With a lightning fast combination of key presses and mouse movements, Lin Feng pulled off a perfect combo. There was no counterplay. The Jinx player’s screen turned grey before he even noticed the Lee Sin!

The other four players on the blue team felt their heads spinning. D-dead? Just like that? They stared at their screen stupefied. Before they had a chance to group up, before they even had a chance to see what was happening, Jinx had already died. Their plan to bring Lee Sin down a peck was thwarted before it could even be put into action. As for the teamfight that followed, it was a one sided massacre.

The 50,000 viewers of Ol’ Black’s stream spammed his chat with 6s. Ol’ Black himself wore an expression of indescribable shock. He’d been smurfing around in low elo for a long time. So long so that he had lost count of the number of opponents he crushed. However, never before had he encountered a Lee Sin who played at such an impossibly high level. He was at a complete loss for words.

Ol’ Black’s real skill level was around Diamond 2. Watching this Lee Sin play, he could tell they were at least Master, or perhaps even Challenger! Nevertheless, noob-stomping in low elo was still his field of expertise. He quickly snapped back to his senses and shouted, “God dammit! I won’t let you take all the glory!” He pressed down on his W key and dashed into the enemy Ahri with his LeBlanc, bursting her down in lightning speed!

The rest of Lin Feng’s team snapped back to their senses too. They excitedly carried out a one sided massacre. Before long, the game announcer’s voice rang across Summoner’s Rift.

《Ace!》

Red team only lost one player, easily wiping out the opposing team and achieving victory. The five players on the blue team ended up losing the will to fight and started a surrender vote as soon as the game reached 20 minutes. It was unanimously accepted.

Chaotic energies warped and twisted around the blue team’s nexus before it exploded. The word “VICTORY” appeared in big, bold letters in the center of the game screen.

“Easy win!” Ol’ Black exclaimed, only for his expression to crumple. He noticed his chat was only talking about Lee Sin and quite enthusiastically at that.

「Lee Sin is so 6666666666!」
「godlee godlee godlee!!!!!!」
「Ima buy lee and play just like godlee!」
「First time I’ve seen Ol’ Black get carried. This Lee is amazing!」

This time around, Ol’ Black was completely relegated to the supporting role. However, he had no choice but to admit that the Lee Sin had truly carried the game, picking up the most kills, dictating the tempo of the game, and even showing off flashy plays.

Hell! I Can’t even make an honest living stomping noob nowadays! This is supposed to be my schtick! What’s this Lee’s name again? Evening Snowfall? Ol’ Black thought as he reclined back into his chair and picked his teeth with a toothpick. He rubbed his chin for a bit before coming to a decision. “I’ve got to see what kinda streamer plays such a godly Lee Sin. Guys, follow me, we’re going on a raid!”

✹

By the time Ol’ Black and his army of viewers arrived in Su Xue’s stream, the only two people remaining on the facecam were Su Xue and Zuo You. As for Lin Feng, he’d bid everyone farewell right after finishing the match, telling the viewers that he had to do his homework.

The new viewers were dumbfounded. This kid’s still in school? What the fuck! Since when are high schoolers so good at League of Legends!?

Ol’ Black ended up missing Lin Feng. However, he wasn’t too disappointed. After all, he was greeted by the sight of two pretty ladies, which was a nice consolation. He especially took a liking to Su Xue. He bantered and chatted with her, finding himself attracted to her personality, as the small stream bustled with activity. In the end, he sent her a few donations and added her as a friend on League, suggesting they should duo together some time.

Given Ol’ Black’s popularity as a streamer, offering to duo queue together with a new streamer was the same as giving them access to his viewership. Su Xue naturally wasn’t stupid. She knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her. She happily took him up on his offer without any hesitation.

Su Xue’s loyal viewers were over the moon by this latest development.

「our xuexue is making it bigtime guyss!!!」
「I’m not crying you’re crying! It feels like only yesterday that she started streaming League」
「Work hard, Xue Xue! you; be the number one girl streamer on Huya!」

✹

Lin Feng was oblivious to these developments. After finishing the match, he scurried back to his bedroom. He sat down in front of his desk and turned the light on, then started tackling his homework with the same enthusiasm as he had while playing League. Solving problems, doing practice quizzes, and memorization. Lin Feng employed his Tryndamere and Nasus study strategy, tackling the questions from easiest to hardest like he was building up his rage bar and stacking up his knowledge like Nasus’ Q.

About two hours later, just as he was almost finished with his homework, Lin Feng heard the door to his bedroom creak open. He turned around to find Su Xue’s head peeking around the corner. “Hmmm?”

Su Xue jolted unnaturally. She awkwardly said, “Ahem, are you still studying? Did I disturb you?”

Lin Feng scratched his head. “Oh, it’s fine. I just finished my homework.”

“Already?” Su Xue remarked in surprise. Glancing over at the desk, she saw piles and piles of schoolwork and couldn’t help but be amazed. “Wow, all that in just a couple of hours? That’s some efficiency.”

“I have a special study method.” Lin Feng chuckled. Then, he curiously asked, “You finished streaming? Do you need something?”

“Ah yeah, I just ended the stream.” Su Xue nodded. She then completely glossed over Lin Feng’s other question and asked, “Did you get enough to eat earlier tonight? Are you feeling hungry? Want me to cook up a midnight snack?”

Lin Feng scratched his chin in contemplation. He then rubbed his stomach as his face lit up. “Sure, I could go for some food!”

Su Xue finally returned to her normal self. She rolled her eyes. “You little punk. Do you really have to think about if you’re hungry or not? Fine, give me a minute, I’ll whip up some stir-fried noodles.”

Lin Feng’s eyes went wide in surprise. “Why are you being so nice tonight?”

“Err- that’s…” Su Xue choked. After struggling to find an answer, she erupted in annoyance, “You li’l punk, what do you mean by that? You have a problem with me making you a midnight snack? Do you want to eat or not? If not, I’ll just go!”

Lin Feng was caught off-guard by Su Xue’s sudden outburst, having no idea what he said wrong. However, the temptation of the midnight snack was too great. He instantly acknowledged his wrongdoing, whatever it was. “Sorry, I was wrong. I still want to eat!”

Su Xue harumped. “That’s what I thought. Sit tight.”

About 20 minutes later, a piping-hot bowl of noodles greeted Lin Feng in front of the kitchen table. He dug in with much gusto.

Su Xue rested her chin against her hand. Seeing Lin Feng wolfing down on the food so enthusiastically, she couldn’t help but smile. “Tasty?”

“Mhm!” Lin Feng exclaimed as he stuffed his face with noodles. Afterwards, he looked up at Su Xue and asked, “You’re treating me awfully nicely. Do you need me for something?”

“Oh! Ummm…” Su Xue was at a loss for words.

Zuo You noticed Su Xue’s strange expression and followed her gaze to the chat. The stream only had 50-odd viewers a minute ago. Now, however, the viewer count shot up to almost 600! “The hell! What’s going on?” she gasped, her eyes going wide.

It was precisely this audible gasp that made the viewers from Ol’ Black’s stream take notice of the streamers. They forgot about the game for a moment as their gazes shifted over to the facecam. The first person their eyes gravitated towards was Lin Feng.

「heyyy look at that pretty boi!」
「he looks sooooo cute」
「I wonder if he swings the other way……」

The viewers from Ol’ Black’s streams made some teasing remarks aimed at Lin Feng, until they noticed the two beauties sitting next to him. To the left was an amiable looking, black-haired beauty with fair skin and delicate features. To the right was a refreshing short-haired redhead in a beige blouse that accentuated her alluring figure, in particular her overflowing chest.

Hot dang! The several hundred viewers that came over from Ol’ Black’s streams were dumbstruck. Their collective eyes lit up. Those were two exceptional beauties! The ones you could normally only see in fashion magazines! However, they both seemed a bit older than the kid in the middle. What was going on? Could it be that the streamer had a thing for the big sister types? Regardless, with two beauties next to him, his luck with the ladies was certainly as impressive as his Lee Sin plays!

Curious about the stream, the newcomers from Ol’ Black’s stream started asking questions in chat.

「Is he a new streamer?」
「how is he only gold?!?!? that SOTO godlee is insane!!!!」
「Hi hotties! Nice tits! Now gimme your digits!」

Su Xue’s loyal viewers took it upon themselves to answer this bombardment of questions. They started replying enthusiastically.

「Yeah, this is a new streamer!」
「The streamer isn’t the li’l bro in the middle. It’s the long-haired girl next to him. Lately, we’ve booted her out from her seat, and now she’s the maid in charge of pouring water for him.」
「The li’l bro is really good! His ADC is friggin amazing!!!」
「The streamer lives with this li’l bro. He’s the landlady’s nephew.」

A deluge of messages filled the chat, leaving the newcomers from Ol’ Black’s stream in a daze. Only after a while did they understand the gist of the situation. Evening Snowfall was the long-haired beauty next to the kid? She was gorgeous!

