translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
Once an attack hit, stealth mode would disappear automatically. Soo Chanhee, the anchor who was caught by surprise, completely forgot about using his skills!
Wei Xiao wouldn’t let go of such an opportunity. Although he didn’t have his light arcs yet, as long as he linked up his shadow attacks well, he would still be able to DPS like crazy with no cooldowns!
Soo Chanhee saw that his health was plummeting and quickly switched talents, from shadow thief to light priest.
It was clear that his starting talents included a support talent.
The commentator spoke quickly, “Soo Chanhee picked up some good resources in the early stage. He activated the light priest’s first skill, holy land, and can recover a lot of health with his heals!”
“This is one of the things that makes the big brawl mode special. Players can switch seamlessly between their four starting talents, which is equivalent to each player having 16 skills!”
“Of course, they also have to pick up enough skill points to activate them all. It also means that the players have to be more careful about their choices.”
“It has to be said that Soo Chanhee’s judgement was very correct this time. Instead of putting all the skill points he’d picked up to his shadow thief, he also invested in a healing skill.”
Was that really the right way?
Soo Chanhee had anxiously switched to the light priest, but would he really be able to heal himself?
Wei Xiao’s black eyes flashed slightly, a sliver of a smile appearing at his lips. “Bye bye now.”
Everyone watched as the shadow thief’s figure shook, and he moved into position behind Soo Chanhee, stabbing his blade into his back. Special effects were triggered, and blood spilled. By the time Soo Chanhee turned around, the shadow thief moved with him, attacking him from behind again. Shadow attacks linked with general attacks, and every hit caused critical damage!
Soo Chanhee’s fans were confused, and the live broadcast room scrolling comments were filled with question marks.
But the commentators were clear on the situation. “The light priest’s movement speed is low, and his actions are much slower than the shadow thief’s.”
“Although the light priest has high defense and can recover health, it’s meaningless when faced with the shadow thief’s high DPS!”
“It seems that it was a bad move for Soo Chanhee switching to the light priest.”
Whoever said that the shadow thief had to use light arcs in order to deal damage?
A real shadow thief could stack up fatal damage like crazy!
The flying blade broke through the opponent’s defense, and there was a DPS bonus for attacking from behind. The shadow attacks came continuously, and under these extremely precise and accurate operations, even a light priest that was using its ultimate move and not just ‘holy land’ wouldn’t be able to withstand this damage.
Soo Chanhee quickly switched talents again. This time, he switched to the immortal thief.
The immortal thief was very agile and very suited for escaping.
Unfortunately…
System Announcement: First Blood!
FTW.Close killed S2S.Baron!
All the players on Sky Island heard this announcement, and everyone in the live broadcast rooms from all over the world saw it as well.
First Blood had appeared.
Close had killed an invited professional player, Baron!
Wei Xiao’s fingers trembled slightly. He suppressed the quiver in his body, and he took away Soo Chanhee’s last sliver of health with his blade.
Zone Announcement: I Like Close The Most killed Soo Chanhee.
The Chinese audience exploded, and the entire venue burst out with a wave of startling cheers.
The contestants were all wearing headphones, but they could still hear the excited screams.
FTW! Close! Quiet!
Badass!!!
First Blood in the global opening game had come from the China competition zone.
The opponent that Close had killed wasn’t a regular lucky player, nor was it an anchor who had more gimmicks than strength, but a star player, Baron, one of the 16 specially invited professional players!
The North American competition zone had also exploded with excitement.
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Baron was a famous player from Europe. He was very good at playing jungler and had once smeared Old G all over the ground. He was one of the most hated players in North America.
Oh, Close was another one. Who told him to always abuse Old G until he’d dropped his pants and had to run around naked?
They’d been very happy seeing that Close and Baron had run into each other.
Close had chosen to use the shadow thief talent at the start of the game. He was more pitiful than Wei Xiao was and hadn’t managed to pick up any equipment. He’d only picked up two skill points.
Baron had been quite lucky. Not only had he picked up an iron sword, he’d also obtained three skill points.
The difference between having an extra skill point and iron sword was significant. In a 5v5 situation, it was equivalent to a crushing difference in both farm and level, and it wouldn’t be easy to overcome.
This was especially the case when it came to top players. Their operation level was solid and wouldn’t easily make mistakes.
Additionally, the place where Close was located was really unlucky.
Falling Star Lake was the only underwater zone.
Players had to dive underwater in order to pick up resources. However, not only would diving slow down a player’s movement speed and reaction ability, it would also apply a state of suffocation. Once that state ended, if the player had gone too deep and couldn’t get out of the water in time to breathe again, they would enter a state of continuous health loss.
