Chapter 2 - Part 2

Chapter 2 – Part 2

Teaming Up with Dangerous Fart to Become Killers

At the end of the first round, a sweaty Xi Cheng showed up with his Seagull motorcycle helmet at the X·FILES training area in the net café. Xi Cheng’s appearance caused a small stir amongst the onlookers, a few girls even waved eagerly: “Xi Cheng handsome, Go get them!”

Yet none of the X·FILES team members spoke, they all turned to look at A Jie.

Just as Xi Cheng was about to sit on his designated seat, A Jie spoke up: “Xi Cheng, don’t go on. Ah K will substitute for you this time. Ah K, get on, change Xi Cheng’s name.

Xi Cheng looks at A Jie straight in the eye: “Is it because I am late?”

A Jie: “Yes.”

Xi Cheng: “I…….”

A Jie: “No matter the reason, the first objective of a CSER is to obey the team rules. No reason can be an excuse for being late. Observe on the side, your punishment will be announced after the game”

Ah K couldn’t believe the luck that had befallen him, but he quickly logged on. Becoming a first line player is extremely difficult in X·FILES, and who knows how many obstacles must be crossed to get to this point. Especially as Ah K is training as a sniper. No matter how hard he tries, Xi Cheng still seems like an insurmountable mountain that stands before him. All the spotlights are around Xi Cheng, everyone only looks at first line players, especially A Jie and Xi Cheng. No one notices Ah K in the shadows, almost as though he is just a background to the geniuses.

Though he thought about quitting, Ah K held on. He took a few deep breaths and calmed himself down. All the hard work in practicing his shots, watching replays, and studying strategies, aren’t all that work for this day? “Go for it, Ah K, this might be your only time to prove yourself.” He said quietly to himself.

The crowd was silent. A girl even started sobbing because Xi Cheng couldn’t play. Xi Cheng stood there for a moment, then turned to leave the net café.

The second round is about to begin.

Big P mumbles with a long face: “So poor after losing the first round, can’t afford guns, have to make due with this little pistol…… Oi, you have cash right, buy a gun for me……” He turns around, and suddenly screams: “Zuo, your face is so serious!”

Liu Zuo ignored him, bought a gun and charged on.

Big P stared at the screen for a while and said to himself: “I have a bad feeling about this…….”

At the end of the first half, after 12 rounds, X·FILES had won every single round. Top of the CT and T scoreboards are A Jie and Liu Zuo respectively. The number two on both sides are worth noting as well, being Ah K and Dangerous Fart. Dangerous Fart is quite happy with himself. He took a screenshot of the scoreboard, and bragged to Liu Zuo: “Just based on the top two score, I’d say JACK’s captain owes us 10 bucks more!”

Liu Zuo said nothing.

Dangerous Fart waves his hand in front of Liu Zuo’s face, and asks worryingly: “What? You gone retarded? Or you dead?”

Liu Zuo digs his finger into his mouse, and grits his teeth: “ Why, why can’t I beat him?! Every time it was him and I at the end, every time it was a 1v1 between us, he killed me every time! It’s like Godshot, I have no chance against him!”

Dangerous Fart: “Don’t say that. Remember there was a round where you died first and I lived till the end? Of course, A Jie got me in the end as well. Sigh…born in the wrong time… you got 10 more kills, I’ll go pour some tea.”

Liu Zuo: “I’m not drinking, not gonna play.”

Dangerous Fart: “Don’t bullshit me.” Then he got up to pour tea. When he returns, Liu Zuo is already lying on his bed, his eyes half open.

Big P: “Seriously? Shit, what about the business?”

Liu Zuo: “I don’t want my cut. If you do, finish the match yourself.”

A moment of silence, Big P stood in place, maybe going retarded as well.

After a while, Liu Zuo soundly heard a huge “Bang” sound, then he fell to the floor in an inexplicable pose. Another huge object fell with him --- Big P. He said with a big smile “I jumped on the bed and broke it, now you’ve only got the gaming chair to sit on.”

Liu Zuo jumped up in rage: “Fucking breaking my property, you want to get kicked out?”

Big P: “It doesn’t matter if I live here or not, but you gotta finish the match. Even Black Heaven played till the last round, despite how traumatic that must have been. Besides, we are bounty hunters, we make our living off this, and it’s only right that we show some professionalism.

Liu Zuo: “ You don’t need to finish a rotten egg to know it's gone bad. We are no match for them, what’s the point!

Big P: “You never know the result until the last moment! Even if the ending is death, us CSERs will face it head on.

“Aren’t you the first batch of CSER in China, aren’t you the first coming from DF? Then give it your all and prove it to everyone!”

 “Look at yourself now, like a squishy permission! Where is the skill you used to roast me?”

“You beat me up real good in our 1v1, but did I run away?”

 “Tell you what, I thought I’m the number one in the world in CS before meeting you. After playing you, I realized there are more talents out there, I admit it. A loss is a loss, big deal.”

“But I am not going to give up, I am always pursuing you, growing and improving. One day I will surpass you. Even if I couldn’t, no big deal, I tried. If I still don’t win, that’s fate.”

