"When NIKO Gestures at the Wall"

"When NIKO Gestures at the Wall..."

Friday, August 20, 2021.

Auspicious for: marriage, sacrifices, groundbreaking, prayers, lucky draws...

Before he knew it, he had already been working his summer job at Cousin's place for a month.

With a fried dough stick and another sip of Magic City's signature savory soy milk, Jiang Yang slowly woke up to this beautiful day.

Over the past half month, he had gradually gotten used to working his summer job at Cousin's place.

He had supposedly come to work a summer job, but it felt more like he had come here to have fun.

The work was easy and relaxing. Whatever he wanted to eat, Ma Xixi would take him to get it the next day. Seeing how hard he worked, Ma Xixi had even specifically taken him to a water park for two days.

He had even worried Jiang Yang might not have enough money to spend. Before summer vacation was even over, he had given him 5,000 yuan for buying water and the like.

Cousin was genuinely good to him, but he was also genuinely lazy.

That time he had settled the prediction beans wrong had become a minor hit in the CS:GO community because of a clipped video from a Bilibili uploader.

Quite a few people had caught wind of it and come over to watch the drama.

Some had come because of Jiang Yang's looks in the clip.

Others had come for Jiang Yang's streaming entertainment value.

But all of that had given Jiang Yang a certain level of fame in the CS:GO community. Even players who had not specifically followed CSBOY knew that Ma Xixi had a very handsome cousin.

Then, when Ma Xixi saw that Jiang Yang had gotten a little popular, his true nature was exposed even further.

Now, he could not even be bothered to stream in the afternoons and threw the entire stream to Jiang Yang.

He only had one requirement—do not open predictions.

Otherwise, Ma Xixi felt like he would wake up from nightmares in his sleep.

None of the guys in the CSBOY streaming room were easy to deal with.

Aside from streaming, Jiang Yang had not neglected his usual training either.

Following Ma Xixi's advice, he spent quite a bit of time practicing his aim after every stream ended.

And from Big Brother with a Long Neck, he had gradually adjusted his training routine as well.

He had split up positioning, pre-aiming, and Deathmatch practice.

His aim was improving at a visibly rapid pace.

And because he had started queueing for all maps, his game understanding was advancing by leaps and bounds too.

"Let me take a look at mine!"

With a thought, the system panel appeared before him again.

[Old Timer: Jiang Yang]

[Age: 30]

[Team: None]

[Status: Preparing for a comeback]

[Overall Level: Amateur LV.7

Aim: Amateur LV.8

Game Sense: Amateur LV.7

Map Understanding: Amateur LV.6

Positioning: Amateur LV.7

Reaction: Professional LV.8

Communication: Amateur LV.8

Pistol Proficiency: Amateur LV.5

Sniper Rifle Proficiency: Amateur LV.8

Rifleman Proficiency: Amateur LV.8

Other Firearm Proficiency: Professional LV.1

...]

[Comeback Points: 10086]

[Signature Skill: 'hunter's ECO Special Attack (Beginner)']

[Personal Items: 'Sleeping Black Tea', 'One Dragon Fruit']

[Comeback Missions: 1. Reach first place on any platform and announce your return.

2. (Daily) Run 5 kilometers every day and maintain good physical condition.

...]

Over the past half month, his level had undergone earth-shaking changes.

Honestly, only now had he gradually figured out what this system was truly for.

Before, he had thought that the reason he could steadily improve through practice, and why both the system and his [Signature Skill] values could rise so quickly, was because of the system.

But later, he discovered that the values on the system panel had changed so quickly purely because his talent was high enough.

He was sufficiently interested in the game and willing to invest a great deal of time into learning it.

Most of the time, once he made a mistake in his play, he would not make it a second time.

And whether it was different positions or the pros and cons of map understanding, as long as Ma Xixi or MO explained it to him once, he could draw inferences in other situations.

As for [Signature Skills], the system truly played an enormous role.

[hunter's ECO Special Attack] was immensely useful to Jiang Yang, whether for climbing ranks through mind games or creating entertaining moments on stream.

[Signature Skill: hunter's ECO Special Attack (Beginner)]

[Progress: (996/1000)]

[Feature: During ANTI-ECO rounds, greatly improves your movement and thinking.]

This ability had helped him a great deal lately, and he could feel the support this [Signature Skill] gave him.

