"Bro, Aatrox has been out of meta for ten thousand years. If I can't solo kill you five times, I'll go AFK." id Kengshen Yidao Liu's Mundo couldn't help but taunt in all-chat—this was the perfect chance to show off in front of the girls.

It has to be said, in peaceful times, Summoner's Rift has provided countless men with a place to display their masculine charm and hormones.

David Thompson was still pretty calm on his side. If you opened the o-assistant, David Thompson was a 3,000-game Aatrox player—no way the opponent would be this cocky. Hero mastery can break the rules, but if you check the official o-assistant, he looks like a total newbie.

"Mr. Thompson, stay cool, level up Q at level one, whatever you do, don't take E, you can't out-trade him." Samuel Reed reminded over voice chat. "Mr. Foster, let's play aggressive."

Vayne and Leona—this was Samuel Reed and John Foster's most practiced combo, the classic face-smash duo.

But before he finished speaking, the "first blood" sound had already rung out. Samuel Reed and the others' first reaction was a chill, but then they realized—wait, it was their team that got first blood.

Top lane's Dr. Mundo was already lying on the ground. What the hell?

"Kengshen, what's going on? Don't throw the game, man."

"Heh, just a fluke, just a fluke. Damn, took too much minion damage, it's fine. Even if you give Aatrox three kills, he's still trash."

Mundo immediately teleported back to lane, just in time to block David Thompson from finishing off most of the minions. Kengshen was pissed—just now this Aatrox danced right in front of him. If it were Darius, he could tolerate it, but this useless Aatrox? Where do they even sell this kind of trash? He threw his cleaver, but Aatrox dodged it, then instantly started dancing again. How could he stand that? Big Mundo charged in, both sides refusing to back down. There are plenty of iron-willed guys in ranked. But the result was, the enemy minions were just stronger than his.

s: Thanks to Lochis Miejie's million-dollar reward, making "League of Legends: My Era" the Silver Grand Alliance Leader. Lochis also sent a few cases of good liquor to boost Skeleton's spirits, including a case of the seventeen famous liquors since the founding of the country, some of which are rare vintage bottles. Feels like I have to write like crazy now, thank you.

Chapter 16: Not Bad, Not a Noob

As soon as Mundo's teleport landed, he threw a cleaver. David Thompson sidestepped it, not fighting head-on. He drank a health potion, and with lifesteal, the health he lost for first blood slowly climbed back to healthy. He kept farming, hit level two and took Q, and immediately started trading. He leveled W at one, so he wasn't afraid of Mundo going all-in—he just didn't want Mundo to play it safe.

Very quickly, Mundo realized something was wrong. Two cleavers missed, and he lost over half his health to Aatrox's third Q. Kengshen immediately sensed danger—this guy's got something going on. What kind of insane dodging is this?

The moment he flashed, Aatrox's Q was already waiting, perfectly predicting his movement. One slash, two slashes, then the terrifying third Q landed.

Mundo's death notification sounded again. The bot lane trio felt relieved. Maybe not challenger level, but at least Mr. Thompson wasn't a feeder—they could focus on their own lane.

But dying twice as Mundo was a huge loss. If it were any other champion, it would be hopeless.

"Guys, the enemy's on a smurf. I'll play safe for now, jungler, come help me out." Kengshen smirked and got serious. Mundo is one of the hardest champions to kill, and against Aatrox, as long as he gets his tank items, the enemy is useless.

The problem was, good as that sounded, David Thompson was way ahead in gold. He hit level 6 first and dove the tower for a kill. The enemy Olaf jungler came, missed his axe, and still charged in, only to die together.

The game had barely started, and Aatrox was already 4:0 and snowballing. Mundo's Sunfire Cape was nowhere in sight, and the enemy Olaf gave up on top lane, leaving Mundo to fend for himself. The bot lane trio was doing even better—since top was lost, the enemy support was clearly panicking. Their ADC was decent, but couldn't 1v2, especially against a veteran duo. They quickly racked up 6 kills, and with a 12 to 3 kill lead, the enemy surrendered at 20 minutes.

With a "victory" sound, Samuel Reed and John Foster high-fived in satisfaction. Damn, this is our real strength.

"Mr. Thompson, nice, your Aatrox is legit," Samuel Reed laughed. "That Mundo on the other side is such a noob, can't even beat Aatrox with Mundo."

David Thompson actually thought the enemy Mundo was okay. He was a bit cocky at first, but steadied up later. Once he forced out Ninja Tabi and Sunfire, he was hard to kill. Especially when David Thompson wanted to force a kill, the guy would just hide under his inhibitor turret and never come out. To be able to turtle like that, he had to be at least high Platinum. Of course, David Thompson was more interested in watching the bot lane duo's playstyle. Even though he had Teleport, he never used it.

Samuel Reed and John were finally reassured—at least David Thompson wasn't a noob. Judging by his performance, he was at least high Gold, and pretty skilled with Aatrox. Hopefully, he wasn't a one-trick. Aatrox is fine for casual play, but can't really make it to the big stage. Not to mention official matches, even in five-man team ranked, he doesn't have much room to shine.

After one game, Samuel Reed