League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Demacia Cafe wasn’t really a proper cybercafe, but it had become some sort of a gathering point for the rich kids in the area who wanted to play League of Legends.

Rich kids, the easiest money you’d ever make!

A lot of these second-generation rich kids were only in it for the fun and they would bet ridiculous sums of money, but wouldn’t have the skills to back these bets up.

Gambling, cards, they were bored to death of it already, but betting piles upon piles of money on a LOL game? Now that was exciting.

Sometimes, if these little princes started boasting too much, they would straight up pay professional players to pulverize you in game. What were you going to do about it?

Even if one side had started hiring, it wasn’t as if the other side didn’t have the money to do the same…

The original Team Demacia was quite a force to be reckoned with, but after a chance meeting with a crazy rich kid who had taken one look at Boss Lei and decided that he didn’t like him, he proceeded to hire a group of professionals to beat Team Demacia so far into the ground that they couldn’t get back up. Ultimately, Boss Lei had had no other choice but to disband the team.

Slowly, Demacia Cafe became the most popular battleground in Shanghai for rich kids who were looking to fight it out in a game of LOL. You used to be able to find a lot of famous pro players going head to head here, and behind all these pro players were a bunch of little princes who were sick of old school card games and mahjong, using the Summoner’s Rift as their gambling table.

All bets were made in private, and since technically there wasn’t a “betting pool”, it didn’t count as illegal.

On his end, Boss Lei benefitted from selling the membership passes and he even got free advertising through the giant prizes offered, attracting LOL enthusiasts along with all the pro players that frequented the place.

Prices here were already above the average, as long as someone came, Boss Lei would surely get them to pay up!

The Budweiser was expensive, the cold drinks were expensive, even the nuts and snacks were expensive. You could only smoke in the VIP lounge, but to get into the VIP lounge, you needed the platinum card or higher. You could even get your own personal computer and personal lounge with your own glass-bead curtains! That is, only if you bought the diamond card…

The main hall was open to the public, and you could sit on the sofa and watch the game on the big screen from the point of view of the Pro Player of The Week.

Now, if you were watching a competition, wouldn’t you get the urge to play too?

A girl on the side sighed while saying, “I’m still stuck in Silver, how am I ever going to climb in rank…”

The girl didn’t even like playing, she more so enjoyed chatting with friends on the sofa, and without anything else to talk about, the conversation would steer back to games and the competitions.

You, as a Platinum player, would definitely offer, “You want me to carry you?”, right?

“Really? If you get me to Gold, I’ll buy you drinks!”

Congratulations, you’ve successfully integrated into the society of Demacia Cafe, now, aren’t you going to buy a membership pass? You’ll lose out on a lot of money if you don’t, you know.

Most people had an income of over 4,000 to 5,000 RMB, and with an average income of 7,000 to 10,000 RMB, reloading a pass that only cost over 100 RMB each week wasn’t that bad. Since a lot of day-job workers only had small social circles, gaming was all they would do in their spare time anyway, which meant that most of their money was spent on in-game skins too.

But playing by yourself all the time can get a little lonely, making you feel uncool and friendless. Wouldn’t you rather hang out at Demacia Cafe, enjoying the sense of community you get while gaming? You could make friends, in real life and on the rift, meet girls, and much more, all while watching a highly rewarding competition!

***

Every week, there would be 3 chances to challenge another team, and unsurprisingly, the prize had now accumulated to 11,500 RMB.

Luocheng and his team had gotten their reward of 500 RMB too, which meant that finally, they would have some meat on the table.

After that first week, news had spread, and the LOL Teams from the surrounding area were all itching to take a shot at the grand prize.

As they had to participate in the monthly competition which also meant pushing back any new challenges, the five members of Team Skycrown returned to Hangzhou.

At the Netfish Café, Xu Ben and his gang were awaiting their arrival.

K was there, too, and smiling, he asked, “How did you find the house? Not bad, right?”

“It was amazing, but to give us a huge discount like that, it won’t affect the landlord’s income, right?” Da Luo asked.

K shook his head, “My dad handles a lot of things. Some housing companies will use a few houses to try and get in through the backdoor, but my dad obviously doesn’t give them any response. In the end, these companies won’t try to simply sell or rent these places out, so basically, they’re left empty as no one wants to move in.”

K didn’t elaborate much but everyone understood what he was trying to say.

Some dirty companies probably wanted to bribe K’s old man, but he didn’t accept. Since these companies didn’t dare to resell these ‘gifts’, they were just awkwardly abandoned, which was good news for Team Skycrown!

The poor couldn’t even get a roof over their heads while the rich had so many estates and yet refused to live in any of them… They were truly from different worlds.

“What about that Team Zhejiang or whatever?” Asked Wu Sen.

Xu Ben had been dissing the overly proud Team Zhejian for the past few days, and even Xiao Ya, who had merely been filling in the place of Luocheng as he climbed the ranks in the Korean server, looked down on those people.

“F*ck, do you want to die!”

Suddenly, a man’s yell came from the VIP room!

Xiao Ya came hurtling out of the room in her maid’s outfit!

The curtains were pulled back, and a man with a face full of orange juice came barrelling after Xiao Ya.

“B*tch, I’ll get you or my name’s not Gao!” The man looked crazed, anger written all over his face as he chased Xiao Ya.

Xu Ben was the first to react, running over to block him in front of the bar.

