As they conversed casually, Chen Mu’s mind started to waver. He understood that the System’s existence was not all-powerful. Had the System not come to Chen Mu because the last Host did not manage to become the champion?
“Xiaobai, how much money does the champion get?” asked Chen Mu.
“A million US dollars. I heard that they will sell skins to increase the prize pool too. The champions are given a set of customized skins. For each skin sold, the player gets twenty-five percent of the money earned,” explained Zhuo Xiaobai.
Chen Mu’s eyes began to sparkle like stars. There was so much money! With so many players in the game, did it mean that he would never have to worry about money for the rest of his life once he became the champion?
“System, why didn’t you come earlier? You should’ve started this with me since S1. Such horrible efficiency,” said Chen Mu.
“You said that I should have come after you’ve entered university…” replied the System.
“Time is money. I’ve wasted the chance to become the champion twice just like that.” Chen Mu felt like a hundred million bucks had slipped through his grasp.
“The System’s presence does not translate to the host automatically becoming the champion for sure, especially in Huaxia. It is predicted that it will be hard for the Host to find reliable teammates to win the championship with you,” explained the System.
Chen Mu did not give a damn about it. League of Legends…’What a deal. Times have truly changed. Who would’ve expected games to come so far that one could earn an income from playing them?’
It was English class at that moment. Ms. Liang was Chen Mu’s English teacher cum homeroom teacher. She had a stately position in class mostly due to her good looks.
As a natural sciences class where there were more boys than girls in the class. Hence, the elegant English teacher was capable of causing quite the spurt when it came to the excretion of male hormones.
“Students, we’ll be working on translation today. I’ll ask you questions later. So, listen up,” said Ms. Liang Yuning.
The boys straightened up in seriously and began to think carefully.
“Yellow was an important color in Huaxia’s civilization. It was exclusively used by emperors in feudal times. Palaces were painted yellow, and the imperial robes were also yellow. It was considered an act of disrespect to the imperial family if commoners used the color. The rice fields were also a brilliant golden yellow during harvesting seasons. Everyone would become excited and jubilant to celebrate the harvest.
“I’ll give you five minutes to translate this excerpt. I’ll ask you more questions after that,” Ms. Liang instructed.
In front of her, her students picked up their pens and started writing. On the other hand, those who were weak in the language scratched their heads. ‘Yellow was not only important in Chinese civilization. Its position in modern leisure is equally as important.’
Time flew past. Ms. Liang glanced down from the platform and called a boy whose English was known to be mediocre to present his translation.
As a student of an elite class, his standard of English was acceptable. Everything he said sounded fluent. However, there was one exception—the word, ’emperor’, was beyond him!
Stuttering, the boy said, “Yellow boss[1]…?”
The class burst out into roars of laughter. Was he calling Boss Huang[2] or what?
“Don’t laugh. Which one of you knows how to translate the word ’emperor’?” Ms. Liang glanced over at their desks as everyone fell silent. Those who were afraid to be summoned pretended to look around, as though appreciating the scenery of the class. They would look at the clouds for a moment and then the blackboard.
“Lu Ren, you laughed the loudest. Translate the word ’emperor’,” Ms. Liang called out a name.
Beads of sweat appeared on Lu Ren’s forehead. ‘Can’t help it that I was born loud, can I?’
Lu Ren mulled over it for a while before he said, “Yellow man?”
“Why isn’t it Superman, then? It seems like you’ve watched plenty of Marvel movies! Still smiling? Sit down! Lu Yu, do you know how to translate the word?” Ms. Liang continued to ask.
Like a man who had shed all his burdens, Lu Ren hurriedly slumped back down in his seat and waited to see who was going to make a fool out of themselves next.
Chen Mu really wanted to tell her that Superman belonged to DC. Ironman and the Hulk were the ones from Marvel.
“That… Yellow king?” Lu Yu attempted to guess. Boys, when faced with a beautiful teacher like her, refused to admit their cluelessness and answered questions straightforwardly. They usually wanted to bluff their way out.
“Sit down. Chen Mu, you told me that you have a few American friends. Why don’t you get up and translate the word?” said Ms. Liang.
Chen Mu stood up and thought, ‘This is karma. Among the three thousand and five hundred terms in the NCEE, it seems like there really isn’t a term that translates to, ’emperor’.’
“System, could you help me translate it?” Chen Mu was desperate for help.
“Other than things related to League of Legends, the System will not take responsibility,” said the System.
“Trash! Show me the English interface. I’ll find it myself,” Chen Mu said.
The System’s interface appeared before his eyes as texts in both languages were displayed side-by-side.
“Search for any champion or ability that has the word ’emperor’ in it,” ordered Chen Mu.
