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Chapter 48: I’ll Be Number One!

The adjudicator treated this as a verbal attack by Lin Xu, against Yu Luocheng. With a stern look, he said, “Team Pride’s private spectators may not insult or deride any players on the opposing team. First warning.”

Huang Mi turned and gave Lin Xu a venomous look.

Red-faced, Lin Xu pointed at Yu Luocheng. “I know him. He’s a schoolmate. We go to the same school, you see.”

As he desperately tried to explain himself, his eyes wandered over to Yu Luocheng again, still cursing silently in his heart. ‘God damn it, why did it have to be him!’

“Lin Xu, you’ve played a game against this guy before, right?” Huang Mi asked over his shoulder.

“Right.” Lin Xu nodded.

Huang Mi had a grim look on his face. After that match between Class 8 and Class 3, Huang Mi had thumped his own chest in front of Lin Xu, saying that he’d show Yu Luocheng what a real player looked like.

And sure enough, the opportunity had now arrived. He was sitting right across from him, alongside Team Scarlet.

5v4, Huang Mi felt sure he could have taken Team Scarlet.

5v5, he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell!

After this, another rematch would cost six hundred. It brought a painful twinge to his heart.

“Brother Mi, he’s probably just there to fill an empty chair,” Lin Xu whispered. “He’ll definitely end up being a liability for Team Scarlet. If you guys can take advantage of this, and keep pressure on his Bottom lane until it breaks, that might be your chance for victory.”

Huang Mi nodded.

Certainly, they would have to win in one of the lanes to have any hope of beating Team Scarlet. Yu Luocheng was just some brat, and he was new to the team. Both his gameplay skills as well as his teamwork with the ADC would be lacking.

A plan had begun to take form in Huang Mi’s head.

***

The match was underway. They were now in the Banning Phase.

Team Scarlet had banned both of Huang Mi’s favorite champions, along with the Spider Queen Elise.

Banning Elise was probably because they feared the enemy might select her as Solo Top.

If either side picked a short-ranged tank champion for their Top lane, he would be badly crushed by Elise, who was very powerful in this patch. ¹

Besides, there genuinely was an Elise specialist on Team Pride.

For their part, they’d banned off two ADC champions favored by Xue Haiyang: Miss Fortune and Ezreal.

The last ban had been enemy team leader Huang Yu’s best AP champion: Ryze, the Rune Mage.

Both sides clearly each had their own targets to suppress, but banning off both of Haiyang’s favorites was a bit of a peculiar move.

There was less viciousness during the actual champion selection. There didn’t seem to be any clash between both team’s choices—after all, even if you snatched a champion for yourself, the question was whether you knew how to play them.

Team Scarlet’s AP Mid champion would be the Fallen Angel, Morgana. For their Jungler, they chose Kha’Zix, the Voidreaver, which was hugely imba ¹ in the current patch.

Then they chose Malphite as Top, and Graves as ADC. As Support, Yu Luocheng chose Alistar, the Minotaur.

Team Pride’s composition was Katarina as AP Mid, Fiddlesticks as Jungler, Shen as Top, Varus as ADC, and Sona as Support.

One thing was for sure: Both sides had lots of CC ¹ .

Team Scarlet’s line-up would excel at starting team-fights, but Team Pride’s champions would eventually become terrifyingly powerful.

Both teams were also fielding assassin-type champions: Team Scarlet had Kha’Zix, while Team Pride would be bringing Katarina.

Neither team’s composition presented any obvious advantages, so it would come down to strategy and player skill.

A thirty-second countdown had appeared on the screen.

This was when Commander Qin walked up behind Yu Luocheng and Xue Haiyang and whispered, “The two of you watch out, down in Bottom lane.”

Xue Haiyang was not that remarkable an ADC. For Team Pride to have banned both of his best champions made their intention quite obvious: They were going after Bottom lane.

“I’ll be fine, as long as this high-school boy doesn’t trip me up.” Still wearing that easy-going smile, Xue Haiyang cast a sidelong glance at Yu Luocheng.

Xue Haiyang had only played one game with Yu Luocheng before, and the outcome had been sort of ambivalent, so he had yet to see Yu Luocheng’s true worth. So far, he’d only gotten the impression that Yu Luocheng was distracted by something.

Speaking frankly, the way Commander Qin had inexplicably brought in a freshly graduated high-school boy to be his Support, Xue Haiyang was still uncertain about it. He couldn’t say that Yu Luocheng had ever let him down, but neither did he expect great things out of him.

“Do your best.” Qin didn’t say any more than that.

Yu Luocheng crossed his fingers behind his head.

“Nervous?” Xue Haiyang asked, making idle chatter. “When you’re playing at this level, you’ve got to have nerves of steel. Maybe the commander was impressed by your skills, and that’s why he brought you on board, but you haven’t even been through a handful of games with us, and you’ve got no experience in tournaments. When we really get down to the wire, your hands will tremble or go numb. That’s the time when willpower really counts.”

Xue Haiyang sounded like a real veteran.

“Trust me, my hands will be steady,” Yu Luocheng replied.

Hands trembling, shaking, going numb… when he’d first started playing professionally, that had indeed happened to Yu Luocheng—but that was years ago.

Commander Qin hadn’t had much to say, not because he thought the way Xue Haiyang did, but because he didn’t feel qualified to teach anything to this boy who had once stood at the top of the pro-gaming world.

Unfortunately, Xue Haiyang didn’t know about any of this. He regarded Yu Luocheng, who still appeared calm enough for the moment, and said, “Steady, eh? I hope so. Just don’t drag me down, now.”

They entered the loading screen. The contestants themselves remained still and serene. Rather, it was the crowd gathered all around them which was getting agitated to boiling point.

As Yu Luocheng gazed at the loading screen, the handphone he’d set aside gave a short little tone. He’d received a message.

After a moment’s hesitation, he picked it up for a look.

***

‘Yang Qianqian: Hmph! That day, you turned down Commander Qin’s offer. Why are you seated with them now? You’re always so sneaky! You’d better get first place, you horrid rascal.’

***

Reading this missive from Yang Qianqian, Yu Luocheng was a bit stupefied.

He turned around, and found her just a couple of meters directly behind him, surrounded protectively by Wang Qin and company.

She was as mesmerizing as always today. Just the sight of her made his heart beat faster.

Her handphone was still clutched in her hand. When she saw Yu Luocheng turn to look at her, an almost imperceptible blush rose up upon her cheeks. She deliberately averted her eyes from him, as though to say that she wasn’t the one who’d sent that message. Ah, so cute.

Yu Luocheng grinned at her, and felt his heart doing somersaults.

He didn’t say a thing to her, returning his eyes to the screen. His mind sharpened to a razor’s edge. A quiet voice in his heart was saying,

‘About that couple’s trip with you…

‘I hope you won’t mind waiting for a little longer.

‘I’m going to be Number One—but not just in Lecheng!’