Chapter 14: White Night

All gazes instantly converged on Ling Tian. WENXUEMI. coM

Lei Xue secretly regretted letting KID fight Ling Tian. Ling Tian's personality was cold and arrogant; for so many years, no one seemed to have seen him laugh heartily. Now, he actually laughed aloud before everyone. Could it be that he couldn't bear the result of defeat and had gone mad?! …

Before Lei Xue's thoughts could finish, the laughter stopped abruptly. Ling Tian's slightly trembling voice rang out again:

"Underestimating the enemy and arrogance made you abandon your skilled Human race and choose Random. That is your first failure."

"Facing an attack, you chose the troublesome and dangerous option of adding troops instead of building defenses. That is your second failure."

"I discovered your intent to send a lurker, yet you made no changes at all. That is your third failure."

"Half your forces and your expansion were meaninglessly destroyed. That is your fourth failure."

"Before entering your final encirclement, my tactics were flawless…"

"But, I lost."

"Please give me a reason."

>>>>>>

At the same moment, I was pondering the score table on the screen. Although I couldn't hear Ling Tian's questioning, several doubts were indeed troubling me.

Facing a Protoss attack, why didn't KID build defense towers? Compared to six Zerglings bought for 150, a defense tower costing 125 plays a greater role in defense without loss; even a beginner knows which is more cost-effective. Especially since the Zerg were researching technology at the time, even if he had added troops, he couldn't have switched to an attack anyway…

Moreover, if his opponent at that time had been me, I would have ignored everything and rushed Zealots, or his host might not have seen all of Ling Tian's attacking forces. If there had been just two more Zealots at that time, an attack of five Zealots plus one worker against six Zerglings' defense, no matter how good KID's micro-management was, he would have faced only one path: collapse and defeat!

But conversely, he did manage to hold on with six Zerglings, and the final trap was impeccable. If I had been Ling Tian, would I have fallen for it? Does this match truly reflect his real strength? How formidable is his Human race? These are all mysteries.

I thought watching one match would roughly clarify the outcome of the confrontation, but now I seem even more confused…

>>>>>>

KID revealed his signature brilliant 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 to go further, team coordination and excellent tactics are indispensable."

"Europe, perhaps the world's best CS team, Nip, fought against us before they disbanded." KID revealed a longing expression. "At that time, they had top star players like potti and HeatoN (Note 1), and their on-field commander was the 'Cunning One', vesslan!" (Note 2)

"The match was a best-of-24, first to 13 wins. In the first half, we played for about 35 minutes and trailed 3:9. In the second half, in less than 5 minutes, we led 7:0. Although we barely won 13:11 in the end, we did win." A sigh followed. "vesslan asked me if they lost due to rhythm. I just told him that until the opponent quits the match, however many rounds of victory are not enough."

Ling Tian's face looked somewhat dim, as if pondering something. KID, however, showed no mercy:

"I tell you the same now: mistakes are not necessarily mistakes. If my five mistakes can exchange for one fatal mistake from the opponent, then those so-called mistakes of mine are merely stepping stones to victory!"

Ling Tian smiled bitterly again and spoke hesitantly: "You are really strong. Maybe I understand what you mean by learning to fail…"

"Do not belittle yourself! You are the strongest opponent I have met recently." KID looked unusually serious. "Whether in skill or your psychological warfare, you are impeccable. It is just that my continuous mistakes caused your desire for victory to **expand excessively. If you had remained calm, I would have lost. You must know, I was gambling too; the stake was my reputation as World Champion." Speaking of this, KID couldn't help but smile.

"So, choosing Random was also a scheme deliberately to make me think the situation was proceeding according to my plan? Not building defenses was to let me see the dawn of victory first? …" Even as cold as Ling Tian was, he was ultimately a child. At this moment, he began analyzing KID's tactics with renewed excitement.

"Oh, that… At the start, I did underestimate the enemy. Not building defenses was my punishment for underestimating the enemy. Actually, I wasn't even sure if six Zerglings could hold me off." KID said carelessly.

Everyone: …Truly so simple…

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

"…I think, probably, maybe, perhaps, I could only have admitted defeat…"

Ling Tian: "I'm not satisfied! Roar~~~"

At this time, in another room, the protagonist was still holding his head, pondering deeply. "Why exactly? As World Champion, he shouldn't make such a basic mistake. So, what was his solution…?"

The night gave me black eyes, yet I use them to seek the light.

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

Victory and defeat are the same.

