All-Round Mid Laner

Afternoon training ended, and evening training began. Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo continued to practice the double flight comp. The coach assigned Team Two a new play style. They were no longer to imitate Huowen's burn comp which was centered around the Flame Goddess. Instead, they would be running Jingzhe's poison comp.

Team Two's imitation poison comp certainly wouldn't be as formidable as Team Jingzhe's poison comp.

But based on their practice games, the double flight comp did have the potential to go toe to toe with the poison comp. As long as Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang could work together to kill Fang Zhengqing, Tianhuan would have a chance of winning against Jingzhe.

After playing two more rounds, Coach Lin started to review the games of the day from the beginning. He studied the details of each player's performance, then he studied the teamwork the two teams displayed in team fights. He found no shortage of issues, which he explained to each and every player in turn.

Game review continued until half past midnight. It was only then that Coach Lin told everyone to go to sleep, so that they could continue training tomorrow.

Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo returned to room 301.

They were roommates in name, but actually each slept in their own room. They didn't disturb each other at all. Every day, training left them exhausted, so they didn't have much time to chat after returning to their dorm room. Ye Shaoyang was used to simply saying, "Good night, Captain Chi," before turning to head into his own bedroom.

When the lights came on inside their rooms, Ye Shaoyang saw that Xiao Bai wasn't on the couch. He looked around his bedroom, and even looked under the bed, but he still couldn't find the cat.

Ye Shaoyang hurriedly rushed out and asked, "Captain Chi, have you seen Xiao Bai?"

Chi Shuo was standing in the doorway to his own bedroom. He pointed at the head of his own bed with a grave expression.

Ye Shaoyang followed his gaze and saw that the Ragdoll cat was currently prancing around Chi Shuo's bed with its tail pricked up. It even bounced all over Chi Shuo's pillow, before comfortably rolling around the bed.

Chi Shuo's covers had been completely messed up, like a robber had come through to loot the place.

Ye Shaoyang stared in silence.

Chi Shuo was silent as well.

Ye Shaoyang called out into the room, "Xiao Bai! Who told you to go into Captain Chi's room, hurry up and come here!"

Xiao Bai gave Ye Shaoyang an aggrieved look. "Meow?"

Isn't this my territory?

The cat refused to get down from the bed, digging its claws into Chi Shuo's pillow and firmly refusing to let go.

Ye Shaoyang could only enter the room to fetch the cat.

This was the first time Ye Shaoyang had set foot inside Chi Shuo's bedroom. The curtains and bedding were all shades of gray. The whole room was furnished in a very cool-toned style, without any superfluous decorations. It was very tidy and minimalist.

A faint scent of bamboo bathed in moonlight permeated the room. Ye Shaoyang remembered it as the scent of Chi Shuo's alpha pheromones. It was very pleasant.

Ye Shaoyang swiftly walked over, intending to pick up Xiao Bai. But the cat leapt over to the desk, then the windowsill…

Ye Shaoyang chased it all around, finally seizing it by one corner.

Ye Shaoyang leaned down and lifted Xiao Bai into his arms. While he made his way back to the door, he awkwardly said, "Captain Chi, I'm sorry about that. I didn't think Xiao Bai would run into your room and mess around. You can close your door in the future…"

Xiao Bai looked towards Chi Shuo with big, innocent eyes.

Chi Shuo stroked the little kitty's head and warmly said, "It's fine. I don't mind."

If any other cat had run into his room to play around, Chi Shuo would have unhesitatingly shooed it out with a stern expression. But this was Ye Shaoyang's cat. Maybe it was because he'd already accepted Ye Shaoyang as his teammate, so he even quite liked the look of Ye Shaoyang's cat. Even after the cat made a complete mess of his bed, he was unexpectedly not at all angry.

Ye Shaoyang shut Xiao Bai inside his own room, then brought over a cat hair remover. "Xiao Bai usually sheds a lot. After jumping on your bed so much, there's bound to be a ton of hair left behind. I'll help you clean up."

Chi Shuo said, "No need, I can…"

Before he finished speaking, he saw Ye Shaoyang casually walk into his room again. Then Ye Shaoyang leaned down and used the cat hair remover to sweep up all the hair left behind. He even went out of his way to straighten out Chi Shuo's mussed up sheets.

Chi Shuo stood rigidly by the doorway.

As he watched Ye Shaoyang help him tidy up the bed, the roots of his ears grew faintly warmer.

No alpha would use a masking spray inside their own bedroom. Why would they hide their own scent from themselves? There was naturally no need for that. So, an alpha's bedroom was typically tinged with the scent of that alpha's pheromones. It was considered an alpha's private, personal territory.

No one else had ever entered Chi Shuo's bedroom before.

He'd joined Tianhuan when he was still a teenager, and he'd lived in that room throughout all his years with the team. He'd undergone the most important changes of adolescence in this room. He'd passed his first rut as an alpha in there, and he'd had some hazy dreams of marking omegas in there as well.

That room was full of the scent of his pheromones.

And today, Ye Shaoyang had wandered in with a completely carefree expression. He was even helping Chi Shuo make the bed?

