You Can't Fall in Love While Under Supervision and Fighting to Survive

How long does it take to go from being full of dreams and burning with passion to being disillusioned and losing your way?

Lin Yuan, ID: Insulator, debuted at eighteen. He was once a rising star on the IVL stage, hailed as a genius kiter.

Then, at nineteen, he announced his retirement.

Everyone lamented the loss, but what was the real reason behind his retirement?

The birthday messages in the chat weren't wishes for him.

The black-haired boy broke with his usual self and fell silent for a long time. He seemed calm, but his mental state was crumbling, as if the viewers' words were about to crush him.

Suddenly, he thought: I don't want to play professionally anymore.

So after the summer tournament ended, he paid the contract penalty, cut ties with the club, and headed home with his luggage...

Oh, wait. His mom wouldn't let him come home.

Lin Yuan felt the sky come crashing down. His mom was sending him to stay with her best friend's younger son.

His mother told him to think carefully about whether he still wanted to pursue esports.

Her exact words were: "You can keep making mistakes in life, but you can't just act on every whim."

Lin Yuan argued that he could think things over at home, but Mrs. Lin had veto power and sent him straight to the doorstep of a stranger.

With no other choice, he watched videos by his favorite streamer as he walked. As luck would have it, the streamer was live, so he clicked into the stream using an alt account and saw his favorite streamer answer a call from... his own mother?

The next second, the streamer walked off-screen, and the chat filled with a row of identical messages: "Streamer, are you coming back?"

A few minutes later, the stranger's door opened.

The streamer stood in front of him and greeted him. "Hi~? You're Auntie Lin's son, right? Nice to meet you, Insulator."

Lin Yuan: ...

Getting called by my ID three times is so awkward. Does he think he's hilarious?

[Draft saved on 2025.8.22]

Blurb two:

An amateur commentator for the unknown TXZ, nicknamed Bread Slice, has a former professional RXZ player move into his home.

When they first met, he remembered his mother's serious instructions. Looking at the young man, who was half a head shorter than him, he tried to seem friendly.

Ye Wangcen: Hi~ You're Auntie Lin's son, right? Nice to meet you.

Hmm... Why was the kid looking at him like that? Was he uncomfortable with strangers acting familiar?

The older teen, Ye Wangcen, decided the boy was shy and thought he seemed quite different from the weird character people online had made him out to be.

He was wrong.

A beagle had come to live in his house, and it was already past its prime age for adoption.

In less than half a month, they ended up in the same ranked-game queue. He knew the account belonged to Lin Yuan, and even joked that things were finally looking up for him: he was getting matched with a former pro.

After Lin Yuan looped him three times, he felt his face getting hot. But after he landed two Terror Shocks on Lin Yuan's teammates, he grinned.

He'd take these points.

After the match ended, someone knocked on the door. When he opened it, there was Lin Yuan, red-faced with anger, looking... rather appealing. Ye Wangcen thought maybe he'd been a single virgin for too long and was getting a little weird.

But then Lin Yuan said, "Playing Hunter is so easy. You just have to kill the pigs," and all his romantic thoughts vanished.

And so TXZ and RXZ began their first debate.

[2025.10.14]

An amateur IVL commentator and streamer × a temporarily retired IVL genius kiter

A Golden Rose enthusiast × a Prisoner enthusiast

Please note:

1. It absolutely can't compare to the real IVL.

2. The esports parts aren't professional. I'm just a hopeless viewer who doesn't even understand the matches very well (pray for me).

Theme: Study hard and improve every day