Money-losing boy! Mark of the weak! Who is the boss of Lingshilu?

Weibo was abuzz with discussion, signaling the start of the LPL Spring Split with a wave of public opinion.

Not long after, posts from various esports media marketing accounts hit the trending lists on major forums.

#The Battle for the Throne of Ling Shi Road, Who is the Strongest on Ling Shi Road?#

#Feeling sorry for AJ, IM carried for a year, only to be surpassed by a rookie!#

"Holy crap, who's stirring up trouble? Why did they drag AJ into this?"

Chu Ran was a bit surprised. He hadn't intended to target AJ, as he didn't know much about him.

However, AJ's performance last year was decent. As EDG's second team, they had advanced to the World Championship by stepping over 957.

When Abu saw this Weibo trending topic, his face immediately darkened, as if another sister had died at home.

He wasn't really afraid of other controversies, but this one, claiming they abandoned AJ and selected Chu Ran for EDG, was truly disgusting. It was probably the work of Imperial Zai.

AJ was playing well on IM, and his style wasn't what Abu wanted. Why would they transfer him to the first team?

AJ might not have had any issues initially, but seeing this trending topic could certainly plant some ideas in his head.

As everyone knows, as long as a seed is planted in a person's heart, it will slowly sprout and grow into a towering tree with the watering of rain.

"Xiao Ran, don't worry about this drama. What's wrong with crushing someone with skill? EDG is your strongest backing. Just focus on training these few days."

"Oh, OK!"

Chu Ran chuckled inwardly. He had no psychological burden. Looking at his Red Temperature Value exceeding 40,000, a smile spread across Chu Ran's lips.

He had to admit, the Imperial rabble and some of Zz1tai's fans were really something.

A single livestream plus Weibo generated even more buzz than the previous interview targeting Uzi.

Immediately, Chu Ran continued his cycle of adding points and drawing traits.

He added two points to his over 40,000 and drew two traits.

Operation Ability: 78 → 80.

After completing the stat allocation, Chu Ran felt his mind become even clearer. As expected, adding points to Deep Blue felt great.

With a thought, white light flashed before his eyes again, then stopped after a few seconds.

[Money-Bringing Boy: You are a God of Wealth. When your opponents use champions like Gangplank or Malzahar, they will uncontrollably transform into Money-Bringing Boys, increasing your economy and development.]

[Description: A man cannot become rich without windfalls. Praise the Money-Bringing Boy!]

[Weakling Mark: When your opponent calls for backup to gank you, you will feel unparalleled confidence, and all your abilities will be amplified by 10%.]

[Description: Does this person call for help because they can't beat me? Marked as a weakling!]

"Uh, Weakling Mark is somewhat useful. Does Money-Bringing Boy mean I should play champions like Sion or Nasus who stack passive abilities?"

Chu Ran scratched his head. He could already imagine the scene: playing Nasus and having the enemy Malzahar constantly send minions to him to stack his Q.

It was quite interesting.

"Brother Ran, your apology letter went viral. People are now calling you the Head Disciple of the Sarcasm School."

Hearing Meiko's roar, Chu Ran was startled.

"Why are you shouting so loud!"

"Got it!"

Chu Ran replied to Meiko and then continued scrolling through Weibo.

Under such intense attention, Snake officially joined in to ride the wave of popularity, stating that in their first match, they would prove who the strongest team on Ling Shi Road was. Their words excited many Snake fans.

At this moment, they had two things in mind.

Green Garlic!

Green garlic!

Along with the Imperial scum, they just hoped the LPL Spring Split would start quickly, as they now wanted to see Chu Ran get thoroughly beaten on stage.

At the same time, at the RNG club base.

Xiao Ming and the others found Chu Ran's Weibo posts both amusing and exasperating. Xiao Hu laughed so hard he slapped his thigh, "Why is this guy so funny? I'm saving this meme, it's hilarious."

However, as he spoke, Xiao Hu noticed Uzi's expressionless face and immediately stopped smiling. He heard Uzi grit his teeth and say, "Just a clown who only rides on trends. I hope Snake can beat him back to the substitute bench. I don't want to see this disgusting thing in the LPL."

