Chapter 5
Translator: Aafkee
Proofreader: ChaiTea
The decoration for the tournament venue is pretty grand. Mu Wanwan is sitting at the bottom, both her hands supporting her chin as she stares blankly at the screen in the front.
It is tiring leaning forward, but the screen is too far. As a young lady with internet addiction, she is mildly nearsighted. She doesn’t usually wear contacts either, since they hurt her eyes.
She lets out a sigh and puts on a pair of glasses with a black frame.
“Seriously, though,” Lin Jiu, who sits beside her, starts speaking, “I have always thought that a bad student like you actually looks decent after putting on your glasses.”
“Thanks,” Mu Wanwan does not bother turning her head. “Please praise me positively next time.”
Lin Jiu is silent.
Before the arrival of the competitors, the commentators start to warm up the crowd.
Due to a large number of tournaments during the regular seasons, there are many new commentators. Naturally, their sentences and tone are nothing compared to the experienced commentators, which makes Mu Wanwan, who usually only watches highlight tournaments, feel sleepy.
She covers her mouth and yawns slightly.
The male commentator asks jokingly, “Which team do you support?”
“For me…” the female commentator replies with a grin, “that depends on the team composition. I am really looking forward to Shark’s Azir. I wonder if we’ll be able to see him play Azir in this tournament.”
Shark is Team MA’s middle lane’s Xu Hao’s in-game ID.
Mu Wanwan laughs lightly.
There is no way Team TS will let you see Xu Hao’s Azir*.
(T/N*: There is a pick and ban section before each game starts. She is referring to how there is no way Team TS will let Xu Hao use his best champion, so there is a high chance Team TS will ban Azir.)
Lin Jiu eyes Mu Wanwan, “What are you laughing at?”
“Nothing,” Mu Wanwan stands up, “I’m going to the toilet.”
The air inside is too stuffy. Since the match has not started yet, almost everyone is whispering to each other, making it plenty noisy inside.
She lets out a relieved sigh after stepping out of the venue, only realising that she has not asked for directions to the toilet.
Forget it.
There are two paths on the sides. She hesitates for a moment before turning right.
There is a half-opened door at the end of the corridor with a sign that reads, ‘No entry for non-staff members’.
Seems like she has chosen the wrong direction.
Just as she is about to turn around and go back to where she came from, she sees a toilet sign on the wall through the door out of the corner of her eyes.
… She is only going to the toilet. It should be fine, right?
She quickly looks left and right and hurries into the room.
After finishing her business, she washes her hands and just as she is about to leave the toilet, she receives a call from Lin Jiu.
“Where are you? Why aren’t you back yet?”
“It took me half a day to find the toilet. What’s wrong?” Mu Wanwan asks.
“Remember the file I sent you last time? That table regarding stream times and the corresponding pay, do you have it on your phone?”
Mu Wanwan thinks for a second, recalling that she indeed had received it on her phone when it was first sent to her, “Yeah, why?”
“Can you send it to me first? I’ll tell you in detail when you’re back.”
Mu Wanwan agrees, “Alright.”
After hanging up the phone, Mu Wanwan tries to unlock her phone by swiping up but due to her wet hands, the screen wouldn’t budge.
She takes out a piece of napkin, wipes her hand while walking out the toilet and says, “Hey, SIRI.”
SIRI is a function that comes with an Apple handphone. It is an AI that can help carry out various kinds of tasks. It can recognise the user’s voice and can be launched hand-free by the user’s voice saying “Hey, SIRI”.
The only downside is that it will stop all other functions currently in use.
Ding ding - dong dong.
She hears something ringing twice, which is soon followed by a sound of someone sucking in their breath, “Tssuu--”.
Surprised, she freezes for a moment. She turns around and sees a man standing not far away from her. He is pretty tall and has black, fine hair.
The other party turns around at the same time to look at her, too, his brows creasing lightly and his mouth agape slightly. To her surprise, that’s Pei Lu, who Lin Jiu has been talking about non-stop just now.
Mu Wanwan can’t help but feel amazed -- This person looks even better in real life than he does on the screen when his matches are live-streamed. Everyone says that Xu Hao is handsome, but she begs to differ. Lu Pei obviously looks better.
She can only see the other party taking two big deep breaths, a hint of accusation in his expression.
Accusation?
She looks down at his phone, it is the same Apple model as she has and its screen is lit up by the SIRI user interface as well. It seems like she has, unintentionally, activated his SIRI as well.
Lu Pei has a strange habit.
He likes to play the classic card-matching game online against others right before his match as it helps warm up and trains his hand speed as well as his reaction.
