In the hotel, inside G2's conference room, the three-hour post-match review finally came to an end.
Coach XTQZZZ meticulously dissected every round of today's match against Liquid.
From individual errors in tactical comprehension, to breakdowns in team synergy, to hesitation in crucial round decision-making—virtually every problem was laid bare on the table.
More importantly, XTQZZZ had done extensive pre-match preparation in advance for the powerhouse Vitality they would face tomorrow—emphasizing the design of pistol rounds, the timing of utility coordination, the finer details of team synergy, and the need to nail their early-round default map control.
At this moment, everyone walking out of the conference room couldn't help but stretch, wearing expressions that were tired yet fulfilled.
huNter- rubbed his slightly swollen forehead and smiled bitterly. "My head is buzzing. Too much information."
Niko also shrugged, working his stiff neck. "Sleep it off. The brain needs time to digest."
He habitually turned to Meng Lang and asked, "Bro, want to head down to the gym together? Burn some energy so you sleep better tonight." This was Niko's habit for maintaining form and sleep quality.
Meng Lang shook his head, traces of the review's focus still lingering in his eyes. "You guys go. I want to head to the training room and get a few more rounds in."
"You guy."
Niko and huNter- exchanged a look, both smiling helplessly, their eyes carrying a hint of envy and teasing toward the "internet-addicted youth."
Just then, huNter-'s phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID, a gentle smile appearing on his face, then turned and quickly walked to the far end of the hallway to take the call.
Meng Lang curiously leaned over to look.
Niko laughed and rubbed his head. "What are you looking at? His wife is calling. You want to listen in too?"
"Wife?" A genuine look of surprise appeared on Meng Lang's face. "Cousin... has a wife?"
Niko was amused by his reaction.
"Is having a wife that rare? I have a girlfriend too. But you, Meng," he blinked playfully, "do you have a girlfriend?"
The Shrimp had transformed into an evil old NiKo.
m0NESY, who had been preparing to leave, immediately reacted like a badger that had caught the scent of melon the moment he heard this topic.
His footsteps instantly slowed. He pretended to pull out his phone and look at it seriously, but his ears perked straight up.
Meng Lang was baffled by the question and answered bluntly, "Girlfriend? Am I supposed to have one?"
Niko was momentarily choked up, then coaxed patiently, "When you were in school... you must have met some pretty girls?"
Meng Lang thought back seriously and nodded. "Yes, when I was studying there was a girl in my class. Quite pretty and cute. Seemed like a lot of guys liked her."
m0NESY's ears twitched; he stopped pretending to look at his phone screen.
Niko grew interested. "And then?"
"Then... once during PE class, a few guys got into a conflict because of her and started fighting." Meng Lang tried hard to recall. "That girl seemed to say something like... whoever wins gets to be her boyfriend? Not sure if it was real or not."
"Wow!"
Niko and m0NESY's eyes lit up.
"Then what?" Niko pressed.
"I was getting ready to go home at the time. I don't know how I got dragged into it, but I accidentally took a hit."
Meng Lang spread his hands. "I didn't even like that girl, but I was a little angry, so I beat up seven or eight guys one by one. In the end, I beat up that girl too."
Indeed.
In his memory.
After beating them, he walked away without a backward glance.
But the entrance to the training room fell into deathly silence. m0NESY held his phone, completely dumbstruck.
He looked at Meng Lang's 1.9-meter height and his faintly powerful build. He believed Meng Lang could win the fight... but...
"But why?"
The kid subconsciously stammered.
"What do you mean why?" Meng Lang didn't understand.
"Why... even that girl..." m0NESY felt his worldview taking a hit.
Meng Lang said matter-of-factly, "She started the whole thing. Delayed me from going home to play CS after school. If I don't beat her up, who do I beat up?"
After hearing this, m0NESY silently put away his phone.
At this moment, a line of dialogue from a character in a game he had played inexplicably surfaced in his mind—If violence is not meant for killing, then it is utterly meaningless.
Niko also opened his mouth, but in the end could only pat Meng Lang's shoulder and squeeze out, "Bro... you... pretty impressive."
Old Ni finally understood.
Others were warriors of pure love.
He was different.
He was just a pure warrior, period.
After the small interlude at the conference room entrance, Meng Lang walked into the hotel training room alone.
He had just sat down when his phone vibrated. It was a message from his younger cousin, Wang Yitong.
[Playing against the Bees tomorrow. Feeling pressured?]
Meng Lang looked at the message, paused, then smiled.
His cousin hadn't contacted him these past two days. He had assumed it was because TYLOO hadn't made it to the Major, so his cousin wasn't following the tournament. He hadn't expected him to be secretly watching all along.
He was just about to reply when another message came through:
[Also, don't look at the domestic community forums.]
Meng Lang was startled, then immediately smiled and typed back: "Hehe, I already looked."
Back home, Wang Yitong sat in front of his computer, looking at that line and the "hehe" emoji. He could practically imagine his older cousin's carefree expression at that moment.
He couldn't help but ask: "You're not angry?"
Meng Lang replied quickly and earnestly:
"Why would I be angry? I'm thrilled beyond words."
[???]
Wang Yitong sent three question marks.
After a moment, he sent one more "Good luck tomorrow" and ended the conversation.
Wang Yitong had to admit that ever since his cousin had been forced out by EG's "palace intrigue," he had found his cousin's "mental state" increasingly difficult to understand.
