In the fourth match, while OLG was wiping Wolves, the VE squad—hiding on the Aerospace Bridge waiting for their Ascension extraction—had just finished their mission and happened to extract.
Bai Wei began counting boxes.
In Delta Force, kill notifications were only visible to the killing team and the killed team. With six teams on the map, to confirm a map clear, you had to check other teams’ boxes. If a box contained weapons from another team, counting the guns would reveal the match’s information.
After Bai Wei finished counting all the boxes, he announced: “The ones who took the Ascension extract earlier were most likely VE. The Drop Backpack Extraction is still up. There’s also a VE box in the Staff Passage 2 pipes. Map is cleared.”
After the map clear, Bai Wei instructed Qingbao, the Recon Role, to go to the Central Garden second floor to get the MandelBrick.
Bai Wei: “Be careful clearing angles. Watch out, in case VE didn’t take the Ascension extract and secretly snuck back into the Core Area to ambush you.”
Qin Baotian didn’t shy away from speaking the blunt truth. “Would VE even have the guts for that? They’re an All-Melee Team, not an All-Idiot Team.”
Nevertheless, Qingbao carefully cleared angles all the way, fired a Recon Arrow at the Garden to confirm no one was lurking, and then went to take the Brick.
After grabbing the MandelBrick, Qingbao reported, “Danger level: Zero stars. No one’s here.”
Bai Wei commanded, “Decrypt the Brick.”
Decrypting after a map clear was extremely easy. The Aerospace Base was calm and peaceful. The prompt “Decrypting in Progress” appeared at the top of the game screen. Four minutes later, OLG successfully decrypted the Brick and reached Match Point.
Qingbao pulled the extraction switch. The three of them then swept the map for resources, opened keycard rooms and crates, and ultimately even opened a big red item, extracting full and fat.
With the strongest composition, OLG wiped Wolves with almost no major setbacks.
All the teams present, especially ROC and Weibo from the same group, though both had been eliminated early, found reassurance: Wolves were not invincible. They were strong, but only a sliver stronger than most teams. Their strength lay in both skill and consistency. It might be hard to beat Wolves at consistency, but in sheer aggression, ROC was never inferior.
In the fifth match, Wolves played steadily. Mocha’s Luna provided accurate recon, and they narrowly achieved a map clear. In the end, only ZMJ remained from Wolves; they grabbed the Brick and decrypted it, successfully reaching Match Point as well.
The sixth match became a must-fight for all teams.
Weibo, OLG, and Wolves had all reached Match Point consecutively. If any one of those three decrypted another MandelBrick, the match would end immediately, and that team would win. ROC, Chaoge, and VE, who hadn’t decrypted a Brick yet, also had to decrypt one. Without a Brick decryption, they’d be zero-Brick teams, their ranking necessarily below the one-Brick teams.
In the sixth match, every team played incredibly aggressively. The usually consistent Wolves caused a major upset by being the first team eliminated.
OLG and Weibo spawned at the Control Center and West Gate respectively. The two teams inevitably fought an engagement right at drop. Just as OLG wiped Weibo, ROC from the Control Center launched a blitz ambush. With their condition not yet fully restored, Yan Xiu was the only one who escaped from the West Gate; Bai Wei and Qingbao were both eliminated.
Ultimately, ROC, Chaoge, and VE fought a massive battle at the Brick pickup point in the Control Center. Following Bai Wei’s instructions, Yan Xiu entered the Control Center, stealing a kill amidst the chaos. Then he left through the Sandlot, using the Drop Backpack Extraction to exit the match.
ROC narrowly achieved a map clear, becoming the fourth team to decrypt a Brick.
The four one-Brick teams were ranked by total extraction value: ROC first, OLG second, Wolves third, Weibo fourth.
The day’s match ended. ROC’s captain WildSearch and Qin Baotian were called for interviews.
Yan Xiu returned to the OLG lounge.
Huarong was talking with a staff member wearing the green uniform of the DFL league. After the staff member left, she strode directly to Bai Wei. Bai Wei was lounging on the sofa, scrolling on his phone. Huarong’s petite figure blocked the lounge lights; he looked up.
