Top 1 in Character

October 5, 2021, Tuesday.

Suitable for: worshipping ancestors, bathing, getting a haircut, traveling...

Traveling was out of the question. The National Day holiday had officially begun, and office workers were making the most of their rare break to indulge in some much-needed travel and relaxation.

Jiang Yang walked into the house carrying two cups of lemon water. Jiang's Mom asked in confusion, "What took you so long?"

"Have you seen how many people are outside our door?" Jiang Yang handed his mom a cup and complained, "Your son was almost squashed into a meat patty."

Their family had settled in Suzhou, and as it happened, the street they lived on had become a famous tourist spot a few years ago. Now that the National Day holiday had arrived, the street outside their door was packed every day.

Even though Jiang Yang had ordered ahead from the milk tea shop, it had still taken him ages to squeeze through the crowd and pick up the drinks.

"If it weren't for all those tourists, what would you have to eat?" Jiang's Mom rolled her eyes, then ignored her son and went back to watching TV drama clips on Douyin.

Jiang Yang rolled his eyes.

Tourism could certainly boost the economy, but how much of an impact could it have on their family's bun shop?

Jiang's Dad and Jiang's Mom hadn't received much education, and they didn't have any special jobs. They simply ran a bun shop on this street.

Still, he didn't bother asking his mom to explain herself. Holding his lemon water, he went back to his room. The moment he opened the door, cool air from the AC washed over him.

He stuck in a straw and took a sip of the icy lemon water. Only then did he feel alive again.

Even though it was already the National Day holiday, it was still scorching hot in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.

He enjoyed the cool air from the AC for a few more minutes. Once his body had cooled down a bit, Jiang Yang returned to his computer, opened the aimbotz practice map, and warmed up by shooting around 500 bots.

He spent another ten minutes or so running through the utility on every map, making sure he wouldn't mess up any of the standard lineups.

Once he was done warming up, he opened the 5e Matchmaking Platform, selected all maps, and queued up.

His rating on 5e had now reached 2,783.

In terms of ranks, he'd made it to A+.

However, 5e and Perfect World had somewhat different ranking systems. After reaching S on 5e, the only difference was in ladder points; there was no such thing as a difference in the number of stars.

An A+ on 5e would already put him at a high-star S on Perfect World.

After reaching number one on Perfect World, he'd received a reward from the Counterattack System. The system's next mission was to have him join a team.

Jiang Yang could've used his record as the number-one player on Perfect World to try out for a team.

But he still had a lot to consider. Back then, he was only good on one map.

His situation at the time was a lot like Vincent in the League.

Vincent only played Draven. Jiang Yang was only good on one map, Mirage.

He knew he'd eventually master the other maps, but professional teams might not see it that way.

He preferred to keep the initiative in his own hands, so he'd decided to improve first, then try out.

He'd originally been playing on the full map pool over on Perfect World.

But the matchmaking environment there was a little warped. It relied too much on aim duels, so even on less popular maps, people still tried to solve everything with their aim.

Jiang Yang clearly remembered watching his cousin play on 5e over the summer. The teams had played off each other quite a bit.

Besides, there were more pros in the high-rated 5e games, and they were clearly stronger.

So Jiang Yang had started grinding on 5e as well.

His skill was already very high, and he was climbing at a ridiculous speed, steamrolling most of his games like a smurf.

The only reason he hadn't climbed even higher was that so many people reported him that the 5e system kept suspending him from time to time.

But Jiang Yang wasn't smurfing on purpose. He was just playing on his own account and climbing.

As he got used to the 5e ladder and kept watching POVs on the other maps, he gradually learned them all except Mirage. He still wasn't as comfortable on them as he was on Mirage, but at least he wouldn't be a weak link at his rank.

He was thinking about whether to try out for Tyloo or VG once he'd gotten comfortable enough on the other maps.

A notification sounded in his headset. The match had found a game.

Jiang Yang snapped out of it and focused on the game.

The map was Dust II. He'd already played well on it before, but it was an extremely simple map, and Jiang Yang was very good with the AWP. Even in games that were close to S rank, he was still a god on this map.

They lost the pistol round at the start.

There were just too many players on domestic platforms who were good with pistols. Jiang Yang still needed to practice that.

In the second round, Jiang Yang had wanted to force-buy an SSG008, but one of his teammates spoke up and asked everyone to save.

Since the teammate was willing to communicate, Jiang Yang didn't make a fuss, even though he knew he was great with the SSG008.

Sometimes, keeping the whole team on the same page mattered more than an individual's performance.

But in the next full-buy round, an opponent named 'Tea Cake Tea Cake' was incredibly aggressive. They broke through B Area with a fierce push and cleared the whole site.

Anyone who'd played B on Dust II knew how painful and guilt-inducing it was to lose the site and watch their teammates rotate back.

In the end, their attempt to hold B failed.

The other team had some skill... Jiang Yang opened the scoreboard to check them out and saw they were a stack of friends. Their coordination and skill were both pretty good.

But the better they were, the more fired up Jiang Yang got.

He hadn't spent the past two weeks just climbing.

He'd kept up a steady amount of training every day, then spent ages grinding away in the [Hex: Dungeon Boss] mode. His mentality had been thoroughly trained.

Jiang Yang took the initiative and said, "Let's force-buy this round. I'll get an SSG008. We can give up A Main."

Jiang Yang spoke up first, and none of the others objected. One by one, they force-bought.

The countdown ended. Jiang Yang headed straight to Mid with his SSG008, while the teammate nearest B jumped across.

The opponent's AWP rang out.

Jiang Yang immediately peeked. Through the gap in Mid Doors, he spotted a terrorist in the tunnel, ducking behind the box on the right.

