With a slight thought, a pale blue panel visible only to him appeared before Meng Lang’s eyes.
“Damn system, lemme take a look!”
【Host: Meng Lang】
【Age: 18】
【Title: None】
【Basic Gunplay (aiming, recoil control, spray transfer, AWP flicks): 79.2 (0.2↑) Damaged State】
【Reaction (positioning, instant reaction, multi-target processing): 91】
【Awareness (positioning, information processing, offense-defense transitions): 72 (1↑)】
【Maps: Dust2 (90), Mirage (90) Folded.】
【Weapons: AWP (79.2+10→89.2); AK (79.2+15→94.2)】
【Assignable Attribute Points: 1】
【Skill: Little Hole’s Ruined Body has been fused】
【GOAT Value: 4396 (Collecting)】
Sure enough, an assignable free attribute point had appeared at the bottom of the panel.
Meng Lang’s gaze swept back and forth over the numbers on his panel. After a brief moment of thought, he added that hard-won point to 【Reaction】 without the slightest hesitation.
Deep Blue! Add points!
【Reaction (positioning, instant reaction, multi-target processing): 91+1→92】
Buzz—!
In an instant, an indescribably subtle current seemed to shoot across his cerebral cortex, then spread through his limbs and bones.
It was not a sharp pain, nor a feeling of swelling. It was more like a thin veil that had always covered his senses being suddenly lifted away. In his perception, the world became clearer than ever before, and… slower.
He subconsciously moved his fingers. When his bandaged right hand responded to his will, that millisecond-level feedback seemed to become even more direct and precise, as though the transmission path of his nerve signals had been optimized.
So this was the power of adding points?
A faint joy rose in Meng Lang’s heart!
As expected,
Heaven rewards diligence!
Hard work always pays off!
And the reason Meng Lang had chosen to strengthen 【Reaction】 could not have been simpler.
Right now, perhaps because the base values of his 【Gunplay】 and 【Awareness】 were relatively low, they could still slowly improve through simulated matches in the meditation space and hard training in reality.
Only the value of 【Reaction】 remained completely unmoving.
Meng Lang felt that it might have reached a bottleneck—after all, a person’s reaction speed was something one was born with, belonging to the upper limit of talent.
But since this was the strongest weapon he had been born with, why not hone it to the extreme, use the power of the system to carve open a crack, broaden that upper limit, and turn it into a true edge that no one could reach?
That was what he thought.
And that was what he did.
At the G2 player booth.
Meng Lang was savoring the changes after adding the point.
“Bro, time to go shake hands.”
Niko’s voice sounded beside him, carrying a smile.
He waggled his eyebrows at Meng Lang, then jerked his chin toward the EG player booth across from them. The corners of his mouth curled into a slightly mischievous, show-watching smile.
The others on G2 also smiled knowingly. No one had forgotten the two sarcastic “blessings” 2K had posted on Instagram when the club officially announced Meng Lang.
—“Good luck to G2, hope they found the ‘piece’ they needed! ^-^”
—“You know, it’s always been really hard to put up with a player who can only rage incompetently. He was the culprit behind EG’s struggles.”
At this moment, this was the perfect time to “repay” that “blessing” from back then.
Niko remembered that when they had gone to the gym together last night and he saw 2K’s pre-match Instagram post, he had originally been thinking of standing up for Bro today and giving EG a ruthless lesson.
But he had never expected Meng Lang to complete the most perfect revenge with an MVP-level performance all on his own.
Now he only wanted to see just how wonderful 2K’s face would look!
Just as he was thinking that,
he realized Meng Lang had already wide-swung out.
At the EG player booth,
2K’s face was, of course, dark.
At this moment, he suddenly felt that the post-match handshake was the most disgusting ritual in the world, nothing more than a public execution carried out by the victors upon the losers.
He was already annoyed as hell after losing the match. What meaning did this segment even have?
Huh???
He just wanted to get it over with and leave.
At this moment, when 2K saw the G2 players walking over,
especially that familiar Eastern face behind Niko, his heart sank. His emotions were complicated to the extreme, and his palms clenched unconsciously.
Without a doubt, in today’s match, he had become the backdrop to the opponent’s clutch of the year, just like Niko had been in that old Boston story.
But what made it even harder for him to accept was that
the protagonist standing before that backdrop was actually the “countryman” he had personally kicked from the team, constantly mocked, and looked down on the most.
At this moment, 2K could even imagine how the community forums would be reveling in mocking him right now—don’t tell me the cancer you were talking about was actually yourself?
“Fuck!”
Thinking of this, his face instantly burning red with rage, he slammed his fist down on the table again!
CeRq beside him was startled by the sudden movement and shuddered!
It was perfectly common for CS pros to slam the table, but other people did it during the match. You, on the other hand, are over here red-hot and pounding the table after the match is already over and we’re about to shake hands.
Is your reaction time that slow?
CeRq was silently roasting him in his heart,
when, without warning, a pair of hands firmly and powerfully clasped CeRq’s hand.
CeRq instinctively wanted to pull back,
but failed to break free.
He raised his head and met a calm Eastern face carrying an invisible pressure.
