Jian Rong dreamt the entire night.

Training was too tiring, removing the entertainment factor of streaming and running basic drills for skills like last hitting grew somewhat tedious after a while. Since Jian Rong joined the team, he had been dreaming almost every single day.

Thoughts during the day manifested as dreams at night. In his dreams from back when he streamed, he traded insults with the water friends online and challenged them to fights in real life. After entering the team, he solo killed countless professional mid laners in his dreams, and the day he met Fu-ge, he dreamed of receiving a car.

That night, Jian Rong dreamed that he and Lu Boyuan were in the dark alley next to the convenience store.

No pedestrians, no car horns, no Ding-ge.

Upon waking up, Jian Rong’s first instinct was to seize that bird chirping incessantly away outside and bring it back to turn it into soup.

He rubbed his eyes, picked up his other pillow, and covered his face with it.

…why did he have to wake up.

He changed his clothes and went downstairs. At that moment, only he and the auntie were awake in the base.

Five minutes later, Jian Rong sat down in front of his computer, carrying his breakfast. As he stared at the monitor, he chewed on his bread and let his thoughts run wild.

The new patch was officially coming out today on the Korean server. Among the mid lane champions, Katarina and Diana had both been buffed.

LeBlanc was nerfed a bit, but it didn’t affect her terrifying DPS in the early and mid game.

Zac was heavily buffed, but Lu Boyuan didn’t seem to really enjoy playing that jungle champion.

The champions Lu Boyuan liked to play were all on the ban lists.

Whenever one of Lu Boyuan’s champions was banned, he would press his lips together once. That was a small detail Jian Rong had noticed before as he was watching the matches.

Lu Boyuan’s lips were somewhat thin.

Kissing them felt really good……………… fuck.

Jian Rong wolfed down his bread and rubbed his face before he started streaming.

Recently, Jian Rong’s follower count had shot up to be among the platform’s top five. Every time he streamed, a lot of people flooded in, but it was evidently even livelier today than it had ever been in the past.

TTC’s crushing victory in their spring season match last night was no longer a hot topic of discussion anymore, but the comment section underneath the Weibo of the anchor responsible for the post-match interview was still a battlefield.

Many comments from Korean social media sites had already been transported in, and none of them said anything nice. Even now, the topics #Road calling out the anchor# and #when will Soft play on the Korean server# were still hanging onto the bottom of the hot search.

Someone on Tieba even made a record of what happened the hour after the match concluded. Jian Rong’s livestream room gained 120,000 new followers without him starting a single stream, and the amount of people online and present in the livestream room immediately skyrocketed the stream onto the popularity charts. The water friends and passersby who came to watch the show waited eagerly, full of anticipation—

And ended up receiving news of the bird flying the coop.

Now the bird had returned to the coop. The water friends were extremely agitated.

[Fucking hell, when laozi’s marriage proposal was rejected, I wasn’t even as sad as I was yesterday when you cancelled on us.]

[Xiao Bai and Qian both streamed yesterday night, which meant that TTC didn’t have any practice matches. Dad checked the match histories for all seven of your accounts, you didn’t play on your Chinese or Korean accounts. Explain, what did you go do last night?]

[Tell me, what’s more important right now than you climbing to rank one on the KR server???]

[Little dumbass, quite a few streamers were waiting to snipe you on the Korean server last night. They waited the entire night before they finally found out that you had cancelled, and they even used a translator to translate your Weibo post, I really fucking died laughing]

[If you don’t become rank one on the Korean server within three days, it’ll truly be very hard to come back from this]

[What a joke, it was just a bluff, do you all really think he can climb up there? The current rank one is Master. Unless he abandons his account and stops playing, who could possibly climb past him?]

[Ha the Korean dogs are here, are you HT’s dog?]

[That person was telling the truth ah. Master’s the world’s best mid laner, nobody can deny that, right?]

[A ranking on a server isn’t representative of a pro player’s strength, OK? A piece of trivia: three months ago, Road’s domestic server account was Diamond 5.]

Jian Rong glanced at the barrage before he chewed on his milk straw and pulled up a web page.

[Why the hell is a killer drinking milk? Quickly log onto the Korean server and massacre them!]

[Why are you going onto Baidu?]

[“What to put on a split lip”… what part of your lip is busted?]

[You need Baidu even for a split lip, you crazy?]

[How are you any different from those patients I’ve encountered who come in seeking emergency treatment for a flesh wound? I just happen to be on a break right now, move your mouth closer to the camera so Dad can take a look.]

