NSN noticed this as well. After all, they’re a veteran team. Even when the opponent gained an overwhelming advantage early on, they didn’t lose their composure. They immediately adjusted their tactics, switching back to their most familiar assault playstyle, and didn’t let IAC further expand their lead. But the early game was still a bit of a collapse, and even though they performed as usual in the mid and late game, they were suppressed by IAC the whole time. After thirty-two minutes, IAC killed all of NSN’s members, destroyed NSN’s resurrection stone, and won the match.

When the results screen came up, Henry Clark glanced at it—Evelyn’s death count: 13 times.

The team’s medic was packing up his peripherals while looking at the results screen, clicking his tongue. “Poor Evelyn, targeted by you guys the whole time. If I were him, I’d be traumatized.”

Henry Clark put away his own peripherals. “Only thirteen times.”

The medic’s mouth twitched. “God Shi, in a hot-blooded manga, your personality would make you the villain.”

Henry Clark didn’t care. “That’s fine, I was never a good person anyway.”

As usual, the winning team had to do a post-match interview. The IAC members were invited to the front. Worried that someone might try to stir things up about Henry Clark, David Wright had already spoken to the host in advance, so during the interview, the host didn’t ask anything sensitive. After a few harmless questions, the four IAC members bowed to thank the fans who came to watch the match, then turned and headed backstage to their own lounge.

Having just won, the teammates were all pretty excited, shoving each other around and discussing what to eat for dinner. Henry Clark’s steps were a bit heavy, and as he passed by the NSN lounge, he turned his head to glance inside.

“Henry Clark, Shi-ge?”

The medic looked at Henry Clark in confusion. “What’s up with you?”

Henry Clark snapped out of it. “What?”

The medic smiled. “We’re thinking of going out for crayfish tonight. You coming?”

“There’ll be a line at this hour. I’ll pass.” Henry Clark tossed his peripherals bag to the medic. “You guys go ahead, I’ve got something to do.”

The medic took Henry Clark’s peripherals bag, puzzled. “The interview’s over, what else is there?”

Henry Clark turned around and, under his teammates’ shocked gazes, pushed open the door to the NSN lounge.

The lounge door was wide open, but the room was empty.

Inside, only a staff member was cleaning, looking at Henry Clark in confusion. “Can I help you? The NSN people have already left.”

The breath Henry Clark had finally managed to gather left him all at once. He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Sorry, it’s nothing.”

Chapter 5

Henry Clark didn’t end up going to the team dinner. He went back to the base alone, ordered some takeout, ate, took a shower, and then went to the training room.

The others hadn’t returned from dinner yet, so the training room was empty. Henry Clark sat down alone at the computer desk.

Team activities usually had nothing to do with Henry Clark. He didn’t have friends in IAC. No one dared to ostracize him, but it was Henry Clark who preferred to keep to himself. In a purely commercial team, the higher-ups didn’t bother to bond with the players either—it was all just surface-level.

Rather than waste energy socializing with teammates, Henry Clark preferred to train alone. If he ever felt annoyed and wanted to chat, it wouldn’t be with anyone from the team.

Like now.

Henry Clark sat at the computer and opened Evelyn’s livestream.

On stream, Evelyn had his camera on and was tearfully complaining about Henry Clark.

“Thirteen deaths!!!”

“In the very first match of the preseason opener, I died thirteen times!!!”

“Do you know what that means? It means that for this entire match, I only did one thing! One thing!!! Running from the resurrection stone to the front line!!! I’d get there, get mowed down by Evil, and then repeat the process over and over!”

“I was basically a low-quality bot!!! Revive, feed, revive, feed, revive, feed!!!”

“Seriously, my mentality is shattered. Ugh, my chest hurts…”

Henry Clark picked up the mouse and clicked a few times.

On camera, Evelyn was covering his face and crying. When he heard a special sound effect, he looked up and sniffled. “A donation? Thank you, Daddy Shi, for three Meteor Showers—wow! Three!!! Thank you, Daddy Shi, for the donation… Wait, hold on!”

Evelyn shouted angrily, “Henry Clark!!!”

Henry Clark laughed.

Evelyn gritted his teeth. “Some people already think I took money from your IAC to throw the match today!!! And you’re still donating!!!”

Henry Clark smiled and casually sent Evelyn five more Meteor Showers, each worth three thousand.

“Alright, alright, seriously, stop sending gifts. Just treat me to something good to eat next time.” Evelyn was an honest guy and felt bad about the platform taking a cut from Henry Clark’s donations, so he stopped him. “If you’re free, want to duo queue for a bit? Carry me and help me rank up, consider it your apology.”

Henry Clark didn’t respond. He dumped all the free popularity-boosting gifts the platform gave him onto Evelyn, closed the streaming site, and opened the game client.

Henry Clark teamed up with Evelyn, and the two queued on the national server.

Evelyn sent a voice chat request, and Henry Clark accepted.

Evelyn was still whining, “You guys were so evil today, so evil. I was completely powerless against you…”

They loaded into the map. Henry Clark said, “It was on purpose.”

Evelyn whimpered, “I could tell. I didn’t even do anything to you.”

Henry Clark said, “It had nothing to do with you.”