Characters / The King's Avatar - Happy Internet Cafe

The King's Avatar Main Character Index
Happy Internet Cafe | Professional Teams (A to H, I to Z) | Prequel Characters | Challengers League Teams | Guilds | Other Characters

Ye Xiu (叶修)

Voiced by: Zhang Jie ^note  Credited as A-Jie (animation, audio drama, live-action), Alejandro Graue (Latin American Spanish)
Played by: Yang Yang (live-action)

Player ID: One Autumn Leaf | 一叶之秋 (former), Lord Grim | 君莫笑 (current), Unrivalled Super Hottie | 无敌最俊朗 (alternate)
Class: Battle Mage (former), Unspecialized (current), Knight (Unrivalled Super Hottie)

Click ^here 
to see One Autumn Leaf

Click ^here 
to see Lord Grim

Click ^here 
to see Unrivalled Super Hottie

Click ^here 
to see Ye Xiu in the live-action

Protagonist of The King's Avatar, Ye Xiu is a textbook example of a veteran Glory player, one who knows the ins and outs of the entire game, earning him the title of "Battle God". When Glory started its professional circuit, Ye Xiu captained the "Excellent Era" team to three consecutive championships in the league's first three seasons.

However, in the midst of the eighth season, the team has fallen in the rankings, hovering close to relegation; Excellent Era's management decides it's time for him to go, forcing his retirement from the competitive scene at the age of 25. By chance, he comes across the "Happy Internet Cafe" and applies for a job as a night-shift manager. Possessing ten years of experience playing Glory since its beta, Ye Xiu throws himself back into the game in the newly opened tenth server, starting from the very bottom.

As a former professional player, Ye Xiu used a Battle Mage character called "One Autumn Leaf", but with his exit from Excellent Era, he's forced to give it up. He's the current user of "Lord Grim", an Unspecialized-class. Following the formation of the "Team Happy" professional organization, Ye Xiu becomes the team captain for the tenth season of the competitive league.

