Glory [e-sports]

Everyone in FTW went to an island by the sea for vacation during the offseason. qPADy1

This was undoubtedly the happiest moment of the year. They’d won the championship, gained glory, and even the advertisement on the login screen of the game showed a photo of the five FTW players winning the championship.

These internet addict teenagers quite enjoyed their first day at the resort. Diving, surfing, beach walks, and all sorts of activities were available. But by the second day…

Little Red Ning: “Sigh!”

Potato Chip Le: “Cough…” BgS6QE

Brother Vegetable: “I can’t believe you guys didn’t bring any peripherals.”

The three little ones stood up with a swish, “Let’s go, let’s go!”

Not playing any games was impossible. Not touching games for a single day made them itch all over!

When Chen Feng returned to the hotel, he saw the three little ones playing ranked matches.

ALnZY0

Brother Cai: “F*ck me, Yue Wenle, can you do it or not? The elemental shaman isn’t used like this!”

Ning Zhehan: “Brother Cai, your positioning! You’re just giving away your head!”

Yue Wenle, who was playing the elemental shaman with a bewildered expression on his face, “He’s dead.”

Brother Cai: “………………” NjuI9w

Amazing. Three global champions were playing with three strong talents and getting beaten up by passers-by.

Yue Wenle was playing the elemental shaman, Ning Zhehan was playing the storm hunter, and Brother Cai was actually using the immortal warlock!

Who’d given them the courage to do such a thing!

Was it Little Lunatic Wei! lcWw7n

Chen Feng bonked each one of them on the head. “Three hours of extra training if you lose.”

The three little ones felt their scalps go numb and they became extremely serious.

Only after the game ended did they suddenly realize. “What training! It’s the offseason right now!”

‘Queen’ Chen was just as majestic as ever, and the three little ones had all lost to him! lVuAC5

Compared to these three people’s fake vacation, the great and little demon kings were really on vacation.

The island resort hotel was very large, and the furthest single-family villa was half an hour’s walk away. Brother Liu was quite clear about how things stood, and the villa that he arranged for Lu Feng and Wei Xiao was exactly half an hour away from the three little ones. ℟ÅΝȰΒĚṥ

The moon was bright, the waves were rolling, and Little Lunatic Wei was ‘reaping the consequences’ accompanied by the sea breeze.

Because the debt owed from the season could not be paid off in one or two days. 18onqd

On the first day, Wei Xiao had been full of confidence. He pointed at the waves outside and said, “What’s this?”

These waves weren’t as reckless as he was!

The next morning, Wei Xiao’s voice was hoarse. “No more, I really can’t anymore.”

The next night, Wei Xiao pretended to cry loudly. “Captain, I was wrong, I was really wrong… hey… hey hey….” QSPGX8

The waves outside were just like the water that had entered Wei Xiao’s brain during the competition, and it had to come out sooner or later.

After this ‘battle’, Wei Xiao was well-behaved for a whole three days.

How well-behaved?

He didn’t dare to ask for a kiss, didn’t dare to think about wanting a hug, and he didn’t even dare to use his little hands to hook fingers! 4QYTwd

He sat upright to show he was serious… oh, he couldn’t sit stably QAQ!

On the fourth day, Wei Xiao started crying again, “When is the next season starting! Laozi wants to play games!”

Why did he have to take a break? Professional players didn’t have breaks!

One thing led to another. fgdluD

Ktf ugfja vfwbc xlcu ktb kjr bc tbilvjs ogbw atf ujwf vfjia klat atf ilaaif iecjalm nfgs atbgbeutis.

Lf vlvc’a vjgf ab oilga gjcvbwis jcswbgf––ja ifjra cba veglcu atf boorfjrbc.

Lf jirb vlvc’a vjgf ab ajix vlgas jcswbgf––ja ifjra ecali tlr yeaa vlvc’a tega!

Yo mbegrf, atf ugfja vfwbc xlcu vlvc’a jmaejiis vb jcsatlcu fzmfrrlnf. FhHeB5

Wei Little Xiao had indeed cried a lot, but half of it was dry howling, and the other half came from ‘happiness’.

As for real tears that were shed due to pain––

––Not a single drop.

FTW returned home from vacation and were shocked to find that their base was incredibly lively. 3892sK

What was going on?!

The celebration party had gone on for a day and two nights. Hadn’t these people had enough?

Wei Xiao stepped up arrogantly to ridicule Yuan Ze, “Old Teacher, why aren’t you going back?!”

