The Esports Little Demon King Is a Sweet and Fierce Omega - Chapter 1

Tian Jiu woke up to a cacophony of noise.

The stinging sunlight forced him to squint as his thoughts sluggishly ground into gear. It took a long while before he finally realized, with a start, that he was standing in a strange space.

The area resembled a massive football stadium where he stood on the field below, surrounded by circular stands that rose up in countless tiers, expanding outward and upward. Tian Jiu looked up and saw that the stands were packed with people. Many were craning their necks to look at him, while others pointed and whispered amongst themselves.

“What is that Red team healer doing? Did he disconnect?”

“Probably some poor kid from the Lower District. His gaming pod is likely so low-grade that it took this long just to load in.”

“I actually thought the Red team’s lineup might last a bit longer, but now I’m not so sure.”

“The Blue team has trainees from Team AS. Ordinary players aren’t even worth being called ‘easy pickings’ to them, let alone in a Bronze-tier match like this.”

“And Blue has Shadow this round. He’s the hottest prospect in this year’s selection trials. We might even see him representing AS on the professional stage next year!”

******

What gaming pod?

What Team AS trainees?

Tian Jiu knit his brows slightly as a dull ache in his head made it difficult to process what the crowd was saying. He eventually looked away in confusion and began to scan his surroundings with a lost expression.

He was currently standing on a marble platform roughly a hundred square meters in size. Behind him stood a magnificent, golden structure that looked like a palace, while before him lay a very peculiar scene.

Three wide paths stretched out from his platform, heading in three different directions into the distance between high walls and low thickets. Beyond that, three towering pillars reached toward the clouds, standing at the entrance of each path like fortresses.

The scenery was strangely familiar. It looked just like… like the game maps in League of Legends or Honor of Kings!

Tian Jiu’s pale pupils dilated slightly as he carefully observed the area. These buildings and thickets really did look like scenes from a game, featuring top, middle, and bottom lanes, along with high-ground turrets and the temple behind him.

What was going on?

Was he so addicted to gaming that he was having a vivid, immersive dream?

No, he should be dead.

Tian Jiu remembered now. He had been hanging on by a thread just to win the LOL World Championship, but his body had completely collapsed under the weight of his illness immediately after. As he was dying, he had clearly heard the piercing scream of the heart rate monitor.

So, what was this situation?

“What are you doing? Did you lag out?” A gruff voice boomed from behind him, cutting through the noise like a heavy bell.

Tian Jiu jumped in fright and spun around.

Good heavens! A monster!

He scrambled back several steps in a panic, staring in terror at the “person” who had spoken.

The figure before him was nearly three meters tall. With dark skin, a massive head, and heavy steel mecha armor, the man looked like a literal mountain of moving metal. Even more terrifying was the heavy machine gun he held, which was almost taller than Tian Jiu himself.

Furthermore, floating about twenty centimeters above the man’s head were two lines of text:

[Class: Gunner, Level 3] [ID: Carrying Girls to Rank Up, Don’t Flame]

Help! What on earth was this!

Tian Jiu had lived for nineteen years and had never seen a monster like this, even in his dreams.

Seeing that Tian Jiu was still dazed, the giant didn’t get impatient. Instead, he said kindly, “Are you a newbie, little Omega? Do you know how to buy equipment? Do you want me to help you?”

Tian Jiu’s head was full of question marks. What Omega? What equipment?

“I guess you are.” The man crouched down in front of Tian Jiu and patiently pointed toward the temple. “See that Squirrel Mall over there? Go buy your gear there. Since your class is Physician, just buy healing equipment.”

“Wait, why haven’t you even turned on the spectator mute? Here, I’ll do it for you.” The man reached out and tapped the air above Tian Jiu’s head.

Almost instantly, the noisy discussions of the crowd were cut off as if by a barrier, and the entire world went quiet. The throbbing pain in Tian Jiu’s head eased along with the silence.

He let out a sigh of relief and gave the giant a sincere bow. “Thank you.”

The giant was stunned for a moment before he burst into laughter. “Why are you being so polite? Anyway, hurry up and buy your gear, then come find me in the bottom lane.”

After saying that, he stood up and headed toward the bottom lane. The path on the far right—while lugging his machine gun.

Tian Jiu immediately took two steps back and watched until the other man disappeared past the high-ground turret before he finally relaxed. It seemed he really was inside a game. The “Carrying Girls” guy was his teammate, and the people in the stands were the audience.