Su Xue’s original viewers continued on enthusiastically,「But she’s really bad at the game! thats why we demoted ehr to maid!」

“Hey! I’m not the maid! Who gave you guys that power!? Listen here! I’m your streamer, got it?” Su Xue exploded. Then, she quickly fixed her expression and turned to the webcam with a warm smile. “Hello, everyone! Welcome to my stream! I’m Evening Snowfall. If you enjoy your stay here, please hit the follow button below the stream!”

Her old viewers immediately chided.

「Look! Look! She’s trying to scam people into watching her again!」
「Oh boy. I wonder how many more suckers will join us.」
「They have no idea what kind of feeding they’re in for.」

“You ingrates, shut it!” Su Xue shouted.

The bickering between Su Xue and her viewers appeared quite natural as if they were friends messing around with each other. The newcomers from Ol’ Black’s stream were amused.

「Hah, this chick is pretty funny」
「Sure i’ll give you a follow」
「i wanna see her play a game!!」

✹

The game was coming to an end. At the 19-minute mark, the third dragon was about to spawn. The previous two had been secured by Lin Feng’s Lee sin. The five enemies trembled in fear as they rushed to prevent the third dragon from falling in Lee Sin’s hands as well. They couldn’t afford to lose this one, or else red team would completely steamroll over the game with the third dragon buff stack.

That said, even without this third dragon buff stack, the blue team was already getting steamrolled and the game looked pretty bleak for them. Lin Feng’s performance in this game was nothing short of godly. After getting 20 stacks on his Sword of the Occult[mfn]This is the maximum number of stacks[/mfn], he was already starting to build tank items. Like this, he was impossible to kill 1v1.

The 500 viewers in Su Xue’s stream shifted their attention back to the game.

「this should be the last fight, right?」
「If the enemy loses this dragon, they might as well surrender」
「Tsk tsk, looks like the enemy is playing pretty cautiously…」
「What good wil that do em? are they blind or something? Look at godlee!」

Back in the game, Ol’ Black was roaming around the lower river looking for picks. The enemy Jinx and Ahri were his priority targets. “Dammit! Why are their carries playing so afraid!” he cursed in annoyance. Whenever his LeBlanc moved the slightest inch forward, Jinx and Ahri would immediately back far away, giving him no chance to go in. Ol’ Black was starting to wonder if he should just go in and try to force a teamfight. However, Lee Sin was already one step ahead of him.

“Let’s kill Jinx first!” Lin Feng shouted in high spirits in front of his screen. At this moment, he happened to find an opportunity to land a Sonic Wave on the enemy Jinx over a wall in the fog of war.

Was this it? Yes, this was it! The eyes of the hundreds of viewers in the stream lit up. The Sonic Wave landed! Lee Sin could go in! However, some of the newcomers didn’t agree.

「Lee’s damage is really high, but he’s also kinda squishy. If he jumps in with his q, even if he trades one for one, I don’t think it’ll be worth it.」

This analysis wasn’t wrong. That was why Lin Feng had no intention of trying to trade his life for Jinx’s! He had an even better plan! “Watch this play!” he exclaimed as he activated all his skills at lightning speed, his fingers gliding smoothly over his keys!

Lee Sin placed down a ward over the wall and hopped to it with Safeguard, which happened to place him right in front of Jinx! Then out came a Dragon’s Rage as a furious kicked swept forth.

“Flash!” Lin Feng excitedly exclaimed as his finger pressed down on his D key, activating the Summoner’s Spell. In an instant, Lee Sin disappeared from his original position and reappeared behind the Jinx. Then, the powerful kick connected with the petite gunner’s body. “YEEEEKUUUUH!!!” Lin Feng cried out, his voice overlapping with Lee Sin’s as it boomed out of the speakers. Jinx was launched airborne and sent flying toward Ol’ Black and the other players on red team!

“Perfect!” Lin Feng activated the second part of his first skill, Resonating Strike. Lee Sin’s figure immediately soared toward the airborne Jinx. In other words, Lee Sin went from diving into the heart of the enemy team to flying back out using their ad-carry as the springboard, all in the span of a second! As Lee Sin’s foot made contact with Jinx’s body, the last bit of her health disappeared.

《Legendary!》

The viewers gaped in shock. The chat went dead silent.

HOLY SHIT! A Dragon’s Rage-Flash? No, it wasn’t that simple. This was a stunning combo that linked three of his four skills and a summoner’s spell together! This was theoretically Lee Sin’s highest damage combo! At the same time, it was also the most mechanically difficult move to pull off! Not only that, but he had also escaped completely unscathed!

Afterwards, as if all the tension was released at once, the chat erupted with 666s. This Lee Sin was simply transcendent!

With a free double kill at bot and a solo kill in mid, there was no one left to defend dragon. So, Lin Feng led the charge to the dragon pit from bot lane and pinged LeBlanc to come help.

Ol’ Black was still in a daze before the ping snapped him back to his senses. As he headed toward the dragon, he couldn’t help but type in chat,「Nice play, Lee.」

When the viewers of Su Xue’s stream saw this message, they immediately stirred.

「Woah! Ol’ Black is praising us!」
「Dumbass! He’s praising li’l bro, not us!」
「Hehehe! Its fine! Were his viewers Praise for him is the same as praise for us!」
「whatever」

Su Xue stared at her chat speechless. In only a few games, her viewers had gone turncoat and joined team Lin Feng.

Zuo You was amazed, but she still remained a bit unconvinced. She quirked her lips. “That took no skill. The enemy bot lane was begging to get killed by pushing out so far without proper wards. And then you went and took both kills. What do you need them for? Aren’t they better on the ad-carry?””

Lin Feng didn’t mind as a carefree smile surfaced on his face. “The more kills I get, the easier it’ll be for me to carry!”

Zuo You rolled her eyes. “You, carry? What, are you going something stupid like full AD?”

“Yep!” Lin Feng nodded in high spirits.

✹

After securing the first dragon, everyone recalled back to base.

“Hmm… what items should I go?” Ol’ Black hummed as he browsed the shop. “This Ahri is terrible. So, it’s fine to go a bit agg—” He couldn’t finish his sentence as his eyes landed on a pop up in chat.

《EveningSnowfall (Lee Sin) purchased Sword of the Occult.》 

The viewers in Ol’ Black’s chat went crazy after seeing this notification.

「Holy crap! Lee went sword of the ioccult!!!!」
「Is he crazy!? What a god!」
「how many stacks you think he’lll get?」

“What the… This Lee really is trying to steal the spotlight from me here! He actually bought a Sword of the Occult?”

Meanwhile, Lin Feng’s purchase shocked Su Xue and Zuo You even more. The duo practically couldn’t believe their eyes.

“H-hey, aren’t you getting a little too ahead of yourself?” Su Xue asked.

“You’re letting those few kills go to your head! Don’t blame me for saying I told you so when you lose your lead!”

“Don’t worry! I’m a really good Sword of the Occult Lee!” Lin Feng spoke his catchphrase. From the moment Su Xue first met him, she’d heard him say this exact line a number of times, with only the last part changing. “Don’t worry. I’m a really good _____!” Ad-carry, Support, Jungle, Lee Sin, or anything else. Every time he spoke this sentence, he would live up to it. This game wouldn’t be any different.

At about seven minutes into the game, Lee Sin invaded the blue team’s jungle again and caught Jarvan doing Gromp[mfn]a lone monster standing in a corner across from blue buff[/mfn]. Of course, a 0/2/0 Jarvan IV stood no chance against the 4/0/0 Lee Sin going full damage.

Lee Sin kicked Jarvan IV away with his ultimate, Dragon’s Rage[mfn]Lee Sin performs a powerful roundhouse kick launching his target back, dealing physical damage to the target and any enemies they collide with. Enemies the target collides with are knocked into the air for a short duration.[/mfn], chipping away the last one third of his health. Jarvan IV collapsed to the ground, Sword of the Occult gained 2 stacks, and Lee Sin was now 5/0/0.

At about nine minutes into the game, Ol’ Black decided to go all in on the Ahri in mid. He bursted two-thirds of Ahri’s health in an instant, but she managed to escape the range of his mimicked Ethereal Chains[mfn]LeBlanc launches a chain that shackles the first enemy hit. If the target remains shackled for 1.5 seconds, LeBlanc roots them and deals additional damage[/mfn] with Flash. The low-health Ahri hurriedly retreated behind her tower.

