ARML

When Ye Shaoyang came to his senses, he found himself sitting inside a spacious study. A dazzlingly cool computer sat on the desk, along with a mechanical keyboard and mouse that flashed with bright blue lights that looked very high-tech.

A game's interface was displayed on the LCD monitor. One line of text ran along the bottom of the screen:

Now loading…

Ye Shaoyang was filled up with doubt and confusion. This wasn't his computer, was it?

His keyboard and mouse had been supplied by one of his team's sponsors, and his peripherals were all printed with Team GD's logo and his in-game ID. His stuff didn't emit this sort of flashy light at all, and his computer and monitor were different too.

What was going on? Was he dreaming?

At just that moment, the loading bar reached 100% and the computer monitor lit up. A cheery female voice rang out through Ye Shaoyang's headset.

"Welcome to Gods War!"

Ye Shaoyang blinked.

Shouldn't it be… welcome to League of Legends?

What the hell was Gods War?

Ye Shaoyang glanced at the bottom-right corner of the screen with bewilderment. Then, he watched as a dense swarm of white bullet comments streamed across the right side of the screen—

[I'm here to see the pretty noob throw away his life!]

[This streamer died 6 times in a row last time, with a kill/death ratio of 0/6! That's really too 6!]

[I just popped in here from the recommended newbies page. Can someone tell me what kind of streamer this guy is? Is he showing off his skill or his looks? Or is he just funny?]

[He's showing off his lack of skill, hahaha. He's the worst player out of all these new streamers, the landslide disaster of the streaming world~]

Immediately after that comment appeared, a high-level member of the stream sent out a bright gold bullet comment: [The enemy jungler is Fanxing's alt account. It's over, it's over. Our host is probably going to uninstall the game after he finishes this round!]

[Matched up against God Xing? Start praying, host!]

[I bet our host will die 6 times in this game again~]

[I'll bet on 8 times!]

Ye Shaoyang only felt more confused as he took in these bullet comments.

His mind was still filled with thoughts of the game he'd just played.

As the captain of Team GD, he had already been leading his team in the professional league for three years.

That year, after cutting their way through all the thistles and thorns that stood in their way, they finally made it to the finals of the world championship. Originally, they'd believed victory was close at hand, but they wound up facing off against TIP—the team favored to win the championship that season.

The two teams kept the match tied up until the final deciding game. In a key battle, GD's support made an unfortunate positioning error which led their team to be utterly decimated by the enemy. Once GD was wiped out, the enemy marched onwards to destroy their Nexus.

After fiercely struggling for a whole year, GD walked away with nothing more than the achievement of having 'brushed shoulders' with the world champions.

The mere memory of it was devastating!

Team GD started to trend with all the vitriol trolls and haters spat at them. Ye Shaoyang wanted to spit right back—every single time, someone dropped the ball at the critical moment. Could it be that he was destined to always miss out on the championship win by a hair?

Ye Shaoyang was still lost in his memories when a middle-aged man's rough voice rang out through his headset.

"What's this bottom lane marksman doing? Still spacing out at the fountain? Are you prettying up your makeup before you head out, huh?"

Ye Shaoyang returned to his senses and took another look at the computer monitor.

This teammate was probably talking about him, right? A beautiful woman holding an ice blue bow was currently standing by a crystal without moving a muscle. It really did look like her player had spaced out to the point of going AFK. Ye Shaoyang hurriedly grabbed his mouse and clicked around. The female archer finally started to move towards the bottom lane.

While maneuvering his character, Ye Shaoyang continued to mumble questions in his heart—exactly what kind of game was this? The layout of the map in the upper-left corner was very strange. The location of the woods on the map, the game interface, the skill icons… everything looked extremely unfamiliar to Ye Shaoyang.

The only thing that was the same as the game he always played was that each side had three lanes: the top, middle, and bottom.

He was currently on the bottom lane.

From the minimap, he could see a teammate waiting for him on the bottom lane. It was probably his support? As for the jungle, the shape of it was completely different from the jungle he was used to. He didn't even have time to check the details of the creatures that dwelled there.

Ye Shaoyang dubiously made his way to the spot on the bottom lane where the two teams' territories intersected.

Under the tower there, a cute little pixie was flapping its wings and flinging skills at nearby minions. A message popped up in the in-game chatbox: [Follow me, marksman! I'll protect you.]

It was the pixie.