He only needed 4 more progress points to upgrade it. He was truly looking forward to seeing what it could do afterward.

But the [Comeback Missions] were giving him a bit of a headache.

He had thought the mission to "reach first place on Perfect World" would be quite simple, but he had now discovered that it was indeed somewhat difficult.

CS:GO was insanely competitive.

After he had first been placed, his superior reactions and steady play compared to others in the same rank had let him climb quickly.

He had charged all the way to A.

But after reaching this bracket, he had gradually gotten stuck there.

Around A rank, players had generally gotten the hang of the game.

And most of them were old hands who knew all sorts of strange setups and tactics.

Things like bizarre one-way smokes and odd timings.

Jiang Yang could barely defend against them, and he had even dropped to B rank at one point.

But he was not discouraged. He had been a new player to begin with, and since he clearly did not yet have the ability for that bracket, he would just keep practicing.

Jiang Yang maintained his aim training every day, and as for his game understanding and map understanding—

He chose the simplest method: learn from the opponents who had crushed him.

After every crushing defeat, he downloaded his opponents' ranked match demos and learned setups and tactics from their perspectives.

Aside from occasionally running into freaks who aimed at people through walls, most matches were fairly normal. Jiang Yang evolved at incredible speed, gradually developed quite a few standard plays, and slowly fought his way back up from B rank.

Now, he had become a regular in A rank.

This climbing speed was not particularly fast, mainly because Jiang Yang planned to go pro in the future. So he was not merely playing the classic The Old Three; he queued for all maps.

Now, as long as his teammates asked, he could throw out most utility on every map.

However, there was very little left for him to improve at in this bracket.

Over the past two days, Jiang Yang had not been able to learn much from his opponents' demos.

The skill level in this bracket was still quite mixed.

And there were a lot of aim gods. Even when he got less popular maps, more people still relied on raw gunfights.

Jiang Yang was considering whether he should first focus on a map he was relatively familiar with, then study and climb his way up before claiming the reward for reaching "first place on the platform."

After all, even if he intended to learn the less popular maps—

Players in top-ranked matches should have more tricks than those in A rank, and their approaches should be more reasonable too.

"I'll think about which map would be easier to start with when I get back."

He could not choose a map carelessly. After all, Jiang Yang was still streaming. If he played obscure maps, the viewers might not enjoy watching.

But before that, Jiang Yang chose to sink his consciousness into today's System Mall.

These days, Jiang Yang eagerly looked forward to the System Mall refreshing with new items every day.

But it seemed his luck had all been used up that day. In the time afterward, it had either been beginner-level proficiencies or physical items like fruit every day.

Good things had appeared before, but they were maps Jiang Yang did not recognize at all.

And the "smoke-breaking" trick that had appeared afterward made Jiang Yang even more certain that the System Mall's version was also the version belonging to "30-year-old Jiang Yang."

Some things were from the wrong version.

His consciousness entered the System Mall.

On the far left was still the familiar Sleeping Black Tea. He had also kept a pack of it in his personal inventory.

Then he noticed the other items:

[Dust II Positioning Compendium (Beginner)], [One Lighter], [One Danking Signature Design], [NIKO's Pre-aim Technique]

"Dust II, lighter, Danking's signature, NIKO's pre-aiming..." Jiang Yang casually glanced over them, then froze.

"Holy shit, NIKO!"

He was a little dumbfounded. He had never expected NIKO's pre-aiming to quietly show up in the System Mall.

He was no longer the clueless beginner he had been. Over the past half month, he had learned quite a bit about the pro scene.

He knew NIKO fairly well too.

The World No.1 rifleman, World No.1 Desert Eagle, World No.1 pre-aiming.

A top Bosnian player who had reached TOP 2 as a rifleman.

And now he had just popped up in Jiang Yang's System Mall like that?

By all rights, should there not have been a "Wow! A golden legend!"?

He immediately looked at the item description to check the price.

[Signature Skill: NIKO's Pre-aim Technique]

[Description: The regret of never winning a Major had kept NIKO from leaving the competitive scene for a long time, but his competitive form had steadily declined with age. The only thing that allowed him to maintain his fighting strength on stage was the pre-aiming ability he relied on to make a living.

PS: When NIKO gestures at the wall, the pre-aiming feast has already begun!]

[Price: 100000]

How much?