Playing Fish Trapped in Secret Room
Book 2: You’re Beautiful
Chapter 18
It was a totally different world inside the stadium, from the noise to the hyperactive commentators.
It was the countdown to the next match.
Grunt’s opponent had already put on his earphones.
He remained still.
The players of the 32 groups were all vigilant except for him. He still quietly maintained his posture. In the end, even the assistant referee thought he might be sick and walked over to him, bending down to ask but he wasn’t moving. The assistant referee patted his shoulder, Grunt then responded with a few words. He sat up straight and put back his glasses.
Inin suddenly exhaled a long breath, “That scared me to death. I thought he was going to abstain.”
“He…...he shouldn’t be.”
StarCraft 2 was his first game when he entered the esports circle. It was also the only game he ever played against Solo. With his obsession with Solo for so many years, he shouldn’t, and wouldn’t possibly abstain.
There was no live broadcast for the elimination rounds.
Nobody knew the actual details of the matches.
Ai Qing could only nervously wait with Inin. Suddenly her cell phone began vibrating in her pocket half an hour later.
Surprisingly it was a text message from Ai Jing, “La la la la, I have boarded the airplane. I’ll keep my phone off. Don’t worry about me.”
Was she…...trying to look happy when she was actually sad?
Ai Qing didn’t know what actually had happened last night. But judging from Grunt’s behavior, they probably had a falling out…...She kept holding her phone for a little while, then sent out a short message.
It was to Dt. “My sister suddenly left. Would it have a huge impact on Grunt?”
Though they had an unhappy confrontation in the hallway last night, today was the competition.
They represented the China today.
Shortly after, the guy sitting next to Gun noticed there was an incoming message. He pulled out his cell phone and looked at it. It was like he was browsing an ad message. Without even looking back at her, he simply typed with his thumb for a few seconds.
She received a response when he had already put his cell phone back.
Dt: “No. I trust him.”
Right.
He was a professional player.
Ai Qing took a deep breath. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Dt’s eyes, underneath the brim of the hat, was squarely focused on Grunt.
Not just him, the four of them who sat there were all watching Grunt.
The only Chinese player who was participating today.
Time passed. The matches finished one by one. She saw the players who were either the winners or losers leave the arena in excitement or disappointment. But Grunt’s game was still not finished yet.
Both players wearing headphones were wholly focused on the game, oblivious to the world around them.
Two assistant referees, whose matches had concluded, quickly came over to watch. Soon, the master referee also stood behind Grunt.
Everyone seemed to be more interested in Grunt, who was still holding his ground against a Korean player who normally qualified for world championships.
One hour and thirty-nine minutes in, the match was still going on.
One hour and forty-seven minutes in, more and more referees had gathered.
One hour and fifty-nine minutes in, suddenly, the referees burst into applause.
This was the last match today.
After battling for almost two hours, the last player qualified for the preliminaries was finally confirmed.
Laughter of celebration could be heard from the Korean team.
The Korean player took off his earphones first. He stood up, smiled, and stretched out his hand to Grunt. He didn’t expect that he would encounter such a precarious game at the very last elimination round. He also didn’t expect such aggression from Grunt, far more than his normal performance on Battle.net.
Grunt just sat there, hesitating for a few seconds. Then he stood up and shook the other’s hand symbolically. Then he let go the hand and turned around, walking directly out of the exit. He didn’t even look at the audience or the VIP rest area at all.
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