A peculiar hashtag skyrocketed to the top of Glory’s forum trending list within minutes.
Not only on Glory’s interface, but related topics quickly emerged on Weibo as well, with the term surging into the top three in no time.
Meanwhile, the top trending spot was occupied by a set of candid photos of Ren Congmian dressed impeccably for a recent brand event.
Even casual passersby with the slightest knowledge of Glory would likely have heard of the name “Ash.”
The indelible impression tied to this priceless ID was that of a top-tier player—aloof, taciturn, and unapproachable.
Yet, this legendary figure had broken his usual silence just before the national tournament, posting a conspicuously biased message of encouragement dedicated solely to one person?
…Players were practically dying of curiosity.
Just who was this “little one”?
What kind of relationship could make Ash break his own rules for them?
Meanwhile, at the Lin City International Esports Arena,
The competitors remained completely unaware.
Jing Mian adjusted his headphones.
Leaning back into his gaming chair, the cool air brushed past his ears, sharpening the surrounding sounds into clarity.
The scale of previous matches paled in comparison to the national tournament. Jing Mian rubbed his fingertips, noticing how cold they felt. His heightened senses betrayed an unavoidable tension.
Suddenly, he thought—
If only Husband were in the audience.
Though he would never make such a request. Just imagining the man seated in the stands, tall and composed, his attentive gaze enveloping him, filled Jing Mian with an indescribable sense of security.
Multi-angle live streams rolled across various platforms, digital timers flickered, and commentators faced their cameras—all systems were go.
The referee announced the official start of the match.
Jing Mian lowered his lashes slightly, taking a quiet breath before focusing on the screen. Faint static buzzed in his headphones as the interface transitioned. Soon, his character awoke from darkness.
He found himself atop a towering lighthouse.
Peering down, a gray misty rain fell outside, the fog so thick it obscured most of the scenery. Only scattered lights flickered in the distance, marking countless endless lighthouses.
[It’s the Lighthouse map!]
[Newly released?]
[Yeah, last month.]
[Starting with such a high-difficulty map right off the bat? Exciting.]
…
Jing Mian had practiced this map not long ago.
Though challenging, its design was highly creative.
The map consisted of countless towering lighthouses, rendered in dim hues with only the night sky and the lighthouses themselves as light sources.
Normally shrouded in darkness, a lighthouse would illuminate automatically when a player entered—helpful for gathering supplies but inevitably revealing their position to others.
The more players inside a lighthouse, the brighter it glowed.
Especially when airdropped supplies landed on one, that lighthouse would emit a far more conspicuous light, drawing players toward it.
In this map, they found themselves in a pitch-black forest, competing for limited prey while eliminating hunters who revealed their positions. They searched for an exit while waiting for light sources to illuminate, marking their next targets.
The more kills a player achieved in this round, the higher the probability of a red door appearing nearby.
[I remember the current record holder for this map is Dawn, set during last year’s provincial tournament.]
[Sniff, when will Dawn and Sheep play together again? It’s been so long since we’ve seen them team up QAQ]
[I heard Dawn once pursued MianMian but got rejected, which caused their fallout.]
[Not just that—the reason everyone calls him MianMian is because Dawn accidentally leaked it during a livestream?]
[I don’t believe it. Shouldn’t Ash be the record holder for a map this difficult?]
[Upstairs, this is a new map. Ash quit five years ago…]
[Didn’t Ash return not long ago?]
[Yeah, supposedly for Sheep’s sake.]
[Is there a chance the kid Ash blessed earlier might actually be MianMian?]
[Upstairs, that’s not impossible?!]
[Damn, no way]
[I’m already shipping them so hard]
[AHHHHHHH]
[I know it’s not real, but their chemistry is insane x the tension is unreal QAQ Someone please feed us fan content]
Jing Mian was positioned on the second floor of a lighthouse.
He quickly picked up the nearby S12K and ammunition, leaving the area before enemies noticed the lighthouse lighting up.
But the moment he moved—
Jing Mian heard footsteps approaching from below.
He crouched, aimed, and decisively fired the instant the enemy bent down to grab a gun.
