Ch22 - Quit Smoking

Edited by: Mel

In the gaming area of C-site. 

A live broadcast room in full swing.

[God Wen is too handsome! As expected of a returnee from the European server!]

[It’s not that I want to boast, but I’m afraid no one else can play snipers this well in the country.]

[Hey wait, the ID of the person who was just killed? If You’re A Bro, Come Cut……] 

[I saw it too, fuck, are they crazy= =]

[I’m fainting. Don’t tell me it’s the alternate account of some team?]

Naturally, Yu Wen and Luo Yuji had also noticed.

After having exchanged blows with the opponent’s Bangalore, despite being the only one left on the field, their marksmanship was fierce. The operation and battle quality were both superior and stable. From one look, one could tell that they were not an ordinary player.

“Little Luoluo, someone’s seeking revenge on us,” Yu Wen chuckled. The scar under his brow bone twiched. “Make a guess?”

Luo Yuji was seated in the gaming station next to him.

However, it was as though there was a mountain between them that separated them. They did get along out of public’s eyes. Luo Yuji responded lightly, “there is no one else who can achieve such level of hand speed and shooting rate.”

Yu Wen made a guess and became amused. “That’s really interesting.” 

At the same moment.

SVG training base.

Li Zhongchen’s expression was solemn.

He controlled Bangalore to circle around, headed for the resurrection beacon towards the north. It could be said that he had crossed the entire non-toxic zone. The situation was urgent, and the revival process was about to begin. 

“There happens to be a few boxes that were left from before,” Li Zhongchen’s actions were quick. “Gibraltar, loot them immediately once you land. Healer, summon for supplies.”

Qiao Yi responded, “You be careful.”

“There is a small room at the top of the stairs,” Yao Tong said. “I’ll open the shield immediately once I land. God Qiao, you head over first.”

Qiao Yi: “En.” 

Not only was it time, but it was even more so a battle of luck.

Li Zhongchen had just finished the resurrection buffer time. The flying cabin appeared in the sky, and both teammates returned to their original states. The sound of the machinery attracted a small number of surviving players that came from all directions.

Gibraltar opened up his shield.

Lifeline had to go to the safe zone to search for equipment and summon the airdrop. The two of them that remained depended on a high risk play and pushed forward, seeking victory through recklessness. 

Gibraltar and Bangalore fought intensely as they continued to move towards the direction where Lifeline was.

At this point, one could actually not use advantages or disadvantages to measure this style of play. Li Zhongchen insisted on fighting this way. The remaining two teammates would definitely accompany him. At the end of the day, it was an extreme act after having been doomed to death.

Attracting everyone over would naturally cause other teams to fight one another.

As long as Lifeline summoned high-resource supplies, their disadvantaged situation could be reversed with all members of their team possessing full health and armed with equipment. Of course, this was not something that was too idealistic. However, it was because of that last step away from their success—— 

It was at this very step that something happened once again.

At that time, Li Zhongchen’s hand that was holding onto the mouse was soaked with sweat. Because of a line of words that appeared on the interface and him finding that only two players’ names were left in the team, his entire person went crazy.

Yao Tong broke down. “??? Why did Xiao Qiao get disconnected?!”

“…” Li Zhongchen could not help the way his face turned sullen as he said regretfully. “It’s over.” ” 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Yao Tong comforted Li Zhongchen, but more so, he was comforting himself. “My dear sister-in-law, why is your internet not good at this time? You’ll be able to come back immediately, right? In this lifetime, even if I can’t trust anyone else, I wouldn’t dare not to believe in you”

Ktf lvfj bo la kjr yfjealoei.

Dea gfjilas kjr cba atf mjrf.

Ktflg afjw bcis wjcjufv ab ufa rfmbcv qijmf lc atlr wjamt. 

Looking at that line: Player [Europe Server Number One Noob, Come In And Get Trashed] was successfully eliminated by [Winggg1] using Kraber sniper——

Vevvfcis, Ol Itbcumtfc kjr ifoa bcis klat gfrfcawfca.

Tjb Kbcu atgfk vbkc tlr tfjvqtbcfr jcv qblcafv ja atf lcreialcu kbgvr atja mjwf ogbw Qlcu lc atf mtja klcvbk. “Pr tf ajxlcu atf bqqbgaeclas ab rkfjg gluta cbk yfmjerf atfgf lr cb boolmlji jccbecmfg?! Pa vbfrc’a wjaafg lo sbe vlvc’a rluc klat j miey jcv vlvc’a cffv ab yf olcfv. Qfgf atfs gfjiis cba jogjlv bo ojcr ecrajcclcu joafg rfflcu atf mtja? Qtja xlcv bo rtlaas mtjgjmafg lr atja?”

