Inside the university cafeteria.
“What the hell is your dorm doing? How do four people eat breakfast at four different tables?”
Mao Zhiqiang from the neighboring dorm asked, utterly baffled.
Yang Yu looked ahead and saw the other members of Dorm 302 sitting at three different tables in front of him. The atmosphere in the entire area was terrifyingly oppressive.
The three people who had been passionately three-stacking last night now acted as if they didn’t know one another.
Yang Yu held it in for a long time, but in the end, he couldn’t help bursting out laughing.
He explained to Mao Zhiqiang, “Those three were passionately three-stacking last night. They only just finished playing.”
“It can’t be that bad, right?” Mao Zhiqiang said in confusion.
Yang Yu added, “They went from C+ to D+ in one night.”
Mao Zhiqiang looked again at the seating distribution of the people from Dorm 302 and replied, “Then the relationships in your dorm are actually pretty good. Normally, they wouldn’t be sitting this close.”
Mao Zhiqiang took a bite of his bun. “Then what’s your deal?”
“I was too lazy to listen to them blame each other, so I opened a table by myself,” Yang Yu said.
“No problem with your game sense there.”
After some discussion, Yang Yu finished his congee, then waited for the others from his dorm to head back together.
Their major had no classes this morning. Yang Yu had only been woken up by the rank-failing trio to come eat breakfast.
After returning to the dorm, Yang Yu looked at the trio, who clearly had no intention of sleeping, and tentatively asked, “Anyone want to rank up with me?”
Xu Kun instantly sat up from his bed, looking as if he was about to jump down and turn on his computer immediately.
The next second, he lay back down with a pained expression. “Can’t play anymore, bro. There’s already a tragic thick barrier between us!”
“We have a rank gap now!!” After saying that, Xu Kun seemed to pass away in peace. He desperately wanted to travel back to last night, when he had still been a B-rank player.
Yang Yu sat at his desk and laughed.
Since no one was going to sweetly duo-queue with him, he planned to rank up on his own in a bit.
The objective of the B1t Headshot Talent challenge mission was S rank. Right now, he was still only in B rank, and there was still quite a distance between him and S.
He still had to work hard!
“Show stats!”
The system panel appeared before him in the next moment.
[Host: Yang Yu]
[Age: 18]
[Current Rank: Perfect World B]
[Firepower: 55]
[Marksmanship: 54]
[Sniping: 68]
[Trade Fragging: 36]
[Game Sense: 67]
[Clutching: 60]
[Map Understanding: 45]
[Mentality: 78]
[Utility Usage: 38]
[Credit Score Rating: C]
[Advance Points: 117]
[Current Advance Ability: 1. B1T Headshot Talent]
Yang Yu took a look and discovered that compared to yesterday, the change in his marksmanship had been huge.
His firepower had increased from 44 to 55, trade fragging from 33 to 36, and clutching from 56 to 60.
This was actually very normal. For Yang Yu, yesterday had been his first proper day of deliberate practice.
It was just like fitness. In the early stages, improvement was naturally very obvious, and it was also the period with the strongest positive feedback.
Once one reached the later stages, improving would become slower and slower.
Of course, the most important factor was still the influence of B1T’s headshot talent. In CSGO matches, the effect brought about by being able to hit headshots was truly enormous.
If the opponent needed five bullets to kill, while you only needed one, your margin for error would become much higher. Your ability to chain kills and your win rate would both rise significantly.
At this moment, Yang Yu also noticed the [Advance Points] entry.
“This thing should be what I got after finishing yesterday’s deathmatch challenge, right?”
Yang Yu remembered that after the deathmatch challenge ended, the system had reminded him once, but his attention had been drawn away by the following “First Taste of Skill.”
Now that he thought of it, he finally had time to check what these Advance Points were used for.
[Advance Points: Can be used to purchase random items from the Points Shop. Items in the Points Shop will refresh daily...]
The system quickly gave an explanation.
Yang Yu curiously opened the Points Shop.
Very soon, he saw the items in today’s Points Shop.
[apEX’s Flying Second Floor Low-Grade Fragment]
[Description: This fragment contains apEX’s thought changes when executing the Flying Second Floor tactic.
PS: The whole world knows apEX is flying upstairs.]
[Price: 1000 points]
[...]
[Aleksib’s Shrimp-Catching Fragment]
[Description: This fragment contains Aleksib’s slight research into G2.
PS: The captain’s illegal fishing has already caused Boston lobsters to approach extinction.]
[Price: 3000 points]
[...]
[Sacred Body: Human Limit]
[Description: Contains the peak strength of device, the human limit.
PS: The wails of a certain coquettish streamer are an endless longing for the human limit.]
[Price: 500000 points]
Yang Yu’s gaze instantly stopped. Good lord.
If the first two items weren’t very tempting to Yang Yu, then this thing was a little outrageous.
No one had told him that these points could directly be exchanged for the full strength of a top professional player!
Although the human limit, device, had already started declining now, what level of player had he been at his peak?
His name already said everything.
The human limit!
The strongest human!
Above him, there were only the two monster-level players S1mple and ZywOo.
However, after looking at his mere 117 points, then looking at the price of [Sacred Body: Human Limit], which was as high as 500,000 points, Yang Yu temporarily dismissed the idea.
Still, knowing that something of this level could appear in the Points Shop gave him even more motivation to complete missions later.
He continued looking down.
[Xantares Peek Low-Grade Fragment]
[Description: This fragment records the unique techniques contained within the Xantares peek.]
[Price: 200 points]
What was Xantares peek?
Yang Yu hadn’t been playing CSGO for very long. He only knew some of the more famous professional players.
