Chapter 3: Dog Bark

The Crimson Mark Treant (red buff monster) with two thousand health, each punch can drain dozens of health from the Prince, and in this version the two small buff monsters haven't been removed.

Trick's fight with the wild monsters was no easy task; to minimize damage taken for the upcoming similarly pressure-inducing group of stone golems, he had to focus on his positioning to pull monsters.

However, when he had whittled the red buff down to just over five hundred health, two fierce-looking big men suddenly sprang from the nearby bushes.

"%￥&$%!!"

Trick, who was in the G2 team's training room, blurted out a phrase in his native tongue in shock.

He was both startled and angry.

Should he run immediately, or finish the fight then run?

Trick found himself in a dilemma.

The enemy timed their invasion perfectly.

In this version, Smite's damage increases fixedly with hero level; at hero level 1, it only provides 390 Smite damage.

But now the red buff has just over five hundred health.

This is a very awkward health threshold.

Since his abilities are on cooldown, the Prince needs at least two basic attacks followed by Smite to secure this red buff; the two small monsters each are off by about two basic attacks. If successful, killing all three monsters will level him up to 2, and everything will then be resolved naturally.

However, the reality before him is that Mang Seng could not possibly just watch him easily Smite the red buff; he will surely contest the Smite.

Trick has never been confident in his ability to contest Smite.

Moreover, the Prince's health is only half.

If the Smite contest fails, having missed the best escape window, he is very likely to be hit by a Flash from the now level‑2 Mang Seng, possibly even giving up first blood.

No wonder he is the MVP of the EU (Europe Region) spring split; Trick's overall strength is absolutely not weak, he assessed the situation in a flash and made his decision.

Trick decisively abandoned the red buff and turned to flee toward mid lane.

"A once! Apply Ignite!"

Liang Yan's hand speed was lightning fast; as he commanded, his mouse swept over the red buff monster and the fleeing Prince's head, leaving two conspicuous signal markers.

The German guy was very anxious.

Very anxious.

Because he noticed he was falling slightly behind Liang Yan's train of thought.

But he thought quickly, Ctrl+E instantly learned an E skill and cast it immediately!

Whoosh whoosh twice, the crocodile's two‑stage E went through the red buff, dealing two hits of damage while closing in on the Prince, just enough range to apply Ignite.

Liang Yan knocked out the small monsters with a single punch each.

"?"

A question mark popped up in Trick's mind.

Why apply Ignite?

Do you really think you can kill me?

Just as that doubt arose in his mind, a yellow thunderbolt descended from the heavens and smashed into the red buff's head with a boom.

The red buff collapsed upon impact, and Mang Seng's body simultaneously burst forth with a dazzling white light.

Mang Seng Smited the red buff and leveled up to 2!

Trick's heart tightened; he instinctively twisted his waist and repositioned, trying to avoid the anticipated Mang Seng Q skill, Heavenly Sound Wave, coming the next moment.

However, Mang Seng did not follow.

In Trick's view, after Mang Seng Smited the red buff, he turned and walked the opposite way, appearing not to pursue.

No, man……

Trick was both puzzled and amused.

You two blew your Flashes coming in, sparing no effort, all just to contest a red buff?

Isn't this a loss?!

Watching Mang Seng vanish behind the wall in an instant, Trick nearly burst out laughing three times.

But the next moment——

Bam!

A shining wave of light shot out from the fog, passed through the wall and struck Trick's Prince, dealing damage while applying a crescent mark.

"$%^#$#!!"

Trick was so startled he nearly flung his mouse away, and instinctively let out another native‑language curse.

"Shete!"

Cursing rang out nearby.

Trick's voice was too loud, startling the Perkz sitting next to him, the team's mid laner; as a result, the Perkz who was playing Yasuo versus a logout opponent in another Korean server match nearly got solo killed.

"Fuck squid! Trick! You scared me, why yell so loud?"

Perkz cursed, wishing he could kick this kid if he weren't busy.

The fleeing Trick had no time to worry about him.

This Mang Seng is so sneaky!!

Turns out his turning around wasn't because he wasn't chasing!

But to use the red buff camp's wall to block vision and hide the skill's windup!

Your mother's love! Truly sneaky!!

Absolutely a poor‑country person!

Watching the Mang Seng whose second‑stage Q flew over from behind the wall, his head bearing a garbled alphabetic ID, Trick's face sank like water, his mind cursing nonstop.

The fleeing Trick, out of the corner of his eye, saw Viktor approaching from mid lane.

He glanced at the minimap again; the top laner with a pinyin ID, Jax, was actually standing idle by the minion line on the top lane, punishing himself!

What an SB!

Trick suppressed the urge to nitpick, and in the instant Mang Seng closed in, he flashed.

He tried to dodge the expected Mang Seng E skill 【Heavenly Thunder Break】, while also avoiding getting slowed by Mang Seng's basic attack applying the red buff.

But Mang Seng's response once again completely exceeded his expectations.

This Mang Seng doesn't take E.

He's taking W!!!

With a whoosh, the Mang Seng who brought a warding totem trinket flew over to brush the eye!

"Newbee!"

Perkz, who had been reduced to low health and was hiding behind the tower to recall, happened to see this scene on Trick's screen and exclaimed in delight.

The Mang Seng chasing Trick executed a smooth Q-Q-W-flash combo, as fluid as flowing clouds and water, a delight to watch!

And extremely precise!

Mang Seng's W skill 【Golden Bell Shield】 has a controllable dash distance, up to 700 yards.

While flash is only 400!

The position Mang Seng came to after brushing the eye was right in front of Trick's Prince!

It perfectly blocked Trick's movement!

The execution was effortless yet as precise and deadly as a surgeon's scalpel—who is this divine figure?

