You call this thing stable?

Luo Zhen refused to believe it. As a transmigrator, even if he couldn't beat these old geezers in one season, surely he could outlast them for two?

Outlast them on the field?

Wrong. Starting today, he would outlast all his opponents off the field!

Seeing Luo Zhen pushing himself so hard, veteran players like Karsa and Rookie couldn't help but worry about his health. They exchanged a look and decided Karsa would be the one to try and talk him down.

"Xiao Zhen, you're training again? Take a break, go look at some pretty girls, okay?"

"Annoying~"

"I'm talking to you, did you hear me!"

Luo Zhen looked up, saw Karsa standing beside him, and then noticed Rookie also staring at him from not too far away. Knowing that a casual excuse wouldn't work this time, he thought for a moment and changed his approach.

"Silence wench! I do not wish to be horny anymore."

"Thank you, dog... wait, no, I'm talking to you seriously. Just increasing your training load like this is useless." As he said this, Karsa felt a bit hypocritical.

Back when he was with TES, he'd constantly urge his own AD to train. Now, having switched to V5, he was telling the AD to rest.

"Rookie, say something."

"Yeah, Xiao Zhen, just increasing your training load like this is useless. Remember, we're all human, and humans have limits."

"But we're playing IG next."

"Ahem, humans do have limits, but at critical moments, we can choose to be a little less human. So, wanna duo queue? Take me with you."

Karsa: ???

V5's fourth regular season opponent was finally IG, the team Demon King Ji had been looking forward to. Without anyone needing to provoke him, Rookie became instantly serious the moment he heard the name IG.

It was understandable.

He had originally decided to retire with IG, one player one team, but then he was inexplicably backstabbed at the last minute of the transfer window. If V5 hadn't been desperately picking up free agents in the market because they hadn't finalized their mid-laner at the time, Rookie might have found himself without a team for LPL S12.

So, when Coach Homme returned to the training room again, he was met with the sight of Rookie and Luo Zhen playing RANK after RANK like madmen, tirelessly, while Karsa stood by with an awkward smile.

Homme: ???

As everyone knows, the old IG, under the grand designs of the "Card King" Su X Luo, had successfully shattered into five factions:

IG team soul faction — V5

IG popularity faction — WBG

IG rogue ninja faction — TES

IG substitute faction — TT

The rest were simply IG's own demise.

It's also worth mentioning IG's new lineup, as it was a formation assembled after pushing out their veterans. Countless viewers and commentators had been eagerly awaiting the day the veterans would return for revenge. As the "villains," they naturally had to make an appearance first.

Top laner Zika. This newcomer has some potential. It's said he's IG's next Theshy, and Doinb has confidently vouched for this. Before joining IG, he even had some ties with TT, but ultimately returned to Su X Luo's fold. His strengths lie in his solid fundamental mechanics, but his weakness is his youth and tendency to get heated. He's also decent in team fights, truly a good prospect.

As for his achievements? The future is promising.

Jungler Xun. A jungler lacking a big heart, at least for now. It's hard to see any brilliant plays from him when the team is behind. His personal style is also quite average. Style can be referenced through stats; his stats are peculiar in that he can maintain good stats even when the team is losing. This indicates he rarely takes on the sacrificial role or initiating responsibilities.

He might show some performance in a jungle-centric meta, but in a tempo-based meta... let's just say he's usable.

Mid laner Yuekai. The most stubborn of the "Iron King" types. He spent three years as a substitute, playing both mid and top in RNG and RYL. When his three-year term was up, he came to IG to reclaim his throne as the Dragon King. In reality, he's not bad, but in an era like the LPL where mid-laners are all top-tier competitors, he's still somewhat lacking.

Bot lane AHN + LUCAS. This is currently their weakest lane. The AD has played in the LPL but with average performance. The support... is worse than Baolan. When he was confirmed as IG's starting support, he even received some backlash from Baolan's fans. Spectators generally rank him as one of the bottom three supports.

It seems this IG lineup doesn't have any particularly strong points, but because it's IG, the entire V5 is paying extra attention. This extreme focus on a particular entity is similar to how military enthusiasts in different countries have preferences for different eras:

Nordic military enthusiasts: Medieval era

Western European military enthusiasts: Renaissance era

Eastern European military enthusiasts: Industrial era

Chinese military enthusiasts: babayetu

With such a clear opponent ahead, it's not just the two carries, but everyone on the team is filled with motivation. Karsa and Rookie have even made a gentleman's agreement.

Rookie: Karsa, I'll help you beat TES, I'll carry.

Karsa: Rookie, I'll help you beat IG, I'll carry.

See, the Avengers are assembling! Even 369 expressed a desire to join in, since he had a hand in TES too.

Seeing this morale and lineup, Luo Zhen almost wanted to tell IG to just surrender quickly.

My mid lane is a world champion, my jungler is an MSI champion, my top laner is an MSC champion. My V5 has three championships across four roles, renowned throughout the LPL. What can your IG do against me?

This, is legacy!

Chapter Thirty: I'm Actually Quite Socially Anxious

A few days later...

[Here it comes, here it comes, it's my favorite revenge day again.]

[Looking forward to the real-life version of "A Leaf of Autumn," let's go!]

[Rookie (Corrupted Version): I will destroy everything in IG.]

[Attention all Incheon people, my name is Allen Song Eui-jin, and I am using the power of 2018 Incheon to address all Incheon people: The Incheon Extreme has already been broken apart by IG, and the players of Extreme have all started to advance. My goal is to protect the people of Incheon. However, this IG wants to destroy the 18 Extreme. Not only this team, but they will surely exterminate all Incheon people. I refuse this expectation. The players of Extreme will roar forward, trample IG, until IG is beaten to a 2-15.]

