League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Luocheng, brother! Are you here in Shanghai yet?”

“Yea.”

“Where?”

“University.”

“Which one?”

“Shanghai University.”

“It’s not too far away from us, I’m going there to look for you now!”

Yu Luocheng hung up and mumbled, “Who is this guy?”

An unknown number, a stranger’s voice who called him brother. Yu Luocheng was too sleep-logged to ask who the caller was…

***

After having dinner with his five other roommates, the six males from Block 11 Room 502 strolled through the university leisurely to get a taste of the university atmosphere. The building blocks had aged well and it seemed that no matter which university you were at, there had to be a stylish library in it.

Just as they were about to set foot in the library to admire the university’s artistic culture, Yu Luocheng’s phone rang again.

“Luocheng, I am here at the university entrance,” The person from the other end said.

“Oh. Alright,” Yu Luocheng ended the call and mumbled to himself.

‘Who the hell is this?’

Yu Luocheng ushered his roommates to move on. “I’m going to meet a friend, you all go on ahead first.”

His hostel was a six-person shared room. Yu Luocheng had been the earliest and he had picked the bed closest to the balcony. His five other roommates had arrived successively and only one of them stood out in terms of appearance while the other five looked average.

“Hey. Wait. Which direction is the university entrance again?” Yu Luocheng hastily called out to the five guys who were now entering the library.

They obviously did not hear the call from Yu Luocheng who had no sense of direction. It was the two pretty girls beside him instead that covered their mouths and laughed in response to his comical question.

Yu Luocheng peeked at them, embarrassed, but decided to approach them anyway.

“Senior, may I know which direction is the university entrance?”

“Do you see the big tree over there?” The girl with a ponytail pointed toward a giant tree while laughing.

“Yea.” Yu Luocheng nodded.

“You notice the building behind the tree?”

“Yea.”

“That’s it. The entrance is right over there.”

“Great. Thanks!”

***

Ten minutes later, Yu Luocheng reached an unfamiliar place. He scanned the giant green shade and the buildings around him but found no sign of the entrance.

Yu Luocheng was infuriated after he questioned the gardener who had happened to be there.

‘F*ck, that girl pointed me to the exact opposite direction!’

“You better hope that I don’t see you again!” Yu Luocheng walked away furiously and rushed to the entry gate.

***

When he reached the entrance, there were still a great number of newbies coming through the gate with huge luggage bags.

Some pampered students were directly driven in by their parents while the losers who came by foot could only eat the car dust enviously.

“Luocheng, hey, Luocheng!!” A skinny teenager of medium height ran up to him.

Yu Luocheng looked at him and couldn’t recognize him at first although he did sense some familiarity. After walking closer, he finally realized who it was.

Yu Luocheng had been a member of Team Wings when he was a professional player. The team was under Sky Club and at that time, a teenager would always sneak into the club and run errands voluntarily for them.

The young man was actually a worker at a snack shop nearby the club and he was obsessed with video games, so he always mixed with the team trying to learn from them while doing his job of delivering takeaways and snacks.

Normally, everyone in the team would call him Xiao Bei but nobody seemed to know his full name.

“It’s you, Xiao Bei! It’s been a while!” Yu Luocheng said, smiling at the boy.

He couldn’t help but wistfully recall his former comrades when he saw Xiao Bei. He wondered what they were up to now as it had been a while since he’d last contacted them.

“Yu Luocheng! Finally, my idol!” Xiao Bei was thrilled.

Xiao Bei was a very skinny young man with a face full of freckles. With his small nose and even smaller eyes, his outlook could hardly be linked to the word ‘handsome’.

In Yu Luocheng’s memory, he was a typical attendant of Team Wings. Members of Team Wings were happy to let him do the chores on their behalf when they were lazy and he did all the work willingly and never once complained. Over time, everyone just naturally accepted him as their errand boy.

Yu Luocheng was curious about how Xiao Bei had found out that he was in Shanghai and why did he intentionally come all the way here just to see him.

“Why are you here?” Yu Luocheng asked dubiously.

“I always come to this area to pick up goods. Bro, you are indeed brilliant to be enrolled in Shanghai University, one of the best colleges in the country. You really are my idol.” Xiao Bei said while throwing Yu Luocheng an admiring glance.

“So-so. Speaking of which, how did you know that I was here?” Yu Luocheng asked.

“I got the news from Brother Dong,” Xiao Bei replied.

“Oh, him…” Yu Luocheng nodded.

He was still annoyed at Old Dong after the latter had refused to tell him Snowfall’s address unless he went to meet him personally. Yu Luocheng would not have the time to visit him as the new semester has just begun but he could not stop thinking about it.

“So are you planning to return to the pro scene now that you are back in Shanghai?” Xiao Bei’s eyes shone eagerly as he said that.

“Return to the pro scene?” Yu Luocheng was dumbfounded by the question.

