The weekend came very quickly. On the final day of evening revision, everyone could be seen trying to suppress the nervousness in their hearts. Some were constantly looking at their watches, waiting for the break.
It was almost time for the monthly assessment, and stress levels were through the roof. The large volume of practice questions and mock exams they had to do made it hard for them to breathe.
Nevertheless, everybody gave their best. It was important that they got into a good university. That was because the internet speed in big cities was faster.
Furthermore, they needed a higher salary after they graduated. If not, how were they supposed to buy skins?
When the bell rang, Chen Mu contacted his teammates and reminded them to get enough rest for the finals which was the following day.
Regardless of the number of points the System had offered him, the 20,000 bucks were more than enough to make Chen Mu think every step through.
With the innovation of smartphones, people had begun sleeping later and later. Sleeping past midnight was now the norm. If someone overslept on the day of the finals, it would be like giving the money away.
Recently, Chen Mu managed to more or less reach a matchmaking time of 20 minutes with his 94% win rate. Consequently, because of his amazing win rate, he would receive a large number of friend requests after each match. It has to be said that a large number of them were from self-proclaimed girls who wished to be carried.
Nevertheless, Chen Mu always rejected each of these requests. He had real-life girls next to him whom he could not flirt with no matter how good looking they were. How could Chen Mu's attention be drawn by people online whose identities could not be confirmed?
His daily training revolved around him using Ahri's combo that consisted of her Ultimate and auto attacks. Deathfire's Grasp, Ignite, Flash, and Zhonya's Hourglass were also added into the mix to create various combos. He also learned how to use his Q properly, as well as the trick of landing his W to charm an enemy champion that was in the middle of a minion wave. Chen Mu went to sleep soundly after his training.
The finals were to be held at the Chuzhou city center in the commercial center. The surrounding area had many tall buildings and stores. A bun at a breakfast store cost 3 bucks, while a glass of soy milk was at least 2.50.
In order to keep a good state of mind, Chen Mu chose to eat noodles somewhere else. This time, the group gathered at the destination. While Chen Mu ate, his teammates waited for him on the ground floor.
Shi Geng nervously said to Chen Mu when he saw him, "We may have a bit of a problem this time."
"What's up?" Chen Mu had just arrived, and he was unsure of what was going on.
"I recognize some of the people that went upstairs. Among them is an expert. He's the champion of the past provincial cybercafe tournament. I don't know why he's here in Chuzhou for this tournament." Brother Shi was a little worried. A person like him had a wealth of experience in tournaments, and he was the former year's provincial champion. The tournament this time would be tough.
"Oh, it's fine. Maybe he's just here to spectate. We should just go up and play, whether we win or not is up to the heavens," Chen Mu said.
The others looked at each other and then at Chen Mu's calm demeanor. They instantly thought that they were too nervous. They were a new team, to be fair, it would be fairly normal if they lost.
In actual truth, Chen Mu was panicking deep down inside. However, he had a part to play to calm his troops. Back then,
The biggest reason why excellent students normally faltered in the National College Entrance Examinations was that they were often too nervous. They would become unable to make use of their abilities and even forget the most basic things they had learned.
"System, can I beat that Provincial Champion whatever?" Chen Mu asked nervously.
"How the hell would the System know."
"D*mn it, do you not have any analytical functions? Make a calculation," Chen Mu said.
"The System is only in charge of making you the strongest, it doesn't care about other people," the System said.
"..." Chen Mu really wanted to flip the bird, nevertheless, he thought it was better this way. Such things were pointless, he just had to do his best.
After reporting to the person in charge, Chen Mu and the others were ushered to an area of the cybercafe to sit and wait. The cybercafe was massive, and they did not know how much had been invested in it. It had at least 400 or 500 computers, while there were at least 4 cashiers at the front desk. There was an unknown number of service staff.
There was a big screen of at least 50 inches above Chen Mu and the others which made it easier for them to spectate matches. The cybercafe tournament was quite up to par.
According to Shi Geng, such large cybercafes had a lot of experience in hosting E-sports tournaments. Before League of Legends, it had hosted tournaments for Dungeon Fighter, Crossfire, Dota, and similar games.
The cybercafe was so big that the teams participating in the tournament could be split into two groups; there was another screen on the other side of the cybercafe. The other teams were playing. It was the same knock-out system as the preliminaries. There were 20 teams, so half of them would be eliminated after each one of them had played a round. The rules were simple and cruel.
There was a large audience this time around. A large number of people stood in front of the screen as they discussed the tournament's lineup, various game mechanics, and different champions.
"That team is strong, their opponent is about to surrender at 20," someone said.
"How can they not be strong? Their mid laner is last year's provincial champion. He only lost at the national cybercafe tournament. It seems like his previous team disbanded. That mid laner cannot be beaten by normal players, he could perhaps be called Chuzhou's strongest mid laner," said a young man who seemed to be in the know.
When Chen Mu heard him, he thought it was outrageous. He didn't even have a rank, and he wanted to take on the strongest in Chuzhou? His luck was really bad.
When the announcement came for Chen Mu's 20000Bucks, the crowd stirred. The team name was full of confidence, they were gunning for the 20000 bucks prize.
Because of their name, they got quite a lot of attention. Chen Mu was rather speechless. It was just a name, what was so special about it.
When they got on stage, they faced a team that was not too strong-they were roughly the same on the same level as the teams they had faced in the preliminaries. It was an easy game, and Chen Mu's team won in 25 minutes.
It calmed them down a lot. Two youths in the crowd began to chat. One of them was the provincial champion while the other was his team's jungler. Their team name was Moonlight.
"Chang Hao, that team has a really bold name, they're aiming to be the champion," said one of the young men with piercings in his ear.
"It's just a name, it doesn't count for much. Their mid laner did well, they might be our match," replied the young man called Chang Hao.
"Could he possibly be as strong as you, the provincial champion. We're the pride of Chuzhou. I remember your team only lost by two points last year in terms of becoming the champion," the jungler said.
"That's all in the past, let's not talk about it. It's over now. I just want to get that 20000 bucks and have a nice meal with lobster." Chang Hao seemed to have something on his mind and did not want to continue the conversation.
"Sure, we'll go and get the biggest one, one that's a foot long!" the young man said with a laugh. He felt that with this pro, their team had the champion spot in the bag.
Only Chang Hao had noticed from a spectator's point of view that Chen Mu managed to reach a Creep Score of 260 in 25 minutes and had a 5-0 Kill/Death score. He was worried.
Furthermore, why did it feel like that person was playing casually and not fully utilizing his mechanical skills. Nevertheless, Chang Hao shook his head, no matter who it was, they would be destroyed. The title of the best mid laner in the cybercafe tournament was not one that he had given himself!