ATIBEC Chapter 7

“Yan Sheng, he replied with a question mark.” Yan Man sat in the passenger seat, waving her phone.

Yan Sheng was taken aback for a moment, then quickly turned his head to look at her. “Huh? What did you send him?”

“You told me to just send a random sticker, so I picked one from your random collection and sent him a dog head sticker.” As Yan Man spoke, her phone dinged again. She looked down at the chat content. “He replied again.”

“What did he say?”

“I’m not a lady.”

Yan Sheng: …?

The car came to a smooth stop at the red light. Yan Sheng noticed there was over a minute left on the countdown, so he turned his head to look at the phone in Yan Man’s hand.

[Hello, beautiful lady]

Yan Sheng closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and snatched the phone from Yan Man’s hand. “Yan Man, at the next intersection, I’ll pull over. You get out, drain the water out of your brain, and swim back home.”

“How is this my fault?” Yan Man pouted. “Finding a friendly-looking sticker among all your rage-inducing ones was already a great achievement.”

Yan Sheng was silent for a long time, until the red light in front of them started blinking.

He picked up the phone and pressed the voice message button.
“That sticker was sent by my sister. I’m driving right now, I’ll talk to you when I get back.”

After sending the message, Yan Sheng stuffed the phone into his pocket.

“You’re not seriously considering bringing him into your club, are you? Sure, he’s good, but you said yourself, a small-time Gold player is laughable.” Yan Man casually played a mobile game, not taking her eyes off it. “Just because your mid-laner sucks doesn’t mean you should grab any player you see. What do you think you’re doing, casting a wide net to catch fish?”

“What do you know? If he really is just a Gold player, I’ll take my head off and let you use it as a soccer ball,” Yan Sheng said. “I’ll play a few matches with him first to test his champion pool and skill level. I also need to see if he’s ever done any boosting, which is strictly forbidden by the league. Whether he joins the club or not, it’s too early to say.”

“Whatever, do your thing.” Yan Man said. “Just make sure to set up my computer when we get back. I want to play games.”

Assembling a computer is a tedious and boring task. To make matters worse, Yan Man kept complaining about the messy cables here and the crooked water cooling pipes there, driving Yan Sheng crazy.

After finally getting everything set up for her, Yan Sheng carried his own pyramid-shaped case back to his room.

He opened his phone.

[Owl: Okay]
[Owl: But I have to work this afternoon, so my replies might be slow]
[Y: No rush, just message me when you’re off work.]
[Owl: Sure]

The conversation ended there.

When Yan Sheng said no rush, he meant it. He put his phone aside, took a notebook from his bookshelf, and opened it to today’s match.

·

Almost eleven o’clock, the milk tea shop was closing. As Shen Er took off his apron and washed his hands, his coworker approached him.

“Shen Er, when did you book your ticket for the New Year?”

“The night before New Year’s Eve. Why?” Shen Er turned his head to look at him.

His coworker looked a bit troubled. “Well, I’m scheduled to work on the 29th, but my mom says we have something important that day and I have to go back home. I checked your schedule…”

“You want to switch shifts?” Shen Er heard the hesitation in his voice. “My train is at ten p.m. on the 29th. If we swap, I might miss my train.”

“You won’t, you won’t. The boss said we can close at five p.m. from the 28th to the third day of the New Year!” he said. “I’m off tomorrow, so I can cover your shift. You can still have your regular day off the day after. How’s that?”

No one loves working. Shen Er couldn’t really refuse after he had gone to such lengths.

“Alright.”
“Thanks, thanks. You can go home early today. I’ll handle the inventory tonight.”

As Shen Er walked out of the milk tea shop, a thin layer of frost had settled on the trees by the street. Under the warm yellow lights, snowflakes were gently falling.

Shen Er put on his hat, rubbed his hands together, and blew warm air into them. As he walked towards the internet café, he took out his phone and sent a message to Y.

[Owl: Sorry for the wait, I just got off work.]

[Y: ok]
[Y: Can you log in?]

[Owl: Give me ten minutes, heading to the internet café now.]

Shen Er put his phone away and walked into the familiar little internet café.

He placed his ID card on the machine, and the system’s voice announced, “You have 7 yuan remaining. Enjoy your time online.”

Holding his ID card, Shen Er walked to the front desk, where a young man with dyed blonde hair was playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds with a cigarette in his mouth.

“Shit, the circle’s on us. Let’s block the bridge!”

The smoke wafted into Shen Er’s nose, making him frown. He raised his hand to cover his nose and coughed twice. “Hi, I need to top up my account.”

The blonde quickly glanced at him before returning his attention to the screen. “How much?”

“Thirty.”

“Give me your ID card and scan the QR code.” The blonde spoke quickly. “There are people on the bridge ahead, hide for now.”

Shen Er took out his phone to scan the payment code. The blonde took his cigarette out of his mouth, got up, and took Shen Er’s ID card from him.

A long strand of ash fell from the cigarette, scattering with his movement. A small piece landed on Shen Er’s fingertip.

Without showing any emotion, he removed his hand from the counter and lightly rubbed his fingers together.

The electronic voice sounded again.
“Recharge thirty yuan, get ten yuan free. Balance: forty-seven yuan.”

