Demotion Match

“Help, hahahaha, what a ridiculous question, so gay, just shoot them first.”

The live stream was full of banter, but Micro no longer spoke.

Xue Wei had been streaming for a few days, and his popularity was soaring rapidly.

He streamed non-stop all day, climbing from 500 to the 1500-point tier in just a few days.

His win rate had consistently remained at a terrifying 100%.

Although his win rate was bound to drop once his score reached 2000+, he was currently a veritable solo king.

On Sunday, Xue Wei requested streaming leave: “Going to the hospital for medicine, will stream again when I get back.”

These past two days, many fans had started following him, leaving comments: “Streamer, are you not well? You play professionally and stream for long hours, you should take care of your health.”

More irritable ones commented: “Only been streaming for a few days and already taking leave? Streamer’s getting ahead of themselves.”

Xue Wei replied to comments quite earnestly, gentle and polite: “I’ll stream longer when I return.”

The hospital was cold.

Xue Wei still took the bus there, and by the time he arrived, the tips of his ears were red from the cold.

The doctor wrote him a prescription: “I’ve changed your medication. Try it for a few days and see how you react. If you still experience drug-induced hypoglycemia or other side effects, contact me immediately.”

“Okay, thank you.” Xue Wei picked up the prescription.

The doctor glanced behind him: “Did your parents not come this time either? In such cold weather, let alone your poor health, if you faint by the roadside, it could be serious.”

“They don’t care about this.” Xue Wei lowered his eyes, glanced at the doctor’s expression, then added normally, “It’s fine.”

Xue Wei returned to the base, turned on his computer, and started streaming.

He bought another jianbing and changed his announcement to: “Eating now, browsing the shop for a bit.”

Live stream viewers: “Browsing the shop again, just looking, not buying. Streamer’s really poor.”

Xue Wei: “Mm.”

“What are you eating, streamer?”

“Jianbing.”

“What kind of jianbing?”

“Multigrain jianbing, with sausage and egg, double crispy, extra chili.” Xue Wei seemed a bit impatient at having his meal interrupted, he said, “I won’t reply to bullet comments for now.”

“You speak so coldly, it’s like we’ve never made you happy.”

“Streamer, the last person who spoke like you is now permanently buried in the CT base’s sewer.”

“Damn, he really went to eat, the streamer’s not talking? I just heard him open a soda can.”

“The streamer’s still here, he’s still looking at the shop.”

“Stop looking, stop looking, you can’t afford to buy anything.”

“The poorest streamer I’ve ever seen in 《Fire》… Does the EGT team not even buy skins for them?”

“Is the streamer really that arrogant? Not saying a word?”

“Brothers, watch me.”

A scrolling gift effect appeared in the live stream.

[Fifteen Seconds of Contestant, Two Minutes of Spectator] sent the streamer a deep-sea torpedo.

Xue Wei indeed spoke: “Thank you.”

“Learned something! Heh, this streamer is so worldly, he’ll talk for money.”

Others followed suit.

[Top Free Agent] sent the streamer a rocket launcher.

Xue Wei: “Thank you.”

[Shenyang Pretty] sent the streamer a deep-sea torpedo.

[Shenyang Pretty]: “?”

[Shenyang Pretty]: “Where are they? How come it stopped at me?”

“Dying laughing, probably because you’re ugly.”

Xue Wei finished his jianbing and threw the wrapper into the trash can.

Just then, a viewer entered the stream, automatically appearing with the stream’s top contributor effect.

It was [Micro].

[Micro]: “Good afternoon.”

Xue Wei paused: “Good afternoon.” Then he pulled out his phone.

He hadn’t seen Micro in a few days.

This person was still the highest donor in the stream. By international custom, they had exchanged private contact information.

It was also after that day that Xue Wei discovered two skin weapons had appeared in his account, and the gifting account was Micro.

AWM – Stellar.

TRG – Stellar.

Both of these skins were discontinued, and their combined price on the black market was nearly seventy thousand.

Xue Wei hadn’t used them, instead taking screenshots and asking the other party.

But Micro hadn’t replied. The other party’s status was closed to him; it was as if they hadn’t been online.

Xue Wei slid open the private message page and indeed saw Micro’s reply.

[Now]: [Image]

[Now]: Hello, did you send these to me? They’re too expensive, I can’t accept them, or perhaps I can pay you in installments.

[Micro]: “No need.”

[Micro]: “Just use them.”

Xue Wei typed: “Then do you need help climbing ranks? Or would you like to duo queue with me?”

[Micro]’s reply was concise: “No need to climb ranks.”

[Micro]: “Duo queue, let me see.”

Xue Wei waited for a while.

Half a minute later, Micro returned: “I can’t duo queue with you right now. I’ll go fix it.”

Xue Wei: “Oh.”

He knew that when the competitive ranked rating difference was >400 points, duo queue was impossible.

Micro’s avatar was an anime girl, looking like a casual, wealthy female gamer, so they might have gone to buy an account.

Xue Wei entered the game.

National Team Training Base.

Inside the starting team’s training camp, there was silence, and the atmosphere was oppressive.

