You’re Causing Chaos Again

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The consequences of underestimating the opponent can be severe.

Comparatively speaking, there are examples of complacency leading to defeat across various fields. In the context of the esports world, numerous players and teams have fallen into obscurity due to overconfidence. Even the strongest teams can be defeated due to arrogance, not to mention TR – whether they are considered weak or strong, they are far from invincible.

Perhaps their previous victory inflated their confidence to an extent, coupled with Sunday’s performance as a substitute, which was quite fitting for a newcomer making their debut – nervous and disorganized.

The TR players had already noticed Meng Yan lurking in ambush. From their perspective, Meng Yan seemed unaware that he had been exposed. Meanwhile, Sunday was still on the run, clueless about either dodging or counterattacking when attacked. He seemed to only know how to flee without any strategy, which was quite embarrassing.

After a brief discussion with his teammates, Moonlight decided to adopt a similar strategy as before: leave two damage dealers behind to quickly deal with Meng Yan while the other two chased Sunday.

Moonlight flung a fireball behind Meng Yan, expecting him not to react too quickly. However, Meng Yan skillfully evaded, engaging the two opponents head-on.

The two TR assassins weren’t too concerned when their sneak attack failed; they had confidence in a two-versus-one situation.

However, they quickly realized they were mistaken. A wild “Luan Meimei” dropped from the sky, wielding the Little White Wolf, a character he hadn’t used in many matches. In previous games, to break the stereotype of being a “Little White Wolf only” player, he often casually picked different characters, leading to opponents no longer banning the White Wolf.

Shen Yanming initiated the fight by using his ultimate ability, not for securing kills but for the psychological impact of a powerful initiation that pierced through both opponents.
While others needed considerable anticipation to utilize White Wolf’s ultimate, Shen Yanming executed it with ease. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he could hit as many targets as he pleased. If he felt like it, he could skewer opponents like kebabs.

Sure enough, due to Shen Yanming’s sudden appearance, the two TR players were caught off guard, and their rhythm was disrupted.

Over at TR’s side, Moonlight surveyed the situation. Not spotting the other teammates, he judged, “Our disruption also scattered their formation. Kong might be chasing after their tank. We still have a chance, so let’s take down one.”

After a brief exchange, TR mages spoke, “We’ve been tricked. Kong is nearby, and Chaos and Nightmare are back to full health.”

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Moonlight replied, “The healer go back, let’s ignore their little tank for now.”

Their healer chimed in with a grim expression, “I can’t come back!”

It turned out that during Sunday’s escape, he triggered various random events on the way, gaining positive buffs and even encountering player-unfriendly events. At first, it seemed like Sunday was randomly fleeing in panic, and they initially laughed at his inability to avoid random events. Later, they realized he was doing it on purpose. He activated the events, swiftly evaded them himself, and sneakily used a threat diversion skill. By the time the two pursuing opponents realized it, they had attracted a horde of menacing wild bosses.

Sunday proudly declared, “This is what they call, ‘using another’s blade to slay the shark’!”

The TR team’s recent performance downfall was as dismal as their soaring earlier. That’s how people are – when you make an unconventional decision that succeeds, others will praise your resourcefulness. But if you fail, it’s a different story. In the previous round, the TR team members had praised Moonlight’s brilliant strategy, but now their tone shifted to blame, “They said they’d send in a weak player, but now we’re just being toyed with. We’d be better off facing Pudding.”

At the very least, Pudding’s role as a tank provided steady damage absorption and utility, whereas this Sunday was as aggressive as a rabid dog. Even when the random events weren’t affecting them anymore, he was still hell-bent on dealing damage, causing a lot of trouble for them.

Moonlight was quite unhappy about it, but at this point, he could only suppress his frustration and said, “Let’s not talk about that now; it’s not over yet.”

Moonlight had already died once. Their Nanny had barely managed to return from Sunday’s rampage, hastily reviving Moonlight.

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It was only after resurrecting him that they realized something was off – why didn’t any of the TMM members interrupt his casting?

