Have You Played League of Legends? What Rank Are You?

Led by Si Ai, Fang Ran quickly learned which city they were in from a bus stop sign.

"Hmm, Ji City?" Si Ai nodded and muttered to himself.

"What use is knowing the city?" Fang Ran asked, following the principle of asking when he did not understand.

"It's useful. You can get information like geography and weather from where the city is." Si Ai explained casually, then strolled over to a car parked by the roadside.

Flames burned in his hand as he melted through the window, unlocked the door, and coolly slid into the driver's seat.

Snap!

Resting his left arm against the car window, he snapped his flaming fingers at Fang Ran and smiled.

"Come on! Get in!"

"Holy shit, Big Brother, that was cool as hell!"

Fang Ran, the obedient lackey, was immediately won over by Si Ai's move and climbed into the passenger seat.

"Kid, do you know this scenario's mission and reward?" Si Ai asked as he skillfully fiddled around near the steering wheel, put a cigarette between his lips, and lit it with the flame at his fingertips.

"Uh, not really."

Fang Ran covered his face as he answered. He was, after all, a pervert who had nearly been caught in the Female Locker Room and then chased two hundred meters by Little Black. How the hell was he supposed to know what this scenario, which had suddenly dragged him in, was about?

"Sigh, I don't know whether to say you're lucky or unlucky."

Si Ai laughed as well. Driving the car he had casually stolen onto the highway, he cut through the night toward the bustling city center.

"This is a special-type scenario. The mission isn't to kill those guys, but to make us participants slaughter one another."

At those words, Fang Ran suddenly shivered all over. Trembling, he looked toward Si Ai.

"Big Brother Ai, y-you... you, you, you!!"

Si Ai looked at Fang Ran speechlessly. Kid, you got into my car without a care in the world and believed what I said, and only now you're worried I might kill you? Besides, an E-Rank scrub like you somehow got mixed into this scenario. Could you stop thinking so highly of yourself?

So he sighed and freed one hand to pat Fang Ran on the shoulder.

"Young man, go masturbate properly and stop overthinking. You're just that weak."

I'm really sorry for being so weak!!!

Fang Ran roared inwardly, covering his face!

"Where was I? Oh, right. This scenario is special, so the mission is special. Naturally, the reward isn't ordinary either." Si Ai pulled the conversation back from where it had gone off track.

"A reward!? What reward?"

Fang Ran immediately became curious. A special reward—could it be another special reward that improved his strength, like yesterday's?

"It's a Night Gear."

"Big Brother, I smell something not suitable for minors here." Fang Ran said solemnly.

"Get lost!"

Si Ai answered irritably, then sighed to himself. As expected of someone who calmly and naturally admitted he was a shut-in.

"So what exactly is that?" Fang Ran asked in confusion.

"Have you played League of Legends?" Si Ai suddenly asked an entirely unrelated question.

"I have... uh... I guess I've played it." Fang Ran scratched his head awkwardly.

"Given that tone, I won't ask your rank." Si Ai glanced at him and hit the nail right on the head.

Fang Ran immediately covered his face and replied, "Big Brother, weren't we talking about Night Gear?"

"Oh, Night Gear. Simply put, it's equipment!"

"Huh!!!???"

Fang Ran's mouth fell open, his face blank with confusion.

"You're only E-Rank, so maybe you're learning about this a little early. But it's fine. Open the hidden button in the lower-right corner of your character interface," Si Ai said.

"Uh."

Fang Ran hesitated for a moment, then secretly opened his pink Sakura interface and poked every button he could press. He had no idea which button actually worked, but an entirely new interface opened.

There were six dim gray slots on it. Only the first slot displayed the image of Silver Severing Dragon Tooth.

Wait!

Why did these six slots look so familiar?

Fang Ran pressed his lips tightly together and said nothing, desperately holding himself back from thinking in a direction he knew all too well.

"See that? That's your personal Night Gear slot—your equipment slot!"

Yet Si Ai continued explaining beside him, effortlessly shattering Fang Ran's resolve.

Damn it!

Why did something like the Main God Space have six equipment slots as part of its setup!?

And Night Gear! Was calling it something so grand actually useful!?

Wasn't it still just equipment!?

Fang Ran silently covered his face, feeling as though his entire worldview had collapsed.

First there were the character stats, then the airplane drop, and now this equipment slot system. System, were you just copying popular games!?

"But don't think of it too simply. These Night Gear items are extremely rare!" Si Ai explained with a faint smile as he watched Fang Ran stare at his interface with an expression of utter despair.

"Forget a full six-item build. Most Night Battle Participants don't even own a single piece of Night Gear."

"They're that rare!?"

Fang Ran was stunned as well and swallowed. Holy shit, did changing the name really make it seem so much more impressive? Forget anything else—just look at their numbers!

"And most importantly, the Night Gear rewarded by system scenarios is always better than what you can get by hunting those dark... uh, monsters. Not to mention that even killing a hundred of them might not get you one piece of Night Gear."

