League of Legends: League of Unknowns

“Hey, do you know that our university LOL team has managed to reach the top 50?”

“You’ve heard about it only now? The news broke out a few days ago. Didn’t you watch the game? Don’t call yourself an E-Sports Club’s member if you’re so ignorant.”

“I was busy recently, that’s why I missed the game. I heard their roster is greatly boosted by a new recruit this year. It is said that they could easily reach the quarter-final with him.”

“That part is true, we heard it from the core members themselves, but he has yet to take part in any game as a strategy to reserve their true strength for the late stage.”

“Who is that person?”

“I have no idea.”

The students had lined up uniformly on the green field, and when boys gathered, their topic would usually be either about girls or basketball.

The basketball team had been underachieving this year and were now on the brink of elimination.

The football team, meanwhile, had only gotten acceptable results, and should have acquired enough points to participate in higher tier competitions.

As for the Track and Field Club, they were neither particularly amazing nor disappointing.

As a result, the E-Sports team, which had done well in the national competition, had become the new hot topic of university students.

In almost every course, students were seen gathered in a group as they discussed the recent matches of Team SHU ecstatically.

“Hehe, they still don’t know who the freshman is,” Jiang Jiu said with a huge smirk.

Hearing guys from other courses talking about these matters, Jiang Jiu and Jingtai, the two LOL newbies, were pretty proud of being Luocheng’s roommates.

***

The assembly quieted down when the flag-raising ceremony began.

Following that, personnel from the upper management stood in front of the flag with their big tummies protruding and began to address the students.

After a lengthy motivational speech, they proceeded to commend the students who had achieved excellent achievements in front of the whole assembly.

One should never look down on the importance of doing well in the curriculum. The pride of being celebrated by the university in front of the crowd was indescribable, and people who disdained it were usually those that didn’t have such an opportunity to stand out from the commoners.

Those who were being acclaimed were either pretentiously calm, jubilant, exaggeratedly humble, or trying to act naturally. Although most of the audience didn’t seem to care and paid very little attention to them, their moods were still greatly lifted by the formal ceremony and massive crowd.

“Eh, who’s that pretty girl over there?” Out of boredom, Jingtai unintentionally glimpsed a gorgeous girl who was standing right at the very back of the awardee line.

The girl carried a different vibe as compared to the other awardees, making her highly noticeable despite standing at the rear.

She stood upright and her good figure was prominent despite the loose white sweatshirt, she looked just like an elegant swan.

“You will know when she is introduced later,” Jiang Jiu answered.

Gradually, more and more students began to take note of the stunningly pretty girl.

She was vibrant in spite of the cold winter, unusually calm, putting on a nonchalant yet distinctively polite smile on her face.

She was outstanding but not unapproachable, just like the girl-next-door.

“I feel that she is oddly familiar. Just get it over with those people in front of her already,” Jiang Jiu rubbed his chin and said.

The lines surrounding the I.T. course were all engineering-based students, and those wolves seemed to have noticed her too, their attention having suddenly shifted from LOL to the beauty.

“Another round of applause for Ho Liqi for her achievement in mathematical geometry. Very well, now please allow me to introduce the next student who is going to bring enormous honor to Shanghai University. She is our pride and represents the type of excellence Shanghai University has never stopped pursuing.” The formal introduction was announced by the dean.

The students before her were announced by their respective head of departments. When it came to her turn, it was the dean himself that had stood up and welcomed her personally…

“What is so special about her? Why is she being welcomed by the dean personally?” Jiang Jiu and Jingtai were baffled.

There was a small commotion among the crowd too.

It was obvious that she was more highly praised than the others. She must have obtained an honor that even the dean and headmaster had been looking up upon.

“Alright, order! Where’s your discipline? Please don’t frighten our new student over here, I might increase your credit hours if you all don’t behave properly now,” The dean reprimanded the students solemnly.

But the dean’s threat was responded to by laughter from the crowd, including the lecturers. It appeared that not all deans and lecturers were old-fashioned and immune to jokes after all.

The dean cleared his throat and said again, “Alright now, be quiet.”

After the crowd had quieted down, the dean signaled the girl to walk up the stage.

