Entering the ban/pick phase, the Shooter Bro in the first pick slot pre-selected Arrow Tome. Chu Fengyi suddenly coughed. His attitude towards his teammate, whom he’d been utterly disgusted with moments ago, suddenly improved.
His tone was almost kind. “Xiaoyou, how about you go Jungle instead? You must be tired of playing Marksman by now.”
Within D.K, the Shooter, Xiaoyou, was usually the one most terrified of Chu Fengyi. During every review, the Coach and Captain would chew him out mercilessly. Hearing such concern from his Captain for the first time, he was flattered and baffled. “Huh? No, not really.”
Sprite, who had seen through everything, silently lamented the Emperor’s foolishness and the fall of the D.K dynasty, but outwardly just looked down on the Shooter’s denseness. “If Bro Chu tells you to jungle, just jungle. Cut the nonsense.”
Seeing them both say that, the Shooter felt aggrieved. “But I can’t play Jungler. Never have. Sending me to Clash Lane would be more like it.”
Chu Fengyi’s face fell. “You can’t Jungle and you call yourself a gamer?”
“Why can’t I play if I can’t Jungle? Not everyone is an All-rounder,” Shooter Bro said, thoroughly depressed. Seeking validation, he asked the others, “Can you guys play every single role?”
Lin Linya, who had been daydreaming, spoke up, “Ah… but I can only play Support.”
As soon as Sprite heard the little streamer speak, he immediately chimed in fawningly, “That’s fine, that’s plenty. Being really good at one hero is already impressive, little brother.”
Chu Fengyi, about to speak, had the words stuck in his throat yet again.
He desperately wanted to sew Sprite’s mouth shut and said through gritted teeth, “…If you’ve said everything, what am I supposed to say?”
Sprite realized he had overstepped again and quickly apologized. “Sorry, sorry, His Majesty may speak now.”
Shooter Bro, “…Are you all determined to bully me or what.”
Realizing just how hard-hearted and biased his teammates were, Xiaoyou dejectedly changed his pre-selection to Translocator. “It’s fine, don’t mind my life or death. Just be happy.”
Lin Linya locked in Holy Son, a Support hero he’d been playing frequently lately. To him, it was already considered one of the harder heroes to play, but it had healing, mobility, and didn’t die as easily as other Supports.
Sprite praised him blindly, “So impressive, little brother! You can actually play Holy Son. Make sure you protect His Majesty well, okay?”
“Actually, I’m not that good at him,” Lin Linya said, a bit embarrassed by the praise. “I just bought that new skin that came out recently and wanted to practice it.”
Chu Fengyi chuckled softly. “Don’t worry, just play casually. I’ll make sure they do their best not to drag you down.”
Lin Linya hadn’t expected Chu Fengyi to remember what he’d said earlier. He blushed, his cheeks flushing as he mumbled, “Stop teasing me.”
He knew his own limits. It was ridiculous to think he’d ever be in a position where pro players would drag him down. It was always the other way around.
Once all five heroes were locked in, the other four started discussing Team Comp. Lin Linya couldn’t understand it and couldn’t get a word in, so he just admired his newly purchased skin.
He praised it sincerely. “Holy Son is so pretty. When I first saw the splash art, I thought he was a girl. Didn’t expect him to be a bishounen. His voice actor’s voice is really nice, too.”
In Glory, Holy Son could arguably be considered the male Support with the most exquisite model. The splash art showed long white hair, a white lace veil framing a pure and beautiful face, hands crossed over his chest, his closed eyes seeming to have specks of gold on the eyelashes.
And the new skin that came out two days ago transformed Holy Son into an Exotic Traveler. Under a sky of swirling yellow sand, white hair danced in the air, adorned with a golden headscarf and a green dancing dress. A snake crafted of pure gold coiled around his arm.
He looked up at the North Star in the sky, his fair arm stretched into the distance, guiding the lost.
This skin had been widely praised since its preview, and its sales upon release reflected everyone’s satisfaction.
Its appeal wasn’t just limited to girls who liked playing Support or Holy Son mains. Many who didn’t even play Holy Son couldn’t resist buying it for their collection.
