All-Round Mid Laner

The next morning, Ye Shaoyang continued to follow his own schedule. He got up at seven, then washed up and entered the study to turn on his computer.

The name of his streaming room was still [Weekend Break, See You Next Week], so he had the whole weekend to do as he pleased. It was the perfect opportunity for him to get to know the six commonly used Goddess mid lane heroes.

The first one he would take up the national leaderboards was the Frost Goddess.

He was already very familiar with this hero. The skill combos were extremely simple.

Use W to freeze the enemy, use Q to lower the enemy's defense, and then use R to ult them to death.

The key question was whether or not you could freeze your enemy in the first place.

The Frost Goddess's W skill, Deep Ice, had a 0.5 second cast time. The vast majority of highly skilled players would be able to dodge away when they saw you starting to cast the skill. So, the most valuable skill when playing this hero was—your predictive powers.

You had to predict where your opponent would appear in the next instant, and ready your freezing skill in advance. That was the only way you could successfully freeze your enemy. If you released your skill at a spot where the enemy was already standing, then any enemy who wasn't blind could definitely run away.

This hero was also very suitable for staging ambushes from the woods.

The Frost Goddess's ult had a huge range. Besides dealing mass amounts of damage in team fights, it also allowed her to swiftly clear minions. Plus, in cramped places like the jungle and the highlands, it allowed her to block off key positions from her opponents.

Taking all that into consideration, the Frost Goddess was a hero who was extremely suitable for 'controlling' team fights. She wasn't actually all that suitable for a mid/jungle duo. She could only plod along slowly in the middle lane, and she had no movement skills; she couldn't keep up with the jungler's pace.

But an outstanding mid laner had to have comprehensive skills. They had to know how to play all sorts of heroes. That way, they could adjust their own style of play based on their team's lineup. They wouldn't be rendered useless by the opposing coach's bans.

Ye Shaoyang trained with the Frost Goddess for a few hours in practice mode, then spent another few hours with the Flame Goddess in the afternoon. At night, he familiarized himself with the Thunder Goddess. He played against A.I. teams until he hit a proficiency of 100 with all six Goddess heroes, which would allow him to use them all in ranked matches.

The day passed very quickly.

At midnight on Monday, the national leaderboards refreshed. The game sent Ye Shaoyang a message—

Congratulations! Your hero, the Illusionist, has been ranked as the #1 in the country with a total battle power of 12,000. You have been awarded the title of National #1 Illusionist!

#1 Illusionist. Ye Shaoyang had achieved his second national ranking.

He had defeated the previous #1 Illusionist, Brother Fish.

Ye Shaoyang shut off his computer with his heart full of satisfaction, and went off to his bedroom to sleep.

On Monday morning, he went by his schedule and dedicated an hour to practicing heroes. Then he started to stream at 10:00 AM. After not seeing him all weekend, huge amounts of viewers flooded in to ask how he was doing. Of course, some were also just there to see the cat.

[Kitty kitty, kissy kissy! Today's Xiao Bai is still as cute as always!]

[Host, let me tell you. Disappearing for two days in a row isn't right. Dedicated streamers are supposed to stream every day. If you disappear again, I'll unfollow!]

[Xiao Bai, you just wait! I'll be looking up more insults to use when you lose today!]

The viewers in his streaming room were all very rambunctious. Ye Shaoyang skimmed the comments and smiled as he said, "Starting today, I'll be using the Frost Goddess to climb the national leaderboards. It probably won't take a full week for me to get this hero up there."

[???]

[Host, you've gone off the rails. You're bragging way too much this time!]

[A national ranking in under a week… you're really talking too big, aren't you?]

[I just love this kind of wild and crazy host!]

Ye Shaoyang explained, "I'm not talking nonsense. I've tried this hero out in games against A.I. teams. As long as you play the Frost Goddess well, your average evaluation in games will be extremely high. It'll be much higher than it is with the Abyssal Lord or the Illusionist. So, rationally speaking, it'll only take four days or so to get the Frost Goddess to a battle power of 12,000.

"The national rankings I got before, with the Abyssal Lord and the Illusionist, were all with assassin mages. When you go after the enemy, you can only catch one or two of them at a time. But the Frost Goddess flourishes in team fights, and she can do a great deal of damage. It's pretty easy to get a pentakill with her."

Easy to get a pentakill?

