Volume 2 Chapter 4: One Man Lacking

As He Yu and Zhao Jin Ran were discussing, Zhou Mo interrupted. “Who said the next opponent is not strong?”

“Oh? Are they?” Zhao Jin Ran was the one that said they weren’t strong, and He Yu trusted him. But Zhao Jin Ran and He Yu didn’t know the King’s Glory’s circle in the university well. Zhao Jin Ran’s passion for the King’s Glory hadn’t lasted for even a week.

“Not very strong, but not weak either. It’s not a team that we can defeat easily if we lack one man,” Gao Ge said.

“What are their ranks?” Zhao Jin Ran asked.

“Two in Legend rank, three in Master rank, I think?” Gao Ge wasn’t sure and tagged Zhou Mo.

“Three in Legend rank, two in Master rank now,” Zhou Mo answered.

“Not bad!!!” Zhao Jin Ran replied with three exclamation marks. As a new player that just achieved the Diamond rank, he was obsessed with ranking, unlike He Yu, who could see whether the opponent was really good, even though he wasn’t a strong player himself.

“That’s why four versus five will be difficult,” Zhou Mo said.

“Difficult but not impossible, right?” He Yu asked.

Zhou Mo didn’t say anything and tagged Gao Ge.

“They are not a team like Team Huang Chao that trains regularly. They’re just friends that play casually, without any strategies, even their roles and heroes are not consistent, so we didn’t do any special training countering them this week. We just have to see their line-up and come out with a strategy on the spot. But lacking one man is troublesome.”

“But we don’t have other choices, right?” He Yu asked again.

The group was silent for a moment, and Gao Ge said, “It seems like it.”

“I’ll handle it!” Zhao Jin Ran seemed fearless and was motivated.

“Our hope is on you. Let’s do it together, everyone,” Zhou Mo said.

“Let’s do it!” He Yu followed. The chat ended with Gao Ge’s “Let’s do it” emoji.

The rest of the night was silent. The next morning, He Yu woke up energetically and rushed to the stadium. The competition was still held in the stadium. Although half of the teams were eliminated in the first round, the stadium was markedly less populated. This was because the matches were held in batches, and not all games started simultaneously.

After the first round, He Yu could already follow the signs and locate their game area very quickly. He saw Zhao Jin Ran was even earlier than him, and he was already there chatting with the judge. When He Yu looked at the judge, he was shocked. It was the president of The King’s Glory Club, Su Ge.

Su Ge also looked at He Yu, and he smiled and nodded at him. Zhao Jin Ran, too, saw He Yu as he followed Su Ge’s eyes, and he waved at him.

“What a coincidence,” He Yu said to Su Ge.

“It’s not a coincidence. I purposely come to referee your game,” Su Ge smiled.

“Huh?”

“I want to see what a team that has beaten Team Huang Chao is like,” Su Ge said.

“Is this jobbery?” He Yu asked.

“Kinda. If you don’t like it, you can request to change, but the judge would still be a member of the club and still be your future opponent. We have no choice, and it’s the rule of on-campus competitions,” Su Ge said.

“It’s alright,” He Yu replied. Team Lang Qi’s captain, Gao Ge, arrived, but her attitude was cold towards Su Ge.

“Then I’ll be the judge for this game,” Su Ge smiled and said. Either he didn’t care about Gao Ge’s attitude or had already gotten used to it.

“Senior Gao.”

“Captain.”

He Yu and Zhao Jin Ran greeted Gao Ge. Zhou Mo had also arrived together.

Zhou Mo was a little surprised when he saw Su Ge as the judge. When he heard Su Ge was here to watch their game, he looked at He Yu.

“Senior, why are you looking at me?” He Yu noticed Zhou Mo’s eyes and asked confusedly.

“He knows Gao Ge and me well, so there’s nothing to see from us. Looks like he is interested in you… guys.” Zhou Mo was first only speaking to He Yu, but before he finished, Zhou Jin Ran put his head forward to listen, so he added “guys” after “you”. Zhao Jin Ran was initially shocked, but he smiled afterward.

“Seems like my potential has attracted a lot of attention, so even the club president is here to watch,” Zhao Jin Ran said.

“Then you have to perform well,” He Yu said, he did not mind Zhao Jin Ran’s misunderstanding.

“Of course, we only have four people today. I must put in my 200%,” Zhao Jin Ran said and swang his fist.

“That’s right,” Zhou Mo was delighted with Zhao Jin Ran’s attitude. He nodded and looked to his side, “Where is the other guy. Not yet here?”

“What guy?” Zhou Jin Ran was blank.

“The one to make up the number,” Zhou Mo said.

“Aren’t you guys supposed to find the replacement?” Zhao Jin Ran looked at Zhou Mo, Gao Ge, and He Yu.

“No, I thought you said yesterday that you would handle it?” Zhou Mo started to panic.

“Did I?” Zhao Jin Ran said blankly.

“Of course,” Zhou Mo took out his phone, found the chat history, and showed Zhao Jin Ran.

“This… I didn’t mean that I would find someone. I meant that I would work extra hard today!” Zhao Jin Ran said.

