SITS CH30

Chapter 30: Temporary Substitute

Zhang Chaoyun safely delivered Shen Man inside the base before leaving. You couldn’t blame him for being overly cautious; if anything else happened to Shen Man, it would be a complete disaster.

Everyone else was on edge, yet the person involved, Shen Man, was entirely relaxed. Since he had nothing going on in the afternoon, he even started a live stream.

Because the incident had been brewing a massive storm recently, the moment Shen Man’s stream went live, fans swarmed in by the thousands.

[Still alive, still alive! Scared us to death! You didn’t even make a Weibo post, we thought you got beaten into a vegetative state!]

[Why is your hand wrapped in bandages? Is it serious?]

[Oh no, what about the matches?]

It was clear that despite normally being passive-aggressive, the fans were genuinely very worried when something actually happened.

Shen Man gave a brief explanation, saying his hand wasn’t seriously injured, would heal in a month, and told everyone not to worry.

[Hmph, who’s worried about you? I’m just worried about not having matches to watch.]

[We’re worried about ACE’s tournament results! Don’t flatter yourself!]

[Exactly, you really think anyone cares about you?]

Shen Man: “Oh. I’m signing off then.”

Chat: [???????]

[I’ve had it, this guy is truly too much. Can someone stab him again, in the foot this time, so it won’t affect him playing matches?]

[Why stab his foot? Stab that honey-coated mouth of his!]

[Alright, he looks to be in good spirits; he still has the energy to disgust us.]

Shen Man said, “Can’t play my game while injured. I’ll stream something else for you.”

Chat asked what game.

Shen Man booted up Plants vs. Zombies.

A string of question marks flooded the chat.

Shen Man said, “I’m a patient right now; you can’t have too high expectations of me.” With that, he clicked into the first level.

The chat went crazy: [Is he here to leech stream hours?]

[The person above, have some confidence and drop the question mark.]

[Did I come to this stream to watch Plants vs. Zombies?]

[I’m going to report him.]

[Report him for what?]

[Report him for planting sunflowers in the front row!!!]

Operating the mouse with his left hand, Shen Man clumsily planted Sunflowers in a crooked line, sending the viewers’ blood pressure skyrocketing.

[Are you planting Sunflowers in the front row to cater a buffet for the zombies?!]

[Someone stab his left hand too so he logs off right now!]

[I can’t take this anymore, where are my blood pressure pills, where are they?!]

The zombies successfully munched through Shen Man’s Sunflowers and Peashooters, ultimately feasting on his brains—

[SW? Did a zombie eat your brain?!]

Shen Man: “Hehe.”

The barrage exploded:

[AAAAAAAH THIS BITCH IS DOING IT ON PURPOSE!]

[What is he ‘hehe’-ing about?! What is he ‘hehe’-ing about?! What is he ‘hehe’-ing about?!]

[I declare that anyone who likes this stream room is a massive masochist.]

Being a masochist meant that even though their blood pressure was through the roof, the viewers still couldn’t bear to click ‘Exit,’ watching helplessly as the streamer started the second level.

This time, Shen Man planted the Sunflowers in the back, but his left-hand mouse movements were excruciatingly sluggish. Only when the zombies were literally right in his face did he unhurriedly drop a Wall-nut, making the chat desperately want to storm the base and play for him.

The chat was in a frenzy, yet the streamer himself looked perfectly relaxed, even finding the leisure to grab an ice pop and munch on it while continuing his endless torture.

After planting yet another Sunflower crookedly, Shen Man barely scraped past the first level. He offered his critique of the game: “This game is a bit difficult. Thank you, everyone, for teaching me how to play.”

Chat: [THIS GUY IS ABSOLUTELY DOING IT ON PURPOSE AAAAAAAAH]

Surprisingly, people were still sending gifts in the stream room; Super Rockets and the like never stopped flying across the screen.

[I told you, this world is one giant masochist.]

[In the process of being abused, everyone has finally fallen in love with this intoxicating sensation.]

[Always wondered why I couldn’t find this feeling in other streams. Thinking carefully, this is the only stream where we get treated like dogs.]

While playing, Shen Man lazily glanced at the chat. After all, he wasn’t the one whose mental state was being broken. He said, “Don’t spout nonsense, I am serving you all as my providers of food and clothing.” Having said that, he dug up the Wall-nut he had just planted with a shovel. “Oops, hand slipped.”

Chat: [??????]

[I’m going to report Shen Man for abusing his viewers—]

[I’m calling 12306 to report Shen Man for consumer abuse!]

[The guy above, wake up! 12306 is the train ticket hotline!]

