Jiang Yang Himself: "Nice Play."

September 23, 2021, Thursday.

Auspicious for: making offerings, bathing, taking office, traveling...

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

For a freshman to still be spending like this at the end of the month was downright extravagant.

If he were relying only on his living expenses, Jiang Yang would definitely be broke by the end of the month. Luckily, though, he'd worked a summer job at his cousin's place for a month, and his cousin had paid him ten thousand yuan in wages and given him a twenty-thousand-yuan bonus.

At first, Jiang Yang had refused to take the bonus. He'd never seen that much money in his life, and it felt like too much to accept.

But Ma Xixi told him that it was simply because he'd been entertaining the viewers in the stream. The CSBOY stream had gotten a lot more gifts in August, and Jiang Yang's thirty thousand was just a small fraction of the total. Only then did Jiang Yang accept it.

At the time, though, Jiang Yang had actually wanted to take a temporary leave from school and stay at his cousin's place.

He thought that at his current rate of progress, he'd soon reach number one on the domestic platform, and then he could use that achievement to find a professional team.

Ma Xixi didn't reject him outright. Instead, he had a serious talk with him for over an hour.

They talked about the prospects of a professional career in CS:GO, the current state of CNCS, and the problems he might face if he chose that path.

Ma Xixi told Jiang Yang everything he knew.

He didn't think Jiang Yang was bragging. Jiang Yang had improved at the game faster than anyone Ma Xixi had ever seen.

He believed that if Jiang Yang was determined, he could definitely go pro someday.

But as someone who worked in the CS industry, Ma Xixi honestly didn't want Jiang Yang to become a pro player.

It was just too hard!

Professional CS players in China didn't earn much. Even Tyloo, the best club, paid only thirty or forty thousand yuan a month. Meanwhile, Ma Xixi could offer Jiang Yang that much just to work as his assistant.

What's more, Jiang Yang really had a talent for streaming. Even though there hadn't been many match commentaries last month, having Jiang Yang in the stream still brought in far more viewers than usual.

So Ma Xixi needed to make sure Jiang Yang understood all of this.

He wanted Jiang Yang to understand both the good and the bad.

If Jiang Yang really wanted to go pro, Ma Xixi could use his connections to get him in touch with the major clubs in China. He could even send him overseas to train with a club's youth team.

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

After all, Jiang Yang was only sixteen, and that was the age when people loved to have fun.

Jiang Yang didn't argue much after hearing him out. He knew Ma Xixi had his best interests at heart. Ma Xixi had once been a pro player and was still part of that scene, so he understood it much better than Jiang Yang did.

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

He loved feeling himself grow stronger. He loved the thrill of each kill. He loved winning tense matches as his teammates pushed one another forward.

Even after hearing his cousin explain the state of CNCS, he still wanted to step onto the professional CS:GO path without hesitation.

But Jiang Yang's dad had taught him a lesson when he was young.

"Goals are for doing, not for talking about."

So Jiang Yang chose to go to college first. Once he had improved enough, he'd prove to his cousin through his results that he was serious about going pro.

He carried the Crazy Thursday meal all the way back to the dorm. The moment he opened the door, three pairs of eyes lit up.

"Holy shit, Yang, did you bring that for us?"

"You're the real deal, Campus Hunk!"

"So you're handsome and rich. Basically, life is made for you!"

Jiang Yang shot his Tianjin roommate a look. "So, are you eating or not?"

"Of course I'm eating! Why wouldn't I?"

After ten days of military training, they'd all gotten to know one another well. Jiang Yang had even become somewhat famous across the school.

He was so handsome that the freshmen had voted him Campus Hunk during military training. Now people were asking about him on the school's confession wall every day.

Luckily, Jiang Yang had plenty of experience from high school. Aside from going to class when necessary, he just stayed in the dorm and didn't go out.

"Yang, when are you hitting number one on Perfect World?" Huang Zhipeng asked from the side. He was Jiang Yang's roommate from Tianjin.

Hearing that, Jiang Yang imitated his accent and said, "Today!"

Even though he was in college now and had plenty of little things to deal with, Jiang Yang hadn't slacked off on his daily training. Even during those ten days of military training, the only thing he'd skipped was the five-kilometer run.

After training, whenever he had enough time, he still practiced his aim every day.

Once classes started, whenever he had a break, he put all his attention into CS:GO. As for dating and making friends, he didn't go out of his way to pursue either.

Those pointless social obligations took up too much time.

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

"System, activate!"

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

[Old Timer: Jiang Yang]

[Age: 30]

[Team: None]

[Status: Recovering after comeback]

[Overall Level: Professional Lv. 2

Aim: Professional Lv. 1

Game Sense: 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: -43,960]

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

[Personal Items: None]

Jiang Yang examined the stats the system was currently showing him.

Aside from his Pistol Proficiency, everything else was already at a professional level.

There was no helping it. When it came to pistols, he was only halfway decent with the Desert Eagle, and he was a little weak with the USP and Glock.

He believed he'd figure out pistols eventually. He just hadn't had enough time yet.

Rifles and pistols both took a long time to practice, and Jiang Yang couldn't rush it.

There were two reasons his Game Sense and Map Understanding had improved so quickly. First, once Dust II became one of his signature maps, its lessons started carrying over to other maps.

Second, he hadn't expected the "Formulaic Commentary Skills of 6657," which he hadn't thought much of, to help him so much.

When Jiang Yang first saw the skill, he'd been a little speechless.

After all, he planned to become a pro player. What did he need commentary skills for?

Besides, his cousin was one of the two best commentators in CNCS, yet the system had given him the ability of another commentator.

