Chi Shuo obtained an alt account named “Jungler No. 8” from Coach Lin, which was at King 1 Star rank.

To avoid exposing tactics during roster practice, teams usually prepared many alt accounts. This one had been leveled up recently, so its friends list was completely blank. However, all the jungle heroes were fully purchased—evidently an account prepared specifically for Chi Shuo.

Chi Shuo said thanks, got up, and turned off his computer to head back to the dorm. Looking at the Alpha’s retreating back, Coach Lin asked in confusion, “You’re sleeping this early? Don’t you usually stay up until two or three in the morning?”

Chi Shuo replied, “I’m waking up at ten tomorrow morning to watch Xiao Bai’s stream.”

Lin Feng: “…”

An esports player’s “hellish sleep schedule” had suddenly turned “wholesome,” all because of a streamer.

Lin Feng laughed and said, “Then I’ll sleep too and wake up early tomorrow.”

Chi Shuo hummed in agreement, turning around to head back to his dorm for a shower.

As warm water poured over him, his mind remained stuck on that match from earlier.

He wasn’t wary of this suddenly emerging newcomer. Having played in the pro league for so many years, even if a World Champion stood right before his eyes, he wouldn’t feel the slightest bit nervous.

What puzzled him was that during the match replay earlier, the streamer Xiao Bai’s train of thought had completely overlapped with his own.

He had thought: Now someone should go top lane to push the wave. Xiao Bai went right away.

He had thought: It’d be better to let the marksman split-push the bottom tower. Xiao Bai gave that exact shotcall.

This strange synergy was something he had rarely encountered before.

Chi Shuo was Team Tianhuan’s captain and overall match shotcaller; his teammates were used to following his arrangements.

In usual matches, he was always the one overseeing all three lanes and directing the macro play. In that match just now, Xiao Bai’s shotcalling logic aligned perfectly with his, making him realize just how formidable this Xiao Bai was—

This was a rare, master-tier shotcaller talent.

There were countless skilled mechanics players in the pro league, but top-tier shotcallers were few and far between.

In some teams, individual player skills weren’t bad at all, but their shotcalling was trash and their team fights were abysmal, leaving them unable to win matches. Just like Xiao Bai’s line: This is a 5-player tower-pushing game, not a one-man showground.

The essence of a tower-pushing game lay in the seamless coordination of 5 players across 3 lanes. It wasn’t that having godly individual skill meant you could carry your team to an easy win; no matter how cracked a player was, poor team synergy made winning extremely difficult.

If Xiao Bai really was a secret rookie shotcaller being cultivated by some team to slap Brother Yu in the face, then on the future stage, he might very well become Chi Shuo’s fiercest rival.

That was Chi Shuo’s line of thought.

Which was why he broke habit to sleep early, intending to wake up at 10:00 AM tomorrow to squat in Xiao Bai’s stream.

At the exact same time, inside Team Jingzhe’s base.

Fang Zhengqing adjusted his glasses and stared with a smile at the white cat in the bottom right corner, praising, “This Ragdoll cat is so cute. I wonder if it’s male or female, how many months old it is, and if it’s been neutered?”

His teammates: “…”

Beside him, Xie Yuan reached his limit: “You weren’t watching his [Abyssal Lord] mechanics just now, you were just staring at the cat?”

Fang Zhengqing narrowed his eyes, holding a dark-faced Ragdoll cat and stroking it while saying, “What’s there to look at regarding mechanics? Any pro player can pull off mechanics like that.” He paused, placed the cat aside, and turned back to look at the coach: “This Xiao Bai has strong macro awareness. The key to turning that game around was his solid shotcalling.”

Players with good mechanics were a dime a dozen, but a good shotcaller was worth a fortune.

Coach Chen remarked suspiciously, “Don’t you guys think this guy’s wave management style looks a bit like Captain Chi’s?”

Fang Zhengqing nodded: “It is a bit like Chi Shuo. But Chi Shuo’s disciple, Cheng Xing, whom I met in ranked before, doesn’t have this level of skill. Could it be a new shotcaller raised by Coach Lin?”

Everyone exchanged looks.

Coach Chen simply made a decision: “How about this, since there are no other plans tonight, you guys go to sleep early and wake up at 10 tomorrow to play ranked. See if you can bump into this Xiao Bai to test his skill and background in person.”

At this moment, Ye Shaoyang was sound asleep.

