CH 68

If it was a normal encounter, Lin Xiao would definitely take this opportunity to tease Yan Duzhou a little. But now he was not alone. Not only Xiao Li and Liu Zesheng were watching closely behind him, but You Jing, who had just finished the battle, was also quietly watching.

As soon as he saw the picture, Lin Xiao sent a message on the map chat: “Captain Yan, please be merciful, take it easy on me!” Then he added a crying face.

Xiao Li was still dazed and had not yet come to his senses, but after seeing this sentence, he complained: “I say, Lin Xiao, can you have a little dignity? Although you’re bound to lose, there’s no need to be on your knees…”

Lin Xiao looked back at him, “What do you know? You can defeat the enemy in one shot if you numb his senses and relax his vigilance. Why would I lose? Maybe I will win by chance if I use the strategy well?”

Xiao Li: “Come on, Captain Yan knows who you are!”

Lin Xiao: “What if he knows? Anyway, I’m also a celebrity now!”

Xiao Li: “… Hurry up and hide your big tail that is wagging happily!”

Lin Xiao shook his head: “Young man, you should learn to accept reality.”

At this time, Yan Duozhou’s response to his words popped up on the map chat, “I might.”

Xiao Li was about to refute Lin Xiao’s words, but when he saw this answer, he choked and coughed with a red face.

He might!? Might what, showing mercy, taking easy on him?

After all, it was a top duel on the Korean leaderboard, so I’m afraid it’s not a good idea…

Lin Xiao did not take the opportunity to embarrass Xiao Li, and, at a rare moment, he was also somewhat speechless. From his reply, it was obvious that Yan Duozhou also guessed that it was not convenient to recognize each other in this situation, but such words were too ambiguous…

He coughed dryly twice, lowered his head, avoiding You Jing’s sight, and fixed his attention firmly on the computer screen. As the expression in his eyes became more and more serious, his playful smile gradually began to fade.

In fact, Lin Xiao never thought that he would face Yan Duzhou so soon. In his expectations, he was going to play in the individual competition in the playoffs, and could only have a chance to meet him in the team competition. As a result, all expectations have been broken.

However, after the unexpected emotions dissipated, only a faint excitement remained in his heart. Even though he wasn’t 100% sure that he could win against Yan Duzhou in his current situation, he was looking forward to the next duel from the bottom of his heart, even a little impatiently.

Under Lin Xiao’s control, the ghost priest shuttled rapidly through the Horror Tomb map with an unprecedented proactive attitude. However, judging from the course of action, his detour arc was very large, and he was even moving close to the outermost edge of the map. Obviously, he wanted to avoid the first wave of confrontation that may be caused by head-on encounters.

I don’t know if it was due to his deliberate actions or other reasons, but for three minutes after the game started, let alone a battle, the two sides never even saw each other. This kind of situation was extremely rare not only in ordinary battles but even in professional competitions.

Xiao Li muttered to himself: “Captain Yan is really taking it easy…”

Liu Zeshen unceremoniously denied, “You’re overthinking it, Captain Yan is not such a person.”

Xiao Li gritted his teeth: “Then how do you explain this?”

You Jing suddenly said, “Pay attention to Lin Xiao’s positioning moves, they are not random, but deliberately avoid the opponent’s route based on his anticipation.”

“Anticipating Captain Yan’s route?” Xiao Li was speechless, “Is this possible?”

“Any individual’s operation has a certain degree of reproducibility, and there are certain patterns to be found.” You Jing said this, never moving his eyes away from the screen, “Nothing is impossible with enough knowledge of your opponent and a fair amount of experience.”

His words ended abruptly, and his almond-shaped eyes slowly narrowed, covering the spark within them.

Although Xiao Li had gotten the explanation that Lin Xiao was intentionally avoiding Yan Duozhou’s path of action by anticipating it, he was still a bit confused: “But, Captain You, what’s the point of avoiding the fight like this? Zone battles are judged as a draw if they exceed the set time!”

You Jing replied calmly, “Combat preparation.”

Combat preparation? Xiao Li felt a little confused by this answer. Isn’t it just a 1v1 personal ranking game, just play it, what preparation do you need?

At this moment, Lin Xiao’s hand suddenly accelerated, the direction of the ghost priest changed, and he stopped his roundabout movements. Instead, he moved straight to the main graveyard in the middle of the map, kept rotating its field of view as he moved, and finally stopped at certain coordinates.

This location was in the middle of a messy graveyard. The east side was the tombstone of the main grave, the huge cross particularly conspicuous; the south side was all dense and tangled shrubbery. From this position, the location of the ambush could be clearly seen; the west side was a vast open space, with almost no possibility of taking cover, and there were rows upon rows of graves on the north side, with a few will-o’-the-wisps flashing from time to time. The point was, it was impossible to hide and cast spells without being noticed.

