[“Hahaha, I’m laughing so hard. Xu Ta, what the hell are you doing? You’ve embarrassed yourself in front of your enemies!”]
[“Xu Ta: Well, no matter how you round it, I’m still a clever person who knows multiple languages.”]
[“Hahaha, I remember that stuttering guy crashed into Xu Ta once before. They seemed to have a connection when he secretly played ranked games with Xu Ta.”]
[“I wouldn’t call it a connection. When you reach a high rank, you naturally encounter skilled players in the same rank. Didn’t the stuttering guy also crash into Lull, Xu Li, and others?”]
Jiang Mo stared at this familiar name, at a loss for words.
Thinking about this person’s temperament, he hesitated and asked, “Moo, do you want to play jungle?”
[RAG official jungler Xiao Ta: No, no, no, big brother, you take it. How could I dare to take it from you?]
[Moo:…]
[Moo: You’re really amazing.]
[RAG official jungler Xiao Ta: ?]
[Moo: You can speak many languages. I can barely speak Chinese fluently.] Jiang Mo spoke the truth.
[RAG official jungler Xiao Ta:…]
RAG base.
Xu Ta brushed aside his long hair and asked the audience with a frustrated expression, “Is he mocking me?”
The RAG team had already made it to the playoffs, and they hadn’t had any matches these past few days. Xu Ta was streaming online, and the viewers in the chat were nearly laughing themselves to death.
[“As someone who supports both sides, I can honestly tell you that he has no ill intentions. He really is praising you.”]
[“Haha, it’s the first time I’ve seen someone compliment Xu Ta’s language skills. This person is also amazing.”]
[“Who is this Moo? Why does Xiao Ta call him big brother?”]
[“It seems like you’ve been disconnected for a long time. This person is the rising star recently, the high-level player who has defeated many professional players.”]
[“Hey, let’s not keep saying things like that. Who can say for sure about ranked matches? There are wins and losses. Don’t spread rumors to stuttering guy.”]
As a rookie, Xu Ta had a decent integration with the team. His performance in the Spring Split was average and didn’t receive much criticism.
After being educated by team captain Gao Ze, he transformed from an arrogant troublemaker when he first joined the team into a well-behaved young player. Now, during the livestream, he rarely had incidents where he used foul language and got fined by the league disciplinary team.
Xu Ta didn’t intend to contest for the jungle role, and Jiang Mo wasn’t being polite either. Xu Ta was assigned the support role, and Jiang Mo could play all five roles. His least proficient role was support. Being able to jungle doesn’t mean he’s good at support.
For Jiang Mo, ganking (ambushing) wasn’t difficult, but the real challenge was coordinating with the AD carry.
It varied from person to person.
He was most afraid of situations where his AD carry retreated when he initiated a team fight, and he often encountered these timid AD carries.
Coincidentally, Jiang Mo had more than one familiar teammate this match.
Xu Ta was playing duo queue with their top laner, Best. The mid laner was OS, and the AD carry in the bot lane was someone Jiang Mo was extremely familiar with, NG team’s AD carry, Xu Li, the guy who betrayed him the most.
[“Oh my god, what an all-star lineup!”]
[“Hmm, suddenly the anchor seems short in comparison.”]
[“We’re done for this match. With these four pros, we can win no matter what.”]
[“Stuttering guy is not bad either, you know? How can you be so sure it’s not stuttering guy carrying the other four? What are Xu Ta, Xu Li, and Best compared to stuttering guy? Stuttering guy is the best.”]
[“That’s just funny. He won a few matches against professional players by luck, and now he’s so full of himself?”]
[“Anchor, please don’t troll us. I’m looking forward to you leading the team’s rhythm alone. :)”]
[“What’s wrong with people? Why do some people have nothing better to do than to come and disrupt the flow? That guy who said he can carry four people, mods, please ban him from chatting. He’s obviously a master of disruption!”]
This match is truly an all-star lineup. Both sides have chosen their respective heroes and entered the loading screen. Seeing familiar IDs on the opposite side, Jiang Mo felt a bit dazed, as if he had suddenly returned to the days of playing professionally. Every time he played ranked games, he would always encounter old acquaintances on both his team and the enemy team.
