The Whale Live platform’s “Streamer Personal Display Area” was an independent box located in the bottom-right corner of the stream room. Many gaming streamers would point their cameras at themselves, giving good-looking streamers a huge advantage. Those who were genuinely unpleasant-looking or too shy to show their faces would put up game posters, fan group numbers, or other images in the display area.

However, this was the first time Chi Shuo had ever seen someone put a cat up there.

The cat had dark coffee-colored ears, a bushy tail like a little squirrel’s, a snow-white collar, and big blue eyes; its appearance was exceptionally high-valuel. If Reporter Zhao hadn’t mentioned in advance that this was a screen recording of the match where he “slapped Brother Yu in the face,” Chi Shuo would have thought this “Streamer Xiao Bai” was doing a live stream to sell cat food.

Chi Shuo took a glance at the little cat intently playing with the yarn ball, temporarily closed the display area, and maximized the gaming area window to focus entirely on the game interface.

He wanted to see how the operations of the “Number One Abyssal Lord in Mingzhou Province” were, and conveniently learn a bit about the new hero as well.

Just at that moment, Coach Lin Feng silently walked over holding a white thermal flask.

Coach Lin walked with light steps like a phantom behind them; Tianhuan’s players didn’t dare to lose focus during regular training, as a moment of carelessness would result in being caught red-handed by the coach.

Chi Shuo greeted him: “Coach, do you want to watch together? It’s the Number One Abyssal Lord in Mingzhou Province.”

Coach Lin quickened his pace to come behind Chi Shuo, leaning his head close to the computer screen: “Someone already got a Provincial Badge so fast? If I remember correctly, the hero power requirement for the provincial leaderboard needs to be over 7,000, right? That requires getting MVP in at least 40 matches.”

Chi Shuo said: “A new streamer is grinding for a national ranking. I downloaded the video from the group chat.”

Coach Lin immediately set down his thermal flask and said with interest: “Come, come, come, let’s watch the replay.”

Chi Shuo clicked play on the video.

The match began. Blue side’s Slot 1 lock-picked [Abyssal Lord], and both sides continued selecting heroes. Text from Xiao Bai popped up in the chat box, asking his teammates to pick [Holy Spirit Archer], [Berserker], and [Fighter].

The thinking of netizen fans was naturally different from that of professional coaches. When Ye Shaoyang picked that composition back then, the live chat flooded with massive amounts of doubt and ridicule.

However, a professional coach understood it in an instant.

Lin Feng said: ” The opposing team is too strong early on. Does he want to rely on speed advantages to avoid fights and play macro control?”

Chi Shuo analyzed calmly: “Playing macro control in online ladder games is very difficult. Teammates won’t necessarily keep up unless someone shotcalls from start to finish and the teammates obey completely. Otherwise, if even one lane loses control, the whole game collapses.”

Lin Feng nodded: “Mm, let’s keep watching.”

The match progressed. Abyssal Lord led his teammates to ambush the blue BUFF area and secured First Blood.

Lin Feng evaluated: “The opposing jungler was careless. However, this ambush spot was chosen very well; they chose the bush on the other side instead of ambushing on the right side like usual.”

Chi Shuo also grew focused—as a top-tier carry jungler in the professional league, he was more familiar with the jungle bushes than his own back garden, and that position chosen just now was indeed exceptionally sneaky.

Soon, the enemy [Illusionist] reached Level 6 and charged over wanting to solo-kill [Abyssal Lord].

In the end, [Abyssal Lord] escaped with a sliver of health.

Lin Feng praised: “Nice!”

Chi Shuo hit the pause button: “The first burst damage wave of a Level 6 [Illusionist] can solo-kill 90% of mage heroes. Logically speaking, he definitely shouldn’t have survived that wave. How did he fail to get killed?”

Lin Feng was also somewhat confused: “Replay it, let’s watch it in slow motion.”

Chi Shuo used his mouse to drag the progress bar back a few seconds, starting a 0.5x slow-motion replay.

Only then did they see clearly that the moment [Illusionist] charged over, [Abyssal Lord] continuously summoned two dark shadows, placing one next to himself and the other on the far side of the wall. The enemy’s full burst combination beat him to critical health and instantly killed the shadow beside him. Then, he used his E skill to swap places with the other shadow, flipping over the wall to escape.

Lin Feng praised: “Great details, he calculated the opponent’s damage extremely accurately. [Illusionist]’s ultimate is a small area-of-effect skill; once there are other targets within range, the ultimate damage gets split. He summoned two shadows to go to different locations so one shadow would split the damage and the other shadow could be used to escape; he played very calmly.”

