Volume 1 Chapter 18 - Diligent Thinking

“Killing spree!”

This term was a special announcement given by the system when a hero killed three enemies without dying. The first kill was from Ake and after two kills from Angela, Genghis Khan had accounted for three consecutive kills. Other than that, he cleared the whole jungle area while Shi Liu Ye’s Ake was trying to search for him. Both heroes’ economies were getting closer and closer, currently around a 500 gold difference.

But He Yu was still nervous.

Not to mention that Ake was currently in the lead, even if the two heroes’ economies and operations were similar, killing Ake with Genghis Khan was quite difficult too. Such explosive assassins had always been a nightmare to squishy heroes.

Most important was that He Yu was technically a newbie in terms of operations in this game, and this Shi Liu Ye was definitely not a bronze ranked player.

As for what rank this player truly was, He Yu was still unclear, but he knew that he could not face Ake straight on. Killing Angela in the mid lane meant that his position was exposed to his enemy.

Shi Liu Ye’s Ake had just shown up at the top lane’s turret, so He Yu guessed that her next move was to clear his blue area. At this time, she must be heading towards the mid lane. Although Angela just died, her vision still existed and He Yu’s actions could be easily seen by his enemy.

Although He Yu’s control was slow, the way his brain was thinking gave him an advantage in this situation. After thinking for a while, he moved towards the river near the top lane.

She’s coming!

As a Diamond ranked player, Shi Liu Ye knew how to increase his vision to the whole map by dragging his screen. He was so pissed at Genghis Khan right now that he wished he could stab him. After spotting Genghis Khan in the middle lane, Shi Liu Ye immediately dragged his screen to the middle lane. Just before he lost his vision, he saw Genghis Khan heading towards the top lane.

With a cunning smile, he returned to the bushes near the top lane. Genghis Khan must be heading towards the top lane to clear the minions and the bushes he was in right now could catch him no matter which direction he came from.

Shi Liu Ye was waiting, but even after the minions from the top lane had been dealt with by the turret, there were still no signs of Genghis Khan. Shi Liu Ye knew he had made a mistake, but he confirmed that Genghis Khan was indeed heading up. Is he in my jungle area? He suddenly thought while rushing towards his red area.

The wild boar was alive, and his red sentinel was alive too. Shi Liu Ye was a bit dazed, then attacked the sentinel to get its buff. Subsequently, he spotted Genghis Khan at the other side of the map and soon after, he saw the death of his own teammate, Arthur.

“Unstoppable!”

The kill once again belonged to Genghis Khan. This was the fourth enemy he had killed without dying, resulting in the special announcement given by the system. Shi Liu Ye could only watch the three marksmen as they killed Arthur then pushed their turret. Once again, he lost the vision from Arthur and did not know where Genghis Khan was going.

Shi Liu Ye was devastated. He had misread what Genghis Khan was doing at first and was completely oblivious to the fact that Genghis Khan heading towards the top was just an illusion to trick him. The level he was playing at right now was not supposed to have such crafty gameplay, and it was mostly redundant even if such plays appeared. But today, Shi Liu Ye’s concentration and diligent thinking were swayed by the guy he was facing.

Shi Liu Ye hurriedly glanced at the information tab. The gold difference between him and Genghis Khan was only 200, and Genghis Khan’s KDA was 4-1-0, which was very near compared to his 5-1-0.

Shi Liu Ye realized that he was playing very passively. Just because he wanted to target only Genghis Khan, Shi Liu Ye’s Ake had not been farming well for a few minutes. It’s time to put Genghis Khan out of my mind, and focus on clearing minions and jungle monsters first.

After killing the red sentinel, Ake turned to target the river monster. He had put Genghis Khan out of his mind for a while, but his enemy did not give him much chance to do so. The three marksmen appeared again, leading their minions to attack his top lane’s second turret.

The ability of marksmen to push turrets was always efficient and remarkable, not to mention that there were three of them together. His second turret was soon in jeopardy, but luckily their minions were killed by the turret and the three marksmen soon retreated helplessly.

But a new minion wave soon arrived, and because they reached the four-minute mark, the game’s artillery unit was deployed along with the minions. On account of this, the efficiency of pushing turrets would inevitably increase greatly. Three marksmen together, is it possible for them to rush towards our base in one go? Who can I hope for this time? The almost-revived Arthur? Shi Liu Ye thought.

Arthur, who had just died, was indeed resurrecting at this time, and rushing to the top lane. But there three marksmen were waiting in front of him. How can I expect this bronze ranked player to guard the turret? It will be a miracle if he can even survive!

