FOG

In the second floor corridor, the cleaning aunt was mopping the floor. Yu Sui greeted her as he looked through his phone, leaning against the wall near the glass doors leading to the terrace.

The auntie glanced at Shi Luo on the terrace, and uttered a few words in Shanghai-ese, repeating her same old admonitions that smoking at such a young age was not good for the lungs. Yu Sui nodded in agreement, Yes, I will talk about it to him later.

Auntie quickly mopped the corridor and headed for the first floor with the mop and bucket. Yu Sui then turned and pushed open the door to the terrace.

Shi Luo had his eyes narrowed slightly as he leaned against the railing. He had almost finished the cigarette between his lips. Yu Sui walked over and plucked the cigarette from behind Shi Luo and threw it into the ashtray on the terrace.

Yu Sui was very close to Shi Luo and Shi Luo instinctively glanced back. He saw that the corridor floor was empty before he leaned back on the railing.

What are you afraid of? If someone sees, then let them see. Yu Sui leaned against the railing next to Shi Luo. He paused for a moment and said softly, Just now, did you say that to deliberately make me feel bad?

Not this time. Shi Luo was a little embarrassed and explained, I didnt want to mention it but I wasnt paying attention and... Anyway, it wasnt intentional this time.

Yu Sui nodded and repeated, Wasnt intentional this time...

Yu Sui smiled, So you admit it. You used to deliberately mess with my head?

Shi Luo uneasily pulled out the thorns from the cactus, I admitted it a long time ago. Stop asking... at least for now, I dont want to make you feel bad.

Yu Sui once again grasped the key point, At least for now?

Youre so good to me now...it makes me kinda not want to look for trouble with you. Shi Luo took the pot of the cactus and turned it around. He continued to pinch off the thorns from the cactus other side.

His expression was cool but his tone was somewhat tired, Im waiting for when youre not being good to me. Then Ill go turn over old accounts with you.

Yu Sui listened quietly, his heart aching a bit.

So, before, every time you said something to deliberately make me feel bad, that was... Yu Sui said softly, because you thought I wasnt being good to you? Did I treat you badly that often?

Shi Luo pursed his lips and did not refute. After a while, he whispered, You were going to send me to NSN. I cant possible still be grateful to you, right? Sigh, I said I wasnt going to turn over old accounts...

Lets not talk about this.

Its fine, lets talk a little bit about the past. You dont have to feel sorry for me. Yu Sui didnt want to discuss everything about what happened two years ago but Yu Sui wanted to know everything that had anything to do with Shi Luo.

Why didnt you challenge me to a match to delete our accounts before?

Shi Luos reasons were not so tenable. At that time, both of them had changed teams and had new accounts, but regardless, if they had really played a match with their accounts on the line, it would have been injurious enough.

It was very troublesome for professional players to delete an account. After deleting your account, you would need to apply with the league for a new professional account. You would also need to explain clearly what happened to your last account and why you abandoned it.

I accepted a challenge from someone with our accounts on the line. I shamefully lost the match and now my account has been deleted.

Please give me another official pro-player account. If this was the reason submitted to the officials, news of it would spread instantly throughout the four divisions and render the league officials absolutely shocked.

With Yu Suis understanding of Shi Luo, this kind of suicidal revenge was entirely something Shi Luo would do.

Yu Sui has been playing professionally for nearly six years, and Shi Luo was the most ruthless players hes ever met when it came to dealing with problems.

Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo, I treated you that way before and you still didnt have the heart to do it?

No, I was... Shi Luo couldnt stop himself from damaging the cactus. After a long while, he said vaguely, I knew I couldnt beat you.

Yu Sui: ...

Shi Luo frowned, If I was practically certain that I could beat you, I would have challenged you to that match. But at that time&#k2026; I really couldnt win.

My skills werent as good as yours. It was already embarrassing being cycled over thirty times. After I challenged you and I had to delete my account because you beat me. It would have been just too embarrassing.

The most hateful thing was that you were still in Sacred Sword at the time.

If Sacred Swords management saw that I played like trash, they would have been so overjoyed that they didnt buy my contract too. Shi Luo analyzed point by point and said, When I go crazy, I dig pits for myself but this time, I obviously wouldnt have been able to gain anything from it.

Even if I was so angry then that I was about to go crazy, I wouldnt have gone so far as to... why are you laughing?!

Yu Sui tried his best to endure, but soon couldnt help it.

Shi Luo was too cute.

Shi Luo flushed a little, and said irritably, I told you to stop asking... Its all very shameful. I didnt want to talk about it at all, and...

Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo seriously, And what?

