Chapter 118 - Stealing blues.
Thank you to an Anon and Ilse for your Ko-Fis! I greatly appreciate it :))
Since such words have been spoken, it naturally meant that there was no longer any room for retreat. Maintaining his usual temperament, Piaoluo said: “Alright then.”
Saying that, his expression faltered, putting on an appearance that showed he was not in full support of the additional condition. The fans connected in the shared live broadcasting room exchanged gazes, and the fans who did not understand the relationship between Piaoluo and Kang Shengzhe gave their own comments.
【......??? Are they really going to proceed like this...... withdrawing from the competition after losing?】
【I feel like what Piaoluo said makes sense, you don’t have to go so far for a game, right.......?】
【Feeling like they’ve started something huge. (Psyduck frowns, realising that the matter is not that simple)】
【So in this match, its either KK gets eliminated or Piaoluo and Howling Wolf are eliminated? Is this the fucking finals?】
【emmmmm... it’s hard to explain in a few words.】
No matter what the comments were saying, Kang Shengzhe did not care about them at all. The game had already began, and in the time where the audience were discussing, both sides have manipulated their heroes to run out of the fountain. With the addition of the condition, the three fans became a little nervous.
“KK, how should we play?”
Kang Shengzhe replied, “Play as you usually would; if you can win, kill, if you can’t fight against them, try your best to preserve your life. One last word, the mystical KK will carry you to victory.”
Piaoluo did not react when he heard those words but Howling Wolf’s sneer could be heard through his microphone.
With their participation in the competition at stake, a change in fan’s mentality occurred. They could no longer watch the match like it was an ordinary broadcast; the fans came from two different broadcasts to begin with and each and every one of them fell into line very quickly. Then, the first signs of wanting to tear KK down appeared in the dark.
【Don’t you think KK is becoming a little too rampant?】
【Speaking conceited nonsense.】
【All of a sudden, KK feels a little annoying.....】
【Previous commenter, are you sick? Who was the one who wanted to fight two against one, can you have some ac-points in your heart? We can put it aside if it was just a normal anchor, but on what grounds is Piaoluo allowed to do this?】
【What’s the matter with our God K? Anyone would be angered if they had to fight two versus one.】
【Thankfully, Sister Liang was here, or else wouldn’t KK have brought disaster to himself if he lost the two versus one?】
【So what if KK is rampant? I like KK being rampant.】
Very quickly, the notifications of gifts jumping all over the screen:
【WWCC】gifted Anchor【Victor KK】10 Cat Scratchers!
【WWCC】gifted Anchor【Victor KK】10 Cat Villas!
The people who were fans of Kang Shengzhe was not small in number and there was no lack of wealthy people around. In order to support their idol’s waist and back, spending this small amount of money was nothing to them. While the accumulated gifts Kang Shengzhe had experienced an abrupt surge, Piaoluo’s side was not weak either as they immediately followed by giving him gifts.
As the fans were gradually heating up, the game tentatively rushed towards the beginnings of the first team fight.
Kang Shengzhe’s King Lanling was very dependent on benefits that the blue brought as an ability reliant hero. He issued a ping to his teammates to watch over their jungle’s blue monster as he headed towards the enemies’ jungle.
Aside from players who were new to the game, everyone knew that stealing each other’s blue was a common occurrence, to say nothing of it when Diao Chen, the hero that Howling Wolf chose, had a huge mana consumption. Thus, both sides were met with an unavoidable confrontation in the vicinity of the blue monster.
Before they came into contact, Piaoluo reminded, “He went over.”
“I know,” said Howling Wolf.
While he was attacking the blue monster to half it’s heath, Howling Wolf constantly monitored his surroundings for movements Once he felt Kang Shengzhe coming close, his vigilance heightened right away and he dragged the blue monster into the bushes to escape Kang Shengzhe’s vision and safeguard the blue monster from being stolen at the last second.
However, Kang Shengzhe did not probe the bushes even for a second.
This person charged straight for Howling Wolf, taking no notice of the exceptionally tempting low-health blue monster, and directly went for Diao Chen.