 “But now, you only played half a match, how can you just give up like that? Even if you kick me out after this match, even if we go our separate ways after this, I am making you finish the game.”

Liu Zuo says nothing, his face dark. After a while, he walks towards the computer and picks up his mouse.

Big P lets out a long sigh, wipes the sweats off his forehead, and mumbles to himself: “It is 60 bucks after all, can’t let it just slip away like that…”

The second half started, for the next 12 rounds, JACK will play as CT, X·FILES as T.

The opening is nothing out of the ordinary, as everyone expects --- without money to buy main weapons, A Jie used glock 18 to mow down the CTs, none survived. While the CT fought back hard, they were easily swept away. The unexpected would happen in round 4.

Before heading out in round 4, A Jie signaled his teammates to be cautious. The CT used only pistols to fight against them in the last three rounds, meaning that M4 and AWP should appear by round 4. Underestimating the opponent will only lead to defeat, and A Jie will never tolerate this kind of defeat.

The T moved out with a full set of body armor and AKs. There was no resistance along the way, the T moved quickly into the site outside the tunnel. One T begins to plant, three other standing guards, and Ah K observing the main ramp with his AWP. Quickly, the bomb has been planted, and in 35 seconds, it will explode and they will win the round --- or they can kill all the CT during this time, and they will still win even without planting the bomb.

The eager terrorists head out to look for the CT, leaving only Rabbit guarding the bomb.

Rabbit held on to his AK and carefully watched his surroundings. The world of Dust is strangely silent, yet he does not dare to relax for a moment. “Never underestimate your opponent” --- A Jie told him that, and he treasures those words in his heart.

A Jie saved him. Rabbit was one of the core players of “Green Miracle”, but angered the team captain when he wouldn’t put up with the captain’s dictatorial management style, and was kicked from the team. Captain of  “Green Miracle” was a well known figure in the Beijing CS circle, and for a time no team in the massive city of Beijing dared to take Rabbit in. Just as when the despaired Rabbit is about to give up CS, A Jie found him, played a 1v1 match with him on Bloodstrike.

Rabbit did not win a single round. Yet after the game, A Jie told him: “Come to our team, you passed the test”. Rabbit shivered at the sight of a 0 kill on the scoreboard. A Jie told him: “You have a great game sense, and potential for a great CSER.” He looked at Rabbit and smiles: “Never underestimate your opponent.”

With that, Rabbit became a member of X·FILES. As a result of hard work and Luck, he became one of the core players after half a year. He had since played hundreds of games for X·FILES, including against Green Miracle. He relished in that victory.

Rabbit crouched behind a box near the bomb, and smiled as he thought of the past. “I will go even further…… maybe one day, I will be as good as A Jie” He thought to himself. At this moment, he heard a single sound of a footstep --- that is no normal footstep, it reeks of hidden danger. Rabbit immediately raises his gun to aim, but there is nothing in front of him. When he turned around to look at the short wall to the right, it was too late. Liu Zuo jumped down from the wall and headshotted him with the M4. Rabbit’s blood splattered on the bomb he is defending.

Dangerous Fart followed behind Liu Zuo and happily picked up Rabbit’s AK. Liu Zuo’s figure darted out of the wooden door towards CT Spawn. The terrorist must have gone there to hunt down the CTs, there is no better chance to flank and take them out.

Big P followed behind Liu Zuo, all the while humming: “It’s nice and chill under the big tree~~~”. Before they got to the CT Spawn, sniper Ah K appeared on the slope. Thankfully, it took half a second for Ah K to switch from pistol to AWP, or Big P would finish right there.

Big P begin to reload his AK and let lot a sigh of relief, as he thought to himself: “Holy crap……” Then he took a look at Liu Zuo ahead of him, still running towards the CT spawn and ignoring him completely. “Little brat”, Big P said in his heart --- Then he smiled. Many people just want spiritual victory like that, insulting people in their head to feel better about themselves, and such behaviors even got a good name called “ventriloinsult”.  “As far as ventriloinsult goes, I sure am a pro……” Big P sighed to himself.

Even as Big P was lost in thought, Liu Zuo already took out two more people. Now the match is done to a 1v2, if their teammate diffuses the bomb, victory will be theirs. Strangely, the beeping sound of the bomb continues, it seems the diffuser did not complete their task. Big P wanders around the wooden door, not sure if he should assist with the diffuse or stick with Liu Zuo. While hesitating, Liu Zuo returned from CT spawn.

He said to Big P: “What are you zoning out for, A Jie already killed the diffuser. Hurry and go diffuse!” Big P mumbled an agreement, and followed Liu Zuo through the gate. The moment he entered, a crisp AK shot blew his head open.

Big P angrily smashes his mouse on the table: “We went in together, why does he have to shoot me!”

Seeing Liu Zuo is not responding to him, he continued on himself: “Because I didn’t jump or dodge…… His shot placement is terrifying……. It’s all up to you now!”

