How could he possibly be faster than me? That’s impossible… I checked beforehand, and none of the top players in the Super Shadow team go by this name. This person with the nickname “Nameless” must just be some random nobody, right? There’s no way it’s a ringer, because the official roster is all real-name registration, matching real people to their Battle.net characters one-to-one, so there’s no chance of bringing in outside help to cheat. You can swap players before the match starts, but you can’t just hand your Battle.net character over to someone else to use temporarily.

As for the Super Shadow team, everyone here has played through multiple tournaments before, so we already have a good sense of everyone’s skill level.

“K-Da!”

“Old K, are you okay?”

“We’re here! Hold on, we’re coming to get you!”

“That guy is dead meat!”

The regional public channel exploded, and the teammates following Samuel Young were nearly going crazy, howling as they rushed over to support.

Even though Samuel Young was dazed in a near-death state, he didn’t just sit there—he controlled his character to crawl toward the cover in the corner.

Bang! Bang! Two more deafening shotgun blasts rang out. One shot hit his foot, his health plummeted, but he managed to crawl around the corner. Those two panicked, off-target shots convinced Samuel Young—if he couldn’t even finish me off with that, this guy isn’t a pro, he’s a total noob!

It was just dumb luck that this noob got the drop on me when I let my guard down.

Sure enough, after Samuel Young crawled around the corner and the other guy failed to finish him off, he heard his teammates calling out in the channel. The guy didn’t chase after him, but instead ran away in a panic—so flustered he didn’t even dare to come over and finish him off, clearly afraid of getting surrounded and not being able to escape.

Obviously, that situation was something he hadn’t expected either!

Damn it, I really got ambushed by a noob!

“Second floor, the platform on the second floor, come get me quick!” Samuel Young was burning with rage, urgently contacting his teammates. As long as they revived him, he’d definitely chase that guy down and destroy him!

Dare to say I died because I talk too much? If I catch you, I’ll trash talk you right back!

Pfft—a smoke grenade landed, white mist began to spread, and someone rushed into the smoke. A teammate with a turkey-head skin came to revive him—it was his squadmate “One Ear.” Then the interface showed the countdown as his teammate used a medkit to revive him.

Ten seconds left.

Footsteps approached—someone was running and jumping around in front of them, picking up loot from the ground. All his squadmates had arrived, each one now equipped with body armor, assault rifles, and helmets. They were basically fully geared up, and Samuel Young felt reassured.

But as he flicked his mouse for a quick glance, he suddenly heard an ominous, crisp metallic clinking—ding ding ding…

Then he saw, over by the stairs, a gun barrel silently poking out. The glaring “Nameless” nickname above the head leapt into view, looking sneaky as hell.

“Something’s wrong…” flashed through his mind, and Samuel Young saw a grenade explode in the room. All his squadmates’ screens turned red.

Then—bang! bang! bang! bang!—the sound of a shotgun firing repeatedly in the cramped space echoed nonstop.

Samuel Young stared blankly at his now black-and-white screen, with all four teammates lying on the ground in orz pose, his eyelids twitching.

That guy never ran away at all—he deliberately didn’t finish me off, lured my four teammates over, and set up an ambush!

Amid the footsteps, the guy had already switched to a pistol, closing in on the pile of downed players.

“‘Kill one’ was eliminated by ‘Nameless’ with a grenade!”

“‘One Ear’ was eliminated by ‘Nameless’ with a pistol!”

“‘Zhang Dazhong’ was eliminated by ‘Nameless’ with a pistol!”

“‘ZZZZX’ was eliminated by ‘Nameless’ with a pistol!”

“‘Jinzed’ was eliminated by ‘Nameless’ with a pistol!”

Both teams’ sidebars were flooded with these messages.

After Ethan Brooks controlled his character to loot all the gear and left the battlefield, the Super Shadow team was in an uproar.

……

“You’re way too sneaky, man!”

“Awesome! Took out Kill one’s whole squad in one go! I can already imagine the expressions on Demon Claw team’s faces!”

“Weren’t they acting all cocky? Thought they’d get a chicken dinner, wanted us to sing ‘Conquer’ for them, and ‘Nameless’ just got a pentakill on them!”

Listening to the team praise Ethan Brooks, Kevin Miller felt a pang of jealousy and muttered, “Just got super lucky!”

He wasn’t wrong—who would’ve thought Kill one would get so overconfident, maybe because of his reputation, and try to melee Ethan Brooks first, only to get headshotted because he didn’t pick up a gun in time. Then the news probably shocked his squad so much that they all rushed over to support him without thinking, crowding into a tiny room—just as Ethan Brooks happened to pick up a grenade.

The grenade left everyone at low health, the strongest Samuel Young was eliminated instantly, then a shotgun blast wiped out the rest, and finally a pistol was used to finish them off to save ammo. Ethan Brooks’s win was practically a textbook example of lucky play.

Of course, it was also a matter of perfect timing—because whether it was throwing a grenade or spraying a shotgun in a small room, neither required much aiming skill.