After the regular season ends, there would be a two-week break for the playoffs in the spring season. Though the matches were on break, the players could not rest. Normally, JK would immediately start their intense training matches upon returning. However, given the close call in the regular season, the coaching team unanimously decided that JK’s training needed to be reassessed, so they gave the players a rare three days off.

Yu Yue lounged comfortably on the sofa in the base, browsing through Tieba. Although she might not be playing in the upcoming matches, during the match with PS, Yu Yue clearly felt the difference between pro players and casual players. They have better coordination, better mechanics, and the team fights were like fights between immortals. One wrong move and you’re done for.

She needed to know oneself and know one’s enemy ^[1]知己知彼: idiom from Sunzi’s ‘The Art of War’ in order to defeat her opponents easily.

She was still too green.

Though Tieba had its fair share of posts that praised the teams when they won and criticized the teams when they lost, there were also many insightful posts that provided a well-rounded summary of the team’s performance.

As soon as she entered, Yu Yue saw the past: Can someone evaluate JK’s female support, Eden?

This post had 418 replies. It was not a lot, but Yu Yue still clicked on it, driven by curiosity.

[That last part when she switched Wolf Totem to the golden body was epic! It can be clearly seen that she’s an expert who’s been single for twenty years.]

[She’s a female and she’s trash, got it? They only won cause Qi Ge carried the game. What’s there to brag about?]

[She’s as noob as Lian. Sun Bin was played like shit in the second game. Just like Lian. JK should just buy QAQ’s Reed^[2]蒹葭 or ET’s Dunhuang^[3]敦煌; can’t find a better English translation for this uwu. Supports on the level of Eden and Lian are not good enough for top mid laners like Qi Ge!]

[I don’t know about anything else, but she definitely has a strong desire to win, as if she had never won before. Kinda like Qi Ge. From this perspective, she should be a good teammate in the future.]

[My impression of her is limited to Qi Ge’s praises for her…]

[That instant switch from Wolf Totem to the golden body was amazing. I feel that she’s a very gifted and earnest player. I don’t think Qi Ge praised too highly. He probably really appreciates her.]

Being able to use Wolf Totem, sell it and buy Moon Soul, then use Moon Soul, how fast was her hand speed?

Moreover, none of the players in PS expected a support hero like Gui Guzi would sell the support items away.

Not everyone has this kind of adaptability and flexibility.

[Is instantly changing an item a standard for pro players? You all can just brag about anything? Also, PS is not a team that can be taken seriously, they’re popular because they’re good-looking. With how noob they are, of course Eden would look like she’s strong. In reality, they’re just as good as LZ……”

But compared to all these, Yu Yue was more concerned about something else —

Qi Ge praised her? When?

Just as Yu Yue thought of checking out the post-match interview, Lu Qi came down from the second floor, his hair still dripping wet. Yu Yue put away the tablet in her hands with a guilty conscience.

JK was notorious for being poor. The base for the starting lineup and secondary lineup was separated. Yu Yue had only received the team’s management’s orders to move bases after the match yesterday. When she arrived, Lu Qi was lecturing Lian. From that moment on, Yu Yue understood that Lu Qi, who appeared indifferent to everything, was actually a tyrant in the team. It was best not to mess with him.

Fortunately, Lu Qi was a bit more caring to the newbies. At least he knew to take a bottle of coke for Yu Yue when he was taking one for himself, though his actions were not gentle when passing it to her, “Why do you look so guilty?”

“Nothing much……”

Under Lu Qi’s cold gaze, Yu Yue eventually yielded, “Okay, I was just looking at Tieba.”

“……” Lu Qi frowned. “Don’t waste your time on that. Tieba is just full of people praising when you win and flaming when you lose. It’s all bullshit. Results are the most practical.”

Yu Yue let out a sheepish chuckle and put away her phone. She looked up with a smile, “I heard that captain had praised me?”

“What’s there to praise?” Lu Qi coldly snorted and placed the half-empty coke on the coffee table, “Prepare to duo queue with me.”

“Yo^[4]It’s supposed to be Oh~ but I feel that yooo~ fits the context more~” Da Ming, who was rummaging through the fridge for food, commented playfully. “Duo queue! Sweet sweet duo queue with the missy! Captain, this won’t do! The missy just moved in yesterday and you’ve already made your move! Yue Yue, make sure to hug the captain’s thigh tightly! He’s after all a top mid laner who can help you climb ranks! By the way, golden thigh, the fans are asking when the two carries are gonna duo queue, what do you think?”

Lu Qi ignored him.

Upon hearing the captain’s request to duo queue, Yu Yue was also at a loss, “Me?”

Lu Qi glanced at her with impatience, “The higher-ups’ orders. Quickly go online.”

So it was the management’s request.

“But don’t we have three days off?” Yu Yue questioned, but her hands were already busy opening up Honor of Kings.

As soon as she entered the game, she received a team invitation: 

[Player ‘your dad is planting loquat trees^[5]你爸在种枇杷: is an insult; have the same meaning as NMSL aka your mom is dead’ invites you to join a ranked game.]

This game ID…… outstanding!

One can feel the player’s irritation through the screen.

“Qi Ge, is this your smurf account?” Da Ming came over like a spirit. “How come you chose this ID? Did you lose too miserably in rank games a few days ago?”

Da Qing also walked over with a box of yogurt, joining in on the fun, “I duo queued with him in the early morning two days ago. He was snatching the blue buff the whole game. Captain’s ID suggests that he has a strong opinion against our ally jungler.

