“Nonsense, you’re a computer technician, what would you know?!”

Guo Zhi put on a stiff face, but the tone gave it away – it was a fake bag for sure. Sun Hao actually didn’t know anything about Chanel at all. From seeing Guo’s att.i.tude towards Yang Li, he didn’t believe that Guo would buy an expensive designer handbag for someone like Yang Li, who would be likely to cheat.

Now that he had confirmed his suspicions, Sun Hao smiled. “I’m an expert, of course, I told you that I grew up knowing how fakes were made. If you don’t believe it, I’ll teach you how to identify the details that make it stand out.”

Hearing Sun’s eager voice, Guo was speechless. If he accepted the offer, he would definitely be revealed and lose all credibility. Embarra.s.sed and angry, Yang Li threw the bag at Guo Zhi and without looking back, ran out of the café.

To act so wealthy, and yet be exposed as someone who bought fakes because he didn’t want to buy the real deal, Guo was ill at ease. Someone laughed, breaking the silence and he flushed, but he couldn’t do anything, staring furiously at Sun Hao.

Zhang Xiao stared after Yang Li, a little dazed, but managed to snap back and looked at Sun Hao gratefully. Even so, with his hand on the mouse, it would take a miracle to win when they were this far behind.

“We can’t win!”

Xiao’s teammate shook his head, they couldn’t help but give up after being caught and killed immediately in lane. No matter what his friends thought, he couldn’t stand this slaughter anymore and removed his hands from the keyboard.

Several other people gave out a sigh, clearly, they thought to give up.

Zhang Xiao appeared defeated, tears in his eyes. He took a deep breath, and released a sad whisper. “Am I useless? He stole my girlfriend, and now, I’m going to lose to him in my favourite game. Probably, I’m just a failure. I’m sorry.”

Before the game, his friends told him he shouldn’t gamble, but to gain back his dignity in front of Yang Li he did. But the result ended like this, losing 1000 dollars. This would be depressing, needless to say.

“You want to win?” Sun Hao suddenly asked.

“Of course!”

“Well, then look ahead – you haven’t lost yet, don’t give up!”

With that, Sun Hao put his hands on the shoulders of the depressed guy. “Brother, get up off the seat and watch.”

As a League of Legends player, Sun Hao couldn’t help but look down on the guy that gave up. You can surrender, but physically leaving the game to go AFK wasn’t acceptable. Coming in to subst.i.tute, none of the teammates showed any form of discontent.

Zhang Xiao gave a surprised look to Sun, remaining silent. He knew that this was an action to support him – so, he thought again. They hadn’t lost, there’s no reason to surrender. Biting his teeth, he focused his attention back onto the screen.

At the computer, looking at the familiar picture, Sun Hao’s hands trembled. He was scared and excited, though, it was the first time his hand had ever shook after playing League of Legends.

Did the one-year gap degrade his skills too much? Sun Hao smiled self-deprecatingly, thinking perhaps he was a novice now. Or was it because he was agitated?

Ever since he had lost to Chen Fan, he had never touched League, not only because of the promise, but it was also a mental block. Today, seeing Zhang Xiao losing, it reminded him of the match last year – helplessly losing everything.

You want to win?

This sentence wasn’t meant solely for Zhang Xiao; it applied to him as well. Life really didn’t have meaning if a person couldn’t keep any shred of dignity for themselves. Sun Hao had already lost his, but he didn’t want to see Zhang Xiao lose his too.

You can be fired from jobs, your girlfriend can break up and leave you, but you cannot lose at League of Legends!

“Ahri, the nine-tailed fox? I’ve never played it…”

Sun Hao sighed, he promised he couldn’t play ADC. Though Ahri wasn’t an ADC, being an AP (Ability Power) a.s.sa.s.sin, he didn’t know how to play her.

“Are you going to play?”

Guo Zhi saw Sun Hao sitting on the opposite side, and was going to oppose this change until he heard from the crowd that this guy didn’t play League.

Sun Hao smiled. “Maybe.”

“Sucker.” Guo Zhi didn’t bother anymore, after all, it was the perfect chance to beat him up and get revenge.

The computer technician that was known to not play League was finally making his debut – people from the internet café wandered over, pointing at Sun Hao. Even Yue Chi was curious, and came to see how badly this guy was going to play.

With unsteady hands, Sun Hao opened the store, then unconsciously, by habit moved his mouse. His right hand directed the cursor to buy an item, and dashed out of the base.

“B.F. Sword?”

“Isn’t that an AD item?”

“Wow, this guy’s hilarious.”

