Chapter 171

Mo Yin’s Moments were completely empty.

He hadn’t set them to be visible for three days, and Ye Chi didn’t realize he had been blocked. Mo Yin simply wasn’t posting any Moments.

Considering Mo Yin’s personality, that made perfect sense.

All Ye Chi could see were Mo Yin’s profile picture and WeChat name.

The profile picture and WeChat name matched perfectly.

MY.

It was a screenshot of his first championship skin signature.

Ye Chi’s heart raced with excitement. He wondered if he was really abnormal, just from looking at those two words.

Perhaps even earlier, when he was still working at the internet cafe, during that match where MY controlled his hero to dominate all sides and lifted the championship trophy on stage, causing the entire internet cafe to explode in cheers. Ye Chi sat in the network manager’s seat, watching the screen and deeply impressed by someone so unbelievably powerful. Maybe that was when a strange seed was planted in his heart, related to esports, and even more so, that inexplicable palpitation.

“Captain,” Chen Dong came out of the bathroom drying his hair, “did you come back so tired today to secretly practice more, to show off to our Mai Bao in tomorrow’s practice match?”

Ye Chi tucked his phone under the pillow and replied, “Are you speaking Chinese? Why can’t I understand?”

Chen Dong laughed, “We thought you came back to chat with girls.”

Ye Chi paused for a moment, his breathing calm, “Stop talking nonsense.”

Chen Dong jumped onto the bed, unabashedly saying, “Exactly! I refuted it on the spot. During such a critical time in the summer games, Captain, how could you have time to flirt with girls?”

Ye Chi: “……Yeah.”

He really didn’t “flirt with girls.” There was no “flirting” and no “girls.”

There were just two macho men passionately facing off in the mid lane.

Passionate face-off…

Ye Chi got up from the bed and went to take a shower.

If they kept talking like this, he might really need to show a bit of color.

Chen Dong sat on the bed with his legs crossed, “Didn’t you just finish showering?”

“Sweating again.”

“So meticulous…” Chen Dong muttered, “Save electricity, don’t waste water, conserve energy.”

Ye Chi came out of the shower again, and Chen Dong said, “Just chatted with my ex-wife.”

Ye Chi sat on the edge of the bed, gesturing with his eyes for Chen Dong to continue.

“They’re under a lot of pressure in the team right now,” Chen Dong said.

Ye Chi fell silent.

News of DSG’s lack of dominance in the summer games scrimmages had already spread among the various teams. Such things couldn’t be kept secret at all. Esports were brutally competitive. After sitting on the throne for so long, there were plenty of people hoping they’d fall.

Recently, DSG had even stopped scrimmaging. They had only just arranged to scrimmage with them tomorrow.

After the version update, there was actually no need for scrimmages. Ye Chi had already guessed that this season, DSG might need some time to adapt to the changes.

Since Mo Yin joined DSG, Ye Chi had watched every DSG game repeatedly, whether it was with the old team members or the current new lineup. Ye Chi knew the gaming styles, strengths, and weaknesses of every player like the back of his hand.

The current DSG lineup wasn’t very compatible with the new version.

Even their most perfect player—yes, in Ye Chi’s eyes, no, in the entire gaming circle’s eyes—Mo Yin was the most perfect mid laner without any doubt, flawless in laning, team fights, support, and hero pool depth. At the end of each season, Mo Yin’s data would directly overshadow other mid laners in the season’s best player rankings.

KDA, participation rate, solo kills, average damage per minute, damage conversion, survival rate, gold and experience differentials in the first ten minutes… any data you could think of, Mo Yin was the only benchmark.

Yet, such a perfect player didn’t adapt well to the new version.

For the past week, Ye Chi had been practicing one-on-one with Mo Yin.

Mo Yin was practicing new heroes, heroes he had never touched before—AD carries, top laners, even jungle and support heroes.