Diao Chen’s attack range was further than King Lanling’s and Howling Wolf’s pathing was flexible as well. Even then, Howling Wolf’s health bar dropped a lot faster than Kang Shengzhe’s health when they started trading.
With one glance, it could be discerned that there was an obvious difference between their mechanics and experience.
Howling Wolf cursed internally and no longer fought, choosing to retreat. Nimble in technique, he managed to secure his own jungle’s blue buff to rise to level two in the chaos.
His blue was not stolen and the fact that he was left with half health was of no consequence. This exchange had hindered Kang Shengzhe’s camp clearing and levelling speed, which could be considered a good thing overall.
“Are you okay?”
Howling Wolf replied, “Yeah.”
Having responded to Piaoluo, Howling Wolf controlled his Diao Chen to retreat under the tower. But it was at that moment where a jade green loli in a stroller emerged from the bushes.
The positions of Kang Shengzhe and You Liangxing stated on the mini map could not be clearer; seeing that Kang Shengzhe and You Liangxing had appeared to start a two versus one, Piaoluo and his teammate from the middle lane immediately rushed to answer.
They were short of reaching when a game notification reverberated through King’s Canyon.
— First Blood!
... Diao Chen had been killed.
In a blink of an eye, first blood had appeared. Piaoluo stopped himself from frowning and asked: “Big Wolf, what are you doing?”
What answered him was Howling Wolf’s slightly frustrated voice. “I don’t know!”
Yes, he really did not know. That moment honestly happened too quickly!
Who would have thought that an auxiliary healer like Cai Wenji would choose not to accompany the jungler to steal the blue from the onset, or come running from the bottom lane to intercept, but choose to sit in the bushes to wait!
What kind of joke was this.... This was a healer!
Not only was their playing method beyond his expectations, the coordination between Cai Wenji and King Lanling was exceedingly firm since there was not a second of delay between them. In that instance, Cai Wenji had only just released her dizzy spell when King Lanling jumped out to reap a kill. Howling Wolf might have brought a cleansing spell but he was not given the chance to use it because he had died in an instant.
Where was he supposed to find a window to resist?!
Piaoluo composed himself, saying: “It’s fine, don’t fret.”
Just as he said those words, Kang Shengzhe opened his mouth too. Unlike Piaoluo, his tone was completely free of tension. “Liang Liang, look at the blue buff beneath my feet.”
Since Diao Chen had died, the blue buff she had obtained was shifted to Kang Shengzhe’s hero. While these words were usually akin to stones sinking into the ocean because it would garner no response, You Liangxing unexpectedly chose to deign him a reply. “Looks good.”
Kang Shengzhe: “It looks good? Then I’ll take down a few more blue buffs for you to see.”
Once that sentence landed, the comments filled the screen.
【Please play seriously, alright??? Why are you suddenly issuing sugar.】
【Keep your dog food, thank you.】
【At the large-scale site where flirting is occurring.】
【Suddenly hurt, blacklisted!!!】
The situation in the game was not as easy-going as the chat. Diao Chen needed her blues, and his sentence was no different from directly challenging Howling Wolf. Previously, Howling Wolf still bothered to hide his cold laughter, but he was laughing openly now. “That’s enough, don’t say big words.”
Kang Shengzhe said: “Why don’t you come over and test if it’s merely big words or not? My jungle’s blue monster hasn’t been touched, do you want to try and snatch it?”
Bring it on. Howling Wolf kept to his word and went, thus changing the location from his own allied blue monster to the enemies’ blue encampment.
Piaoluo called out to Howling Wolf once but it was of use. He could only run towards the middle lane from the bottom lane to give support. Alas, the same scene happened again; before he managed to rush there, the game notification had sounded once more.
— An ally has been slain!
... Diao Chen had died again.
Piaoluo said: “...... Big Wolf!”
His voice was stricter than before and Howling Wolf replied with palpable frustration. “I know! I...” His voice stopped and he could not utter the remainder of his words.
Truthfully speaking, he did make sufficient preparations in that wave when he went over, but let alone hitting King Lanling, he did not even manage to touch Cai Wenji!! He admitted that his gaming experience could not compare to Kang Shengzhe. But his position as an anchor was an undeniable fact, which begged the question as to why he couldn’t even touch Cai Wenji.
