Chapter 23: Invitation
Shen Yanjin had an extremely deep impression of Duan Mingyue’s Ascetic Monk.
Not only because this was one of RedMoon’s signature jungle characters, but also because when he first met Duan Mingyue as YanGold, Duan Mingyue used Ascetic Monk.
He entered the game map with a mentality of smashing a broken pot (giving up/going all out). Looking up, sure enough, the opponents were neatly all IDs starting with xx Streaming.
Who are these people.
This free?
Shen Yanjin had never streamed, naturally unaware he had leeched onto WL’s biggest traffic. He looked at the opposing lineup again: engage, frontline, burst, poke.
Looking back at his side… Mermaid alone dragged down the win rate by at least thirty percent.
Originally 50-50, now 20-80.
Fortunately, there was Duan Mingyue.
His Ascetic Monk’s jungle clear efficiency was extremely high. Plus with Shen Yanjin’s support by his side, clearing his own jungle in three minutes, buying items, he charged directly into the enemy jungle to catch people.
Just one word: arrogant.
Shen Yanjin followed behind tremblingly. Mermaid Princess was now delicate and weak, couldn’t run, couldn’t tank. Once something happened, she could only feed.
Duan Mingyue saw his caution and laughed: “Need to be so scared? Don’t trust me?”
Shen Yanjin hurriedly said: “Not distrusting, I don’t trust myself.”
Duan Mingyue chuckled: “Why not trust? You play so awesomely. Look, how many people are eagerly waiting just to play a game with you.”
Shen Yanjin assumed he was joking about Kai’s matter, saying helplessly: “Moon God, why are you mocking me too…”
Duan Mingyue smiled, not explaining.
Their timing to go to the enemy jungle was just right. The enemy jungler happened to be farming the last group of monsters in the Blue Buff area.
Seeing Moon Steed, the opposing jungler quickly threw out two hook chains—the jungle character he used was exactly Tata, which Duan Mingyue used before.
Duan Mingyue raised an eyebrow: “Is this… provoking me?”
Seeing this, Shen Yanjin cursed Kai over and over again in his heart.
Kai intended to let UOOW’s radiance overshadow Moon Steed. The result was now most people felt that Tata played so smoothly that game purely due to UOOW’s credit, not Moon Steed’s.
The opposing streamer obviously thought so too, evidenced by him copying the method and picking Tata jungle this game.
After all, if the Tata he picked could be more showy than this Moon Steed, wouldn’t it be equivalent to surpassing UOOW’s Jungle King?
Shen Yanjin was completely unaware he had gone from a heat leecher to being leeched for heat.
Afraid Duan Mingyue would be unhappy, just as he wanted to say something, he heard Duan Mingyue sneer lightly, smiling: “Add oil (Go for it), Little U, relying entirely on you.”
After speaking, Ascetic Monk tapped his toes, raising both fists to smash forward fiercely.
In a certain stream room on Kaka Streaming, viewer count and popularity were rising rapidly.
[Came for the fame, is this the warrior who dares to challenge the Moon-U combo?]
[Watching first perspective, won’t crash right?]
[Streamer is a Tata one-trick?]
[Awesome, Purple Taro big shot, so hot after not seeing for a few days.]
Purple Taro glimpsed his crazy rising stream data, ecstatic inside, barely maintaining a calm appearance on his face: “Yes, currently National Server No. 1 Tata, one-trick. Interested friends can click follow.”
[Streamer is also duo-queueing with team support? Jungle-support roam vs Jungle-support roam?]
[Pfft, this support also picked Bell Spirit. I don’t believe it’s not duo queue.]
[Mainly opponent is Ascetic Monk plus Mermaid, dying of laughter. I can’t figure out how this dog config wins even if I break my head thinking.]
[Mermaid picked laughing to death +1, Wanzi went crazy screaming if it’s a display error hahahahaha]
Purple Taro watched the bullet screen while operating: “Yes, duo queue… can’t be considered intentionally picked. Because watching stream before felt this strategy works, so practicing… Mermaid? I haven’t seen Mermaid for a long time either…”
“Coming!” In the headphones, the support reminded him nervously: “Stop reading comments, they’re already here!”
Purple Taro jolted, hurriedly looking back at the game interface. Sure enough, an Ascetic Monk swaggering out of the jungle bush.
He said: “Isn’t it only three minutes? This guy abandoned jungle to catch me? Damn… too arrogant. Watch me teach him a lesson. You help watch my health, shield if not working.”
The support agreed repeatedly.
So Purple Taro confidently threw out the hook chain in his hand.
Who knew just as the chain went out, Ascetic Monk suddenly stepped back.
So although Purple Taro’s chain hooked onto him, no control effect appeared.
Tata’s opening hook control was extremely important, could be said to be the most crucial part of a combo.
Especially when the opponent had high damage, not controlling at the start likely meant eating a huge wave of damage.
“How did he dodge that?” Purple Taro watched the leaping Ascetic Monk, alarm bells ringing in his brain: “Quick give me shield!”
The support exclaimed: “Can’t… can’t give!”
Can’t give? Why can’t give?
Purple Taro dodged skills rapidly, but still couldn’t stop his health bar from dropping like a landslide. Hearing the support say can’t give, he didn’t react for a moment, looking to the side.
Only to see a transparent ice-blue water wall quietly lying between him and the support.
Mermaid’s support skill, Water Wall. People on two ends of the wall cannot target each other, and no skills can pass through.
