Undefeated - League of Legends - Book 1: Chapter 3

Book 1: The Return of the Lost King

Chapter 3: Just One Word, Dammit!

……

Yu Luocheng opened his computer at home after dinner.

He opened the League of Legends box and started the game.  When he saw the exciting screen jumped out, Yu Luocheng’s somewhat dispirited eyes were beaming.

His love for esports was deep down to the bone, which was hard to conceal.

He chose the Freijord server on the screen.

Yu Luocheng clicked open his friend list and saw an ID which couldn’t be more familiar: Xue Yi Yi.

The ID was somewhat feminine.  There were times that Yu Luocheng thought this online good friend who had partnered with him for so long was a girl, but he couldn’t be completely sure.  In the world of the internet nowadays, you could never be sure of the gender until you met the real person.  Even then, you couldn’t be totally sure of the person’s gender, could you?

Today’s society was just too complicated.

Yu Luocheng didn’t really care whether Xue Yi Yi was a boy or a girl; he needed a partner for playing the game anyway.  Although this partner was not the best matching teammate he ever had, but Yu Luocheng had a special connection to her.

“You waiting for me?”  Yu Luocheng sent over a messege.

“Yeah, I know you get online this time every Saturday.  You’re a student afterall.”  The other side replied quickly like she was intentionally waiting for him.

“Let’s get started, we’re shooting for 2000 points this weekend.”  Yu Luocheng got directly to the point.

“Alright.”

League of Legends is a tower pushing game.  There are five players on each side and the goal is to destroy the opposing side’s crystal nexus.

It can be viewed as two opposing cities with three routes between the two cities.  Both sides sending out evenly matched soldiers with the players acting as generals.  Generals fight against the generals of the other side.  Victory comes when you defeat the other side’s generals and crush the opponent’s nexus in the center of their city.

The game can be divided into ranked matches and normal matches.

Teammates and opponents in normal matches are randomly arranged by the system so they can learn from each other.

Ranked matches are more formal because the results are recorded.  The higher your elo is, the higher one’s skill; it’s a straightforward standard to evaluate one’s ability.

A person with an elo of 1900 will only battle the players at the very top.  Players like Wang Qin can only play normal matches at the most.

Only players who have reached level 30 and own 16 champions are qualified to play ranked games.

Wang Qin and those from room 3 were not even qualified to play ranked game.  It’s hard to blame Yu Luocheng for not wanting to play with them.  Their skills were truly not on the same level.

Yu Luocheng and Xue Yi Yi always played bottom.  Yu Luocheng played support and Xue Yi Yi played ADC (Attack Damage Carry).  The two worked together and had a long list of tricks that almost always worked.

They won two consecutive rounds.  Both Yu Luocheng and Xue Yi Yi had reached the 2000 point threshold.

An elo of 2000 is considered the dividing line of a player’s skill.  Any player who reaches 2000 is a top notch LoL player.  For a high school senior who could have this kind of strength, it was absolutely shocking.

“I have to go.”  After finishing the second round, Xue Yi Yi told Yu Luocheng.

“Not playing anymore?”  Yu Luocheng replied, puzzled.  Usually on Saturdays they would play late into the night.  They hadn’t played enough, but suddenly Xue Yi Yi wanted to stop playing.

“En, I won’t have time to play this weekend either.  I’ll be here next week.”  Said Xue Yi Yi.

“Alright, then I’ll play normal matches on my own.”  Said Yu Luocheng.

“You can still play ranked games by yourself.”  Xue Yi Yi sent another message.

“Without you, I’m afraid of being tricked.”  Said Yu Luocheng.

“I didn’t know you rely on me so much.  Actually, we are not that coordinated; sometimes I can’t catch up with you.”  Xue Yi Yi knew that Yu Luocheng played support very well and sometimes she truly couldn’t match up with him.

“Haha, get a microphone so we can voice chat.”  Yu Luocheng said teasingly.

“Hum, I know what you are up to.  I worry that when you hear the rough voice of a middle aged man, you will blacklist me right away.”  Xu Yi Yi said somewhat effeminately.  

“Heh heh.”  Yu Luocheng laughed.

Yu Luocheng didn’t really care what Xue Yi Yi’s gender was.  But, if she really was a girl, wasn’t it a blessing?

