It was Saturday, and Dong Jiaoyan had left early for her club activity. The other two roommates, both locals, had gone home too.
That left Qiao Liuyue alone in the dorm.
She opened the game.
Solo queue matchmaking took a while, so she swiped through the interface and casually tapped on a nearby team list. Spotting a room that was one player short, she joined it.
Who knew that the moment she entered, things would go sideways?
The original five slots quickly emptied by three, leaving only the room host and her staring at each other in the now-barren team.
Qiao Liuyue tilted her head, staring at the screen for two seconds, her mind full of question marks. She typed:
Little Qiao Loves Jungle: [What's going on? Is it because my rank is too low, so they all left?]
The host replied fast.
Big Hammer Crushes You: [It's not your fault. The last match went badly, people started arguing, and they all quit as soon as the game ended.]
Little Qiao Loves Jungle: [Oh... So are we still playing?]
Big Hammer Crushes You: [Yeah, let's wait for others.]
The two planned to wait until they had a full five-person team, but the room stayed open for ages. The timer on screen kept ticking up, and no one else joined.
Qiao Liuyue wasn't bothered. She propped her phone on the little desk stand nearby and munched on an apple while waiting, keeping a good attitude.
The host, on the other hand, started to feel bad.
Big Hammer Crushes You: [At this hour, it seems everyone's gone for lunch. How about... we just duo queue for now?]
Little Qiao Loves Jungle: [Sure.]
The game started, and the system randomly matched them with three other teammates.
This time, Qiao Liuyue took the jungle role. She chose the hero Akai.
An assassin who could turn invisible, flank, and pick off squishy targets.
Her strength was that after a kill, her ultimate instantly refreshed its cooldown, letting her take down one enemy after another.
Her weakness was a very thin health bar, making her easy to kill in late-game team fights.
The host, "Big Hammer Crushes You," played the top lane, his hero matching his username perfectly.
Cheng Yaojin.
His health bar was as thick as a city wall, nearly impossible to kill.
And he could heal while running.
The three randomly matched teammates were Xiao Qiao in mid lane, Luban as the marksman, and Zhuang Zhou as the support. The lineup was fairly balanced.
With Cheng Yaojin tanking at the front, Zhuang Zhou's debuff-immune ultimate for protection, and Xiao Qiao plus Luban providing damage, it was a workable team comp.
Once the match began, Qiao Liuyue maneuvered Akai to take her Red buff first, then cleared the surrounding jungle camps.
She planned to go for her Blue buff next, but when she reached her own jungle area, the monster was already gone.
She stared at the empty spot on the screen for two seconds, about to type and ask what happened, when the host's message popped up.
Big Hammer Crushes You (Cheng Yaojin): [The enemy jungler took the Blue.]
Little Qiao Loves Jungle (Akai): [...] ...!!! There's a move like that?]
The moment she sent that, the other three teammates exploded, messages flying up.
[No way? The jungler's a noob?]
[Weekend's here, and the elementary school kids are off again, huh?]
[Don't throw, bro! I've already lost like five in a row. If I lose this one, I'm eating my phone!]
Big Hammer Crushes You (Cheng Yaojin): [Relax, the jungler's a college student.]
[How do you know, Cheng Yaojin? Are you guys duo partners?]
Big Hammer Crushes You (Cheng Yaojin): [No, but we're both near the university district, can tell from the location.]
Luckily, aside from that little incident where the Blue buff got stolen at the start, everything went smoothly after that.
Qiao Liuyue quickly got the hang of Akai's playstyle.
She sneaked down to the bottom lane, crouched in the river brush for three seconds, and when the enemy marksman let down their guard to clear minions, she used her ultimate to go invisible and slip behind them.
A flawless combo execution.
First blood!
The system announcement flashed: "First Blood!"
Qiao Liuyue's lips curled into a slight smile.
From then on, she roamed between all three lanes, each strike precise.
Her kill count climbed steadily.
By the ten-minute mark, her stats showed a clean 10:0:12.
The first number was kills, the second was deaths: zero, not a single death, and the third was assists.
They pushed all the way to the enemy base within ten minutes.
Akai delivered the final blow with her ultimate, taking out the defending mage, and the screen flashed bright red: "Victory."
Big Hammer Crushes You (Cheng Yaojin): [Nice, dude!]
The other teammates piled on with praise: "Carried hard," "Awesome, bro," "That's the most savage noob jungler I've ever seen" — a string of compliments.
Once the match ended and they returned to the room, the host immediately messaged.
Big Hammer Crushes You: [Hey, let's add each other as in-game friends? You play really well. We can team up often.]
Little Qiao Loves Jungle: [Sure.]
So they became friends and played several more matches together.
Just when they were having a blast, Dong Jiaoyan pushed open the dorm door and slipped in silently, waiting until the latest "Victory" popped up.
Then she spoke, a hint of surprise in her voice: "Hey, Liuyue, since when did you start playing King of Glory too?"
Qiao Liuyue put down her phone.
Looking up at her, she replied calmly, "You kept saying I was too slow and bad at games, so I thought I'd practice. Turns out it's pretty fun."
Dong Jiaoyan froze for a second, then laughed, "Oh, that was just a joke. I didn't mean you were actually dumb."
She stepped closer, glanced at the screen, and smiled. "Now we can play together. Which role do you go for?"
Qiao Liuyue: "Jungle."
Dong Jiaoyan blinked again, genuinely surprised. "What? You, a girl, play jungle?"
Qiao Liuyue nodded. "Yeah. Isn't this game all about the thrill of getting kills? Jungle's a blast."
Dong Jiaoyan swallowed the words she was about to say and nodded quietly. "Jungle's good. Jungle's good."
Dong Jiaoyan said that now her friend could play too, so they could team up sometime.
But her party was never empty.
It was always some guy or another, and she had to spend time with her online boyfriend, always busy.
A week later.
Qiao Liuyue had climbed all the way to Diamond rank by teaming up with that guy "Big Hammer Crushes You."
Suddenly, Dong Jiaoyan came to her crying.
"What happened?" she asked.
Dong Jiaoyan grabbed Qiao Liuyue's arm, sobbing, "Liuyue, I think my boyfriend is being shady with some other girl behind my back."
