Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: kara

Victor's skill of folding small flowers was pretty good. It was obvious with a glance that it held some of Tyron's technical style.

Tyron had sent him several instruction sheets back then, and this year, he had received many small flowers from Victor. There was one a day, and the words in the postcards also came intermittently, forming a poem:

I'll send you my little world,

I don't need you to give me anything back,

Because many years ago,

You gave me a little flower,

You let it grow gently on the tip of my heart,

You let it open up into a prosperous universe.

I want to share it with you; inside it:

Star clouds condense into planets and homes,

Mountains and lamp-lit markets are carved by moonlight,

Cherry blossom petals are falling, the tide is singing,

I'm sparing no effort to do my best,

I want to bloom!!!

.

Tyron: "……"

So, on the last postcard, there were four big words, "I want to bloom!!!"

The master assassin looked it over again and again, and he couldn't help but laugh.

He didn't understand the hearts of the artistic and literary youth of this world, but he could approximately see what kind of sentiment was contained in this little poem.

It was approximately like interstellar straight-A students in their green, youthful years, sitting in the library idly while scribbling out a poem and folding it into a paper airplane to pass on--that was the romance of these young people.

It could be seen that this learning bully was working hard to learn how to flirt.

The poem was also rather cute.

Tyron made broad strokes with his pen to reply with a 'Read'. He thought about it, added a sentence, "I know, I'll 艹 you when you come back", and sent it out.

……

Victor excitedly opened up the reply when he received it, wanting to see his male god praise him for his literary accomplishments.

He opened it and looked. Victor: “???”

The incredibly bewildered Victor thought about it. The conversation had gone like this:

&#k2013;&#k2013;Victor: I want to bloom!

&#k2013;&#k2013;Tyron: I know, I’ll &#k8279; you when you come back.

Two minutes later.

Victor, who had suddenly figured it out: “Ah!!!” So that’s what it meant! He suddenly felt that his butt was in a lot of pain&#k2026;

……

So, Victor had been gone for a total of nearly a month.

During this time, the group competitions of the provincial competition had officially ended with 20 players making it out of the five groups. After that, these 20 people basically took a break as they waited for the end of the resurrection matches. It took two more days for the resurrection competition to finish, and at the end of those, four players made the cut and entered the finals. Geng Chen was included in this group.

By the time the final list of players for the provincial competition was determined, a week had already passed since the game between Tyron and the sniper. This period was a rare time for players to rest and adjust their state as well as study their potential opponents.

Of course, the more critical the time was, the more obvious the differences between the parties involved would become.

Some people would seize every last minute they had to train hard; some would desperately study their opponents at the last minute, and of course, some people would continue to laze about, drinking and playing…

.

Tyron received an invitation to a party from another contestant from the Earth District.

This year's Earth District had surprised the audience. Other than the iceberg War God, there was also another person who'd managed to qualify for the semi-finals from the group competition. Compared with last year's lack of results, this year was already much better.

Taking advantage of the fact that the competition's losers from the Earth District hadn't yet gone home, they wanted to hold a party together. It was a combination of a celebration, send off, blessing, and so on all rolled into one, and everyone just wanted to enjoy themselves.

Tyron didn't enjoy parties, but he was very familiar with them--after all, chaos was one of the situations in which he had often chosen to perform assassinations. From a certain perspective, he liked parties very much. There was nothing easier to deal with than a drunk target and bodyguards.

All the players from the Earth District attended the party, including the two who were about to return home. If Odin, who had entered the semi-finals, didn't go, he would be considered too haughty and domineering. When it wasn't necessary, assassins certainly wouldn't go out of their way to make themselves seem out of place in local society.

Therefore, he ultimately still went. Only, he added a bit of a disguise.

.

However!

Tyron had underestimated the interstellar people's obsession with his face!

As soon as he stepped inside, the AI housekeeper announced Odin's name. He saw at least a few dozen people suddenly turn and look over, then take out their small mobile phones from their trouser or skirt pockets. A wave of clicking cameras could be heard.

Tyron: "……"

His hand paused in the action of removing his scarf and finally tied it tighter instead. It was a bit rude to wear a scarf at an indoor party, but it was still better than being the focus of eyes and spotlights.

He remained calm and steady as he walked over to the group of contestants and shook hands with them one by one.

He appeared very calm, causing the face-con fans to be too embarrassed to go up and play around. They could only put an end to their plans here and express their love quietly. The secret filming also gradually died down.

One contestant joked, "Lord Four's attractiveness level is really high."

A female player took the opportunity to feel him out, "Indeed, indeed. I didn't expect that you would be so handsome in real life too, and you're much more gentle than you appear in the competitions--could it be that Lord Four is in a relationship?"

Tyron was still mulling over how to surprise Victor into crying (the key point was to make him cry), so he didn't intend to speak about personal matters directly during this occasion. He simply smiled politely and didn't answer.

However, it was precisely this formulaic smile that fascinated the female contestant. She swallowed several times, and her eyes seemed to glow as she said, "Is Lord Four fr, free in the evening?"

Tyron set down the cup on the table beside him and left her with the unimpressed silhouette of his back as he left.

Female contestant: "……" Oh my god, I just wanted to invite him for karaoke! How, how, how come I ended up saying such strange things when looking at that face…?

.

Tyron had basically never seen any of these contestants from the Earth District before, but he had memorized a few lines of information on each of them. This was because they were all previous champions or people who were on the national level, except for one person--

--Vantico.

