Glory [e-sports]

Wei Xiao had a dream.

The dream was vague, and there were many messy scenes piled up together. It was absurd and chaotic.

He walked down the street where he’d lived for over ten years. It looked like how it was now during his adulthood, but the scenes were from his childhood.

There was a small shop that sold cheap snacks, an old man that sold roasted melon seeds, the grocery store grandma who was extremely nitpicky and wouldn’t even let super cheap tofu off, and his favorite rice and oil shop––the one with glossy white grains and fragrant sesame oil––that made him feel as if he wouldn’t get tired even if he watched it all day.

Wei Xiao stood on the street, waiting for his grandma.

Every time he had this dream, he would see his grandma. It was even more strange tonight, because he knew he was dreaming in his dream.

Wei Xiao was waiting for his grandma, but what he saw was a little baby child with black hair, soft ears, and skin the color of snow.

The child was only three or four years old and stood there alone, dressed in old clothing. His tender, tofu-like hands were smeared with dust, his gaze drooped, and his long eyelashes were like dark feathery fans, covering his bright black eyes.

Then, Wei Xiao saw Wei Quan and Li Su.

Wei Quan was scolding Li Su, and it was very unpleasant to listen to.

Li Su was criticizing him and shouting that she wanted to get a divorce.

Wei Xiao only felt that it was completely absurd as he watched this scene unfold.

His parents didn’t pay attention to anyone but each other. How could they get divorced?

Until Li Su turned to the child and scolded, “It’s all your fault. If I hadn’t given birth to you, I wouldn’t have had to suffer in this damned place!”

The child hung his head, his long black hair covering his forehead as he opened his mouth and said, “I’m sorry.”

His voice was soft and light and was very apologetic, but an innate coolness could still be heard within the tone of his voice.

Wei Xiao’s heart felt like it had been smashed by a stone. He strode over to look at the child’s appearance.

Black hair, pale skin, dark eyes like pools of water in a deep valley that was quiet and impregnable.

Lu Feng.

Wei Xiao was stunned.

He’d thought that it was himself, but it turned out to be a young Lu Feng.

Wei Quan and Li Su began to abuse each other again, until the crazed Wei Quan swung his arm. Seeing that they were about to hit Lu Feng, Wei Xiao grabbed his wrist, his voice cold and angry, “Don’t touch him.”

“Little Xiao?” The man’s low voice rang out in Wei Xiao’s ear, pulling him out of the nightmare.

Wei Xiao’s heart beat very fast, and he couldn’t return to his senses for a long time.

Lu Feng hugged him, his voice hoarse, “A nightmare?”

Wei Xiao hugged him hard and breathed lightly. “Mm.”

“What did you dream of?”

Wei Xiao shook his head.

“It’s nothing, it was just a dream.”

“Mm.”

“Go back to sleep; it’s still early.”

Wei Xiao leaned into his arms and smelled that light familiar scent. His heartbeat gradually slowed down.

He wasn’t asleep, and he couldn’t fall sleep, but his heart felt at peace.

What had the captain experienced when he was a child?

Had the captain also apologized to his irresponsible parents like that as a child?

Wei Xiao had suffered this dream because of the regret in his heart.

He regretted that he hadn’t met Lu Feng earlier, that he hadn’t been able to hold him, that he hadn’t been able to…

A touch that was like a very gentle kiss landed between Wei Xiao’s eyebrows. It was restrained and light, as though the giver was afraid of waking him up.

The regret Wei Xiao felt in his heart scattered in an instant.

Because there was no need to regret.

He could protect the Lu Feng from the past now in the present.

They were only three short days away from the playoffs.

FTW’s first game was against GOQ. It was the first game of the playoffs, and simultaneously, it would also be Close’s first game after his return.

Official marketing had already been launched, and the height of the fans’ expectations was endless. The tickets had sold out in one go, and there were even scalpers offering tickets at sky-high prices.

When Brother Cai heard how much the tickets cost, he was dumbfounded. “Brother Liu, let’s sell bench seats…”

Bench seats weren’t for the substitutes. It was seating offered for the team’s personnel.

It was at the very front row, the first row, and each row had five to six seats. If it was sold, they could make a huge amount of money. Brother Cai’s eyes had already turned into a string of dollar signs.

Xiang Liu: “……”

Wei Xiao bonked him on the head. “Be a little more promising.”