Before Ol’ Black could get annoyed that the enemy escaped, a flash of silver energy came flying out from the wraith camp and struck Ahri! Lin Feng came flying over the wall with Resonating Strike[mfn]Sonic Wave: Lee Sin projects a discordant wave of sound to locate his enemies, dealing physical damage to the first enemy it encounters. If Sonic Wave hits, Lee Sin can cast Resonating Strike for the next 3 seconds. Resonating Strike: Lee Sin dashes to the enemy hit by Sonic Wave, dealing physical damage based on the target’s missing Health.[/mfn], then activated his ultimate, Dragon’s Rage.

Ahri collapsed to the ground as her summoner’s screen went grey.

Ol’ Black’s jaw dropped. “Fuck! What is that damage!?”

Sword of the Occult gained two more stacks. Lin Feng’s score was 6/0/0. He was unstoppable!

✹

Lin Feng’s damage soared the more he killed, and the more damage he did the more kills he got! With more than a dozen stacks on his Sword of the Occult, Lee Sin could just about instantly kill anyone on the enemy team!

The several dozen viewers in the stream felt their scalps tingling. Even Zuo You was in awe of Lin Feng despite her earlier scornful attitude. Only, Su Xue was completely calm. She was already numb to Lin Feng’s freakish game skills.

For Ol’ Black’s viewers, this was their first time seeing Lin Feng’s skills. It was surprise after surprise for them as they watched him pull off all sorts of crazy plays! He was an absolute force! Waves of shock battered their hearts! Noob stomping was nothing new to them. In fact, they’d seen Ol’ Black play mid Lee Sin plenty of times and carry the entire game just the same. However, they’d never seem someone as domineering as Lin Feng!

「the Lee is a streamer on Huya, right?」
「Damn, she’s so good!」
「Probably the best Lee I’ve ever seen…」
「can someone link her stream? I wanna go take a look」

Ol’ Black’s viewers were shocked and amazed, but this last message snapped many of them out of their daze.

「Right right! someone link godlee’s channel!」
「just search Evening Snowfall! Lezz goooo!!!!!」
「Go go go! Let’s go there and bow our heads in worship!」

Lin Feng was still happily picking off the enemies left and right wherever he went in the game. His Sword of the Occult was full at 20 stacks. The viewers in the stream were all in a daze. When they finally snapped out of their daze, they were just about to spam the chat with praise when they discovered some people were already ahead of them.

「Ol’ Black raid squad deploying!」
「Hell yeah we found godlees channel!!!」
「Target locked! Begin deployment! Men, launch the barrage!」

Then, the small stream of only a few dozen or so viewers was raided.

「6666666!!!」
「6666!」
「666666666666!」

A tsunami of 6s blotted out the chat. However, with the chat located far off in the corner of the screen and Lin Feng completely focused on the game, he failed to notice the commotion. Su Xue, on the other hand, immediately noticed it. She watched the 6s flooding her chat. They came in at a frightening speed! She could only stare blankly at this sudden development, her mind spinning as if a bomb went off in her head. W-w-what’s going on?

Lin Feng, Su Xue, Zuo You, and the viewers watched as Jarvan IV’s figure came into sight. He strutted over directly to his blue buff with his Drakebane lance, completely oblivious to the danger in the surroundings, and started attacking it.

The ward Lin Feng placed down in the blue camp earlier revealed everything Jarvan IV was doing. Lin Feng patiently watched Jarvan IV blow all his skills to get the blue buff to half health before moving up from the river entrance brush into the enemy jungle. Following along the ring-shaped wall around the blue camp, he tunneled into the brush just behind Jarvan IV. Then, he threw out a basic attack.

At half health and with his skills on cooldown, Jarvan IV was caught with his pants down. Before he could react, Lee Sin slammed down on the ground with Tempest, then activated Cripple before throwing out a Resonating Strike at the target.

A silver, glowing marker appeared over Jarvan IV’s head.

Jarvan IV never expected the enemy Lee Sin to Level 2 invade him. He’d already lost a good chunk of his health and blown all his skills, leaving him powerless to retaliate. Panicked, he flashed away in an attempt to escape.

“Hehehe, where do you think you’re going?” Lin Feng pressed down on his Q key with lightning speed. Lee Sin flew forward with the second part of Resonating Strike! Then, he started auto-attacking, keeping Jarvan IV from escaping with the slow from red buff.

Jarvan IV was already at low health. After eating several more auto-attacks from Lee Sin, his health bar drained. His last sliver of health was chipped away by the burn from red buff. Before he could even call out “Demacia”, he fell to his knees and collapsed dead on the ground.

《First blood!》 

Back in mid-lane where Ol’ Black was facing Ahri, he looked over to the enemy’s jungle in shock. “Oh shit! He actually got the kill?”

The viewers in Su Xue’s stream were similarly stunned. They immediately stirred and started flooding the chat with praise.

「6666666![mfn]In Chinese streams, spamming 666 is the same as saying, “You’re so cool!”. The pronunciation for six sounds the same as the character for slick/cool. I’m still wondering if I should keep this aspect of the raws in the translation or localize it to something else.[/mfn]」
「Godlee!!!!」
「holy shit! That was amazing!!!!1!」

“Huh? First blood that easily? No way, right?” Su Xue’s jaw dropped.

Zuo You also gaped in astonishment, but she quickly recovered. A nonchalant expression on her face, she remarked, “Eh, the enemy Jarvan IV was simply careless. Just a first blood. Nothing big.”

“Right! It’s just first blood!” Lin Feng nodded in agreement. Then, he excitedly declared, “So, let’s kill him again”

“K-kill him again?” Zuo You was taken aback as were the viewers. They soon learned how Lin Feng planned to bring this plan to fruition.

After killing Jarvan IV, Lin Feng turned back to kill the enemy’s blue buff which helped him level up to 3. Then, instead of returning back to base, he walked into the bush within the blue camp and waited.

Zuo You and the viewers couldn’t believe their eyes. T-t-this… he was planning another ambush! No way that would work again, right?

✹

Half–a-minute later, Jarvan IV arrived back at the blue camp. The poor Jarvan IV was clearly depressed after just giving away first blood. Little did he know that an even greater tragedy awaited him.

The viewers almost couldn’t bear to look. Too despicable! Too shameless! Killing him once wasn’t enough already? Now you want to kill him again!?

Lin Feng didn’t need to explain his plan this time. The viewers were well aware of what was going on. Of course, Jarvan IV was going to come back to his blue buff. He had no idea if his blue buff was still there or if Lee Sin didn’t fully clear it and left one or two small monsters[mfn]blue buff and red buff are camps of monsters consisting of one large one, which gives the blue and red buff respectively, and two small ones. If you only kill the big one, the camp doesn’t reset. This is a common tactic when counter-jungling. So, in this case Jarvan IV, needs to make sure the camp is cleared, or it won’t respawn[/mfn]. This was precisely why Lin Feng waited in ambush again.

Jarvan IV approached the blue camp. The viewers held their breaths and stared at the screen intently, fearing they would miss something if they blinked. When Jarvan IV entered the blue camp brush, he instantly gained vision of everything inside it, in particular the Lee Sin right in front of him!

Oh… fuck! Jarvan IV immediately tried to escape, throwing down his Demacian flag with Demacian Standard and jumping to it with Dragon Strike. However, Lee Sin had already thrown out a Sonic Wave at him, then dashed forward with the follow-up Resonating Strike. He slammed down with Tempest and Cripple for the slow! Then, he continued chasing down Jarvan IV.

Before long, the pitiful clatter of Jarvan IV’s armour crashing to the ground rang out across blue team’s jungle. The prince of Demacia died again, despair and grief lingering in his eyes. The Jarvan IV player was about to throw his mouse against the wall. All he could hear was the hooves of 10,000 grass-mud-horses stampeding through his mind. Fuck this Lee Sin! Dirty motherfucker!

《An enemy has been slain!》

When Jarvan IV died for the second time, Ol’ Black’s eyes went wide. “What the hell! Why is this Lee such a beast? He killed Jarvan IV again?”

The 50,000 viewers in Ol’ Black’s stream also went into an uproar. Many of them were starting to doubt their eyes and ears. Not even four minutes into the game and Lee Sin was already 2/0/0! Did the enemy Jarvan IV’s mouse stop working?

However, Ol’ Black quickly snapped out of it. His competitive spirit ignited. “That won’t do! I’m supposed to be the main show here! I can’t let Lee Sin steal all the limelight! Watch closely, guys! I’ll show you a massacre in mid!”

One had to admit that Ol’ Black was an excellent LeBlanc player. Especially in this low elo, he could easily out-lane the enemy Ahri who was Gold 2 at best.

✹

At the five-minute mark, Ol’ Black found an opportunity to engage. LeBlanc dashed into Ahri with Distortion and threw out a Sigil of Malice and Ethereal Chains. With sublime reaction speed, Ol’ Black sidestepped Ahri’s Charm and finished her off with Ignite.