Every time they practiced a hero, Ye Chi could feel how serious and focused Mo Yin was on the other side of the gaming screen.

To become a genius admired by everyone required a price that others couldn’t see.

Ye Chi saw it all, so he fell even deeper.

“The team with two championships won’t buckle under this pressure.”

Ye Chi lay back down, retrieving his phone from under the pillow.

“Yeah,” Chen Dong also lay down, “Tang Qi is probably new, so his mentality isn’t quite there yet. I gave him a boost, hoping they can get through this tough period quickly.”

Opening his phone to the WeChat interface, Ye Chi checked the top chat with its shining signature.

“I see.”

In the morning, Mo Yin woke up at his usual time for a workout. On his way to the gym, he opened WeChat. His WeChat friends were so few that he could count them on one hand, and his Moments were perpetually quiet.

He had added Ye Chi last night, and Mo Yin clicked to see Ye Chi’s Moments.

Ye Chi’s Moments were quite clean, with a moderate frequency—about two or three posts a month. He shared game screenshots, photos taken while out, and stray cats near his base…

Quite ordinary, yet lively.

—”Good morning (Sun smiling.jpg)”

This unexpectedly appeared in his quiet Moments.

Mo Yin looked at the Moment, put away his phone, started warming up on the treadmill, and muttered softly, “Idiot.”

Hundreds of people liked Ye Chi’s Moment.

The comments section below was also flooded.

—”Dong Jianguo: What’s going on? Why are you acting up so early?”

—”Chen Dong: Good morning, keep it up!”

—”Lian Cheng: In love, huh?”

—”Zhang Hanyu: ?????”

—”Sun Yuanyang: Morning, Captain.”

—”Peng Tianfei: Morning my foot, I’ve moved several piles of bricks already.”

—”Ge Shuaijun: You’re really in love now.”

—”Wang Shao: Winning matches feels so good.”

…

The esports circle was stirred up again by Quit’s sudden madness on Moments, debating whether it was due to winning matches or being lovesick. Within Team REAL, opinions were split. Lian Cheng, who had a partner, firmly believed Ye Chi was in love, likely in the ambiguous stage. Posting such non-specific and non-informative content on Moments had only one reason.

“He wanted to say good morning to someone,” Lian Cheng asserted confidently.

Chen Dong replied, “Then why didn’t he set it visible to that person only?”

Lian Cheng explained, “That’s how you play when you’re in the ambiguous stage. If you set it to visible to only one person, mutual friends will immediately catch on. That’s not ambiguous—it’s almost like confessing. Ambiguity requires being vague, visible to everyone, making the person who sees it unsure if it’s directed at them. That’s called pulling and teasing. You’ve never been in love, so you wouldn’t understand.”

Chen Dong: “……”

Indeed, he didn’t understand. But how could he believe that Ye Chi, that steel-hard straight guy, could possibly understand this kind of thing?

As the two debated intensely, they suddenly noticed that Ye Chi had deleted that Moment.

Lian Cheng sighed, “Lure in by letting go—a masterstroke.”

Chen Dong: “……” He still didn’t get it.

At lunch, Chen Dong directly asked Ye Chi why he deleted that morning’s Moment.

Ye Chi said he just felt like deleting it.

Chen Dong wondered if their captain was really some hidden master of romance.

In fact, after deleting it, Ye Chi secretly posted an identical one—visible only to Mo Yin.

At 3 PM, the training match began in DSG’s training room.

The atmosphere was as quiet as ever.

The coach stood at the front, discussing tactics and encouraging everyone.

The effect was mediocre; the players still wore serious expressions.

“We have two training matches today, both against REAL. REAL has adapted quite well to the new version. ADT suffered a big loss yesterday. The purpose of the training room is to train, find gaps, and see what areas we’re lacking in. So everyone just needs to play seriously.”

Qin Kunlun smirked silently.

He didn’t like hearing such things.

Raising others’ morale while crushing his own prestige.

