FOG [e-sports]

Shi Luo, unexpectedly, stoically endured this wave. It was not because he was thick-skinned but because starting the next day, Free had started their hellish training. It officially started at 11 a.m. every day and they continued to train until 6 p.m. In the middle, there would be an hour break to eat while doing game review. Afterwards, they would continue to play until 11 o’clock in the evening. After that, depending on their training situation that day, would be game review for an hour or two. By the time, they get to go to bed in the wee hours of the morning, Shi Luo would pass out almost as soon as he hits the bed. He had no time to surf the net. He didn’t know how the fans were watching his side account. But not going online only blocked the fans, it didn’t block the other players in the circle.

Every team that played practice matches with them, so long as they’re friends with Yu Sui or Shi Luo, would tease them both openly and secretly. It had practically become a daily routine and decompression activity.

Except for NSN, all the other domestic teams should be out on holiday. Those coming to play practice matches with them were basically purely helping out. They simply wanted to help out their co-region World Championship teams. They were sacrificing their holidays to make wedding dresses for Free all out of the goodness of their hears. Shi Luo couldn’t say anything. If he was teased, he just pretended not to hear. If they get too noisy, Yu Sui would help mediate to end the topic. Of course, Slag man Yu’s position was not so firm and when there was no outsiders or anyone doing a live broadcast, oftentimes, he would tease along with them.

While even the other players couldn’t do a live broadcast during practice matches, they could afterwards. And occasionally, they would talk about Free and about Yu Sui and Shi Luo. The players would all smile but say nothing. Their accounts were very ambiguous. During one of Angel Sword’s live broadcasts, when asked if they played practice matches with Free every day, Angel Sword replied yes. When given a follow up question about Yu Sui and Shi Luo, Angel Sword smiled for a long time and said, “It’s not convenient to tell the specifics but in short...I feel like Yu Shen is in a much better state than when he first returned to China. He talks a lot more. He’s more relaxed. It should have something to do with Evil.”

The fans still wanted more details. They asked if Yu Sui took particular care of Shi Luo during the practice matches. Angel Sword laughed, “How could that be? During the practice matches, he treats him no different from his other teammates. Yu Sui would still say so when Evil makes a mistake. Every time we finish a game, we have have a group voice chat. We tell Free about their problems and they listen. There was one round, when Shi Luo made a judgement mistake. On the voice chat, Yu Shen kept talking to Evil about it. He talked for at least ten minutes.”

Fans felt sorry for Shi Luo and felt that Yu Sui had been a little too strict. Angel Sword added slowly, “Why do I say ‘at least’ ? Because after those ten minutes, Yu Sui remembered that we were in a voice chat. He turned off the audio...so that we couldn’t hear.”

“He wasn’t harsh. He was just telling him where he made mistakes. If it were me, my coach would have scolded me already.” Angel Sword smiled, “Yu Sui spoke to him in his usual tone but he still closed his mic. It must have been to maintain the dignity of their team tyrant. We all understood.”

The fans commented back that they understood as well and urged Angel Sword to give other details.

Free was less than a week into their hellish training and already their training partners have circulated various love stories regarding Yu Sui and Shi Luo. It didn’t not matter if none of the members of Free went online or did any live broadcasts, the story of these two have become a beautiful legend online.

A week later, all of Free’s members got their visas. After discussing with Yu Sui, Zhou Huo decided not to wait for the league arrangements and they decided to head over to Germany on their own to set up camp.

The Free Club’s departure was very quick and low-key, but the fans still found out about it. On the day of they were to fly to Frankfurt, the fans saw off everyone at the airport. There were a lot of men and women. Fans rarely had the chance to see the players wearing casual clothes and when they saw Free’s players, a few of them couldn’t help but let out quiet shrieks. Zhou Huo went to thank the fans himself and declined all the gifts. While chatting with them, he accidentally found out that some of the fans had actually flown over from other parts of the country to cheer on the players. A few were die-hard fans of Yu Sui’s who hadn’t missed a game.

