With an hour and a half remaining before his official stream, Ye Shaoyang took Qin Rui into a few bot games, patiently teaching him the gameplay awareness required for support.

It was only then that Qin Rui realized his understanding of the game was far too shallow. Many rhythm power spikes, jungle vision ward placements, and key objective considerations for Dragon/Tyrant team fights that his brother mentioned were completely unknown to him—no wonder he had been stuck in Gold without ranking up.

However, since Qin Rui was capable of getting accepted into Xingcheng University, his IQ was certainly up to par. As Ye Shaoyang patiently taught, he listened attentively and learned earnestly. An hour later, he knew the brush locations and crucial timings Ye Shaoyang had outlined by heart.

Seeing that his cousin had grasped the essentials, Ye Shaoyang said, “Let’s go. Time to play your promotion series so you can reach Diamond first.”

The clock struck 10:00 AM, and Ye Shaoyang opened his stream channel.

Thanks to his stream title, “Abyssal Lord Impacting National Rank,” alongside the homepage “New Streamer Recommendation,” a massive crowd of viewers flooded into the stream room. The online view count surged from an initial 100 to over 5,000. Some came out of curiosity to see the new hero, while others were netizens who had followed him yesterday.

As he officially went live, sporadic bullet screen comments began rolling through—

【Just watched the VOD from yesterday’s stream. Holy crap, 0-5, 0-6, and 0-8 stats across three placement matches?? You have the nerve to stream with that level of play?】

【Hahaha, I happened to catch his stream yesterday. Got killed 8 times in a row, died such a miserable death】

【So where did he get the courage to use Abyssal Lord to push for national rankings?】

【Is the streaming world’s mudslide back? Just followed you yesterday, how many times are you gonna feed today?】

It was understandable why everyone was skeptical; his match record yesterday was indeed terrible, worse than a Bronze-tier player.

【Why isn’t the streamer showing his face?】

【If it’s a handsome guy, we can forgive him for being a bit trash at the game~~】

【Scared to show your face, could it be you’re too ugly?】

Ye Shaoyang simply turned his webcam toward the side, picked up Xiao Bai, and placed the cat right in front of the lens. He joked, “Hello everyone, my cat was the one playing those three matches yesterday.”

Xiao Bai cooperated on cue with a few meows: “Meow, meow, meow!”

Viewers: “…………”

Have you no shame! Making your own cat take the blame?

A huge wave of bullet screens erupted in response:

【The cat is so cute!】

【Is that a Ragdoll? The streamer’s avatar is this exact cat】

【The streamer’s voice sounds nice, followed!】

【I’m dizzy, even cats can start live streaming nowadays?!】

Ye Shaoyang had no intention of showing his face, so he placed Xiao Bai inside the webcam frame instead.

His cat was very well-behaved and affectionate. While he played games all night yesterday, the kitten had curled up on the sofa beside him the entire time, purring softly in its sleep. Right now, it was staring curiously into the camera lens. What the stream audience saw was the ragdoll cat’s sweet, adorable face and wide blue eyes.

…It simply melted everyone’s hearts.

…People felt too embarrassed to even flame the streamer now.

【For a cat-owning guy, even if your gameplay is a bit trash, you’re forgiven~~】

【Just for your cat’s looks, I won’t flame you for now!】

Ye Shaoyang placed a yarn ball toy in the middle of the sofa, and Xiao Bai began enthusiastically batting at it.

Qin Rui turned around to look, marveling in admiration, “Brother, you really have a way with things.”

Ye Shaoyang said, “The two of us are going to be playing non-stop next, so nobody will be playing with the kitten and it’ll get bored. Giving it a yarn ball lets it entertain itself.”

Team GD used to keep a cat, so he was very experienced in raising them.

Little creatures like cats were simple and easy to coax; give them a yarn ball, and they could happily amuse themselves for half a day. This Ragdoll was far more well-behaved than his previous cat, never jumping randomly onto his keyboard. He felt completely at ease leaving the cat in the study to accompany him while gaming. This way, the cat would also feel more secure staying close to its owner.

The promotion match began shortly after. Ye Shaoyang patted the kitten’s head and withdrew his gaze: “Get ready.”

The match lobby loaded in.

During the prep phase, Ye Shaoyang instantly locked in [Abyssal Lord], while Qin Rui selected [Blessed Priest].

Their teammates immediately lost their composure—

[Daily Loss Streak]: Big bro, this is my Diamond promo match, can you please not practice a hero?

