ARML CH59

Even if others forgot about the streamer Xiao Bai, Fang Zhengqing would absolutely never forget.

As the laziest Alpha in the entire league, he usually slept until 2 PM before getting up. Just because of this Xiao Bai, the coach had forced him to change his routine and wake up at 10 AM. As a result, once he changed it, he couldn’t change it back?

Lately, he was still waking up at 10 AM every day, his biological clock completely messed up.

The current time was exactly 10 AM. Not long after Fang Zhengqing woke up, he saw the recording Mitchell sent in the group. Yawning, he downloaded the recording to his computer, hugged his cat in his arms, and called his coach over to take a look: “Coach Chen, they say a pair of experts has appeared on the international server, come take a look too.”

Coach Chen curiously leaned over to watch the recording… Mid-jungle synergy with double flying? Black and White Wolf and Fox?

Coach Chen stroked his chin: “These two compositions are rarely seen in the arena, mainly because they are too difficult to coordinate. The two of them have quite a tacit understanding; which country are these experts from?”

Fang Zhengqing, while petting his cat, opened the group chat log and said: “They analyzed and discussed in the group for ages. The Europeans think they are American, the Americans think they are Korean, the Koreans think they are from China, and Zhou Jiawen said that our country’s esports players don’t wake up this early.”

Coach Chen glanced at the recording time: “For this first game, the time on Mitchell’s end was 8 PM. Converted to our time, that’s 8 AM? I really haven’t heard of any team waking up this early.”

Fang Zhengqing opened a document and rapidly typed a few lines of text with both hands. Morning 8:00; Midnight 12:00; Morning 9:00. Then he withdrew his hands and said, “Three games, converted to our time zone. Have you noticed the pattern?”

Coach Chen said, “Morning and night?”

“Yes, if the two of them are from China, then they are playing ranked on the international server in the mornings and evenings.” Fang Zhengqing paused, then suddenly asked, “Coach, have you watched Xiao Bai’s stream recently?”

Coach Chen sighed, “Hasn’t Xiao Bai already signed a contract? Since we can’t poach him anyway, I haven’t watched it seriously anymore. However, his stream announcement has changed. It’s now streaming daily from 10 AM to 12 PM…”

Speaking up to this point, Coach Chen suddenly froze, “Before 10 AM, Xiao Bai might be online? After he signed with a team, since most domestic teams have to train in the afternoons and evenings, he’s not even playing the Peak Tournament anymore?”

Fang Zhengqing adjusted his glasses and smiled with narrowed eyes: “Correct. He used to stream the Peak Tournament every night. At first, I thought he would push to the 2000-point tier of the Peak Tournament and become this season’s pubstomper. But as he kept playing, he suddenly stopped, and his streaming wasn’t as active as before, only broadcasting for 2 hours a day.”

Coach Chen suddenly realized, “That means he has already joined a team and started training with them!”

Otherwise, how could you explain a streamer with such high popularity suddenly compressing his streaming hours? If he wasn’t streaming the Peak Tournament during the 8 PM to 12 AM golden prime time, that meant there was something more important than streaming at night.

Wasn’t that just team training?

Coach Chen asked, “You suspect this Fox King is Xiao Bai?”

Fang Zhengqing was silent for a moment, saying with uncertainty, “I’m just a little suspicious. The online times of this Sunshine and Moonlight are very similar to Xiao Bai’s.”

Coach Chen stared at the screen with wide eyes: “But in that match review just now, don’t you think this [White Fox King] doesn’t look like a rookie? The opposing Ninja jungler [Ninja33] is Fujita Naoya’s smurf; I recognize this smurf of his. The White Fox King was able to dodge Fujita’s flanking ambush twice in a row; an average rookie wouldn’t be able to do that, right?”

This was also Fang Zhengqing’s biggest doubt. This person gave him a very strange feeling. He felt like it was Xiao Bai, but the calmness and sharpness displayed during the match didn’t look like the level a newly debuted streamer could possess.

Coach Chen continued analyzing: “Furthermore, Xiao Bai’s best heroes are [Abyssal Lord], [Illusionist], and the 6 Great Goddesses. He got the national server badge for all 8 of these. Recently on stream, he’s been practicing [World-Ending Mage]. He doesn’t know how to play the Fox King, right?”

At first, Fang Zhengqing thought he had found the correct answer.

But after analyzing it with the coach like this, he felt he was overthinking it.

He doubtfully adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked back at the coach: “Coach doesn’t think it’s Xiao Bai?”

Coach Chen nodded: “I don’t think it is. Xiao Bai has never played the Fox King before, how could he become so proficient in just a day or two? However, this Wolf King jungler… why do I feel like he resembles Chi Shuo a bit?”

Fang Zhengqing said, “It’s impossible for it to be Chi Shuo.”

Coach Chen: “…?”

Fang Zhengqing vowed solemnly: “Chi Shuo’s favorite junglers are [Bloodstained Assassin] and [Stealth Rogue], as well as those with crowd control like [King of Fighters] and [Fighter]. He has never brought out the two heroes [Black Wolf King] and [Spirit Realm Snowbird] in a match.”

