Powerful Investment Chapter 32: Trembling

Chapter 32: Trembling

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

 

Since the end of summer break, the team had been training day and night without rest. Ji Jin worked overtime, while Ji Xingxing almost became a latchkey kid. Fortunately, Ji Huan hired a kindergarten teacher who came to teach classes in a small lounge room at the MOE team’s base.

At first, Ji Xingxing was very unadapted, whining and crying, wanting to find Ji Jin and be with him. After a few days of learning with the pretty Beta teacher, he barely accepted the new teacher, but still needed his dad to hold him to sleep at night.

Because of the intense team training, Lu Yao, as the captain, was the first to take charge, formulating countless match plans and training schedules, reviewing games repeatedly, and searching for new tactics. He knew Ji Jin must have been busy, maybe even busier than himself, so their contact grew less frequent, though they still sent each other “good morning” and “good night” messages daily to maintain presence.

The rules and official schedule for the autumn season matches were soon distributed to all teams. The order was basically the same as before, only slightly adjusted by the organizers for time considerations. The regular season was divided across four sub-venues, located in B City, S City, C City, and G City. The RPL had sixteen teams total, with a single round-robin consisting of 120 matches. Matches were held five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday, three matches per day, lasting eight weeks in total.

Because there were four sub-venues, each team stayed about two weeks at each location. Ji Jin’s MOE team and Lu Yao’s IKW team were scheduled for the first match of the autumn regular season, both assigned to the B City venue.

The B City sub-venue stadium had been set up well in advance to welcome players from across the country. Usually, some wealthy teams would fly in early to acclimate, but fortunately, MOE’s headquarters was nearby, so there was no need to travel far.

Soon, the first match of the autumn regular season arrived. On match days, there were three games: the first at 2 PM, the second at 5 PM, and the third at 8 PM.

Because MOE versus IKW was a big hype match, especially with Ji Jin and Lu Yao’s legendary showdown, this game generated huge online buzz. Even before the match, discussions were already intense, so the league deliberately scheduled it at the peak evening time to attract the largest audience.

This was the first match since Ji Jin joined MOE, and the whole team took it extremely seriously. They all arrived at the stadium by 7 PM, waiting for the match to start. In previous matches, the skill gap between teams was huge, and matches often ended after just two games.

Because it was the first match, Ji Huan also came to the venue, though he waited in the team’s dedicated area with the excited Ji Xingxing.

“Daddy, go fight!” Ji Xingxing wore a light little shirt and small jeans, looking especially spirited. He held a blue-purple glow stick, custom-made by the team and unique to him. He waved it enthusiastically as he cheered.

In his excitement, he forgot he was sitting on Ji Huan’s lap, and the glow stick suddenly hit Ji Huan’s nose with a thud.

Ji Huan: …My nephew mustn’t hit! Mustn’t hit!

“Sorry, Uncle…” Ji Xingxing noticed the sound and realized he’d hit someone. He carefully looked up and cuddled into Ji Huan’s arms, apologizing in a babyish voice.

Because his baby voice was so adorable, Ji Huan almost fainted from cuteness, completely ignoring the red mark left on his face, and gave the little baby a hard, affectionate squeeze.

“Daddy wants kisses too!” The little baby, freshly squeezed, reached out to his dad with a slightly aggrieved look.

Ji Jin understood that Ji Xingxing hadn’t played with him for a long time, so he bent down and gave Ji Xingxing a “smooch.”

Ji Xingxing was so happy he almost jumped up.

At this moment, Zhao Ze came to notify the team that the match was about to start, so they had to enter the competition area early to complete procedures and then move into the silent room for the match.

To avoid issues during the game, backup players from the second team also completed the procedures to be ready to substitute at any time. Soon, Ji Jin and the other four players sat in the silent room, where reception staff greeted and guided them.

Cheng Pian sat first, followed by Ji Jin, Du Xi, He Jia, and Zhou Zu. They all logged into the competition server with their accounts and passwords, starting their final preparations and adjustments. Coach Liusha sat in the back seats, ready at any time.

At exactly 8 PM, the match officially began.

Ji Jin’s team was on the blue side. The game used a ban/pick mode where each side could ban four heroes, eight total. Ji Jin and Coach Liusha had already discussed which heroes to ban, so the bans were quickly completed.

IKW also seemed well prepared; their first ban was Bai Yike, Ji Jin’s best hero.

When Ji Jin played, Bai Yike was the most popular hero because Ji Jin’s skill was unbeatable. The developers nerfed the hero repeatedly until he became weak, but in Ji Jin’s hands, Bai Yike was still unstoppable.

Other bans also targeted Ji Jin and Cheng Pian specifically. For IKW, MOE’s overall strength was quite weak, so simply countering Ji Jin and Cheng Pian was sufficient.

The ban and pick phase ended, and the game began.

In this round, Ji Jin chose Yun Ye, a hero who was extremely strong in the early game. Lu Yao selected Jue Ying, a character with a mid-game burst. To deal with such a burst-heavy character, they had to prevent him from gaining an advantage early on.

“Cilantro, go check the vision on the opposite wilderness,” Ji Jin immediately commanded, while he and Cilantro went to different wilderness areas.

Normally, Jue Ying would start at the red buff. At this time, Ji Jin went to the blue buff side to try to steal the blue buff early, while Cilantro went to harass and interfere with Lu Yao’s development speed.

