Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  Ji Zhiyao could not help but scorn himself a bit at heart, then decided to abandon superstition, and returned to the arms of science once more.

  At this time Xiaofei spoke up, his doubtful tone successfully pulling Ji Zhiyao who had taken off into his thoughts back to reality. “Brother, why do I feel that Bug battleteam seems slightly different from before?”


  Ji Zhiyao curiously turned towards the electronic screen and asked, “How are they diff……”


  He paused.

  They were really different.

  The moving camera captured the expression of every Bug battleteam member walking onto the stage, they all seemed very…… peaceful.

  Like a pool of stagnant water.

  Take for example Mix, they were also very peaceful, but traces of eagerness could vaguely be seen through their occasional conversations and expressions.

  Using the word “peaceful” to describe them, wasn’t too apt.

  If he must find a suitable adjective, it would probably be……

  Numb.

  Ji Zhiyao shuddered in fear from this word that jumped out subconsciously in his mind, yet he had to admit that this word seemed to fit Bug’s current condition the best……

  As he had been too bogged down because of his troubles with Mo Huaifeng, Ji Zhiyao had absolutely no time to read the gossip on Tieba and Weibo. Hence he asked Xiaofei, “Was there any news of Bug battleteam recently?”


  “Brother, don’t you know? The president of Bug battleteam’s fan club said that Qiang would be retiring after the national qualifiers. The fan club are in already in preparations to get a gift for him, oh yes, I even donated 300 yuan yesterday for that.”


  Ji Zhiyao was virtually in total disbelief. “Retirement? Hasn’t he just turned 21 this year? This is the absolute golden age and he had just renewed his contract with the club in summer, why is he going to retire now?”


  “For that question, even if you ask me, I wouldn’t know.”


  After that, Xiaofei appeared slightly hesitant. He suspiciously glanced left and right before saying, “But I heard something, brother don’t tell anyone else. Qiang isn’t retiring on his own will, seems like it is because he offended someone and made the club compensate money, the club didn’t want to keep him anymore and initiated terminating the contract.”


  Ji Zhiyao questioned back, “Offended someone?”


  Xiaofei nodded, then added quickly, “It’s hearsay for me too, not sure if it’s true, brother you can just take it with a pinch of salt.”


  Ji Zhiyao “mm-ed”, his brows involuntarily knitting tightly.

  Qiang is Bug’s captain, he’d always been steady and well-restrained, very warm to others. Ji Zhiyao could still remember the previous time, after the competition between Mix and Bug, when they were shaking hands, Qiang even specially gave him some words of encouragement, very much like a senior. If it must be said that he offended someone…… Only one person came to mind.

  The one who had been banned from competing, Big Fish.

  Earlier on Xiaofei even said something about “making the club have to compensate”, now that he thought about it carefully, it was very much possible that it was referring to Big Fish.

  But why would Bug’s club ban Qiang who has been a captain in the battleteam for four years over an ordinary Korean reinforcement who was bought in?

  Ji Zhiyao couldn’t figure it out no matter how he looked at it.

  Xiaofei pointed towards the wall. “They’re starting.”


  Ji Zhiyao came back to his senses and looked towards the screen with Xiaofei.

  The commentators for today’s competition had been changed to two very serious ones, they began to analyze the lineup of both teams, particularly detailed that they talked about every champion chosen. Mix picked early game champions for the first match, whereas Bug’s lineup was relatively more stable.

  15 minutes into the game, Mo Huaifeng got the first kill at the bottom lane, Heng pushed down the first turret in the middle lane.

  There was no longer any suspense with regards to the winning and losing of the competition. Mix and Bug’s capabilities were out there for everyone to see. Mix was especially skilled in catching little mistakes of their opponents, just from how Bug’s mid-laner was a rather inexperienced little reserve and was now a mess from being caught multiple times, Mix was sure to win.

  Facts proved that Ji Zhiyao did not read the game wrongly.

  This match ended in the 35th minute; Bug’s turrets were a mess, while Mix’s turrets had only been pushed to the second ones.

  The screen was still showing the exciting moments from the match when all of Mix’s members had already walked out of the participants’ passageway and entered the waiting room. Heng dropped into the sofa and gulped down half a bottle of water, then said, “Bug’s condition seemed to be a little off today, Captain, did you realize?”


  Mo Huaifeng was seated beside Ji Zhiyao, upon hearing that, he lifted his eyes slightly. “Mm.”


  At the side, Ji Zhiyao was especially tempted to tell them about rumors he heard earlier and ask whether it was true or not, yet they were going to compete in a while, he was worried that this matter would affect everyone’s mood, and was hence left scratching his head alone.

  Mo Huaifeng darted a glance towards him and caught sight of that, and said, “Don’t worry, soon.”


  Ji Zhiyao was confused. “Huh?”


