Chapter 655
An Accidental Encounter with a Minor Celebrity
Three days have passed since the gold medal win at the Asian Games, and the online celebrations are still going strong. But in this e-sports base located in the suburbs, time seems to have been fast-forwarded, and everyone is sprinting frantically for the upcoming S13 World Championship.
At 2:30 a.m., the training room on the first floor was still brightly lit.
"Oh my god, how am I supposed to play this new version of Quesanti?" Jungler Chen tugged at his hair in frustration, staring at his grayed-out screen. "I went to gank top, and he used his ultimate to drag me under the tower and beat me up. Wasn't this champion's mechanics supposed to be nerfed?"
Sitting in the corner, Su Mo took off his headphones, picked up the thermos on the table, took a sip of warm water, and spoke in his usual reassuringly calm tone: "His burst damage and control chain have indeed been nerfed, but the damage reduction from W is still there. When you went to gank him just now, he had W and Grasp of the Undying in his hand. You can't just brute force damage against Quesanti; you have to bait him into using W first. Next time, just peek out from the river bush, don't actually engage. If he gets nervous and uses his skills, then you can ward him over."
"Got it, got it, Brother Mo, how did you even get this brain? You've seen right through every hero." Ah Chen chuckled and resurrected, heading out the door.
Su Mo smiled helplessly and glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen.
The continuous high-intensity ranked matches in the Korean server had left his wrists slightly sore. He stood up and stretched his shoulders: "You guys continue practicing, I'm going to buy a coffee at FamilyMart and get some fresh air. Do you need anything?"
"Get me a grilled sausage! Plain flavor!"
"Brother Mo, I'd like a bottle of iced tea, thank you!"
Su Mo gave an "OK" sign, casually picked up a black cotton hooded sweatshirt without any logo from the back of the chair, put it on, pulled up the hood, put his hands in his pockets, and walked out of the base gate in a pair of sneakers.
The streets were deserted in the early morning, and the streetlights cast long shadows of him.
Turning a corner, the convenience store's iconic white and green lightbox looked especially warm in the night.
As I pushed open the glass door, the electronic "Welcome" notification rang out crisply. Inside, besides a clerk who was dozing off, there was only one girl standing at the cashier.
She was wearing a trench coat and a black baseball cap, with most of her face covered by a black medical mask, revealing only a pair of slightly anxious peach blossom eyes.
She was holding two skewers of oden and a bag of potato chips, awkwardly holding up her phone, when the screen went completely black after a series of rapid low battery warnings.
"I'm sorry... my phone seems to have frozen and shut down, or it's out of battery." The girl's voice was soft, with a gentle tone typical of people from the Jiangnan water towns, but it could be heard clearly in the quiet convenience store.
The cashier, a young man half-asleep, sighed impatiently upon hearing this: "Do you have cash with you? Or you can pay by facial recognition."
"I...I don't have any cash, and facial recognition doesn't seem to be working..." The girl nervously fidgeted with the hem of her trench coat, glancing around as if trying to find someone she knew, but the streets were deserted at 2:30 in the morning. Just as she was about to reluctantly put down the steaming oden in her hand, a hand with distinct knuckles and long, slender fingers reached out from her side.
Several cans of chilled coffee, a bottle of iced tea, and two plain grilled sausages were gently placed on the cashier's counter.
Let's get married together.
Su Mo's voice was calm and casual. He didn't even glance at the girl next to him. He simply brought up his WeChat payment code with ease and scanned it successfully with a "beep".
The girl paused for a moment, then turned to look at the boy in the black hooded sweatshirt. Because the hood was pulled down low, she could only see his high nose bridge, his clean-cut jawline, and his eyes, which were as calm as a deep pool.
"Um... thank you." The girl seemed a little flustered. She lowered her voice, as if afraid of being recognized. "Can you add me on WeChat? I'll transfer the money to you as soon as I get back to the hotel and charge my phone. It's thirty-four yuan and fifty cents in total, right?"
Su Mo reached out and took the plastic bag from the cashier, replying casually, "No need, it's not much. It's the middle of the night, consider it a late-night snack."
After saying that, he picked up the bag, turned around, and prepared to leave. At this moment, Su Mo's mind was filled with the damage calculation formula of the new version of Quesanti in the Korean server ranked game. Rather than adding a strange girl on WeChat, he wanted to hurry back and play a custom game to test the values.
