Chapter 49
Shen Yanjin had long noticed the curious gazes cast by the others. Thinking about how he had just hugged their captain into a ball, he felt inexplicably guilty.
After they sat down, Mao Qiude walked over, his tone businesslike: “Which heroes are you good at?”
Shen Yanjin froze for a moment, his gaze falling on the document in Mao Qiude’s hand.
Mao Qiude saw through his thoughts: “I have your data, but I want you to tell me personally.”
As for the reason, it was simple. The hero pool UOOW showed when duo-queueing with Duan Mingyue was practically two different people compared to Sliver. This made Mao Qiude see huge room for development.
Sure enough, Shen Yanjin hesitated for a moment and answered, “Basically know them all.”
Mao Qiude pressed, “Basically know them all, or good at all of them?”
Shen Yanjin wanted to answer the latterāit wasn’t him being arrogant; if asked to pick any random hero now, he could play it. But the words felt a bit conceited on the tip of his tongue, so he said vaguely, “All… play decently.”
Mao Qiude nodded as expected. “Wait for the peripherals to come back, I’ll give you an account.”
The implication was to have him play a game on the spot to check his mechanics.
This was routine business, so Shen Yanjin naturally had no objection.
The others, however, started discussing carefully in the small group chat again. They couldn’t speak in front of the person, but their hands were still alive even if their mouths were dead, resulting in a clatter of keyboard sounds.
[Kai: Do you guys think he’s bragging or lacks accurate self-awareness?]
[Circle: Is there any difference between the two?]
[Kai: Wuwuwu I want UOOW, not Sliver.]
Tans didn’t speak but directly threw out a video recording.
Song Yuan and Kai clicked to watch. Good lord, it was a recording of Lu Yuan strolling around with a control support in the last few training matches, from the first-person perspective. The mechanics and awareness were simply horrible to look atāeven more of an ATM machine than Sliver.
Instantly, their hearts became calm as still water: Alright, at least it can’t be worse than this.
Duan Mingyue ran to the warehouse and came back very quickly.
Shen Yanjin lowered his head to take the somewhat heavy mechanical keyboard. Looking closely, he was surprised to find it was from the same manufacturer as his own peripherals.
He reached out and tapped a few keys. Red switches, the type he was most used to.
Generally speaking, pro players loved blue or black switches for their strong tactile feedback and crisp sound, which felt great to type on. But Shen Yanjin preferred a lighter touch and had always used red switches.
He had never told anyone about this small habit. Only some sharp-eyed and attentive fans had noticed this detail.
Is it a coincidence?
He craned his neck to look at Duan Mingyue.
Duan Mingyue lowered his eyes, smiling: “Is this keyboard correct?”
Shen Yanjin felt sweetness in his heart; Duan Mingyue actually knew what keyboard he used.
He restrained himself from looking away: “…En, thank you Moon God.”
Mao Qiude stood by, watching them exchange glances. His heart remained unmoved as he said expressionlessly, “Account and password are here.”
“Okay.”
Shen Yanjin connected the keyboard, turned on the computer, opened the game client, and logged into the account, all in one go.
Just as he was about to click queue, he suddenly remembered a very important thing.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing him stop moving, Mao Qiude frowned and asked puzzledly.
“…” Shen Yanjin glanced at Duan Mingyue, then at Mao Qiude. After thinking, he swallowed his words. “Nothing.”
Duan Mingyue, however, read the meaning behind his hesitant look.
Calculating carefully, it had been more than half a month since Shen Yanjin said he was locked at home by his parents. During this period… nine out of ten, he hadn’t logged into the game.
Half a month without touching a mouse and keyboard, plus getting dead drunk last night. The current little support could be said to have negative buffs fully stacked.
Thinking of this, Duan Mingyue paused inwardly.
Right, since YanGold is Sliver and has played professionally for five years, how could there be talk of parents disagreeing with him playing professionally?
Then what exactly did Shen Yanjin do this half month?
How many things is he still hiding from me?
Duan Mingyue’s gaze darkened slightly, but he still smiled faintly, without any change.
Shen Yanjin felt very guilty right now.
He practically rushed here non-stop right after being discharged; where would he get the chance to log into the game and regain his feel? Yet just now he boasted about knowing everything. Now he could only smash the jar since it was cracked and brace himself to go on.
Mao Qiude gave him a Grandmaster account with 200 points.
After entering the lobby, no one fought him for the support position. Shen Yanjin’s habit was to look at the bot lane carry first before deciding on his support. In the current version, the jungler was also a factor.
Mao Qiude didn’t give him room to choose and said directly, “Pick Mermaid.”
Shen Yanjin froze. Picking Mermaid in a random pug required muting the chat channel, or he’d be flamed to death.
Can’t be helped; nine out of ten Mermaids were trolls. Unless it was a well-known streamer or pro player, people would rather kill the wrong person than let one go.
He hadn’t played for more than half a month, and his hands were rusty. Mermaid happened to be a character requiring high mechanics. Shen Yanjin selected Mermaid, feeling things were developing worse and worse.
He sighed silently and clicked the mouse, wanting to mute the chat channel. Opening the settings, he found this account had muting turned on originally.
…Alright then.
A veteran troller.
Fortunately, people in this rank cherished their points and didn’t start throwing because of the first-pick Mermaid, each selecting characters for their positions.
