Chapter 1: A Life-or-Death Game, The Fall Guy Steps In

Before the first battle was over, the young substitute ADC, Blade, was already sitting in the RNG lounge in Busan Stadium, South Korea.

Coach Sun Deyong spoke in awkward Mandarin and asked, “Ziang, after watching the four games today, what do you think of Uzi’s performance?”

Lu Ziang lowered his phone at once. With a faint smile that did not reach his eyes, he replied, “I think there’s no problem. He played very well.”

Sun Deyong’s expression darkened slightly, and he frowned.

He knew this boy’s temperament well enough to understand he would not be easily fooled.

So he could only appeal to emotion and reason.

He slowly said, “Ziang, you know the situation we’re in. This is a do-or-die match. If we lose this one...”

“First, it could very well ruin Uzi’s career. Second, he may never recover from it. Do you know what matters most to a professional player?”

“Yeah. Mentality.”

Lu Ziang’s handsome brows drew together slightly. A bad feeling had already begun to form in his heart. He thought, What does Uzi’s mentality collapsing have to do with me?

“Good that you understand. Once a player’s mentality goes wrong, even the strongest will make mistakes in a match of this intensity.”

“And you also know how much hope the LPL audience has placed on RNG this year. The greater the passion behind that hope, the greater the disappointment in the end.”

Sun Deyong took a deep breath, then patted Lu Ziang on the shoulder and said meaningfully, “Ziang, you’re still young. Opportunities like this are rare for you. The coaching staff has discussed it and made a decision: for this fifth game, you’ll be going in and replacing Uzi.”

“Heh.”

Lu Ziang could not help but laugh, a trace of bitterness flashing in his eyes.

How could a mere substitute defy a decision made by the coaching staff?

This was not a discussion. It was a notice.

In an instant, all kinds of feelings surged through him, and all he wanted was to laugh.

Though he had long understood why, in such an important match, the club had not chosen to bring along veterans like Heartbreaker or Stance, but had instead brought him, the eternal substitute, to the stage of the S8 World Championship.

The reason he had been brought here, and even given a chance to play, was probably to provide a safety net for Uzi’s mentality, just in case.

“I hope you understand the club’s good intentions. With your ability, if you were on another team, you’d absolutely be a starter... But you have to understand, he is Uzi. He is the core of our RNG team, the spiritual pillar. He cannot lose.”

Seeing the disappointment in the young man’s face, Sun Deyong could not help but sigh. His eyes were full of regret.

Lu Ziang, seventeen years old.

Professional ID: Falcon.

Role: ADC.

He had reached the top of the Korean server in just two years. At the time, he was hailed as the number one marksman on the Korean ladder, with mechanics, game sense, and talent none inferior to Uzi’s.

Weakness: lack of competitive experience.

Sun Deyong believed that given time, this young man would surely become a top-tier ADC, even someone capable of carrying an entire team, just as Uzi did now.

But at this moment, for the sake of Uzi’s reputation and the entire RNG roster, he had to take the stage.

Lu Ziang rubbed his hair with one hand and let out a long breath.

He did not want to go in. Not at all.

The reason was simple: in his view, the chances of winning this do-or-die game were extremely slim. If he were sent in, there was only one purpose—to take the blame.

From the first four games, even an idiot could see that the reason tonight had come to this was not Uzi’s problem alone, though his problems were the most obvious.

It was that every RNG player had issues: they were far too overconfident, never once taking G2 seriously, and had gravely underestimated this team’s strength.

Just as Lu Ziang was about to refuse and make up his mind to fight the club to the end, a cold mechanical voice suddenly rang in his ear:

Ding!

The Strongest ADC System is binding. Completion progress: 99%. Step onto the stage of the S8 World Championship to complete the binding, officially become the host, and begin your path to divinity!

This abrupt voice instantly pushed Lu Ziang’s mood to the opposite extreme.

A system!

He had never expected such a thing to fall into his lap.

Originally, Lu Ziang had planned to go head-to-head with RNG to the bitter end. At worst, he would pack his bags and leave. He had nothing much to his name, but he had bones of steel and pride in his heart.

If they wanted him to play, no problem. He had been itching for it already.

But for him to be sent in at such a critical moment to take the blame and absorb the fire was not what he wanted.

Now, though, the system’s task was simply to get him onto the S8 stage. What was there left to worry about?

“Fine.”

Lu Ziang forced himself to suppress the excitement in his chest and said in a calm voice, as if accepting fate’s arrangement.

“Just do your best. Whether the result is good or bad, the club and I will be grateful to you.”

Sun Deyong nodded in satisfaction.

He did not need to say anything more. Lu Ziang was a smart boy.

And smart people naturally understood that esports was brutally real and merciless.

Everything was decided by results. Between Uzi and Lu Ziang, the RNG club would naturally choose Uzi without the slightest hesitation.

At the same time, the official live broadcast room for the match had already broken one hundred million in popularity.

Compared with last year, the domestic audience watching this year’s games had clearly increased by a huge margin.

Especially tonight’s match, which was full of suspense and particularly gripping.

The host responsibilities for this best-of-five fell to Guan Zeyuan and Zhou Shuyi.

At that moment, both of them looked somewhat grave.

One had to know that when this best-of-five first began, the gap in strength was obvious and the outcome was never in doubt.

But when the series dragged all the way to the deciding game, not only the audience but even the hosts were a little slow to process what was happening.

Before the match even began, not a single viewer had imagined it would reach a 2-2 scoreline tonight.

Almost all LPL viewers had agreed that RNG would lose at most one game to G2.

They would then win 3-1 in a crushing display of dominance.

It was easy to imagine just how awful the mood of LPL viewers and RNG fans must be now.

Before the final do-or-die game had even started, many spectators on site already wore ashen, miserable expressions.

Some, unable to bear the pressure, had already begun to cry with their heads bowed.

RNG.

It seemed they were going to lose.

They were only a few steps away from the championship.

Were they actually going to lose to a team called G2?

The entire venue was heavy with suffocating pressure.

Then, at that moment, Zeyuan on the host platform suddenly said, “We’ve just received word: for Game 5, RNG is making a substitution—Uzi is coming out, and substitute AD SUn will take his place.”

As soon as those words were spoken, not only did the spectators on site go blank, but even the viewers in the livestream room were stunned. The barrage of comments instantly exploded, multiplying geometrically:

“?”

“What is RNG doing? Who is this guy?”