Chapter 32: The Enemy Disappears Without a Trace
Jiang Yun had thought that someone spending 2,000 yuan just to get yelled at was already the peak of absurdity. He hadn’t expected there was another trick up the other’s sleeve—minor refund!
For the next few minutes, Jiang Yun said nothing. He simply stared silently at the backend, refreshing the data again and again. As the audience in his livestream room wondered what he was up to, the backend data updated.
[Minor refund... under review]
[Minor refund... user submitting evidence]
[Minor refund... evidence uploading]
[Minor refund... platform verification in progress]
[Minor refund... platform verification approved]
[Minor refund successful!]
The moment the refund was processed, Jiang Yun spread his hands with an expression that said, “I’m done with this.” Meanwhile, the chat exploded, messages flying in hundreds per second.
“Hahaha, the minor refund went through!”
“Brother Yun looks dead inside. He was already pissed, and now he didn’t even make a cent!”
“From start to finish, Brother Yun didn’t have to do a thing—the platform just refunded him.”
“Haha, I bet Brother Yun will never trust those who send gifts to join his mic sessions again.”
“Don’t let this kid ruin the whole mic session show!”
“…”
Amidst the teasing, some viewers were worried that the fan who’d just joined the mic had effectively killed off Jiang Yun’s mic session segment. After all, that’s exactly how Brother Bao’s mic session show ended.
Although Jiang Yun’s fanbase was famous for being a bit out there, this time was really over the top.
The male viewers imagined themselves in that situation—if a guy seriously asked them to suck his… just thinking about it was enough to make anyone feel sick.
Sure enough, after a moment of silence, Jiang Yun looked into the camera and announced, “I declare that our livestream’s mic session segment is canceled! It will never be reopened!”
With that, Jiang Yun ignored the viewers’ pleas and, right before their eyes, turned off the fan mic session feature.
“Let’s play some games,” Jiang Yun said, a note of resentment in his voice.
He opened up the backend and logged into the account sent by the fan who had just won the draw.
Jiang Yun glanced at the rank—Emerald III.
Seeing this rank, Jiang Yun’s heart skipped a beat.
After the recent update, the ranks in League of Legends were now: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Emerald, Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, Challenger.
Jiang Yun’s own skill level was around Challenger in the Summoner’s Rift. He rarely played high-ranked games on stream—mostly playing them after the stream to keep in practice. During streams, he would always play on fan accounts drawn at random.
Out of all the ranks, the one Jiang Yun dreaded most was Emerald. The players here were mostly former Platinum. They couldn’t break into Diamond, never made it to the Rift’s upper echelons, and were forever stuck at this wall.
Worse, they looked down on the lower five ranks. The key issue was, being stuck in one rank for so long left their mindset in ruins. They figured, since they couldn’t climb nor drop, when in a bad mood, they’d just AFK, flame teammates, and tilt everyone.
Not all Emerald players were like this, of course—but at least the majority fit the pattern. Whenever Jiang Yun drew an Emerald account, more than half the games out of ten would be ruined by someone losing their temper.
This rank was a magnet for all sorts of weirdos!
That was why his heart skipped a beat when he saw the rank.
The longtime fans, familiar with Jiang Yun, broke out laughing at his expression.
“Let’s see what kind of monsters Brother Yun will run into today!”
“Honestly, even though Yun-ge is exasperated, this rank always brings the best show.”
“My favorites are when Yun-ge draws Silver—straight brawling, never backing down! And Emerald—pure chaos every game!”
“Queue up, queue up! Hurry, Yun-ge!”
“I can’t wait to see what gems we get today!”
“…”
Urged on by his viewers, Jiang Yun queued up for solo/duo.
To his surprise, the game popped instantly.
“Eh? That was fast. Is there some event today?” Jiang Yun muttered.
Usually, waiting three or four minutes for a match was the norm—there just weren’t that many LoL players left these days.
But this time, he got in immediately.
Before Jiang Yun could check if there was some special event, the in-game chat lit up.
“Try to stop me, Grandpa: Last game was lost because of the jungler, trust me, I’ll carry this one!”
“Princess Qianqian: Okay.”
Jiang Yun checked his role—Try to stop me, Grandpa was top lane. And he insta-locked Darius.
At this, Jiang Yun closed his eyes, helplessness radiating through the screen and infecting every viewer.
“Haha, duo-queue with a girl, that name, that champ—I can already see him blaming others later.”
“Checked his record: Emerald IV. Last game, got stomped as Darius by Jax, went 0-13-4.”
“The game hasn’t even started and the comedy is already rolling.”
“Yun-ge’s the jungler this time. Uh-oh, he’ll be the one getting flamed.”
“…”
Amidst the banter, Jiang Yun had already picked his champion.
Top: Darius [Try to stop me, Grandpa]
Jungle: Graves [Jiang Yun]
Mid: Veigar [Princess Qianqian]
AD: Vayne [South China UZI]
Support: Malphite [Clever Malphite]
Clap, clap, clap.
Sitting at his computer, Jiang Yun quietly applauded.
After so many years of gaming, he could tell a lot just from people’s IDs.
No need to mention top and mid—the AD was clearly the type who loved mechanics: if he played well, he’d crush lane, but if he messed up, he’d just feed. No matter how the game went, he’d still try to outplay, and if he died a few times and fell behind, his “mechanics” would just turn into pure inting.
As for the support… picking Malphite didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
In silence, Jiang Yun loaded into the game.
He had barely taken his position near the top jungle when their Malphite support got hooked by the enemy Blitzcrank and fed first blood.
The AD tried to outplay… failed, and gave up a double kill.
Veigar, the mid, took Q at level one, couldn’t help bot lane, and blew Flash trying to escape.
Darius top, burned Flash and Ghost, barely escaped with a sliver of health.
???
[Darius pings: Enemy missing]
[Darius pings: Enemy missing]
[Darius pings: Enemy missing]
Standing beside red buff, Jiang Yun predictably received a round of pings from top.
Try to stop me, Grandpa: “You picking mushrooms in the top jungle? First blood fight and you’re missing?”
Jiang Yun glanced at the chat and ignored it.
The viewers were already howling with laughter.
“It’s starting, it’s starting!”
“With this comp, against Blitzcrank, you wanna fight level one? Incredible!”
“Magical Emerald rank—finally seeing it firsthand.”
“My review: not even as good as Silver.”
“Five bucks says top lane is the first to tilt!”
“…”