Chapter 9

Facing his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, few men could remain completely unbothered. As a high school student, Aikawa Kazi was no exception.

"Hello." Aikawa Kazi greeted politely, but his hands, tucked into his windbreaker, made no move to come out.

Lee Sanghyuk, however, withdrew his hand with a carefree smile and said to Han Yizhen beside him, "Yizhen, it's been a long time."

"It's... been a long time." Han Yizhen lowered her head, gripping her bag tightly, appearing somewhat uneasy.

"Hey, don't block the doorway and cause trouble!" A loud voice came from outside the door.

Jin Dongmin and Choe Kyungcheol, carrying their shoulder bags, walked over, and Aikawa Kazi turned around with a slight frown.

After recognizing Aikawa Kazi's face, Choe Kyungcheol suddenly slapped Jin Dongmin's head and said, "You brat, do you want to die? How can you be so impolite to Senior Aikawa!"

"It's not you..." Jin Dongmin looked aggrieved.

"You still say..." Choe Kyungcheol made a move to slap again, and Jin Dongmin quickly shut his mouth and covered his head.

"Why is Senior here at our esports club? Ha, we're really bad, you'll laugh at us," Choe Kyungcheol turned and smiled at Aikawa Kazi.

Although South Korea places great emphasis on the etiquette between seniors and juniors, if Aikawa Kazi were just a senior, the usually carefree Choe Kyungcheol wouldn't care about such formalities.

"I came with Yizhen. By the way, who are you?" Aikawa Kazi asked with a puzzled expression.

"I'm Kyungcheol, Choe Kyungcheol. Last month, Dongmin and I went to the Seoul Esports Hall and watched the friendly match between the NJS reserve team and the SKT reserve team led by Senior. It was amazing! Oh, when I found out Senior was studying at our school, I even went up to get your autograph with Dongmin!"

"Oh, it's you. I remember now. Hello," Aikawa Kazi said, suddenly recalling.

"Senior, Senior, I'm Dongmin, Jin Dongmin. That match was incredible. By the way, Senior, isn't NJS Club almost ready to debut you?" Jin Dongmin asked curiously.

In esports, "debut" refers to a player's first appearance in an official match, similar to how entertainment companies debut trainees. If a player performs well, they have a chance to become famous. Notable examples include NJS's Watch, SKT's Piglet, and KTA's Ssumday. Before their debuts, they were all trainees, and after their first official matches, they became national esports idols, with Ssumday even reported to earn half a billion won a year, entering the ranks of South Korea's elite.

Aikawa Kazi smiled at Jin Dongmin's question but didn't answer.

"You idiot, that's NJS Club's secret. Do you understand what a secret is?" Choe Kyungcheol said. "But Senior, you're already a Diamond God at this young age, you'll be as amazing as Brother Watch when you debut!"

"Watch? Is he that good?" Lee Sanghyuk suddenly asked, out of place.

Aikawa Kazi's smile gradually faded. As a core member of NJS and the one who led the team to win the OGN championship, he held great respect for his senior, Watch. Now, almost every young person in South Korea knew Watch, and no one would question his prowess. Lee Sanghyuk's question was naturally seen as an insult to Watch and a provocation to Aikawa Kazi.

"You brat, you... don't talk nonsense if you don't understand!" Choe Kyungcheol was about to say, "Do you want to die?" but noticed that Jung Soojung in the activity room had already noticed the situation and was walking over, looking puzzled.

"Senior, don't be angry. This guy is a bookworm and doesn't understand esports," Jin Dongmin added.

"It's fine. I know he's a bookworm. I found out two months ago!" Aikawa Kazi suddenly changed his demeanor, a mocking smile on his lips, and put his arm around Han Yizhen, brushing past Lee Sanghyuk.

Han Yizhen struggled slightly, feeling awkward, but ultimately leaned on Aikawa Kazi's shoulder as they walked past.

"Hey, how can you talk like that?" Chee Sukhyeon stood beside Lee Sanghyuk, indignant, and shouted at Aikawa Kazi.

"What? Don't believe me? Ask him. Is what I said wrong?" Aikawa Kazi, still holding Han Yizhen, turned around, his smile turning to disdain.

Chee Sukhyeon, who was in the same class as Han Yizhen, naturally knew about her and Lee Sanghyuk's past. Afraid of bringing up the topic and hurting Lee Sanghyuk, the usually lively and talkative girl was momentarily speechless, her fists clenched tightly.

"Wrong!" Lee Sanghyuk patted Chee Sukhyeon's shoulder and turned to Aikawa Kazi.

When Lee Sanghyuk's hand touched her shoulder, Chee Sukhyeon's heart skipped a beat. She looked up at Lee Sanghyuk, who smiled warmly in the afternoon sun. For some reason, the usually lively and willful girl suddenly relaxed her fists and fell silent.

Jung Soojung, who had just approached, saw Lee Sanghyuk's hand on the girl's shoulder and felt a strange, indescribable discomfort.

"Oh, wrong?" Aikawa Kazi tightened his arm around Han Yizhen, his mocking smile growing.

"Right, wrong. I'm a bookworm, so if I can even win a solo match against you, aren't you even worse than a bookworm?" Lee Sanghyuk said calmly.

