Assassin, Don't Be Too Arrogant [E-sports] - Chapter 3

He opened the settings and muted both their voices—another privilege of the top-tier viewer.

“You haven’t told anyone your real name before, have you?”

Wen Zhe looked at Jian Yao on the screen. At least, as far as he knew… Jian Yao hadn’t told anyone. “You can tell me now. Your name.”

Jian Yao was slightly taken aback. Wen Zhe wasn’t in a hurry, smiling as he looked at him and said, “Tell me. At least for now, only I will know.”

“Jian Yao…” Jian Yao lowered his gaze, worried his voice was too soft, and repeated, “My name is Jian Yao. ‘Jian’ as in simple, ‘Yao’ as in shining.”

There was no response from the other side. Thinking his connection had frozen, Jian Yao looked up at the camera, then back at the screen.

Seeing the other person finally look up, Wen Zhe replied, “Nice to meet you, Jian Yao.”

“Nice to meet you, Wen Zhe…”

The mute was lifted right after Wen Zhe finished speaking. The tens of thousands of viewers who had entered the live stream, now reaching over a hundred thousand, all thought something was wrong with their phones. The chat was flooded with the same few lines:

[Why is there no sound?]

[Me too.]

[My phone isn’t broken—Wen Zhe turned on mute.]

Old viewers answered the new ones, and new viewers became old ones, repeating the cycle.

In the viewers’ perception, those few minutes felt like hours. Everyone was waiting endlessly, even starting games of “Fight the Landlord” in the chat.

Just as everyone had grown accustomed to the silence, Jian Yao’s voice suddenly came through, and the chat exploded.

[Why are they saying ‘nice to meet you’?!]

[What did we miss?!]

Jian Yao didn’t know how to respond. Usually talkative, he couldn’t muster a single word in front of Wen Zhe. Just as he was about to brush it off, Wen Zhe’s voice came through his headphones:

“You missed a secret that, for now, belongs only to me.”

A secret that belonged only to him…

Was it his name?

It wasn’t really a secret—people close to him in the industry already knew his name.

Jian Yao looked directly into Wen Zhe’s eyes. Even through the screen, he was afraid his intensity might spill over. He did his best to suppress his emotions, keeping himself within his comfort zone.

“Are you going to end the stream?” Wen Zhe continued. “If not, shall we meet in the game?”

“N-no… I’m not ending the stream!” Jian Yao struggled to control the tremor in his voice.

“Alright, then let’s add each other on WeChat first. I’ve sent you my ID in the backstage messages.”

Jian Yao agreed and opened his private messages on his phone. Seeing an account with Wen Zhe’s professional verification gold badge sending a QR code, he saved the code, scanned it, and found an account named “Wzhe” with a Q-version Corgi as the profile picture. “I’ve added you.”

“Good. I’ll hang up here first, and we can chat on WeChat.”

“Ding—”

The sound of the video call ending made Jian Yao slump back in his gaming chair, disregarding his image, and let out a long sigh.

He placed his hand over his left chest, feeling his heart racing, confirming that everything that had just happened wasn’t a dream.

After collecting himself, he realized his camera was still on.

But it didn’t matter. In front of the audience, he could pretend he hadn’t noticed at all.

“Buzz—”

His phone vibrated—

[The other party has accepted your friend request. You can start chatting now.]

Immediately after, a voice message followed.

Jian Yao held the phone’s receiver to his ear and pressed play… The first word nearly sent him into a panic. He had forgotten his phone volume was turned all the way up!

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, he frantically lowered the volume, checked the status bar to confirm, and then held the phone to his ear again.

[Voice content: Hold on, let me start the stream.]

[Hahahaha, silly kid, you turned the volume up so loud and scared yourself.]

[What did Wen Zhe say?! Tell us quickly!]

“He said to wait a moment, he’s starting his stream.” Jian Yao watched as his own viewer count dropped by tens of thousands in an instant. Indeed, this was Wen Zhe’s appeal.

Those who stayed were the real family.

But—

If he could, he’d also love to end his own stream and tune into Wen Zhe’s.

Well, it’s just a thought.

–

As soon as Wen Zhe started his stream, the viewer count skyrocketed.

[Just came from YAO’s stream! What does Captain Zhe think of YAO?]

“Yao is great,” Wen Zhe continued reading the comments. “Thanks to him, SG won 3:0 against WG tonight.”

[This is hilarious, Zhe Shen is so well-informed.]

[Saw his face on stream tonight. Such a good-looking guy, but he just had to have a mouth /laugh-cry]

“What, don’t you have a mouth?” Wen Zhe suddenly retorted. “Or are you not human?”

[That’s not what I meant… I just thought someone who looks like that should speak more gently… YAO gives me the vibe of trying too hard to act…]

“There are all kinds of people in this world. I respect your stereotypes, and I ask you to respect him.” Wen Zhe leaned lazily in his gaming chair, his gaze fixed on the camera, his disdainful eyes revealing disgust.

