2-0

This was after several meetings.

It was the first time he directly called him by that name.

If one disregarded the past, assuming he hadn’t recognized him, the two of them had indeed crossed paths, in the game.

Duo queuing and that sandbox room.

But this intersection, in reality, as long as it wasn’t mentioned, was as if it never existed.

Xue Wei adjusted his mask, then looked back.

He properly said: “I will follow the organization’s arrangements.”

Wen Man stopped speaking.

Xue Wei’s nosebleed had stopped.

To prevent low blood sugar, he ate two pieces of chocolate before going on stage.

The European team came with a champion’s aura, and Knife was a star player.

As the two teams took the stage, the broadcast cameras heavily focused on the European team, and the venue erupted in excited shouts and cheers.

The attendance rate for this match wasn’t high, mainly because EGT was not famous.

Those who knew them were aware they were a practice squad, so everyone naturally felt there was no viewing value, and even the live stream viewership dropped significantly.

Only a few netizens in the corner noticed something: “Look! The masked young man! He’s on stage!!!”

“Confirmed, confirmed, EGT.NOW! Holy crap, it really is that solo king, huh?”

“Let me educate everyone about this masked young man: a solo king whose sniping was so outrageous he was mistaken for a hacker. He once solo-killed Ming Xu with a TRG in a public match. He’s a new member of National Team Two, worth fifty million.”

“Why is he called Naonao?”

“God Wen called him Naonao first; fans generally call him Naonao.”

“Damn, a bit cute.”

“Wait, holy crap, holy crap, who’s in the coach’s seat—EGT has some prestige today!!”

The broadcast camera cut to the coach’s seat.

Wen Man and the European team coach shook hands in greeting, then each took their seats after smiling.

Wen Man sat down from the back, very low-key.

Now that the broadcast camera was on him, the audience in the venue screamed like mad.

“Holy crap, is that Captain Wen??? He didn’t play in the national team matches the other day, and now he’s sitting directly in the coach’s seat for EGT!!”

“Thanks for asking, I’m at the hotel outside the venue. Just canceled my tickets for today because I wanted to sleep in. Now you ask me how I feel? Regret, deep regret.”

“High-priced tickets for sale!! EGT vs. European FEC tickets, sisters at the venue can rush! You can still enter fifteen minutes after the start! Sisters, I couldn’t get tickets for the first two days, only the third day, so I have two spare tickets!”

“This move paid off big! We originally bought tickets out of courtesy for God Knife, never expected to see God Wen too.”

On the stage, by convention, someone was sent to draw lots.

“Naonao, you go draw. You have good luck; draw whatever you want,” Zhao Xiaoyi said, his voice trembling from playing in front of so many spectators for the first time. His fingertips were cold. “Do you think it’ll be embarrassing if we get wiped out in thirty seconds?”

Dangdang said: “Let’s try our best to hold on. Listening to him, there’s no other way.”

Xue Wei left the stage to draw lots.

Wen Man followed behind him.

For half a minute’s walk, the two had no communication.

Xue Wei glanced at him: “Coach, any instructions?”

“None,” Wen Man said, quite generously, “It’s international custom for the coach to follow, so I’m following you.”

“Oh.” Xue Wei averted his gaze.

Time passed minute by minute.

The audience stared at the big screen.

The event organizers quickly announced the map.

Map name: storm 2.

This was a map based on a small Middle Eastern military town, semi-open, and moderately sized.

More importantly, this map was the same one SSQ played against the North American team yesterday.

The exact same scenario.

Some people in the audience seats had already gasped in surprise.

Drawing room.

Seeing Xue Wei draw the Storm 2 map, Knife couldn’t help but whistle: “Nice. Pretty Boy, you.” He stiffly switched to Chinese, “You drew what we wanted.”

Xue Wei looked up, his eyes as dark as ink.

“This is also the map I wanted.”

Xue Wei: “I have good luck.”

Knife smiled, neither confirming nor denying.

Xue Wei then drew the team role.

He unfolded the slip of paper, glanced at it, then held it in his palm.

Knife asked: “Is that also the team role you wanted?”

Xue Wei nodded: “Yes.”

Knife’s smile receded a bit, and he began to ponder.