Take just now, for example, he was up against an exceptionally strong opponent. They had been going at it for three rounds already and Pei Lu did not win even once. In the previous round, before he was disturbed, there was finally some sign of him getting the tables turned. Just when he only needed another 7% progress to win the game, he was forcefully brought back to hell with that simple line of “Hey, SIRI”.
“... Did I disturb you?” Mu Wanwan studied his expression and pondered on her response before opening her mouth.
Pei Lu shakes his head with grief in his heart, “No.”
He has a nice voice too, gentle. Although it is deep and low, it does not give others a sense of indifference.
Only then does Mu Wanwan realise that she has never heard Pei Lu’s voice before.
She has tried to learn from other streamers before she became a streamer herself, and a few of the streamers she watched for reference were the members of Team TS. She has even watched Lil Meat Bun several times.
She mulls over it for a second and suddenly asks, with no context whatsoever, “You don’t stream, do you?”
Pei Lu stares blankly for a split second, caught by surprise. He answers subconsciously, “Yeah.”
“Oh,” Mu Wanwan nods. “The match is starting soon. Are you not going to prepare?”
He didn’t think the other party would start chatting with him just like that. Pei Lu glances at his phone, “It’s not time yet.”
“Good luck,” Mu Wanwan makes a fish with one hand, doing the pump up motion while encouraging him. “I think you guys have a pretty good chance at winning.”
Pei Lu is momentarily stunned.
TS is a veteran team. They were once an all-powerful team but the veteran players of the team have been retiring one after another during these few years. The team of five, plus a reserve player, are all new members who have only joined the team for less than two years.
As for MA, they have been doing extremely well in the last two years, distinguishing themselves by rising above all the other teams and earned the first-ever entrance ticket to compete in the finals globally. Even though they lost to a Korean team 3-0 in the end, MA remains the highest-ranked team from China.
Disregarding all the other things and just by looking at all their matches from last year’s LPL Summer Season, they have never won against MA, not a single match.
Pei Lu thinks for a second, the tip of his finger bent as it blocks his mouth. He asks, uncertain, “That… Are you a fan of our team?”
Mu Wanwan goes ‘Ah’ and just as she was about to say something, she sees Lin Jiu walking towards her. The words that were supposed to come out of her mouth changed in an instant, “Ah, no. I’m your personal fan.”
Pei Lu blinks, the sunlight from outside the window shining on his eyelashes, leaving spots of shadow under his eyes.
“I see,” He moves his hand away, smiling, “Thank you.”
It is a sincere smile since Mu Wanwan can see his dimple.
It is such a deep dimple, Mu Wanwan has a sudden urge to poke it.
“What took you so long to send me the file? Also, do you know that this is the backstage…” Lin Jiu stops mid-sentence the second she sees Pei Lu.
Mu Wanwan quickly replies, “I know, I’m only here to borrow the toilet.”
“... Oh, no problem, there is absolutely no rush. Not at all. Go ahead and continue your conversation, I’ll wait for you outside.” Lin Jiu winks at her.
Lin Jiu’s arrival and disappearance are as quick as the wind. Mu Wanwan couldn’t even stop her in time.
“Then, I shall get going, before the staff discovers me,” Mu Wanwan laughs awkwardly. She turns and walks a few steps. Suddenly recalling something, she hesitates for half a beat and finally can’t help but turn back.
“Actually, did you realise that MA’s bottom lane is their weakness?” she asks.
Pei Lu is stunned, “Hm?”
“That is, their support is extremely unrestrained,” Mu Wanwan thinks back carefully. “Every time, after the first small team fight, they especially like to ask their jungler to create some trouble, although I’m not sure if he’ll do that in the match.”
Of course, he will.
Pei Lu has spent some time studying the videos of their matches after the last LPL Summer Season and finally found out that pattern of behaviour -- Or rather, it was a personal habit, or even the team’s habit.
Their behaviour is not obvious. Sometimes, it’ll result in a successful gank, but more often than not, the jungler will clear the neutral camps at the bottom of the map and give up the gank with no hesitation if he finds that the success rate of his gank is low. Therefore, there aren’t many people who notice such a pattern. At the very least, the other teams have yet to notice it.
He is already planning to target that in today’s match.
Astonished, he blurts out his question, “How did you know?”
Mu Wanwan admits, “Because I’ve played a few games with him before.”
More accurately, she has played a lot of games with him before -- there was a period of time when MA’s support duo queued with her to climb ranks together. Although, they have not played together for a long time since the other party started streaming.
Played together?
Before Pei Lu can react, Mu Wanwan is already waving her hands, “My friend is waiting for me so I’ll go ahead first. Good luck with your match.”
The speed she turns around is too quick; her straight, long hair whipping the air behind her.
There is an extra hint of fragrance of shampoo in the air, sweet and nice smelling.
Back in the practice room, Lil Meat Bun sees him and asks, “Xiao-Lu, who was it? Did you win?”
