First game

Shan was ready for the match. Yet, he felt too nervous, anxious. More than usual. As if it mattered that much. Yes, it was the first match of the season. But they had the best of 3 matches with one individual match and two team fights. Enough chances to turn everything around. 

And the score for the spring part was counted by wins and if there was a draw for wins, then it was according to points. Two points for two to zero win. If you lost like that, then it was minus two. If the score was two to one, then the winning team gained one point, the losing team minus one. Each team played against each other twice. Twelve teams… enough time to win.

Shan looked around. He searched either for Chao or someone who had some heating pads. No one paid any attention to him. Not until a pad appeared in front of his face. He gladly took it and looked at whose arm it was. Lucy…

"Thank you," he said and meant it. Lucy shook her head. 

"Don't thank me. I wasn't the one buying them or bringing them. I didn't even know you would need them." She showed the four other pads she had and showed them all into his pockets.

"Then who?" he asked, curious. There was one person that looked like being able to know about him, but Shan wasn't so sure after the last time. 

"Hyunyeong," Lucy answered and Shan's anxiety reached peak level. There were butterflies in his stomach trying to fly away with it. But it wasn't a delightful sensation.

"Is he… here?" Lucy nodded. She turned around and pointed somewhere to the stage.

"We are sitting with the rest of the team and Lili in one of the first rows." Shan nodded and threw the pad from one hand to another, trying to unfreeze his fingers. 

"How did he know?" he asked again. He had so many questions in his head. He felt obligated to care. And at the same time, curious. There were different types of trauma and Shan was surprised to find another one like him. He stopped in his tracks.

"SHIT! How was he on the way here? Is he okay?" Lucy's eyebrows shot up really high. She bit her lip and turned around.

"I won't tell you. But I've never seen you show so many emotions as you did these few days. Think about it…" She laughed when going away. But Yitian came closer.

"She is right. You are rarely emotional. You've never missed a training session. I know you've trained more hours during the night that day. I saw your log. But still. Calm down and think…" 

They were both right. He should think more. Shan was always known to be a thinker more than a feeler. What has changed now? Why did Hyunyeong-nim make him feel so much? Shan shook his head, and circled his shoulders, trying to relax. Yet he couldn't.

"Welcome Zhu long! The Swordmaster Doom!" Their names started to be called out by the MC and that was the time to go one by one up on the stage and then to their chairs.

"The assassin HNYG!" As soon as he heard his own name, he walked down the path they showed him, bowed, and went to sit as quickly as he could. Maybe it looked like he was almost running. Because he was.

Shan sat down, tried his mouse again, tried his keyboard. He put the headset on and looked around, waiting for everyone else to come and sit down. The Taiwanese team was playing online, from their place, so only they were offline here in the game park. So it was a quick introduction.

He didn't see anything past the camera on the monitor, and then the lights that were shining his way. Thankfully, when the game starts, it will become less annoying.

"Can you say something one by one?" the referee asked, and they obliged. It was a try if they heard everybody.

"Can you please turn Doom a bit up for me?" Shan asked. He needed to hear him more than others, yet now they were all the same. The referee nodded and played with some buttons.

"Is it better?" she asked after Chao said something. Shan nodded.

"Thank you." The referee nodded too and then went to the back. Everything was ready. They were ready, already logged in. from the rehearsal before.

"Let's win both games, so we can go back earlier. Acon Gaming is a new team from the Challengers. But still, be careful," Chao said and looked at all of them. Yitian, Yixing, Huobai, Hongjie, all of them, including Shan, nodded. 

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Shan always did it to calm himself down. To focus on the game. And even now, despite being so weird before, now his mind was completely immersed in the game.

They entered the password that the referee shared and all twelve of them were dropped to the lobby of the arena. Hongjie and the opposing team's sixth player would stay there and wait until someone died before being summoned to the arena. 

"Let's go, guys!" Yixing exclaimed when he heard the MC starting the countdown. Huobai had one last sip before the game. Hongjie leaned back and watched the game on Huobai's screen. And Shan opened his eyes.

Their first game was on the plains. There was almost nothing there, except a few ruins, some walls standing and that was it. It was the arena Shan hated the most. Almost everyone on their team didn't like it. They had nowhere to hide, nothing to use to their advantage. Only Yitian was happy.

He was already laid behind one of those walls and Chao followed him. They had a special formation for this type of arena. Shan sat next to Yitian and charged his special spell. Then he used it and placed some traps around their happy gunner.

"Traps placed," he said, so everyone knew. If someone stepped in, he would immediately know and it would either stun the person or do twenty percent of damage to their HP. But he couldn't use this spell for a few minutes.

"Wards covered," Huobai announced and Shan noticed the lighter spots on the minimap. Only he could come up with a spell like that. It was a combination of three skill spells and Shan hated it. Even his invisibility couldn't pass it.

"Everything in place. Now let's just wait." Yixing stood on one of the walls, where Chao was hidden, and they waited. For a long… too long time.