On stage, the results of the second stage of drawing were announced:

[EGT, Counter-Terrorist (CT side).]

[FEC, Terrorist (T side).]

The stage immediately erupted in an uproar.

The same map as yesterday, the same offense and defense positions.

“What luck, we always draw the death position on the death map.”

“Yesterday, SSQ was brutally beaten as CT on this map. Today, EGT is just a small practice squad; they’ll only be beaten faster.”

“This must be fate, a replay of the scenario.”

Xue Wei returned to his seat.

Wen Man stood behind the four EGT members, quietly observing the match.

The match began.

The broadcast camera first cut to the European team, showing the four European players departing from their spawn point, then quickly dispersing—while also not dispersing too widely, maintaining contact with each other.

The murmurs and gasps from the audience grew louder.

“The same playstyle!! They also practiced the North American team’s tactics!”

Commentator 1: “This is indeed a re-enactment of the event. Just like yesterday’s match, on this map, the European team first used the same playstyle, that is, the flexible four-player playstyle.”

Commentator 2: “And this playstyle is even harder to counter than the North American team’s, because they have an even harder-to-counter free agent, Knife.”

Commentator 1: “As I understand it, EGT’s new member Now is skilled in sniper playstyles. If he faces Knife’s free agent in this round, then the result will be… Eh? Wait a minute, he didn’t choose the sniper role; he bought a Galil-AR!”

Commentator: “Galil-AR! This is the first time in two years we’ve seen it appear in a match! Buying this gun… is EGT planning to use some kind of tactic?”

Galil-AR.

The gun with the largest bullet capacity and the worst bullet deviation.

Competitively, it wasn’t cost-effective, only serving as a substitute gun before one could afford top-tier equipment.

Professional players would rather choose pistols than pay a higher price for a Galil-AR.

Now it was in Xue Wei’s hand.

The four EGT players departed from their spawn point, dispersing.

“They—they chose a mirror tactic!” Commentator 1 almost sprayed his mic. “They also dispersed! But this is too risky; the opponent is a champion team. Although it’s also a temporarily formed All-Star team, EGT playing their mirror tactic doesn’t give them an advantage…”

No sooner had he finished speaking than a kill feed popped up on the screen.

[EGT.stone] used AKM to kill [FEC.123]

“No advantage?”

Below the stage, Alan looked up at the players on stage.

Wanshi, grim and silent, was staring at the computer screen: “In the Chinese professional league, no one has more advantage against foreign teams than EGT…”

“For two whole years, all they learned was the playstyles of foreign teams.”

They had been beaten for two whole years; because of this, they understood everything about the enemy—strengths and weaknesses.

They knew the enemy as well as they knew themselves.

They even knew the enemy before they knew themselves.

…

“Xue Wei, he can’t do team coordination, but in this roster system, he can play.”

On screen, Knife was forced into a corner by a fire grenade from Xue Wei.

He ran while typing in broken English: “you spiner not raider!!!”

In the in-game voice chat, Xue Wei’s voice was calm and steady.

“I’m not an assaulter.”

“This round, I’m the free agent.”

A free agent, not a sniper, not an assaulter, operating independently from the team, making moves according to the situation at any time.

Alan, below the stage, whispered to the head coach: “The opponent’s tactic, four people flexibly pulling away and constantly swapping positions… This essentially means all four people in the team are free agents.”

“As is well known, to counter a free agent, the best position is another free agent.”

“He can’t do team coordination, but in a four-person team, the positions that don’t require team coordination are the sniper.”

“The other is the free agent.”

“So Xue Wei can play this round.”

Tactically, EGT wasn’t at a disadvantage, but after being dragged down for two years, the three players’ raw skills were still suppressed.

After Wanshi killed one enemy, Zhao Xiaoyi and Dangdang together severely wounded another, and finally all three died on the way to defuse the bomb.

Three enemies remained.

Explosion countdown twenty seconds.

Xue Wei rushed up the stairwell.

The commentator screamed frantically: “He’s charging directly! There are still three opponents! All three have switched to assault roles! This is a suicide mission!”

Smoke filled the air.

Xue Wei threw a flashbang, then leaped directly into the crowd!

The second before the white light spread, he rotated his perspective, finding the positions of all three.

