Sweetest In The Universe Chapter 6

Because she'd played duo rank with Xie Yi for an entire night, Zhou Tian's entire sleep schedule was ruined on the first day that'd she arrived at in the YYg team.

The next day when she opened her eyes, her phone, which was almost out of battery, told her that it was already 11:30.

When she saw those numbers, she immediately jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom.

Luckily, she was fast at finishing her morning routine and was able to go downstairs in just five minutes.

On the first floor, her teammates were all sitting on the couch. They waved at her when they heard her footsteps. "Woah, you woke up. Come, come, you're just in time, the food delivery we ordered just came."

Zhou Tian: "…Oh, what did you guys order?"

"There's a new Cantonese restaurant nearby," Yin Yuanxia explained, "We were gonna go straight to the restaurant, but you were sleeping. It gets pretty crowded there, starting from eleven-thirty, so we just ordered takeout."

Hearing that, Zhou Tian instantly felt apologetic: "Sorry, I forgot to set an alarm."

w.a.n.g Ren: "You played ranking with Xie ge for an entire night, so it's normal to feel exhausted. And, it's not that late, because you're just in time for lunch."

"When's the simulation compet.i.tion?" Zhou Tian asked as she down. She remembered that yesterday, the coach only said "afternoon," but not a specific time.

"Normally, it'd be at three o'clock. But SF always logs on late." Yin Yuanxia told her, "They always say they'll be there at three, but they don't even log on until three-thirty."

Zhou Tian: "…" This is allowed?

Reality proved Yin Yuanxia to be correct. This afternoon, SF was tardy for more than half an hour. Again.

Similarly to YYg, SF is also one of the three best teams in the league. They maintained a well-balanced score throughout the last few compet.i.tions and had a large fan base.

But right after the spring compet.i.tion, SF had switched their Support and Top players, and their new players were kept as a secret. Even the people inside the professional circle didn't know whether they "bought" new players or selected people from their second-best team as replacements.

"What are you thinking about?" w.a.n.g Ren, who'd been sitting beside her, asked, after seeing her think about something ever since she sat down. "Don't be too nervous. It's just a simulation compet.i.tion. If we win, then think of it as practice. If we lose, then we'll find the issue and fix it."

"No, I was thinking about SF's Jungler's habits and ganking choices," she said while wrinkling her eyebrow, "I have an impression that he didn't really like helping his team's top player, but then again, this might just be related to the style that their Top player uses. Now that they've changed a Top player, I wonder if their Jungler will also alter his style?"

"You've got into the mood pretty fast," Hearing their conversation, the coach complimented her, then also decided to mock SF's s.h.i.tty staff operations, "To be honest, before they sold them, their Top and Support players were the most fitting for their team. Now, they have a pretty high chance of losing terribly in the summer compet.i.tion."

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Tian then showed her agreement by nodding her head: "Both of them did play very well. Yesterday, I and Further were put into the same game as them."

TL Note: She's talking about the old Top and Support players in SF, not the new ones

Yin Yuanxia piped up: "Yesterday, someone even recorded your round. Someone made a gif that accused Su of being sucky because he died while fighting against four players.

Su's full name was Su w.a.n.g. He was the Top player that'd just recently been transferred away from the SF league.

"What?!" Zhou Tian was surprised, “Right before he died, he forced two players on the opposing team to use their  legendary moves. They call him sucky for that? That's awful." 

"This only shows that there are lots of idiots in this society that don't even understand the game, yet keep on commenting c.r.a.p," Yin Yuanxia paused for a moment, "You'll probably meet a lot of them in your gaming career. Just make sure to not never let them discourage you.”

When the conversation reached this point, Zhou Tian finally realized that her teammates spoke that much just because they wanted to get her prepared for what's yet to come.

To be honest, she felt very touched, so she nodded her head sincerely: "I understand."

After that, they waited for two more minutes, then the SF team finally logged on.

Because of their late arrival, this simulation finally ended after dusk. In the five rounds that they played, YYg won four of them. Their results exceeded their expectations.

Finally, after the simulation completely ended, Zhou Tian was still in a trance: G.o.d, she won in such a compet.i.tive game against all of those professional gamers? Wow, it didn't feel that hard as she imagined it to be..?

"Still sitting there?" While she reflected on the game, her teammates had already stood up, and w.a.n.g Ren even waved his hand in front of her. "Come on, we're going to get dinner. We've played very well today, so Xie ge's gonna pay for our meal."

Zhou Tian finally came back to reality: "Huh? Who's paying for the meal?"

w.a.n.g Ren: "Xie ge. Every time we win a simulation compet.i.tion, he'd always pay for a meal. Now, this is what you call a majestic demeanor!"

Zhou Tian looked in the direction of Xie Yi, who at the same time, look towards her. He realized that she was still stunned and couldn't resist the urge to smile a bit, "Let's go."