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• Actually, I Am Him: Ye Xiu tells his boss Chen Guo shortly after being employed to gauge her reaction. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe him.
• Adaptational Attractiveness:
  • The web novel mentions he has pasty skin, unkempt hair, and puffy eyes from staying up late. Contrast his Animated Adaptation, live-action and Manhua appearances, which turns him into a Bishounen.
  • Likewise, Lord Grim in the web novel is constantly described as always wearing a disgusting, randomly colored mish-mash of whatever high quality equipment Ye Xiu can get his hands on (after all, as equipment Set Bonuses are all class-based, and Grim's Unspecialized has none, there's no reason for him to wear matching equipment). In the Animated Adaptation, Lord Grim has on a very nice looking black, silver and gold armor set with a red scarf throughout the story.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Downplayed; the Manhua and web novel has him expressing a broad spectrum of emotions, while the animation and live-action tends to simply keep him as The Stoic with minor bouts of playful sarcasm. Ye Xiu does emote, just not expressively.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: In the animation, Ye Xiu pats Su Mucheng's head as a means to comfort her before he officially leaves Excellent Era.
• All Your Powers Combined: His Unspecialized character has access to skills from two dozen sub-classes. The Myriad Manifestation Umbrella, in later stages, gains some characteristics from the materials used to craft it, with each form potentially letting its user activate a high-level skill.
• Almighty Janitor: Ye Xiu was, and still is, considered one of the best Glory professional players and veterans of the game, captaining Excellent Era into the championships for three consecutive years. Now, he's simply a night-shift Internet cafe manager, something his ex-teammates mock him for.
• Awesome, but Impractical: "Dragon Raises Its Head" is a Battle Mage technique that is difficult to execute with very niche applications, thus there's no reason for Ye Xiu to use it as much.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Part of what makes him one of the Four Master Tacticians - coupled with his experience and mastery over Glory, Ye Xiu would often decide the outcome of a match from the first blow with everything that would occur after falling within his calculations. It's due to this that Ye Xiu earns the title of Battle God.
  • During a fixed field match in the Heavenly Domain, Huang Shaotian notes that Ye Xiu's ability to distribute his attention allows him to minimize many of his openings to the point that they shouldn't be called "openings". This matches with Yu Wenzhou's analysis of Ye Xiu from the Prequel novel.
  • When battling in the Season 9 Challengers League finals, Ye Xiu is able to discover and identify multiple flaws and imperfections in Sun Xiang and One Autumn Leaf's synchronization. This allows him to turn the tables and burn through 90% of One Autumn Leaf's Hit Points before Sun Xiang was able to cover them up.
  • During a match in Season 10, Gao Yingjie from Tiny Herb discovers that every opening he is able to grasp against Ye Xiu has already been predicted and planned in such a way where the actual tide of battle never escapes his control.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Ye Xiu is a master of this, even against his fellow Master Tacticians.
• Black Sheep: Ran away from home to play Glory professionally; his family still disapproves of it.
• Boring, but Practical: Several of Ye Xiu's moves can be seen as this (see also Combat Pragmatist).
  • Knocking up an enemy, then blasting him into other enemies to mess up their formation? He uses this move multiple times in Player Versus Environment and Player Versus Player fights.
  • How does he escape a small army of pursuers? By finding a safe spot to hide, then log out of the game.
• Brutal Honesty: He's not tactless, but he always gets straight to the point and rarely sugarcoats his words.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Played with; although it isn't a "superpower", Ye Xiu plays piano to practice increasing his hand speed.
