Chapter 1

Su Yi wore a black knitted cardigan, her fair and slender fingers deftly opening the front-facing camera on her phone to take three quick selfies. The background was the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, USA—the venue for the 2016 League of Legends World Championship Group Stage.

From the three photos she had just taken, Su Yi selected the one she was most satisfied with and posted it to Weibo with the caption: “Yi Mei is not E-MAIL: ~(≧▽≦)/~ Watching the live broadcast on-site! Go Team SNM!”

It was around 3:00 PM in San Francisco at the time. The opening ceremony was officially scheduled to start at 4:00 PM, but it usually ran about half an hour late. The first group stage match following the opening ceremony would be between Team SNM, which Su Yi had just mentioned in her post, and North America’s Team YSL.

San Francisco was roughly fifteen hours behind Beijing time. It was just past 6:00 AM in China, and many League of Legends fans had already woken up early to wait for the livestream. Those who were bored were likely scrolling through Weibo—

“Holy crap, you actually went to the US to watch the Finals!”

“It’s so great that Yi Mei and I support the same team…”

“You’re going to see Wind God, right? You must be going to see Wind God! My husband is so handsome!”

“You promised last time you’d draw a fanbook featuring Wind God and Zeus. When are you coming back to finish it?”

“Yi Mei, I really loved that fan art of the SNM championship skins you posted before. Wind God’s Jinx really should be that domineering.”

Su Yi was an art student who had been admitted to the local H University Art Academy thanks to her outstanding art exam scores. She was skilled at digital painting and occasionally posted her illustrations on Weibo. Most of her work consisted of League of Legends fan art, and she had also drawn quite a few chibi character designs of professional players. Ever since the official League of Legends Weibo account accidentally reposted her work six months ago, she had gradually attracted a significant number of followers.

Compared to Su Yi posting selfies on Weibo, Xia Qiqi, who was standing next to her, was more direct—she simply opened her phone camera and started streaming on White Shark TV.

“Yes, Principal Qi and Yi Mei are currently at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco watching the matches.”

“Which team do we support? Of course it’s the LPL champions, Team SNM!”

“What? You don’t want to watch me, you want to watch Yi Mei? Baby is unhappy now. Baby is getting cranky.”

Xia Qiqi was a female streamer in the Star Show category on White Shark TV. She was somewhat famous across the platform for her beauty, good temper, and amazing singing voice. However, what set Xia Qiqi apart from other female streamers was her innate queenly aura; her presence was overwhelmingly powerful. As her fans often said in the bullet comments: Even when my Qi sings a song, she exudes such domineering charisma.

Su Yi had been forcibly pulled into the frame during one of Xia Qiqi’s streams, and that was how she became widely recognized by the audience.

Watching the rows of scrolling bullet comments, Xia Qiqi put on an aggrieved expression, touching her face as if deeply sorrowful. She nudged the person behind her, who was still looking down at her phone scrolling through Weibo, and blurted out, “Great Beauty Su, look at the chat! My fans are practically becoming yours.”

Su Yi turned her head toward the phone camera and waved generously, then lowered her head again to continue browsing Weibo. “Aren’t your fans basically mine anyway?”

“Well, that’s true,” Xia Qiqi replied. Just as she finished speaking, the main doors of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium opened, and the crowd waiting outside began filing in one after another.

Xia Qiqi immediately looked back at the camera. “The venue is open now. Yi Mei and I are heading inside first. See you later, mwah!” With that, she quickly ended the stream, grabbed Su Yi’s hand, and joined the flow of people queuing to enter the hall.

Due to the massive crowd, Su Yi put her phone away in her bag for safety reasons. Thirty seconds later, her phone buzzed once inside the bag, but she paid it no mind. Shortly after, it buzzed twice more, and she still ignored it. Then the phone began vibrating incessantly, and Su Yi figured something must be wrong.

Picking up her phone, she found that her entire lock screen was indeed flooded with messages from Xu Ruiqi.

“How can you just skip class like that? What if you fail your finals?”

“Do your parents know you came to the US? Please tell me you didn’t come alone?”

“That’s not even the point! The point is, who’s taking care of you in the US? Do you even speak English? How am I supposed to focus on my matches with this on my mind?”

“No way, you can’t go into the venue. I’ll get nervous knowing you’re watching me play live!”

“Holy crap, where are you? You posted on Weibo two minutes ago. Don’t tell me you got lost!”

“My phone is about to be confiscated. Reply to me right now!”

Su Yi burst into laughter staring at the screen, causing Xia Qiqi beside her to assume her best friend had stumbled upon another funny meme on Weibo. She gave Su Yi a puzzled look. “What’s wrong? Did scrolling through Weibo fry your brain again?”

“See for yourself,” Su Yi said, handing over the WeChat chat interface for Xia Qiqi to see.

Black lines instantly appeared on Xia Qiqi’s forehead. “I told you your cousin has a total sister-complex, but you wouldn’t believe me. Now that he knows you snuck off to the US without telling him to watch his match, look at him—he’s panicking like a scared dog. Is this really Riki, that reliable captain of Team SNM?”

“It’s called gap moe,” Su Yi replied before lowering her head to respond to Xu Ruiqi’s messages.

Her reply was simple and clear:

“Just focus on playing well. Fighting! :)”

However, upon reading this message, Xu Ruiqi, whose phone was confiscated by the manager before he could reply, felt genuinely panicked.

