At ten in the morning, inside the pro player group chat [Gods’ War Super Gods].

[Reporter Zhao]: Holy crap, why is Xiao Bai playing Illusionist? I haven’t had enough of his Abyssal Lord yet.

[Reporter Zhao]: Is he going to steal the #1 Illusionist national server title and keep slapping Brother Yu’s face?

[Reporter Zhao]: I’m so looking forward to this hahaha!

[Reporter Zhao] retracted a message

[Reporter Zhao]: Sorry, wrong group.

[Zhou Zhou]: …Little Zhao, you’re up this early?

[Reporter Zhao]: Ahem, Captain Zhou is also up this early?

[Zhou Zhou]: I heard that @[I Am Very Square] from Jingzhe Team has been getting up at the crack of dawn to play ranked lately. Our coach told us to learn from Captain Fang’s diligent and hardworking spirit and get up earlier for training [smile.jpg]

That smile emoji somehow radiated pure irritation.

[I Am Very Square]: Morning, Zhou Zhou.

[Zhou Zhou]: Morning, Captain Fang.

Outside the window, the sun was bright and beautiful.

They hadn’t seen the morning sun in a very long time.

But why were a bunch of pro players with ghostly sleep schedules all getting up early?

Of course, it was because their coaches were pushing them.

At first, the news that Jingzhe Team was getting up at dawn to play ranked had quietly spread, and then coaches from every major team followed suit. The coaches believed that pro players staying up late every day was damaging to their livers and kidneys; falling apart with illnesses while still young wasn’t good for their futures. From now on, they would learn from Jingzhe Team and train in the morning.

After all, if Fang Zhengqing—the laziest Alpha in the entire league—was getting up at dawn, how could the rest of you still have the face to sleep in?

If there was a match in the afternoon, they would take a noon nap to recharge.

Coach Chen knew very well that the spark that ignited all of this was actually a streamer named Xiao Bai.

In Xiao Bai’s stream room, countless smurf accounts were lurking at this very moment. Scouts from major first- and second-tier clubs were definitely among those watching his stream. Every time a “roadside expert” appeared online, every major team would evaluate them. If the person was suitable for going pro, the next step was a bidding war.

Having one more amazing teammate versus having one more amazing opponent were completely different experiences. That was why Coach Chen had been keeping an eye on Xiao Bai—if he confirmed the kid could play professionally, he would move immediately to snatch him!

The battle for [Abyssal Lord]’s national server title had concluded. Xiao Bai had directly pushed his combat power to 12,000, crushing Brother Yu’s 10,300. Being able to reach such a high combat power within three days of a hero’s release was enough to show that his understanding of the new hero was already extremely thorough. His MVP-almost-every-game record also proved his strength.

However, for a pro player, only knowing one hero was far from enough. Only being able to play one type of hero wouldn’t cut it either.

Whether someone could play professionally depended on their overall综合素质.

This week, Xiao Bai was pushing for [Illusionist]’s national server title. Coach Chen would observe exactly that.

At 10:45 AM, another ranked match was about to begin. The spectators in the stream room collectively rubbed their eyes.

Right at that moment, a message popped up in the lower left corner—

Supreme VIP [Jungler No. 8] has entered the stream room.

Ye Shaoyang smiled and greeted: “Morning, boss.”

Chi Shuo typed: “Switched to Illusionist?”

Ye Shaoyang: “Got the Abyssal Lord national server title, so I’m swapping to a different hero. Boss, need a duo-queue climb?”

Chi Shuo typed: “Not for now, I have something today. You play, I’ll watch.”

The match quickly began.

Ye Shaoyang was in position 5 and initiated a hero request—

[Xiao Bai]: Please help me pick [Illusionist]. Games played: 10. Win rate: 100%.

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: Hero stats: [Frost Goddess]. Games played: 1,600. Win rate: 55%.

Then, the player in position 1 instantly locked in Frost Goddess.

