Jiang Yang Himself: "Playing Well."

Thursday, September 23, 2021.

Auspicious for: Sacrifices, bathing, taking office, travel...

After class that morning, Jiang Yang picked up his "Crazy Thursday" meal from the delivery guy.

As a freshman, being able to afford such a meal at the end of the month was quite luxurious.

If it were just living expenses, Jiang Yang would definitely be eating dirt at the end of the month. Fortunately, he had worked a summer job for his cousin for a month, and his cousin paid him 10,000 yuan in salary and a 20,000 yuan bonus.

Jiang Yang initially refused to accept the bonus. After all, he had never seen so much money in his life, and it felt a bit too hot to handle.

But Ma Xixi told Jiang Yang that it was purely because he had livened things up in the live stream. In August, CSBOY's live stream received many more gifts, and his 30,000 yuan was just a fraction of it. Only then did Jiang Yang accept it.

However, at that time, Jiang Yang actually wanted to take a temporary leave of absence and stay at his cousin's place.

He felt that at his current pace, he would soon reach the top of the domestic platforms and then find a professional team based on that achievement.

Ma Xixi didn't refuse him immediately. Instead, he had a serious conversation with him for over an hour.

About the prospects of CS:GO professional play, about the current environment of CNCS, and the problems he would encounter in the future if he pursued a professional career.

Ma Xixi explained everything he understood to Jiang Yang.

He didn't think Jiang Yang was bragging. Jiang Yang's improvement speed in this game was faster than anyone Ma Xixi had ever seen.

He believed that if Jiang Yang set his mind to it, he would definitely be able to pursue a professional career in the future.

But as someone involved in the CS industry, Ma Xixi actually didn't want Jiang Yang to go pro.

Because it was too difficult!

The salaries in domestic CS professional play were not high. The best club, Tyloo, had a monthly salary of only around 30,000 to 40,000 yuan. Yet, Ma Xixi could offer Jiang Yang a salary of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan just for being his assistant.

Moreover, Jiang Yang truly had a talent for live streaming. Last month, even without many match commentaries, Jiang Yang's presence in the live stream brought in more exaggerated traffic than ever before.

Therefore, he needed to explain all these things clearly to Jiang Yang.

To make Jiang Yang understand the pros and cons.

If Jiang Yang really wanted to play professionally, he could also use his connections to help Jiang Yang contact major domestic clubs, and he could even send Jiang Yang abroad for youth training.

But he also worried that Jiang Yang was just having too much fun at his place and didn't really want to go back to school.

After all, Jiang Yang was still young, only 16 years old, an age when people naturally wanted to have fun.

After listening, Jiang Yang didn't argue much. He knew Ma Xixi meant well. After all, Ma Xixi had played professionally before and was now part of that circle, understanding it better than him.

But during that one month of summer vacation, Jiang Yang had truly fallen in love with CS.

He enjoyed the feeling of gradually getting stronger, the thrill of each kill, and the satisfaction of winning through mutual encouragement with his teammates in intense matches.

Even after hearing about the current state of CNCS from his cousin, he still wanted to embark on the path of CS:GO professional play without hesitation.

However, Jiang Yang's father had also taught him a principle since he was young.

"Goals are meant to be achieved, not just talked about."

So Jiang Yang chose to go to university first, planning to show his cousin his seriousness about a professional career with his achievements once his skills improved sufficiently.

He carried the Crazy Thursday meal back to the dorm. As soon as he opened the door, he saw three pairs of eyes light up instantly.

"Holy crap, Yang, did you bring this for us!"

"The Campus Hunk is so capable!"

"He's handsome and rich, it's like life is just for you!"

Jiang Yang gave his Tianjin roommate a look. "So, are you still going to eat it!"

"Eat it, why wouldn't I!"

After 10 days of military training, they had become quite familiar with each other. Jiang Yang had even gained some fame throughout the school.

Because he was so handsome, he was voted Campus Hunk by the freshmen during military training. Now, people were inquiring about Jiang Yang on the school's confession wall every day.

Fortunately, Jiang Yang had plenty of experience from high school. Apart from necessary classes, he simply hid in his dorm and didn't go out.