Just listen to this guy. Was that the kind of thing human beings should say?

Ye Shaoyang continued, "I'll start queueing now, and I'll explain how to play this hero as well."

The bullet comments were going wild.

[This newbie not only knows how to play every hero. He wants to teach us too?]

[Isn't it just WQR as your skill combo, and if you don't kill the enemy, you die?]

[Hahaha, yeah. You either freeze your opponents and kill them, or you fail to freeze them and you die. Playing this hero is like playing a raffle.]

[Pretty easy to get a pentakill? I've been playing this game for ages and I've never gotten a pentakill!]

Ye Shaoyang had changed the name of his streaming room to [Frost Goddess National Leaderboard Sprint], and a huge number of players used the Frost Goddess. Therefore, nearly every player who played mid laner knew how to use this hero. More and more viewers clicked into his streaming room from Whale Platform. Xiao Bai's streaming room quickly hit over 500,000 viewers.

It was still morning at the time. Most people were at work or school. It wasn't the peak hours for streaming, like it would be later in the day. Being able to reach 500,000 viewers at ten in the morning was an extremely formidable feat.

Plus, many new viewers also followed the channel while they were there. Xiao Bai's follower count quickly broke 1.5 million. He was still far, far away from top-tier streamers, but his achievements already put him on par with second- or third-tier hosts.

Ye Shaoyang entered a ranked match and immediately sent a message into the team chat: [I play mid laner, thank you.]

King-ranked games had the occasional foul-mouthed troll, but most of the players were quite friendly. They would communicate during the preparation stage to sort out everyone's positions, and they were mostly willing to let people play what they wanted to play.

Ye Shaoyang currently had a 100% win rate with his Frost Goddess. After he sent his battle record, his other teammates willingly chose other positions. There was no conflict.

The game began.

Ye Shaoyang moved down the mid lane and swiftly started to farm creeps. The enemy mid laner facing off against him this time just so happened to be the Flame Goddess. Fire on one side, ice on the other—the mid lane turned into a battlescape of fire and ice.

The Flame Goddess's damage was mostly dealt as burn damage. If you stepped into her ring of fire, you would be inflicted with the 'burned' status. Not only would you lose HP, you would lose mana as well.

That was the most irritating point about dealing with a Flame Goddess in team fights—by making her opponents lose mana, she could prevent them from using their skills.

So, when facing off against the Flame Goddess, it was incredibly important to be careful of positioning. As soon as you were burned once, you would lose a crippling amount of mana.

Ye Shaoyang's movements were extremely diabolical. He carved a serpentine path down the middle lane, like he was saying, If you can catch me, I'll admit defeat.

This kind of movement was an almost compulsive habit that he'd developed in his past life, after being ganked by too many twisted, world-class junglers.

He would never stop in one place for more than 0.5 seconds at a time.

He was practically on the move constantly. Those who faced off against him might even feel like their vision was blurring, with how erratically he was moving. That made it extremely difficult for his opponents to predict where he would go next.

In contrast, Ye Shaoyang was perfectly capable of predicting his enemy's movements.

He very quickly figured out his opponent's skill release pattern.

Once both mid laners hit Level 6, Ye Shaoyang carefully observed his opponent. Then, very quickly, he unleashed his freeze skill the instant the Flame Goddess started casting her ring of fire spell.

As a result, the enemy was unexpectedly caught up in the Frost Goddess's 'Deep Ice'.

First Blood!

The mid laner had single-handedly killed the enemy mid laner.

And Ye Shaoyang was still at full health!

His viewers flooded the chat with praise.

[Every time I face off against the Flame Goddess, she puts so much pressure on me that I can't even move. Host, you got a solo kill on the Flame Goddess?!]

[I can only say this prediction of her position is sick.]

[Why do I feel like he used his skills all at the same time?]

Although Ye Shaoyang wasn't looking at the bullet comments, he could guess what sorts of questions the viewers were asking. He explained, "The Frost Goddess's W skill has a 0.5 second cast time, while her Q and R skills are cast instantly. So, when you play with her, you can try to gauge where your opponent will move. Approximately 0.3 seconds after using your W, you can hit your Q and R right away. That way, it'll look like all three of your skills are activating at the same time. Your opponent won't be able to react in time."

The viewers were baffled.

How were they supposed to count out 0.3 seconds?

