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nChapter Forty: Toxic, Toxic

nXiao Yu had once attained a very high stage level for this game. Even though he had not touched the game for a while, his experience was undisputable – He could level up very quickly when he played the game again.

nXiao Yu used those few hours of idle time within the day to level up to the lowest rank of the silver stage, not advancing any further, simply waiting for Lin Zhou to ‘lead him’.

nThe players for this game preferred calling it ‘Toxic’ rather than its original name. That may be due to the similar way of saying it, or perhaps because it was like an addictive drug that made them unable to stop playing it. Who knows.

nXiao Yu picked a very ‘suitable’ timing to invite Lin Zhou to play Toxic together.

nAs SI’s former chief designer, Xiao Yu knew exactly when the company work hours and break times were. For example, on every Tuesday, the morning meeting would end between nine to eleven a.m. Everyone would be drowsy, but they were left with no choice but to quickly get back to work.

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nIf the morning agenda was not met, then the employees would need to work overtime in the afternoon to make up for that portion. The majority of them would definitely make use of that allocated time – it would be the same case even for a design director like Lin Zhou.

nFish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both: I have some free time now. You want a match?

nLil’ Ye-Zhou: Hold on, I’ll get on really quick.

nThe thought of Lin Zhou’s troubled expression made Xiao Yu feel extremely pleased. He reckoned that Lin Zhou was probably puzzled as to why Chairman Yan would have free time at this hour. But no matter how many brain cells he killed, Lin Zhou would never have guessed that the person asking him to play the game was not even Yan Jin, but Xiao Yu, who had become a hamster.

nFive minutes later, the two people, oh no, the one human and one hamster entered the game and looked for teammates for the fight.

nAfter the lineup was done, it was time to choose their roles. Lin Zhou sent a message, “You guys choose first, I’ll take what’s left.”

nXiao Yu immediately understood Lin Zhou’s plan – to gain a favorable impression in front of Yan Jin.

nA bad mood filled his heart, so Xiao Yu immediately chose the archer role.

nXiao Yu’s account belonged to the lower ranks while Lin Zhou’s account was at a higher rank. The allocated teammates were in between their levels. In other words, they were all ranked higher than Xiao Yu. At first, under this kind of situation of ‘being led’, Xiao Yu should have chosen a role that could easily absorb experience without much effort put in. Yet he had chosen the archer role that was supposed to be responsible for dealing damage output, and that put his teammates in a difficult situation.

nXiao Yu took a glance at his hero’s battle records – Deployed Count: 0, Success Rate: 0 – he couldn’t even bear to tell them that.

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nEven without sending his battle records, it was possible to check from the account’s information. The account that Xiao Yu used mainly played Assassin and Mage; the Archer role had not been used for more than ten rounds. Thankfully, their teammates were of high quality and did not quarrel with Xiao Yu when they could not choose the role they wanted.

nIn the end, there were a mage and an assassin, one warrior in the jungle, with Xiao Yu as the archer and Lin Zhou choosing the veteran tanker. It would be hard to lead the team, but the output looked quite decent.

nThen a message came from Lin Zhou on QQ.

nLil’ Ye-Zhou: Follow me, I’ll protect you.

nXiao Yu smirked.

nBattle Start.

nXiao Yu ran upfront using displacement shifts that accelerated his speed. Lin Zhou’s tanker followed behind Xiao Yu’s archer and headed in the direction of the lower routes. At the start of a battle, the basic tactic was for the archer to take the red buff – Xiao Yu knew that, but he simply chose not to take it.

nHe was a ‘newbie’ after all. Wasn’t it perfectly normal not to know that he should take the red buff?

nThe archer carried the heavy artillery and ran all the way to the bottom of the tower, pretending not to see the red buff lying by the roadside.

nA message promptly appeared on the public channel.

