[FLOTG] Chapter 11: Suspicion

<One Leaf Skiff> laughed out loud. [ Makes sense, makes sense. Ash Wing has never turned on his camera while streaming. Maybe he just doesn't look good? ]

Quite a lot of people online suspected this as well. After all, there was really no reasonable explanation for a streamer with 3 million fans to not show their face on camera, unless they were afraid they would lose fans due to their bad looks.

Hai Xing instantly said: [ I don't believe it! ]

Song Xue-Yang did not believe it either. Even if Ash Wing was ugly, he could have at least turned on his microphone. There were plenty of streamers who were mic-only without showing themselves on camera, and even those streamers who used a voice changer to change their voices were still doing very well in their live-stream channels. And yet Ash Wing did not go with any of these routes. He guarded himself so well that it seemed more like he was more concerned with protecting his identity than with gaining more followers.

<One Leaf Skiff> said: [ What's there to believe or not believe? It's not like everyone who plays well must be handsome. Look at Old Si of Thunderbolt — short and stout, and he's always ready with an innuendo, and still there are so many female fans who call him Lord Si. ] 

At the thought of Si Qian-Jin's chubby belly, the group really could not refute that.

After that, it seemed like <One Leaf Skiff>'s talk-switch had been flipped on — he began listing examples of ugly people with good skills within the e-sports circuit. [ That Fan Hao from supper{T/N: Taken directly from the raws. 'supper' must either be the name or nickname of a pro team.} has a face full of pimples, face always bitter like a bitter gourd... I wonder how his girlfriend can stand to kiss him. And Primo Wolf's vice-captain also looks pretty plain, and then there's that Hai Xing from Maple Moon... ]

Hai Xing instantly protested. [ How is he ugly? ]

<One Leaf Skiff> explained: [ Well, he isn't ugly, but he's short. ]

Hai Xing bristled. He's 175! How is that short?

Song Xue-Yang consoled him, "Xing Xing, don't be mad. He's praising your playing skills."

Hai Xing: "......"

He did not feel comforted at all by this!

Shen Huai broke his silence to type: [ He's still young. ]

Hai Xing was revitalised. [ That's right! He's still growing! ]

Song Xue-Yang jumped on the opportunity to ask: [ Master, which pro player do you find the most handsome? ]

The corners of Hai Xing's and <Endless Maple Moon>'s lips twitched.

Faced with this question, Song Xue-Yang's face subconsciously emerged in Shen Huai's mind.

As the captain of Maple Moon, whose objective was to build a pro team of idols, Song Xue-Yang's looks had passed through the strict screening of the HR department of Maple Moon and was even good enough for him to make it in the entertainment industry. What's more, even rarer and more commendable, was the fact that he had an unforgettable charm about him.

He was always smiling, but did not look like someone who was easy to deal with. However, he was very well-mannered, his every word and action like a gentle spring breeze, inviting others to like him. No one could resist taking a second look at his composed demeanour and confident air.

[ Master? ]

Shen Huai was pulled back from his thoughts. [ It doesn't matter whether a professional player is handsome or not. What's most important is solid skills, an eye for the big picture, awareness, and professionalism. ]

His words left <One Leaf Skiff> feeling rather ashamed. [ Yes, no matter what they look like, they are all players worthy of respect. ]

Song Xue-Yang wasn't very satisfied with this answer. [ Then which player does Master admire the most? ]

The party chat was dead silent. <Endless Maple Moon> wished fervently that he could private message Shen Huai and prompt him with the three syllables "Song Xue-Yang", just so they could end this awkward topic quicker.

Shen Huai brushed his fingers over his keyboard as he considered. [ I admire players who don't abandon their team even if they lose. ]

In the S3 competitive season, BattleGod had become champion. Before retiring, the team's captain Yao Jun had expressed the willingness of the team to pay Song Xue-Yang double if he would come to their team to take over as captain. This had caused a sensation at the time. Back then, Song Xue-Yang had only been leading his team for a year, and Maple Moon had barely squeezed into the top 8.

Everyone believed that Song Xue-Yang would definitely agree ― this was the current champion team asking, after all, and the team was up among the best ― but unexpectedly, the young man everyone had assumed would be soaring away to greater heights merely smiled and said...

"Even if I lose, I will not abandon my team."

This quote had become a trending search topic at the time. Anyone who had paid any attention at all to the games that year would more or less have an impression of it.