"Yang, when are you going to hit number one on Perfect World!" Huang Zhipeng asked, who was Jiang Yang's Tianjin roommate.

Hearing this, Jiang Yang imitated his accent and replied, "Today!"

Although he had entered university and had many trivial matters to deal with, Jiang Yang did not neglect his daily training. Even during the 10 days of military training, Jiang Yang only skipped the 5k run.

After training, when he had ample time, he would still practice his aim every day.

Once classes started, whenever he didn't have a class, he would dedicate all his attention to CS:GO. As for dating and making friends, he didn't actively pursue them.

Because that kind of useless social interaction consumed too much time.

Under these circumstances, his overall performance improved by leaps and bounds.

"System, activate!"

With a thought, the system panel reappeared before him.

[Old Timer: Jiang Yang]
[Age: 30 years old]

[Affiliated Team: None]

[Status: Resuming activity, recovery in progress]

[Overall Skill: Professional Lv. 2

Marksmanship: Professional Lv. 1

Awareness: Professional Lv. 3

Map Understanding: Professional Lv. 2

Positioning: Professional Lv. 5

Reaction: Professional Lv. 8

Communication: Professional Lv. 2

Pistol Proficiency: Amateur Lv. 9

Sniper Rifle Proficiency: Professional Lv. 5

Rifle Proficiency: Professional Lv. 1

Other Firearm Proficiency: Professional Lv. 4]

[Comeback Points: -43960]

[Signature Moves: 'Hunter's Eco Special Attack (Intermediate)', 'NIKO's pre-aiming (Intermediate)', 'MachineWJQ's Formulaic Commentary (Beginner)']

[Personal Items: None]

He examined the data the System had provided.

Aside from his pistol proficiency, everything else was at a professional level.

There was nothing he could do about it. When it came to pistols, he was only slightly better with the Desert Eagle, while his USP and Glock skills were a bit lacking.

He believed he would eventually master pistols, but for now, he simply hadn't had enough time.

Both rifles and pistols required a significant amount of practice, and Jiang Yang couldn't rush it.

His rapid improvement in Awareness and Map Understanding was due, firstly, to the 'Dust II' becoming his Signature Move, which led to a comprehensive understanding of related skills.

Secondly, he hadn't expected that the "formulaic commentary skills of 6657," which he had previously disregarded, would also bring him considerable improvement.

When Jiang Yang first saw this skill, he was speechless.

After all, he planned to become a professional player in the future; what use did he have for commentary skills?

Moreover, his cousin was one of the two best commentators in CNCS, and now he was being given the skills of another commentator.

Was he supposed to unify the CNCS commentary scene by combining formulaic commentary in his stream with his cousin's professional commentary?

If that happened, Wan Ji Qi wouldn't even have money for pig's head meat and would have to resort to stealing rotten eggs.

Then, while understanding this skill, he discovered that Wan Ji Qi had a very high game comprehension.

Although if Wan Ji Qi were actually to play in a match, he might not have such outstanding skill.

However, Wan Ji Qi's insights taught Jiang Yang a crucial detail: watch the game while looking at the minimap.

By observing the players' movements and the strategic interplay on the minimap, one could understand when to do what, serving purely for the team's victory rather than for kills.

With this new perspective, Jiang Yang began to understand some of the players' seemingly strange operations when watching matches.

His game comprehension and awareness grew rapidly.

Combined with Mirage's excellent Positioning skills, even his [Positioning] attribute had improved significantly.

His Sniper Rifle Proficiency was also incredibly high. He had barely done any special training with the sniper rifle, only casually practicing 100 shots daily during his positioning drills.

He would simply watch replays of top-tier snipers when he had free time, and his sniper rifle skill would improve dramatically.

Sometimes, talent was simply unstoppable.

As for the Signature Moves, there wasn't much overall improvement.

At the intermediate stage, the required proficiency was too high, and he still needed to practice slowly.

However, this was something that accumulated over time and could only be done gradually.

The current data gave Jiang Yang a lot of confidence in reaching the top of the platform.

The System itself said he already had professional-level skills. If he couldn't even reach the top spot among professional players, was he truly a professional player?

Furthermore, the sniper rifle was a powerful weapon in the ladder.

