Chapter 2: Flash Up!

Team Leader Biman is also a young man with a full beard, in his early twenties, not as outgoing as Ka Lao Si, but still quite friendly.

Biman first helped Liang Yan settle in, then took him around the base, and finally came to the Youth Training Team training room, introducing him to a few of the Second Team members.

"The boss is out and hasn't come back yet; why don't you play for a while? There's a document on the desktop with training accounts—feel free to use any."

Liang Yan said ok.

Biman then went off to attend to his own business.

Liang Yan had just sat down at his spot when his phone chimed, showing a new WeChat message.

The sender was Lao Zhang, who had lent Liang Yan five thousand yuan.

Lao Zhang is a streamer on a certain platform for League of Legends, quite well-known; his best champion is Jax, so he's also called Jia ke zhang.

They met in a ranked match, later discovered they were from the same hometown, lived not far apart, and naturally became good friends.

Lao Zhang is a very loyal person.

At this moment, the message he sent to Liang Yan was also a caring inquiry:

【Have you arrived at the base?】

Liang Yan replied: 【Arrived】

Lao Zhang: 【How's it going?】

Liang Yan: 【An unfamiliar environment, unfamiliar people, a brand-new start.】

Lao Zhang: 【What about the contract?】

Liang Yan: 【Not signed yet; the boss went out and will come back later to sign.】

Lao Zhang: 【Sure, if anything comes up, v me—don't worry, we've got your back!】

【It's fine, keep streaming.】

The conversation ends here.

Liang Yan never lightly says thank you to a true friend; when someone helps you a lot, just moving your lips up and down feels like brushing off the favor—a slippery practice he never engages in, preferring to repay with action.

He put down his phone, picked up the mouse, opened the document on the desktop, selected a Han Fu Master account with the highest rank, and logged into the game.

After entering and trying it out, the latency was over a hundred; turning on an accelerator brought it down to the seventies, barely acceptable—it seems Ka Lao Si put a lot of thought into the base's network.

Then he directly started a ranked match.

A ferocious shark charged into the little pond—players in the Han Fu high-tier game are in luck.

In two consecutive games he killed the enemy twenty times, leaving the German guy sitting nearby stunned.

Great guy—those Han Fu Master experts who usually make them sweat profusely were slaughtered by this guy like pigs; in two games he racked up over forty kills, practically a god of death descending!

Where does this Asian guy come from?

The German guy stared at Liang Yan in astonishment.

Liang Yan queued up for another ranked match, then suddenly turned and smiled at the guy, saying:

"Bro, wanna duo?"

The guy nodded like a pecking chick, quickly switching to his Han Fu high-level account that he only dares to play when he's at his peak.

Liang Yan added him as a friend and pulled him into the team; checking the rank, holy crap—Diamond II!

Ka Lao Si really will take in just about anyone.

Liang Yan couldn't help wondering whether Ka Lao Si recruits people based on mood rather than rank.

Soon they matched into a game; after champion select, as they entered the loading screen, Liang Yan casually glanced at the opposing team's five IDs.

Suddenly he froze.

Looking closer, he froze again.

Red side top laner: 【HuyaHushen】

Red side jungler: 【G2Trick】

The top laner is his good brother Lao Zhang.

The jungler is G2 Team's starting player, a major contributor who helped G2 win their first league championship, and also the MVP of the Europe Spring Tournament—Trick.

Liang Yan is matched up against Trick.

If he could crush Trick, although it wouldn't directly promote him to the first team based on one match's outcome, it would at least make Ka Lao Si look on him more favorably, speeding up his advancement.

It's a rare and valuable opportunity.

But Lao Zhang is also on the opposing side.

Moreover, at this time Lao Zhang should be streaming.

Given Lao Zhang's nature toward friends, if Liang Yan went all out this game and wiped out the red side where Lao Zhang plays to twenty deaths, Lao Zhang would obviously just be happy for him.

The problem is, Lao Zhang is a big streamer; many things are beyond his control.

Moreover, this is the Han Fu server; Lao Zhang has recently been pushing for the Han Fu Challenger ranking, with a win‑rate pledge—if he loses badly, the stream chat will surely have someone stirring up trouble.

Is there a way that won't cause trouble for Lao Zhang but will let others instantly see that his skill exceeds that of his counterpart Trick?

It's tough.

After all, ranked isn't team play; teammates have little communication or coordination.

Should he crush Trick and then feed Lao Zhang a kill?

That would only make Liang Yan look reckless, giving a bad impression; pro scenes favor players who can perform consistently, not those who are god‑like one moment and devil‑like the next.

Forget it.

Let's take it step by step.

Loading finished, the ten players entered Summoner's Rift.

With a booming sound effect, Liang Yan's chosen Mang Seng spawned in the blue side's spring.

After buying a jungle knife and red potion, equipping the accessory "Vision Totem," he strode out as soon as the wall disappeared.