MLXG rolled his eyes from the side, fiddling with the stock trading app on his phone, a torrent of complaints in his mind.

This is disgusting?

Why don't you reflect on yourself?

He hasn't even said how disgusted he was by your Jhin pick this year.

Letme smacked his lips. He envied Chu Ran's courage. At least he wouldn't dare to post on Weibo like this every day.

Since joining RNG, he finally understood why Chu Ran had been sent to the substitute bench by Uzi back then.

There was a training match during this period. He was one second late with his TP to save the bottom lane, and Uzi directly "judged" him, nearly delivering a divine punishment.

Thinking of this, Uzi decided he should support Snake and immediately posted a Weibo.

UziQAQ:

[Go Snake! I hope Snake can play well in the upcoming matches and show some people that there are always stronger players out there. Don't be arrogant just because you won a Solo championship. Show some respect for your elders in the future.]

As expected, his Weibo post was met with strong support from many Imperial fans, and of course, a torrent of abuse from Uzi Haters.

[So an AD without a championship can be arrogant?]

[Hahaha, Mad Little Dog, how dare you! What championship have you won, and why are you so arrogant?]

[Others are definitely arrogant. It doesn't even matter if they go to the World Championship, they'll just be kicked aside like a stray dog.]

[LOL, so arrogant you're playing Lucian jungle, huh?]

With Uzi's Weibo post, the LPL forums were buzzing with trending topics in the days leading up to the Spring Split.

Aside from the jokes, most of the discussion revolved around how Chu Ran would perform.

After all, Chu Ran was a rookie who hadn't even debuted in the LPL yet, but his popularity and traffic were immense, naturally attracting a lot of attention.

However, Chu Ran didn't pay much attention to it.

Instead, he opened his computer's notepad.

January 15, 2017, Sunny.

The great World's Number One ADC openly supported Snake, wanting Zz1tai to crush me.

When Meiko leaned over to take a look, he noticed there were many other entries above. His face immediately turned pale.

Damn, this is terrifying!

What normal professional player writes a diary?

From then on, Meiko had a thought: he absolutely couldn't offend Chu Ran, fearing Chu Ran would keep a record of it.

Time flew by like a white horse, and a few days quietly passed. It was quickly January 19, 2017. The Spring Split regular season venue was at Shanghai's Grand Gateway Plaza, so Chu Ran and the team stayed at the club's base.

Abu and the others were very satisfied with Chu Ran's performance, believing Chu Ran could remain silent in the face of all the trending topics. But they didn't realize Chu Ran was just biding his time.

"Xiao Ran, how about you play Maokai or Thresh when you go up tomorrow?" Nofe asked Chu Ran tentatively.

However, before Nofe could finish, Abu immediately refused, "No, play Fiora, Jayce, and the like. Xiao Ran, find some time to practice Camille more."

Nofe was taken aback and sighed.

He felt that with EDG's current lineup, the mid and bot lanes could carry. Top lane should ideally play a tank. Didn't Abu understand this?

Abu certainly understood.

But why did he recruit Chu Ran to EDG?

Before Chu Ran joined EDG, their top laner was Maokai. After he joined, it was still Maokai.

Wasn't that a waste of his recruitment? Couldn't they just use Mouse?

Seeing Abu's decision, Nofe remained silent. After all, if the top lane had problems, the blame wouldn't fall on him.

"Actually, I can play tanks too."

Chu Ran's words didn't garner much attention from Abu and Nofe. However, Mouse, who was on the other side, trembled.

Dude, don't mess around.

Just keep playing your damage-dealing champions, leave the tanks to the professionals like me.

"Gather up. Is everyone clear about tomorrow's starting roster?" Abu looked at his notebook. "Top lane: Xiao Ran, Jungle: Zhiming, Mid lane: Yuan Shuo, AD: He Kui, Support: Meiko, Substitute: Scout."

"Snake isn't a weak team. Especially tomorrow, for Xiao Ran's top lane, you'll be facing Zz1tai. Flandre had a temporary issue, so Zz1tai is filling in as the substitute top laner. Personally, I think Zz1tai's top lane is a bit stronger than his mid lane. You'll need to communicate a lot tomorrow."

"Understood."