Though they kept claiming Shen Man was abusing his viewers, the concurrent viewership kept climbing until it landed on the homepage recommendations. Some clueless passersby wandered into the stream, asking in confusion why a streamer playing Plants vs. Zombies had such insanely high viewership.

The viewers passionately explained: [Because we are sick in the head.]

Passerby: “?”

Shen Man had initially assumed nobody would watch him stream this, but the engagement was so phenomenal it made him start questioning life. He remarked, puzzled: “So you guys love watching this stuff. Why didn’t you say so earlier? If you had told me, I wouldn’t have bothered grinding ranked.”

The chat wailed with spectral grievance: [Is this what we love watching?! Isn’t this what you insisted on streaming?!]

Shen Man: “But why are there more and more people?”

Chat: [Probably everyone wants to witness just where the absolute limit of their blood pressure lies.]

Shen Man expressed incomprehension, disrespect, and zero blessings toward everyone’s peculiar fetish: “Sometimes I truly want to see what’s going on inside your brains.”

Chat: [Don’t worry about what’s in our brains! We want to see how many brains you have left for the zombies to eat today!]

Shen Man couldn’t help laughing: “Alright, no more messing with you, I’ll play properly.”

The sight of his lips curving upward was truly gorgeous; through an unfiltered, un-beautified webcam, it was dizzyingly beautiful, triggering a carnival of thirsty fans in the chat.

When Shen Man said he’d play properly, he played properly. Operating the mouse with his left hand was a bit slow, but it didn’t really hinder much. His macro strategy for the game was quite clear. Once he stopped deliberately trolling, he breezed through the levels without failing once, not even triggering the final line of defense lawnmowers.

Chat expressed: [Why do I feel happy yet disappointed at the same time? I actually miss the entertainment value from earlier.]

[What the hell is wrong with you people?]

[Can you guys stand up while watching the stream!!]

[No, standing up while watching is bad for my hip joints.]

[Hahahahahahahahaha]

Watch a toxic stream, enjoy a doomed life.

Shen Man’s mood had improved significantly as well. He discovered that as long as he wasn’t playing ranked, reading the chat was quite entertaining. As for why he could only read the chat when not playing ranked—it was because he realized this bunch of chatterboxes played at a literal bot level, yet their backseat gaming made them sound like World Champions.

That night, the boss returned, bringing along a few heavily intoxicated individuals.

Zhao Rui, Liu Shishi, and the rest were all out cold. The boss also carried a hint of tipsiness; only Xu Zhouye still wore his usual grinning expression, even remembering to bring Shen Man late-night supper as usual.

“What did ge do alone this afternoon?” Pulling up a small stool, Xu Zhouye sat beside Shen Man, rocking back and forth.

“Streamed for a bit.” Taking the supper, Shen Man smelled alcohol on Xu Zhouye. “How much did you guys drink?”

“Not much,” Xu Zhouye deflected. “Isn’t your hand hurt? Why are you streaming… can you even play games?”

“No,” Shen Man said. “Played Plants vs. Zombies, didn’t use my right hand.”

Xu Zhouye burst into laughter: “You play that?”

Shen Man said, “Had it downloaded for a while, just opened it today… it’s pretty fun.”

Xu Zhouye yawned, mentioning he was going to sleep first and telling Shen Man to rest early too.

Shen Man waved a hand, gesturing for him to go.

The boss was sleeping at the base tonight too. Though she didn’t visit often, she had her own designated room. Seeing Shen Man was still awake, she strolled into the training room to join the fun: “Yo, Man-er isn’t asleep yet? The wound on your hand hasn’t healed, don’t go playing games.”

Shen Man said, “I know. Napped in the afternoon, not sleepy yet.”

“That Xu Zhouye,” the boss said, “is pretty impressive. You know my alcohol tolerance is great, but his is even better than mine.”

The boss was from the north; her baseline for liquor started at a catty (half a liter), and she was practically immune to beer. For her to praise someone’s alcohol tolerance meant they were genuinely formidable.

Shen Man said, “As a boss, could you not drag your own players out drinking every day? Maybe Qin Yixing insisted on leaving just to escape your drinking culture.”

The boss cursed laughingly, and both shared a chuckle.

Although she never said it, Shen Man knew full well that Qin Yixing’s departure had always been a knot in her heart.

On one hand, she resented Qin Yixing’s heartlessness; on the other, she blamed herself for lacking the capability to offer the price he wanted. At the same time, she harbored guilt toward Shen Man—fearing she had delayed his career.

A pro player’s prime years were just a fleeting few; every year, even every season, dictated the subsequent trajectory of their life.

Shen Man didn’t care, but that didn’t mean she didn’t.