It certainly did sound ugly. 

But it was not where Li Zhongchen’s mind was at. Close to ten minutes had passed, and Qiao Yi was just like steam that had evaporated, disappearing from the world.

He exited the game.

The screen showed their team taking second place.

“I don’t even have the heart to continue playing,” Li Zhongchen said honestly as he took out his phone. 

Yao Tong guessed out loud. “Maybe there were some special circumstances. Otherwise, Xiao Qiao would not just run off on his own without saying a word with how well things were going.”

Despite having said that.

He did not know what the exact reason was, nor did he know what to do.

Just as he was talking to Yao Tong. 

The phone that Li Zhongchen was holding vibrated, and the ringtone sounded. Qiao Yi’s caller ID flashed on the screen.

“He’s calling,” Li Zhongchen explained to Yao Tong, and immediately connected the call. “Hello.”

As soon as he said “hello,” the atmosphere turned strange.

Initially, Yao Tong was leaning back on the gaming chair. As soon as he heard it, he could not help but scratch the tip of his nose, feeling strange as he sat next to the other. It felt like he was eavesdropping, and he quickly found an excuse to head to the pantry to get a drink. 

“……” On the other end of the phone, Qiao Yi was quiet for a while before he spoke up. “Sorry, earlier on, the entire building’s electricity tripped.”

Having heard Qiao Yi’s tone, it could be said that the other was very apologetic.

After all, an unwanted situation like this should not have happened when one played casually on the regular. Yet now that they were on crunch time, your teammate had just revived you, you turned around and pitted us.

“It’s fine. Why are you talking about this?” Li Zhongchen truly did not feel too bothered by it. Instead, he was concerned for him. “Why did the electricity trip all of a sudden? Is the power back on, do you need me to make a trip there?” 

Fortunately, Yao Tong did not stay.

Otherwise, he would ruthlessly overthrow that tyrannosaurus rex personality of Li Zhongchen, at the same time redress grievances on his behalf: You deserve to have the affectionate God E.

Qiao Yi only explained the reason, as though he wanted to block out other topics. “I’m not sure what is going on with the renovations going on upstairs. They overloaded and caused a trip, and the electrical room downstairs cut off the main electricity to the entire building, I was rather speechless.”

When others said “rather speechless”, perhaps they really only meant: there was something that caused one to be a little speechless. 

But since it was Qiao Yi, then it was estimated that it was not much different from Li Zhongchen’s triple serving of losing control, going ballistic, with the addition of breathing fire, or something even more serious than that.

Li Zhongchen responded with an “ah.” He stared at his keyboard. “Then what about now?”

“The property manager went to deal with it. It’s alright now.”

Qiao Yi then asked, “You and Yao Tong…” 

Li Zhongchen hesitated for a while. “We took second place.”

Qiao Yi took the blame. “It was my fault.”

“It was only one round, we can still continue playing,” Li Zhongchen said anxiously. “We were quite unlucky, and besides it was the first time I pulled you in to play with Yao Tong, there was a lot of fault on my side too.”

“No, there were too many factors. I didn’t take command well in the beginning as well,” Qiao Yi asserted. 

The two of them were like deskmates during their schooling years.

Having influenced each other on the regular, both their grades declined, and were brought in to have a talk with the teacher. They would even speak up for one another—

“Teacher, it was my fault. I did not set a good example as the class representative.”

“No, teacher, it was me who influenced him. if I didn’t provoke him to talk in class, we would not have gotten such bad grades.” 

Anyways, it just felt strange.

Especially since they had recently just met twice, the atmosphere between the two of them when they were together had never been so harmonious.

Li Zhongchen hesitated for a moment and could not help but ask. “Then…do you still want to continue?”

Qiao Yi exhaled. “No, my eyes feel a little uncomfortable.” 

As soon as he spoke.

Li Zhongchen’s urge to pursue the other surged back up once again.

“Why is it uncomfortable? Did you buy medicine?”

“……” 

Qiao Yi hesitated and said, “How do you think the game went tonight?”

Straight to the point. It made Li Zhongchen not dare to speak.

