Chapter 1: Reincarnation Cheat? But I Didn’t Reincarnate!

May 8, 2022.

In the south-facing study of Room 0443, Dump Truck Garden, Huzhou City, Jiangsu Province, the crisp, rhythmic tapping of a keyboard sounded like a mechanical piano playing a beautiful melody.

“Xiao Bo, come eat.”

A middle-aged woman pushed open the door, spotting a boy wearing headphones, leaning forward intently with his upper body close to the monitor, clicking the mouse.

She said nothing further, gently closing the door behind her and quietly stood behind him, observing.

On the screen:

The main perspective showed “Lone刺” expertly dominating the lane with overwhelming superiority in his current rank. Despite being in a disadvantageous lane, he adjusted his positioning, using a “Q minion and Q enemy” exchange tactic to seize the pushing advantage over the Ice Mage.

But the opponent didn’t care about fancy moves—he just wanted to trade hits!

The key was not to take hits for free.

Both had less than 400 health points left.

Akali fiercely pressed forward to reach level three first, but the Ice Mage wasn’t a fool and wisely retreated under the tower.

Since the opponent was attacking to contest the lane, the minion wave would soon reach the tower.

The Ice Mage just needed to wait for the minions to hit the tower, safely last-hit the tower’s health, finish her health potions, and regain a safe amount of HP to gain the lane advantage.

But then... Akali kept chasing relentlessly.

She stubbornly pursued from mid-lane all the way under the tower!

The Ice Mage had already stepped into the tower’s protective range, and the two clashed before the turret.

Seeing Akali suddenly “freeze” in her tracks, the already pressured Ice Mage, annoyed, quickly activated the taunt emote labeled “Pathetic.”

At this moment, both had equal health, but as a melee champion, Akali was even slightly more worn down.

If the Ice Mage baited Akali’s hatred into some reckless dive, she could easily counter-kill with her W.

Akali actually made a move.

But this stubborn chase wasn’t foolish.

It was Ye Bo relying on Akali’s level one base movement speed of 345 to close the gap with the Ice Mage’s speed of 325!

That sudden pause was just to calibrate the distance.

Of course, this wasn’t about precise calculations, just a “feeling.”

It was the mastery of Ye Bo, a renowned assassin expert in the Rift.

At the next moment, Akali’s Q skill, “Martial Arts Secret: Cold Shadow,” was unleashed, throwing kunai in a curved arc—at the extreme range, she instantly triggered the passive “Ninja Technique: Hidden Dragon Seal”!

At the same time, the “Slow Flash E,” her E skill Falcon Dance, didn’t push Akali backward but propelled her forward!

Q, E, Auto, Slow Flash E triggered Electrocute, instantly killing the half-health Ice Mage under the tower.

First blood was born in under three minutes!

“Wow~~”

“Whoa! (⊙!⊙)!!”

Ye Bo was still immersed in the thrill of his play when suddenly he heard applause and cheers from behind, making him jolt.

Turning around, he realized his mother had quietly crept up behind him.

“Mom, what’s up? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I called you, but you had your headphones on, didn’t hear me. Time to eat.”

Ye Ying reached out to help remove his headphones.

But her attention was clearly elsewhere.

“Hey, why didn’t your Akali’s third skill plus Flash make her retreat just now? I remember last time she always backed off.”

Ye Bo casually replied while last-hitting and pushing the lane: “It’s not hard. Actually, Akali’s E-Flash has two ways to cast. One is a direct E-Flash that causes a retreating E; the other is a ‘delayed E-Flash,’ like I just did, which lets her dash forward with E…”

“When did you start playing Akali so well? And by the way, it’s E skill, not third skill!”

“I know, I know. You go eat first. Dad’s probably gonna get mad at you later.”

“I’ll help you keep playing~”

—

Ye Bo’s mother, Ye Ying, was a rare mid-aged Shen Nong master.

She was even a distinguished Glory King!

This was her way of unwinding after work.

When she learned her son was obsessed with a certain game, she didn’t forbid him like other parents but decided to try the game herself to see its appeal.

But once she started, she fell deep into the rabbit hole.

Now she barely had time even for farming chores.

At her age—over forty—she mostly played “wheelchair heroes.”

She couldn’t remember hero names or nicknames, often needing Ye Bo to explain using examples from other games.

“Alright, I’ll help you get another kill,” Ye Bo nodded seriously at his mother’s words.

They re-entered the game, set up vision to avoid ganks.

Akali, holding the advantage, became more aggressive in trading, using experience to hit level six first and striking immediately.

The Ice Mage reacted slightly slower, getting pinned down by Akali’s ultimate and combo.

Although the Ice Mage tried to escape with W “Frost Ring” root and E Ice Claws under the tower, Frost Ring’s root was a low-level crowd control in League of Legends, unable to interrupt any dashes, including Akali’s E and R.

