Chapter Twelve: They Called It the City Wall

A few hours before the match.

Returning once again to the arena, only a handful of staff members remained on site.

After all, this was the first time the entire tournament was being streamed online, which eased the mental pressure on teams participating in the De Cup, somewhat favoring the newcomers.

But...

Online.

At this moment, the number of viewers watching the De Cup quarterfinals was worlds apart from the group stage.

Before the knockout rounds, people only saw it as a low-tier tournament where inexperienced players clumsily battled each other—boring and not worth watching. But once the elimination rounds began, with best-of-five matches, the competition intensified and the entertainment value rose, making it enjoyable enough to snack and drink along.

Mainly because there were no other tournaments happening simultaneously. They were just picking the best from the mediocre.

“Number one!~”

“Here it comes, the destined Huazi match. Song Sheng is still the runner-up sage—bets are closed.”

“Looks like a gathering of stars, but it’s actually a chefs’ meeting. LPL has fully entered the ‘old man’s era’ (sad).”

“Let’s just watch it, better than the Shakespeare mess next door.”

Late in Season 11.

This period could also be called the preseason of Season 12. At this time, the LCK remained largely unchanged, with matches dominated by Shakespeare’s style of play.

This situation only shifted during the Season 12 summer split, after GENG’s overwhelming dominance for half a year, widening the gap between the two regions.

But that's ancient history.

Before the match.

PPGOD glanced at the panda eyes under his AD carry’s eyes. The tiny eyes sparkled with immense confusion.

Normally, the AD and support shared a room.

He clearly remembered this guy had already gone to bed before he himself slept. Yet, after waking up at noon, the guy was still asleep with dark circles under his eyes and looked half-asleep.

So where had he gone in the middle of the night?

Was he fraternizing with those cybernetic rookies, all polite and bland?

Xiao Yan ignored his support’s puzzled look. He indeed felt he hadn’t gotten enough sleep but was inexplicably energized, itching to lead LNG into battle right now.

Until he glanced at Luo Ji.

Although Luo Ji had also stayed up late like him, his face showed no fatigue. Instead, he quietly watched alongside the two veteran brothers in their team, eyes fixed on another spot.

There, the LNG team had also arrived at the arena.

“That’s the Galaxy Battleship, huh?”

“Probably. With Doinb, this midlaner who brings his own system, even if the team is weak, they won’t be that bad.”

Nearby,

Karsa and Rookie casually commented on the opponent.

Although Rookie and Doinb didn’t exactly get along, it wasn’t to the point of openly provoking hatred. Being good-natured, Rookie neither stirred trouble nor feared it, so his remarks bore no malice.

“Got it.”

Luo Ji nodded somewhat knowingly beside them. “The pigeons are so calm; looks like they don’t really see the opponent as a threat. This kind of confidence is reassuring.”

Karsa and Rookie exchanged glances.

Wait.

Why do they think the opponent isn’t a threat, and why are they so confident of victory?

Karsa wanted to explain but was cut off by Luo Ji’s follow-up logic.

“Well, Tarzan and Doinb are strong, but together they only have one World Championship. Coffee Bro and Chicken Bro, although not flashy, have a combined total of one World Championship and one MSI championship. We’re ahead by one title. We win!”

“Hmm, reasonable.”

“I think so too.”

Xiao Yan and PPGOD nodded in agreement.

The other team had formidable players, but their own veterans were no less impressive. Coffee Bro and Chicken Bro must have absolute confidence in themselves, hence their calm demeanor.

Could this be the legendary demeanor of the generals?

Karsa and Rookie: ......

Fine.

Even if they hadn’t thought so before, now they had to accept it.

It must be said—

Luo Ji had a knack for handling straightforward guys like Karsa and Rookie.

Mainly because, in his previous life, he had dealt with plenty of flattering NPCs in single-player games, where the protagonist was often manipulated.

For example:

When faced with a chore he disliked,

Low emotional intelligence: “Only an idiot would do this.”

High emotional intelligence: “You must be the famous Clan leader!”

See?

Handling honest folks is that easy, even a bare-handed con.

By the knockout rounds, the commentators finally had some fame.

This round’s main caster was the newly rising female commentator, Tong Xi.

She stood out among a sea of mediocre amateurs with her competent casting skills. The two male commentators were unremarkable and irrelevant.

Before the match.

Luo Ji had prepared himself to endure Ale’s aggressive attacks in this best-of-five, but reality proved his preparation insufficient.