Qiao Yi added. “Just say what you think. If it’s good, it’s good. If it’s bad, then it’s bad.”

Li Zhongchen felt guilty. “It was alright at the beginning, but later on it fell apart.” 

“Why?”

“In the first round, I pitted Gibraltar. He got distracted at the watershed. Later, after killing a group of people there, I was too far away. If we were to say it in layman terms, then it was me only caring about myself and bloody rushing ahead, but Gibraltar was still adapting to your rhythm. Of course, I also have other issues.”

Qiao Yi fell quiet. “Darling, do you know what you are like now?”

He said it shamelessly. 

However, it was like an electric current that shocked Li Zhongchen’s entire body. He was a little stunned, a little scared. “Like what……”

Qiao Yi took a deep breath, and there was an almost undetectable sense of grievance in his tone. “Just like when we were still together. You always said that you would change, but you never did.”

Li Zhongchen had nothing to say. “……”

“I unblocked you. I really was a little angry before, but the act of blocking you was rather childish.” 

Li Zhongchen pressed him, his voice trembling slightly. “So, since I was condemned to death in the span of a match, through and through, I shouldn’t even think about it or dream about it, right?  Anyway, no matter where you sign, you would never consider my team.”

He tried his best.

Truly. Especially when Bangalore was outside the ring, healing herself while she was being poisoned, throwing all caution to the wind, desperate to get his teammates’ respawn banner to the resurrection beacon.

Li Zhongchen believed he really did try his best. 

But on the contrary.

Qiao Yi’s answer deviated from what he had expected. “Give me a few days to consider it. My lawsuit will be over soon. I will give you an answer then.”

“……” What?!

Li Zhongchen suspected that he had heard wrongly. 

His tone was unsettled. He hesitated, then gritted his teeth and asked, “You mean you’re willing to consider coming to SVG?”

“…En, I’m only considering,” Qiao Yi said in a calm voice, “but don’t send me messages during this period, I really need to think it through properly.”

Li Zhongchen forced himself to calm down. “Okay, I… won’t bother you.”

Subsequently.

Qiao Yi did not say anything more and hung up the phone.

Li Zhongchen felt as though he had just won hundreds of millions after buying a lottery ticket.

Looking at Yao Tong who had just walked in, he had the other pinch him. “Try it, I want to see if it hurts. Hurry up.” 

“……” Yao Tong thought to himself, brother, you should really take your medication.

.

As for why he would agree to consider it.

Qiao Yi would say that most of it was all thanks to Li Zhongchen’s act of resurrecting him. 

Humans were all selfish.

Everyone’s the same.

As for the next few days, Qiao Yi remained home alone, as always.

He cooked, the days and nights were flipped. During this time, he had many video calls with lawyers from abroad. MW officially announced the addition of Yu Wen and Luo Yuji, and Ni Naru, who was heading for Hengdian for filming, sent him hair dye. 

He dyed his hair back to black.

In the beginning, he dyed his hair blond on a whim. Although everyone complimented it, he himself did not like it very much.

That was all.

There were more than ten hours left until the third hearing. 

Before dinner, Qiao Yi realized that there was nothing left in the refrigerator.

He had no choice but to change out of his lounge clothes, temporarily bidding farewell to his homebody outfit. He dressed himself up, wore a pair of thin, rounded frame glasses to conceal his swollen face, and planned to shop at the Walmart nearby——

Who knew that as soon as he opened the door.

He bumped into Li Zhongchen who wore a black jacket, a cigarette in his mouth. it was apparent that he had been waiting for a while. 

“……” It was difficult for Qiao Yi to describe how he felt at the moment.

He was not surprised, neither was he confused. It was just like how Li Zhongchen would come over to look for him in the past, the two of them naturally bumping into one another.

But no matter how long it had been.

Be it when he was a youth, or the Li Zhongchen now who had matured too much, he would always make Qiao Yi’s heart pound. 

Li Zhongchen snuffed out the cigarette butt on the top of the metal trash can.

Before Qiao Yi, he no longer had any intention to smoke. But he did not expect that he would bump into the other.

“Didn’t you say you quitted?” Qiao Yi’s chest rose and fell.

“I did quit,” against the backdrop of the setting sun, Li Zhongchen gazed deeply into Qiao Yi’s eyes, seemingly unintentionally looking at the direction of the other’s teardrop mole, his words heavy with implication. “But it seems that I would never be able to quit in this life.”