The helpless Shi Liu Ye quickly cleared the river monster and rushed back to support his teammate. Arthur was currently leading a wave of minions to the frontline with great enthusiasm. Shi Liu Ye ran back while clicking the retreat command and Arthur, unfortunately, did not know that the signal was directed to him, forcing Shi Liu Ye to type in chat, “Go back, Arthur!”

In his hurry, he did not have time to change the channel from all chat back to team chat and his anxious message was seen by everyone, including the three marksmen. Arthur finally stopped advancing and seemed to wonder where his Ake meant by going back. Unfortunately, the minions would not listen to anyone’s command and continued advancing towards the range of the three marksmen. As Arthur saw the enemies in front of him, was he scared? Of course not, in a dictionary of a stubborn bronze ranked player, there was no such word!

Arthur rushed towards them and cast all his skills.

‘Oath of Protection!’

‘Whirling Strike!’

Arthur had already clicked his ultimate, ‘Avalon’s Fu’, a million times. However, this skill would only be effective when there were enemies in his range, and the three marksmen were still out of his attack range.

Unfortunately, Arthur was in the marksmen’s range. The marksmen did not have to make any adjustments and attacked the hero first by default. The trio attacked consequently and cast any skills they had. Battles between bronze ranked players had always been this straightforward.

‘Afterglow!’

Hou Yi’s second skill was cast and Arthur was slowed down.

‘Blowfish Grenade!’

Luban’s first skill hit Arthur, and he once again slowed down.

He Yu’s Genghis Khan did not use any skills, but his red buff was still active. Because of this, Arthur was slowed down just from Genghis Khan’s basic attacks.

In a blink of an eye, Arthur turned into a slow-motion movie, similar to a turtle crawling on the ground. Arthur felt something was wrong and immediately tried to retreat. But his slowed-down state still continued even if he wanted to turn back. The attack from the three marksmen continued, and Hou Yi, the one who had provoked He Yu with the message, was still dressed in a glowing skin, with the sound effect of lively and festive firecrackers.

Arthur finally fell, but the kill was not taken by Genghis Khan this time, and instead, it was put into the bag of Hou Yi.

“!”

Shi Liu Ye’s message showed up in all chat, which was soon blocked by the system. He watched Arthur’s whole confrontation and was so angry that he could vomit blood. If the game allowed, he really wanted to go back to base and kill Arthur himself once he respawned.

Too bad he could not do that.

The lonely and helpless Ake walked to the bottom lane’s river. Suddenly, an eagle flew over her head and Ake stopped her footsteps.

She had been spotted!

Shi Liu Ye was well aware of Genghis Khan’s skills, and he had also suffered a loss from it before. He Yu was classified as a good player in his eyes, and because he was spotted, he had to adjust his momentum. After all, he was facing a total of three heroes, and all he did just now was kill a red sentinel and one river monster. Because of the last attack, Genghis Khan’s gold was far higher than his. The others, including Genghis Khan’s teammates, also caught up a lot during his busy time.

Fight head on with three marksmen?

Shi Liu Ye honestly did not have the confidence. He had to rely on his ultimate to sneak behind his enemies, and its passive, “Refresh all skills’ cooldowns after getting a kill or assist”. Only with this, did Ake have a chance to kill all three of them.

Therefore, Ake’s three seconds of invincibility in her ult was the key to winning this fight.

Shi Liu Ye’s enemies had already spotted him, so ambushing, retreating and going head on was not a good choice either. He should detour from the bottom lane so that he could ambush anyone who was retreating. Even if they did not retreat, he could catch them from behind if he went back via the bottom lane.

After thinking seriously for a while, Ake adjusted her route. Instead of going straight through her blue area, she detoured to the bottom. After passing through the river bushes, she immediately cast her ultimate after not spotting anyone, then rushed towards the bushes opposite her.

No one.

No one again.

Shi Liu Ye quickly searched the two bushes and there was no target there, which made the use of his ultimate a wasted move. But it did not matter, hiding here could allow him to ambush anyone who passed by here.

How long had Shi Liu Ye lingered at the diamond rank that he forgot that when a stubborn bronze rank wanted to retreat, they would never take so many steps. Mostly, they returned to base in their original places and even those with a bad history would still retreat in nearby bushes.

Is Ake nearby?

They would not even care about this thing. He Yu was the only one who paid attention to the vision using Genghis Khan’s eagle.

Luban and Hou Yi went back to base because of their low health. They didn’t even know that this was a good opportunity to attack.

As for He Yu, he had given up communicating with his teammates. He felt like Shi Liu Ye was better for communication. Just by moving upwards, Shi Liu Ye immediately chased towards there. When he saw Ake moving towards top with his eagle’s vision, He Yu decisively entered the jungle area and continued to farm.