Chapter 56: Since things have come to this, let's have some porridge first

Liang Yan never deliberately studied any profound social theory; he grew up among a large group of children with no blood relations to each other, and unlike the other children around him, Liang Yan's brain might be a bit smarter than others.

Liang Yan's elementary school years were spent in the welfare institute; two teachers supervised dozens of problem children, one teaching language, English, and moral education, the other teaching math, nature, and art; from fourth grade onward there was evening self-study, but teachers rarely came to supervise during evening self-study, often just showing up at the start to glance and then leave work to go home.

So some children would act clever, only showing up at the start of evening self-study, then after the teacher left they'd run out to play. Liang Yan never ran; he always stayed honestly in the classroom until evening self-study ended, even if all the other children had run out and he was the only one left in the classroom, he still didn't run.

Don't the teachers know about these things?

They certainly know, but for various reasons they didn't intervene.

Later, a teacher went back to the welfare institute before evening self-study ended to fetch something, saw the classroom lights still on, came over to look, and saw Liang Yan sitting alone in the classroom, staring blankly at the empty blackboard.

The teacher didn't know what moved him, but from then on that teacher started bringing Liang Yan to his home for evening self-study, giving him private tutoring.

Later, the teacher felt disappointed that Liang Yan obviously had good middle-school exam scores yet chose to attend a vocational college, and gradually cut off contact. Liang Yan had no choice; according to regulations, children from the welfare institute must support themselves after adulthood, so Liang Yan needed to secure a stable means of livelihood to ensure he wouldn't starve after leaving the welfare institute; everything else came after that.

In the vocational college, the vast majority were problem youths; Liang Yan remained the most well-behaved-looking among a group of problem students, never provoking anyone, but whenever someone tried to bully him, he would retaliate extremely fiercely.

Afterwards, Liang Yan entered society, adhering to a consistent worldly strategy:

In all non-hostile relationships, whether teacher, classmate, company, client, superior, subordinate, friend… even a stranger on the street, Liang Yan's first choice in interacting is always mutual benefit; he never actively seeks to take advantage of others, but if someone tries to take advantage of him, he will respond in kind.

It is precisely this simple strategy that enabled Liang Yan's career in his previous life to soar and advance rapidly.

And now, after joining G2, he does the same, with equally noticeable results.

Unbeknownst to him, Liang Yan has already integrated into this team, and his words carry a certain persuasive weight within the team.

He has been on the team for less than a month.

……

Late at night, past eleven, TSM's AD player Doublelift updated a tweet on his own Twitter account:

【G2's newcomer is a monster!】

The training match between the two teams had just ended, and even Ka Lao Si didn't have time to show off G2's results for the day when the opponent actually posted first.

At this hour, most professional players are still awake.

Elder Brother is also a star player with many followers.

First to flood the comment section were Doublelift's fans.

【What's going on?】

【Why say this all of a sudden?】

【Did you get bullied in ranked!】

【Impossible, European players aren't on our server, and they aren't lane opponents!】

【I've seen countless pieces of information about this person lately; is he really that strong?!】

【Suspect he got crushed in the training match!】

【European viewers said, during the second game of G2 vs GIA our commentators were all shouting "monster" hahaha, so maybe we should just call him Monster Brother from now on】

Immediately after, professional players also joined the fun, many asking what exactly happened; this tweet by Elder Brother sparked countless people's curiosity!

The support player hustlin from GIA, who had been crushed by G2 a few days earlier, also left a comment in the comment section:

【I completely agree!】

The victim speaking for himself made it even more convincing; netizens from all directions rushed over, showering hustlin with thoughtful "comfort".

hustlin's comment caused Elder Brother's tweet's heat to explode completely.

Elder Brother himself was dazed.

He just casually posted a tweet after the training match to vent—after all, he played training matches all night without winning a single game, and only two matches lasted over twenty minutes; facing such a devil, anyone would break down. But Doublelift never expected the crowd to love gossip so much that they directly pushed him to the top of today's Twitter hot searches.

This reality is too fantastical!

By the next morning (Asia time), this matter had not only exploded in the Oceania esports circle but also spread to the domestic internet.

Many people woke up, opened their phones, and saw terms like "Elder Brother", "Monster Brother" etc. flooding the screen; as clueless netizens, they were momentarily bewildered.

Now then, following "Jiao Shen", Liang Yan's widely known nickname has gained another one.

But many people are indifferent or even scoff at it.

……

Domestic, Shanghai.

RNG base.

It is breakfast time now; RNG's new manager Sanshao is sitting in the cafeteria eating breakfast, with a plate of buns in front of him, left hand holding a small bowl of clear soup congee, right hand holding a phone, scrolling Weibo.

"Heh, still a monster... ridiculous and laughable."

"Who is it?"

The RNG team leader sitting opposite asked, knowing Sanshao was talking to himself, but since the superior spoke, out of politeness he had to respond.

"Just this guy; he even sent us a résumé before."

Sanshao turned his phone screen toward the team leader for a look, then said:

"TSM probably played a training match against G2, then Doublelift posted this, saying G2's new jungler is a monster, meaning pretty awesome."

"Uh... hehe."

The team leader felt uncomfortable evaluating this, gave a forced laugh twice to brush it off.

Sanshao, however, continued on his own:

"This kind of trash wouldn't even qualify for our youth training squad, yet over there he instantly became a starting player—whether he is a starter or not, I'm not exactly sure, but it's pretty hilarious; the Oceania league has gone crazy to the point I can't make sense of it."

"Emmm..."

Sensitive topic; the team leader dared not speak further, just kept brushing it off.

He just couldn't help thinking: they say it's Oceania teams scraping by, but last year's Worlds they still had your EDG, which you coached, lose 4-0; no matter how you write blogs on Weibo to shift blame, people will only remember that 4-0… and who seriously writes a diary anyway?

Sanshao kept jabbering, spittle flying, trying to prove from every angle that his rejection of the jungler whom Doublelift called a "monster" was correct; it's just that the Oceania scouts have poor vision and the region's level is too low, so they'd pick him.

Yet the team leader just stared blankly at the plate of buns before him, constantly being bombarded by saliva droplets, feeling awkward and regretful.

He hasn't eaten his fill yet.

Go get a few more? That Sanshao will definitely ask, 'Why aren't you eating these few?', and he can't directly say 'I don't want to eat because there's your saliva on it,' it's really troublesome.

Things have come to this; go get a bowl of porridge.