Lin Linya didn’t spend much on in-game purchases, only occasionally buying skins for heroes he played. His proficiency with Holy Son was still blank when he bought the Exotic Traveler skin; he simply hadn’t resisted the lure of the launch week discount and made an impulse purchase.
[I bought this skin too, it’s insanely beautiful. Holy Son is one of my wives too, wuwu.]
[As expected, beauties appreciate each other. Actually, since the day Yaya started playing this game, I felt he perfectly suits the Holy Son character.]
[I suspect the modeler designed this model using Yaya as a 1:1 reference. But speaking of which, is there anything Yaya’s face wouldn’t look good cosplaying?]
[I have a bold idea.]
[Haha, let me say it for you: Can we see Yaya cosplay Holy Son in our lifetime? Honestly, besides Yaya’s divinely gifted looks, I can’t think of any other streamer on the entire platform who fits this character.]
[So matching! Kids make choices, I want both the Original Skin AND the new one! I’m going to tag Glory Officials on Weibo every single day to show them our little streamer.]
Lin Linya choked on his saliva, terrified by their audacity. Truly impressed by how they used his relative obscurity to run rampant, daring to say any wild thing out loud.
With an extremely strong Desire to Live, he closed his eyes, pressed his palms together, and bowed to the bold fans in his Livestream Room. “Thanks for the praise, brothers and sisters, but I’d like to keep my career for a few more years, please spare me.”
[What are you afraid of? Yaya Baby, fly boldly! If trouble comes, carry your own baggage.]
[I actually think Yaya isn’t that suited to cosplay Holy Son. Holy Son is a mature beauty, while Yaya’s face leans more towards pale and youthful, like Holy Son as a child. But the face really does match.]
[Still calling him ‘pale and youthful’ at 22? You Mom Fans need to drop the filter. I think Yaya could try more styles, it would help his streaming popularity grow.]
[A slacker like me can’t handle you career-focused Mom Fans’ talk. I just drool and say today’s wife is still this beautiful.]
At this point, they were still just joking. Especially the sister who suggested an official cosplay invitation—she never dared to imagine she’d actually become a major prophet.
No one took it seriously.
Once Lin Linya had admired his new skin enough, he finally turned his attention back to the game. But he couldn’t analyze the Team Comp or anything. He just thought the enemy Marksman looked kind of familiar.
He muttered quietly, “Why does the enemy Marksman look a bit like Picky to me?”
[Babe, you finally noticed.]
[Brother Picky’s Livestream Room is about to explode, and you’re just realizing now? Seriously.]
[Heartbroken for the little brother, wuwu. After days of not seeing each other, the next meeting is on opposite teams.]
Lin Linya said “Ah,” finding it hard to believe. “No way, is it really that much of a coincidence?”
As soon as the game started, the enemy Marksman typed a question mark in the Public Chat.
Chu Fengyi saw it too. He clicked the Shooter’s portrait and asked, “Who’s this? Do any of you know him?”
Lin Linya didn’t dare speak. Sprite, seemingly having heard from somewhere, laughed and said, “I know, I know. He’s Wolf Fang’s streamer, Picky. Didn’t expect to run into him here. He seems to be a fan of yours too.”
“Is that so?” Chu Fengyi raised an eyebrow.
This match, both happened to be playing Marksman, Laning against each other in the same lane. Chu Fengyi didn’t clear the Minion Wave and instead circled to the Brush next to Picky. Unexpectedly, after auto-attacking the wave a few times, Picky, as if using Wallhack, blindly threw his Skill 1 into the Brush where Chu Fengyi was hiding.
If Chu Fengyi’s reaction hadn’t been so fast, that Skill 1 would have landed.
Chu Fengyi was certain he had hidden his vision well. Surprised, he typed in chat, [You’re pretty good.]
Picky only replied with a single period.
Chu Fengyi was a bit puzzled. “Are you sure he’s my fan? It feels a bit off.”
After the Skill 1 missed, Chu Fengyi thought he’d turn back to finish the wave and hit level 2. He didn’t expect Picky to waste no time, activating Frenzy to chase him down, auto-attacking and trading health.
Not wanting to fight a war of attrition, Chu Fengyi used a skill to secure the backline minions, then retreated under his Tower.