• The Chessmaster: His professional-level experience doesn't stop him at being excellent in PvE and PvP aspects of Glory; he's able to leverage these advantages to literally toy with almost every big-name guild in the new server and get what he wants from each of them. This is primarily how he acquires the rare crafting materials needed to upgrade the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella.
• Combat Commentator: When watching other pro matches with his team, he can do it better than the official commentators by accurately predicting certain outcomes.
• Combat Pragmatist: Will shamelessly call for backup when he's losing, even if the fight became a one-on-one duel. He'll also resort to peeking at another player's screen for information and incite rival factions into in-fighting whenever he finds it convenient to do so.
• Dare to Be Badass: Ye Xiu loves giving Rousing Speech towards teammates and opponents alike which inspires people like Qiao Yifan, Luo Ji and An Wenyi.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: As Lord Grim only has access to 120 low-level skills that do not do much damage, he needs to chain together a lot of them to deal damage to his opponent. Meanwhile, boss monsters obviously suffer from this.
• Difficult, but Awesome: There are a ton of disadvantages in playing an Unspecialized. First, this Character Class does not have access to skills beyond level 20 (the current Level Cap when Lord Grim is created is 70 and will be raised higher, with ultimate skills introduced, in later updates). Secondly, while an Unspecialized can use upwards to a whopping 120 low-level skills, they need to switch weapons to properly use those skills^note A skill that fires bullets cannot be used when wielding a sword; lugging around multiple weapons is inefficient as it weighs down the character. Furthermore, switching weapons affect Cooldown, making it impossible to pull off Combos. Finally, the sheer amount of skills one has access to will overwhelm an in-experienced user. Ye Xiu manages to overcome the latter two with his Morph Weapon and his experience and knowledge of Glory's mechanic. Alongside his high APM^note Actions-per-minute, Lord Grim is one of the most unpredictable characters with expertise in Confusion Fu, as no opponents can predict which combination of skills he will use.
• The Dreaded: Once Lord Grim's notoriety in the tenth server increases, so does the character's exploits to guild leaders everywhere when it comes to tackling who gets the first boss kill or the fastest dungeon completion time. By the time he establishes himself as a powerhouse in the Heavenly Domain, the club-backed guilds are practically trembling in his presence even when he isn't actively targeting them!
• Enhanced Archaic Weapon: The Myriad Manifestation Umbrella's original form was obsolete because it was developed when the Level Cap was 50. Ye Xiu had to go through uncharted waters and risk breaking it to make it keep up with the latest caps.
• Exact Words: Occasionally happens as a result of him being a Troll.
  • While Ye Xiu is being chased by rival guilds in the tenth server, Huang Shaotian asks to duel against him in PvP (so he can see for himself how good Lord Grim really is in competitive play). Ye Xiu leads the guilds directly to Shaotian for PvP instead.
    Ye Xiu: (while being chased by the guilds) Didn't you want to PK (player kill)? Go on, hero.
  • He promises the "Tyrannical Ambition" guild not to touch their dungeon records, but the promise doesn't include him selling a guide for the fastest completion time so rival guilds can break them.
• Experienced Protagonist: Ten years of it for Glory, so much that Ye Xiu can create a strategy on the fly with a party against a boss, even beating one single-handedly.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Initially, due to the incident in Sleeping Moon's party at the start of the game. Over the course of a few arcs, Ye Xiu slowly rebuilds Lord Grim's image.
• He's Back!: During the "6th Glory All-Star Competition", while posing as a random challenger in the player vs. professional event, Ye Xiu performs the Dragon Raises Its Head technique, stunning observing pros and the audience who all believed he has retired, thus declaring to the millions watching he intends to return to the professional scene.