But at this point, their mentality had become unstable, and they didn’t have the luxury of considering such details. Just surviving is their immediate focus, and it’s another form of combat strength.

However, as soon as Moonlight got back on his feet, he was impaled through the heart by Little White Wolf’s arrow, along with the Nanny behind him.

In this round, the character He Changkong used had a skill called “Sacrifice” which sacrificed 70% of his own health to provide a significant damage bonus to the damage dealers. After Shen Yanming pierced through the two players, He Changkong used the Sacrifice skill, and Shen Yanming’s full combo landed on Moonlight again.

Moonlight wanted to dodge, but Kong immobilized him.

As a result, Moonlight, who had just revived, was forced to stand still. The enemy’s healer attempted to remove the control, but Meng Yan interrupted him.

However, Meng Yan didn’t attack the healer; instead, he started circling around him.

By the time Shen Yanming’s combo landed squarely on the helpless Moonlight, Meng Yan had lured the healer over to Moonlight’s corpse.

Shen Yanming typed in the public chat:

[tmm_chaos]: Revive your teammate quickly!

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The entire audience fell silent.

Even a fool could tell by now – they were intentionally leaving the healer alive, killed Moonlight once, and then let the healer resurrect him – in fact, Sunday might have intentionally let the healer escape initially.

In the live chat, someone commented: What a sly move! Have you heard of the story of Prometheus? This sweetie against Moonlight is like Zeus punishing Prometheus. Let the eagle feast on his liver, then restore him, and the liver grows back, only for the eagle to return and feast again – a never-ending cycle.

But if Shen Yanming knew that someone was comparing Moonlight to the resilient Prometheus who faced hardship, he would surely say that the comparison is not fitting.

All eyes were on the TR team’s Nanny.

Will they choose to revive or not?

Reviving him would be a clear humiliation, while not doing so would raise suspicions of unsportsmanlike behavior. After all, on the battlefield, everyone strives to fight to the end as long as there’s a glimmer of hope.

Shen Yanming also stared at the screen’s unfolding scene, thinking, “Playing mind games? Let me show you what true psychological warfare is.”

In the end, the healer chose to revive Moonlight.

Shen Yanming’s Little White Wolf had secured multiple kills by now, and his fighting spirit was high. As soon as the cooldown was up, he unleashed his ultimate ability, and Moonlight was defenseless against it.

Shen Yanming shook his head playfully. “Tsk, go fetch the crown, I’ll play around here for a bit longer.”

After finishing his sentence, Shen Yanming typed another message in the chat.

[tmm_chaos]: Still not reviving?’

Moonlight pounded on his keyboard angrily.

There was no doubt that TMM had secured victory in this match. The last game of the BO3 series was also devoid of suspense.

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In this 1v2 showdown, TMM scored another point in the league.

However, their performance in the second game was too fearsome, prompting many to question whether TMM was intentionally playing mind games with their opponents.

Especially among TR’s fans, some immediately questioned the organizing committee, stating that TMM was using unsportsmanlike tactics, and Chaos was mocking in the chat, suggesting that they should be penalized.

Shen Yanming wasn’t afraid of their uproar; this situation couldn’t possibly be ruled against them.

Firstly, the Nanny revived Moonlight, but Moonlight still couldn’t seize the opportunity and died multiple times in a row. This was a lack of skill, not TMM cheating.

Secondly, Shen Yanming’s chat message was neither vulgar nor belittling towards the opponents. Although anyone with some emotional intelligence could tell he was being sarcastic, Shen Yanming could easily argue that he was merely inquiring innocently.

After all, if a teammate died, the healer should revive them, right? What’s wrong with asking?

Hehe.

This time, it was Sunday who was taken for a post-match interview. His Mandarin was a bit artificial, and he was shy in front of strangers. Shen Yanming wasn’t at ease letting him handle it alone, so he accompanied Sunday. The rest of the team went back to the lounge.

After Shen Yanming and Sunday finished their chat with the host and returned, they saw Coach Afeng and Meng Yan sitting on either side of Pudding, like guards.