>>>>>>

Ling Tian's defeat did not affect his status among the students. Since KID had personally admitted to viewing him as a formidable rival, Ling Tian's reputation climbed another level.

And after that match, KID didn't play StarCraft with anyone else again; instead, he happily started playing CS. Mingqing Academy's good network conditions and high-performance servers made many online experts willing to hone their aim here. Over time, Mingqing's server became one of the highest-level places online. And in Mingqing Academy, players like Ling Tian who had absolutely no contact with CS were truly unique.

After playing once unintentionally, KID praised the level here endlessly. He said the player count here was large, enthusiasm was high, and individual strength was generally good. If game professionalism could be smoothly promoted, with such a solid mass base plus strict professional training, China's domination in the gaming world was just around the corner.

Regardless of whether KID spoke out of politeness or something else, the fact that he spoke and personally joined the battle put Mingqing's students into a state of near frenzy. Killing KID once became a common goal for everyone. However, the World Champion was no pushover; in three days, KID played countless matches but never died even once!

…

>>>>>>

Attending class became a chore for me again.

It wasn't because the students were causing trouble again—in fact, I quite missed the days when Xue'er led them to tease me. They were very serious in class now because if their exam scores weren't high, they would be deprived of access to the computer hall. For boys, that meant losing the chance to kill—though more often to be killed by—KID; for girls, it was even more miserable, because in that case, they wouldn't see the "handsome, seemingly glowing" "Brother KID" for a long time.

To be honest, I really had nothing to complain about. Easy classes, rich three meals, and still seeing Xue'er every day… But, I was still very unhappy.

To be honest, KID was the first opponent I lacked confidence to defeat. But if given a few days to adjust my mindset, gather my spirits, and fight him with all my might, who would win remained to be seen. But now, wherever I went, the topic of conversation seemed to never stray from KID. The frequent appearance of this name even made me feel somewhat breathless.

I needed to vent.

So, what kind of venting could compare to the satisfaction of headshotting an opponent, watching his body crash down, and seeing blood slowly soak into the ground?

I turned on the computer and quickly connected to Director Lei's office. To avoid possible checks by Lei Xue, I copied all the games onto Director Lei's computer. Lei Pao Pao's understanding of computers wouldn't be higher than my understanding of relativity, and I estimated no one would dare look for games to play in the director's office computer. In that case, simply leaving a backdoor program in Director Lei's machine and hiding the games made everything OK.

I casually entered an ID called L and entered CS. Although I hadn't touched this game for a while, my movements were still agile. After a few headshots, my gun sense returned. Looking at my ranking, it was climbing rapidly. I felt somewhat melancholic thinking of Old Gun; without a suitable opponent, killing was also becoming boring…

God must have heard my words.

KID jointhegame.

He came.

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

KID's joining caused the Terrorists' momentum to surge sharply. For a moment, the Counter-Terrorists retreated step by step. KID held a gun and immediately cleanly and decisively took out one Terrorist. Seeing a teammate fall nearby, I immediately held down shift, quietly retreated, pointed the muzzle of my gun toward the corner ahead, held my breath and listened quietly as the rustling footsteps approached 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 sparse gunshots from afar had also stopped at some point. I didn't know if KID stopped because he discovered me or simply because his sixth sense was stopping him from advancing. But regardless, waiting was not my style.

I still advanced silently. When I reached the corner, I seemed to be able to hear the enemy's breathing. Suddenly, I flashed 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 about 25 meters away, yet instantly covered my back in cold sweat. Because I clearly knew that was the sound of a sniper scope opening. Without any thought passing through my brain, I violently swung the gun in my hand toward the sound source. "Bang" and "Tut-tut" two sounds rang out almost simultaneously. In that split second of lightning and fire, I even felt I saw the shocked eyes behind the sniper scope.

Headshot!

In fact, many years later, when waking up in the middle of the night from dreams, I still often thought of the charm of that shot. Because this was a very important milestone on my journey of the heart.

After that shot rang out,

KID has fallen.

Note 1: potti and HeatoN were once the absolute core players of Nip. After the team disbanded, the two joined SK, ushering in the second peak of their professional careers, and remain to this day representatives of Europe's highest level of play.

Note 2: vesslan means "cunning person" in Swedish; in China, he is honored with the title of Tactical Master. But in reality, his time at Nip was not a happy one, and he was not Nip's on-field commander. vesslan is now the captain of another European powerhouse, Team9.

By the way, the full name of the legendary team Nip is Ninjas in Pyjamas, meaning ninjas wearing loose pants.

…Speechless.

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