Secret Room Book 4 - Chapter 28

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

Playing Fish Trapped in Secret Room

Book 4: The Return of the King

Chapter 28

Four red dots appeared on Slide’s life detector.

They appeared in the southeast.

There was a short and dull sound.

Slide and another red dot jumped at it at the same time.

Both men knelt down on a knee and each took a shot at the man
standing before them.

A death notification appear on screen.

Immediately afterwards, two more shots rang out nearby.

Another death notification appeared on screen.

……

“I got it now!”  Xiao Mai looked at the death messages.  He recollected
the last act Slide’s team made before they entered into the smoke,
“Everybody would subconsciously switch to knives and pistols before
entering close combat. They make a sound as they switch.  If someone
switches their weapon, then it must be someone on Buff’s team!”

“Correct.”  As the team manager, Ai Qing was the most knowledgeable
of her own team’s training methods. “Before they entered the fray, they’ll
switch weapons at the same time and won’t switch again until the smoke
dissipates.”

Thus, to SP, if they heard someone switch weapons, it was an enemy.

“If two players from SP jump at a person simultaneously, won’t they kill
the wrong person?”

“It won’t happen.  Because…...they’ll all crouch when they attack.”

When they got close enough, they would be able to see the silhouettes
of people nearby.

This would be the last chance for them to distinguish friend from foe.

They’ve trained over a hundred times for zero visibility combat.  They
could instantly spot friends. A team kill would never happen for SP.

Buff shouted,  “55, 89, follow me!”

His two teammates quickly fell in line.

Three men, with their backs to each other, stood their ground.

In Buff’s earphones, he could hear the sound of footsteps all around him.

The smoke soon dissipated earlier than expected.

In five different directions, SP’s players began to switch from pistol to
their preferred weapons.

“Spread out.  Fight!” Buff shouted.  He rushed at Slide who had just
switched to a short knife.  He didn’t have a chance to take down Slide since
his team was in outnumbered 3 to 5 against players all in the top ten.

But Buff knew that if he could last for one more second, then it meant
that they could stay in the esports world for one more second.

Once the match was over-- --

Everything that was connected to the esports world in his life would be
completely over.

All his dreams, which he had given everything for, would soon be
thoroughly over.

The three men carried knives.  They spread out. Slide and Buff faced
each other.  The others were one to two.

……

“Buff, sorry.  I did my best.”  His teammate’s voice had very thick
nasal sound.

A death notification appeared.

“I can’t hold on anymore, boss.”

His last teammate fell down and died.

One more death notification appeared on screen.

……

These men who were in their mid thirties didn’t even cry when they disbanded
and retired after they lost to Solo’s team two years in a row in the past  
But now on screen, they were covering their eyes with their hands.

On screen, Buff grew more ruthless and knocked Slide against a tree.

The second before Slide hit the tree, he jabbed his knife into Buff’s heart.

The large screen showed their health drop.

Slide quickly typed three words:

This is great.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You're Beautiful When You Smile - Chapter 31 Part 4

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re Beautiful When You Smile

Chapter 31 Part 4

Ming god paused a bit, then he seemed to make up his mind.  No
longer looking at Lu Yue, he turned to look at Little Fatty instead and
suddenly spoke, “Little Fatty, you got it all wrong. There’s more to it
than what you’re seeing on the video. Ah Yue wouldn’t let me tell you
about it all because he’s afraid the incident would affect you-- --”

Lu Yue, who seemed to huddle up at the corner, abruptly stood up
from the couch. “Yu Ming.”

Lu Sicheng lifted his foot to kick Lu Yue’s knee. Lu Yue screeched
and fell back into the couch. Lu Sicheng stared at him as a warning,
then turned to ask Ming god, “I knew it wasn’t as simple as that. You
better tell us what exactly happened.”

……

The story began just as the summer season ended last year.

ZGDX had won the summer season championship and earned an
invitation to play in the world finals. It was an occasion for celebration.
After the celebration banquet, the team moved to KTV for karaoke.

Since the next day was a day off, everyone was drinking. Lu Yue had a
bit too much and everyone sent Yu Ming, who didn’t drink at all, to take
Lu Yue to the restroom to wash his face and sober up……

On their way back, they ran into a group from team JK-- --This team was
originally attached to CK as its B team. Later on, it moved up from the
minor league to the professional major league. Since it was against the
rules to have two teams of the same club listed under the major league,
JK was sold to the son of a rich family, A. He spent big money to buy JK
so he could play professionally.

A became the captain of JK. Though he played well enough, he was
still far from

the professional level. Even though he had four other professional players
to support him, the team was still being bombarded at competitions…...
In the end, the team was at the bottom of the group and had to play another
low ranked team from the other group in a relegation match. The loser of
said relegation match would drop back down to the minor league. JK ended
up being said losing team-- --

Instead of hating the team which defeated them at the relegation match,
they blamed ZGDX, which was already guaranteed to move forward to the
next round, for not letting JK win one match so they could avoid being placed
at the bottom of the group.