  “Keep an eye on Weibo.”


  Ji Zhiyao continued to be confused.

  “I’ll turn on my livestream to explain things tonight, this incident would then be considered over.”


  Mo Huaifeng lifted the corner of his lips slightly, appearing to be in quite a good mood.

  Ji Zhiyao looked speechless and dumbfounded.

  The break time passed in the atmosphere of the two whistling in the wind, once the notification sounded, the five people who were set to compete put their bottles down and stood up, walking into the participants’ passageway.

  Ji Zhiyao took a few glances at the screen, then pulled out his phone.

  Since Mo Huaifeng told him to check Weibo, no matter what it was, he would take a look first.

  Hence Ji Zhiyao entered Weibo.

  Yet he didn’t know what to look out for and aimlessly tapped into the comments section of his previous posts, to search for some sense of existence.

  With one look, he really found something.

  So many people had tagged him in the comments of his previous apology post, together with comments like “the plot takes on a shocking turn, are you surprised, are you shocked” and even adding a web link, as if they were about to start something big.

  Ji Zhiyao confusedly tapped in, then realized……

  The other end of the link was indeed something big.

  A user called “KKKnee had a Weibo post pinned right at the top of his profile.

  [KKKnee: After keeping it in for so many days, I really cannot hold it in anymore, let me tell you everything about a certain eSports reserve who had been criticized really badly recently. I was at the actual scene of the “fight”, you can’t blame the reserve, it’s mainly because the person who was beaten was overly offensive, mentioning unspoken rules and gaining followers, even dissing Fi-god, leading the life of a wh*re and expecting a monument to his chastity. Those who are usually hated on for trying to bring the doings of the entertainment industry into the eSports scene are undoubtedly such people. And the reserve was beaten much more badly…… I kept a few photos, I will show it to all of you, so as to avoid being called an attention seeker. [image.jpg] ]

  What the f*ck?

  He tapped on the image. The person in the photo was indeed him, his face all flushed, the look in his eyes extremely cold. Though the photo was slightly blurry, he could still faintly discern the faces.

  Ji Zhiyao was completely puzzled.

  He couldn’t come with an answer and continued to scroll down, then realizing that one of the comments below this post was “You don’t even have any form of evidence for your words, just based on these few photos, you’re probably bought by the attention seeker to whitewash himself”, whereas KKKnee was very unyielding and replied below directly “I am willing to bear all legal responsibilities, if this is fake, come sue me directly.”


  And once he said this, the comments below all began to express that they were convinced. And after that, it was the start of a war to tear haters down jointly done by Ji Zhiyao and Mo Huaifeng’s fans.

  Going at the marketing accounts that criticized them previously, going at the passers-by who condemned them, there were even people who went to the official Weibo account of the team and chided the club for their awry perception of people…… Positive and negative words were all mixed together, it was a true bustle.

  Ji Zhiyao inhaled deeply.

  He was clear that the “don’t be too anxious” that Mo Huaifeng had said to him was probably referring to this.

  The details about his fight that was revealed.

  Now in less than five minutes, there were more and more people who were commenting below the Weibo post, the reposts had also wholly exceeded ten thousand. Calculating according to such a trend, it would spread to a good half of the eSports scene very soon.

  Whereas if the rest was handled well, most of the problems that he was facing now would be easily resolved.

  Regardless of how this person had put everything on Weibo with the photos, Mo Huaifeng must have spent a great deal of effort looking for all these. And if it wasn’t because this information was made known, he would be completely oblivious…… at the thought of this, Ji Zhiyao almost couldn’t control his own feelings, feeling especially tempted to rush onto the stage and question Mo Huaifeng loudly, then bite onto his lips harshly.

  He put down his phone and lifted this head to look towards the electronic screen.

  Perhaps because he was good-looking with great skills and attracted lots of fans, the cameraman especially favored Mo Huaifeng, in the few seconds that Ji Zhiyao looked up, it happened to be a closeup of the camera pointing right at Mo Huaifeng.

  The man was young and handsome, he frowned and said something into the ear-mic, the manner of him in headphones and gaming seriously was exceptionally attractive.

  And at the thought that such a good-looking Mo Huaifeng was his……

  Ji Zhiyao couldn’t keep it in. “Hehehehehe!”


  On the other side, Xiaofei, Yuan Wei and the stats analyzer who were attentively watching the competition were shocked.

  The corner of Yuan Wei’s lips twitched as he asked, “NoHomo what are you doing?”


  Ji Zhiyao coughed twice in all seriousness. “Nothing.”


  “Heh heh, I’m not buying your sh*t.”


  With a sudden inspiration, Ji Zhiyao said, “Take a look at Weibo.”


  Yuan Wei skeptically brought out his phone, his thumb tapping a few times on the screen. After several minutes, he slapped his thigh and became rather agitated. “Who is this 3k, such a helpful citizen, I’m going to make the club present him with an award.”


