Chapter 2:
Rayn woke up late, the sun already halfway through the sky. His phone buzzed on the floor, nearly dead, screen still showing the game's interface from the night before. He reached for it lazily, but the moment he opened the app and saw his match history, he sat up straighter.
Three wins. MVP twice.
He hadn't even known what "MVP" really meant until last night.
But it wasn't the wins that made him curious—it was how he won. He hadn't fully understood item builds, rotations, or even what his team was doing half the time. Still… he did well.
He grabbed an old notebook from the corner of his shelf—the same one he used for maths formulas—and turned to a clean page. He scribbled down:
> • Long range heroes feel easier to manage
• Need to check "rotation" meaning
• Items matter more than I thought
• Watch map more—saw enemies coming too late sometimes
(This is what most first benches students do)
That wasn't something most people would do after playing a game. But Rayn wasn't most people.
---
At school, Arush was already talking about his latest ranked games.
> "Dude, I played like a monster last night. Triple kill with Aldrin. Their tank just stood there like a cone!"
Rayn listened quietly. He thought about mentioning his own matches, but decided not to.
He wasn't playing for validation. He was playing to understand.
---
That night, Rayn sat cross-legged on the floor again, phone plugged into the wall, pen and notebook beside him.
Ranked mode.
This time, he didn't pick Layla. He chose a mage named Elysia, curious about how magic users worked. She seemed complex, but her mobility reminded him of patterns he'd seen in real chess games—hit, reposition, trap, repeat.
The match began. His team typed the usual trash talk. Someone flamed him for taking mid as a Warrior.
Rayn stayed quiet.
He lost mid-lane early—but didn't panic. He watched the enemy's skill pattern, dodged better the second wave, then began freezing minions under tower. He didn't chase kills—he tracked movements.
By the 10-minute mark, he still wasn't dominating—but he wasn't dying either. His damage kept increasing. He rotated bottom, got his first assist. Then top, where he stunned two enemies under tower and walked away alive.
When the match ended, he wasn't MVP.
Victory.
KDA: 3/2/9
But even as the victory screen faded, one question stayed in his mind:
> "What's the real goal in these matches? Why do some players rush jungle? Why does mid matter so much?"
As the night grew quiet again, Rayn didn't smile or celebrate. He just looked at the screen, nodded slowly, and whispered:
> "Okay. One step better than yesterday."
"Tomorrow... I'll figure out how this game really works."