Chapter 70
Although Duan Mingyue’s gameplay was as brilliant as ever throughout the match, seeing his calm face at this moment gave Shen Yanjin that inexplicable hunch.
That was why he had told him to be ready to play before leaving.
The TV began displaying the MVP data for this match: SYG’s Mid laner, with a terrifying one hundred percent kill participation and thirty-nine percent damage share—the carry of carries.
Footsteps came from the door. Shen Yanjin moved his gaze from the TV as Duan Mingyue opened the lounge door and walked in.
He took an imperceptible glance at Shen Yanjin, who was sitting on the sofa with his back straightened, then said to Mao Qiude, “Lucida’s condition is bad. Sub for the next match.”
Lu Yuan’s score this match was 0/13/6; it wasn’t just “bad condition,” it was simply returning to the Silver tier.
He didn’t lower his voice saying this, nor did he close the lounge door. The four KW members walking in behind him heard it very clearly.
Lu Yuan’s expression twisted for a moment, but she didn’t make a sound.
Mao Qiude was noncommittal. He turned to Shen Yanjin and said, “Sliver, what do you say?”
“Are you ready?”
A little sweat seeped from Shen Yanjin’s palms. He grabbed the strap of his peripheral bag, and like a ghost at work, he didn’t answer but looked at Duan Mingyue, who was still standing at the door.
Duan Mingyue smiled at him, the curve of his lips gentle and reassuring.
So Shen Yanjin’s heart instantly settled. He said, “I can play anytime.”
KW vs. SYG, Game 2. KW starting lineup changed.
Support: KW-Lucida replaced by KW-Sliver.
After receiving the news, Weibo offered this comment:
[From an early-stage terminal patient swapped to a late-stage terminal patient. KW, you really are something.]
In five minutes, nearly thirty thousand people liked it.
Early-stage terminal referred to Lu Yuan; late-stage terminal referred to Shen Yanjin.
In the eyes of passersby, Shen Yanjin, whose results had always been heinous, couldn’t possibly be better than Lu Yuan.
Although HG was investigated for acting and match-fixing, humans are stubborn creatures. It’s very easy to develop deep-rooted prejudices against something. Without concrete evidence, they naturally wouldn’t believe that Shen Yanjin performed so miserably because he was being acted against.
They only believed what they wanted to believe.
Staff came to knock on the door for the second time. Shen Yanjin shouldered his peripheral bag, took a deep breath, and followed Duan Mingyue out.
Cameras, audience cheers, and commentators’ conversations spread through the venue via speakers. Looking up, it was a dark mass of people. To ensure the viewing experience, the lights in the audience seating were off, so the colorful light signs and support banners shone like a sea of stars within.
This was only a preseason match within the region, and the venue wasn’t large.
Over the years, WL’s popularity in the country hadn’t decreased; instead, it had grown higher and higher.
The air conditioning in the venue wasn’t set too high; wearing a jacket, one could even feel a just-right coolness.
Shen Yanjin looked up and found that on the huge screen at the venue, among the photos of the five KW players, himself in the black and red uniform was looking down at the entire stage with a slight disdain.
He had returned to the arena.
Duan Mingyue raised his hand and squeezed his shoulder like a good buddy: “Let’s go.”
Shen Yanjin withdrew his gaze: “En.”
Sitting in his seat, Shen Yanjin began debugging his equipment. Since the match hadn’t officially started, the noise-canceling function of the headphones wasn’t on yet, so he could hear the female host informing the audience of the KW player substitution with her sweet voice.
KW-Sliver.
He exhaled, forcing himself to calm down and return to his normal state.
Although he was playing, he was still in the capacity of a substitute.
This was only the beginning.
Shen Yanjin’s participation had a huge impact on KW’s tactics. However, since such changes often occurred during scrims before, the other KW members were quite used to it.
Kai even told two cold jokes in the voice channel.
The staff responsible for monitoring the voice channel behind them were surprised to discover that compared to the old teammate Lu Yuan, the team atmosphere was actually better when this new member played.
Pre-match preparations ended, entering the pick phase.
The last game hurt morale a bit, so in this game, Mao Qiude directly selected the strong Jungle-Support combination of Ascetic Monk and Mermaid.
Seeing this pick, Commentator A said with interest, “It seems KW wants to play Jungle-Support roam this game.”
Commentator B said, “After all, it is a strong meta for Jungle-Support roam, and Mermaid’s current win rate is also very high. Everyone should be quite familiar with the player Sliver; he’s a very aggressive player. I’m also very curious about what changes he will have after joining KW.”
“Speaking of which, this should be considered the most suitable meta for Sliver,” Commentator A joked. “This player, once known as the sharpest double-edged sword, is now held in the hands of RedMoon. What kind of sparks will these two create? Please wait and see!”
“Why do you sound like you’re filming a TV show trailer?”
“That is indeed what I mean~ Seriously, aren’t you curious? Anyway, I’m really curious what the Jungle-Support combination of Moon God and Sliver will be like. As far as I know, KW actually had other support candidates, but finally settled on Sliver.”
Commentator B quietly pushed the glasses on his nose: “I’m also curious. Let the audience wait and see with us.”
The bullet screen in the official match live stream had already exploded.
At the same time, a new tearing war began on the forums.
[Other support candidates, referring to UOOW, right.]
[Wuwu UOOW hasn’t been online for a long time. Moon-U really lost this time.]
[When Moon God started streaming for her, I thought it was an official announcement. Didn’t expect this ending…]
[I don’t care about UOOW or whatever, I just want to know why it’s this ATM machine Sliver??]
[Same. Forget UOOW, on what basis does Sliver replace Lucida? Is KW management too full (fed up)?]
