Chapter 6 – He Has Been Watching Me the Whole Time
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Qi Qiao said. “He’s outstanding. It’s perfectly normal for anyone to like him.”
Wink had been fired up just moments ago, thinking that if he was going to defend his idol today, he would have to battle Ghost for at least three hundred rounds.
But with just one sentence, Qi Qiao completely threw him off.
“Huh?” Wink stared at him in confusion. “Y-You… aren’t you one of his haters?”
Qi Qiao finished his coffee in one gulp and stood up.
“No.”
Before Wink could say But…, Qi Qiao spoke again, his expression darkening.
“I’m going out to get some water.”
After tossing out those words, he walked straight out of the lounge.
Wink’s question from earlier instantly dragged Qi Qiao’s thoughts back to that night a year ago—his birthday.
A painful tightness gripped his chest.
He had thought that by leaving, all those emotions would eventually be buried.
But the moment he saw Pei Ming again, all the effort he had spent over the past year fell apart in an instant.
Pathetic.
Qi Qiao silently cursed himself as he walked into the break room.
He rinsed out his cup first, waiting until the coffee stains clinging to the sides were completely gone before filling it with water.
The sound of rushing water helped clear his mind quite a bit.
Just as he straightened up and was about to leave, he suddenly heard a commotion from next door.
“Brother Xiang, are you seriously going to use Odin this round? But the team’s strategy from last time—”
“What? The captain can use it, but I can’t?” The male voice next door paused briefly. “Tch. Honestly, I don’t think his Odin is that impressive. At the very least, I can pull off those same plays.”
“Hey, Brother Xiang, keep your voice down. What if someone hears you?”
“What are you worried about? This is the first-floor restroom. Who’s going to hear us?” The man continued rambling. “Anyway, I think Devil’s just been overhyped. Throw in a little marketing, give him that pretty face to back it up, and boom—an esports heartthrob is born.”
…
Qi Qiao braced one hand against the wall and lowered his head, taking a sip of cold water. There was a mirror across from the break room. He looked up, meeting the reflection of his own expressionless face.
Two minutes later, two trainee players from Team Faith stepped out of the restroom. The moment they looked up, they froze at the sight of the green-haired boy leaning casually against the wall.
His head was lowered as he lightly tapped the floor with the tip of his shoe. His mint-green hair stuck up slightly, and the straight line of his lips looked unsettlingly cold.
“Holy shit—”
The two trainees went pale, blurting out in unison.
Qi Qiao glanced at them, identifying the voices, then walked straight toward the taller, thinner one.
Before the tall trainee could even process what was happening, the person in front of him had already grabbed hold of his collar with both hands.
Startled, he instinctively stepped back.
But the green-haired boy merely tugged at his collar and adjusted it twice, neither too hard nor too gently.
Then, lazily lifting his eyes, the green-haired boy asked:
“So, man… what role do you play professionally?”
The tall trainee froze for a second before stammering,
“Huh? I—I play jungle.”
The green-haired boy suddenly unlocked his phone.
“Add me on WeChat.”
For a moment, the tall trainee had no idea what he was doing.
But after standing there blankly for two seconds, he still pulled out his own phone.
“Al… Alright.”
He still knew who Ghost was — the breakout streamer who had become incredibly popular on Azure TV over the past three months.
Now that they had added each other on WeChat, maybe later he could ask for a spot on Ghost’s friends list and ride a bit of that popularity himself.
After adding him, the green-haired boy nodded, patted him on the shoulder, then turned and walked away.
“Damn… Brother Xiang, he’s not going to tell anyone, is he?” the shorter guy beside him asked uneasily.
The tall, skinny boy steadied himself.
“Probably not. Isn’t that troll one of Devil’s haters too?”
Still, he didn’t have much confidence when he said it.
Maybe it was just his imagination, but the look Ghost gave him before leaving had felt like a blade sharpened with icy intent.
Ten minutes later—
The trainees from Team Faith and Team Monster entered the scrimmage arena at the same time.
The arena was divided into three sections: two competition zones and one referee zone.
The referee area was equipped with voice transmission systems connected to both sides, while the competition zones were separated by soundproof glass panels.
Unless someone shouted particularly loudly, people in the other sections wouldn’t hear much.
Still, because the areas were close together and the gaps between the computer stations were fairly wide, players could clearly see each other’s facial expressions.
The tall trainee sat down with his gear bag.
The moment he looked up, he saw the green-haired boy sitting directly across from him, separated by a single pane of glass.
Those sharp, striking eyes stared straight at him.
After a long moment, the boy’s lips slowly curved into something disturbingly sinister.
The tall trainee suddenly felt his heartbeat skip.
He had a very bad feeling about this.
Ahem—
“First off, sorry everyone for taking up your practice time.”
The voice of Monster’s captain, Bang, came through the arena speakers.
“But just so we’re clear in advance — this was all Devil’s idea. Has nothing to do with your Brother Bang here.”
The day before had been Sunday.
That meant Monday’s training schedule was usually more relaxed, giving players time to adjust.
So Monday was basically the perfect opportunity to slack off.
Originally, Monster’s trainees had been pretty unhappy about losing this precious slacking-off time.
But the moment they heard that Devil was coming, every trace of that resentment disappeared.
After all, this was Devil.
To esports players, he was the equivalent of the ultimate mental refresher — better than peppermint oil or medicated cooling balm.
A low chuckle spilled through the broadcast.
The competition zone immediately erupted into excitement because of that laugh.