Although he hadn’t played, Shen Yanjin had been watching competition videos and rank recordings, so his awareness hadn’t fallen behind too much.
As soon as they entered the game map, Mao Qiude said, “You roam with the jungler.”
Shen Yanjin really rarely coordinated roaming with a random jungler in solo queue.
Knowing Mao Qiude was testing his individual ability, Shen Yanjin still felt groundless anxiety. He bought starting items and drilled into the jungle.
Their jungler this game was Ascetic Monk, facing Tata. Tata, the pink-haired shota who had been in the cold palace for ages, had inexplicably become popular recently. The Tata and Bell Spirit combo was often seen appearing elusively in the ranked environment.
Shen Yanjin naturally refused to admit this was his “contribution.”
Standing next to the freshly spawned Blue Buff, watching his jungler finish a nonsensical combo, he sighed faintly. Done for, another troll jungler.
This was why Shen Yanjin never followed the jungler when solo-queueing support. If the AD trolled, he could cover them to farm a bit, or go to other lanes if necessary. But if the jungler trolled, they were truly a headless fly, buzzing around aimlesslyāa lump of team trash with no rhythm that fed economy randomly.
Unfortunately, the probability of a jungler trolling in this version was quite high.
After retiring, Shen Yanjin mostly played Jungle-Support duo queue in premades. The jungler was either Shi Feng or Duan Mingyue, so he had long been spoiled. Asking him to play with a random jungler now was like asking someone used to delicacies to gnaw on overnight biscuitsāhard to swallow.
He followed the Ascetic Monk absently, checking the lanes occasionally, mentally prepared to abandon the jungler and take over GANK duties himself at any time.
Standing aside, Mao Qiude saw Shen Yanjin’s intention at a glance.
He didn’t speak but looked at Duan Mingyue.
Duan Mingyue propped his chin, not saying he was training, just watching Shen Yanjin dryly from the side. His gaze was deep, seeming to be thinking about something.
Sensing Mao Qiude’s gaze, he looked up and smiled indifferently.
“…” What had to be said must be said. Mao Qiude stated, “Sliver, in this game, you are forbidden to abandon the jungler and roam alone.”
Hearing this, Shen Yanjin’s head buzzed.
It’s okay, you can do it. You followed Yue Fengling’s AD for so long; it’s just a random jungler. You can do it.
He exhaled deeply. “I understand.”
As expected, this jungler wandered around aimlessly for ages. Vision wasn’t done well, jungle wasn’t controlled, didn’t know to take Dragon even with signals, and supporting lanes was out of the question. Two flash-tower-dives to feed kills that nine bulls couldn’t pull back.
Fortunately, Shen Yanjin had quick eyes and hands, using his Water Wall and coordinating with lanes to get two kills. Otherwise, it would have been a catastrophic collapse, and they could have clicked surrender at fifteen minutes for the next game.
He tried hard to suppress the urge to go solo and patiently continued following the jungler.
If lanes were weak, the jungler couldn’t control resources. Similarly, if the jungler was too weak, it made life hard for the lanes. Following this Ascetic Monk, Shen Yanjin couldn’t even get experience, falling behind in levels crazily.
When the enemy Tata successfully took the third Dragon, he finally couldn’t hold back and ran solo to mid lane to catch the severely out-of-position enemy mid laner.
Mermaid initiated with a slow, placed a Water Wall, and coordinated with his mid laner for a burst of damage. The enemy mid laner’s health bar slid down to a sliver.
Who knew the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Just as the last skill was cast, a thick white shield suddenly appeared on the enemy mid laner’s health bar. Simultaneously, the sound of a hook chain arose.
The enemy Jungle-Support duo was also camping here!
Shen Yanjin reacted extremely fast. Without hesitation, he flashed directly toward his own jungle’s raptor camp, throwing his ultimate backhand. The Water Ball leaped from the Mermaid’s hand, flying toward the Bell Spirit.
If his calculation was correct, the Bell Spirit should be channeling Soul-Eating Bell.
Channeling couldn’t be interrupted midway; interruption meant half the CD was blacked out.
But faced with Mermaid’s domineering knock-up control, she couldn’t not interrupt even if she wanted to. With Soul-Eating Bell forcibly interrupted, the mid laner flashed away with a sliver of health to survive.
Although no kill was secured, none was given either. Mid-Support flash for enemy Mid-Jungle flash; calculating it, it was barely acceptable.
Just as Shen Yanjin thought this, a series of question marks sounded on the bot lane mini-map.
He looked up and almost suffocated: Jungler Ascetic Monk was solo-killed by the AD in bot lane, dying behind the tier-two tower, bafflingly.
Jungler killed, Mid in poor condition; Baron was handed directly to the enemy.
This was a huge rhythm swing.
Is this fcking really a Grandmaster player?*
Shen Yanjin’s face had turned cold. Pursing his lips, he barely suppressed the urge to curse, the force of his typing unconsciously increasing.
Just then, a hand reached out from the side and gently squeezed the back of his neck.
Shen Yanjin shivered, looking sideways involuntarily.
He saw Duan Mingyue with curved eyes, smiling lazily: “Don’t be angry.”
Shen Yanjin blushed, hurriedly turning his gaze back to the screen.
As for the anger of being forcibly bound to a troll just now, it had dissipated to who knows where.
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