Chapter 1: Hey there, care for a pork floss pastry?

"Play with your brain, and climbing the ranks is a breeze!"

"Hello everyone! Welcome to JM-Ah Ming's Classroom, where we bring you new understandings of new champions!"

"Today, the champion we'll be discussing is the newly released Master of Shadows—Zed."

"I'm sure many of you are already eager to try this assassin master from Ionia. So, how do we play him well? What is his optimal build? And once we have the lead, how do we carry the team to victory?"

"Keep your eyes peeled! Ah Ming is going to reveal the answers using gameplay footage from a high-tier, 2300-Elo match on the Chinese server!"

November 30, 2012. Inside a rented apartment in the university town of Jinling City, Jiangsu Province.

Jiang Ming quickly recorded the video intro into his microphone, his eyes occasionally scanning the script in the document on the right side of his screen.

The computer screen was playing gameplay footage of a high-ranked match he had fought from dawn until late at night.

After confirming the recording was correct, his left hand tapped the hotkeys to stitch the audio track to the video footage, while his right hand balled into a fist and lightly tapped the desk. "Keep going!"

"Keep going!"

This was just the beginning; a long march still lay ahead of him.

"First, let's take a look at the Master of Shadows—Zed's passive and his four active skills. His passive, Contempt for the Weak: Zed's basic attacks against targets below 50% health deal bonus magic damage..."

"Without a doubt, this ninja gentleman is an assassin champion with an incredibly high skill ceiling that perfectly fits his thematic design."

"As for the build, Ah Ming recommends prioritizing attack damage and armor penetration. Since Zed is an ability-based assassin, cooldown reduction is also a must. The Black Cleaver is undoubtedly a perfect fit for him. Its component, The Brutalizer, has a smooth build path... Of course, the Bloodthirster, which can provide up to 100 attack damage at full stacks, is also a solid choice."

"..."

"Zed's core ability is undoubtedly his W. Whether you can flexibly utilize his shadows is the most direct standard for measuring if a player is a 'Noob Zed,' a 'Jonin,' or even a 'Hokage.'"

Having quietly slipped a custom meme into the video, Jiang Ming paused the recording, picked up the mug on his desk with his right hand, and chugged down several gulps of water.

*Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!*

Yes, indeed, this young man making the guide video—

Jiang Ming, male, nineteen years old.

A sophomore majoring in Economics and Management at Jinling University, a game streamer on the YY platform, a League of Legends video creator, and... a reincarnator.

As a reincarnator, he hadn't joined the ranks of typical protagonists who were orphans, carried deep-seated hatred from a miserable past life, failed at everything, had their wives run off with other men, got cuckolded, and swore to restart their lives to change their tragic fates.

In his past life, Jiang Ming's life wasn't wealthy, but it was decent. His family was healthy, he had no major illnesses, and while he didn't have many friends, he had one or two partners in crime he could call up to discuss world affairs. His job was passable, his salary was respectable, and the mortgage on his house and car wasn't overwhelmingly stressful.

Perhaps that was why the "Deep Blue" system, a staple for reincarnators, had bypassed him entirely.

"So why did I reincarnate?"

"Reincarnating means going to college all over again."

"And graduating from college means writing a thesis."

"Once the thesis passes, you have to find a job, and life after finding a job isn't all that happy either."

"I really don't want to go through the pain of pulling all-nighters to write a thesis again!"

"And I definitely don't want to experience the life of a corporate slave working overtime even during the Lunar New Year."

"You lose a lot of hair before you even turn thirty."

Jiang Ming thought about it for a long time. Having confirmed that he had no "white moonlight" first love he had missed out on during his naive years, the only regret his reincarnation needed to make up for was probably his younger, talented self. Back then, due to his parents' vehement opposition, he hadn't dropped out as an Economics and Management major at a Double First-Class university to become an esports player. That, and the regret of finally steeling himself to buy a ticket to his favorite esports tournament in his late twenties, only to witness T1 pull off a reverse sweep live on stage. He had wanted to scream, "Give me my money back!" but before he could, his vision went black, and he woke up back here.

Thus, ever since his freshman year, Jiang Ming had been planning how to convince his parents to let him take a leave of absence to venture into the esports world.

Jiang Ming: "I want to play professionally."

Parents: "No, you don't!"

Of course, at this stage, the career of a pro gamer—precarious, viewed by ordinary parents as a scourge, and paying only two to three thousand yuan a month—was certainly far less attractive than the prospects of a Double First-Class university graduate working as a white-collar office worker with air conditioning and coffee.

To be precise, it was still called the "gaming industry" right now. The term "esports" wouldn't start being slowly recognized and accepted by the public until the following year, when the General Administration of Sport of China began establishing the Chinese national esports team.

Therefore, it was only natural that his parents had refused in his past life. Even with a second chance, Jiang Ming didn't think the two elders' opinions would waver easily.

Because of this, Jiang Ming didn't resort to dramatic fits, make threats, or run away from home, leaving behind a letter saying, "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, do not look down on a youth just because he is poor!" Nor did he try to appeal to their emotions and reason, explaining to them how glorious the esports industry's future would be in a few years.

It was a simple truth: actions speak louder than words. Once he had concrete results to show them, the elders wouldn't oppose his choice.

What he was doing now was a crucial step in his plan for the future.

Leveraging his decent esports talent and a meta understanding that was more than a decade ahead of the current era, he had reached a rank rating of over 2300 in a very short time after graduating high school. Using this as a foundation, he established himself as a high-Elo League of Legends streamer on the YY platform and a creator of educational gameplay videos.

Then, in the second semester of his freshman year, after accumulating a certain number of fans, he applied for the university's student entrepreneurship support fund and opened a retail store!

Yes, an online store run by a college entrepreneur that, on the surface, had absolutely nothing to do with esports!

He recorded and edited various champion guides and high-Elo highlight reels, inserting advertisements for his online store in the middle and at the end of the videos.

"Alright, time for a quick ad break! I'm sure all you handsome guys and gorgeous girls won't skip these three seconds—after all, you wouldn't want to see Ah Ming starve to death on the road to making videos, right?"

"Today's recommendation is our store's best-seller—Youchen Pork Floss Cakes! Made with high-quality pork floss and featuring a whopping 128 layers of flaky pastry! Click the link below to buy a three-pack group deal now and get an instant 20% off!"

"..."

"Hey guys, having a pork floss cake while gaming is absolutely amazing!"

"Buy three or more at once, or join a group buy for even bigger discounts... Of course, our store also has a wide variety of other snacks to choose from. You can copy the link below the video and search for Ah Ming's Snack Shop..."

"Alright, let's get back to our guide on the new champion, Zed, the Master of Shadows. As a standard assassin, it's inevitable for him to struggle in team fights and the late game. However, our Master of Shadows has a different way of handling things compared to other assassins..."