Having no further information, Tian Jiu decided to take things one step at a time. He followed his teammate’s advice and walked over to the [Squirrel Mall].

Although it was called a mall, it was actually just a stall set up in front of the temple. The stall was only about the size of an ice cream cart, and the shopkeeper was a squirrel spirit about forty centimeters tall. It was a furry creature that stood like a human, wearing clothes and an apron.

Tian Jiu really wanted to touch its fur, but he held back. Still, was this little thing the actual shopkeeper? Was it not a pet?

Tian Jiu paused and then tentatively spoke. “Um, I would like to buy some equipment.”

The squirrel was resting on the table with its eyes closed, sitting in a rocking chair that looked quite comfortable. Hearing his voice, it opened one eye to look at Tian Jiu and grumbled, “Another newbie. How troublesome.”

Tian Jiu was speechless. Was he just looked down upon by a squirrel? And the squirrel actually talked!

“Self-service ordering. Swipe your card yourself.” The squirrel moodily reached out a paw and pressed a green button on the table.

A virtual screen the size of a television appeared before him, displaying countless pieces of equipment categorized by type. Next to each item were the attribute values they increased, making for a dizzying sight. On the left side of the screen, it showed the amount of gold Tian Jiu currently possessed, as well as his class and ID:

[Class: Physician, Level 1] [ID: Player 856965]

“Wow!” Tian Jiu’s mouth formed an ‘O’ shape, looking every bit like a bumpkin who had never seen the world.

The squirrel gave a snorting laugh. “The green button is for buying, the red is for selling. With your current money, you can only afford a pair of low-level boots.”

Tian Jiu instinctively looked down at his feet and was shocked to find that he really wasn’t wearing any shoes! No wonder his soles had felt so cold while he was walking earlier.

He immediately bought the boots. As his gold decreased, a pair of small brown leather boots appeared out of thin air on his feet. At the same time, his attribute panel prompted: Movement Speed +30%. Tian Jiu was shocked once again.

The squirrel rolled its eyes and pressed another button, causing the mall interface to vanish.

Suddenly, several voices echoed in Tian Jiu’s ears. There was no one around him, so the voices seemed to come from thin air. Now that the audience was muted, these sounds were exceptionally clear.

“Physician, did you disconnect or are you flirting with the squirrel? If you don’t know how to play, can’t you just play against bots? This is so unlucky.”

“Based on the gender, it looks like an Omega, but why are they using the default Beta appearance?”

“They’re either poor or a total newbie. Who uses the default appearance these days? Either way, we’re the ones suffering for it.”

These were three distinct voices, and Tian Jiu guessed they belonged to his other three teammates. He wasn’t even surprised by the words he didn’t understand anymore, but he did gain a better understanding of his current situation.

This was likely a 5v5 game. The Physician class he was playing seemed to be a support with healing abilities. The equipment in the mall could be purchased with in-game currency, and he assumed the gold came from play-time and kills, much like the games he knew.

He looked down at the shoes that had appeared from nowhere and then noticed the rest of his gear. In his right hand, he held a 100ml syringe. It had no needle and was filled with a pale green liquid. This was presumably his weapon, just like the machine gun his teammate carried.

In addition to that, he wore two electronic bracelets on his left wrist; one red and one blue that’s both displaying a value of 100%. Tian Jiu guessed these were his “health and mana bars,” where red represented his life and blue represented his skill cooldown or energy.

Everything was based on guesswork, but according to his years of gaming experience, he felt his deductions were likely close to the mark. Although he didn’t know how he ended up here, it seemed he could only leave after finishing this match.

Tian Jiu had already experienced death, so he was quick to accept this absurd situation. Wearing his newly purchased boots, he headed toward the bottom lane to find the friendly “Carrying Girls” player.

Suddenly, the temple doors behind him swung open. Tian Jiu looked back and was stunned yet again.

A group of steel robots wearing red armor marched out. Each one was over 1.9 meters tall and held a silver broadsword. After leaving the temple, they split into three teams of eight, marching in unison toward the three lanes. They didn’t even glance at Tian Jiu as they passed him, treating him as if he were invisible.

These were the minions. He expected siege minions or similar units to appear later.

Tian Jiu followed them toward the bottom lane, unable to stop himself from glancing at them. Their armor was so cool; surely it wouldn’t hurt to touch it?

