SITS CH23

Chapter 23: Delicious Fruit

The pick-ban phase of the decider game began; the entire arena fell completely silent.

Nervous tension spread from beneath the stage onto it. Sitting at the edge, Liu Shishi couldn’t stop bouncing his leg, trying to ease this anxiety. He assumed his teammates might be a bit nervous as well, only to look up and be met with two expressionless faces.

One was Shen Man, which wasn’t surprising—the other was Xu Zhouye.

Xu Zhouye had discarded his usual bright, sunny smile, wearing zero expression. He was communicating with the coach regarding hero picks, his tone as flat and calm as if discussing what to eat for dinner. This was his first time playing in a finals, and Liu Shishi had initially thought Xu Zhouye would at least be as nervous as in their very first match, yet he wasn’t in the slightest.

Not only was he not nervous, he carried a serene detachment as if he had stood on this stage ten thousand times.

Somehow, seeing this version of Xu Zhouye helped Liu Shishi’s racing heart settle down. Drawing in a deep breath, he steadied his wavering nerves.

Anyone could see Xu Zhouye’s latent talent; anyone who had played against him had tasted his near-terrifying mechanics and game sense. Yang Shanhe used to believe that if Qin Yixing was the second-best Jungler in the entire HCC, nobody dared claim the first spot. But now, he could feel that exact same suffocating dominance radiating from Xu Zhouye.

Against an opponent like this, nobody dared to be careless.

“Decider game,” Qin Yixing said coldly. “Bring it on.”

His cursor shifted, locking in Heart of Cinder—a hero that locked onto a designated enemy target right upon spawning. Against the marked target, his damage dealt was doubled, yet damage taken from them was doubled as well.

Being marked by Heart of Cinder left only two possible outcomes: either he died, or the target fell.

Just like Qin Yixing’s current state of mind.

In this game, ACE’s coaching staff saved the final counter-pick slot for Xu Zhouye.

This position allowed a player to draft a targeted counter-pick hero based on the opponent’s composition. Of course, the prerequisite to countering was having a vast hero pool; otherwise, the opponent might ban out all your comfort picks right in the ban phase.

Shen Man had long known that Xu Zhouye possessed a deep hero pool. He initially assumed Xu Zhouye would select an early-game hero to close out the match swiftly, but to his surprise, Xu Zhouye locked in Tinall the Queen of Myriad Realms—simply known as the Queen—a hyper-late-game hero that permanently gained attack speed by harvesting souls.

The mechanics of this hero were remarkably similar to Heart of Cinder, yet even more volatile in playstyle. As long as she dragged the game into the late stages, slicing through the enemy backline was practically as easy as chopping melons and vegetables.

Faced with Qin Yixing’s Heart of Cinder, Xu Zhouye didn’t choose to temporarily dodge his sharp edge or take a step back; instead, tit for tat, he picked the Queen to meet him head-on with brute force.

“Xu Zhouye can play the Queen too?” The most shocked was naturally their opponent, TKR. Yang Shanhe blurted in disbelief, “Just how many pocket picks is this guy hiding?”

The Marksman rubbed his nose: “How come we’ve never seen him pull it out before?”

Forget scrims; Xu Zhouye hadn’t even touched this hero in ranked solo queue. It was an ace hidden up ACE’s sleeve all along.

“fest locked in the Queen! We didn’t see him play her at all during the group stage,” Caster 1 exclaimed in pleasant surprise. “Locked in—”

“What an incredible surprise. Let’s see just how many secret weapons they’re still keeping under wraps,” Caster 2 picked up. “Nine also locked in his signature hero. It really makes everyone anticipate both sides’ performance.”

“Can he actually play her?” Yang Shanhe still had a hard time accepting it. This hero was genuinely difficult to pilot; though viable in the current patch, her win rate in high-elo games was hardly impressive.

Qin Yixing didn’t reply.

Yang Shanhe said, “He’s not just forcing a comfortless pick, is he?”

Qin Yixing said, “Never underestimate your opponent.”

Yang Shanhe sighed: “How would I dare underestimate him?” He had experienced Xu Zhouye’s terror firsthand long ago.

Amidst their chatter, the game had already begun.

Lava Map.

This was a fiercely contested, razor-close battle where both sides were evenly matched.

Though the air conditioning inside the arena was set very low, cold sweat still dotted Shen Man’s forehead.

A game that would normally conclude around thirty minutes was now pushing near the forty-minute mark. Players on both sides had long bought out every single equipment slot. The fire pool had refreshed four times, and the fifth was on the verge of spawning, yet even after claiming three fire pool buffs, they still couldn’t close out the game.