Given your personality, that you could send FS to the chopping block yourself, there was a high probability that you wouldnt throw the game for me. Shi Luo whispered, If you didnt show mercy at all in our account deletion match, after youve just left me so decisively, I might have never been able to recover...

Yu Sui smiled. Shi Luo was sure he had let himself be seen through completely.

Yu Sui opened his mouth. Just as he was about to say something, there was a knock on the door to the terrace.

What are you doing? Old Qiao had been passing by the terrace when he saw the two of them there. He knocked on the glass door and pushed it open. Our scheduled training match is going to start soon better start your computers.

Lets go.

Yu Sui seemed to be calling out to Shi Luo. In front of Old Qiao he put his hand on Shi Luos shoulder, in Old Qiao blind spot Yu Sui gently squeezed Shi Luos hand.

Shi Luo held his hand back. There was too little time for a break. After their hands touched, they immediately separated. Each of them adjusted their jackets and headed to the training room.

Despite not having any regular season games today, they still had high-intensity training. It seems that Saint was fully preparing for their regular season game against Free.

Angel Sword sent a message to Old Qiao, saying that before their match, they wouldnt be scheduling any practice matches with Free. He said he didnt want to expose too much of their tactics. The toughest team in the country except for Saint was already NSN.

Old Qiao made an appointment with NSN in the afternoon and with a North American team in the evening; five hours in the afternoon and five hours in the evening.

After playing for ten consecutive hours, with only half an hours break and only so that they could eat, Zhou Huo couldnt stand it anymore.

That night, after their practices matches with the North American team, Zhou Huo went to the training room and said, No more high intensity training for tonight. Either do a game review or do a live broadcast for fun.

Zhou Huo was saying it to Old Qiao, who nodded, No use doing a game review. That will take time. The data analysts and I will watch the video first. After summing up the problems, well do one tomorrow.

You guys do a live broadcast.

They havent been able to broadcast a lot this month and no one had any objections. They rubbed their shoulders and tidied up their appearance for the live broadcast.

Naturally, what they meant by tidying up was that Shi Luo smoothed out his sleeves that he had bunched up his shoulders; Chen Huo ran his fingers through his hair to fix it from how his hood-type earphones have messed it up.

Chen Huo grabbed his hair and complained, Youre the only one who turns on the webcam. How come the whole team has to join you in trying to maintain your idol image? Can you just not turn it on?

No can do. Puppy said lazily. The popularity of my live broadcast room is supported by this camera. Basically, people who come to my live broadcasts want to see you guys through my camera. If I turn it off, all your fans will run away...

...So, let an unpopular player have a means of livelihood, alright?

Zhou Huo was about to leave but turned around when he heard this, Dont do a boring broadcast if you want to be more popular. Why dont you do a double row?

Spare me. Puppy didnt even think about it. Showing complete resistance, We already normally double row to brush up on our teamwork. Weve been teamed up for over ten hours today already. If I had to double row with them again, Im going to hit someone.

I dont even want to see their IDs anymore.

Thats why I said ten consecutive hours of practice matches werent good. This is just too intense. You guys didnt listen. Zhou Huo was helpless. He glanced at Shi Luo next to him and he suddenly had an idea.

He said, Hey! Then how about you guys play something else?

Shi Luo tilted his head to look at Zhou Huo, What would we play?

Lets play that account deletion game you mentioned today. Ill post it on our Weibo to bring in some hype. It will definitely be popular. The more Zhou Huo thought about it, the more he thought it was just perfect. Cant we play 1v1 on our custom server?

You can play like this.

You... Shi Luo looked at Zhou Huo in disbelief, Did you get so excited about it that you wanted to see an account deletion game on the first day you found out about it? Is there any deep and bloody hatred within the team that we need to play this?

Chen Huo looked at Zhou Huo warily, Im not playing. Im not going to kill my wife for the popularity of a live broadcast.

Were not going to be deleting your accounts...what are you thinking? Zhou Huo didnt know whether to laugh or cry. Cant you just bet something else? If you lose, you wont need to delete you account. Just pay for takeaway.

Zhou Huo spread his hands, This way you can relax, Puppys live broadcast will be popular and well have a midnight snack later.

Nice, nice, nice! Come on, come on. When he mentioned popularity, Puppys eyes lit up. He was totally on board. Since Im the only one with a webcam turned on, more of the viewers will come to my broadcast.

Lets play!

Chen Huo nodded as soon as he heard that he didnt need to delete his account, Okay, if you lose, at worst youll be asked to order takeaway.

Zhou Huo looked at Shi Luo, tone very pointed, Do you want to play or not? It doesnt have to be takeaway. If youve had enough of midnight snacks, you could bet something else.

Zhou Huo stressed the words something else. Shi Luos eyes lit up slightly. He raised no other objections and tacitly agreed.

