CH 2

Jiang Min withdrew his hands from the keyboard.

Staring at the glaring red “DEFEAT” on the screen, Jiang Min felt like his eyes were about to be blinded. He couldn’t believe he fell for the curse.

Countless times, he stubbornly played solo matches during live streams, only to be met with defeat after defeat. Whether he was sniped by opponents or stuck with terrible teammates, Jiang Min tried his best to carry the games, but it seemed to have no effect.

His frustration was reaching its breaking point.

In the last game, they had an early advantage, and the team’s fourth player asked him to roam the top lane together. However, the opposing team suddenly rushed out with three powerful players, and Jiang Min and his team’s fourth player demonstrated what it meant to be “24-linked deaths, one after another.”

Having their rhythm disrupted and constantly targeted, Jiang Min couldn’t turn the tide.

“Argh, it’s so frustrating!” Jiang Min rubbed his hair in irritation.

He had already lost three games in a row, and it seemed like a downward spiral.

【Sugar God, stop being so stubborn and play duo matches with someone!】

【Yeah, really! Our region was already frustrated enough for not even making it to the group stage. Seeing you lose consecutively affects our mood too!】

【Sugar God, be a good boy and play duo matches!】

【Even if the mid-lane is not dominant in this version, Sugar God shouldn’t be this bad, right? It’s better to retire early.】

【Retire your a**, I don’t want to see you leave, K!】

Jiang Min glanced at the barrage of comments and sighed before opening his friends list.

It was filled with gray.

Jiang Min didn’t have many friends on his list, mostly professional players. His reserved and somewhat aloof personality made many people admire him from a distance, but they were hesitant to approach him due to his imposing aura.

Apart from his teammates and former teammates, his friends list consisted of buddies introduced by them and some random high-ranking players he encountered in matches who took the initiative to add him.

Every time Jiang Min livestreams while playing duo queue, he picks suitable players from his friend list, and his fans jokingly call his list a “fishpond” where each person on it is a fish in his pond.

It’s currently the afternoon, and most professional players are either resting or playing in training matches, so it’s normal that many of them aren’t online. Similarly, most random players are usually encountered during late-night matches and are unlikely to be online during the daytime.

Jiang Min scratched the back of his head.

“It seems like no one’s online. My teammates are probably not available either. Should I… invite a companion?”

Inviting a companion is a special feature in Jiang Min’s livestream. Since his solo queue performance was quite poor and he often couldn’t find people he knew to play ranked games with, he once tried inviting a companion from the “My Moon, Your Heart” platform during a livestream. Surprisingly, that livestream was a huge success, and his fans seemed to enjoy watching the interaction between him and the companion.

As a result, both the livestreaming platform and his team encouraged him to invite companions whenever he livestreamed. After all, the higher the popularity of the livestream, the better, and nobody would object to making money.

【Invite a companion, that’s a great idea! Invite one, you must!】

【Sugar God, we support you! Call someone!】

【”By the way, do any of you still remember… the ‘Queen’ who hasn’t been online for a long time?”】

The barrage of comments scrolled too fast, and Jiang Min didn’t notice this particular message.

The “Queen” was a random player Jiang Min encountered during late-night matches. The player introduced themselves as “Little Fish” and mained the 4th position. They had good skills and a pleasant voice. Jiang Min’s 2nd position and their 4th position had great synergy, so they climbed ranks quickly, earning “Sugar God’s” affection.

In the past, every time Jiang Min started his livestream, “Little Fish” would join him in no time for duo queue. However, when Jiang Min was duo queueing with someone else, “Little Fish” would always intervene and ask to join them, as if checking whether her “boyfriend” was cheating on her with another girl.

Over time, “Little Fish,” who was always present and constantly checking how many fish there were in Jiang Min’s “pond,” was given the title of “Queen” by his fans.

Fish came and went in the pond, but the constant one who could always get on the car and sit firmly on the throne was “Little Fish.”

However, “Little Fish” mentioned a while ago that he had some real-life matters to attend to and hadn’t been online for a few days.

Jiang Min opened the “My Moon, Your Heart” companion platform and randomly selected a few high-ranked companions to choose from. He always selected male companions, partly because there were few female companions in high-level matches, and partly because being a professional player, duo queueing with a female companion during a livestream might invite unnecessary attention or rumors.

Although Jiang Min never feared gossip, he preferred to avoid unnecessary complications.

“Let’s just pick one randomly… I’ll just choose one and see who it is.” He casually made his selection.

【Sugar God, aren’t you too casual about this? At least let us hear the companion’s voice before making a choice!】

【Sisters in front, don’t go! As a voice control fan, I’m also waiting for Sugar God to pick a guy with a nice voice~】

“Hey, boss?”

This time, Jiang Min invited a companion who specialized in playing in high-level matches with a ranking of over 6000. The companion’s voice sounded quite magnetic.

“Yeah.”

“What role will the boss play?”

“Mid lane.”

“Okay, boss. Then I’ll take the 4th position to ensure that you have a comfortable experience!”

“……..”

【Why did I automatically turn yellow?】

【???】

【This companion guy seems to have some charm…】

Seeing his fans’ comments, Jiang Min thought they were hopeless fanatics. Finally, he settled on the renowned hero, Elemental Spirit.