Point 1, Point 2, Point 3.

His mind recalled the moving targets from his sandbox training.

Compared to the 1-pixel targets, the enemies he faced now… were much simpler.

All four people in the area were blinded by the flash.

Xue Wei rolled after landing, then blind-sprayed.

[EGT.Now] used Galil-AR to kill [FEC.Koko]

[EGT.Now] used Galil-AR to kill [FEC.GHeli]

In the live arena, the audience seats exploded.

“Oh my god, oh my god! He hit them! He actually hit them! And he killed two!”

“The opponents are World Championship players!”

The flashbang wore off.

Xue Wei got up, with only a few drops of health left.

The opponents, true to their world-class team status, had also predicted his landing position while blinded, and even predicted his rolling position after landing.

If he had risen even a moment slower, he would have been completely finished.

One person remained.

God Knife, Knife.

Explosion countdown fifteen seconds.

Xue Wei rapidly ran to the point and began defusing the bomb.

From the spectator’s perspective, it was clear he was ‘fake defusing’ (feinting a defuse).

Xue Wei’s perspective was still moving around, searching for Knife’s position.

Explosion countdown ten seconds.

A smoke grenade flashed, and Knife finally appeared.

Both opened fire simultaneously.

Through the smoke, Knife’s spray missed, and Xue Wei’s also missed.

Explosion countdown eight seconds.

Knife retreated to reload.

Just then, Xue Wei suddenly abandoned his position, directly charged over, and sprayed a burst of bullets at him!

He was in the middle of reloading, completely defenseless.

[EGT.Now] used Galil-AR to kill [FEC.knife]

Explosion countdown five seconds.

Xue Wei rushed back to the point, pressed E to defuse the bomb.

The Counter-Terrorist in the screen, clad in a pure white uniform, with a rifle and short boots, looked impressively heroic.

[System: [All Terrorists eliminated, C4 bomb successfully defused, CT side wins this round]]

Only the booming cheers remained in the stadium.

In the last twenty seconds of the match, everyone in the stadium was standing, their shouts deafening.

The commentator’s mic had blown out, and his desk was almost shattered: “He did it!! He did it! 1V3 defuse successful, EGT.Now, EGT’s new sniper, our new national team member! Behind him is the long-silent EGT team, his opponent is the world’s strongest free agent!”

The broadcast began to show the replay of the last wave.

Commentator 2 struggled to control his excitement, explaining logically: “That Galil-AR in his hand was crucial! It has the highest bullet capacity, so when facing Knife at the end, during Knife’s reloading window, he still had bullets!”

On the player seats.

Knife suddenly smiled: “Galil-AR, huh…”

He rubbed his head: “Next season won’t be peaceful either.”

EGT started with a victory.

Apart from Xue Wei, no one had expected them to actually win a round.

In the second round, everyone’s confidence soared, and their plays were even more aggressive.

This time, Knife was actually the first to be mobbed and killed.

In this round, Xue Wei bought his usual sniper rifle, the TRG-42, and defended point B alone.

The other three EGT members defended point A.

As luck would have it, the opponents chose point B to plant the bomb.

All three ran straight into Xue Wei’s crosshairs.

Before they could plant the C4, they were directly wiped out.

In this round, everyone once again witnessed Xue Wei’s terrifying sniping ability.

No missed shots, no misjudgments; his appearance meant a sniper kill.

The score became 2:0.

EGT won.

This was also the first time in three days since the All-Star Game began that a Chinese team achieved a shutout victory against a foreign team.

The three EGT members sat in their seats, their expressions still dazed.

Xue Wei sat in his chair, about to lean back, when he suddenly felt a shadow loom over him.

The scent of lime approached, along with a warm body temperature.

“The training group needs you to upload the replay and program content to check for external devices. Don’t worry, this is a normal procedure for the competition,” Wen Man said behind him.

The competition rules had changed.

Xue Wei didn’t know what he was talking about or what to do.

Wen Man leaned over and took his mouse, operating it for him.

The young man lowered his head, his cool tea-colored hair slightly cold.

He remained quiet and still.

The man leaned over from behind.

From the camera’s perspective, he wasn’t touching him, but it was almost… as if he were cradling him.