League of Legends: League of Unknowns

As he sat in the waiting room, Xu Pingyang’s face stiffened with annoyance. His smile turned into a frown and anger slowly filled him up. The look on his face right now was a far cry from the joyful expression he previously displayed.

A game in which Team Skycrown initially held the advantage at both the middle and bottom lanes had now been completely overturned by that d*mn Jax!

During the middle game, Team Skycrown once again fell back into their usual 4:1 push tactic. Da Luo’s Jax was mindlessly pushing at the top lane, and the other four members of Team Skycrown were defending the turret.

With a duo ADC lineup, Team Skycrown had a better position with their higher damage output. Plus, they had a Volibear tank in front of them. Even if they lost one, they could make up that gold difference by getting Da Luo to demolish the top lane turret.

The longer the game dragged on, the better items Jax would have…

With an unwise decision to gank bottom lane Jax with three of them, Team Skycrown stole Dragon and the gap between the teams’ gold became even more obvious!

Jax wanted to kill Syndra and no one could stop him from doing so. Instantly taking her down, the situation immediately turned to Team Skycrown’s favour. They gave their all and pushed the lane, taking down two turrets at the middle lane all the way into their base.

After killing Vayne, they attacked the Inhibitor!

With two ADCs, they could demolish the turrets extremely quickly, especially when coupled with a Jax whose attack speed was incredibly high.

Even though the resurrection time needed was short, Team Skycrown still managed to push their way into the inner part of the base and take down everything in their path!

As the word ‘victory’ appeared on Team Skycrown’s screens, the five members let out a long breath, smiling widely.

None of their other victories could compare to the feeling of euphoria they now felt from winning over Team Sky, especially since Da Luo’s Jax had thoroughly wrecked them.

The first round went to Team Skycrown!

This outcome also surprised all the audience members and fans who were supporting Team Sky.

This Team Skycrown, could they possibly be trying to beat and counter a team that was God in the eyes of everyone?

***

Team Sky and their supporters were in a state of panic because Team Skycrown’s performance and strength left everyone in shock!

Everyone only felt relieved once the second round began and Team Sky used their small scale team fighting capabilities to get an overall advantage.

In the second game, Team Sky banned Jax without any hesitation and they finally managed to showcase their strength as a top team with their timely assists, advanced awareness, and tactical understanding.

Although Birch, who had only joined the team for a short time, couldn’t possibly seamlessly meld into the team, the cooperation between the other members of Team Sky—Vulcan, Mars, Mercury, and Jupiter—was extremely impressive. This caused the arena to be in an uproar once again.

“A super team is really a super team in the end. The first game was swept away by the Jax who had managed to mess up their pacing, but now in this second game, they have turned into a flawless army once again.

Team Skycrown needs to just roll over in this game, they haven’t managed to break any turrets at all. This is fatal to their tactic, since they chose a lineup with fast pace, and they didn’t manage to get an early advantage. It’s impossible for them to turn this game around now.”

In the second game, Team Skycrown didn’t give in or give up till the last minute, fighting all the way to the end. For them, getting even one extra kill on Team Sky was enough to make them happy.

***

Ding ding ding!

The tone of a message coming in rang, and Yu Luocheng who was sitting on a hospital bench in a daze slowly picked up his phone.

There seemed to be a few text messages before this, but Yu Luocheng hadn’t read any of them. Several messages popped up when he opened his inbox. Each one was probably received about an hour or so apart.

“Luocheng, our Da Luo has gone on a rampage, killing those dogs from Team Sky and making them crawl all over the place. Hahaha, it really is so satisfying to see! We won the first game!”

“Luocheng, we lost the second game, Team Sky is really good, their cooperation and coordination is better than ours by a mile. Lin Dong really tried his best…”

“Sorry, we lost the third game too. It’s my fault, I couldn’t gain the upper hand at the bottom lane. I also could have gotten the kill a few times, but I wasn’t decisive enough… d*mn it, why did they ban Vayne, why would they snatch away my Vayne…”

Reading these messages, Yu Luocheng felt that Xiao Bei was like a child talking about his day. As he read the texts, he wondered why he felt slightly indifferent to them.

Yu Luocheng had been struggling for the past few days, it was giving him a massive headache and making him easily irritable.

He had already admitted to himself that giving up e-sports was difficult. And he could also admit that his current family turmoil had been caused by his own stubbornness…

But was this really a situation where it could only be one or the other?

What a joke.

Looking at the time, the fourth match should be starting soon…

“Brother, Dad is awake,” said Yu Yu quietly from beside him.

“I know.”

“Don’t you want to talk to him?”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” said Yu Luocheng.

“Why are you like this? I don’t understand. Is it really that difficult to not play games?” asked Yu Yu, clearly unhappy.

“If I asked you not to swim, could you do it?” replied Yu Luocheng.

“Swimming and games are two different things!”

“Ah, then there’s nothing more to say.”

“Why are you being so hateful?!”

“Same as you.”

Yu Yu looked like she had been slapped in the face. Her brother’s words cut deep, right into her heart. Looking into his eyes which held a sense of arrogance, she felt her heart beating furiously in her ribcage and a sense of panic building up in her…

She had seen this look before. It was the same one Yu Luocheng had when he was indifferent to everyone around him, the one from when he had absolutely no feelings at all…

Ding ding ding!

The message tone rang again and the screen displayed the message.