It had already been a week since the finals ended. Why were they all gathered at FTW instead of heading back to their respective homes and families? Nx2zHv

Old G was very pleased with himself, “Chinese cuisine is vast and profound.”

He had clearly become a food addict!

Kim Sung-hyun chimed in, “Next time, I’ll take you to try stinky tofu.”

Old G had no idea what was waiting for him and was extremely excited, “Okay, okay! Is it as delicious as the pancakes from this morning?” JyLN9s

The Proud Flower smiled mysteriously, “It’s even better than that.”

Those present who understood: “……………..” They didn’t know how to express the pity they felt for this silly Big G.

Fortunately, the FTW base was big enough that it didn’t feel crowded with so many people living there.

Captain Yuan sat down on the sofa with great determination and said, “Come on, let’s fight it out.” zcDlmC

Kim Sung-hyun raised his eyebrows, “Did you call Old Xie over?”

EVE’s team of five arrived as he was speaking.

FTW’s five little ones: “???”

What were you guys doing?! DMG5jt

Why did you all run over here instead of going home?

God Yan couldn’t possibly be there too, right…

Yan Jiang didn’t head over. He sent Yuan Ze a message. “An unequal contest brings no honor to the victor.”

Y1 would definitely win if they came, so they hadn’t come.

That’s right, they were global runner-up (repeat) team whose domineering aura practically leaked out everywhere!

Wei Xiao finally caught up, “Are you guys going to compete? What’s the prize?”

Just as Yuan Ze was about to keep him in suspense, Old G shouted out loudly, “The right to live at the old base!” DwTxOq

Yuan Ze bonked him on the head.

FTW’s logistics team, who had been wandering around outside homeless for a week without telling the FTW team so that they could relax, spoke up at this moment. “Cough…”

Little Ning looked at Brother Liu. “What’s going on?”

Brother Liu cleared his throat. “It’s like this…” jwnHSZ

This year, things were different from before. In the past, Glory’s competitive season lasted for the whole year.

There were competition zone games in the first half of the year, and the global competition took place in the second half of the year. This was due to the way the competition system had been set up, as well as the lengthy process required for the singles and doubles games when they had still been using the old map. All of this meant that the global finals were pushed towards the end of the year.

One global championship every year was a tradition that had remained unchanged for more than a decade.

Until this year… ofanme

The competition committee had been stirring things up since the beginning of the year.

The singles and doubles games were no longer lengthy competitions in each competition zones, and had become an elimination game in the global competition. Factoring in the new brawl mode meant that the time required for the whole process had been shortened from an entire year to half a year.

The global champions were crowned during the summer vacation period, making summer more exciting than usual for those in the China competition zone!

However, that also meant that the season ended in half a year. What were they supposed to do in the second half of the year? zYcR2V

Take half a year off?

What were you thinking! Were the capital daddies going to give up on making money?

Even if the capital daddies didn’t want to make money, their fans would also start to kick up a fuss.

How were they supposed to survive six months without games to watch? ZhKp0s

Moreover, youth was a precious resource for professional players. Having such an extended break was too cruel!

The competition committee had already made arrangements. They’d just been waiting until after the finals to make the announcement.

A new competition format would be launched in the second half of the year––the World Invitational Tournament.

Unlike the global competition that took place in the first half of the year, the World Invitational Tournament lasted for three months and started in September. The final stage was tentatively scheduled for December. hMEIa9

The World Invitational Tournament would be a global competition right from the start.

There would be no competition zones and no quotas. Any team could participate in the qualifying round as long as their team had passed the approval process.

The qualifying round would be based on points. The top twenty-four teams who were able to stand out from the crowd would then enter a round-robin competition which lasted for two months.

There were no competition zone restrictions on the 24 teams. 1lw5nd

What did that mean?

In other words, the rules allowed all 24 teams to be from the same competition zone as long as they were strong enough!

Of course, at present, no competition zone had enough outstanding teams to achieve this.

However, this had already brought an endless amount of surprise to the competition zones that were full of powerful players. mdTKE1

For example, the China competition zone where dark horses had emerged frequently this year. If there had been no quota restrictions, then 3U, TPT, and RR would’ve all been able to enter this year’s regular global season and compete with the Team of Gods!

The runner-up from the North American competition zone was also a powerful team that everyone was eyeing closely.

Needless to say, there were also many fierce and ambitious teams beneath the two giants Y1 and EVE in the European competition zone.