Xiao Ya hid under the bar, not daring to come out. The commotion caused everyone in the cybercafe who had been surfing the internet to look over, some looking concerned, while others looked excited at the prospect of witnessing a free show!

“Hey hey hey, what do you think you’re doing!?” Xu Ben pushed back the orange-juice-faced man.

“Xu Ben, screw off, I’m going to kill this b*tch! She splashed the juice on me!” the guy yelled.

Xiao Ya was still hiding behind the bar, and the male shopkeeper rushed over, a mix of apology and feigned politeness in his voice, “It was a misunderstanding, just a misunderstanding… How about this, everything you’ve paid for today is on the house, Xiao Ya must’ve just slipped.”

SMACK!

The sound of a hand coming into contact with the shopkeeper’s face rang through the café.

The poor shopkeeper couldn’t react in time and stood there dazed.

The stinging sound silenced the entire cybercafe, and everyone stared at the perpetrator of the slap and the aura of authority surrounding him.

“Get out of my way, like I care about your sh*tty money. I said I wanted to kill this b*tch, so everyone else had better move! And you, Xu Ben, if you try any f*cking shit with me, I’ll end you too!”

Luocheng was just as stunned as everyone else, staring dumbfoundedly at the man. He had always thought that high end establishments had more posh people which meant more talking and less fighting. Who would have thought that it was exactly the same as any other rowdy cybercafe, using their fists to solve problems, even going as far as to slap the poor shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper probably hadn’t encountered this sort of situation before, retreating to the side speechlessly.

“Gao Qinjin, have you eaten a lot of crap lately, because your mouth stinks. How dare you touch one of my people!?” K was upset, walking right up to Qinjin.

Qinjin had a few people behind him, each as tall and as buff as he was. Looking at the logos on their shirts, they were probably from the same team.

K had helped Team Skycrown out so much in the past, and so, Team Skycrown in turn went to backup K as well.

Jian Feng who had just tagged along was still rooted in place, trying to persuade Team Skycrown not to start anything. After all, if their clothes were anything to go by, these weren’t your regular thugs, these were rich kids that were used to getting whatever they wanted, and poor people like them did not want to pick a fight with these guys.

But when Jian Feng saw how Da Luo eagerly went over, looking like he wanted a piece of the action, he knew that there was no stopping them.

Fine, Luocheng could admit that their group didn’t have the best track record, reminiscing on the fights they had had back in the good old days, they were easily provoked. K had not noticed the group behind Gao, but upon looking back over his shoulder, he realized that Team Skycrown was there to support him and he started to regain his confidence.

K had quite the background and he wasn’t scared of this Gao Qinjin, but anyone could tell that they were picking a losing battle. If a fight really did break out, everyone on his side would be left more than just a little bit sore.

“Qinjin, we should sit down and discuss this like men. Shouting and running all over the place, are you looking to start something?” K pressured Qinjin.

During this time, Xu Ben walked over to the bar, taking the phone that Xiao Ya was using to call 110 and shook his head at the surprised girl.

“Let’s not talk. Just hand over the girl and I’ll leave.” Qinjin calmed down slightly.

“Talk to me,” K said.

“What’s left to talk about, can’t you see this stuff on me!?” Qinjin gestured wildly at the juice that he was covered in.

“He started to touch me first! I swatted him away but he still put his arm around my waist, so I splashed him,” Xiao Ya said, red creeping onto her face.

“Bullshi*t! How the hell was I supposed to know that you were behind me? I was gaming!” Qinjin denied vehemently.

From there, Luocheng understood the gist of what had happened.

Probably, this Qinjin guy had tried to make a move on Xiao Ya but she had splashed him in the face, and in his embarrassment, Qinjin had decided to retaliate in anger.

This type of person, casually thinking that they could do whatever they wanted to just because they had access to their daddy’s credit card.

And to think that Luocheng had thought this to be a reputable place… Having to stoop so low just to get a girl!?

“Xiao Ya, just apologize, it’s not a big deal,” K said.

“Let me pour juice on you and then you can apologize, would you f*cking accept that?” Qinjin said.

“So, what do you want?”

“Tell her to lick it off Gao’s face.” A guy with coconut-like hair snickered from the back.

Lin Dong’s brows furrowed, telling a girl to do such a thing, these guys just wanted to mess around with Xiao Ya.

“Qinjin, go wash up, this is water under the bridge, my friends are here as well, so just go get ready and we’ll start the next competition.” K tried to change the topic.

“As if taking care of a few noobs will take me long, let me get rid of this b*tch first.” Qinjin refused to back down.

“Who are you calling a noob, I’ll solo you with one arm tied behind my back! I’ll even let you jerk me off after I’m down mopping the floor with you!” Da Luo wasn’t having any of those insults, challenging the man.

“And who the f*ck are you?” asked Qinjin.

“They are our Team Birdie, your opponents this month,” said K.

It was at this moment that Gao Qinjin finally glanced over at the five members of Team Skycrown, laughing coldly as he said, “What, you want to butt in, too? Do you want a real fight before our competition?”

“I’m dying to! Let me tell you, Xiao Ya is part of our team as well, if you mess with her, then you’re messing with us!” Da Luo was done warming up and he was raring to go.

Can’t imagine what fighting in a high end cybercafe would feel like it, the suspense was torturous!

They didn’t have anything to their name, anyway. Fighting and then leaving, the worst case scenario was that they just wouldn’t come back here. After all, Team Skycrown was only here under the guise of Team Birdie!