Ye Shaoyang was somewhat surprised to receive the message.

In his previous life, he had known many streamers and was aware that the relationship between streamers and their whale donors was always rather delicate. This was especially true for entertainment-sector influencer streamers—countless numbers of them were kept by wealthy backers. The gaming sector was slightly better; most donors tipped gaming streamers because they enjoyed the streamer’s playstyle, or because they wanted to duo-queue for ranked climbs.

When a donor had tipped a substantial amount, it was normal for them to request a private meeting.

This particular donor hadn’t directly said, “Let me treat you to dinner” or “Let’s meet somewhere alone.” Instead, he had chosen a public venue—the playoffs arena. Ye Shaoyang already enjoyed watching matches anyway. Besides, with the massive crowds at a live match, even if two strangers sat together, it wouldn’t be too awkward.

Compared to a private one-on-one meeting, this kind of “sense of boundaries” in meeting at the arena was quite nice.

Thinking this, Ye Shaoyang replied: “Boss, see you at the weekend playoffs!”

He didn’t have any psychological burden about meeting the donor. After all, he only showed a cat on camera when he streamed; no one knew what he looked like, much less his differentiated gender.

So the possibility of “the donor wanting to keep him” was completely ruled out.

The wealthy donor clearly tipped because he appreciated his gaming style.

Having received so many gifts from the other party, by streamer industry rules, he should add the person as a friend, right?

Ye Shaoyang sent a message: “Boss, is it convenient to add each other on WeChat?”

Almost simultaneously, the boss also sent a message—

[Jungler No. 8]: “Is it convenient to add WeChat?”

Ye Shaoyang: “…”

Ye Shaoyang sent his WeChat account to the other party. He quickly received a verification message.

After passing verification, he discovered the boss’s WeChat profile picture was the in-game [Bloodstained Assassin]. His name was a string of English letters and numbers. His Moments feed was completely blank. The top line read: “This friend only shows Moments from the past six months.”

It seemed the boss was an extremely low-key person who hadn’t posted a single Moment in half a year.

Ye Shaoyang’s own Moments were similarly blank.

He changed the other’s nickname to “Jungle Boss” and sent a message: “Hello, Boss [handshake.jpg]”

[Jungle Boss]: “Xiao Bai, I’ve been busy these past few days, so I won’t duo-queue ranked with you for now.”

[Jungle Boss]: “When I have time in the future, I’ll duo with you again.”

[Ye Shaoyang]: “Okay, Boss. If you need a climb, contact me anytime.”

[Jungle Boss]: “Mn. There will be a lot of spectators at the playoffs. Arrive early and use the VIP entrance.”

[Ye Shaoyang]: “Received, thanks Boss!”

Sure enough, aside from the game, there didn’t seem to be much to talk about?

Ye Shaoyang closed the WeChat chat window and reopened his stream room.

At this moment, the stream room’s bullet comments were already completely plastered with “Is that all?”

Viewers were asking Streamer Xiao Bai to continue playing Illusionist in the jungle.

Ye Shaoyang pressed queue for another ranked match. While waiting for the match to pop, he patiently explained: “Illusionist isn’t a mechanically difficult hero. The E skill is a dash; you can press it again within three seconds, meaning it’s a two-stage dash. Typically, Illusionist’s kill pattern is: E dash in, delete the target, then E dash out to escape. You have to be fast. Friends who like mage assassins but have slower hands can try practicing this hero.”

“The simpler the hero, the higher the macro awareness requirement. We can’t just brainlessly go in and dump our combo, then fail to kill the enemy and get killed ourselves instead. You have to learn to read the game state.”

“Playing this kind of hero, you need to constantly pan the map camera, look at the big picture, see which lane—top, bottom, or jungle—needs your support, then get there in time. Sometimes, you can analyze the enemy jungler’s pathing and camp in a bush along their route, catching them off-guard with a surprise attack.”

“Illusionist’s power spike is from 6 to 15 minutes. He’s a typical early-game hero. Past 20 minutes, once the enemy team builds magic resist items, Illusionist’s effectiveness drops drastically. You can’t kill anyone in teamfights. So try to build enough of an early gold lead and end the fight quickly. Dragging this hero into the late game makes him useless.”

Viewers in the stream room began listening attentively.

【Teacher Xiao Bai is lecturing again, everyone grab your stools and take notes!】

【Teacher Xiao Bai, I haven’t even learned Abyssal Lord from your last lesson, and now you’re teaching Illusionist?】

【Tutorial streamer, love it love it. Continuing to record and study.】

Ye Shaoyang wasn’t stingy about sharing his insights. Many players hit a wall where they find themselves stuck at a certain rank unable to climb. At that point, you need to improve your understanding of the hero and your macro sense.

A hero like Illusionist, who isn’t mechanically demanding but requires extremely high macro awareness, was very suitable for “handicapped” players to practice. As long as you seized the opportunity, one-shot someone, then ran away and snowballed, it was very easy to help your teammates win the match.

