Chapter Twenty-Two: Understanding the True Value of Being Number One in Dual Swimming

FireLoli reached out to touch my forehead, testing my temperature to make sure I hadn't fried my brain.

This gesture almost made Lin Ruo sick.

"Get lost. I don't mess around with men."

After taking a moment to process things, he opened the League client and continued his climb as usual. He played through a winning streak until the early hours of the morning before finally succumbing to fatigue and heading back to rest.

Ten days passed in a blink.

Having settled into a steady routine, Lin Ruo spent his mornings playing Overwatch, his afternoons in training, and his remaining time grinding the "Canyon of Summoners." He had developed a disciplined habit.

On this particular evening, Lin Ruo sat before his computer, unusually excited, rubbing his hands together. The day had finally arrived.

The clock struck 1:00 AM on January 16th. The first Challenger player on the Canyon of Summoners had officially been crowned!

After his placement matches, he held a record of 55 wins and 5 losses—a terrifying 91% win rate—with an LP total reaching 200 points. With an almost arrogant lead, he sat nearly fifty percent ahead of the second-place player, a streamer from Huya known as "Watermelon."

Because he was a professional player, Lin Ruo’s daily volume of ranked games couldn't compete with the full-time streamers on various platforms. However, thanks to the high LP gains of his super account combined with that monstrous 91% win rate, Lin Ruo had reached the Challenger tier without any suspense, setting the highest point record in the history of the Canyon of Summoners among the few who had reached that rank.

...

That afternoon, Xiao Tie stumbled into the EDG office.

"Boss Bu, Lin Ruo has reached the top!"

A-Bu, who was busy organizing youth training files, remained incredibly calm. He waved his hand and said, "I’ve known that for a long time."

Early this morning, all the major marketing accounts had already spread the news of Lin Ruo’s dominance in the Canyon of Summoners. Besides, the brat had been blocking the doorway since dawn to claim his bonus. A-Bu couldn't have missed it if he tried.

Xiao Tie’s panicked expression showed no sign of fading. He leaned in, whispered into A-Bu’s ear, and said, "It’s not the top you’re thinking of, it’s the other one..."

After hearing the news, A-Bu nearly fell off his chair. He could never have imagined such a thing happening in the real world.

In the EDG training room, Lin Ruo, having just finished a ten-minute Overwatch ranked match, was sitting in his chair with a grin, checking the current national server rankings. He had successfully surpassed the second-place player with exactly 4,000 competitive points, achieving the first-ever top ranking in the 2017 Season 1 ladder for the Overwatch national server.

"Sigh, I hit the top of the Canyon in the early hours, and this morning I accidentally hit the top of Overwatch too. Why am I so lucky?"

"I wonder what the prestige of topping two servers is worth. Any experts out there care to weigh in?"

Lin Ruo said this as he casually changed his stream title: *The man who topped both the Canyon and Overwatch!*

The stream's popularity exploded, and the viewers behind their screens were momentarily stunned. Forgive them for their ignorance; they had never heard of, let alone seen, someone topping two different games simultaneously. The chaotic barrage of comments nearly overflowed the screen.

[Holy crap, a natural-born esports god.]
[Confirmed: The streamer is not human.]
[I suspect I haven't woken up yet. Is there anyone nearby who can come through the internet and slap me awake?]
[I can confirm it, because I’ve already slapped myself ten times.]
[The world has finally turned into the crazy place I imagined.]
[Where did you bring me? This isn't Earth. How could there be aliens on Earth?]
[Next, you’ll see a dual-discipline pro who plays LOL in the morning and Overwatch in the afternoon.]

Beside him, FireLoli rubbed his eyes, staring for a long time, still unable to believe it. How could one even argue with that? He silently pulled out his phone and called his friend outside the gaming scene to share the gossip.

"Hey, Zi Qiao, listen to me. My teammate just hit rank one on both the Overwatch and Canyon of Summoners national servers simultaneously. I know it sounds ridiculous, but please, you have to believe me."

The busy A-Bu also found time to rush into the training room, grabbing Lin Ruo by the chair. "If you don't want to play League anymore, just tell me. I’ll have the boss set up an Overwatch pro team for you to play with."

Lin Ruo’s gaze was firm; he refused without hesitation. Retiring was simply never an option. As everyone knew, League was his profession, while other games were just his passion. Once a passion becomes a profession, the love is gone.

After lunch, Lin Ruo went back to his dorm for a short nap. The hard grind of the past few days had left him feeling quite exhausted. Since he had already proven himself, he figured the fans wouldn't have anything to say if he played fewer ranked games from now on.

Halfway through his nap, his phone rang. Lin Ruo rolled off the bed and answered impatiently, "Hello? Who is this? Speak up or I’m hanging up."

The person on the other end rattled off a long explanation that instantly woke Lin Ruo up. It turned out the Overwatch national server team was planning to hold an exhibition match at a small venue in the Shanghai Center. They hoped to invite the top players from the national server to help promote the game.

Seeing that Lin Ruo had just hit the top of the ladder and his IP happened to be in Shanghai, it was convenient, so they had called to extend an invitation. Realizing they were official staff, Lin Ruo immediately adopted a serious tone. "May I ask, what’s the pay?"

"Fifty thousand for one match."

Lin Ruo hesitated for a moment, sounding quite helpless. "That won’t work. I have an LPL match the night after next. I’m afraid I won’t make it to the offline event the next morning."

He didn't need to guess to know that they were trying to leech off his fame as an LPL pro player to generate hype for the event. After all, League of Legends was at its peak, and an LPL player reaching rank one in Overwatch—especially one from a top-tier team like EDG—was a golden opportunity for publicity. If that was the case, Lin Ruo definitely intended to squeeze them for all they were worth.

EDG, LPL, dual-server rank one... which of these wasn't a massive buzzword? Fifty thousand to leech off him? Sorry, you’ll have to pay more!

"Seventy thousand? Still a bit low. Forget it, I’ll reluctantly endure the trouble; I’ll just have you put up a cardboard cutout of me, and I’ll participate via an online connection."

Strong protests came from the other end of the line. But after some back-and-forth, they couldn't sway him. Lin Ruo simply said he wasn't interested and hung up, securing a swift victory.

Not long after, the phone rang again. Lin Ruo finally heard a satisfying price and gave his word: "You should have said so earlier. One hundred thousand is a steal; you won't be losing out, and I guarantee the entertainment value will be top-notch."

"In short, you’ve latched onto a big winner. Once I make a name for myself in the LPL, you’ll have plenty of glory to share. By then, you can leech off the LPL all you want—if you can't, I’ll bring you along myself."

"Oh, and if you need a spokesperson for the national server for Overwatch in the future, just let me know. I give discounts to regular customers."

*Beep...*

Before Lin Ruo could finish, the call was disconnected. Really, they didn't even give him a chance to show off.

"That's fine, though. They'll learn to come crawling to me soon enough."

Lin Ruo stretched his back. It was time to go play his training matches for the day.