《Carry My Jungler, Thank You》 CH 1 Defeated. This was Diadema 2023¡¯s battleground for its national finals, where millions of esports fans were watching the biggest event of the year. Dozens of cameras hung high above the venue, capturing the slightest expressions of the contestants on stage. Team VW rose up with a reverse sweep. This was the last battle that would determine the champion. The two teams have been at a stalemate for more than an hour. In that time, there were conflicts one after another, and only inhibitors remained on both sides. If another large-scale team battle occurred, the champion would be decided. This was a time when the players¡¯ mental fortitude were tested. ¡°QP¡¯s legendary jungler, Rafael, has just changed bushes. It seems like he¡¯s not giving up until he gets to his nemesis, Phea.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s shift our attention to VW¡¯s top-laner, Ah Pi. Coincidentally, Ah Pi was also bush camping.¡± ¡°This position happens to be QP¡¯s blind spot! Let¡¯s wait and see, will Ah Pi manage to catch a lost lamb in this narrow bush? However, there¡¯s a slim chance, because it was the supports¡¯ basic early game responsibility to survey all the bushes on the map. As a result, bush camping in the late game is less effective.¡± ¡°Sure enough!! What a pity! QP¡¯s mid-laner still has an enslavement skill. This skill will summon two souls who will automatically scan for nearby enemies and expose their field of vision. Now that Ah Pi¡¯s field of vision has been exposed, he can only give up¨C¡° ¡°Wait! He flashed! He did it!!! He controlled QP¡¯s ADC, Chen Han!!! Where did his flash come from?! Didn¡¯t he use it in the previous wave of team fights?¡± Everybody held their breath while witnessing this unexpected development. Nobody dared to let out a big breath, for fear of missing out on any movement on the screen. ¡°VW¡¯s Phea is finally here! Using flash to catch up, he activated a heaven-splitting burst of flames. The damage of the fire mage¡¯s late game level 10 ultimate move can instakill the ADC!!! Instakilled! Instakilled!!! Nice!!! As expected of the MVP of two finals, Demon King!¡± ¡°At the same time, our Rafael has appeared too! Rafael¡¯s choice this time is his famed favorite water-type jungler. We all know that water-type gets very strong in the late game, not to mention Rafael¡¯s ice-type skill that had the tendency to focus on control. Phea, who had used his flash, would have no way to withstand it! Almost instantly, he was killed by Rafael¡¯s burst! But, Phea had completed his mission. He had already used all of his offensive skills!!¡± ¡°VW¡¯s ADC, Xiao Di, came forward!!! Missing their DPS, QP could not leave in time. Their top-laner¡¯s mispositioning caused them to come to a deadlock! One down! Two down!! Nice!!! Now, QP is only left with Rafael!!! Can he defend the inhibitors all by himself?!¡± The conclusion was, no. With quick hands, the assassin wearing a dark, striped clock changed into a meat resurrection armor in seconds. However, in the end, he could only watch in vain as the inhibitor burst. Its fragments fell all over around him, like snow in a lonely summer. ¡°In this arduous yet exciting, hour-long tug-of-war, with only inhibitors left on either side, it was team VW that lived up to our expectations¡­ becoming the champion of the 2023 Diadema National Finals!!!!¡± The live commentary at the event venue was exciting and passionate. The audience roared, and lights and posters flew everywhere. ¡°Let us congratulate team VW, for winning the national championship for the second time!!!¡± Defeated. In the headset, the roaring of the players seemed muted for an instant, as thunderous cheers traveled from the huge venue. However, in the channel of team QP¡¯s headphones, it was dead silent. Just like that, they lost. In one short hour, an entire year of hard work became nothing. Only the winners¡¯ smiles were remembered, no one cared about the sweat of the losers. The lights came back on after the match ended. Just like countless pairs of prying eyes, they illuminated the whole scene brightly. Through the screen, Yin Yu took one last look at the assassin in white below Rafael¡¯s name and stood up in a daze. As instructed, the winners and losers had to shake hands, then everybody applauded as they watched the losers leave the stage. On the other hand, the winners would remain on the glorious stage, holding up the trophy that belonged to the victorious. Like a puppet without a soul, he mechanically shook each hand, not even daring to raise his head, for fear that his red eyes would be captured by the camera and be broadcasted to hundreds of millions of screens. ¡°Very exciting.¡± An indifferent-sounding voice sounded above his head. The teen in black raised his head abruptly and clashed directly with a pair of deep, gray pupils. In those eyes that lacked melanin, he could see his red eyes clearly. ¡°Are you laughing at me, Chu Ke?¡± He pulled a laugh that was uglier than crying. His usually domineering face was instead filled with discomposure. Around this time last year, in this same arena, with the same teammates and opponent, Yin Yu also watched as the trophy fell into the same hands of the person in front of him. But this year, the opening 2:0 was quickly chased into 2:3. No one could bear this scale of psychological gap. ¡°Laugh all you want. A loser like me deserves it.¡± Having said that, the teen wearing the team QP¡¯s uniform lowered his head quietly and left through the exit tunnel quickly. The owner of those gray eyes was stunned when he saw the teen¡¯s face. When the host reminded him to turn around to raise the trophy, his mind was still filled with Yin Yu¡¯s red eyes. Chu Ke did not mean anything else. It might have been a sworn enemy¡¯s mockery, but to say that in the position of the winner, it was more of a commendation of Yin Yu as a jungler. However, complemented by his poker face, it seemed to have achieved the opposite effect. Holding the trophy, the gray-eyed man was still absentminded¡ªnot because of the victory, but because he wondered if his thoughts were a little twisted. Seeing the redness spread from the corners of his enemy¡¯s eyes, he actually thought¡­ Damn, he¡¯s good-looking. On the way back to the headquarters, no one spoke a word. The bus was dead silent, the sound of breathing could be heard clearly. When they arrived at the meeting room, it was still dark inside. No one was in the mood to review the match. In the dark, Yin Yu fumbled in his pocket, before finally taking out a cigarette box. He had to distract himself, as his mood had reached a tipping point. With a flick, an ember of flame lit up in the darkness, and smoke swirled around in the darkness. ¡°How much were you paid?¡± He held it in and chose a milder approach. As the cigarette butt flickered, people who were shuffling in stopped abruptly when they heard those words. ¡°What¡ªwhat did you say?!¡± ¡°I¡¯m fucking asking how much money you made to play a fake match?!¡± Yin Yu exhaled a fierce puff of smoke, it was almost like his sharp eyes could cut through the cloth of darkness. ¡°Who are you to say that to me? Huh, just because you are Rafael? Just because you¡¯re the number one jungler? You blame me if we lose. And if we win, all the credit goes to you?¡± ¡°Go check the internet, aren¡¯t they all saying that I¡¯m a noob, that I shouldn¡¯t have gone to that bush. Did anyone say that it¡¯s your fault? Which lost match wasn¡¯t blamed on me? Last year was like that, and this year as well? Why?!¡± The people in the dark roared loudly, venting their dissatisfaction and envy. ¡°Heh. If you knew people were scolding you, why didn¡¯t you blame yourself for being a noob, but blame others instead?¡± The teen in black took off his uniform and stubbed out his cigarette with his fingers, the ember of the burning cigarette scorched the skin of his thumb, making a hair-raising creaking sound. Yet, he continued to pinch the roll of paper as if he felt no pain. In the shadow of the last light from the ember, his silhouette faded. ¡°If you were acting, you were acting. We already lost the match, is it that difficult to admit it? You should know that if I can say all this, I already know more than you think. The dirty deals you did with VW¡¯s top, I¡¯m not interested.¡± ¡°What you¡¯re doing is disrespecting all the hard work that our team puts in, Chen Han.¡± In an instant, he pressed the light switch behind him, and bright lights shot into the meeting room, eliminating any darkness. The other obese man stood on the other end of the meeting room, stood trembling, and spoke incoherently. ¡°You think I¡¯m the only one who thinks this way? Let me tell you, Captain Yin, everybody is clear about this. So long as you¡¯re here, we will never succeed.¡± ¡°Wei Xi, who is always criticized by you and compared to Fei Er, you think he secretly respects you, right? Let me tell you, he can¡¯t wait for you to retire early! Who likes your arrogance? All except that dog, De Si, who can still be considered loyal.¡± Chen Han¡¯s lips squirmed as he watched Yin Yu walk towards him in horror, the fat on his face trembled in fear. Yet, he still forced a prideful smile, tirelessly spewing venom like a poisonous snake. ¡°You¡¯re always this arrogant, but aren¡¯t you just like a lost dog now, hahahahahahahaha.¡± His words fell on deaf ears, as the teen in black threw the cigarette butt into the wastebasket, pushed the door open, and left expressionlessly. CH 2 ¡°I heard the new jungler is coming to headquarters today?¡± Training for today ended, and team VW dispersed from the training room. Some staggered and fell onto the sofa at the side of the room. With their legs raised, they started chatting away. ¡°I seem to have heard from Dog Yao a few days ago. Who knows who will catch the executive¡¯s eyes this transfer season.¡± Dog (Gou) Yao, whose name was Gou Yao, was team VW¡¯s ace coach. Privately, he got along well with the players, and they were of similar age, so they became more and more disrespectful. ¡°I heard some other news instead, the new jungler seems to be¨C¡± ¡°Ahem.