Chapter 4

"...Evil?"

Once they were inside the soundproof glass booth, IAC's four players took their seats. Their sniper adjusted the microphone and asked uneasily, "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Shi Luo said tightly over team comms.

All three teammates looked his way. He didn't look remotely fine.

Ever since seeing Yu Sui in the hallway, Shi Luo had seemed like a different person. His face was ashen, his expression utterly changed. A closer look revealed that even his hands were shaking.

His teammates had noticed it while he was connecting his keyboard. It had taken him several tries because of the tremor, and he'd used so much force that the medic beside him had feared he might rip the computer's USB port apart in a fit of rage.

This was nothing like the Shi Luo they knew.

Their sniper tried to lighten the mood before the match. Unfortunately, he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and went straight for the worst possible subject.

"Th-that really was Whisper back there! Wow, he's changed so much! I'm kind of a fan, and even I didn't recognize him. Good eye, Shi-ge."

The medic shot the sniper a panicked glare and did his best to salvage the situation. "...Well, obviously. Shi Luo used to be on the same team as Whisper. Of course he'd know him better than other people."

The sniper nodded. "Right, right. They were teammates, after all."

Shi Luo's face had been rigid, but his teammates' painfully transparent probing over his headset drew a self-mocking smile from him. He probably looked like a lunatic to everyone right now.

They'd only been teammates. They'd only gone two years without seeing each other. They'd only just met again.

Pro players transferred between teams and regions all the time. People came and went; that was normal. Take today's opponent, NSN—Shi Luo had played for them himself. Running into former teammates at a match was an everyday occurrence, wasn't it?

Did he really have to lose it like this?

Shi Luo finally managed to finish setting up his peripherals. He opened the client, signed into his account, and logged onto the tournament server. There were about ten minutes until the match, and the players were warming up. Shi Luo fired a burst too. His aim was so awful it hurt to watch.

During intense emotional swings, reduced blood flow could leave his hands stiff and cold. It was a physical response. There was nothing he could do about it, even though he was already trying hard to keep himself under control.

Shi Luo took his hands off the keyboard and gently rubbed them together. He exhaled. This wasn't going to work.

He stared at the screen in silence for a while, then spoke quietly into his microphone.

"He and I weren't just teammates."

His voice startled all three teammates. None of them knew where this was going. The medic answered awkwardly, "Uh... Manager Zhao mentioned a little of it before. Whisper was the one who brought you into the scene, right?"

"More than that," Shi Luo said.

His teammates exchanged looks. Even the referee monitoring IAC's team comms turned to glance at him. No one understood what had gotten into him. Shi Luo had always been a man of few words, and he'd never talked about Whisper at all. What had set him off today?

"As for my relationship with Whisper..." Shi Luo worked to keep his voice even. "Put it this way. Back then, I all but gave him my life."

The medic choked. He glanced around nervously, cupped his microphone, and lowered his voice. "Shi-ge, you do remember that match comms are recorded and archived, right? Some things you can say, some things you can't. You should... think this through."

Shi Luo squeezed one forearm, then the other. "Of course I remember."

"Whisper told me about it before my first pro match." He rubbed his slowly warming hands as he spoke. "I'd only just joined the team. We had one regular-season match left, and if I wanted to go along and see what the playoffs were like, I had to play in it."

The FOG league's rules explicitly required a pro player to play at least one complete best-of-three series for their team during the regular season to be eligible for the playoffs, whether as a starter or a substitute.

"We were first in the league standings at the time. Our playoff spot was guaranteed, so letting me play one match didn't matter. It was just to make me eligible." Shi Luo laced his fingers together and flexed his joints. "There wasn't any pressure on the team, but I was being thrown in at the deep end. I wasn't ready for anything. Suddenly, there I was."

"I'd never even watched a match, and now I was supposed to start in one. I was completely lost. Whatever Whisper said, I did." Shi Luo put his hands back on his keyboard and mouse. "He told me to check my mic before the match, so I checked it. He told me singing was the best way to check it, so I sang. I thought it was pretty fucking stupid, but I figured I couldn't go wrong listening to my captain. So I did it. I actually sang a couple of lines. The next day, my song was in the match comms highlights."

