Rise

abilities at this branch of the NetCow Cafe, and Qian Lu was proud of that fact. 

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“Damn.
Ol’ Qian really went all out this time, huh?”
“He really did.
I can’t believe he set up a professional tournament stage in the middle of an internet cafe.”
“Probs more than worth it though.”
“Damn straight.
People will come in here just to watch teams play on a stage like this.”
“Yeah, especially if our team does really well!”
“Ol’ Qian’s going to bring in way more than he invested into this, that’s for sure!” 

Then, all of a sudden, a wave of silence rolled through the internet cafe.
All conversations about challengers, the stage, and speculation about the tournament completely ceased. 

‘They’re here! They’re here!”
“Our team is here!”
“They’ve come out!”

When Lin Feng and the rest of Team Shanghai walked out of their private room and stepped up onto the stage in the center of the internet cafe, all eyes were glued on them.
No customer, besides the Lads, had seen the team that would be representing their internet cafe before now.
There was a few seconds of silence as everyone took in the sight of Team Shanghai, and then pandemonium erupted from the crowd of customers.
The mood had shifted from excitement and curiosity to shock and disbelief.

“T-this, this is our team…?”
“No freaking way.”
“They’re just high schoolers!”

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“GG boys.
We’ve lost.”
“Shit! They even have two girls on their team!”

The initial shock came from how young everyone on Team Shanghai was, but the disbelief came from the fact that An Xin and Tang Bingyao, two girls, were on the team.
That disbelief came from two very different lines of thought though.
One side was captivated by the beauty of the two girls, while the other one was mindblown that Qian Lu would hire a team with girls on it to represent their internet cafe. 

“They’re so pretty!”
“Both are hotties for sure!”
“Perfect 10s!”
“I mean, if the tournament was best on looks, we’d definitely win right!?”
“Focus, morons! Does anyone even know if these girls are good?”
“Looking hot ain’t gonna win us matches.
All the other net cafes are gonna come correct.
They’re not going to throw weak teams at us.”
“Exactly! What was Ol’ Qian even thinking when he recruited a bunch of high schoolers? Those two girls, can they even play?” 

There were more than a few female gamers at the NetCow Cafe.
When they heard all the doubts about An Xin and Tang Bingyao, every single one of them was pissed off.

“The fuck are you on about, twinkledick?”
“What? You think they can’t be good just because they’re girls?”
“If you’re such hot shit because you got a pecker that people need a magnifying glass to see, why aren’t you up on that stage?”
“80% of you are hardstuck at Bronze and Silver, but you’re all god gamers because you’re guys?”
“Sit the fuck down, you’re just embarrassing yourselves.”

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“Eat shit and die, virgin!” 

After another minute of insults and fighting the good fight against misogyny in gaming, all the girls started cheering in support of Tang Bingyao and An Xin.

“Do your best, you got this girls!”
“Girls get it done!”
“We believe in you!”
“Ignore the idiots!”

“Oh, it’s pretty packed today!” Lin Feng remarked in high spirits.
He sat down in front of his computer and looked around the lobby. 

An Xin turned to Zeng Rui.
“What’s the time, Zeng Zeng?”

Zeng Rui checked his watch and replied, “15 minutes until 12.”

“And the tournament starts at 12.
Do you think we’ll get a challenger right away?”

Zeng Rui shook his head.  “Can’t say for sure.
This tournament is different from others.
There’s no fixed schedule for matches, and challengers get to pick who they want to face at any time.
It’s possible no one will turn up.
There’s also logistics to consider.
It’ll take time for people to get from their internet cafe to ours.”

“This sucks! The only thing we can do right now is sit around and wait…” Lin Fen chimed in with a sigh.
“Ya know what? Man! If Ol’ Qian thought ahead a bit more and signed us up for the Conqueror prize instead, we wouldn’t have to sit around waiting.
We could go out and smash other teams.
That’d be so much more fun!”

Zeng Rui massaged his temples. Thundering dumbass. Then he said, “It’s fine.
We’re okay.
Let’s just keep waiting.
We can get some practice games in while we wait.”