The third round of the “Burning Eternity” points competition officially began recording early Sunday morning. Jiang Nan’an was the first to arrive at Team Four’s preparation room, and while waiting for others, he curled up in the corner of the sofa to catch up on sleep.
His Class A uniform jacket was loose and large, with the zipper pulled all the way up, the raised collar hiding half his face.
“So sleepy, Mr. Hang?”
As soon as Yan Jie entered, he saw their drowsy Captain Jiang.
He walked over, took out a box of milk and a package of purple rice bread from his pocket, and gently nudged Jiang Nan’an’s tilted head with his finger:
“Get up, stop sleeping, eat something.”
Yan Jie had discovered that Jiang Nan’an didn’t care at all about breakfast, despite it being such a sacred and important matter. Rather than eating, he seemed to prefer sleeping ten more minutes in bed. Every day was completely random-if he could make it to breakfast, he’d eat; if not, he’d simply go with an empty stomach.
So Yan Jie had developed a habit-if he saw Jiang Nan’an in the dining hall in the morning, that was fine. If not, he knew this person had probably overslept again, and he would casually bring some bread and milk for him, since skipping breakfast regularly wasn’t good.
“…I don’t want it, take it away.” Jiang Nan’an had been dragged out of bed early by the FPD for makeup and was now dead tired.
“Eat a little, eat a little. Not eating breakfast is bad for your health.”
“Great, let me die.”
“Eat a bit, Mr. Hang. Little Spring has only one wish in life-”
“Then please let Little Spring die with regret.”
Jiang Nan’an crossed his arms, leaning in the corner of the sofa, showing not the slightest bit of sympathy for Little Spring’s plea.
Yan Jie was amused by him:
“I’m sorry, the word ‘regret’ doesn’t exist in my dictionary.”
Jiang Nan’an raised his eyebrows in confusion, instinctively sensing danger approaching.
Sure enough, the next second, a pair of hands suddenly appeared behind him, passing through under his armpits and forcefully lifting him up from the sofa.
“Yan Jie!” Jiang Nan’an’s comfortable napping position was forcibly disrupted. He turned around wanting to beat up the culprit, but Yan Jie immediately switched to tickling, interrupting his spell-casting.
Jiang Nan’an really wished a storm would come right now and sweep this thing away, sending him to the Land of Oz, never to plague humanity again.
“Are you annoying or what?!”
Yan Jie smiled as he inserted the straw into the milk box and unwrapped the bread, handing them to Jiang Nan’an:
“Yes yes yes, annoying annoying annoying. Come, Your Majesty, please have your meal-”
“You should be grateful you live in a modern society governed by law.”
“Oh?”
Jiang Nan’an snatched the milk and bread Yan Jie offered, waving them at him:
“Otherwise I would make you meet them underground.”
“My goodness! Thank you, era! Thank you, country! Thank you, society! Thank you, law-abiding Teacher Jiang Nan’an! For allowing me to keep my dog’s life and linger in this world! Little Spring! Tears of gratitude!”
“Good that you know. You may retire.”
“Captain, Brother Spring, good morning.”
The third person to arrive at the preparation room was Fire. The young man greeted them while yawning, his dark circles so heavy that even makeup couldn’t hide them.
Jiang Nan’an responded, then looked at Fire, then at Yan Jie.
He raised his eyebrows at Yan Jie, silently mouthing: “Until what time did you practice yesterday?”
Yan Jie leaned against the side and smiled helplessly, using his fingers to show him a “3”.
Jiang Nan’an laughed coldly: “Stayed up with him? Are you also eighteen this year?”
As if on cue, Yan Jie pretended to rub his shoulders, self-indulgently:
“Well, what can I do? Once in the training room, we’re all soldiers. It’s only natural for veteran soldiers to guide new ones. After all, I’m just that kind of responsible person.”
“Captain.”
While Jiang Nan’an was chatting with Yan Jie, Fire shuffled over to stand beside Jiang Nan’an and called out to him.
“Mm?”
“Today they won’t ban me out. I learned how to play Kafka yesterday!”
“Mm, good.” Jiang Nan’an nodded, without much further reaction.
Fire looked somewhat awkward. He observed Jiang Nan’an’s expression, as if he had more to say, but ultimately didn’t speak up and just quietly sat down at the other end of the sofa.
Yan Jie watched Jiang Nan’an from the side, somewhat surprised.
The kid’s apologetic attitude seemed sincere enough, so why didn’t Mr. Hang show any signs of softening?
But Yan Jie didn’t ask. Perhaps it was as he’d said before-Mr. Hang had his own rhythm, and the emperor’s thoughts weren’t something he could fathom.
Team Four’s members gradually arrived, and today’s matches officially began. First was the captain’s draw to determine the match order. For the first match, Jiang Nan’an drew their old opponent, Team Five.
“How do you want to play this one?”
As the match began and both sides took their battle stations, Yan Jie stood behind the players with his folder and asked.
“Let’s continue with jungle-support roaming. Do it like we practice, support follows me, bottom lane holds on its own,” Jiang Nan’an said while adjusting his headset.
“That works. Fire, use Arrow Poison Flower? You’ve been practicing it for a week, show them what you’ve got,” Yan Jie asked for Fire’s opinion.
Fire nodded: “Yes, Brother.”
