Chapter 8

Bian Yan apologized for his prejudice against Pan Shi on the first day.

Getting so mad at Pei Yun Chang that he smashed a water bottle, it’s not surprising, really not surprising. A guy with connections, strong skills, and a sharp tongue. Being teammates with someone like that could really drive you crazy. Bian Yan was even thankful that he ended up in the same position as him.

“With such a bad temper and being so bad at games, how did you even get a girlfriend?” Pei Yun Chang tilted his head and smiled, adding fuel to the fire.

Lu Chang Kong and Pan Shi exchanged a glance, as if they had discovered some secret.

“None of your business!”

Bian Yan retorted, baring his teeth, “Someone like you should be alone forever. Who would dare date you? Kissing you would probably be poisonous!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Pei Yun Chang glanced at him and sat down leisurely, “I’m not dating you anyway.”

Why does it feel like the more they argue, the more ambiguous it gets?

Lu Chang Kong was holding back laughter so hard that his face was turning the same color as his hair.

Bian Yan stood up angrily, the words “duel” were on the tip of his tongue, but Pei Yun Chang interrupted him.

“You can’t beat me in a duel.” He smiled politely, extremely arrogant.

Since Bian Yan started playing Sacred Domain Clash, he had never been so infuriated!

“Pei Yun Chang!!”

Not only did no one try to mediate, but Pan Shi even silently finished the last sip of water from his bottle and placed the empty bottle next to Bian Yan.

Damn tactical drinking.

Lu Chang Kong witnessed the whole process and was about to burst from holding back laughter. How is this even a tradition?

If another newcomer walked in from the door, it would be hilarious.

As if on cue, someone did come in, but it wasn’t a newcomer; it was the two coaches from WIN.

This was the first time Bian Yan had seen Shen Chuan and Qin Yu Xuan since signing the contract.

As per usual, Head Coach Shen Chuan mainly handled the training affairs of WIN’s first team, while Qin Yu Xuan was responsible for the youth training camp.

But Shen Chuan seemed to pay special attention to this batch of youth trainees, dropping by every now and then.

“What are you guys chatting about so lively?” Shen Chuan walked in, his gaze lingering on Pei Yun Chang and Bian Yan, “Looks like you’re getting along well with the new classmates.”

Unlike the tense image when he first met Shen Chuan with Ye Li, the Shen Chuan at the base seemed more smooth and adept, speaking without revealing anything, making it hard to guess what he was thinking.

Not that it’s a bad thing, but Bian Yan felt that whenever these two came to the training camp, the atmosphere would become very serious and polite, lacking any vitality.

It’s like… like a workplace.

No sense of the passionate spirit of an esports team.

Perhaps this is the team style of a veteran team?

“All your efforts in the past period have been noted by Assistant Coach Qin and me. Next, it’s time to test your skills.” Shen Chuan looked around, “The Monday after next, which is eight days from now, I’ll free up half a day for the first team, and you guys will have a practice match together.”

The news set the entire training room ablaze!

Everyone started discussing the lineup of the first team and their most admired players.

Anyone who entered the youth training camp wanted to play esports, so they had an extremely high aspiration for the club’s starting first team.

Now they could directly have a practice match with them, which made these seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys extremely excited.

“Report! How many matches will we play?” Lu Chang Kong raised his hand.

“Of course, just one match. The first team has their own training tasks,” Qin Yu Xuan replied.

“Huh? But there are ten of us, and the team we form will definitely lose to them. What’s the point of the match then?”

Lu Chang Kong looked around and asked the question everyone wanted to ask.

“That’s the second thing I want to say,” Shen Chuan smirked, “We have ten people in the youth training camp, just enough for two of each profession. So starting tomorrow, everyone will be divided into five groups, and people of the same profession will open rooms for one-on-one training and review, striving to be in the best state by next Monday.”

“At that time, Coach Qin and I will select the winners from each group to participate in the match, and then mix them with the first team’s five players to form two teams for the practice match.”

Exciting!

Pan Shi clenched his fist in excitement. After training for so long, it was finally getting interesting.

Almost the moment Shen Chuan finished speaking, everyone started looking around the room for the person of the same profession as them.