“You’ve all worked so hard.” Zhou Huo had never seen this kind of situation when he was at NSN before. He was so touched that he wished the fans who had flown in a safe journey. “The players are doing check-in with the team leader. Later, when they’ve got spare time, I’ll have them come and say hello. You’ve all worked hard. We will definitely do our best for the World Championship.”

While greeting the fans, Zhou Huo kept looking over at the players in the distance. Seeing that Shi Luo had already gotten his ticket. He stood on tiptoe, called to Shi Luo and asked him to come over.

“Give me your things first.” Zhou Huo took Shi Luo’s passport and ticket. Patting Shi Luo, he said to the fans, “I’ll let you guys have a look at Evil. I’ll go and check in too.”

Shi Luo had a notorious reputation as a sprayers and unlike Puppy, he didn’t normally like to chat and joke with fans. Suddenly, seeing him in the flesh, the fans gave him a wide berth. They were a little bit embarrassed to speak. They stayed quiet, worried that Shi Luo would feel impatient.

Shiluo was suddenly thrown into the fan pit by Zhou Huo. After a moment, he took off his mask.

The few fans closest to Shi Luo instinctively leaned back, keeping quiet out of fear.

Shi Luo took off his mask but did not speak.

A little fan tentatively asked, “Evil&#k2026;why did you take off your mask?”

Shi Luo said, “Isn’t it to let you guys have a look at me?”

Shi Luo and the fans, big eyes met small ones and the fans couldn’t help but laugh. A male fan tentatively asked Shi Luo if he could get his autograph. Shi Luo nodded, “Give me a pen.”

The fans relaxed instantly. The took out their fan merch and prepared notebooks and handed them to Shi Luo. Shi Luo didn’t refuse anyone and he signed them one by one.

When Shi Luo signed his signature, the male fan just now couldn’t help but say excitedly “Evil, I met you on the National server at the beginning of the season, did you know? It took me many days to get to the top 500 and I was finally able to meet you. Afterwards, I watched your live broadcast every day. I would time it so that every time you queued up for a game I would queue up too. I waited every night and after half a month. I finally got into the same game as yours. But it was too bad. I was part of the opposing team. Oh...but it was good too. You killed me several times, it’s super cool.”

The male fan smiled awkwardly, “Later, your rank was too high and I couldn’t keep up so I never met you again.”

Shi Luo raised his eyes and glanced at the boy. He signed his name and handed it back to him, “We will play together after the rankings are cleared next season.”

The male fan’s eyes glowed instantly and he took back his notebook, nodding in agreement.

One female fan looked at the other Free players in the distance, and smiled. “You’ve never been very close to your teammates, always like an outsider... I was worried about you. But recently, it seems that I was worried for nothing. Do your best at the World Championships. ”

Shi Luo returned the hand to the girl, and whispered, “...Please rest assured.”

Another fan also handed Shi Luo a hand banner and said quickly, “Don’t ever, ever be nervous in the games. It’s the first year of our team’s establishment. Sometimes, losing one game is no big loss and winning one game may not be worth it. Don’t be pressured. If we win, we will come here to give you a grand reception. If we lose, we won’t come lest you see us looking embarrassed...”

Shi Luo smiled, and the fans honestly said, “We are not like those champion fans. Of course, I hope that you’d win, but don’t be afraid if you lose. Remember, safety first.”

Shi Luo signed his ID and returned it to the fan, “Thank you.”

A small female fan handed Shi Luo her hand banner. The girl was a little nervous, “Evil, I, I, I’ve liked you for a long time. I’ve been following your matches since you were in NSN. I’ve watched your matches live several times already. Good luck in the World Championships.”

Shi Luo nodded, “Thank you.”

The girl quietly looked at the other member of Team Free in the distance and then asked softly, “You get along well with your teammates... right?”

Shi Luo thought that the girl was teasing him about Yu Sui. His earlobes went a little red. He was going to pretend not to have heard clearly and the girl quietly added, “We old fans have been worried that you wouldn’t find it easy to fit in because the other three people in this team were originally teammates, but... it’s been almost a year and it seems to be okay?”

Shi Luo was stunned and signed his ID earnestly, “Don’t worry.”

