Douyin, Exalted Emperor's livestream.
Even though it was already past midnight, more than fifty thousand viewers were still watching. Comments scrolled wildly across the screen, making for a lively scene.
"Holy crap! A national No. 1 badge for a mid-lane hero in three days? Exalted Emperor, are you sure you're not joking?"
"I suddenly saw the great Exalted Emperor go live in the middle of the night and clicked in out of curiosity. Damn, the stream title scared me stupid. Since when were national No. 1 badges so easy to get?"
"I can't take it anymore~ First you reached Legend with an MVP in every win, and now you're saying you'll claim a mage's national No. 1 badge by the end of the month. Am I dreaming?"
Su Hang held his phone and smiled. "There's no exaggeration in the stream title. I really am going to get a mage hero's national No. 1 badge from scratch before the rankings are finalized at the end of the month!"
His confirmation sent a jolt through the viewers in the comments.
"Exalted Emperor, are you really good at playing mid?"
Su Hang opened the ranked interface and started matchmaking. "I know a little. I'll show everyone with my match records and ratings in a bit."
He found a match and entered the pick-and-ban phase.
Both teams banned heroes.
While he had a moment, Su Hang opened a can of sugar-free cola. It was a habit he had kept for ten years: whenever he played Honor of Kings, he had to drink ice-cold sugar-free cola!
As for why it wasn't regular Coca-Cola or Pepsi, that was because both were too high in sugar and calories, which wasn't good for fitness.
Alongside his daily workouts, he worked part-time as a fitness coach to help support his household, though his personal training sessions were expensive.
Su Hang casually sent Dun to the ban slot.
There was no other reason.
His hand was used to it.
At that moment, comments flooded the screen.
"Holy crap! What kind of luck is that, Exalted Emperor? You matched with streamers, and two of them at that!"
"Could it be that Exalted Emperor was born with a sacred physique for matching with streamers? That luck is in a league of its own."
"We've identified them, brothers. The enemy's fourth pick is Lü Dehua, and their fifth is Yun Shu!"
"Lü Dehua? Yun Shu?"
Su Hang took a sip of cola. He remembered Lü Dehua. Five years ago, during the Fengyi Edict year spanning seasons S17 to S20, they had run into each other many times in the Peak Tournament. His Lu Bu play had reached divine heights.
But after season S20, he hadn't run into him again.
"Yun Shu?"
Su Hang frowned. "Why does that sound familiar?"
Huya, Yun Shu's livestream.
The place was buzzing, and the screen was filled with astonished comments!
"Holy crap, Zhuangzhuang's Mom got a total makeover into a sweet girl? Why does it feel like she's debuting in a Korean girl group?"
"I only stopped watching Zhuangzhuang's Mom for one semester. How did she turn into a sweet and cool mature beauty with a big chest, slim waist, and long legs? Can someone tell me what happened in the first half of the year?"
"Yun Shu's looks through the years: the aloof queen jungler of 2023, Zhuangzhuang's Mom showing her face in a ghost-girl cosplay in 2024, and now the sweet and cool mature beauty who's still got her charm in 2025! It's a total beauty comeback! Yun Shu definitely worked out recently."
"Exactly, exactly."
In the livestream, Yun Shu tucked her hair behind her ear, revealing her fair, swanlike neck. Her chest surged like waves, that expanse of snow-white skin breathtaking. She crossed her long, shapely legs and rested her smooth chin on her hand. "I stopped streaming for a while to work out and get a total makeover."
The viewers suddenly understood.
"No wonder Sister Yun Shu's Douyin IP location was in Jiangcheng the past few months!"
"Wait, are you guys kidding me?"
Yun Shu folded her arms around her milky-white breasts, looking at them with the disdain one might show a dog. "You all used to call me Zhuangzhuang's Mom, and now that I've gotten prettier, you're calling me sister? Where were you before?"
The viewers kept calling her sister, while expensive gifts poured in as if they cost nothing, their effects flaring up nonstop.
A seductive smile curved Yun Shu's lips. Her popularity had soared past a hundred thousand, and her gifts had increased tenfold. That was enough to prove that taking a break from streaming to work out and transform herself had been the right choice!
"Baby Yun Shu, you're gorgeous to death!" a female fan wrote as she sent a gift. "Which fitness coach did you find in Jiangcheng? The makeover turned out so well. Please recommend them!"
"Sis, a transformation like this mainly depends on your own perseverance. The fitness coach comes second." Yun Shu rested her chin on her hand and smiled. "Besides, my coach charges ten thousand yuan a session. It's very expensive; you might not be able to afford it!"
"Ten thousand yuan for one session?"
The moment she said that, the viewers were completely stunned.
In a rather bright mood, Yun Shu logged into her Honor of Kings account.
