Season 10, Semi Final Stage

Standing in front of the sink, XiaoXi furiously doused his face with cold water. The water messed up his bangs and soaked his front collar but he didn't seem to care about this.

'It's all thanks to your teaching, Master.'

Recalling those words, XiaoXi's actions abruptly paused, and his eyes became cold. Turning off the tap, he lifted his eyelids to stare at his reflection in the mirror.

Seeing such a pathetic appearance, he habitually pressed his tongue against his cheek to keep his temper in check.

Heh. This is what he gets for giving his all to care for the team. What a fool.

Knock Knock

XiaoXi acted as if he didn't hear anything. The knocking persisted for some time before stopping entirely after receiving no response.

Just as XiaoXi thought the person outside had given up, a familiar voice was suddenly heard, "The brother inside. Have you seen a puffer fish in there?"

Realizing their identity, XiaoXi gave a fierce glare in the direction of the door. Still, he made no sound as he didn't have the energy to bicker with this sleazy dog at the moment.

But who was Zizi? He was a shameless dog.

"Sigh... My poor little puffer fish is so fragile that he locks himself in where no one can see and cries alon-"

Before Zizi was able to finish his sentence, the door was flung open and a wet face XiaoXi finally appeared in front of him.

"You sleazy dog, can't you read the room and get lost?!" XiaoXi's temper finally erupted. He gave Zizi no face and growled at him.

Facing this angry puffer fish, Zizi was not one bit intimidated by him. He skillfully imitated the kindergarten teacher's tone speaking to a child, "Aw, are you crying?"

XiaoXi was seriously close to beating someone up. He angrily roared, "Who the f*** is crying?!"

With a face full of understanding, Zizi nodded, "Okay, okay. You are not crying, I am."

Instead of feeling better, XiaoXi felt his blood pressure rapidly rising. He annoyingly grabbed the back of his neck, his head lowered.

Han Haesoo, calm down. This dog still needs to be in good condition for his next match. You can't beat him!

As XiaoXi was trying to reason with himself, his chin suddenly got pinched forcing his head to tilt upward.

Watching as Zizi's handsome face slowly zoomed in, XiaoXi's pupils dilated, and his body involuntarily stiffened. He stammered, "W-What the hell are you doing?!"

Zizi on the other hand was calm and collected. Unbothered by his fierce tone, he began to slowly wipe XiaoXi's face with his right sleeve, "You look like a soaked rat ah."

XiaoXi tilted his head back wanting to struggle free but Zizi increased his strength refusing to let go. His tone was a bit helpless, "Stay still. It won't take long."

Realizing that he couldn't get away, XiaoXi stopped struggling but due to this close distance, he didn't know where to put his hands or feet.

Even though he looked fierce on the surface, he was quite a shy person. Had it not been for Zizi being someone he has known for a long time, he wouldn't have acted in this senseless way either.

With nowhere to look, XiaoXi was forced to observe Zizi's handsome face up close. Unlike him who had a pretty boy's image, Zizi's appearance was full of muscularity.

Zizi had dazzling platinum hair and a pair of inviting smoked-color eyes which gave one the impression that he was flirting whenever he stared at someone.

It was a well-known fact that he was a Casanova.

XiaoXi silently lowered his eyes to hide his emotions.

Noticing the other party suddenly lowered his eyes, Zizi's gaze unintentionally lingered on those long eyelashes that cast a shadow under his eyes creating a somewhat pitiful image, unlike his usual self.

Reluctantly releasing his hand from that soft skin, Zizi helped to rearrange his messy bangs before taking a step backward.

Putting on his usual annoying face, Zizi clicked his tongue in disapproval, "You are so old and still get water on your clothes like a child? The weather is getting cold, aren't you of afraid being sick?"

Now that this topic was brought up, XiaoXi finally felt the cold air penetrate his uniform. Previously, he stormed off without taking his jacket with him, therefore, at the moment he was only wearing a short-sleeve shirt.

Nevertheless, XiaoXi refused to admit his mistake, he rolled his eyes, "The waiting room is not far away, why do you talk so mu-"

Right before he finished his words, a big coat was suddenly thrown at him completely covering up his entire head.

XiaoXi angrily yanked the coat off his head only to see Zizi's broad back leisurely walking away.

"I have already told your team that you will be returning to the hotel with me. Quickly follow with your short legs or else you will be taking the taxi."

"I dare you!" XiaoXi's tone was still bad but the way he carefully put on the coat that was much bigger than him spoke otherwise.

After dropping off XiaoXi at his room, Zizi went back to his room to meet with his teammates.