His three teammates sucked in a breath and looked at him with pity, unable to imagine anything so horrifying.

"I was so young then. A year younger than Wawa. I'd just turned seventeen. I didn't know a damn thing..." Shi Luo scoffed. "Like a fucking idiot."

"No, no, no," the medic said weakly. "You weren't an idiot. You were new. Whisper shouldn't have picked on you."

"Picked on me?" Shi Luo reloaded his gun, his voice unhurried. "It was a regular-season match that couldn't affect our ranking anymore. They could've put a dog on a leash in my seat. Nobody cared about me, and nobody was paying attention to that match."

"He was a medic. So was I back then. All I really needed to do was take his spot and play, but..."

Shi Luo finished reloading and lined up his aim before continuing.

"But he couldn't stop worrying. He was afraid I was too inexperienced. Afraid I'd get stage fright. Afraid no one would look out for me. Afraid the team's assaulters wouldn't cooperate with me because I was new. He was a medic, but that match was the first time he played assaulter."

His teammates stared at him in shock. "Whisper played assaulter?!"

The team's other assaulter ventured, "I thought I remembered Whisper saying in an interview that he didn't like playing other classes."

Yu Sui had played nothing but medic since his debut. Even during casual streams, he never played another class. When event organizers personally asked him to demonstrate other classes, he always politely declined. He'd also said in numerous interviews that he didn't enjoy playing them.

Shi Luo nodded. "He doesn't. But if he didn't play assaulter, how could he be there beside me as my teammate?"

The medic looked conflicted. "Then back then, Whisper treated you..."

"Very well."

"He was there for my debut. Anything I didn't know, he taught me. Every little thing." The color had returned to Shi Luo's face, and his voice was finally as steady as usual. "Like this. When your emotions are running high, don't avoid what's wrong. Say what's hurting you. Talk it out to let off steam and calm yourself down quickly. He taught me that too."

The medic couldn't help asking, "If he was so good to you before, how did you two end up like this?"

"That's exactly the problem. He was too good to me." Shi Luo held his mouse, his voice flat. "That's why, when he pushed me away so easily afterward, I couldn't let it go. I still can't."

He smiled faintly and murmured to himself, "If I'd never seen the light..."

He didn't finish. Holding his breath for two seconds, he fired a burst. Every bullet hit the same hole.

His teammates' jaws nearly hit the floor.

"Running into someone I'd looked up to, with all that history between us—and then seeing him send Wawa out to play, which happened to remind me of him sending me out for my first match... I didn't keep my emotions under control. Sorry you had to see that." Shi Luo let go of his mouse and rubbed his shoulder. His expression was back to normal. "All right. I'm good now."

His teammates marveled at how smoothly he'd pulled it off. "...That's some fucking impressive emotional regulation."

The match was about to begin. The sniper asked, "Their lineup hasn't changed. We sticking with our usual strategy against NSN? Focus their two assaulters all game?"

"No," Shi Luo said. "Today we're watching the medic."

The sniper sounded surprised. "We're targeting Wawa today? Aren't you two pretty close?"

"That's why he gets special attention." Shi Luo adjusted his microphone. "Keep focusing their medic. Ideally, he dies the second he shows his face. Don't give him any room to do anything."

The assaulter laughed. "So that's how we're playing it? But Wawa doesn't usually show himself early. We won't have much of a chance to target him, will we?"

Shi Luo watched his screen. "I think he will."

The assaulter raised his eyebrows. "All right! I love mindlessly bullying one person."

Their medic trembled. "You guys are vicious!"

The match began.

Just as Shi Luo had expected, Wawa followed the assaulters to the point where the two sides of the map met right at the start. Shi Luo knew that route far too well. He didn't even ask the sniper to scope in and confirm. A burst of fire took Wawa down for first blood.

With first blood secured, Shi Luo could upgrade his weapon.

IAC's medic was speechless. "The toxic fog hasn't even been cleared. How did you see him?"

"I didn't see him. I heard him." Shi Luo held his breath. "Next he'll circle around to the rear and head west to put photon shields on the assaulters. Sniper, watch for him."

