God's Left Hand

Prelude — 14

Prelude: Chapter 14

Because of Ai Qing’s endless curiosity, Dt bought 11 ice cream sandwiches for everyone to try. Everyone was staring at her in awe, their silent praise made Ai Qing wanted to elicit more verbal responses from Dt.

The group then walked in the direction of the ferris wheel. Ai Qing, while eating the ice cream sandwich, on purposely walking next to Dt and chatted with him.

“Look at that building, the one full of spikes on the outside in a semicircle. Does it look like anything to you……”

“The shell of a durian.”[1] Dt said as he rose his head to take a look.

“When did you start competing?”

“When I was 12.”

“Are you prepared to be a professional? Keeping playing DotA? Or do you want to wait for some new game to come out?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

Ai Qing was having fun with the conversation, but once she began to talk about the esports, she unconsciously became more and more serious.

“Most pros focus on two games at the same time, like Warcraft III and Starcraft. When you attend more tournaments, you’ll learn that this kind arrangement works out very well. For example, say a game loses popularity over time, then you still have another game as backup. If you’re good enough, you can compete in both games in the World Tour[2] tournaments. And if you win a prize at each one, you’ll become a rich man before you hit 20.”

Dt didn’t respond.

Ai Qing finished her ice cream sandwich and continued to think about what else to say. She wanted to continue the conversation, but felt that perhaps she was being a bit too attentive towards him. Just as she began to slow her pace down to discuss where they were going to eat with Slide, Dt suddenly spoke again.

“What about you?”

“Me?” Ai Qing thought about it for a bit, “I don’t know still. I might continue, or I might not.”

Afterwards, he became silent again.

Because it’s so rare for them to come to Singapore, none of them had a strong desire to sit somewhere to eat. So they snacked from here and there as they waited in line for more than one hour to get onto the ferris wheel.

Ai Qing leaned against the window and watched the skyline lighted up against the backdrop of the night. Others next to her were quickly changing poses for multiple pictures, inevitably the constant chatter was almost headache inducing. When she turned around, Dt was being used as a backdrop by several people. The entire skyline was right behind him and emitted a soft glow.

Not only were they sitting on this carriage, but also many other tourists who were looking at these student-like passengers.[3] Inevitably they asked the group what their profession was, assuming that they were students traveling for the summer. Mian Bao very seriously explained to them about esport tournaments, which caused all the adult tourists to stare dumbfoundedly with their mouths agape. When speaking about games, of course many people play video games, but those willing to play to a higher degree of skill were rare.

“That,” Mian Bao proudly pointed at Ai Qing, “is this year’s Need for Speed champion in Asia.”

Everyone quickly looked at her. Ai Qing, before she could even realize what was happening, began to blush. Without knowing what was going on, the tourists began to take pictures with her. Some of them were very excited while others were just joining in on the fun. Still others joined in because Ai Qing was very beautiful, so why not …… later even Slide decided to have fun with it and handed his camera to a girl, “Take a picture for the three of us.”

After Slide finished, he snatched Dt’s cap, and placed an arm around his shoulder, “Handsome guys should show their face more.”

Dt always wore his cap, except when he came out of the shower, and used it to cover the upper half of his face. In this moment, with his cap taken off, even his own teammates were shocked at what they saw. They all began to say in agreement that the captain is very handsome……

Dt gave an embarrassed cough, “A man doesn’t rely on his looks, but his skill.”

Though he originally said it in a very serious tone, but it caused everyone to immediately praise him even more.

Dt finally gave up and remained silent, pretending as if he had never said anything.

Slide, with a smile, casually placed the cap onto Ai Qing’s head. And with his other hand around her shoulder, the three of them, close together with the lights from the skyline at their backs, was captured in a picture.

When they finally arrived back at the resort at night, the organizer had quickly sent over the time for the drawings for their matchups.

Because it was drawn by a computer, even though the DotA competitions were scheduled for the third day, the matchups would be decided by drawing tomorrow. The organizer gave them a website which all the team captains could use to check the final result.

Ai Qing’s main interest was in DotA and so naturally she was very nervous about the matchups.

A few of them crowded around Dt’s computer and waited for some time, until the results finally came. Their opponent was Thailand.

“Thailand placed second place in last year’s Asia Tournament.” Ai Qing said while looking at Dt. “Do we have a video of last year’s competition? I remember that their strategy was abnormal. They would sacrifice four of their own team to drag their enemy down so that the fifth could go in for the kill.”

It seemed that Dt was deep in thought considering this new information. He casually clicked on his computer for the information he needed.

Ai Qing focused her attention on his folders, of which he had over a hundred. She suddenly saw a name and became stunned for a moment before quickly looking at Dt.

“Apple Dog,” that was her name.

Dt continued, apparently without noticing her, and quickly scrolled past that folder, his attention focused unwaveringly at the monitor.