All-Round Mid Laner

The next day, Tianhuan's players flew back to the capital city together.

Chen Feiyun from Whale Streaming sent a message: [Hello, Coach Lin. Our platform has made all the preparations. We can make an official announcement for Team Tianhuan at any time. May I ask when your players will have time to host a little stream?]

Coach Lin checked the tournament schedule—Tianhuan's next match was next Friday. They would be going up against Team BOB, a low-ranked team in Group B. Their schedule was fairly light for the time being.

Coach Lin gave a quick response to Whale Streaming's invitation, setting a streaming time of around eight to midnight on the night of January 25th.

According to their contract with Whale Streaming, Tianhuan's players had to stream for at least thirty hours every month. They would only receive a payout from viewer gifts after satisfying that condition. When they weren't too busy with official games, players would be asked to find some time to stream as a way of unwinding a little.

On January 25th, Whale Streaming flooded their whole platform for promotional ads for Tianhuan's stream. Tianhuan's official promo banner flew across the app's home page. On every page of the site, an announcement could be seen—

Team Tianhuan, live at 20:00 on January 25th.

The streaming rooms of all five players could be found on a list of [Team Tianhuan] streamers. Viewers could click into their channels from there.

Ye Shaoyang's streaming room had also been renamed 'Tianhuan-Lieyang (Xiao Bai)'.

At dinnertime, the streams had yet to go live, but many viewers were already camping out in the streaming rooms.

Chi Shuo's room was the most popular one; Captain Chi only streamed once in a very rare while, after all. Millions of fans flooded in from his Weibo page, creating an almost shocking amount of traffic.

The second most popular room was Ye Shaoyang's. Xiao Bai's streaming room had a few million followers to begin with, and now he'd just taken a pentakill. He was currently the most hotly discussed player in the league, so quite a few passersby also scurried over to check out his first stream under his new name.

At 19:50 that night, Tianhuan's starting lineup got online.

They didn't have any training planned for the night, so the players weren't actually in their training room. They were all streaming from their own dorm rooms.

Ye Shaoyang placed Xiao Bai on the couch in his room. Many people who were viewing his stream for the first time were baffled.

[Why is it a cat?]

[Kitty, kitty! You're so sweet! But I want to see little Lieyang gege!]

Immediately, some people started to explain to the newcomers.

[This is Xiao Bai, the cat your little Lieyang gege is raising!]

[Newcomers, take note of this. All the matches you're about to see are played by this cat!]

[This cat is even better at games than you humans. I'm telling you right now, he's actually a cat spirit. It was also this cat that got that pentakill.]

The newbies in the stream flooded the screen with question marks.

At just that moment, Ye Shaoyang reached over from where he was sitting in his gaming chair and scooped Xiao Bai into his own lap. Then he finally adjusted the camera so that it was facing him. He smiled as he took hold of Xiao Bai's two front paws, giving everyone a wave.

"Hello, everyone. Let's have my Xiao Bai say hello to all the new viewers."

Xiao Bai was very cooperative. While waving its little paws, it called out, "Meow, meow!"

The bullet comments in the streaming room instantly went wild—

[Holy shit, that's cute!]

[This old uncle has been moved by the cuteness. My heart is melting!]

[Ahhh, if I could hold Xiao Bai, I would give it a great big kiss! Mwah! I would pet Xiao Bai until Xiao Bai went bald!]

[Everyone, let's team up and steal that cat!]

[Let's steal that cat. +1]

Ye Shaoyang's cat really was quite visually appealing. Its big blue eyes were as bright and clear as gemstones. Its thick, fluffy fur was so soft. And it was so well-behaved, sitting sweetly in Ye Shaoyang's arms while looking all over the place.

A handsome ge was holding an adorable cat. This image was enough to move the hearts of quite a lot of people who'd clicked into the stream.

[I'm already shifting into mom mode. How lucky is the person who marries our Yangyang going to be?]

[That person is going to get a handsome omega ge plus an adorable little cat at the same time. That alpha is going to be winning at life, huh?]

[Previous commenter, are you talking about me? I formally declare that Lieyang is already my wife. ^_^]

[Then you're my rival in love! Draw your sword, en garde!]

A ton of knife emojis flooded the chat.

Amidst all those jokes, there were also a few people asking about Ye Shaoyang's life.

[Yangyang, are you in your dorm room? This doesn't look like a training room.]

[You wouldn't have such a big couch in the training room, right?]

"I'm at my team dorm… oh, you guys want to see Tianhuan's dorms? One sec." Ye Shaoyang placed the cat on his chair, then picked up his camera and spun around in his room while saying, "The conditions in the dorms are pretty good. The room is very spacious, and there's a private bathroom too."

Tianhuan's dorms really were some of the best. Ye Shaoyang's room was also very neat and tidy, without any random posters hanging up or figures and merch sitting around. The decor was extremely warm and comfortable; it didn't seem much like a young esports player's room.

