Rise

“Apologize…?” Su Xue muttered in an incredulous daze before forcing down the unbridled rage that threatened to erupt out. She had never met a more shameless and despicable person in her life! LovelyRose’s viewers came to her stream and wreaked havoc first! What did she have to apologize for?

But LovelyRose’s tone was perfectly calm, as if this were only the natural course of things.

LovelyRose:「Apologize, and I’ll let you off this time. I’ll also call off my white knights and simps..」

EveningSnowfall:「Apologize for what? I did nothing wrong!」Su Xue gnashed her teeth.

LovelyRose:「Your viewers are coming to my stream and cursing at me. You have a responsibility for them as their streamer. Even if you are innocent, which I highly doubt, you should still apologize for those dimwitted viewers of yours!」

Su Xue opened the QQ conversation with LovelyRose on her stream. When her loyal viewers saw it, they immediately exploded in anger and furiously started typing in her special chat group.

「Fucking hell! This bitch actually wants us to apologize!??!?」

「Xue Xue ignore that bitch!」

「fuck! what the hell do we have to apologize for?」

「it was them! they started this shit! all we did was go over there and nicely ask her to stop it. AND she ducking banned us!!! if anyone should apologize, it’s her!」

Su Xue didn’t pay attention to the messages in her special group chat. Instead, she was thinking of what to say, while biting on her lips in indignation. Finally, with a look of resolve, she typed out her response.

EveningSnowfall:「Tough luck for you then. You won’t get it. Not me or my viewers have anything to apologize for.」

To say nothing of Su Xue’s long-time viewers, even the hundred or so from Ol’ Black’s stream were deeply moved, turning from casual watchers to loyal followers.

What sort of thing made a streamer gain a loyal following? It wasn’t necessarily how well they played a game or how pretty they were, but rather how closely they connected with their viewers! Su Xue was doing exactly that right now. She stubbornly persevered in order to maintain the honour of her viewers!

LovelyRose:「Tsk tsk. Still not willing to admit your wrongs? Fine, if you don’t want to apologize, I have another solution...」

LovelyRose:「Let’s have an in-house 5v5. Your stream against my stream. The loser has to apologize to the winner.」 

Su Xue stared at the message, dumbfounded. Her long-time viewers were also shocked.

EveningSnowfall:「An inhouse 5v5?」

LovelyRose:「Correct. Since we’re both League streamers, we should settle it on Summoners Rift. The loser has to obediently do whatever the winner says. We’ll speak with our skills. Sounds fair enough, right? 」

Ah Mei then reclined back in her chair as she stared at the messages. Her lips curved into a devious grin. She was quite satisfied with the proposal she just came up with.

When Evening Snowfall’s viewers came over to her stream earlier, a few were saying things like, “dumb thot”, “go back to camgirling”, “typical e-girl, showing more cleavage than gameplay,” and “she isn’t even good at the game”.

What annoyed Ah Mei the most were comments like these. If she would climb the ranked ladder by herself, her main role ad-carry would get her to Platinum 5 at best. However, thanks to some people boosting her account, she sat comfortably in Diamond. So, she was extremely sensitive to people questioning her skill. Evening Snowfall’s viewers who came to her stream had to be punished, and what easier way was there than challenging a Gold-rank noob and her 200 viewers? Where she could easily find Diamonds or even Masters, Evening Snowfall would probably couldn’t even find enough Diamonds to fill her roster! This would show those viewers who dared to call her out!

Evening Snowfall still hadn’t replied. Ah Mei smiled derisively and typed out another message.

LovelyRose:「What? Don’t tell me you’re scared now?」

EveningSnowfall:「Fine!」

The moment Su Xue accepted the challenge, the sound of thunder rang out from outside the window. Rain started pouring down from the sky.

✹

After bolting out of the NetCow Cafe, Lin Feng immediately flagged down a taxi to go home. Shortly after he got into the car, the pitter patter of rain tapped on the window followed by the sound of thunder. A heavy downpour started. The sudden change in weather caused the initially open streets to jam up with traffic.

Sitting in the back of the taxi, Lin Feng fiddled with his smartphone while anxiously glancing at the time every few seconds. After 15 minutes and the traffic not abating in the slightest, he finally had enough. He threw the taxi driver some money before opening the door and rushing out into the rain. “Keep the change!” he yelled over his shoulder.

It was raining buckets. Bean-sized rain drops pelted Lin Feng, drenching him. However, he didn’t appear to care as he madly dashed home.

✹

News of the drama had already spread. Almost all the League streamers on HuyaTV had heard of the cat fight that broke out between a new streamer called Evening Snowfall and LovelyRose. Ol’ Black had just gotten online. When he saw what happened, he quickly got on QQ and sent Su Xue a message.

Ol’ Black:「you really going to do it? you really shouldn’t have agreed. since she dared to challenge you, she’s confident in winning. with her 60,000 viewers, odds are she will find way higher ranked viewers...」

EveningSnowfall:「You don’t need to persuade me. I’m telling you the truth. Me and my viewers never started anything, but LovelyRose still wants me to apologize! If she wants to 5v5, then I’ll face her!」

Ol’ Black:「alright, then look around to see if there are any good players among your viewers. I’m really not in the position to help you right now. please understand.」

Ol’ Black really did like Su Xue, she seemed like a nice person and they got along. But he’d be completely ostracized if he got involved in this. The circle of big streamers wasn’t that big in the first place. So, it wasn’t wise to go around provoking others.