In this game, Jiang Mo chose Elise1 as his jungle pick.
He was on the red side and chose to start in the top half of the jungle, quickly clearing the camps to level up.
He made a visit to the top lane, helping the top laner secure the enemy top laner’s flash.
As a result, the enemy top laner went back to the tower, quickly popped a health potion, and restored about half of their health.
The minion wave was about to reach the tower, but Jiang Mo chose not to recall.
Jiang Mo cleared the river crab in the top half of the jungle and then confidently entered the enemy jungle.
The enemy jungler was from the OS team and liked to show off in ranked games.
In this game, he was playing Karthus2 in the jungle and also chose to start in the top half of the jungle with the blue buff.
Unlike Jiang Mo, he didn’t immediately go for a gank after leveling up.
During the previous gank, Jiang Mo briefly glanced at the mini-map.
Xu Ta’s ward had played its role, revealing Karthus in the bottom river.
He didn’t have to worry about running into the enemy jungler in the top half of the jungle.
Even if they did meet, he could easily handle Karthus, who was relatively weak in the early game, in a solo fight.
Karthus had a fast jungle clear speed and focused on farming in the early game.
Jiang Mo didn’t hesitate and directly moved to the top lane tribrush3. At this time, their own minion wave had just reached the tower, and he marked it on the map.
Jiang Mo took the lead in dealing damage to the top lane turret. His E skill’s stun prediction caught the enemy top laner off guard. Best, as an experienced player, understood without needing Jiang Mo’s explanation. In the next second, Best followed his rhythm and joined the fight.
First Blood!
Elise’s ultimate allows her to transform between human and spider form. In spider form, her E skill can leap high into the air and be immune to damage. This skill is perfect for tower dives. Even in a low-health state in the early game, as long as the coordination is good, they can secure a kill without sacrificing anyone.
Jiang Mo secured the First Blood, and the barrage of comments displayed [“666.”]
In the NG training room, only two people were playing ranked games: AD Carry Xu Li and mid laner Guo Qiang.
In the Spring Split this year, the NG team dropped from 6th place last year to 11th place and missed the playoffs.
“Xu Li, A Qiang, stop playing. We ordered crawfish. Let’s eat together.” Top laner Zhao Fa pushed open the door of the training room, bringing the aroma of barbecue inside.
The match was over, yet these two were still diligently playing. They weren’t even live streaming, so who could see them?
Even though they lost the game, there was no tension within the team. Their results had been disappointing for a while, and they had been criticized before. But even so, they still had many fans. NG team had been established for a long time and won numerous trophies. Just based on that, they could leisurely stay under the shade of the predecessors’ tree until retirement.
The current NG team was more like a boy group than a professional team.
In terms of appearance, they ranked top three among LPL players. The team’s boss was from an entertainment company, and they followed the fan culture. Winning matches wasn’t important to them; live streaming to make money was. Even if they lost a match, the boss wouldn’t dismiss them and would continue to support them.
Xu Li ignored Zhao Fa’s call. Even if the team was performing poorly, he wanted to play the game seriously and prove his skills to everyone. His dream was to stand on the World Championship stage. When he first joined the NG team, he was full of confidence and had a clear understanding of what kind of team they were. He felt despair, knowing that the transfer period was approaching, and his contract with the team was about to end. He wanted to perform well during this time and make other teams notice him.
“Xu Li, aren’t you coming?” Zhao Fa pulled Guo Qiang and was about to pull Xu Li along as well.
Xu Li’s arm was pulled by Zhao Fa, causing him to miss a cannon minion. Suddenly, the enemy Karthus appeared from the bush, and Xu Li didn’t react in time to steady his mouse.
On the battlefield, a split-second mistake could lead to a complete loss. Xu Li didn’t put up any resistance and was quickly taken down by Karthus’s high-damage Q abilities.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Xu Li angrily threw off his headphones and glared at Zhao Fa.
Zhao Fa grinned and said, “If you die, you die. Your team is leading 8-1. Are you afraid of losing? Look, your jungler is so strong that you can win even lying down.”
Xu Li turned to look at his screen. He had been dead for less than two seconds, and their own jungler, Elise, arrived in time.
With precise positioning, Elise’s E skill hit the enemy AD Carry perfectly.
