League of Legends: League of Unknowns

After Commander Qin had related events to him, Yu Luocheng felt he roughly understood what had happened.

When he wasn’t training in the evenings, Huang Yu used to frequent various bars around the place.

In a rare moment of free time, he’d gone out for a drink like he used to do, and ran into the players of Aviator’s top representative team.

There were only four cyber cafés of note in Lecheng. Regular patrons were all acquainted with each other.

Wu Kai had never forgotten about his humiliating dismissal by Commander Qin. When he saw Team Scarlet’s leader Huang Yu at the bar, he pointed straight at him and told everyone just who he was.

It turned out that some of the players had known Huang Yu since a while back, and they began taunting him about the time he’d been rejected by some girl.

It was still a sore spot for Huang Yu, and he didn’t take kindly to being reminded of it. A shouting match soon led to an all-out brawl.

The whole thing stank. One moment everyone was shouting and shoving each other, and then suddenly a beer bottle had been smashed and then driven into Huang Yu’s hand.

The way his hand had been injured, he would no longer be able to play as well as he used to.

The intention was obvious: They wanted to prevent Huang Yu from playing in the big upcoming game!

Everyone had their sights set on those thirty thousand bucks. With a veteran leader like Commander Qin at the helm, Team Scarlet stood a substantial chance of coming out on top. Team Aviator was doing this in the hopes that it would drop Team Scarlet out of the running!

It was the most despicable kind of tactic. Yang Qianqian had been composing herself as a lady in their presence this whole time, but hearing all this, even she could think of a few choice words she ought not to say.

This wasn’t the first time they’d heard of underhanded methods between competing teams before the actual game, but to think that it would happen in a LoL tournament! No wonder Xiao Dao was hollering about chopping off someone’s hands!

Xiao Dao, Huang Yu, Xiao Tongtong, and Xue Haiyang had been in League of Legends since the beginning. Their passion for the game was real.

At first, they’d just played it casually, craving a game every so often. However, for the sake of this tournament, they’d spent the past two months training ten hours each day in the cyber café!

Ten-hour daily training was tantamount to being a pro-gamer!

Playing for fun and as a profession are two different things. Maybe you think playing ten hours of LoL every day for four or five days is no big deal. Try ten days of that, or several months on end, and it goes from being a fun game to an excruciating form of torture. All you’ll think about is training, training, training…

They’d taken their carefree past-time and turned it into a serious endeavor, all for the sake of scoring the grand prize in Lecheng. Just as they were getting within sight of it, they’d suddenly been hamstrung by this shameless act.

Everyone knew Commander Qin made a living off of games. Most people would suffer if they missed a single month’s pay—what more Yin Qin, who’d invested so much in Team Scarlet over the past two months?

Qin sat on the bench, and several times he’d taken out a cigarette, but then remembered that he was in a hospital, and so had put it away once more.

Yang Qianqian made a whispered suggestion, “Can you put in a temporary substitute for him?” There were quite a few skilled Solo Mid players in the Dragon Rising Cyber Café. If they could be brought into Team Scarlet to take part in the tournament, they might still have a chance.

Commander Qin shook his head. “No substitutions allowed.”

“Commander, why don’t you step out for a smoke, huh?” Yu Luocheng patted him on the shoulder.

Yin Qin nodded. Leaving the others to wait outside the nurse’s office, he went outside with Yu Luocheng.

***

“Commander Qin, how much money have you put into this?” Yu Luocheng asked.

Yin Qin staggered. “You’ve figured me out.”

“A blind man could have seen through it. You’re trying to expand into professional e-sports.”

Providing room and board for his team members, paying them a salary, and setting a regular training schedule… it was the beginnings of a pro-gaming team. Yu Luocheng had been in that line of work before—how could he miss the signs?

Professional gamers and normal contestants were two entirely different species. Pro-gamers trained for long periods, worked in consistent teams with clear leadership, and might even have their own agency and sponsors.

Normal contestants were skilled casual players who had banded together for the sake of a competition. While their individual skills might be considerable, there would nevertheless be an enormous difference from pro-gamers who trained regularly.

