I Wield a Blade to Protect You [Esports]

#Please read the announcement for important content warnings#

They say tears have no place in Esports, but every team in the Chinese league has an unwritten rule: Whatever you do, don't make XK's sniper cry.

-What happens if she cries?

-She'll blow your head off while crying.

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As the current captain of XK and the number one assassin on the national server, Yan Shiqi's greatest goal in life is to get XK out of its “perennial runner-up” rut.

But the road ahead is long.

XK may look like it's thriving, but behind the scenes, it can't even scrape together eight players.

The top priority is finding a first-rate sniper to fill the gap in the roster.

Yan Shiqi doesn't get the sniper fate has in store for her. Instead, she gets an adorable little medic with decidedly average skills.

They say being bad at Esports is a sin.

XK only recruited this little medic for its second team to make money by pairing her with Yan Shiqi for a ship.

But even if she isn't flashy, she's not bad either. Why are you always picking on her, Captain Yan?

Yan Shiqi raises an eyebrow and lies through her teeth. “How is this picking on her? I'm just helping the new kid.”

Until one day, the “new kid” finally loses patience.

“I'm done pretending. I'll come clean. I'm the sniper you've been flirting with online for ages without getting anywhere. Yan Shiqi, do you dare face me in a match?”

-

Some say the Esports scene is a place of youthful passion. That isn't quite true.

#New first-team sniper confirmed. XK could become the only DOME pro team in China with two female players#

The horns of competition sound. Their era has only just begun.

-

She would always remember that day, when the other woman held out her hand and asked:

“Will you come with me and become the mountain no one can climb?”

Main pairing: Assassin and Sniper

A little tip:

1. DOME is an original game. Its world, setting, and mechanics will be explained gradually in the story. Thank you for reading.

2. The teams and characters in this story are entirely fictional.

Content warnings:

1. The only GL pairing is the two female leads, and Yan Shiqi is straight before being turned.

2. The romance is a slow burn.

3. No sex scenes. The author really doesn't know how to write them.

4. There are some bittersweet moments. This isn't mindless sweetness from beginning to end.

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Coming soon in my author collection: The Auto-Pilot Esports Scene Trouble-Maker [Esports], a female-led ensemble Esports story with no romance. Please add it to your list!

Blurb:

[Ensemble Cast] [Passion] [Dreams] [Freedom] [Growth] [Love]

There's a legend going around the DOME professional Esports scene:

On a dark and windy night, a little devil was born.

She can take on a whole panel of critics on a livestream, then brawl with a thug in the stairwell;

She can split a bed plank with her bare hands, then clog a toilet with a dump;

Tear up a report card, stomp on...

“Stop, stop, stop!”

“I was wrong to get into a fight, but I couldn't control the other stuff! Why put it on my resume too?” Fang Jiting clutches her list of “crimes” and wails helplessly.

“I'm innocent, Your Honor!”

Fang Jiting: an auto-pilot trouble-maker in the Esports scene.

Thanks to her “outstanding performance” at her previous team and her “glorious record” at the training camp, she successfully managed to turn herself into a proud free agent.

-What's a free agent?

-Well... someone no team wants.

But the teams didn't pass on her just because of those harmless little antics.

Assassins were in a career slump at the time, and former main damage dealers had become regulars in the support role at many teams.

With the star players on every team under pressure, who would bother putting in the effort to develop an unremarkable-looking rookie?

Still, no one could have guessed that the girl left over after everyone else was picked would one day usher in her own era, in a time when DOME's history was filled with more geniuses than ever.

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What does it take to reach the top of the DOME Professional League?

To have ability and ambition evenly matched, and talent and hard work complementing one another.

It is the figure of the woman once called a god, walking farther and farther away beneath the dome in the early hours of the morning, and the words she said to her:

“Kid, you're good with an Assassin, but mechanics and execution are just the finishing touches. Courage and patience are the Assassin's sharpest twin blades.”

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Fang Jiting would always remember those words: she would climb that supposedly insurmountable mountain.

Meaning: Don't be afraid when you face difficulties. Smile and face them.