Jiang Yang had gotten pretty good with the SSG008 by now. Whenever he held it, he was always looking for a headshot. The moment he saw someone, he flicked his aim.

"Bang!"

[Ma Xixi I'll Top Kill You killed Kenshin Himura with an SG008 headshot through the wall]

"Nice shot!" Jiang Yang heard his teammate exclaim excitedly after he got the first kill.

The numbers advantage had clearly taken a lot of pressure off them.

Jiang Yang paid no mind to the praise and kept holding the tunnel with his SSG008, wondering if the other team would come to pick up the AWP.

Two weeks ago, Valve had made a major change to this map. A tall wall now blocked off the upper tunnel.

That meant CTs were under much less pressure when dueling through Mid.

Jiang Yang's read was right. The enemy really couldn't bear to leave the AWP behind. One of them jumped down, picked it up, and tried to jump across the tunnel.

Jiang Yang's reactions were lightning-fast. The moment he saw the enemy, he flicked without thinking.

"Bang!"

[Ma Xixi I'll Top Kill You killed Headshot Machine Ren Yuduo with an SSG008 headshot]

"I got ripped apart by that SSG008 in Mid." The long-necked man sounded surprised on stream. "What the hell, how was he so accurate? I jumped across and he still sniped me out of the air?"

Hamburger, who was queued with him, replied, "It's fine. We're just going to run them over at A Main. There's nothing he can do with an SSG008."

Besides, their team had full rifles and utility, so they had the advantage.

As long as they threw down some smoke grenades, the other team wouldn't be able to do anything if they hadn't taken up positions.

They pushed out at A Main, using utility to force the opponents back. Two smokes went down at CT Base, giving them a safe way to cross.

Seeing that the smoke grenades had covered their approach, Hamburger quickly ran toward the platform, still trying to reassure his teammate. "As long as we make it to the A Bomb Site, this round's in the bag."

But before he could finish, an SSG008 bullet whizzed past behind him.

It shouldn't have gone through me... Hamburger suddenly had a bad feeling.

The next second,

a bullet flew out of the smoke and struck him right in the head.

"Bang!"

[Ma Xixi I'll Top Kill You killed Tea Cake Tea Cake with an SSG008 headshot through smoke]

Hamburger fell silent.

The three remaining players had planned to let him go plant while the other two held Big Pit and A Long in a straight line, giving them a better setup.

But now that Hamburger was dead, they suddenly had a bad feeling.

Could they really lose this round to that SSG008?

The random at A Long immediately went to retrieve the bomb, but the SSG008 tagged him through the smoke too. This time, though, he managed to make it onto the site.

But too much time had passed. The CTs had already rotated in. The bomb planter tried to plant, but a CT in L killed him with a jumping Desert Eagle shot.

That left just one terrorist at A Long.

Before he could do anything, an AWP shot rang out from A Main.

The CT from B had taken a long flank and picked up the AWP. He used it to kill the last terrorist.

The CT voice chat erupted in celebration.

"Holy shit, bro, what happened? You killed the whole team with an SSG008?"

"We've got a hacker on our team, guys!"

"Bro, do you want an AWP? I brought one back for you."

"Holy shit, are those stats even human? I'm just going to let you carry me."

Jiang Yang was secretly thrilled by the praise.

This was the kind of treatment you deserved for a highlight play! Otherwise, what was the point of training so hard?

Then he imagined becoming a pro someday, making a great play onstage while thousands of people cheered for him from the stands.

Just imagining it sent a pleasant thrill through him.

Still, he was nowhere near that level yet. He had to keep working!

The CT voice chat was full of good cheer, while things were rather quiet on the T side.

"Brother Kai, we've run into a monster!!" Hamburger whined, looking to Leon Kai for comfort.

"I really like that thing you said: 'This round's in the bag.'" Leon Kai couldn't help laughing.

Their three random teammates were also complaining about the opponent's SSG008.

After all, that SSG008 had been the reason they'd nearly lost the round. It had almost killed them all.

Even though it hadn't killed them all, it had completely wrecked their attack.

They only complained about it briefly, though, and didn't take it seriously.

But in the rounds that followed, even when Leon Kai and Hamburger started playing seriously, they still couldn't deal with the opponent's AWP.

The Ma Xixi fan on the other team was playing incredibly aggressively. His AWP was on fire on this map.

Even when he switched to a rifle, he kept killing them on sight, constantly firing pre-aimed shots.

They tried hard to make a comeback, but the match still ended with a score of 16:9.

After the match, Hamburger couldn't help saying on stream, "I've got to watch the replay from last game. There really was something weird about that guy. His pre-fires had me completely tilted."

"I feel like he had wallhacks. He caught my timing so many times."

Leon Kai wanted to tell Hamburger not to say that. When you watched a replay already convinced someone was cheating, it was easy to misjudge things.

As a CSGO content creator with great aim, great utility, and great character,

he didn't want to start a controversy.

But when he glanced at the chat, he saw plenty of people were already complaining.

['Ma Xixi I'll Top Kill You' really does look suspicious. I watched him tilt Dong Gua Qiang the other day.]

[Kai, check his stats and you'll see. He's a straight-up hacker.]

[I ran into him on the ladder before. I couldn't fight back at all.]

[Lots of people have already been calling him a hacker. Kai and Hamburger just got unlucky.]

[Judge, give us a righteous judgment!]

Reading the chat, Leon Kai opened Jiang Yang's profile and took a look.

"What the hell, those stats are insane!"

The ridiculous stats made Leon Kai swear under his breath.

"Sixty matches, a 1.51 rating, a 73.3% win rate, and 118 average damage. Is that even humanly possible?"

At that moment, even Leon Kai couldn't help feeling a little suspicious.