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: You have the nerve to request a hero with only 10 games played? I can have 100% win rate in 10 games too.

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: My 1,600+ game Frost Goddess will carry you to a free win.

This kind of situation was common. He and this player had conflicting roles; [DaddyWillCarryYou] was also a dedicated mid laner. The other player was in position 1, picked their hero first, and directly snatched the mid lane.

Inside the stream room—

【The streamer’s mid lane got stolen, this game is doomed!】

【1,600 games, 55% win rate. You can say they’re experienced, but you can’t say they’re a master, right?】

【Xiao Bai, Xiao Bai, what are you going to do? It seems like you only know how to play mid lane!】

【Streamer, just pick any hero, lose, and then say: My cat played this match.】

【Let your cat play!】

On the couch in the camera’s view, the kitten was tired from playing and was currently lying there yawning. Ye Shaoyang glanced back at Xiao Bai and said with a smile: “My cat is sleepy. He says he doesn’t want to play. I’ll take this one.”

Both sides quickly began selecting heroes.

Ye Shaoyang looked at his team’s composition—Player 1 had snatched mid-lane [Frost Goddess], Player 2 had picked top-lane [Paladin], Player 3 was support [Radiant Shield], and Player 4 was the marksman [Sharpshooter].

That left him with the jungle role.

Ye Shaoyang locked in [Illusionist] in position 5 and typed a line.

[Xiao Bai]: I’m playing Illusionist jungle.

The stream room exploded with a wall of question marks: “???”

The in-game team channel instantly blew up even more—

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: Are you still fucking dreaming this early in the morning!

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: Picking a squishy mage for jungle? Did water get into your brain?

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: I’m a 1,600-game professional mid laner and you’re still fighting me for it, you SB*****

This mid-lane player was clearly extremely toxic, spraying a bunch of messages in the team channel.

Ye Shaoyang simply said—

[Xiao Bai]: Support, watch blue buff at the start. Just wait until I hit level 6.

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: You? Fragile as paper and you want to jungle? Wake up already.

[DaddyWillCarryYou]:If you’re mentally challenged, go to the hospital. Don’t come to ranked matches early in the morning to throw.

Ye Shaoyang frowned slightly and ignored him.

Jungle was usually played by assassins or warrior-type heroes. Taking a squishy mage into the jungle—many players didn’t understand it. Forget about teammates not trusting him; the stream room was also going wild with刷屏.

【The streamer is getting cocky!】

【Playing Illusionist jungle? This kind of strategy is truly rare!】

【The enemy warrior will stun you with one slash and you’ll get instantly deleted, believe it or not?】

【Pushing for Illusionist national server by playing jungle? Streamer, are you sick or are my eyes failing?】

Amidst the mountain of doubt, a golden bullet comment suddenly appeared—

Jungler No. 8: 【Illusionist can be played jungle】

When VIPs in the stream room sent bullet comments, they had a golden glow effect, extremely eye-catching.

Jungler No. 8: 【First item build AP jungle item. Once the stacks are full, you can instantly delete squishies】

Ye Shaoyang smiled: “See, even the boss says so. Don’t rush to flame me yet. Wait until I lose, then you can flame me. Go search up some fresh insult vocabulary in the meantime.”

Viewers: “…?”

Viewers in the stream room spammed question marks. Some rational viewers began analyzing—

【The boss is a whale donor, whatever the boss says is right!】

【You noobs have never even heard of AP junglers?】

【Mage junglers have even appeared in pro league matches, what are you all arguing about!】

【Xiao Bai, you just wait. I’m going to go search up insult vocabulary!】

Ever since he started streaming last week, Ye Shaoyang had always played mid lane. But in reality, he could play jungle too. An excellent mid laner had to understand the jungler’s tempo very clearly in order to coordinate with them.

And the best way to understand your teammate’s tempo—was to play their role yourself and experience it firsthand.

