Chapter 59 "Yux entered HY in the Summer Split..."

On the evening of the 11th, the first round of the Angels' Cup knockout stage took place.

Old Xu made no attempt to hide it, bringing Milk to visit the lounge early on. Upon seeing Nan Zhiyi and You Xin sitting side by side, discussing tactics in hushed tones, he immediately exclaimed, "Oh! Newlyweds, huh!"

Milk then peeked out from behind and said, "See, I told you, people are very hesitant about these things at first, but they gradually become more open about them."

Nan Zhiyi: "…………???"

Before he could even speak, You Xin swiftly snatched the notebook from his hand, effectively preventing Milk from peeking: "You guys came here just to steal tactics?"

Meanwhile, on the other side, Xiaoyu was meeting Milk, a star player, for the first time and almost stood up to bow to him again. Fortunately, Song Meng noticed in time and pressed him back to the spot.

"No, we're just taking a stroll." Milk put his hands in his pockets, his face showing complete ease and cheerfulness, seemingly not taking today's match to heart.

He raised his hand to greet Song Meng as well—the latter had been his teammate for a while—and the latter nodded to him.

Nan Zhi felt a little strange seeing him like this. Didn't he know that he would be replaced in HYG next season? Or had he completely let go of his mindset, having already won a championship, and now only thinking about getting a big contract and streaming more to coast along?

...That shouldn't be the case, right?

"How have you been lately?" Old Xu sat down next to Nan Zhiyi. "I saw online that you were being stalked and harassed... and it seemed to be a man?"

Nan Zhiyi gets a headache just thinking about it: "I've already called the police, and they'll be detained for three days."

"Three days? They've already been released, haven't they? If you ask me, this kind of person should be locked up for ten days or half a month!" Old Xu said indignantly. "What kind of lesson will this teach him?"

After taking a photo of You Xin sleeping on her shoulder in the car that day (actually a staged photo) and posting it to the fan group, Nan Zhiyi adopted a "what's the use" attitude and stopped paying attention to her stalker's activities.

However, judging from the feedback in the fan group, after that incident, the person actually deleted the Weibo account that he had been using for a long time. It's unclear whether he received a lesson from the police and decided to turn over a new leaf.

“It’s okay, he probably won’t do that again,” Nan Zhiyi said.

After chatting for five or six minutes about topics unrelated to the competition, the door to the lounge was pushed open again.

HYG's sub-carry, soso, stood at the door, looking clearly unenthusiastic: "Milk, Brother Mai wants to see you."

"Brother Mai" is the nickname of HYG coach Mike. Nan Zhiyi had heard of the reputation of this HYG head coach from the European region. She said that he didn't speak Chinese very well, but he was very strict when it came to training people. He had a strong grasp of the team's discipline, and many players who left HYG couldn't stand the high-pressure atmosphere in the team.

He had heard of the player soso, but only from his former roommate Qiu Cheng, with whom he had a falling out. For some reason, as a professional player, soso often played games with freelance streamers rather than with his teammates or players from other teams.

Milk was called away by the coach, and it was inconvenient for Lao Xu to stay there any longer.

Before leaving, he patted You Xin on the shoulder and said meaningfully, "Keep it up!" For a moment, it made people wonder which team he was the manager of.

Just then, You Xin was also going out for a bit. Song Meng watched their departing figures thoughtfully, and suddenly asked Nan Zhiyi, "Since Yux joined HYG for the Summer Split, does that mean he'll be moving out of your house?"

Nan Zhiyi was drinking water and almost choked when she heard this.

He coughed twice, not asking Song Meng how he guessed You Xin's plans for next season, probably because Lao Xu had made it too obvious: "Um... him, I... I guess so."

Nan Zhiyi didn't know what she was hesitating about.

Wasn't this something we planned from the beginning? A short-term cohabitation, then we'd separate once the other person found a team for next season.

He should have thought it was normal.

In fact, he had thought about this problem over and over again in the past few days.

