Game of Maximum Effort

Ye Shuang hadn't actually played video games for a while. Although the novel recorded that he and An Shiyu often played games together, he had no relevant memories of it. After turning on the computer, Ye Shuang looked at the gaming platform in front of him and logged straight into his account.

"Which server?"

"Server One, or is Blackberry okay too?"

"Then let's do Server One," Ye Shuang said as he entered the game. At this time, his friends list was already forming a party. The game they were playing had been out for over a decade, but its global popularity was still decent. It was a MOBA game called Heroes Not Allied.

"Hurry up, hurry up, we're starting," Chen Hai urged Ye Shuang. Ye Shuang played games a bit like an old man.

"Coming, coming." Ye Shuang twitched the corner of his mouth and then entered the lobby.

The IDs of the few of them were quite dated. For example, Chen Hai's ID was something like Server's Most Handsome Bro, Fugui was something like Server's Most Beautiful Sis, and as for himself... Ye Shuang took a look: Server's Flashiest Bro.

Why did he even choose this name back then?

After a while, Chen Qin also entered the lobby under the ID Server's Sweetest Sis, and her voice rang out in the party channel.

"Hello, hello, A-Ye, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, I can hear you."

"You're not blind, isn't he right there in the party?" Chen Hai said. The expressions of the others changed slightly. "Damn it, Chen Hai, your mic."

"Is my mic peaking?"

"Stop talking!" Feng Shan was one step away from slapping him.

The ARAM mode of Heroes Not Allied, commonly known as just ARAM, was the choice of most working professionals who played the game. After all, there was no need to worry about farming; the fast pace allowed for intense team fights, making it perfectly suited for office workers with little time to game.

Since champion selection was random, the moment Ye Shuang entered the game, a voice came through his headset: "It's gotta be me."

A muscular man sitting on a chair looked down at him—a man named Sett.

"Damn, roll the dice for a random, I don't have any good choices."

Chen Hai grumbled at this moment. Not seeing any champion he knew how to play, he immediately spoke up.

"Already rolled, I'm out of dice," Chen Qin said. She had gotten a cat champion.

Fugui got a jester with invisibility skills, while Feng Shan got a long-range DPS policewoman.

At this point, Chen Hai looked over at Ye Shuang's screen and noticed he was still holding onto a die. He instantly deadpanned, "You bastard, you're holding out on me, huh?"

"Cough, no, no." Ye Shuang felt a bit awkward. After all, since he got a champion he was satisfied with, he hadn't rerolled.

"Alright." Ye Shuang rolled the die, and Master Yi appeared.

"The Wuju style!"

But the next second, Chen Hai instantly locked in Ye Shuang's Sett and burst out laughing. "Hahahaha, I'm playing this, One Punch Man."

Ye Shuang: "..."

So you were eyeing my Sett all along, huh?

Left with no choice, Ye Shuang started adjusting his runes. He had no idea what items were good to build nowadays, but luckily there was a one-click auto-equip feature.

"A-Ye, I'll get on you later," Chen Qin said ambiguously in the voice channel.

The cat she was playing was a champion that could attach itself to teammates. It was just that Chen Qin's wording was a bit too suggestive, making even Ye Shuang feel a little embarrassed.

They entered the game's loading screen.

Ye Shuang casually glanced over and noticed that the IDs of two players on the enemy team looked somewhat familiar—

Fish Food Tonight

Riding Uncle Tonight

However, after thinking about it carefully, Ye Shuang felt it couldn't be such a coincidence. He then pushed the thought aside and focused on entering the game.

"Last one out is a dumbass." After buying his starting items, Chen Hai immediately clicked the hexgate and flew out.

"First one out is a dumbass." As soon as Chen Qin finished speaking, she bought her items and directly flew onto Ye Shuang's character.

Ye Shuang then said, "Go to Feng Shan. My Master Yi dies very easily."

"No, I like staying on you," Chen Qin said sweetly over the voice comms.

"Alright."

"So cheesy I could die," Feng Shan grunted, clicking the hexgate and flying out.

Fugui followed closely behind, wanting to get to the bushes early to place boxes to fear the enemies.

The First Blood announcement soon rang out.

"Damn, their hooks are insanely accurate." Chen Hai's eyes widened. The moment he entered the brush, he got hooked, and then five burly guys rushed up and beat him to a pulp.

On the enemy side, the Thresh with the ID Riding Uncle Tonight swung his hook. As a champion with the ability to displace enemies, holding onto the hook was actually more intimidating than throwing it.

"Stop feeding," Chen Qin said in the voice chat. After all, this guy Chen Hai was useless at everything except being number one at giving away kills.

"Bullshit. Just wait until I build Warmog's Armor. I'll one-shot them with a single punch, okay?" Chen Hai retorted, but the very next second, he was hooked by the enemy again.

The moment he was hooked, Riding Uncle Tonight flew right over, and the champions behind him followed up, chaining their crowd control skills. Seeing this, Ye Shuang immediately joined the fray. However, after a chaotic flurry of skill sound effects and a few shrill screams, they lost the team fight four-for-one.

And the only kill they got was taken by the cat.

"Can you stand behind the minions?" Even Fugui couldn't help but say.

"You can't blame me, this hook goes right through minions! The enemy definitely knows how to play!" Chen Hai immediately defended himself. He had already been trying to dodge and weave.

"I was already trying to kite them, okay?"

"Kite my ass, you just walked right into the hook."

"It's fine, let's keep playing," Ye Shuang said.

But the very next second, right after he respawned and teleported in, Riding Uncle Tonight landed a prediction hook, forcefully dragging him out from under the tower.

"..."

The screen went black once again.

Ye Shuang fell silent. The enemy team really did seem a bit too strong?

Chen Hai seized the opportunity, flashed into the enemy backline, and fully charged his Haymaker!

One punch went down, dealing a whole hundred points of damage.

"Damn, why is the damage so low?!" Chen Hai stared in shock before being ganged up on and killed.

"You have to build up grit first?!"

In no time at all, the kill gap widened by over a dozen.

Ye Shuang's team had almost no ability to fight back and was quickly pushed all the way to their Nexus.

At this time, while the player Riding Uncle Tonight was still pacing back and forth in front of the defensive tower, a message popped up in the all-chat.

(All) Riding Uncle Tonight: Taking disciples.

Chen Hai immediately saw red. He flew over, about to throw a punch, but was forcefully hooked by the opponent once again. The punch he had painstakingly charged up was even dodged.

"Fuck! Scripts, they're definitely scripting!"

While Chen Hai cursed up a storm, the enemy players continuously spammed emotes and danced.

Until the moment their own Nexus exploded—

(All) Riding Uncle Tonight: Never mind the disciples, taking mounts instead.

DEFEAT

After suffering a crushing defeat, no one spoke.

Big talk before the match.

Nonsense during the match.

Silence after the match.

Chen Hai held a cigarette in his mouth without lighting it. Looking at his 0/8/0 KDA, he simply muttered quietly,

"I did my best."