“The fire pool is about to refresh again. If they show their faces at the pool, we take the Serpent,” as the team shot-caller, Shen Man spoke the most only during competitive matches, calmly breaking down the state of the game. “Zhao Rui, go set up vision around the Serpent King with Liu Shishi.”

“Got it,” Zhao Rui acknowledged.

“The enemy bot duo’s ultimates are in sync, cooldown still has a minute and a half, they can’t contest a teamfight in time,” Xu Zhouye’s voice remained steady. “Their mid, top, and jungle ultimates are off cooldown. Watch yourselves.”

“Mm,” Shen Man said. “I can afford buyback in a moment on this wave. We can fight.” In Heart of the Wasteland, once a game passed thirty minutes, the buyback mechanic unlocked—meaning dead heroes could immediately resurrect using gold.

“Force the fight,” Xu Zhouye said. “Liu Shishi, recall after clearing the wave and teleport in. We have a ward in the third bush they haven’t cleared.”

Shen Man glanced at the minimap. Just in time, TKR’s Mage showed himself in the bottom lane. Knitting his brows slightly, he decisively issued the command: “Rush the Serpent King. We melt it fast.”

Caster 1 gasped: “Started, they started! ACE decisively started the Serpent King!” The Serpent King was practically the game-deciding objective in the late game, of supreme importance and impossible to concede lightly. With ACE’s execution pushed to the maximum, Shen Man’s single order sent everyone pouring all their damage into it.

Full-build heroes burned down neutral objectives astonishingly fast. By the time TKR caught on, the Serpent King had already lost half its health.

Caster 2: “TKR’s top laner is teleporting in! Will he make it in time?!”

“Nine enters the pit, gorgeous play—his ultimate hits SLOW, SLOW is bursted down in a split second!!!”

Living up to his name as the number-one Jungler in the HCC, Qin Yixing’s mechanics were apex-tier. Spotting ACE engaging the objective, he launched a pinpoint, map-crossing ultimate from right outside ACE’s line of sight, striking Shen Man, who was passively marked, dealing doubled colossal burst damage. Struck by Heart of Cinder’s ultimate, Shen Man melted like butter seared over high heat, vaporizing in an instant.

Seeing this scene, ACE fans gasped, almost everyone drawing in a sharp breath of cold air.

“Is it over??? Wait, no—fest dives into TKR’s backline! TKR’s frontline can’t stop him at all—”

With her passive stacks maxed out, the Queen truly became the queen of the rift just as her title proclaimed. The razor-sharp twin blades in her hands effortlessly severed the neck of TKR’s Marksman. Faced with her terrifying burst damage, the fragile Marksman couldn’t last three seconds before evaporating.

A brutal backline trade. This was precisely the terror of a Carry Jungler system—squishy ADCs couldn’t survive two seconds before a late-game raid boss.

Showing zero mercy, Xu Zhouye piloted the terrifyingly high-damage Queen, stretching his demonic claws toward the next victim.

“Hold on, SLOW isn’t dead! SLOW won’t die!! He bought back! His teammates didn’t match Nine’s tempo—SLOW has risen again!!”

A dizzying flurry of mechanics kept the casters’ shouts ringing nonstop.

What had seemed an inevitable loss completely flipped in an instant. Clinging to critical health, Shen Man scrambled back to his feet. Everyone knew Qin Yixing would definitely try to execute him while low. As the Support, Zhao Rui used every ounce of his crowd control on Qin Yixing, trying to buy Shen Man a momentary breath of life. Yet he could only control one person; if anyone else followed up with damage, Zhao Rui would be powerless…

At this moment, Zhao Rui was so nervous he felt like throwing up. Staring at the screen, his hand gripping the mouse trembled faintly. Time stretched excruciatingly long, every action on screen turning into slow motion. He watched Shen Man’s hero at critical health pull off a play on the razor’s edge—riding the outer limit of his dash range, Shen Man vaulted over a thick wall, escaping on a sliver of health—and amazingly, nobody had time to attend to him! Held down by Zhao Rui, Qin Yixing could only watch helplessly as Shen Man slipped away.

Looking again, one realized that TKR’s backline was currently in virtually the same wrecked state as Shen Man, butchered to pieces by Xu Zhouye’s monstrous Queen. TKR’s Marksman didn’t have Shen Man’s iron-clad resilience; the moment he bought back, he was cut down by Xu Zhouye once more, completely unable to help Qin Yixing finish off Shen Man.

The biggest difference between a Marksman and a Mage was that as long as an ADC stayed alive, they could output non-stop damage without waiting on cooldowns. Every single basic attack was a lethal weapon.

Therefore, in any teamfight, as long as the Marksman breathed, a chance to win remained.