Thinking back, for so long, I've actually been running away from and not daring to face my own feelings, so it's only when we're about to part that I feel the sting of reality; thinking back, I actually have a vague guess that no matter how he sees me now, if I told him I like him, he would definitely accept it without hesitation.

But Nan Zhiyi understands the root of her inner escapism.

It wasn't about trying to guess what the other person meant, but rather the fear that they would separate again.

If there is no beginning, there is no end.

And their pandering to homoerotic subcultures... After that, I wonder how their fans will view them?

Nan Zhiyi didn't know if this counted as one of the "relationships that shouldn't have started," but there were too many stories on the internet that started but never ended, so they probably got used to it.

Just before going on stage, he stood at the entrance of the players' tunnel, staring at You Xin's back in front of him, thinking to himself, "After the Contenders Cup is over, I'll tell him... stop selling bromance in the future."

-

The match against HYG was much more intense than the previous group stage matches, but Nan Zhiyi was no longer as nervous as when she first participated in the competition.

Perhaps realizing that such matches are becoming increasingly rare, he should feel more of a sense of cherishing them than nervousness.

The first round of the Contenders Cup knockout stage does not have the Resurrection Armor. The format is BO3, and whoever loses has to be eliminated immediately.

In the first game, the map was randomly assigned to the [Ruins].

Nan Zhiyi cautiously had the team choose a standard pick for a short-range map, focusing on Yux's character and continuing their previous strategy of playing around him.

However, not long after the match started, he noticed something was very wrong.

The opposing team's main carry and tank were both champions, so even if they were weak, they shouldn't be underestimated. However, in the first game, whenever the opposing team had a rhythm, their secondary carry, soso, would suddenly lose his mind and give up, either by making a mistake or by suddenly jumping in front of the entire Angel team and disrupting their rhythm.

Even the usually timid and cautious commentator, who was afraid of being criticized after the match, couldn't help but ask: "What is Soso doing? I remember his swordsman proficiency is not low?"

"Is Angel Yi a succubus? Why is he relentlessly chasing after a support character to kill?"

45 minutes later, thanks to soso's tireless efforts, Angels took the lead in the first game, winning 1-0.

The MVP award was given to Meng, who performed exceptionally well in his match. Although his performance in this game wasn't particularly outstanding, his 0-death record speaks for itself.

During halftime, the director showed a shot of HYG's locker room, where HYG's coach Mike was seen angrily standing with his hands on his hips, scolding Soso across the table until Soso's head was almost touching the ground.

"Wow...this." The commentator couldn't help but sigh upon seeing this scene. "Soso's performance this game was really terrible. To use a common saying, 'If Angels win this game, no one will dare to sit down at the post-match celebration party if Soso doesn't even touch his chopsticks'...Ahem, anyway, I hope he can adjust back to his form as soon as possible in the next game."

However, the well wishes were not fulfilled.

The second game was randomly assigned to the map [Jungle]. At nine and a half minutes, facing a resource battle at the [Elf Altar], both teams positioned themselves early, striving to maintain their health as a bargaining chip for victory in this small-scale team fight.

But at that moment, Soso's character, whether due to a misoperation or something else, slipped and fell directly off the tree.

Although he didn't fall from a very high place, he still took a solid fall attack, and his health instantly dropped to below 2/3.

The two commentators on the podium simultaneously uttered an "Uh—", then fell silent. They couldn't find anything to say to excuse each other.

Even the four members of the Angel Team were stunned by his sudden appearance, each standing there frozen for half a second.

Song Meng was the first to voice his doubts: "Is she... in such bad shape?"

Nan Zhiyi was still focused on the battle: "The secondary DPS isn't in good health, so we'll focus fire on him first."

Xiaoyu didn't say anything, but silently followed his instructions and chose a more reasonable team fight position.

You Xin tapped the keyboard twice, jumped onto a relatively low branch, and suddenly said, "He's acting."

Nan Zhiyi was startled. She should have known this was in the match's voice chat; besides her own team members, the referee and the backstage director could hear it clearly. If someone with malicious intent overheard this and edited it out, Yux might actually accuse the opponent of cheating on the field—

But at this moment, a sudden change occurred.

