【Congratulations, Host, for obtaining the “Time-Lag Anti-Entropy Bandage.”】
【Congratulations, Host, for obtaining 100 Goat Points!】
【Current Goat Points: 1237】
【The Host’s Goat Points have met the consumption requirement for “Simulated Training.” Spend 1000 Goat Points to enter the simulation map?】
“No no no!”
Meng Lang hurriedly shouted out in his mind.
Although he was quite curious about this Simulated Training, having just returned from infinite regress in the Cyber Prison, he decided to take it slow for now.
Moreover, entering training automatically activated sleep mode. Meng Lang didn’t want to have just arrived at G2 tryouts only to end up snoring in front of the computer the very next moment.
But Goat Points had broken a thousand already?
You had to understand, Meng Lang’s novice mission this time had only rewarded 100 points. Added to the 233 from posting that update earlier, it had barely been over 300.
Where did the rest come from?
Glancing at the frenzied barrage of comments scrolling through his stream, then recalling the conditions for obtaining Goat Points—that any emotions triggered by the Host, such as shock, anger, ridicule, and praise, could all be collected and converted—
Meng Lang instantly understood!
It seemed the fastest way to earn Goat Points still lay in choosing the playstyle that generated the most danmaku!
He mused inwardly, then looked toward the most important reward from this novice mission—the Time-Lag Anti-Entropy Bandage.
【When wrapped around the hand, it can suppress the Host’s hand injuries and slowly reverse and heal them. (Effect is enhanced during intense hand use. Can only be used on the Host.)】
Meng Lang’s heart surged with excitement!
He had already experienced the system’s miraculous capabilities. It could halt time and throw him into the Cyber Prison for infinite regress!
Healing a mere hand injury?
Wouldn’t that be easy?
However, Meng Lang didn’t take it out immediately. After all, he was still in the club training room with too many people around. Furthermore, if he wrapped a bandage around his hand on his very first day at the club for tryouts, it would make things pretty awkward for the club!
Since the description stated that wrapping this black-tech bandage could completely suppress his hand injury, and high-intensity use of his right hand would slowly reverse and heal it, addressing both symptoms and root cause—
Then he would just wait until official matches to use it.
Thinking about it carefully, aside from matches, it didn’t seem like he had any other situations requiring high-intensity use of his right hand.
Well. Perhaps not entirely none.
But that wasn’t important.
Meng Lang was just thinking when his cousin’s voice came from beside him, “What’s up? Still playing?”
For Meng Lang, the infinite regress in the Cyber Prison just now had been an unbearably long and painful ordeal.
But to Wang Yitong, it was merely a brief daze from his side after finishing a Perfect World match.
Hearing his cousin’s question, Meng Lang was about to answer.
Suddenly, the system’s familiar mechanical voice rang out in his mind once more.
【The final trial of the novice, the prelude to the Goat’s coronation! Your perfect performance has proven your talent is beyond imagination! Now activating the advanced mission! Conqueror at the Pinnacle of the Platform! Go! Crush doubt with win streaks, engrave legends with data! Only those who reach the summit are worthy of ascending to godhood!】
【New mission issued: Reach Rank 1 on any server leaderboard.】
【Mission reward: Random professional player “Remnant”; 300 Goat Points】
Again?
Meng Lang’s heart trembled slightly. The nightmare-like infinite regress surfaced in his mind—undoubtedly the most unforgettable memory of his life!
From the despair of failing again and again, completely devoid of hope, making him think he would be trapped in that Cyber Prison forever!
To the moment he finally calmed down and broke through the Cyber Prison, that euphoric feeling like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon!
It wasn’t that Meng Lang had some masochistic tendencies!
At this moment, thinking of the tangible benefits that truly fusing a Remnant would bring, his heart actually felt somewhat eager.
But wait.
Any platform’s server number one?
Meng Lang stroked his chin.
He was still in G2 tryouts. Even if he passed later, training and matches would take priority.
Grinding the domestic Perfect World server—with his current state, pulling his cousin along to rush for first place might be relatively easy, but Perfect World’s skill ceiling was indeed limited; the intensity couldn’t keep up.