Details like these during the live stream happened so fast that regular viewers didn’t even notice.

In the professional league, if the opponent picked a hero like [Illusionist] with high early-game burst, the jungler or support would definitely come assist mid lane at Level 6, never letting their mid laner face [Illusionist] alone.

However, this Streamer Xiao Bai, while facing [Illusionist] entirely alone, relied on precise damage calculations and extremely high hand speed to escape with a sliver of health, which was enough to prove his mechanics and adaptability.

Lin Feng was puzzled: “With reaction speeds and hand speed this fast, is this an alt account of some professional player?”

Chi Shuo opened the display area in the bottom-right corner and pointed at the cat: “Not many people in the esports circle raise cats. The cat Captain Fang raises has a black face.”

Lin Feng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “Captain Fang’s is called a seal point Ragdoll. The one you’re looking at right now is a blue bicolor Ragdoll. Ragdoll cats have many color patterns; could it be that Captain Fang felt one cat wasn’t enough to pet, so he got another one?”

Chi Shuo shook his head: “No. When Reporter Zhao brought this up in the group chat earlier, Old Fang didn’t have any particular reaction. He didn’t seem to know this Streamer Xiao Bai unless he’s pretending.”

The two exchanged a glance and continued watching, focusing their attention on [Abyssal Lord]’s mechanics.

Soon, the blue side’s bottom lane got crushed, the jungler completely collapsed, and the situation fell into a massive disadvantage. Even in professional matches, a comeback in a hard-lost game with a 1:6 kill deficit was extremely difficult.

Chi Shuo concentrated his attention on the computer screen.

Until the first mid lane team fight, the words “Everyone turn on voice chat” appeared on the screen.

Lin Feng said: “He’s going to shotcall in voice chat; let’s hear what he has to say.”

Chi Shuo turned on the computer speakers, and then heard a pleasant voice echo near his ears.

Most Alphas’ voices became deep and low after differentiation, while Omegas tended to be softer. This person’s vocal tone was very special—a clear, bright, sunny voice carrying a confidence that stemmed from the very core of his bones.

“Don’t hit the Holy Paladin, just focus on clearing minions.”

“Support use speed boost; Berserker flank from the left to stun the enemy marksman, he’s hiding right there!”

Then, the two witnessed a miraculous scene.

Without any vision whatsoever, the blue side’s Berserker and support blindly charged into a hidden bush. Immediately following, Abyssal Lord initiated a long-range Flash surprise attack, instantly bursting down the enemy marksman in a second.

“Beautiful!” Lin Feng’s voice was excited: “He guessed the enemy marksman’s positioning!”

“Mm. Killing the marksman in a team fight is the most rational choice. Without the marksman, the opponent definitely won’t get an advantage in this mid-lane fight,” Chi Shuo said calmly.

Facts proved to be just so; in this team fight, far from gaining an advantage, the enemy side lost big time!

Halfway through the team fight, Abyssal Lord actually ran off to split push a wave…

Lin Feng praised endlessly: “Minion wave management executed exceptionally well. Continuing to participate in the team fight at that point was useless; he used the cooldown resets refreshed after getting a kill to clear the minion wave quickly and push through top lane—a massive profit!”

Next came an 8-minute-long guerrilla war of pushing and pulling.

That confident voice rang out continuously in their ears—

“Berserker go push the top lane wave, fall back once you reach near the river.”

“Marksman take the bottom lane wave; I’ll head into the jungle.”

“Group up mid lane to defend a wave.”

Surveying the global situation, mobilizing all three lanes.

Under his shotcalling, their team’s three-lane minion waves advanced separately. Although the enemy side had a massive kill lead, their minion waves had been kept under great control the entire time; as long as the enemy had no minion waves, they couldn’t force a tower push!

The more Lin Feng watched, the more amazed he felt: “His understanding of minion waves is incredibly thorough. Many King-ranked players sometimes get bloodthirsty while fighting the enemy and completely ignore the minion waves across the three lanes.”

Chi Shuo looked at the minions continuously spawning from the base on screen and said gravely: “Minion wave macro—that’s a strategy only emphasized in professional leagues. It’s very rare to see such fine coordination across three lanes in online games.”

Noticing something was wrong, the enemy team began using the dragon to force a team fight.

Xiao Bai had the support go over to bait and gain vision; after seeing the dragon’s remaining health, he acted decisively, using his Abyssal Gaze skill to lock onto the dragon and instantly stealing the low-health dragon!

He acted so fast that the enemy jungler didn’t even have time to react.

Lin Feng smiled: “The enemy side is about to lose.”

