Chapter 10: Huh?

While pulling and tugging, Liang Yan glanced at the minimap with the corner of his eye and saw that the top lane birdman had just disappeared from vision.

He probably came this way.

Liang Yan didn't dawdle; he easily took the red buff with QAQD.

——His smite is bound to the D key.

Then he clicked back with the mouse, preparing to turn and run.

But what he didn't expect was that Long Gui charged at him the instant he killed the red buff and directly cast 【Armor Break Taunt】.

Mang Seng was taunted and was pulled by Long Gui toward the mid lane.

Stalling for time to keep someone?

The moment the taunt ended, Liang Yan ruthlessly placed a ward in the brush, put on 【Golden Bell Cover】, first auto‑applied the red buff's slow, then cast 【Heavenly Thunder Break】 applying a stronger slow, then stuck to Long Gui punching and kicking.

Long Gui activated his W skill 【Spiky Defense】, granting himself armor bonus while also dealing reflect damage.

The skill had an effect, but not much.

Long Gui himself was already taking heavy damage from jungle clearing; after clearing two camps he was down to about half health, and even while taking medicine and tanking the red buff he merely kept his health from dropping further.

Moreover, because the red buff was eaten by the blind monk, Long Gui missed the heal from smiting the red buff, his play wasn't as good as Liang Yan's, and during the tug‑of‑war he took more damage from the red buff, lowering his health further.

Furthermore, Liang Yan's talent is 【Lord of Thunder's Decree】.

Although his Q skill was on cooldown, a full burst combo was too much for Long Gui to handle; his health quickly dropped to just a hundred, so he hastily flashed into the tower.

Liang Yan glanced behind him.

The birdman's silhouette had already appeared in the vision granted by the ward in the brush.

Running away was hardly possible——

Whoosh! Liang Yan decisively flashed, tanking the tower's shots, and with two punches took Long Gui's head.

Four hundred gold first blood bounty in hand.

The tower's second shot blasted down, leaving Mang Seng on low health.

Liang Yan made a small positional tweak, dodging a sneaky flying dart thrown by the enemy mid lane Zed, then walked back toward the tower; the tower's third shot came down and blew him up.

One‑for‑one.

The kill bounty was 400 to 300.

A small profit.

But we have to count the whole red buff family.

The enemy top lane birdman's support came to nothing, wasting time; Liang Yan's play thus indirectly helped Nuo Shou ease pressure, which also counts as a gain.

So this wave was a huge profit!

"Nice! The jungler is really handsome!"

Support Yudie saw the fight and couldn't help but exclaim in praise.

His voice was loud, standing out sharply in the quiet team voice channel.

"Heh, really handsome..."

Seeing that nobody else reacted, Yudie felt embarrassed.

"Screw Q, next time I'll teach you a move."

Liang Yan responded half‑jokingly, half‑seriously, easing Yudie's embarrassment.

Yudie got a response and was unusually happy: "Roar ah roar ah!"

His spoken language really isn't great.

But Liang Yan couldn't tell which country's accent it was, and for a moment couldn't guess this cheerful guy's ethnicity.

However, the guy's good mood didn't last long.

Liang Yan hadn't revived yet; down in the bot lane, the enemy duo pushed the wave forward, enemy support Bo Bi found an opening, and with one 【Valorous Charge】 slammed the mispositioned Lak Si against the wall, while also raising his hand to apply Weakness to Lu Xi An.

Ezreal jumped in to deal damage, coordinating with Bo Bi's burst, and directly took Lak Si's head.

Lu Xi An chased and auto‑attacked twice, judged he couldn't kill Ezreal, so he retreated under the tower; otherwise he'd lose too much health, and when the enemy's next combo came off cooldown he feared he wouldn't even dare to take a tower hit.

The total kill count was rewritten as 1:2.

"Shit..."

The Asian youngster Yudie muttered a curse, deeply regretful, saying:

"I was careless, I didn't flash!"

"Yeah, the enemy has no honor."

Liang Yan tried to be a good sport, but it only made the guy more embarrassed.

"Next time I'll definitely be more careful!"

The guy promised.

Liang Yan gave a vague hum.

It's not that he didn't believe it; he just felt being careful doesn't guarantee safety.

Indeed, the previous German guy had shown him just how unreliable the second‑ and third‑tier players in the EU region are.

Liang Yan is striving to adapt to this region's combat style.

——After respawning, the blind monk in straw shoes ran straight down.

When Bo Bi attacked, he tanked the tower; Ezreal was hit by a combo from Lu Xi An, and both members of the enemy duo were below half health.

By normal reasoning, after pushing the lane the enemy would surely leave; if Liang Yan went over now, he'd likely not catch anyone.

But this is EU.

Moreover, this match is a practice game.

So Liang Yan plans to give it a try; even if it fails, he can swing by and kill the Stone Armor Beetles he hasn't eaten yet, which wouldn't cost him much.

He came down from the small path in front of the Stone Armor Beetle camp in the jungle.

EZ and Bo Bi pushed the lane to the tower; Bo Bi withdrew backward, unsure what he was doing—maybe going back to base or wanting to place vision—while EZ alone stayed in front of the tower, using his long-range advantage to poke with skills, harassing Lu Xi An's last hits.

Liang Yan's timing was spot on.

But teammate Begta's coordination had a problem.

Mang Seng had just arrived behind the river mountain wall, still two or three steps away from being able to ward-jump over the wall, but Begta couldn't wait any longer and walked forward, tanking a full combo from EZ.

Although the EU region's playstyle is lax, after all they are proper professional players; Begta's action was too obvious, essentially telling everyone the jungler was coming.

EZ turned and ran.

Liang Yan had already come, so he could only continue forward, hoping to win with skill.

Unfortunately, he was still lacking a bit of luck.

As he ward-jumped over the wall, a Bo Bi came charging forward, wielding an iron hammer.

Mang Seng unleashed one Heavenly Sound Wave, forcing EZ to flash.

"Ah?"

Liang Yan felt surprise and delight.

Actually, there was no need to flash; if Bo Bi properly used Steadfast Presence and Heroic Charge, even if Mang Seng landed the kick, he couldn't kill him, because the second stage would definitely be interrupted.

This Bo Bi surely isn't so bad that he can't block Mang Seng's second-stage Q, right?

Liang Yan thought so; at this point he was still being cautious.

Forcing EZ's flash was also a gain; Liang Yan saw that it was enough and didn't chase further, turning to help Lu Xi An push the lane.

He accidentally gained a bit too much experience and directly leveled up to level 4.

Then he went back to farm the Stone Armor Beetles.

Long Gui had his red buff taken, died once, and his development was nearly collapsed; he hasn't appeared on the minimap since, likely hiding to farm jungle.

Liang Yan went out with a control ward, originally intending to place it in the dragon pit to prevent the enemy from stealing dragon, but now it seems the enemy lacks the courage to do so.

Moreover, the first dragon he farmed was a wind dragon, which is hard to kill and its effect is useless, really making one lose appetite.

Liang Yan ultimately saved that control ward.

When he farmed to F4, Long Gui came through mid lane with Power Dash active, only level 3; Liang Yan glanced at the enemy's jungle kill count and almost laughed out loud.

On the bottom lane, Lu Xi An had recalled, the minion wave hadn't arrived yet, and the support Lak Si, who had just respawned and left base, had nothing to do, so she ran to mid lane.