Jian Rong unlocked his phone and instantly bought all the ointments that the Baidu page said could be used, two tubes of every brand.

After completing his purchase, he opened the game accelerator at last. “I was busy, so I cancelled.

“Busy with what… something big, a personal matter, not telling.

“It was more important than climbing to rank one on the Korean server.”

There was a terrifying number of comments in the barrage, and the room mods couldn’t even block everything they needed to block. Jian Rong checked the time. “Why are there so many people here today? Did the platform give me a boost?”

[They all came over from the hot search.]

[Everyone’s waiting to see you slaughter the Korean server dogs, yet instead you come here and Baidu what to do with a split lip… before when you fell and ate shit and your arm was bleeding, you just wiped it with a napkin and then sat back down to continue streaming. How come you’ve become a prince now after going to TTC?]

[My son got on the hot search with a single ‘climbing to rank one on the Korean server’? Full of fire, Daddy is relieved.]

“Hot search? What hot search?”

With the help of the water friends, Jian Rong opened Weibo and looked through it. “Our coach probably bought it…”

His phone chimed. Ding-ge, who was stalking the stream the entire time, sent a text over: [I didn’t, don’t make up rumors about me.]

“…” Jian Rong set his phone down. “Stop spamming, I’ll start playing now. Didn’t I only cancel for one night? I’ll stream all of today to make up for it.”

Right as he logged in, Savior sent him a party invite.

Jian Rong declined. Before he could type out anything, the invite came again.

Another decline. Another invite.

After five consecutive back and forths, Jian Rong entered the lobby. “We play the same role.”

“Aye want to talk to you.” Savior expressed, “Aye kin support or top lane.”

Jian Rong, who had just checked Savior’s match history: “Are you not aware at all how trash your top lane is.”

Savior: “………”

The barrage exploded with laughter, and Ding-ge’s text rushed in at the speed of light—[He just finished experiencing cyberbullying, and he lost 13 games in a row too, can’t you word things a little more gently?!]

Jian Rong glanced at the Savior fans cursing him out in the barrage, along with the anti-fans who faithfully clocked into his stream every day to report him, and thought: Who exactly is the one experiencing cyberbullying right now, huh.

Jian Rong clicked his tongue and said, “Whatever, start queueing. But get ready to continue your losing streak.”

Both of them were currently on the snipe list for Korean server trolls. He didn’t even have to think about it to know how challenging it would be to climb today.

Although Savior had dropped to Master tier, both his and Jian Rong’s accounts had high hidden rankings. They queued for quite some time without getting into a game.

Out of nowhere, Savior hit him with: “You’re very brave.”

Jian Rong: “Thank you for the compliment.”

“…” Savior enunciated with difficulty, “Korean flamers are even more fierce than Chinese ones, don’t feel sad—”

“BS.” Jian Rong interrupted him. “Just them? Tell them to come find me, I’ll give them a head start of ten sentences.”

“…”

[???]

[No way, sir, is this a competition too??]

[You’re very proud of yourself, aren’t you?]

After they finally entered a game, before Jian Rong could even get a chance to check his role, he heard a thunk as one of their teammates banned Teemo.

Savior said, “Aye can be the one to leave this game.”

Jian Rong frowned. “Why leave?”

Savior said, “Our team’s ADC is an actor, trolled meh twice already.”

Jian Rong was the mid laner in this game, and Savior got support.

“Leaving because of one actor, just how many points do you have to lose?” Jian Rong picked Talon. “Choose a damage dealer support.”

Savior was startled. “Ah.”

“Treat it like the mid lane.” Jian Rong paused for a moment. “Steal his minions, steal his kills, betray him—got it?”

[………are you trying to get Savior and the actor to mutually troll each other?? Is this allowed?]

[An old strategy, wicked people can be tormented by other wicked people. All the actors this dumbass has pissed off in the domestic server can’t even fit in a truck.]

[This kind of dirty trick… please be sure to give many pointers to our little Savior! QAQ he’s really so pitiful ah he’s been trolled for an entire week now]

The players on the opposing team clearly recognized Jian Rong. Less than ten minutes after the game started, the enemy jungler had already “considerately attended to” Jian Rong’s mid lane twice.

But they didn’t successfully gank him either time, and Jian Rong recalled back to base with low health. When he came out, he continued to suppress the enemy under their tower as he beat them up.

