Jian Rongs head was turned, so he didnt realize that the barrage had already exploded

[Who? Youre going to take Dads money to support who? Say that one more time???]

[Youre still a child, this old woman wont allow you to date ahhhhh]

[Dating right after joining the team, are you asking for a beating?]

[Everyone calm down, the little dumbass said the person he likes, he didnt say that theyre together yet. I bet that its just an unrequited love. With his EQ, nothing will come of it.]

[Stop! The reason why we have all gathered here today is to listen to our little dumbass Soft, who weve flamed since his youth until now, market his merch. From the bottom of my heart, I bestow my blessings on him: after the merch goes on sale, may the amount sold be infinitely zero, just like my League Points. May the goods be stored until theyre rotten and smelly!]

[Pure passerby here, is Road not the one he has an unrequited love for?]

[He definitely wasnt talking about Road, as if Road needs his support? Would Soft even be qualified??? Last year when Road walked on the red carpet during the opening ceremony, his watch alone was worth more than Softs signing fee!]

[Ah, is the little dumbass that cheaply priced? I admire the strong, Im no longer a dad.]

[Dont worry, hell become expensive in the next season so who exactly does he like? I heard a rumor that he filmed a commercial with Qiuqiu some time ago.]

[Its okay if hes in a relationship, but not with a woman.]

Hearing noise, Yuan Qian also glanced behind him. Captain, youre awake? Did you see Ding-ges text

Ding-ge had sent them a notification in the group chat bright and early that morning, telling them to stream and market the merch a lot over the next few days.

The profit they received from the bonus for their teams merch was quite considerable, and nobody would say no to money. First thing in the morning, the four of them all started streaming, and even Pine changed into his merch shirt.

Lu Boyuan said, I saw it.

Yuan Qian looked at the hat in his hand and reminded him kindly, You took the wrong one, Captain. Youre holding Softs hat.

Jian Rong was only wearing his headphones over one ear, so when he heard that, he swiftly licked his lips.

Mn. Lu Boyuan said succinctly, I thought it looked nice, so I took it.

Jian Rong:

Yuan Qian:

The game was still ongoing, and Jian Rong turned back around to play properly. Lu Boyuan swept a look at Jian Rongs game interface before he went straight over to his own seat to power on his computer and eat breakfast.

Speaking of which, what was up with Ding-ge. Xiao Bai roasted, Sending a group text at 5:30 in the morning. I forgot to put my phone on mute last night, so I was startled awake didnt he say that he was going to be a healthy middle-aged man and stop pulling all-nighters after he turned thirty?

Yuan Qian shrugged. Who knows, maybe he couldnt fall asleep last night.

After clearing out the enemy jungle, Jian Rong hit the B key and recalled to base. Only then did he finally respond to the barrage.

He ignored all the comments asking him who he liked and only answered the questions related to the merch. The water friends quickly began spamming the barrage, calling him a damn money grubber, and the topic was swept under the rug just like that.

Upon seeing how many comments Jian Rong was receiving in the barrage, Xiao Bai felt like this marketing tactic was quite effective. He was about to copy it when he saw the number of viewers in his stream suddenly decrease dramatically. In the span of a few seconds, over four thousand viewers dropped.

He turned pale with fright. Damn, I havent even shown my socks yet, how come you all ran away! oh, my ge started streaming? Thats fine then.

The instant Lu Boyuan started his stream, the viewer counts in all the other LoL streams would always drop. Never mind the TTC members, even the other LoL streamers were used to it by now.

Lu Boyuan leaned back in his chair, eating his youtiao. His hair was disheveled, and he sat in a careless manner.

He was idling on the game client and clicked on the PC version of Happy Fight the Landlord as he chatted lazily with the barrage.

Mn, a task assigned by our manager, marketing the merch.

[Every time the manager isnt there, God Lus stream feels super casual lololol]

[Ahhh Ill buy out all of my husbands merch!!!]

[Not gaming?]

[Just checked, lately Road doesnt play ranked for more than three hours each day, and there are even some days where he doesnt play a single game this kind of person deserves to have the LPLs top salary?? What a joke.]

[If he doesnt deserve it, do you??]

[God Lus hand probably hasnt been feeling too good, right? Also recently, all the teams have been doing practice matches, okay? The only reason why Soft plays ranked for so long is because hes aiming for rank one on the KR server.]

[When you put it that way, Soft really is climbing so fast in solo Q, its only been a few days and hes about to hit Challenger.]

[Wheres the merch? Market it!]

In the video, Lu Boyuan was still wearing his usual clothing. He didnt have on any of the random accessories either.

He reached out to grab a certain item placed on the computer desk.