He used a Health Pack to recover some health and joked, “Why do I get the feeling he really wants to kill me?”
Lin Linya, “… I don’t know.”
Following his mid-laner, Lin Linya cleared a wave, then helped steal some experience from the enemy Jungler’s camp. Sprite, playing Mid, told him, “Go help the Bottom Lane, Clash Lane can just hold on.”
Lin Linya pulled up the vision for bot. Normally, he would have obediently gone, but now he took a huge detour through the Jungle, almost wishing he could just walk right off The Rift.
[Dare not go, just dare not go. Brother Picky even brought Frenzy.]
[Bro Chu still thinks Picky is his little fan. That’s your love rival, wake up!]
[I’m dual-watching in Brother Picky’s room, I’ve never seen him play this seriously.]
When Song Yu queued up for this Ranked match, he had just logged in. He meant to invite Lin Linya, but saw he was already in a party. He waited a bit, but Lin Linya didn’t invite him, and the party filled up soon after.
Seeing Lin Linya’s game start, he silently hit the queue button himself. Seeing the familiar ID on the other side didn’t surprise him much.
The entire danmaku in his room was, [Oh no, brother’s going to Fail Miserably this match.]
[So heartbreaking. Little brother, being a hopeless romantic never ends well. Look at that little streamer, living large. You have to wait in line just to carry him. Who’s thinking about you?]
From the start, Song Yu knew he was playing too aggressively. He hadn’t even paid much attention to the Map or noticed that Lin Linya, playing Holy Son, had rotated bot.
His Kiki could negate tower damage, so trading health with Chu Fengyi shouldn’t have been a loss. He never expected Holy Son’s Skill 1 to instantly heal Chu Fengyi’s Arrow Tome back up.
Rarely annoyed, he clicked his tongue. “So annoying.”
He typed in Public Chat, [Where’s the Support?]
This match, their Clash Laner and Support were a Pocket Duo. The Clash Laner was super confident and said over voice, “Bro, can you hold out? The enemy Jungler can’t gank my lane. We can push through here.”
Knowing his Support wasn’t coming down no matter what he said, Song Yu just muted his mic.
After both sides cleared their waves, the enemy Chu Fengyi, seeing he wasn’t coming out, rotated towards Mid, taking Holy Son with him.
Song Yu had already spotted Chu Fengyi revealed in the side Brush in the Mid Lane.
Afraid a teamfight might break out mid, worrying that a pick and subsequent tempo loss would be even worse, he gave up farming Jungle resources and rotated Mid as well. The moment he passed the River Brush, a crowd control skill landed on him.
Holy Son, whose ultimate summoned teammates, instantly called in three people, continuously channeling his healing skills onto Chu Fengyi. Song Yu only saw a sudden crowd of enemies appear before his screen went gray.
He slammed his desk in frustration.
Holy Son didn’t leave, pausing for a moment over his corpse. The in-game model, with its flowing white veil, looked exactly like a holy angel mournfully offering a silent prayer for Picky, just as if he hadn’t been the one to initiate the ult.
It was the height of taunting.
[Fanta playing Farm Lane really has a lot of tricks, even corrupted the Support.]
[Wuwu, the little streamer is so heartless, knowing Picky had no Support and still kicking him while he was down.]
Song Yu saw their comments and muttered sullenly, “I was just too bad.”
[??? Do you even hear what you’re saying.]
[Kid… never mind. You… ah!]
The counter-gank was Lin Linya’s idea. He had originally planned to follow Chu Fengyi mid, but thinking that Picky was now the only Marksman left in Farm Lane, and having his Ultimate ready, his heart itched with anticipation.
After Picky died, he felt no guilt whatsoever. Instead, he felt the thrill of killing an acquaintance, his earlier guilty conscience long since thrown to the back of his mind.
He could barely suppress the grin on his face. “What should I do, am I being a bit too evil? Will he hate me?”
[An angel’s face, a Devil’s heart!]
[Bad girl making a limited-time comeback! Little Devil Baby, let me kiss you to death, wuwuwu.]
[I can almost hear the sound of little brother’s heart breaking. Little brother, posting on Moments late at night: While you were giving me the cold shoulder, who were you warming up instead?]