¡± The two who were whispering to each other heard a light cough. They immediately looked down in embarrassment, and focused on training their fingers. ¡°Uh ¡­ Brother Chu, are you still playing ranked games?¡± One of the handsome teens rolled his eyes and walked over. Like a lackey, he started massaging the shoulders of the man sitting in the chair. ¡°Brother, do you know who the new jungler is?¡± The gray-eyed man controlled his mid-lane mage, targeting the minions and taking the last hit, earning more rewards. He ignored his own ADC¡¯s flattering behavior, maintaining a cold and unbothered look. The team¡¯s support came back, pushing the training room¡¯s door open. ¡°Younger brother, catch.¡± Xiao Di whistled, and caught the can that their ¡°Mother¡± threw in the air. He pried open the tab of the can with his teeth, raised his head, and poured down a mouthful of the carbonated water. In the beginning, the youngest ADC was the team¡¯s younger brother (Di Di), and he got the title as such. He did not mind the title because, with time and puberty, anyone who saw him would have to call him ¡°Father¡±. ¡°Mother, do you know which team¡¯s jungler the executives are looking at?¡± ¡°I know. When I was getting on the lift just now, I even saw Brother Lun bringing the new jungler around to familiarize him with the new environment.¡± Brother Lun was the jungler for this season¡¯s champion. When his team won the championship, he announced a regretful retirement due to a hand injury relapse. After he went behind the scenes, he was still one of team VW¡¯s honorary coaches. The jungler has always been the heart and soul of a team. A person in a position like that retiring all of a sudden did have some negative effects on team VW. The first to bear the brunt was mid-laner Chu Ke, as the team¡¯s substitute jungler did not have good chemistry with him. Who was Chu Ke? He was a two-time winner of the national championship and a two-time MVP of the finals. In the esports industry, he was considered a legend. If the potential of a person like that was suppressed just to coordinate with the jungler, it would be a waste. Weighing the pros and cons, the executives decided to poach a seasoned jungler from outside the team. During the transfer season, many professional players from other teams came to audition secretly, but none of them were suitable. Either because of a mismatch in playing style or because they were too individualistic and would require much cooperation from the team. VW was not a new team, so to change their playing style for a new jungler was a joke. Chu Ke casually moved his little mage to invade the enemy¡¯s jungle. Earlier on, in the bottom lane, he saw the opposing jungler¡¯s vision and timed the jungle¡¯s refresh rate, so he wandered around the enemy¡¯s jungle openly. The opposing jungler¡¯s level was nothing special, plus he followed Rafael¡¯s style and chose a water-type. Heck, if he were Rafael, not to mention invading jungles, you would not even be able to steal a single minion from his hands. Speaking of Rafael, his face from the finals seemed to appear before him again. Honestly, Yin Yu was very good-looking and was publicly acknowledged as handsome. In contrast to Chu Ke¡¯s femininity, his attractiveness was pleasing to the eyes. His face, which popped up in Chu Ke¡¯s mind every day, annoyed him to no end. He obviously defeated his mortal enemy and won the championship. But Chu Ke was not as happy as he expected it to be. These days, there was not a single news on Yin Yu¡¯s Weibo, Chu Ke was actually a little worried that the guy might have taken it too hard and chose to retire. Just as he was thinking about it, his teammate behind him mentioned Rafael, and the information was shocking. Chu Ke, the mid-laner demon king, who was known to make little to no mistakes, activated flash accidentally. ¡°What? Rafael!¡± Younger brother stomped his feet, almost spurting a face of coke on Mother. ¡°Shhhhhhhh, keep your voice down, don¡¯t let Brother Chu hear you.¡± He then immediately lowered his voice, ¡°Which Rafael are you talking about?!¡± Mother rolled her eyes, ¡°How many Rafaels are there who play professionally? Of course, it¡¯s QP¡¯s Rafael, Brother Lun¡¯s god! Speaking of this, in order to poach this number one jungler, the executives spent a lot of money, who knows how much transfer fee they paid. Anyway, just wait for tonight¡¯s blog announcement, it will definitely break the record for highest transfer fee.¡± Chu Ke, who was engaged in a fierce team battle, was almost captured by the opponent¡¯s top-laner again. His gray eyes darkened, and the mage on the screen expertly avoided an attack. Unfortunately, his flash was already used in the last wave, so he could not avoid the top-laner¡¯s deadly attack at this critical moment. The gray-eyed man stared blankly at the death countdown. He removed his headphones and casually put them on Mother¡¯s head. Pushing away his gaming chair, he stood up. ¡°Brother, brother, what¡¯s wrong?! Don¡¯t go, I didn¡¯t mean to cause you to die!¡± Mother was dumbfounded, but then he remembered the significance of the name ¡°Rafael¡± to Chu Ke. After all, Rafael was a sworn enemy with whom he had been competing with for three seasons. To hear that your enemy was becoming a teammate, this type of complicated news¡ªeven Chu Ke¡ªwho was stable like an old dog, would not be able to take it. ¡°Help me play, I¡¯m going to the bathroom.¡± Chu Ke picked up the coat on the back of the chair, lowered his eyes, and walked out. With a bang, the door closed, and the people in the training room were left looking at each other. ¡°It¡¯s over, Chu Ke won¡¯t go picking a fight with Rafael, will he?¡± Mother was so worried, but he could only sit down and help Chu Ke finish his game. The toilet was on the left side. Chu Ke paused and walked towards the coaching room on the right. At the same time, Coach Gou Yao happened to walk out of the room with a soft notebook. ¡°Chu Ke? I was just about to go find you, follow me.¡± He walked to the outside of team two¡¯s and team one¡¯s substitutes¡¯ training rooms. Looking through the glass wall, the seventeen-eighteen year old boys inside were typing on their keyboards frantically. ¡°Team two is playing a training match?¡± ¡°Yes, the new jungler came to the headquarters today. We already signed with him just now, he¡¯s your old friend. He¡¯s a celebrity jungler after all. His level of appearance, ability, and publicity are all of the standards, and the executives have spent a lot of effort poaching him. Fortunately, he terminated the contract with his old club first, otherwise, it¡¯d be impossible to take advantage of this loophole.¡± Gou Yao never once mentioned the name of the new jungler, but the two of them were clear about who it was. Chu Ke looked through the glass window silently. The players inside were all gathered around a computer desk. From the gap between the crowd, he could only see a pair of slender hands typing on the keyboard. ¡°Hey, no matter the grievances you had before, since you guys are teammates now, let it go. This time, the executives really paid a lot of money for you.¡± He did not respond, pushed open the door to the training room, and walked to the computer desk of team two¡¯s mid-laner. ¡°Brother¡­ Brother Chu, hello.¡± Chu Ke nodded coldly, signaling him to focus on the game. With his idol watching him play, the mid-laner suddenly found it hard to speak properly. Although the two belonged to the same team, Chu Ke¡¯s lifestyle had always been disciplined and routined; he was also very taciturn and had basically never seen or guided team two or the youth training team. It was difficult to see him outside of training. With his idol by his side, the nervous mid-laner¡¯s palms were full of sweat. He frantically kept tapping the hotkeys he had set for his skills. Ultimately, Rafael quickly killed him before he had a chance to do anything. ¡°Let me play.¡± After watching for a while, Chu Ke frowned and took over the gaming chair. By his side, the mid-laner of team two watched his mood with trepidation. On the other side of the training room, the teen in black lazily mowed down a wave of minions in the middle lane and demolished a tower in passing. The players surrounding him watched on with admiration. Even if they ignored Rafael¡¯s reputation, they did witness this assassin fancily killing team two¡¯s mid-laner three times in person. He could go wherever he wanted throughout the rift and had a complete grasp of the landscape. Although he talked a little too much, in the face of sheer competency, no one would protest. ¡°Mid-laner crematorium, ADC morgue.¡± As soon as this wave of trash talk dropped, a notice announced that the red team¡¯s assassin killed the blue team¡¯s ADC through their headphones. Chu Ke did not wear his headphones, so these words traveled to his ears clearly. He did not expect this guy to be so showy in private. Usually, he live-streamed in silence, who knew it was all pretense. Chu Ke stared deeply at the screen. Although the opponent was not initiating a team fight, Yin Yu was not in a hurry, as he alone led the opponent¡¯s gold by 1,500. The snowball was naturally getting bigger and bigger, but the assassin took his time to clear the enemy¡¯s jungle and saw a small-scale team battle break out in the bottom lane. After observing the number of people on both sides, he quietly went for the dragon pit. He was playing an unpopular light-type jungler today, and only this type of jungler with healing attributes could solo fight the dragon, although it took more time. The team battle in the bottom lane was almost over, and the gap in gold caused the red team to sacrifice two for three. The blue team¡¯s mid-laner had yet to use his ultimate ability and was sent back to heal by the higher-level ADC of the red team. This useless mid-laner was really a cash machine in the early game. It was all thanks to him that Yin Yu could level up so quickly. After a wave of team fights with deaths and injuries, no one noticed that the little assassin was going for the dragon. The dragon still had the last thousand drops of blood. Yin Yu glanced, and he was about to finish up and leave. At this moment, a dark mage suddenly sprang out from the bush behind the dragon, activated his ultimate move, Eye of the Dead, and nailed the low-blooded assassin in place. The two-staged attack easily killed both the assassin and the dragon. Yin Yu: ? Where did this mage come from? CH 3 The leftover blood blinked above the dark mage, seemingly saying, ¡°You think I¡¯m going home? No, actually, I came for the dragon.