Against the Algorithm

Chapter 64: Before the Game Began

Silence for a beat.

Then—

"She thinks she's better than me. Acts all small and quiet and sweet, but the moment she beats me in a ranked queue, I'm suddenly just another idiot in her rearview mirror?"

"Yang—" Ai Jia tried, his voice uneasy now.

"No," Jian Yang snapped, "don't defend her. You were the one whining about how the crowd would laugh if they found out you got outplayed. I know they'll laugh. But at least I see it for what it is."

Another beat of silence.

Then—his voice dark.

"She's just some scared, needy little girl who thinks a pretty face and a gaming rig give her power. She's nothing."

Kaya moved. Swiftly. The door to the study opened before either of them registered her presence, and the silence that followed could've shattered glass.

Ai Jia froze mid-sentence.

Jian Yang's smug posture faltered.

Kaya didn't raise her voice. She didn't glare. She simply walked in, slow, poised, her heels echoing once more in the now-dead silence of the room as Kazime stepped in behind her like a closing wall. She stopped just a pace from the chairs where both boys sat. "You two seem to have a lot to say about someone who wasn't here to defend herself," Kaya said, her voice smooth, sharp as tempered steel. "So by all means. Continue."

Jian Yang's face paled, but his jaw squared stubbornly.

Kaya's eyes didn't even shift to him. They locked on Ai Jia. "You're Jinyang's boyfriend," she said. "She brought you here with trust. You repay that by gossiping like a child the moment she leaves the room?"

Ai Jia opened his mouth—closed it again.

Kaya turned her gaze to Jian Yang next. "And you," she said coldly. "You were told no. And instead of carrying that rejection with maturity, you turned it into cruelty. Are you proud of that? Does it comfort you to tear apart a girl who simply played better than you?"

Kazime still hadn't spoken but the look in his eyes could've burned the walls to ash.

Kaya's voice dipped lower. "Yao is not a nobody. She is not scared. And she does not need you to approve of her skill to justify it."

Jian Yang's lips parted—likely to protest....

Kazime's voice cut in, low and measured. "If I hear either of you speak her name in this house again without the respect she is due, I will personally ensure your contracts never find another signature inside Shenzhen's borders."

Neither boy moved. Neither dared breathe.

Ai Jia swallowed hard.

Jian Yang's mouth opened, but nothing came out.

Kaya didn't bother waiting for a response. "You're in my home. And you're speaking about someone you clearly don't understand, someone who, from what I just heard, did nothing but win."

"She didn't tell anyone," Ai Jia blurted suddenly, clearly trying to regain control. "Not even Jinyang—"

"She didn't have to," Kazime said, voice low and final. "Because unlike you, she didn't need an audience to prove her worth."