The next morning, Ye Shaoyang still woke up at 7:00 AM as planned. After freshening up, he went to his study and turned on the computer.

His stream announcement read, “Busy this weekend, no stream. See you Monday.” Therefore, Sunday was entirely free, which was perfect for him to familiarize himself with the six most common Goddess mid-lane heroes.

The first one he wanted to push for a National Server Badge was [Frost Goddess].

He was already very familiar with this hero, and her skill combo was also very simple.
Press W to freeze the opponent, Q to lower their defense, and the R ultimate to kill them.

The key was: could he freeze them?

The [Frost Goddess]’s W skill, “Three Feet of Ice,” had a 0.5-second delayed release. Most experts knew to dodge when they saw you casting it. Therefore, the most critical technique for this hero was—prediction.

You had to predict where the opponent would move next and cast the freezing skill ahead of time to successfully freeze them. If you cast it in place, as long as the opponent wasn’t blind, they would definitely run away. This hero was also very suited for waiting in ambush inside bushes.

The ultimate had a very wide range. Besides dealing apocalyptic damage in team fights, it could also rapidly wave clear and block the enemy’s positioning in narrow terrains like the jungle or high ground.

Overall, the [Frost Goddess] was a hero exceptionally suited for “team fight crowd control.” She wasn’t suited for mid-jungle synergy; she walked as slowly as a snail and lacked mobility skills, making it impossible for her to keep up with the jungler’s tempo.

However, an outstanding mid-laner had to be comprehensively capable and know how to play all sorts of heroes. Only then could they adjust their hero pool according to the team’s composition and avoid being completely countered by the enemy coach during BP (Ban/Pick).

Ye Shaoyang spent half the day practicing [Frost Goddess] in the training camp, then spent the afternoon practicing [Flame Goddess], and the evening familiarizing himself with the mechanics of [Thunder Goddess]. He went into bot matches to grind the proficiency of all six Goddess heroes up to 100 so he could play ranked matches.

The day passed quickly.

At midnight on Monday, the national server rankings refreshed, and a system message popped up in the game—

[Congratulations, your hero [Illusionist] ranked first nationwide with 12,000 hero power in last week’s settlement. You have obtained the title of “National Rank One [Illusionist]”!]

The [Illusionist] national server badge was the second one he had obtained.
He had surpassed Brother Yu, who was originally ranked first.

Ye Shaoyang closed the computer in satisfaction and went back to his bedroom to sleep.

On Monday morning, he practiced heroes for an hour as usual, then turned on his stream exactly at 10:00 AM. Having not seen him over the weekend, the viewers in the chat quickly spammed greetings, and of course, a large number of them came just to see the cat.

[Mwah mwah to the kitty, Xiao Bai is still just as cute today!]
[Streamer, let me tell you, disappearing for two days straight like this is wrong! Dedicated streamers should stream every day. Disappear again, and I’ll unfollow!]
[Xiao Bai, you just wait. Let me go search up some cursing vocabulary first so I can flame you properly when you lose later!]

The viewers in the stream were all very cheeky. Ye Shaoyang glanced at the bullet screen and smiled, saying, “Starting today, I’ll be using [Frost Goddess] to push for the national rankings. It shouldn’t take a week to get the national badge for this hero.”

[???]
[Streamer, your head’s in the clouds. You’ve floated straight into the stratosphere this time!]
[Getting a national badge in less than a week? Isn’t this bragging a bit too much?]
[This is exactly the kind of arrogant streamer I like!]

Ye Shaoyang explained, “I’m not spouting nonsense. I tested it in bot matches. As long as you play [Frost Goddess] well, her average post-match rating is very high. The hero power added each match is much more than heroes like [Abyssal Lord] or [Illusionist]. So theoretically, maxing out [Frost Goddess]’s 12,000 hero power should only take about 4 days.”

“The previous heroes I got national badges for, [Abyssal Lord] and [Illusionist], were both mage assassins. When ganking, they can usually only kill one or two people at a time. But [Frost Goddess] is a team-fight hero who can dish out very high damage. It’s relatively easy to get a pentakill.”