Under relentless chase with Akali’s ER combo, the level-six Ice Mage was pulled out of tower range with double passive procs.

A dazzling inside-out kill pierced through her body!

“Damn! There’s a smurf!! Opponent’s mid must be a smurf!!!”

“If the jungler doesn’t come soon, I’m just gonna mess around! I’ll become a demon! Don’t look for me, go find the jungler!”

“*******”

Clearly, two consecutive kills made the local Ice Mage uneasy.

Especially after seeing Akali’s ID: “40-year-old Auntie Wants Pro,” which instantly shattered her composure, triggering a barrage of salty insults.

Everyone knows the more flamboyant the ID, the harsher the player.

If you see a soft ID but pick “Wild Huntress,” “Elemental Queen,” “Lone刺,” “Spider Queen,” you know the cute gummy bear has gone to sleep.

Now it’s the savage bear!

Although “40-year-old Auntie Wants Pro” sounds soft, it probably wasn’t a man who chose that ID.

Ye Bo returned to the tower and recalled.

He stood up to give way.

“Go ahead, just like I did earlier. Akali must remember to proc her passive.”

“Before your gear is ready, you have to proc as many passives as possible to deal real damage. Otherwise, you’ll just be a joke throwing darts,” Ye Bo reminded his mother of hero tactics.

“Don’t worry, I’ve played before. I climbed to Gold IV myself!”

Though his mother’s account was currently playing Silver I promotion matches, she had definitely reached Glory Gold before.

This showed Ye Bo rarely helped her rank up.

Today, by coincidence, he stepped in during a crucial promotion game while she cooked.

Otherwise, with his 700-point Glory King assassin skill level, a well-known top player, he wouldn’t still be stuck at this rank.

But the reason, besides Ye Ying’s own preferences, was that

experiencing matches at this rank had “almost no use” to him.

“Go eat first, your dad’s really gonna get mad at you later,” Ye Ying said as she reached for her headphones.

But she suddenly noticed Ye Bo standing still, dazed, staring blankly into space.

“Alright, alright, be careful. If you can’t, just die fewer times until I get back.”

“You little brat disrespecting your mother? I’m the real deal, a 50-star Glory King!”

—

Ye Bo pursed his lips.

But this was already her eighth promotion series...

He cleared his mind.

He stared at the full virtual progress bar in front of him, but it kept showing “Loading...”

Like it had frozen.

Having waited eagerly for a whole year, Ye Bo felt anxious and restless.

He knew this was the infamous “system” often seen in novels.

But in the past year, it had barely helped him at all.

Since it mysteriously appeared a year ago, only giving the message, “Can be unlocked through cumulative Rank experience,” it had shown no other abilities.

Of course, it had some effect.

For the past year, Ye Bo had done at least ten hours daily of high-rank ranked matches without fail, not even stopping on New Year’s Eve.

All for the hope behind this progress bar.

Nearly 8,000 ranked games on a single account—an unprecedented "grind king" in the entire national high-rank server, unheard of by others.

Yet every time he finished a match and saw the progress bar advance by 0.01%, he felt motivated.

Just now, the bar reached 99.9999%, and after those few minutes of the match, it finally completed.

But the system still gave no reaction.

Ye Bo had to step out of his room.

Face-to-face, he met the sullen middle-aged man at the dining table.

“Dinner.”

“Oh.”

They ate silently together, no one breaking the quiet.

After a while, Ye Xiong couldn’t help but nag:

“When are you going to start preparing for exams? The longer you delay, the harder it gets.”

“My mom already said it’s fine. I’m confident. Even if I don’t go pro, I can make a living streaming!”

Hearing Ye Bo invoke Ye Ying, Ye Xiong fell silent, but after a moment, he couldn’t help but offer earnest advice:

“But you must understand…”

“??????”

Suddenly, Ye Bo jumped in place with a shocked expression, startling Ye Xiong so much he dropped his chopsticks.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing! Stomachache! Going to the bathroom!”

Ye Bo spun and rushed toward the restroom.

“Wait! Let’s not talk about this now.”

Ye Xiong called out quickly, assuming his son didn’t want to hear his nagging.

He sighed softly, then opened his phone and tapped around.

“Transferred some money on WeChat. Remember to buy your mom a gift—it’s Mother’s Day.”

“Ha... You don’t even need to remind me. I already ordered flowers; they’ll arrive soon.”

“Didn’t you still have leftover living expenses from last month?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m going to the bathroom now.”

Ye Bo replied half-heartedly, locked the restroom door behind him.

His sudden urgency was clearly because of the prompt that had just appeared.

But...

The first line of the prompt stunned him completely:

“You have been reborn.”