Ye Shaoyang returned to his gaming chair and said, "Okay, let's start playing ranked."

People in the bullet comments asked if he was going to get another hero up the national leaderboards.

"I won't be going for national rankings in the future," Ye Shaoyang said. "I'm a professional esports player now. I have to train with my teammates every day. I won't have too much free time on my hands."

Some older fans chimed in, with gold-gilded VIP comments—

[Xiao Bai, are you solo queueing? Or teaming up with your teammates?]

"I'll solo queue and play in the summit tournament," Ye Shaoyang said. "Captain Chi and Old Qin should be playing in the summit tournament too. Little Xing and Qu Jiang are off to double queue together."

The summit tournament, which took place between eight in the evening and midnight, was of great importance to high-level players. Lots of domestic players in higher ranks would be playing in the summit tournament at this time, so playing in the summit tournament was a good way of strengthening one's skills.

It was currently Season 10-1. January 25th just so happened to be the first day of the new summit tournament.

With the start of every new season, summit tournament scores would be reset. That meant all King-ranked players, regardless of how many stars they had, would be starting over with 1,000 points. In that night's summit tournament, anyone could run into anyone—all sorts of monsters lurked in the shadows.

Since it was nearly eight, Ye Shaoyang made his preparations. He put Xiao Bai back on the couch and gave the kitty a woolly ball to play with, then loaded up the summit tournament interface by clicking on the button at the bottom left of the screen.

Your current tournament standing: 1,000 points.

One win will award 20 points, one loss will deduct 20 points.

Currently finding your teammates and opponents.

Matching complete. Please get ready.

Ye Shaoyang entered the in-game preparation room.

The summit tournament anonymized everyone's IDs. Ye Shaoyang was assigned to the first position in this game, so his display name showed up as 'Player 1'. He typed into his team chat: [I play mid laner, thank you. ^_^]

While typing, he asked the viewers of his livestream, "What would everyone like to see me play?"

Every single answer in the comments was the same—the Abyssal Lord, of course!

Although Xiao Bai's regular fans knew that this streamer was extremely powerful with the Abyssal Lord, many new viewers had run over from Weibo that night. Lots of them hadn't seen Ye Shaoyang's debut match; they only managed to watch the highlights clip provided by the official league's Weibo account.

So, everyone wanted to see Ye Shaoyang show off with the Abyssal Lord again.

Ye Shaoyang said, "Okay. Then I'll take the Abyssal Lord and show our new viewers how he works."

[Player 1] has chosen the [Abyssal Lord].

A second later, a very familiar voice suddenly sounded out in the team's voice chat.

"Shaoyang?"

Ye Shaoyang jumped, then saw that the mic icon next to Player 5's name was lit up. He wanted to laugh hard enough to cry as he asked, "Captain Chi?"

Chi Shuo was silent.

Ye Shaoyang fell silent as well.

The viewers in the stream nearly died laughing.

[Holy shit, there are hundreds of thousands of players in the summit tournament right now, and the random matching system actually matched the two of you to the same team!]

[It's fate! You can even run into Captain Chi in the summit tournament!]

[Their teammates can just lie down and wait to be carried to victory now. Will the enemy forfeit at the six-minute mark?]

[I think their enemies will be beaten to the point of questioning their reason for living.]

Ye Shaoyang also hadn't imagined that he would actually run into Captain Chi during the summit tournament.

At exactly eight, the server-wide summit tournament had begun. Chi Shuo had also clicked into the tournament at that moment. The chances of him being matched to Ye Shaoyang's team really were extremely low. Besides fate, Chi Shuo didn't know how to explain it either.

When their randomly assigned teammates heard their voices, they couldn't help but type into the chat to wonder if Players 1 and 5 knew each other.

[Player 2]: I'm not hallucinating, am I?! I think I just heard Captain Chi!!!

[Player 3]: Not Captain Chi from Tianhuan, right? And Shaoyang… isn't that the player Lieyang, who's been really popular lately?

[Player 4]: Holy shit, this is history in the making! We need to take a photo! When the game starts, you two big gods strike a pose by our base crystal. I'll take a screenshot and send it out~

[Player 1]: What a coincidence. ^_^

[Player 5]: Mm. Save the jungler position for me.

Their teammates swiftly chose other heroes, leaving the position of jungler to Chi Shuo.

Chi Shuo took the Holy Knight as their jungler, in order to continue acting as a bodyguard for Ye Shaoyang.

When the game began, the two of them silently agreed to invade the enemy team's jungle.

Players in random games were bound to have uneven skill levels. Plus, this was the first day of the summit tournament. Everyone was starting at 1,000 points and being thrown into matches at random. Some were King-ranked with one star, some were King-ranked with eight stars.

The jungler on the other team in this game might have been a rather low-level player. When they saw the Abyssal Lord coming to invade their jungle, they surprisingly didn't retreat. Instead, they stubbornly charged in for a fight.