He specifically took out his phone to look it up. XANTARES was nicknamed the Turkish Fierce Man. He was a very famous Faceit-style player, and the XANTARES Peek was a wide-swinging technique he liked to use.
How terrifying was this technique?
The fact that it was named after the Turkish Fierce Man’s ID said enough.
From the perspective of the person being killed, the Turkish Fierce Man’s dry peek looked like a prefire. The moment he swung out, before you could even see the person clearly, you were already headshotted and instantly killed.
After watching from the victim’s perspective, Yang Yu only felt his hands go cold, his skull ringing with a bang.
Say no more. He wanted to learn it!
Unfortunately, he only had 117 points right now, not enough for 200.
But the existence of the XANTARES PEEK made Yang Yu even more motivated.
Because he understood that as long as he properly completed today’s challenge mission, he should probably be able to get some points too.
Once he thought of it, he got to work.
Yang Yu rubbed his palms together and soon began his deathmatch headshot training.
Compared to yesterday, his training had become much more effortless.
He didn’t know whether it was the influence of B1T’s headshot talent or the effect of his deliberate practice, but hitting headshots was becoming increasingly easy for him.
And it wasn’t just headshots. As he frequently used counter-strafing and crosshair placement, those techniques also began to improve.
This feeling of progress fascinated him.
Watching the headshot count in the system notification bar in the upper-right corner continuously increase, his heart grew more and more satisfied.
As a slightly sore feeling appeared in his forearm, he gradually secured 500 headshots as well.
Watching the First Taste of Skill mission turn into (2/30), the system notification sounded as expected.
[Advance Points +169...]
Adding yesterday’s Advance Points, he finally had enough capital to purchase the [Xantares PEEK Low-Grade Fragment].
With a thought.
“Purchase Xantares Peek Low-Grade Fragment?”
“Yes!”
The next second, the system notification sounded.
“Please watch five of Xantares’s ranked POVs on your own and carefully read and understand his peeking method. After completing the prerequisite conditions, unique technique understanding will be issued...”
Yang Yu: “...”
At this moment, there was only silence.
As expected, it was low-grade enough.
He had originally thought the system could directly transform him into Xantares and let him instantly understand the meaning of his peek.
So in the end, he still had to watch first-person demos himself?
Then let me ask you! What use are you, system!
Yang Yu complained inwardly for a while.
But he still went to Bilibili and searched for Xantares’s ranked demos, beginning to study them carefully.
Although he felt a little resistant inside, once he actually started watching, Yang Yu really did learn quite a bit.
The map for this Xantares ranked game was Mirage. After communicating, they chose to launch a delayed rush B.
Then Yang Yu saw the Turkish Fierce Man take utility to a special position. When his teammates launched the attack, he aimed at the right spots and threw two flashbangs in a row.
Once the main force rushed into B site from the front, the upper-right corner was filled with Xantares’s flash assists.
Yang Yu understood that this flash was much better than the ones he randomly threw.
This round could be considered something learned.
Xantares’s side quickly relied on his excellent flashbang and his teammates’ entry kills to take the pistol round.
The match soon entered the rifle round.
At the start, both sides exchanged a round of utility in mid and produced a 2-for-2 trade.
But as the attacking side, the Fierce Man’s team no longer had much utility to use.
After communicating, they ultimately chose a connector split toward A.
The Fierce Man carried his AK and began constantly pre-aiming from A1.
After confirming the close angle in A1 was clear, the Fierce Man roughly inferred that the opponent was near the long box.
Immediately afterward, Yang Yu saw a set of operations as beautiful as a painting.
Behind cover, the Fierce Man switched weapons once to find his rhythm, then pre-aimed, maxed out his movement speed, adjusted his crosshair position during the swing, and counter-strafed to fire the instant he saw the enemy.
The opponent behind the long box had no chance to react at all.
Yang Yu sucked in a breath of cold air.
Previously, he had been the kind of player whose theoretical knowledge was maxed out, but whose practical experience was zero.
Looking at this play from Xantares’s perspective, it wasn’t a prefire. It was extremely solid fundamentals.
Pre-aiming, crosshair placement, secondary adjustment, crouching during a wide swing, map understanding, near things appearing larger and far things smaller...
The most exaggerated part was that he had combined all these details together, and when using them, it didn’t feel abrupt at all. Instead, there was a kind of harmonious beauty to it.
When this wide swing was used, it had a beauty of the Great Dao being simplicity itself.
Seeing this, Yang Yu also felt a sense of enlightenment in his heart.
Ever since he obtained B1T’s headshot talent yesterday, he had clearly felt that because his fundamentals were not solid enough, he couldn’t bring out the full effect of the headshot talent.
Now, he once again felt the importance of fundamentals.
If he could practice all these fundamentals to the top level, then even without learning other players’ playstyles and ideas...
As long as he was fast enough and accurate enough, he could still become a very strong professional player, right?
However, although he was filled with emotion, he still continued earnestly studying Xantares’s first-person perspective.
After more than an hour passed, he finally finished watching those demos.
At this moment, the system notification sounded once again.
[Issuing “Xantares Peek Low-Grade Fragment Understanding”...]
There were no especially obvious changes, but in Yang Yu’s mind, he inexplicably recalled some of the reasons why Xantares had used wide swings from different positions in those ranked matches he had just watched.
He knew why Xantares had been closer to cover in one round, and why he had shoulder-peeked first in another.
Knowing why something was done was far more important than rote memorization.
His fundamentals still weren’t solid enough.
As expected, if you were bad, you just had to practice more.
Yang Yu let out a long breath and once again began his road to ranking up.
...