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

Unlike the tense and even violent atmosphere in the press conference hall, which was almost ready to lift the roof off, SKT's preparation lounge was unusually quiet and even had a touch of comfort.

Beside the water dispenser, Xiao Yan was wearing noise-canceling headphones, comfortably nestled in a soft gaming chair, his eyes slightly closed, as if the raging storm outside had nothing to do with him.

Just then, a cold, mechanical voice that only he could hear suddenly exploded deep within his mind without warning!

[Ding! An unprecedentedly large-scale breach of defense sentiment has been detected among the Royalist supporters!]

[System reward has been issued: Active skill - [Divine Realm]!]

Xiao Yan suddenly opened his eyes, which had been slightly closed, and his deep eyes instantly burst with undisguised ecstasy.

"The Realm of Gods?" He murmured the domineering name to himself and immediately opened the system's skill panel.

Lines of text, radiating a dark golden light, appeared on his retina:

God's Domain: Upon activation, the host will instantly enter a state of absolute flow, characterized by 'ultimate focus,' shielding them from all external distractions, emotional fluctuations, and physical fatigue.

During the duration of the domain, all of the host's esports-related basic stats (including but not limited to: dynamic vision, micro-operation reaction speed, muscle memory, overall battlefield awareness, damage calculation ability, hand speed APM, etc.) will be forcibly increased by 10% based on their current peak state! Duration: 30 minutes. Cooldown: 72 hours.

After reading the skill description, Xiao Yan's heart started pounding uncontrollably, and even his breathing became heavy.

"Ten percent...it's a forced ten percent increase to all attributes!"

Xiao Yan gasped inwardly.

For the average player, a 10% increase in attributes might just mean the difference between advancing from Silver to Gold. But for a top professional player like Xiao Yan, who is already at the very top of the world's pyramid and whose stats are approaching the limits of human physiology, what does this 10% increase mean?

This means breaking down the barriers of dimensions!

This means that we have crossed from the "limits of humanity" to "non-human monsters"!

In top-level professional matches, the reaction time difference between players is often only a few milliseconds. Faker's skill-dodging reactions during his peak and Uzi's incredible kiting during his peak were both based on reaction speeds approaching the limits of human capability.

Now, if Xiao Yan were to activate the [Divine Domain], his reaction speed, hand speed, and calculation ability would be raised even further on top of his already terrifying foundation!

This is definitely not as simple as 1+1=2; it's a qualitative leap, a true dimensional reduction attack!

A 30-minute duration is enough to finish a high-intensity game, and might even be enough to force the opponent to disconnect during the early laning phase. As for the three-day cooldown... Xiao Yan doesn't care. This kind of trump card is meant to be used to end a game in a do-or-die situation or in the finals.

Xiao Yan was very satisfied with the reward, which made his elaborate scheme to ridicule the imperial court worthwhile.

……

Meanwhile, in the RNG team's rest area.

The air here seemed to have solidified into solid ice, so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

No one was speaking.

In the large room, only heavy breathing and the ticking of the tactical clock could be heard.

Uzi sat on the sofa in the middle, his hands gripping his hair tightly. His once round face was now flushed red, and his eyes were bloodshot. His chest heaved violently, clearly in a state of extreme anger and resentment.

"Grass!"

Suddenly, Uzi slammed his fist on the coffee table in front of him, making a dull thud.

"SKT bastards, they're bullying us! They did it on purpose! Top lane Maokai, bot lane Lucian 0-7, is this what you call a tactical arrangement?! They're clearly trying to feed C9 points, trying to kill us!" Uzi's voice trembled slightly, a mixture of extreme grievance and anger.

Ming sat beside him, head down, his hands tightly clasped together, his knuckles white from the force.

Jungler Mlxg paced back and forth in the room, like a raging beast trapped in a cage, muttering profanities under his breath: "Damn it, what kind of nonsense was that KkOma saying on stage? Calling us weak? Entrusting our fate to others? I really wanted to rush up and punch him!"

Mid-laner Xiaohu pushed up his tactical glasses, gave a wry smile, and said in a dry voice, "Xiangguo, stop cursing. In esports, being bad is the original sin. KkOma's words may be harsh, but... in the current situation, we are indeed pushed to the edge of a cliff."

However, amidst everyone's anger and anxiety, top laner Letme remained unusually quiet.

He wasn't angry, he wasn't cursing, he just stared blankly at the replay of the SKT vs. C9 match that had just ended on the screen in front of him.

