The girl frowned at Sun Hao, although it was a complement, she somehow felt like she had gotten molested.
“Oh, I meant, that pretty Black Shield.” Sun Hao redirected his meaning, pointing at the computer screen.
This referred to her champion, a policewoman that was just shielded by her teammate with a black shield.
Sarcastically, the girl smiled, not saying a thing before turning her attention to the game.
Although it was a random meeting, Sun Hao didn’t want to let this go. Quickly, he brought a small stool next to her and asked, “Sister, a moment?”
No response.
“You play well.”
“Do you play?” She glanced at Sun Hao. “People in this internet café say that the technician didn’t play League, which would be you, right?”
It has only been a week since Sun Hao had started working, and he had never touched League of Legends – sometimes on the night shift, he would be invited to play a custom game, but he always excused himself.
Since the time he had left FoP, Sun Hao kept his promise and didn’t play League. As well, being unable to play ADC again had left him without options to join other teams.
Indifferent to Sun Hao, the girl continued to play. However, his chatter died down as he unintentionally was absorbed by the current game.
“Nice!”
He was quite surprised, and startled. A brief exchange led to retreat as a gank appeared from the bottom bushes, but she ended up binding one to lead to an unexpected reverse kill. This wasn’t luck; it showed her knowledge and skill of the game. Her mechanics were definitely at the platinum level, perhaps even diamond.
A lot of girls played League these days, but the number of players that played well were quite small.
In League of Legends, the most commonly played map was Summoner’s Rift, which was the main game mode. In this mode, there were a total of 11 towers on each side and 5 champions. The goal was to take down these turrets with the help of your minions, and destroy the enemy nexus (base) to gain victory.
It sounded simple, but there was a surprising amount of content. With over a hundred champions and new ones coming out in periodic updates, there was a large variety for players to choose from. And every champion was unique with their own set of skills and stats that required both experience and understanding of mechanics to play it to its maximum potential.
Everyone could find a champion that fit them and master it. Of course, different people had their own unique styles with champions.
The map was divided into three parts: an upper, middle, and lower lane. To add to these lanes, there was a neutral hostile territory known as the jungle on both sides. Commonly, the team composition of the 5 champions was a tanky champion in the top lane, a mage in the middle lane, a champion in the jungle and a champion duo in the bottom lane.
This girl was playing a ranged physical damage champion (ADC), the female sheriff, Caitlyn. Supporting her was Morgana, while the opposite side had the spear of vengeance, Kalista, and the keeper of souls, Thresh.
Although Kalista was a champion that excelled in the mid game, currently she was being overwhelmed. Early on, Caitlyn was particularly good due to her range and could damage the enemies without fear of retaliation; due to this, the enemy duo could only play passively. Sun Hao could imagine that at the moment, the Thresh player would be pinging furiously for their jungler to come down to the bottom lane and help out.
Unfortunately, the girl was pushing the minions on her side towards the enemy tower, moving further up the lane. There were no wards to scout out any incoming champions – he sadly shook his head. Her map awareness as well as the Morgana’s was terrible.
“Go recall back to base, the jungler’s going to come from the bushes soon.”
A significant wave had already built up near the enemies’ towers, and it was better at this point to go back and be cautious.
“No, I’m not level six yet…”
She muttered as she started to harass the enemy Kalista, when suddenly, a champion suddenly appeared out of the river.
Instantly, she flashed backwards and used her net (E) to propel herself backwards, dodging the hook sent out by Thresh, and Kalista stepped on a trap she had set down previously. However, her support wasn’t so skilled, and rooted in place by a large treant, Maokai, the champion died.
“Huh, you were right, they really came. How’d you know?” The girl asked with big eyes, blinking at Sun Hao.
Sun Hao thought it was so obvious, and wondered why she couldn’t see it. But he had attracted her attention right then: this could be the opportunity he was waiting for. Hands together, he would slowly grow closer to her as he diligently explained the game…
Prepared to put his plan in action, he started to reach his arm out, yet, someone tapped his shoulders. He turned behind. “Wow, did I hear correctly? You’re teaching people how to play League? Have you even played the game?”
