With his hot streak, Niko's insights, and his teammates' support, Su Zhe wrapped up his stream in glory after winning three straight matches on the ladder.
It was time to eat.
The chubby guy stood up and took off s1mple's jersey, then asked curiously, "Why does it feel like you played completely differently after coming back from the bathroom?"
"Huh? Was it that obvious?"
Fat Brother rolled his eyes at Su Zhe. "Of course. Before, you always went for whatever gave you the biggest payoff—either you gave them a free kill or wiped out the whole bomb site. You never cared about the risks. Just now, you were obviously playing a lot more cautiously."
Su Zhe thought about it and realized it was true. During the match, he'd deliberately tried Niko's way of pushing forward.
His success rate in gunfights had improved quite a bit, but his movement skills weren't up to par, so his pushes were much slower. That gave the opponents time to rotate back and defend.
Fat Brother asked again, "Did you go watch another pro player's highlight reel?"
Su Zhe: ?
How had he guessed so accurately? The insights he'd gained were indeed similar to watching a highlight reel, but with the system's help, it was as if Niko were controlling his hands and playing for him. It also relayed Niko's thoughts behind every decision in real time.
Watching demos and highlight reels could never achieve that.
So he nodded. "I saw an edit of Niko on my phone when I went to the bathroom just now, so I wanted to give it a try."
Fat Brother thought for a moment before saying, "My rating isn't as high as yours, but I still want to remind you: if you're thinking of going pro, don't deliberately imitate other people's playstyles. It'll only limit your potential."
Su Zhe asked in confusion, "People say that? I can't even learn from Niko? I remember he made the top three."
Fat Brother shook his head. "That's the playstyle he's most comfortable with. If you deliberately imitate him, you'll just feel awkward. Today, some great player does this, so you copy him. Tomorrow, another great player does something else, so you copy that instead. How's that supposed to work?"
"Have you never noticed how every star player has their own style? Just because Niko's good, does that mean other people can copy him and become Niko? They'll just end up as a half-baked imitation who's not good enough to be great but not bad enough to be mediocre."
"Besides, a pro player's style has to fit their team. Why not send Kuang Ge to VP and see what happens? Jame will kick him out in no time."
Su Zhe listened thoughtfully. He had indeed found it uncomfortable to use Niko's playstyle wholesale. He'd thought it was just because he wasn't used to it and his fundamentals were weak.
Now it seemed there were other reasons, too.
For example, if you made Xiao Guang, the "Cowardly Lizard," play entry fragger, he'd probably get cold feet before the round even started. How could he possibly do a good job?
After the three of them had their fill at the food street outside campus, they had nothing else to do, so they went back to the dorm.
Xiao Guang grabbed Su Zhe, who was about to start streaming right away. "Bro! Please, take a break! I don't know if you can keep going, but I'm about to collapse. Can you wait half an hour before you start streaming?"
Fat Brother gave Xiao Guang a thumbs-up. He'd said exactly what Fat Brother wanted to say.
"...Fine, I'll rest for half an hour. I'll lie down for a bit, too." As he spoke, he climbed into bed and called up the system panel.
[Host: Su Zhe] [Age: 18] [Team: None] [Positioning: 64–69] [Movement: 51–56] [Recoil Control: 60–65] [Game Sense: 46–51] [Reaction: 85–90] [Rise Points: 1158] [Weapon Proficiency: AK-47 (LV6.3) AWP (LV1.7) ...(Expand)] [Skill: Chosen One] [Overall Level: C+] [Evaluation: The host has finally stopped squandering his talent. His growth over such a short time is astonishing. This is what a genius youth should look like! Keep it up. The threshold for going pro is no longer far away.]
"Whoa, I've got over a thousand Rise Points again." Su Zhe bought an Attribute Point from the shop without hesitation, then tried to add it to [Reaction].
[Ding~ Insufficient permissions~] [Attributes above 85–90 require Overall Level A or higher to unlock] [Ding~ Attributes above 85–90 require 10 free Attribute Points to upgrade]
Su Zhe: .
Wasn't this a rip-off? He'd wanted to find out what it felt like to max out his reaction, but it was locked until he reached Overall Level A or higher?
He'd worked so hard, and his Overall Level was still only C+. On top of that, the stronger he got, the slower his progress became. He had no idea when he'd make it to B.
Su Zhe felt that even with the system, he couldn't escape the fate of being stuck at C+.
And needing 10 free Attribute Points to buy a single point was a terrible deal.
"Looks like the system wants me to develop in every way—morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and through hard work."
After thinking it over, Su Zhe used the point he'd bought to increase his Positioning.
His stats changed from [64–69] to [65–70].
"I'm about to go from a One-sided Warrior to a Two-sided Warrior."
He closed the system panel, turned his head, and called out, "Are you done resting? I want to get back on the ladder."
Fat Brother & Xiao Guang: .
This money was hard-earned!
Su Zhe took half of their streaming income, and the other two split the rest.
Thanks to the show they put on together, they now had around a thousand viewers every time they streamed, and the gifts brought in decent money. But streaming at such an intense pace reminded the two of them of their days working summer jobs at a factory.
Fat Brother complained, "Are you this hardworking, or do you just have an internet addiction? You've played 500 hours of CSGO in just over a month, haven't you? Aren't you sick of it?"
"Not really. I just want to reach number one on the ladder as soon as possible."
The rankings on the Perfect World Platform were determined by points. He'd only just reached around 3,000 points, putting him at about rank 1,100.
It might not sound like he was far from first place, but in reality, he was very far away.
He'd need to win at least 40 more matches than he lost to reach the top.
But after gaining Niko's insights into his techniques, he felt that aside from pre-aiming, his Single Shot, Position Control, and Map Understanding had all improved a little.
He could still push his ranking higher in the short term.
The CAC tournament started in Shanghai on November 8, and Tianlu returned to Hangcheng on November 9.
They could actually have gone back that afternoon, but they'd spent half the day sightseeing in Shanghai.
After returning to the club, 259 made a rare visit to the Youth Training department.
When he saw the youth coach, he casually asked, "What happened to that kid who was popular online a while back? Didn't he pass the tryout?"
The coach shook his head. "His tryout went pretty well, but he didn't want to stay."
259 asked in confusion, "What happened? Did he go to LVG?"
The coach said, "I know people over there pretty well. I heard they haven't taken on any new players recently."
259 asked, "Then why didn't he want to stay?"
The coach laughed at the memory. "He said he wanted to make the main team within a year. When he heard there was no chance, he left on his own."
259 laughed when he heard that. "Did he really think we were that bad? He wanted to make the main team in a year?"
He knew what people online said about Tianlu, but he didn't care.
Why pay attention to a bunch of clueless people? Anyone who truly understood CSGO wouldn't think that way.
Although they really couldn't beat the other teams on the international stage, they were on a completely different level from ladder players.
The youth coach agreed. "Exactly. If he wants to go pro again someday and can't find a way in, he'll realize what a great opportunity he gave up."
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