[Seriously, who is this guy? Not a shred of manners. I’m speechless…]
[Who are you calling a drag??? What did my little Yaya do to deserve that? Psycho. Connecting to him was the real bad luck.]
[The overall quality of Wolf Fang streamers is concerning. I just realized our Yaya is pretty even-tempered when gaming. Even when he tilts, he never curses.]
[Hugs for our Yaya. Don’t let it get to you.]
[Is it really necessary to be this thin-skinned?… Not everyone has to like your little streamer. And Picky’s comment wasn’t even directed at you guys. Stop taking everything personally, ok?]
[Hey lady, coming into someone else’s room with a level-1 unfollowed account to act crazy? Picky fans, go back to your own place, okay? Seriously, so annoying. My work day was bad enough, I came to watch Baby’s stream to destress and ran into you bad-luck charms.]
Usually, the fans joking around in Lin Linya’s room were mostly in casual play mode, saying lighthearted things to make him laugh. This was the first time they’d shown such intense hostility, a sign they were truly angered.
Seeing the danmaku rapidly escalating into a flame war, Lin Linya quickly composed himself and placated them. “Alright, alright, stop fighting. Don’t fight over me anymore, okay!”
“Mod, log in and get to work.”
He exhaled and pulled himself together to launch Glory. “Tonight, we’re continuing with the Casual Matches! I’ve recently discovered Casual is really so fun, way more fun than Ranked.”
Now he didn’t even want to log onto his own account, spending all his time on Chen Chun’s skin-rich account playing Casual Mode.
While waiting for the game to load, he initiated another Voice Chat. “That last one didn’t count. Connecting a new one. There shouldn’t be any more accidents this time, right?”
The latter part trailed off into a quiet mumble; even he had zero confidence.
A few seconds later, the screen lit up. Under a kaleidoscope of colorful lights, a guy with a messy perm and cat-eye sunglasses appeared on the screen.
Like a whirlwind, he shot up from his seat, holding a pair of cymbals, and dashed away from the camera, almost tripping over his spinning gaming chair.
Accompanied by an explosive DJ track pounding against the eardrums, he wore a black shirt unbuttoned to his chest and started doing the Hand Dance.
The DJ remix of a folk song was both rustic and trendy. The guy sang with intense seriousness, “Big Bro, Big Bro, welcome! Welcome connecting to me! Big Bro, Big Bro, you’re so awesome, so tall, so handsome, and so buff!”
“Clang—!”
It ended with a crash of the cymbals.
He gracefully placed one hand on his chest and gave a 90-degree bow, still holding the cymbals wrapped with red cloth.
The goofy handsome guy seemed very pleased with his impromptu performance requested by his fans. Grinning widely, he returned to his seat and waved. “So, how was that, you—”
His words cut off abruptly. Even the music conveniently ended right on cue.
The cat-eye sunglasses slipped silently down his nose.
On the screen in front of him wasn’t one of his usual bantering buddies, but what looked like an exquisitely doll-like girl, so delicate she didn’t seem real. The doll’s eyes were glistening, filled with sheer terror as he stared back at him.
His slender, pale fingers clutched the mouse tightly, as if ready to disconnect and flee at any second.
Qiao Yu silently retracted his wide grin, took off his sunglasses, his face turning beet red. He stepped back, then forward again, bowing repeatedly. “Sorry, sorry, so sorry! I connected to the wrong person.”
“Hey, don’t go yet! Let’s chat? When I connect to others, they usually ignore me.”
“Little Doll, what’s your name?”
Lin Linya’s mind was still buzzing. He clutched his chest, still in shock. “My name’s Yaya. My ID is ‘Yaya Can’t Win.’ Nice to meet you.”
The handsome guy’s jaw dropped in shock, mouth gaping open, looking not very bright.
He slowly pushed his jaw back up. “Sorry, my bad. You’re wearing… that. I thought you were a girl from the Beauty Section.”
Besides the Game Section, Wolf Fang’s most famous was its Beauty Section, full of pretty ladies in various JK uniforms, Lolita dresses, and outfits, specifically there for chatting streams. Lin Linya looked exactly like a pure, innocent beauty streamer—the type whose cute, coaxing ways could make smitten Big Bros gift them like crazy.