The system promptly announced:
[“ME.Sheep” eliminated “TR.Let” with S12K shotgun!]
Just one minute into the match, Sheep had secured his first kill of the national tournament.
This undoubtedly boosted ME.’s morale.
As Jing Mian exited the lighthouse, its light faded behind him. Outside, the forest was shrouded in thick fog, each step producing faint splashes in shallow puddles. They needed to continuously search lighthouses and illuminated areas—only by eliminating more enemies would the red door likely appear nearby.
Approaching an intensely lit lighthouse, Jing Mian spotted an enemy player entering from afar. Raising his gun, he followed closely, deducing at least two or more opponents were inside.
But the moment he stepped in—
A gunshot rang out, followed by the system’s prompt:
[“ME.Mole” eliminated “TR.Sign” with AWM!]
The person on the second floor turned out to be Cen Xian!
As Mole began descending, Jing Mian suddenly warned, “Don’t move.”
Cen Xian froze: “?”
Jing Mian crouched slightly, gun raised.
He advanced toward one direction, footsteps nearly silent.
Then—he fired decisively, unloading several shots through a door left ajar that obscured part of the room.
Three or four rounds later—
The player hiding behind the door collapsed before even standing up, leaving behind scattered ammunition and gear.
Players trapped inside the lighthouse were oblivious, but to those with light-sensitive vision observing from outside, the lighthouse where Mole stood appeared brighter than when two people were normally inside.
This indicated a third person was present in the lighthouse.
Cen Xian was on the second floor, meaning there were no obstacles above. The only possible hiding spot was the bare, wind-swept guardhouse.
Jing Mian seized this realization. Within milliseconds of judgment, rather than risk alerting the enemy, he decisively pulled the trigger.
Swift, composed, with razor-sharp instincts and machine-like precision—such a player would always be in the spotlight, no matter where he went.
The system announced Jing Mian’s second kill.
[So freaking cool!!!]
[Sheep is absolutely on fire today.]
[Wild guess: if MianMian keeps this up, ME. might just become this year’s national championship favorites.]
[No way.]
[+1 for the delusional squad.]
The first round went incredibly smoothly.
In fact, Mole took out the last enemy member just seconds before the red door appeared. With three survivors left in Team ME., they instantly widened the gap.
While waiting for the haunted house round to load, the ME. players exchanged triumphant glances.
“Don’t get cocky.”
“Hehe.”
Cen Xian sighed. “We’ve got this in the bag, but can you at least try to control your grin?”
The redhead shrugged. “I can’t help it.”
Another teammate chuckled. “MianMian carried hard today.”
“As long as we don’t get wiped next round, victory’s pretty much guaranteed.”
Before the second round officially began, staff guided the players to put on their holographic glasses for calibration and confirmation.
Soon, Jing Mian’s vision plunged into darkness, lingering for a while.
He knew that once the national tournament began, all stored items for the haunted house round would be voided—including the Shadow Guard.
This meant,
No matter what emergency arose, Ash’s Shadow Guard would never appear.
Though in regular matches, summoning the Shadow Guard required specific conditions, and it didn’t appear every round—even now, Jing Mian still found himself flustered whenever Ash suddenly descended.
But now, with the certainty that Ash wouldn’t appear, a faint sense of isolation crept in.
Jing Mian lowered his lashes.
No.
He admired Ash.
But what he truly longed for was to fight alongside Ash.
If that chance never came in this lifetime, he’d rather stand alone than grow dependent on Ash.
He wanted to lift the trophy with his teammates, watching golden confetti rain down.
Two minutes later.
The screen’s symbols flickered and shifted.
Jing Mian’s vision gradually returned, and the sounds around him sharpened.
The first thing he heard was the rustling of dark grass in the night wind, mingled with the distant howls of beasts.
A tangled forest of leaves and branches stretched before him, eerie and silent.
Jing Mian paused.
The familiarity of the visuals and sounds hit him instantly—this map was called “Red Shoes.”
