All-Round Mid Laner

An hour and a half before the scheduled start of his livestream, Ye Shaoyang brought Qin Rui into a few matches against A.I. teams and patiently taught him the ins and outs of playing support.

Qin Rui finally realized that his understanding of the game had been too shallow. Everything his gege said about the rhythm of the game, about setting wards in the jungle, about key points to fighting major and minor bosses… Qin Rui didn't know any of it. It was no wonder he hadn't managed to climb out of Gold.

However, Qin Rui had gotten into Star City University. There were no problems with his IQ. Ye Shaoyang taught patiently, and Qin Rui listened earnestly. An hour later, Qin Rui could understand everything Ye Shaoyang was saying about positioning and timing.

When Ye Shaoyang saw that Qin Rui had absorbed all that information, he said, "Let's go. Let's play these promotion games. You can get up to Diamond first."

10:00 AM had just arrived. Ye Shaoyang opened up the streaming room.

Because the name of his streaming room was 'Abyssal Master National Ranking Sprint - Live', and because the platform had tagged his room as a 'Recommended Newcomer', a large number of viewers quickly flooded in to watch. The number of viewers quickly climbed from around one hundred to over five thousand. Some were viewers curious about the new hero, and some were viewers who'd been following Ye Shaoyang since yesterday.

As soon as Ye Shaoyang officially opened up the stream, a few comments started to pop up—

[I just finished watching the VoD of this host's last live, and holy shit. Three placement matches. Kill-death stats: 0-5, 0-6, 0-8??? Seriously? And you're still shameless enough to keep streaming?]

[Hahaha, I just so happened to catch his stream yesterday. He was killed eight times in a row. It was seriously tragic.]

[So, where's he getting this confidence to declare he's taking the Abyssal Lord up the national leaderboards?]

[Back on this slippery slope again? I just followed you yesterday. How many times are you going to die today?]

It was no surprise that people were voicing their doubts. Ye Shaoyang's last performance really had been atrocious. He'd played even worse than Bronze-ranked players.

[Why isn't the host showing his face?]

[If this is a good-looking little gege, we can forgive your noobishness~]

[Afraid to show his face. Too ugly, maybe?]

Ye Shaoyang went with the flow and turned his webcam to the side. He scooped up Xiao Bai and brought the cat into frame as he joked, "Hello, everyone. Those three games from yesterday were played by my cat."

Xiao Bai played along by meowing a few times. "Meow, meow, meow!"

The viewers fell silent.

Did this guy have no shame? He really wanted his cat to shoulder the blame?!

A flood of comments popped up—

[Kitty, kitty! Too cute!]

[Ragdoll? The host's avatar is a picture of this cat.]

[The host's voice is pretty nice. I'm gonna follow.]

[I'm about to pass out. Even cats can host livestreams now?!]

Ye Shaoyang didn't have any intention of showing his face, so he left his cat in front of the camera that was supposed to be for the host's face.

His cat was pretty well-behaved, and fairly clingy too. While he'd played last night, his kitty had spent all night dozing on the couch, purring in its sleep. Now, it peered curiously into the camera, giving all the viewers in the streaming room a shot of its adorable face and big blue eyes.

…it was seriously too cute.

…the people who wanted to insult the host just couldn't do it anymore.

[Well, if this little gege is raising a cat, then we can forgive his noobishness too~]

[Solely because your cat is so freaking cute, I won't diss you for now!]

Ye Shaoyang placed a little woolen toy on the couch, and Xiao Bai started earnestly playing with it.

Qin Rui looked over and praised, "Ge, you have a solution for everything."

"We'll be playing nonstop from here on out," Ye Shaoyang said. "If no one plays with the kitten, it'll be really bored. With a toy, it can entertain itself."

Since GD had raised cats as a team, Ye Shaoyang had a lot of experience with them. Little animals like cats were very simple and easily pleased. They could have a blast with a little ball for ages. This Ragdoll was way more well-behaved than the cats he'd raised before. It never jumped on his keyboard. Ye Shaoyang was very happy to let the cat remain in the study and keep him company while he gamed.

That way, the cat would also feel safer at its master's side.

The promotion match soon began. Ye Shaoyang stroked the kitty's head, then refocused on his computer. "Let's get ready."

The game room loaded up.

During the preparation stage, Ye Shaoyang instantly selected [Abyssal Master] while Qin Rui chose [Blessed Priest].

Their teammates immediately kicked up a fuss—

[OTL Every Day]: Big bro, this is my Diamond promotion match. Can you not practice new heroes right now?

[Pimples Begone]: It's not appropriate to practice new heroes in ranked games, is it?

[Cutie Bear]: The Abyssal Lord in my last game dragged me way down. Dude, are you practicing with him too?

Everyone simultaneously voiced their doubts when they saw Xiao Bai choose the Abyssal Lord.

