Chapter 62 Faster and Faster

"It feels like the opponent's rookie is pretty mediocre! hallzerk, did you infect him with your virus?" Grim joked in voice chat just before the pistol round on Mirage began.

Hearing the overused joke, hallzerk rolled his eyes at Grim, while the others couldn't help but chuckle.

As Complexity's sniper, hallzerk consistently held the second-highest rating on the team, ranked in the top three among all players in clutch situations, and placed in the top ten across all snipers for sniper accuracy and kills.

However, his most infamous trait was his sudden ability to string together several missed easy shots—emptying a five-round magazine with the AWP and missing every single shot was practically a standard operation for him.

Because of this, netizens joked that he suddenly caught a virus, and that this "virus" might even spread to the opposing team, causing star players on the other side to play poorly.

Players like NiKo, s1mple, device, and others would occasionally display poetry-level throwing performances when playing against Complexity in the past.

JT, the in-game leader, offered a reminder: "Alright, the match is about to start. Let's try to 2-0 them directly. For our pistol round strategy..."

......

The freeze time ended. Su Zhe bought a half-armor and moved toward the stairs on the right hand side, then firmly held an angle aiming directly at the T-ramp.

This position was not only difficult to be flashed, but also allowed him to fight from high ground to low ground—an absolute advantage angle.

His other four teammates grouped up and headed toward B Apartments.

Just as Su Zhe was jiggling the angle on T-ramp, a small black dot suddenly appeared on his crosshair. Reacting instantly, he slammed the fire button.

"Thwack!"

With a distinct headshot sound, the CT who had been aggressively pushing immediately abandoned the idea and retreated backward.

Su Zhe looked at the Glock in his hand with some regret; if he had been holding a P250, he would have already secured the opening kill.

Then, realizing something, he immediately shouted into the comms: "Mid is being aggressively pushed! We can execute on B directly!"

Since there was a CT pushing mid, there were likely two or three players there, which naturally meant fewer defenders on the bomb site flanks.

es3tag quickly understood as well: "You guys fly straight through B Apartments! I'll throw utility from behind!"

With that, he quickly pulled out the smoke and flash from his pockets and tossed them toward the B bomb site.

Masic stared at the live broadcast and rapidly commentated: "Arrow has gathered information that there are many players in mid, and NIP is executing directly! Site flash, market smoke—Complexity didn't put a single player on the B site this round, and hallzerk tried to find a window kill from Short immediately, but didn't connect with a single one!"

"This allows NIP to plant the bomb for free! Now they just need to defend the bomb properly!"

Mo chimed in with a smile, "Complexity gambled that the T side would control mid first this round, hoping to push up for a counter-peep, and as a result, they just handed the B bomb site over."

"However, hallzerk on Short doesn't want to let the T's walk into the bomb site easily, so he continues to swing out from Short, wanting to force some kills—and he actually gets k0nfig! headtr1ck, holding from Sofa, didn't watch Short immediately. That gave them an opening!"

……

es3tag roughly assessed the enemy's rotation information and called out instructions: "REZ! Go take control of the market doorway first. There should be a lot of players on Short, so let's use cover to fight them from Short!"

"Just stall for a little bit! I'm almost there! There are three players on Short!" Su Zhe's voice suddenly came through the headset.

es3tag glanced at the minimap and saw that Su Zhe had already reached Short, and there was even a CT directly in front of him!

Looking at the CT on Short right in front of him, Su Zhe suppressed a massive urge to fire; he was actually quite good at this sort of thing.

After all, in certain aspects, he had already been holding back for a full 18 years.

At this moment, es3tag also instructed a teammate to throw the smoke intended to refresh Market onto Short instead, buying as much time for Su Zhe as possible.

Su Zhe trailed quietly in footsteps all the way. When he reached the corner, he happened to find himself face-to-face with a CT who was frantically busy reloading his weapon.

hallzerk, who had just spammed a magazine through the smoke, was a bit dazed when he saw the T's silhouette. Just as he wanted to scream into his comms, he heard the sound of his own head getting tapped.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Su Zhe directly activated his legendary action hero mode.

[Arrow killed hallzerk with a headshot from a Glock]

Securing the kill, he immediately snapped his crosshair toward another player's back. The curse of hitting backs did not befall him today.

"Bang, bang!"

[Arrow killed JT with a headshot from a Glock]

Grim finally reacted to the fact that someone was behind him at this point, but having been clipped in the head by Su Zhe at T-ramp earlier, he was already heavily damaged. After his first USP shot missed, his screen turned black.

"Bang, bang!"

[Arrow killed floppy with a Glock]

"One, two, three! Arrow's flank completely swept through them! This flank was so crucial!" Masic exclaimed in amazement. "This rookie has nerves of steel! How do you just follow someone all the way and hold your fire?"

Originally, with k0nfig going down, the clear situation had become unstable again, but this flank triple-kill turned Complexity's hope straight into despair.

After getting the kills, Su Zhe quickly entered the bomb site to help his teammates defend. The two CTs in the market were fully exposed; the main reason they hadn't come out immediately was to wait for the smoke on Short to dissipate so they could retake together.

Now that everyone on Short was dead, what was there even left to fight for?

"I'll save my half-armor. Go find an opportunity to get some kills." EliGE said, turning around and walking away without looking back.

Grim belonged to the destitute club—no armor, no defuse kit, and no utility. Sighing inwardly, he leaped out of the market window, only to be instantly riddled with bullets.

"Nice!! Let's secure seven rounds in the first half!" Following the explosion of the C4, the members of NIP cheered one after another. Clearly, the loss on Mirage and the conversation in the locker room had put a lot of pressure on them.