“Damn it! If it wasn’t for those ZGDX bastards, we wouldn’t have been
downgraded just by losing one match! Even if we lost the match between
the second to last teams, we could still have had a chance to defeat second
ranked junior league team to keep our place in the major league.”

“We might not be able to defeat a major league team, but taking down a
junior team would be as easy as eating cake.”

“I just saw those guys from ZGDX. Looks like they’re celebrating winning
the championship. They’re here, too.”

“Ha, now they’ve got the invitation, they’re so bloated with arrogance.
Disgusting-- --What do they have to gain from getting us downgraded?
Why couldn’t they just go easy on us? A Ge spent so much money to buy
the chance to play in the tournament and got downgraded just after one
season. All the money has been thrown into the water……”

They were talking very loud inside their private room, almost drowning
the singing from the next room…...Lu Yue who was supported by Ming god
suddenly stopped in front of their room when he overheard the conversation-- --

People inside the room continued talking. A person who had been quiet up
till now, the person referred to as A Ge by his teammates, smirked and spoke
in a surly voice, “They think they’re going to the finals? In their dreams! We
have to let them have a taste of what we’ve been through……”

As he spoke, the room grew quiet, even those who were singing had
turned off the music.

Under the gaze of his JK teammates, A Ge took out his cell phone and
dialed a number. After the call connected, he spoke in a particularly pleasant tone-- --

“Go find a few more people to come outside the Caesar KTV. En, I’ll let
you know when they come out…...You don’t need to do anything, just waste
their hands. Haha, right, right, right-- --professional players-- --they can still play,
with their feet…...Oh, remember, don’t touch the two good looking ones among
them. They’re from the Lu family, it’ll be big trouble if you hurt them. Don’t worry
about the others, do whatever you must. I’ll cover you if you get sued for damages.
Hurry and come over, I’m afraid they’ll leave soon.”

The voice inside the room could be heard clearly out in the hallway.

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 11 Part 2

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 11 Part 2

Xiang Nuan felt that it was such a pity that Chuyan didn’t sing another
song. Instead, he entered the queue for another game.

This time it was an unranked game.

In Kings of Glory, there's two kinds of game modes, unranked normal
matches and ranked games. The former has no effect on rank, the latter,
as the name suggests, is to earn points to move up ranks.

It’s a common practice to play unranked games first to get used to
playing an unfamiliar champion.

Xiang Nuan, this round, briefly got a taste of Zhang Fei’s abilities.

Zhang Fei’s first ability is “Typhoon”, he swings his serpent-headed spear
in a full-circle around himself, knocking back all the surrounding heroes.

The second ability is “Shield”, Zhang Fei can summon a large golden,
semi-transparent wok to cover himself and his teammates. The wok can
absorb damage, sometimes referred to as an “absorption shield.” For
example, if the player has a 200 point shield covering him, when the
enemy deals 300 points of damage to him, the player will only suffer
100 points to his health.

The third ability of Zhang Fei is his ultimate, “Metamorphosis.” Upon
activating his ultimate, Zhang Fei will turn from a ugly man into a
grotesque man. Any enemy who saw his face from the front would be
blinded and stunned. Those who saw his visage from the side would
also back away in fear……

That was the extent of Xiang Nuan’s understanding about this champion.
The actual abilities might work somewhat differently from her understanding,
but she got most of it.

Zhang Fei’s ultimate is very powerful, it can be used offensively and
defensively. Furthermore, after his metamorphosis, all of his abilities
changed. The first two abilities were supportive. After he transforms
into his hideous self, both abilities could deal a large amount of damage,
slow down the enemy, and increase his own speed. He would become
most formidable.

However, it wasn’t that easy to get the ultimate. He had to accumulate
enough fury to metamorphose.

Xiang Nuan was playing this champion for the first time. As a not so
skilled ranked Silver player, her understanding was relatively superficial.
Nonetheless, she could already sense the potential of this champion.

The most obvious effect she found-- --whenever someone was attacking
Chuyan, by using Metamorphosis, she could push the enemy away and
Chuyan could hide behind her!

Alright, everything was perfect, except…...ugly.

After metamorphosis, Xiang Nuan looked at her champion on the
screen and felt her heart bleed.

She said to Chuyan, “I almost want to play with my eyes closed.”

“Don’t mess around.”

Later on, the two played a ranked game, using her ugly Zhang Fei.

Chuyan was still using Sun Shangxiang.

In the past couple days, Chuyan had discovered the beauty of the bushes.
There were several bushes in Kings Valley, some large and some smaller.
Champions could hide inside the bush and see when enemy pass by.

