Chapter 30 Part 2

So… what good was regret?

Better to embrace the here and now, push forward, and find his way back to Eidis’s side.

With his determination solidified, Yun Qi kept his head down over the next few days, focusing solely on self-improvement. He dueled Doesn’t Eat Grass daily, his progress skyrocketing. The other trial trainees sitting nearby quickly took notice of the new guy’s prowess. Mealtimes in the cafeteria and smoke breaks in the hallways buzzed with talk of him.

“I figured the newbie was just a support player, but I caught him grinding warrior today. And damn, he’s good at it.”

“Good? Sit by me next time and watch. He was sitting at 1900 points a couple days ago—now he’s pushed 2400. Scary, huh? Wait, isn’t this the guy who supposedly slept his way onto his old esports team?”

“Yeah, exactly. He’s got a super close relationship with his captain. His support games are nothing special, and everyone says he got onto the starting roster through connections. So how’s he suddenly climbing ranks like a rocket?”

“Is he cheating or something? Like, sneaking in some pro players to boost him when no one’s watching?”

“You calling Brother Wen and the bosses upstairs idiots? Try pulling that off here and see what happens.”

“Actually… this was way back—like, really way back. I heard he was the top side laner to come out of the youth training program. No idea if it’s true.”

“For real? Top side laner from youth training jumps straight to starting support? Has SK lost their minds?”

“I’m not sure. It was just some old rumor from forever ago.”

“He’s pretty badass, though. Rocking that baby face while maining top—huge contrast.”

“How about we watch him play tonight? We’ll see exactly what level he’s at.”

The group chatted in the hallway, all puzzled by this new player. He was shrouded in mysteries they couldn’t quite unravel, so they made plans to check him out in person that evening.

Yun Qi had just finished a match when the guy reeking of cigarette smoke sidled up beside him. “Hey, bro, I main top too. Wanna queue up a couple games after tonight’s session?”

Yun Qi had been keeping to himself, not chatting much with the others or making many friends here. But he wasn’t one to turn down an invite, so he agreed without hesitation. “Sure.”

And just like that, it was settled.

Once the evening training wrapped up, a few guys hung around instead of leaving. Yun Qi stayed put at his station, waiting. Doesn’t Eat Grass had mentioned coming to Shanghai sometime soon and asked if he’d have time to hang out.

【Silk Scarf: I don’t know. Hit me up before you come.】

【Doesn’t Eat Grass: Just messing with you. We’ve got a team event in Shenzhen, so no time yet. Keep grinding those ranks.】

Yun Qi fired off a doge smile emoji.

After a bit, the guy who’d invited him showed up—along with three others.

Yun Qi blinked in surprise. Four people? He looked at them blankly. “All of us together?”

“Yeah, let’s five-stack,” the guy said.

Yun Qi didn’t object. They created a lobby and got ready to test his skills.

These past couple days, Yun Qi had been grinding Fist Lion nonstop. The hero was meta this season—perfect for climbing. But for this five-stack, he didn’t pick Fist Lion. Instead, he went with Suoqi, proficiency zero.

Death Lord Suoqi, a niche pick this patch with a sub-50% pick rate. Same old build, no fresh strategies in sight. When Yun Qi locked him in, the others gawked. “You play this?”

Yun Qi grabbed his cup from the side and waited for the enemy picks as the loading screen kicked in. “Any issue?”

One teammate chimed in. “Suoqi’s trash this season—damage nerfed, cooldowns jacked up. He evaporates in teamfights before his passive even stacks. You know that, right?”

“I know,” Yun Qi said.

The guy stared at him. “Then why pick it?”

Yun Qi took a sip. His thermos had a cute little bear sticker plastered on it—something he’d dug out of a drawer yesterday, probably a freebie from some merch. He fiddled with the edge of the sticker with his fingertips and replied calmly, “Because I want to.”

The match kicked off. Yun Qi piloted Suoqi safely on top lane, farming carefully. Suoqi wasn’t the top-lane king he used to be. Season after season of nerfs had gutted him—the devs seemed to have it out for the guy. Balance was a joke now; he was just easy prey for anyone passing by.

The enemies knew Suoqi was a pushover too. One minute in, their jungler spammed the chat.

【She and Wine Both Lost (Crow Dog): Top lane’s a freebie. No gank needed?】

【Winter Love Words (Yuri): Total beatdown.】

The teammates glanced at the messages, then turned to Yun Qi. He didn’t react at all, like he hadn’t even noticed. His screen had chat open, though—the words scrolled right into view at the bottom left.