In his previous life when he played ranked, he often swapped roles with his teammates. In this life, it was his first time playing jungle. But after duo-queuing so many matches with the boss previously, he was already very familiar with the jungler’s tempo.

As soon as the match began, Ye Shaoyang didn’t immediately enter his jungle. He hid in a bush and placed a ping on the blue buff.

This match, the support was somewhat competent. Seeing the ping from Ye Shaoyang, they proactively went to scout vision for him. Sure enough, the enemy jungler and support invaded the blue side together.

Illusionist was a mage who desperately needed blue buff. The enemy knew he was squishy early game and deliberately came to the jungle to steal his blue, bullying him while he was weak. This was also within expectations.

Ye Shaoyang quickly slipped through the river and took the enemy’s blue.

You stole my blue buff?

I’ll steal yours.

One for one, not a bad trade.

The result was that after the enemy jungler finished counter-jungling blue and returned to their own jungle, they discovered their own blue was already gone. And after Ye Shaoyang killed the enemy’s blue buff, he slipped back through the river and conveniently cleared the river crab on the way.

The little crab on the side of mid lane gave a lot of experience.

Ye Shaoyang’s [Illusionist] was already one level higher than the enemy jungler.

The enemy’s invade this wave could be said to have gained absolutely nothing; instead, they lost out.

The enemy jungler was furious and buried themselves in their jungle, rapidly clearing camps to farm. In the blink of an eye, Ye Shaoyang hit level 6 first. He lurked toward the top lane and placed an “Initiate Attack” ping.

At level 6, a jungler didn’t necessarily have to gank the enemy squishy. They had to analyze and judge based on the overall game state.

For example, in this match, the enemy support could heal and also had group crowd control. The enemy marksman was currently at full health. With the healer’s protection, if he went to gank marksman, he might not necessarily secure the kill.

But the top lane was different. The enemy top laner was [Berserker], whose defense wasn’t high to begin with. Moreover, both top laners had just gone at each other with their big swords a moment ago, and their health was currently around half. He could instantly kill them.

Seeing the enemy Berserker’s positioning was forward, Ye Shaoyang immediately pressed E to blink over, followed by W’s “Phantom Daze” to stun them in place, then chained his combo—Illusion Missile, Shattered Light!

A purple projectile precisely smashed into the enemy Berserker’s forehead.

Countless purple fragments, like a mirror suddenly shattering, exploded across the Berserker’s body and flew everywhere. The stacked magic damage from the fragment shredding instantly killed the half-health Berserker!

—First Blood!

Illusionist secured first blood.

After killing, Ye Shaoyang immediately lurked back into his jungle. His blue buff was about to respawn.

Right at that moment, a kill suddenly broke out in mid lane.

Our mid laner’s positioning was too forward and they accidentally got caught and solo-killed by the enemy mid laner.

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: Jungle, are you blind?

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: The enemy mid laner was left with one drop of health, you passed by and didn’t help?

[Xiao Bai]: No skills available.

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: Picking a mage for jungle is simply hilarious.

[DaddyWillCarryYou]: Running into an SB like you early in the morning is seriously bad luck.

Ye Shaoyang didn’t waste any more time typing.

Once his skills came off cooldown, he prioritized clearing his own blue buff, then went to the bush on the side of mid lane to camp the enemy mid laner. The enemy mid laner had just recalled to heal and buy items, so they would definitely return to mid lane soon. While their positioning was forward, Ye Shaoyang once again used W to stun them and chained a combo to instantly kill.

—[Xiao Bai (Illusionist)] has killed [Strawberry Milkshake (Ocean Goddess)]!

After killing mid, he farmed a round of jungle experience, then went to the bottom lane to gank the enemy marksman.

At this point, he had already completed his first ability power item. Combined with the damage bonus from the AP jungle item, he could force a kill on the marksman even with the enemy healer present.

