Chapter 621: Brushing up NPC favorability!

When Liang Yan saw Scout go into the tower, he had already turned around.

Actually, Liang Yan never thought he could easily catch this wave; he still chose to go to mid lane after clearing the blue buff, to show his attitude and reassure Zzitai.

After all, Zzitai isn't Easyhoon; he's a new teammate. Before they've had enough time to sync up, no matter how much he believes in Liang Yan's skill—even if Liang Yan is his idol—he can't trust him as instinctively and unreservedly as he does Easyhoon in any situation.

What Liang Yan needs to do is actually similar to grinding NPC favorability in a single-player game—it's not complicated, but it does take some time.

Liang Yan returned to the jungle, skipped the Magic Swamp Frogs, took a shortcut to clear a pack of three wolves, then headed to the upper half of the map.

This bizarre jungle route looks a bit like the style of the current jungler Eimy, who's serving under the old dry dad—his actions are utterly without pattern, with no plan for what to do next second; everything is just done on the spur of the moment, thinking "I guess I can try this..."

The camera switched to the two side lanes.

On the top lane, after a moment, Gragas's health had nearly refilled, actually exceeding Kennen's—showing the full value of the current patch's strongest flex pick, though just last-hitting is already painful to watch.

In the bottom lane, both are short-range hard supports with no reliable engage, so both sides play cautiously; the supports' health is nearly full, and the ADCs are in very good shape.

There's not much to say; the early-game focus of the current patch isn't in the bottom lane, as everyone is still cautiously exploring the impact of the Sentinels' changes, naturally playing it safe.

Then the camera switched back to mid lane.

If you're looking for early kills to explode, it's mid lane.

The third wave of minions has reached the front line; Orianna is bullying Kassadin under the tower, but Scout's laning fundamentals are solid, his mechanics are top-notch, and his creep score hasn't lagged much—so far he's only three CS behind Orianna. After he clears this wave and the tower minions, his CS might even exceed Orianna's by one or two. This shows Scout's individual laning skill is indeed noticeably better than Zzitai's, given that Kassadin vs. Orianna is inherently a disadvantaged lane early on; Scout performing this well is already quite impressive.

At this point, both mid laners have used their potions, their health is around half; the difference is that Orianna still has about half her mana, while Kassadin is almost out of mana.

After the three front-line minions of the third wave are cleared, Orianna reaches level three first.

Zzitai suddenly advances aggressively, moving past the cannon minion, then unleashes a Q‑W combo that hits Kassadin, who is last‑hitting the front‑line minion, with both abilities landing.

Scout retaliates with a Q that burns his mana, then retreats behind the tower.

Zzitai doesn't pursue, instead lightly turns and walks out of the tower's attack range, breaking its targeting line.

"Wow, Zzitai's poke this wave was gorgeous—he dealt full damage, not letting Kassadin's shield block any of it!"

"He's at around 300 HP, which is a bit risky… the good news is Orianna is also low on mana, and Kassadin is still fairly comfortable last‑hitting under the tower."

"But here comes Jiao Shen!"

The camera shifts to Mang Seng, who has just cleared F6 in the upper half and hit level three, now running toward the river.

Since the lane started, Scout's position has been constantly pressed behind the two river‑wall bushes in mid lane—he hasn't even stepped on the river center—and with Orianna showing strong aggression, Scout has found no suitable chance to go out and place a ward.

——From EDG's perspective, both sides of the river are pitch black.

As for Fireloli, the lion‑dog that started jungle‑clearing at the enemy's entrance from the start has now cleared the three camps in the lower half and moved into the upper half; the three wolves are almost done, and while clearing they're pulling toward the blue buff, clearly indicating a full‑clear route on the first rotation.

Mang Seng then comes straight from the river, reaches the back of the left‑side wall of the blue‑side mid lane, and crouches in the grass beside the wall.

A few seconds later, Orianna pushes the minion wave into the tower.

Liang Yan directly flashes over the wall with a W and slaps down!

"Jiao Shen strikes decisively! He flashes over the wall with W and smashes Heavenly Thunder Break into Scout!"

In close quarters, Scout can't clearly tell whether Mang Seng's next move is a skill use or something else; in the panic, everything comes down to guessing.

Moreover, while watching MSI earlier, Scout had studied how Pawn's Ryze reacted when caught by Jiao Shen's male gun in mid lane, and he had carefully imagined what to do if faced with the situation "flashing used doesn't guarantee survival, but not flashing means certain death"—he concluded he must flash decisively.

With that preset answer, his reaction is naturally quick.

So, at the moment he saw Mang Seng raise his hand again, Scout immediately flashed.

But unfortunately, he guessed wrong.

This time, Mang Seng's raised hand was just a basic attack.

The instant Scout landed after flashing, Mang Seng canceled his auto‑attack and unleashed a Heavenly Sound Wave.

Liang Yan's play was so fast it looked like he'd predicted it, but nobody knows he was purely reacting.

With a slap, the light wave struck Kassadin squarely.

Knowing he was doomed, Scout ran toward the gap in the upper jungle before dying.

Mang Seng followed up with the second hit of his Q, Resonating Strike, kicked Scout, then punched to secure the kill.

"Jiao Shen gets first blood!"

"But Jiao Shen probably can't escape either!"

Scout is smart and reacts quickly; from the moment he flashed, he was intentionally drawing Mang Seng toward the upper jungle, and even after being hit by Mang Seng's Q he walked two steps forward before dying, so his aim was naturally to let his own jungler finish the kill.

It's only been a little over three minutes; although Mang Seng entered the fight healthy, he's only level three with under 800 HP, having taken two tower hits and then been poked by Kassadin's W as he died, dropping his HP to just over 200.

As expected, when Mang Seng had no choice but to walk into the jungle, the lion‑dog that flashed over the wall from the blue buff camp threw an Explosive Fruit, landed, and with Q‑A‑Q‑W took Mang Seng's head.

"Whoa?! Jiao Shen sidestepped the second Q with a slick move, but his HP was too low, and in the end Ai Luoli finished him off with a basic attack!"

In just a second or two, the EDG fans' emotions went on a roller‑coaster ride, and the moment the lion‑dog took Mang Seng's head, they all burst out in a cathartic cheer.

VG fans weren't panicked at all; some even felt like laughing.