The heat on Zuo Tao’s face refused to calm down even after he took his seat on the bus.
“Why are your ears so red?” Jiang Ming asked, the memory of Zuo Tao’s bout of fever still giving him a lingering sense of fear. “Are you still feeling unwell?”
“It’s nothing, I’m fine,” Zuo Tao answered, his heart skipping a beat. He pretended to stay calm by checking on his peripherals. Satisfied, he pulled the zipper closed and continued, “I was just feeling a little hot.”
Jiang Ming didn’t doubt him, breathing a sigh of relief. “Feeling hot is better than being cold,” he said. “Make sure to pull up your jacket zipper on the stage.”
Although it wasn’t explicitly required by the organizers, management still had requirements for their public appearance and demeanor. It was usually lenient, but expectations were raised whenever there were events like competitions or public appearances. According to Shi Ling, their team uniforms should always be neat, and they must always look their best.
Jiang Ming, who wasn’t as familiar with these things, followed Shi Ling’s arrangements and he could only say that, after doing so, endorsements have come knocking on the team’s doors ever since their establishment.
Forget endorsements from esports-related companies; just a few days ago, a luxury watch brand had contacted them, asking for cooperation with Song Shihan, but Song Shihan turned it down. Song Shihan has never actually accepted any endorsements in his entire career; but even so, companies still seek him out.
It wasn’t Lin Taisen and Wu Shuibo who were in charge of commentating on today’s game; instead, there were new faces on the commentary stage.
Taking note of the situation from Team Wildfire, Commentator A laughed and said: “I just noticed that PINK is wearing a Crayon Shin-Chan shirt today. It isn’t too hot today, but is he wearing long sleeves?”
Commentator B took his cue, continuing: “I can’t really tell, but he’s at least wearing long pants, so he shouldn’t feel too cold.”
Commentator A: “I would like to remind everyone that typhoon season isn’t over yet. Fans and children should remember to wear appropriate clothes when going out!”
The audience burst out in laughter at the words, but Zuo Tao was speechless.
I have the sudden urge to run to the platform and turn their table over.
【Hahaha, I knew we could leave it to these guys to make things funny!】
【My son is obedient, he’s not wearing strange clothes today!】
【Wow, PINK’s outfit makes him look so soft. I want to rub.】
【You want to rub? You’ll have to ask FIRE if he’ll let you, right? /evil_smirk.jpg】
【I gotta say, there’s no comment to be made about Wildfire members’ looks. It’s a feast for beauty dogs, huh.】
【FG’s WIZARD can also be counted, it isn’t much of an exaggeration to say that he’s the ancient god of beauty among 《Rising Wind》players, huh?】
On Wildfire’s team mic —
Wang Qiu’s laughter rang out, teasing, “Taozi won, huh, I have no idea how long they plan to run with this joke.
Zuo Tao smiled, laughing sarcastically. Deep inside he thought: If you want to win so badly, I’ll let you win.1I have no idea how to phrase this better, but Zuo Tao is basically saying that if Wang Qiu sees him getting teased as “winning”, then he’ll let Wang Qiu win over him.
“This must be hard on Taozi, too. You don’t even have to look to know the audience is laughing,” Si Zheng said.2In most competitions, players don’t face the audience in sound-insulated rooms, so they really have no idea how the audience is reacting.
Before they could continue, Song Shihan tapped his fingers against the table and interrupted with, “Focus.”
After they gave the referees the cue that all preparations were done, they finally entered the banning/picking stage.
Because they were playing against FG, Jiang Ming inhibited the team from letting themselves go. FG, after all, was one of the strongest teams in the country at the moment; even a preliminary match against them was an opportunity to test FG’s level and understand their differences.
If the team was considered individually, Jiang Ming was confident that none of his players were any worse than their opponents, however《Rising Wind》 was a team game; not to elevate others’ ambition and destroy their own prestige3A quote from Journey to the West which means boosting others while desecrating oneself. Kinda like complimenting someone at the expense of insulting yourself, but he had to admit that there still existed a gap between their team’s and FG’s when it came to cooperation.
He also knew that facing them in a real competition was more useful for learning than simply watching recordings and videos. Regardless of whether they won or lost, competitions were still the best source of experience.
Soon, the heroes banned for the game were finalized.
FG mainly focused on suppressing Song Shihan and Zuo Tao; on the other hand, aside from heroes that were strong in the game’s current version, Wildfire banned heroes that WIZARD and RUN were known for. Just as the High Priest and Youhun Mingqiang were automatically banned whenever Song Shihan came on stage, opponents made sure to ban WIZARD and RUN’s Dragon Demon and Guangming Zhiyuan.