His eyes lit up. “I remember you now! You play Glory too, right? My ID is ‘An Ordinary Handsome Guy.’ My friends call me Little Yu. Of course, you can also call me Handsome Guy.”
Little Yu had a great personality, very outgoing and cheerful. Lin Linya didn’t know what to say, so he just listened to him talk, finally allowing a small smile to surface on his face.
Qiao Yu was a bit nervous too. Usually, when gaming with his bros, he spouted whatever came to mind. He seemed like a fast-talking, big-mouthed guy on the surface, but when it came to someone shy like Lin Linya, he was completely out of his depth.
He’d been watching Lin Linya’s expression closely.
After chatting for a while, he noticed that although Lin Linya was a bit reserved, he listened very intently when Qiao Yu spoke, the flutter of his eyelashes slowing down as if he were seriously memorizing every word.
When he pursed his lips into a smile, his cheeks dimpled sweetly, as if holding a spoonful of honey.
He really was just a cute doll! Qiao Yu never got this kind of treatment when he was running his mouth.
Like a golden retriever trying hard to please its owner, finally reaching the goal of making the owner happy, he broke into a silly, wide grin, practically wagging his tail. “Buddy, connecting like this is fate. Let’s not compete. Wanna play a game together?”
[Hahahaha I love this type of handsomely deranged guy. Yaya Baby, say yes!]
[I just imagined a dog and a cat. Cat-dog pairs really are the best to ship!]
[First time seeing Little Yu so nervous, afraid he’d scare Yaya. The moment he took off his sunglasses was hilarious! But I remember Little Yu is a straight man, right? Why did he look so dazed seeing our Baby just now.]
[Your little streamer sure attracts some Schrödinger’s straight men. (Mischevious)]
Lin Linya suddenly realized who he was. In the group chat Chu Fengyi had dragged him into, there was a very active streamer called Little Yu. He’d even searched his page; Little Yu had way more fans than he did.
Lin Linya bit his lip and looked up at him timidly. “But I’m not very good. I’m afraid I’ll drag you down.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it.”
Qiao Yu waved his hand dismissively. “I’m only doing Voice Chats because I lost a bet with my fans. I was grinding Peak Rank all last night and dropped a hundred points. Seriously, Peak Rank is a dog’s life. Let’s duo queue in Ranked. Bro will carry you.”
Hearing that, Lin Linya relaxed. “Okay then, I’ll add you.”
In Glory’s Ranked Mode, players with too large a tier difference couldn’t play together. When Qiao Yu heard that, he had braced himself for the possibility that their ranks were incompatible.
He’d even thought about how he’d smoothly offer to let Lin Linya use his own smurf account.
But unexpectedly, after Lin Linya added him, Qiao Yu found their ranks were actually very close. One was at 16 stars, the other at 24 stars. They could queue together.
He clicked on Lin Linya’s game profile and was instantly stunned. “You’ve only played this one season? Less than 200 matches and already 16 stars? You’re way too modest! Turns out you’re a natural-born talent.”
After checking his most-used heroes, he praised him further. “An 80% win rate? That’s insane. Future National Top Support, right here.”
“Mm…” Lin Linya felt embarrassed by the praise, his gaze shifting away guiltily.
He thought to himself: How am I amazing? It’s the person I duo with who’s amazing. He carried me up here. If I were solo-queuing, I’d be nothing.
Unfortunately, Qiao Yu didn’t know this. An optimist by nature, seeing Lin Linya’s beautiful KDA and win rate, he didn’t consider any other possibilities. He firmly believed that anyone who could play a hero like Anana with such a high win rate had to have some serious mechanics.
He wasn’t quite sure about the specifics, as he never played Support. He was a Mid Laner player. In this era where mages were becoming utility players, he focused his daily research on just two things.
One: How to prevent the side laner and jungler from leeching his lane farm. Two: How to curse out the idiots who leeched his farm.
When Lin Linya pulled him into the team lobby, he hadn’t yet realized the gravity of the situation. He confidently readied up, waiting for the King Support to carry him.
A few minutes later, exhausted and having only scraped a single assist from roaming top to help the Clash Laner, he returned mid to clear his wave. On a whim, he panned his camera over to Lin Linya’s perspective.
