Chapter 13 — Middle Road Rules

That night, the atmosphere at the barbecue restaurant on the sidewalk at Hoàng Diệu school gate was as bustling as a festival. Hùng 'Gaur' generously exhausted the class fund (of which he was the treasurer) to treat the whole club to celebrate their first victory after a long series of days in the dark.

Bảo Châu sat in the center, still feeling lightheaded. All day, she was praised to the skies by her four youngest brothers thanks to her once-in-a-lifetime "sacrifice" at the Thousand-Year-Old Dragon Cave.

Sitting quietly at a corner of the table, Hải Đăng taciturnly picked up the scorched pieces of meat and put them aside, holding a glass of iced tea in his left hand. His eyes always remained indifferent, but if you were observant, you could see the corners of his lips occasionally curl up when listening to Tuấn and Hùng's shameless boasting stories.

Suddenly, Kiên's '3G' phone rang continuously with the notification "Ting, ting, ting". The boy took out his phone, his eyes forming an O and his mouth an A.

"Oh my god! Everyone go check out the NHEC Tournament fanpage!" Kiên shouted, dropping the piece of meat he was picking up.

Everyone pulled out their phones.

On the tournament's homepage, a 30-second highlight video was just posted a few hours ago with the sensational title: **"When you have a Manager ready to take a bullet for the Gunner! IQ 200 or Broken Keyboard?"**

That was the cut to the final fight, slowing down the moment Bảo Châu's character Seraph stepped up to block the light spear of the Assassin on Trần Phú's side, narrowly saving the Gunner's life. The commentator's (Caster) words rang out with excitement: *"An unbelievable prediction from the Mid laner on Hoàng Diệu's side! The noble sacrifice brought about the decisive Triple Kill!"*

"Oh my god, the views have reached 50,000!" Tuấn pointed at the screen and gasped. "Miss Châu, you're famous! People on the internet are calling you the 'Bullet Saint'!"

Châu's face turned red and she was so embarrassed that she wanted to hide under the table. "What... what? I didn't predict anything, I just closed my eyes and clicked randomly! Whoever cut the clip was so evil!"

Hải Đăng burst out laughing, his soft laughter was heard among the noisy crowd. He raised his glass of iced tea and gently touched Châu's glass of filtered water. "Congratulations, Saintess. One more wrong click and you'll have a spot in the World Finals."

Châu glared at Đăng sharply, but her cheeks turned pink. She bent down and caressed the black rubber bracelet that Đăng had given her that afternoon. An indescribable warm feeling arose in her heart.

But the joy did not last long.

On the first Monday morning of the week, as soon as she entered the school yard, Châu was called back to the Supervisor's room.

Teacher Trần - the infamous "King of Hell" - sat with his hands clasped behind his desk, in front of him was an iPad that was replaying the million-view highlight video of HD E-sports over and over again.

Châu swallowed her saliva and prepared herself to listen to the song "acting as a joke on social networks affects the school's reputation".

"Teacher, I..."

"You did well," Teacher Trần suddenly interrupted, his voice loud but without anger. He pushed up his glasses and looked straight at the class vice president. "For the first time, our Hoàng Diệu school is not called 'Mobile warehouse' online. Yesterday, Trần Phú school's principal called me, her tone seemed very bitter."

Châu was stunned, not believing her ears. Was the King of Hell praising you?

"I am a man of my word," Mr. Trần opened the drawer and took out a piece of paper with the school's red seal. "You guys won the first round, showing a team spirit... well, quite special. The school decided to give your club a specialized high-speed fiber optic cable network upgrade package for the computer room. No one will have to use 3G to play games anymore."

Châu was so happy that she jumped up and almost hugged the Inspector if she couldn't stop in time for fear of being expelled. "Thank you, teacher! We will definitely advance to the Semifinals!"

