Chapter 4: Who Is Actually Winning This Game?
Lin Wan stood behind the dorm room door, staring at the person in the mirror.
"There isn't much change..."
His face was still just as pale, and the dark circles around his eyes were still there.
He leaned closer to the mirror and looked again.
Well... after looking so closely, he almost went cross-eyed. There was no change at all.
He lifted his shirt to check himself, then even looked inside his pants.
Lin Wan accepted the truth. His appearance had not changed. Maybe the change was inside his body?
It had to be. His body definitely felt much lighter than before!
Good!
Now that his health was getting better, his next goal was simple.
Make money! Make money! And make even more money!
Lin Wan rubbed his face.
"Today I'm going to play twenty practice matches! My skills will improve fast, and then I'll earn lots of money!"
With that, he threw himself into the game.
After playing more than ten matches against bots, Lin Wan felt like he had reached the highest level of bot games. He even thought he was ready for normal matchmaking.
So he secretly started a matchmaking game.
He found teammates.
Clicked "Confirm."
Then entered the champion selection screen.
His four teammates picked their champions very quickly. They filled the top, middle, and bottom lanes, but the team composition was strange. They chose two marksmen and two mages.
No one picked a jungler.
That was normal. Lin Wan had a brand-new account, and the others were probably the same. If you asked why nobody chose a jungler, a new player would probably ask you instead,
"What's a jungler?"
So Lin Wan picked the champion known as the "Mad Dog of the Highlands", Master Yi, to play jungle.
After waiting ten minutes on the loading screen, the match finally began.
Lin Wan thought matchmaking always took this long. He had no idea how powerful his old, slow computer really was.
Everyone rushed out of the fountain and waited in their lanes for the minions to appear.
Lin Wan only took one look before feeling huge pressure.
Bottom lane...
There were two marksmen and one mage there.
No one went to the top lane!
Great.
Some people die at twenty but aren't buried until eighty.
Some games are already over before they even begin.
He suddenly felt that this match had no future.
As he cleared the newly spawned jungle monsters, Lin Wan told himself to stay calm. They were all new players. It was normal that some had never played a MOBA game before.
But when the minions reached the lanes, his mood changed again.
The enemy team sent five people to the bottom lane!
One marksman and four supports. They completely ignored the other lanes.
He couldn't help clicking his tongue. It really proved the saying, "Playing well isn't as important as getting lucky with your teammates."
He relaxed a little.
Great.
He had already won his first matchmaking game!
This was the first step toward making money!
But not long after that, his mood changed again.
He had only finished clearing his second group of jungle monsters when his team's mid laner noticed nobody was in the middle lane... and simply left.
"No enemy in my lane? That won't do! They're bullying our bottom lane? Even worse!"
So the mid laner happily ran to the bottom lane and joined the big team fight.
Seeing all nine other players happily fighting together in the bottom lane...
Lin Wan thought for a moment.
Then he quietly walked to the middle lane and started clearing minions and pushing towers.
It turned out to be the right choice.
Nobody paid any attention to him.
The enemy team didn't even bother sending someone to stop him.
By the time he started attacking the enemy Nexus, the other nine players were still having fun fighting in the bottom lane.
At the fifteen-minute mark, he destroyed the Nexus and won the game.
Looking at the big word "Victory" on the results screen, Lin Wan strangely felt a little empty.
"So this is all matchmaking is? I really want to laugh."
Against opponents like this...
He could beat ten of them!
Full of confidence, Lin Wan immediately started another matchmaking game.
Twenty minutes later...
The bright red "Defeat" screen and his 0-15 score seemed to laugh at him.
"Didn't you want to laugh? Go ahead. Laugh."
After closing the results screen, Lin Wan started another ranked match.
Winning and losing are normal in games. Stay calm. If you lose this game, win the next one. That was the lesson he had learned from playing Honor of Kings.
Of course, after losing the third game in a row, even a saint would start to lose their calm.
