A Duel Across the Ocean

Little Bamboo Shoot grew anxious and started shouting:

"Why are you guys talking about such nonsense again! It's not what you think! I'm just looking for a pro to carry me to the final circle; I can't make it there on my own..."

Some fans in the stream started mocking Little Bamboo Shoot for her trashy gameplay, which made her even more flustered:

"My skills are actually really good! It's just that my luck is bad!"

While Little Bamboo Shoot was busy bickering with her viewers, Chen Zhao took over the team leader position, clicked on the Snow Map, selected duo mode, and started!

Little Bamboo Shoot was a bit surprised, "Why are we playing the Snow Map?"

Previously, Chen Zhao had mostly taken her to play the Island Map, with the occasional Desert Map. They hadn't even touched the snow yet.

"A change of pace, something fresh. Don't you get bored playing the same map all the time?" Chen Zhao said.

"Oh, oh, okay, I'll follow your lead." Little Bamboo Shoot decisively chose to cling to his coattails.

The Quality Plaza was unusually quiet this time. There were no shouts of "Everyone jump to XXX, or you're my grandson," no one yelling about "flying hacks, tunneling hacks, teleportation hacks, or health-locking hacks," and no one asking, "Any cute boys or girls want to team up?" The players were all very quiet, making no sound at all.

Chen Zhao felt a bit strange. Something wasn't right; shouldn't the Quality Plaza be noisy? What was up with this silent atmosphere?

"We might have run into a bot lobby," Little Bamboo Shoot suddenly said.

"A bot lobby?" Chen Zhao paused, "Isn't that something only in the mobile version of the game? How is it in the PC version too?"

"They added it two months ago. The developers noticed the number of active players was dropping and figured many unskilled players were dying as soon as they landed, so they didn't want to play anymore. That's why they added a lot of bots to improve the player experience," Little Bamboo Shoot explained, "They say if you occasionally hit a lobby full of bots, the Quality Plaza will be very quiet."

Chen Zhao carefully observed the movements of the others in the Quality Plaza and found that a third were standing perfectly still like statues, a third were jumping in place like springs, and a third were walking slowly with their heads down... Clearly, these highly regular movements were pre-set bot behaviors; real players' movements would be much more chaotic.

"Since it's a bot lobby, I'll try to shoot less and leave all the kills for you to harvest," Chen Zhao said.

"Yes, yes, yes! That's awesome! Just watch my marksmanship!" Little Bamboo Shoot grew excited. Chen Zhao had always been the one carrying her; finally, she could stand on her own two feet!

Soon, the countdown ended, and they boarded the plane.

Chen Zhao chose to follow Little Bamboo Shoot's jump, planning to let her harvest the bots while he coasted through the match.

Little Bamboo Shoot hesitated for a moment, marked a spot on the Castle, and as soon as the distance closed to 1500 meters, she jumped!

In an instant, the two landed on the roof of the Castle and began searching for supplies.

The loot in the Castle was quite rich. After just two minutes of searching, Chen Zhao had already gathered a Level 2 helmet, a Level 2 vest, five energy drinks, three first-aid kits, a fully-equipped Vector without a scope, and an SKS marksman rifle with a 4x scope.

The Vector submachine gun and the SKS marksman rifle were both very useful weapons. The Vector's drawback was its small magazine capacity, but with an extended quick-draw mag, the bullet count jumped to 33, which was barely acceptable. In close-quarters combat, the Vector's damage was explosive, and it was incredibly stable. Although the SKS marksman rifle wasn't as powerful as a bolt-action sniper, it had the advantage of semi-automatic fire; land a few consecutive shots, and even a god would have to kneel!

After searching the entire Castle, Chen Zhao added a 3x scope to his Vector, and his SKS was also fully kitted out. Everything was perfect. It felt great.

Little Bamboo Shoot finished looting and ran over, spinning around in front of Chen Zhao.

Level 3 helmet, Level 3 vest, Level 3 backpack, Ghillie Suit, Pan, AWM sniper rifle, and a fully-equipped M416!

Chen Zhao was stunned, "What is this?! Where did you get all this gear?"

"The airdrop landed on that roof you can climb onto. I went over to loot it, and it turned into this," Little Bamboo Shoot said smugly, "Isn't it rich? Isn't it cool?"

Chen Zhao almost coughed up blood. An airdrop had landed right in his face, and he hadn't even known?

But it didn't matter. Only the weak needed high-level gear. A strong player like Chen Zhao could win a chicken dinner even if he were butt-naked with nothing but a small pistol... That might have been a bit of an overstatement, but that was the general idea!

"Get on the roof and keep watch. If any real players see the red smoke from the airdrop, they might come to snatch it," Chen Zhao said.

The two made their way up to the top of the Castle and began scanning in all directions. This position could be considered one of the most scenic spots on the Snow Map. The sky was vast, the wilderness was boundless, and the silver-clad landscape was exceptionally enchanting. As far as the eye could see, snow weighed down the green pines, and the glaciers shimmered with a deep blue. In the distance, a few small wooden cabins were sparsely scattered, ancient and desolate.

Meanwhile, in a villa in North America.

A white guy with messy hair and a gaunt face sat in front of a computer. His setup looked exceptionally flashy; the keyboard glowed with multicolored fluorescent lights, the monitor was wider than three standard screens put together, and the PC even had a liquid cooling system where you could hear the water gurgling inside.

If any esports enthusiast saw him, they would recognize this young man at a glance.

The captain of last year's global championship team, Bob Lee Swagger!

In last year's global league, he led his team all the way to the finals, defeating the French, Korean, and Chinese teams one after another to take the championship. His performance was dazzling, and his maneuvers were incredibly flashy!

Because he was small and thin with a high-pitched voice, Chinese esports fans gave him the nickname "Little Lee."

With this year's global league approaching, Little Lee had begun training day and night in his villa, playing for up to sixteen hours a day. Aside from eating, sleeping, and using the bathroom, he spent almost all his time in front of the computer. This was the life of a professional esports player. No entertainment, no slacking off, no going out to party—only ten fingers flying across the keys in a locked room, day after day.

Having just finished a match against other pros, the others had logged off to sleep. Little Lee felt he still had energy, so he decided to play a casual match to relax his mind and body.

The team that had competed in the finals last year was the Chinese team, so Little Lee thought for a moment and decided to switch to the Chinese server to play a casual game.

Solo-duo, random map.

The match started, and before him lay snow and green pines—it was the Snow Map.

However, the Quality Plaza was dead silent. There was no sign of any real players; they were all bots. Little Lee was deeply disappointed. Had he really matched into a bot lobby?

He was just about to quit, but they were already on the plane. Little Lee thought about it and decided to just jump and get it over with. Win the chicken dinner and go to sleep.

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