The Innocent Remain Innocent

"Ah..."

Xu Junyan was genuinely startled by the unexpected system prompt. Once the surprise passed, though, he was ecstatic.

He had originally thought his system was nothing special, that at most it could turn him into a first-rate player. Who would have thought it had been holding this in store for him?

Super-professional level... did that mean he would be even better than players on Faker's level?

Interesting.

As Xu Junyan was thinking that, five empty slots appeared before his eyes, along with two more prompts.

Anyone who hated you after having their defenses broken, or anyone who was your enemy, would randomly drop an "Honorary Title." If the other party was a player or coach, one person was enough to trigger it directly. If the other party was a fan or spectator, at least ten thousand people had to collectively have their defenses broken for it to trigger.

The host could equip up to five "Honorary Titles." "Honorary Titles" could also be replaced at any time.

Xu Junyan tried placing the first honorary title he had obtained into one of the empty slots.

It worked!

Though he looked as calm as ever on the surface, Xu Junyan could clearly feel that his understanding of League of Legends had inexplicably improved by quite a bit.

Xu Junyan could not help grinning, his expression growing excited.

Turning his attention back to Weibo, Xu Junyan opened his profile page and posted an update.

Silence: "The innocent remain innocent."

Just four simple words.

Because Xu Junyan knew that no matter how much he explained, it would be useless. Still, some explanation was necessary. Otherwise, would he not be completely playing into RNG's hands?

How could he possibly let RNG win so easily?

A few hours earlier, a group of LPL fans had already dug up his Weibo account. Quite a few of them had swarmed over to curse and attack him.

The moment he posted, even before he could blink, more new comments immediately appeared below it.

"Ugh! I'm gonna puke! 'The innocent remain innocent'? Bro, if you don't have a guilty conscience, why did you run?"

"RNG already posted an official statement, and you can still keep pretending?"

"No way, no way. I finally understand what 'the shameless are invincible' means. RNG was kind enough not to publicly expose all the filthy things you did, and you still have the nerve to say 'the innocent remain innocent'?"

"You ungrateful bastard, can you just die?"

"You're a plague on the LPL. Damn it, pro players like you deserve to die. Every day you stay in the LPL feels like an insult to us!"

"Go die! Go die! Go die!"

"Everyone, curse him all you want, but don't follow him. Don't give this rat dropping more followers!"

"It's fine. I only followed him so I can find him easily. Once I'm done cursing him, I'll unfollow right away."

"You disgusting piece of trash! Remember this: you owe the LPL a championship! You fucking brat!!"

"'The innocent remain innocent,' hahahaha. That's the biggest joke I've heard this century. If you've got the guts, confront RNG in public. Do you dare? Trash!"

"..."

Xu Junyan did not read those comments. He knew perfectly well what kind of onlookers and attacks his post would draw. Even without looking, he knew exactly what people would say about him.

He had long since tossed his phone aside. There were two issues Xu Junyan needed to consider now.

First, the contract issue.

His contract was still in RNG's hands. Although he and RNG had completely fallen out, getting RNG to fully release his contract would not be easy. He needed to think of a way, but this was not something that could be rushed.

Xu Junyan already had a preliminary idea of how to solve it. But if he wanted to succeed in one stroke, the conflict and hatred between himself and RNG needed to ferment a little longer.

Second, the Korean server account issue.

He did not believe RNG could completely dominate the LPL with one hand. As long as he produced results—there were no matches at the moment, so he could play ranked games and make waves on the Korean server—someone would eventually come looking for him, right?

What about LGD? EDG? OMG? There were so many teams. Surely one of them would have room for him.

But the problem was that he had verified it when he logged in earlier: both of his Korean server accounts had been banned.

One was a tournament server account, so it was normal for RNG to ban it. But the other was his personal account. RNG had actually used its privileges to ban that too.

Xu Junyan was so angry that he wanted to laugh. He rubbed his forehead and thought carefully for a while before suddenly remembering someone he had met and exchanged contact information with during this year's World Championship.

Kim Min-ah, a well-known LCK host.

After Faker's dream girl, Jo Eun-jung, the LCK's former top host, officially announced her departure from the LCK last year, Kim Min-ah had undoubtedly begun steadily securing her position as the LCK's new number-one host.

She had interviewed him several times at this year's World Championship. Since she understood Chinese, they had also chatted briefly off-camera. Perhaps they got along well, because Kim Min-ah had asked for his Twitter account, and the two had added each other as friends.

Would it work if I asked her to help me register an account?

Xu Junyan hesitantly opened Twitter, found Kim Min-ah, clicked on her profile, and sent a message: "Are you there?"

At the same time, Xu Junyan logged into Taobao and bought a Korean server account there as well.

To be honest, accounts bought there were not very reliable. They could be banned or stolen at any time. He wanted to challenge for rank one on the Korean server, so buying such an unstable account was not a long-term solution.

Ding-dong!

Unexpectedly, she replied very quickly.

Kim Min-ah: "Junyan Oppa, what's wrong? I'm here."

Xu Junyan carefully considered his wording before saying, "I'm sorry to bother you, but I have something I'd like to ask of you. Could you help me register a Korean server account? I can pay you for it. How about 100,000 won?"

Ding-dong!

Kim Min-ah: "Pfft! Junyan Oppa, you're really funny. Why are you using so many honorifics in one sentence? And it's only registering an account on our server. I can just use my mother's ID. It won't cost anything. /Smiling Cat"

Xu Junyan: "That won't do. I have to pay you. And if you can help, I'd be truly grateful."

Kim Min-ah: "Stop thanking me, Junyan Oppa. Didn't you treat me to your local specialty, Beijing Roast Duck, last month? It was delicious. If we get another chance to meet, just bring me two more roast ducks. /Grinning"

Xu Junyan had wanted to insist again, but after hesitating briefly, he gave up. He did not want to keep dithering and make himself annoying, so he simply accepted her kindness and replied, "No problem."

Kim Min-ah was probably on vacation and had plenty of free time. She worked quickly too. In less than ten minutes, she sent him a brand-new Korean server account.

After thanking her again, Xu Junyan happily logged into the new account, topped it up, used a Korean server event to level straight to thirty, then spent money to unlock every champion at once. Once he was done, he glanced at the honorary title he had equipped—"Heh~! I Just Won't Ban Galio"—smiled faintly, and officially began his placement matches on the new account!