Chapter 31: Traces
When Yue Fengling played seriously, he was very strong. His best roles weren’t blue-collar characters like tanks or initiators, but carry top laners who consumed resources to deal damage.
If KW Teamās strength was the jungler driving the rhythm of three lanes, then WOF Teamās characteristic was relying on the absolute dominance and synergy of Top and Mid to crush the game.
The problem was, Yue Fengling rarely played seriously in ranked solo queue. He was either trolling with weird picks or playing ADC to torture his teammates.
It was quite amusing that despite this, many supports were willing to duo with him. There were even rumors that half the reason WOF Team attracted support players was due to Yue Fengling.
But this match was different.
Duo-queueing with Aiai, Yue Fengling actually picked Top Lane Ascetic Monkāthis could count as his signature character.
And Aiai didn’t pull any weird dual-top lane strategy nor go with the random jungler. He went straight to the bot lane to protect Tans.
This meant that if Duan Mingyue and Shen Yanjinās Jungle-Support duo wasn’t effective enough, both Top and Bot lanes would crumble fast.
In MOBA games, the Top, Mid, and Bot lanes were the lines that upheld the winning surface. Once the lanes collapsed, the whole game collapsed.
In short, the situation was perilous.
Shen Yanjin was fully focused, but after only three minutes into this game, he felt he couldn’t sit still.
Because he discovered that Duan Mingyueās playstyle had changed.
Before, Duan Mingyue always led the rhythm, and he assisted from the side, snowballing the economy around Duan Mingyue.
Perhaps because this gameās situation was special, Shen Yanjin could clearly feel that instead of taking him to roam, Duan Mingyue was following him to roam.
Did that mean… he wanted to use Shen’s offensive thinking to play?
Shen Yanjin speculated inwardly, taking this as an assessment of himself. He didn’t ask aloud but said, “Moon God, Top.”
Duan Mingyue obediently followed, teasing, “Going to meet your cousin?”
In his haste, Shen Yanjin had inexplicably lowered his own generational status, which depressed him. “No, no… Captain Yue just used his TP (Teleport). If we catch him now, even if we don’t kill him, he won’t dare to recall, or he’ll lose a lot of minion waves.”
He controlled the Shepherd to walk into the bush.
Yue Fengling had been pressuring the lane aggressively from the start, squatting in front of the enemy tower to farm. This position was extremely prone to ganks. But for him to be this rampant, naturally, he had something to rely on.
Sure enough, just as Shen Yanjin arrived, Yue Fengling seemed to sense something. He left the minion wave, walked up into the bush, and headed toward his tower.
His awareness was superb.
Shen Yanjin took in his behavior. He tapped his finger, predicting the movement. The Shepherd pointed his staff, and a small sheep appeared out of thin air, charging in violently.
Missed.
He paused for a moment but reacted quickly, smashing a slow skill into the second bush.
This time a damage number popped up, and Yue Fenglingās figure was temporarily revealed.
But his position was already close to the tower; a gank was impossible.
“Top laner Flash, 3:47.” Shen Yanjin recorded the enemy’s flash time in the chat box for CD calculation, muttering, “Tsk, what a thief…”
He had calculated the timing of Yue Fengling entering the first bush. Based on character movement speed, the sheep charging to that position should have hit 100%.
Who knew Yue Fengling wouldn’t save his skill at all, flashing directly over the bush and leisurely returning.
He retreated to the jungle and recalled with Duan Mingyue.
This failed gank brought many chain reactions.
Because Shen Yanjin showed himself top, the other lanes guessed their intent. Mid lane retreated and leaned toward the bottom jungle to prevent a gank.
Bot lane, knowing they were safe, began to pressure aggressively. How could a random AD withstand the joint offense of Tans and Aiai? He donated First Blood immediately, and two-fifths of the turret plating was ground away.
The enemy jungler took the bottom scuttle crab and controlled the bot vision. The Dragon was about to spawn, but their bottom jungle was pitch black, impossible to contest.
A series of butterfly effects from one move caused the scales of victory to tilt toward the enemy.