Sitting beside Qi Qiao was the team’s support player, who was obviously also a Devil fan.
The second he got excited, he grabbed Qi Qiao’s hand.
“Oh my god, Devil laughed! I don’t care if he was laughing for everyone — I’m taking that as him laughing at me! Ahhh! Devil smiled at me!”
Qi Qiao was already irritated enough by all the shaking and quietly pulled his hand back.
His expression remained perfectly composed.
But the tips of his ears had started heating up ever so slightly.
“Alright, alright, calm down, all of you. After the match, I’ll have Devil sign autographs for everyone, okay?”
Bang’s helpless voice came through again.
“…Seriously, why don’t I have this kind of popularity?”
The moment those words came through the broadcast, the previously noisy scrimmage arena fell silent almost instantly.
Both teams sat up perfectly straight, looking like obedient third-graders trying their absolute best to behave.
Getting an esports player’s autograph usually wasn’t that difficult.
But this was Devil.
The value of his signature was on an entirely different level.
Not to mention that Devil rarely signed anything. Most of his authentic autographs that people could find nowadays came from merchandise released back in his e arly career.
At this point, those items could easily sell for astronomical prices.
Taking advantage of the fact that Bang had stepped out for a bathroom break, Jiang Jiang let out a dramatic sigh.
“Captain, just look at that ridiculous personal charm of yours… Seriously, why do you keep tormenting Brother Bang’s fragile little heart every day? If you don’t like him, couldn’t you just crush him with money instead?”
Pei Ming replied calmly, “You could do that too.”
“No, no, no, I’m good. Even if I had money, I’d still need to stay alive long enough to spend it, right?”
Jiang Jiang’s gaze suddenly drifted toward the only relaxed-looking player on Team Monster — the one casually sitting there with mint-green hair and one leg crossed over the other.
“Tch, Captain, look at him. That little green-haired guy doesn’t care about you at all, and you still want to recruit him.”
As he spoke, Jiang Jiang once again slipped into nonstop chatter.
“Brother, if you seriously aren’t satisfied with all the mid laners the club keeps picking out for you, I can totally sacrifice myself and switch roles, you know? Back in the day, my mage was dominating the EU servers—”
Pei Ming didn’t even look away.
“Maybach—”
“Wait! I’m shutting up!”
For the sake of his beloved luxury car, Jiang Jiang could only swallow his grievances and obediently stop talking.
Internally, he prayed that the little green-haired guy would get killed thirty times in the upcoming match so his captain would completely abandon this dangerous idea.
Today’s practice match was being played in a BO3 format.
Best of three.
Both teams entered the custom server.
As soon as the drafting phase ended, Qi Qiao, picking first, immediately locked in Frigga.
“Whoa, Ghost, you’ve got guts, locking in Frigga first pick.”
The support player beside him sounded genuinely impressed.
Frigga was one of ACR’s classic veteran heroes.
She had high burst damage, but was easily countered and definitely wasn’t considered an overpowered meta pick this patch. She was commonly used in ranked matches. But in professional play, she almost never appeared. You could say that if played well, she could carry the entire game.
If played badly…
You’d end up being carried by the entire team.
“Mm. They can’t beat me.”
Qi Qiao answered casually.
“……”
The support player gave him a thumbs-up.
“Ghost, you’re insane.”
After overhearing those two players from Team Faith talking in the restroom earlier, Qi Qiao already knew the tall, skinny guy was planning to pick Odin.
So the reason he locked in Frigga now—Half of it was because of that.
As for the other half—Frigga and Odin.
In Norse Mythology, they were the Queen and King of the Gods.
And in ACR, they were also the game’s most popular character ship.
I wonder if seeing me pick this while their jungler picks Odin… would he…
Almost unconsciously, Qi Qiao lifted his head and glanced toward the referee room.
At that exact moment—
He met those dark, unreadable eyes.
Pei Ming is looking at me.
He has been watching me the whole time.
Qi Qiao suddenly felt the tips of his ears growing warm.
As if guilty of being caught doing something he shouldn’t, he quickly lowered his head.
Both teams quickly finished selecting their champions.
Just as expected, the tall, skinny player sitting across from Qi Qiao had indeed picked Odin.
“Oh ho, Odin versus Frigga. Looks like that little green-haired guy and the kid from our team are pretty fated, huh?”
Jiang Jiang had barely put on an eager time-to-watch-the-drama expression when Pei Ming shot him a slightly cold glance that instantly made him back off.
“What the hell…”
Jiang Jiang muttered in confusion.
Scooting his chair over a little, he moved to sit beside Bang instead.
Pei Ming kept his eyes fixed on the large screen, his expression somewhat indifferent.
Although Frigga dealt high damage, she had poor mobility and no dash skills.
If the opposing side picked something like Jörmungandr or Medusa-type counters, things could easily go very wrong.
Under normal circumstances, Qi Qiao should have waited to see the enemy lineup before deciding.
But he had locked in immediately.
Which meant—
He had intended to do this from the very beginning.
Pei Ming glanced toward the green-haired boy sitting perfectly upright in his chair and clicked his tongue softly.
He’d better not have known the other side was going to pick Odin.
Author’s Note:
OP heroes are basically heroes that are particularly strong in the current patch/meta.
Also, everyone, if you haven’t bookmarked the novel yet, I’d really appreciate it if you could!
(I know reading is super convenient these days, covers face.)
It helps with the rankings later on, so I’m begging you!