Rise Chapter 196 – Foot in the Door

Lin Feng had been farming Jungle Camps over the last couple of minutes. His Olaf had the Blue Buff, which lowered the cooldowns of his skills and increased his mana regeneration, allowing him to spam Undertow without having to worry about running out of mana. He went from one Jungle Camp to the next, throwing his axe back and forth, each time chasing after it to pick it up again. In the meantime, he kept his eye on the minimap, searching for opportunities. That was when he saw the Rek'Sai gank Yang Fan's Lissandra. He was too far away to help, so he could only watch it happen. But then the Rek'Sai moved towards the bottom of  her side of the Jungle. Lin Feng was hovering near the bot lane, only a short distance away from Shanghai International's Jungle. He didn't need to think and directly started chasing after the Rek'Sai. He found her at the Gromp Camp.

Lin Feng had his Olaf throw an axe at the Rek'Sai, then ran forward to pick it up and throw it again. The Rek'Sai had used her skills in the gank in mid lane. Flash was also on cooldown. She found herself back in the same situation as a couple of minutes before. The Olaf attacked while she tried to run away. But his slow was too strong and her health was too low. He kept attacking until she only had a little bit of health left. Then he jumped up, raising his axes high above his head, and hacked down with such force that he dealt true damage to the Rek'Sai and himself–Reckless Swing! The Rek'Sai died; he lived.

《You have slain an enemy!》

Westwind shot up from his chair at the caster desk, microphone clutched in his grasp, and shouted, “OLAF HAS DONE IT AGAIN! He killed the Rek'Sai in her own Jungle! Is she safe anywhere? I THINK NOT! Don't you guys agree?” He paused for a moment, winking at Silent Reed as the crowd cheered in response to him. Then he continued, “But some real talk here, guys. What this Olaf is doing isn't all about luck. A really skilled Jungler can predict the pathing of their opponent and play accordingly. I'm pretty sure that's what this Olaf here is doing. Insanely impressive. LET'S HEAR IT FOR OLAF!”

Silent Reed shook her head, smiling, as the crowd erupted into a second round of cheering. They hung on Westwind's words, doing as he asked of them. She looked over at the stage and said, “That's some prediction ability. The Olaf is practically living in the Rek'Sai's jungle. Reminds me of that Jungler from a few years ago. What's his name...”

Westwind turned to Silent Reed and said, “Right! Shit. I can't remember either. You mean the, 'your jungle is mine and my jungle is mine!'-guy, right?” He waited for the nod from Silent Reed and then continued, “They really do share some similarities. Maybe it's a brother from another mother! Haha!”

In the private seating area of the competing teams, Zeng Rui sat at the edge of his seat, staring intently at the large screen. He was always meticulous in his approach. But until now, he hadn't considered High School 13 a threat. He'd watched them play and concluded they weren't good enough to make it to the Finals. The team he watched back then and the team in front of him right now were completely different. This team did have what it took to make it to the Finals. And that thundering dumbass also knew how to Jungle. Lin Feng had played every role at some point in the tournament and had never lost a game. Zeng Rui would be a fool if he didn't recognize that. So, for the first time in this year's Shanghai 16 School Tournament, he got really serious.

✹

Chu Fang watched the Semifinals backstage, out of view from others. He was grinning and laughing. There was a mixture of emotions overflowing from him. Joy. Gratification. Hope. It's really him. It really is! He'd watched every second of the High School 13 games, every second of Lin Feng. He's not there yet. But it's him. It's really him! He'll get there again! Chu Fang couldn't keep the smile from his face. He was beaming! All his hard work with setting up the Shanghai 16 School Tournament was worth it. He'd found the talent he'd been looking for! The biggest talent of them all. Lin Feng!

People across the world looked down on the Chinese competitive esports scene. The Americans didn't take them seriously. The Europeans didn't take them seriously. The Koreans made fun of them. Chu Fang shook his head in frustration. He wanted nothing more than to see a Chinese team make it back to the Worlds Finals. He wanted to see them win! The current teams weren't realistic contenders. There was too much of a gap between them and the real top. So he'd focused his full attention on the next generation of players, doing everything within his power to find raw talent and prepare them for the big stage. I found him again!

Chu Fang forced himself to stay seated. But what he really wanted to do was jump up and down and hug everyone he could find. There were two stars being born in the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. Zeng Rui was a phenomenal Support. He'd proven that last year, and was doing so again this year. He consistently placed at the top of the solo queue ranked ladder, while solo games were his weak point. He would make it very far in the professional scene. Then there was Lin Feng. Chu Fang couldn't stop himself from smiling every time that name crossed his mind. Lin Feng. It didn't matter to him what anyone thought of the LPL or the Chinese competitive esports scene anymore. We got Lin Feng. He'll shut them up!