Forget it.
He still had to play FPL.
Meng Lang thought to himself.
Thus, he immediately said, “No more Perfect. C’mon! Follow me to grind FPL!”
Hm?
Wang Yitong was slightly stunned.
Although he was somewhat puzzled as to why his cousin abroad was so enthusiastic today about playing Perfect matchmaking, only to quit after one game,
with his indifferent personality, he didn’t ask. He silently closed Perfect World, launched his accelerator, and logged into FPL.
Meng Lang also quickly switched, once again entering the familiar Faceit matchmaking interface.
However, after several games, listening to Meng Lang’s occasional sighs, his cousin finally couldn’t resist asking over voice chat:
“You okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“Feel like you… suddenly became a lot more world-weary?”
“. . .”
Meng Lang’s mouth twitched hearing this, internally ranting like mad:
If you went to that damn meditation space, sat in that Cyber Prison for who knows how long, dying over and over, regressing over and over, only able to get out after head-on annihilating five pros, you too would go from a chipper young man to a jaded philosopher overnight!
Of course, he couldn’t say that out loud.
He could only laugh it off. “Nothing. Just realized how wonderful freedom feels.”
His cousin, not understanding, gave an “Oh.” But soon, his attention was completely drawn to something else—the AK in Meng Lang’s hands today seemed terrifyingly unlike anything before!
It is common knowledge that the AK-47 boasts extremely high lethality, especially its ability to one-shot headshot a helmeted enemy dead, as well as excellent armor and wall penetration, making this weapon the mainstay rifle of the T-side.
But correspondingly, this rifle has enormous recoil and a very difficult spray pattern to control. Even many tier-one professional riflers sometimes whiff their AK shots badly.
However, the AK in Meng Lang’s hands today simply didn’t look like a rifle that required deliberate control. It was as if it had come to life.
The most jaw-dropping moment for his cousin occurred on Nuke’s Outside!
From the spectator view after dying, he clearly saw an enemy CT barely expose a tiny sliver of his head from close range, attempting to gather info.
Meng Lang didn’t even deliberately aim. Almost by pure instinct, he flicked over—one-tap headshot!
The next second, as the CT’s teammate traded, the muzzle of Meng Lang’s AK roared toward another CT on Far Third Floor with a nearly uncanny stability in a spray transfer!
“Da da da… da da da…”
In that instant, the bullets seemed to break free from the shackles of recoil, almost condensing into a lethal steel beam. From extreme range, it brutally shredded that far Third Floor CT!
At this moment, let alone his cousin—whether shitposters, haters, or fans in Meng Lang’s stream, which was approaching 500,000 in popularity, were all shocked!
“I… holy shit!”
“This AK spray transfer! This long-range spray control! Is this shit humanly possible?”
“Isn’t this a cheat? No recoil!”
“Holy shit! When did Dark Bastard get so good with the AK? This isn’t right?”
“I remember when he debuted, only his AWP was decent. His rifles were always a pile of trash. When did he secretly practice the AK?”
“Dark Bastard, stop hacking! I’m really scared you’ll get banned!”
“Cold知识: It doesn’t count as cheating if you didn’t turn it off! (Not turned off = not on, lol)”
“. . .”
Meng Lang saw the bullet comments in the stream, and the corner of his mouth hooked up slightly. “Men don’t stay the same for three days! Men don’t stay the same for three days! Our AK is plenty sharp too!”
When he said this, Meng Lang was fully justified, because his ability to wield the AK so well now was entirely thanks to his own hard work!!!
This was a technique he had slowly figured out through countless 1v5 deaths and regressions!
Uh. Although fusing the “Demon Child” Remnant from the future, which provided +15 to his AK Signature Weapon gun skill, had lent a “tiny bit of help”.
But who could say Brother Lang wasn’t self-made?
The two of them climbed like this, playing from day to dusk.
At noon, NiKo came by to call him to eat together. Meng Lang didn’t turn his head, eyes locked dead onto the crosshair on screen, casually replying, “You guys go, I’ll eat instant noodles later. Thanks.”
