Bilibili, Lai Angkai’s livestream room.
“No, what the hell was that crouch?”
“Kill-intent detection?”
“That Desert Eagle triple kill really was something, but I think it’s normal, right? How should I put it—he’s a pro, after all.”
“Holy shit! What the hell was that AWP holding the ninja position? The T never showed footsteps the whole time, did he? This guy’s awareness is so, so—”
Lai Angkai was a little stunned!
He swallowed the words “good awareness.”
This was no longer something that could be explained by “good awareness.”
If he had to put it into words,
then it could only be called “all-seeing.”
And not just ordinary “all-seeing,” either. It had to be at Brother Zai’s level.
But if Lai Angkai remembered correctly, back when this kid Dark first made a name for himself domestically, he was famously known for having “hard aim but poor awareness.”
He heard it was the same after Dark went abroad, too, which was why he spent a long time drifting around second-tier tournaments. When he finally managed to play in a tier-one event, not long after it ended, he got cut.
Lai Angkai had even felt rather sorry about it for a while.
And now, all of a sudden, he had become this all-seeing!
Moreover, there had actually been several moments like this in one match. For example, that sudden smoke push earlier had also left Lai Angkai rather confused.
Could he really have turned it on?
But he was a pro player. What would he gain from cheating on the Perfect World ladder?
And in an A+ to S lobby, no less.
That simply made no sense.
Could it really be like You Sa said—that he could no longer make it as a pro overseas, nobody wanted him, so he was preparing to come back and stream?
But even then, there was no need to cheat.
Deep down, Lai Angkai did not really believe You Sa’s words.
But Meng Lang’s plays were indeed suspicious.
After thinking it over again and again, he could only give a dry cough and say,
“This demo does look a little strange, but it’s only a little strange. If you ask me whether he’s definitely cheating, I don’t think it’s to that extent. Actually, I’d rather hope that among our CN pro players, we also had someone as all-seeing and powerful as ZywOo.”
It had to be said that Lai Angkai’s emotional intelligence in saying this was on point.
Unless one was like You Sa, the kind who wanted traffic more than family, it was completely unrealistic to hammer someone as a cheater based on a single demo alone.
Hearing this, the bullet comments in Lai Angkai’s stream began flooding the screen.
“Is Brother Zai really just all-seeing?”
“Sorry, all I see is a cheater toying with both teammates and opponents.”
“I’m dying! Dark-trash thinks he can be mentioned in the same breath as ZywOo? Really going to catch s1mple and overtake ZywOo now!”
“Actually, Dark-trash got kicked and nobody wants him now. If he wants to learn from Danking, retire, and milk money but doesn’t have the skill, turning on cheats is possible.”
“True. I heard his hand injury still hasn’t healed.”
“Nobody wants him? Didn’t he say on stream that Xia-ge found him a job at G2?”
“Give me a break. How could G2 possibly want Dark-trash?”
“...”
Meng Lang watched the bullet comments in Lai Angkai’s livestream with great interest.
Although there were quite a lot of trolls and haters, he was not angry in the slightest.
Instead, the corners of his mouth curved up faintly. His heart was utterly undisturbed; he even felt a little like laughing.
After all, these were all living people!
They were all real sources of emotional collection!
They were an important reserve for him to obtain Goat points!
“Anti-fans are still fans,”
he murmured to himself. “Not bad. The GOAT points they provide are actually pretty considerable.”
In just this short while, they had already risen from 2,460 to 2,512.
While the Goat points he had just earned were still fresh, Meng Lang, lying on his bed, moved his thoughts and selected a system function he had not dared to try during the day—simulated combat.
The system’s Goat points could be used for simulated combat, divided into full-match simulation, clutch simulation, and 1v1 solo simulation. He could freely add “virtual images” of teams and players he had faced within the past month for simulated training—the team currently loaded into full-match simulation was FAZE, whom Meng Lang had played against once in a scrim while still in EG.
FAZE could undoubtedly be called the galactic battleship of the current CS pro scene. At the start of the year, after bringing in the free agent Ropz, they finally completed their championship puzzle. In February, they won IEM Katowice, one of the three super-elite events, and in April, they continued their form and took the EPL S15 championship as well!
At present, the team was ranked number one on HLTV.
Only by clashing with strong teams could he improve himself!
Meng Lang understood this very clearly. That was why, while the one-month limit had yet to pass, he added FAZE, this galactic battleship, to his first simulated training opponents.
【Spend 1,000 GOAT points to begin a training match simulation against the “galactic battleship” FAZE Clan?】
【Reminder: After simulated training begins, you will automatically enter a sleep state. Time flows differently in the simulation space from reality. You may exit at any time. Training effects may slowly feed back into reality, increasing muscle memory values.】
Meng Lang, who had developed something like PTSD from being trapped in that “cyber prison,” felt a little nervous at first. But when he saw the prompt saying “may exit at any time,” he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
This was good!!!
This function was practically tailor-made for him!
It was equivalent to using GOAT points to exchange for simulated training. He could carry out high-intensity training even while asleep, without worrying about being locked inside forever!
Other people earned money after sleeping.
He trained after sleeping.
Meng Lang chose “yes” without the slightest hesitation.
The next second, his vision sank into darkness!
Immediately after, countless dazzling lines of color appeared. After his consciousness shuttled through them for a while, he entered Mirage, the map from that scrim they had lost to FAZE!
