SITS Ch11

Chapter 11: UN Showdown

A pro player’s life was actually quite simple, filled with practically the same routine training every day.

During this visit, Zhang Chaoyun also scheduled scrims with ACE along the way. Shen Man had questioned this—not because he didn’t want to play, but because when a team scrimmed against another with too massive a skill gap, getting beaten too badly could easily shatter their competitive spirit.

Once a pro player lost their competitive drive, they were finished, and it could severely affect subsequent matches.

Zhang Chaoyun expressed understanding toward Shen Man’s concern, lit a cigarette, and said calmly, “Man-ah, that thing called competitive spirit has long been lost to us. Not only is our spirit gone, we’re on the verge of losing our last breath…”

Shen Man: “…”

“Since things have come to this, we might as well seek life through the jaws of death,” Zhang Chaoyun said.

Shen Man: “Can you even be reborn like that?”

Zhang Chaoyun said, “Even if we can’t give birth, we’ll force it out—preferably octuplets in one go.”

Shen Man: “…” Fine, another one gone mad.

Since Zhang Chaoyun put it that way, they might as well play.

The scrims were scheduled for the very next day.

When Zhang Chaoyun left, Luo Zhimo lingered with reluctance, longing to consult on more in-game tips. Seeing his rookie Marksman’s hopelessly smitten state, Zhang Chaoyun was exasperated to no end: “Stare, keep staring! If you love your idol that much, could you hold out for a few more minutes before getting crushed, just to prolong your time together?”

Luo Zhimo’s eyes lit up: “Zhang-ge, you make so much sense.”

Zhang Chaoyun: “…” How does someone get inspired from getting chewed out?

There was indeed a reason MIN could lose to such a pathetic degree.

Zhang Chaoyun wore a face full of heartbreak.

As it turned out, the next day Luo Zhimo genuinely performed better than before, at least managing to avoid being pinned under his tower by Shen Man to the point of suffocation.

“Seems he grew some guts,” was Shen Man’s assessment. “What, did Zhang Chaoyun drill him overnight?”

Zhao Rui typed merrily: [Zhang Chaoyun, did you go back and discipline your Marksman?]

Zhang Chaoyun took a moment to reply: [What the fuck do you know, this is the power of faith.]

Everyone roared with laughter. Xu Zhouye laughed along, eyes curving, but there wasn’t much genuine mirth in his gaze. His tone, however, remained gentle: “Captain, let me try Mad Hound in the next game.”

Shen Man said, “Sure.”

In the second game, however many times Xu Zhouye’s ultimate came off cooldown was however many times MIN’s bot duo died.

In the end, Zhang Chaoyun grew frantic, aggressively hammering on his keyboard: [Shen Man, what’s your problem? Don’t bully a kid!]

Shen Man replied: [How am I bullying a kid?]

Zhang Chaoyun: [Look at how many times the kid has died! Forget not getting a single jungle creep, he can’t even last-hit minions; his underwear has been torn to shreds.]

Shen Man asked: [Luo Zhimo, how old are you?]

Luo Zhimo: [Shen-ge, I just turned nineteen.]

Shen Man: [Oh. Xu Zhouye is only eighteen. This isn’t bullying a kid, it counts as mutual brawling.]

Zhang Chaoyun: “…” You really aren’t human.

Xu Zhouye typed: [Zhang-ge, I’m sorry, I’ll go easier next game.]

Shen Man shielded his own: [It’s fine. They’ve already lost so many games, they can take this little blow.]

Zhang Chaoyun somehow tasted a faint whiff of green tea from Xu Zhouye’s words. Recalling Xu Zhouye’s good-natured expression, he could only tell himself it was an illusion.

What Zhang Chaoyun hadn’t expected, however, was that while he assumed Luo Zhimo would be deeply crushed, the kid actually grew more energized the more he played. In the final game, he performed beyond expectations, even managing to secure a slight early lead.

Of course, this minor advantage was futile; they still lost.

The Best-of-5 scrim series concluded with an unsurprising 3-0 sweep.

Afterward, out of humanitarian concern, Shen Man offered a few words of comfort to Zhang Chaoyun.

Zhang Chaoyun waved it off, saying over voice comms that he knew full well what the reality was. When it came to esports, talent was merely the entry threshold; hard work alone wasn’t enough.

Shen Man said, “Not necessarily.”

Zhang Chaoyun said, “What’s most terrifying is when someone more talented than you works harder than you.”