Upon entering, he found that his teammates were having a dead face as if it was them who lost tonight.

Slumping onto the sofa in a relaxed manner, Zizi chuckled, "Hey, Flower Tea Xi's face is not as bad as you guys' ah!"

Ge speechlessly said, "Does going against God Shen next week something to be celebrated about?!"

Ever since his debut in Season 6, Shen was an irrefutable best Support in TOBH. Playing against him was mentally draining. His shot calls were precise and decisive.

He was the first Support player to receive the MVP title ever since the establishment of TOBH esports.

In SZ's mind, they would rather play against AB in the Semi-Final than Sun who was very much like a Final Boss!

Lune, SZ's ADC nervously spoke, "Not to mention, we are the only representative of our region so the pressure is too big..."

Having been reminded of this matter, everyone's mood further dropped.

Amidst this depressing atmosphere, Zizi was still unperturbed. He instead laughed out loud, "All the more reason that we should be proud of ourselves!"

Hearing his merry laughter, everyone turned to look at their relaxed Captain in unison.

Zizi lazily shrugged, "No matter how strong Holy Monk Shen is. Can he still win if his carries were to die?"

Everyone unconsciously shook their heads.

Zizi's lips bent, "What is our SZ famous for?"

Everyone's spirit was immediately reignited, "Killing those carries!"

Zizi nodded his head in satisfaction. He continued, "Play at our usual pace. No need to play safe Bot Lane! Even if we were to lose, we would make Holy Monk Shen's face turn ugly no matter what! We go down swinging!"

The children of SZ enthusiastically echoed, "We go down swinging!"

Coach Gu, who has just entered the room, "..." These brats are already throwing the white towel?

Though the motive was a bit off, it was undeniable that they were no longer anxious as before. Zizi avoided the Coach's death glare and looked sideways at the night view of the busy city through the glass windows.

Only by winning against Sun will he get the chance to pay a visit to AB in the Final.

Watching the online polls made by netizens, SZ only had a 16 % chance of winning.

With the same sitting arrangement, Fu Yue sat next to Silence but this time he consciously retreated a bit further away from the man.

Only God knew how dumbfounded he was after hearing Silence's words that night.

Despite knowing the difference between Alphas and Omegas, Fu Yue still subconsciously thought that they were all big men.

However, after being told off by Silence, Fu Yue deeply realizes his mistake. In this world, Omegas interacting with Alphas was rarely viewed as a pure relationship between friends.

Having romantic scandals with his teammates was the last thing he ever wanted so he understood Silence's attitude of drawing a clear line.

With this mindset, Fu Yue neither treat his teammates too familiar nor distant especially Silence who was the most dangerous figure to be involved with.

Others had no problem since after all they too understood the boundary.

However, Wei Chen, the one who drew the line turned out to be the most bothered by Fu Yue's change in attitude.

He could distinguish whether someone harbored feelings toward him or not. Fu Yue didn't mean anything by those words.

He purely meant good teammates that was it.

But after realizing this, Wei Chen didn't want the other person to speak those words casually to someone else. That's why with his outspoken personality, he immediately spoke his thoughts out loud.

Unfortunately, it came out wrongly and he took it the other way around which led to the current situation.

Still, Wei Chen didn't correct himself since it didn't get in the way of their training.

Perhaps, things would be better this wa-

"So that's what Shen looks like?"

Suddenly hearing a familiar voice full of admiration, Wei Chen subconsciously glanced sideways. The scene of the beautiful Omega thoughtfully held his chin while his bright eyes displayed undisguised praise immediately stabbed his eyes.

Wei Chen wordlessly shifted his line of sight toward the screen that was showing a closeup of Shen's cold face.

He involuntarily pursed his lips.

Unaware of Wei Chen's mood, Fu Yue continued to observe Shen's godly appearance.

Unlike Silence's quiet disposition, Shen's expression was full of nonchalance as if he was standing at the top while looking down at the world.

He was a mix-blood, American-Chinese. He was born and raised in China but returned to the NA after his debut.

He had long medium blonde hair that reached his shoulders and light green eyes. His features leaned more toward the Eastern side creating an Oriental Beauty with an exotic aura.

Rumors said that Shen was a royalty but it was not confirmed so it remained a mystery.

Fu Yue could understand why people believed in this rumor. Looking at Shen who exuded elegance from head to toe even in the way he walked, it was hard to believe that he was not a prince.

"Is he good-looking?"

"Mm." Fu Yue subconsciously responded. A few moments later he finally reacted and looked suspiciously at Silence, "Why did you ask?"

Wei Chen said without changing his expression, "Just curious."