A standard disadvantageous start.
Shen Yanjin, however, wasn’t affected at all, not even a bit disappointed. In fact, such losses were within his calculations.
Roaming ganks were a gamble. Since you wanted to gain, you had to be prepared to lose.
He said calmly, “The enemy started Red; the Buff is about to respawn. He’s still doing the Dragon. Invade directly… is that okay? Moon God?”
Shen Yanjin had been too absorbed just now. Suddenly remembering he wasn’t Sliver nor playing a match, he hurriedly switched to a soft, girlish tone to salvage the situation.
Duan Mingyue seemed not to notice the change in his tone at all. In fact, he really hadn’t.
Handing command to UOOW this game was partly because he indeed wanted to see this girl’s awareness and macro view, and partly because his heart was currently in chaos due to the sudden realization of his feelings.
Hearing the question, he said somewhat absent-mindedly, “I’ll listen to you.”
“En.”
Shen Yanjin nodded.
While the enemy took the Dragon, the two of them swept the top jungle clean, clearing three camps. The Jungle-Support duo recovered their economy. Not falling behind in items, they still possessed enough damage and catch potential.
“Jungler is coming bot.”
Aiaiās vision placement was excellent. The moment Duan Mingyue appeared in vision, he pinged a signal and protected Tans to retreat to a safe position.
Yue Fengling gave an “En,” feeling a bit strange: Shen Yanjin and Duan Mingyue were both people who learned from their mistakes. Why would they try the same play twice?
Thinking of this, he quickly realized something was wrong. Seeing Mid lane repeating the old trick and moving toward the top jungle, he hurriedly pinged a warning.
But it was too late.
The instant he clicked the mini-map, a white, fluffy, soft little lamb suddenly charged out of a bush in the top jungle, colliding squarely with the approaching Mid laner.
This was the Shepherdās skill. After being hit by the sheep, the character would be knocked up and immobilized for 1.75s, with a 50% slow effect attached.
Shen Yanjin had already signaled his Mid laner in advance. At this moment, the Mid laner rushed up swiftly, followed up with a root, and after a burst of damage, took the kill.
“Persimmons still have to be picked where they’re soft.” Shen Yanjin took the assist and helped Mid push the wave. “If it were Captain Yue, he probably would have sensed something wrong before I even released the sheep, patted his butt, and slipped away.”
Duan Mingyue, having counter-ganked bot for a while, smiled and said, “Then what if you can only gank top, and mid is ungankable?”
Shen Yanjin didn’t think too much. “Then I wouldn’t pick Shepherd. I’d directly pick someone like Bear Butcher who can flash-engage, or a functional support to wait for late-game team fights. Roam for counter-ganks, control vision, ensure two lanes don’t collapse while establishing an advantage in at least one lane. That way, there’s still a say in late-game team fights.”
Duan Mingyue was silent for a moment, then laughed. “That answer is very standard.”
More than just standard, it was simply the most suitable answer one should give to an examiner during a team interview.
Shen Yanjin also realized his answer was a bit rigid. “I… that’s what I think. Anyway, playing games with my mouth is easy! I just blurted out the most ideal situation!”
[Wow, UOOW can play Bear Support? And functional supports?? Are those the support characters I’m thinking of?]
[I remember when she played with Moon God before, her protective support play was also super awesome. That positioning made me dumbfounded.]
[All-rounder support, can play everything? That’s huge.]
[Is UOOW the substitute support for KW Team? I heard KWās training matches have been trash recently.]
[???? Is Lucida getting swapped out? Holy sh*t, UOOW is amazing. Not only stealing Lu’s man but also stealing Lu’s career. Winning big time.]
[What do you mean stealing? Esports is about if you’re good, you play; if you’re not, you sit. Since when do positions belong to someone?]
[But this support, her thinking is really clear. Is she really a female player?]
[Does this voice sound like a man to you?]
[The difference between UOOWās typing style and speaking style is a bit big. Looking at the typing, I thought she was an attention seeker, didn’t expect her speech to be so calm.]