Ye Shaoyang stared.

Everything about this was extremely hard to understand.

He clearly remembered being down in the dumps, along with all his other teammates, after losing in the finals of the championship tournament. Their manager had taken them all out to dinner. Afterwards, Ye Shaoyang had taken a walk along the riverbank alone, to calm his mind. But he ended up turning a corner and running into a speeding sports car.

That car seemed to have been out of control. It crashed straight into him!

He hadn't been able to dodge in time. The car slammed into him and sent him flying. He clearly remembered the excruciating pain of the impact, so how had he woken up in front of a computer, playing a game he didn't even recognize?

The more mystifying thing was that, after patting himself all over, he didn't find any injuries. It was like being struck by a speeding car had only been a dream.

Ye Shaoyang's head was aching like it was about to split open at any second. He lifted his hands and pressed down hard on his spasming temples.

At that exact moment, a red marker appeared in the game, above the female archer's head. A second later, a masked assassin in a black cloak appeared in a flash behind the archer. A sharp blade glinted in the cold light, and—

First Blood!

The assassin had taken a kill in just two seconds.

Ye Shaoyang came back to his senses just in time to hear the system announce—

Double Kill!

The pixie support next to him had also been slain.

The masked assassin who had taken a double kill quickly disappeared into the nearby woods.

In the team's voice channel, that middle-aged man with the gruff voice started to rant. "Fuck! What's going on with our bottom laners? Giving away a double kill straight out of the gate? That assassin is definitely coming back to gank you at Level 4. Don't you guys know when to retreat? Are you blind?"

The angry uncle was loud as hell. Ye Shaoyang was practically deafened by his bellowing voice.

The girl who was playing a mage in the middle lane spoke up. "Stop swearing, I can see it in the stream I'm watching. The jungler on the other side is Fanxing's alt. It's normal for newbies to be killed."

The girl playing support tentatively asked, "Who's Fanxing?"

"The highest-ranked newbie from this year's training camp," the mid laner said. "Captain Chi personally brought him up as his apprentice. He's already signed with Team Tianhuan. Next season, he'll probably start playing in official games."

The support's voice filled up with excitement. "Captain Chi?! Ahhh, Captain Chi lives in my head rent-free!"

Besides the angry old uncle, the other three members of Ye Shaoyang's team instantly did a one-eighty and started spewing rainbow farts in the global chat channel.

[Is that Little Xing over there? I watch your livestreams all the time!]

[We ran into Little Xing in a random placement match? What a coincidence!]

[Little Xing, can we take a group photo together in the middle lane?]

The opponent with the ID 'Starry Lights' typed out a response: [I'm playing a placement match on my alt, hello everyone. ^_^]

The highest-ranked newbie from the year's training camp? Fanxing?

Ye Shaoyang didn't have any impression of a person by that name in the domestic esports industry.

He temporarily suppressed the confusion in his heart and returned to the bottom lane to farm minions.

A wave of minions had just reached the tower when a familiar figure appeared in the corner of his field of vision. That masked assassin flashed up behind Ye Shaoyang's archer again. The assassin lifted his dagger, swiftly collected Ye Shaoyang's head, then took the support's life again as well before slipping away once more.

Double Kill!

Another double kill!

The bullet comments in Ye Shaoyang's streaming room started to flood the screen like crazy—

[This host is way too lame. Are we letting random cats and dogs stream now?]

[Host, are you playing the game with your feet? Or did your cat jump on your keyboard, maybe?]

[I thought this would be some hotshot, turns out it's just a noob. Host, you've successfully won me over. Subscribed~]

[This host is playing the long con here! There are too many awesome players streaming these days. He wants to make a name for himself by playing poorly. It's called 'innovation', got it?]

[His skills aren't even bronze-level, right? He doesn't even know how to fight minions, phew!]

At the same time, in Fanxing's livestreaming room—

[Our Xingxing is about to show off his explosive alpha powers!]

[Fanxing fighting randos is basically as easy as chopping fruits and vegetables. ^_^]

[These opponents have no game sense at all. Are they going to get pissed and uninstall the game?]

The youth who was streaming smiled into the camera. "Thank you 'I Love Fanxing' for tipping some fishies, thank you 'Most Handsome Alpha Online' for tipping a rocket. I just created this alt today, so I'm playing a placement match. After I finish up here, I'll join up with my master and to rank up. If anyone wants to see me play a particular hero, leave a message in the bullet comments."