All the fans leaned in, anticipating the design of the new merch, until Lu Boyuan pulled out a deep blue baseball cap.

[Ah? This? looks a little familiar?]

[Looks familiar +1]

[I went to check just now, isnt this Softs freaking merch??]

Lu Boyuan seized the landlord position. In front of a screen full of question marks, he put the hat back down on the table and assessed, The color scheme is pretty good, it should go fairly well with any item of clothing.

They said to market the merch, but they didnt say whose merch to market.

Why market for him? Lu Boyuan laughed. Because I like this hat.

Ding-ges WeChat messages streamed in like fragile snowflakes, instantly occupying Lu Boyuans entire phone screen.

Xiao Bai immediately held up his own hat and whipped his head around. Ge! Check out my hat, it looks way better than Jian Rongs!

Jian Rong felt his heart skip a few beats with Lu Boyuans words. He shot a glance at Xiao Bais hat before he said coldly, Looks way better my ass.

After Lu Boyuan finished a round of Fight the Landlord, he picked up his phone and comforted Ding-ge a bit. Then he raised his head and saw that the barrage was asking him why he still hadnt started playing ranked yet.

Waiting for someone, he still hasnt finished his current game. Lu Boyuan paused for a moment and said evenly, I forgot to ask if hes willing to queue with me.

Right as he said that, a message popped up on Jian Rongs screen.

[(Friend) Road: carry me god jian?]

God Jian

This was Jian Rongs first time being called that.

He imagined Lu Boyuans voice saying that before he instantly stopped himself and responded rapidly.

[(Friend) softsndd: okay]

The water friends in both streams were completely baffled

The two of you are in the same practice room, so whats the point of sending private messages in game? Is it not more convenient to just open your mouth and shout?? Will the others think that youre being too noisy or something???

Jian Rong quickly ended the game before they formed a party together and entered the matchmaking queue.

Over the in-game voice chat, Jian Rong could hear that Lu Boyuan was still chatting with the barrage. Will I get a bonus for helping him market his merch? I dont know, let me ask him

Jian Rong said, Yes.

Afraid of being found out, Jian Rong maintained a stiff expression the entire time, and his tone of voice was also particularly harsh.

Lu Boyuan could tell, and he gave a deep huff of laughter. Never mind. If it sells well, you can just treat me to a meal.

Jian Rong fiddled with his headphones. I will Ill treat you to whatever you want.

Then, scallion oil noodles. Lu Boyuan said nonchalantly, The place you took me to last time was pretty delicious.

Jian Rong:

Ding-ge, who was currently out of town discussing a business contract, stared closely at the stream on his phone.

Although he had no clue what they were saying, judging from the look on Jian Rongs face it evidently wasnt a normal conversation that would occur between teammates.

Ding-ge reached up and pinched his philtrum, debating if he should cancel his hot spring plans for the evening and fly back to the base early so that he could unplug their junglers internet cable.

Luckily, they soon queued into a game.

Jian Rong also felt relieved. He subconsciously glanced at the chat box, wanting to check if they had run into any familiar actor IDs

[XIUXIUXIU: wtf]

[Savior: wow RoadSoft!]

They crashed cars with XIU and Savior, who were also duo queuing together on the Korean server.

It was very common to crash cars with pro players on the Korean server. At night, sometimes ten pro players or a team of trainees would even match into the same game together.

Jian Rong and Lu Boyuan got the mid laner and jungler roles.

The four of them exchanged greetings with each other before they each picked their champions. Two minutes later, the game entered the loading screen.

Jian Rong was about to pour himself a cup of water when Lu Boyuan suddenly said, The other sides bot lane also has pro players.

Jian Rong was startled. Who are they?

The support is Squids Doufu. Lu Boyuan paused. The Draven is HTs ADC, Rish.

When Jian Rong heard HT, he let go of his cup and sat back down.

As the strongest team in the LCK, all of HTs members were highly ranked. Since Jian Rong had begun playing on the Korean server again up to now, this was his first time encountering someone from this team.

Originally, XIU wanted to have a relaxed game, which was why he told Savior to be in the bot lane with him. However, he hadnt expected for them to run into the ADC from last years world champion team right off the bat.

After they entered the game, he immediately started typing.

[XIUXIUXIU: Gank bot more, I cant beat him, this bastard is on Draven too.]

Lu Boyuan was playing Nocturne this round; the champion needed its ult before it could easily gank.

[Road: Ill gank after level 6, be careful, if you cant beat him then wait for me under the tower.]

[XIUXIUXIU: OK.]

At first, XIU just wanted to furtively kill minions, but unexpectedly, the enemy jungler decided to behave rudely and headed straight for the bot lane at level 3.