¡± ¡°Why is this mid-laner suddenly so intelligent?¡± Having lost the chance to kill the dragon, Yin Yu was very depressed, so he immediately brought forward the purchase of equipment, giving priority to equipment with release skills. The dragon was gone, giving the opponents three more waves of minions. Due to the minions¡¯ advancement, the tables had turned almost instantly. Yin Yu was obediently clearing minions on the top lane, and the opposing mid-laner who recalled to base ended up leading their assassin to kill the support in the bottom lane. [Rafael: Clear the lane, don¡¯t solo.] The attack buff brought by the dragon was quite considerable, so it was not wise to start a team fight at this time. But if things dragged on and the opposing dark magician managed to develop his skill tree, the situation would only get worse. However, the gold used for killing the opponent in the early game could only be found on the piggy bank, and that was Yin Yu. Yin Yu took a glance, got a general idea, and decided to gamble. [Rafael: Top-laner, force a team fight.] Yin Yu commanded in the team channel while skillfully avoiding vision wards. He went deeper into the enemy¡¯s territory and waited quietly for the opposing carry to use up all his skills before going in for the kill. Also, his first target was the cash machine in human form that snatched the dragon while he was not looking. I¡¯m a vengeful assassin.jpg Chu Ke hid in the grass. After using his ultimate ability, he purposely reserved a skill and managed to catch Yin Yu who came to kill him. With this catch, all the attacks were concentrated on him. In order to escape, the light-type assassin could only resort to using a level ten ultimate skill: Gabriel¡¯s Blessing. Damn, this mid-laner¡¯s play style is quite familiar. Huge wings surrounded the assassin, giving him a second of invisible state and recovery buff. The holy feathers released all control of him. Tsk, he got away. Chu Ke did not expect Yin Yu¡¯s level six skill tree activation to be of the holy light type. The nature of the holy light skills was a complete mismatch with the assassin¡¯s explosive attribute. You could not possibly be planning to let an assassin become a healer by the end of the game. But Rafael had not only added to it once, not twice but went all the way and activated a healer¡¯s ultimate life-prolonging skill. On the other hand, the equipment he bought was super powerful, suggesting that it was a complete reliance on equipment for high damage. In this wave of team fight, the blue team had the upper hand. The current kill count was two to four, which meant that the red team was left with one assassin who had just fled. Chu Ke retreated into the bush and went back to the base. At that time, the ADC took their support to the enemy¡¯s territory and caused trouble. Yin Yu, who they thought had escaped, killed a monster and got buffed, and then collected the two ¡°packages¡± in the jungle consecutively. Those were lousy teammates for you. In the next few rounds of team fights, Yin Yu could not find a breakthrough with this mid-laner who suddenly became intelligent. He knew that this could not drag on any further, so he got serious. In the last round of team fights, he mercilessly sold out his teammates and successfully wiped out the opposing team. The assassin in white robe inlaid with gold, stepped on the staggering corpses on the ground, holding a beautiful and elegant sword flower, and behind him was an exploding inhibitor. A huge victory sign appeared on his screen. ¡°God¡­ God Chu.¡± The mid-laner of team two watched in horror as their inhibitor exploded on his screen. He did not dare to look at Chu Ke¡¯s face. Usually, a victory or defeat did not matter much, but this was against Rafael! Not to mention, the reason for the defeat was largely due to his poor early game character development, so Chu Ke could not make a comeback later on. A minor reason was that the players of team two could not keep up with Chu Ke¡¯s pace. The team fights were a big mess. ¡°It¡¯s just one loss.¡± Chu Ke waved his hand, picked up the coat hanging on the chair, and got up. His eyes looked forward as if they could penetrate the crowd and landed on the insolent young man who was laughing on the inside. Forget it, they¡¯ll be teammates in the future after all. ? Standing in the crowd, Yin Yu flexed his knuckles, seemingly aware. He raised his head and was met with a tooth-itching face. The most hateful thing was that the owner of that face flashed him a friendly smile. Although Chu Ke was handsome, it could not conceal the fact that he had facial paralysis, so this distorted smile that he thought was friendly fell into Yin Yu¡¯s eyes as a clear provocation. What was more infuriating than a scornful sneer from Chu Ke? As soon as he thought of his own distraught look in the finals that was seen by this person, Yin Yu wished he could travel back in time and beat himself to death. ¡°Isn¡¯t that God Chu? Why is he in our training room?¡± The substitute members beside him were very excited, but he obviously knew that Chu Ke and Yin Yu had a long-standing grudge, so he carefully glanced at Yin Yu after speaking. I knew this playing style was familiar. The opposing mid-laner¡¯s playing style changed so much compared to before. Not simply an assassin, but an assassin who still has Smite skill, was actually robbed of the dragon by a low-health mage. This was simply shameful, not to mention that the person who robbed the dragon was Chu Ke. Yin Yu¡¯s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot as he cracked his joints leisurely. ¡°How was it?¡± He walked out of team two¡¯s training room. Gou Yao, who had just ended a phone call, greeted him. ¡°Very strong.¡± ¡°You think so highly of him?¡± Gou Yao raised his eyebrows in surprise, along with his facial fat, his two short eyebrows wrinkled together in a funny way. Chu Ke had always been really taciturn, it was rare for him to praise others. The most frightening thing was that the subject of his praise was his nemesis, Rafael. The gray-eyed man gave him a sideway glance slowly. He wondered if this man had thought about it. If Rafael was not strong, then how could he be worthy of being his nemesis for so many years. ¡°His weakness¡ªtoo solo.¡± From the beginning to the end of this training match, Yin Yu and his teammates hardly cooperated. In the early game development, he simply solo cleared a lane. In the late game, he sacrificed his teammate in a team fight. ¡°As long as it matches your style.¡± Gou Yao did not care about Rafael¡¯s shortcomings, and trust would naturally develop once he got familiar with his teammates later on. These could be nurtured, but it was difficult to change the playing style of an esports player. As early as last season, many people on the internet were saying that this pair of mortal enemies knew each other inside out, as they could almost completely predict the other person¡¯s next move. If a corporation of this kind was not with an opponent but a teammate, it would have dominated the entire industry long ago. Of course, it worked. In this world, Chu Ke and Yin Yu were the people who knew each other¡¯s playing style the best. Every time they competed, Yin Yu would cross over towers to kill Chu Ke, despite not securing the jungle. Even if Chu Ke used up all his defensive skills, he would want to kill off this assassin. Chu Ke hesitated for a moment and decided to let go of his personal emotions. ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡± He was an opportunistic explosive mid-laner, which complemented Rafael¡¯s assassin style. The jungler who retired from VW was a typical defensive type, playing as the mid-laner¡¯s dog. This style could maximize the strength of Chu Ke, but at the same time, it was less tolerant of mistakes. If Chu Ke¡¯s condition was not good in a game, it would drag down the morale of the whole team. Therefore, Yin Yu¡¯s offensive style raised Chu Ke¡¯s expectations. No matter their grievances, when it was the appropriate time, he would clearly distinguish public from private matters. ¡°Get along well with him then!¡± Gou Yao patted Chu Ke¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ll reserve a private room. It¡¯s a treat for you guys. You bring Rafael to his dormitory to put his luggage.¡± Gou Yao always had an eye for this. As long as these two people could put aside their previous grudges, they would definitely be the ultimate pairing in this industry. Therefore, the first step was to create opportunities for them to get to know each other and sort out previous conflicts so that they could work hand in hand in the esports arena. Chu Ke: ¡­! Chu Ke: ? CH 4 Anyway, it was certain that they would be teammates in the future, so it was better to rip off the bandaid now. Like an emotionless killer, Chu Ke stood stiffly at the door of team two¡¯s training room. Thud, thud, thud. There was only the sound of footsteps in the entire corridor and an awkward silence between the two. Watching as this teen took out a cigarette habitually, Chu Ke frowned indistinctly and silently increased the distance between them. ¡°You¡¯re the one who snatched that dragon, right?¡± Yin Yu followed quickly, he hated the feeling of falling behind, it was like bowing his head for no reason. Initially, the two of them lived in peace, but he could not help provoking this non-talkative refrigerator. ¡°Hey, have you gone mute?