Sweetest In The Universe Chapter 2

To be honest, Zhou Tian never thought that she'd actually become a professional gamer one day. 

The reason she first started playing League of Legends was because her table mate in middle school played it. Not only did her table mate keep her updated about the game every single day, she also took the entire cla.s.s to watch a professional team play it during her birthday party. 

Coincidentally, on that round, there had been a team with a player called Ye Bo. Ye Bo was the best player in the team and was extremely famous. He even won when he fought one against five players, (basically with only himself on his team). With that, Zhou Tian became intrigued by the game.

And so, Zhou Tian began to embark on her journey of gaming at internet cafes during weekends with her table mate. 

At first, it had always been her table mate that team-carried Zhou Tian. After all, excluding the information her table mate told her, Zhou Tian had been very unfamiliar with the game. She didn't even know how to control and use the heroes. 

"What position was he playing? The one that won one to five. He seemed so skillful!" Zhou Tian asked. 

"Eh, you mean the captain of tSD? He played as a jungler. He's the best jungler in the world!" Her table mate replied enthusiastically, "Did you know that the compet.i.tion we watched wasn't even him playing his best? Let's first play a few rounds and then I'll show you him playing his best at a compet.i.tion." 

And so, Zhou Tian, as a fourteen-year-old girl, hearing that an extremely skillful player was a jungler, influenced her into immediately deciding that she also wanted to play as a jungler. 

At first, she wasn't really doing well as a jungler. The main reason was probably because her table mate, as well as her guider, was way too terrible. Furthermore, her table mate was only good at playing as support and so she didn't really know how to play as a jungler. 

After the two girls continued to play terribly for a few weeks, Zhou Tian realized that instead of relying on a table mate that couldn't even recite paragraphs on a textbook, it would be better for her just to go and read/study some information about League of Legends. 

And as Zhou Tian was a fast learner and could also react quickly with her hands, without her terrible teacher, she was now able to quickly improve her skills. She even spent all of her extrcurricular time during the first semester of ninth grade on playing League of Legends. 

Now, as she reflects back, she still feels that the happiest part of her life was spent on playing on that game. 

However, the time she used to spend on gaming began to rapidly decrease. It wasn't only because that the second semester of ninth grade was busy, but also because her parents told her that after ninth grade, she would have to start to work at local shops to earn money for her utilities. It was impossible for her family to provide money for the rest of her high school and college education. The only remaining money that her family had was to be saved so that her little brother could use it. 

It was rather sad as a girl to live in a family where boys were treasured more than girls. What was even worse was that there were more children in the family than they could even afford to provide for. 

Zhou Tian tried to fight back against her family's views, but that only resulted with her being locked up at home. She wasn't even allowed to attend her end-of-the-year exams. Even the end-of-the-year certificate had been brought to her by her table mate. 

"You know, your grades are actually pretty good. You could apply for a high school subsidy/grant. Then, your family wouldn't have to spend a lot of money…" Her table mate was confused. 

"I guess that the main point isn't that my family doesn't have to spend a lot of money," Zhou Tian sighed, "If I continue to go to school, then I won't be able to work and earn money. They're probably thinking around the lines that I'd still have to live in their house and spend their money." 

"Your parents are too… too cruel!" Her table mate was stunned, "Wait, so then, you'll really need to go to work afterwards? What will you do?" 

Zhou Tian told her that she'd probably go to the fisherman's house, because her parents knew him. Since she was still pretty young, if she went to an unfamiliar place, then people would consider it child labor, which would result in n.o.body hiring her. 

After Zhou Tian spoke, her table mate didn't have any idea of how to comfort her anymore. The two friends stared at each other for a bit. Then, her table mate scratched her head and said, "Then let's not talk about this anymore. Apparently, there's a new internet café by the end of the street. Let's go and play a few rounds of League of Legends there." 

Wanting to vent off her anger, Zhou Tian agreed. 

As the two adolescents entered the new internet café and opened the familiar game page, they realized that it didn't look the same as the usual game page.  

"Oh? Wow, looks like we can now play on the Korean server here." Although her table mate didn't really have the best gaming skills, she still had a decent amount of knowledge about the League of Legends. Therefore, she reacted quickly. "I haven't played on the Korean server before." 

"Is there any difference?" Zhou Tian asked. 

