Accompany You Ch 18.3

Chapter 18: Accompany You to the Top of the World (Part 3)

The day of the finals, twenty thousand people sat in the arena, leaving no empty seats behind. The audience raised their lightcards and national flags high, all sorts of graffiti scrawled on their faces, to witness the pinnacle of this game festival together.

Under the focus of millions of people across the world, when Phoenix’s team members stepped on the red carpet into the arena from the side door, the spectators’ stands on both sides were already crowded with Chinese people. They screamed out words of encouragement while doing their best to stretch their hands across the railings.

“Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

“USA! USA! USA!”

“Phoenix! Phoenix! Phoenix!”

“Titan! Titan! Titan!”

The earthshaking sound of cheers were ear-splitting. The five Phoenix members raised their arms to high-five their fans on the way there, to step onto the competition stage amidst arousing background music.

Before the game, Team Titan declared on their official website: We are about to end the Conquer dynasty that China once set.

Chinese teams had already lost two years of the championship. Whether or not they could defend Chinese Conquer’s glory depended on this one battle!

The players from both teams each entered their respective glass rooms. The five Phoenix members formed a circle while holding each others’ shoulders, heads dipped together, and then they separated, put on their headphones, and adjusted their mice and keyboards.

The large screen counted down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…..

Several streams of fire shot out from the stage, followed by the sound of the sonorous system.

“Team Phoenix turn to pick!”¹

An invitation for Team Phoenix to pick their heroes.

“It’s over! Phoenix is completely destroyed, Titan has successfully broken through Phoenix’s mid lane!”

At the Chinese commentating desk, aside from Cris, the other two commentators were looking sombre.

Luo Tian’s brows were knitted together: “Phoenix has already had two lanes destroyed this round. The situation’s quite desperate!”

It was at this moment that Cris suddenly shouted, “Three of Phoenix’s members have purchased the equipment Burning Staff!”

Burning Staff had the lowest cost-effectiveness out of Conquer’s numerous equipment. It was expensive and had no attribute bonuses, and its only effect was that it could cause a fixed amount of damage to an enemy instantaneously.

This type of equipment wasn’t easy for a nucleus with money to buy, to say nothing of a support.

Yet Phoenix’s support and jungler had both bought it, abandoning defense to greatly raise the team’s accumulated instantaneous burst.

Luo Tian raised his voice in excitement: “Phoenix is preparing to shed their armor and fight to the death.”

Cris shook his head: “It likely won’t be to the death. Though it seems like each step will be perilous, Ji Xiangkong is a person who’s able to think his way out of any dangerous situation. It’s clear that they walked through this before during their training.”

In the VIP audience seating, Qiu Ying was commentating for Lu Yiyi that this was Ji Xiangkong’s “decapitation tactic.”

“When you add the damage of three Burning Staffs together, it’s enough to kill anyone.”

Lu Yiyi took in a breath. “But this style is way too crazy! Lin Yixuan and Pei Xi’s bodies are both fragile enough right now that they won’t be able to receive a single attack!”

Qiu Ying focused on the screen, hands fisted together in nervousness as she sweated.

On the large screen, Titan destroyed the defenses of Phoenix’s towers in their three lanes, summoning a super soldier.

Seeing victory within reach, the Titan members with remaining HP suddenly turned back after they left in an attempt to kill Ji Xiangkong, who was moving forward after resurrecting. Unexpectedly, they were ambushed by Phoenix!

Three simultaneous bursts of red light!

The Chinese commentators roared at the same time: “Titan’s ADC nucleus has been killed by three Burning Staffs! A chance! Chance!”

Phoenix’s entire troops rushed to attack Titan’s highlands, only to be scattered by the defending Titan.

Titan’s mid and big brother ADC went down from their highlands in preparation to chase them, leaving only their support and jungler at their base.

“Why is Phoenix missing a person?” Luo Tian was wondering when he suddenly slammed on the table. “Void’s been hiding in the shadow of Titan’s base! A blind spot that they never discovered!”

This guy’s heart was evil!

Titan’s support didn’t see Ji Xiangkong and was killed by a sneak attack.

At this, Titan’s jungler realized that something wasn’t right, but he moved incautiously and Ji Xiangkong knocked him to the ground!

“DoubleKill!”

An American commentator senselessly cried out: “Void! The Boss!”

Titan lost two people and it was now a 3v4 situation. As they were skirting each other, suddenly, three more simultaneous bursts of red light!

Luo Tian was so excited that he nearly jumped off of the commentating desk. “Titan’s teenage genius Jeffery Chen has been killed thanks to the recovery of Phoenix’s three Burning Staffs’ CD! Titan, who’s lost their nucleus, has been completely wiped out by Phoenix! Phoenix seizes the chance to attack the highlands!”

