259: Want to Give Tianlu Youth Training a Try?

259: Want to Give Tianlu Youth Training a Try?

Su Zhe stared at the 13–16 results screen and couldn't help taking a deep breath to steady his frustration.

The match had shown him what a professional player's true skill looked like—or, more accurately, that of a former pro.

Once Danking got into his groove, Su Zhe's holding angles became a joke. The two sides weren't even in the same league when it came to getting kills.

They'd taken an early lead, but Danking soon led his team back into the game. In the end, his side won in overtime.

Su Zhe glanced at the chat in his Live Room and saw that, contrary to his expectations, people weren't mocking him.

[The streamer really gave it his all. With only a few hundred hours in the game, playing like that is already impressive.]

[Too bad. Egg Division was just too strong. And if his teammates hadn't been killed so early in the last round, they actually might've won.]

[Idan's here! Everybody clear the way! Holy crap, what an eyesore of a Live Room!]

[That was a decent performance. He might actually have the potential to go pro.]

[Hurry up and add Iron Egg as a friend! You can ride the wave of traffic!]

Semper and Niko saw the chat in the Live Room and caught on. They hurriedly urged Zai Wu to add Danking as a friend.

Su Zhe wasn't keen. "Why would I add him? I don't even know the guy..."

Fat Brother, a strapping man, snatched Su Zhe's mouse. "Come on, you don't get it!" As he spoke, he clicked the ID Monkey King on the results screen and sent a friend request.

Danking saw the chat flooding his Live Room with comments about this "Cape's Number One Breakthrough Player." Intrigued, he immediately searched him up.

After getting the full story, he said, "Not bad! This young guy went from C+ to S in just over a month. At this rate, he'll be at Gold S soon. Honestly, he's played pretty well."

Danking's assessment was fair. In his eyes, the kid's fundamentals still had a long way to go. Aside from his quick reactions, he needed to improve in pretty much every other area. But you had to take the circumstances into account!

Getting this good in just over a month was genuinely impressive.

"Oh, this guy sent me a friend request." Danking saw the request on Perfect World Platform and accepted it.

Ever the smooth talker, he was the first to message Su Zhe. "Not bad, buddy! I almost lost!"

Su Zhe had just suffered the sting of a painful loss, so he only replied, "I'm not that good. I'm nowhere near your level."

Danking couldn't help laughing at the blunt reply. Of course Su Zhe wasn't on his level. Just five or six months ago, he'd been Tianlu's starting AWPer, and he'd already racked up well over ten thousand hours in the game. How could the two of them be compared?

He continued, "I heard you want to go pro?"

"Yeah."

After getting confirmation, Danking immediately picked up his phone and searched through his contacts. Then he held it up to the microphone and said to his Live Room, "Hello? K4Mi? Is Youth Training still recruiting? I've got a promising player here. Can you take a look?"

"Have you heard of the ID 'Cape's Number One Breakthrough Player'? Huh? You already sent him a friend request, and he blacklisted you?"

Danking had only meant to make some Show Effect. Recommending someone with a couple of quick words was no trouble at all.

But he hadn't expected the Show Effect to come so naturally! The guy had already been on their radar—and had blacklisted them!

To make sure his viewers knew it was real, he showed them the call screen.

Then he messaged Su Zhe through his friends list: "Hey, buddy, have you blacklisted anyone in the game recently?"

Su Zhe thought for a moment and opened his Blacklist on Perfect World Platform.

The viewers in Su Zhe's Live Room burst out laughing. There, sitting in the list, was Tianlu's coach, K4Mi.

And there was another professional player known to everyone in the country: Tianlu's legendary in-game leader, 259...

[Hahahaha, is this some kind of deliberate Show Effect?]

[They knocked on the door, and I slammed it in their faces.]

[Seriously, how could you blacklist Tianlu's coach and 259?]

[You're a natural-born streamer! Take my advice, don't go pro. You're better off making money streaming.]

"Yeah! Why'd you blacklist them?" Fat Brother asked, curious.

Su Zhe scratched his head and explained, "Didn't you say the other day that anyone who added you out of the blue and talked about a team was a scammer? A couple days ago, someone added me and said he was Tianlu's coach or something, so I blacklisted him."

"Then someone else added me and said he was Tianlu's team captain or something. I blacklisted him too..."

Su Zhe had completely misunderstood what Leon Kai had meant back then. He'd thought you needed to be at Diamond S and have good stats before you could even qualify for Youth Training.

He hadn't expected people to take notice of him so early, after he'd gotten a little popular online.

After all, plenty of people knew he'd suddenly had a breakthrough and wanted to go pro.

When Su Zhe blacklisted the two of them, he'd just thought, I'm not even Gold S yet. Why would they contact me? And that was how the misunderstanding happened.

Tianlu Esports Club.

Nearly all the young players on the team watched Danking's Live Room in their spare time.

For one thing, he was a former teammate who'd only recently "left the job." For another, his streams were just too entertaining.

Training was stressful enough, so they naturally looked for something fun to do when they had free time. Watching Danking's streams had become one of their main forms of entertainment.

Kaze was laughing his head off as he watched. He called to 259, who was sitting nearby watching a demo. "Captain! Did you really add someone on Perfect World Platform the other day and get blacklisted?"

259 furrowed his brow as he thought for a moment, then laughed. "It was the afternoon before yesterday. K4Mi told me he'd been blacklisted and asked me to add the guy and see what was going on. I sent a request and got one message in, and then I got blacklisted too."

Kaze couldn't hold it in anymore. He clutched his stomach and cackled. Two minutes later, once he'd calmed down, he told 259 what he'd seen in the Live Room.

"Hahaha, I'm dying. The guy thought you two were those scammers who trick people into handing over their skins. He didn't want to risk losing his hundred-yuan Veteran Redline! Hahaha! But he's taken you both off the list now. You can message him."

259 heard the explanation and his face darkened. Sure, he might not look like the most trustworthy guy, but being mistaken for a scammer was ridiculous. His own inventory was worth enough to buy a house in a third- or fourth-tier city.

So he waved a hand and refused. "Let K4Mi ask him tomorrow. It was his business to begin with."

"Come on! It's just one message! It'll take a few minutes," Kaze urged.

On the surface, he was concerned about the team's Youth Training prospects. In reality, he just really wanted to see how the stream played out.

Unable to withstand the pestering, 259 opened Perfect World Platform and sent a quick message.

"Hey, if you're interested in our team, you can come try out for Youth Training."