No competition zone restrictions, and all powerhouses were respected. cAgFks

If the global competition hadn’t taken place in the first half of the year, then the competition committee wouldn’t have dared to set up such an ‘unfair’ competition system.

However, the ‘fair’ global competition was over, and no one would say anything if they allowed all the powerhouses to fight against each other in the second half of the year!

The audience, who had been afraid that there would be no games to watch, were all excited.

This was too exciting! Just thinking about it made them happy. GyTJVD

How strong did these 24 teams have to be in order to make it out of the qualifying round?

Two rounds of global competition seasons was like a feast for gluttons!

Games like FTW vs Y1; they would be able to watch two rounds of such games!

Not only could they watch FTW play against Y1, there was also FTW vs L&P, FTW vs Pro, or FTW vs Pufferfish Xie. 0ZH2dG

There was also 3U vs Pro to see which team’s big brother was the strongest, TPT vs Y1 having a ‘discussion’ about the winter training match scandal, and even RR vs EVE to see whose mid-laner was tougher to deal with!

The internet had already exploded, only the champions had still been sleeping soundly on the plane without knowing about any of it.

As for why Yuan Ze, Kim Sung-hyun and Xie He were competing for the right to live in FTW’s old base.

That was also because of FTW. ylhDta

The World Invitational Tournament had made invitations on behalf of the champion team.

As the global champions, FTW was inviting teams from across the world to their competition to participate in this new global competition!

This didn’t require FTW to do anything. It was just that this title was sufficiently dazzling, brilliant, and filled with glory!

It was because FTW had won the championship that the entire three-month World Invitational Tournament would be held in the China competition zone. It wasn’t surprising that Yuan Ze and the others were ‘fighting over territory’. 2iYmqD

As for who won and who lost… cough.

Either way, they were all the best ‘sparring partners’ for FTW!

There were also fans who kicked up a fuss about the new competition system online. “If it’s like this, then our FTW’s championship won’t be worth as much!”

Everyone else had championships that lasted for a whole year. Why did it become two global championships a year when it was FTW’s turn! VZnc28

So angry!

Wei Xiao happened to see this message and forwarded it directly. “If one isn’t worth as much, then how about getting a pair @Close.”

Fans: “!!!!”

Without mentioning anything else, being Little Lunatic Wei’s fan would f*cking ensure that they felt f*cking cool all the time! Uv81I4

Yeah! If one wasn’t enough to satisfy them, then just get two.

Some CP fans discovered something strange. “Oh my, oh my. A pair is fine, but why do you have to tag the great demon king!”

It was as though they were determined to send their fans up to the heavens. Close reposted Wei Xiao’s Weibo post, with a simple, single word. “Mm.”

A reply worth more than a thousand words. 2LX8dU

Many years later, after the two people had become legendary figures of their generation––

Fans dug out this Weibo post.

“The demon king couple had been announcing their relationship that time, right!”

“Holy sh*t, sister, you have such sharp eyes!” qR9cAJ

“??? So I thought that I’d been eating fake candy for years, but in reality it had all been real candy?”

“It’s real. More real and true than gold and silver.”

Quiet had been breaking conventions and ‘surprising’ people since his debut.

All the way until the last moment. He and Close retired together and posted a Weibo that shocked the entire Glory circle. y9fYmn

Quiet: “The last battle is dedicated to my lover @Close.”

Close: “The last battle is dedicated to my lover @Quiet.”

—

The author has something to say: Stories are never-ending. Their lives will continue on with us. All right! All good things must come to an end. See you next time! FE9q5Y

(End of book)

---

xiin: *covers face* sorry it took this long to finish, but it’s done! thank you for joining Wei Xiao and Lu Feng (and FTW) on this journey. Long Qi’s (龙柒) novels have accompanied me from when i first discovered BL till now and i’m really happy that i was able to share one of her works with everyone.

thank you to juurensha & apricot for helping out with edits––they’ve caught countless typos, smoothed way more weird  sentences than they should’ve had to, and just generally been great and thank you to luckykoi for picking up the slack in the middle when i disappeared for a couple years while!

lastly, please please please support the author by buying the raws. Glory was also released in print in China, over three volumes. i was only able to find the volumes on taobao, but if anyone has a better link, please do share it! d7xwUv

and… low-key flashing my next project, The Best Strategy Guide! we’re setting off into the interstellar ABO world where tears don’t only flow from omega’s eyes

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