Year 2016
Province Eleven, A-City — Huaxia University
"Bro, you sure you're gonna be okay skipping classes like this?"
Li Wei took a bite from a juicy chicken leg before raising his gaze to the young man sitting across from him on a chair.
The young man appeared to be in his early twenties with a fairly decent face. Wearing simple jeans and a white shirt, he gave off a youthful energy.
"Hey now, who do you think I am? Do you really think I'm just skipping classes without doing anything important?"
The young man smiled confidently before pointing his index finger at Li Wei.
"I'll soon be a millionaire, you hear me? A millionaire! Who cares about some random classes when I have more important things to do!"
Qi Chen then clenched his fist and walked closer to Li Wei.
He grabbed Li Wei's shoulder and shook it violently.
"I'll buy you all the food you want when I'm rich later!"
Right now, college classes were the last thing Qi Chen was worried about. His only goal was to get a high-spec gaming PC.
That's right—
Qi Chen had a system.
He was actually a transmigrator from a parallel Earth. Here, almost everything he knew was different from his original world.
The names of the countries were different, the states, the cities, the TV shows, the games—everything was different.
If this were a novel, then everything would be simple. He could just plagiarize some works from his original world. However, reality was often disappointing.
While Qi Chen could remember some movies or books from his original world, it wasn't like he could remember everything word for word.
As for making music or drawing manga—unfortunately, Qi Chen did not have the talent for any of those.
It had been a few weeks since he had transmigrated here, along with this world's version of Qi Chen's memories.
He had thought that he would live a normal life before, one day, he suddenly received a special treat.
Yesterday, during his lecture, while Qi Chen was playing games on his phone, he received a system notification.
Ding!
[eSports Legends System activating…]
Ding!
[Host: Qi Chen]
[Game chosen: Empty]
(Note: Please choose a game)
-2 days remaining
[Waiting for further progression…]
—
Qi Chen's priority now was to get a gaming PC, because all he had was a laptop that could barely run some games even on medium graphics.
He already had some games in mind to choose from. He wanted to pick a game that was easy to carry alone and had a large enough fanbase so he could compete for bigger prize pools in tournaments later.
As such, skipping one or two lectures was not a problem for Qi Chen.
After all, he needed to choose a game soon.
"Bro, stop shaking my shoulder!"
Li Wei almost dropped his chicken leg and noticed that Qi Chen had zoned out a bit.
Qi Chen snapped back and put on the kindest smile he could produce.
"Bro Wei, we're best friends, right?"
Li Wei put on a blank expression at his smile.
"We just met each other last month."
Qi Chen shook Li Wei's shoulder once again and shouted.
"Hey, don't say that! Even if we barely knew each other last month, it doesn't mean we don't have a strong bond!"
"That's why you need to help me out here, bro!"
Li Wei pushed Qi Chen away and pointed his chicken leg at him.
"Like I said! I don't have money to lend you right now!"
"Why do you even want to buy a new PC? Isn't your current laptop just fine when we played together before?!"
Qi Chen put on a fake dejected face.
"Hmph… You wouldn't understand! I need it so I can be a millionaire!"
"Did you get scammed somewhere?? Are you in some kind of pyramid scheme? Why a new PC, though??"
Qi Chen suddenly walked up to his friend and rubbed his fat stomach violently.
"You fat ass! Gimme some money now, and I'll give you ten times the amount later when I'm rich!!"
Li Wei laughed loudly and squirmed uncomfortably under Qi Chen's belly attack.
"What are you doing! Hahaha! Stop! Hey! I dropped my chicken!"
He then shoved Qi Chen away and breathed heavily.
"Hah, hah… a-anyway! No means no! I don't even know what benefit I'd get from lending you money."
Qi Chen pouted and walked back to his chair.
"Damn greedy belly, you don't even know what you're missing out on…"
"Anyway, if you're not gonna lend me money, at least cover for me in class later this afternoon. I need to do something important."
Li Wei adjusted his shirt and picked up his fallen chicken leg.
"Fine. It's not like anyone will realize you're gone anyway. You don't have friends other than me, after all."
Qi Chen scoffed at that statement.
"Hah! It's not that I can't make friends—I just don't see the need to make many in the first place!"
