The Terrifying Sakurajima Mai

After successfully getting started with [Hunter's ECO Special Attack], Jiang Yang took great interest in admiring his post-match stats.

It had to be said that in C+ ranks, hardly anyone took ECO rounds seriously, which made them easy to throw away.

As long as Jiang Yang played seriously in those rounds, he could rack up plenty of kills and reduce the chance of losing to an ECO, naturally making things easier for himself.

"Starting off with a win—looks like today's a good day to climb."

Hearing Li Hua say that, Jiang Yang inexplicably had a bad feeling.

But it was still early, so the two of them queued for another ranked match.

The second match came quickly, and the final map was Inferno.

During the pistol round, Jiang Yang and Li Hua went to defend B Area, while their three random teammates headed to A Area.

They did not even need to do anything. Their random teammates caught every terrorist rushing A. Seeing that, Jiang Yang immediately turned on his mic and praised them. "Damn, brothers, you wiped them all out. Didn't even leave us any scraps."

He remembered that his stat panel had a [Communication] attribute. It was clearly encouraging him to actively communicate with his teammates, and he naturally was not going to sit there silently.

Besides, his teammates had wiped out the entire enemy team that round. They deserved the praise.

Hearing him say that, the teammates were quite happy as well. They turned on their mics and started chatting and bragging with them.

In the second round, Jiang Yang bought an MP9 again, planning to farm some proficiency for [Hunter's ECO Special Attack Technique].

With his calm and skilled movement, he traded for 2.9 enemies on Banana Path before being killed. Together with Li Hua's CT shotgun, they took down the remaining enemies on Banana Path.

In the following round, some enemies forced up while others went ECO. Jiang Yang still used an MP9 to play the role of an ECO commando.

Watching his money keep increasing gave him a satisfying sense of pleasure.

Before they knew it, the score had reached 3:0.

The first Full Buy Round finally arrived. Unwilling to replace their weapons, they were immediately crushed by the enemy's rifles.

But they did not care. In the next round, they bought full equipment and prepared to hit the terrorists back.

But they were broken through once again.

Only then did they realize something was wrong.

The other attackers were decent enough, but that anime-profile player with the ID "Sakurajima Mai" was clearly not at the C+ level.

"He headshot me again," Li Hua complained. "How are we supposed to play this?"

The three random teammates were also somewhat discouraged. Getting instantly killed in every head-on duel was incredibly frustrating.

Jiang Yang thought for a moment. "Don't panic. I'll save up for a Big Sniper and pick him off."

Under the pressure of the match, he no longer wanted to rely on the MP9 to farm ECO skill proficiency for the time being.

Besides, if this kept up, they would be the ones forced to ECO.

Then the enemy would become the ECO commandos.

And compared to farming proficiency, he cared more about winning.

The others did not pay much attention to Jiang Yang saying that he could contain Sakurajima Mai. Snipers at this rank were not very reliable—sometimes not even as trustworthy as a Negev.

Li Hua was considering whether he should buy a Negev and hide in some particularly nasty position.

As the score reached 4:8, Jiang Yang finally saved enough for the Big Sniper.

This time, his spawn was good, so the moment the preparation countdown ended, he carried the Big Sniper and rushed straight toward Banana Path.

Li Hua even proactively threw two Flashbangs into Banana Path for Jiang Yang.

Jiang Yang pulled out his knife and rushed into Banana Path. As he neared the wooden boards, he switched to the Big Sniper, wide-swung out, and scoped in.

Through the scope—

A terrorist was close on the left Stone Slab.

Another terrorist was toward the right Tree Position.

The next second, the Flashbang exploded with a bang, and Jiang Yang was completely blinded.

But before he was flashed, he had gotten the information, so he flicked his mouse to the left.

Then, while blinded, he leaped backward hard.

[Miss, get out of the way + Please Turn On Your Mic and Communicate used AWP to kill Sakurajima Mai]

Several random teammates noticed the kill notification in the Top Right Corner. Though they wanted to comment on the questionable nature of Jiang Yang and Li Hua's IDs—

They paid more attention to the fact that "Sakurajima Mai" had been killed. At that moment, their feelings could be perfectly expressed with a string of letters:

OHHHHHHHHHHH!

The enemy big brother was dead, and the remaining small fry posed no threat. They instantly gained confidence.

After taking down Sakurajima Mai, Jiang Yang's vision gradually returned. He did not stop moving, instead continuing to scope in and hold the Stone Slab ahead.

When he had watched MO explain M0nesy's match recordings yesterday, he had asked plenty of questions about Snipers.

So he knew that if a Sniper Rifle could only get one kill in a round, it was clearly not good enough.

And he had just received information that there were still people on Banana Path, so there was no reason not to hold the angle.

Holding the Stone Slab on Banana Path with his Big Sniper, he soon saw someone dry peek out.

Jiang Yang was already focused, so he did not even need to move his Crosshair. He pulled the trigger and directly took the second terrorist's life.

Seeing Jiang Yang slaughtering enemies at the Front Point, Li Hua hurried over to help.

He was a little unhinged, directly carrying the Negev and pushing forward.

Yet the terrorists hiding on Banana Path actually could not beat him.

The teammates at A site seemed encouraged as well. Although two of them were taken down, they successfully killed the remaining terrorists and smoothly secured the round.

After the round ended, Li Hua immediately took credit. "Tell me, were those two Flashbangs blinding or not? I specially learned them from a content creator."

Hearing that question, Jiang Yang remembered the scene of himself being completely flashed. He fell silent for two seconds before answering, "They were indeed pretty blinding."

