Chapter 159: Radical

"Little Jiu, what's going on?" a teammate asked.

Little Jiu wore a grave expression as he replied, "He can predict my every move. No matter what I do, I fall right into the traps he sets."

"Is it really that mystical?" another teammate exclaimed.

What Little Jiu said sounded far too mystical, and none of them really believed it.

"The facts are what they are. There's still one match left; I'll try to sound him out as much as possible, though winning against him is definitely out of the question," Little Jiu said.

They were all teammates who spent day and night together, so they knew Little Jiu wasn't the type to lie.

"Don't worry, Little Jiu. Just play your game, leave the rest to us," a teammate comforted him.

Little Jiu nodded.

The third match began shortly, and the two entered the game.

This time, Little Jiu's playstyle changed again, becoming extremely aggressive.

He engaged in a fierce battle with Jiang Zheng right from the start.

The situation was just like before, falling into that deeply uncomfortable state where every attack was anticipated.

Soon, he handed over the first kill.

Following closely, the second and third kills were given away in succession.

Unsurprisingly, Little Jiu lost this match.

With this, Little Jiu had lost two matches. In a best-of-three series, Jiang Zheng emerged victorious over Little Jiu.

The referee announced the result.

Sure enough, the audience on Jiang Zheng's side instantly grew excited, cheering endlessly. On the other side, the atmosphere was somewhat dejected, and the livestream chat fell rather quiet.

"Send the next one up, I'm in a rush," Jiang Zheng said.

Over at the club, the remaining four teammates were utterly infuriated. He was too arrogant, simply too arrogant!

"I'll go face him!" one teammate slammed the table and stood up.

"Xiao Chang, don't be hasty!" Little Jiu called out.

"Little Jiu, what do you mean? The guy is walking all over our faces! And you're still sitting there telling me not to be hasty," the teammate called Xiao Chang said angrily.

"I'm angry too, but if you go up there, you cannot let anger control you. The opponent is strong, extremely strong. Once anger controls you, you'll fall right into his traps," Little Jiu said calmly.

"Xiao Chang, Little Jiu is right. You have every right to be angry, but we cannot be controlled by our anger. Calm yourself down. If you can't calm down, don't go up yet," another teammate said.

"I know, I've calmed down. Little Jiu, you've lanned against him, how do you think I should fight him?" Xiao Chang asked.

"If you're fighting him, you can't drag it out too long; you must end the match as quickly as possible. The longer it drags on, the higher the probability of losing," Little Jiu said.

"End it as quickly as possible? I understand," Xiao Chang nodded in response.

Ending it quickly meant playing more aggressively, and that was his specialty.

...

Jiang Zheng waited for his second opponent to come online. Before long, the second opponent logged in.

The two entered the game, and the second match began.

As soon as the game started, his opponent played with extreme aggression.

Jiang Zheng barely managed to parry and block the incoming attacks. Because Xiao Chang played so aggressively right from the beginning, Jiang Zheng was caught somewhat off guard.

The professional players he usually faced tended to adopt relatively conservative playstyles, and very few were this aggressive.

Once Jiang Zheng adapted to his opponent's attacking rhythm, he began looking for opportunities to counterattack.

Xiao Chang kept Little Jiu's warning firmly in mind: he could not let the match drag on.

The first kill happened very quickly, and it was Jiang Zheng who gave it away.

After respawning, the two engaged in combat once more.

Jiang Zheng secured the second kill, bringing the kill score to one-to-one.

With two kills already on the board, less than ten minutes had passed. One could only imagine how aggressive the two of them were playing.

In the time that followed, the two traded blows, and the kill score advanced to two-to-two.

For the third kill, the two actually took each other down simultaneously, but according to the replay, Xiao Chang's hero fell just a split second earlier.

In other words, Jiang Zheng won by a narrow margin.

"Damn it!"

Xiao Chang slammed the table in anger, his heart filled with reluctance and frustration.

This time he had missed it by just that tiny fraction—he had fallen two seconds earlier, and those two seconds decided the outcome.

The second match began.

Xiao Chang became even more aggressive. However, having gone through the laning phase in the first match, Jiang Zheng already had some understanding of Xiao Chang. Such aggressive laning now only led to Xiao Chang's defeat coming even faster.

He lost the second match as well, meaning Xiao Chang had completely lost his match against Jiang Zheng.

Another victory notched down!

In Jiang Zheng's livestream chat, the audience flooded the screen with rows of "666".

After two consecutive high-intensity matches, Jiang Zheng felt a trace of fatigue. Neither of his opponents over these two matches had been pushovers.

After the referee announced Jiang Zheng's victory, he asked, "Do you need to take a break?"

Jiang Zheng checked the time; he still had classes tomorrow.

"Let's continue. The sooner we finish these matches, the sooner I can end the stream," Jiang Zheng said.

Faced with Jiang Zheng's provocation and condescension, the opponents no longer felt angry. They felt Little Jiu was right: they could be angry, but they must not be controlled by anger.

The third match began.

...

Meanwhile, in an office at the club, the coach watched the livestream with an anxious expression.

Beside him sat a young man in his thirties, who smiled as he watched the ongoing match on screen.

"Boss! Aren't you worried at all?" the coach blurted out.

The young man addressed as the boss smiled and asked, "Should I be?"

Hearing this, the coach said, "Our team has already lost two matches, and it looks like the third one is about to go down as well. This will deal a massive blow to our team's reputation."

"There are still two left, no need to rush," the boss said with absolute confidence.

"What if... what if those two lose as well?" the coach asked.

"If they lose, they lose. Winning and losing are normal in competition," the boss said with a smile.

The coach found it hard to understand. This was their club's team, after all. If they lost, not only would the popularity they accumulated from winning the world championship be wiped clean, but their reputation would also take a hit.

Therefore, the coach could not comprehend how the club boss could remain so self-assured at a time like this.

What he understood even less was how the boss could still manage to smile.

"Boss, we worked so hard to build up this championship team, we can't let it collapse," the coach said.

The young man rolled his eyes and replied, "Will the team collapse just from losing a single match? It's not that easy to fall apart."

"Boss, a thousand-li dike can collapse from an ant nest; don't underestimate these problems," the coach persuaded earnestly.

"It's fine, these are all minor issues. Besides, we can always think of a way to solve them," the boss said.

"What way, Boss?" the coach quickly asked.

"Why not poach that streamer from the opposite side? Wouldn't that retain our popularity? It might even become bigger than before," the boss suggested.

The suggestion sounded somewhat viable, and the coach pondered it in his heart.

After a moment, he asked, "Coach—how should we invite him?"