Chapter 18: Su Zhe Takes the Long Way Around
“Thank you for the little heart, big brother~ Thanks to XX for the attention~”
Xiao Guang, sitting on the left and wearing a Niko team jersey, made a heart shape with his fingers towards the camera, his tone coquettish.
A note on the chest of his jersey read: “Always keep questioning.”
“Oh! Thanks for the light board, big bro~ Thank you, my great big brother~”
On the right sat Fat Brother, donned in an s1mple jersey, winking at the camera with a playful voice.
Then, shifting back to his rougher tone, he pointed at the camera and growled, “Why you bully me!”
This made Su Zhe, sitting in the middle in a team Load jersey and seriously playing ranked ladder, shudder all over.
It was utterly disgusting! He was about to break out in goosebumps!
Yesterday, unable to resist the two’s persuasion, Su Zhe had reluctantly agreed to the live streaming fundraising plan.
He intended to refuse, claiming he was too focused on matches to chat with viewers, but the two waved their hands dismissively, telling Su Zhe to just concentrate on his gameplay and leave all the trivial matters to them.
Su Zhe only needed to occasionally say “I don’t know.”
Besides, he hadn’t even paid off the computer he bought earlier. Half willingly, half reluctantly, his live streaming debut began.
The stream had about seven to eight hundred viewers—not too few, not too many—the majority drawn in from those two videos.
Unexpectedly, the show was quite entertaining, and many stayed.
For a complete newcomer, this number of viewers was impressive!
After finishing a match, Su Zhe cleared his throat and stammered, “I... I... don’t know...”
[“Caught off guard, I came to see a genius kid but got something so abstract.”]
[“The three brothers are kinda handsome! Anyone up for a date? (IP: Chengdu)”]
[“Great at creating show effects, you guys deserve the money!”]
[@Leon Kai, come see how they stream, learn well!]
[“Hahaha, Sen and Zai Ni streaming together, interesting!”]
[“Just to clarify, is this People, N2ko, and FywOo’s stream?”]
The three glanced at the dense barrage of comments beside them and burst out laughing.
They hadn’t expected streaming to be so much fun.
...
...
In another stream on Moya Live,
Danking, having just finished a match of Valorant, was also creating his own show effect by reading the chat.
“Thinking about trying the Shanghai Major again. Don’t worry, brothers, I’m guaranteed a spot in the Shanghai Major exhibition match.”
“So what if I play Valorant? I play whatever I want! You’re even remotely controlling me! If it weren’t for Moya’s management stopping me from switching to Valorant, I’d have cut ties with CSGO long ago!”
“Alright, alright! Playing CSGO now! Let me show you old-timers some moves with a couple of Dragon Lore games!”
“You say I only play 5E because I’m scared of running into pros? Don’t be ridiculous! I’m going to crush you chat dogs perfectly.”
“Come on! Let’s queue from A+ to S rank together! Queue against me and watch how I wreck you!”
“What’s with this chat? No more talk, ten 188 giveaways... Forget it, a dime to get on TV, clear the chat!”
After setting up the giveaway, Danking happily opened the Perfect Gaming platform, which he hadn’t logged into for a while.
...
...
Friday night at 9 PM, Perfect Gaming had many players online.
After about a minute and some seconds of matching, Su Zhe successfully entered a game.
The map was one of the Chinese players’ favorites: Dust Mirage.
Su Zhe opened the full map for most of the time, only opening single points when missions required it.
He had noticed that when playing competitive with the full map open, the match would most likely be on Dust Mirage.
Since the scorching Sandstorm map wasn’t in the active pool, he hadn’t even checked it.
Neither team used a “Little Tyrant” learning machine; ten players swiftly entered the server, and the game officially started.
In the first half, Su Zhe began on defense.
“Holy crap! We got DanZong!” Before the pistol round countdown ended, a teammate excitedly shouted over voice chat.
Immediately, the chat in the lower-left corner of the screen exploded with interaction.
Danking was well-known; the memes “Empty Sorrow” and “Sticker Dream” were all the rage. Su Zhe had heard of him even before starting CSGO.
Apparently, he also had the highest average Rating among domestic pros?
Su Zhe stopped reading the chat and focused on the match—if European pros were no good, he’d try domestic ones.
He bought a half armor directly from the shop. When the countdown ended, he moved close to the VIP window, jumped mid, and pressed forward along the wall.
Meanwhile, Danking was heading toward the terrorist entrance with a P250 given by a teammate.
“Though I haven’t played CS in days, when the terrorists push out, I’ll definitely one-shot VIP! Watch this!”
*Pop pop!*
[The top breacher in the South Seas used a USP headshot to kill the Monkey King.]
Danking held his forehead. “I’m fired up! They’re pushing so fast? They don’t even see me as human!”
He thought everyone knew his skill and that ladder players should give respect.
But the push came so suddenly, he was aiming at VIP but got pushed close.
Could they show some respect?
After getting Danking’s kill, Su Zhe peeked inside the terrorist entrance again, found no one, and warned his teammates to watch out for fast pushes, then pressed forward.
