You ECO'd, Right?!

You... ECO'd... right?!

[Hunter's ECO Special Tactics]

Jiang Yang's eyes lit up when he saw the mission reward provided by the system.

He had no idea who Hunter was, but as a professional player, Hunter's signature technique had to be worth something.

Otherwise, how could it be called a signature technique?

And ECO-round tactics really could be quite useful to him right now.

He had just finished five placement matches that afternoon, and he had already lost track of how many rounds had been overturned by ECOs.

In CS:GO, there were often times when both sides were evenly matched. Sometimes, the outcome of a single round could influence the direction of the entire match.

If some of those ECO rounds in his earlier ranked matches hadn't been overturned, the games wouldn't have been so close. Maybe he could even have won one of them.

As an Old Timer, your raw skill is already inferior to today's prodigies. Now, you can only take a different path and make up for your weaknesses elsewhere. ECO economic rounds are your greatest aid.

PS: Preventing ECO comebacks is also a profound field of study.

Would you like to begin learning 'Hunter's ECO Special Tactics'?

Several lines of small text appeared before him once again.

Jiang Yang saw the two options below: 'Yes' and 'No.'

He focused his thoughts on 'Yes' and confirmed it.

The next second, an image appeared in his mind.

A man who seemed to have fallen to the dark side whispered to him in a demonic voice:

"Did you... ECO?"

The oppressive image made Jiang Yang's heart tighten.

Then, fragments of matches began appearing in his mind.

The map was Dust II. Hunter was defending B Area with a Galil when a flood of footsteps suddenly came from B Tunnel. The opponents were clearly about to speed up their push.

At that moment, Jiang Yang could clearly sense hunter panicking. Hunter immediately wanted to find Cover, hide for a moment, and delay until his teammates rotated back.

But the opponents moved faster. The first Terrorist had already charged out of B Tunnel.

Hunter was forced to take the first man with the Galil.

Yet, at the same time hunter got the kill, he realized something.

You... ECO'd, right?!

The moment hunter learned that the opponents were on an ECO, his confidence suddenly swelled.

Jiang Yang could understand hunter's thoughts at that moment.

They only had pistols, while he had a rifle. Why should he be afraid?

Not only did hunter stop retreating behind Cover, he actively swung toward B Tunnel instead. With a ruthless spray from the Galil, he pinned every Terrorist in their speeding push inside B Tunnel.

Then another scene appeared.

The map was Nuke. Hunter was defending near Iron Door with an MP9.

He had been holding his default position properly when the opponents suddenly seemed to get bored and began casually firing inside T-Spawn.

Jiang Yang instantly sensed hunter's thoughts:

"It's... pistol fire!"

Hunter seized the opportunity, threw open Iron Door, and charged out. With an MP9, he ran and gunned down three of them.

Hunter's peculiar thought process made Jiang Yang burst out laughing first.

So he was timid during Full Buy Rounds, but threw heavy punches against ECOs.

Still, that mindset was pretty good. Though Jiang Yang preferred getting kills with rifles, having one more method at his disposal was always a good thing.

And since he liked using the Big Sniper, he needed a lot of money. Before saving up 4750, farming a few kills with the MP9 could speed up his cash accumulation.

In CS:GO, different weapons gave different kill rewards.

SMGs like the MP9 could build up an economy very quickly.

Next, hunter showed Jiang Yang several ECO Special Tactics, such as different movement patterns against different pistols and variations in ECO playstyles depending on the weapon used.

If you wanted to go on a crazy carry in an ECO round, it wasn't enough to get kills. You also had to make sure you survived.

You couldn't just trade kills. That would be far too wasteful.

Hunter's approach to ECO rounds was extremely rigorous.

By comparison, Jiang Yang's anti-ECO rounds in ranked earlier had been nothing more than an attempt to farm kills.

But he had never considered how to farm them, or whether he could even do it properly.

That was how situations like, "Wait, he just one-tapped me?" or "Several of them swung out together!" happened.

Was this the gap between professional players and ordinary players?

Jiang Yang was practically about to gasp.

When the entire experience ended, he felt as if his brain had been filled with knowledge. Hunter's ECO Special Tactics alone had taught him so much. What about the signature techniques of top players like NIKO, ZywOo, and S1mple in the future?