Sure enough, Jue Ying went to the red buff first. Cilantro kept pulling and harassing, and after clearing the minion waves, also went to assist. By the time Lu Yao’s Jue Ying finished with the red buff, Ji Jin had already returned to his own wilderness area.

However, because of Lu Yao’s superior skill and the opposing marksman’s assistance, Cilantro’s support was killed, leaving only the mage to escape with low health.

The early game went fairly well, with the pace developing toward victory under Ji Jin’s leadership. But around the twenty-minute mark, IKW ambushed in the middle lane bushes. Ji Jin’s Yun Ye had just been gang-attacked and died, waiting to respawn, forcing a team fight in the middle lane.

That small disadvantage led to losing the entire match.

“Defeat!”

The defeat animation appeared on every MOE team member’s computer screen.

The first match… was lost. At that moment, a sigh echoed from the team. Ji Jin looked around and noticed the others’ faces were grim, especially Cheng Pian, who bit his lower lip so hard it nearly bled.

“This is only the first match, is it really that serious?” Ji Jin said softly. Though his voice was low, everyone heard it clearly. “It’s just the first loss. We’re facing last season’s champions, the IKW team. Think about it — were you sure you could definitely win before? Or did you think that just because I joined, victory was guaranteed?”

Coach Liusha was about to comfort the players but was caught off guard by Ji Jin’s words. The remark was so heavy it almost deflated the whole team.

“We… God Ji… that was too harsh. It’s not that we can’t beat IKW, and it’s not… that we’re relying entirely on you,” Cilantro, the support (Zhou Zu), softly retorted. Then feeling his head was bowed too much and lacking spirit, he stood up to face Ji Jin directly. “We always lost to IKW before, but who knows when we might win someday…”

The little monsters Du Xi and Best quietly agreed.

Though saying they could beat IKW made Ji Jin nervous himself, he was unwilling to give up.

“If you don’t rely entirely on me and think you have a chance to beat IKW, then hurry up and play well. Sighing as if losing this match means quitting RPL? Losing due to lack of skill is fine; we’ve lost before. Why be afraid just because we lost one match today? We’ll improve every game and eventually beat IKW.”

“After all…” Ji Jin lowered his head and smiled slightly, the pretty tear mole at the corner of his eye shining under the light. “We still have to have some goals — like winning a championship.”

His tone was calm, less fiery than any slogan, but somehow gave everyone a surge of strength.

“Understood! God Ji!” the others immediately raised their heads and responded.

Cheng Pian, sitting next to Ji Jin, looked up at him. The person in front of him seemed to glow; though his words were harsh, they were effective.

They had lost to IKW many times before, some even shut out completely. But losing now didn’t mean losing forever. Losing today didn’t mean losing in the playoffs.

To move forward, they had to stumble a few times first.

Seeing the teammates’ spirits lift, Ji Jin breathed a sigh of relief. He grabbed the water bottle on his desk and took a big gulp, then used the break to do some hand stretches to ease tension.

Even after so much training, MOE’s current level still couldn’t catch up with IKW. Some teams that were once evenly matched could no longer compete. Ji Jin’s joining meant the familiar team system needed a lot of changes. Most of the team couldn’t adapt smoothly and had to use high-intensity matches to adjust.

Once the training matured, MOE’s rankings would break through swiftly and make a big leap forward.

Soon the break ended, and everyone geared up to face the second match.

With morale boosted, the second match started with a strong, favorable pace.

This time Ji Jin chose Liu Yue Xian Zi, a magic damage jungle hero. This hero rarely appeared in matches before Ji Jin retired, so most people couldn’t guess his tactics. But because of the skill mechanics, it required extremely fast hand speed. The early lead came from his fast reactions and the opponents’ unfamiliarity with Ji Jin’s style.

But Ji Jin was an Omega, and a father Omega at that. The previous match had drained much of his energy. Forcing his hands to move so fast was a heavy burden.

In the late, most intense moments, Ji Jin felt exhausted and fatigued, his fingers barely lifting. He had to keep moving quickly just to stay awake. Even in this state, Ji Jin didn’t make a single mistake.

Unfortunately, they still lost this match. But the teamwork was good, and with the score tied 1-1, the match was very close. Both sides fought hard until IKW finally seized an opportunity to push, marking significant progress for MOE.

After losing, Ji Jin exhaled deeply and slumped into his gaming chair, drenched in sweat, feeling completely drained.

Thanks to his earlier words and the thrilling second match, the team atmosphere wasn’t too heavy. Everyone reflected on their performance.

Today, Lu Yao seemed unusually aggressive and fierce. Ji Jin felt weak, even trembling slightly in both hands.

He thought it was just fatigue from the match. Though he’d never felt like this before, it was possible since he hadn’t played a formal match in a long time and his stamina had decreased.

But in a daze, he faintly smelled a light strawberry scent. The smell was subtle but broke through his suppression patches and wristbands, leaking out firmly—

It was the scent of his pheromones!

 

Author’s note:

Heat season! Heat season! Heat season!

Wuwu, I finally wrote this part!

Although God Ji lost at first, he would come back to win later.

There would be cars, there would be love, there would be a second child, and there would be a championship!

Weibo: Wen Feng Ru Jiu

 

 

 

 

 

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