This hero had only been live for two days.

Every time a new hero was added to the server, plenty of irresponsible players would practice with that hero in ranked games. And 95% of the time, they would end up dragging their teammates into the pits of hell. That was especially true when it came to heroes like the Abyssal Lord, who were very hard to play.

[Xiao Bai]: Not dragging anyone down. I'm double queueing with the support.

[Xiao Rui]: My ge's Abyssal Lord is super strong. Don't worry, everyone. ^^

[OTL Every Day]: Really? Like, really really?

[Pimples Begone]: Show us your battle history?

Ye Shaoyang simply sent over his stats with this hero—

[Abyssal Lord - 15 games, 100% win rate. Star City, Binjiang District, #1.]

His teammates all scrambled to hit their 'ready' buttons.

This was a carry! A powerful carry! They wouldn't go wrong if they clung to him!

[OTL Every Day]: First in the district, huh? Awesome, awesome! Please carry me, my lord!

[Pimples Begone]: Mr. God, can I add you as a friend? Can you carry me up the ranks?

[Cutie Bear]: I'm not like you guys.

[Cutie Bear]: I just want to wrap myself around the gaming god's waist.

All their other teammates were rendered speechless by that.

The comments in the streaming room were racing up the screen as well—

[Holy shit? Is this the same noob from yesterday?]

[Followed, followed! Host, please teach me how to play this new hero!]

[Brother Fish, the streamer next door, only has a 95% win rate with the Abyssal Lord. This guy has a 100% win rate!]

[Yesterday's three games… you didn't really let your cat play, did you?!]

[Meowmeow, if you were the one who played yesterday, can you give us a little meow meow?]

Xiao Bai instantly chirped, "Meow meow meow?"

This cat was so good to its master. The whole streaming room burst into laughter.

Ye Shaoyang successfully used the 'my cat was playing' excuse to sweep away the embarrassment of the dark history of his three games from yesterday. While he was at it, he also deleted the VoD of that stream so that future viewers wouldn't keep bringing up the time he was killed eight times in a row.

From now on, he would show his true strength.

The game began.

A player from the opposing team sent an arrogant message into the global chat right away—

[Jungle King No. 3]: You guys just forfeit this game at the six-minute mark. Don't waste your time.

[Jungle King No. 3]: I'm a pro jungling king. Teammates, sit back and I'll carry you.

This kind of player, who tried to disrupt their opponent's mental state immediately after entering a game, was pretty common. Ye Shaoyang had seen plenty of them in his time. Falling for that trick and getting into an argument wouldn't be a good deal at all.

Ye Shaoyang led his didi into the middle lane to clear the way while farming up gold and experience.

Three minutes into the match, a familiar sound rang out in Ye Shaoyang's ears—

First Blood!

The bottom lane marksman, Cutie Bear, had been taken out by the enemy assassin's sneak attack.

The jungler who'd taken the first kill became even more arrogant. In the global chat, he continued—

[Jungle King No. 3]: This enemy marksman is seriously awful. That kill came so smoothly.

[Jungle King No. 3]: Does your side's support not care about you?

This player wasn't only interested in dissing his opponents to mess with their heads. He wanted to sow discord among the members of the other team as well.

Qin Rui hated people who spewed this sort of nonsense in the game. He couldn't help but glance over at his gege, but Ye Shaoyang was calm.

In a low voice, Ye Shaoyang reassured, "Don't worry. Wait for me to hit Level 6."

In early-game, the jungle provided the most experience. As a result, junglers could hit Level 6 and unlock their ult before the top, middle, and bottom laners. This enemy jungler's game sense was pretty good. He had taken advantage of this time to ambush and take out the opposing marksman.

This enemy jungler had already gotten first blood. They couldn't afford to let him snowball his lead to a crushing advantage.

Ye Shaoyang glanced at the timer in the game. "Get ready to head into the woods on the left of the jungle. Know why?"

"Yeah!" Qin Rui answered right away. "The other team is playing the red side this time, and the red buff is about to spawn. After getting that kill and going back to his base to heal up, he'll definitely head into the jungle to get that buff!"

Ye Shaoyang smiled. "Rui-zi is a good student."

Earlier, his gege had patiently told him about everything he needed to be aware of in the game. Qin Rui was now very familiar with the mechanics of the jungle. He hastily got into position and placed a ward, then hid away nearby.

Ye Shaoyang's Abyssal Lord soon reached Level 6.

He came over to his didi's side, and Qin Rui instantly used his Q skill on Ye Shaoyang, buffing his attack power.

Shortly after that, [Jungle King No. 3] passed before their eyes. Just as expected.

Ye Shaoyang narrowed his eyes. His hands flew over the keyboard, and—

[Xiao Bai] killed [Jungle King No. 3]!