[To be honest, Lucida wasn’t any better last game.]
[Only one game, okay? How many games has Sliver been critically ill for?]
[Sliver retired a while ago, I thought this guy finally had some self-awareness. Result is he ran back again and even entered KW. What dog sh*t luck.]
[Have to say, Lucida really looks like she was infected. Cover the ID and I’d think it was Sliver playing.]
[Laughing to death.]
[Report—Lucida posted a new Weibo a minute ago. She played while sick today; those mocking can stop.]
[Really infected with a terminal illness?]
[It’s a fever. Accumulate some virtue with your mouth.]
After posting on Weibo, Lu Yuan put down her phone, her gaze moving to the TV screen in the lounge.
Clearly, the starter was her.
But now, she could only sit in the lounge and watch others play.
The image of Shen Yanjin and Duan Mingyue kissing that night lingered in her mind, severely affecting her sleep and mood. So for today’s poor performance, Lu Yuan took it for granted to blame it on Shen Yanjin.
Duan Mingyue… how could he be a homosexual?
He must have been forced!
Yes, it must be so.
Shen Yanjin grabbed Duan Mingyue’s blackmail material, so Duan Mingyue let him join the team and even kissed him! It’s all that Sliver’s fault!!
The night before last, Lu Yuan called home to seek help. Her father, after hearing the whole story, fell into a long silence. He didn’t agree to deal with Shen Yanjin as Lu Yuan had hoped, but instead tried to persuade her to give up and stop provoking Shen Yanjin.
She didn’t believe in heresy and called her mother again, receiving the same answer.
Although the elders of the Lu family spoiled their daughter excessively, they wouldn’t be foolish on major issues. How could Shen Yanjin, a nobody with no background, hold Duan Mingyue hostage? Even if he could, it must be voluntary on Duan Mingyue’s part.
The only son of the Duan family—that was the ironclad next heir. Never mind him liking men; even if he liked a dog, the Lu family couldn’t provoke him.
These principles were obvious, but Lu Yuan didn’t understand, or rather, she didn’t want to understand.
Lu Yuan truly couldn’t figure out why, whenever something involved Shen Yanjin, it would go contrary to her expectations.
She looked at the expressionless young man on the screen sitting in the position that should have belonged to her, resentment flashing across her face.
The game map loaded. The cheering for Team KW was still very loud.
Because of SYG’s brilliant performance in the last game, quite a few passersby spontaneously shouted encouragement for them. Although it sounded thin, it was already a big improvement.
“Alright, thank you to the fans for cheering for both teams.” Commentator A spoke at the right time, swiftly finishing the ad read. “Compared to KW, SYG hasn’t made big changes here. They still chose a bot lane duo, and Mid lane chose a character with strong pushing ability to support the Jungler. B, what do you think?”
Commentator B said, “If looking at the player IDs, I think KW definitely has the advantage, undoubtedly.”
Commentator A said, “What if looking at the IDs?”
Commentator B said, “Looking at the IDs, it’s unknown. The player Sliver is like a ticking time bomb. Until the moment of explosion, no one knows if he’ll blow up his teammates or the opponents. His uncertainty is too high.”
“In other words, you don’t think Moon God can control this double-edged sword?”
This sentence sounded a bit like intentionally inciting conflict. However, A and B were long-time commentary partners; naturally, there couldn’t be any malice—just teasing.
Commentator B smiled helplessly and said, “No, I think Moon God can control it. According to pro players I know, KW’s scrims with Sliver participating were all very fierce.”
“Very fierce? …Wow! What are KW’s Jungle and Support doing? Camping in the enemy jungle at the start? Indeed very fierce!”
The advantage of Jungle-Support roam against a solo Jungler lay here. In the jungle alone, two against one could achieve the goal of bullying the few with the many. The efficiency and safety of counter-jungling would also increase significantly.
However, Duan Mingyue and Shen Yanjin didn’t camp in the bush at the start just to counter-jungle.
Their goal was First Blood.
This game, SYG’s Jungler was playing “Blue.” This character lived up to his name; he was short on mana in the early game and would 100% start Blue.
And SYG chose the Red side, so the Blue buff area was in the top lane. Only the Top laner could help leash the buff.
Coincidentally, the Mermaid Shen Yanjin took was a character that didn’t reason during level 1 fights.
Ultimately lacking match experience, SYG’s Jungler had poor vigilance and didn’t notice anything wrong, starting the Blue buff directly. Shen Yanjin saw the timing and jumped out of the bush with Duan Mingyue, applying a slow and unleashing a flurry of auto-attacks on the Jungler.
Everyone had no defensive items, only one basic item. In this situation, Mermaid’s base damage was very high.
Combined with the Ascetic Monk, who also had high damage, the Jungler—already low health from taking the buff—barely managed to Smite for some health before being forcibly pressed to death in the jungle.
As for SYG’s Top laner, a tank—thick skin but scratchy damage—KW’s Jungle and Support treated him as nonexistent the whole time. After killing the Jungler, they casually stole the Blue buff and walked back to their own jungle unhurriedly.
No different from bandits.
Pity SYG’s Jungler, who worked on the Blue buff for half the day only to have it snatched by someone else. He became a laborer, got beaten up, lost his life, and his early rhythm collapsed completely.
There were only two options left in front of him: One, take a risk and return tit for tat by invading Duan Mingyue’s Blue; two, honestly accept his bad luck, farm as much as possible early, and roam after the second Blue buff spawned.
Thinking of the scene where two burly men jumped out of the bush just now, SYG’s Jungler spinelessly… chickened out.
Endure a moment for calm winds and still waves; take a step back for a boundless sky.
He endured it!
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