League of the Unkillable Demon King

Throughout the past few days, Chen Mu and Chen Yifei had breakfast that was much better compared to their usual. This placed them in great mental states.

In class, Chen Mu continued to think about ways to find teammates that were slightly stronger than his previous ones—teammates who could at least avoid getting pushed in during the laning phase.

In the last tournament, his top and bot lane were always losing in CS during the finals. Had his opponents been any stronger, Chen Mu might not have won. To illustrate the situation, imagine you were happily singing away, farming minions in mid lane. However, both your top and bot lane suddenly collapsed with no prior notice. What else could you do then except appear confused like Nick Young[1]?

With hundreds of millions of players worldwide, League of Legends players were all over cybercafes. In Chuzhou itself, there had to be at least around one to eight million players. It was guaranteed that there would be pro players among those people. The question was whether Chen Mu could find them.

“Big Bro Xiaobai, do you know anyone who has more than two thousand ELO points?” Chen Mu asked casually during recess.

“Hmm? Of course, I do. I met two bros back in junior high who are now studying in No.16 High School. The last time I saw them, they were showing off their tiers in Qzone[2]. They both have two thousand and three hundred ELO points as a bot lane duo. I guess they have the highest ELO points among the people I know of. Those two monsters refused to boost me. What nerve they have,” complained Zhuo Xiaobai as he took out his bottled yogurt that cost eight bucks and started drinking it.

“That’s great. Now, the player with the highest ELO points in the Chinese server is someone who has two thousand and nine hundred ELO points. Two thousand and three hundred ELO points isn’t that low. Could you introduce me to them?” said Chen Mu. If he could team up with two pro players who had two thousand and three hundred ELO points, his hopes of becoming the champion would increase much more.

“Uh-huh. Those two are twins. Their mental connection is uncanny. The level of tacit understanding they show as bot laners in ranked games is more than a couple that’s dating. Not to mention, if you check their match history, you’ll see they’re as fierce as rabid dogs. Are you planning to ride on their tailcoat?” said Zhuo Xiaobai. When it came to siding with pro players, it really depended on whether lady luck was on one’s side. With so many players going down the rabbit hole daily, it was really hard to tell if any of them would suddenly become a god in the game.

Chen Mu was the perfect example of that. For someone whom Zhuo Xiaobai had always thought of as a quiet nerd, Chen Mu did not only turn out to be a person who liked to joke about vain or obscene things once befriended, but he was a person capable of snatching the champion spot of a cybercafe tournament.

“Twins? Well, isn’t that unique? Then, hurry up and forward me their contacts. I need some help from pro players,” said Chen Mu.

“Yep, sure. I’ll let them know. You should add them on WeChat. Why are you looking for them? It would be easier if I tell them,” replied Zhuo Xiaobai.

“It’s a tournament that’s bigger than the one we joined. There’ll be more pro players there. So, it would be much better if my team has players with higher ELO points,” explained Chen Mu.

“Oh, you can count on me. I’ll persuade them for you. Both of them have been sneaking out to play games in the cybercafe. If they can earn some prize money, I guess they wouldn’t have to eat instant noodles every night and be stingy over adding in a lone piece of ham sausage.”

Zhuo Xiaobai sent the twins’ WeChat IDs to Chen Mu via push while messaging the twins at the same time. After adding the twins on WeChat, Chen Mu asked Zhuo Xiaobai, “What are their names? I want to save their contacts.”

“One of them is Ao Wen while the other is Ao Xuan,” answered Zhuo Xiaobai.

As Chen Mu saved their contact names and continued asking, “Why isn’t it Ao Wu[3] instead? Names like that usually come together with the idiom, ‘to be adept with the pen and sword’, don’t they?”

Zhuo Xiaobai mashed his eyebrows together and took a sip of his yogurt. Then, he extended his gaze far into the clouds outside the window, sighed, and said, “The younger brother was called Ao Wu in the past. However, once upon a time, the younger brother got lost. Searching for him, his entire family shouted his name for an entire night throughout the village. After that night, they changed his name.”

“…” It took Chen Mu a long while to realize what the story implied. After understanding the uniqueness of the name, Chen Mu agreed without hesitation that it was only right that his name was changed.

“Are the twins really telepathic? Have you seen them in action?” asked Chen Mu.

“Of course, you have no idea how crazy they are. Back in junior high, Ao Wen injured his arm but still persisted in fighting for the honorable comeback of Huaxia’s cybercafe. So, both of them played Dungeon Fighter Online on the same device. One of them controlled the movement buttons-left, right, up, and down. The other one of them controlled the character’s skills. When they executed combos, it was as though a single person was playing the game.” Zhuo Xiaobai recalled the incident and thought that it was ingenious.