He found the guy playing Armando, timidly following closely behind the Jungler. The Jungler had just lost a sliver of health to a jungle camp. In Qiao Yu’s eyes, that was health that could be restored with just a couple of auto attacks thanks to Lifesteal Runes.
But the little Support didn’t hesitate to use his precious healing skill, instantly topping the Jungler’s HP back up.
When the jungler had leashed the Blue Buff down to a final sliver and walked away, Lin Linya typed in chat: [Brother, is this Blue Buff for me?]
[Jungler: Yeah.]
Lin Linya happily called out to Qiao Yu. “Little Yu, come quick! This Blue Buff is for you. I’ve noticed you mage players seem to really need mana, and your mana bar is almost empty.”
Qiao Yu accepted the Blue Buff with mixed feelings, suddenly feeling a pang of bitterness.
Last night in Peak Rank, he’d been playing the utility mid Armando. Because his ultimate accidentally splashed into the jungle and stole the jungler’s Blue Buff, that jungler immediately flamed him on mic, demanding to know why a utility mid couldn’t just recall. It made him so furious he was about to have a stroke, leading to a 20-minute shouting match.
Which, of course, ended in a beautiful loss for that match.
Why was there such a huge gap between people? He wept silent tears in his heart.
A moment later, he couldn’t stand watching Lin Linya so diligently protecting someone else. Lin Linya was duo-queuing with him! Why was a random teammate getting all the good treatment?
So during team fights, he deliberately stayed at low health and didn’t recall, drifting nonchalantly towards Lin Linya, parading back and forth right under his nose.
This little healer Support couldn’t tolerate a single low-health teammate in his sight! He immediately abandoned the jungler who’d given him Blue Buff to hover around the mage instead.
Lin Linya, completely unaware of his little scheme, asked innocently, “Why is your HP dropping so fast?”
Seeing that Qiao Yu had less than half health yet was still trying to face-check the enemy, he was even more anxious than Qiao Yu. The little pink girl character’s fawn mount was practically running itself lame. “Wait for me! Stop running! The enemy will kill you!”
Qiao Yu finished his overextension and ran back to Lin Linya for heals, chuckling endlessly. “It’s fine, aren’t you here to heal me?”
As a mage player, when had he ever enjoyed the treatment of a Support chasing him down to heal him? Usually, he had to act like the team’s daddy, babysitting everyone else. And after healing him, the little Support would even praise him: “Your mage is so good!”
“Your crowd control was so precise. If you hadn’t frozen their Marksman just now, the Jungler definitely wouldn’t have gotten the kill.”
In that team fight, if no one noticed, they would’ve thought their Jungler did the most work by killing the enemy dual carry. Only Lin Linya noticed that Qiao Yu’s skill placement was perfect.
Even if others noticed, they might’ve just considered it standard mechanics. But Lin Linya thought it was amazing and voiced his praise immediately.
Qiao Yu felt his head growing lighter from the compliments. “It was nothing.”
He finally understood why some guys loved boosting girls in games. Even though Lin Linya wasn’t a girl, he looked as sweet as a piece of bite-sized pastry.
The match ended, and the mage secured the MVP.
[Look at that worthless grin on Little Yu’s face. I can’t even…]
[Take a screenshot of him from last night playing Peak Rank, all disheveled and unkempt. Seriously, connecting to our Yaya tonight is his reward, bought with that losing streak last night.]
[LMAO that last match was too good. When the jungler gifted our Yaya that buff, Little Yu’s face just screamed ‘I’ve never seen such a thing.’]
[Just tell me, did the Support carry or not?]
After winning several more games in a row, Qiao Yu felt exhilarated. He stood up and threw two intense sets of military-style punches at the camera, happy as a hundred-jin dog. “Oh yeah! This is what I deserve for staying up late to climb ranks!”
[Another case of ‘wasted on someone with a mouth’ series.]
[What are you doing with that handsome face of yours?! Please stop being insane! You’re gonna scare away the wife like that!]
“Yaya Baby, wait for me. I’m gonna pull in another friend. Trio queue. We’re going to climb hard tonight.”
Once Lin Linya agreed, he began scrolling through his friends list. He’d been streaming on Wolf Fang for years, so he’d made many gaming buddies.
Seeing one friend online, he let out a puzzled “Huh?” and muttered to himself, “Why’s he on at this hour?”
He sent a team invite anyway.