“So, what do you think guys? Was that cool or what?” Ol’ Black asked his chat with a smug smile. Then, his smile froze as the game announcer’s voice rang out once more.

《Killing spree!》
《Double kill!》

Just as the viewers were about to shower Ol’ Black with praise, they were dazed. Lee Sin had picked up two more kills at bot lane! They erupted with excitement.

「Holy crap! 66666666!」
「he’s giving you a hardcarry masterclass ol’ black」
「Godleeeeeee!!!!!!」

All sorts of praises flooded the chat. Of course, none of it was directed at Ol’ Black but rather at the Lee Sin and his beautiful gank at bot lane. Ol’ Black was stupefied. “Is he scripting or something? Fuck! How is he picking up kills so fast!?”

The summoner names of teammates weren’t visible during the pick-ban phase, unless they typed in chat. So, the viewers only realized who was on their team when his message appeared in the game chat.

「Mid please. Find my stream by searching Ol’ Black on Huya. Give me my role, and I’ll carry you to the moon~ 」This was the catchphrase of a popular Huya TV League streamer called Ol’ Black. His streams would often have around 50,000 viewers. However, unlike most famous streamers who played in Diamond, Master, and Challenger, he prefered to smurf in low elo and stomp on noobs. Bullying little kids in Silver and Gold, this was what everyone watched Ol’ Black’s stream for.

「no one knows his real rank, but he’s rank 1 smashing n00bs!!!1」
「That’s cuz he’d get zero attention playing people in higher ranks. Lawl.」
「Yeah, but it’s still hella fun to watch him steamroll people in low elo Haha」

The viewers in Su Xue’s chat stirred, going back and forth about what they thought of Ol’ Black.

“Ol’ Black?” Lin Feng scratched his head. “Never heard of him.”

“All you need to know is that he’s a pretty good streamer with a lot of viewers,” Su Xue replied.

Zuo You rubbed her chin, a pensive look on her face. “Oh, right! I’ve watched some of his streams before. Whenever I was really bored. It was pretty entertaining watching him stomp on noobs!” She turned to Lin Feng with a teasing smile. “Haha. You really lucked out this time. Enjoy the free carry.”

“Free carry?” Lin Feng shook his head. He clenched his fist and declared with a confident smile, “I don’t need a carry. I am the carry!”

Zuo You clicked her tongue. “Wow, so confident. Fine, prove it. I’m looking forward to it. Hehe.”

✹

On another stream with 50,000 viewers on Huya TV. “Mhm, what kind of mid laner should I pick for this game? Tell me, guys!” Ol’ Black asked his viewers. He lazily reclined in his chair, picking his teeth with a toothpick.

「mid Garen!」
「show us your Heimer mid!」
「I wanna see you play Xin Zhao!」
「Please show us your Riven plays!」

Ol’ Black chuckled and waved his hands. “Ah, it’s fine. Hehe. Nevermind. I already got someone in mind~” When it came time for him to pick his champion, he sat forward and locked in LeBlanc, the Deceiver.

Mid Leblanc! The tens of thousands of viewers in his chat erupted in excitement. LeBlanc was one of the champions they loved watching Ol’ Black play the most. In these sorts of low elo games, he could use her to toy around with the opponents and decide the game within the first 10 minutes. At the same time, fourth pick also locked in their champion—Lee Sin, the Blind Monk.

“Jungle Lee, huh?” Ol’ Black remarked, continuing to pick at his teeth. “A Lee in this elo, I wonder if he’s actually blind?”[ref]A saying that was popular among Chinese players. Those that could actually play the champion well were called Lee Sin. The rest were simply blind.[/ref] Ol’ Black was playing in high Silver, low Gold. Few if any players could play Lee Sin well in this elo. Ol’ Black quickly laughed. “No problem! Even if our teammates suck, it doesn’t matter. My LeBlanc will carry for sure!”

「Wow! So cooool!」
「Heck yeah! Show us your carry!」
「I want youuuuu!!! Have my babies! <3333」

“Hoh? Seems like we have another streamer in our game,” Ol’ Black mumbled. The Lee Sin had a Huya TV tag beside their summoner name. Another streamer at this rank? The viewers were all surprised. None of them had heard of this Evening Snowfall before!

Ol’ Black rubbed his chin with a pensive look. Then, he smiled and made a casual guess, “Probably a new streamer! The summoner name seems like a girl’s. I wonder if she’s pretty… Well, whatever, doesn’t matter! I’ll let ‘em see how hard I can carry! Hahahaha!”

✹

Back in Su Xue’s stream, the initial hubbub of having a popular streamer in their game died down. The viewers quickly turned their attention to the champion Lin Feng picked.

「Li’l bro, you can play Lee Sin too?」
「Awesome! I love playing Lee!」
「Show us your Lee Sin carry!」

Zuo You stared at Lin Feng and curled her lips. “Kid, you can really play Lee Sin? Not many people can play him well, you know. Just don’t do anything to stupid, wouldn’t wanna be called blind. Hehe.”

“Hey, can you really play Lee? Don’t embarrass me,” Su Xue asked in an anxious tone. Lin Feng mostly played ad-carry on her account. She’d seen him play jungle Jarvan before but never Lee Sin.

“Don’t worry! My Lee Sin is really good!”

「You go li’l bro! We believe in you!」
「Show off your skills!」
「Are you thirsty? Should we tell the maid to get you a drink?」

“Hey! Enough of that, you guys!” Su Xue exclaimed.

✹

They loaded into the game and before long found themselves on Summoner’s Rift. This Gold-rank match was the perfect playground for Ol’ Black with his LeBlanc. Walking down to midlane, he declared full of bravado, “Sit back and watch. I’ll show you guys my god-blanc!”

Lin Feng and his jungle Lee Sin didn’t fall short in confidence either. “We’ve already got this game in the bag!”

“Huh?” Su Xue looked at Lin Feng in surprise.

“How do you already have it won? The game hasn’t even started~” Zuo You asked.

Lin Feng patted his chest. “Because I’m the jungler!”

At 1:55 minutes into the game, the jungle camps spawned. Lin Feng chose to start at red buff, having his top laner help leash for him. He killed it and leveled up. Then, he headed for the enemy jungle.

“Eh?” Ol’ Black remarked in surprise. After forcing the enemy Ahri a step back, he happened to glance at his minimap just as Lin Feng moved down to the enemy blue buff. “Is he planning to counter-jungle?”

✹

“No, I’m not counter-jungling. I’m picking up a free kill,” Lin Feng explained to Su Xue, Zuo You, and the stream viewers with a confident smile. ”The enemy Jarvan probably started red. When he comes to get his blue buff, we just have to wait for him to use up all his skills and then pick up a free kill.”

Su Xue was skeptical, while Zuo You had a pensive look on her face. Even though she didn’t main jungle, she saw these types of early invades often enough. If he succeeded, the payoff was great. She turned her attention to Lin Feng. Is this kid really good enough to counter-jungle? Maybe he’s bullshitting. Well, we’ll see soon enough.

Lin Feng had already crossed the river and silently entered the enemy’s jungle. He placed down a ward over the wall in the blue camp. Then, he waited in the river entrance bush behind the blue camp.

After laying in ambush for only a few seconds, a figure clad in golden armour appeared. The viewers immediately stirred. Jarvan IV was here!

Lin Feng obediently took off his shoes, then sat down at the table with Su Xue and the mystery guest.

“Wash your hands,” Su Xue glared.

Lin Feng hurriedly shot up to his feet to go wash his hands.

The red-headed guest couldn’t help but break out into laughter. “Ah, Xue Xue, is there a need to be so aggressive? You’re practically radiating killing intent.”

“That’s the only way to get this brat to listen. I won’t hover over him like some kind of nice nanny.”

Lin Feng returned from the kitchen. He obediently sat back down at the table and reported, “I washed my hands.”

“Why are you home so late?” Su Xue asked with a look of askance.

“Oh, I was playing ranked with a classmate,” Lin Feng explained.

“That girl you wanted to recruit to your team?”

“Yeah.”

“Hoh, this kid is pretty good. Didn’t you say he just transferred the other day? He’s already convinced a girl to play games with him. Quite slick~” the red-headed guest chimed in.

“Who is she?” Lin Feng asked.

“Ah, she’s-”

“I’m Xue Xue’s best friend, Zuo You,” the red-headed guest answered in Su Xue’s stead, beaming a bright smile. “Lin Feng, right? Aren’t you a cutie.”

Lin Feng scratched his head. “Oh, nice to meet you.”

Su Xue knocked on the table. “The introductions are over, right? The food’s getting cold. Come on, eat.”

Lin Feng picked up a bowl and some chopsticks and started gorging himself on all the dishes, while Su Xue and Zuo You continued chatting on the side. They’d already finished eating.