And so, the team left the YYg base and headed towards the nearby mall.

"What are we eating today, Xie ge?" Because Xie Yi was always the one who paid for the meal, everyone usually always asked him this question. Everyone else was just responsible for shutting their mouths and eating.

TL Note: like, the host pays for the meal, while the rest of the people just… eat

"Chao Zhou food," Xie Yi replied after thinking deeply for a moment, "The one on the eighth floor."

TL's Note: Chao Zhou is a city in Guang Dong, which is a state in China.

"Oh? Why suddenly Chao Zhou food?" As the person in the team that knew Xie Yi the longest, Yin Yuanxia was very familiar with their ADc's taste and knew that he loved spicy food the most, "Are you having a problem with your intestines again?"

Xie Yi: "…No."

He said, then turned his head around and glanced at Zhou Tian, "She's from Guang Dong.”

Zhou Tian was flattered and confused: "You…How do you know that I am from Guang Dong?”

Xie Yi looked at her as if he was looking at an idiot, "Accent." He said it as if it couldn't have been more obvious.

Zhou Tian: "…"

She fell into silence as the rest of the team, excluding Xie Yi, laughed hysterically.

Fortunately, the coach was with them. He coughed and stopped them, "Alright, stop bullying Zhou. She's the reason why we won today, since it was she who stopped the other team from practicing their normal routine."

The group of people laughed and chatted while they entered the elevator and arrived at the Chao Zhou restaurant. While they waited for the food, they discussed and reflected over the round that they'd lost to SF. They were having a really good time.

After identifying the issue that caused them to lose, the coach made an announcement, "The simulation compet.i.tion will be at 7:00 PM tomorrow. The opponent is going to be a Korean team. Their style is extremely different from Chinese teams. Treat it seriously."

"Why seven PM?" w.a.n.g Ren and Han Ziliang asked. 

TL's Note: Remember how there are five players on a team? Yin Yuanxia = Support, Zhou Tian = Jungler, Xie Yi = ADc, w.a.n.g Ren = Mid, so Han Ziliang must be the Top player.

"Because during the daytime, Xie Yi's going to go to the headquarters for the advertis.e.m.e.nt video of the summer compet.i.tion. Did you forget?" The coach said, "Just look at the sufficiency of the headquarters. I'd be lucky if they'd let him back before six."

"Of course, Xie ge would be on the cover of the entire league. Any key member of other teams would be allowed to be absent, but Xie ge definitely cannot."

"I'd bet you fifty cents that Xie ge will still be the cover for the league this time!"

When Zhou Tian heard her teammates discuss over the summer compet.i.tion's advertising video, she couldn't help but resist the urge to sneak a glance at the "cover of the league" that was sitting beside her. She thought: "If I was working with the officials, I would, of course, not want to waste his handsome appearance, and definitely use him for every single compet.i.tion's advertis.e.m.e.nt." 

However, she didn't foresee what was going to happen next. The next morning, right before Xie Yi left the base to head towards the headquarters, the YYg team received an official announcement, telling them that they wanted Zhou Tian to partic.i.p.ate in the filming too.

Zhou Tian was quite stunned when she heard the news from Lin Lin: "I have to go too?"

"You're very popular right now," Lin Lin, however, wasn't that surprised, "Even if you count every single compet.i.tion division in the whole world, you're still the first female professional gamer in the history of League of Legends. This is a huge t.i.tle. If they didn't use this in the advertis.e.m.e.nts, then the officials would surely be very disappointed."

The speechless Zhou Tian couldn't do anything but take her phone out and follow Xie Yi, who called a taxi to the headquarters.

Compared to Xie Yi, who already knew this place fairly well, Zhou Tian, who'd just become a professional gamer recently, was starting to get nervous the moment she got off the taxi.

"Oh no, I don't even know how I'd pose, and I'll probably look extremely stiff when they start the photo shoot." She mumbled with an anxiety-filled tone, "Will people start to disdain me?"

"No," Xie Yi said firmly, "Just do whatever the photographer tells you to."

The duo arrived at the perfect timing. When they entered, the few who arrived early were just finishing up with their makeup.

The group of professional gamers all turned towards them when they saw her walking in beside Xie Yi. Exaggerating, she then felt as if time paused for a moment.

But the good thing was that the staff members came up to them within a few moments and told them that they were going to take them in for some makeup.

Zhou Tian answered quickly: "Okay."

Luckily, the makeup process was extremely fast for them because they had very healthy skin. The makeup artist even complimented Zhou Tian for having a good bone structure, allowing them to completely skip the contour part.

As for Xie Yi, he'd already been the cover for the entire league for two whole years, so the process for him was even faster. All the makeup artist needed to do was to cover up the dark circles under his eyes.

"Your YYG base is truly a wonderful place! The players you send all have high levels of appearance!" The photography team exclaimed delightfully, after the two were finished with their makeup, "Just listen to our instructions, and then we'll be able to finish the filming quickly, okay?"

