Chapter 51: Confronting the Unknown with Greater Strength

“Hello, donk!”

Donk stood with his hands in his pockets, looking confident, but when he saw Su Zhe, a complete stranger, he suddenly seemed a bit embarrassed.

“Hello, uh…”

“Arrow,” Chopper reminded him.

“Hello, Arrow!” Donk smiled again and shook Su Zhe’s hand.

Su Zhe, standing a solid 1.82 meters tall, made Donk look somewhat small in comparison.

But what surprised him most was how Donk behaved off the stage, away from the spotlight.

Almost every night, Su Zhe trained with Donk in the simulator, practicing face-to-face gunfights. In his mind, Donk always came across as rebellious, like Senpo.

Yet, after just a few minutes of meeting, Su Zhe’s preconceived image of Donk was completely overturned.

Su Zhe took the initiative to speak: “Your performance in the match left a deep impression on me. I often watch your first-person perspective to learn.”

Donk scratched his head awkwardly, clearly unsure how to respond.

Before Su Zhe could wonder why, Chopper stepped in to translate: “His English isn’t very good.”

Chopper then translated the words into Russian for Donk.

Donk’s face brightened with a smile as he replied, “Thank you for your recognition. I still have many shortcomings I’m working on.”

Su Zhe thought to himself: Wow, even more modest than me!

After the two teams met, there wasn’t much more conversation; both were eager to eat after their matches and headed back to their respective team buses.

What Su Zhe didn’t expect was that their handshake was captured by some fans outside the venue.

A few months later, it was posted online under the headline “The First Meeting of CS2’s Two Bulldozers”…

***

On the bus, k0nfig curiously asked Su Zhe, “You seem pretty close with that rookie, Green Dragon. Did you know him before?”

Su Zhe was caught off guard. Being constantly outplayed by him, how could they not be close?

He hesitated, then brushed it off, “We ran into each other a few times in ranked matches, but obviously, he didn’t remember my ID.”

k0nfig nodded, “I see. How’s his individual skill? Is he really the ‘rising star’ HLTV talks about?”

Su Zhe nodded firmly, “Very strong!”

Lately, in their face-to-face duels with Donk, his win rate had climbed from almost zero to about twenty percent.

But instead of feeling discouraged, it only fueled his competitive spirit.

After all, he’d only had the system for a little over three months, and his growth had been visibly rapid. He believed that one day he would defeat this opponent — and soon.

k0nfig was surprised. After all, in recent matches, Su Zhe had rated the opponent’s frontal skills as lacking.

Yet, for this newcomer Donk, he gave such high praise!

Es3tag, sitting up front, overheard their conversation and turned with a smile: “New players, huh? It’s normal to perform well in your first few events. But once other teams study you, it gets tough. Arrow, be ready to be targeted — don’t lose the confidence you have now.”

Su Zhe nodded, though he didn’t fully understand, it made sense.

After all, he hadn’t yet faced a team that could outmatch them tactically or as a whole.

Back at the hotel, after putting down their gear, djL kept his promise and took everyone to a local Polish restaurant.

Su Zhe fell silent when the waitress served dumplings.

djL urged him, “Try these! I ordered them especially for you. You haven’t been home for months; see if they remind you of home.”

Su Zhe nodded, picked up a dumpling with his fork, and bit into it—only to find it was sweet!

He looked closely and saw the filling was white cheese mixed with raisins.

djL asked, “How is it? Like your Chinese dumplings?”

Su Zhe stared at djL’s hopeful face and gave a thumbs-up: “Good! Delicious!”

“But next time you visit China, I’ll take you to eat even better dumplings.”

k0nfig laughed, “Looks like we’ll get the chance soon. After Katowice, we’re heading to the IEM Chengdu in your country.”

“Last time in China, we ate KFC for several days straight! Now we have a local like you; you have to show us all the Chinese delicacies!”

Su Zhe chuckled. With so many dishes for every meal, even a year wouldn’t be enough to try everything.

After dinner, the team returned to the hotel, briefly reviewed the day’s best-of-three matches, then went their separate ways to rest.

***

“It’s so late, why aren’t you sleeping?” REZ asked as he happened to pass by the training room and saw the lights still on. He peeked in to find Su Zhe still grinding ranked matches.

Though they had won two games decisively against GL earlier, so he wasn’t too drained.

But playing CSGO during free time after training wasn’t common for most pros.

Most players train when they’re supposed to, completing the coach’s assigned tasks just to maintain their competitive edge.

It’s like a regular worker going to the office—just showing up and not slacking off is already commendable. Asking for voluntary overtime? Rarely happens.

“You go rest first. I’m going to play a few more ranked matches for extra training,” Su Zhe replied after finishing one game.

“Tomorrow’s a day off. You should rest and play then,” REZ reminded him.

After qualifying for the main event, the team had two days of preparation. The first-round opponent hadn’t been announced, so coach djL declared a rest day.

Su Zhe smiled, “No worries, I’ll rest soon too.”

His extra practice wasn’t to show off but was sparked by es3tag’s reminder to study the rookies’ data.

A strange tension rose within him.

He saw many new pros either fade quickly or, after a few strong performances, suffer a steep decline once opponents figured them out.

Even Niko, now hailed as “the world’s best,” had poor stats initially when transferring from his hometown team to Mouz.

Only after accumulating experience in major tournaments did he begin to dominate.

Su Zhe didn’t know if he’d soon face the same fate, but he carried an inexplicable unwillingness to give in. In the face of the unknown, he wanted to become stronger.

Moreover, when he reviewed his recent conquerors ENCE and GL, he found both teams ranked outside the world’s top 30.

Even the domestic LVG team ranked higher.

REZ looked at the young man before him with a trace of emotion. He had been with Nip for nearly seven years.

When he first joined, he worked as hard as Su Zhe, but upon realizing his talent gap compared to stars like Zaiwoo and Senpo, he gradually gave up striving and settled for just making a living in the pro scene.

He wondered if he had persevered like Su Zhe, could he have become a star player?

Feeling nostalgic, he sat beside Su Zhe and fired up his computer. After shooting a few hundred bots on a training map, boredom crept in again.

After a moment’s struggle between freedom and monotony, REZ chose freedom. He was already 25; why suffer needlessly? It was better to leave the chance to the young.

“Don’t stay up too late. Health comes first,” REZ said, patting Su Zhe’s shoulder before standing to leave.

The training room, which had been lively moments ago, fell silent again, filled only with the clicking of mice and tapping of keyboards.