Meng Lang held CeRq’s hand,
his tone sincere:
“I know, Bro. It’s always been really hard to put up with a player who can only rage incompetently. Maybe, and I’m just saying maybe, he might be the culprit behind EG’s struggles.”
“And good luck to you guys too.”
The moment these words came out, the air at the EG player booth instantly froze!
The words 2K had used to mock Meng Lang before the match had been returned to his face, completely intact, word for word!
CeRq froze all over,
only feeling 2K’s breathing beside him suddenly grow heavy and scorching!
He paused, then carefully looked back, only to find that 2K’s face had instantly turned the color of pig liver!
“Pfft, pfft, pfft—”
Behind him, Niko hurriedly clenched his fist and covered his mouth.
But his laughter still leaked out. He secretly gave Meng Lang a thumbs-up.
He had always felt before that Meng Lang’s personality was too gentle. There was nothing wrong with being sunny and optimistic, but he seemed to lack some of the edge and sharpness a top player ought to have.
But now he understood. It was not that Meng Lang had no edges.
A gentleman keeps his weapon hidden and waits for the right moment to act.
And this little scene during the handshake was also captured precisely by the on-site director. The barrage in 6657’s livestream instantly exploded!
“Hahahaha! What a perfect shot!!!”
“I’m dying! Is this what an MVP entry fragger’s in-your-face wide swing looks like?!”
“A gentleman’s revenge can’t even wait a moment!”
“Ruthless man, few words, every sentence stabs the heart!”
“Why does it feel like that banana 2K’s face has gone purple? Is he about to turn into a purple sweet potato monster?”
“Tsk, tsk! You guys are fucking wicked! But I like it!”
“.”
The not-so-pleasant handshake segment came to an end.
After the match, Meng Lang, as the MVP of the game, accepted an interview on the Major’s live English broadcast.
Wanjiqi also immediately switched the livestream screen to the interview room. The host asked a few questions related to the match, as well as the clutch that had attracted the most attention in this game.
When asked whether that Glock five-kill would be the most brilliant moment of his career, Meng Lang only smiled. “I think it was actually all right. For an operation at that level, if it were ZywOo, he’d pull it off a hundred times out of a hundred in a 1vX.”
The livestream barrage exploded again at once!
“666666!”
“When Big Bro ZywOo plugs in the USB drive, honestly, you can’t even argue!”
“Wait! Why do I feel like that Dark bastard is a troll?”
“ZywOo: Not good, my keyboard is leaking milk.”
“Didn’t you hear it? Dark is implying this isn’t the strongest play of his career!”
“Holy shit! Young man’s really fucking confident!”
“.”
The host laughed as well.
The final question: “We all know that you got into CS very early. This sport has many young geniuses, and as far as we know, you still aren’t even eighteen yet. When you made a name for yourself as a teenager, did you ever feel that you would be the next genius to shock the world?”
Hearing this, Meng Lang fell silent for a moment. Then he revealed a slightly youthful yet pure smile and shook his head:
“No. I don’t think I’m any kind of genius.”
“At that time, I just felt that I was… a kid who loved playing games, that’s all.”
Back in China, in a dormitory at Jianghai University.
Li Shan watched the interview, and his impression of Meng Lang deepened a little more.
Humble! Pure! Passionate!
Qualities like these were far too rare in the professional scene.
As soon as the interview ended, he excitedly opened Perfect World, the biggest CS forum in China, and found the rating page for this match.
Meng Lang’s rating was as high as 9.5 (2,789 votes)!
First in the entire match,
surpassing both Niko and m0NESY.
Most of the comments were filled with astonishment and praise:
“I’ve gone from hater to fan! That AK made me wet!”
“Who would dare imagine those plays were made with a bandaged hand?”
“From today onward, please call him Dark God!”
“Feels like another CN genius rifler is rising!”
But there were also plenty of different voices:
“Seriously, stop glazing!”
“Save the one-match takes!”
“There are too many flashes in the pan in FPS.”
“They’re making such a fuss over beating EG. Wait until he runs into a truly top-tier team before you start bragging.”
“.”
Li Shan looked at those attacking and questioning comments.
Although he was angry,
there was nothing he could do.
He understood that CS had a long professional history, with countless superstar players. Many old players carried a deep veteran-player filter and always took a wait-and-see attitude toward rookie breakouts.
Not to mention, form fluctuated too much in FPS games.
One match’s highlight reel was indeed not enough to prove anything. To truly enter the ranks of world-class riflers, what was needed was stable and sustained performance across a long season.
That was true. Dark had only played one match. The road ahead was still long.
But after thinking about it, Li Shan still posted a comment.
“I have a feeling Dark will definitely become an insanely strong rifler. Feel free to dig this up later!” After posting this comment, in the dormitory, Li Shan held his phone with a somewhat uneasy hand.
Every now and then, he refreshed the screen.
Before long, many likes and replies appeared beneath it.
“+1!”
“Dark’s AK is terrifying!”
“That wide swing and counter-strafe were like a ghost! Scary as hell!”
“Believe in Dark! Fighting!”
“.”
Li Shan’s heart immediately felt warm.
For some reason, he felt the satisfaction of seeing his own child being recognized!
So it turned out—
I wasn’t alone!