Yet she didn’t know that this very mentality of hers was one of the reasons Shen Man chose to remain at ACE.

In this day and age, bosses with a conscience were few and far between. TKR could offer astronomical prices, but it came bundled with heavy commercial obligations; Shen Man just wanted to play the game and couldn’t be bothered wasting time dealing with other matters. Besides, his relationship with Qin Yixing was never so close that he felt compelled to follow wherever he went.

These were all things Shen Man was simply too lazy to voice.

The boss was very busy with work; staying overnight at the base, she left bright and early the next morning.

Once she left, the team resumed its usual tempo.

But a problem lay before them: Shen Man’s hand required several weeks of rest, leaving the team short a Marksman for scrims.

This was easily resolved. After lunch, the coach called up the Marksman from their youth academy team. The Marksman’s name was Duan Yanshu, in-game ID Rice Cake. He was around the same age as Xu Zhouye and seemed somewhat introverted at first glance.

Shen Man had watched his matches before and felt the kid had solid potential.

They had originally scheduled scrims with UN yesterday, but due to Shen Man’s unexpected incident, it was postponed to today. Unable to play, Shen Man sat beside the coach to spectate the matches on the big screen.

UN was actually quite strong this season, having only lost two matches all split—to ACE and TKR.

Curled up in his chair munching on an ice pop while watching the match, Shen Man’s influence rubbed off on the coach, who grabbed an ice pop for himself as well. He asked Shen Man, “What do you think?”

Shen Man said, “UN’s bot lane is pretty strong. Depends on how Rice Cake performs.”

The coach said, “Probably won’t be able to win lane.”

Shen Man didn’t speak, but he agreed with the coach’s assessment.

The HCC was the premier league, whereas Duan Yanshu played in the secondary league; the match intensity was vastly different. Many youth academy players competed in the secondary league, and only those who achieved stellar results had a chance to step onto the HCC stage.

Rice Cake’s performance in the youth academy was decent, but entering the HCC required at least a period of adaptation.

As expected, Zhao Rui and Rice Cake’s bot lane was completely obliterated. Perhaps due to nerves, Duan Yanshu’s performance wasn’t great; unable to trade blows, he kept missing CS, and before twenty minutes, the enemy was already a full major item ahead of him.

But both the coach and Shen Man were mentally prepared, so neither showed much of a reaction.

Instead, Shen Man suddenly made a new discovery. He asked, intrigued, “Coach, did you notice something?”

The coach asked, “What?”

Shen Man said, “Pay attention to where Xu Zhouye is pinging.”

The coach looked closely, growing increasingly amazed the more he watched: “This kid is this cracked?”

Shen Man said, “Truly formidable.”

To be praised as formidable by Shen Man meant possessing truly extraordinary capability. The coach clicked his tongue in marvel. Prompted by Shen Man, he realized that the vast majority of the time, the locations Xu Zhouye pinged were exactly where the enemy Jungler was.

Guessing correctly once or twice was perfectly normal, as everyone predicted pathing. The terrifying part was that Xu Zhouye’s accuracy was shockingly high. Observing carefully, the coach found this kid was right eight times out of ten, often predicting pathing entirely without vision. Such macro awareness was downright terrifying…

“If he weren’t sitting right there, you’d think he was running a map-hack,” the coach marveled. “How on earth does he do it?”

Having game sense was normal, but every Jungler’s style was different. How could Xu Zhouye understand UN’s jungle pathing this intimately?

Looking at the coach’s baffled expression, Shen Man smiled.

The coach asked what he was smiling about.

Shen Man bit off the last piece of his ice pop, holding it in his cheek, which bulged into a subtle, rounded curve: “It’s normal for mortals to fail to understand geniuses. Besides, he spent a massive amount of time privately studying UN and TKR’s match VODs.”

The coach: “…” It really is true: don’t fear the talented; fear the talented who work harder than you.

Xu Zhouye’s emotional stability was rock-solid. Even after being thoroughly stomped by UN in Game 1, he showed no negative emotions whatsoever, even helping the bot lane analyze their issues.

“Don’t try to trade with them,” Xu Zhouye said. “If you can’t win fights, just farm. They’ll probably run the same strat next game, playing around the bot lane. I’ll come down to protect you as soon as I can.”

Duan Yanshu had been quite nervous initially, but after the game, he realized the team atmosphere was incredibly good—even better than in the youth academy. Losing so horribly, yet nobody uttered a single word of blame toward him.

Zhao Rui patted his shoulder: “It’s fine, it’s just a scrim! Just do your best, no pressure.”

Duan Yanshu felt a bit touched: “Is the atmosphere in your team really this good?”