The joy of upgrading the network connection spread throughout the common room that afternoon. Kiên '3G' hugged his brand new wifi router, kissing and kissing like hugging a lover. Without lag, Kiên's level would definitely improve significantly.

But in a dark corner of a nearby coffee shop, another undercurrent was forming.

At a hidden corner table, two men wearing black vests were staring intently at a laptop. On the screen is not Bảo Châu's humorous "bullet blocking" phase, but a detailed analysis of the Pick/Ban phase and the movement chart (Heatmap) of the HD E-sports team during the match.

"Do you feel this familiarity?" Younger man, wearing glasses, pointing at the screen.

The person opposite, a man in his thirties with a faint scar at the corner of his eye, frowned. He is the Head Coach of the youth team under the VG Professional E-sports Organization - where "Shadow" used to play.

"This Ban/Choose thinking... how to drop small targets to take big ones, how to split the enemy squad with vision..." The man muttered, his eyes flashing with suspicion. "So similar. Just like that kid's style."

"You mean Shadow?" The respectful person asked. "But he's been gone from the E-sports world for half a year now? How could he be a Coach for a bottom-ranked high school?"

The man with the scar smirked, a calculating smile. Half a year ago, he was the one who created false evidence, colluding with the sponsor's son to pin the crime of bribery on Shadow, pushing this young genius out of the team for fear that he would take the Power seat.

"Not sure yet, but the possibility cannot be ruled out," The man slammed the computer shut. "Next week, the International School's Alpha team will clash with Hoàng Diệu in the Regional Quarterfinals. The captain of that side is my nephew. I will personally attend that match. If that kid Shadow is really still hanging around here, I will make sure he never has a chance to raise his head in this industry again."

The real storm is still ahead, quietly waiting for Hoàng Diệu's "defensive" squad in the next round.

Meanwhile, completely unaware of the undercurrent that was forming, Bảo Châu spent the next evening compiling an analysis of opponents for the upcoming Quarterfinals. She searched social networks, found every public competition video of the Alpha team, took note of each general they often used, and each member's lane choosing habits.

“This Alpha team is really scary,” Châu muttered, eyes glued to her old laptop screen. “Look at how they fight, their coordination is smoother than a professional tutorial video.”

Đăng glanced over her shoulder and silently reviewed a few clips. There was something about the Alpha team's play that made him frown — it was too detailed, too coldly calculated, unlike the improvisational style often seen in student tournaments.

“Who coaches this team?” Đăng asked, his voice suddenly becoming unusually serious.

Châu scanned for information and read it aloud. "Apparently it's an outsourced coach who used to work in the professional world. There's no name listed."

Đăng didn't say anything more, but his fingers unconsciously tightened on the edge of the table. A vague, unpleasant premonition began to creep into his heart, as if a door he thought had been closed for a long time suddenly opened a small crack, letting in a cold breeze from the past.

"Đăng, are you okay?" Châu asked, noticing her unusual expression.

"Fine," Đăng replied quickly, somewhat awkwardly. He turned off the laptop screen, stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the dark yard outside. "It's just... there's an uncomfortable familiar feeling."

Châu did not ask further, just stood quietly next to him. She had learned that there were things Đăng needed time to face on his own, and didn't always need to be forced to say them right away.

"No matter who the Quarterfinal opponent is or how strong it is," Châu spoke up after a moment of silence, her voice determined, "you don't have to face it alone. This time there are five of us standing behind you."

Đăng turned to look at her, a faint smile flickering at the corner of his lips. "I know," he replied, and in that moment, the uneasy feeling was still there, but it no longer made him feel as alone as before.

That night, Đăng had difficulty sleeping. He tossed and turned, his mind spinning with theories about the identity of the mysterious coach of team Alpha. But no matter how bad the premonition was, he reminded himself that he was no longer the lonely student of eight months ago — this time, he had a whole team ready to stand by his side, no matter what form his old enemy returned. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, knowing that no matter what tomorrow brought, he wouldn't had to face it alone anymore.