Kang Shengzhe picked the hero Peiqin Hu, and You Liangxing’s heart jolted, following up by picking Ming Shiyin. The choice of an output and auxiliary was a familiar matchup, and it made them calmer.
You Liangxing breathed a sigh of relief. Their surroundings were too quiet, and he could hear the echo of his own voice.
“You…”
He had yet to begin speaking when a male’s voice suddenly rang out, sheeting over You Liangxing’s.
“Wah, this network card, it won’t disrupt my game right? Please don’t, it better not, or I’m going to blame this live broadcast for making me lose fans, what? Ah, yeah, this is an anchor who is past his prime seeking comfort, so you ought to treat this old anchor gentler, alright? Ahahahaha.”
You Liangxing froze, coming to a standstill, and he swept a glance across the situation to briefly survey it, only to realise that the one speaking was not [don’t want to move]’s floor.
Scanning intently, You Liangxing ascertained that it was the first floor speaking, and it was a player named【Little Sword Fairy】
That player’s speech did not cease for a moment as he continued to say: “Everyone, stop complaining, didn’t you see the stars I’ve dropped today? Three stars ah! I kneeled for three consecutive rounds! I’m already this depressed and I can’t even seek some comfort from entertainment mode? No, don’t speak bulls.h.i.t, how are KK and I the same, how could a honest and kind anchor like me possibly open a smurf account to beat up bronze players. I would rather play more entertainment mode, I’m not as wicked as him hahahaha! Wait, wait a moment, I said that he was wicked just now? Yaaaaaaa—don’t you dare tell him that!”
The stresses that this person made when he was speaking was distinctive, and it had an indescribable sort of taste. Furthermore, once he got started, he never stopped, and it was obvious that he was not speaking to his teammates.
You Liangxing never expected that it would be this coincidental; this was the second time… he was incidentally matchmade with an anchor.
And on the day he agreed to open mics with Ah Sheng.
You Liangxing paused for a beat, and the game entered the loading screen, with the five heroes from both sides opposing one another.
You Liangxing could not help but sigh. It was apparent with one glance that their unfortunate timing was not ideal for ‘online friends’ who had just turned on their microphones to start talking, especially when they were still a little unfamiliar with one another.
T/N: A storm is coming, I hope y’all are ready for this x’D