"There's a higher leveled bureau on the Korean server than the normal servers. Anyway, basically all the professional gamers play on the Korean server." 

Zhou Tian was already ranked Challenger on the normal servers. But then, an interesting thought occurred to her. She wondered if she could also get to the Challenger rank on the Korean server. So, she decided to go and try. 

It was there, following the end of ninth grade, where she started her gaming career on the Korean server. At first, she had just wanted to vent her anger off the fact that her parents made her give up her education. Yet, this led to her working her way up into the higher ranks. On her path, she had met a wide range of players; G.o.dly players, sucky teammates, even professional players. With that, she finally realized that she might have a huge amount of talent for this game.

And the person who really changed her life of failure appeared around this time. 

It was on the same day that she'd ranked up to Grandmaster. She was just in a random game and happened to be put into the same server as the jungler from the tSD team. The world's number one jungler, Ye Bo. 

At the time, Ye Bo was live-streaming and had been hit with bad luck. Several of his teammates were pretty crummy, which directly made it an advantage for Zhou Tian, who was on the opposing side. 

That round, she'd been playing really well as a jungler. Her timing for ganking was also pretty accurate. In addition, they were also performing very well as a team, because they had been able to fight three versus one. This made Ye Bo, who was live-streaming, scream "s.h.i.+T!" According to him, it seemed that the jungler on the other side wasn't that bad.

TL Note: Basically, he thought that Zhou Tian was doing pretty well as a jungler. Also, I think that ganking is some League of Legends battle technique/thing. If you want more information about it, then I'd suggest that you search it up.

But Zhou Tian, who was focusing all her attention on gaming, didn't know this. She only realized this the next day, when her excited table mate came to visit her after school. Her friend showed her a video t.i.tled: "Look at how the number one jungler is praising the opposing pa.s.serby." It was edited by Ye Bo's fans. 

"I'm telling you, right now, there are so many people trying to guess which professional's alt you are!" Her friend said, completely enraptured. 

TL Note: Alt = alternative account

"Wait, so the jungler on the opposing side during last night's round was him?" The startled Zhou Tian said. "And he praised me in front of everyone?" 

"That's right! The one and only Ye Bo!" Her table mate continued to exclaim excitedly, "Oh my G.o.d, I used to think that you were as skillful as f.u.c.k, but I never thought Ye Bo would also think so. If you weren't a girl, then I would've already suggested for you to take your account ID and private chat Ye Bo, so then he'd recommend you to sTD to train!" 

TL Note: I think she means that if Zhou Tian was a boy, then he could've private chatted with Ye Bo and perhaps got a chance to train with or join the sTD team.

Zhou Tian: "Eh, wait, so girls can't play as professional gamers?" 

Her table mate replied with, "Yeah. Anyways, there's never been a preceding female player as an example in the history of League of Legends, and I've never heard of any teams that are willing to hire female players." 

When Zhou Tian heard that, she couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. She had really wanted to leave her suffocating family and home. 

If LpL had been willing to hire female players, then she would've gone and tried, so that she could then rightfully leave her family. 

Since her table mate understood and knew her situation and thoughts, she thought for a while, then came up with another idea: "I mean, if you can't play as a professional, then you could always go and try to game while live-streaming!" 

"You see, as Ye Bo praised you last night, you can take this opportunity to register for a live-streaming account. There will definitely be some of Ye Bo's fans that'll come and see it out of curiosity. Really, I think you're playing better than some of the current live-streamers. If you do livestream, I'm pretty sure you won't have to worry about your earnings." 

Zhou Tian was impressed by her speech. She thought that she didn't have anything to lose even if she tried. And if she did succeed, then she would be able to use the excuse of earning money to quit the temporary job that her parents forced her to do. Perhaps, if she happened to earn even more money, then she would finally be able to leave her family's home and live alone. 

With such expectations in mind, she decided to follow the instructions of her table mate. She then proceeded to register for a Weibo and live-streaming account. She first decided to go and claim her ID from the video edited by Ye Bo fans. Then, she went and sent out her live-streaming address. 

"Oh, and by the way, Zhou Tian, whatever you do, do not film your face!" After Zhou Tian followed her table mate's instructions, her table mate warned her, "If you do, it'll definitely attract a variety of insignificant men with disgusting thoughts in mind."  

"Okay," Zhou Tian didn't want to film her face anyway. "Should I turn on my microphone then? I mean, when I game, I just never can resist the urge to criticize others… Wouldn't it also be bad to turn on my microphone?" 

