Chapter 20 – I Mean Everyone Here… Is a Noob
“I can see it, thank you very much,” the person he pointed at snapped back, clearly annoyed.
Little Blue stuck out his tongue playfully and tapped out Mozart’s Sonata K.284 with his fingers on the table.
In the same situation, Jiang Ge quietly reported in the team channel: “One of their players is in the poison.” His sharp little eyes flicked a signal toward Chen Shen.
“Got it,” Chen Shen replied. He’d been locked in a standoff with the enemy for a long while, both of them barely hanging on.
At this point, it all came down to endurance and patience. Their crosshairs were glued to each other’s positions, just waiting for the first move.
In this kind of situation, the one who moves first… dies.
But standing still meant slowly being worn down by the poison.
Watching his dangerously low health bar, Chen Shen had been growing anxious.
But after hearing the enemy’s teammate casually broadcast their position with zero awareness, he calmed down.
Right now, only half of his body was in the poison cloud, and the rock he was hiding behind left no room to maneuver. But if the enemy was deeper inside the zone, then they were clearly in worse shape.
The opponent had two options: die to the poison, or get sniped.
Seconds ticked by as the pale purple gas slowly surrounded Chen Shen. Still, the other side made no move, and the kill feed he was expecting never appeared.
With his health on the brink, Chen Shen didn’t dare risk it anymore. He decided to heal up and then land the final shot on his low-health enemy.
Ever since the two teams had clashed, aside from watching this free-roamer, he hadn’t contributed much to Arrogance’s efforts.
Chen Shen crouched lower, but just as he began to heal, a shadow leapt out from the poison. Standing right in the gas, the enemy unleashed a full burst of bullets.
[LAP—Black used M416 to knock down Arrogance—CHEN]
[LAP—Black used M416 to kill Arrogance—CHEN]
But just as Black started running out of the poison, two more kill messages lit up:
[Arrogance—Storm used M16A4 to knock down LAP—Black]
[Arrogance—Storm used M16A4 to kill LAP—Black]
In the training room, the tall, lanky white guy pushed away his keyboard. With his noodle-thin arms raised like bamboo sticks and his seat apparently too narrow, he simply took off his headset and stood up, stretching behind the team as if the match had nothing to do with him.
With a crisp London accent, he began counting out reps for himself:
“One, two, three, four. Two, two, three, four. Three, two, three, four. Four, two…”
The camera in Jiang Ge’s livestream just happened to capture this eye-burning display.
Jiang Ge gave the guy a sideways glance and silently adjusted the webcam to face another direction.
The fans in the livestream were losing their minds with laughter, saying they’d never seen anything like this before.
At the dinner table, Tangyuan was gnawing on a bare chicken bone and exclaimed, “I love this part! Those old guys from Arrogance really had it coming.”
Amid the flood of excited comments, Jiang Ranan, who was also watching the match, couldn’t help but send a flower wreath gift and asked the streamer to pass it along to “Gymnast Guy.”
Faced with this kind of ridiculous joy, there was a unique charm to it. Everyone at the Arrogance base, no matter how intense the match was, couldn’t help but crack a smile.
This team of oddballs was just… really hard to dislike.
But laughter aside, the atmosphere in the game had never been more tense.
Both teams were stuck in the poison zone, aiming at each other in pairs, not daring to make the first move.
Fortunately, the enemies camped on the outskirts, realizing they couldn’t capitalize on the situation, began driving off to escape the zone, easing some of the pressure.
Health bars were rapidly dropping. There was no point in dragging things out—after all, dying in the poison served no one.
As if telepathically connected, the four players dashed out at almost the exact same moment.
If everything went smoothly, the team that won the gunfight would still have a chance to make it out of the zone—if they were fast enough.
Zhou Heng’s S12K faced off against Yang Sa’s AUG. Luan Feng (Storm) and White squared off with M16A4 and SKS.
But just as they all stood up, Yang Sa took a risky gamble—turning his gun away from his direct opponent to aim at Luan Feng, leaving his back open to danger.
[LAP—White used SKS to knock down Arrogance—Storm]
[LAP—Killer used M16A4 to kill Arrogance—Storm]
Almost simultaneously, Yang Sa was knocked down himself.
[Arrogance—ZHOU used S12K to kill LAP—Killer]
The last remaining low-HP players exchanged fire. While Yang Sa was finishing off the downed Luan Feng, White had already redirected his aim—and the fight ended in an instant.
[LAP—White used SKS to kill Arrogance—ZHOU]
When the kill feed popped up, the bridge was already lined with loot boxes—and even among the boxes, there was a hierarchy of disdain.
“Tr*sh,” commented Black’s box.
“No, you’re tr*sh,” White’s box shot back, refusing to back down.
“You’re welcome. What I meant was—everyone here is a bunch of noobs,” concluded BLUE, the earliest box to go down.
Compared to the bantering and bickering among LAP, the atmosphere at Arrogance’s side was much more serious.
Earlier, due to underestimating the opponent, they had taken a more aggressive approach—only to find themselves in a dangerous situation mid-game.
The pro players quietly reviewed their mistakes, adjusting their mindset for the next round. The fans in the livestream chat, however, were far less calm.
Watching their favorite team lose to a group of guys who looked like amateurs—some couldn’t handle it and started venting in the chat.
Public opinion shifted in an instant. The moderators couldn’t mute users fast enough to keep up with the flood of toxic messages.
Sympathy for Arrogance and frustration on Jiang Ge’s behalf turned into verbal attacks aimed at LAP’s team members.
During the short break before the next match—a time for strategizing and adjusting—Jiang Ge originally hadn’t planned to engage with the viewers in chat.