To snipe this jungle-support duo, Purple Taro specifically watched that recording back and forth over ten times.
Every time this jungle-support duo appeared, it was always jungler in front, support behind. Often, the jungler danced in your face—do you hit him or not? If you hit him, UOOW would appear suddenly at an excellent timing, assisting the jungler to take the head.
If you don’t hit him… then sorry, he would take a yard after an inch, dancing directly onto your face.
So, before the game started just now, Purple Taro had discussed with the support to let him hide in the nearby bush. Once the opposing jungle-support came to catch people, they could also pull a surprise move.
But now?
Wall separation plus slow, paired with Ascetic Monk’s coquettish positioning, Purple Taro directly offered up First Blood.
He was confused: “You… you came out of the bush? She saw you?”
The support refused to take the blame: “No, I stayed in the bush the whole time without moving. You can go back and watch the recording.”
Purple Taro was a bit dizzy: “You mean, her water wall relied directly on guessing your position, then walling? This…”
He remembered Ascetic Monk’s step back to dodge control and stiffness cancelling knock-up operation just now, speechless for a while: “This awareness, ridiculously like a hack!”
The bullet screen expressed sympathy for him one after another.
[Victim number two.]
[Too miserable.]
[Mermaid can be played like this? Learned, learned.]
[Why is UOOW still in Diamond with such good mechanics.]
[↑ Good question, suggest going to Zhihu to discuss this one of WL’s ten unsolved mysteries with the brothers.]
“Awesome.” Taking down the Bell Spirit hiding in the bush with half health, getting a double kill at the start, Duan Mingyue led Shen Yanjin back to his own jungle unhurriedly. “How did you know he was hiding there?”
Shen Yanjin was afraid the opposing bot lane AD would come catch their foolish combo the whole time just now. His hand kept nervously holding the mouse, constantly switching screens to check the bot lane situation. Fortunately, their side were also streamers, controlling the minion wave quite well, leaving the opponent AD no time to split away.
Safe now, he pressed recall, released the mouse, and rubbed his hand: “Wouldn’t say knew, just a feeling. They all came to snipe us, naturally they’d be clear about our strategy, very likely making the judgment to let the support hide.”
“That position just now, if it were me, I should be hiding there… just that simple.”
Simple?
A trace of teasing flashed through Duan Mingyue’s eyes.
He couldn’t help but think of Lu Yuan’s operation during the training match today.
Today’s scheduled training match was against TWG. Also jungle-support roam, the opposing Shi Feng and Aiai combo picked Blade Master and Yan, belonging to the very rare carry jungler with soft support.
But because Aiai’s protective support play was truly too outstanding, and Shi Feng’s carry jungle play was crazy enough, daring to charge anywhere, yet often retreating safely under support protection, many teams were burned out meeting them.
That game, to restrict Aiai’s shielding, the coach let Lu Yuan pick Mermaid.
The result was a mess.
Thinking of those few shattered team fights, Duan Mingyue sneered coldly out loud.
Fortunately in the later games, the coach seemed to finally realize Lu Yuan wasn’t material to carry the beam, pouring resources onto Duan Mingyue and Mid lane Kai, avoiding a repeat of the miserable situation of more losses than wins.
Shen Yanjin didn’t know what was wrong with him. Suddenly hearing this cold sneer, he thought his operation just now was exposed, heart trembling: “Moon God, what’s wrong?”
Duan Mingyue restrained his emotions, smiling lazily: “Nothing, training hasn’t been smooth recently, just spaced out and thought of it.”
Shen Yanjin said “Oh,” a bit unsure whether to continue this topic.
Duan Mingyue suddenly mentioning team matters to him made Shen Yanjin a bit nervous and expectant.
But Duan Mingyue refused to grant his wish. After saying this sentence, he stopped mentioning training, instead shifting the topic imperceptibly: “Come take dragon, then rotate mid.”
Shen Yanjin was a bit disappointed, but this was within his expectations.
After all, Duan Mingyue wasn’t someone who would recklessly invite a teammate he only played with once into the team.
Thinking back, he played duo queue with Duan Mingyue for half a month back then without hearing a single echo.
Shen Yanjin was long prepared for a long tug-of-war, so his mentality at this moment was very peaceful: “Okay, I’m coming.”
Since Mid lane received signals early, the coordination after taking dragon was handy.
Giving the kill to Mid to farm, home jungle monsters just respawned, rhythm perfect.
Just as Shen Yanjin prepared to move towards the jungle, Duan Mingyue spoke.
His voice carried a smile, but the tone was relatively serious: “Little U, have you considered playing professionally?”
Shen Yanjin almost thought he heard wrong: “…What?”
This time, Duan Mingyue’s tone lightened a lot. He repeated it with a smile, adding an explanation: “Of course, not coming over to play on stage immediately. Must enter youth training first to see effects… Little U? UOOW?”
“…”
Shen Yanjin didn’t ignore him intentionally; he really didn’t know what to say.
He never expected that Duan Mingyue rejected YanGold who tried his best five years ago, ignored Sliver who trained desperately without sleep for five years, yet took a fancy to Sister UOOW who could act cute, act coquettish, and had a soft voice.
Translator’s Note: In gaming terms, “acting” or being an “actor” refers to a player who intentionally plays poorly or throws a match, often because they have been paid to do so or hold a grudge, making it look like a scripted performance. “Smurf” refers to a high-level player creating a new, low-level account to play against easier opponents.
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