Rise

Lin Feng sat behind his desk in his bedroom. There was a big, thick studybook in front of him, and he was scribbling in a notebook to the side. He was writing down the most important bits of each page and disregarded the rest, not even checking what it was he wrote. That was a worry for when the next test was announced. This was his patented study method; Fast and Furious. Chinese literature, done. Mathematics, done. English, done. In only a short few hours, he finished his homework. He then let go of his pen and leaned back in his chair. “Phew! Done!”

It was only 9 PM, still too early to go to bed. So Lin Feng, almost out of habit, opened the League of Legends client and logged into his Korean account. I’ll just play a couple of games before bed, he thought while queuing up for a game. They were his practiced motions, as was the message he flung into the Champion Select team chat. “Mid plz.” Because that was the role he wanted to play tonight. Slowly, Lin Feng got into the zone.

Game 1: Lin Feng picked Fizz in the mid lane. He bullied his lane opponent and got an early kill at Level 3. From there on out, it was an easy game for him. He brute-forced his way to a 20-minute win.

Game 2: Lin Feng picked Syndra in the mid lane. He bullied his lane opponent and forced them to recall back to base after the first minion wave. The advantage he built up from that was large enough for the opponent to never get back into the game. He carried his team to a 26-minute win.

Game 3: Lin Feng picked Yasuo in the mid lane. He crushed his lane opponent into submission at Level 1. His opponent’s teammates came to help, but he killed them all. That happened only 12 minutes into the game. They gave up and didn’t leave the fountain again. So Lin Feng and his team destroyed the towers in mid lane, then the inhibitor, and finally the nexus. It took them all of 16 minutes.

That’s enough for tonight. Lin Feng looked at his screen, waiting, hesitating. Then he opened his browser and clicked on Favourites. At the top was a link to the Semifinals match between KG and SSK. He opened it and watched it. More specifically, he watched the mid lane, and how Rake and KG’s Midlaner were playing. He watched every small move and studied its effects on the game. Discover more novels at novel✦fire.net

I’ve seen this. I know it. Lin Feng shook his head. The results were no different from last time. Rake gameplay was, as always, perfect. Even KG’s Midlaner was better than he was right now. But it didn’t hit him as hard as it had over the last week. Something had changed. He managed to take that step back and look at the big picture. It painted a different perspective. Sure, he wasn’t anywhere near good enough to step onto the world stage right now. But he shouldn’t want to either. This process he had set into motion took time. It couldn’t be rushed. He had to take on the challenges in front of him, of which there were plenty, and focus only on them. Lin Feng smiled, balling his hand into a fist. Watch me come back to the top, Rake. I’ll get back up there. We’ll have our rematch. And I’ll beat you. This time, I will win! “YES!”

✹

Something had changed in the training sessions of the High School 13 esports team. They still went to the NetCow Cafe everyday and from an outside perspective everything looked the same, but something intrinsic had changed. It was the addition of a real coach. Lin Feng was a phenomenally talented player and far better than the rest of the esports team combined. But at the end of it all, he was a player and not a coach. An Xin was different. She was more of a coach than a player.