“Alright, alright.  I’ll go buy a microphone.  We’ll voice chat next week.”  Xue Yi Yi said.

Voice chat for real?  Yu Luocheng suspected that he might have heard it wrong!

He had known Xue Yi Yi for quite some time.   They used QQ to chat for a long time before, then she asked him to play LoL.  Even though all the signs on the internet indicated that she was a female, but since she always refused to video or voice chat with him, Yu Luocheng was still nervous that she might turn out to be a disgusting middle aged man.

Was the moment of truth finally going to come?

Was it going to be a loud, cursing middle aged man or a pure and bright voiced lolita?  He would know next week.  Somehow Yu Luocheng was a little bit excited.

TL: “so he’s a lolicon?”

“I’m off.”

“Ok, bye bye.”

Xue Yi Yi’s name went dark.  Without knowing why but everytime her QQ profile picture and game ID went dark, Yu Luocheng always felt as if he had lost something.

After she left, Yu Luocheng didn’t play normal matches but signed in to another account.

To tell the truth, he really didn’t like playing normal matches.  As an one time professional esports player, those loosely organized battles were very boring.

TL: “forget boring, more like painful, it’s like a 9v1; 5 enemies and 4 people trying to stop you from winning.”

The telephone rang just as he signed in and was about to click on the ranked match for singles.

There’s no one else at home, Yu Luocheng had to answer the phone himself.

“Luocheng?”  Asked the person on the other end.

“It’s me. Wang Qin.  Aren’t you fighting with those people of room 3?  How do you have the time  to call me?”  Yu Luocheng recognized Wang Qin’s, his old deskmate, voice right away.  It was easy to identify his rough voice.

“Ai!  That bastard Sun Yang was forced by his mom to go home to study.  There’s no one playing support.  I can’t let Xiao Ji or Guan Zi play, they just passed level 12.  Those losers from room 3 won’t let me get outside help.  I have no other choice but to call you.”  Wang Qin said quickly.

“Don’t play if you don’t have enough people.”  Said Yu Luocheng.

“It won’t do.  Those guys of room 3 said that if we don’t play today then we’ll forfeit the game.  Besides, Yang Qian Qian’s already here and she’s wearing a skirt.  You haven’t see those white legs of hers…...uh, we have to play anyway.  Boss, do me a favor and tell me what level are you in LoL and can you play support.”  Wang Qin begged.

“How much did you bet?”  Asked Yu Luocheng.

“A thousand!”

“You’re crazy!”

They were all from ordinary families.  One thousand RMB was two months’ living expenses for a high school boarding student.

Yu Luocheng knew Wang Qin’s family wasn’t well-off.  If he lost one thousand RMB, he would definitely be severely punished by his father!

“Lin Xu that brat just threw down a thousand RMB.  He even said that I can just put down 500 since he doesn’t care about money.  I can’t stand being humiliated like that, so I threw down the one thousand I just got.  Yang Qian Qian must have felt that I was so cool when I threw down the money……”

“Shit!  She definitely thinks you’re just a retard.  Never mind, I’ll come over.  I’ll play support.”  Yu Luocheng said.

“You haven’t told me what level you are.  If you’re not even level 15, then don’t come.  I’ll find somebody else.”

“Du…...du……”

“Damn, why did he hang up already!”

People who have seriously played LoL all know that when you ask about a person’s skill, you don’t ask about their level, but about their elo.  Because level 30 in LoL is the level cap and people who have reached level 30 can only claim to be slightly better than a novice.

Yu Luocheng reached level 30 ages ago, but he figured that for people like Wang Qin who hovered around level 20, they wouldn’t understand what ranked matches and elo were at all.  Yu Luocheng, therefore, was too lazy to explain to him.

This time, Yu Luocheng was somewhat upset.

Lin Xu of room 3 was from a rich family.  He wouldn’t care about throwing away a thousand RMB.

But for Wang Qin, he had to live on just this thousand RMB.  Lin Xu totally was doing this on purpose to enrage Wang Qin and teach him a lesson.

Yu Luocheng wouldn’t bother if they were just horseplaying, but Lin Xu was purposely bullying his buddy.  Yu Luocheng would not take it.

This Lin Xu, what’s to show off, what’s so special about being rich?

I’m going to take your thousand RMB and buy me some skins and runes!

Huh huh, just one word ---------Dammit!

…...