The girl breathed a sigh of relief and smiled shyly, “Because of you, everyone already likes the other three players very much. Do your best in the World Championships.”

While they were talking, Zhou Huo dragged over Chen Huo and Puppy as well. The three of them gave out autographs to the fans together. Chen Huo talked the most and was endlessly noisy. The fans asked Zhou Huo if Yu Sui would be coming. Beads of sweat started to appear on Zhou Huo’s forehead and he said helplessly, “The team leader bought the wrong tickets for the two accompanying staff members. He bought economy class for a flight of more than ten hours...It would be pure misery. Whisper is dealing with it... He’s trying to see if they can get an upgrade or on another flight. If Whisper won’t have time to come here in a while, then I’ll make sure he does next time. Everyone has worked hard. Evil, sign a few more.”

Shi Luo nodded, and honestly signed one after another. Some fans gathered up their courage and asked Shi Luo to sign Yu Sui’s ID. Shi Luo raised his eyebrows but signed it anyway.

The fans were really good.

They sincerely cheered on the players. They hoped that their favorite players could win but accepted that their favorite players could lose. They were also worried that their favorite players would be sprayed because of losses and worried that the players would feel too pressured. They knew that there were a lot of strong teams in this year’s World Championships. Everyone simply wished them good luck and asked them to do their best instead of telling them to take the crown.

Shi Luo was used trading greetings to one’s ancestors with haters all the time. Suddenly meeting a group of fans, some of them exceptionally long-time fans, who got together simply to give them their blessings, although he was too embarrassed to say it, he actually felt very moved.

Therefore, Shi Luo signed very carefully. He didn’t draw a slop shod signature he could do with his eyes closed. He avoided writing on the face on the banners and signed as much as possible within the blank space.

Shi Luo signed so honestly and seriously for the first time that he didn’t notice when Yu Sui walked over behind him.

Yu Sui automatically put his hand on Shi Luo’s shoulder, “It’s time to go through security.”

Shi Luo, under the careful command of the fan, was in the middle of signing ‘Evil’ on the left side of the fan card and ‘Whisper’ on the right.

Shi Luo froze and handed the pen to Yu Sui, “...sign it yourself.”

Yu Sui took the pen and he was immediately surrounded by the fans. For a while, Yu Sui signed quickly and only went to the security check with everyone when Zhou Huo called him.

The fans stayed, continuing to snap photos. Shi Luo found it a bit difficult to walk while being photographed. Slag man Yu, making not the least bit attempt to avoid suspicion, walked exactly beside Shi Luo, not the littlest bit forward or behind.

Yu Sui inclined his head to speak with Shi Luo. Shi Luo could feel the his breath on his ears. He could also hear the roar of the fans behind him.

Shi Luo gritted his teeth, “...Did you do that deliberately?”

Yu Sui admitted quite simply, “Of course, it was deliberate.”

Without waiting for Shi Luo to speak, Yu Sui continued, “Zhou Huo was the one who made our hotel reservations. I looked at it and it was okay... They are all double bed rooms, one for each person.”

Shi Luo paused. “What a waste...”

Shi Luo knew which of the German hotel Zhou Huo had made reservations with. It was very expensive. Shi Luo originally thought that Zhou Huo would be a bit more sensible and would squander away so much money. If he had booked a standard room for two people then he and Yu Sui would have been justified in sharing one room.

If they weren’t going to be sharing a room, they would have to separate every day after training or competitions. The World Competition schedule was so long. The two of them couldn’t be together for so many days...

“I will ask for an extra room card for my room.” They had already arrived at the security check. Yu Sui kept his voice very soft, “Yell out ‘gege’...and I’ll give you one.”

“You can come into my room at any time and call on me.”

Yu Sui nodded politely to the security inspector and raised his arms.

Shi Luo: “......”

Shi Luo grinded his teeth, waiting for his turn behind Yu Sui and after a half a minute struggle——

...he still wanted that key card to Slag man Yu’s room.

Translator’s note:

Happy New Year, everyone!!! Here’s to a better year than last. =)