Then he lost the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh games as well.
Lin Wan lay back in his chair with empty eyes. It felt like all the strength had left his body. He had also run his fingers through his hair so many times that it looked like a bird's nest.
Ha... ha... ha... This game is really fun.
But who is actually winning this game? Seriously... who can win?
Hahaha... sob...
He had even dreamed about making money through this game. With skills like this, he could not make any money at all.
He had played seven matches and lost six. A 14% win rate. Even a dog would shake its head after seeing that.
"Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz!"
While Lin Wan was questioning his life, his phone started vibrating on the desk.
Like a walking corpse, he picked it up.
"Hello."
Sun Mao's voice came from the other side.
"Brother Wan, did you check the class group chat? We have a class meeting tonight at 8:00 in Room A401."
"Okay."
"What's wrong? Your voice sounds strange. Got your period?"
"Sun Mao, how can I get better at League of Legends quickly?"
Sun Mao understood right away.
"Brother Wan, did you play ranked?"
"Yeah."
"Got crushed?"
"......"
"Lost several games in a row?"
"Stop talking already!"
"Ha—" A small laugh came from the other end before he quickly stopped. "It's okay, Brother Wan. At the class meeting, I'll give you one-on-one coaching! I promise you'll improve really fast!"
"Alright."
"Don't forget! Eight o'clock, Room A401!"
"Okay!"
After hanging up, Lin Wan saw that there were still thirty minutes before eight. He stood up and walked out of the dorm building like a defeated stray dog.
No wonder the other three had not come back to the dorm tonight. They had a class meeting.
A cool breeze blew past. Lin Wan pulled his clothes tighter.
For some reason, the wind felt especially noisy today.
Young students walked back and forth along the road. Many pretty girls caught the attention of the boys.
The girls who had just come back from the bathhouse were especially eye-catching. Their T-shirts were slightly wet, their hair was hanging loose, and their fair legs made them look like flowers rising from the water.
How could a hot-blooded young man ignore a sight like that?
He couldn't.
So they could only walk faster and get away from the sweet scent around them. If they stayed any longer, they might end up standing at attention for the wrong reason.
When Lin Wan arrived at Classroom A401, many students were already inside.
"Brother Wan, over here!" Sun Mao called out.
The three roommates had saved four seats near the back. Qiu Cheng and Zhang Dingding were tapping away on their phones while shouting,
"He's almost dead!"
"No skills left! I was so close to turning it around!"
It was obvious they were playing together.
Sun Mao, meanwhile, was slowly drinking a bottle of cola. Somehow, it did not taste as good as it had that afternoon. Maybe the place was different.
Lin Wan sat down beside him.
"What's today's class meeting about?"
"Burp~" Sun Mao let out a loud burp, making many classmates turn to look at him. He smiled awkwardly. "They're giving out books. We didn't get all of them last time."
Lin Wan lowered his head so his hair covered his eyes and rested on the desk.
"Mm."
Since he had not joined military training, he did not know most of the classmates very well. Being in this kind of place made him feel a little uncomfortable.
Sun Mao thought Lin Wan was still upset about losing so many games.
"Brother Wan, just think of League of Legends like Honor of Kings. The basic ideas are the same. Use what you learned there, and you'll definitely play better!"
Lin Wan blinked.
"Really? But in one game, I played support and helped the middle lane clear minions at level one. The mid player just spammed question marks and told me to get lost..."
"Uh..." Sun Mao opened his mouth but did not know what to say.
"Some details are different. How about this, Brother Wan? Let's start with simple champions first. Learn the easy ones well before trying the harder ones. For example, Malphite."
"Really?"
"Trust me! Later, when we get back, let's play together. I'll use Yasuo to carry you. My Yasuo carries every game! Together we'll be unstoppable!"
"Alright."
"Then I'll also teach you the secret Sun Family Technique. I guarantee your skills will shoot up like a rocket!"
"Okay. I'm looking forward to it."