Rise

Over the next few days, Lin Feng basically spent all his free time helping Tang Bingyao complete her elo boosting orders for free and coaching Su Xue. Pile on all the schoolwork on top of that, and he was quite busy every day. However, with both his students showing clear improvements in the span of just a short few days, he couldn’t help but feel gratified that his hard work was paying dividends.

Tang Bingyao’s rapid improvement was no surprise. After all, she had the reflexes and mechanical control approaching that of a professional player. Plus, she was a quick learner. All Lin Feng had to do was give her some advice here and there and point out which champion she should try next.

Helping Su Xue improve, on the other hand, proved an uphill battle. Even though both were ad-carry mains, the gap between them was stark. Su Xue’s foundation was too weak. Her reflexes and reaction speed weren’t that great, and she was slow to pick up on things. So, when Lin Feng was watching over her games, he sounded like a broken record, pointing out the same mistakes over and over again.

In spite of this, Su Xue had shown remarkable progress in the past few days. This was a testament to her unwavering drive and perseverance. While others would take a match or two to understand a game concept or champion, Su Xue would need three to four matches. However, she would do that and more, putting in five times the amount of practice anyone else would. This was a work ethic ordinary people could only dream of, the kind that demanded respect. Even Lin Feng couldn’t help but be impressed. He was sure that as long as Su Xue kept it up, he could help her reach Diamond.

✹

Friday afternoon. Lin Feng had finished his first week of school since transferring to Shanghai. He sat at his desk, enthusiastically discussing the season 5 League of Legends world championship with Ouyang and Yang Fan. It was only two weeks away.

“I was on Roundy’s Weibo yesterday. He actually updated his status for once!” Ouyang animatedly waved his hands. “He posted two pics of the team practicing and even leaked that they’ll be in London next week!”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses. “Does that mean group stages are taking place in London? I guess they’re heading there a week in advance to get used to the timezone and do some bootcamping in the region.”

“London. Man, I wish I could go there to watch them play live. I bet England’s food is great too!” Ouyang remarked with a yearning expression in his eyes.

“The food there is terrible. It’s all potatoes, and their Chinese food is fake and overpriced,” Lin Feng chimed in.

Ouyang rolled his eyes. “You act like you’ve actually been to England.”

“I have!” Lin Feng said.

“Last time you told us you were a Challenger. Now you say you’ve been to England? Why don’t you just tell us you were a pro and went to London to compete in season 1 Worlds?”

Lin Feng’s eyes lit up in surprise. He gave Ouyang a thumbs up. “Woah! How did you know? You’re really good at guessing!”

Neither Yang Fan nor Ouyang took him seriously. Ouyang rolled his eyes and was about to go off on Lin Feng, when a pleasant voice rang in his ears. “What are you three talking about?”

The trio turned their heads. Somewhere along the line, their class president Ren Rou had walked over. She stared at them curiously.

Ouyang immediately put on a flattering expression. “Rou Rou, you’re here! Oh, it’s nothing. Lin Feng was just bragging again. I was about to tell him off.”

“Bragging?” Ren Rou raised an eyebrow in surprise. She turned to Lin Feng with a mischievous smile. “Oh, right, Lin Feng. Did you think you were being sneaky? That we wouldn’t notice? Come on, tell us the good stuff! Hehe.”

“Huh? What?” Lin Feng asked, bewildered.

Ren Rou giggled. “Ah? Still trying to play dumb? You think I wouldn’t notice? I’m the class president! I know everything! Like how you and Tang Bingyao have been spending a whole lot of time together.”

“WHAT?” Ouyang blurted. Yang Fan also stared at Lin Feng with his mouth agape.

“I saw you leave school together with her last Wednesday. And when we had that game against Class 8, while everyone else went to celebrate, you stayed behind with her!” Ren Rou puffed up her chest with pride. “So, there’s definitely something going on between you two!” 

“So that’s where you’ve been sneaking off to after school! You were chasing after a girl! Damn, you player! You already snagged yourself a hottie in your first week here!”

“W-what? No, it’s not like that! I haven’t!” Lin Feng retorted.

Ouyang nudged up to Lin Feng with bright eyes. “Hey, hey. Since you and Tang Bingyao are dating, when the esports club is recruiting, how about you try and get her to join us? Good! I’ll leave this to you!”

“Oh! I also want to join the esports club!” Lin Feng replied.

Ouyang slapped his thigh. “That’s great! As long as you can get Tang Tang to join us, I promise we’ll make an exception, and you can tag along too!”

Make an exception? Tag along? Lin Feng frowned. “Tag along? You think I’m just Tang Tang’s e-girl support?”

✹

“Because none of them know how good you are,” Tang Bingyao remarked, sipping on her lemon tea. As usual the two went to the NetCow Cafe after school.

“But I keep telling them I’m really good!” Lin Feng protested.

Ignoring his tantrum, a troubled expression surfaced on Tang Bingyao’s face. “It looks like people are mistaking our relationship.”

“Well, who cares what they think?” Lin Feng asked, not appearing the least bit concerned.

Tang Bingyao thought for a moment before nodding in agreement. “Mhm, I suppose you’re right.”

Neither of the two were the type to care about such trivial matters. So, there was no bashfulness or awkwardness between them. They turned their focus back to the game.

“Today, you’ll keep playing Twitch.”

“Twitch again?” Tang Bingyao’s pretty face crumpled. Lin Feng had told her to play Twitch yesterday too. The Plague Rat wasn’t anything like the ad-carries she usually played. In fact, compared to Kalista and Draven, Twitch was the polar opposite. The former two relied heavily on mechanics, whereas the latter relied mostly on positioning.

The power of Twitch rested in his ultimate. A good one could decimate the enemy team, while a poor one would lead to an almost instantaneous loss. This meant that awareness and positioning were much more important than mechanics. As someone who liked playing mechanical heavy champions, Tang Bingyao found no joy in playing this kind of champion. However, Lin Feng remained firm. Even if she didn’t want to, she had to obediently listen.

✹

After playing two games, Lin Feng turned to Tang Bingyao and asked, “Are you even trying? You’re playing awful!” They had won the first game and lost the second. However, Tang Bingyao had been invisible in both games.

“Another game!” Tang Bingyao said, unhappy with their loss.

From that point onwards, Tang Bingyao started getting serious. She slowly entered the zone while playing the third and fourth game. Her Twitch was getting much better. In the fourth game, she even got a quadra kill and directly carried the team to victory. The good results gave her finally a reason to enjoy playing Twitch a little.

“Let’s play another two games,” Lin Feng declared, riding the momentum. Suddenly, he froze as he realized something. He smacked his head and said, “Right, I have to let Su Xue know first.”