¡± From Yin Yu¡¯s angle, Chu Ke¡¯s handsome side face was stern. He stopped smoking, secretly straightened his waist, and found that, sadly, he was actually a few centimeters shorter than this person. ¡°Yes.¡± It was really just a few centimeters. Damn it, was there anything more depressing than being shorter than your opponent? ¡°Huh?¡± Yin Yu thought he had been discovered when he secretly compared their heights, so he quickly turned his eyes away. ¡°It was me who stole your dragon.¡± Seeing this little gesture from the corner of his eyes, Chu Ke wanted to laugh, but when he remembered who this person was, he immediately regained his expression and resumed his usual indifferent personality. ¡°Yo! God Chu is really powerful.¡± The black-clothed boy acted strangely. The two people who had been specially instructed by the coach to get along with each other turned their heads at the same time. Great¡­ For them to be at loggerheads once they met, not to mention being teammates, it would be great if you could kill your teammates in game. Not long after, the two arrived at the team¡¯s dormitory. The moment the door was opened, Yin Yu was confused and surprised at the same time. Although it was a dormitory, it was not an exaggeration to call it a presidential suite as well. Team VW had won the domestic championship for two years in a row, attracting many investors, so their headquarters showed their wealth. The dormitory of team one was allocated a large area with all kinds of facilities supplied. Plus, they were all single rooms. Compared to this room, the dormitory of team QP was like a slum. It was not just the accommodations. At noon today, Yin Yu had a meal in the VW cafeteria. There were rumors that the chef was recruited from a Michelin restaurant. This was due to the fact that one of their investors was a famous high-end catering company. Their chef was shipped here directly, and attached to him was a world-class nutritionist. Damn, these people enjoyed so much every day, how have they not drowned in the greenhouse? What happened to all that talk about diamonds being made under pressure? Our ancestors really deceived me! Yin Yu would never admit that he was jealous. ¡°You can go out now.¡± He walked into the room and spoke bluntly. ¡°Tonight at seven-thirty, the coach is treating us to dinner at Hot Pot City.¡± Chu Ke uttered the longest sentence of the day. After a while, he remembered that this person did not know where the Hot Pot City, where their team often had dinner was. ¡°I¡¯ll wait for you here.¡± ¡°Mm.¡± Then, he saw the teen in black smile slightly and slammed the door shut in his face. The dust on the door blew into his face. Chu Ke: ¡­¡­ *** In order to strengthen the relationship between the two and to officially introduce Yin Yu to the members of team VW, Gou Yao, who was known as a miser, actually took the initiative to pay for dinner out of his own pocket. Now that winter was coming, you could not go wrong with having hot pot. Yin Yu forgot to bring a coat when he came out, and he was leaving the well-heated VW headquarters. Swept by the sudden gust of cold wind, it gave him goosebumps. But the enemy was by his side, so he absolutely could not show any sign of cowardice. Therefore, when filling his seasoning bowl, Yin Yu dug for a large spoonful of chopped chili. As the spice went down into his stomach, it completely dispelled the winter chill. He did not expect to be able to eat such an authentic red pepper chili at a place like S City. He was already prepared to live on healthy clear soups, relying only on the chili sauce. ¡°My god! God R, how are you so good at eating spicy food!¡± Xiao Di leaned over, and a glance into his bowl filled with bright red condiments was enough to scare him back into his seat. The atmosphere at the dinner table was strangely good. Everyone could find something to talk about with Yin Yu, except for Chu Ke, who was drinking clear soup quietly in the corner¡­ In any case, that was his personality, and everyone was used to it. ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m from Province H.¡± ¡°Province H? Brother Chu is also from Province H, but I don¡¯t ever see him eating spicy food ¡­¡± Young brother muttered in a low voice, and everyone cast their eyes on Chu Ke in the corner. Chu Ke, who was focused on drinking his clear soup, was silent. ¡°Really? Let me tell you, only a tough guy with iron bones can eat this bowl of chopped chili peppers while keeping cool, without a change to his expression. In Province H, those who can¡¯t eat chili peppers are the weak ones.¡± A person from Province H who could not eat spicy food? Yin Yu looked at Chu Ke¡¯s cowardly look and could not help his big mouth. While giving the corner a provocative look, he picked up a piece of beef tripe in front of Xiao Di, dipped it into his bowl, waited until the small chili peppers stuck on, then put it into his mouth. The gray-eyed man watched this scene calmly, got up in the next second with his own bowl, and scooped half a bowl of chili peppers into it in front of the whole table. ¡°Hey, hey, hey? But Brother Chu, you don¡¯t eat chili? Don¡¯t be rash!!!¡± Chu Ke stared at the plate of beef tripe in front of him with a stiff face and fierce eyes. Despite knowing his own tolerance level for spicy food, he still stuffed it into his mouth without hesitation. After eating, he pretended to be calm and slapped the chopsticks on the table in response to Yin Yu¡¯s provocation. The two men looked at each other across the room. It was like swords clashing, and sparks flew everywhere. Gou Yao could only pretend he did not see anything. No one knew what was going on, but when Chu Ke, who was usually calm and mature, met Yin Yu, his IQ seemed to be debuffed. With a beeping sound, it fell, and his character design was going to collapse. ¡°In these few days, you guys will go onto the game to train your team play and get familiar with each other. The key performance indicators for this season have not been released yet, but your ranking in the national server must at least be in the top fifty. This, you guys should know, so I won¡¯t say much too much.¡± ¡°I contacted the managers of several teams this afternoon. It has been decided that we will play an internal training match next week.¡± ¡°Oh right, the former jungler Brother Lun has left. Chu Ke will be the replacement leader for now. You must communicate more when ranking, especially Chu Ke!¡± The person who was named again, Chu Ke, was experiencing a burning pain in his stomach. Gou Yao could not bother to care about the childish spice competition between the two of them. ¡°Don¡¯t spit out directions word by word, use a few more words, and don¡¯t make it look like you¡¯re constipated. During team plays, give more instructions to your teammates.¡± The leader was usually the jungler of the team. If the jungler was unable to command, other carry positions would fill in. Yin Yu had just arrived, and people on the team were not familiar with his playing style yet. Gou Yao thought to let everyone get familiar with his jungling tempo first, then hand over the command to him. ¡°Okay, okay. Old Yao, have you been possessed by an old lady? Eat quickly, or your food will get cold.¡± Younger Brother was fighting for a piece of bean curd skin with Mother. In the end, their ADC younger brother got the upper hand with his speedy hands. With a large piece of tofu stuffed in his mouth, his speech slurred. Gou Yao¡¯s eyelids twitched, and when he looked again, the food on the table was almost half gone and was basically devoured by his rivals who did not graduate from kindergarten. After realizing this, he slowly stopped talking and slid a plate of shrimp into the clear soup pot. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll stop. Anyway, you guys haven¡¯t made me worry in these two seasons. I¡¯ll be counting on you guys for this season¡¯s bonus.¡± ¡°Here, this glass of beer is for you guys. Whatever has happened in the past won¡¯t count after we drink this. From now on, you will be teammates on the same team, so help each other and love each other!¡± The VW team stipulated that members could not drink alcohol, but since the coach was turning a blind eye today, everyone ran giggling to ask for a few bottles of beer. Yin Yu was a bit short-sighted. He took off his contact lenses when he went to his room just now, so now the whole table looked blurry. When everyone raised their glasses, he got a closer look. ¡°Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.¡± Chu Ke could not eat spicy food in the first place, and the result of forcing himself to eat spicy food was that his usual cold face seemed to be splashed with red paint. He wanted to cover it up, but he could not escape if he stood up to raise his glass. This was really a joy to watch on someone with facial paralysis. Yin Yu did not give him any face and almost died laughing while lying on the sofa. Honestly, he could laugh about this for a whole year. CH 5 The fact that Rafael joined VW was not a secret. Immediately, their official blog announced the big news that the number one jungler in the national server had joined VW¡¯s team one. His record transfer fee of tens of millions even shocked all the people who were previously not invested. Because of this, the Weibo post was instantly ranked among the top three most searched by netizens. [What? Who¡¯s going to pinch me? My male god went to his old enemy¡¯s team? Hahaha, I must have opened Weibo the wrong way today.] [Before, who was it that said God R was going to retire? Can you please open your eyes and have a good look?] [My god, I can actually see God R and God Chu become teammates in my lifetime?! Is it the end of the world?! Pinch me!] [Tens¡­ Tens of millions of transfer fees, VW is still a tycoon father as always.] [The number one jungler and the number one mid-laner. This lineup of VW¡¯s goes against god¡¯s will. I heard that the Hammer company has also started preparing for the world competition this year. I feel that it¡¯s promising for them to win the world championship.] [The one upstairs, don¡¯t be so optimistic. Club