In the first game,

LNG locked down the bot lane with the Jhin + Nami combo, focusing on the upper half of the map, then picked Twisted Fate, targeting Luo Ji’s top lane as the breakthrough point.

Luo Ji, already lacking in competitive experience, couldn’t withstand the combined pressure of their top-mid-jungle trio and was overwhelmed in the first game, conceding the first loss.

But in the second game, playing on the blue side as V5, they leveraged the blue side advantage to relentlessly pressure LNG’s bot lane. The Lantern King also couldn’t withstand V5’s brutal offensive system.

After a fierce struggle, both sides were tied.

The score was 1:1.

The crucial moment now fell to V5 on the red side.

Whether they could pull off a red-side counterpick miracle became key to advancing to the De Cup semifinals.

“We need to speed things up.”

During the halftime break, Nofe examined the data from the first two games and analyzed for the team.

“In this De Cup patch, bot lane hyper-carries like Jinx and Aphelios must be either banned completely or picked on blue side. LNG’s team is full of experienced veterans who excel at dragging games late. Racing them in that regard isn’t wise.”

“So, we have to accelerate the pace and pull them into our rhythm.”

In a best-of-five,

The early score needs to be stable. So naturally, the meta hyper-carries must be picked.

In this patch, Jinx and Aphelios are must-picks if not banned. Thus, both teams focused on them in the first two games, each taking one.

But now, they had to make a change.

In the third game,

LNG picked: Akali top, Xin Zhao jungle, Ryze mid, Jinx + Thresh bot.

V5 picked: Gwen top, Troll jungle, Kassadin mid, Caitlyn + Lux bot.

As always,

Until a player proves their strength through enough matches, coaches, commentators, and viewers tend to trust the team’s star players more.

Last round, Caitlyn + Lux bot didn’t perform well against OMG.

No worries.

Today, Nofe clearly sensed Xiao Yan’s changed form and decided to trust him again, assigning Rookie’s famous “two-ball-one-princess” picks to the fourth best pick.

And Luo Ji?

Ahem.

He was given a task involving organizing—a heavy, complex job with a tight deadline meant to hone the rookie’s skills. Originally intended for someone else, but seeing Luo Ji’s eagerness, the team reluctantly handed it over to him.

Thus, the team’s sacrificial position was confirmed once again.

“Gwen, huh.”

After settling on the lineup, Luo Ji tinkered with his runes and even selected a skin, hoping to add 10 points of attack power—alas, no effect.

It was strange.

Last round against OMG, he had just played a life-or-death match with Camille fiercely challenging Gwen.

Now, facing LNG, again in a near life-or-death match, Gwen landed in his hands.

And both times against counterpicks.

At this rate, if they advance, will his go-to champion in future life-or-death matches be Akali?

Wait!

Why did he instinctively assume there would always be life-or-death matches if they advanced?

He drifted into deep thought.

As the countdown finished, the third game officially began.

Without a fifth pick counter and with Gwen chosen specifically to counter Jinx, Luo Ji’s Gwen was still matched against Ale’s Akali counter.

But he was used to it.

Back when he was the "Super Rookie of New Town," he used a wild Pikachu from the Pokémon world to clinch the final victory in the Eight Masters Championship.

And he was—

The “Super Rookie of Mihua Town,” who had watched over 800 episodes of Detective Conan, mastered more than 600 killing methods, was proficient in over 200 locked-room murder techniques, knew hundreds of poisons, could pick 240 types of locks, fabricated alibis, and skillfully used fishing lines, tape recorders, daggers, poison needles, and many other tools of crime on the Left Bank.

Using Gwen to counter a 50-dollar Akali played by Ale? No problem!

Yeah.

That was the thinking.

Until after the first few skirmishes, Luo Ji immediately sobered up.

No way to win—really no way.

Except at levels one and two, where he could barely resist, from level three onwards, he was completely powerless.

If only he had been given the counterpick Aatrox, then with a death sentence open, he could have dealt heavy damage with sword energy and follow-up combos. But no such luck. Puppet Gwen was just a toy before Ale’s Akali—couldn’t hit, couldn’t touch, couldn’t escape.

His cowardice, however, perfectly embodied the essence of the Doghead Bard—he avoided dangerous lanes entirely, barely holding his health.

Really.

Sucking the tail gas of minions on lane, dreaming of a Jhin line kill!

Where was the system?

Damn it, where was the hero proficiency system, the essential for esports transmigration novels, to save him?

