Nine o’clock in the evening, Team Tianhuan base.

When Chi Shuo arrived at Training Room No. 1, the team members were already seated in front of their computers starting their daily training. Passing behind Coach Lin Feng, he noticed that the game screen showed the info interface for the new hero, “Abyssal Lord.”

Lin Feng was Team Tianhuan’s first-generation main mid-laner, a gentle-tempered Beta male who remained at Tianhuan as head coach after retiring.

Having been a professional player himself, his coaching philosophy differed from many dedicated coaches—he respected the players’ own wishes more, never pulled rank, and rarely put players on the bench unless someone made a severe mistake in a match and refused to repent.

Every time a new hero was released, Coach Lin would practice it himself first. He believed a coach couldn’t just engage in armchair strategy; they had to know every hero like the back of their hand to draft the best lineups in matches. As a result, Lin Feng was also the strongest player mechanically among all current head coaches in the league.

Chi Shuo paused, leaning down to look at his computer screen: “How is the strength of the new hero?”

Lin Feng said, “Should be a T0-tier mid-laner. This hero’s difficulty is a bit high. The Q skill displacement has a short distance, and if not controlled well, it’s easy to dash into a wall. The three shadows can split and merge, dealing great damage in team fights or solo kills with high flexibility. Late-game output is explosive, and the skill-reset mechanism on kills will make him stronger the more he slays.”

“A harvest-type spell assassin?” Chi Shuo sat down next to him, turning on his computer while saying, “The tournament server hasn’t loaded the new hero yet; it won’t go live until November. Do we need to prepare some lineup arrangements in advance to counter Abyssal Lord?”

Coach Lin smiled and replied, “Once it goes live on the tournament server, a meta-dominant hero like this will likely be permabanned. Still, we need a two-pronged plan. In case the opponent doesn’t ban it, we should practice a new lineup as well.”

Chi Shuo nodded: “Tomorrow I’ll duo-queue ranked with you to get familiar with the new hero.”

According to the tournament schedule, each official season was divided into three online gaming sub-seasons.

For instance, during Official Season 9, the online client would be split into three sub-seasons: 9-1, 9-2, and 9-3, corresponding to the official Pre-Season, Mid-Season, and Post-Season stages.

To keep players refreshed and expand tactical options, new heroes were released every sub-season.

New heroes were usually overpowered upon release and would launch on the online client first, while the tournament server delayed their release by two months to prevent any bugs from impacting the official pro league.

Currently, Season 9-3’s new hero [Abyssal Lord – Locke] was live on the online client, available for all players to purchase or exchange via quests, but the character was not yet on the tournament server and could not be used in professional matches for the time being.

Professional players had to familiarize themselves with new heroes in advance. Otherwise, once the new hero arrived on the official stage, how could you counter an opponent picking it if you didn’t even understand its skills?

Therefore, alongside Team Tianhuan, players and coaches from other teams would certainly be practicing the new hero “Abyssal Lord” as well—this was the core behind Ye Shaoyang’s statement that “everyone stands on the same starting line.”

Ye Shaoyang continued carrying Qin Rui in ranked with “Abyssal Lord.”

Securing a comfortable hero indeed helped him play to his full potential.

No matter how bad his teammates were, he could carry them.

4 hours, 15 victories, MVP every single game, with victory points doubling again and again from the winning streak. In the blink of an eye, younger brother Qin Rui had reached [Platinum I], while Ye Shaoyang surged all the way from [Bronze III] to [Gold I].

The ranking promotion system in this game awarded more points the longer your win streak lasted. A 5-game win streak granted 1 extra star, 10 win streak granted 2, and a 15 win streak granted 3. As long as you kept winning, your rank shot up like a rocket.

Seeing that it was past midnight, Ye Shaoyang rubbed his sore shoulders and turned around: “Let’s rest first, we’ll continue tomorrow.” He had been sitting in front of the computer for 9 consecutive hours.

Qin Rui was tired too. Closing the game, he turned back to look at him: “Brother, you’re so amazing at gaming, way better than my classmates. When they carried me before, we often lost, but carrying me yourself gave us a straight 15-game win streak!” Excitement made the younger brother’s cheeks flush slightly, “I’ve never had a win streak this long!”

