You were supposed to have a fake marriage with the diva, so how did you become her father?

Chapter 302 The Lone Warrior

Lu Ran leaned back in his chair in the study, his right leg resting on a footstool. The computer screen in front of him was lit up, displaying the login screen for League of Legends.

It was completely dark outside the window. Winter nights come early in Shanghai; it was dark by six o'clock.

Shen Yuege was tidying up the dishes in the kitchen downstairs. Occasionally, the sounds of dishes clattering and water running from the faucet could be heard, like background music for this quiet night.

He stared at the screen for a long time, lost in thought.

The development of League of Legends is progressing more smoothly than expected. Under Lao Wang's leadership, the technical team practically lives at the company, sleeping only four or five hours a day and devoting the rest of their time to coding.

Thirty heroes have been implemented, the map mechanics are basically working, and the server has undergone round after round of stress testing.

It will be available next week.

But Lu Ran always felt that something was missing.

It's not a problem with the game itself—he knows the quality of League of Legends better than anyone; over a decade of market testing in his previous life has already proven its value.

What's missing isn't the game, it's the atmosphere.

Promotional posters have been released, hero introductions have been published, and a countdown has been featured on the TUTU homepage. Users know that a new game is about to launch, but they still don't know what this game means.

They need a song.

A song that can make them feel excited even before they open the game.

Lu Ran tapped his fingers lightly on the table a few times, his mind beginning to search through the melodies he had heard countless times in another world.

There are many theme songs for League of Legends.

The early version of "Numb"—strictly speaking, it wasn't the theme song, but in the memories of countless players, it was. Whenever that familiar piano intro plays, a series of exciting highlights appear before your eyes: those maneuvers, those comebacks, those desperate reversals—memories etched into our DNA.

Later, when "Legends Never Die"—a song about perseverance and glory—was sung at the S7 World Championship, tens of thousands of people in the stadium sang along, and the shock could be felt even through the screen.

There are also "Rise," "Warriors," and "Phoenix"—each one a classic, each one representing an era.

But those weren't the first things that popped into Lu Ran's mind.

It's "The Lone Warrior".

The song's influence in the previous life far exceeded the game itself.

It became a song that "went viral," played everywhere, sung by elementary school students, and even used in all sorts of unrelated occasions—anti-epidemic propaganda, encouragement for college entrance exam takers, corporate annual meetings—as if this song would appear whenever there was a need for inspiration.

Some say it's been "overused," while others say it's "too ubiquitous."

But Lu Ran felt that the fact that a song could be used to such an extent precisely showed that it touched the hearts of too many people.

The background of "Lone Warrior" is based on Jinx.

The girl struggling between Piltover and Zaun. The word "lonely courage" couldn't be more fitting for her—fighting against the world, fighting against herself, and oscillating between destruction and redemption.

But actually, it would be quite suitable for many heroes.

It is Ashe, who walked alone through the snows of Freljord; it is Sivir, who carried the fate of all Shurima on her shoulders; it is Kalista, who wandered the Shadow Isles for a thousand years; it is every player who gave their all in Summoner's Rift.

"Who says only those who stand in the light are heroes?"

When Lu Ran first heard this lyric, he was also deeply moved.

Those unseen efforts, those misunderstood perseverance, those moments of walking alone in the darkness—who hasn't experienced them?

In this world, he can be considered to have emerged from darkness.

From a time traveler with nothing to the founder of Tutu Technology, executive director of Xingyao Entertainment, and creator of TUTU—how long has it taken him to walk this path?

It's been almost a year.

He doesn't care.

Because he knew that the moment he would stand in the light would eventually come.

Lu Ran took a deep breath and retrieved the complete information on "The Lone Warrior" from the system.

The materials are very comprehensive, including lyrics, music scores, arrangement schemes, studio versions, live versions, and various cover versions.

He read through the songs one by one, and the more he read, the more he felt that he had to sing this song himself.

It's not because he sings better than anyone else, but because this song requires a voice that "tells a story," and most people simply can't capture that feeling.

Of course, he sings really well, there's no doubt about that.

Putting aside the fact that he doesn't know many male singers, even among female singers, he doesn't think any of them are more suitable to sing this song than him.

He has both the singing skills and the experience to back him up, so he can perform this song well.

Moreover, he no longer cares about debuting or not.

When he first came into this world, he resisted making a debut.

I don't want to be in the spotlight, I don't want too much attention, and I don't want my life to become the subject of gossip.

But now, he has stepped into the spotlight.

A top music producer, a famous screenwriter, the founder of TUTU, a disaster relief hero, and the person who sang "Tomorrow Will Be Better" while in a wheelchair.

These labels are stuck to him and can't be peeled off.

Since we're already in the light, we might as well stand even straighter.

He opened the document and began typing out the lyrics to "The Lone Warrior" word by word.

"They were all brave—"

"The wound on your forehead, yours, is different, the mistake you made—"

"There's no need to hide anything—"

"Your worn-out doll, your mask, your ego—"

The lyrics seemed to flow from my fingertips on their own, requiring no thought or modification, because they had always been there, in countless late nights, in countless headphones, and in countless moments of repeated playback in another world.

After typing the last word, Lu Ran leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and went over the melody in his mind.

The piano intro is quiet and restrained, like someone wandering alone in the dark. Then the drums join in, little by little, like a heartbeat quickening. In the chorus, all the instruments erupt together—

"Go? Are you worthy? That tattered cloak—"

"War? Then fight! With the humblest of dreams—"

"To the sobs and roars in the darkness—"

"Who says only those who stand in the light are heroes?"

...