“GG! Congratulations, Team Phoenix, for winning the first round of the Global Finals!” 

In the arena, the American audience who’d only just been waving their stars-and-stripes flag and chanting “USA! USA! USA” were speechless.

Phoenix had achieved a complete reversal while in a situation where all three lanes were broken through and their enemies had dispatched a super solider. When both sides went out of their glass rooms to shake hands, all of the Titan members’ faces were ashen.

After a short break in between games, the second round started. Phoenix changed all of the heroes they had used in the previous round.

“Void and Summit are both crowd control! Their combination attacks are going to have an explosive effect!”

This was a new lineup that had never before been used in large competitions. It caught Titan, who hadn’t yet recovered from the shadow of their immense advantage being overturned just prior, completely off guard.

Forty-five minutes later, Phoenix consolidated their advantage 2:0!

When the third round started, the hero Ji Xiangkong chose was — the Holy Magician.

The moment that the hero’s name was displayed, Qiu Ying heard the craziest scream she had ever experienced. And then, the bubbling exclamations gradually melted into thunderous applause, even mixed with the sound of faint crying.

The column representing the hero’s name wasn’t displaying the Holy Magician, it was — Cris!

Altogether, everyone turned their eyes toward the Chinese commentators’ desk. Cris was covering his mouth, unable to say even a single world.

The Holy Magician was his famous hero. Ten years prior, he had used it to become the top mid, skilled in all its abilities, and he had shocked the entire world.

D Corp had given him a golden champion name. Every time a player chose the Holy Magician, the hero’s name would have a 10% chance of appearing with Cris’s golden ID, symbolizing the world’s top player of that year.

Only four people in the entire world had ever won this honor. Cris was the single — Chinese player among them.

Unfortunately, in later updates, this hero was continuously nerfed, with the most complex operating being added on. It gradually faded from everyone’s memories in professional competitions until many years later, there were no people who used this hero in large competitions.

Nevertheless, in the hearts of Conquer players, the Holy Magician was Cris, and Cris was the Holy Magician.

In the promotional team video that played at the beginning of each game, players would fold their arms across their chests, facing the camera, and introduce themselves in turn.

“Ji Xiangkong, Void, China.”

“Pei Xi, Summit, China.”

“Xia Ling, Cloud, China.”

“Sun Zeyi, Zy, China.”

“Lin Yixuan, Xuan, China.”

At this moment, the Chinese audience in the entire arena shouted, as one, a sentence that could be heard at any large competition in the past—

“Gu Fang, Cris, China!”

Qiu Ying pressed her heaving chest. She saw, within the glass room, Ji Xiangkong raise his head to smile at Cris from afar.

“After gaining the advantage, Phoenix has been steady, they haven’t given the other side the slightest opportunity and have kept on eating away at their rhythm.”

“Xuan’s vision is too good!”

“Void’s ult has controlled four of them!”

“Cloud blows up the American teen genius!”

It was smooth sailing for Phoenix, in particular the “Cris” that Xia Ling operated; under the Ji Xiangkong’s daily training, his operating could be called perfect. Within a critical teamfight, he actually used Cris’s signature move— 

Ten-Hit Lightspeed Combo!

“An offline six-hit stun combo is already the limit for many players, and a ten-hit combo makes one less loop while stunning, which gives the enemy a moment’s time in which they can escape. Other than Cris back then, no one has ever been able to do it!”

“My God! Am I seeing C god return to the competition field?”

“Legends never die!”²

Startled, Cris looked at the daring teen on the stage, eyes filled with his own figure from ten years previous.

Ever since Ji Xiangkong had told him that Phoenix had recruited a newcomer whose playstle was in the same image as his, he occasionally gave that newcomer some tips while online to pour all of his knowledge into him. But he never expected that that child could be this remarkable.

Xia Ling was not a copy of Cris, but rather the successor of his will.

As the old army song went, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

Old solders never die, they just gradually leave the stage, but their spirits always remain.

“GG! Congratulations Team Phoenix for becoming this year’s Global Finals Champions!”

“Three to zero! Three to zero! Washing away our shame!”

At the Chinese commentating desk, each of the commentators had tears in their eyes as they senselessly stood up and embraced each other.

Cheers, screams, cries… The racket of the entire arena rose in wave after wave. 

Amidst the fresh flowers and applause, all of Phoenix threw the national flag on their bodies and raised up the trophy, declaring the return of the Chinese Conquer kings.

As one, the Chinese audience rose to sing the national anthem.

In the VIP audience seating, Qiu Ying finally covered her face, crying aloud. Images of their days and nights together from this past year flashed across her head. Sweat and tears mingled together, dreams and reality clashed, waiting until finally the clouds parted to reveal moonlight.

