Sleeping Black Tea

[At thirty, your career results were dismal. Crushed by the prodigies of your era, your competitive spirit had shattered. You spent your days earning a living through streaming. While visiting your cousin's home, you watched Cousin Ma Xixi's absurd gameplay and felt the purest joy CS had to offer. You resolved to return to CS:GO and begin your Last Dance!]

[Reopen CS:GO. Reward: Old Deng Gift Pack.]

As Ma Xixi argued with his viewers over whether a 3-15 scoreline was reasonable, Jiang Yang focused entirely on the lines of tiny text that had suddenly appeared before him.

His first thought upon seeing the system panel was that he was only a "hehehe" away from bursting into villainous laughter.

As a prospective college student with broad interests, he knew systems all too well.

Deep Blue, let me see your limits!

If he had not been afraid Ma Xixi would think he was crazy, he would have laughed out loud on the spot.

But after taking a closer look, his expression turned rather strange.

What the hell, bro?

There was definitely something wrong with this system.

How was he thirty already?

And had the system sent this to the wrong person? What the hell was an Old Deng Gift Pack? He was still a pure and handsome sixteen-year-old lad, and it was just ignoring that?

Wait, it really did seem to be talking about him.

Jiang Yang had keenly noticed that the system prompt mentioned "Cousin Ma Xixi." Didn't that mean the thirty-year-old whose competitive spirit had been shattered was him?

In other words, had this system arrived too early???

Did that mean that even without the system, he might have been inspired by Ma Xixi's "performance" today and gone on to shine in the world of CS:GO? And perhaps even reached an incredibly high level?

So I was actually a prodigy at CS:GO?

Jiang Yang was somewhat surprised.

But thinking about it carefully, he really had been better at this game than most of his classmates.

Back in his second year of high school, CS:GO entered young people's field of view after Qiezi's famous "WDNMD" catchphrase blew up.

That was when Jiang Yang started playing CS:GO again.

Most of the time, though, he and his classmates just queued together and messed around, laughing their way through the game without seriously grinding rank.

The weapons they used were as ridiculous as possible.

Even so, he was often the one at the top of the scoreboard.

Part of the reason for his old playstyle was that high school did not allow them much time to seriously rank up.

But now, Jiang Yang was genuinely fired up.

[Would you like to return to the path of CS:GO?]

As he focused his mind on it, he vaguely saw two options: "Yes" and "No."

There was not much to hesitate over. For a young man who loved games, if he knew he could become a professional player in the future, there was no reason to refuse.

He was also quite curious about what exactly the system's Old Deng Gift Pack contained.

But there was no computer beside him, and he was still working a summer job, after all. He temporarily set the thought aside, planning to play after Ma Xixi got off work.

Then, just as Ma Xixi finished a match, he looked troubled and glanced at Jiang Yang.

"Yangyang, take over the stream for me. My stomach suddenly hurts."

Suppressing his excitement, Jiang Yang asked in surprise, "Then can I play a match on my own account?"

Ma Xixi's stomach hurt badly, and he hurriedly shouted, "Sure! Just don't mess with the match materials I organized."

After explaining things to the viewers, Ma Xixi rushed off to the bathroom.

Ma Xixi had diarrhea, and Jiang Yang temporarily became the one in charge of the CSBOY stream.

After roughly greeting the viewers, Jiang Yang logged out of Ma Xixi's Steam account and into his own.

While logging in, he also answered the questions flying past in chat.

"What rank is Cousin in CS? I played for a while in my second year of high school. I was Perfect World C+ back then."

"How old is Cousin?"

"I'm sixteen this year, about to start college."

After Steam opened, he found the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Then he selected the Chinese servers and launched it directly.

While waiting, Jiang Yang asked the viewers, "I haven't played this game in over a year either. Who's the strongest professional player right now?"

The moment he asked, the chat began scrolling wildly.

[Of course it's my S1mple!]

[NIKO!!]

[Simple Boy!]

[Big Potato!]

At a glance, he unexpectedly saw several different answers.

If you asked that question in the League, then the strongest player would definitely be Lee Sang-hyeok.

But in the CS:GO professional scene, several top players seemed to be competing for the title of strongest.

Among them, the ID "S1mple" appeared the most often.

"S1mple?" Jiang Yang read aloud. He had heard a little about that ID before.

When he played this game in his second year of high school, he often ran into opponents with names like "The real S1mple from NAVI."

After seeing it so often, it naturally left an impression.

He found a S1mple highlight compilation on Little Break Station and watched it. "Let's see how the strongest pro player plays the game these days."

According to the system, he had become a professional player by the time he was thirty. That meant he had the talent to become a pro in this game.

So watching the plays of today's top professionals was also a way to see where the ceiling of this game was.

In the first clip, he saw S1mple carrying a Sniper Rifle across the sand on Dust II. His Big Sniper was aimed toward the barrels at mid range, and the instant an enemy appeared, he shot him dead.

"So he's a Sniper." Jiang Yang said.

Right after that, he saw S1mple start moving, then inexplicably fire a shot through the right side of mid doors. A kill notification appeared in the Top Right Corner at the same time.

Jiang Yang:?

The enemy hadn't even come out, and you just shot through him?

Then, throughout the clip, there were all kinds of difficult shots and pre-aimed shots.

S1mple killed all his opponents in ways Jiang Yang could not understand at all.

"Huh?" Jiang Yang could not help but complain. "This is how S1mple plays? This is the strongest player in CS:GO right now?"

Before he could finish being amazed, he saw S1mple appear on Nuke. This spot seemed to be called Main Entrance.

A commentator's voice with a uniquely magnetic charm played in the background.

"But with the second-timing wide swing from Main Entrance, he catches the Bomb Planter exactly..."

"Ah! Wait, he sniped the K1 player too!"

Jiang Yang's eyes widened as well. He could hardly believe S1mple's flick shot.

The moment S1mple scoped in, he caught a tiny piece of information in his peripheral vision. The enemy was extremely far from his Crosshair.

Yet S1mple fired without hesitation. The entire flick was full of tension, and he really did take down the enemy.

That was absurd!

But just then, Jiang Yang jolted so hard he nearly threw off his headphones.

Because CS:GO had finished launching, and its background music began playing.

Valve games had always shared one common problem: the default volume was terrifyingly high. The moment the music started, it nearly blew out his ears.

He hurriedly pressed "ESC," found the volume settings, and lowered the master volume.

Only then did he feel much better.

After lowering the volume, CS:GO's default background music was genuinely excellent.

The overall tone was serious and tense, carrying the feeling of a counterterrorism operation.

It gave him the sense that he was on standby and ready to deploy at any moment.

Jiang Yang even felt himself getting fired up, the kind where not even a copy of Boruto could put him to sleep.

He could not wait to start a match, but the lines of tiny text appeared before his eyes again.

[After retirement, you once again experienced the purest joy of CS:GO. You finally resolved to find yourself again and opened CS:GO.]

[Reward: Old Deng Gift Pack is being distributed...]

[Congratulations, Host. You have received 259 Comeback Points...]

[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained "Sleeping Black Tea."]

Jiang Yang:?

Looking at the prompt before him, he could not help but ask.

System, is this black tea of yours legitimate?

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