Chapter 54: Seeing ghosts!

When the male gunner was just reworked in this year's preseason patch, its strength was off the charts—it was completely a super-stat monster, something anyone could tell at a glance was fun.

So on the day of the rework it was immediately nerfed by a hotfix.

Before the spring season started, it received several more nerfs.

Nevertheless, when the spring season began, the male gunner remained a pick-or-ban presence on the pro stage.

Riot took one look and said, "This won't do," finally gritting its teeth and cutting the "spectacular fireworks display" it had proudly touted in the rework announcement—the mechanic whereby the QR skill could interrupt the attack wind‑down after a basic attack.

The male gunner's combo fluency dropped greatly, and its burst potential was greatly weakened.

Only then did they finally hit the mark—the male gunner's popularity on the stage instantly cooled, its strength falling from absolute top‑tier to merely top‑tier for the version.

Immediately afterward, before the mid‑season tournament, Riot nerfed it again, removing the mechanic that increased extra bullets on bonus damage; the bullet count on a basic‑attack crit also dropped from eight to six, greatly weakening its output and forcing item builds to change.

This is the version of the male gunner that Liang Yan is currently using.

Its stats are just barely balanced; its ability to instantly kill is average, its chase is average, its fault tolerance is extremely low, and it's nowhere near as good as the previous few versions.

To perform well with this version of the male gunner, you need to rely on teammates for development and on positioning in fights.

But if you let it develop and take off,

then you can say:

the male gunner is still invincible.

At this very moment, the male gunner wandering the canyon with his gun, looking for prey, has development that goes far beyond merely "taking off."

Twelve minutes, four heads!

This is damn rocket‑like growth!

Lao Zhang pointed at the tower and said:

"So much fun, bro—speaking of which, can the male gunner go top lane? I kinda want to try it!"

AP immediately followed up:

"Can it go mid?"

Zven also jumped in:

"Can it go bot?"

Mithy: "……"

Liang Yan waited until they finished, then replied leisurely:

"Yes, it depends on skill."

Playing the male gunner means you have to know how to play the male gunner—that's roughly what it means.

AP, however, was very confident and said loudly:

"Alright, I'll go practice in ranked! Once I'm good, let the coach pick me!"

"Pick your own head."

Ka Lao Si somehow pulled over a chair and was now half‑slumped in a reclined chair, happily slurping his drink; hearing that, he laughed and scolded:

This training match has reached a point where there's really no suspense—if the opponents can't keep a straight face, they could just Alt+F4 now.

So Ka Lao Si felt great—although he'd only won one game (and hadn't even finished it), his mind was already thinking about what to post on Twitter.

What?

Is posting to Twitter after winning a training match really…?

It depends on which team you beat!

However, TSM obviously couldn't afford to be the guy who surrendered after just twelve minutes to G2, so they stubbornly held on.

Then let's keep playing.

After Liang Yan killed the captain and then took out a group of stone men on the way, he finally pressed recall.

On this trip back to base, he had more than double the gold he had last time.

His tier‑2 jungle knife upgraded to tier‑3.

He pulled out the serrated short dagger.

His total attack jumped instantly from 111 to 171!!

A surge of 60 points!!!

This isn't just swapping a bird‑gun for a cannon anymore...

It's like trading a Xiaomi‑plus‑rifle for a fighter jet!

Liang Yan, humming along to the BGM in his headphones—"quickly use the nunchucks, hmm‑hah~"—walked out with wind at his feet, wielding his "fighter jet."

Actually, in Liang Yan's view, TSM still hasn't caught up to the right moment—it would be nice if this training match could be played a few patches later.

Because Riot will fix the male gunner's Black Cleaver bug in a few patches, at which point the male gunner will become a prehistoric monster with attack and health rising together and damage sharing the same tankiness, and even the contemporary two‑item crocodile set will have to call it dad—that would be true bliss.

But the current experience isn't bad either.

You should know that a tier‑3 jungle knife is a proper big item—for example, the "Warrior's Blade" Liang Yan holds right now; even if you strip away all the jungle‑related text, just the "60 attack power" and "10% cooldown reduction" already qualify it as a big item.

Besides the jungle knife, Liang Yan also has two valuable small items—attack‑speed boots and the serrated short dagger—whose combined price exceeds two thousand coins, which rounds up to—

Twelve minutes, two‑item set!

Who wouldn't be dazed looking at that?

His teammates' eyes went wide when they saw Liang Yan's equipment screen.

"What the fuck!"

AP's eyes turned red with jealousy,

"What the hell is wrong with your male gunner?!"

"Is it really that fat?!"

"Oh shit!!!"

「Attack power 170?! 」

「I fucking saw a ghost!! 」

「What？」

Other teammates heard AP's weird shout and couldn't help but take a look——

「Jeez！！！」

「Howdidthathappen？！」

「Noway！！」

「Liang Yan, you too……」

Even Lao Zhang's Chinese was scared out of him—just how absurd Liang Yan's development as a male gunner is!

If the teammates are this shocked, the opposing side needs no further comment.

When the male gunner reappeared in our view after nearly a minute, Bilsen, as usual, pressed Tab once to check the male gunner's equipment updates.

He took a look.

He took another look.

He took another look.

Finally, unable to resist, he rubbed his eyes, stared fixedly at the male gunner's equipment slot, and carefully counted three times: attack-speed boots, jungle knife, short dagger, true sight, potion……

No mistake.

He switched screens again, clicked on the male gunner, and looked at the upper-left character attribute panel.

Attack power: 171……

Alright, no need to look further.

Hit your mom!!!

「……」

A system notification suddenly appeared in the chat box, leaving everyone stunned.

Including Liang Yan, who widened his eyes at that system notification.

Disconnected?

The other TSM members didn't drop either.

Did they quit voluntarily?

No... bro! Don't!

My happiness has just begun!

How could you just quit like that!

These thirteen minutes aren't up yet, what are you doing, oh dear!

Watching the rest of TSM also disconnect one after another moments later, Liang Yan felt regretful to the point of wanting to beat his chest and stamp his feet.

My happiness!

He slipped away!

Ahhhhh——!

hahaha~

AP burst out laughing, holding his stomach and laughing until he doubled over, pointing at Liang Yan and saying:

「Serves you right, hahaha, who asked you to be so ruthless, hahaha……」

Everyone looked over with subtle expressions.

Even Tang Anna couldn't help turning her head to sneak two glances, unfortunately from that angle she couldn't see Liang Yan's expression.

How should I put this?

For example, it's like an orphan who was bullied by everyone in the village growing up, who after entering society endured countless hardships and finally made a name for himself, then wanted to return and act big, only to find upon returning to the village that everyone there was completely gone……

In an instant, that sense of emptiness, that loneliness, was so desolate.

Of course, it wasn't to the point of being heartbreaking.

Liang Yan was speechless for a moment, then suddenly broke into a grin and said:

「What's the rush? It's still early. 」

Time is still early, the training match hasn't ended yet.

The opposing side surely can't be unplugging the network every twelve minutes, right?