Seeing this familiar phrase, Song Xue-Yang's heart felt like it had been kissed by soft feathers. Many people had praised him over this matter, but he had never taken any of it to heart. However, coming from Ash Wing, these words felt completely different. It was like two wings had been planted onto Song Xue-Yang's heart, which felt like it was about to take flight if he wasn't careful.

Hai Xing stole a peek at his captain. Song Xue-Yang's face sported the same ever-unchanging smile as usual, yet Hai Xing had the feeling that he was even happier than if he had been presented with an honorary pennant.

<Falling Sleet> cheered excitedly in the party chat: [ God Snow is the most handsome in the whole world! ]

<Endless Maple Moon>: ......

Hai Xing: "......"

Captain, can you please control yourself! Don't act so happy! What if our covers are blown?!

When Shen Huai saw those words, an image of Song Xue-Yang's passionate fangirls on the internet came to mind, and Shen Huai couldn't help but feel happy on his behalf. Thus, he uncharacteristically responded: [ Yes. ]

Captain Song lost all composure.

Hai Xing sent a private message to <Endless Maple Moon>: [ Captain has started humming... ]

<Endless Maple Moon>: ......

Fortunately, this conversation ended shortly after that, and the party entered the third level of the dungeon.

This level had no mobs, directly leading straight into a boss fight, but the boss was rather unusual. When it had only one bar of HP left, the boss would divide into 4 avatars. The avatars would be connected by black lines of magic, and if thesse magic lines were not severed, the boss would unleash a horrifying combination skill. Thus, it was necessary to scatter the boss avatars and beat them separately.

Shen Huai marked out 4 circles of light on the map. [ <Falling Sleet> and <One Leaf Skiff>, you two pull one avatar to the east. <Horizon> and <Desert North>, to the south. I'll go west, and Guild Leader Maple Moon will go north. ]

This arrangement made sure that the two noobs would be guided by <One Leaf Skiff> and <Desert North> respectively, leaving the relatively stronger <Endless Maple Moon> and himself to solo an avatar each. It was a pretty reasonable plan.

The group attacked the boss together, and very soon, the boss was down to its final HP bar.

Shen Huai called out in the party chat: [ Scatter! ]

The group immediately scattered as planned towards the various circles of light Shen Huai had marked out. This boss was a pure physical attack type and did not possess any fancy skills which would leech HP consistently. Shen Huai was skilled at positioning, hopping up onto the boss' arm when the boss smashed its fists onto the ground. After that, he would attack while standing on the boss' shoulder, dealing damage in relative comfort.

To the east, <One Leaf Skiff> was tanking damage while <Falling Sleet> bounced around attacking, her movements looking much better than before. <Horizon> was an ice mage with a lot of crowd control skills, and he was also being watched over by the healer <Desert North>. Thus, he was also attacking rather easily without much pressure. In contrast, <Endless Maple Moon> seemed to be having a bit of a hard time.

Fire mages had the highest explosive damage among the 4 mage branches, but their shortcoming was also extremely obvious. They did not possess any crowd control skills, and so were quite reliant on their teammates for crowd control during group battles. Right now, not only was <Endless Maple Moon> trying to defeat a boss avatar on his own, he also had to be careful not to die from a punch by the boss avatar. He could only constantly hit and run, endlessly kiting the boss.

He ran and ran and ended up deviating off-course, stumbling into Song Xue-Yang's path. The two boss avatars ended up too close to each other and instantly became linked with magic lines, unleashing the extremely high damage combo skill Concussive Blast!

Once the two boss avatars teamed up, <One Leaf Skiff>'s damage was too low to maintain aggro, and the bosses' enmity shifted to the solo DPS, the sniper. As one, the fists of the two avatars smashed towards <Falling Sleet> who was still in prone sniping position.

The elevated damage of the combined skills would be enough to kill the fragile sniper. The bosses were moving extremely quickly, too quickly for the still prone sniper to get up and dodge.

<One Leaf Skiff> had no time to react, he could only lament that they were done for, it was over. Even if Captain Song possessed the sniper it would be hopeless.

But then, right at that moment, the sniper who had still been on the ground suddenly tucked into a back roll, pulling her rifle up at the same time to fire a shot into the air. Riding the reaction force generated by the shot, the sniper slid 10 metres backwards before landing safely.