Fang Zhengqing paused, then said with absolute certainty: “Moreover, Chi Shuo also sleeps in. It’s impossible for him to be idle with nothing to do and go practice new heroes on the international server early in the morning. Tianhuan’s lineup can’t synergize with highly difficult compositions like the Flying Duo or the Wolf and Fox.”

Coach Chen looked at him suspiciously: “Are you sure? Just based on the tacit understanding between you and Chi Shuo?”

Fang Zhengqing’s smile stiffened. He petted the cat in his arms to cover his embarrassment: “Although Chi Shuo and I had no tacit understanding to speak of when we played matches on the same team back in the day, when it comes to understanding each other, we still have a bit of mutual understanding, right?”

Coach Chen scratched his hair: “…Regardless of who this duo is, since they’ve caused widespread attention on the international server, our Jingzhe can’t fall behind. We’ll continue to keep an eye on them. Anyway, with so many experts in the Gods’ War World Alliance group, someone will eventually expose their identities.”

Fang Zhengqing gave an “en” in agreement, opened Chi Shuo in his friend list, and sent a message: “Sunshine and Moonlight, are you familiar with these IDs?”

Chi Shuo: “??”

Fang Zhengqing looked at the coach: “See, Chi Shuo replied with two question marks. That means he isn’t familiar with them.”

Chi Shuo’s question marks did not mean he wasn’t familiar, but rather—What do you want?

Fang Zhengqing’s sudden inquiry made Chi Shuo freeze for a moment. He had just been playing ranked with Shaoyang and hadn’t noticed the messages in the group. At this moment, opening the [World Gods’ War Alliance] group on his phone with its 999+ unread messages, he finally realized…

A bunch of people had turned into detectives and were discussing the origins of Sunshine and Moonlight, and they had assigned him and Shaoyang nationalities like American, European, African, Japanese, Korean, and so on.

He and Ye Shaoyang had inexplicably traveled the world without ever stepping out the door.

Chi Shuo sent a screenshot of the chat log to Ye Shaoyang.

After Ye Shaoyang saw it, he quickly replied: “They sure know how to guess, especially Captain Zhou, who said with great certainty that players from the China region don’t wake up this early [Pounding the floor laughing.jpg]”

Chi Shuo said: “Don’t expose it for now, let’s keep our secret identities hidden for a while.”

Ye Shaoyang replied: “Understood. If the teams in the China region know in advance that we are practicing the flying duo and the black and white wolf and fox, they will definitely try everything to counter us next season. These are our trump card compositions; we must bring them out in crucial matches to give them a pleasant surprise ^_^”

Chi Shuo: “Yes, or it might be a fright.”

Ye Shaoyang returned to the dorm. Just as he opened Xiao Bai’s stream, a row of bullet screens suddenly popped up in the bottom left corner—

[Square and Upright] gifted Streamer Xiao Bai Deep Sea Torpedo x50

[Square and Upright]: Streamer, add as friend?

The netizens in the stream instantly exploded, frantically spamming “Good morning Captain Fang.”

Some people even joked, [Has the cat-slave Captain Fang taken a liking to our family’s little white cat? Kitty run away!]

Ye Shaoyang smiled and said, “Thank you for the torpedoes, Captain Fang. Xiao Rui, please send my WeChat ID.”

The stream mod Xiao Rui dutifully sent the contact information over, and Ye Shaoyang’s phone quickly received a friend verification request. After accepting it, Ye Shaoyang discovered that Fang Zhengqing’s avatar was exactly the colorpoint Ragdoll cat he raised.

The Xiao Bai that Ye Shaoyang raised was a seal bicolor Ragdoll; its white face looked exceptionally sweet. Captain Fang’s colorpoint Ragdoll had a black face, as if it had face-planted into a coal mine, hence it was jokingly called a “coal miner” by netizens. This Ragdoll’s appearance was actually quite good; the black on both sides of its face was very symmetrical, making it look endearingly silly and cute.

Fang Zhengqing sent a cat greeting emoji: “Hello, Xiao Bai.”

Ye Shaoyang replied: “Hello, Captain Fang.”

Fang Zhengqing quickly typed a line of text: “Coach Chen looked for you last time, wanting you to come to our Jingzhe. Will you really not consider it anymore?”

Ye Shaoyang replied: “Sorry, I’ve already signed with a team.”

Fang Zhengqing: “We’ll help you pay the penalty fee. If you come over, your cat can also have a companion.”

Fang Zhengqing: “Of course, I understand your concerns. I’m the captain of the Jingzhe team. If you join, you won’t be able to play as a starter right away. But our second team is also very strong. The coach’s intention is that you can directly go to the second team as the captain, play cup tournaments with them, and after half a year, you can come to the main team and rotate with me.”

Ye Shaoyang fell silent. Perhaps because they were fellow cat slaves, his impression of Fang Zhengqing wasn’t bad. Jingzhe’s attitude towards him was quite good, and the conditions they offered were reasonable…

But he still chose Tianhuan.

Tianhuan was his best destination. The longer he was with Tianhuan, the more he rejoiced in his decision.