Both teams, the audience, and the commentators all watched in disbelief as Soso's character's health plummeted, almost instantly reaching zero. Yet, at that very moment, not a single member of Angel's team launched an attack on him!

The kill notification popped up.

[Ranger] HYG.Milk has killed [Elemental Mage] HYG.Soso!

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

"Ah...ah?!?!?!?!" The commentator nearly screamed himself hoarse. "If I'm not mistaken, Milk just switched weapon form and attacked his own teammate with a short sword?! Soso was killed by him!!!"

"Was this a mistake? That's unlikely! If it really was a mistake, this is just too... too outrageous!!!"

In a 3v4 situation, Milk's maneuver resulted in his team being down a player, allowing Angel Team to easily secure the resources of the Elf Altar.

However, at this moment, everyone on the field was no longer focused on the game.

—Milk showed everyone directly through his actions that his killing of his teammate was not a mistake.

When Soso reappeared from the respawn point, Milk, who had been waiting nearby, rushed up and, dressed as a cowboy, elegantly jumped onto Soso's face, stabbing him again and again without hesitation into his teammate who was fighting alongside him.

Soso's character stood motionless, making no move to dodge, seemingly stunned.

The next second, the game screen instantly turned black and white—

This game has been paused.

-

About twenty minutes later, the four members of the Angels team, who were sitting in their seats waiting, received a notification: After the referee team's assessment, due to the extremely serious negative behavior of their opponents, their main carry player, milk, has been disqualified from the competition and will be replaced by a substitute player.

In this Contenders Cup, HYG did not bring any substitute players, so with one less player, HYG was judged to have lost by the referee team, and Angels automatically won the BO3.

When Nan Zhiyi stood up from her seat, she was still completely bewildered.

"What is Milk doing?" He instinctively looked at You Xin and asked, "Is he crazy? Won't he get suspended for this?"

While rare, accidental injuries to teammates during matches are not unheard of.

But in recent years, looking at the entire region, milk is truly the first person to openly and directly attack teammates on the field like this.

Not to mention in a competition, even in a casual game, if the system detects an attack on a teammate that is not an accidental injury, the player will be kicked out of the game. This is even more true in an official offline competition!

The commentator was so shocked he was speechless, the audience at the scene went wild, and the live chat was filled with people saying that it was such a loss that they didn't go to see this historic moment in person.

Because the match ended abnormally, the two sides did not shake hands after the match, but instead left the stage from their respective sides.

As soon as she entered the backstage area, before she even reached the vicinity of the dressing room, Nan Zhiyi could already hear the sounds of arguing.

"You dare say you didn't buy it? Do you dare, Chen Luo? Do you dare swear you didn't buy it or give it away randomly, or you'll get hit by a car and die when you go out?" Milk's voice came from afar, "You fucking wouldn't dare!"

Then came Soso's faint voice of protest: "I didn't do anything to betray the team... In the second game, if you hadn't insisted on killing me... the Contenders Cup doesn't affect the league standings..."

"Are you fucking sick? Huh? I'm asking you, are you sick?!" Milk's voice suddenly rose, and Nan Zhiyi had never seen this person so angry before. "Do you only stop being stubborn when the investigation team finds out your bank account details? The odds are pretty high, huh? You've made a killing, haven't you? A five or six million a year salary isn't enough for you, is it? You have to go and make this kind of unscrupulous money?"

Turning the corner, he saw outside HYG's rest area, where milk, his face ashen, was grabbing soso by the collar, almost lifting him off the ground. The tank and support players were standing by, watching in a daze.

Old Xu was also nearby, trying to separate the main and secondary C members who were about to fight with one hand, while holding the phone to his ear with the other, anxiously talking to the person on the other end of the line.

When they saw them coming, they were all taken aback.

To Nan Zhiyi's surprise, when Milk turned around and saw them coming, he instantly adjusted his expression and greeted them with his free hand in a very gentlemanly manner.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your match." He even smiled.