“Watch out—Yuri’s busted this patch. Nobody but Kate can bully her right now,” a teammate warned helpfully.

Yun Qi murmured an acknowledgment. “Got it.”

Heroes had their counters: dive comps feared poke monkeys, mobile picks dreaded hard CC, Yuri’s short-range burst lost to Kate’s long poke from skill two. Against Suoqi, though—a short-range dud with zero early damage? Yuri had it easy.

Yun Qi kept his distance while clearing waves. Advance when they retreated, retreat when they pushed—that was standard laning. But it didn’t apply here against Yuri. He out-traded, out-mobiled, and out-burst him. No ganks incoming? He’d just pin him under tower. With him intentionally freezing the wave too, Yun Qi couldn’t farm. His gold kept trickling down.

Missing minions was a cardinal sin in professional play. A player who couldn’t secure a full wave would face endless scrutiny, and in this five-stack lobby, his teammates were all nursing their own agendas. No one came to help. Yun Qi could only watch as Yuri stood right in front of his wave, freezing it dead in the middle of top lane.

One minion. Two. Three…

Unable to claim the wave gold, Yun Qi pivoted to the nearby jungle camps. A teamfight erupted in bot lane, but the enemy Yuri skipped it entirely, stubbornly holding his freeze. Yun Qi ended up with the lowest gold in the game.

Even the support outfarmed him by five hundred.

【She and Wine Both Lost (Crow Dog): Don’t bother with him. Ignore that garbage hero and just push bot.】

【Winter Love Words (Yuri): This is boring. Not wasting my time on a coward like you.】

He left.

Yun Qi’s wave flowed free. He cleared two full waves, ignoring the disaster unfolding in bot lane. He farmed top, snagged the river crab, cleared jungle camps, even soloed the Tyrant buff, and picked up the dead midlaner’s wave. In three minutes flat, he climbed to third in gold on his team.

He still skipped teamfights. Bot lane’s second tower crumbled, but top lane’s first tower stood firm.

【She and Wine Both Lost (Crow Dog): Total noob. Both lanes are about to hit high ground, and he’s still babysitting top?】

His teammates chimed in too. “Why don’t you join the fights?”

Yun Qi might not be carrying hard, and yeah, the newbie seemed a bit shaky, but no one wanted the mocking enemy team to snag the win.

Yun Qi stayed silent. He didn’t head bot.

Instead, he hid in the mid lane bush—and spotted an icon creeping upward.

The moment Yuri stepped into mid to farm, Suoqi burst out and startled him. Yuri reacted quick, backing off for a counterengage, but before he could even land his ult, Suoqi stuck to him like glue and burst him down.

【Winter Love Words (Yuri): ???】

The enemy brushed off the gank like it was nothing, trash-talking Yun Qi to come out for a 1v1. Yun Qi ignored him, lurking along his path instead. He repeated the same trick, catching him off guard for another kill.

【Winter Love Words (Yuri): Alright, you wanna play it like that?】

Yun Qi didn’t respond. The third time, he didn’t bush. He met Yuri head-on, two thousand gold behind. Skills flew both ways until they were both scraping bottom on health. Yun Qi sealed it with a final auto-attack.

The in-game chat went dead.

The match turned eerily quiet. Yun Qi’s Suoqi and the enemy’s Yuri set aside their grudge, diving into full teamfights. The enemy shooter and support dropped first, leaving a brutal slugfest. In the end, it came down to low-health Yuri versus Suoqi. Every eye in the game locked on them. Whoever won would swing the momentum hard—and for the fourth time, Yuri fell to Suoqi.

A question burned in everyone’s mind.

Yuri couldn’t beat Suoqi???

They quickly realized they’d spoken too soon. It wasn’t that Yuri was weak. It was that this summoner piloting an off-meta side laner was straight-up unstoppable.

Yun Qi’s teamfight win vaulted him to gold leader.

Finally, he spoke up.

【Milk Cap: Like freezing lanes?】

【Milk Cap: You spit it all back up yet?】

He’d rocketed from dead last to first.

The few teammates who’d been watching him closely were even more stunned. A hero the devs had gutted could actually stand tall in a game like this?

They watched Suoqi take Dragon, split-push lanes, and pick off enemies. Doubts evaporated as they exchanged glances.

United at last, they followed up Elder Dragon’s extra damage to shatter the enemy Nexus Crystal and claim victory. In the results screen, the enemy’s shiny gold badges looked downright mocking next to that “version trash” hero. No one queued up right away, eyes lingering on it with ulterior motives.