“What were we talking about? Oh, right! Have you found a new job yet?” Zuo You asked.

“Ahem… uh, no, not yet…” Su Xue coughed.

“Still? It’s already been almost two months! How are you planning to pay rent? Do you need me to lend you some money?” Zuo You was dumbfounded.

Su Xue hurriedly shook her head. “No need. No need. I can still scrape by. If things really get bad, I’ll come to you.”

Zuo You vigorously nodded. “Mhmm. Just let me know, I’ll help you out. So, you really haven’t found any work yet? That’s so weird.”

Su Xue hesitated for a moment before meekly explaining, “Actually, I’ve uhh been trying to become a streamer.”

“A streamer!?” Zuo You’s eyes widened in surprise. “My god! Don’t tell me you’re trying to become one of those League gamer girls on Huya? You know, the ones that show more of their ‘face’ cam than their actual gameplay to trick thirsty guys out of their money?”

Lin Feng raised his head from his bowl and curiously stared at Su Xue’s chest. “I don’t think she has the assets to pull that off.”

“Shut up! Eat your food!” Su Xue snapped.

Zuo You burst out in laughter before coming to the help of her best friend, “Hey hey, don’t say such mean things. She might not fill a sweater out very much, but those legs go on for days!” She then turned her attention back to Su Xue. “Really? A streamer?”

Su Xue forced a hollow smile. “Yeah.”

Zuo You was speechless. “I say, aren’t you a little in over your head here? There’s plenty of proper, honest jobs out there, but you want to become a streamer? Even you know how competitive that scene is, and there are so many unwritten rules, not to mention petty drama going on behind the scenes. Do you think someone with your personality is cut out for it? You’re like a lamb trying to mingle with a pack of hungry wolves! You’ll be eaten alive! You’re just wasting your time!” Her voice grew increasingly bitter and resentful.

“Eh, I think it’ll be alright.”

Zuo You grew more frustrated. “Really? It’ll be alright? It’s not like I don’t know how good you are at the game. At best, and I mean at best, you’re a Gold player. Not even as good as me! You can’t attract viewers with your skills, and given your personality, there’s no way you can cut it as a cutesy e-girl. So, tell me, where do you see a future in streaming?”

“You play League too?” Lin Feng asked in surprise.

Zuo You turned to Lin Feng with a bright smile. “Yep. I’m Plat 3! Pretty good, right?” She quickly swung her head back to Su Xue. “Answer me. How do you see yourself making a career out of this?”

“But I really like this game, and I enjoy being a streamer. Don’t worry, I’ll make a lot of money when I become popular.”

“A lot of money? You think it’s that easy? Only a handful of the very best streamers make good money!” Zuo You harshly said. “So what if you like it? Does liking something pay the bills? Does liking something put food on the table?”

“I think it’s good that she has a dream. As long as she tries hard, anything is possible!” Lin Feng butted in.

“Shut up! Eat your food!” Zuo You snapped.

However, Su Xue immediately latched onto Lin Feng’s words like a midlaner at their jungler’s mistakes. “No, wait! He’s right. I think so too. I know I’m not the best player, but I can get better!”

Zuo You rolled her eyes. “Get better? How are you going to get better? Throw a magic die?”

Lin Feng patted his chest. “I can help her!”

Su Xue vigorously nodded. “Right! He can help me!”

“Are you really good at the game? What rank are you?” Zuo You asked, a hint of surprise and doubt in her eyes.

“I’m a Challenger!” Lin Feng proudly declared.

“PFT!” Zuo You burst out into laughter. “Challenger? A kid like you? Who are you trying to fool? Haha!”

✹

After Lin Feng finished dinner, the trio went into Su Xue’s room.

“Didn’t you say you were a Challenger? How about you show some of your skills to big sis over here?” Zuo You teased.

“Hey, what? I’m supposed to be streaming right now!” Su Xue protested. She had already opened the League client and her stream.

“Who would want to watch a Gold rank player like you play? You might actually bore your viewers to death if you aren’t careful.” Zuo You brushed her off.

“No way! My viewers love watching my stream!” Su Xue argued.

At this moment, Su Xue clicked on the ‘Go Live’ button. Several dozen regular viewers entered the stream. Seeing Su Xue on the facecam, they all stirred.

「our luck…… we get the maid」
「why does she keep trying to hog the stream????/ All she’s good for is bringing water!」
「Where’s li’l bro?」
「Get outta way! We wanna watch li’l bro play ranked!」

Su Xue was speechless.

“Hahaha! Maid? What’s that about? Oh my god, Xue Xue, you really do have it hard. Your viewers all came to watch the kid!”

“Not another word! These traitors need to learn about loyalty!”

Lin Feng and Zuo You had both pulled up chairs and sat down beside Su Xue.

「guysguysgusy it’s lil bro!!」
「Play ranked! Play ranked!」
「Get the maid to move aside! Hey, there’s someone else?」
「huh? Who’s that girl? We haven’t seen her before right?」

The viewers took notice of Zuo You and her attractive figure in the corner of the webcam.

「Wowzers! What a pair!」
「DO A FACE REVEAL!!!!!!」

Reading the chat, Zuo You giggled. She inched herself closer to the webcam and greeted, “Hihi, guyyys.”

The chat exploded with dozens of messages flooding in every second!

「Wow, so hot!」
「short-haired girls are the best!」
「sorry Li’l bro, I changed my mind. Let the red-head stream!」

The fickle viewers had all shifted their attention to Zuo You. However, Lin Feng ignored them as he switched seats with Su Xue. Zuo You took a minute to talk to the viewers about how eager she was to see Lin Feng’s supposed ‘Challenger’ level skills. It was obvious that she was only teasing him, and didn’t actually believe that he was that good. At League or anything else…

“Alright, I’ll start queing up,” Lin Feng said, full of fighting spirit.

Lin Feng quickly got matched into a game. Before he even started picking his champion, the chat stirred.

「Hey! Look at the summoner name of the person in third pick!」
「HOLY SHITSTIDDLES!!! IS THIS FOR REAL?」
「Third pick is also a streamer!」

Lin Feng stunned Janna. Tang Bingyao followed up as she continuously chucked spears at Janna while dashing forward.

Janna’s health rapidly plummeted!

Tristana tried to get Annie to back off by firing shots at her, but Lin Feng didn’t bat an eye. Tiny fireballs continuously struck Janna as he helped in dealing damage.

Janna flashed away while simultaneously throwing out a Howling Gale aimed at Kalista.

A giant tornado swept forth. If Tang Bingyao was knocked up by the Howling Gale, the Janna would escape! But with a perfectly timed Flash, she blinked through the tornado!

“Oh, nice!” Lin Feng praised, his eyes lighting up. “Nice reaction!”

With Kalista still hot on her heels, Janna panicked and tried to shake her off with an Exhaust. However, this barely affected Kalista who continued dashing forward with Martial Poise[mfn]Enter a movement command while winding up Kalista’s basic attack or Pierce to lunge a short distance when she launches her attack.[/mfn]. Tristana also used her Heal on Janna. However, she was still affected by Lin Feng’s Ignite, which reduced the efficiency of Heal by 50%.

Janna’s fate was sealed!

After Tang Bingyao landed one more auto-attack, Lin Feng cried out, “She’s low enough! Rend now!”

Tang Bingyao pressed down on her E key.

A visceral stabbing sound rang out as if a soul were being ruthlessly torn apart!

Janna’s health bottomed out.

《First blood!》

“See, I knew you’d be good with Kalista!” Lin Feng said, beaming.

Lin Feng and Tang Bingyao recalled back to base to buy items. Tang Bingyao’s face was all smiles, and she happily nodded. She was really starting to take a liking to Kalista.

“Good! Let’s get a double kill next!” Lin Feng exclaimed.

If a duo like Annie and Kalista were allowed to get a kill advantage in the early game, they would really become unstoppable. That said, this was still a Diamond ranked game. Tristana and Janna started playing safe and didn’t give away any more kills, albeit at the cost of losing out on some minions.

Lin Feng continuously pressured Tristana and Janna with his highly aggressive Annie. Tang Bingyao was even starting to zone them out of approaching the minion wave.

Eventually, Tristana and Janna had to recall back to base after being poked down to low health, lest they fed two more kills. They realized they couldn’t deal with the Kalista-Annie pair any longer and called in back-up from their jungler.

However, Lin Feng had long since predicted this and typed a message in team chat.「Hey hey, Elise, come down for a counter gank at bot!」

Tang Bingyao was already Level 6 when the enemy Lee Sin came rushing out of the river brush for a gank. The Blind Monk landed a Resonating Strike on Annie and closed in with the second part of the skill.