“Students who are paying attention to the sports news must have seen her before.”

“She has just become the champion in this year’s Under-18 National Swimming Competition held during the summer, known for her beautiful and elegant swimming stroke in the pool. Multiple sports magazines have reported her emergence as the future superstar of our country’s swimming team. In the competitions held at Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing recently, she has achieved successive podium finishes as a first-time participant. This is a truly exceptional accomplishment for someone who has just begun to compete at the professional level this year.”

“At the moment, she has been recruited by the national team as a backup and is concurrently the undisputed number one swimmer of the Shanghai province team. She might only be representing Shanghai now, but without a doubt, she will be representing our country and fight for our glory at the international stage very soon. Most importantly, she is officially a Year 1 freshman at Shanghai University starting from today…”

The dean certainly had better presenting skills than those head of departments. He had successfully attracted the students’ attention with a simple joke, and narrated the new student’s uniqueness with great spirit. This indirectly had everyone’s eyes on the already outstanding girl.

Now, everyone recognized the fact that she was a student with a sports scholarship, a special recruit with great talent in swimming.

Such a reward was constantly being offered by SHU to attract talents from different fields so that the university would be consistently competitive in three vital categories—Academic, arts, and sports excellence.

However, it was rare to have such students introduced in the grand assembly. The only circumstance to adopt this announcement method was when the student had chosen the university, rather than the other way around.

A student with such high caliber was definitely coveted by renowned universities all around the country, for having the greatest swimmer of her age automatically guaranteed the university the No.1 title in this category. Her fame could also be used to promote the university’s status in years to come.

Shanghai University was not especially great among the vast number of universities within the country, a popular student who could have easily entered Beijing, Fudan, or Qinghua University, had opted for the relatively modest Shanghai University. Wasn’t this something worth announcing in front of the entire school?

Everyone immediately realized how special this young athlete was to the university. People’s first impression of her was that she must be an obedient girl that focused on her studies. Her image had little to do with her true identity—The queen of swimming!

An emotional introduction by the dean, her likable appearance, coupled with her sweet smile when she greeted the crowd instantly had the guys from the engineering courses willingly cheering for her.

“Mine, she is mine!”

“F*ck off! You don’t even know which course she will be enrolled in.”

“I am joining the swimming club tomorrow!”

“Tomorrow? I am joining now, nobody is going to stop me. How much is the club fees, again? I am willing to pay even if it’s 1000 yuan.”

“Don’t act rich.”

“Hehe, I am actually one of the members. I had heard about this news long before today.”

Other matters—be it the basketball team’s poor result, the football team’s performance, or the E-Sport Club being in the top 50—became irrelevant in the face of the attractive lady. The guys cared for nothing else other than the pretty swimmer currently on the stage.

It was imaginable that the swimming pool in the university was going to be a full house from that day onward.

***

Standing on the stage, she could feel the heat boiling through the crowd.

Her lips curved upward slightly, showing a cunning grin that was usually hidden behind her innocent look.

Her line of sight scanned the crowd, trying to search for the figure she was familiar growing up with.

Unfortunately, it was a massive crowd down there, making it impossible for her to locate the person she wished to see.

‘Never mind, he must have seen me. Tsk tsk, how I wish to see his expression at the moment. His jaw must have dropped to the ground and his eyes must have rounded big. Then he would have held his urge to show off to his friends and pretended that he doesn’t care about me.’

‘Hmph, now he can no longer ignore me. I am not going to answer when he calls me later, that will certainly get on his nerves.”

***

After the assembly, Yu Yu first went to the standalone dorm the university had specially assigned for her.

The high-class dorm had two rooms and housed only four people.

Along the way, she could feel the passionate stares from the passersby, and some were even brave enough to step forth and ask for her number.

She felt lucky to be escorted by a teacher, otherwise, Yu Yu doubted whether she could have reached the dorm safely.

“Yu Yu, are you in a rush?” Ms. Xu asked.

“I am not,” Yu Yu answered.

“Then why do you keep peeking at your phone to check the time?” Ms. Xu questioned laughingly.

Ms. Xu was the advisor of the swimming club, and she was also the one who had recruited Yu Yu into Shanghai University.

