LOL: Do I have to be a spinning top too?

"A spinning top should look like a spinning top!"

"You have to be drawn first before you can transfer."

"It can't just start spinning on its own without being drawn!"

"What kind of talk is that!"

In a corner of an internet cafe in Shanghai, Li Hu, with a straw in his mouth, typed rapidly on the keyboard.

A crowd had gathered behind him without him even noticing.

The reason is simple...

Three minutes ago, the internet cafe's announcement system suddenly went off:

"The player currently aboard Z-18 is the strongest player from the pinnacle of the Rift..."

The entire internet cafe fell silent for half a second.

The ultimate champion? What does that even mean?

Of the tens of millions of players in the entire Chinese server, only a few hundred or a thousand can reach the King rank in the Canyon of Heroes.

  

That's definitely top-tier amateur talent; who knows, he might go pro someday.

Several players who were nearby were the first to gather around, wanting to see what this big shot looked like.

Upon closer inspection of the ID on the screen...

[Tiger General's Hand Gesture Dance is So Cute!]

Several people gasped in shock.

Holy crap! They know that ID!

A dark horse has recently emerged in the Challenger tier, specializing in the top lane position, with an incredibly deep champion pool...

He plays Camille, Riven, Sett, Nasus, and Malphite so skillfully that he climbed from Silver rank in the Challenger tier to third place in just one month, with an absurdly high win rate.

Someone specifically checked, and this account has a win rate of over 80%, which is even more exaggerated than the smurf accounts of professional players.

"Holy crap, it really is that random passerby who used my name, Tiger General!"

"Quick, quick, call the brothers to see the third-ranked player in the Rift!"

The news spread like wildfire, and in no time, seven or eight people had gathered behind Li Hu.

At the end of 2022, just after the S12 World Championship, DRX made a stunning comeback against T1 to win the championship.

Of the four LPL teams, JDG fell in the semifinals, while EDG and RNG fell in the quarterfinals.

Our second seed, TES, who were sweating profusely, were eliminated in the round of 16 after losing to Vietnam.

LPL viewers are experiencing their annual "our region is doomed" moment.

At this moment, I saw a player ranked third in the Rift playing ranked games at an internet cafe, which was similar to seeing a wild giant panda on the roadside.

Li Hu ignored the commotion behind him; his attention was entirely focused on the screen.

Because he had already started the match, and the opponent he was matched with had already locked in Fiora.

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Hu locked down Camille.

The crowd of onlookers behind him immediately stirred.

"Holy crap, Camille versus Fiora?"

"Isn't this just pure masochism?"

"Don't you understand? General Tiger's Camille is a signature move. I saw it in someone's livestream before..."

"He has solo-killed many top-ranked solo streamers on the opposing team."

"Come on, I just checked, and it seems like the opponent is Fourteen Sword Maidens."

"Fourteen Sword Maidens' Fiora is one of the best in the Chinese server, and he's a top player who can even make it into the top ten in the Korean server."

"Plus, Camille is already a tough opponent for Fiora, so I doubt it."

"What's so mysterious about that? You don't know anything."

"General Tiger is the third strongest in the canyon, how could he not have something special?"

A group of people were talking at once, some optimistic and others waiting to see the joke.

Li Hu ignored him, and the game entered the loading screen.

He leaned back in his chair, slowly took a sip of the iced dew, and lingered on the Fiora's portrait across from him for two seconds.

Fourteen Sword Maidens, right?

Perfect timing, his Fiora collection is still quite incomplete.

……

Three minutes, FirstBlood!

The moment the system notification sounded, the chatter behind me abruptly stopped.

On the screen, Camille fell in front of her own tower, while Fiora escaped with low health at the last second.

"Uh...did I carelessly not dodge?" someone tried to salvage the situation.

Five minutes later, Camille was solo killed again.

This was a genuine solo kill in lane. Fourteen Sword Maidens pinpointed the openings and landed four hits in a second, displaying fluid and skillful execution.

Li Hu's Camille was gone before she could even use her ultimate.

Silence fell behind him. Ten minutes later, the score was 0-8.

Fifteen minutes later, 0-11.

By the 26th minute, the score had reached a shocking 1-16.

The only kill came from a low-health support player he eliminated during a team fight.

The onlookers behind them went from initial amazement to silence, and now... looking at each other in bewilderment.

What is this? This is third in the Rift?

How could he be beaten like this by the Fourteen Sword Maidens?

Wait a minute, this isn't what I heard!

Wasn't it said that General Tiger was invincible in the top lane and could kill any hero?

How come he was completely dominated by Fourteen Sword Maidens and didn't even have the strength to fight back?

"This...could it be someone borrowing my account?"

Finally, someone couldn't help but mutter something under their breath.

These words were like a switch being flipped, and the surrounding chatter instantly erupted.

"I knew it! How could the third-ranked player in the Rift be this bad?"

"Exactly, although this Sword Maiden is consistently ranked in the top ten, her playstyle is more about playing conservatively and farming."

"If you can get killed by him to 1-16, you're really bad."

"I guess he bought the account, or borrowed a friend's account to show off."

"Sigh, I got excited for nothing. I thought I was going to see some pro plays."

Mocking, booing, and gossiping mingled together and drifted into Li Hu's ears.

Li Hu remained expressionless.

His fingers continued typing on the keyboard, as if the words behind him had nothing to do with him.

Only he himself knows...

In his field of vision, a semi-transparent golden encyclopedia was floating next to the screen.

