A Legend in the Leage

The reality check

The shrill, repetitive sound of the alarm woke Rágnar with a jolt on Tuesday morning. He sat up on the mattress with a heavy body and half-open eyes, staring at the gray ceiling of his room while the morning cold seeped through the cracks of the window. For a moment, the disappointment of returning to the mundane routine hit him in the chest. He had spent the entire night dreaming of the golden flash of the system, the roar of the wild jungle wolf, and that electrifying holographic word that still floated in his memory like a promise: Draft.

However, the harsh reality of the outside world awaited him with open arms. Looking at the calendar on his wooden desk, he remembered the immediate obstacle he had to bypass before being able to submerge himself back into the Abyss: Professor Martínez’s math exam.

"What a drag," he muttered to himself, letting out a long sigh as he put on his worn-out school uniform. "Solving boring equations on a piece of paper is not a real challenge compared to what awaits me in the League’s Draft Mode."

He went down the stairs in silence. He had a hurried breakfast next to his parents, who were talking in low voices about the slow reconstruction of the neighboring districts after the great meteorite explosion. Rágnar barely paid attention to the family chatter; his brain was completely occupied modeling jungle clear routes, calculating the exact spawn times of the runic monsters, and designing strategies for when he had to face human opponents. He greeted his mother with a quick kiss, took his backpack, and headed outside, walking under the overcast sky toward the high school.

Upon entering the classroom, the atmosphere felt dense. His classmates were reviewing crumpled sheets of paper at the last minute, memorizing mathematical formulas in desperation. Rágnar sat in his corner desk, observing the scene with a strange calmness. Professor Martínez entered the room with his usual severe expression, tapping a stack of blank white sheets against the wooden desk to get everyone’s attention.

—Silence, please. Put away your folders and take out a pencil and an eraser. The algebra exam begins now —the teacher announced in a monotonous voice.

When the exam paper landed on his desk, Rágnar looked at it sideways. The test consisted of several complex problems of quadratic functions and systems of second-degree equations. In any other circumstance, the young man would have felt overwhelmed, but as he stared at the first equation of the form:

$$ax^2 + bx + c = 0$$

something strange happened in his mind. His brain, which had spent the last few hours processing dynamic variables in real-time, mentally calculating the exact experience needed to level up, and measuring the damage scale of his frost spells based on his magic power, broke down the mathematical equation almost by instinct.

Rágnar took his pencil firmly. To solve the system and find the roots using the classic formula:

$$x = frac{-b pm sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a}$$

he no longer needed to struggle to memorize mechanically. His mind, now trained by the rigorous logic of the League’s system, processed the numbers as if they were lines of code on a digital interface. The pencil flew over the grid paper with a fluid ease that he himself could not understand. He solved the parabola graphs, determined the vertices with surgical precision, and cleared the variables in the blink of an eye. While his classmates sweat cold and scratched their heads in frustration, Rágnar completed the entire exam in barely twenty minutes.

He handed the sheet to Professor Martínez’s desk, who looked at him with a raised eyebrow and an expression of absolute disbelief, astonished that the quietest student with a discrete grade average had finished so quickly. Rágnar only gave him a polite, slight smile and returned to his seat, where he waited for the exit bell to ring while laughing to himself. Solving a paper exam was a piece of cake when your mind was used to making life-or-death decisions in milliseconds under the pressure of the Abyss.

The remaining school hours passed like a blurry blink. As soon as the final bell announced the end of the day, Rágnar dashed out of the high school, eating up the blocks that separated him from his home. His mind burned with impatience. As he crossed the front door, he found his mother, who was cleaning the kitchen counter. Knowing that he needed to guarantee several hours of absolute peace for his first real match, Rágnar decided to act with cunning and proactivity.

—Hi, Mom! I'm home from school —he said enthusiastically, throwing his backpack to the side—. Do you want me to help you tidy up the house, sweep the living room, or wash the dishes left over from lunch? Tell me what needs to be done.

His mother looked him up and down, completely surprised by her son’s unusual initiative, who usually went straight up to lock himself in his bedroom.

—Well... actually, it would be wonderful if you could clean the table and sweep the hallway, Rágnar —she replied with a smile of relief—. Thank you so much for the help, really.

