Chapter 4 – WCG, WCG – Part 1
For the most part, the recent time has been smooth sailing. In Big P’s words “Three stooges still beat a single genius”. Since Pig 3 joined the crew, the three of them roamed the various servers, practicing skills and making a bit of money on minor commissions. The income per match usually varied from 30 to 100 dollars per. Though not much, it is enough to get by.
Liu Zuo uniquely made the record of the absolutely lowest money made from a match – 10 dollars only. A guy named “I Love Elva Hsiao” found Liu Zuo on QQ, and asked for his help in a duel. Liu Zuo agreed, but asked if there are any special requests like insulting the others.
I Love Elva Hsiao replies: “Yes, of course I do.”
Below is the insult note he sent:
“You think you are a big deal because you became the class monitor? My dad is the chief of his department~ I hate people like you. You were involved in the time where Wang Zhongming snitched on the teacher, weren't you? You are a traitor! What is worse, is that you made up lies about Liu Hong just so you can be the class monitor. I can’t stand for it! So, I am here to avenge Liu Hong. I will let the whole class know of your defeat (As in defeat in CS). Then the whole class will know what kind of person you are!”
Liu Zuo faints: “You are an elementary schooler?”
“Yeah, grade 4 already.”
Liu Zuo: “You know how to use the internet at this age? You have QQ? You know CS?”
The person replies calmly: “My dad works in IT, so I know about the internet soon after I was born. QQ is mandatory, most students have it. Never played CS, teacher wouldn’t let us play games. But I heard you guys offer service to duel on people’s behalf, so my classmates like to hire people in CS to resolve their problems. If we fight in class, the teacher will scold us, tell our parents, and I’ll get beat. We won’t have these problems if we fight in CS.”
Liu Zuo faints again: “Why are you called “I Love Elva Hsiao?”
“You are so annoying. Elva Hsiao is my idol, of course.”
Liu Zuo: “What does Elva Hsiao do?”
This time the other side faints: “Uncle, don’t tell me you really don’t know who Elva Hsiao is? She is a famous star singer!”
Liu Zuo: “That I really don’t know. Stars I know are people like Qi Qin, Cai Qin, Zhang Qing Fang and the like. A more recently popular one I guess would be Faye Wong.”
The other person replies: “Uncle, you are so out. Do you really have what it takes to play CS? You don’t even know Elva Hsiao.”
Liu Zuo don’t know whether to laugh or get angry: “The fuck does CS have to do with Elva Hsiao?”
“Uncle, you are swearing. Teacher says this kind of behavior is bad.”
Liu Zuo: “Just stop, I lose. Tell me time and place, and I’ll handle it for you.”
“Thank you, uncle. I heard my classmate also got a really strong merc, don’t underestimate him. I’ll lose so much face if you lose. Oh right, I can give you ten dollars.”
Liu Zuo is speechless, he sat in front of the computer for a while, and suddenly yells : “Fuck this job!”
Meanwhile, Dangerous Fart and Pig Head 3 are watching the replay from a match of the Swedish national team. Dangerous Fart chuckles as he pops one snack seed into his mouth after another, inserting a commentary once in a while : “Look at this retard, guy flanking from his life and he still isn’t moving……..see, see, he's dead.”
Then Big P realizes his bag of seed snacks is getting suspiciously empty, he turns around and finds Pig Head 3 munching through them. Big P jumped up in an attempt to save his food when he heard Liu Zuo’s yell. Forgetting about his seed snack, he darted beside Liu Zuo and asked: “What is wrong? What is wrong?”
Liu Zuo explained the gist of the matter, Big P listened carefully, his hand rubbing his chin as he contemplated the situation. “I Love Elva Hsiao” begins to ask on QQ again : “Are you done considering, uncle?”
Liu Zuo was just about to reject him when Big P waves his hand: “Hold it!”
Liu Zuo looks at Big P, puzzled: “What? You want to take such a risky, low paying job with such an ignorant client?”
Big P did not answer that directly, but waves to Pig Head 3: “Piggy, recite the full version of our passcode to him.”
Pig Head 3 mumbles: “I’m busy.”
Big P: “Kid, If you are still busy with stupid things, I will eat all your chips when you go to class.”
Pig Head 3 hesitates no more, and begins to recite the passcode. Though “reciting” may not be the best way to put it, only a rough mumbling can be heard in his seed stuffed mouth.
The year before we fought under Mt.Yin,
We caught their chief but let him go,
This year we enter deep into the wild.