• I Let You Win: As Lord Grim continues humiliating Tyrannical Ambition experts, Han Wenqing decides to challenge him. Ye Xiu loses on purpose so they will leave him alone^note The loss was Adapted Out in the animation.
• Improbable Weapon User: Zigzagged with Lord Grim and the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella - while it mostly shapeshifts to accommodate the Unspecialized role, Ye Xiu uses it in its umbrella form more often than not.
• Insane Troll Logic: Any attempts to understand Ye Xiu's seemingly random actions can result in this. For example, when a complicated chain of events over a few days leads to Ye Xiu meeting up with Zhang Jiale, Chen Guo questions Ye Xiu if it's part of some grand master plan to recruit the latter. Ye Xiu responds that if he wanted to recruit Jiale, he could do it simply over "QQ" instead.
• In-Series Nickname: "Brother Expert" in the Manhua.
• Instant Expert: Thanks to his deep foundations in Glory, if he ever needed to raid an unfamiliar dungeon, he could master it within minutes after reading the guide online.
• Jack of All Trades: Played with; an Unspecialized character has one of the largest pool of accessible skills of all classes (120 skills), but that doesn't guarantee advantages. Discussed with Yu Wenzhou when an Unspecialized build is no longer useful - Wenzhou states the class proves ineffective by level 95 (the current Level Cap is 70 during Season 8), since no more skills can be learned and its weaknesses are evident when higher level characters gain access to their strongest abilities. However, this weakness gets a solution once Ye Xiu upgrades the Myriad Manifestion Umbrella to level 70 - since the weapon gains the ability to add an additional skill point for each of its forms, these points are usable on level 20+ skills, including the strongest skills for a class.
• Large Ham:
  • Variation; Ye Xiu's stable of alternate character accounts are full of unusual names - "Unrivalled Super Hottie", "Enlightened Lord" and "Let There Be Light".
  • Upon returning to the Alliance, he hams it up to eleven in front of Tyranny fans to purposely provoke them if their boos aren't loud enough.
• The Leader: Ye Xiu mixes being Levelheaded and the Mastermind upon being chosen to represent the Chinese Glory Team.
• Lethal Chef: In the mid credits scene of the movie, Ye Xiu cooked for Su Mucheng which led the latter to be drunk due to how much wine Ye Xiu added to the dish.
• Lethal Joke Character: Lord Grim's Unspecialized-class status was deemed completely useless for high level play until Ye Xiu comes along with a custom weapon designed to unlock the class' full potential while minimizing/negating its weaknesses. No one's laughing anymore.
• Light Is Good: In contrast to One Autumn Leaf's appearance, Lord Grim wears primarily white armor with bright colored accessories and weapon.
• Lightning Bruiser: Lord Grim's Unspecialized gives him access to various movement skills, instantly closing any gap and deal a world of hurt to an unwary opponent.
• Loners Are Freaks: Ye Xiu never showing his face to the public is what got him fired from his original team. Deconstructed since Xiu's lack of interest at showing his face and reclusive nature in Excellent Era were indicative of his source of downfall from power in the organization. As an essential celebrity in a championship winning team which revolved around public appearances for income, being a Socially Awkward Hero only crippled Excellent Era, thus they took it to its logical conclusion with management forcing him out.
• Master of All: The reason why he's called the "Glory Textbook" is because he's so familiar with all of Glory's classes that he even was the creator of most of the tricks the classes use in the Alliance. It's also the reason why the Unspecialized Lord Grim, at full Hit Points, is undefeated throughout Season 10 into the playoffs at individual duels.
• Mathematician's Answer: When an announcement of Lord Grim joining the "Heavenly Justice" guild and Loulan Slash creating a team stirred trouble for the pros, Huang Shaotian asks Ye Xiu what is he up to on the pro player QQ chat group. Hilarity Ensues when Xiu replies he's currently leveling up his character.
• Morph Weapon: Mixed with Swiss-Army Weapon, the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella - after years of research and experimentation, this weapon can have at least twelve configurations to accommodate whatever skills Ye Xiu intends to utilize, ranging from a spear, Cane Sword and Gatling Good.
• Must Have Nicotine: Ye Xiu smokes often and mentions that going a while without a cigarette makes his head hurt, justifying it's to keep a possible addiction out of the way of his gaming habit. However, this is Adapted Out for the live-action series.
• No Social Skills: He has plowed through many awkward social situations with his charisma and optimism. As a result, he's blunt, but can't read the atmosphere at times. People can mistake his blunt opinions as either an encouragement or an insult.
• Not So Stoic: Whenever he's exposed to Huang Shaotian's endless talking for a prolonged period of time.
• Only in It for the Money: Zigzagged