On the character guide, a dim Fiora icon is slowly lighting up from the bottom.

[Panel Log]

[Detection] The host is being suppressed by the Peerless Sword Maiden...

Solo kill x6, CS advantage x107, Tower dive kill x2, Encountering gank and being killed x8.

"Host detected to have been solo-killed by Fiora, currently learning from the opponent's champion..."

"Absorption progress +0.001%"

"Host detected to have been tower-dived and killed by Fiora, absorption progress +0.003%"

"Host detected to have been ganked and killed by Fiora and her jungler; absorption progress +0.001%"

"Judgment: The host is enjoying the pleasure of being spun around like a top."

"Suggestion: The enemy should increase their efforts so that the host can spin at high speed and absorb more hero operation skills and understanding."

Li Hu: "..."

He silently rolled his eyes in his mind.

Enjoy? I'll never enjoy anything.

The system's suggestions are really sarcastic and unhelpful.

He did want the other side to intensify their efforts, but the problem was...

My teammates are all spinning tops just like me, and the enemy Fiora is playing so steadily, what can I do?

You can't just spin around in place, can you?

What's the difference between him and Wayward from TES?

It was really tiring.

After losing to Europe and America, they lost to Vietnam, and were sent home in the round of 16. They've lost all face.

He glanced down at his top lane profile.

Camille, Riven, Sett, Malphite, Nasus, Vayne...

All of these have been fully activated and the progress bar has been pulled to 100%.

Don't ask why Vayne is in the encyclopedia.

The answer is...

There are three unfilial acts, and Vayne is the top laner.

There were a dozen or so others with half of their lights on, including Kennen, Darius, Volibear, Jax, and all sorts of other random characters.

These are the secrets to his ability to reach third place in the Rift.

Li Hu silently calculated in his mind that from his rebirth in July 2026 to 2022, it had been a month.

In his previous life, he was a substitute top laner for a team in the secondary league. He sat on the bench for a year and after retiring, he ended up making a living by working at a gaming companion store.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in 2022.

He became a newly turned 18-year-old internet addict again, and then he awakened this [spinning top panel].

As the name suggests... he's a spinning top.

【Spinning Top Panel】

Host: Li Hu

Age: 18

Rank: Challenger (1957 points) in the Challenger tier of the Rift

Status: Gyro physique being activated

Passive - Gyro Absorption

When the host is suppressed by the opponent in the game (solo kill, farm advantage, tower dive, being ganked and killed).

It automatically learns from the opponent's operational experience and understanding of the hero, as well as their overall strategic vision when using that hero.

Each extraction: 0.001%~0.1% (depending on the degree of compression)

When the progress reaches 100%, you will have a complete grasp of all the hero's actions and psychological game logic in that matchup.

In layman's terms...

The more you are abused, the faster you learn.

If you want a spinning top to spin fast, you have to whip it hard enough.

Sounds pretty awesome, right?

But the problem is... we need to get it running first.

Therefore, Li Hu has a habit when playing ranked matches.

When matched against a strong opponent, he would deliberately choose a difficult hero to fight, and go up to get spun around like a top, the harder the better.

Anyway, losing won't cost you anything, and you can even get free hero proficiency, which is a huge win.

As for why this account still has an 81% win rate...

Of course he used a different account when he was picked off!

This main account is for ranking up; you can't just use it to feed the enemy, can you?

Today, he happened to be matched with Fiora, and he figured he could use this opportunity to gain some proficiency with her, so he didn't switch accounts.

Unexpectedly... these fourteen sword maidens were too reliable.

I've killed him sixteen times already, and he's still steadily pushing the lane.

Li Hu was somewhat helpless.

No, that won't work!

It seems that the Digital Fiora is still not as strong as the Organ Fiora!

When people encounter a noob, they really spin like a top, making you spin in place until the sky darkens.

If JJking, that madman, were sitting opposite me, he could unlock a tenth of Fiora's roster in this game.

He ignored the taunts behind him.

Why bother arguing with a bunch of strangers?

They know absolutely nothing about the aesthetics of spinning tops.

……

Thirty minutes.

The game ended, and the moment the crystal exploded, Li Hu's score was frozen at 2-18.

Oh, that kill was taken by the enemy jungler who rushed in to spawn camp, and he just casually picked it up.

So it wasn't a wasted life to die eighteen times.

The crowd behind him dispersed in a panic.

They dispersed even faster than they arrived, as if they were avoiding a plague.

"Tch, it was obviously a borrowed account. What a waste of my time."

"Exactly, third in the Rift? I could do that too."

"Let's go, let's go, this is boring."

The murmurs gradually faded away.

Li Hu leaned back in his chair and glanced at the progress of the Sword Maiden.

Yes, it's 12%.

It's alright, better than nothing, there will be plenty of opportunities to get a turn in the future anyway.

He was just about to place his order for the next round...

A friend request suddenly popped up in the bottom right corner.

【TES-zhouxiang】Requests to add you as a friend.

Li Hu raised an eyebrow.

TES?

He casually clicked "agree".

The chat window lit up the next second.

【TES-zhouxiang】：

"Hello, I'm a youth coach for TES. How old are you? Are you interested in playing professionally?"

Looking at the words on the screen, Li Hu thought of the familiar TES spinning top team logo and TES's record over the past 26 years.

He picked up the iced drink on the table and took a sip.

Li Hu paused for a moment, then let out a soft hum:

"Can I be a spinning top too?"