Qin Kunlun glanced to his right, Mo Yin was still the same—thermos cup + poker face, very cool and health-conscious.

Qin Kunlun had joined DSG specifically because Mo Yin had crushed the mid laner from his team in last year’s playoffs, rubbing him into the ground.

At that time, DSG’s top laner was Zuo Ming. Qin Kunlun was confident he could totally outplay Zuo Ming in lane, and indeed he did. Unfortunately, he couldn’t contend with Zuo Ming’s connections. Mo Yin continually came top to render him incapable of taking care of himself.

The mid-lane deficit radiated to the top lane. Qin Kunlun had a hot temper and decided that if he couldn’t beat them, he’d join them, to taste what it was like to have a well-connected mid-laner.

“Dad is indeed having a blast. He can casually roam in the top lane, and even if he plays aggressively in lane, there’s always someone to cover for him.

But now with the latest patch, Dad is still Dad, but he can’t rely on anyone to cover for him anymore. In this patch, roaming during the laning phase leads to serious deficits in gold. If you’re not careful, the minion waves might explode. In professional gaming, managing minion waves is more important than getting one or two kills, so Qin Kunlun has been consciously practicing his awareness to avoid ganks in ranked matches these days, preparing for situations where Dad can’t come to help on the field.

The coach glanced at his phone and said, ‘People are here, let’s start.’

The team members looked serious and entered the training matchroom.

In training matches, the ban-pick phase is usually agreed upon by everyone. Each selects their own lineup without banning heroes, directly picking heroes one by one. There are no tricks; it’s just a straightforward test of skill.

REAL first revealed their top laner, Blue Steel Shadow. REAL’s top laner, Supercool, is known for his mechanical skill. He plays all four sisters (top lane champions) very well, similar to Qin Kunlun’s style.

Supercool was among the three selected initially, but unfortunately didn’t make the final cut due to bad luck.

Qin Kunlun chose Weapon Master as his top laner. This champion is one of the strongest top laners in this patch. Both champions have ample room for skill expression, both in solo lanes and team fights. It’s about who can handle them better.

Next up was the jungle.

Guan Ming has been practicing a core jungle champion, but unfortunately, his results haven’t been ideal. Training matches are for refining champions that aren’t quite mastered, so under the coach’s advice, he chose Leopard Woman, a champion he’s very confident with in professional matches.

REAL’s jungle chose Pig Girl, a versatile jungle champion. Compared to Leopard Woman, her carry potential is weaker but she’s more team-oriented.

As the champion selections continued, both compositions seemed evenly matched on paper.

Since both teams’ core players are in the mid lane, they agreed to save the mid lane pick for last.

The tension was palpable, much like in a real tournament. The cheerful atmosphere on REAL’s side gradually quieted down as they entered serious game mode.

‘Quit, what are you picking?’

Ye Chi looked over the row of champions. With no bans on champions, he had a lot of freedom in his choice. He moved his mouse cursor over each one and finally locked in.

‘Blade Mistress?’

DSG’s jungle, Guan Ming, said, ‘They have a Pig Blade combo. MY, what are you picking?’

Mo Yin took a sip of water. ‘Fiora.’

Guan Ming hesitated for a moment. ‘Alright.’

Compared to Blade Mistress, a versatile champion who can play both mid and top, Fiora, a top lane champion, hasn’t been seen in the mid lane for a long time. Fiora versus Blade Mistress is a confrontation that heavily tests the skill of both players.

The two female assassins faced each other, their images lit up on the screen, subtly lifting their chins, exuding a similar air of pride.

As Mo Yin revealed Fiora, Ye Chi’s heart rate slightly increased.

This is Mo Yin’s choice. This will only be Mo Yin’s choice.

Blade versus Sword, skill against skill.

The battle of the strongest mid laners begins.

The loading screen progressed, Mo Yin set down his water cup, placed his fingers on the keyboard, and the game began.”