God's Left Hand - Book 1: Chapter 28

Ai Qing remembered Grunt’s exhibition game before.

“He’s a dangerous type of player, hard to control, but very rare. I heard that he hasn’t signed on with any club. Why don’t you win him over?”

“I’m waiting for him to lose.  He has to fall down completely and climb back up again, then there will be room for further development.”  Solo glanced over at the audience.  “Ai Jing’s here?”

Ai Qing turned her head.

In the distance, there were Dt, 97, and Ai Jing sitting in the audience.

She sat at contestants’ area.  Most of the players had already entered the competition arena and only a few still sat in this area.  Solo and her were standing out.

97 saw her right away and pulled Dt’s arm with astonishment.  She couldn’t tell what’s Dt’s expression since his cap was low on his face and they sat quite a distance away.  It was Ai Jing who was excitedly waving at her and dialed her number right there.

“I didn’t see Grunt this morning.  Have you seen him?  Is he in the contestant area?”

Ai Qing didn’t expect her sister’s first sentence would be about Grunt.  She replied without knowing whether to laugh or feel annoyed, “No, he hasn’t given up the game again?”

“No, he won’t.”  Ai Jing helplessly said, “He sees Solo as his ultimate opponent.  He won’t give up any game to compete with Solo…...Ai, I saw him.”

Ai Jing hung up quickly and looked towards the entrance.

Grunt was late and was showing his VIP name tag at the entrance. The staff pointed at the contestant area and he took a look at that direction and waved to Ai Qing and Solo with his eyes squinted and a faint smile. He then strolled towards the audience and was stopped by two young girls after just a few steps.  The two girls held his arms, one at each side, and took a picture with him and got his autograph.

Ai Qing saw her sister was staring at Grunt and jokingly sent a message over: with so many wolves circling around there was so little meat, the future didn’t look promising.

Her sister sensed the vibration of her cell, lowered her head to take a look, and raised her head again right away, waving her fist to Ai Qing.

“Your sister knows them well?”  Solo asked her quietly.

She answered,  “En, they are all new friends, we just met…...except Dt.”  She remembered what 97 had told her and tilted her head to look at Solo.  “I heard Dt was that Momomo on Battle.net?  The one who played you to a draw?”

“It’s him.”  Solo didn’t deny it.

“Hey, you two, what are you looking at?”  All came over, using one arm to circle around Solo and the other hand on Ai Qing’s shoulder. “Eh, isn’t that the newcomer, the most obnoxious one in the past two years?  What’s his name?”

“Grunt.”

Grunt finished signing autographs and sat down with the others.  He looked towards this way.

All suddenly pointed his index finger towards himself and inscrutably smiled.  It’s very obviously a provocation.

Grunt understood what he meant, but he used the knuckle of his index finger to push up his glasses and shook his head to turn it down.

He then pointed Solo and said,  “My opponent today is Solo.”

There’s a few seconds of silence inside the arena, then it exploded into loud shouting and cheers.  This was the most direct declaration of war, face to face, without any room for doubt.  

Solo, as the receiving end of the challenge, felt that Grunt was quite the interesting opponent and accepted with a simple nod.