Chapter 83 – Live PK
Ji Wei’s 5.0-degree vision had already seen the comments clearly, and his expression was changing dramatically.
He suppressed the urge to curse. “It’s the AKM!”
The person next to him let out a few suppressed laughs, the slightly hoarse voice tickling his ears.
Ji Wei turned to glare at Yin Sijue. “Don’t laugh!”
Yin Sijue said seriously, “Okay.”
[“Young couples are so cute.”]
[“Good, good, good — the family hierarchy is clear at a glance.”]
[“Can I ask a question? I’m a premium member of Aurora TV! Do I deserve this opportunity?”]
Yamy saw the comment and said, “What do you want to ask? If it’s too explicit, then no.”
[“I just want to ask what model Unique’s headphones are!! They’re so beautiful! I even used image recognition but couldn’t find them QAQ.”]
“Huh?” Ji Wei was caught off guard by the comment and pointed to the side a little sheepishly. “They’re a birthday present he gave me.”
Yin Sijue was merciless to his fans. “It’s a limited-edition custom model. There’s only one in the world. You can’t buy it anymore.”
[“? Okay, I’m asking too much.”]
[“Who is ‘he’? Why doesn’t Unique call me husband?”]
[“They’re like an old married couple, but they’re still doing this!”]
[“It feels like the whole world is teasing my baby… I’m both distressed and excited. What’s going on?!”]
“Enough.” Yamy interrupted, “There’s only one Unique. Don’t let anyone ruin it.”
She asked a few more questions about the competition. The commentary went on wildly for half an hour until Xu Shaoqiu came to call them to the restaurant for dinner.
Da Shu: “Eat while you’re livestreaming? Won’t that be boring?”
Yamy shook her head. “Everyone’s really interested.”
After more than half a day without a meal, the contestants were finally starting to feel hungry. Just then, aromas from the kitchen drifted into the living room — the rich, mellow scent of butter mingling with the savory, salty flavor of Pixian fermented bean paste. Everyone straightened their backs.
Xu Shaoqiu poked his head out. “Yamy, and the cameramen, can you handle spicy food? Auntie made a spicy beef and butter hot pot for lunch. Want to try some?”
Five minutes later, Ji Wei sat down at the table and realized the gravity of the situation.
The aroma of the spicy stew pierced his nose like countless red-hot needles. Across from him, Da Shu had already devoured a large piece of tripe, the fragrance making Ji Wei’s mouth water. But Ji Wei didn’t eat. He knew that if he picked up his chopsticks, he’d probably have to answer for it.
Seeing that he hadn’t touched his chopsticks, Xu Shaoqiu looked puzzled. “Unique, aren’t you eating? Didn’t you love spicy food the most?
I kept forcing you to eat light meals before the game, but that wasn’t right. Look, I’ll let you eat well after the game.”
“Uh… yeah.” Ji Wei’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He stirred the food with his spoon for a long time before fishing out a single… wood ear mushroom.
Xu Shaoqiu: “?”
Standing off to the side, Yin Sijue had been suppressing his laughter for a while. Finally, he took the large spoon from Ji Wei’s hand and set it aside. “I ordered porridge for you. It’s already been delivered to the door. Wait for me to get it.”
With that, he turned and walked toward the base gate, leaving Ji Wei alone, looking utterly disheveled.
Xu Shaoqiu stood there for a moment, realizing the seriousness of the situation, then glared at Yin Sijue’s retreating back.
Not daring to say anything, he could only get up and go to the kitchen to fetch an apple. “Eat this first.”
Da Shu hadn’t swallowed the food in his mouth yet. His eyes darted back and forth between Ji Wei and Yin Sijue, gleaming with gossip.
Yamy sat across from Ji Wei, covering her mouth with her hands and laughing. “AVG eating is quite a show.”
Ji Wei blushed. “…If I said I just happened to want porridge today, would you believe me?”
Xu Shaoqiu smirked. “Of course I’d believe you. People who secretly order spicy stir-fried rice cakes the night before the finals must occasionally crave porridge.”
Ji Wei: “….”
He looked at the comments resignedly.
[“Hahahaha f*ck, I don’t like eating! This chopstick will really make my butt explode!”]
[“Is there any possibility that Unique’s toes have already dug through the base floor?”]
[“Maybe this luxurious base has already been confiscated by Wei Bao.”]
[“It’s just such bad luck! My family really needs to hire a seasoned expert.”]
[“My main concern is that Solve already ordered takeout. What a thoughtful guy!”]
