League of Legends: League of Unknowns

As Lin Dong walked alone along the river, the phone in his pocket started to vibrate. He groaned when he realized the person calling him was none other than He Jin.

Since the USB drive had been found by the two inspectors, his stunt in hacking would have been found out. Team Shanghai and Cat Eye would definitely be reprimanded and he didn’t feel like getting chewed out by He Jin at this point in time.

Furthermore, the fault didn’t lie with Lin Dong after all. He had already informed Qiu Shenping to remove the USB drive after the match, so even if it was found out, no one would have any evidence. Who knew that once Qiu Shenping was worked up, he had completely forgotten this important task.

Not long after the vibration stopped, it started again. This continued on for a while, and Lin Dong finally gave in and picked up.

“Team Shanghai won, but they were disqualified from the final round.” The voice on the other end came through.

“I know,” Lin Dong replied.

“Xiao Bei was not the one playing Vayne,” the voice continued.

“Yeah, it was Boss.” Lin Dong nodded.

The person on the other side was silent for a while.

“I thought that he really wouldn’t touch E-Sports anymore. His Vayne was good, there are already a few teams looking to recruit him.”

“He doesn’t play professionally anymore,” Lin Dong replied.

“I know, he said so in England already.”

“He’s more mature now than before. I was thinking of ways to convince him to come back, but after what I’ve seen, I don’t think it’s possible,” Lin Dong said.

“What about your team, do you still intend to go ahead with it?” The voice on the other side asked.

“Of course,” Lin Dong said solemnly. “I intend to call Da Luo and Zhou Yan back into it.”

“That’s only three though.” The person pointed out.

“What about you?” Lin Dong shot back. “If I could convince him to come back, would you be willing to throw away what you have now and come back to our small team?”

“As I said before, I won’t ever be on the same team with him again. If you can convince him to come back, that’s great for you. We’ll see each other in LPL then.”

“Why?”

“Practice while you can, at the level you are at, you’re just slightly better than an amateur. Even the professional reserve teams would be able to take you down easily.”

“You’re really going to make us your enemy?” Lin Dong asked, disbelief clear in his voice. “You know that a big reason for me to form this team is because I want to take down the Sky Club, they owe us too much.”

“Do they really? Then someone else owes us so much more. Don’t just talk big, the few of you have not played in the E-Sports professional scene for a while, do you really think it’s that easy? Get qualified into the LPL and then we’ll talk. Even if you make it into the LPL, don’t forget, I’ll crush him and your team into dust!” Zhao Tinghua said heatedly.

Lin Dong was stunned into silence when he heard that.

Zhao Tinghua hadn’t given up on professional E-Sports. After a long road of hard work, he had finally become a dazzling star in LoL. Meanwhile, the others had entered society in a haze of despair and disappointment, their passion for E-Sports completely burnt out.

Zhou Yan was busy running the business, often running between cities, getting darker and darker from the sun.

Da Luo had become a hard-working person, not daring to waste a single minute in an effort to find ways to earn more money to provide his girlfriend a better lifestyle.

Lin Dong knew that they too played LoL, and their skills were nothing to scoff at either. Only, Lin Dong didn’t have the confidence that he would be able to get them to come back to the scene, especially when it came to Yu Luocheng. He used to be able to easily see the enthusiasm and adrenaline that made him passionate about E-Sports.

Now, he couldn’t even feel a speck of that anymore, which made Lin Dong lose any hope he had.

***

Ending the call, Lin Dong dialed another number immediately.

“Brother Dong…” Xiao Bei’s voice was low and course on the other end.

Listening to his voice, Lin Dong could tell that Xiao Bei’s face was most likely swollen right now.

“We’re the only two on the team right now,” Lin Dong said instead.

“Okay.” Xiao Bei nodded in acknowledgment.

“With your skills right now, you could consider accepting the offer from Team 71 or Team Night. Their offer isn’t bad. I can always find other people.” Lin Dong said.

“Lin Dong, I only want to team up with you and Yu Luocheng,” Xiao Bei said stubbornly.

Lin Dong remained quiet after that, and Xiao Bei didn’t say anything else either. Seeing that Lin Dong wasn’t about to continue, Xiao Bei whispered, “I’m going to work first.”

“… Alright.”

***

The campus was cozy and beautiful, and the occasional laughter from the female students was heartwarming to listen to.

The weather was great as Yu Luocheng walked into Shanghai University, and he stopped at the gate, leaning against the stone wall as he looked around the university.

‘That’s weird, I seem to have forgotten a very important matter,’ Yu Luocheng thought to himself, frowning.

He continued to walk on the cobblestone path, passing the green boulevard and finally reaching his dormitory door before he remembered.

D*mn, he had forgotten to ask Lin Dong about Snowfall!

“Hey, hurry up and give me the information that I asked for!” Yu Luocheng swiftly made a call to Lin Dong.

“I’ll be visiting Zhou Yan soon, why don’t we go together?” Lin Dong asked instead.

“Sure, it’s been a while.” Yu Luocheng agreed. “But you’d better give me the information on that person.”

“I’ll give it to you in person,” Lin Dong said. “I’ve compiled a report, and writing text messages wouldn’t be good anyway.”

“F*ck.”

“Oh yeah, I want to let you know something,” Lin Dong said, his tone becoming serious.

“What is it?” Yu Luocheng asked, hesitating at the change of tone.

“I’m forming a team with Xiao Bei.”

“A professional team?”

“Yeah.”

“The two of you?”

“For now.”

“I know you don’t play professionally anymore because of your old man.” Lin Dong continued. “You don’t have to enter any competitions, just play some premade matches with us, practice against us and give us some training and the likes. That wouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“I’m fine with that,” Yu Luocheng said. “Have you found anyone else?”

Yu Luocheng understood that Lin Dong was not forming a team for just casual playing. He knew that Lin Dong would be serious and strict when looking for teammates, and don’t even mention how far the team could go, they would probably need a whole lot of effort to even train up the team to be a team.

“I already said it’s only Xiao Bei and me now. Actually, I intend to be the analyst and coach of the team, so there’s really only Xiao Bei at the moment. There cannot only be five people on the team…”

“I see. How is Xiao Bei’s level? I’ve never seen him play before.” Yu Luocheng asked.

“Heh, you can check the ranking list, I’m sure you’ll see his name there.” Lin Dong chuckled.

The ranking list?

You have to understand that there are millions of LoL players in the country, and the players who could enter the top one hundred are absolutely godlike existences!

Similar to the national university entrance exam, there were one hundred million candidates. If Xiao Bei was ranked in the top one hundred, that was equivalent to being a provincial or city top scorer, being able to go to any famous universities!

You couldn’t imagine someone who used to stand behind him all day and fanning his ego could become someone like that.

All the big professional teams were definitely fighting over each other to recruit the top one hundred players. For someone with such skills, the club would pay big bucks for him.

Yu Luocheng felt it was a bit strange—Xiao Bei could turn his life around if he had chosen to join any of those teams.