And Trick, seeing the Mang Seng appear before him, nearly had his soul fly away.

What the heck?

A level-two Mang Seng learning W?!

Heretic!!

Pervert!!

But no matter how he cursed in his heart, he couldn't change the fact that after using flash he remained stuck to Mang Seng, constantly auto-attacking.

Mang Seng's movement speed hasn't been nerfed; its base speed is as high as 350.

While the Prince only has 340.

The difference between them is 10 movement speed, equivalent to half a pair of speed shoes!

Moreover, Mang Seng is auto-attacking while blocking his path!

Before him is the Mang Seng, behind him the crocodile; although Viktor has entered the assist range, Trick already sees his own doom.

Mang Seng hasn't auto-attacked many times either.

The Prince, who was already down to half health while fleeing, had Ignite from the crocodile on him and took damage from two Qs, leaving his health critically low.

With two painful punches, the Prince let out an 'uh-ah' and collapsed to the ground.

{FirstBlood! }

A solemn female voice announced, echoing across the canyon.

"Thanks for the feed~"

Liang Yan, who easily snagged first blood, jokingly remarked at the Prince's still-warm corpse, then pinged the top lane to signal the crocodile to return to lane, while he himself headed toward F4, ready to pluck a bird along the way.

"Nice, bro!!"

The German guy shouted happily.

Come to think of it, although his crocodile got an assist, lacking flash and missing minion experience, his upcoming lane is actually at a disadvantage.

"But why are you taking W?"

The guy asked curiously.

In his view, Mang Seng taking E would give both damage and slow—wouldn't that be better than taking W?

"Taking E would be dodged by flash, or else you'd have to take a few extra steps to keep up."

Liang Yan explained,

"And even if it hits, E's damage isn't much more than a basic attack; by taking W I can follow up and stick to him with the red buff's slow, auto-attacking continuously."

"But doesn't your E also have a slow?" the guy asked doubtfully.

Liang Yan glanced at the guy upon hearing that:

"Slow effects can't stack anymore, buddy—you didn't know?"

"Huh? Really?"

The guy looked completely bewildered.

Liang Yan was speechless; although he himself didn't remember every patch's changes, he still recalled some key updates.

After a certain patch update in the mid-S5 season, aside from special cases noted in skill descriptions, when multiple slow effects were applied to the same target, they used to stack; now only the strongest applies, with weaker ones overwritten.

The red buff already provides a slow; although its magnitude is slightly less than Mang Seng's E, the difference is tiny, so the two slows cannot stack for added effect, and one is wasted.

"It was changed last year, buddy, you…"

Liang Yan once again marveled at how a certain boss would dare to throw just anyone onto the team, though this is the youth training squad…

"Oh, I see, haha, I had it wrong."

The German guy gave a foolish grin, seeming utterly unconcerned, as if he didn't think this was a serious issue needing solemn attention.

Liang Yan was again at a loss for words.

With such a troublesome teammate, does his future really have any guarantee?

But Liang Yan also wondered: regarding game version changes, these overseas players should be more sensitive than himself from the domestic server, because the domestic server's update notes are usually 'crude' compared to Riot's official announcements.

Sometimes, for certain game value changes, the domestic server's update note is just a simple textual description that gets brushed over, with no explanation of the numerical changes.

The hardest part to deal with is that sometimes it even marks the wrong values, misleading domestic server players; bronze and silver players might not feel it, but for experts, this is deadly.

This is also why Liang Yan thinks LPL's version understanding often fails to keep up with the Korean region; although the wall can't stop LPL's training team, most of those people started from nothing, and some can't even memorize the 26 letters, so how could they understand Riot's original update announcement?

As a result, only after Liang Yan came out did he realize……

The people here seem to have bigger problems.

While silently digesting this realization in his heart, Liang Yan came to his senses, and only then did he notice that the in-game public channel was a bit lively:

G2Trick：【Top, why the f**k no help！】

Huyahushen：【？】

G2Trick：【poor monkey！go back poor country！】

Dog barking

Liang Yan saw this sentence, and instantly his aura changed; his eyebrows seemed to be covered in frost, and the expression on his face was chilling.

He fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly yanked off his headset, crackling as he typed in the public channel, "Stupid dog, don't bark," and then turned to ask the German guy:

"Bro, where is the first team's training room?"

The guy didn't hear clearly, took off his headset and asked, "What did you say?"

"Where is the first team's training room?"

Liang Yan repeated the question.

The guy stared at Liang Yan, whose face had suddenly turned frosty, was stunned for a moment, then raised his hand and pointed at the ceiling:

"The seniors of the first team are all on the second floor; go up the stairs, turn left, the first door……"

Without waiting for the guy to finish, Liang Yan nodded, said thanks, and stood up directly.

The guy held his headset, glanced at the screen at the game that had just started, finally noticed those few lines of chat, then looked at the back of the person who had marched out of the training room door with a chilling aura, and a thought flashed through his mind:

"Damn, is this big leg going to come for an offline real‑person solo?!"

The guy thought about it in shock.

The big leg went AFK.

This match is basically unplayable.

He immediately threw down his headset, sprang up and ran in a quick trot toward the stairs.

The rest of the youth training squad had already noticed the commotion here, and upon seeing it they also took off their headsets, excited to watch the show, and followed along.

At the same time,

Ka Lao Si, who had gone out earlier to run errands, was walking into the base gates with a smile on his face, completely unprepared for what was about to happen in the team.

……

……

The normal update schedule is: three chapters released around 6 p. m. daily. Occasionally there are surprise releases.

If you find typos or bugs, please comment to correct them, thanks!

In the S6 season, G2 actually had a Korean coach, but in reality it was still Ka Lao Si leading the team; plus the author's dislike of ***, so the book simply drives the coach away.