He shifted his focus back to the comments following his lead, adopting an indifferent tone. “Anyone who doesn’t want to hear his voice can leave via the top-left corner now. I’ve made plans to play games with Yao, and I can’t keep him waiting too long.”

He paused briefly, watching as thousands left the stream, and his mood lifted. “Goodbye and good riddance.”

Casually, he opened his phone to call Jian Yao… no, better make it a video call.

Jian Yao was idly whistling while reading the comments about what was happening on Wen Zhe’s stream.

Due to the delay, he hadn’t yet seen the messages about Wen Zhe kicking people out when the sudden video call interrupted him.

After hesitating for three seconds, he adjusted his phone’s position and answered.

Wen Zhe, who had been reading the comments, placed his phone on a nearby stand upon hearing the call connect. “Sorry for the wait.”

“No… it was just a few minutes.”

Jian Yao was internally panicking. From this angle—wasn’t it just like Wen Zhe sitting beside him, leaning over to watch him?!

Wen Zhe, unaware of the other’s hundred little thoughts, was solely focused on the game.

The moment he logged into the game and entered the main world, he was surrounded by players and bombarded with friend requests.

Coupled with forgetting to turn off the world chat, the sudden clamor made him frown, and he quickly disabled both the world chat and friend requests.

Strange, even though he had hidden his ID, why were there still so many people?

One advantage of this game was the ability to hide your in-game ID. Even if someone knew your name, they couldn’t find you unless they searched by ID. Friend requests and viewing your profile wouldn’t reveal your ID either.

This feature solved the annoyance for professional players and streamers of receiving countless friend requests as soon as they logged in.

“What’s your in-game ID? I’ll add you.”

After saying this, Wen Zhe glanced back at his phone and saw Jian Yao frozen in place. Helpless, he reached out and lightly tapped the forehead of the “statue” on his screen.

Startled, Jian Yao reflexively leaned back…

Pull yourself together, Jian Yao! This is just through a screen!!

“Sorry, I’ll send it to you now.” Jian Yao typed on the keyboard.

Antidote: JENYE

Wzhe: Okay.

Wen Zhe thought to himself as he typed. Is this a word or something?

He had expected it to be something like Jian Yao’s name plus a birthday or something similar.

At least, that’s what he would have done.

After Jian Yao accepted the friend request, he joined Wen Zhe’s 4V4 invitation. Wen Zhe observed Jian Yao’s in-game outfit and felt it looked somewhat familiar. “Your mask is quite unique.”

“It’s a habit of mine. Back in school, people always said I was ugly, so I started wearing a mask.”

Jian Yao said casually, but a flicker of warmth appeared in his eyes. Once, someone had told him to be confident, but unfortunately, he had lost that person.

“I see.” Wen Zhe didn’t press further, pushing aside the fleeting memory in his mind as he checked the time. “It’s getting late. Let’s jump straight into 4V4. Do you play assassins?”

“Yeah, I main assassins.”

This answer only confirmed Wen Zhe’s suspicions.

Jian Yao clicked “agree” and joined the team.

This was his first time observing Wen Zhe’s in-game character up close. He had to admit, The Chaser‘s 3D scanning was impressive—the protagonist’s appearance was almost perfectly recreated, almost like meeting in person.

Meanwhile, Wen Zhe was gathering players in the AFG group chat.

[AFG.Wzhe: Anyone free?]

[AFG.Jning: What’s up, Captain?]

[AFG.Cen: Raising my hand.]

[AFG.Xxu: I’m here, bro.]

[AFG.Wzhe: But we need a tank and a marksman.]

[AFG.Sze: On it, Captain.]

[AFG.Zyy: Marksman reporting for duty.]

[AFG.Jning: …]

[AFG.Cen: …]

[AFG.Xxu: I owe you guys a meal.]

[AFG.Wzhe: No problem.]

Jiang Ning (AFG.Jning), the healer, and Chen En (AFG.Cen), the mage, stood up simultaneously in the training room with perfect rapport. “Let’s go grab some late-night snacks.”

“Wait up, you two,” Xu Xu (AFG.Xxu) stood up. “Aren’t you not looking for an assassin either? Let’s go together. My treat.”

“Xu-ge!” Jiang Ning and Chen En crowded around Xu Xu, playfully asking for hugs.

“Alright, alright,” Xu Xu turned toward the two sitting by the window. “We’ll bring you back some snacks.”

“Xu-ge, I love you,” Su Ze (AFG.Sze) shouted loudly, while Zhong Yuyi (AFG.Zyy) pretended to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye.

“Don’t love me, it’s pointless. I’m just treating you—the bill will still be on our Captain Zhe, haha.”

Xu Xu swaggered out with Jiang Ning and Chen En in tow.

The remaining two sighed: Suddenly feeling sorry for the captain’s wallet.

But Wen Zhe himself had no idea what his “good teammates” were up to. He sent another message urging them:

[AFG.Wzhe: Log in.]