EveningSnowfall:「Don’t worry. I understand. It’s the thought that counts. I’ll handle this situation by myself.」 

Ol’ Black couldn’t help but bitterly smile. Su Xue was taking this situation too lightly. She was at a complete disadvantage. Odds were she wouldn’t even find a single Diamond player to help her. Suddenly, he thought of someone.

Ol’ Black:「hey, where’s that little brother of yours? if he plays, you’ll at least have some chance of winning.」Lin Feng’s amazing Sword of the Occult Lee Sin was still fresh in his mind.

EveningSnowfall:「He’s not here.」She couldn’t help but think of Lin Feng too. If he were here, maybe we’d really stand a chance. But she quickly shook her head, determination flashing across her gaze. Lin Feng wasn’t here right now. She wasn’t the maid being ordered around by her viewers. She was Evening Snowfall, the host of this stream! It was up to her to protect this stream and her viewers!

✹

A heavy downpour came down on Shanghai. The howling wind and rain wreaked havoc on the streets as pedestrians hastily sought shelter underneath their umbrellas. Suddenly, many looked up in amazement at the silhouette of a boy running through the storm like his life demanded it.

As Lin Feng ran, all he could think of were his past interactions with Su Xue.

“Hey hey hey! Don’t tell me you want me to pour you water like some maid?”

“You little scoundrel! I’m supposed to be the streamer here!”

“Ahem… well, it’s nothing big. I… just want to ask if you can make me better at the game.”

“Oh, I didn’t sleep last night. I got so absorbed into practicing my CSing that I lost track of time.”

Lin Feng recalled Su Xue’s nervous expression when she came to ask him for help, the large dark bags under her eyes when she stayed up all night practicing, and the excitement on her face after finally seeing her hard work pay off. All these scenes floated across his mind. What was Su Xue to him? Someone full of complaints and prone to flipping out from time to time. But for all her thorniness, she always put in the effort to make delicious meals for him every day. Even though their time together was short, he already saw her as an older sister. She was pretty much family.

The rain pelted at Lin Feng’s face and slid down his cheeks. It soaked his hair, causing his bangs to fall over his eyes. He wiped away the water from his face mid-run as he thought of the words he told Su Xue.

“No matter how stupid or unrealistic people say your dreams are, as long as you try your hardest, I think it’s worth respecting!”

There was a second half to this line. “If you’re willing to risk everything for this dream, then you’ll definitely succeed!”

But at this moment, someone was destroying Su Xue’s dream right in front of her, making all her hard work go down the drain and humiliating her. This kind of thing was… “UNNFFFFOOOORRRRRGIVAABLE!” Lin Feng bellowed out as he ran through the rain with all his might.

✹

Su Xue tightly bit her lips, her face ashen. Their nexus was destroyed almost exactly at the 20-minute mark. The large, bold letters spelling defeat stung more than she wanted to admit. The gap in skill was far larger than she expected. Though LovelyRose was a fairly mediocre ad-carry and a good match-up for Su Xue, her teammates were anything but mediocre. The weakest was Diamond 3, while she also had two Master players. Meanwhile, Su Xue only had one Diamond 1 player, the others ranging from Platinum 3 to Diamond 5. This was a difference of more than an entire tier! No matter how hard they tried, it was lost from the start.

The trolls from LovelyRose’s stream started stirring again, blotting out Su Xue’s stream with messages.

「Hahahaha! Trash!」

「STUPID BITCH!!!! let’s see what you have to say now!」

「trash streamer, let’s hear that apology!」

「trying to be a stream with this skill? hahahahhahahahhahahaha aren’t you embarrassed!」

「DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT」

Every ridiculing message was as sharp as a knife, stabbing into Su Xue’s heart. Battered and bruised, she moved her mouse over her stream and turned it off. The viewers in her QQ chat group were sending her messages, as was Ol’ Black. However, she was in no mood to look. She lowered her head, her bangs covering her face and hiding her expression. She continued sitting there motionless, save for her lightly trembling shoulders.

BAANGG

The front door slammed open. An instant later, with the sound of heavy footsteps, Lin Feng burst into Su Xue’s room, cutting a sorry figure. He was completely drenched in sweat and rain as water droplets dripped down from his clothes to the floor. Still gasping for breath, he said, “Hah… hahh…, I-i’m home!”

Su Xue stopped trembling. Slowly, she raised her head, her pretty and elegant face already completely covered in ugly tears. In an incomparably feeble voice, she called out, “Lin Feng… h-hick, help me!” The words were barely audible, but they conveyed the unimaginable grief and despair she was feeling.

Lin Feng took a deep breath, then vigorously nodded. He didn’t even grab a towel before swapping places with Su Xue and fixing his gaze on the monitor. With a few clicks on the mouse, he turned the stream back on again.

Seeing an unfamiliar face appear on the stream, the trolls in Su Xue’s chat were stunned and briefly stopped spamming the chat.

Scanning all the hateful messages, Lin Feng narrowed his gaze as a dangerous and wrathful light flickered in his eyes. He took a deep breath and stared straight at the webcam as if he were directing his gaze at the countless trolls. Then, he slowly opened his mouth. “That was the maid earlier... I’m the streamer. If you’ve got a problem. Then. Come. At. ME!”