Boyfriend

The results of the youth training promotion matches were released on the third day, and the league’s transfer period was also delayed by five days because of this.

“Holy crap, Ming Xu didn’t make it into Team One; he’s still stuck in the youth training camp. Is the national team’s promotion assessment that ruthless?”

“It’s too brutal. So far, only one pro player is known to have received a B+ rating; the rest are all C’s.”

“What’s wrong with this batch of youth trainees? Is there no one who can play?”

The national team’s official page also updated the starting roster for National Team One.

Sure enough, there were a few small fans of the star players who didn’t make it, coming to ‘bombard’ the page, but these minor ‘bombings’ failed to attract anyone’s attention—everyone’s attention was elsewhere.

Everyone saw that in the new national team roster, Wen Man had disappeared from his coaching position in the youth training camp.

The buzz immediately took off.

At the national team training base, Wen Man’s door was knocked upon, and the voices of the young players were a bit hesitant: “Captain Wen. No team talk today?”

Today was Thursday. The national team held a fixed meeting every week, where Wen Man would push and motivate people, and summarize.

Thursday was also known as ‘Death Thursday’.

Wen Man casually flipped through documents, not even lifting an eyelid: “I don’t get along with you guys, I’ve retired, I’m married. Go earn me some wedding gift money, don’t bother me.”

The group of young men fell silent.

They were all starting players personally mentored by Wen Man; the oldest was only 19.

‘New faces laugh, old ones cry. How miserable, how miserable.’ Alan was writing a tactical report opposite Wen Man, with dark circles under both eyes. He carefully sought confirmation from him: “So you’ve decided to take on just that one youth trainee, right? Will he be brought over then? Have you looked at his contract?”

“I’m looking at it,” Wen Man said.

In his hand was the EGT contract, pulled from the bottom of a stack of files.

When they switched to being a practice squad, the national team also paid them, and they would be informed of any personnel changes.

Xue Wei’s contract was clearly signed before that; the national team didn’t have a backup copy.

Wen Man flipped through the youth training promotion match registration form. Xue Wei had registered through the club channel, and his ID was filled with the ID of EGT’s former captain, who had already left.

He hadn’t left any personal contact information.

Xue Wei tinkered with his streaming equipment for most of the night before finally falling asleep.

The next day at noon, Zhao Xiaoyi woke up with a strange yell, rousing everyone: “What the hell, Ming Xu didn’t make it into National Team One?! Holy crap, that’s explosive news! It’s a good thing Captain Wen is the captain; if it were anyone else, the official account would have already been swarmed by fans.”

Xue Wei, as if suddenly remembering, logged in to check his promotion match results.

The page refreshed, but instead of the promotion results, a red profile registration form appeared.

A prompt popped up at the top: [Upon verification, the account you selected does not belong to you. Please re-enter your account information.]

On the other side, another teammate named Wanshi leaned over to look: “What are the results?”

Xue Wei showed him the page: “It seems the information wasn’t filled out properly; I might not have passed.”

Wanshi: “That’s a shame.”

Xue Wei filled in the details for the new account he registered yesterday.

[EGT.Now]

For some reason, this profile form was different from the one he initially filled out.

Besides ID, age, and position, it also asked for other information, such as training content and daily schedule.

There were also some strange questions like “Recently preferred foods,” “Recent water intake frequency,” and “Are you single?”

However, it was understandable to ask these questions; many professional players had fallen from grace due to chaotic private lives.

Xue Wei casually filled in “No” for all, then opened his streaming page.

He didn’t turn on his camera, changing his stream title to: [New Pro Sniper, From Zero Rank to Master, Welcome to Watch]

Soon, someone entered the stream, with the ID [Micro]. Xue Wei said: “Welcome.”

However, this person didn’t send any bullet comments or respond; they seemed like a system bot.

Xue Wei played a few matches, landed on the real-time recommendations for new streamers, and slowly started getting real viewers.

“Is the streamer a pro? EGT team, never heard of it.”

“Just a broken team that can’t even make it to the regular season. I advise the streamer to keep the title low-key. If you can keep winning, I’ll do a handstand and XX.”

Xue Wei said: “Mm, it might take two weeks. Let’s aim for 1500 points today.”

His voice was clear and indifferent, yet it carried an undeniable sharpness.

“Don’t boast, streamer.”

“Go easy, streamer, they’re cracking down on hacks lately.”

“I don’t use hacks,”

Xue Wei had clearly never encountered this group of trash-talking netizens in his bullet comments; his voice was slightly cool.

With his brand-new account (no friends, no history, no rank), he went straight into ranked matches, slicing through opponents like chopping vegetables, and quickly climbed to the 1400-point rank.