If this were solo queue, maybe he would have called the jungler for help and let Akali experience the harshness of the world. But this was a tournament, and with Caitlyn + Lux bot, he couldn’t justify jungle support. So he had to just endure.

The miserable world of the top lane was fully displayed on the big screen for the De Cup audience.

Off-screen,

Saint Gunner was grinning happily at Luo Ji, who looked like a little cat with a beaten face on stage. Though it felt somewhat immoral, he couldn’t help himself.

“Isn’t he your protégé? Why are you so happy to see him getting crushed?”

Beside him, Abu, now promoted to supervisor, asked curiously.

That year’s De Cup, EDG didn’t field their main roster. Having just won the championship, their stars were resting. So before the V5 vs. LNG match began, their knockout round matches were played entirely by second-string players who had just been eliminated by IG.

They were free now.

“Nothing much, just seeing him suffer like this makes me happy. It reminds me of his past. You wouldn’t believe how arrogant this kid was when I first met him—coming in thinking he could kick Bin’s ass, punch TheShy, and have the coach tailor strategies around him. He was completely full of himself.”

“And then?”

“And then?”

Saint Gunner thought a moment and continued:

“The youth coach asked for my help. I pulled the second team up, and within about twenty minutes, before the game even started properly, we speed-ran him—literally dragged him down.”

Abu nodded.

He didn’t know much about Luo Ji, only that he was close with Saint Gunner and wasn’t particularly outstanding. When his contract expired, they let him go without much thought.

After all, after winning the championship, the club’s focus had already shifted.

And Luo Ji seemed average, nothing like Qingtian who dominated the LDL. Letting him go wasn’t a big deal.

Just as Abu thought this,

Saint Gunner’s voice rang out again:

“But...”

“But?”

Abu perked up.

Saint Gunner’s tone made him feel like he had missed something.

“But ever since then, I’ve found it harder and harder to break through his top lane. Do you know what the youth players privately call him?”

“They call him The Wall.”

“Meaning—the unbreakable Wall of Sighs.”

Abu: !!!

......

On the stage,

Unlike the painfully distressed Luo Ji, LNG’s Ale, who was countering Gwen, also frowned deeply.

As one of the mid-generation top laners in LPL, Ale had faced many rookies like this.

Usually,

Either he could outright beat them or pressure them back home. Especially in this mother-daughter matchup of Akali vs. Gwen, even if he couldn’t force them back, he should at least easily chip away at Gwen’s health.

But!

This time, he couldn’t.

Not just this game. Since the first two matches, he sensed something was off. In the first game, mid-jungle ganks could crush him. In the second, tower dives became increasingly difficult, leading to the bot lane’s early collapse.

Now, in the third game,

The opponent could even maintain health steadily with a supposedly countered champion.

Though by sacrificing minion kills or even foregoing last hits.

But seriously, how could a rookie be so savvy here?

And is it fun to keep hiding under the tower? Didn’t the youngster know the most important thing when going out into the world?

To go out!!!

Facing the inner dragon’s roar in Ale’s heart, Luo Ji paid no heed and even spoke up in team chat to the mid and jungle brothers:

“Coffee Bro, Chicken Bro, don’t worry about top lane. Just protect bot lane. I can handle it alone.”

“I dream...”

Hearing Luo Ji’s words, Karsa and Rookie were deeply moved.

They had brought up rookies before; usually, a newbie facing such a crushing counter would constantly beg for help like a desperate call.

But this time, Luo Ji did the opposite—he proactively told them not to come. He could hold the lane.

He could hold it? Bullshit!

Facing Ale, the perfect counterpick, no less.

How much must he care about his teammates to say something like that?

Not just mid and jungle, even bot lane’s Xiao Yan and PPGOD were moved.

They even felt an urge to crush the enemy’s bottom lane.

What is a schemer?

This is a damn schemer!

Luo Ji didn’t want to be unsupported, of course.

But he deeply understood that being tough didn’t work on men—they respond better to softness. The more you beg, the less they help. The more generous you are, the guiltier they feel.

This didn’t make Karsa or Rookie think about ignoring the coach’s orders to help top lane.

But...

It gave Luo Ji the uncontested right to lay back on the stage and win his lane while pumping up his teammates, and no one would question his words.

Because he was only eighteen.

As the youngest player on the team, what scheming could an eighteen-year-old possibly understand?

Yeah.

What’s this called?

“This—we strive together, and surely we can turn the tide!”

This is the commander’s skill—“Fervor.”