That was the reason why Chuyan always asked Xiang Nuan to hide inside
the bushes to watch for the enemy. Xiang Nuan thought Chuyan was wasting
her time and it was only because she was kind enough to tolerate it…...She
only realized its value after she watched the professional teams also play
exactly the same way.

Under the protection of Zhang Fei, Chuyan had other goals than just keep a
lookout for the enemy-- --He wanted to play some tricks with the bushes.

After Xiang Nuan earned enough fury, he let her squat down inside a bush
and he…...went on to entice the enemy.

It was pure and simple bait.

A marksman without the protection of his teammates was an easy target.
When Sun Shangxiang exposed herself in front of the enemy, stealing a
monster from the enemy.  The enemy saw this as a great chance to get a
kill. The one who had been fighting the monster was the champion Liu Bei.
Liu Bei noticed that Sun Shangxiang was so close…...he readied his weapon
to strike Sun Shangxiang, without concern that Sun was Liu Bei’s wife.[1]
Domestic violence was about to take place.

Sun Shangxiang rolled and crawled to get away. Liu Bei thought he had
a good chance and chased after Sun. Then……he was stunned by Zhang Fei
who charged out of the bush without warning.

Zhang Fei and Sun Shangxiang began to wail on Liu Bei together.

They did this several times. Though not successful every time, the overall
result was fairly impressive. Interestingly, on the opposing team, in addition
to Liu Bei, there was also his son Liu Chan. However, Liu Chan was a tank
and not easy to kill. Chuyan only got to kill him once.

Xiang Nuan said to Chuyan, “You’re too sleazy, haha.”

Just then, the enemy Liu Chan began cursing at her on the public chat:
The Zhang Fei on the other side is really dirty! The one in the bush is a bitch!

Uhr……

Xiang Nuan thought that it was quite unnecessary to do that.

Besides, it was Chuyan who was the sleazy one. She felt that she was
being treated unfairly.

Liu Chan stopped playing the game and began ranting. He used all sort
of curses to blast Xiang Nuan.

Xiang Nuan knew there were all kinds of people playing the game, but
she was still quite angry at his words. She didn’t want to bring herself down
to the point that she got into a shouting match with the guy, so she could
only sulk over the situation.

Suddenly, Chuyan responded on the public chat.

Chuyan (Sun Shangxiang of our side): Son, mom has no choice but to
tell you the truth.

Chuyan (Sun Shangxiang of our side): Your uncle Zhang Fei is actually
your real father.

Xiang Nuan: “......”

It was the ultimate way to battle with words. Without a single obscenity,
yet his words could infuriate the enemy and also acknowledge the historical
background of the characters.

Xiang Nuan wanted to salute Chuyan!

[1]: These champions are named and based on characters from the historical novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” which is based on the actual Three Kingdoms period of China.  I won’t go into the details as there’s a lot of stories and characters, but this reference is based on the story of the Three Kingdoms. Here’s the wikipedia page about it if you’re interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms



Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You're Beautiful When You Smile - Chapter 31 Part 3

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re Beautiful When You Smile

Chapter 31 Part 3

The team manager, Xiao Rui, had kept quiet with a darkened face
up till now, “First of all, this incident is aimed at Lu Yue. He just came
back to the club after the ban lifted and someone put the video online.
Obviously, someone is trying to use public opinion to prevent him from
coming back……”

Xiao Rui continued after a short pause, “Only our people have this video
clip. Do you know why we kept this video a closely guarded secret back
then? Because the number of people who had viewed the video at the
time were less than 20, along with KTV staff and the police. The security
at KTV and the police were all middle-aged. In their eyes, this incident had
nothing to do with esports, just a bunch of young men brawling. The rest
are people from our club and JK-- --People from JK definitely wouldn’t want
this video publicized. From a public relations perspective, there’s no benefit
for JK to show the video in public. That was what we agreed on, to suppress
the incident from going public; they were even more eager than us to do so.”

Tong Yao: “Why? Wasn’t Lu Yue the one who hit them first?”

Those Sweet Times - Chapter 11 Part 1

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

Those Sweet Times

Chapter 11 Part 1

It’s Nuannuan: Then you sing first.

After she sent the message, Xiang Nuan reprimanded herself: Why did
you respond so quickly! Can’t you even act a little bit disinterested!

Their QQ voice chat was still on, Chuyan responded, “Which song?”

“I can even have a request?”

“Not necessary. It depends on whether I know the song.”

Xiang Nuan couldn’t think of a song for him to sing. So instead she said,
“Sing the song you’re best at.”

“There are a lot of songs that I can sing well.”

Hehehe, he really wasn’t modest -- --

Xiang Nuan had a good idea, “Take a look at the playlist of the songs you’re
listening to right now, sing whichever song it’s at right now.”