Jian Rong was in the middle of suppressing the opposing mid laner under the tower when he heard the sound of an announcement. Their bot lane had been double killed by the other team.

In the barrage, a bunch of people instantly started flaming PUD for being trash.

The enemy bot lane has Draven and Nautilus, which is a fierce combination all on its own. Also, their jungler gave up their resources to gank bot at level 3, so its normal for them to have been killed. Jian Rong said indifferently, Mods, pay attention, block and kick the people stirring up trouble right away.

Right as he said that, a message suddenly popped up in the all chat.

It was sent by HTs ADC Rish, and it was in Korean, so Jian Rong couldnt read it.

He was about to ignore it when Rish followed up with a few more messages. Then, Savior responded to him.

Jian Rong only sensed that something was off when some water friends who could read Korean began fervently insulting HT in the barrage. What did he say? What do those Korean messages mean?

Before the water friends could translate, Road spoke mildly first.

He asked Savior if he can still even understand Korean or not he said that Savior grew weaker after coming to the LPL, and he asked him if its very easy to earn money in the LPL.

In an instant, the streams barrage exploded.

Jian Rongs expression also grew frosty. Is this person a dumbass?

Lu Boyuan hummed. Seems like it.

The barrage helped translate the ensuing conversation for Jian Rong

[Rish: I heard that after you went to the LPL, you even needed to beg the little teams from our LCK for practice matches. How pitiful, Savior.]

[Savior: The team only did that because we wanted to get stronger, ge1.]

[Rish: Do people in the LPL all use Korean to communicate with each other too? Since its full of Koreans anyway.]

[Savior: The import player system is allowed in every competitive region, ge.]

Jian Rong frowned. Hes still calling this dumbass ge even after being mocked this much?

Lu Boyuan explained, Its probably habit, theres a heavy emphasis on seniority in Korea.

[Ai, actually, all Savior has to do is not interact with him.]

[Damn, Doufus just gonna sit there in that team and watch Rish ridicule the LPL? And he still isnt gonna troll???]

[Do you think everyones like the little dumbass? I went to check Doufus stream, in fact hes also insulting Rish.]

[Ah this moron spoke again. Quick, someone translate!]

[Rish: Is the mid laner on your team Soft? That megalomaniac who said hes gonna make it to rank one on the Korean server?]

[Rish: What garbage, I heard that he purposefully toys with his teammates during ranked, right? Oh Savior, did you go to the LPL just to make these kinds of friends?]

[Savior: Hes a very good friend, dont say anything else, ge.]

[What the hell, Ive long since heard that those people in HT frequently ridicule the LPL in private, but now it looks like its really true!!!]

[Can you report him??]

[He didnt use any profanity hes just taunting, so you probably cant report him. Ugh, Im gonna throw up.]

[Dammit, hes already been mocked to this degree, why isnt the little dumbass letting out a single peep?!]

[Hes probably focused on the game and didnt see the translation in the barrage.]

But then, Jian Rongs LeBlanc blinked and flung out a chain before he smoothly used the second part of the skill to oneshot the enemy mid laner. He turned around and walked back under his own tower to recall to base.

After that, he calmly minimized the LoL game interface and pulled up a web browser. He searched online translator in Baidu and changed the target language to Korean before he started typing

Dumbass why do you have so much bullshit to say in a ranked game? Yeah, the LPL has money to buy import players, as if you possibly have any right to blather on about something that has the mutual consent of both leagues? And also, does this have anything to do with you at all? No matter who the LPL buys, they wouldnt ever buy a noob like you. Is your starter position even secured yet for you to be out here shading other people?

Jian Rong translated the text into Korean and returned to the game before he hit ctrl+v and pasted it into the chat box. Just as he was about to hit send, his screen suddenly darkened; it was the special effect from Nocturnes ult.

Immediately after, an announcement sounded in Korean

Lu Boyuan had used his ult to fly to the bot lane, directly solo killing Rish, who had just entered the lane alone.

And he had also said something in Korean in the all chat.

Someone promptly translated in the barrage

[Road: Shut up, trash.]

Since its technically a Korean to Chinese translation, I left ge as ge but in Korean it wouldve been hyung ^

Yan: If you want to know what Softs merch hat looks like, check out the cover of this novel Road is wearing it And also, a reminder that I italicized the text if theyre using pinyin to communicate (cant type Chinese on the Korean server, can only type in pinyin).

The winner of the last poll was a discord server!! (it was actually very close LOL) so Ive set up a Tiny Salt discord ^^ >>DISCORD<< it was actually quite fun to make theres a variety of chat channels set up and an update notification system! Hope to see some of you there~