The Whole World Thinks I’m a Woman Disguised as a Man

Chapter 25: Challenge

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"Call me brother, I'll take you flying tomorrow, okay?"

Xue Lan's face quickly turned red when he heard that, but Duan Wenzheng was calmly admiring her thin-skinned look. After a while, he opened the door for her with a very bad mood and planned to turn around and leave.

"Go to bed early."

As soon as ‌‌ finished speaking, the corner of his clothes seemed to be caught by something.

Duan Wenzheng turned around in surprise and saw that it was the little child who was pulling at the corner of his clothes.

At this moment, she lowered her head, with only the red tips of her ears vaguely visible. She hesitated for a long time without saying anything, but she just refused to let go of the corner of my clothes.

Duan Wenzheng couldn't help but laugh, thinking, I just told you not to take everything seriously, why did you still take it seriously. Seeing that you didn't say a word for a long time, Duan Wenzheng raised his hand and rubbed the hair on your head: "Don't take it seriously now..."

Xue Lan suddenly raised his head as if he had made up his mind.

"Brother Zheng, do your best tomorrow!!"

Obviously, Brother and Brother Zheng are two completely different names, but he didn't learn anything else and just started calling him Brother Zheng like the fat guys... Duan Wenzheng paused in his movements, his eyes fixed on the cheeks that were flushed with nervousness and the eyes that were misty.

Duan Wenzheng was stunned for a moment, looked away, coughed twice, and pushed the man into the door: "Okay, go to bed."

Xue Lan was pushed back into the room like this. Before he could say anything, the door in front of him was involuntarily closed by someone outside.

He scratched his head in confusion, wondering if he had done something wrong.

Before the first team match, according to the rules of the Youth Training Camp, each team has the right to challenge any other team based on the difference in points between the two teams before the official ranking. The other team can choose to accept the challenge or avoid the match. If they give up the challenge, they will have to compete with the team with the closest points, and the points will still be added or subtracted based on the difference in points between the two teams.

Even with such tempting rules in place, there has never been a precedent in the youth training camp where the last person challenges the first person.

Most teams that choose the challenge match will choose to compete against a team that is about 50 points behind their own team.

At this moment, Qi Siyu is coming to the captains of each temporary team as a team representative, and will also represent them to challenge Deng Ruichao's team.

"What? Did I hear it right? You guys actually..."

"Who doesn't know how to measure their own level in such a challenge? The last one in points wants to challenge the first one... If it were me, I would definitely not accept the challenge..."

"But don't worry, even though we're ranked last, we'll get the most points if we win the points system!"

"‌… "

"Why should we fight? It would seem like it's not glorious for us to win against you!" Before Qi Siyu could finish her words, two team members immediately sneered and refused to compete.

Amid the discussions around them, the team members all looked unhappy. Xue Lan was hiding at the end of the crowd, quietly observing everything. At this moment—

"Lanlan?"

The very low questioning voice brought Xue Lan back to his senses. Xue Lan turned around in surprise and saw that the person standing behind him was Su Yiyu.

Su Yiyu looked at Xue Lan and hesitated: "I..."

Xue Lan saw that he looked embarrassed and asked hurriedly, "What's wrong?"

"I..." Su Yiyu paused: "Is your hand injured?"

Xue Lan nodded: "Don't worry, nothing will go wrong."

Su Yiyu, however, still looked as if he wanted to say something but was hesitant to do so. It seemed as if something had happened.

Xue Lan looked at him suspiciously. Su Yiyu pursed her lips for a long while and whispered, "I'm just... a little nervous. I'm afraid, afraid that I'll get everyone involved."

Xue Lan heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this, and smiled and comforted him: "Don't be nervous, you are fine."

Seeing that Su Yiyu still looked uneasy, he was about to say a few more words of comfort, but a cold and stiff voice came from the side -

"Hand injury?"

