League of Legends: League of Unknowns

Chapter 396: Back to School

Gamers didn’t quite like the winter season. It was a nightmare especially for those in the e-sports scene. A little tip for you guys at home playing LoL without a heater, maybe skip those all-nighters playing ranked games for now because frigid fingers were going to be extremely detrimental to your ability to play, especially for all those ADC mains!

Team Skycrown would never forget the winter they had spent in the relatively small campus of Shanghai University, especially on rainy days, how the heater-less rooms had chilled them to their bones… There was no way they could perform well during their ranked games, and with every loss, their mood only further soured.

Lucky for them, it was different in their new house. Their rooms were warm and clean, the living room even had built-in heating, they could even eat ice cream and play ranked games without a care in the world.

Around December, Luocheng went back to his school for a bit.

He wasn’t going back for an exam, rather, the E-sports Club had actually invited him and it wouldn’t be great for his image if he didn’t go. After all, they were still his classmates.

Luocheng arrived extremely early. Jiang Jiu had told him that there would be two classes at nine-thirty, and since it had been awhile since Luocheng had talked with some real professionals, he decided to head straight to the classroom.

The teacher was halfway through his lecture so Luocheng slipped in through the backdoor and quietly took his seat right next to the entrance.

The group of boys in the back had long forgotten the Mathematics teacher that was trying his best to teach his students Calculus, cheerfully discussing on how to build a top lane Gragas.

“I call BS, you can’t build AP on Gragas, all you have to do is get a Sunfire Cape as well as a Spirit’s Visage and you’re basically invincible. Good wave clear, decent damage, and you can take up the front line and never die!” A boy with a perm was passionately arguing his defense regarding his newest build.

“No way, a Gragas going tank?” The resident adviser(RA) of their dorms, Yue Qing, replied in awe.

In dorm 209, Qiu Jingtai, Jiang Jiu, and Yu Luocheng were the ones that played League of Legends, but what surprised Luocheng a little was that even their RA Yue Qing had started playing even though he had never played video games before!

Each dorm housed 6 people, and out of the 6, a whopping 4 of them were avid players of League of Legends, just how popular was this game getting?

“The teacher probably isn’t taking attendance today, how about we sneak out and start our all-nighter early? I have almost twenty-five thousand IP which I can use to buy a new Rune Page…” Permed Hair said, instinctively looking over to the back of the classroom as he did.

“Holy sh*t!”

Seeing Luocheng sitting there nonchalantly as he turned back, Permed Hair jumped in his seat. The seat behind him had always been left unoccupied!

His “Holy sh*t!” echoed throughout the classroom, and creases started forming on the forehead of the usually gentle Mathematics teacher, his eyes boring holes into Permed Hair’s permed hair!

“Do you have a problem?” the Mathematics teacher asked.

The whole class turned back to look at Permed Hair as he tried to regain his composure.

“What!?”

“Oh my God!”

Jingtai and Jiang Jiu shouted simultaneously at the sight of Luocheng, and with everyone’s focus now on him instead of the teacher, a small ruckus started to form in the classroom.

The video of Luocheng in the LPL had already been circulating among official e-sports sites plus the television interview Luocheng had had was also garnering quite a bit of attention.

Luocheng had originally just been one of their classmates who was decent at video games, but suddenly, he had left his university circle and started making frequent appearances on major social websites. Everyone’s view of this classmate of theirs had started to shift, rising to a different level of respect and admiration.

The girl sitting next to Bai Feifei gave her a small nudge, unable to contain her excitement, “It really is Yu Luocheng, why is he back at school?”

Feifei glanced back toward Luocheng who looked like an alien in this classroom setting, a wave of emotions dancing in her beautiful eyes.

Seeing the reactions his classmates had, Luocheng was speechless.

Did everybody really have to act like this!? You’d think that I’ve just crashed my own funeral or something!

The Mathematics teacher quieted the class, carrying on with his endless lecture about calculus as if nothing had happened, but whenever the teacher had his back turned, there was one more male student silently inching his chair over, just to get closer to Luocheng.

***

Class was finally over and all the hardcore LoL players were surrounding Luocheng’s small desk.

Everyone knew that Luocheng had gone off to make e-sports his career, and these young people weren’t as stubborn as the older generation. From what they saw, being able to enter the LPL and even showing up on a television interview meant that his decision had been a resounding success!

Seeing the passionate expressions on everyone’s face, Luocheng had the sudden realization that following his decision to become a professional e-sports player, he had also become a part of a different world, completely detached from his old life. Relationships and conversations that had once been just between fellow classmates now had an added idol-fan dynamic to them. It had to be said though, Luocheng could get used to this feeling!

***

Luocheng got to the e-sports club in the afternoon, and Qin Ting, who had heard word of Luocheng’s arrival earlier, promptly gathered all the members. The whole thing had an oddly grandiose feeling to it.

However, it did remind Luocheng of the time he had greeted Asmodai. Currently, he was pretty much getting the same treatment and he was loving every second of it.

After all, in society as a whole, e-sports didn’t receive the praise it deserved, and more often than not, it got criticized for being immature or violent. But in university, Luocheng felt like these young people viewed e-sports in a different light, they idolized pro-players like him as they would mainstream actors and singers, the E-sports Club even had a poster of him on their wall…

Wait, I don’t have any issues with you guys hanging up a poster of me wearing my team uniform, but what’s with the border!? And could you not make it so dark!

Throughout the afternoon, Luocheng acted just as Asmodai had done, he played a few showcase matches for everyone and interacted with some of the newer club members, just to let them know that their Shanghai University E-sport’s Club was home to the legend that was Luocheng!