Practicing mid-jungle synergy coordination with Chi Shuo these past few days, whether it was tempo or tacit understanding, the two of them made Ye Shaoyang rediscover the peak condition he had in his past life.

Ye Shaoyang replied: “I’m really sorry. I like my current team a lot, and I don’t want to terminate the contract and jump ship.”

Fang Zhengqing replied with a helpless emoji: “It seems we were still a step too late. However, if the team you joined is a tier-two team, it will actually delay your future prospects. If you change your mind, hit me up anytime.”

Ye Shaoyang: “Okay, I probably won’t regret it ^_^”

Tianhuan wasn’t a tier-two team; Tianhuan was a team with the potential and strength to return to the championship throne.

I won’t change my mind, and I won’t hit you up on WeChat.

In the future, on the arena stage, I’ll hit you with a magic staff!

Ye Shaoyang closed the chat log with Fang Zhengqing.

Chi Shuo had been keeping an eye on Xiao Bai’s stream. Seeing Fang Zhengqing gift Xiao Bai just now, Chi Shuo suddenly felt a strange sense of crisis and immediately sent a message to Ye Shaoyang: “Is Fang Zhengqing trying to poach you to Jingzhe?”

Ye Shaoyang replied: “Yes.”

Chi Shuo: “How did you reply?”

Ye Shaoyang: “Don’t worry, no one can poach me. I’ve already decided to squat in Tianhuan and never leave ^_^”

Chi Shuo set his mind at ease and said: “Ignore him. I think he’s been too idle recently, not preparing for the next match, and still inquiring about the origins of Sunshine and Moonlight.”

Ye Shaoyang asked curiously: “You guys have known each other for four years. Will he be able to tell that the Black Wolf King jungler is you?”

Chi Shuo: “I believe he can’t tell.”

Ye Shaoyang: “?”

Chi Shuo: “After all, we have absolutely no tacit understanding.”

Ye Shaoyang: “…”

If even Fang Zhengqing couldn’t guess it, then the Sun and Moon duo’s secret identities should be able to remain hidden for a long time.

After all, most teams would feel that players who wake up at 8 AM to play matches definitely aren’t from the China region.

The few great gods who harbored suspicions would also dismiss the correct answer because Chi Shuo had never used the Wolf King as a jungler, and Qu Jiang wasn’t this style.

The Tianhuan team’s secret tactics couldn’t be exposed too early. Ye Shaoyang suggested: “Captain Chi, our IDs for those accounts on the international server are still too obvious. How about we buy a name change card?”

Chi Shuo was actually thinking the same thing. Sunlight, Moonlight, it was too obvious and had already attracted widespread attention from major teams. He and Ye Shaoyang still needed to continue practicing other mid-jungle synergy compositions. As long as they ran into professional players, every match would be screen-recorded and sent to the group for study. By then, the major teams would have thoroughly researched their coordination.

The two of them were essentially playing public exhibition matches. Letting the opponents understand them too well was not a good thing.

Chi Shuo asked straightforwardly: “Change it to what?”

Ye Shaoyang said: “Let’s just randomly change it to a string of gibberish.”

The two immediately went to buy name change cards on the international server. Chi Shuo changed his name to C8765AB, and Ye Shaoyang changed his name to 976BCFE—Mitchell, Zhou Jiawen, can you guys still recognize us?

Time passed quickly, leaving only the legend of the fleeting Sun and Moon CP on the international server.

Then everyone noticed that a bunch of gibberish-named experts suddenly appeared in the high-star tiers of the international server. Today they were called C8765AB, tomorrow they were called 9622GFC, changing every day. It was unclear if it was one person or a group of people.

There were simply too many secret identities to expose.

Zhou Jiawen: “…Why do I get the feeling that the international server has been taken over by aliens?”

Mitchell: “Where did all this strange gibberish pop out from?”

Kim Min-jun: “Could it be that these gibberish names are all the same people?”

These experts with gibberish IDs were sometimes practicing jungle core + utility mid, and sometimes practicing utility jungler + mid-core. Most of the time it was still mid-jungle synergy. Various mid-jungle synergy compositions took turns appearing on the international server.

For an entire month, marksman players on the international server collectively burst into tears: “Does anyone else feel that the marksman role on the international server is exceptionally, exceptionally hard to play this month!”

“Frequently getting ganked to pieces, the survival environment is incredibly harsh.”

“After experiencing the despair of being ganked to pieces by various mid-jungle compositions, my game sense seems to have improved?”

The international server group was filled with complaints every day.

Chi Shuo looked at these messages without saying a single word. He wasn’t the type to love chatting and blowing hot air anyway. Since joining the group, he had remained silent—no one would suspect that this matter had anything to do with him.

Many people created smurfs on the international server. After he and Shaoyang changed their IDs to gibberish, they changed their names every few days. Everyone was completely dizzied by their changing names, totally unable to tell who was who.

The Sun and Moon duo was only exposed for a few short days, becoming an unsolvable legend for the people in the group forever.

This past month, Ye Shaoyang and Chi Shuo piloted countless secret identities, practicing a massive amount of mid-jungle synergy compositions. Their tacit understanding further improved, and Tianhuan’s internal team training finally entered the second stage of full-team coordination practice.