[“Did he order it after confirming Wei’s situation?”]
[“What? How did he confirm it? What’s the situation? Why don’t I understand?”]
[“Okay! Let’s stick to that! Is the next scene going to be Solve crawling under his bed?”]
[“Diving under the bed is out of the question.”]
…
After everyone else had their fill, Xu Shaoqiu arranged for Solve to do a solo interview with the King of Elimination.
Ji Wei bitterly downed a bowl of vegetable porridge, unable to swallow any of the delicacies before him.
While last night had been comfortable… if he had to eat this bland food every morning, it would be better to do it less often. T_T
After dinner, Ji Wei went back to his room, packed the food he’d brought back from Korea, and called his brother.
The call was answered immediately.
“Hey, you still remember me.” Ji Lin’s voice carried a teasing tone, as if to say, Weird—my brother won the championship, I saw it on the trending searches, but he didn’t call me until next year?
Ji Wei said pitifully, “I was too busy. I called my brother as soon as I had time.”
Ji Lin seemed to be busy with something else and let out two short laughs. “A great man shouldn’t remember a small man, huh? But congratulations on winning the world championship.”
After a moment of silence, he added seriously, “I knew you could do it.”
“Um…” Ji Wei was a little moved. “Thank you, brother.”
“Oh, and there’s one more thing between you and me.” Ji Lin suddenly changed his tone. “They awarded me a certificate over there—I’ll send it to you when the time comes.”
Ji Wei blinked slowly. “It’s okay, no need.”
Father Ji’s case involved donations, and he had embezzled a large amount, ultimately receiving a life sentence.
When Ji Wei read the news, he wasn’t upset by the outcome. He simply asked Ji Lin to donate some money to the orphanages involved in the case.
It certainly wouldn’t fill the hole, but he couldn’t bear to see innocent people suffer.
The phone rustled twice before Ji Lin spoke again, his tone carrying a hint of distress. “Don’t blame yourself too much. It definitely had nothing to do with you. Back then, you couldn’t even afford a single in-game skin. I wonder where they spent all that money.”
Ji Wei, in turn, tried to comfort his brother. “It’s okay. I’ve already made peace with it. Everyone at the base is very kind to me.”
“That’s good. By the way—”
Ji Lin suddenly remembered something. “The elders at home took your brother to change his name. From now on, he won’t be called the same.”
“Pfft!” Ji Wei couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “What’s that? Can’t you say my own name properly?”
“Go away. I’m just worried you’ll get upset!” Ji Lin rolled his eyes and shared the last bit of family news with the person on the other end of the phone.
“He’s being taken care of by Grandma now. He dropped out of the early childhood education class halfway through. Luckily, he’s still young and doesn’t have much of a grasp on these things. He should slowly forget about them.”
“That’s good.”
Ji Wei smiled. “I was just thinking about that earlier. How can a two-year-old already be carrying a schoolbag to school? My mom really never forgets her original intentions.”
After hanging up the phone, Ji Wei suddenly realized that it had been a long time since he’d felt upset about his parents’ affairs.
The rustling of leaves in the gentle breeze filled his ears, and the sky outside the window was clear. In previous years, typhoons would always hit Haishi around this season, bringing weeks of torrential rain and winds so strong that walking became difficult.
This year, surprisingly, there wasn’t a single hurricane.
No matter how painful the past had been, it would eventually be buried beneath the warmth of memory. Like ice melting in the afternoon sun, only a faint trace of water remained in his heart.
When he returned to the living room, Yin Sijue’s interview hadn’t finished yet, so Ji Wei had no choice but to sit in front of the computer and scroll through Weibo.
Da Shu had just finished his dessert and burped. “Unique, what are you doing? Let’s play games. I just bought a Super Mario Deluxe cartridge!”
“No more,” Ji Wei shook his head. “I want to wait for the captain to come back and play duo queue.”
Da Shu was stunned. “You’re working too hard! Aren’t you two sick of playing PUBG yet?”
“It’s not about working hard or not. I just posted a preview of tonight’s livestream on Weibo.” Ji Wei shook his phone. “I can’t break the appointment.”
Da Shu: “Didn’t you just finish the interview? I’ve never seen you stream this hard before.”
Ji Wei smiled shyly, not giving a direct answer.
He didn’t make much from livestreaming, but together with the small bonuses AVG gave him, he had donated a total of 500,000.
Now he only had a measly 200 left in his pocket.
With food and lodging all provided at the base, two hundred yuan wasn’t much, but Ji Wei had a very important matter before him.