***

After the club’s activities ended, Jingtai and Jiang Jiu followed Luocheng around like children following their mothers in a crowded store.

“Luocheng, do you wanna call Feifei out to have dinner together?” Jiang Jiu asked.

Luocheng scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, “I haven’t talked to her in a bit, I don’t even know if she’d come.”

While he was still in school, Luocheng and Feifei had had a decent relationship, sometimes sending each other a message to keep the other up to date on how they were doing, but after the LPL, Luocheng had pretty much dropped all contact with her.

Feifei didn’t really approve of professional e-sports, she had the same view as many others. With Luocheng pursuing a career in e-sports and her pursuing a PhD, even if they weren’t sworn enemies, they certainly didn’t have much in common.

Jingtai shoved his phone in Luocheng’s face, “What do you mean call her, she’s already agreed. Look at her reply.”

Luocheng’s eyes widened as he read the words on Jingtai’s phone.

Jingtai let out a sly laugh, “So basically, I said, ‘Hi this is Luocheng, my phone’s dead so I’m using my roommate’s. I just wanted to ask, are you free tonight? We could get dinner together, it’s been a while since we’ve talked, and since I’m back…’”

Jiang Jiu gave Jingtai a big thumbs up, chortling his praise to Luocheng’s number one wingman!

To hell with this wingman, all Luocheng wanted to do was give Jingtai a good hard beating.

The guy had never had the guts to chase a girl of his own, and yet, he just loved flirting with girls under a different name!

“The girl has already agreed, she even let you choose the place. It wouldn’t do to just stand her up now, would it?” Jiang Jiu laughed.

Jingtai was still beaming in pride at what he had done, “Please call me Mr. Matchmaker.”

***

Luocheng chose a small restaurant outside of campus, wordlessly waiting for Feifei.

And she did indeed show up. What was different, though, was that her best friend didn’t tag along like she usually did whenever other guys invited Feifei out, and Luocheng didn’t know if her friend just didn’t want to come or if Feifei had told her not to.

The atmosphere was a little off. Previously, Luocheng would crack jokes to try and get a rare laugh out of Feifei, but he didn’t know if Feifei would react well to those sorts of 18 and above jokes anymore. They hadn’t talked for the better part of a year and starting off with that topic…wasn’t too appropriate, right?

Feifei was the first to start the conversation, “Have you ever thought about coming back to school?”

Luocheng shook his head, “Not right now.”

Feifei’s voice grew softer, “I heard you fell out with your family?”

Feifei had heard this from Yu Yu as the two of them still maintained contact and had an alright relationship.

Luocheng gave a bitter laugh, “Well it wouldn’t be the first time.”

“You don’t seem like the childish type who would get into disagreements with your family,” Feifei said.

“It’s exactly because I’m not a kid anymore that I would clash heads with my family. You’ve probably never argued with your family, huh?” Luocheng said.

“Not often. I mostly listen to what they say,” Feifei said.

“I can tell. You really like researching all that stuff?” Luocheng pointed at Feifei’s book bag, full of study material to bring back to self-study later.

“I want to become an author.”

“Oh, so you made the right choice by going into the Science Stream and majoring in IT,” Luocheng said dryly.

You wanted to become a Jungler, but you were forced by your parents to learn to play Mid. Your parents told you that the Mid could carry the whole team, they had a high win-rate, they could climb ranked faster, but Junglers weren’t useful and they were merely a second Support.

But everyone had a role that they were good at and enjoyed playing, even the most looked down upon Support role had seen a resurgence in the new Season. Didn’t that prove that Luocheng’s decision to main Support had been the correct one as well?

“Sometimes I really admire you and your bravery to do what you want.”

“It comes at a steep price.”

“Yeah, I didn’t even say anything back when my dad filled out my application form for me,” Feifei said.

Feifei’s values had changed, she no longer rejected anything that wasn’t her academics. Her previous views and values had been forced onto her by her parents and society, but once a person gained enough experience, they would start to make their own judgements. These judgements and ideas were often viewed by parents as rebellious, and after a rebellion, these ideas would get pushed down by parents or even themselves and they would slowly come to terms with reality, becoming what people called “mature”.

A vast majority of people didn’t have the courage to cast everything aside to do what they really wanted to, and among those that did, those that succeeded made up an even smaller percentage. But if you never took the chance and made your first step, never persevered despite failure, how would you succeed? Did you think those Platinum players didn’t have countless other accounts with over a thousand games and a win-rate that was far, far below 50%?

“What are you going to do now?” Feifei asked.

“Get into the LPL and get top 3.”

“And after that?”

“Get into an international competition and win World Champion.”

Their goal had always been clear. It looked like a two-step plan, but there was so, so much more that they had to go through to achieve this goal.

“If the LPL is in Shanghai, I’ll go and cheer for you even though I don’t understand any of it…” A smile flashed across Feifei’s face, a rare occurrence.

“Okay.” Luocheng returned a smile of his own.

Feifei didn’t approve of e-sports, but she was slowly starting to understand that e-sports wasn’t just about the game, it was about the glory that everyone was fighting for.

If even a traditional girl like Feifei could change, others would too. He had to raise this flag even higher, he had to make e-sports something people were proud to be a part of!

***

Luocheng left after they finished dinner. Paving a path for e-sports wasn’t something you could achieve in a day.

Seeing Luocheng leave, Feifei made her way back to her dorm as well, and her best friend bombarded her with questions before she had even stepped through the door.

“Feifei, do you like him or not?”

“I do.”

“Then why did you let him go?”

“I don’t know.” Feifei shook her head, “Probably because I couldn’t even say anything when my dad filled out my application form for me.”

“Oh, come on, silly.”