Glory [e-sports]

translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha

As a former professional player, Wei Xiao’s hand speed was faster than his brain. He didn’t even know when he’d withdrawn the message, but the message had already been withdrawn.

Only…

Close: “Address.”

What was the use of withdrawing the message?

The current professional player Lu Feng’s dynamic vision was even fiercer than his hand speed.

Close: “?”

Wei Xiao stared at the question mark. There were drums pounding in his heart.

He was so nervous that he grabbed the husky and fluffed up its fur, “What to do what to do what to do?”

How could Soybean understand a thing? It swatted the cell phone with a paw, wanting to get rid of this bad thing so that its father would accompany it to play.

Coincidentally…

The big and soft pad of its paw swept across the screen and miraculously sent out an emoticon.

Wei Xiao’s collection of emoticons were just like him. If they weren’t bratty, then they were arrogant and outrageous and were usually used when he was acting shameless.

The one that Soybean had casually sent out was a typical example.

It was a very big panda man, the corners of its mouth curved wickedly with evil charm, two red cheeks, and a large line of text beneath it––‘When it comes to men, I am the only good one’.

The sentence written out in tiny font above it was the most provocative––‘Hello everyone, I’m a liar. I want kisses. Anyone willing to be tricked, who likes being cheated, please give me a kiss and buy a life lesson. Don’t ask me why others cheat money while I cheat kisses, because I’m a big hooligan.’

In this second, Wei Xiao really wanted to destroy the world in a fit of righteousness!

Withdraw the message! Quickly!

But what was the use of it? The single word he’d sent before had been seen, and now there was this huge expression pack…

Close sent over another question mark.

Wei Xiao wanted to die, “You might not believe me if I say it, but my dog was the one who sent the emoticon.”

Close paused for a moment, “It’s just a kiss. There’s no need to claim to be a dog.”

Wei Xiao: “…………………”

Brother Xiao, who was kneeling on the bed right now, only had one sentence in his brain at this moment––natural law will circle back, and the heavens will spare nobody.

The reckless things he’d done when he galloped through the Jianghu back then had all become the water in his brain now!

Wei Xiao quickly sent over a photo of the husky, “Look, I really have a dog.”

Close: “Oh.”

Wei Xiao: “It really was the one who sent the emoticon.”

Close: “Mm.”

Wei Xiao felt that he wouldn’t be able to wash himself clean even if he jumped into the Yellow River!

Close sent over a screenshot, “Was it the one who sent this too?”

Wei Xiao looked at the screenshot, and the breath that he’d just sucked in got caught in his throat.

He could swear that between him sending out the word ‘Yes’ to him withdrawing it, there was only enough time for him to say a single ‘F*ck’, and the total time absolutely didn’t exceed ten seconds.

How had Close managed to get a screenshot?

It was amazing, too amazing…

Glory’s great demon king’s hand speed was really worthy of his fame.

Ah, f*ck!

Wei Xiao clutched at his own hair and thought about what he should say.

Close: “Address?”

How could Wei Xiao dare to give him his address? He stared at it for a long time, his heart slashed open, then decided to cut off any chance for confusion quickly. He sat down cross legged and typed carefully with unprecedented seriousness, “God Lu, your good intentions leave me rather terrified. FTW is a very good team, and you’re a very excellent team leader, but due to my personal reasons, there’s really no way…”

He’d only just started this long discussion when Close sent over another image.

It held the time for the training match between L&P and FTW the day after tomorrow.

Wei Xiao stilled, and stopped typing.

Close: “If you come to watch the training match, it’s best to arrive an hour ahead of time.”

Close: “Don’t worry. The training match video can’t be released, but you won’t violate the rules if you watch it on the spot.”

Wei Xiao stared at these two lines of text and tasted them over and over again…

Then, he quickly deleted everything he’d typed and changed his message to, “……Are you inviting me to watch a training match at FTW?”

Close: “Mm.”

Wei Xiao: “…………………”

Close: “Or, if you can get up in the morning, I’ll show you around the base.”

At this time, Wei Xiao’s heart felt like it was riding a roller coaster, swooping up up up, then down down down, to the point where it was almost about to stop.

So, Close wasn’t inviting him to join FTW and was just inviting him to go to FTW and play?

Wei Xiao stared at that sentence––Do you want to come to FTW.

The word ‘join’ certainly wasn’t there.

That made sense, how could something so major like joining a team be asked so casually?

Wei Xiao breathed a sigh of relief.

Close: “The base has moved. It’s not easy to find a taxi here; I’ll arrange a car to pick you up.”