Zhou Tian pursed her lips, then nodded her head. She was still very nervous.

Fortunately, most of her images were taken with Xie Yi. The photographers didn't request for her to do difficult poses either. After a few frames of the two walking together and turning back together, they were done with the photos of the two together.

When the photographer took the photos of only Zhou Tian, he sensed her anxiety, so he told her just to sit in a chair and raise her head, which was the simplest pose.

But she couldn't even complete it in one try. Yet, this was already such an easy pose.

At last, Xie Yi couldn't take it anymore. So, he walked over and told her a trick: "Just pretend that a game is starting and the computer is right in front of you. Then, raise your head."

She didn't know why, but when she heard him whispering in her ears, she only felt her heart pound harder.

She took a few deep breaths to calm down after he left and then finally completed the photoshoot.

The summer compet.i.tion was going to start soon. That evening, the officials, after taking a lot of photos, took extra shifts to finish editing the advertising video.

But the video didn't get published immediately because the director of the marketing department had a new thought after watching the video.

"Revise it. Put the photo of Yuzhou raising her head in the end. She's the first extremely popular female player, and it'd surely be a tragedy if we didn't take advantage of that."

"But we usually have Xie Yi stay in the last picture to attract more attention." The workers were struggling a bit, "And his account ID is also Further. It sticks well with the motto of the league – endless compet.i.tion."

TL Note: So… Further = more (as in endless) compet.i.tion…?

"This year, we have a special situation." The director said, "Contact Xie Yi and tell him about this. With his personality, he wouldn't care much anyway."

"…" Looks like it'll have to be like this.

So that midnight, Xie Yi, who'd been playing duo ranking with Zhou Tian, just like last night, received a call from the officials.

He listened to their reason for switching the order of the photos and said "yes" without even considering.

He didn't mind it at all. When he ended the call, he said nothing about it to Zhou Tian, and instead just told her to start another round.

Zhou Tian, of course, didn't ask who it was from. "Okay."

But that evening, she'd learned from the previous night and properly set up an alarm before going to bed.

The next day, she came downstairs at nine-thirty. There was no one in the training room, so she sat down on the couch and played with her phone.

When she logged on Wei Bo, she saw the advertis.e.m.e.nt video from LpL's officials.

It was posted this morning at 8AM. Yet, shortly after half an hour, it had already been reposted thousands of times. The comments section was even crazier, to the point where it even exceeded the ten thousand mark.

She clicked on it and found that the most liked comments were the ones that were insulting her…?

@x.x.xXX: The first female player used connections to get in. She hasn't even played one match, yet she's already secured her position on the cover!

@x.x.x: f.u.c.k it, I didn't spend all this time waiting for the trailer just for some Yuzhou Mei to steal Daddy Xie's cover position!!! If you're going to be this shameless, then be careful when becoming forcefully shamed!

@x.x.xX: You, LpL, is very smart, as usual. Do you guys know what the most popular thing is these years? Feminism! So, the female player should and must be the last thing to show up.

@x.x.xx.x.xX: Ugh, you think that, just like this, the fans of Xie Daddy will budge?

Zhou Tian: "???"

She was also stunned and immediately opened up the advertis.e.m.e.nt trailer. At the end of the two minute long video, the image that took her so many tries showed up.

Zhou Tian finished watching this video, but didn't know how to describe her emotions at that moment.

She sat on the couch and couldn't speak for a long time. She didn't even hear the steps of her fellow teammate walking downstairs.

Xie Yi thought that he was the first one to wake up. After walking into the living room and seeing her just sitting there, with a very weird but amazed expression, he wrinkled his eyebrows and walked over.

"Duo rank?" He asked, saying the same thing that he always did.

"Ah!" Zhou Tian was surprised by him, "When did you come downstairs?" 

"Just now."

After seeing that he still had a normal expression on his face, Zhou Tian thought about him asking her if she wanted to play duo rank right after coming downstairs. She thought that he must have not watched the advertis.e.m.e.nt video that pushed her onto the cover.

She considered this for a moment, and then decided to try and explain that she wasn't aware of this.

Xie Yi was speechless after hearing about it.

She became even more anxious when he didn't immediately respond. So, she tried to push back onto the original topic: "So then, uh, duo rank?"

Xie Yi: "Wait a second."

He said while taking out his phone, then opened Wei Bo and went to the message that the officials sent. He directly resent it onto his account and pinged Zhou Tian.

While the Further fans were still cursing and berating Zhou Tian, they saw a new post from Xie Yi after refreshing.

@YYg-Further: The last one is the new cover player of this era, @YYg-Yuzhou.

The fans: "…" s.h.i.t, how do we berate her now? 

credits: sydney, katimu, & dora

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ahhh, sorry for the lack of extra release last week. it was a misunderstanding on my part ?

ill also probably re-edit this later. i ran out of time