The barbarians abandon their blades and tent.
Youth aspires to fulfill life’s worth
Devotion to nation is heaven and earth
Though the armor sundered and torn
Chipped blade’s edge far from forlorn
Foreign fields bleak and the soldiers suffer.
Finally barbarians are barbarous no more.
Honor, title and grants of land matters not.
So long as the border is obstructed no more.
Big P gave a big thumbs up: “Well recited!” Then turns to Liu Zuo: “You know who wrote this password?”
Liu Zuo: “Don’t tell me it is you, Big P?”
Big P: “I knew it, you know nothing besides programming and CS, uncultured. This poem is written by Li Bai. (TL Note: It actually isn’t.) Look, look! Look at Li Bai’s pride, and he is someone from the ancient days! What does the poem tell you? It tells of our people fighting to the death to protect our home from foreign invaders. No matter how strong they are, we have nothing to fear with justice in our heart. Protecting the strong and rooting out the weak are the natural duty of killers and swordsmen like us.”
Piggy interrupts, his mouth still filled with seed snacks: “Bro, you mean protect the weak and root out the strong?”
Big P: “Don’t interrupt – Liu Zuo, at this time of peace, there aren't many situations that call for the use of real blades and guns. Yet protecting….the weak and rooting out the strong is still the waves that continue to ebb in our blood. Think about what the kid must have felt. In coming to find you, he gave everything for his friend, are you going to abandon him now? Even a child knows about gratitude and vengeance, how can an adult like you be so numb? Liu Zuo, face the reality, face your destiny as a killer! Take this job, this is the trial fate has in store for you. Even though it is only ten dollars, it is still money…
Piggy: “Bro, why does that sound so bloody? Waves ebbing in our blood and what not – I bet that last line is what you really feel.”
Big P: “You think I am materialistic like that?”
Liu Zuo let out a long sigh: “Stop arguing, I’ll take it, I’ll take it.”
Of course, Liu Zuo got the ten dollar.
Before you knew it, it was the end of the month, time for the landlord to come after his rent. This is perhaps the only blemish in the otherwise calm and peaceful time. Although the old landlord had been converted to a diehard CS fan, someone his age is quite calculating as well. While he does come by from time to time to learn some latest skills, he is not cutting a penny less from the rent.
Bjg P places a record of their account in front of everyone: “Let me give you all a run down. We made ￥1060, this month. Food, including take out for lunch, dinner, and cup noodles for midnight totaled￥630. Monthly internet fee us ￥150, and other household item like toilet paper and toothpaste costed ￥36. Luxury expense (Including seed snack, chips, cigarette) costed ￥100. Our expense totaled ￥916, leaving us with ￥144. Our rent is ￥600 for the month, counting the ￥144 we had left, we are still short ￥456, what do we do?!”
Piggy looks at Liu Zuo, the latter says: “Don’t look at me, I almost exhausted my savings over the last few months.”
Piggy looks at Big P, the latter says: “I’ve been working hard to find us business, and now we end up in the red?”
Piggy looks at himself, and says nothing.
In the awkward silence, Big P’s QQ suddenly rang. The spiritless Big P walked in front of his computer and then suddenly exclaims: “What do you know about heaven favors the lucky? What you know about heaven always leaves a way? Comrades, the big job is here.”
Piggy ran in front of Big P’s computer and was instantly stunned by what he saw. Big P, now with tear in his eyes, exclaims as he pats Piggy on the head : “You are an young comrade after all, haven’t seen something of this scale.￥100,000 is too much for you, while a veteran like me…… .￥100,000….sniff…sniff.”
Liu Zuo slowly walked beside them, it turns out to be an announcement on QQ, saying something about a national CS tournament called WCG (Tl note: World Cyber Games), with a champion prize of ￥100,000, and so on.
Liu Zuo calmly looked at the two men dancing with tears of joy, and slowly spoke up: “Please hold a moment, you two. Did you get a good look at the notification? It has to be a 5 men team before you are qualified to apply. Besides, you have to fight your way from municipal and provincial matches before you qualify for the nationals. You guys are getting way ahead of yourselves.