He had looked up Shen Man’s smurf accounts; even when he was sick as a dog earlier, Shen Man’s private daily practice never stopped. For a player this wildly famous, Zhang Chaoyun knew how many outside temptations existed, yet Shen Man embodied the motto “remain true to one’s original aspiration to the very end” to absolute perfection.

Shen Man didn’t refute him.

Zhang Chaoyun said, “Enough said, heading off to VOD review.”

Shen Man’s team didn’t bother with a review. A completely one-sided stomp offered little analytical value; barring a miracle, MIN with this season’s roster was definitely done for.

Beside him, Xu Zhouye was smiling happily. When Shen Man asked what he was smiling about, his eyes curved: “I’m feeling fortunate.”

Shen Man: “Fortunate about what?”

Xu Zhouye said, “Fortunate that I possess the talent to stand before you.”

Shen Man paused, slightly startled.

Seeing his confusion, Xu Zhouye didn’t explain, merely gazing at Shen Man with burning intensity.

Shen Man didn’t understand, but Xu Zhouye knew full well: some things truly couldn’t be accomplished through effort alone. Countless times, he had felt immensely grateful that the heavens had granted him this chance.

Summer grew hotter by the day. Shen Man’s cough finally improved the day before their match against UN.

The manager finally set aside his fears of their star player dropping dead at any second, constantly instructing the cooking auntie to prepare nourishing dishes to nurse Shen Man back to peak health.

Shen Man’s reaction to this was asking why the food lately was so bland and where his chili peppers had gone.

“You still want chili?” The manager was worried sick. “Oh, my dear Man-man, if you start coughing again, I genuinely won’t know what to do with you.”

Shen Man said, “The way you speak is getting more and more sickening.”

Manager: “Yes, yes, yes, only your Little Ye-er isn’t sickening.”

Shen Man: “Little Ye-er?”

The coach laughed, “Haha, you don’t know? It’s the new nickname your fans gave Xu Zhouye. They say Zhao Rui has fallen out of favor and he’s your new favorite.”

Shen Man went silent for three seconds before defending himself: “I want to debunk that rumor.”

The coach said, “I’m listening to your quibbling.”

Shen Man said, “I never favored Zhao Rui in the first place.”

Munching on pineapple beside them, Zhao Rui slammed the table and jumped up upon hearing the conversation: “Shen Man, that wasn’t what you said when you were lying in bed with me!”

Xu Zhouye: “You two have shared a bed?”

Shen Man said, “? When did that happen?”

Zhao Rui: “That time I was drunk…”

The manager looked at Zhao Rui with pity: “You mean that time last summer? The person beside you wasn’t Shen Man, it was Xu Xiaochong.” Xu Xiaochong was their mid laner, whose height and weight were the exact same number, causing the manager to worry daily about his health.

Zhao Rui: “…”

The rumor was resolved; everyone except Zhao Rui was happy.

Because of the manager’s words, Shen Man developed a flicker of curiosity. Normally, he rarely browsed Weibo, using the internet mostly to watch single-player games and pet videos to decompress.

He pulled out his phone, logged into his long-dormant Weibo account, and after scrolling through a few posts, his brows furrowed tightly.

“What’s wrong?” Xu Zhouye came over to see what was happening.

Shen Man swiftly locked his phone, turning the screen black: “Nothing.”

Xu Zhouye didn’t see anything. He shot Shen Man a puzzled glance, only to discover that Shen Man’s face had abruptly flushed red. His skin was pale by nature, so the blushing cheeks were glaringly prominent, yet his expression remained as breezy and indifferent as ever.

“Really nothing?” Xu Zhouye asked suspiciously.

“Mhm,” Shen Man responded.

“Alright then.” Xu Zhouye didn’t press further.

The never-favored Zhao Rui held a bowl of pineapple, eyeing the two suspiciously: “What are you two doing acting all sneaky like that?”

“None of your damn business,” Shen Man said ruthlessly.

Zhao Rui flared up: “Why are you so nice to him and so fierce to me?!”

Shen Man said, “Who cut the pineapple in your hand?”

Zhao Rui: “…”

Xu Zhouye had cut it, but it was meant for Shen Man. He hadn’t known Shen Man was allergic to pineapples, so it ultimately benefited Zhao Rui.

“Alright, alright,” the manager said. “Rui-ah, men are always like this, loving the new and discarding the old. You’ll get used to it.”

Zhao Rui: “…” Manager, you’re joining in too, huh?

“Meeting tonight,” the coach interrupted them. “We’re playing UN tomorrow, get your heads in the game.”

UN was not a weak team, currently sitting in second place on the leaderboard.