  • Subverted when he was in the professional league: as the Excellent Era manager states to Sun Xiang after Ye Xiu is forced to retire, the earliest competitive seasons had little prize money awarded. Ye Xiu used a majority of his winnings to ensure his friends in the league stayed afloat when their primary source of income was in "eSports", since he refused the likes of sponsorships. Deconstructed against Ye Xiu when this attitude proves to be the final straw to Excellent Era when they rank almost dead last in the league during the eighth season, leading to his forced retirement.
  • Played straight when using Lord Grim after the tenth server's debut: Ye Xiu has no intention of joining a guild - he merely participates in their raids to acquire rare materials to upgrade the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Ye Xiu goes by "Ye Qiu" in the pro scene, thus most people don't make the connection in-person; he also never showed his face publicly. Deconstructed as being known as Ye Qiu prevents anyone from taking Xiu's claims as the Living Legend seriously.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Ye Xiu infiltrates Tyrannical Ambition as new Knight-class character Unrivaled Super Hottie. Due to his skill, his cover is blown within a day.
• Parasol of Pain: The default configuration of the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella used by Lord Grim.
• Passing the Torch: After Happy wins the Season 10 championship, Ye Xiu names Su Mucheng as the new captain of Happy before retiring from the pro scene.
• Perpetual Poverty: In the early days of the league, most eSports players sacrificed their studies, earned very little, and had no employable skills outside of playing the game. Ye Xiu ended up giving away most of his winnings to support his retired colleagues while they look for new jobs or go back to school.
• Pet the Dog: In the second manhua adaptation, when four of Excellent Era's guild members come to Happy Cafe, Ye Xiu ruthlessly tears into Chen Yehui's lack of coordination and inability to reign in Sun Xiang. With Wang Ze and Fang Fengran, however, he merely critiques their performance from their match with 301 Degrees and encourages them to learn from their mistakes and do better.
• Punny Name: In Mandarin, Lord Grim's class (Unspecialized) and weapon (umbrella) are pronounced with the same pinyin (sǎn).
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: In the Manhua and web novel, Lord Grim starts out wearing armor picked from multiple classes due to Ye Xiu only caring about their stats, leading to this◊. Lampshaded in the web novel by describing his character as moving like a "rainbow-colored blur" during a duel, though Subverted when Ye Xiu later straightens this out for Lord Grim.
• Rapid-Fire Typing: Ye Xiu has a very high APM that even Tang Rou claims that no one can rival his speed when he played "Flight of the Bumblebee"^note A piano piece famously known for its fast tempo.
• Red Baron: Aside from his "Battle God" epitaph, "Glory Encyclopedia/Textbook" is another due to his in-depth knowledge of the game.
• Reluctant Retiree: Ye Xiu is forced to retire at the beginning of the story since he no longer holds commercial value for Excellent Era when the team ranks second-to-last in the professional circuit. Furthermore, it's implied his contract's terminations fees are too expensive for him to quit, given he has little-to-no money.
• Retired Badass: Even though Ye Xiu can no longer compete professionally for the next year, his skills are hardly diminished upon starting a new character in the tenth server.
• The Rival: Of Han Wenqing and his professional team "Tyranny"; exemplified when Ye Xiu and Team Happy are given security escorts by the league during their Season 10 semi-final playoff match against Tyranny at their home stadium due to the latter's fans.
• Robbing the Dead: Ye Xiu has no problem doing this if it means getting better equipment.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: In Excellent Era, he was allowed to smoke in non-smoking areas because he was the team captain.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: The live-action drama's events of the All-Stars Competition occur differently than they do in the web novel. While Ye Xiu does step in to substitute for Tang Rou like he does in the novel, it's only because Sun Xiang took over for the guy she was kicking the tar out of and decided to publicly humiliate her. While this is technically against the rules, it's also fair game since Sun Xiang broke them first.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Famous!: He manages to unite four bickering guilds into one strong alliance solely by relying on his fame.
• Secret Test: Ye Xiu does this to Tyrannical Ambition guild players while infiltrating the guild as Unrivaled Super Hottie; the guild leaders know Ye Xiu is up to something, but don't know what. Turns out Ye Xiu is trying to scout and recruit a Cleric for Team Happy.
• Signature Move: Played with; the Battle Mage maneuver Dragon Raises Its Head has only ever been executed properly by Ye Xiu in competitive Glory, so much that it's his calling card. By using this during the 6th Glory All-Star Competition, Ye Xiu publicly proclaims his intent to return to the pro league after defeating another professional player in a one-one-one duel, enough to convince Chen Guo he really is the Battle God himself. Subverted since Sun Xiang and Tang Rou are later capable of using it, too. When its value and meaning is discussed In-Universe in the live-action drama, Ye Xiu considers the technique to be too impractical and is otherwise more situational than something to show off constantly.