In the preseason 5.22 version half a year ago, Summoner's Rift underwent an unprecedented massive adjustment; shortly after the mid-season tournament, the 6.9 version launched elemental drakes, and after these two versions, the Rift's environment underwent a complete overhaul.

For junglers, the Rift environment in Season S6 was far less friendly than before.

Put simply:

Jungling isn't as easy to carry as before.

But this hardly affected Liang Yan's confidence as a "cheater".

"Bro, come with me."

As they left base, Liang Yan began directing his duo partner, the top laner, to ping the Da Long Keng located on the upper river adjacent to the red side jungle.

"Coming, coming!"

The partner personally witnessed Liang Yan utterly dominate a Han Fu master like slaughtering a pig, two games in a row; at this point he had no doubt about Liang Yan's skill and naturally followed his commands.

The partner thought highly of it: as long as he clung to this thigh, what worry was there that he would never reach Han Fu Challenger?

But he was a bit curious:

"Bro, what are we going to do?"

It wasn't just the partner who had questions; the rest of the teammates were spamming pings with question marks.

Liang Yan ignored the doubts of random teammates, taking the partner's crocodile into the bottom of the Da Long Keng, and spoke in the duo voice chat:

"Do you still remember this patch's update notes?"

"I don't know!"

The partner said quite straightforwardly.

Liang Yan was speechless for two seconds.

"Then you should at least know that the small dragon has become an elemental drake in this version, right?"

"Oh oh, I know that!"

"With something new just appearing, as a pro player, what would you do?"

"I'm top lane; I can't do much."

"... Put yourself in my shoes: if you were the jungler Prince, from the dragon pit icon you'd know the first elemental drake will be a water drake, and your bot lane, judging by the composition, will likely gain an early lane advantage—bro, your brain isn't just for show, get it working!"

"Whoa, then I'd definitely want to try it right away to see the water drake's healing effect!"

"That's exactly right."

"But… what does that have to do with us camping here?"

"It's a big deal!"

After all, they were teammates who would fight together on the stage in the future, so Liang Yan patiently explained to the partner. The partner's comprehension was average, but there was still time, so Liang Yan could take his time.

In the current 6.9 patch, although the small dragon has become an elemental drake—its official name changed from Dragon to ElementalDrakes—its spawn time remains unchanged.

The first wave of jungle monsters spawns at 1:40.

The first small dragon spawns at 2:30.

The interval is about 50 seconds, roughly enough for a jungler to clear three jungle camps and reach level three, meeting the basic condition to rush the dragon.

However, the current version is harsh on junglers; especially the red side jungler Trick picked a Prince with little sustain, and if he doesn't kite well, it's normal to lose half his health after clearing the first camp.

Moreover, since version 4.20, junglers only regain a smidge of health by using Smite on the red buff monster; Smite on other jungle monsters has various effects.

For example, the Smite effect on the toad (Magic Swamp Frog) is quite good: for 90 seconds, when attacked, it poisons the attacker, dealing continuous magic damage based on a percentage of max health for three seconds.

This is equivalent to wearing a temporary Thornmail.

Thus, in this version most junglers start their clear with the toad.

However, in this game Trick's Prince is laning against an extremely aggressive Blind Monk; to avoid the risk of being caught and killed by a level-two Blind Monk invade, he will try to choose a jungle path that avoids the Blind Monk.

The Blind Monk's red start is basically the standard for this version; the Prince can achieve the same by also starting at red.

Furthermore, the Prince's E skill makes it easy to coordinate with the bot lane for a quick dragon.

Taking all these factors into account, Trick is very likely to start his clear at the red buff camp in the red side's upper half.

That sounds convoluted, but Liang Yan arrived at this judgment without much thought.

After obtaining the "win a game gain a point" system, he binge-played several months of bot games, almost maxing out his macro attribute, so upon entering a match he naturally does some perspective-taking.

Moreover, at the start of the game Liang Yan noticed that his own top laner's crocodile had the second summoner skill set to Ignite.

He also recalled a new game mechanic added in this version:

Grievous Wounds reduces all forms of healing.

Thus, a "vicious" early-game invasion plan formed in Liang Yan's mind.

The plan required the partner's cooperation.

"Flash in!"

At 1:45, Liang Yan pinged the high ground of the red side jungle behind the Da Long Keng wall, shrouded in the fog of war, and simultaneously shot out a voice command to his teammates.

"Huh?"

The partner was dazed by Liang Yan's earlier barrage of complex analysis, hadn't yet reacted, and hearing this became even more confused.

Then he saw Liang Yan's Blind Monk flash over the wall in a swoop.

The partner had no choice but to follow with his flash.

Thus the two entered the red side's upper jungle in an absurd manner, feeling their way along the wall of the red buff camp deeper inside.

Trick, who was fighting jungle monsters at the time, had no idea about this.