company and the European team are also very strong. I have watched their games, and their first place may not be much worse than VW.] There was chaos in the comments section, and opinions were diverse. At this time, some people also keenly discovered a problem. [When did God R terminate his contract with QP? There was no activity on QP¡¯s official blog.] There was no movement on QP¡¯s official blog, but Chen Han, the ADC of the team QP, posted a photo at this time. It was a selfie of himself posing with a V. This selfie was subsequently reposted by QP¡¯s mid-laner and support, which triggered an explosion of discussion amongst netizens. [I knew there was a problem in QP during the post-match interview, but I didn¡¯t expect that everyone was outcasting Rafael.] [qp.adc: If I do not give VW this national championship, how will others know that even Rafael can¡¯t lead me.] [I¡¯m sorry that I, Chen Han, am really stable. A stable kilI-streak ATM.] Now that Rafael had terminated his contract with his old club, a lot of QP fans went for him, automatically switching their machine guns to point at VW. One after another, all kinds of trash talk emerged in the comments section. The entire Weibo esports channel was a bloodbath. Yin Yu¡¯s cell phone vibrated all morning. By the time he was done with training and picked up his phone, his WeChat had already accumulated hundreds of unread messages. Within Diadema¡¯s professional league community, it exploded even more. Many anchors, commentators, and players came to congratulate him on his transfer. He scanned his messages briefly, sent a reply of gratitude, and opened a chat box. [Des: Ah Yu, Chen Han, and the others posted on Weibo.] [Des: Now that you¡¯ve left, I want to leave too. I really didn¡¯t know they would treat you like this.] Des was the top-laner of QP. The two of them met in the game and joined the Diadema profession together, then they entered the national championship passionately. They were old friends and also a rare, golden top-jungler pair in the professional league. Before Yin Yu and QP forcibly terminated their contract, he told Des in advance but did not mention anything about the outcasting from the team. When Yin Yu told him about Chen Han match-fixing the game, his face turned red and his nose flared in anger. Since then, he decided to live and die with Yin Yu in this profession. But Des¡¯ family was not well off, he had a mother who was bedridden and needed money for many follow-up treatments. A high penalty fee was required to terminate his contract, and Yin Yu naturally would not allow that to happen. [Yin Yu: Don¡¯t think too much. Train well.] It has been three years since the league started, and it turns out that there is only one person who treats me sincerely. He was a person who did not express his feelings well. Selfish to the core, he rarely showed concern toward the people around him. It was not that he did not notice the underlying problem in QP before, but he turned a blind eye to it due to his own arrogance. He only had himself to blame for this outcome. Yin Yu, you really are a failure. He messed up his black hair, and his mood was unusually depressed. His eyes and eyebrows drooped gloomily, which made him look extremely dispirited. ¡°Yes, yes, yes! That¡¯s the pose! Don¡¯t move!!! Do not move!¡± The long-lens camera that came out of nowhere made eye contact with him. Yin Yu: ¡­ A proper, tragic atmosphere. All messed up by you. Compared to the Korean teams, domestic teams had a different kind of strict management. Due to an increase in commercialization in the esports field, the executives started to pay great attention to building the public image of professional players. After creating a Weibo account, players like Yin Yu, who was good-looking and excelled in the game, could gain tens of millions of fangirls. He was also offered a higher price by advertisers than those given to some B-list celebrities. Investors have also earned economic benefits from him. After finally signing such a lucrative contract, he definitely had to make the best use of it. No matter what he did recently, a photographer with a long lens could appear suddenly, flashing and snapping photographs with lightning speed. ¡°Tsk tsk, Brother Yin, you can make your debut right away.¡± Taking advantage of the gap in training the next day, Younger Brother clicked his tongue and handed his handphone to him. On it was the daily publicity post released by the VW official blog. In the photo, the boy wearing the VW team uniform was leaning against the wall, with his long legs stretched out unreservedly. From this angle, with his attractive profile, outlined by the light behind him, he looked surreal. Credits had to be given to the post retoucher as even Yin Yu himself had to click his tongue in astonishment. ¡°Amazing, wherever you go with this handsome face, you¡¯ll be enshrined.¡± Feeling helpless, he took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. ¡°Plus, in our team, Brother Chu is the most valuable. For someone to outdo him, the person is truly a superstar.¡± Although Yin Yu was the most expensive jungler, his popularity was still slightly lower than that of Chu Ke. After all, the latter had been crowned with two domestic championship trophies and had the fearsome title of Great Demon King. In addition, Chu Ke had a huge hero pool, which allowed him to play in any position. Except for the jungler position, Yin Yu was terrible at other positions. ¡°Come review the match.¡± A flat and emotionless voice suddenly sounded from behind, scaring Younger Brother that he almost jumped up. When he turned around, he saw the mid-laner, Demon King, standing outside the training room. He did not know how long he had been listening to them chatting. For some reason, these past two days, Chu Ke wore a black mask on his face. Although only a pair of gray eyes were exposed, the oppression accumulated over the years still made Younger Brother terrified. ¡°Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, Brother Chu!!!¡± The ADC shrank his neck and trotted to sit by the table. Now, all of Chu Ke¡¯s attention fell on the other person. Yin Yu remained still and continued to puff out smoke from under his extremely oppressive gaze. They were outside the training room, and there was no ban on smoking. Chu Ke had no choice but to continue staring at him expressionlessly. With the black mask on his face, it looked quite comical. Yin Yu felt uncomfortable to be stared at by him, but still stubbornly took the last puff, and stared back fiercely. Speaking of which, why did this guy suddenly start wearing a mask? CH 6 It was bright outside the window. The sunlight bypassed the thick woolen curtains, and sneaked in from the cracks in the corners, quietly blooming in this dark room. A few strands of hair crawled to the eyelids of the person on the bed, tickling him gently. The person on the bed muttered in a daze, wrapped himself into a ball tightly, leaving only a few scattered strands of hair exposed. ¡°Tsk.¡± A pale and thin arm stretched out of the bed and fished for the handphone on the bedside table. 9:00 It¡¯s way too early. Yin Yu opened his eyes in a daze, threw his phone aside, and turned over determinedly. After about ten minutes, he jumped up from the bed irritably. As soon as he opened the curtains, the annoying sunlight rushed onto the carpet, shining on his bare feet. At night, he always slept with only a pair of underpants, and the air-conditioning in the room was warm as spring. It was hard to imagine that the outdoors separated by a wall had already reached below zero. ¡°What kind of sun comes out in winter¡­¡± Yin Yu¡¯s sleep was shallow. As long as he woke up in the middle of the night, he would not be able to fall asleep again. Forget it, let¡¯s get up. Ever since he started playing in the professional league, his working hours and rest time had never been normal again. According to the traditional rules of domestic teams, there was no training in the morning. After lunch at noon, the solo queue would begin at one, until dinner time at six in the evening. At seven sharp, it would be internal team practice or friendly matches against other teams. Finally, after eleven was time for personal solo queues. Normally, going to bed at two or three in the morning was considered early. The lonely solo queues usually only ended later into the night. Therefore, games in the middle of the night and early morning were all played by a group of professional players fighting back and forth. Esports teenage players were a group of energetic night owls. Yin Yu had a standard lethargic constitution. He went to bed early and woke up late, and usually, he would not deliberately train at night. He never slept well, and rashly adding training might affect the training effectiveness for the whole of the next day. He would rather go to bed earlier than do something he might not reap benefits from. Yet, he could not help wanting to stay up. Every day, he hung out until the middle of the night and ended up looking weary after waking up the next day. When he was in QP, he requested the coach to have his solo queue session moved from evening to late in the night. But in VW¡­ it was better for newcomers to keep a low profile. The dining room was empty, and it was only when he got there that he remembered that if he wanted breakfast the next day, he had to let the facility manager know in advance. This bunch of esports teenagers did not eat breakfast. Over time, the chef started following the team¡¯s schedule and stopped preparing breakfast. He was not familiar with S City, and he did not know any breakfast shops nearby. A few nights ago, he wanted to get a late-night snack, but he could not find anything spicy to refresh himself even after looking around for a long time. Forget it, I¡¯ll eat at noon. The corridor was empty, and the entire training base was extremely quiet. Yin Yu walked into the training room and unexpectedly heard the clicking sound of a keyboard. There was actually someone who was earlier than him. He could not