League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Hey, yo! Some nerve you have, coming round here again!” As their classes finished, Wang Qin gave a cold reception to Lin Xu, who was in the corridor outside.

Lin Xu looked to be in a foul mood. No matter how many times he went over it, he just couldn’t figure out how he’d lost to these Class 8 scrubs—and so badly!

“Hmph. Last time we won a game, and now you guys have gotten one yourselves. We’re just about even at the moment.” Lin Xu smirked as he said this.

“You’re certainly talented at making excuses for yourself. So what are you getting at, then?”

“Let’s have a tie-breaker!” Lin Xu snarled.

Class 3’s defeat at the hands of Class 8 had become the talk of the school. All the LoL players were spreading it around. For Lin Xu, who used to be viewed as the premier League of Legends player of Cerulean High, it was becoming such that he feared to show his face in public!

“I figured you’d be a sore loser about this,” Wang Qin huffed, patting Yu Luocheng firmly on the shoulder.

That gesture was meant to say, as long as they had Yu Luocheng on their side, you could come and get your ass kicked as many times as you liked!

“Let’s play again next week. This time, each team can bring in one outsider. Double the stakes, in or out?” Lin Xu asked in challenge.

Double the stakes meant a wager of two thousand bucks. Among students, it was going a bit overboard.

“I don’t have the money to throw around like that.” Wang Qin kept hold of his sanity.

“No wager, then. It’s just a rematch, after all,” Lin Xu declared.

Wang Qin glanced at Yu Luocheng. All the other LoL players in Class 8 looked up to him now, so it should be up to him to decide.

“I’m not interested.” Yu Luocheng made a curt refusal.

Even if they played against each other again, Lin Xu and those noobs he ran with would still get clobbered just the same. Yu Luocheng had better things to do with his time than stand around beating a dead horse.

“You, uh… have you no balls?” Lin Xu tried to smirk at him.

Yu Luocheng truly couldn’t be bothered with him. He slung his schoolbag over his shoulder and left.

“Hah, too scared to go for a rematch? And here I thought Class 8 was starting to get somewhere. Turns out it was just a lucky fluke, and now you’re just gonna slink away like a bunch of weasels.” Lin Xu was really running his mouth off now.

Wang Qin refused to stand for this. “Who are you calling a weasel?” he yelled.

“Am I wrong? Then let’s fight again! You choose the time and place!”

“Come on, then! I’ll wipe the floor with the lot of you!” Wang Qin felt that he hadn’t managed to enjoy himself thoroughly enough last game, but a few more rounds should hit the spot. “Yu Luocheng, you with me?”

“Play him yourself. It’s none of my business.” Yu Luocheng didn’t mince his words.

“Hey, come on, man!” Wang Qin was taken aback.

Yu Luocheng didn’t want any part of this nonsense. This sort of thing, you could play around with once in a while, sure—but if you just kept going at it without end, then there’d be no point to it at all.

As Lin Xu watched Yu Luocheng swiftly departing the scene, a flash of rage lit up his eyes!

He’d gone so far as to even bring Brother Mi into this, expressly for the sake of crushing that one, and now he wasn’t playing? How was he going to get his revenge, then?

Ignoring the both of them, Yu Luocheng disappeared into the flood of students leaving the school. He was walking very quickly indeed, as though hoping to shake Wang Qin off his tail—or perhaps to catch up to somebody.

“Oh, what a coincidence.” Yu Luocheng gave his sunniest smile to a girl who was just brushing past him.

“Coincidence, indeed. I saw you hurrying after me the whole way!” Yang Qianqian snapped at Yu Luocheng, eyeing him scornfully.

Yu Luocheng guffawed with some embarrassment. She’d seen right through him.

While Wang Qin and Lin Xu had been arguing amongst themselves, Yu Luocheng had spotted Yang Qianqian passing by outside. Normally, she’d always be in the company of other girls. It was rare to catch her alone like this, and he couldn’t let this precious opportunity get away from him, so he’d withdrawn from that conversation immediately to give chase.

The truth was that there were still quite a few guys deliberately tagging along beside Yang Qianqian, likely trying to think of a good pick-up line. And then this unremarkable nobody appeared out of nowhere and sidled right up to her, chatting her up like they were already buddies!

‘Oh, what a coincidence.’ Coincidence, your foot! School’s out—of course everyone would be passing through here!

“Shall we meet up again, this weekend?” Yu Luocheng ventured.

It was already Friday. After classes finished tomorrow, it would be another long-awaited weekend.

“Maybe not. My dad’s taking me out,” Yang Qianqian replied.

“Oh. I was also planning to go for Ranked with someone.” Yu Luocheng nodded.

Yang Qianqian shot him an acidic glare. “Then why ask me!”

***

“The finals will be in another couple more months. Which university are you aiming for?” Yang Qianqian inquired.

In the end, the finals were always the ultimate priority. No matter how good you were at gaming, it had no bearing on academic matters whatsoever.

“You’re asking me?” Yu Luocheng said in response.

“Who else, if not you?” This guy always threw her off. He was clearly the one who’d run over to strike up a conversation with her, but now it felt like he was absent-mindedly lost in space.

“I don’t know,” Yu Luocheng answered.

Which university should he aim for? Honestly, Yu Luocheng was at a loss regarding this matter.

In fact, he didn’t care where he went at all, since his one motivation for working so hard at his studies was so that he wouldn’t let his parents down.

Whether because of prestige or recognition, whichever university his parents liked was the right one for him. Yu Luocheng himself had no preference, after all.

“Sleepy-headed fellow. Every time I see you, you look like you’re still half asleep. Do you find it that boring to be in school?” Yang Qianqian wrinkled her nose at him.

“Have you been paying that much attention to me?” Yu Luocheng felt his heart stir.

“Who wants to pay any attention to you!”

“Alright, then. Next time you steal a peek at me, I’ll try to perk up a little. How’s that?” Yu Luocheng was grinning peevishly.

Yang Qianqian rolled her eyes, astounded by the depths of his depravity.

“I’m interested in Zhejiang University.” She brought the conversation back to the original issue.

“I see. Myself, I might prefer Shanghai.”

“Why’s that?”

Yu Luocheng declined to reply. Yang Qianqian might be a LoL gamer too, but to her, it was only a game.

However, as a former pro-gamer, Yu Luocheng saw things differently. He just couldn’t treat it as nothing more than a casual past-time. He’d promised his parents never to return to that life, but deep in his heart, he still heard it calling him back.

Shanghai was fast becoming the heart of competitive MOBA-gaming in China. If he could be given a choice in the matter, he wanted to go to a university in Shanghai. Even if he never returned to the pro-gaming scene himself, he felt like he’d like to taste that atmosphere again.

What’s more, Yu Luocheng had some old friends in Shanghai.

A year had slipped past in the blink of an eye, and Yu Luocheng found himself missing them terribly. He wondered if a bunch of DOTA veterans like them had ever tried out League of Legends.

They probably had. It was all the rage now, and Demacian culture was everywhere. From children as young as eight or nine, all the way to senior citizens in their sixties, everyone was playing LoL.

Those friends of his were elite MOBA players. It was unthinkable that they hadn’t gotten themselves involved, too.

Maybe they’d already formed a team themselves, or had joined up with a prestigious pro-gaming team somewhere.