The Esports Little Demon King Is a Sweet and Fierce Omega - Chapter 19.1

Tian Jiu held his breath, focusing every fiber of his being as he listened to the light, nimble footsteps drawing closer.

The person was clearly cautious; the closer they got to the door, the slower and softer their movements became. Divided by a single wall, both contestants stood ready for combat, and the audience grew quiet as if afraid of startling them.

Three steps, two steps, one step.

Now!

Tian Jiu abruptly thrust his cannon out in front of him. With two sharp clangs, he intercepted Ding Sa’s short-sword strikes.

Ding Sa’s expression hardened, and he leaped back a step. Tian Jiu followed him out onto the terrace. Fighting on a balcony was rarely a wise choice; it made you an easy target for anyone else in the vicinity.

“Tian Jiu?” Ding Sa recognized the signature cannon and said in surprise, “You’re actually an Omega.”

Tian Jiu smiled. “Surprised?”

Ding Sa curled his lip. “I won’t go easy on you just because you’re an Omega.”

With that, he lunged at Tian Jiu with his twin blades. Using the heavy cannon as a shield, Tian Jiu dodged the attacks with a nimble frame. The massive weapon felt as light as a feather in his hands, whistling through the air as he swung it with incredible force.

The sound of blades clashing against the metal barrel echoed like it’s urgent and dangerous. The results of his training with Mecha Zero were finally paying off. Tian Jiu was able to accurately predict Ding Sa’s movements and even dodge a step ahead of time. The sheer weight of the cannon, combined with Tian Jiu’s control, meant that even a glancing blow chipped away at Ding Sa’s health bar.

Bang!

Tian Jiu swung the cannon once more, landing a solid hit squarely on Ding Sa’s body. Ding Sa let out a muffled groan and staggered back several steps.

In standard play, players can choose their immersion level: full, half, or zero. The higher the immersion, the more realistic the game world feels, and the more painful the injuries. Few people chose full immersion for casual play. Nobody likes experiencing death and injury repeatedly.

However, in tournament modes be it the trials or 5v5 league matches, full immersion was mandatory. Players had to treat their game life as their real life. Furthermore, injuries sustained in a match would not refresh or heal until the end of the round. Even if Tian Jiu drank a nutrient solution, it would only restore his health and mana bars; it wouldn’t close a wound. The pain would stay with him until the finish line.

It was a brutal system, but it ensured the players had a profound sense of immersion and valued their survival.

Ding Sa clutched his aching chest, staring at Tian Jiu in disbelief. “Are you really an Omega?”

Tian Jiu’s smile was sweet. “The real deal.”

Ding Sa took a breath and suddenly bolted toward the building’s interior. He was cutting his losses and running.

“Don’t run!” Tian Jiu wasn’t about to decline a delivery of nutrients. He didn’t even use a skill; he simply threw the massive cannon in his hands at Ding Sa.

To Tian Jiu, the weight was negligible, but the projectile slammed into Ding Sa, eliminating him instantly. The cannon hit the floor with such force it left a two-centimeter crater, making the entire floor tremble. Tian Jiu retrieved the nutrient bottle, pocketed it, and shouldered his cannon again, stepping lightly as he prepared to relocate.

The audience was dumbfounded. “Just how heavy is that cannon?”

“How is he carrying it so easily? Is there a weight-reduction mode we don’t know about?”

“Wait, does this count as an extra skill?”

“Nonsense! If you’ve got the guts, go ahead and hit people with a cannon that heavy!”

“God, I bet on Ding Sa making the top three. I’m going to lose so much money!”

The venue was in an uproar. Zhou Funian looked on in shock. “He really is an Omega, right? I recall he doesn’t have pheromones?”

“Mhm,” Feng Wu curled his lip into a smile. “Interesting.”

Zhou Funian blinked. That description sounded familiar. “Wait, I remember now!” He slapped his thigh. “He’s the little O from the breakfast shop! You’ve been thinking about him this whole time, haven’t you?”

Feng Wu didn’t even give him a glance. Zhou Funian was now certain: this old fox was definitely eyeing a fresh, young esports prodigy!

******

Tian Jiu headed downstairs, but the moment he opened the second-floor stairwell door, a ball of fire rushed at his face. Startled, he quickly used the cannon to block and retreated.

Even so, the fire singed his arm, and some of his hair was scorched. It hurts!

Tian Jiu looked at his arm. His sleeve had several holes burned through it, revealing scorched, reddened skin. The smell of burnt hair was pungent. He reached up and touched his head, feeling a patch of “dry grass.”

Tian Jiu paused. His small face darkened.

Burning his hair was the final straw!

Another fireball came flying at him, accompanied by a Fire Mage’s taunt: “Top-seeded contestants aren’t all that, are they?”

Tian Jiu dodged the fireball with a swift sidestep and aimed his cannon at the doorway. Across from him stood a young man in red leather gear, his hair a riot of colors, holding a massive torch with an eternal flame.

“Firing a cannon in a place like this? You’ll take yourself out too,” the youth said, looking smug and unbothered.

Tian Jiu looked at him coldly. “You’re right.” He had no intention of firing a shell here.

The youth sneered and threw another fireball. Instead of dodging, Tian Jiu swung his cannon like a bat, knocking the fireball straight back at the sender.

“Holy—!” The youth scrambled back several steps in a panic, but the fire still clipped his side, burning his arm.

Being injured by his own skill for the first time, the youth’s eyes turned red with rage as he glared at Tian Jiu. But before he could cast again, Tian Jiu had already charged. He delivered a brutal kick to the youth’s stomach.