“You’re… actually pretty good,” the room’s host said to Yun Qi. “Didn’t see that coming.”

Yun Qi left the lobby, shut down his PC, and pulled out his Trial Card. “Didn’t see what coming?”

They shook their heads, newfound respect in their eyes.

Yun Qi knew exactly what game they were playing—what schemes lurked behind the doubt. He wouldn’t call them out for questioning him. He’d shut them up with results. Playing along, he feigned ignorance and let it slide. “I’m done for now. Got something to handle. Let’s play tomorrow.”

They stared at him. “Oh… sure.”

Yun Qi left the Training Room.

Truth was, he had nothing pressing. It was just an excuse to bounce.

He headed downstairs, figuring the day had gone off without a hitch. Little did he know, a storm of drama was waiting for him.

In the lobby downstairs, a few guys were clustered together smoking. The front desk stood empty, and they sprawled across the chairs—some sitting, some squatting, some standing—their arrangement looking absurdly staged.

Yun Qi slowed his pace. The group said nothing, but their aggressive stance and the glint in their eyes made it clear: they’d been waiting for him.

The moment they spotted Yun Qi, their gazes ignited with fervor. He really didn’t want to dwell on what that intensity meant, but he’d seen those kinds of looks far too often around Lang Xian.

He considered turning around and bolting, even knowing deep down he might not make it past them. Sure enough, two of the guys jumped up and blocked his way, cigarettes dangling from their fingers as they hemmed him in.

Yun Qi had no choice but to halt.

A guy with dyed brown hair led the pack. He held his cigarette loosely, his glare pinning Yun Qi’s face with raw menace. Cutting straight to it, he said, “You cursed me out.”

Yun Qi tilted his head. “What?”

The guy advanced, herding him toward the corner while toying with the collar of Yun Qi’s shirt. “SK Qiluo on Mai Lang Live. Your loyal fan here—I dropped seven hundred bucks on you, and you reported me, got my account banned. Ring any bells?”

Yun Qi retreated, shaking his head. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

He’d backed himself into a dead end.

With his back pressed against the wall, Yun Qi lifted his chin and studied the tall stranger’s face.

The guy had a clean-cut look about him, but he carried himself like a street tough. Where there were women, drama followed; where there were men, brawls weren’t far behind. Right there in front of everyone, he cornered Yun Qi and murmured, “Why would you remember me? You’ve got fans galore. I’m nobody.”

Yun Qi leaned innocently against the wall, gazing up at him. “You sure you got the right guy?”

“I’ll never forget you,” the guy said, seizing Yun Qi’s face. “This face of yours is burned into my memory.”

He insisted Yun Qi had cursed him, but Yun Qi drew a blank.

Plenty of people had thrown that accusation his way.

It wasn’t crude profanity, exactly—just sharp jabs with some sting. Calling it “cursing” wasn’t a huge stretch.

Yun Qi’s fans ran the gamut from classy to crude. Backstage DMs full of harassment piled up regularly, but he rarely bothered responding or stewing over them unless they veered into unforgivable territory.

He couldn’t place this guy or whatever he’d done.

But he had a pretty good idea it was par for the course.

“What do you want?” Yun Qi skipped the small talk. He could read this crew like a book—what they were about. He just hadn’t figured the world was small enough for him to cross paths here with a fan he’d shut down online.

Not a fan, though. Low-rent internet trolls.

“Nothing much,” the guy whispered hot against his ear. “I want to pursue you.”

Yun Qi blinked in stunned silence. He’d braced for a beatdown, a chance to vent some steam—not this.

“With all these eyes on us in the base, I wouldn’t dare flout the rules outright. Sure, they crack down on fights… but who I’m into? That’s not their business.”

It clicked: the guy was playing it bold and direct.

An open gambit.

Clever, really. He knew this angle wouldn’t draw heat from the higher-ups. Gentle or aggressive, it all fell under personal pursuit—nothing to escalate.

“They can’t touch that,” Yun Qi said, glancing at the crowd behind him. “But this whole production you’ve staged? It’s freaking me out.”

“Just a few buddies.”

“Doesn’t fly,” Yun Qi replied. He reached up and brushed the guy’s earlobe. “I’m not cut out for public flirtations. Pick somewhere private—we can hash this out properly?”

Perfect. Before landing on the starting roster, Yun Qi had no real pretext to seek out Yu Jin. Now he did.

Now he could march right up to his beloved in broad daylight.

Face him. Demand answers.

And drop the line: “Brother, someone’s messing with me. You gonna step in or what?”