Rise

Lucky! It’s a freelo game!」

While the tragic tale of the Korean Lee Sin was terrible to the player who experienced the whole thing, it was more comical to those who heard about it.
There were other Korean players who ended up in situations that could only be described as heart-rending.
And genuinely unlucky.
An example of this was what occurred to a Diamond 2 Korean player who had joined in on the invasion of the Ionia Server. 

This particular Korean player was a little bit more clever than the average bear.
He’d heard what happened to other Koreans, and quickly understood that there were quite a few players in Platinum/low Diamond who were boosted.
So he started checking to make sure that none of his teammates fell into the boosted category before starting the game.
If he discovered any players who were boosted or that he had doubts about, he would immediately dodge out of the game.
Then, finally, he found a game where he had determined that none of the players on his team were boosted.
Relief washed over his heart, and he steadied himself to stomp all over the Chinese players. 

This particular Korean player was a Toplaner, and his main champion was Fiora.
He’d played hundreds of games with Fiora, and knew her as intimately as one could know a MOBA champion.
There were nights where this player had dreams in which he’d gotten to know Fiora far more intimately than that, but that isn’t relevant to this story.
This particular Diamond 2 Korean player knew that as long as his teammates didn’t feed, he could crush his lane opponent with Fiora and carry his team to victory! 

Unfortunately for him, that was not how the game went at all.
In the first 10 minutes of the game, the Korean Fiora had already died to the opposing Toplaner, a Riven, three times.
After watching his screen turn black and white again, the Korean player rubbed his eyes in utter disbelief. I-I died again!? I’m a Diamond 2 player on the Korean server! What is even happening? How am I getting crushed this badly in Ionia?! And I’m getting stomped by someone who is only Platinum 1! How is this even possible? How is this Riven only ranked Platinum 1? What? Why? How? Why? Why? Why? Why? THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! 

In the gaming house of a certain LPL team, a young man leaned back in seat with a toothpick in his mouth.
He rolled his eyes and said, “This Fiora.
What.
An.
Idiot.
He’s still trying to fight me when he’s behind.
Doesn’t this guy know how scary a fed Riven is?” 

On another nearby computer, a teammate turned to look at the young man and smiled.
“Ah! You winning, son?”

The youth looked up at his teammate.
“Of course! You think I’d lose in a game like this?”

The teammate smirked, “Yeah yeah.
Hows about you say stuff like that when you can actually get to Diamond, yeah?”

The young man grimaced, as if he’d had cold water dumped on his head.
“God dammit! Why you always gotta hit me where it hurts!?”

In the Chinese competitive scene, there were top LSPL or even LPL players who were brilliant on the competitive stage.
But for some reason or another, they would have the worst luck in solo queue and could never climb higher than high Platinum and low Diamond.

This young man was a prime example of that.
In fact, he’d had such a hard time getting out of Platinum that he’d earned himself the nickname of China’s #1 Platinum Gatekeeper.

In other words, the unfortunate Diamond 2 Fiora main from Korea had collided with a steel wall!

The most common misfortune that the Korean invaders on the Ionia Server experienced was running into Chinese players who were all significantly better than their rank and profile history implied.
All of them were unanimously at the level of Master or Challenger.
And they all shared a unique quirk.
Their Summoner Tags always had the same two Chinese characters followed by a series of random numbers.
None of the Koreans knew what the names of these players meant, but they all started to understand that running into them as opponents meant that they were in for a truly terrible time.
All sorts of theories ran through the Korean forums about these players.
The prevailing one was that this was a guild of Chinese players who had come to defend the Ionia server from the Korean invasion.

This theory was, interestingly enough, not completely wrong.
The Chinese players whose names started with two characters and then a series of random numbers did belong to a guild of sorts.
But they were not there to defend the Ionia server.
Nor did they particularly care about the Koreans attempting to invade.
Their presence and names was something every Chinese player knew about and did not find even a little strange.
The two Chinese characters that their names started with was the word for “Booster”, and the string of numbers that followed was the booster’s QQ number.
They were advertising their services to any player who might be interested!

On the Ionia server, the boosters were unquestionably the most frightening players to come against.
They were ungodly skilled and absolutely ruthless.
Not because they wanted to ruin the fun of any other player, but because they were working to fulfill the demands of their clients, and that was paramount.
Those unfortunate enough to run into a booster on the enemy team knew that they would be in for a terrible time.
Their presence on the Ionia server was begrudgingly accepted, because everyone had to earn their bread somehow.
And for a great many players, the boosters had become something of an aspirational job.
They all secretly dreamed of the day they’d become good enough at League to become a booster, and earn money by playing the game they loved. 

For Lin Feng, the presence of the boosters was something he didn’t particularly mind.
He enjoyed the challenge of having to play against someone with that much skill and experience.
Besides, he understood that he was also somewhat of a booster himself for Su Xue.
Every game he won boosted her rank.
And he took some joy in joining up with the rest of the professional boosters to make life a nightmare for the Koreans who had shown up on the Ionia server.
As a booster, Lin Feng had done a pretty good job.
Since he started streaming in the morning and playing on Su Xue’s account, he’d won every game he played.
By the afternoon, he’d boosted Su Xue’s account from Diamond 5 all the way to Diamond 3! 

After ending the stream for the time being, Lin Feng turned to Su Xue in the bed and yelled, “Su Xue, I’m hungry!” 

Su Xue got up from the bed and rubbed her eyes, nodding sleepily.
‘Oh, alright.
I’ll start making food.”

Half an hour later, the table was lined up with steaming hot dishes.
Lin Feng started digging in right away.
Su Xue, on the other hand, was not eating.
She picked at her food, but brought none of it to her mouth.
She just continued to stare at Lin Feng in a daze.
Not because she was sleepy.
Not at all.
Su Xue was fully awake.
She was lost in her own mind because she started thinking about Lin Feng’s identity and past once again.
Even after she’d thought about it for an entire sleepless night, she really did not know what to think about Lin Feng or how to face him at all.
So much had changed since she figured out that he was not lying about everything he’d told her, and she could not get a handle on the emotions swirling through her heart. 

After a while, Su Xue opened her mouth and asked, “Lin Feng?”

“Yeah?” 

“So, you’re really that Maple? The one that was China’s number one Midlaner back in Season 1?”

“Yeup!” Lin Feng said, scarfing another heap of rice into his mouth.

Although Su Xue had already confirmed it yesterday, after hearing it again, the truth still sent shockwaves through her heart.
She took a deep breath, calming herself down, then asked the next question.
“So, does that mean you… well, did you actually go toe-to-toe with Rake? And you were just as good as he was back then?”