He cautiously reached out and quickly tapped one of the mechanical soldiers. The cold, hard texture gave off an inorganic chill that felt incredibly cool. Comparing their armor to his own outfit, an athletic suit under a white lab coat.Tian Jiu suddenly felt a bit slighted.

How could even the minions look cooler than him?

Tian Jiu pouted unhappily, but his attention was soon drawn elsewhere. As he passed the first high-ground turret, he looked up. The tower was a massive triangular prism covering over twenty square meters. Its surface was as smooth as marble, and it seemed to stretch up forever.

However, once he moved a bit further away, he noticed a lifelike, blood-red eyeball at the very top of the tower. The eye watched the area around the base of the tower. He assumed that if an enemy approached, it would fire lasers to deal damage. There was also a long red health bar floating above the eyeball.

It really was just like a game map, and Tian Jiu felt more confident.

As he continued forward, the environment became more complex, further confirming his thoughts. This was a physical, modified version of a game scene similar to League of Legends. Because he was in the bottom lane, there was a high wall on his right that seemed endless in both height and length, marking the edge of the map. To his left were shorter walls and thickets. Between the broken sections of the walls were two small paths leading into the jungle area.

The jungle was obscured by bushes and walls, creating a dark fog of war. Faint, strange roars echoed from within, likely belonging to jungle monsters.

Having fought in the Summoner’s Rift for so many years, this was the first time Tian Jiu had seen such a scene from a first-person perspective. It was… very exciting.

Shortly after passing the second tower, Tian Jiu spotted “Carrying Girls” ahead. The man stood under the third tower (the outer turret) with his gun raised, firing rapidly at something in the distance. The battle had clearly begun.

At the same time, Tian Jiu noticed two glowing bars above “Carrying Girls'” head. His blue bar was half full, while his red bar was down to only one-third.

“Little Physician, you’re finally here! Hurry up and give me some health!” the man shouted.

Tian Jiu wanted to say he didn’t know how, but a boy could never admit he couldn’t do something! So, he raised his hand and pointed the syringe toward his teammate from a distance.

He didn’t know exactly how to trigger the skill, but as it turned out, he did it correctly. As he pushed down on the plunger of the syringe from afar, a green glow extended from the tip and hit “Carrying Girls.” The man’s red health bar visibly recovered to the halfway mark.

The blue bracelet on Tian Jiu’s wrist flashed, but the value still showed 100%.

“Whoa!” Tian Jiu was startled.

“Good job,” “Carrying Girls” encouraged.

Tian Jiu’s eyes lit up. He looked down at the syringe and saw it was still full of liquid. Moreover, at the moment he activated the skill, he clearly felt the syringe in his hand grow warm and vibrate slightly. The sensation was incredibly novel and thrilling.

His heart throbbed with excitement. He trotted over to the tower and stood side-by-side with his teammate, standing on his tiptoes to look ahead.

Between their outer turret and the enemy’s outer turret lay a river channel nearly fifty meters wide, which spanned the entire map and separated the Red and Blue sides. At that moment, two people dressed in strange clothing were standing in the middle of the river, about thirty meters away.

They were of normal height and had ordinary faces, but their outfits were bizarre. One wore a robe and a pointed wizard hat, appearing to be a healer or mage, while the other was dressed in camouflage and held two pistols, looking like a soldier.

Both of their health bars were nearly full, and they were attacking. Due to the range of their attacks, they couldn’t reach Tian Jiu, so they were focusing all their fire on the Red team’s mechanical minions.

The two groups of minions were already locked in a fierce battle. The robots in red and blue armor fought with health bars floating above them. Naturally, because the two players on the Blue team were helping clear the wave, the Red minions’ health was dropping much faster. When a robot’s health hit zero, it would collapse into a pile of parts and disappear after two seconds.

Tian Jiu watched in awe. Suddenly, the two opponents lunged forward at high speed.

“Carrying Girls” immediately began to retreat, shouting, “Run, Physician! They’re going to dive the tower, we can’t take them!”

Before he could finish his sentence, Tian Jiu felt a gust of wind against his face. In the next moment, his chest flared with a dull pain. When he opened his eyes again, he had been forcibly sent back to the platform in front of the temple; the respawn point.

The red bracelet on his wrist was empty and began to refill automatically, showing a value of 1%.

Simultaneously, a mechanical female voice announced: 

“[AS Trainee – Shadow] has slain [Player 856965]!”

Tian Jiu clutched his chest in a daze. It really hurt.

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