Looking forward to the day you learn to speak like a human

[Aaaah, my blood pressure! He already said it was an ambush, so why are you still running in to feed?]

[Okay, but Nian-Nian, I'm honestly afraid he'll enjoy getting roasted by you /blushing.jpg]

[Exactly! If you love feeding so much, start your own game and feed all you want. Don't come take a dump in this stream!]

[Holy shit, the streamer actually called it. There really were three enemies lying in wait.]

The moment Yu Nian saw the alert, he hurried to the edge of the jungle. The enemy jungler darted out from the side, visibly still at full health.

The two happened to run into each other. Seeing Yu Nian alone, the jungler advanced on him, hoping to pick up another kill.

Yu Nian used his nimble, multi-stage movement skill to trade blows with his opponent, but anyone could see that the enemy was dealing more damage.

Yu Nian flicked open the equipment screen for a quick look. Sure enough, his opponent had one more item than he did, clearly fed by the kill on their marksman in that last fight.

Fortunately, their mage, who wasn't nearly as mobile, arrived just then. A quick crowd-control skill and a silky little combo finished the enemy off.

Looking at his sliver of health, Yu Nian breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close. Thank goodness my teammate came through."

"My health bar's practically empty. Let me get back to our brush and recall."

Not daring to let his guard down, Yu Nian hurried back. On the way, however, a little bouncing ball flew in from the side and accidentally bounced him to death.

Yu Nian stared blankly at his darkened screen for a moment.

On-screen, an enemy support with half a health bar strolled out of the brush and even circled his corpse twice.

[Hahahaha!]

[Hahaha, enemy support: I have no idea either. I was just playing marbles in the brush. How did I bounce their jungle king to death?]

[Teacher, our Nian Bao was perfectly fine a minute ago. Why isn't he making any noise now?]

[This is peak entertainment, hahaha.]

"Ahem." Yu Nian was briefly embarrassed, but quickly recovered. "Let me introduce this game to everyone. This hero on-screen is called Dean. On the surface, she's a support, but she's actually the team's main damage dealer. If you see her in the future, remember not to tank her attacks."

[Years later, I stand on the world championship podium. A reporter asks why I thought to make Dean my main carry. I slowly answer: It all started with a streamer called Rice Cake...]

[You above, just keep spoiling him!!]

[Support: Main damage dealer? Huh? Me?]

[I'm dying. Why do I feel like their support hits harder than our marksman?]

[If the streamer had known this marksman was so bad, he wouldn't have given him the role. He's fed so many kills.]

"Hold on, hold on." Seeing the comments head in the wrong direction, Yu Nian quickly said, "It's not about who gave what to whom. It's a game; we're just here to have fun. Don't attack other people, chat, or you'll get muted. Keep your eyes on me instead, okay?"

[Damn it, it's a charm spell! The streamer must have cast a charm spell. That voice has me completely bewitched.]

[Begging on my knees for a Nian Bao voice pack /crying~]

[Sweethearts, don't attack other people. You'll bring hate down on the streamer.]

Yu Nian had already respawned. He stopped watching the chat, but noticed the marksman speaking in the in-game channel.

[Qing^ (marksman): What is this jungler doing?]

[Qing^ (marksman): You're fucking useless. Didn't you see me tell you to group up and help me get blue?!]

Yu Nian frowned slightly.

To him, games were just entertainment, so he never kept score over who had dragged whom down, nor did he blame people for playing poorly.

That would defeat the whole purpose of streaming games in the first place.

But if someone else started trouble, Yu Nian wasn't a pushover either.

[Rice Cake Isn't Cake (jungler): Didn't I warn you there was an ambush in the brush?]

[Qing^ (marksman): Isn't that because you're too scared? If we'd gone together just now, their jungler wasn't even there yet. We could've taken at least one of them down.]

[Rice Cake Isn't Cake (jungler): Oh, maybe it's because I'm not as blindly confident as you.]

[Qing^ (marksman): You ** do that much damage. What the fuck are you scared of!]

[Rice Cake Isn't Cake (jungler): Sorry, but looking at your 0-3 score, with even their support ahead of you in gold, I really am scared.]