The enemy player was completely dumbfounded. He had no idea what Xiao Bai had done. He only saw three shadows drifting around him for a moment… before his HP bar was suddenly empty.

All the viewers in the streaming room were wide-eyed with shock as well. That flurry of blows had been too quick to capture. Those three shadows had flashed across the screen like lethal gusts of wind. Their exact movements were unclear.

The viewers could only see the end result.

The enemy assassin collapsed in a pool of his own blood.

And the Abyssal Lord stood by that corpse, completely unscathed.

Two lines of text appeared on the screen.

[Xiao Bai]: If you're not that strong, don't mouth off at the start of a game. It's better to not mess with your opponents…

[Xiao Bai]: Because it's too easy to give you a taste of your own medicine. ^_^

That smiling emoticon at the end was the most silent and lethal taunt of all.

The enemy jungler was pissed enough to spit up blood.

Meanwhile, a flood of '666' comments filled up the streaming room!

[Jungle King No. 3]: Xiao Bai, just you wait!

The game continued. The enemy jungler grit his teeth and decided to collect the blue buff before going to deal with Xiao Bai. However, just as he got the monster carrying the blue buff down to its last sliver of health, he suddenly saw a shadow erupt from behind a wall—

Ye Shaoyang had timed his movements perfectly. He swooped in just in time to steal the blue buff, and he killed off the enemy jungler again as well.

[Jungle King No. 3]: ……

[Xiao Bai]: Didn't you tell me to wait?

[Xiao Bai]: You wanted me to wait so you could gift me the blue buff, huh? Thank you. ^_^

[Jungle King No. 3]: I'll f******

After dying twice in a row, the enemy jungler's mental state was shattered. Ye Shaoyang started to farm in the enemy jungle, building upon the snowball of his advantage. He swiftly cleared a path down the middle lane, and the game reached an anticlimactic end after twelve minutes.

Congratulations! You have successfully advanced to the [Eternal Diamond] rank!

That line of text popped up on Qin Rui's screen. His eyes practically glowed with excitement.

"Diamond! I'm really in Diamond!" He had been stuck at Gold for over a month, unable to even make it up to Platinum by himself. After following his gege for just one day, he was in Diamond? He wasn't dreaming, was he?

Ye Shaoyang whispered in his ear, "Starting at Diamond rank, games kick off with a B&P stage—bans and picks, that is. From here on out, it'll be a test of your hero pool. However, Blessed Priest should be the type of support that very few people play. You can continue to use this one. If the other side claims the priest first, you can take the Forest Envoy to give me heals."

Qin Rui nodded enthusiastically. "Got it! Are we going to keep playing?"

"Yeah," Ye Shaoyang said. "Let's hit King before going to sleep tonight."

In the blink of an eye, the viewer counter in Xiao Bai's streaming room hit 50,000.

His performance with the Abyssal Lord just now had been way too slick. Plus, the sharp retorts Ye Shaoyang had delivered during the match garnered him a lot of fans. Even the viewers who'd initially mocked him were typing '666' into the chat now.

[This host doesn't swear when he disses people, but it feels so good. What's that all about?]

['Thanks for the blue buff.' This sort of thing… it doesn't deal a lot of damage, but it's irritating as hell!]

[If I were the enemy jungler I would've died mad, hahahaha!]

Of course, there were some voices of dissent as well—

[Diamond is just a bunch of noobs wailing on each other. What's so impressive about winning one round?]

[Exactly! Even I could randomly kill people in Diamond. Brother Fish's stream next door is still better for technical tips.]

[If you can carry with the Abyssal Lord in King, I'll acknowledge you.]

Ye Shaoyang glanced at the comments and breathed a laugh. "Don't worry. I'll head up to King right now."

The ranking system in Gods War strongly favored masterful players. Five or more consecutive wins awarded bonus points, and continuously winning the MVP title awarded extra points as well. In no time at all, Ye Shaoyang's [Abyssal Lord] hit a battle power rating of over 5,400.

He got a new marker as well—

[Star City's #1 Abyssal Lord]

Star City was a huge city in the south of the country, similar in size to Changsha or Wuhan from Ye Shaoyang's original world. Becoming the top-ranked [Abyssal Lord] in a city like that was already a major achievement, but Ye Shaoyang had set a much, much higher goal for himself.

First in the city. First in the province.

And then first on the national server.

Esports teams would only be willing to sign him if he became powerful enough.

With that thought in mind, Ye Shaoyang once again launched a new game with his didi.

Author's Notes:

Yangyang's 100% win rate is because he's been playing low-ranked games.

Later, when he runs into other experts, the win rate will gradually fall to a more reasonable level~

Translator's Notes:

子 (zǐ): Literally means 'child' or 'son', but can be used as an honorific. In this case, Rui-zi.