The young man was sent flying, crashing into the door of a nearby shop. He spat out blood, his health bar hanging by a thread. Tian Jiu walked over, grabbed him by the collar with one hand, and dragged him to a floor-to-ceiling window. He threw him there and backed away a significant distance.

The youth was too weak to move, his hands trembling as he tried to pull a nutrient bottle from his bag. Tian Jiu didn’t give him the chance. The dark muzzle of the cannon was pointed straight at him.

“Wait—AH!” The youth’s scream was swallowed by the roar of the cannon.

The building shook. The window shattered completely, glass shards raining down to the street below. The youth vanished, leaving behind a bottle of nutrients.

Tian Jiu’s sharp eyes caught two figures fighting in the building opposite. He gauged the distance; his shells could reach them, but they wouldn’t be lethal on impact from this far. However, those two had been fighting for a while; their health wouldn’t be high.

He waited a few seconds until they looked exhausted, then raised his cannon. One shell, two eliminations. Two more bottles of nutrients.

******

Tian Jiu withdrew his gaze. He was currently in a clothing store. Despite being abandoned, there were scattered clothes, hangers, and several full-length mirrors.

Tian Jiu drank a nutrient bottle. It tasted like sugar water. His health filled up, and his mana began to recover. He stared at one of the mirrors from a distance before walking over.

His reflection came into view. The cute red panda onesie was torn in several places, covered in dust, and his arm was bleeding. His face was smudged with soot, and his hair… the silver-white locks were singed into clumps of black.

[Tian Jiu: QAQ My hair! The hair I worked so hard to grow!]

His eyes welled up with tears of anger and grievance. To the audience, this sight was heart-melting.

Fei Erfeng said dreamily, “Oh, our cute little red panda must be in so much pain. I just want to give him a warm hug.”

Everyone seemed to have forgotten how he just blasted that red-leather-clad youth to smithereens; they only saw a pitiful, aggrieved little Omega. Feng Wu let out a soft laugh. He was discovering for the first time that Omegas could be so entertaining. He bet the boy would be even cuter if he actually cried.

Tian Jiu, unaware that someone wanted to see him cry, sniffed and turned away from the mirror. He left the store with a heavy step, moving to the terrace of a restaurant and sitting in the corner again. He looked up; the survivor count was down to 47.

The war outside continued, but Tian Jiu sat there sadly touching his hair. Even though he knew this was a game and his real hair was fine, he was still devastated.

“Sigh,” Tian Jiu lamented.

He looked up at the virtual screen in the sky. The survivor count continued to drop as the sounds of battle echoed through the ruins. When only 16 players remained, the siren blared again. The circle was shrinking.

This time, luck wasn’t on his side. The Department Store was in the poison zone. The final safe area was the Junkyard—a literal maze of industrial waste and scrap metal mountains. Tian Jiu didn’t dawdle. He headed downstairs and hurried toward the Junkyard at top speed.

He was alert. With only a few people left, everyone was converging on the same area; the chances of an encounter were high. As he passed through a residential area, the sound of machine guns erupted nearby.

Tian Jiu immediately ducked behind a wall, pulling his cannon from his bag. He glanced up. Survivors: 13. After a moment’s consideration, he crept through the cover toward the source of the noise.

“Why fight here? Let’s get out of the poison first!” a girl shouted.

A deep male voice laughed. “Too naive, little sister. There are no feelings in esports. I can’t go easy on you, especially not in a tournament.”

Flashes of lightning lit up the fog. Gunfire followed. After a brief skirmish, both sides went quiet. The count remained at 13; neither had died. Tian Jiu scanned the area and moved out from the corner. He saw several low walls, perfect hiding spots.

Fei Erfeng shouted in alarm, “That’s too impulsive, little red panda! The ‘Mage-Assassin Couple’ is close by! They’ve heard the noise and are heading this way!”

The couple in question were the seventh and eighth-ranked seeds. The audience grew tense; even Feng Wu’s brow furrowed slightly.

Tian Jiu didn’t have a bird’s-eye view, so he relied on sound. While only three people were currently in this residential block, the couple was only one street away.

Tian Jiu didn’t feel it was a risk. He had listened carefully to the fighting back at the Department Store. He was certain that of the remaining sixteen, at most four would be taking this route. Three had died on the way, but those fights were far away. The Lightning Mage and the girl Gunner made two, meaning at most two others would pass this way. They likely hadn’t arrived yet, giving him time to harvest these two and find cover.

Plus, he had enough nutrient bottles to restore his mana quickly.

Emerging from cover, Tian Jiu aimed directly at the walls where the others were likely hiding. Shell after shell exploded, smoke and fire rising as the walls crumbled. Amidst the dust, the survivor count dropped to 12.

“Dammit!” a curse rang out, followed by a blinding bolt of lightning aimed at Tian Jiu.

Tian Jiu’s eyes lit up. He didn’t run. He fired a shell directly at the incoming light. His reaction speed shocked everyone watching. Since it was a game skill, the lightning wasn’t traveling at the actual speed of light, giving Tian Jiu a chance to counter.

The shell collided with the lightning. The explosion shook the entire block. The Lightning Mage had exhausted his mana; he tried to flee after his final strike, but Tian Jiu’s next shell hit him true. Survivors: 11.

In the distance, more lightning and thunder flashed. Survivors: 9.

At this point, the top ten for this year’s trials had officially been decided. Tian Jiu wiped the dust from his face and hurried forward to find a new hiding spot.

Suddenly, he felt a bone-chilling cold coming from behind him. He immediately swung his cannon backward while using the momentum to perform a graceful side flip.

The cannon left his hands, instantly encased in eternal ice.

It was the seventh-ranked Meng Ruoruo, the Frost Mage who never missed.

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