A new flood of bullet comments crashed across the screen. More than three million people were watching that stream.

Ye Shaoyang, who only had three hundred viewers in his streaming room, was currently lost in thought.

The game playing out on his computer was similar to MOBAs like Honor of Kings and League of Legends. They were all 5v5 tower-based games. But the map, characters, and skills were different from game to game.

This game seemed to be called Gods War. Which ripoff company had developed it? Ye Shaoyang had never even heard of it before.

His teammates started slacking off and chatting near their base. Ye Shaoyang couldn't possibly win by himself. After thinking for a moment, he decided to wander into the jungle to get a better understanding of the game's map.

Just as he started wandering through the jungle, a blade of cold light suddenly flashed near him. The assassin's knife came down again, claiming his life in one strike!

Ye Shaoyang waited to respawn, then trudged back into the jungle to explore.

As a result, the viewers in his streaming room all saw the whole process of this 'pretty streamer delivering his head to the enemy' performance.

He gave his head away on the bottom lane and mid lane, then the mid lane and the top lane…

[Is our host acting as a tour guide? He's just taking a trip around the rift?]

[Host, you're so 666! You've given away 6 more heads!]

[Round of applause for this host's indomitable spirit.]

[A marksman moving from the bottom lane to the top lane… that's pretty sick! This is the sickest marksman I've ever seen!]

In the global chat, the player with the ID 'Starry Lights' typed out a new message: [Everywhere I go, you follow. You're always there to give me a free kill. Do you have a little crush on me?]

Ye Shaoyang typed back a retort at the speed of light: [No. Daddy is thinking about how to kill you next time.]

Starry Lights fell silent.

Cheng Xing, in his own livestream, nearly spewed out a mouthful of coffee. "Daddy? Hahaha, this 'daddy' says he's going to kill me next time? I'm so scared."

The netizens in his streaming room couldn't stop laughing.

[He died eight times in a row, and he seriously has the guts to talk shit?]

[This guy doesn't have any sense of his own abilities, and he dares to call himself a daddy!]

[How fierce. This must be some stinky old alpha. Fanxing, hurry up and kill him again~]

[Traveling all across the map to deliver his head to Fanxing… well, it's the thought that counts. I'm guessing this is an anti-fan who's secretly in love with Fanxing, right?]

Cheng Xing couldn't figure out what his opponent was thinking either. He laughed and said, "Maybe this is a newbie who doesn't know how to play."

After that, he stopped paying attention to his opponents and led his minions straight towards the enemy team's base.

Defeat!

As soon as the declaration of defeat popped up on his screen, Ye Shaoyang let out a breath and took off his headset.

He had just traversed the whole map and discovered that the map in this game was much more complicated than the maps of any game he'd played before. But the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. This was still a tower-based MOBA at its core. Players had to kill minions and monsters in the jungle to amass gold, which they could then use to buy equipment. After buying better equipment, they could face off against enemy players, attack enemy towers, and ultimately destroy the crystal at the enemy's base to claim victory.

The bullet comments at the bottom-right of his screen didn't stop coming. They mocked him, ridiculed him, and tried to goad him into uninstalling the game…

Ye Shaoyang ignored them all.

He turned off the computer, then got up to head out.

After being struck by a car, he suddenly found himself in a strange room. And he'd even played a strange game.

He had to figure out what was going on as soon as possible!

Author's Notes:

A/B/O esports, strong x strong, evenly matched gong/shou falling in love in a sweet and refreshing story.

The game will have similar rules to Honor of Kings, League of Legends, and so on. All the heroes and the league structure are original, anyone can read without playing these games. The original setting is to make space for the A/B/O elements. Omegas playing existing games would be really strange~

Translator's Notes:

666 (liùliùliù): A way of saying someone is or has done something very cool/awesome. Viewers in this chapter are using the number to razz Ye Shaoyang for giving away a lot of kills.

彩虹屁 (cǎihóng pì): Literally translated as 'rainbow farts', means fawning over someone/complimenting them relentlessly. A similar saying in English is to blow smoke up someone's ass.

程星/繁星/星星点灯: This character's name is Cheng Xing, with Cheng being his surname and Xing (meaning 'star') being his given name. He's known as Fanxing (meaning 'a sky full of stars') in the professional esports world, and his alt account's name incorporates the character for 'star' as well.