It was relatively new. Just a few months ago, he had randomly matched with Greek on this very map. Back then, they barely knew each other, and Greek had briefly explained some of the later plotlines and side quests.
The daughter had been missing in this forest for eight full days. The police found a small red shoe, but the mother couldn’t rest easy and joined forces with three others to search—a policeman, a villager, and an exorcist.
A month later, the protagonist (the father) received a letter from his wife, realizing she had likely met with misfortune. He then came to this place, accompanied by the same three professions, to search.
These four corresponded to Jing Mian’s teammates in the squad.
Meanwhile, the opposing side mirrored them, possessing the same lineup.
The mission for this round had long appeared in the upper right corner, emitting a faint, translucent glow as if engraved:
[Main Mission: Escape Alive (Find the Red Door)
Side Mission: Rescue Wife and Daughter]
Cen Xian drew the role of “policeman,” the red-haired guy got “villager,” and the remaining teammate took “exorcist.”
As for Jing Mian, he drew “husband.”
Rumor had it that the organizers of this national tournament had also added unexpected plot easter eggs to the randomly matched maps, something that would catch players off guard.
Jing Mian thought that perhaps by the end of this round, there might be some unforeseen twist.
But for now…
The four companions encountered their first wave of monsters.
The evil spirits were fierce, attacking in groups and cleverly avoiding focusing on a single target. Soon, the group of four was scattered.
After Jing Mian used the dagger he picked up to kill a minor monster, he realized he had unknowingly wandered into an unfamiliar part of the forest. The tips of the leaves around him were blackened, as if painted with heavy ink.
Jing Mian cautiously ventured deeper into the forest. The surroundings weren’t entirely unfamiliar—sure enough, not far ahead, he discovered the corpse of a policeman.
He was hanging upside down from a tree, abruptly dropping down and swaying left and right as Jing Mian passed beneath.
Above the corpse floated the ID: “ME.Mole.”
It was Cen Xian.
This meant Cen Xian had already been eliminated earlier.
The audience erupted in shock.
[Mole got eliminated this fast?]
[I don’t even deliver food this quickly.]
[The wildest part is, he was killed by a minor monster.]
[Is ME. really about to get wiped out?]
…
Jing Mian narrowed his eyes slightly.
Then, with a flick of his mouse, he pulled out a golden-threaded dagger and delivered a final blow to the hanging Mole.
Greek had once mentioned that if they encountered a dead teammate on this map, they shouldn’t recklessly loot the body—instead, they should strike first and turn the teammate’s health bar completely gray.
Because that wasn’t actually their teammate.
It was the policeman from the search party led by the protagonist’s wife, who had died three days prior. His role was to deceive players, though he wasn’t the final boss.
If Cen Xian had encountered a corpse version of “himself” and tried to loot it without striking first, he would have been successfully captured and killed, replacing the corpse as the hanged ghost on the tree.
The fake “Mole” would then attack the players just as they were about to reach the red door. If their health was sufficient, they might survive, but if they were already weakened from a close call, the imposter could land a fatal blow.
Afterward, Jing Mian searched the officer’s waist pouch and found a pistol with four bullets, swiftly pocketing them before turning to leave.
[???]
[Can someone explain this to me?]
[Switch perspectives, and you’ll understand by looking at TR Team’s Let. He got tricked after looting without killing, directly impersonated by a ghost disguised as a villager.]
[This map is truly terrifying when you think about it.]
[Thought Sheep was about to mess up.]
[Spoiler: the little girl is the final Boss.]
[MianMian has played this map more than once. Those hoping to see him fail might be disappointed.]
[Kick out the spoiler guy.]
Jing Mian knew the missing little girl was the final Boss.
As the father character, to escape alive, he had to personally kill his daughter, who had transformed into a monster, before the red door appeared.
During this process, the girl would do everything to stop her father—pleading tearfully, emitting special sounds to attract all ghosts, or transforming into a monster with a thick, hard-to-deplete health bar.
Before the checkpoint, Jing Mian successfully regrouped with his teammates.
Though by then, only he and Cen Xian remained.