But Meng Lang was telling the truth.
When he saw those comments on Weibo, NGA, Hupu, and Perfect World Community back home—whether questioning, mocking, or pessimistic—he truly didn't feel much turmoil. Instead, he was a bit happy.
Because just today, after beating Liquid, once the schedule against Vitality was announced, the massive buzz and attention generated had directly reflected on his system panel!
[Emotion Conversion Goat Points: +2350]
[Current Goat Points: 5760]
In just a few short hours, he had skyrocketed by over two thousand points!
Thinking of this, sitting in the training room chair, he opened the system panel with a mere thought and found the [Add Team Mirror] option in the [Simulation Training] module.
[Host already possesses FaZe Clan's Mirage mirror. To add a new team or new map mirror, the simulation map pool must be expanded.]
"Huh? It needs to be expanded?" Meng Lang muttered. "Then expand it."
[Expanding map pool. Adding "Team Liquid's Inferno" mirror. Requires consuming 4000 Goat Points. Confirm?]
"Damn! What a ripoff!"
Meng Lang couldn't help but complain, but thinking about Liquid's tactics on Inferno and the slight discomfort he had shown today, he still gritted his teeth and confirmed.
[4000 Goat Points consumed successfully!]
["Team Liquid - Inferno" training mirror successfully added!]
[Remaining Goat Points: 1760]
[Consume 1000 Goat Points to start a scrim simulation against Team Liquid on Inferno?]
[No!]
Meng Lang chose No.
It wasn't that he begrudged the 1000 points—well, okay, he did a little—but mainly because he planned to put the deep training on this map "after sleeping." He couldn't waste the precious "before sleep" time.
Right now, he wanted to use his awake time to raise the value of his [Basic Marksmanship].
He was very clear: one must be strong oneself to forge iron.
The higher his own Basic Marksmanship value, the more ferocious the bonus when he obtained his "Specialized Weapon."
Although simulation training could rapidly improve game sense and map understanding, the basic marksmanship that required muscle memory feedback still needed to be honed through persistent, tedious practice.
At 1:30 in the morning, the training room door was pushed open. m0NESY poked his head in, still holding a McDonald's takeout bag from outside.
"Bro, brought you some food."
"Thanks!" Meng Lang took the still-warm paper bag and thanked him sincerely, then said seriously, "My treat next time." He made a mental note of it.
They were teammates in the match, but favors in real life had to be kept clear. Only then could the relationship last.
m0NESY looked at Meng Lang still focusing intently on aim practice at nearly two in the morning, and finally couldn't help but say: "Bro, you really don't need to grind this hard. You've played extremely, extremely well these past two days."
It wasn't that he or Niko and the others were slacking. Most professional players before a match focused more on dedicated team offensive and defensive conversion training and utility coordination.
As for their individual aim, unless they played an absolutely terrible game and self-doubt created a strong sense of crisis, they wouldn't go hard on aim practice right after a match.
The kid had experienced that before.
But he really couldn't understand where Meng Lang's sense of crisis came from.
His performance these two days had clearly been incredibly outstanding—outstanding enough to even make him a little jealous.
If the kid had put up these stats, even if he didn't get cocky, he would definitely feel like he had done great, and might even give himself a little reward before bed.
But what was going on with Bro?
Meng Lang took a bite of the burger, paused for a moment at these words, and asked seriously:
"Am I grinding hard?"
"."
m0NESY was rendered speechless by the rhetorical question.
But Meng Lang truly didn't feel this was grinding hard. Although he had left home early to play professionally and hadn't experienced the madness of all-night studying in a major gaokao province, in the depths of his memory, after his father passed away, to prevent his mother—who was shouldering the family alone—from suffering too much, he would often get up before dawn and go to the noisy vegetable market with her to work.
The frigid winter wind in the early morning, the heavy weight of hauling vegetables, his mother's red, frozen hands. These images deep in his memory were far harder than sitting in a warm, bright training room right now, doing what he loved.
Being able to work in something he was good at and loved from the very start, and being able to earn money so his mother back home didn't have to work so hard—Meng Lang only felt lucky, and that it was worth giving his all.
Speaking of hardship?
Which of those vegetable farmers in the mountains of Sichuan and Chongqing who toiled from dawn till dusk, or those sanitation workers sweeping the streets in the frigid early morning winds, wasn't working harder than him?
m0NESY couldn't comprehend Meng Lang's motivation. He shook his head and went back to sleep.
Meng Lang checked the time and put in two more hours of aim training.
Tomorrow's match was in the afternoon. The deep sleep provided by the system simulation training was of ultra-high quality, so he didn't have to worry about insufficient sleep at all.
It wasn't until 3:30 AM that Meng Lang turned off the lights and computer in the training room.
Returning to his hotel room, he quickly washed up, lay down on his bed, and stared blankly a few times at the Antwerp sky outside the window, already showing the white of dawn.
When you've drifted abroad alone for a long time, at this hour, you tend to miss home a little.
He shook his head. Better to think of Kobe.
Have you seen Antwerp at four in the morning?
Heh, I have.
Meng Lang closed his eyes and silently recited in his heart:
"Chicken Bro, I'm coming."
In the next moment, his consciousness sank into that familiar system space, diving into infinite simulation training on Inferno against Liquid.