Looking back on those days of transformation in Jiangcheng, they had truly been painful and joyful. In particular, the high school student coach who had helped her transform was enough to make anyone pant.
Yun Shu's cheeks flushed scarlet. She hurriedly coughed twice to conceal the utterly shameful fantasies in her head.
"If I didn't already have someone in my heart, I'd definitely pursue her with everything I had!"
Yun Shu didn't log into her secondary streaming account, but into the main account she had used for nine years! After all, there were only three days left before the national rankings were finalized at the end of the month, and she needed to secure her main account's national No. 1 badge for Pei Qinhu!
"My Tiger has fourteen thousand Glory Power now." Yun Shu checked Pei Qinhu's ranking cutoff. "Tenth in the country is a very dangerous spot."
Viewers in the comments offered advice one after another.
"Yun Shu, my wife, take my advice. You haven't maxed out your performance score yet, so grind ranked matches first. If you can't hold onto the national badge, then go play the Peak Tournament!"
"That makes sense."
Yun Shu nodded in agreement.
Her Tiger's performance score had originally maxed out at 6,100 points after 45 ranked matches, but because she hadn't played last week, the new season's King Glory Power system automatically deducted a small amount of Glory Power at the start of the new week.
Now his Tiger had only 5,400 performance points. To quickly max it out at 6,100, she had to ensure a rating above 11.9 in every upcoming hundred-star ranked match! In other words, she had to get MVP in every match!
That was neither particularly hard nor particularly easy.
"Pei Qinhu depends heavily on his teammates. Sister Yun Shu, I suggest you find a reliable duo partner in the game lobby! That way you can make sure you get MVP every match!"
"Does she even need to look? Sis above, have you forgotten which team our Yun Shu used to be on?"
"Imperial Crown Team!"
The viewers' excitement surged at once, and the words "Imperial Crown" swept across the screen like a tsunami!
Looking at those two words, Yun Shu felt a slight tremor in her heart!
The Imperial Crown Team, foremost among the four great nonprofessional teams, had dominated the throne of the No. 1 team in the Android QQ server ever since its founding in season S1, through ten years and forty seasons!
It was leagues ahead of the million nonprofessional teams in the same server!
If the team professional players dreamed of joining was AG Super Play, then the nonprofessional team expert solo players dreamed of joining was the Imperial Crown Team!
The Imperial Crown Team had only twelve core members.
Those twelve members were neither Champion Emperor players nor King-Titled Players, much less Overlord players.
Yet the gaming skills, influence, and power to rally others of those twelve members could rival those of Overlord King Titles!
Yun Shu looked at her account's in-game ID, a name she had used for nine years without ever thinking of changing it.
[Aries]!
"Speaking of which, I originally followed Sister Yun Shu because she was a member of the Imperial Crown Team."
"Sister Yun Shu, so many expert players are fighting tooth and nail to get into Imperial Crown. Why did you leave of your own accord? What a shame."
"I remember you were only twelve when you joined Imperial Crown, with gold badges for several jungle heroes ranked No. 1 in the province. You truly deserved to be called a heaven's favored daughter of Honor of Kings. Didn't the Imperial Crown Team try to persuade you to stay?"
Yun Shu gave a couple of bitter laughs.
A heaven's favored daughter?
Geniuses were the one thing the Imperial Crown Team never lacked!
Persuade her to stay?
As someone who had languished at the bottom of the team's internal matches year after year, she was lucky the Imperial Crown Team hadn't driven her out themselves.
"That's all in the past."
With a hair tie between her lips, Yun Shu tied up her hair and entered battle mode. "For now, securing Tiger's national badge in ranked comes first!"
The ranked match popped instantly, and she entered right away.
She had just sent her most hated hero, Musashi Miyamoto, to the ban slot.
The comments erupted!
"Holy DJ! Yun Shu, my wife, you've matched with Exalted Emperor! He's on the other team!"
"Exalted Emperor?"
Yun Shu knitted her brows. She had heard of Exalted Emperor, a new Honor of Kings streamer who had risen rapidly in recent days. With jungle and farm-lane skills honed to perfection, he had completed the extreme challenge of reaching Legend with an MVP in every win.
He didn't have an Overlord title, yet his gaming skills were infinitely close to King Title level!
"Then I'll see how good he is for myself." Fighting spirit ignited in Yun Shu's eyes. Though she had never earned an Overlord King Title, even if she matched against a King-Titled Player, they would have a headache for quite a while.
After all, she wasn't called the Canyon's strongest female jungle King for nothing.
Yun Shu locked in Pei Qinhu, her fighting spirit soaring like a rocket.
The next second.
A voice came through the team voice channel, and her surging fighting spirit came to an abrupt halt.
"Lü Dehua is seriously C--"
"Hahaha~"