The ban choices didn’t shake the audience up too much; it was within everyone’s expectations.
Jiang Ming stood behind his team, glancing at FG’s current picks, saying, “FIRE, should we take Houhu for this game? FG is picking a rather tanky lineup, so you’ll need to put out more damage.”
Song Shihan nodded in agreement, pre-selecting Houhu E’ming. CAT, whose turn it was to pick, immediately switched his choice.
Seeing the lineups being formed by both teams, Commentator A hissed into his mic and said, “I feel like FG and Wildfire will be neck-and-neck for this match. Both compositions are formidable.”
“Indeed,” Commentator B agreed, “though the match hasn’t started yet, I can already see how bloody the map is going to look.”
Commentator C: “If I recall, FIRE also took Houhu out during their last game against REBORN, am I right? On its own, this hero is strong, but under FIRE’s control, he’s even stronger. I’m just unsure how PINK will play differently to keep up with FIRE’s pace.”
Commentator A simply smiled. “I advise you not to plant flags for PINK. If he cries, are you going down there to comfort him?”
Commentator C immediately threw his hands up in surrender. “I’m afraid I will not be enough to coax PINK.”
【Welp. I think… if Fenmao won’t be able to keep up with FIRE, won’t he cry again?】
【Cry cry cry. It’s a daily prayer. When PINK cries, I feel broken, too. /heartbreak.jpg】
【Hurry up and make him cry, I can’t wait anymore hehehehe】
【Can everyone stop being ridiculous?】
【Tsk, this is why you face-obsessed dogs are so annoying. This is e-sports. If you want to stare at handsome guys so badly, why don’t you just go home and stare at Bilibili instead?】
【Ah, the jealousy of haters, envious that our PINK is both strong and handsome.】
As usual, Zuo Tao had no idea what was being discussed in the comments. He looked through the support hero pool and said, “Should I choose one with debuff cleansing?”
Jiang Ming himself was hesitant. He wouldn’t deny that Zuo Tao’s damage support was impressive, but looking at the opponent composition, choosing a support who can release them from crowd control would be best. But if he chose a debuff-cleansing support, there was a higher requirement for cooperation, and he was afraid of repeating the circumstances of their last game.
The time they spent training before the preliminaries was too short. Although they were spending overtime, they were at a complete disadvantage when it came to facing fully mature teams like FG.
“PINK,” Jiang Ming said, his eyes falling on a certain hero. After a moment of hesitation, he finally said, “Can you play Meitan Xueyao?”
This was a hero that could be played as both a mage and a support, with a charm crowd control that, if played well, could help the AD dominate the bottom lane.
Zuo Tao nodded, zipping up his jacket before responding confidently, “I can do it. I rank in the national top 20 with Xueyao.”
Jiang Ming responded: “Then let’s go with a double-carry and try to get an advantage in the early game.” He wanted to remind Zuo Tao not to take up too much of the AD’s gold and EXP earnings, but he felt that it wasn’t something that needed to be reminded at all.
【Shhhhhhhhhh Xueyao?】
【Is this combination okay? Won’t they end up fighting for resources?】
【It’s playable. As long as PINK could keep up with his damage output, there won’t be a problem.】
Three minutes later, both teams spawned at their respective bases.
After buying his initial item from the store, Zuo Tao used his remaining gold to buy a ward. As he moved, he asked: “Level 1 together?”
Song Shihan: “Together.”
As they spoke, Wang Qiu was already walking his mage, the Archmage, into the jungle, finding WIZARD in the bushes along the midlane. He warned: “CAT, careful. WIZARD is probably going to invade. RUN is with him.”
This was within FG’s usual playstyle; at level 1, they invaded the jungle together. If the enemy support wasn’t present, they’d grab the red buff and leave. If they met the support, they’d start a clash.
If their opponents didn’t want to lose their red buff, they could only move together at level 1.
“I guessed that FG would invade the red buff, but I’m not sure if they’ll start a clash,” Commentator C said, watching the big screen. “RUN is positioned trickily; he can protect both the jungler in front of him and the AD behind.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Commentator A’s eyes lit up and said, “It’s a clash!”
With both teams still at level 1, they were on the verge of breaking out into battle.
One second, both teams were testing each other with skills, and the next second, FG’s top laner, KNIGHT, entered the fight, with RUN and WIZARD turning to disrupt CAT, who pulled back, avoiding WIZARD’s A, which hit the low-health buff instead.
Wang Qiu and Si Zheng were struck by crowd control, while Song Shihan kited damage from behind them all.
