Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Bonus Hunter’s First Battle

 

After W joined, Big P had been looking around for a team to set up a match against. The brothers eagerly anticipated a chance to test the waters. The exception is W, who remained aloof and disinterested. Big P and Piggy discussed amongst themselves in private: “That guy does nothing besides eating, CS, and riding his tricycle in front of Lion’s, he sure seems like some kind of fugitive hiding from something.”

Piggy: “He looks pretty mean, with that long, messy hair and a scraggly beard, you really can’t pass him for a good guy.”

Big P: “He’s found by Liu Zuo, it will be fine. The guy already looks like a tough bandit, we can probably even use him to intimidate the other team in matches down the line…”

Though the Bonus Hunter had been craving for their first match after formation, all the contacted team were adamant in refusing a match after learning their opponent only had 4 people. There was once where Big P finally talked his way into Beijing’s Green Miracle’s server. Yet the opponent left right away after seeing Bonus Hunter only had 4 people.

Big P laments: “Though we are a bit short on members, we definitely aren’t on skills.”

The silent W suddenly speaks up: “Proper matches are all 5v5s, a team with self-esteem will not play against a 4 men team.”

Piggy claps his hand: “Okay, how hard is it to just find a person? I’ll get my classmate, he is a bit noob but still a person.”

Liu Zuo: “Give it a rest, you.”

Big P: “Indeed, don’t mess around, piggy. Aren’t we all here for that 100k? If we find a noob, it won’t be us smiling till the end. If your classmate comes, we will just end up watching someone else take that 100k through our own tears.”

Piggy retorts: “I say my classmate is noob compared to Liu Zuo and W; Compared to you, Big P, he is pretty good.”

Big P says angrily: “Don’t kid around with me! Back in the day I tied Liu Zuo in that match we met in, and now a kid like you looks down on me?

Piggy: “Big P you…”

The two of them resumed their daily evening banter. Liu Zuo is now used to this kind of environment, he took a look at W, the latter focused on his screen, seemingly as though he heard none of the bantering between Piggy and Big P.

 

 

“Finally, a team agrees to a match with us!” Big P proclaims excitedly to everyone, “Please gather at 211.21.343.61:27015, everyone!”

Piggy: “Which team has such low self-esteem?”

Big P: “They seem to be nobodies too, they just formed and are hungering for a match.”

Liu Zuo: “Cut the chatter, they seem to be from Nanjing as well……Get in the server fast, before they change their mind about playing with us.”

The four of them entered the server in unison. The opponent is called China Made, the map used is Dust2. Liu Zuo stands on the yellow sand of Dust2, and he feels refreshed and has an endless fighting spirit.

Big P smiles dumbly: “I feel that 100k waving at us……”

Piggy says emotionally: “Bonus Hunter takes their first step towards the 100k.”

Liu Zuo: “Cut the crap, brothers, charge!”

W suddenly asks: “Charge how? We need to coordinate.

Liu Zuo: “Yes, yes, we need to coordinate.”

W: “You never played in formal matches before?”

Big P: “Bullshit, how would be out here if we never played a match? Liu Zuo and I had played in matches, Piggy is even more lit, he was part of a team before.

W: “Then Liu Zuo can assign tasks.”

Liu Zuo: “I think it's best we just each charge ahead the way we want. Okay, it is decided, charge!”

Perhaps because the opponent never played a formal match themselves, they set the starting fund to 16000. Bonus Hunter is T, China Made is CT. Bonus Hunters briskly bought their weapon and charged out roaring. W bought an AWP and defended base.

It is true that China Made never played a match. The match today happened only because their captain knew the net café owner, and got his hand on the server password. China Made’s players are so excited about their first match it almost seems like they are on drugs, wanting to charge into the enemy’s face and mow them down with machine guns. That is why the starting funds are set to max, everyone armed to the toe – Full helmet, armor, grenade, M4 or AWP – They gallantly charged to the A door.

A door seems silent and devoid of people. The CT can no longer resist their urges and rush out of the A door one by one. To their surprise, a group of slavering bandits are waiting for them. The moment CT got out of the door, they saw tough bandits crouched or standing, guns aimed at their head. A sniper slyly hides on the ramp, watching for movements here.

Captain of China Made realized things had gone wrong and roared: “Brothers, we fell into the evil bandit’s traps, get the fuck out!”

Despite his words, it is too late. After several “Bangs” of gunfire, the four T took out a CT each, leaving the lone captain running for his life.

