Chapter 42: Finding the Flaw, Targeting Him
“Coach Zuo, why… why aren’t you saying anything?”
“I was wondering if I’m usually too strict with you guys. How did I raise a player who, when bullied, doesn’t come to complain to me, but instead secretly trains all afternoon by himself? And then he’s terrified and trembling over a small mistake, fearing I’ll scold him or bench him.”
“No, that’s not it, Coach Zuo.” Beyond hiccuped in his panic. “You’re very good to us. Brother Wall, and all my teammates in VEX are very good to me. I just, just… I don’t know why I was always afraid to mention it before. But now that I’ve said it, it doesn’t seem like much anymore…”
Hearing that Beyond’s tone was no longer as tense as before, Zuo Chi chuckled softly. “Do you want to meet Ma Song in a match? Do you want to… step over him to reach the top eight?”
“…Yes.”
“My ears aren’t working too well. Say it louder.”
“Yes! I do! I want to beat him fair and square in the league! I want our team to beat WIN and enter the top eight!”
Zuo Chi rubbed his ear. “The volume is a bit too much now; my eardrums are ringing.”
On the other end of the phone, Beyond burst into laughter, and a hint of a smile appeared in Zuo Chi’s eyes.
“Move your wrist around. Is it still shaking?”
“It’s, it’s much better, no more shaking… I’ve taken up so much of everyone’s time. I’ll get back to training right away.”
“You’ve had enough training hours for today. Your current task is to take a shower, then drink a cup of hot milk, crawl comfortably into bed, shout ‘Ma Song, you just wait for me,’ and finally sleep peacefully. Once you wake up naturally, wait to receive the top-secret training materials I’ll be sending you all.”
“Then, then I’m going to shower?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Thank you, Coach Zuo.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Coach Zuo, you’re the best coach I’ve ever met.”
Zuo Chi was stunned for a moment. By the time he came back to his senses, Beyond had already hung up.
[System: Detected a change in the attribute entries of a player in the host’s team, VEX.]
[Name: Zhou Lingyun. Game ID: beyond. Position: Marksman.]
[Golden Entry: Danger Perception.]
[Grey Entry: Fragile Hand (Entry Change) —— White Entry: Blessing in Disguise (Under the host’s careful care, this player’s hand injury has stabilized. Furthermore, he will no longer be emotionally affected by past experiences, preventing injury relapses due to stress.)]
He looked at the “Goodnight” sticker Beyond sent on his phone, then turned back to the training room.
He watched Ning Luzhao’s game screen for a while before opening WIN’s previous match videos, starting his analysis with full fighting spirit.
He focused heavily on Ma Song’s personal perspective.
This focus yielded significant results because this Ma Song was practically a walking flaw for WIN.
He loved to greed for minion waves, his positioning in team fights was aggressive, and his late-game hyper-carry play was mediocre… No matter how one looked at it, he wasn’t as good as their Beyond.
“Land.”
Ning Luzhao responded: “Two more minutes until this game ends.”
“Alright. After it’s over, come and look at this game clip. Fugui and Wu Yang, get ready too. I’ll put this clip in the Penguin Meeting; it’ll count toward today’s training hours.”
Fugui was curious: “Coach Zuo, what video is so urgent for us to see?”
“The flaw we absolutely must exploit to beat WIN.”
“You found a flaw already? As expected of our Coach Zuo—”
After enjoying Fugui’s routine flattery, once the cubs finished their games, he played several clipped video segments in the Penguin Meeting.
“These are match videos from WIN’s Spring Split and Autumn Split. I’ve clipped several segments from the laning phase and late-game team fights. Pay attention to their marksman.”
Ning Luzhao sat down beside him. After watching for a while, he said: “WIN’s marksman, Ma Song, often runs to the second-tier tower after being low on health in several games. He waits for the enemies to leave before returning to the first tower to clear minions. Only after clearing them does he recall to base.”
“Any ideas on how to gank him?”
“Using our advantage in clearing jungle camps with multiple people, keep an eye on Beyond’s report of the enemy marksman’s health. Once the opponent’s health is unhealthy, we’ll rotate from the enemy jungle to the second-tier tower and dive him.”
“WIN is a team that likes to play through the top half of the map, playing around their top-jungle duo. Usually, the support won’t stick to the marksman, so in most cases, it should be a one-on-one between Beyond and the opponent. Land, you pay more attention to the bottom lane, and you too, Wu Yang—we’ll talk about the specific deployment and practice it over the next few days.”
“Okay.”
Zuo Chi played the next clip: “This segment is of a team fight. WIN’s strength lies in their top-jungle duo’s ability to dive and kill the enemy carries. However, our team’s style is actually quite similar to theirs. Land and Fugui, when it comes to team fights, it’ll likely be a race to see who can kill the enemy carry first.”
“The good news is, our Beyond’s survivability in team fights is two levels higher than the enemy marksman’s. The bad news is, Land and Fugui, I don’t know how your assassination speed compares to the opponents’…”
Before he could finish his reverse psychology, Fugui was already rubbing his palms together, his eyes seemingly spitting fire: “Coach Zuo, put your heart at ease. My diving of the backline is super fierce! Just this Ma Song, with this forward positioning, isn’t he looking down on me? I’ll hide my vision, use a Flash-Ultimate combo into a basic attack, followed by a smooth combo. I guarantee he’ll be the first to die in a team fight!”
