Esports world champion, debuted as the center of a talent show

Mi Lan was the one who noticed that Jiang Zhiyu forgot to cover the mole under his eye after removing his makeup.

The intense training of the past few days and the massive amount of information input he had recently absorbed left him feeling exhausted. He couldn't even remember that he had just finished washing up, his face was clean and fresh without any concealer, and the mole under his eye was just exposed to the air.

He had just posted a promotional post for the meet-and-greet when, within seconds, he was stuck and forced to exit the social media app.

Jiang Zhiyu stared silently at his phone screen, swiped back and forth a few times, then looked up at Mi Lan and Lin Sen, who were still engrossed in their phones, before lowering his head again.

Immediately, with a determined look, he opened the Snake game.

Unlike the single-player version of Snake that came with the show's phone, the Snake game on his own phone was a deluxe PLUS version with multiple game modes and support for online leaderboards, allowing him to compete with players from all over the world.

So, while the internet was in an uproar, Jiang Zhiyu was focused on controlling the snake on his phone. He held the phone horizontally, his thumb nimbly sliding left and right, manipulating the slender snake on the screen to move around.

He pursed his lips, his expression serious and focused, as if he were in the middle of a tough competition.

After editing the promotional content for the meet-and-greet and publishing her personal blog post, Mi Lan switched to the chat software and replied to each of the greetings and casual messages from her relatives and friends.

After finishing all the trivial matters, when I opened the comment section of my blog post again, my relaxed expression slowly turned into one of confusion.

When this promotional post was first published, the comments section was quite normal.

[Front row!!!]

See you tomorrow! Looking forward to meeting you!

[Brother, you're so handsome! How come you only posted one selfie? Post a nine-grid collage to show your talent!]

[What a great selfie! A natural selfie queen!]

Gradually, one nonsensical comment after another appeared among the normal messages, leaving Mi Lan completely bewildered.

[I quickly did some research on episode 310, and Milan is such a good guy, I support you guys.]

[Thanks for taking care of my dad! I'll never forget to buy you a Coke whenever I'm eating something nice!]

[Milan is quite handsome too. I feel like Grandma Liu visiting the Grand View Garden, looking around everywhere. How can you guys possibly enjoy this?]

I had a ton of questions for you, but I held them back. I can hold back better than Yan Zuo, so I win!

Mi Lan looked on with a puzzled expression, not knowing what they were talking about. She could only mutter under her breath, "What are they talking about? It's weird."

He looked up and glanced at the other two people in the dormitory.

Lin Sen kept his head down, his fingers tapping incessantly on the screen, seemingly engrossed in a lively conversation.

Jiang Zhiyu held his phone horizontally, sitting upright with a tense expression, clearly focused on playing the game.

Mi Lan immediately became interested. As he moved closer to Jiang Zhiyu, he wondered to himself: What game is Jiang Zhiyu playing? MOBA or FPS?

Then, the next second, a long worm writhing on the screen eating a bean came into view.

He recognized it at a glance as the same single-player version of Snake that came with the program team's phone, only the one on Jiang Zhiyu's phone had a more elaborate interface and more features.

Mi Lan stared blankly for a long time, looking at Jiang Zhiyu beside her, who was intently playing the game with his lips pursed. After a while, she couldn't help but laugh and exclaim, "You really love Snake!"

Jiang Zhiyu's gaze never left the screen, his hands moved smoothly, and he casually replied, "Mm."

"Every time I see you playing games, you're breaking Snake records," Mi Lan recalled with a smile.

"Yes," Jiang Zhiyu finally raised his eyelids, his tone flat, "I used to have a friend who really liked this, and we made a promise to each other to surpass each other's leaderboard records."

Mi Lan followed his gaze to the online leaderboard on the right side of the screen. At the very top was a string of extremely high scores, the numbers were astonishingly long, and it said after: (Me).

He couldn't help but widen his eyes: "Such a high score? That's amazing! Is the second place your friend?"

"No," Jiang Zhiyu's expression didn't change much, but he lowered his eyes to hide the darkness that flashed across them. "He hasn't played for a long time."

Dormitory 310 returned to silence, with only the sound of simulated Pac-Man clicking.

With nothing to do, Mi Lan squeezed next to Jiang Zhiyu to watch him play Snake. Her gaze drifted and she suddenly frowned.

The soft light fell on the other person's face, revealing clear and clean skin without makeup, and sharp and well-defined facial features.