At this rank, there were actually quite a few players who would ‘smurf’ (fish bombing), but Xue Wei kept winning – over the course of an afternoon and evening, he achieved thirty consecutive wins, getting MVP every match, racking up personal points, and his rank soared.

At this point, his win rate was 100%.

In the evening, more people started watching his stream – although it was still just over a thousand viewers, friendlier bullet comments increased, and gradually people started chatting with him.

A viewer said: “Never seen this streamer before.”

Xue Wei said: “Mm, I’m new.”

His voice was very pleasant, and a dozen or so people gradually clicked the follow button.

He glanced at the streaming guide placed next to him, and casually thanked: “Thanks for the follow.”

A viewer asked: “What gun does the streamer like to use?”

“AWM, TRG-42,” Xue Wei said.

Netizen: “Sniping, and lone wolf playstyle, interesting.”

Immediately, a viewer said: “’Lone wolf playstyle’ sounds too good. The ugly truth is ‘orphan playstyle’.”

Xue Wei didn’t reply.

Netizen: “The streamer is so cold.”

Xue Wei lifted his eyelids, pausing for a few seconds, seemingly unsure whether to reply at once.

The netizen: “I like it.”

Xue Wei:

He kneaded his slightly cool fingertips, then entered another game.

In this round, his teammates were extremely unreliable. A 4v4 match felt like a 1v7.

At this time, players from the Southern Hemisphere were active on the international server, making it highly probable to match with Chinese players.

On their side, judging by the IDs, all three were Chinese server players, two of whom were a couple.

The first three rounds, thanks to Xue Wei’s presence, they actually won the score, but the cost-effectiveness was low – the economic advantage he painstakingly built up was entirely used by his teammates to buy expensive weapons, only to repeatedly die and have them captured by the enemy.

After the fourth round, Xue Wei’s teammates successfully managed a situation where the enemy had a powerful sniper rifle each, while they were completely broke.

Teammate #3 also realized they were one of the economic black holes this round, typing: [QAQ Big brother, I’m sorry, I’m so bad. I’m truly very sorry. I won’t go out and feed any more. I’ll give you all the economy. This account was bought; I accidentally clicked ranked today.]

ID: Strawberry Oolong Jelly

Bullet comment: “Noob doesn’t deserve to play.”

“If apologies worked, what would we need police for? Imagining myself as the streamer, my fists are already clenched.”

“Fighting tooth and nail 1v4, teammates are the enemy’s armory.”

“Judging by the ID, it’s another girl, right? Honestly, girls aren’t suited for FPS games. There are many bad female players; when we see a girl, we usually just vote them out.”

“Heh, does ‘map cannon’ing girls count as being a man? If a guy dared to be such an economic black hole, wouldn’t he also get voted out?”

“+1”

“+2”

While the bullet comments were trash-talking people, Xue Wei, for the first time, replied: “It’s fine.”

He banned the IDs that were trash-talking the girl in the stream, then glanced at the economy of the other three teammates, and told his teammates: “Just ECO. Play as usual, it’s fine.”

ECO, a common tactical term in international servers, means that when behind in economy, players choose not to buy weapons/armor/grenades, waiting for their economic situation to improve slightly before buying expensive armor or weapons all at once.

[Strawberry Oolong Jelly]: “Okay.”

She indeed bought nothing, instead carrying a small USP and following behind Xue Wei: “Big shot, I won’t disturb you. I can help you with vision.”

Xue Wei: “No need. Protect yourself.”

He truly didn’t need anyone to follow him.

[Strawberry Oolong Jelly] probably feared dragging them down, so she went to follow the couple, just like before.

However, her recent conversation with Xue Wei seemed to have frustrated the male player in the couple.

He dared not provoke Xue Wei, so he turned his aggression towards [Strawberry Oolong Jelly].

[Waste To Be Carried] typed in public chat: “You crack me up. So you know you’re trash, huh? 0-4 garbage, don’t follow me, you waste. The spot next to me is for my girlfriend, got it?”

[Come Lie Down La Da Da Da]: “b*tch, get lost.”

Xue Wei subtly, almost imperceptibly, frowned.

[Strawberry Oolong Jelly] seemed to have no temper. She apologized profusely: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I came up through party ranked; I don’t usually play solo ranked. I’m really sorry.”

She stopped, spinning in place, no longer moving.

Xue Wei typed: [Come here, follow me.]

[Strawberry Oolong Jelly] came over.

[Waste To Be Carried]’s mic lit up for a moment, then he suddenly said: “You two actually know each other, don’t you? Hey Strawberry, how many times did you ‘sell’ yourself to get carried to this rank, huh?”

The system channel fell silent.