Of course, in the pro league, this kind of burst hero would be heavily watched by the enemy support.

At that point, you needed your teammates to coordinate.

Another match began. This time, no one contested mid lane with Ye Shaoyang, so he continued to pick Illusionist mid.

The match ended quickly. His Illusionist score was 8/0/9—still eye-catching.

Viewers discovered that after Xiao Bai switched to playing [Illusionist], a hero skewed toward early burst, the pace of his matches became exceptionally fast. The moment he hit level 6, he began roaming across the entire map, appearing and disappearing like a ghost. Sometimes he crouched in the enemy jungle bush, catching the jungler off-guard with a surprise attack; sometimes he looped around to top lane and instantly deleted the low-health top laner…

The enemy team of five was driven absolutely crazy by his unpredictable ambush playstyle.

After being ambushed too many times, it even reached the point where all five of them grouped up to dive him mid under his tower!

Viewers were dying of laughter—

【Xiao Bai’s threat level is off the charts!】

【If I ran into an Illusionist like this, I’d rather lose the game than make sure Xiao Bai dies.】

【Teamfight can be lost, but Xiao Bai must die!】

【Exactly, sneaking around so annoyingly, popping out of nowhere to one-shot you.】

【If I were the enemy jungler, I’d die of anger.】

At this moment, Coach Chen, who was lurking in the stream room watching the spectacle, felt his heart pounding in alarm.

An Illusionist who roamed the entire map was the most terrifying existence.

The essence of this hero lay in roaming everywhere to catch people. He was a hero very well-suited for mid-jungle synergy.

Moreover, Xiao Bai was especially good at catching opportunities. He always appeared in places he shouldn’t be, deleting lone enemies. Coming without a shadow, leaving without a trace—time and again, he interrupted the enemy’s tempo until their mentality exploded!

The situation on the arena changed in the blink of an eye.

Players who could rapidly seize opportunities were the most likely to turn the tide of battle.

In a winning game, this kind of player was needed to consolidate the advantage. In a losing game, this kind of player was even more needed to seek a breakthrough.

Abyssal Lord and Illusionist were both mage assassins, but their playstyles were fundamentally different. Abyssal Lord placed more emphasis on mechanical skill—you could outplay the entire field with extreme maneuvers, even 1v3, to complete a reset and reap the rewards. The Illusionist, on the other hand, placed more emphasis on strategic awareness and macro vision. Your roams and support rotations had to choose the right positions; otherwise, you’d get turned on and killed.

Xiao Bai played both of these heroes very well.

[Abyssal Lord] mid showed his mechanical details and reaction speed.

[Illusionist] mid showed his outstanding macro awareness in roaming and supporting.

Coach Chen murmured: “Where on earth did this Xiao Bai come from? He’s too talented.”

Fang Zhengqing adjusted his glasses and said with a smile: “What’s wrong, Coach? Interested in him, want to sign him?”

Coach Chen was silent for a moment, then rubbed his nose sheepishly: “We can’t just casually sign someone for Jingzhe Team, right? Before signing a player, there definitely has to be a thorough multi-faceted assessment. I’ll keep observing.”

Rich clubs indeed couldn’t be too rash about signing people. They couldn’t bring someone back only to discover that he didn’t synergize with the team, or that his competitive strength wasn’t enough, and then have him sit on the bench, right?

That would be too irresponsible, and it would also delay Xiao Bai’s future.

Coach Chen quite liked Xiao Bai. Regardless of whether Xiao Bai would go pro in the future, he felt that Xiao Bai could become a top-tier gaming streamer—in just a few short days, his follower count had already broken one million!

---

Next, Ye Shaoyang continued following his own schedule: training every day, watching matches, playing ranked.

Ranked games above King 30 stars were difficult to win streak. After all, the opponents were also strong, and sometimes you ran into teammates who were unwilling to cooperate, who had an inflated sense of their own skill, whose strength collapsed all three lanes beyond saving.

Wins and losses were normal.

But overall, he still won more than he lost, and Illusionist’s win rate was maintained around 80%.

Combat power increases depended on a hero’s comprehensive performance.

For example, if you played Illusionist to a 10/0/9 score, a single match would add over 400 combat power. If it was an ugly score like 1/3/5, even if you won, you’d only gain a few dozen points. If you lost, a losing-side MVP would only deduct a few dozen points; if you lost with an ugly score, a single loss could deduct over a hundred points.

This was also the reason why many people played thousands of games with a single hero but still couldn’t reach national server.

A poor record only proved that their skill level wasn’t enough yet.

But Ye Shaoyang’s record was shockingly good. Flipping through his match history, it was a vast expanse of glittering gold MVPs. Even when he lost, he was the losing-side MVP. When he won, needless to say, securing eight or more kills in a single match was routine for him.

Therefore, his [Illusionist]’s combat power rose extraordinarily fast.

Getting national server within one week—he hadn’t been bragging.

From Monday to Friday, in five days, Ye Shaoyang’s [Illusionist] combat power had already been pushed to 12,000.