Zhou Huo finally looked at Yu Sui, thinking of Yu Suis job, he said uneasily, Uh... Yu Sui... this...medics cant really play 1v1, right?

Yu Sui was very direct. Its okay, its the same.

Alright! The team members agreed. Zhou Huo was very satisfied. This was the first entertainment event since the founding of the Free team. Zhou Huo was very happy.

Ill make a post on Weibo to commemorate it. It hasnt been easy, it hasnt been easy. Old Qiao, draw up a custom map and pull them in.

Old Qiao also wanted to watch the excitement so he nodded and logged into the Frees server on his computer, and built a 1v1 map.

Old Qiao pulled all four of them into the map and turned to hurry up Zhou Huo, Have you posted it?

Okay, okay. Zhou Huo hurriedly revised the punctuation marks, Posted! Come on...

Zhou Huo sent the notice on their official blog and the popularity of their live broadcasts suddenly increased.

Well play wheel matches. Old Qiao clicked the randomizer. The first match up will be random. After that will be wheel matches. If you win, you can select who youll fight next.

Winner gets to ask the loser to do one thing. Dont go too far. .

They get it already. Zhou Huo urged, Hurry up.

Old Qiao said, I already clicked it, were just waiting for the system to do the match up.

Zhou Huo was very interested. He stretched his neck and looked at Old Qiaos screen. After waiting for half a minute, the system displayed: Shi Luo and Puppy.

Tsk... Puppy was speechless, Job limitations. Im a sniper, how am I supposed to beat him?

Shi Luo didnt say anything. After the countdown, he appeared out of the resurrection stone.

In the 1V1 mode in the custom server, the map of both parties were free of poisonous fog and both sides have a clear line of sight, it was a wide expanse of flat land. Both players hid behind bunkers. As soon as they killed their opponent, this match was done.

I cant fight like this. Its impossible. Puppy couldnt help shaking his head as he chattered endlessly. There isnt even any way to upgrade our equipment. This base-level gun cant be fired continuously.

I need to reload after just one shot. Cant fight, cant fight, cant fight...

Puppy seemed to be slacking around. He kept moaning about his inability to fight, but his eyes were very focused. He opened the lens and locked onto Shi Luos position. When Shi Luo was about to grope his way forward, he was met with a steady, accurate and relentless bang.

It was a pity that Shi Luo reacted too quickly. A change in position let him avoid the key point. Puppy had predicted his position but still only managed to hit Shi Luo on the arm.

Chen Huo was also on the map, and he could see from a birds eye perspective. He couldnt help but say, ...am I dirty or is my Puppy dirty.

Puppy sighed regretfully. Since he missed his shot, he had to reload. While reloading, he was absolutely no threat. Now that he had fired that shot, Shi Luo didnt need to look for a cover.

For a whole 1.5 seconds he simply walked straight towards him.

V/\\IssT n0(v)eL/b(i)(n)./ for the b/est novel reading experi/en/ce

But there was no helping it. The striker job class was designed to be more flexible and maneuverable. Shi Luo was young, at the age where his reaction speeds were the highest. It was too difficult to catch him.

Fortunately, due to job limitations, for now, he couldnt fire his strikers gun yet. Puppy had at least five more shots. Puppy held his breath and stopped talking, he waited until Shi Luo came over to his side and then fired the second shot, the third shot, the fourth shot...

The last three shots hit air. By the time of his fifth shot, Puppy was within Shi Luos range. Puppys fifth shot hit Shi Luos leg. Shi Luo shot him until he had only a sliver of life left but Shi Luo himself only had a little bit of life too.

Shi Luo had already closed in. Puppy couldnt hold off Shi Luo at this distance, and there was no time to reload. Puppy resigned himself to his fate and took both hands off his keyboard.

Shi Luo emptied out a cartridge of bullets, taking Puppys head, Spicy Frog Legs, extra spicy and two bowls of rice.

In Shi Luos live broadcast, the live chat was laughing like crazy. The fans filled the screen with 666s.

Puppy shook his head, opened the takeaway app and sighed, What do you guys want to eat? Im ordering...

Everyone ordered their own midnight snacks. Old Qiao restored the map to its original state and said, Okay, its reset. Next one.

Zhou Huo happily freeloaded a takeaway meal off from Puppy and looked up at Shi Luo.

Shi Luo exited the map.

Everyone was stunned. Without waiting for the others to ask questions, Shi Luo logged on to his medic account that he had abandoned two years ago.

Shi Luo said, Next, Whisper.

Translators note:

You just know Puppy would be that kind of friend who keeps saying hes sh*t at mario kart and then proceeds to slaughter you all.