Chapter 14: White Night

All eyes were suddenly focused on Ling Tian.

Lei Xue secretly regretted not preventing the battle between KID and Ling Tian. Ling Tian had a cold and aloof personality; for so many years, it seemed no one had ever seen him laugh heartily. This time, he was actually laughing loudly in front of everyone—could it be that he had suffered a mental breakdown from the inability to accept the defeat?!...

Before Lei Xue could finish her thoughts, the laughter stopped abruptly. Ling Tian’s slightly trembling voice sounded again:

"Underestimating the enemy and pride made you abandon your specialty, the Terran, and choose Random. This is your first failure."

"Choosing to produce units in a troublesome and dangerous way when faced with an attack, rather than building defenses, is your second failure."

"Your intention to produce Lurkers was discovered by me, yet you didn't make any changes. This is your third failure."

"Half of your forces and your expansion base were destroyed meaninglessly. This is your fourth failure."

"Before walking into your final trap, my tactics were flawless..."

"However, I lost."

"Please give me a reason."

>>>>>>

At the same time, I was lost in thought while looking at the scoreboard on the screen. I couldn't hear Ling Tian’s questioning, but there were indeed several doubts troubling me.

Why didn't KID build defensive structures when faced with the Protoss attack? Compared to the six Zerglings bought for 150, a 125-mineral defensive structure could play a greater role in defense without suffering losses. Even a beginner would know which was more cost-effective. Especially since the Zerg were teching up at the time; even if he had added units, he couldn't have transitioned to an attack...

And if his opponent had been me at that time, I would have recklessly massed Zealots. Or perhaps the Overlord didn't see all of Ling Tian’s attacking forces. As long as there had been two more Zealots, a 5-Zealot + 1-worker attack against a 6-Zergling defense—no matter how good KID’s micro-management was—would have resulted in nothing but collapse and defeat!

But on the other hand, he did manage to hold on with six Zerglings, and the final trap was impeccable. If Ling Tian were replaced by me, would I have fallen for it? Did this match reflect his true strength? How formidable was his Terran race? These were all mysteries.

I had thought that watching one of his matches would give me a rough idea of the outcome of our encounter, but now I seemed even more confused...

>>>>>>

KID revealed his signature bright smile, but his answer was completely off-topic: "Have you played CS?" Before Ling Tian could answer, he continued, "CS certainly emphasizes individual skill, but if you want to go further, teamwork and excellent tactics are indispensable."

"Europe—perhaps the best CS team in the world, NiP, had played against us before they disbanded." KID revealed a look of longing. "At that time, they had top star players like Potti and HeatoN (Note 1), and their on-field commander was the 'Cunning Man,' vesslan!" (Note 2)

"The match was a best-of-24, first to 13. We played for about 35 minutes in the first half and trailed 3:9. In the second half, we led 7:0 in less than 5 minutes. Although we only narrowly won 13:11 in the end, we did win." A sigh. "vesslan asked me if they lost because of the rhythm. I just told him that before the opponent quits the match, no number of round wins is enough."

Ling Tian’s expression was somewhat dejected, as if he were pondering something. KID, however, showed no mercy:

"I’m telling you the same thing now: mistakes aren't necessarily all mistakes. If my five mistakes can trade for one fatal mistake from my opponent, then those so-called mistakes of mine are just stepping stones to victory!"

Ling Tian smiled bitterly again and spoke with some hesitation: "You are truly strong. Perhaps I understand what you meant by learning to fail..."

"Don't belittle yourself! You are the most formidable opponent I have encountered recently." KID rarely looked so solemn. "Whether it’s your technique or your psychological warfare, it was impeccable. It’s just that my continuous mistakes caused your desire for victory to inflate excessively. If you had remained calm, I would have been the one to lose. You must know, I was gambling too, and the stake was my reputation as a world champion." Speaking of this, KID couldn't help but smile.

"Then, your choice of Random was also a ploy to make me think the situation was going according to my plan? Not building defenses was to let me see the dawn of victory first?..." Ling Tian, no matter how cold, was still a child after all, and at this point, he began to analyze KID’s tactics with great enthusiasm.

"Oh, that..." KID said nonchalantly, "I really did underestimate the enemy at the start; not building defenses was a punishment for my own arrogance. Actually, I wasn't sure if six Zerglings could defend against it."

Crowd: ...He really is simple...

Ling Tian pressed: "What would you have done if I had gone with five Zealots at that time?"

"...I think, perhaps, maybe, I would have had to admit defeat..."

Ling Tian: "I’m not reconciled! Roar~~~"

At this time, in another room, the protagonist was still holding his head and deep in thought, "Why exactly? As a world champion, he shouldn't have made such a low-level mistake, right? Then, what was his solution...?"

The dark night gave me black eyes, but I use them to search for the light.

In fact, dawn and darkness are often only separated by a thin sheet of paper.

So is victory and defeat.

>>>>>>

Ling Tian’s defeat did not affect his status among the students. Because KID had personally admitted that he regarded him as a formidable rival, Ling Tian’s reputation even rose to another level.