He was already prepared to be rejected, but the person he invited actually joined. A slightly hoarse, youthful voice came over the team voice chat. “Hey? Playing?”
Qiao Yu spoke cheerfully. “Yeah, we are! Why aren’t you grinding Peak Rank at this hour?”
“Lost a match. Annoying. Just start. Room host…” The red-haired teenager, voice still changing, stopped short when he saw the familiar ID.
When both of them fell silent, Qiao Yu finally sensed something was off. He called out, “Yaya? Yaya Baby, you still there? This is my good brother, Picky. His Jungling is sick.”
Seeing that Lin Linya was muted, he asked, puzzled, “Why’d you both stop talking?”
Song Yu watched the mic for the room host named “Yaya Can’t Win” flicker on. He heard him panickedly blurt out, “I… I gotta sleep. I’m done playing,” before fleeing the team lobby as if for his life.
Song Yu: “…”
“Huh? Going to sleep this early? That’s so healthy-care-mode,” Qiao Yu said, still clueless about what happened, glancing at the time on his computer screen in bewilderment.
Then he heard Song Yu say impatiently, “Going back to Peak. Out.”
Leaving Qiao Yu all alone, going, “???”
…
After leaving the room, Lin Linya was still shaken, his face flushed and heart pounding.
He’d nearly died of fright the moment he saw that ID, immediately muting his mic and running away with startling APM. He never imagined it’d be such a coincidence that Little Yu and Picky were good friends.
He now had psychological trauma. If Picky found out he’d lied to his friend, made his friend think he was good, and manipulated his friend into carrying him to climb ranks, Picky would definitely hate him even more.
Thank goodness he’d run fast, or else he’d have gotten another earful.
[Baby ran away so fast, like a rabbit that got caught.]
[I know Little Yu and Picky are good friends, but still hahaha. Why is this such a coincidence.]
On the other side, Song Yu, thoroughly irritated by Lin Linya, had lost all motivation to continue streaming. He ended his broadcast early, and his livestream switched to playing a recording.
After exiting the stream, he didn’t rush to turn off his computer. Instead, he impulsively switched to a smurf account, searched an ID on the platform, and entered a live stream room.
The moment that pretty, pale face appeared on the screen, he found it impossible to look away for a long time.
The truth was, he hadn’t meant to be mean to Lin Linya tonight.
Doing room checks was his routine before starting his game streams. It was just that, before accidentally connecting to Lin Linya, he had connected to a male streamer doing suggestive, borderline NSFW content. It had disgusted him to the core.
Clearly a man, but deliberately wearing a wig, heavy makeup, and speaking in a squeezed, falsetto voice. Thick, stubbly thighs were practically bursting out of stockings, yet he still talked in that fake tone.
A severe case of the straight man mentality meant he couldn’t stomach things like that. So when he connected to Lin Linya, he’d thought he finally found a relatively normal girl and relaxed his expression.
To find out it was another guy made him so angry he almost developed androphobia. That’s why the curse word slipped out uncontrollably.
He typically spoke without thinking and only felt regret after the fact.
Now, watching Lin Linya smiling at the camera, acting like nothing had happened, playing music and singing for his fans, he wondered: Had he heard that curse word or not?
If he had, would he be very angry? Was that why he instantly quit the team lobby?
His singing was actually pretty good.
He wasn’t deliberately altering his voice, but it was more captivating than his usual speaking tone. Coupled with his clean, pretty face, bare of heavy makeup, it was far superior to those who maliciously bait for traffic.
Song Yu had to admit—he had misjudged Lin Linya.
But why were the comments in his livestream so… sleazy? Every single one acted like they wanted to do something to the little streamer. Didn’t he find it weird, being a guy and having other men fantasize about him like that?
Although he also had many male fans, the style was completely different from the danmaku in his own room.
He had no idea why time passed so quickly. An hour flew by in a flash. The little streamer was about to end his broadcast, and still, many fans lingered in the chat. Song Yu couldn’t bring himself to leave either.
Seeing the screen recordings they mentioned, Song Yu found the portal. The Stream Assistant’s account had logged many clips of Lin Linya’s previous streams.
He hesitated for a moment. Some mysterious force guided his guilty hand to click on the one with the highest views—its view count had already reached 100,000.
Just one look, he thought, face completely expressionless.