"That awesome!?" Fang Ran was completely shocked this time. Killing a hundred of those monsters might not even drop—cough, cough—get one?

"Right!" Si Ai's expression turned grave and serious. Narrowing his eyes at the dazzling night beyond the window, he even answered in Fang Ran's own words. "It's just that awesome."

Fang Ran's mouth went dry. Then he asked inwardly, somewhat stiffly, "Then, Big Brother Ai, do you have—"

Si Ai smiled and answered him with action.

Hiss!

It was like flames being struck into existence by friction!

The flames surged restlessly!

The temperature rose!

Scorching sparks danced through the air as a fierce, brilliant blaze erupted from Si Ai's right hand!

Crimson metal warped the air around its surface. His human hand completely transformed into a giant, Balrog-like claw, his entire right arm encased in burning metal armor!

A sense of magnificence and danger instantly rose with the flames!

Bang!

Fang Ran felt a wave of heat rush at him! The temperature inside the car instantly rose by at least a dozen degrees! The entire interior became scorching and brightly lit by fire!

"This is..."

But suddenly, every flame vanished. The claw-like flaming gauntlet dissolved into fire at Si Ai's shoulder, leaving only a ring on his right hand.

"Hephaestus's Thorns and Roses Ring."

Si Ai said, "A piece of Night Gear I obtained in a special contest scenario."

"Mm."

Fang Ran listened with a deeply serious frown, nodding from time to time as he solemnly stared at the ring on Si Ai's hand. There was neither greed nor envy in his eyes.

Because—

He had not understood a single word of Si Ai's pure English pronunciation.

Damn! It sounded incredibly awesome, but big brother, could you speak Mandarin?

Sigh, he was still a scrub who had not even passed CET-4. They could not expect too much from Fang Ran. All he understood was that it seemed to be somebody's something rose ring. There were four words in total, and he did not understand half of them.

But Si Ai's Night Gear actually came from a legendary figure known to every household: Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire. Hephaestus's Thorns and Roses Ring translated directly as—Hephaestus's Thorns and Roses Ring.

Legend had it that after his wife cheated on him—cough, cough—with Ares and was discovered, the two had broken apart. Later, Hephaestus wanted to reconcile with her.

So he forged this ring. Roses were something the goddess of beauty had brought into the world at her birth, while thorns symbolized his devotion and fidelity.

In the end, his wife did not give a damn about him and never accepted it.

"Oh, right, Big Brother Ai, I've always wanted to ask: how do you raise your rank?" Fang Ran racked his brains but still could not figure out what Si Ai's English had meant, so he immediately changed the subject to something else he had long wanted to know.

"Oh, that." Si Ai wore the expression of someone who had seen every newcomer ask this question. He smiled mysteriously.

"When the system thinks you can rank up, you can rank up."

"Uh, what does that mean!?" Fang Ran looked utterly lost.

"It means that participants are only responsible for improving their strength. Once your strength is enough for the system to acknowledge that you qualify for advancement, it will naturally raise your rank," Si Ai said with a shrug.

"I see." Fang Ran sighed and looked out the window with feeling.

"Sigh, the road ahead is long and arduous!"

Si Ai was just about to comfort him when he suddenly noticed something in the hood behind Fang Ran's neck. Focusing his eyes, he saw it.

A still-unopened pack of women's underwear.

Si Ai: "..."

Then he silently turned his head and continued driving, his thoughts churning violently.

No way. You couldn't tell, but this kid was an old hand at this? Unlike someone like me, who had to struggle like hell just to get into a relationship? But this was too—

At that moment, Fang Ran turned around and looked strangely at Si Ai's conflicted, tortured expression.

"Big Brother Ai, what's wrong?"

Si Ai looked at him with complicated eyes, especially at the underwear in the hood behind him. After a long silence, he spoke earnestly.

"Kid, there are some things you can't just take. If you stole that, it's a crime!"

"Pfft! Cough, cough!!!"

Fang Ran was instantly terrified. He shrank back and said shakily.

"Big Brother Ai, how did you know!!!"

It was over! Totally over!! His identity had been exposed!! He was going to be sentenced to life in prison!!!

"Sigh! Kid, you need to understand that even if you took this, you can't make a move with it."

Si Ai said complicatedly. Did he think this would let him get closer to the girl he liked? No, more often than not, it would only backfire.

"Big Brother Ai! I was wrong!! I really know I was wrong!!"

Fang Ran looked miserable, his face full of regret. Yeah! How the hell was he supposed to sell it!? This was a lost historical artifact of national importance!

"Sigh! Fine, Big Brother Ai will pretend he didn't see it this time. Don't do this kind of thing again." Si Ai sighed, hoping the kid would understand and pursue girls through proper means.

"Mm, mm!! Even if you beat me to death, I'd never dare do it again!!" Fang Ran finally relaxed. Big Brother Ai was such a good person—he had actually let him off.

The two of them, thinking about entirely different things, somehow managed to have a miraculous conversation.

That's right! I'm the author, and I'm asking for bookmarks!