Chapter 131  : Untitled

Ji Zhiyao felt very aggrieved.

Such grievance remained up into the night, when Heng dragged him to play a ranked match in the group chat.

[Heng: Son, are you not going to train? Quickly come on for a ranked match! @MelonRind]

[MelonRind: Don’t disturb me, I’m writing an essay.]

[XiaoFeiCannotFly: What essay? A composition?]

[MelonRind: Nope. Mainly exploring the possibility of the core values of socialism and the spirit of Chinese eSports developing and prospering together.]

[LittlePrinceDominatingTheNorth-East: ?]

[KisExtremelyHandsome: ? ?]

[DB.MHF: Speak human language.]

[MelonRind: [smiley] Fell asleep in Essentials of Mao’s Thoughts, the lecturer punished me by writing a reflection, 4000 words.]

[MelonRind: [smiley][smiley] unfortunately, this lecturer knows that I’m an eSports professional player.]

[MelonRind: ? ? ? where did everyone go? Why is no one consoling me? Where’s the friendship between teammates?]

[XiaoFeiCannotFly: Brother, the few of them have already collapsed from laughing. Don’t cry, I sympathize with you.]

[MelonRind: ...]

[MelonRind: [bye] I’ll go, I have a date with a reflection.]

Ji Zhiyao dropped his phone and exhaled.

At the thought of his teammates cruelly mocking him while gaming, the more he felt that he was really too pitiful.

How was he supposed to write this reflection?!

Ji Zhiyao bit on the nib of the pen, and heard another notification sound of a new message on WeChat.

He picked up his phone again.

It was a private message.

[DB.MHF: Go watch the after-game interview of the top few teams at the previous national qualifiers and Mix’s at the international league, piece it up here and there, you’ll be done soon.]

Yeah, why had he not thought of that?

Ji Zhiyao suddenly grinned: [Got it, thanks Captain.]

Ji Zhiyao stayed up and finished an ultra long essay that he had never written before. The next morning, he picked a time when the lecturer did not have lessons and delivered the reflection to the office. He then received a little nagging from the lecturer before he was completely liberated.

Ji Zhiyao returned to the dorm, then sent his timetable for this semester to Mo Huaifeng, to allow him and the stats analyzer to arrange his training timings accordingly.

Mo Huaifeng replied very quickly.

[DB.MHF: From Friday to Monday, come to the base for these four days. I’ve checked, there’s only one lesson on Monday, you can also come back after that lesson.]

[MelonRind: Then I think I’ll skip it... staying at the base on Sunday, it’s quite troublesome to run back and forth for one lesson.]

[DB.MHF: Lazy.]

[MelonRind: I’m doing this for the sake of training, Captain, don’t you vilify me.]

[MelonRind: By the way Captain, how’s it going with picking a place? Have you thought of where you want to go play after the training camp?]

[DB.MHF: Mm.]

[DB.MHF: Los Angeles Disneyland. How’s that?]

[MelonRind: ... Captain, repeat yourself, where do you want to go?]

[DB.MHF: I actually don’t really want to go there, but I considered that it suits your disposition better there.]

[DB.MHF: Stop struggling, I know you like it.]

[MelonRind: ...]

Mo Huaifeng was always someone whose actions did not match the words he said and occasionally had strong tsundere characteristics. Ji Zhiyao did not intend on exposing him.

Only, he had not expected that...

His Captain was so childlike, that he actually wanted to go to Disneyland to play?

But, the previous time he had brought Captain to the arcade to play, although he did not say it, he still looked very happy. It must be that Captain had never been to such places to play and so wanted to go check it out.

Captain was a big boy that was twenty plus years old, since he took up the responsibility of managing the team and also had to make time to run the club, he was usually too busy that he never had the time...

The more he thought, the more Ji Zhiyao felt that Mo Huaifeng was really too pitiful. Hence with a flood of affection, he typed right away: [That’s right, I’ve always wanted to go, I’d been found out by Captain. It’s set then, when I’ve booked the tickets in advance and checked the itinerary I’ll inform you again.]

[DB.MHF: Okay.]

Ji Zhiyao upon seeing this reply, thought that he had helped his Captain to fulfill his dream and couldn’t help but exclaim that he was really such a great person.

On the other end of the screen, Mo Huaifeng lifted the corner of his lips in satisfaction.

Sure enough, he had guessed correctly.

Ji Zhiyao was so childish, he would definitely like Disneyland.

Cooking the frog in warm water, his water was almost boiling. He has to think carefully, what to do then, to make Ji Zhiyao this frog willingly be taken in his palm.

...

Time passed swiftly, Ji Zhiyao felt like school had barely started for a few days and it was already April, the set date for the team’s training camp.