Naturally, this included Bian Yan and Pei Yun Chang.

Their gazes met briefly in the air, neither willing to back down.

After Shen Chuan and Qin Yu Xuan left, everyone started training.

What Bian Yan didn’t expect was that Pei Yun Chang actually took the initiative to open a room and invite him.

If he didn’t join immediately, he wouldn’t be a real man. Bian Yan immediately clicked agree.

Entering the game, Bian Yan locked in a magic arrow, while Pei Yun Chang picked Curse Star.

Bian Yan’s main hero.

Winning would mean rubbing Bian Yan’s face in the dirt, losing would be self-humiliation.

Pei Yun Chang really didn’t leave himself any way out.

Bian Yan had played over three thousand games with Curse Star on his account, knowing the hero’s strengths, weaknesses, and even skill descriptions inside out.

You could say he knew how to play Curse Star and how to counter Curse Star.

As soon as the game started, Bian Yan quickly went online, and halfway there, a message popped up on the public screen—

[Arrow: Watch your dad’s moves]

Damn.

Bian Yan usually loved saying this, but it was the first time he realized how infuriating it could be.

[Nova: Bot match]

Bian Yan’s understanding of Curse Star was indeed spot on, but Pei Yun Chang was no slouch either, knowing all the laning details.

For the first time, Bian Yan, a national server Curse Star, was beaten black and blue by the opposing Curse Star.

He should have known not to play magic arrow; the early damage was too low, and the hero’s mechanics couldn’t compete.

The two peacefully farmed until the third wave of minions, and Bian Yan finally bought the Violent Arrow Blade—three seconds of damage reduction plus fifty percent critical rate.

Bian Yan flashed in, hitting every shot.

Curse Star kited while retreating into the bush, and with a sliver of health, used a skill to make a comeback, catching Bian Yan off guard!

Bian Yan frantically clicked the attack button, managing to land two critical hits, bringing both their health to a sliver.

Not a bad trade.

Just as Bian Yan comforted himself, the screen suddenly flashed green!

Pei Yun Chang’s health shot up!

That bastard brought healing.

[Your shooter brought healing?]

Bian Yan died with resentment, furiously typing.

[Arrow: Don’t bark]

Bian Yan: …

For the first time, he doubted whether joining WIN’s youth training was the right choice. Would he really not get a brain hemorrhage from all this anger?

Pei Yun Chang relied on healing to solo kill Bian Yan, consuming all the available public resources, and the economic gap between them widened immediately.

Realizing this, Bian Yan bought armor early to boost his defense.

In the second wave of laning, although Pei Yun Chang’s basic attack damage was high, Bian Yan’s health was thick, and for a while, there was no clear winner.

But as time went on, Bian Yan’s disadvantage slowly became apparent—high defense but insufficient damage, unable to deal with Pei Yun Chang.

He kept retreating to the tower, using tower damage to supplement his own. In the end, Pei Yun Chang tower-dived to solo kill Bian Yan, but also fell to tower damage.

They traded, bringing the score to 1-2.

Although Pei Yun Chang died, the economic gap was still insurmountable, and Bian Yan’s defense tower was slowly chipped away.

In the first match, magic arrow vs. Curse Star, the score was 1-2.

Bian Yan lost.

[Arrow: Call your adult to play]

Pei Yun Chang sent this taunt in the last second before the crystal exploded.

Killing the heart.

Bian Yan took a deep breath and immediately invited him for a second match.

This time, he chose Flower Goddess Bow, a female archer, agile and with many displacements.

Pei Yun Chang picked Light again.

Bian Yan had been in the team for a day and a half, and the only archer he had seen Pei Yun Chang play was Light, theoretically allowing for good counterplay.

Pei Yun Chang surely knew this too, but what kind of confidence made him lock in this hero without hesitation?

It was indeed quite showy.

In Sacred Domain Clash, once you enter, you can only see the talents your teammates brought, but the opponent’s can only be guessed.

So Bian Yan learned from Pei Yun Chang and brought healing this time, but he didn’t know what Pei Yun Chang brought.

Pei Yun Chang didn’t seem afraid of Bian Yan’s counterplay at all, going for a magic build because his skills were accurate enough to precisely predict Bian Yan’s next landing spot.