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nTank (Lin Zhou): Give red 2 sin.

nEven Xiao Yu had to give him a like for his capability to save the situation.

nEven though Lin Zhou was harboring ulterior motives.

nXiao Yu conservatively hid himself under the tower as he took in the minions, occasionally fending off the midboss characters. Lin Zhou fulfilled his promise and beautifully ‘protected’ Xiao Yu. For the first five minutes, it was as if the two of them were playing a two-player game – not synced with the team, no kills, still alive, keeping a 000-battle score.

nThen the opposing team’s assassin went to the lower routes to face off against Xiao Yu. After a few sound outs, the opposing team launched an attack. Xiao Yu, who had barely appeared, went into hiding underneath the tower again without even scoring any damage. The assassin probably did not expect his opponent to have such cold-feet. After they went so overboard with the attacks that they did not retreat in time, the assassin from the opposing team was dealt with along the way. That was a pleasant surprise. Fifteen minutes later, two towers on the upper route were destroyed, the middle route lost just one tower for each team and Xiao Yu and Lin Zhou’s lower route was slightly better – not a single tower lost.

nThe opposing team did not lose either.

nIn a normal situation, the archer and tanker’s routes would always fare better and could easily take one life count and one tower. Indeed, Lin Zhou’s tanker was well-played, as he almost killed off the opponent a few times. However, Xiao Yu’s archer would occasionally slip up and drag Lin Zhou down together.

nThe few times that there were team fights, Xiao Yu did not join in. Lin Zhou did abandon him to join the team fight, so Xiao Yu would quietly tuck himself into the lower route to defend the tower. The opponent’s mage-tank did not join the team fight either as he continued to suppress Xiao Yu and make him use up his life bar.

nAfter the team fight, everyone had been killed except for Xiao Yu.

nWhile waiting to be revived, messages began to pop up on the public channel.

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nAssassin: Archer, you’re Buddhist¹?

nXiao Yu clicked open the battle scorecard: Assassin532, 5 deaths with 3 kills and 2 assists.

nThen Xiao Yu turned to look at his own battle scores: 001. Emmmm…

nTank: Archer’s a newbie, we should guide him a bit.

nAssassin: Newbie yet choosing ADC²?

nMage: Stop arguing. If we’re not fighting, then let’s surrender.

nAssassin: wcnm. ³

nTank: Let’s focus on a good game. Follow me, I’ll start the team fight.

nLin Zhou interrupted the conversation to smooth things over, and their teammates eventually gave in without much complaint and discontinued their argument.

nJust then, the opposing team was busy dealing with the dragon and neglected the lower tower. Xiao Yu grabbed this opportunity to focus on the tower. At the twenty minute mark, the archer successfully took down the first tower on the lower route.

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nXiao Yu felt that he had kept up appearances for long enough as he began to take things seriously. The archer that he chose was a late bloomer that could be almost as effective as an assassin when it was nurtured well. At first, the damage output was not high enough, yet it was agile, making it possible to safeguard the lower route’s tower. Even if the three people in the opposing team came over to attack them, he could successfully finish killing off the minions while running away to safety.

nXiao Yu joined the team fight for the first two-three times, snatching a kill from a supporting character. After that, Xiao Yu went on to the jungle, killing off some wild beasts while nurturing his character and gaining a red buff. Next, he headed back to the lower route, cleaned off the minions, and hid within the bushes. The fragile support from the opposing team made use of their ability to summon one of their teammates to come over to finish things off. However, Xiao Yu eventually hit them with reduced speed and killed them with three shots.

nAll that happened in less than two seconds – the support did not even manage to have enough time to release his large-scaled attack.

nAfter killing off the opponent’s support, Xiao Yu immediately ran to the middle route to attempt a team fight. Lin Zhou’s tank was very cooperative, using his large-scale attacks to stop the opponents from attacking their monsters. Xiao Yu quickly ran out from the shelter, killing an opponent with every heavy hit. The weakest mage was the first to be sent off, followed by the assassin who used up his invincible mode. The opponent’s archer, who realized that the situation was turning against him, was prepared to escape after he purified his skills set, but ended up slaughtered by the assassin from Xiao Yu’s team as he arrived just in time.

nThe only remaining tank was obviously unable to withstand a five-person attack, and was then killed off by Xiao Yu’s ranged attack from the tower after putting up a struggle.

nTeam Eliminated.

nThe revival time was about thirty seconds. Without waiting for Xiao Yu’s team to charge in from the middle route, their opponents surrendered.

nThe archer, who acted low-profile in the beginning, ended up with five assists and four kills, earning that battle’s MVP, which surprised everyone.

nIn fact, this bit of surprise could never be compared to if they had known that their archer was just a hamster.

nAfter the battle ended, Xiao Yu heaved a sigh of relief.

nThis is so tiring, much more tiring than fighting a solo battle.

nBut it was an essential move to capture a bigger target; for the sake of getting Lin Zhou on the hook, Xiao Yu had no choice but to do this.