Liu Zuo hid behind a box. He spotted A Jie’s hidden location the moment he entered. Without question, A Jie clearly knows where he is as well.  From the terrain, A Jie seems to hold the better position. He holds a more open area with more places to hide, whereas Liu Zuo are stuck in one place. If the enemy decides to attack, he might not even have a chance to fight back if he isn’t careful.

The two of them stare at each other through layers after layers of cover.

Even more people are staring at the two of them. Audiences in the net café held their breath, afraid to miss a single action from A Jie. Everyone is wondering what action A Jie will take. The bomb will explode in a bit over ten second, so many people assume the defensive strategy --- stall till the bomb explodes, and the round is won. A Jie should leave soon and preserve his strength. Others think that Liu Zuo must be closely watching A Jie’s movement as well, if A Jie tries to leave, it is likely that he will be taken out by Liu Zuo (Or rather, the so called =JACK=SO). Might as well wait for the bomb to go off, no big deal if they both die, the CT is swimming in money from their victories.

Captain 232 of JACK sits in front of his computer, too scared to even look at the screen. He closed his eyes and mumbled to himself “Godjesusbuddha protects, at least let us win a single round!”

Liu Zuo remained crouched behind the box, listening for A Jie’s movements. Suddenly, with a cry of  “Fire in the hole”, A Jie tossed a flashbang in this direction, followed up by sounds of rushing foot steps --- A Jie sprinted towards Liu Zuo, while shooting towards the box.

“Shooting through the box!” Someone in the net café exclaimed, “A Jie’s calculation is right on point!”

Captain 232 is almost crying in front of his computer in his home at Anhui --- A Jie hit Liu Zuo 3 times, leaving him with only 18 HP, one or two shots at most will finish him. “Please, just sit there, wait for A Jie to come and shoot him while he moves his cursor on to you!” 232 begged Liu Zuo in his heart.

Yet the moment before A Jie approached the box, Liu Zuo suddenly leapt up and out of the protection of the wooden box. For that one moment, Liu Zuo and A Jie are face to face once more. Liu Zuo and A Jie both shot the moment their gaze met. In a wave of surprised gasps and cries, Liu Zuo was left with 1 HP, and A Jie was shot in the head, his body falling back.

Liu Zuo let out a long sigh of relief, and ran towards the bomb to begin diffusing. He had a diffusing kit with him, and took care of the bomb within a few seconds.

They won the round.

The net café in Beijing was silent. After a long while, someone spoke up quietly: “The legend of the unkillable A Jie in 2002….. ended.” The sound of discussion got louder and louder, until it engulfed the entire net café. Liu Zuo, sitting in his Nanjing home, had no idea that because he ended A Jie’s unkillable legend in 2002, the entire net café is now coming to watch their game.

“A Jie is dead”

“He got killed by some random dude that just jumped out”

“A Jie’s unkillable legend ended”

Everyone is talking about this below their breaths. The almost demon like Godshot A Jie was headshotted, and it was by a no name CSER from a so called “Famous” but in reality a noob team from Anhui in a 1v1 standoff.

Rabbit turned around quietly to look at A Jie, the latter’s face remained calm and there were no signs of disturbance. He is still so focused, not influenced by the outside world at all. “Keep it up,” Rabbit said under his breath.

 

The match finally ended. The crowd dispersed and the players returned to training on their computers. A Jie walked out of the net café and found a man smoking on the left side of the front staircase.

“Hey, we won.” Says A Jie as he sits down beside him and lights a cigarette himself: “I know you wouldn’t leave, you would wait for the result here.” A Jie smiles, a smile that has a scent of warmth: “ Xi Cheng, this is the kind of man you are.”

“Anything interesting in the match, let’s hear it?” Smiles Xi Cheng.

A Jie remained silent for a moment. It is very hard to see stars in the night sky of Beijing, only thick fog and dark clouds. Though tonight is better, the bright moon lit up the sky. A Jie's appearance is almost like a shadow under the moon and city lights, yet even that couldn’t hide his sternness.

“so and Yoki.” He suddenly says.

Xi Cheng: “What do you mean?”

“Two players from JACK. Especially so, you need to remember his name. I want to play another round with them ---  you and me, against those two.”

Xi Cheng: “That serious? Us two teaming up? As far as I knew, JACK didn’t have any top tier pros.”

A Jie: “Those two were the most exceptional killers I’ve met. Their individual skills are definitely on our level. They lost because they don’t know how to work together. One day, when they learned teamwork and cooperation, it might be time for X·FILES to step down.

Xi Cheng laughs: “When you put it like that, I really would like a fight with them. I sure lost a lot because you didn’t let me play today!”

A Jie: “Right, the team voted on your punishment, you are sitting out for the next two matches. Xi Cheng, Ah K will be playing for you in these two games.”

Xi Cheng snaps his picky: “Roger.” He then smiles: “I have no regrets. Because of my lateness today, I met an angel.”

A Jie: “If you mess around with girls again, I’ll fire you.”

Xi Cheng: “If I mess around with girls again, I’ll fire myself.” He threw away his cigarette: “From today onward, I will storm her castle, and defend it forever.”