On match day, tickets in the venue were completely sold out. The audience was bubbling with excitement, all eager to see the collision between UN and ACE.

During the Ban/Pick phase, UN suddenly switched up their strategy. Instead of opening with three Marksman bans, they banned Mechanical Bird and Wind God.

“Huh? Strange,” Zhao Rui remarked. “Why ban those two things?”

“They probably checked Xu Zhouye’s main account ranked match history,” Shen Man said.

Several pages of Xu Zhouye’s main account were filled with Wind God and Mechanical Bird, showing he was grinding both heros hard with impressive results. Coupled with his average performance on utility Junglers against TKR earlier, it likely gave UN the illusion that his hero pool was shallow.

Naturally, UN still afforded Shen Man his due respect: their final ban was spent on Shen Man’s signature Water Maiden, Belinda.

“Tsk tsk tsk, running out of ban slots, aren’t they?” Zhao Rui laughed, locking in a meta-dominant late-game Marksman for Shen Man.

Previously, Shen Man had been targeted the hardest on their team, drawing at least three out of five bans. This dynamic had improved drastically since Xu Zhouye’s arrival; the opponents didn’t dare leave Xu Zhouye’s pocket picks open, forced to divert a portion of their bans toward him.

“What do you want to play?” the coach asked Xu Zhouye.

Xu Zhouye pondered for a moment, glanced over at Shen Man beside him, and said softly, “Anything is fine.”

“Play a Carry Jungler,” Shen Man said unhurriedly. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll adjust in Game 2.”

Xu Zhouye said, “Okay.” Moving his cursor to a certain hero, he clicked lock-in.

The moment he locked in, an uproar rippled through the audience below.

Caster 1 exclaimed: “fest actually locked in Twin Stars! It’s been ages since we’ve seen this hero on the tournament stage…”

Caster 2 nodded: “Let’s see how fest performs this match.”

Due to Twin Stars’ appearance, the stream chat’s volume exploded instantly:

[This hero can actually be played in pro matches?]

[Shocked! A fest who smiles this sunnily can actually play such a dark and insidious hero?]

[You guys probably don’t know fest hit rank 1 on the CN server using Mad Hound.]

[What kind of bright, cheerful person can play Mad Hound well?!]

Twin Stars, full title Astral Twins, was renowned for its profoundly insidious mechanics. The hero spawned with two physical bodies right from the start, boasting extraordinarily high jungle-clearing efficiency. However, only one of the bodies was real. When the illusory clone was destroyed, the real body did not die; instead, whoever killed the wrong target was afflicted with a debuff called “Illusion.” Being struck by the true body while debuffed would inflict colossal bonus damage.

Much like Mad Hound, this hero had very weak early-game strength—squishy, with low base stats—relying entirely on macro awareness and game sense.

Seeing him pick Twin Stars, the coach nodded: “Acceptable.” While outsiders remained in the dark, the coaching staff knew full well: this kid Xu Zhouye’s hero pool was immensely deep, often practicing eccentric picks on smurf accounts. During a private 1-on-1 data analysis session earlier, Xu Zhouye had brought up Twin Stars with him.

Shen Man, however, hadn’t known: “You can play Twin Stars too?”

Xu Zhouye acted modestly, appearing quite shy: “Not really, just know a little.”

Twenty minutes later, the entire live audience and the casters were thoroughly shaken by Xu Zhouye’s “know a little.”

UN’s top laner was a chubby boy with glasses who looked very honest and gentle. Piloting a heavy bruiser this game, he burned his ultimate to take down Xu Zhouye’s illusory clone. Before he could celebrate, the true body lunged out of the brush the very next second, slitting his throat. His colossal frame crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. UN’s captain, OI, then heard his teammate’s tearful voice crackle over team comms: “Captain, what on earth is real? Tell me, what is actually real?!”

OI: “…” That ultimate didn’t kill the clone, it killed his teammate’s mental state.

Caster 1 wore a look of painful pity: “fest’s Twin Stars is played so well.”

Caster 2: “Quite good indeed…”

The camera happened to cut to Xu Zhouye, and everyone in the arena saw his dazzling smile with curved eyes.

[This smile is sending chills down my spine]

[His smile and his dark, gloomy plays form way too sharp of a contrast]

[Someone tell me where on earth ACE dug up this treasure]

[Getting into bed at night and pulling back the covers only to see a pair of twins]

[This game is over]

It truly was over. Xu Zhouye took off his headset with a sunny smile, claiming the fruit of victory in Game 1 along with it.