Yin Sijue’s birthday was coming up.
The prize money for winning the championship was taking a long time to arrive, so Ji Wei could only shamelessly scam his fans for a bit of money.
His boyfriend was incredibly generous — the limited-edition headphones around Ji Wei’s neck had cost 88,000 yuan, and even the cat-ear costume he’d worn yesterday was nearly 20,000 yuan.
God knows how heartbroken Ji Wei must have felt when he woke up this morning and saw the pile of rags on the floor.
All in all, while Ji Wei couldn’t afford a comparable birthday gift, he couldn’t be too shabby either.
With his personality, asking fans for gifts was something he just couldn’t bring himself to do. Fortunately, he’d recently learned a new way to make money.
“Why don’t you stop playing Mario?” Ji Wei tugged at Da Shu’s sleeve. “Are you going to play PUBG? Start a livestream?”
Da Shu immediately grew alert. “What are you doing? Why are you asking me to start a stream?”
Ji Wei chuckled twice. “I want to PK with you.”
[“Report — Unique is on the air!”]
[“Tree is on the air!! What’s going on? AVG just won the championship and they’re not even taking a break??”]
[“From the live broadcast room, they’re playing PK!”]
[“?? Is this in Chinese? Please translate.”]
[“I went to check it out, and they really are playing PK! Are the two champions in such good spirits? So, we regular game streamers can’t even compete anymore…?”]
[“Never mind, give us an answer, Unique! Big brother!”]
“Ahem, the rules are simple: only the winner gets to trade up for a better gun. Right now, we can only use frying pans!” Ji Wei created a custom map, selected P City as the location, and began a 1v1 duel with Da Shu.
Da Shu sneered. “Haha, my frying pan is invincible. Just wait and see.”
His expression changed again as he addressed the audience. “Is the Shu family army strong? Send me some gifts, thank you! I won’t fight him with just a frying pan!”
The game began, and the two landed in P City. Each picked up a black frying pan from their room and started swinging at each other with savage strikes.
Both were professional players — their positioning and agility were evenly matched. The two fought for a long time, but the winner remained undecided.
[“Show me the one with the soldering iron!”]
[“Fifteen seconds left before the PK ends!”]
[“How many rounds are there in this PK? I’ve never played before, not sure.”]
[“Three rounds — best of three.”]
[“Then the first round should go to Unique, right? He’s getting more gifts.”]
Ji Wei’s mom fans were no joke. As soon as the match started, they sent thousands of yuan worth of gifts, pushing his progress bar far ahead.
Da Shu struggled to swing his frying pan at Ji Wei’s in-game character’s face. “Damn it!! Why isn’t anyone sending me gifts? I’m telling you, Unique, you might have the upper hand in popularity, but your game skills aren’t necessarily better!”
“Useless!” Ji Wei stopped dodging and backed away, widening the distance between them.
Da Shu: “You chickened out! You totally chickened out!”
The next moment, Ji Wei held down the fire button and threw the frying pan like a projectile.
The black frying pan arced beautifully through the air like a grenade and landed squarely on Da Shu’s head.
[AVG_Unique] used a frying pan to eliminate [AVG_Tree].
Da Shu: “What the hell!!!”
[“Help! This is my first time seeing someone use a frying pan like that!”]
[“I’ve seen short clips of this before, but never anyone pull it off live!”]
[“You can actually throw frying pans? That angle must be hard to get!”]
[“Unique won the PK too — that’s our boy giving his mom fans something to be proud of!”]
[“Someone please check on Da Shu! He has to fight the next round using only a frying pan!”]
[“Da Shu’s fans are kinda pitiful, QwQ.”]
Ji Wei had set the match to infinite respawn mode, so Da Shu quickly parachuted back down.
“Again! I don’t believe this!! You can only pick up a crossbow this time. Next round, you can use a pistol!”
Ji Wei ran through five houses before finally finding a crossbow, and just as he turned around, Da Shu shouted,
“By the way, we still haven’t decided on the punishment for the loser.”
Ji Wei, also new to this, glanced at the comments and said to Da Shu, “Everyone, what do you want the punishment to be? From what I’ve seen, other streamers usually drink alcohol or chug a whole bucket of water. I’m fine with anything.”
“What the hell? Squats?”
Da Shu asked in surprise, “Are we watching different streams? Why am I seeing them acting like spoiled brats after losing?”
As Da Shu finished speaking, the barrage of danmu on the screen froze for a moment—
Then, Da Shu’s gift count began to surge visibly.