Chapter 5

Reaching high ranks inevitably meant encountering numerous professional players, or even retired ones.

However, many pros preferred grinding on the highly competitive Korean server; Xu Ruiqi, for instance, played almost exclusively there. But Su Yi getting matched with SNM’s Han Lingfeng was a first in all her years of playing.

As soon as the loading screen ended and everyone bought their starting items at the fountain, Su Yi watched her teammates spam the [All] chat with greetings: “Wind God, I’m your fan, mwah!”, “So disappointed I can’t lane against you, Wind God!”, “If I lose to you this game, can I get a friend request?”

Su Yi: “…”

Being matched against someone consistently ranked in the top ten Challengers meant her own team must also have Challenger-level players. But… was this really the high-elo queue she remembered? Why did everyone act like absolute idiots the moment they encountered Han Lingfeng?

*Tsk tsk tsk,* she thought. *Truly deserving of his title as the LPL’s most popular player. This really is a society that values looks.*

Good-looking people were popular; good-looking people with insane mechanical skill were even more so.

Sighing, Su Yi adjusted her mindset and followed the minion wave out of the turret. In the early laning phase, her Orianna and Han Lingfeng’s Syndra were evenly matched—similar CS counts and fair trades.

But this man was incredibly smart.

Timing it perfectly when Su Yi was one minion away from level six, he stunned her first. Suddenly, an Elise flashed out from the river bush, combining her burst with Syndra’s to instantly delete Su Yi before she could even press either summoner spell.

The hard CC combo of Syndra and Elise was simply too oppressive, dealing massive burst damage. Securing First Blood quickly established his advantage. Compounded by constant harassment from the enemy jungler, Su Yi was solo-killed twice more by Coldwind.

Mid lane was completely blown up.

Su Yi quickly realized this wasn’t just a case of “What do I do if I can’t beat him?” anymore—it had escalated to “Is it too late to hug his thigh and beg for mercy?”

She got absolutely destroyed by Han Lingfeng’s Syndra. By the fifteen-minute mark, her score was a dismal 1/6/5. Meanwhile, her own Graves jungler mindlessly farmed camps nonstop, never contesting enemy buffs or counter-ganking. Even his teammates couldn’t stand watching it.

[Does your jungler only know how to farm? Their Elise has already snowballed mid and bot!]

[Holy crap, are you throwing?]

[GG]

Ultimately, Su Yi surrendered with… horrific stats. There was zero chance of a comeback, especially since the Graves jungler was wandering around their own jungle like a drunkard. If he wasn’t intentionally feeding, nobody would believe it.

To make matters worse, the enemy jungler seemed to have OCD, camping mid lane relentlessly and denying her any room to farm.

Consequently, all four lanes collapsed—top, mid, bot, and the jungle were utterly decimated.

After the match ended, everyone spammed public chat begging for Han Lingfeng’s friend request, completely forgetting about the Graves player who had thrown the entire game. Unlike those chasing friend requests, the very first thing Su Yi did upon exiting was check her damage output.

Surprisingly, she had dealt the highest damage on her team.

Staring at her lost LP, Su Yi felt heartbroken. Without bothering to read the chaotic chat, she left the lobby immediately.

Only after exiting did she realize—*Damn it, forgot to report him.*

Han Lingfeng glanced at the notification: E-MAIL has left the lobby. He frowned slightly. Just then, Manager Tai Yi walked through the front door carrying a mountain of takeout bags, complaining loudly, “Fucking watermelon rinds! You guys sit here gaming while I haul food delivery. Hey! Who ordered the extra-large spicy clams noodles and the giant Hong Kong-style coffee? Damn, this is heavy!”

Before he finished speaking, Lightning shot up from the corner and dashed over. “Put down those clam noodles! They’re mine!”

Immediately, the rest of the team swarmed forward to claim their respective orders. Only Han Lingfeng remained seated, staring intently at his monitor, immovable as Mount Tai.

Finding this odd, Tai Yi carried a boxed meal over and placed it in front of Han Lingfeng. Glancing at the post-game stats, he asked, “Didn’t you win your ranked game? Why the deadpan face again?”

Han Lingfeng curled his lips slightly and turned to look at him. “I ran into her.”

“Who?” Tai Yi didn’t catch on immediately. Grabbing an empty chair from a nearby desk, he sat beside Han Lingfeng, took two bites of rice, and looked at the screen.

One glance at the disastrous Orianna stats, and he instantly understood.

Shaking his head sympathetically, Tai Yi tutted. “Tsk tsk, treating girls so ruthlessly. Coldwind, I genuinely worry about your future girlfriend.”

“…………”

“You’re so heartless when gaming. No wonder you have fangirls but no actual girlfriend,” Tai Yi remarked nonchalantly.

“It was a welcoming gift.”

“…Your idea of a welcome gift is seriously fucked up.”

“Her mechanics are fine.”

“So it’s your mechanics that are flawed.”

“Their jungler was a thrower, plus my jungler was Qi Shen from CNZ—he changed his ID.”

Manager Tai Yi froze, a grain of rice still clinging to the corner of his mouth. “Wait? You got matched with Virgo Qi Shen? Then it’s not your fault. Can’t blame you.”