Laughter rang out through the audience, and Yue Chi covered her eyes with her palm. I knew this guy would be bad, but I didn’t expect that he wouldn’t know common sense – Ahri was a champion that used AP, yet, he bought the AD item B.F. Sword?

Sun Hao realized the reason for the laughter, and blushing, he went back and depressingly sold his item for less than its gold value and bought a Blasting Wand and an Amplifying Tome.

Looking at the map, the first set of towers of the five were down. Ryze was still at top against the Jayce, while the other four members of the team was pushing down the middle lane in hopes of taking the turrets down.

It was actually the best moment for his champion, Ahri, with the current items he had the ability to a.s.sa.s.sinate someone from the enemy team. However, he currently wasn’t able to do so and go into the jungle, as if his teammates died then the game would likely be over. This was precisely the turning point for the game.

Guarding the towers, the player playing Lucian typed, “Should we fight as a team?”

“Whatever,” Sun Hao lazily replied.

“…” Lucian’s player then asked, “? Then what are you going to do?”

“I’ll watch you fight.”

He had never heard such advice before, and Lucian promptly called for his teammate to help, ignoring Sun Hao, ready to fight.

“Protect me, I’ll do all the damage and win the fight.”

As an ADC, they would usually be the major damage output in a fight, so they were naturally the highest priority for both teams.

After taking down the towers, the enemy team didn’t go and take the Dragon, instead heading to the middle lane. The same as the jungle, new players disregarded the neutral Dragon, and fought the enemies.

Jayce and Ryze returned back to the middle lane, and it was a stalemate between the two sides, the minions pushing towards each other. While everyone was looking for an opportunity to start a fight, Sun Hao went and killed the Golem for the blue buff, then proceeded to move to the right side of the middle lane. His champion stopped and stood here.

The spectators couldn’t help but laugh, did that guy really intend to attack from there? He was out of vision from the tower, but they had so many people all grouped up that it would be impossible to a.s.sa.s.sinate one of them.

Plus, the Ahri didn’t have that many items.

Sun Hao wasn’t in a hurry, and using the mouse moved back and forth as if dancing. Maybe he was doing this out of boredom, though, it was more likely so to avoid being seen by the moving enemy team.

If the people on both sides compared the amount of vision they had, they would immediately find that Sun Hao was moving at the very edge of the fog of war. Unfortunately, people were watching Sun Hao to see him fail – who would pay attention to these small details?

While manipulating the mouse, Sun Hao’s eyes were fixed on the red side, specifically, the dark child, Annie.

Annie posed the most threat to their team, and as long as she was alive, she could Flash and Tibbers to initiate or stop teamfights with a large AoE stun. There was sure to be a fight breaking out if anything happened, and with a deficit in gold, their team would lose completely even under their tower.

The red team saw Lucian wander too far out from his team, and got marked by a spear from Nidalee. Immediately, he got pounced upon by the enemy team and was held in place as his health melted. Although the team composition was a poke team by the opposing side, and it was going to end in a disadvantage, Lucian being caught like this was completely his fault.

Even as it happened, the guy shouted furiously. “Protect me, protect me!”

Usually, the ADC should be playing safe with the team around him. Sun Hao internally face palmed, thinking of the insurmountable gap between his playing and this guy’s play.

With Lucian disabled, the opposite side rushed forwards, ready to demolish Lucian’s team.

“Xiao, move forwards, quickly!” Sun Hao said in a low voice.

Zhang Xiao was slightly stunned; it was the first time he heard this tone from Sun Hao, so he unconsciously obeyed his command.

“Die!”

The youth controlling Annie shouted as they pressed the D key and flashed forwards.

Shyvana, on the blue side had a lot of health remaining, but Ziggs had low health and this situation was equivalent to a free kill for the enemy team. The outcome of this fight was obvious to the crowd, and they nodded as this would be an easy win.

However, at that moment, Ahri came out of the fog of war and put out a charm, the nearby Nidalee was startled and reflexively flashed. And if the charm wasn’t going to hit Nidalee, it would surely hit the empty s.p.a.ce where the champion used to be.

Watching that play, people started to laugh, as this fox was definitely on its way to death, but it suddenly went silent. On a 45 degree angle, Sun Hao flashed over the wall into the tower at the same time Annie flashed.

E flash!

Ahri – Charm + Flash

TL Note: I’ve gone and added a gif at the end of each chapter to help visualize some of the plays that happen in this fiction. Also, the release schedule’s been updated now that I sorted some things out, and as always, please let me know if there’s any TL errors or terms that need fixing!