Chapter 15: Changes in Gunplay

"Got him!!"

Xu Beifang raised both hands high and shouted with some joy.

The match officially began its final tally, and the 【√×√】 on the screen brought a smile to his face.

It had taken three promotion series to finally succeed; only he knew the frustration contained within that process.

Now that he had finally promoted to A, he wasn't far from the top tier of the ladder.

He glanced at the top right corner, which displayed his ladder ranking: 12,032.

It seemed that this ranking was still a long way from the 5E top 100, but Xu Beifang knew that the further he went, the faster his ranking would rise!

【Listen-to-Advice Value: 219】

Hearing the system notification sound that rang out in his ears due to the match victory, Xu Beifang silently recited in his heart:

"Open personal panel."

A translucent screen immediately appeared before his eyes.

【Host: Xu Beifang】

【Age: 21】

【Affiliated Team: None】

【Role: None】

【Status: Hot (Overall level increased by 30%)】

【Mindset: 86】

【Gunplay: 56-59】

【Consciousness: 35-37】

【Reaction: 49-52】

【Listen-to-Advice Value: 1839】

【Overall Evaluation: Through unremitting efforts, you have finally left the category of a beginner. Your current gunplay can occupy a place on the ladder, but you still cannot touch the edges of professional play. The huge disparity in attributes is an obstacle on your path to progress. Keep it up, young man, the road ahead is still long!】

【Suggest the host complete others' advice as much as possible to collect Listen-to-Advice Value and improve the host's attributes.】

Another 1800+ Listen-to-Advice Value?

A thought stirred in his heart—

【Do you want to invest 1000 Listen-to-Advice Value to improve gunplay?】

【Yes!】

The gunplay column immediately changed to 【57-60】. Aside from 【Mindset】, he finally had an attribute that touched the 60s.

Recalling the moment he had just been reborn, he only had 33 points in gunplay, 29 in consciousness, and 47 in reaction. Now, although consciousness and reaction hadn't improved much,

his gunplay had increased from 33 to 57—a near-doubling in just a few points!

As for 【Mindset】, it had never changed. Xu Beifang had once tried to add points to mindset, wanting to raise it to 90 first, but was prompted that his authority was insufficient.

For now, he couldn't figure out why he couldn't add points to 【Mindset】, but adding points to other attributes wasn't affected.

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before he climbed to the top of the 5E rankings and obtained trial qualifications from major clubs.

Xu Beifang prepared to take advantage of his good form to push his rank further.

Just then, he saw a notification from the friend system in the top right corner.

Clicking it open, he discovered it was his teammate from the previous match, danking.

After considering it, Xu Beifang chose to accept.

If he were to embark on the path of a professional, he would inevitably get to know danking in the future within the same circle. Besides, the guy had a decent personality, so he had no reason to refuse.

Confirmed acceptance.

A message notification sound was heard immediately in his headphones.

danking: Brother, want to rank up together!

After finishing that game, danking had already concluded in his heart that Zhengzheng Shang wasn't a cheater, and the experience of that match had indeed been quite good.

Although this Zhengzheng Shang had many flaws in his details, his various ideas were quite sound!

Having finally found a player with a decent level who was willing to communicate and didn't play sniper, he hurriedly pulled him over to rank up together.

Xu Beifang typed back: I'm with that 'Qiaodan Benren of RNG', is a three-stack okay?

danking replied immediately: Of course, no problem, invite me!

He also knew about Ma Dong's performance throughout the match; while not particularly dazzling, it was steady enough, at least not too much of a burden.

After confirming everything was correct, danking joined Xu Beifang's ranking squad and began the arduous journey of climbing the ranks.

The three of them played until past 11 PM. Including the match where they met Qiezi, they played a total of 7 ladder matches, ending with a final record of 5 wins and 2 losses.

The two losses:

One was because a random player quit halfway through and only returned at match point to apologize, saying "the internet cafe lost connection." But by then, the score gap was too large, they had zero room for error, and they lost after struggling for a few rounds.

The other loss, the final match, was against a five-stack ranking team on Inferno. They were made very uncomfortable by the opponent's skilled routines. Xu Beifang and danking were both frantically carrying, but Ma Dong and the two random players couldn't withstand the pressure at all; two firefighters couldn't put out the fire on the entire map.