Everyone silently went about their individual training.

The head coach paced back and forth for a long time before finally letting out a long sigh: “Captain Wen takes a vacation, and all of you become listless. I let you take a vacation, but you don’t even rest properly. What are you trying to do? Rebel?”

No one paid him any mind.

Just then, Wen Man’s room door opened, and everyone looked up at the second floor.

Wen Man was wearing a T-shirt and shorts, holding a cartoon mug, and said while drinking tea: “You’re all so idle, aren’t you? If you’re all so idle, come play a training match.”

The team members all sat up straight.

“Training match?” The coach suspected he’d been hit in the head by a donkey, “When did we have one? Why don’t I know?”

Wen Man walked downstairs, stretching his limbs: “We’re having one now.”

In the afternoon, on China’s largest 《Fire》 game technical forum.

“Breaking news! This afternoon the national team is playing a scrimmage, and God Wen is in it, but guess what they’re doing!”

“They’re demoting! Mass demotion!”

“I think I’ve figured out their playstyle. They split into two groups, A and B. Group A plays normally, Group B plays hide-and-seek, no shooting allowed, the goal is to run out the match timer. Holy crap, this method is amazing! So useful for blindly judging enemy positions. But this playstyle absolutely tanks individual KDA.”

“Dying laughing, it’s said that all national team members dropped out of the rankings, and God Wen himself has dropped to 1500 points.”

“What’s there to be afraid of? He’ll climb back to global first in two days.” Someone said sourly, “For a while, didn’t he make four alt accounts, four different roles, all of which made it into the global top ten…”

This move by the national team sparked a huge discussion, even startling foreign teams overnight.

Although the Chinese team had performed poorly in international competitions, every move Wen Man made was considered a key research subject, attracting everyone’s attention.

Despite the national team specifically issuing an announcement, stating it was a relaxing team activity during their vacation, no one believed it, and a large number of people online began to analyze and discuss.

“This move! It’s definitely a smokescreen! You think they’re relaxing internally, but in reality, this is also a strategy! Confusing domestic and international attention, tactical time-wasting…”

“You think they’re wasting time, but in reality, they’re just relaxing internally! God Wen is operating on a stratospheric level! I’ve predicted your prediction!”

Some even developed new modes in community servers, creating rules entirely based on this playstyle, developing a new hide-and-seek mode, filling the air with joy and laughter for a time.

Xue Wei streamed until evening, then went offline in the middle to have dinner with Zhao Xiaoyi.

Zhao Xiaoyi only saw the news in the middle and impatiently said: “Holy crap, eat quickly, eat quickly! It’s said that God Wen dropped to 1500 points! The server is packed today; everyone wants to try their luck to see if they can get matched with him. I’m coming too! I’m going to buy an alt account – speaking of which, isn’t your account in that rank?”

He hinted frantically.

Xue Wei stirred his dipping sauce, refusing: “I’m streaming tonight.”

Zhao Xiaoyi sighed plaintively: “Ugh.”

He scrolled through an account trading app and found that accounts at that rank had skyrocketed in value.

He sighed heavily again: “Damn it. Even chasing an idol is this hard. Is there still a chance for me to drop ranks now?”

Xue Wei focused on eating.

In the evening, he returned to his live stream.

This weekend slot should have been the peak time for viewership, but his stream’s traffic decreased instead of increasing.

Checking the homepage, there were four national team members’ live stream pages all neatly aligned.

Everyone had happily watched the “demotion matches” all afternoon.

All the popularity was over there, so naturally, no one paid attention to a small streamer.

Xue Wei also went to take a look.

He casually clicked on a national team member’s live stream.

As soon as he entered, he saw an ID sending a message in the bottom left corner.

[CHN.Alan]: “Captain Wen said training is over for today. Disperse.”

National team member: “Ah—it’s over, preparing to go offline.”

They were all well-trained. When told to go offline, they went offline, logging out of their accounts, and others also went offline one after another.

The live stream viewers refused to leave, because on their online friends list, a small green dot was still lit next to [CHN.Pretty], showing him online.

Viewers wailed and howled: “Golden hour! It’s already over! Play more! I haven’t even laughed myself to death yet!”

“Is God Wen going to stream! Why does God Wen never take streaming gigs!”

“Dying laughing, take streaming gigs, so foreign teams can research targeted playstyles?”

“He didn’t even use his mic tonight! This man is so cold.”

Xue Wei watched for a while, then exited the stream, returned to his own stream, and clicked on ranked match.

Matchmaking countdown five seconds; both sides successively entered the match, and avatars lit up one after another.

This round, Xue Wei was on the CT side (Counter-Terrorist force).

He was looking down, adjusting his keybinds, when he suddenly noticed his live stream had exploded.

“Holy crap, what kind of luck does the streamer have!”

“Holy crap, holy crap, look at the ID on the other side!!! The streamer ran into him!! He’s actually on the other team!”

Xue Wei looked up; the game had already entered the preparation page.

On the right, the first enemy’s avatar flashed with a small green light.

The ID displayed: [CHN.Pretty]