It wasn’t mere chance that led to Team Scarlet becoming the top team in the Dragon Rising Cyber Café, nor was it solely due to Yu Luocheng’s addition to the team—it was because they’d been training harder than any other team in there. Everyone knew this: they’d all seen the Team Scarlet players training in Section C, day after day.

“I’ve put in a sizeable amount. The value of online games keeps dropping every day. If I don’t find a new source of revenue soon…” Yin Qin sighed.

“Getting into e-sports isn’t that great an idea, either. Sure, it has low entry requirements: a few computers, a room, and some basic living expenses, and you can field your own team—but it’s precisely because of this that the competition is so fierce.

“And there are only so few worthwhile e-sports events, with everyone waiting to pounce on them… it’s like a bunch of fish huddled together at the bottom of a dam, trying to squeeze through the gates—some actually do make it, sure; but the whole length of the river is littered with the corpses of those who were crushed to death in the attempt. Even if you make it through to the other side, that’s no guarantee things will be any better.”

“You would know more about e-sports than I do, and you’re one of those fish who actually made it through.” Yin Qin made a wry smile, and took a deep pull on his cigarette. “But you’re still young, and if you take a step down the wrong path, you can still turn back and pick a better one.”

A step down the wrong path…

Somehow, those words made Yu Luocheng feel like he’d been stabbed in the heart. To tell the truth, even to this day, he still couldn’t be sure if that had actually been a mistake.

“As for me, the years weigh heavy on my back,” Qin lamented bitterly. “I didn’t know any better back then. I thought that as long as I was enjoying myself, with some friends at my side, that would be enough.

“Now I’m pushing thirty, and I don’t know how to do anything besides play computer games. Those I called my brothers have scattered to the four winds, and few among them still keep in touch with me. I’ll be glad if they still call me ‘Commander Qin’, though I really couldn’t say what I’ve done to deserve such accord.”

Yu Luocheng offered no comment to all this.

Looking at him, Yin Qin went on, “Ice, Artifact, Mudcat… You should know these names. When we swore to be brothers, you were right there with us, and we laughed about how you were still just a kid. Those guys were smart. They knew there was no future down this road, and broke off long ago.

“I was the only one stupid enough to keep going at it, and now I’m stuck—but if you asked me to try something new, what else could I do, and how would I even get started at it? Sure, hire some people, do some business, I suppose I could manage… but how could I inflict that misery on my wife and kids? You’ve met Marianne before—she absolutely can’t stand being looked down upon.”

“And that’s why you’re branching into e-sports?” Yu Luocheng asked.

“Yup. LoL is red-hot now—it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a game cause such a stir. A competition in a little town like ours, and the grand prize goes up to thirty thousand. More if you can keep on going…”

He flicked the cigarette to the ground and crushed it underfoot, then looked up at Yu Luocheng. “Kid, I think it’s the right choice for you to get out of pro-gaming. This road is more treacherous than playing Ranked under 1,200 during the summer holidays. It’s claimed a lot of lives . ¹ ”

“At my age, I don’t really have a choice in the matter.”

“I know how good you are. This time, I’m really begging you to do your best for me. At least… at the very least, we have to make it to the top of Lecheng! This is very important to me!” Yin Qin said this earnestly.

Watching him bare his heart like this, it didn’t sit right with Yu Luocheng.

He knew there were many others out there who, like Commander Qin, relied on the games industry for a living. There was truly no turning back for them—they had no choice but to keep on going, for better or worse.

Yin Qin had never had it easy, and yet he’d shelled out a whole thirty thousand for his sake. Yu Luocheng didn’t know how he’d ever express how grateful he felt.

Now the leader of Team Scarlet was down with an injury, and Yin Qin had everything riding on this. If they failed to make a real name for themselves here, it would be a bleak road ahead for him.

Yu Luocheng would not stand by and watch Commander Qin get beaten!

Anyway, if he didn’t win first place in Lecheng, where would he get the money to repay Qin’s loan to him—the loan he’d granted without a moment’s hesitation.

Being short a player was genuinely cause for some concern—but then again, how many Ranked games had he played in already, where he had to go 4v6, even 3v7?

This was just 4v5. No big deal.

And definitely no reason for them to lose!