He stared at the spot under Jiang Zhiyu's eye for a long time, and doubts slowly surfaced in his mind. He hesitated before asking, "Jiang Jiang, has this little mole under your eye always been there? I don't think I've ever seen it before."

As soon as he finished speaking, the person next to him froze, his hands stopped moving, and the long snake that had been moving nimbly on the screen crashed straight into the wall, displaying a large "Game Over" message.

"Oh!" Mi Lan exclaimed, her face full of regret. "What a pity! We almost broke another record!"

Jiang Zhiyu snapped out of his daze, silently clicked to restart, his face showing no obvious emotional change, only a faint blush creeping up the tips of his ears.

The commotion over there went unnoticed by Lin Sen, who was engrossed in chatting with his friend.

[Friend: Wow, you're such a big star! You're getting more and more popular now. When are you free to treat me to something nice?]

[Mori: Just wait, let's talk after I actually debut.]

[Friend: You'll definitely be incredibly busy after your debut. When are we going to be able to fill in the missing duo queue part?]

[Mori: Duo queue? We'll wait for that too. I've already found a better duo partner, we've made plans, just waiting to go out and queue with him.]

[Friend: What?! Are you human? Who are you? Jiang Zhiyu?]

[Mori: Yeah, how did you know?]

[Friend: Ha, I knew it! You finally managed to latch onto someone powerful! Getting so close must have been awesome!]

Seeing this, Lin Sen scratched the back of his head, his face full of confusion. He didn't understand the deeper meaning in the other person's words at all, and replied in bewilderment: 【What does that mean? I don't quite understand?】

【friend:?】

[Sen:? 】

[Friend: Are you really not sure, or are you just pretending?]

[Mori: What? What are you talking about?]

Lin Sen became increasingly puzzled as he read the chat history, but still couldn't figure it out.

He waited patiently for a long time, but when the other party did not reply for a long time, his patience was about to run out. Just as he was about to send a message to urge and ask, several sharing links suddenly popped up on the screen one after another, densely filling the chat box.

[Friend: (Link) (Link) (Link) xN...]

[Friend: You can open it and read it yourself. That's all I can do for you.]

Lin Sen frowned, filled with doubt, and casually clicked on the first link.

After the page redirects, a striking headline appears: #Isn't this outfit the same style as River's?? #

This post already had over 10 replies and was extremely popular.

"No wonder the name River is so prestigious," he thought to himself.

The main image of the post is a photo of a person from behind, with the person in the center wearing a very familiar hoodie.

Lin Sen had a deep impression of this garment because the brand that produced this custom-made sweatshirt had previously launched a massive publicity campaign, posting numerous updates on major domestic and international platforms to generate buzz. They also spread the word about its "uniqueness" and "no counterfeits," maximizing the publicity.

That's why Lin Sen's thoughts at this moment were the same as the previous posts on this thread; they all thought that River himself had been spotted by chance.

"Entertainment industrial park..." Lin Sen stroked his chin, sensing that things were not so simple.

until--

He saw the original poster's additional comment: "[Please stop for a moment, this is Jiang Zhiyu...]"

Lin Sen: ?

Lin Sen: ? ?

Lin Sen: ? ? ?

ha?

Is this still Chinese?

Lin Sen's pupils shrank sharply. He stared at the three characters "Jiang Zhiyu" for a long time before he couldn't help but reach out and pinch himself hard.

A sharp pain shot through him instantly, and he gasped, "Hiss—"

Am I not dreaming?

He looked up blankly at Jiang Zhiyu Benjiang not far away. Jiang Zhiyu Benjiang was sitting with Mi Lan with a serious expression. The two of them were sitting very close together, staring intently at their phone screens.

Lin Sen shook his head vigorously, forcing himself to calm down, and continued scrolling through the post.

As he watched, he gradually froze in place.

His finger remained on the screen, as if he were frozen in place, his eyes wide open, his mouth slightly agape, utterly dumbfounded.

His brain gradually shut down, and he felt a bison bellowing as it rampaged through his mind.

He looked up at Jiang Zhiyu blankly again, who was being yelled at by Mi Lan: "You have so many diamonds! Use them to revive! Revive him and you'll break the record!"

Jiang Zhiyu held his phone away from Mi Lan, dodging her head as she leaned in, and shook his head firmly: "No, a pure snake can't be revived with technology."

and so……

His R God, the youngest world champion in the ZPL professional league, who debuted at his peak, swept all domestic competitions and won the FMVP of this year's world championship, is a mysterious man with a net worth of hundreds of millions. He is the one in front of him who is the god of the stage and the king of Snake, who is the center of the game.

