Rise

“Huh? Where?” Zuo You asked, following Lin Feng’s finger. At a computer near the back, a man who was already in the second half of his twenties frantically waved his hands above his head. “Hey hey, over here!”

Zuo You furrowed her brows, loathing surfacing on her face.

“Is that the guy?” Lin Feng asked.

“Yeah it’s him.” Zuo You nodded. Then, before the man could walk over, she quickly whispered to Lin Feng, “Listen, I want you to absolutely destroy him. Crush him. Don’t show him any mercy!”

“You can trust in me. Just don’t forget my bucket!”

At this time, the man walked up to Lin Feng and Zuo You, his eyes glued onto her body. Her beautiful, nay, gorgeous and alluring appearance awakened a deep lust within him. He quickly composed himself and greeted her with a smile, “Yo, you’re finally here! I was waiting for you forever!”

“Oh really? Ah, my bad. I was right outside waiting for a friend,” Zuo You greeted back with the same smile.

“Waiting for someone? Who?” the man blurted in confusion. Then, his gaze finally fell on Lin Feng. “This is…?”

Zuo You pulled Lin Feng into her embrace and beamed. “This is my new boyfriend!”

“W-what?” Qi Ming stammered.

Lin Feng’s brows crinkled. “Hey! We never agreed to a pretend-relationship! That’s going to cost you two buckets!”

The man finally regained his senses and looked at Zuo You with a helpless expression. “This isn’t the time for bad jokes, don’t you think?”

Zuo You stared at Lin Feng in annoyance. “Hey! Can’t you at least try to pretend?” She then turned back to the man and winked at him with an alluring smile. “Ahaha, just kidding. He’s my little brother. I told him how good you are at League and he really wanted to see it for himself, so I brought him along.”

Lin Feng offered a handshake. “Nice to meet you, mister. I’m Lin Feng.”

“M-mister?” the man’s eyelids twitched. Anger flashed across his face until his eyes fell on Zuo You. He forced out a smile and shook his hand. “Lin Feng, right? I’m not that old, just call me Qi Ming,”

“Oh, alright. Fine, Qi Ming it is.”

Qi Ming shot Lin Feng one last glance before turning his attention back to Zuo You. “Since you brought your brother with you, how are we going to do this? We can’t queue up for ranked with three, and didn’t I say I’d show you what real high level League play looks like?” His voice carried a hint of haughtiness. However. he had every right to be haughty. After all, he was a Master in the Ionia server. Among all the players in the whole of China, he was in the top 0.01%.

“Eh, it’s fine. You said it yourself, you’re a Master. A Platinum noob like me won't be able to tell the difference between you or some random Diamond player. But my little brother here always brags about how good he is. How about you play against him first and let me see your skills?”

Qi Ming was oblivious to the trap Zuo You was digging for him. Rather, he latched onto the attack on his ego. He knitted his brows and asked, “Are you saying you don’t believe in my skills?” At work, most employees played League. With his looks, all he had to do was show one of the girls his Master-rank and they would be swooning all over him. A simple promise to duo-queue together, and he could easily have his way with any of them. Zuo You should be honoured that he was going out of his way to chase after her! How dare she doubt him! Just because I flirted with you a little doesn’t make you some kind of princess...!

Zuo You didn’t know what Qi Ming was thinking, but she could roughly tell just from his tone and facial expression. However, she wasn’t the least bit bothered by it and was still all smiles. “Aww, don’t put it like that. What do you mean I don’t believe in your skills? You’re a Master player! Just treat it as humouring my little brother. Please, do it for me?”

Qi Ming raised an eyebrow and glanced at Lin Feng. “Humour him?”

Zuo You nodded. “Yes! We still have all day anyway. How about you two 1v1?”

Qi Ming couldn’t help but snicker. “You want me to 1v1 him? Are you sure?”

Before Zuo You could reply, Lin Feng butted in, “Why? What’s wrong with that?”

Qi Ming’s gaze fell back on Lin Feng. “Kid, have you been listening at all? I am Master-rank!”

“Yeah, I heard. A Master in the Ionia server.” Lin Feng nodded.

Qi Ming’s lips curved into a smile as his eyes flashed with disdain. “Still want to1v1 me? What rank are you even?”

“I’m a Challenger in the Ionia server!” Lin Feng replied in high spirits.

Qi Ming was caught off-guard by this answer. He couldn’t help but mutely look at Zuo You. “Your little brother is a pretty big talker, huh?” His contempt for Lin Feng only grew. If he didn’t have an appearance to maintain, he’d be saying a lot more. Were all high schoolers such blowhards these days? A Diamond he might believe, but Challenger? Did this kid even know what the word meant? Out of the tens of millions of players in China, only a couple hundred could reach the rank of Challenger. Any one of them was a famous expert. How could you randomly claim to be one? He firmly believed Lin Feng was a high schooler who only knew how to talk big for clout, and Zuo You was a brainless idiot for believing her little brother.

Zuo You shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s what he told me. Guess we’ll find out when you face him.” Even though she appeared quite calm on the surface, she was already itching with anticipation.

Qi Ming chuckled, a trace of ridicule on his face. “Alright, since you insist. I’ll humour your little brother.”

✹

After finding two free computers, Lin Feng and Qi Ming sat down, opened up the League client, and logged into the game.

Qi Ming caught a glance of Lin Feng logging into Zuo You’s Platinum account. He chuckled derisively and asked, “Where’s your Challenger account? Why won’t you show it to me?” His own account was the dazzling Master-rank and also the source of his confidence. However, he didn’t push any further. He would simply humiliate this kid ingame. After all, he firmly believed that if Lin Feng were truly any good, and not just bullshitting, he wouldn’t be using such a low-rank account.

“This’ll be easy,” Qi Ming muttered to himself. He found this whole situation a bit comical. A Master-rank player like him was humouring a piddly high schooler with a big mouth? His friends would get a good laugh out of this when he told them. “Okay, let's get this over with quickly.”

Without the slightest worry and confident that this 1v1 would finally convince Zuo You of his skill, Qi Ming created the lobby and invited Lin Feng. He quickly locked in Fizz, a master dueler and one of his favourite champions, while Lin Feng chose Lux. When he saw this, he couldn’t help but sneer. Picking Lux into my Fizz? You’re asking for it kid. Don’t cry when I whoop your ass! He even started to feel a hint of sympathy for Lin Feng.