In his dream, he stood on the World Championship podium, holding up the golden trophy and waving to the audience below as the whole crowd shouted his name.

Having had a wonderful dream, Ye Shaoyang woke up the next morning full of energy and in high spirits.

Arriving at the dining table, his younger cousin had already cooked breakfast. Today’s breakfast featured a fresh twist: a dish of delicate little meat buns alongside two cups of steaming soy milk.

After breakfast, Ye Shaoyang fed the cat half a can of food and used a feather wand to walk Xiao Bai around the room, lest it grow into a fat cat from eating without exercise.

At 10:00 AM sharp, Ye Shaoyang walked into the study holding Xiao Bai and turned on his computer right on schedule.

Inside his Xiao Bai live stream room, the follower count had surprisingly broken 400,000, with membership reaching 150,000!

It seemed that after he went to bed last night, another wave of followers had flooded in—likely drawn over by the fan-hater flame war on Brother Yu’s side. The anti-fans over at streamer Brother Yu’s channel were truly putting in work.

Seeing the little white cat appear on the screen in the lower-right corner, the viewers waiting in the stream instantly grew hyped—

【Mwah to the cat! Today’s kitty is as cute as ever~】 【Good morning streamer, a gaming streamer with a wholesome sleep schedule is truly a rare sight!】 【Watching the stream while at work, streamer please teach us how to play [Abyssal Lord]!】 【I came over from Brother Yu’s stream—he lost and claimed you were using cheats!】 【I came from Brother Yu’s side too! The streamer’s [Abyssal Lord] is way more cracked than his. Bought a card already, I’m hanging out in Xiao Bai’s stream from now on!】

Ye Shaoyang roughly scanned the bullet screen area and said, “Good morning, everyone. My current streaming schedule is 10:00 AM to 12:00 midnight, with a few hours paused in between for meals. If anything comes up, I’ll notify you in advance. Welcome aboard.”

Beside him, Qin Rui also turned on his computer and logged into his account.

Ye Shaoyang said, “Without further ado, today we’ll keep grinding [Abyssal Lord]’s Hero Power. I’ll go over this hero’s specific mechanics and item build with you guys. Yesterday was too rushed rushing King rank to explain.”

Right at that moment, a massive row of golden announcements suddenly flashed across the bullet screen—

【Jungler No. 8 gifted Streamer Xiao Bai Deep-Sea Torpedo × 1】 【Jungler No. 8 gifted Streamer Xiao Bai Deep-Sea Torpedo × 2】 【Jungler No. 8 gifted Streamer Xiao Bai Deep-Sea Torpedo × 3】 … … 【Jungler No. 8 gifted Streamer Xiao Bai Deep-Sea Torpedo × 100】

100 consecutive golden announcements rapidly flashed in the bottom-left corner, nearly blinding Ye Shaoyang’s eyes.

The viewers in the live stream were practically blinded too.

【Holy crap, a massive tycoon has appeared!】 【Whoa, a tycoon spotted in the stream! 100 torpedoes—that’s 100,000 drop in one go!】 【Streamer Xiao Bai got a tycoon fan this fast? Can I grab onto the tycoon’s thigh?】

Ye Shaoyang hastily said, “Thank you Jungler No. 8 for the gifts! Please stop gifting, I feel unworthy receiving so much.”

Having gifted 100 torpedoes back-to-back, Jungler No. 8 became the first 【Supreme VIP】 in Xiao Bai’s live stream room, complete with bolded chat messages and a tycoon-gold glowing text effect.

He was seen typing: 【Does the streamer carry viewers?】

Ye Shaoyang: “??”

Many streamers had rules where gifting a certain amount meant they’d carry you in ranked to rank up—commonly referred to as “carrying viewers” in the streaming world. Pro players rarely carried people, so suddenly seeing a request to carry a viewer caught Ye Shaoyang a bit off guard.

Jungler No. 8: 【I want to queue with the streamer, can you carry me to gain stars?】

Seeing this, the other netizens in the live stream room started egging him on—

【Streamer, hurry up and agree to him!】 【Exactly, streamer just accept!】 【The tycoon dropped so many torpedoes just asking you to carry his ranked games, this is true love!】 【The tycoon’s true love smells so good, I want true love like this too~】

Ye Shaoyang: “…”

Every gaming streamer’s channel had these kinds of tycoon netizens who dropped lots of gifts, became very familiar with the streamer, and played ranked together.