“The Emperor Of The Sands, Azir, is The Emperor Of The Sands—Azir[3]. The king of mid lane in the S5 World Championship. One of the champions most capable of defending a turret.”
“Why does he resemble a chicken so much?” blurted Chen Mu involuntarily.
“What chicken?” asked Ms. Liang.
“Oh, nothing. ‘Emperor’ should be translated as ’emperor’,” Chen Mu hastily answered.
“Yep, that’s correct. Sit down. It seems like you didn’t waste any time even though you’ve been absent from your nightly self-study sessions,” Ms. Liang praised him.
Chen Mu sat down and wiped the sweat off his brow. If his teacher thought that his English had deteriorated, it would not be easy for him to get off the next time the System assigned him missions that required him to take leave.
He was grateful that the word ‘yellow’ did not appear again.
“As expected of my brother-in-law, your results remain consistent even though you play games every night,” whispered Zhuo Xiaobai sneakily.
“Ahem, don’t talk about things like that during class. Shhh!” Chen Mu told him off.
Since he had to carry his younger sister that night, Chen Mu did not hang out with Zhuo Xiaobai. Instead, he waited for Chen Yifei to play League of Legends.
The win rate stated on Chen Mu’s account was shockingly impressive. Chen Yifei blinked at it a few times, stunned.
“Your win rate in blind pick games is ninety percent?! Big Brother, they made cheats for this game?” asked Chen Yifei.
“With my overloading talent? It’s just how things should be.” Chen Mu appeared calm and collected.
“Go and play ranked games. With your win rate, I think you’ll hit a thousand and eight hundred ELO points easily. The current season is almost going to end. Official announcements have revealed that the moment the World Championship ends, the game will adopt a new ranking distribution system,” Chen Yifei said.
Chen Mu wanted to play ranked games as well, but he had yet reached the System’s expectations. His matchmaking speed in blind pick games was still rather swift.
“It’s nothing. I’ll practice more in blind pick games. There are too many pro players in ranked games. I want to avoid the situation where my chosen champion gets banned and then lose my position,” Chen Mu answered.
“Yeah, that’s true.” Chen Yifei did not mind much about it since she still had internet credit to spend. Recently, the cybercafe discovered a few users who had exploited smurfs to earn internet credit. Therefore, they took back the rewards allocated to accounts that had not yet reached Level 30 and reserved the internet credit rewards for those with maxed-out accounts who played ranked games.
Chen Mu found a game rather quickly in the blind pick mode. As usual, Chen Yifei locked in Sheriff without any hesitation, reminiscing on the sensation of scoring kills each time she cast her ultimate.
Meanwhile, Chen Mu locked in Prince. Having trained to cast his EQ at lightspeed for so long, it was finally time for him to put it to good use.
In the match, when they entered the game, Chen Mu was amused to find an entire premade team. It was the first time Chen Mu was witnessing such witty use of game IDs.
There was a player whose ID was LoveWomenHosp. The player had Shen’s Surgeon skin on. When put together, it read, ‘LoveWomenHosp, Surgeon Shen’!
Funnier names ensued.
UniversalMenHosp, Nurse Akali.
No1TertiaryHosp, Arctic Ops[4] Varus.
‘Damnit, it must be a prank being pulled by a group of medical students. Somehow, it seems like the premade team’s win rate isn’t very low too,’ Chen Mu thought.
Once the game started, Chen Mu’s enemy team started typing in all chat.
Shen: [You are a monster with a ninety percent win rate. I think you need to see a doctor.]
Akali: [I can give you a shot.]
Varus: [If nothing works, I can destroy your humanity.]
Chen Mu did not respond to the provocations from the group of people. His win rate had become quite the eye-catcher whenever he gamed.
“I told you that having a ninety percent win rate isn’t very scientific at all. Also, you only played around fifty matches,” commented Chen Yifei.
“They’re all mortals. It’s nothing but a misdiagnosis. Let me educate them on the fact that having a ninety percent win rate isn’t something worth getting excited about,” said Chen Mu with a straight face.
[1] The Mandarin for ’emperor’ is ‘huang di’ in which ‘huang’ is a homonym of ‘yellow’. Since everyone in the class knew that ‘huang di’ was the person-in-charge of the country, they translated ‘huang’ into ‘yellow’ and combined it with ‘boss’, a word that was close to the meaning, ‘person-in-charge’.
[2] ‘Huang’ is also a common family name.
[3] In the first part, he is reading it in Mandarin, in the second he is reading it in English.
[4] The official Mandarin name for the skin translates literally to ‘the white grim reaper’, which suits the naming convention of the rest of the players.