Chapter 1 – Rebirth
On June 20th, 2018, at 8:30 pm, at Shanghai Jian’an Sports Center, the KPL Spring Split Eastern Finals between TG and DW was taking place.
The current score was 0-2, and the third game was in progress.
[“I can’t believe Lotus God lost with such a good team fight. Was the marksman sleepwalking?” ]
[“77 did okay, it’s mainly the jungle not putting out any damage in team fights while farming the jungle, not sure what he’s doing with the three-way economy. It would be better to let Lotus God take the economy and deal with the enemy’s mid laner,”]
[“Lost three high grounds in fourteen minutes and behind by eight thousand gold…sigh, it looks like this game will be lost as well,”]
[“Are they going to get swept 4-0 by DW?”]
As several ordinary viewer’s voices discussed the game situation without reservation, TG’s manager, Zhang Hui, who was sitting in the front row, stood up with a dark face. No one could have a good mood when their team was playing so poorly. Zhang Hui was so angry that smoke was almost coming out of his head. He decided not to watch anymore and prepared to leave the stand and go back to the rest area.
The substitute players sitting with him on the team bench voluntarily moved their legs to make way for him, and neither of them dared to speak. Zhang Hui, with his beer belly, walked through the aisle with difficulty, and a layer of sweat oozed out of his plump face.
The air conditioning in the venue could not compare with the desktop in the room. He thought, and he was almost leaving without looking back.
The substitute jungle player, Fei Shen, sitting in the opposite position, breathed a sigh of relief.
Wait.
Zhang Hui walked a few steps out and suddenly thought of something, then turned back and looked at the substitute top laner and jungle player and asked suspiciously, “Where’s Clear?”
Clear was a substitute marksman trained by the team from the youth training camp. He was a solitary person in the team, with no acquaintances or particularly powerful background. It was precisely because of this that he was destined to be invisible in TG, and even the manager who didn’t come to watch the game didn’t notice him.
The substitute top laner shook his head awkwardly, “I don’t know either.”
Fei Shen quickly replied, “Me neither.”
“Damn it, where did that stuttering boy go?” Zhang Hui pretended to be indifferent and dropped this sentence, cursing in his heart, then finally turned around and left.
Fei Shen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and took out his phone from his pocket to inform Clear.
[TG-Fei Shen: The manager left early for the rest area, and he’s very angry now. Be careful and avoid him.]
[TG-Fei Shen: Brother Che, Brother Che, please respond!]
The phone, placed on the table by the owner, vibrated a few times before emitting a low battery warning:
“Attention: The current battery is low and will automatically shut down in 30 seconds. Please charge it in time.”
Fei Shen looked anxious while holding the phone, and the substitute top laner felt nervous. He asked, “Hasn’t Clear replied yet?”
“If he doesn’t reply, I’ll call him… Oh? Why did it shut down?!”
“Oh my god, what should we do now?”
“Damn it, we can only pray for Buddha’s protection…”
On one end, Fei Shen was in a hurry, in sharp contrast to Cheng Che who was calmly catching up on sleep in the innermost part of the rest area.
He had been punished by the coach to practice until 4:30 a.m. last night, and he didn’t feel sleepy after training, so he stayed up all night.
He thought he could catch up on sleep during the day, but everyone got up unusually early due to the Eastern Conference finals last night. He was busy all day without getting any sleep, only getting some free time after sending the starting team to the game.
The thin young man lying on the table had dark circles under his eyes and a pale complexion like paper paste, looking sickly and pitiful.
“Umm…”
He seemed to have had a terrible nightmare, his thin shoulders trembling slightly, unable to sleep soundly.
His right eyelid twitched without warning, as if foretelling the impending disaster.
Squeak, bang–
With the sound of the door opening, a man kicked it open and entered.
“All you know is to sleep. Why didn’t you sleep to death?! Ah?!”
There was a thunderous sound beside him, deafening. Cheng Che frowned slightly but being unusually patient, he didn’t immediately get up to teach the person a lesson.
“Tsk.”
Seeing that he had no response, the man who was swearing in a rough voice felt a little embarrassed when he saw that his face was not reacting at all. “Don’t pretend to be deaf, get up quickly.”
After speaking, he slammed his palm on the table and then kicked the chair that he was sitting on in frustration.
The vibration spread through the table, causing a headache for the person. Cheng Che, who was still half asleep, just opened his eyes and had not yet sat up when the chair was kicked backwards, almost falling off.
“Are you sick?” He was about to curse, but was surprised when he looked up at the man and couldn’t close his mouth.
Isn’t this Zhang Bapi, the manager of the team when he was a substitute player two years ago? How could he be here when he was fired two years ago?
“How…how did you get here?” The unexpected situation in front of him made Cheng Che forget to get angry. He was more curious about why Zhang Hui appeared in the TG team’s locker room before the World Championship finals.
Looking at the dumbfounded expression of this stuttering idiot, Zhang Hui became even angrier, pointing at Cheng Che and scolding him: “I haven’t even asked you how you got here, so how dare you ask me?”