“Watch your backs, brothers! Hit B fast! Once the second-floor smoke clears, they’ll push the bombsite. The one who killed me just now is flanking.” Danking warned over voice chat.
“Don’t worry, DanZong! I’ll solo defend the flank. You guys take the bombsite! I...”
Before he finished, a CT silhouette suddenly appeared. Su Zhe quickly aimed at it, but the quick flick was too fast; his crosshair couldn’t catch up.
*Pop pop!*
[The top breacher in the South Seas used a USP headshot to kill AAA Li’s BBQ.]
Thanks to Su Zhe’s push and flank, they secured two kills early, giving their team information to rotate back to B site defense. The pistol round 5v3 was won smoothly.
In the second round, with terrorists not planting and a straight firefight, the CTs pushed mid with SMGs.
Danking wanted to turn things around with a Desert Eagle, but after days off, his aim was off, and he was quickly taken down.
Glancing at the chat on the side screen, he saw mostly “Is this it?” and “Go back to Valorant” kind of comments.
Though unfazed outwardly, his inner competitive spirit still pushed him to want a win.
He turned on his mic to lead: “Guys, let me E once. Next round, I want to snipe big. I’ll cover C!”
By the time it was the rifle round, the score was 3-0.
Danking finally received the AWP from a teammate.
“This round, I’ll start mid with a pick, then look for a chance to flank through the small path and join the brothers on B second floor to pinch B...”
The CT defense was a 3-1-1 setup. Su Zhe initially wanted to keep pushing mid but saw three teammates rushing A site immediately.
The remaining one picked up the AWP and went into the VIP window, so Su Zhe had to head alone to B.
Just as he jumped into B from the supermarket window, the top right screen showed a teammate at VIP was killed by the AWP.
“Damn! DanZong’s AWP is fast, never faced one...”
Losing mid control put Su Zhe in a tough spot. His three teammates at A were all rifles and, knowing the enemy had an AWP mid, dared not peek, so Su Zhe had to watch the small path.
With mid lost, the A site had multiple angles to cover and couldn’t rotate quickly to B.
After some thought, Su Zhe threw a defensive smoke at the small path, then slipped into the small black room to hold one side first.
“The enemies are smoking the archway heavily! They might pinch B! When we rotate back, Blue, you watch A alone!” Yellow, near archway, shouted immediately.
Ranked matches weren’t like pro teams with complex tactics; they used simple, straightforward pushes without fake grenades or trick plays.
With the enemy’s attack intent clear, the CT defense shifted accordingly, but only if Su Zhe could hold the first wave.
Inside the black room, Su Zhe moved continuously to block the push, occasionally glancing at VIP for any sudden enemy jump.
Suddenly, a flashbang exploded at the small path, drawing his attention there.
An enemy figure flashed past the black room entrance. Reacting instantly, Su Zhe snapped his crosshair onto them.
*Tat tat tat~*
[The top breacher in the South Seas used a silenced M4A1 to kill “Lower your head and give me money.”]
“On top of the black room!” the player “Lower your head and give me money” shouted.
Teammate “Kato Megumi” immediately pre-aimed the long hallway.
His pre-aim was solid; his crosshair locked on Su Zhe’s head model as he pulled out his AK, but before firing, Su Zhe moved again!
“Kato Megumi” fired but was a split second too slow to adjust recoil.
Against this kind of sudden stop-and-shoot enemy, it was almost like shooting a bot.
*Tat tat tat~*
[The South Seas breacher used a silenced M4A1 headshot to kill Kato Megumi.]
Danking, positioned furthest back on the small path, was watching archway and VIP for any CT flanks but saw teammates dropping one after another, so he came to cover black room’s angle.
Confident, he chose to re-peek aggressively!
*Bang~*
Empty shot!
Su Zhe, having just emptied 20 bullets, was reloading. Danking didn’t give him a chance and quickly pulled out his Glock.
They were like League of Legends champions Graves and Jhin meeting—both low on health and out of ammo, desperately reloading.
Su Zhe realized he was slower, so drew his knife and closed in for melee.
*Slash!*
A light knife strike landed. Danking finally fired his Glock, but Su Zhe’s movement was too erratic to pin down.
Danking landed two shots to the body, but the armor absorbed most damage.
Another knife strike pierced through.
[The top breacher in the South Seas used a knife to kill Danking.]
“Ah *%$#...”
Seeing Danking break, the chat exploded with comments.
[“???????”]
[“Are you even human? You steal teammates’ health, get the AWP, and only kill one?”]
[“Hahaha! Three against one and you get triple killed!”]
[“I get it, Lu Zhenghao is just putting on a show again.”]
[“Damn, black room god, caught three in a row!”]
[“That enemy ID looks familiar!”]
With the complete wipeout of the three on the small path, the terrorist attack stalled completely.
Though two terrorists entered B site via second floor, the CT rotation was quick, catching the bomb plant timing and, with multiple gunlines, easily overwhelmed the last man.
Danking, regaining composure, still grumbled, “Next round, give me the AWP again. Let them see the true power of ‘Asian one-shot AWP’! Win guaranteed!”
He then lowered his head and put on a battle face.