Was it going to have him deliver formulaic commentary in the stream alongside his cousin's professional commentary, so they could take over the entire CNCS commentary scene?

If that happened, Wan Ji Qi would be too broke to afford pork head meat and would have to steal rotten eggs instead.

But when he tried to understand the skill, he realized that Wan Ji Qi had a very deep understanding of the game.

If Wan Ji Qi actually entered a match, he might not play at such a high level.

But Wan Ji Qi's insights had taught Jiang Yang a key detail: when watching a match, keep your eyes on the minimap.

By watching the teams' movements and their back-and-forth on the minimap, he could tell what they needed to do and when. It taught him to focus on serving the team's victory rather than chasing kills.

Once this idea clicked, Jiang Yang gradually began to understand some of the players' strange-looking plays when he watched matches.

His understanding of the game and his game sense began to grow rapidly.

On top of that, Dust II had excellent positional play, which also raised his Positioning stat by quite a bit.

His skill with the sniper rifle was just as ridiculous. He'd barely done any special training with it. Every day, he'd only take a hundred flick shots while practicing his aim.

When he had nothing else to do, he'd watch ranked-match recordings of excellent snipers, and his Sniper Rifle Proficiency would shoot up.

Sometimes, talent was just impossible to hold back.

As for his signature skills, there hadn't been any major overall improvement.

At the intermediate level, they required far more practice, so he'd have to keep working at them.

This kind of thing came from years of practice. He could only take it one step at a time.

His current stats gave Jiang Yang plenty of confidence about climbing to the top of the platform.

The system had already said he was at a professional level. If a pro couldn't reach number one, what did that even make him?

Besides, the sniper rifle was already a devastating weapon in ranked matches.

By Jiang Yang's estimate, his sniping was already at the level of a second-tier pro.

In a ranked match on Perfect World, he'd even gone up against Jee, the sniper from NewHappy, and managed to out-snipe him.

That was where Jiang Yang's confidence in his own skill came from.

After all, NewHappy's sniper Jee was considered a second-tier sniper. If Jiang Yang could beat him in a sniper duel, then he was at least a second-tier sniper himself.

After sharing the Crazy Thursday meal with his classmates, Jiang Yang sat back down amid his roommates' praise and started his climb for the day.

He checked the leaderboard. He was rank S with seventy-four stars, already second on Perfect World.

The player in first place was a streamer on Douyin, with rank S and seventy-five stars. The two of them were only one star apart.

Once you reached S rank on Perfect World, your position was determined by your number of stars. The more stars you had, the higher you ranked.

As long as you won and had a rating above 1.2, you could earn a star.

In other words, Jiang Yang needed just two matches to reach number one on Perfect World.

His roommates knew about it too, and they all sat behind him to watch.

After warming up, Jiang Yang started his first ranked match of the day on Dust II.

At high ranks, there were a lot of familiar faces. Even when players didn't know one another, they'd check each other's records to see what they were like.

When several people saw "Nong Xiaojiang" on their team, they immediately looked up Jiang Yang's record. After seeing it, they were convinced.

Nearly a seventy-percent win rate and a 1.41 rating on a sniper. At a glance, those stats were pretty intimidating.

Knowing Jiang Yang liked to snipe, his teammates were all very friendly. From the first Full Buy Round onward, he always had a Big Sniper to use.

In top-rank matches, having a good sniper on a map like this could make a huge difference.

The other team played with a lot of discipline and tactics, but they still ended up losing.

After that match, Jiang Yang had a rating of 1.51 and earned another star.

Just as Jiang Yang was about to queue for another match, a friend notification suddenly appeared in the top-right corner.

The guy who'd played the worst on the other team last match, "Jiang Yang Himself," had sent him a friend request.

Jiang Yang hadn't planned to accept, but since he'd finally run into a fan, he decided to add him.

"Jiang Yang Himself": "666."

"Jiang Yang Himself": "Nice play."

Faced with his fan's praise, Jiang Yang just typed back, "For real?"

"Jiang Yang Himself": "How about we duo for a couple games?"

Jiang Yang immediately declined. "Maybe another time, man. I'm climbing."

But the instant he refused, familiar little text suddenly appeared before his eyes.

What was going on?

Hadn't he still not reached number one on Perfect World?

Then he checked the leaderboard.

Well, he hadn't made it to seventy-six stars, but he didn't need to.

The Douyin streamer must have felt the pressure and started climbing too, but he'd just lost his last match and dropped to seventy-four stars.

Jiang Yang had automatically climbed to number one on Perfect World.

[It's hard to imagine your skills have deteriorated this much after two years of retirement. You need to regain your form and announce your return to the entire professional scene]

[Mission: Reach number one on any platform]

[Issuing rewards...]

...

Meanwhile, at the VG club.

A Zhong, an old hand behind the wheel, leaned over and asked, "What did Nine say? Check if that kid's any good first."

259 turned around and said, looking rather helpless, "I think he thought I was too bad and didn't want to duo with me."

A Zhong laughed. "I told you to practice your aim when you had the time. You can't play like that in front of a young genius. Why not just tell him why you're reaching out?"

259 shook his head. "Forget it. He's a one-trick player. If he's really good, he'll show up on our radar again."

One of the best-known in-game leaders in China, 259 liked looking for talent in ranked matches.

He'd noticed that "Miss" a few days earlier. The young player really was good, and several of the recordings he'd watched had impressed him.

But he was still a one-trick player, and that made 259 hesitate.

Now that his tentative invitation had been rejected, he wouldn't push it.

The power's out at my place today, so I went to an internet café to write. Sorry this is a little late.

This chapter is a transitional one. The story will enter the professional scene soon.