Su Yi’s cousin, Xu Ruiqi, was a professional League of Legends player. His team, SNM, commanded considerable respect throughout the entire LPL region. Incidentally, Xu Ruiqi played the jungle position for SNM. As the champions of the 2016 LPL Summer Split, SNM had secured their ticket directly to the S6 World Championship with a perfect undefeated record, signaling their absolute determination to claim this year’s S-series title.

Upon entering the venue, Xia Qiqi linked arms with Su Yi and headed straight for the seats printed on their tickets—they were premium golden seats very close to the front, both infield passes. Su Yi silently gave a thumbs-up to her wealthy best friend.

Once seated, Su Yi noticed there were quite a few Chinese people around them, most of whom were fans of Team SNM, holding up light signs that read “Go Team SNM.” Somehow, this ignited a surge of excitement within her as well.

“Your dear best friend is amazing, isn’t she? These seats offer the absolute best viewing angle, handpicked by yours truly. I had my dad pull some strings through multiple contacts just to get someone on the inside to snag these for us,” Xia Qiqi said, handing Su Yi a prepared SNM cheering banner and leaning in close to fish for compliments.

Su Yi took the banner excitedly and nodded. “Mwah, you’re the best.”

“That didn’t sound sincere at all.”

“Trust me, it was incredibly sincere.”

“But seriously, what possessed you to come all the way to the US to watch the match live? Aren’t you the type who hates hassle? I invited you to stream with me on White Shark before, and you refused.”

Hearing Xia Qiqi’s question, Su Yi yawned and explained, “It’s mainly because SNM has the opening match this time, and I happened to have time off. Ever since my brother started competing two years ago, my mom—who used to know absolutely nothing about computers—has learned how to use one. She spends her free time watching his streams on White Shark, casually tipping him a couple of yachts every now and then…”

Before she could finish, Xia Qiqi blurted out, “Now that’s a real mother! Why doesn’t my mom ever tip me yachts?”

The heartfelt atmosphere was instantly ruined by her best friend. Su Yi sighed, rubbed her forehead, and snatched the bag of snacks Xia Qiqi had bought from the convenience store downstairs at the hotel last night. “Next time I tell you a story, I’ll make sure to leave my brain behind. I’m going to catch up on sleep first due to jet lag. Wake me up when the match starts.”

“…”

Half an hour after they entered, the lights in the auditorium suddenly dimmed. All spotlights converged on the central main stage, where two American hosts began talking animatedly about various things. Xia Qiqi couldn’t understand a word, so she hurriedly woke up Su Yi, who was dozing off beside her.

After the opening ceremony concluded, the two teams competing in the first group stage match—Team YSL from the North American region and Team SNM from the Chinese region—took the stage one after another to introduce themselves.

Clearly, the atmosphere in the arena reached another fever pitch when SNM’s god-tier ADC made his appearance.

Han Lingfeng, whose in-game ID was ‘Coldwind’, had been a professional player since Season 4. Every single year since then, his spectacular plays had invariably claimed the number one spot in the LPL’s annual highlight reels. To put it nicely, he delivered a defining moment in every match; to put it bluntly, showing off was as natural to him as breathing. Furthermore, he had received the highest votes in the All-Star events for the past two consecutive seasons.

As if that weren’t enough, he happened to be devastatingly handsome, attracting hordes of adoring fans. Rumor had it that he was also exceptionally intelligent, calm, and meticulous, often serving as the team’s shot-caller and leading them to victory even from disadvantageous positions.

Calling him a ‘godlike man’ wouldn’t be an exaggeration. It came as no surprise to anyone that someone like him enjoyed such immense popularity on the international stage.

Su Yi pulled a cookie from her snack bag and popped it into her mouth, watching the young men from both teams standing at the front of the stage waving to the audience. Her gaze first drifted to Xu Ruiqi, who was standing slightly to the left of his team. After two years of professional play, he actually looked a bit nervous on the international stage… Could it really be that her presence at the live match was making him panic?

However, based on Su Yi’s observations of her cousin over the past decade or so, he would probably return to normal the moment his hands touched the keyboard and mouse.

So she stuffed another cookie into her mouth and continued scanning the members of Team SNM until her gaze settled on Coldwind.

He was very handsome.

Indeed, he looked even better in person than on screen.

Just as Su Yi was thinking this, she noticed that Han Lingfeng’s focus seemed to be directed right at her section… Wait, was it really her section? At this thought, Su Yi choked violently on her cookie.

Seeing this, Xia Qiqi immediately handed her a bottle of water. “Holy crap, babe, the match hasn’t even started yet. Why are you getting so worked up?”

Su Yi’s face turned crimson from choking, and she waved her hand frantically. “Shush, don’t talk.”

“…”

After patting her chest and feeling slightly better, Su Yi finally sat up straight again, her mind racing wildly. But realistically speaking, with the spotlights shining so brightly, the stage would appear completely dark to anyone looking down into the audience. How could he possibly be looking at her?

Yeah, it must have been an illusion.

“Wow! Wind God is looking our way!”

“He really is! Go Wind God! Go SNM!”

“Riki is so adorable! I’ll farm your jungle for you!”

“Coffee, Coffee, show us your divine power!”

Su Yi: “…”

Excited shrieks from Chinese female fans erupted from behind her. It seemed she wasn’t the only one experiencing this illusion. Well, thinking about it that way made it much less embarrassing!

With that thought, she popped another cookie into her mouth.

Standing on the stage, the young man gazed toward a certain direction, his eyes deep and profound like the surging ocean in the dead of night. Only when the referee ordered the players from each team to take their seats did he withdraw his gaze, turning around to step into the seat that belonged to him.