“Ult me! Ult me!” Lin Feng shouted. Not missing a beat, Tang Bingyao pressed down on her R key and pulled Annie out of being surrounded by the three enemy champions. Tristana even wasted her Rocket Jump trying to close in.

Even after failing their gank attempt, the three enemies didn’t back down and continued giving chase. However, Lin Feng had no plans of running. Elise was already coming in for the counter-gank.

“Go in! Turn the fight!” Lin Feng instructed. He quickly moved his mouse and launched Annie back into the fray with the second part of Kalista’s ultimate. The little girl went flying toward the three enemies like a cannonball.

Annie collided into the Tristana and Lee Sin and knocked the two of them up in the air! Then, Lin Feng pressed down on his W key as a wave of fire swept out. The energized rings of smoke surrounding Annie activated as the flames enveloped all three enemies. A beautiful three-man stun!

Tang Bingyao started dealing damage with her auto attacks. As for the jungle Elise, she rappaled into the fight and instantly went on the low health Janna with a Venomous Bite.

Janna was the first to die. The experience from this kill helped Lin Feng reach Level 6. He’d been waiting for this moment, instantly activating Annie’s ultimate—Summon: Tibbers. Annie threw up the little bear in her hand, which transformed into a frightening monster that unleashed its terror on Tristana!

Tristana instantly lost a large chunk of her health. She panic-flashed in an attempt to escape the fight, but Elise also flashed forward in pursuit. With an auto-attack, she slowed Tristana with her red buff, allowing Tang Bingyao to catch up and pick up the kill with a few autos and Rend.

《Double kill!》

The game hadn’t even reached 10 minutes in, yet Lin Feng and Tang Bingyao had already completely blown up the enemy bot lane. Tang Bingyao followed Lin Feng’s advice on what items to build. As she started scaling with items, she became even more untouchable with the help of Lin Feng’s support. This was why the Kalista-Annie bot duo was feared by many. By combining their ultimates, Kalista could launch Annie deep into the enemy team for a multi-man stun. It was basically a sure-fire move to win teamfights. Needless to say, the duo became even more frightening after being fed, annihilating the enemy in teamfights.

✹

At the 20-minute mark, the enemy team unanimously agreed to a surrender vote.

“So? What do you think? I told you I’m a really good support!” Lin Feng happily exclaimed.

Tang Bingyao was still reflecting on the game. “Wow, Kalista is strong.”

“Huh? Yeah, but we’re talking about how good my support is!”

Tang Bingyao nodded. ‘Yeah, I think I should pick her up.”

“Hey, Tang Tang! I don’t think we’re on the same wavelength here.”

Tang Bingyao snapped out of her daze. “Eh? What were you saying?”

Lin Feng no longer bothered. What mattereed was that Tang Bingyao found Kalista fun to play. So, striking while the iron was hot, he asked, “I told you I’m really good at coaching people! So how about joining my team?”

Tang Bingya considered the offer briefly before shaking her head. “No thanks.”

Lin Feng let out a deep sigh, only for his face to light back up again. “It’s fine! I’ll convince you one of these days!”

✹

After playing a couple more games, Lin Feng realized it was getting a bit late. Sis Xue had probably already prepared dinner and was waiting for him. He quickly shot to his feet, bid Tang Bingyao farewell, and ran home. When he arrived back home, he gently opened the door and poked his head inside, carefully looking around to see if Su Xue was still in her bedroom. However, what met him was Su Xue’s expressionless gaze from the dining room.

“Uh oh I’m busted.” Lin Feng blinked before putting on an innocent smile. “Sis Xue, I’m home!”

Su Xue’s face twitched. She looked like she was about to go off on Lin Feng, but she suddenly took a deep breath and held herself back. “Why are you still standing at the door? Come in already!”

Question marks floated up above Lin Feng’s head. Something was different about Su Xue today. She appeared much more restrained. He soon noticed the guest sitting across from her. She looked the same age as Su Xue. Her hair was dyed dark red like the colour of wine, and she wore a sleeveless, beige vest. In spite of the youthful way she presented herself, it couldn’t mask the mature air about her. She leaned her head on her chin and shot him a mysterious smile.

At the constant pestering of Lin Feng, Tang Bingyao finally agreed to duo queue with him. She picked two Diamond accounts she was boosting and gave one to Lin Feng. Like this, she could get two orders out of the way at once.

Even though Tang Bingyao was occasionally a bit naive, she wasn’t stupid. Boosting a Diamond account was fairly difficult. After witnessing Lin Feng’s skills yesterday, she quickly realized he would be of great help to get the harder orders out of the way. As for the easier orders with Gold and Platinum accounts, she could easily complete them with her ad-carry Draven.

Seeing the list of several dozen accounts along with their passwords on her phone, Lin Feng inched closer, his eyes wide with surprise. “Wow! Tang Tang, you’re really something!”

Tang Bingyao knitted her brows. She didn’t like it when people addressed her so intimately. However, seeing that Lin Feng paid no heed to her discomfort, she could only pretend like she didn’t hear.

“Do you need money badly? Is that why you’re taking on so many elo boosting jobs?” Lin Feng asked, full of interest.

Tang Bingyao shook her head. “I don’t really need money.”

“Eh? Then why are you elo boosting so many accounts?” Lin Feng asked.

“Because I enjoy the feeling of making money,” Tang Bingyao explained.

Some people liked eating tasty food, others liked playing video games, and there were some that enjoyed travelling. Everyone had their own interests. Lin Feng assumed there were many more people like Tang Bingyao who liked the feeling of making money. So, he accepted her answer without a second thought. Entering the username and password Tang Bingyao provided him, he said, “Let’s start!”

✹

Before long, the two entered champion select. Tang Bingyao was first pick, Lin Feng second. She banned three champions[mfn]In Season 5, first pick in ranked games could ban three champions. Since then, this rule has changed.[/mfn], then called ad-carry and moved her mouse to lock in Draven.

“Wait wait wait!” Lin Feng cried out.

“What?” Tang Bingyao stared at Lin Feng.

“I told you. It gets boring always playing Draven. Play another ad-carry today!” Lin Feng brightly smiled.

“I don’t find it boring,” Tang Bingyao objected.

“But like this, it’ll be difficult for you to improve. Switch up the champions you play. I promise you’ll improve really quickly. Then, you’ll be good enough to boost people to Master and Challenger!”

Tang Bingyao pondered for a moment before nodding. At Lin Feng’s suggestion, she locked in Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance. She then turned to Lin Feng and asked, “What role are you playing?”

“Support!” Lin Feng pounded his chest.

“Won’t it be harder to win if we both go the same lane?” Tang Bingyao asked.

“It’s fine! I’m pretty good at support too!”

✹

After everyone had locked in their champion, they went into the loading screen. On the top half of the screen was the blue team with top Irelia, mid Veigar, jungle Elise, ad-carry Kalista, and support Annie. That was right, Lin Feng had picked support Annie! On the bottom half of the screen was the red team with top Darius, mid Orianna, jungle Lee Sin, ad-carry Tristana, and support Janna.

Kalista was the newest ad-carry champion. She quickly gained traction in the pro scene mainly because of her third skill—Rend. The important part of this skill was its synergy with her basic attack, which involved her throwing spears. These spears would remain lodged in whatever champion or monster she was attacking, and the spear stacks continued to build indefinitely. Then, when the moment was right, Rend could be utilized with E and rip the target apart with damage scaling to the number of spear stacks. The sheer amount of damage from this skill along with the timing made her invaluable. It was a phenomenal combo for everything from pushing lane to stopping the opposing team from getting Dragon or Baron.

Lin Feng picked Annie, a little girl boasting powerful magic damage. In the early game, she mostly relied on her strong long-range poke. Then, when she reached Level 6, her full skill combo became available, unlocking frightening damage and crowd control. Not to mention, Annie and Kalista paired very well together. They could combine their ultimates to execute a devastating combo.

“Time to crush the enemy bot lane!” Lin Feng declared.

“I haven’t really played Kalista much,” Tang Bingyao said. She was clearly out of her comfort zone.

“No worries. Kalista is pretty simple. Just requires a little skill with the mouse. She’s perfect for you. All you have to do is go in when I tell you to.”

✹

At around two minutes, Lin Feng and Tang Bingyao killed the two golems in the stretch of jungle adjacent to their bot lane before arriving at the outer tower. This was a little trick you could pull in bot lane. After gaining the experience from killing the golem camp, you could reach Level 2 before the enemy bot lane and seize priority over the lane. Not to mention Lin Feng was really good at juggling the aggro of the golem camp, minimizing the number of attacks the golems dealt. He and Tang Bingyao barely lost any health while killing the golem camp.

When the two reached bot lane, Lin Feng saw the enemy ad-carry and support were already in lane. Both Tristana and Janna’s health bars were full. “They didn’t do golems. We’ll have the Level 2 advantage,” he said.

