Chapter 152

REAL’s team base is located in a villa on the outskirts, privately owned by the boss. It’s old-fashioned in decoration, with a natural environment. From afar, it looks like a set for a horror movie. Previously, when the league came to film, the cameraman was startled by a snake that popped out of the garden.

DSG, ADT, and KU are collectively known as the three big powers of the league. The luxury and professionalism of their bases are completely incomparable to REAL’s.

Ye Chi hadn’t been here before. He was questioned thoroughly by the security guard at the entrance of the park. Fortunately, Dreaming had kindly informed the guard beforehand, so Ye Chi registered at the gate and was allowed in.

After entering, Ye Chi understood what Dreaming meant by only idiots getting lost.

The signs pointed towards ADT and DSG team bases, one south and one north, completely opposite directions.

Ye Chi: “…”

Mistake.

Ye Chi stood under a street lamp, pondering for a moment. Could his mild myopia sometimes cause him to misread directions at night?

Just as Ye Chi hesitated which way to go north, a person rushed out from the northern intersection.

They came face to face.

Tang Qi: “?”

Ye Chi: “…”

Ye Chi and Tang Qi weren’t particularly familiar. He only knew that Tang Qi had a very close relationship with Chen Dong. After a brief hesitation, Ye Chi raised his hand slightly, “Hey.”

Tang Qi: “Uh… Hey.”

The two of them awkwardly faced each other. Ye Chi broke the silence again, “Out for a run?”

Tang Qi: “I’m picking up takeout.”

Ye Chi: “…”

The awkward atmosphere gradually spread. Tang Qi’s scrutinizing gaze intensified, and Ye Chi decided to cut to the chase, dropping the pretense of asking for directions due to being lost and asked directly, “Is MY here at the base?”

Tang Qi’s brain was short-circuiting.

It was 9 PM now. He had just finished a practice match, ordered fried chicken takeout, came out to pick it up, and then he suddenly saw Ye Chi from REAL standing in front of their park entrance signboard, seemingly lost.

If it were a player from another team, it would be fine, but it had to be Ye Chi, the one who had recently had quite a bit of interaction with Mo Yin. Ye Chi had caused a big skirmish in last night’s practice match.

How could this person be here???

After two mechanical conversations, Ye Chi’s last question hit Tang Qi’s brain hard, pushing his CPU temperature up another notch. Tang Qi pointed backward with his hand, “In the base.”

“Thanks.”

Ye Chi cleared his throat and walked past Tang Qi. Tang Qi dumbly followed and turned around, with question marks falling all over his mind.

Carrying his takeout back to the base, Tang Qi was still somewhat bewildered. He walked into the training room, looked around, and saw Mo Yin sitting in a corner, gaming with headphones on.

Had he come and gone? Or had he not come at all?

Tang Qi sat down with lingering questions. Just as he sat down, Ding Wenquan reminded him, “Don’t eat smelly food outside.”

DSG had many strict rules. No strongly scented foods were allowed in the training room.

Tang Qi quickly stood up, took a few steps, and then turned back to pull Ding Wenquan aside.

“What… I was in line…”

Mo Yin was live streaming.

Although he didn’t speak much himself, his microphone was excellent, capturing every sound clearly. Any movement in the training room was clearly audible in his stream.

The entire DSG team’s style was serious, and whether it was due to Mo Yin’s influence or because Mo Yin spent so much time in the training room, they all became more reserved during their streams. Instead, when Mo Yin livestreamed, the voices of his teammates sometimes made their way into his broadcast.

Fans also dissected the details of their teammates’ interactions from Mo Yin’s stream, enthusiastically discussing:

– [Who, who, who ordered fried chicken? I want some too, give me a piece.]

– [It must be the little support. Just now, Truck was speaking.]

– [Haha, did Truck get dragged by the little support to eat fried chicken?]

– [Did Ma Bao have a late-night snack? Don’t let him starve.]