The voice was extremely unrecognizable. Xue Lan took a breath of cold air and looked dumbly towards Wen Yan, who had been standing not far from the two of them for some unknown period of time.

Wen Yan's voice was so cold that Xue Lan, who was already feeling guilty, froze in place. He didn't dare to look back for a long time.

"This is just a small points match in the youth training camp that can't even be considered a formal match. You should know what a hand injury means to an e-sports player." Wen Yan walked up to her and glanced at her wrist, his face gloomy and pressing: "If you still don't understand, one day you will pay the price for today's carelessness."

"It's okay, just a minor injury..."

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Wen Yan stretched out his hand and placed it lightly on her wrist.

The movement came suddenly, and Xue Lan was caught off guard for a moment. He cried out subconsciously due to the pain in his unhealed wound.

Wen Yan's expression turned even darker, and he was silent for a moment: "Withdraw from the competition."

‌'s voice was not loud, but at the moment, everyone present had their eyes on him.  was not Wen Yan's original intention, but at the moment, he was annoyed, his gaze fixed on Xue Lan, and he could no longer care about what others thought.

Even though Wen Yan was always serious and had never said anything harsh in front of the group of students, there was an instant silence outside the waiting room, and everyone's eyes fell on the two people standing at the end of the crowd.

Others didn't know what happened, but Xue Lan knew why Wen Yan had such a reaction.

The original text said that Wen Yan injured his wrist due to long-term high-intensity training when he was at the peak of his career. As a professional player, he was faced with an extremely important game during the injury period. In order not to drag down his teammates, Wen Yan chose to conceal his illness and continue the game. Although he won the game, he also delayed the best time to seek medical treatment. His injury worsened, and now he can no longer support regular training. This is why he concealed his injury and came to the youth training camp to look for the so-called "successor."

The surroundings fell into dead silence, and everyone looked at Xue Lan with suspicion or sympathy.

The young trainees who were caught between the waiting room and Xue Lan and Wen Yan were in a dilemma for the moment, and they didn't know which side to watch for the more excitement.

Just as both sides fell into dead silence, a lazy voice broke the silence—

"Why, are you afraid of losing again?"

Everyone turned their eyes to the waiting room and the two teams that were discussing whether to proceed with the challenge match.

After all, everyone present knew that it was a guy with the id reset who had shot and killed the captain of the first team, Deng Ruiqiu, in the single-player points competition, and it was also he who had kicked Deng Ruiqiu out of the "Rookie of the Year" candidate list in the semi-professional invitational tournament...

No matter how you look at the interaction between the two now... they are like water and fire.

However, as soon as Duan Wenzheng said this, Deng Ruiqiu's face instantly turned as dark as the bottom of a pot. When he was about to take a step forward, he was stopped by his teammates behind him.

"Let's fight!" Deng Ruiqiu gritted his teeth, dismissed his teammates who objected, and answered word by word: "You challenged me without knowing your own strength. If you lose, don't blame others for bullying the weak."

Deng Ruiqiu's words made the silent crowd whisper to each other again. The competition between the team with the highest points and the team with the lowest points in the youth training camp was unique. The most important thing was that even Deng Ruiqiu could not let the others feel that he was "bullying the weak". Instead, they secretly put this extremely exciting game in their hearts.

Xue Lan, who was behind the crowd, subconsciously glanced at Duan Wen Zheng in the crowd as the two of them talked. Duan Wen Zheng was leaning lazily against the glass wall, and his eyes seemed to fall on Xue Lan casually amid the noisy discussions.

Xue Lan's eyes regained their tranquility at this moment, and he turned his gaze calmly back to look into Wen Yan's eyes.

"Every game is equally important to me. The result of the game is important, but more importantly..."

Xue Lan didn't finish his words, and he slightly curved his eyes: "Wind, if it were you, you would make the same choice, right?"

Wen Yan was stunned.

