The Whole League Thinks I'm Cheating [Esports]

Everyone knows that cats react seven times faster than humans.

So when Jian Li, a cat demon, dominates in a game, his teammates always stare at him like he's a ghost and demand:

“How did you know he was there just now?”

Jian Li: “I saw him.”

“Then how do you keep getting headshots?”

Jian Li asks, puzzled: “You aim and shoot. It's easy. Can't you do that?”

His teammates, convinced they'd been carried by a cheater, and his opponents, after watching the death replay: ...

You cheat and taunt us, too?! I'll mash that report button until it breaks!

When a highlight reel came out, onlookers were stunned by his kills through smoke and his headshots:

[Holy crap! This hacker isn't even trying to hide it. Why hasn't the game company banned him?]

But before anyone could see him get banned, an official announcement came out instead:

TBM, on the verge of dropping to the second tier, had signed a new entry fragger named Cat.

The entire internet fell silent for three seconds, then erupted in dismay:

[...Wait, have you guys really sunk this low? You're trying to avoid relegation by hiring a hacker?]

TBM fans were even more horrified:

[Our results are bad, not our morals! Management, what are you thinking?!]

Then Jian Li took his place at an offline tournament and delivered one “impossible” kill after another.

TBM fans grew ever more smug, while fans of other teams began to crumble:

[We'd rather he were a hacker! At least a hacker can be banned. How do you ban Cat God?]

[Did your team just get wrecked? Haha, what a coincidence. Mine too: )]

From a relegation-threatened team nobody believed in to the grandest stage of the world championship, everyone waited for TBM to fall.

But whenever they were on the brink, Jian Li would raise his gun and shatter every doubt with one jaw-dropping kill after another.

Just when everyone thought Cat himself was as cold and ruthless as his gun, the livestream camera failed to cut away after a match.

Jian Li had just chased down and killed four opponents on the battlefield. He took off his headset and lazily held out a hand.

The sniper and team captain beside him, Lu Zhaoheng, took it naturally and clasped it in his palm to warm it. Then he looked straight into the camera.

Viewers: [??? Provocation! This is definitely provocation!!!]

[Before You Read]

The game is similar to CS2, a 5v5 shooter, with some original elements.

The maps have been simplified to A site, B site, and mid, so you can follow along even if you don't play games.

Aside from his quick reactions and sharp vision, Jian Li is no different from an ordinary person. The story won't go into the supernatural worldbuilding, though he can turn into a kitty.

Coming soon: Esports Manager Simulator

Blurb:

Jiang Lai is a veteran simulation-game player.

One day, he downloaded a full-dive esports management game from a fan forum. It claimed to be “one hundred percent realistic.”

He started with an empty base, a team consisting only of himself as its manager, and a System that let him check the players' attributes.

Then Jiang Lai saw them:

An over-the-hill jungler, branded a match-fixer and shut out of competition for five whole years; an entertainer streamer who seemed to have nothing to do with professional esports; an unknown player stuck on the bench; a veteran whose form had declined and whom the entire internet was urging to retire...

These players, dismissed as dead weight by everyone else, all had dazzling S-rank talent on their character cards.

Jiang Lai waved his hand. “I'll take them all.”

On the day the team announced its starting lineup, the few comments it received were all mocking.

[What scrapyard did they cobble this lineup together from? They might as well reserve a spot in the first round of eliminations.]

And yet this team, despite everyone's low expectations, made it from the first stage of the domestic tournament all the way to the finals.

In its first year, it lifted the trophy at the country's biggest tournament.

Jiang Lai looked at his perfect completion record and felt very satisfied.

But... was this game a little too realistic?

-

One day, on a whim, Jiang Lai opened the team's affinity panel.

Four players: MAX.

His own jungler: 99.

As a perfectionist, Jiang Lai couldn't tolerate the one value that hadn't been maxed out.

So he gave gifts, invited him out to eat, checked on him, and even tried every interaction option that seemed even slightly ambiguous.

Only after Chen Muye pinned him to the sofa, finally unable to put up with it any longer, did Jiang Lai see the full data line that had been hidden:

[Chen Muye's affinity for you: MAX x 99]

[Warning: The value has severely overflowed. Do not attempt further conquest.]

Jiang Lai: “...Is it too late to run?”

Chen Muye: “Too late.”

Author's Note: Talent determines your starting point. Passion and perseverance determine your destination.