By evening, G2 teammates Xiao Lizi and NiKo had finished training. Seeing Meng Lang still sitting unmoving before the computer, playing FPL game after game while chatting and laughing with his cousin, they couldn’t help but exchange glances.
“Has this guy been playing all day?” Xiao Lizi clicked his tongue.
NiKo shook his head with a bitter smile. “Young people really do have a gaming addiction!”
As he said this, Old Ni suddenly sounded somewhat envious.
To be honest, when gaming becomes a job, not everyone can keep playing it.
Many older pro players who never made it big are just ordinary salarymen. They work during office hours and go have fun after work. Not everyone is like Meng Lang, able to sit in front of a computer for an entire day. Some married pros even have families to care for and other aspects of life.
There are so many pros on the competitive scene—new generation, mid-generation, and veterans still active in tier-one events. Yet there is only one Major championship trophy. How can just anyone get it?
To put it bluntly, those older pros are already twenty-seven or twenty-eight. When they were seventeen or eighteen, they might not have lacked Meng Lang’s dedication and gaming addiction.
But after a long time, opening the game becomes tiresome.
Getting off work and forgiving yourself
is also a form of self-reconciliation.
It’s just that
NiKo wasn’t willing to reconcile.
“Maybe because this is his last chance,” NiKo suddenly said softly.
“But he still has to rest and eat!” Xiao Lizi didn’t approve of this method.
However, when they walked behind Meng Lang, preparing to call him to rest,
an unintentional glance, followed by spectating his AK play as CT pushing aggressively on this map of Dust2. Near the barrels by A Short, he picked A Long, then picked Dark Passage, turned around 180 degrees with a long-range spray transfer to take down the T exiting toward Mid from B1, instantly three kills to dismantle the T-side attack… The expressions on the two faces instantly shifted from bitter smiles to slight shock!
To be fair,
Meng Lang’s aim in this sequence wasn’t too exaggerated for a top pro. NiKo didn’t play much FPL, but he could do it if he tried.
But this sequence wasn’t simply about being accurate.
Whether it was positioning, timing, or map understanding, Meng Lang was flawless…!
That long-range AK spray transfer was also terrifying. His spray control was no less than that of some top European riflers they knew.
Even Old Ni asked himself—
he could only achieve this degree when his aim was on point.
Wait!
A rifler like this, and EG just kicked him to the curb like that?
What was that org thinking?
Small clique excluding outsiders?
The two exchanged a glance, suppressing the urge to speak, and silently stood behind Meng Lang to spectate.
Meng Lang, duo-queuing and having fun with his cousin, was completely unaware.
Over the next few rounds, Meng Lang’s B-site defense as CT made Old Ni and Xiao Lizi’s eyes light up. They increasingly felt like they had struck gold!
“His defense…” NiKo lowered his voice and said to Xiao Lizi, “is far better than JaCkz’s… stable, yet aggressive.”
Xiao Lizi nodded heavily!
Yes, as the B-site anchor on Dust2, Meng Lang could almost always secure one kill or drag out the round in various ways until his teammates rotated.
Steady as hell!
And sometimes when the round stagnated, he could often push out for info to break the deadlock for his teammates!
This was exactly the person G2 needed!
Seeing this, inexplicably, a strong premonition simultaneously rose in both their hearts: after the tryouts, management really might keep this player from CN!
“Mate, aren’t you eating?”
“Huh? I just ate a burger.”
“But you gotta rest and relax, yeah?”
“Isn’t gaming relaxing?”
“. . .”
After this exchange,
Old Ni and Xiao Lizi also looked at each other with bitter smiles. Turns out, to him, he had been resting all along.
Like this, Meng Lang played with his cousin from 10 AM until 10 PM German time before saying good night and logging off—though it was already 5 AM on his cousin’s side, so good morning was more appropriate.
After playing all day, they only lost three games and won nearly ten. Meng Lang’s FPL points were already over 1900, climbing about 300 points.
Currently, the highest FPL score was FaZe’s AWPer, Broky, sitting at #1 with 3300 points. Many star players were in the top ten, like Ropz, FlameZ, Spinx—these were all regulars near the top of the FPL leaderboard. Even if they dropped after not playing for a while, they’d climb back up quickly.