<One Leaf Skiff> was dumbstruck, only able to say [ Damn! ]

This series of actions had been pulled off as smooth as running water, but <One Leaf Skiff> knew that the controls behind it were not as simple as it seems.

<Falling Sleet> had first used Back Roll to forcefully disrupt her prone sniping status, using 'Reload' at the same time to make sure she did not drop her gun. Then, she had activated the skill 'Shooter's Intuition', which would push a character in the opposite direction when a shot was fired. This pushed the sniper back far enough to evade danger and land safely.

A back roll from sniping prone position... the commentators for the professional league of the S4 competitive season had given it a very descriptive name ― Rolling Snipe.

From the outside, it just looked as if the character was sniping as they rolled away. Those who didn't know better would just assume it was a single skill, but in reality, this action could only be achieved by chaining 3 skills together within the very brief window of 0.5 seconds!

More importantly, this was one of the top 10 highlights of the S4 competitive season professional league ― the signature move of the ace sniper Song Xue-Yang!

<One Leaf Skiff> was speechless. He had watched and rewatched the highlights of the S4 professional league multiple times already. Every single frame had left him filled with admiration and excitement. He never would have dreamed that he would actually see one of the scenes reenacted before his eyes!

Song Xue-Yang had been very happy ever since Ash Wing had praised him earlier, and only noticed that he had slipped up after accidentally showing this hand. Still, he had a strong heart and managed to keep calm, acting as if nothing at all had happened. He continued to control the sniper to slowly kill the boss one shot at a time.

Shen Huai, who had also just finished killing his boss avatar, saw <One Leaf Skiff>'s exclamation in the party chat and asked: [ What happened? ]

<One Leaf Skiff> was very worked up. [ Rolling Snipe!!! Your apprentice!! Rolling Snipe!! ]

He wasn't even speaking coherently anymore.

<Desert North> did not pay much attention to the professional games. [ What's Rolling Snipe? ]

However, Shen Huai understood immediately. [ Apprentice, what's going on? ]

Song Xue-Yang played dumb. [ Huh? I don't know. I didn't do anything. Maybe big brother warrior saw wrong? ]

[ No way! That was rolling snipe! 100%! Absolutely! Missy, where did you learn this move? That's way too cool! ]

Hai Xing really had no words for this lughead of a warrior... he was so sure that he had just witnessed Rolling Snipe, and he still did not stop to wonder if this <Falling Sleet> was Song Xue-Yang?

Inside the game, <Falling Sleet> continued to look lost and confused. She was constantly shifting her camera angle, causing her character's head to also spin left and right. [ I really didn't do anything... guild leader maple moon, did you see it? Did I do a rolling snipe? ]

[ No. You were just sent flying by the boss' fist. ] <Endless Maple Moon> answered calmly. He had it all figured out. Song Xue-Yang had pulled him into this party so he could help the captain cover up his lies!

<One Leaf Skiff>: [ ...... ]

Song Xue-Yang instantly jumped in to say: [ Hahaha, big brother, you must have watched pro games too much... ]

<One Leaf Skiff> felt rather sheepish. On second thought, a noob like <Falling Sleet> really did not seem like she would be able to pull off such a high-level pro move like Rolling Snipe. [ Hey, aren't you guys the ones at fault? Filling up my mind with God Snow. ]

The group cracked up laughing, piling on to tease <One Leaf Skiff>.

Only Shen Huai stood looking at the ground beneath <Falling Sleet>, deep in thought.

When the skill "Shooter's Intuition" is released, a shot would be fired to the front, dealing damage, and at the same time, the shooter would slide 10 metres backwards. This was the only displacement skill snipers had and was very rarely used to deal damage, instead used as a life-saving measure.

Additionally, because it involved a sliding retreat, the skill would leave a trail on the ground about 10 metres long.

But now, there was no such trail on the ground in front of <Falling Sleet>. There was just a short scratch of about 1 metre near her landing point. This scratch proved that she had indeed used the skill "Shooter's Intuition", and there could only be one reason why the other 9 metres of the trail was missing ― her character had been in the air!

Rolling Snipe!

There could be no mistaking it.

Thinking back to before when the Primo Wolf guild members had been hunting him, <Falling Sleet> had been able to snipe the swordsman, the character class with the greatest movement speed, from a mountain peak 1,200 metres away.

If one event could be called a coincidence, then what about two?

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Previous: Chapter 10: Falls Abyss Dungeon
Next: Chapter 12: Arena (Part 1)

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