In the brush, Shen Man quickly lifestealed off a jungle creep to stabilize his health bar. Re-entering the battlefield, he became a terrifying damage engine. Keeping his spacing on point, the dash-less, ultimate-less Heart of Cinder had no way of closing the distance, getting kited relentlessly while armor-piercing bullets tore through his skull, firepower raining down—followed by another Q, detonating every single bullet lodged inside Heart of Cinder’s body at once.

Heart of Cinder let out a miserable shriek, crashing to the ground.

That wasn’t enough.

Heart of Cinder could still buy back. Timing the resurrection window, Zhao Rui, guarding Shen Man, landed his crowd control squarely on the newly revived Heart of Cinder. The stun lasted under a second, but Shen Man did not squander the opportunity, gunning down Qin Yixing with several shots.

Clad in resplendent armor and six full items, Heart of Cinder detonated across the screen with a loud pop—his death visual effect, though right now, it looked more like a burst of ironic fireworks celebrating defeat.

The moment his screen returned to black and white, Qin Yixing knew everything was over.

He watched Shen Man, who had executed him, cleanly kite and chase down the remaining low-health teammates, while Xu Zhouye’s Queen held her exquisite head high, stepping over corpse after corpse like a monarch surveying his spoils of war, ascending the throne that belonged to him.

Qin Yixing shut his eyes heavily, waiting for that ear-piercing announcement of “DEFEAT.”

An unexpected turnaround and brilliant mechanical outplays pushed this match to its absolute climax.

The moment Shen Man fell, ACE fans had been sighing, mourning the impending defeat, only to have their jaws dropped the next second by Xu Zhouye’s play, roaring in impassioned cheers.

TKR’s fans rode the same emotional rollercoaster: thinking the game was won when Shen Man was deleted, only for Xu Zhouye’s sudden eruption to send their soaring spirits plummeting straight to rock bottom like a snapped swing.

Xu Zhouye had sliced into the backline, carving down TKR’s Marksman like melons and vegetables—

And Shen Man, thanks to Xu Zhouye’s disruption, snatched a sliver of life.

The tide had completely turned.

The colossal word [VICTORY] flashed onto the screen alongside soaring, triumphant music.

The casters wore ecstatic smiles: “Let us congratulate ACE on winning the Summer Championship!”

“This is ACE’s second Summer Championship title,” the other caster added with emotion. “Hoisting the trophy again after three long years! Let us look forward to seeing them at the World Championship!”

ACE fans were overjoyed, waving their support gear, light boards, and banners high. Their roars chanting ACE rolled like surging ocean waves, echoing right through the headsets.

The five players of ACE removed their headsets and walked slowly toward the center of the stage.

Auspiciously gilded under the spotlights, the gorgeous trophy sparkled. Confetti drifted down from above, dusting their hair and shoulders like a crown crowning monarchs.

Placing ten hands upon the trophy, they lifted it together, completing this hard-fought trophy ceremony.

“Aaaaaah!!!! We are the champions!!!”

“ACE! ACE! ACE!”

“We love you forever—”

In the live stream chat, all the usual sarcastic quips vanished temporarily, replaced by a single sentence spamming non-stop, covering every inch of the screen:

[Congratulations, ACE]

Congratulations to ACE for claiming the Summer Championship and seizing the first seed ticket to Worlds.

With the trophy ceremony concluded, the post-match interview began.

Game 5’s MVP went to Xu Zhouye.

Xu Zhouye took the stage. The interviewer held the microphone to his lips, asking with a smile who he wanted to say something to the most right now.

Xu Zhouye blinked and said, “I want to say something to my fifteen-year-old self.”

The interviewer asked, “Oh? What would you say?”

Xu Zhouye said, “Spend more time at internet cafés practicing mechanics.”

The interviewer burst into laughter: “How did you think of that?”

Xu Zhouye laughed heartily, “Hahahahaha, just wanting to make up for a few regrets.”

…

For an esports pro, there was nothing more exhilarating than winning a match—except, perhaps, defeating your sworn arch-rivals.

TKR and ACE’s grievances spanned three years. Over the previous two, ACE had been beaten helpless in matches and cursed by fans out of game, living a truly miserable existence.

Now having pulled off a total turnaround, everyone felt ecstatic beyond words.

Even the manager was moved to tears, declaring he’d treat everyone to a massive feast on his dime tonight; getting a raise next season was finally within sight…

Though playing all night was exhausting, excitement dispelled the weariness.

Saying goodbye to the passionate fans, they boarded the team bus and immediately began debating what to eat.

“Xu Zhouye, you’re the MVP, you decide!” The coach looked at Xu Zhouye with fatherly affection.

“Barbecue, then,” Xu Zhouye raised his hand. “I know a place that’s extraordinarily delicious; I already queued up for a table in advance.”