A streamer’s income was directly tied to gifts; such tycoon fans were a streamer’s favorite.

The other party showered him with so many gifts just asking to be carried in ranked—a completely reasonable request.

It was really hard to decline right to his face.

Except the netizens spamming “agree to him” and “accept him” made it look like a marriage proposal scene.

Ye Shaoyang helplessly held his forehead: “Alright then, tycoon boss, send me your game ID via private message and I’ll add you.” He could carry Rui-rui to King tier; as long as this jungler boss wasn’t exceptionally trash, he believed he could carry him too.

Sitting in front of his computer, Chi Shuo’s lips curved up slightly as he swiftly sent a private message: “Player ID: 7658337, in-game name is [Jungler No. 8].”

Streamer Xiao Bai was popular now; sending a regular friend request might not get accepted.

By using this streaming culture method of “gifting to add friends,” the other party would actively add him.

Sure enough, the next instant, he received a friend request from [Xiao Bai], which Chi Shuo clicked to accept.

Ye Shaoyang pulled [Jungler No. 8] into the ranked lobby.

Seeing the two names [Xiao Bai] and [Xiao Rui] in the room, Chi Shuo typed and asked: “Who is this Xiao Rui?”

Ye Shaoyang opened his mic to introduce: “Hello boss, this is my younger brother, queuing with me.”

Younger brother?

Which esports team training pro players would raise two brothers together?

Chi Shuo pressed ready with confusion in his heart.

Ye Shaoyang politely asked, “Boss, your name is Jungler No. 8, do you only play the jungle role?”

Jungler No. 8: “Yes, I only bought jungler heroes.”

Ye Shaoyang: “That works out great. I play mid, Xiao Rui plays support, boss you take jungle.”

Jungler No. 8: “No problem.”

Ye Shaoyang: “Starting now.”

Ranked match started, searching for a match…

It was Friday, 10:00 AM, a time when King rank players were far fewer than in the evening. Ye Shaoyang had assumed he’d have to wait a few minutes to find a match, but right after pressing start, a match was found within 5 seconds.

Ye Shaoyang was on the blue side again, picking first. He insta-locked [Abyssal Lord].

The enemy’s Slot 1 and Slot 2 immediately locked in [Cobra King] and [Poison Warlock].

Chi Shuo’s brows furrowed, a bad premonition rising in his heart.

—The opposing team was playing the Poison Comp. —How could they run into a high-difficulty Poison Comp line-up in online ranked matchmaking?

Right at that moment, light footsteps echoed from behind like a ghost—unmistakably Coach Lin.

Chi Shuo had adjusted his schedule to wake up early and duo-queue with streamer Xiao Bai.

Coach Lin had also forcibly changed his schedule, waking up early to spectate Chi Shuo and Xiao Bai duo-queuing.

He walked over to Chi Shuo’s side, and as he sat down and turned on his computer, he heard Chi Shuo ask in a low voice: “Coach, is the hidden MMR on this alt account you gave me super high?”

Lin Feng yawned and said, “Of course it’s high. I had the youth academy rookies rank it up as fast as possible.”

Ranking up as fast as possible meant it likely hit King tier on a massive win streak.

Starting from the Supreme King rank, matches became extraordinarily fierce due to the system’s “hidden MMR mechanism.” Hidden MMR wasn’t visible on the surface; it was calculated comprehensively by the system based on a player’s average rating and win rate. Players with high hidden MMR would be matched against opponents who also had super high hidden MMR.

Only matches like that would be evenly matched and more interesting to play, preventing one-sided stomps.

Xiao Bai had carried Xiao Rui on a 50-game win streak straight to Supreme King rank, while Chi Shuo’s alt account had also hit King rank at maximum speed. The hidden MMR of all three players was sky-high. On top of that, the three of them were trio-queuing, so they were guaranteed to be matched against an enemy team also trio-queuing with super high hidden MMR.

No need for further guesses.

Chi Shuo said calmly: “The other side is Team Jingzhe’s trio, led by Fang Zhengqing.”

Lin Feng’s yawn cut off halfway. Hearing this, any sleepiness instantly evaporated. He immediately sat up straight, opened the live stream room, and whispered a complaint: “It’s only 10 AM, why are they up this early too?”

Chi Shuo: “…”

Who knew?

A bunch of night owls had suddenly turned into wholesome morning risers.