Chen Mu’s mouth fell open in shock. “Everything is possible in this world. Who would’ve known such a thing was possible? For two people to play on one device, think of how much money they could’ve saved?”

Zhuo Xiaobai nearly spat out his yogurt drink. For god’s sake, how was Chen Mu able to relate everything to saving money? Was he not supposed to be yelling 666 instead? It was completely illogical. Was the brain circuit of a study god that different from that of normal people like Zhuo Xiaobai?

“Anyway, help me talk them into it. The tournament has a huge amount of rewards. The champion will get a total of twenty thousand bucks. The only downside to it is that its duration is longer and it will last for days. If we’re lucky enough to become the champion, each of us will get four thousand. Nothing less,” Chen Mu said.

“So OP! I never imagined that League of Legends would become so prestigious. Even a tournament in our city has a prize pool of twenty thousand bucks. Relax, if they don’t join you, I’ll pay them a visit at their school. They’ve received many of my favors after all. They will definitely honor my request at the very least,” said Zhuo Xiaobai generously.

The social interaction of rich people was as simple and crude as that. Everyone owed them a favor that mandated the party in debt to lend a hand at crucial moments.

Therefore, you would think that things were glorious for the rich on the surface. However, behind their back, things were even more glorious.

Everything would pave out much smoother if you had strings you could pull. After Zhuo Xiaobai mentioned the tournament’s time and rewards, as well as chatted with the twins for a while, the twins replied in agreement simultaneously. The temptation of earning twenty thousand bucks worth of cash was too overpowering. They were drawn to the tournament even though they were not convinced they had a chance of winning.

How could one so easily gain a reward that was considered a large sum to even working adults? If one asked around Year 3 Senior students, one would find more than fifty out of a hundred of them that had more than a thousand bucks.

Regardless, they were madly in love with the game and were quite good at it. Even though they depended on helping their classmates rank up so they could earn internet credit, they would game at the cybercafe daily too. They wanted to immerse themselves in the sensation that only competitions could give them, even if it was only for a single match.

No.16 High School was only a few streets away from No.10 High School. Hence, Chen Mu invited them to play two rounds that night right away to test their compatibilities as teammates. Naturally, their venue to meet up was Sky Galaxy Cybercafe. Additionally, Chen Mu promised that he would cover all their expenses for supper, drinks, and internet credit if they performed well enough. In spite of his stinginess, Chen Mu understood the unspoken rule of socializing—if one wanted something out of another, you had to pay them with either money or effort.

Nevertheless, using five bucks as his model, Chen Mu managed to earn more than two hundred bucks worth of internet credit. He could basically surf the internet for free throughout the year now. Therefore, it was quite apt for him to spend some money this time.

Chen Mu also contacted Shi Geng and told him that if he was willing to form a team for the tournament, they should practice as a premade team of five that night. No matter what position they got in the tournament, they would split the reward equally between five of them.

Shi Geng was excited when he found out about the bot lane twins that had two thousand and three hundred ELO points. With such a capable bot lane around, they had a chance of making it to one of the high ranked spots, champion or not. He also told Chen Mu that he would contact the bros that he had played DOTA with in the past. He would find a strong top laner to join and practice with them for a few rounds.

Chen Mu agreed. A competent team would widely increase their chances of becoming the champion. After all, tournaments were unlike blind pick games. If any lane ended up being pwned, they would find themselves being harassed constantly.

Like the match Chen Mu had watched between Europe and North America, one of the junglers were completely ruined. After the enemy jungler had stollen their Blue Buff, he never once got it throughout the entire match. Meanwhile, the enemy Ice Bird kept on obtaining the Blue Buff each time, sweeping the entire match till kingdom come. When it came to the late game, Ice Bird ended the match by oneshotting the opposing ADC.

Although one could not place Chuzhou’s tournament on the same pedestal as the World Championship, Chen Mu strongly believed that the players who would fight to become the city’s champion would definitely grasp the opportunity to ram away at any gap they noticed in their enemy’s defense.

Chen Mu had never been a person of blind faith. Despite not yet meeting a player who could put him in a position of great stress, Chen Mu wanted to lower that risk to its minimum. Twenty thousand bucks was not a small amount after all.

[1] ‘Confused Nick Young’ is a reaction image featuring NBA basketball player Nick Young with question marks surrounding his head.

[2] Qzone is a social networking website based in China which was created by Tencent in 2005. It allows users to write blogs, keep diaries, send photos, listen to music, and watch videos.

[3] This is another name pun! It’s common for people to be named after Mandarin idioms. In the idiom, ‘wen wu shuang quan’, ‘wen’ refers to academics or ‘pen’, while ‘wu’ means physical strength or ‘sword’.