“Works for me.” Just as the manager was about to call for departure, he noticed someone was missing. Scanning the seats, he asked, puzzled, “Why are we down a person—where’s Zhao Rui?”

“Didn’t he just go to the restroom?” Liu Shishi said. “Not back yet?”

The manager said suspiciously, “He dares go to the restroom at a time like this? Not afraid of getting cornered inside for autographs?”

Shen Man: “…”

Manager: “Why that look? Don’t tell me someone cornered you for an autograph?”

Shen Man said coldly, “Hurry up and call him to see if he’s still alive.”

The manager let out an “Oh.”

The call went through, but nobody answered.

The manager tried two more times before someone finally picked up. He asked, baffled, “Zhao Rui, where are you? The entire team is waiting on you.”

On the other end, Zhao Rui’s tone sounded somewhat panicked: “I-I’m here.”

The manager said, “Hurry out, you’re the only one left. Taking this long, did you fall into the toilet pit?”

Zhao Rui muttered an okay.

After a moment, he emerged from some corner, his entire face flushed bright red, panting as he slumped into a seat in the back row.

The manager eyed him with suspicion: “What did you go do?”

Zhao Rui’s gaze flickered evasively: “Something came up, held me up a bit.”

The manager asked, “What kind of thing?”

Shen Man hit the nail on the head: “His girlfriend came to see him.”

Coach: “Ah????”

Zhao Rui: “Ah—”

The manager was bewildered; Zhao Rui was flabbergasted.

“Zhao Rui has a girlfriend? Doesn’t he exclusively e-date? He can actually accept 3D girls now?” Xu Xiaochong twisted the knife.

“You’re the one who exclusively e-dates! Captain, how did you know?” Zhao Rui asked, feeling guilty.

Shen Man said faintly, “Clean off the long strand of hair on your shoulder.”

Zhao Rui: “…”

Everyone: “…”

“Alright, the kid’s grown up,” the manager sighed. “Let’s go, driver, take us here. Barbecue time!”

With the manager paying, everyone ordered freely.

Shen Man found a dimly lit corner to sit, slowly checking off the dishes he wanted with a pen.

Xu Zhouye poked his head over to look, discovering there wasn’t a single vegetarian dish on the list.

Finishing his selections, Shen Man handed the sheet to Xu Zhouye: “Here.”

Xu Zhouye added a few dishes and passed it to the next person.

Everyone was in soaring spirits, the atmosphere bustling and lively.

Shen Man pulled out his phone, scrolled a few times, and saw that the topic of their Summer Championship victory had reached the trending searches. Clicking into the trending topic, the first post was a Weibo from Xu Zhouye—no caption, just a picture of a trophy.

At first, Shen Man assumed it was their trophy from tonight, but looking closely, he realized it wasn’t. The trophy in the picture was far cruder, resembling a child’s toy at first glance.

Shen Man knitted his brows. He felt this item gave off a strange sense of familiarity, as though he had seen it somewhere before, yet he couldn’t recall it for the life of him.

The comments below were puzzled as well, asking what kind of trophy Xu Zhouye had posted—having won tonight, shouldn’t he post a picture of the Summer Championship trophy? Why post this thing instead?

Even with countless people asking, Xu Zhouye hadn’t replied to a single one.

With the person in question sitting right beside him, Shen Man asked directly: “What’s that trophy on your Weibo?”

Xu Zhouye’s motion of pouring wine paused: “Uhm…”

Shen Man said, “Inconvenient to say?”

“Not really.” Xu Zhouye’s eyes curved, smiling sweetly: “Just my motivation for playing video games.”

Shen Man: “Hm? You need motivation to play games?”

Xu Zhouye: “Ah? Then why does Captain play games?”

Shen Man fell silent for a beat: “I played decently, so I kept playing.”

Xu Zhouye: “…” If Shen Man only played “decently,” few in the entire HCC would dare say they played well.

“What about you?” Shen Man asked in turn. “What’s your motivation?”

Xu Zhouye didn’t answer directly, his eyes gazing intently at Shen Man.

Shen Man was puzzled: “Why are you looking at me?”

Xu Zhouye veiled his gaze, curving his eyes into his signature smile: “Because I like playing games.”

Shen Man: “Oh.”

Liking to play games was actually a very reasonable excuse; most entries into the esports industry were born from passion. Only passion gave people the drive to endure day after day of monotonous training; only passion granted people the courage to withstand the weightless terror of plummeting from the summit to rock bottom.

I blossom in solitude, and wither in solitude; both sunlight and frost are robes that crown me.—This was a voice line from an in-game hero, one that Shen Man was very fond of.