“I am talking about the MOBA tournament! Don’t you know about that hit game that has gotten really popular recently? The prize money is a few times larger than those offered by DotA. If everyone from Team Wings regroups and conquers all the competitions, then you would no longer need to worry about the lack of financial support,” Xiao Bei explained hastily.

“You are talking about LoL, right?” Yu Luocheng replied.

Xiao Bei nodded quickly. “I have been watching the games and training every day. I am looking forward to joining a professional team. By the way, if Team Wings is reformed, I am definitely going to join Team Wings. Hawk, Blood Eagle, Sky Swan, Gale Crane, and Lone Gull. These names are still highly praised in the DotA world until this day, even after Team Wings disbanded a year ago.”

“Hawk, Blood Eagle, Sky Swan, Gale Crane, and Lone Gull…” Yu Luocheng murmured.

‘How familiar. Why do I feel like it was in a long-distance past though, when in fact, it had just been a year ago?’

“No doubt, DotA is an excellent MOBA. However, a lot of its systems are imperfect in this country, thus rendering it from establishing a proper framework for the professional gamers. Unlike DotA, the emergence of LoL has brought along a more complete system. A lot of old DotA teams have switched to LoL and made a name for themselves. Yu Luocheng, I believe you are here to recruit everyone again. I have all their contacts but they would not listen to me. If you are the one who calls, for sure they would answer and gather again without a second thought. I think most of them are playing LoL as well. Next year LPL is going to be held in March, so the team will still have six months to practice if we start now. We could definitely make it back into the E-Sports pro scene with a bang and surprise our old rivals then!” Xiao Bei spoke excitedly.

Yu Luocheng looked at him calmly. Xiao Bei’s eyes were full of expectations, much like his when he first entered professional gaming.

“What do you think, Yu Luocheng? Wait, I even forgot to ask, do you play?” Xiao Bei asked.

“I do, but I am just playing casually,” Yu Luocheng answered.

“Stop being so humble. Last time, you also claimed that you were only playing Starcraft and WAR3 for fun. In the end, you defeated the so-called best of the Human Race player, JKK, from the States. Do you know that after JKK learned that you were in fact a pro DotA player who only played WAR3 casually, he was so depressed to the point that he almost quit WAR3 pro gaming? Can’t blame him though, a player with three years of professional experience in WAR3 was defeated by a casual player. I would also be too ashamed to stay if I was him.”

Yu Luocheng had almost forgotten about this if Xiao Bei had not mentioned it. JJK had simply been too cocky at the time.

“Bro, trust me on this, LoL is full of opportunities! If everyone returns, I am sure Team Wings will soar high in the competition again. We will be able to attract a large group of sponsors this time and form our own club. This way, we no longer need to suffer under the Sky Club’s oppression…” Xiao Bei continued animatedly.

“Forget it. I am not going back,” Yu Luocheng shook his head.

He was puzzled. Xiao Bei was not even a part of Team Wings, at best, he was just a fanatic fan that trailed behind them all the time.

‘Why does he cling on to this topic so eagerly and passionately?’

“Don’t give up! You need to know that the future of Team Wings lies in your hand. No need to worry about the trivial stuff, I am going to settle those things for you. You and the other team members only need to focus on training…” Xiao Bei was growing anxious.

Yu Luocheng was having a headache. ‘This young kid is too much…’

Team Wings had long disbanded. It was easier said than done to reform the group. To form a professional team was easy. You only needed a room and a few computers, but to walk this path through to the end, there were way too many obstacles along the way.

Xiao Bei’s idea was premature and lacked consideration. Just as Yu Luocheng was contemplating about how to persuade Xiao Bei to give up on his naive idea, Xiao Bei’s phone rang in his pocket. From its crooked sound, Yu Luocheng could tell that it was a knockoff phone.

“Xiao Bei, where the hell have you been! You better be here in a minute to load the truck. I will break your legs if you are late for even a second! Wasted all my money just to raise you up into a lazy bastard.”

A man’s bellow could be heard from the phone. It was extremely unpleasant to the ears, like a drake’s quack.

“Uncle, I am on my way. My stomach…” Xiao Bei said in a low voice.

“Rubbish!”

Xiao Bei hung up and looked at Yu Luocheng, embarrassed.

Yu Luocheng looked back at him and said nothing. Yu Luocheng was no stranger to that howling for Xiao Bei had been treated the same way by his uncle back in the days when he stayed behind Team Wings.

It was funny how quickly things had taken a turn.

A moment ago, Xiao Bei had still been painting a wonderful dream spiritedly, but after the roar from his uncle had interrupted him, the dreamland had shattered instantly and in the next second, it had left behind a messy reality with plenty of bricks to be loaded into the truck.

“Bro, please give it some thought. I need to head back to work now. I will call you out again when I have the chance.” Xiao Bei was not going to give up so easily.

He left in a hurry after leaving those words, and Yu Luocheng could only nod and say nothing.