help being a little curious and took a look with a raised head. The handsome man with black hair and gray eyes was sitting on the gaming chair with his usual expressionless face, and his fingers were jumping rapidly on the keyboard. Hehe. Yin Yu revealed a disgusted expression and quickly retracted his head. In the afternoon, there were training matches for several internal teams. After these few days of practice training, they had a temporary system set up. Last season, no players in the national server could defend against VW¡¯s set of explosive fire-type skills, which caused other players to follow suit. In order to maintain the balance of the game, the new version released this season by Hammer Headquarters had the explosive damage of the fire element weakened. On the other hand, wood and water elements that have been sitting on the bench were strengthened. In addition, there was a new restriction whereby heroes with the same attribute cannot be used in the same team. That was the death of the powerful double fire-type carry and double crowd control carry strategy. The previous lineup would naturally need to be replaced. In the past few days, training matches were played well according to the rulebook, and the shortcomings of the team were exposed. Even the smallest mistakes during team play were mercilessly pointed out by Chu Ke during the review and Yin Yu was the one who received the most criticism. ¡°Trust your teammates more, and don¡¯t use your teammates¡¯ sacrifices to create opportunities for your own carry at critical moments. This isn¡¯t an ordinary ranking, this is esports.¡± It was inevitable that Chu Ke would nag more. He was merciless and always hit right on the nail. Although what he said was correct, whenever Yin Yu would hear criticism from him, it was hard to swallow. ¡°Mm, I understand.¡± Standing in the middle of the meeting room, Chu Ke, who was going through the replay of the game, had just finished speaking. When he lowered his head, he saw the unhappy expression of the boy in black. Yin Yu was actually not as bad as Chu Ke pointed out. After all, he was one of the top three and titled as the number one assassin in the national server. The teamwork with him had also been smooth, as if they had rehearsed thousands of times, and they were born to do this. But the closer you got to perfection, the more noticeable little flaws became. The demon king did not know how to communicate. When the former Captain Lun was still around, he would never criticize a teammate so harshly. After all, everyone was a genius esports teenager. Young and talented, who would not have a bit of arrogance? If there really was something that needed to be mentioned, Brother Lun would relay it to the coach and ask him to do it instead. The players were all of the same generation, too harsh of a criticism could easily lead to discord within the team, which was a taboo in esports competitions. What was more, criticism from a sworn enemy could easily trigger a mentality to rebel. Chu Ke thought of this in the middle of speaking, and instead of continuing, he pursed his lips. Chu Ke understood Yin Yu¡¯s jungling style the best. When discussing tactics in the past, he deliberately planned based on Yin Yu¡¯s weakness. The tactics were not all useful, but when they were, it could not be overlooked. Diadema had never been a one-man game. No matter how capable a person was, not being able to cooperate well and the lack of trust in teammates were fatal weaknesses. There was only a little more than a month to the start of the winter season. Time was tight. The winter season games were ranked by points, and the top three teams could qualify for the Intercontinental Tournament. The Intercontinental Tournament would be held after the Spring Festival and only the champion and runner-up could enter the World Tournament. However, because the spring season games were postponed, the top eight teams could compete for the Summer National Championship. At the end of summer was the stage for the World Tournament finals. This was the latest official promotion rules. The Hammer Company started the first World Championship this year, and the world was divided into four regions: Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia. There would be eight teams competing for the World Championship trophy. During this adjustment season, all the players did not take a vacation after finishing the national competition but used the time for intensive training instead. The winter season game ranking was extremely important, it held the tickets to the World Finals. At that time, all the teams would be attending this event in their peak condition. CH 7 ¡°The draw for the winter season games is out. Our opponent in the first game is SG.¡± With a soft leather notebook in one hand, Coach Gou Yao stood in front of the projection screen, showing the basic information and insights on all members of team SG. It included their personal preferences, and some small paragraphs even mentioned their work and rest times. It made people wonder if VW hired a private investigator to obtain this information. SG was one of the top five domestic teams, but their draw luck was terrible. In the semi-finals of the second season, they played five full rounds against VW only to lose with regret. In the third season¡¯s first semi-final, they missed entering the finals after they were sniped by QP, returning home in defeat. But SG¡¯s strength laid there. During the regular season, they met VW and won occasionally. Therefore, in the first game against SG, they could not be careless. If they lost at the doorstep, not only would it wear down morale, but VW¡¯s new lineup would also be questioned. Among them, the new jungler, Yin Yu, would bear the brunt of public opinion. ¡°SG has a very typical system with their shooters as the core. The team plays the early game conservatively. The golds and kills are given to the team¡¯s shooter, Cole, and the jungler provides support to the shooter like a dog.¡± ¡°In many classic SG games, they play against all odds in the beginning and make a comeback in the late game. Of course, this strategy has its advantages, but its flaws are also very fatal. So, if the shooter is not defeated in the early game, the shooter in the late stage will be able to use Six God¡¯s equipment. By then, It will be very difficult to break up this established system.¡± Cole was recognized as the number one ADC in the national server, which allowed SG to come up with its ¡°four defense and one offense¡± tactic. This was enough to show his strength. ¡°So, when lane-pushing in the early game, you must not be overpowered.¡± Hearing this, Xiao Di nodded solemnly. Younger brother (Xiao Di) was no less talented than Cole, but he was too young and had not yet reached the peak APM (actions per minute) of his career. His experience was also far from the veteran Cole, who had played many MOBA games. Given time, it was not certain who would be the number one ADC on the national server. In the previous regular season, Cole managed to overwhelm Xiao Di in the bottom lane, as if he were rearing a pig. In mid-season, he stepped on the head of the assassin, who was out of skills, and made a comeback. This matter had been a thorn in Xiao Di¡¯s heart. Since the finals, he has been training hard to get rid of the shame and prove his bottom lane ability to everyone in this spring season. ¡°In the early game, assassins focus more on the bottom lane. Their mid-laner and top-laner abilities are not outstanding, so we have the advantage.¡± The heating in the conference room was too high, and Gou Yao¡¯s voice was quite hypnotic. It perfectly matched up with his high school physics teacher and created a drowsy atmosphere, making Yin Yu incredibly sleepy. He propped his head up with his fingers, and while twirling a pen in his hand, he answered casually. ¡°I won¡¯t say much about Chu Ke, follow the assassin and support the bottom lane more. As for the top laner¡ª¡± ¡°SG¡¯s top laner is not a simple character, don¡¯t get eaten when pushing lane, and be careful not to be carried away by the tempo of their top laner when starting a team fight.¡± Gou Yao¡¯s chubby face was serious. He set his eyes on Ah Pi, who was sitting in the corner, warningly. The drowsy Yin Yu took advantage of his long bangs as cover and took the whole scene in. VW¡¯s top-laner, Ah Pi. Yin Yu closed his eyes when he thought of the rumors that had been raging inside and outside the esports circle a few months ago. In last season¡¯s autumn game, VW played an extremely difficult last match. At the most critical point of the game, the top-laner Ah Pi made a mistake when starting a team fight, which caused almost the whole of VW to be wiped out. Only the jungler who was at the edge of the circle managed to escape. Hanging by a thread, just when everyone thought that it was hopeless and even the commentator expressed regret, the jungler Ye Lun broke out with his extreme APM, perfectly dodging the opponent¡¯s binding skills. With the help of the resurrection armor, he completed the feat of defending the inhibitor all by himself. This battle was very famous. Almost immediately after it was fought, it became a hot topic on major platforms like Weibo. While netizens shouted 666 one after another, many rumors were also involved. For example, VW¡¯s top-laner Ah Pi and jungler Lun had a bad relationship, and they bribed a certain player from YOI to specifically target VW¡¯s jungler, deliberately making his old injury relapse, among other speculations. When Ah Pi joined the VW team, he caused a lot of controversy. Now, doubts about his strength were getting more and more serious, with many players cursing on Weibo. After the finals, Brother Lun announced that his old injury had relapsed, so he could only retire with regret. This explosive news seemed to confirm everyone¡¯s second guess even more. Yin Yu did not know whether Ah Pi was deliberately targeting Brother Lun, but what Yin Yu knew was that he once heard a conversation in the stairwell of team QP. ¡°¡­I have considered what you said last time.