Chu Ran was a bit taken aback. He hadn't expected his first opponent tomorrow to be Zz1tai. How did he end up in the top lane again?

Was it because he couldn't compete with Duke, and wanted to return to mid lane? But IG already had Rookie in the mid lane, so why Snake?

Was it really for revenge?

Chu Ran stroked his chin, lost in thought.

Zz1tai's substitute appearance for Snake tomorrow, along with Snake's official announcement, stirred up a wave of excitement throughout the LPL, and many people's eyes lit up.

[Holy crap, then we absolutely have to watch the EDG vs. Snake match tomorrow.]

[Interesting. Did Zz1tai bench Holy Spear Brother for revenge against EDG-Easy?]

[I don't know about that, but there's definitely entertainment. If nothing else, let's go grab some melon seeds and peanuts and prepare to enjoy tomorrow's grand feast!]

[Great! This is the most correct episode. I hope Zz1tai can completely crush that Chu Ran brat, so our Little Dog won't have to step in personally.]

[Zz1tai might not be strong, but he should be able to handle a rookie, right? That brat Chu Ran only knows a few champions. Does he even have the guts to play Fiora in a match?]

[Indeed, it's getting annoying. If he has the guts, he should pick Fiora in the match. Will EDG even let him pick it?]

[He'll probably pick Maokai and start slacking, not even having the courage to lane against Zz1tai.]

[What is EDG doing? Why is my Rui Can a substitute? Are they sick? Does that trash Pawn deserve to compete for the starting mid lane with my Rui Can?]

[Get lost like your mom! Stinky Pawn!]

The next day, the sun was shining brightly.

Chu Ran put on the EDG team uniform and walked out of the hotel with everyone to the competition center. He found that it was already crowded with people, all thanks to Fujii's pursuit of traffic.

The first day of the LPL Spring Split not only featured EDG, but also a match between RNG and OMG, and WE against LGD.

The "Big Three" teams were all present. Coupled with the public opinion frenzy caused by Chu Ran, and with Fujii's promotional efforts, the traffic was truly maximized.

"So many people."

"Don't be nervous. Just treat it like a normal ranked practice match on stage," Deft said, patting Chu Ran's shoulder as someone with experience.

Chu Ran grinned, "I'm not nervous. The other side should be the ones who are nervous."

"."

"Then, Brother Ran, in what situation would you get nervous?"

Hearing Meiko's question, Chu Ran pondered for a few seconds and slowly replied, "The moment the seed resources I've saved for many years become invalid."

"Lol." Meiko and the others were stunned. They widened their eyes and gave Chu Ran a thumbs-up.

Ming Kai, watching from backstage, immediately laughed and said, "I'll have Guang give you some good ones then. Seriously, at your age, you shouldn't be dating."

"Brother Kai, game players only need the game and their hands."

With that, Chu Ran began to register. However, when he looked back, he suddenly saw the Snake team. EDG immediately greeted them all.

Chu Ran's eyes met with Zz1tai's, and he immediately bared his white teeth and walked up to Zz1tai.

"Hello, Player Zz1tai. I'm your fan. You've always been my idol. Can we take a photo together?"

What the hell!

Zz1tai was bewildered. I'm your idol, and you keep playing Twitch and constantly targeting me?

Is this how you treat your idol?

However, upon hearing the word "idol," Ming Kai's body trembled as if by reflex.

Because at last year's World Championship, Little Peanut had also said he was his idol.

And then...

Then he became 4396!

But Chu Ran and Zz1tai didn't have any major conflicts, so taking a photo was still possible.

Immediately after, both sides finished registering and entered the backstage lounge. In the Snake backstage, Zz1tai was responding to Crystal Brother's question.

"I'm afraid of his Fiora? You probably haven't seen my scrims these past few days. My Gangplank is so strong, I just hit them with a shot and they're dead!"

"Ranchu posted on Weibo."

"What did he post now?"

Zz1tai opened his phone to check Weibo, and the smile on his face instantly vanished. His pupils contracted sharply!

EDG-Easy:

[Thanks for asking. I'm at the Shanghai competition center, preparing for the match. As soon as I arrived, I ran into my idol, Zz1tai. I grew up watching his games. In this match, I'll show you all the LPL's Little Peanut!]