“Fuck!” Zhou Mo shouted. He looked at Gao Ge, he knew Gao Ge wouldn’t do things like this, and she did not let him down. She was looking at Zhou Mo and Zhao Jin Ran, like looking at two idiots.

“He Yu, you didn’t either, did you?” Zhou Mo looked at He Yu hopelessly.

“I didn’t, I thought it would be an easy matter for you guys…” He Yu said.

“Of course it’s easy,” Zhou Mo was crying and laughing. Although Team Lang Qi couldn’t find any teammates due to their bad name in the circle, they still had friends and classmates outside of the ring as they were year three students. It didn’t have to be someone that played the game. They just had to be here to make up the number. There were plenty of people that they could get to help them out. However, there was this misunderstanding between the two. Zhou Mo thought Zhao Jin Ran was going to do it, but Zhao Jin Ran didn’t mean it and thought this kind of thing should be done by the team’s spine, which were Gao Ge and Zhou Mo.

“What do we do now?” Zhou Mo was like an ant on a hot pan. He became even more nervous when the five from the opponent team had arrived.

“Call someone. I will talk to the judge,” Gao Ge said and walked towards Su Ge.

“Okay, okay,” Zhou Mo responded and started to call. Zhao Jin Ran did not just stand there either and started to call as well.

He Yu was still a new student, and he spent most of his time with Gao Ge and Zhou Mo. There wasn’t anyone in his class he knew well enough to call for help. He followed Gao Ge to see how she talked to the judge.

“Change of a teammate? Forgot to tell the new teammates the time?”

He Yu heard the lie that Gao Ge was telling Su Ge when he went near the two.

“About this…” Su Ge looked at the time. He was in an awkward position. “According to the rules, latecomers will be disqualified.”

“Then, can we play as a team of four?” Gao Ge said.

“Then the game wouldn’t be able to start,” Su Ge said.

“We can borrow a phone,” He Yu thought of an idea.

“Here?” Su Ge looked around and smiled.

He Yu looked around, and he was disappointed. Borrowing a phone usually wouldn’t be difficult, but at this place, everyone needed to use their phones, including the judges. It’s only possible if someone that had nothing to do with the competition passed by.

<i> Huh? <i>

He Yu, who was looking around, had found a passer-by, and it was someone he knew- his roommate, Mo Xian.

“Mo Xian!” He Yu shouted at Mo Xian as if he would disappear the next second.

Mo Xian heard the scream and turned his head. He saw He Yu, who was waving and running towards him.

Mo Xian did not say anything. He stood there and waited for He Yu to reach him.

“Erm, are you busy?” He Yu asked.

“Why?” Mo Xian asked directly.

“We will have a competition, but we need one more guy,” He Yu pointed at his team, “Can we borrow your phone so we can start the game with five people? The game cannot start without five people.”

He Yu explained in detail. Mo Xian looked to where He Yu was pointing as he listened to him. He then saw Team Lang Qi, Su Ge, and their opponent coming forward. He Yu’s scream also attracted the attention of students around, and many people started to look at them.

“You’re too fast…” Su Ge laughed bitterly, “I haven’t finished my sentence. Even if you borrowed a phone, you are still playing with only four people. This isn’t very polite to your opponent. Shouldn’t we ask for their opinion first?”

“Erm…” He Yu looked at Gao Ge. Fairness was essential in competitions. Although four versus five was an advantage for their opponent, it could also be seen as taking them too lightly. Su Ge was right. Although it was necessary to do that due to the incident, they still had to ask for their opponent’s opinion.

The five in the opponent team had understood what happened, and they didn’t look friendly. One of them laughed coldly and said, “It’s Gao Ge indeed, four versus five? How arrogant.”

“We lack one man, so we have no choice,” Gao Ge said emotionlessly.

“It’s not surprising that you don’t have enough people,” another one said, his teammates laughed together. Most of the participants of the Intra School League were members of The King’s Glory Club. These few in front seemed to be as well. From their attitude, it seemed like they didn’t like Gao Ge. He Yu wasn’t sure if they had a past. Zhou Mo’s face was depressed; it looked like they had communicated before he came to Mo Xian, which probably didn’t end well.

“One more minute, if you don’t have enough people, don’t waste time,” the opponent team said.

Su Ge was speechless, he didn’t want to be biased, but the rules said a team without enough people did not have the right to participate in the competition.

Zhou Mo was depressed; he never thought this semester’s competition would end like this because of a misunderstanding. However, the new student that stood beside He Yu suddenly opened his mouth.

“I only have nine minutes,” Mo Xian said.

“Huh?” Everyone looked at him and was surprised by his sudden words.

“I have to revise in the library at 9:10. I need two minutes to go to the library. It’s now 8:59, so I only have 9 minutes to help you out,” Mo Xian looked at He Yu and said.

“Huh?” He Yu was still in shock, Gao Ge, who was in front of him, had already come forward and patted Mo Xian, “Thanks for your help!”

“Then let’s start,” Mo Xian turned his body and shook Gao Ge’s hand off his shoulder.

“I mean… we need a few minutes to download the game, right?” Zhou Mo suddenly thought of it.

“No need,” Mo Xian walked towards the competition area and didn’t turn his head.

“My phone has it,” he said.