A simple combo took down the AD Carry, and then Spider killed Karthus.
Karthus’s passive allowed him to continue using abilities after death, but Spider’s E skill in spider form dodged Karthus’s wide-range skill and jumped onto the enemy support.
— Triple Kill!
“Awesome!” Zhao Fa didn’t take the game seriously, but he still had the skills of a professional player. Just by watching this sequence of plays, he confirmed Elise’s strength. “Damn, there are so many familiar faces in this match. Is your jungler the only amateur? This guy is amazing, randomly killing in the All-Star game?”
Upon hearing Zhao Fa’s praise, Xu Li felt countless invisible knives piercing his chest. He had been killed by this guy before.
“Who is he? He’s so good. Add him as a friend. Maybe some team will notice him. It would be convenient to get to know him earlier for future communication.”
Xu Li sneered dismissively, “Who knows how old he is? Maybe he’s an old man. Besides, is it that easy to get into a professional team?”
Zhao Fa fell silent, Xu Li’s words seemed to have a double meaning.
Not easy? Weren’t the four of them able to get in?
“Forget it, I was just talking. Let’s go eat crayfish. If we don’t go now, those people will snatch them all,” Zhao Fa urged.
Xu Li felt impatient, shrugged off Zhao Fa’s hand, and coldly said, “You guys go ahead. I don’t have much appetite right now.”
“Suit yourself.” Zhao Fa didn’t bother indulging him.
Xu Li didn’t like to hang out with them, and they knew better than to force him. If they weren’t on the same team, they wouldn’t even care about Xu Li.
The door of the training room was slammed shut. Xu Li took a deep breath and put his headphones back on.
Zhao Fa didn’t delay him for too long. His hero had just respawned from the fountain.
The chat box on the left was filled with a long string of text.
It was common for professional players to encounter trolls in ranked games. Duo queue teammates could communicate in voice channels, but in chance encounters, they wouldn’t chat much. In the LPL, except for Xie Ning, who was a bit crazy and could chat with anyone, the others were quiet.
Unexpectedly, another noisy person appeared in the league.
[RAG Official Jungler Xiao Ta: Big brother, you’re amazing! ❤️❤️]
[Moo: ……]
Jiang Mo didn’t remember having such a little brother. He recalled that when he first met Xu Ta, Xu Ta didn’t think highly of him. Why did his attitude suddenly do a complete 180-degree turn?
[RAG Official Jungler Xiao Ta: Big brother, can we be friends after the match?]
[Moo: ……]
[RAG Official Jungler Xiao Ta: Is it not allowed? Big brother, don’t be so aloof, pretty please? Oh negai oh negai, Please!]
[Moo: ……]
[RAG·Best: Xu Ta, can you stop embarrassing yourself?]
[RAG Official Jungler Xiao Ta: Roar! Do you think I’m embarrassing? Fortunately, I had a hunch. I knew you despised me, so I duo queued with my big brother!]
[Moo: What’s wrong with you?]
[RAG Official Jungler Xiao Ta: Nothing at all =v=!]
[Moo: You weren’t like this before. Did someone take over this account?]
[RAG Official Jungler Xiao Ta: …………]
[“Hahaha, this is hilarious! RAG Team truly is the team of transformation. They can make a wild and unruly guy humble and polite. I truly admire Gao Ze. @RAG, remember to pay Gao Ze more money.”]
[“Hahaha, this small streamer is so cute.”]
[“When it comes to roasting people, @Moo, you truly are the big brother.”]
[“Why does Xu Ta give off a Xie Ning vibe???”]
Xu Ta looked confused. “What the hell, wasn’t he usually receptive to this kind of thing? Xie Ning used this tone to make requests, and he agreed. Why the sudden change?”
[“So you’re really learning from Xie Ning? Sorry, but you can never learn the essence of Xie Ning. His silliness comes from within.”]
[“Xie Ning: Thank you for your praise.”]
[“Xie Ning is Xie Ning, and you are you. There will never be a second Xie Ning in this world, so stutterer only dotes on Xie Ning.”]
[“Damn, that summary of yours hits a bit close to home. What should I do?”]
Epic MVP!
