Chapter 2

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Four Years Later - Yangjiang, China.

An announcer beamed in excitement as she read off an announcement from nearly three years ago: "I've decided to officially retire as the captain of Team X, and will be preparing to leave the professional league. Although disbanding was not our choice, retiring is mine. I'm sorry to disappoint my fans, family, and friends who have supported me"

There was a sigh, and then some ruffling of papers as the announcement made the audience who were previously cheerful a tad bit gloomy, confused, or downright angry: "Although this captain had left the professional esports lifestyle - his childhood friends certainly have not! Three of the four remaining members of the previous Team X have gone on to win the World Cup... Even if it's not for China! What do you think, aren't they passing the trophy around like a hot potato?"

Another announcer, a male voice appeared next to the feminine one and he chuckled: "Well, the year before last was Venus's turn on team Red, the last year was Neptune on team Angel, and this year we're welcoming Moon from team Solar to the champion list once again!"

"I wonder if Flame will be next!"

"Well, Frost has announced his retirement but Flame also hasn't officially joined a team. This may be our last year of seeing the remnants of the team of gods, oops I mean Team X!"

The audience in the stadium laughed along and although Xiao Yi couldn't see what was happening, he listened nonetheless. He didn't have much of a choice, he didn't want to wake up to turn it off, and as displeased as he may have been - he felt a tinge proud of his childhood friends.

Xiao Yi had announced the end of his short-lived esports career with a simple apology all those years ago, but he never expected to be mentioned like this!

"..."

He was tempted to get up, take a bus to the stadium wherever it was, and beat the announcers up.

In the past four years, he had hardly been mentioned. He entered the esports world silently, allowing his teammates to take the spotlight as he silently strategized behind the scenes, but even then he was a highly valued talent. To put it lightly, his only flaw was not being commercial material.

Xiao Yi was handsome, with medium black hair that fell over his eyes just the slightest bit, a jawline that looked as if it were carved from jade, and phoenix ice blue eyes that seemed as if they could see through a soul.

He was an assassin who trampled over the leaderboard in the public game, stealing and staying in the top spot even in the current era despite hardly playing. His black nameplate had been embroiled in gold for nearly ten years straight.

Above all else, he was one of the only assassins to be able to consistently perform the last level of every mechanical move in the game. Including a lot of other classes' mechanical skills.

Frost left the esports world quite silently, though. Unlike his teammates, he didn't participate in any commercials and hardly did anything other than sign his name on posters at events. His teammates were all well-known to be handsome, but he always wore a black mask. His teammates would speak for him at events, but he never spoke.

"Wouldn't he be ashamed to come back to the game now?"

"Shouldn't he answer to the teammates he failed to lead?"

"He just won one championship, how can you compare them?!"

"Frost abandoned the teammates that helped him succeed!"

"He didn't answer us fans who supported him for so long..."

The announcers read off comments from the live audience, pulling Xiao Yi's attention back to the current situation.

'Why do you need to keep mentioning me? Is it hard to keep my name out of your mouths, it was so easy back then..."

'Hey - let me live in peace. I already quit the esports world, do you want me to dig six feet deep and lay inside?'

'Haaaaaah stop bringing up old memories!'

Just in time, a hero saved him from his bitter remarks towards the stream as the window was closed by a long, beautiful white hand that belonged to someone who obviously hadn't done hard labor in their life.

Xiao Qiu's pale face was slightly red after running across the apartment when he heard the announcers dragging on about his brother. At first, he didn't realize they were talking about his little brother - Frost was the least mentioned member of Team X.

His eyebrows furrowed at the screen before him, his brown eyes taking in the appearance of the two announcers in the bottom right of the stream and making a note to not collaborate with them in the future. Not only the fact that they mentioned Frost, but announcers for Valley of Light weren't supposed to talk about any drama, let alone something from so long ago - what, or who made them so ballsy?

He sighed a breath of relief when he saw Xiao Yi still lazily sprayed across the couch in front of the computer, not even leaving a spot for him, fast asleep. He was certain that he'd heard everything, but that didn't matter since he didn't get mad or upset to the point where he'd wake up.

Xiao Qiu had never seen someone resemble a cat so much. His own fans called him 'Sleeping God' proudly in chat! He leaned down to lift him up a little bit, before sitting down and placing his head on his shoulder as if it were as comfortable as a pillow.

Perhaps, to Xiao Yi, it was. He could sleep in the most random places, anyway.

"Xiao Yi, I'm going to start streaming."

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