The third-place player of the previous National Championships, Vantico, the 'mysterious hand', was also there. Although it was very surprising, it was also reasonable if one thought about it carefully: After all, he had also come from the Earth District and happened to also be one of the special guests of the opening ceremony this year. It was normal for him to stay a little longer and attend the Earth District party.

Vantico was surrounded by a group of people like stars around the moon. In the real world, he sported a little bit of a baby face that was also praised as good looking. Therefore, other than e-sports fans, he also had a group of appearance fans of his own.

However, when both assassins from the Earth District appeared together today, everyone's focus was on Odin.

There was no helping it. There was no way for them to compare. Vantico belonged to the group of people with the best looks amongst e-sports masters while Odin belonged to the group with the best looks among all the human beings all over the world.

The first type of onlookers: Can't you just go and be a proper star?! You'll definitely be popular across the entire universe! Why do you have to come to e-sports to work hard for a living?! I really want to see you sing and dance or act like a domineering president. You can also act like the Emperor of the Empire if you want!

The second type of onlookers: Amazing, bravo! Someone who can set the standard for our big e-sports circle has finally appeared! The overall beauty level has improved by three grades, and the traditional sports circle next door has no way to compete anymore hahahaha…

The third type of onlookers: Odin x Vantico is also a cute pairing!

.

The two contestants didn't know what the people around them were thinking. They only exchanged a few polite words in passing.

Tyron expressed: "Pleasure to meet you."

Vantico expressed: "I've seen your games, they're played beautifully… Haha, I hope it's not just a performance. I'll be waiting for you at the National Championships. Don't let me down."

Tyron: … You're overthinking it.

Vantico was third in the previous National Championships. There was nothing wrong with relying on his seniority and saying a few sentences, but it was a little ironic for him to say these kinds of words to the master assassin. Was he joking? When Tyron Odin had taken the enemy's head from the middle of an army, it was unknown if Vantico's grandfather had even been born yet…

However, young men had the instincts of male orangutans. When they met (apparent) peers of the same generation, especially when they were deliberately compared to each other, they would certainly have a bit of a competitive mentality.

There were no fluctuations in real-older generation-Tyron's heart from this event. He raised his cup to indicate that he'd heard him and leisurely walked away.

.

In order to avoid being harassed by more people, Tyron didn't participate in the second half of the party. He instead walked through the building and found a place in the garden to sit down and enjoy the purity of an old antique.

Unexpectedly, there were two other people who also happened to be in the back. They entered the garden, then began to quarrel like nobody else was there.

--Yes, a lover's quarrel where they argued and kissed, then continued to argue after kissing. After that, they couldn't agree and began to 'fight' around, their actions more like coercive passion.

The master assassin's memory was very sharp. He had already determined the two people's identities in the first second. One was Vantico, and the other was Old Friend.

Tyron: "……"

He could also tell that the two people who'd been playing around in the cave that he and Victor had passed by when they went to play in the sea were the same two men.

This meant that Vantico and Old Friend were a couple. They'd engaged in an impromptu 'fight' before the opening performance match, then had a fair fight in the arena during the opening ceremony, and then continued their 'fighting' at other people's parties. Although it seemed that there was something wrong with this couple at the moment, it was really difficult for outsiders to judge what was really happening in a relationship.

Tsk tsk tsk, young people these days…

The master assassin's way back was blocked by this pair of wild lovers. He could only lay there quietly and look up at the starry sky without making any movements. After listening to the fierce battle, he even took a brief nap.

Originally, this was nothing but a small matter, but an unfortunate coincidence occurred.

The next day, Vantico inexplicably felt a little uncertain and couldn't help but go back to check suspiciously. He found someone to help him pull up the party surveillance video and discovered that there had been a figure lying there above their heads.

Someone saw! Someone saw it all!

Oh, their crimes had been exposed.

"……"

When Vantico went to find Tyron, he was so angry that his hair was almost puffed up in rage. He exclaimed, "You followed me! Despicable! Don't think that just because you have something on me that you can blackmail me… I won't be soft when it comes to e-sports!"

Tyron: Young people these days really did overthink things too much.

Vantico took out his checkbook, wrote a string of numbers on it, and then tossed down a check in front of him. He spoke coldly, "Don't try to challenge my bottom line. Take the money and get lost!"

Tyron picked up the check, then reached out to flick it, sending it floating in the air.

The check travelled in a graceful arc and flew straight into Vantico's collar where it got stuck.

"Young man, relax a bit. Not everyone cares about what kind of relationship you're in or what position you're in. This world is very busy," Tyron said thoughtfully, "Me and you? We're not in a competitive relationship."

It was this cotton-like attitude that made Vantico seem as though he was an unreasonable child going into a rage in front of his elders. He exploded in anger: You were clearly the one who provoked him first! You were the one who'd peeked at others! You just wait!

.

However, this busy world really seemed to have some opinion on Vantico.

The next day, the randomized contestant pairing list for the provincial competition semi-finals had come out. Odin was the first player to compete, and his opponent was Old Friend from the neighboring Tianyi District.

sponsored chapter - thanks con, jwel, I read fluff and various 'someone's for the ko-fis!

by the way, i've picked up a new novel, Glory [e-sports]. i'm suuuuper excited for it~ Glory's hilarious and sweet and gaming! gaming! gaming! plus it's by Long Qi… i've been wanting to translate a novel of theirs for ages. it's about a little lunatic energizer bunny MC who ran away from the e-sports world two years ago only to get dragged back by the great demon king ML so that they can kick butt everywhere 😀 click here for the novelupdates page~