Chapter 2
Translator: Aafkee
Proofreader: ChaiTea
The next day, when Lin Jiu arrives at Mu Wanwan’s house, the latter is controlling her character, Varus, in a team fight.
Having a better look at her clothes, Lin Jiu judges, “What’s with this pair of lousy trousers?”
Since Mu Wanwan only needs to reveal her upper body when she streams, for the sake of comfort, she prefers to wear something loose and soft for her bottom.
She effortlessly controls her character, auto-attacking and kiting, as if she has done it a million times, her head not even turning back, “I bought these with you six years ago. Have you forgotten?”
“Nope, you must have remembered wrong,” Lin Jiu finds herself a chair and sits next to her, “How would I allow you to buy such an ugly pair of trousers?”
[That sounds like Jiujiu.]
[1*, I had a look just now, Jiujiu is currently not live.]
(T/N*: The Arabic number 1 is often used as internet slang. It means ‘yes’, ‘okay’, ‘I agree’, ‘I’m ready’, etc.)
Lin Jiu squeezes herself into the camera frame and greets, “Hello~”
The speed of the chat clearly increases with Lin Jiu here. After a while, Lin Jiu’s fans enter the stream to send her gifts.
Mu Wanwan states, “Jiujiu’s fans don’t have to send me gifts. Save them and send them to her directly to push her up the weekly popularity rank.”
Lin Jiu touches her shoulder, “Wow, you even knew to promote me.”
Mu Wanwan misses a siege minion because of her arm movement, “… Sorry, I take back what I said. Any Jiujiu’s fans out there who want to become my fans, instead? I’ll welcome you with open arms.”
The game ends and Mu Wanwan successfully becomes the MVP of the game.
She moves her mouse, wanting to queue for the next game.
Lin Jiu quickly stops her, “You’re still playing? Aren’t you going to eat?”
Only then does Mu Wanwan realise the time. She replies awkwardly, “I have yet to play Vayne, picked by NoSong.”
Lin Jiu frowns, “What do you mean? Who’s NoSong?”
Mu Wanwan points at the weekly ranking of her top benefactors on her streaming page.
NoSong is at contribution level 500.
Mu Wanwan set a rule when she started streaming: viewers who send her five hang gliders are allowed to request for her to play a specific character for her next match. Once the rule is set, the number of benefactors on her benefactors ranking list fills up. Having only streamed for two days, and the highest contribution level on her list is already at level 4000.
One hang glider is 100 dollars*, so one character request is 500 dollars*.
(T/N*: About 15USD and 77USD respectively.)
Lin Jiu is truly amazed by her bestie’s money-making ways.
“It’s okay,” Lin Jiu waves her hand, “Takeaway is fine, too.”
Mu Wanwan laughs while she unlocks her phone with her fingerprint and throws it into Lin Jiu’s hand, “Order whatever you want!”
Lin Jiu did not restrain herself at all. The takeaway she orders is a tier higher than others' — HaiDiLao hotpot* takeaway.
(T/N*: 海底捞 HaiDiLao - a relatively pricey hot pot chain restaurant.)
Just as the delivery man arrives at the apartment entrance, a roar erupts from inside the apartment.
The support for this round is Soraka. Although she knows that her team cannot hear her, Mu Wanwan cannot control herself and shouts anyway, “Help help help!! Heal me, heal me — you meowing dog! She ran away with the jungler again!”
(T/N*: She’s ‘swearing’ without actually swearing here.)
[I have followed this ‘Help me’ streamer.]
[Hahahahaha what is a meowing dog??]
Lin Jiu explains before she goes out to take the food, “Our streamer’s mum has never allowed her to curse, so she has developed the good habit of swearing at others with animals.”
After the game ends, Mu Wanwan opens up the match history page and has a look at the statistics. Given their team’s huge disadvantage, she has already done her best by having the same damage output as the opponent team’s ADC.
Thank god her lane is not the cause of their loss or she will have to give out her first red packet since the start of her streaming career.