The jungle-support roaming strategy mainly relied on the jungler and support coordinating to catch enemies and build team advantages. This approach had its pros and cons, with the ADC having the most difficult role-needing to withstand pressure from two enemies in the bottom lane alone.
Fire’s Arrow Poison Flower was newly learned through his overtime practice this week. This champion’s characteristics were long range and strong self-protection abilities. During the laning phase, Fire used these advantages to lurk in corners, stealthily farming minions. When enemies pushed forward, he would immediately retreat, embodying the principle of “if you can’t fight them, avoid them.”
But Team Five’s bottom lane duo, likely relying on their numerical advantage, played very aggressively. Fire was under significant pressure, and after another escape back to his tower with barely any health, he couldn’t help asking:
“Brother, can you help bottom lane more? I can’t beat them.”
Soon, he heard Jiang Nan’an’s cool tone in his headset:
“I’ll see. Just hang in there for now.”
“Okay.”
Not getting a definite answer, Fire felt somewhat dejected.
He knew it was because of his insufficient skill and disobedience that his teammates chose to focus on other lanes, leaving him alone in bottom lane to endure pressure. Although he understood that the strategy chosen by the captain and Coach Spring was for the overall team benefit, seeing other lanes fighting vigorously while he was isolated in bottom lane being targeted made Fire feel somewhat abandoned.
He admitted that he hadn’t taken training and matches seriously before. After all, he hadn’t played much Blazing Holy Grail before and only came to this show at his agent’s suggestion to gain some exposure. The training camp was too boring-sitting in front of a computer learning theory and playing games every day. He really couldn’t get interested and just wanted to get through the tedious training time as quickly as possible. Therefore, he avoided work whenever possible, never missing any opportunity to slack off, and practiced as few heroes as possible. His thinking was simple: as long as he had one hero he could use in matches, that would be enough.
It’s just a game, meant to be played casually. They weren’t professional esports players-this was just an appearance. No one would take it seriously.
Thinking this way, he never realized how painful “failure” could be.
And more painful than “failure” was being the weak link in all eight matches, dragging down teammates every time. By the time he finally woke up and wanted to play well, it was too late, because others at his level or even weaker had been working hard to improve, while he had been standing still.
Fire knew Jiang Nan’an had every right to be angry with him, but he still felt wronged.
Because he had already recognized his mistake and had been practicing overtime, but Jiang Nan’an seemed blind to his changes, still seeming disappointed, as if unwilling to give him even a little trust.
So, how could he make the captain stop being angry? How could he let him know that he truly understood his mistakes, had changed, and wanted to become better for the team?
Fire was momentarily lost in thought when he heard Jiang Nan’an’s voice through his headset:
“ADC fall back, enemy jungler is coming to gank.”
“Okay.” Fire responded, immediately abandoning the minion wave in front of him and retreating.
But before he could get back to his tower, a skill mark suddenly appeared under his feet-it was the enemy jungler’s control ability!
Fire reacted quickly, immediately using his mobility skill to leave the control area, trying to get back to his tower as fast as possible. But Team Five’s support, who had appeared beside him unnoticed, used an ability to pull him back, while Team Five’s jungler and ADC immediately followed up with damage!
It seemed impossible to escape this time. Fire gritted his teeth, used his abilities, and tried to position himself for auto attacks, just wanting to deal as much damage as possible before dying.
Arrow Poison Flower’s poison thorns pierced the enemies one by one, while under their combined assault, his health rapidly depleted.
But just as Fire thought he was about to see a black screen, he suddenly heard a flash sound effect in his headset-Fangfang’s Rock Giant had flashed beside him and kicked away the three enemies, while Jiang Nan’an’s Plum Blossom Scholar had also charged into the battle.
Arrow Poison Flower’s poison thorns had already consumed about a third of the three enemies’ health, while also baiting out most of their abilities. Plum Blossom Scholar’s entrance to take over the battle was smooth and effortless, securing a triple kill against the enemy bottom lane, jungler, and support without breaking a sweat.
[Triple Kill!]
As the triple kill announcement sounded, Fire looked at himself with just a sliver of health remaining on screen, then at the Plum Blossom Scholar returning to the darkness with the support, and finally at the three enemy corpses at his feet. He was stunned for a moment before coming back to his senses and pressing the recall key.
“…Brother.” Fire’s voice was somewhat strained as he explained:
“I just followed your instructions. I didn’t want to keep farming minions, and when you said to retreat, I immediately started heading back, but I was still caught by the jungler…”
“Mm.” Jiang Nan’an responded: “I saw.”
Hearing his still cool tone, Fire lowered his eyes. The joy from the successful small team fight was immediately washed away, and his mood plummeted again.
He sighed inwardly, and just as he was feeling down, he suddenly heard Jiang Nan’an’s voice again:
“Fire?”
Fire immediately snapped back to attention: “Yes!”
Jiang Nan’an tapped his portrait.
This was how solo queue players interacted in-game, similar to the “On my way” quick command, generally used to coordinate and warn about enemy ganks. It was rarely used in training and competitions since with microphones connected, it was much more convenient to speak directly than to use in-game interactions.
Fire thought Jiang Nan’an was warning him that someone was coming, and was about to cancel his recall to move further back, but in the next second, he heard Jiang Nan’an say:
“Just now, you played well.”
—
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