“Why did you come?”
His lips curled in frustration – why did that guy come just as he was going to talk with this pretty girl?
Zhang Xiao was his name.
He was Sun Hao’s former classmate, though, they didn’t exactly know each other well. In fact, Sun Hao had only found out that Zhang Xiao was a regular at this internet café less than a week ago, and briefly greeted him.
“His eyesight’s pretty good.” The girl defended Sun Hao.
“Girl, don’t be fooled by him, this guy hasn’t played League of Legends before.” Zhang Xiao laughed.
“Really?” She blinked, was his warning a lucky coincidence?
Sun Hao was about to say something, but he was dragged off to the side by Zhang Xiao, as Zhang whispered to him. “I know that you want to say something, but you don’t want to get involved with this girl.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s from our college, though we don’t stand a chance, as she’s quite a competitive girl. Lots of people asked her out, but she said that if anyone wanted to date her, they would have to be at least a Diamond player.”
“Oh?”
She was indeed kind of mean.
In League, once a player hits level 30, they were able to play ranked matches. Your ability was then scored, and placed in rankings according to your skill. The bottom ranking was Bronze, and on the polar opposite side, was the Challenger ranking. Diamond was close to the top, right below Challenger and Masters, so her requirement was a little high.
Though, it also showed the depth of the girl’s passion for League, even to look for a boyfriend with this status. Regrettably, Sun Hao hadn’t touched League, or else he could’ve easily been able to pursue this girl.
“Hey, don’t include me with you, all you do is run errands and odd jobs to claim that you’re in the college’s gaming club.” Sun Hao said disdainfully.
Zhang Xiao looked insulted. “Just only running errands? It’s a way to get close to the goddess of League in our school. Anyways, reserve 10 seats, I have a match in the evening.”
“You’re playing? With and against whom?”
“Don’t ask so much, cheer me on later in the evening.”
Swiftly, Zhang Xiao ran, as his purpose was only to reserve seats for today. Sun Hao went to the cashier, and booked the seats for the night. Then, he came back to observe the girl play again, only to find her missing.
“Come on, I didn’t even get to learn her name. Forget it, I’ll just ask Zhang tonight.”
He thought that this girl was quite interesting, maybe she’d remember me fondly. Well, it was the first time he saw this girl after working in here for a week, and the internet café was small. She might usually compete at school… he shrugged.
The evening set in as the sun fell into the horizon. Sun Hao was busy looking around for beauties, but seeing Zhang Xiao group come in, he frowned.
“Hey, come and help swipe the membership cards!” Zhang Xiao boisterously cried out.
“Who do you think you are for me to swipe your cards for you?”
“Deal with this for a bit, and let me show off to these students this one time.”
“Just once.”
Sun Hao took the card and swiped in the station, looking around at the people surrounding the computers. He recognized four of the students other than Zhang, but the rest were unfamiliar, dressed expensively and haughty.
“What a shitty café, how old is this machine?” One of the youths whispered. “Let’s go to Fortune Café instead, it’s disgraceful to play here.”
More often than not, the wealthy went to the nearby opposite café, Fortune Café, which charged high prices in exchange for good service and relatively nice computers. No wonder these guys were strangers, they were regulars from Fortune Café.
“This is our home, Guo Zhi, if you’re not satisfied then just throw in the towel.” Zhang Xiao replied.
“Oh, I lost last time because of that slut, Yang Li. Don’t forget to get the money ready, I’ll head over to the sauna after this.” Guo Zhi looked in triumph.
Hearing the name Yang Li, Zhang Xiao’s face instantly darkened, and gritted his teeth. “Stop talking crap and let’s play!”
Eavesdropping by accident, Suo Hao remembered the name Yang Li – she was in the same high school class as him and Zhang Xiao. He recalled that Zhang Xiao was dating her back then, but listening to this, it seemed that Guo Zhi was now her boyfriend. To mock his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend so openly and explicitly like this showed how depraved that guy was.
Caitlyn +Morgana vs Kalista