Wei Xiao paused again.

If it had been Old Bai who wanted to bring him to the FTW base, then he would never, ever go in this lifetime, even if he was beaten to death, even if he deleted Glory.

But now…

The person inviting him was Close, and he was even letting him watch the training match between FTW and last year’s world finals runner up L&P.

Wei Xiao couldn’t refuse.

He really wanted to watch the training match, and he didn’t have any way to refuse Close.

The one who’d flicked a hand and run off was him. When Close encountered him again, not only did he not beat him to death, he even treated him so kindly. Neither his reason or his emotions allowed him to refuse.

Wei Xiao shared a location with Close.

Close: “Go to bed early. See you the day after tomorrow.” The training match was scheduled for the day after tomorrow.

Wei Xiao: “Good night.”

Close: “Sweet dreams.”

After setting down the mobile phone, Wei Xiao’s entire body collapsed into the soft bed, boneless and loose.

It was just an invitation to watch a training match.

He raised up his forearm and covered his eyes, but he couldn’t cover up the sense of loss he felt from the bottom of his heart.

And what if Close had really been inviting him to play as a professional?

Could he agree?

No.

The words his grandmother had said while holding onto his hand on her deathbed were words he couldn’t forget for a lifetime––

“Little Xiao, don’t be like your father, don’t think about those things that are beyond your reach. Listen to your grandma; your grades are good, get into a good university, study well, get a steady job, and live a simple and happy life.”

Right, he couldn’t be like his father.

He would never be like his father.

The next day, Weibo had already exploded by the time Bai Cai woke up.

Bai Cai had just finished arranging a small story on his alt account and switched back to his main account. He was shocked at how many private messages were in his inbox and even suspected that he hadn’t changed accounts yet.

His alt account had little sisters contributing to it all year round, and his private messages were full to bursting every day. He was already used to it, but he’d really never thought that his main account, which was verified and named FTW-White, would one day receive hundreds of private messages.

What was going on?

Last night’s ‘Four Corner Love’ wasn’t that explosive, right?!

Bai Cai casually opened up one of the messages and took a look…

His toothbrush almost dropped to the ground!

“God Bai! They say that you know One Lamp Grandmaster? Who exactly is he? I heard he hammered the entire Glory circle until it exploded? Have you been hammered by him too? Who exactly is he, hey, how can he be so amazing? Is our FTW really going to sign him?!”

“God of Wealth~ Is One Lamp Grandmaster a professional player? Retired? In service? Or is he a live stream anchor?”

“Is what Moon God and the others saying real or fake? Has he hammered professional players into seclusion? Is he really that strong?!”

Good god, there were hundreds of private messages, and they were all asking about ‘One Lamp Grandmaster’.

Bai Cai was puzzled. Although Little Ning’s tongue had slipped, and he’d mentioned the Grandmaster last night, he and Old Wei had always kept a low profile. In the last two years, they’d sincerely focused on beating up the professional players and had never touched the bloody and stormy live stream anchor circle. How had they managed to get fans from all walks of life to go crazy like this?

After washing and rinsing in a hurry, Bai Cai looked through it more carefully and discovered the cause and effect.

The key words on the trending hot search topics revealed where the problem lay.

Close, One Lamp Grandmaster, abduction.

Moonlit, One Lamp, seclusion.

Eurostar, Grandmaster, changed lanes.

Sleep God, Grandmaster, eyes open.

Great.

The China Glory circle’s big names were all tied to the One Lamp Grandmaster. It would be f*cking strange if the internet didn’t explode!

There were outsiders to the circle who came in with looks of confusion on their faces, asking what was going on. A metaphor that a little sister came up with fit well––

It was basically comparing the situation to a casual player in the entertainment circle who’d been abducted by the Emperor (Close), who also hammered the God of Songs (Moonlit) into seclusion, and forced the Film Emperor (Eurostar) to take a break from filming, while simultaneously attracting the attention of the Idol of the People (Sleep God).

Over the course of a single night, there was really a constant change of events.

At first, it was just a slip of the tongue by Little Ning. Then, Close kicked Bai Cai out of the room to talk alone with the Grandmaster. Then, someone exposed the chat records between Close and Grandmaster when they double queued for matches on the international server.

Although they’d chosen to join the games anonymously, their IDs would still be exposed at the end of the game on the settlement page.

It was difficult for ordinary players to reach the top 300 and participate in ranked games on the international server, but many live stream anchors could do it.

A famous anchor happened to bump into the two during their double queue.

As soon as the name Close appeared in the settlement interface, the anchor had instantly become excited!

