Side Story: The Expectations of the Mediocre (3)

Fang Minghua was excited when he thought about how this person probably didn’t belong to the professional circle. Apart from the person he wanted to have a fairytale future with beside him, he seemed to have seen another dazzling future in his career.

“Why are you just standing there? Why aren’t you helping?” Fang Minghua asked his teammates.

“Cough.” A series of coughs could be heard. One could feel the dense awkwardness through the screen.

“The difference is too great. If we go up, we’ll only cause trouble,” said Fang Minghua’s future, who was beside him.

“It’s time to show our true skills.” Fang Minghua controlled his character to move forward. In his heart, his figure should be incomparably proud at this moment, but all he heard next to him was booing.

The booing was a natural response, but at the same time, no one tried to dissuade Fang Minghua. It was clear that they were well aware of Fang Minghua’s strength. After all, a ten-man team dared to hunt a Level-60 wild boss with only one healer. Any player who had some understanding of Glory would think that this team’s healer was very strong.

However, Fang Minghua’s friends didn’t know that he was already an official player in a professional team. After all, he had only become an official player this season, and his team’s results were terrible. This surprise could wait until his image seemed better. Fang Minghua had always planned for things like this.

Right now, it was like a competition. As a healer, he was not the main character most of the time. The main character should be that person.

“Brother, let me help you.” Fang Minghua walked closer and said loudly.

“Alright,” replied the other party.

“You guys with long-range skills, can you do something in a position that isn’t in the way?” Fang Minghua turned around and asked the people behind him.

“What do you mean by a position that isn’t in the way?” A voice with lingering fear sounded. It seemed like they had done this before.

“Uh…” The expert spoke, as if he had something to say.

“Do you want to command the fight?” Fang Minghua asked when he heard the expert speak.

“Uh…” The expert hesitated.

“What did you say?”

“Uh…”

Was he going to crane his neck and sing a song to the sky[1. a reference to a poem from the Tang Dynasty]? The three consecutive uh’s made Fang Minghua want to recite a poem. What was wrong with this big brother? Was there something wrong with his headset?

“You do it.” The other party finally squeezed out three words.

“Listen to my command,” shouted Fang Minghua. Then, his friends rushed forward.

“All of you, back off!” A minute later, Fang Minghua shouted again, and his friends retreated in fear. A string of ellipses rose above the expert’s head.

Fang Minghua thought that he could easily control the situation with his professional-level commands, but he didn’t expect it to be a troublesome journey. The difficulty wasn’t how difficult this new boss was. Instead, the speed of the Sharpshooter in front of him was extremely fast, and there were too many changes, so he couldn’t completely capture everything. Fang Minghua tried to communicate with the other party, but the other party’s responses were mostly either “oh” or “ah”. When he obtained specific content after much difficulty, he usually missed the opportunity.

As a result, Fang Minghua’s commands were naturally not very compatible. After a minute of chaos, he quickly chose to let everyone retreat. This time, when everyone retreated, the booing sounds were much stronger than before.

“Let’s just fight as a two-man team,” said Fang Minghua.

“Yeah,” said the other party.

This was a one-on-one healing service. If Fang Minghua still needed advice under such circumstances, then he wouldn’t be a professional player. Meanwhile, with the help of a healer, this Sharpshooter fought even more aggressively. Bullets rained down on the boss’s body, spraying blood all over Fang Minghua’s face several times.

“Isn’t this a little too fierce?” Seeing the Sharpshooter become even sharper with the help of a healer, the shock that Fang Minghua’s friends had been feeling for a long time escalated again.

“Who exactly is this person?”

“Zhou Zekai? Is that his real name? I’ve never heard of him!” Someone said as he looked at the Sharpshooter’s character ID.

Finally, there was a system notification.

“Congratulations to the player…”

After a series of IDs, their achievement was displayed, “First Clear of Night Returner on the Sea.”

The world was in an uproar. Their private messages instantly exploded, and countless friend requests flooded in. The other players were dumbfounded. They didn’t even care about the drops from the boss, which players liked the most. They were still digesting the fact that the Level-60 wild boss had almost been defeated by someone all by himself. Although it took a long time, this showed this person’s strength. After all, in such a long battle, he almost didn’t make any mistakes.

“Are you serious?” Everyone rubbed their eyes in front of the screen.

Fang Minghua was calmer than them. After all, he was a professional player and had seen many things. However, he also wasn’t distracted by the First Clear or equipment drop from the boss. Instead, he stared at the Sharpshooter in front of him. In his eyes, this was the real boss, the best drop, and a future full of possibilities.

“That…” Fang Minghua was about to say something.

“You aren’t there,” said the other party suddenly.

“Ah?” Fang Minghua did not react.

“On the announcement.” The other party spoke again.

