Chapter 5: Is Your Aim True?
He picked up his cup for a sip of water and clicked queue. As if telepathic, Yue Fengling’s chat box in the bottom left corner flashed again.
[WOF-Mountain: What are your plans now? Streaming or?]
Match found. It was a rest day and afternoon, so the queue popped naturally fast. Glancing to ensure there were no IDs like “Cute Princess Meow Meow,” Shen Yanjin quickly locked in a control-type support, Shadow Baby, before turning to reply.
[Sliver: Don’t know, haven’t thought about it.]
Yue Fengling had known Shen Yanjin for years; how could he not know this guy’s tendency to escape whenever there was an issue?
[WOF-Mountain: Think it over carefully. You just retired; while your popularity is still there, make plans early.]
Popularity? Shen Yanjin tugged the corner of his mouth—infamy was more like it. If he started streaming now, he’d 100% be chased and scolded.
[Sliver: OK OK Daddy Yue, gotta go, match starting.]
[WOF-Mountain: ?]
[WOF-Mountain: Didn’t you say you were feeling unwell?]
[Sliver: …]
[Sliver: Yeah, accidentally poked a hole in the IV bag.]
Perhaps because of the two bizarre matches in a row, the teammates this round were surprisingly harmonious. There wasn’t even a conflict over positions.
Likely seeing he took a control-type support, the ADC directly picked a single-target burst Gunner that synergized well—Crow.
As an ADC character, Crow had long range and high damage, but had a small problem—his bullets had travel time and ballistics, requiring prediction of the opponent’s movement. Otherwise, it was very hard to hit.
Picking this thing in Diamond rank, to put it harshly, meant 90% of the time they were going to feed.
Although Shen Yanjin didn’t want to chatter and be annoying, the shadow of the previous two games was heavy. He endured and endured, but couldn’t hold back, typing:
[UOOW (Shadow Baby): Brother~ Is your aim true?]
In front of a computer screen, Duan Mingyue saw this question and smiled.
He rarely streamed during the season, resulting in a huge pile of unfinished streaming hours for the month.
He returned yesterday, and today he finally found time to stream for a bit. Unexpectedly, he faced doubt from a teammate in the very first ranked match.
Duan Mingyue raised his hand and typed.
[Who’s Who’s Who (Crow): En, my aim is very true.]
After sending, he glanced at the bullet screen assistant on the side: “Mods, ban anyone starting yellow (inappropriate) rhythms. Quiet down, going to prove myself to the Support Missy this game.”
[Is it true? En, shooting♂very♂true~]
[I get it, I’m dirty]
[How does Moon God know the Support is a Missy? What if they pull it out and it’s bigger than yours?]
Duan Mingyue smiled lazily. “I don’t know if it’s a Missy, but bigger than me? Not very likely.”
The game entered the loading screen. He closed the bullet screen assistant and lightly flexed his fingers.
It was already the end of the month, and he still had two hours of streaming time to make up. Duan Mingyue couldn’t be bothered to play high-ELO games, so he casually hopped on a smurf to fry some fish (stomp noobs). The stream title was also “Just playing casually.”
Although he was famous in the pro circle as a Jungler, Red Moon’s fans knew that their Moon God’s ADC play was also quite considerable.
The laning opponents in the bottom lane were Bramble and Yan. Bramble was a scaling ADC, and probably fearing his Shadow Baby’s crowd control, she brought Cleanse and Flash. Yan was a shielding Support carrying Heal; written all over them was the desire to survive.
At the start, Shadow Baby pinged the enemy jungle, then slipped into the shadows, hiding his form. Duan Mingyue knew he was going to place deep vision in the enemy jungle. Slipping into a bush, his gaze intentionally or unintentionally tracked the Shadow’s movement on the minimap. Seeing the Support’s pathing was extremely tricky and precise, he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. A Diamond player knowing how to play Shadow like this? Rare.
One of WL’s major features was that, aside from the vision range of one’s own turrets and minions, everywhere else was pitch black. Player characters walking in it could easily be ambushed by enemies popping out of shadows, and lanes were easily ganked by junglers.
Because of this, vision control was vital in WL.
Although Shen Yanjin was scolded as a noob in various ways and his match stats were hideous, he was still a pro player. His mastery of vision control and positioning was proficient.
After placing the wards, Shen Yanjin immediately retreated. The minion wave refreshed just then. He glanced at the minimap: enemy started Red, significantly increasing the chance of a level 2 gank on bot lane.
This was one of the advantages of Shadow Baby support—large vision range at the start.
To his relief, Crow also understood he might be ganked, positioning very conservatively. The enemy jungler tried to initiate twice, but they dodged both attempts with near misses.
After “peacefully” farming two waves, just as Shen Yanjin leveled up his crowd control skill, Crow signaled to attack.
He paused slightly, then reacted instantly. Fingers tapping lightly, the moment he dived into the shadow, he jumped on their face and slammed down a stun.
In that window of less than two seconds, Crow had already set up his sniper. Their coordination was so tacit it didn’t even give the opponent a chance to react. Two gunshots rang out—double headshot.
[First Blood!]
[Double Kill!]
Successfully getting two assists, Shen Yanjin’s expression turned somewhat surprised.
The enemy Support being stunned meant certain death, but Bramble had brought Cleanse to remove CC. Her hand speed was fast, practically an instant cleanse.