“How long have you been playing?” Ye Shaoyang asked.

“Two months,” Qin Rui said. “After the college entrance exams, a few classmates and I created our accounts together. Some of them reached Diamond already, while only I got stuck in Gold. They thought I was holding them back, so they stopped playing with me.”

“Do you want to hit Supreme King?” Ye Shaoyang suddenly asked.

“Huh?” Qin Rui froze completely. Having played for two months, remaining in Gold while getting cursed at constantly, even the Diamond rank felt out of reach to him, let alone [Supreme King], which represented the peak level of the online server.

Not a single one of his classmates was a Supreme King.

The most impressive one was their Alpha class president, who was only Diamond I and perpetually stuck in his promo series, unable to climb to Master.

“Supreme King?” Qin Rui scratched his head dubiously. “Can I really do it?”

“If I say you can, you can.” Ye Shaoyang smiled as he looked at his cousin, patting his shoulder: “Starting tomorrow, I’ll teach you some game awareness. As long as you know how to protect your carry, ranking up with me will be easy.”

“…” Qin Rui felt like a meat pie had just fallen from the sky right onto his head.

He had been obedient and gentle since childhood, always a star student in the eyes of his teachers, yet he was constantly cursed out while playing games, severely hitting his self-confidence.

Since he didn’t understand the game well, no matter how nasty people swore at him, he was too embarrassed to talk back.

Today, Brother Yang had cursed back on his behalf, which felt immensely satisfying. Brother Yang even carried him through a 15-game win streak, giving him his very first taste of gaming passion—so winning matches could feel this good!

By now, Qin Rui had become Ye Shaoyang’s little fanboy, looking eagerly at his older brother: “If I follow you and learn seriously, I can really hit King?”

Ye Shaoyang said, “That’s right. Tomorrow the two of us will duo-queue, and I’ll carry you to King.”

Qin Rui: “Awesome!”

Transmigrating so suddenly today, from accepting the ABO world settings to studying the new game’s data, and then carrying his cousin through over a dozen ranked matches… Ye Shaoyang’s brain was crammed with so much information it felt ready to explode. Rubbing his throbbing temples, he stood up and decisively turned off the computer: “Let’s go, time to shower and sleep.”

Qin Rui shut down his computer as well, the smile on his face far brighter than before: “Mm, goodnight, Brother Yang.”

Ye Shaoyang picked up the little white cat dozing on the sofa, smoothed its fur, and placed it inside the cat bed on the balcony before turning around to shower and sleep.

His bedroom was quite spacious. Perhaps because the original owner had lived here for many years, he quickly adapted to the bedroom environment and fell asleep within ten minutes.

His dreams were filled with fragments of his past in the LPL.

Teammates respectfully calling him “Captain Ye,” fans and opponents calling him “God Yang,” countless fans raising support banners and chanting his name at match venues, while others flamed him online as an “idiot who only embarrasses us in international events.”

Familiar faces of teammates appeared one after another, and the scenes of his final World Championship replayed before his eyes like slow motion…

Waking up startled from the nightmare, Ye Shaoyang found his eyes slightly sore.

He knew that everything in the past, whether glory or rock-bottom lows, was gone for good.

He had started anew in a fresh world. In the future, he would have new teammates and new experiences. The only constant was that he would continue striving for his dream of a “World Championship.”

Taking a deep breath, Ye Shaoyang pulled back the blanket, got out of bed, and walked out.

Qin Rui was already awake, wearing an apron as he cooked breakfast in the kitchen. Ye Shaoyang pushed open the kitchen door and looked at his younger cousin attentively frying eggs by the stove. Letting out a yawn, he asked, “You got up this early?”

“I’m used to sleeping early and waking up early,” Qin Rui said with a smile. “Go wash your hands, Brother, breakfast is almost ready.”

Ye Shaoyang turned to wash up. When he returned, Qin Rui had already set a lavish breakfast on the dining table: golden fried eggs, fragrant meat pies, and two bowls of pumpkin porridge that instantly stimulated the appetite.

Remembering the fridge was completely empty, Ye Shaoyang looked up and asked, “Did you go out to buy groceries early in the morning?”