Brother Cai had just been running his mouth. “A full man doesn’t understand a hungry man’s hunger.”

Wei Xiao jeered at him, “You get 1000 a day for walking the dog, and 300 to squeeze watermelon juice, 500 if you bring me meals…”

Brother Cai: “!”

Everyone present were insiders who knew the situation. Brother Liu pretended like he didn’t know anything.

Wei Xiao stared at him. “With this, you’re still hungry?”

The captain had already given this bastard enough subsidies!

Brother Cai hurriedly said, “Aiya, how could there be too much of such things.”

Wei Xiao raised his eyebrows.

Brother Cai shut up. At this moment, Little Lunatic Wei unexpectedly had a bit of the presence of a ‘boss lady’.

Great. Not only did Brother Cai shut up, he also shivered. His own thoughts had struck him with lightning and left him numb all over!

When it came to the first game in the playoffs, the four little ones were all very relaxed.

GOQ really wasn’t strong enough to worry about. Not to mention now that Close was back, they would be able to beat up the other side unilaterally even if it was Brother Tang on the team instead.

The GOQ players were also very relaxed. Ever since they’d been given an on-the-spot game replay review by the grandmaster, they had already managed to achieve very good results during the regular season.

What kind of top four were they aiming for?

For them to be able to enter the top eight was already something that made their club boss start laughing to himself in the middle of the night, so elated that he wasn’t even able to close his mouth.

It was even to the point where––

“It doesn’t matter if you lose. What’s important is that you have to ask the grandmaster to help us review the game afterwards.”

GOQ’s mid-laner, jungler, and support who all still had a deep shadow on their hearts: “…………” There was really no need!

The playoffs were equivalent to the end of the season. Compared with the long regular season that was packed with games, the playoffs only had a pitiful number of games.

Eight into four had a total of four games.

There were two games for the semi-finals.

And finally, there was the national finals.

No matter how they counted, it would all be over in a week.

This year’s home game was in S City, so FTW didn’t need to move around and was much more relaxed.

3U and TPT, who were far away in B City, were preparing to head to S City.

Wei Xiao was idle and bored and went to help his captain make up for his live broadcast time. He encountered Asleep in the professional server.

The scrolling comments were instantly excited.

“When jungler kings meet, there must be a shou!”

“Ummmm, my Brother Sleep belongs to Cong Yi.”

“My Q Cub belongs to the great demon king.”

“So this script is actually: Two shous meet, so there must be a gong?”

“Those who mess around should get lost!”

The straight men were used to the rotten Glory circle and even commented on it, “Looking at the whole of the domestic Glory circle, other than Close, who has been confirmed to be a blade, who else can screw over Quiet?”

The scrolling comments were noisy and loud, but Wei Xiao didn’t care.

He asked Asleep, “Which position are you going to play?”

Asleep: “A.” Any.

Wei Xiao was amused, “How about having your big brother play support for you?”

Asleep: “……”

Wei Xiao: “What are you thinking, Laozi never plays support.”

Asleep: “…………” He snatched up the shadow thief in anger so that Wei Xiao didn’t have a jungler to go wild with.

Wei Xiao didn’t mind and said, “It just happens that this is my captain’s live broadcast room. In that case, I’ll show you Close’s new darling, the death…” He hadn’t finished saying ‘death knight’ when their team member in the second position snatched up the death knight.

The scrolling comments were laughing like crazy. “Things aren’t going the grandmaster’s way, this is beautiful.”

“Grandmaster, don’t panic. You’re on the fifth position, and you still have a chance!”

Like hell he had a chance. The fifth position was commonly known as the fill-in spot, and in the professional server, it usually ended up being the support position that was leftover.

Wei Xiao typed, “Brother, let me have the death knight.”

A string of Korean text came from the second position.

Wei Xiao: “……” He couldn’t understand it!

Wei Xiao didn’t give up. He went to coax the third position, “Little brother, can I have a mage position? I’m a well known mage king.”

The fourth position asked, “There are mage kings everywhere, and they’re all well known. Are you Xiehe?”

Wei Xiao was shameless. “Yes, I just happen to be EVE’s Xie He.”

The whole team: “…………”

Unexpectedly, the third position sent out two Chinese characters, “Ha-ha.”

Wei Xiao: “?”

The scrolling comments were filled with ‘holy shit holy shit holy shit’.

Wei Xiao glanced at the scrolling comments and saw a line of words, “The third position really is God Xie ahhhh!!”