"Hey, wait!"
The girl was clearly taken aback by the decisive rejection, which sparked a hint of stubbornness in her. She quickly chased after him, the chilly early autumn wind causing the hem of her loose trench coat to flutter slightly.
"No, I'm not used to owing people favors." The girl jogged up and blocked Su Mo's path, pulling out a shared power bank she had just rented at the convenience store from her trench coat pocket. She plugged in her phone, "Wait a minute, I'll turn it on right away. Or you can show me your payment QR code, I'll take a picture and scan it for you later."
Su Mo was blocked in his way. Looking at the persistent girl in front of him, he sighed helplessly. He knew that if he didn't let her scan the code, he would probably be delayed here for another five minutes.
"Okay." Su Mo took out his phone from his pocket, opened the QR code, and handed it over.
The girl's phone happened to be turned on, and she quickly scanned the code. With a "ding," the transfer was successful.
"My name is Shen Yiyin." The girl looked at the WeChat interface with only an "S" and a pure black profile picture, then suddenly looked up and tentatively said her name.
Shen Yiyin, the lead vocalist of a new generation girl group that debuted through a talent show in the past two years, is not considered a top star, but she is quite well-known among young people. Recently, her group disbanded and she started pursuing a solo career. She had just finished recording a late-night program for a music variety show in Shanghai and was starving. Unable to stand her manager's strict control, she secretly slipped out to buy oden.
She thought that if she gave her name, the other person would at least look enlightened, or even excitedly take out their phone to take a photo together.
After all, even with a mask on, those highly recognizable peach blossom eyes have gone viral online.
However, Su Mo simply put her phone back in her pocket, nodded slightly, and said in a calm tone as if she were listening to today's weather forecast: "Oh, hello. My name is Su Mo. Let's go back to the hotel early, it's windy outside."
After saying that, he didn't even say a polite "Can we add each other as friends?" He walked past Shen Yiyin, put his hands in his pockets, and walked steadily toward the villa site on the street corner.
Shen Yiyin stood blankly in the early autumn wind, holding her newly charged phone, watching the black figure gradually disappear into the night.
"Su Mo...?" She blinked in surprise. "This person... really doesn't recognize me?"
Not only did they not recognize her, but they didn't even spare her a single glance. That pure indifference didn't offend Shen Yiyin; instead, it gave her a long-lost sense of ease in the sycophantic entertainment industry, a feeling of freedom from needing to wear masks. "Su Mo…that name…where have I heard it before?"
Shen Yiyin munched on the oden skewer that Su Mo had paid for as she walked towards the hotel where the nanny van was parked. Just as she reached the hotel lobby, her manager, Sister Hua, who was as anxious as a cat on a hot tin roof, came to greet her.
"My little darling! Where did you run off to in the middle of the night! The S-series is about to start, and the company worked so hard to get you a guest spot on an e-sports spin-off program. You have to go shoot promotional posters first thing tomorrow morning. What if you eat too much and get an unflattering photo taken?" Sister Hua snatched the bag of oden from her hand.
"Okay, Sister Hua, I only took one bite." Shen Yiyin stuck out her tongue, but then a key phrase suddenly popped into her head. "Wait, Sister Hua, you just said the S-series? Is it the League of Legends game?"
"Yeah! Don't you know how popular esports is right now? Especially that Chinese team that just won the Asian Games gold medal!" Sister Hua muttered as she pressed the elevator button. "You should go back and catch up on your studies tonight, so you don't go to the recording of the show tomorrow and not be able to name any of the star players."
"Asian Games gold medal?"
Shen Yiyin was stunned. She quickly opened Weibo, and even though several days had passed, several related terms were still trending on the hot search list.
She clicked on a video that had over 100 million views: [#SuMo's Sighing Wall Ornn#].
In the video footage, a massive lava tank engulfed in flames stood in front of its four teammates, blocking the devastating sand troop assault from the opposing side. The scene then cut to an awards ceremony.
Standing in the very center of the highest podium was a handsome young man in a red and white national team uniform, with a gold medal around his neck. Unlike those around him who were moved to tears, he quietly gazed at the national flag, his eyes clear and deep, exuding a composure and calmness beyond his years.
The most upvoted comment under the video is: "In this era full of restlessness, Su Mo is the last line of defense and pure land of the LPL. The ultimate operation, the ultimate calmness."
Shen Yiyin's pupils dilated slightly. She paused the video and zoomed in on the young man's profile.