Relatively easy to get a pentakill.
Listen to that, is that something a human would say?

Ye Shaoyang said, “I’m going to start queueing for ranked, and I’ll teach everyone how to play this hero while I’m at it.”

The bullet screen began to spam crazily.

[Anyone can play this beginner hero, what’s there to teach?]
[Isn’t it just a WQR combo? Either you kill them or you get yourself killed, right?]
[Hahaha, either you freeze them and burst them down, or you miss the freeze and get killed yourself. Playing this hero feels like a lottery.]
[Relatively easy to get a pentakill? I’ve been playing this game for so long and I’ve never gotten a pentakill!]

Because Xiao Bai’s stream title was changed to “[Frost Goddess] Pushing for National Server,” and the player base for [Frost Goddess] was extremely large, nearly all mid-lane players knew how to play this hero. More and more netizens clicked into his stream from the Whale Platform homepage. The concurrent viewership of Xiao Bai’s stream broke through the 500,000 mark.

It was currently morning; at this time, most people were at work or school, unlike the peak hours in the evening. To reach 500,000 viewers at 10:00 AM was an extremely impressive achievement.

Furthermore, many newcomers also hit the follow button. Xiao Bai’s follower count quickly surpassed 1.5 million. It was still a far cry from top-tier streamers, but with these numbers, he could already be considered a tier-two or tier-three mid-sized streamer.

Ye Shaoyang queued into a match and proactively typed in the team chat: “I’ll play mid, thanks.”

Although King tier matches also had their fair share of foul-mouthed flamers, most teammates were relatively friendly. They would communicate roles during the preparation phase and were willing to yield positions.

Ye Shaoyang’s [Frost Goddess] currently had a 100% win rate. After he posted his match history, the other teammates consciously pre-selected other roles, avoiding any conflicts.

The match quickly began.

Ye Shaoyang went to the mid-lane and swiftly cleared the minion wave. The person laning against him this time happened to be a [Flame Goddess]. Fire on one side, ice on the other—the mid-lane was truly a “dual heaven of ice and fire.”

[Flame Goddess]‘s damage relied on continuous burn. If you stepped into her fire rings, you would be afflicted with a stacking “Burn” debuff, causing you to lose not only health but also mana.

This was also the key reason why [Flame Goddess] was incredibly annoying in team fights—she could drain the entire enemy team’s mana, leaving them unable to cast skills.

Therefore, when laning against [Flame Goddess], you had to be extremely careful with your positioning. Getting burned even once and losing health and mana was a huge loss.

Ye Shaoyang’s positioning technique was exceptionally wretched. His S-shaped kiting meant that if you could catch him, he’d admit defeat.

This was also an obsessive-compulsive habit drilled into him in his past life by world-class, freak-tier junglers constantly ganking him.
—He wouldn’t stay in the same spot for more than 0.5 seconds.

He was moving at almost every moment. The person laning against him would even be dazzled by his movements, making it incredibly difficult to predict his positioning.

Conversely, Ye Shaoyang could predict his opponent’s positioning.
He quickly discovered this player’s skill-casting patterns.

Once both sides reached level 6, Ye Shaoyang observed carefully. The moment he caught the cast animation of her laying down a fire ring, he decisively threw out a freezing crowd-control skill.

The result was that the opposing player inexplicably walked right into the range of his “Three Feet of Ice” skill.

—First Blood!

He had solo-killed his opponent right in the middle lane.
And he had solo-killed them with full health!

The viewers in the stream cheered enthusiastically.

[Every time I lane against the fire god, I get suppressed, but the streamer actually solo-killed her?!]
[I can only say his movement prediction is too insane.]
[Why does it feel like all his skills were cast at the exact same time?]

Although Ye Shaoyang wasn’t looking at the bullet screen, he could guess the netizens’ confusion and explained, “The [Frost Goddess]’s W skill has a 0.5-second delay, while the Q and R skills cast instantly. So, in actual practice, when predicting the enemy’s movement, you can press W and about 0.3 seconds later immediately press Q+R. This will result in an instant combo where all three skills cast almost simultaneously, leaving the opponent no time to react.”