Huarong: “You you you you!”
Bai Wei raised his eyes to look at her.
Huarong let out a long sigh. “Why did you do that, you— The match wasn’t even over, and you just moved recklessly! The league’s ruling just came through: a serious warning! Even though it was a map clear, the match wasn’t over yet. Why did you make a reckless move? It’s not your first day competing! You’ve been playing for three years! Why did you reach out and touch Show’s head on stage?”
Yan Xiu’s body stiffened. He silently looked at the conversing Bai Wei and Huarong.
Bai Wei’s gaze seemed to casually sweep in his direction. Leaning against the sofa, his tone held a hint of laughter. “Comforting a teammate.”
Huarong: “…”
Yan Xiu: “…”
Bai Wei’s words were serious, but his expression was relaxed. “A teammate was feeling down, and Brother Feng wasn’t there. Without the captain to comfort him, as the IGL, I had to do something, right?”
Rose was happily sipping his tea and enjoying the drama. Hearing his own name mentioned, he quickly interjected, “Why am I being dragged into this? Don’t bring me into it. I didn’t get a serious warning.”
Huarong was left speechless by Bai Wei’s rebuttal. Just then, her phone rang. She glanced at it. “It’s CatClaw!” She shot Bai Wei a fierce glare. “Just you wait, this call is to scold you.” As she spoke, she opened the WeChat voice message. “Looking for Danger, right, Boss Cat? He’s here. I’m handing the phone to him right now!”
Immediately, CatClaw’s voice erupted like a boiling pot, pouring out: “My dear Young Master, which of your brain circuits just misfired?! The match wasn’t even over yet! You had just cleared the map! The spotlights, the cameras—all on you! And there you are, taking liberties with Show! Have you lost your damn mind?!”
A dead silence fell over the lounge.
Huarong reminded him, “I’ve got you on speakerphone, Boss Cat.”
CatClaw was silent for a moment, then continued cursing: “Is what you did even human, huh? Young Master Bai! My Young Master of Shanghai! Can you just, for once, act like a normal human being?!”
Bai Wei glanced at Yan Xiu, who was looking down at his phone, and replied in a very calm tone, “I’m already being very human.”
CatClaw: “I fing @$#%@^#…”
After CatClaw unleashed a torrent of profanity, he gave the final verdict: “Discussed it with the league. A 10,000 fine deducted from your salary. Okay?”
Bai Wei accepted the club’s punishment openly. “OK.”
CatClaw was so drained he had no energy left to speak. “Getting a league warning is one thing. But you’ve also stirred up a massive wave of drama. Everything you do is watched by fans, haters, casual viewers, and the league itself. And this was during the live match broadcast, and you go and pull this! There’s no way this drama settles down in less than a week.”
Huarong suddenly thought of something. “Boss Cat, can you ask operations how our merch sales went tonight?”
CatClaw: “…”
CatClaw was furious. “Lin Huarong! Can your brain think about anything other than money for even a single second?!!”
Huarong countered, puzzled, “If I don’t manage the money, what should I manage? This directly affects my profit-sharing salary.” OLG’s official merchandise store was managed by the Team Leader, Huarong. Her salary, besides a basic base pay, included a percentage of the merchandise revenue as a bonus.
Rose and Jack had nothing to do with this and were just watching the show from the sidelines.
Qin Baotian had just returned from his interview, feeling refreshed. The moment he pushed the door open, he was greeted by the sight of a chaotic OLG lounge.
Qin Baotian listened for a while, then concluded, “Wonderful. Every single one of us in OLG has a bright future!”
As they headed back to the team base, Yan Xiu’s WeChat exploded with messages.
Pineapple alone had sent over twenty messages.