She moves her mouse, “This support has been following the jungler since getting out of the bot lane. I think they might be a couple.”
Indeed, when she opens up their match history page, she can see that these two have been playing together for over ten games consecutively. Even their profile icons match.
“Tsk, this is precisely why love does not exist in e-Sports,” she closes the page and looks back. Seeing that Lin Jiu is already setting up the hot pot, she continues, “I’ll continue after dinner. Maybe I should stream a movie for you guys. What do y’all wanna watch?”
[LPL Spring Season is starting soon, why don’t you turn on LOL TV channel for us?”
[1 Best if you can add your commentary.]
“Does Spring Season start today?” Mu Wanwan glances at the date and realises that it, indeed, does start today.
LPL, also known as the League of Legends Pro League, is the highest-tiered professional tournament in China. It is also the only path towards competing on a global level. The champion of the LPL Spring Season will represent LPL to compete at the Mid-Season Invitational, MSI, competing with teams from all around the globe.
Switching on the LOL TV channel, the first match is Team HSS against Team MA.
MA is recognised as the country’s strongest team. Unfortunately, they lost to a Korean team 3-0 when they represented China last year, peaking top 8 against other teams. This led to the forums being filled with remarks about how “China’s e-Sports is done for”. Especially the player who made the most mistakes during their top 8 match, he was mocked and ridiculed by the netizens until now.
Team HSS, on the other hand, nearly lost their tier during the MSI last year. They don’t have many new players joining the team either, so the difference in the strength of Team HSS and Team MA is extremely obvious.
Simply put; there is not much in this match that is worth watching to the general public.
Before the match, the commentators chat awkwardly while waiting and the number of comments increase, as well. Mu Wanwan is sitting nearby, half of her body is still in the camera frame. She can see both the match and her chat.
[Which team do you think will win?]
“That depends on their team composition.”
[Depends? There is no way HSS can beat MA.]
Mu Wanwan pretends not to see that comment and takes a bite of the fatty beef.
Lin Jiu whispers, “Judging from your stream’s popularity right now, I think you’ll be able to afford a house and a car in another year or so. Remember me when you’re rich.”
Mu Wanwan’s stream is ranked 6th in terms of popularity in the games category.
“That’s an exaggeration,” Mu Wanwan says, “It’s not like you don’t know about how many of the views are fake numbers.”
“Even with fake numbers, do you think it’s that easy to get ranked 6th? This is the biggest streaming platform in the country and you only started streaming two days ago.”
Mu Wanwan does not comment, her viewership has indeed been pretty impressive in the past two days.
The day when she can bring Lady Lin to Disneyland is imminent.
The match, finally, enters the picking and banning phase, but Mu Wanwan’s interest in the match is kind of waning as she looks at her chat, instead.
[Is there a pro player that you like?]
“Of course, there is.”
The chat gets heated all of a sudden, all asking about who her favourite player is.
Mu Wanwan replies extremely naturally, “Team TS’s support, Lu.”
**
The moment Pei Lu returns to his training base, he hears his name from his team’s solo middle lane, Lil Meat Bun’s computer.
He looks at his teammate, his face reflects suspicion, “What are you watching?”
“Live stream,” Lil Meat Bun, realising that he’s back, smiles, “Xiao-Lu, this female streamer says she likes you.”
Pei Lu has short black hair, his eyes are bright, and his face is handsome. He is wearing a clean white shirt that makes him look refreshing.
He smiles, his little eyetooth peeking out. He does not even look at the screen, “I see.”
Lil Meat Bun asks, “Why are you back so early today?”
“I’m back early for training,” And with that, Pei Lu takes a look around, “Isn’t there a practice match tonight?”
They have a match the day after tomorrow, so they made arrangements to have a practice match with their team two to warm themselves up for the actual match.
“Don’t even mention that anymore. Chen He brought the kids from team two along and ate mala hotpot and got their stomachs sick. Those kids are running to the toilet every few minutes, the practice match will, most likely, be tomorrow instead.”
Pei Lu nods, not saying much, and returns to his position.
