"Of course." Lu Chen stood up, planting both hands on his hips. "No more pretending. I'll lay my cards on the table. Standing before you is the World's Number One LOL Player!"
Then he flashed a crooked grin. "Do you even understand what it means when the three... two-year wait is over and the Dragon King returns?"
"Yes, yes, of course." Rita got out of bed too, rolling her eyes at him.
"All right, I'll go make dinner. When you fail to renew your contract in two weeks, don't come crying to your big sister here to find you a job, Mr. 'Legendary Player.'"
After Rita left, Lu Chen was alone in the bedroom again.
He shook his head and sighed. "Man, why does nobody believe you when you tell the truth these days?"
A week later.
S7.
This was a very special year.
At the MSI Mid-Season Invitational, spring champions WE had carried the hopes of the entire LPL, only to lose to SKT once again, ending their international run in the semifinals.
Countless fans once again felt that crushing, hopeless pressure from the LCK.
In any other year, that would have been that.
The clubs wouldn't have paid that much attention to the results of an MSI Mid-Season Invitational.
But this year was different.
This year's World Championship would be held on the LPL's home turf!
For the first time, Worlds would take place right on their doorstep!
And the final showdown would be held somewhere every Chinese person had a special attachment to-the Bird's Nest!
Which team wouldn't want to lift the LPL's first World Championship trophy there?
If they succeeded, the staggering benefits that followed would be enough to drive them wild!
And so.
During this brief summer transfer window, every club pulled out all the stops, constantly recruiting reinforcements to strengthen their rosters.
At the very least, they had to secure a ticket to this all-important World Championship first!
Meanwhile.
At the IG clubhouse.
After streaming all day, Master Ge, Kid, was starting to reach his limit.
He slumped in his gaming chair, his face blank and his eyes full of suffering. After a long pause, he muttered, "Guys, today really isn't a good day to climb. How about I call it here?"
On his computer screen.
A Vayne with a disastrous 0-8-0 score stood out painfully!
Comments immediately swept across the stream.
"Nice, nine losses in a row. Got beaten so badly you're running away?"
"What a scrub. I've been watching forever, and he hasn't won once!"
"Genuine question: I heard this was a pro player's stream? You can go pro playing like this?"
"General Sturgeon, just retire if you can't cut it."
"For real, Rookie's back is about to snap from carrying you guys."
"Lmao, you think you deserve to play AD? You've already switched to jungle. Can't you just stick to that?"
"Wait! Hold on, don't end the stream! I want to see the stats!"
"Yeah, yeah! That Vayne game was incredible. Show us the stats!"
"I just want to know if he beat that classic game!"
"Both were Vayne games, but this one felt way worse!"
After that particular comment appeared, the rest of the chat piled on, demanding to see the stats.
Kid instinctively swallowed, his gaze darting around. "Uh, well, I died eight times without a kill this game. Let's just skip the stats..."
He was starting to panic.
He'd played the game himself. How could he not know?
From the moment they arrived in lane at level one, the enemy Caitlyn hadn't treated his Vayne like a person at all!
She kept spacing her autos perfectly, making his life pure misery!
Throughout the game, he was either sinking into despair or getting killed. By ten minutes, bot lane had been completely steamrolled.
Before he could even surrender, the enemy team had destroyed the nexus.
From start to finish, he'd barely landed a few autos on the enemy.
He didn't need to think to know his damage would be a deeply humiliating number...
At that thought, Kid immediately moved to close the game and flee the stream. "Guys, I just remembered something important I need to do..."
But before he could act, a comment had already appeared.
"Found it! Found it! Kid dealt 328 damage this game!"
"Holy crap! Seriously?!"
"Another new record? Unbeatable! That's our Kid! Only he can break his own records!"
"Is it really that bad? An AD in a Challenger lobby only did three hundred damage all game?"
"That's nothing. Our Kid managed 443 on Vayne in a pro match."
"You keep going on about my 443. What's wrong with 443? Today I'll broaden your horizons. My limits go way beyond that!"
"Nice. General Sturgeon never fails to redefine what's possible. Lmao."
"Another timeless classic is born~"
In front of the screen.
Kid's face instantly fell, and he felt the urge to cough up blood!
He'd seen it coming, but actually seeing that number still made his scalp prickle.
328!
In a normal game, a single late-game Vayne three-hit proc would deal more damage than that!
"There's definitely something wrong with this guy!"
Kid gritted his teeth and stubbornly argued, "Even laning against Uzi doesn't put this much pressure on me! This has to be a top-tier pro!"
Still grumbling, Kid opened the opposing AD's match history.
The moment it opened.
A whole page of green wins met his eyes, making his pupils contract slightly.
MVP, MVP, MVP, and yet another MVP!
He flipped through several pages before finally spotting a handful of red losses, and even those were SVPs!
When he opened them, they showed either two or more AFK teammates or blatant inters feeding like mad.
For example, in one Ezreal game, the player had gone 10-2-1, unquestionably earning SVP.
His top and mid had gone AFK, his jungler was 0-5-2, and his support was 0-4-3.
Only games that absurd had ended in losses.
And this was a fresh account that had only been played for a week.
Master, 520 LP, with a 90% win rate!
"...Holy crap."
Kid's earlier expression vanished. His eyes filled with shock as he let out a heartfelt exclamation, then hurriedly checked the player's ID.
Chen, Yu.
An utterly unfamiliar ID.
At least as far as he remembered, nobody on a professional team used a name like that.
By now, chat had exploded too!
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! What am I looking at? A 90% win rate?!"
"My 24-karat titanium-alloy eyes have been blinded..."
"What is that match history?! What kind of fucking monster is this?!"
"A 90% win rate? You're kidding, right? Is the system bugged?"
"This guy is definitely cheating! Even a pro couldn't get results like that!"
"Whoa... looks like it really wasn't General Sturgeon's fault. That guy is unnaturally good!"
"He's not even trying to hide it. Fucking hell, over 500 LP in Master with a 90% win rate."
"What the hell is Riot Games doing? They're letting something this blatant slide?"
"Dude, didn't you watch that last game? He's just that good. You seriously think he's hacking?"
"Exactly. Even a script couldn't pull off those plays."
"Can your scripts manage teamfight positioning and spacing like his?"
For a while, chat argued nonstop.
Kid, on the other hand, seemed to think of something, his eyes lighting up. He quickly said, "Guys, I'm off my game today, so I'll end the stream here~"
With that, he hurriedly closed the streaming software, got up, and rushed deeper into the clubhouse.
Only the viewers remained, filling the black screen with "???"
"That damn streamer sure ran away fast."
Before you continue