Onstage, the Phoenix members were being interviewed.

Pei Xi put both hands behind his back and curved his lips up in a smile. “Very happy.”

Lin Yixuan pretended to be serious: “The biggest lie in the world is ‘I can’t’.”

Sun Zeyi wiped the sweat from his forehead: “I want to thank my past self, thank you for never giving up.”

Beneath the spotlight, Xia Ling displayed a rare case of shyness: “In the very end, I even think that winning or losing is secondary, as long as everyone can be together.”

The microphone was handed over to Ji Xiangkong: “I hope that the manager of our team might come up on stage to share this beautiful moment in time.” He turned to look toward where Qiu Ying was, lovely peach-blossom eyes carrying undisguised tenderness. “She used to be an extremely outstanding commentator who, for Phoenix, devoted all of her spirit. Without her, there would not be the present me. I promised her that I would take her to the top of the world.”

The entire arena exploded with thunderous applause, mixed with excited whistling.

Qiu Ying still hadn’t returned to herself even after Lu Yiyi pushed her onstage. Ji Xiangkong took her by the hand and then, in front of millions of people, placed the trophy into her hands. As she stood with them, he revealed the most brilliant smile to the camera.

Before her eyes was a vast sea of people and glittering stars. With her emotions overflowing, Qiu Ying’s face was covered with teartracks. Every single cell in her body was humming from the joy of this victory.

In a trance, she remembered the very first time they’d met. Ji Xiangkong facing her unskilled conversation-making, and that incalculable smile. 

That was the origin of all stories.

Half an hour later, a post named “All of us owe an apology to Ji Xiangkong” spread around online like wildfire.

“Looking back on the entire competition, Team Phoenix’s hero coverage rate is as high as 100%!

“Ji Xiangkong has reproduced every single lineup that’s been chosen in previous competitions but has never won! After losing those previous games, everyone blamed him for BPing a bad lineup, blamed him for doing acrobatics with his thoughts, slandered him for playing a fake game. He’s always kept silent and has never defended himself, but now, he’s slapped them in the face with his record of victory after victory!

“D Corp should thank Void for giving this game even more meaning!”

“Even if Phoenix hadn’t won the championship in the end, the name of Ji Xiangkong, this forbearing genius, will be recorded in history along with his tactics to become a generation of legends!”

After the competition, Conquer players all over the country flocked to the Phoenix members’ Weibo accounts to leave their messages. But even half a day later, Captain Ji Xiangkong still hadn’t updated.

The next day, Ji Xiangkong posted a photo on Weibo, @Qiu Ying.

In the photo, two people were walking, hand in hand along the sealine, leaving behind meandering footsteps on the ground, shirts lifted by the wind. Above their heads was an azure blue, nearly cloudless, sky.

Unlike in the past when celebrity players’ announcements of their relationships would spark huge controversy, as Ji Xiangkong and Qiu Ying’s stories from days gone by continued to be exposed, everyone expressed, one by one, that these feelings of mutual successes and sharing trials and tribulations were truly touching.

He helped her to transform from a gaming streamer who skirted the line to a professional commentator. At the heart of the whirlpool of public opinion, he protected her from behind, in the palms of his hands. Because of him, she became stronger and found the direction for her future. At the lowest of his professional career, she never abandoned him and stood next to him in battle to win back their glory.

Several hours later, Qiu Ying posted her response to these feelings.

“I was once daring, I was also once spiritless, in the desperation that stung my eyes with wind and sand, at the finish line shaded by mountainside trees. My earliest feelings haven’t changed, I sing as I travel, flying on my dream, living for my youth.³ It has been all my luck to hold hands with you the entire way.”

Below the Weibo post, countless fans left their heartfelt congratulations.

One wrote: “I started paying attention to you guys two years ago. I’m so happy to see you standing together now.”

The monsoon blows toward the sea, cherry blossoms fall in autumn skies.

***

ji feng xiang yang, qiu kong luo ying.

***

This is how I imagine the most beautiful appearance of love.

Finish

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^{1 All Conquer system dialogue is originally in English, as well as American commentary.
2 Hahahaha. But it is, in fact, not that wrong of a translation.
3 A mix of sayings, song lyrics, and poetry.}

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That’s… the end of the novel!! I may go back to retranslate some things, like the beginning chapters but all that’s for later and omg, it’s been such a ride. Thank you so much to everyone who stuck with me all this way — it’s been practically a year since I started this journey and I’ve had highs and lows with it, and reading your comments really encouraged me.

The surprise that I mentioned a couple weeks ago are extras that weren’t published with the book that I found on the author’s Weibo, the first of which will go up later today! (so oh yeah… we’re not done just yet ;))