“Laughing to death, what the heck is an MVP?” Xu Li sighed irritably, clicked the chat interface to minimize it, and opened the scoreboard. He moved his mouse back and forth over the ID “Moo.”
In this ranked match with ten players, their score is currently 15-5. Moo’s Elise has taken ten kills and assisted four times.
On the battlefield, this performance is incredibly terrifying. It means that Moo single-handedly carried all three lanes in this match.
Nine professional players being carried by a random player is laughable to say the least.
The match ended without much suspense.
After exiting the game, familiar IDs popped up on the public screen.
[UN·Haha: Brother, can you not come to the top lane next time? I’m about to cry!]
[OS·55: Impressive! Next time we collide, I will bring out my signature hero.]
[RAG Official Jungle Xiao Ta: It’s not embarrassing to lose to my big brother. No need for such remarks.]
[OS·55: Get lost, it’s none of your business.]
Xu Ta shared this match’s results in the group, and the WeChat group exploded at the same time.
[RAG Official Jungle Xiao Ta: I met @SVP·Xie Ning’s big brother. Soon, he’ll become my big brother too.]
[UN·Chen Jia: Damn it, @UN·Haha, do you eat sh*t? Going 1-7 in a top lane game? Giving the most kills to the enemy team? I’ll report it to the coach immediately. You won’t have a good time from now on!]
[UN·Haha: Xu Ta, are you crazy? Why share the results? Your jungle kept ganking, and now you want to target us in the lanes too?]
[RAG Official Jungle Xiao Ta: I wasn’t the one ganking, it was my big brother. Whose fault is it if my skills are inferior? [Sticking out tongue]]
[UN·Haha: …]
[FG·Fang Yan: Is he really that strong? @UN·Haha, @OS·55, @PG·San, @FG·Liu Min, @PG·Wo Wo, you five can’t defeat them?]
[OS·55: It’s not our fault, they also had four professional players.]
[FG·Fang Yan: == The combined kills of those four players are still fewer than what Moo got alone. What are you talking about? I’ll send these results to all the coaches, get ready to be disciplined!]
“…”]
[FG·Fang Yan: However, you guys keep praising him one by one. I’m actually quite interested in meeting him.]
[RAG Official Jungle Xiao Ta: Haha, I remember you lost six out of ten matches in solo against Xie Ning. Xie Ning lost to him, so in a roundabout way, you’re also a loser.]
[OS·55: @FG·Fang Yan, go ahead. If you win against him, you’ll be my big brother from now on.]
[UN·Haha: @FG·Fang Yan, if you win against him, you’ll be my big brother from now on.]
[PG·San: @FG·Fang Yan, +1]
[FG·Liu Min: @FG·Fang Yan, +2]
[PG·Wo Wo: @FG·Fang Yan, +3]
[FG·Fang Yan: …]
Xu Li could feel his mentality changing. Even the slightest thing easily infuriated him, but he couldn’t correct it.
Moo was just a nobody, yet everyone was hyping him up. Was it necessary? He couldn’t even enter a professional team.
Boosting someone else’s morale while destroying his own prestige, as a professional player, praising others like this was simply demeaning.
Xu Li opened CatTV, and he remembered Moo’s livestream. Xie Ning had been praising him in the group all this time, and the two of them frequently duo queued. It was hard not to know.
Moo’s livestream room was similar to other streamers’ rooms, except this streamer didn’t use a webcam and didn’t like to talk.
After three minutes of being in the room, Xu Li finally heard a gentle and slow voice, expressing gratitude to the fans for their gifts.
The voice sounded young, with a slight stutter, unlike the invisible spider who killed instantly earlier.
The livestream room was filled with waves of gifts, with 620,000 followers and over a million online viewers. Some of them were virtual data from the platform, but these numbers were considered good among regular game streamers.
Xu Li spent nearly a year in the NG team to barely reach this number.
Moo was able to gain so many followers in a short time, and it all relied on Xie Ning. It’s truly a case of hitching a ride on a good thigh.
If only someone had supported him like this from the beginning, building up his momentum.
Xu Li squinted his eyes, closed Moo’s livestream room, and turned off the computer.
Jiang Mo no longer clashed with Xu Ta after that incident.
His in-game ID was known to everyone in the livestream room, and many viewers sent him friend requests in the game out of curiosity.