Pudding’s eyes were slightly red, as if he had been crying. When he saw the remaining two teammates enter, he raised his head and smiled at them with traces of tears still on his face. Shen Yanming walked over and patted Pudding’s shoulder, then went to stand beside He Changkong and softly asked, “What happened?”

He Changkong explained, “They had a talk.”

Shen Yanming didn’t probe further, guessing that they had touched upon some painful issues. This wasn’t a bad thing; expressing things out loud was always beneficial. Shen Yanming was actually more worried that Pudding might keep everything bottled up and not say a word.

Meng Yan stood up. “Coach and I will accompany Ding jiang back home for a bit.”

Sunday meekly added, “I want to go too.”

Meng Yan stopped him, “You little kid, don’t go. The big bad wolf might eat you.”

Sunday, feeling bold, rolled his eyes at his older brother. “I’m sixteen, not three. Thanks for the concern.”

Shen Yanming didn’t know the full story, but he made a simple guess. He figured that Pudding might not be in a good state today due to something related to his family. Both Coach Afeng and Meng Yan were probably going to help resolve the issue. Sunday’s intention was kind, but since they had a plan in motion, it might be best not to disrupt it.

So, Shen Yanming pulled Sunday over to him and said, “Tian jiang, to celebrate your fantastic performance in your first match, ge will take you to eat…”

Sunday’s eyes immediately lit up with a mischievous glint, “Eat Senmo!”

Shen Yanming also smiled, his eyes curving, “McDonald’s Happy Meal.”

Sunday: “…”

Well, that works too, Sunday thought.

However, McDonald’s was crowded, so they ended up getting McDelivery after returning to the base. They bought Happy Meals and even got some toys. Shen Yanming said they were for Sunday to play with, but he ended up happily playing with them himself.

They sat at a table in the dining room on the first floor of the player dorms. Shen Yanming and He Changkong sat on one side, while Sunday sat across from them.

“We three are like a family of three,” Sunday took a bite of his Filet-O-Fish and swallowed before launching into a rendition of “The Joyous-Treasures,” “Daddy is like the sun shining on Mommy~”

“What family of three? Am I your dad?” Shen Yanming asked again, “And you still remember this song?”

He Changkong: “…”

“I remember so many things,” Sunday proudly declared. Then he added, “Daddy Kong, Mommy Luan, and we’re the harmonious family~”

Shen Yanming felt a bit awkward for some reason and didn’t dare to look at He Changkong. He could only feign a strong stance, “You’ve got it all mixed up!”

“Kerosene got mixed up,” Sunday took another bite of his burger, slowly finishing it and ignoring Shen Yanming’s retort. His expression suddenly turned somewhat melancholic, “I’m very happy today, but unfortunately, Ding Ding Hiong isn’t happy, and I’m not happy either.”

Upon hearing this, Shen Yanming also sighed.

“That Moonlight isn’t a good person,” Shen Yanming said.

He proceeded to recount the scene where he and Pudding had stumbled upon Moonlight’s cheating incident to He Changkong and Sunday.

“Pudding’s cousin or whatever is quite the gossipmonger. He mentioned earlier that some people suspected Moonlight was gay. Unfortunately, our video isn’t exactly conclusive evidence. To really nail him, we need more proof… But I’ve already got a plan,” Shen Yanming said, opening his phone’s app store and typing in the name of an application to start downloading a new software. “I plan to ‘fish’ and ‘enforce the law’.”

He Changkong asked, “How do you ‘fish’ and ‘enforce the law’?”

Shen Yanming explained with a serious tone, “I heard gay guys like to use this app to hook up. I’ll create an account and see if I can find him. I’ll send him some pictures, chat with him regularly, and drop a few lines like ‘Brother, I miss you so much’ or ‘Brother, you’re so amazing, I really like you.’ When he takes the bait, I’ll…”

Before Shen Yanming could finish, He Changkong placed his hand on Shen Yanming’s, preventing him from proceeding with registering a new user.

“No way,” He Changkong’s face darkened, “Let Meng Yan handle this.”

Author’s Message:

Meng Yan: What about me?

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