They were about to lose the red buff. Right before WIZARD could use his spell, Zuo Tao — who had been watching the health bar closely — managed to kill the monster at the last second, successfully stealing the red buff bonus.
Commentator B was excited: “As expected of PINK, only he stole the blue buff last time!”
At the same time, Song Shihan finally moved forward. Houhu, who was now aflame, immediately knocked two-thirds of WIZARD’s HP with a few basic attacks. Just as he was about to continue, the toplaner’s CD finally ran out, and KNIGHT was able to raise a shield to protect WIZARD.
Zuo Tao was busy calculating damage. WIZARD was already low health; his skill damage, talent damage, along with the burn effect from the red buff, were enough to get him the kill.
Song Shihan’s command was short: “Take it.”
Zuo Tao immediately took action, throwing basic attacks while stepping forward, throwing his skill along with it. It was too late for WIZARD to escape, and he burned to death from the red buff.
RUN had no intentions of fighting back, turning around and leaving with half of his health gone. Zuo Tao took the chase out of habit.
Song Shihan, busy engaging with the enemy toplaner, signalled for him to retreat. However, it was too late; the moment RUN retreated, Zuo Tao used his flash to go after him. RUN, predicting his actions, turned around; FG’s AD, CHUN, also flashed towards Zuo Tao, silencing him with a skill.
Zuo Tao’s heart skipped a beat as he looked at his greyed-out skill boxes. The next second —
RUN and CHUN came at him.
His screen greyed out and a cold mechanical sounded in his ears —
【You have been killed by FG-RUN!】
The voice chat was silent. Noticing that Song Shihan’s signal was still visible, Zuo Tao pursed his lips. “Sorry, on me.”
Song Shihan didn’t say anything, simply glancing at the mini-map. “Camp near the river. Don’t worry; it’s just level 1. We’ll get our chance.”
Si Zheng, moving up to the toplane, continued, “My teleport is ready. I can arrive to support anytime.”
Meanwhile, on the broadcast —
【PINK’s impulsiveness shows itself once more. They should have retreated; if he did, he wouldn’t have died.】
【Right. FG’s composition are all early-game heroes; something will definitely go wrong if they keep playing like this.】
【What on earth was he doing? God Han already told him to retreat, but he still kept going?】
【If nothing else, when will Fenmao realize that he’s a support and he doesn’t need to deal so much damage?】
【Can we consider the waterloo of Fenmao’s career?】
【wuwuwu, the look on my son’s face, he’s distressed.】
Of course it counted as a stain. Moreover, Xueyao was a hero Zuo Tao considered himself good at; not to mention his career, but he has never lost his life at level 1 in ranked games.
But Zuo Tao’s mentality was stable. After taking a deep breath, he respawned at the based and rushed down the bottom lane once more.
In FG’s team voice chat —
Support RUN finished setting up wards for vision, leaving WIZARD to move to the bottom lane. His voice betrayed the lingering fear as he said, “This Fenmao is really good. If CHUN-ge didn’t come save me, I would have died.”
WIZARD: “Don’t be careless. Don’t treat him like a usual support.”
“Understood,” RUN answered. “I still remember what Lord Su told me. I definitely won’t let him develop. But still,” he added, “I don’t think he’ll be too much of a problem. My support can handle anything. It doesn’t matter what he does; as long as I’m there, he won’t get a single kill.”
“En,” WIZARD said, “don’t give him the chance to develop.” He laughed. “I’ll gank the bottom lane once I reach level 4.”
“Alright,” RUN said, “we’ll conquer the bottom lane for you.”
Even with what he said, RUN played cautiously, keeping a distance from Zuo Tao’s Xueyao, each time just poking at his health bar before retreating. Most of the time, he kept close with the AD for heals.
Commentator A: “Player RUN is still as stable as ever, and his cooperation with the AD is as smooth as expected.”
“Indeed,” Commentator C agreed, “PINK is visibly affected; each time he attempts to go for the kill on CHUN, RUN is there with milk4Heals in CN gaming circles is colloquially called “milk”. It’s distressing. If Xueyao can’t deal damage, it’s basically useless. It would have been better to play Guardian Spirit or something.”
“Not necessarily,” Commentator B argued. “Let’s wait and see. PINK is capable, he just hasn’t found a chance.”
Ten minutes later, Zuo Tao looked at the mini-map and said, “They’re camping. I should head to the dragon.”
“Can you give me vision?” Si Zheng asked. “If there’s a clash, I’ll teleport down.”