But she still died under Crow’s gun. That meant there was only one possibility: their ADC had predicted Bramble’s Cleanse and movement path ahead of time—a critical shot, a guaranteed kill.
It was a godlike shot that didn’t belong in this rank.
Streamer? Or pro player?
Whichever it was, it was enough for Shen Yanjin to see the dawn of victory.
First blood plus two heads; Crow was instantly filthy rich.
Shen Yanjin got assists, so he also had a nice income. After recalling and buying items, according to his personal habit, this was the time to start roaming the three lanes to help the jungler gank.
But this time was different. One reason was that Crow had no mobility skills and needed protection more than other AD characters; the other was that this random teammate played genuinely well, while the jungler might not be reliable. Hugging the thigh honestly was the way to go.
On the screen, a small, cute black ball bounced along toward the bottom lane. Crow carried his sniper rifle, following unhurriedly behind the black ball.
Probably because the teammates in the previous two games were too bizarre, looking at Crow walking slowly beside him now, an inexplicable feeling of cherishing a teammate unique to Supports welled up in Shen Yanjin’s heart.
Like his game ID, whether in matches or ranked, his personal style was quite sharp. He played the Support position, but didn’t like staying obediently in the bot lane; he loved running all over the place.
Five years ago when he debuted, he made his name precisely with this roaming style and excellent gank sense. In esports competitions, the audience more or less admired strength. Players with strong personal styles and sharp mechanics were naturally popular.
But the problem lay exactly there. In a team of five, abilities varied. Sometimes teammates couldn’t follow up on Shen Yanjin’s engages, and Shen Yanjin would instantly transform into a feeding maniac. Or sometimes, a wrong prediction would turn Shen Yanjin’s roam into a sightseeing tour—not only falling behind in levels and experience but also leaving the bot lane in a disadvantageous 1v2 for too long.
Therefore, many fans and commentators called Sliver a double-edged sword. Used well, he could deal heavy blows to the opponent; used poorly, he would cut himself.
In the last two years, the team roster changed a lot. Teammates who couldn’t adapt to his rhythm and were dissatisfied with him grew from one to two, then to three. Even the coach urged him to change his playstyle.
But Shen Yanjin didn’t care. He remained maverick, his playstyle extreme—either feeding or carrying. No one could control or restrain him.
But now, following behind this random teammate, Shen Yanjin inexplicably felt that staying obediently in the bot lane with the other person seemed pretty nice too.
Hiss.
Pig teammates were too scary.
First, they made him hallucinate that Yue Fengling’s ADC play was decent. Now, they made him want to stay entwined with a random player in the bot lane until the end of time.
If this continued, it wouldn’t be long before Shen Yanjin could abandon control supports, completely transform into a protective support, lose the heart to gank, and become a Buddha on the spot.
He tugged the corner of his mouth, calculated that the enemy bot duo’s respawn timer was about up, clicked the minimap, and happened to see the enemy jungler appear in mid.
Opportunity knocks but once. Shadow Baby immediately slipped into the shadows, pinged a signal, and walked toward the bush between the enemy’s tier 1 and tier 2 towers.
This camping spot was quite insidious. Not only was it easy to get flanked from behind, but if the ambush failed, it was extremely easy to get counter-killed. Unless there was deep hatred, it was rarely used.
Although Shen Yanjin had no deep hatred for the two friends on the other side, he was insidious!
Crow quickly understood his intent. With a flash of cold light, the big sniper rifle was set up, exuding an aura of one man holding the pass against ten thousand.
Since this character couldn’t move while sniping, and there was no one opposite him, setting up a gun here inexplicably looked as if he was saying: I’m right here~ Come hit me~
Extremely punchable.
Bramble and Yan had just walked over. Seeing this setup, they froze, not understanding what it meant.
But they understood soon enough.
The little black ball whooshed out from the bush where they had no vision, diving headfirst into a shadow. After he entered the pitch-black shadow, it seemed to come alive, extending upward and firmly binding both their calves!
Since Bramble had already used her Cleanse in the last round, being controlled now made her even more of a sitting duck than the stationary Crow. Although she raised her gun in time to take out the squishy Shadow Baby, she herself entered the respawn countdown again after a gunshot.
Shen Yanjin didn’t care about giving up a kill. From the moment he appeared in the enemy’s vision, the enemy jungler was already moving bot. As a squishy Support catching people behind the tower, he had long prepared for a one-way trip.
Moreover, trading a Support’s life for the enemy main carry’s life—that trade value? He’d do it as many times as offered!
One had to know, although the enemy Bramble got a kill, she hadn’t eaten a single minion during this time. That was all shiny gold and experience; two waves of minions were worth much more than a kill.
Crow was different. With Shadow Baby’s help, he not only took three heads but also ate all the minions and got turret plating gold. He was now filthy rich, had a bounty on his head, and was a full two levels ahead of Bramble.
It was still early game, the first dragon hadn’t even spawned, yet these three kills and several waves of minions had opened up a gold difference of nearly two thousand in the bot lane. It was equivalent to the enemy still struggling to draw a bow while his side had started using rifles and cannons.
Shen Yanjin whistled triumphantly. Ever since being ostracized by his team, it had been a long time since he felt this total trust from a teammate and the refreshing sensation of a successful gank.
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