Countless players had drowned to death in Falling Star Lake while playing in the test servers.
This zone was even worse than the Moonlight Wetland. Generally speaking, very few fights would break out in this zone in the early stages.
However, Close and Baron had run into each other head-on.
There were two skill points flashing and shining at the bottom of the lake. The two of them noticed the skill points at the same time and discovered each other’s presence as they approached.
They were underwater, suffocating.
Fight?
Baron was still hesitating when Close had already launched a surprise attack. He didn’t have any equipment, so his basic attack damage was very low. Fortunately, his blade flew over fast enough, breaking through Baron’s defense, which was close to zero.
At the end of the day, Baron was an immortal level jungler in the European competition zone. He reacted quickly and pulled away to face Close directly.
He’d chosen to start with the devil thief talent, which was squishy and fragile, but had a long range of attack.
Unfortunately, Close had chosen to upgrade shadow attack and assault. One of them allowed him to continuously brush out combo attacks, and the other one gave him two movement segments that he could use to get close to Baron.
Underwater combat wasn’t easy. Compared with fighting on the ground, the heroes moved more slowly and it required some time to adapt.
Baran was still getting used to it, but Close had ignored all obstacles and didn’t even concern himself with the suffocation value that was sending out warnings like crazy. He played like he was on land, perfectly predicting his opponent’s position and stabbing Baron in the back with every attack.
No way…
Baron was forced into shifting away continuously and was a little flustered.
If it went on like this, he would die in Falling Star Lake.
The game had only just started, and he hadn’t even gotten out of the outer ring yet. How could the game end like this?
Baron forced himself to calm down: His equipment was better than Close’s, and he had three skill points. If he fought against him directly, at worst, they would both lose.
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No, wait!
Baron’s pupils contracted, and he realized what the problem was.
Close…
Chinese fans couldn’t understand foreign commentators, but there were also commentators in their own domestic live broadcast rooms.
They could see Close’s intentions through god’s perspective, “It’s all a cover!”
“Baron fell for it.”
“God Lu’s acting skills are superb!”
“Close seems to be attacking violently, catching Baron unprepared, but in fact, he’s using Baron’s understanding of the shadow thief to force him to move.”
“Indeed. As a jungler, Baron is too familiar with the shadow thief. His movements to avoid the assault are instinctive, and Close is using this point to force him to move positions. Baron really is avoiding Close’s attacks, but…”
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“He’s also moving further away from those two skill points!”
The devil thief had the advantage of a longer range, but its disadvantage was that its movement skills covered a shorter distance.
Unlike the shadow thief whose second skill had two movement segments, the devil thief couldn’t span the distance and reach the two flashing skill points. However, this distance was just within the shadow thief’s range.
Underneath the azure water, Close left Baron behind and flashed over to the skill points after his movement skill had finished cooling down.
There was a ‘ding’ sound as Close successfully picked them up!
What did having two more skill points mean?
It was enough for the shadow thief to brush out light arcs!
What did Close’s light arcs mean?
Destruction of the heavens and the earth.
The audience in the live broadcast grew excited.
The visual effect of seeing nine light arcs in the canyon was amazing enough, but it turned out that nine light arcs underwater could be even more stunning.
Infinite rays of light lit up waves in the water, bubbles gushing out in huge waves at the bottom of the lake. They circled out one by one, picking up speed, then burst out with a bang. The entire Falling Star Lake vibrated with the shock.
Stars fell, and the lake sparkled.
At this moment, the audience suddenly understood the origin of the name for this zone.
Maybe it was unintentional, maybe it was just coincidence.
But when the nine light arcs exploded at the bottom of the lake, it was like the sea of stars had been born anew as the heavens and the earth were overturned.
Close came out of the water. The shadow thief’s cloak was stained with water, and his hood still covered his features, leaving only a thin chin that was cold, pale, and sharp.
First Blood had been obtained in a way that couldn’t be questioned. Close had also looted the three skill points and iron sword that Baron had dropped after his death.
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First Blood came with a special reward, but nobody knew what it was.
On the other side, Wei Xiao had also picked up Soo Chanhee’s skill points and equipment.
At the same time, kill rankings came out on the live broadcast platforms from all the competition zones around the world.
The players in the big brawl couldn’t see it, but the audience could see it clearly.
1st place: Close.
2nd place: I Like Close The Most.
3rd place: Marshal.
4th place: Xiehe.
They all had one kill each, and the rankings were based on the kill time.
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Although this ranking was temporary, it was enough to let the Chinese audience go wild with joy.
In the global opening game, FTW had achieved a god level start!