The match hadn't even started, but the live stream's bullet comments were already in full swing.

Countless viewers had extremely high expectations for today's revenge match. You had to consider that when other teams sought revenge, it was usually through legitimate player trades. But Rookie's revenge against IG was because IG had almost prevented him from playing at all.

The difference was huge.

Considering V5's raw strength, countless viewers were very confident they would take down their opponents 2-0 today.

"There are quite a lot of people here to watch today." As soon as he entered, PPGOD could feel the noise from the crowd inside the venue. Clearly, today's match had attracted too many Incheon people to pay attention.

"Hey, stop playing, we're here."

PPGOD shook Luo Zhen, who was engrossed in his mobile game, by the shoulder. It wasn't until he shook him several times with force that Luo Zhen finally looked up from his phone screen.

Yes, to distract Luo Zhen and prevent him from overtraining, Coach Homme had unusually granted Luo Zhen permission to play games.

Of course, it was limited to mobile games, and the time was strictly controlled.

But for Luo Zhen, this was more than enough. In this day and age, women in the real world would empty your wallet, destroy your mind, and some might even use terrifying mental manipulation like PUA to attack you, with extremely varied and frightening methods.

But the world of anime was different.

Because in anime, he could most directly appreciate legs and breasts. As long as he avoided games like "Yi Meng Jiang Hu," "Sanguosha," and "Naruto," he could play any mobile game he wanted.

As for why those three were excluded?

Well, it was simply because he couldn't afford them.

"You're telling me, there are 8 planets in this world, seven continents, 204 countries, 809 islands, 7.5 billion people, even Brother Ka came out of the anime world and found a girlfriend, and you're in love with someone who doesn't exist?"

"Wrong, she doesn't not exist." Luo Zhen put away his phone and said to PPGOD with a serious expression, "She exists in my heart, and not just one."

"No, you're saying this in public, aren't you ashamed?" PPGOD was dumbfounded. Had this guy's brain gone numb from too much training these past few days? Saying something like this so calmly in public?

"There are definitely some, I'm actually quite socially anxious."

"Is there a possibility, I'm just saying, that social anxiety means being afraid of society, not making society afraid of you?"

"Huh?"

The moment he got off the bus and stood in the open space, Luo Zhen felt a sense of freedom he hadn't felt in a long time.

These past few days, to fill the emptiness he felt after being crushed that night, he had practically trained day and night in the training room. It had been a while since he'd been out, and coming out occasionally to breathe in some fresh air felt surprisingly good.

Soon.

As V5 officially entered, a hard-to-describe aura of the Avengers slowly emerged.

Mainly, V5's team uniform was black, which really amplified the feeling.

When it came to the pre-match interviews, considering the hype surrounding this match, Luo Zhen, who had decided to just go with the flow, decided to have some fun while recording his trash talk. He even personally submitted the subtitles for his segment:

I am the storm that is approaching

Standing here, I realize

Provoking black clouds in isolation

You and I, are the same, trying to change history

I am the reclaimer of my name

But who can decide, right or wrong

When we let down our guard, I think we'll all agree

Violence breeds violence

Forsaken, I am awakened

Ultimately, we can only walk this path

When the players' pre-match trash talk started playing seriously on the big screen, V5 members felt something was off as they caught a few scattered words and looked at the subtitles on the screen.

"Xiao Zhen, what did you mean by all that when you were filming earlier?"

"Oh, it was just a simple greeting to Rookie-ge and the opposing team. Don't you see the subtitles there?"

"But the length of those subtitles is clearly different from the English, they're not even the same length!"

"It's just a simple greeting, don't worry about the details."

As if.

This grand gesture he orchestrated, which even had the team leader's approval, was specifically designed to capitalize on the "Avengers" hype and draw in a massive audience. If Rookie knew what he was saying, he'd probably be so embarrassed he'd hide under his chair!

[Damn, if I didn't understand English, I would've totally fallen for those subtitles.]

[These trash talks are gold!]

[Even though you look miserable on the field, you shine so brightly in your trash talk. You're a total stud! This round, I give you a hundred points!]

[Oh no, V5 is confirmed as the Avengers now.]

With the existing background story and the added "Burning Fighting Spirit" buff, now topped off with trash talk declarations of war, the match between IG and V5 hadn't even begun, and the hype was already being furiously stoked by everyone involved.

Seeing this.

Rookie, who had initially planned to go easy on the opponent in the first game, gradually began to take the match seriously. But at the same time, he felt a sense of helplessness. The attention today was clearly centered around his experiences. The roar of the crowd at the end of the trash talk promotional video made it obvious that his AD carry had said something incredibly provocative.

"Xiao Zhen, you've really given me a huge problem."

"Ah, when playing a match, you need reasons to strive for, don't you? Don't you think this is cool?" Luo Zhen stood beside Rookie with a smile, looking nonchalant.

One man, one team, one city – this scene was once the romantic ideal many men dreamed of.

Precisely because he understood this, he knew even better the immense sorrow his mid-laner must have felt when he was told he had to leave IG.

Therefore, he had no regrets.

Rookie didn't get angry upon hearing this. Instead, he smiled and placed his hand on Luo Zhen's head, ruffling his hair vigorously, just like Coach Homme.

"It's good, it's good. But next time you do something like this, remember to discuss it with us older brothers. Give us some time to prepare mentally. Also, you missed two words at the end."

"Ah?"

"We are not just a single Avenger, but... the Avengers, aren't we?"

Chapter 31: In China, we believe in politeness before force.