• The Smart Guy: Mixed with Awesomeness by Analysis, Ye Xiu is touted as one of the four "Master Tacticians" in Glory.
  • This can be seen with his strategies where he's able to fine-tune how best to acquire the fastest dungeon completion times and what skills his party members should use in order to maximize damage against foes. The largest guilds in the game are willing to pay a lot for his dungeon guides.
  • His full capabilities are better appreciated in PvP, particularly in larger scale battles. A thorough understanding of team coordination and extensive knowledge of Glory allows to him to create new strategies and/or adapt existing strategies to fit any situation he finds himself in. It's acknowledged that his abilities in these events make him even more terrifying than a one-on-one fight.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Or rather Smoking My Sorrows as it were. He will often go out for a smoke whenever he feels sad or upset, especially in the animation where he's much less expressive. This is Adapted Out in the live-action drama.
• Start My Own: Discussed; Huang Shaotian accuses Ye Xiu of gathering and recruiting players like Tang Rou and Bao Rongxing in order to take another shot at the professional league, but he Hand Waves the suggestion; Ye Xiu ultimately comes back with his own professional level-team after giving considerable thought on the amount of talent who have joined him for the competitive aspect.
• The Stoic: In the second manhua adaptation and donghua, Ye Xiu does not emote himself very well, which tends to make him come off as something of a Deadpan Snarker to others at times. This is not the case in the original novel, where is much more expressive.
• Taught by Television: Played with - in the middle of large-scale dungeon runs and boss fights, Ye Xiu will stop and propose new methods to make the battles easier. When prompted, he always replies with "I just read the guide".
• Team Dad: In the Prequel movie, Ye Xiu takes up the mantle to the Excellent Era's members after Su Muqiu's untimely death. He's also this to the members of Team Happy throughout its entire journey from its creation to becoming Season 10 champions.
• Technician Versus Performer: He's an old school technician who admits that the Glory Alliance is becoming more performer-oriented to generate hype and wow the audience, but he is also adamant that he is a professional player, not an entertainer.
• The Teetotaler: Believes that long-term consumption of alcohol will impair his reaction time and hand speed, thus generally avoids it, though it's actually because he Can't Hold His Liquor.
• The Runaway: In a rare case of Circus Runaway, Ye Xiu ran away from home to pursue a career in eSports, specifically Glory, which earned scorn from his family. Though they finally accepted his passion and are very proud of him leading the Chinese Glory Team to the World Championships.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Twice in the story - the first was after he was kicked out of Excellent Era through "retirement", while the second is following his assignment as The Leader and informal player in the Chinese Glory Team, something the latter jokingly calls him out on.
• Tranquil Fury: Discussed; when Chen Guo states Ye Xiu should be furious at players calling him out on his method of play, Ye Xiu is angry, but says there's no point in being angry towards a computer screen nor does he really need to explicitly show such an expression.
• Troll: Being well-versed in the world of Glory, combined with his general skills, leads him to messing with lesser-experienced players and even stronger guilds.
• Visual Pun: After Excellent Era forcibly retires Ye Xiu, they literally throw him out into the cold; it begins to snow when he leaves the building.
• Warts and All: Chen Guo may be his one of his biggest fans, but even she gets exasperated by his Trollish antics a lot.
• Weak, but Skilled: Even with the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella and Ye Xiu's status as the Glory Encyclopedia eliminating two of the three Fatal Flaws holding Lord Grim back, the Unspecialized-class still retains a notable disadvantage in basic strength - all classes gain damage bonuses when using skills from their specific class specialization, including bonus stats from equipment proficiencies, which an Unspecialized do not earn. This forces Ye Xiu to make up the difference by chaining his multitude of skills together in unique ways.
• The Wonka: Ye Xiu will drag fellow pro players to help him out in dungeon runs and expose guild spies and ask them to help out his guild in any way. Furthermore, he will walk up to bickering guild leaders at random and propose an alliance with each other. While most players can see the logic behind his actions, they're not crazy enough to execute it themselves.
• Would Hit a Girl: While shaking off Excellent Dynasty's pursuers, he turns back and attacks a female player because she has an orange-tier weapon and he wants it.
• Would Hurt a Child: He has absolutely no qualms bullying Lu Hanwen, who's just 14 years-old.