But in a livestream room flooded with traffic, conflicting opinions were already sparking all-out war.
Jiang Ge didn’t plan to argue with those saying Arrogance underperformed. After all, Arrogance had lost—the results spoke for themselves.
Having accepted others’ support and admiration, they also had to be able to shoulder the blame and criticism when things went wrong.
But when it came to the attacks against LAP in the chat, he couldn’t just stand by and watch.
“Arrogance lost. That’s on us. No excuses,” Jiang Ge said, leaning into the external mic with a furrowed brow. “We’ll come back strong in the next round.”
Comments floated across the screen, mocking the pro team for not being able to beat a bunch of scrappy amateurs.
Jiang Ge ignored the extreme, baiting comments—after all, the most important quality in an esports player is mental toughness.
Still, there were some things he couldn’t turn a blind eye to.
[“Don’t be mad, Ge-bao, it’s all LAP’s fault—they’re a bunch of sneaky rats who were acting the whole time.”]
[“Yeah, seriously. So shady. Either fight or run. Don’t fight halfway and then backstab—so underhanded.”]
[“Totally agree. That was next-level shady. I was stunned.”]
[“How could someone like that even exist? He should go S.”]
[“Agree. Go S, go S, go S…”]
Although Jiang Ge was young, he had plenty of tournament experience. Being part of Arrogance, he’d seen a lot in the competitive world.
After a brief pause, he spoke again:
“Whatever happened last round—good or bad—was all on Arrogance. We’ll take full responsibility for the outcome. And for the record, LAP wasn’t putting on an act. If we’d moved faster and managed to intercept them at the airfield, they would’ve been the ones caught in a pincer.”
As the new match began, Jiang Ge opened the map to check the flight path, but kept talking:
“That last round was a fair fight. Whether LAP chose to leave or ambush us, both were valid choices. They cleared out nearby enemies first—that actually helped Arrogance. We fought on a level playing field. Both sides used external factors to their advantage—they just executed better. I admit it. But this round, they’d better watch out.”
He grinned and raised his eyebrows at the teammates behind him.
In the livestream background, Yang Sa lazily waved a hand in response, but the little blue gremlin-looking guy was much more energetic, pulling funny faces at the camera.
“This kid’s alright,” said Tangyuan, wiping his mouth. Feeling good, he treated himself to ten more skewers of chicken wings. “Xiao Ge’s growing up.”
Shao Zhan, however, wasn’t surprised. Arrogance’s Luan Feng had always been known for his all-around skill, and the new blood wasn’t to be underestimated either. Spending time together day in and day out, the kid had come to idolize their captain, Zhou Heng, and had picked up a lot of his calm and grounded demeanor. So it wasn’t surprising that he could speak fairly even about an opponent in the heat of competition.
Shao Zhan massaged his temples and shook his head slightly.
Looks like Xinghai has no shortage of strong rivals in the new generation.
Meanwhile, the players from LAP had none of Shao Zhan’s worries—they were simply enjoying the game.
They dropped at the airport again, ready for a straight-up fight. But this time, they were faster, more efficient. After clearing the area, they immediately drove off to reposition.
LAP and Arrogance had spawned on opposite ends of the map, with the safe zone in between. If nothing unexpected happened, the two teams wouldn’t clash until mid-game, giving them time to farm and gear up.
But once they did meet—it would be a brutal showdown.
“Hey, you know what? This LAP team is kind of interesting,” Tangyuan said as he massaged a chicken wing like it was getting a spa treatment.
“You think you could beat them if you went up against them?” Shao Zhan suddenly asked.
Tangyuan froze mid-bite. The chicken wing in his hand suddenly lost its appeal. He leaned over to Jiang Ranan and whispered complaints about their captain.
But at the same time, a giant cloud of doubt floated above the charcoal grill: If Team Xinghai were to face LAP, how would they play it?
At the table, everyone’s eyes locked on the screen grew a little wider.
But when it came to focus, no one could compare to the players of Arrogance on the field.
Whether or not to participate in a club-organized tournament didn’t really matter. What did matter was that a professional team couldn’t afford to lose so easily.
Every Arrogance player was at full alert, eager to go head-to-head with LAP and win back their pride.
Barring any surprises, the next safe zone would lock near the school in the center of the map. With Arrogance having landed in S City, they had a geographical advantage over LAP, who had dropped at the airport.
While airport loot is usually top-tier, the fights on the way had drained a fair bit of their resources.
As they cleared out roadblocks, the Arrogance squad was also closely monitoring LAP’s movements through the kill feed—tracking their weapons, kill counts, likely shooting intervals. Any of this data could turn into a potential weakness in a future clash.
After quickly clearing the enemies in S City, Zhou Heng led the team in a swift relocation—wasting not even a second.
In a match, every moment counts.
There were full squads camping bridges for tolls, and sneaky bush campers (LYBs) lying in wait. Every step was dangerous, but also full of opportunities.
Arrogance had a clear goal and no desire to waste time in drawn-out fights. They swiftly took out any enemies they encountered head-on and left the rest to the teams behind them.
If they were lucky, some of those teams might even wear down LAP for them.
Their priority was to secure buildings in the center of the safe zone. Holding that spot meant they were already halfway to winning the chicken dinner.
Just as Arrogance wiped out the defenders on a high point and survived several waves of ineffective attacks, firmly securing the center of the circle, gunfire continued to erupt around LAP.
From their well-fortified position in the circle, Arrogance players, with nothing to do, watched LAP’s flashy and ever-changing kill notifications and couldn’t help but laugh.