“Thanks.” Shen Er took the ID card from the blonde and walked to a quieter corner.

Logging into the game, a new friend request popped up in his friends list.
[Jianing Province Carry Bureau Director has added you as a friend]

Shen Er couldn’t help but let out a short laugh at the arrogant ID.

[Jianing Province Carry Bureau Director invites you to a game]

Shen Er hung his headphones around his neck, took a tissue from his pocket to place under the mouse, and pressed the accept button.

“Can you use voice chat?”

[Owl: I can, but it’s a bit noisy here. It might disturb you.]

“Doesn’t matter. Turn it on.”

Rule number one of gaming companions: the client is always right.

Shen Er entered the game voice chat and turned on his microphone.
“Can you hear me?”

Amid the various shouts from people playing different games around him, his voice was a bit soft but clear enough for Yan Sheng to catch. It was a very clear, youthful voice, indicating he was quite young.

“Loud and clear.” Yan Sheng took a sip of his tea. “Do you only play Ahri and LeBlanc? I checked my sister’s match history and didn’t see you using any other champions.”

“No.” Shen Er shook his head instinctively. “This account only has Ahri and LeBlanc.”

“A new account? Your gameplay is good, so this isn’t your main, right? What’s your main account’s rank? Diamond? Master?” Yan Sheng asked. “Can you play in higher-ranked games? I can pay more.”

Shen Er thought to himself, if his main account could play in Diamond or Master tier games, he wouldn’t be offering five-yuan services on Tieba.

“My previous account…” Shen Er paused for a couple of seconds. “Something happened to it. I can’t get it back.”

“I see.” Yan Sheng nodded. “Then I’ll give you an account. Can you play in Master-tier matches? I’ll pay you according to the market rate.”

After he asked this, there was a long silence from the other side, only the noisy sounds of the internet café filled the headset. Yan Sheng frowned and turned the volume down further.

“Sorry, I don’t accept boosting requests.”

Yan Sheng raised an eyebrow. So he has principles. “It’s not boosting, just accompanying. I want to play ranked but your current account can’t queue with mine. The boss is just providing the account.”

“We’ll settle the fee after sixty-one games, just like with my sister. MVP in a winning game gets double.”

Shen Er pressed his lips together. “I’ll rent an account then.”

“Alright, I’ll cover the rental cost,” Yan Sheng chuckled, his fingers tapping lightly on the keyboard frame, producing a crisp sound. “Oh, and one more thing: I get to pick the champions, okay?”

This sounded less like finding a game companion and more like a club trial.

But in an instant, Shen Er dismissed the thought. No club would trial someone in the Gold rank.

“That’s fine.” Shen Er opened the account rental platform. “Still using this account?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, give me a moment.”
He held the mouse, searching through the few available Master accounts, and picked the cheapest one. He scanned the QR code and paid for three hours of rental time.

Logging into the account, he created a new match and invited [Jianing Province Carry Bureau Director] to join.

Yan Sheng’s champion selection style was indeed bizarre—one moment it was an AP assassin, the next a tanky mage, sometimes an aggressive champion, and other times a scaling one.

Shen Er was baffled, but he followed the boss’s instructions without question.

Game after game, an unintentional smile spread across Yan Sheng’s face.

When he saw this player’s match history, he had prepared for the worst-case scenario—that Shen Er was a one-trick pony, only good with Ahri and LeBlanc, and if these two champions were banned, he would be helpless.

But reality proved otherwise.

Shen Er could time his engages perfectly with assassin-type champions and play safe and steady with scaling champions without getting baited. What impressed Yan Sheng the most was—
Shen Er not only played various styles of mid-laners but also synergized well with different types of junglers.

His game sense and decision-making were on par with any professional player.

“How about Irelia?” Yan Sheng suddenly asked.

“Sure.” Shen Er moved his mouse to the Blade Dancer, Irelia, and locked her in.

In this match, the top lane collapsed early, allowing the enemy to snowball. Mid-game, the ADC disconnected, causing problems in the bot lane as well. Both lanes were under immense pressure, and the team was at a disadvantage throughout the game.

“Let’s give up the Baron. If we die in the team fight, it’s over. I’ll go back, get some items, and split push bot,” Shen Er said, stretching his stiff neck.

Yan Sheng responded with a brief “Mm.”

After buying his items, Shen Er immediately teleported to a minion in the top lane. Meanwhile, the enemy minions and super minions were all buffed with the purple Baron buff.

Quickly calculating the health of the Baron-empowered minions, he flawlessly executed a series of Qs, clearing two waves and killing both the enemy jungler and mid-laner who came to stop him.

It was a flashy play, but Yan Sheng frowned as he watched, a trace of doubt forming in his mind.

Irelia’s Q skill resets its cooldown upon killing a unit, but to continuously Q under the pressure of super minions and Baron buffed minions, while also precisely handling the enemy mid and jungle, and smoothly executing a double kill… Combining this with what Shen Er said about his previous account being lost and this new account not having Irelia, it meant he hadn’t played the champion for at least two weeks.

Yan Sheng’s expression grew serious.

---

Translator’s Note:

Sorry for the lack of update last week, I was sick and have been busy finishing my final project. I’ll start updating normally again now 😊

Thank you for reading! 

Hope you enjoy the rest of your day 🍀

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