Chapter 20: Slaughtering All Directions

Near ten o'clock, a full moon hung overhead, casting silver radiance that illuminated clusters of nameless little flowers.

The night outside the window was like a heavy silk curtain, gently covering the entire patch of grass. That grassy slope appeared so tranquil in the night, as if it were a corner forgotten by the world. In the grass, nameless insects were whispering; their sounds were like soft music, stirring up ripples in the surroundings.

After drying his hair, Shen Yan took his ASUS laptop out of his schoolbag, connected to the website, and entered the verification code he had received on his phone.

Broadband connection successful.

Lin Yang, whose screen had just gone black next to him, saw this and his face lit up with joy. He said, "So Old Shen brought a laptop too. Want to play Dota? Let's play together?"

Looking around the entire dormitory, it was indeed only Shen Yan who was on the same level as him.

Shen Yan shook his head. "I've never played, I won't hold you two back."

"Hey! Just play blindly, having an extra person makes it more lively."

Shen Yan didn't say anything more. In the past, he was a bookworm and really hadn't played many games; he had barely passed the advanced license test in QQ Speed, and he was completely clueless about high-difficulty moves like drift-boosting.

In his previous life, he had grown to like LOL during the S5 period, but his reaction speed was truly not great, and he had always struggled in the Gold tier. This game wouldn't even land on the national server until 2011, and it had only just launched in the US.

Life is not easy; one must always find some fun for oneself.

After downloading the currently famous Bao Miao Accelerator from the internet, he did a quick search and sure enough, found the US server for LOL; the installation package was a massive 3GB.

Taking advantage of the download time, Shen Yan browsed stock market information online.

In his previous life, Shen Yan had majored in finance, and his professors would occasionally explain stock market trends and conduct in-depth analyses of various factors.

With his ever-increasing memory, those things he had seen and heard in the past surfaced one by one in Shen Yan's mind. He clearly remembered that a major bull stock would be born the day after tomorrow: Haitong Group would release a restructuring plan, introduce capital tycoons to move in, and transform into a hot new energy listed company.

From hitting the limit down to hitting the limit up for half a month straight, the stock price doubled.

The current trend was exactly the same as in Shen Yan's memory. Shen Yan planned to go all-in once and would find a reliable securities firm tomorrow to arrange margin financing.

He would strive to get rich in one go.

The campus network speed was really not great; it took nearly half an hour to finish downloading the installation package, register an account, and log into the game. The full-screen English interface did not trouble Shen Yan.

After all, he was a top student at a key university, and English was Shen Yan's specialty.

"Clang!"

The familiar login sound effect and interface instantly made Shen Yan's heart flutter. Summoner's Rift, I'm coming.

He briefly browsed the weekly free heroes: Garen, Ashe, Ryze, Tryndamere, Blitzcrank, Katarina...

The skills and equipment were much the same as in the S5 period, and Shen Yan quickly understood them by heart.

Let's go!

Matchmaking mode, 5v5, both sides selected their respective hero characters.

After the match started, Shen Yan controlled Katarina to head to the middle lane. In this kind of low-end situation, there was no concept of a jungler at all; the top and bottom lanes were each occupied by two heroes.

Controlling the mouse and keyboard, after simply adapting to the character's skills, the advantages brought by his physical changes were immediately displayed.

His reaction speed was greatly improved, his understanding of the game, his understanding beyond the current version, his picture-perfect last-hitting, and his flashy movement, plus the fact that the opponent was a noob—under the influence of all these factors, two minutes into the start, the enemy Karthus was harassed to death.

"First blood!"

A passionate and powerful voice resounded throughout the entire Summoner's Rift.

"Old Shen, what game are you playing?"

Lin Yang was a bit curious when he heard this, so he leaned his head over and asked.

"A foreign game, somewhat similar to Dota," Shen Yan replied casually.

"Lin Yang, why are you spacing out? Push the tower!" The voice of Wu Yue'er urging him came from Lin Yang's headphones.

"Coming, coming!" Lin Yang couldn't care about much else and hurriedly operated the mouse again.

Shen Yan was getting smoother and smoother as he played, moving through the group of noobs as if there were no one else there.

"Double kill!"

"Triple kill!"

"Rampage!"

"Pentakill!"

Ten minutes into the game, a pentakill was born.

The hero Katarina was just that unreasonable; killing a hero would refresh skills on cooldown. Even when facing five enemies, as long as the moves were chained together, she was like a dancer gliding on the tip of a blade, her figure as elusive as a phantom, hard to pin down, and with extremely high lethality.

The twenty-minute match ended, and Shen Yan had taken a total of thirty-five kills, commonly known as a kill-hog.

Looking at the exploding crystal, Shen Yan felt incredibly exhilarated for a moment.

Damn it! I'm actually this strong now; I wouldn't have dared to imagine this in the past.

And just as Shen Yan was immersed in his excitement, Lin Yang's voice came from the side again.

"Damn! Old Shen, you're so damn strong; the five people on the other side aren't even enough for you to fight alone."

Lin Yang had been watching from the side for five minutes. With his foundation in Dota, he easily understood the principles of this game, LOL. Precisely because of this, he could understand Shen Yan's strength.

Just that hand speed, which was hard for the naked eye to discern, was not something an ordinary person could reach.

"Haha! It's alright, it's mainly because the opponents were quite bad!"

In order for the public to have a good gaming experience, accounts like Shen Yan's, which were newly registered, were generally matched with players of the same level.

"By the way, aren't you playing games with Wu Yue'er? Is it over?" Shen Yan said, laughing it off.

Lin Yang said Wu Yue'er was getting ready to shower and sleep, and it was no fun playing alone. Shen Yan didn't pay it any mind and continued to click on matchmaking, while Lin Yang watched with great interest.

For the second game, Shen Yan chose Tryndamere.

Without any surprise, he slaughtered the entire field again. With luxurious equipment, almost every strike dealt critical damage, and coupled with his ultimate's five seconds of invincibility, he chased the five enemy players down to hack at them.

"Pentakill!"

After the game ended, whether it was his own team or the enemy team, everyone was typing in the chat window.

The goal was very unified: "Please carry me!"

Lin Yang's English was not bad, and he was watching from the side with his blood boiling. He hurriedly asked, "Old Shen, what is this game called? Take me with you."

Shen Yan briefly described the way to download the game, then immediately started the third round.

Damn it! He had never played a game so smoothly before, and he even developed the illusion that life was as lonely as snow, with no worthy opponents to be found.

He did not know how big the gap was between him and those professional players, as there was no reference point to serve as a standard of measurement.

After taking Lin Yang to play two rounds of the game, time had quietly reached twelve o'clock before they knew it, and the other three had already climbed into their bunks, playing on their phones in comfort.

What was quite user-friendly was that the school did not have a requirement to cut off the internet.

Lin Yang felt a bit unsatisfied; despite the two consecutive victories having little to do with him, they let Lin Yang truly experience the charm of this game.

So he invited Shen Yan to continue.

"Go to sleep early; there will be plenty of time in the future."