Chapter 15 - Grim Reaper

Due to the shortened season, the intensity of the winter tournament was heightened. There were three matches every day, conveniently organized in rounds of four days each, perfectly aligned with the schedule just before the New Year. With a two-month season period, results could be obtained promptly.

In recent times, VW has been having a relatively relaxed period. The next two matches were not against particularly strong teams, and the team’s ranking had been hovering around the middle and lower tiers. Playing against these teams allowed for a bit of flexibility without the need for detailed pre-match meetings to discuss tactical details.

For example, the upcoming match against the team “RCT.” While RCT had managed to maintain a spot in the Diadema Professional League, they had consistently ranked at the bottom, often referred to as the stepping stone for professional players.

RCT had produced numerous rising stars and even secured several Gold Phoenix titles. Their investor had invested a considerable amount in cultivating their youth training program, which was the largest among all professional teams. Once they spotted a promising talent, they swiftly signed them up.

However, due to severe coaching and management issues, skilled professional players avoided staying with this seemingly hopeless team for long. During the transfer season, other major teams often poached potential players from RCT by offering to cover their buyout fees in exchange for a contract. Despite being the beneficiary, RCT still managed to attract many young individuals with esports dreams to their youth training program, as their management and training methodologies were of high quality. RCT knew they couldn’t keep these talented esports players for long, so they gracefully accepted the high buyout fees. Xiao Di had initially planned to join RCT’s youth training program but was intercepted by VW midway.

The match concluded swiftly, as expected, with a 3:0 victory. Every player on the field wore an expression that indicated this outcome was inevitable. Even the broadcast host couldn’t help but stifle a yawn.

“Ah, indeed, as expected. The RCT team had no chance against this year’s overwhelmingly dominant VW team, and the match ended quickly. Three consecutive 3:0 victories—did we witness VW’s path to a three-peat, embarking on the first dynasty of the Diadema Professional League?”

“Lastly, we want to extend our sincere thanks to the viewers who watched this episode of the esports livestream. How far could VW go? Let’s watch and see.”

And so, life fell back into the repetition of training, solo and team queues, meals, and sleep. It followed the standard routine of esports—monotonous and dull. Fortunately, the VW team members had been on the scene for several years and had honed their skills, making the experience far from arduous.

Last week, Yin Yu and Xiao Di, a duo queue team, stayed up all night with dark circles under their eyes to reach the King rank in a game. However, this week, they suddenly lost their goal and could only go back to playing on their alternate accounts to have some fun and dominate novice players. They had way too much free time on their hands.

In these two weeks, it might have been due to adjustments in the new season. The official Hammer company’s elite player group, known as the “Killer Masters Championship,” did not schedule their usual 5v5 matches. As a result, players in the higher ranks of the Diadema game noticed that they occasionally matched up with more professional players. Even those legendary players who were usually elusive had come down to the world of Ofinika to provide guidance.

Reaching the level of a professional player was a whole different realm. Due to the scarcity of high-ranking players, Diadema had only five servers in the China region, with only the top thousand players on each server being able to claim the title of “Strongest King.”

It was difficult to gather ten people at the same time for an internal match among the five thousand King-ranked players. So, with the collaboration of professional esports teams, the headquarters of Hammer Company established the “Killer Masters Championship” group. This competition had an extremely high entry threshold, exclusively for players who had reached the King rank at least once. As a result, the group was filled with numerous top-tier players, both well-known and lesser-known, legendary esports competitors, popular streamers, and even outstanding ordinary players who all participated using their main accounts. The group randomly organized 5v5 match teams, and the Killer Masters Championship was held once a month, with the ultimate winner receiving a substantial cash prize.

Professional esports teams collaborated to provide the prize money. Overall, the Killer Masters Championship benefited these teams greatly. It allowed better training and improvement of professional players’ skills, preventing a situation where a bunch of professional players would disrupt the balance of high-level matches in the game. Additionally, it offered a way to quickly identify and nurture promising new talents—a win-win situation.

“Brother, Brother, wanna play a game together? I’ll create a 5-player team.”

It was already past midnight, and the training room was incredibly quiet, with only the sound of keyboards and mice clicking. After a day of playing solo queues, Xiao Di couldn’t sit still and was the first to speak up.

“A 5-player queue?”

Yin Yu was already feeling a bit tired, but upon hearing this, he raised his head with renewed interest. “It’s been a week since the season started. Playing 5-player teams below the King rank means just slaughtering inexperienced players. It’s not interesting.”

“We won’t play Diadema. There’s a really popular game lately, something like ‘Chicken Dinner.’ Let’s play that.”

“Chicken Dinner? What kind of game is it?”

“It’s like a first-person shooter game, I think. I just bought a legitimate copy on Steam, and it seems pretty fun. You guys should buy it too. Let’s play a 5-player team, hehehe.”

The teen in black became intrigued upon hearing this. “A shooting game? Sounds interesting. Send me the name, and I’ll download it.”

Back in the day, before Diadema took over, there was another first-person shooter game called CrossFire that swept through the gaming community in China. And Yin Yu, a gaming addict, was no exception. Armed with a Barrett M82A1 rifle, he was unbeatable in CrossFire, earning himself the nickname “Black Reaper.” If it were not for Diadema’s allure, he might have joined a professional CrossFire team and dominated the battlefield, leading with his headshot skills and chatting with ease amidst the bloodshed.

After playing MOBA games for so long, wanting a change of pace now and then was understandable.

The shooting game that Xiao Di claimed outperformed CrossFire already piqued Yin Yu’s interest. He looked it up online and almost burst out laughing. His large black eyes sparkled with eagerness.

In this game, you could actually kill your teammates.

Even with the internet speed at the VW headquarters, by the time Yin Yu finished downloading and installing the game, it was already the middle of the night. Yin Yu, who originally intended to go to bed, became surprisingly energetic after seeing this set of game rules. He put on his headphones and secretly logged into the game to familiarize himself with the gameplay. This way, he would be prepared for the 5-player team match tomorrow… Hehehe.

During his livestream, if he accidentally fired the gun and the stray bullets happened to kill Chu Ke, wouldn’t that be quite amusing?

[Welcome to PUBG, please enter your name: _________]

Yin Yu entered his name without much thought, “Vw.Rafael.”

[Sorry, this name is already taken.]

…He was a celebrity after all, it was normal for his name to be taken. Yin Yu deleted the previous letters one by one and entered them again. “DeathRafael.”

[Sorry, this name is already taken.]

Fine, he used to be a master in CF too. It was normal for a few fans to grab his ID. Yin Yu pondered for a while and hesitated to use that name. So he tried adding symbols one by one, but after trying more than a dozen times and getting the same “already taken” response, he made up his mind.

[(DeathRafaelT^T) Registration successful! Congratulations on entering the world of PUBG. You are now entering tutorial mode for beginners!]

This name was just stupid. The glorious image that the Black Reaper had established is completely ruined now.