¡± Chen Han? What are you doing in such a remote place, instead of training at this time of the day? ¡°Brother Pi, the price you offered is too low. After all, it¡¯s¡­ the finals!!¡± Coincidentally, Yin Yu went back to the dormitory to pick up some things. Wearing slippers and holding a glass of water, he had no intention of prying into other people¡¯s privacy. He frowned, opened the door, and left. The last few words traveled through the air indistinctly, and they were not very clear. At that time, he did not think too much about it. Later, after the finals, he combined Chen Han¡¯s poor performance in the match with his evasive eyes before the game. As he watched the replay video on the way back to the base and then thought of the conversation that he overheard. He made a bold guess, the conversation in the conference room after the game confirmed the fact of Chen Han playing a dishonest match. After the final, Ah Pi attracted many fans because of his outstanding performance in the last championship match. According to Yin Yu¡¯s quiet investigation recently, this person was a gambler. He had bet ten million on VW in the final and made a lot of money after the match. The little money used to bribe Chen Han was probably not worth a fraction of what he won. He would eventually be apprehended by the tail and taken to court. It was 2032, and the punishment for esports match-fixing had already been written into the constitution. He did not expect that there were still people who dared to commit such crimes. Once this was discovered, the revocation of medals and trophies would be considered a light punishment. If severe, it could be a complete loss of one¡¯s reputation. Yin Yu was a person who held grudges very well. His championship trophy got stolen, this was something he could not let go of. Watching the coach¡¯s behavior, Ah Pi¡¯s bribing of Chen Han should have nothing to do with VW¡¯s executives. ¡°Basically, the main point of tomorrow¡¯s strategy is to be swift and precise. Explosive. Play the early game well for the snowball effect.¡± Having said so much, Gou Yao was thirsty as well. He summed up tomorrow¡¯s tactical analysis and finally asked routinely, ¡°Anyone who has other suggestions on strategies, you can raise them.¡± ¡°I have.¡± The black-haired boy smiled slightly. As he flicked his slender fingers, the pen danced lightly on his joints. As soon as the hand supporting his head was put down, the long black hair slipped down. He raised his chin slightly as if there were stars flashing proudly in his eyes. ¡°I do have an idea that will work well against SG.¡± CH 8 Players from both sides shook hands, and the staff in the competition arena were making their final adjustments to the headphones and computers. ¡°Why are the VW people acting so weird today?¡± SG¡¯s mid-laner was sitting on pins and needles. Recalling the mysterious smiles on the faces of team VW earlier, they could not help but feel a little suspicious. ¡°Who knows, maybe it¡¯s because there¡¯s an extra number one jungler in the team, so they¡¯re getting complacent.¡± Cole fiddled with the headphones in his hand carelessly, not taking it seriously. ¡°But¡­¡± The mid-laner still had a bad feeling about the situation. He wanted to warn his teammates but was interrupted mercilessly by Cole. ¡°Enough! The competition is about to start, don¡¯t talk about pointless things. Just like before, defend me, let me level up.¡± Recently, VW¡¯s Xiao Di played ranked games like crazy, even briefly topping the national server before the spring games started. This attracted the discussion of many people on the internet, who said that Cole¡¯s position as the number one ADC on the national server was not guaranteed. Cole had been avoiding the topic. Indeed, because he was getting old and starting to decline from his peak condition, that had also been discussed by many people. What¡¯s more, they betted on their national server ranking, with Xiao Di winning Cole, angering Cole to death. Hmph, when he played Xiao Di like a domestic pig in the bottom lane during the fall games, why did these people not jump out to defend that trash? Moreover, he was only a minor, how could he compare with the first AD? In the deepest part of his heart, a burst of raging flames was eating away his sanity, and he was about to go mad with jealousy. It seemed Xiao Di was not sufficiently suppressed last year for him to continue prancing around. So what if he had talent? As his senior, he would definitely let this ignorant ADC realize who was the real number one on the national server. ¡°Hey, can you hear me?¡± The headphone just connected, so it sounded slightly distorted with a pulsing sound of electric current. It rushed into Chu Ke¡¯s ear, making him frown slightly. Yin Yu turned the button and adjusted the volume. ¡°Remember the tactic we discussed yesterday. Listen to my instructions.¡± Recalling the strategy Yin Yu proposed at the meeting yesterday, Xiao Di wanted to laugh. When he accidentally put the headphones too close to his mouth, his manic laughter filled the entire team channel. ¡°Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Brother, you are such a genius.¡± Chu Ke¡¯s face was now completely dark. He took off his headphones calmly, the coldness emitting from his body almost froze Xiao Di to death. ¡°Brbrbr¨Cbrother Chu¡­¡± Xiao Di, who had been giggling for a while, felt that something was off. His survival instincts made him laugh softer and softer. Seeing that a scene of cannibalism was about to take place, the commentator saved him in the nick of time. ¡°Alright, the game shall begin now. First of all, according to the new rules released by the Hammer company, the winter game will adopt blind selection. Each team has one chance to check the element of a certain opposing player. The banned element will be chosen in a random draw.¡± ¡°The first game features the previous year¡¯s championship team, VW, against the strong senior team, SG. This year, both sides have new additions to their team. VW¡¯s top jungler, Rafael, is sitting on a sky-high transfer fee. On the other hand, SG has a new mid-laner, Ka Lin, promoted from the youth team. This certainly makes this game more interesting.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s take a look at our first randomly selected ban¡­ The fire element actually turned out to be the chosen ban!¡± The elements were divided into six types: water, fire, dark, light, wood, and wind. The six elements mutually suppressed each other. Each attribute also had different characteristics. The fire element¡¯s main attribute was high damage, and it could activate Violent Flames and Heavenly Fire in the skill tree. The dark element was good with crowd control, and it could activate Plague and Undead. Light element dealt with healing and could activate Holy Light and Radiance. Wood element had a mixture of high damage and crowd control, activating Nature and Green. The wind element sat between healing and crowd control, activating Storm and Space. Lastly, the water element had combined damage, crowd control, and healing, activating Ice and Flood. Since the launch of Diadema, the fire and dark elements had always been the top choices. It was not until the last two seasons that the officials weakened these two elements, but fire still sat firmly in the top spot. Now that this powerful element was banned, people could not help but look forward to the kind of new tactic the two teams would have on stage. ¡°Let¡¯s go for the basic formation first.¡± In the team¡¯s headphones, Chu Ke¡¯s voice was steady, and now it was Yin Yu¡¯s turn to feel uncomfortable. The low, magnetic voice seemed to be whispering into his ear. The black-clothed boy froze, and half of his body went numb. Yin Yu had a secret hobby, he was a voice-con. He had a voice complex. No, no, no, no matter how nice it sounded, it was still Chu Ke¡¯s voice. He was in a trance. ¡°The third floor?¡± Bloody hell. Once again, a sentence that ended with a raised questioning tone. Resisting the urge to turn off the headphones, he quickly selected the water-type jungler and gave a low ¡°hmm¡±. ¡°Please select a target.¡± ¡°First.¡± The card on the opposite side slowly opened. The first one was, shockingly, the ADC of SG. ¡°Unbelievable! He actually drew the opponent¡¯s most important carry position! God Chu¡¯s hands are indeed mysterious!¡± There was an uproar in the audience. ¡°Wind-type ADC, of course.¡± As everybody knew, Rafael, the number one assassin in the national server, was a water-type jungler. Now, the possibility of choosing the element of his forte in the first match was very high. At the same time, SG detected that Rafael was a water-type. Cole thought for a while and would rather give up the high-damage elements. He decisively chose the wind element, which could suppress the water element. Wind was mainly about healing and crowd control. Although the damage output was weak in the later game, it was strong in the early and mid-game. SG would have to change up their late-game playing style now that they have transformed the early and mid-game. Against this lineup, it was indeed difficult for assassins to infiltrate, they could at most play outside the opponent¡¯s boundaries or be a support. But, so what. ¡°Interesting, targeting me like this?¡± Yin Yu gave a low laugh and clicked to confirm the water jungler without hesitation. Holding a long sword and wearing a black mask, the assassin suddenly turned his head. The black bandage wrapped around the wrist was fluttering in the wind, like a flying flag. The cross emblem on his chest, which symbolized the assassin, shone with a silvery light in the fog. The black mist hid his stern brows and eyes, giving him a mysterious and intimidating appearance. When he looked back, his sharp eyes seemed to be looking at his controller through the computer screen. At that moment, it was as if Yin Yu had transformed into an assassin inside the small LCD screen. Setting foot on the continent of Ofinika, he moved stealthily, stepped in the shadow, and beheaded thousands of troops. The instant their heads fell, it blew away the scarlet blood staining the tip of the knife, leaving him standing on the peak of Diadema. Who cared about element restraints? As long as he chose the water-type assassin, the opposing carry position was already dead to him. He had been playing games for so long, he had this much confidence. The young man in black had a wild and conceited smile on his face, which caused the camera to pan sideways and many close-up shots were taken. ¡°Follow the plan.