As though he were following Shi Luo's instructions, Wawa turned up on the west side of the map two minutes later, where IAC's sniper picked up another kill.

The sniper laughed in disbelief. "He was all the way over west, and you could still hear him?"

"I couldn't. I guessed."

"He's given up two kills. He won't dare clear the fog on his own now. He'll stick with the assaulters and pick up support points," Shi Luo said quickly. "Medic, on me. We're about to fight them head-on."

Their medic put a photon shield on the sniper, then hurried after Shi Luo. Sure enough, three seconds later, NSN, unable to sit still after giving up two kills, came straight at him.

Shi Luo had been expecting it. His attachments were better than Gu Qian's, too, so he wasn't afraid of a head-on fight this early. He opened fire immediately, ordering his medic into cover behind him, and used his first-shot advantage to land two hits on Gu Qian. Gu Qian didn't stubbornly stand his ground. Realizing Shi Luo had anticipated his position, he immediately fell back into his own side's toxic fog without giving up a kill. He even landed a shot on Shi Luo before ducking into cover. Unfortunately, NSN's other assaulter, Xinran, didn't have Gu Qian's awareness. Xinran failed to get out of the way in time, and Shi Luo took the kill. Wawa carelessly exposed himself while trying to save Xinran, giving Shi Luo's fellow assaulter another kill.

"Nice!"

Less than five minutes into the game, IAC's assaulters and sniper had all picked up kills, their medic had earned support points, and the entire team had upgraded its equipment.

Their sniper looked incredulous. "How the hell do you know everything they're doing?"

Shi Luo opened the upgrade menu and bought ammunition. "It's nothing. I know this strategy too well."

Use the medic as bait early on, giving the assaulters and sniper plenty of room to work so they could focus on picking off enemies in the first five minutes. As long as the medic didn't give up any kills, they could build an enormous early lead.

This was Yu Sui's play style.

Unfortunately, Wawa didn't have the mechanical skill to pull it off.

NSN realized that too. They were a veteran team, after all. Even after their opponents gained an overwhelming early advantage, they didn't lose their composure. They immediately adjusted their strategy, returning to the assaulter-centered approach they knew best and keeping IAC from extending its lead. But that early setback had still been costly. Despite playing as well as usual through the middle and late game, NSN remained under pressure from IAC the whole way. Thirty-two minutes later, IAC wiped out NSN's entire team, destroyed their respawn stone, and won the game.

When the results screen appeared, Shi Luo took a look.

Wawa's deaths: 13.

Their medic clicked his tongue at the results as he packed up his peripherals. "Poor Wawa. You guys focused him the whole game. I'd have shut down completely."

Shi Luo put his own peripherals away. "It was only thirteen."

The medic's mouth twitched. "God Shi, with that personality, you'd be the villain in a shonen anime."

Shi Luo didn't care. "Fine by me. I was never a good person anyway."

As usual, the winning team had to give a postmatch interview, and IAC's players were invited out front. Worried that people might use the interview to stir up controversy around Shi Luo, Zhao Feng had already spoken to the host. As a result, the host avoided anything sensitive. After a few innocuous questions, the four IAC players bowed to thank the fans who'd come to watch, then headed backstage toward their lounge.

Fresh off the win, his teammates were in high spirits, jostling one another as they debated what to eat that night. Shi Luo's steps were a little heavy. As they passed NSN's lounge, he turned to look.

"Shi Luo? Shi-ge?"

The medic gave him a puzzled look. "What's wrong?"

Shi Luo snapped out of it. "What?"

"We're talking about getting crawfish tonight," the medic said with a smile. "You coming?"

"There'll be a line at this hour. I'll pass." Shi Luo tossed his gear bag to the medic. "You guys go ahead. I've got something to do."

The medic caught the bag, confused. "The interview's over. What else is there?"

Shi Luo turned and, under his teammates' horrified stares, shoved open the door to NSN's lounge.

The door swung wide. The room was empty.

The only person inside was a staff member cleaning up, who looked at Shi Luo in bewilderment. "Can I help you? NSN's already left."

All the nerve Shi Luo had finally managed to summon drained away. He closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Sorry. It's nothing."