– [The streamer is all about health, don’t worry. The official account posted that Auntie is making late-night snacks, and the streamer will eat after jogging. Quality carbohydrates + protein, making me anxious.]

– [The streamer is so good at training, can he please not dress so conservatively during matches? Give mom a look, she’ll cry.]

– [When will we get a fitness vlog from the streamer? No other intentions, just concerned about the streamer’s health.]

– [Can the official account do something!!!]

“Ding Wenquan was pulled by Tang Qi to a corner of the corridor.

“Has someone from our base arrived?” Tang Qi stared intensely at Ding Wenquan.

Ding Wenquan was puzzled, “Someone? What do you mean?”

Tang Qi said, “While I was out getting takeout, did someone from our base show up?”

“I didn’t notice,” Ding Wenquan replied, “I was gaming in the training room.”

Tang Qi paused, muttering to himself, “He didn’t come, so why did he ask me if MY was at the base?”

“Who?” Ding Wenquan asked, “Who came looking for MY?”

Tang Qi shook his head, lips pursed, “Nobody.”

Ding Wenquan glanced at him, “Alright, I’m going back to the game.”

Thinking it over, Tang Qi nodded and asked if Ding Wenquan wanted fried chicken.

“No, I’ll mooch off MY’s fitness meal,” Ding Wenquan replied.

“…”

Was this the ease of longtime teammates? Damn it! When would he be able to casually ask to mooch food like that too?

Well, mainly because he didn’t want to eat bland fitness meals.

After quickly finishing his late-night snack and rinsing his mouth, Tang Qi returned to the training room. He coincidentally met Mo Yin coming out from there, mustering up the courage to greet him. However, he ended up succumbing to Mo Yin’s aura, sidestepping without saying a word. If only he had the courage to call out ‘Ma Bao’ in front of Mo Yin, would he have been cursed as well?

After finishing the training match at night, Mo Yin habitually went for a few kilometers’ night run. The campus had a professional running track, making it comfortable to run. Morning to build muscles, evening to build stamina—this routine helped him keep his body healthy and withstand the heavy training load.

Putting on his running shoes, Mo Yin texted his aunt that he would be back in half an hour.

Putting on his jacket’s hood, Mo Yin left the base, jogging towards the lakeside track in the campus.

The park’s streetlights and ground lights dotted the night, making it especially quiet. Mo Yin ran slowly, his mind unusually calm.

Having experienced another world, there were still many unanswered questions for him. But the inexplicable emptiness seemed to gradually disappear.

As a natural person, he was already perfect in all indicators. Any experience was hardly meaningful to him.

Therefore, despite being extremely powerful, he felt bored.

And the pursuit of meaning itself, Mo Yin had never grasped as a natural person before.

He felt like he was in cold seawater, unable to feel the cold around him because of his lack of warmth.

Perhaps it was a kind of blind happiness.

But it was also very fake.

He didn’t need this kind of self-deceptive placebo.

Even if the truth was cruel, he had the confidence to face it.

This sense of fulfillment came from within his spirit, making him feel grounded even when playing games or running a few steps in this small world.

The park’s lush trees emitted a refreshing fragrance, deeply inhaling into his lungs, offering a different kind of experience.

Mo Yin stopped under a tree, its leaves hanging low and brushing lightly against his head when he reached out. Feeling the slight coolness, he felt alive.

“Mo Yin.”

Mo Yin turned his head.

The streetlight illuminated them both, and Ye Chi stood under another tree, wearing a white hoodie with his hands in its pockets, his expression somewhat complicated. After Mo Yin turned around, he stared blankly for a moment, withdrawing his hands from his pockets and hanging them by his sides, palms lightly curved.

It was a blunder because Tang Qi’s suspicion was too intense, and Ye Chi walked a little low for a while. When he looked up, he found everything in front of him unfamiliar.

He was really lost.

