On the business van back to the hotel, the atmosphere was light and cheerful.
m0NESY suddenly leaned in, shoving his phone screen right in front of Meng Lang’s eyes, grinning mischievously as he waggled his eyebrows. “Bro! Look! Satisfying, right?!”
On the screen was G2’s official Twitter’s latest post.
It had retweeted the pre-match announcement of Meng Lang officially joining the team. Under the original tweet hung 2K’s passive-aggressive comment: “Good luck to G2, hope they found the ‘missing piece’ they needed! ^-^”
Under G2’s new match-report tweet, the attached image was the final moment of Meng Lang’s unarmored Glock ace from today. The caption directly @’d Stewie2K:
“@Stewie2K, thanks for the well-wishes. I think we really did find the ‘missing piece’ we needed! ^-^.”
A perfect recreation, thrown right back in his face!
“Hahahahaha!”
The van instantly erupted in laughter.
Niko threw his arm around Meng Lang’s shoulder and shook him hard. “Bro! You are our final piece! I said it!”
Meng Lang looked at the tweet, scratched his head, and smiled too, but there was a hint of imperceptible pressure in his grin. “It’s actually fine… just feeling a bit of pressure.”
“Pressure? What pressure?” m0NESY asked curiously.
“What if… I’m not that piece?” Meng Lang said, half-joking, half-serious.
“Don’t panic!” Niko declared decisively. “You are! I have a good eye for people!”
He had actually been paying attention to Meng Lang very early on; one could even say he was the one who had vouched for him. In today’s match, Meng Lang delivered an MVP-level perfect performance that thoroughly proved his talent and potential.
Though Niko also knew Meng Lang wasn’t perfect yet.
Shallow map pool, game sense that sometimes disconnected, experience sorely lacking.
But he was still so young!
Eighteen!
Youth meant infinite possibilities!
It meant having enough time to grind and grow.
And that was also the meaning of time.
Thinking this, Niko suddenly felt somewhat wistful.
Once upon a time, people had judged him the same way—“Winning a Major is only a matter of time for Niko.”
But so many years had passed. Time… had become the biggest problem instead.
Crashing out of tournaments time and time again, brushing past the championship again and again.
That Major title, within reach yet so unattainable, seemed to have become a haunting nightmare he couldn’t shake.
Would this Antwerp Major… become a problem too?
Niko gazed at the rapidly passing night scenery of Antwerp outside the window, his eyes suddenly growing distant.
He didn’t know.
“Wait!” m0NESY suddenly shouted, breaking the atmosphere in the van. “2K! 2K actually replied!”
“What? He still has the nerve to reply?”
The G2 members immediately got energized and leaned over.
m0NESY stared at the phone screen and read word for word: “2K said… ‘Don’t be in such a hurry. The Major sun shines harsh; the moment when everything reveals its true form will always come.’”
“Hah!” Niko curled his lip and looked away. “This guy’s mouth is harder than his aim.”
“Don’t mind him, Bro!”
m0NESY put away his phone and cheerfully grabbed Meng Lang’s arm. They were the closest in age on the team, so he naturally felt closest to Meng Lang. “Just tell me, are you confident we can pull off something big this Major? Let’s take that damn trophy back together!”
Meng Lang looked into the kid’s expectant eyes and nodded very seriously. “I’m confident. But… I still need a little help.”
“What help? Say it!”
m0NESY patted his chest. “Bro, just say the word!”
Meng Lang turned his head, his gaze sincere. “Tonight… let’s duo queue together?”
m0NESY froze for a moment, carefully confirming: “It’s… it’s duo queue? Not Solo, right?”
He still had lingering trauma from Meng Lang’s “devil Solo” sessions.
Meng Lang nodded seriously. “Duo queue.”
“Hey! Duo queue! No problem! We’ll play a couple games to relax!”
m0NESY immediately breathed a sigh of relief and readily agreed.
However, once they reached the training room at the club’s temporary base, m0NESY quickly regretted it.
The “duo queue” in Meng Lang’s mind was not as simple as “playing a couple games.”
It was from afternoon all the way past midnight.
Nearly crazed,
uninterrupted high-intensity ladder grinding!
Meng Lang seemed to know no fatigue, completely focused every round, striving for perfection in every clutch. His AK was still precisely lethal, his game sense visibly sharpening in the high-speed matches.
At first m0NESY was still energetic, chattering away constantly. Later on, he was left with nothing but a dead-eyed face mechanically going through the motions.
He felt like he could barely hold his mouse steady anymore.
Meanwhile, Meng Lang took advantage of this heaven-sent opportunity during the Major main event, when many top-tier pros had no time to spare, and dragged m0NESY forward triumphantly all the way.
His points skyrocketed!
Finally, as the late-night clock was about to strike two, Meng Lang looked at his ladder score in the client—
On the FPL leaderboard, behind the ID [Dark], there prominently followed the eye-catching number “NO. 1”!
With a score of 3421, he had successfully reached the summit of the FPL leaderboard!
Although this ranking would very likely be reclaimed by those high-ranked pros once they resumed training after the Major.
But at this moment, he truly stood at the very peak!
“Bro… I can’t anymore… I really… I’m gonna stick my tongue out…” m0NESY collapsed in the gaming chair, feeling utterly hollowed out.
Meng Lang looked at the leaderboard. A pure smile appeared on his face.
Right at this moment, a crisp “ding” arrived as expected in his mind.
【Advanced Trial of the Rookie: The Prelude to the GOAT’s Coronation!】
【Congratulations to Host for completing the Rookie Advanced Mission: 【Reach First Place on Any Server Leaderboard】】
【Mission Rating: S】
【Mission Evaluation: Unbelievable! Your perfect performance proves your talent exceeds all imagination! Rising to king of the FPL server, where experts stand like forests, with the bearing of a newcomer—this is no accident. It is a miracle forged by talent, sweat, and a trivial bit of help from the System! Your name has risen like the morning star!】
【The Road of the GOAT already extends beneath your feet!】
【Mission rewards distributing…】
【Congratulations to Host for obtaining: “Old Ni’s Remnant” (2017 Deagle Limited)】
【Description: This is the ultimate remnant stripped from the “Best Rifler in the World” Niko’s peak 2017 Deagle. It is not cold data, but a scorching, unreasonable, absolute confidence belonging to the “Deagle Prince”! Fuse it, and you will briefly glimpse that gun dao of carving a path from certain death, of creating possibility from impossibility—a kind of faith shooting that transcends aiming itself, nearly instinctive!】
【PS: Front-facing only】
【Attempt to fuse “Old Ni’s Remnant”?】
In the late-night hotel training room, only the low hum of machines remained.
Meng Lang froze for a moment, turned to look at the kid beside him who was nearly asleep from exhaustion, then glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of his monitor.
01:56
Infinite regression?
What kind of cyber prison is it this time?
Then bring it on!
He took a deep breath!
And silently recited in his heart:
“Big Bro Ni, I’m coming in!”
At the same time,
In the hotel suite upstairs.
The soundly sleeping Niko unconsciously smacked his lips and turned over.
Second on the new book category chart, begging for monthly tickets and continued reading lulu lulu~
PS: Tonight’s Big Bro Ni on Falcons really had his kid supporting him in old age!