A seemingly simple coordinate was deduced through Lin Xiao’s careful analysis.

The figure of the black mage flickered into view, followed by thick, dark clouds that suddenly condensed overhead, and within moments hail covered the sky, and its density almost completely covered the place where the ghost priest stood.

But Lin Xiao seemed to be waiting for this scene to happen. The ghost priest leaped out of the technique range the moment the spell was cast and rushed toward the figure in the vision field. However, before he could get close enough, the figure had already disappeared from view once again.

Just as Lin Xiao didn’t give Yan Duzhou a chance to strike first, Yan Duzhou didn’t give Lin Xiao a chance to counterattack either. It took only an instant from appearing to disappearing as if he had already decided that the attack from now would never succeed.

Lin Xiao didn’t get impatient because he missed the opportunity, but he was a little disappointed.

Old Yan, this guy, was still as cautious as ever, which was very frustrating! No, actually, he’s calmer and more terrifying now than he was then.

He never expected to take advantage of the trap positioning when facing this old opponent, so in front of this ambush that had ended before it even started, he just licked his lips and continued to plan for the next step.

After losing his target, the ghost priest didn’t stop. After throwing a wisp of Ghost Fire toward the bushes, he suddenly changed direction and ran the other way.

Whether it was a fated encounter or a chance encounter, the two characters met head-on without warning while they were rapidly moving.

In an instant, as the Ghost Fire ignited a raging black flame circle on the ground around the black mage, an icicle that bloomed like a flower in a moment also rose around the ghost priest.

Immediately after that, while both of them turned on the Ghost Sprint to move at a faster pace, the bright greenish spectral lights of one black and one blue staff seemed to have become the most noticeable points on the screen.

Dazzling skills collided and overflowed in all directions, vibrating and roaring, making the originally dark map completely covered in a gorgeous light curtain due to the intensive release of spells, and the violent outputs were intertwined, releasing visual effects that could only be seen in 5V5 battles.

Amidst the dizzying light effects, two figures could be vaguely seen moving rapidly at the same time.

Watching these scenes, Xiao Li was utterly stunned.

He has always known that Lin Xiao’s hand speed was very high, but he never imagined that it could be so fast; he also always knew that Lin Xiao was a very good player, but he never thought that he could be so good that even under the ‘King of Hell’s full firepower, they were still even…

If at first, he didn’t think Lin Xiao had the slightest chance of winning, now he actually began to look forward to what would happen if he would defeat Yan Duzhou. However, observing the blood volume of both combatants, the rate of decline of the ghost priest‘s blood bar was faster than that of the black mage.

Indeed, Lin Xiao was having a difficult time now.

In the previous games, it was fine, but now he met a top player, by contrast, this set of Internet cafe equipment he had, was really a hindrance.

This duel was supposed to be related to the response speed of the combatants, but because the keys of the device were too stiff, neither the skill frequency nor the operation speed could keep up with his pace, and it also aggravated the strain on his fingers on a higher level. From the moment they met, Yan Duzhou had already gained the upper hand, and after that, what appeared to be a fierce battle on the surface was actually just his cover for the defense.

Seeing that his blood bar was about to be emptied, he forcibly increased his hand speed, but just as he was about to perform the last counterattack wave, a sudden ‘click’ was heard, and the monitor went dark.

“Holy shit!” Xiao Li was watching with excitement when everything turned awry.

What the hell is going on here, I didn’t guess the beginning, and now I can’t guess the ending at all!

“No way, power outage?” Lin Xiao took off his headphones and also looked around in confusion.

“Sorry, my feet slipped, and I stepped on the power strip.” As You Jing said that, he stepped on the power strip lightly, glanced at the power led that was on again, and said, “Since the power was turned off, today’s extra training will come to an end.”

“Ah, what a good time for your feet to slip!” Lin Xiao ignored Xiao Li’s painful expression, rubbed his sore fingers, and praised him with a smile.

As he spoke, he looked up only to see You Jing taking out a large bag from somewhere and placing it on the desk: “During the training period, I will lend it to you temporarily. If the training goal is not achieved, I will take it all back.”

Xiao Li was curious: “You guys have a training goal, what is it?”

You Jing: “None of your business.”

Lin Xiao smiled: “It’s a secret.”

Xiao Li: “…”

Liu Zeshen thought about it and suggested: “Perhaps, we could also set a goal?”

“Good idea!” Xiao Li raised his eyebrows at Lin Xiao disdainfully, pulled Liu Zeshen up, and walked to his computer desk, “It’s great to have a goal, we can set one too! Tsk!”