As a result, Ye Shaoyang swiftly took their head.

First Blood!

While making his way back to the middle lane, Ye Shaoyang reminded his viewers, "When you guys run into an Abyssal Lord at Level 1 in a ranked match, don't force a fight. He can unleash three shadows with his Q. You won't be able to win against him."

The bullet comments filled up with words of acknowledgement.

[Understood!]

[When I play ranked, I'm just going to ban the Abyssal Lord!]

Some people even joked—

[Captain Chi is still playing the part of Yangyang's bodyguard. He handed over the blue buff again!]

[Captain Chi is so doting to the new mid laner. It wasn't enough for him to play bodyguard with the Brawler last time. Now he's doing the same with the Holy Knight?]

After a while, the enemy's blue buff respawned.

Chi Shuo chose the perfect time to run over and beat the blue buff down to low health. Then, in the voice chat, he warmly said, "Come take the blue."

Ye Shaoyang happily skipped over, taking down the blue buff with one Q skill.

During a team fight over a minor dragon, Chi Shuo's Holy Knight suddenly charged in and stunned the enemy marksman. Ye Shaoyang instantly followed up with a dazzling skill combo that netted him a triple kill!

The streaming room filled up with '6666' comments.

The viewers who hadn't gotten a chance to watch Tianhuan's match finally got a feast for their eyes now.

Ye Shaoyang's Abyssal Lord was truly too powerful. Their five lower-ranked opponents were seriously starting to question their whole existences. Chi Shuo swiftly cleared out their jungle. Every time their blue buff respawned, Chi Shuo would get it down to its last sliver of health, then warmly call out to Ye Shaoyang, "Come take the blue."

The online viewers were speechless.

This jungler was seriously the godly teammate of any mid laner's dreams!

Starting from the first blue buff spawn at the 1.5-minute mark, to the end of the game at the 18.5-minute mark… the Abyssal Lord was basically always buffed by the blue buff!

Their team's blue buff belonged to Yangyang, and the enemy team's blue buff also belonged to Yangyang.

Chi Shuo used his actions to tell everyone exactly how a support jungler was supposed to protect their mid laner.

Ye Shaoyang could have carried his team to victory even if he'd been solo queueing. But with Chi Shuo's help in this game, he had the blue buff's effects on him for the entire round. He basically chopped up his enemies like vegetables, ultimately achieving some terrifying stats.

15-0-7. He'd singlehandedly taken fifteen kills!

Although he didn't get a pentakill in this game, he did get several triple kills, and he had put on a very good display of his skills.

The five opposing players collectively broke down in tears.

The new season's summit tournament really wasn't a place for human beings. It was a world of demons!

After the game, a huge flood of gifts came through the stream.

Ye Shaoyang's vision practically blurred at the sight of them. He had to open up his log of received lists in order to find everyone's name to thank them.

"Thank you 'Xiao Bai is So Cute' for the torpedo, thank you 'Losing Ranked Every Day' for the torpedo, thank you 'Riyue Tonghui' for the torpedo…"

He swiftly read through the names of all these generous donors, without realizing that one of these names was a little bit strange.

At the same time, on Weibo…

A new super topic named #RiyueTonghui# was suddenly born.

This super topic only had a few hundred followers. Its introduction read—

Gods War Pro League Ri x Yue Fan HQ. If you know, you know. Don't harass the people behind this ship, don't bother the players. Keep a low profile here. Thanks!

These two players' IDs were Shuoyue and Lieyang, which just so happened to sound like a pair of sweetheart names. One mighty and heroic team captain, and one refreshing new mid laner. When they stood together, they looked like a very good match.

Plus, Chi Chuo had played the part of Ye Shaoyang's loyal bodyguard in today's game, from start to finish. He helped Ye Shaoyang grab a dozen blue buffs.

It was no wonder that a Ri x Yue ship had suddenly sprang to life.

Author's Notes:

They don't have too many shippers, and shippers in the esports circle won't go out and bother the real people either~!

But with Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang's current situation, it would be unreasonable for them to not have any shippers at all. They're too good of a match, after all!

Translator's Notes:

日月同辉 (rìyuè tónghuī): R! Y! T! H! S! Z! D!

'Riyue Tonghui' is the ship name of Chi Shuo x Ye Shaoyang. The first two characters, 日月 (rìyuè), mean sun (日) and moon (月) respectively. The character 'yang' in Ye Shaoyang (written 阳) also refers to the sun, with the character 日 serving as the right half. Meanwhile, the character for 'shuo' in Chi Shuo (written 朔) has 月 as its right half.

The full phrase '日月同辉' refers to the natural phenomenon of the sun and moon being visible in the sky at the same time, but it can also be interpreted in a more metaphorical sense—the sun and the moon, Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo, glowing on the same stage at the same time.