Wei Xiao: “………………”

What the hell.

Not only had he matched up with Asleep, he’d also matched with Xie He?

The point being – both of them were his teammates?

To hell with playing!

There were fans who’d gone over to look and come back, “Reporting! Third position 123 (ID) really is God Xie. God Xie is also streaming!”

This was a very wonderful instance of crashing into other players.

Wei Xiao was shameless and didn’t panic after running into the real person. He could even laugh happily, “God Xie, how about letting me play the immortal warlock, and I’ll carry you to win?”

Xie He chose the immortal warlock at the very last second and typed, “Okay. I’ll carry you to win.”

Wei Xiao: “………………”

There were a total of five positions. Asleep had taken the shadow thief in the first position, an unknown player in the second position had taken the death knight, and the third position’s Xie He locked in the immortal warlock. There was also the fourth position, Mr. Making Trouble, and Wei Xiao was in the fifth position.

Could it be that he would really have to help Asleep by playing support?

No way!

Wei Xiao struggled for a while longer. “Fourth position, don’t you want to play support for God Xie and appreciate the immortal warlock’s beautiful appearance?”

The fourth position was someone who took delight in other people’s misfortune. “I’ll leave this wonderful opportunity to you.”

Wei Xiao: “………………”

Seriously, if this was the international server, it wasn’t impossible for Wei Xiao to take a thief and play as a support.

But this was the professional server. If he really did that and the moderators discovered it, points would be deducted from his credit score.

Besides, he was also live streaming, and if professional players started putting on an act in the game, then they could give up the idea of playing in competitions.

It was rare for the audience to see the grandmaster trip up. The scrolling comments were filled with people delighting in his misfortune, and all of them were filling the screen up with the words Wei Xiao had said before––

How about having your big brother play support for you?

What are you thinking, Laozi never plays support.

The corner of Wei Xiao’s mouth twitched. He selected a holy priest at the very last second of the countdown.

He yelled, “Brother Cai!”

Bai Cai: “What?”

Wei Xiao: “Come here, let me give you a chance to compete on the same stage as God Xie and Sleep God.”

Bai Cai: “I just started a game.”

Wei Xiao poked his head over. “What talent did you take?”

Bai Cai: “The holy priest, I’m double queuing with Old Yue.”

Wei Xiao: “…………” There was no difference even if they switched!

The scrolling comments were already shouting, “Accept it, grandmaster, just accept it.”

“Speaking of which, why doesn’t the grandmaster play support and occasionally experience the joy of getting carried?”

Wei Xiao: “No.”

The fans were curious. “Why, why?”

Wei Xiao gritted his teeth. “I’ll only play support for my captain in this life.”

He’d only just finished saying this when Lu Feng’s voice rang out from behind him, “When was that?”

Wei Xiao: “!”

Wei Xiao had turned on the camera. From the second Lu Feng entered the camera, the screen had already been filled with shrill chicken screams and ‘ah, I’m dead’. Now, the scrolling comments covered up the whole feed.

Lu Feng didn’t turn off the live broadcast. He looked down at him. “I remember you mentioning it before. Was it prior to entering the team?”

Wei Xiao’s face heated up inexplicably. “Yes.”

Lu Feng: “Lucky audience member?”

Wei Xiao: “Yes…”

Not only had he been a lucky audience member, he’d also had a fangirl persona and had blown a whole set of rainbow farts, to the point where the entire live broadcast room had given him a title: the rainbow master.

This black history was too dark. Even someone like Wei Xiao, whose shamelessness was as thick as city walls, felt a little embarrassed.

Lu Feng’s heart felt a little itchy when he saw Wei Xiao’s well behaved appearance. He bypassed this live broadcast accident and touched Wei Xiao briefly on the shoulder. “Leave this game to me.”

Wei Xiao blinked.

Lu Feng: “If you don’t like it, then don’t force yourself. I’ll play the holy priest.”

The scrolling comments grew even more crazy.

As everyone knew, the great demon king was one who really didn’t play the support position.

The reason?

FTW.Close was nicknamed ‘orphan’, not because of his thief, but because of his support!

If Yan Jiang was a godly support, then Close was a demon!

There were new fans who didn’t know about this, so they asked, “Is the great demon king’s support really crappy?”

The old fans were sincere and earnest. “It’s not crappy, it’s just… come on, come on, everyone should type out their heartache for Sleep God on the public screen.”