Rise

Su Xue couldn’t believe what her eyes were telling her. She’d left for the washroom not two minutes ago. In that short period of time, a losing game suddenly didn’t look all that lost anymore. Lin Feng picked up three kills! She rubbed her eyes and stared at the screen again. The kills, deaths, and assists tally still read the same: 3/3/2.

Su Xue had unconsciously moved in front of the monitor. Lin Feng could only see a little of the screen and a lot of the back of Su Xue’s head. So, he leaned to the side and tried to see what was going on in the game. Su Xue’s face also blocked in front of the webcam, which was now zoomed in on her forehead. The people watching the stream were quick to voice their displeasure.

「get out of the way! stupid maid..」 

「Stop blocking the streamer from playing the game!」

「You damn maid! You’re in the way of our handsome lil bro’s face!」

The fresh string of messages drew Su Xue’s attention. She read them from the corner of her eyes before pulling back her head. “S-sorry! My bad! I didn’t mean to…” It had become somewhat of a habit for her as of late, to start apologizing frantically the moment chat was the slightest bit displeased with her. But then the absurdity of the situation hit her. “Hey! Wait. Hold on!” she shouted. “What the fuck! The maid? I am your streamer, not him. Got it?”

With Su Xue back and screaming, Lin Feng pressed the B key and recalled back to base. Then he took his hands off the mouse and keyboard and asked, “So, are you taking back over? Or... do you want me to keep playing?”

Su Xue didn’t get to reply, the streamers 'tactfully' did that for her.

「lil bro, don’t go!」

「we want to see your vayne!」

「have the flat-chested maid step down!」

Su Xue couldn’t even hear herself think anymore with the figurative din of 10,000 people collectively screaming ‘fuck you’ bouncing around in her mind. I finally understand what people mean when they say they’ve been trampled by a herd of 10,000 grass-mud-horses! What a stupid meme! She remained paralyzed though, unable to make a decision. She never expected this jackass to turn into the comeback kid, nor did she ever expect that her viewers would turn against her for three kills. 

From streamer to maid in a single bathroom break, and these unwarranted accusations of being flat chested, Su Xue felt like boulders were dropping down and crushing her. I’m NOT flat chested, you jackass! This is just a baggy shirt! I’m not one of those streamers who thinks they can only get viewers by highlighting their femininity! Su Xue gnawed on her lips as she felt a burning hatred coursing through her veins. You rotten, unloyal bastards! Just who is your streamer here! 

Su Xue took a deep breath. She was still upset with her viewers, very much so. But there was something else that played on her mind. So she came to a decision. “Fine. You play for a bit longer. I would like to see how you win this game.” This wasn’t a snarky comment. She was honestly curious to see Lin Feng play. He had to be doing something special to get three kills and win over her viewers in a few short minutes. Though he was still just a high schooler, she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, this high school kid was some kind of league of legends prodigy. 

Lin Feng flashed a bright smile as he quickly placed his hands on the mouse and keyboard again. “Alright!” He then paused for a brief moment, unmoving, before looking up at Su Xue. “Uh, mhmm, I…”

“What is it now?” Su Xue asked.

“I’m a bit thirsty… I forgot to pour myself some water earlier.” 

“Then go and pour yourself a glass of water? Didn’t I just tell you that the water dispenser is…” Su Xue’s eyes narrowed into a glare. “Hey hey hey! Don’t tell me you want me to pour you a glass of water! I’m not your maid!”

Lin Feng scratched his head. “Uhh… it’s fine. Nevermind. I’ll get myself a glass after this game.”

Su Xue snorted. “That’s what I thought.”

When the viewers saw Su Xue's reaction from behind their monitors, they weren’t all too happy. 

「OI! why isn’t the maid getting our lil bro streamer his water!?」

「hey yeah! How about you make yourself useful!?!?!」

「Yeah, get him his water, or we’ll riot!」

「fellas, get ready! let’s mass unfollow and unsubscribe!」 

It only took a few seconds for the chat to be blanketed with messages attacking Su Xue. She started blankly at them before forcing herself up from her chair and slumping to the living room. These viewers held more power over her than she would like to admit. She grabbed a clean glass from the table and poured in some water before returning to her bedroom—the streaming room. A break in her step. Just an extra moment before she walked back into the room. Enough time to force back the tears that were welling up in her eyes.

Su Xue wanted to curse and scream but was terrified the viewers would kick up another fuss. So, after walking into the room, she placed the glass on the desk and weakly said to Lin Feng, “Here, your water…” Then her eyes shifted to the stream chat before falling back on Lin Feng again.

After sitting down in the sidekick’s chair, Su Xue’s fears subsided a little and hatred started coursing through her veins again. You motherfuckers! I’m the streamer! Not this kid! But no matter the thoughts clouding her mind, she didn’t let out a peep. She would wait. Patiently. She believed her chance would come. That her new roommate would make a mistake. It was only a single misplay away. And then… Hmph! I’ll have them begging for me to take over! I’m Daenerys here, and that’s my iron throne! You’re not going to usurp it!

✹

13 minutes into the game, Lin Feng pushed the minion wave to the red team’s outer tower in bot lane.

Evening Snowfall (Vayne):「shield plz janna」

Vayne wasn’t a specialist at taking down towers. Her kit simply wasn’t built for it. But with the support from Janna’s Eye of the Storm, which boosted attack damage and granted a shield to the target, she could deal considerable damage to them.