If there is no practice match, he can always play a few ranked games to get himself warmed up.
Unexpectedly, the moment he enters the game, Chen He, who is sitting beside him, can’t stand it anymore.
“Ouch ouch. Hey, Pei Lu, Pei Lu,” Chen He’s hands on his stomach, “I need to… again. I’m already in the game. Help me play this round.”
Pei Lu agrees and nods, “You should go quickly.”
He only recalls when he walks over -- that Chen He is their team’s ADC, so naturally, he would have queued for the ADC position for his ranked matches.
He is a professional player, so it is of no surprise that he knows how to play positions other than support, but only at the level of a Diamond ranked player. On top of that, he does not have his usual familiar teammates to work with, so it will be quite a struggle for him as the main carry in such Challenger ranked games.
He quickly looks over, “Meat Bun, are you free? Can you help Chen He play a game?”
Lil Meat Bun replies, “I can’t. I have already started my own game. I’m already laning.”
As a result, Pei Lu can only brace himself and just do it.
When it comes to his turn to ban a character, a message appears in the in-game chat box as he is pondering.
<DepressedPrince: Ban Janna, I’ll play Lulu.>
Seems like that’s his team’s support. Pei Lu bans Janna obediently.
<DepressedPrince: Do you play Tristana?>
<LookAtMyUltimateMeowMeowPunch: A little.>
Pei Lu only realises something is wrong after he had sent out that message.
This is not Chen He’s account…
It seems like Chen He is helping a girl rank up, again.
<DepressedPrince: You know if you know, you don’t know if you don’t. What the hell is a little?>
<LookAtMyUltimateMeowMeowPunch: ... I know.>
And with that, their team quickly decides on their team composition. Their bottom lane has Tristana and Lulu; the strongest combination in the current patch.
And the opposite team has Varus and Thresh.
Once in the game, two small characters run out from the base simultaneously, looking comical and cute.
No one speaks a word. Once on the lane, Pei Lu starts to last hit the minions diligently.
He recognises the opposite’s ADC, who’s pretty strong. He knows where his level stands, so he chooses stability over all else.
Fortunately, their bottom lane has a very good combination, so the opposite team does not really dare to push too hard either. Pei Lu rises to level 3 smoothly and steadily.
As he is concentrating hard at trying to last hit all the minions, he sees Lulu, who was initially standing quietly in the bush, suddenly deal an auto-attack, last hitting the siege minion.
Pei Lu pauses momentarily.
That was not intentional, right?
When the next wave of minions arrive, as he is last hitting, Lulu suddenly moves again, last hitting the siege minion again.
Pei Lu: ???
As he prepares to send out his question marks, the other party is already pinging a signal.
<DepressedPrince is on the way.>
<DepressedPrince is on the way.>
Meaning, it is time to initiate a fight. They are already level 3. They can, indeed, try to suppress the opponents.
Pei Lu recognises the signals. Just as he prepares to rush over, a blind monk suddenly jumps out from the bush at the side -- that’s the opposite team’s jungler.
They are not overextended yet. Under normal circumstances, they can easily escape from this gank.
However, because Pei Lu has been practising so much as a support because of the recent Spring Season tournament, he thought he was Lulu, wanting to use W to silence the opposite’s jungler by turning him into a sheep.
Coincidentally, Tristana’s W is a movement skill. He only realises his mistake after pressing W towards Lee Sin, but it is too late as his character has jumped straight into Lee Sin’s face!
This gives him a shock. He quickly prepares to press D to flash away, only to realise that Chen He’s D key is bound to his heal…
In that short couple of seconds, he is hooked by the opposite’s Thresh, giving away the game’s first blood.
This is entirely his fault. Pei Lu feels extremely ashamed.
<LookAtMyUltimateMeowMeowPunch: My bad, sorry.>
Pei Lu feels like his partner has a hot temper. He is mentally preparing to receive a scolding.
DepressedPrince stays silent for a whole half a minute.
<DepressedPrince: No problem. You can do this, girl. :)>
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