The boy who was nervous and uneasy a second ago now had a calm look on his face, and his eyes full of passion and hope made me feel as if I saw a distant time and space quietly overlapping at this moment. The boy's immaturity and sincerity were exactly the same as my former unswerving self.

Qi Siyu and Meng Weiran were excited when they heard the answer that they would be the first team to accept the challenge. They were cheering when they saw Xue Lan's position from behind the crowd and ran to him excitedly.

"It's done!" Qi Siyu couldn't hide the excitement in her eyes: "The first game is ours! Let's go, it's about to start!"

Duan Wenzheng walked to Xue Lan's side, raised his hand and patted his shoulder: "Let's go."

Upon hearing this, Xue Lan once again fixed his gaze on Wen Yan, and gently lowered the corners of his eyes, with a gentle yet determined smile.

Without saying a word, he and several teammates walked past Wen Yan and headed towards the training room.

It was not until they walked out of the waiting room that Wen Yan came to his senses. He turned around and looked at the backs of the people leaving but did not say anything to stop them.

"It's not a big deal." Zhou Kanqing imitated Duan Wenzheng and patted Wen Yan's shoulder, whispering to comfort him: "You will understand in the future that you are doing this for me. Now I have just achieved some results, of course I don't want to give up. After all, isn't it true that young people are fearless..."

Wen Yan stared at Xue Lan's back as he left surrounded by a few people, and said in a soft and almost inaudible voice: "It's not that those who are ignorant have nothing to fear."

Zhou Kanqing didn't hear clearly, frowned and moved forward: "What?"

Wen Yan did not answer, and followed the others to the training room which served as the battlefield for the team points competition. Zhou Kanqing was left standing there in a daze, confused. He ruffled his hair into a ball in confusion, and then hurriedly trotted to catch up.

The points challenge adopts a best-of-three format.

Because he had to be prepared to play three games in a row, Xue Lan was obviously extra careful when checking his wrist.

Even after receiving Xue Lan's assurance, Qi Siyu still looked at Xue Lan with concern as he adjusted the game settings and lowered his head to check his wrist.

"Are you really okay?"

"It's okay." Xue Lan raised his head and replied with a smile.

Qi Siyu seemed a little worried and was about to say something else, but Duan Wenzheng had already put on his headset and interrupted their conversation: "Later, you guys will fight 4v4 around the medic."

"You are..." Qi Siyu whispered hesitantly.

Xue Lan immediately understood what Duan Wenzheng meant, and slightly widened his eyes and looked at Duan Wenzheng in disbelief.

Duan Wenzhen did not explain and entered the lineup as the last player to be debugged and preset - the first game officially began.

In order to save time, the challenge arranged the preliminary rounds of several teams at the same time. When the eight temporary teams were divided into four groups and took their seats at the same time, the remaining teams that had not yet played all gathered behind Xue Lan and Deng Ruiqiu's teams.

After the start of the game, Xue Lan and his teammates played more steadily, so the other four played conservatively to protect Qi Siyu, the only medic on the team.

Deng Ruiqiu had suffered at the hands of Xue Lan and Duan Wenzheng before, so he played extremely conservatively this time. As a result, there was no direct exchange of fire between the two sides in the first ten minutes of the first game. At most, they met each other and then moved away to conserve their strength.

The two teams were in no hurry. The young trainees standing behind them inevitably lost interest as they watched the two groups of people delaying like this.

Deng Ruiqiu was not the type of person who would develop a mean and petty character. As time passed, his patience seemed to be exhausted bit by bit, and he could not find a way out of the frustration that he had suppressed for a long time.

The frown between his brows became tighter and tighter.

Just at this moment, I suddenly found that Reset, who had been hiding behind the enemy, actually went around the border of the map to clear the monsters that had just refreshed.

Deng Ruiqiu's whole body trembled, and the irritability and fatigue just now were swept away in an instant.

Duan Wenzhen was unexpectedly left alone at this time.

