Chapter 7

After his episode with Weidong and his followers, Luó Xiang ended up spending the rest of gym class behind block B, playing his game in peace.

He would have stayed there till school let out, but a teacher who was making rounds caught him and some other ditchers. As a punishment for skipping class, they were tasked with the responsibility of cleaning the library after school hours.

Feeling defeated, he decides to retire to class, and attend the rest of the classes. On entrance, he sees the entire class gathered around in a large circle, with Chen Fenhua sitting casually on Han Zixuan's desk.

Luó Xiang who could remember him from earlier nodded, not wanting things to become awkward, after all they did make eye contact.

He marched to his seat, with every intention to ignore his classmates, he pulled out his game console and logged in.

His username was black—coyfish_89 and right next to his ID was twenty bronze stars, five silver stars and one gold star.

He sighed, 'I need another gold star to rank up.' the game started and Luó Xiang poured all his concentration into it, seeing as the teacher wasn't coming. He placed one foot on his desk, and reclined into his seat, treating the desk like he would the futon in his bedroom.

Little did the young master expect to see five heads peering into his screen, watching him play.

"Shit." He cursed, one of the other players took advantage of his momentary stun and shot him from behind.

Due to how highly ranked he was, Luó Xiang recovered quickly, and even took down the player who shot at him, settling the score.

The screen lit up with the letters that spelt WINNER on the screen. He grinned in satisfaction and waited for the next set of players to enter the room.

"Beauty, you play Diabolical quest?" Gu Ai asked, suddenly fawning over Luó Xiang. The young master looked over his shoulder to see five excited classmates, staring sheepishly at him.

His lips pulled back into a nervous smile.

"Yes." He managed to answer.

Feng Yi's eyes widened, he exchanged glances with Gu Ai, then deflected his gaze back to Luó Xiang. "What is your rank?" He hastily asked, already pulling a desk next to the young master, sitting on it.

Gu Ai did the same, taking the young master's right side, since Feng Yi took the left, the other guys just stood behind Luó Xiang, admiring his console.

"Sage." He casually said, as though he were merely telling the time.

Almost half of the class shifted their attention to him, with dropped jaws and widened eyes. Even the girls were stunned, Diabolical quest was a trending game that some famous celebrities were playing.

Ever since it's successful launch six years ago, it had won the hearts of the population both young and old, with eleven ranks, based on skills, level and achievements.

Mortal. Scout. Beast. Warrior. Mage. Ghoul. Legend. Sage. Phoenix. god-like. Grand Master.

"Sister, are you sure you're a sage ranked player? You'd have to be in the world top 50 to be a sage ranked player." Feng Yi stated in disbelief that such a delicate flower was into gaming.

And at that, such a hard and time consuming game.

Luó Xiang who knew that much just sighed and displayed his profile for the doubters, shutting all of them up. Gu Ai, who was the highest ranked player, at level Mage, couldn't believe that he would meet a higher ranked player in his class.

"When did you start playing? A year? Two?" He asked hoping to console himself, after all he had only been playing for eight months.

Luó Xiang rolled his tongue around his mouth counting the days in his head, "about four months."

"What?!"

"Is that even possible?!"

Feng Yi rubbed his eyes, "to have attained that rank in such a short span of time, you wouldn't have had time to eat, sleep or socialize. Just what were you doing overseas?"

Luó Xiang who took that as a compliment smiled, inwardly he knew he should have been ranked higher, but there was a particular problem he hadn't the faintest idea of how to fix.

"Say, beauty, why don't you join our team? We're entering this year's Blood War tournament, and are short of two members. If you join, we'll only need to look for one more member to complete our team." Gu Ai hastily offered.

Feng Yi slapped the back of his head.

"Team captain aren't you just using games to ask out girls?!" He teased with an all knowing look on his face.

The class laughed erupted into a surge of laughter at the sly Gu Ai, whose last girlfriend was his kindergarten sweetheart.

"Sister, don't listen to them, I wouldn't try picking up girls that way, though you're welcome to fall for me." He said, pushing back his hair, grinning goofily from ear to ear.

Chen Fenhua who noticed Luó Xiang get sucked into Gu Ai's pace, immediately kicked Han Zixuan's desk, making a loud bang noise. When everyone looked in his direction, he simply continued staring at his phone, ignoring their stares.

'What a kill joy.' Luó Xiang rolled his eyes and thought, he was truly enjoying Gu Ai's humour, more than he'd like to admit.

"Feng Yi, you're just in beast level, shouldn't you be kowtowing to me?" Gu Ai went on to say, striking a nerve.

Feng Yi clicked his tongue, "like I said, that's because I was logged out for a week and missed the end of week quest. Once I get serious again, I'll catch up to you in no time." He defended with reddened ears.

"If sister joins our team, we might take home the prize of +1000xp points credited to our accounts! This isn't the time to feed our egos." Gu Ai said, trying to reason with him.

The other boys nodded in unison.

"Yes sister! With your skills we might make it past the first round."

"Forget that fucking Feng Yi."

Feng Yi snapped, "when did I say she shouldn't join?!" He let out an exasperated sigh.

"Who wouldn't want a beauty like her on the team?"

Luó Xiang shook his head, they had started to nurture dreams they shouldn't be having, after all he never remembered agreeing to joining their team.

Or any team for that matter.

He was just about to tell them off, when Shaiming left the circle and wrapped her hands around his neck from behind, resting her chin on his head.

"As expected of Xia-Xia! Only you can have both the looks and the skills!" She said, tightening her playful grip.

"Won't you help their team? They entered last year but lost in the first round. Aside his kindergarten sweetheart, Gu Ai has nothing more to look forward to in life." She chipped in, blinking sheepishly at Gu Ai.

The rest of the class burst out laughing.

"You know, it's funny because it's true!"

"Someone please date Gu Ai!"

"When all he watches is anime and all he does is play games, who would date him?" Feng Yi teased, Gu Ai narrowed his eyes at him.

Luó Xiang didn't want to give in, but for the first time was faced with the brutal monster which went by the name of peer pressure. The need to not want to disappoint those around him, at the expense of his own comfort and privacy overwhelmed him.

Faced with such intimidation, a shut-in otaku stood no chance.

However, he wouldn't go down without a fight.

"Didn't you say we were short of two members? Even if I join, who would fill up the last remaining seat?" Luó Xiang asked, hoping to discourage them.

The rest of the class fell silent, the fairy was right, and there was no other player left in their class.

Or so they thought.

"I'll join." Chen Fenhua's calm voice announced from the front, without once looking away from his screen.

Luó Xiang cocked a brow.

"Eh? Since when did you play games?!" Feng Yi blurted out in disbelief. He didn't expect the school prince to 'waste' his time on something so tasteless.

Chen Fenhua didn't say much, he simply logged into his account and displayed his rank for the whole class to see.

Everyone gasped, excluding Luó Xiang, who had an unreadable expression on his face.

"Rank Legend?!!" The class roared, left in complete stun over Chen Fenhua's secret online identity.