“Mhm,” Tang Bingyao acknowledged. She started killing the minions.

Kalista’s passive, Martial Poise, allowed her to make a short dash in a targeted direction in the middle of her auto-attacks. This increased her maneuverability and flexibility. A short dash followed by an auto, this certainly took a while to get used to and required good control with the mouse. However, that was exactly why Lin Feng believed Tang Bingyao was particularly suited for this champion.

Tang Bingyao ended up missing the first two minions in the first wave and accidentally dashed toward the enemy, which resulted in her eating a couple of autos. Her face flushed red with embarrassment.

Lin Feng didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he even comforted her, “Don’t worry. You’ll quickly get the hang of her. We have higher damage than them early game. No need to be afraid.”

Tang Bingyao nodded, her eyes flashing with determination. Disappointed with her own play, she became even more driven to master this champion. Even if she was new to this champion, she could still play it well!

Before long, Tang Bingyao started getting used to Kalista’s gimmick. Her movements became more and more natural. Not to mention, the same playstyle she became accustomed to with Draven started slowly revealing itself in her Kalista gameplay. What was that? Aggression! When she found the opportunity, she directly threw out a spear with her Q, piercing through a low-health minion and hitting the Janna. Then, she hopped forward and auto-attacked Janna twice, hopping back on the second auto-attack. Then with another hop, she easily dodged Janna’s Howling Gale.

“Nice!” Lin Feng praised. At the same time, he didn’t slack off with his Annie either. He took advantage of his superior attack range to continuously poke the enemy. From time to time, he would add a Q to his auto attack poke on Tristana, taking small chunks of her health.

As the last few minions of the first wave were killed, Annie was about to level up. Lin Feng stared at his experience bar, his eyes lighting up. “Alright, get ready to go in!”

“En!” Tang Bingyao acknowledged. She had her Kallista last hit a minion, flicking her mouse forward. She hopped toward Janna, a brilliant light enveloping her as she reached Level 2.

“Go!” Lin Feng cried out as he flashed forward, his champion also having reached Level 2.

Annie materialized in front of Janna, wreathed in a ring of swirling smoke; an indicator that her next skill would stun the target for a short duration.

Lin Feng pressed down on his W key—Incinerate!

A cone of scorching hot flames swept forth and stunned Janna. Then, he followed up with Disintegrate and Ignite, a rotation that melted the Janna’s health! It was a beautiful play! An instant engage at Level 2!

Early the next day, in the back of the classroom, Ouyang slammed a heavy textbook shut. On the cover was the word ‘History’ printed in big bold letters. He let out a grief-stricken wail, “AGGHH! God! Just kill me now!”

Right before the period bell rang, the history teacher, a woman in her 50s who seemingly always had a smile on her face, announced there would be a quiz on Friday. She instructed everyone to study hard over the next few days.

What was a quiz? Nothing more than a fancy word for a test!

“Damn! The semester has barely started, and we’re already getting tested! This is insane!” Ouyang grumbled in grief and indignation.

Yang Fan turned around from his seat and looked at Ouyang sympathetically. Adjusting his glasses, he said, “Last I recall, you’re pretty terrible at history, right? You’ve never passed a test.”

“Never?” Lin Feng’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Uch, don’t remind me. And it’s not like I don’t try! Even when I study hard, I don’t pass!” Ouyang lamented.

“Oh, wow! That’s impressive!” Lin Feng gave Ouyang a thumbs up.

“All history is, is memorization memorization memorization! There’s no skill to it at all! It’s even more monotonous than playing top Garen! Fuck! It’s not my fault I’m not good at memorizing things! I can try all I want, but it won’t help!” Ouyang raged.

Yang Fan shot Ouyang the old stink-eye. “You sure you’re actually trying and not just goofing off? Memorizing a few bits of history is way easier than math or chemistry.”

Lin Feng nodded in agreement. Someone once claimed that studying and playing League of Legends were one and the same. Memorization in any subject was just like playing Nasus in the top lane, with the minions being bits of knowledge. If you saw a minion, you just had to hit it with your Siphoning Strike. Kill one, gain a stack, kill another, gain another stack, and so on. Like this you could slowly stack up your ‘knowledge’ until your Siphoning Strike dealt over 1,000 damage! Then, when the test came around, it was like playing Tryndamere. You first tackle the easy problems, building up your rage meter, then start getting critical hits left and right as you go through the harder questions. Finally, when you face an extremely difficult question, you activate your ultimate skill for five seconds of invincibility and turn the tables around!

“So, Ouyang, you should pretend like you’re playing Nasus,” Lin Feng suggested. “Memorizing a fact is like killing a minion with your Q[mfn]Siphoning Strike[/mfn]. After you get enough stacks, your damage will go up and any test you tackle will be a piece of cake.”

Ouyang rolled his eyes. “Wow, when you put it like that, I still have zero confidence! Have you seen me CS? 60 CS by 10 minutes is basically my record[mfn]The rule of thumb is to get approximately 10 CS per minute, or 100 by minute 10.[/mfn]!”

Yang Fan sighed. “Just ignore him. He’s a lost cause.”

✹

As the three continued chatting throughout the day, it didn’t take long for the subject to return to League of Legends.

“There’s nothing exciting happening lately anyway. We’ll just have to wait for Worlds to start.” Ouyang sighed. “Three more weeks. It feels like forever.”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses, and comforted, “Just be patient. When October rolls around, we’ll have lots to do. Apart from Worlds, we also have the club fair.”

Ouyang’s face lit up. “Oh, you’re right! The club fair is soon! We can use that to recruit some new blood to our club. Damn! I can’t wait! Hopefully we can convince some cute girls to join!”

“What club fair? What club?”

Yang Fan turned to Lin Feng and explained, “Our school holds a club fair every fall, where all the different clubs set up their own booths. Ouyang and I are part of the school’s esports club.”

“Not just ordinary members! We’re part of the committee!” Ouyang puffed up his chest. “We joined back when the club was founded in our first year. We’re the founding members!”

Yang Fan gave Lin Feng a rough explanation of the club. “We founded the club two years ago with several other students. Basically, our club works together with clubs from other schools in Shanghai to organize tournaments. It’s being very well received. We even organize simple matches, build up some rivalries, you know. The works. And the best part of it all is that as long as we don’t let it get out of hand, the school administration turns a blind eye to us.”

“The most exciting event coming up is the Shanghai 16-School Tournament,” Ouyang said with a face full of excitement.

“When we took part in it last year, we got knocked out in the first round,” Yang Fan quickly added, pouring cold water over Ouyang’s excitement.

Ouyang choked as embarrassment washed over his face. He coughed, “Ahem, well, that’s because we were careless. We didn’t prepare enough and underestimated our opponents. This time, we won’t make the same mistake!” He then clenched his fist as if making a solemn vow. “We’ll reclaim our honour this year for sure!”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of time to prepare. The tournament is still a month and a half away.” Yang Fan adjusted his glasses. “I just hope we can get some good new players this year, or else we’ll end up repeating the debacle of last year.”

“Me, me, me! Let me join!” Lin Feng enthusiastically raised his hand.

“You sure are gung-ho, huh?” Ouyang remarked. He didn’t take Lin Feng seriously, instead shifting the topic to something else. His expression brightened as he said, “Well, even if we don’t wait for the club fair to roll around, we already have good players to pick from!”

“Who?” Lin Feng and Yang Fan asked in unison.

Ouyang chuckled, then pointed at the front of the class. “Tang Bingyao of course!”

Yang Fan nodded in agreement. “Right. Her ad-carry was really good. She really did lift the whole team on her shoulders yesterday.”

“What about me? What about me? I’m good too!” Lin Feng said.

Ouyang nodded confidently. “Uh huh. With her joining us, we have a real chance of winning! Hell, maybe we can even reach the top 8! Or the top 4!”

“I can join too!” Lin Feng said.

“Will she agree though? Didn’t you have to pay her ¥80 just to convince her to play yesterday?” Yang Fan asked with a hint of worry.

Lin Feng still wasn’t willing to give up. “I’ll do it for free! I won’t charge anything!”

Ouyang chuckled. “It’s fine, it’s fine. We can just pay her an appearance fee again! If we can get into the top 4, the prize money is enough to make it worth it! Oh right, Lin Feng, did you say something? I wasn’t listening.”

✹

As the final bell rang, Lin Feng bolted from his seat and ran toward the NetCow Cafe across the street. He waited at the door for Tang Bingyao, who walked in not much later. “Hey!” he greeted. Then, he told her about the tournament and started airing his grievances to her.

“A tournament between 16 schools?” Tang Bingyao furrowed her brows. After deeply considering it, she shook her head. “Not interested.”