Who the hell could calculate time to that degree of nuance while playing a game?

The enemy mid laner returned to their base.

Ye Shaoyang said, "Earlier, I cleared away the wards in the woods to the left of the middle lane. The enemy jungler won't be lurking around there. After being killed by me, the Flame Goddess will respawn in five seconds."

Ye Shaoyang moved his Frost Goddess into the woods and crept through the left side, crouching down in the forested area near the enemy's inner tower.

"After respawning, the Flame Goddess will pass this spot," he said. "Let's stage an ambush."

A moment later, the newly respawned Flame Goddess did indeed pass her team's defensive inner tower.

The inner tower was closer to her base. Beyond it, there was still the outer tower. The space between her team's inner and outer towers was considered her team's territory. Usually, it was a pretty safe space. However, just as the Flame Goddess started to silently advance, a pale blue circle of icy light suddenly appeared in front of her. And it was already too late for her to hit the brakes—

Deep Ice, Piercing Cold, Blizzard!

Another instantaneous skill combo, and the Flame Goddess was slain once again.

The player operating the Flame Goddess was speechless.

WTF! How was a person supposed to play under these conditions?!

[……this game is pretty harsh, huh.]

[Just respawned, killed again. If I were the Flame Goddess, I would have lost my mind already.]

[Fuck, he actually ran in to the inner tower to stage an ambush. Host, you're obscene!]

Ye Shaoyang smiled and said, "My skills are on cooldown now. I'll retreat to my own tower and lay low for a while. Seven minutes and five seconds into the game, the enemy's red buff will respawn. Once their jungler takes the red buff, they'll definitely come after me."

Ye Shaoyang continued to farm creeps as he said, "I'll show the enemy a feint. After I finish clearing these minions, I'll start making my way up to the top lane, pretending like I'm going to provide assistance to the top laner. That way, the jungler will circle through the woods by the top half of the river to try to kill me."

Once he finished clearing the minions, he ran off into the woods and hid himself well in a distant spot. "I'll stage an ambush here."

A moment later, everything played out exactly as Ye Shaoyang had said it would—

The enemy jungler took their own red buff, then saw that the Frost Goddess had started heading up to the top lane, apparently to provide assistance to the top lane. The jungler instantly rushed up as well, circling through the woods with the intent of launching a sneak attack against the mid laner.

However, as soon as the jungler set foot in the woods, what awaited him was a sudden pale circle of light that lit up beneath his feet.

Xiao Bai (Frost Goddess) killed Sorta Understood (Stealthy Rogue)!

After killing the enemy, Ye Shaoyang returned to the middle lane to continue farming minions and collecting gold for his equipment.

Eight minutes into the game, the first minor dragon fight broke out. Ye Shaoyang pulled a diabolical stunt, hiding in the woods in the distance to observe the enemy heroes. When the five enemies had gotten the dragon down to half health, Ye Shaoyang suddenly flashed in—

Flash, freeze, ult!

He move swiftly, as though in one fluid motion. With one W skill, he froze three of his enemies.

The billowing snow of his ultimate move crashed down from above, and his enemies' HP plummeted like water flooding out of a broken dam.

He took three kills in an instant!

As he fought, Ye Shaoyang said, "The Frost Goddess is very good at controlling the fight around minor dragons. If your opponents are clustered together outside the dragon pit, wait until the dragon boss uses a move to send them flying. At that moment, use your freeze right under their feet.

"That way, you can freeze a bunch of people at once!"

[……]

[This host is really too hateful.]

[If I were the enemy, I would practically want to reach through the internet and throttle him to death!]

Unsurprisingly, Ye Shaoyang won that match and took the title of MVP.

He had a kill-death-assist score of 10-0-8, and he did 38% of all damage in that game. His battle power instantly shot up by over five hundred points!

[Why can't my Frost Goddess ever freeze anyone? Q_Q]

[I only realized after watching this host's lessons how hard this hero is to play! What exactly was I playing before?!]

[Is this the same Frost Goddess we all play? No! It definitely isn't!]

Ye Shaoyang said, "As a team fight hero, the Frost Goddess isn't simple at all. If you want to play her well, you have to analyze your situation, predict your opponents' positions, and find the perfect opportunities in team fights. Let's continue with another round."

In the second game, Ye Shaoyang continued to choose the Frost Goddess for the middle lane.

