LPL didn't want me? I joined SKT instead!

"Incense burner! Make the incense burner first! Forget about the eye stones!"

"Give the shield to the AD carry! Give it to the AD carry! Protect him while he fights!"

Since SKT unleashed the "Ardent Censer" strategy in the LCK finals, this item called "Ardent Censer" has been like gold discovered overnight in a new continent, completely overturning the understanding of various LPL teams.

In EDG's analysis room, Abu looked at the data reports, his brow furrowing and then relaxing: "This is outrageous. With this attack speed bonus and lifesteal, as long as the support builds them, the AD's combat power will double. We previously focused too much on engage hard supports; we were completely wrong."

Meiko was practicing Janna and Lulu diligently. He rubbed his slightly sore wrists and said, "In this version, AD carries are the boss. As long as you protect your AD carry, you can win team fights easily."

The entire LPL is frantically catching up. They're grasping at straws, trying to perfect this "protect the team" strategy in the month leading up to the World Championship.

……

RNG Esports Club.

As the hope of an all-Chinese team in the LPL, RNG carries the expectations of countless fans this season.

In the training room, Uzi had just finished a ranked game. He stretched, a relaxed smile on his signature round face.

On the screen, the two large characters for "Victory" were particularly eye-catching.

"Brothers, this version of Twitch and Kog'Maw is too strong. As long as the support gives them a shield, I feel like I can spray five people." Uzi adjusted the camera while looking at the rapidly scrolling comments in the live stream next to him.

It was prime time, and Uzi's livestream was at the top of the popularity charts.

The screen was filled with comments, mostly about the upcoming S7 World Championship, aside from the derogatory terms "666" and "shower dog".

Suddenly, a striking paid comment with a gold border appeared, instantly catching Uzi's attention:

[Uzi, Uzi, I've been a fan of yours for ten years! I've been watching the LCK finals lately, and SKT's new AD Xiao Yan is so arrogant! Everyone's calling him a monster rookie. Who do you think is stronger, you or him? Are you confident you can crush him if you meet him at Worlds?]

The moment this question was raised, the previously noisy barrage of comments fell silent for a moment, followed by an even more intense debate.

Uzi squinted and saw the problem clearly, then scoffed dismissively. He picked up the ice water on the table, took a sip, leaned back in his gaming chair, and adopted a "veteran" posture.

"Xiao Yan?" Uzi chewed on an ice cube, his tone somewhat casual. "You mean that new substitute SKT brought in?"

He paused, as if recalling something, then a meaningful smile curved his lips: "To be fair, guys, this guy did play pretty well in the LCK finals, his stats were quite impressive. But..."

Uzi deliberately dragged out the last syllable, making millions of people in the live stream perk up their ears.

"But we did scrim with SKT." Uzi shrugged, a smug look on his face that said, "Only I know the truth." "Bang was probably not in good form back then, and that's when Xiao Yan came on."

"And then what happened?" The comments section was buzzing with questions.

"The result?" Uzi laughed out loud, as if he had heard a joke. "The result was that the bot lane was completely dominated. Let me tell you, in those scrims, except for one game where I accidentally got cocky and his Vayne caught me out, giving him a win, I basically kept him under the tower the whole time."

At this point, Uzi became quite animated, gesturing wildly as he spoke: "Seriously, I'm not exaggerating. His laning phase was too rough, and that Vayne game too. It was purely my carelessness; he pinned me to the wall. If we're really talking about raw skill, about Vayne proficiency..."

Uzi shook his head and said confidently to the camera, "His Vayne is worse than mine. Not even close."

The moment these words were spoken, the live stream chat exploded.

Xiaohu, who was sitting next to Uzi and waiting in line, also took off half of his earphone and leaned over to join in the fun when he heard this.

"Hey, that Xiao Yan?" Xiaohu pushed up his glasses and added with a grin, "That's true. I remember in those scrims, the bot lane was constantly being pressured. I didn't even have a chance to roam. It felt like that rookie was being mythologized. Maybe the other bot lanes in LCK were just too bad, so they didn't put any pressure on him."

Xiaohu's "testimony" undoubtedly gives Uzi's statement an official stamp of approval.

In an instant, the live stream chat exploded with excitement. Royal fans, as if injected with adrenaline, began spamming the chat like crazy:

Did you hear that? Did you hear that? This is the true value of being the world's best AD carry!

[Hilarious! I knew that Xiao Yan was just hype! He got completely crushed by Uzi in the practice match!]