He had only applied for a week’s leave from his specialized course lecturer, the remaining week would have to rely on his dorm mates to freely come up with something and hopefully they wouldn’t get caught by any teachers.

Once Ji Zhiyao stepped out of his room he saw Nuo and went downstairs with him, heading into the training room.

Today was the day to meet Vita’s coach, they heard that he’d already arrived at S City’s airport, the club had sent staff to go pick him up personally.

Ji Zhiyao yawned and sat down beside Mo Huaifeng, he finished a glass of water before he felt slightly more awake.

He turned his head and asked Xiao who was behind him, “Brother Xiao, are you sure your hand would be fine when you follow along with the training? Vita’s coach’s would probably set a lot of training; I somehow don’t feel too at ease.”

After a whole month in March, Xiao’s wrist was currently slowly recovering, as of now he could continuously play around two matches. Although it could not be compared to the past, it was already a huge improvement.

But Xiao was too hardworking in his training, the stats analyzer often urged him and though he would promise to stop each time, but after that he would always secretly find time to train a bit more. This was also why Ji Zhiyao was worried after hearing that Xiao wanted to join in on the training.

Xiao nodded. “Don’t worry, I’m mainly following through the mode of training. If I don’t feel well, I will call for a stop immediately and won’t continue to train.”

Ji Zhiyao nodded, inwardly making up his mind to frequently check on Xiao’s condition, he couldn’t watch him get injured again.

They waited for more than an hour, the door to the training room was pushed open by Yuan Wei. He was followed by a man around thirty plus years old, his appearance was common. Moderate physique, the moment he stepped he in, he’d politely nodded to every person.

Mo Huaifeng took the lead and stood up, everyone bowed slightly to the middle-aged man.

Then the middle-aged man began to speak, his voice rising and falling in cadence. Ji Zhiyao could not understand, but felt like he was speaking Korean.

He glanced at the expressions of his teammates and realized that they didn’t look like they understood too. Hence he exchanged glances with Heng who was beside him and asked in a low voice, “How are we going to communicate? Did the club not hire a translator?”

“Did you think our Captain stood up for nothing? Just watch.”

Ji Zhiyao looked searchingly towards Mo Huaifeng, as he was mulling over what Nuo had meant, he heard Mo Huaifeng begin to speak.

Mo Huaifeng spoke Korean as well, his slightly low voice sounded very charming.

Ji Zhiyao exclaimed softly, “What the f*ck?”

What was there that his Captain couldn’t do?

Heng explained, “Before the reassembly, Mix specially went to Korea for a year of training for the international league, Captain learned his Korean then. Though he’s not totally familiar, but basic communication is not a problem.”

“Are all the captains in the eSports scene so multi-talented like our Captain?”

“What are you talking about? Please sober up.”

Both of them exchanged a few words in a soft voice, at the front, Mo Huaifeng’s interaction with Vita’s ex-coach was already more or less done. Mo Huaifeng turned around with a serious expression that was rarely seen on him.

Yuan Wei took a step forward. “Invited by the club, this is Korea’s Vita battleteam’s ex-coach, Kang Kyung Chwa. Hereafter, no matter whether Coach Kang conducts trainings for the team as a whole or individually, translation would be done by Captain. This means that regardless of the form of training, Captain will be the supervisor. I hope that everyone will make good use for these two weeks, in order to establish the foundation to clinch the first place at the national qualifiers and successfully qualify for the international league.”

Everyone started to applaud.

Only Ji Zhiyao was contemplating while clapping, if all the translating was to be done by Captain, wouldn’t Captain be awfully busy during this period of time.

However, in using such a method, it would indeed allow greater control of the team at each stage and help to keep things more confidential, as compared to hiring an additional translator.

Captain really had it tough...

When the Labour Day holiday came, he must take Mo Huaifeng to have fun and relax.

Before the training camp began, Mo Huaifeng even emphasized the rules for this period of time once more.

There were no off days during the period of the training camp, with the exception of force majeure reasons, no one could leave the base; be downstairs before 12 PM each day for training, a minute late and the whole month’s salary will be deducted; if there are no particular situations, each day’s training duration should not be less than 12 hours.

There were only these three mandatory rules, but there were benefits too. In these two weeks, the club will set aside a fund, specially used to hire an auntie to make various kinds of nutritional meals for them each day. If there are anything else that they want to have, they can also request it from the auntie.

This would undoubtedly be everyone’s source of happiness in the midst of the bitter training.

Kang Kyung Chwa first had lunch with them in the dining room, then in the afternoon, Mo Huaifeng brought Kang Kyung Chwa to meet Mix battleteam’s original coach.