Meng Lang closed out tonight at a bit over 1900. He still needed some time to reach #1, but now that his AK proficiency was up, as long as he got his Signature Weapon AK, Meng Lang could basically deliver stable entry performances every match!
To the point that in the later games today, his cousin on the CT side would rather not pick up the AWP and instead pick up an AK for Meng Lang.
Disconnecting voice chat, Meng Lang yawned and waved. “Alright, that’s it for today’s stream. Tomorrow we start the climb for FPL #1 live again. Bye, everyone!”
Hearing Meng Lang’s words, the viewers in chat were stunned for a moment before suddenly reacting!
“Holy shit! So insane today! I thought Dark Bastard was on drugs!”
“What do you mean Dark Bastard! Is that what you call him? Call him Dark Demon King! That AK today got me wet!”
“Dark God said today that NiKo helped him find a job at G2—what does that mean? Don’t leave us hanging!”
“Huh? Stream! Why is it black!”
“Fuck!!!”
“That dog ran off stream so fast!”
“. . .”
The bullet comments were still spamming, but the very next second, the stream had gone black…
G2 Base.
After ending the stream, Meng Lang rubbed his sore eyes, washed up briefly, then lay on the temporary dorm bed assigned by the club.
As if remembering something,
he called out lightly in his mind:
“Bro System, lemme see!”
The pitch-black room was completely quiet. Nothing appeared before Meng Lang’s eyes.
Was it not working?
But soon, his system panel materialized before him—alright, looked like the system was still getting used to the new nickname he gave it.
【Host: Meng Lang】
【Age: 18】
【Title: None】
【Basic Gun Skill (aiming, spray control, spray transfer, flick shots): 79 (Damaged State)】
【Reaction (target acquisition, instantaneous reaction, multi-target handling): 91】
【Game Sense (positioning, info processing, attack-defense transitions): 71】
【Maps: Dust2 (90) Fold…】
【Weapons: AWP (79+10→89); AK (79+15→94)】
【Assignable Attribute Points: 0】
【Skills: Demon Child Remnant Fusion】
【Goat Points: 2460 (Collecting)】
Meng Lang looked carefully from top to bottom.
Sure enough, Goat Points had risen quite a bit from the emotional fluctuations of viewers during his ranked climb stream.
But wasn’t the increase a bit too much?
After all, after finishing that game against the streamer Danking today, it had only risen to a bit over 1200. How did it double in the blink of an eye? He hadn’t run into any streamers or star players later while playing FPL; they were basically all high-ranked European randos.
What was going on?
Was someone still thinking about him?
Suddenly, Meng Lang lying on the bed remembered something. He casually took out his phone and scrolled through some domestic CS forums and Tieba.
Sure enough, several hot posts on the front page were discussing him—most of them debating whether that placement match against Danking and Sanye on Perfect World today was clean!
And how an AK wreaked havoc in FPL, his performance completely unlike before.
A Bilibili creator named Yousa had even made a video, clipping several suspicious shots from that Perfect match and declaring he’d eat shit upside-down if this wasn’t hacks.
It already had over a hundred thousand views.
This also caught the attention of many hack-busting enthusiasts. Some began reviewing the Demo, including the well-known hack-busting expert Laiangkai, who was reputed to have both marksmanship and character.
At this moment, on Bilibili.
Meng Lang had just opened Bilibili when he came across Laiangkai’s livestream. The long-necked streamer was chatting with his bullet comments at an unhurried pace:
“Dark? Isn’t that the kid prodigy from Tyloo back in the day? Later went to Europe to play in tier-two events.”
“He cheats? Impossible, right? Even if he got benched by EG, there’s no reason to return to Perfect for matchmaking just to cheat.”
“You guys say Danking got destroyed? Sanye got tilted? Yousa even publicly accused him using his real name?”
“Fine, fine, I’ll check the Demo, okay? I mean, is it really as ridiculous as you guys say?”
“. . .”
The next second, a “Holy shit!” erupted from Laiangkai’s stream.