“I knew it! I told them you probably wouldn’t be interested!” Lin Feng slapped his thigh. “Hah. I told them I’d do it for free, but Ouyang and Yang Fan just ignored me!”

Tang Bingyao considered for a moment, then suggested, “Play a ranked game for them. Just show them how good you are.”

“Wow! Why didn’t I think of that?” Lin Feng exclaimed. His expression lit up. “I heard there’s a prize for those in the top 4. Looks like I can make myself some pocket money this time!”

“Prize?” Tang Bingyao asked. Her eyes started shining. “How much?”

Lin Feng was stunned. He quickly changed the subject, as though he’d let some big secret slip, “Oh! Uhhh, it’s nothing! Start the queue! Start the queue!”

“Are you trying to change the subject?” Tang Bingyao stared at Lin Feng earnestly.

“Gah! Ahaha, am I that obvious?” Lin Feng chuckled.

“Very.” Tang Bingyao nodded.

Lin Feng pretended he didn’t hear her. He clenched his fist with a pumped up expression. “Hey hey, I’m online! Add me as a friend, and we’ll duo queue!”

The maid relinquished the streamer seat, and the li’l bro took over the stream. After plopping down in front of the computer, Lin Feng noticed Su Xue’s champion was Ezreal. He turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “You play Ez?”

The Prodigal Explorer, Ezreal, was the handsome favored son[mfn]Editor note: Husbando alert, for those of you into that sort of thing.[/mfn] of Riot. In the past, whenever Riot patched the game, balance changes to items, masteries, and stats would often revolve around him. An example of this was the Blue Ezreal build[mfn]The Blue Ezreal build refers to Ezreal stacking multiple blue coloured items that provided mana. This build synergized especially well with Ezreal’s kit.[/mfn], which remained in the meta for a long time.

That said, Ezreal lost a bit of his flare recently. He’d gotten harder to play, and only the more skilled players could make him shine. Everyone else would just misuse his skills, like Mystic Shot, and end up making the champion look clunky. They just couldn’t pull off the graceful playstyle that Ezreal was known for.

“I wanted to try out a new champion… I thought it’d help me attract new viewers to my stream,” Su Xue explained, meekly playing with her fingers. She knew that she wasn’t good enough to experiment with new champions in ranked games.

Lin Feng checked her KDA—1/2/2.  “Oh, at least you’re not feeding like you want to end world hunger. This is so much better than the last game. Remember your 0/3/2 Vayne?” He then focused on the game, adrenaline still pounding in his veins from facing off against that pro Vayne player. This was the perfect opportunity to get back in form!

Now that Lin Feng had decided to go all out in this game, victory was a forgone conclusion. Any and all suspense in the game ended as he tore through the enemy team, decimating both their front and back lines. It was a complete massacre.

✹

《You have slain an enemy!》

《Double kill!》

《Dominating!》

Lin Feng crushed the Ashe, then used his ultimate’s insanely long range to snipe at the nearly dead Lissandra in top lane. This was just the beginning. When the first teamfight broke out, he walked in to pick up a triple kill. He executed every enemy champion that came near him, hard-carrying the game.

Su Xue was astonished, awestruck, amazed, and all the other words that she couldn’t come up with right now, even though she’d seen Lin Feng play before. She knew he was good. But this was an entirely different dimension of good. She never even imagined he could carry a game this easily with any random ad-carry! Su Xue was jealous, she knew she was jealous. How was she supposed to compete with someone like this? She was beautiful, sure. But even that couldn’t compete with Lin Feng’s skill.

The viewers repeatedly exclaimed in admiration, entranced by his plays. They showered Lin Feng with praise.

「Your EZ is sooo good!」
「so much better than the maid!!!」
「lil bro is so handsome just like ez!l!」

“Hey! I’m sitting right here! Don’t act like I’m not here!” Su Xue snapped. But the viewers ignored her completely. Instead, with the game as good as over, they shifted the topic.

「Worlds is starting soon, right?」
「3 more weeks!!!! so exciting! 」
「China will win this year! We got all the good koreans.」
「Yuck… I just wanna see an all Chinese team win. It sucks having to rely on imports」
「whadda ya think, lil bro?」

Lin Feng checked chat while recalling back to base. “Oh, you guys want me to talk about Worlds?”

「Yeah!」
「tell us what you think!」
「Tell us!」

Su Xue chimed in, “Yeah, aren’t you always bragging about how you’re a Challenger? Share your esteemed opinion with us. Do you think China has a chance of winning Worlds this year?”

Lin Feng scratched his head. “Uh… sure, I guess…? But, I’m a bit thirsty.” He cast a meaningful glance at Su Xue.

“Eh?” Su Xu’s eyes went wide before her expression darkened. “Don’t push your luck! Once was already too much! Now you want to order me around like your maid!?”

Of course, Su Xue’s viewers were quick to side with Lin Feng.

「Shoo, maid. go get the drinks!!!!!」
「lil bro has spoken!!!!!11」
「Don’t make us mass unfollow!」

Y-you rotten, heartless bastards! Su Xue cursed under her breath while reluctantly getting up to get Lin Feng his glass of water.

Lin Feng continued reading the stream chat. The viewers were sharing their opinions on this year’s League of Legends world championship. 16 top teams from across the world would come together and face off against each other to determine the best in the world. Three LPL[mfn]LPL (League of Legends Pro League) is the top competitive pro league in China.[/mfn] teams had qualified. They were Hand of God, Dust and KG.

「im placing my bets on hog this year」
「Dust is pretty good too. Don’t forget they have Mote!! He won last year with SSK!」
「KG is the only all Chinese team, I want them to win.」

Lin Feng was super interested in the conversation chat was having and followed along. But like all conversations on the internet, it turned into people fighting and insulting each other. Then they decided to let him be the final arbiter, his opinion settling the debate.. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Hmm… if I had to guess? I’d say HoG probably has the best chance out of the three.”

「See! I told you HoG was best!」
「Go HoG! Make bacon out of the other teams!」
「HOG! HOG! HOG!!」

The HoG fans in the chat started cheering. And they had every reason to. Their team won the LPL Summer Playoffs! On top of that, HoG had also claimed victory over Fate, one of the top teams in Korea’s OGN[mfn]OGN is the top league competition in Korea[/mfn], in the international Mid-Season Invitational. But Hand of God wasn’t a heavy favorite just because of their victories. The individual players on the team each contributed to the intensity of their fans. HoG had imported two strong Korean players. But the real draw was their God-tier midlaner, Daybreak Hermes. The fans all called him the Star Emperor[mfn]The characters “辰星” in Chinese is the name for the Roman god Mercury. There isn’t really a distinction between stars, moons, and planets in Chinese, they’re all heavenly bodies. The Star Emperor nickname comes from the “star (星)” character in the Mercury/Hermes (辰星) part of his name. It was tough for me to work this into the translation. So, I’ll just leave the footnote here for you guys.[/mfn], and he was recognized as the absolute top, number 1, midlane player in China. In a strange twist, his nickname of Star Emperor had nothing to do with the Four Emperors. Hermes wasn’t one of them. The nickname was given to him to acknowledge that he was the only Chinese player among the so-called Seven Kings.

“Mhm… Even though winning the Invitational can’t compare to winning Worlds, it’s still an international tournament,” Su Xue chimed in after coming back with the water.

Lin Feng habitually scratched his hair, then lifted his head with a bright smile. “But you know, I’d still like to see KG win the most!”

KG came third in the LPL Summer Playoffs, and had claimed China’s final spot for Worlds. Their entire line-up consisted of Chinese players. The team had zero imports. This was reason enough for a lot of Chinese fans to support them. However, there were even more fans who felt KG simply wasn’t good enough. At least, not on the world stage. They couldn’t even come out on top domestically.

The KG fans in the chat immediately erupted with indignation.

「What!??! You don’t think we can compete with HoG or Dust?」
「What’s wrong with wanting to see an all Chinese team win????? We don’t need any imports!」
「who says your imports will be any good? we’ve seen them fail before, maybe they will again at worlds!」
「KG can go head to head with them! We have God Roundy! He made it to Worlds all the way back in Season 1, and he’s still crushing all other top laners!!! 」

The ‘God Roundy’ the viewers were referring to was a top laner called Roundy Round. He was a very much beloved player. But that was mostly because he had played in the professional scene since season 1. Still, his skills couldn’t be looked down on. Over the years, he’d remained at the top and many players in China felt he was more than good enough to claim a spot in the Seven Kings. Until then, he was the Uncrowned Eighth.

“Oh right, KG’s top laner is really strong!” Lin Feng enthusiastically agreed. Back in Season 1, the player everyone now knew as God Roundy was a close friend he affectionately called “Fatty”. The so-called Uncrowned Eighth was his old classmate and teammate!