A high, straight nose, a delicate and well-defined jawline, and eyes that seemed as calm as a deep pool.
Isn't this the guy in the black hoodie at the convenience store who casually paid her 34.5 yuan without even glancing at her?!
“Su Mo…” Shen Yiyin looked at the quiet, pure black profile picture in her WeChat list, and her heart skipped a beat for no reason.
That god-tier top laner who's been hailed as a god by the entire internet, was actually buying her oden in the middle of the night while wearing an old hoodie? And he even told her to go back to the hotel early in that headmaster-like tone?
"Yiyin, what are you looking at? The elevator's here," the agent urged.
"Ah...no, it's nothing." Shen Yiyin quickly turned off her phone screen, but couldn't help but let a beautiful smile appear on her lips.
……
On the other side, Su Mo pushed open the door to the training room while carrying a plastic bag.
"Brother Mo! My iced tea!" Ah Chen pounced over like a hungry tiger, took the iced tea and gulped it down. "Awesome! I feel like I'm back in action. This time I'm going to completely shut down that Lee Sin on the other side so badly he won't even know what jungle monsters look like!"
Su Mo handed the grilled sausage to Xiao Yue, the mid-laner, pulled out a chair and sat down. He hooked the tab on the can of black coffee with his index finger, tilted his head back and took a sip of the bitter coffee, completely forgetting the little incident that happened at the convenience store earlier.
"Chen, I just watched your replay. You were too obsessed with the top side river crab." Su Mo gripped the mouse, opened the replay he had saved from spectating, and began to calmly review the game. "In patch 13.19, the early game gold for junglers was slightly adjusted. If you're a top laner without lane priority, forcibly controlling the top river crab can easily lead to being ganked by the enemy mid, top, and jungle. The correct strategy is to secure vision, trade for the bottom river crab, and guarantee lane priority in the bottom lane."
“Oh right…” Ah Chen leaned over to look at the timeline in the video, then slapped his thigh in realization, “I was only thinking about not losing, and as a result, I gave away the momentum. Brother Mo, it’s a real shame you’re not a coach with your strategic vision.”
"I'm not so old that I can't type anymore." Su Mo smiled faintly, clicked "Find a Match," and said, "Let's continue. My flight to South Korea is in eleven days."
Over the next eleven days, this base, located in the suburbs of Shanghai, was completely transformed into a high-speed machine.
Every day, Su Mo's schedule was frighteningly regular: he would get up at 9:30 in the morning and do half an hour of aerobic exercise on the treadmill without fail to maintain his physical strength; he would start Korean server ranked matches at 11:00; from 2:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon, he would have high-intensity team training matches; and in the evening, he would review the game and expand his hero pool in a targeted manner until 3:00 in the morning.
During this period, team manager Lao Li approached Su Mo several more times, all for official sponsor material shoots that he couldn't refuse. Su Mo didn't put on airs and cooperated extremely efficiently in the shooting studio at the base, only politely declining all banquets and commercial appearances that required him to go out for social engagements.
His indifference to fame and fortune was unbelievable even to Lao Li, who was used to the world of fame and fortune in the entertainment and e-sports circles.
Until the night before departure for Seoul, South Korea.
The staff at the base prepared a lavish farewell feast, and the club owner also attended in person, raising a glass to send everyone off.
"Guys! All the hard work of the past six months depends on this next month!" The boss was beaming. "Although our team won the Summer Championship in China, the world stage is the only true test of our worth! Su Mo, you are the pillar of the team. This time, when you lead the team to Korea, I have no demands, just one sentence—crash the place! Bring the championship trophy back!"
"Cheers!" The team members raised their juice and cola, and the atmosphere became extremely enthusiastic.
Su Mo also raised his glass, gently touched it to his cup, and drank it all in one gulp.
After the banquet, the team members packed their luggage in their respective rooms. Su Mo had the least luggage, consisting of two sets of team uniforms, a few changes of underwear, his peripheral bag, and his black tactical notebook.
He zipped up his suitcase, and his phone suddenly vibrated on the table.
It's a WeChat message.
It comes from the account whose profile picture is a cartoon cat and whose contact name is "Shen Yiyin".
Since adding each other on WeChat at the convenience store that day, the two haven't communicated at all. Su Mo's social circle is very small; apart from family and teammates, his WeChat is basically inactive. (End of Chapter)