[No Acne Please]: Practicing heroes in ranked isn’t appropriate, right?

[Cute Bear]: That Abyssal Lord last game dragged me down so hard, bro, are you here to practice him too?

Seeing [Xiao Bai] lock in Abyssal Lord, everyone raised doubts in unison.

This hero had only been released for two days.

Every time a new hero went live, inconsiderate players would use ranked matches to test them out, and 95% of the time they ended up dragging down their team—especially since [Abyssal Lord] was a hero with exceptionally high operational difficulty.

[Xiao Bai]: I won’t feed, I’m duo-queuing with the support.

[Xiao Rui]: My brother’s Abyssal Lord is pretty strong, everyone can rest assured ^^

[Daily Loss Streak]: For real?

[No Acne Please]: Mind showing your record?

Ye Shaoyang simply sent his hero stats into the chat—

【Abyssal Lord: 15 matches, 100% win rate, Ranked #1 in Binjiang District, Xingcheng City】

Their teammates scrambled to hit the ready button.

A carrying thigh! A massive carrying thigh! Securing a ride on this carry was definitely the right move!

[Daily Loss Streak]: Ranked #1 in the district? Insane, insane! Please carry me, master!

[No Acne Please]: Can I add you as a friend, master? Will you carry me to rank up?

[Cute Bear]: Heh, you guys only know how to suck up to the master.

[Cute Bear]: I’m different.

[Cute Bear]: I just want to be an ornament on the master’s waist.

[Teammates]: …

The stream chat went even crazier with bullet screens—

【Holy shit? Is this really the same trash streamer from yesterday?】

【Followed, followed! Streamer teach me how to play the new hero!】

【Brother Yu next door has a 95% win rate on Abyssal Lord, but the streamer has 100%! Insane!】

【The three matches yesterday… were they really played by your cat?!】

【Kitty, if you were the one playing, give us a meow?】

Xiao Bai: “Meow meow meow?”

The cat gave its owner so much face that the stream room burst into a collective laugh.

Ye Shaoyang used “the cat played those matches” to brush past the awkward dark history of yesterday’s placement matches, smoothly deleting yesterday’s stream VOD while he was at it. From now on, anyone entering his stream wouldn’t repeatedly bring up the fact that he was killed 8 times in a row. Starting now, he would display his true strength.

The match began.

An opponent arrogantly typed in global chat—

[Jungle King No. 3]: You guys should just forfeit at 6 minutes this game, don’t waste time.

[Jungle King No. 3]: Professional jungle main, guaranteed carry.

There were plenty of players who tried to mess with the opponent’s mindset right from the start. Ye Shaoyang was long accustomed to it; if you took the bait and argued back, you’d only be playing into their hands.

Ye Shaoyang brought his cousin to the mid lane to clear waves and farm safely.

3 minutes into the game, a familiar sound effect echoed—

First Blood!

Their bottom lane marksman [Cute Bear] was ambushed and killed by the enemy jungler.

Having taken First Blood, the enemy jungler grew even more arrogant, continuing his taunts in global chat—

[Jungle King No. 3]: Enemy marksman is so trash, thanks for the free kill.

[Jungle King No. 3]: Does your team’s support even care about you?

Not only was he taunting to throw off their mental game, but he was also trying to sow discord between teammates.

Qin Rui despised people who spouted endless trash talk while gaming, unable to help glancing over at his brother.

Ye Shaoyang remained composed, saying softly, “No rush, wait till I hit Level 6.”

The jungle provided more early experience, allowing jungle players to reach Level 6 and unlock their Ultimates faster than top, mid, or bot lanes. The enemy jungler possessed decent awareness, capitalizing on this level timing to ambush the marksman.

Now that the jungler had secured First Blood, he couldn’t be allowed to snowball his lead.

Ye Shaoyang glanced at the match timer: “Get ready to move into the left jungle brush. Do you know why?”

Qin Rui answered immediately: “Understood! The enemy jungler started red buff this game, so his Red Buff is about to respawn. After killing someone and recalling to restore stats, he’ll definitely head to the jungle to clear it!”

Ye Shaoyang smiled: “A teachable pupil.”

Earlier, his brother had patiently taught him many key points, making Qin Rui very familiar with the various brush locations. He quickly placed a ward in the brush and waited in ambush ahead of time.

Ye Shaoyang’s Abyssal Lord reached Level 6 shortly after.