And after that match, KID didn't play StarCraft with anyone else, but instead happily started playing CS. The good network conditions and high-performance servers at Mingqing Academy made many online experts happy to hone their marksmanship here. Over time, the Mingqing server became one of the highest-level places online. And at Mingqing Academy, players like Ling Tian who didn't touch CS at all were actually one of a kind.

After KID played it once by accident, he couldn't stop praising the level here. He said that the number of players here was large, their enthusiasm was high, and their individual strength was generally good. If professional gaming could be successfully promoted, such a solid mass base combined with strict professional training, China’s dominance in the gaming world would be just around the corner.

Regardless of whether KID was being polite or something else, his words and the fact that he personally joined the battle made the Mingqing students enter a state of near-fanaticism. Killing KID once became everyone’s common goal. However, a world champion is not someone to be trifled with; in three days, KID played countless games, but he had never died even once!

>>>>>>

Attending class had once again become a chore for me.

It wasn't because the students were causing trouble again—in fact, I actually missed the days when Xue'er led them to tease me. They were all very serious in class now because if their exam scores weren't high, they would be deprived of their qualifications to go to the computer hall. For the boys, that meant losing the chance to kill—though more often being killed by—KID; and for the girls, it was even more miserable, because then they wouldn't be able to see "KID-gege," who was "so handsome and seemed to radiate light," for a long time.

To be honest, I really had nothing to complain about. Relaxed classes, rich meals, and Xue'er, whom I could still see every day... However, I was still very unhappy.

To be honest, KID was the first opponent I didn't have the confidence to defeat. But if I were given a few days to adjust my mindset and pull myself together to fight him with all my might, the outcome would be uncertain. But now, no matter where I went, the topic people discussed seemed to never leave KID. The frequent appearance of this name even made me feel like I couldn't breathe.

I needed to vent.

Then, what kind of vent could be more satisfying than headshotting an opponent with one bullet, watching his corpse collapse with a thud, and seeing the blood slowly soak into the earth?

I turned on the computer and quickly connected to Director Lei’s office. To avoid possible inspections by Lei Xue, I copied all the games onto Director Lei’s computer. Lei "Cannon" Lei’s understanding of computers was no higher than my understanding of relativity, and I estimated that no one would dare to look for games to play on the computer in the Director’s office. In this case, simply leaving a backdoor program on Director Lei’s machine and hiding the game was all it took.

I randomly entered an ID called "L" and entered CS. Although I hadn't touched this game for a while, my footsteps were still agile. After a few headshots, I found my "gun feel" again. Looking at my ranking, it was climbing rapidly. I thought of Old Gun with some melancholy; without a suitable opponent, killing was a bit boring...

God must have heard me.

KID joined the game.

He was here.

A cheer seemed to come from the distant computer hall. Compared to this, my 13:0 record seemed to become insignificant. The veins on my forehead bulged slightly. KID, oh KID, you came at just the right time!

KID’s joining made the Terrorist side’s momentum surge, and for a moment, the Counter-Terrorists were retreating steadily. KID, with a gun in hand, immediately and cleanly took out one Terrorist. I saw my companion fall not far away, immediately held down shift, and quietly retreated. The muzzle of my gun pointed at the corner ahead, holding my breath and listening to the rustling footsteps approaching from far to near. I silently calculated the distance, but just as he was about to enter my line of sight, the footsteps stopped.

The surrounding air seemed to have solidified, and the scattered gunshots in the distance had stopped at some point. I didn't know if KID had stopped because he discovered me, or just because his sixth sense was preventing him from moving forward. But regardless, waiting wasn't my style.

I still moved forward silently. When I reached the corner, I could almost hear the enemy’s breathing. Suddenly flashing out, two light sounds from the M4a1, and the opponent had already collapsed... It wasn't KID! Then, where was he?

A very, very small crisp sound rang out from about 25 meters away, but it made my back instantly covered in cold sweat. Because I knew clearly that it was the sound of a sniper scope opening. Without even thinking, the gun in my hand swung violently toward the source of the sound. "Bang" and "rat-tat-tat" sounds rang out almost simultaneously. In that flash of lightning, I even felt like I saw the shocked eyes behind the sniper scope.

Headshot!

In fact, many years later, when I dream back at midnight, I still often think of the style of that shot. Because this was a very important signpost on my life’s journey.

After that shot rang out,

KID fell.

Note 1: Potti and HeatoN were once the absolute mainstays of NiP. After the team disbanded, the two joined the SK team, ushering in the second peak of their professional careers, and are still representatives of the highest level in Europe today.

Note 2: "vesslan" means "cunning man" in Swedish. In China, he is revered as a tactical master. But in reality, he didn't have a pleasant time at NiP and was not NiP’s on-field commander. vesslan is now the captain of another strong European team, Team9.

By the way, the full name of the legendary team NiP is Ninjas in Pyjamas.

...Speechless.

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