Only then did Fang Minghua understand. The other party was saying that his name was not on the list of players who killed the boss in the announcement. This was because he had automatically left the party after forcefully quitting the game. When he returned, the party had already added the person in front of him. Thus, there was naturally no place for him. Furthermore, up until now, no one had paid attention to this matter. Instead, it was this person who had noticed it first.

If he wasn’t on the list, then he naturally wouldn’t get any generous First Clear rewards. It would be a waste of time. The other party was feeling sorry for Fang Minghua.

Not only was he an expert, but he was also a good person!

Fang Minghua’s impression of this Sharpshooter immediately improved.

“Zhou Zekai?” He looked at the other party’s ID and called out.

“Yes?” The other party replied.

“Is this your real name?” Fang Minghua asked. Very few people in the game used their real name as their game ID.

“Yes,” said the other party.

“You’re amazing!” Fang Minghua praised him.

“I’m just alright.”

“Let’s add each other as friends!”

“Sure.”

After adding Zhou Zekai as a friend, Fang Minghua felt as if he had obtained a treasure.

“Um…” He immediately sent a private message. “You’re so powerful. Which professional team are you from?”

“I’m not in a professional team.” Zhou Zekai replied quickly.

“I think you can become an outstanding professional player with your strength!” Fang Minghua shouted.

“But I still have school,” said Zhou Zekai.

This… Fang Minghua scratched his head. He couldn’t be an elementary school student, could he? Thinking about how he couldn’t communicate with the other party as if there was a generation gap when fighting the boss, Fang Minghua couldn’t help but be a little suspicious.

“How old are you?” Fang Minghua asked.

“I’m 17.” Zhou Zekai replied.

“Uh, that’s not possible now, but you can officially consider it next year,” said Fang Minghua.

The Professional Alliance had a rule that professional players had to be at least 18 years old before they could register. However, in reality, there were many professional players who had signed an agreement with the club before they reached the age of 18. After they reached the age of 18, they would complete their registration and become official professional players. Many of the rookies that had appeared this season were like this. Previously, they had all been trainees in the training camps of the various teams. Once they reached the age of 18, they would immediately become official professional players.

The Professional League started in the second half of the year. Some players who were born later might not be able to make it to the first half of the season. However, perhaps the players were very lucky this season. Currently, there were rookies who performed fiercely. Their birth dates were all before the season started. Thus, they started their performances without stopping.

“Oh.” Zhou Zekai’s reply came. It was so concise that Fang Minghua couldn’t figure out what he was thinking.

“If you’re interested, you can come to our team to take a look.” Fang Minghua stopped pretending and directly invited him.

“Which team?” Zhou Zekai asked.

“Team Samsara,” said Fang Minghua. At this moment, he deeply felt the pressure of their successive defeats. When he announced his team’s name, he felt like he didn’t know what to do.

“I’ll wait for the holidays.” Zhou Zekai replied. It was impossible to tell if he disliked Samsara.

“Okay, let’s keep in touch.” Fang Minghua thought for a bit, but didn’t say too much. After all, he was only a rookie in Team Samsara, not a leader. Calling Zhou Zekai to Samsara was just his wishful thinking. He couldn’t represent any of the team’s thoughts.

“Okay.” Zhou Zekai replied quickly and simply. He wasn’t just communicating with Fang Minghua. After Fang Minghua’s group of friends came back to their senses, they finally gathered around this expert. As they split up the boss’s drops, they asked to be friends with him.

“Well, I have to go now!” Fang Minghua suddenly jumped up in a hurry.

“Where did you go to play? The captain is calling for a meeting. Come back quickly.”

In the game, there was a message from Tong Lin’s private account. Fang Minghua didn’t even bother to turn off the message. Once again, he forcefully exited the game, pulled out his account card, and ran.

Halfway through, his phone rang. When Fang Minghua saw that it was indeed Captain Zhang Yiwei, he picked it up in fear.

“Are you at an Internet cafe? Hurry up and come back. I’m not waiting for you.”

In the team’s meeting room, when he heard Fang Minghua say that he would be back soon from the nearby Internet Cafe, Zhang Yiwei suddenly felt a little angry. This time, he had completely misjudged the situation. Since Fang Minghua wasn’t allowed to play in the training room, he went out to play. Although it wasn’t against the team rules, this attitude…

After hanging up, Zhang Yiwei shook his head and turned his gaze back to the Samsara members in the meeting room. “We’re not waiting anymore. Let’s begin.”

Everyone sat up straight. The captain suddenly said that he wanted to have a meeting on their day off. Everyone felt that he definitely had something important to convey. However, after Zhang Yiwei gave an impassioned speech and called for everyone to work harder and improve, everyone began to look at each other.

Was that all?

No one denied the accuracy of Zhang Yiwei’s words, but such clichés were meaningless.