He roamed to the bottom lane. The enemy jungler happened to also arrive at the bottom lane.

In the small 3v3 skirmish, both sides traded skills. All six people were left with low health. Ye Shaoyang pressed the retreat ping. All three of his teammates withdrew under their tower together. The enemy three also retreated.

Neither side gained an advantage in this skirmish.

The enemy healer was out of mana and couldn’t heal. All three of his teammates were also left with a sliver of health.

Both sides tacitly recalled.

No one expected that Ye Shaoyang, halfway through recalling, would suddenly get bold and loop around from the side, crouching in the bush outside the enemy’s outer turret. Right when the enemy marksman and healer pressed the recall key to head home…

He suddenly popped out and combo’d to kill both low-health targets!

—[Xiao Bai (Illusionist)] has killed [ShootYourDogHead (Holy Spirit Archer)]!

—[Xiao Bai (Illusionist)] has killed [CuteBear (Forest Envoy)], Double Kill!

The enemy marksman and healer: “…”

Damn it! Weren’t you recalling? How did you suddenly pop out again?!

This wave of the “gone but not gone” ambush was incredibly灵性.

Chi Shuo, watching the stream in front of his computer, slightly raised the corner of his mouth and said in a low voice: “Good macro sense.”

At this point, Illusionist had the highest economy in the entire game, four kills in hand, and had already built two ability power items. Once his three-item power spike was complete, he could walk sideways across the entire map.

—Double Kill!

—Triple Kill!

System announcements continuously rang out in his ears.

The elusive Illusionist, with purple mirror fragments, struck terror into the hearts of opponents.

Wherever Illusionist walked, a kill would erupt.

This was also the terrifying aspect of Illusionist, a hard-CC one-shot mage assassin.

The viewers who had been刷屏 questioning him in the stream room at the beginning began spamming 666.

What was jungler tempo?

A jungler with strong tempo was someone who could let their teammates follow their roams and rapidly establish advantages.

Go top lane to gank, kill the enemy top laner; go bottom lane to gank, kill the enemy marksman and support; push towers, invade jungle, secure dragons, secure Baron, constantly snowballing…

Until they ultimately achieved victory!

[Illusionist] score: 10/0/8 (10 kills, 0 deaths, 8 assists)

[Frost Goddess] score: 1/4/4

His teammates pushed the minion wave onto the high ground. The match was about to end.

Ye Shaoyang’s hands exploded in speed as he typed out several lines—

[Xiao Bai]: @DaddyWillCarryYou You should just lie down obediently at the Nexus.

[Xiao Bai: Playing single-player match-three games is more suitable for you.

[Xiao Bai]: 1,600-game Frost Goddess?

[Xiao Bai]: Is that all?

Right as he finished typing, the “VICTORY” icon popped up on screen.

Even if the enemy was furious, they couldn’t flame back.

Ye Shaoyang normally didn’t like to taunt during matches.

But if someone kept flaming him, he didn’t mind flaming back—and he would do it at the very last moment, leaving the other party unable to respond, their mentality exploding.

Viewers discovered that Xiao Bai’s style of mocking people—low in damage, but extremely insulting.

For example, the one he sent to Brother Yu back then: “You flatter me ^_^.”

And the one he sent to his mid-lane teammate today: “Is that all?”

The stream room began spamming wildly: Is that all?

Chi Shuo looked at the dense wall of “Is that all?” in the bullet comment section and couldn’t help but raise the corner of his mouth.

This Xiao Bai was too interesting.

He could actually play jungle. Moreover, his jungling style was exactly the same as his own.

Learning this fast—no wonder he could quickly keep up with his tempo.

Chi Shuo sent a private message in-game: “Are you going to watch the weekend playoffs?”

Ye Shaoyang replied: “Yeah. Boss, are you going too?”

Chi Shuo: “Mn, I’m also going to the venue. If it’s convenient, we can meet up then.”