"Woah… spoken like a true introvert. I envy your confidence sometimes, bro. Damn you, making me waste a perfectly good chicken."
Li Wei stood up and threw the dirty chicken leg into a trash bin.
"I'll be going now. Don't get scammed so easily, dude."
Li Wei slung his bag over his shoulder and walked toward the door to exit their dorm.
"What do you mean scammed! Damn it! Just wait and see!"
"Yeah, yeah. Goodbye."
The dorm finally went silent after Li Wei exited the room. Qi Chen glanced at his watch with an eager expression.
"Well, that's that. I guess I'll have to make do with what I have for now."
"Let's first choose a game before the timer runs out."
Qi Chen stood up and rummaged through his bag. He took out his laptop and swiftly turned it on.
"Now where is that website I found last night… Umm… where is it… Ah! Found it!"
Qi Chen clicked on the website and was brought to a news article titled 'Top 10 Largest E-Sports Prize Pools This Year.'
Qi Chen read through the article with a serious expression.
"This will determine my future, so I must take this seriously."
"Number ten is a game called Rising Legends: Heroes of Tomorrow. Huh? What a dumb name. What do they mean by 'Heroes of Tomorrow'? Is that supposed to sound cool?"
Qi Chen giggled while reading the description of the game.
"It's a 5v5 MOBA game that emphasizes teamwork to destroy the opposing team's throne. Well, that's basically every other MOBA, isn't it?"
Qi Chen then checked the prize pool of the tournament.
"The prize pool of its biggest tournament is one million USD. Huh, that's not a lot. Moreover, it's a MOBA game with five players."
"No way I'm choosing a game that I can't carry alone. As if I'd trust other people when my money is on the line."
Qi Chen scrolled further down and noticed something strange.
The title of the number four game was League of Champions.
"Wait, this number four— isn't this basically LoL from my previous world? Then what was the game before? I thought that was the LoL of this world."
"Hahahaha! What a dumb game! So it's just a cheap copy of League of Champions, huh? Even the prize pool has a two-million USD gap."
"Aiya, even if I were to choose a MOBA game, there's no way I'd ever touch that cheap copy. It has a smaller fanbase and a lower prize pool. That's a no-brainer."
Qi Chen then proceeded to find other games similar to DOTA, CS, and Valorant.
"Well, I guess I know which one to choose. I'll just go with the number two spot."
The number two game on the list was an alternate-world version of Counter-Strike. It had a huge fanbase and massive tournament prize pools.
"It's a competitive shooter game, so I can surely carry the game alone, right? How hard can it be?"
Qi Chen was never a real fan of competitive shooting games in his old world, so all he could do was boldly assume without any real knowledge of the actual gameplay.
"Well, my legend has just begun! Hahahahaha!"
Qi Chen boasted loudly with a smug expression and summoned the system while raising his fist into the air.
"System! I'm ready to choose now."
Ding!
[Host: Qi Chen]
[Game chosen: Empty]
(Note: Please choose a game)
-2 days remaining
Suddenly, he heard a mechanical female voice in his head.
[Received]
[Host, please choose your game now]
"Alright, system. Choose the game that I'm looking at right now!"
Qi Chen wore a joyful expression as he stared at his laptop screen.
[Getting ready…]
[Confirming…]
[Beginning countdown…]
[5]
[4]
Qi Chen was elated before suddenly feeling an itch on his nose.
[3]
Qi Chen felt like sneezing and rubbed his nose with his left hand while his right hand rested on the mouse.
[2]
At the last moment, Qi Chen suddenly sneezed loudly several times, and his finger accidentally hit the scroll button multiple times, scrolling all the way up.
[1]
[Confirmation complete. Game assimilated with system.]
[Host: Qi Chen]
[Game chosen: Rising Legends: Heroes of Tomorrow]
"Wait, what!? That's the wrong game!"
[Negative. Host clearly stated to choose the game that the host was currently looking at.]
"Huh?! Why is the screen scrolled all the way up!?"
"Wait, system! This is a mistake! Let me rechoose!"
[Negative. Host may only choose once.]
Qi Chen fell to his knees with a devastated expression.
"Nooooooo!!!!!"