"What? Senior Aikawa can't solo against Lee Sanghyuk?" Jin Dongmin asked, surprised.

"How is that possible? You must be crazy. Lee Sanghyuk is just boasting," Choe Kyungcheol said.

"Ha, I can't solo against you?" Aikawa Kazi asked, amused. "Have we ever soloed before?"

"No," Lee Sanghyuk replied with a faint smile. "I'm just stating a fact. Because I'm strong! Want to try?"

"Even though I know you're trying to provoke me." Aikawa Kazi glanced at Han Yizhen, remembering the look of resentment in Lee Sanghyuk's eyes two months ago, and said calmly, "Not everyone is worthy of soloing against me, but for Yizhen's sake, I'll give you this chance. And this time, I'll make you lose convincingly."

"Can you arrange two free computers for us? Thank you," Lee Sanghyuk asked Jung Soojung, looking at the rows of computers along the wall in the esports room.

"Lee Sanghyuk, are you really going to solo against Senior Aikawa?" Jung Soojung asked, concerned.

"Don't worry, I won't embarrass our class, Class President," Lee Sanghyuk said, smiling at the worried Jung Soojung.

"Ah! I'm not worried about that, I'm worried... about you," Jung Soojung's voice trailed off.

The two quickly chose two back-to-back computers in the esports room. When the others in the room heard that someone was going to solo, and that it was the famous bookworm and the esports genius from Gwangju Science High School who had been exposed as an NJS reserve player a month ago, they gathered around with various thoughts.

"Hey, bookworm, do you have an account? It's not a low-level one, right?" Choe Kyungcheol, standing next to Aikawa Kazi, shouted at Lee Sanghyuk, "Do you want me to lend you one? Otherwise, don't say Senior Aikawa used a high-level account to bully you."

"Even if you had a high-level account, it would still be bullying," someone in the crowd said, causing a ripple of low laughter.

Lee Sanghyuk didn't respond, logging into the account given to him by the kimchi shop owner. Since the entire League of Legends game in Korea was on one server, they quickly found each other and created a custom room.

Seeing Lee Sanghyuk silently and quickly typing in his account and password and logging into the game, the crowd gathered around, curious.

"Ha, Gwangju Bap Bap Kimchi Shop Smile? Is Lee Sanghyuk doing an endorsement?" someone asked, recognizing Lee Sanghyuk's ID.

"Impossible. I heard he's working part-time. Maybe he's just working at that kimchi shop and chose the ID for fun," a classmate of Lee Sanghyuk said.

"Really funny, too childish," someone sneered.

"Wait, doesn't this ID seem familiar?"

"Right, did you watch Brother Ji's show yesterday? The Zed mentioned as the 'Naruto Zed' seems to be this ID. Let me check," someone pulled out their phone.

"Right, it's this ID," a quick-fingered boy in the crowd confirmed.

"Tch, it's normal for a rookie to appear in Zheng Xuanzhi's entertainment video. Does he think he's a star just because he was on TV?" Choe Kyungcheol said disdainfully.

"No, Kyungcheol, did you not watch Brother Ji's show yesterday afternoon?" Jin Dongmin pulled on Choe Kyungcheol's sleeve.

"Tch, I don't watch entertainment commentary shows. They're just a bunch of rookies being funny, no fun at all," Choe Kyungcheol said, shrugging.

"Yesterday's episode wasn't funny. That Zed was really good," someone in the crowd said.

"Right, that Zed was like Naruto. It felt like he was playing a completely different game from us!"

"By the way, did you see this morning's esports news? Last night, an anti-SSW fan took this video to the SSW official website to cause trouble. The one who first publicly said Zed was a weak champion and suggested a rework was SSW's mid laner, PawN."

"Right, I saw that news. Last night, PawN had to come out and publicly explain that he still believes Zed is a weak champion and not recommended. The reason Zed looked so good in the video is that the players on both sides were not on the same level. The player using Zed in the video, based on his awareness and skill, is conservatively estimated to be at least Diamond 1, which is an unavoidable display of strength."

"What strength? PawN is just afraid of being proven wrong and doesn't want to admit that Zed isn't as weak as he said. Do you really believe that the bookworm sitting across from us has Diamond 1 skill? And conservatively estimated?" Choe Kyungcheol interrupted the discussion, pointing at Lee Sanghyuk and sneering.

In this parallel world, about a quarter of South Korea's 50 million population works in esports or related fields, and about a tenth works in the secondary industries driven by esports. The level of esports integration in this world is far more extensive than the entertainment industry in Lee Sanghyuk's previous life. With League of Legends being the most popular esports game in this world, the player base is naturally very large, and all players are on one server. The significance of ranks in this world is even more important.

Aikawa Kazi didn't answer Jin Dongmin's question about the NJS Club. To debut in the NJS Club, one must at least reach the rank of Challenger. In school, he was called a genius, not just a recent Diamond player, and he had been at Diamond 5 for a while. The competition was fierce, and it was more accurate to say that Choe Kyungcheol couldn't believe that a bookworm like Lee Sanghyuk could have Diamond 1 skill, rather than not believing PawN's explanation. What would they be if they were still stuck in Silver?