He opened the map and glanced at the location where he had just accidentally noticed the reset and monster clearing.

The position chosen by Duan Wenzhen was very close to his four teammates. Once discovered, he could quickly use the terrain to gain advantage and return to his teammates.

If they were in a position where it was difficult to get effective support, Deng Ruiqiu, who had suffered more than once in the past, would definitely notice something unusual. However, such a tricky position made Deng Ruiqiu's heart suddenly tremble.

If we rush over now, Duan Wenzheng will be able to retract into the protection circle at any time, so that our teammates can provide support as soon as possible.

Deng Ruiqiu had little hope of seizing this opportunity and taking them all away in one go, but it was precisely this slim probability that made Deng Ruiqiu shudder all over.

After a split second of hesitation, Deng Ruiqiu quickly commanded, "Frank, follow me. The three of you go hold back the four people on the opposite side. Play guerrilla warfare and don't fight hard."

The team members were startled when they heard this: "Is it..."

Deng Ruiqiu immediately interrupted him without question: "Let's go."

Several people have always obeyed Deng Ruiqiu's command. This is the critical moment of the game. Even if they feel that such an idea is too risky, they still act according to his command after hesitation.

Deng Ruiqiu was not a brainless person, if it was someone else, he might have solved it alone. He was facing Duan Wenzheng, who had made him suffer several losses. To be safe, he brought another assaulter in the team, Frank.

Deng Ruiqiu and Frank surrounded them from both sides, and the spectators surrounding the two teams couldn't help but hold their breath and sweat. However, Reset seemed to be unaware and was still clearing the zombies at the refresh point slowly and leisurely.

"Both teams have medical soldiers. It won't be difficult for Deng Ruiqiu and his team to help four people..."

"As long as the two of us attackers can deal with reset, the situation will become 4v5 again."

The crowd of spectators whispered in low voices, obviously not looking down on Reset who was still unaware of the powerful enemy and was clearing monsters at ease.

Indeed,

When both teams have medics, it is extremely difficult to produce kills in a short period of time even in a 4v3 situation, while it is easy for two assaulters to deal with a sniper whose position has been exposed.

Naturally, everyone watched the game with an attitude of watching a show and learning. Once, everyone turned their worried eyes to Xue Lan, who was sitting at the innermost of the five people, and they all showed a cautious but... worried look.

The points challenge only had one chance in the team preliminary round. Xue Lan had already lost a chance in the last individual points competition. Now that he had failed again... it was very likely that he would miss the professional competition.

Xue Lan naturally did not see their worried looks. The enemy sniper who started a dragging battle took advantage of the terrain to directly kill half of Meng Weiran and Qi Siyu's health, and began to block them continuously in a guerrilla manner.

On the other side, Duan Wenzheng, who was at the zombie spawn point, did not return to support immediately after hearing the news. It seemed that he wanted to clear out the wave of monsters that had been attracted by his hand. He only sped up the monster clearing speed but did not go to support immediately.

At this moment, Deng Ruiqiu and Frank also blocked Duan Wenzheng's two routes of advance and retreat through two-way siege. They decided to fight a quick battle and then regroup with their teammates. Naturally, they would not let Duan Wenzheng delay for a moment. At the beginning, the two of them opened fire at full force and pointed their guns at Duan Wenzheng who was clearing the zombies. They quickly concentrated their firepower and surrounded him with guns.

Duan Wenzhen seemed to be aware of something, but he calmly killed the last monster, then dodged into a cover nearby and quickly converted his gun accessories to pvp mode.

After this set of operations, even though he dodged most of the damage, Duan Wenzhen's blood was still reduced by nearly 60% after the reset account.

Deng Ruiqiu knew that his surprise attack was successful, and told his teammates to take advantage of the situation and lead Frank to pursue the victory. The two of them split up and headed towards the bunker where Reset was hiding.

One battlefield was fraught with danger, and the other was also exceptionally thrilling.