There was no warm-up.
They entered the map, and the countdown began!
Just like in that previous scrim,
Meng Lang’s side started as T, and the match soon began.
But he very quickly discovered how terrifying the system was!
The opponents in the simulation space, including his teammates, were not highly intelligent AIs cooperating with him for training. They were simply like living, breathing people!
On the teammate side, calls, communication, all kinds of tactics, and utility coordination went without saying. They were basically the same as real teammates playing a scrim. If they lost too many rounds, there were even people cheering everyone on and trying to pull the team together.
As for the CT opponents, their default setups, dynamic defense, and all kinds of utility coordination—under Big Cousin’s outstanding tactical leadership and resource integration ability, FAZE as a team appeared especially terrifying.
Of course, what was even more terrifying was that whenever the opponents won rounds, Meng Lang could even hear Big Cousin imitating an ambulance, going “wee-woo, wee-woo, wee-woo” in his ear to mess with his mentality.
Meng Lang: ...
No way!
Did it have to be this realistic?!
But realism had its advantages!
After being killed countless times in the simulation, losing rounds, losing matches, restarting countless times, and studying the opponent’s defensive habits and attacking routes over and over again...
After who knew how many matches, not only did Meng Lang’s aim, awareness, and tactical execution slowly improve through the games, but more importantly, his understanding and familiarity with the map Mirage actually climbed at an unbelievable speed!
Originally a Dust2 specialist, he seemed to be on the verge of gaining a new signature map!
As expected of you!
Brother System!
Meng Lang, who had always suffered from defects in his map pool, was overjoyed!
Over the next two days, Meng Lang’s life turned into an almost insane cycle:
—During the day, he dragged his cousin into duo queues in high-elo FPL pugs for real combat tempering, while also using livestreaming to earn GOAT points from viewers and fans!
Late at night, he began spending GOAT points!
Using the system simulation, he dove into “Mirage” again and again, engaging in virtual bloody battles against a top-tier powerhouse like FAZE—battles known only to himself.
Niko and Little Li were dumbfounded. They knew young people were addicted to gaming, but they had never imagined Meng Lang’s addiction would be this severe!
Did he not rest at all?
Jackz, meanwhile, was under immense pressure.
No, bro!
You’re grinding way too hard!
Can I just not compete with you anymore?
Two days flashed by, and very soon it was time for the scrim against Astralis, Team A, as well as the time for G2’s management to make their decision.
Meng Lang was the first to go up.
“Mate, it’s just a scrim. Relax a little. It’s nothing serious.” Before the scrim began, Niko patted Meng Lang on the shoulder before taking his seat and spoke in a relaxed tone, trying to ease Meng Lang’s nerves and help him adjust.
The in-game leader, Little Li, standing to the side, also nodded.
“Mate, haven’t you played a lot of ladder matches lately? Just treat it like a ladder match. Use the way you’re most comfortable with and fucking run over the opponents!”
However, Meng Lang did not look nervous at all. Hearing their words, he said with a face full of eagerness, “No problem! I already can’t wait to start the slaughter! Let’s go, G2! GOGOGO!”
As he spoke, he clenched his fist and waved it hard twice.
His tone was extremely lighthearted!
Pfft!
moNESY, who was sipping Coke through a straw nearby, almost could not hold back his laughter. Over the past two days, he had also been observing this young CN player who had come to the team for a tryout.
It had to be said that the kid had a very good impression of Meng Lang.
Young! Sunny! Super handsome!
Straightforward! Optimistic! Loved to communicate!
This kind of personality could avoid many internal team conflicts.
Most importantly, he loved playing ladder.
If he could stay on the team, then in the future moNESY would also have a ladder partner. That should be very interesting.
Niko turned his head and smiled at Little Li. “How about it? I told you this kid has no idea what nerves are, didn’t I?”
“Fine! Then let’s start.”
“Wait!”
Meng Lang suddenly interrupted.
“What’s wrong?”
Everyone looked puzzled when they heard him.
The next second, they saw Meng Lang take out a white bandage from who knew where. Lowering his head, he began wrapping it around his right hand, coil after coil.
Yes, this was the system reward, the 【Time-Lag Reverse Entropy Bandage】—when wrapped around the hand, it could suppress hidden hand injuries and slowly heal them during high-intensity hand usage.
The bandage’s actual appearance had a semi-transparent, flowing silver texture. It was difficult to tell what material it was made of, but it was extremely thin and flexible, perfectly conforming to the contours of the hand—Meng Lang had already secretly tried it. Wrapping it around his hand did not affect wrist movement or finger-operation precision in the slightest.
But when everyone in G2 saw this, they almost could not keep it together!
“Your hand injury still hasn’t healed?”
“No, it’s already healed.”
“Then why are you still...”
“I’m used to it. It feels comfortable wearing it.”
Meng Lang did not explain much. He glanced at Niko’s arm sleeve. “It’s about the same as that sleeve of yours.”
Huh?
How could those be the same?
The corner of Niko’s eye could not help twitching.
But the scrim was about to begin. Although it was rather strange for Meng Lang to play a match with a bandage wrapped around his right hand, since he himself said it was fine, no one said anything more.
In esports, results spoke for themselves.
If you played well, no one would say a thing even if you went on stage leaning on crutches and sitting in a wheelchair.