TS’s jungler is sitting right beside Lil Meat Bun, he is called Brother Hu*. He lets out a loud laugh, “Judging from Xiao-Lu’s current expression, I bet he didn’t win!”
(T/N*: He is called 虎哥 (probably a nickname), which is directly translated to Big Brother Tiger, which is a mouthful so I’m sticking with the pronunciation here.)
Pei Lu purses his lips and asks, completely off-topic, “Do you know MA’s support’s in-game ID?”
Lil Meat Bun is stunned for a split second before he asks, “Why? Do you want to snipe him and teach him a lesson?”
Pei Lu hesitates, “...No.”
TS’s jungler is called Mu Tou*. As suggested by his nickname, he is a bit of a blockhead. He stops the teasing from the other two people firmly and replies, “His ID is his name, Youyou, with an extra Y at the end.”
(T/N*: 木头, directly translated as a log, which can also mean blockheaded or slow-witted. I’m sticking with the pronunciation for this one as well because Log looks pretty weird and Blockhead as a nickname is just… yeah.)
Pei Lu acknowledges his answer and opens up TGP* Game Assistant, keys in the ID and checks the other party’s rank.
(T/N*: Tencent Game Platform, it is apparently a game catalogue?)
Challenger.
The girl from just now said that she has played with him before? A few games, no less?
She could even accurately point out the flaws of the gameplay. She is probably not from the normal pub* games.
(T/N*: Pub refers to public games where there is no coherent coordination between teammates, i.e. playing with random players online.)
Just as he is thinking, the team manager, Brother Yang* pushes the door and enters the room. He scans the room with his eyes and frowns, “Where’s Chen He?”
(T/N*: 羊哥, directly translates to Big Brother Sheep. Keeping the pronunciation.)
Brother Hu replies, “He said there’s someone he knows, so he went to drop in to say hi.”
No one else says anything.
Furious, Brother Yang turns back and goes out, dragging Chen He back with him two minutes later.
The match is starting very soon, there is no time to bullshit around. Right after Brother Yang finishes talking about the Ban Pick segment, a staff member steps in to notify them that it’s time for them to enter.
Mu Wanwan returns to her seat and sends the document to Lin Jiu.
However, Lin Jiu no longer feels rushed now. She touches Mu Wanwan’s shoulder and asks, “You got to interact face-to-face with your idol. Are you happy?”
Mu Wanwan’s voice is void of emotions, “Sure.”
“Did you ask for his contact details?” Lin Jiu presses.
“No.”
Lin Jiu sighs, “... What a scaredy-cat.”
Mu Wanwan can’t even be bothered to explain herself, “Why do you need that document for?”
“Oh, nothing much. I have a friend interested in streaming and asked me for some general information. It’s too troublesome to explain bit by bit, so I’m just gonna send her the whole document and leave her to it.”
Mu Wanwan remembers how Lin Jiu had grabbed her and gave her a lot of earnest and well-meaning advice when she had just started streaming, afraid that she’d be tricked by TigerTV.
Her heart warms, “I’ll treat you to dinner later.”
“... Why??” Lin Jiu eyes her suspiciously, “I need to stream tonight. I don’t have time to eat out.”
Mu Wanwan nods, “I know, I’ll treat you to delivery.”
Lin Jiu is about to ask again but is shocked by the group of female fans who are suddenly stirred up.
Team MA is entering the hall.
Following the commotion, the TS team members walk up the stage as well.
The cheers in the venue hall reduces by quite a bit in an instant.
But there are still people cheering for them. It seems like they have accidentally taken the seats among Team MA’s group of fans, TS’s fans are all sitting on the left side.
Mu Wanwan leans over and takes a look.
TS’s fans seem to be more rational. They did not scream or shout, but the number of signboards supporting TS is definitely not small. Probably to show their scale, she even sees many people holding four to five neon signboards…
When she has withdrawn her line of sight, the team members from both teams are already seated in their respective seats.
When the camera happens to pause on Pei Lu, he is already connecting his mouse to the computer with practised ease.
After listening to the commentators’ introduction and awkward chatter, it is finally time for the Ban Pick segment.
She sees Pei Lu saying something calmly, his lips opening and closing, his gaze fixed on the computer screen, his expression easy and calm.
He looks completely different from the sunny, warm youth she met backstage. The him, right now, looks imposing and pressing, just like a grand leader.
Lin Jiu asks, “Who do you think will win?”
The moment that sentence leaves her mouth, Mu Wanwan can only feel all the ears surrounding them perking up.
… This is the enemy’s camp. Can’t they just speak quietly?
After silently cursing, Mu Wanwan lowers her voice to the lowest volume possible, but her words are extremely resolute.
“TS.”
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