Taking advantage of the initial situation, the three enemies pointed their guns at Meng Weiran. In just a blink of an eye, Meng Weiran was cut off and only a trace of blood was left.

Meng Weiran has always been taciturn and calm, but at this moment his face was tense and it seemed that he was finding it very difficult to deal with such a situation.

His teammates were isolated, and the enemy tried to drive him away to evade. Meng Weiran was also attacked from both sides. Qi Siyu's health was not high, so he was unable to take care of himself and did not dare to break out to rescue him.

Qi Siyu replenished his own blood while taking Su Yiyu along the border to try to delay the enemy's time. Although he failed to reverse the situation, he barely delayed the front line of the three enemies. In this tug-of-war, although both sides were delaying time, all the spectators could see that both sides were trying to find the right time to delay and give the enemy a fatal blow.

Even so, the students watching the game saw the advantages and disadvantages of the current battle situation. Reset was suppressed by two people at the moment, and although the team did not suffer a kill for the time being, it was forcibly suppressed in both battlefields.

Deng Ruiqiu seemed to want to settle both old and new scores at once, and each shot he fired was steady and fierce. Even though it was a two-on-one situation, it felt like a life-and-death contest.

At the same time, the three people who blocked Meng Weiran at the border stared at Meng Weiran until he had only a trace of blood left. While trying to delay time, they couldn't help but have the radical idea of forcibly taking him away.

On one hand, Deng Ruiqiu was giving instructions to delay and not force the matter, and on the other hand, there was a head at hand...

The mood of the three people couldn't help but become a little restless.

The medic also turned his gaze to Deng Ruiqiu and Frank, who were engaging in a firefight with Reset. As if he had made up his mind, he turned to look at the two teammates beside him.

The three of them looked at each other, as if they had reached a consensus in an instant. They activated the attack amplification buff to its full potential, and together with their two teammates, focused their firepower on Meng Weiran.

In the hail of bullets, Qi Siyu's support was blocked and he could only rely on moving to dodge.

Almost at the moment when the firepower was concentrated, he was knocked to the ground.

The three people who had disobeyed the command breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

We have now exceeded our mission, not only holding back four enemies, but also taking one away. If Deng Ruiqiu and we can take down Reset as well, then it will be a stable 5v3 victory for us.

While the three were excited, a strange thought suddenly flashed through their minds.

We seem to be missing something...

"Eh?" Zhou Kanqing's eyes widened: "Actually..."

Compared to Zhou Kanqing's astonishment, Wen Yan's eyes were calm at this moment.

His eyes were fixed on the person sitting in the corner of the row of people, who had just caught the attention of the crowd. His hands hidden under the sleeves of his team uniform were trembling as he clenched them tightly.

The young man in front of me under the light and shadow of the screen vaguely overlaps with my vague memories. Those times of training alone late at night seem distant yet seem to be right in front of me.

As if to remind you once again -

Those voices of "If you knew what the result would be, would you still insist on competing?" echoed in my ears, and the answer that had been clamoring in my heart for many years was about to come out at this moment.

It’s not that I haven’t thought about the consequences.

Because being young does not mean not caring about the future, nor does it mean being fearless, but rather—

The people who were watching the challenge match sighed and lamented when they saw Meng Weiran was offline. When they saw that Duan Wenzheng only had 30% of his health left, they sighed even more about the direction of the game. Xue Lan was disqualified from the individual points competition because of them, and now he lost another game...

When we thought of this, we were suddenly stunned.

Xue Lan...

Wait a moment.

How come I haven’t seen Xue Lan’s account since the beginning

When everyone thought of this, they all turned their eyes to Xue Lan, who was in the corner of the team and whose view was mostly blocked by the load-bearing wall behind him.

Before their eyes fell on Xue Lan's screen, a familiar figure suddenly appeared on the screens of several people in front of them - before the figure arrived, several bursts of gunfire broke through the air!