“Even the substitute players have to go to the team bench to cheer for the team, don’t you know that? The team has been feeding you for a year, but all you do is slack off?”
“Your contract expired yesterday. If you want to renew it, you better perform well. Otherwise, get the hell out!”
This made Cheng Che even more confused.
Even the team directors and bosses would not dare to speak to him, the league’s top scorer, like this. How could Zhang Hui, an outsider, dare to do so?
Is it because he has nothing to lose that he’s not afraid of me?
He had a headache.
Cheng Che wanted to call security to “escort” this idiot who was spouting nonsense out, but he was stunned after looking around the environment.
This is not the team locker room. This is…although he didn’t know where he was, it felt strangely familiar.
“Let’s congratulate DW on their victory! They successfully took the third game with ease!”
A clear sentence came from the monitor hanging on the wall behind him, which was used to transcribe the live broadcast of the game. Cheng Che turned his head to look at it. The time in the upper right corner of the screen was June 20, 2018, not 2021.
He rubbed his temples as if he had a headache, trying to remember:
Today is August 28, 2021, the World Championship finals between TG and SYG… he fell down the stairs when he was going up, and he lost consciousness on the spot…
“…”
Damn, did I just die and reborn back to three years ago when I was playing as a substitute?
Cheng Che, who had reacted, looked at his own hands in disbelief. These hands were slender, smooth, and didn’t have the calluses that come from holding devices for a long time, or at least only had a thin layer.
He flexed his fingers curiously. They were very flexible, and they didn’t hurt at all.
This wasn’t a dream. This was real!
“I warn you! Don’t mess around…”
Zhang Hui, feeling short of breath, shouted at the young man who remained silent for a long time and began to move his wrists.
“Coward.”
“Uh-huh.”
A lot of complex emotions filled the blue eyes of the young man, making it hard to tell whether he was happy, sad or angry. Even Cheng Che himself was not clear about it.
He only knew one thing: he didn’t want to stay in this team, not for a single moment.
He didn’t want to endure being treated as a substitute player, being exploited for labor, having his salary withheld, being forced into an unfair contract, being subjected to emotional manipulation and verbal abuse… He had been living like this for two years as a substitute player, and he didn’t want to relive it again.
According to what Zhang Hui had just said, Cheng Che’s contract had expired. Well, that was perfect, he could just leave.
“You… are you saying that my contract has expired?”
“Tsk.”
Seeing that the stutterer had no intention of hitting him, Zhang Hui regained his composure. “I was just speaking in anger. Don’t overthink it. Just be a good boy and be more clever in the future. I can talk to management and see if we can keep you.”
This kind of sugar-coated talk, slapping someone and then giving them a candy, was something Cheng Che was familiar with. It had been useful in the past, but now he just found it laughable.
It was all just a trick to fool children.
Zhang Hui asked tentatively, “Do you think that’s okay?”
Cheng Che opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything.
Bang!
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to speak, it was just that the sound of the door being kicked in interrupted him. Suddenly, there was chaos in the room. It was clear that members of the starting team had returned.
Fei Shen and the substitute top laner were right behind them. When they saw Cheng Che and Zhang Hui standing together, their hearts almost stopped.
Oh my god, please don’t tell me that Brother Che died…
Fei Shen: “Why are you asking me? Go ask him!”
Due to being pushed all the way back and losing the third game point to the opposing team, everyone’s faces didn’t look too good.
“Bad luck.”
Lava, the jungler, was feeling fiery inside and kicked the chair that Cheng Che had been sitting on.
Who was he trying to show off to?
Cheng Che frowned unhappily, wanting to retaliate but feeling that it was better not to stir up trouble. So he didn’t say anything to him.
Seeing that the situation was getting bad, the marksman Qi Qi quickly came over to support Cheng Che. “Clear, can you help me get a glass of cold water? Thank you!”
“Do you not have hands and feet of your own?”
If it was someone else, Cheng Che would have already spoken up, but since Qi Qi was trying to help him out, he understood.
“Tsk.” Lava glared disapprovingly at Qi Qi but didn’t say anything.
There was a faint smell of anger in the air.
Zhang Hui was always a bully who feared the strong and picked on the weak. In this situation, he didn’t dare to say anything. The chubby assistant who knew Lava’s temper didn’t make a move either. In any case, self-preservation came first.
“…Everyone come over, let’s review the last game.”
In the end, it was the captain who broke the deadlock.
The coach hadn’t returned yet, and they couldn’t just sit around waiting. They had to quickly review the third game.
Lava and Qi Qi obediently went over.
Cheng Che turned around to get a glass of water.
This avoided a potential conflict.
Author’s Note:
Although Cheng Che usually stutters when speaking, he doesn’t stutter when he’s arguing or commanding during a game.
(Don’t ask, my power is from his mother (*￣︶￣))
[Reading Guide]
This is an esports romance story, with not too much description of the actual games.
If you want to read about e-sports games, you can look for works by other great authors (?˙▽˙?)
Thank you for the translation!