Three of them went on to communicate with each other, Kang Kyung Chwa gained a preliminary understanding of the capabilities of everyone in the team.

When dinner ended, the training camp officially began.

The training concept that Kang Kyung Chwa brought with him was indeed rather different from those in China. For example, his first method of testing everyone was to first use a little program that resembled a game, using the changes of the color block, to observe each person’s sensitivity of their naked eye and test their hand speed and response capacity.

It was merely a small test, but all of them almost sank to the edge of collapsing.

Because in the program, the rate at which the colored blocks change was really too rapid, almost to the point of having three to four colored blocks appearing in one second. When they were doing the test, they were required to find the block that had changed color and click on it, it was virtually a blur, that they almost puked from looking at it.

Mo Huaifeng lasted the longest, around 42 seconds. Followed by Heng, 31 seconds. Ji Zhiyao 27 seconds, Xiaofei and K tying at 24 seconds. Nuo was the worst, lasting a total of only 19 seconds.

As such Kang Kyung Chwa’s expression when facing Nuo became extremely sombre, seemingly not quite understanding why he would appear in this team.

Nuo was a little indignant. “I’m a support, I only need to follow behind the ADC and help him to develop, that’s all. Even if I train my hand speed to become especially fast, my damage wouldn’t be very high, the abilities of the center player opposite could still be able to beat the hell out of me.”

These words were spoken a little too rudely, in the team it should be considered talking back to the coach. Especially when Korea is a country that was extremely particular about seniority, it made the nature of the matter even more serious. Ji Zhiyao could not help but be a little worried about Nuo.

He secretly looked towards Mo Huaifeng and found that Mo Huaifeng only stared expressionlessly at Nuo for a while, then did not make any comment and translated those words for Kang Kyung Chwa.

Kang Kyung Chwa’s expression instantly turned darker.

He said a lot, lasting a good two minutes. Although Ji Zhiyao could not understand him, he could still vaguely sense the anger in this coach’s spoken language.

Mo Huaifeng provided an answer very quickly.

“Coach Kang said, if just because your identity is that of a support and led to you having such a mindset, then there is no place for you in this team at all. A support is an equally important role in the team, he does not deny the function of a support in your eyes, but the functions of a support is definitely not just those that you’ve listed. In the past, Vita battleteam’s support achieved the results of 39 seconds in this program, only second to the captain. There are only five people in a team, none is indispensable, if you can’t even reach such a standard, then even if you make it to the international league in the future, wouldn’t your team only exist right at the bottom?”

Nuo instantly bowed his head.

Ji Zhiyao trembled deep down.

Kang Kyung Chwa’s words were very harsh, but also very realistic.

Only when the capability of each person in the team have been boosted and continuously improving, can the team be considered as indestructible. If they relied on the strongest one person, or a few people, their achievements would only be limited.

Fortunately, though Nuo was indignant earlier, he was also brave in admitting his mistakes. He apologized very quickly. “Sorry, Coach Kang, my view was too narrow. I will work hard in training and raise my hand speed and response capacity.”

After Mo Huaifeng finished translating, Kang Kyung Chwa nodded and did not say anything more.

Ji Zhiyao’s heart that had been lifted because of Nuo was finally eased gradually.

But he had not relaxed completely when he heard Mo Huaifeng’s slightly cold voice and instantly froze.

“Had I known earlier that you were so dumb, I would have thrown you out with a kick.”

Nuo felt like weeping but had no tears. “Captain, I was wrong, please don’t deride me.”

“I’m deriding you? Xu Fan, you think it through, as long as it’s an eSports player with a brain, who would act like how you did, questioning the coach’s words?”

The remaining people in the training room who had sighed in relief because Kang Kyung Chwa had not spoken, instantly had their hearts lifted again.

Because Mo Huaifeng’s tone was really very cold.

They couldn’t remember the last time their Captain had spoken such stern words. Usually they lived together and also played together during trainings, thought Mo Huaifeng looked like he was not to be trifled with, but he was actually the most protective over them. Even when they had made some mistakes from time to time and Mo Huaifeng reprimanded them with a long face, it wasn’t as serious as it was now.

But now that Nuo had suffered a scolding from the new coach, not only did Mo Huaifeng not console him, he was instead even harsher.

Even though they knew that Mo Huaifeng meant well for the team, they still shivered in fear.

Nuo hung his head in dejection. “Captain, I was indeed in the wrong earlier. Don’t be angry, I will work hard.”

“Think through it yourself.”

Ji Zhiyao silently watched as Mo Huaifeng’s gaze left Nuo; when it swept past him, it was still slightly cold.