Chapter 1: Dear, Want a Meat Floss Cake?

"Play games with your brain, and ranking up is easy!"

"Hello everyone, this is JM—Ah Ming's Little Classroom, with new insights on the new hero!"

"Today, the hero we are going to explain is the newly launched Shadow of Death—Zed."

"I believe many friends already feel an attraction to this assassin master from Ionia. So, how can one play this hero well? What is his optimal build? And once we gain an advantage, how should we lead the team to victory?"

"Open your eyes and look closely! Ah Ming will reveal the answers using a high-level match recording from the national server with a score of 2300!"

November 30, 2012, inside a certain rental room in the university district of Jin Ling, Su Province.

Jiang Ming quickly recorded the video opening into the microphone, his gaze occasionally sweeping over the script on the document to his right.

On the computer screen, a high-level match recording played, showing a battle fought from dawn until late night.

After confirming the recording was error-free, he tapped a shortcut key with his left hand to splice the audio track with the video footage, then clenched his right fist and lightly pounded the table: "Continue!"

"Continue!"

This was just the beginning; a long march lay ahead for him.

"First, let's get to know the passive and four active skills of the Shadow of Death—Zed. Passive (Shadow Art! Soul Sever): Zed's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage to targets with less than 50% health..."

"Undoubtedly, this ninja Mr. is a perfect assassin hero whose operational ceiling matches his image."

"For the build, Ah Ming recommends prioritizing Attack Damage and Armor Penetration. Since Zed is also a skill-based assassin, cooldown reduction is a must. Therefore, Black Cleaver is undoubtedly a very fitting item for Zed; its component, Brutalizer, synthesizes smoothly... Of course, the Bloodthirster, which can provide up to 100 Attack Damage at full stacks, is also a good choice."

"..."

"Zed's core skill is undoubtedly his W. Whether one can flexibly and effectively use Zed's shadow is the most direct standard for measuring whether a player is a Child Zed, a Upper Ninja, or even a Hokage."

Silently creating a unique meme within the video, Jiang Ming pressed pause and picked up the water cup on the table with his right hand, taking several large gulps.

Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

Yes, yes, this young man currently producing tutorial videos—

Jiang Ming, male, nineteen years old.

A sophomore in the School of Economics and Management at Jin Ling University, a YY platform game streamer, a League of Legends video creator, and... a Reborn.

As a Reborn, he did not join the ranks of protagonists whose parents died, who grew up in an orphanage for Reborns, who were filled with bitterness from their past life, good at nothing, whose wives ran off with others, who wore a green hat and vowed to restart their lives and defy heaven to change their fate.

In his previous life, Jiang Ming's life was not to say wealthy, but it was passable. His family was healthy, he had no major illnesses, he had few friends but one or two criminal accomplices he could call upon to discuss state affairs, his job was passable, his salary was decent, and the pressure of his mortgage and car loan was not difficult to handle.

So, the Deep Blue System that every Reborn must carry seemed to have passed him by as well.

"So why be reborn?"

"To go to university again."

"Graduating from university requires writing a thesis."

"After the thesis passes, you still have to find a job, and life after finding a job isn't happy either."

"I really don't want to experience the pain of staying up late writing a thesis again!"

"I even less want to experience the life of a corporate slave working overtime even during the New Year."

"You will lose a lot, a lot of hair before you are thirty."

Jiang Ming thought for a long time. Realizing he had no white moonlight he missed in his innocent days, the things a Reborn needed to make up for were, roughly, that back then, he himself, who was quite talented, did not switch from being a student in the School of Economics and Management at a Double First-Class university to becoming an esports player due to his parents' strong opposition, and that at nearly thirty, after finally steeling his heart to buy a ticket for a favorite esports match, he witnessed T1 sweeping three opponents on-site, wanted to shout "RNM—Refund my money!", but before it could leave his lips, his vision went black, returning him to the present with this regret.

So, starting from his freshman year, Jiang Ming was plotting how to persuade his parents to agree to let him take a leave of absence to venture into the esports circle.

Jiang Ming: I want to play professionally.

Parents: No, you don't!

Of course, from the current perspective, the game player industry, which is precarious, viewed by ordinary parents as a fierce tiger, with a monthly salary of only two or three thousand, is far less appealing than the identity and prospects of a Double First-Class university graduate, an office worker with air conditioning, coffee, and a white-collar job.

Highlight: It is still called the game industry now; the term esports will only begin to be gradually recognized and accepted by people next year when the General Administration of Sport of China starts establishing the Chinese National Esports Team.

So, in the previous life, it was quite normal for his parents to refuse. Coming back, Jiang Ming did not feel there would be any wavering in the opinions of the two elders.

Therefore, Jiang Ming did not cry, make a scene, threaten suicide, run away from home, and leave a letter saying "Thirty years east, thirty years west, never bully the poor youth," then enter the esports circle to prove himself. Nor did he try to explain with emotion and reason to the two elders how brilliant the esports industry's future would be in the coming years.

A very simple principle: doing is better than saying. Once concrete results are placed before them, the two elders will naturally not oppose his choice.

What he is doing right now is one link in the chain of his future planning.

Utilizing his passable esports talent and a version understanding that was more than ten years ahead of the entire league, he reached a rank score of over 2300 in a very short time after graduating high school, and based on this, established himself on the YY platform as a high-rank LOL game streamer and a technical explanation-type LOL video creator.

And in the second semester of his freshman year, after accumulating a certain amount of fans, he applied for the university student entrepreneurship support fund and opened a retail store!

Hmm, a university student entrepreneurship online store that, on the surface, has nothing to do with the esports path!

Recording and editing various hero explanation videos and high-rank highlight videos, and inserting advertisements for the online store in the middle and at the end of the videos.

"Okay, now it's ad time! I believe all you Yanzus and Yifeis certainly won't skip these three seconds—after all, you don't want to see Ah Ming starve to death on the road of making videos, do you?"

"Today's recommendation is our store's best-seller—Youchen Meat Floss Cake! Made with premium pork floss, the crispy skin has a full 128 layers! Click the link below now to group-buy a three-pack and enjoy a 20% discount immediately!"

"..."

"Dear, have a Meat Floss Cake after gaming, it's super awesome!"

"Buy three or more at once, or group-buy for an additional discount... Of course, the store also has many other types of snacks for everyone to choose from. Friends can copy the link below the video, search for Ah Ming Snack Shop..."

"Okay, let's get back to our Shadow of Death—Zed new Hero Gameplay explanation. As a standard assassin-type hero, the weakness of assassin heroes in team fights and the late game is unavoidable, but our Shadow of Death has a different handling method compared to other assassin heroes..."