12,000—that was the maximum combat power cap set by the game. It couldn’t be raised any higher.

Every time Xiao Bai finished a ranked match, the post-game screen that popped up would display a line of small red system text—

Your [Illusionist]’s performance in this match has exceeded 99.9% of players in the same rank tier.

Yes, his Illusionist record was too outstanding.

The system score for every single game was above 14 points (out of a maximum of 16).

Although Brother Yu’s [Illusionist] was also max combat power, Brother Yu had played thousands of matches to grind to max combat power back then, and his average match rating was far lower than Xiao Bai’s.

The national server rankings updated every week. The top ten players nationwide received national server titles, but only first place received a golden champion trophy. When two players had the same combat power, ranking was determined by match rating. Ye Shaoyang’s [Illusionist] was already at max combat power with the highest rating. Now he was just waiting for the system announcement on Monday.

The weekend was the perfect time to rest and go watch a match.

Ye Shaoyang changed his stream room name to “Weekend break, see you next Monday.” He closed the stream and said to Xiao Rui: “Tomorrow afternoon is the playoffs opening ceremony. Let’s go together. The boss gave two tickets.”

Qin Rui said happily: “Okay! I’ve never been to a live match before. Let me check… Star City Esports Center? It’s only five subway stops from here. We can take the subway.”

Ye Shaoyang still wasn’t familiar with this world, so having Xiao Rui lead the way was more convenient.

The next day, after the two of them finished lunch and filled Xiao Bai’s bowl with cat food, they left punctually at 12:30 PM.

Before leaving, Qin Rui grabbed a bag and packed an umbrella, a pheromone blocker patch, a water bottle, and a spray-bottle-looking thing. Ye Shaoyang thought it was sunscreen spray. As a result, Xiao Rui opened the nozzle and sprayed him all over.

Ye Shaoyang was about to dodge when he heard his brother say seriously: “Ge, there will be a lot of people at the playoffs venue, and many Alphas. Remember to keep the pheromone blocker patch in your pocket. Also, spray some cover on yourself—it’s safer. In case you suddenly differentiate into an Alpha, without cover spray you’ll affect the Omegas around you.”

Ye Shaoyang looked baffled: “…Cover spray?”

The people in this world had to spray some kind of cover when they went out?

He leaned in to sniff. It smelled like a light cologne, actually quite pleasant.

Ye Shaoyang asked curiously: “What happens if I don’t spray?”

Qin Rui said: “In public venues, Alphas are generally required to spray cover. Otherwise it affects the Omegas around them. An Alpha who doesn’t spray cover is the same as publicly harassing people—security will take them away?”

Ye Shaoyang: “…”

He took out his phone and made a note: Alpha not spraying cover in public = publicly harassing people, will be taken away.

Must remember to spray cover when going to public places in the future.

Qin Rui saw him taking out his phone to take notes again and couldn’t help laughing: “Why do you write everything down?”

Ye Shaoyang said: “Instinct of a poor student. Easy to forget if it’s not written down.”

He put away his phone and said with a smile: “Let’s go.”

The two of them left and took the subway. A dozen minutes later, they arrived at Star City Esports Center.

The Esports Center’s exterior somewhat resembled a bird’s nest. It looked quite massive, with entrances A through F, plus a VIP dedicated passage. Ye Shaoyang glanced at the VIP logo on his e-ticket and took his brother toward the VIP entrance to scan the code and enter.

There was strict security at the entrance. Carry-on bags definitely had to go through the scanner. An electronic sensor measured body temperature, and there was also a line of data for “pheromone value.” Ye Shaoyang looked at his own: pheromone value: 0.

Xiao Rui’s pheromone value was: Omega pheromone 4.35.

Ye Shaoyang guessed that he hadn’t differentiated yet, so his pheromones couldn’t be measured? It seemed that public venues in this world measured not only body temperature but also pheromone levels, to prevent an Omega from suddenly going into heat and affecting the people around them?

At the entrance, there were three boxes containing masks, pheromone blocker patches, Alpha pheromone cover spray, and other supplies. If you forgot to bring them, you could directly pick them up at the entrance. It could be said to be very thoughtful.

Ye Shaoyang casually took a black mask printed with the game logo and put it on his face.

Just as he was about to enter, he suddenly heard a burst of screaming from not far away: “Ahhh Captain Fang, I see Captain Fang!” “Captain Fang, I love you!” “Captain Fang, I want to have babies with your cat!”

Fang Zhengqing turned back and said with a smile: “Thanks, but my cat is neutered.”

A wave of laughter rose all around.

In the distance, players wearing neat deep purple team uniforms quickly entered the arena through the player passage.

The player passage had two cordons set up, with security maintaining order, but they still couldn’t stop the crazy fans. Countless fans held up support signs there, screaming their heads off.

Ye Shaoyang glanced in that direction, only catching sight of the tall backs of a group of guys.

He thought: Next season, he should be able to walk the player passage too, right?

Entering this arena as a professional player.