Nan Zhiyi felt like her brain was about to fail her: "Ah... okay, it's alright."

He felt he shouldn't linger there, so he quickly slipped into the lounge, pretending he hadn't seen anything.

"You scared me!" Song Meng was the last to enter, and quickly closed the door to the lounge. "This looks like something big is about to happen."

While packing her things, Nan Zhiyi couldn't help but ask You Xin, who had been silent since earlier, "Do you know something?"

Yu Xin pulled his backpack tight and took the bag from Nan Zhiyi's hand: "All I know is that they will kick Soso out, Milk will become a sub, and I will get the main center position."

He paused for a moment, then said, "I just never imagined it would be in this way."

-

One match propelled the Contenders Cup to unprecedented heights of popularity, even spreading the shocking rumor that "the champion carry killed his teammates on the field and the team was disqualified for not bringing a substitute."

Milk issued an apology statement on Weibo that day, saying that he had not controlled his emotions and acted too impulsively, and tagged all the team members present that day except for Soso to apologize.

The tens of thousands of comments in the comment section mostly expressed disappointment. Some people asked how someone who always had a good mentality could do such a thing on the field. Some people said that if he continued to play like this, the champion main carry would ruin his reputation. Others mocked him, saying that he was afraid of losing to Yux's streamer team and chose to end the game in such a humorous way.

Three days after the incident, the official account of Eternal Rebirth released a statement regarding the punishment of milk.

The punishment was predictable: a suspension. However, the timing of this suspension was quite delicate, with the end date falling precisely just before the start of the Summer Split, essentially meaning there was no suspension at all.

The comments section immediately erupted in discontent—"Back then, Yux was banned for two months for insulting someone on Weibo, but Milk was only banned for less than a month for playing passively? Does winning a championship trophy really grant you a get-out-of-jail-free card?"

However, half an hour later, the official account of Eternal Rebirth, in conjunction with the Stars Cup tournament and the Stars platform, released another statement—

[Investigation Results Regarding Match-Fixing and Account Boosting in Recent ROE Major Cups]

The statement mentioned that, according to reports, there have been cases of account boosting and betting on one's own team's wins and losses through off-the-books betting in the recent Juxing Cup and Zhengfengzhe Cup tournaments.

Among them, Beijing from the Zero Boundary platform improperly obtained the qualification for the offline competition by using proxy play during the online competition;

Several members of the Stars platform, including Tangyuan and Qiuchengzhu, as well as Soso, the starting player of the professional e-sports team HYG, placed bets on their own teams' wins and losses during the cup competition.

The aforementioned individuals will be banned for life and have all their accounts suspended across all platforms. We will also cooperate with the local police to investigate whether any of them engaged in any illegal or irregular activities during this process.

-----------------------

Author's Note: Total Annihilation

————

Regarding the update schedule, my tenosynovitis flared up after I started writing, and I've also been looking for a job recently, which involves a lot of written and oral exams. Therefore, the increase in my drafts hasn't been very significant. Plus, each chapter is quite long, so after finishing daily updates in October, it will be difficult to maintain daily updates.

I currently have 3.5 chapters left in my drafts. I will try my best to write until the story is complete before taking a break from updating (yes, the plot is progressing quickly, it will be after chapter 5).

I haven't written a full outline, but I have a general idea. To ensure the details stay on track, the writing pace will be relatively slow.

The tentative plan is to update 15,000+ words per week, and there will be no long breaks in updates; I will try my best to update.

To avoid making everyone wait, I will only update at 9 PM. If I don't update at that time, I probably won't update at all that day (unless it's a Wednesday and I'm trying to climb the charts [facepalm emoji]).

The main story is expected to end at 370,000-400,000 words, so there's not much more content left. There will be side stories later, and I really want to write one about a fluffy beastman (Furry's addiction is really kicking in). The main story is expected to finish in late November to early December.

Thank you everyone for your support and understanding! Red envelopes will be dropping in the comments section of this chapter! [pink heart]