Did this omega have even the slightest sense of self-awareness as an omega?

Chi Shuo was frozen in place. He could hardly believe what he was seeing as he watched Ye Shaoyang make the bed.

After a moment, Ye Shaoyang finished cleaning away Xiao Bai's hair with the cat hair remover. He made sure Chi Shuo's sheets and blankets were all neat and tidy before turning back to say, "Don't worry, Captain Chi. I'll keep an eye on Xiao Bai in the future, I won't let it run wild."

Chi Shuo was silent.

Ye Shaoyang saw that he seemed to be spacing out. He couldn't help but curiously call out, "Captain Chi?"

Chi Shuo came back to his senses. The tips of his ears were faintly red. He coughed lightly and said, "You… you come out here first."

Ye Shaoyang didn't rush to step out of the room. He diligently scanned the floor to make sure there was no more cat hair lying around. It was only after he truly finished that he walked up to Chi Shuo and smiled up at him. "All done. Get some rest early, Captain Chi. Good night."

Ye Shaoyang left without another word.

Chi Shuo was left behind, still frozen like a statue.

An omega making an alpha's bed… this was something he'd only ever seen in movies before. Usually, this kind of intimate thing would only be done between married couples.

What was up with Ye Shaoyang? Running into his room and helping him make the bed?

Chi Shuo's ears burned hotter and hotter.

Was it because he'd marked Ye Shaoyang? Had Ye Shaoyang, as a result, developed feelings of dependency on him?

Based on what Chi Shuo knew from physiology classes, omegas would inevitably develop positive feelings for the alpha who marked them. They might even become enamored of the alpha's pheromones.

When Ye Shaoyang entered Chi Shuo's room, he hadn't shown any negative reaction to the scent. He had clearly adjusted well to Chi Shuo's pheromones.

Chi Shuo's head was a muddled mess.

He just couldn't tell. Was Ye Shaoyang purely treating this as a trivial matter, as something that didn't matter? Or had the mark caused Ye Shaoyang to develop positive feelings for him?

Ahem. It would be best if there were no feelings of that nature.

Next season would be extremely important for Tianhuan. They couldn't make any mistakes. He wanted to bring mid/jungle duos back to the peak of the game with Ye Shaoyang. If they allowed private feelings to entangle with their games, it would affect their ability to think clearly during matches.

Chi Shuo calmly mulled things over and headed into the bathroom with complex feelings in his heart.

In the other room, Ye Shaoyang—who had only acted with 'my cat made trouble for you, so I'll help you clean up the cat hair' as his reasoning—wasn't thinking about the stuff filling up Chi Shuo's head at all.

He comfortably took a hot shower in his bathroom without any sense for why an omega running into an alpha's room and making the bed for them might be a bit off.

They were good friends. So what if they helped each other make the bed?

Even sharing a bed wouldn't be a big deal.

He had nearly used up all of the pheromones suppressing patches for the nape of his neck. These things were way more expensive than adhesive bandages, and he had to change them every day. Ye Shaoyang only had a few left in the box he'd brought. After his shower, Ye Shaoyang took his cell phone and bought some online. He ordered fix boxes of the patches in one go and had them sent to Tianhuan's base with same-day delivery.

The next morning, Chi Shuo got up and saw Ye Shaoyang returning to the room with a few boxes. He thought Ye Shaoyang had bought more canned food for the kitty, so he went to help him unpack. But after taking a look, he found that they were actually five boxes of pheromone suppressing patches.

"…there's no need to buy so many, is there?"

"I use one a day," Ye Shaoyang said, "so I run out fast. Figured I would buy a lot and keep a stash."

He was already used to sticking one on every day before going out. Team Tianhuan had a lot of alphas, after all. The faint redness at the nape of his neck stood at a very stark, obvious contrast to the otherwise pale, white skin.

Earlier, Ye Shaoyang had only gone downstairs to grab his package. He hadn't put on a patch yet. The pheromone secretion glands at his nape were ever-so-slightly reddened, looking quite delicate and sensitive indeed.

Chi Shuo suddenly recalled the scene of himself biting down on Ye Shaoyang's glands. The tenderness of Ye Shaoyang's flesh and the warm, sweet scent of his skin had already been deeply ingrained in Chi Shuo's mind. Chi Shuo's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly averted his gaze.

Ye Shaoyang swiftly opened up a new box of patches and stuck one to the nape of his neck while saying, "That's right, Captain Chi. It's been over a month since the last time you marked me, right?"

Chi Shuo instinctively answered, "Thirty-four days."

Ye Shaoyang grinned and looked up at him. "Captain Chi remembers very clearly."

Chi Shuo fell silent.

It had been his first time, after all.

Ahem. His first time marking an omega. Of course he would have a very deep impression of that moment.

Ye Shaoyang lowered his head, thinking about something. He swiftly walked back into his room and found the pheromone monitoring device the doctor had given him. He measured his own pheromone value and said, "The doctor said that temporary marks would be effective for one to three months. I've been measuring my pheromone value every day lately, and it's been steady at 3.5 or so. That shouldn't be a problem, right? I remember I'll only need a mark at 6.0, so it looks like that last mark was pretty effective."