Ling Chen, who was live streaming on the other side, turned his head over, somewhat annoyed, “Keep it down, I’m live streaming here. The fans can hear you.”

The small live stream room was filled with laughter:

[Damn, the blue buff is the pride of the mid laners. By fighting Qi Ge for the blue buff, aren’t you trampling on his pride?]

[Hahaha, I’m dying of laughter. I’m curious what ID Qi Ge changed to]

[I know, I know! It’s ‘your dad is planting loquat trees.’ As to what it means, I suggest everyone go read ‘Xiang Ji Xuan Zhi^[6]Apparently, it’s a Chinese poem.’]

[That said, it’s the end of the month, Qi Ge’s live stream duration…… When is he going to live stream? I’m curious about his duo queue with the missy.]

[A reminder: You can check out Honor of Kings’ Camp^[7]An app for HoK related things or watch it in-game via spectator mode.]

[You have a great point!]

[I found it! Missy’s game ID is actually named JK-Eden]

All at once, the number of viewers in the live stream room dropped by 100,000.

Ling Chen did not know whether to laugh or cry, “Are you guys really my fans? I’m now suspecting that you guys are spies planted by Qi Ge to monitor my live stream.”

On Lu Qi’s and Yu Yue’s side, they were already in the match-making phase. The captain looked at Yu Yue’s ID and fell into a deep thought, “Exactly how much do you like Eden this name? You even used it for your personal account.”

“It’s not that,” Yu Yue replied good naturally. “It’s mainly because when Xiao Ruo contacted me asking if I wanted to play professionally, I was so happy that my IQ went offline and I thought that it was using my own account to play…… So I changed my ID to this.”

In the end, she came in to be a substitute who watches the water fountain. No one had recognized her. Some people even mocked her for not having the ability and told her to not use JK’s label when she played rank games on this account.

Today was an unfortunate day. During the selection of heroes, the first player asked in confusion, “JK’s player?”

Second player: [Does JK have someone like this?]

Yu Yue: “……”

Completely dare not to speak.

Seeing that Yu Yue did not respond, those two players also lost interest. Both sides banned the heroes strong in the current meta before picking their heroes.

“Qi Ge, what do you plan to play?” Yu Yue was the third player to pick. She would be able to pick earlier than Lu Qi, who was the fifth player. “I’ll help you secure your hero.”

Lu Qi clicked on the mage category and heedlessly replied, “Sima Yi.”

When playing with strangers, there was lesser restriction as compared to competitions where one has to take note of the hero combinations and counter-picks. In casual games, the players could pick their favorite heroes to play.

Sima Yi is a mage, he can also be an assassin that can cut to the backline. Commonly known as a ‘mage assassin,’ a hero that Lu Qi would like.

Yu Yue did not waste any more words and pre-selected Sima Yi as her hero, “I’ll play mid.”

Unexpectedly, the second player locked onto Angela — a hero that most people despised.

When chosen, it was agreed tacitly that it was a form of taunting.

Yu Yue slowly typed out a ‘?’ in the chat.

The fourth player could not help but on his mic: [Don’t play Angela, pick another hero.]

Second player: [No! I only know how to play this, if not I will feed!]

First player: [Nevermind, she’s a girl. Just bear with it, Angela can still be played in this meta.]

Yu Yue took a closer look and found out that the first and second players were a couple.

Da Qing, who was spectating from the side, exclaimed, “It’s great to have a man. With only knowing how to play Angela, you can still make it to Grandmaster.”

Lu Qi pulled out the voice messages and sent an ‘I’ll play assassin.”

First player: [I’ll play marksman.]

First player: [Let’s pick a tank.]

First player: [Pick two more tanks to protect me, I’ll carry.]

The fourth player was more soft-hearted and chose a tanky hero.

Yu Yue secretly glanced at Lu Qi, not knowing what to choose.

She really wanted to play a soft support^[8]Supports who are more squishy compared to tanks, e.g. Sun Bin, Yao, Da Qiao, etc. P.S. I like playing soft supports too. The soft supports all looked beautiful and they did not need to tank the damage, which was appealing to Yu Yue and made her heart move.

But if Lu Qi said that they needed a front liner to tank the damage, she would not hesitate to pick Zhang Fei or Niu Mo.

“I’ll help you choose Da Qiao,” as he spoke, Lu Qi pre-selected the hero. “Sima Yi’s first skill and Da Qiao’s second skill can combo. We’ll be able to recall and fight instantly on the battlefield. Cooperate with me later.”

As the man spoke, he still looked unfazed, as if this was really just a casual game. Only he knew that the management team had already begun their evaluation of Yu Yue.

Those people were considering the possibility of letting Yu Yue replace Lian for the playoffs. One important factor was if Yu Yue could smoothly integrate herself into JK, conform to JK’s strategies, and win the competition.

Yu Yue did not come from the youth training team. Before being discovered by Xiao Ruo, she was just a top casual player.

As a top casual player, it meant that she was strong enough, but she also had her own set of tactics that she would not change easily. As a player of high caliber, if she could not integrate into the team with a few games, then she held no cultivation value — because even if she was trained further, she would be unable to integrate perfectly into the team.

And Lu Qi was the person who would be evaluating her.

It was a role Captain Lu volunteered himself for.

---

TL Note: Next update should be on Thursday. My schedule for updates should be every Tuesday and Thursday for now. Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and bless your day!