¡± He said into the headset. ¡°The fourth season of Diadema, the first game of the winter season, begins now! The minions have spawned!!¡± Fierce battle drums sounded from all directions, a huge goddess in the sky of the arena spreaded its white wings, and starlight sprinkled every inch of the map. The game had finally kicked off. CH 9 Lin Yue was an ordinary college student with a slightly obese body. He liked handmade figurines of two-dimensional characters and gaming¡ªespecially Diadema. He did not like to go out. Yes, he was the ultimate otaku. Although he was an otaku, he was unexpectedly popular on the internet. Many beautiful girls cried and scrambled to be shipped with him. He was a Diadema expert, working part-time to help people train. He was considered a senior in the training industry. In a faceless world like the internet, abilities were your greatest bonus. Only the strong were worthy of the beautiful. No matter how beautiful the girls were, as long as you were strong, and helped them win ranked games, they would willingly throw themselves at you. [Little sweet girl, Mengmeng: Husband, let¡¯s call to play at the Relationship Appraisal Center together?] Once one had attained the diamond rank in Diadema, every ranked game required an admission ticket. Admission tickets could be found in the treasure chests that were dropped when you have killed another player at the castle. If you were lucky, you could get five or six tickets in one try. If unlucky, you might not even find one despite playing overnight. The castle was also jokingly known as the Relationship Appraisal Center. His newly picked-up third wife was a cute, soft-spoken girl. After Lin Yue helped her attain a diamond rank, the two of them became a couple. [Brother Yue only loves jungler: You play first, I want to watch today¡¯s game.] Normally, he would have gone on a massacre after hearing Mengmeng¡¯s cute voice. But today was not such a day. Today was Rafael¡¯s first game after transferring to VW! When it came to assassins, eighty percent of pioneer players on the national server would say that the bias in their hearts was Rafael. Just like the bias of mid-laners would always be Phae. When Diadema was not as established, most of the players learned by watching their games to slowly climb to the ranks they have today. In the first season, Rafael¡¯s reversal in the very last seconds before his character¡¯s death, his clutch pentakills, and his bold stealing of dragons made him a hit. He became the idol of all pioneer assassin players. Water-type junglers were obviously the weakest, but in his hands, it was more fearsome than fire-type junglers. Because of him, all assassins who were masters on the national server had hundreds of records of water-type junglers among their commonly used heroes. Lin Yue was no exception, he was born to play as a jungler. In his opinion, only sissy men played mid-laners or ADCs. Even if they wanted to play, they should play those that complemented well with junglers. With his thinking, it was impossible for him to not be Rafael¡¯s fanboy. At this time, they should still be playing the third match now. If I speed through, I can probably catch up with the live telecast. He opened up the Weibo app but was taken aback by the trending searches. [vw3: 0sg, the new dynasty is coming.] [Xiao Di actually shed tears at the scene.] [In the Interview after the game, Rafael was actually the leader?!] [Phea and Rafael were well-matched in strength. Impeccable teammates.] [vw Xiao Di gets revenge on sg Cole for pig rearing.] [The pinnacle duel of two wind-type adc, the number one adc title in the national server will not be guaranteed?] What, what, what, what is this? The game is over? Lin Yue was a little dumbfounded. He hurriedly exited the app and clicked on the official website¡¯s live replay. *** Two hours ago. ¡°Welcome to the continent of Ofinika, may the glory of the goddess bless you.¡± SG¡¯s new mid-laner Ka Lin did not dare to say a word because of Cole¡¯s oppressing aura, but he was still uneasy. He followed the plan this round and chose a wood-type mage. Since the fire element was banned, the wood element would naturally have no suppression. However, it might not be as effective as a wind-type at defending itself against Rafael¡¯s water-type jungler. In fact, objectively speaking, facing the opposite lineup, it would be better if the attributes of the ADC and the mid-laner were swapped. The wind-type mid-laner would provide support in the early and mid-game, and the wood-type ADC in the bottom lane would wait for late-game to level up. That would allow the team to be more tolerant of risks. However, with the current lineup, the early kills, golds, and minions must all be given to the ADC in the early game to catch up with the opponent financially. In other words, except for the top-laner, the whole team had to be Cole¡¯s dog. There was no peace in team SG, everything depended on their abilities. Ka Lin had just been promoted from the youth training team, and this spring season was his debut, so he had no right to speak in the team. Compared to Cole¡¯s title as the number one ADC on the national server, he was like an insignificant ant. Even if he was on the main team, no one would care about his feelings. After Ka Lin left the base, he went from his jungle into the opposing jungle to get vision. He planned to plant an enslaving skill in their jungle before returning to his own. The mid-laner¡¯s first task was to figure out which jungle the opponent was starting from. On the screen, the mage wearing a limited edition torn sack costume cautiously hid in a bush in the middle lane and began to summon enslaved souls. The activation of this skill required the player to stand in place for one second and could not be interrupted. Ka Lin took a glance at the vision provided by his top-laner. He could see that VW¡¯s top-laner, Ah Pi, was already in position to clear minion lines. Generally, if team fights were to start in the opposing jungle, the top-laner would not return to push the minion line so early, so VW should be starting in SG¡¯s territory. He had to inform his teammates as soon as possible so that some of his teammates could head up the top lane to defend. At the same time, they could interfere with Rafael¡¯s development while VW was distracted. ¡°VW should be starting on our side. I¡¯m in the bush next to the bottom lane. There¡¯s a lot of fog here, and I haven¡¯t seen anyone¡ª¡± It happened too quickly. The moment he pressed to activate the enslavement skill, four burly men jumped out of a nearby bush and blocked his escape route. In an instant, he was almost dead. The mage in the torn sack was taken aback and quickly flashed into the tower but his movement was slowed down by the red jungle buff¡¯s attack. The light-type support on the opposite side had already guessed his intention and took the lead in defending the tower. After reaching the tower, the support did not attack him but simply blocked his way. This allowed the following wind-type shooter to take the first blood. ¡°First blood! VW Xiao Di assassinated SG Ka Lin.¡± A huge announcement was hung in the sky of the Ofinika Continent. ¡°What happened just now?! What a beast!! Four people squatting in the middle lane?!! What kind of genius strategy is this?!¡± ¡°Four players in the middle lane just to protect the ADC and get the first blood? Unbelievable!!¡± ¡°Under such circumstances, it¡¯s impossible for the mid-laner of SG to defend! Unbelievable ¡­ In less than a minute, VW got the first blood?! This sets a new record for the fastest first-blood in the league!!!¡± All this happened within seconds, leaving no room for Ka Lin to respond, and his screen turned black and white. The commentator roared into the microphone in shock and could not even speak properly. There was no sound in the auditorium, and many people stood up unconsciously. ¡°Hahahahahahahahahahahaha, their mid-laner didn¡¯t react at all.¡± ¡°Brother Yin, your operation is really too brilliant. Now, Di Di is leaking oil from his wealth.¡± The voice channel of team VW was about to blow up, and everyone¡¯s face looked like a smiling sand sculpture. Even Chu Ke could not help curling the corners of his mouth. SG was completely caught off guard. ¡°Don¡¯t keep laughing. Xiao Di, follow our jungler. Mother, go to the bottom lane to protect the tower.¡± Only a wave of minions had been released, and the bottom lane tower had only lost a quarter of its health. However, due to the death of SG¡¯s mid-laner right at the beginning, their jungle was now VW¡¯s playground. The jungler had to give up the monster buff he was in the midst of fighting. Three swaggered and ransacked SG¡¯s jungle. No one dared to stop them, and even if they tried, it was to present their heads as gifts. Exiting the jungle, Xiao Di was very happy. Besides being fat with the gold and experience gained from the first blood, he also ate up the two monsters in SG¡¯s jungle. The second fattest was Yin Yu, who ate a red buff from the bottom lane, a red buff from the opposing top lane, and finally harvested his own jungle. Now, he was at level three and a half. Even if the two small monsters in the bottom lane were taken by the opposing ADC, this wave was still a smooth profit. Returning to the minion line, Xiao Di was already level four and a half, which was a level and a half higher than Cole. At the line, Cole had no way to fight against Xiao Di, so he could only grit his teeth and hide under the tower while watching Xiao Di pressure his lane.