“Oh… It’s nothing,” Yu Yu replied with a smile.

Behind her angelic smile was a devilishly angry face.

‘Stupid Luocheng. How dare you not call me after seeing me on stage.’

Yu Yu was infuriated. She had been plotting not to answer no matter how many times Luocheng called to make peace with her. In the end, her nasty brother never even bothered to do that.

‘It’s strange. He should have seen me during the assembly just now, there is no way he would not be calling me immediately after the announcement. He must have left his phone in the dorm, that must be it. He must be rushing back to dial my number now. Perhaps his phone is out of battery and still charging?’

Imagining how Luocheng must have rushed back to his dorm clumsily put a satisfied grin on Yu Yu’s face.

***

Dorm no. 5209.

“Luocheng, a goddess has just arrived at our university today!”

“Really…?” Luocheng rolled over and continued sleeping.

“She is a swimmer and her beauty is out of this world. A very friendly girl, too. Unlike the other beautiful ladies, she is neither arrogant nor icy.”

Zzz… Zzz…

The light snoring showed that Luocheng had once again returned to his dream.

“Sigh, what a boring guy. He is not going to know how to admire a pretty girl of this degree,” Jingtai said with clear disdain.

“That’s right, maybe he only has Feifei in his mind.” Jiang Jiu agreed.

“The coldness on Feifei’s face alone could have given you frostbite, who would dare to approach her on a winter’s day? By the way, I know one of the vice presidents of the swimming club, I can ask him if he can slip us in as members,” Jingtai said.

“Brilliant! But it’s winter now, can we still swim?”

“Don’t be a coward, I don’t care even if the pool is not warmed. I can’t wait to see her in a swimsuit.”

“Hehe, you are right!”

***

Monday was occupied with a lot of classes and Luocheng was drowsy after continuous lectures. When the seemingly everlasting two-hour lecture finally came to an end, Luocheng headed directly to the canteen for lunch and decided to visit Team Skycrown’s place in the evening.

Just as he had taken the first bite of his food, his phone rang abruptly.

“Hi! What’s the matter?”

“You are an idiot!”

“…” Luocheng was baffled.

‘My dear Yu Yu. What the heck have I done this time? You don’t need to call me to greet me with your yelling!’

“What’s wrong with you?” Luocheng said.

“You are a big, giant idiot!” Yu Yu screamed exasperatedly.

“Stop behaving like a kid.” Luocheng was losing his patience.

“You only have 10 minutes. Crawl over here and apologize to me, otherwise I will not forgive you, forever!” Yu Yu scolded.

“Has water filled up your brain after spending too much time in the pool?” Luocheng rebuked.

“Argh!!! I am so done with you!” Yu Yu lost her temper entirely. She would have bitten Luocheng’s ears off if she knew where he was at right now.

Du…du…du…

She hung up without saying another word.

Luocheng was still puzzled but he didn’t dwell on the matter and went back to his lunch.

“Who was that? Why did it sound like you have done something unspeakable to someone?” Jiang Jiu had heard the loud voice from the other end and questioned Luocheng with a wry smile.

Jingtai also joined in with the same expression on his face.

“It’s nothing, just my mentally unstable little sister.”

“You have a sister?”

“What’s so strange about it?”

“Do you have her photo?”

“Look elsewhere. My sister is not available for losers like you two,” Luocheng said emotionlessly.

“Screw you!”

***

“Yu Luocheng!!!” When your parents called you out using your full name in such a tone, you knew you were in deep trouble.

Hearing his mum’s voice, Luocheng couldn’t help but rub his temple.

“I have done nothing.”

“Don’t lie!”

“What did I do this time?” Luocheng almost cried.

‘What the hell is happening!?’

“She was so excited to be going to the same university as you, yet you didn’t even bother to give her a call. How dare you try to act innocent? You are her brother!”

“I didn’t do…” Just as he tried to defend himself, he suddenly figured out the point he had been missing the whole time. He stopped and asked carefully, “What did you say?”

“She got into your university.” Li Yun confirmed.

Luocheng’s facial expression changed instantly.

‘She’s here at Shanghai University?! My god! This is bad!’