The video feed is focused on SKT's top lane.

That was the hero Xiao Yan created.

"You all... only saw Huni feeding kills in the bot lane, you all saw SKT throwing the game..." Letme's voice was terribly hoarse, as if he had sand stuck in his throat, "But you, did you even look closely at that guy's top laner?"

Upon hearing Letme's words, the entire RNG team was stunned for a moment, their eyes instinctively following the direction of his finger to look at the screen.

On the screen, a detailed video of Xiao Yan's laning phase in the top lane is playing.

Although SKT picked an extremely unconventional lineup that was completely out of the meta, and although their jungler didn't gank the top lane even once, Xiao Yan's top lane performance still managed to suppress C9's top laner during the laning phase!

"His sense of distance... is terrifying." Letme swallowed hard, a deep sense of apprehension, even fear, flashing in his eyes. "I just simulated it in my mind. If it were me laning against him, I would probably have been solo-killed by him by the time that wave of minions reached the tower."

"He's an AD carry!" Letme suddenly looked up at his teammates, his voice filled with despair. "An AD carry who went to play top lane, and his understanding of top lane priority, his instinct for preventing ganks, and his micro-management during counter-attacks are even more perfect than many top professional top laners!"

Letme's words were like a heavy hammer blow, striking hard into the hearts of everyone in RNG.

The entire room fell into a deathly silence once again.

Yes, that's the real reason they feel despair.

They were angry at SKT's acting, but they were even more afraid of the unfathomable strength SKT had displayed.

Xiao Yan has already demonstrated dominant dominance in the AD carry position, slaughtering the bot lane like a pig in the LCK. And now, having only played a game as a guest top laner, he has shown a laning skill level comparable to world-class top laners!

Although his top laner may not have the same game-ending ability as his AD carry, his impeccable defense and extremely keen offensive instincts are enough to make people tremble.

"If..." Xiaohu took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly, "I mean, if we face SKT again in the next match. If they stop putting on a show, if they give it their all and put Xiao Yan in the top lane as a flex pick, do we... have a chance of winning?"

No one answered.

Uzi opened his mouth, wanting to say his signature "I can carry," but the words just wouldn't come out.

Facing an AD carry who is only slightly inferior to him

Xiao Yan, who can dominate Letme in the top lane, and Faker, can they really win?

An emotion called "despair" spread like a plague through RNG's rest room.

They felt as if they were facing an insurmountable mountain, and no matter how hard they tried, they could only see the shadow at the foot of the mountain.

In this suffocating atmosphere of despair, head coach Feng, who had been standing silently in front of the tactics whiteboard with his back to everyone, suddenly moved.

"Shuashuashua——"

Feng picked up a black marker and quickly wrote a series of numbers and team names on the whiteboard.

His movements were large and forceful, and the marker made a screeching sound as it rubbed against the whiteboard, instantly attracting everyone's attention.

"All of you, raise your heads!"

Feng Ge suddenly turned around. His usually gentle and refined face was now covered in blood vessels, and his eyes were as sharp as a drawn sword.

He slammed the marker he was holding onto the table with a loud thud.

"Look at the state of you all! Heads down, what kind of nonsense is this?! The match isn't even over, the base crystal hasn't even exploded, and you're already sentencing yourselves to death?!"

Feng Ge's roar echoed in the lounge, making everyone's eardrums buzz.

"Letme's right, Xiao Yan is very strong. His flexibility is insane. A fully-formed SKT is a mountain in itself." Feng walked to the whiteboard, his fingers heavily tapping the data on it. "But so what? Did we come to the World Championship for tourism? To be someone else's backdrop?!"

Feng took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his excitement, and pointed to the leaderboard on the whiteboard, beginning his analysis at lightning speed:

"You all better take a good look at the current points situation!"

"Currently, SKT has a commanding lead in the standings, firmly holding first place in the group, and their qualification is practically guaranteed. We, on the other hand, are currently ranked second in the group!"

"That bastard KkOma really disgusted us by raising C9's points. Now C9 is right behind us."

Feng Ge's eyes were fixed on the match diagram on the whiteboard, his brain working frantically, like a sophisticated computer.

"But look closely at the upcoming schedule!" A strange light suddenly shone in Feng Ge's eyes—a glimmer of hope for a desperate situation. "Fate hasn't completely slipped out of our control yet!"

He picked up a red marker and drew a heavy circle over the names "C9" and "Misfits".

