Rise

When Lin Feng had first shown up at her door and claimed to be a Challenger on the Ionia Server, Su Xue did not believe him. She could still recall that evening when Lin Feng joined her on her stream for the very first time. Of course I didn’t believe him back then! Why would I? Who would’ve believed a claim like that from some strange kid who appeared out of nowhere with the Landlady? I thought he was just trying to look cool in front of me! ‘I’m a Challenger on the Ionia Server, Su Xue!’ ‘I’m really good at League of Legends, Su Xue!’ It was too much of a stretch to be true! But since then… well, he was way better at League than I was at the time. I figured he was just good at the game, but I still didn’t believe everything he claimed about his past! But in the weeks and months that followed… Hm. I guess I always knew that there was something mysterious about Lin Feng.

As Su Xue spent more and more time with Lin Feng, she started to pick up on little details that just didn’t make sense, and she started to think there was more to Lin Feng than she knew. But Lin Feng never appeared to be more than the average high school kid most of the time, and Su Xue wasn’t the kind of person who stuck her nose into other people’s business when they didn’t want it. Besides, she was content with her relationship with Lin Feng and didn’t want to jeopardise that. He’d gone from an unwanted roommate to an unwanted nuisance to her little brother, and she cherished her time with him. Even if he did drive her crazy in one way or another every single day.

On top of all of that, her streaming career was taking off and that took most of her time and energy. So even when she had noticed the small hints that there was something mysterious and strange about Lin Feng, she never bothered asking about it.

And now, she was kicking herself mentally for being so passive. I can’t pretend there isn’t something strange going on with Lin Feng anymore, and I need to know the truth! It’s odd that he’s this good at League of Legends, there’s no getting around that. His skills are at an absurdly high level, way beyond any normal high school kid. Even his whole ‘I’m a Challenger on the Ionia Server’ thing doesn’t make sense. Now that I think about it, that’s not even that rare. There’s plenty of high schoolers across China who are at Diamond 1, Master, and Challenger rank. There’s thousands of them! But Lin Feng… he’s not just a regular Challenger player.

There’s no way that a normal high schooler who is normally good at League of Legends can play and win through the Finals of Collegiate Cup, and then go on to climb into the Top 5 on the Korean Challenger Ladder in the same day! And let’s not forget that Lin Feng did that by beating Orion, a top Korean professional player, in his last game of the night! That’s not something that a high school kid can do! Even in the LPL, there’s only a few professional players that can pull something like that off. So who exactly is Lin Feng?

Su Xue’s head started spinning as she tried to put together all the facts that she’d learned about Lin Feng during their time together into a picture that made complete sense. She’d completely forgotten about the game she was playing, and didn’t even notice that she was being zoned out of the lane completely. Pings from her teammates went completely ignored, and she was completely unaware of the discussion about forfeiting the game that was taking place in her team’s chat.

Su Xue’s mind was focused on other parts of Lin Feng’s life right now. There’s also the fact that he knows so many people in the Chinese Esports scene. Even Chu Fang, the Vice President of the Shanghai Esports Association, knew who he was and they have a tight relationship. Oh! OH! He also knows the new Midlaner for Team Rapids! The one that just came back from retirement. AyDeeCee! How does an ordinary high school player get to know people like that? And Lin Feng doesn’t just know them, they’re close to him. All of them know Lin Feng, but not the Lin Feng I know. They have a history with him.

This wasn’t the first time that Su Xue thought about Lin Feng’s past and wondered about his identity. There were days when she started to feel herself believing his loud claims that he was a former professional player. But then Lin Feng would act like Lin Feng, and she’d laugh at herself for being silly and dismiss the whole thing from her mind. No matter how many times Su Xue thought about it, there was just no way that it was possible. But she thought about it again right now. Maybe he really was a professional player…? Wait! NO! Lin Feng is in his third and final year of high school. If he really was a pro, when did he start playing? When he was in his first year? Or his second year? There’s no way that he’d be this unknown if he was a pro a couple of years ago. Forget me hearing about him, someone in my stream chat would’ve known who he was and the rest of the chat would’ve picked up on that and put it on blast! The only way he could’ve been a pro and be unknown today is if he started playing in middle school, and that’s just not possible. There’s no way. But… what else explains everything about Lin Feng? Was he really a professional player? Was this kid telling me the truth the whole time, and I refused to believe him…?

As her team’s Nexus exploded, Su Xue was starting to doubt everything that she considered true about Lin Feng. She was so absorbed in her own thoughts that she didn’t even notice the Defeat that splashed across her screen.