Netizens: “…”

How do you calculate 0.3 seconds?
Who the hell controls time that precisely while playing a game?!

The enemy mid-laner had returned to base.
Ye Shaoyang said, “I just cleared the vision in the left bush of the mid-lane, and the enemy jungler isn’t in this area either. The [Flame Goddess] I killed will respawn in 5 seconds.”

Ye Shaoyang controlled the [Frost Goddess], taking a detour through the left jungle, and squatted in the bush next to the inner turret.

He said, “After respawning, the [Flame Goddess] will pass through here. Let’s set up an ambush.”

A moment later, the newly respawned [Flame Goddess] indeed walked past the front of the defense tower.

This was the inner turret, with an outer turret still standing in front of it. The area between the outer and inner turrets belonged to allied territory and was usually considered a safe location. However, just as the [Flame Goddess] was quietly walking forward, a light blue freezing circle suddenly appeared in front of her, and by the time she wanted to hit the brakes, it was too late—

Three Feet of Ice, Chilling Invasion, World of Ice and Snow!
Another instant combo, and the [Flame Goddess] was insta-killed once again.

[Flame Goddess] Player: “…………”

Damn it! Are you gonna let me play the game or not?!

[…This game is so hard.]
[Just respawned and got killed again. If I were that [Flame Goddess], my mental would boom too.]
[Holy crap, he actually ran to the inner turret bush to ambush. The streamer is too wretched.]

Ye Shaoyang laughed and said, “My skills are on cooldown now, so I’ll retreat under my tower and farm low-key for a bit. At 7 minutes and 05 seconds, the enemy’s Red Buff will refresh. After the jungler takes the Red Buff, he’ll definitely come gank me.”

While clearing minions, Ye Shaoyang explained, “I’ll give the enemy fake vision. After clearing the wave, I’ll head towards the top lane, pretending to support the top laner. Then, the jungler will flank around from the top river bush to try and kill me.”

After clearing the wave, he ran to a distant bush, hid, and said, “I’ll set up an ambush here.”

A moment later, the plot unfolded exactly as Ye Shaoyang had deduced—
After finishing the Red Buff, the enemy jungler saw the mid-lane [Frost Goddess] heading towards the top lane, seemingly to provide support. He immediately ran over, flanking from the top bush to sneak-attack the mid-laner.

However, the moment he stealthed into the bush, what awaited him was a light blue ice circle suddenly erupting beneath his feet.

—[Xiao Bai ([Frost Goddess])] has slain [Sudden Enlightenment (Stealth Rogue)]!

After getting the kill, Ye Shaoyang returned to the mid-lane to continue clearing waves and building items.

During the first dragon team fight at the 8-minute mark, he wretchenly hid in a distant bush to observe the enemy’s movements. The moment all 5 enemies were halfway through taking the dragon, Ye Shaoyang unexpectedly Flashed over—

Flash, Freeze, Ultimate.

The series of operations flowed like water. The W skill perfectly froze three enemies.
Heavy snow fell silently, and the enemies’ health bars plunged as if a floodgate had been opened.

A direct Triple Kill!

Ye Shaoyang spoke as he fought, “[Frost Goddess] is excellent for crowd control around the dragon pits. If they are crowded near the pit, just take advantage of when the boss uses its knock-up skill to drop an ice ring under their feet.”
“That way, you can freeze a lot of people!”

[…]
[The streamer is really too annoying.]
[If I were on the enemy team, I’d want to crawl through the internet cable and beat him to death!]

This match was won without any surprises, and Ye Shaoyang took the MVP.
His score was 10-0-8, dealing 38% of the team’s damage, and his hero power increased by over 500 in one go!

[Why can my [Frost Goddess] never freeze anyone Q_Q]
[After watching the streamer’s tutorial, I just realized this hero is so hard! What have I been playing all this time!]
[The same hero? No, these are different heroes!]