Arriving beside his cousin, Qin Rui hurriedly applied his Q skill to boost Ye Shaoyang’s damage output.

A moment later, [Jungle King No. 3]

indeed strolled right past them.

Ye Shaoyang narrowed his eyes, his fingers flying across the keys—

[Xiao Bai] killed [Jungle King No. 3]!

The opponent was left completely bewildered, failing to comprehend the mechanics entirely. All he saw was three black shadows darting erratically around him before his health bar was emptied in an instant.

The stream viewers widened their eyes even further. That moment was too fast to catch—three black shadows burst forth like the wind on screen, and the exact button execution was completely unreadable.

Everyone only saw the final result.

The enemy assassin lay in a pool of blood.

Abyssal Lord stood beside his corpse, completely unscathed.

Two lines of text appeared on screen:

[Xiao Bai]: If you don’t have the skills, don’t start the game taunting to mess with people’s minds.

[Xiao Bai]: It’s easy to get slapped in the face ^_^

That final smile emoji was the ultimate silent taunt.

The enemy jungler was enraged to the point of spitting blood.

The stream chat immediately filled with “6666” spam!

[Jungle King No. 3]: Enemy Abyssal Lord, you just wait!

The match continued. Gritting his teeth, the enemy jungler planned to take his Blue Buff before heading mid to assassinate Abyssal Lord. However, just as his Blue Buff reached its last sliver of health, a black shadow suddenly materialized from behind the wall—

Timing it perfectly, Ye Shaoyang stole the Blue Buff and casually collected the jungler’s kill while he was at it.

[Xiao Bai]: Didn’t you tell me to wait?

[Xiao Bai]: So you were just delivering Blue Buff to me, thank you ^_^Jungle King No. 3

: Fuck *****

Dying twice in a row, the jungler’s mental state collapsed completely. Ye Shaoyang began invading the enemy jungle to snowball his gold, rapidly pushing mid lane, and concluded the match effortlessly in 15 minutes.

—Congratulations, you have successfully promoted to the [Eternal Diamond] tier!

As this line of text popped up on Qin Rui’s screen, his eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Diamond, I actually made it to Diamond!” He had been stuck in Gold for a month, unable to even reach Platinum, yet after playing with his brother for a single day, he reached Diamond? Was he dreaming?

Ye Shaoyang whispered in his ear, “Starting from Diamond tier, the game uses Ban/Pick (BP), which tests your hero pool. However, a support like [Blessed Priest] should rarely be picked or banned, so you can keep using her. If [Blessed Priest] gets taken by the enemy, just pick [Forest Envoy] to heal me.”

Qin Rui nodded vigorously: “Mm-hmm! Shall we keep playing?”

Ye Shaoyang: “Keep going. We’re hitting King before going to sleep tonight.”

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Bai’s stream popularity reached 50,000 viewers.

The mechanics on [Abyssal Lord] in that last match were simply too sharp, and Ye Shaoyang’s witty comebacks against the enemy assassin attracted a wave of fans. Even the netizens who had mocked him initially started spamming “6” in the chat.

【The streamer flames people without using curse words, but why does it feel so satisfying?】

【’Thank you for delivering Blue Buff to me’—low damage, but maximum disrespect!】

【If I were the enemy jungler, I’d be pissed to death! Hahaha】

Of course, there were still some dissenting voices:

【Diamond tier is just newbies slapping each other, what’s there to be proud of winning once?】

【Exactly, even I can smash people in Diamond! Streamer Brother Yu next door has way higher technical value in his streams.】

【If you can carry a team using Abyssal Lord in King-tier matches, then I’ll respect you.】

Ye Shaoyang glanced at the bullet screens and smiled: “Don’t rush, we’re hitting King right now.”

The ranked promotion system in Gods’ War was exceptionally favorable to high-skilled players. Every 5 consecutive wins awarded extra stars, and securing consecutive MVPs boosted hero power by a massive amount. By now, his [Abyssal Lord] hero power had broken past 5,400.

He had earned a city badge—[#1 Abyssal Lord in Xingcheng City].

Xingcheng was a major city in Southern China, equivalent to a provincial capital like Changsha or Wuhan in his previous era. Being #1 in the city was already quite impressive, but Ye Shaoyang’s goals went far beyond that.

City #1, Province #1.

All the way to National #1.

Only by being strong enough would professional esports teams be willing to recruit him.

With that thought in mind, Ye Shaoyang pressed ready alongside his cousin once more.