Elemental Spirit was a hero with top-level difficulty in WOC, mainly because its skills were extremely complex. It was born from the Elemental Storm and possessed three elemental forms: ice, fire, and lightning, each with its own set of abilities. Playing Elemental Spirit required not only switching between forms but also mastering the skills associated with each form.

As a result, playing Elemental Spirit was like controlling three heroes at once.

“Boss, Elemental Spirit?”

“Yeah.”

“… Boss, please don’t mess with me!” The companion sounded helpless.

Elemental Spirit demanded high speed and reaction time from the player, which was difficult for most people to handle. Many people who arrogantly tried to show off with this hero ended up embarrassing themselves.

Furthermore, recent updates had caused Elemental Spirit to fall out of favor in professional matches, resulting in a decrease in its presence in ranked games.

“It’s alright, get ready.” Jiang Min clasped his hands together, moved his fingers a bit, and then placed them back on the keyboard.

“…Okay, boss.”

The companion thought to himself that the mid-lane might be difficult to handle, and it seemed like he had to babysit the boss in the middle lane.

Well, that’s because the other person was the boss, after all. Ensuring the boss’s happiness was part of his duty as a companion.

The game started.

The companion chose Specter, a 4th position hero, who had high mobility, control abilities, and an aura that reduced the enemy’s armor. In the professional scene, Specter was a popular choice for the 4th position.

Jiang Min controlled Elemental Spirit and floated lazily towards the middle lane.

A point of critique about WOC was the unimpressive design of Elemental Spirit. Regardless of whether it had cosmetic items or not, it was just a ball of light, making it impossible to see any details, but its dazzling light was indeed memorable.

In Elemental Spirit’s fire form, the light was red, in ice form it was light blue, and in lightning form it was purple.

In WOC’s game mechanics, while the side lanes were 2v2, the middle lane was a true 1v1 battle.

Jiang Min’s Elemental Spirit immediately used its long reach advantage to suppress the enemy’s assassin-type mid-laner, Dark Assassin.

A common problem for spell-based mid-laners was difficulty in last-hitting minions in the early game when they had poor equipment.

However, this was not an issue for Jiang Min, who had played professionally for four years and was familiar with the feel of last-hitting with various mid-lane heroes.

WOC had a mechanism for positive and negative last-hits: positive last-hitting meant killing the enemy’s minions, while negative last-hitting meant disposing of one’s own low-health minions, gaining experience and gold in the process.

In the first three waves of minions, Jiang Min not only last-hit the enemy’s minions but also killed a few of his own, denying the enemy mid-laner experience and gold.

Seeing that his last-hitting was not superior, the Dark Assassin decided to make some moves.

He went invisible and prepared to backstab.

However, Elemental Spirit seemed to have eyes on its back, instantly transforming into ice form and creating an ice wall that froze the Dark Assassin in place.

Then, Elemental Spirit changed to fire form, used Flame Impact, and instantly knocked off one-third of the assassin’s squishy health.

The ice wall control disappeared, and the assassin instinctively wanted to retreat, but Elemental Spirit transformed into lightning form, used Electric Shock, and disarmed the assassin in place.

With Flame Impact, including burn damage, the Dark Assassin was taken down by Elemental Spirit.

First Blood!

In an instant, First Blood was secured.

The system sound echoed throughout the game.

… Was Elemental Spirit such a powerful hero?

The Dark Assassin looked at the greyed-out screen in bewilderment.

“Wow, boss, 666!” The companion was shocked for a second and then quickly entered full-on praise mode, “Everyone, give a big round of applause to the boss!”

In Jiang Min’s livestream chat, the barrage was filled with 666 and various gifts.

In the subsequent game, the companion kept helping out in the mid-lane over and over again.

Even though it was evident that this boss was very skilled and proficient in playing Elemental Spirit, he didn’t really need the companion’s help to roam around. However, as a competent companion, it was essential to enhance the boss’s gaming experience. Thus, on the map, the Specter kept running back and forth to the mid-lane.

“Boss, I brought you a mana potion~”

“Boss, I found a neutral item that restores mana, here you go~”

“Boss, I cleared the jungle camps for you, why don’t you go collect them!” In WOC, the jungle camps refreshed every minute. By pulling the existing jungle camps away from the respawn area before the timer, new jungle camps would appear. Using this mechanism, players could gather a large group of jungle creeps and then defeat them all together. The jungle creeps would randomly drop some neutral items for players to use.

“…This companion guy is really helpful.” Jiang Min praised the companion’s attentive service.

“Naturally, it’s my duty to make the boss happy!”

【Suddenly, I find this companion guy quite adorable…】

【Sugar God, why not invite him into your fishpond~】

【Yeah, yeah, his performance in the 4th position is also quite good.】

Jiang Min fully agreed with the barrage comments. This companion guy played quite well, and he could become a valuable addition to his regular companions.

In this match, thanks to the enormous advantage in the mid-lane, Jiang Min finally achieved a ranked victory.

After the game ended, as he was about to click “add friend” to include the companion guy into his fishpond, a familiar voice suddenly sounded in the voice chat room that he and the companion guy had opened separately.

“Sugar God, who are you playing with?”

1TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you ”