Big P and Piggy quickly gathered in front of the computer to conduct more research, mumbling amongst themselves all the while. Liu Zuo, too lazy to deal with them, took a “Curator’s Journal” and went to the washroom. He is surprised by what he saw the moment he stepped into the washroom. Everywhere except the toilet seat is filled with books that Big P and Piggy brought into the toilet and left there. Liu Zuo picked up a couple of these books, “Adult Jokes”, “Beauty Gallery”, “Reader’s Digest”, “Men are Spawn of Aliens”, “Happy Suffering”……..He sat angrily on the toilet and thought to himself : “Those two sure have suspicious tastes…….”
The number two today had been very satisfying, which somewhat reduced Liu Zuo’s anger about the mess of a toilet. Liu Zuo returned to the room, while yawning. Big P and Piggy are huddled together, making something suspicious. Too lazy to put up with them, Liu Zuo went to his computer and began to work on a program he’s been toying with for the past three days. He’s been programming it whenever he isn’t playing CS, and it is almost done.
Suddenly, Big P’s happy voice broke his focus: “Done!”
Liu Zuo turns around, and finds Big P and Piggy holding up a piece of white paper, the following words written with an ink brush:
Team Bonus Hunter
Liu Zuo: “What are you guys doing?” He leaned in closer and examined the calligraphy: “Stinks”, and with that, returned to his program.
Big P: “What do you know, this is Wei Bei font, plebs like you cannot appreciate it.”
Piggy cheered: “Writing is beautiful, content is creative.”
Liu Zuo: “What creative content? Aren’t guys just planning to form a team to take a shot at the 10 grands? You think they are stupid? Three stooges like us are gonna get thrown out the instant we went to apply.”
Piggy: “That won’t happen, we will just dress neatly when we go.”
Liu Zuo: “Is there something wrong with your head, this isn’t about clothes, we aren’t even a legit team. Proper teams are groups of five, the lucky ones even get sponsors. Three nobodies like us…..hmph, don’t waste your time.
Big P: “Hold it! Comrade Liu Zuo, why does your head only spin in one direction? No wonder they say “Ten programmers, nine retards.” It was also said that “If there is difficulty, you challenge it. If there isn’t difficulty, you make it difficult and then challenge it” – Comrade Liu Zuo, we are but three people right now, but we can expand our roster. We still have until the next month to apply. We just got to find some good lads, and our five legs can walk towards the national championship together, hahahah…….our time is finally coming!”
Piggy quietly says to Big P: “Bro, you got the numbers of legs wrong. The way you counted it, we’d each only have one leg.”
Big P grumbles: “Now isn’t the time for counting legs. Do you have any sense of urgency, kid? The important thing is to get our team going. We are gonna put the sign up today!” With that, he grabbed some glue and pasted the piece of paper with “Team Bonus Hunter” on their door frame.
Piggy: “To be expected of Big P, always so decisive and full of foresight. Even your writing has a special sense of flavor to it, people who don't get it can’t read a single word.”
Big P smiles slightly, accepting Piggy’s compliment. Then he turns to Liu Zuo and pulls him over.
Liu Zuo tilts his neck: “Wait, hold it! Let me save first!”
Big P held him where he is, and waited for him to finish saving. Then, stares at Liu Zuo with a serious expression: “From today onward, you are the captain of Bonus Hunter!” Piggy quickly claps to the occasion from the side.
Liu Zuo: “I don’t think that’s a good idea, I haven’t even been a class monitor when I was young. I don’t think I can take it now that you put me in a high position like Captain.
Big P: “No matter the position, if you treat it with diligence, you will succeed. This position of captain has to go to you!”
Piggy: “Yeah, yeah, go for it, Liu Zuo.”
Liu Zuo’s face is getting red: “If the people ask for it this hard, I suppose I will have to….”
Before Liu Zuo finishes, Big P declares: “From today onward, our goal will be – Chinese National Championship of WCG. To fulfil this great dream, I will now announce several rules.”
“One, consuming luxuries like chips and seed snacks will be prohibited. The savings goes towards rent.”
“Two, Liu Zuo and I will ration our daily cigarette use, whoever exceeds the ration will wash all the clothes for one week.”
“Three, We will no longer eat expensive take-outs, instead we will take turns to shop for groceries. The natural cook that is yours truly will be cooking for everyone. Anyone who publicly or privately complains about the food will have their cigarette or snack ration cancelled for one week.
“Four, to maintain timely payment of rent, we will open some avenues of income. In my spare time from training, I will pick up my old job……..”
Liu Zuo and Piggy lean in curiously: “Your old job is…….”
