Rise

t a League of Legends themed plushy.
It was a small Lulu.
He grabbed it, frowning.
Sulking.
He gave it to Tang Bingyao and muttered, “Here…”

Su Xue looked at Lin Feng with large eyes and said, “Woah! Nice! You got four of them! I never get any from these stupid machines! Those claws are rigged!”

Lin Feng frowned and complained, “But I didn’t get the Ashe.
I really wanted the Ashe…”

Zhang Hao leaned in for a closer look and said, “You were trying to get the Ashe? Dude… She’s in the corner! Those are impossible to grab! You’re never going to get that one!”

Tang Bingyao stepped closer and looked through the glass panels into the claw machine and nodded.
She said, “Mhm.
Zhang Hao is right.
You can’t get that one.”

“Really?” Lin Feng asked.
He kicked against the machine and complained, “That’s the only one I wanted…”

An Xin shook her head. That idiot.
Why is he still thinking about that? I told him it’s fine! She breathed out loudly and said, “Let’s look around some more! There is so much to do here!”

✹

Lin Feng had forgotten about the Ashe plushy shortly after leaving the claw machine behind and spent the next hour having fun with his teammates.
Now, back at the hotel, he was entering his gaming mode.
He looked at Chu Fang and asked, “Do you have a laptop for me? I need to rank.”

“Rank? Now? Isn’t it about time to go to bed?” Chu Fang replied, confused.
He added, “Weren’t you the one saying you guys needed a rest day? You were whining about it every second you didn’t have food in your mouth during dinner!”

“For the team, yeah,” Lin Feng said.
He shrugged and added, “But I made a promise to One and I will keep it.
If I don’t, he’ll get mad at me again.”

“One?” Chu Fang blurted.
He stared at Lin Feng and repeated, “One?”

Lin Feng nodded and said, “Yeah, One! I promised to climb the Korean ladder.
Do you have a laptop for me?”

“Yeah, yeah I do,” Chu Fang replied.
He walked over to his suitcase and retrieved a laptop from it. Promised to climb the Korean ladder? What does he want Lin Feng to do? Get to Challenger? No, that’s too easy, right? This is One! The best player ever! He won’t be satisfied with Challenger.
How high does he want Lin Feng to go…?

Lin Feng grabbed the laptop from Chu Fang and sat it down on the table.
He then sat down behind it and booted it up.
The screen flashed to life and he was already moving the mouse to start the League of Legends client.

Chu Fang sat down next to Lin Feng and looked at the screen.
At the username Lin Feng typed out. CN•HOOK2? Oh shit! That’s… He said, “That’s One’s account!”

“Yup!” Lin Feng replied.
He glanced at Chu Fang and continued, “One is lending me his account.
But he told me the account is mine if I can get it to top 5 in Korean Challenger!”

“Top 5?” Chu Fang muttered, his eyes wide in shock.
“That’s insane! I don’t think there’s a single Chinese player who’s ever managed to get to the Top 5 yet! We’ve had a few who got high up there, but Top 5? That’s right next to… next to him.”

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head and said, “I think it’s doable.
The only big constraint is time.
There isn’t much time left.”

“Is that so…” Chu Fang replied.
He chuckled and shook his head. Other Chinese players are all talking about their skill and how it’s too hard to get to the Top 5, yet this kid here is talking like it’s just a matter of time… Well, then again he is Maple.
If anyone is good enough to get that high, it’s him.
And with how far he’s already come… He might really get up there! How amazing would that be!? We can finally make those Koreans shut up for once! Show them that we’ve also got some really good players!

✹

Lin Feng played on the Korean server from China.
From a hotel.
The internet wasn’t great and the distance meant that the connection was always going to be worse.
He played with a rather high latency.
But he didn’t let that get to him.
He played Ryze, a Champion that didn’t rely on skillshots, and won the first game with great ease.
He mumbled, “Not great, but I can make this work.
Just a bit of lag.
I’ll just ignore it.” He then clicked on the Play button and queued up for a second game.

A soft knocking sound came from the door.
Lin Feng glanced over and said, “Chu Fang, can you check who it is?”

Chu Fang grinned. Delegating, huh? He said, “Yes, sir!” Then got up from his chair and opened the door to An Xin.

An Xin had just gotten out of the shower.
Her hair was still damp and she smelled of lavender.
She wore the hotel’s bathrobe and a pair of slippers.
She smiled at Chu Fang and said, “Hi!”

“BunBun?” Chu Fang said, surprised.
“You’re not sleeping either?”

An Xin giggled and replied, “I just got out of the shower.
Tang Tang is already sleeping and I’m not feeling tired yet, so I figured I’d come and see if you guys were still up.” She pointed past Chu Fang at Lin Feng and added, “That guy never sleeps.”

Chu Fang chuckled and said, “That sounds about right.” He then nodded at Lin Feng and continued, “He just got into another game.
You join him.
I’ll go walk down the hallways for a bit.”

An Xin’s eyes went round and her cheeks burned red hot.
She yelped, “Chu Fang!”

Chu Fang just grinned and brushed past An Xin.
He said over his shoulder, “You two have fun.
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

“Yeah, See you,” Lin Feng said, absentmindedly.
His focus was on his monitor, which was displaying Champion Select.

An Xin closed the door of the room behind her and walked up to Lin Feng.
She looked over his shoulder at the screen and asked, “What are you doing? Playing ranked?”

Lin Feng nodded and replied, “Yeah.
Getting into my second game.”

“Oh?” An Xin mumbled.
She pointed at the Korean characters on the client and asked, “Is this the Korean server? And that name… Wait, this is One’s account! You’re still doing that?”

“Yeah,” Lin Feng replied.
He then shook his head and grumbled, “The internet here sucks though.
It’s almost impossible to play with this ping!”

An Xin sat down next to Lin Feng and replied, “Take it as a handicap.
It’ll be good training for you.”

“But it makes climbing so much harder,” Lin Feng argued.

“But it’s good for you,” An Xin argued back.

Lin Feng glanced at her and started, “But–” But stopped when he saw her shaking her head.
He bit on his lips, holding back the arguments that were appearing in his mind, and finally asked, “Right, didn’t Five give you her account? Did you play on it yet? I’ve checked it a few times, but I never see you on it.
I think I’ve got you on my friendslist too!”

“Uhh…” An Xin muttered, caught off guard. I still didn’t tell him about my… condition.
It’s been okay lately, but I really can’t do anything extra, like playing on that account.
Do I… She closed her eyes and said, “The internet at home is pretty bad lately.
I can’t play with that much ping.”

“Damn internet,” Lin Feng replied.
He shook his head and continued, “If only it would work like it should for once! If it wasn’t for my promise to One, I wouldn’t be forcing through this damn ping either! Like, look at that! It’s over a hundred!”

“Are you going to complain about that all game long?” An Xin asked.

Lin Feng nodded and said, “Probably, yeah.
Look at that ping! Would you not? I’m telling you, I can stomp this Ezreal without this latency.
But now? Now I’ll have to actually try to stomp him!”

An Xin watched Lin Feng’s Ryze walk from the fountain to the lane.
Watched him land every single last hit, despite the high latency, and saw how he was forcing the Ezreal back. He’s still too good.
Except earlier… She turned her head to look at Lin Feng and paused. He was trying so hard for that Ashe… She finally said, “Lin Feng?”

“Hmm?” Lin Feng replied.

An Xin took a deep breath and then asked, “At the claw machine earlier, were you doing that for me? Getting the Ashe, I mean.”