"That triple-kill flank was so crucial!" k0nfig reached out his palm to Su Zhe.

"Just lucky. The timing of their last player moving up Short happened to fall right into my hands."

Su Zhe smiled and high-fived k0nfig, though his heart wasn't overly relaxed—after all, the example of Mirage from not long ago was right before his eyes.

After winning the pistol round, Complexity, having secured almost no kills, could only force-buy Desert Eagles, while Su Zhe pulled out full armor and an AK-47 to guarantee a safety net for his team.

However, he didn't secure any kills this round; instead, REZ went on a rampage with a MP9, completing a dual-person ace alongside k0nfig to smoothly take the gun round.

Following Complexity's eco round, the early phase of the match smoothly entered their scoring rhythm.

Soon, the score between the two teams reached 3-0, leading into the first critical full-buy round of the match.

"Let's play a default at the start of this round. First, let's take map control and gather information, see if the opponent gives us any openings. If there's no movement, we'll compress the execution time and hit B."

After some consideration, es3tag still chose the safest strategy.

He intended to keep squeezing the soft target of the B bomb site, while simultaneously forcing EliGE, who primarily defended A, to rotate back repeatedly to cool down the momentum of the former "best player in the world."

After a brief tactical setup, the team communicated about the finer details of their coordination.

Once the countdown ended, Su Zhe headed straight toward B Apartments. Making sure Lower Tunnels was clear, he shifted into a quiet walk to creep toward mid.

During their team synergy practice a while ago, he and es3tag had swapped default positions on the T-side of this map: he took Lower Tunnels, while es3tag held the default angle in B Apartments.

"The opponent has an AWP in Arch!" headtr1ck warned from T-ramp.

Su Zhe had intended to peek out of Lower Tunnels, but upon hearing his teammate's information, he didn't dare expose his body anymore, so he could only silently hold the VIP angle to prevent anyone from suddenly showing their face.

Time ticked away second by second. es3tag checked the clock—there was still a minute left in the round, and Complexity's defense still wasn't giving away any openings.

"Come group up at B Apartments, be careful not to make any noise..."

......

"NIP's four players are starting to group up at B Apartments. With 40 seconds left, it looks like they plan to group up and hit B again this round."

"But floppy has also gathered information that A-Main is empty. Complexity might have realized this and are shifting their defensive formation toward the B site! JT has smoked off B Apartments, trying to stall for time!"

With their execution rhythm dragged down, es3tag didn't know whether the opponents had any extra smoke grenades left; if they popped another smoke refresh, they wouldn't be able to play.

"Hug the right wall and crouch out of the smoke. As soon as you're out, I'll throw utility. Don't give the CTs in the site a free angle." es3tag decisively gave the command for an explosive site hit.

k0nfig, leading the first position, cleared the smoke and immediately wide-swung Sofa. hallzerk, holding an AWP directly from deep inside Balcony, snapped a shot off quickly, but he triggered the "fast and faster" KennyS passive, missing the first AWP shot entirely.

"Rat-tat-tat!"

[k0nfig killed hallzerk with a headshot from an AK-47]

"I'll watch Market doorway! You guys watch Short!" k0nfig, having secured the opening kill with a rifle-versus-AWP duel, charged straight out of Balcony, but he didn't expect there to still be a CT waiting in the outer area near Sofa!

"JT catches k0nfig on Balcony! REZ behind him tries to refrag, but gets caught as well. Fortunately, headtr1ck trades the kill!"

"EliGE has rotated from CT spawn back to Market! He wide-swung out of the Market doorway to secure headtr1ck's kill, and he wants to spray transfer! But es3tag doesn't give him the chance, landing a solid AK headshot to take him down!"

After a flurry of rapid trades, the player counts for both sides equalized, entering a 2v2 clutch.

Looking at the killfeed constantly updating in the top right corner, Su Zhe grew somewhat anxious. By this point, he had already quietly walked up Arch to flank directly through Jungle.

As a result, in the corner of his eye, he happened to spot Grim, who had just pushed A-Main for information. His first reaction was to retreat back into Arch and crouch down, dodging Grim's initial crosshair placement.

As long as he could stall enough time for es3tag to complete a 1v1 and successfully plant the bomb! That was Su Zhe's primary thought.

As it turned out, he had overestimated his own captain's skill.

es3tag tried to fake-plant the bomb to bait the CT out, but when the CT actually came out, es3tag lost the direct aim duel.

With just over 20 seconds remaining, Su Zhe knew he couldn't drag it out any longer. He stood up on the right side of Arch, flashed his head for a fraction of a second, and then rapidly pressed the AD keys to sidestep left.

Grim was baited into firing, and by the time he realized he'd been tricked and tried to readjust his crosshair, it was already too late.

"Rat-tat-tat-tat!"

[Arrow killed Grim with a headshot from an AK-47]

Securing the kill, Su Zhe quickly switched to his knife, entered Jungle, and rushed toward the B bomb site.

With just over a dozen seconds left, if the opponent was holding an angle on him from Market, he would accept his fate—though floppy clearly didn't have the guts for that.

Emerging from the Market doorway, Su Zhe quickly cleared the site with his eyes. Finding nobody on Short or Sofa, he immediately picked up the dropped C4 and began planting.

Roughly five seconds—just enough time to plant the bomb!

However, the moment he tapped the bomb, Su Zhe immediately pulled out his AK, caught sight of a CT rushing out from close range on the left, and opened fire instantly.

"Rat-tat-tat-tat!"

[Arrow killed floppy with a headshot from an AK-47]