He was essentially playing an archer like a mage.

Bian Yan was so harassed from a distance that he couldn’t do anything, only able to poke when Light’s skills were on cooldown.

Until both had their first complete item, they started a real fight.

Bian Yan timed his healing perfectly, recovering a large portion of health, and held onto his skills, ready to interrupt Pei Yun Chang’s follow-up healing.

But nothing happened.

Pei Yun Chang didn’t bring healing.

Before Bian Yan could process other possibilities, Pei Yun Chang bought a lifesteal dagger and charged in, followed by a flash of red light!

Bian Yan’s screen went black again.

He brought execute.

[Arrow: Is there a real person?]

Pei Yun Chang taunted as usual.

Surprisingly, Bian Yan didn’t respond this time.

After the respawn timer ended, they started laning again.

Bian Yan was fuming, executing every detail perfectly, dealing maximum damage, and finally killed Pei Yun Chang.

But the opponent’s execute cooldown was just up, and Bian Yan ate a full execute.

They traded again.

The rest of the match played out similarly to the last one, with Pei Yun Chang using a slight economic advantage to take down the defense tower.

In the second match, Flower Goddess Bow vs. Light, the score was 1-2.

Bian Yan lost again.

[Arrow: I’m begging you, just AFK]

Pei Yun Chang was extremely vengeful, returning every word Bian Yan had used to insult him earlier.

Bian Yan didn’t respond again, immediately inviting him for the next match.

After a twenty-minute battle—

In the third match, Light vs. Spirit Feather, the score was 3-2.

Bian Yan lost, Pei Yun Chang won.

Bian Yan managed to solo kill Pei Yun Chang twice with aggressive pressure. But this game was ultimately about pushing towers, and in his eagerness to suppress health, he failed to defend the last wave, and his crystal exploded again, losing in a truly unfortunate manner.

A loss is a loss, and Pei Yun Chang taunted as usual, but for some reason, Bian Yan didn’t say a word.

Even when he solo killed Pei Yun Chang, he didn’t say a word.

“Practice more if you’re bad.”

Pei Yun Chang had just finished editing his final taunt for this match, his finger hovering over the send button, but for some reason, he didn’t press it.

The crystal exploded, and it couldn’t be sent.

Bian Yan sent another invitation for the fourth match.

Fifteen minutes later—

In the fourth match, Arrow vs. Silver Moon, the score was 2-2.

Bian Yan lost, Pei Yun Chang won.

The atmosphere throughout this match was very low.

Bian Yan calculated every attack’s damage perfectly, forcing Pei Yun Chang to fully focus, without even a chance to open the chat box, naturally unable to taunt.

Fortunately, he still won in the end.

Ten minutes later—

In the fifth match, Shadow Wind vs. Hunter, the score was 1-1.

Bian Yan lost, Pei Yun Chang won.

The chat box was as quiet as a dead pond.

Pei Yun Chang was getting numb from winning.

…

Fifteen minutes later—

In the eleventh match, Hunter vs. Hunter, the score was 0-0.

Bian Yan lost, Pei Yun Chang won.

“Nova, why are you still playing? It’s time to eat!”

Lu Chang Kong, being in the support position, found dueling with Purple Hair boring after a few matches and had a relaxed afternoon.

Bian Yan was busy playing and had no time to respond.

Pan Shi also had a relaxed practice, grabbing his jacket to go eat. Passing by the two’s chairs, he covered his mouth and asked Lu Chang Kong, “What’s going on?”

Lu Chang Kong shrugged, “No idea, maybe they’re in the zone?”

The two exchanged a glance and left first.

Bian Yan and Pei Yun Chang played from three in the afternoon until ten at night, playing nearly thirty matches, dueling every hero in Sacred Domain.

Thirty matches, and Bian Yan lost every single one.

“Again!”

The training room was empty by now, and Bian Yan’s voice was particularly loud.

Pei Yun Chang’s eyes were sore, but the words of refusal were swallowed back.

He clicked the agree button.

The thirty-first match.

Bian Yan chose Curse Star.

His main hero, a do-or-die battle.