[Esports] Team Leader Xie, your mid laner is causing trouble again.

After everyone finished eating the bananas, Song Bo looked down at the messages on his phone.

His brows furrowed into a knot he couldn't untie, and he began to sigh.

He threw the banana peel into the trash can, brushed the crumbs off his hands, and said in a heavy tone:

"There's another game tonight, and I had Coach Liang give two substitutes a trial. He just messaged me saying the results weren't ideal."

They were all supposed to come to the hospital to visit, but unfortunately, this brand-new team hadn't even had time to recruit a single member of the youth training team, let alone a substitute.

If you count on your fingers the entire club from top to bottom, there are only five players who can play. Each player is a potential liability; removing two players creates two gaps in the team.

Song Bo could only resort to last-minute cramming, having Liang Shoucheng urgently contact people for trials, but even that failed, with both substitutes performing poorly.

Li Zhi waved her hand: "Just find someone to fill in temporarily. We're playing K4 tonight, I can play."

K4 is the last team to be included in the WPL.

Due to a lack of investment and strengthening of the training and competition teams over the years, it has been teetering on the edge of WPL, like a ship with a hole in it, barely floating on the surface of the water without sinking, but that's all.

The club lacks funds to strengthen its squad, and several starters are already at retirement age, with their hand speed and reaction time visibly declining.

Their playstyle and tactics are still stuck in the version from two years ago, making them a team widely recognized as an "experience-gaining" team in the league.

Defeating them shouldn't be too difficult. Even with a temporary substitute, as long as nothing too wrong goes wrong, the chances of winning are still very high.

Li Zhi started brainstorming, thinking about how to cooperate with the others to play the game more steadily that night and minimize reliance on the substitutes.

Xie Jichuan suddenly spoke:

"I want to be with Zhizhi."

Li Zhi looked up and met the Alpha's dark gaze.

Song Bo panicked and jumped up from his chair:

"Hey bro, look at you, can you even play games? Listen to me, we'll find someone to temporarily fill in as a tanky jungler. Don't worry, just rest and recover. We still have a lot of tough battles to fight."

Xie Jichuan looked at Song Bo with extreme dissatisfaction in his eyes.

His lips were pressed into a thin line behind the de-biting device, and his voice squeezed out from the gaps in the metal fence, carrying a suppressed, low, and dangerous tone:

"Are you bringing people to steal my Omega?"

As he spoke, he began to flex his wrists, as if Song Bo could launch a punch with just a nod.

Song Bo was speechless.

He had been a Beta for most of his life and had never personally experienced the Alpha's vulnerable period.

So this is how unreasonable they are?

He was about to refute Xie Jichuan when Li Zhi interrupted him.

"Brother Popovich, the temporary substitute wasn't on the roster, can he go on and play?"

Song Bo stopped abruptly, his mouth closed, and he stood frozen in place as if he had been struck by a pressure point.

Forget about that, there's still the roster.

The league stipulates that each team must submit a fixed starting roster before the start of the season, and only players on the roster are eligible to play.

Even if a substitute is highly skilled and has great teamwork, they can't play if they're not on the main roster.

This is an ironclad rule written in the charter, and no one can change it.

Song Bo started frantically biting his fingers, his nails making a crunching sound as he chewed them.

"What can we do? We can't just let River play like this, can we? He'll just be typing away on the keyboard for his own amusement, won't he?"

Li Zhi's lips twitched.

Although he was reluctant to admit it, his concern did have some merit.

If Xie Jichuan is in this state, can he really distinguish between enemy heroes and minions?

Both sides fell silent.

Only Xie Jichuan's gaze drifted back and forth between the two.

Although he couldn't fully understand what they were talking about, he could clearly tell that the fat man in front of him was looking down on him.

He instinctively began to defend himself, his voice muffled:

"I can."

Li Zhiye added, "We'll try anything, even if it's a dead end."

"Or...should we let him give it a try?"

Based on my observation over the past half day, although Xie Jichuan is not fully conscious, he still has all his basic life skills.

What if the game has become muscle memory, and you can win a game without using your brain?

Song Bo looked at Li Zhi, then at Xie Jichuan.

He wanted to speak but hesitated, then hesitated but wanted to speak again.

Finally, a dry sigh escaped from deep within his throat: "...Then, shall we give it a try?"

The three of them acted with great efficiency and went to the doctor's office to complete the discharge procedures.

The two of them didn't have any major problems to begin with; once their condition stabilized, they could be discharged from the hospital.

The doctor first gave Xie Jichuan an injection of an inhibitor, and then gave Li Zhi a large bag of strong inhibitor patches, a thick stack enough for several months.

He was instructed to place the tooth mark on the gland to prevent the continuous leakage of pheromones from triggering repeated periods of fertility in Alphas.

Li Zhi took it, tore off a piece of paper, and casually slapped it against her neck.

Song Bo carried the things in front, while Li Zhi held Xie Jichuan's hand from behind.

It wasn't that he wanted to hold her hand; Xie Jichuan's hand was drawn to him automatically as if it had a magnet, and their fingers intertwined tightly.

He tried to shake it off twice but failed. In the end, he had no choice but to resign himself to his fate and lead the Alpha, whose mind had degenerated into that of a large dog, back to the base with bags and packages.

The lights were on in the base, and Jiang Xingle's loud shouts could be heard from the living room. He had thrown down his phone and rushed over to find out what was going on halfway through watching the video.

Ling Wang and Cheng Yi followed behind, not as excited as Jiang Xingle, but their pace was a bit faster than usual.

With so many outsiders present, Xie Jichuan released Li Zhi's hand, straightened his back, and remained expressionless.

She was completely different from how she had clung to Li Zhi and rubbed against him in the car just now. If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, it would have been hard to believe that it was the same person.

He pretended to be aloof while secretly feeling wronged inside.

Li Zhi instructed him in the car to return to the base and not to follow him around.

Xie Jichuan could only keep a distance of two or three steps and secretly watch the person.

After spending two days together, Ling Wang and Cheng Yi had become somewhat familiar with each other.

From being reluctant to say a word, to occasionally uttering sentences of more than five words, he can now even take the initiative to speak.

He stood next to Cheng Yi, glanced around the living room, then tilted his head slightly towards Cheng Yi and whispered:

"Brother Cheng, don't you feel like the captain seems to have become more aloof? He's even scary with that biting device on."

Cheng Yi glanced over there and happened to see Xie Jichuan stealing a glance at Li Zhi.

He pondered for two seconds, then nodded. His catchphrase had been thoroughly assimilated by Ling Wang.

"Indeed. The captain was even secretly glaring at Lychee; he seems to be in a bad mood."

Ling Wang frowned, a look of disapproval appearing on his usually expressionless face:

Staring at people is very impolite.

Cheng Yi nodded again, his tone firm and steady: "Indeed."

Ling Wang fell silent.

Why do I always feel like my lines are being stolen?