The enemy jungler seemed to have taken offense to that. As a result, they rushed over again at level 7—just in time to see their mid laner be solo killed by Jian Rong. Jian Rong even stayed for a few scant milliseconds under the tower to flash an icon at them before he flipped over the wall and left.

[My head’s dizzy from all the outplays, can I look forward to Talon making an appearance on the competitive stage??]

[Promise me, you definitely have to participate in the All-Star solo tournament this year.]

[What’s going on, everyone else comes over to the Korean server because they want to practice against highly skilled players, so how come when the dumbass comes here, he ends up becoming fiercer and fiercer instead?]

“Don’t make up nonsense, my coach is spying on the stream… of course I can’t pick Talon during a match, this champion doesn’t conform with the current meta’s core values.” After Jian Rong said that, he checked the scoreboard and questioned, “Why did you let the ADC’s CS get so high?”

Savior let out an “ah.” “But he steell hasn’t trolled meh yet, once he starts trolling, Aye will steal his minions…”

“Why don’t you just wait until he’s 80 years old before you steal them then? Even if he doesn’t troll you in this game, what about the debt from the last few times?” Jian Rong went back to the base to buy items. “You probably won’t meet this dumbass in queue anymore after you return to the higher tiers. Take advantage of right now to requite injury with injury and avenge all your grievances.”

Savior hesitated for a second. “What does ‘reh-kwait injury with injury’ mean?”

Jian Rong said: “Basically, if he screwed you over once, then you have to screw him over once in return. Holding yourself back means you’ll regret it for a lifetime. Understand?”

[You imparting life experience here???]

[I just checked, this ADC is 2 LP short of climbing to Grandmaster, no wonder he isn’t trolling in this game.]

[Damn, how come you’re also fucking corrupting people from other teams hahahaha]

[You said so many things, can Savior understand?]

Savior understood.

He contemplated deeply in the base for a minute. Once he left, he began stealing minions and kills, and no matter what kind of pings the ADC sent, it was useless.

After Jian Rong camped and killed the enemy jungler in the jungle, he switched cameras to the bot lane just in time to see Savior betraying their teammate.

Most likely because he had never done this sort of immoral thing before, Savior looked extremely clumsy while running away at full health.

In the end, the disadvantaged enemy team decided to go for Baron.

The actor ADC hovered around the area above the pit and placed a ward in it, wanting to keep an eye on the situation. The instant the ward was placed, the ADC also went down into the pit with a bang—Jian Rong, who was wandering aimlessly about next to him, burst the explosive fruit that was underneath the ADC’s feet.

The actor ADC dropped into the pit and was beaten to death by the five opposing players.

Amidst the countless question mark pings from the ADC, Savior’s Vel’Koz took down some of the enemy jungler’s HP with his ult, forcing the jungler to use Smite to regain health. Jian Rong flipped over the wall and went down to steal Baron before he flashed over the same wall and escaped.

One mid laner and one support departed freely and carelessly, leaving behind only the ADC’s “corpse” and a screen full of pings.

The minute before the game ended, Jian Rong said, “Type.”

Savior: “What should Aye say?”

“You don’t know how to insult someone?”

“Oh… yes.”

[Savior: youareadumbass!]

Jian Rong began pondering, How come I can read Korean.

Two seconds later, Jian Rong questioned in front of a barrage full of laughter, “You freaking insulted a Korean person using pinyin???”

“Ah.” Savior was also dumbfounded. “Aye forgot.”

“…”

Lu Boyuan was woken up by XIU’s incoming call.

Without bothering to open his eyes, he answered, “Speak.”

XIU was very stirred up. “It’s already noon, big bro, you’re still not awake yet?!”

Lu Boyuan went silent for a moment. “Did you retire and come to our base to be a manager?”

XIU: “…Savior has been duo queueing with your team’s mid laner for two hours now.”

Lu Boyuan: “And?”

“I can’t get him to stop. He just learned how to dance on top of someone’s dead body, I think he’s going to learn how to AFK at the fountain and flame people next.” XIU sucked in a deep breath and said weakly, “I’m begging you, before Savior’s account is banned, hurry up and get out of bed so you can take your mid laner away.”

Lu Boyuan: “…”

Yan: Another quick reminder since it’s been a while since we’ve had extensive interaction with Savior – he mispronounces a lot of characters in Chinese (due to accent), so attempting to convey that the best I can in English but you get the gist

Wei: Jian Rong really out here corrupting Savior LOL