Chapter 765: Advancing Meiko

During the first round of jungle clearing rhythm, Changzhang finished eating the Magic Swamp Frog and immediately went home, bought a tier‑2 jungle knife and headed down, planning to go to the lower half area to clear Stone Armor Beetles, while protecting the duo's continued pressure and using the Xia Lu lane‑push advantage to safely take the river crab.

After reflecting, Changzhang knew he shouldn't go straight back to base after finishing the Magic Swamp Frog; instead he should come over to help A Guang place a ward, or simply go to the top lane to help A Guang push the lane, then under A Guang's protection take the upper river crab, and afterwards both return to base together.

Even after reflecting, Changzhang still leans toward this steady playstyle. It's not that he's cowardly, but he subconsciously always chooses the approach that is most beneficial for his own development and also the most stable.

All we can say is that his nature is hard to change.

If Liang Yan were playing Olaf this round, he would outright skip clearing the Magic Swamp Frog, finish the blue buff, and then rush straight to the enemy red buff.

In Liang Yan's view, Olaf versus the Barrel is an all‑round domination—jungle clearing efficiency, sustained damage, recovery tools… Olaf comes out on top in all of them.

If that's the case, why should we develop peacefully with the Barrel?

Zhong Lu is being pushed lane and still wants to take the red buff?

Come and take it!

Too bad Liang Yan is playing the Barrel.

After returning home, Liang Yan likewise bought a tier‑2 jungle knife, and while heading out he observed the lane situation in Zhong Lu and Xia Lu.

In Zhong Lu, after LeBlanc has pointed out three basic abilities, she initially has the advantage of long range suppressing short range; Zed has been worn down in two waves, his health is clearly at a disadvantage, though for now he's still fairly healthy, and he still retains the capacity to sacrifice health for a fast push to seize the recall opportunity.

On Xia Lu side, it's comparatively rough—the minion wave has been constantly pressed under the tower by the enemy, Sima Laozei's health keeps hovering around half, and to avoid being hooked by Hammer Stone and dodging the flying spears of Swiftness Boots, some risky tower shots have had to be forgone; now the last‑hit gap has widened to 11 hits.

Fortunately, Swiftness Boots is a short‑range weapon, and Xiao Duan's Luo also keeps up its deterrence, so iboy doesn't dare recklessly come up to touch the tower.

"VG's Xia Lu is indeed rough, but the tower's health is still healthy."

"Yes, this is also one of Kalista's shortcomings—although she is indeed mobile, her range is only 550 yards, which is less than a hundred yards more than the melee champion Narl."

"Exactly, because Kalista's range isn't great, it's indeed inconvenient to poke the tower; besides Xiao Duan's Luo, Rosy's feathers also exert some deterrence on him."

"Sima Laozei's Rosy is highly proficient, and the placement of her feathers is very particular."

"So iboy doesn't dare go up to poke the tower; otherwise, if he gets caught by a reverse hook under the tower, Xiao Duan lifting him up he wouldn't dare fight back, and he'd very likely be counter‑killed."

"Hmm, but Changzhang has already arrived in the lower half area; let's see if after eating the river crab he'll come over to gank."

"Tower diving is impossible, Jiao Shen has also come down."

"But if Changzhang can perform a flank without being noticed by Jiao Shen, there's still a chance, since Sima Laozei's health is relatively low and a single burst would instantly kill him."

"The problem is how to reliably unleash a burst—Olaf and Kalista have no crowd control, and Hammer Stone has CC but it's not reliable."

"Just flash‑cast it."

"Sima Laozei also has flash, and Hammer Stone's flash‑E isn't an instant‑cast skill; once Sima Laozei reacts and flashes to dodge, the outcome becomes uncertain……"

Meiko also very much wanted to make use of Changzhang's opportunity in the lower half area to do something. Having worked with Changzhang for three years, Meiko also knows him inside out; he knows that their jungler picking Olaf is a move for stability, and trying to get him to take a high‑risk, high‑reward decision is impossible, so he can only proactively create chances to stimulate Changzhang's willingness to engage.

Meiko looked at the VG duo under the tower, thought for a while, and finally decided to start with Xiao Duan's Luo.

Although Luo's health is higher than Rosy's and Luo is also more mobile and harder to catch, it's actually only a little over half health; if Meiko lands the hook, Luo won't be killed instantly—after all, Kalista's burst is average, and Sima Laozei is still holding a heal—but EDG doesn't necessarily need a kill to profit.

If Luo is weakened, even if Changzhang still doesn't dare to tower‑dive, he'll at least agree to start the Dragon.

This is a Water Dragon, and the game time is still under five minutes, with the laning phase having about ten minutes left.

If EDG can secure the Water Dragon at this point, gaining the Water Dragon buff's extremely high early‑game recovery effect, then not only can Xia Lu exchange damage more aggressively, but Zhong Lu and the top lane can likewise reap great benefits.

Thinking of this, Meiko made up his mind.

He told iboy to keep his skills ready, Meiko closely watched Luo's every move, and began looking for an opportunity to strike.

At the same time, Changzhang's Olaf entered the river and began clearing the river crab.

Liang Yan's Barrel had just entered the lower half jungle through the gap in the middle of the lower high ground wall.

Seeing that Liang Yan had already arrived in the lower half area, Xiao Duan's positioning became more aggressive—though he didn't dare stray far from the tower, he frequently used his mobility to dart and fool around in front of the EDG duo, for example suddenly charging forward to throw a Q, then when the EDG duo tried to act on him he'd perform a Light Dance Dual to retreat back, and sometimes he'd recklessly walk up to auto‑attack a distant minion to help Sima Laozei last‑hit, then make a grand entrance and retreat……

These actions even made many VG fans feel they were excessive, making one unable to resist hoping the opposing side would give this Luo, who repeatedly flirts with death on the edge, a harsh lesson.

The audience couldn't bear to watch, and Meiko couldn't hold back even more.

Just as Luo's abilities finished cooldown and he was about to come up to fool around again, Meiko, feigning a turn to dodge the hook, suddenly turned and cast!

Hammer Stone's E ability, Dark Passage, has a rectangular casting range; as Meiko's signature champion, his mastery of this champ is as natural as an arm extending, and his distance judgment is impeccably precise. With this cast, Meiko played a diagonal angle, using the geometric principle that a diagonal is longer than a side to extend the ability's effect by several tens of yards, and it was precisely this sudden extra distance that caused Xiao Duan to misjudge the threat range!

"Holy shit!"

Xiao Duan let out a startled cry and instinctively tried to retreat.

But at the very moment his index finger was about to press the E ability, Xiao Duan restrained his fear reflex and slammed the brakes.

By the time he didn't flash immediately, it was already too late.

At that point his E would definitely be interrupted, the shield wouldn't be in place, and as he got hooked, even if Sima Laozei activated his heal he might not be able to save himself……

What to do?

In the flash of lightning, countless thoughts instantly formed a brainstorm in Xiao Duan's mind, and then, when Meiko threw the hook, he made a decision.