But in this game, the opposing marksman and support were very good. Because those two players were queueing together and communicating well with each other, they wildly and relentlessly attacked the enemy and pushed the enemy towers. They plundered all the resources from the jungle, leaving Ye Shaoyang's team in dire straits.

In practically one breath, the other team pushed their way up to Ye Shaoyang's base towers.

Ye Shaoyang and his teammates had no choice but to take up a defensive stance around their base.

[They're been imprisoned. Is this round over?]

[The enemy has already pushed through on all three lanes. We're at too much of a disadvantage, how sad!]

[In this game, even if you wanted to fight all over the map, you'd have no way of winning. You can't set foot out from under your towers at all. You can't even send out your minions!]

A team was 'imprisoned' when the enemy knocked down all their towers on all three lanes and sent wave after wave of minions to their base. The players of the team at a disadvantage could only sit there, as though in prison. They couldn't venture out into the map, so they could only guard their base and clear away minions there.

And as soon as the enemy team took down the grand dragon, they would be able to continue advancing with the attack- and defense-boosted troops at their disposal. If the base tower fell on any of the three lanes, then it would be very easy for Ye Shaoyang's team to lose.

But Ye Shaoyang wasn't worried.

In his previous life, he had been 'imprisoned' countless times. He'd played long, drawn-out stalemates lasting over ten minutes around his base's crystal.

All professional players had a shared understanding—

As long as your crystal was still standing, anything was possible.

Surrender was out of the question. As long as your team had one living member, you had to defend your base to the death!

The enemy started to attack with impunity, repeatedly sending their minion waves up to Ye Shaoyang's base.

Ye Shaoyang opened his mic in the game and said, "Stay calm, we can turn things around!"

His teammates were very willing to work with him in that round. Not a single person wanted to admit defeat. They all stuck together and continued to swiftly clear away the enemy minions.

This match was dragged out to the forty-minute mark.

In one critical team fight at their base, Ye Shaoyang keenly caught on to one of the enemy team's mistakes.

The opposing support wanted to force their way up to the base, to attack their tower directly. The top laner and jungler came along. Since the pathway to the base tower was extremely narrow, the three heroes wound up clustered together. The mage and marksman were standing a bit farther back, and the marksman was in the middle of swiftly hacking away at the tower.

Ye Shaoyang seized this opportunity and set a freezing circle off to the side.

0.5 seconds later, the three people in the narrow passageway were frozen solid by Ye Shaoyang's attack. At nearly the exact same time, a huge blizzard started to crash down from above. The three opposing heroes who were clustered together, and the mage and marksman who were slightly farther away, all started to hemorrhage HP!

Ye Shaoyang's ult had a huge range, and he'd centered it towards the outside of the base tower, which meant he just so happened to catch the mage and support as well!

Double Kill!

Triple Kill!

These fiery system announcements rang out in Ye Shaoyang's ears nonstop.

With one ult, the Frost Goddess had swiftly claimed five lives, wiping out the enemy team!

At exactly that moment, Ye Shaoyang's team sent out a wave of minions.

When a game had already been dragged out for more than forty minutes, respawn times were very, very long. Ye Shaoyang led his teammates and minions forward, swiftly pushing their way to the enemy's base and taking the victory!

From being imprisoned at their own base, unable to step away, to instantly wiping out the enemy team and snatching victory from the claws of defeat…

Any player who had experienced this kind of huge comeback in a game knew how it could get your blood pumping!

Huge amounts of flower and applause emojis filled up the chat in Ye Shaoyang's streaming room, and quite a few viewers sent him gifts as well.

Ye Shaoyang smiled slightly as he saw the significant chunk of battle power he gained from that game. "In a game where you have the advantage, the Frost Goddess can endlessly ambush and disrupt your opponents. In games where you're at a disadvantage, she can also protect the base and look for the opportunity to turn things around."

His voice was very calm as he continued, "I said it would take less than a week to become nationally ranked with the Frost Goddess. Do you believe me now?"

He wasn't just talking a big game.

Based on his game sense and predictive powers, he truly wouldn't need a week.

All the viewers in his streaming room thought to themselves, This new streamer… seems to be getting more and more powerful?

Have they stumbled upon a future god by chance?!

Author's Notes:

The streamer Xiao Bai is a promising stock, you won't lose if you buy a stake in him~