I am a Big Player
Chapter 572 - 566, Game Paused (Second Update)_1

Chapter 572: 566, Game Paused (Second Update)_1

After sending Chen Da away, Ren He sat silently on the lounge chair in front of the fireplace for a while before calling Yang Xi. Once the call connected, Ren He could hear the sound of keyboard and mouse clicks on the other end. He smiled quietly, able to picture Yang Xi playing Dota while holding the phone between her shoulder and ear, which somehow felt quite warm.

"In the middle of a team fight, what’s up?" Yang Xi asked.

Ren He chuckled to himself, remembering how he once said that if an internet addict is willing to answer the phone during a team fight, it must be true love. Looking at it this way, he must be her true love, right?

Somehow, upon recalling everything that happened tonight, Ren He suddenly didn’t know what to say.

Perhaps he had made this call not to say anything in particular, but just to hear her voice. That voice he missed the most, the one that could bring his thoughts back to their normal track, only this internet addict girl’s voice could do that.

More than once or twice, Ren He was very certain that she was the person he would spend his life with.

The sweet nothings between Ren He and Yang Xi were scarce, yet they understood every word they wanted to say to each other in their hearts.

It was a kind of understanding that others simply couldn’t reach, and Ren He enjoyed this tacit connection.

Far from home, having just been through a battle, Ren He suddenly felt a sense of loneliness. Many have heard the phrase ’a fierce tiger in the heart, delicately sniffing the roses,’ but few know the second half, ’after the feast, tears streaming down the face.’

Tonight’s battle was something perhaps only Ren He knew he’d been through.

After a short silence on the phone, Ren He suddenly couldn’t hear the keyboard and mouse noises from the other end anymore.

At the same time, the more than one hundred thousand viewers watching Yang Xi’s Dota match suddenely noticed that the hero she was controlling had stopped moving, and the game paused.

Dota has a pause function, with the default hotkey F9. Usually, if someone disconnects, there’s an ’international understanding’ of a two-minute pause time, where the other nine players willingly wait for them to reconnect.

This ’international understanding’ is considered to be one of the most gracious acts among Dota players – everyone has emergencies, and waiting a bit is no big deal.

This time, it was Yang Xi who hit the pause button, and she typed to everyone, "Sorry for the pause, boyfriend’s calling."

Boyfriend? Yang Xi’s boyfriend? Isn’t that supposed to be Knight?!

The situation suddenly became a bit uncontrollable...

"No problem, take your time, we’ll wait!"

"Focus on your call!"

"Strongly request a spoiler about Knight’s next move!"

"Please send our blessings to Knight!"

The tens of thousands of viewers had no idea what was going on, since they were not watching a past-life live broadcast and couldn’t see the in-game chat between players, so they had no clue what the pause was for.

However, it didn’t take long for the news to spread to the Qinghe Dota official forum: Yang Xi paused her game because Knight had called her!

Then the news exploded, and the number of viewers for Yang Xi’s match suddenly went from over a hundred thousand to over two hundred thousand. This had never happened before since the establishment of Qinghe Dota!

The Qinghe internal system maintenance staff were nervous – why had it suddenly exploded?

In this era, which embraced fast food and the entertainment economy, people were thrilled by every detail of public figures’ lives. Yang Xi, as an international superstar, was no exception. Even though she never participated in commercial activities, just by the number of her Weibo followers, one could see that aside from Knight, there were no other celebrities in the country with higher popularity. But... can Knight really be considered a celebrity? That was something to ponder.

"The relationship between the two of them must be really good, huh. As soon as Knight calls, Yang Xi stops fighting even in a team battle..."

"This must be true love!"

"Speaking of which, that ID ’not listening, golden shoe tap’ should be Knight, right? He had made it into the top 100 of the National Server’s solo rankings, but he hasn’t played lately and dropped out. What do you think Knight has been up to during this time?"

"Could it be a new challenge?"

"Holy shit, I think that’s very likely, Knight might be out of town, if not, he wouldn’t need to call Yang Xi; they could have talked face to face."

It was just a normal game pause, but who could have thought it would stir up so much trouble? It was like when JJ Lin suddenly said he was going to sing at the Spring Festival two hours before his livestream playing Dota, the audience went wild...

Being able to see the interaction between Yang Xi and Knight in one game, all the viewers felt it was worth watching the match!

Initially, everyone came to watch Yang Xi’s game because of her reputation; it’s rare to find a star who is such a straight-talking, genuine gaming addict. The feeling of a celebrity playing the same game as you is amazingly cool.

Then, after arriving, everyone suddenly discovered that the ID ’not listening, golden shoe tap’, suspected to be Knight’s, played exceptionally well!

Aggressive playstyle, tactics that were tricky and diverse, surpassing the current famous professional teams in hero development, and even some professional teams were found to be copying Knight’s tactics, which were incredibly effective!

Dota is just like that, sometimes during the lane phase, the order of skill leveling up can determine a hero’s strength.

At this point, everyone suddenly realized that watching Yang Xi and the others compete, there was so much to learn, which is why so many people are watching Yang Xi’s matches now.

After Yang Xi had finished typing during the pause, she didn’t bother with it anymore, focusing instead on calling Ren He. She had already sensitively picked up that Ren He might be a bit off today, so at this moment, her duty as a girlfriend was to put down everything and pay attention to Ren He’s mood.

It was her responsibility, or at least that’s what Yang Xi thought in her heart.

She didn’t know yet that this phone call had sparked new topics online.

"What happened?" Yang Xi asked.

"Nothing," Ren He laughed over the phone, "Just missing you. My flight is at 7 a.m. tomorrow, arriving at 8 p.m., just letting you know."

"Did something... happen again? I saw the news from the Netherlands, there was a shooting in downtown Amsterdam, does it involve you?" Yang Xi went straight to the heart of the matter.

Ren He suddenly realized that after he had gone abroad, the other party had always been keeping an eye on the situation in the Netherlands, but had not shown it; otherwise, Yang Xi wouldn’t have been able to mention the news from just a few hours ago so precisely.

This warmed Ren He’s heart, knowing that back in his homeland, in his home, there were people who cared about him.

"Don’t worry, I’m fine. See you tomorrow?" Ren He certainly couldn’t tell Yang Xi what had happened, not wanting her to worry; he just wanted to quickly return home, he couldn’t wait another minute!

"See you tomorrow, I’ll come pick you up!" Yang Xi said seriously.

"Okay."

...

The Brush with Death series concludes.

Next Chapter: The Goal, The Undying Sky

Grabbing a bite to eat, there should be another Chapter later, although I’m a bit tired, I still want to try to get the updates back on track