Then, some fans had discovered that Close was in a double queue, and the other ID was also very direct. It was called ‘Professor’ in English. Translated back, it was about the same as ‘Grandmaster’, right?

In fact, Wei Xiao really hadn’t thought about the ID Grandmaster when he came up with this ID. He’d thought about how it rhymed with ‘Call Beast’, but he really couldn’t stop the illogical thoughts of the vast number of sleepless citizens.

This was just like adding fuel to the fire. The mysterious player One Lamp Grandmaster instantly ignited everyone’s curiosity.

Just after 10PM was the liveliest time online. This was especially true during the off-season when many players took advantage of the lack of training to live stream for fans.

The fans would rush around spreading the news, then head to the studio one after another to ask after their cubs.

“Moon God, Moon God! Do you know One Lamp Grandmaster?”

Once this scrolling comment showed up, Moonlit looked up in the middle of collecting a head with his hand up and knife poised, “One Lamp?”

Scrolling comments: “Yeah, yeah, we heard that FTW wants to sign him. Is he very strong?!”

Moonlit had originally been about to take a dog’s life in the mid-lane. At this moment, he directly headed straight to the tower to kill him, and his voice was colder than the ice staff in his hand, “He wants to come play professionally? Very good. With him in the competitions, we can lose the league games, but One Lamp has to die.”

Needless to say, this statement that was brimming with hatred and murderous spirit made the audience’s scalps go numb!

Another star player, Euro God, also received the same scrolling comment.

Eurostar’s voice was gentle and kind, “One Lamp? Of course I know them.”

Scrolling comments: “Is he strong, is he strong?”

Eurostar laughed, “Do you know why I switched from the top-lane to the bottom lane one year ago?”

Scrolling comments: “!!!”

Eurostar’s laughter was quite happy, “It’s because of him.”

The scrolling comments went quiet for half a second, then it filled up with Euro God’s trademark quote from his debut––

Some day in the future with a gun in hand, I’ll kill all the top lane dogs in the world.

In the past, all the fans had differing opinions. They only knew that Euro God had been abused by some top-lane before, and had then chosen to abandon his sword and pick up a gun. He felt absolute abhorrence towards the top-lane, but they’d never known who this top-laner was.

Now…

They’d found the killer!

FTW’s fans were all high.

“Is Grandmaster’s top-lane so strong? Is our FTW finally going to make it to the forefront?!”

Of course, there were also haters who mixed in to stir the waters, “Wasn’t your WTF’s Tang Chen powerful? What use is it? As long as you don’t deal with the cancer that is Close, our Glory circles will never see a bright future!”

These two star contestants pushed One Lamp Grandmaster to the front of the wave, and the last to add firewood to the flames was the new ‘high traffic’ Asleep.

As his name implied, Sleep God was very in line with the word ‘sleep’.

This person was born with a face worthy of an idol, with a pair of e-sports hands, and his biggest hobby in life was sleeping.

Apart from eating and playing games, the rest of his time was spent sleeping.

Even when he streamed… he spent time sleeping while live…

However, Sleep God looked good, his talent was high, and his strength was high. So, even if he slept while live streaming, his popularity was also high!

That day, he was sleeping soundly when he suddenly opened his eyes.

The scrolling comments were all full of grandmaster, grandmaster, grandmaster.

Asleep treated words like gold. Usually, it was up to his vice-captain to answer for him, but he actually took the initiative to speak today, “He’s very strong.”

His youthful voice was lazy as he drawled slowly, “Soloing with him, I can go for a day and a night without sleep.”

As the new high popularity player of the Glory circle, he was supported by many battle fans. Once these words came out, it would be difficult for the Grandmaster not to explode in popularity even if he didn’t want to!

Bai Cai sent over the cause and effect that he’d sorted out to Wei Xiao.

Wei Xiao, who’d only just woken up, stared on in a daze, “What?”

Bai Cai: “Brother Xiao, seeing how we’re brothers, don’t say that you know me.”

Wei Xiao clicked it open and took a look, and was instantly shocked awake by a screen full of killing intent.

His grandma really hadn’t deceived him. To hell with playing games for a professional career, wasn’t it great just to be alive?!

The author has something to say:

Hahahaha it’s not dogblood, don’t worry.

Juurensha: Grandma, you mean well, but WX will do great things in e-sports
apricot: ofc he’s just inviting him to play…what else would he be trying to do hehe 😉

xiin: updated may 11, 2020 and changed Eurostar (Ou Xing) & Moonlit (Yue Ye)’s names~