[LCK has truly declined. A rookie who was completely outmatched by LPL can win the FMVP. It seems this year really is their most promising year!]

[Xiao Yan? What a jerk! He dares to call himself a con artist?]

There's only one Vayne jinchūriki, and that's Uzi! That Xiao Yan guy probably can't even figure out how to use the three-ring technique, right?

[Waiting for Uzi to teach him a lesson at the World Championship! Let him be exposed for what he truly is!]

[What kind of monster rookie is he? He's just a finishing move machine in front of Uzi!]

Seeing the screen filled with praise and denigration of Xiao Yan, Uzi's smile grew even brighter. He thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of being fawned over by thousands and regarded as a "god."

"Hey, keep it low-key, keep it low-key." Although Uzi said he would keep it low-key, his expression said otherwise. "Anyway, we'll see who's the best at Worlds. If we run into each other then, I'll definitely take good care of this newcomer."

At this point, some curious viewers looked up Xiao Yan's information and discovered that he was actually the FMVP of the LCK Summer Split, and his statistics were far ahead of others.

But this did not alarm RNG fans; instead, it excited them even more.

Holy crap! These stats are insane? Doesn't that mean LCK is even worse?

If even someone like this can dominate in the LCK, wouldn't Uzi just be fountain-camping there?

[It's a sure thing! This year's S7 World Championship will be held at the Bird's Nest, and the LPL will definitely win!]

[Thanks to our SKT teammates for bringing us the championship!]

A blind optimism spread like a virus among LPL fans. In their view, since Uzi could dominate Xiao Yan in scrims, and Xiao Yan could dominate LCK, then in equivalent terms, LPL > LCK, and the championship was already in their grasp.

……

Meanwhile, at the EDG base.

Meiko had just finished a ranked game and was scrolling through Weibo on her phone. Clips of Uzi's livestream had already gone viral and was trending.

"This..." Meiko frowned slightly as she looked at Uzi's confident demeanor in the video. "Was he really that badly dominated in scrims?"

iBoy, the AD carry who is also a prodigy, was chewing gum and looked disdainful: "Tch, what can scrims prove? But since Uzi said so, then this Xiao Yan is probably just so-so. He just got lucky and won a championship."

iBoy, young and impetuous, always believed he was no less capable than anyone else. Seeing fellow newcomer Xiao Yan being praised to the skies filled him with resentment. Now, hearing Uzi's "revelation," he felt much more at ease, even developing a hint of disdain.

"It seems our biggest rival is still RNG," Coach Abu said thoughtfully as he walked over. "If SKT's bot lane is indeed our weak point, then we just need to target Faker."

The entire EDG base relaxed a little because of this news.

……

However, on the other side of Shanghai.

WE Esports Club.

In a corner of the training room, the brother-in-law wasn't running the game, but instead playing a recording of Xiao Yan.

Moreover, it's played at 0.5x slow motion.

Mystic wasn't wearing headphones, but he could clearly hear Uzi's live stream coming from his teammate's phone not far away.

"...His Vayne is worse than mine. Much worse."

Upon hearing this, Mystic paused slightly in his grip on the mouse. He turned his head and glanced at the phone screen displaying Uzi's boastful words, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.

That was pity.

There was also a deep sense of apprehension.

Mystic turned back and refocused his gaze on his screen.

In the scene, Xiao Yan's policewoman is undergoing what appears to be a routine blood transfusion.

But at 0.5x speed, Mystic saw chilling details.

"Maintain attack range... cancel recovery animation... utilize minion aggro mechanism to avoid damage..." Mystic muttered to himself.

The most terrifying thing is that the moment Ruler Varus raised his hand to release Q, Xiao Yan's policewoman did not move left or right as usual, but only moved forward half a body length.

It was that half-body distance that allowed Varus's Q skill to graz the Caitlyn's skirt and fly past her, simultaneously putting her into headshot range.

"This isn't luck," Mystic muttered to himself, his voice so low that only he could hear it. "It's calculation. Calculation down to the pixel level."

Regarding the scrims that Uzi mentioned, WE actually played against SKT as well.

But Mystic's memories are a complete nightmare.

The situation at that time was completely opposite to that of RNG. If Xiao Yan was "showing weakness" and "concealing his strength" when facing Uzi, then when facing WE, he showed a suffocating and devastating dominance.

Mystic still remembers the suffocating feeling of those scrimmages.

From the very first second the minions made contact, Xiao Yan seemed to have activated "killing mode".