"They blinded me too."

After hearing the exchange between Jiang Yang and Li Hua, the three random teammates burst out laughing.

"Don't ask whether they were good or not, just ask whether they blinded anyone!"

"I'm dying."

"Come on, come on!"

Seeing that Jiang Yang's Big Sniper could limit the enemy's "Sakurajima Mai," their morale gradually rose. Everyone felt that the match was still winnable.

But after the sides switched, Sakurajima Mai moved to the defending side and played even more absurdly.

At one point, the score gap widened, but whenever Jiang Yang needed one, his teammates always managed to save up a Big Sniper for him and let him carry.

Jiang Yang thoroughly enjoyed that feeling of trust from strangers, of a group of people working toward a single goal.

In that atmosphere, they no longer messed around with Bizon entertainment, and Jiang Yang stopped thinking about farming proficiency.

Everyone simply worked toward the goal of victory.

But opponents above their own level truly were difficult to deal with, and Sakurajima Mai had far more tricks than Jiang Yang did at this rank.

The score even reached 10:14 at one point.

However, relying on the Big Sniper Li Hua dropped for him, Jiang Yang seized an opportunity to hold Sakurajima Mai to death, and only then did they begin taking rounds again.

After that, the random teammates came up with an idea.

They would avoid Sakurajima Mai entirely and force Sakurajima Mai to play retake.

The moment they knew Sakurajima Mai had started killing, they would immediately rotate to hit the other Bomb Site.

After all, aside from Sakurajima Mai, the enemy team was honestly not very good.

And so, they clawed back one round after another.

The moment they reached match point first, everyone erupted.

The enemy's Sakurajima Mai completely lost it and started flaming his teammates in all chat.

In the final round, Sakurajima Mai used utility and wanted to come out from Banana Path on the second timing. After Jiang Yang lost vision, he casually fired a shot—and unexpectedly killed Sakurajima Mai.

After Sakurajima Mai was killed, Jiang Yang's side became incredibly excited. One of the random teammates even shouted, "Don't rush it, play steady!!"

After steadying themselves, they regrouped and launched a B Area Flashbang execute. They cleared B Area at the cost of one for two, then each found a position to hold.

Li Hua intercepted a rotating CT on Banana Path.

Jiang Yang held CT Base Direction from Three Boxes. As the Smoke Grenade dissipated, he saw an arm appear on the left side of his vision.

The Big Sniper instinctively flicked left.

"Bang!"

[Miss, get out of the way used AWP to wallbang Little Monster]

The screen froze at that moment, and the score at the top of the screen became 16:14.

"Got it!!!"

"Comeback!"

"Let's go, brothers!!"

As the final flick connected, the frozen image and the voices shouting together—

It felt as if something burst from deep inside him, and goosebumps rose all over his body.

There had been nothing especially strange about the enemy team this match.

They had not mocked them either. Sakurajima Mai was simply very skilled.

Even while behind, they had not given up. Instead, they found ways to chase the score one round at a time and turn the situation around.

Everyone encouraged their teammates, communicated seriously, and coordinated with the skill they currently possessed.

Even as strangers, they were willing to trust Jiang Yang's skill and kept dropping him Big Snipers.

In the end, they defeated opponents who had originally been stronger than them.

At that moment, Jiang Yang felt his adrenaline surging.

Sure enough, CS:GO really was fun!

"That was incredible!!" Li Hua laughed loudly over voice chat.

One of the random teammates suggested, "Brothers, add each other as friends. We can play together when we're free."

"Add, add, add!"

Li Hua also praised him. "Jiang Yang, you're amazing. Since when did your sniping get so good? You carried this match. Otherwise, we really would've been crushed by Brother Mai."

Jiang Yang was also extremely happy. After agreeing to add the random teammates as friends, he exited the client.

After the match ended, his stats were excellent, but everyone had performed well this game, so the stats did not seem all that important.

When he turned around, he discovered that Ma Xixi had come over at some point. He had probably been sitting behind him and watching for quite a while.

Seeing Jiang Yang look over, Ma Xixi smiled and said, "This is the romance and charm unique to CS:GO. You asked me before why I didn't commentate League of Legends. It's because I like this game. This game has tremendous charm."

Once you had experienced that overwhelming rush, that surge of adrenaline, it was truly hard to forget.

Jiang Yang said to Ma Xixi, "I'm gradually starting to like this game."

If the system's appearance had previously made him curious about the game and led him to explore it, then now, he sincerely wanted to play it well.

"Keep it up!" Ma Xixi encouraged him. "There's still some family talent in us. Back in the day, I was a well-known pro in Magic City. Carry on the family tradition and become a pro too, alright?"

Jiang Yang smiled. "I'll give it a try."

Ma Xixi had watched the entire match, and he was a little surprised by his Cousin's talent.

He knew Jiang Yang's level. After all, he had not even reached seventy hours yet.

But Ma Xixi had watched every second of this match. Those Sniper Rifle flicks were absurd. Many of those strange angles were ones even he might not have been able to hit.

His Cousin clearly had some talent with the Sniper Rifle.

There was no way those were plays a newcomer with just over sixty hours could make.

It was honestly a little outrageous.

Then he went back to his own computer, ready to play some CS:GO to join in the excitement.

Watching Jiang Yang play that match had gotten his own blood pumping.

He could not wait to start streaming and play a couple of matches.

He wanted to fight right now!

An hour later, Ma Xixi looked at his 6-23 record, then glanced at Jiang Yang, who had gotten MVP once again.

He wondered whether something had gone wrong somewhere.

There was still today's—

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