Zuo Tao set up a ward in the bush next to the dragon pit.
Thirty seconds later, FG’s members gathered around the dragon pit, and RUN immediately scanned the area, destroying the ward that Zuo Tao had placed there. Just as the ward disappeared, Si Zheng teleported.
CAT saw her opportunity and jumped over the wall into the dragon pit. Wang Qiu’s Archmage also moved positions to the perfect spot to rain his ultimate, Fire Rain, right in the middle.
The second clash officially began.
Zuo Tao charmed FG’s mage while Song Shihan filled his passive up before shooting a charged basic attack to complete the kill.
On the other hand, RUN kept his eyes on Zuo Tao. While Song Shihan killed their team’s mage, he held on to his skills, targeting Zuo Tao. The AD followed closely behind, killing Zuo Tao from the side.
Zuo Tao never even had the chance to escape, and his screen turned grey.
Wang Qiu stepped over his corpse as he retreated, exclaiming, “Uh, as a mage, I feel offended. Why control him instead of me? Am I weaker than the support?”
Song Shihan followed closely behind with his damage, Si Zheng tanking for him. Two seconds later, Si Zheng succumbed, but Song Shihan managed to steal the dragon and escape successfully.
It seems someone in the comments had noticed something —
【Is FG targeting PINK? I rewatched the last clash, and I noticed that RUN reserved all his skills for PINK.】
【They’re rightly suppressing PINK. If Xueyao develops well, she can basically destroy heaven and earth.】
【Wildfire obviously made a mistaken choice for this game. What on earth were they thinking, having PINK chose Xueyao?】
【Can you even pin the blame entirely on PINK? His damage right now is no worse than QIU’s; it’s all because FG’s coordination is much better than Wildfire’s.】
【Without proper cooperation, the team is like loose sand. There’s no need for wind to blow, it’ll disperse on its own.】
FG was, indeed, targeting Zuo Tao. From the very beginning, the pressure was mostly placed on the bottom lane.
On the other hand, Zuo Tao was beginning to feel numb.
The game quickly reached the 30-minute mark.
After losing a tower on the bottom lane, RUN began following WIZARD around the map. They successfully stole several creeps from CAT’s jungle, all while supporting three lanes. On the other hand, aside from Song Shihan with 4 kills, everyone else was basically at a disadvantage.
Especially Zuo Tao, who died whenever he was left alone for a second.
After another death, Zuo Tao bit his knuckles impatiently, his mind screaming I suck, I’m such a noob.
【Don’t be like this, I was just kidding, I don’t want to see my son cry.】
【FG, please be better people, stop targeting children!!】
【The results are obvious now. Wildfire is better off throwing the next game.】
【I feel so bad for PINK…】
Wang Qiu: “God… are they crazy? Why are they coming after Taozi?”
“It’s fine,” CAT, who rarely ever spoke during a game, comforted. “Relax.”
Si Zheng rubbed his forehead. “There’s another game after this one. This is on me; my hero isn’t tanky enough.”
Zuo Tao hummed reluctantly, but the more they tried to comfort him, the more he blamed himself.
He could admit to himself that he didn’t play well in his game.
“Captain,” he murmured, sniffing, feeling defeated for the first time since he began playing this game. “I’m sorry, I’m not good enough.” Voice muffled, he continued: “Sorry, everyone.”
“What are you talking about?” Wang Qiu, who was still waiting for his own respawn timer, asked. “I have the reasonable suspicion that your aunt must have given them some sort of hint, or else they wouldn’t be coming after you so bad.” He laughed heartily. “That’s good, too; with all their attention on you, we can be more relaxed.”
Zuo Tao: …you’re welcome.
Zuo Tao played carefully for the rest of the game, but he was only able to complete four of his major items and was basically just decoration. The best he could do was use his control skills to help his teammates.
But FG was obviously committed to suppressing him to the end. RUN controlled him under their own tower while the AD poked at his HP from behind. WIZARD even flashed to his face.
Zuo Tao bit his lip, throwing all his skills to control RUN, who was tanking tower damage for his teammates. With the damage from the tower, he successfully got the kill; however, other spells and skills came flying at him.
Just when he thought he was dead for certain, Song Shihan, who had already retreated, suddenly flashed back, tanking critical damage at the last second.
Watching Song Shihan’s health bar quickly approach zero stunned Zuo Tao.
Although the world was noisy, Zuo Tao seemed to only be able to hear his intensely beating heart.
![There’s a Beauty [Ancient Wear Modern]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/image_2023-11-22_095131618.png "There’s a Beauty [Ancient Wear Modern]")