"C9 is about to face the Rabbits! Although the Rabbits are currently at the bottom of the standings, they are definitely not pushovers! European teams excel at chaotic team fights and unconventional strategies. If C9 makes even one mistake against the Rabbits, they could lose even a single game!"

Feng's voice grew louder and more excited: "If C9 loses just one game, their points advantage will be wiped out! Then our chances of advancing will greatly increase!"

"But more importantly, it's about ourselves!"

Feng suddenly turned around, his gaze sweeping intently over the faces of Uzi, Xiaohu, Xiangguo, Letme, and Ming.

"We're going to play SKT again!"

"I know what you're afraid of. You're afraid we can't beat SKT when they get serious, and you're afraid of Xiao Yan's terrifying dominance. But, think about it from a different perspective!"

Feng Ge placed his hands on the table, leaned forward, and said, enunciating each word clearly, "What if we could snatch a victory from this invincible, fully-formed SKT team in the next match?!"

The entire audience was shocked.

Steal a game from SKT?

After witnessing Xiao Yan's terrifying power and SKT's unfathomable tactical reserves, this sounds like pure fantasy.

But Feng Ge's eyes were incredibly firm.

"As long as we can beat SKT in one game! Even just one game! Our points will be ahead of C9's! If we can win two games, even if C9 sweeps the Rabbit team, we won't panic at all, and we might even have a chance to compete for a spot in the knockout stage!"

Feng walked up to Uzi and placed his hands heavily on Uzi's shoulders.

"Listen to me, Zihao." Feng looked directly into Uzi's bloodshot eyes. "KkOma said on stage that handing your fate over to others is a sign of weakness. It may be harsh, but it's the truth!"

"We can't expect the Rabbit Team to pull off an upset against C9; that's the prayer of the weak! What we need to do is firmly grasp our own destiny in our own hands!"

"Are SKT invincible? Is Xiao Yan a god? No! They are human too! As long as they are human, they will make mistakes and have weaknesses!"

Feng turned around, looked at all the team members, and spoke in a strong and resounding voice:

"Since they dare to treat the game with such arrogance, we can't let them underestimate us!"

"In the next match against SKT, forget about flexible strategies and tactical maneuvers! Show your fighting spirit! Show the fighting style that LPL teams excel at! From the level one team fight, go all out against them!"

"Even if it's an iron mountain on the other side, we'll smash a hole in it with our heads!"

"Tell me, do you want to sit here and wait to die in despair, watching C9 advance by stepping on our corpses, or do you want to take a gamble and pull that high and mighty SKT down from their pedestal?!"

Feng's words struck the very soul of every RNG member like a resounding bell.

In the once deathly silent lounge, the air began to flow again, and a rebounding force that had been suppressed to the extreme was brewing wildly.

Uzi suddenly raised his head, the despair and confusion in his eyes vanished, replaced by two blazing flames. Those were his intense desire for victory, his pride as a world-class AD carry.

"Dry!"

Uzi gritted his teeth and squeezed out a single word, his hands clenched into fists so tightly that his nails almost dug into his flesh.

"Feng is right, screw SKT, screw Xiao Yan! I've been a professional player for so many years, what haven't I seen? They think they can get through by stepping on us? No way!"

Xiangguo jumped up, kicking over a nearby trash can, his eyes blazing with the ferocity of a hungry wolf: "Crush them! I'm not farming anymore, I'm going to gank their bottom lane relentlessly! Xiao Yan, huh? I'll make sure he doesn't even get any experience!"

Looking at the crowd's overwhelming enthusiasm, Xiaohu gritted his teeth and said, "Leave the mid lane to me. Even if it's Faker, I'll let him farm so comfortably."

Letme took a deep breath, his previously fearful gaze hardening into determination: "In the past few days, I've practiced a champion in the top lane that can keep Huni in check and won't become a weakness!"

Ming nodded vigorously and shouted, "Protect Dog Bro! We can win!"

Looking at his teammates, who were now brimming with renewed fighting spirit and even more determined than before, Feng's eyes welled up with tears.

This is the RNG he knows.

A team that will never be defeated and will always find a way to survive in dire straits.

"Alright!" Brother Feng clapped his hands loudly and said, "Now, everyone, get yourself together! Wash your faces, drink water, close your eyes and rest! Turn all the humiliation and anger from just now into motivation for the next match!"

"We don't just want to win, we want to win and show the whole world!"

"We want to show KkOma that RNG is not a weak team!"