The park was too big to be true. Although the map was so clear at the entrance, there were no specific icons inside. Ye Chi used his phone for navigation, found that the signal was poor here, and the map couldn’t be loaded at all. He called Dreaming, and Dreaming didn’t pick up his phone according to the life and death agreement they discussed last night.

——[I’m lost.]

Ye Chi thought about it and added another message.

——[It’s true.]

Dreaming didn’t reply, pretending to be dead and doing a good job.

Ye Chi had to try to find someone in the park to ask for directions. He had just walked a few minutes when he saw someone jogging slowly in the distance.

The other person was wearing a sports jacket, head down and wearing a hat.

Ye Chi vaguely felt a bit familiar.

When that person stopped, Ye Chi watched his back, and slowly, he seemed to recognize him.

He tilted his head back, the hood of his jacket slipping to reveal a bit of black hair, and reached out to touch a patch of dense green leaves.

The leaf swayed gently.

Ye Chi called out Mo Yin’s name.

Only after Mo Yin turned around did Ye Chi realize he had just called out Mo Yin’s name directly.

Among esports players, they usually address each other by their IDs, unless they are very familiar with each other.

Ye Chi instinctively felt he had said the wrong thing again.

He had come to apologize, but why did he mess up again upon meeting?

A light breeze blew by. Mo Yin lowered his hand, turned around completely, facing Ye Chi, seeming to remember who he was and waiting for Ye Chi to speak.

Ye Chi’s throat felt dry.

Meeting Mo Yin outside of a competition seemed even more stressful than facing pressure in the arena.

He didn’t understand why he was so nervous.

“Hello.”

Ye Chi wanted to smack himself for what he just said.

“I got lost,” Ye Chi tried to recover, “I came to find ADT’s jungler, Dreaming. He’s not picking up my calls, and the signal here is too bad…”

Mo Yin flicked his head back slightly, “Over there.”

Ye Chi stopped himself from talking further.

Mo Yin raised his hand, seemingly ready to continue running.

Hesitation—maybe a second, maybe two seconds, or maybe no hesitation at all—Ye Chi said, “Actually, I came to find you.”

Mo Yin turned his head slightly, his gaze calmly assessing.

Ye Chi felt sweat forming on his back, “During yesterday’s practice match, I was thinking if you were upset, I mean, about the last qualifier, I wanted to explain…”

“No.”

Mo Yin said, “I’m not upset.”

His tone was cold, chilling Ye Chi even more.

“I’m sorry.”

Apologize first, then explain.

“I admire you a lot, and I respect you. You’re the strongest mid-laner in my eyes. I hope you don’t misunderstand. I’ve always admired you and wanted to become a professional player like you.”

Mo Yin seemed to listen attentively but his expression was distant, surrounded by an aura that kept people at a distance.

After Ye Chi finished speaking sincerely, he flatly said, “Anything else?”

Ye Chi hesitated.

He felt a strong sense of rejection, almost as strong as losing a match.

Should he continue? He would likely be rejected.

Mo Yin shifted his shoulders, and Ye Chi involuntarily took a step forward, blurting out, “Can we formally get to know each other?”

Mo Yin turned around, Ye Chi nervously watching him, his eyes beneath his straight eyebrows unusually focused.

“Not on the field, but off the field, can we get to know each other?”

Mo Yin looked silently at him.

“Can we be friends?”

Facing a 99% chance of rejection, Ye Chi still expressed his feelings. He had come here; he wouldn’t be afraid to stay, nor would he have called him back.

Mo Yin lowered his eyelashes. Ye Chi couldn’t read what he was thinking. After a moment, Mo Yin raised his eyes and said, “No.”

There was a hint of disappointment, but it wasn’t unexpected.

Ye Chi smiled faintly, “Sorry to bother you during your run.”

Mo Yin’s eyelashes fluttered up and down, his gaze lingering on Ye Chi’s face for a moment, “I don’t befriend noobs.”