Liu Zuo waves his hands: “Charge!” Without need of his instruction, Piggy and Big P already leapt ahead like mad, straight for the CT captain. Liu Zuo thought: “How can I let you take the juiciest piece of meat, I will get it myself.” Only W stood lazily on the ramp, staying out of the hunt.

The CT captain already heard the footsteps behind him as he ran past A doors, left without a choice, he jumped into the low ramp in A Long, also known as “toilet”. Usually when the fighting gets heavy, you might save your life by camping hard in that place. The CT captain kept praying after jumping into the toilet: “The bandits can’t see me, can’t see me, can’t see me……”

While he is preying, three vicious looking bandits already appeared before him. The shivering captain could not even control his trigger finger, his shots going far to the left. Piggy stood at the ramp entrance, and pointed his gun to intimidate the captain. The captain is now in full panic, his little hand couldn’t even decide which of the vicious men he is going to shoot. Liu Zuo and Big P exchanged a naughty glance, and displayed great rapport as they both stepped up to cut up the captain with their knives.

Members of China Made laments before their screen: “Too cruel……they gangbanged our captain.”

The CT are a lot steadier in second round. 2 Defends A, 2 Defends B, and one defends mid door – They are now playing normally now. Yet the T lead by Liu Zuo are in high spirits and want to do something big. Liu Zuo was just about to lead the charge when Big P and Piggy darted ahead like rabbits, no longer able to contain their excitement.

Liu Zuo grumpily thought: “Those two ran in that quickly, what would be left for me? Those two wolves won’t leave a single piece of vegetable left on the dinner table, and are just as good at kill stealing in CS. If this goes how, how would he, Liu Zuo, make a living? With that, Liu Zuo yells: “Please don’t be in such a rush, I am coming.”

Liu Zuo’s yell did nothing. Big P and Piggy still kept running, only W lazily remained in base.

Liu Zuo had no choice but to sadly follow behind Big P and Piggy, he silently determined to never be left behind again. Despite that, running past Big P and Piggy are quite difficult. Those to leap up and down, covering for each other while completely destroying the CT. At the end of the round, not a single CT is left standing.

Liu Zuo complains to Big P: “You two ran so quickly, nothing is left for W and I.”

Big P casually replies: “That was just an elementary demonstration of my skills. How is it?” Big P smugly looks at the scoreboard, he is right on top, piggy second, Liu Zuo and W at the end.

At the start of the third round, the CT captain spoke up: “Oi! Bandits, are you guys hackers? You arrogant pricks dinks people from that far away, you guys cheating?”

Piggy on the T side is just about to reply, before Big P placed his arm in front him. Big P shook his messy hair above his forehead, and casually said: “Bro, as usual, leave things like this to me.”

Big P begins to type furiously, rows upon rows of small characters begin to quickly appear on the screen. Big P says:

“As a famous team, how could we be cheats? You are one word, “Noob”, I say it only once! We have not cheated, the heaven above, the earth below testifies. We despise all cheaters – Cheater’s whole family dies! You despicable noobs, call me cheat again and I’ll dink all your heads!”

Piggy thought to himself: “Your trash talk may not be quite as tough as mine.”

Yet Big P seems to understand what Piggy was thinking, he speaks without turning his head around: “Piggy, we can’t use foul language. Because we are the famous Team Bonus Hunter.”

Piggy: “We just formed, played one match, how does that make us a famous team?”

Big P: “You will soon realize that I’m the world’s greatest prophet.”

Liu Zuo: “Cut the crap, focus on the game.”

With that, the poor China Made CTs are visiting Karl Marx again. Big P lets out a emotional sigh: “Back then we just play as mercs for other teams, now with our own banner, it all feels different.”

While he is enjoying himself, Piggy suddenly yells: “No good, cops are running.”

Sure enough, the screen displays the message of the CTs leaving one after another, leaving only the captain online. The captain clearly hesitates a moment, then yells: “Crap, why is the power out in the net café? We will fight another day! We call it a draw today!” With that last attempt to regain some face, the captain legged it as well.

Big P says angrily: “What are they doing?”

W: “Clearly, they don’t want to fight anymore.”

Piggy: “I can’t take it, why are we so strong?”

Big P: “Obviously because we have a core player like me.”

Liu Zuo smiles: “Right, how could we be out here if it ain’t for you cooking for us all……We just need one more teammate. Work hard, everyone, let’s try to get one more person before the registration deadline.  