The friend request notifications reached over 50, but Jiang Mo couldn’t be bothered to open each one, so he missed Xu Ta’s friend request.
The early spring days still turned dark early, and before 5 o’clock, the sky outside was already dim.
Jiang Mo finished a match without any suspense, and just as the phone rang, he saw Chi Yu’s name. He stretched lazily and quickly answered the call in a fluster.
“Hello—”
Laughter came from the other side. “Why are you in such a hurry?”
“How, how did you know?” Jiang Mo was puzzled.
“I have eyes on you.”
Jiang Mo: “…”
Chi Yu asked, “Are you searching yourself now?”
Jiang Mo muted the microphone on his computer. “I’m not that stupid, I know you’re joking.”
“Alright.”
From Chi Yu’s tone, why did it sound a bit disappointed? Was it better for him to be a bit foolish?
“Do you still want to play ranked games?” Chi Yu changed the subject.
Jiang Mo glanced at the sky outside. He had lunch early, and now he realized he was feeling a bit hungry.
“N-No, let’s not play.”
Chi Yu asked, “What about dinner?”
Jiang Mo replied, “I’ll go downstairs and buy something.”
Chi Yu said, “Since you have time, would you like to have dinner with me?”
Jiang Mo: “!”
Jiang Mo: “Aren’t you busy?”
Chi Yu looked up at the window of the room where Jiang Mo was. He chuckled and said, “I’ll be waiting downstairs. Come down.”
Jiang Mo was surprised and quickly stood up, rushing to the window to look down.
The street lamps on the side of the road were already lit. Chi Yu leaned against his black car, surrounded by the white light. It was too far to see clearly, but Jiang Mo could see Chi Yu smiling at him.
The cold wind brushed against his ears, accompanied by Chi Yu’s faint laughter. Jiang Mo’s heartbeat quickened, and his face turned red.
Just a small surprise made him ecstatic.
Jiang Mo informed the livestream viewers that he was going to have dinner and would continue streaming later. He didn’t even have time to shut down his computer before he rushed downstairs.
On the ground floor, he deliberately slowed down before exiting the alley.
Chi Yu saw Jiang Mo leisurely walking out and pretended to be unhappy. “I thought you would give me a hug.”
Jiang Mo’s disheveled breathing exposed the fact that he had been running. He gasped for air and whispered, “Th-There are people.”
It was currently rush hour, and it was mealtime. There were cars and people everywhere on the streets.
“If there are people, there are people. Why would I care if they see us?” Chi Yu only wore a hat, not worried at all about revealing his identity. “After finally starting a relationship, I hope everyone knows.”
That you belong to me alone.
Boyfriend…
It was a foreign term that had nothing to do with him in the past.
Jiang Mo instinctively covered his face, not wanting Chi Yu to see his embarrassment. When his fingers touched his cheek, he suddenly realized that he was wearing a mask, and Chi Yu couldn’t see his current expression.
“Come here.” Chi Yu opened his arms and called out.
Surrounded by people, there was some distance between Jiang Mo and Chi Yu. When Chi Yu spoke, someone walked between them.
Chi Yu’s height was eye-catching, and his demeanor was different from the surrounding pedestrians. Many people passing by couldn’t help but glance at him. In the dim light, Chi Yu purposely stood in a spot where the street lamp couldn’t reach, making it difficult to see his face, and no one recognized him.
Jiang Mo didn’t hesitate for too long. Suppressing his embarrassment, he slowly approached Chi Yu.
Just as he reached a distance where Chi Yu could reach out his hand, Chi Yu grabbed his wrist, and Jiang Mo, caught off guard, fell into Chi Yu’s embrace.
“From now on, when you see me, do this, okay?” Chi Yu held Jiang Mo’s nape of the neck, applying gentle pressure.
Jiang Mo raised his head, and a shadow pressed against him. Through the mask, Chi Yu’s lips accurately met his.
“I g-got it,” Jiang Mo mumbled in a daze.
Note :
↩︎
↩︎- In the game League of Legends (LoL), the term “tribrush” refers to a specific type of brush or bush found on the map. It is called “tribrush” because it has three entrances or exits. These brushes are typically located in the jungle area of the map and are used for strategic purposes. ↩︎