Strategic positioning, stealing enemy positions, securing level two for burst damage, controlling minion waves… every detail was executed flawlessly, brimming with extreme aggression. Mystic's prized laning ability seemed like a joke in front of that rookie.

That was a one-sided massacre!

Watching Uzi's confident interview on the screen, Mystic felt a chill run down his spine.

"He's acting..." Mystic stared at the cold-eyed boy on the screen, his pupils suddenly contracting. "He deliberately acted weak and played recklessly when facing RNG, just to make Uzi underestimate him and to make RNG lower their guard."

"But when facing WE, he went all out, using us as a whetstone."

In Uzi's eyes, Xiao Yan is a gentle little lamb.

But in Mystic's eyes, Xiao Yan was a ferocious beast that would devour anyone it wanted.

Mystic desperately wanted to stand up and shout it from the rooftops on social media: Don't believe Uzi! That Xiao Yan is trolling! He completely crushed WE's bot lane in scrims!

But he ultimately fell silent, his fingers hovering over the keyboard, not touching it for a long time.

In the current public opinion climate, Uzi is considered a god in the LPL. Any voice questioning his godhood is drowned out by his fervent fans.

If he, a South Korean player, were to stand up at this moment and say, "Uzi misjudged Xiao Yan; he's actually ridiculously strong," he would probably be criticized until he retires.

However, Xiao Yan, who was at the center of the storm of public opinion, was completely unaware of the overwhelming uproar, insults, and the "deification movement" in Uzi's live stream from the outside world—especially the LPL region across the sea.

Or rather, even if he knew, he wouldn't have time to care.

Because at this moment, he is facing an even more severe "battle": how to steal the last can of iced cola from Faker's clutches.

……

SKT T1 training room, 2:00 AM

The sound of keyboard typing was as dense as a downpour, occasionally interspersed with a few short Korean announcements.

Xiao Yan had just finished a high-intensity Korean server ranked game. He stretched and felt his throat was parched. He glanced at his side and saw Faker intently controlling Ryze to farm minions in the mid lane. His signature expressionless face was completely calm, like a heartless farming machine.

On the corner of Faker's desk sat an unopened can of Coke.

That was the only remaining fruit in the base's refrigerator.

Xiao Yan's eyes darted around, and his body slid silently to the left, like a lion dog lurking in the grass, silently extending its wicked right hand.

Nearly.

closer.

The moment his fingertips touched the cool aluminum can, Xiao Yan felt a surge of joy.

"Snapped!"

A long, pale hand, with incredible speed, precisely pressed down on the back of Xiao Yan's hand.

Faker didn't even turn his head, his eyes still glued to the screen. Ryze precisely took down the sports car with a single Q skill, uttering two words calmly:

"Give me the money."

Xiao Yan's lips twitched, and he reluctantly withdrew his hand: "Sang-hyeok-hyung, don't be so stingy. You're a big boss worth billions of Korean won, what's wrong with buying your little brother a can of Coke?"

"That's a different matter." Faker pushed up his glasses, finally turning his head to look at Xiao Yan with a serious expression. "This is my private property. Moreover, according to the base rules, whoever finishes last is responsible for restocking. If you want some, that's fine, 3,000 won."

"Three thousand? Why don't you just rob me! Convenience stores only sell them for one thousand five!" Xiao Yan's eyes widened.

"Labor costs, errand fees, and..." Faker pointed to his head, "the storage fee for the world's number one mid laner."

"Damn it..." Xiao Yan laughed in exasperation at this logic. Who would have thought that the fearsome Demon King on the field was actually a penny-pincher who haggled over a few thousand Korean won in private?

"Fine, fine, you win." Xiao Yan rolled his eyes, then suddenly pointed at Faker's screen and shouted, "Holy crap! The jungler's here!"

"Huh?" Faker subconsciously turned to look at the screen.

In that split second, Xiao Yan's hand speed exploded!

"laugh--"

A crisp ringing sound rang out.

By the time Faker came to his senses, Xiao Yan had already tilted his head back and gulped down a huge mouthful of soda, letting out a satisfied sigh: "Ah—so refreshing! As expected of Faker's cola, it tastes so sweet!"

Faker stared at the empty desktop, then at Xiao Yan's roguish expression, and after a long pause, could only shake his head helplessly, a faint smile playing on his lips: "I'll deduct five thousand from your salary next month."

"Hey! Why did the price go up?!"

"Compensation for emotional distress."

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