Chapter 59: Explain This to Me

After experiencing the epiphany, Su Zhe had only one thought: What the hell, I want a refund!

The entire epiphany process provided zero improvement to his actual strength; if anything, it felt like he was regressing.

Because he suddenly found himself craving to play games like Valorant, CrossFire, and PUBG...

Su Zhe quickly took a deep breath to steady his mental state, vowing never to dabble in gambling ever again.

What difference was there between this skill epiphany and trying to buy a lottery ticket hoping to win five million?

He finally figured it out: throughout the history of CS:GO, how many star players were truly capable of turning the tide of a match single-handedly?

There were only a handful of tier-one players, and there was no telling which specific skill might be randomly assigned to him.

What if he had struck it lucky again and rolled Niko, only for the system to grant him an epiphany for Niko's scouting rifle... He'd better just honestly work on improving his fundamentals instead.

With that, Su Zhe refocused his attention on the computer in front of him and began tackling his "daily tasks."

...

Spring was approaching, and the season of all things reviving was almost here again.

However, in Poland during February, the outdoor temperature still hovered around freezing.

By a little past six in the evening, the sky outside the hotel had already turned completely dark.

"es3tag, fancy grabbing some dinner together?"

As es3tag pushed open his hotel room door and saw k0nfig standing there, he asked in confusion, "Didn't we agree to just make do with some hotel fast food tonight?"

k0nfig urged, "Let's go, what's so good about fast food? Dinner's on me tonight."

"Then let me go call the others."

"Just the two of us. I want to talk to you about something."

"What on earth is there for the two of us to talk about?"

"Just come on!"

The two walked side by side down the hotel corridor. Passing by the training room, es3tag couldn't help but pause: "Who was the last one to leave when we finished reviewing the demo earlier? They didn't turn off the lights."

k0nfig scratched his head: "Forgot. Doesn't matter, we can just switch them off now."

With that, he pushed open the door to the training room and blurted out, "What the hell! Arrow! What are you doing in the training room?"

The sudden opening of the door startled Su Zhe. Looking at the two figures standing outside the training room, he asked, puzzled, "What's wrong? I'm just playing a game."

k0nfig walked forward with a curious look: "I've never heard of you having a hobby of playing other games..."

When he drew closer and caught sight of the CS:GO interface on the computer screen, he was momentarily left speechless...

Call this playing a game? This was practically working overtime...

k0nfig draped an arm over Su Zhe's shoulder: "Let's go, we're heading out to eat anyway."

Su Zhe shook his head: "You guys go ahead, I've still got a bit left..."

k0nfig insisted, "You can play anytime, a single meal can wait."

"Alright then, wait for me to shut down my computer."

After shutting down his PC and turning off the lights, Su Zhe followed the two men out of the hotel.

As soon as they stepped outside, a dry, bone-chilling wind rushed to meet them, and patches of unmelted snow still lingered along both sides of the street.

"Click~"

A crisp lighter flick echoed beside his ear. Su Zhe turned his head to see k0nfig already exhaling a slow stream of white smoke.

"Want one?" k0nfig asked, noticing Su Zhe's gaze.

Su Zhe shook his head. He didn't smoke; he had tried it when he first started college, only to nearly pass out and dry retch in the restroom for ages.

"Best not to start. Once you're used to it, you can't quit," k0nfig said, taking another puff of his cigarette, drawing the smoke into his lungs before releasing it. "Is CS:GO really that fun? I notice you spend almost all your free time immersed in this game."

Su Zhe thought about it for a moment upon hearing this, then nodded. "It's fun."

"Hahaha!" k0nfig laughed. "I hope you can still say that after playing professionally for five or six years."

es3tag, who had been walking with his head down the entire way, glanced at the two of them upon hearing the conversation, then tucked his chin back into his down jacket and continued walking in silence.

Before long, the trio stepped into a local restaurant with distinct regional characteristics.

After ordering, k0nfig rubbed his fingers together, lost in thought, while es3tag similarly stared down at his phone.

Su Zhe suddenly felt that the atmosphere among the three of them was somewhat strange.

Usually, when all five team members dined together, these two were the biggest chatterboxes. How was it that putting them together now left them with nothing to say?

k0nfig broke the silence first, looking over at es3tag. "Aren't you going to explain?"

"Explain what?"

"Explain why you took the initiative to request being benched."

Su Zhe: ......

It seemed he really shouldn't have come to this dinner, but es3tag voluntarily asking to be benched was something he never would have imagined.

es3tag looked up at k0nfig with a hint of surprise on his face. "How do you know?"

k0nfig looked rather irritable. "Never mind how! Just tell me why you're doing this?"

es3tag was silent for a moment before finally speaking his mind: "Rather than waiting for the manager to break the news to me, I'd rather bring it up myself. At least it preserves a bit of dignity for the twilight of my career."

k0nfig frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Remember REZ, who came for a tryout earlier?"

k0nfig nodded. "I remember. What about him? Wasn't he sent back home at the time?"

es3tag let out a long breath. "I originally thought he was trying out as a rifler, but later I found out the manager intends to bring him in as the in-game leader."

k0nfig couldn't fathom it: "On what grounds does that bastard THREAT get to do this?"

Having voiced what was on his mind, es3tag felt a little more at ease. "On the grounds of team performance, what else?"

"But we've already made it to the Katowice main event..."

es3tag shook his head. "The manager's goal is the upcoming Copenhagen Major. Even though we've made it through the play-in stage now, he'll still find an excuse. He'll think our success this time was just pure luck."

"You know how it is—he's always believed our team's poor results stem from the IGL. In the past year alone, we've gone through three different callers: first Aleksib, then Hampus, and only then was it my turn."

In truth, he left out the part where THREAT also claimed he lacked leadership presence and authority within the team, giving his players far too much individual freedom during matches.

THREAT belonged to the older generation of professional players, having retired as far back as 2015. His philosophy was that if a team wanted to achieve great results, what it needed most of all was an uncompromising IGL who strictly enforced tactical execution.

Not a caller like him, who favored wild creativity and letting players improvise freely during rounds.

Unreconciled, k0nfig asked, "Didn't the manager consider that replacing someone on short notice might cause the team's performance at the Major to tank even further?"

es3tag shook his head. "You've been with the team long enough—don't you know what kind of person he is? He's someone who only looks at numbers. Team chemistry issues are nothing more than minor details in his eyes."

k0nfig didn't know what else to say. In NiP, the team manager held the absolute authority to swap players at will; once he made a decision, it was effectively an order.

Having overheard their conversation, Su Zhe grasped the whole story and suddenly piped up, "Isn't Katowice's performance important? There are so many strong teams in this tournament, and the prize pool is so generous."

Hearing Su Zhe's question, es3tag smiled and replied, "Of course it's important, but that assumes we can reach the final playoff stage. If we can't even make it past the offline venue stage before that, what kind of result is that?"

Su Zhe's gaze burned with determination: "Then we just need to make it to the playoffs!"

Though his time with es3tag wasn't particularly long—just over two months—he quite liked es3tag's personality, and during matches, es3tag didn't place excessive restrictions on him.

If a new IGL were to take over, leaving aside whether they'd be easy to get along with off the server, he might not even adapt to them in-game.

es3tag gave a bitter laugh. "It's not that easy. Even if we manage to beat Blue Stars tomorrow, further down the road we might run into FaZe, or Eternal Fire, or Spirit, or maybe NAVI..."

"It's just too hard..."