Chen Guo (陈果)

Voiced by: Ji Guanlin (animation, live-action), Zhang Zhe (audio drama)
Played by: Jiang Shuying (live-action)

Player ID: Chasing Haze | 逐烟霞
Class: Launcher

Click ^here 
to see Chasing Haze

Click ^here 
to see Chen Guo in the live-action

Owner of the Happy Internet Cafe and member of Guild "Excellent Dynasty", Chen Guo is a casual Glory player, but nevertheless a big fan of Excellent Era. Upon discovering Ye Xiu is really Ye Qiu, whom she admires, Chen Guo informally creates "Happy", whose members eventually compete in the professional league after winning the Challengers League of the ninth season.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • In the live-action, Chen Guo starts to have problems with Tang Rou playing Glory almost all day (despite that being what she originally wanted) as she feels she's being left out or ignored. Averted in the novel and other adaptations, where she doesn't find it an issue and would often watch Tang Rou play and cheer her on.
  • In the live-action drama, Chen Guo is very upset over the announcement of Ye Qiu's sudden retirement and sometimes spends a good chunk of an episode depressed about it before she bounces back. She hits her lowest point in the All-Stars Competition event where her friend tries to get her to accept reality and Ye Qiu is never coming back to Glory. Chen's angst mainly stems from the fact that she's a much bigger fan of Ye Qiu than she was in the novel and is even a member of his fan club.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In the second manhua, Chen is much more knowledgeable about Glory as she attempts to warn Ye Xiu against playing Unspecialized since they're nowhere near as strong in the present day.
• Ascended Fan Boy: In the live-action drama, she's a member of the Ye Qiu fan club, as well as his number one fan^note She decorated the entire Happy Cafe with posters and cutouts of Ye Qiu's avatar One Autumn Leaf, with the net cafe password, at Ye Xiu's joking suggestion, being "Ye Qiu is an Unrivaled Super Hottie". She is unaware that her idol is now her newest employee, at least until the All-Star competition.
• Bad Boss: Played for Laughs in the live-action drama. Due to Ye Xiu having no actual work experience outside of his gaming career, he constantly fumbles in his tasks and, on his first day alone, accidentally shuts down over half of the cafe after turning off one of the breakers. Since then, Chen Guo has had total control over his life in the cafe and basically has him work for free. To be fair to the poor guy, though, he did tell her to pay for the damages using his salary...
• Book Dumb: Downplayed. In the live-action drama, when she's not busy handling Happy or playing Glory, she spends most of her day studying for college.
• Broken Pedestal: Chen Guo becomes less enamored with professional players in general after having dealt with one such as Ye Xiu; this is straight up referenced in the web novel when Xiu and Wei Chen get into a fight. On the other hand, Guo still likes the more down-to-Earth Su Mucheng.
• Can't Catch Up: Even for an amateur, her skill in Glory is only average at best, with an APM of roughly 120.
• Friendly Enemy: In the live-action adaptation, one of Chen Guo's employees tells Ye Xiu that she and Tang Rou share this sort of relationship. At least when Chen's studying is involved, as Tang Rou is very strict about Chen keeping up with her studies.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She's so Hot-Blooded, it takes very little for her to get completely riled up; this gets worse after Ye Xiu becomes her employee. Downplayed in the animation and live-action series by toning down her temperament into mild annoyance.
• Morality Chain: As their employer, she's the only restraint in holding back Ye Xiu's and Wei Chen's plan to hunt and rob unsuspecting players for better equipment.
• Not So Above It All: Normally, Chen Guo disapproves of Ye Xiu's in-game Trolling and playing the villain...unless the target is her enemy.
• Only Sane Man: She's an average-level Glory player and locked out of the routine Happy goes through, making her less eccentric than the people Ye Xiu brings into her cafe.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Generally tolerates Ye Xiu's antics, but will still rebuke him when he crosses the line, such as when he and Wei Chen plan to PK unsuspecting players and take their equipment. This is played with in the live-action adaptation, where she hires Ye Xiu, who during the interview states the only thing he's good at is playing Glory and admits he's had no prior workplace experience.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Bans minors from using her cafe, even if it means losing revenue.
• Selective Obliviousness: Despite all the evidence that says otherwise (knowing Ye Xiu is a retired professional, having played Glory for ten years, is exceptionally knowledgeable about the game and Ye Xiu flat out telling her who he really is), Chen Guo simply does not realize Ye Xiu is Ye Qiu. She's finally convinced during the 6th Glory All-Star Competition event when Ye Xiu, under the guise of an unknown substitute contestant, pulls off his in-game Signature Move against another pro player.
• The Team Benefactor: As the boss of Team Happy, Chen Guo provides the team with the necessary resources for its operations with her income from the internet cafe and some sponsorship money.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: Chen Guo sports this and Exaggerated with Chasing Haze's appearance, whose hair is as big and long as the avatar's body.
• Tragic Dropout: The Internet cafe belonged to her father; she dropped out of school to manage it after he passed on.
• Womanchild: From her ecstatic Fan Girling over Glory and her idol Su Mucheng, her Hair-Trigger Temper over the slightest misdeeds to her utter glee at watching Ye Xiu Troll her opponents in the game, she certainly appears to have shades of this. Ye Xiu even Lampshades it for the animation when Chen Guo is repeatedly goading him into ruining a dungeon run just so he can show off by calling her a "little kid".