Her table mate stretched out her hands and started rubbing Zhou Tian's face fiercely, while saying that criticizing had a livestream effect. After all, as there were still many people that didn't have a thorough understanding of these kinds of games, watching those types of livestreams could be fun. 

"For those people, listening to live streamers criticize is also a way for them to pa.s.s the time!" Claimed the table mate, "Just play like usual and fight like you always do. When you have the urge to criticize others, just criticize them. It's not as if you swear anyways, so I'm pretty sure you won't get demonetized." 

TL Note: So, criticizing is basically 骂 in Chinese. But, it's not necessarily cursing or saying swear words. Basically, the point is: You can yell and complain about others, but just don't scream out swear/curse words. 

Zhou Tian pondered for a moment. Then, knowing that her table mate had a good point, she then began her live-streaming career. 

And just like what her table mate said, the first few to watch her livestream were all Ye Bo's fans. However, their att.i.tudes weren't that kind and not many had given her rewards. 

This had made her feel pretty bad. But around this time, Ye Bo, who was probably informed by his fans, came to watch Zhou Tian's livestreams. 

Most of the professional players were wealthy, especially Ye Bo, who was famous for being generous in sending rewards. And so, in just a few minutes, Zhou Tian had already received a bunch of gifts from Ye Bo. 

Although Zhou Tian felt flattered, she didn't respond immediately. She finally realized what happened after a few moments, and said: "Thank you so much for the airplanes and rockets, tSD-Delphi…!" 

TL Note: I believe that she's referring to the airplanes and rockets that you can send in a live stream chat room. They cost money though. 

Delphi was Ye Bo's account's ID and only he had this ID. On the live-streaming websites, n.o.body dared to plagiarize other people's account IDs. Therefore, right after this sentence, the barrage exploded, and the fans of Ye Bo finally realized that their Lord, the "oracle," really admired the live-streamer with the ID: "Yuzhou."  

TL Note: Ye Bo's ID, Delphi, is the same Delphi as the Delphi Oracle. Like, the Greek one. The Delphi Oracle was basically a famous oracle that gave out predictions. Therefore, this made his fans call him their Lord, the "oracle." 

Even though Ye Bo never came back to Zhou Tian's livestreams, she still thought of him as the person who inspired her to start live-streaming and the person who showed her the way out of poverty.  

Zhou Tian relied on live-streaming in the game for two full years. She took and treated this job seriously. In the end, not only did she rank up to Challenger on the Korean server and had beaten countless professional players, but also climbed to a place that she never would have thought she could've reached before. 

However, n.o.body could deny that the majority of the audience in this game were male. At first, when they heard her voice, they had guessed that she might've been a female. However, later, since her rank score rose up and because she was ambiguous when criticizing her team mates, everyone agreed that she was a boy. It was just that “his” voice was more feminine than others. 

Later, when they discovered her age, everyone became even more convinced. They even found themselves a reason of why her voice was so sweet and girly. "He" was still young, so it was normal for "him" to not yet go through p.u.b.erty and deepen "his" voice. 

Zhou Tian: "…" Forget it, it's good to let them just misunderstand. 

The first professional team to contact her while she was live-streaming was the YYg team. At the time, it had been a year ago, and they had not created the "Galaxy Battles.h.i.+p" yet. 

When she confessed to the YYg's team manager about her gender and age, the manager had stated that there was no other way to do this. However, her gender didn't mean that she couldn't join YYg. It was just that she had to keep it a secret from everyone else before she could be admitted to YYg, otherwise, everything would be screwed up if the other teams received the message too early. 

And this was why in the following year, she never told Xie Yi her real gender, even when she repeatedly joined the same server as him. 

…But to be fair, Xie Yi had also never questioned her gender either. 

He only asked casually whether she ever considered playing as a professional player. In response, she had always coped with it by responding with the reasons of being too young and lacking money. 

Although those two reasons were indeed true, she still felt as if her lie had been pointed out when she finally met Xie Yi, who was standing there and staring at her with an expressionless face, in real life. 

In fact, her excuses had not only been told to Xie Yi, but also to other professional players. But it wasn't as if those players were going to be her teammates in the next summer compet.i.tion! 

Translator: Sydney

Editor: Katimu

Proofreader: Dora