The healer’s dog-like positioning kept pace with King Lanling’s steps completely and they were identical. Not only did she remain untouched, she ensured that King Lanling would always be at full health.
How was he supposed to fight?
It’s not like he had an external plug-in!
But considering his reputation and other factors, he could not say those words out loud no matter what. And thus, at a rate that was visible to the naked eye, the words that Howling Wolf said rapidly decreased but his occasional grunts exposed his aggravated state.
After reaping those two heads, King Lanling had already seized the lead in terms of development. After Piaoluo was done clearing his minion wave in the bottom lane, his own fans consciously left their side’s jungle camps to Piaoluo to better develop his economy.
Thus, with his economy propping him up and agile maneuvers, Piaoluo managed to harvest a double kill in the bottom lane very quickly, evening out the kill score.
“KK...” The dead fan was a little surprised, “I really can’t win against him.”
Kang Shengzhe smiled, saying, “It’s okay if you can’t win against him, just do your best and try not to deliberately send him kills.”
Although he said that, King Lanling did not head to the bottom lane to catch people. Instead, he went around the entire map to clear the camps and minions, and Cai Wenji was never a step away from him. They wandered the entire map and the place where they lingered at the most was the enemy’s blue monster.
These two people did not disturb Piaoluo once, nor did they go and catch other fans, choosing to target Howling Wolf specifically. In the entire match, they did not allow Howling Wolf to take the blue buff once.
Half a match in, the enemy team had been killed seven times and six of them were contributed by Howling Wolf after he poured his heart and soul out. It was not that he wasn’t playing seriously or that the people surrounding him weren’t helping. Piaoluo had given his aid several times but King Lanling and Cai Wenji were dead set on hitting Diao Chen every time. Although there were occasions where King Lanling was beaten to the last stretch of his health, he would get away perfectly under Cai Wenji’s protection.
“I*......” Howling Wolf had been beaten to the point where his mind had collapsed and he blurted out, “KK, are you sick, when did I provoke you...”
Seeing that the person had lost himself, Piaoluo immediately shut off his microphone to prevent him from saying words that were too terrible to the ears out loud. Despite the placating smile on his face, he had already scolded Howling Wolf countless of times in his head.
He could disregard the fact that he had the face but not the skill, but if he lacked the brains and endurance as well, to the extent where he continued to gift his head two to three times despite knowing he could not win, then he was worse than a stupid bitch.
“Big Wolf!” He gave his reminder, “Manage the minions for a while.”
Howling Wolf had long been cut off from the communications and it was unknown as to what other foul language he had spoken. Fortunately, he still remembered that they were broadcasting, and that there was the stake of ‘having to withdraw from the competition’ which stopped him from rage quitting.
The spectating fans were not blind to the fact that Howling Wolf had been forced into swearing, which caused the river flow of comments to split.
【KK is going too far with how he’s playing, who could possibly stand being targeted like this ah......】
【If it was me, my mentality would have collapsed too.】
【My heart is hurting for my Wolf.】
【For farts! Please! This an anchor, alright!! Why doesn’t he even possess some basic quality? Should he always be allowed to win when he’s playing games? Is it really acceptable for him to swear at people just because he’s losing?】
【Wolf fans really know how to lie through their teeth, they obviously can’t play.】
【En, I think it’s great that I’m a fan of KK, our KK has never scolded people and he can afford to lose. Oh, no, our KK has never been killed this many times before hehehehe.】
Piaoluo tried to justify his behaviour in a roundabout manner: “Big Wolf did become a little too agitated while he was playing, but men, yes? It’s understandable during a game.”
Instead of dancing along with his tune, Kang Shengzhe queried: “Do you think you’re sufficiently developed?”
“What?” Piaoluo initially believed that this question was directed at Cai Wenji, but Cai Wenji did not answer at all. It was only then that he realised the question was for him and it was an abnormal one at that. He could only say: “It’s alright.”
Kang Shengzhe said: “Very good, then my wife will be bringing me over to kill you.”