This realization exploded in his mind like a thunderbolt, leaving his brain blank.

He refreshed the page repeatedly, clicking on link after link, reading through all the evidence and analysis. With each additional piece of information he read, he felt increasingly shocked.

Lin Sen couldn't help but start recalling everything that had happened since he met Jiang Zhiyu.

He recalled how he loudly confessed his love for River in front of Jiang Zhiyu during a live stream in the dormitory, how he vowed to protect Jiang Zhiyu when Jiang Zhiyu was looking through "Zeroing the Fool's Guide", and how he talked indignantly on the way back after watching the ZPL match.

As each and every single thing came flooding back at that moment, Lin Sen's cheeks slowly flushed red, and he was so embarrassed that he didn't know what to do with his hands and feet.

His lips twitched, and the next second he clutched his head with both hands, groaning in a low voice, "How can my memory be so good—"

The two people who were seriously debating whether "traditionalists can use modern methods to intervene in the game when playing a modern version of Snake" stopped talking and looked at Lin Sen, who was holding his head and breaking down in his own defenses, with a puzzled expression.

"Lin Sen?" Jiang Zhiyu asked cautiously, "What's wrong?"

The person being questioned slowly raised his head, his face blank. He heard his own voice come out: "Jiang Jiang, have you seen those posts online?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Zhiyu's expression didn't change much, but his ears were secretly burning. He nodded, seemingly nonchalant: "Yes, I saw it."

Jiang Zhiyu's frank attitude completely dispelled Lin Sen's last trace of doubt, directly confirming the truth of the matter.

A brief silence fell over dormitory 310.

Only Mi Lan, who was unaware of what was going on, looked around and couldn't help but ask, "What post are you talking about?"

Lin Sen's mind was still in a mess. He subconsciously looked at Jiang Zhiyu, seeking his opinion with his eyes.

Seeing Jiang Zhiyu nod slightly in acquiescence, he quietly handed over his phone, indicating that Mi Lan could look at the contents herself.

Mi Lan thought it was some kind of gossip and happily took the phone to look at it.

Lin Sen, who had just handed over his phone, could no longer sit still. He began pacing back and forth in the room. His initial shock was slowly fading, and his excitement was beginning to surge out.

This surge of emotion has nothing to do with anything else; it's simply the excitement and dreamlike feeling of a fan meeting their idol.

He slowed his pace and approached Jiang Zhiyu with bright, sparkling eyes, slightly flushed cheeks, and an uncontrollable upturn at the corners of his mouth, which he tried to suppress, making him appear particularly amusing.

"I almost thought I was dreaming!" Lin Sen couldn't help but complain about the news that was both surprising and frightening to him.

Jiang Zhiyu raised the corners of his mouth and watched as Lin Sen took a step forward and sat down in front of him, beginning to ramble on about his tumultuous emotional journey.

From initially thinking it was just a chance encounter with River, to questioning his life when he saw her name, and then being completely shocked after reading through all the evidence, he described each and every detail with exceptional care.

"I'm not lying, I really like Riv... I've liked you for a long time! I've been following you ever since you first entered the professional scene, and I haven't missed a single live stream of your matches!"

Getting carried away, Lin Sen started gesturing wildly: "I even made a bet with someone, saying you could definitely win the world championship! And I won!"

"I was devastated when you announced you were taking a break, but I never expected to run into you here!"

Meanwhile, Mi Lan had finally finished browsing most of the posts.

He put down his phone, took a deep breath, and his face was filled with utter shock: "What do you mean? My roommate is a world champion?"

Although Mi Lan doesn't have much contact with ZPL, she is very familiar with this world's number one esports project and understands the significance of RXG's world championship this year.

He clicked his tongue in amazement, then moved closer again, and the three of them sat together in a circle.

Lin Sen swayed his body and caught a glimpse of the weariness on Jiang Zhiyu's face, which suddenly calmed him down.

Two images that should never have crossed paths gradually overlapped in Lin Sen's mind, but in the end, only the moments when Jiang Zhiyu revealed his vulnerability remained.

Those pale lips, the expression of enduring pain, and the bloodshot eyes lingered in his mind for a long time.

"Ugh."

Lin Sen sighed silently.

Never mind, whoever he is, he is Jiang Zhiyu.