Chapter 14: Crushing the Professional Gamer! (Please Support with a Guaranteed Monthly Vote)

Su Zhe breathed a sigh of relief as the kill was confirmed. Earlier, when he noticed some movement near the side path, he hadn’t paid attention to the smoke unfolding at the archway. But when a faint CT model appeared at the edge of the smoke grenade, his instincts kicked in. He swiftly swung his mouse to snap the crosshair over.

“Nice! Took down another NIP pro,” came the praise from Fat Brother through the headset.

“Just lucky, managed to react in time,” Su Zhe replied, not dwelling on the kill. He communicated with his teammates over voice chat, “The archway’s been compromised. Let’s block the side path smoke and pinch A from the archway.”

At the S-rank tier, the teammates had developed a solid sense of the situation and, motivated by the idea of dominating the pros, they were all eager to press forward.

“Alright! A1 and A2, sync up and draw their fire. You guys look for an opening at the archway!”

This round was a CT side pistol round, and against this relatively organized bandit push, the A-site pinch was overwhelming. After k0nfig eliminated the bandit at A2 jungle, before he could adjust his aim, the bandits at the archway seized the opportunity.

*rat-a-tat-tat!*

[“The Peninsula’s Top Entry Fragger” eliminated k0nfig with an AK-47.]

With the two pros down, the remaining players were just at a solid A+ to S level, and the bandits quickly mopped them up one by one.

“No worries, hold on for the rifle round,” es3tag comforted k0nfig.

The reassuring words brought a wry smile from k0nfig—he almost felt like they were actually competing in a match.

As the captain and in-game leader of NIP, es3tag often said things like this when on the back foot.

The CT side then ecoed two rounds under the stilted, mixed-English commands of the two pros, before arriving at the first rifle round of the game.

“Let’s speed it up! I’ll flash in and make the push at A. You guys throw utility behind me to support,” Su Zhe, now on fire after a few rounds, spoke into the mic.

Everyone agreed to the plan. After a quick discussion over who would throw which smoke, the countdown for the round ended.

Su Zhe replenished his utility and moved to stand outside A1, waiting for the enemy’s first damaging utility to clear.

“Smoke on the platform!”
“Flashing now!”
“Go!”

Su Zhe pressed the accelerator immediately. After exiting A1, he pre-aimed the long box but saw no one, then pushed toward the bombsite, stretching out the team’s entire firing line.

The entry fragger was like the head of a locomotive; the success of the offensive formation depended heavily on the lead.

This was a lesson Su Zhe had grasped from watching Donk’s techniques. After using so many utilities, if you don’t charge in and get kills fast, what’s the point of buying them?

“A-lie! A-lie!” k0nfig reported the spot in his broken Chinese.

He was positioned conventionally under A2 balcony, easily flushed out by an incendiary grenade.

When he saw the first bandit’s back just about to fire, his brain stopped his hand in time.

The first player on their side hadn’t checked the spot! They didn’t know where he was!

k0nfig sensed his chance to clean up.

Sure enough, three bandits came out from A1 in a row without checking his position. Seeing their backs, fat and tempting, he immediately locked on.

From right to left, with years of pro experience, he only needed a couple of seconds to eliminate them all.

But to his surprise, as soon as he fired, the bandit at the front suddenly turned around. He tried to swiftly drag his crosshair left, but it was too late. Combined with the suppressed AK-47’s slower firing rate, he only managed two body shots before the recoil-controlled spray took him down.

*rat-a-tat-tat!*

[“The Peninsula’s Top Entry Fragger” headshotted k0nfig with an AK-47.]

“So fast!” k0nfig exclaimed. He had clearly seen with his peripheral vision that the front bandit reacted instantly to the gunfire. “If their second aim adjustment had been even quicker, I probably would have been killed the moment I got the first kill.”

Comparing himself now to his younger self at eighteen, k0nfig thought maybe he could have reacted like that then, but at twenty-six… well, never mind. Now he played more on experience than reflexes.

“Is this some kind of nerve gun or what?” k0nfig decided to observe a bit more.

This round, the CTs took a more mid-focused stance to prevent the bandits from gaining mid control.

When the CT under balcony took a hit and the smoke cut off vision, all defenders at A site got stuck on the archway side.

Fat Brother glanced at the minimap, grabbed a grenade, and threw it into short box and safe box.

After Su Zhe’s kill, he moved to contest the “police spawn” position but didn’t rush directly to the spawn point to hunt kills. Instead, he swayed his position back and forth, holding the angle and waiting for the enemy’s rotation.

He liked making entries but wasn’t a fool—once the site was taken, pushing forward recklessly would be suicide.

While Su Zhe concentrated on holding the angle, a CT suddenly peeked out. Quick to react, Su Zhe snapped his crosshair onto the target.

*rat-a-tat-tat!*

[“The Peninsula’s Top Entry Fragger” headshotted the simple D+ boy with an AK-47.]

But having taken a headshot from A1’s return fire, Su Zhe was quickly finished off by another CT.

“Ugh, once my reaction hits max, I should upgrade my ‘aiming’ attribute,” Su Zhe sighed upon respawning.

The advantage of moving while holding angles was clear: it made it harder for opponents peeking horizontally to spot your head immediately.

But the downside was obvious too: your crosshair also moves, making precise aiming harder.

He had reacted instantly to the lateral peek but was still shot first. Otherwise, with AK’s firepower, he might have secured another kill.

The situation on the field had become clear: with Su Zhe having two kills, the teammates smoothly planted and set up their hold.

Though es3tag was still alive, at this point it was more about who had the stronger gun.

After snagging one kill, he was quickly traded out by the bandits.

Having won the rifle round cleanly, Su Zhe’s blue team burst out in excitement.

“Holy crap! Are we seriously going to crush the pros? It’s 5-0 already!”

Other teammates chimed in, “Come on! Come on! If we actually win, I’ll brag forever!”

The bandits were brimming with momentum.

Meanwhile, the CT side tried to coordinate with the pros, asking if they could “!drop” their gem butterfly knives for fun.

In subsequent rounds, es3tag and k0nfig gradually got serious to avoid embarrassment, but the score gap was too large, and communication with teammates was poor.

Once the bombsite was broken and scattered, organizing an effective retake became nearly impossible.

If a veteran gunner had taken over, a comeback might have been possible. But at twenty-eight and twenty-six, facing a pure aim duel on ladder was tough.

These kids just don’t play mind games!

Shoot! Speed up! Shoot and speed up!

When the game ended, the final score stood at 13-10.

“Whoa! We won! Awesome, guys!”

“We’re champions!!”