Ye Shaoyang said, “As a team-fight-oriented hero, [Frost Goddess] inherently isn’t simple. If you want to play her well, you need to analyze the situation, predict the enemy’s positions, and find the right timing for team fights. Let’s move on to the next game.”

In the second game, Ye Shaoyang picked [Frost Goddess] for the mid-lane again.

But this time, the enemy marksman and support were very skilled, likely a duo-queue pair. Starting in the mid-game, they frantically grouped up to push towers and steal jungle resources, putting his team at a disadvantage.

At one point, the enemy pushed right up to their high ground towers.
Ye Shaoyang and his teammates were forced to fight a “high ground defense battle.”

[Prison match, is it over this time?]
[The enemy pushed all the towers in all three lanes, huge disadvantage, tragic!]
[In this situation, you can’t even play macro. You can’t get out, and you can’t push the minion waves out!]

The so-called “prison match” referred to a situation where all the allied towers in all three lanes were destroyed by the enemy, and the enemy repeatedly pushed the minion waves to the high ground towers. The allied players were like they were “in prison,” unable to leave the base, forced to passively clear waves on the high ground.

And once the enemy secured the Baron boss, with the attack and defense buffs and the empowered super minions pushing all three lanes simultaneously, the game would be easily lost if any of the high ground defenses were breached.

Ye Shaoyang wasn’t in a hurry.
He had fought countless “prison matches” in his past life. He had even experienced stalemates where he was trapped by the crystal for over ten minutes.

All professional players shared a consensus—
As long as the crystal hasn’t fallen, anything is possible.

Surrendering was impossible. As long as even one allied player was still alive, they had to defend their home to the death!

The enemy began frantically pushing waves, bringing minions to the high ground towers multiple times.

Ye Shaoyang pressed the in-game quick chat: “Hold steady, we can turn this around!”

His teammates also stepped up; not a single one was willing to admit defeat, grouping up to clear waves rapidly.

This match dragged on to the 40-minute mark.

During a crucial high ground team fight, Ye Shaoyang keenly caught an enemy mistake.

The enemy support wanted to force an engage onto the high ground, jumping directly under the tower. The top laner and jungler followed right behind. Because the high ground entrance was very narrow, all three of them were squeezed together. The mage and marksman were positioned further back, with the marksman rapidly auto-attacking the tower.

Ye Shaoyang seized the opportunity and laid down a freezing circle from the side.

0.5 seconds later, the three enemies at the narrow entrance were frozen right in their tracks. Almost simultaneously, a massive blizzard rained down, and the health bars of the three melee characters, along with the distantly positioned mage and marksman, all began to hemorrhage!

The range of his ultimate was skewed towards the outside of the high ground, perfectly covering the positions of the enemy mage and marksman!

Double kill!
Triple kill!

The passionate system announcer voice continuously echoed in their ears.

With a single instant burst combo, the [Frost Goddess] directly secured a pentakill, completely wiping out the enemy team!

Right at this moment, the allied base spawned a wave of minions.
At the 40-minute mark, the respawn timer after death was incredibly long. Ye Shaoyang led his teammates and the minion wave, pushing all the way back into the enemy high ground and taking the victory for this match!

From being trapped in the base unable to leave, to instantly wiping the enemy team and turning defeat into victory…
Any player who had experienced such a massive comeback would feel their blood boiling with excitement!

The bullet screen flooded with massive amounts of flowers and applause, along with many gifts from the viewers.

Ye Shaoyang looked at the massive amount of hero power added on the post-match settlement screen and smiled, saying, “In an advantageous game, [Frost Goddess] can continuously ambush and disrupt the enemy. In a disadvantageous game, she can firmly hold the high ground and look for opportunities to turn the tables.”

His voice was very calm: “If I said it wouldn’t take a week to get a national badge for [Frost Goddess], would you guys believe me?”

He wasn’t bragging.
With his game sense and predictive abilities, it truly wouldn’t take a week.

The netizens in the stream all thought to themselves: This new streamer seems to be getting stronger and stronger?
Could they have, by a stroke of luck, followed a future giant god?!