Lin Feng had his Vayne go in and fire off two bolts at the outer tower before retreating back. In the process, he ate a shot to the face from Caitlyn, which failed to even break through his shield. Several moments later, when Eye of the Storm was back off cooldown, Lin Feng repeated this method and slowly chipped away at the health of the enemy tower.

“Aren’t you playing too scared? Only going up to hit the tower when you have a shield?” Su Xue jabbed.

Lin Feng turned his head to look at Su Xue and said, “Oh, don’t worry. I’m going to tower dive and take out that Caitlyn in a few minutes.”

“H-huh?” Su Xue looked from Lin Feng to the screen and back at him. Then, as if to confirm she had understood him correctly, she asked, “Tower dive?” Even in the best of situations, tower diving was dangerous. The towers did a lot of damage, especially to the glass cannons that all ad-carries were. On top of that, Lin Feng couldn’t count on any of his teammates showing up to help. Top and mid lane were currently engaged in their own battles against their opponents. Rek’Sai, the jungler, had returned to base to buy items. There was no way he would make it in time. 

Su Xue analyzed the situation and came to the conclusion that tower diving had a zero percent chance of succeeding. There were too many variables stacked against Lin Feng. His own team couldn’t come to his help; the enemy jungler was unaccounted for and could pop out of a brush at any time; and last but not least, Caitlyn’s support was the high-health champion Thresh. Lin Feng’s support was a Janna, who had about as little health as his Vayne. She threw Lin Feng a suspicious look before shaking her head. You stupid brat. Don’t let your ego get to your head just because you picked up a few kills.

Lin Feng was completely unaware of Su Xue’s thoughts, not that he would care even if he knew. Right now, his focus was only on finding opportunities to do damage to the enemy tower. Its health slowly went down. He started mumbling to himself, “Four more hits. Three more hits. Two more…”

Only a single blue minion remained within the red tower’s range. Once it died, the tower would start attacking Vayne. The Thresh noticed and decided that all he had to do was keep Vayne within the tower’s range, and he’d get the kill. This was all about timing, and the Thresh believed that Lin Feng was too focused on bringing down the tower to notice him. Thresh lined up the skillshot for Death Sentence and waited. This was all about patience and timing. Just as the tower took out that lone minion, Thresh threw his hook out at Vayne.

Lin Feng easily sidestepped it, then nodded. “Perfect.”

The chat exploded with praise.

「sick dodging skills, lil bro!」

「That’s some great reaction speed right there!」

Su Xue frowned as she read the last block of messages in chat. Her viewers, they were hateful loathsome beings! When Lin Feng did something simple, like dodging a hook from Thresh, they jumped up and down with glee! They showered him with so much praise that she wouldn’t have been surprised if they had wet spots in their shorts from that simple juke. But when she did it? They didn’t even notice! She’d done the same thing a couple of times at the start of the game and no one even said a word.

✹

The minions in bottom lane had just died. The tower was only a single attack away from being destroyed. Lin Feng pressed forward and ignored the tower, though it locked onto him, to attack the Caitlyn. This was a tower dive. He shot a silver bolt at her before pushing down on the R key and activating Vayne’s ultimate skill—Final Hour. All the while the Janna trailed behind him, throwing an auto attack at the tower and destroying it before it could deal any damage to her ad-carry.

An aura of darkness wrapped around Vayne’s figure. She tumbled forward, disappearing into the shadows, and raised her crossbow. A silver bolt came shooting out of nowhere and pierced the Caitlyn. Vayne appeared from stealth in the same moment, running up to the Caitlyn and past her. Far enough that the Caitlyn found herself in the same awkward position as before. A wall was behind her and Vayne stood in front of her. Vayne raised the large crossbow on her back and fired a giant bolt at the Caitlyn.

The Caitlyn had no time to react. Vayne had used Condemn to pin her to a wall, and a third silver ring had appeared around her and exploded. This was deja vu, a callback to Lin Feng’s very first kill in this game. The Caitlyn was stunned, pinned to a wall as Vayne let loose a steady stream of silver bolts that ate away at the last of her health. 

Meanwhile, the supports were also having a battle of sorts. Though their damage was low, they both had powerful crowd control skills. While the Thresh tried to engage the Vayne and pull her off his ad-carry, Janna sent a Howling Gale at him, the tornado knocking him up high into the air from where he had to watch his ad-carry die.

Lin Feng only needed to land four auto attacks to kill the Caitlyn. She broke free from the stun after the second bolt, but the third was already flying her way. The three silver rings around her exploded, dealing bonus damage and leaving her with health in the single digits. There was no skill in her kit that could help her escape. Lin Feng didn’t even have to chase her as she stood still and accepted her fate.

《You have slain an enemy!》

Lin Feng didn’t take a single moment to enjoy this kill. He quickly switched to the Thresh, who was attempting to run away. But the Janna wouldn’t just let him leave. After knocking him up into the air, she cursed him with her Zephyr, a skill which slowed the target down. That combined with Vayne’s passive which increased her movement speed while chasing enemy champions effectively ended the Thresh’s plan to escape. Lin Feng quickly caught up to him and unloaded a flurry of bolts.

《Double kill!》

Su Xue slumped back into her seat with a look of shock and disbelief on her face. …Another double kill? He’s actually this good at the game!?