nXiao Yu estimated that Lin Zhou was probably feeling very awkward right now. After all, he did not prove to be of any use in battle, which led to his final cumulative score being quite average. His scores were not as good as Xiao Yu’s last-minute performance, with four kills that led to their victory. That would mean that Lin Zhou could not use this opportunity to gain favors from him.

nHowever, Xiao Yu really underestimated Lin Zhou’s shamelessness.

nLil’ Ye-Zhou: Chairman Yan’s techniques are not too bad. You’re just lacking experience. The more you practice, the easier it is to level up.

nFish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both: I’ve played MOBA hand-held games before. I’m just using what I’ve used before, nothing too special.

nLil’ Ye-Zhou: You’re too humble, Chairman Yan.

nFish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both: I’ve only just started playing this game, so there are some things that I couldn’t understand.

nLil’ Ye-Zhou: You can ask me if there’s anything you’re unsure about, I will tell you everything without any reserve. We could also play desktop games next time. My skills are quite good. It’s just that sometimes it’s hard to perform well with teammates who drag us down. Have you played xxx and xxxx before?

nFish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both: Played before, but I’m mainly playing Toxic for now.

nXiao Yu didn’t dare to invite Lin Zhou to play other games. In his current situation, he could only play games that were available on his iPad. He would be helpless against anything that involved a desktop.

nThe operating keys for Toxic were fairly simple. Xiao Yu could control the movements with one paw and attack with the other – the effects were not too different from how a human would operate it. In addition, this game was geared more towards testing awareness and relied on the internet’s condition. If the internet connection was stable, then the requirements needed would not be too high. Likewise, if the internet connect was bad, then no matter how good a person was at operating the keys, it would be a wasted effort.

nXiao Yu’s awareness was obviously able to withstand the tests. He would not have any problems with the internet as well – Chairman Yan’s internet speed was so fast that one could fly off on the spot.

nBut it would be different for a desktop game. It was not that he could not use Yan Jin’s desktop, but the fact that he could not control the mouse and the keyboard at the same time was a big issue. With just the keyboard alone, his paws wouldn’t even reach all the keys in time. And that was why he would surely not allow Lin Zhou to shift his attention to desktop games.

nLin Zhou used the excuse that he had not brought out his best for this round and invited Xiao Yu to continue with another battle. Xiao Yu immediately agreed – He was not the one wasting his time. Although it was a little tiring to act like a newbie, it was all worth it if he could mess with Lin Zhou.

nSuch activities continued for three days. Lin Zhou never mentioned about anything else, and just wholeheartedly coached Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu knew that Lin Zhou had ulterior motives, so he gladly accepted all of Lin Zhou’s invites for a game.

nTo be honest, Xiao Yu was quite angry.

nHe knew that Lin Zhou was a scumbag, but he did not expect him to lack even the simplest professional ethics.

nDuring this period of time, YL was on full force preparing for the Autumn Release Conference. Yan Jin had arrived home later than ten p.m. in the past few days. SI was not far off either, or they probably started their preparations even earlier than YL. And while all the employees were going all-out and working overtime, Lin Zhou, who had one of the highest seniority was actually playing games with him every day?!

nThe person in-charge of the original jewelry design competition was human Xiao Yu without a doubt. But regardless, Lin Zhou was also responsible for the exhibition display, wasn’t he? Xiao Yu recalled his past self, who had worked deep into the night every single day because of the Autumn Release Conference. Compared to Lin Zhou, who seemed to be free all day long, Xiao Yu couldn’t help but feel very unfair about it.

nHis past self would rarely reject any requests from Lin Zhou. And that was probably the reason why Lin Zhou could be gaming while harboring evil intentions right now.

nTranslator’s Note:

nI believed that the game 農藥 (nóng yào) mentioned in the novel was probably sounds like

/homonyms with 王者榮耀 (róng yào) King of Glory gaming app or maybe it’s League of Legends. I don’t play those games, so I do apologize in advance if I get any terms wrong. I’ve chosen to use the term Toxic because it’s easier to type than Pesticide. (Pesticide IS toxic, so it makes sense. ¯_(ツ)_

/¯).

n1 Archer, you’re Buddhist? – The assassin is making fun of Xiao Yu for being a saint and not making any kills.

n2 ADC – According to : ADC (Attack Damage Carry) is an archaic term used to refer to a champion that deals strong, continuous damage with their basic attacks and scales with attack-related stats – i.e. attack damage, critical strike chance and attack speed.

n3 WCNM – a short abbreviation for the Chinese way of saying motherf**ker.

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