Rise

e’s no need to be mean.
If they’re scared, they’re scared.
It’s okay.”
“Yeah, we’ll understand if you’re scared.
Just say so.”

Gang Zi’s friends stared at Lin Feng and the others with mocking smiles, not bothering to disguise their hostility.

Gang Zi didn’t try to hold his friends back.
He folded his arms across his chest as his gaze fell on Lin Feng’s group.
“So, what’s the answer?” He chuckled to himself. These brats are so easy to read.
Provoke them a little, and they’ll take the bait for sure.
Besides, how good could these kids possibly be? Platinum, low Diamond at best? Gang Zi’s eyes wandered to An Xin and Tang Bingyao. Tsk, they even have two girls on their team… Actually, these girls are pretty cute.
Maybe I can use this as an excuse to get to know them better.  

Gang Zi licked his lips. From his perspective and understanding of how the world worked, his skills created an irresistible magnetism for female League of Legends players.
There was no chance that these high school girls wouldn’t swoon over a Diamond 1 player.
In his mind, he was completely sure that they would be begging to add him.
Then he’d see how things went from there.
Gang Zi’s lips curved into a faint smile as thoughts of romancing An Xin and Tang Bingyao on the Rift danced through his mind.
He fixed his shirt collar and then popped it up to make himself appear more rakish and badass.
Then he looked over at Lin Feng and the others.
“What’s the hold up, small fry? You chicken?”

When Gang Zi and his lads started boasting about their ranks, the expressions on the faces of everyone in Lin Feng’s gang changed to a look of disbelief and confusion. 

Tang Bingyao tilted her head in the cute way she always did. Average rank of Diamond 3? Their best player is Diamond 1? Why are they so happy about that? She looked at Gang Zi and his friends, confused. Mhm… I literally do not understand what they think is so impressive here.
A few months ago, I was boosting accounts between Diamond 5 and Diamond 1.
Why do they think Diamond 1 is so special? Mhm…mhm… confusing!

Zhang Hao almost burst out laughing.
He had to turn his chair around and bite his fist. These guys… they have no idea how embarrassing their bragging is! I must not laugh! I must not say anything! We need to play this game.
I must not laugh! Don’t give away the joke, Zhang Hao! You can do this! Use all the willpower you gained during the Collegiate Cup.
Keep a straight face, no matter how much these guys beg to be humiliated.

Zeng Rui couldn’t even be bothered to pay attention to the conversation anymore. Insects.
Annoying, chirping insects.
Forget about the five of us as we are now, even my old team from Shanghai High School would be more than enough to crush them.

In the end, it was Lin Feng who finally spoke up.
“Fine, sure! Let’s play a match.
It sounds like fun.” 

This sort of thing hardly bothered Lin Feng.
As far as he was concerned, it didn’t matter if they were playing against randoms in ranked queue or against these guys.
The end result would always be the same.
He would crush anyone in his path!

After agreeing to a match, the two teams quickly started to get set up for a game.
The private room that Lin Feng’s gang used had 10 computers.
There was no need for them to move to a larger room.
Gang Zi and his friends sat down in the row of computers across from the ones that Lin Feng and the others had already claimed and started logging into League of Legends.

Team Shanghai’s members didn’t sit down immediately.
They huddled into a corner of the room and started talking about their strategy for this match.
But the atmosphere in the room was strange.
Everyone on Team Shanghai understood that they could crush Gang Zi and his lads with little to no effort.
But Zeng Rui projected the same seriousness that he had before every match in the Collegiate Cup. 

An Xin and Zeng Rui glanced at each other.
Then, Zeng Rui massaged his temples and said, “We’ll stick with the original plan for today.
Nothing’s changed.
Also.
I cannot believe I’m saying this.
But let’s all try to take this seriously and not underestimate our opponents too much.”

Only Tang Bingyao nodded earnestly.
Zhang Hao’s eyes flickered with excitement and laughter.
“Heheehehehheheeheh! This is going to be so funny! It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a chance to stomp on someone this stupid.”

As for Lin Feng, he was already fired up.
He made a fist pump and exclaimed, “I’ll crush Mid by 10 minutes.
Wait! No! I only need 8 minutes!”

That’s when An Xin decided it was finally time to step in and say something.
She interjected with a smile and said, “Nope.
We’re not going to get anything out of playing against this opponent using our normal strategies and playstyles.
It won’t be practice.
It wouldn’t even be a warmup.
But since we can’t change the opponent, what we can do is give ourselves a handicap.
That’ll allow us to develop skills and practice even against someone who wouldn’t normally pose any challenge to us.”

“Huh?” Lin Feng looked bewildered.
“What do you mean by that?”  As he saw An Xin looking at him with a mysterious smile, he immediately sensed something off.
“H-hey, BunBun! What are you planning?”

An Xin smiled.
“Nothing really.
Just a role swap.
That’s all.”