Zhao Rui said, “Isn’t it because the one who curses people out injured his hand?”

Duan Yanshu: “…”

Listening from the sidelines, Shen Man tugged at the corner of his lips: “Zhao Rui, you played like absolute trash this game.”

Zhao Rui flared up: “Coach, he’s not even playing and he’s still flaming me!”

The coach said gently, “Be glad he’s not playing. If he were, he’d be flaming you even more.”

Zhao Rui: “…”

Still, his performance this game was indeed mediocre.

To prove himself, Zhao Rui whipped out his Yan Cao for the next game.

Zhao Rui’s Yan Cao was famous across the entire HCC stage. The moment he locked it in, everyone’s gaze shifted over to him.

“Why are you looking at me?” Zhao Rui said. “Captivated by me?”

“Disgusted by you,” Shen Man chimed in from the side.

“You play Qin Sang!” Zhao Rui issued instructions to his junior. “We’re going to show Shen Man what a true ‘Yan Cao as green silk, Qin Sang bending low branches’ looks like—” (A poetic reference to their lore/names).

Duan Yanshu said weakly, “Okay, Zhao-ge.”

Shen Man sneered, “Looks like you’ve grown tired of living a good life.”

Whether Zhao Rui had grown tired of a good life Duan Yanshu didn’t know, but his own good days had certainly come to an end.

He had long known Zhao Rui’s Yan Cao was abstract, but only upon becoming his Marksman did he realize just how deeply abstract it truly was. Duan Yanshu even began suspecting Zhao Rui was deliberately trying to disgust him…

Reading the expression on the young Marksman’s face, Shen Man smiled: “Don’t worry, he’s not targeting you. He’s targeting every single person on this team.”

“Exactly,” Xu Zhouye expressed agreement. “I find it pretty disgusting too. Can we delete this hero from Zhao Rui’s champion pool?”

Zhao Rui desperately wanted to retort, but the 0-3 KDA hanging above his head kept his mouth firmly shut.

Even UN issued a query, asking what was going on with zoop—was he playing Yan Cao to relive the feeling of being verbally abused by SLOW?

Zhao Rui: “…” You people are truly too much.

Game 2 resulted in an unsurprising loss.

Seeing that they were about to get swept 3-0, Shen Man, sitting on the sidelines, said, “I’ll play a round.”

“Don’t,” the coach stopped him. “Heal your hand first before talking.”

“It’s fine, it’s just a scrim. I know my limits,” Shen Man said. “It’s impossible for me to not play the game for half a month straight anyway.”

The coach wanted to say more, but knew Shen Man was stubborn to the bone; he definitely wouldn’t listen.

“Then take it easy on yourself,” the coach said.

It was impossible for professional players to go without playing for long periods. Forget half a month—even a week without touching the game would cause their form to drop drastically.

Shen Man wasn’t the type to show off recklessly either.

Unaware of the substitution, UN didn’t ban a single Marksman, allowing Shen Man to secure a highly dominant meta hero right away.

Less than three minutes into the laning phase, UN’s bot duo sensed something terribly amiss, typing in chat to ask if they had swapped players.

[No swap here] Zhao Rui lied through his teeth without batting an eye. [Our boss Man injured his hand, how could he possibly be playing?]

“For real?” The enemy Marksman muttered to his Support. “The difference in laning intensity is way too massive!”

“So terrifying,” the Support said. “Where did they dig up this Marksman? I’m smelling a strong whiff of Shen Man from him…”

The hand injury indeed had an impact, and a substantial one at that. Shen Man tried to minimize large movements with his right hand, yet a distinct pain persisted. Though within a tolerable range, it prevented him from executing hyper-precise micro-movements and positioning.

In this game, Shen Man only played the first half. After securing two kills, he handed the seat back over to Duan Yanshu.

“Is your hand okay?” Seeing Shen Man’s face looking a bit pale, Xu Zhouye asked.

Shen Man shook his head.

Xu Zhouye said, “Don’t force yourself.”

Shen Man said, “I know.”

He grabbed another ice pop.

Xu Zhouye said, “How many is that today? Careful not to get a stomachache.”

Shen Man said, “Mm, this is the last one.”

At first glance, their exchange seemed unremarkable, but Duan Yanshu picked up an entirely different vibe from it. Though he had just arrived, he could sense that almost everyone in ACE respected Shen Man. Yet Xu Zhouye—a Jungler younger than Shen Man who had only joined a few months ago—was able to instruct Shen Man with such casual ease, and astonishingly, Shen Man actually listened to him…

A surge of surprise welled up in Duan Yanshu’s heart. Xu Zhouye and Shen Man’s relationship seemed to be highly unusual indeed…