[Nightmare is offline.]
Xiao Yi pulled up another herb, oregano, from his garden with a slight smile. It had been a few hours since their fight and he'd be the first to admit that adrenaline was still pumping through his veins. Even seeing the name, Nightmare, made him excited.
He'd been pushed to his limits in that fight but he wasn't sure if Nightmare utilized his full skills or not, that was the most exciting part.
Four years.
Four years without an equal opponent.
He'd completed the other S-ranked hits on the board after he'd added Nightmare and none of them matched even a finger on the other hand, which added to the thrill of having found a talented new friend.
Without noticing, the sun rose while Xiao Yi pulled more herbs from the garden, made his trek to the storage in his house to put them away and grab more seeds, planted the seeds, pulled the vegetables… repeat.
Tomorrow, he'd cook. Today, he was making sure he had everything he needed aside from the purchase-only base ingredients.
Cars could be heard faintly, driving past the base to get to the main road. It was nearing March break so there was a bit less traffic, but traffic nonetheless. Those who weren't on vacation were off to go to work and school, while others were heading to visit their families or a much-needed vacation.
The rush of the city drowned out the bird's songs, but it didn't drown out the footsteps rushing down the stairs, nor the unintelligible shouting.
Xiao Yi's hand on the mouse paused as Xiao Qiu pushed the door to the training room open, face red, with Lee following close behind looking amused.
'Is looking like a tomato the new look?'
Xiao Qiu's gaze drifted to the computer before shifting to Xiao Yi and he waved his phone in the air. "Is this your idea of staying low?"
Xiao Yi raised his eyebrow, looked at the screen where his character was surrounded by lush farmland, and looked back at his brother with a tilted head. "Eh?"
Was gardening a problem now, too?
Were people about to show up at his house and ask him for vegetables?
Lee took in Xiao Yi's expression and chuckled. "We're not talking about your farm."
Xiao Qiu walked over to the desk and thrust his phone into Xiao Yi's hands while pushing the rolling chair, with the youngest one, away from the computer. He ranted as he logged out of the game. "You were trending all night! You're a bright, shining star right now! "
He'd been in the middle of having, potentially, the best sleep he'd had in months when something in him screamed at him to wake up and check his phone like an ominous premonition.
Hence, he woke up, checked his phone, and was about to roll back to sleep when he noticed it.
A screenshot of a video in the Valley of Light's forum. The post was talking about some new great god, and he, being the curious esports player he was, clicked on the link to the original post.
He didn't think much of it at first and decided to watch the video to see if the fans were just overreacting about some new face or if he should tell Lee about a new potential threat.
He nearly threw the phone out of the window when he saw the name, 'Sleepy'.
His eye twitched as he watched the video and saw his own little brother obediently waiting to beat up a well-known assassin in the game for 7 minutes. He then watched as they fought on par with each other and observed his little brother tease the assassin shamelessly before showing his trump card.
His trump card was the most damning part.
How many professional players on the Chinese server would have the skills to perfectly execute the mechanics for three level 10 moves at once? Especially including the Cherry Blossoms…
Wasn't this just him admitting that he was Frost?
Midnight, a captain who usually sat out in competitions, was likely the only other person who could match Xiao Yi in terms of skills as an assassin. Hence, Xiao Qiu was able to decipher that Nightmare was that guy's alt.
The other… Xue. That bastard always sent out his alt-account information in group chats, though, and Nightmare's style was closer to Midnight.
Why did his brother need to go seek out trouble?
He scrolled through the comments before going off to find Lee, some people had already connected the dots and mentioned it on Weibo but it hadn't made any waves yet.
Xiao Qiu continued ranting. "Don't go outside, stay of Valley of Light for a while… At least don't accept any more assassination requests."
Xiao Yi realized where his brother was coming from and his head shot up to meet the eyes of Lee. "They found Sleepy?"
Lee nodded and then shook his head. "They found Sleepy, only a few fans connected the dots that Sleepy might be Frost so it hasn't made waves yet."
Xiao Qiu chimed in. "Seriously, what were you thinking? I hate to boost your ego but how many players do you think can pull off what you did? Do you think you can fool people into thinking you're simply a PVE player who hasn't made waves yet? Stupid!"
Xiao Qiu's voice had a tinge of anxiety laced in and Xiao Yi narrowed his eyes again. He didn't mean to worry his brother so much. However, he was just having so much fun fighting Nightmare and he hadn't really... Well, he hadn't thought anything of it quite frankly.
Lee spoke up once more. "On top of that, you even dared to pull off Thousands of Cherry Blossoms with two other mechanic moves. The captains are already moving, trying to get your contact information."
He pushed himself off the chair and nodded obediently.
He dared to do that. He was in a bit of demon mode last night and wasn't thinking of the consequences.
He was wrong this time and caused his brother to worry, he even brought Lee into things.