Based on Jiang Yang's understanding, his sniper rifle skill should already be at the level of a second-tier professional player.

In his matches on the Perfect World ladder, he had even gone head-to-head with jee, the sniper for new happy, and had successfully out-sniped him.

This was also the source of Jiang Yang's confidence in his own abilities.

After all, new happy's sniper, jee, was considered a second-tier sniper. If he could out-snipe jee, he should at least be considered a second-tier sniper himself.

After sharing his "Crazy Thursday" with his classmates, Jiang Yang sat back down at his computer amidst his roommates' admiration and began his ascent on the leaderboard for the day.

He checked the rankings and saw that he was already at S rank with 74 stars, placing him second on the Perfect World platform.

The top-ranked player was a streamer on a certain platform, with 75 stars in S rank, only one star higher than me.

After reaching S rank in Perfect World, players were ranked by their star count. The more stars you had, the higher your rank.

As long as you won and maintained a rating above 1.2, you could gain a star.

This meant Jiang Yang only needed two more games to secure the number one spot in Perfect World.

His other roommates knew this and all sat behind him to watch.

After a simple warm-up, Jiang Yang started his first ranked match on Mirage.

In high-rank games, you encountered many familiar faces. Even if you didn't know them, everyone would check each other's match history and stats.

Many people saw "Nong Xiao Jiang" on his team and immediately checked Jiang Yang's stats. Once they saw them, they were convinced.

A sniper with nearly 70% win rate and a 1.41 rating was truly intimidating.

Knowing Jiang Yang preferred playing sniper, his teammates were very friendly. From the full buy rounds onwards, Jiang Yang always had a sniper rifle to use.

In top-tier matches, having an excellent sniper rifle had a huge impact on maps like this.

Despite the opponents playing methodically and tactically, they ultimately lost the match.

After this game, Jiang Yang gained another star with a rating of 1.51.

Just as Jiang Yang was about to start the next match, he suddenly saw a friend request notification pop up in the top right corner.

The player who performed the worst on the opposing team, "Jiang Yang Himself," had sent him a friend request.

Jiang Yang initially didn't want to add him, but since he was finally seeing a fan, he eventually accepted, freeing up a friend slot.

"Jiang Yang Himself": "666."

"Jiang Yang Himself": "Nice play."

Faced with the fan's praise, Jiang Yang simply typed back: "Really? O.o?"

"Jiang Yang Himself": "Wanna duo queue for a couple of games?"

Jiang Yang immediately refused: "Nah, man, I'm trying to rank up."

But the moment he refused, he suddenly saw the familiar small text appear before his eyes.

What was going on?

I haven't even reached number one in Perfect World yet.

Then he checked the leaderboard.

Good heavens, he hadn't reached 76 stars, but he didn't need to anymore.

Because that streamer on the certain platform had also felt the pressure and was climbing ranks. However, after losing the last match, their star count had dropped to 74.

Jiang Yang had automatically climbed to the number one spot in Perfect World.

[It's hard to believe your skills have regressed this much after retiring for two years. You need to find your strength again and announce your imminent return to the entire professional scene.]
[Quest: Reach Rank 1 on any platform]
[Distributing rewards...]

Meanwhile, at the VG club.

A Zhong, like a seasoned driver shifting gears, leaned over and asked, "What does Master Jiu say? Did you check if that kid has any skill?"

259 turned around, looking speechless. "I think that kid thinks I'm too trash to duo queue with him."

A Zhong chuckled. "I just wanted to give you time to practice your aim. You can't play against this prodigy otherwise. Why don't you just state your intentions directly?"

259 shook his head. "Never mind. He's ultimately a Signature Move player. If he has the skill, he'll appear in our sights again."

As one of the most renowned CS commanders in China, 259 enjoyed scouting for talent in ranked matches.

He had noticed the "Miss" on the opposing team a few days ago. The young player was indeed very good. He had watched many replays and found her performance impressive.

But ultimately, she was just a Signature Move player, which was a point of contention for him.

Since his tentative invitation was rejected, he wouldn't force it.

My power went out at home today, so I'm writing this at an internet cafe. Sorry for the late update.

This chapter is a transition chapter. We'll officially enter the professional scene soon.