Big P smiles coldly: “I am the nightmarish salesman that haunts various residential communities of Nanjing – Focused on selling mini-vacuum cleaners to middle aged housewives. Where I’ve been, none can hold! I left the world of sales for CS, and now, for CS, I shall return!”
Piggy nods: “Since big bro has spoken, I will also contribute. I am the terrifying home tutor dreamed by elementary and middle school girls throughout Nanjing. Grader schoolers under my tutelage see significant improvement in their study and morals. It seems, it is time for this tutor to strike again!”
The two finish what they were saying, and turn to Liu Zuo.
“I..I will be washing clothes for you guys at home, and plan our strategies.”
Big P nods: “Then, it is decided!”
With that Big P and Piggy devoted themselves to increasing their income. Things did not remain idle elsewhere – New situations began to develop in Beijing.
Ever since meeting the little beauty with the garbage bags, Xi Cheng acquired three symptoms: One is that he became restless near 6 PM, and had to ask to be excused; Two is that a stupid smile often manifest on his face during day, and he talks like he is sleep walking; Three being he often camps behind wooden crates in CS, and smiles to himself : “What a nice dumpster.”
After returning from her spring outings, the little beauty found the camping Xi Cheng under her building again. Xi Cheng is a typical outgoing young man, with all the looks, builds and familial backgrounds. Yet he simply can’t do anything but fell for the little beauty. Despite Xi Cheng camping under her apartment every day when she comes down to throw the trash, the little beauty made no further suggestions besides thinking Xi Cheng is funny and good with jokes. Perhaps she is just innocent, perhaps she is pretending like nothing is happening.
Thus, Xi Cheng’s emotion can fluctuate between joy and sorrow many times a day. Sometimes his face filled with joy, other times one sigh after another. Yet he had made major progress recently – He finally convinced the little beauty to take his numbers. The little beauty promised that she would message Xi Cheng if she was bored or had nothing to do. Xi Cheng was excited for a long time for this development, and acquired another peculiarity: “Checking the phone multiple times a day.”
Yet the little beauty never did message him, perhaps there is no boring time in her colorful life.
Xi Cheng did not falter, besides reporting in besides the dumpster every evening, he still made it his habit to check his phone.
This evening, just as Xi Cheng is about to report for duty again, A Jie stops him.
“Xi Cheng, didn’t we agree to have a match with those from JACK at seven?”
Xi Cheng hits himself on the head: “I almost forgot. Are those two really that important? Do we really have to team up to take them on?”
A Jie: “Those two are the core of JACK. While they haven’t won a single round in the first half, they took four rounds in the second. More importantly, all four losses are due to me losing to that “so” in a final 1v1.”
Xi Cheng’s expression turns serious: “You mean, it’s hard to know who would win in a 1v1 between you and him?”
A Jie: “Exactly. In our post game discussion, everyone agreed that their defeat was due to a lack of tactical coordination, they relied entirely on personal skills. Yet so and Yoki’s personal skills are far too exceptional, they are easily a match for us.” A Jie gazes towards the window and continues thoughtfully: “If there is one day where they learned to work together, and understood what is true victory, then that might be the time where they begin their march towards NO.1.”
Xi Cheng: “My hands are itchy from listening. Heheh, good, let’s settle this tonight.”
A Jie: “Good, but don’t underestimate them. Their individual skill is near perfect, so we must work together and defeat them one at a time. Relatively speaking, Yoki is slightly weaker, that so, is terrifying…….”
At 7 PM, both A Jie and Xi Cheng entered the pre-agreed upon server. The map is coincidentally Bloodstrike, the same map where Liu Zuo fought Pig Head 3. So and Yoki from JACK also arrived on time, and said the following the moment they showed up:
“After our match with you, we’ve become the center of attention for CSER far and wide. There are too many people asking for games with us on QQ, and thus we don’t have much time. As we agreed to only half an hour, please keep to that promise. Lastly, this is a friendly match, not team competition, so please keep the result secret. Ok?”
A Jie agrees without hesitation.
The hot-blooded Xi Cheng says: “Okay, cut the talk and let’s play!”
So begins this very special match.
A Jie is a very thorough person. He had reviewed the replay with JACK multiple times before the match, and had developed several strategies against so and Yoki. A Jie provided all these strategic plans to Xi Cheng, and the two even practiced together for half an hour before the match. This is absolutely unprecedented in their history of private matches, and is a clear sign of how serious they are taking this match.
Yet regardless of how much preparations A Jie made, the match still proved a major surprise.
A giant, shocking, surprise.
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