With skeptical eyes, Fu Yue reluctantly accepted his answer.

In the meantime, Yang Yuxuan who has been secretly eyeing them on the sideline suddenly spoke up, "Fu Yue, which one do you think is more handsome?"

Not knowing his hidden agenda, Fu Yue casually responded, "Well, it depends on your preference. But I still prefer our Captain more."

Wei Chen, a mysterious beauty is incredibly hard to beat ah.

However, after blurting out those words, Fu Yue immediately regretted it. He urgently added, "In any case, I shouldn't support outsiders."

Along these words, he tentatively looked at the man beside him out of the corner of his eye. Upon seeing the slight purse on his lips, Fu Yue's smile stiffened.

Sigh, I seriously need to watch my words from now on...

Fortunately, his attention was soon switched to the match at hand.

Living up to their name as the World Champion, their gameplay was stable and decisive. It could be seen that Sun's players listened and obeyed the commands incredibly well.

What came as a surprise was that SZ was faring well against Sun, not giving any leeway to the latter at all.

If Fu Yue were to put it into words, he would say that Sun Vs SZ was like a game between Top students and Learning Scums.

"SZ is in good condition tonight."

Fu Yue overheard Wei Chen's comment and he couldn't agree more. "Shen is incredible in saving his teammates and setting up teamfights but Zizi and Lune are good at picking out their outputs."

Wei Chen nodded his head, "In fact, this matchup is not unfavorable to SZ."

Fu Yue thoughtfully touched his chin and analyzed, "AB is strong but their Bot Lane is still relatively weak. HL's strength is the weakest among the four as a rookie team from the Europe division. Looks like, Sun wanted to avoid SZ the most."

"To Shen who likes to analyze his opponent's moves as if playing chess, the unscrupulous Zizi is his natural enemy." Wei Chen calmly added.

Right as his words fell, Li Haoran excitedly exclaimed, "Zizi caught Sun's ADC out of position! They are going straight for the Saint!"

Even without their ADC, Sun couldn't afford to give the Saint away for free in this late game so they all lingered in the river around the Saint's pit.

Unexpectedly, SZ abruptly engaged with Sun no longer caring about the half-dead Saint catching Sun by surprise.

Realizing that this was a bait, Sun immediately retreated but unfortunately, they could only take down SZ's Top Laner before they all fell.

SZ didn't care for the Saint and immediately marched mid with Zizi teleported directly to Sun's base.

Even though Sun's ADC spawned, he couldn't do anything other than try to clear the wave but was soon caught and killed by Zizi.

Game 1 unexpectedly went to SZ erupting a loud cheer from the audience.

However, Sun quickly came back on their feet and easily took the victory in game 2 after using a hit-and-run tactic.

In game 3, SZ pulled Sun into their tempo and gained the advantage in the late game, taking the lead in match point.

Sun's mentality was still strong and Shen stepped up to set a lot of successful skirmishes winning his team a victory in game 4.

In the final game, everyone was tense. Neither side backed down and the game was dragged to 44 minutes.

At this point, both sides lost all outer turrets and inhibitors.

A big fight soon broke out. Sun had the number advantage but they didn't forget the fact that SZ's Top Laner might be hiding somewhere trying to flank their backline.

The fight was in favor of Sun up until SZ's Top Laner finally appeared on the mini-map. However, he was nowhere near where the battle was but instead, he teleported into Sun's base intending to backdoor!

The commentators grabbed their hair at this risky play, their hearts were at the throat at this exciting situation.

It needed to be said that Sun was winning in the teamfight with SZ's Bot Laners died whereas Sun only had theirJungler dead.

If Zizi and Ge were unable to buy a bit more time, their backdoor play would fall through immediately.

The death time was one minute which was enough for Sun to kill SZ's Top Laner before marching to SZ's base and destroying the crystal!

With everyone on the edge of their seats, Zizi proved himself deserving of the title of the Best Mid-Laner. He was playing a poison mage who dealt a lot of damage based on max health.

His eyes were extremely focused and his fingers were flying across the keyboard trying to stack the poison while nimbly dodging the spells with his measly health.

Right before he died, he managed to poison Sun's Mid Laner, and ADC which delayed their recall.

[A/N: When taking damage, one cannot recall.]

Ironically, this insignificant point bought enough time for SZ's Top Laner to destroy the crystal as Shen and Top Laner couldn't deal enough damage to kill him.

SZ's children immediately ran to hug Zizi who hadn't even stood up from his chair yet.

Because Zizi made that backdoor call.

After trying for 5 years, SZ has finally reached the World Final Stage!