Chi Shuo looked away and feigned a calm expression as he said, "Maybe it's because our pheromones are rather compatible, so a temporary mark is effective for a longer time."

Ye Shaoyang nodded his agreement. "It would be best if it could last for three months. Oh, by the way, I've already paid the hospital. The doctor sent my information to the research center. They'll try to develop a suppressant I can use as soon as possible. If they're fast, they could develop something within a year. I'll have to continue troubling you to help me with a mark throughout this year, Captain Chi."

Chi Shuo turned back and met Ye Shaoyang's clear, smiling eyes.

The morning sun pierced through the windows and fell upon this refined, dashing face. Ye Shaoyang's eyes were exceedingly beautiful. Thick lashes swept out from his eyelids, and a hint of warmth seemed to light up his dark brown pupils.

Chi Shuo's heart leapt fiercely in his chest. He quickly averted his gaze again and lowered his voice, quietly answering, "It's no trouble. If you need it, just tell me right away."

"I'll measure my pheromone value every day," Ye Shaoyang reassured. "Don't worry, this won't affect our games."

"…mm."

Their conversation ended there.

Chi Shuo turned and left the room in hurried steps. His back was somewhat stiff, rigid.

Ye Shaoyang scratched his head, confused. He looked towards Xiao Bai. "Something seems to be up with Captain Chi today?"

Xiao Bai looked up. "Meow?"

Ye Shaoyang smiled. "He probably just didn't sleep well."

The speedily retreating Chi Shuo felt his ears burning again, and his heartbeat was unreasonably fast.

When he thought of repeatedly marking Ye Shaoyang in the coming year, Chi Shuo couldn't help but feel rather conflicted. After all, between alphas and omegas, the act of giving a temporary mark was no less intimate than French kissing.

Every time, he would have to bite down on Ye Shaoyang's glands and let his own alpha's pheromones seep in. He would have to let their pheromones intertwine—this was basically the same as exchanging bodily fluids in a deep kiss.

It was too intimate.

So intimate that Chi Shuo's ears burned as soon as he thought of it.

Ye Shaoyang, on the other hand, maintained a perfectly carefree expression. He talked about being marked as casually as he talked about what they were going to have for lunch. Chi Shuo couldn't understand Ye Shaoyang sometimes. Did this omega really not have any self-awareness?

He could be marked, and still boldly ask for another, like it was just a minor inconvenience?

When Ye Shaoyang reached the cafeteria, he took a seat next to Chi Shuo out of habit. He looked at Chi Shuo and crinkled his eyes with a smile. "Captain Chi, let's double queue after we eat. We can continue killing marksmen on the international server."

Chi Shuo hummed without lifting his head.

Ye Shaoyang realized that the alpha next to him was wearing a very grave expression and sitting in a very stiff, tense way. Chi Shuo was eating breakfast like he was in a formal meeting, and the tips of his ears were red. Maybe he was cold because the temperature had been dropping lately.

The two of them ate silently. It was just then that the team's coordinator, Tang Can, came to the cafeteria for breakfast.

Seeing the two of them, she brought her tray over and took a seat next to Ye Shaoyang. "Do you guys get up this early every day? Esports players like you, with such healthy work and sleep schedules, are really far too rare."

Ye Shaoyang explained, "I start streaming at ten, and we double queue in ranked matches for two hours in the morning. Captain Chi has adjusted his sleep schedule to match mine."

Tang Can looked towards Ye Shaoyang and said, "That's right, Shaoyang. We've passed on your player info to the league. Because omega players are rather unique, the league's official disciplinary committee will personally come out to us to investigate in a few days. That's just to avoid alpha and omega players getting mixed up in each other's personal lives, and negatively influencing the game."

The disciplinary committee was in charge of making sure players adhered to a certain moral code of conduct. If players were found sleeping with fans, creating illicit content, or otherwise violating that code of conduct, they could be suspended from games or banned from the professional league altogether.

Tianhuan had just signed an omega player. It did make sense for the disciplinary committee to come check things out. Alphas and omegas naturally attracted each other, after all. Omegas in particular had heat periods, which could very easily cause chaos within a team.

Ye Shaoyang nodded his understanding. "Got it. Go ahead and let them come. I've been keeping my pheromone value in check, and I don't have any emotional entanglements with my teammates. I'm purely here to play in games. They probably won't pick up on any issues."

Tang Can smiled faintly and said, "That would be for the best. It's only a routine check from the disciplinary committee, we just need to comply. Also, the team plans on officially announcing that you've signed with us after the trade window closes. You'll have to create an ID specifically for official games next season. Have you chosen a name?"

"I decided a long time ago," Ye Shaoyang said. "I'll go with Tianhuan-Lieyang."

Chi Shuo was speechless.

He was called Shuoyue.

Shuoyue. Lieyang. Why did they sound like sweetheart names? Had Shaoyang done this on purpose?

Author's Notes:

Ye Shaoyang: I was called Lieyang in my previous life, guys. Please stop speculating wildly. ^_^

Chi Shuo: ……

An unbridled omega and an inexperienced, honest alpha. This pair's emotional development should be very fun~