“Really?”
“Really! Besides, isn’t there Ning-shen? Ning-shen and I will dive—one from the front, one flanking—we’ll make sure this kid is dealt with clearly. Coach Zuo, just rest assured.”
Wu Yang added: “Coach Zuo, give me an a-a-ssassin mage, and I-I can dive too.”
“Fine, then I’ll see your performance during training.”
“No problem! The videos are done; can we go train now? Coach Zuo, I’m in a hurry. I want to go into a team fight right now. If I don’t, my whole body feels uncomfortable!”
Zuo Chi waved his hand, signaling the cubs to switch back to the game to continue training.
The sound of a successful ranked match found notification soon rang out in the Penguin Meeting.
Ning Luzhao didn’t start the queue immediately: “Beyond’s matter… has the Coach handled it?”
“Regarding what specifically happened, Beyond will probably tell you himself tomorrow. It’s not entirely handled… If we don’t beat WIN, my whole body will also feel uncomfortable.”
“How about the Coach watches me play a game?”
Zuo Chi raised an eyebrow: “Did you practice a new hero?”
“No, I just want the Coach to not worry about us being unable to kill carries compared to WIN’s top-jungle…”
“I said that just to fire up Fugui.” Zuo Chi smiled. “You know, Fugui is the type who ignites at a touch. If I keep praising him, he’ll actually get a bit slack. If I provoke him a bit, he’ll be more proactive than anyone in scrims.”
“…What about me?”
Zuo Chi watched Ning Luzhao invade the enemy jungle at level one, his playstyle two notches more aggressive than usual: “When VEX was being rebuilt, I chose the other players around you. What do you think? Let alone WIN, even if the Autumn Split champions ZAP came, I would still dare to say our cubs are the best.”
The sound of Ning Luzhao’s fingertips hitting the keyboard grew a bit heavier. If a fan who often stayed in Ning Luzhao’s livestream were here, they would definitely be able to see that the usually expressionless Land now had a trace of a smile in his eyes, though it was very faint.
“Is the Coach using encouragement-based education on me with that sentence?”
“Am I that cunning?”
“You are.”
“Fine.” Zuo Chi said helplessly. “Before I came, your training was already quite disciplined, and your mistakes were few. Dealing with the other cubs is tiring enough; as for you… I’m generally too lazy to think of too many tricks.”
“So, that sentence just now was a genuine compliment.”
“Of course.”
“Thank you, Coach.”
Ning Luzhao’s “thank you” wasn’t like Fugui’s effortless flattery. Hearing it made Zuo Chi’s face feel a bit warm: “We haven’t even beaten WIN yet and you’re already thanking—that was a great team fight engagement! You can chase; see if you can get a quadra kill!”
Five hours of training passed in the blink of an eye.
The cubs actually felt like they hadn’t had enough. They agreed on tomorrow’s training time, chatted for a bit, and then left the Penguin Meeting one by one.
Every time Zuo Chi used his brain, he would feel particularly hungry. He was currently debating whether to have pork and cabbage dumplings or shrimp and mushroom dumplings for a late-night snack when he heard Ning Luzhao ask him.
“Does the Coach want to go out for a walk tonight?”
It was Spring Festival. Looking out the window, there were very few people on the street, but the distant skyscrapers were brilliantly lit. Families were reuniting, most likely waiting until midnight for Shousui.
He nodded: “I’ll boil some dumplings first, then go out with you.”
He packed two boxes of dumplings. He watched as Ning Luzhao carefully wrapped the dumplings in a thermal bag, as if they weren’t going out for a walk, but to somewhere quite far away.
“Land, you’re not going to take me to your home for the New Year overnight, are you?”
“No.” Ning Luzhao drove the team car out of the garage, his voice thinning a bit in the cold wind. “My family doesn’t really support me playing professionally. Since I came to VEX, I haven’t gone back home.”
Zuo Chi got into the car, half-joking and half-serious: “Plan to spend a few more Spring Festivals with me at the VEX base before going home?”
The car drove out of the base, heading away from the city center. On the entire road, theirs was practically the only car.
“After we win the championship, will the Coach come back with me for the New Year?”
Zuo Chi leaned against the car seat cushion: “Sure… anyway, I have nowhere to go for the New Year. If I get tired of living at the base in the future, I’ll shamelessly crash at your homes for food and drinks—are we headed to the suburbs?”
“Yes. Most shops in the city are closed at this hour for Spring Festival; there shouldn’t be much to see.”
“…Are there shops open in the suburbs?”
Seeing the surroundings gradually turn into large stretches of fields, he estimated that if they kept driving, they’d reach a village.
“We’re not going to a shop.”
After about half an hour more, Ning Luzhao parked the car by the roadside and checked his phone: “Here… we shouldn’t get fined.”
Zuo Chi: “?”
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