The final match left Xu Beifang and danking both physically and mentally exhausted. danking ate an extra pack of betel nuts, and his jaw was aching from the chewing.

"Dandan, let's meet up tomorrow. I'm a bit tired, and I still have some daily training left to do."

"My name is danking!! You're not allowed to call me Dandan!" The voice on the other end exploded instantly. danking retorted, "But it's so late, what daily training could you possibly have left?"

"Alright, Dandan." Xu Beifang explained, "Didn't netizens keep saying I was cheating because of my sudden enlightenment? This afternoon, Leon Kai from Bilibili helped me post a video to clarify, and based on my original training, he optimized it. I'm not familiar with the new aiming method yet, so it's a bit slow, and I got delayed. I just have 1000 deathmatch kills left to finish."

"Leon Kai?" The number one sniper of SJZ took a sip of water and asked, "Then what was your training like before?"

"Hitting ten thousand bots every day..."

"Pfft..." danking sprayed all his water out. "There really is someone using that kind of brainless... reckless aiming practice as training!"

Xu Beifang said: "I feel like you just offended me... It's mainly because I followed the suggestions netizens gave me. It really does have an effect."

Of course it has an effect! You were a beginner who hadn't even entered the door; just playing a few more matches would have brought improvement, let alone spending such a massive amount of time practicing... danking thought this friend of his was a bit too honest.

"Then how did Leon Kai tell you to practice?"

"Hit one thousand bots every day, then practice on the pre-aiming map a few times, and then play one thousand deathmatch kills." Xu Beifang also knew danking had more experience and hoped he could help him find the shortcomings.

"This aiming plan is alright." danking stuffed another betel nut into his mouth. "Just practice like this for your current stage. This is probably the most comprehensive aiming method on the market."

After thinking about it, danking still shared some of his own experience with this friend who left a good impression: "If time permits, you can separate the warm-up and the aiming practice. Before opening the game every day, hit the one thousand bots first, and then leave the remaining deathmatch and pre-aiming practice for the evening."

"Although one thousand deathmatch kills and pre-aiming practice aren't much compared to the previous ten thousand bots, they are still quite energy-consuming. If you exhaust your energy right at the start, it will inevitably affect your subsequent ranking... If you just warm up and put your energy into the ladder, and then practice aiming while carrying some fatigue, the effect might be better."

"When your body is tired, you might adapt to these exercises even more..." danking explained quickly, "Of course, this isn't my theory, but something I learned from a foreign CSGO blogger named Loba."

"Okay! Then I'll move the training to the evening." Xu Beifang chose to follow the advice; his main style was listening to advice.

"Then I'm logging off first."

"See you tomorrow, Dandan."

After agreeing to rank up with danking tomorrow, Xu Beifang opened the deathmatch mode himself.

The map was Nuke. Just as Xu Beifang was about to adjust his posture to start hitting bots, he thought of the suggestion danking had provided him today.

【4-star suggestion: Get 1000 headshot kills in deathmatch practice...】

So, this headshot deathmatch and the ordinary deathmatch suggested by Leon Kai should be doable together!

He gripped the mouse, watched the enemies refreshing in front of him, aimed at their heads, and clicked to fire.

Accompanied by the crisp sound of headshots, Xu Beifang officially got his first kill in deathmatch mode, and the task bar in the top right corner began to update.

【Systematic Aim Training: 1000 bots (Completed), Pre-aiming map 2 times (Completed), Deathmatch 1000 kills (1/1000)】

【Improve Headshot Rate: 1000 deathmatch headshots (1/1000)】

He believed that even if the tasks couldn't be completed simultaneously, he would strive to finish these daily training sessions one by one. But being able to complete them together was always good; at the very least, it could save him a lot of practice time.

Xu Beifang began to devote himself wholeheartedly to the training, deliberately aiming at heads the moment he saw someone.

And recalling the practice on the pre-aiming map earlier, he gradually integrated these offensive movements into his deathmatch training, slowly beginning to master today's insights.

His roommates in 302 had already started washing up, planning to get into bed and scroll through their phones, while Xu Beifang was still striving for his goal.

On recommendations today, there are two more chapters, but I don't have time to edit the 6 o'clock chapter now, so it will be posted a bit later.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 16 =====