Rágnar completed all the household chores with enviable speed and energy, leaving the ground floor of the house spotless in just a few minutes. Once his family duty was fulfilled and having made sure his parents would have no reason to interrupt his afternoon, he ran up the steps to his room, locked the door, and slid the bolt.

His heart beat strongly against his ribs, driven by a mixture of nerves and wild expectation. He sat in the center of his bed with his legs crossed, took a deep breath to calm his body’s agitation, and stared at the empty space in his dimly lit room.

—System! —he exclaimed aloud with total determination.

The semi-transparent holographic screen deployed in the air with its usual bluish flash. Without wasting a single moment contemplating the menu, he pronounced the second keyword:

—Portal!

The mystical rift tore horizontally exactly one meter away from his bed, releasing bursts of celestial light and an electric hum that made the hairs on his arms stand on end. Rágnar stretched out his hand, touched the glowing surface of the portal with his fingertips, and, in a blink, the gravity of his room disappeared completely, being instantly sucked into the interior of the Abyss.

When he opened his eyes, he was floating on the pristine, infinite, and white platform of the League. The majestic digital melody that always gave him goosebumps resonated in the vacuum, and the system issued its official greeting:

—Welcome, Summoner MDLuffy.

In front of his face, the user interface expanded, showing the main menu of game modes. This time, the "5v5 Draft Mode" section was no longer locked by gray chains; it glowed with an intense neon blue and golden light, indicating it was ready to be selected. Rágnar swallowed hard, feeling a rush of pure adrenaline course down his spine. He concentrated his mind and pressed the draft option.

—Initiating matchmaking phase for Draft Mode. Searching for allies and opponents compatible with your account level —announced the system's neutral voice.

Rágnar waited, floating in the void. The search timer ticked away second by second, increasing the tension of the wait. Suddenly, a powerful digital alarm resonated throughout the white environment, and a large flashing sign materialized in front of him:

—MATCH FOUND! Do you wish to accept the challenge?

The young man executed the acceptance command mentally in an instant. In a blink, the white platform vanished, and Rágnar was transferred to an impressive circular holographic control room. Around him, floating in cubicles of blue light, were the silhouettes of four other real players who would make up his team for this battle. The chat room of the selection phase opened immediately at the side of his field of vision, and the letters began to flash intensely:

"Ban Zed!" "Hi guys, play seriously, please!" "MDLuffy, what lane are you going?!"

Rágnar looked at the chat and, remembering his weekend training, typed quickly and firmly on the floating keyboard:

—I'm going jg.

The other players seemed to accept the role assignment. Rágnar observed with absolute fascination how the ban phase unfolded. In this mode, each team had the opportunity to block champions to prevent the enemy side from using them. One by one, the silhouettes of powerful warriors and mages of the League were covered in a dark red color and dissolved in the air, banning their use in the match.

—Your team is on the blue side. It is your turn to pick your Champion for the battle —announced the voice of the system, illuminating Rágnar’s slot in the selection interface.

Rágnar locked his gaze onto his catalog of champions. He only had one character unlocked for the jungle: the fearsome predator in the shape of a giant wolf that he had been studying. Connecting his mind with the interface, he selected the champion and executed the identity confirmation command.

At that very instant, the figure of the runic wolf shone with a bluish light and exploded into threads of energy that wrapped around the young man’s body. The sensation of physical assimilation was immediate and overwhelming. Rágnar felt his muscles expand with a primitive and colossal strength, his fingers lengthened ending in sharp black ebony claws, and his senses sharpened to a supernatural level. He could smell the scent of the damp earth and the freshness of the dry leaves in his mind before the match even started. He was inhabiting the body and absolute power of a jungle predator.

The final champions of both sides were selected and locked. The screen of the circular room began to pixelate violently, and the voice of the system proclaimed with a triumphant and solemn echo:

—Draft phase completed. Initiating data transmission. Welcome to the Summoner's Rift of the League of Legends. Good luck.

The darkness of the data load took over his vision for a brief second, and Rágnar clenched his wolf claws tightly in the middle of the void, knowing that upon opening his eyes, he would face human minds that would improvise, deceive, and fight with all their power for victory. The true game for survival and dominance of the League had just begun.