The red side had been led by the nose by the blue side the entire time, unable to make use of their superior equipment.

Like a clumsy turtle racing a nimble rabbit.

Kiting, macro play.

If they hadn’t witnessed it with their own eyes, the two wouldn’t even dare to believe a streamer could shotcall the whole game and use such detailed macro play to turn the tables and win.

In the final team fight, [Abyssal Lord] once again instantly burst down the enemy marksman—

Flash-bursting a target, taking an enemy head from a thousand miles away!

The biggest taboo in team fights was dying suddenly right before the fight started; no matter how well-farmed or equipped you were, if you instantly disappeared during the fight without contributing a thing, that team fight was guaranteed to be lost.

Streamer Xiao Bai seized upon this exact point, instantly bursting down the enemy’s core carry twice across two team fights.

What was a spell assassin?

This was a spell assassin master who had truly mastered the essence!

The match ended.

Three sentences popped up on the screen—

[Xiao Bai]: This is a five-person tower-pushing game.

[Xiao Bai]: It isn’t a single person’s show.

[Xiao Bai]: Good game ^_^

Watching this scene, Lin Feng couldn’t calm down for a long time.

What was the focus of a tower-pushing game? Towers.

Even if you got a Quadra Kill, if your high-ground tower was split-pushed by a single enemy, that was a massive loss.

He frequently emphasized the importance of minion waves to the team members. Don’t lose your head during team fights, and don’t impulsively chase low-health enemies floating in front of you—push minion waves, push towers!

Most people knew how to play when ahead.

Teams that could hold their ground when behind and rely on macro strategy to turn games around were all top-tier powerhouse teams in the professional league.

Lin Feng took a deep breath and looked at Chi Shuo: “This Xiao Bai has a very strong macro perspective.”

Some players only saw the enemies laning against them; some players only cared about minion waves in their own lane. However, a player with a strong macro perspective had a crystal-clear judgment of the whole game—he knew when to farm, when to avoid fights, and when to counter-attack…

Such players usually served as the main in-game shotcaller for major teams.

The importance of a shotcaller needed no elaboration; examples in professional leagues where a shotcaller made an error, stubborn team fights were engaged when they shouldn’t be, and the team got wiped out in one fell swoop were too numerous to count. Shotcalling required extreme psychological stability, excellent macro vision, and calm judgment; without a doubt, Xiao Bai’s shotcalling in this match was exceptionally outstanding, even in the eyes of a professional coach.

Lin Feng looked at the game interface and said gravely: “We need to figure out his background as soon as possible. I suspect he’s a rookie shotcaller secretly cultivated by some team.”

Chi Shuo closed the screen recording replay: “I’ll go meet him.”

Opening the Whale Live platform, without needing to search, Streamer Xiao Bai’s stream room titled 【Abyssal Lord Grinding for National Rank】 was prominently featured on the front page, holding the #1 spot for 【New Streamers】.

Clicking inside, it was surprisingly a black screen—the streamer was already offline.

The notice area read: “Tomorrow morning at 10 AM, live stream [Abyssal Lord] grinding for national rank, welcome to tune in.”

It was only 12:30 AM right now; was there actually a player in the professional league with such a disciplined sleep schedule?

Chi Shuo was stunned for a moment, then went to the Gods’ War Assistant app to check this Xiao Bai’s profile.

Because Streamer Xiao Bai didn’t cover his player ID (8977543) in the top-left corner during the stream, even though in-game names could be duplicated, numeric IDs were unique and made match history easy to look up.

Chi Shuo quickly scrolled through the match history with his mouse and frowned: “A 50-game win streak, climbing from Bronze to King using only two heroes, [Abyssal Lord] and [Frost Goddess]; it’s clearly an alt account.”

With match results like these, no one would believe it wasn’t an alt account.

Lin Feng sighed regretfully: “Ah, I wonder which team raised such a strong newcomer. We need to figure it out as soon as possible, otherwise he’ll be tough to deal with if we run into him during matches.”

“He went offline, so I’ll check his stream room again tomorrow.” Chi Shuo paused, turning back to look at Lin Feng: “Do you have any alt accounts on hand? Ones no one knows about, under King 10 stars.”

“You’re going to use an alt account to 1v1 PK him?”

“No, to duo-queue with him.”

Lin Feng was stunned for a second, then realized: “Makes sense. Queueing together is the best way to scout information. But if you send him a friend request directly in-game, he might not necessarily accept, right?”

Streamer Xiao Bai was very famous now, so the number of people requesting to add him in-game was likely beyond counting.

Chi Shuo said calmly: “Don’t worry, I have my ways.”