“Mm, there’s a supermarket downstairs. I bought plenty of meat and vegetables, enough for the two of us for three days.”

Ye Shaoyang: “…”

An Omega cousin who could cook was simply an angel!

Cousin Qin must have sent Xiao Rui over to live with him to save his stomach!

In a great mood, Ye Shaoyang picked up a fried egg, took a bite, and gave a thumbs up: “Delicious.”

Qin Rui gave a shy smile: “I bought pork ribs too; I’ll make you sweet and sour ribs later. If there’s anything else you want to eat, Brother, just let me know and I’ll go buy it at the supermarket.”

Ye Shaoyang looked at his cousin with complex feelings.

He had never seen a boy with such a gentle personality in the esports circle before—one who could cook and wouldn’t swear back even when flamed.

Was it because he differentiated into an Omega?

Qin Yue and Qin Rui were both Omegas; the former was gentle and intellectual, while the latter was submissive and cute. Could all Omegas in this world be like this?

No cussing, no flaming, gentle, considerate, and understanding?

Ye Shaoyang thought about how he also had a 50% chance of differentiating into an Omega, then imagined himself acting all soft and gentle… He couldn’t visualize it at all, getting goosebumps instead.

He could never be gentle and submissive; it had always been others who listened to him.

Even if he differentiated into an Omega, he would still flame people when needed.

Besides, he had ten thousand ways to flame someone without using a single curse word, rendering any reports completely useless.

Ye Shaoyang quickly finished his breakfast, brought his cousin to the study, and turned on the computer.

Qin Rui sat beside him with an attitude ready for serious learning: “Brother, are we starting ranked now?”

Ye Shaoyang said, “No rush. Let’s do two bot games first so I can teach you how to play support. If all goes smoothly, I want to rush straight to King before going to sleep tonight, and hit the national rankings with Abyssal Lord while we’re at it.”

Qin Rui: “…”

Rushing to King in a single day, and pushing for national rankings? Was Brother Yang really this confident?

Qin Rui opened his friends list and clicked into [Xiao Bai]’s profile.

The profile displayed the player’s most used heroes; only heroes used more than 10 times would be recorded (bot matches didn’t count). Xiao Bai’s only recorded hero at the moment was [Abyssal Lord], used 15 times with a 100% win rate.

Hero power: 3,689.

A bronze badge appeared in the top left corner—Ranked #1 in Binjiang District, Star City.

Qin Rui said excitedly, “Brother, you got a district badge!”

Ye Shaoyang looked calm: “Mm, I’ll show you a national badge in a few days.”

Qin Rui: “…”

His brother’s pursuits were truly extraordinary.

Following his memory, Ye Shaoyang opened the streaming app from the day he transmigrated—Whale Live Platform.

This was one of China’s largest streaming platforms. Clicking into the Gods’ War category, he indeed saw a massive number of popular gaming streamers. Currently, the top-ranked streamer was named [Brother Yu], with his stream titled “Early Bird Gets the Worm: Abyssal Lord New Hero Tutorial,” sitting at a massive 2 million online viewers.

At 8:30 AM, esports players were definitely still sleeping. This “Brother Yu” was clearly a professional gaming streamer, and with such high stream popularity, he surely had some real skill.

Whenever a new hero was released, many players would watch various streaming tutorials to learn how to play it. This was the absolute best way to build up popularity and draw attention.

Ye Shaoyang changed his stream title from “Newbie Playing Casual” to “Live Abyssal Lord Push to National Rank.”

People gradually began trickling into the stream.

【Xiao Bai?? Isn’t this the newbie who lost three placement matches in a row yesterday? You haven’t uninstalled the game yet?】

【Are you really gonna embark on this point-of-no-return path as the ‘trashiest streamer in the gaming section’?】

【Welcome back, stream world’s mudslide.】

【How many times is the streamer gonna die and feed this time?】

Ye Shaoyang: “…”

Ahem, dark history best left unmentioned.

Ignoring those chat messages, he quickly pinned a notice at the top of the comment section: “Starting at 10:00 AM, pushing new hero [Abyssal Lord] to national rankings, welcome to watch.”

Viewers in the stream: “…………”

A rookie who died 8 times in a single match, using a new hero to push for national rankings??

Who on earth gave you the courage?!