[Rice Cake Isn't Cake (jungler): Oh, wait. It's 0-4 now.]

[Qing^ (marksman): You ****, %***s\b!]

[Rice Cake Isn't Cake (jungler): Chinese really isn't that hard. You could go back to elementary school for a couple of years before coming here again. Keep at it! Looking forward to the day you learn to speak like a human!]

[You'd Hit a Little Rat Too? (mage): Pfft-]

[Qing^ (marksman): I fucking ****! **]

What followed was a string of nonsensical insults. Yu Nian had no time to compete over whose extended family could get dragged into more curses, so he simply clicked report.

[Hahaha, I always thought Nian-Nian was a good boy who didn't know how to curse. I had no idea you hit this hard!]

[Nian Bao: I really didn't curse at anyone /innocent.jpg]

[Who are you being snide at? You really think you're that good?]

[Heh, your gold's only high because you steal other people's waves and farm jungle monsters.]

[You think a few kills make you hot shit, jungler? Ever heard of teamwork? Is this your own single-player game?]

[You fucking fake-voice freak. Your voice sounds awful. Shitty personality, always putting on an act. Puke~]

[Wait, where did all these freaks suddenly come from? Mods, do something!]

[What's wrong with these people making personal attacks? Qinggang is disgusting. He can't win the argument, so he sends his fans to cyberbully a small streamer?]

Only after reading the chat did Yu Nian learn that the other player was a streamer too.

A streamer might have several accounts. Some took boosting orders, while others borrowed viewers' accounts to play.

In short, unless you knew someone fairly well, it was generally hard to tell whose account a particular ID belonged to.

Still, since they made their living streaming the same game, they more or less belonged to the same circle.

Qinggang, however, had started earlier and had over six hundred thousand followers, roughly three times Yu Nian's count.

When Yu Nian first started streaming, he would visit other streamers' channels to watch and learn. He had watched Qinggang's streams too. Qinggang was skilled and had his own distinctive style.

He just tended to let foul remarks slip, then insist he was only joking. Anyone who took him seriously was being petty. That was how he made his streams entertaining.

People who disliked him didn't watch, while those who liked him thought he was genuine and funny.

Yu Nian, however, felt their styles didn't mesh, so he hadn't expected to learn anything from him. The two had never really interacted.

Although Yu Nian's moderators were doing their best to keep order, the other streamer's fans were too numerous and too frenzied. Unfamiliar IDs kept popping up to insult him, mostly calling his voice fake and affected, accusing him of silencing people because they'd hit a nerve, and so on.

The stream chat was engulfed in fierce arguments, and some viewers left because they couldn't stand the fighting. By the end of the match, it had strayed completely from the spirit of playing games for fun. This had become a battlefield for their attacks and venting.

Yu Nian offered no defense.

After all, if they were reasonable, they wouldn't have watched the whole thing only to twist the facts and blame him.

In short: brainless.

He sent his hero out again, panning the camera to check the situation. His voice remained calm. "So what you're saying is, he's playing like this because of me?"

[Who else would it be?]

[No idea how someone like you even made it to Master.]

Qinggang's fans thought he had run out of arguments. Now they were even less inclined to consider how it had all started; all they knew was to keep attacking.

Yu Nian slowly smiled. He saw Qinggang trading blows with someone in the bottom lane again. Perhaps Yu Nian had gotten under his skin. With his already meager gold and now his sloppy mechanics, his play was downright ugly.

Yu Nian stood in the brush to one side and didn't help.

Only after Qinggang was killed did he switch to a build that countered the opponent and swiftly advance.

"If you say so." His tone seemed faintly resigned. A fluid sequence of moves killed the enemy, and the God of Slaughter title he'd lost when he died earlier reappeared beside his ID.

"After all-"

He drew out the words, his voice still soft, even a little languid.

On-screen, the jungler stood over his teammate's corpse, a blood-red cape billowing in the wind and a sharp spear pointed at the ground. It looked as though he had his own marksman beneath his feet.

Just then, the hero's voice line rang out at exactly the right moment, flippant and brimming with swagger. "Only losers are always making excuses for their failures."