  “No need to thank the club, we just need to thank Captain.”


  Yuan Wei instinctively replied, “Captain’s great kindness I will never……”


  At this point, his mouth sealed shut, as he looked towards the grinning Ji Zhiyao, he then realized that this rascal was f*cking putting up a show of affection, his expression then instantly became one of bitterness and hatred.

  He was simply a weak and pitiful and helpless battleteam manager, why must they do this to him!

  Ji Zhiyao’s goal was achieved, he smacked his lips very satisfactorily, put his phone away and focused on the competition.

  Bug battleteam’s condition in the second match was much better than in the first, it was probably because their mid-laner had adjusted his mentality. Though at present, 20 minutes had passed, the situation on field right now was evenly matched, no one was giving in to the other.

  Bug battleteam’s bottom lane turrets were already in a mess from being pushed down, but their top lane was as stable as it could get, a level and almost 1000 gold higher than K. Mo Huaifeng noticed that things weren’t right and rushed to the jungle to take over Xiao, while Xiao rotated to the top lane, barely defending against the opponents with K.

  On the other hand, the middle lane did not have many problems, Heng was especially enthusiastic in teasing the little mid-laner boy opposite, even mischievously showed off his skills and stole the opponent’s blue buff, in the end his head was taken by the elusive Qiang using a set of combined abilities, Mix lost a turret in the middle lane.

  Xiaofei sighed sincerely with emotion. “Brother Heng relies totally on the waves [1. another meaning for the same Chinese character which also means frivolous] instead of using the oars when he is on the boat [2. has the meaning of no effort or sense of direction, playing as he wishes to], such spirit is virtually a level never known before!”


  Ji Zhiyao snorted out loud.

  The stats analyzer rolled up the notebook in his hands. “He’s obviously asking for a beating, when he comes back later, I will beat his mutt head in.”


  Because Heng and K were too frivolous in the early phases, this match lasted a good 40 minutes before Mix clinched the victory with 30:26 kills.

  When they returned to the waiting room, the stats analyzer lived up to his own words and gave a hard knock on Heng’s head. Heng shrieked repeatedly. “Old Ning what are you doing! Hitting a drum?”


  “Play more! Today I will beat you little b*tch till you wake up!”


  Heng covered his head and scurried away, the stats analyzer followed behind, running in circles, with a stance of never letting up till he had beaten him to death.

  The others sat on the sofa watching the show, just a step from fishing out melon seeds from their pockets. Ji Zhiyao restrained his thoughts and watched on for a while and finally couldn’t suppress it anymore, then used his elbow to poke Mo Huaifeng. Mo Huaifeng turned over, Ji Zhiyao whispered, “Captain, I saw it!”


  Mo Huaifeng went blank, as if not quite understanding what he was talking about.

  Ji Zhiyao reminded him. “Weibo!”


  Mo Huaifeng then made an “mm” sound, saying in a low voice, “How are you planning to repay me?”


  “I’ll give you three loud kowtows?”


  Mo Huaifeng looked at him as if he had a lot to say, after some time he then found a suitable description. “Did you not take your medicine before you left the house today?”


  “You!”


  “I loved you.”

  The bit of feeling touched in Ji Zhiyao’s heart completely disappeared and he was left with just one sentence. “Heh, all men are players.”


  This line sounded oddly familiar.

  Had he said this before in the past?

  Yet before Mo Huaifeng could come up with anything at all, the bell for the third match of the competition sounded. He stood up and dragged Heng who was still running around to him in one grab. “Stop fooling around, time to compete.”


  Heng panted, almost breaking into tears. “Fortunately it rang in time, otherwise blood would have been shed.”


  The stats analyzer also stopped, saying with a straight face and a stable heart beat. “There’s still a long time to come, don’t worry.”


  “Since the moment you hit me, you and I never had a future!”


  Mo Huaifeng directly dragged Heng who was carelessly thumping about, the laughing K and the rest followed behind them and left the waiting room too.

  Ji Zhiyao laughed till his stomach ached, after the stats analyzer sat back onto the sofa, he calmly rubbed it in. “Heng lacks exercise.”


  Ji Zhiyao made the “hmm” sound, suddenly being reminded of Mo Huaifeng’s eight packs and his own pale and chubby tummy…… He flexed to act out the non-existent muscles on his arms and suggested. “We can buy a few treadmills for the base, internet-addicted youths need to exercise too.”


  Yuan Wei answered him. “We used to have them. Only one fine day cobwebs grew all over one treadmill, they were then all sent out by Captain and thrown into the underground garage.”


  So pissed that he became a puffer fish!

  As the competition against Bug was set for first three wins out of five games, and Mix had won two matches, the second placing of the national qualifiers was essentially in Mix’s bag already.