Tang Rou (唐柔)

Voiced by: Qiao Shiyu (animation, audio drama, live-action)
Played by: Li Muchen (live-action)

Player ID: Soft Mist | 寒烟柔
Class: Battle Mage

Click ^here 
to see Soft Mist

Click ^here 
to see Tang Rou in the live-action

An employee at the Happy Internet Cafe and best friends with Chen Guo, Tang Rou comes from a wealthy family. Previously heading abroad to study music, she found it boring and returned home, stumbling by the Internet cafe and applying for a job as a network manager.

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• The Apprentice: To Ye Xiu - she uses a Battle Mage, with her opponents noting her play-style is similar to Ye Xiu when he was using One Autumn Leaf.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Her aggressive play-style can give even professional-level players a run for their money. Han Wenqing Lampshades that Tang Rou reminds him of his past self, to which Tyranny fans hold high opinions of her when she makes her professional debut in Season 10.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Underneath her sweet and demure exterior lies a ferocious...
• Blood Knight: Will happily challenge a hostile 200-player squad just because she feels it will be a good fight.
• Button Mashing: Her hand speed is fast enough to defeat Du Ming of "Samsara" during the fan vs. professional event in the 6th Glory All-Star Competition just from this trope alone.
• Competition Freak: Tang Rou deems Glory too boring because she can take on most in-game challenges easily with her naturally high hand speed and defeating casual opponents in PvP duels. Once Ye Xiu trounces her several times while berating her lack of actual skill with the game, she officially plays with her own account (since Tang Rou is goaded by Chen Guo to help her character Chasing Haze in PvP duels). While her initial reason is so she can eventually beat Ye Xiu, Tang Rou's competitive nature changes to such a degree she simply likes beating opponents tougher than her, breaking records and besting any challenge.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Subverted; when she attempts to take on a squad of Guild "Blue Brook" players alone, she gets Soft Mist killed before even getting near them.
• David Versus Goliath: Tang Rou defeating professional player Du Ming in public during a casual fan vs. pro event; awkwardness ensues to the point where the latter challenges her again to save face.
• Determinator: Deconstructed; upon losing to Ye Xiu for the first time, she requests a rematch, not knowing she's going up against a former professional player, even when there's money on the line (she wages a couple hundred renminbi). Members of professional team "Tiny Herb" note during PvP she's still just as ferocious even when Soft Mist's Hit Points are at critical levels. However, Ye Xiu flat out tells her this mindset isn't necessarily a good approach for a competitive scene after Du Ming beats her following multiple rounds.
  Ye Xiu: In Glory, you don't compete until the last player stands; you compete until the last character stands. Even if you kept playing until he became so tired that he had no way of continuing, I can assure you, the number of times he'll have won will be much greater than yours. In the end, he'll have been the one to win, not you.
• Died Standing Up: During Game 3 of Season 10 finals against Samsara, Soft Mist is eliminated while in the midst of using the Battle Mage skill "Rising Dragon Soars the Sky".
• Hate Sink: In-Universe. In Season 10, she antagonizes many fans and players after declaring she can pull off and win a 1 vs. 3 match-up within five games or else she retires from the professional scene. She makes even more enemies by not only failing to do so, but reneging on her retirement declaration entirely.
• Hope Bringer: Subtly used when Zhou Zekai of Samsara pulls off a 1 vs. 3 situation against Happy in the Game 3 Season 10 finals of the Group Challenge, until Tang Rou does the same feat against the remaining Samsara members, wiping them out, inevitably giving her teammates hope at securing a Darkhorse Victory at the championship.
• Instant Expert: After playing Glory competitively for only a month, she can already stand her ground against professional players in PvP. Within that month, Wang Jiexi invites her to try out for Tiny Herb.
• It's All About Me: Played with and Discussed - Tang Rou's Blood Knight and Competition Freak tendencies causes her to quickly become disoriented and confused at first when attempting to cooperate with others, as she's described to have a selfish desire to solo everything the game throws at her instead of engaging in proper teamwork. This gets her into trouble several times, although she slowly grows out of this attitude thanks to Ye Xiu's mentoring.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: In-Universe, Tang Rou gets bored with "easy" games. She starts taking Glory seriously after getting thoroughly beaten by Ye Xiu in PvP, who claims there's nothing "easy" about Glory.
• Ironic Name: Although "Rou" means gentle and while she does appear to be so on the outside, in reality she's bloodthirsty in spirit - always out for a challenge and will stop at nothing until she overcomes it.
• The Nicknamer: Gives nicknames for close friends and Glory allies, such as "Guoguo" for Chen Guo and "Mumu" for Su Mucheng.
• Rapid-Fire Typing: Due to her experience in music, specifically piano, she has a very high APM.
• The Rival: To Du Ming after his defeat in their first match-up at the 6th Glory All-Star Competition.
• Secretly Wealthy: She's the daughter of the owner of a huge textile company, yet works in the Internet cafe.
• Silk Hiding Steel: As described by Alliance players, critics and the media throughout Season 10, her beauty and grace is a stark contrast to her very aggressive Battle Mage.
• Super-Hearing: Due to her professional experience in the music industry, particularly piano, Tang Rou's ears are sensitive and can keenly catch minute differences in sound. She, with Ye Xiu's tutelage, uses it to her advantage in the Professional Alliance. ^Examples  In Game 3 against Tyranny in the Season 10 playoff semifinals, it helped her deduce the number of Tyranny players and even accurately dodged Zhang Jiale's gunfire without even looking during the Team Competition.
• The Runaway: Of the Vagrant Runaway type. Tang Rou wanted to find and pursue her passion so her family let her go and help her in every way possible. Tang Rou first pursued music until she got bored and landed into Happy to find work which led to the current events into her becoming a professional player.
• The Tease: When the Internet cafe suffers a blackout, the electrician arrives at 8 PM, stating it will take at least a day to fix, to which he'll start the next morning. Tang Rou uses her looks and sweet words to persuade the electrician to fix it within four hours.
• Underestimating Badassery: Averted; despite her reputation hitting rock bottom due to her infamous 1 vs. 3 declaration, no team in the Alliance dares to overlook her skills. Justified considering whom she's The Apprentice of, and she goes on to win the title of "Best Rookie" in Season 10.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Pure hand speed allows her to beat casual players that gives Chen Guo trouble, but experts can easily exploit her in-experience against seasoned veterans. Played with, however, since she's getting direct help from Ye Xiu, a former professional player, meaning it's just a matter of time before she closes the gap and minimizes her weaknesses.
• Worthy Opponent: Pro players slowly consider her this during Season 10, notably Han Wenqing, who respects her as much as he deems Ye Xiu as his rival. Not even Sun Xiang has earned that level of respect yet from the veterans.

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