Jiang Yang looked forward to the future even more.

Right after he finished learning 'Hunter's ECO Special Tactics,' several more lines of system text appeared.

It is unimaginable, truly unimaginable, that your strength has deteriorated to this extent after only two years of retirement. You need to regain your former skill and announce to the entire professional scene that you are about to return.

Mission: Reach first place on any platform.

Reward: A random professional Sniper's signature technique.

C+ was admittedly terrible, but wasn't the system exaggerating a little?

I was only two points away from B!

Damn Perfect World!

Wasn't this mission skipping ahead a bit too much? He had just finished his placement matches, and now it wanted him to reach first place on the platform.

Thinking about it carefully, this system mission had been issued to 30-year-old Jiang Yang. As a retired former professional player, reaching first place on a platform probably wouldn't be too difficult.

But he was 16-year-old Jiang Yang!

He was still a newbie who had only just started playing the game.

This mission was putting him under a lot of pressure right from the start.

Still, a professional Sniper's signature technique?

He was actually looking forward to that.

After finishing today's placement matches, he realized that he really liked using the Big Sniper.

The Big Sniper's extremely high damage gave him a huge margin for error.

Its one-shot-kill trait gave Jiang Yang far too many possibilities during matches.

If he had to figure out how to use the weapon on his own, it would take quite a lot of time. If he could learn the techniques of outstanding players, he would improve much faster.

I want to improve so badly.jpg

Before that, though, Jiang Yang planned to learn the mechanics of Counter-Strafing first.

Learning was actually quite painful. If possible, Jiang Yang would rather keep playing ranked and learn techniques from his opponents or teammates.

Just then, he heard Cousin-in-law's voice from the doorway. "You two brothers, come out and eat."

Only then did Jiang Yang realize that the entire afternoon had passed without him noticing.

He eagerly got up and discovered a table full of delicious food. When he spotted the fried chicken and cola chicken wings, his eyes lit up even more.

Back in high school, he rarely got the chance to eat things like that at home.

Ma Xixi walked out of the streaming room and saw the feast on the table as well. Surprised, he said, "I haven't done anything wrong lately, have I?"

Seeing his wife's puzzled look, Ma Xixi teased, "Then why are you serving me a last meal?"

Jiang Yang clearly saw Cousin-in-law roll her eyes at Ma Xixi.

Then she said, "Tomorrow, I'm taking our daughter to Guizhou for a summer getaway, so I specially made something nice for you two brothers."

Ma Xixi turned to Jiang Yang. "See? It really is a last meal."

Then Ma Xixi got kicked.

"After this, you'll have to sort out your own meals," Cousin-in-law complained. "Magic City is way too hot this year. Every time I take her outside to play for a while, we're soaked all over."

That was true. Outside felt like a massive furnace.

While the couple chatted, Jiang Yang sensibly started eating.

He and his niece launched a fierce assault on the fried chicken and cola chicken wings.

Seeing this, Ma Xixi teased, "You're still too young. If you knew you'd be eating chicken for all four years of college, you wouldn't be so happy."

After entering college, it was basically fried chicken and Huang Men Ji on rotation every day.

Though both were pretty tasty for young people, anyone would get sick of them after eating them through an entire college degree.

Facing his Cousin's gloating, Jiang Yang smiled disdainfully.

He didn't tell his Cousin that he would definitely walk the path of a professional player.

Innate Ash-Fighting Saint Body?

I'd directly become an Acquired Professional Saint Body!

While eating, Jiang Yang asked, "By the way, Cousin, how do you Counter-Strafe in CS:GO? I want to learn it. Whose videos should I watch?"

"Counter-Strafing? You just press the opposite movement key while you're moving." But Ma Xixi thought about it and realized he wasn't particularly good at that himself. "You can search on Little Break Station for someone called Leon Kai, the guy with the long neck. His tutorials are pretty solid, so you can learn from him."

As a Counter-Strike player, he really wanted to see new players getting into the game.

Especially when that new player was his Cousin, whom he was very close to.

Jiang Yang nodded. This was what he liked about Ma Xixi. When Ma Xixi truly encountered something he wasn't good at, he admitted he wasn't good at it instead of bragging.

After dinner, Jiang Yang also planned to check out that long-necked Leon Kai's tutorial videos.