“Hahaha, Luocheng, I finally got my Vayne! I was like Da Luo, swooping in and saving the world! The whole arena was boiling over, a lot of the audience stood up and watched my control over Vayne.

“Luocheng, this match will definitely be recorded, you have to watch it no matter what. I feel like my Vayne has gone up another level. We won this round! We won the fourth match! Now it’s two for two, there’s just one last match to decide who the winner is…”

The message flashed on his phone screen, but unfortunately, Yu Luocheng didn’t see it. His eyes were fixed on the wall, staring indifferently.

Numerous things were flying through his head at the moment. The time when he took the throne of e-sports, the time that he failed at the world competition held in England, the smiles of all the members of Team Skycrown when they won… and then the face of a pale middle-aged man shattered all the images.

His initial feelings of guilt had slowly turned into disgust. He knew that it was heartless of him to feel like this, but he just couldn’t help it…

***

After receiving that last message which he didn’t read, his phone battery died. Yu Luocheng stayed in the ward, feeling out of it.

Yu Yu and his mother were both busy, and he had nothing to do, seemingly unable to blend into this family.

***

At the competition venue, the fifth match was about to begin. After Xiao Bei happily sent off the text message to Yu Luocheng, his heart suddenly surged with anticipation.

Just one more round. Once they won, they would get the prize money of more than a hundred thousand yuan!

Xiao Bei couldn’t help but imagine the look on Yu Luocheng’s face when they brought the prize to him at the hospital. What kind of expression would he show?

He would probably be really touched!

Xiao Bei took a deep breath to calm himself. The match was about to begin.

At this time, his phone suddenly rang. Xiao Bei smiled happily, could it possibly be Yu Luocheng who was calling him?

He should be really curious about the situation at the competition right now. Anyone would be nervous about it, and now he had finally called them to check in.

Instead, a slightly familiar voice came through the receiver, “Hey, Xiao Bei!”

Xiao Bei’s mood immediately plunged down when he realized who it was.

“Oh, Uncle. What’s up?”

“Hey hey, so you went off to play e-sports professionally and even became famous huh?” said Lian Guan, laughing.

“I can’t talk to you now, my match is starting soon, said Xiao Bei, wanting to get off the phone as soon as possible.

They only had about ten minutes of rest time, and Xiao Bei didn’t want to waste even a second of it talking about nonsense with Lian Guan.

“Don’t be in such a hurry to hang up, there’s something I need to talk to you about,” said Lian Guan.

“I don’t have the time now, I’m hanging up,” replied Xiao Bei.

Suddenly, another voice interrupted, “Xiao Bei, wait, wait…it’s Sun Liang.”

“What, gonna ask for mercy?” said Xiao Bei coldly once he knew who was on the line.

Sun Liang was one of Team Sky’s lackeys. Seeing as how he was sneakily calling Xiao Bei in private, he must be up to no good.

“You’re at zero points right now. Even if you beat Team Sky, the prize money you’ll get is only about a hundred thousand yuan at most. After deducting tax and dividing between five people, you’ll only get about twenty thousand yuan each. I won’t beat around the bush. If you purposely lose the next game, I’ll immediately deposit a hundred thousand yuan directly into your account!”

Sun Liang’s voice was slightly high pitched, and Xiao Bei was shocked to hear those words from him.

What the hell was wrong with Sun Liang…

Give them a hundred thousand yuan?

Lose the game?

What on earth was he up to?

He was trying to pay them off!

Bribing them with a hundred thousand yuan to lose the next round on purpose!

At that moment, Xiao Bei’s blood boiled with unimaginable anger.

Team Skycrown had put in so much effort just for today. And now when they were so close to their goal, this piece of sh*it tries to pay them off! If they agreed to this horrible deal, they would be worse than animals!

The fiery anger swept through Xiao Bei’s entire being. He never imagined that Team Sky would be so shameless as to try and secure their victory for their own selfish reasons by fixing the match.

“Xiao Bei, this hundred thousand yuan will last you a long time, and the others will never know about this. No one will notice if you just make a small mistake, a lot of accidents happen in LOL.

“You always boost others in their ranked games, whether in the Korean server or the local server, this is something that’s not hard for you. I’ll deposit the money as soon as the match is over. Your uncle and I are at the bank now, he can testify that what I’m saying is true,” said Sun Liang, chuckling.

Xiao Bei roared, the rage clear in his voice, “F*ck off! If I don’t make your dog ass regret this for life, then my name is not Xiao Bei!”

“Wait, don’t hang up! If it’s not enough, then a hundred and fifty thousand!”

Du du du…

***

“So pissing off, so pissing off!”

Xiao Bei gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to throw his phone at the nearest wall.

Team Sky was notorious for being shameless, but who would have thought that they would go to such dirty extremes to secure victory? Whatever little admiration he still retained for them had now completely vanished.

Had Team Sky relied on these kinds of tactics to make it into Worlds?

This kind of team was able to qualify for Worlds and play as a representative of China?

Thinking about how such a proud and passionate e-sports player actually had to play for such a disgusting club, Xiao Bei really felt for Yu Luocheng.

If they didn’t beat Team Sky, then his name was not Xiao Bei!

Knowing such an ugly reality, Xiao Bei would not only forget about point shaving, he would use all his strength to beat the sh*t out of Team Sky!

Only their Team Skycrown was worthy of representing China at Worlds, every single one of them were passionate and powerful e-sports fighters!