They seamlessly exchanged ammo and healed with medkits. Jing Mian took the special dagger needed to kill the Boss and found the little girl in red—the final Boss—in the familiar mountain cave.
Upon sensing the players’ intent to attack, the girl immediately begged for mercy.
“Mommy.”
“Mommy, where are you?”
“Hurry, hurry up…”
“Get me out.”
…?
To all players’ surprise,
the girl didn’t weakly plead with her father. Instead, she straightened up, as if calling for someone.
This was likely the organizer’s adjusted easter egg for the map.
Sharp players might realize that calling for her mother instead of begging her father implied the mother would likely mutate and attack the surviving players.
This side quest was now ruined—neither mother nor daughter could escape.
Cen Xian cursed the planners under his breath.
Calling it a plot easter egg was just an excuse to add another Boss at the end, ramping up the difficulty.
Mole signaled Jing Mian to enter the cave’s depths, letting him kill the Boss first while providing cover.
“…”
But Jing Mian’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he stood frozen in place.
Cen Xian: “?”
What’s wrong?
His view shifted to Jing Mian’s character, completely still, staring at the little girl calling out in the distance.
Yet the mother never appeared.
Mole turned and suddenly heard footsteps and character screams nearby. The girl’s mother was likely on her way, just encountering the enemy’s two surviving players at the cave entrance.
Today was their lucky day.
While those two were trapped, it was the perfect time to kill the Boss. Once the girl became a high-health monster, she’d be tough to handle.
Cen Xian grabbed his curved blade and moved toward the girl.
Sensing danger, the girl’s face twisted in fear, her voice sharpening:
,”Mommy!”
,”What are you doing?”
,”Mommy, hurry!”
,”Hurry up!!”
,”Hurry up!!!”
…
…
“—Mommy!!”
The deafening cry pierced their eardrums.
Cen Xian didn’t hesitate—he swung his blade.
The little girl’s voice abruptly ceased at that moment.
Jing Mian’s eyes widened in stunned realization.
The next second.
His heart reacted instinctively, pounding violently and heavily.
Under the camera’s gaze, the pupils in his eyes, illuminated by the stage lights, suddenly constricted.
Jing Mian unconsciously leaned back slightly, pressing against his gaming chair.
His curled fingers turned white from gripping too tightly.
A familiar suffocating sensation instantly flooded his ears and nasal cavity. Wearing headphones, Jing Mian could hear the roaring crowd below, his fingertips turning cold as they clutched the mouse.
…
No.
Calm down.
Calm down.
This is the national championship.
At least not now.
Jing Mian, this is the national championship!
A faint sound escaped his throat. Jing Mian wasn’t sure if he had muttered something under his breath. He probably wanted to reach for his medication, but after fumbling for a moment, he realized he had left it at home.
Should he… should he call Mr. Ren?
But… how?
As he pondered in confusion,
the next instant, all the noise and clamor around him abruptly vanished.
“…”
Instead, a deafening ringing flooded his ears.
Jing Mian swallowed dryly, his eyelashes fluttering helplessly as he looked around.
Though standing on solid ground, an overwhelming sense of weightlessness surged through him. He was sitting in his gaming chair, surrounded by teammates, yet the grand and formal competition stage before him began to blur inexplicably.
Because scalding tears kept spilling from his eyes.
“Haah… mm… huff…”
Jing Mian heard his own ragged breathing, muffled beneath the black face mask, sounding hollow and prolonged, thick with moisture.
When he looked up again, the forest map and esports arena had somehow transformed into a vast, flickering sea of traffic.
Jing Mian stood frozen amidst the traffic, unable to move forward or retreat—completely trapped.
No one knew what was happening to him.
Within seconds, cold sweat drenched his palm resting on the mouse, making it too slippery to grip. Jing Mian looked around in confusion, even beginning to forget where he was.
His trembling pupils lost focus.
His breathing grew increasingly labored, suffocating him in his dazed state.
…
…
Jing Mian suddenly stood up.
His headphones and Holographic Glasses slipped off from the abrupt movement, clattering onto the gaming desk with a loud crash.
Instantly drawing the attention of cameras and everyone in the venue.