Team CNZ, nicknamed the ‘Virgo Team’ by the esports community—not just because of the phonetic similarity in their name, but because nearly every member suffered from severe OCD.

This was arguably the worst… worst… worst smear campaign against ‘Virgos’ in history, bar none.

And CNZ’s jungler, Qi Shen, was notoriously obsessed with ganking mid lane—truly textbook OCD, bro.

Seeing Han Lingfeng and Tai Yi huddled together like they were conducting shady business, Xu Ruiqi approached from behind with his lunchbox, curious. “When did you two get so cozy? Tai Yi, aren’t you supposed to be fooling around with Analyst He?”

Tai Yi jumped in surprise, but Han Lingfeng’s reflexes were lightning-fast, instantly closing the post-game screen.

“Riki, do you want to forfeit this month’s salary?” Tai Yi deployed his fail-safe trump card. “You’re still way behind on your streaming quota this month.”

Xu Ruiqi practically knelt in submission. “No no no, pretend I said nothing. Carry on…” Clutching his lunchbox, he obediently returned to his computer, blowing kisses to fans while eating and queuing for another match.

Afraid Xu Ruiqi might have overheard their conversation, Tai Yi sank back into his seat with a sigh.

“This feels suspiciously like we’re colluding,” Han Lingfeng observed, staring at him.

“…Huh?”

“Not good. Not good at all.” With that, Han Lingfeng grabbed the keys off the table and headed outside.

SNM’s manager stared blankly. “Wind God, where are you going this late? Skipping dinner? Are you trying to ascend to immortality?”

Without turning back, the man gave a cool little wave. “Going for a walk.”

With that, he stepped out the front door.

Tai Yi stood rooted in place, staring bewildered at the entrance. After a long silence, Lightning, who was watching anime on the adjacent sofa, suddenly caught the crucial detail and mumbled through a mouthful of food, “Why did Wind God grab car keys if he’s just going for a walk?”

Tai Yi whipped his head around. “He took the car keys?”

“Yep, definitely car keys.”

“I remember he usually has an acrylic charm attached to them.”

“Oh, right—a chibi Jinx drawn by some fan artist. He seemed to really like it. Lost it during the US trip, so now it’s just bare keys.”

“Oh no…”

Lightning immediately realized it too: “…Fuck, big trouble.”

“That guy has zero sense of direction! Don’t tell me he’s driving off to take a walk and will end up in the ocean! Goddamn banana boat, I just got the car fixed!” Muttering curses, Tai Yi sprinted out the door.

Wasn’t there an idiom for this? No man is perfect.

If Han Lingfeng was flawless in skill, looks, and intellect, his single fatal flaw was… he was hopelessly directionally challenged.

Yeah, probably qualified for an Level-8 Navigationally Impaired Certificate.

Just as Tai Yi shoved his feet into shoes and bolted out the door, his phone buzzed twice in his pocket. Walking toward the parking lot, he pulled it out to check the messages.

Then he nearly slammed face-first into a pillar.

[SUEE: (*>.<*)~ My parents agreed! So what's the next step?]What's the next step? Obviously, flying directly to Su Yi's city to sign the contract! Thinking this, a massive weight lifted off Tai Yi's shoulders. Support Xiao C's contract was expiring soon anyway; after completing departure procedures in a few days, he'd be flying back to Korea.Looking up, he watched helplessly as Han Lingfeng sped away in the team's BMW.Tai Yi: "..."He could only pray the guy wouldn't take a wrong turn like last time. Modern navigation apps were unreliable anyway—or rather, Han Lingfeng was a man beyond the salvation of GPS....Lying flat on her bed, Su Yi stared at the message on her phone: [Signing contract. See you tomorrow.]Putting her phone down, she rolled excitedly across the mattress. She kept rolling until her head bonked against the wall, which finally calmed her down enough to settle her racing heart.But remembering that her future ADC partner would be the LPL's most popular player made her feel inexplicably pressured.Just then, another WeChat notification popped up. Expecting SNM's manager, she checked and found it was Xia Qiqi instead.[Principal Qi: Wait, baby Yi Yi, did you just say the team you're joining is SNM? Your cousin's team?]*Dear, your reaction time is glacial...*Too lazy to analyze whether Xia Qiqi's delayed response followed a sine or cosine curve, Su Yi typed rapidly: [SUEE: Yep, SNM.][Principal Qi: OMG! Isn't that Wind God's team?! I'm so fucking jealous!][SUEE: FYI, he'll be my partner.][Principal Qi: .................... [Dumbfounded.jpg] You're playing support? And supporting WIND GOD?? Are you sure???][SUEE: Why are you so worked up?][Principal Qi: I'm starting to feel bad for you. Wind God seems super demanding of his supports. Your duo is gonna need serious adjustment time.]Su Yi: "............"True—as the best ADC in China, having high standards for his support was natural. But recalling how thoroughly Han Lingfeng had demolished her in that ranked game, Su Yi's mind filled with resentment.[SUEE: Don't worry. I'll be the kind of support that steals his kills and ruins his CS.][Principal Qi: I have a feeling that at this rate, you won't survive until the 2017 Spring Split.][SUEE: ...]