 

Liu Zuo’s words are met with support from all his comrades. The day before the National CS Tournament’s registration deadline, the group found several players to interview.

Big P found another salesman that loves to play CS – This guy sells shampoo, and targets middle-aged women in particular.

Piggy found a foul-mouthed street youth. Piggy says the guys in his dorm can’t beat this guy, so they recommended him.

W found a silent stranger, no one knows what he does.

After testing, all three were rejected. Everyone stared amongst themselves, not knowing what to do. When everyone is left without ideas, Big P grits his teeth: “Guess I will have to scrap the barrel.”

After half an hour of frantic QQ messaging, he wipes his sweat: “Done. I now report to everyone that a girl will be visiting our base. This person I met on a random server, don’t know how good she is. I was too excited playing CS with a girl, so I didn’t pay attention to her skill, but it is probably pretty bad.

Piggy: “She pretty?”

Big P: “Don’t know, haven’t met.”

Liu Zuo: “A girl is coming and you are telling us something this important just now? Hurry and clean this place up, everyone.

Piggy looks around the room, and says in despair: “That’s mission impossible.”

Big P also says: “This way looks more realistic and natural, I say there is no need to clean.”

Liu Zuo: “Heavens, a girl, a living girl……”

 

Half an hour later, someone is knocking. Liu Zuo darted towards the door. Suddenly, he changed his mind and spoke to Big P: “It’s better if you open it. My luck is pretty bad, I have never seen a human looking girl.”

Unexpectedly, the normally boisterous Big P is now being shy: “I am also scared of this kind of terrifying thing, so why don’t Piggy go!”

Piggy replies without even lifting his head: “I’m still a virgin.”

The three of them are done speaking, they look at each other, and none of them moved. Then, they all shift their gaze towards W, who is fixing everyone’s mice. W lifts his head, meets everyone’s gaze, and goes to open the door without saying a word.

Everyone is paying close attention to W’s movements, he is the first person to see the girl. W’s expression determines the girl’s looks.

Liu Zuo mumbles to himself: “What a moment to look forward to….”

Big P continues on: “Even the match against A Jie and them aren’t this tense.”

Yet W simply opened the door and turned to walk back, without even looking at the girl. It is the girl that seems to be lost for a second, and stared at W’s back without saying anything for a moment.

Piggy says under his breath: “No good, W’s appearance must have scared her, or the girl scared W……oh god!” Piggy saw the girl…….

Piggy gasped before he finished his sentence. Though Big P wants to flex his seniority and tell Piggy to quiet it down, he soon has to admit that Piggy’s gasp is well justified. As for Liu Zuo, he already passed out.

The girl walks in, smiles: “Who is Dangerous Fart?” Big P briskly got up: “Thank you for gracing our humble abode, we don’t really have teas and water here, I, Dangerous Fart, there are three more people...”

Piggy is almost crying: “What are you blabbering about, Big P? The peasant worker is already scary enough, now you go full psycho, what will the girl….”

Yet the girl nods and smiles: “Thank you. Does the test start now?”

Liu Zuo, now awake and struggling to get up from the couch: “Deadline for registration is tomorrow, we can waive your test. But….please bring your computer over, we train together…Also, relationships are banned as per team rules, if you have a boyfriend, please separate temporarily.”

The girl replies: “I don’t have a boyfriend.” Liu Zuo almost fainted again at that, though he managed to hang on this time. Still, two lines of blood drips from his nose, truly an eye-catching sight.

The girl continues: “That’s fine, I will bring my computer over tomorrow. I have some business so I will be leaving now.” She leisurely walks towards the door, then turns around: “My name is Xia Yanning(TL Note 1), my English name is Smoke, as for your names, I will find out tomorrow. Then, good bye!”

Watching her shape disappearing as suddenly as it had appeared, Piggy comments: “Got style!”

Liu Zuo just continually repeats the same line: “Saw a ghost, saw a ghost today……”

Big P: “Not a ghost but the jackpot……such dazzling beauty, and she is a CS girl. Why didn’t I date her earlier…..”

Piggy: “She’s too pretty, like a heavenly fairy. I really don’t think our place suits her standing here in our room.”

Liu Zuo slaps his thighs: “Right! I announce as the captain, halt all training this afternoon, everyone dedicates themselves to the cleaning up of this place. Also, everyone must shower, cut their hair and shave! Anyone who disobeys this rule does the clothes for a year!

 

TL Note: Yanning literally means “Condensing Smoke/ Gathering Smoke”)