[Strawberry Oolong Jelly] stopped talking, staying still.

Xue Wei suddenly opened his mic: “Wait a moment. Hide behind this door and wait for me. Don’t move.”

[Strawberry Oolong Jelly] finally moved, walking into the position he indicated.

On the map, Xue Wei suddenly turned around and left, heading towards the couple’s position.

Three seconds later, a system message appeared: [EGT.Now] used USP-S to kill allied teammate [Waste To Be Carried]

[EGT.Now] used USP-S to kill allied teammate [Come Lie Down La Da Da Da]

[System Warning: You attacked teammates in the recent match! If passed by a unanimous vote, teammates can kick you from the match.]

He holstered his gun and skillfully muted his teammates’ mics: “Done.”

The couple, as expected, went ballistic, starting to hurl insults in the public chat.

Xue Wei ignored them, cleanly taking out the enemies with a few precise shots.

Only one enemy remained. Before he could find them, a system message suddenly popped up: [Strawberry Oolong Jelly] killed an enemy.

It turned out she had been hiding in the back, silent all this time, and coincidentally killed a passerby.

[Strawberry Oolong Jelly]: “Big shot big brother, I picked up a gun; you can have it.”

Xue Wei went to look; the gun the girl had confiscated was none other than the TRG-42 he was saving up to buy.

Xue Wei typed in public chat: [Impressive, thank you.]

The girl’s mood clearly brightened; she was no longer sad and typed to thank him: [I should be thanking you.]

This round ended, and the next round began.

Xue Wei, holding the TRG-42, was pondering in the shop how to use his saved money to buy a few throwables when he suddenly heard a few gunshots, and lost a little health.

He turned his head to see that the male player from the couple was going crazy, having bought a gun and spraying bullets directly at him.

Xue Wei closed the system shop.

Scoped in, aimed, flick-shot kill.

Scoped in, aimed, double kill.

His movements were fluid and seamless, in stark contrast to the male player’s desperate spraying that failed to kill him.

Xue Wei slowly typed, addressing [Come Lie Down La Da Da Da]: [Your boyfriend is really bad.]

“You are too.”

After a suffocating silence, the couple silently quit.

A few different voices appeared in the bullet comments: “Dying laughing, conservatively estimate three days of fighting, that guy is so embarrassing.”

“Be bolder, break up right after leaving the game.”

“He’s bad at the game himself yet generalizes all female players. Serves him right.”

“Streamer is really handsome!!!! Girlfriend fans coming uninvited.”

“How can male players admit defeat? Male players also coming uninvited.”

The subsequent rounds went smoothly. [Strawberry Oolong Jelly] followed behind him, giving up on fighting and instead focusing on supplying resources, carrying all guns for Xue Wei.

Xue Wei effectively had double the equipment slots for one person.

The bullet comment section of the stream was peaceful.

“Holy crap, this is too awesome, having a teammate specifically carrying resources for you.”

“This combination playstyle is a bit like the popular observer-sniper duo playstyle from ancient times.”

“Right, right, I was just thinking that, it seems a bit familiar.”

“Why does no one play this style anymore?”

“Because it’s hard to play as an observer. There are only four people in total. If the observer follows the sniper, the remaining two teammates – one assaulter and one free agent – often end up in a 2v4 situation. This used to be considered a ‘cancerous’ playstyle.”

The match was won, a shutout victory.

After exiting, [Strawberry Oolong Jelly] sent a friend request.

Xue Wei clicked decline, then logged into the player black market page himself and started looking at skins.

Bullet comments: “?”

In the recent match, the TRG-42 Xue Wei obtained had an enemy player’s skin, a very beautiful gem color, a limited edition skin from a year ago.

The black market price was fifty thousand.

As he looked at skins there, bullet comments filled with question marks: “? He didn’t even consider accepting the girl’s friend request?”

“Lone wolf player, truly lives up to the name.”

“With this streamer’s playstyle, it’s obvious he doesn’t have a girlfriend.”

“The streamer chose a playstyle for being single for life.”

“Streamer, where’s the streamer? Good heavens, not talking again, huh?”

“If the streamer has a girlfriend, I’ll live stream doing a handstand while XX.”

“Is this an AI streamer? How much do I need to spend to make him talk?”

Just then, Micro, who had entered the stream at the beginning and remained silent, suddenly asked: “Do you have a girlfriend?”

Simultaneously, a special effect floated across the screen: [Micro] gifted the streamer ten deep-sea torpedoes.

Xue Wei was stunned for a moment: ‘…Thank you.’

He said: “No.”

A special effect floated across the screen again: [Micro] once again gifted him a thousand yuan, and asked.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

Xue Wei: “Thank you. N-n… no.”