[KW really should change supports. Lucidaās form has declined severely. Looking forward to the new support, looking forward to the new season.]
While recalling to buy items, Duan Mingyue glanced at the bullet screen.
To be honest, he was also a bit curious.
After several duo queues, Duan Mingyue indeed rarely saw UOOW pick repeat characters. And almost every character she picked, she played very well, with her own understanding.
If UOOW was truly as she claimed, able to play any support, with such outstanding macro and awareness, then why had she been stuck in Diamond? And why had no one discovered this uncut gem?
Recalling the sentence, “Because before meeting you, I was content with the status quo. Because of you, I wanted to go to a higher place to take a look,” Duan Mingyueās eyes shifted slightly.
Even if he was overthinking it, he felt that if this sentence was used to summarize his relationship with UOOW, it was truly a bit excessive.
He looked at the bullet screen again, his gaze glued to the sentence “Is she really a female player?”
Once the seed of doubt was planted, it instantly grew wild like weeds.
All-rounder support.
A tacit understanding that seemed to imply they had known each other for a long time.
Exquisite coordination.
The broken microphone.
The Bladesman-Ice Witch combo.
Confident plays calculating HP to the limit, perfect positioning.
Photos, spider plant, chats that were just right and never touched his boundaries.
Clue after clue, small event after small event, vague feelings one after another.
Thinking back now, wasn’t the reason he got involved with UOOW precisely because he had previously mistaken her for YanGold?
He dispelled the suspicion later because he learned UOOW was a girl.
But… what if she wasn’t?
Scattered beads were strung together at this moment. It was like finally untangling a messy ball of yarn; everything was connected.
And these connections all pointed to the same result.
Duan Mingyueās Adamās apple rolled. Multitasking, he picked up his phone and forwarded the daily life photos UOOW had sent him to another contact.
[XXDY: ?]
[RedMoon: Where are the locations in these photos? Can you find out?]
[XXDY: Wait a moment.]
Because Shen Yanjin only sent the casual photos to Duan Mingyue, he had no thought of concealing his real address.
There were quite a few distinctive buildings in the photos. Not long after, a reply came.
[XXDY: Bincheng.]
Duan Mingyue let go of the mouse, uncharacteristically propping his forehead with his hand.
He found it a bit funny.
The little support had clearly left him so many traces.
How did he only figure it out now?
Simply… incredibly stupid.
To think he had felt guilty for so long, feeling he really wasn’t a decent person.
The result? The result was he was too stupid. Thinking UOOW was a girl, he never thought in the other direction.
Duan Mingyue had a good memory. YanGold had once personally said that he was located in Bincheng.
Leaving without a word five years ago, yet running back eagerly five years later pretending to be a woman to find him.
What did this mean?
“Moon God?” Shen Yanjin saw Duan Mingyueās character suddenly stop moving and thought he disconnected. “Are you still there?”
The stream chat was also full of question marks and checks on the network.
Duan Mingyue shook his head, unable to hold back a laugh. “No, I’m still here.”
Shen Yanjin heard him laughing so happily and felt a bit strange: What’s wrong? Did he see something funny?
“Split up?” Duan Mingyue adjusted his sitting posture. “You go top, I go bot for counter-ganks. We rely on catching mid to snowball economy.”
Shen Yanjin meant exactly the same thing. “En, break the mid tier-one tower first.”
Once the mid tier-one tower was broken, the enemy jungler would be restricted.
And once the enemy jungler was restricted, the advantage of their Jungle-Support roam strategy would quickly manifest. Controlling map resources, invading the jungleāwith one opponent disabled and the two side lanes not completely collapsed, the advantage would be huge.
Duan Mingyue smiled knowingly.
Before, UOOW might have been too much of a stranger to trust fully.
But once he realized she was nine out of ten likely YanGold in disguise, Duan Mingyue had no more concerns.
“Let’s go,” Duan Mingyue looked at their team’s lagging economy and said in a low voice, “The good show is just beginning.”
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Ackk š cant wait for them to meet