Meng Lang admitted he had gotten a little inflated.
When he usually played main sniper, he preferred to save up his economy and hold out for the AWP, enjoying that devastating firepower and the oppressive feeling of deciding everything with a single shot. He rarely took the initiative to use the Scout.
Now, placed inside Syrson’s body and feeling the rhythm of pressing forward and slaughtering all the way up mid, he finally experienced the enormous difference between the two.
The AWP’s advantage lay in its terrifying power: one shot killed anywhere above the leg, even including the arms. But the Scout was different. It had to find the head line with precision, placing far harsher demands on aim.
Their bolt-cycling speeds were also completely different.
The AWP’s bolt action was slow and heavy; after every shot, there was a long wait. The Scout’s bolt, however, was light and swift, with a much stronger sense of rhythm.
Aside from that, the most obvious difference between the two lay in the logic of weapon switching.
When using the AWP, the main purpose of switching to the knife was to take advantage of the knife’s higher movement speed, using the long bolt-cycling interval to quickly move to another position or behind cover, avoiding becoming a fixed target in place.
But the Scout itself already had a very fast movement speed. The movement speed gained from switching to the knife was negligible; holding the Scout, one could already reposition and adjust rapidly.
These vastly different traits forced Meng Lang to completely change the AWP sniping mode he had mastered, adapting instead to the Scout’s nimble and rapid tempo.
But to make matters worse,
the environment in which he had to adapt to this new habit was not some leisurely bot training session, but Mirage mid, fraught with danger, where real CTs could pop out at any moment!
He started with a heaven-defying 1v4 opening!
He could only advance,
not retreat!
During his first few attempts, Meng Lang was still adjusting his scope-in speed and movement. Often, before he had even fired more than a few shots, bullets from some unknown corner sent him back to the starting point.
[Losers eat dust!]
[Losers eat dust!]
[Losers eat dust!]
Three consecutive deaths, with almost nothing accomplished.
Meng Lang took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, focusing all his attention on feeling Syrson’s unique Scout handling: counter-strafing, scoping in, aiming, shooting, cycling the bolt, moving… every step had to be precise and smooth.
Finally, after the seventh rewind, he at last felt that he had fully adapted to the Scout’s faster scoping speed and unique firing rhythm.
“Fuck me…”
The corner of Meng Lang’s eye twitched slightly. He had actually died seven times before barely managing to adapt.
But he quickly adjusted his mindset.
Since he had already adapted, then next came the true challenge!
He began consciously seeking out and imitating Syrson’s unique sniping rhythm and positional control with the Scout—that strange cadence exclusive to the Scout, somewhere between the agility of a rifler and the steadiness of an AWPer.
During this period,
he completed double kills more than once,
and even triple kills!
Clearly, after getting used to the tempo, the Scout was not difficult for him as a former sniper. But the most infuriating part was the CT in the direction of B connector. His defense was completely dynamic, playing entirely against common sense.
Sometimes, before Meng Lang had even sniped the third AWPer at long boxes, that CT had already thrown a flash from B connector and swung out to clear him. And when Meng Lang tried to change his strategy and deal with the threat from B connector first, the AWP at long boxes across mid arch would suddenly take a cold shot at him, catching him completely off guard!
This awkward dilemma of neglecting one side while attending to the other caused Meng Lang’s attempts to run into setbacks again and again.
The number of failures rapidly accumulated to sixteen!
Crash—!
The image before his eyes shattered once more, returning him to the starting point by the sandbags at top mid.
Hoo—!
Meng Lang took another deep breath!
He did not move immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes and rapidly reviewed the previous sixteen failures in his mind, just like he had done in every match before.
Periodic mental reviews had become a habit he developed after the system appeared. It allowed him to grasp the thread of success amid tangled and complicated clues.
In the next second, he moved!
It was still that same fluid forward press toward B short!
Counter-strafe! Scope in!
Bang—!
On the left side of VIP, the CT who had just exposed his head dropped on the spot!
Headshot!
Cycle the bolt! Move! His view instantly flicked toward arch!
Bang—!
The second CT swinging out from arch was precisely picked off!
Double kill!
After completing the double kill, Meng Lang did not immediately aim his crosshair toward long boxes like before. Instead, he focused his attention intensely on B connector!
Sure enough!
Almost the instant he killed the arch CT, a flashbang came flying high from the direction of B connector!
Fuck!
I was waiting for you, you damn rat!
And almost at the same time, the sniper at long boxes also revealed himself!
If he followed the line of thinking from those previous instant deaths, he would either turn from the flash and kill the rat, then get taken out by the AWP,
or try to take a shot at long boxes, then get sprayed down by the rat’s M4A1.
But this time,
a flash of inspiration lit up in Meng Lang’s mind!
He did not retreat, nor did he push forward. Instead, he suddenly turned, jumping straight off the edge of the B short platform and dropping down toward mid!
That jump instantly took him out of the B connector rat’s firing line!
At the same time, that agile turning jump also made the AWP at long boxes miss his shot!
The instant he landed, Meng Lang did not hesitate. Relying on the Scout’s absolute advantage in scope-in speed, he scoped in the moment his feet touched the ground, raised his hand, and flicked a shot toward long boxes!
Bang—!
The bullet howled out!
Blood sprayed!
The AWP at long boxes fell on the spot!
Triple kill!
And Meng Lang did not even look at the result at long boxes. Relying on extreme muscle memory and feel, he violently pulled his aim back in a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn, his crosshair snapping back above B short at incredible speed!
Bang—!!!
The fourth Scout shot exploded out!
The rat who had just swung out from B connector, ready to catch the timing, had his helmet shattered in an instant!
Quad kill!
Job done!
It had to be said that Meng Lang’s entire string of operations had pushed the Scout’s scoping speed, movement flexibility, and unexpected tactical value to the extreme!
“Haha!”
Meng Lang could not help laughing out loud.
Cleared in seventeen lives!
Counting the seven instant deaths at the beginning used for adaptation,
he had, barely speaking, achieved his little goal of “clearing it in ten lives”!
At this moment, an indescribable sense of exhilaration and accomplishment surged up in his heart!
Just then, the system’s mechanical voice rang out in his mind once more!
[Congratulations to the host for completing Syrson-style Scout forward pressure!]
[Amid an economically strained disadvantage, wielding an underestimated king of cost-performance, you tore open a rift toward victory for your team with absolute flexibility and extreme precision!]
[“Socially Anxious Remnant Body” fusion complete! When the host is equipped with the Scout, marksmanship +15!]
Comfortable!
As a rifler,
he might not necessarily use it, but in future force-buy rounds, he now had more options.
The system prompt ended. The scene of Mirage before Meng Lang’s eyes shattered inch by inch, and his consciousness was swiftly drawn out from that space filled with gunfire.
In the next second, he clearly felt a warm and powerful hand land on his shoulder. By his ear came Niko’s familiar voice, carrying a smile:
“Bro, time to go shake hands.”
Meng Lang blinked, his gaze focusing on the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen—16:24.
It was as if only an instant had passed.
He stood up, stretched his body, which had grown somewhat tense from prolonged, intense concentration, and smiled as he nodded to Niko.
“Okay. Let’s go.”