【Too awesome, Dad Show! You were so badass, I don’t even want to be your son anymore! I want to be your boyfriend-fan!】
【What’s that about Wolves-Clever? Everyone calls him the fiercest rookie. All nonsense! My Dad Show is the true invincible DFL rookie!】
【The relationships in OLG are really good. Are you and God D super close? I feel like you are.】
【My flight is the day after tomorrow. Want to grab a meal together tomorrow?】
【Dad, are you guys back yet? [DragonBaby: Curious]】
Yan Xiu’s eyes paused on a few of the messages. Then he replied: 【Got training scrims tomorrow afternoon, so probably can’t do a meal. I’ll see if we can fit in a late-night snack. We’re on the way back to base.】
Pineapple quickly replied with a “Whatever you say.” Yan Xiu tapped on his other WeChat messages.
On the same bus, Bai Wei sat in the second row, middle seat. His WeChat was blowing up even more intensely than Yan Xiu’s. The moment he got on, he turned off his notifications.
Some messages were congratulations from other teams. Barely a month and a half into this year’s Autumn Split, Wolves had been oppressively dominating all the other teams, leaving them struggling to breathe.
The other messages were from a few players Bai Wei was on better terms with, deliberately sending mocking messages to annoy him, subtly asking if the league had issued any punishment, and specifically emphasizing whether he’d been fined.
Bai Wei ignored them all.
Hades: 【Are you and your team’s Show really that close???】
Bai Wei tapped on this one and sent a: 【?】
Hades: 【I thought you were just talking smack before. So the internal team dynamics in OLG really are that harmonious. That’s definitely way better than Wolves. ZMJ would absolutely never ruffle Clever’s head.】
Bai Wei: 【Tsk. Told you before. You didn’t believe me.】
Turning off his phone, Bai Wei looked sideways toward the window.
Yan Xiu sat behind him. Outside was pitch black. The mirror-like glass reflected the face of the young man with his head down, eyes lowered.
His slightly long bangs mostly concealed his brows and eyes. He quietly looked down at his phone, no one knew whose WeChat messages he was replying to.
Throughout the ride, he remained very quiet, as if he hadn’t heard CatClaw’s words, and also as if he truly believed a teammate’s comforting gesture during a match was ordinary and unremarkable.
Bai Wei rested his chin on his hand, silently watching Yan Xiu’s reflection in the window.
Yan Xiu was replying to Brother Cai’s WeChat.
【Ushering Wealth: Awesome, Little Xiu! You’ve brought so much glory to our Laifu Esports. Because of you, a lot of new bosses have been coming to the shop lately.】
OLG-Show, formerly a Game Companion at Laifu Esports—this was something of an open secret.
Yan Xiu sent Brother Cai a happy kitten bobbing its head sticker.
【Ushering Wealth: Tonight, Brother Shan and I were on a voice call live, watching your match. It was Brother Shan’s first time watching a match; he found it super interesting.】
【Ushering Wealth: Little Xiu, got time tonight to play a few games with Brother Shan? It’s not as a Game Companion job, you know. Just helping your bro out.】
Professional players couldn’t take orders for boosting. But when Yan Xiu had streamed, Brother Shan had gifted him too many things, and Brother Cai had also taken great care of him. Yan Xiu still hadn’t been able to repay Brother Cai’s money.
Yan Xiu replied directly: 【What time, Brother Cai?】
【Ushering Wealth: Brother Shan was just watching OLG’s match from the first-person perspective and got an itch to play. He really wants to go play a couple of rounds on Aerospace. It won’t be long, just a few matches. Can it be tonight? What time do you usually sleep?】
【Onlyshow: I sleep around 4 or 5 AM.】
【Ushering Wealth: Then how about when you get back to base? Have you arrived yet?】
【Onlyshow: Not yet. I’ll let you know when I get there.】
A few seconds later, Brother Cai sent another WeChat.
【Ushering Wealth: Right, can you help ask God Qing to join? Brother Shan was really pumped watching your OLG match. He’s dying to play a couple of rounds with you guys.】
【Onlyshow: I’ll ask him.】
In the dark reflection of the bus window, the young man’s lowered head suddenly lifted. Bai Wei paused, then watched as Yan Xiu handed his phone to Qin Baotian, sitting beside him.
The chubby guy glanced at the phone, then immediately nodded. “No problem! No problem!”