✹

Shanghai International desperately tried to keep control of the game, but that was becoming increasingly difficult. In the previous two games, the trouble started in the mid lane and then found its way to the bot lane. This time around, it all happened in the Jungle. Lin Feng completely shut down the Rek'Sai. He stopped her from putting pressure on the map by always informing his teammates of her location. He stopped her from farming Jungle monsters by setting up a tent in her Jungle. He stopped her from ganking the lanes by always intercepting her. Everything she tried to do got shut down by him.

Rek'Sai gained the passive skill Tremor Sense when she Burrowed under the ground. She could feel the tremors of Champions walking nearby her. But this extra information didn't give her the edge she needed. It might as well not have been there. Because the Olaf appeared in it when he wanted to, and didn't appear in it when he didn't want to. That didn't say whether he was there or not, though.

Shanghai International's Jungler started to doubt his own sanity, especially after a failed gank in the top lane. He'd wanted to help his Toplaner pick up a kill on the Jarvan IV. After destroying the wards he could find near the top lane and making sure the Olaf wasn't nearby, he sped into the lane and attacked the Jarvan IV. But the Olaf was already there, waiting in a brush. High School 13 turned the gank around, killing the Fiora and the outer tower. The Rek'Sai survived. But that felt more like adding insult to injury than a win.

There were many, many people watching the stream by now. A large portion of them came to poke a little fun at the high school tournament. But they all stayed for the incredibly high level gameplay. A good 90% of the people watching were genuinely left speechless. They didn't type a single word in chat. Fortunately, there was a very vocal 10%.

「I can't believe this. Is that Olaf really a high schooler?」

「That Olaf is a Challenger, right? RIGHT? SOMEONE TELL ME!! IM LOSING MY FRIGGIN MIND HERE」

「WTF… i thought olaf was nerfed? did i miss some patchnotes??????????」

「OOMMMGGGGGGG <33333 OLAAFFFFFFF」

Chu Fang was reading through the messages in the stream chat, smiling. Maple was a Midlaner, but he could play any role... Chu Fang started grinning at himself, remembering something the Jungler on Lin Feng's old team had said. “Hey, Lin Feng. You know… If you start playing Jungle, I swear, solo queue will be eleven times as toxic! All those damn dirty Junglers trying to imitate you!” Eleven… Chu Fang shook his head. He knew Eleven better than he knew Lin Feng. Eleven used to be one of the best Junglers in the world. He was right up there with the likes of Read XIII. But then he lost that spark that made him so special. Chu Fang sighed. Hah… What a shame. What a shame.

✹

At 10 minutes, Lin Feng had his Olaf roam towards the bot lane. He entered Shanghai International's Jungle and walked into the brush right behind the outer tower. The Tristana and Morgana were underneath the tower, farming minions. Lin Feng had made sure to evade all the wards, so Shanghai International had no clue that he was there. His Olaf was strong enough to deal damage and tank several energy shots from the tower. The Blue minion wave was marching at the outer tower. Wei Dong and Tang Bingyao were ready.

Lin Feng pressed down on the D and then the R key–Ragnarok! A blood red haze washed over Olaf's body as he became immune to all crowd control effects! His movement speed even gained two boosts on top of that; one from Ghost and the other from Ragnarok. Then he charged at the Morgana and Tristana, ignoring the tower and straight up attacking them!

The Morgana directly fired off a Dark Binding at the Olaf. But he was immune to crowd control effects, so it didn't lock him down. The Tristana loaded a massive cannonball into her weapon and fired it off, intending to knock the Olaf away. But he was immune to crowd control effects, so it didn't affect him. He charged at them and threw an axe. Then he auto attacked the Tristana with his other axe.

Tang Bingyao pressed down on her R key–Super Mega Death Rocket! Her Jinx raised her rocket launcher and fired off a super rocket that traveled through the bot lane before colliding with the Tristana and Morgana. A loud explosion followed, a smiley appearing in the resulting smoke cloud. The dust settled, revealing a corpse. The Tristana was killed by Tang Bingyao's Jinx.

《You have slain an enemy!》

Wei Dong smashed down on the D key–Flash! His Thresh disappeared with a mottled flash of light and then reappeared on the other side of the Red minions. He followed up by throwing his sickle at the Morgana, hooking her–Death Sentence! Her health was low after Tang Bingyao's attack and Lin Feng's Olaf was on top of her. It only took a couple of swings with his axe to finish her off.

《You have slain an enemy!》

Lin Feng laughed and said over the team's voice chat, “I got a kill! Nice! Let's go and take Dragon now!”

The crowd in the venue were chanting the name of their new god. “WIN FENG! WIN FENG!” He was leading High School 13 to another win. “WIN FENG! WIN FENG!” There was no tower that could stop him. Man and Dragon alike feared him. “WIN FENG! WIN FENG!” At only 12 minutes in the game, he carried his team to a 4,000 gold lead over Shanghai International. “WIN FENG! WIN FENG!” He was invincible. “WIN FENG! WIN FENG!”

Chapter end